Greetings everyone!
As I stated previously, I will be posting the test-play of my personal game system here.
So far, we only have one session.
Additionally, the players are the sort that do what they want, when they want.
Which, for testing purposes, makes things all for the better :)
Things will be a little childish.
I won't be putting up any of the rules in this post necessarily, but I will clarify if anyone has any questions.
Both players are human. Their skills, perks, and archetypes... I currently don't remember (and also might end up confusing the narrative a little).
I'm also continuing to work on a playtest document for Chronicles so that you, in the comfort of your own home, can help me develop this game :)
Without further ado...
---------------------------
The scene opened on the town of Riverwatch in the early hours of the morning.
Demigod, a mugger with a penchant for magic, saw what he thought would be an easy mark:
Sparky, a wandering tinker and priest, whose packs seemed laden with goods.
He made his approach...
And...
Successfully knocked Sparky to the ground!
Sparky attempted to roll over and get into a better defensive position, but wasn't quite quick enough.
Now was the moment for Demigod to act.
He attempted to knock out Sparky with a punch to the back of the head, but ended up hitting a shield he was carrying instead.
Then, with some acrobatic-shenanigans, Demigod attempted to kick Sparky but the priest was able to jump up to his feet before the hit could connect.
But, of course, this is when the town guard would happen by and see the scuffle.
Both of them attempted to lie their way out of the situation.
Something about a "friendly sparring match."
The town guard weren't buying it.
So, the two of them were placed into police custody until someone started making sense.
There, they met someone who would forever change their lives.
An old man that was chained in the adjoining cell.
"Chamby."
So called because he smelled and looked like he was a chamber pot.
The party soon formed a bond with Chamby, who quickly revealed that he had some magical talent and could easily escape his restraints at will.
Which got the two to thinking about escape.
So, they formulated something of a plan together.
Demigod used some of his magic to telekinetically lift the cell key off a guard.
And quickly the two escaped.
They also let Chamby out.
Because... you know... honor among thieves and all that...
However, it wasn't long before the guard was upon them!
Sparky tripped the sentinel, knocking him out.
Demigod, seeing an opportunity, snatched up the guard's sword.
Then, to help mask their escape, they decided to perform a mass jail break.
Sparky attempted to call upon his god's power to bend the cell bars, but his deity had no interest in this feat.
So, with just the key, they ended up performing the jail break.
Just as they and their fellow mutineers exited the jail, there was a thunderous roar from overhead.
---------------------------
And that's where we ended the session.
While I haven't had any feedback from Demigod's player yet, Sparky had the following to say:
He liked the simplicity of the system and thought that character creation was fun.
He disliked the lack of loot and felt that while combat was balanced, the guards were too easy to take down.
Overall, however, he says he has no major changes he'd suggest at this time.
But, we might have more down the road :)
Until next time, readers, may the dice fall in your favor!
Showing posts with label Campaign Notes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Campaign Notes. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
Praerus D&D 5e Campaign Notes, Session 11
Greetings, internet-people!
I have a small announcement before I begin writing up the campaign update you came for:
At the top of the page, you may notice a link to a page called "All-Brew."
This page has direct links to everything that I'm working on (and some stuff that I just like).
That way, you don't have to dig through back log to find a homebrew that you were interested in :)
Now, back to business!
This week, we had Rellon, Agent M, and Trinity in the party. Everyone else was sick or otherwise occupied.
For those of you paying attention, that means that the paladin and cleric were both relegated to "healbot" for this week :)
----------------------------
When we left off, the party had just reached the second floor of the cave complex.
The labyrinth.
When looking over their options, the party decided to travel to Arroh's shrine first.
There, they went through one of the western doorways.
The chamber beyond was largely devoid of features.
An odd glyph was carved into the doors on the northern, western, and southern walls.
Rellon looked them over and recognized them as an older dialect of primordial.
They said "You shall not pass." (shut up)
The party spent a few minutes dividing themselves up among the doors so that they could investigate:
Trinity and Rellon investigated the western door;
the dretches investigated the southern door;
and M stayed as far back as possible.
Trinity and Rellon spent some time with their door, searching for any hidden catches or other triggers.
The dretches were hammering away at the surfaces.
Then, Trinity decided to touch the rune (despite warnings).
And it lit up briefly and emitted a sound like crystal ringing.
Everyone thought this interesting.
Then, with some excellent planning, the party stepped back and assigned three of the dretches to trace the runes at the same time.
They did so gleefully.
The runes glowed and the crystal-sound grew louder and louder.
Just before it couldn't get any louder, it stopped and the doors rolled into the ceiling!
Trinity decided to try to walk through the northern door to check for danger.
She found herself walking back into the room from the western door.
Of course, this was puzzling for everyone.
With some exploration, they found that all three of the doors looped back on the main chamber without much rhyme or reason.
To make matters more confusing, anyone that looked beyond the doorway saw that the room beyond wasn't the one they were standing in.
After some further experimentation (throwing rocks, throwing a severed dretch head from the last session, etc.), the party decided that they didn't want to mess around with this puzzle any longer.
Then, in an out-of-character discussion that turned funny, someone mentioned the possibility of the Tarrasque being in the tunnels.
And Trinity's player is completely new and had no idea why that could be so bad.
So, after some explanation that a wish is required to kill the thing for good, Trinity's player spouted this bit of awesome: "It's the opposite of Tinkerbell."
After that bit of silliness, the party resumed their journey through labyrinth, seeking out the prophecy.
On their way there, they encountered a very long room that was filled with ashes.
Everyone figured that the room would be trapped, but a dretch volunteered to confirm it.
By running across the room.
Fire started shooting out from the walls, trying to incinerate the odd demon.
Somehow, it managed to cross the room and return to the party before collapsing (unconscious, not dead).
Agent M looked over the floor to see what kind of pressure plates might be there.
Once those were identified, Rellon used a mage hand cantrip to push the tiles to see where was safe.
Using this method, he crossed the room with Trinity.
They were curious to see if a door might be hidden on the opposite wall.
With a quick search, they found one and Ulic unlocked it (while on autopilot).
Opening the door, they found a large round chamber with a ladder in the middle and three other exits that had the same rune as the odd chamber earlier.
While the rest of the party decided how to proceed, Trinity decided to run around and be Trinity.
First, she climbed up the ladder and opened the trap door to reveal that it exited onto a grassy plain.
Then, she slid down the ladder and didn't set her brakes fast enough.
To the north, she found a room filled with cages and animal bones. There were three additional exits from here, but she decided to go back to the main group.
Next, the party decided to travel southwards.
They came to a fork and decided to take the right branch.
Then Trinity was nearly taken out by an arrow.
The room had a large "fortress" made of chairs and tables set up on the opposite side.
A quick look told Rellon that it was lizardfolk make.
Putting two and two together, they realized that some lizardfolk were behind the barricade.
Diplomacy was had (by Trinity even!) and the lizardfolk eventually entered the room.
Four warriors that had no idea how they had gotten into the labyrinth.
And then Rellon had to make a minor magical display to keep the dretches in line.
And lizardfolk revere magic and its practitioners.
To show follower score here: Rellon 9, Trinity 0
With their new allies, the party continued southward.
And found a room filled with hieroglyphics and other images.
With a quick history roll, the party realized that this was how the Old Ones recorded their prophecies.
VICTORY!
Rellon used comprehend languages, but the prophecy was encrypted (because why not?).
While the party recorded the images on the walls, the lizardfolk cried out "THEY'RE HERE!" and started firing arrows down the hallway.
Trinity decided that she would try to win them over with a display of bravery and charged in, hammer and shield raised.
M peeked around the corner and saw absolutely nothing.
Apparently, the lizardfolk had been in the tunnels long enough to lose their minds.
The dretches, however, were already slightly mad and took this opportunity for potential bloodshed to charge down the hall.
And no one stopped them.
And they kept charging...
Rellon 4, Trinity 0
One of the lizardfolk acted like he was shot - "THEY GOT ME!"
He laid down and was acting like he would die. M scooped him up and called for medical attention.
Which Trinity provided (she is trained in medicine, after all...)
Rellon tried using sleep to pacify Trinity and the lizardfolk, but they refused to go down. One lizardfolk did yawn, however.
His next plan was to utilize Sabah to cast lesser restoration and fix the lizardfolk.
Which worked beautifully. They all came out of their madness!
With the prophecy secured and the lizardfolk calmed, the party returned to the surface using the ladder they had found earlier.
As they neared the forest outside of Rosewood, they started to fall asleep - one by one.
Except Trinity.
When she turned around to find her companions passed out, there was a shadowy figure snatching the prophecy and making a run for it!
Trinity decided to pursue the interloper.
Despite her party being unconscious and without guards.
She chased the thing through the forest, throwing her spear after it, jumping over obstacles...
And then she tripped!
Just as the shadow was about to get away, she hurled her flask of acid at it.
It made contact, and the shadow vanished.
She searched for the scroll case that the prophecy was in, but it was nowhere to be seen.
Disheartened, she returned to the party.
Just about then, M came around and found a wolf nudging him.
He laid there and tried to not be intimidating.
Suddenly, something came crashing through the trees and scared the wolves off.
Seeing this as a truly bad situation, he jumped up and drew his twin daggers, ready to slay whatever it was or run, as needed (pure rogue stuff here).
Then, Trinity came out of the woods.
M relaxed and the two set about waking the party up.
With a quick search, they found that the prophecy was missing.
The party thought about who or what the shadow may have been. As it could put others to sleep and apparently teleport, it was clear they were dealing with a spellcaster of sorts. Rellon suggested that someone from the Arcanum, who knew about his mission, might have done this. But, that just left more questions than answers.
After some discussion, the party decided that Rellon would set up several alarms near the prophecy chamber to alert them if anyone decided to visit it.
Then, they started back toward town.
----------------------
And that's what happened!
Even though Trinity was present, we got some good plot progress taken care of :) (nothing but love, if you read this Benny)
But who was that shadowy character and what did they want with the prophecy?
Will Trinity be able to get the lizardfolk into town and get them drunk?
What will the party do now that they have lost their hard-won prophecy?
Answers to these and more when next we game!
...
Which might not be for a couple of weeks, as I am moving and still haven't done much packing.
But we shall see!
Until then, dear readers.
Until then.
I have a small announcement before I begin writing up the campaign update you came for:
At the top of the page, you may notice a link to a page called "All-Brew."
This page has direct links to everything that I'm working on (and some stuff that I just like).
That way, you don't have to dig through back log to find a homebrew that you were interested in :)
Now, back to business!
This week, we had Rellon, Agent M, and Trinity in the party. Everyone else was sick or otherwise occupied.
For those of you paying attention, that means that the paladin and cleric were both relegated to "healbot" for this week :)
----------------------------
When we left off, the party had just reached the second floor of the cave complex.
The labyrinth.
When looking over their options, the party decided to travel to Arroh's shrine first.
There, they went through one of the western doorways.
The chamber beyond was largely devoid of features.
An odd glyph was carved into the doors on the northern, western, and southern walls.
Rellon looked them over and recognized them as an older dialect of primordial.
They said "You shall not pass." (shut up)
The party spent a few minutes dividing themselves up among the doors so that they could investigate:
Trinity and Rellon investigated the western door;
the dretches investigated the southern door;
and M stayed as far back as possible.
Trinity and Rellon spent some time with their door, searching for any hidden catches or other triggers.
The dretches were hammering away at the surfaces.
Then, Trinity decided to touch the rune (despite warnings).
And it lit up briefly and emitted a sound like crystal ringing.
Everyone thought this interesting.
Then, with some excellent planning, the party stepped back and assigned three of the dretches to trace the runes at the same time.
They did so gleefully.
The runes glowed and the crystal-sound grew louder and louder.
Just before it couldn't get any louder, it stopped and the doors rolled into the ceiling!
Trinity decided to try to walk through the northern door to check for danger.
She found herself walking back into the room from the western door.
Of course, this was puzzling for everyone.
With some exploration, they found that all three of the doors looped back on the main chamber without much rhyme or reason.
To make matters more confusing, anyone that looked beyond the doorway saw that the room beyond wasn't the one they were standing in.
After some further experimentation (throwing rocks, throwing a severed dretch head from the last session, etc.), the party decided that they didn't want to mess around with this puzzle any longer.
Then, in an out-of-character discussion that turned funny, someone mentioned the possibility of the Tarrasque being in the tunnels.
And Trinity's player is completely new and had no idea why that could be so bad.
So, after some explanation that a wish is required to kill the thing for good, Trinity's player spouted this bit of awesome: "It's the opposite of Tinkerbell."
After that bit of silliness, the party resumed their journey through labyrinth, seeking out the prophecy.
On their way there, they encountered a very long room that was filled with ashes.
Everyone figured that the room would be trapped, but a dretch volunteered to confirm it.
By running across the room.
Fire started shooting out from the walls, trying to incinerate the odd demon.
Somehow, it managed to cross the room and return to the party before collapsing (unconscious, not dead).
Agent M looked over the floor to see what kind of pressure plates might be there.
Once those were identified, Rellon used a mage hand cantrip to push the tiles to see where was safe.
Using this method, he crossed the room with Trinity.
They were curious to see if a door might be hidden on the opposite wall.
With a quick search, they found one and Ulic unlocked it (while on autopilot).
Opening the door, they found a large round chamber with a ladder in the middle and three other exits that had the same rune as the odd chamber earlier.
While the rest of the party decided how to proceed, Trinity decided to run around and be Trinity.
First, she climbed up the ladder and opened the trap door to reveal that it exited onto a grassy plain.
Then, she slid down the ladder and didn't set her brakes fast enough.
To the north, she found a room filled with cages and animal bones. There were three additional exits from here, but she decided to go back to the main group.
