The temperature forecast for Québec tomorrow is minus 30 celsius, Frosthaven really doesn’t seem so inhospitable, except for the small matter of monsters maybe…
Characters
Cassandra the Diviner (David) lvl 4, forgotten diviner (mercenary pack)
4H2 the Hive (Math) lvl 6, refurbished robotic assembly, ADHD
Teabag the Infuser (Guillaume) lvl 6, no, no, not this kind of teabag or is it?
A scenario inside the Radiant Forest, which is described as warm and old-growth, an oasis of life protected from the cold. We’re here to find Radiant Stonesto keep our ballz warm.
Hostile wildlife incoming!The Hive leads the way, helped by his Arcing Generator, but he seems plagued by malfunctions: « I Attack this, NO! Can’t say the word… »Meanwhile, the Infuser seems to be commited to loot everything by himself and have a nervous breakdown when that doesn’t quite happen. Get ahold of yourself guys!Nonetheless, the area is soon cleared of hostiles, time to advance further in the forest.The radiant stones are somewhere in this Fire Swamp.Where are those damn stones? Found two, only one more. Die you annoying imp!
Closing Comments:
This scenario is as much a puzzle than a tactical challenge. But Math, using the superpower of math, efficiently calculated the easiest course to collect the radiant stones (remember that we can move tokens around to make it work) and it went smoothly from there.
Math and Guillaume both had super annoying Trials to accomplish and Math in particular had his character almost die because of it (had to refrain from saying some words in game).
I have to kill imps for my personnal quest and this scenario provided me with an abundant source of them, that was good.
I’m converting a monster from Gunderholfen (OSR D&D) to Dragonbane that should be encountered next session most likely. I think I’ve emulated the design of monsters in DB closely enough.
Now, I’m not a fan of « Planar » stuff in rpgs. Flaming bats coming from the plane of fire doesn’t do it for me for some reason. Would there be a more « biological » explanation available? Does it eat coal or something as part of its diet? Or I dunno maybe we should go the magic did it route and let’s say it absorbs ambient mana, convert it to heat and that’s why they’re only found in dungeons…
Flaming Bat
This creature is a large orange and black bat with a 2 meters wingspan. It lairs in hot places within small colonies. When resting it emits only a dim flicker like dying embers but when actively hunting it’s wreathed in flames.
Ferocity: 1
Size: medium
Movement: 30
Armor: –
HP: 9
Resistance: Immune to fire.
Flying: The wings of the flaming bat allows it to move freely through the air.
Weakness: If doused in water, their flames can be quenced for a stretch. During this period a flaming bat will try to flee combat.
Monster Attacks
d6 Attack
1 Sharp Teeth! The agile flaming bat swoops down and takes a quick bite at a player character with its sharp teeth, for 2d6 piercing damage. The attack can be evaded or parried.
2 Smoke Screen! The flaming bat exhales a cloud of black smoke from its mouth, all player characters within 2 meters must evade or be blinded (must succeed in an awareness roll in order to attack). The smoke dissipates after 1 round.
3Sweeping Claws! The flaming bat does an acrobatic figure midair and tries to rake a player character with its claws, for 2d6 slashing damage. The attack can be evaded or parried wth a shield.
4 Fire Belching! The flying creature opens its mouth and let go of a jet of flames, for 2d8 fire damage. The attack can be evaded or parried wth a shield.
5 Latching Attack! The flaming bat tries to latch itself onto a player character using its fangs and claws. The attack inflicts 1d8 piercing damage and subsequently 1d8 fire damage each round that the flaming bat stays latched on. The attack can be evaded or parried wth a shield.
6Fiery Dive! The fire-emiting creature suddenly burns brighter and dives towards a player character, for 1d8 slashing damage and 1d8 fire damage. The attack can be evaded or parried with a shield.
Just a quick shout-out to dripton from DF Whiterock as he consistently offers the best rpg play reports out there on his blog, in a category of his own really. Way better than what I’m doing over here I must say, my dear readers. He includes an impressive level of details for one, and never to the detriment of entertainment – not an easy feat to accomplish when writing play reports.
