Bloodsuckers and Undead

When the group gathered, we were short three players: Rick, Joseph, and Nathan, but we welcomed two new players: Adam, who played a Dragonborn Sorcerer named Medrash, and Michael, who played a Dwarf Cleric named Eric.

Dragonborn are a race of dragon-descended humanoids added in 4e. They get bonuses to Charisma and Strength and have breath weapons based on their draconic heritage. They are similar to, but not evil or as magically powerful as draconians from the Dragonlance setting.

So we back-tracked a bit to insert the new characters. Varis, Hos Kadeem and Eric opted to hang back and act as a rear guard while the rest went into Tricklerock Cave. There, they found Eric and Medrash already looking for treasure. T hen the stirges attacked. Unfortunately, my dice had it in for the poor cleric that day, so two striges managed to drop the party's healer on their first turn. The rest had less success. The original encounter called for 4 stirges, but at d4 hit points each, I figured they would have one turn to act, so I upped the total to equal part size +1 (in the case 7).

I was correct in my estimation: one their turns, the players managed to drop the stirges rapidly and Ander stabilized and healed Eric using the Paladin's Lay on Hands feature.

Once the characters defeated the monsters, they had a chance to comb the cave for treasure, and found none. A group Insight check revealed that the PCs had been duped and sent on a fool's errand. They returned to town, arriving late in the evening, so they had no opportunities to investigate until the next day. Still, the innkeeper suggested they investigate the plague, and even offered a reward if they did so.

The opted to speak with Minnie Mhandyvver the poulterer. She confided that yes, Mhelliko the stoneworker and Waelvur might be dangerous, and mentioned a group called the believers. However, she suggested the PCs investigate the "plague" out at Lance Rock first to further earn the trust of the townsfolk. They accepted with trepidation.

They arrived at Lance Rock, a slab of gray granite dropped by a dragon in the region in the distant past. The found a sign warning of a plague at the head of a trail. The sign claimed to be written by "the Lord of Lance Rock." So Intelligence (history) checks revealed that the rock itself was featured in nothing more than usual local folktales. So they followed the trail to a cave.

Inside the cave, they found a corpse on the floor. Eric investigated it using Wisdom (medicine), and was able to determine that it was in fact dead, but had been affected by necromantic magic. Kerial decided to slit its throat, causing the corpse to animate and reveal itself as a zombie.

In this edition zombies have a nasty little feature called undead resistance. When brought down to zero hit points by anything other than radiant damage or damage from a critical hit, they make a Constitution saving throw with a DC of 5 + the damage taken. If they succeed, they go to 1 hit point instead. The party quickly dropped it down to 1 hit point, and its attack bonus was low enough that it wasn't having much affect, but it took a lot of attacks to bring it down. Once again, my dice had it in for poor Eric. The zombie needed to roll a 15 or better to dodge his sacred flame with a Dexterity save. I rolled an 18. Finally, Skomba rolled a critical hit and decapitated it with his axe.

It was break time, and the party now realized that a necromancer had taken up residence in this cave.

Next week my buddy Joseph will be running the game since I'll be in the hospital recovering from a colonostomy. He'll probably be running for at least the week after that as well.

One last thing before I close, faithful readers: this surgery and the illness preceding it are taking some tolls. Please visit my GoFundMe and donate. If you're unable to donate, then please spread the word. Every small step helps.

<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="258" height="338" title="Click Here to donate!" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"><param name="movie" value="//funds.gofundme.com/Widgetflex.swf" /><param name="quality" value="high" /><param name="flashvars" value="page=xchh98g&template=2" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><embed allowScriptAccess="always" src="//funds.gofundme.com/Widgetflex.swf" quality="high" flashVars="page=xchh98g&template=2" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="258" height="338"></embed></object>

A Ghost and A Goblin

As the 3rd session of began the party returned to town with bandit and treasure in tow. Harburk seemed surprised to have a prisoner, but figured that he could get some useful information from an interrogation. Harburk thanked the party and told them he'd make sure they got a good deal on the spoils. He also put the party up for a tenday (a week in the Forgotten Realms) in the inn, the Swinging Sword. He figured they'd sort out lots of troubles in the area if they stuck around for 10 day.

While entering the Swinging Sword (whose sign is shaped like a scimitar), the party received the evil eye from the one-eyed stable-master. Once inside, the party had a nice meal. Well most of the party. Skomba is very big and has an equally big appetite and was a little underwhelmed with the size of his plate. Whilst eating a priest approached the party and asked if they'd seen any dwarves elves or humans in their travels. He was waiting on some diplomats from a city called Mirabar, and they were a day late to their appointment. The party hadn't seen them, but would keep on the look out for them.

The next morning over breakfast the party heard a rumor the poulterer's granddaughter had seen a ghost. They thought that'd be as good an issue to work on as any, and Varis in particular was keen on helping put the spirit to rest.

