We left the PCs in a room with an unconscious half-orc and a young human. Since Duane was out of town and unable to make that session, Skomba decided to escort the half-orc and the boy to the surface. The party then followed the last path they hadn't taken yet: a door in the room with the petrified dwarf.
The door opened into a corridor. The only occupant was an old human: one of the Believers, the cult running Red Larch, named Baragustas. This was a role-playing encounter with a cowardly old man. The PCs learned more about the Believer's faith, and the fear that Larrakh, the "Earth Priest" waiting in the next room engendered in them. Without further ado, they kicked open the next door.
This was the main chamber of the Tomb of Moving Stones. It was filled with megaliths (big rocks), with damaged skeletons arranged on stone biers along the walls. These stones have a tendency to move, and the Believer's think it is the work of the spirits of the dead bodies in the room, whom the Believers referred to as the Delvers. Also waiting in the chamber was the Earth Priest Larrakh.
Running spellcasters is always a bit of a chore. Larrakh was no different. Larrakh is part of the Earth cult of the Elemental Evil group, and there are a few things that show it. First, he is very tanky, wearing armor made of magically shaped rock that is the equivalent of Splint (an AC of 17). Most of his spells are geared toward de-buffs. His most potent one being slow, which managed to hit Ander at one point. He also had an effective one called earth tremor, which is a new spell added for Elemental Evil. It does a small amount of bludgeoning damage, knocks targets prone, and creates a small area of difficult terrain. It saw the most use in the battle, helping him retreat. In reality, Larrakh would have benefited from having compatriots to keep the players away from him and to take advantage of the de-buffs he inflicted. As it was, his AC made the battle a little long, but ultimately the PCs overwhelmed him.
In the aftermath, they were able to located a secret passage leading to the quarry and figure out how the stones moved--by firmly stamping the floor the stones float above the floor and can be moved easily. They used a sort-of trap the cultists had set up to block the passage back to the quarry. Having cracked the Believers and ended the influence of the Earth Cult on Red Larch, the heroes earned a well deserved two weeks (or Tendays, as they use in the Realms) of downtime, plus sufficient quest Xp for Derek, Ander, and Darwin to reach level 3.
However, after the two Tendays passed, the heroes found themselves pressed into service again, this time to locate the missing delegation sent from Mirabar. Brother Eardon mentioned that the last place they had been seen was the town of Beliard. Further, Endrith Vallivoe showed Derek a dwarven book he had recently been sold, tracing its origins to Womford, south and east of Red Larch. Lastly, a shepherd named Larmon Greenboot mentioned some strange graves that had recently appeared near the Sumber Hills.
The PCs resolved to follow Derek's curiosity and set out for Womford. Next time we'll learn what happened on the journey, and what they found in Womford.
As always, visit gofundme.com/xchh98g and help me out with my medical bills. If you enjoy my writing, think of it as paying for it, instead of me selling ad space on my blog.
Sunday, August 9, 2015
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
Triumphant Return
I was able to run the game again last week. My friend Joseph ran the game in my stead. Here is what happened based on what I've heard from him and other players:
The next featured two zombies waiting in ambush on a ledge over the entrance. They dump a box of rocks then jump down to engage the party. While they rolled low on the falling rock damage, but managed to make a few good attack rolls, and, thanks to Undead Resilience, managed to take a lot of punishment before going down.
Then, there was a side room filled with corpses. Darwin went to explore and touched one of the corpses, triggering an encounter with three skeletons hidden among the corpses. Naturally, he called for help, and the party dropped them.
The next room in the cave featured three zombies in outrageous costumes. During this encounter, the zombies managed to score some critical hits and even managed to drop Skomba before the encounter ended. Lastly, they explored another side room ending at a treasure chest. This room was watched by Orieth, the necromancer and self-proclaimed Lord of Lance Rock. He triggered a trap on the PCs exploring the chest. However, Joseph had him spring the trip on the party a bit early, only hitting some of the party. Unfortunately, the chest was empty.
For the next encounter, the party swelled to 9 members. Which was probably fortunate, since it is a fairly hefty encounter in a large room: featuring a zombie, crawling claw (zombie hands, basically), and four skeletons. The Lord of Lance Rock also began the encounter in the room, hiding behind the skeletons. Seeing such a large party of adventurers, he ran. One of the players captured and kept and crawling claw for some reason.
