Encounters Sessions 1-5 The Story So far

This post is to catch us up on the Encounters series of Dungeons & Dragons.  As a reminder, anyone can join us for a D&D session Wednesdays, 6pm-8pm at Morningstar Games on Montgomery Crossroads in Savannah, GA.  No preparation, experience, or knowledge required.  If you like, feel free to comment and we save a seat for you.  I'm usually there by 5pm or so setting up if you want to stop in early.

Name Summary so far:
Lady Anya Tamora, Ruler of Crystal Brook
Lord Carric, Ruler of the Sildaine Forest
Count Varis Sybar, Ruler of Sybar
Juliana, daughter of Carric
Orlando, son of Tamora

After volunteering to help Sybar, he sends you to visit with Tamora and Carric to talk to each.   Between the two you piece together the clues and decide to follow Juliana and Orlando to the Crystal Cave.  Lord Seldaine believe that the Crystal Cave is a crossing into the Feywild.  Once our party passes through the Crystal Cave (and its challenges) they come upon Juliana surrounded by frolicking leprechauns.  She seems confused and lost and also calls herself Caerwyn.

From Caerwyn's confused dialogue, and the leprechans' riddles you discern that Caerwyn also had a lover; his name was Porpherio.  Orlando/Porpherio ran off with some radiant super good looking women when he arrived here.  You are an island in the Feywild sea called Porpherio's garden.  Juliana/Caerwyn requests you take her to see an agent of the archfey.  Caerwyn is the daughter of the Green Lord, Oran (an archfey).  Porpherio was Caerwyn's husband.  They ruled the island together a long time ago and have since "slumbered" here.  A hag named Soryth, the Dream Queen, cast a spell to reawaken them, but were interrupted the Oran's agent Ragnar, and the Summer Queen's, Tiandra's, agent Uma.  Uma is also the adopted mother of Porpherio.  The came as they sensed the slumber of Caerwyn and Porpherio become disrupted.  The interruption caused a problem of its own.  Juliana and Orlando were there as prisoners but escaped during the interruption.

Your party also learned the hag, Soryth, is now staying in the Palace of Spires, which requires a magic key set.  The keys are leaves, one each of shamrock, mistletoe, oak and a rose.  The leprechauns give you a shamrock as you set out to talk to the archfey agents.

You could work with either, but each blames the other for the problems that occurred in interrupting Soryth's spell.  They want to prevent a civil war among them, and enlist you to do a little meddling in the others camp.  You decided to meddle for Ragnar and successfully recruit 2 unicorns in Uma's camp to come with Ragnar. 

And that is where we left off at the end of Session 5.  Session 6 occurred this Wednesday, 12/28/11, and since it is still fresh, I will post that separately shortly.  That will get us all caught up on the story and ready to look ahead to Session 7, the first Wednesday of the new year.  Hope to see you there!

Encounters Sessions Introduction

I've been DMing at Morningstar Games on Montgomery Crossroads for 6 weeks now.  For those that don't know, the makers of Dungeons and Dragons (Wizards of the Coast) has a series of games on Wednesday nights called the Encounters Series.  WotC provides a 13 week adventure broken into 13 encounters (one a week).  The encounters are streamlined and designed so that a new player can walk in and be able to play a game.  At the same time, experience players can do the same, or bring their own character.  All the rules are identical to a real game, its just the encounters are designed with time in mind.  Two hours, and your out.

Talking with the gang at Morningstar Games, we decided to exchange links and I would start commenting on the Encounters games. 

Now that the introductions are done, here's more on the story we are telling in this 13 week adventure.  It's titled "Beyond the Crystal Cave".  The back page was a fascinating history of the adventure.  This adventure was first published nearly 30 years ago in the UK.  Apparently that region of the world is not as fascinated by hack and slash as us American's and the original story rewarded players for avoiding conflict and using diplomacy.  From the same page, I also found a favorite quote on this page I shared with our players on Session 1, "The adventure is designed to be both amusing and irritating to players, though simply amusing to the Dungeon Master."  I love that.

From the DM perspective, this adventure was TOUGH to wrap my head around.  It got easier once I took this story one encounter at a time, but it is full of pairs of names all related to other pairs of names.  In trying to be brief I will summarize the story and names so far in Sessions 1-5.

Strange mists, winds, and creatures are now roaming the areas around the town of Crystalbrook.  The Crystalbrookers blame the fey (a reace of magic/natural creatures) in the nearby Sildaine Forest.  The fey, in turn, blame the Crystalbrookers for these problems and accuse them of practicing black magic.  This has been escalating for a year now. 

A final straw in this escalation causes the rulers of these two lands to attempt to come to resolution.  Lady Anya Tamora, ruler of Crystalbrook, finds her son Orlando missing.  On the same day, Lord Carric, ruler of the Sildaine Forest, finds his daughter Juliana missing.  They both suspect that their children may be lovers, but disagree on the specifics and intentions.  Count Varis Sybar, ruler of nearby Sybar, is called in to mediate and aid.  Varis searches for heroes to be his agents in this matter.  What do you know, several frequent Morningstar Games every Wednesday night at 6pm.who answered the call.

