Monday, December 28, 2015

Campaign Journal 21 - Underdark Prelude

Play begins in the temple dungeons in the ruins beyond the Gate...

June 23, Sunday, continued - The party explores the last few chambers in the dungeon, and then decides to head back to civilization for some training for Badric and Niam (who both level up to 4). The journey back through the gate is uneventful, and the group travels from the Ranatayza ruins down along the Perla Stream to Fulcher's Hold.
Ranatayza Ruins to Fulcher's Hold (in Hexographer)

When they reach the crossing of the Perla Stream, they notice that there is a new boundary stone marking the lands east of the Perla Stream and north of the Meeran Brook as claimed by Fulcher. At the castle site, where construction continues to proceed quickly, there are now 10 or 12 soldiers in blue and white livery with a yellow sun badge emblazoned on their tunics. They meet Graciela Eldavai for the first time. She is a paladin and a member of Fulcher's Band who the characters had not met yet. She has recently arrived at the castle, bringing the soldiers with her, and is in charge of security.

In the fields around the castle, there is a lot of activity clearing farmland and building farmsteads. There are more people in the area than have been here previously.

June 24, Monday - Resting at Fulcher's Hold. Training and studying.

June 25, Tuesday - Resting at Fulcher's Hold. Training and studying.

June 26, Wednesday - Fulcher invites the group to lunch, and proceeds to tell them some information he had not shared before. The castle that he is building is located at the site of a ruined keep from the Elder days. Beneath the old keep there is a series of dungeons. The dungeons beneath the castle connect to the Underdark. This is one of the reasons that Fulcher and his band has elected to settle here. They are interested in exploring the ruins from the Elder days, but are even more interested in exploring the Underdark. he confesses that his band is not retired from adventuring.

Fulcher shares some of what they have been able to learn and map thus far. This information is somewhat limited given that much of their time needs to be spent in supervising construction of the castle and patrolling the lands around it. He provides information and maps of what they do know, and asks if the party is interested in helping them explore. When they indicate that they are, he provides the blessing of Alaron, and asks that they prepare themselves for the Underdark.

With a full load of supplies and gear, Fulcher and Damron (the warrior) lead the party through the dungeons below the castle and far down into the depths of the earth. After a solid half day's journey, they arrive at a location Fulcher calls the Back Door - a secret magically warded door leading into a huge natural cavern on the shores of an underground lake. He indicates the way for them to go, and bids them good luck.

The group sets off into the Underdark, and begins to get used to the alien environment...
Spider attack in the Underdark

Next time - More Underdark!

GM Commentary - This was a long session on the Monday between Christmas and New Years. Pretty much everybody was on vacation, and we decided to do a 3pm to whenever session with dinner in the middle. We ended up playing until 11pm.

Saturday, December 19, 2015

Campaign Journal 20 - Temple Dungeons

June 22, Saturday, continued - The party, having finished its fight with the basilisk and done a little more exploring, elects to return to the surface for the night. Camp is made in the ruins of a tower and the night passes uneventfully.

June 23, Sunday - The group returns to the dungeons to finish exploring. A multicolored checkerboard pattern floor causes some problems for the group, as stepping on colors in anything but a specific pattern will cause electrical damage. Malachy takes a significant amount of damage brute-forcing his way across the floor, but succeeds. The door on the opposite wall is a false door.

Four more wandering bugbears are fought. A shrine with an altar which radiates evil sickens the party as they get near it, and a Helmed Horror attacks to protect the shrine. This results in a difficult fight, which is followed by a fight against two Hell Hounds. All are defeated, and an evil tome resting on the shrine's altar is destroyed with a liberal splashing of holy water.

[Dungeon crawling is slow and this was a short session]

Next - Finishing this dungeon area.

Monday, November 9, 2015

Campaign Journal 19 - Back Through the Gate

Play begins with the party having traveled back through the gate in the Ranatayza ruins to the unknown location beyond.

June 22, Saturday, continued - After the fight with the bugbears last session, the party continues down the hill toward an area of large ruined buildings. Crumbled colonnaded facades have the group guessing that these were temples or other important buildings (which becomes obvious).

Approaching the ruined temples, a trio of odd birdlike creatures are seen feasting on the remains of a bugbear. The creatures prove to be cockatrices, which can paralyze a person for a period of time. A brief fight ensues, mostly using magic and ranged weapons, and the creatures are easily disposed of.

Exploration of the above ground part of the ruins follows, and a few valuables are found, including a small stash of treasure from an earlier adventuring party. Stairs are found leading down.

The party explores the first section of what appears to be a continuation of the above ground temple ruins - there are crypts and shrines and burial vaults.
First dungeon in full modular tile set up

A basilisk is encountered and killed surprisingly easily. Nobody gets turned to stone (awww!).

Next time - continuing the dungeon.

GM Commentary - It was pretty much all exploring and dungeon crawling this session, and it's a nice change of pace to mix story sessions with old school combat oriented sessions. More dungeons next time. I'm continuing to learn that dungeon crawling is slow and time consuming, and I need to gauge the time needed for "x" amount of dungeon exploration better. Any time dungeon crawling is a part of a session (or a whole session), I tend to grossly overestimate what we will be able to cover in an evening...

It is also noteworthy that this dungeon was the first where we have transitioned completely from paper and tokens to terrain and minis. What a great experience! At this point the miniatures collection is very small, but the terrain pile is adequate and growing. [In the picture, the pieces with the black edges are the "unexplored beyond here" markers.]

Monday, October 19, 2015

Campaign Journal 18 - Summer Solstice

June 20, Thursday - Play begins with the characters having spent the night of the 19th in Tardesk, and then having traveled back to Linden on the morning of the 20th.

In the afternoon, the party meets with Raglin Tindall, owner of the Linden Inn, and they discuss the findings in the mine. Raglin is sorry to hear about his kinsman's death, but seems more disappointed in the business opportunity lost. The dwarves in the party are able to confirm that there are good quality iron and coal deposits in the mines, but that the mines obviously aren't very safe.

June 21, Friday - The party attends the festivities of the Feast of the Summer Solstice in Linden, presided over by Fulcher, cleric of Alaron. Fulcher, addressing the crowd, announces that he will be funding the construction of a temple to Alaron on a parcel of land outside the town walls on the north side of the town.
Linden

While the festivities are underway, the party sees a hooded figure raise a hand crossbow and point it at Fulcher. They foil the attacker's aim, and help in capturing him. The party accompanies Damron, one of Fulcher's retainers, back to Fulcher's Hold with the would-be assassin in tow. Fulcher arrives later and the assassin is interrogated. He is a rogue of modest skills, hired as a freelancer through the Black Adders, the thieves guild in the city of Turil (several days to the west). Fulcher believes that the attack was to send a message and not to actually kill him, given the limited capabilities of the assassin.

June 22, Saturday - After spending the night at Fulcher's Hold, the party heads back to the ruins of Ranatayza, and pass through the magical gate. A group of bugbears are fought.

GM Commentary - A nice mix of story development, character interaction and some combat. Next session should be more of a dungeon crawl.

Monday, September 14, 2015

Campaign Journal 17 - Finishing the Perla Mines

June 19, Wednesday, continued - After recovering from the fight with the three hook horrors, the party rested and regrouped, spending a good bit of their healing power.

