The story so far (Isle Of Dread Play Report Session 1 - 7)

What follows is my best effort at remembering what happened during the course of the adventures to and on the Isle of dread.  

I'm currently running the game with 2 of my coworkers, using the Basic Fantasy rules. 

Most of our sessions run about 2 hours, sometimes less.  It's typically weekly but it really depends on the week.  

Session 1: Leaving town 

• The players are escorting a large merchant caravan from Northern karameikos to the city of Specularm.  During the night a rather large thunder storm rolls in, making travel difficult.  A wagon becomes up turned on a dangerous downhill section, slips in the mud and dumps its cargo upon the ground. 
• Helping the merchant dry off his wares, the PCs stumble upon the map and letter detailing the isle of dread.
• The caravan makes camp for the night, instead of pushing on to the city (which is very close by).  The next morning they are beset by Bandits on the road, but quickly deal with them. 
• Into the city we go! The carvan (which is huge, there's lots of guards other than the players) makes its way to the merchant quarter near the docks.  They get paid by Reginald Blackwater (one of the higher ups in the merchants guild.....) and decide to go out and find a boat. 
• They ask around a bit, and find a local tavern call the starboard seagull.  A few patrons are in the bar, an older man catches there eye and they chat him up.  His name is ramses and he's a former sailor (looking for adventure), he knows where they can purchase a boat.  
• It is unlikely that they have enough funds....
• The PCs ramble down the dock to a acquaintance of Ramses who owns a boat (can't remember his name, not important pc I guess.)  
• The Cleric pleads with the boat seller in the name of his god Havlav to give them a deal on the boat.  He uses his powers of persuasion and religion (basically scares the crap out of him).  They wind up getting the boat for next to nothing, in return the seller has the praise and mark of Havlav (he was blessed sorta.) 
• They decide to set off with Rameses as soon as possible, gathering no supplies whatsoever for the long journey to the isle. 
• I should note that this boat is a little bigger than a dingy.  Any real storm would blow it to bits.

Session 2:  The open water 

• I believe that the PCs had about 12 days worth of rations when they left Port.  I decided to push the journey so that they would be on the brink of starvation by the time they got there.  Unfortunately there is only so many encounters you can have on the open seas before it gets boring.  A day passes nothing, you eat.  Day five oh pirates! Anyways
• A few days pass with not a lot happening.  On day 5 the ship is attacked by bull headed sharks, that start inflicting a LOT of damage on the hull. 
• I made one of the players roll for the HP of the boat on a set of d100s.  48 HP. 
• The players managed to kill the sharks, the boat takes pretty bad damage.  The thief sneak attacks the shark.  Which lead to this silliness.  Ramses stuffs the holes with shark guts.  
• Less than 2 days to the island, rameses spots a ship on the horizon.  They decide to get closer.  They realize very quickly its flying a Jolly Roger.  They turn tail.  A chase ensues.
• The wind is with them, and they outrun the bigger ship.  
• They safely make it within the vicinity of the Island.  I give them the opportunity to navigate around the island.  They decide to head for the village. 

Session 3:  The Village 

• The PCs finally arrive on the island and are met with stand off ish Natives (not exactly Indiana Jones).  After some fast talking they managed to get a cool welcome into the village.  
• They are showed around, and meet Meeka a small girl guide who speaks well.  She gives them the basic tour.
• ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE.  A Large Elephant/Mammoth is attacking the wall.  The PCs help out the Natives and managed to kill the beast.  A feast is prepared and the PCs are welcome guests. 
• During the feast 2 interesting things happen.  The PCs notice the zombie workers, and are told mysterious stories about them and the Gods.  They learn of the ancients who built the wall as well.  They also see off in the distance a bunch of bandaged beaten up warriors being ushered into a tent. 
• The next morning the inquire about the warriors and are met by the tribal leader Kuna.  They find out that the warriors were attacked on their way back from another village (they were delivering trade goods). The PCs decide to set off to find the Lizardmen and bring them a quick death. 
• Ramses stays behind to fix the boat. 

Session 4 Lizardmen PT 1 First we gotta find the place 

• So random encounters are fun.  Must write table with other interesting things to see and do in hexes.  
• Run into a weird tree plant that attacks them and tries to strangle them.  They manage to burn the crap out of it and run away.  
• They find one lizardmen and start following him, he is quickly scared off by a giant rumbling coming from nearby.  One of the PCs is up a tree looking down at the surrondings.  He spies a GIANT WALKING LIVING STATUE made of Crytal.  They noped out of that. 
• After a few hours of searching they find a cave that they believe must be the lizardmen.  Turns out its a dancing spider (from BX).  One of them ends up getting bit and starts dancing (thankfully they had a cure poison potion).  Cue Magic Dance. 

Session 5 Lizard Men PT 2 They find the lair and destroy it 

• Scrounging around and searching they finally with a bunch of dumb luck find the lair. 
• Typical dungeon crawl I guess:  They find some prisoners and they become hirelings.  They find a statue of a Hawk that looks like it was made by someone else (the ancients?), they kill a bunch of lizardmen.  There's an altar they find with what appears to be the lizardmens god (I stole this idea from a game I ran of KOTB read here).   Which was COMEDY GOLD! 
• They also find a head dress and a map.  It points to the east a peninsula with the caption "stone creatures carry lots of gold". 
• They bring the prisoners and loot back to the Village after a few days on the road.  The thief levels up.  Rameses is working on building a small hut near the village. 

Session 6 On the hunt for gargoyles found skeletons 

• The PCS decide to take the boat and head off towards the peninsula in search of the stone creatures and the their gold.  On the way they skirt the coast line.  It quickly becomes nightfall so they decide to make camp on the west shore of the isle. 
• IN the middle of the night they are attacked by a bunch of skeletons.  2 of the 3 hirelings fall.  Rameses is with them and he stands tall.  
• They find a encampment nearby, with a few interesting objects including the following journal. 

It has been a month since we set foot on this god forsaken island.  The food is slowly starting to run out, the crew is starting to get ansy.  We set sail months ago for the Thaneegioth Archipelago, and were blown off course during a big storm.  We hit a reef and swam to the nearest island.  We sought shelter along the shore, but had a run in with some spear wielding apeman!  We managed to fight them off and get into some small canoes.  We made land fall that night to the west of the small island.  Our food supplies are dwindling…..  Of late my dreams have been dark, with a squid like face staring at me from out of the abyss.  I fear we will die here. 

