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  1. - Top - End - #1
    Orc in the Playground
     
    AssassinGuy

    Join Date
    Nov 2014

    Default D&D 3.5 Original Campaign

    Hi, this is a campaign journal about a 3.5 campaign I started a while back. The setting is an original one of my making and the party is a mix of experienced, new, and still relatively new players. I hope everyone reading enjoys. If you have any questions, please ask them, but if you think you're going to discuss anything spoilery, please send me a PM, so as to not reveal anything too early to my players who might read this thread.

    Spoiler: Party Composition
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    - Jorvaskyr: A dwarf ‘Muscle Wizard’. A brawny individual focused on fighting to the exception of most other things. Very competitive young dwarf (62). Adventured alongside his two brothers before this having left their abusive home together in search of adventure, but the other two gave up the lifestyle after encountering severe danger on their journey.
    - Verge: Dwarven knight from Grandelia. A skilled, if aged warrior (299), he helped fight in many of the wars around Grandelia’s formation. He left the blade behind for a few years, but has felt the call to adventure once more.
    - Zoe: Silverbrow human bard. She’s a young girl (14) that’s had to leave her home and flee under circumstances she’d rather not divulge. She’s used her natural musical talents to earn her living as she travelled, picking up some other skills like archery along the way thanks to the kindness of strangers.
    - Zaffrin: A human gifted with Psionic power in a world that shuns those like him. An orphan that’s faced tragedy at every turn of his life, he’s become bitter and prone to drinking even as a spark within him still wants to do good where he can. Has a bitter and long rivalry with a pirate captain that’s plagued him over the years (30).
    - Westin: A human from the desert of Leaverin, practiced martial artist and practitioner of the sublime way. He’s a former vigilante that left his home after losing his friends to treachery. He studied with his master to improve his martial techniques, but lost his left arm in a terrible accident. He left to go on his own way as he tries to deal with the darkness within him (24).
    - Aerin: Half-orc druid born in the east of Laeverin. Aerin is still a naïve, optimistic, young man (16) looking to find out more about the world but also recognizing that there is negativity and conflict between people as well. Wants to end racism and bring about peace and understanding.
    - Lady Mistsplitter: A human barbarian. This young girl (14) lost her parents to mysterious circumstances and then her uncle that raised her afterwards. With no one else to turn to she learned from the wilderness and has grown skilled at surviving there, drawing on her anger and desperation to grant her strength to conquer even the fiercest predators that have attacked her or others. (She doesn't join for the first couple of session due to the player not being able to make it)


    Spoiler: Setting
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    The party is on the edge of Leaverin, the largest country on the continent of Andulf. Leaverin is made up of 25 different regions/provinces and ruled by a council formed of the governors of those regions and a few important others. The region the game starts in is called Flagpoint, and it boarders Solace, the large thoecratic city state inbetween Laeverin and Grandellia, the other large country on the continent. Grandellia used to be a bunch of different city states and small countries until Robert (now Emperor Robert) with the help of many gold dragons took them over in a grand crusade that began a couple of decades ago and ended a few years ago. Flagpoint is on the western side of a mountain range that splits the rest of Laeverin off from the west and curves around to serve as a makeshift boarder between Laeverin and the desolate Badlands to the North.

    The gods in this world are different as well. There are a few racial gods of some common races, but their domains tend to be more restricted and the other gods are based around elements of nature/the universe. There are 8 major gods. It was thought that there were more gods until recently(ish), but it turns out that many of these gods are actually Aspects of the same entities, with many overlapping domains, but with a few unique to each aspect. The Alignments of these Aspects can also be quite different from even other Aspects of the same. Most people pray to many aspects, but anyone devoted enough to join the Clergy or a cult (the line between which can oft be blurred), tends to devote themselves to greater understanding and connection with a single Aspect.
    Spoiler: List of Gods and Aspects
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    - Sol, god of the Sun
    o Sol Invictus; Neutral Good god of the Sun, War, Strength, and Courage
    o Pure Radiance; Lawful Evil goddess of the Sun, Domination, Strength, and Glory
    o Skar; True Neutral god of the Sun, Force, Strength, and Purification
    - Lune, god of the moon
    o The Luminous Three; Neutral Good goddesses of the Moon, Ocean, Mysticism, and Madness
    o Shaiya of the Black Night; Lawful Neutral goddess of the Moon, Mentalism, Dreams, and Spells
    o Ducian; Neutral Good god of the Moon, Planning, Oracle, and Mind
    - The Verdant Lord, god of wood and plants
    o Woad; True Neutral god of Plants, Retribution, Craft, and Knowledge
    o Huntmaster; Chaotic Neutral god of Plants, Hunger, Animals, and Competition
    o Vivra; True Neutral goddess of Plants, Renewal, Animals, and Pestilence
    - Absence, god of nothingness
    o Void-Consuming-All; Chaotic Evil god of Darkness, Destruction, Gluttony, and Hunger
    o [ ]; god of Darkness, Protection, Portals, and Sloth
    - Matran, god of earth and minerals
    o Terra Firma; Lawful Neutral goddess of Earth, Metal, Craft, and Creation
    o Gaea; Lawful Neutral goddess of Earth, Metal, Metal, Creation, and Caverns
    o Cragor; Neutral Evil god of Earth, Caverns, Tyranny, and Fate
    - Whorl, god of water
    o Taren; True Neutral god of Water, Luck, Cold, and Healing
    o Ocruna; Chaotic Good goddess of Water, Travel, Ocean, and Trade
    o Phadra the Churning Abyss; Chaotic Evil goddess of Water, Storm, Ocean, and Hatred
    - Wandering Breeze, god of wind
    o Luft; True Neutral god of Air, Travel, Freedom, and Community
    o Zephyr; Chaotic Neutral god of Air, Celerity, Freedom, and Liberation
    o Maelstrom; Chaotic Evil goddess of Air, Storm, Windstorm, and Wrath
    - Pyre, god of fire
    o Smoff; True Neutral goddess of Fire, Destruction, Trickery, and Charm
    o Hart; Neutral Good goddess of Fire, Protection, Community, and Knowledge


    Spoiler: More in-depth setting details, lots of words
    Show
    Continent of Andulf:
    Laeverin, the largest nation on the planet. That claim is only somewhat debatable while their size and diversity is not. Laeverin is a country that covers from the large town of Flagpoint which lies just west of the Westspire Mountains to the floating cities on the south-east coast near Duskshore. Flagpoint is where the adventure begins, though you may have come from different places, even different countries before arriving there. Laeverin is a country that seems more like a mishmash of different states forced together under one broad banner. Even amidst the relative autonomy and cultural differences the provinces/regions that make up the nation have, they do still all ultimately bow to the High Council of Thirty and most everyone in Laeverin appreciates the economic benefits from their vast trading network. Flagpoint is often seen as the boonies by the rest of the nation, but they know themselves as good, hardworking people and if their practicality doesn’t fit with the latest noble fashion trends, they’re better off without it. Flagpoint is called such due to the spread of the town and it’s outskirts as well as the long stretch of rich farmland they have off to the side, right inbetween the mountains and Crumbling Canyon. The Canyon to the south and the Sinister Swamp (locals of the swamp feel that this naming is a little harsh) to the north tend to cut off access to Flagpoint, save from directly to the further west where lies Solace.

    Solace is a megalopolis that is incredibly large for a city, but fairly small for a nation, especially given how it’s situated right between Grandellia and Laeverin, two of the largest nations in the world. Solace has a few advantages there in that it’s been around since before the recent and drastic creation/expansion of Grandellia and that it is the world’s foremost center of all things religious. It’s a theocracy that has long gathered and accepted different religions under it’s boarders, both to study their works contained there on their pilgrimages and for many to settle in and try to spread the word of their faith. Clerics, Druids, Chosen Ones, scholars, and even lowly priests, pretty much everyone interested in the divine workings of the world has been Solace at some point in their lives. Solace has several common folk and workers to help support the nation (though even they will likely have more religious knowledge than similar people in other nations), but a lot of the advancements and support given to the nation comes from the massive amount of magically gifted people within the nation. The rules of the nation are very different from those in other nations. For instance, murder is not illegal, though it does come with a prohibitively expensive fine. Destruction of any religious text however will get you tortured, sentenced to death, and possibly worse after that depending on the severity of the work destroyed (it’s due to this law that many arcanely gifted will also come to the city, having claimed most scrolls of arcane knowledge to be ‘religious texts’ to be studied).

    Vastly more expansive sits the seemingly ever-growing nation of Grandellia, ruled by Emperor Robert. Robert was born to a simple farming family, but within him burned a desire to explore the wide world around him and bring aid to those in need. As a young adventurer he gathered a group of companions and set out on his journey. He achieved what he set out to do but found it to be lacking. The desert was ruled by savages, tribes of monsters lurked about every corner, and when the various kingdoms that dotted the west weren’t declaring war on each other they were engulfed in civil strife, to say nothing of the bandits that set upon travellers in the area. He brought some change about as an adventurer but didn’t feel it was nearly enough. With powerful magic items gained on his journey and the loyalty earned from the noblest of Gold dragons, Robert engaged in a grand and sweeping crusade, taking over Grandellia and then sweeping outwards, to bring all other nations within the west under his banner. As he won battle after battle, more like-minded fighters heard of his quest and joined his banner, his army swelling in size. It has been a long twenty years with many wars, but the vast majority of the Western half of the continent of Andulf has been brought into the fold of his peaceful and prosperous Empire… At least that’s what’s said in Grandellia, people in Laeverin question some of the actions of this paladin. It’s always been bad there, but was all that destruction truly necessary, did Robert have to crush the cultures that were once there so thoroughly to bring peace? What isn’t in doubt is the strength of his empire, even as expansive as it is. Many more dragons, mostly gold, but several of different colors as well now make their homes in the empire and help serve to keep it safe from monsters and other threats. Robert is in his fifties now, but is still quite active as Emperor not content to just lounge in his capital but actively visiting every major city every few days or weeks, and even checking in on the more rural locations every couple of months.

    Cities
    As expected of Laeverin with it’s Council of Thirty it has… 25 different regions (and the regional minister of each does get a vote on the Council, the remaining 5 seats doled out to a handful of other prominent individuals in the nation. The capital, Xanbar, is located in the central region unimaginatively named Central. The capital is the largest city in the nation, almost bordering on being a megalopolis, reaching very close to the next largest city and connected to the Deep Dark region by a shaft that goes straight down ten miles.

    The capital of Grandellia is actually a bit smaller than the largest cities of the nation. Given the Emperor’s propensity for travel and his desire to not get too entrenched and caught up in the politics of one area in his nation over the others, he’s purposefully kept Drastrx’s growth in check. Still, militarily and trade wise this city is quite important due to all of the roads that connect it to the other cities in the nation, so he’s had to up the city’s size up a little bit from what it was since he conquered it, if only to make sure that it could support the dragons and armies stationed there to protect it. Overall, that and the people that naturally flock to him have led to it still being a fairly large city, but the title of largest goes to Heldren, located just South of the large Pernarth desert. Heldren was one of the old capitals that surrendered quickly, and has grown quite a bit since then, the new culture and Grandellian way of life mixing with the old now conquered nation.
    Zoe comes from Pendar, a small town to the South-East of Grandellia, relatively near the coast.

    Since Solace is a city state, it’s capital is itself.

    The Sublime Way
    While there are many warriors brave and bold, sly and cunning, there are certain people who seek a more elegant path. They practice and channel their strikes and footwork into the exact patterns that make up the Sublime Way. These martial artists range from the barest of novices to the highest of grandmasters, but all are bound by the Sublime Way and their drive to further their martial skill. Some fighters consider their practices to be showy, impractical skills, but over the centuries it’s become apparent that these skills are indeed effective in battle. Though, this is not to say that more simplistic warriors don’t have their place, more than one overconfident martial adept has found their life ended by the sheer strength of a raging barbarian. Martial adepts are, as a rule, constantly testing themselves as they seek to perfect their discipline, so it’s not uncommon to find one challenging another to a duel as a way of betterment. These duels can be non-lethal, but it’s hardly uncommon for them to end in the death of one or both combatants. Combatants can ask to have the duel remain non-lethal, though this is considered a slight sign of cowardice. As lethal as most duels are, it’s considered quite poor form to finish off an opponent after they have been downed or surrendered.