Continuing further into the natural caverns, a number of other chambers and passages were explored, all turning out to be empty (both of threats or anything of interest). Winding further down into the caverns, the party came out into another large chamber with a ledge along one side. The ledge had what appeared to be a large nest of sticks and other debris. Opposite the ledge was the dead body of a duergar (a dark dwarf). As they moved to investigate, several more hook horrors attacked. After another long and difficult fight, they party emerged victorious but heavily damaged (again).
Caverns in the Perla Mines

The nest proved to have a pair of large eggs (presumably hook horror eggs), which the party disposed of.

Another round of resting and healing followed, after which the last bit of the natural cavern area was explored. At the deepest end of the passages, a small cairn of piled stones was found, near which was a narrow opening that extended down further than easy investigation could determine. In a nook in the same passage, a small stash of adventuring gear was found (some rations, tools, rope, arrows and other assorted supplies). The party elected not to descend through the opening into the depths.

On the way out, the remainder of the mine areas were quickly explored, turning up nothing of note.

The party returned to the village of Tardesk to spend the night and rest.

GM Commentary - I am catching up on about a dozen sessions that never got documented properly at the time. I have notes on the general developments of each session, but the details are mostly gone (I am writing about September 2015 in June of 2016...). I'll do a better job of documenting our sessions, with pictures where possible, in the future.

Monday, August 31, 2015

Campaign Journal 16 - The Perla Mines

We last left our heroes in the town of Linden, leveling up and resting after a couple of weeks in the northern wild on the Dawnstone adventure...

June 17, Monday - Malachy (human barbarian), Arian (high elven sorcerer), Thalmyr (dwarven paladin), Melior (wood elven druid) and Mordecai (NPC human fighter) were having dinner in the Linden Inn, in Linden, when Raglin Tindall, the proprietor of the Inn, approached them. He told them a tale about a cousin of his and another investor, who came west from Mercia to check out the abandoned Perla Mines, located a few miles east of the hamlet of Tardesk (in the Shearingvale).

The story of Perla and the Perla Mines is that of a short-lived iron mine and its supporting hamlet. The mines were established about 20 years ago, and lasted only about a year before the mines and the nearby village of a dozen wooden shacks were abandoned. The mines were rich, but the surrounding area was not safe, and the cost of maintaining the mines was not justifiable given the wildness of the region.

Raglin Tindall, whose business is struggling, contacted a distant cousin of his in Mercia who had mining experience. His cousin and one of the cousin's noble friends (with money) came to the Vale to investigate the mine, with the end goal of buying the claim to the mine and the surrounding land if the mine seemed viable. Raglin's cousin Trillek and his noble investor friend left Linden to go to Tardesk back on June 12 (6 days ago) and hadn't been heard from since. Given that Tardesk is a mere 9 miles northeast of Linden, and the ruins of Perla and the Perla Mines are only 3 miles further east, news from these two is many days overdue. Raglin wanted the party to investigate the Mines and report back, with the promise of the opportunity to invest in the Mines depending on the outcome.

June 18, Tuesday - Leaving Linden late in the morning, the party (5 strong) made their leisurely way to Tardesk, and found a room for the night in the Regal Stallion Pub. Tardesk is a village of 150 or so people, and is known for the horse ranches surrounding the village. The party could have easily pressed on to the mines in the remaining daylight, but decided to spend the night in the village and discreetly see what information they could gather. A serving girl in the tavern did recall two strangers meeting the missing mens' descriptions having stayed at the pub perhaps Thursday or Friday of the past week (June 13 or 14). She didn't know where they went when they left.
Tardesk and Perla (maps in Hexographer - 1 mile hexes)

June 19, Wednesday - Rising early, the party headed east across the stream and on toward the low rolling hills a few miles away. Three miles east of Tardesk, very near the edge of the hills, they came to the ruins of the tiny village of Perla. The failed mining hamlet consisted of a dozen or so buildings, mostly with rough field stone foundations and wooden uppers. The shells of the buildings were fairly intact, but the roofs had mostly caved in, and the walls were rapidly deteriorating. There were well-used campfire rings, some stacked firewood, and signs that animals had been grazed nearby. The party guessed that this spot was used by shepherds as a camping spot.

Continuing east, the trail was easy to follow and was still in obvious use. Raglin had told them that shortly after entering the hills, the trail to the old mines would veer off to the north, and a trail to some very small ruins from the Elder days continued east, deeper into the hills. When they reached the junction, they could see that the trail continuing east was still getting some use, and that the trail north was much more overgrown, but had been used fairly recently. A quarter mile up the trail, they came to a clearing against a tall hillside, and the overgrown but obvious entrance to the mines. The collapsed and decaying remnants of a few wooden shacks dotted the clearing.

The Abandoned Perla Mines, part 1
Entering the mines, it was obvious that two people had been here recently, with two discernible sets of tracks leading in and out of a pair of mostly empty storage rooms near the entrance. All that remained in these rooms were some rusty tools and bits of mining equipment. Side passages were mostly ignored, and the party pressed forward down the main passage. Rounding the first corner, they came to an ore storage room partially heaped with what Thalmyr the dwarf determined to be high quality iron ore. Continuing onward (and downward), they quickly came upon a dead body sprawled on the ground. The body was a bloody mess, having been torn up by some sort of rending attacks (they were not clean cuts). The body matched the description of Raglin's cousin. A blood trail continued deeper into the mines...

Another hundred feet or so down the passage, the blood trail disappeared into a very narrow natural fissure in the wall. One by one the characters were barely able to squeeze through the opening and descend a steep passage into a natural cavern. There were several narrow passages leading out of the cavern, and another body, mangled much worse than the first, in the center of the uneven rocky floor. The body was inspected, and presumed to be Raglin's cousin's friend. The party heard sounds of something knocking on stone somewhere nearby.

To investigate further, Melior the druid shape changed into a giant spider, and went up the gently rising southeast (lower right) passage. After ~75 feet, he came out into a small chamber in which was yet another prone body. Unlike the others, this figure was wearing fighter's gear (helmet, chainmail, shield and sword), and had been dead for at least a few weeks (judging from the state of decomposition). There were signs of some of the same kind of rending damage seen on the other corpses. Not wanting to shift back into his natural form, Melior postponed investigating the body further until later, and went down a steep and narrow side passage branching off near the chamber. It came out into a broader passage, sloping down to the northeast. It proved to connect back (to the SW) to where the others were waiting. The party joined up and headed northeast. There was more of the sound of knocking on stone.

Moments after emerging into a much larger natural cavern, three large monstrosities dropped from the walls and ceiling and quickly got into combat with the party. These three Hook Horrors were very tough, and as difficult as the ensuing fight was, it would have been that much more so if it weren't for a very successful Crown of Madness spell cast by Arian on one of the creatures. It repeatedly failed its saving throw, and remained under the control of the sorcerer for the duration of the battle, attacking one of its fellows instead of attacking the party. As it was, the melee characters were badly beat up by the end of the fight (Malachy with only 13 of 49 HP remaining, Melior with 7 of 34, Thalmyr with 5 of 28, and Mordecai with 19 of 28). Nobody went down, but most of them got close...

With the three creatures dealt with, the party paused to regroup.

Next - Probably some healing, and then more of the mines...

GM Commentary - Another really good session. There was a chance that we were going to have all 7 players for the first time ever, but then a few people were unable to make it, and we were back to the more typical 4 players. Add in a returning NPC who had been offstage for a while, and we had a comfortable sized party of 5.

