I dropped a few riddles on my party as a sort of lock feature associated with a teleportation circle they found. They were stumped for a little while, but eventually they managed to figure it out! They loved the change of pace though, and I want to put more things like that in the campaign in the future.
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I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
We switched to D&D from PF, so elements of the first adventure are from a module series that got converted as well, this covers 2 sessions, and rolls into a third - It's long, so I'll throw in the spoiler tag for those that don't care to read.
Session 1:
Four people, from different walks of life, were brought to the tiny village of Pinetops by an Elvin Paladin of Sehanine named Galil-liiad. The village had recently been the target of orc raiding parties in the employ of the nation of Elsea to the north. A Ranger, hunter of Elsean Goblins, A jailed Half-Orc Barbarian only there by coercion, a Druid they picked up along the way when she warned them of an impending Orc sneak attack and a Rogue, daughter of a wealthy ‘merchant’ sent in her father’s stead to help the people of Pinetops and ensure the family’s continued stranglehold on the much desired Haltai Pine nut. They were and odd crew, but each had their reason to be there.
Once they’d arrived, they were asked to check up on one of Osta’s Siege Towers (Osta is the country they all hailed from) that had gone quiet after the raids. When they arrived, they found the tower open to the elements, part of the side destroyed. Entering the tower they found it to be infested with troglodytes - whom, they were able to make short work of, including the troglodyte shaman. Along the way, they rescued a grateful cleric who had been taken captive by the troglodytes after trying to recover her precious silver holy symbol.
The upper tower clear (the stairs to the under tower were “blocked” by cave in), the party returned to the village to consider their next move. But, within days of their return, many of the people of Pinetops & the Paladin Galil had fallen ill to a disease called the Blacksour.
Session 2:
This disease was caused by spores in the local drinking water. Local Clerics were powerless to cure the illness, which quickly claimed the lives of two of the village elders. A local potion & snake oil vendor was able to find a recipe for a concoction that would cure the illness, but she needed ingredients that came from the forest surrounding Pinetops. Iron sprout Mushrooms, moss from an elder tree and dried eyes of a newt. So, off the four set, grateful Cleric in tow (npc healer ftw), into the forest. The ranger knew his way to the Elder tree, where they faced down a Wyvern to get the moss from the tree. It was a hard battle, nearly killing the rogue & the druid, but in the end they were successful. From there they made way to a local lumber camp for directions to an old witch’s hut for the eyes of newt. After charming the pants off of the lumberjacks, the Rogue was able to get detailed directions on how to get to the hut.
At the hut, they all nervously piled in, finding it unoccupied. After some rifling around they were able to find a bottle of eyes of newt, but activated a trap when they snatched up their prize! All crammed into the little hut they were surprised as the old cauldron came alive and attacked them. Yet another close call for the Rogue, who got swallowed by the pot, but in the end, the Druid saved her bacon with a well placed CLW spell.
Lastly, the Druid led the group to an abandoned Dwarven monastery that had been taken over by a Warg and his harem. The party managed to parley with the beast, who promised them access to the Iron sprout mushrooms if they cleared the compound of other beasties that had encroached on his territory. This, of course, was a ruse. He used the other monsters to weaken the party before ultimately going back on his word and attacking them. In their injured state, with few spells left (they were level 2), it was a hard fight - Pack tactics almost spelled the end of the party more than once. Victorious, the party returned to Pinetops to find the Blacksour in full swing - as many as 26 of the 40 residents were in dire need of the remedy, with several dead from the affliction already, including our beloved Paladin Galil (it was a good way to get him out of the way).
Session 3:
Skip to several days later, everyone throws a party for the PCs and the Snake Oil Vendor, much merry making ensues. Drinking, arm wrestling, pine-nut barrel tossing, ect. The party rolls on into the night, when suddenly a fire breaks out at the Pine-nut silo’s. Half inebriated, part of the party makes their CON checks, part of them doesn’t, everyone jumps into action to put the fires out only to find they’re under attack by more Troglodytes! 16 Troglodyte warriors and a Tribal Shaman swing in from the north (where the Siege tower is). Instead of attacking to kill, the group swoops in and grabs the snake oil maker and beline it back toward the tower. The Troglodyte warriors throwing themselves at anyone pursuing the Shaman who has the poor peasant artificer in tow.
The Half-Orc barbarian wades into a line of about 5 or 6 of these troglodytes and just lays waste to them giving the Druid an opening to make a play for the Shaman, but she’s cut off by a wall of fire that roasts quite a few of the village defenders .. hurt and tired the party now has to chase the Shaman into the belly of the Siege tower to save the artificer…
Little do they know, a Green Dragon waits them in the darkness, brought low by the same illness he’s enlisted the help of the troglodytes to get the cure so he can be restored to his former glory. (An adult dragon normally, he’s fighting with young dragon stats & no poison breath.. His goal, fight for 2 turns and run with the Potion maker so the party has a long-term enemy)
I dropped a few riddles on my party as a sort of lock feature associated with a teleportation circle they found. They were stumped for a little while, but eventually they managed to figure it out! They loved the change of pace though, and I want to put more things like that in the campaign in the future.
That's awesome! What was your favourite of the riddles? (Or conversely, what seemed to be most popular with your players?)
We switched to D&D from PF, so elements of the first adventure are from a module series that got converted as well, this covers 2 sessions, and rolls into a third - It's long, so I'll throw in the spoiler tag for those that don't care to read.
Session 1:
Four people, from different walks of life, were brought to the tiny village of Pinetops by an Elvin Paladin of Sehanine named Galil-liiad. The village had recently been the target of orc raiding parties in the employ of the nation of Elsea to the north. A Ranger, hunter of Elsean Goblins, A jailed Half-Orc Barbarian only there by coercion, a Druid they picked up along the way when she warned them of an impending Orc sneak attack and a Rogue, daughter of a wealthy ‘merchant’ sent in her father’s stead to help the people of Pinetops and ensure the family’s continued stranglehold on the much desired Haltai Pine nut. They were and odd crew, but each had their reason to be there.
