Category: The Campaign

D&D Homebrew – Part 2 launch

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”Any sight or word of them?”

“No, governor,” the chief scout said.

Governor Erin de Vin had recently shorn her red hair to prepare herself for the fight to come. They needed every edge they could get. There wouldn’t be room for mistakes. She was annoyed she kept thinking of how her mother used to braid it. That was a long time ago now. And in a distant land.

She was standing in the new gate tower looking towards the forest fully armored. It smelled of fresh sap. A yellow piece of cloth was blowing gently in the breeze from the sea from a branch at the edge of the forest. There was noise of chopping and digging from the work parties.

“And the elves?”

“I sent ambassador Faenar to parlay with them, but they aren’t telling him much. He is only half elf,” Oaktender said. His eyes narrowed.

“You don’t trust them?”

The halfling, long worn by weather and sorrow, shrugged.

“I think we can trust that the hobgoblins are their mortal enemies. But even I can’t sneak very close to the elves, and I only understand a bit of their hand signals anyway. They are weary of us, for sure. Like we are of them,” he said.

The governor sighed.

“Wouldn’t you be?” she then said.

Then she was silent a while, looking at the Royal Engineers and settlers working hard on their defenses. Thinking. Planning.

“The hobgoblins?”

“Still camped. But growing stronger.” The halfling spat with a practiced show of disdain. The glob of phlegm sailed over the edge of the tower.
“Whitefeather counted two ettins and at least four dozen goblins, who were new arrivals, some of them riding giant spiders. But we can’t see what their sorcerers are doing. They have obscured their camp with some kind of magical fog.”

“How do you view our chances?” The governor looked the halfling straight in the eye – don’t sugarcoat it.

“Our morale is low after the troll attack. Most have recovered physically, but many are brittle beneath. Tulh and his men will give them pause, but he will run out spells long before our enemies run out hot bodies to throw at us, and he will be an obvious target – and hard to protect. Bakhta the Bearded is a good fighter, I think, beneath his bravado, and he is cunning, but his team is too small and too inexperienced. Without Jarn and his crew, we lack striking power, and we will at a minimum face crippling casualties. It is likely we would have to abandon the settlement, if any of us survive. Even if they return in time, the odds aren’t great,” the halfling said, reporting like he used to do with his superiors in the military, and not to someone who had come to be a friend and comrade over the past three years.

They could both hear measured footsteps from below the tower and then the sound of someone climbing. The thin face of Tulh Dweomereye came through the hatch, and he proceeded to climb deftly up next to them, retaining most of his dignity. He wore his dark blue robes today. The ones with the embroidered fire elementals on the sleeves.

“You have news?” the governor said. Her words came out a little too quickly.

“Indeed,” said the wizard with a thin smile.

“Did they succeed? Are they on their way?”

“It appears that they have succeeded, yes, yet again. I wonder when their luck runs out? In any case, they are bringing back our people and will be here in a few days. It sounds like they will have quite a story to tell. Let’s hope we will get to hear it, at some point.”

“Thank the Mother!” The governor gripped the battlement hard with both hands and smiled fiercely.

“But there have been losses, I understand,” Dweomereye said. “It appears Claire didn’t make it.”

Oaktender sighed deeply and looked down, mumbling a prayer. Then he took a deep breath and drew himself up.

“I shall go spread the word. This will bring back some spirit.” He forced a thin smile. “Then I will go give the bad news to Whitefeather,” the halfling said.

“At least, now we have a fighting chance,” Erin de Vin said and looked to the vast forest beyond the clearing again. What kind of strength would the enemy assail her with? What did the elves come to offer? She cast her doubts aside, grinning inwardly. Whatever else happened, the hobgoblins and their damned giant allies would get a big kick in the teeth.

 

 

Expedition to Fort 25 and the Ashen Plains

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This is a recap from my home-brew campaign the Fallen World. It is an exploration focused campaign, with plenty of dungeons and dragons. Seven characters have been chosen to go to the first colony on a newly discovered continent. Their homeland and allies have been in a protracted war with the Hrran Hegemony for 30 years, and both sides of the conflict are heavily strained. The Kingdom of Aquilar hopes the adventurers sent to the new world can find riches and powerful artefacts that can turn the tides of war in their favour.

This recap covers session 31-33. Characters are around 9th level. 

My players decided to try and find Fort 25, which they had heard about in their exploration of Fort 27. They travel northwest through the thick forest for a few days and eventually arrive at the edge of another plain of ashes.

At this point they don’t know what created the plains, they are simply aware that these locations have a thin barrier to the Elemental Plane of Fire and that magic can be erratic there. So, they resolutely begin exploring it.

For the plains I had created a list of encounters that were more substantial than monsters, but weren’t so elaborate that I would hate to not use them. The core monsters were ashen zombies and wights. The zombies I had already used previously in a similar area, so the characters had an idea of what they were getting into.

Azer_-_Sam_Wood
Azers a dwarf-like elemental creatures from the plane of fire. 

