Campaign Journal 25 - Kristovaria

Plays begins with our heroes a few miles into the northwestern Greenreach Woods, on the way to the ruins of Kristovaria and another entrance to the Underdark...

July 4, Thursday (cont.) - Standing in the clearing in the woods, in the aftermath of the fight in which they defeated 6 gnolls and saved a young treant named Birchlock, the party paused to rest and regroup. Investigating the area, they found two paths out of the clearing (other than the way they came in from the north); one to the southwest that was the path Rogan had them on in order to get to the ruins of Kristovaria, and another to the southeast. There were easy to find tracks showing that the gnolls had come up the southeast trail.

After a brief discussion, the party elected to continue on their original path, but to camp for the night first.

July 5, Friday - The party head south from the clearing and within another couple of miles came to the ruins. Hearing voices nearby, Niam (the rogue) creeps into the ruins and spies out a handful of armed men and another bunch of captives. Setting up a successful surprise attack, the party is able to overpower the band of thugs, killing everyone except the leader, who is charmed and captured alive. 12 more captives are saved from being sold into slavery.

Ruins of Kristovaria (Hexographer, 1 mile scale)

The party interrogates the captured leader, Baldur Kersk, who proves to be a mercenary warrior from the city of Turil. Kersk claims that he was hired by an unidentified man while staying at the Laughing Goblin Tavern in the Wagontown section of the city. He was paid to capture and deliver 50  healthy people to the lizardmen in the caverns near the ruins. These were to be spread over 4 different groups so as to raise less alarm. This was the last of the 4 groups. Kersk is able to provide a detailed description of the man who hired him (who has some distinctive features). Kersk also begs for his life, and says that he has 325 gold pieces hidden in his quarters at the Slanted Shingle Inn in Turil, which he will give to the group for letting him live.

Following a brief discussion, the group decides that they will go to Turil and hunt down the man who hired Kersk, returning the captives to safety along the way.

The large group moves south from Kristovaria, coming out the far side of the forest, stopping after a half dozen miles or so to camp near the shores of a small lake.

While making camp, the group is attacked by two giant-sized monstrosities. The monsters are killed after a bloody fight, and the party settles down for the night.

GM Commentary - This is a session where my prep work and the path the party chose to take diverged completely. I fully expected the party to choose to follow the gnoll tracks to the southeast, which would have set them on a course to spend several sessions playing out the "evil in the Greenreach" story arc. I had prepped the next bunch of that arc. I hadn't really prepped much for actually getting to Kristovaria, because I didn't think they would choose that. Much of what happened at Kristovaria, with more captives in the presence of the bandits, in the process of being prepared to be sold to the lizardmen, was improvised. That improvisation was intended to be a short interlude, after which I figured the group would choose to deal with the evil in the woods. As things played out, the group was interested in tracking down the people responsible for these slavers. So off to Turil we went. Go figure. [Reviewing my session prep notes for sessions 24 and 25, there is no mention of anything that happened subsequently, that only occurs in the session 26 prep notes when I knew we were on a new track...]

This ended up being a key decision point in the campaign. Coupled with choices the party would make in the next session (#26), this ended up setting the course we are still on as I write this far after the fact (following session 36 in January 2017).

Campaign Journal 24 - The Road to Kristovaria

Play begins with the party having just made it back to the underground entrance up into the dungeon basements of Fulcher's Hold.

June 30, Sunday (cont.) - Fulcher is concerned when the party shows up in his basement with 15 other people. Not wanting to have word spread that his new castle has basements that connect to the Underdark, it is eventually agreed that the former captives will be subjected to memory-blurring charm magic that will prevent them from remembering details of the last day or so.

July 1, Monday - The party travels from Fulcher's Hold to Linden with 15 blindfolded captives in a pair of wagons. The captives are set free in Linden, and Marlena Berkor, the High Riders Company merchant captain reasserts her vow to reward them, and promises to deliver such reward care of Raglin Tindall at the Linden Inn. She also gives them a signet token from the High Riders that will allow them to seek assistance from company offices or members when needed.