    While practitioners of every stripe can be found all over the continent there are some major schools that tend to influence the majority of disciples to be found within a region. In Laeverin there are many monasteries and schools dotted across the country teaching a vast array of different techniques, and as such Swordsages, the most versatile of the practitioners of the Sublime Way tend to be found in Laeverin. The greatest of these schools is the Eye of the Sky. Though Reshar, the rumored first disciple of the Sublime Way, has had his birthplace and first school lost to battles and the ravages of time, the Eye is where it’s said he first began training as a martial adept. While this claim may or may not be true, there is no denying the greatest of martial adepts in all of Laeverin have come from there, or at least have gone there at some point to rise to the level they have. The Eye serves as the home of the Exalted Grandmaster, the title bestowed upon the greatest warrior of the generation. The Eye also serves as the first point of defence against the monstrosities and horrors that lurk in the badlands beyond the northern mountains. Laeverin as a whole is a culture that has long been steeped in Martial Lore and practices, making the warriors that walk the Sublime Path if not a common sight on the streets of its cities, then hardly an uncommon one.

    Solace is, unsurprisingly given the deep theological nature of the place, home to some of the mightiest Crusaders. Crusaders are less likely to devote themselves to a single god than to an ideal, but the nature of that devotion still mixes their internal energies with that of the external divine to create their techniques. Crusaders are often mistaken by common folk for paladins or battle-hardened clerics at first glance (and there are a fair few that combine these different forms of devotion), but to any other practitioner of the Sublime Way, their movements quickly reveal themselves in battle.

    Grandellia has a few scattered schools, but overall has been lacking compared to their eastern neighbours. In recent years Emperor Robert has been working on making a grand school of elite soldiers to bolster his armies with precise techniques. Which he did manage to do, producing far more Warblades than there had been at Shining Point Imperial Academy… unfortunately the rivalries and unchecked egos of the students and teachers there were leading to an overall decline in the number of Warblades throughout the land. As such, Robert banned duelling of all sorts within his kingdom, and only allowed strictly non-lethal bouts under close observation at the academies he controlled. This is one of the few unpopular decisions he’s made. While most of the populace doesn’t have too much of an issue with this, the practitioners of the Sublime Way are appalled at this, especially since they consider the Emperor to be a basic dabbler in the arts at best. Still, the decision isn’t likely to be overturned anytime soon and is staunchly supported by his daughter, General Dralia, a rather accomplished Warblade, so most of the remaining warriors have grumblingly accepted this.

    Arcana & Whatnot:
    Just as divine magic is often discussed and practiced, so too is arcane magic across the continent. Andulf’s closest arcane comparison to Solace would be the Grand Library of Wextra, located in Laeverin’s capital. It’s obviously not quite as large as Solace, but it is still a massive repository on all things arcane and more. Access is restricted to the public, with the highest levels of it being ever more restricted to the point that it’s rumored that less than 5 people on continent have access to the highest levels. In Grandellia the wizards that don’t come from their battle schools to serve in the army often come across magic through the ancient papers kept stored in hidden vaults and cursed crypts that have been made in ages past only to be rediscovered now. Sorcerers are a sight more common in Grandellia than anywhere else, often suspected because of the slightly larger than average dragon population.

    While understanding the universe to a greater degree can often grant greater levels of personal power, this only occasionally the goal of an arcanist. Eternal life, crafting powerful magical tools, knowledge of the deepest secrets, making an easy living, or even simply bringing joy to others, these and many more are reasons as to why one casts spells. And that’s just for those who study, plenty of arcanists just happen to be innately gifted, whether by virtue of blood or some other factor. Much of the ‘whatnot’ group are those who have other, non-divine means of using magic and tend to get lumped in with the other arcanists when discussed by the average person.

    This diversity leads to magic users being both more solitary and more connected than Martial Adepts or the Divinely inspired. Towers and shacks are scattered across the continent as mages have sequestered themselves away from society for one reason or another and even those less solitary may never seek out others gifted in the magical arts, adventuring or simply living their life in some other way, often not needing any instruction or tools to improve themselves. Still these schools and communities exist for the fact that people are often scared and desire greater protection in numbers. These schools often located in the center of cities give them a great degree of protection from the threats that can roam the land. Plus, money for their services and adoration of their gifts by the common folk are easier to get with large groups of people and a wide net of connections that can be formed in such places.

    Psion who?
    There have been many mentions to powers divine, arcane, and even references to the mystical powers of the soul, channeled or empowered in some way. However, the same has not been said for the power of the mind. This is because those gifted with the power of the mind tend to die, violently. Some claim that they are simply signs of ill omen, others cite their similarities with psionic Abominations, and more beside claim that some vast conspiracy has them marked for death. Whatever the reason, psionics are a very rarely occurring power and one that is mostly unknown and mistrusted to most people of the world. Psionic items are likewise, far harder to acquire as very few people gifted with psionics have the time or inclination to make them, and this scarcity is even greater when it comes to the most powerful of psionic items as so few psionically talented ever live to reach that potential, let alone then make anything specific with their powers.

    Races of Andulf:
    Andulf has been host to a wide array of species for many millennia, and that list has only grown with immigrants from other continents, particularly the Orcish refugees from Fursh and the various travellers and tourists from Goldar (any inhabitants from Zanzibar that manage to make it past the vicious storms that cover the Phadrian Ocean are likely undead monstrosities looking to prey upon Andulf and get swiftly turned back/destroyed by the order of Sol). As cities have grown and become more prominent in this era, beginning to become more stable features on the landscape the culture has become more cosmopolitan. Some elves and dwarves still recommend that they should stick to their ‘traditional values’, but many of the younger generations are moving to the cities and taking roles that would have been quite uncommon a century or two ago. Aged artisans and craftspeople pass away now with no one left to pass their skills onto, and there is worry that without a strong cultural support even the gods of these races may fade, belief and devotion lost to ‘innovation’. Humans and their various subtypes like Illumians and Azurin probably make up the most common of the civilized races, though they hardly make up the majority of the population in most places. Halflings are almost as common as humans and at least as diverse. Gnomes have long been arcane pioneers, but beyond that many of them find the size and haste of city life to be off-putting, preferring to stay in towns and villages instead. Half-breeds are quite common, and the growing mix of races has led to the birth of more mongrelfolk and them starting to make their own communities.

    Then there are the more ‘fringe’ races that live on the outskirts to completely beyond what most consider ‘civilized society’. They also generally take great umbrage at being referred to as such. As any Raptoran would let someone know, just because their culture is different, and they can and do live in areas where others can’t doesn’t make them lesser by any means. Of the orcish refugees those that don’t find the city life to be what they want tend to go out here or even farther away from the cities, along with many kobolds, goblins, lizardfolk, and other creatures that don’t quite fit with society. There is a fair amount of racism and discrimination towards these races from the city folk… which is due in large part to vicious tribes and bandits that often attack the smaller villages being composed mostly of these races. There are plenty of communities that showcase how crafty kobolds can be, or the ingenuity of goblin alchemists, but also several cases where they’ve formed warbands and viciously attacked and ransacked villages and even some towns on rare occasion. Often, they aren’t the leaders of this, pressed into service by they’re larger, more powerful and monstrous kin, but that doesn’t change the views that have formed regarding them.

    Before mentioning those that almost always do truly fall into the category of monsters, is the topic of dragons. Dragons are an ancient race and have history and even living memory stretching back to before even the first farms that would make up Laeverin, possibly to even the civilizations before that. Dragons may influence the lives of lesser creatures, but generally they stick to themselves and play their own games. Individually a dragon may decide to help or hinder people, organizations or even cities, but as a whole draconic culture has been quite removed from humanoid society (and for more reasons than just their feelings of superiority, they often thrive in locations that humanoids would need much magic just to barely live). At least, it has been removed until recently. Grandellia has gathered many dragons, mostly gold but plenty of other colors as well, and they’ve begun actually helping out and turning the nation into a formidable force. The armies of Grandellia have gained many humanoids as Emperor Robert’s conquest grew, but it’s dragons are still what makes it the force to be reckoned with today.

    Finally, there are the monsters. The things that go bump in the night, that which threatens good honest people for no reason beyond hunger and/or sick amusement. Most undead are thrown into this category, and many of them will freely prey on any living thing they can find. Often times they can quickly create new spawn which prevents them from ever being fully stamped out (along with the folly of foolish people seeking to control or use them), but whenever they are found in civilized places, they are quickly destroyed (save for those horrifying occasions when they destroy the city first). Giantkind, abominations, magical beasts ranging from Basilisks to Ythraks, demons, and most monstrous humanoids, these are the enemies of the nations. The wilderness can be a cruel and unforgiving place, and even the bastions of humanoids can crumble before their evil strength. For all the powerful heroes gathered together between all the nations of Andulf, they could not stand up to the combined might of the monsters lurking within the dark corners of the civilized nations and roaming freely in the Badlands. Luckily, they are not united, the monsters often fighting against each other as much as the humanoids. The closest they came to uniting was when Emperor Robert defeated the Troll King during his crusades. The Troll King fled with what was left of his army to the Sinister Swamp, and many more monsters have taken refuge there. Of the ones who haven’t fed from Grandellia, Robert has been trying some programs out to help ‘habilitate’ these monsters, introduce them properly into society and (most importantly) get them to commit their strength into defending humanity rather than trying to hurt it. These programs have been limited thus far but seem to be a success for now.



    Spoiler: First Session
    Show
    The first session begins in classic style, in a tavern. The Bubbling Cauldron is a relatively well frequented inn in the city of Flagpoint, the last region of Leaverin bordering Solace and nearby the newly founded nation of Grandellia. The peaceful night is soon disrupted by a man (Bob) rushing down the stairs, and in his haste to leave, bumping into another patron and nearly getting into a fight. The PCs are starting to get embroiled in the conflict as well, but one patron involved uses a Color Spray spell to knock Bob and the other one out while Verge helps talk anyone else who was about to get involved down. Things look like they’ll return to how they were when a few seconds later Bob’s body blows up suddenly, inciting far greater pandemonium.

    The bar erupts into a panic, several patrons trying to leave, others trying to stop anyone or certain people from leaving and a whole bunch of fighting breaking out amidst random groups. Jorvaskyr gets into a fight with an Orc swordsage (Vosk), landing a good hit on the orc, but getting overpowered by the Vosk’s martial maneuvers. Aerin healed him from unconsciousness, which prompted him to search around for the Orc wanting to fight again, but not managing to as his foe had already left. A woman transformed into a rat before their very eyes and ran off as well. Westin, Verge, and Zaffrin got into a fight with a sneaky goblin alchemist (Maya), Zaffrin eventually entangling her with ectoplasm before she could go invisible again and escape, but not before she managed to poison him and knock him unconscious. Westin fought a vicious battle against a lone commoner with a chair as that commoner critically hit a truly unreasonable amount of time. Aerin talked to a depressed man who was upset that his night had been ruined, mentioned something about wanting ‘one last good night’ before tossing all of his money (50 gold) at Aerin before leaving. Zoe ran around, attempted to loot the exploded bodies, nearly hurled, and quickly used prestidigitation on herself before the cops entered. Also during this time Zaffrin insulted a Zoe a bit for being an orphan, somehow able to tell just on sight that she was one. A Star Elf named Verandra helped stop a warlock that had been causing problems and panicking which resulted in him eldritch blasting people.