Their first encounter turned out to be a roleplaying encounter. They find a mining operation being undertaken by a group of Azers. As they only speak Ignan, and the characters don’t the druid summons a fire mephit, which he can use for translation. I found that quite inventive and fun to role-play. They agree to buy a magical shield, as the Azers are looking for gold (which I reasoned was hard to find at the elemental plane of fire, due to the temperature…). And they agreed the Azers  would craft a magical weapon for them paid with substantial amount of gold – for an upfront payment of half – and promised to return to trade for it.

The following encounter was a ruined elven town half buried in the ashes. They found an ancient shrine, where a prayer boosted Korrick (20 temporary hit points) and they were attacked by Ashen Wights and Zombies (inspired by Skyrim). It was foreshadowing for a ‘boss encounter’ at the fort.

They also located a tunnel leading into the hill, where they find a sealed door. Behind it the elves buried murderers, and they have turned to wraiths. A tough fight ensues, but the group manages to win and recover a Dagger of Venom and a Periapt of Proof against Poisons (which turns out to be quite handy later in the campaign).

Arrival at the Fort

After a long rest, they continue towards the middle of the plains. From afar they see what looks like a big tower of iron girders atop a hill. It turns out that the fort is on the hill, and that the iron tower looks like the remains of a giant immovable trebuchet, and the group has a hard time figuring its purpose, as it cannot really be aimed.

The fort, like the previous one they encounters, has an underground component, but when they try to get in, they are attacked by more Ashen Wights. The wights are nasty, as they all have the equivalent of a fireshield, and one of them is a sorcerer with a fire elemental and the commander is a powerful melee combatant.

For some reason, despite all the hints, only the druid has some kind of fire protection, but they manage to defeat the wights. Particular the Abjurers use of counterspell has a deciding effect on the battle, as he keeps the sorcerer from dishing out a lot of fire damage. They recover a scimitar +2 that does an extra D6 damage against abominations among a couple of other items.

Inside the fort they find a number things: They find the covered corpses of dozens of elves which they – wisely – let rest in peace.

They find a war-room with a sand table, where they can see the miniatures used by the generals that represents skeletons, elves and abominations (beholders and mindflayers), and it is clear that the elves and skeletons were allied against the abominations.

At the end of a large chamber there is a door, and the entire end of the room is covered in a mystical lattice-web that turns out to be an intelligent ward.

The Intelligent Ward

Computer network security connection technology
I don’t know if I succeeded in getting across how intelligent the ward was, and how it tried to counter their moves…

This encounter is set as a skill challenge, and I inform the players, that they will automatically get the door open, but how well they perform against the ward will determined how hard, what happens on the other side, is. And that if they fail 3 checks, it will be pretty bad…

I use the Matt Coleville version of the skill challenge, where players can try any skill they can explain, but only use the same skill once.

They begin engaging with the ward, and fail the first roll, which results in a power surge from the ward (lightning bolt), the second roll succeeds, but the third roll also fails (which sends a ray of radiant power at the player), and finally Arak the War Cleric decides to brute force the door, which succeeds. Which means they have 2 success and 2 failures. The consequence is that they face 3 stone golems on the other side, instead of the potential 4.

I’ve modified the golems by giving them ranged spells, lightning bolts and sunbeam with a recharge, to make things more interesting and give them some tactical flexibility. The house rule is also that they need enchanted adamantine to penetrate their damage resistance.

The group fights quite smart, and the wizard use Bigby’s Hand to contain one golem at range. But the other two engage in melee and casts Slow, which the melee characters find very annoying.

The stone golem damage output is quite intense, but I don’t roll above average. A crit deals 52 damage to the War Cleric, which commands respect.

Ultimately, they defeat the golems, but it was clear that one additional golem would have been too much for them to handle. It was a good encounter, because it balanced on the edge, and they could see the consequences of previous actions and their spell abilities added some unpredictability for my experienced players.

NO_to_trillion__on_Nuclear_Weaponsiamge
Orb of Sundering in action.

After defeating the golems they don’t find any significant treasure, but instead a large insulated box with another box suspended within that once contained a sphere around 2 feet in diameter. Alongside the box there are instructions for this device, which is an Orb of Sundering (basically a nuke) and orders for the general of the army to deploy it. The implication is that the elves and their allies had to use desperate measures in their attempt to survive.

As the homeland of the characters are in a big war, such a weapon has military potential, along with moral issues, if they could locate a Orb of Sundering.

 

A Side Note: 

The wizard is finally able to cast Legend Lore, which begin to reveal things about their items, and potential quests, including an item, which was part of the wizard’s backstory.

One of the more important items is a silver rod, found with the first Sister of Sorrow that turns out to be a key.

“Created by High Mage Izenova as one of four keys to defend the Towers of the Stars. The silver key unlocks the second ring. Illuminated under Mur’s eye, in one of her sacred sites, you may bond yourself to its purpose.“

 

 

 

First downtime in my campaign

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After a series of adventures, the group heads home for their first ’Winter Holiday’. To make sure the settlement evolves and grows, I decided early that every winter the characters would rest and work on other tasks until the next group of settlers arrive from the ‘old world’.

This blog post describes some of the activities (so that we can remember them), and I have a couple of thoughts on the system (or disregard for the system).

campaign
There is plenty of inspiration in this book, but perhaps too much focus on mechanics and systems.

