Baldur's Gate II (5e campaign log)

[Abuzorg]

Great write-up as always.

Do you feel your players will keep on doing "chapter 2" quests for long before choosing between the vampires and the shadow thieves?

[J-H]

Great write-up as always.

Do you feel your players will keep on doing "chapter 2" quests for long before choosing between the vampires and the shadow thieves?

Thanks!
That was the first time I got to foreshadow the vampire/shadow thief conflict in any detail. I want to drop at least two more foreshadowings if possible. They aren't even talking about being ready to pursue Irenicus yet. In my head, I want them at least 7th level before they're facing a bunch of vampires in succession, possibly as high as 9th or 10th level. By the time they're in Suldanesselar they should be between 15th and 19th level. ToB will mostly be Epic Boon type territory.
They will level up to 6 after Korgan's quest is done, and I don't know what they'll do next. Windspear Hills? Unseeing Eye? Nalia should show up at the Copper Coronet. Maybe they'll feel up to challenging trolls. There are still lots of things that they haven't even run across yet.

Session 14: 11/5/2023
Late start due to Thanksgiving dinner potluck at C. Mergand’s player attended via Discord.

The party descends the stairs away from the spider area, finding themselves in a large room lit by Continual Flame torches. An elaborate Egyptian-styled mosaic is on the floor, and there are a lot of bronze doors on each side of the room…17 in total. They are cautious, and Ludwig says he’s checking for traps slowly and carefully. I roll Perception with advantage and get double 19s, so he spots the magic traps built into the eyes and beard of the figure on the mosaic.

Note: The party failed to heal up after the last battle before starting this one. I don’t know how badly, except that Korgan started the fight at about 37/65hp.

They keep talking back and forth and move towards two of the closer doors, split with two on each side of the room. They keep talking back and forth, which causes the doors to open. Before the session started, I decided that if they stayed off the mosaic, and beat a DC 14 Stealth check, and didn’t talk a lot, the doors wouldn’t open… after all, someone came through here earlier without triggering them. But no, they decided to talk back and forth across a large room with great acoustics for a while.

If you’ve played the game, you’ll recognize where they are. This is what the map looked like when the doors opened:


The traps were as follows, DC 14:
Eyes: Con save or blind for 1 minute
Beard: 2 levels of exhaustion, Con save for 1
Hands: Str save, or get thrown in the direction the hand points, into an empty room (take falling damage) and then the door slams shut, requiring an Athletics check to open.

They faced:
4 Zombies
4 Skeletons (only using bows)
2 Shadows
2 Ghouls
2 Mummies
2 Skeleton Warriors
1 Vampire Spawn

I had previously copy/pasted all the statblocks from Roll20 into a Word document and fixed the formatting to compact everything onto about 3 pages for ease of reference. It worked great in terms of not having to flip back and forth. I intentionally picked ghouls instead of ghasts so I didn’t have to track the aura.

It’s a lot of enemies, but they didn’t arrive all at once. The Skeleton Warriors had to spend a turn crawling out of the doors and standing up, and everything else had to dash once or twice to arrive. As mostly low-intelligence undead, they all went for whatever the closest living target was. The party handled the zombies pretty well, although they did take over a round to kill them all. The ghouls and shadows never landed a single hit, but soaked up fire for a while. Everyone saved against Mummy fear, and the Mummies never landed a punch. I believe Korgan beheaded both ghouls with Nat19-20s in the same round. Korgan took some hits, but Heavy Armor Master prevented at least 20 points of damage this fight.

The Vampire Spawn was the first real threat to arrive, managing to grapple Cormak, but it could never deliver by landing a Bite attack.
The big and only major threats were the Skeleton warriors. Here’s the statblock I came up with for them… these are designed to be the missing link in terms of undead bruisers.

Spoiler: Skeleton Warrior

Show

This armored humanoid skeleton looks just like that of a human, except three feet taller and clad in oversized chainmail and wielding a pristine greatsword.
Large Undead
Armor Class 16 (Chain mail)
Hit Points 96 (12d10+36)
Speed 30 ft.
Str Dex Con Int Wis Cha
20(+5) 14(+2) 17(+3) 6(-2) 8(-1) 5(-3)
Saves Str +8
Damage Vulnerabilities Bludgeoning
Damage Immunities Poison
Condition Immunities Disease, Exhaustion, Poisoned
Senses Darkvision 60’, Passive Perception 11
CR 6 (PB +3)
Actions
Multiattack. The Skeleton Warrior attacks twice with its greatsword and shoves once.
Greatsword +1. Melee Weapon Attack, +9 to hit, 10’, 4d6+6 slashing damage.
Shove. The skeleton makes an Athletics roll (+8) contested by the target’s Athletics or Acrobatics check. On a success, it either knocks the target prone or shoves the target 5’ away from it.

Of course, they typically shove before attacking.

They are indeed higher-CR than the vampire spawn. Once they finally arrived (they don't Dash), things got tougher for the party. One shoved Cormak down as he was held prone. Cormak used his Staff of Thunder and Lightning, triggering both effects, and his Channel Divinity, killing a mummy and skeleton outright and, damaging one of the two Skeleton Warriors, plus dealing 8 damage to 6 more enemies and 4 damage to 1 more from the thunder. Unfortunately, getting attacked for lots of damage while prone is bad, and he was shortly knocked unconscious.

Basically, the party finished off everything but the two skeleton warriors and a couple of skeleton archers who were standing in the back being ignored (outside of an occasional hit for 1d6+2 damage). The skeleton warrior combo of knockdown + damage is pretty hard to ignore, and at one point, everyone but Ludwig was down (he still had 40hp). He drew off one skeleton warrior, then ran in, healing potioned Cormak, then Cormak healed Korgan, and the party got back up from there. I totally fudged the dice for this part to cause a few misses, but my players will never know. They managed to blast one of the skeleton warriors down with lightning bolt, and Ludwig managed to land a sneak attack or two against the last one (he went most of the battle without sneak attack due to targeting/proximity/etc.).

Cormak used a 2nd level Thunderwave at one point. Mergand flipped between Hunter’s Mark (with quarterstaff and Fire bolt) and then later Dragon’s Breath, and mostly did Shield and cantrips.

They still have 3rd level spell slots and a few more slots available. The rogue can go all day, and so can the fighter, after a short rest. This is the balancing point of D&D 5e, although casters never seem to like it.
They loot the bodies and take a short rest, so everyone is near full. Loot:
Greatsword +1 x2
Pearl necklace worth 300gp
350gp… was 100gp, but the game has some +1 darts in them, and nobody needs darts, so I just straight converted it to gold.

I may have a 4th player. He’s talking about making a paladin.

[J-H]

Session 15: 11/19/2023

Last week skipped due to a birthday. 4th player is interested, but apparently D&DB ate his character sheet so he didn’t feel ready.

The party continued on into the tunnel leading out of the large room with the big huge fight from last session. Cormak has 2 levels of exhaustion, and Mergand and Korgan each have 1. Ludwig was the only character to have never been reduced to 0hp. They examine the entrance and determine that it was a secret door, but someone has already opened it… Beyond it is a 15’ wide stone hallway, lit by the occasional magical torch. They proceed down it, and it bends to the left just before an intersection.

Ludwig leads the way around the corner turning left and finds himself staring at a Skeleton Warrior not too far away. The fight lasts about two rounds, and the Skeleton Warrior lands both of its knockdowns, scoring a crit and a hit on Korgan for 40-something total damage in a single turn. They are definitely getting to experience melee crowd control. Cormak uses another charge from the Staff of Healing, and later in the session another 1-2 charges. They are certainly willing to use it up. The Skeleton Warrior had a +1 spear that deals +1 electric damage (they identified it later after almost leaving it behind through neglect; and they sell it at session end).

Beyond it, Ludwig spots a trap – small runes in the floor across the corridor – and then a sarcophagus against the wall. He hops over the trap and opens a sarcophagus, and it’s a mummy! I have them roll a dex check to see who goes first, and the rogue loses to a mummy with -2, so the mummy gets to whack him once for a pile of damage… all saves passed, though. The party shoots at the mummy and takes off about half its hp. Ludwig attacks, misses, disengages, and hops over the trap on his way out. The mummy does not know about the trap and walks into it. Poof, failed save, 3d8 fire doubled by vulnerability, and it’s gone.

Continuing down the hall, the party reaches a door. Ludwig opens it, and the party has a conversation with a slightly distracted and very old skeletal wizard sitting at a desk studying some scrolls. He asks if they are with the cowled wizards come to find him (they aren’t), and that he and his pupils had hidden down here a while ago. Partway through the conversation, someone asks, and they make religion checks, identifying the wizard as a Lich. Learning that he is certainly much more powerful than they, the party respectfully wraps up the conversation, but not before they learn his name (Neveziah) and get told to send his pupils to see him if they run into the pupils…it has been a while…

Returning to the main hallway, they proceed down it. Ludwig spots and identifies one trap, but misses another and takes some fire damage. They reach a larger room with an ornate sarcophagus near the middle. No threats are apparent from the door. Ludwig boldly steps inside with the rest of the party further back, and two mummies, already “awake” identify him as a thief and complain about their duty having been denied to them. Ludwig attacks one with his longsword, then moves further into the room instead of retreating behind the trap. He doesn’t go far, and both mummies can reach him. He gets hit twice while only having 15hp, and mummies deal 5d6+3 damage each on hit, so he goes down and gets to join the “exhaustion club.” The mummies go down pretty fast. Mergand has his last 1st level spell slot running for Hunter’s Mark, and 2d10+1d6 damage doubled with fire bolt is pretty helpful. Cormak does some healing.

The group examines the ornate sarcophagus and discovers it has been looted! The top is not centered, and the body inside has had its hands broken off to retrieve something they were holding. Korgan declares this the work of his old group, and gets the party to head to the Temple district promptly to check out the house of the buyer, Pimlico. Mergand does use Prestidigitation to clean off the grave dust, blood, etc.

They reach Pimlico’s house, and it is locked. They’re on the street, so they can’t spend a lot of time being obvious burglars in the middle of the day. Ludwig uses his invisible Mage Hand to pick the lock, and they step inside quickly when they see the pool of blood. Pimlico is quite dead. Luckily, he was the only one in the house – he seems to be a bachelor. They search the place and decide the old books are valuable but hard to fence. Ludwig does find a locked chest under Pimlico’s bed containing about 2800 gold. He picks the lock, having missed the trap, but succeeds on his dexterity save against the needle.

After some discussion, Ludwig uses Disguise Self to look like Pimlico. “Pimlico” leaves his house, locking it behind him, with the three party members. They agree on the story that, on their way to the Copper Coronet, Pimlico decided he had a meeting and left. They really didn’t kill him, they just helped muddle the trail of a real murder…

Korgan knows where his old group may be found, and indeed, Shagbag, Scrooloose, and Crazyface are busy getting drunk atop the Coronet. I use the Veteran (CR3), Bandit Captain (CR3), and Priest (CR 2-3) statblocks from the Monster Manual and a5E manual for them. Korgan charges in and soaks most of the attention… he’s the one the others mostly want dead anyway. Mergand finally uses his 3rd level spell slots for a pair of Lightning Bolts. The enemy priest puts up Spirit Guardians, which is a good chance for Cormak’s player to learn about it. The outcome really isn’t in doubt, though.

The party returns to the Copper Coronet and takes a pair of Long Rests to clear out exhaustion. They buy another 12 healing potions, and sell the +1 greatswords and the spear, coming up to about 15,000 gp. I ask what’s next, and Mergand’s player does bring up heading after Irenicus. They have a few other options on the table, but it’s time for more… A richly dressed nobleman in red approaches Mergand and hires the party for some simple monster-hunting (ogres and trolls) on his lands. His name? Jierdan Firkraag. They agree to take it on and start talking about heading there right away. However, before they head out, Nalia D’Arnise, a young noblewoman who “has helped plenty of poor people” finds them and asks for help defending her keep, which has “just been attacked.” She claims that it’s monsters, and she doesn’t know what kind yet.

They decide to help her first. I think they are going to drop Korgan so they can take Nalia along, counting on the Paladin to be the new AC tank. Korgan lets them know that if they want to hire him again, they will have to hire him. Mergand responds that it’s better to hire him than to lower him…

They also did some looking at the shopping options to figure out what items to get. I think they need to make a list of their top 3-4 buys to work through.

Next time: Surprise! It’s trolls! Lots of trolls!
I wonder if they’ll remember the two trolls they turned loose in the sewers under the Copper Coronet?

If I need the party to have legal trouble, they are now witnesses in confusing the trail of Pimlico’s murder. They can eventually get out of it, as they committed no real crime, but… man, they walked into that one. I’m not sure how to tie this into anything, but am open to ideas. Maybe questioning them under Zone of Truth if we get to the Roenall quest?

They level up to 6. Mergand is probably taking Fireball, and gets magical sneak attack. Cormak gets CD 2x/rest, and Ludwig gets Expertise in two skills.

If you look at the whole “Explore the tomb and retrieve the tome for Korgan” as an adventure, it’s well-designed for 5e. There are 6 combat encounters that don’t feel forced, a couple of exploration bits, an optional fight or two, a few traps, a social component, and loot spread out over several areas. Baldur’s Gate II is generally good D&D. Most of the dungeons are well-designed this way, and include at least a few points where there are real choices to make instead of a linear route. I enjoyed running this one today.