The beginning of the session was cleaning up some details on level advancement for a few of the characters, followed by some local area history development and "color", followed by a bit of dungeon crawling and a good fight.

The characters still have some of the Perla Mines left to explore, and it can be a future expansion area for me. Which is good.

Monday, August 10, 2015

Campaign Journal 15 - Orc Village and Back Home

We left our heroes in the midst of a fight with orcs, wolves and an ettin, in the foothills of the Shadow Wall...

June 2, Sunday (cont) - The ettin (a two-headed giant) quickly charged into combat with Malachy and Badric, our two best melee warriors. Despite dealing some very impressive damage, the combined might of our warriors, aided by the un-engaged spellcasters, made short work of the giant. Thalmyr, largely left to his own against the orc sub-chief (assisted by Arian's spells), finished the monster off after taking a lot of damage.

After a significant amount of very necessary healing, and some treasure looting, the party headed back toward the road to camp for the night.

June 3, Monday - The party heads back south, and camps near the Dawnstone.

June 4, Tuesday - The party travels south/southwest, and camps north of the familiar cluster of hills containing Castle Langborne.

June 5, Wednesday - The party loops west of the Langborne hills, through the grasslands, and camps in the grasslands west of Castle Langborne.

June 6, Thursday - The party continues south through the grasslands and then through the eastern end of the Silver Hills (filling in a blank space on their map) and camping on the southern edge of the Hills (at the northern edge of the Shearingvale).

June 7, Friday - The party makes the easy journey overland to the village of Olmsby, and spends the evening in the familiar accommodations of the Half Pint Tavern.

June 8, Saturday - The party sleeps in, has a late breakfast, and travels the last easy 7 miles to Linden, arriving in the early afternoon. They check into the Linden Inn (their usual place), Raglin Tindall proprietor, and relax for the evening.

June 9, Sunday - A day of rest. Having left Linden for this "Dawnstone" adventure on May 28 (12 days ago), the characters are content to rest. As a result of their experiences, Duncan (the wizard), Melior (the druid) and Malachy (the barbarian) all reach level 4, and will require some training time. Arian (the new sorcerer) reaches level 3 (and has some "metamagic" options to study and learn).

June 10, Monday - Melior and Thalmyr head the few miles south to the hamlet of Bornil, so that Melior can meet the person who requested his presence (in a cryptic druidic language letter). They go to the small temple of Nysera in Bornil, where they meet a half-elven cleric named Sabedril. They also find an elven craftsmen named Teneval, who makes excellent quality bows and arrows. Soon Mareth Silverbeam, a druid, meets them, and leads them south into the Greenreach Woods. After journeying through the woods for most of the rest of the day, they arrive at a sacred druid grove (near dusk) and are introduced to Nalisander, leader of the druidic circle of the northern Greenreach Woods. Nalisander introduces Melior to some of the other members of the circle, including druids, rangers and some others, and tells Melior about their goals - to protect the northern Greenreach Woods. Nalisander (nicknamed "Nighthawk") has no requirements of Melior, but tells him that the members of his circle gather at this sacred grove each full moon and new moon to exchange information, and that they bathe in the pool in the sacred grove that has some mystical powers. As darkness falls, Nalisander asks Melior to run with them, and transforms into a stag. One of the others, a reckless druid nicknamed "Tempest", transforms into an eagle, but Nalisander says (in deference to Melior) "No, tonight we run, not fly". Melior transforms into a panther and runs off with the druids. Thalmyr returns to Linden, arriving on June 11.

June 11, Tuesday through June 18, Tuesday -  Melior spends several days running with Nalisander's druidic circle, learning his new level 4 shape-shifting ability of swimming creatures [In game terms, he uses his increase of 2 ability points points to increase his WIS to 18, which is his spell casting ability, with bonus from +3 to +4]. Malachy communes with his bear totem spirit and gains his level 4 benefits [in game terms upping both DEX and CON from 15 to 16, for a +3 bonus each instead of +2]. Duncan studies to advance to level 4 [exact details TBD, since Duncan's player has missed sessions 15 and 16, and we don't know what he will choose...]. Arian, our new high elf sorcerer, studies to understand his new metamagic options [he chose "careful spell" to protect friends from area of effect blasts and "distant spell" to increase his spells' ranges]. The remaining characters, who weren't leveling up, spent this time relaxing, since they have been adventuring almost non-stop for the last 10 weeks or so.

June 16, Sunday - Malachy and Thalmyr are having dinner in the common room of the Linden Inn, along with copious tankards of ale, when Mordecai (our NPC fighter) walks into the Inn. Mordecai left the party in Rimini back on May 12, when he returned to his home in Drayvan, near Alten in Alsberg, with the intent to use some of his share of the group's treasure to help out his father. For the expenditure of a few hundred gold coins, Mordecai was able to buy some additional acreage adjoining his father's struggling farm, and was able to hire on some tenant farmers to help work the new land. Leaving Drayvan in early June, Mordecai's father Edmund was now set up as a gentleman farmer, and could continue his work as a potter with no real concern over his financial security.

Next - Raglin Tindall, proprietor of the Linden Inn, comes to the party with a problem...

GM Commentary - This was a nice mix of a threatening combat, some limited exploration, and some character development (with hooks for future expansion). The stuff with the local druid circle that impacted Melior served two purposes; it allowed a seamless "this is how you get to level 4", along with planting the seeds for future engagement with these NPC's in the future. We don't ever need to run into Nalisander's Circle on anything but the most superficial level, but they are there to use if I need them...

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Campaign Journal 14 - Part 2, North of the Dawnstone

Previously, the party had escorted the granite dwarfs Frayka and Meerak to the Dawnstone. With an arcane ritual complete, and the granite dwarves gone, what comes next...

June 2 (Sunday), afternoon - With the Granite dwarves having departed, the party debated what to do next. From a prior session, Melior Ardenshade (the druid) had been requested, via a letter in the druidic language, to meet (someone) in the village of Bornil on June 10. Bornil is a few miles south of Linden, or 4-5 days south of the party's current location. With a few days to spare, and Ravar's rough sketch map in hand, Badric, cleric of Raurig (life), convinced the party to spend a day or two heading further north, seeking to confirm the location of the Shadow Wall hills.

A mile north of the Dawnstone, the old remnants of road split, going north and northeast. The party continued northeast across the rolling open ground, interspersed with copses of trees. The old Onorian road was easy to follow. Three miles up the northeast road, the party came upon a scene of battle, with four elves lying dead in the road. Melior, perceiving faint tracks heading southeast from the scene of battle, followed them to the unconscious and near-dead body of another elf.

With healing magic and a good rest, the elf, Arian (a sorcerer), was able to tell the tale of an orc ambush. His party of five, from the Forest of Kyrell (to the west), had been tracking orcs along the road when they were ambushed. His friends were quickly overcome, but he was able to sneak away before passing out from his wounds.

Proceeding east/northeast along the road, orc tracks were easy to find. A mere mile east of the ambush site, the tracks left the road and headed due north, toward the foothills visible in the distance. Fours miles north of the road, the open ground turned to grasslands, and then to scrubby foothills. As the party entered the low scrubby hills, they heard periodic drums to the north.