Session 7 Beached ship and a pearl. 

• They wake up and journey to the penisula, and discover a boat on a sand bar.  After a bit of back and forth, the thief swims up to investigate.  He finds trade goods in the boat that are worth a LOT of money if they can bring it back to the village.  They find a letter of intent from the merchants guild in Specularm (basically the terms of the profits from the expedition).  The one remaining hireling notices a pearl under the water.  The thief dives for it, and recovers it.  And not a moment too soon! A giant sea snake is following them.  It does however decide to leave the PCs be.   

If you read thru all this, Havlav Bless You! 

Play report nightwell Barony session 2

Jumped back in last night.  The plan was to shoot for Friday evenings, however since we all work in retail this Friday will be hard.

The players left off at the town, getting prepped to leave for the old city ruins south of the village. They quickly made it to the small bridge over the river.   The bridge was wide enough for a wagon to travel over it. It also looked well used.

They noticed a skeletal hand protruding from the waters edge, and went down to investigate. 

A giant crab and its kin were close by, and the players attempted to run up the river bank. One of which slide down into the mud. 

They managed to intimidate the crab enough to investigate the hand. There they found a body weighed down by a sack of lead. In a bag was a potion, and some silver pieces. 

They head out from the bridge and keep going towards the city.  As time goes on the wander towards the city thru tall brush, and a well used trail.  Eventually they come across a wagon.  The players attempt to sneak up, and get hit in the head with a rock.  2 goblins are also investigating the wagon, and have claimed it as their own.  The goblins speak very limited common, mostly one word answers.  Things come to a head very quickly and one of the goblins screams BREE YARK!   

The players decimate the goblins in no time and move towards the wagon.  There they find 3 barrels, 1 with black grog ale in it, and the other 2 with hops.  They also notice that the ground is very trampled and not with goblin footprints, but human.  

In the mud they found a note: 

G. 

The scouts have seen a caravan skirting the edge of the city.  Keep you're eyes peel and intercept. 

B.C. 

The pcs decide to take the wagon back to town and sell off the kegs to the bartender Isaiah. On the way back to town they found a strange grove of trees, that wasn't there the last time they passed this way.  There are 5 large boulders covered in runes.  They realize quickly that they can sleep here and be protected.  Its a weird magical grove.  When they wake up in the morning, they find that their weapons have been silvered as they slept, they weigh less somehow and have magical properties (+1).  Written in the side of a tree is a magical spell, which the halfling wizard quickly copies into his spell book. 

(I know I'm giving them too much treasure....what are you gonna do! it's 5e and they don't get XP for treasure anyways).  

Just before they are about to leave for town, a small rock rolls up to them with the following scrawled on it. 

"ned halp!" 

They look up to see 6 very small goblins.  The goblins plead for help, their princess has been kidnapped by a giant spider! The warriors of the group had been killed (the wagon guys) and they can't save her by themselves. 

The PCs opt to head back to town.   

And that is where we left off. 

Thoughts from Skord as he lays his head upon a pillow

Unlike Funder, I do not have anyone to write this to.  Instead I let the memories of the day wash over me as I try to get some much needed rest.  The morning started off easy enough, we had just finished killing a bunch of ugly ghasts the night before.  We got up in the morning, and stretched out the aches and pains from the battle.  I was still in fairly bad shape, but it seems the consensus was to press on and check out this "canter's grotto".

In my fitless sleep I decided that my mace needed a name, the only thing I could come up with was "spear".  Which was mostly to confuse the locals.  And the fact that I probably need a spear.  More on that later.

After we had a bit of breakfast, we noticed that a trail near us was completely covered in spiderwebs (some even hanging from the trees above us).  After a bit of thinking and conversation, we pressed on thru the webs.  I should note that the stuff is quite sticky and I spent the next half hour trying to relive myself of it.

As we got closer to the grotto, we smelled overwhelming incense.

The grotto was located in a grassy gnoll.  Cautiously we crept up and looked around.  I suggested that we check for alternate entrances, as I had heard stories of trapped and fake doorways in the past.  Kojack went to take a look at the door, and found that it was trapped with large pots filled with greenish liquid.  None of us had the stomach to try it.

We pressed on into the grotto.  Funder thankfully scouted ahead checking on things.  The first few minutes into the dungeon he did not find any thing significant.  And then! He noticed a group of what I can only describe as Imps.  What have we got ourselves into?

The decision was made to attempt to capture one, and then we quickly escaped the dungeon.  Hoping to interrogate the little bastard, we made it outside.  However a few of the imps companions followed us.  A large fight ensued.  May I say thank god for my cohorts, especially the cleric who healed me. I should also note that he was suspiciously absent when we fought the ghasts?

Alas, I will figure that out at some point.

We murdered the imps, and I came to the conclusion that there parts maybe worth something to an alchemist or magic user.  The other thing we realized was that the Imps were the ones creating the webs, as they had webbing coming from their undersides.

We ventured back into the dungeon turning south, Kojack listened at the door and heard some argument happening, between what he believed was two people.

We decided to go ahead and bum rush the door, breaking in we caught the two in surprise.  One of which was a fairly overweight character named Huberto, which I believe I may have met before.

I jumped on a table in the room scattering papers (we found out afterwards that they were blueprints for an evil temple).  Swinging my mace named spear I attacked the guard wearing plate mail.  I missed, and swore at the great imbibber for not helping me out in my time of need.  My faith is failing me.

In the heat of the battle I remember that Huberto was from Scorn and he was a textile merchant.

The cleric was giving him quite a good smacking, and the others helped me out trying to take out hte guard.  There was some brief discussion about attempting to interrogate these two, but they sucummbed to their wounds prior to us making a decision.  That little halfling i have to give him credit, he dove under a table and held a torch up to the crotch of the guard.

All of a sudden we heard a large noise coming down the hall.  We quickly barred the door with the table.  Once again the halfling surprised me, he was able to lift a table that was probably his same weight?   The wonders of the great imbibber!

The table only held for so long, the door in splinters, the head of a demon stuck thru.  Terror.

By this point I was bleeding profusely, rathgar thankfully healed me again.  My mace did not seem to do much damage to it.  I made a mental note to silver it with my remaining monies.  Food will have to wait.

We fought the demon as best we could, at some point we managed to get out of the room and lead the demon into it.  The halfling tossed me his sling with some silver stones and I attempted to fire some at it. 