The Pathfinder way discarded

I had planned to use some of Pathfinder’s rules on downtime. I thought it would be cool to use the rules from Ultimate Campaign on building a house, and later strong holds, and so on. But it turned out that:
1) my players weren’t really into that level of bookkeeping
2) I wasn’t into that level of bookkeeping and …
3) the wizard picked spells like Wall of stone and Fabricate, making the need for materials partially irrelevant.

So, I’ve skipped it completely. And fundamentally run downtime as a narrative, with some skill rolls.

What did the characters do?

It had turned out that, Jarn, the paladin/ranger had made one of the two serving girls pregnant. The player decided that he honestly did love the girl, who was a no nonsense scrappy city-girl, and they decided to get married. The druid of the group officiated and gifts were presented. Each character came up with a gift for the couple, including a bridal suite in their new house with a clock, platinum rings for the entire group and his wife, jade figurines and a donation of blood from the scary half-orc fighter.

During the months they built a sizeable house with a small tower, a glass blowing workshop and smithy and the gnome constructed a ballista for the tower. They craft weapons and armor and train the militia.

dragon_armor
The druid was hoping for something like this, as his AC is really 15 when buffed at level 10. Alas…

The druid also started training an apprentice, the elf Sekhlas, and he went to negotiate for dragon scales, to build an armor, but unfortunately failed in his diplomatic effort.

I also let several characters learn languages, skills and tools, because, why the hell not?

Spies?
As the new settlers arrive in the spring, some characters receive mail and messages, and they finally get some plate mail. Their leader, Jarn, gets news that his father – who is the head of a knightly order – is sick from enemy magic, and that his mother needs assistance. She has in return sent his father’s medallion, which protects against fey charm.  The druid, Weylyn gets a letter from a friend, which relates the story of a kidnapping or defection by a great boat wright to the Hrran Hegemony.

The group was already worried about spies, and they are watchful, but also decide to lay a honey trap. They spread the rumor that they have hidden powerful war machines in the forest, and use awakened beasts to patrol the site – and wait. I think it is a good plan, which I will definitely play to.

The settlers that arrive include two adventuring groups. One is with the rival guild, and another accompanies the dwarves, who have come to run the iron mine, which the characters find.

Furthermore, the wizard, Thul Dweomereye, has apprentices and guards coming to expand his position.

What worked well?
Down time is essentially a chance to role-play and create more context and relations for the characters.
I think everyone got to do interesting things and the wedding and the news from home ground the characters in the setting. It creates a greater attachment to the world around them, and meant that I think they found pleasure in having a lot of gold they can send home and to the war effort.
I hope that the war in their homeland will come more into focus in the next leg of the campaign.

The players have fun when they use their spells creatively to create a home and survive, and there was no reason to take that away, because I had imagined we would use a more ‘mechanistic’ system for it.
And just for fun, I’ve decided to add the text of one of the two hand-outs here:

The Letter to Weylyn:

Dear Weylyn

I hope that you are thriving? I have thought of you many times in the last couple of years, but finding an opportunity to actually sending a letter has been difficult. This winter I finally returned to Finrod after what feels like a life-time of conflict. I have spent much time in Burndeth and helped our ancient kin and allies there. Pentath is now besieged by folk of the wild tribes of Lest, but they learned to fear the forest. So, they burned much of it. I have grown stronger in my struggle, and as we know, adversity and challenges makes you find new strength within you.

I write, not solely out of my desire to convey my thoughts and experiences to you. During the last couple of months here in Finrod, it was impossible not to hear rumours of this expedition and the ships going out to sea. I couldn’t help myself from paying close attention to these stories, as I had already understood from Deekin Chass that you were no longer on the Isles. It therefore troubled me that I stumbled on information that the great shipwright Amhlaidh Tod disappeared from his shipyard last year. The Council and the Circle have been keeping it under close lid, but you know how it is here – everyone knows everybody. The point is, they think he might have been kidnapped, or worse, been bribed to go over to the enemy. If that is true, the Hegemony might soon field a fleet of ocean going vessels. Their seafarers will not rival our own, but in my battles with Hrran, I have learned that its leadership is very resourceful and flexible in their thinking.

I have sent this letter to Moss Keeper Clearbrook, and I hope that it will find you soon.

Be mindful of sails on the horizon.  

 

Your friend forever

Seera Wylder

The Deserted Wizard – Part 3

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I was almost caught up – and then life hits. Well, here is the final recap of this adventure. The next session had some downtime, and the sessions after that is the first chapter in a grand expedition to explore the lands around them after the winter. As always, I prioritize actually preparing D&D over writing about what happened. At least until I have significantly more time in the evenings… I do want to add a couple of reviews of RPG-material that I’ve been reading. And I’m eagerly awaiting the arrival of Trudvang Chronicles. 