Continuing north, ~7 miles from the road, the party came upon an orc village, under construction, but with a mostly complete wooden palisade in place. Several orcs were visible, working on various incomplete sections of the palisade. With no discussion of plans or tactics, Niam (the assassin/rogue), commenced the fight with a longbow shot from the top of a nearby hill. The first orc fell, skewered by his longbow shot, and a general melee ensued.

Having not had a plan, the first phase of the battle consisted of ranged missile and spell attacks from the top of a slight rise southeast of the village. Several orcs were killed at range as others swarmed out of the village. The melee characters headed toward the village as the spellcasters maintained the assault from a distance. A timely Sleep spell from Duncan took out three wolves which had been released from a pen in the village.

The fight was tough (and the characters had taken some damage), but the party had the upper hand, and there were only a few orcs remaining (including the "boss", charging Thalmyr) when a huge two-headed figure emerged from a cave mouth in the side of the far hill. As the session ended, the two-headed giant howled in rage and ran toward the party's melee characters...

Next - the conclusion of the fight...

GM Commentary - One of our newer players had been content to spend the last bunch of sessions playing the character of one of the absent players, while his daughter played her own character. Liking the game sessions, we decided it was time for him to stop filling in for others, and to roll up his own character and play "himself". Thus Arian, the high elf sorcerer of draconic bloodlines was born (found near death by the side of the road).

We had 6 characters in this session, including a halfling warlock guest player. As has been the case in prior combats, I continue to underestimate the abilities of the party. Challenge ratings in the rules are consistently underestimated, and I need to ramp things up even more in the future. I should have learned this lesson by now...

Monday, July 27, 2015

Campaign Journal 14 - Part 1, At The Dawnstone

We left our heroes on the evening of Saturday June 1, having arrived at the Dawnstone with the Granite dwarves Frayka and Meerak.

June 1 (cont) - Around the campfire that night, within sight of the Dawnstone, Frayka told the party the following story. He and Meerak (his kinsman) are from a group of Granite dwarves called the Farandui. The left their homeland in the distant south, beyond Rendalia, in early March. The name of the land translates to "Mountainhome", which the dwarves Thalmyr and Badric recognized as a near-mythical dwarven kingdom. They had traveled ~1200 miles in ~80 days, generally disguised, riding with caravans and merchant trains. As he told this part of the story, Frayka mumbled the words of a spell and transformed himself and Meerak to the appearance of regular dwarves. Frayka said that an artifact crucial to the safety and well being of their kingdom, and to the health of their Great Thane (who was in an un-wakeable slumber), had been lost. This artifact was called the Heartstone. Meerak was on a quest to craft a new Heartstone, and Frayka was his companion on the journey. Meerak believes that there are only a few places in the Realms where this item can be crafted, and that the Dawnstone is one of these few powerful primal places.

All through this storytelling, Meerak sat by himself on the edge of the firelight and read from a brass-bound leather tome. When he was done his reading, he asked to see some of the party's weapons, and spent some time inspecting, studying and mumbling over each of them in turn.

June 2 - After an uneventful night, the party was wakened by Frayka well before dawn. Meerak was dressed in elaborate black robes, which were covered with red and gold embroidered runes and symbols. He was laying out and organizing all sorts of materials on the Dawnstone itself: a large and ornate golden amulet with a hole in the center, a very large red ruby, a number of what appeared to be small rune-covered clay tablets, containers and jars of various powders and liquids, a large vial of a thick red substance, a small golden knife, and a small golden hammer encrusted with gems and inlaid with runes.

Frayka went to several characters and made requests to borrow Thalmyr's axe, Badric's warhammer, and Malachy's sword. He also asked that Thalmyr be ready to cast Protection From Evil and Melior be ready to cast Thunderwave. [It was at this point that one of the players observed "umm, is it just my imagination, or did we just let this guy disarm all of our melee guys?"]

When the first light of the morning hit the Dawnstone, it began to glow red deep within the translucent white stone, just as the legends said. Meerak began a complicated series of spells and rituals, sprinkling the liquids and powders on the clay rune tablets and then shattering them with the jeweled hammer. As the tablets were shattered, swirls of multi-colored magical energy were released, and were bound into the amulet. The dwarves in the group recognized that they were watching a Runesmith at work. [Aside:  Dwarven Rune Magic is a rare and powerful kind of magic that most people will never witness - Runesmith magic is the type of Rune Magic related to crafting metal items and weapons]. As the ritual continued, the Dawnstone glowed brightly, and tendrils of magical energy snaked out of some of the surrounding standing stones (which were now also glowing), coalescing around the altar, and creating a web of glowing and pulsing light and energy. As a final step, Meerak set the ruby in the center of the amulet, poured the thick red liquid over it (the blood of the Great Thane) and struck it with the jeweled golden hammer. There was a blinding flash of light, after which the ruby could be seen, embedded and glowing, in the center of the amulet.

As the light within the Dawnstone began to fade, Meerak, looking tired, performed quick rituals on each of the three borrowed weapons. While Meerak cast a spell over Thalmyr's axe, Thalmyr was asked to cast Protection From Evil. It seemed to those watching that Meerak's spell as able to capture the magical energy of Thalmyr's spell and cause it to vanish into the axe. Thunderwave cast on Badric's warhammer had a similar effect. Lastly, Meerak cast a final spell on Malachy's sword, then handed the small golden knife to Malachy and asked him to spill his own blood onto the sword. Mal slashed his palm, and drops of blood splattered onto the sword blade. The drops sizzled and smoked, and then were absorbed into the blade, leaving no trace. Meerak collapsed as the last light faded from the Dawnstone. The whole process took only 15 minutes.

The Heartstone ritual was a success.

After a short rest, Meerak handed Thalmyr's axe back to him, and said "this is a fine dwarven-forged weapon made 35 years ago by Tarrack Swifthand in the dwarven hold of Rockforge. It is a fine weapon that will serve you well." [In game terms it was now a +1 weapon that can invoke the Protection From Evil spell once per day].

Handing back Badric's warhammer, he said "this was made in Iron Gate 72 years ago by Brimdall Silvershard son of Sarndall, Use it well." [In game terms, the weapon can now invoke Thunderwave once per day, and is a "magic weapon", but not a '+' weapon. Brimdall Silvershard is of Badric's clan, and is in fact his great-uncle].

Meerak then told Malachy the following: "Your sword is Dralikin. It was forged in a place called Fellsar in the Elder days, by an elven craftsman named Friliar Stormwarden. It is a remarkable weapon, fit for a great warrior. It has lain dormant for a great many years. It is happy to have been awakened." When asked how he knew all this, he shrugged and responded "I asked it, and it told me."

When asked what enchantment had been placed upon it, Meerak hid the sword and then asked Malachy to concentrate on it, and tell him which stone it was behind. Malachy could sense the sword, and knew where it was. Meerak then asked him to concentrate again and call the sword to him. Mal did so, and the sword appeared in his hand. Meerak said "I have bound the sword to you, and you to it by blood. You can call it you and it will appear to serve you for as long as it wishes. I think it possible that it could choose not to respond to your summons, but I am not sure of that. Treat it well."

With that, Frayka presented the party with a few tokens of Granite dwarf friendship and the golden items they no longer needed (the hammer and knife), thanked them profusely, and teleported the two of them away. [Teleporting works fine for "going home", but is extremely dangerous when going to a place you don't know well. Teleporting to a place you hadn't been to at all, and weren't even sure where it was, would be suicidal.]