His present endeavor is a campaign of Dungeon Fantasy (a GURPS variant), he’s indeed a DF guy – within the Halls of Arden Vul mega dungeon (which as a bonus I’m also a big fan of).
So, what can I add? The best play reports ever, precise and humorous. Also, a lot of behind the curtain to be appreciated by dungeon masters or would-be dms.
I’ll try to have something like a weekly session, at least bi-monthly, of this campaign with my kids for the coming months until summer, we’ll see if I manage to do it.
Jedri, Ratman Thief, he likes his rat-shape curse (Isaac)
Forka, Dogman Knight, fierce warrior (Edmond)
Torch, Goblin Knight, not expendable anymore (Edmond)
Grimoire, Goblin Mage, frail but smart (me)
Gunderholfen
We start in Level 4, with the Battle Brothers and Protectors in the ogres’ den. Having slaughtered most of the adult males and ordered the survivors away, the adventurers clean up the place, using the open pit to good effect, to make it, well, less of an ogres’ den.
After that, they block the door and camp there for the night. Forka, in his turn to keep watch, hear footsteps nearby and whispering voices. There’s the smell of orcs. But they seem to turn back the way they came.
Next day they begin together their ascent towards sunlight. They tie themselves together with rope for the slippery stairs to Level 3. Reaching Level 3, they do a small detour to see Grom the ogre and ask him some questions. They give him a 50 gp gem and learn from him of the quickest way to reach the « dwarven city » (going south of the ogre den in Level 4, then south-east and then west in a long, noticably warmer passage into a large carvern and then south to reach their destination).
They encounter a patrol of ant workers in Level 2 busy transporting dead giant rats and neither side is interested in fighting.
They reach Level 1C, into what was the hobgoblin area and got to a portcullis that was always closed to them in the past. They opened it and, a bit further, got to a deep vertical, artificial shaft with chains dangling but no easy way down.
They backtracked and then reached Level 1B and got out by the « goblins » door.
Ganfal Swamp
Aracyne leads the group competently through Ganfal Swamp and they make good progress despite the harassing environment but then, several hours in, they see a dozen or more humanoids in ragged clothes emerging from behind an outcrop: ghouls!
The adventurers fire a salvo of spells and arrows on the howling undead and four of them are slain and another immobilized by a spell of ensnaring roots. But the ghouls are now in melee. Bodil gets hurt by a claw attack and then tackled to the ground and is in great danger. Efram the Mage gets vomited on by a ghoul and then flees not long after, demoralized by the terrifying howling. Aracyne is dishearthened but stands his ground.
Two more ghouls are on the approach. Bodil the elf is badly hurt and unconscious. The Hunter Adalbert also flees after another howling near him. Two ghouls are avidly pursuing Efram and Adalbert. Bayard smashes a ghoul’s face in with his magic mace and it’s killed. Jedri drops his flail inadvertently but has a dagger to continue fighting two-weapons style. Grimoire the goblin Mage casts 3 small fireballs and efficiently finish 3 already wounded ghouls. Forka team up with spear-wielding Torch to slay another. The mage Delevan cast Levitate on the ghoul on top of Bodil and throws it away, hurting it in the process, then he goes to help his fleeing companions.
Twelve ghouls have been slaughtered, two surviving start to run away, one is stuck in place by Ensnaring roots and is finished by a big hammer blow delivered by Forka. The adventurers have won, with one casualty among them: Bodil is concussed and has infected wounds. Adalbert and Efram also have infected wounds. Fortunately they soon get out of the swamp, into the farmlands, talk to some peasants on the road and reach the city of Longfelt.
The two adventuring guilds make a vow of friendship, decide to leave each other signs (cray writings) in the dungeon if they go separately and then say farewell to each other.
Closing Comments:
Grom has gotten back his leadership of the ogres thanks to them, there’s that, but he thinks of the adventurers as dangerous and untrustworty and won’t be a true ally. Giving information in exchange for money to the PCs so they go explore a dangerous area is the most he’s ready to do in my mind.
The Level 1 mining shaft isn’t there in the book (it replaces an exit to open air), I added it for some unscrutable reason…
Rolled an encounter in the swamp and was tempted to just pick an appropriate monster in the Dragonbane Bestiary but instead I’ve rolled on the d20 table and got 20, ghouls.