    The police showed up and rounded up everyone for questioning, the PCs in the last group along with the goblin and Verendra. Zaffrin wakes up and makes nice with everyone (he had previously said some rather hurtful or annoying things at the bar which had been a result of his drunkenness) offering them some fruit his cloak could create. Officer Burke introduces himself and says he’ll be leading the investigation until Detective Mara Onyx gets back up from the coast on her fishing trip. The ‘statements’ involve much talking over each other and the npcs, but he eventually gets a semi-coherent picture from them and during his questioning he reveals that there was another death that night, a murder that had happened up on the second floor. With the only possible witness/suspect exploded, the police don’t have many leads and they ask them not to leave town in case they have any further questions. Zaffrin made a connection with Verendra who subtly hinted that she has psionic powers like he does and invited him to meet up with her if he wanted to learn more about his abilities.

    The session ended there with the PCs finding another inn, the Leaky Cauldron and rest there for the night (excepting Aerin who elected to ‘pitch a tent’ in the forest at the edge of town. He offered to do so with a stranger, which combined with some other lines has led party members to joke about the accidental innuendo he would say). They decided they had to get down to the bottom of this and agreed to investigate together in the morning, looking into some of the people that were suspicious or who got away before the cops came.


    Spoiler: Session Thoughts
    Show
    A good introductory session, with a rather chaotic combat flow, that while somewhat distracting, didn’t feel incorrect given the situation. The party didn’t have a name or much connectedness yet, but they had a unifying goal they could all get behind and that would carry them through for the next few sessions. Many of the players were new, or at least new to their characters, so many powers and abilities remained unused or forgotten, not that the need was ever too dire.
    Last edited by Speeddemon87; 2019-04-01 at 03:12 AM.

  2. - Top - End - #2
    Orc in the Playground
     
    AssassinGuy

    Join Date
    Nov 2014

    Default Re: D&D 3.5 Original Campaign

    Spoiler: 2nd Session
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    The investigation begins at a somewhat sedate pace, the adventuring party meeting up in the morning at the inn (sans Aerin still out in the forest) and getting some breakfast, looking over the newspaper. They’ve asked around and found that people and stuff have been mysteriously vanishing. About half of the people have returned, though they found out that some of their friends think the ones who came back are acting a little oddly since.

    Zaffrin leaves to find Verndra but is kidnapped in the middle of the street, a fact found out hours later by the adventuring party. First, they go to talk to the goblin alchemist, burst into her home without permission and start asking her some questions. She doesn’t have many answers so the party decides to interrogate the wererat they saw leave the other day (they find out about Zaffrin’s abduction after the goblin visit, learning from some kids that it was a drow lady that kidnapped him). They also talk to Otril Shieldheart, an older dwarf woman who is a major town gossip, and they get some rumors from her. Otril and Verge flirt a bit as they talk.

    They find the wererat at a pawn shop near the edge of town and when she sees them she tries to run away. She gets beat down by the party and reveals she used to work for the thieves guild before she stole from them. Aerin comes in here having found the rest of the party and sees them beating her up as a couple of thieves guild thugs show up having been looking for the thief. A battle ensues with the party trying to protect the thief and the thugs trying to get to her. The half orc leader thug knocks out Jorvaskyr and heavily injures Verge with a crit. While this is happening the wererat thief tries to pickpocket Aerin and slip away but gets caught and has a bear summoned to attack her. There were only three thugs to begin with and seeing the magic and capabilities of the party the half-orc isn’t eager to keep on fighting, so he cuts a deal with the party for him to get the 1000 gold she stole from them and the party can do what they like with the thief. They agree to the deal.

    They tie her up in the forest and ask her some questions. She doesn’t know much about what’s going on though she does mention she’d overheard some of the returned people making plans to abduct others and gives them clues hinting that the goblin alchemist might be connected to Zaffrin’s abduction as well as learning that there is something suspicious going on with the abandoned community center. After she tells them that they let her go and she leaves heading off further into the woods, looking to leave town as she knows she'd be killed if the thieves guild found her again. The session ends here with the party deciding to rest up and go back to the alchemist’s home in the morning.


    Spoiler: Session thoughts
    Show
    Good session. Zaffrin’s player wasn’t there for that session and Aerin’s player was going to be late so those served as ways to work into the story why they wouldn’t be there. The party is figuring out more information but still pretty far from the truth… or so I thought. The next session worked out a little differently than I had planned.
    Last edited by Speeddemon87; 2019-02-25 at 01:58 AM.

  3. - Top - End - #3
    Orc in the Playground
     
    AssassinGuy

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    Nov 2014

    Default Re: D&D 3.5 Original Campaign

    Spoiler: Session 3
    Show
    The session begins with the party going to the alchemist’s house. After heavily banging on her door a passerby mentions that he thinks he saw her leave to help out a client and she’ll probably be back later in the day. The party decided then to break into the house, and proceed to do so very obviously, in plain view of the citizen they were just talking to. And then fail on multiple different entry points, including getting the bard stuck inside the top of the chimney before the muscle wizard broke most of it. Before any of them manage to get inside the police show up and the party submits to their custody when they are caught quite obviously in the act of breaking apart the house/failing to get inside.

    Zaffrin is rescued by Verandra from the community center where he was being held. She destroyed some organic looking constructs and finds out they had been about to harvest him for ‘quintessence’. Verandra goes off to report this to the regional governor and asks for Zaffrin to report this to the police. Zaffrin heads to the police station.

    Constable Burke takes the rest of the party prisoner and has them relinquish their weapons and while bringing Verge into the interrogation room from his cell asks for his armor too, given their actions and how close they were to the exploding Bob case. Zaffrin is directed to a waiting room as he arrives. Upon giving up his armor, it’s taken and put in a chest in another room and Burke proceeds to surprise attack Verge while the other four officers attack the rest of the party (sans Zaffrin). The party is caught off guard without their weapons, and the police are able to use their longspears to attack them through bars even if they back up to the ends of their cells. Jorvaskyr breaks out of his cell fairly quickly and Zaffrin hears the commotion and gets involved as well with Verge trying to flee Burke and get to his stuff. Verge doesn’t get far but does manage to disarm Burke and take Burke’s rapier for himself, which leaves Burke to start spitting out poisoned darts at people. Those left in the cells try to use their magic and supernatural abilities/items to strike back against the guards while still trapped in their cells. The battle is a long and gruelling especially with the other officers revealing they can be triggered to regenerate, their veins bulging as their healing is triggered, two of them even exploding as their healing seems to overload (Burke heals too, but his doesn’t seem to have any flashy effects like that). This and their comments about praising Thoon help put together a lot of pieces about the true culprits behind this crime. Eventually the party is very beat up, but all of them manage to survive and get out of their cells.

    They loot the jail and get about a thousand gold for everyone. Burke has his stuff looted and the other officers/cultists have their necks crushed by the Muscle Wizard who was worried about the veins bulging on their necks (nothing happens, just an excess of blood flows out). Most of the files they find give no clues as to the Thoon cultists, but several files have been burned recently (mostly seeming to relate to the missing persons/objects cases) and they find that the rest of the officers have been slain in the barracks. Detective Mara Onyx and Regional Governor Leroy Von Howitzer arrive at the precinct along with Verandra.


    Spoiler: Session thoughts
    Show
    A good tough 'boss' level battle and a satisfying conclusion to the exploding man investigation arc. Player actions ended up having this battle be confronted earlier than expected so it wasn’t actually the fight that leveled them up, but it was quite good. The players were all beaten up and it was a hefty struggle (especially since I made a mistake and the officers ended up having over double the hitpoints they should have – I did make sure to adjust the xp and gold rewards at the end accordingly), but it was so satisfying for them to wring out a desperate victory. Verge’s character was stuck in tough position losing his gear, which was difficult, but they made the most of it, and seeing a disarm used on a non-disarm focused character (and fisticuffs from Burke for a moment after being disarmed even without any training in it) was neat. The map I made for this battle ended up being far larger than was needed, a somewhat recurring theme when I set down map tiles rather than no tiles or the erasable roll out mat I have. Helped give the place a proper feel to it, which was good.

  4. - Top - End - #4
    Halfling in the Playground
     
    BardGuy

    Join Date
    Mar 2019

    Thumbs up Re: D&D 3.5 Original Campaign

    I've skimmed through most of this. I like it so far, and I'll definitely read it more closely for detail later.

    I didn't see if you mentioned it explicitly, but what level did the PCs start at? It has a low-level feel to it, so I'm guessing around 3rd.

    Another question: Are there particular sources you used for inspiration - other games, movies, etc?

  5. - Top - End - #5
    Orc in the Playground
     
    AssassinGuy

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    Nov 2014

    Default Re: D&D 3.5 Original Campaign

    Thanks, I'm glad you liked it. Sorry for not mentioning it outright at the start, your guess is right, they were level three at the start of this.

    I can't say any one source heavily influenced this campaign. Some ideas were things I had been thinking of for a long time and for one of the first original campaign's I've run in years (my old original campaigns were when I was a newbie gm and had a lot of mistakes) this was a great chance to use them. A lot of the campaign comes from the flavor text blurbs and setting descriptions of monsters and items in the books and the ideas I came up with to link them together. I ran a War of the Burning Sky campaign before this, so there is some slight influence there and stealing of some stats I didn't really get to use back then, but mostly it's its own thing.

    I've been really falling behind on these posts, I have a lot of entries saved up, I'll try to put them up more frequently.

    Spoiler: Session 4
    Show
    The party talks to them briefly explaining some of what happened, Verandra accompanies them and Leroy to the inn where they can properly debrief him while Mara sticks behind to investigate the police station for a bit. Leroy is a little upset at the mess that has been made and having to deal with it, his stance on adventurers not being too favourable, but he does admit that they helped here. He agrees to let them keep the gold they took as compensation for their actions and says he’ll make sure that this situation is looked into. He says he will keep them updated if anything major happens and he wants them to alert him if they find anything.

    Verandra’s tale mostly covers rescuing Zaffrin, but she admits that she knows of Thoon as an entity that some crazed mindflayers worship. She also makes it clear that she utterly hates mindflayers. Detective Mara Onyx returns as Zaffrin is questioning how they can trust people if these Thoon cultist can kidnap people and put replacements in that look like them, to which Mara reveals that she knows spells to read people’s minds. He questions how he can trust her to which her position and the fact that Zaffrin himself has no better options on what to do forces him to concede that point.

    The party goes to sleep and in the following few days explores their own fields of interest (sans Jorvaskyr because his player character couldn’t make it). Aerin lets go of her old owl animal companion that didn’t do much and gets a new one, Bearin, the bear. Verge gets a letter that makes him super happy. Zoe tries to make some money at bars preforming but some older catty bard pushes her out and entrances the patrons more, a trend she finds among all but the seediest and most run down of taverns. Zaffrin meets up with Verandra and studies more psionics, able to talk to a fair number of other psionic users for the first time in his life. They meet in a secret hangout backroom hidden in an inn, and Zaffrin claims to the rest of the party that he’s going out to get help with his alcohol problems.

    When the group goes out to do some shopping and get some magic items, Westin leaves the group to search for some Anklets of Translocation, before returning with them moments later and beating up a suspicious person that may be a shoplifter. Zaffrin gets in the way and Westin attacks him, before Zaffrin convinces him with a diplomacy check that he isn’t a bad guy. Aerin tries to heal the shoplifter that was knocked unconscious as Verge tries to get Westin to calm down, which prompts Westin to run over and kill the shoplifter before fleeing (he says that the party might be good people and not deserve ‘justice’, but the shopkeeper isn’t). A few minutes later the police show up and investigate at the same time as Westin returns, but without any anklets this time. Verge informs the police about this, to which Westin acts confused before fleeing.

    The party discusses it later, and Zaffrin says that he thinks the first ‘Westin’ was an imposter and was missing the wrong arm, while Verge thinks it was the real Westin and didn’t notice any difference (Zaffrin said nothing about this to the police as he doesn’t trust them). The party splits up to look for him while the real Westin is talking to Zoe in the seedy tavern. Zoe met up with an old seafarer named Captain Cormick Flugg, who appreciated her music and wanted her to join up with his crew that would be leaving in a few days time. He mentions many different tales of adventure and hints at great things to follow, even while admitting his luck has been soured before by ‘that psion boy’, but he has high hopes for this trip. Zoe was somewhat interested while Westin was less so, just looking for a way to avoid the law. Cormick leaves the bar and the two talk for a bit, revealing some details of their backstory and how they got here.

