A Little Bit of Intrigue

Before we get into the game itself, my friend Joseph and I finally bothered to give the Adventure's League Players Guide a proper read. We discovered that 4th level character can spend downtime days to "catch up" to level 5. So Joseph and Sean opted to spend 20 downtime days to train Thok and Corrin up to level 5. Nathan decided not to take the same option with Censura.

So most of the party is now level 5. What does that mean? First, fifth level marks the start of the "Second Tier" of play. In a more practical sense, our proficiency bonus has gone from +2 to +3. Dedicated warrior classes, such as Sandi, Thok, and (now) Corrin gain a second attack. Dedicated spell casters, such as Alek gain access to third level spells. If I were an arcane caster, that would mean the classic offensive spells lightning bolt and fireball. For Alek, that means spirit guardians, a handy AOE that slows foes near me and deals damage if they move into or start their turn there. I also have access to revivify. It costs 300gp, but it can raise someone if they've been dead less than a minute. I don't have the money for it now, so its not prepared. But I intend to prepare it once I have the money set aside. The last practical effect of fifth level? It's the cap for changing your character in Adventure's League. So Corrin is now set in stone.

We arrived in Waterdeep after two months on the road, and we earned our salaries and a bonus. Plus, I got a bonus for chatting up Edhelri and helping her sell her goods. We tracked down rumor regarding a half-black dragon that had set off from Waterdeep a tenday ago for a road construction site in the Mere of Dead Men to the north. The fact that rumors like this still act as adventure hooks and clues is making the absence of the Streetwise skill (remember, Intelligence (investigate) is more of a Search check, now) noticeable. I don't know if this means the designers were assuming the players would adapt the Gumshoe model, where if a clue is needed the advance the plot, the PCs just find it, no rolling or using resources. However, part of class-based systems like D&D is that each character has a niche, so rolling the skill helps make that player feel their character is being useful. As a general rule, though, I tend to follow the Gumshoe model in my own games, though.

In addition to that rumor, we learned a bit of background information. Apparently the geothermal activity in Neverwinter became critical, a volcano erupted and destroyed the city. It is being rebuilt, and the High Road, which use to run past the Mere of Dead Men now runs through the ever-expanding swamp. So there is constant road work to help supplies reach Neverwinter for the rebuilding project. Naturally, it seems like constant streams of supply caravans are good cover for the treasure the Cult if smuggling.

Being the table's resident Realmslore expert (though I am neither from Canada nor have a beard as magnificent as Ed Greenwood's), I decided that we would spend our free time at the Yawning Portal Inn and wish fellow adventurers luck on their way into Undermountain. There we were contacted by a man named Carlon Amofel, who had the word "Oathbreaker" scarred onto his forehead. He offered us a letter from Leosin, the half-elf monk who sent us north in the first place, with a payment: a 1200gp ruby, and a new mission: track the Cult's smuggling to the Carnath Roadhouse north of Waterdeep in the Mere of Dead Men. Carlon had even secured positions for us as caravan guards on the next caravan out.

Before we left, we learned that several of the travelers from our past caravan were raising money to raise the slain mother and son. We each contributed some money towards the cost of raising the murdered pair, and it was hinted that even if the mother could not be raised, her son, Egan, might prove a valuable NPC if brought back from the dead.

We left with a caravan owned by Ardred Briferhew, and had several small adventures over the Tenday journey to the roadhouse. Also traveling with us were the Cultists themselves, Azbara Jos, the suspected Red Wizard, and Jamna Gleamsilver, the murderous and mischievous gnome. We glossed over these; the group had decided they were tired of random encounters and wanted to move the story along. The only detail was a short conversation between Jamna and Alek where I tried, and failed, to convince her to help raise the murdered family, letting her know they were witnesses who could help her. On day seven, we reached the Mere of Dead Men, a cold weather bayou.