If the players thought they were done with mindflayers, they were wrong. The group was back to only four players, due to the Easter holiday, and the decided to make a short rest, before exploring the rest of the guild hall. They find their ancient archive, in a magical storage room, and recognize it as a valuable trove of lore, if you spend sufficient time on piecing things together. The also enter the guild masters office, where they locate the secret door to the strong room, but when they tamper with it, two stone guardians attack. In the strong room they find gold and silver, and more importantly a few bars of mithral and adamantine and a scroll that can be used to enchant a weapon permanently.

purple worm
Unfortunately, the purple worm mini I had ordered didn’t arrive in time. There will be more opportunities though… 

I kept track of time, because – unbeknownst to the players and their characters – the mindflayers continued to be aware of them and their actions. So they gathered another force and attacked again. They led that attack with a hill giant and a purple worm. The players were pretty freaked. But still, the four 8th level players, decided to fight the purple worm (which is CR 15 and has 250 hit points). Fortunately for them, they had luck on their side, as the purple worm is so strong that it can basically remove a character from the fight every round. The purple worm used its bite attack on the paladin/ranger in the first round, but the dwarf bard/fighter used his protective ability to give it disadvantage, so it missed. And the dwarf could tank the tail attack. Next round the purple worm missed with its bite again, but hit the druid with its poisonous tail, who went down. And then a mind flayer emerged from the hole the purple worm left. This was double trouble, but they kept piling on damage, and then the paladin/ranger was swallowed by the worm. The purple worm was heavily damaged, so with a final eldritch blast the warlock killed the purple worm (which 3 characters gave 250 in damage in 3 rounds…)

I had narrated that the three characters, with players who weren’t present, take on the hill giant and the goblins that followed it, and that the half-orc bellowed that they had to flee (that we my DM-que that it was wise).

The purple worm spits out the paladin in its death throes, and with a feather fall they escape the guild hall, but in the ruins beyond the run into another mindflayer ambush, with a single mindflayer, two intellect devourers and some goblins. That was fun!

id
They aren’t hard to kill, but surprisingly nasty, as the Int reduction needs a Greater Restoration to counter. 

The players know they are just a couple of bad saving throws away from defeat, but a couple of summoned bears and a charging paladin kills the mindflayer, which cause the rest to flee. The warlock had his intelligence reduced by the intellect devourer though, and is comatose, so now they are down to three characters.

The finally reach the exit point at the tower, where an elf is waiting for them. He introduces himself as Kelgon, but the paladin sense that he is a fiend in disguise. He does not reveal his true form, when they confront him with that knowledge, but he admits that the Mezzoloths that attacked them works for him, and that he has a proposal for them: if they are willing to help him kill undead in the ruins, he will give them knowledge and magic items in return. Their response is that they want to consider it, and that they will return with an answer, if he is willing to let them exit the ruin. He allows that, and finally the group emerges from the ruins into a forest that now seems much more benign and safe.

 

 

If you want to read my notes of this entire D&D adventure, they can be found here: DnD Adventure – The Deserted Wizard.

The Deserted Wizard – a D&D adventure – part 2

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The group is searching for a wizard in a ruined city. He deserted from their settlement several months ago, and has already learned that there are both fiends and mind flayers inside the ruins. You can read the beginning here.

In the third installment I will also make the adventure itself available.

The body of Corbian

The group enters the big ancient guildhall of elven craftsmen and find a huge lump of blue resin-like substance with a robe clad elf inside on the second floor. Next to it lies the body of the wizard Corbian, who they were sent to find, along with his spell book, which contains a ritual – which Corbian created – that can release the elf.  There are no signs of his men. Abbott – the warlock – finds the mind of the imprisoned wizard (he thinks), and communicates with him.

They decide to release the wizard, with the ritual that takes an hour. While the wizard casts the ritual the rest of the team watch the surroundings. They are of course aware that something will happen. Unfortunately, as the ritual finishes, the gnome rogue watching the entrance has become lost in thoughts and fail to notice the attackers arriving, and an epic fight begins.

Gauth-5e
A gauth. Its rays are less dangerous than a beholder’s, and its central eye is paralyzing instead of anti magic (which works really well combined with mindflayers…)

A mind flayer and a gauth (beholder-kin from the new Volo’s Guide to monsters) burst through a large window at the end of a hallway, and via the staircase goblins attack from below with another mind flayer and another gauth. With liberal use of fireballs, wall of thorns and other spells, the group manages to defeat the attackers. Jarn, the paladin/ranger is stunned by a mind blast, and has difficulty making his save.

The Ilithor
At the end of the third round the resin bursts and reveals another 10 foot tall armored mindflayer – an Ilithor – an illithid war leader – of my own creation (you can find the stats here). It attempts to eat the dwarf in front of it, but he makes his saving throw, and the round after use a prismatic spray – and then the paladin, who was stunned for half the fight, has done an enormous amount of damage with Smites, and it falls. And after looting, we end the session.

Gm thoughts

It was a very intense and fun encounter.Partly because of the many different attacks and enemies the characters had to fight – magical effects from the eye rays, gauths that explode on death and the danger of the mind flayer’s mind blasts and subsequent brain extraction. And partly because of the large battlefield, with several different features, which were used for cover and tactical maneuvers. The party used spells creatively and spent a ton of resources – which will become important.

I would have liked the Ilithor to last one more round to really highlight how dangerous it was, but it was still very epic, and Korrick the dwarf was just one save away from having his brain eaten.

71002b
I bought two packs of these minis. I had the wrong glue though, so had to wait until part III of the adventure to use them. 

Ilithor

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Illithor (large)

Description: a three meters tall armor clad ilithid with only four tentacles. It is more bulky and squat compared with the regular mind flayers and wields a mind-blade great sword. The Ilithor is created by the Elder Brain to function as commanders of the ilithid armies.