Once they’d arrived, they were asked to check up on one of Osta’s Siege Towers (Osta is the country they all hailed from) that had gone quiet after the raids. When they arrived, they found the tower open to the elements, part of the side destroyed. Entering the tower they found it to be infested with troglodytes - whom, they were able to make short work of, including the troglodyte shaman. Along the way, they rescued a grateful cleric who had been taken captive by the troglodytes after trying to recover her precious silver holy symbol.
The upper tower clear (the stairs to the under tower were “blocked” by cave in), the party returned to the village to consider their next move. But, within days of their return, many of the people of Pinetops & the Paladin Galil had fallen ill to a disease called the Blacksour.
Session 2:
This disease was caused by spores in the local drinking water. Local Clerics were powerless to cure the illness, which quickly claimed the lives of two of the village elders. A local potion & snake oil vendor was able to find a recipe for a concoction that would cure the illness, but she needed ingredients that came from the forest surrounding Pinetops. Iron sprout Mushrooms, moss from an elder tree and dried eyes of a newt. So, off the four set, grateful Cleric in tow (npc healer ftw), into the forest. The ranger knew his way to the Elder tree, where they faced down a Wyvern to get the moss from the tree. It was a hard battle, nearly killing the rogue & the druid, but in the end they were successful. From there they made way to a local lumber camp for directions to an old witch’s hut for the eyes of newt. After charming the pants off of the lumberjacks, the Rogue was able to get detailed directions on how to get to the hut.
At the hut, they all nervously piled in, finding it unoccupied. After some rifling around they were able to find a bottle of eyes of newt, but activated a trap when they snatched up their prize! All crammed into the little hut they were surprised as the old cauldron came alive and attacked them. Yet another close call for the Rogue, who got swallowed by the pot, but in the end, the Druid saved her bacon with a well placed CLW spell.
Lastly, the Druid led the group to an abandoned Dwarven monastery that had been taken over by a Warg and his harem. The party managed to parley with the beast, who promised them access to the Iron sprout mushrooms if they cleared the compound of other beasties that had encroached on his territory. This, of course, was a ruse. He used the other monsters to weaken the party before ultimately going back on his word and attacking them. In their injured state, with few spells left (they were level 2), it was a hard fight - Pack tactics almost spelled the end of the party more than once. Victorious, the party returned to Pinetops to find the Blacksour in full swing - as many as 26 of the 40 residents were in dire need of the remedy, with several dead from the affliction already, including our beloved Paladin Galil (it was a good way to get him out of the way).
Session 3:
Skip to several days later, everyone throws a party for the PCs and the Snake Oil Vendor, much merry making ensues. Drinking, arm wrestling, pine-nut barrel tossing, ect. The party rolls on into the night, when suddenly a fire breaks out at the Pine-nut silo’s. Half inebriated, part of the party makes their CON checks, part of them doesn’t, everyone jumps into action to put the fires out only to find they’re under attack by more Troglodytes! 16 Troglodyte warriors and a Tribal Shaman swing in from the north (where the Siege tower is). Instead of attacking to kill, the group swoops in and grabs the snake oil maker and beline it back toward the tower. The Troglodyte warriors throwing themselves at anyone pursuing the Shaman who has the poor peasant artificer in tow.
The Half-Orc barbarian wades into a line of about 5 or 6 of these troglodytes and just lays waste to them giving the Druid an opening to make a play for the Shaman, but she’s cut off by a wall of fire that roasts quite a few of the village defenders .. hurt and tired the party now has to chase the Shaman into the belly of the Siege tower to save the artificer…
Little do they know, a Green Dragon waits them in the darkness, brought low by the same illness he’s enlisted the help of the troglodytes to get the cure so he can be restored to his former glory. (An adult dragon normally, he’s fighting with young dragon stats & no poison breath.. His goal, fight for 2 turns and run with the Potion maker so the party has a long-term enemy)
Welcome to 5e! What made your group switch? How have you felt about 5e so far?
The story you're running sounds fantastic! The cauldron trap must have been fun, but I'm a sucker for animated objects.
We switched to D&D from PF, so elements of the first adventure are from a module series that got converted as well, this covers 2 sessions, and rolls into a third - It's long, so I'll throw in the spoiler tag for those that don't care to read.
Session 1:
Four people, from different walks of life, were brought to the tiny village of Pinetops by an Elvin Paladin of Sehanine named Galil-liiad. The village had recently been the target of orc raiding parties in the employ of the nation of Elsea to the north. A Ranger, hunter of Elsean Goblins, A jailed Half-Orc Barbarian only there by coercion, a Druid they picked up along the way when she warned them of an impending Orc sneak attack and a Rogue, daughter of a wealthy ‘merchant’ sent in her father’s stead to help the people of Pinetops and ensure the family’s continued stranglehold on the much desired Haltai Pine nut. They were and odd crew, but each had their reason to be there.
Once they’d arrived, they were asked to check up on one of Osta’s Siege Towers (Osta is the country they all hailed from) that had gone quiet after the raids. When they arrived, they found the tower open to the elements, part of the side destroyed. Entering the tower they found it to be infested with troglodytes - whom, they were able to make short work of, including the troglodyte shaman. Along the way, they rescued a grateful cleric who had been taken captive by the troglodytes after trying to recover her precious silver holy symbol.
The upper tower clear (the stairs to the under tower were “blocked” by cave in), the party returned to the village to consider their next move. But, within days of their return, many of the people of Pinetops & the Paladin Galil had fallen ill to a disease called the Blacksour.
Session 2:
This disease was caused by spores in the local drinking water. Local Clerics were powerless to cure the illness, which quickly claimed the lives of two of the village elders. A local potion & snake oil vendor was able to find a recipe for a concoction that would cure the illness, but she needed ingredients that came from the forest surrounding Pinetops. Iron sprout Mushrooms, moss from an elder tree and dried eyes of a newt. So, off the four set, grateful Cleric in tow (npc healer ftw), into the forest. The ranger knew his way to the Elder tree, where they faced down a Wyvern to get the moss from the tree. It was a hard battle, nearly killing the rogue & the druid, but in the end they were successful. From there they made way to a local lumber camp for directions to an old witch’s hut for the eyes of newt. After charming the pants off of the lumberjacks, the Rogue was able to get detailed directions on how to get to the hut.