Session 5 Adventure notes

Played from 4pm to 10pm tonight.  Seemed like our players were challenged enough in the 2.5 encounters we finished.  Here is what happened.

Our characters found themselves still in the cave they cleared last session with the noises coming from the right cave and quite coming from the left.  They stood behind their decision to go left, but though they had discussed leaving Yelsha's summoned wolf to guard the right cave, they decided to take the wolf with them in their adventure.

Early Day 7: After several hours of traveling in the caverns at an incline and steadily decreasing temperature, the came to a wider cave area approximately 20' wide and 20' tall.  In the center of this area was a chasm they found to be 20' wide and 30' deep.  Upon closer inspection (with light) two fire bats flurried out of the dark chasm and harried our heroes.  While fighting the very hard to hit fire bats, more critters were heard deeper in the chasm.  They kept trying to climb out, and on occasion one would escape.  When they did they were discovered to be fire beetles, who frequently sprayed fire in a blast 3 hitting many of our heroes.  In all, there ended up being 4 fire beetles and the 2 difficult fire bats.  Yelsha (druid) and Abraxus (dragonborn) were knocked unconscious during the battle (Yelsha twice).  Fortunately, the party has 3 characters who can heal).

After dispatching the fire creatures, they had to face the challenge of crossing the chasm.   There happened to be a log on the far side of the chasm.  The party lowered Keira (elf rogue - striker) down the chasm with a rope (successfully) and then Kiera free climbed the other side of the chasm.  It took her 3 tries, but she succeeded with out harm.  After further discussion they decided to tie her rope to the log (Keira is awesome at knot tying) and the party was able to pull the log across the chasm.  They took turns crossing the log, and they all were acrobatic enough to cross without incident (less exciting,
I know).

As they traveled further in from there, the temperature continued to decrease and the gradient of uphill increased.  They finally reached a round room with 6 caves entrances to choose from (aside from the way they came in).  The tried pretty much every skill in the book on each cave to try and determine the correct path.  The ruled out 2 pretty quickly, found that 2 more probably contained more Kobolds, and were left with 2 suspects.  Keira stepped in one and determined the path was dangerous and the cave may collapse.  During their inspections they heard popping in cracking and the earth and felt rushed to make a decision so they went into the 4th cave from the left with a leap of faith.

Midday, Day 7: On that path, they come to an area where two shadow bats attack out of the darkness.  The air is quite cold and a breeze has begun to be noticed.  As they are fighting the two shadow bats, a baby dragon stumbles into the narrow tunnel at the opposite end.  It's look is more of curiosity than menace, until the dragon witnesses the destruction of a bat at our hero's hands.  Abraxus, tried to communicate with the dragon (both speaking draconic), but only got "Goo-goo, gaa-ga, poor batty" out of it.  Shava (cleric), wanted a pet and tried to calm the dragon down.  With some success the dragon did calm, (buying the party an extra round), before the dragon became enraged by player attacks.  Yelsha, used a turn to run under the dragons legs, granting a failed opportunity attack, but putting herself in flanking position.   First, Yelsha used her wolf companion as a harrier to give the party combat advantage.  When the dragon finally killed the wolf (with 2 sets of double claw attacks, and a left claw that could never seem to hit), Yelsha used a power that caused herself to grant combat advantage against the dragon for her nearby presence.  Shava's strategy at this point, now get this, was to jump on the dragon's back (clever), but then he proceeded to "hug" the dragon.   This is not a miss print.  I almost imagined him wearing bell bottoms and tie die.   "Make peace not war."  The dragon was not impressed, especially while all of Shava'a allies were hitting the dragon with arrows, lighting, halberds, and swords.

Ultimately, our heroes slayed the baby dragon.  During the aftermath, Shava mourned for the dragon while Yelsha explored her surroundings on the back side of the dragon carcass.  She found the entrance to a large cavern with a beam of light shining down on a large pile of silver treasure.  She could tell the breeze from this cavern was gentle, then calm, gentle, then calm.  Most importantly, she found a bag of 376 silver pieces with a sword laying next to it. After close inspection by the party, they determine that this is not only a Faelwyn's sword, but a +1 Lifedrinker Long Sword.  It has a value of 1000gp, but Faeilwn is offering 1200gp for its return.   The party lets Varis (Elf Ranger - Scout) carry the sword as he could use it to assist in their retreat or attempt to gain the treasure in the next room.  He may even be weary to give it back.

So what will our characters do?  Do they venture into the large cavern, that seems to be the cavern that Faelwyn fled from an Adult White Dragon, to gain even more treasure?  Or do they retreat back through the caves to back through the possibly collapsing hall of tunnels, and then have to recross the large chasm?  What was in the cave to the right at the beginning of the Session?  Do they return the sword to Faelwyn gaining 1200gp, and the experience of completed minor quest, or do they wield his family's heirloom in bloody battle to help complete their primary mission?

Stay tuned next time.  We hope to convene again January 2nd at noon but we have a few members to check their schedule before we verify.

Also, we are looking for 1 more player to join our party.  We are playing Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition, but for our current portion of the story line we would probably ask any new players to play an existing character (Glyth, I believe).