[J-H]

Session 16: 11/26/2023
Levelups were completed for two characters. The prospective Paladin player doesn’t think he can make it consistently, so he’s dropped.

A family member for two of our players is in town for a month on leave from the military before going halfway across the country for a couple of months, then back across the country solo for school for 3 months before getting moved overseas for 3 years. They’d mentioned him possibly wanting to come this week, and of course I said yes. He showed up with a 6th level Tiefling Eloquence Bard named Kiby. He knew how to use all of his class features and spells, didn’t have to be reminded of anything, and I was glad he came. He’s going to talk with his wife, but might be able to attend via Discord fairly regularly for the next 6-9 months (with a few gaps for travel). We’ll see.

After finishing levelups and recaps, we actually got started around 7:15 (played until 9:40). The group arrives at the De’Arnise keep, a smallish castle. The walls are intact, the gate is closed, and bodies are on spikes in front of the gate. Nalia De’Arnise identifies them as belonging to some of the household guard.

Not far away, a small rough palisade has been set up, and a few of the guard are there keeping an eye on the castle. Nalia does all the talking to them “off-screen” as they are her people. She admits that what has taken the castle are trolls. A lot of trolls. With a 1-week gap, I don’t think everyone quite realized that she knew this beforehand and deliberately kept it from the group, so I did have her mention that she’d kept it quiet because other people turned it down.

They start discussing how to get in, and bring up finding a secondary entrance, so I have Nalia volunteer that there’s a secret passage. Before heading in, the guard hands them 50 fire arrows (+1, +1d4 fire damage) and 20 acid arrows (+1, +1d6 acid damage).

I have them roll stealth checks to sneak in (“From what?
“The trolls on the walls.”
“You didn’t mention trolls on the walls!”
“Well, I would have if you’d tried to climb them.”)
So now there are trolls on the walls too.

Nalia moves a false rock aside, and they go through a short tunnel to enter a small room. Nalia casts Light on an arrow, and Ludwig gets Light cast on a rock handed to him by Kiby. The room has a locked door. Ludwig immediately moves to pick the lock, and does it. Nalia says “Oh, I was going to…” and puts away her lockpicks. Ludwig responds with a confident “Leave it up to the professionals!”

Here’s Nalia’s statblock:

Spoiler

Show

Nalia, Human Rogue 2/War Wizard 3
Medium Humanoid
Armor Class 16 (studded leather, ring)
Hit Points 35
Speed 30 ft.
Str Dex Con Int Wis Cha
12(+1) 14(+2) 14(+2) 16(+3) 10(0) 12(+1)
Saves Str +3, Dex + 7, Con +4, Int +8, Wis +2, Cha +3
Damage Resistances fire
Skills Arcana +9, History +6, Investigation +6, Persuasion +4, Sleight of Hand +8, Stealth +5, Thieves Tools +5
Senses Passive Perception 10
Languages Common, Draconic, Thieves’ Cant, Elvish,
Proficiencies Light armor, simple weapons, hand xbow, shortsword, longsword
Arcane Recovery. Recover a 2 levels of spell slots on a short rest. 1/LR
Sneak Attack. +1d6, weapon attacks only
Tactical Wit. +3 (INT) to Initiative rolls
Actions
Shortsword (melee). Melee Weapon Attack, +5 to hit, 5’, 1d6+2 piercing damage.
Dagger (thrown). Ranged Weapon Attack, +5 to hit, 20’/60’, 1d4+2 piercing damage.
Shortbow. Ranged Weapon Attack, +5 to hit, 80’/320’, 1d6+2 piercing damage.

Spellcasting. DC 14, Spell attack +6
[] [] [] [] 1st level
[] [] 2nd level
Attack
Cantrip: Acid Splash (60’, 2 adj targets Dex save or 1d6 acid damage)
1 Magic Missile (120’, 1d4+1 x 3 force)
1 Burning Hands (15’ cone, 3d6 fire, Dex half)
1 Chromatic Orb (90’, spell attack, 3d8 elemental damage)
Control
1 Fog Cloud (C up to 1 hour, 120’, 20’ radius heavily obscured)
2 Web (C up to 1 hr, 60’, 20’ cube; creatures that start turn in web or enter it must make Dex save; on failed save, restrained; Str save vs spell save to break free as an action)
Defense
Cantrip: Blade Ward (resist B/P/S until start of next turn)
2 Blur (C up to 1 min, attack rolls have disadvantage)
Utility
Dancing Lights (C, 120’, 4 lights)
Bonus Actions
Dagger (if TWF). Melee Weapon Attack, +5 to hit, 5’, 1d4 piercing damage
Dash. Move up to his speed.
Disengage. Become immune to OAs for rest of turn.
Hide. Make a Stealth check, if enemies can’t see him.
Reactions
Arcane Deflection when hit by an attack or fail a saving throw, gain +2 AC vs that attack or +4 on that save. Cannot cast anything other than cantrips on her next turn.
1 Shield (+5 AC until beginning of her next turn)

Possessions
De’Arnise Signet Ring. Permanently attuned, only wearable by blood members of the family, cannot be removed. +2 AC, +2 saves, resistance to fire damage.
Material focus for Chromatic Orb
1 100gp pearl for Identify
Spellbook
Fine clothing
287gp
various necessities

She has some other spells in her spellbook, but I’m not going to list them here as they probably aren’t relevant.

The next room has a few supplies, and they collect some more fire arrows and maybe a couple of other things. After this, a 5’ passage leads to the back side of a secret door. As they open the door, they hear one of the servants pleading and getting murdered. Ludwig is in front, and I push for “what do you do?” There’s a brief debate, and he pops out, firing with advantage and missing, sending a flaming arrow right in front of the murderous troll’s face. Most of the party wins initiative anyway, and manages to do about 15 damage to the troll. Ludwig enters the room, using his sword, and Cormak the cleric moves in, swinging the Gnasher club. The other three stay in the supply room, sniping through the hallway.

The damage adds up very slowly due to bad dice. Kiby casts some 20’ cube spell from Fizban’s that does a random magical effect at the start of his turn each round (Niz-something’s aura of Mischief). With Kiby using Vicious Mockery, the troll mostly misses as well. After a couple of rounds, the troll gets tired of all the loud and fiery stuff, moves over, and slams the secret door, blocking 60% of the party off as it holds the door shut with one hand (one less attack). Nobody even tries to force it open against the troll. The Fizban’s spell finally hits the troll with a Charm effect, making the troll friendly to the caster. It’s a strange spell, but we decide that the caster is probably aware when it succeeds. “Can I yell at it through the door?” I roll a d20 to decide and roll a nat20. The troll hears him, and on its turn, opens the door and eats a couple of readied attacks. Eventually, it goes down. I’m left wondering how bad this is going to go, that it took them 4-5 rounds to deal with one troll.

Mergand decides to pour some oil in the troll’s mouth and light that on fire, and cut out the troll’s heart, to make sure it can’t come back. After that, they drag the troll’s body into the supply area, and Prestidigitate the blood away. They leave the servant’s body there, as “they didn’t kill him.”

There’s a door to the hallway around the first floor (Nalia knows the castle, so I draw them a map), but Nalia goes over to the side and feels around for a secret door. She can’t find it, as she knows it exists but doesn’t know exactly where, but Ludwig (“like a professional!” can. In the next room, they meet Daleson, a very tired servant holding a spear. He is relieved to see Miss De’Arnise, and tells them what he can… at least 9 trolls in the castle, maybe more, including a two-headed one in the library. There are also some big beetle-like things in the dungeon (Nalia: “Basement. Daddy doesn’t use it that way. It’s the basement.”)… in the basement. Nobody makes their knowledge checks to identify these. He’s had to go to the kennels and kill some dogs to make stew for them a couple of times, but recently slipped away. This room is the armory, so the door is moderately concealed, and the trolls obviously haven’t found it yet.

After a bit of discussion, they decide he should leave. Mergand’s Passive Perception spots a secret door on one side of the room. He can’t get it open, but Ludwig’s Investigation roll can. Nalia signs for them to wait until Daleson is out. They get the room open and find a small magical forge with a handle and chains, and beyond it a room with some old dust-covered statues. They locate:
-Flail head (blue, cold)
-850 gp
-Scrolls of Aganazzar’s Scorcher and something else (don’t recall)
-Ring of Earth Control: Attunement, +1 AC, can cast Mold Earth, can try to charm earth elementals with a DC 14 Wisdom save. Mergand takes this.

They use the forge to attach one head to the flail. Nalia has made a couple of mentions of “Daddy’s flail” being kept in pieces.

After this, they need to decide if they want to go upstairs or downstairs. Downstairs is diggers and maybe more enemies. Upstairs is the library and the noble’s quarters. They decide on upstairs.

An aside: The De’Arnise Keep layout works for a computer game. A few parts of it are ridiculous for a tabletop game. The critical path to the basement/dungeons is to go upstairs, get a key from the library, then go through someone’s OCCUPIED AND FORTED UP BEDROOM to the Golem-guarded chapel, and then downstairs to the basement, where you can find the troll leader, the Umber Hulks, etc. That’s right… if the trolls upstairs and the trolls in the basement want to go back and forth, the only path is through a locked bedroom past the chapel that nobody can get into because the key is in the library. The linkages between floors are getting re-mapped on the fly for this place!

The first floor is centered around the Great Hall, which is sunken a bit below the level of the ring hallway. There are a few balconies from the hallway that give a view from above, and there are “A few” trolls in the Great Hall. Someone sneaks up and peeks, and there are 5… 2 big ones and 3 small ones (ice trolls; small, half HP, less damage, resist fire and need acid to put them down).

Kiby decides that he will be the distraction so the rest of the party can get a jump on the trolls. They split to three balconies while he moves around to the main entrance. I have them all roll stealth checks, and he gets a 3. He decides that Kiby is walking along playing a tune on his horn. One of the ice trolls comes to investigate, and they meet just outside the hall. It went something like this.

K: “Why, how are you doing today?”
T: “You not supposed to be here.”
K: “Ah, but I was asked to be here, and so I am here, and I am asking how you are doing today?”
(Roll Persuasion… troll gets a nat 20!; Kiby rolls a 3, but Eloquence Bard makes that a 10, and he has a +10, so it’s an even match).
T: “Fine. Hungry.”
K: “Oh, have you been having many good meals lately?”
T: “Hmmm…. Humans, humans good.”
K: “Ah… well, I am a tiefling. I do not taste good like a human… I taste like…burning and hell. Listen, I am here to put on a performance, a song, about destruction and raiding and digging. I would like you to help me.”
T: “Me like destruction and raiding! No like digging. Umber hulks did that, but I don’t like looking at them.”
K: “Ah, excellent. So, if you can go back in there and help your friends get together, I can sing my song. It’ll be a blast.”
T: “Make music? Me drum!” (slaps stomach in rhythym)
K: “Great! Just go have them get together in a group, and you can drum.”
This is all done at a very high energy level and a bit loud… Kiby’s player really SHOULD be playing a bard.
He walks in, preceded by the ice troll, and announces his song about destruction and the rest of the party gets a full surprise round in. Sneak Attack fireball (+2d6 damage to unaware targets, Bhaalspawn sorc), Lightning Bolt from Tempest Cleric staff, Sneak Attack from rogue, and Acid Splash from Nalia. The troll initiative block is mediocre, so by the time the last ice troll gets to go, the one who was going to be the drummer is the only one left.

Kiby uses Vicious Mockery and says the troll’s drumming was so terrible that it blew up his friends! The ice troll responds by blaming Kiby and trying to chase him down. It doesn’t last long.

They find a +1 dagger on one of the trolls, and Mergand adds it to his growing collection. Strange, for a sorcerer to have so many knives…

We stop for the night there.

Holy cow, I have never DM’d for a Bard before, let alone such a Bardy Bard. That was awesome. Also, it was good to see that their struggles against a single troll were just due to lack of commitment to the fight, and that they could in fact wipe out a group really easily.

I’m getting rid of the random yuan-ti in the castle, as they don’t make sense. For the yuan-ti wizard, I am subbing in a two-headed troll shaman with Stoneskin, Mirror Image, Confusion, and Acid Arrow.

[Kane0]

Well its a good thing the bard isnt going for the seduce-everything method.

[Batcathat]

An aside: The De’Arnise Keep layout works for a computer game. A few parts of it are ridiculous for a tabletop game. The critical path to the basement/dungeons is to go upstairs, get a key from the library, then go through someone’s OCCUPIED AND FORTED UP BEDROOM to the Golem-guarded chapel, and then downstairs to the basement, where you can find the troll leader, the Umber Hulks, etc. That’s right… if the trolls upstairs and the trolls in the basement want to go back and forth, the only path is through a locked bedroom past the chapel that nobody can get into because the key is in the library. The linkages between floors are getting re-mapped on the fly for this place!

Heh. I must've played through the game dozens of times but I don't think I've ever reflected on how little sense this setup makes.