At the hut, they all nervously piled in, finding it unoccupied. After some rifling around they were able to find a bottle of eyes of newt, but activated a trap when they snatched up their prize! All crammed into the little hut they were surprised as the old cauldron came alive and attacked them. Yet another close call for the Rogue, who got swallowed by the pot, but in the end, the Druid saved her bacon with a well placed CLW spell.
Lastly, the Druid led the group to an abandoned Dwarven monastery that had been taken over by a Warg and his harem. The party managed to parley with the beast, who promised them access to the Iron sprout mushrooms if they cleared the compound of other beasties that had encroached on his territory. This, of course, was a ruse. He used the other monsters to weaken the party before ultimately going back on his word and attacking them. In their injured state, with few spells left (they were level 2), it was a hard fight - Pack tactics almost spelled the end of the party more than once. Victorious, the party returned to Pinetops to find the Blacksour in full swing - as many as 26 of the 40 residents were in dire need of the remedy, with several dead from the affliction already, including our beloved Paladin Galil (it was a good way to get him out of the way).
Session 3:
Skip to several days later, everyone throws a party for the PCs and the Snake Oil Vendor, much merry making ensues. Drinking, arm wrestling, pine-nut barrel tossing, ect. The party rolls on into the night, when suddenly a fire breaks out at the Pine-nut silo’s. Half inebriated, part of the party makes their CON checks, part of them doesn’t, everyone jumps into action to put the fires out only to find they’re under attack by more Troglodytes! 16 Troglodyte warriors and a Tribal Shaman swing in from the north (where the Siege tower is). Instead of attacking to kill, the group swoops in and grabs the snake oil maker and beline it back toward the tower. The Troglodyte warriors throwing themselves at anyone pursuing the Shaman who has the poor peasant artificer in tow.
The Half-Orc barbarian wades into a line of about 5 or 6 of these troglodytes and just lays waste to them giving the Druid an opening to make a play for the Shaman, but she’s cut off by a wall of fire that roasts quite a few of the village defenders .. hurt and tired the party now has to chase the Shaman into the belly of the Siege tower to save the artificer…
Little do they know, a Green Dragon waits them in the darkness, brought low by the same illness he’s enlisted the help of the troglodytes to get the cure so he can be restored to his former glory. (An adult dragon normally, he’s fighting with young dragon stats & no poison breath.. His goal, fight for 2 turns and run with the Potion maker so the party has a long-term enemy)
Welcome to 5e! What made your group switch? How have you felt about 5e so far?
The story you're running sounds fantastic! The cauldron trap must have been fun, but I'm a sucker for animated objects.
Thanks! We switched because I got curious and picked up the PHB on my last trip to the hobby shop, that was all she wrote from there. I played D&D way back in 1e and 2e but life caught up with me - so now that the kids are old enough to play, I've drug them into it as well. But 5e is great, very smooth & easy to DM for. I love the Advantage/Disadvantage system, way better than what I remember. The Cauldron was great lol.. it swallowed the Rogue and chased the rest of them out of the hut into the field, snapping at their heals the entire time! The rogue was inside screaming for help but all they could hear was muffled sounds with the staccato yelled words of the rogue every time the Cauldron opened it's 'mouth'.
Man-- have to love it when the rolls make their own memorable characters!
I'm a big fan of letting the dice determine the story. It's not about relinquishing control, it's about connecting the dots given in the most memorable, entertaining and believable way.
It's why I love rolling on tables, and will do so at every chance. I don't hold to the results 100%, because it's not always appropriate to do so.
It's like the idea that you should flip a coin when you are stuck between two decisions. You will make your decision while the coin is still in the air. The dice are no different. I either make up my mind on the path to take, or I roll a result I would not have considered and can incorporate.
Win-win.
Speaking of which, got a session tonight. It's the first time I'm breaking from the mold of a published adventure, which has me a little fearful.
Man-- have to love it when the rolls make their own memorable characters!
I'm a big fan of letting the dice determine the story. It's not about relinquishing control, it's about connecting the dots given in the most memorable, entertaining and believable way.
It's why I love rolling on tables, and will do so at every chance. I don't hold to the results 100%, because it's not always appropriate to do so.
It's like the idea that you should flip a coin when you are stuck between two decisions. You will make your decision while the coin is still in the air. The dice are no different. I either make up my mind on the path to take, or I roll a result I would not have considered and can incorporate.
Win-win.
Speaking of which, got a session tonight. It's the first time I'm breaking from the mold of a published adventure, which has me a little fearful.
I agree with you entirely. Sometimes there's temptation to rule whichever way you 'feel', but the story always seems richer when you follow the dice. Meaningful failures and successes add so much wonderful to this wonderful game.
That's very exciting! It's normal to be anxious, but there's something very freeing about the story being your's top to bottom-- Every decision you make is technically the 'true' decision. I hope you have fun!
The DM inherited 5 homeless players for the night (or other DM couldn't make it so our sole DM had 10 people for the session!) and one of the homeless players created a Chaotic Evil Warlock that pretty much murdered everything he could find, including a couple of townspeople that just happened to walk by. And our DM rolled so amusingly badly for the NPCs that 18 of 20 people leaving a room tripped over a tripwire that one of the other homeless players had set up.
There was a LOT of laughter and facepalming. And almost zero progression on the story they were working on, whoops. ;)
A short-notice session for ten players? I sincerely hope everyone plans to buy that DM a beer for stepping up like that. And for one of the players to be CE? That's enough to raise anyone's heart rate. Sounds like everyone still had a good time, though. And that's all that really matters. I keep a few one-shots ready to go at any time in case something comes up and it suddenly becomes a better option to run one than to continue the overall campaign.
Oh he deserves all the beer for inheriting us on such short notice! It was a lot of fun, although even he admitted it would be hard to manage every week. This week should be back to normal with 2 or 3 DMs to manage the hoarde. :)
That Warlock seemed like a fun character to play. Perhaps I should investigate this Chaotic Evil angle... :D
The highlight of our last game was when a gnomish wedding party came to the tavern we were staying at. Our human ranger, Hector Diversey, rolled a Charisma check to join them in their traditional wedding-night orgy - and succeeded.
Unfortunately the rest of the mission wasn't nearly so successful. Our Plot Giver had sensed a confluence of necrotic energy in a nearby town that foretold another zombie outbreak, so we went there to evacuate the town. We convinced the majority of the populace to evacuate the next day, save for a small group who wanted to stay and fight. That's fine. Then we set about shoring up the town defenses, prepping spells and traps, etc.