    ‘Eastin’ as the group out-of-character dubbed the fake Westin has a conversation with Verge, who had been riding his horse searching around town for him. Verge appreciates his commitment to justice but knows he has to stop him from taking it too far and will have to arrest him if he sees him again. Eastin hops from rooftop to rooftop and leaves.

    Zaffrin and Verge meet up with Zoe in the tavern while Westin hides from their sight and eavesdrops on them. Zaffrin hears the name of Cormick and acts oddly. Westin follows the group out of sight, not really sure what to do or where to go. In the night/early morning Zaffrin wakes up Zoe and tells her about his past and how he hates Cormick. Zoe isn’t sure who to believe.


    Spoiler: Session Thoughts
    Show
    A good lull session, this helped to get a lot of character motivations down/progressed and the characters got to enjoy some down time after that gruelling battle in the jail. A lot of nice plot hooks were left here to help further investment in the next few sessions/instigate the events that would cause those sessions. Overall, I think everyone enjoyed it.

  6. - Top - End - #6
    Orc in the Playground
     
    AssassinGuy

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    Nov 2014

    Default Re: D&D 3.5 Original Campaign

    Spoiler: Session 5
    Show
    The party, having been informed of Cormick’s job offer, goes to either investigate or see people off. Westin is stealthily following them. Cormick’s crew seems to consist mostly of younger, run down people, and a wild child (Lady Mistsplitter). When they arrive Zaffrin (who was mostly hidden behind the others until getting close), reveals himself, swearing vengeance upon Cormick and sending some energy missiles at him… which Cormick proceeds to completely dodge. Cormick moves closer but can’t quite attack him, however Zaffrin is heavily injured as Eastin steps out of the shadows and attacks him viciously, saying that he will make Zaffrin pay for his crimes.

    The battle breaks out and Zaffrin is dropped several times as the rest of the party seems to think that Zaffrin is the aggressor and should be arrested but they don’t want to see him killed. Zoe is attacked by the crew for ‘turning’ on Flugg by trying to help Zaffrin while Lady Mstsplitter rips into the melee members of the party. Westin reveals himself and Eastin easily dodges around any of the attacks sent his way, tumbling around to avoid opportunity attacks. Westin and Eastin duel for several rounds while exchanging dialogue and debating philosophies, which ends with Eastin barely hit once and Westin heavily wounded and unable to answer the question about their past (Eastin claims to be ‘the true Westin, the darkness within him’).

    As the battle goes on Aerin is knocked unconscious and Cormick has stolen power points and spells from the PC’s he’s been hitting. Zaffrin has been knocked unconscious, healed, and then knocked unconscious again a couple times and even the tankier PCs have been taking a beating from Lady Mistsplitter (In particular due to them triggering a number of opportunity attacks due to her combat reflexes and Ferocity). The party manages to convince Cormick to stop this and that he can take Zaffrin prisoner and give him to the proper authorities to get him cleared for all the crimes ‘Zaffrin framed him for’. Zaf agreed if it meant the party would be spared and Cormick knocked Zaffrin out. Eastin made one last shot to kill Zaffrin that didn’t work before he fled.


    Spoiler: Session Thoughts
    Show
    This was an interesting battle session, one that taught the importance of opportunity attacks to the party, as well as the ways one could try and avoid opportunity attacks. It was interesting to use two ‘rival/nemesis’ type characters at once, especially with how different the relationship between Cormick – Zaffrin and Eastin – Westin was. Cormick had done horrible things to Zaffrin when his character was a child and caused the kid much tragedy, but as a teen and growing up, Zaffrin had beaten him and placed him in jail several times, and Zaffrin’s powers hadn’t really improved since his character first manifested them. It had also been a couple years since their paths had crossed before this encounter. This made it interesting to show Cormick as an old scoundrel who had picked up several tricks and items to try and ready himself against Zaffrin – and actually succeed in doing so (though they still had a reasonable chance of winning, the party just didn’t roll too well during this fight. The path their actions from here would take actually lead to a part of the world I had detailed out already but hadn’t thought they’d arrive to for a couple levels).

    Eastin was an entirely different game. For one, the two beings had never met before, though Eastin had split from Westin years ago and knew of his other’s existence. Describing the similarities but also subtle differences in their fighting styles and how everything from their particular maneuver types and ability selection to even how they dressed themselves was really fun. It showcased their ideals as similar and coming from the same roots, but ultimately divergent. The interaction between Westin and Eastin had to be talked up between myself and the player before the actual session as he couldn’t make it then, but we came up with some great lines of dialogue and arguments of philosophy between the characters to be used for the session, and they all managed to flow in quite well. The battle ended with Eastin unable to complete his self-appointed mission, and Westin unable to fully retort and disagree with Eastin’s ideology, which will help nicely set the stage for their next encounter.

    This was also the first encounter where Lady Mistsplitter showed up. It was unfortunate that she was pitted against the party first time, but it was a really seamless way to help get her character involved in the party. She performed even better than I thought she would, but luckily no one ended up dying this time and they’d soon get to appreciate her Barbarian power when she fought on their side in the next few sessions.

    While the battle held some good points, and I really enjoyed certain elements of it, I think it might have ended off on a slightly more sour note for the players. This was the first time they truly lost a battle (tactics could have been tightened up in certain places and they were caught off guard by some the abilities/tricks the enemies had, but a lot of it was bad dice luck) and even if their characters believed in Cormick and felt Zaffrin was really an evil criminal, the players supported him.

  7. - Top - End - #7
    Orc in the Playground
     
    AssassinGuy

    Join Date
    Nov 2014

    Default Re: D&D 3.5 Original Campaign

    Spoiler: Session 6
    Show
    The party went with Cormick and Zaffrin + crew onto the boat, having to pay Cormick a fair bit extra to get Matilda (Verge’s horse) and Bearin onto the boat (and even then Bearin was only allowed on a side boat). The boat journey is an interesting few days, the players suspicious of Cormick, but the characters thinking he was an interesting old adventurer.

    Zaffrin is getting worse treatment than Zoe is while they wait in the makeshift Brig the crew quickly formed out of a storage room. Lady Mistsplitter is often used as the guard there and Westin was elected to be the chef and try and make something for everyone to eat (he rolls quite well and manages to make a great meal out of some poor supplies pretty well especially with no training in it). Zaffrin rests up trying to regain the power points that were taken from him and Zoe is brought up to the top of the ship the next day when a battle breaks out.

    A dozen whitescaled draconic like lizard things spot them from the shore and start breathing ice on the water to run across it and attack the ship. While this is going on a greenscaled creature in leather armor is climbing up the other side of the ship, calling out for Zoe in Draconic. Zoe doesn’t hear it, but Zaffrin does and uses control sound to communicate with it for a bit. As the combat goes on the greenscale hops aboard and sneaks around getting Zoe and talking to Zaffrin (Zaffrin has been released by the regular crewmates fearing what will happen in the attack). They find out that a ‘big sea tentacle monster’ is what the creature was looking for before he noticed Zoe (War Leader/Princess – exact translation is unclear).

    While that’s going on the rest of the people are finishing off the whitescales, the creatures being handily killed by Lady Mistsplitter, Jorvaskyr, and Westin (Aerin uses flaming sphere to help kill a few but it also starts breaking up the ice bridge the melee fighters are standing on), and the few that get past are smote down by Verge. With those creatures cleared up Cormick goes down to the Brig and has a tense conversation with them before he manages to put together what the greenscale means and orders the ship be turned around immediately.

    Some argument goes on as the ship is being turned around and they see the dark shape in the water getting closer to them especially when it`s revealed that this is an Aboleth. Some of the party wants to flee and try to make it to shore to escape from there, knowing that the Aboleth is slower on land. Lady Mistsplitter tries to jump away, but the ice, already pretty weak to begin with crashes when she lands this time, which convinces the others that it’s not safe enough to go that way. Lady Mistsplitter swims onto the boat that Bearin is on and with the party helping the boat get turned around they escape the Aboleth and start heading back. The greenscale reveals that the camp with his kind is back that way too, in Leaverin and the crew/party vaguely agrees to head there and figure out what is going on. And then Cormick slammed his pommel into Zaffrin’s gut and knocked him unconscious before tossing him in the Brig again.


    Spoiler: Session Thoughts
    Show
    A good session and quite a nice breather from the beatdown the party got last time (if it hadn’t been for that I’d almost qualify it as too easy a battle – the Whitespawn were just demolished by the melee fighters here, particularly Lady Mistspliter and her opportunity attacks). I liked that everyone got a chance to contribute some meaningful way in the combat or with the Greenspawn mystery. Zaffrin used Control Sound to communicate quite effectively while trapped and otherwise barely able to hear what was going on, a trend that would continue for many sessions later. The session went much how I thought it would too, which was nice in that I didn’t really have to improvise anything. We had forgotten about Zoe’s bonus languages, which had Zaffrin acting as translator for the dragonspawn, but after next session we just minorly retconned that to be that Zoe was a little rusty in speaking Draconis and spent some time speaking with the Dragonspawn (named Green) to get better at it and speak Draconic in the future.

  8. - Top - End - #8
    Orc in the Playground
     
    AssassinGuy

    Join Date
    Nov 2014

    Default Re: D&D 3.5 Original Campaign

    Spoiler: Session 7
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    The party is sailing back to Laeverin, heading past the mountains to the Dragonspawn camp. Zoe is free now, Cormick admitting he ‘overeacted to her betrayal’ i.e. helping out Zaffrin and goes to give her stuff back to her when he runs into Jorvaskyr trying to break into his quarters while Verge is trying to tell him stop. They argue for a bit, including accusing him of not giving Zoe her stuff back when he’s in the process of entering his room to give Zoe her stuff back. They agree that Zaffrin is a criminal and accept that even if he helped them escape the Aboleth he still needs to be held and his stuff watched over, they just don’t want to let Cormick do it. He says he’s doing it because he’s captain, but they say that doesn’t give him the right. He counters by pointing out that they don’t have any more authority than him and it is his ship. Verge still argues saying that Zaffrin’s gear should be placed in some neutral location, to which Cormick points out that Jorvaskyr would just take it. Verge asks Jorvaskyr to promise that he won’t to which Jorvaskyr doesn’t answer that. They argue for a bit and Cormick uses the distraction to slip inside his cabin and give Zoe back her stuff, not giving up Zaffrin’s gear.

    They arrive at the Dragonspawn camp and the place is filled with dragonspawn of all the chromatic colors. Some of them are in or under the water while more are on the shore and land proper. They look surprised at the ship, but they seem reassured by Green and Zoe’s presence even with the other humanoids. A red scaled bipedal one introduces himself as Bartholemew to the group and takes a look at Zoe. He thinks she might have been prepared for Science Division (those words freak out Zoe but only Westin and Aerin notice) but says he’s happy to have her in leadership. Gabriel, a Half-Bronze dragon in fullplate shows up and says that he’s also one of the war leaders and he’s glad to have Zoe joining them. He’s a bit surprised that she has so many ‘soft skin’ joining her but he’s glad to have them helping here.

    Before they can get much of a footing established or some questions answered they find out that the Dragonspawn are making an assault on a fortress held by some Hobgoblins and Lizardfolk. Bartholemew and Zoe dart off from the path a bit to the side to get her verified by this crystal at the top of the tower, recording her true name and giving it to the ‘true dragons’ living off in the Badlands in the far north.

    When they arrive at the fortress they get split off into their own team to assault the side and open up the forces on two front while some of the dragonspawn (including Bartholemew attack the front and Gabriel goes down to the sewers and deals with the Dark Talon Lizardfolk lurking below.

