We concluded the first adventure in the Tyranny of Dragons line the other day. It provided a trial run of D&D 5e and Adventurer's League. Here's some thoughts on the adventure, the new edition, and Adventurer's League.
First, some good things. The new edition has done a few things right. Unlike 4e the classes aren't built homogenously. But the proficiency bonus and short and long rests keep some of the balance that 4e achieved. Although I liked the addition of the personality traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws along with inspiration, we rarely used them, or at least it rarely seemed to come up. Certainly Duane was a bit stingy with inspiration, at least compared with the suggestion on page 240 of the DMG that each player earn it once per session. Considering the value of inspiration-gaining advantage on a roll of the player's choice-I plan on trying to stick closer to that when I run. Of course the advice on inspiration overall in the DMG from pages 240-41 suggests using inspiration to encourage a more narrative play style. As a fan of narrativist gaming myself, I plan on encouraging narrative play. That will come up more when we sit down at the table. This introduction of narrative elements to play is move in the right direction for D&D. Especially the advantage and disadvantage system, removing the old fashioned simulationist screens filled with tables and tables of modifiers and modifiers, represents another move toward narrativist play that I approve of.
Of course, 5e still manages to do classical gamist. Duane used the old fashioned minis and grids. It worked fairly well. I wish that the guides for using grids in the DMG also included better templates for spell areas. Duane ultimately adopted the 4e method that squares/hexes are circles. I think I'll use something closer to the 3.5 method for spherical and cylindrical areas. Despite my love of narrativist play, I also enjoy using grids and minis for combat, mainly because it eliminates ambiguities I've had come up when running combat more "in the mind's eye." Even in more narrative systems I often find that rough maps help visualize combat or other tactical situations.
The main issue that kept coming up again and again were ones of balance. As I said, the 5e classes are no longer homogenous. But their abilities don't always balance, either against each other or against the provided challenge ratings for Monsters or NPCs. We weren't alone in this; I found a thread on the RPG.net forums discussing them. Damning with faint praise: 5e's system is better than 3.5's. Specifically, the 3.5 system was "eye-ball it" for self-made monsters or based off of class levels for NPCs. This meant a 1st level NPC Wizard was CR 1; it was supposed to expend about a quarter of their resources fighting that Wizard. That CR 1 Wizard, if it won initiative, maybe got off a magic missile before being swarmed. The CR 1 Fighter, with a higher AC probably got off more hits. Then at level 10, the CR 10 Wizard burned up half the party with a fireball, then used controlling spells on the Fighter and Cleric to finish the job, while that CR 10 Fighter got swarmed right away.
In the new edition, Challenge is derived from the combat stats: offensive-attack bonus and damage per round and defensive-AC and HP. Those values are read off a table, found on page 274 of the DMG, to determine Challenge. There's a strange caveat, though-the Challenge for a monster or NPC also acts as its "Level" when calculating its proficiency bonus. Although unlikely, this could then affect those stats, mostly attack modifier, which could potentially change its Challenge. Its a strange amalgam of the 3.5 method and the 4e method.
Of course, as I looked back through the adventure, I found that Duane had adjusted encounter numbers and creature types. Sometimes, he even pointed out the changes he made. While it gives us a look at the failure of the CR system, it also seems to suggest that the adventure designers either did a bad job of balancing, or had the balance of monster stats changed on them as they were designing the adventure. The truth is probably somewhere between all those extremes, but Duane gave the designers the benefit of the doubt a laid it at the base of the latter.
Aside from the balance issues, the adventure offered plenty of opportunities for role-playing, investigation, and exploration as it unfolded. Unfortunately, probably as a side effect of the early design, it didn't tie in with the Adventurer's League factions. Duane was able to improvise some good tie-ins, but it was still a disappointment. Fortunately, having read through Princes of the Apocalypse for Elemental Evil, I already know that better tie-ins have been put in for the various factions.
The adventure also had some rather poor editing, again probably due to being rushed. For example, the caverns under Castle Naerytar featured no read aloud text. Other easily caught issues-most typoes plagued the book itself. However, Wizards's willingness to work with a third party publisher-in this case Kobold Press and Sasquatch Games for Princes of the Apocalypse is a good sign for future licensing, which is what helped make 3.0 and 3.5 what they were and what is keeping Pathfinder, Savage Worlds, Apocalypse World, and FATE in the industry. Why is licensing so good? Because it means that designers don't have to reinvent the wheel, just build the chassis with their preferred kind of wheel. Also, players don't need to learn a new engine. Granted, for a system junkie like myself, this means fewer original systems, but for learning curves for new players, it is fantastic.
But this brings us to another unfolding issue with 5e: the line is slow in coming. So far, aside from the core books, the starter set, and the DM screen, only adventures tied into the Adventurer's League have been released. Those adventures were licensed, and Wizards worked with a licensee to produce spell cards and condition markers (with Gale Force Nine, who also produced similar products for Privateer Press's Iron Kingdoms, War Machine, and Hordes games). They also licensed with WizKids to produce minis for both the Tyranny of Dragons and Elemental Evil lines. Last, they released a custom screen for Elemental Evil. The most important thing to distinguish it from the standard screen, which featured a delightful table for a DM to roll on entitled: Something Happens!, is the random encounter table for Princes of the Apocalypse.
Adventures are a good thing, but the line will need more support: I'm waiting for some setting books and splat books. So far the only splatbook release is the Elemental Evil Player's Guide, which is free 25 page PDF at dungeonsanddragons.com. I think periodicals would not be amiss either, even if it is just new digital issues of Dragon and Dungeon supporting the new edition. I suspect some delays at this point have more to do with working with licensees. But an updated Forgotten Realms book will be due soon.