As always, any feedback is welcome.  I would love to incorporate some in upcoming encounters/adventures.  We haven't really even cracked the surface of the overall story that started with King Hrothgar's summons to the Arena of Trials and the mission that he gave on its successful conclusion.

     Experience Points:
          Encounter 11 - Left Entrance (Chasm) - 900 XP
          Encounter 12 - Cave Level 2 (aMAZEing) - TBD upon successful exit
          Encounter 13 - The Final Approach - 1050 XP
     Total Experience: 1950 XP, by 7 players (1 NPC), 278 XP each player

I would expect several characters to level after an encounter or two next session, so bring level 3 characters with you just in case.

My wife ruined my map!

While I had my camera out, I decided to documents the two maps we have drawn for our campaign. 

My first is the arena that the first 11 encounters (or mini-encounters) occurred in.  I designed the map on 8.5" x 11" grid paper, and then my wife drew it onto the 1" grid paper (36" x lots of feet). Of course, to prove her artistic superiority, she also gave everything depth and shadow.  We did use some green Lego bricks to make the bushes pop and even a Lego tree from one of my youngest daughter's Lego kits.

Unfortunately, my wife ruined my second map, the Great Hall of Palancia Castle.   By ruined, I mean she did such a good job on the first map, that she wasn't ready to spend so much time on the second map and made me draw the map for my own hobby.  Sheesh!   I excelled in tracing straight lines on grid paper.  

I cut out some rectangles of card board to show dining tables in the Great Hall, an oval conference table in the King's War Room at the top right, and lots of couches in the Social Hall at the bottom.  The Brown diagonal lines are the slightly elevated stage that the dance competition occurred on from Session 2.

DnD Lego Miniature Fashion Show!

So as promised in an earlier post, here's Shava.  Shava is my brother's Elf Cleric, who has a mace, large shield, and currently chain mail armor.

The very session after his party bought some horses, including a warhorse, he brought this well-appointed steed with him.

 Here is the final fashion show.   My brother is planning on leveling Shava up to be able to wear Scale and then Plate armour.  He already has the "clothing" ready to go so he can quickly change into the appropriate armour.

Yes, my brother WILL stop the game to change his lego character's weapon or armour out to match the story.

Alas, poor D&D Dungeon Tiles!

Gotta love my players, but I owe them some extra torture next session.  I posted earlier how excited was to get an early Christmas present.  My wife even paid to express ship my new D&D Dungeon Tiles so I could have them for the game last session.   Would you believe my players found every encounter they possibly could, that did NOT use the tiles, and ended the session just before I got to use them?

So next session, I should definitely get to use them.  I think I am going to make them fight some extra dragons now, too.  Those promised dungeon pictures using the tiles are still coming, but now I have to wait for two more weeks before I can share them...

OOOooorrrr...I could just say <SPOILER ALERT> here and give you a preview of one of them.  Here it is. 

It's not exactly possible to design any dungeon you want, but it is pretty flexible.  Typically, I describe the features I want in my handmade DM guide and then start playing with tiles until I get something that fits.  In this case, I wanted a narrow, constricted path to enter, an open area, followed by another narrow, constricted path.  Sometimes the details grow as your tiles fit right, and in this case, I kept replacing some tiles to make it look more right.  Specifically, I like to get the black edges (impassible terrain) around the edges for more definition.  In one tile, I couldn't quite get the black edges to match (see the wide tile just before the bottom constricted path).

As my last steps, I photograph the dungeon and then import the picture into my DM guide and add monster notes on top of it.  I can't keep the tiles out and arranged indefinitely so the picture helps me rebuild it.  I stack all my tiles from largest to smallest, so I can roughly find the pieces I am looking for (and I can keep the tiles fairly compact for protected storage.

I can't wait to see how easy or hard this system is actually going to be.

Session 4 Adventure Notes

Our dubious characters ended the last session having defeated a group of humans at the encampment NW of Palancia.  They knew more guards were on the way.  I certainly did not disappoint them.   Three more guards appear from each opposing side of the map, each with an animal in toe (2 had hyenas, 1 had a guard drake).  After ending the lives of the animals and every human who might have some information, they searched the battlefields and picked up some useful contingent weapons such as a cross bow and a halberd (with reach).  They also found a crudely drawn and deteriorating map of the lands between Palancia and Hilliana.  They had to transcribe the map to their own work to preserver the information.  Basically, they can now tell that from the encampment NW of Palancia, to a cross road is a day's ride.  The can see that the path west at the crossroads leads to a cave in the side of a mountain range that seems to fit the description of where Faelwyn lost his sword and captured the hatchling frost dragon.  They also see that Hilliana is a days ride North of the crossroads, and seems to be surrounded by 3 other encampments. 

After their discoveries they headed back to grab their horses and wagons to bring them to the encampment they just cleared.  When they got there, a roving wolf pack encircled them.  A murmur of TPK occurred (from Varis's player as usual) but they again were successful, despite being knocked prone a few times.  They gathered their horses and wagons and headed back to the encampment. 