The party was attempting to escape, yet the cleric and the curious dwarf kept at the demon trying to take it down.  The courage of the dwarf knows no limits.  I believe he is courageous, although I question his intellect on occasion.

The halfing cried out to his God and held up a silver tankard, charging the demon he bonked it over the head multiple times and then swiftly ran away.  The demon died in a huge rush of greenish liquid.  Unfortunately I was standing in the door way when the wave of acidic crap flowed out of the body.

My shield, plate mail melted away, and worse yet, my mace named spear melted into a puddle of goo.

We made a hasty escape, the rest of the party banged up but alive.  At least they still have armour, I am hesitant even to walk back to town in underwear.

Unfortunately the two people we fought were also drowned in the acid, all of their armour and any clues were lost.

I may try and find some kind of menial job so that I can buy some new armour.  I haven't decided yet.  I know the party managed to find some silver pieces.....

It seems that I am stuck with this lot in life, I cannot go back to scorn as I'm a wanted man, I have no money for armour or weapons, I will have to wait to find a hireling to help me.

I did forget to mention, I said a prayer for Kaylim, the dwarves torch bearer.  He died a courageous death.

Alas, it is now time to sleep.


Don't forget to check out our GMs website. https://www.gothridgemanor.com

Black Hack "the old school" session part 2

Alright so I think I sorted lost track on how many sessions we have had.  I believe the Gonzo session with Matt was 2 - 3 sessions.  And now the more old school vibe session has been at least 2.  Unfortunately I don't completely remember everything that happened in session 1, but I'll try my best here.  More of this will be session 2 (at least the action bits).

First and foremost it was a fucking blast! It's really nice to game again, and on a regular basis.  As well the black hack is a very easy system for me to grasp (I'm not a fan of getting bogged dow with mechanics).

Colin, Alex, Steve, and Vance all joined in (and I f I missed someone I'm very sorry).  We had a good core group of classes, with basically one of each.  My silly thief Jax Whindlehen (who is a carry over from the gonzo session) is impetuses at the very least.  Unlike a typical old school thief, he likes to see what things do.  He doesn't always sneak into a room, if there's a button he will push it, if there's a door he'll open it.  It's just him.  Which of course makes for the cleric (thanks Vance!) having to save his ass on a regular basis.

So we get to the mountains and this northern village which has been under the icy thumb of a snow queen.  (cue the frozen jokes).  The feel of the game is very "north of the wall", with wildling types etc.   We basically found out that we need to stop the snow queen.  And off we go to the lair!

Once we got in the dungeon, we found a bunch of tunnels, and tombs.  I managed to find quite a bit of gold (that always makes a thief happy!).  One of the tombs had some undead, and thankfully the cleric managed to banish them fairly quickly.  I can't quite remember what his god was, but it was entertaining (I think it was a random roll in the back of the book). 

We got into this room that had a waterfall and a drain below us, which was odd.  But we kept moving.  Finally we made it to this room where there were 6 wildling types arguing.  I believe Matt expected us to straight up fight.  But in the last game, instead of negotiating when we were supposed to, we fought.  So this time I decided I'd attempt to negotiate.  I stepped into the room that had some Iron doors open and basically said "Ola me amigos!"  Which threw them for a loop.  One of them was chipping away at some ice (looks like there was something behind it). 

After a successful charisma check, they sorta seemed to be cool with us.  Although they were pushing me a little bit.  I side stepped and went down a hall way.  The rest of the hero's didn't know what was happening with me, and went into the room.  All of a sudden this huge 14 foot tall twig golem burst out of the ice and a fight ensued.  There was a pile of rubble around the room, and at one point I had to haul people over it into the tunnel.  The widlings followed.... err ran right past me! hahaha.  Prior to this one of the ladies had grabbed what appeared to be a cloak that was embedded in the ice. 

We made it down a hall way, with the monster sufficiently trapped (the hallways were too short for him to get thru!).  We get into this room that's basically a giant hockey rink of ice with these hug icebergs.  After a few successful tests we moved one of the icebergs blocking our way, only to find another.  This process kept going until a major fail happened.  Colin (Jin) and I fell thru the ice and down into the drain waterfall area.  I got knocked right out.  the other's managed to get thru. 

After a bit of time passed, I was awoken to Jin screaming at me to get up.  Damn it we have to go back and take on that golem.  A bunch of the wildlings fell down with us, and a few died.  The rest we made a deal with to fight the golem. I grabbed the magical cloak from the dead lady and moved on.  It appears to basically keep me super warm! wooo. I hazard to guess this will help us.

We go back, beat the crap outta the golem with a few successful rolls and then meet up with everyone at a rope bridge.  As we cross (I went first I believe) ghosts of peasants started filling the chamber around the bridge.  It was very much an indiana jones bridge over a huge deep dark hole.  The cleric thankfully banished enough of them to get us across the bridge without any casualties.

And that my friends is where we left off.  Not too bad for 3 hours of play.

Can't wait for the next game.

Dancing over fireball - 5e toa session report

Had a wildly entertaining session last night. It had combat, a bit of roleplaying (thank the God's) and lots of exploration and puzzles.  I suppose this is why people like delving into dungeons right?

The previous session was all combat which I found quite boring.  Part of it is because of the heavy math in 5e.

Anyways , my thief got into a variety of old school trouble. (at one point it was mentioned that I was playing like it was first edition), considering everyone else is overly cautious about their characters.

I went into a room that was magnetized, realized that and left my bag of goodies in a hall. Went into the room and all the metal studs popped out of my armour. Whoops! Wearing clothes for the rest of the game. At least I have a stylish hood.

Went into a tunnel that was a mouth of a large skull. Found a coffin and some weird flaming skull  which claimed it was a little girl trapped.  Rped a bit, told it to calm its shit.

Got into a fight, found a weird staff. Oh I got possessed! Awesome. Honestly.. Awesome.

During the fight the blast lock (warlock, sorcerer, cleric) blasted a fireball into the room, while I was standing on the coffin. I saved, no problem.

The skull returned fire (fireball). I saved again! Lol

After the fight we did some more exploration, found a weird pool of water. (in search of the Unknown?). I think I drank from it.

Found three treasure chests. I got in them, turned the keys inside, lost all my weapons from magnetism (great success!)

Prior to that I opened a unopenable chest.  In the end I believe we rolled for init, verge of a fight. Then called it.