Rogan, one of the caravan guard fighters, says that he knows the location of the ruins where the captives were taken underground. His father was a hunter who traveled the region extensively, and he recognized the ruins his father called Kristovaria. He says he can lead the party to the spot and show them the entrance to the Underdark.

The party agrees to go. Lily Copperknock, the first level gnome wizard, talks the party into allowing her to go with them.

July 2, Tuesday - The party travels from Linden 5 miles south to Bornil, on easy trails, and then an additional 6 miles west to Gulb. On the road just west of Bornil, 2 ankhegs burst out of the ground and attack the party. This may have been a greater challenge at an earlier time, but the party dispatches the insectoid creatures without much difficulty. The party spends a quiet night at the Day's Rest, a small tavern and eatery (and the only such place in the tiny village of Gulb). Here they are told stories of strange happenings and dangerous creatures in the normally peaceful northern fringes of the woods.

Linden to Kristovaria (maps in Hexographer, 1 mile hexes)

July 3, Wednesday - On a sunny warm day with a light breeze blowing, the party travels west/southwest about 12 miles by hunters' trails to the southeastern shore of a medium-sized lake. A mile or two across the water to the west, distant outlines of ruins can be seen. Rogan says these are an old Onorian town called Valtana, which is said to be a haunted place that locals avoid.

July 4, Thursday - Another warm calm day, and the party travels west along the south shore of the lake, and then south to find the trail into the Greenreach Woods. They have a difficult time finding the trail Rogan is looking for, and most of the midday period is spent searching the forest's edge for it. Eventually they find the trail and head south into the woods.

As they advance into the forest, Melior the druid sees increasing evidence that something is not right in the forest. Odd vines grow, trees and plants look twisted, and the forest grows darker the further they go.

Approximately four miles in, the party stops to rest in a clearing, and are beset by a number of vine blights and a pair of angry awakened trees. The trees are seen to have glowing blue crystal shards protruding from their trunks. When the awakened trees are killed, the crystal shards go dark. Thalmyr the dwarven paladin takes one of the shards with him.

Proceeding a short way down the trail, the party comes across a strange scene; a group of 6 gnolls surrounding a young treant, threatening it with torches and fire. It seems to be in desperate straights, outnumbered and showing many signs of burns on its trunk and limbs. The party kills the gnolls. The forest creature, near death, is saved by the party. Rogan the caravan guard, and their guide, is killed.

The treant introduces himself as Birchlock, and says that he came to this part of the forest to seek out one if his elders, an ancient treant named Fallthorn. He wanted to ask Fallthorn about the evil growing in the forest, and to seek advice and guidance. He was beset by the gnolls before he could find Fallthorn. After talking with the party, he heads off to the south, returning to his home to rest and heal from his wounds.

GM Commentary - I enjoyed this session very much. There wasn't a whole lot of combat, but the fight with the gnolls in order to save the treant was fun in that it presented the beginnings of a new potential story arc for the future (bad things going on in the northern Greenreach). The encounter with the two ankhegs was simply a case of tossing an experience point bone at the players (and that's fine if you know that there isn't going to be a lot of combat, and you want to make sure that you can get the players some XP).

Campaign Journal 23 - Slave Rescue

Play begins with the party exploring the Underdark, about two days south/southwest of Fulcher's Hold.

June 29, Saturday [day 4 underground] - After an uneventful night in a side cavern, the party continues west from the location called Giant Steps toward the location called Junction, on the way to High Cliff. Not far into their day's journey, the party arrived in a large cavern and heard the sounds of others.