Again, having read through Princes of the Apocalypse it seems free of the typoes and other evidence of rush jobs in Hoard of the Dragon Queen. However, from some eyeballing I've already done, I suspect balance issues will still come up.
Last, but not least, Adventurer's League. It's a good idea, particularly getting players into the FLGS. But some of the structure leaves a bit to be desired. For example, it only covers the first three "Episodes" of Hoard of the Dragon Queen, but you need to reach 5th level before moving on to the next "Phase" of the League, Expeditions. Of course, Expeditions are based in the Moonsea, while Encounters are based in the Sword Coast. So to stay official, you'd need to break off the narrative thread and transplant your characters from one end from the Realms to another. Which is why our group opted to go "unofficial" and stick with the adventure after 5th level.
Also, the rigid structure for downtime in League play is problematic. We only got ten "days" of downtime per episode completed. This meant that at most we could accumulate for downtime days was 70 or 80 for the one adventure. However, in order to accomplish anything useful-I thought it would be a good idea to learn Draconic and Thok would have liked to have made a suit of armor, would require hundreds of downtime days under official 5e rules, which we had to use with Adventurer's League.
Lastly, the official experience rules, where you only get experience for defeating monsters, stunted advancement after a certain point, especially if encounters are being adjusted in numbers and types of creatures on the fly by the DM to maintain playability and balance. Duane adopted a compromise with the milestone system: giving more experience for quests. It gave him more control over advancement pacing, which helped in the final chapters. I have come to find that we were one of the few table sticking as close as possible to the official Adventurer's League rules in our venue-the Isle of Games in Tucson, AZ. This is definitely not an accident. I have a feeling as a DM I'll be straying even further than Duane did.
Overall, though, the game has passed the most important test-the fun one. We had fun playing, and we're ready for more.
Friday, May 29, 2015
Thursday, May 28, 2015
So It Ends: In a Dungeon With A Dragon
We received the benefits of a long rest: full hit points, spell slots, and up to half our total hit dice restored. I made a blunder at this point: I forgot to drop a spell and prepare protection from energy. We'll come back to that later. The giants sketched out a map of the interior of the giant ice block holding up Skyreach Castle. They pointed out where the white dragon Glazhael kept his hoard, a large cavern on a ledge nearby, a network of smaller side passages, and a opening to the air the dragon could try to escape through. Although I had planned on giving Kaskoo a message to send to Leosin, it turns out the winged kobold stuck around; he wanted to help with our lair assault. He did have one bit of information: Glazhael would be celebrating his 101st birthday tomorrow. Sandi realized the significance of that: Glazhael was still a "young" dragon rather than an adult. In D&D, dragons' power levels are broken up by age categories. And from "young" to "adult" is a big upgrade.
So we had to make our attack that day. We planned an entrance into the large cavern over-looking the hoard, and planned to use the wall of fire spell in Censura's newly acquired staff of fire to block off a set of stair guarded by a pair of cultists. Sandi sneaked into the cavern and found the dragon resting on its bed of treasure and heard the guards nearby.. After he returned and before we could begin our assault, we heard other voices-kobolds. A party was taking birthday cake-ice cream cake specifically-to Glazhael to try, while another group was planning on decorating the cavern.
Kaskoo confronted the kobolds coming down the corridor we were skulking in, and convinced them to come back later. We moved into the cavern, but my clinking armor alerted the dragon. We spotted the dragon sampling his ice cream cake-apparently he eats like a pig.
The plan to wall off a portion of the cavern with wall of fire worked swimmingly. The dragonwings, tougher, meaner bigger brothers of the blender machines dragonclaws, had their stairs blocked. The wall is long enough that we decided to have it just follow the stair well. So they were forced to climb a steep wall into the cavern along with the kobolds. This delay turned out to be awesome.
I mentioned I forgot to prepare protection from energy. Glazhael opened by using his breath weapon, a cone of freezing air for white dragons. This bloodied me in one hit and nearly put Thok out of commission. I spent the rest of the battle healing Thok, and rolling very poorly on the healing. Fortunately, the dragon's breath weapon didn't recharge. Unlike 3.5 and earlier, where the DM rolls the duration until a dragon can use its breath weapon again, in 4 & 5, at the beginning of a monster's turn the DM rolls a d6 to determine of the breath weapon recharges. It buts back on book-keeping, and adds a nice little dramatic element. Especially when you make the recharge roll player facing, which Duane did. Fortunately for us, Glazhael never recharged his breath weapon. Thok also managed to taunt the dragon using Charisma (intimidate). So it focused its bite and claws on him. Between his high AC and my healing, he was able to survive.
While I focused on healing, Sandi focused on killing the dragon. Censura used fireballs to clear the kobolds before the could reach us, and also burn the dragon. Thok used a new maneuver: distracting strike which causes the next attack against the target to gain advantage. This made Sandi's job of hitting the dragon easier, but it didn't lead to any critical hits, which was the secondary goal.
At one point, the dragon tried to use an innate spell (an optional ability of dragons in this edition) to levitate Thok. Fortunately, Thok made his saving throw. So Thok kept smashing it with his hammer. At one point, taking advantage of the usefulness of scrolls in this edition, I used a scroll of fireball to injure the climbing dragonwings and hit Glazhael with more fire. I also repositioned so that in case the dragon's breath did recharge, he would have to move to catch both Thok and I in the cone.