Next, the party decided to travel southwards.
They came to a fork and decided to take the right branch.
Then Trinity was nearly taken out by an arrow.
The room had a large "fortress" made of chairs and tables set up on the opposite side.
A quick look told Rellon that it was lizardfolk make.
Putting two and two together, they realized that some lizardfolk were behind the barricade.
Diplomacy was had (by Trinity even!) and the lizardfolk eventually entered the room.
Four warriors that had no idea how they had gotten into the labyrinth.
And then Rellon had to make a minor magical display to keep the dretches in line.
And lizardfolk revere magic and its practitioners.
To show follower score here: Rellon 9, Trinity 0
With their new allies, the party continued southward.
And found a room filled with hieroglyphics and other images.
With a quick history roll, the party realized that this was how the Old Ones recorded their prophecies.
VICTORY!
Rellon used comprehend languages, but the prophecy was encrypted (because why not?).
While the party recorded the images on the walls, the lizardfolk cried out "THEY'RE HERE!" and started firing arrows down the hallway.
Trinity decided that she would try to win them over with a display of bravery and charged in, hammer and shield raised.
M peeked around the corner and saw absolutely nothing.
Apparently, the lizardfolk had been in the tunnels long enough to lose their minds.
The dretches, however, were already slightly mad and took this opportunity for potential bloodshed to charge down the hall.
And no one stopped them.
And they kept charging...
Rellon 4, Trinity 0
One of the lizardfolk acted like he was shot - "THEY GOT ME!"
He laid down and was acting like he would die. M scooped him up and called for medical attention.
Which Trinity provided (she is trained in medicine, after all...)
Rellon tried using sleep to pacify Trinity and the lizardfolk, but they refused to go down. One lizardfolk did yawn, however.
His next plan was to utilize Sabah to cast lesser restoration and fix the lizardfolk.
Which worked beautifully. They all came out of their madness!
With the prophecy secured and the lizardfolk calmed, the party returned to the surface using the ladder they had found earlier.
As they neared the forest outside of Rosewood, they started to fall asleep - one by one.
Except Trinity.
When she turned around to find her companions passed out, there was a shadowy figure snatching the prophecy and making a run for it!
Trinity decided to pursue the interloper.
Despite her party being unconscious and without guards.
She chased the thing through the forest, throwing her spear after it, jumping over obstacles...
And then she tripped!
Just as the shadow was about to get away, she hurled her flask of acid at it.
It made contact, and the shadow vanished.
She searched for the scroll case that the prophecy was in, but it was nowhere to be seen.
Disheartened, she returned to the party.
Just about then, M came around and found a wolf nudging him.
He laid there and tried to not be intimidating.
Suddenly, something came crashing through the trees and scared the wolves off.
Seeing this as a truly bad situation, he jumped up and drew his twin daggers, ready to slay whatever it was or run, as needed (pure rogue stuff here).
Then, Trinity came out of the woods.
M relaxed and the two set about waking the party up.
With a quick search, they found that the prophecy was missing.
The party thought about who or what the shadow may have been. As it could put others to sleep and apparently teleport, it was clear they were dealing with a spellcaster of sorts. Rellon suggested that someone from the Arcanum, who knew about his mission, might have done this. But, that just left more questions than answers.
After some discussion, the party decided that Rellon would set up several alarms near the prophecy chamber to alert them if anyone decided to visit it.
Then, they started back toward town.
----------------------
And that's what happened!
Even though Trinity was present, we got some good plot progress taken care of :) (nothing but love, if you read this Benny)
But who was that shadowy character and what did they want with the prophecy?
Will Trinity be able to get the lizardfolk into town and get them drunk?
What will the party do now that they have lost their hard-won prophecy?
Answers to these and more when next we game!
...
Which might not be for a couple of weeks, as I am moving and still haven't done much packing.
But we shall see!
Until then, dear readers.
Until then.
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
Praerus D&D 5e Campaign Notes, Session 10
Morning, everyone!
Sorry that my 4e-to-5e conversion project is taking so long. Between work and moving into my first real house, things have been hectic. Like I keep saying. However, I should have the roughest of drafts done up for the races sometime by the end of the week.
If all goes well.
Now, onto other things: the Sunday group met up for gaming. This week, Ulic was back in but Trinity was out. Also, the session was kind of short due to other obligations. Even so, we managed quite a bit of ground covering :)
----------------
When last we saw our adventuring companions, they had just re-entered the dark caves below Rosewood.
And, not long afterwards, Ulic awoke on the pew.
After gaining his bearings, he went off to catch up to the group. He took the quicker way into the caves and ended up bumping into the party completely by incident.
Reunited, the party decided to finish "mapping" the first floor of the dungeon complex.
The first chamber they entered was filled with more of the violet fungi and shriekers that they had encountered earlier.
Hek, deciding that some mushrooms would be a great addition to his next dish, started flinging eldritch blasts about. And, given that mushrooms can't move, it was quite literally like shooting fish in a barrel.
When he was done, he entered the chamber to collect the spoils. Surprisingly, he also found 3 pieces of platinum.
M, using his keen rogue eyes, noticed a pouch of something near his feet. Picking it up, he discovered a full bag of dust of dryness. More on that later.
Satisfied with their haul, the party wandered the tunnels once more. This time, they discovered a room that was literally filled with rats. Swarms of them.
The party, having moved ever so sneak-ily into the tunnel outside the room, struck up a pretty solid plan to avoid trouble.
Hek, having the initiative, charged into the room and cast arms of hadar. Twice (using action surge).
Then, Sabah tossed in a fireball.
Between the two of them, they wiped out 18 rat swarms in the surprise round.
Which is pretty magical (pun aside).
But not as magical as Hek's player's next line - "Diplomacy - success!"
And then when we discussed marching order after that - "Hek in front, party in back."
After some hearty chuckles, the party resumed travel.
This time, they wanted to explore the tunnels near the chamber they found all the zombies in.
Down one side of it, they found a path that ended in what appeared to be a waterfall.
Smart adventurer sorts that they are, they decided to test it.
First, they threw a pebble with light cast on it through the waterfall. And it fizzled out. Antimagic?
Then, M stuck the end of "his" spear through it. And the end got melted off. Acid!
And it was then that I regretted some of my earlier DM-ing decisions.
M took five pinches of his dust of dryness and cast them into the waterfall.
He now has five pellets of compressed liquid ouchy.
Seeing no path beyond the waterfall (and deftly dodging a pretty sweet trap, might I add), the party left the vicinity and soon found a broom closet and another tunnel leading off from the room before the zombie chamber.
With some quick thinking, the party realized that the tunnel should come out behind the door that scratched when they knocked. So, they looked for a hidden catch or other lever to open it with.
M, being the rogue-iest of rogues, spotted the trigger before anyone else.
With Hek in place as a meat-shield, they opened the door.
It rolled slowly to the side.
Hek, using his demonically-fueled sight, saw several green, hairless gorillas beyond the door.
Unfortunately for him, they saw him too.
He charged them, they charged him.
And nothing happened.
Rellon, using his expansive knowledge, tried to figure out what they were and was able to come up with a name and origin - dretch, demon.
With a quick look, he also established that there were about 12 of them in the room.
He shouted out "Can we talk?"
Ulic, finding his time to shine, charged one of the dretches and used his smite ability to cleanly sever the head of one from its shoulders. Very epic scene.
On his turn, Rellon dove into the room and flung a lightning bolt through several of the dretches. Despite their lightning resistance, he rolled well enough to atomize all of them.
At this point, we let Trinity grab the severed dretch head. Because, auto-pilot or not, that is pretty much exactly what everyone thought she would do.
This left five dretches standing.
Rellon, dusting his hands off, politely asked "So, ready to talk now?"
Interestingly enough, the dretches decided to listen.
Also interestingly, Rellon was the only party member capable of speaking abyssal.
With some quick smooth talking and promises of slaughter for good behavior (M said something about stringing them along), the five remaining dretches became the hapless minions of the party.
With these new (and possibly soon to be reformed?) demons, the party headed for the second floor, deep within the earth.
--------------------
And that's where we left off!
Not so much actually done in terms of finding the prophecy they were sent to find, but a genuinely bizarre and fun time was had.
But, what will become of these folks that traffic with demons?
And will they find the prophecy they have struggled to locate?
Until next time, may the dice fall in your favor :)
Sorry that my 4e-to-5e conversion project is taking so long. Between work and moving into my first real house, things have been hectic. Like I keep saying. However, I should have the roughest of drafts done up for the races sometime by the end of the week.
If all goes well.
Now, onto other things: the Sunday group met up for gaming. This week, Ulic was back in but Trinity was out. Also, the session was kind of short due to other obligations. Even so, we managed quite a bit of ground covering :)
----------------
When last we saw our adventuring companions, they had just re-entered the dark caves below Rosewood.
And, not long afterwards, Ulic awoke on the pew.
After gaining his bearings, he went off to catch up to the group. He took the quicker way into the caves and ended up bumping into the party completely by incident.
Reunited, the party decided to finish "mapping" the first floor of the dungeon complex.
The first chamber they entered was filled with more of the violet fungi and shriekers that they had encountered earlier.
Hek, deciding that some mushrooms would be a great addition to his next dish, started flinging eldritch blasts about. And, given that mushrooms can't move, it was quite literally like shooting fish in a barrel.
When he was done, he entered the chamber to collect the spoils. Surprisingly, he also found 3 pieces of platinum.
M, using his keen rogue eyes, noticed a pouch of something near his feet. Picking it up, he discovered a full bag of dust of dryness. More on that later.
Satisfied with their haul, the party wandered the tunnels once more. This time, they discovered a room that was literally filled with rats. Swarms of them.
The party, having moved ever so sneak-ily into the tunnel outside the room, struck up a pretty solid plan to avoid trouble.
Hek, having the initiative, charged into the room and cast arms of hadar. Twice (using action surge).
Then, Sabah tossed in a fireball.
Between the two of them, they wiped out 18 rat swarms in the surprise round.
Which is pretty magical (pun aside).
But not as magical as Hek's player's next line - "Diplomacy - success!"
And then when we discussed marching order after that - "Hek in front, party in back."
After some hearty chuckles, the party resumed travel.
This time, they wanted to explore the tunnels near the chamber they found all the zombies in.
Down one side of it, they found a path that ended in what appeared to be a waterfall.
Smart adventurer sorts that they are, they decided to test it.
First, they threw a pebble with light cast on it through the waterfall. And it fizzled out. Antimagic?
Then, M stuck the end of "his" spear through it. And the end got melted off. Acid!
And it was then that I regretted some of my earlier DM-ing decisions.
M took five pinches of his dust of dryness and cast them into the waterfall.
He now has five pellets of compressed liquid ouchy.
Seeing no path beyond the waterfall (and deftly dodging a pretty sweet trap, might I add), the party left the vicinity and soon found a broom closet and another tunnel leading off from the room before the zombie chamber.
With some quick thinking, the party realized that the tunnel should come out behind the door that scratched when they knocked. So, they looked for a hidden catch or other lever to open it with.
M, being the rogue-iest of rogues, spotted the trigger before anyone else.
With Hek in place as a meat-shield, they opened the door.
It rolled slowly to the side.
Hek, using his demonically-fueled sight, saw several green, hairless gorillas beyond the door.
Unfortunately for him, they saw him too.
He charged them, they charged him.
And nothing happened.
Rellon, using his expansive knowledge, tried to figure out what they were and was able to come up with a name and origin - dretch, demon.
With a quick look, he also established that there were about 12 of them in the room.
He shouted out "Can we talk?"
Ulic, finding his time to shine, charged one of the dretches and used his smite ability to cleanly sever the head of one from its shoulders. Very epic scene.
On his turn, Rellon dove into the room and flung a lightning bolt through several of the dretches. Despite their lightning resistance, he rolled well enough to atomize all of them.
At this point, we let Trinity grab the severed dretch head. Because, auto-pilot or not, that is pretty much exactly what everyone thought she would do.
This left five dretches standing.
Rellon, dusting his hands off, politely asked "So, ready to talk now?"
Interestingly enough, the dretches decided to listen.
Also interestingly, Rellon was the only party member capable of speaking abyssal.
With some quick smooth talking and promises of slaughter for good behavior (M said something about stringing them along), the five remaining dretches became the hapless minions of the party.
With these new (and possibly soon to be reformed?) demons, the party headed for the second floor, deep within the earth.
--------------------
And that's where we left off!
Not so much actually done in terms of finding the prophecy they were sent to find, but a genuinely bizarre and fun time was had.
But, what will become of these folks that traffic with demons?
And will they find the prophecy they have struggled to locate?
Until next time, may the dice fall in your favor :)
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Praerus D&D 5e Campaign Notes, Session 9
Sorry for only posting once last week! Things got hectic and I couldn't make as much progress on the 4e-to-5e Race Guide as I had hoped. Should have something workable up later this week if all goes well (but with moving and such... we'll see...).
Now, the Sunday group met and things got kind of... Well, Trinity wasn't absent if that's any indicator ;)
This week, we had Rellon, Trinity, Hek, Sabah, and we introduced... Agent M, as I call him. Multiple names for different reasons. That sort of guy. Ulic was gone due to some mix-up in communication.
-------------------
When last we left off, the party had just gotten Ulic restored at the temple by a priest of Pholtus. However, the magic that cured him also promptly sent him into a deep, deep sleep.
Meanwhile, Agent M had received his next task in a cryptic letter. That's just the kind of man he is.
With those instructions, he slapped together his "wandering Priest of Heironeous" disguise and went to the temple, as instructed.
At this time, Rellon left to have a proper holy symbol of his new god (Trykus) forged to anchor Arroh's spirit to.