[Amnestic]

An aside: The De’Arnise Keep layout works for a computer game. A few parts of it are ridiculous for a tabletop game. The critical path to the basement/dungeons is to go upstairs, get a key from the library, then go through someone’s OCCUPIED AND FORTED UP BEDROOM to the Golem-guarded chapel, and then downstairs to the basement, where you can find the troll leader, the Umber Hulks, etc. That’s right… if the trolls upstairs and the trolls in the basement want to go back and forth, the only path is through a locked bedroom past the chapel that nobody can get into because the key is in the library. The linkages between floors are getting re-mapped on the fly for this place!

My best fudging explanation for this is that there are/were other ways to the dungeons/cellar, but the damage/digging from the troll attack collapsed them, leaving the Golem-chapel route the only one that's still intact when Gorion's Ward arrives. The umber hulks would have dug a way out eventually, but they don't get a chance before you clear them out.
(of course the map is static even if you wait weeks, but that's a videogame for ya)

Very cool stuff from the bard though, and showing the power of Eloquence.

[J-H]

He said he's aware of the horny bard stereotype and is specifically trying to avoid it.

The game map does include several spiral staircases that are "collapsed" or "damaged." I may add one of these, but I don't think it's likely to be an issue. I have remapped all the floors in MS Paint (it's ugly) and split off the chapel from a bedroom. I guess it's not a chapel yet, maybe a monument or trophy room?
The golems in it do not make sense as something the invaders brought along, so I'm going to say there's a golem there (clay or iron) but that Nalia doesn't have the activation token for it (her father does, and he's dead). Still, she can get past it and retrieve "weapons stored there that nobody was actively using" for the Elven Court Bow and Frostreaver and the flail head.

Even if Nalia does come along she will want to leave the golem behind to help defend her family's castle.

I'm going to say that Lord De'Arnise is down in the basement/dungeon at a treasury type area, but it's hidden or locked up, and the trolls failed to get the info from them. This will allow Nalia to have funds to reward the party appropriately, especially since they are going to skip/miss some of the GP-based rewards, like looting Lord De'Arnise's body.

At this point, the only PC who may wield the Flail of the Ages is the cleric. It'd be an upgrade from the Gnasher.

[J-H]

Between Sessions
I’ve tried to engage with Mergand’s player over Discord PMs, but he keeps forgetting to message me back with his responses… so after 2+ months I’m just sending him the dream as is.

Dream 1:
Mergand finds himself in Candlekeep… yet not. The ground is bare and dry instead of covered in grasses and flowers. The pools and fountains are instead pits of starlight, and there is no sun or moon overhead…yet you can clearly see the walls rising around you and the fortress-library in the middle. This was your home for twenty years.

A dream of home. These dreams always mean something, don’t they?

Walking up to the doors to Candlekeep proper, you see that where the thick double doors stood is merely a fuzzy black outline. Do you remember what the doors look like? You struggle to.

It’s too late to go home. After the fighting in Candlekeep and your framing for murder, they probably wouldn’t have you back now. Once your home is lost, you can’t recapture it. Going forward, not back, is the path you follow.

The dream blurs for a moment, and you’re in another part of the grounds.

You see Gorion, or a statue of him. Next to him is Khalid, the Harper you traveled with, and Imoen, your adoptive little sister, who may still be back in Candlekeep making trouble with her pranks. You learned from all of them… but not enough. There is always more to learn.

It’s too late to learn more from them now, though. Two of them are dead for sure. You’ve seen it with your own eyes.

Do you remember their faces well? The statues seem indistinct when you focus on them. You should remember more. Suddenly, the statues collapse, dying before your eyes. The world goes black.

You open your eyes again. More statues, but different ones. You can identify the form of Sarevok and his allies.
Surely you remember his face, his glowing eyes in his spiked, armored helm… Semaj, his wizard… Angelo, the corrupt leader of the Flaming Fist, one of his cronies. They sought your death. They seemed so important at the time… and you killed them.

The statues collapse and die.

A chill runs up your spine. Something else is more dangerous… closer. Your spirit wants to focus on whatever it is. You can feel it.

Behind you, you hear the voice of your tormentor, Irenicus. “You resist, you cling to your old life as though it actually matters. You will learn.” He pauses as you turn to look at him.

“This dream is a portrait of what has happened and what may happen. Do you cling to the past, or do you seek the future through the pain?

“Do you feel the potential within you? Will you cringe from what you know you want, what you know you can take as your own?”

You know what you want. It is you, after all, which has brought us to the dream. Nothing is real…yet.”

You awaken.


Session 17: 12/3/2023

With arrival and general chat, we got in about 2.5 hours of play time. I guess I should stop worrying about it, and just enjoy the game going at its own pace. The party is going up the stairs. Who’s in front?

Ludwig is. He decides he’s opening the door to the stairs stealthily. There’s a troll coming down the stairs. It is surprised to see him, and Lugwig gets an opening round off, shooting it with a couple of acid arrows. It then rolls terribly for initiative and has multiple people pop into the stairwell to shoot it. By the time it gets to go, the troll is down to twenty or so hit points. It runs back up the stairs and slams the door behind it while yelling.

The party hatches a plot to ambush the troll when it returns for reinforcements, including spreading ball bearings on some of the stairs. I don’t recall exactly why, but Ludwig the rogue then goes up the stairs to listen at the door and look underneath. Upstairs are 1 troll from earlier, recovered to full HP due to regeneration (nat 20 stealth roll, it’s out of sight), and 1 two-headed troll shaman. Ludwig sees one pair of feet. The players talk back and forth for a while about what to do – a conversation between Ludwig at the top and some at the bottom of the stairs. Kiby the bard heads up. Now Ludwig sees four pairs of feet under the door (the shaman cast Mirror Image).

Right as I’m about to have the trolls open the door, Ludwig opens it. Initiative is rolled. Most of the party retreats down the stairs. The Shaman steps into the stairwell, casts Confusion (Cormak the cleric and Nalia De’Arnise fail their saves), and then backs up. What if the players set up a trap and the trolls decide not to walk into it? Unfortunately, the only effects of confusion are Nalia running off for a round; Cormak rolls a 10, and they both shake it off.

Some of the group go back up the stairs and engage, including Mergand launching a fireball down the corridor to hit only the trolls with the blast. Kiby the AC 16(?) bard somehow ends up in front and eats several attacks. I tried to have one of the trolls pick him up and throw him down stairs, but the troll flubbed the Athletics checks. Kiby does use Suggestion to try to get the troll shaman to point at his true self, but with the way the spell works, that just ends up with the real shaman pointing at himself, and all of the images pointing at themselves.

I think Ludwig shoots the shaman once, but otherwise the shaman takes no damage at all during this entire phase of the fight thanks to Mirror Image. The shaman also has a pre-cast Stoneskin up. It fires a couple of acid arrows and also attacks in melee once or twice. The party focus-fires on the big troll, and as it collapses to the ground, its body heaves and swells and turns into two smaller ice trolls!

The party focuses mostly on the Ice Trolls. It was a slow attrition battle as nobody wanted to burn many resources. The bard’s damage is vicious mockery (2d4), we had some archer damage with sneak attack, and not a lot else. Cormak does use Gust of Wind to blow the ice trolls down the hall, but they keep making it back. Kiby gets knocked down to 8 hp and uses a 3rd level slot on Healing Word. He almost does it a second time, but I ask “Are you sure about that?”
“Well, yeah. My only other 3rd level spells are Catnap and Slow.”
“Have you looked at what Slow does?”
“Uhm, no.”
He ends up using a potion of superior healing instead.

The Shaman decides it’s not a losing battle, and the two heads agree on it. It dashes off, turning a corner past the memorial/trophy room and heading around the perimeter hall. Mergand has Hunter’s Mark and pursues it by himself while the others stay and fight the two Ice Trolls (if they miss in a round, regeneration happens sometimes). I had drawn a map of the 3 levels of the keep (Nalia knows the whole place) and we used it like a minimap with tokens and colored dots moving on it, updating the location of the shaman every turn. Mergand was slower… by the time he turned corners to reach it, the shaman had reached the full-sized troll outside Aunt Delicia’s room and ordered that troll to help it. Mergand got one fire bolt off, and then started running back to the party. The Shaman tagged him with Hold Person, and Ludwig rounded the corner at the far end of the 80’ long hallway just in time to see Mergand get auto-critted twice and knocked to 0 from full hp.

The trolls move to engage the party, which also keeps the group from getting within 60’ of Mergand to Healing Word him. Kiby slows the lead troll (shaman made its save) and they kill it without too much trouble. The Shaman identifies Nalia as the red-headed girl they were told to keep alive, and targets her with Infestation to try to get her to move closer (it hits but she moves away). I forgot and used the troll voice and just pointed at a player and said “You make Constitution save!” for this. It was pretty funny.

Kiby moves up and Healing Words Mergand, who then Fire Bolts the Shaman in the back. “You back?”

The troll shaman brushes past Ludwig (OA missed) and grapples Nalia, then keeps going in an attempt to carry her off to the boss and escape the fight. They shoot him in the back and he dies, collapsing on top of the noblewoman, who is rather disgusted about it.

Letting the enemy run off to get reinforcements doesn’t pay off, and neither does letting regenerating enemies run away!

Low on hit points, the party elects to Short Rest with the benefit of Catnap. Nalia goes into the Memorial/Trophy room (the stone golem recognizes her and lets her pass), coming out with a flail head (fire), an Elven Court Bow (Longbow)+2, Frostreaver (Battleaxe +2, +1 acid/+1 cold damage on hit), and the Kneecapper (Warhammer +1, but +3 to hit and +6 to damage vs. giant-type enemies, which trolls are). They’ve been keeping these items for use later, or to award to suitable recipients, and it is definitely incentive time.

Unfortunately, only the cleric has martial weapons proficiency!

They are a bit low on resources, and still have Glacius (hasted full plate fighter), umber hulks, and the final troll boss fight. I’m probably going to cut the Umber Hulks down to only two or three. I see no need for a bunch of the “here’s a lone troll in a room” based on how this has gone.

All from “there was a troll in the stairwell room in the original, let’s get things moving fast!”

It was fun and a bit crazy.

[RandoMan]

As always enjoying the campaign log updates. Thank you for sharing!

[J-H]

Thank you.

Session 18: 12/10/2023

Cormak’s player went ahead and took me up on the Dex/Str swap that he had not made when switching from Trickster to Tempest cleric. He now has Strength 14 and Dexterity 10. We also remembered that he had not rolled on the Tainted Mind table when leveling up. In addition to his telepathy and Jump abilities, he now has Levitate! Not a great roll, but at least he has a theme going on. It’ll come in useful sometime, maybe.

I whipped up a summary sheet like I use for NPCs listing everything except his spells in one place, including his Reactions (get hit/deal damage and knockback) and Bonus Actions, and all 4 possible Channel Divinity uses. Character sheets are criminally poorly designed for players who don’t have an easy time holding a ton of options in their heads!
I think it helped some, although he still didn’t remember to use his reaction when getting hit.

The group moves to the library, where they fight an ice troll. They damage it down to 15/42hp, and then manage to roll misses and minor damage for 2 rounds so it heals back to nearly full hit points, and then Ludwig managed a crit or good sneak attack for 27 damage, and that was about it. Fire resistance and requiring acid to put down makes ice trolls tougher, even if they have ½ hit points and have less strength and fewer damage dice.

Checking over the library, they find a scroll of Minor Globe of Invulnerability and Conjure Minor Elementals, both 4th level spells. CME is on the Arcane Trickster list, but not the Sorcerer list, because Wizards of the Coast hates Sorcerers. Sorcerers also don’t get Magic Missile or Bigby’s Hand. Boooo.

There’s another door leading out of the library into a short hallway. The far end of the hallway is a secret door leading into the Lord’s bedroom, and just across and slightly down the hall is the Lord’s office / conference room / map room. Nalia is perturbed that the door out of the library is unlocked instead of being forced open. Odd.

They enter the office and see a man in full plate sitting in a chair, rocking back and forth, with a greatsword on his lap. “Glacius!”
“Ah, you’ve come. I will kill you for the glory of my new master, who’s magic has shown me the way!” Glacius slugs back a potion of Haste.

Glaicus:
AC 19 (Plate+Defense) or 21 hasted
HP 135
Speed 30 or 60 hasted
Str 18, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 12
Saves Str +7, Dex +5 (Adv while hasted)
2x Attack +8 for 2d6+3 damage, or 3 attacks w/ haste

Action surge 1/encounter
1 potion Haste (1 minute; +2 ac, adv dex saves, extra action)

This was a pretty tough fight. In the second round, Cormak cast Bestow Curse. It doesn’t require an attack roll despite being a range of touch…it’s just a short-ranged spell! Instead of picking option #3 (roll a 15 or higher with +0 or do nothing), he picked the “disadvantage on wisdom saves” option. Glacius used action surge and threw out 5 attacks, knocking Cormak to 0. Glacius sort of didn’t want to kill Nalia, so on the next round, the hasted fighter pursued Mergand, who had been playing peek-a-Hunter’s Mark Firebolt from the hallway. Mergand had earlier used 2 sorcery points to create another 1st level slot, and Shielded from 3 attacks before Misty Stepping and then dashing away through the library. Nalia followed while Ludwig the rogue healed Cormak.