In the end, trusty fireball brought down the dragon. The damage roll was low, and the dragon made its save, but it had lost just enough hit points that it was all it took. That last fireball also blooded the dragonwings. The big bad out of the way, we mopped the floor with the remaining enemies-including an urd that had been helping serve the cake to Glazhael and harrying Sandi with falling rocks.
Kaskoo, who had been circling around a side corridor to attack from the rear, never got a blow in. On the other hand, no attacks were made against him either.
The giants thanked us for our service and let us keep the treasure. We had them drop us off at Waterdeep. We made sure the bulk of it got returned to the original owners-minus a reasonable finders' fee of course. Leosin and Onthar Frume, our contacts from earlier in the adventure, mentioned that the Cult of the Dragon was still trying to summon Tiamat. With the black dragon mask in their possession to squirrel away or (preferably) destroy, we had earned a break, but danger still lurked out there. Sandi decided to return to the Duffington's lodge. But Censura, Thok, and I reasoned that we would need to continue the fight to stop the Cult from summoning the Queen of Evil Dragons to the Realms. It is hard to live in the world when its been destroyed, after all.
We decided not to continue with Rise of Tiamat, the concluding adventure in the Tyranny of Dragons line. Duane, the DM, has had some burn out from running encounters and Friday night 4e game. As I mentioned previously, I'll be taking over the DM chair for Princes of the Apocalypse, the adventure for the Elemental Evil line. If your in Tucson, AZ and free on Wednesdays, stop by next week for character creation.
I'll be continuing this blog, but now from the perspective of a DM. Any players wanting to earn extra inspiration are welcome to help keep notes on the sessions so I can focus on running the game.
Tomorrow I'll do a wrap up for this adventure.
So we had to make our attack that day. We planned an entrance into the large cavern over-looking the hoard, and planned to use the wall of fire spell in Censura's newly acquired staff of fire to block off a set of stair guarded by a pair of cultists. Sandi sneaked into the cavern and found the dragon resting on its bed of treasure and heard the guards nearby.. After he returned and before we could begin our assault, we heard other voices-kobolds. A party was taking birthday cake-ice cream cake specifically-to Glazhael to try, while another group was planning on decorating the cavern.
Kaskoo confronted the kobolds coming down the corridor we were skulking in, and convinced them to come back later. We moved into the cavern, but my clinking armor alerted the dragon. We spotted the dragon sampling his ice cream cake-apparently he eats like a pig.
The plan to wall off a portion of the cavern with wall of fire worked swimmingly. The dragonwings, tougher, meaner bigger brothers of the blender machines dragonclaws, had their stairs blocked. The wall is long enough that we decided to have it just follow the stair well. So they were forced to climb a steep wall into the cavern along with the kobolds. This delay turned out to be awesome.
I mentioned I forgot to prepare protection from energy. Glazhael opened by using his breath weapon, a cone of freezing air for white dragons. This bloodied me in one hit and nearly put Thok out of commission. I spent the rest of the battle healing Thok, and rolling very poorly on the healing. Fortunately, the dragon's breath weapon didn't recharge. Unlike 3.5 and earlier, where the DM rolls the duration until a dragon can use its breath weapon again, in 4 & 5, at the beginning of a monster's turn the DM rolls a d6 to determine of the breath weapon recharges. It buts back on book-keeping, and adds a nice little dramatic element. Especially when you make the recharge roll player facing, which Duane did. Fortunately for us, Glazhael never recharged his breath weapon. Thok also managed to taunt the dragon using Charisma (intimidate). So it focused its bite and claws on him. Between his high AC and my healing, he was able to survive.
While I focused on healing, Sandi focused on killing the dragon. Censura used fireballs to clear the kobolds before the could reach us, and also burn the dragon. Thok used a new maneuver: distracting strike which causes the next attack against the target to gain advantage. This made Sandi's job of hitting the dragon easier, but it didn't lead to any critical hits, which was the secondary goal.
At one point, the dragon tried to use an innate spell (an optional ability of dragons in this edition) to levitate Thok. Fortunately, Thok made his saving throw. So Thok kept smashing it with his hammer. At one point, taking advantage of the usefulness of scrolls in this edition, I used a scroll of fireball to injure the climbing dragonwings and hit Glazhael with more fire. I also repositioned so that in case the dragon's breath did recharge, he would have to move to catch both Thok and I in the cone.
In the end, trusty fireball brought down the dragon. The damage roll was low, and the dragon made its save, but it had lost just enough hit points that it was all it took. That last fireball also blooded the dragonwings. The big bad out of the way, we mopped the floor with the remaining enemies-including an urd that had been helping serve the cake to Glazhael and harrying Sandi with falling rocks.
Kaskoo, who had been circling around a side corridor to attack from the rear, never got a blow in. On the other hand, no attacks were made against him either.
The giants thanked us for our service and let us keep the treasure. We had them drop us off at Waterdeep. We made sure the bulk of it got returned to the original owners-minus a reasonable finders' fee of course. Leosin and Onthar Frume, our contacts from earlier in the adventure, mentioned that the Cult of the Dragon was still trying to summon Tiamat. With the black dragon mask in their possession to squirrel away or (preferably) destroy, we had earned a break, but danger still lurked out there. Sandi decided to return to the Duffington's lodge. But Censura, Thok, and I reasoned that we would need to continue the fight to stop the Cult from summoning the Queen of Evil Dragons to the Realms. It is hard to live in the world when its been destroyed, after all.
