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.
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Saturday, June 27, 2015
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
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.
Thursday, June 18, 2015
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!
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!
Friday, May 29, 2015
Look Back: Hoard of the Dragon Queen
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.
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.
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.
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