Okay, I hear you. Of course, it wouldn't be gaming, particularly in my world, if there wasn't some player-GM friction, especially as concerns lack of magic items and such for the PCs.
That aside, Mark and Paul raise good points: Vrill is higher level, and Marivhon is lower level. I'll partially disagree with the storylined combats. I'll concede the point that Vrill may have gotten off one extra round, or a surprise round, of casting. As I mentioned, I've never made any PC make casting checks, as there's no great way to resolve initiative in gaming-by-blog, as we've seen. I could ask everyone to roll initiative each round, and announce their action that round, with the stipulation that if you forget to roll init, you go last, in order of DX for multiple 'lasts'. Having to make casting checks is one of those rules that punishes the PCs more than the NPCs, which is another reason I haven't been using it; last minute Cures save lives, and interrupting that sort of thing is just awful.
Frankly, I try not to storyline anything. For instance, Vrill might escape here, or maybe not, depends on you guys. That said, if you look back on the specific structure of the combat, is anyone really that surprised with what happened? How long have we all been gaming? Speaking of which, since we're putting cards on the table, let me offer two things in defense: 1) PC strategy is abysmal, generally amounting to 'roll to hit'. The combat in the Grito jail is one nice exception. For instance, why haven't healing potions been used? You know Magic Missiles are forthcoming, and do a lot of damage. And that's just a minor thing.
But that's nitpicking. More serious is: 2) players have more control over the game than they appear to believe. For instance, if Marivhon being level 2, and going up against a level 7+ wizard is so shocking... why did you? I storylined you to Grito, but not into direct combat with Vrill. He's been there a year; it may have been possible to split and go to Durth to train for a couple months, then come back. AntiMarivhon saw you; you might have been able to kill him before he reported back, if you were worried about that. Failing that, you have a lot of magic items you have no idea how to use or what they do. Why didn't you evenly distribute these things? Why does Marivhon only have a ninja star? There are at least two wands somewhere in the party's possession that would have been very useful during this combat. Couldn't the items be spread throughout the party, and a quick ID, perhaps even from Stanislaus, might really help. Or get stuff ID'd in Durth first, buy more potions of healing, etc. Not to mention that the PCs avoided someplace they were told would have good gear, before heading to Greyhelm in the first place, and went right for Vrill. At no time did anyone have to accept '1) we're bugbears, and 2) we attack Vrill, and 3) we do this now' as the game plan. But there's rarely a post that says 'hey wait a minute, that's not what I want to do guys, let's do X instead of Y', so anytime anyone posts anything, I tend to run with that just to move the game along.
In fact, even back before entering the mirror world, you knew Vrill was high enough level to cast Fireball, and yet 2nd level Marivhon went along with it. Why weren't cries raised of- guys, Marivhon needs at least one more level, please, before we do this? Potions of protection against fire could have been obtained. Etc, etc. Ample warning.
I forgot the monk 'reduced surprise chance' thing. But we're too deep into the combat to revise things now. Honestly, I had Vrill show up and declare casting, without rolling damage yet, to give PCs a moment to react, take cover, etc. That would have been the time to say 'hey, I'm a monk, I'm not easily surprised, can I get one action before this all happens?'
Finally, I don't have a copy of either 1E Players or the DMG. Can I get citations with page numbers for interrupting casting and two weapon fighting? Training time and costs are, however, in the DMG. I think it's something like 1000 gps per level. I like the way we're doing it now, because special training offers something that I think enhances the flavor of DiD here- the non-weapon proficiencies, like 'singing' or 'man of the people'. There's no other mechanic for introducing these skills to PCs. However, if a quorum of you want it changed, I'll change it, and make training instantaneous: that's 3 of you with a 'yea', including Mark's vote. You'll have to keep track of your own xp from then on, though, and I'll post updates after each encounter.