Hek, ever the helper, went downstairs to the galley to be "the cook." There, he made fast friends (sarcasm) with a reasonably-stable priest of Erythnul that was the acting chef for the day.
Trinity and Sabah, however, went into spiritualism mode and prayed with the old priest. Trinity would later, very forcefully, ask for help in finding out about the god-shard residing in her (she has a major problem with in-/out-character knowledge :/ ).
Agent M, seeing the act of aggression, figured that this was a signal for a shakedown that he was to be part of, so he locked the door. Very helpful of him.
It was also around this time that a scream issued from downstairs.
Across town, Rellon's holy symbol was being forged and he spent some time attuning with the strange sword he found in the elemental armory.
After some time, it whispered "hello?"
Ah, a truly mysterious thing.
When Rellon returned, he found the door barred and there was a brief conversation about why that might be. Many side-steps and circular phrases were used.
About that time, Hek's beef tongue was finished cooking and the meal bell was rung.
Everyone went and enjoyed the meal considerably. Unlike the dungeon cuisine that was served the day before.
Ulic laid on the pew like a lump.
After the meal was had, Trinity and Rellon went into full-on research mode and went to the archives to research this, that, and the other about their respective deities.
Hek recruited Agent M to clean up with him. And, given M's natural fear of orcs that wear severed hands as trophies, he was more than happy to help!
Sabah... smoked. Tobacco. Outside. She was rather boring.
In the archives, Rellon's background as a sage (and, after a die roll, professor at the Arcanum!) really shined through: he found some books on dead gods for Trinity to peruse and located a single passage that could help him track down more information about Trykus.
I don't remember the exact logistics of this decision, but M heard Rellon mention a prophecy, looted Ulic ("I always loot when I'm sad"), impersonated him, punched out a random adventurer outside, swapped their clothing, and went back into the church. Rather odd.
Back in the archives, Trinity was blaspheming (in Draconic) against every god of the world as she looked through her books and found nothing helpful.
Then, in a moment of pity, Rellon joined her search and, discovering what she wanted to do, he tried something rather intriguing: ink blots and free drawing.
Some dice and magic later, and Trinity actually got an idea as to which god was within her: Bast, a war god that died at the beginning of the Reckoning Wars.
The rest of the day was largely unremarkable, except Hek going hunting with a priestess of Ehlonna and stopping a deer's heart with eldritch blast.
During the hunting trip, Trinity attempted to deface the shrine of Beory and replace it with her own shrine.
Thankfully, a priest in the temple noticed this.
There were a few questions about how to remove him as an obstacle.
Finally, Rellon (or M? can't remember now) helped negotiate the establishment of a shrine to Trinity (going by the divine name of Hammurtym... I know).
That night is when we had to sit Trinity's player down and have "the talk" - more on that shortly.
Trinity decided she wanted to do all of the following that night:
Now, the Sunday group met and things got kind of... Well, Trinity wasn't absent if that's any indicator ;)
This week, we had Rellon, Trinity, Hek, Sabah, and we introduced... Agent M, as I call him. Multiple names for different reasons. That sort of guy. Ulic was gone due to some mix-up in communication.
-------------------
When last we left off, the party had just gotten Ulic restored at the temple by a priest of Pholtus. However, the magic that cured him also promptly sent him into a deep, deep sleep.
Meanwhile, Agent M had received his next task in a cryptic letter. That's just the kind of man he is.
With those instructions, he slapped together his "wandering Priest of Heironeous" disguise and went to the temple, as instructed.
At this time, Rellon left to have a proper holy symbol of his new god (Trykus) forged to anchor Arroh's spirit to.
Hek, ever the helper, went downstairs to the galley to be "the cook." There, he made fast friends (sarcasm) with a reasonably-stable priest of Erythnul that was the acting chef for the day.
Trinity and Sabah, however, went into spiritualism mode and prayed with the old priest. Trinity would later, very forcefully, ask for help in finding out about the god-shard residing in her (she has a major problem with in-/out-character knowledge :/ ).
Agent M, seeing the act of aggression, figured that this was a signal for a shakedown that he was to be part of, so he locked the door. Very helpful of him.
It was also around this time that a scream issued from downstairs.
Across town, Rellon's holy symbol was being forged and he spent some time attuning with the strange sword he found in the elemental armory.
After some time, it whispered "hello?"
Ah, a truly mysterious thing.
When Rellon returned, he found the door barred and there was a brief conversation about why that might be. Many side-steps and circular phrases were used.
About that time, Hek's beef tongue was finished cooking and the meal bell was rung.
Everyone went and enjoyed the meal considerably. Unlike the dungeon cuisine that was served the day before.
Ulic laid on the pew like a lump.
After the meal was had, Trinity and Rellon went into full-on research mode and went to the archives to research this, that, and the other about their respective deities.
Hek recruited Agent M to clean up with him. And, given M's natural fear of orcs that wear severed hands as trophies, he was more than happy to help!
Sabah... smoked. Tobacco. Outside. She was rather boring.
In the archives, Rellon's background as a sage (and, after a die roll, professor at the Arcanum!) really shined through: he found some books on dead gods for Trinity to peruse and located a single passage that could help him track down more information about Trykus.
I don't remember the exact logistics of this decision, but M heard Rellon mention a prophecy, looted Ulic ("I always loot when I'm sad"), impersonated him, punched out a random adventurer outside, swapped their clothing, and went back into the church. Rather odd.
Back in the archives, Trinity was blaspheming (in Draconic) against every god of the world as she looked through her books and found nothing helpful.
Then, in a moment of pity, Rellon joined her search and, discovering what she wanted to do, he tried something rather intriguing: ink blots and free drawing.
Some dice and magic later, and Trinity actually got an idea as to which god was within her: Bast, a war god that died at the beginning of the Reckoning Wars.
The rest of the day was largely unremarkable, except Hek going hunting with a priestess of Ehlonna and stopping a deer's heart with eldritch blast.
During the hunting trip, Trinity attempted to deface the shrine of Beory and replace it with her own shrine.
Thankfully, a priest in the temple noticed this.
There were a few questions about how to remove him as an obstacle.
Finally, Rellon (or M? can't remember now) helped negotiate the establishment of a shrine to Trinity (going by the divine name of Hammurtym... I know).
That night is when we had to sit Trinity's player down and have "the talk" - more on that shortly.
Trinity decided she wanted to do all of the following that night:
- break into the temple
- attempt to deface the holy symbol of Beory on the shrine (made from pure malachite, btw)
So, there are clearly a few things wrong with what she wanted to do.
There was a looooong discussion that mostly involved the more experienced players saying "there are gods in this world that will smite you for something like that."
Thankfully, she saw some reason in that and amended her plan to:
- break into the temple
- shout "Beory sux, Trinity rulez!" (direct quote with misspellings)
- leap out a different window and beat a retreat to her house
Suffice to say, the town guard were at her door in the morning.
Blessedly (or not), M recognized the sergeant of the squad and was able to "negotiate" a "reduced" fine.
And just like that, my attempt at educating the warforged about consequences in the game world fell apart.
But M roleplayed the discussion so well that I literally couldn't argue with him.
After much silliness, the party decided to go after the prophecy again.
They took the sliding path in the field down instead of the goblin tunnels.
Down there at last, they decided to investigate the odd door that Rellon had found.
The one that scratched when he knocked on it.
With some trial and error and a quick conjuring, they were able to unlock the door and open it.
On the other side...
Stone.
The door was set in the wall, but there was nothing behind it.
Rellon used detect magic and saw an aura of conjuration on it.
Trinity searched for a hidden door, but found nothing.
There was some debate about using stronger divinations or dismantling the door, but they decided to close it and leave it be for now.
The whole time, I had my "DM strikes again" face on.
Next, the explored the tunnels again and came across a room that held several stone coffins.
M, keen-eyed rogue that he is, noticed the traps from a mile away and was able to stop anyone from entering the chamber.
10-foot pole in hand, they tapped the sarcophagi and sent darts flying from one wall to the next.
Then, Hek decided to test the mechanisms.
He took the pole and tapped one sarcophagus in a rapid burst.
Darts flew out.
Then, he gathered them, tested their strength, and divided some between his backpack and the holes in the wall to try to jam them.
Trinity was disappointed by the lack of poison on the darts.
And that is, more-or-less, where we ended for the day.
Will they find the prophecy next week? Or will they continue to derail themselves at an alarming pace?
Only time will tell!
Until next we chat, may the dice fall in your favor :)
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Praerus D&D 5e Campaign Notes, Session 8
Evening, everyone!
With this mystery ever-building, the party headed downstairs.
And discovered a large summoning seal in the floor of the first chamber.
With a little remembering legends and lore, they discovered that this was part of a long-lost labyrinth complex described in some passages of Old One literature.
And it was hiding under Rosewood the entire time.
With a little wandering, they mapped out a good chunk of the southern portion of the map.
There, they found a chamber for guards to rest in and a place where they stored their food.
While passing through the storage room, Ulic set off a trap that launched two walls at each other.
Thankfully, his checkered past prepared him to jump out of the way.
With a few minutes of work, he was able to dismantle the trigger to prevent any further trouble.
Beyond this, they saw a strange sight - a shrine. It was apparent that this was not part of the original construction.
Shortly after entering, Sabah approached the alter, knelt down, and said softly "so, this is where I died..."
It turned out that a ghost was residing in this room and possessed Sabah to communicate with the party.
During a rather pleasant conversation, the party learned that this was the ghost of Arroh Hartsight, a member of one of the races they call the Old Ones. She was once a huntress, but became the high priestess of the god Trykus (knowledge and light, symbol is an open tome with a scepter along the spine). And, much like the party, she was unsure as to how she got to where she was presently.
Rellon decided to see if Arroh could recognize the summoning seal in the other room, and so led Sabah/Arroh to the door.
Where the two promptly separated, with Arroh's form floating in the doorway.
At this point, one of the ghost's natural defenses kicked in and everyone had to make a Charisma save to avoid being frightened.
Sabah and Rellon were fine, Trinity and Hec were frightened.
But Ulic got hit the hardest. Having failed his save by more than 5, he also aged 40 years, making him go from his youth to middle age in the blink of an eye.
Arroh did not expect that happen and apologized immediately.
With short order, however, her specter vanished from sight.
With some puzzling over the situation, Rellon decided to become a willing vessel for Arroh.
While the two were connected, they did a very high-speed information exchange. Rellon ended up converting to the faith of Trykus in that time.
Then the joined-souls struck upon a plan.
Using his conjuration ability, Rellon created a holy symbol of Trykus to act as a focus for his beliefs.
The theory was that this would allow Arroh's spirit to leave her final resting place.
So, with a deep breath, they crossed the threshold...
And it worked!
Now free of the shrine, the group went back to the summoning seal and let Arroh analyze it.
Unfortunately, she knew nothing of it.
With their new ghostly companion, the party returned to Rosewood to try to establish a more permanent abode for Arroh and restore Ulic's youth.
And that's what happened.
Lots of fun for everyone, like I said.
But what sort of strangeness is going on in the tunnels below Rosewood?
Tune in next time to see what happens!
Until then - roll the bones :)
Sunday was certainly interesting for gaming, and here's how!
To begin, the phrase "rub your butt on the enlarged man" was uttered.
This week, we had Sabah and Ulic in attendance, and Saito's player introduced a new character named Rellon (information on the character page). Hec and Trinity's players couldn't make it, making this the first time that Trinity was on DM-autopilot.
As a note, there was a lot of improvisation on my part as the DM this week. And, you know what, I think everyone enjoyed it that way.
As a note, there was a lot of improvisation on my part as the DM this week. And, you know what, I think everyone enjoyed it that way.
----------------
Rellon was en route from the Arcanum to Rosewood to locate the prophecy that was underground.
After some trial and error, he was able to find his way into the tunnels below Rosewood (the same pit that Kara and Ulic had used when they first went there).
It was about that time that Ulic's amulet "ping'd" and set Sabah on guard.
She assumed a defensive posture and approached the hallway while Trinity and Hec enjoyed "brain over brawn." Ulic was ill from trying the stuff.
After some quick searching of the nearby tunnels, Rellon discovered an ancient armory where everything was marked with elemental runes. As a researcher, this tickled him in a powerful way.
Sabah and Ulic decided they might want to seek out the mage that triggered the charm, so made their way slowly through the tunnels.
After some bungling about on both parts, Sabah and Ulic located Rellon and Sabah attempted to sneak up on him.
Rellon, however, has unusually keen ears and heard the approaching priest. With the snap of his fingers, he produced the sound of a rattlesnake near her feet, freezing her in place.
Rellon took advantage of the situation to knock over a table and take cover.
However, it turned out that such movement triggered some sort of elemental windstorm in the chamber, snuffing out all light sources and making it hard to hear.
At this point, Ulic cried out "I think I know him..." and the player's cell phone indicated a text message with two silenced pistol reports. Much laughter ensued.
After settling down, Ulic and Rellon confirmed each other's identities and the party gathered once more.
Together, they looked about the room for anything interesting or important.
And, in a stack of odds and ends, Rellon found a shortsword that was strangely clean.
He wrapped and stowed it and the party moved onward.
This room had several entrances, and they tried one of the doors.
Sabah heard something on the other side and warned everyone, getting them into combat positions.
Without warning, she kicked the door in.
And it bounced back from something.
With another kick, it was revealed that the room beyond was full of zombies.
Thankfully, Sabah's Channel Divinity feature was ramped up at this point and could destroy any undead of CR 1/2 or less. And so, only one zombie (an ogre) was left in the room.
And it failed its saving throw.
It made a very hasty retreat toward some stairs that it stumbled down and promptly went to pieces under.
As Sabah torched its remains, the other party members examined the room.
It was a way-shrine to the traveler god Fharlanghn.
But, the question was asked, what was it doing here?