Shearingvale Underdark

Successfully sneaking forward, the party scouted out a group of goblins and another creature that were camped and watching over a large group of captives. The party launched a surprise assault, and quickly got the upper hand on the enemy; a group which included a goblin boss, a shaman, an owlbear pet, and nine goblin warriors. The fight was bloody but brief, and the party received unexpected help in the form of one of the captives, who would prove to be a gnome apprentice wizard named Lily Copperknock.

Once saved from the goblin tribe, the captives were able to tell their story. They were all part of a small caravan traveling the north end of the High Road, between Crygar and Turil, when they were set upon by a group of human bandits. Some were slain, and the remainder were taken prisoner. They were taken east from their capture point, into the northwestern fringes of the Greenreach Woods. They were taken to some ruins and into a nearby cave complex. Once a little ways underground, the human captors met up with a group of lizardmen, and the captives were sold and left to their fate. After 3 days with the trogs, the lizardmen were ambushed and killed by a troop of goblins. They had been with the goblins for 3 days (for a total of 6 days underground, and 9 days since the caravan ambush).

The captives were Lily Copperknock (a level 1 gnome wizard), two caravan guard fighters (Rogan and Thomas), 11 civilians, and a merchant captain from the High Riders Company (based in the city of Jasla on the High Plateau) named Marlena Berkor. Marlena was badly wounded and needed healing from the group. She was very grateful, and promised rewards for the party's help.

Northwestern Greenreach (Hexographer, 6 mile scale)

The party decided to end their expedition, and spent most of the day heading back toward Fulcher's Hold. The group marched hard.

June 30, Sunday [day 5 underground] - An uneventful (but hard and long) day's journey brought them safely to the underground entrance to Fulcher's Hold...

GM Commentary - The main reminder for me here, although it wouldn't be driven home completely for a few more sessions (see also session 25 in particular...), is that you better have a good idea of what a plot event thrown at the characters is likely to result in, especially if it will derail what you had planned. In other words, understand that "if I do this, the party will most likely do that". Presenting a good aligned party (and good people in real life) with a band of 15 or so captives saved from Underdark slavery means that they will stop what they were doing and get the captives back to the safety of the surface world. They aren't going to save the captives, then ignore them and head off further into the Underdark. If you don't want them going back to the surface...don't give them 15 saved captives. And once they have returned the captives to the surface, they are likely to want to deal with who was responsible. But that is the story of sessions 24-27...

Campaign Journal 22 - Underdark

Play begins in the Underdark, a couple of days underground travel south/southwest of Fulcher's Hold, somewhere deep below the Shearingvale...

June 27, Thursday - The first major encounter for the party was with a group of bugbears and their grimlock slaves who were in a large cavern harvesting zurkhwood, a huge mushroom with a stalk tens of feet tall that is like wood. Zurkhwood is prized in the Underdark as a ready substitute for wood, being used for bridges, rafts, boats, houses and all manner of other construction. Surprise and a good tactical plan made the fight easy.

The party continues to work its way further south and deeper into the Underdark. A notable encounter happened at a location called "Giant Steps", where the group began descending a huge set of stairs, only to find themselves high above an unsuspecting group of goblins on a parallel route below them. The party rained fiery death down on the goblins, who quite literally never knew what hit them.

"Giant Steps" and slaughtering goblins

June 28, Friday - At a rift crossing on an old wooden bridge, the party encountered a troll. Due to the fact that the party was split up during the crossing, this was a very tough fight, and Badric the cleric and Thalmyr the paladin were both near death before the creature was overcome.

Crossing a rift...and finding a troll

The group decided to investigate the side passage that the troll had come out of, and spent some time exploring the series of caverns and passageways that made up the troll lair. Another troll, the mate of the previously encountered troll, attempted to surprise the party, but was unsuccessful. She died after a short but violent fight.

Exploring the troll lair..and another troll

Next - Onward...

GM Commentary - I am really enjoying these Underdark sessions. The crafting I have been doing (a hobby unto itself) has really paid off in terms of enhanced gameplay.

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.

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.

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.]