Ghouls in dragonbane don’t have any paralysis abilities as the D&D ones but, as monsters, have a d6 table to roll on to determine what they do, and also, as monsters, they always hit (it’s up to the target to try to defend if they wish). I rolled for each ghoul separately and it went smoothly enough.
Brian Garthwaite over at 52 Monsters has written another clever post related to rpgs yesterday, this time on the subject of crap maps. Incomplete or faulty in some way, crap maps offers an interesting challenge to players, as well as being, in fact, more realistic of what one could expect of most non-modern, non-professionnal maps.
I really haven’t much to add to Brian’s post other than to go the « did you know » path and offer this tidbit of information that was lingering uselessly in my slush pile, these images of the oldest « crap map » (which might be a bit unfair to its babylonian author, I let you decide) with pieces missing and it’s highly symbolic depiction of the world as the babylonians thought of it.
Or depicted more clearly below:
And if you’re really into this subject I highly recommend that you listen to this british gentleman, historian and museum curator Irving Finkel, who offers us wonderful insights into the challenges of decipering such an amazing artefact.
First session of Dragonbane/Gunderholfen since september of last year. Shame on me.
Last session the Battle Brothers had persuaded Bayard and his Protectors to make a temporary alliance and fight together against the denizens of Level 4.
Jedri, Ratman Thief, he likes his rat-shape curse (Isaac)
Forka, Dogman Knight, fierce warrior (Edmond)
Torch, Goblin Knight, not expendable anymore (Edmond)
Grimoire, Goblin Mage, frail but smart (me)
Level 4
The two adventuring guilds, ten strong, descend the long slippery stairs down to Level 4, taking their time to decrease the risk of falling. They also devise a plan to fight the ogres which they already know reside very near the entrance of Level 4.
Upon arrival they go east and get to the door leading to the ogres’ den. First trying a quiet approach, they try to open the open door silently but it’s blocked from the other side. Letting go of subtlety, Bayard and Forka, the two strongest characters push the door open, displacing a large rock and a wooden beam, the latter falling to the floor with a loud bam. The PCs hear ogres nearby shouting to each other and get ready for a fight.
Getting back quickly to the first room, the adventurers get in formation, with 4 of them frontline and mages and archers (and Torch) behind. The first two ogres in are not very efficient (one good hit to heavily-armored Forka) and are assaulted by weapons and magic and are killed just like that. The following ogre is a bit more successful as he rushes in and rams into Bodil the Elf, tossing him aside on the ground while another ogre misses Jedri the Ratman with a big swing of his club. Aracyne hurts the ramming ogre with two arrows to the chest, wounding him badly and Jedri manages to finish him with a deadly two-weapons combo. Efram, one of the Protectors’ mage uses magic to make one ogre fall asleep and now there’s only one left from the five that were coming at them. The last one still has the will to fight though and wounds Bayard with a big hit but get overhwhelm quickly after.
They hear a door slam somewhere close but no other ogres are coming for the moment so the mages have time to do healing magic and everyone is healthy anew.
There’s three corridors, with the one in front being were the 5 ogres got out. There’s nothing interesting northeast, they go south and walk close to the wall to get past a (non-hidden) pit trap.
They see a room full of refuse, inspect a storeroom (nothing but food & water) and then get in front of double doors, there’s a faint odor of woodfire smoke (along with strong body odours and other unpleasantness).
The adventurers bash the doors open and see a big room, something like a cooking area, two teenager ogres were ready for them and immediately kick the burning logs, spraying embers directly on Forka and Bayard. Neither of them were quick enough to evade and lose a round removing the painful embers. The two young ogres don’t stand a chance though and after one is killed the other surrenders and pleads for his life. Bodil would have killed him but Aracyne his in a merciful mood and spare hime in exhange of information. They thus learn of some of the closest areas in this part of the dungeon, not much, the young ogre says that their ex-leader, Gorm (from Level 3), knows a lot more more.