Cormak got up and cast Spirit Guardians, then backed up a bit too far. Glacius charged in and engaged Ludwig. Despite the lower AC, our rogue has 60-ish HP (Tough feat, +5 from Helm of Balduran, 16 CON) and didn’t mind getting hit twice for 11 (uncanny dodge) and 11. By this time, Glacius was fairly worn down. Nalia ended up ending him with a critical-hit Chromatic Orb to the back of the head for 34 damage. Poor guy. I’m glad Cormak’s player is expanding his repertoire of spells!

This was a fun fight. Despite being only one fairly simple enemy, it had a lot of the characters moving around… mostly because nobody wants to stand next to a blender.

Looting the room, they got a set of full plate (Glacius), a flail head (acid), 3 potions of superior healing, and Nalia extracted a Wand of Frost (3 charges, 6d8 or 8d6 – don’t recall which I told them - cold damage, 1 target, Con DC 14 half) from her father’s desk.

They looked at the map and decided to check the other rooms, finding one that had an intact door that was apparently blocked from behind. After some knocking and yelling back and forth, the guard recognizes Nalia’s voice. He unblocks the door (takes a little while) and lets the party in. The guard looks both exhausted and very stressed. Nalia’s Aunt Delcia is… very sure of her place in the world, and most people’s place below her. She complained about the filth the party was tracking around on her boots, how long they took, how they are probably looting the place, etc…. nobody liked her. There was talk of barricading her back in, with the poor guard silently shaking his head and mouthing “no, please.” Mergand threatened to make the Aunt clean up the bloodstains herself.

The situation was eventually resolved without bloodshed but with much annoyance. Heading down to the first floor, Aunt Delcia is shown the way out of the castle, and the party reassembles the Flail of Ages.

Flail +2, +1 element damage per head (base damage is thus 1d8+2 magic+3 elemental). If you roll an 8 on your damage roll, the target is Slowed until the end of its next turn: Its AC is reduced by 2, its speed is halved, it cannot take a bonus action, and it can only make one melee or ranged attack even if it could normally make more.

They get the history spiel, and consider whether or not carrying around Rakshasa bait is a good idea. “We’ll get more battles and will level up sooner!”
Cormak, as the only strength-based and only martial weapon user, is now carrying around Frostreaver, Gnasher, the Staff of Thunder & Lightning, the Staff of Healing, and the Flail of Ages. Luckily, encumbrance is weight-based, not “location on your body” based.

They proceed to the basement, where they sort-of surprise a troll who’s sitting there eating. “What is he eating?” “It’s better to not ask.” “Oh, right. Troll.” It goes down fairly easily. Cormak gets to try out the new flail, and the nice thing is that with Str 14, he’s doing 1d8+7 damage. Minimum 8 damage on hit feels pretty good. Checking the room, they find more magic ammo (there’s a lot in this castle) and also a Shield Amulet (adapted version: 1x/day, you can cast Shield as a reaction). Ludwig, as our mid-AC high HP tank rogue, gets it.

The next room has some old torture devices. The room after that contains 2 Umber Hulks. They have 60’ tremorsense, so there is no surprise here. Cormak does pre-cast Spirit Guardians (his last 3rd level slot). Mergand has used his sorcery points to get back 2 more 1st level slots, and is now out of SP. The group is initially taken back by “DC 15 Charisma save or maybe lose your turn” but eventually remembers that Cormak’s shield renders him immune to confusion effects.

The door between rooms here is only 5’ wide, so the first Umber Hulk turn is all misses due to squeezing before it backs up. Mergand drops a fireball into the room, hitting both Umber Hulks for about 34 damage. The next round, the hulk squeezes into the hallway and succeeds in shoving Ludwig back, un-bottlenecking the door and entering. Nalia goes next, fails her Charisma save, and runs into the room with the other Umber Hulk! She manages to Shield most of its hits, and on her next turn runs to the far corner and uses the party’s only scroll of Fireball (which spreads around corners) to hit both Umber Hulks. One Hulk goes down shortly after, then the party finishes off the final one with Nalia briefly dropping to 1! Hit point, barely saved by Arcane Deflection’s +2 AC bump.

They check the old dungeon cells and find where the Umber Hulks dug into the castle. The room also has a few minor treasures (poison crossbow bolts) and some studded leather. “Is it magic? Is it better than +1?” “Yes, it’s a +2.” “I’m putting it on! My AC is now 17!” “Don’t you want to know what it does?” “My AC is 17. But OK.”
Orc Studded Leather +2 (studs are bones and bone pieces instead of metal): +2 AC additional against missile/ranged weapon attacks. Disadvantage on Persuasion checks.
To me, the situational +2 vs ranged weapons is cancelled out by the skill malus and this doesn’t rate attunement. Ludwig doesn’t think he’s used persuasion very much.

It was near 10pm, so we stopped. Next time, Tor’Gal smells gradunk (whatever gradunk means).

This was a lot of fun! Those familiar with the game will see where I moved a few things around a bit to work more smoothly (why was a wand hidden in a fireplace?). We are a bit lighter on some of the random consumables that are normally vendor trash, so I’ll need to calculate and up the GP reward a bit at the end. Cormak has only 2nd level slots left. Mergand has 1 3rd level slot left, and maybe a couple of 2nd level spells. They also have several scrolls left, including Aganazzar’s Scorcher. They have enough healing potions to face 3 trolls while being at nearly full HP, so I think they’ll be fine.

[Kane0]

Only one character proficient with martial weapons still surprises me, seems like thats quite a bottleneck for them.

[J-H]

It is, but it's a matter of class choices. There are only 4 base classes (Barb, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger) proficient with all martial weapons, plus some subclasses (Battlesmith, kensei, cleric domains, hexblade). 5e is pretty forgiving, in that you can do quite a bit without a magic weapon... although it sure helps. Ludwig has benefited a lot from the stock of +1d6 acid arrows.


Session 19: 12/17/2023

Kiby is back! The player intends to join long-term remotely, and is still thinking about what to play. We spent about an hour nerding about I, Robot, Dune, and various other book and science fiction topics, so only about 2.5 hours were spent on play.

I reminded the players to heal up, and a couple of healing potions were drunk. Mergand used his last Bhaal power to cast Shield of Faith on Ludwig, boosting the rogue’s AC to 19. This prevented 3-5 hits over the course of battle.

Initiative is rolled, and Ludwig opens the door. He sees Tor’Gal, an unusually large troll, and one other troll (the third troll had a great Stealth roll). Ludwig shoots Tor’Gal and stands in the door. Tor’Gal charges at him, grabs him, and throws him at Mergand, but misses. I had Tor’Gal throw people several times, and used the “non-proficient attack roll” version instead of a Dexterity save.

Tor’Gal moves into the room and, on their turns, the other two trolls follow – much to the surprise of everyone. This battle took between 5 and 9 rounds. They focused Tor’Gal for a while, but would occasionally hit the other trolls for damage that would get regenerated off. Nobody had 3rd level slots back.
Highlights:
Ludwig definitely dealt the most damage, backing out of melee and using acid arrows in his bow. Shield of Faith saved him from a lot of hits, but not all. At one point I rolled for a troll’s 3 attacks and got 1, 1, 20 against him. He got critted at least 3 times, but typically by claws (2d4+4 damage).
Cormak tanked some, and most of the damage he dealt was done by wielding the Flail of Ages. He did use up a scroll of lightning bolt from the party’s inventory, maximizing it… then both trolls got 18s on their saves for half damage. At one point Cormak was down to 4 hit points. He commented that it wasn’t worth using a healing potion because he’d die anyway, but they talked him into drinking one. He didn’t ever hit 0.

Mergand shot lots of fire bolts. One of the trolls ended up pursuing him into the U-shaped hall to the dungeon cells, which was medium-sized. There were 3 or four rounds where he’d Fire Bolt and move back, and the troll would dash (squeezing/half speed) to catch up, and get a disadvantage OA when Mergand repeated the same thing the following round. This went all the way around the hallway and eventually bumped into Kiby from behind.

Kiby tried casting Darkness to disorient the trolls and then persuading them to trade info. He asked for the location of Lord De’Arnise, which was something Tor’Gal could easily give away (back in there), but then Kiby knew nothing about anything else, so it didn’t really go anywhere. His last Bardic Inspiration was used by Ludwig to turn a miss into a hit, and he did Healing Words a few times.

Nalia’s a NPC, and the player holding her 1-page sheet forgot to check her hit points. She had 4hp. Oops. The trolls wanted her alive to give them the password for the magically warded treasury, so one eventually grabbed her and tried to throw her in there. In the darkness, he missed and slammed her against a wall. She spent a turn running into the next room and drinking a healing potion. She discovered her father’s body, and one of them asked my wife “What would you do in this situation?” She got focused on killing trolls, ran back out, and cast Aganazzar’s Scorcher from a scroll, killing Tor’Gal from behind. She got kill shots on the two most personal enemies in the whole castle!

One troll was left. Kiby tried to persuade it that all its friends were dead, and it would die soon unless it told them about the Stronger that Tor’Gal mentioned. The troll didn’t know anything about Stronger, but was persuaded that it should run away via the tunnel the Umber Hulks had dug. They hunted it down, with Mergand using his last spell slot to Misty Step over and Fire Bolt it.

Nalia has the party open the gates so that the secret entrance stays secret. A long rest ensues.

The next day, Nalia meets with the party after breakfast. In addition to giving them 15,000 gold, she explains that the castle will need a lot of staff hired and rebuilding done, and she doesn’t really want to stay there… and fighting was kind of fun. Can she come with them?
Kiby argues that she’s just seen a ton of bloodshed, and how is that fun? How is leaving home healthy?
One of the other players counters with “You weren’t here when we met her aunt!”

I’m not sure if they will take her with or not.

Ludwig’s player is pretty sure he wants to buy the Longsword of Balduraan (+2 Longsword, +2 saves vs. magic). There are better longswords, but they all require finding them. I don’t think the party is going to stop in the Gates district long enough to track down the Daystar, or search the grave district again enough to find Namaara.

I’m pretty sure they are going to go back to Athkatla to sell and buy, and I’m planning to start the Harper quest there, and then maybe have Valen show up with the alternative offer. I want them in town with at least one more bit of vampire foreshadowing, and I also would like to have them hear the fight in the Bridge District. Reynald de Chatillon is already statted up as a possible NPC as well.

I’m going to send a cleaned up version of the campaign log to date over to Kiby’s player for a “here’s what your character knows.” Pretty sure he’ll build something in the way of a heavy armor martial character. I’ve directed him to rpgbot for guides/help/options. He also has access to a lot of content shared on D&D Beyond from a previous campaign with someone else.

[J-H]

Session 20: 1/7/2024
Happy New Year! We’re back after being off due to the holidays. The party returns to Athkatla, with Nalia commenting that it’s a long walk (she usually rides or takes a carriage), specifically wanting to buy a Bag of Holding. They pass through the Gates District, but I never really “got” the “Aula and Tirvo” quest where you’re supposed to figure out that the two teenagers are egging each other into crime and should be broken up. Similarly, the Crooked Crane lich is pretty random. If I want them to get the Daystar there, I need to find a plot hook. I haven’t figured one out yet.

As they’re passing near the slums area on their way to Waukeen’s Promenade, Cormak hears the sound of fighting in a nearby alley. He approaches (the others follow) and find three people standing over another man who’s lying against the wall. They turn, and the one apparently in charge says something to the effect of “Crud! No witnesses! Kill them!” I used a Cult Fanatic statblock with a few more HP, and a couple of I think Thug statblocks with a few more HP, and they were pretty outmatched. Mergand started the combat by hitting two of them with a Lightning Bolt. The battle lasted about 3 rounds. The spellcaster tried Hold Person (2 targets) twice and nary a save was failed.

Cormak used his 1/day psionic Detect Thoughts ability on the enemy caster, picking up “No witnesses, we need to not be linked to this.” He asked aloud “Why did this guy need to die?” and picked up the thought “Harper.” The next round, he used the delving deeper option, and I think also a verbal prompt asking why, and picked up “If we’re linked to this, the Twisted Rune will have my head.” Ludwig then shot the enemy caster dead, ending the psionic link.

The man on the ground has black goo coming out of a wound in his side. Before passing out, he manages to gasp out “Poisoned…docks…Galvarey estate…docks…Galvarey.” They head to the docks, using two quarterstaffs and a cloak to make a stretcher. Reaching they docks, they go “Where’s the Galvarey estate?” They’ve barely been to this area despite it being mentioned frequently. With some prompting, they realize that Nalia might know where an estate is, since it probably belongs to someone rich and/or aristocratic. They reach it, and the door guard gets help and takes him inside, then pays them 100gp for their trouble.

As they leave the docks area, a cloaked figure with a magical quarterstaff approaches them. “You there, unwashed one. I would have words with you.” I ask, and Mergand’s player is fine with remembering him from their travels near Baldur’s Gate. He rolls a History check, and does well enough to have put together that Xzar was a Zhent after their last meeting. Xzar asks them to infiltrate the Harper’s hideout to look for Montaran (“Short. Halfling. Thief.”). They promise to meet Xzar at the Copper Coronet at sunset the next day.