Next week, the party shrank back down to four. They confronted the necromancer, and opted to take him prisoner to be questioned back in town. They then returned to town and began looking into the Believers, a cabal of citizens controlling Red Larch from the shadows, and the Tomb of Moving Stone, a place where they hold their meetings. I'm not quite sure on the particulars, but it involved birthday cake and trying to get the members drunk, but it ended with members of the party getting drunk instead. In any case, they learned the location of the Tomb, and that it contains mysterious moving stones that the Believers use to try to divine the future. They managed to spot a trap consisting of cages mounted on the ceiling and rigged to fall and trap them, and took another corridor. They ran into some corpses and giant rats.
This is where I returned. I ran the battle with the rats with a party of six. After dispatching the rats, they examined the corpses and found a mysterious symbol cut into their skulls and learned that they had been murdered.
They proceeded to the next room to discover a floating stone. After some experimentation they discovered a cylindrical magical effect causing objects to levitate in that room. After playing with it a bit, they moved on.
The next room had a petrified and long dead dwarf in it, and was inhabited by a group of mercenaries called the Bringers of Woe sent to stop the PCs. They dispatched these foes and looted some coins, gems, and a magic dagger from a plinth in front of the dwarf.
They then back-tracked to the room just past the cage corridor, discovering Grund, a half-orc simpleton set to guard the room and set off the cages, and Braelan, a youngster being punished for failing to deliver a message by being pinned under rocks. After a short confrontation, they knocked out Grund and freed Braelan.
Now they'll go further into the Tomb.
As a reminder, I went in for surgery. I've had a rocky recovery, and medical and related bills are still kicking my ass. Readers, I'd deeply appreciate it if you visited my GoFundMe and donated and spread the word to your connections. I'm at 20% of my goal already!
The next featured two zombies waiting in ambush on a ledge over the entrance. They dump a box of rocks then jump down to engage the party. While they rolled low on the falling rock damage, but managed to make a few good attack rolls, and, thanks to Undead Resilience, managed to take a lot of punishment before going down.
Then, there was a side room filled with corpses. Darwin went to explore and touched one of the corpses, triggering an encounter with three skeletons hidden among the corpses. Naturally, he called for help, and the party dropped them.
The next room in the cave featured three zombies in outrageous costumes. During this encounter, the zombies managed to score some critical hits and even managed to drop Skomba before the encounter ended. Lastly, they explored another side room ending at a treasure chest. This room was watched by Orieth, the necromancer and self-proclaimed Lord of Lance Rock. He triggered a trap on the PCs exploring the chest. However, Joseph had him spring the trip on the party a bit early, only hitting some of the party. Unfortunately, the chest was empty.
For the next encounter, the party swelled to 9 members. Which was probably fortunate, since it is a fairly hefty encounter in a large room: featuring a zombie, crawling claw (zombie hands, basically), and four skeletons. The Lord of Lance Rock also began the encounter in the room, hiding behind the skeletons. Seeing such a large party of adventurers, he ran. One of the players captured and kept and crawling claw for some reason.
Next week, the party shrank back down to four. They confronted the necromancer, and opted to take him prisoner to be questioned back in town. They then returned to town and began looking into the Believers, a cabal of citizens controlling Red Larch from the shadows, and the Tomb of Moving Stone, a place where they hold their meetings. I'm not quite sure on the particulars, but it involved birthday cake and trying to get the members drunk, but it ended with members of the party getting drunk instead. In any case, they learned the location of the Tomb, and that it contains mysterious moving stones that the Believers use to try to divine the future. They managed to spot a trap consisting of cages mounted on the ceiling and rigged to fall and trap them, and took another corridor. They ran into some corpses and giant rats.
This is where I returned. I ran the battle with the rats with a party of six. After dispatching the rats, they examined the corpses and found a mysterious symbol cut into their skulls and learned that they had been murdered.
They proceeded to the next room to discover a floating stone. After some experimentation they discovered a cylindrical magical effect causing objects to levitate in that room. After playing with it a bit, they moved on.
The next room had a petrified and long dead dwarf in it, and was inhabited by a group of mercenaries called the Bringers of Woe sent to stop the PCs. They dispatched these foes and looted some coins, gems, and a magic dagger from a plinth in front of the dwarf.
They then back-tracked to the room just past the cage corridor, discovering Grund, a half-orc simpleton set to guard the room and set off the cages, and Braelan, a youngster being punished for failing to deliver a message by being pinned under rocks. After a short confrontation, they knocked out Grund and freed Braelan.
Now they'll go further into the Tomb.
As a reminder, I went in for surgery. I've had a rocky recovery, and medical and related bills are still kicking my ass. Readers, I'd deeply appreciate it if you visited my GoFundMe and donated and spread the word to your connections. I'm at 20% of my goal already!
Saturday, June 27, 2015
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.
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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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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.
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