    With the spellcasters and artillery forces blasting away at each other in the front the party slips to the side (they notice that being right beside a Dragonspawn can give you a single elemental immunity depending on the type, giving the dragonspawn an edge over the Warsoul and other casters on the roof of the fortress). Westin goes up first and tries to open the side door, only to find a hobgoblin soldier about to do the same thing from the other side. The party beats through the first two hobgoblin mooks without much difficulty but they hear further sounds coming from the back. A hobgoblin with a spiked chain comes out first, getting past the few melee fighters inside and engaging the rest of the party with it’s spiked chain. A duskblade comes out right after and holds the doorway, tossing out spells at the party and being tough to hit. The warcaster stays in the corner and uses a flaming sphere to harry the party while Aerin does much the same to attack the Spellscourge and then later to target the mook reinforcements that clash against Jorvaskyr and Verge stuck inside the building.

    The battle takes a while, but eventually the party is victorious, taking down the Duskblade before finally beating up the spell scourge (who had taken a lot of punishment due to his ability to gain temporary hitpoints) and the melee fighters attacked the warcaster, but were unable to kill her as she used Web to entangle them and escape.


    Spoiler: Session Thoughts
    Show
    The beginning was a complete mess. Everyone tried to jump in on the scene with Jorvaskyr and Cormick, including those who had already said they were in other places. We actually had to straight out Retcon the first version of events where Jorvaskyr successfully pushed his way into the captain’s quarters and started looting the treasure chest before getting stabbed minorly by the captain because apparently Verge was there the whole time and had watched the incident without doing anything before hand (which doesn’t fit with his alignment or previous characterization). Even then, a lot of the arguments went around in circles which boiled down to ‘the party hates Cormick and are doing whatever they can (and sometimes trying what they can’t) to try and go against him. Cormick had been an exciting inclusion and led to some good roleplaying scenes here and there but I was getting the feeling it was time for him to go. I knew that Verge’s player had to leave next month so I worked out a way to try and get them both out of the plot for next session… it didn’t quite go as planned.

    The Hobgoblin battle was a good deal of fun though, as was describing the battle outside before they reached the side door. One of the players even commented that someone was a ‘serious spellcaster’ because they used Shout, which did sonic damage that pretty much nothing is immune/resistant to. The battle got a little crowded at the doorway and never moved past there, meaning that again I ended up using way less of the map tiles than I thought I would have to. It was a half dozen hobgoblin grunts and a couple more powerful ones, a Spell Scourge, a Duskblade and a Warcaster. They had some pretty effective tactics together, and their Battle Magic Tactics let them use their spells well together while the Spell Scourge was tanking the opposing magic sent his way (while also tearing through said casters with his spiked chain). This was the first time they had to deal with Spell Resistance thanks the to the Warcaster, which was neat. They said the battle felt like fighting other PCs rather than monsters, which was interesting. The two dwarves smashing their way through the melee mooks was pretty cool and I enjoyed seeing the desperate defense the casters tried to pull against the spell scourge. The PCs ended up leveling up to level 4 from this battle.

  9. - Top - End - #9
    Orc in the Playground
     
    AssassinGuy

    Join Date
    Nov 2014

    Default Re: D&D 3.5 Original Campaign

    Spoiler: Session 8
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    Carrying off from last time the party had rested up for a moment and found that the battle had been mostly won for their side. The battle up top had been won and Gabriel returned looking beaten and weary but triumphant as he proclaimed his victory over Yarshag, King of the Dark Talons. A quick knowledge check from Verge revealed that Yarshag was part of the alliance of ‘Monster Kings’ formed at the end of Robert’s crusade. After the Alliance of Kings had fallen a group of the more monstrous races banded together under their leaders and attempted to take down Robert’s army… and were promptly crushed. The army had been building momentum for too long, growing larger and stronger as his crusade had continued. The dragons he had at his side alone probably would have been too much for the monsters gathered, but with all of them they crushed the Monster King’s alliance. Yarshag had been one of the kings to flee and this was where he and his remaining Dark Talons had fled to, likely along with the Hobgoblins, who had a powerful caster leading them before they had been defeated as well.

    Gabriel had to leave due to the injuries he obtained in the battle before he could fully secure the sewers so he sent the party down along with a couple whitespawn hordelings and a redspawn firebelcher. The party went into the sewers and noticed some sigils underneath a small bridge, which didn’t seem to affect Lady Mistsplitter as she looked at them or walked over them, but then exploded when Westin looked at them, however the only one to fail their reflex save was Lady Mistsplitter. Aerin went back through the sewer entrance to get turned around and go on the other side. About 50 feet further into the sewers the party was ambushed by the Dark Talons waiting around the corner or hiding in the water. The Dark Talons attacked and defeated most of the Hordelings fairly quickly, but the lizardfolk grunts died fairly quickly too. The more powerful warriors fought while they also had to deal with the Vermin Rider atop a giant wasp and the hobgoblin warcaster that had been lurking in the tunnels waiting to get her revenge on them. In the sewer entrance Aerin and Bearin found themselves confronted by a very powerful Dark Talon champion that started beating them around.

    The battle was going fairly well until Lady Mistsplitter, while trying to get at the Hobgoblin saw a switch she had been standing nearby and pulled it (the warcaster fled after this, claiming that she would grow in power just like the Warsoul that led her had grown from her master’s death and risen to lead the Hobgoblins and she swore that she would have vengeance on Lady Mistsplitter). This caused the sewage water to flow faster, pushing the firebelcher away from the group and landing the Champion right beside Aerin who had been trying to flee his powerful attacks. The Champion was now in the middle of things, taking down party members left and right even as they hit him and Zaffrin was nearly killed by an attack until the party devised a plan to save him, Lady Mistsplitter running after Cormick (who had been helping a bit both in this battle and the last mostly by healing people and being off to the side) and ripped the Healing Belt he had off of him and tossing it to the party to use to stabilize Zaffrin. The Champion got battered around a bit more before sliding down the tunnel further. Verge chased after, succeeding excellently on a balance check, riding his shield down like a surfboard to the Champion and cutting the lizardfolk down, bisecting him in half diagonally, the creature’s torso falling off a second afterwards as if it only then realized what happened.

    The party recuperated a bit (the healing belt was out of charges but Zoe kept it for the time being) and saw to it that the sewers really were secure as a humungous blue egg was moved into the sewers, the egg the size of a person and guarded by some Blackspawn. Resting up for the night the party recovered and in the morning had a meeting with Gabriel who told them about the purpose of the Dragonspawn army: To defeat Grandellia and kill Emperor Robert. Verge promptly left the room, with Cormick following. Cormick recognised the Verge wanted to leave and offered him help in getting away from Grandellia, but they were then accosted by Zaffrin who was asking Cormick what was going on. Lady Mistsplitter followed Cormick out and Zoe left as well, wanting to talk to him. Verge left off to get his horse and then rode away, looking to find another way to get to Grandellia.

    Zoe said that she needed Zaffrin’s help, and for that they needed his gear. Cormick agreed to get it and they all went with him to his ship. On the way he started whispering with Lady Mistsplitter about how he planned to ditch the camp, which Zaffrin enhanced with control sound, then accusing them of treachery. The dragonspawn were confused and starting to get riled up as Cormick lunged at Zaffrin and stabbed him with a hidden blade.


    Spoiler: Session thoughts
    Show
    : The battle was tougher than I had thought it would be. They’d dealt with a similar level of force above, but this battle didn’t go as well for them. Jorvaskyr got hit a bunch by the weaker lizardfolk and even with the many hitpoints he had, he was still in bad shape for a lot of the fight. The party complained a lot about what Cormick was doing here when he took total defence actions, even when they would do that too often right after he did it. The champion got buffed up with a potion at the start of combat and with rage really tore into the group, it was a tough fight for them, especially trying to make sure no one died as they fought him. The firebelcher was strong, but often wasn’t able to utilize it’s strength best against the Dark Talons, though I think that was mostly bad luck on a couple rolls.

    The Gabriel meeting went off the rails fast. Everyone was gathered for the meeting and eager to find out what was going on in the dragonspawn army, then over half of them left to investigate into Cormick. I had planned on using Cormick as a quick out for Verge, but with everything going on Verge went off a separate path. The timing was also rushed here as I tried to get everything wrapped up before we had to go and we ended up leaving it on a cliffhanger to be resolved next time along as dealing with issues like what Gabriel would tell those who remained and if Zoe would keep the Healing Belt she took from Cormick (this got resolved offscreen, realizing that Zoe wouldn’t do something like that she gave him back the belt and we decided that she gave it back to him the night before). I was a little worried here about having everything resolve itself well at the end of this, but I had a week to plan to try and get things ready.

  10. - Top - End - #10
    Ogre in the Playground
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    Default Re: D&D 3.5 Original Campaign

    Quote Originally Posted by Speeddemon87 View Post
    The first session begins in classic style, in a tavern.
    I started my adventurers at 0th level, outside of a tavern. They weren't even allowed in yet.

  11. - Top - End - #11
    Orc in the Playground
     
    AssassinGuy

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    Default Re: D&D 3.5 Original Campaign

    Quote Originally Posted by Yahzi View Post
    I started my adventurers at 0th level, outside of a tavern. They weren't even allowed in yet.
    Nice. Was the tavern sort of a 'adventures only' kind of place?

    Oh yeah, here are the next session notes as well

    Spoiler: Session 9
    Show
    Zaffrin was stabbed by the hidden blade, losing some more power points (and hit points) and getting injured. He struggled internally for a moment before whispering to Cormick Flugg that he needed to escape and send word of the attack. Cormick agreed to do so, mostly hoping that he would get rewarded/pardoned for it, but agreeing to do so nonetheless. Zaffrin made some noise and gathered attention, but Lady Mistsplitter prevented any dragonspawn from boarding the ship. Just before they left a large whitespawn iceskidder jumped and nearly pulled Cormick overboard. Lady Mistsplitter jumped up to attack the creature but couldn’t get it to stop biting onto Cormick. Her stab did open it’s mouth just enough for Cormick to conjour Zaffrin’s gear (sans his money) within the creature’s mouth, forcing it open and sending the Whitespawn and Lady Mistsplitter tumbling into the water below. This was the finally clue necessary for Zaffrin to realize that Cormick had some small measure of psionic power, which had been how he’d been stealing Zaffrin’s power points. Zaffrin was still upset at Cormick but he recognized the bigger picture enough to let him go and even pray that Zephyr would aid him in delivering his message.

    Lady Mistsplitter was put in a makeshift jail as they headed back to the fort. During this time Jorvaskyr, Aerin, and Westin had been asking Gabriel questions. Gabriel seemed kinda put out by the fact that everyone had run off right after his big declaration, he’d been hoping for a bit more enthusiasm. Still, he answered the questions they had of how long it would be and what they were trying to do. It was going to take several years to build up a force large enough to defeat Emperor Robert’s army, but they’d gotten a good foot hold here and once they got past the Aboleths they could continue further down the coast. He said that they were trying to defeat just Grandellia, but the PCs rolled high enough on sense motive to figure out that he felt it was likely they’d have to take over the whole continent, Solace and Laeverin as well. They asked him why he was doing this and he said that Emperor Robert was an evil man, but he didn’t have much by way of proof. Gabriel said his father had mentioned something about an ancient draconic artifact that he had taken but admitted he hadn’t been paying much attention when his father said that and that Bartholemew might know more.

    When Zoe and the others arrived they had a mini meeting to decide what to do about Cormick and Verge (whom had been reported as fleeing a few minutes later as well). Bartholemew and Gabriel talked about it for a few minutes, recognizing they only had one Greenspawn Razorfiend, likely the only dragonspawn fast enough to catch them. They asked Zoe for her opinion on which ‘traitor’ to send them after and she eventually decided on Cormick. They also discussed getting food for the growing army and Bartholemew mentioned they could raid nearby towns for food and so long as they left no survivors the attacks would be blamed on a new group of Bloody Reavers. The party mentioned that they weren’t a fan of killing everyone to use as food, but their suggestions of sustainable methods and livestock weren’t seen as workable due to security issues, though Gabriel did ask that Bartholemew avoid killing innocents.