Here's the DMs report. 
Before our heroes are able to complete their long rest, the secret door that Nic had found sides open, and two lumbering hulks clad in plate armour burst into the room, waking everybody except Ranion and Ebon up. The party quickly discovers that nonmagical weaponry has no effect on it. Shaun and Maim take point, with Shaun only able to dodge attacks, as his aren't effective. Maim has Ranion's magic mace, and is able to do some good damage against the enemy. The rest of the party peppers them with spells, and they are able to take them down rather expeditiously.

The party finishes their long rest, and explores the room to the north. In the room along the western wall is a statue of a knight with a shield. Maim and Nic feel pulled towards the statue; all metal objects seem to get attracted towards the shield. Maim tries to hit the statue with her sword, only to have her sword crumble to a pile of rust. Nic flies through the air towards the shield, whereupon his studded leather armour disintegrates as soon as it touches it. Ebon is able to dispel the magic of the shield, seemingly turning it off.

They keep exploring to the north, to find a fountain. Ebon fills a jug with water from the fountain.

They also explore the river south of where they rested, and find a treasure chest filled with gold,a jug, and a scroll.

As they continue to explore the first level, they find a grand staircase leading down, and a pale dwarf wearing a mask resembling the head from the tomb entrance looks back up to them. As they argue what to do, the dwarf makes his escape to another area of the tomb.

Also in the grand staircase, they find a pile of bones, which animates and tries to run away when Ebon starts jostling it about using mage hand. Ebon lands a critical hit on an Eldritch Blast, blowing the skeleton completely apart.

Continuing to the east, the party finds a giant skull carving, with a room with a sarcophagus on the other side.

Nic and Ranion decide to go through its mouth. And Nic hears a panicked child's voice in his head, asking why it can't see and how it got there.

As Nic tries to brush off the voice, it seems to take offense, and attacks.

Ranion is able to turn it, however as Maim tries to rush in and join the fray, the jaws of the skull outside clamp down on her and she finds herself stuck.

Swarms of spiders flood into the room, and attack Nic and Ranion.

Ebon sees the spiders, and decides to throw a fireball into the centre of the room, killing off most of the swarms, and roasting most of his friends. Nic dances around the flames and avoids taking any damage.

The flying skull decides to throw a fireball of her own, and most of the party decides to get out of Dodge, leaving Nic hidden in the middle of the room.

After a few more brief rounds of fighting, the skull finally succumbs to overwhelming damage from Ranion's mace.

The party searches the room, and Nic finds a wooden staff with a serpent carved on it. He looks shocked for a moment when he picks it up, before handing it to Ebon.

The party continues North from the hallway that brought them to this room, where they are encountered with a long hallway - where Nic observes that the entire floor is a big pressure plate. Down the hallway from where they are is a large propeller made of adamantite.

Ebon walks across the walls, and sticks his immovable rod in between the blades of the propellor and activates the trap, but the blades of the propellor cannot move the rod, making it so that everybody is able to pass safely through the hallway.

At the end of the hallway they find a pit, a sarcophagus and three chests. One made of black onyx, one of rusty metal, and a third made of silver with a sheen of frost on it.

The chests all have keys in the kids, however the keys are unable to be turned while the chests are opened.

Nic goes into the rusty metal chest and turns the key. A button appears on top of the sarcophagus, and Ranion pushes it. Everything metal Nic has on him that isn't magical crumbles to rust, leaving him without any weapons, and most of his gear.

Nic decides to try the silver chest next. Once Ranion pushes the button Nic takes a blast of cold air, and suffers a lot of cold damage.

Maim decides to get in the third chest, however Ranion refuses to push the button. Ebon steps up the the plate and pushes the button. Maim has a sense of impending doom, however she suffers no physical effects.

As soon as the third button is pushed the sarcophagus turns to clear crystal, revealing a mummified su-monster clutching a frightful mace.

With no clear way to open the sarcophagus, Maim smashes it with her mace.

As soon as the crystal is shattered, the mummified su-monster rises up and attacks...

Saturday night nerding

Caution possible Tomb Of Annihilation spoilers. 

After a six month (or what seemed like it) hiatus I jumped back in with the 5e group.  They have been playing thru "Tomb Of Annihilation" and are now at level 9.  Rather than play my original character (who was only leveled up to 4th) I decided to just print off a pre gen.  From the original group of adventurers only one was left.  As we had one new player that evening, the DM took both of us aside to try and figure out how we would meet up with the group in the Forbidden City (it's ormu or whatever, but it's the forbidden city only titled).  I came up with the concept that we had left the port city around the same time and were slowly following the group of intrepid adventurers.  Hoping to meet up with them.  However there was a LOT of complications and we only finally caught up with them inside the city.  I stepped out of the bushes to say HI! and was blasted by the warlock with eldritch blast (I hate that damn spell).

We ended up doing a bit of exploring of a amphitheater, apparently looking for a place to take these weird square stones (honestly I don't know what is going on in the game, I've been following the play reports, but if your not there it really makes no sense). 

As is typical with fifth ed,  we got into a large fight (with some smaller dinosaurs).  During the combat (which basically lasted most of the session) we started hearing THUNKS coming from the jungle. 

CUE every Jurassic Park joke you can think of.

And on CUE after a few rounds of combat with the smaller dinosaurs, a very large hungry T-Rex came out of the bushes.  (Because challenge ratings).

My character (a rogue) decided to bum rush the T Rex, because after all I'm just AC and HP on a piece of paper. 

A few of the others stayed back, covering themselves with dung (this was happening when the first set of dinos showed up).  They did however finally get into the melee, but at that point we had almost decimated the t rex.  Seriously whilst I bitch up about eldritch blast, the sneak attack feature is friggin deadly.

Anyways, we killed the thing, did a bit more exploring, then found this weirdo tomb.  A bit of a puzzle.  Which none of us were awake enough to figure out.  Bunch of statues, apparently they looked like the stones we were carrying around (ancient evil gods).

I then did some investigating, found a secret door and a necklace, put it on.  Which then lead me to the correct place to put the stones.  (another entrance).  Which was a bit of hand waving by the DM but that's fine as we were all quite tired at this point.

As a personal note, I'm unsure as to whether the DM is getting bored with the campaign, or burned out.  It feels like he's trying to push it thru a bit.  I really hope that, that is not the case.  As well I hope that we aren't handwaved another level next time (for challenge levels), I like the idea of growing into a character and it's skills.  Whatever the case, it's gaming and it's fun. 

