After having escaped from the previous dungeon filled with cryptic and incredibly vague information, in addition to a large variety of magically constructed monsters, the PCs attempt to make it towards the capital city of the land of Etheria, the Hub (technically known as Convergence, but everyone calls it the Hub). Meanwhile, the DM, finally learned some character names:
Aharone (spelling more or less accurate), known as the "exalted one," aasimar cleric.
Aky, known as the... physically active... one, elf bard.
Gulliver, known as the liar, human rogue.
Branwyn, known as the narcissistic, elf sorcerer (of the wild magic variety).
Khoshek, known as the corrupted one, teifling warlock.
And... a half-orc barbarian of some name, known as "the reader" by himself, "the bigot" by others.
Anyways, as the party decides the most effective way to make it to the Hub quickly would be to find a riverboat and rent it so that they can use the speed of the river to their best advantage. Unfortunately for them, they run into a guard patrol beforehand, and are ushered off course to the city of Stahd, where they resupply and get another quest hook - some evil orc that looks remarkably like the half-orc in the party (and rides a giant spider - minor detail) has been raiding nearby towns. Thanks to the backstory of Aharone, once they found out he was in town they figured he'd be the best man for the job (Aharone was raised by the Church of the Knowing, and has gone on multiple protective missions before), and that whatever company he kept was likely the best of the best based on his reputation. So before the party can share the crucial information that they learned in the previous dungeon (there's the distinct possibility that one or more god is dead, some mad wizard from a bygone age is enacting hell from beyond the grave, etc), they are sent off with a new mission to accomplish.
Before heading out, Aharone talks to the guards to learn what they know, and doesn't learn much about the orcs... But does learn about ruins of new evil stalking the land, of magic becoming corrupted, of walking dead in the northern lands, and strange monstrosities in the others. Dark days, the men say, dark days indeed.
Dark days indeed.
The party heads out. Unfortunately, none of them take the time to try and mask their presence, so the orc party they are hunting quickly discovers their presence and lets them follow for a while, eventually deciding that enough was enough and capturing the party pretty much single-handedly. As part of the butt-kicking the party experiences, a very large orc who turns out to be the half-orc barbarian's half-brother has a little face-off with his half brother, and mauls him (but does not kill him).
The orcs then carried them to ritual grounds, and prepped to burn the party alive as part of a ritual sacrifice. Thankfully, the party got saved (after experiencing some minor burn wounds) by an even larger goblin raiding party. As it turns out, while the goblins are considerably smaller than the orcs (in many ways), they still have a strong enough burning hatred that they are occasionally willing to try and kill a raiding party that looks distracted. Even so, the goblins specifically made sure to avoid raiding while the half-orc barbarian's brother wasn't around (he goes on patrols riding his giant spider. NBD). They considered finishing the ritual the orcs started (there's no love lost between the goblin clans and human settlements), but one of the goblins, a scrawny guy named Wazo who happened to be cousin to the leader of this small raiding party, asked to "not burn them to death this time." Wazo had been saved by this party before, and wanted to be able to call the debt even.
The party left before the goblins could change their mind. Following a map they received in the previous dungeon, they took off to the mountains, figuring that while they were nearby they might as well explore the place. The party discovered another abandoned outpost in the mountains, this one built with the theme of undead in mind. A whole lot of corpses and blood later, the party made its way to the bottom floor, and found a room with a giant magnet in it, which almost stole everything Branwyn owned. Fortunately, the half-orc barbarian was more than strong enough to save her gear after the magnet snatched it. They continued exploring, killing zombies and skeletons and the occasional wraith, before stumbling upon a revenant. They freed the monster, and attempted to give chase after it fled, but ended up doing battle with a wraith instead (which nearly killed several party members). By the time they finished taking care of the bloody thing, the revenant had fled.
They followed its trail, and found their way into a large metal room, one where an angry iron golem wandered. The second it saw the party, it attacked, and literally punched a hole in the chest of Aharone, the party cleric (he died). It then proceeded to chase and attempt to destroy the rest of the party, which managed to lure it into the magnet room, where it got stuck against the magnet and was effectively defeated.