With this mystery ever-building, the party headed downstairs.
And discovered a large summoning seal in the floor of the first chamber.
With a little remembering legends and lore, they discovered that this was part of a long-lost labyrinth complex described in some passages of Old One literature.
And it was hiding under Rosewood the entire time.
With a little wandering, they mapped out a good chunk of the southern portion of the map.
There, they found a chamber for guards to rest in and a place where they stored their food.
While passing through the storage room, Ulic set off a trap that launched two walls at each other.
Thankfully, his checkered past prepared him to jump out of the way.
With a few minutes of work, he was able to dismantle the trigger to prevent any further trouble.
Beyond this, they saw a strange sight - a shrine. It was apparent that this was not part of the original construction.
Shortly after entering, Sabah approached the alter, knelt down, and said softly "so, this is where I died..."
It turned out that a ghost was residing in this room and possessed Sabah to communicate with the party.
During a rather pleasant conversation, the party learned that this was the ghost of Arroh Hartsight, a member of one of the races they call the Old Ones. She was once a huntress, but became the high priestess of the god Trykus (knowledge and light, symbol is an open tome with a scepter along the spine). And, much like the party, she was unsure as to how she got to where she was presently.
Rellon decided to see if Arroh could recognize the summoning seal in the other room, and so led Sabah/Arroh to the door.
Where the two promptly separated, with Arroh's form floating in the doorway.
At this point, one of the ghost's natural defenses kicked in and everyone had to make a Charisma save to avoid being frightened.
Sabah and Rellon were fine, Trinity and Hec were frightened.
But Ulic got hit the hardest. Having failed his save by more than 5, he also aged 40 years, making him go from his youth to middle age in the blink of an eye.
Arroh did not expect that happen and apologized immediately.
With short order, however, her specter vanished from sight.
With some puzzling over the situation, Rellon decided to become a willing vessel for Arroh.
While the two were connected, they did a very high-speed information exchange. Rellon ended up converting to the faith of Trykus in that time.
Then the joined-souls struck upon a plan.
Using his conjuration ability, Rellon created a holy symbol of Trykus to act as a focus for his beliefs.
The theory was that this would allow Arroh's spirit to leave her final resting place.
So, with a deep breath, they crossed the threshold...
And it worked!
Now free of the shrine, the group went back to the summoning seal and let Arroh analyze it.
Unfortunately, she knew nothing of it.
With their new ghostly companion, the party returned to Rosewood to try to establish a more permanent abode for Arroh and restore Ulic's youth.
And that's what happened.
Lots of fun for everyone, like I said.
But what sort of strangeness is going on in the tunnels below Rosewood?
Tune in next time to see what happens!
Until then - roll the bones :)
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Praerus D&D 5e Campaign Notes, Session 7: Back in Black
Hello, dear readers!
This week's update on the campaign is coming just a touch late due to not having my notebook with me at work.
Better now then not at all, though :)
This time, our characters included Ulic, Sabah, and Trinity from the earlier arc.
Eos has been retired for the time being and replaced by a character named Hecatonchires, a half-orc barbarian/fighter/warlock who has a thing for hands (his name means "hundred handed one," btw).
We lost one player from the game, and another one is out of town for the next few sessions, so his character will be introduced then.
------------------------
To begin, Ulic had just returned to the Arcanum and was told, almost immediately, to go back to Rosewood. A highly important prophecy was hiding in the caves below the town and it was imperative that he recover it.
Ulic set off and arrived in Rosewood at the same time as Bloodbane's caravan palace.
After Trinity finished making her potions, she decided to pursue the criminal syndicates of Rosewood.
Not to stop them.
To force them to follow her.
She tried intimidating someone for information.
Long story short, she wound up in jail.
And stayed there for most of the session.
Ulic, having an idea as to who might help him in his quest, decided to head towards the pub.
Sabah, who had spent the night getting all sorts of plastered, decided to head into town herself.
Along the way, the two crossed paths and continued to the pub, where Ulic told both Sabah and Angus that he needed some assistance for a trip back into the caves.
They both agreed to help. Angus gave the pair a list of names of militia members and other townsfolk that would be most likely to help out.
First on the list: a half-orc named Hecatonchires.
Before leaving, though, Sabah noticed a fellow cleric that was proselytizing about turning "away from the light."
If you recall, she is a follow of Pholtus, a god of the sun and light on Praerus.
With some quick words, she was able to remind the folk listening of the folly of trafficking with shadows and told the cad to leave. He obliged.
With that taken care of, they decided to try to locate the half-orc hermit.
At this point in the day, he had been trading and partying with the caravansary and was well past "illuminated."
When the other two found him, he was playing a beautiful glass drum in the glassblower's tent.
After some one-sided conversation (he replied with drum playing), Hecatonchires was on board.
And then the obligatory party scene was had.
And Trinity was still (blessedly) in jail.
The next day, Sabah woke in jail with Trinity.
Hecatonchires was alone in a tent in the caravan.
And Ulic had wound up spending his night with Sonata, the master glass blower.
With a little bit of asking around, the party reunited at the jail.
The guard was leery of letting Trinity out, but decided that the others would keep an eye on her.
When he was giving them their confiscated items back, Sabah's holy symbol was strangely missing. He told them that it hadn't been with her the night before.
With a quick search of the caravan, they found it laying face-up in the middle of the road.
When Sabah looked it over, she saw that someone had scrawled "I am Watching" on the back.
She didn't want those words blaspheming her holy symbol, so she asked Hecatonchires to fix it.
He wrote his own name under the words.
After this slight break in tension, the party gathered their remaining supplies and departed for the caves once more.
In the entrance, they passed by some goblins that were quite clearly three sheets to the wind and headed for the caravan to continue the party.
At this point, Ulic finished describing to the party why they had to return to the caves.
Thus, they climbed back into the pits. (Though, thinking on it now, why didn't they ask any goblins for a hint of the prophecy's location?)
At the bottom, they got their bearings straightened out and headed for a tunnel they hadn't explored previously.
This path led to some over large mushrooms that were blocking some sort of mining office.
Before anyone could fall for the clever trap, someone noticed that green slime was growing in the same area as the mushrooms.
With a call to her god, Sabah channeled daylight into the area and cleared the slime away, thus freeing them to proceed.
Unfortunately, the room was largely deserted.
Undaunted, the party returned to the labyrinth and chose the fork opposite the last one.
Here, they found the remains of a kitchen that was being used by the goblins during their campaign against the warforged of the area.
Having been at this for some time, the party decided that some refreshment was in order.
Hecatonchires, being the cook, went back to the mushrooms to wrangle some up for flavor's sake.
Ulic decided to scout ahead in the tunnels.
Trinity wanted to work with some acid she had gathered from the green slime so as to - you guessed it - weaponize it.
And Sabah decided to investigate the kitchen a little.
Not much happened for the rest of the party, but Sabah thought she saw shadows moving in the corner of her eye in the kitchen.
She approached, flames at the ready.
And then she was picked up from the floor.
A grell had been floating about, waiting for just such an opportunity.
Unfortunately for it, Sabah wasn't paralyzed and a scuffle ensued.
The grell tried floating away with her, but Trinity was able to jump up and join combat (though, only because she had reached a stopping point in her research...)
Trinity tried to throw her magic spear at the thing, but it missed by a wide margin.
Sabah was able to burn it and set herself free.
Around this time, Ulic and Hec heard the noises of combat and decided to investigate.
With some quick thinking, Ulic used his wand to create a web that caught the grell.
Sabah, knowing that these particular webs are flammable, was delighted.
The webs, now aflame, did nothing to keep Trinity from jumping onto the thing and trying to club it to death.
And that's how this particular grell died: screaming and burning.
Now, properly roasted grell in hand, Hec took the party back to the kitchen to make his famous "Brain over Brawn" dish. Whatever that might be...
And that's where we left off.
We should meeting Sunday assuming that nothing major happens in real life.
Until then, may the dice fall in your favor :)
This week's update on the campaign is coming just a touch late due to not having my notebook with me at work.
Better now then not at all, though :)
This time, our characters included Ulic, Sabah, and Trinity from the earlier arc.
Eos has been retired for the time being and replaced by a character named Hecatonchires, a half-orc barbarian/fighter/warlock who has a thing for hands (his name means "hundred handed one," btw).
We lost one player from the game, and another one is out of town for the next few sessions, so his character will be introduced then.
------------------------
To begin, Ulic had just returned to the Arcanum and was told, almost immediately, to go back to Rosewood. A highly important prophecy was hiding in the caves below the town and it was imperative that he recover it.
Ulic set off and arrived in Rosewood at the same time as Bloodbane's caravan palace.
After Trinity finished making her potions, she decided to pursue the criminal syndicates of Rosewood.
Not to stop them.
To force them to follow her.
She tried intimidating someone for information.
Long story short, she wound up in jail.
And stayed there for most of the session.
Ulic, having an idea as to who might help him in his quest, decided to head towards the pub.
Sabah, who had spent the night getting all sorts of plastered, decided to head into town herself.
Along the way, the two crossed paths and continued to the pub, where Ulic told both Sabah and Angus that he needed some assistance for a trip back into the caves.
They both agreed to help. Angus gave the pair a list of names of militia members and other townsfolk that would be most likely to help out.
First on the list: a half-orc named Hecatonchires.
Before leaving, though, Sabah noticed a fellow cleric that was proselytizing about turning "away from the light."
If you recall, she is a follow of Pholtus, a god of the sun and light on Praerus.
With some quick words, she was able to remind the folk listening of the folly of trafficking with shadows and told the cad to leave. He obliged.
With that taken care of, they decided to try to locate the half-orc hermit.
At this point in the day, he had been trading and partying with the caravansary and was well past "illuminated."
When the other two found him, he was playing a beautiful glass drum in the glassblower's tent.
After some one-sided conversation (he replied with drum playing), Hecatonchires was on board.
And then the obligatory party scene was had.
And Trinity was still (blessedly) in jail.
The next day, Sabah woke in jail with Trinity.
Hecatonchires was alone in a tent in the caravan.
And Ulic had wound up spending his night with Sonata, the master glass blower.
With a little bit of asking around, the party reunited at the jail.
The guard was leery of letting Trinity out, but decided that the others would keep an eye on her.
When he was giving them their confiscated items back, Sabah's holy symbol was strangely missing. He told them that it hadn't been with her the night before.
With a quick search of the caravan, they found it laying face-up in the middle of the road.
When Sabah looked it over, she saw that someone had scrawled "I am Watching" on the back.
She didn't want those words blaspheming her holy symbol, so she asked Hecatonchires to fix it.
He wrote his own name under the words.
After this slight break in tension, the party gathered their remaining supplies and departed for the caves once more.
In the entrance, they passed by some goblins that were quite clearly three sheets to the wind and headed for the caravan to continue the party.
At this point, Ulic finished describing to the party why they had to return to the caves.
Thus, they climbed back into the pits. (Though, thinking on it now, why didn't they ask any goblins for a hint of the prophecy's location?)
At the bottom, they got their bearings straightened out and headed for a tunnel they hadn't explored previously.
This path led to some over large mushrooms that were blocking some sort of mining office.
Before anyone could fall for the clever trap, someone noticed that green slime was growing in the same area as the mushrooms.
With a call to her god, Sabah channeled daylight into the area and cleared the slime away, thus freeing them to proceed.
Unfortunately, the room was largely deserted.
Undaunted, the party returned to the labyrinth and chose the fork opposite the last one.
Here, they found the remains of a kitchen that was being used by the goblins during their campaign against the warforged of the area.
Having been at this for some time, the party decided that some refreshment was in order.
Hecatonchires, being the cook, went back to the mushrooms to wrangle some up for flavor's sake.
Ulic decided to scout ahead in the tunnels.
Trinity wanted to work with some acid she had gathered from the green slime so as to - you guessed it - weaponize it.
And Sabah decided to investigate the kitchen a little.
Not much happened for the rest of the party, but Sabah thought she saw shadows moving in the corner of her eye in the kitchen.
She approached, flames at the ready.
And then she was picked up from the floor.
A grell had been floating about, waiting for just such an opportunity.
Unfortunately for it, Sabah wasn't paralyzed and a scuffle ensued.
The grell tried floating away with her, but Trinity was able to jump up and join combat (though, only because she had reached a stopping point in her research...)
Trinity tried to throw her magic spear at the thing, but it missed by a wide margin.
Sabah was able to burn it and set herself free.
Around this time, Ulic and Hec heard the noises of combat and decided to investigate.
With some quick thinking, Ulic used his wand to create a web that caught the grell.
Sabah, knowing that these particular webs are flammable, was delighted.
The webs, now aflame, did nothing to keep Trinity from jumping onto the thing and trying to club it to death.
And that's how this particular grell died: screaming and burning.
Now, properly roasted grell in hand, Hec took the party back to the kitchen to make his famous "Brain over Brawn" dish. Whatever that might be...
And that's where we left off.
We should meeting Sunday assuming that nothing major happens in real life.
Until then, may the dice fall in your favor :)
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
Praerus D&D 5e Campaign Notes, Session 6: Anal Beads of the Underdark
First, I'd like to apologize to anyone that this slightly-immature post title offends. My players wanted it this way, and it is strangely story related.
Secondly, I'd like to apologize to anyone that had to Google what anal beads are.
Now, to get on with the show!
Our players this week were Saito, Sabah, Trinity, and a-slew-of-NPCs-because-no-one-else-was-able-to-make-it.
-------------------
To begin, the party had just defeated the warforged and were taking a rest.
At the same time, Saito had recovered from being ill and asked the flumphs for directions to his allies. They were more than happy to oblige.
Saito arrived in the room that the spectator was guarding and did his damnedest to convince it to allow him to pass, but it wasn't having any.