The next morning, before the town had a chance to evacuate, we spotted a kid behaving very oddly: he shambled into the cemetery and started digging with his hands. This was the same behavior we saw among the zombies in the last town we saved. Diversey one-shotted the kid with his arrow, but we then saw that the rest of the villagers were also beginning to shamble towards the graveyard.
It was then we realized with horror that they weren't zombies - not yet. They were instead under the effect of some sort of charm spell. But as they began digging in the graveyard, their flesh zombified - there was something in the soil that was turning them undead. We tried to keep them out of the graveyard, but the fence was too flimsy and they broke it down. There were too many of them for us to incapacitate them all. We had to wrap the game mid-combat because it was getting late, but when we left off we were considering fleeing the town altogether.
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"We're the perfect combination of expendable and unkillable!"
Oh man, what a nasty turn of events! And your boy killed a kid, which couldn't have gone over well. I love zombie encounters. My group plays on Sunday.
Hilariously, that player has a history of kids dying because of his characters. In several previous campaigns, whenever his character gave a weapon to a kid (so the kid could protect themself), that kid wound up killing themself (either intentionally or unintentionally). Indeed, while we were prepping the town, Diversey gave the kid a dagger, and everyone in the party joked that now the kid was gonna die.
Turns out we were right!
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"We're the perfect combination of expendable and unkillable!"
We had a suuuuper short session this Monday, since I had a midnight flight out for a vacation! We were short our Druid again, so the party just continued going through some things in town. Mostly errands and interacting with dumb NPCs-- And of course, going to places they had previously made clear they weren't very interested in!
The party arranged for a hunter's lodge to collect the monster parts they needed for a certain potion. Upon hearing that the party had slayed a Mind Flayer, the Huntmaster offered them a test, and potential initiation within his guild. When the party started to act like jerks and became impetuous/threatening he removed his offer, and asked them to leave, and return only for their requested items in two weeks.
They then decided to go to the harbour to check out a ship due to leave that night for a casino opening in a place called the Glittering Isles, which they assume is probably bad news bears. They had previously stated they weren't as interested, so I didn't really prep this area... But it came together. They spoke with a deckhand, impressing him with their past tasks of heroism, but he had no power to get them onto the ship so he retrieved a silver Dragonborn named Iselda, who sold the party four tickets for the trip later that night. The Monk dragonborn got a weird feeling off of her, making him believe she wasn't actually a dragonborn. He and the sorcerer then went full r00d and pressed and threatened her to the point where she revoked their tickets, gave them a refund, and demanded they leave her ship. Local guard caught ear and eye of this happening, and the party is pretty sure that at least the Sorc and the Monk were 'noted' by the guard.
The Rogue, annoyed at this this loss of potential coin and plot, decided to run off, stealthing into the crowd to split from the group. She decided to talk her way into the private area known as Flagship Cliffs, using her party's past heroics and knowledge of unsolved robberies in the area to get in. Unfortunately the party also hadn't been terribly interested in the robbery adventure either... So while I knew what did happen, I had to scramble to prep people for her to interview and places to search! She had some great Charisma checks, and some not so great Perception checks, but managed to get a good set of clues moving. She decided she wants to solve the mystery herself, to show-up her party members.
Meanwhile the Sorcerer and Rogue did some shopping and questioning of their own. They got some advice from their favourite herbalist, a witch named Khilercast, and then went to a book store where they met an angry dwarf and bought some very, very expensive books. They finally returned to the magic shop to get some information on a different adventure posting, and there was about where the session ended.
It was a tough session being distracted about timing, but also them going to areas I thought they didn't care about -- But that's the fun of the game! There were still lots of laughs and they got into stuff, which is really all that matters. :)
In one of my sessions, I was a Dragonborn called dark wing. We had 7 players and 4 of them where wood elves there was 1 other Dragonborn and 2 human fighters.
It was our 6th session and we encountered a jolly tarasque... I copy and pasted this from a D and D Wikipedia,[Although no one present, has seen it before, this hulking monstrosity is instantly recognisable to anyone who has ever heard the stories of its legendary wrath. ] ALL OF OUR CHARACTERS DIED!!! and we left the dm's house with a death stare on our faces...
In one of my sessions, I was a Dragonborn called dark wing. We had 7 players and 4 of them where wood elves there was 1 other Dragonborn and 2 human fighters.
It was our 6th session and we encountered a jolly tarasque... I copy and pasted this from a D and D Wikipedia,[Although no one present, has seen it before, this hulking monstrosity is instantly recognisable to anyone who has ever heard the stories of its legendary wrath. ] ALL OF OUR CHARACTERS DIED!!! and we left the dm's house with a death stare on our faces...
To elaborate: we were on our way to community service (conscription vs zombie horde) when a george clooney-esque polar bear character tried to offer us a job we couldnt refuse....but we did. We figured it might breach our parole conditions (town is not understanding when ballista bolts smash into taverns when you are fighting beholders) . Then, later we met up with santa, actually a Nicholas Claus, head of house Claus which is a Magi faction in our world. Much to the horror of my party i signed a blood pact with "Santa(he says he's not Santa but he had sleigh bells and reindeer) to protect me from other Magi. I may have to do a job or two around christmas time.....
Going to wrap up my little detour tonight, and it was definitely fun to step outside the bounds of a published adventure. I've got the campaign pretty much set for a while, as in what adventures I'll be pulling from and when their threads tie in to the overall metaplot that is of my own design. The intent is for this just to be a training ground, to be weaned off of published adventures entirely except for ideas or one-shots, so I'll be diving outside of them more often. Though, it's less that I dove outside and more that I rewrote it more thoroughly than I've been doing, which meant I couldn't rely solely on the source material.
This particular detour allowed me to introduce "my" orc clan into my setting. I'm a big fan of JourneyQuest and was a KickStarter backer for their Orcish-English Dictionary at the level that allowed me to create an Orc clan that would be featured in the book. Obviously attached to that clan, so I ported it over.