    Bartholemew and Zoe talked a bit more afterwards, going to the tower and communicating with other groups further, though Zoe left very quickly into it, being freaked out by the mention of Science Division and talking to them. She agreed to take her party out to explore an old draconic site some scouts had found, feeling that was safer than choosing to go after the Aboleths or help Bartholemew get food.

    Zaffrin dragged Zoe and the rest of the party to the side after that and had a discussion about where they wanted to go from there (using control sound to make sure no one could eavesdrop). They talked about disrupting the camp from the inside and how Zoe needed to stand up more. She was having difficulties doing this being a fourteen year old girl facing something very close to her worst nightmares but she agreed to try.

    Bartholemew came by to see what the group was talking about and they bluffed about what they had been doing. Bartholemew made some threatening comments to Zoe about what would happen to her if she fled or went against him…. Which went right over her head.

    The next morning they were given some potions and directions to the site. There was a hilarious exchange between the party and Zoe when they were wondering what scouts/help they would get from the army when it was revealed that she had specifically asked for it to be just them, having panicked in the moment when she was talking to Bartholemew in the tower.

    They came across an Ogre first guarding the door, Westin scouting out the place quite well. The party buffed themselves up and launched a devastating surprise round attack against the Ogre and preparing for the slower members to close the distance. Jorvaskyr was already right up in the Ogre’s face and got hit once by the Ogre before he ‘Cast Fist’ on the Ogre, smashing it through the stone doors and sending it crashing down the flight of stone stairs, likely alerting anyone inside. The Ogre’s corpse did trigger a boulder trap which the party wasn’t hurt by. Aerin’s summoned bear came after the battle had already ended.

    The party catiously descended down the stairs, dealing with a couple of minor traps, including an invisible undead and a whirling blade trap before they entered a shrine room. The Shrine room had a portcullis come down when they tried to proceed further (trapping Lady Mistsplitter outside the room as she hadn’t entered yet) and having the floor fall away or flip around at certain parts to reveal a Force and Magmacore Golem.

    The Golems didn’t hit too hard, but they had some unique tricks and were quite resilient to a lot of the usual forms of damage the party had, not taking critical hits, resisting weapon damage, immune to most spells/powers. It was a difficult battle but the PCs won and we called the session there, leaving the rest of the dungeon to be explored next time.


    Spoiler: Session Thoughts
    Show
    A good session, there was a lot of character interaction/dialogue going on during this one, and they appreciated the chance to tactically plan out how battles would go, which most of them really appreciated. The boat escape scene worked as well as I could have hoped for what was going to happen. It would have been semi-difficult for Zaffrin to manage it but there was a chance he could have gotten Cormick killed here, which would have been rather anti-climactic. Lady Mistsplitter wasn’t able to make it this time so she was run by Jorvaskyr’s player. How the trap worked there was quite nice in that it only forced out the one party member whose player wasn’t there.

  12. - Top - End - #12
    Orc in the Playground
     
    AssassinGuy

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    Default Re: D&D 3.5 Original Campaign

    Here's the next session's up

    Spoiler: Session 10
    Show
    This session began with the PCs healing up and heading down the stairs deeper into the dungeon. The chamber is empty but they spend some time trying to check for traps. This didn’t go out so well before without a rogue in the party but they try nevertheless, checking the broken potion bottles and the one chest that was left in the room. The chest is quite heavy and some knowledge checks revealed it to be sealed by blood. Zoe’s blood fulfills the draconic heritage but it doesn’t seem to be enough on it’s own.

    The party finds a note under the door, a message from a Skull Lord, one of the Oligarchs of Undeath. He (in a refined manner) threatens them because they broke into his lair and promises to bring death and destruction upon them and where they live and then bind their broken bodies to his will for all eternity. The party hears some rattling bones from beyond the door in this chamber and open it to find the outdoors. The tomb has led them back outside, though they haven’t been to this part of the forest before. They wander outside for a moment before finding a Huge Dragon Skeleton waiting just beyond the trees.

    Lady Mistsplitter charges and Jorvaskyr joins her, forcing the rest of the party to come along and help them. It’s a tough fight with several party members knocked out and close to death from the skeleton’s vicious attacks. In the end they just manage to destroy the undead creature before anyone dies, but they’re in bad shape.

    Spending a couple of hours to recuperate they place the dragon back in what they know realize was it’s burial chamber and argue over what to do with the treasure chest. There is some back and forth before they decide to take it with them. Traversing back through the tomb they reach the entrance and find Bartholemew who had come by to check on them and see how things were going. He’s quite intrigued by the chest and promises to study it right away.

    The next day they spend healing up and wandering around camp a bit. Aerin meditates in the morning with Gabriel and Zoe is given 9000 gold pieces from a very overtired yet exuberant Bartholemew. Bartholemew explains he was able to open the chest and found the gold inside and a lost dragon treasure. Zoe wants details but he says the true dragons have ordered him to keep it secret, but he’s very thankful for their help. Some party members investigate the food Bartholemew brought back and they find that there is indeed some human parts mixed up in there.

    The next day Gabriel invites Zoe to go with him and some other dragonspawn to deal with the Aboleth threat. He says they need to either kill the creatures or work out some kind of truce to let their army move by their territory freely. Zoe is hesitant but eventually agrees. The party is fully healed up by then and given some healing potions to help them on their mission.

    The mission goes well for the first part of the trek but as they get closer to the Aboleth territory, even as the scouts report nothing is wrong they find themselves lured into an ambush. An Aboleth takes out the Whitespawn Iceskidder and the scouts are all dead by the time they realize the trap. Skum leap out of the water to attack them and some transformed human archers and halfing rogues, servants of the Aboleths, attack the party. The greenspawn leapers take a minor hit, but most of them survive and the PCs manage to beat off the rest of the attackers easily with Gabriel’s help. Lady Mistsplitter has to be restrained when she was hit by a confusion ability the Abloeth used and Jorvaskyr punched Bearin a few times from it, but the effect ends and the session is stopped there as the Aboleth gives a challenge for the party to meet it and it’s brethren in the Grotto and prove their might to see if they are worthy of brokering an agreement with.


    Spoiler: Session Thoughts
    Show
    A good session. The dragon skeleton was slightly more challenging than I had thought it would be (though I thought it would be a fair challenge) and the rest of the session went well. The battle had some interesting terrain and the map got to be used a lot more than most of my battle maps which was fun. Trying to control all the dragonspawn and the enemies was a hassle and slowed things down a bit but overall the battle went well. Lady Mistsplitter’s PC couldn’t make it again and I’d find out before next session that they wouldn’t be able to make it for the next few months due to work. Luckily, I had a good plot point coming up that could be used to send off the character for a bit.


    I've noticed that my fights are often quite challenging for my players, to the point where I use homebrew rules to max out hit dice for the players at every level and extend the dying range to be -10 with an extra -2 before death for each level past first. These rules often save the players and they can still get quite close to death (like, we average one player a session going beyond -10, though no one has died yet due to my rules). I wanted to ask anyone here if they think that I'm challenging them too much, or that if it's fine as is. I want to give them some struggle and with 6 players they're able to do a lot, but I'm wondering if even with my homebrew boosts it's a sign that I'm pushing them too much.
    Last edited by Speeddemon87; 2019-04-04 at 10:30 AM.

  13. - Top - End - #13
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    AssassinGuy

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    Default Re: D&D 3.5 Original Campaign

    I'm back, with more exciting tales from my campaign.

    Spoiler: Session 11
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    : Gabriel wants to continue to the Grotto and isn’t too open to hearing the party’s objections about fighting them. They continue ahead, using the greenspawn leapers as scouts for the time being and making it to the Grotto. Two Aboleth’s sit in large pools at the far end of the battlefield and actually converse with the party a bit before the battle begins. They state the terms, a fight to the death/them being mind controlled and when Zaffrin questions if they are willing to be killed they just state that they are servants of a greater power and their deaths don’t truly matter (technically true, but they were mostly just being arrogant). The party questions if that power is Thoon and they react with an emphatic negative, despising Thoon. They refuse to answer what power it is that they serve, though.

    The battle begins, however Aerin and Jorvaskyr notice that there are enemies lurking behind the foliage and underneath the water nearby, attacking their allies, but no one is reacting to it… or to their words of warning. After the first round the effect ends and anyone that hadn’t seen through it realizes the Aboleth’s were messing with their senses. The battle begins in earnest with the Skum attacking the dragonspawn far more effectively now that they are in their element and a couple of human archers peppering the PCs with arrows. Westin critically resists the Aboleth’s mind control, but the two of them are putting out a number of other devastating mental effects as Jorvaskyr and the other melee fighters attempt to close the gap and beat up the Aboleths. Gabriel strikes a devastating hit with his battleaxe against one of them and both are being worn down by a couple of psionic attacks, but they’re still doing pretty well by the time their skum minions converge on the casters and the remaining archers focus on them as well. All except for one archer who calls Lady Mistsplitter by the name ‘Gitta’ and drops her bow. The barbarian refers to her as Salma and rushes up to embrace her mother. The other party members think it’s a trap, but the two of them then quickly run off the battlefield, Lady Mistsplitter looking to protect her mother.

    The battle takes a turn for the worst as many of the melee fighters are confused and Jorvskyr is dominated. A Wall of ectoplasm is made, separating the PCs from Jorvaskyr and Gabriel from the rest of the party. The Skum at least are repelled by Aerin, using Bearin and a summoned bear to rip into them. They hurt the casters a bit more before they die, but no one drops from their attacks, but they still have the remaining archers to deal with.

    Eventually the Aboleth’s call the battle, recognizing that the party is strong and if they continue they are likely to prevail, though the party will also likely lose many of their own members. They let Gabriel take a Jorvaskyr he knocked unconscious back and he works out the terms with the Aboleths. The party returns home, ready to rest for a long time after that battle.

    They spend a couple weeks while back in the camp, getting to know the layout and learn about the maps and where certain movement activities are. They serve as guard duty during most of this time and they get the feeling that they aren’t the most trusted, especially by Bartholemew (the Greenspawn Razorfiend has returned but it reports that Cormick escaped due to a persistent Tailwind that carried him beyond the Rezorfiend’s ability to track and follow). He invites them to go on a food gathering trip with him the next morning and they agree. They feel they have to leave this place, their actions have only made it stronger, but they think they’ll be too watched this time so they can’t leave on this outing. Aerin realizes that Bartholemew is planning on killing them regardless; if they don’t flee he’ll just attack the party and say they did try to escape. They agree to leave in the middle of the night to catch everyone off guard.

    Zoe is fearful but suggests using the tunnel that connects this base to the Science Division in Grandellia. She doesn’t like the idea of going there but she sees it as their best hope. They trick their way past the Whitespawn guard (whose partner is being ‘prepped for the morning mission’ by Bartholemew) and start running to Grandellia. They push hard through the night for 13 hours before collapsing and getting rest. Just as they finish getting ready in the morning they hear footsteps from behind them and suddenly the Greenspawn Razorfiend is upon them. The battle is brief as together the party quickly defeats the Greenspawn even with it’s tough hide and acid breath. The creature tries to flee, but can’t outpace the ranged attacks or Jorvaskyr’s sudden burst of speed (from his Sandals of Sprinting) and it is slain.


    Spoiler: Session Thoughts
    Show
    A really good session all around. The Aboleth battle was really fun, getting to use a large section of map tiles that had battles taking on all around it. Adding more tile pieces to help show the truth revealed from the Aboleth’s false sensory input was cool. The battle itself really got to showcase the powers and abilities of the Aboleths and the party worked well in putting counter offensives together. The Greenspawn battle was a bit rushed and pushed us over the time I wanted us to end at, but it was a good thing to include there and a fitting way to push everyone to 5th level. It would have been nice to have Lady Mistsplitter’s player there for the session but we messaged about what would happen and what they wanted Lady Mistsplitter to do, so that was good.