We decided not to continue with Rise of Tiamat, the concluding adventure in the Tyranny of Dragons line. Duane, the DM, has had some burn out from running encounters and Friday night 4e game. As I mentioned previously, I'll be taking over the DM chair for Princes of the Apocalypse, the adventure for the Elemental Evil line. If your in Tucson, AZ and free on Wednesdays, stop by next week for character creation.
I'll be continuing this blog, but now from the perspective of a DM. Any players wanting to earn extra inspiration are welcome to help keep notes on the sessions so I can focus on running the game.
Tomorrow I'll do a wrap up for this adventure.
Friday, May 22, 2015
Rezmir: 0, Us: Won!
The battle continued!
Sandi spotted the door to Rezmir's chamber opening, and heard a voice speak a few words in draconic: "Fang...claws...go check!" followed by "Smell smoke...heard noise...check for intruders." He spotted a guard drake approaching. Sandi took a shot, causing the drake to alert the speaker, Resmir, who ordered it to get the other cultists. They spent their first couple of turns trying to open one of the giant-sized doors. This proved difficult for the two dog-like dragons lacking an upright posture and oppose-able thumbs.
We heard another voice coming from the chamber, this one claiming to be Lord Duffington. He called out for help before being slapped and told to quiet down. Afterwards, Rezmir emerged and engaged us with her black dragon mask donned and carrying a black-bladed greatsword that she addressed as "Hazirawn" before engaging us.
Rezmir's mask gave her a monstrous feature new to this edition: legendary actions. Legendary creatures, which is to say, creatures with access to legendary actions, fill a niche similar to solos from 4e. The legendary actions let them take extra actions, usually attacks, but sometimes other options, at the end of other creature's turns. They also gain access to a feature called Legendary Resistance, which allows them to declare a failed saving throw to be successful. She only managed to use one during the engagement, reducing the damage from a spirit guardians hit.
Not long after Rezmir appeared, a female stone giant, Hulda, appeared. She asked why we were fighting the drakes. Censura managed to bluff her into believing that the drakes were diseased and needed to be put down before spreading the plague. Hulda offered to help in return for magic items. On my turn I offered my wand of winter and Rezmir's sword as payment. It turns out Hulda's husband Wigluf always wanted a wand and she always wanted Rezmir's sword. She agreed that she and her husband would attack anything attacking us.
This was fortunate. Just about them a drake managed to open the door enough to slip out. The stone giants intercepted it in the courtyard and put it down.
In the meantime, we focused fire on Rezmir. Thok managed to keep her attacks focused on him using maneuvers like goading attack and his protection fighting style. I kept her in range of spirit guardians and managed to make my Constitution save whenever an attack managed to hit me. Sandi, of course, used his bow. And Censura blasted away. We managed to drop Rezmir and the other guard drake.
Before the battle truly ended-the other drake was still being intercepted by the giants-I peaked into Rezmir's chamber and spotted Lord Duffington. I went in to help him, only to be attacked by a rug of smothering right inside the door. This particular cursed item is actually statted out as a creature in the Monster Manual along with animated armor and flying swords. They are fairly low level, though, so it ended up being more of a speed bump than a challenge. I still asked Lord Duffington why he failed to warn me about it. He said he just had not seen it attack before.
Afterwards, we had a short conversation with Hulda and Wigluf as we gathered the items to give them from Rezmir's corpse. Censura was the first to pick up the greatsword Hazirawn. It started talking to him telepathically. It did not seem to mind being given to the stone giants. Thok kept the black dragon mask. Wigluf and Hilda offered to let us rest in their chamber and set to making stew while we finished looting Rezmir's chamber and the Red Wizards' chamber. Rezmir had a chest in her chamber, but like the one in Castle Naerytar, it was trapped. First, there was a needle trap that hit Thok hard enough to knock him unconscious. It also had magic teleportation effect on it that whisked away the valuables within.
Fortunately, the Red Wizards and their chamber had more than enough to make up for it: several scrolls and a staff of fire. We also found letters from Rath Modar to Severin, the leader of the Cult of the Dragon. We also found letters from other Red Wizards back in Thay. We learned about the alliance between the Red Wizards and the cult. We also learned that not all of the Red Wizards were happy with the alliance and its goals. Last, we found a tome of devil lore, including various rituals to summon devils. It contained a description of a powerful ritual to summon Tiamat, the Queen of Evil Dragon herself, from the Nine Hells. It required a lot of sacrifices, including a large amount of treasure. However, the book did not have any further details or specifics on how the ritual is performed.
Hulda and Wiglaf got us an audience with Blagothkus. We took a short rest and met with the cloud giant. Some excellent role-playing and good rolls from Thok and myself managed to earn us an alliance with the giants contingent on us defeating the white dragon. Blagothkus agreed to offer us save haven to take a long rest, and a chance to recover Kaskoo from the kitchens.
We were fortunate, discovering that Kaskoo was a winged kobold. I used him to deliver a message of our impending success for Leosin back in Parnast.
Next time we'll be entering the dragon's lair.
That will conclude our play of Tyranny of Dragons. The week after that we'll be started Elemental Evil. I'll be taking over DM duties so DJ can get a chance to create a PC and play. Any readers out there in Tucson are welcome to come join. The table will be open to new players and will need them.
Sandi spotted the door to Rezmir's chamber opening, and heard a voice speak a few words in draconic: "Fang...claws...go check!" followed by "Smell smoke...heard noise...check for intruders." He spotted a guard drake approaching. Sandi took a shot, causing the drake to alert the speaker, Resmir, who ordered it to get the other cultists. They spent their first couple of turns trying to open one of the giant-sized doors. This proved difficult for the two dog-like dragons lacking an upright posture and oppose-able thumbs.