They went to the poulterer's and met Minthra, or "Minnie" Mhandyvver who was accommodating and took the time to speak with the the adventurers about the ghost. She only knew it was on old tomb somewhere in the surrounding countryside. They asked to speak with her granddaughter. Pell. She was in her mid teens and had the look of a budding adventurer. She even had a sword at her hip. She explained she was exploring the area and saw a flash of light and heard a loud noise and got spooked and left. Hos Kadeem asked if she could show them where the tomb was, but Pell missed or ignored the invitation for adventure and opted to draw them a map (a clever trick by the DM to keep the NPC from dying needlessly).

After a long walk the party easily found the the tomb. As they arrayed themselves to enter the tomb Skomba noticed some bits of metal sitting on the top of the ajar door. The party asked Kariel to carefully remove them because she has the fastest fingers. She handily disabled the trap and carefully placed the metal bits on the floor. As the party entered the tomb there was only an alter and a door leading to the right.

Skomba went to quietly listen at the door to the next room and as he approached a ghost phased through the door and ordered them leave. Varis asked why he was still a spirit. The ghost said to protect his liege in death due to failing to protect him in life. Still wanting to help Varis asked what he needed to be at rest. The ghost wanted the tomb sealed.

As the party lacked any means to accomplish this at hand Derek decided to ask about the trap. He gathered the metal bits and brought them over to the ghost to see if he'd set it. In response the ghost thrust his hand though the bits and waved it around ineffectually. He wearily stated he can't interact with most matter, and much more menacingly told the party to leave.  (I was quite proud of my Jacob Marley routine, actually.)

While the talking had been happening Skomba went back outside to watch the rear. While watching for danger he noticed a campfire's smoke rising from the center of a ring of boulders. The party made their way the short distance over to the ring & Kariel had even managed to sneak quite close to the campfire.

The occupants, a goblin and half-ogre, were in the process of eating dinner. The half-ogre was complaining the he was sick of eating rats. The goblin exasperatedly explained that they just had to wait for some adventurers to trigger their noisy trap, and wait a bit for the ghost to soften them up and go over and finish them off, and take their loot. Then they'd eat like kings!

The would-be waylayers never got a chance to put that plan into action as the party then began their assault of the camp. Outnumbered nearly 2 to 1 the party was able to soundly smash them in about 2 rounds. The pair hadn't managed to get any adventurer yet so they had nothing of value to loot.

After the fight the party decided to roll a boulder in front of the tomb to help put the ghost a little at ease. Skomba ended up starting to push the most irregularly shaped one toward the tomb and was having great trouble. The rest of the party could easily see that it'd be easier to roll a rounder on to the tomb, and suggested a different one. Skomba was pretty perplexed by the sudden ease of pushing this second boulder. His bafflement was amusing. Curiously, when the party retold the story to Minnie, they told the story of the "lighter boulder" to her with a straight face.

A long trek later the party made it back to Red Larch and settled in for a nice supper at the inn. This evening the kitchen had prepared a larger meal for Skomba so he was satiated. While dining the party heard a couple more rumors from the innkeeper and others. One was about gold faced or masked spooky figures sighted in the quarry and the other was about potential bandits at a small cave complex named Tricklerock. They also heard another reminder about the plague out by Lance Rock.

The next morning they decided to investigate the nearby quarry sightings. The foreman was somewhat belligerent when they arrived and was unwilling to miss work for some rumors. He told them to get lost, telling them to go look for treasure out at Tricklerock Cave like good greedy little adventurers. Those weren't his his exact words, but you get the gist.

With no shortage of strange occurrences the party collectively shrugged their shoulders and considered their options. They discussed some of the things their contacts had mentioned like a creepy black arrow stuck into a tree or the plague the butchers children said they were warned about at Lance rock. They also considered going to Tricklerock.

Derek was the only one excited about the prospect of investigating the plague. The arrow though interesting wasn't in and of itself enough to warrant a party day trip to investigate. The party eventually settled on going to Tricklerock and having a look around

Because Darwin was from the area he actually knew a direct route to the caves, and was able to save them a little time. Tricklerock was a locally famous location and situated in the same hills that had the monster that ate the herd of the goatherd turned bandit.

The name of the place was apt as there was a trickle of water flowing out of it and there was a sheen of moisture on every surface while many of the walls had an assortment of (non-dangerous!) slimes growing on them. Inside the party noticed some swiftly approaching stirges: bloodsucking bat-mosquito hybrids.

The game was called for the evening before the fight as it was 8PM. During the next session the party will begin with their fight against the stirges. 

Starting a New Campaign!

The first session and a half or so of Princes of the Apocalypse (Princes) was spent on character creation. Four new players were added to the group: Art, Kit, Rick and David. This will make for a large party. Most of the players arrived with a strong idea of a character they wanted to play. Dwayne had actually completed his character beforehand.