Then Trinity showed up and tried to help, leading to both of them being locked out.
Thankfully, the rest of the party had finished patching their wounds and decided to exit the forge chamber.
Reunited at this point, the party decided to try to get more answers from the beholder about who arrived, when they left, and if they took anything. From this, the learned that:
Secondly, I'd like to apologize to anyone that had to Google what anal beads are.
Now, to get on with the show!
Our players this week were Saito, Sabah, Trinity, and a-slew-of-NPCs-because-no-one-else-was-able-to-make-it.
-------------------
To begin, the party had just defeated the warforged and were taking a rest.
At the same time, Saito had recovered from being ill and asked the flumphs for directions to his allies. They were more than happy to oblige.
Saito arrived in the room that the spectator was guarding and did his damnedest to convince it to allow him to pass, but it wasn't having any.
Then Trinity showed up and tried to help, leading to both of them being locked out.
Thankfully, the rest of the party had finished patching their wounds and decided to exit the forge chamber.
Reunited at this point, the party decided to try to get more answers from the beholder about who arrived, when they left, and if they took anything. From this, the learned that:
- the intruder was a friend, yet not a friend, to Vecna
- they killed the second spectator that was down there (hence the gas spore)
- they had arrived about two zemf (14 days or so) ago
- they left with some warforged, one of which was exceptionally large
After that hullabaloo, the party decided to head back into the tunnels.
But not before Trinity gave the parting shot "Screw Vecna!" and flipped the beholder off.
It became irritated, but neither of its eye-beams affected her before they rounded the corner.
Lucky for her, the spectator had to guard that chamber.
Once again in the branching tunnels of this world's equivalent of the Underdark, the party decided to try the tunnel directly across from themselves.
Down that path, they discovered a chamber with a single stalactite.
Not wanting a repeat incident with darkmantles, Trinity threw an arm from one of the warforged at the thing.
And it broke.
Because sometimes a stalactite is just a stalactite.
It was at this point that Saito's ears started to bleed.
Hazmi, resident necromancer and medicine student, gave him a one over and recognized this as signs of an oncoming madness that tended to befall those that stayed underground too long.
Saito was slightly worried, but bandaged his ears and soldiered on.
With a little bit of snooping, the party found that there was a narrow tunnel in the back of this chamber. Everyone could fit, but they would have to crawl through.
Ever the brave one, Trinity decided to head in first.
Sabah was close behind.
Saito saw Hazmi's nose turn into a carrot.
Saito saw Hazmi's nose turn into a carrot.
Once Trinity finished the crawl, everything went black.
Because sometimes darkmantles ambush their prey.
To make matters worse, the thing used its darkness aura, leaving Sabah in the dark too.
Thankfully, they were able to alert Saito that something was wrong.
Thinking quickly, he secured a rope to himself and crawled the tunnel, his plan to drag the other two back with him.
Trinity successfully removed the darkmantle from her head, but was still in pitch blackness.
However, she lost dear Squidsy in the exchange. Truly tragic.
However, she lost dear Squidsy in the exchange. Truly tragic.
This is when the anal bead reference becomes relevant.
Sabah grabbed Trinity and Saito grabbed Sabah.
He then gave the signal to pull.
Sabah didn't duck in time and knocked herself silly, but Trinity was able to contort herself quickly for removal.
The whole effect... well... yeah.
Anyway, thus extricated, the party healed Sabah and began lobbing spells down the tunnel.
Eventually, the darkness aura stopped.
The thing was dead!
But no one, not even the vindictive Trinity, wanted to return down the tunnel.
Thus, they tried another branch from earlier.
It was around this time that Sabah noticed that everyone's faces appeared to be covered in bark, thanks to her traumatic head injury and the curse of the tunnels.
Saito also noticed that everyone's faces had become similar to those of anthropomorphic snow people. Carrot noses, coal eyes - the works.
It was around this time that Sabah noticed that everyone's faces appeared to be covered in bark, thanks to her traumatic head injury and the curse of the tunnels.
Saito also noticed that everyone's faces had become similar to those of anthropomorphic snow people. Carrot noses, coal eyes - the works.
This branch led them to an ancient chamber that appeared to be a place where the dead were prepared for burial. Several slabs still had bodies on them.
"Fool me once" thought Sabah, who used turn undead.
The three skeletons in the room failed their saves and went screaming from the room.
Now properly secured, the party searched the room.
Not much was found here, though they did discover two paths leading down, further into the darkness.
Also, Trinity replaced Squidsy with Baelzabone, a tiefling skull from one of the slabs.
And the madness of the underworld made it speak to her.
Also, Trinity replaced Squidsy with Baelzabone, a tiefling skull from one of the slabs.
And the madness of the underworld made it speak to her.
A collective "yeah, no" later and they were back in town.
We then engaged in down time activities for one week worth of time.
The goblins came to make peace with the village during that time, which was well received by all.
Sabah researched more about Vecna.
Saito researched more about the making of the warforged in the temple.
Trinity made some perfume and came out slightly ahead in selling them.
And then the caravan palace arrived...
And then the caravan palace arrived...
And that concludes the first adventure for this campaign.
Pretty amusing overall.
At this point, I've given the players the option to start new characters if they so desire, or they can continue on with the same folk for the next part. So far, only Saito seems like he'll be out of the running, but we shall see.
Either way, we are advancing past 3rd level and we will pick back up at 4th level.
It is still in the air as to whether or not we will have our weekly meet-up on Sunday. It seems rather shaky, however, given that Saturday is the 4th.
On that note, I hope everyone has a happy and safe Independence Day!
Until next time, may the dice fall in your favor :D
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Praerus D&D 5e Campaign Notes, Session 5
Hello, lovely readers!
This last weekend's gaming session was remarkably brief-seeming. Some folks had some car trouble, so we had a late start. We played some Adventure Time Munchkin to pass the time (Trinity was closest to 10 when we stopped).
Then, once we actually got started, we had a difficult time staying focused (I recorded the audio of the session to use for these notes, and they ran around 140 minutes; we only advanced something like 20 minutes in game time).
For this week, every PC except Saito was present.
----------
Last time, the heroes had just encountered Juju, the flumph, and were headed to his little hole in the tunnels below the caves.
Once they entered "Flumphy Town," as it is now called, Trinity buried herself in flumphs and Squidsy confirmed her location for the rest of the party.
Saito took ill from the spores that he had inhaled in the other room and began retching. The flumphs told the party they would take care of him.
Around the time that he took sick, Cara, Ulic, and Trinity all began to have strange feelings in their heads.
The party, sans Saito, then returned to the main chamber and began discussing how to proceed - explore the remaining tunnel, return to the "warforged fun room" and see what else might be hidden there, or charge headlong at whatever remained in the "scary tunnel."
First, they had Hazmi cast light on a stone and throw it down the "falling rocks" tunnel.
To discover that the rocks had already fallen.
The tunnel was choked with boulders and rubble, blocking the path further down.
Next, they decided to return to the "warforged fun room" to see what might remain there.
Ulic used his divine sense feature - and found that the only thing he could detect there was himself.
Eos checked for traps - and found nothing.
Cara looked around for identifying marks - and found nothing.
Then the looting began.
Several PCs walked away with some coinage, and Ulic discovered a carved horn wand of some sort.
Which Trinity desperately wanted.
After smashing the fountain in frustration, Ulic decided she could hang on to the wand for a little while if she promised to not be so smash happy.
And she agreed.
And carried through on the agreement.
She also said the incredibly innuendo-y "Trinity expects more bones" when I brought up the subject of giving her too many nice things. Some laughs.
Happily sated on their looting, the party returned to the room that was filled with fungi.
One of the shriekers cried out, and Ulic allowed Trinity a temporary grace period on her vow of non-smashing.
A rousing game of "Wack a Mold" ensued.
Once that was done, and the party couldn't find anything else in the room, they continued on into the tunnel opposite the one they had entered.
Cara, Trinity, and Ulic experienced a strange phenomenon at this point: as if in a dream, they saw a blurry humanoid figure approach them and attack. They were only slightly unsettled by this, as Cara explained it was probably due to the spores they had inhaled earlier.
This next room was smaller than the last, and something was floating just beyond their light.
Those with darkvision, however, saw what it was: a true beholder.
To be specific, a spectator.
Ulic knew from experience that these monsters weren't necessarily hostile, though they would guard something until their death.
So, the party approached it.
Several members were shocked that it could speak to them.
Ulic decided to act on his knowledge and asked it what it was guarding.
And what a great question to ask a spectator, a type of magical guardian that just loves to talk about that kind of thing.
It revealed to them that it was guarding a secret for Vecna (whose holy symbol was on the scary warforged) and could only allow followers of that deity to pass it.
This sparked several different things:
This last weekend's gaming session was remarkably brief-seeming. Some folks had some car trouble, so we had a late start. We played some Adventure Time Munchkin to pass the time (Trinity was closest to 10 when we stopped).
Then, once we actually got started, we had a difficult time staying focused (I recorded the audio of the session to use for these notes, and they ran around 140 minutes; we only advanced something like 20 minutes in game time).
For this week, every PC except Saito was present.
----------
Last time, the heroes had just encountered Juju, the flumph, and were headed to his little hole in the tunnels below the caves.
Once they entered "Flumphy Town," as it is now called, Trinity buried herself in flumphs and Squidsy confirmed her location for the rest of the party.
Saito took ill from the spores that he had inhaled in the other room and began retching. The flumphs told the party they would take care of him.
Around the time that he took sick, Cara, Ulic, and Trinity all began to have strange feelings in their heads.
The party, sans Saito, then returned to the main chamber and began discussing how to proceed - explore the remaining tunnel, return to the "warforged fun room" and see what else might be hidden there, or charge headlong at whatever remained in the "scary tunnel."
First, they had Hazmi cast light on a stone and throw it down the "falling rocks" tunnel.
To discover that the rocks had already fallen.
The tunnel was choked with boulders and rubble, blocking the path further down.
Next, they decided to return to the "warforged fun room" to see what might remain there.
Ulic used his divine sense feature - and found that the only thing he could detect there was himself.
Eos checked for traps - and found nothing.
Cara looked around for identifying marks - and found nothing.
Then the looting began.
Several PCs walked away with some coinage, and Ulic discovered a carved horn wand of some sort.
Which Trinity desperately wanted.
After smashing the fountain in frustration, Ulic decided she could hang on to the wand for a little while if she promised to not be so smash happy.
And she agreed.
And carried through on the agreement.
She also said the incredibly innuendo-y "Trinity expects more bones" when I brought up the subject of giving her too many nice things. Some laughs.
Happily sated on their looting, the party returned to the room that was filled with fungi.
One of the shriekers cried out, and Ulic allowed Trinity a temporary grace period on her vow of non-smashing.
A rousing game of "Wack a Mold" ensued.
Once that was done, and the party couldn't find anything else in the room, they continued on into the tunnel opposite the one they had entered.
Cara, Trinity, and Ulic experienced a strange phenomenon at this point: as if in a dream, they saw a blurry humanoid figure approach them and attack. They were only slightly unsettled by this, as Cara explained it was probably due to the spores they had inhaled earlier.
This next room was smaller than the last, and something was floating just beyond their light.
Those with darkvision, however, saw what it was: a true beholder.
To be specific, a spectator.
Ulic knew from experience that these monsters weren't necessarily hostile, though they would guard something until their death.
So, the party approached it.
Several members were shocked that it could speak to them.
Ulic decided to act on his knowledge and asked it what it was guarding.
And what a great question to ask a spectator, a type of magical guardian that just loves to talk about that kind of thing.
It revealed to them that it was guarding a secret for Vecna (whose holy symbol was on the scary warforged) and could only allow followers of that deity to pass it.
This sparked several different things:
- The party asked when the last time a follower of Vecna came through here was, and it told them it was about a week ago
- They said that couldn't be true, as that faith was wiped out ages ago
- The spectator described to them a person that matched the vision that Cara, Ulic, and Trinity had had
- Trinity got the bright idea to impersonate a follower of Vecna to try to pass, but failed to convince the spectator. This was probably due to the holy symbol of Beory emblazoned on her head
- Then Cara decided to do something truly clever: she used her fey presence feature to charm the spectator, then used persuasion to let them pass - and it went for it!
With that bit of good luck under their belts, they proceeded into the next, and final, chamber.
In here, they found what amounts to a "warforged birthing chamber" with nine alcoves, only three of which were currently occupied.
The room was in pristine condition, despite the general ruin of the rest of the temple.
After discussing their options and asking me SEVERAL questions, Trinity decided to try two things:
First, she would climb into one of the charging stations to see what would happen.
She made a Constitution saving throw and... nothing happened. Because nothing would have happened. There was a deliciously tense moment when she rolled the die though :)
Next, she wanted to try to evict one of the warforged and hope that it imprinted to her like a duckling.
With Hazmi and Ulic ready to tie it up when she pulled it out, she let loose.
The party was able to secure it quickly, but then things turned ugly.
The other two warforged had awoken, and the third began to strain against its ropes.
Eos, who had been hidden, had readied his action to attack anything hostile that might have moved. His sneak attack hit and dealt good damage to one of the machines.
Sabah likewise had prepared an action, flinging fire at the warforged in the ropes. Her spell, however, shed off its metallic hide like water on a duck's back.
Then combat began in earnest.
The fighting was brutal. Both Sabah and Hazmi retreated into the hallway: Hazmi because of his personality, Sabah because she was being beaten savagely.
Eos and Cara were having a hard time hitting the warforged, rapier and spells glancing off their metal hide.
Ulic, however, was able to deal the most damage to them, using his claymore to slay one and then greatly cripple the other two.
Hazmi's expended all of his spell slots to cast magic missiles, but the damage he dealt was probably critical in the party's survival.