The adventurers then proceeded to round up the surviving ogres in the other rooms (in this self-contained area) consisting of: 2 adult male ogres, 5 adult females, the teenager and 2 other youngsters. Aracyne tells them to leave Level 4 and get to Gorm in Level 3 if he would take them. They agree to leave on the condition that they could take their stored food and water with them and the adventurers accept.
Closing Comments:
Not much exploration this session but a big step accomplished in removing the ogres, as their presence near the entrance of the Level was always going to be a problem each time they passed.
10 adventurers together are certainly a force to be reckoned with. I’m thinking that they must attract more attention than a smaller group obviously and, at the very least, I will adjust encounter rolls to reflect so in the future. Otherwise, in a non gold-for-xp system there’s just no much disadvantage in being that numerous.
This play report is in fact our second attempt at this scenario, we failed our previous one, our first failure of the campaign in 50+ sessions. It’s a tricky one for sure. The fact that I’m playing a brand new character didn’t help either. Interestingly, I’m playing a non-frosthaven character, one of the four newly-released « mercenary pack »s.
Characters
Cassandra the Diviner (David) lvl 4, forgotten diviner (mercenary pack)
4H2 the Hive (Math) lvl 6, refurbished robotic assembly, ADHD
Teabag the Infuser (Guillaume) lvl 6, no, no, not this kind of teabag or is it?
We’re trapped in this underground Realm of the Endless Frost and its mischievious master doesn’t intend to make it easy for us.
Frost Demons and Living Spirits make for a cold welcome.The fight is on!We go in the second room and find one of those prevalent evil altar, we must destroy it fast less we become overwhelmed by Living Bones (keep appearing until destroyed).What’s all that clutters? Undead are not good at home staging it seems.Living Spirit: « I was about to open the box, but then I realised I needed to put some shelves first, and then I tought, I should paint the walls first and then… »We’ll help you make some order out of you mess alright.*Smash everything to bits »There you go, there’s place to walk now.Further, we meet face to face with the Prince of Frost, he’s an imp!And of the summoning, super-annoying kind to boot.We have him properly surrounded now.With their prince dead, the other imps lose their will to fight.
Closing Comments:
Well, the power of foreknowledge helped a lot. The altar must be destroyed without delay. The Boss is in the fourth room, after three big fights, we have to be careful with our cards management in this one. The fist time we tried, we lost too much cards in the second room and knew we had no chance against the boss.
We’ve finished the town challenge deck but now have the Trials unlocked, which are even worse (more annoying). Mine isn’t combat-related but Guillaume and Math were and it further hindered our ability to succeed.
The diviner is a bit different from the one in Forgotten Circles, a few tweaks here and there. A complexity 5 character, powerful enough from I’m seeing at the moment.
The Dungeon of Kargen, named after the fantasy city where it’s located, is 10 yo Edmond’s new homebrewed adventure location, with his brother as the unique player. I will try to highlight what happened so far with what they told me.
This is done within a 100% DIY system by the Dungeon Master in which there’s only 4 « attributes »: ranged attack, melee attack, magic attack and Defense. Starting numbers are rolled with a d20 for the main character or d20-6 (min 1) for hirelings (yes many hirelings have pretty abysmal stats…). There’s no cap on levels for characters, each level gives 3 points of attritubes to assign and 5 hit points. Melee damage is linked to attribute bonus but ranged attack bonus is only to hit and not for damage. Magic does more damage but depletes and must be purchased (a new wand). For the moment, magic is just another way of attacking and there’s no utilitarian or any other kind of spells (but that could change I was told).
The main character can bring along a maximum of 3 hirelings, or 5 when he reaches level 10 (and presumably more when of higher level). Also, a nice gameplay rule is that after 5 successful combats in the same area, it is considered « safe » (no more spawning) with the condition that at least one hireling is left in a strategic spot.
Interesting to note I think is what Edmond feels he needs to run his adventure: a list of shops and the items they sell and prices, two pages of hirelings and their stats, a chart of xp needed to advance in levels, a list of weapons and armors and their stats, a chart of bonuses associated with attributes numbers and that’s about it. Everything else he seems to create on the go.
The adventure so far:
The adventurer Jean-Paul, an archer, enters the newly-accessible dungeon of Kargen for his first foray and explored the Caves of Riches.