Next - North of the Dawnstone.

GM Commentary - The first two-thirds of this session (with the last third to come next), was good for revealing more of the mythology and background of the world, and provided the characters with some tangible benefits in terms of enchantments added to some of their primary melee weapons. There would be some exploring and fighting to come in the session. I like the mix of different aspects to a session. I especially like continuing to build the web of people that the characters have encountered, and what could be considered their circle of acquaintances and friends. This provides a lot of opportunity for going back to those relationships and drawing on those ties in the future.

Saturday, July 25, 2015

A Bigger Picture

Over the course of the last year (wow!), I have spent a decent bit of spare time building out a world for our D&D games. Both the games themselves and the world creation process have been a lot of fun. After coming up with an original "background idea" for the part of the world we would be playing in, I have alternated between detailing the local area that the characters are adventuring in, and spending time roughing out the region (or super-region, depending on how you would describe a piece of a continent). One thing I hadn't ever really given much thought to was how this piece of this continent fit into the larger world as a whole, and thus why things were the way they were.

The extremely short version of the background of the world as the players (and I) have known it is this:

In the Elder Days, there were kingdoms of men in the North and in the South of the land. 700 years ago, war broke out in the North and escalated to the point where civilization completely broke down, and magical creatures and evil beasts overran the North, turning it into a dangerous wilderness (500 years ago). The might of the nations of the South contained the onslaught in the North, and the southern realms continued on. Over the last 200-300 years, the scattered remnants of the northern peoples, supplemented by explorers and settlers from the South, have founded new nations along the coasts, and are exploring and settling inland. The far North (and the heart of the Northern Elder Realms) is still a very wild place.

This was certainly enough of a background story to get us started (and frankly would probably work the for entire duration of a campaign or two or three). It created a sense of what I wanted the campaign to be - civilization's struggles on the edge of a mysterious and dangerous wilderness, with lots of ruined towns and old sites to visit and explore. Ancient maps could be found, but would not be commonly available. Legends and stories of the Elder Days would provide for limitless adventure hooks. The effects of world shattering magic could continue to ripple through the land, allowing for all sorts of weirdness. All in all, this background has worked just fine.

Inevitably though, roughing out sketches of the southern lands and other peripheral areas, and staring at open spaces on the edges of all the maps leads to many questions. What else is out there? Where did the  people come from? Is there anything beyond the oceans? What does the rest of this continent look like? Who else lives here? What, if anything, lies on the other side of the Southern lands? If there are other lands and continents out there, who lives in them, and are my "core" people in contact with them, and if not why not? And so on.

In general I have avoided delving into any of these questions for fear that (knowing myself) I will disappear down a rathole of detailed maps and write ups and will spend time creating something that we will almost certainly never use. But that doesn't make the curiosity and the desire to have a better bigger picture go away. So in just a couple of hours over the last few days and evenings, I have taken a few sheets of paper gridded to the scale of my existing Hexographer map sections, and sketched, working out from what is already in place. I have stuck to my promise so far of doing nothing more detailed than jotting a sentence here or there about what an area might contain. The yellow sticky notes on the picture of my sketching serve the same purpose; simple thoughts and ideas that may change.
Sketching the bigger world

As of now, I have a simple sketch of a much larger area, and the beginnings of an idea on how these fit together. Each small grid square on the sketch map is an area 480 miles wide and 360 miles high. The lens cap covers an area of maybe 700 miles in diameter, and is the area that the current campaign is centered in. These 6 sheets of paper in total are about 3,000 miles north to south and almost 6,000 miles east to west. I like it. There is enough in the far north to have arctic climates, and enough in the south to have tropical. If nothing else, the creation/imagination process is fun, and even this vague idea of what else is out there in the wider world will help color the myths and legends that do impact the characters in our campaign.

A bigger picture MIGHT be something like this:

Many years ago (1500? 2000? 2500?) human settlers first came to Myara from Old Lands far to the east across the ocean. [Were they fleeing something or were they explorers?] They settled parts of the eastern central coast of this new land, and built a civilization. [Centered in two main areas, North and South? If so, why/how were they different?] Connection to the Old Lands was lost long ago. [When, how, why?] Even the existence of the Old Lands has faded into myth. [Are they even still there? and what does that look like?] Far to the NE with limited contact with Myara is a land of seafaring barbarians. There are a few scattered nomadic remnants of the Elder peoples in the arctic areas of the far north. To the south across a narrow sea could be a marshy jungle filled land, perhaps with a well-developed lizardman civilization. Stretching west of our core lands, into a very large land mass, could be a vast expanse of grasslands with a nomadic warlike people. There could be a large and well-organized hobgoblin kingdom preventing encroachment of human civilization in that direction. And so on.

Or maybe it's something different entirely...

Monday, July 20, 2015

The Prophets of Doom

The Prophets of Doom are clerics, lay priests and other followers of the god Urdevaal, the god of pain and suffering. The Prophets dress in simple black and brown robes, wear plain rope sandals, and travel the roads and towns of the north, preaching gloom, doom and repentance for your sins. The Prophets often shave their heads and tattoo their skulls with religious symbols.

The Prophets are not a welcome sight among the commoners in the North, but have become more frequently encountered in recent years, especially in Mercia, Rimini and Alsberg. Within the last couple of years they have become a relatively common sight in the towns and villages along the Great North Road.


In addition to their generally unwelcome preachings, there is rumored to be a much darker side to the Prophets. Tales told in the taverns and inns tell of kidnappings, torture, and ritual sacrifices made to the Prophets' bloodthirsty god.


Whatever the truth may be, Urdevaal is a god to be feared, and perhaps pacified with the occasional offering, but that is the extent of the peoples' involvement with this dark god...

Thursday, July 16, 2015

Game Theory - Alignment

Alignment in D&D has been many things over the years. Apparently, the "9 alignment" grid of the possible combinations of law/chaos/neutrality and good/evil/neutrality was a blend of the two things. The first was from an early fantasy novel (Three Hearts and Three Lions, Poul Anderson, 1961) that puts things in the camps of law and chaos, with some remaining neutral. The other classic aspect of good versus evil (with some not choosing a side) became the other axis. To oversimplify, in D&D terms, this became a two-axis grid which had "are you a follower of the conventions of civilization or a loose cannon" on one side, and "are you good or bad or somewhere in the middle" on the other. I have always thought of this as following the rules vs heart (what you are deep inside).

Various editions of D&D have relied heavily on these concepts and classifications over the years. At the most basic fundamental (and restrictive level), certain classes required characters of certain alignments, and behaving "contrary to your alignment" had stiff penalties and consequences. Thieves couldn't be thieves. Paladins would lose their special abilities. And so on.

The silliest manifestation of this was always, to my mind, that in various editions, each alignment had its own language, and plane of existence. Souls of the lawful good dead went to one plane for their afterlife. Lawful evil people went to another. I've never been much for alternate planes, so this was a curiosity but didn't bother me much.

On the language front, I was never able to wrap my head around the idea the lawful good people (good hearted people who follow all the rules) and chaotic good people (good hearted people who will cheat the rules...i.e. the ends justify the means) had separate secondary languages that they spoke. Ridiculous and stupid. But that's just me.

So...why the ramblings? Just thinking about what alignment means in my campaign (if anything)...