At one point, Trinity decided to punch a warforged for NO. APPARENT. REASON (To put this into perspective, her unarmed strikes deal 4 damage, while her warhammer deals ~8 damage). However, she did score a critical with the hit, so that was worth a laugh at least.
At one point, Cara was knocked unconscious and Sabah ran to her rescue. However, she was knocked out in turn just after stabilizing her friend.
After several turns of brutal, agonizing combat, the party prevailed. Cara was stable but unconscious, and Sabah required medical attention to avoid slipping closer to death.
The party decided to take a rest here to refresh their spirits, splint broken bones, and prepare to trek back to the spectator.
During the rest, Trinity found a +1 spear that was hiding in an alcove, and Ulic identified his wand as a wand of web that he then attuned himself to.
And that is how the fifth session ended.
Actually, looking at it, there really was quite a bit covered.
Now, for our next trick: how are we going to reunite the party with a beholder in the way?
Later this week, I'll add another link to the psionics update project.
Until then, may the dice fall in your favor :)
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Praerus D&D 5e Campaign Notes, Session 4: The Great Hand War
Greetings, one and all!
Today, we have a real treat for you. And, if you thought that the third session was insane, then you'll be blown away by the things that happened during the fourth one!
This session included returning cast members Hazmi, Trinity, Saito, Sabah, and Eos, and introduced the tiefling paladin Ulic and the human fae warlock Cara.
Prepare yourselves for a long one.
---------------
When last we left off, the party was at the bottom of the great chasm in the cave, having just been "volun-told" to take care of the warforged problem for the goblins.
It was then that the party realized that they were in the presence of a goblin: Haa the Tall.
A long discussion of what to do with him ensued. Some party members wanted to slay and/or torch him, while the majority thought that restraining him and leaving him at the bottom of the chasm for their return would work better.
Then Haa spoke, and everyone discovered that Eos is a changeling.
With this new fact brought to light, the party started to discuss their options: leave the tunnels and have the goblins fight their own war, or carry through with their plans to destroy the warforged. The debate went on for some time, and someone (I can't remember who currently, but quite probably Saito) used the line "That's fine - we'll be dead!" when the thought of what might happen to Rosewood if they failed was brought up. Finally, the consensus reached was to delve deeper and crush the metal menace once and for all.
Sabah decided to do some scouting while the party figured out what tunnel they wanted to travel down. She discovered several branches ahead, as the natural caverns at this point were labyrinthine. When she joined back to the group, they decided to venture forth on a nearly-straight course.
At the juncture that Sabah had left off her reconnaissance, they had to once again decide which path to take. Saito tried listening down the tunnels to help aid the decision making process, but all he could hear was Hazmi breathing heavily in his ear. (More on this later.)
And, as Javier had done the day before, Sabah thought that decision making by using spells would be a good choice.
She lobbed a fireball from her produce flame spell down a tunnel, and...
Struck a freaking carrion crawler.
Combat ensued. Obviously.
Meanwhile, Cara and Ulic had just fallen down a steep hole that dropped them in a tunnel adjacent to the party. More on that later.
The crawler climbed up a nearby wall and was making attempts to attack the party from that vantage.
Thankfully, Eos had become hidden earlier. He fired an arrow using his sneak attack and scored a very solid hit.
Then, Trinity mulled over a choice to throw her hammers or to try to leap to the thing. Finally, she settled on a called shot (house rule: disadvantage on the attack roll, but can roll damage twice and use better result) against the things legs, hoping to knock it down. Remarkably, she hit with both hammers and knocked the bug from the ceiling.
Hearing the sounds of combat, Ulic and Cara approached, weapons drawn.
Saito saw his opportunity and charged in, swinging both of his swords. The crawler was able to strike with its tentacles, but Saito's elemental metabolism protected him from the poison. Thus engaged, he slashed and hacked at the beast's hide.
Hazmi's turn came and he used his highly reliable ray of frost cantrip. But missed!
Sabah was next, and still had flames from her cantrip to lob. She threw one and dealt nearly minimal damage. Such is the fickle roll of the dice.
The carrion crawler was next to act, and continued its assault against Saito. However, with his keen reflexes, he was able to dodge the tentacles and avoid the thing's maw.
Unfortunately, combat became slightly distracted at this point, as Trinity really really reallllllly wanted to try something, but there was no way that Eos couldn't kill the crawler during his turn.
Eventually, Eos decided to use the Hide action and try for another sneak attack if the need arose.
Trinity then charged the thing and was bit. However, she succeeded at the (athletics) check to grapple the beast and leapt on to its back, resulting in an impromptu rodeo.
It was this moment when Cara and Ulic arrived, weapons at the ready. They saw the group surrounding the carrion crawler, the warforged riding it. Great first impression material.
Saito finished the thing with a piercing stab through its brain, ending Trinity's joy ride.
The party and the strange newcomers had a quick chat as to why each was down in the tunnel: the party was seeking to end the warforged threat, and the others had been sent on an archaeological expedition.
It was then that Trinity had her most shining moment yet: she remembered the piece of warforged "skull" that they had gathered, and asked the researcher what she could make of it.
Looking it over, Cara recognized the original holy symbol as having belonged to the death cults of Nerull, a god long-dead from the Reckoning Wars. Specifically, she said that the symbol was "old as balls." Which was met with many a guffaw.
I believe there was a statement of the warforged posing a true threat, to which (I believe it was) Trinity responded "They won't for long." So blood (oil?) thirsty that one (I really need to take better notes for my quotes).
The now fully-assembled party took a short rest to exchange notes and patch their wounds.
Eos has remained hidden this entire time and has change his appearance, as a bit of trivia.
When the party started to leave and Trinity called to Eos that they were doing so, Ulic began to wonder about her sanity. A brief explanation that Eos was in fact not imaginary helped put him at ease.
As they traveled back the way that they had come from, they passed a room that had a single stalactite (that wasn't there before, but no one bothers to remember what the DM says).
It was then that the party heard someone fall behind them.
Turning, they found a darkmantle wrapped around Eos' head. It had dropped him to 0 hit points with a critical hit. In short order, they slew the thing, pulled it from his head, and forced a healing potion down his throat. No death saving throws needed.
It also is important to note that Eos had taken on the appearance of a tiefling, thereby giving the phrase "social chameleon" a whole new meaning.
Trinity, gods bless her, decided to turn the darkmantle's corpse into a hand puppet, much to Sabah's chagrin. Thus was born Squidsy.
There was a bit of discussion as to how this would affect her efficacy as a warrior and why she would even bother to do it. Eos put a rather fine point on the matter: "I have a goblin vertebra with me so that I can make a sheath out of the bones of my fallen foes. A darkmantle hand puppet is just fine!" This may have been brought on in a spat of vindictiveness, but was pretty justifiable just the same.
Eos then had a bright idea and took Ulic aside, splitting the party temporarily. They went back to the carrion crawler and he harvested some of its tentacle venom to use at a later time. In short order, the group was reunited and on the move once more.
This time, they backtracked a short distance and took another path in a fork that they had previously ignored. Saito tried again to listen for signs of imminent threats, but was thwarted once more by Hazmi's heavy breathing. After a good laugh, they then chose their path.
Their current trail led them to a vast chamber that was quite obviously built rather than naturally formed.
The wall to their left had the ruins of four statues lined along it, the floor had a moldy, threadbare carpet leading to the opposite wall. The whole thing had the feeling of a grand temple.
Trinity, the eternal instigator, decided she wanted to charge the first statue and knock it into the others.
Eos' cry to hold fell on selective robotic ears.
Thankfully, Trinity's Strength check wasn't quite good enough to knock the thing over.
However, she did trigger an ancient spear trap and narrowly missed getting impaled by it.
Now, with more caution, the party proceeded towards the far wall. No traps were found, but the other wall held four different tunnels, each marked with goblin script.
Until this time, the party had had no means to read such things.
Then Cara came along, actually able to read the marks that the goblins had left.
The tunnels were marked (left to right) "floating jellyfish things," "falling rocks," "I don't know," and "scary things."
The party was at a loss as to how to proceed exactly. They didn't think that the first two tunnels would be worth a look, and that the "scary things" were probably what they were after.
One last time, Saito decided to listen to the tunnels. This time, however, he made sure to have Hazmi standing a good ten feet away. And actually heard some motion down one of the tunnels! (This may turn into some sort of running gag, by the way. I apologize in advance.)
Eos decided to scout ahead to the "I don't know" room and see what had confused the goblins.
Inside, he found a fountain that hadn't been running in untold years and mounds of dead humanoids. The bodies were aged beyond recognition in many instances, but were much more recent than the structure they were stored in. Quietly, he returned to the party.
Then he said the greatest thing he could have said: "It's a warforged fun room."
That was all Trinity needed. She charged in and threw a stone at the bodies to make sure they were dead.
Then almost every single corpse hand detached from its body and began to chase her.
The party saw her swiftly approaching, then Eos and Saito hatched a brilliant plan: they would lure the hands down the "scary things" tunnel and then use Saito's pass without trace ability, turn off the magical lights they carried to vanish, and hurl a lit torch into the room, thereby siccing the hands on whatever else was down the hall.
And the plan worked! (The +10 to [stealth] checks made it so that the only way to fail against the claws' passive perception was to roll a 1. No one did.)
The other room was filled with shriekers, violet fungus, and a single gas spore (which, sadly, Cara identified).
But none of that mattered.
"The Great Hand War" had begun.
The claws and fungi clashed, slaying each other in a glorious display of player ingenuity the likes of which I have never seen.
The gas spore exploded, taking many hands out with it.
Fungi died, hands were destroyed.
Utter madness.
Eventually, the dust settled, but the party remained hidden, knowing that the cries of the shriekers would lure something to the room.
And, sure as the rain falls, something did arrive.
A lone flumph.
The party members signaled to each other to remain quiet, but the flumph was able to pick up on some of their thoughts.
Once it was obvious it posed no threat to the party, Cara, Trinity, and Ulic approached it and inhaled some spores.
The flumph revealed that it was called Juju, and most everyone instantly like him.
After some discussion about the nature of what may lay further down the tunnel, it was decided that Juju would bring the party to what is now notoriously called "Flumphy Town" to allow them to rest.
Trinity, gods bless her, instantly turned from savage killer to docile kitten when she started interacting with Juju. She now has plans to make a snuggle pile of flumphs.
And that is where we ended the session: being taken down to Flumphy Town.
As all DMs know, things get strange when players get involved with your best laid plans.
Two encounters mashed into a single, psychotic, improbable mishap that lead to what is probably going to be one of my favorite gaming stories for years to come.
I once read somewhere that a DM should be a fan of the PCs. And after that display of incredible, insane, dumb luck, I can't help but cheer these affable murderhobos on.
Until next time, may the dice fall in your favor :)
Today, we have a real treat for you. And, if you thought that the third session was insane, then you'll be blown away by the things that happened during the fourth one!
This session included returning cast members Hazmi, Trinity, Saito, Sabah, and Eos, and introduced the tiefling paladin Ulic and the human fae warlock Cara.
Prepare yourselves for a long one.
---------------
When last we left off, the party was at the bottom of the great chasm in the cave, having just been "volun-told" to take care of the warforged problem for the goblins.
It was then that the party realized that they were in the presence of a goblin: Haa the Tall.
A long discussion of what to do with him ensued. Some party members wanted to slay and/or torch him, while the majority thought that restraining him and leaving him at the bottom of the chasm for their return would work better.
Then Haa spoke, and everyone discovered that Eos is a changeling.
With this new fact brought to light, the party started to discuss their options: leave the tunnels and have the goblins fight their own war, or carry through with their plans to destroy the warforged. The debate went on for some time, and someone (I can't remember who currently, but quite probably Saito) used the line "That's fine - we'll be dead!" when the thought of what might happen to Rosewood if they failed was brought up. Finally, the consensus reached was to delve deeper and crush the metal menace once and for all.
Sabah decided to do some scouting while the party figured out what tunnel they wanted to travel down. She discovered several branches ahead, as the natural caverns at this point were labyrinthine. When she joined back to the group, they decided to venture forth on a nearly-straight course.
At the juncture that Sabah had left off her reconnaissance, they had to once again decide which path to take. Saito tried listening down the tunnels to help aid the decision making process, but all he could hear was Hazmi breathing heavily in his ear. (More on this later.)
And, as Javier had done the day before, Sabah thought that decision making by using spells would be a good choice.
She lobbed a fireball from her produce flame spell down a tunnel, and...
Struck a freaking carrion crawler.
Combat ensued. Obviously.
Meanwhile, Cara and Ulic had just fallen down a steep hole that dropped them in a tunnel adjacent to the party. More on that later.
The crawler climbed up a nearby wall and was making attempts to attack the party from that vantage.
Thankfully, Eos had become hidden earlier. He fired an arrow using his sneak attack and scored a very solid hit.
Then, Trinity mulled over a choice to throw her hammers or to try to leap to the thing. Finally, she settled on a called shot (house rule: disadvantage on the attack roll, but can roll damage twice and use better result) against the things legs, hoping to knock it down. Remarkably, she hit with both hammers and knocked the bug from the ceiling.
Hearing the sounds of combat, Ulic and Cara approached, weapons drawn.
Saito saw his opportunity and charged in, swinging both of his swords. The crawler was able to strike with its tentacles, but Saito's elemental metabolism protected him from the poison. Thus engaged, he slashed and hacked at the beast's hide.
Hazmi's turn came and he used his highly reliable ray of frost cantrip. But missed!
Sabah was next, and still had flames from her cantrip to lob. She threw one and dealt nearly minimal damage. Such is the fickle roll of the dice.
The carrion crawler was next to act, and continued its assault against Saito. However, with his keen reflexes, he was able to dodge the tentacles and avoid the thing's maw.