And that was the majority of the adventure today. At one point they found a partially ruined journal that belonged to an ancient wizard named Melvinicus the Maker, which gave some important background information, and Aharone ended up returning as a sentient undead, but those are all minor details. The important part is, the party mostly survived.
Monday, January 19, 2015
Saturday, January 17, 2015
Session 1.5 - The Six Stooges
Because we didn't have as long to meet for this session as the previous one, we decided to forgo using a map and miniatures and just play entirely using the power of imagination. Honestly, I'm not sure that helped speed things up at all (in hindsight), but it was a lot of fun to watch the adventurers fumble their way through things.
We started out with leveling up the characters. Only one person was missing. Fortunately, 5e is really quick in so many ways, and leveling up was done in a flash. Then the players decided to finish clearing out the dungeon.
I won't bore you with too many of the details of players crawling around dirty dungeon floors, but I will give you some high points:
1) Our esteemed cleric managed to scare a few specters half to death with Channel Divinity, thus saving the bard's life (the specters had materialized out of nowhere, and intimidated the bard, who fumbled, cracked her head against a stone wall, and ended up unconscious).
2) Shortly thereafter a hole was discovered in a wall and the cleric volunteered to check it out. He fell down a 20 foot pitfall trap, but rather than calling for help rolled a very high athletic or acrobatics check (I forget) and managed to press-climb himself up and out. Unfortunately, the cleric's general level of awesome ran out after this when a giant spider dropped from the ceiling onto his lone self, knocked him out, paralyzed him, and webbed him up or dinner sometime later.
3) The party, worried that they heard their only cleric yell "SPIDE-OOMPH" and then go silent, decided to mount a rescue through the hole in the wall. Their bumbling attempts managed to kill the giant spider, but unfortunately a misfired Eldritch Blast blew the pants off of the sorcerer (more literally than we wished...), revealing a big blue buttocks to the entire world.
4) Oozes and rust monsters. Everywhere. Some party members are going to be needing a lot of new equipment after this misadventure.
5) At one point in the dungeon, the party discovered the world's most gorgeous red couch... I just put it in there to give the dungeon a feeling of strangeness and magic. It's the world's most comfortable red couch, with the magical qualities of always being clean, always being in perfect repair (unless destroyed), and it always faces the entrance that the last person to enter the room used. Really, it just existed for flavor, but the party had to waste thirty minutes discussing how to cart that thing out of there and keep it with them for the remainder of their adventures. Adventurers. *scoffs*
6) One of the themes I had in mind when creating this dungeon was "created by a wizard that loves constructs," so it was full of things like Animated Armor, mimics, and other delightful nasties that appear to be innocent at first glance. The party was, of course, not particularly pleased with me, but I was too busy smiling and rolling damage to care.
7) No party member deaths tonight. That's a first. Also our second meeting, so there can only be improvement from here.
Aaaaaand 8) The party joyously received their loot from the dungeon, and skedaddled out of there. Lots of monnies were received by all, some gems were passed around, and a Ring of Water Walking was discovered, in addition to a Wand of the Kobold (which summons kobolds when used).
Now that the dungeon grinding is over, Monday we'll see some plot and role playing!
We started out with leveling up the characters. Only one person was missing. Fortunately, 5e is really quick in so many ways, and leveling up was done in a flash. Then the players decided to finish clearing out the dungeon.
I won't bore you with too many of the details of players crawling around dirty dungeon floors, but I will give you some high points:
1) Our esteemed cleric managed to scare a few specters half to death with Channel Divinity, thus saving the bard's life (the specters had materialized out of nowhere, and intimidated the bard, who fumbled, cracked her head against a stone wall, and ended up unconscious).
2) Shortly thereafter a hole was discovered in a wall and the cleric volunteered to check it out. He fell down a 20 foot pitfall trap, but rather than calling for help rolled a very high athletic or acrobatics check (I forget) and managed to press-climb himself up and out. Unfortunately, the cleric's general level of awesome ran out after this when a giant spider dropped from the ceiling onto his lone self, knocked him out, paralyzed him, and webbed him up or dinner sometime later.