I'm currently running Lost Mine of Phandelver, while introducing some Giant troubles from Storm King Thunder's Adventurer League season as well as cultist activity that's a bit of a mix of Out of the Abyss and Elemental Evil. What I did was just make a whole bigger deal out of the Wyvern Tor orcs, which was otherwise just a "go here and kill them" quest, by threading in some story elements from Sellswords. Sellswords is pretty grim and dark, and I had originally got it from the DM's Guild because the only two players in my group are similarly fans of grimdark settings like 40k, but have since only taken some elements when more players added in.
The story goes that, as the party enters Phandalin Parnast to warn them of the cultist threat to their mines and the giant threat on the horizon, they find a child lord that is heavily controlled by two advisors: the captain of the city watch and an emissary from the imperial power of the region. The party fails to convince the child lord of these threats due to their meddling, and decide they'll just take the quest offered on the bulletin and heavily pushed by the emissary. Lumber mills have been attacked by an orc* menace, and a price has been placed on their eradication. Skyrim being my reference point for these mills. On the way out they stopped by an orchard held by a retired adventurer, which I used to introduce doubt and the sense that not everything is as it seems with the quest. Also to introduce the Harpers, which one of my players indicated interested in joining.
As the group headed out, they went to each of these lumber mills to investigate, finding that there was a stark difference between the few close to town and those deeper in the forest. Namely, that those deeper in the forest appear freshly built, perhaps within the year, and that it is the newest mill, deepest into the woods, that they find signs of violence and bloodshed, and perhaps the drag marks of bodies or hostages taken. Following deeper in, they eventually come across territorial markings in the form of totemic carvings on trees, and a well-stealthed orc watcher reveals his presence after quite some time following.
A terse conversation follows, where I really wasn't sure if the players would go along with it or if they'd go for blood haha! Cooler heads did prevail, and the orc leads them to the clan. There, the party finds that the clan is surprisingly diverse. Orcs are the majority, but they're closely followed by half-orcs, humans and even a small minority of other races. To add in a possible roleplay moment, I stated that the barbarian character actually recognizes one of the humans as a hunter from her tribe, who everyone had thought died out in the wilderness when she was still young. When she sought him out to ask why, he stated that he had found a new home, with a glance toward children at play being all the understanding our barbarian player needed. Right after that bit of roleplay, the player told the rest of the group that he was no longer of the mind to complete the quest as given, which he was the last holdout for.
The party speaks with the chieftain, in plain view of the rest of the clan around the central bonfire where their chief confronts them. Here they find out that the clan and the city have held to a pact for the past three generations. The clan holds their territory and all within it to be as important to them as their own blood. To chop down their trees is as a physical wound to them, and their retaliation has been, to their eyes, of equal measure. Blood for blood. Parnast has in the past respected their territory by lumbering only the outer edges of the forest, never going too deeply in. Simple measures to prevent hostilities that the child lord's grandfather felt acceptable, particularly as the clan's placement at the foot of the mountains made them almost a defense for the city against threats from that direction. His son, the child lord's late father, also honored this deal. His death, nearly a year ago, is when that began to change.
The party asks for the opportunity to make it right, to talk to Parnast, but the clan's reaction quiets them. Blood for blood. The orc that escorted them quiets the crowd, and asks the group how strong their conviction is. "Uh, strong?" is the response given. The orc asks if their conviction is strong enough for their own blood to be placed on the line. A duel, in their tradition, is called. One of the party members will face that orc as his clan's champion in single combat. Victory will give the party their chance. Defeat will see the conflict escalate at the worst possible time for the city. The barbarian accepts, and I called the session there.
Tonight will see the conclusion of that duel, and perhaps an answer to some of the questions I'm hoping are on the player's minds. Where are the bodies or the hostages that were taken from the mill? Why has the young lord gone back on the word of his predecessors?
* Orcs in my setting are a bit different, but all flavors exist within it. All orcs fall under two broad categories: 5e orcs and 5e half-orcs. Essentially, imagine if neanderthalic cavemen existed alongside modern man in the medieval era. 5e orcs are those cavemen, and 5e half-orcs are modern man. The orcs of this clan are like the 5e half-orcs, with actual half-orcs being a further shift toward human-like appearances, like Critical Role's Fjord. Actual 5e orcs do exist, and their warlike and primitive lifestyle is why there remains prejudice against the more 'modern man' orcs of the setting. Does that make sense? I think I explained it poorly.
Let me reiterate: The 5e Orc monster race in my setting are like neanderthalic cavemen that exist at the same time as medieval era 'modern man' orcs, which use 5e half-orc rules but are full-blood orcs. My setting's half-orcs would use whichever rules that best depict their upbringing. A city boy half-orc would probably just use human rules, for example. This clan is made up of 'modern man' orcs and half-orcs.
That ended up pretty lengthy, so I put it in spoilers for those that don't care to read a blow-by-blow account.
Does anyone have any tips on how to run that duel while keeping other players engaged? I was thinking of giving people opportunities to roleplay moral support to give the barbarian advantage.
My party finally made it into the broken down siege tower in hot pursuit of the Troglodyte Shaman & the local potion maker. He slips down the tunnel they used to break into the tower as the party makes its way down the stairs to a gruesome scene, all of the towers defenders lie dead, along with many troglodyte warriors. The Ranger, ever greedy, sees the shiny golden armor of the tower's officer and attempts to loot it.****y to find the corpse had been cursed by the Shaman to come back to life and defend the bodies of his fallen tribe-mates. After a very, VERY close battle the party has no choice but to stop & rest as they are all broken and bloodied from 2 very difficult battles. But, as they rest they're jumped by the remaining 4 warriors of the tribe that were left in reserve. The Druid and Barbarian are KO'd, but the rest of the party manages to drive the attackers off down the tunnel they'd come from.
Now that they've waded through the warriors of the tribe, they're faced with the moral dilemma... what to do with the rest of the tribe, the old..the mothers and children as they'll need to pass them to get to Kagath the Untamed (the Green Dragon holding the tribe hostage)... They're non-hostile and have like 1 or 2 hp each & the couple of warriors and shaman that stymied them at the village will be there pleading in broken common to spare the tribe that they were only doing what they did for fear of the 'great beast' :)
My druid turned into a giant octopus in a shadow demons lair. The party looked at me like I was mental for turning into a sea creature on land, but soon realised I could hold my breath for an hour and had 62hp.