He defeats several squeletons and zombies but later on, he almost get killed by a mimic that was near a corpse holding a key in his hand.
Back in town he hires Petit Jean (a mediocre fighter) and Rolex (a capable but fast-exhausting magic-user) with the money from the treasures he found.
Next foray, the team reaches the City of the Imps. Most imps are non-hostile, they can control monsters to do their bidding and those are sometimes loose and dangerous.
They reach the Armory where they have to fight Living Armors.
Further on, they spot a throne chamber with a Lich and decide to give it a wide berth.
Back in town, he hires Georges (capable archer).
Next foray, they find the Area of the Lost Ones. Inhabiting the place are knife-throwing zombies that are fond of torturing people.
Back in town, he hires Gengis Khan (average fighter).
They find the Prison where a Dragon Skeleton is roaming. There’s many prisoners, all in separate cells. Frees and hires Robert (great fighter) from a cell.
They find the Maze and hear the mighty roars of The Minotaur. Find and open a secret door and gets face to face with the Minotaur, who’s in fact the Level’s Boss. They manage to kill it.
Gets in a very prolonged fight against 12 Living Armors and a Mimic in which the adventurers get the worst of it and flee.
After a stop in town, the team gets back to one of the first area into an unexplored and very long tunnel that leads to a section dubbed the « Mixtature« , inhabited by orcs, zombies, ogres and many other monsters.
Find 14 sarcophagi but already looted. Find a large fireplace and get into a fight with a fire elemental. The chimney leads to somewhere else but is haunted by ghosts.
Get into a treasure room with a strange statue with one arm extended in front of it, hand open as if waiting to receive something.
See a big fight between 3 parties of adventurers (11 total) and 40 orcs, join the fray and help kill the orcs.
This is all been happening on the fist Level of the dungeon.
My nephew Olivier, now seventeen, suggested we return to our Castle Xyntillan campaign.
Last time we played in this particular campaign was more than a year ago and the session led to a most dramatic change as the characters chose to flee Averoigne (through time-travel no less), teaming with the bishop/sorcerer Azédarac instead of fulfilling their mission for the Bénédictins monks and bring incriminating evidence to them. I told the players afterward that we could continue to play with these characters but in another setting entirely. I had in mind something closer to Zothique than Averoigne (still firmly inside Clark Ashton Smith’s cycles stories). But, well, I never came around to put together something satisfying for me and more or less let go of the idea.
But now is time to stop messing around and go back to something that was quite formative for us: Gabor Lux’s Castle Xyntillan. But! Before that, an interlude into a module of the same author – The Wandering Glade, that will, I think, do a proper transition for the events of the campaign.
The general idea is that the adventurers got caught in a trap that was meant for Azédarac…
TTRPG System used: Worlds without Number, by Kevin Crawford
Adventurers – Player Characters (PCs)
Noah (Isaac), crafts stuff, has a repeating crossbow and a magic sword called Scrupulous, Expert lvl 6
Cordélia Lenoir (Marjorie), using the dark arts for Good (probably), Necromancer lvl 5
Monmon (Edmond), has a powerful antique spear, Warrior lvl 6
Paul Nareff (Olivier), friend and sponsor of the numerous Jean clan, Warrior lvl 6
« He [Azédarac] was the wisest and the mightiest of sorcerers, and the most secret withal ; for no one knew the time and the manner of his coming into Averoigne, or the fashion in which he had procured the immemorial Book of Eibon, whose runic writings were beyond the lore of all other wizards. He was a master of all enchantments and all demons, and likewise a compounder of mighty potions. Among these were certain philters, blended with potent spells and possessed of unique virtue, that would send the drinker backward or onward in time. » (The Holiness of Azédarac, Clark Ashton Smith)
The Wandering Glade:
The PCs wake up in a clearing surrounded by some majestic oaks lording over the dense forest. The light of day is already starting to fade. There’s no trace of Azédarac nor of his acolyte Jehan.
