Tag: exploration

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.“

 

 

 

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.
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Session 22 & 23: The Crystal Pinnacle

These were two relatively encounter heavy session, where the characters enter the lair of the (buffed) hag Arasekha, but sessions, where they sacrifice important things to gain knowledge that will move the plot forward.

Sacrifices for Oracle

We began the session by the well, where Xarzon, whom the paladin identifies as being a celestial, still sits waiting for them to leave, so he can use the oracle himself.

There are seven players present, so when the player of Korrick, the dwarf fighter/bard, asks Xarzon, what you must sacrifice to learn something, not everyone hears. That becomes important.

Korrick decides to sacrifice his new Ring of Protection +1 to the spirit in the well, and the huge spirit emerges from the well and answers Korricks question on the nature of the curse that afflicts his clan (more on that later).

A little later, the gnome rogue, who together with the group’s wizard stole some sort of item from the monastery the wizard grew up in, decides to do the same, but choses to sacrifice 30 silver and some blood. Obviously, 30 silver is far from enough, so the spirit snatches some of the offered life force and the gnome is deducted 5 hit points – permanently.

Both characters got some relevant information that potentially will change the future decisions they might make.

green_hag-5e
The green hag of the MM was too weak. Arasekha was a 10th level diviner, with extra HP and Lair Actions. Her older sister is worse.

The lair of Arasekha

The group then continues and find the exit to the lair of Arasekha, and when they pass through the portal, they emerge on a platform suspended more than 100 feet above the crystal forest on the side of a huge crystal spire (300 feet high). They are immediately attacked by a group of flying crystalline creatures, and they take some punishment. They dare a short rest, hoping that the witch hasn’t set an alarm, and succeed.

Exploring the pinnacle, which is a maze of hard to navigate crystal halls and corridors with multiple reflections of everything, they first find a garden of crystal plants with an elven caretaker. He is pruning the plants with a mithral dagger. They engage him in conversation, and he stalls until “his” minions arrive. Three groups of crystallized centaurs and hobgoblins charge towards the room. The elf turns out to be some form of simulacra and he shatters when hit, and the minions are engaged with fireballs and other potent magic, and fall before the group.

They push on and enter a large room where a group of crystallized hobgoblins are experimenting with the crystal. And we end session 22, ready to roll initiative.

Session 23

The following session the group fights the hobgoblin laboratory workers and a crystallized deranged hill giant. They defeat them without too much trouble and find hobgoblins immersed in a solution, which seems to expedite the growth of crystal, and an elven prisoner, who is mostly infected with the crystal, which seems to be spreading like an infection. She begs them to kill her and find her imprisoned brother.

The leader Jarn decides to try and find the prisoner, before they deal with the witch. They succeed and locate him together with two centaurs. After the jailers attack, and are defeated they make for the tip of the pinnacle.

At the top they find Arasekha, who is guarded by a couple of crystalline elves in a small throne room. A battle begins, and she summons simulacra of herself to divert their attention, while casting wall of fire and other spells. The group responds with all they have, using summoned panthers to attack the simulacra, to locate her true self. After a fierce struggle they defeat her, loot her sanctum of spells, her Staff of the Seer and a few other items, including a very finely made mechanical beetle.

The spire begins to collapse, and when they reach the portal, it collapses. The Warlock use his feather fall spell to let them escape, without having to brave the collapsing spire. When the session (and 2016) ends, the group find themselves in a crystal forest 100s of miles from their settlement.

What went well:

  • The crystal spire was an evocative setting, and with five major rooms/encounters it also had the right size.
  • The final battle with Araskeha was fun and had good features, lair actions and odd surprises in it.
  • The use of the oracle helped propel the plot forward based on player actions.

What could I have done differently:

  • I should have used Arasekhas ability to speak and act through the crystal even more to make her even more evocative and interesting.
  • Her minions at the final battle should have been just a bit tougher to make the encounter a little more challenging.

 

 

 

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.

Exploration Experience Model

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I intend to introduce a different experience model in my D&D campaign.

To support the exploration theme of the campaign and to encourage non-combat solutions and a varied approach to encounters, I will grant experience using a variation from the standard monster awards. Awards for exploring will be the main source of xp, while surviving significant encounters – not defeating enemies – will be the secondary source.

Exploration Awards:

It should be important for the group to go out and explore and discover the world around them. Finding strange new magic, travelling across unknown lands, recovering rare magical items, discovering new places, ancient ruins and cultures and delving into the history, myth and legends of the unknown continent is a significant part of learning and personal growth. Therefore these types of discoveries are awarded with experience according to the XP Threshold by Character Level (DMG pg. 82). The

old-compass-map-9089915
As my campaign takes place on a – for the characters – completely unknown continent, exploration is a key element.

significance of the discovery determines the difficulty and the character level is the average of the group. It will be a main source of experience for the characters.

The following types of discoveries results in experience awards. It is not a definitive list, but a guideline. It has the slight problem that finding the rarer magical items is easier in the later half of the campaign, which means they will higher experience awards when rare and very rare items are more accessible.

Easy: Discovering a minor unknown location, finding a minor or uncommon magic item, discovering minor historical information or finding one or more low level spells.

Medium: Finding a rare magical item, discovering a significant location, portal or dungeon, meeting important societal figures for the first time, uncovering important historical information, figuring out a plot or plan, finding valuable historical artifacts or medium level spells.

Hard: Encountering a new culture for the first time, discovering a major ruin or location, recovering a very rare or legendary magical item, discovering a nation threatening evil plot, finding a demi-plane or a new safe(ish) path through the Warrens, uncovering a major historical truth, fact or secret and finding high level spells.

Deadly: Being the first to make contact with a new nation or state, discovering a central ruin or location (such as a capital city, legendary dungeon or unknown plane of existence), learning a potentially world altering truth, a paradigm shifting fact or an ancient and dangerous secret or recovering an artifact.

Surviving Encounters:
Whenever the group survives a significant encounter the group is awarded

CoC_55
Sometimes running like hell should be considered.

experience worth around 25% of the standard approximate value. A series or easy combat encounters could result in an award as well, as the attrition is what makes encounters in D&D very dangerous. This method serves both a purpose for the fiction, the meta-game and for my preparation.
1) In the fiction, I would like the adventurers to not know what level of difficulty opponents that they are facing, and have them use whatever approach they see as optimal to resolve it, and get rewarded for it no matter how that turns out.

2) On a meta-level I would like to avoid the characters charging into every situation simply to earn experience. As when you use the standard system the defeat of the opposition is the only option.

3) On a preparation level, I would like to avoid going through all the calculations to find the encounter difficulty, or to find the monster experience level, when designing or re-working a creature. It is anyways quite inaccurate in my experience when have a large number of player characters.

Is 25% the right amount? Time will tell!

Participation Award:
I will award a medium difficulty award to everyone turning up for a 4 hour gaming session. It will ensure some advancement no matter what happens, and add to the overall speed of advancement, which I think will be somewhat slower using this model.

I intend to see how it goes and adjust accordingly. Any feedback or suggestions are also more than welcome!