After walking away, Mergand’s player says “I have no intention of helping that lunatic.” Curveball! I have to figure out how I want to try to resolve that quest. They give me a tool later, though.

Returning to the Copper Coronet, they meet with Bernard and have him send a message to the Galvarey estate that Montaran is trying to infiltrate it, and Xzar is sniffing around. Bernard has a ten year old that they’d rescued from the slavers run the message over.

They long rest, interrupted only by a relatively manly scream from the room next door in the middle of the night. Ludwig gets up early and waits outside that door. When the dwarf inside opens it the next morning, they engage in an extended conversation. The dwarf acts shifty and paranoid, talking about ghosts. At one point Ludwig asks if he thinks he’s being haunted and followed. “I think so, maybe? I tried changing rooms here and it didn’t help.” Eventually I ask “Do you have anything in your notes about ghosts? This might be something your character knows that you don’t remember.”
He checks “Oh yeah! So, is this ghost maybe a halfling? Do you have a teddy bear?”
They take it and go eat breakfast, leaving a child murderer alone. Cormak considers casting Bestow Curse, but he doesn’t have the ability to make it permanent yet. There is discussion of revisiting “Renny” (the dwarf) later when they can curse him with permanent long-lasting fear or fake haunting or something similar to make him have a long and torturous 200-300 years (dwarves live a long time).

They proceed to the Adventurer’s Mart, where we have a drawn-out shopping session that’s mostly people looking quietly at lists and not saying much interesting. They may eventually buy the Girdle of Hill Giant Strength or the Robe of Vecna or the Sensate Amulet, but for now, they buy 8 regular & 4 greater healing potions, and sit on their remaining 37,000gp.

They take the bear to the graveyard and wander around, but it’s daytime, so no ghost boy. In a more unkempt area out of the way, they hear moaning from a grave! They discover a half-buried live man, and help him out (Mold Earth is really handy for this; Ludwig has it). Tirdir tells his story of being approached on the Bridge by a man in bright red clothing, being knocked out, waking up, being asked about a ransom, and then being knocked out again before waking up buried. They make him some coffee (Create Bonfire to heat it), then escort him to his workplace in Waukeen’s Promenade, then make sure he gets home OK.

On their way, they spot an old gravekeeper trying to make himself unnoticeable. Ludwig starts the discussion, but then Mergand uses Charm Person and pumps the gravekeeper for what info he can get. No names, just pay and no questions, etc., he doesn’t want to get killed, etc. They give him some money so that he won’t raise a stink even after Charm Person wears off.

Mergand uses Disguise Self to make himself look like an old man with a walking stick and a fat purse. The others shadow him with decent Stealth rolls. He goes up and down the Bridge a few times. He spots a man in a bright red outfit people-watching near a house, but the man doesn’t do anything immediately. Mergand buys a piece of fruit from a vendor, then visits the tannery to inquire about custom work (“Sorry, I’m closed right now working on some special projects. I’ll be finished soon! Come back in a week or two.”) ha ha ha

He then goes to Delosar’s Inn (not far from Red Guy’s house) and flashes his heavy purse while getting some ale. The others slip in and act like they don’t know him, and we get a side discussion of what the equivalent of jalapeno cheese nachos would be that turns into “what’s the difference between cracklings & pork rinds?” which my wife helps settle.

As Old Man Mergand heads off the bridge, Red Guy approaches him with an offer to make some money. He and some friends are trying to complete a collection that’s about to go up in value, but need more money and there’s a good return on it. “What? Fartwork?” One of the other players commented “Oh, he sounds like he’s trying to sell NFT artwork!”

Eventually they get Old Man Mergand to go to the door. There’s a big guy inside the house and a dwarf. Mergand stops in the doorway when they try to close it and falls down. They pick him up, and he leans against the doorway again to stop them from locking him in. When the big guy grabs him to move him, he makes an attack roll “I hit him in the nuts!” (7 damage). Initiative is rolled.

I used 2x Bandit Captain statblocks with slight mods (+2 AC on one, +2d6 sneak attack on the other) and a Berserker statblock… I really wanted a bit more variation, but the stock of NPCs in the MM is pretty weak, and the Levelup a5e monster manual doesn’t have a lot. The big PDF of NPC statblocks follows the same trend. Lots of really low level NPCs, then a couple of 12th & 17th level ones, then nothing useful in between. I need to make my own at some point.

Anyway, I’ve never seen so many shoves in a game. Mergand tried to shove Red Guy out of his way so he could exit, Red Guy tried to shove Mergand so he could get INTO the house and away from the 3 people who just rounded the corner and started attacking, and then after Mergand retreated, the big guy with the greataxe came out and attacked him, then shoved him off the bridge into the water. Mergand used Misty Step to get up to the edge, and the next round, used Lightning Bolt to fry two of the 3 enemies to near death. Cormak popped Spirit Guardians, which finished them off at the beginning of their next turns. We’re left with 1 melee enemy with +5 to hit for 1d8+3 x 2 and no way out, and nobody in the party even below half, so no need to roll that out. It was about 10pm, so we stopped there, and will resume next time with looting the house and bodies, etc.

[J-H]

Session 21: 1/21/2024

The party proceeds with looting the bodies (Greataxe +1, <100gp). I include a pineapple on the sideboard in my description (recent Alexandrian post) but nobody does anything with it. Checking upstairs, they find a bound and gagged woman in upper-class clothes. They release her after checking both bedrooms to make sure there were no enemies, and escort her to her home on the edge of the government district. They did find a written but un-sent ransom note for 3,000gp (“about all we have” she mutters).

They ask what her family does, so that’s now the Spicer family, owning shares in ships trading spices with far-away lands. The group returns to the house to search it more thoroughly, and finds a strongbox with 5,000gp inside. They also find a key to the house, and are talking about making it “their” house. Deciding to get a nice lock for it, they head to Waukeen’s promenade. On the way, two of them hear raised voices down an alley. Mergand turns himself invisible to check it out, while Ludwig just sneaks down the alley (both of them roll well on stealth). They see a confrontation in progress between four armored men and six lighter-armored rogue types, with the armored leader talking about honor and agreements and protection, and the other side talking about turf and payments.

Ludwig’s high insight score tells him that it looks like they’re just seconds away from blades being drawn. The general consensus in the party is “Look, a gangland turf war. Let’s just watch.” They ask if they can tell what gang either side belongs to, but the group really hasn’t done anything with the Shadow Thieves, so they can’t tell. The armored leader’s wife? Mother? Girlfriend? Is insulted, and his greatsword comes out. The fight ensues. Mergand Misty Steps up to the roof, still invisible, to watch.

A brief description and a few tokens off the map covers some of the fighting, and then one of the two rogues moving along the roof to join in and shoot the Fallen Paladins in the back literally steps on Mergand (their stealth roll beat his perception roll, and he was right where they needed to move to). The rogue kicks Mergand (2 damage), and Mergand makes a grapple check to grab him (done) and throws him off the roof (success). Some initiative is rolled. Mergand gets up and shoots the other archer with a crossbow bolt of biting (+3d6 poison damage on failed save), doing 27 damage with a critical hit to a 32-hp thug. Cormak uses his psionic Jump to get onto the roof, while Ludwig rolls a decent Athletics check and uses his bonus action to move further to get on the roof. He grabs (grapples) the other archer and shushes him. The guy stabs him twice. Mergand Fire Bolts the thug with another crit, doing 30 damage. We have some byplay about how easy it is to murder someone… and Mergand heals 3hp. Murdering is quite a way to get success and treasure, isn’t it?

They again discuss letting the rest of the fight play out – the thrown-down rogue has joined it… but Mergand decides to move to the edge of the roof and places a fireball where it hits 3 rogues (all fail their save). He does nothing else, but this is enough to tip the scales of the fight. The leader of the armored figures, Reynald, calls him down and they talk briefly. Reynald offers his thanks, and says he may have something that the group can help with, as they are resourceful. The group agrees to meet him at the Copper Coronet around sunset. The Fallen Paladins are giving a healing potion to their fallen member. Mergand drops his 3rd level Cure Wounds (Bhaal Power) and heals him further.

They head on to Waukeen’s Promenade. Talking with a locksmith, they settle on a vey nice magically-enhanced lock (needs to be enchanted by Terrance, could take a week) for 300gp. Terrance is the same wizard-for-hire who shows up in the Baron Ployer sidequest that I will do sometime soon-ish. They never go to any inn except the Copper Coronet.

I sent a message via Discord PM to Ludwig the Harper’s player, as a “This is delivered when you get back to the Copper Coronet.” It’s a warning that Xzar is dangerous, and an encouragement to go along with the plan to infiltrate the Harper compound, or to just kill Xzar.

Reynald de Chatillon shows up first. We end up in a 15 minute side discussion about alcohol and soups, and he sets forth his quest: Anarg, his captain (who he’s mentioned a few times and who handles all the finances and details) would like a ceremonial cup from the Most Noble Order of the Radiant Heart. It has no inherent power, but is a symbol and a memento. He and his men are known and would not be able to go there without being captured or chased off at sword-point. They agree, and ask Reynald to potentially help them fight against a wizard. The plan was to kill Xzar.

Xzar shows up. There’s some weird power-plays around sitting properly in a chair (“With Monty gone, I thought I could go a few days without being told to sit normally and stop slurping my soup and not be weird.”) Mergand reports no success and that they may have a way in but it’ll take days (Xzar: “But what if they pull out his toenails and he talks?”). Ultimately they insult each other back and forth and Xzar leaves in a huff. I don’t know what happened to their plan. I thought they’d attack him and he’d Dimension Door out and then get tracked to the house where he and his apprentices and stuff are. I think they bailed on that plan due to not having all their spell slots.

They head back to the Bridge district so they can dump the bodies from the ransom house into the water at night. On the way, two of the party hear voices from an alleyway. Ludwig sneaks closer and hears a man standing in the shadows giving instructions to three people about leaving the Shadow Thieves of their own will (“Of our own will” they repeat), and how to report to their new posts to serve. They depart, and he goes “Oh, a witness. Come over here, why don’t you?” Ludwig fails his save vs. charm to approach. Mergand follows to the entrance of the alley and passes his save against charm. Ludwig answers a few questions, and Mergand starts whittling the head off a crossbow bolt to make a stake. When Mergand’s name is brought up, the vampire backs off and charm-tells Ludwig that maybe they should work together soon. It’d be a good idea. It turns into a bat and flies off.

Around midnight, the bodies of the kidnappers are heaved into the river, where they wash downstream to the ocean to feed the sharks (“This will never come back to bite us,” says Ludwig).

The next morning, they decide they need a plan to find Xzar. They travel around to visit Tirdir, the Spicers, the Copper Coronet, and put a message in to the Harpers to try to see if anyone can spot Xzar’s lair. Of course the Harpers know where it is….. but it’ll be a bit before they get a message back.

The party then heads to the Hall of the Most Noble Order of the Radiant Heart (that’s a really long name!). They say they have business they can’t publicly discuss and are admitted, and end up talking to Sir Ryan Trawl. Ludwig opens with a “So, what can you tell us about this guy Anarg?” that gets shot down with a “We don’t gossip.” More discussion follows, including revealing that they’ve had dealing with the Fallen Paladins. Sir Trawl admits that Anarg has been a magnet for those who have failed to uphold their vows and have left the Order. He’s involved in human trafficking and drug dealing (close enough) and they want him dead, but it’s hard to ask people to fight against their old friends. After some false starts where Mergand’s player starts coming up with an off-the-wall “we’re sent by the temple of Mars to help the servants of Tyr guard the cup” Ludwig takes over the discussion and swears as a Harper that he will stop Anarg and will do the best he possibly can to return the cup.

Sir Trawl gets the cup, and they depart. Mergand gets some scrap and uses Disguise Self to change his appearance to himself but with the scrap looking like the cup carried openly, then drinks tea out of it. He’s lining up to make Anarg mad on purpose.

They return to the house; Reynald had been asked to meet them there at noon, so he does. Mergand is drinking from the fake cup, but Ludwig shows him the real one (inspection passed). He leads them to a derelict ship docked near the Bridge district, and we leave off from the night… we all know that next session is going to have “roll initiative” pretty early on.

We’ll see if they manage to keep enough on the “honorable” path to make Reynald side with them. I have him statted out as a 7th level Cavalier and possible party member. During their discussions, he’s made comments about valuing honor and loyalty, but hasn’t mentioned anything about “good” or any other virtues. He’s also made it clear that his ejection from the order was “earned,” and that he regrets it.

[J-H]

Session 22: 1/28/2024

Cormak’s player is out. The party is priestless. It’s business for Thor…

Anarg meets Reynald and the party in a small courtyard (about 30’x60’). There are two alleys giving access, one of which the party comes down. One side of it opens onto the river, where there’s a derelict but floating ship tied semi-permanently. A member of the Amnish City Watch sees the group moving with purpose and weapons ready, and follows them….

Anarg confronts the party and asks how they stole the cup so easily in broad daylight. They dissemble and lie, but lie poorly. This goes on for a little while. Anarg, the Captain of the Fallen Paladins, still has sources. He says they made a deal and are betrayers. They counter-argue that the Order told them about Anarg’s dealing with slavery and illegal substances. Reynald acts surprised, while one of the other FPs chuckles behind his helmet. Anarg asks who he trusts more (or something) and Reynald falls in with him. Initiative is rolled.