We heard another voice coming from the chamber, this one claiming to be Lord Duffington. He called out for help before being slapped and told to quiet down. Afterwards, Rezmir emerged and engaged us with her black dragon mask donned and carrying a black-bladed greatsword that she addressed as "Hazirawn" before engaging us.
Rezmir's mask gave her a monstrous feature new to this edition: legendary actions. Legendary creatures, which is to say, creatures with access to legendary actions, fill a niche similar to solos from 4e. The legendary actions let them take extra actions, usually attacks, but sometimes other options, at the end of other creature's turns. They also gain access to a feature called Legendary Resistance, which allows them to declare a failed saving throw to be successful. She only managed to use one during the engagement, reducing the damage from a spirit guardians hit.
Not long after Rezmir appeared, a female stone giant, Hulda, appeared. She asked why we were fighting the drakes. Censura managed to bluff her into believing that the drakes were diseased and needed to be put down before spreading the plague. Hulda offered to help in return for magic items. On my turn I offered my wand of winter and Rezmir's sword as payment. It turns out Hulda's husband Wigluf always wanted a wand and she always wanted Rezmir's sword. She agreed that she and her husband would attack anything attacking us.
This was fortunate. Just about them a drake managed to open the door enough to slip out. The stone giants intercepted it in the courtyard and put it down.
In the meantime, we focused fire on Rezmir. Thok managed to keep her attacks focused on him using maneuvers like goading attack and his protection fighting style. I kept her in range of spirit guardians and managed to make my Constitution save whenever an attack managed to hit me. Sandi, of course, used his bow. And Censura blasted away. We managed to drop Rezmir and the other guard drake.
Before the battle truly ended-the other drake was still being intercepted by the giants-I peaked into Rezmir's chamber and spotted Lord Duffington. I went in to help him, only to be attacked by a rug of smothering right inside the door. This particular cursed item is actually statted out as a creature in the Monster Manual along with animated armor and flying swords. They are fairly low level, though, so it ended up being more of a speed bump than a challenge. I still asked Lord Duffington why he failed to warn me about it. He said he just had not seen it attack before.
Afterwards, we had a short conversation with Hulda and Wigluf as we gathered the items to give them from Rezmir's corpse. Censura was the first to pick up the greatsword Hazirawn. It started talking to him telepathically. It did not seem to mind being given to the stone giants. Thok kept the black dragon mask. Wigluf and Hilda offered to let us rest in their chamber and set to making stew while we finished looting Rezmir's chamber and the Red Wizards' chamber. Rezmir had a chest in her chamber, but like the one in Castle Naerytar, it was trapped. First, there was a needle trap that hit Thok hard enough to knock him unconscious. It also had magic teleportation effect on it that whisked away the valuables within.
Fortunately, the Red Wizards and their chamber had more than enough to make up for it: several scrolls and a staff of fire. We also found letters from Rath Modar to Severin, the leader of the Cult of the Dragon. We also found letters from other Red Wizards back in Thay. We learned about the alliance between the Red Wizards and the cult. We also learned that not all of the Red Wizards were happy with the alliance and its goals. Last, we found a tome of devil lore, including various rituals to summon devils. It contained a description of a powerful ritual to summon Tiamat, the Queen of Evil Dragon herself, from the Nine Hells. It required a lot of sacrifices, including a large amount of treasure. However, the book did not have any further details or specifics on how the ritual is performed.
Hulda and Wiglaf got us an audience with Blagothkus. We took a short rest and met with the cloud giant. Some excellent role-playing and good rolls from Thok and myself managed to earn us an alliance with the giants contingent on us defeating the white dragon. Blagothkus agreed to offer us save haven to take a long rest, and a chance to recover Kaskoo from the kitchens.
We were fortunate, discovering that Kaskoo was a winged kobold. I used him to deliver a message of our impending success for Leosin back in Parnast.
Next time we'll be entering the dragon's lair.
That will conclude our play of Tyranny of Dragons. The week after that we'll be started Elemental Evil. I'll be taking over DM duties so DJ can get a chance to create a PC and play. Any readers out there in Tucson are welcome to come join. The table will be open to new players and will need them.
Friday, May 15, 2015
Into the Castle in the Sky
Gundalin the wainwright pulled us aside, helped us dispose of the bodies, and gave us advice on how to plan our entrance in Skyreach Castle. It turned out that Gunadlin was Leosin Erlanthar in disguise. He had been able to infiltrate the town and gather some information in the months since we had seen him. We were able to relax enough to get a short rest in while we discussed his intelligence to formulate a plan.
The castle belonged to cloud giants led by a giant called Blagothkus. Apparently, the ghost of his wife is the force that helps keep the castle a-float and the giants commune with it to steer it. The giants are cooperating with, but not overly fond of, the Cult of the Dragon. We also learned that the dragons used ogres as foot soldiers, and he advised us not to antagonize them. Later, he mentioned that one of the denizens of the castle is a vampire that helps guard it at night. He mentioned that the vampire fed off the ogres, so taking it out might ingratiate ourselves with the ogre. He also mentioned that Blagothkus kept a pet griffin, and advised us not to attack it. Blagothkus also had a pair of stone giants, a male and female, in the castle, and Leosin let us know that it would be inadvisable to attack them. He let us know that we might need perform a service for Blagothkus to earn his favor-such as taking out the cultists or killing the dragon.