Armor Class: 18, Hit Points: 168 (16d10+80) , Speed: 40 ft.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
20 13 20 17 19 17
+5 +1 +5 +3 +4 +3

Saving Throws: Int +6, Wis +7, Cha +7 (advantage from psi carapace)

Skills: Insight +7, Perception +7, Deception +6
Damage Immunities: Psychic
Condition Immunities: Frightened, Charmed
Senses: darkvision 120 ft., passive perception 17
Languages: undercommon, telepathy 120 ft.
Challenge: 10
Special:
Magic Resistance. The ilithor has advance on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Innate spellcasting (psionics): The ilithor’s innate spellcasting ability is intelligence (spell save DC 15). At will: detect thoughts, levitate, 1/day dominate monster, prismatic spray
Actions:
Multi-attack. The ilithor can make two attacks with its great sword.

Mind blast. The ilithor emits psychic energy in a 60 ft. cone. Each creature in that area must make succeed in a DC 15 Int Save or take 4d8+3 pyschic damage, and be stunned for 1 minute.
Great sword.  Melee weapon attack, 10 ft. reach, +9, 2d8 slashing +2d6 psychic damage.
Tentacles. Melee weapon attack: +9, 5 ft. reach, 2d10+4 psychic damage + grappled (escape DC 17), Int save 15,or be stunned until grapple ends.
Extract brain. Attack+9 One incapacitated humanoid grappled by the ilithor. Hit, the target takes 10d10 piercing damage. If this damage reduces the target to 0 hit points, the ilithor kills the target by extracting and devouring its brain.
Equipment/Treasure: psi carapace, mind blade greatsword

The Deserted Wizard – a D&D adventure

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This is the first part of a three part recap of a D&D adventure. I also include some thoughts on design. 

The group decided – in the previous session – they wanted to explore the large ruined city that lies half a day’s march from their settlement. It is the first time they enter the ruins, and I wanted it to be memorable and give the players and characters a good sense of the danger and conflicts going on inside the ruins. The ruined city is also a centerpiece for the campaign – an almost irresistible adventuring fun-land – but it is de facto optional for the characters.

Design choices

The ruins is my own combination version of Myth Drannor and Parlainth, two city-ruin box sets that I have always enjoyed, and that I know tickles the imagination of players.

parlainth myth drannor
Two ruined city mega dungeons, but designed very differently. I don’t think I’ve used any RPG box set more than Parlainth. 

Like in the Parlainth box set (from Earthdawn) I’ve divided the ruins into a number of districts, and added a few key locations and a faction or two to each. By making a ‘purpose’ and framework for each district, it become easier to improvise, created random encounters and to describe each district in a distinctive way.

The characters already knew from a celestial they met in the Warrens, that he was unable to enter the ruins, and they know of a fey queen trapped inside, and the power of the ranger has told them that there are plenty of demons inside too.  So clearly, not everyone can move freely in and out, for some reason.

From a design perspective, the feature that some things can’t get out, means that there is a contained, mid to high level adventuring zone, close to their home base. The fact that it is contained means that the characters don’t feel forced to remove this danger close to their settlement immediately. On the other hand, it adds tension that they have to fear messing with whatever contains the monsters inside the ruins, as that would be a potential disaster for the entire region.

Inside the leaders of the various factions can be powerful allies and sources of information, particularly of the ancient history of the land. They can also be major plot movers, but they don’t have to be. Which is why it is optional. If the players chose to engage with one or more of them, the appropriate plots they are involved in can be affected.

Session 27 – setting the stage

I introduced an actual quest set out by the governor, which gave them an objective. The first wizard that came with the settlement, a diviner named Corbian de Juxa, had deserted from the settlement and went into the ruins with a group of soldiers, whom he had convinced to follow him. He believed someone important was trapped inside.

The group – which for this session only had four characters present – went to the ruins, and outside the walls encountered the elves, who guard against creatures coming out. They were warned by them, not to let anything dangerous out, but were also shown to the point where Corbian and his men entered the ruin – one of the broken towers in the wall surrounding the city.

Mezzoloth-5e
Mezzoloths are the regular soldiers of the Yugloth armies.

From the inside of the tower they can see a building that matches the description Corbian gave to the governor before he deserted, and they head for it.

In a ruined road, in what was a residential area with many 3 and 4 storied buildings, they are attacked, and the attackers open with a Cloud Kill. The attackers turn out to be three Mezoloths supported by a pack of armored hounds led by two hell hounds. They fight fiercely, but the fiends don’t fight to the death. All three Mezoloths teleport away when they go low on hit points, and the group manages to defeat the hounds.

However, they spent quite a lot of resources to do it. They therefore decided to have a short rest. At that point they get a second random encounter, which are two mind flayers with a pack of goblin slaves. They don’t see the hidden players, but the player on guard sees them searching the place where they fought the yugloths.

The mezzoloths were a fixed encounter, as I need them to set up a meeting in before they exit the ruins. The mind flayers were a random encounter, but worked well as foreshadowing. 

At the end of the session they reach the building they were heading for and try to enter through a balcony door, but the fighter, Arak, is hit with a disintegrate when he tampers with the door and barely survives.