They really screwed this up. I was planning on having Reynald and one other swap sides, but the group failed to display any sort of consistent honor or honesty. I gave them plenty of chances and they failed all of them!

Anarg goes first and advances on the chief liar, Ludwig the rogue, unleashing a flurry of attacks (he attacks 3 times with his halberd blade and once with the haft, being a PAM Fighter 11). One hits Mergand, who had moved up to the front to talk, and a couple hit Ludwig the AC 17 but lots of HP rogue.
The enemies:
Anarg, 11th level fighter (AC 19, HP 99, hits at +9 for 1d10+6 with a Halberd +1 3x plus PAM)
Reynald, 7th level Cavalier (AC 18, HP 60ish, Greatsword +7 for 2d6+4ish x2).
Fallen Paladin x 4 (AC 18, HP 48, Greatsword +6 for 2d6+3 x 2)
Since they were a man short, I removed the Paladin’s reactions (Interception style) and Anarg’s Heavy Armor Master DR, Parry (+4 to AC) reaction, and Pole Arm Master opportunity attack on people moving into range.

Mergand fireballs, hitting everyone except Reynald, and retreats (OA misses). I don’t recall precisely what everyone does, but all four Fallen Paladins move up on the only valid target, surrounding Ludwig and unleashing 8 greatsword attacks. He’s surrounded in a C-shaped formation (with Anarg being at one corner). Ludwig uses his one/day Shield amulet (from the De’Arnise keep), and only takes one hit. He disengages and casts Burning Hands, hitting 5/6 enemies for 8 damage (most failed their save, they have +0 on Dex saves).

The next round, the Amnish Watch member moves up, uses Bait and Switch to swap positions and move Ludwig farther back, then moves up and unleashes a flurry of sword blows against the Paladins, most of which miss, but killing one that had been badly burned twice. He then moves off to the side, and after Anarg moves up and attacks him, everyone is grouped together so that Mergand can Fireball all of them except Reyald. This wipes out the remaining Fallen Paladins and puts the enemy down to two. Terry, the Watch Member, claims loudly to have been watching Anarg and verifies the party’s accusations of human trafficking. Anarg’s responses are unconvincing, and Reynald ends up stepping back from the fight. Still, Anarg presses forward, launching a ferocious flurry of misses (thanks to bad dice and Shield) and cornering Mergand, who eats an OA to drop off the corner into the water 20’ below. On his next round, he Misty Steps up onto the ship and then fires a Lightning Bolt at Anarg. More damage is dealt, but he eventually falls.
Mergand has used all 3 3rd level slots, 2 2nd level, and 3 1st level slots. Not much left in the tank, but the two Fireballs knocked out a lot of enemies.

The party, the Watch member, and Reynald board the ship and free the slaves. They agree to all meet later at the Copper Coronet.

Meet Terry Gallagher, Human Battlemaster 6, and Dhampir.
The player and I talked about where his character was from, and one of his language choices actually provided the key inspiration. He picked Undercommon off the list of languages that could appear, and then asked what it was. After answering, I asked how he learned it, and that helped him build the entire story out.
Terry was a City Watchman back in Baldur’s Gate (I think). He was capture during a drow raid on the surface and enslaved for several years. At some point, Irenicus wanted to buy some “test subjects” from the drow (his dealings with the Matron Mother of Ust Natha didn’t come out of nowhere, did they? Not that the player knows this). Terry got half-turned into a vampire, and managed to escape around the time the party did. He knows he’s hungry for blood and is very afraid to go home, even though he’s been gone for years.
Given his background, working for the City Watch was a natural stopgap, his experience letting him sign on even though they knew he might not stay long. This was his introduction point, and him getting Reynald out of the fight helped substantially.
He has invested both of his ASIs into strength, hitting Str 20. Between actually spending some gold, and pulling from the party stock, he now has a Shield +1, Full Plate (and the Defense style), a Ring of Protection +1, and the Frostreaver (Battleaxe +2, +1 acid/+1 cold damage). At level 6 he has AC 23 and attacks twice at +10 for 10-17 damage. A real tank for the party! He only used one maneuver during the initial fight, and didn’t have all that gear then, though.

Terry goes off to resign from the watch. Reynald precedes the party and starts drinking at the Coronet. The group goes back to the Order and returns the cup, giving their report. Sir Ryan Trawl gives them Gloves of Healing, which are traditionally given to novices in the order. They allow the wearer to cast Cure Wounds twice per day. Mergand takes them.

Returning to the Inn, they discuss what to do next. Ludwig goes over to buy some stuff from Bernard (the Shield +1) and is told there’s a message, Harper stuff. Decoding it, he finds out that the Harpers know where Xzar is, but can’t guarantee he’ll be there tomorrow. They do their shopping. There’s also a discussion of whether to take Reynald or Nalia. They decide to stick with Nalia because she has spellcasting, and also because Reynald’s character arc is probably “he can build himself up to worthiness again wherever he is,” where Nalia’s is “She’s lost her family and doesn’t know what to do with herself, and maybe an adventure will be good for her.”
(They don’t know Isaea will show up soon, maybe I’ll foreshadow it).

After a short rest, Mergand converts some Sorcery points to spell slots and they go do recon. Xzar’s current house is two stories, part of a row of cheap townhouses that back up to more cheap townhouses (all occupied). There’s a front door and one window on each floor, with curtains drawn. The two neighboring houses both appear to be occupied. The group picks the one without a fussing child, and knocks on the door. No answer.
Instead of knocking again, they pick the lock, and are greeted by a bleary-eyed man who is quite surprised and a bit disoriented. A good persuasion roll and explanation makes him willing to take their coin despite it being handed to him by a guy in a robe carrying an entire bandolier of daggers (Mergand) who just broke into his house. Money talks.
They check out the layout and decide it’s probably going to be the same in all of the houses. This house has 8 men who live / sleep there, but 6 are out working and the other two work the night shift, which is why they found someone barely awakened by their knock.

They listen at the walls, but hear nothing. I decided that given this scenario, Xzar would no doubt have put some runes on the wall (probably in blood) to prevent sound from carrying through to neighboring houses, since he has zombies and ghouls and is teaching magic to two apprentices. The group hears nothing, and discusses cutting or breaking through the walls. The sound wards would have helped them for a while, but they don’t realize this and decide it’d probably be too noisy.

Someone points out “Hey, haven’t you met him? Did you meet the halfling he’s looking for?” This leads them to settle on Mergand disguising himself as Montaron to lure Xzar out, or at least to get him to open the door so they can get the lay of the land. The others will wait out of sight on the porch or nearby.

That’s where we end for the night.

They will level up as soon as they long rest. Since their last level-up they have completed one major quest (De’Arnise Keep) and two minor quests (Kidnappers & Fallen Paladins), but I didn’t want to have them level up in the middle of the day.

[Kane0]

Huzzah, another PC that can use martial weapons!

[J-H]

Session 23: 2/4/2024

Everyone is here. We pick up where we left off. Mergand casts Disguise Self as Montaron, who he had run in to back near Baldur’s Gate… 16+7 = 23. Success. He knocks on the door of the row house while the others wait just inside the door of the place they bribed their way into next door.

Terry is going “Are we sure this guy is evil? Why are we killing him again?”

Contrary to their expectations, Xzar doesn’t answer the door. Instead, it’s a young woman wearing low-key wizard robes. “Mr. Montaron!” Mergand staggers inside, mumbling something about being hurt (having disguised himself to be beat-up and with a fat lip to address any vocal differences). She tries to shut the door, and he collapses to the ground, rolling a nat20 on the disposal check. She (Sanasha, one of the apprentices) goes to get a healing potion, while the other apprentice goes to the stairs in the back of the room to call Xzar down. Mergand takes the healing potion and starts to stand up.

Also in the room are three figures in cloaks standing near the back (zombies), and a big crate or something covered in a piece of fabric (2 ghouls in a latched crate). The undead were created by Xzar, and have +10hp and +4 to hit. Xzar appears on the stairs. “Monty! How did you – “ (Player “Is that him?” me: “Yes” him: “Fireball!”)
It hits every single person in the room, starts some minor fires, and almost everyone fails their saving throw. Xzar did not prepare Absorb Elements, and besides, everyone’s Surprised and can’t take reactions yet. All those 30-ish HP undead now have about 10hp left.

The ka-boom of the fireball is the “go” signal for next door. Initiative is rolled. Two players get to go, then Xzar, then two more, then the apprentices, then Cormak, and only then the undead.

Nalia misses, Terry moves up but doesn’t do much because he’s still unsure about breaking into a house and fireballing everyone with no warning. Xzar hits Mergand with Bigby’s Crushing hand, grappling him. Ludwig runs into the room and misses (Shielded, I think), Mergand fires off a Fire Bolt or something that misses (don’t recall), then Sanasha and Prebek, the apprentices, pop Blur and Mirror Image respectively. Sanasha moves away, provoking an OA from Mergand, who rolls double 18s for his disadvantage and breaks her concentration with a thwack from his quarterstaff. Prebek moves over and opens the crate so the ghouls can escape. Cormak then enters the room and unleashes the 9d6 lightning bolt (DC 17 half) from his staff of thunder, frying one zombie, Prebek, and badly injuring Xzar down to low single digit HP. The 34 damage also ends Concentration on Bigby’s Hand.

The undead finally get to move up, but the zombies have to dash and only one ghoul scores a hit. Nalia and Terry attack the undead dropping two of them. Xzar then fireballs the entire group, retreating upstairs and out of sight. Sanasha Magic Missiles Mergand, dropping him to 0, and retreats up the stairs. The remaining ghoul is finished off, and Terry chases Sanasha, cutting her down on the stairs with his superior speed and battleaxe.

They search the top floor and don’t find Xzar. They do find documents marked with Zhentarim symbols that Ludwig the Harper recognizes, as well as a number of spell scrolls (Cause Fear, Summon Elemental, Dispel, Summon Undead, Danse Macabre, Animate Dead), a Quarterstaff +1, and 2 100gp pearls. Also, they put out the interior fires.

They head out of the house, disappointed that their quarry eluded them. I ask who’s leaving first and Mergand drinks a healing potion. Ludwig and Terry step off the porch and onto a patch of Grease. Terry falls. A fireball streaks down from the rooftop across the street, exploding in the doorway and hitting everyone. Terry goes to 0hp, having started the fight at not full HP and then having been Fireballed twice. Xzar had grabbed two greater healing potions, then Dimension Doored to the roof across the street, and while the party searched the house, had laid down Grease in front of the door and drunk the potions. Disadvantage from a prone target notwithstanding, Mergand tags him with a Fire Bolt, then Ludwig hits with an arrow (I think I remember that correctly). Terry’s the last one to go before Xzar gets to cast again. The player says he doesn’t have anything to do, and after some time and prompting, I remind him that he has Spider Climb. He gets up, runs across the street, Dashes up the wall, then Action Surges and chops Xzar to pieces with his axe.

They retrieve the body, help bystanders put out the fires, and leave.
Loot:
Bracers of Protection +1 (+1 AC, does not stack with other armor-type AC like actual armor or Mage Armor). Mergand takes these, as it boosts his AC by 1 when Mage Armor is down.
Namarra +1, Longsword that can cast Silence 2x/day. It made sense for Xzar to have it, as the Crypt King random thing was never going to happen.
1500gp statue of Xzar (material component for Contingency)

That fight had 3 fireballs and a lightning bolt! Unfortunately for Xzar, he did not have Absorb Elements, and his Contingency was pre-written as Stoneskin upon taking 10 points of B/P/S damage. He took no weapon damage until the final blow. Oops!

They cart the body to the Harpers, who offer to dispose of it. They ask, and are told Montaron has been dead for days, but they were using him as bait. They depart with thanks to the house they “own” on the Bridge district.

They all level up to 7!
Ludwig gets Evasion, 2 2nd level slots, and Hold Person.
Cormak gets 4th level spells (Control Water & Ice Storm from his domain, and prepped Stone Shape)
Terry gets 2 maneuvers (Sweeping Attack and Trip Attack), Know Your Enemy, and Advantage on Death saves (houserule)
Mergand gets 4th level spells. From his subclass, he gets Locate Object and Phantasmal Killer, and then he picks Polymorph. More on that below to not disrupt the narrative.

The next morning, the locksmith comes and installs the new magic lock, freshly enchanted by Terrance.

They go to the Adventurer’s Mart and sell some stuff, and buy more potions. They mention being “out of jobs.” Bartermann lets them know that he’s heard Watcher’s Keep is looking for some experienced and well-equipped adventurers to renew some wards, and there was also a kid in last week looking for help with wolf attacks out at some place in the sticks called Umar Village. He sent the kid on to the government.

They consider both of those options. With some prompting, I remind them that they have other options in their notes… note-taking has apparently been spotty. Monster-hunting in the Windspear Hills, a cult of the Blind in the Temple district, and right now I don’t recall the other thing they had noted down.