Yes, this flying castle built of magic ice enchanted to be as hard as stone has a dragon. An adult white dragon called Glazhael. For those not familiar with D&D's iconic dragons, white dragons dwell in arctic places and breath cold. They're generally the weakest and least intelligent of the dragons. That said, they're still powerful and dangerous. He mentioned that Glazhael is a prideful monster, and we might be able to convince it to not try and turn us into adventurer-cicles by flattering it. He mentioned that it lived in caves in the glacial ice serving as the castle's flying foundation.
Leosin explained the basic layout of the castle-a lower courtyard where the cultist dwelt and an upper courtyard where the giants lived. The exception being some ogres manning the guard towers at the main gate in the lower courtyard, the stone giants dwelling near the cultist leaders, and Blagothkus's griffin. Rezmir and two Red Wizard emissaries, Azbara Jos and Rath Modar, were living in a building at one corner of the courtyard while the remaining cultists were in a barracks on the opposite corner. The cultists, following their standard operating procedure, kept some kobold servants in another building. This is where Leosin's inside source was staying: a kobold named Kaskoo, distinguished by wearing a yellow and purple striped skull cap. Leosin gave us a code phrase to make contact with Kaskoo: "Hey there purple and yellow fellow."
We had two options for entering the castle: through the front door using pass phrases: either "Hail Blagothkus" or "Tiamat, our mother and strength." The second one required and accompanying gesture: opening the hand and displaying all five fingers, palm up. He mentioned we could also flying in on wyverns, but he advised me might want a cultist banner if we tried that. It turns out that Thok has a torn and muddied banner. He decided to wash it up during our discussion.
Leosin gave us some options for how to approach the castle once inside. His first suggestion was to try and stealthily take out the cult leaders, then seek out Blagothkus for an audience. Leosin also told us we could approach Blagothkus directly, but he might not take kindly to "little folk" just showing up. Leosin also said that we could try and get into the pilot tower by stealth and try communing with the ghost of Escarlotta, Blagothkus's late wife, to try and gain control of the castle.
We finished our short rest our short rest, and ran to catch up to the castle just as it was lifting off. Thok and I needed to give Sandi and Censura a helping hand up. We passed the ogres with the pass phrase and went for Rezmir and the Red Wizards. Despite the over-sized doors, between Thok's athleticism and me being a largish human in full plate armor, we got into the suit of rooms without alerting anyone. We found an unused guest room before running into the Red Wizards. Unfortunately, a bed Stealth roll alerted them as we were opening the door, so we couldn't get in a surprise round.
Spellcasters are tough to fight, especially if they can get a higher initiative, which these two wizards did. Rath Modar managed to drop a fireball, and it took the largest bite out of Sandi and me. Far more annoying was Azbara. He used globe of invulnerability, a notoriously complicated but powerful spell. In this edition it negates spells cast from outside the globe. This seems a bit vague for areas originating outside the globe even if the caster is inside. The DM ruled that the fireball still hit Thok, who was inside the globe, because the caster was in the globe also, even though the point of origin for the area was outside the globe. Fortunately, we managed to disrupt Azbara's concentration, and he lost the globe.
Then Azbara hit us with a more controllery confusion. Unfortunately, through a series of bad rolls, it affected everyone. However, we managed to avoid some of the more terrible effects of the spell before disrupting his concentration on that. After we dropped Rath and bloodied Azbara, he threw up an illusion and tried to run for it. The wizards' room in the castle and a porch open to the air where they could have fled from via fly. Thok spotted his invisible form, and we managed to drop him. However, he screamed for help, and the DM warned us that someone may have heard it.
Looks like we'll have a final confrontation with Rezmir next time.
Since we are coming to a close of Hoard of the Dragon Queen, we'll be starting the elemental evil story line soon. However, I'll be running the game this time. Its been a while since I've had a chance to run a game. I'm looking forward to it.
The castle belonged to cloud giants led by a giant called Blagothkus. Apparently, the ghost of his wife is the force that helps keep the castle a-float and the giants commune with it to steer it. The giants are cooperating with, but not overly fond of, the Cult of the Dragon. We also learned that the dragons used ogres as foot soldiers, and he advised us not to antagonize them. Later, he mentioned that one of the denizens of the castle is a vampire that helps guard it at night. He mentioned that the vampire fed off the ogres, so taking it out might ingratiate ourselves with the ogre. He also mentioned that Blagothkus kept a pet griffin, and advised us not to attack it. Blagothkus also had a pair of stone giants, a male and female, in the castle, and Leosin let us know that it would be inadvisable to attack them. He let us know that we might need perform a service for Blagothkus to earn his favor-such as taking out the cultists or killing the dragon.
Yes, this flying castle built of magic ice enchanted to be as hard as stone has a dragon. An adult white dragon called Glazhael. For those not familiar with D&D's iconic dragons, white dragons dwell in arctic places and breath cold. They're generally the weakest and least intelligent of the dragons. That said, they're still powerful and dangerous. He mentioned that Glazhael is a prideful monster, and we might be able to convince it to not try and turn us into adventurer-cicles by flattering it. He mentioned that it lived in caves in the glacial ice serving as the castle's flying foundation.
Leosin explained the basic layout of the castle-a lower courtyard where the cultist dwelt and an upper courtyard where the giants lived. The exception being some ogres manning the guard towers at the main gate in the lower courtyard, the stone giants dwelling near the cultist leaders, and Blagothkus's griffin. Rezmir and two Red Wizard emissaries, Azbara Jos and Rath Modar, were living in a building at one corner of the courtyard while the remaining cultists were in a barracks on the opposite corner. The cultists, following their standard operating procedure, kept some kobold servants in another building. This is where Leosin's inside source was staying: a kobold named Kaskoo, distinguished by wearing a yellow and purple striped skull cap. Leosin gave us a code phrase to make contact with Kaskoo: "Hey there purple and yellow fellow."