Part of the character creation process was to have each player describe a portion of their characters' back-story & have the group brainstorm a possible personality trait, ideal, bond or flaw. This started building a strong group dynamic right away. Be warned though, it was a bit time consuming and we unintentionally went over time on the first session. But it was worth the time, especially with a newly formed group.

The cast:

Ander, a half-elf soldier paladin of Tyr from Waterdeep. He is looking to root out evil and lawbreakers across the northwest. Played by Art.

Darwin, a young, blue haired human fighter and local hero in the Dessarin Valley. He knows he can do it all and bring down anyone causing trouble in the Valley. Played by David. David originally wanted to base his character off of Legolas (the movie version). Since he joined the group a session late, he started with the Human Fighter Folk Hero form the starter set to get him in quickly (previously known as Lakeo in Tyranny of Dragons). Later, I helped him adjust the character to be a High Elf Fighter Folk Hero being built towards the Eldritch Knight archetype. This will give the team a LOT of arcane magic.

Derek Eventide, an intelligent, human sage and wizard from a merchant family in Waterdeep. He is always delving deeper into how things work, even if it puts himself in danger. Played by Joseph.

Hos Kadeem ibn Solak, a charismatic, tall, green-skinned Genasi, water sorcerer, and sailor from a well to do merchant family in Calimshan. He is always looking for ways to increase his family's trading network, but he knows that people come first, be it family, crew mates or trade relations. Played by Rick.

Kariel Ilphelkir, a charismatic wood-elf, rogue and criminal from the High Forest. If she's bored she'll disappear. And we all know she'll be up to some mischief. Played by Kit.

Skomba Shieldbender, a tall, strong Goliath street urchin, fighter and former slave, from Waterdeep. He's always looking for ways to help the outcasts, slaves and underprivileged. Played by Dwayne.

Varis Nailo, a half-elf druid from Waterdeep. Money is of little concern when judged against the lives of animals. Played by Nathan.

To expedite the second session of Princes some character-to-character connections were thought of ahead of time. Even with these verbalized connections the party acted more like a bunch of individuals than a party. Each character individually or as a pair, in the case of Skomba & Hos Kadeem, made their way to their faction's contact in the town of Red Larch. Nearly every contact mentioned strange goings on and then directed the characters to Constable Haburk Tuthmarillar, who lived and worked at the butchers.

When every one arrived at the butchery the constable was explaining to Darwin that he couldn't handle the 4 bandits on his own. The constable recognized an adventuring party when he saw one. He offered the ill gotten gains of the bandits in exchange for their removal. The party accepted and set out for the suspected location of the bandit camp.

The group tried to sneak up on the bandits. Darwin was the only one to succeed and get a surprise round. Due to the party outnumbering the bandits nearly 2 to 1 the battle was swift and one sided.

The first round a volley of ranged attacks dropped one bandit and injured another. Then Derek the wizard cast sleep and put 2 of the bandits into a supernatural slumber. On the second round the third bandit spent his action waking one of his fellows. They couldn't counter attack the party the second round.

The bandits also had a bear caged in a wagon that began trying to escape once the fighting broke out. Varis the druid cast animal friend on the bear to try and calm it. It mostly only made the bear think of Varis as a friend so it continued to try and escape the violence. As the fight was obviously going in favor of the party he let the bear out of the cage and with a successful Wisdom (animal handling) roll, Varis convinced it to flee the area.

As the fighting concluded 3 bandits lay dead and the 4th asleep & wounded. The last bandit was bound for questioning by Hos Kadeem who was a sailor and knew knots well. 

While this was happening Kariel the rogue was poking through the treasure in the nearby cave. Ander the paladin noticed her in the cave and loudly thanked her for gathering the loot. One of the character connections was Ander caught Kariel in one of her larcenous endeavors in the past and had reason to think she may not be on the level. As a side note in Encounters and other Adventurer's League events you have to split the loot evenly anyway.

After the bandit awoke the party questioned him and discovered he had been a goat herder in the mountains before he became a bandit. He stopped doing that and turned to crime after monsters, specifically ankhegs (giant acid-spitting ant-lions) ate his herd. After the interrogation the party put the bandit into the cage on the wagon took the loot and set off toward the town with Skomba the very large goliath fighter and Ander the very strong half elf paladin primarily pulling the wagon. The ramifications of taking him to town will have to be discovered next session.

Since Rick and Joseph are AWESOME and helping with chronicling, the next post is forth-coming, but we're already a session ahead. Being back in the DMing saddle after a long absence has been satisfying and challenging. I'm glad I got a chance to play this system before running it. These early encounters have so far been a bit too easy. None of the monsters have pack tactics, and the numbers have been a bit low. So no kobolding. I'll probably have to adjust some numbers up to keep the challenge up.

I'm also hoping to be a bit freer with the Inspiration.

Also, anyone looking to try this, visit the Isle of Games this Saturday. the 20th (Free RPG Day, guys!) From 12-4. I'll be running a Goodman Games licensed module for 12th level characters. Find out if you can slay the dragon!