End of Day 4: Our adventurers arrive back at the encampment and start a long rest, which is promptly interrupted in the first hour by howling.  Varis is on first watch, and what is his solution?  Arouse all the adventurers, and yell, "Climb up the trees!"  So, of 7 characters, Shava fails to climb the tree and lands prone on his butt.  Abraxus (A large dragonborn) runs around going "what do I do, what do i do? as he is too heavy to climb a tree.  He ultimately darts into the covered wagon right before a large dire wolf mounted by a guard, and 2 gray wolves appear from the trail.  Our heroes target the rider first, mostly from the trees, and eventually drop him.  Abraxus blows his cover to run out and attack, but quickly finds him self surrounded, knocked prone, and then unconscious.  Shava, having stood up off his butt, at this point, uses his Healing Word, to revive Abraxus, but Abraxus is still surrounded and weak.  She cleverly uses her Bluff skill to play dead, and the wolves move on to another target.   The Dire Wolf is the last left, and begins to run away when the party sees fit to dispatch their foe like so much fertilizer.

Our heroes, finally get a chance for much needed rest and get spend a good bit of the night sleeping and recharging their powers and health.

Morning Day 5: Feeling well rested, and having reviewed their crudely drawn map, our heroes decide to at least go as far as the crossroads and decide what do from there.  Shockingly, they reach the crossroads without incident, and with a little daylight to spare.  They decide to east toward their quest for Faelwyn's sword despite trepidations as a how a party of their experience level will handle a dragon that must surely live there, and entrusting their lives to fate (just call me fate). 

Evening Day 5: They don't want to kill themselves traveling toward danger, so they rest along side the road again for the night.  The rest is uneventful, and they head out in the morning while it is still dark.

Late Day 6:  They see the mountains rise on their approach, and eventually an area that must be the cave on the map, and the start of their quest for Faelywn's sword.  They dismount and proceed cautiously on foot toward the opening.  They approach the final few feet cautiously, but then Shava runs out and trashes through the bushes discovered a goblin corpse.  He screams out to the party, "Guys, look at this."  At his symphony of noise induction, dozens of foot falls are heard coming from the cave.  Lines of Kobolds start pouring out of the caves from multiple entrances, some that were obscured by bushes as well.  Most surround Shava and few head toward the flank.  Jadis remains in the rear casting spells from across the small creek.  Yelsha can't see over a rock protrution so gracefully climb  onto the shoulders of the tall Abraxus and loses and arrow from that position.   Abraxus then abruptly drops Yelsha on her butt, and runs into battle to try and help Shava.  Keira also runs to Shava's aid, and Varis approaches but from a small distance and picks them off of Shava from relative safety.  Glyth works on the contingent coming from the flank with help from Jadis in the rear.  Shava takes a beating, but eventually the horde thins out and the Kobold's lose their nerve and begin to head back into the cave toward an opening on right rear of the cave.  Our heroes give chase and drop the last two kobolds, just before they disappear into the darkness of the entrance in the right side of the cave.  As the party is cleaning up, they hear disturbing noises from the cave the Kobold's were trying to escape through.  They decide to have Yelsha summon her wolf companion to guard that entrance while they explore the quieter path to the left of the cave.

And here is where we paused until Saturday, December 17th, at 4pm.  Our players will have to hold their breath to find out what might come from the right side cave, or to see if the quite path of the left cave leads to adventure...or misadventure.

Experience Points:
     Encounter 6.1 - NW Encampment Wave 2 - 825 XP
     Encounter 7 - Roving Wolf Pack - 750 XP
     Encounter 8 - Roving Wolf Pack 2 - 850 XP
     Encounter 9 - Cave Entrance - 600 XP

Total XP - 3025 divided by 7 characters (1 NPC, 6 PC) = 432 XP each

As always, I am looking for comments from players and non-player alike.  Players, help me fine tune the story that you played through, this is all from memory.  Non-Players, any where you think the story should go?  Is there a particular plot point that was lame or admirable?

Artistic versus Creative

Some would say I am not very creative, but I argue that I am just not very artistic.  The first challenge in naming this blog was AVAILABILITY.  So, I immediately came up with the acronym ROT for Random Organized Thoughts.   I do not think that the things in this blog are rot.  It literally took me 2 extra seconds to do this.  Not art involved, but I thought naming something out of nothing counts as creative.  After all, creating a D&D campaign is creative, but I lean on my wife and daughters to lend me a hand on the artistic part. 

Creatively I can pull together existing artwork to bring a world to life.  Such as reusing maps I already have to fit my world.  I love these dungeon tiles that are predawn with the right terrain and then I can fit them together. Heck, if the campaign story, though I hope it seems original in the end, is pulling from numerous places and blending them in a, I hope, unique way.  Thanks to Varis/Jadis/Glyth's player for pointing me in that direction to get started.

A quiz to see if we can start some comment posting.  Can you name the sources for any of these items that appear in my campaign?

A.)  "Thank you, but our princess is in another castle"
B.) King Hrothgar
C.) Palancia (this one is tough, the root word is from a source).

There's definitely some more blatant "borrowing" coming, but I don't want to spoil it yet.  See some of you Saturday, and look forward to the Campaign Notes shortly after!