Football coach Bill Parcells once said "you are what your record says you are." This is how I view alignment for my players and their characters. I don't ask them to pick an alignment. How they behave will determine what they are. In 5th edition terms, it really doesn't matter anyway, as most of the restrictions and limitations noted above have been removed. Or if not, I have removed them. However, a worshipper of a specific god (depending on them for spells and special abilities) who consistently behaves in a manner at odds with what a worshipper of that god should be, will create problems. Many character classes will never run into this kind of concern. And that is fine. A few classes and characters may be more restricted. And we play that as it comes.

In general, the only use I have for alignment in my campaign is a simple one. If I am making notes on a non-player character (NPC) that the players may encounter, or who is important for some other reason, I will often note one of the nine classic D&D alignments solely for the purpose of it being a shorthand way of reminding me how that specific NPC will behave. Chaotic neutral would be the unpredictable "I'm in it for me" NPC. Chaotic good would be "I'm unpredictable but I mean well." Lawful evil would be "I'm cold and calculating but all that matters is me." Chaotic evil would be "forget everyone else, it's me me me, all me and nothing but me." And so on.

For what I want in my campaign, that's enough.

Sunday, July 12, 2015

Campaign Journal 13 - Part 2, Frayka and the Dawnstone

Our heroes had just returned to Linden...

Ravar's Map (North)
After arriving back in Linden, the party regrouped and took care of a few minor errands. Near dusk, as Thalmyr (dwarven Paladin) was heading to the Wagon Wheel Inn to meet up with the rest of the group for dinner, a shadowy cloaked figure called to him from an alleyway. The figure was roughly Thalmyr's height, and proved to be a dwarf with gray skin and snow white braided beard and hair. The figure introduced himself as Frayka, and proved to be a Granite dwarf, a rarely seen sub-race of dwarves. Granite dwarves almost always have gray skin, white beards and hair, and are often heavily tattooed. They are reclusive, and live in remote areas.

Frayka asked if Thalmyr and his group would escort him to a place he was looking for called the Dawnstone. He was evasive and would not say why, but kept saying that it was urgent, and promised to make it worth their while. He seemed agitated. Thalmyr (and some of the others) were a bit wary, but Frayka appealed (successfully) to his dwarven heritage to help him out. It was agreed that the party would help Frayka find the place.

Based on Ravar Kelt's sketch map and other information, the party had a decent idea that the Dawnstone might be a large site of the Ancients W/NW of the Red Barrows. They had not yet been that far north, judging that if Ravar's notes were accurate, this place should be ~25 miles north of Castle Langborne, or ~45-50 miles north of Linden.

The party left Linden on the morning of Tuesday May 28, a sunny and warm day. About 2 miles outside of town, Frayka stopped near a roadside copse of trees, told the party not to be alarmed, and whistled loudly several times. After a moment or two, another Granite dwarf emerged from the trees. He looked similar to Frayka, but was a twisted hunchback with a pronounced limp. He was more heavily tattooed than Frayka, and was introduced as Meerak. He nodded greetings, but did not speak. Frayka explained that Meerak would not come into town, and had camped in the woods waiting for Frayka's return.

The Dawnstone site
The party headed north in good weather, making decent time. The Granite dwarves were polite but quiet. On the third day of their trip, the party passed east of the hills containing Castle Langborne, and continued north. Early on the fifth day (Saturday June 1), the party saw rolling hills off to the northeast, which they guessed must be the Red Barrows. Skirting these to the west, they came upon another fragment of old Onorian paved road, which they followed north. Late in the day, their destination came into view - a large, complicated and well-preserved site of the Ancients. It was unlike anything the characters had ever seen.

Frayka and Meerak were extremely excited.

From the legends that the characters had heard of the Dawnstone, it was obvious that they had found what they were looking for. A central hillock has a number of round pillars (10' tall) and large upright rectangular slabs (12' tall). In the center is a 6' diameter and 20' tall black stone pillar, carved with faded symbols. At the foot of this pillar, on the east side, is a large table-like rock - this is the Dawnstone itself. The Dawnstone is of a different type of rock than is found locally, and is a semi-translucent white in color. Radiating out from this central formation are ancient stone paths flanked by rows of 10' high pillars, at the end of which is a huge rectangular block facing inward. There are other lines of pillars on the diagonal. At the end of each diagonal line of pillars is another small hillock on which stands another huge rectangular block, also facing inwards.

Legends say that each day at sunrise, for a short period of time, the Dawnstone glows with a red light coming from deep within the stone.

Next - At the Dawnstone.

GM Commentary - I hope the players enjoy this kind of session as much as I do. There was some combat, but also some good roleplaying and storytelling. I'm very much looking forward to developments in the next session.

As for more practical matters, a couple of our characters (Duncan the wizard and Malachy the barbarian) are teetering on the brink of level 4, and are guaranteed to reach that milestone in our next session. Several others are also closing in, and could theoretically make it...

Saturday, July 11, 2015

Campaign Journal 13 - Part 1, Beyond the Gate

We left our characters in a partially ruined building, with a magical gate set into the cliff face behind them (into which the building was built). The gate had gone dormant after they came through...

With the magical get having closed behind them, and there still being several hours of daylight left, the group needed to decide what to do. Duncan's arcane knowledge led him to believe that since a command word had not been required to open the gate from the other side, this was probably a gate that would be dormant for some period of time before being able to be activated again.

Gate Exit Area (Players' map)
Deciding to explore the immediate area, the party began to look around. The gate had put them in the back room of a stone house at the top of a hill. The back room was fairly intact, including a roof and closable door, but the other parts of the house were partially ruined. The view from outside the house showed that they were on top of a hill, with a number of other clusters of ruined buildings and towers scattered around the hills and valleys within sight. To the south (which they could tell from the position of the late afternoon sun) was a mile-wide lake with a small rocky island in the middle. The island also seemed to have some ruins.

With it being near dark, a quick view of the surroundings was all that could be managed, and the party slept in the house they arrived in.

The following day (Saturday May 25), the group restricted their exploring to the smaller hilltop area that they had arrived at, during which time they were attacked near dusk by a pair of gargoyles, killing one and badly wounding and driving off the other.

Two observations struck the party. First, these ruins seemed to show much less deterioration than very old Onorian ruins they had seen in the past (perhaps only 20-30 years as opposed to hundreds). Second, that some of the buildings seen around the area seemed to be very large columned or low pyramidal buildings that might be government or temple buildings (or some other special function).

As darkness came, the party decided to spend the night in the mostly intact ruins of a 3-story tower at the very top of the hill. The night passed without incident, although during Niam's watch from the shattered top floor, there was a brief period where flashes of greenish-yellow light could be seen on the horizon far to the south beyond the lake.

First thing in the morning (Sunday May 26), the party made their way back to the location of the gate. It activated when approached, and the characters stepped through one by one, appearing unharmed in the chamber they had arrived from. The party marched to Olmsby and spent the night there, arriving back in Linden late in the morning of Monday May 27.

Next (13, part 2) - Frayka and the Dawnstone.

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Campaign Journal 12 - Local Ruins

We last left our heroes in Linden, having just arrived back from a three week journey to Talengard and Rimini.

Having just spent three weeks on the road, the group decided to do a little local exploring rather than embarking on a more substantial adventure. Perusing Ravar's sketch map of the area, and the locations of ruins on that map, the characters decided to investigate the ruins near the headwaters of the Perla stream, not far upstream from the location of their very first dungeon.