Fiends, cloud kill spells and disintegrate traps and the rightly feared mind flayers sets the stage for the ruins, shows them that they’ve move up into a ‘new league’ and it foreshadows future encounters.

More on that in the next installment…

A Walk in the Woods (session 24-26)

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After this update I will be only 2 sessions behind in having a synopsis of our game on this blog! I’ve been struggling simply to get prepared for each session, which means there has been no time for the blog. Unfortunately. So this is a bit of a long read.

The walk in the woods begins after the party defeated the second hag of a coven in her massive crystal tower.

When I began planning this part, I had to consider strongly how many game sessions I wanted this journey of hundreds of miles to last. There were many points of interest on the map, and the potential for a lot of encounters, but I didn’t want them to spend too much time on this part of the campaign, as it wouldn’t result in much resolution of any of the main plots. That said, the trip underscores my exploration theme, and it was their first big introduction to the wider world around the local area of their settlement. So I used the trip to expand upon the knowledge of the world and planted a few potential plot hooks and adventuring sites.

Session 24

The characters start their journey through the crystal forest south to the more regular vast woodlands where the settlement lies.

eva-widermann-tob-alseid-final-v2
The Alseid from Tome of Beasts, which I wrote about in my last post.

Inside the crystal forest, they find a Alseid (a sort of deer centaur from Tome of Beasts) infected by the crystal and ripped by a large creature. Some hours later they are attacked by four land sharks infected with the crystal. The characters defeat them with some luck.

A couple of days later they reach the regular forest, and they notice that the elf Sekhlas is a bit nervous by the whole thing.

At one point they rest in a small cave, and it turns out it has a sprite guardian, who gifts them with some sleeping poison, after a bit of mischief.

After a few more days of travelling they reach the area of the elven tribe, and they arrive at their camp one evening. They parlay and agree to let them visit the tribe. Here they are hospitably met and they establish good relations with their leader. He agrees to supply them with information and assistance in their journey in return for help with destroying a band of hobgoblin slavers that have entered the forest.

The group has already learned from the centaur they met that the hobgoblins live on the plains and are building a great city, so this is extra information for them.

Session 25

The group finds a good place to ambush the hobgoblins, which has a captain, more than 30 warriors, a few armored ogres, two low level clerics, and a warlock among them. But the advantageous location (based on great survival roll), and a couple of fireballs, ensures that the group has the encounter well under control.

The information they get is important. First of all they learn of a black dragon living in the ruins of a keep by a ruined bridge, and where its territory lies. They learn of the Land of Decay, which is full of fungi, and a goblin tribe in the area they have to pass through. They also learn of the elven tribe Two Tears, across the river, and how to contact them.

4e_black_dragon
They didn’t want the treasure of an adult black dragon. Perhaps wise, as it is CR 15, with some additions of my own…

The group deliberates and decide to sneak across the river as quickly as possible and move south. They avoid an encounter with the dragon, and obtain elven guides through the forest until they reach another big river, where they can see ruins on the other side and pillars of an ancient bridge.

The ruins on the other side are on a hill and desolate. It also looked like someone made a fortification inside the town by digging a deep trench and throwing up ramparts in a large circle. They enter this area and discover it is another fort, called Fort 27 (they already heard of Fort 25). They find two magical flags and a tunnel has been dug in the middle of the fort.

Down in the tunnel they discover rooms that were the site of intense combat with lots of bones, broken weapons and sign of spell damage. When they enter the central chamber, they are attacked by a Neothelid.

Session 26:
The full group of 7 level 7 characters deal swift death to the CR 13 Neothelid with 325 hitpoints. It doesn’t get a third round. It is a demonstration of the difficulty of balance with more than 4 players. A single monster needs multiple actions and the ability to counter player moves, if it is to survive. OR perhaps I should add 75% hitpoints for more balanced encounters? It was fun though, and had one player missed a save, they might have been in much greater trouble.

Beyond the Neothelid they locate an ancient war council chamber, with the bodies of two ancient commanders, their magic items, and three message stones with the following ‘voice recordings’.

Ascendant_runestone
The message stones look something like this, and can easily fit in a palm.
  • Commander, proceed north and delay hostile forces approaching Ivanith’Laril. Archmages are working to protect the Towers of the Stars, but they need time. Make sure they have it.
  • Commander, you will receive reinforcements. The 8th Legion is retreating towards your position. Secure the bridge at Serahin. The tirelessness of our allies should enable you to fortify the position against the horde and buy us more time. That, and King Wailmorr’s mercenaries, may be enough.
  • These are the last words of Commander Thelketh. Our position is almost overrun. Our allies’ efforts have ensured we have lasted this long. I never would have thought to end up owing them a debt. We saw the flash from Fort 25. Gods have mercy on them. The other forts must be overrun. Whoever finds this, please pray for my soul.

They conclude that the elves actually were allies with the undead Bones of Sarakhon. And that the Towers of the Stars are inside the ruined city close to the settlement (more on that next time…)

And all this ties in to the backstory of the world they are in. And a small pieces of the greater jigsaw puzzle. 

Ash_Spawn
The idea for Ash zombies were lifted from the Ash Spawn of the Skyrim expansion. 