Mergand orders a comfortable wooden reclining chair with ottoman to be delivered to their house, and Nalia gets a better bedroll. “It’s good to walk like the common people do, but the ground was so LUMPY last time!” Nalia is in favor of leaving town, as she doesn’t want Isaea to realize she’s here.
“Who?”
“My…fiancee. His daddy is nice, but he’s such a boor! And he’s a jerk. He works with the City Guard.”
“Oh, certainly.”
(guess who’s going to find them soon…like maybe if a description of them gets noised about as being involved in some paladins getting killed?)

As they walk out of Wakeen’s promenade, a hooded woman with a silky voice asks them to move to someplace a bit quieter with her. She tells them that, whether they know it or not, their contact Gaelan Bayle is with the Shadow Thieves. She represents someone who also has an interest in the person they are hunting down, but who can help them for a much lower price.
Valen: “The shadow thieves are using you, you know. They will.”
Player: “How do we know you won’t?”
Valen: “We will, we’re just honest about it.”
If they’re interested, they just have to visit the Graveyard district at night. Her boss will know they have come to see her.
Mergand asks if they’ve met the boss before. Valen says no, they’d know if they had.

I PM Terry’s character that the person they just met seems familiar. Pale, cool, and not a lot of blood, similar to him. Terry the character has a bit of a freak-out that she was a dhampir, and shows the group his fangs, his pale skin, and tells his tale of being a half-vampire – as though him walking up the wall earlier wasn’t a clue enough!
The other characters mostly take it in stride. Someone comments “Everybody we meet has something weird going on with them here.”

They head out for the Windspear Hills for some SIMPLE MONSTER HUNTING. Oh yes, that’s all that happens there. We leave off with them topping a hill and seeing a group of six ogres heading up the slope towards them.

DM Notes: We are on the slide towards Spellhold now. I want them to be around level 9-10 when they get there, so that they end up around 16-18 at Suldanesselar.

When they get back to town, Isaea will probably show up to “save” Nalia (I need to figure out the script for that), which will prompt them digging around, which will get Ludwig to the inn in the Docks where Baron Ployer is hanging out, so that’s two sidequests to run that are not as combat-focused. I’ve pre-seeded Terrance’s existence with the locksmith already.

I do need to figure out how to more convincingly fluff full-plate paladins as ogres. Maybe they’re ogres in armor, and they have bladed clubs? I fully expect a Fireball to be their opener, though.

Mergand wants to take Polymorph, and use it to turn into a melee character so he can fight and kill stuff in melee, then turn back to a spellcaster when he loses concentration or gets reduced to 0hp. The problem is that, at this level, he can turn into a Giant Ape (157hp, 2 attacks at +9 for 3d10+6 damage), which completely overshadows any two PCs in terms of HP and damage. We had an open discussion about how this was a balance issue. I think I’m going to settle on some sort of scaling form, similar to the “Generic Wildshape” statblock… and of course after spellhold, some Slayer is going to creep into the form. Open to other ideas!

I have also started another Bhaal dream by PM. “Life…is strength.”

[Kane0]

Mergand wants to take Polymorph, and use it to turn into a melee character so he can fight and kill stuff in melee, then turn back to a spellcaster when he loses concentration or gets reduced to 0hp. The problem is that, at this level, he can turn into a Giant Ape (157hp, 2 attacks at +9 for 3d10+6 damage), which completely overshadows any two PCs in terms of HP and damage. We had an open discussion about how this was a balance issue. I think I’m going to settle on some sort of scaling form, similar to the “Generic Wildshape” statblock… and of course after spellhold, some Slayer is going to creep into the form. Open to other ideas!
[/I]

Like a weaker but not crappy version of Tensers Transformation? I did something similar for Guardian of Nature a ways back

Spoiler

Show

Guardian of Nature
4th-Level Transmutation
Casting time: 1 Bonus Action
Range: Self
Components: V
Duration: 1 minute
A nature spirit answers your call and transforms you into a powerful guardian. The transformation lasts until the spell ends. You choose one of the following forms to assume: Primal Beast or Great Tree.
Primal Beast: Bestial fur covers your body, your facial features become feral, and you gain the following benefits:
- Your walking speed increases by 10 feet.
- You gain darkvision with a range of 120 feet.
- You make Strength-based attack rolls with advantage.
- Your melee weapon attacks deal an extra 1d6 force damage on a hit.

Great Tree: Your skin appears barky, leaves sprout from your hair, and you gain the following benefits:
- You gain 10 temporary hit points.
- You make Constitution saving throws with advantage.
- You make Dexterity- and Wisdom-based attack rolls with advantage.
- While you are on the ground, the ground within 15 feet of you is difficult terrain for your enemies.

[J-H]

Session 24: 3/3/2024
We’re back! Except for Mergand’s player. He’s out ill.
I resolved the Polymorph conundrum by just saying there are no dinosaurs or giant apes in the setting. This takes out all the really problem-causing forms.

With Mergand out, the party doesn’t have ready access to as much firepower, so I reduce the 6 monsters they run into to 5, and swap the description to Ogrillions with breastplates and shields, which are an ogre/orc hybrid, and thus medium in size (this is to improve verisimilitude with the illusion). They start about 50’ away.

Nalia has Fireball and goes first. They discuss using Fireball, but decide that they don’t want to blow a 3rd level slot right away, so she just misses with a Chromatic Orb. The first two “ogrillions” then move 30’ closer and ready attacks for anyone who comes into range. Terry accepts, charging forwards to attack, and then Cormak drops a Sleet Storm on the entire group of enemies.

The fight goes on for more than 5 rounds. Each enemy has AC 18, 59hp, and attacks twice per round at +6 for 1d8+3; once per round, they can do +1d6 thunder damage and knock an enemy back 10’ & prone on a failed strength save. This is a simplified version of Thunderous Smite, but nobody was familiar enough with paladin spells to notice that what they were doing was basically a paladin Smite spell.

The party is victorious, but Cormak takes quite a few hits, and uses the final charge on the Staff of Healing. Three of the five were killed by Ludwig’s archery (sneak attacks, often in the back), one was beheaded by Ludwig (steady aim longsword), and the last Ogrillion goes down to an axe in the back from an OA as it charges at Ludwig after he downs the next-to-last Ogrillion. There were a few sub-optimal decisions, and it was easy to tell that everyone was getting back into their characters after a month off. The smite-knockback helped add some mobility to the fight, although Terry’s AC 23 nearly never got hit. A few times during the fight, the ogrillions call them monsters or murderers and promise to slay them.

DM: “What do you do after the fight?”
Player: “We loot the bodies.”
DM: “Breastplates, longswords, shields…”
Player: “What kind of shields?”
DM: “It looks like just regular well-made shields… but as you pick one up, that’s odd. It looked plain, but now that you’re holding it, it has the symbol of Helm on it.”

They check another shield, and once it’s off the body, it has a holy symbol of Torm, god of Loyalty, on it. Both are associated with paladins. They continue to search, and I have Ludwig notice that the head of the one he beheaded…doesn’t look like an ogrillion. It looks like a human head. He makes an Investigation check to disbelieve the illusion, and then they use a scroll of Dispel to break it. They have five dead paladins on their hand that they have killed.

There’s discussion of whether or not anyone will know, which I inform a bit by pointing out that they haven’t just murdered 5 people - they have murdered 5 rich and connected people, because street urchins can’t afford to get the armor or training to join the Most Noble Order of the Radiant Heart. Their characters are all very bothered and feeling bad and guilty about this. The discussion goes on for a little while, and then a man with a longbow calls down to them from a nearby hill, asking what went on.

They give their story, and he asks what brought them to this area. They start to counter with “Who are you?” and then realize that they are in no position to be making demands or asking questions. With a bit of prompting (it was more than 3 months ago), they name Jierdan Firkraag. The man introduces himself as Garen Windspear, and says that Firkraag is the one who has deprived him of most of his ancestral lands. He still holds the deeds, but not much else. It’s always done deniably, so there’s never anything specific he can call for help with, but orcs and attacks and coincidences…. And the name Firkraag behind it all. There’s some doubt, but they roll Insight checks and ultimately decide to trust him because he’s not really asking anything of them.

They ask for Garen’s help resolving the situation… I didn’t have to prompt for that or anything, they’re in a pickle and know it! He agrees. He has contacts and friends in Athkatla, including some in the Order. He’ll go get his cart and will take the bodies to Athkatla so they can be raised from the dead, and so things can be settled with the Order. He does say that he’s sure they will demand justice in some respect. The party discusses, and they don’t really want to be fugitives from justice. They figure they’ll end up owing the Order restitution, but that’s better than the alternative. Two of them stay with the bodies to keep vultures away, while the other two go to the Windspear cabin (a rather large cabin or hunting lodge). Garen returns with the cart, and they load the bodies into it respectfully. He’ll be gone for 3 or 4 days, and asks that they help protect his cabin, especially his daughter Melinda, his only family member left.

I ask what they do at the cabin… this was their chance to stand watches, follow Melinda around, set up defenses, or anything. Instead, they decide to stay busy helping out with chores and tasks around the cabin to keep them from focusing on the guilt of killing the paladins.

On day two, someone goes “Where’s Melinda?” “What do you mean, where’s Melinda?”
She was last seen heading to the outhouse… they go there, and find a note inside, stuck to the wall with a dagger:
I give you the opportunity to earn back your honor, and more. This game is interesting, but it drags on and on. Come, let us meet and decide who is the better "person." In the northeast is our battleground. You will know it when you see it. Yes, I think you will know.

She was kidnapped with use of Silence and Dimension Door… in the BG2 game it happens in front of the party, with two wizards and some orcs teleporting in. In this case, since they did nothing to protect her, I felt no need to have it happen in front of them.

Further discussion ensues. They realize they screwed up, and quickly pin the easy kidnapping on magic. There is extensive debate about going and meeting Garen halfway to let him know his daughter is gone, waiting for him to return so they can tell him, or just going after her now. Ultimately, they decide that the least bad choice is to go after her now, rather than wait just to tell Garen that she’s missing and then go after her. They all know it’s a trap… but they need to go to clear their names, and retrieve a girl they were supposed to be protecting.

They head northeast. I roll for a random encounter and get double 1s, so I throw an Ankheg at them. Cormak beats the Perception check to detect the movement and readies an attack, which hits. The Ankheg goes after him, misses, and the party kills it in one round.

They find ruins to the northeast – an old gate, and a walled courtyard leading into a large cavern or cave entrance…some kind of underground facility used to be here. As they approach, they see an orc duck inside. Ludwig yells after it, but gets only the sound of distant laughter back.

We’ll pick up here next time.

1. This worked out perfectly and is another example of GREAT quest design. The opening combat has a few clues that they could look back at and feel like they missed, and the party is under threats not to their money, not to their stuff, but to their reputation. The quest hook is such that they emotionally want to engage with it because they really, really want Firkraag dead at this point… even though they know it’s a trap.
2. This could have gone off the rails in several different ways, including the party cleric (7th level) simply casting Revivify on one or more Paladins. If that happened, they would have had a corroborating witness. I’d have had the Paladins split – one with the bodies, and one or more with the party, potentially giving them NPCs for the upcoming fights. It didn’t.

This was a lot of fun. This had a lot of intra-party discussion and debate about what to do next and what the right choice was. It’s too bad Mergand’s player couldn’t make it for the “oops we murdered paladins” part.

[Batcathat]

That does sound like a less frustrating version of events than in the game (even if the outcome was largely identical), since it involved the party making some actual decisions and investigating things rather than having the whole thing very railroaded.

[J-H]

Session 25: 3/10/2024
We got through 5 encounters in about 3 hrs 10 minutes, with a bit of downtime and a few discussion breaks. I did about 4 pages of prep for this – 1/3 of a page diagramming King Strohm III’s tomb and where the traps are, notes on where in the MM to find various creatures, plus plus abbreviated statblocks for the vampiric mist, the Kamikaze kobold damage, stats for Samia’s team (I have a special surprise addition there, anyone want to guess?), Tazok, and Conster. If you don’t know what these mean, you’ll find out in a couple of weeks. 

After Mergand’s player was caught up on why the party is charging headlong into a trap, they entered, heading down a broad, dark tunnel. Nalia and Ludwig (the two with rogue levels) both lack Darkvision, so Mergand casts Light on an arrow in Ludwig’s quiver. As they reach the end of the tunnel, it opens out to a large natural cavern, albeit one that has seen some modification and has a more clear and level floor than most. There are also hobgoblins waiting in ambush on either side of the door, although they roll poorly on initiative (4 hobgoblins, 1 captain, plus Chieftan Dig-Dag, who retreats immediately). The party rolls through them in about 2 rounds with a critical hit or two, and little to no damage. By this time, Dig-Dag is well out of range of Darkvision.
There is also a moment of questioning as to whether or not these are real goblins, but they do speak in the Goblin tongue, which Cormak understands.

The party hears spellcasting in the distance, and then 6 Bless-boosted arrows fly at Ludwig, scoring 3 hits. He’s there all lit up, and the enemies are more than 60’ away, so nobody can see them. A couple of people dash or move forward, revealing that there are 8 hobgoblins (1 captain, 5 regulars, 2 shamans) behind a chest-high wall built between a few stalagmites. Mergand is able to move just close enough to drop a Fireball 10’ behind the wall. Good-bye 11hp hobgoblins! Only 3 are left. I should have boosted their HP enough that they’d have a chance of at least surviving a failed save vs Fireball.