3) The party, worried that they heard their only cleric yell "SPIDE-OOMPH" and then go silent, decided to mount a rescue through the hole in the wall. Their bumbling attempts managed to kill the giant spider, but unfortunately a misfired Eldritch Blast blew the pants off of the sorcerer (more literally than we wished...), revealing a big blue buttocks to the entire world.
4) Oozes and rust monsters. Everywhere. Some party members are going to be needing a lot of new equipment after this misadventure.
5) At one point in the dungeon, the party discovered the world's most gorgeous red couch... I just put it in there to give the dungeon a feeling of strangeness and magic. It's the world's most comfortable red couch, with the magical qualities of always being clean, always being in perfect repair (unless destroyed), and it always faces the entrance that the last person to enter the room used. Really, it just existed for flavor, but the party had to waste thirty minutes discussing how to cart that thing out of there and keep it with them for the remainder of their adventures. Adventurers. *scoffs*
6) One of the themes I had in mind when creating this dungeon was "created by a wizard that loves constructs," so it was full of things like Animated Armor, mimics, and other delightful nasties that appear to be innocent at first glance. The party was, of course, not particularly pleased with me, but I was too busy smiling and rolling damage to care.
7) No party member deaths tonight. That's a first. Also our second meeting, so there can only be improvement from here.
Aaaaaand 8) The party joyously received their loot from the dungeon, and skedaddled out of there. Lots of monnies were received by all, some gems were passed around, and a Ring of Water Walking was discovered, in addition to a Wand of the Kobold (which summons kobolds when used).
Now that the dungeon grinding is over, Monday we'll see some plot and role playing!
Friday, January 16, 2015
Introduction
Welcome to the world of Etheria! Or, not technically a world, just a continent within one, a partially self-contained chunk of the continent with biomes that change as rapidly as World of Warcraft. But that's beside the point.
The world in which Etheria rests was created by the gods millennia ago, a noble pantheon dedicated to creation and fostering happiness among their followers. Unfortunately, a force of uncreation known as the Void hovers at the edges of existence, corrupting or consuming all the feel its touch. This force introduced evil and destruction into a world of good and creation.
There's a very simplified backstory to the planet as a whole. As for Etheria itself, the continent rests south of this world's equator, with a cowboy-like desert to the north, elven forests to the southeast, and dwarvish lands just to the east. To the northeast is Etheria's only coastline, which allows for trade with the Far Continent and the spattering of islands that rest between the new continent on which Etheria rests, and the settled world.
Civilizations have risen and fallen in Etheria. For some reason the lands the country claims are ringed about in a strangely circular with thickly clustered mountains, with the only easy passes out being the northern (to the cowboy-like desert), the two southeasterns (which lead to the lands of the elves and dwarves), and the north/northeastern coastline that allows for shipping and lots of trade and travel. However, the only lands that the government of Etheria (which is a sort of confederate/theocratic hybrid) control are a band comprising of roughly one-third of the space within the mountains, stretching from pass to pass. Additionally, Seaport (the fishing/trading city on the coast) is claimed by Etheria as well. In between the coast Etheria's official borders is a thick jungle, filled with mysterious creatures and cannibalistic gnomes. Then, Etheria, a land of rolling hills, prairies, and some forest, which eventually bleeds into the final third of the space between the mountains (which always want to call a continent, though it isn't), the Wilds, a chaotic space of grassland/hills where roving tribes of monsters rage against each other and the Etherians, whom they believe stole their homeland and killed their ancestors.
The adventure begins with out fair party being hired by the Church of the Knowing (the by far most dominant religion as well as ruling body in Etheria, equal parts modeled and parodied after the Catholic Church, specifically older iterations) to investigate an abandoned church outpost in the mountains and collect intel or magical items. Our heros (most of which whose names I forget): a grumpy, old, and bigoted half-orc barbarian with a chip on his shoulder and a book in hand; an unpopular tiefling warlock with a good heart and a vendetta against his father; a rogue human who masquerades as a traveling preacher or a nobleman to swindle others; a good-hearted aasimar cleric, beloved by all and groomed for leadership but secretly doubting his church (and himself); a bard elf who accepts most everyone as they are and is convinced she's a competent fighter (she isn't); and a wild-magic sorcerer elf who is pretty much the definition of narcissism.