  14. - Top - End - #14
    Orc in the Playground
     
    AssassinGuy

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    Default Re: D&D 3.5 Original Campaign

    Spoiler: Session 12
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    This session was broken into the parts covering Verge and his journey to deliver the news of the dragonspawn army to Grandellia (his journey having taken up most of the time his player wasn’t there) and the explorations of the rest of the party as they tried to figure out what was going on.

    The tunnel journey was mostly uneventful after the Razorfiend attack save for the part where Zaffrin gained his psicrystal which he did by pulling a rock out of the side of the cave wall which turned out to be a friendly crystal he could communicate with.

    Verge had quite the journey, having to go around the mountain range, through the pass to Flagpoint, from there through Solace, and once past Solace across much of Grandellia to get to General Dralia’s fortress. He delivered the bare bones news to some guards outside of Solace (incidentally, Verge found Solace to be quite a weird place) and they sent it further up the chain of command, but they recognized that he should go and tell Dralia in person.

    General Dralia’s fortress was in the shape of a dragon’s head (a similar concept to the dragon tomb, but very different styles, the fortress more focused on thematics than accuracy) and Verge was met by several soldiers that took her to the General at the top. Dralia greeted Verge there, Verge being overly stiff (mostly in literal stiffness due to his age and trying to bow) but they got along well and Dralia informed him that Cormick Flugg had given her some of that information, but Verge helped fill in some holes in that story and told her enough about Zoe that Dralia narrowed down who she might be and where to look into for potential clues on the Dragonspawn army. Two locations were found, Verge going to check out what might be Zoe’s hometown while Dralia looked into the other.

    The rest of the party was being stymied by a wooden barricade. They had after many days reached the end of the tunnel and come to a locked door. Being reasonable people, they decided to set it on fire. The door burned and then they broke it, revealing a wooden barricade placed on the other side that had caught fire too. The fire burnt Jorvaskyr a bit and was starting to make it difficult for them to breathe before they broke through the barricade. They found an empty room, one that didn’t look like anyone had been in for a couple days. After that they explored more and found that this was 1) the science division room where Zoe had been captured , and 2) the place was abandoned. It had been cleared out completely (including the tower connected to it that seemed very similar to the one with the communication crystal in the dragonspawn camp).

    They could see Zoe’s town a quarter mile away from the building, so they left trying to reach it before the whether grew worse as it was already starting to get a bit snowy and bad outside. They arrived at the town and found no one there, the only signs of struggle being a few scratch marks on a door frame where a kid must have been dragged away. Everything else was deserted with most of the good food and ale gone, but a few bits left for the party to scrounge together. Zoe was mostly just being tramatized at seeing her town so empty.

    Verge arrived, riding through the storm to find the abandoned town that the party had arrived at. Some party members nearly attacked him, but luckily Westin spotted him in time and figured out who it was. The party reconnected, told each other what happened/what they knew and slept, heading out in the next morning. It took a few days of travel to get back to the Fortress, and on the 4th day, only a few hours away from the fortress, a pair of dinosaurs attacked the group. The party quickly found a far more insidious threat lurking above them as an Invisible Stalker attacked the group. Matilda (Verge’s horse) was badly injured by a Deinoychus before he managed to kill the dinosaur as it attempted to flee. The party managed to kill the invisible stalker and that’s where the session was called for the night.


    Spoiler: Session Thoughts
    Show
    : A good ‘reunion’ session. The psicrystal had been a feat Zaffrin's player had taken a while ago but this was the part where it most made sense to get the crystal (he took the friendly personality on it because he often found himself making diplomacy checks even though he didn't have an incredibly high bonus for it). Lots of drama, mystery, a hint of creepy horror, and a good battle to top it off. The Invisible Stalker was quite a nasty threat to the group with it’s natural invisibility, reach, and Combat Reflexes, and the party pulled together well to figure out where it was an vanquish it.
    Last edited by Speeddemon87; 2019-04-11 at 01:01 PM.

  15. - Top - End - #15
    Orc in the Playground
     
    AssassinGuy

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    Default Re: D&D 3.5 Original Campaign

    Spoiler: Session 13
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    : With only a few hours left to get to their destination, the party decided to press on, even with as injured as they were by their battle. They were very near to their destination, only a quarter hour or slightly more away from the fortress when Gabriel confronted them, flying towards them, intent on ‘punishing the traitors’. The party tried to talk him down, but that quickly broke down into violence. Gabriel denied their claims that Bartholemew could be evil quite vehemently and claimed that by killing them he’d make his father proud. Gabriel’s lightning breath devastated the party at the start (including killing Matilda) and several of them were in dire straights, but Zaffrin’s Time Hop power displaced Gabriel long enough for everyone to catch their breath and recover enough to kill the Half-Bronze dragon before the second Half-Dragon could fly in.

    The second half-dragon was General Dralia, something Verge confirmed when they brought him back from unconsciousness. General Dralia escorted the party back to the fortress and they recovered there while filling in the General on what they all knew. Dralia offered to take them with her to the capital, Drastrx. They agreed readily and set forth, spending almost a few days traveling there, with no one willing to attack the General or her soldiers along the way (except for a t-rex that got quickly cut down).

    In Drastrx the party was given the day to do with as they wanted and free room and board before meeting with the king the next morning. The city itself was quite resplendent and obviously contained much wealth and trade.
    Jorvaskyr trained at the barracks, fighting some of the soldiers, testing his skill against theirs. He did a little poorly at first but built up steam as he went on, fighting very evenly and eventually winning against a sergeant called Grex.

    Aerin talked to the head priest of the very large church of Drastrx, a Half-dragon called Gaen, and they discussed their faiths for a bit and the essence of peace and the cycle of nature. Afterwards he got a Chronocharm of the Uncaring Archmage.

    Verge also went to the temple, talking to Gaen, who he recognized as the Eldest son of the Emperor (Gaen recognized him as well). He asked Gaen about ‘Thoon’ and if he knew a deity by that name, which he admitted he didn’t, but would look into.

    Zaffrin and Zoe went to the shopping district and haggled their way (name dropping the Emperor and their meeting with him) to get an excellent deal on Anklets of Translocation from a shopkeeper called Montoyaz. Zaffrin sold the ruby he found within the force golem and got 180gp for it and Zoe gave Verge a masterwork longbow she found that she couldn’t use.

    In the morning they went to the castle, stated their names and were let in to the Emperor’s throne room, a massive room where Emperor Robert sat, adorned in magnificent garments and had a gold orb in his left hand, within a locked gauntlet and wrapped in chains. All around are several (around 20) attractive women in gold or silver dresses, mostly just standing or lounging around. By his sides are his children, Dralia and Gaen, and he has an assistant, a rather plainly dressed woman standing very unobtrusively off to the side behind his throne.

    Verge gives Robert his report and Robert says he’d like to do something about this (and he confirms he will act on the information they gave him), but he can’t wipe out the main camp as it’s in Laeverin territory and moving his troops there could be seen as an act of war. If Flagpoint was part of Grandellia, then he could have a patrol drift over and deal with the problem far more easily and without much incident. The Laeverin council will drag it’s feet and take too long with dealing with the issue, so he gives them the task of trying to get the people of Flagpoint to join Grandellia. They agree, and follow up on the question of Thoon to Gaen, who reveals that with Karen’s help (the aide standing nearby the Emperor), they think it might be a previously undiscovered aspect of the God of Absence. Emperor Robert makes sure to pay them before they go, having Karen give them a Bag of Holding filled with 20,000 gp.


    Spoiler: Session Thoughts
    Show
    A really good session (the only downside was that Westin’s player wasn’t feeling too well and had to leave partway through the session). The Gabriel battle was a thrilling and dangerous encounter and the party pulled through better than I thought they would, managing to kill him before Dralia arrived as backup. Exploring the capital of Grandellia was good, everyone got the chance to do their own thing for a bit before they were summoned before Emperor Robert the next day. The shopping section was more involved than I had thought, but really fun for everyone too. After the reward they got from Robert they’ll be doing some more of that next session before they head out to Flagpoint next session.

  16. - Top - End - #16
    Orc in the Playground
     
    AssassinGuy

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    Default Re: D&D 3.5 Original Campaign

    Spoiler: Session 14
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    After all their purchases were dealt with and they finished any minor tasks they wanted to in Drastrix, they headed back to Flagpoint. It was a longer journey than some had realized but they quickly adapted. Jorvaskyr got a ‘masterwork’ cart and carried most of them along, except for Verge who was riding his horse and Zaffrin who didn’t trust riding in his cart (which meant that their travel time wasn’t really reduced at all even with Jorvaskyr’s greater speed as they have to go at the slowest pace).

    Their journey was interrupted by an Ogress that attacked them, sneaking up on them and stabbing Zaffrin in the back before any of them had noticed her. Her large size and longspear led her to have devastating reach and strike out several times with her combat reflexes. She also kept on talking about spilling their blood and the Blood Reavers, which the party knew were a bunch of berserker tribes that would sporadically wipe out towns. The party was badly injured by her, but they also dealt some good blows to her, causing her to flee before she would be killed.

    The party recovered and was more on guard for the rest of their journey, but they luckily didn’t run into anymore problems. They had to go through Solace to get to Flagpoint, something Jorvaskyr didn’t want but was overruled by the rest of the party as any detour would be long and dangerous. Jorvaskyr agreed under the condition that they go straight through as fast as possible (which most of the party agreed to not wanting to be forced into slavery or having to deal with Solace’s weird rules). So naturally when Zaffrin made his Gather Information check to try and find rumors of Cormick Flugg he got a 1…. Which I ruled gave him a bad lead, deeper into the city state. Zaffrin convinced the party to let him chase down. He found the tavern where this pirate captain was and the rest of the party save Westin stayed outside while the two of them went inside. Another 1, this time on a spot check, nearly had him killing an innocent sea captain, but luckily Westin talked him out of it, getting him to go closer and look him in the face, which revealed that this guy was not Cormick Flugg. He bought the man a drink as an apology for angrily confronting him and then rolled a 1 on how drunk he got, which led him to getting completely drunk and stumbling out 4 hours later. Jorvaskyr was very much not amused and had the entire party leave in the middle of the night, intent on getting to Flagpoint.

    They exited Solace and were journeying to the main town of Flagpoint, passing by a few hamlets and small villages inbetween the town and Solace. They discussed briefly what to do about Westin given that he was wanted for the murders Eastin committed. Westin hoped that maybe they had forgotten about him, which was proved instantly wrong when he spotted the guards at the edge of town spotting him and calling for reinforcements. The guards confronted them as they approached, to which Westin turned invisible and teleported away, hiding so they couldn’t find him.

    The rest of the Adventurers Anonymous (the name they decided on for the group) accepted being taken in for questioning, if very begrudgingly on Zaffrin’s part. Detective Mara Onyx talked to them again and got their stories, asking to use Detect Thoughts to confirm, which the party agreed to. Their timeline confirmed that two more kills that had happened were when Westin was with them, so it was likely the work of Eastin. There had also been some violent assaults and a few people dropping into comas as of late, which was worrying. When the party told Mara about the Dragonspawn army she said that she’d talk to the governor about it, but no guarantees on what would happen. The party was let go and told to tell the guards immediately if they saw Westin.

    The party split up but eventually (mostly) wandered back together to rest in the Inn they had stayed at before. Lyra, the bard that had ‘muscled in’ on Zoe’s bardic territory was now in this Inn too, and the party found out that she and her sisters had been all over the town, singing and promoting their master, Draven who would be coming by for a big concert next month. Verge flirted with the town gossip, Ostil Shieldheart, a little, while Zaffrin was met by Verandra who was not too discreet in mentioning his connection to the now wanted for murder Westin. The psionics group didn’t have much answers for anything he was looking into, but Verandra said she’d look into it. He left, heading out to the forest to try and find Aerin, before giving up and just setting up his own tent. Aerin was confronted by a bulging humanoid that was moving menacingly towards him and noped out of there like it was the last train to nopesville, which is why he went to the Inn instead of the forest like he was heading to. Westin had snuck up to the rooftop of the Inn (past the guards who had been stationed there) before falling asleep due to how tiring the trip had been.