Part of the problem I feel is the following:
1.  This group owns/collects all of the WOTC sanctioned material.

2.  All of these adventures are made (for the most part) to be campaigns that take you from level 1 - 20

3.  Playing these campaigns on a weekly basis would get you thru them a lot quicker.  (we meet every three weeks).

4.  People have the new BRIGHT and shiny module and they get excited about playing that one, which makes people want to fast forward the current module.

All of this would be thrown out the window if I was running a game, as I'd want to do a sandbox, home brew thing.  That said I don't really want to DM 5e for awhile.  However after having picked up a copy of Greyhawk, and playing a game on the weekend I got a LOT of inspiration.  That's another post, I've got a lot of ideas rolling around my head.

The game is built from the top down to have big fights

Combat has always been a big part of D&D, going back to the beginning of the game.  In the fifth edition DMG it talks about how to tailor your game to your players, combat, puzzles, role playing etc.  The system is really setup to be about killing monsters.  Because you only get XP for that.  I mean you can get for other things, but it's not like older games where you can get XP for treasure as well. 

On the weekend I played TOA (fifth edition), during our four hour session we were in combat for 3.5 hours.  The same combat.  There was four of us in the party against a herd of lizard like men riding mounts (6 baddies in total).  The game went from DnD to basically a mini's game.  All of the players were using the flanking rules, the added advantage if one of the other players was within five feet of you, etc.  Now I've ran combat as a DM before, in fifth and in a LOT of old school games.  We all know that old school combat for the most part is quick and deadly.  As a DM I enjoy combat.  As a fifth edition player, I do not.  During this fight, it took so long for each turn to complete (did you know they did away with rounds?) that I went for a few smoke breaks in between my turn.  When the fight started I thought to myself "All right I'll go out for a smoke when this is done".  Forty five minutes later, I just got up after my turn and went outside. 

As far as the story goes, we didn't accomplish anything.  We walked away from some huts and a dead old lady that the party had killed.  Made our way west, ran into some monsters that we evaded and then ran into the lizardmen dudes. 

The rest of the players LOVED the combat.  Like love loved the combat.  They were so into it.  When the DM asked afterwards how he did, everyone praised the evening. 

When I got home, I was honestly a bit downhearted, and it's not fault of anyone.  The few things running thru my head were. 

a)  We were at fourth level and it took that long.  I can't imagine what it will be like at higher levels, with feats etc.  The "big bad" fight is going to take hours.  (because there's always a big bad in wotc modules).

b)  I decided that my thief is just not the kind of character I want to play if we are going to be having fights like this.  My back up character is basically meat with a greatsword.  I mean if this is the new paradigm, than I might as well be swinging a big sword that does 2d6+4 right?

c)  I don't know if I honestly want to DM a game for this group.  For a variety of reasons.  Mostly my style. 

Obviously the mini's were needed to make the combat run smooth.  I'm a big fan of theatre of the mind and tend to run most games like that.  However in circumstances like this, I would have probably pulled out minis as well, just for the ease of figuring out who hit what, and who is attacking who.

For the most part the whole situation comes down to DMing style, and how you run combat.  I dunno if I could have made it faster if I was running it.  I think it would have still dragged out a bit.  There's obviously ways to get things to move a bit quicker.  Group initiative for example.  But whatever.

Having had a brief discussion with a few friends on gee plus, we came to the conclusion that:

1.  The fight is really the centre piece of the game

2.  If you in the mood for a fight that's great, but sometimes it blows goats.

3.  The game is built from the top down to have big fights.

4.  There are far more complicated systems for war gaming than fifth edition, and if we are going to war game, well there's other options.  From what I gather games like 3e, pathfinder etc were all combat heavy and took for friggin ever.

5.  While there's a ton of information on the net to run 5e a bit more old school, it really depends on what your players want out of the game.

It honestly didn't feel like my D&D.

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Spoilers if you are playing Tomb Of Annihilation: 
Yesterday was our fourth session.  I played in the first session and missed sessions 2, and 3.  Here's the catchup in case you are interested.

Session 2: 

The party made their way down the River Shoshenstar, along with their companions, Azaka, Xandala and Eshek.

Making their way along the river, they encounter a few people who look like lobsters, who tell them to leave their area, to which the party high tails it out of there, and some hungry schools of fish, of which they are able to catch a few to eat.

Continuing their way along the river, they come upon a deserted camp, with evidence of a major battle having taken place there, and a large statue with a crocodile on top of a man. The only living thing in sight is a large bird with a head that looks like a hatchet frantically running around a pen. Ren casts Speak with Animals on herself, and finds out that the bird got itself trapped in the pen. She also finds out that there are wood people around to the north. She opens the pen and lets the bird out, and it quickly takes off into the woods.

Continuing to explore the camp, Ren investigates the latrines. Inside one of the latrines, they find a corpse that has been dead a few days. Tankard and Ren lower Dain down into the latrine by the ankles, and he ties a rope around the corpse's neck. They manage to pull the corpse out without decapitating him, and find a warhammer, ruined scale male armour, and a pouch containing a handful of gemstones.

Tankard explores a burned down shrine, and finds a holy symbol in the shape of a Silver Gauntlet, which Ren identifies as being a symbol of Torm.

The rest of the camp seemed to contain nothing of interest, so the party decides to explore the statue, which has a large tunnel between the man's feet. The tunnel is laden wit traps, which seem to be magically disarmed when one member of the party rides the other member of the party's shoulders. Travelling along the tunnel, bypassing all the traps by riding on each other's shoulders, they come to a ledge, which they go over leading to a tiled grid, another ledge, and a door at the end of it - the door having a similar pattern to the tiled grid on the floor - with certain tiles being lit up on the door.

The party figures out that they need to step on the tile corresponding to the lit up tile on the door. Climbing up the second ledge, they quickly discover a glyph of warding on the door with a natural 20 on an investigation check. They figure out that how they need to press the button - riding on each other's shoulders, bottom person presses the first two buttons, top person presses the other two buttons.

The door swings inward to reveal a room filled with dinosaur bones, and a spiral staircase with a jug at the pinnacle of the staircase. Continuing the trend of riding piggyback, Ren and Keldren ascend the staircase to retreive the jug. Ren identifies it as being an Alchemy Jug.