My First Encounters DM Experience

DMing for someone else's campaign, for complete strangers, is/was a daunting experience.  Mind you, I enjoyed it immensely, but didn't feel like I was prepared enough.  Darn J-O-B getting in the way this week :)  Of course the J-O-B is what allows me to do this in the first place.

Next week I will try and get more details on the monsters ahead of time, that was the main challenge.  We had 7 players Wednesday, and I was teaching D&D to some, updating a few players, learning some new rules of the Feywild, and trying to figure out how to play some fairly complex low level monsters (poison darts, nets, and basic attacks, all with instant reactions to various PC actions, and this darn fog kept moving around the board - never had to role play weather before).

I did get some nifty game tokens out of it.  Nothing fancy, but some colored token to represent monsters that are color coded and numbered.  Should be handy for monsters in a pinch, instead of finding (if they exist) tokens with right faces drawn on them.

Can't wait until Saturday's "Thank you, but our princess is in another castle!"

Dungeon Tiles are Here!

Hooray, it's here! Despite the tracking number I was given never showing anything, my tiles have arrived.  Dungeons & Dragons Lost Caverns of the Underdark.  I can now custom build underground terrain on the fly (or even plan ahead) without having to draw.  I hate drawing.

I'll post some pictures of some caverns I designed after our game Saturday.  Can't spoil the surprises quite yet.

Almost Game Time

Wow, over a week off from playing D&D.  Refreshing, but I am ready to go back at it.  During the break I "volunteered" (read: pushed) to DM for the Wednesday night Encounters games.  On the plus side, I get D&D stuff for doing it, including a few cool paper maps, AND our usual DM may get a chance to play.

Also, since we last played, I have been able to flesh out some more encounters for "Thank you, but our princess is in another castle."  I have over 10 encounters detailed out (all but the map layouts) and have completion on a minor quest story line.

My dear wife has ordered me my first set of DM Dungeon tiles for Christmas, that I hope arrive in time for Saturday's game.  Hopefully this will make building all these quest maps easy, varied, and fun.   I'll report back on the results.

Now, off to add more encounters for the main story line.

Race & Appeal

So a friend of mind loaned me his collection of ancient D&D artifacts.  I was actually afraid to unseal most of them from their anti-aging blankets, but a few whose seals were already broke I took a peak at.  Specifically of interest I read about the temporary companionship that can be gained at taverns through the land.  The article advised, that as DM, to help determine their price I also have to take into account their race. 

You see, certain races get certain bonuses and may fetch a fairer price.  These involve the attributes of Discretion and Appeal (which are no longer used in D&D).  Elves and Orcs have a -1 Discretion.  Okay, I can buy that (bad pun - I know).  But an Orc still has +1 appeal?!?   Am I looking at the wrong Orc artwork?  Oh, and a hobbit has more appeal than a half-elf or a human.  Really?!?  And while I am ranting, when the hobbit-suffrage movement occur that caused us to have to call them halflings now?  I think hobbit seems more accurate that to insinuate that they are only half of anything especially half of a "ling".

Back to the "business" at hand, without venturing too far into PG-13 territory, who has more appeal for you?  Pick one and post a comment:

• Human
• Elf
• Half-Elf
• Hobbit
• Orc

Now to keep my players from worrying, while these companions are certainly wondering about town, I don't think any of them will be open for business when PCs are around.  There is reason I choose to turn off the sound when I play Fall-Out 3 or New Vegas on my Xbox, and why I avoid certain areas of the game while playing Fable 2 or 3 when my kids are in the house.  Heck, I blush when I play that part of the game, and insist I only have to get the Xbox achievement.

D&D Miniatures

Yes, those are Lego people!   I started off my D&D experience with a fellow player who brought some extra miniatures.  It was a great experience.  Immediately after, I was plunged back into the world of using cardboard disks with a character's face factory drawn in.  It just wasn't the same.  My wife came up with the idea of using our Lego people as miniatures.  My kids immediately started making characters, and its been a blast ever since. 

Now, back to being cheap, in case someone as cheap as me is reading this. Lego people are NOT any cheaper than D&D miniatures.  However, they are more customizable, in my opinion more readily available, and my kids financed the purchases.  It cost ME nothing.  It's what my kids request from family and friends for birthdays and Christmas, so I am all set an no additional cost.

To my family and Friends who provide Lego's to my kids (and my wife who picks them up at garage sales, too):  For Christmas they want Lego people, especially things that look medieval, fantasy-like, or even elves and orcs.  I promise they will get used :)

I am saving a really cool post for the next time my brother brings his Lego character, Shava, over.  I will take a picture of it and post it along with the awesome details on how he plays his character in and out of game.

Session 3 - "Thank you, but our princess is in another castle!"

Session 3:

Your party met Abraxus, a dragonborn Warlord (Marshal) in the great hall.  She looked “fighty” and speaks Draconic which was your justification to your party members and the king for allowing him to join the party.