With plans to set out the next morning (Thursday May 23), the party was going about their business in town and got involved in a minor brawl in Linden's town square. A traveling troupe of entertainers were putting on an elaborate puppet show in the square, and a small crowd had gathered. Amongst these were 6 caravan guards from Mirraddi, who were typical of their people (long hair, braided beards and lots of tattoos). Causing a bit of an interruption in the proceedings were 5 members of a religious group known as the Prophets of Doom. The Prophets are clerics, lay priests and other followers of the god Urdevaal, the god of pain and suffering. The Prophets dress in simple black and brown robes, wear rope sandals, and travel the roads and towns of the north, preaching gloom, doom and repentance for your sins. The Prophets also often shave their heads and tattoo their skulls with religious symbols.

In Linden's square, the Mirraddi swordsmen were watching the puppet show and the other entertainers, who were in turn being interrupted by the Prophets. The Mirraddians were getting increasingly annoyed, and were yelling at the Prophets, making fun of their shaved heads and tattoos. The Prophets were getting more aggressive, the Mirraddians were getting more annoyed, and Duncan decided for a little mischief and cast a Fog Cloud spell on the bunch of them. A simple fistfight ensued, the townspeople quickly emptied the square, and the party snuck away before the town guard arrived to settle matters.
Ravar's Map - South end

The party left Linden on Thursday morning, passed through Olmsby and headed north up the trail past the Kel-Vandiir dungeon, camping for the night at a spot nearby that they had used on prior travels. The night was uneventful, and by 8am Friday morning, the party was heading north. They followed the old trail on the west bank of the Perla stream for about 3 miles, crossing to the east bank at a ford. The old trail continued northeast, but the party stayed by the stream, trudging through the grasslands. At about 10am, the flatlands came to an end, and the stream began climbing into some rolling hills. After a brief halt, they continued along the stream.

About a mile into the hills, as the party was following a game trail along the stream bank through a wooded section, they came around a bend and came face to face with a group of 5 fierce-looking creatures the size of a large man. These turned out to be bugbears, and a fight quickly ensued. The party, consisting at this point of Duncan (wizard), Malachy (barbarian warrior), Badric (dwarves cleric) and Niam (wood elf rogue), were hard-pressed, but eventually overcame the creatures after a very tough fight. With a few coins and a lot of wounds for their efforts, they rested for a couple hours, healed up, and continued northwards.

After another 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile through rugged wooded hills, the game trail came to a tiny valley nestled between a number of hills. In the valley were the remains of a half dozen or so buildings, including a ruined tower on a hill. They investigated the tower first, and found a stone staircase leading down, which had been very well hidden and overgrown with brush and vines. Clearing a way in, they headed down into the darkness.

The dungeon was in decent repair, and was not overly large. The first section contained a second stairway down to a number of old storerooms. There was a trapped door that Niam was unable to detect, and which did some damage.
Dungeon at Ranatayza

The second section of the dungeon had more traps as they descended another staircase, and was of indeterminate purpose. After successfully navigating another trapped chamber, they went down another short flight of steps and came to a 25 foot wide section of passage that was filled with standing water to a depth of 3 feet or more. Beyond the water could be seen another short flight of stairs (this time leading up), and a faint pulsing green glow of light. After some discussion, Niam climbed down into the water and waded through to the other side. When nothing happened, the others safely did the same.

Climbing the stairs, the party entered a 30 foot side octagonal shaped room. In the center of the room was a waist-high black stone pillar, on which seemed to sit a pulsing and dimly glowing orb of green light. When people entered the room, the light glowed more brightly. Nothing else could be seen in the room, and when Niam attempted to touch the glowing orb, he found that it was insubstantial, and that his hand passed through it with no effect.

Not knowing what else to do, they left the chamber by the only other exit, and descended a staircase to a final chamber. The stone walls of the chamber were heavily carved with scenes of a settlement along the banks of a body of water, including large pillared buildings that might be temples or government buildings. In the far wall, opposite the stairs, was an outline of a doorway, carved in runes in the stone. When Niam approached, the area inside this "doorframe" began to glow and pulse with a swirling purplish-pink light. When he reached out his hand to touch it, he was instantaneously sucked through the doorway and disappeared.

The other characters, not wanting to be separated, immediately did the same. One by one, each reached out to touch the light, and was gone...

Next - Beyond the gate.

GM Commentary - Over the last few sessions, we have had a mix of our 7 players coming and going. As noted before, in the interests of keeping the party to a manageable size (I think 5 is ideal), we have taken the path of approaching the game from the standpoint of "if you are here, then your character is here; if you are not, your character isn't either." From a narrative standpoint, this leaves something to be desired, as a specific adventure spanning two sessions can have the cast of characters mysteriously change in midstream, but it is an accommodation that seems to be working fairly well.

From a level standpoint, all of our characters are level 3, with some fairly close to level 4. Depending on how the next session goes, we may have a couple of advancements next time. If not next time, then the session after that will be guaranteed. The increased flexibility in what I can throw at the party without them needing to run for their lives is nice.

A note on the dungeon map picture - I do my dungeons on graph paper, hand-drawn (the old school way). During sessions, I use a large flip-chart easel pad faintly printed with a 1" grid. We can quickly draw out what they find as they explore, and can put little colored beads and other markers on the map sheet to represent the characters as they move around and monsters that they encounter. This becomes the tactical map for running combats. The easel pads aren't cheap (about $30 US for a 30 sheet pad), but we rarely use more than 2 sheets in a session, and the ability to have a map on "large graph paper" that everyone around the table can see from several feet away makes it well worthwhile. Much better than everyone hovering around a tiny piece of paper...

Monday, May 18, 2015

Campaign Journal 11 - Visiting Talengard

We last left our heroes in Linden, preparing to journey to see the sages of Talengard, in the hopes of selling 65-70 antique books, and potentially gaining other information...

The party left Linden on Tuesday April 30, heading east on the Great North Road, in two horse-drawn carts. They had 65-70 antique books to sell, a 6 foot by 6 foot antique carved wooden artwork panel depicting a fight between several warriors and a dragon, as well as some pieces of salvaged arms and armor of modest value. These would all be sold to raise as much money as possible, and to gain information that would help the party's future explorations. Mordecai (NPC fighter) expressed an interest in cashing out his share of the treasure so that he continue a few days further on into Alsberg, where he could visit his father and give him some money.

The trip east through Wegley and Nandra was uneventful, and the party reached Talengard on Tuesday May 7th, 8 days out of Linden. Duncan and Niam (wizard and rogue) were dispatched to meet with the sages of Talengard regarding a potential sale of the books, while the remainder of the party stayed in the town of the same name.
Talengard and the Grand Duchy of Rimini (6 mile - Hexographer)

Duncan and Niam first met with a minor administrator, but when the size and rarity of the collection they were trying to sell became apparent, Oleran Graybeard, Master of the Library, came to discuss matters with them himself. Much of the day was spent in allowing time for numerous sages in various specialties to exam the works, after which some negotiating was needed. The sages valued the collection at 6,700 GP (a princely sum!), but as Bertram, the Master of Coin, explained, that was an amount of coin that they could easily come up with. The next day, it was agreed that 2,500 would be paid in cash, and 4,200 would be paid in "credit" for future services where the sages could be of use. The party was also provided with a much better map of Onoria than the very simple sketch map which was all they had access to previously, and a couple of small journals of adventurers who had traveled the area in the past.