Making their way out of the temple the same way they came in, the party finds themselves face to face with the wood people, a tribe of goblin like creatures wearing wooden masks.

After a quick battle, the party dispatches the goblins, but not before one blows his horn. The party reaches their boats in time to see zombies and skeletons crashing out of the bushes.

Making their way down the river again, the party sees a man on the riverbank - Artus Cimber, and Xandala's boat starts traveling towards him. The party shouts out to him, saying they've helped his daughter find him. Artus doesn't recognise Xandala. As she gets closer she starts casting a spell. His face kind of blanks over as her boat reaches him, she has a short conversation with him out of the party's earshot, he hands her something, and then she flys away.

Once she is gone, Artus comes to, and discovers that he gave her the Ring of Winter - which he reveals is what's kept him looking ageless. He says the ring is very powerful, but won't go into detail what other power the ring has. Artus' travelling companion - Dragonbait - crashes out of the bushes shortly after.

Artus and Dragonbait join the party, in the hopes of tracking Xandala down and regaining the ring.

As the party further travels down the river, they come to another encampment, which has piles of dead human bodies around it, and beasts which have had the skin flayed from them, which is where we left off.

Session 3: 

The party made their way to Camp Vengeance. After a short exchange with the gate guards, they go to meet Captain Breakbone in the command tent. After learning they have arrived by boat, he demands they take sick soldiers and messages back down the river to Port Nyanzaru.

The party refuses to comply, and Captain Breakbone tries to place the party under arrest. Dain takes offense to being arrested under false pretenses, and punches the captain in the nose.

The guards in the room surround the party, and quickly surround the party and get some quick blows in. Tankard succesfully talks everybody down, and tells the captain that while they can't make their way back up the river, they can certainly heal the sick and cure disease, and Ren can send animal messengers to Port Nyanzaru to get all the messages out.

It takes a few days to heal all of the sick people in camp - there are a lot of them - and while Tankard is healing them, he receives a mental message from Syndra Silvane, telling him that she's dying and reminds him that time is of the essence.

While the party is getting ready to leave, a couple of dinosaurs that look like allosaurs and some large birds with beaks that bear a striking resemblance to a battleaxe attack the camp. While Ren and Tankard decide to fight from the wall for a few rounds, Dain decides to tackle the problem head on, so he decides to jump from the top of the palisade on to the head of the large dinosaur. He manages to make the leap, and effortlessly sticks the landing.

Fighting from the ground and being the focus of all the dinosaurs rage, Dain goes down a couple of times, and is brought back up with healing spells from Ren and Tankard.

Ren decisdes to help Dainf rom the ground - in bear form - while Tankard *tries* to assist with his crossbow from the palisade, with all of his bolts firing straight and true directly into the ground.

As the birds join melee, the dinsours start picking them off as an easy meal, and the party manages to take down both dinsoaurs shortly after.

From the outpost, the party decides to continue to M'bala on foot, leaving the boats at Camp Vengeance.

After a few days march overland through the jungle, the party happens upon a large snail with a beautiful multicolored shell, up in the distance plodding along very slowly.

Ren decides to go investiage the snail. As she gets close, a blinding flash of light emits from its shell, and it beings to wallop Ren with what seem to be tentacles. As the party joins the fray, As the snail takes damage, its tentacles seem to fall off, shrivel up and die. After its last tentacle falls off, it retreats into its shell, and emits a horrible wailing noise. The party quickly finishes off the snail, and nature is sad with Ren.

The shell, while quite large and cumbersome - weighing about 250 pounds, appears to be of some value (about 2500 gp), so the party hauls it with them.

Our heroes finally make their way to M'bala, a large plateau on a desolate, rocky plain. There is a path that winds its way up the side of the plateau, but it seems to be abandoned, littered with rocks, and overgrown. The party decides to make their way up the path, clearing it along the way, hauling the shell the whole way hoping to unload it in the settlement.

At the top of the path, the gate is rusted to the point of obliteration, and there are piles of bleached human skulls are lying around. The party decides to hide the shell inside the gates. Once they make their way inside, they notice a small hut with a small figure plodding around. It notices them, and the figure turns out to be an ancient woman who appears to be blind. Ren cures her blindness out of a show of good faith.

The woman recalls that the villagers used to call her Nanny Pupu, and that there is a nest of flying lizard people that ate the rest of the villagers. She asks that the party go dispatch the rest of the lizard folk.

After exploring the plateau and finding nothing else of interest - the only real feature being a deep cistern filled with black scummy water - the party decides to tell the old woman they killed the lizard folk, without actually doing so.

A botched deception roll later, Nanny Pupu attacks the party, calling forth a flesh golem from the ground to assist her. A very difficult battle later, with Tankard and Dain going down a few times, and a retreat not seeming to be an option - Nanny Pupu wants the party dead - the party emerges victorious.

Our heroes will decide next session where they are going - are they going to continue west to Orolunga, or are they going to go in a different direction?

Session 4: 

After regrouping themselves after a pretty tough battle with Nanny Pupu, turning up a few gemstones and a spell scroll, our heroes decide to keep venturing West. First they meet a few muddy creatures that they don't understand. They keep walking, and the creatures don't seem to follow them.

As they continue through the barren, desolate wasteland of a landscape, they notice 6 amphibious looking red creatures riding some birdlike/lizardlike things charging them.

A very difficult battle ensues, with one of the newt-like humanoids chucking spells at them. Unfortunately, our heroes are overwhelmed by these creatures. Instead of killing them outright though, the heroes are knocked unconscious and taken prisoner.

As the come to, all tied together on the back on one of the birdlike lizards (or is it lizardlike birds?), Wren and Tankard overhear their captors talking about eating them. Wren quickly turns into a rat, and chews through everybody's bonds. Azalea tries to stealthily escape, but catches her cuff on the back of the creature they're being hauled on. Their captors take notice, and tie Azalea up again, and Wren chews through Azalea's bonds - again. Wren discovers that her alchemy jug is missing.

Wren casts Pass Without a Trace, and the party slips away into the night.

The party decides to follow their captors for a while until their captors set up camp, and fall asleep. Nobody stands watch, so the captors quickly kill all of their captors, as well as all of their mounts. Wren does try to have a conversation with one of the mounts but it doesn't seem to understand anything she tries to say, but the rest of the party slaughters it shortly thereafter

Wren recovers her alchemy jug, and the party manages to find a spell scroll, a potion, some nice armour, and a strange rod amongst the effects of their captors.