King Hrothgar finally sent his page for you and you appeared before the King in his war room just off the great hall.  He first apologized for summoning you to the arena and then explained why he has done so and what is afoot.  In summary, he was looking for a brave group of heroes who could not only stand toe to toe with beast and foe, but a group that could think on their feet to solve any issue laid before them.  You see, an encampment has been setup NW of town, and they had raided the castle (quite stealthily I might add).  The spoils of that raid were the king’s eldest daughter, Lorgar.  The King has asked that you return her safely for a reward of 5000gp, but there is a catch.  That encampment in the NW bares the coat of arms of Hilliana, ruled by King Helgon, a longtime friend of King Hrothgar.  Hrothgar knows something is wrong in Hilliana and is trying to prevent war.  He is even willing to sacrifice his daughter if it means preventing a war that will kill thousands (though he will do just about anything else for her).  Therefor he also offers you a 2000gp reward for returning Lorgar’s body, if you can get revenge and not implicate Palancia in any way.  While you are up north in Hilliana, he will also offer an additional 1000gp reward for information on what the heck is going on in Hilliana.  Your party was respectful to the king and accepted his quests.

The King then pulled from the chest in his war room some rewards for your fight in the Arena of Trials that he said you could use in any way to aid you in your quest.  You received:

·         an Amulet of Protection (+1 Fortitude, Reflex, Will and resist 5 poison)

·         a Magic Staff (+1 attack and damage as implement, critical hits do 1d6 extra damage)

·         a Darkleaf Leather Armor (+1 Armor Class, +2 Armor Class against first attack each encounter)

·         500 gp

·         6 horses (including 1 war horse)

·         The services of the King’s mage who can enchant Shields with a 50% success rate (failure destroys the object).

·         Lodging in the palace for the night.

You accept his gifts, distribute them as appropriate to your party, and request a large and small shield be enchanted.  Both attempts fail, destroying the shields.

Late in Day 2: Your party decides to head into town to find Keira and spend some hard earned gold.  At the town crossroads, a group of 12 kids surrounds with sticks and starts to fight you.  They are playful but probably a little over stimulated from the recent Arena battle they witnessed.  During your encounter with them they shouted things they heard in the arena.  Fortunately, using spells such as sleep, and several Intimidating yells and growls, you are able to scare them all off without having to hurt any of them.

Jadis, Varis, and Glyth suddenly feel stronger and stand outside the tavern to discuss how to utilize their new found strength.  Abraxus, Shava, and Yelsha visit the armorer and buy him out of scale armor, large shields, and small shields.  The party regroups and enters the Tavern to retrieve Keira.  Upon entering the tavern, you find Keira drinking ale with a body bleeding out at her feet.  She is surrounded by four other bandits and a berserker.  The confines of the tavern are limiting, but your party, with the aid of Keira, manages to dispatch the foes.  “This town is falling apart by the minute.  Let’s get out of here,” says Keira.

You head back to the palace for a good night’s rest before setting off. 

Early in Day 3: After about 6 hours of sleeping, the elves in your party are awakened by noises down the hall.   The party is woken and you creep down the hall, in the pitch black, all the way back to the great hall.  There are 4 guards fighting 2 other guards into the corner.  Once spotted, each group of guards pleads for your help claiming the other group is spies.  Jadis casts sleep on most of the group and finds success in only the group of two, but the four others continue to attack the sleeping guards.  Your party uses that clue to begin attacking the group of four.  Once attacked, each guard in that group of four reveals their true identities as doppleganger sneaks.  Your party kills the four spies, and helps the guards up.  They run off to report the incident and tell King Hrothgar of your cunning and bravery.

Your party then heads to the stable to secure your promised horses and you find your latest challenge in getting the heck out of town…   Abraxus weighs too much to ride on a horse without slowing down the party.  You overcome the challenge by spending your hard earned gold on an additional horse and a wagon.  You then send a page to request the court mage to try enchanting your new shields.  He succeeds on a small shield, destroying a small and a large shield in the process.  Fortunately, the enchantment on the small shield negates the loss of the large shield to its wielder, Shava.

At last, your party takes the road between the stables and the castle to the road North.  Once behind the castle you ride NW toward the reported camp.  After a several hours ride, you spot smoke which leads you to the campfire of the camp. 

Midday Day 3: Approaching the camp, you encounter a group of 2 guards, 3 lackeys (who seemed to never miss), and a pseudodragon.  During the encounter, which you quickly handled, a guard managed to throw some sort of capsule into the fire that caused an explosion that did damage to one of your party and themselves.  More importantly, it alerted a nearby party with high red smoke, who now has you surrounded.

You’ll have to come back December 3^rd to find out what happens next.  Will you find any clues as to what is happening in Hilliana?  Will you find the princess and is she still alive?  How will you handle the quest for the old man?  Is Keira really worthy of your trust?

                Experience Points:

                                Encounter 4 (Kids) – 372 XP
                                Encounter 5 (Tavern) – 550 XP
                                Encounter 3 (Spies) – 600 XP
                                Encounter 6.1 (Camp – 1^st wave) – 725 XP

                                Total XP: 2247 XP divided among 7 (6 PC and 1 NPC) for 321 XP each.

DM Ruling on the NPC, Keira’s, effect on XP.  Keira is quite a powerful striker and as such your party is stronger.  Therefor your XP will be divided to include her in the division.  You can gain more XP per encounter by asking her to leave. 