Unfortunately, combat became slightly distracted at this point, as Trinity really really reallllllly wanted to try something, but there was no way that Eos couldn't kill the crawler during his turn.
Eventually, Eos decided to use the Hide action and try for another sneak attack if the need arose.
Trinity then charged the thing and was bit. However, she succeeded at the (athletics) check to grapple the beast and leapt on to its back, resulting in an impromptu rodeo.
It was this moment when Cara and Ulic arrived, weapons at the ready. They saw the group surrounding the carrion crawler, the warforged riding it. Great first impression material.
Saito finished the thing with a piercing stab through its brain, ending Trinity's joy ride.
The party and the strange newcomers had a quick chat as to why each was down in the tunnel: the party was seeking to end the warforged threat, and the others had been sent on an archaeological expedition.
It was then that Trinity had her most shining moment yet: she remembered the piece of warforged "skull" that they had gathered, and asked the researcher what she could make of it.
Looking it over, Cara recognized the original holy symbol as having belonged to the death cults of Nerull, a god long-dead from the Reckoning Wars. Specifically, she said that the symbol was "old as balls." Which was met with many a guffaw.
I believe there was a statement of the warforged posing a true threat, to which (I believe it was) Trinity responded "They won't for long." So blood (oil?) thirsty that one (I really need to take better notes for my quotes).
The now fully-assembled party took a short rest to exchange notes and patch their wounds.
Eos has remained hidden this entire time and has change his appearance, as a bit of trivia.
When the party started to leave and Trinity called to Eos that they were doing so, Ulic began to wonder about her sanity. A brief explanation that Eos was in fact not imaginary helped put him at ease.
As they traveled back the way that they had come from, they passed a room that had a single stalactite (that wasn't there before, but no one bothers to remember what the DM says).
It was then that the party heard someone fall behind them.
Turning, they found a darkmantle wrapped around Eos' head. It had dropped him to 0 hit points with a critical hit. In short order, they slew the thing, pulled it from his head, and forced a healing potion down his throat. No death saving throws needed.
It also is important to note that Eos had taken on the appearance of a tiefling, thereby giving the phrase "social chameleon" a whole new meaning.
Trinity, gods bless her, decided to turn the darkmantle's corpse into a hand puppet, much to Sabah's chagrin. Thus was born Squidsy.
There was a bit of discussion as to how this would affect her efficacy as a warrior and why she would even bother to do it. Eos put a rather fine point on the matter: "I have a goblin vertebra with me so that I can make a sheath out of the bones of my fallen foes. A darkmantle hand puppet is just fine!" This may have been brought on in a spat of vindictiveness, but was pretty justifiable just the same.
Eos then had a bright idea and took Ulic aside, splitting the party temporarily. They went back to the carrion crawler and he harvested some of its tentacle venom to use at a later time. In short order, the group was reunited and on the move once more.
This time, they backtracked a short distance and took another path in a fork that they had previously ignored. Saito tried again to listen for signs of imminent threats, but was thwarted once more by Hazmi's heavy breathing. After a good laugh, they then chose their path.
Their current trail led them to a vast chamber that was quite obviously built rather than naturally formed.
The wall to their left had the ruins of four statues lined along it, the floor had a moldy, threadbare carpet leading to the opposite wall. The whole thing had the feeling of a grand temple.
Trinity, the eternal instigator, decided she wanted to charge the first statue and knock it into the others.
Eos' cry to hold fell on selective robotic ears.
Thankfully, Trinity's Strength check wasn't quite good enough to knock the thing over.
However, she did trigger an ancient spear trap and narrowly missed getting impaled by it.
Now, with more caution, the party proceeded towards the far wall. No traps were found, but the other wall held four different tunnels, each marked with goblin script.
Until this time, the party had had no means to read such things.
Then Cara came along, actually able to read the marks that the goblins had left.
The tunnels were marked (left to right) "floating jellyfish things," "falling rocks," "I don't know," and "scary things."
The party was at a loss as to how to proceed exactly. They didn't think that the first two tunnels would be worth a look, and that the "scary things" were probably what they were after.
One last time, Saito decided to listen to the tunnels. This time, however, he made sure to have Hazmi standing a good ten feet away. And actually heard some motion down one of the tunnels! (This may turn into some sort of running gag, by the way. I apologize in advance.)
Eos decided to scout ahead to the "I don't know" room and see what had confused the goblins.
Inside, he found a fountain that hadn't been running in untold years and mounds of dead humanoids. The bodies were aged beyond recognition in many instances, but were much more recent than the structure they were stored in. Quietly, he returned to the party.
Then he said the greatest thing he could have said: "It's a warforged fun room."
That was all Trinity needed. She charged in and threw a stone at the bodies to make sure they were dead.
Then almost every single corpse hand detached from its body and began to chase her.
The party saw her swiftly approaching, then Eos and Saito hatched a brilliant plan: they would lure the hands down the "scary things" tunnel and then use Saito's pass without trace ability, turn off the magical lights they carried to vanish, and hurl a lit torch into the room, thereby siccing the hands on whatever else was down the hall.
And the plan worked! (The +10 to [stealth] checks made it so that the only way to fail against the claws' passive perception was to roll a 1. No one did.)
The other room was filled with shriekers, violet fungus, and a single gas spore (which, sadly, Cara identified).
But none of that mattered.
"The Great Hand War" had begun.
The claws and fungi clashed, slaying each other in a glorious display of player ingenuity the likes of which I have never seen.
The gas spore exploded, taking many hands out with it.
Fungi died, hands were destroyed.
Utter madness.
Eventually, the dust settled, but the party remained hidden, knowing that the cries of the shriekers would lure something to the room.
And, sure as the rain falls, something did arrive.
A lone flumph.
The party members signaled to each other to remain quiet, but the flumph was able to pick up on some of their thoughts.
Once it was obvious it posed no threat to the party, Cara, Trinity, and Ulic approached it and inhaled some spores.
The flumph revealed that it was called Juju, and most everyone instantly like him.
After some discussion about the nature of what may lay further down the tunnel, it was decided that Juju would bring the party to what is now notoriously called "Flumphy Town" to allow them to rest.
Trinity, gods bless her, instantly turned from savage killer to docile kitten when she started interacting with Juju. She now has plans to make a snuggle pile of flumphs.
And that is where we ended the session: being taken down to Flumphy Town.
As all DMs know, things get strange when players get involved with your best laid plans.
Two encounters mashed into a single, psychotic, improbable mishap that lead to what is probably going to be one of my favorite gaming stories for years to come.
I once read somewhere that a DM should be a fan of the PCs. And after that display of incredible, insane, dumb luck, I can't help but cheer these affable murderhobos on.
Until next time, may the dice fall in your favor :)
Thursday, May 21, 2015
Praerus D&D 5e Campaign Notes, Session 3: The Legend of Haa the Tall
Hello again, dear readers!
Sorry for the late update, but better now than never, I suppose :)
Also, Javier's player dropped out of our game. So, no more fae pact warlock :/ Or, at least, not in the same capacity...
When last we left things, the second half of the party had just returned to the cave to try to best the goblins. And possibly the carrion crawler.
For this session, the party consisted of Trinity, Saito, Eos, Sabah, and Hazmi.
-------------
Sorry for the late update, but better now than never, I suppose :)
Also, Javier's player dropped out of our game. So, no more fae pact warlock :/ Or, at least, not in the same capacity...
When last we left things, the second half of the party had just returned to the cave to try to best the goblins. And possibly the carrion crawler.
For this session, the party consisted of Trinity, Saito, Eos, Sabah, and Hazmi.
-------------
Due to not being with the party proper, I had to run a brief mini-adventure for Sabah. Nothing much to it: she woke up to Angus (the head of the militia) pounding on her door, snapping her out of a bad ganja hangover. Then, blearily, she made her way to the caves from the previous day and caught up to the party. When she finally caught up, she tapped Hazmi on the shoulder.
He was still deaf at the time.
Hence the scream. (And, in a very "Xenoblade Chronicles" way, she actually changed the future o.O)
United at last, the party continued their search for the goblin hideout in the tunnels.
Much of nothing happened, as the warrens were currently unoccupied.
While in a mess hall, Trinity picked up a chair to use later. Because improvised weapon shenanigans.
Finally, the party arrived at a passage that was lined with several holes and terminated in a space that they would have to squeeze through.
Eos volunteered to scout ahead.
Because that has turned out so well thus far.
There was some discussion about how he would be seeing things in the tunnels, as warforged don't have darkvision and Hazmi's light spell was currently cast on his shrunken head arcane focus. But, eventually, Eos was convinced to take the light with him, just to be safe.
Once he entered the chamber at the end of the passage, he came upon a brilliant idea: throw an arrow into the darkness to get a sense of what was in here.
As one might expect, the results were awesome:
Though not completely trusting the party, the goblins saw that they had a potential ally (and slave army) with their new captives.
Apparently, the goblins had been raiding Rosewood to gain supplies to fight a war against some "scary warforged," as one goblin put it.
While this explanation for motivations was going on, by the way, Eos slipped into the back (using a natural 20 himself [my god, twice in one session...]), made sure he wasn't observed, and changed his appearance to be that of a large, earless goblin.
This only bodes well.
Eventually, the troupe arrived at a back chamber where the goblins had been preparing to wage a battle against their robotic foes.
And, due to popular demand at the table, one particular bugbear became smitten with Eos' current form.
That is all I have to say on the subject.
Anyway, the goblins finished their war chants and marched everyone back to the great chasm near the entrance to the cave. Then, they produced some ropes and everyone rappelled down the wall, landing safely on the cave floor.
Eos, that brave fool, was quickly assigned to a goblin scouting squad and sent down a tunnel away from the rest of the party.
Seriously, how often does this party get split?
Alternating the action back and forth, here is roughly what happened:
He was still deaf at the time.
Hence the scream. (And, in a very "Xenoblade Chronicles" way, she actually changed the future o.O)
United at last, the party continued their search for the goblin hideout in the tunnels.
Much of nothing happened, as the warrens were currently unoccupied.
While in a mess hall, Trinity picked up a chair to use later. Because improvised weapon shenanigans.
Finally, the party arrived at a passage that was lined with several holes and terminated in a space that they would have to squeeze through.
Eos volunteered to scout ahead.
Because that has turned out so well thus far.
There was some discussion about how he would be seeing things in the tunnels, as warforged don't have darkvision and Hazmi's light spell was currently cast on his shrunken head arcane focus. But, eventually, Eos was convinced to take the light with him, just to be safe.
Once he entered the chamber at the end of the passage, he came upon a brilliant idea: throw an arrow into the darkness to get a sense of what was in here.
As one might expect, the results were awesome:
- the goblin drumming stopped
- nothing could be heard for several minutes
- Eos pulled out the shrunken head light
- goblins everywhere
The party ended up placing a table between them and the soon-to-be-dead Eos.
But not so fast!
Using his ninja-like reflexes and his knowledge of Indiana Jones, Eos made a daring power slide under the table, just as the fighters set it in place.
Now, reunited the party prepared to fight through the narrow window that had just been made.
But what's this!
The goblins had crept up on them, using the holes in the tunnel that connected to the rest of the warren.
The party was now trapped between two large groups of goblins.
Well, this is typically where a TPK would occur, but OH NO. Not for these stalwart lunatics.
With a well-timed diplomacy roll, Hazmi was able to give the group some time, laying down his weapons and offering surrender.
Saito followed suit, as did Sabah.
Thankfully, the goblins still hadn't noticed Eos in the back of the group.
Then, a very long discussion on the merits of knocking out Trinity to avoid further confrontation happened.
After a moment, she decided to play along in the negotiations (though, much thought toward killing the goblins in their sleep was expressed).
Calling upon her ancient nemesis, she said aloud "The carrion crawler - it killed your brethren."
Being a skeptical sort of DM when it comes to something that wild, I let her roll the dice.
Natural 20.
We needed to take a milkshake break to get our heads back on after that one.
Though not completely trusting the party, the goblins saw that they had a potential ally (and slave army) with their new captives.
Apparently, the goblins had been raiding Rosewood to gain supplies to fight a war against some "scary warforged," as one goblin put it.
While this explanation for motivations was going on, by the way, Eos slipped into the back (using a natural 20 himself [my god, twice in one session...]), made sure he wasn't observed, and changed his appearance to be that of a large, earless goblin.
This only bodes well.
Eventually, the troupe arrived at a back chamber where the goblins had been preparing to wage a battle against their robotic foes.
And, due to popular demand at the table, one particular bugbear became smitten with Eos' current form.
That is all I have to say on the subject.
Anyway, the goblins finished their war chants and marched everyone back to the great chasm near the entrance to the cave. Then, they produced some ropes and everyone rappelled down the wall, landing safely on the cave floor.
Eos, that brave fool, was quickly assigned to a goblin scouting squad and sent down a tunnel away from the rest of the party.
Seriously, how often does this party get split?
Alternating the action back and forth, here is roughly what happened:
- Eos' goblin squad immediately found a warforged, but changelings don't have darkvision
- the other party marched
- Eos swung for the warforged, but missed due to darkness
- the other party marched on
- something hit Eos, but then he grabbed hold of it and began to grapple the warforged
- the other party continued their march
- some more scuffling and blade work by Eos and his opponent, with blows being traded
- the other party finally met a warforged, though only Sabah could see it. Thinking quickly, she cast produce flame and combat ensued
- with a bit of a scuffle, Eos was able to attack and finish the thing, calling out "Haa!" in a very hearing-impaired way, thereby gaining the legendary title of "Haa the Tall"
- one magic missile spell from Hazmi and a neat trip-attack combo by Trinity later and the warforged's head exploded on the ground
The party that had splatted the warforged head took a moment to see if there were any identifying marks on it.