    Zaffrin was heading back to the inn to try and meet up with everyone when he saw a one armed figure kick on of the guards in the chest and run up the stairs. Aerin noticed him briefly as well, though Verge was distracted by Lyra. Zoe was still mostly asleep and Jorvaskyr was coming back from his workout. Westin found himself kicked awake by Eastin, who taunted him for a bit before he teleported away (they both have the Shadow Jaunt Maneuver) just before the guards burst up onto the rooftop, one of them looking injured and both and them saying how they were going to arrest him, so he turned invisible and fled again. The rest of the party followed after the guards and were then questioned again. Zoe feeling overwhelmed by everything that had happened in the past few weeks got very drunk and was staring at a photo of herself and her mother that she had recovered from her house. The rest of the party helped her recover and deal with her first hangover before taking her to a spa to have a restful day, where they all bought the deluxe package, something that the spa workers mentioned hadn’t been done in a couple months since Rickmourn Joysword had missed the session he had booked. This name was recognized by Aerin as the depressed elf that had handed him a bag of gold in the first session.


    Spoiler: Session Thoughts
    Show
    The first half of the session was good, I was glad to have a recurring villain character that didn’t win the fight against them, like most of the few surviving villains of the past had done. The second half however was a bit of a mess with everyone running about, though I did like giving them the chance to interact with the npcs and town a bit. I’ve got some big plans for the next one, just hoping they’ll bite the plot hooks I’ve set out

  17. - Top - End - #17
    Orc in the Playground
     
    AssassinGuy

    Join Date
    Nov 2014

    Default Re: D&D 3.5 Original Campaign

    Spoiler: Session 15
    Show
    Aerin left his spa treatment to go check out the address he got on Rickmourn. The house was suitably creepy to convince him that he needed the rest of the party to investigate, though not before filing a report out with the police. Westin was stalking the rest of the party skillfully, remaining undetected.

    They got to the house and entered from the back, using some masterwork thieves tools Zaffrin got to pick the lock and enter. Westin joined them, revealing his presence to the group and they searched the place together, finding a statue of a dead Lich King, Xitchen Wei, a powerful king of one of the nations that existed before Grandellia. The Oligarchy of Undeath was started by his minions, skull lords looking to resurrect him (they’ve lost a couple skull lords now and have added on some other undead to replace them). Jorvaskyr noticed some scratches by it on the floor and pushed it aside to reveal a hole and a ladder leading down.

    They went down the ladder and found themselves in a specious room, with a couple of bodies littered about. As they tried to progress to the doors, they triggered an alarm and were attacked by two hobgoblin zombies emerging from hidden side doors. The zombies attacked them a bit, but were quickly overwhelmed. Moving further in they went down a long narrowish hallway and were trapped about midway through, the doors on either end locked down, and the Bloodhulk fighter (the bulging creature that Aerin encountered before) came out of another secret passageway. Also a Wall of Sand popped into existence around them, making things very difficult for them. They couldn’t move well, or see, or speak, or even breathe due to the sand, though Zaffrin managed to disable it by the end of the first round, letting them quickly dispatch of the creature.

    They opened the doors at the end of the tunnel and found a throne room, with two thrones and a Mummy that had just left his seat to shamble forward so they saw him as they opened the door and many of them were promptly stricken with paralysis (the Necrosis Carnex nearby the doorway made this save even tougher for them). Only Westin, Aerin, and Bearin managed to not be paralyzed in fear by the Mummy, whom they recognized as Rickmourn Joysword. He accused them of trespassing in his abode and thought they belonged with the Thoon imposters, hinting that he turned himself into a mummy to resist them. There was a Desicator there as well that drained some Constitution before Jorvaskyr broke free of the paralysis and demolished it in two quick punches. The mummy hit hard and infected Jorvaskyr and Verge with Mummy’s Rot but was defeated before anyone else could be infected, once the group shook off the paralysis and fell upon him.

    He gave some dying words about how he never had the chance to resurrect his love before he collapsed upon his throne and crumpled to dust. Zoe started messing around with the gold and treasures the mummy had immediately after Zaffrin warned her about it (she had the highest appraise skill and wanted to check out the treasures) which led to Zaffrin taking 8 hours to find some help curing those confirmed infected (Jorvaskyr and Verge) and those suspected (Zoe). It took him a long time, because the scroll trade wasn’t as common here in Flagpoint as it had been in Drastrix. Eventually he found another group of adventurers, the X-viscerators and they had a Cleric that could make herself immune to disease who offered her services, though it was going to cost them a 1000 gold per person healed. It was a hefty price but Zaffrin agreed once he realized that the Mummy Rot couldn’t be guaranteed healed with a scroll. Aerin filled out a police report letting them know what had happened here. The X-viscerators followed Zaffrin to the house and set up base there, quarantining off the patients and preparing for the next day to heal them, all while Westin was stuck in the basement, trying to avoid detection.


    Spoiler: Session Thoughts
    Show
    They did go for the plot hook I dropped! That was good and it was fun to see the get together fully and take on the Mummy’s tomb. In hindsight, some of the traps and abilities the monsters had might have been a little too annoying (the wall of sand could have easily been devastating if it wasn’t for Zaffrin’s dispel). The Mummy paralysis was annoying for them too, though it helped make him stand out as a threat. I did like the synergy between the Necrosis Carnex and the Mummy even if he was a pain for the players to deal with. Verge got to show off the magic longsword and lesser flame crystal weapon augment here, his damage was almost double his usual, even if the player was absent and Verge had to be controlled by another. I’m not sure how the players plan to cover up Westin’s involvement

  18. - Top - End - #18
    Orc in the Playground
     
    AssassinGuy

    Join Date
    Nov 2014

    Default Re: D&D 3.5 Original Campaign

    Argh I keep on falling behind on updating this. 'Luckily' since I've had to miss running this a couple weeks I'm getting close to being fully caught up in the campaign journal as the PCs are in the plot

    Spoiler: Session 16
    Show
    : The X-viscerators are a 5-person adventuring group. They are made of Vosk (The orc swordsage that beat up Jorvaskyr in the first session), Rain (a mongrelfolk Totemist), Zara (a raptoran warblade), Devin (an Illumian caster), and Celia (the cleric that agreed to heal them, an Azurin Incarnate/Cleric).

    Westin was still in the basement trying to avoid detection and communicating with Zaffrin through his psicrystal. Westin decided to turn himself in, which had Zaffrin warning the X-viscerators that he’d be going to the police with someone else and not to be alarmed. They did recognize Westin from the wanted posters for him and were quite wary. Zaffrin reiterated that he was going to voluntarily go to the police station, which had one of the X-viscerators, Devin, say that they’d make sure he went there and collect the bounty.

    Zaffrin was quite upset about that, calling him a ‘greedy dickbag’ and would not budge on not letting Westin get taken in for his bounty. Eventually they ‘compromised’ to say that they’d take him to the police station together and Zaffrin said he’d insist on the fact that Westin voluntarily turned himself in.

    When they went to the police station Zaffrin and Devin raced ahead, Zaffrin getting there first and saying that Westin was voluntarily turning himself in. Devin said that the X-viscerators brought him in, to which Zaffrin used Time Hop on him. The rest of X-viscerators immediately got very tense and nearly turned him to stone, which Zaffrin just managed to resist before he said that he just put Devin through time and he’d be back soon. It took Devin 12 seconds to reappear at which time things calmed down and the police didn’t have to worry about a fight between adventurers breaking out right outside their station. The police took them in and locked up Westin very quickly, taking him to a cell that had a curtain placed over the window from the outside (to stop him from teleporting away to leave). Zaffrin gave his detail of events to the police and tried to stress again that Westin turned himself in voluntarily and that the X-viscerators shouldn’t get a bounty and wondered if Adventurers Anonymous should get a reward for killing the Mummy, but the officers there were not too impressed with Zaffrin’s previous behaviour/attitude towards them. Zaffrin left and joined the X-viscerators back at Rickmourn Joysword’s house.

    Mara Onyx came by a few hours later and talked to Westin, got his story and confirmed that it was just someone that looked a lot like him, but like a mirror image, missing the opposite arm. She read his mind with Detect Thoughts and he managed to show her ‘not-Westin’ and hide his own criminal background from her. She thanked him for the information and reprimanded him for making the police work so hard to get these pertinent investigation details. She gave him 500 gold to be given to the party for their work solving the disappearances that had been happening (They were victims the mummy took to make his undead minions).

    Westin rejoined the group and the difficult process of getting the Mummy Rot cured began. Celia didn’t roll great on her Remove Curse caster level checks and she was the only one capable of doing so. Zoe came very close to death failed Fortitude saves and a string of bad luck on the Restoration rolls left her with 1 Constitution before she was saved. After over a week in game, the curses had been removed and the diseases cured (during this week Zaffrin studied and learned a new power from the Psionic group, Control Flames). The house was going to be cleaned out of Mummy filth and the party left to sell gems and do what else they wanted.

    Vosk challenged Westin to a duel, hoping to see how well he could match him and who was the strongest Swordsage in Flagpoint. They had their duel outside of the Fairwind Fort/Inn, the de facto adventuring guild of the town. A couple of other adventurers were there, the rest of X-viscerators, Verandra, and even Beneyda of the Red Hand, the drow they suspected had kidnapped Zaffrin many sessions ago. Jorvaskyr and Zoe were off selling the gems while this

    Vosk won the duel fairly easily, managing to resist Westin’s stunning fist and avoid most of his other strikes, even with Westin’s invisibility and other tricks. He nearly killed Westin with the power of his final strike, but luckily Westin just survived it (Duels, even ones that turn out lethal, are not illegal within Laeverin but it is frowned upon to kill your opponent, though it is accepted that sometimes accidents can happen when two warriors test their prowess). Aerin liked Vosk and after Westin went down, he more openly cheered for his Orc friend.

    Jorvaskyr and Zoe sold the gems, getting slightly higher than the price they had appraised them for after a bit of haggling. The wanted posters had been changed to show more clearly that it was not Westin who was the killer. The killer had been dubbed ‘the Westin-look-a-like Killer’ and the wanted posters clearly showed the correct arm missing.

    Westin was taken out to a tea shop by Verge and Aerin, when he spotted ‘the Westin-look-a-like Killer’ beckoning him from outside the shop. He tried to secretly let the others know that, but his doppleganger saw that and just left a note for him, letting him know that there was ‘an acolyte of his that he wanted to kill’.

    Zaffrin went with Verandra and talked to Beneyda about who kidnapped him, but she didn’t know much about the creatures that ordered it. She said she wouldn’t do anything like that again and she readily accepted his payment of 20gp to tell Zaffrin if she ever saw Cormick Flugg after being given a very bad description of him that made him sound like a horrifying devil.

    Westin called a group meeting at the house and revealed there was a figure from his past, called Cole, and that he had systematically killed everyone he cared about. The party debated whether or not to work with the police against Eastin or to work with him against this acolyte. They decided to try and work with the police try to get more details from Eastin once they captured him, but suddenly a note slipped under the door, giving them an address. They realized Eastin had been listening in and decided to go to the police with this information. They ran into Mara right away who took in their information and decided to check out the address and try and prevent another murder and told them that the Governor wanted to have a meeting with them. The session end there, with them going to have the meeting next time.



    Spoiler: Session Thoughts
    Show
    A good session. A little rocky in the beginning and risky for the PC’s survival, but things turned out well. I’m glad that no deaths were caused by the Mummy Rot. It’s supposed to be dangerous (and it was) but would have been a rather anti-climactic way to have the first character death occur. It’s cool to see the group interacting with the rest of the adventurers in Flagpoint

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