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I dropped a few riddles on my party as a sort of lock feature associated with a teleportation circle they found. They were stumped for a little while, but eventually they managed to figure it out! They loved the change of pace though, and I want to put more things like that in the campaign in the future.
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
We switched to D&D from PF, so elements of the first adventure are from a module series that got converted as well, this covers 2 sessions, and rolls into a third - It's long, so I'll throw in the spoiler tag for those that don't care to read.
Session 1:
Four people, from different walks of life, were brought to the tiny village of Pinetops by an Elvin Paladin of Sehanine named Galil-liiad. The village had recently been the target of orc raiding parties in the employ of the nation of Elsea to the north. A Ranger, hunter of Elsean Goblins, A jailed Half-Orc Barbarian only there by coercion, a Druid they picked up along the way when she warned them of an impending Orc sneak attack and a Rogue, daughter of a wealthy ‘merchant’ sent in her father’s stead to help the people of Pinetops and ensure the family’s continued stranglehold on the much desired Haltai Pine nut. They were and odd crew, but each had their reason to be there.
Once they’d arrived, they were asked to check up on one of Osta’s Siege Towers (Osta is the country they all hailed from) that had gone quiet after the raids. When they arrived, they found the tower open to the elements, part of the side destroyed. Entering the tower they found it to be infested with troglodytes - whom, they were able to make short work of, including the troglodyte shaman. Along the way, they rescued a grateful cleric who had been taken captive by the troglodytes after trying to recover her precious silver holy symbol.
The upper tower clear (the stairs to the under tower were “blocked” by cave in), the party returned to the village to consider their next move. But, within days of their return, many of the people of Pinetops & the Paladin Galil had fallen ill to a disease called the Blacksour.
Session 2:
This disease was caused by spores in the local drinking water. Local Clerics were powerless to cure the illness, which quickly claimed the lives of two of the village elders. A local potion & snake oil vendor was able to find a recipe for a concoction that would cure the illness, but she needed ingredients that came from the forest surrounding Pinetops. Iron sprout Mushrooms, moss from an elder tree and dried eyes of a newt. So, off the four set, grateful Cleric in tow (npc healer ftw), into the forest. The ranger knew his way to the Elder tree, where they faced down a Wyvern to get the moss from the tree. It was a hard battle, nearly killing the rogue & the druid, but in the end they were successful. From there they made way to a local lumber camp for directions to an old witch’s hut for the eyes of newt. After charming the pants off of the lumberjacks, the Rogue was able to get detailed directions on how to get to the hut.
At the hut, they all nervously piled in, finding it unoccupied. After some rifling around they were able to find a bottle of eyes of newt, but activated a trap when they snatched up their prize! All crammed into the little hut they were surprised as the old cauldron came alive and attacked them. Yet another close call for the Rogue, who got swallowed by the pot, but in the end, the Druid saved her bacon with a well placed CLW spell.
Lastly, the Druid led the group to an abandoned Dwarven monastery that had been taken over by a Warg and his harem. The party managed to parley with the beast, who promised them access to the Iron sprout mushrooms if they cleared the compound of other beasties that had encroached on his territory. This, of course, was a ruse. He used the other monsters to weaken the party before ultimately going back on his word and attacking them. In their injured state, with few spells left (they were level 2), it was a hard fight - Pack tactics almost spelled the end of the party more than once. Victorious, the party returned to Pinetops to find the Blacksour in full swing - as many as 26 of the 40 residents were in dire need of the remedy, with several dead from the affliction already, including our beloved Paladin Galil (it was a good way to get him out of the way).
Session 3:
Skip to several days later, everyone throws a party for the PCs and the Snake Oil Vendor, much merry making ensues. Drinking, arm wrestling, pine-nut barrel tossing, ect. The party rolls on into the night, when suddenly a fire breaks out at the Pine-nut silo’s. Half inebriated, part of the party makes their CON checks, part of them doesn’t, everyone jumps into action to put the fires out only to find they’re under attack by more Troglodytes! 16 Troglodyte warriors and a Tribal Shaman swing in from the north (where the Siege tower is). Instead of attacking to kill, the group swoops in and grabs the snake oil maker and beline it back toward the tower. The Troglodyte warriors throwing themselves at anyone pursuing the Shaman who has the poor peasant artificer in tow.
The Half-Orc barbarian wades into a line of about 5 or 6 of these troglodytes and just lays waste to them giving the Druid an opening to make a play for the Shaman, but she’s cut off by a wall of fire that roasts quite a few of the village defenders .. hurt and tired the party now has to chase the Shaman into the belly of the Siege tower to save the artificer…
Little do they know, a Green Dragon waits them in the darkness, brought low by the same illness he’s enlisted the help of the troglodytes to get the cure so he can be restored to his former glory. (An adult dragon normally, he’s fighting with young dragon stats & no poison breath.. His goal, fight for 2 turns and run with the Potion maker so the party has a long-term enemy)
This... Definitely feels like it needs elaboration!
That's awesome! What was your favourite of the riddles? (Or conversely, what seemed to be most popular with your players?)
Welcome to 5e! What made your group switch? How have you felt about 5e so far?
The story you're running sounds fantastic! The cauldron trap must have been fun, but I'm a sucker for animated objects.
Thanks! We switched because I got curious and picked up the PHB on my last trip to the hobby shop, that was all she wrote from there. I played D&D way back in 1e and 2e but life caught up with me - so now that the kids are old enough to play, I've drug them into it as well. But 5e is great, very smooth & easy to DM for. I love the Advantage/Disadvantage system, way better than what I remember.
The Cauldron was great lol.. it swallowed the Rogue and chased the rest of them out of the hut into the field, snapping at their heals the entire time! The rogue was inside screaming for help but all they could hear was muffled sounds with the staccato yelled words of the rogue every time the Cauldron opened it's 'mouth'.
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ModeratorI'm a big fan of letting the dice determine the story. It's not about relinquishing control, it's about connecting the dots given in the most memorable, entertaining and believable way.
It's why I love rolling on tables, and will do so at every chance. I don't hold to the results 100%, because it's not always appropriate to do so.