The outpost is a large stone structure, partially built into the mountainside. They enter, and spend the majority of our first session assuming that traps and secret doors are literally everywhere, as well as assuming death waits around every corner. They find nothing of note on this level, but they do manage to scare a goblin half to death and almost lost the bard to a giant spider that took a large bite out of her neck. Additionally, the tiefling warlock barred the remainder of the goblins in the second level, and unwittingly left them to starve to death.
Side note: tieflings are distrusted and unliked in this country, and warlocks are outright hated and persecuted, so only a lot of explanation on his part (and the fact that the warlock was already friends with the aasimar cleric, who knew his secret) prevented his own party from gutting him.
The party eventually makes their way down a level, where they discover two things of importance: a locked-up goblin, and a collapsed floor leading to a secret lower level. Unfortunately, lack of teamwork and just generally terrible people skills left the goblin absolutely terrified when the party attempted to interrogate him. They eventually handed him a dagger and let him go (hopefully that doesn't turn out poorly for them), before moving down a floor.
The following dungeon is a labyrinth of traps, twisting corridors, and strange monsters. What's important: the warlock kept kill stealing, the sorcerer learned that there's more to magic than personal cosmetics, the bard nearly died on multiple occasions, and the barbarian effectively flipped death a middle finger and said "NOTHING CAN STOP ME."
Oh, and the narcissistic sorcerer managed to "permanently" turn herself blue, to which she immediately cried "Now my outfit doesn't match my skin tone! No!"
After doing battle with a large, skeletal dragon, the party made their way down yet another floor, where they were accosted by roughly ten shadowy beings intent on protecting the contents of the room. The bard made the foolish decision of grabbing a magic item without first checking on what it was, and suffered death as a result: she grabbed a magic wineskin that stunned her, and while stunned the shadowy figures rushed her and stabbed her to death.
Bard out.
The rest of the party, with great difficulty, managed to kill the rest of the shadowy figures, and the cleric experienced a minor crisis when he realized one of his charges died on his watch. However, the party eventually realized that the wineskin was magical because it was sentient, and that the wine within was mixed with a single Potion of Resurrection. So the bard was saved! She now has secret information given to her by an angel before returning.
The party then read from a journal that let them know far more is going on in this continent than any of them realize. Who is the Maker? Why do the gods no longer speak to the priests? And why is Halvin the Sentient Wineskin so annoying? Find out next time, one...
THE BLOG THAT I USE TO CONFUSINGLY RECORD MY ADVENTURERS EXPLOITS!
Tonight (or Monday, or both): more adventure, perhaps more death, and definitely a lot of pain and anguish. Aw yeah.
The world in which Etheria rests was created by the gods millennia ago, a noble pantheon dedicated to creation and fostering happiness among their followers. Unfortunately, a force of uncreation known as the Void hovers at the edges of existence, corrupting or consuming all the feel its touch. This force introduced evil and destruction into a world of good and creation.
There's a very simplified backstory to the planet as a whole. As for Etheria itself, the continent rests south of this world's equator, with a cowboy-like desert to the north, elven forests to the southeast, and dwarvish lands just to the east. To the northeast is Etheria's only coastline, which allows for trade with the Far Continent and the spattering of islands that rest between the new continent on which Etheria rests, and the settled world.