On the final leg of the journey the enter an ashen plain, where nothing grows, and it turns out, the barrier to the elemental plane of fire has been worn thin. They cross it, and meet some Ash Zombies, and at the center find a very large crater, with a big fire elemental in the middle, surrounded by Ash Zombies and mephits, and in the heat haze they can glimpse into the elemental plane of fire. They decide not to approach the elemental and move on.

Beyond the ashen plains they travel through the woods and finally get back to their settlement. The final surprise is that the barmaid Lara is pregnant, and the young paladin Jarn has had a very close relationship with her.

Planar travel for dummies – session 21

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In this session, my players wander into the planes for the first time, and therefore I will write something on how I see the planes in D&D and how I’ve changed it for my home brew world, in addition to the normal session recap.

A couple of the issues I have with the planes in D&D are that there are so many of them, that the facts concerning the planes are ‘true’ and that most of them are infinite.

The problem with the fact that there are so many is that most characters – and thus players – will so rarely visit the same ones that they never gain any familiarity with them. The planes fail to become an integral part of the game world. In a typical campaign you will maybe visit one plane, so unless a campaign is centered around one of them – invasion by the City of Brass or the intrigues of the unseelie courts – they don’t play a big role.

sigil
Sigil is probably the most interesting city Wizards or TSR ever made, and it doesn’t exist in the prime material plane. 

But on the other hand, the planes are infinite. They must therefore have many more interesting places and beings than the prime world, which annoys me, because the prime world should be the most interesting (Sigil is in many ways a more interesting place than Greyhawk or Waterdeep). And there are known ‘facts’ about them (you can look them up in the DMG), which makes them less mysterious.

 

The prime world is more complex and finite and therefore more manageable and interesting to explore (as it should be), but the actual interaction with these far planes should be part of the adventurer’s lives and understanding.

My approach
To improve on this (in my opinion), I’ve made some changes to my multi-verse. The key ones are below. Others I will not write here, as my players are unaware of them, and I like to keep it that way.

earthdawn3
In Earthdawn powerful monstrosities lurk in the Astral plane, and some even exists in both planes at once.
  • First of all, I’ve combined the Feywild, Shadowfell and the Etheral plane into one and called them the Warrens (inspired by Steven Erikson), and that plane mirrors the prime plane, like the astral plane in Earthdawn and the umbra in Werewolf the Apocalypse.

 

  • Secondly , I’ve changed several spells to fit this, so when you detect or divine you see through the Warrens and when you teleport or misty step or whatever, you actually walk through the Warrens, where time and distance works differently. As the Warrens are a mirror to the prime world, it also means you can’t teleport across an ocean, you need a vessel inside the Warrens, which would enable you to cross the ocean faster. There are also beings inside the Warrens, many of them powerful, so you have to tread carefully.
  • Thirdly, there is not one, but several explanations to what they are and how they work – just like we can discuss the nature of the divine. The two my players have heard are: Some say the Warrens are a failed version of the prime world that the first gods discarded. Others that the presence of magical essence in all things naturally creates a mirror state.

These changes have the effect that the Warrens are relevant in basically every session and that the players slowly learn more about them.

It also underscores the main theme of my campaign: exploration. The Warrens is a place you explore and it is part of exploring the prime plane.

Also, instead of simply teleporting from one place to the other they have to travel everywhere, and have to consider if the advantage of going somewhere quickly outweighs the risk of meeting something very dangerous. This also underlines the theme of the campaign.

The session:
When the characters stepped through the portal (only 3 out of 7 players were present) they were immediately set upon by vengeful animal spirits, which they relatively easily defeated but they damaged them. The portal was located inside the Warren’s version of the hollowed tree.

They then began investigating the tortured elf who was crucified nearby and concluded that he had lost his soul. Then the Horned Devil and its two henchmen (bearded devils) were summoned and another fight ensued. It appeared that it had been promised their souls.

devilhorned
5th edition Horned Devil. A CR 11 monster taken out by 3 level 6 characters. Maybe I was easy on them?

To explain the presence of more characters and make they fight more appropriate, I ruled that the non-present player’s characters engage the two bearded devils. The three remaining characters then sniped away from a Fog Cloud and managed to banish the devil.

Outside of the tree, the woods of the Warrens were eerily quiet and unnatural, with no sun and with the great trees casting long shadows. Two paths had been marked through the Warrens, and they knew that to navigate the Warrens away from the path would require a stern focus (successful INT or WIS checks). One path was marked with skulls another with small crystals. They chose the crystal path north, which should lead to the middle sister.

After a few hours journeying through the Warrens they spot a corpse of an elf by an altar holding a staff with gems. They move away from the path to investigate, and when they get closer suddenly the path has disappeared, as has their four companions, and the elf turns out to be a skeleton holding nothing. At that point they are set upon by shadow bats and a weird sylvan creature with the legs of a hind and razor sharp teeth that sucks blood. They defeat them after a fierce battle and search the area as they can’t see the path anyway. In some ruins nearby they find her lair and a cloak woven from living plants and shadows and decide to rest.