D&D Session 2 Update

Like keeping minutes and then having the minutes ratified at the next meeting, our players requested some changes to the Session 2 Adventure Notes.  Glad to see you guys reading them!  Please note, that the original Session 2 Advernture Notes have been updated to give credit (or blame as your perspective may be) to Varis as helping to slay the dragon.

Our next session is schedule for Saturday, December 3rd, 2011 at 4pm at the same location in Richmond Hill, GA. 

A shout out to those who like the story but can't play for whatever reason.  I would love to hear your ideas for where you think this story is headed, or where you would like it to. 

The lands around Palancia continue to develop and I see quiet an adventure in store for Palancia.  Session 3 notes from last night will be coming out in the next few days.  Hope to see you all soon.

One more underperforming awesome movie

My wife and I watched Season of the Witch with Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman this weekend.  The trailer intrigued us before it came out to theaters, but with tickets as much as $14 (each!) in little Savannah, GA and we have a rule about going to see movies for full price.

Rule 1: Only see it if its a big screen must (read Sci-Fi with special effects)
Rule 2: Only see it if you are desperate for a date OUT.

So, Season of the Witch finally comes to Netflix and it is totally awesome.  Part time period piece, part supernatural, part horror.  I Also felt like the pacing and story would make for an excellent DND adventure. 

Let me know your thoughts on this movie or other sleeper hits.

Second Session of my very own D&D Campaign

Second Session: 

Late in Day 1: You begin during your short rest between the fifth and sixth waves of monsters.  You’ve noted that this looks like a Total Party Kill.  The DM only has to say at this point, “I find your lack of faith disturbing.” 

Arboris and Symion are resting with your party when their stares off into the distance suddenly go cold and they drop to the ground.  They must have had some medical condition as you find them dead on the battle field.   Suddenly, your odds of surviving this contest, bleak to begin with, just got worse.  If only there was some way to replace them…

An elf cleric named Shava, inspired by your bravery and possibly hoping to partake in the spoils, gracefully leaps from the stands and joins the fray.  The sixth wave begins.  A Bloodseeker Drake enters the arena and picks up the scent of an unseen assailant.  As it approaches, a death jump spider leaps out.  Satisfied, at what is smelled, the Bloodseeker Drake picks up the scent of the party and approaches.  Varis becomes bloodied, and in an attempt to step away from the Drake, the BloodSeeker drake took a massive bite out of Varis, dropping him instantly in death.   Glyth sheds tears as she continues the battle around her fallen partner. The death jump spider continued to jump into the party for an attack and then retreat. In the next wave, two bandits and a town guard were fairly easily dispatched.  For the next wave, the court mage cast a complicated spell a raised some of the humans just dispatch from their recent slumber and accidentally summons a much larger creature from the pit trap.  The party dropped the zombies pretty quickly, including the one that was raised still in the pit, and couldn’t climb out.  But they kept reanimating until you hit the bodies once they dropped.  The next wave was a large swarm of Stirge minions that kept pouring out the various portcullises.  Your party was able to dispatch the Stirges practically before they could close the distance to your defensive position in the center of the arena.

Expecting the next wave, you catch your breath.  After a longer than usual pause, the king announces that due to unfortunate circumstances, the next challenge would not be ready today, and that you may rest in the palace guest quarters.  He is also impressed enough that he offers his court healer to attempt to revive Varis.  You gain a long needed restful sleep while being guarded by the palace guards. 

Early Day 2: Refreshed and ready for a battle, you are escorted back to the arena at the crack of dawn.  Along the way, a newly whole Varis rejoins the party with quite an excited and not all-together kid appropriate kiss from Glyth.

As soon as you enter the arena, a frost dragon fledgling is wrangled through the eastern keep with a complicated series of portcullis opens and closes to keep the dragon confined and the guards safe.  You wonder if this extreme caution has something to do with yesterday’s unfortunate accident.
The dragon is chained at each leg with a long length of chain and tries to fly away.  Shava and Yelsha begin hacking at the chain with some success, but the movement of the drago causes numerous misses and slow going as Jadis, Varis, and Glyth try to kill the dragon.  Ultimately one chain is broken just as the dragon is slain by Glyth, Varis, and Jadis.

Gathering your strength as you anticipate your reward for ten rounds well fought and the loss of three comrades, a rope ladder appears over the NW wall.  You are faced with six humanoids who demand from the king a second chance to earn their share of reward by battling these new heroes.  The exchange includes references to the importance of the task requiring the best, and the King agrees.  (These six humanoids were based off of recent Wednesday night Encounters Games)
The battle went well, but our heroes were reluctant to kill the last two remaining combatants, who we learned are named Valanae and Keira.  Keira, an elf rogue is knocked unconscious, and despite pleas from our heroes Valanea, a fey (eladrin) cleric, would not submit, and was killed by a final spell.
At battles end, the king declares our heroes victorious and invites them to a grand feast in their honor.  Keira was awakened, and asked to join the party.  With only a slight hesitation she agreed.  A few spoils of war were found on the battle field, mostly additional weapons and ammo rounding out our heroes’ equipment.  The new and improved larger party headed for the feast.  Keira was stopped at the gate into the castle and not permitted to enter.  The heroes gave her 3 gp and 5 daggers (as she was raided as a spoil of war herself) and asked her to wait at the tavern.