Before leaving, Eustace of Jasla, the sage they had saved near Castle Langborne, and his mentor Bethziral (an elderly halfling) came to visit with the party. Knowing of their interest in Castle Langborne, Bethziral had some additional information to share. Based on her researches, she said that she believed Alferith Langborne was a direct descendent of the Tramantine family, and that was probably one of the reasons he returned to Brin-Dendra (as it was known in the Elder days). The Tramantine family were the Dukes of Sesteval, which roughly covered what is now the Shearingvale and surrounding lands in southeast Onoria. The other reason she believes he went to Brin-Dendra is because of the legends of something called the Soulfire Beacon. Legend has it that the Soulfire Beacon was the culmination of the Tramantine family's researched into dark magic. Some tales say that it is a powerful artifact that uses sacrificial life forces from the living to summon and control the dead. Others say that it is some sort of gate or portal to the underworld, or to a different plane of existence where the souls of the dead rest. Bethziral said that the only specific mention she had uncovered as to the location of the Soulfire Beacon is that it is near a place in deepest mines under the town, a place where the delvings had broken through into the Underdark. It is a place said to be holy to the duergar (the dark dwarves).

After spending the night in Talengard town, the party decided to head to Greva (one day southeast) and then on to the city of Rimini (another day east). In Rimini, they would change their new coins into gems for portability, sell the carved artwork panels, and buy some better gear while they were in a large city.

After two full days in Rimini, the group left on Monday May 13, and had an uneventful trip west along the Great North Road and back to Linden, where they arrived on Tuesday the 21st.

Next - And now what?

GM Commentary - This was a full three hour session where not a single die was rolled in anger. I was OK with it, as some important things happened from the standpoint of building out the world and setting up future adventures (at least from a myth/legend and history of the world standpoint). I hope the players were OK with it, as there was experience awarded for goals and information learned and gathered.

Monday, May 4, 2015

Campaign Journal 10 - The East Laboratory

Further Explorations of Castle Langborne's Dungeons

We left our heroes in a secure room in the East Basements level, bedding down for the night to rest and recuperate.

The night passed uneventfully, and in the morning, as the party was leaving the chamber, sharpeyed Melior the Druid noticed some faint scratch marks on the floor in the southeast corner of the room. This turned out to be a secret door leading to more stairs descending further. The stairs showed years of undisturbed dust.

After descending another 40 feet or so, the party came out into what was once an alchemical laboratory or something similar. There were old stone and wooden tables and stools, many shelves lining the walls, and a large amount of very old arcane equipment. Storage rooms to the east were explored.
Castle Langborne's East Labs sub-level

When the door to the north (right in the picture) was opened, a waft of fresh air swept across the party, and a magical light began to glow, illuminating what was obviously a library. Stone alcove shelves lined the walls, and a table and chairs were in the center of the room. The room seemed to have magical climate control, and the combination of steady temperature and humidity levels had preserved approximately 100 of the books, tomes, grimoires and sets of scrolls stored here (not all were salvageable). These books were made of all imaginable kinds of materials, and were written in a variety of languages. A few hours of going through the books and finding the ones that were still in good condition made the characters realize that they had found a treasure trove of great value. Perhaps 25-30 of the works would be useful in forming the foundation of a wizard's library for Duncan, and the remainder would be of value to sages or collectors. They covered all sorts of subjects (alchemy, biology, mathematics, natural history, astronomy, history, etc), and it was estimated that they might be worth thousands of gold in the right hands.

In searching the library, a secret door was found in the east wall which led to a short tunnel. In the tunnel was a small chest sitting on a wooden crate. The crate was filled with decaying green and gold clothing, obviously the livery colors of someone's household. The small chest had a dozen pieces of jewelry and a note. The note (written in an older dialect of high elven) said:

My dearest Estrellia, Despite your youth, you show the signs of having a gift in the Art. In these dangerous times, that is both a gift and a curse. I have been called to the battlefield, and leave in the morning. Rumor is that General Tamarka fell yesterday, although I know not if this is true. They say that a demon-led orc horde has crossed into the Central Plains, and threatens to overrun everything north of the Serintan. I know that you will be using the library, and so I hope that you will find this. I have set aside these things that should be of help to you should you choose to follow the path that I, and many others of our ancestors have taken. –Grandpa Max

Duncan was given a chance to make an Arcana roll to see if this meant anything to him. He would need to roll a natural 20 to succeed...and rolled a natural 20. Duncan's reading on famous wizards of the past allowed him to recognize that this probably referred to Maximilian Baroka and his granddaughter Estrellia Baroka (known as Estrellia the Savage). These were two of the most famous of a family of wizards (Conjurers especially) from late in the Elder times. This letter itself was probably also of value to a sage or collector.

Among the pieces of jewelry, two items of magic were discovered. One was identified to be a Ring of Protection +2, and one was identified to be Bracers of Fire Resistance. The ring went to Duncan (?) and the bracers went to Malachy.

The decision was made that what they had found thus far was realistically all that they could carry, and that they would travel back to Linden, and then on to Talengard to sell the books.

An ankheg (a gigantic earth-tunneling praying mantis type creature that spits acid) was killed on the way home. The trip was otherwise uneventful.

Next - The party has decided to head to the sage enclave of Talengard in the Grand Duchy of Rimini, approximately a week's journey east on the Great North Road.

GM Commentary - Outside the game, we discussed experience for non-combat goals and discoveries and how I want this to open up the storyline and the choices that the players can choose to make. We also touched on the fact that we now have more characters than comfortably make a medium sized party (and than we have players who regularly show up), and how we should deal with this. I don't know that we have a good answer yet...

The issue with our party size, characters and players is this:

We originally had four player characters and two NPCs to fill out a reasonable (and survivable) party of 1st level characters. Then we gained another adult player and a teenager whose father would sit in and make sure she was doing ok (and to see what D&D was all about). All three of the new people are enjoying the game, and show up pretty much all the time. The teenager has rolled her own new character, so we now have a dwarven paladin. The new adult is content to adopt the NPC druid as his own and make it his player character, which is great. That gives us 7 characters. The teen's father is into it, and we are going to create a character for him (he has been playing our rogue, who is a player character whose owner can rarely make it). That will give us 8. Eight is a lot. Perhaps too many. Now that characters are all 3rd level (and not that far from 4th), they have a lot more hit points, spells, abilities, etc. Challenging a party of 8 in combat encounters would be challenging for me (the GM). Eight characters in a dungeon crawl feels like a small army to me.

So I'm not quite sure what to do. We can play with all 8 and adapt. We can make the one remaining NPC (fighter) go away, which would get us down to 7. We could make the campaign more "one-shot" oriented where each playing session could be tailored to "you do 3-3.5 hours of gaming in doing xyz then you all go back to town at the end of every session". Whoever shows up at the session would have their character involved; those that didn't wouldn't (XP gaps would develop as two of our players can rarely make it). Or we could keep the narrative as it is and bend reality to say that players who are not present at sessions just vanish in and out of the narrative depending on when they can be present. From a story telling standpoint, I'm not sure I can happily get my head around that. We'll have to see where this goes...