There’s a statue of a woman, beautiful and proud-looking, and a plaque under it. It says: « Oh Azédarac! Not the place you expected to arrive perhaps? Where were you fleeing this time? Did someone caught you lying and cheating again? We’ll see if you can escape this green labyrinth of mine… »
There’s a big boulder nearby but nothing else so they leave the clearing by the only visible path, it goes west.
They see another large boulder, this one covered in wild flowers. A faded inscription says: << Wandering Glade >> Clearing of Secrets.
They turn right at an intersection and enter ameadow. The pleasant scent has attracted giant butterflies. The PCs turn back and takes another path.
They go through an area with old-growth forest, dead wood covered in moss everywhere. A dozen Mossmen jump up from the ground and threaten the adventurers with sticks and stones. PCs gets some light wounds from thrown stones but then obliterate half of the Mossmen very quickly and the surviving ones start to flee. Noah shoots some more with his automatic crossbow.
Thence, they go northwest but are soon surrounded by some celtic warriors. The PCs manage to bribe them with gold, they learn that they serve the Enchantress Moriannis and leave peacefully.
Going due west now, they get ambushed by several deadly archers. Noah is hit by an arrow. The group start to sprint further in the path and Cordélia gets hit by two arrows in the back and is severly wounded but then both her and Noah shoots back and down one archer and wound another, making them retreat.
After that, they walk another 20 minutes and now they can see some sort of big camp and a lot of activity ahead, with fires and tents, and are soon intercepted by the lookouts. Cordélia uses her magic and takes the appearance of Moriannis from the statue they saw initially. She then speaks with the leader of the warriors, Brughaft, and explain that she’s only an « aspect » of the Enchantress and thus lacks the knowledge of her real « self ». Brughaft accepts her explanation and tells her of one way to get out of the Wandering Glade (and abstains from telling another one) – they must follow the spiral path called Morag’s Way, go to the end of the path and offers 3 things to the magic pool: the sap of roots of the night, petals from flowers of winter and blood from lovers. He also gives his bronze key. The adventurers for their part gives him some jewels and precious stones to ensure his loyalty.
The PCs also learn of several key locations in the glade but their exploration will resume next morning, after a night of sleep in the warriors’ camp.
Next day, the PCs want to find the « wall of trees » somewhere in the southeast. They’re not quite sure which paths will lead there though. They manage to take a shortcut and not get lost and find one of the tallest oak of the forest. There’s a cave mouth that opens between its roots.
They enter the small grotto, there’s a pool of silvery water with some rocks emerging with non-precious rocks, small crystals and trinkets laid on them. Paul look more closely onto the pool and sees a vision of black roots hanging from the ceiling of an underground area.
Leaving the grotto and great oak behind, the PCs go east in a path. They suddenly hear much noises at their right in the forest, small trees falling, a big claw marks appear on a boulder but no sign of what creature is doing all this damage. They hurry away.
They reach the Wall of Trees, impenetrable at first look. Cordélia attempt a spell of Extirpate Arcana (contested against the place’s magic) and succeed but knows it won’t hold very long. They enter the clearing and search the area. Monmon find 10 magical arrows, Cordélia finds a golden sickle and Paul finds delicious berries that seems to have healing capacities.
Leaving the clearing they decide to go north along the path, cross the area where they killed Mossmen, turn right and come across a burial site of a sort with thirteen mounds of earth, each having a green sapling on top. Paul puts a spade in one but then corpses start to emerge from every mounds, with each apparently having a sapling’s roots through its heart. Unpertubed, Cordélia goes right in the middle and casts Smite the Dead, slaying all of the undead at once.
Further north and then west, the adventurers go to the next area they wanted to investigate – a den of monsters they’ve been told. Sure enough when they approach they can see a cave and bones littering the entrance. Two big Sabretooths get out leisurely of the cave. Cordélia casts her last spell of the day, a Compel the Flesh on one Sabretooth, forcing it to attack its mate. Paul and Monmon both attack it too. Paul is wounded by the big cat’s claws but it soon is slain under the attacks from all sides.
Entering the cave they see 2 nervous cubs and Cordélia sends them the controlled Sabretooth mother so they stay calm. There’s not much in the cave except some faded cave paintings showing a vertical shaft and then stick figures seemingly fighting against trees.