The rest of the journey westward through the jungle is mostly uneventful, and the party eventually finds themselves in front of a crumbling ziggurat.

tomb of annihilation - Session 1

Caution may include some spoilers.

Our new-ish group of 5e players got together yesterday to play TOA.  The group is comprised of 3 players from the previous 5e group and 3 new players.  Everyone has a lot of experience playing fifth edition, and have read the rules backwards and forwards.  I can't quite remember all of the classes and races we had but I"ll try my best.  It was the first session, I find it difficult to remember everyones names as well.  We have 2 dwarves, one of which is a monk, a dragonborn paladin (who is quite evil), a human druid and myself a human thief (who was previously a pirate).

I have to admit, I think I've found the class that I really like playing.  Just a basic straight up thief (rogue), I'm using the basic D&D rules, not the PHB options for the thief.  I did however use the pirate background, just cuz it worked for me. I normally like playing these type of characters in skyrim, so it seemed like a logical choice to do so playing tabletop.  I decided upon Chaotic Neutral, however I think that I'll have to switch to chaotic evil after this session! 

So as per usual we meet in a tavern.  There was some discussion prior to the start of the game, the DM (Adam) asks us where we met, no one really took the bait right away so I  said "we all met in a tavern ba da ching!".  Turns out we met in the ba da ching tavern in baldurs gate.

Alright, so we meet up with this mysterious corpse of a woman, who has apparently died and been resurrected, and is now dying again.  She "used to be an adventurer like us".  (cue a bunch of dumb jokes).  Anyways, her name is Cindra and she needs us to find this gem to help stop this curse/plague been killing people.  My rogue who doesn't quite care was all like "people die everyday", meanwhile the druid seems genuinely concerned for peoples lives. 

I had read that its best to say YES to things when playing D&D to keep the game moving, so that's my new plan, I'm going to be a YES Woman (my PC is a female).  So of course we said yes to the old hag, but not before I asked about gold!  Apparently we are going to get and I quote "rare or uncommon magic items".  Whatever its a quest!  Onward.

I suggested to the party that we get some trade goods before we leave, that way if the place we are going to needs some stuff, we could make a bit of extra coin.

That was disregarded and we were teleport-ed to Port Nanzaru in Chult the very next day.

We find ourselves in the City and start doing a bit of gearing up at the local marketplace.  We are supposed to meet up with the hag later, she is staying with one of the merchant princes (I'm going to call him Wakanda).  We all make it to the red bazaar (one of 3 marketplaces in the city). 

After a bit of buying things, we walk away with some good road items.  I attempted to steal some bug repellent, but the scheme went a bit off, and I dropped it.  The timing wasn't right, and the druid was not helpful hahaha.  One of the dwarves bought some dinosaur meat and decide to attempted to make jerky. 

There are 2 taverns to choose from, some of the players opted for the cheaper rooms, the rest of us spent the gold on a good evening.

The next day we get up to go and see Cindra (hag), as well we have plans to hire a guide.  On the way to Cindras we are met with a guy who needs a debt settled.  3 of us decide to go and figure this out.  The Dwarf and the Druid decide against helping us.

We wander over to a different marketplace to go and shake this guy down for some gold.  When we get there we spot him, but the guy that hired us mysteriously disappears!  We get into a fight, I sneak around trying to hit him with a few arrows.  After a bit of a melee, one of the players talks the guy down and we all go for a drink (it was a lucky deception roll).  The guy Tabin gets hammered at the Inn (day drunk), the dwarf puts him to bed, I sneak up and steal all his gems.  8 in total, I only tell the party about 7, and put one in my boot.

We never find the guy that hired us.  While this side trek is going on, the other 2 players basically lazed around the Inn getting massages, drinking margaritas, etc.

Its got fairly late in the day, so we decide to head off to the tavern across the street and interview some of the possible guides.  The dwarf monk (who might be a racist) wants to only hire a dwarf because beards.  Cue long bit about beards, and their manliness, etc.  Very silly.

Most of the guides have some random quest they need fulfilled, the rest are all really expensive and all seem to be in league with one of the merchant princes who run the city (Jabal).  Luckily we can afford any of them, because I stole a bunch of jewels.

After much debate, we decide we need to talk to Cindra and Wakanada before actually getting a guide. 

We get a bit more intel, decide to hire Azara (who needs a quest fulfilled).  As well we meet a bunch of random NPCs that need side quests fulfilled.  Including one girl whose dad went missing.  Apparently he was with a lizard dude.  The party has got a bit bigger now, we have the guide, the girl whose dad is missing, and I think some other person.  The guide tells us that if we had canoes we would make good time.  Off to the canoe store! Thankfully I have some gems.  We purchase two canoes, and are about to leave town, when two things happen.  One random NPC comes up and gives us another quest! and the big dude from the market shows up and he's pissed cuz we robbed him.  We fight him off and make a deal to pay him back double what was apparently stolen. 

As we are leaving town the dwarf monk is joking about the side quests, and if any other random citizens are going to  come out of the wood work.

And so ends the session.  I think we got a lot done for four hours or so.

Note:  This campaign definitely has waves of Isle of Dread, not an exact copy but there are some similaritys.

Curse Of Strahd - Session 9 - BBQ Goat

We reconvened in Barovia yesterday.  It was a lot of fun.  I can`t quite believe we are on session 9 already.  I`m going to have to start working on some ideas for a campaign or a one shot very soon.  I`m guessing we will have Strahd wrapped up by summer.  Just a note we play once every 3 weeks or so.

When we left off we were in the basement of the winery, after having just finished murdering a large tree thing.  We found 3 holes the size of fists in the ground near the tree.  After a bit of checking around for gem stones that might fit into the holes, and just random searching we decided to up and leave the winery.

And Viola! guess who`s standing outside happy as you please.  God damn Von Richten.  I swear this guy is Gilderoy Lockhart, always taking the credit, but never there for the action.  This time around though he actually gave us the credit.  I was amazed.

We have a discussion with the martikovs who own the winery, and they need to get back the gems as they help with the wine process.  After a bit of haggling, apparently we will be paid in wine.  Woot.

By the sound of it Baba o``riley (lasaga, lasanga, whatever her damn name is) has the gems.  So we go off for a wander looking for the witch.