They steel themselves and locate the path again, but they can’t see their companions anywhere. As the move on, they come upon a fight between a big dark skinned man wielding a beautiful great sword fighting a pack of very cunning regenerating wolves next to a mysterious dark well. They enter the battle on his side and finally slay all the wolves, which coalesce into one rangy man wearing wolf-skin.

malazen
Very complex fantasy series, highly influenced by Black Company, and grew out of an RPG campaign. One of my favorites. 

The man, who is named Xarzon, thanks them and they talk. It turns out the man was hunting him on behalf of a former employer, whom he has a disagreement with. He was a dangerous Dissembler – a shape shifter that can turn into multiple beasts (also stolen from Eriksons novels). He also tells them that the well has a spirit in it which serves as an oracle, if appeased correctly. He also tells them a few things about the Warrens: that they are strange beyond the vast space of the north, that the land is under some kind of curse and that the eldest of the Sisters of Sorrow dominates the trolls in her area and has made a pact with one of the Lords of the Nine Hells.

He also gives them a ring of protection as thank you, and with the loot of the Dissembler, it was a rewarding session.

Double feature: A dragon surprise…

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So, being a dad and a DM, leaves less time for prep. And obviously, prep is more important than the recap and the blog. But I will keep at it, but the recaps of the latest two sessions will be short and to the point.

lazy_dm_cover_340wI’ve been looking into The Lazy DM (Lazy DM download), and there are some very good tips, but aren’t fully applicable to the kind of campaign I’m currently running. The kind of depth that I’m looking for in the history of the world they slowly uncover simply can’t be extrapolated from a few notes and improvisation (I can’t at least). It requires a bit more prep.

I did one thing in session 19 that I think warrants a pat on the DM-back, and that is letting go of prepared stuff, in favor of moving the plot forward.

When the PCs finished with the mine and returned to the settlement to rest, they discussed what to do next. I had already cut out the attack on the goblin tribe nearby by having the other adventuring party deal with that threat. That also reinforced the meta-theme of colonizing a new land and dealing with the natives. It is brutal, and interesting, how easy the dilemma of wanting to build something in a new land, but faced with enemies and diverging interest, leads to morally questionable choices. In any case, I had mapped the goblin lair and made a few rooms, but they were already too high level, and I would rather follow other, and more important, plot threads.

I also clearly said that the Kuo Toas could be dealt with by others as that adventure also wouldn’t push the plot(s) forward.

But back to the recaps.

Session 19:

The group explored the umber hulk lair and the tunnel from there that lead down to a natural cave, where the ancient miners had begun digging. From that cave they found the first shaft, which they entered the complex through.

0fcf9a3b039cf78b7ab1b984c1a04958
The dragon simulacra had less dangerous breath weapons and only AC 17. 

Finally, they went down to the automaton storage via the unexplored elevator. The automatons didn’t attack, and the room led to the vault. The vault was protected by a security system, including an automatic portcullis, a very intelligent magic mouth that shot frost rays from its eyes and two dragon simulacra of metal that attacked when they tried to pick the lock to the vault.

They succeeded in dispelling the worst of the trap and rapidly killed the simulacra (the damage output, when the party is lucky, is insane). Inside the vault they found their first platemail, a few magic items, including an axe made by giants, and a lot of knowledge. This included letters between two elven sisters and a story about a curse put on an elven family by giants.

Having cleared the mine, they returned to the settlement and spent a month and a half of down time. In that time, they returned to the mine with a few dwarves from the settlement and made an anvil in the mine, so they could setup their own smithy and the druid awakened a couple of beasts to help protect the settlement.

Session 20:

Of the four most interesting options: going after the remaining hags through the portal, visiting the Colourless Bridge, exploring the ruined city and exploring Fort 25, they chose the first.

Before they left, someone scried on the party, and Welk, the wizard with a weird item, knew that to be the case (for some reason).

After the harvest, they returned to the lair of Kinsira, but went a different route, and found a devil trapped in an old building with magic. They decided it would keep until they returned.

When they approached the huge tree stump, they noticed webs in the area that would warn anyone inside of their approach.

Inside the tree, there were apparently giant spiders, and something spoke to them in draconic, demand that they leave. They tried to intimidate it into submitting, but they were unaware that the creature behind the voice had been paid by the two remaining hags for protecting the area.

green_dragon_wyrmling
I liked the idea of having a quite mercenary young dragon, who ran into more dangerous adversaries. 

The spiders eventually attacked together with some ettercaps. At the worst possible moment, for the group, the young green dragon attacked, and its breath weapon drained a lot of hit points from the team (42 to be exact). Unfortunately for them, I rolled a 6 on recharge next round, and gave them another breath, but couldn’t cover them all, and it could have ended in a TPK, but the characters still standing responded with a wall of thorns and a fireball, and when the dragon failed to fell the mighty half-orc fighter the following round, it submitted to the stronger adversary.

Back on their feet, they questioned the dragon and learned a couple of things, including the facts that the eldest of the hags lives in a swamp to the south and the middle sister lives in a crystal forest to the north, and that they are called the Sisters of Sorrow. The group argued about whether to make a deal with this evil dragon about staying there as their ally, but they ended up banishing it, and hoping it will stick to their deal.

Finally, they passed the portal into the Warrens. Inside they found a tortured elf and was almost immediately attacked by animal spirits of beast that Kinsira had conducted her experiments on.

Roll initiative!