Ran a session last night with four players: one a rpg veteran, another has played pathfinder and some FATE, and the last two it was their first time.
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A thief (new), fighter(new), bard (vet), and ranger (new to DW) find themselves in the prison of the Grand Duke for various reason but all of which are contrived or not as they seem.
They broke out of jail without a problem.
They took the map and their gear from the jailer without a problem.
They dispatched 3 of the Duke’s guards without a problem.
When they encountered mages and more guards they returned to a vertical shaft in the prison and managed to hook a rope, climb up, bend the bars at the top and climb out, bypassing 2/3 of the dungeon without a problem.
They fought through more mages and more guards to get to the caverns to the sea without a problem.
Then the ranger shot a shadow that was moving, and all hell broke loose. A swarm of 25 rats (1d4-2 damage) overwhelmed the group. Where were all those 7+ rolls now? Failures left and right, the ranger’s hawk abandoned him, the bard was down to 1 hp and smashed all of the delicates in his pack to kill the rat that had climbed inside. They chewed through the ranger’s armor, rendering it useless. Three of them contracted a rapidly progressing plague (two are in stage two). They finished off the rats eventually, but they didn’t look like the triumphant group that had just punched, shot, sang, and cut their way out of a castle.
They fought all the duke’s mages and all the duke’s men, but a swarm of rats is what almost did them in.