It's like the idea that you should flip a coin when you are stuck between two decisions. You will make your decision while the coin is still in the air. The dice are no different. I either make up my mind on the path to take, or I roll a result I would not have considered and can incorporate.
Win-win.
Speaking of which, got a session tonight. It's the first time I'm breaking from the mold of a published adventure, which has me a little fearful.
I agree with you entirely. Sometimes there's temptation to rule whichever way you 'feel', but the story always seems richer when you follow the dice. Meaningful failures and successes add so much wonderful to this wonderful game.
That's very exciting! It's normal to be anxious, but there's something very freeing about the story being your's top to bottom-- Every decision you make is technically the 'true' decision. I hope you have fun!
The DM inherited 5 homeless players for the night (or other DM couldn't make it so our sole DM had 10 people for the session!) and one of the homeless players created a Chaotic Evil Warlock that pretty much murdered everything he could find, including a couple of townspeople that just happened to walk by. And our DM rolled so amusingly badly for the NPCs that 18 of 20 people leaving a room tripped over a tripwire that one of the other homeless players had set up.
There was a LOT of laughter and facepalming. And almost zero progression on the story they were working on, whoops. ;)
A short-notice session for ten players? I sincerely hope everyone plans to buy that DM a beer for stepping up like that. And for one of the players to be CE? That's enough to raise anyone's heart rate. Sounds like everyone still had a good time, though. And that's all that really matters. I keep a few one-shots ready to go at any time in case something comes up and it suddenly becomes a better option to run one than to continue the overall campaign.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
Oh he deserves all the beer for inheriting us on such short notice! It was a lot of fun, although even he admitted it would be hard to manage every week. This week should be back to normal with 2 or 3 DMs to manage the hoarde. :)
That Warlock seemed like a fun character to play. Perhaps I should investigate this Chaotic Evil angle... :D
The highlight of our last game was when a gnomish wedding party came to the tavern we were staying at. Our human ranger, Hector Diversey, rolled a Charisma check to join them in their traditional wedding-night orgy - and succeeded.
Unfortunately the rest of the mission wasn't nearly so successful. Our Plot Giver had sensed a confluence of necrotic energy in a nearby town that foretold another zombie outbreak, so we went there to evacuate the town. We convinced the majority of the populace to evacuate the next day, save for a small group who wanted to stay and fight. That's fine. Then we set about shoring up the town defenses, prepping spells and traps, etc.
The next morning, before the town had a chance to evacuate, we spotted a kid behaving very oddly: he shambled into the cemetery and started digging with his hands. This was the same behavior we saw among the zombies in the last town we saved. Diversey one-shotted the kid with his arrow, but we then saw that the rest of the villagers were also beginning to shamble towards the graveyard.
It was then we realized with horror that they weren't zombies - not yet. They were instead under the effect of some sort of charm spell. But as they began digging in the graveyard, their flesh zombified - there was something in the soil that was turning them undead. We tried to keep them out of the graveyard, but the fence was too flimsy and they broke it down. There were too many of them for us to incapacitate them all. We had to wrap the game mid-combat because it was getting late, but when we left off we were considering fleeing the town altogether.
"We're the perfect combination of expendable and unkillable!"
Oh man, what a nasty turn of events! And your boy killed a kid, which couldn't have gone over well. I love zombie encounters. My group plays on Sunday.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
Hilariously, that player has a history of kids dying because of his characters. In several previous campaigns, whenever his character gave a weapon to a kid (so the kid could protect themself), that kid wound up killing themself (either intentionally or unintentionally). Indeed, while we were prepping the town, Diversey gave the kid a dagger, and everyone in the party joked that now the kid was gonna die.
Turns out we were right!
"We're the perfect combination of expendable and unkillable!"
We had a suuuuper short session this Monday, since I had a midnight flight out for a vacation! We were short our Druid again, so the party just continued going through some things in town. Mostly errands and interacting with dumb NPCs-- And of course, going to places they had previously made clear they weren't very interested in!
It was a tough session being distracted about timing, but also them going to areas I thought they didn't care about -- But that's the fun of the game! There were still lots of laughs and they got into stuff, which is really all that matters. :)
In one of my sessions, I was a Dragonborn called dark wing. We had 7 players and 4 of them where wood elves there was 1 other Dragonborn and 2 human fighters.
It was our 6th session and we encountered a jolly tarasque... I copy and pasted this from a D and D Wikipedia,[Although no one present, has seen it before, this hulking monstrosity is instantly recognisable to anyone who has ever heard the stories of its legendary wrath. ] ALL OF OUR CHARACTERS DIED!!! and we left the dm's house with a death stare on our faces...
Whoa, what level were you?
To elaborate: we were on our way to community service (conscription vs zombie horde) when a george clooney-esque polar bear character tried to offer us a job we couldnt refuse....but we did. We figured it might breach our parole conditions (town is not understanding when ballista bolts smash into taverns when you are fighting beholders) . Then, later we met up with santa, actually a Nicholas Claus, head of house Claus which is a Magi faction in our world. Much to the horror of my party i signed a blood pact with "Santa(he says he's not Santa but he had sleigh bells and reindeer) to protect me from other Magi. I may have to do a job or two around christmas time.....
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ModeratorSounds like an eclectic but fun campaign!
Going to wrap up my little detour tonight, and it was definitely fun to step outside the bounds of a published adventure. I've got the campaign pretty much set for a while, as in what adventures I'll be pulling from and when their threads tie in to the overall metaplot that is of my own design. The intent is for this just to be a training ground, to be weaned off of published adventures entirely except for ideas or one-shots, so I'll be diving outside of them more often. Though, it's less that I dove outside and more that I rewrote it more thoroughly than I've been doing, which meant I couldn't rely solely on the source material.
This particular detour allowed me to introduce "my" orc clan into my setting. I'm a big fan of JourneyQuest and was a KickStarter backer for their Orcish-English Dictionary at the level that allowed me to create an Orc clan that would be featured in the book. Obviously attached to that clan, so I ported it over.
I'm currently running Lost Mine of Phandelver, while introducing some Giant troubles from Storm King Thunder's Adventurer League season as well as cultist activity that's a bit of a mix of Out of the Abyss and Elemental Evil. What I did was just make a whole bigger deal out of the Wyvern Tor orcs, which was otherwise just a "go here and kill them" quest, by threading in some story elements from Sellswords. Sellswords is pretty grim and dark, and I had originally got it from the DM's Guild because the only two players in my group are similarly fans of grimdark settings like 40k, but have since only taken some elements when more players added in.