Civilizations have risen and fallen in Etheria. For some reason the lands the country claims are ringed about in a strangely circular with thickly clustered mountains, with the only easy passes out being the northern (to the cowboy-like desert), the two southeasterns (which lead to the lands of the elves and dwarves), and the north/northeastern coastline that allows for shipping and lots of trade and travel. However, the only lands that the government of Etheria (which is a sort of confederate/theocratic hybrid) control are a band comprising of roughly one-third of the space within the mountains, stretching from pass to pass. Additionally, Seaport (the fishing/trading city on the coast) is claimed by Etheria as well. In between the coast Etheria's official borders is a thick jungle, filled with mysterious creatures and cannibalistic gnomes. Then, Etheria, a land of rolling hills, prairies, and some forest, which eventually bleeds into the final third of the space between the mountains (which always want to call a continent, though it isn't), the Wilds, a chaotic space of grassland/hills where roving tribes of monsters rage against each other and the Etherians, whom they believe stole their homeland and killed their ancestors.
The adventure begins with out fair party being hired by the Church of the Knowing (the by far most dominant religion as well as ruling body in Etheria, equal parts modeled and parodied after the Catholic Church, specifically older iterations) to investigate an abandoned church outpost in the mountains and collect intel or magical items. Our heros (most of which whose names I forget): a grumpy, old, and bigoted half-orc barbarian with a chip on his shoulder and a book in hand; an unpopular tiefling warlock with a good heart and a vendetta against his father; a rogue human who masquerades as a traveling preacher or a nobleman to swindle others; a good-hearted aasimar cleric, beloved by all and groomed for leadership but secretly doubting his church (and himself); a bard elf who accepts most everyone as they are and is convinced she's a competent fighter (she isn't); and a wild-magic sorcerer elf who is pretty much the definition of narcissism.
The outpost is a large stone structure, partially built into the mountainside. They enter, and spend the majority of our first session assuming that traps and secret doors are literally everywhere, as well as assuming death waits around every corner. They find nothing of note on this level, but they do manage to scare a goblin half to death and almost lost the bard to a giant spider that took a large bite out of her neck. Additionally, the tiefling warlock barred the remainder of the goblins in the second level, and unwittingly left them to starve to death.
Side note: tieflings are distrusted and unliked in this country, and warlocks are outright hated and persecuted, so only a lot of explanation on his part (and the fact that the warlock was already friends with the aasimar cleric, who knew his secret) prevented his own party from gutting him.
The party eventually makes their way down a level, where they discover two things of importance: a locked-up goblin, and a collapsed floor leading to a secret lower level. Unfortunately, lack of teamwork and just generally terrible people skills left the goblin absolutely terrified when the party attempted to interrogate him. They eventually handed him a dagger and let him go (hopefully that doesn't turn out poorly for them), before moving down a floor.
The following dungeon is a labyrinth of traps, twisting corridors, and strange monsters. What's important: the warlock kept kill stealing, the sorcerer learned that there's more to magic than personal cosmetics, the bard nearly died on multiple occasions, and the barbarian effectively flipped death a middle finger and said "NOTHING CAN STOP ME."
Oh, and the narcissistic sorcerer managed to "permanently" turn herself blue, to which she immediately cried "Now my outfit doesn't match my skin tone! No!"
After doing battle with a large, skeletal dragon, the party made their way down yet another floor, where they were accosted by roughly ten shadowy beings intent on protecting the contents of the room. The bard made the foolish decision of grabbing a magic item without first checking on what it was, and suffered death as a result: she grabbed a magic wineskin that stunned her, and while stunned the shadowy figures rushed her and stabbed her to death.
Bard out.
The rest of the party, with great difficulty, managed to kill the rest of the shadowy figures, and the cleric experienced a minor crisis when he realized one of his charges died on his watch. However, the party eventually realized that the wineskin was magical because it was sentient, and that the wine within was mixed with a single Potion of Resurrection. So the bard was saved! She now has secret information given to her by an angel before returning.
The party then read from a journal that let them know far more is going on in this continent than any of them realize. Who is the Maker? Why do the gods no longer speak to the priests? And why is Halvin the Sentient Wineskin so annoying? Find out next time, one...
THE BLOG THAT I USE TO CONFUSINGLY RECORD MY ADVENTURERS EXPLOITS!
Tonight (or Monday, or both): more adventure, perhaps more death, and definitely a lot of pain and anguish. Aw yeah.
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