From there the adventurers go west to get back to Brughaft’s camp because Cordélia wanted to rest to get her spells back, even if it was still quite early in the evening and with much disgruntled comments from Noah, Monmon and Paul.
The three non-mages decide to try to explore a bit more whilst Cordélia is resting. To the north, they find strange mossy boulders graven with mesmerising patterns. Monmon feels sick looking at them and they leave the place.
They then decide to try to reach the old well that they had heard of, first taking a path going west and south. They fight some other overmatched Mossmen and then reach a stone circle containing heaps of antlers. There’s a runic inscription: « SIGN SHOW, KINSMEN GATHER ». The PCs try a few things, mostly on the silly side, but without results.
They leave and, not very far from there, they find the old well. Noah uses his grappling hook & rope and begin to descend after having thrown some rocks in the water at the bottom to see if anything uncanny happened but nothing did. He saw four stone snake heads and was a bit wary but couldn’t see anything dangerous so he continued his descent and reached a bearded face crowned with a wreath of oak leaved, very druidy in appearance. Inspecting it closely Noah finds a keyhole and immediately thinks about Brughaft’s bronze key but unfortunately guess whom has the key, Cordélia! Cursing their 5-minutes day mage, they call it off and go back to camp.
Next day, the adventurers go back all together this time, to the old well. The bronze key indeed matches the keyhole, opening a secret door that leads into darkness. Into the Druid Grave.
TBC..
Closing Comments:
I’ve adapted a bit the adventure for my purpose, added the premise with Azédarac and Moriannis, made the module’s bandit gang as the latter’s followers instead, made them less hostile but also added a bit more stringent characteristics to the ingredients necessary to exit the Wandering Glade. Not much else really.
I had half a mind to send out the characters naked or without most of their stuff maybe, going a little Against the Slavers-style, but finally opted to be a non-cruel DM for this rekindling of a campaign.
Most of the fights were on the easy side, with one harder (against the « evil scouts ») ending in a stalemate. They didn’t stumbled upon the more dangerous stuff we could say (yet).
I think we’ll find a moment in the christmas holidays to continue this one hopefully.
XP = Participation 1, Treasures 1, Secrets 2, Total: 4
This scenario is linked with Carrion Ridge (21) in the algox sub-campaign which was pretty easy and straightforward (no play report). This one is neither of those things.
This is a Defeat the Boss scenario but with said Boss being physicaly split in two and defeating it forced to be made in three parts, each time having to destroy an altar so one of us (only one) can hurt the Harbinger for a third of its hit points. Phew.
Characters
Schlurkt the Deepwraith (David) lvl 7, a crab that goes stab stab stab
4H2 the Hive (Math) lvl 5, refurbished robotic assembly, ADHD
Teabag the Infuser (Guillaume) lvl 5, no, no, not this kind of teabag or is it?
We start with an invincible and shadowy beast breathing down our necks and monsters ahead.Black imps are protecting an evil altar.The Infuser gets munched a little by the Harbinger.The Deepwraith destroys the altar and get pulled into the Harbinger’s realm, the duel is on!Meanwhile his companions go further into this hellish place and find more enemies and a second altar…The Hive has his full panoply deployed.The Deepwraith has reappeared, none the worse for his duel and will have to help quickly, the situation is perilous.The poor Infuser is yet again the target of the Harbinger.Let’s destroy this altar.Now is the turn of the Hive to fight one on one Hive-Assembly vs Harbinger + summons.This will drag on a bit…Yet another altar and more monsters to boot.The Hive is back, now to the altar.And who gets bitten again? Let’s finish this… (Deepwraith stabs the Harbinger a gazillion times)Victory! Loot!
Closing Comments:
Hard one, and quite a bit cumbersome as a scenario I feel, jumping through every hoops at the right moment-style.
The Deepwraith was especially well-suited to kill the Harbinger really fast, that helped a lot I think.
The Hive took on himself to do it once but in retrospect it wasn’t the greatest idea as it took (understandably) several turns to do the job.
And with that the Deepwraith has achieved his Personal Quest and will retire. Very strong character, with a very high ceiling. Really enjoyable too, he’ll be missed.
Streets & Spores 