Come across a stream.  My cleric just jumps in and swims across.  The dwarf fighter tosses the gnome across the river.  And the thief swims along beside me.  We leave Gilderoy with the wagon filled with wine on the other side of the bank (after we beat up the witch we are going to go and drop off the booze in Valaki).

On the other side of the river we meet up with another martikov who is scared shitless.  We talk to her and she tells us all about the Baba`s camp, the protection, etc.  She knows way too much.... whatever.

So we find the camp of the Baba`O`Riley.  From the bushes we sort of scout the whole thing.  It`s decided that me and the dwarf are going to create a distraction.  The thief & the gnome will be invisible and will sneak into her house (which is apparently a monster) and try and knife her in the back.

And splitting the party.

The dwarf and I find this goat pen, its behind 7 foot tall fences.  There are skulls lining the top of the fence.  he gives me a boost, up and over I`m in the pen.  I throw a rope over and now we are both in the pen.  Looks like there are 9 rather normal looking goats in the pen.  The dwarf decides to lit them on fire!  So now there are 9 on FIRE! goats.  in a small pen.  Egad we are intelligent.

After some thought, I remember the dwarf has a decanter of endless water, so I suggest before we get burnt to a crisp, that we in fact douse the now BBQ`d goats.  At this point we decide to have a bit of a feast.

Cut to the gnome & the thief.  They sneak into the monster hut, notice some ravens outside in cages.  Once inside the thief does a sneak attack, rolls a crit and double damage.  The Baba will never make perogies again.  One hit is all it took to utterly destroy her.  Somewhat disappointing ending.  But team work was cool.  While the 2 of them are searching the lair, us 2 idiots (cleric & dwarf) finally set off the skull alarms.

BEEDO BEEDO BEEDO BEEDO!

And they sort of hear it from the hut.  The gnome finds a ring that controls the hut, releases the ravens who kill off any scarecrows in the vicinity.  We are finally let out of the pen, and hand out nicely bbq`d goat to everyone.

We all get in the monster hut thing and start making our way back to the winery.  During the night, the thief decides to steal the ring from the gnome.  Seriously those 2 are at each others throats the whole time.

Next morning the Gnome wakes up, notices the ring is gone.  I honestly thought he was going to fireball her.  He decides to cast an illusion on her that she has no hands.  She literally screams at the top of her lungs.  They jabber back and forth for awhile.

I get up to relieve myself, while doing so I come up with a plan.

Get back to the table, and they are still arguing.  I cast silence on both of them, and dispel magic on the thief so she has hands again.  The dwarf gives me a high five and we go off to the winery.

The thief (who doesn`t play the game that often) wasn`t sure how long silence would work, so she basically shut up for like a half hour.

We drop off the gems to the winery, they give the thief this nice bottle of 1000 year old wine.  She makes peace with the gnome and gives it to him.  He`s still peeved.  Afterwards we head off to Valak to deliver the wine.  I can`t wait to see what festival is happening this week.

Oh we met a old martikov who is going to help us, he buggered off to scout strahds castle.

that was fun.

I've been quiet lately.  My brain has been filled with guitars, and not D&D.  I managed to finally quit smoking, and I think its going to stick this time.  Every time I quit I start looking at guitars I can't afford because I smoke. So my brain has been filled with that instead of D&D, I'm guessing it'll start receding and going back to RPG things.  

Session 8 - Ransacking the warehouse - Curse Of Strahd

Caution may contain some spoilers.

Yesterday was a helluva a lot of fun, we managed to role play, fight monsters and explore!  All of the things that make up a typical D&D session.  None of them being too much, which is always good.

When last we left off we had just polished off a bunch of twig blights and holed ourselves up in the warehouse of the winery.

As per usual Von Richten (or whatever aka he goes by) buggered off, leaving us to our own devices.  

We explored the basement of the winery, finding not a lot of interest, other than some rather creepy ravens, and vats of wine.  One of our players decided to fill himself a few bottles of wine for later.  (malltov cocktail).  During the exploration our thief had the hardest time trying to open any type of chest, door etc.  At one point one of us said out loud "you are by far the worst thief I've ever heard of!'  To which the thief replied "yes but you have heard of me!"

At one point while checking out a rather large room, we heard footsteps coming towards us.  Our wizard Nym cast fake fire illusion, and the bad guy failed his save and buggered off.

After a bunch of exploring and splitting the party, Nym encountered a druid and charmed him.  The other 2 players found a bedroom with a secret door.  Nym brought the druid to the bedroom, and we decided to kill him.  Nice thing was the druid and Nym both had these strange twig blight wands, once they were destroyed no more twig blights! woot.

My character tends to have A.D.D. and wander off and fiddle with things.  At one point I was fidgeting with a spigot on the wine vat in the hopes of possibly breaking it and filling the room with wine.

We decided to camp in the bedroom for the night and barricaded ourselves in.  The next morning we woke up and found Von Richten dead on our doorstep.  Being murderhobos we looted his corpse.  During that looting we found a raise dead spell.  My Cleric just barely raised him from the dead.  (Most of the day my dice rolling was exceptionally mediocre, thankfully I made this one, barely.  The green dice pictured above rolled really well last session, but not this one. )

Another extremely funny thing I just remembered.  And I'm not even sure what the specific chances of this happening are, but we had to all roll initiative at one point, and all of us rolled a 9 with modifiers.  3 of the 4 of us rolled 7's and had mods, one of us rolled a 6 with mods.  and the DM rolled a 19, which is also midly strange.  Anyways, if someone wants to do the math go right ahead.

Alright so Von Richten is alive and well, and wants all of his stuff back.  We are sad haha.

A few more hours of exploration and we find ourselves in the basement.  Getting ourselves into the basement was rather odd.  My character just decided to wander down their first as he tends to wander.  Our thief wanted to ride a barrel of wine down the stairs yelling YEE HAW!  and the rest followed behind.

And there is a very large pissed off tree with green eyes.  A fight ensues.  While we all wanted to fireball the beejeebus out of this tree, that idea seemed like a bad plan.  Since we are supposed to be saving the winery and not burning it to the ground.

We did however light off a few malltov cocktails at the tree, once we remembered that our fighter had a decanter of infinite water, which we could use to douse the tree after it died.

The rather scary looking huge tree finally met its maker, we found 3 holes in the basement floor. and so ended the session.

Apparently we level up next time.

And as a side note, my cleric has become somewhat boring to play, and I'm hoping he gets killed off soon.  I'd like to play a paladin samurai in barovia at some point haha.