Midday Day 2: The heroes enjoyed a large feast of boarturduckins and upon having their fill, the King slips off into a back room saying he will send you for shortly.  Your party was then engaged in conversation by an old man named Faelwyn.  He was an hero of old himself, and on his last adventure, over a decade ago, he captured the fledgling white dragon you fought in the arena, and retired off of his sale of the dragon to King Hrothgar.    He offered you 1200gp for its return.  He lives in the first house east of the Clothier.

Next, a well dress man named Billani Jobe approaches you.  You find out he is the Guild Master for the Palancia Guild of Commerce.  He challenges you to participate in a wager on dance contest.  Glyth, Varis, and Jadis all fault their excessive eating on bowing out of the contest.  Shava and Yelsha agree to participate for 10gp each.  Billani gathers six other contestants from the halls and the contest ensues.  Shava is eliminated after about 8 rounds and Yelsha after 16 rounds.  (I should note that the only players that participated were not athletic or acrobatic).  Dancer #6 won the competition around round 24.  Shava and Yelsha earned 50XP each for participating.
Before leaving the Great Hall, Bellani whispers to you that if you would like to discuss “commerce” in a more private setting to meet him at his house, the 2^nd house east of the Clothier.

                Experience Points:

Encounter 1.6:   350
Encounter 1.7:   400
Encounter 1.8:   375
Encounter 1.9:   300
Encounter 1.10: 500
Encounter 2.0 (Keira’s Party): 1000

Total XP: 2925 divided among 5 characters for 585 XP each.

Encounter 2.1 (Dancing): 50 XP ea to Shava and Yelsha, Shava and Yelsha feel stronger

My Campaign Adventure Notes

“Thank you, but our princess is in another castle!”
Adventure Notes

First Session:

Day 1: Your party arrives from the south heading north into the town of Palancia.  Nobody was at the docks.  The party talked to every merchant except the priestess and dock master (the dock master was out at the arena).  Your party bought several wares.  They also brought many armors and weapons with them from their previous travels.  Every merchant you met appears to be a member of the Palancia Guild of Commerce.  You reported to the Arena of Trials per your summons from King Hrothgar, and began battle.  The announcer told you there would be 10 rounds of battle with a short rest between each.  During battle, Symion sprang the center trap, but avoided falling into thanks to his thievery and acrobatics skill.  You fought some Dire Rat Minions.  Arboris caught an advanced type of Filth Fever, but quickly shook it off.  You then fought some Dire Rats, followed by a swarm of rats and four stirges.  In the fourth wave, you fought three guard drakes and two stirges.  The guard drakes seemed lame, and in your reluctance to fight, archers lined up around the walls and threatened you with death of a thousand piercings.  You fought and were victorious.  During the fifth wave, you fought 3 Guard Drakes and two pseudo dragons.  The pseudo dragons vexed you and knocked Glyth and Varis unconscious.  Fortunately, the Druid Yelsha was able to assist.  You are now ready to take a short rest.

                Experience Points:

Encounter 1.1:   100
Encounter 1.2:   400
Encounter 1.3:   500
Encounter 1.4:   575
Encounter 1.5:   675
Total XP: 2250 divided among 6 characters for 375 XP each.

Second Session:

Late in Day 1: You begin during your short rest between the fifth and sixth waves of monsters.  You’ve noted that this looks like a Total Party Kill.  The DM only has to say at this point, “I find your lack of faith disturbing.”

I'm Sorry, but our Princess is in Another Castle!

Yes, that is the name of my first D&D campaign.  Yes, it should sound familiar.  It's hard to believe I am been playing D&D, on average, once a week since June, I am already trying to write my own campaign.  Talk about a control freak.

My initial player invites received the following summons:

King Horthgar of Palancia has summoned you to a contest.  Only the bravest heroes have been invited.   Heroes who answer the summons will be rewarded.   To answer the summons, appear at the east end of the Arena of Trials at the sun’s apex two days before All Hollow’s Eve.

“Bring only your foot prints and buy your equipment in Palancia!” – Palancia Guild of Commerce

I am posting this after our first session, being new to blogging, to build up a history that newer players who may join us can catch up on.  I look forward to any responses, especially players and other DMs.

Hello World!

As a geek with a computer science degree, I felt it only appropriate to print my title as the very first program I, and numerous other programmers, ever wrote.   Since this serves as my introduction, I should mention that I am NOT a programmer, and not even a proper geek.  I am notoriously cheap, have been a business owner, and recently took up a hobby of playing Dungeons and Dragons (my first experience was June 2011).  Oh yeah, and I like video games, but I don't play nearly enough to call myself a gamer (according to my friends).

My primary reason for STARTING this blog, was I was looking for a central place to put some D&D stuff out to my players (especially for the one who refuses to acknowledge D&D publically on Facebook).  In the back of my mind, for the last couple of years, I have always wanted to voice my opinion about a few unimportant things and have someone actually care, and maybe even respond.  The latter may still by a pipe dream, so I will start with getting the first one done.

So, "HELLO WORLD!", I look forward to a meaningful shallow relationship with you!