Thankfully, that is a feature that all warforged are made with - a holy symbol on their foreheads.
The mark on this one was defiled, but was still recognizable as from an ancient religion predating the Reckoning Wars.
Further research would be necessary.
The goblins called the day a success and retreated back to the chasm floor. Here, the party discussed the ways that guerrilla warfare was a losing strategy down in the tunnels.
Then, seeing the light, the goblins told them that if they wanted to fight the warforged, they were more than welcome to.
Sabah is quoted as saying "Was I just volunteered for a suicide mission?"
To which Eos responded "Haa!"
And that's where that session ended.
Folks gained milestones and intrigue was had.
Next time, what will become of our heroes?
Will they fall in the darkness?
Or will they uncover truths best kept hidden?
Find out in the next thrilling episode of "The Legend of Haa the Tall!"
...
Or something like that.
Until then, may the dice fall in your favor :D
Friday, May 8, 2015
Praerus D&D 5e Campaign Notes, Session 2
Alright, when last we left off, the party was recovering from a brutal fight against a carrion crawler.
For this session, the party consisted of Trinity, Saito, Eos (whose default disguise is that of a warforged), and Hazmi.
-------------
After a night of recovery, the commander/bartender gathered the party members up for a bit of good news (nice and early): a shipment of supplies for the militia had just come in from Grandfield, and they would be allotted four healing potions. Trinity ended up holding onto them for the group.
Trinity, a vengeful fire burning in her heart, led the charge back to the caves in the woods.
The party entered the caves once more and took a look around.
The blood, splinters, and shrapnel of the previous day's fights still littered the floor.
After a lengthy debate fueled by Trinity's desire to slay the carrion crawler once and for all, the party decided that pursuing the goblins was the more prudent course. However, she did pick up a boulder to lug around, as she had been wanting to throw it at the carrion crawler the other day.
Thankfully, after the first session's debacle with eldritch blast, they had a pretty good idea of which tunnel to travel down.
They marched for some time, Trinity at the lead, boulder in hand.
Eventually they came to a wide chasm, the light from Hazmi's arcane focus too little to pierce the depths. The path split here, left and right.
In a moment of ingenuity, they placed Trinity's boulder on the left fork to act as an ambush deterrent, and explored to the right.
The path eventually led to a broad landing, but nothing else. Eos looked for any sign of a secret door, and was perplexed that there was nothing.
Disheartened by the dead-end, the party returned to the fork.
After re-positioning the boulder, our heroes continued on the left fork.
This path went into some tunnels for a little while, but eventually opened onto a chamber where a pool was being created by two streams.
Uncertain of the location of the goblins, they spent some time looking around.
And, instead of enemies, they found treasure! Some copper and silver bits had found their way into the streams, as well as a set of carved bone dice.
However, there was still no sign of the raiders.
The party took another moment to discuss their course of action before deciding to look at the landing again.
This time, Trinity's sharp eyes found a cleverly disguised wooden panel that opened onto a tunnel. She, of course, kicked it down and threw her boulder down the stairs that followed.
This not only shattered any pretense of stealth, but also deafened Hazmi.
Undaunted, the party continued down the way, Saito helping Hazmi navigate without his hearing.
At the bottom of the stairs, they found a primitive bone-chime alarm that the goblins had rigged. With a little effort, they were able to no only disarm it.
This floor was carved from the rock, with much more uniform tunnels and doorways. And, yet again, there was a divide in their path.
The boulder was placed on the right path, and the bone chimes were rigged to help alert them to ambushes. Now ready, the entered the room on the left.
The chamber was filled with half-eaten and rotted carcasses of the various animals that had been stolen. The place stunk.
With a little searching, a humanoid body was found. Trinity threw another carcass onto it, to check if it was still moving or some sort of trap. Thankfully, nothing of that sort happend. However, it appeared that the body was fused to some sort of armor...
Saito took a closer look and discovered that the armor was the sort found on warforged.
Sufficiently creeped out, the party returned to the divide, but not before Saito grabbed a small piece to examine later.
This time, however, Trinity was unable to lift her boulder, the exhaustion of lugging it around finally catching up to her. She was a bit upset about that, but soldiered on just the same.
The tunnels eventually opened onto a grand edifice, some sort of nexus to the tunnels the goblins had built. The chamber echoed with the pounding of war drums.
There were two obvious tunnels, and the one opposite their entrance was glowing softly, as if a fire were at the other end.
Eos, enterprising scout and master of stealth, decided to check out the source of the glow.
He discovered a forge the goblins were operating. Two of the small thieves were sharpening scimitars at that exact moment.
Then, three arrows sailed past Eos' head. Thanks to all of the noise they had been making, a few of the goblins had taken up arms.
Eos decided to beat it back to the party and ended up having another arrow catch him square in the back.
Combat eventually broke out, but was handled quickly enough. A few magic missiles from Hazmi helped to even the playing field, while the fighters continued to do what they do best. However, it was Eos that truly shined during combat, his rapier slaying three of the five goblins with a single thrust.
After the fight, there was a scream from Hazmi - he had stayed back in the main chamber and was still deaf.
Eos then walked over to Trinity, grabbed a healing potion, and chugged it.
And, that's where we ended the second session!
What became of Hazmi?
What was the thing they found back in the meat room?
And how will the other half of the party ever catch up?
All this and more answered when we game next!
Due to Sunday being Mothers' Day and some other scheduling troubles, we won't be meeting this week.
On the plus side, that means you, our readers, are caught up with us. Another plus is that this will allow me time to work on and upload some homebrew stuff for your critiquing and usage.
So, until we meet again, may the dice fall in your favor :)
For this session, the party consisted of Trinity, Saito, Eos (whose default disguise is that of a warforged), and Hazmi.
-------------
After a night of recovery, the commander/bartender gathered the party members up for a bit of good news (nice and early): a shipment of supplies for the militia had just come in from Grandfield, and they would be allotted four healing potions. Trinity ended up holding onto them for the group.
Trinity, a vengeful fire burning in her heart, led the charge back to the caves in the woods.
The party entered the caves once more and took a look around.
The blood, splinters, and shrapnel of the previous day's fights still littered the floor.
After a lengthy debate fueled by Trinity's desire to slay the carrion crawler once and for all, the party decided that pursuing the goblins was the more prudent course. However, she did pick up a boulder to lug around, as she had been wanting to throw it at the carrion crawler the other day.
Thankfully, after the first session's debacle with eldritch blast, they had a pretty good idea of which tunnel to travel down.
They marched for some time, Trinity at the lead, boulder in hand.
Eventually they came to a wide chasm, the light from Hazmi's arcane focus too little to pierce the depths. The path split here, left and right.
In a moment of ingenuity, they placed Trinity's boulder on the left fork to act as an ambush deterrent, and explored to the right.
The path eventually led to a broad landing, but nothing else. Eos looked for any sign of a secret door, and was perplexed that there was nothing.
Disheartened by the dead-end, the party returned to the fork.
After re-positioning the boulder, our heroes continued on the left fork.
This path went into some tunnels for a little while, but eventually opened onto a chamber where a pool was being created by two streams.
Uncertain of the location of the goblins, they spent some time looking around.
And, instead of enemies, they found treasure! Some copper and silver bits had found their way into the streams, as well as a set of carved bone dice.
However, there was still no sign of the raiders.
The party took another moment to discuss their course of action before deciding to look at the landing again.
This time, Trinity's sharp eyes found a cleverly disguised wooden panel that opened onto a tunnel. She, of course, kicked it down and threw her boulder down the stairs that followed.
This not only shattered any pretense of stealth, but also deafened Hazmi.
Undaunted, the party continued down the way, Saito helping Hazmi navigate without his hearing.
At the bottom of the stairs, they found a primitive bone-chime alarm that the goblins had rigged. With a little effort, they were able to no only disarm it.
This floor was carved from the rock, with much more uniform tunnels and doorways. And, yet again, there was a divide in their path.
The boulder was placed on the right path, and the bone chimes were rigged to help alert them to ambushes. Now ready, the entered the room on the left.
The chamber was filled with half-eaten and rotted carcasses of the various animals that had been stolen. The place stunk.
With a little searching, a humanoid body was found. Trinity threw another carcass onto it, to check if it was still moving or some sort of trap. Thankfully, nothing of that sort happend. However, it appeared that the body was fused to some sort of armor...
Saito took a closer look and discovered that the armor was the sort found on warforged.
Sufficiently creeped out, the party returned to the divide, but not before Saito grabbed a small piece to examine later.
This time, however, Trinity was unable to lift her boulder, the exhaustion of lugging it around finally catching up to her. She was a bit upset about that, but soldiered on just the same.
The tunnels eventually opened onto a grand edifice, some sort of nexus to the tunnels the goblins had built. The chamber echoed with the pounding of war drums.
There were two obvious tunnels, and the one opposite their entrance was glowing softly, as if a fire were at the other end.
Eos, enterprising scout and master of stealth, decided to check out the source of the glow.
He discovered a forge the goblins were operating. Two of the small thieves were sharpening scimitars at that exact moment.
Then, three arrows sailed past Eos' head. Thanks to all of the noise they had been making, a few of the goblins had taken up arms.
Eos decided to beat it back to the party and ended up having another arrow catch him square in the back.
Combat eventually broke out, but was handled quickly enough. A few magic missiles from Hazmi helped to even the playing field, while the fighters continued to do what they do best. However, it was Eos that truly shined during combat, his rapier slaying three of the five goblins with a single thrust.
After the fight, there was a scream from Hazmi - he had stayed back in the main chamber and was still deaf.
Eos then walked over to Trinity, grabbed a healing potion, and chugged it.
And, that's where we ended the second session!
What became of Hazmi?
What was the thing they found back in the meat room?
And how will the other half of the party ever catch up?
All this and more answered when we game next!
Due to Sunday being Mothers' Day and some other scheduling troubles, we won't be meeting this week.
On the plus side, that means you, our readers, are caught up with us. Another plus is that this will allow me time to work on and upload some homebrew stuff for your critiquing and usage.
So, until we meet again, may the dice fall in your favor :)
Thursday, May 7, 2015
Praerus D&D 5e Campaign Notes, Session 1
To begin, the campaign is set in a world of my own invention: Praerus. (If I find the time and ability, I will update the campaign guide and upload it for everyone's perusal.) It is a world inhabited solely by humans, "demi-humans," and warforged. The exact details of how everything got this way are involved and include some mysteries, so I'll just leave it at this brief tidbit for now.
For information on the characters, go here (the character info page, also located at top).
For information on the characters, go here (the character info page, also located at top).
---------------------------
Session 1
Our heroes this time were Javier, Sabah, Trinity, and Hazmi.
The town of Rosewood (a trade hub located at the joining of two rivers) has been troubled by goblin raids of late. Livestock and supplies have been stolen from farms on the outskirts. The town militia (PCs) have received orders to put a stop to the problem.
Despite the urgency of this matter, Javier still woke up around noon.
Once the party was assembled, they set out to track down the goblins. Thanks to Javier's tracking skills, this was easily done. A slight hiccup occurred while trying to sneak up on the goblins when Javier stepped down on a rather noisy twig.
Javier climbed a nearby tree (this is all in a forest near town) to get a better look at what was going on. S/he saw a few goblins, all of which had their weapons drawn and were ready to fight their pursuers.
Outside the goblin's hideout, a scuffle ensued with some of the raiders that were late to return to base.
Everything seemed to be going well for the party (except Javier, who can track goblins but can't hit them with eldritch blasts apparently :/) when one of the goblins gave a whistle.
Some of the bushes animated- twig blights that the goblins had fed and made into allies.
The party was now boxed in by the twig blights and the goblins, turning the tables a little.
However, with some well-placed spells from the casters and hammer attacks by Trinity, the enemy's assault was once again broken, and two of the remaining goblins were able to retreat into their cave.
After a moment to catch their collective breaths (and to have Javier climb down the tree), the party resumed the hunt.
They entered the cave, Hazmi and Sabah using their own methods to produce light.
The entry chamber was largely devoid of any signs of life, with a few large rocks scattered here and there.
Opposite the entrance, there were two different tunnels the goblins could have gone down.
After some discussion and attempted tracking, Javier had the idea to fire an eldritch blast down one of the tunnels to see what might be down that way.
A carrion crawler.
An over-sized, paralytic-tentacled centipede.
Sabah, who was standing at the entrance to that particular tunnel, took the first attack. Thankfully, her shield prevented the paralyzing touch of the tendrils from hitting home. However, she still took damage from a bite attack.
Trinity threw her throwing hammers, hoping to blind the thing. However, she only managed to upset it. She then charged the beasty.
Hazmi used ray of cold and magic missile to good effect during the fight, helping to level the playing field.
Javier's luck with eldritch blast continued, either missing or rolling little on damage.
The carrion crawler, seeing the fighter as a greater threat to itself than the cleric, moved to engage. It missed once again with the tentacle attack, but struck a critical hit with its bite, dropping Trinity in a single attack.
At this moment, Javier's luck turned around, his/er eldritch blast scoring a solid hit.
Battered and nearly dead, the two sides ended up retreating - the party out of the cave (Trinity in tow), and the crawler back into its hole.
Deciding that the party was ill-informed and under-equipped for this mission by their superiors, they returned to Rosewood to lick their wounds, rest, and gripe at their commander (the pub owner, of course).
And that's it for the first session. It was pretty brief, but everyone had some fun. Some of the players had some complaints/mild confusion (a problem when moving from one edition of a game to another), but with a little digging into the rules, we were able to clarify things.
Tomorrow, I'll upload the second session. After that, everyone will be caught up with our current status.
Until then, may the dice fall in your favor :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)