Silver Hollow Adventures - Session 1, "Ant Farm"

A quick recap of the first session. The plan is to run quick adventures that can be finished in one session's play; episodic but not necessarily tied down to an overall storyline, at least yet. Players Cathe's Longtooth Shifter Ranger and her pet cat Scratch Fury, Destroyer of Worlds. Nick's Razorclaw Shifter Bard, weilding a bow. Lisa's Teifling Wizard. Eric's Half-Orc Barbarian with a giant axe. Summary As the session began, the PC's were on a street in Silver Hollow. A policeman leaves the shop opposite them, followed by the proprieter, a half-orc in holding a cleaver and wearing a bloody apron. Giant ants have infested the basement of Karl's 'specialty' butcher shop (it seems the normal-sized ants got into the owlbear meat) - the PC's are quickly hired to clear out the infestation. They decend into the basement, which Karl uses as a meat locker. There's a large hole in the floor in a far corner, and giant ants crawling between the cabinets! The adventurer's dispatch them quickly, and peer into the dark hole. They need to go down and exterminate the queen to destroy the nest for good. Tying a rope to a heavy cabinet, the party rappels down into the nest, and the wizard casts Light to help them find their way. The nest's defenders are waiting for them, though - they are quickly surrounded by minion worker ants, a hard-hitting soldier ant, and two swarms of poisonous (but normal-sized) ants. The swarms prove the most dangerous, and the party barely survives, finally squashing the last of the crazed insects. The group creeps cautiously deeper into the nest. At the end of twisting passages, they see a low green glow. In a large chamber lit by luminecent fungus sits the giant queen! She and her giant progeny assault the party, filling the space with a noxious cloud of acidic spray, but the exterminators quickly dispatch her. The victorious adventurers climb back into Karl's basement. The half-orc is very appreciative of the service they have provided, and offers to rent them the unused upper two floors of his shop at a discount. Thoughts I think the session went fairly well. As usual, the swarms proved more deadly than anything else (converted scorpion swarm). It was Eric's first time and I think we taught him the basics and he got to do some massive damage with his barbarian. The final encounter turned into a door-battle as the party entrenched themselves in a defensive formation - good tactics but not too exciting. I should have drawn them all in to attack the queen, then assaulted them from all sides with the other ants.