We reached the Karnath Roadhouse, a two story inn around a courtyard. The owner, a half-orc named Bog Luck, did not keep locks on all the doors, claiming that they froze in the cold weather. Instead, he offered us the use of a strong room for our valuables. Like the paranoid people most adventurers are, we opted to keep our valuables with us.

After an uneventful night, Sandi was approached by one of the cultists in the morning. They were still sore about the guards Jamna had murdered and still considered Sandi guilty, and demanded trial by combat. Without any way out, Sandi agreed and chose Thok as his second for the duel. The challenging cultist was a Veteran, and she was joined by a Dragonclaw.

The fight wasn't long, and it demonstrated some of the higher level abilities available to those two characters and how they really make characters more effective. The Dragonclaw, which you may remember as the NPC types guarding the entrance to dragon hatchery, wield two scimitars, have pack tactics, multiattack, and an ability that adds extra dice of damage on attacks that have advantage. In short, they are rocket-tag combat personified.

Thok first used goading strike, one of his favored Battlemaster features, to take away the Dragonclaw's advantage when it first attacked Sandi. Despite this, the first hit was a critical, but it only dealt 11 damage. Even though Sandi had to take a turn to disengage, Thok used another feature from Battlemaster, commander' strike to grant Sandi an extra attack during Thok's turn. Between Thok's and Sandi's attacks, both the not terribly hard to hit Dragonclaw and the tougher to hit Veteran soon fell. Thok was opting to keep the Veteran, who initiated the challenge, alive and dishonored. The (nominally) neutral good Sandi, however, gave in to the cultists egging and murdered the unconscious NPC.

After the duel, Azbara Jos showed up and told the cultists to clear out and get back to work. At that point, several members of the party noticed that Bog Luck had a sword scabbard similar to ones we had seen in the treasure troves at the dragon hatchery back near Greenest. I opted to watch the work crews, and noticed that as they unloaded, Bog Luck would mark certain crates with a red dragon's head and store them in his strong room.

Later that afternoon, Jamna Gleamsilver approached Arranis, whose player, Ethan, had missed the past couple of sessions. She offered the drow the same deal she had offered us: information and assistance. She wanted to meet him in the stables. Arannis consulted with the rest of the party, and we agreed. But first, we had to chase out the stable boys.

We ended up dealing with the youngest stable boy, called Wump, who apparently wanted to join our adventures. We grudgingly agreed, and he chased the other stable boys out. We rewarded Wump with a dagger with the advice that "the pointy end goes in the other guy," and "try not let the other guy put his pointy things into you."

Jamna let us know that she had been into Bog Luck's strong room and found a trap door hidden under a crate. She discovered that during the night, reptilian creatures would emerge from the trap door and remove the marked crates. She let us know that crates were removed during the night, and suggested we investigate the trap door around midnight.

As we were resting, Thok decided to sample some of the "healing" potions Corrin had bought from the old hag. Thok took damage from the first one and belched. So he asked for another. He took even more damage and belched and farted. Corrin decided that it was probably not a good idea to keep those potions.

That night, I used the silence spell to cover our entry into the strong room. We two of the characters in your party where clunky metal armor, it helps to make no noise. We made it in without incident, and Jamna showed us the crate. Beneath was a short shaft that led to a tunnel lined with unlit torched and with reptilian tracks in the ground. We also saw small rodents around.

Jamna offered to watch our backs as we investigated. I commented that she shouldn't strain herself. In retrospect, it was probably not a good idea to make her mad, but even with a possible Zhentarim member as an ally, they're still not terribly trustworthy. As she closed the trap door behind us, we saw the rodents gathering into swarms. While I wasn't there, a rat swarm nearly caused a TPK for the team at first level. So, when we return, we'll see how a higher level party fairs against a swarm.

As I close out, I'm planning to do some expanding on this blog. I'm hoping I can find the time to play and maybe review other RPGs, and maybe even other tabletop games. My preference will be for indie games, especially games from companies based out of Arizona. I'm also planning on featuring some of my fiction.