The story goes that, as the party enters
PhandalinParnast to warn them of the cultist threat to their mines and the giant threat on the horizon, they find a child lord that is heavily controlled by two advisors: the captain of the city watch and an emissary from the imperial power of the region. The party fails to convince the child lord of these threats due to their meddling, and decide they'll just take the quest offered on the bulletin and heavily pushed by the emissary. Lumber mills have been attacked by an orc* menace, and a price has been placed on their eradication. Skyrim being my reference point for these mills. On the way out they stopped by an orchard held by a retired adventurer, which I used to introduce doubt and the sense that not everything is as it seems with the quest. Also to introduce the Harpers, which one of my players indicated interested in joining.As the group headed out, they went to each of these lumber mills to investigate, finding that there was a stark difference between the few close to town and those deeper in the forest. Namely, that those deeper in the forest appear freshly built, perhaps within the year, and that it is the newest mill, deepest into the woods, that they find signs of violence and bloodshed, and perhaps the drag marks of bodies or hostages taken. Following deeper in, they eventually come across territorial markings in the form of totemic carvings on trees, and a well-stealthed orc watcher reveals his presence after quite some time following.
A terse conversation follows, where I really wasn't sure if the players would go along with it or if they'd go for blood haha! Cooler heads did prevail, and the orc leads them to the clan. There, the party finds that the clan is surprisingly diverse. Orcs are the majority, but they're closely followed by half-orcs, humans and even a small minority of other races. To add in a possible roleplay moment, I stated that the barbarian character actually recognizes one of the humans as a hunter from her tribe, who everyone had thought died out in the wilderness when she was still young. When she sought him out to ask why, he stated that he had found a new home, with a glance toward children at play being all the understanding our barbarian player needed. Right after that bit of roleplay, the player told the rest of the group that he was no longer of the mind to complete the quest as given, which he was the last holdout for.
The party speaks with the chieftain, in plain view of the rest of the clan around the central bonfire where their chief confronts them. Here they find out that the clan and the city have held to a pact for the past three generations. The clan holds their territory and all within it to be as important to them as their own blood. To chop down their trees is as a physical wound to them, and their retaliation has been, to their eyes, of equal measure. Blood for blood. Parnast has in the past respected their territory by lumbering only the outer edges of the forest, never going too deeply in. Simple measures to prevent hostilities that the child lord's grandfather felt acceptable, particularly as the clan's placement at the foot of the mountains made them almost a defense for the city against threats from that direction. His son, the child lord's late father, also honored this deal. His death, nearly a year ago, is when that began to change.
The party asks for the opportunity to make it right, to talk to Parnast, but the clan's reaction quiets them. Blood for blood. The orc that escorted them quiets the crowd, and asks the group how strong their conviction is. "Uh, strong?" is the response given. The orc asks if their conviction is strong enough for their own blood to be placed on the line. A duel, in their tradition, is called. One of the party members will face that orc as his clan's champion in single combat. Victory will give the party their chance. Defeat will see the conflict escalate at the worst possible time for the city. The barbarian accepts, and I called the session there.
Tonight will see the conclusion of that duel, and perhaps an answer to some of the questions I'm hoping are on the player's minds. Where are the bodies or the hostages that were taken from the mill? Why has the young lord gone back on the word of his predecessors?
* Orcs in my setting are a bit different, but all flavors exist within it. All orcs fall under two broad categories: 5e orcs and 5e half-orcs. Essentially, imagine if neanderthalic cavemen existed alongside modern man in the medieval era. 5e orcs are those cavemen, and 5e half-orcs are modern man. The orcs of this clan are like the 5e half-orcs, with actual half-orcs being a further shift toward human-like appearances, like Critical Role's Fjord. Actual 5e orcs do exist, and their warlike and primitive lifestyle is why there remains prejudice against the more 'modern man' orcs of the setting. Does that make sense? I think I explained it poorly.
Let me reiterate: The 5e Orc monster race in my setting are like neanderthalic cavemen that exist at the same time as medieval era 'modern man' orcs, which use 5e half-orc rules but are full-blood orcs. My setting's half-orcs would use whichever rules that best depict their upbringing. A city boy half-orc would probably just use human rules, for example. This clan is made up of 'modern man' orcs and half-orcs.
That ended up pretty lengthy, so I put it in spoilers for those that don't care to read a blow-by-blow account.
Does anyone have any tips on how to run that duel while keeping other players engaged? I was thinking of giving people opportunities to roleplay moral support to give the barbarian advantage.
My party finally made it into the broken down siege tower in hot pursuit of the Troglodyte Shaman & the local potion maker. He slips down the tunnel they used to break into the tower as the party makes its way down the stairs to a gruesome scene, all of the towers defenders lie dead, along with many troglodyte warriors. The Ranger, ever greedy, sees the shiny golden armor of the tower's officer and attempts to loot it.****y to find the corpse had been cursed by the Shaman to come back to life and defend the bodies of his fallen tribe-mates. After a very, VERY close battle the party has no choice but to stop & rest as they are all broken and bloodied from 2 very difficult battles. But, as they rest they're jumped by the remaining 4 warriors of the tribe that were left in reserve. The Druid and Barbarian are KO'd, but the rest of the party manages to drive the attackers off down the tunnel they'd come from.
Now that they've waded through the warriors of the tribe, they're faced with the moral dilemma... what to do with the rest of the tribe, the old..the mothers and children as they'll need to pass them to get to Kagath the Untamed (the Green Dragon holding the tribe hostage)... They're non-hostile and have like 1 or 2 hp each & the couple of warriors and shaman that stymied them at the village will be there pleading in broken common to spare the tribe that they were only doing what they did for fear of the 'great beast' :)
Meat shields anyone?
We had 12th level characters also
, I found a new way to do campaigns through threads my first story is 'Secrets of Halloween' come to check it out!
not a dnd campaign.
My druid turned into a giant octopus in a shadow demons lair. The party looked at me like I was mental for turning into a sea creature on land, but soon realised I could hold my breath for an hour and had 62hp.