We had two options for entering the castle: through the front door using pass phrases: either "Hail Blagothkus" or "Tiamat, our mother and strength." The second one required and accompanying gesture: opening the hand and displaying all five fingers, palm up. He mentioned we could also flying in on wyverns, but he advised me might want a cultist banner if we tried that. It turns out that Thok has a torn and muddied banner. He decided to wash it up during our discussion.
Leosin gave us some options for how to approach the castle once inside. His first suggestion was to try and stealthily take out the cult leaders, then seek out Blagothkus for an audience. Leosin also told us we could approach Blagothkus directly, but he might not take kindly to "little folk" just showing up. Leosin also said that we could try and get into the pilot tower by stealth and try communing with the ghost of Escarlotta, Blagothkus's late wife, to try and gain control of the castle.
We finished our short rest our short rest, and ran to catch up to the castle just as it was lifting off. Thok and I needed to give Sandi and Censura a helping hand up. We passed the ogres with the pass phrase and went for Rezmir and the Red Wizards. Despite the over-sized doors, between Thok's athleticism and me being a largish human in full plate armor, we got into the suit of rooms without alerting anyone. We found an unused guest room before running into the Red Wizards. Unfortunately, a bed Stealth roll alerted them as we were opening the door, so we couldn't get in a surprise round.
Spellcasters are tough to fight, especially if they can get a higher initiative, which these two wizards did. Rath Modar managed to drop a fireball, and it took the largest bite out of Sandi and me. Far more annoying was Azbara. He used globe of invulnerability, a notoriously complicated but powerful spell. In this edition it negates spells cast from outside the globe. This seems a bit vague for areas originating outside the globe even if the caster is inside. The DM ruled that the fireball still hit Thok, who was inside the globe, because the caster was in the globe also, even though the point of origin for the area was outside the globe. Fortunately, we managed to disrupt Azbara's concentration, and he lost the globe.
Then Azbara hit us with a more controllery confusion. Unfortunately, through a series of bad rolls, it affected everyone. However, we managed to avoid some of the more terrible effects of the spell before disrupting his concentration on that. After we dropped Rath and bloodied Azbara, he threw up an illusion and tried to run for it. The wizards' room in the castle and a porch open to the air where they could have fled from via fly. Thok spotted his invisible form, and we managed to drop him. However, he screamed for help, and the DM warned us that someone may have heard it.
Looks like we'll have a final confrontation with Rezmir next time.
Since we are coming to a close of Hoard of the Dragon Queen, we'll be starting the elemental evil story line soon. However, I'll be running the game this time. Its been a while since I've had a chance to run a game. I'm looking forward to it.
Thursday, May 7, 2015
On to Parnast
We finished our exploration of the second floor of the lodge, along with judicious adventurous looting. We found some gems and valuables, plus a set of chain mail +1. Thok took the armor, even though it was a horizontal upgrade (same AC, but now the armor was shiny and magical) rather than a vertical one. We gave some of the treasure to Madam Duffington for the damages done to her lodge.
Having finished our task, Madam Duffington invited us to supper along with Craggnor and our two other captured cultists. We had the opportunity to wash up prior to the meal, but Craggnor declined the offer. We managed to get Craggnor to offer to take us to the town he had mentioned, Parnast, the next day, but he said we could wait until late in the morning.
Not long after dessert was offered, the servants pinned Craggnor and slit his throat, Red Wedding style. We took the other two cultists outside to finish the job. We tried to bargain with them for directions to Parnast, but the Duffington's master hunter came out to oversee us. Sandi ended up killing one of the cultists while Thok injured the other and let the perytons living on the lodge roof finish him off. The huntsman offered to take us to Parnast the next day, letting us know that the dwarf's offer to take us late meant that we should get started early.
Before heading to bed, we were offered some brandy to help us sleep. Most of us declined to the offer, seeing as how we just saw the NPCs offering it murder some people.
Before we left, Brother Caemon mentioned that he was heading back to Waterdeep. He offered to take Egan's body to arrange for another raise dead, claiming he could get us the spell for 400gp, so we each chipped in 100gp. I also gave him some cash and valuables, asking that he get me some diamonds and diamond dust for some of my spells.
The first is revivify, a third level spell that can bring someone back from the dead provided they've been dead less than a minute. It uses 300gp worth of diamonds every casting. The other was a new spell I had gained access to upon reaching 7th level. One of my domain's granted spells is stoneskin, which uses 100gp in diamong dust per casting and grants resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from non-magical sources. Remember, in this edition resistance just means that all damage is halved. I also gained freedom of movement from my domain. I also added stoneshape with the new slot for spell preparation I gained from leveling-up. My primary hope for that spell is to be able to make doors where there were no doors before.
As we journeyed through the wilderness, we rolled dice to see if Angreth the hunter new various clues to help us while in Parnast. We had a 50% per roll and we got four out of eight clues. We learned that Captain Othelstan was the cultists' main muscle in town along with some town guards. He let us know that many of the villagers had turned to the cult, either through intimidation or bribery. He also let us know that village hosted a stable of wyverns that we would probably need to ride to reach the flying castle. His final clue was that the only trustworthy villager was Gundalin the Wainwright.
We reached the village and bid farewell to Angreth. We began our search for Gunalin, claiming that our wagon had broken down outside of the village, and we needed it repaired to join a caravan travelling along the Black Road to the shades' city of Netheril in the Anauroch desert. The Innkeeper waylaid us and offered us a meal while one of his staff fetched Gundalin. We even included a tip to try and speed up the process. Unfortunately, we ended up sitting around for half and hour. Censura left the tavern and ran into Captain Othalstin and his cronies, who were looking for blood. At about this time the Innkeeper pulled out weapons of his own, and a battle started.
Sandi joined Censura outside while Thok and I fought in the tavern. Censura used his newest spell: fire shield. This classic caster buff grants resistance to either fire or cold damage and inflicts damage on enemies that hit you in melee with the opposite damage that you have resistance to. In this edition, it lasts 10 minutes, does not require concentration, and has a base damage of 2d8. Censura, being Censura, opted for resistance to cold to inflict fire damage. The enemies wisely decided to open with ranged attacks. They also moved into position to get a fireball dropped on them, killing all the guards outside and leaving Othelstan singed. So much for a quiet entrance.
Captain Othelstan had one final trick: after retribution from the fire shield and a casting of hellish rebuke brought him down, he called out to Tiamat had gained some hit points for another round of battle.
At about this time, Thok and I were finishing the Innkeeper and the guards still in the tavern, and some reinforcements, in the form of three dragonclaws, showed up. The dragonclaws stayed outside to handle Sandi and Censura. Thok and I joined the party outside while Sandi and Censura dropped two of the three dragonclaws and bloodied the third. The third tried to flee, but we got it before he could escape and raise an alarm.
As the dust settled, a villager came up and identified himself as Gundalin.
Having finished our task, Madam Duffington invited us to supper along with Craggnor and our two other captured cultists. We had the opportunity to wash up prior to the meal, but Craggnor declined the offer. We managed to get Craggnor to offer to take us to the town he had mentioned, Parnast, the next day, but he said we could wait until late in the morning.
Not long after dessert was offered, the servants pinned Craggnor and slit his throat, Red Wedding style. We took the other two cultists outside to finish the job. We tried to bargain with them for directions to Parnast, but the Duffington's master hunter came out to oversee us. Sandi ended up killing one of the cultists while Thok injured the other and let the perytons living on the lodge roof finish him off. The huntsman offered to take us to Parnast the next day, letting us know that the dwarf's offer to take us late meant that we should get started early.
Before heading to bed, we were offered some brandy to help us sleep. Most of us declined to the offer, seeing as how we just saw the NPCs offering it murder some people.
Before we left, Brother Caemon mentioned that he was heading back to Waterdeep. He offered to take Egan's body to arrange for another raise dead, claiming he could get us the spell for 400gp, so we each chipped in 100gp. I also gave him some cash and valuables, asking that he get me some diamonds and diamond dust for some of my spells.
The first is revivify, a third level spell that can bring someone back from the dead provided they've been dead less than a minute. It uses 300gp worth of diamonds every casting. The other was a new spell I had gained access to upon reaching 7th level. One of my domain's granted spells is stoneskin, which uses 100gp in diamong dust per casting and grants resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from non-magical sources. Remember, in this edition resistance just means that all damage is halved. I also gained freedom of movement from my domain. I also added stoneshape with the new slot for spell preparation I gained from leveling-up. My primary hope for that spell is to be able to make doors where there were no doors before.
As we journeyed through the wilderness, we rolled dice to see if Angreth the hunter new various clues to help us while in Parnast. We had a 50% per roll and we got four out of eight clues. We learned that Captain Othelstan was the cultists' main muscle in town along with some town guards. He let us know that many of the villagers had turned to the cult, either through intimidation or bribery. He also let us know that village hosted a stable of wyverns that we would probably need to ride to reach the flying castle. His final clue was that the only trustworthy villager was Gundalin the Wainwright.
We reached the village and bid farewell to Angreth. We began our search for Gunalin, claiming that our wagon had broken down outside of the village, and we needed it repaired to join a caravan travelling along the Black Road to the shades' city of Netheril in the Anauroch desert. The Innkeeper waylaid us and offered us a meal while one of his staff fetched Gundalin. We even included a tip to try and speed up the process. Unfortunately, we ended up sitting around for half and hour. Censura left the tavern and ran into Captain Othalstin and his cronies, who were looking for blood. At about this time the Innkeeper pulled out weapons of his own, and a battle started.
Sandi joined Censura outside while Thok and I fought in the tavern. Censura used his newest spell: fire shield. This classic caster buff grants resistance to either fire or cold damage and inflicts damage on enemies that hit you in melee with the opposite damage that you have resistance to. In this edition, it lasts 10 minutes, does not require concentration, and has a base damage of 2d8. Censura, being Censura, opted for resistance to cold to inflict fire damage. The enemies wisely decided to open with ranged attacks. They also moved into position to get a fireball dropped on them, killing all the guards outside and leaving Othelstan singed. So much for a quiet entrance.
Captain Othelstan had one final trick: after retribution from the fire shield and a casting of hellish rebuke brought him down, he called out to Tiamat had gained some hit points for another round of battle.
At about this time, Thok and I were finishing the Innkeeper and the guards still in the tavern, and some reinforcements, in the form of three dragonclaws, showed up. The dragonclaws stayed outside to handle Sandi and Censura. Thok and I joined the party outside while Sandi and Censura dropped two of the three dragonclaws and bloodied the third. The third tried to flee, but we got it before he could escape and raise an alarm.
As the dust settled, a villager came up and identified himself as Gundalin.
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