The two shamans fire Guiding Bolts at Ludwig, hitting him twice. Terry dashes forwards, vaulting the wall and landing next to the captain, who attacks him. After that, it’s cleanup with no more major damage. The party loots the bodies, finding more daggers, shields, swords, longbows, and some gold. They proceed forward into the cave in line abreast with a 10’ space between each of them for better visibility.

Around the corner await 3 Kamikaze Kobolds, plus a Rakshasa transmuter…. I roll stealth for the first one, and Cormak’s passive perception beats it. He gets to go first, and instead of moving to see around the corner, he just casts Light on a rock and tosses it forwards so Nalia and Ludwig can see. The first kobold runs towards the party. They offer to make friends because it is small and cute, even though it’s also red and kind of swollen and maybe glowing a bit. Then someone decides to attack it, and it explodes (5d6, 15’ radius Dex DC 12 half). A couple of people get to go, then two more turn the corner. Terry moves back, as he’s discovered that he has not a single throwing weapon, and he doesn’t want to close in with them. Mergand hits the back kobold with Chill Touch, causing it to explode, which kills the closer one, which also explodes, damaging only Cormak.

After this, they start to move cautiously around the corner. Ludwig and Nalia take the lead, but unfortunately can’t get quite close enough to see whatever is there due to the limited range of Light (after this, the player running her discovers Dancing Lights on her character sheet, which fixes the issue). It casts Blink and vanishes.

The group moves closer, with Ludwig and Nalia standing next to each other. On its turn, the Rakshasa blinks into existence, attacks with Green-Flame Blade (hitting both), then again with its scimitar, targeting the apparently softer and weaker Nalia. Mergand uses See Invisibility, which lets him see it and identify what’s going on. This is repeated the next round, and people start wising up with readied actions – but their positioning is terrible, so it can avoid most of them as it blinks out 2 or 3 more times successfully, plus a couple of cantrips “hit” but do no damage. Then everyone figures out where to go and hits it a few times with readied attacks, but it manages to knock Nalia to zero after multiple hits… but it doesn’t blink out, so it gets hit a LOT and dies after its very next turn.

Nalia gets a regular and greater healing potion, plus a cast from the Gloves of Healing, and they identify the ring. Here’s the description, because it’s fun.
Ring of Fire Resistance: 'Batalista's Passport'
The grand mage Batalista intended this item to aid in his travels in the
plane of fire, and it is said he repeatedly summoned a Salamander from that
realm to aid in the construction of this ring. Not being known for their
patience, it is likely he should not have pestered his "instructor" quite so
much. The finger bearing the finished ring was indeed untouched by the
inferno that claimed his tower. Had that finger still been attached,
Batalista himself might have fared better.
My adaptation of this is: If you wear the ring, you have resistance to fire damage. If you attune to the ring, you have immunity to fire damage.

That’s worth an attunement slot (probably) and will keep this pretty useful for whoever has it for a long time. It goes to Terry, who’s a bit light on attunement and who’s was a bit down earlier in the fight having no ranged attacks and no way but a readied interaction to deal with the blinking rakshasa.

Somewhere around here, Ludwig’s player refers to his notes and comments that Lord Jierdan Firkraag has indeed set up lots of games, very funny. I think they’re learning to hate him.

They give Terry about 10 daggers and 4 handaxes.

They explore the rest of the cavern… there’s a big pit down to the west, which they don’t go look at (I was slightly concerned they might try to rappel down to Firkraag), and off to the south, a sunken area with a lot more stalagmites/tites, a black pool, and something shiny on the far side of the pool. Shiny gets their attention! Ludwig starts climbing towards it, then Mergand decides to do Create Bonfire next to the Shiny. That makes the Vampiric Mist in the area mad, so it coalesces and moves up. Terry gets there first, and bait-and-switches Mergand out of melee range. The Vampiric Mist attacks him twice, but can’t hit an AC that’s up to 26 due to the maneuver. He is going to be a nightmare for vampires if the party manages to pick up the Mace of Disruption or if they realize how useful Azuredge is and buy it!

During the next round of combat, Mergand Misty Steps and moves and dashes to get to the shiny thing, finding a beheaded skeleton with a chunk of wood through its ribcage, and a skull with fangs. Ludwig also rushes over there and picks up the shiny amulet. Despite 2/5ths of the party going off to loot in the middle of combat, the Vampiric Mist’s 65hp go down pretty fast (I think Terry critted again). I should have put two there instead of one.
Using their 2nd of 3 charges, they identify the Amulet of Protection+1 and give it to Nalia.
Mergand takes the old vampire skull and ties it on to his waist as a trophy(?).

They then head in through the double doors to a 40’ long, 25’ wide room with arrow slits on both sides, and a group of 3 orcs on each side firing longbows through the arrow slits (slight HP and Dex boost). Terry moves into the room and dodges, and of course they can’t hit him. Cormak invokes the Thunderclap power of the Staff of Thunder & Lightning. The entire party saves, as do most of the orcs, so it’s 12 damage to the party and 24 to the orcs. Mergand moves over to one side and Fireballs the archer hallway, even though it’ll hit himself. He was very happy when I told him the 3/4ths cover gave him advantage on his save, as he’d rolled a 3 and was about to do 30 damage to himself.

The door at the far end of the room is locked (they checked). Nobody looked for the entries to the arrow halls, and nobody had a high enough Passive Perception. I wonder if anyone will ever think “How did the orcs get in there?”

After this, it’s a couple of rounds of “hitting someone with cover giving them AC 19 is tough”… the last orc lasted two full rounds because nobody could land a hit, even with them all running past. On the flip side, the orcs (+4 to hit, 1 attack per round each) didn’t do so great at dealing any damage, especially since people were moving in and out of the room, dodging, etc. Behold the power of cover!

We stopped there, and I think they are going to short rest next time. This was fun. 5 combats (or 4, with one being a two-part with the hobs) but each one was different and had interesting things going on. Although these are mostly “easy” combats, I can definitely see resource attrition going on. They’ll have to long rest somewhere. King Strohm III’s tomb being warded (preventing Samia from entering, and not looted by Firkraag’s minions) is probably a good choice.

Again, this is a very well designed D&D dungeon. My prep work has all been on the monster statblock side, plus relocating Samia to be in a less blatantly “I’m totally tricking you” location. Whoever designed these knew what they were doing and created a very good tactical D&D experience.

[Distracted DM]

This is a very cool concept- I ran my own BG1+2-inspired 5e campaign but heavy on the word inspired. Running a straight BG2 campaign is something I imagine many folks have aspired to.
I appreciate you sharing!

How do you and your players find the rules changes you've made have gone? I missed if you said that you rolled any of them back, or further tweaked/fiddled.

[J-H]

Most of them haven't come up.
-The fighter is pretty new and hasn't had to make any death saves, or used Indomitable yet.
-The only rogue change hits at 15.
-They have felt exhaustion at 0 a few times, but that's not a new one for me.
-Cleave through usually gets forgotten.
-They have used up a couple of consumable magic items (wands, and the staff of curing), and I like how it's a semi-limited resource versus "you have this spell 3 times a day forever for free."
-Not many Magic Resistance (+save) items have come up yet.
-I do see that i overlooked quarterstaffs being two-handed only. I think I'm about 10 sessions late to start enforcing that!
-The Vampiric Mist was the first Proficiency Draining enemy they've faced, and its +8 just doesn't cut it against the fighter's AC.
-I did forget about Con drain from dying... only one person has had that happen so far. I think this one's in the "toss" bucket.

I am still enjoying the minimal prep time. I can use the online maps and guides and only have to figure out item adaptations and what statblocks I'm pulling from where.

[J-H]

Session 26: 3/17/2024
Terry’s player couldn’t make it this time, so the party is Fighter-less, but it worked out okay (mostly). They decide to short rest, as they’re in a room that’s locked on the side they haven’t cleared. Firkraag isn’t out to kill them, not really, so he’s going to let them go ahead and take a few pauses. After all, the game is no fun if the other player drops out early.

After short resting, they unlock the door, and find another hall with archery slits on both sides…They are very wary, until they realize that it’s empty, and a mirror of the room they were just in. I do point out that the archer halls are connected, but they don’t ever look for how the archers got there in detail. The next set of double doors is also locked (DC like 14-15), and when Ludwig opens it, he gets a clay golem in his face with two hits for 30-something damage (it won init). I went with resist slashing/piercing, vulnerability to bludgeoning with it. Cormak uses his staff’s Lightning Bolt for a lot of damage, the Golem Hastes itself in the second round, and I think it lands one more hit in the cleric before going down.

They now find themselves in a rectangular hall, kind of crossing the T on the last two. There are doors going left, right, and forward. The left door is dirtier, the right door is a bit beat-up, and the center door is another set of stone double doors.

Ludwig checks the left door, and sees a room with a table, smelly stuff hanging from the ceiling, and a large cooking fireplace that must be getting air from somewhere, and a big troll. He slams the door on the troll, then rolls a really high Athletics check to hold it shut (beating the troll). I ask how long he’s going to hold it, and Cormak decides to use his only 4th level spell slot on Stoneshape, sealing the Troll Cook into the kitchen.

They next check the right-hand door, which leads to the rest of this session.
It’s locked, but not well – not with the original key – so it’s easy to pick. It’s also barricaded. They push it open and find a woman with a shield, scimitar, and plate armor in the next room, who challenges them as she seems to think they are initially orcs. Mergand takes some offense at this (almost exactly paralleling a line of game dialog) and she apologises. Summarizing the conversation that follows, she’s a scholar of sorts, seeking information on the life of King Strohm III of Tethyr, who is almost certainly buried here. She had to fight through some orcs to get this far, despite Lord Firkraag inviting her to investigate the area.
She has a key (expensive/magical) to the door to the tomb, but there’s some kind of ward that keeps her out, but might not keep others out.

There are two doors in her room. One is the door to the tomb. The other, to the south, has the bottom gap blocked with some rolled-up fabric (if anyone asks, tent parts, and “because it used to be an orc privy. I didn’t want to smell it.” What is on the other side is not, in fact, an orc privy; but nobody asks).

The group uses the last charge on their Identification goggles, and verifies that the door/doorframe unit do include a ward that would block out anyone with blood from dragons, drow, fiends, and a few others, even if they are only 1/16th or 1/32nd. They accept Samia’s explanation for this, and they decide that they’re fine with taking on this sidequest in the middle of the rescue mission, to find some books and probably some loot. I didn’t push it at all. Samia was just polite, moderately persuasive, and had just enough of “and I’d like to be rich” that they think she’s really after some of the treasure.

Opening the door, they immediately get to fight a very dusty Skeleton Warrior! These still hit hard and it gets in a hit or two (4d6+6 per hit). Moving beyond that, they find a long hallway with closed doors at each end, and more closed doors on each side. The first door they examine is fake. After this, Ludwig goes down the hall, getting Nalia to join him, as they examine each door. They find one that’s “dangerous” and several that appear real.

Mergand stays outside talking to Samia. I ask what they talk about, and he doesn’t throw out anything that I can use to make things more interesting or suspicious.

Ludwig and Nalia open the farthest door at the end of the hall, revealing an Efreeti! Albeit one smaller and a bit weaker-looking than an Efreeti ought to. It gives a short speech of a couple of lines about being a guardian, killing them, etc. Ludwig and Nalia both run away… all the way down the hall. It follows and fireballs them for 2d6 damage.

I took an Efreeti statblock and divided some of the numbers to around 1/6ths, with some rounding up to keep things relevant.
1/6th of an Efreeti
Medium Elemental
AC 17
HP: 35
Speed 40’, fly 60’
Str Dex Con Int Wis Cha
18(+4) 12(+1) 24(+7) 12(+1) 15(+2) 16(+3)
Saves: Int +5, Wis +6, Cha +7
Damage Resistances fire
Senses Darkvision 120’, passive Perception 12
Elemental Demise When it dies, only a puff of smoke is left behind.
Fire Shield Anyone who damages the genie while being within 5’ of it takes 1d8 fire damage.
Actions
Random Actions Roll 1d6.
On a 6, the genie casts Fractional Fireball, dealing 2d6 fire damage in a 20’ radius with a DC 15 Dexterity save for half
On a 5, the genie casts Burning Hands twice, dealing 1d6 fire damage in a 15’ cone with a DC 15 Dexterity save for half
On a 4, the genie casts Aganazzar’s Scorcher, dealing 1d6 fire damage in a 30’ line, Dex DC 15 half
On a 1-3, the genie attacks twice with its scimitar, +10 to hit, 5’, for 1d6+4 slashing +1d6 fire damage.

It takes two or three rounds to kill this 1/6th Efreeti. The next two take a bit less time, then the party hits a “Real” door that’s actually a Burning Hands trap that hits 3 people. That’s why I roll their Perception/Investigation checks behind the screen!
They move on to the next hall, and the next, and by the end of it, 2 of the last 3 Efreeti get killed really fast by critical hit Chill Touch & Rogue sneak attack. People are getting hit points chipped and dinged away, especially Cormak and Ludwig. Mergand stays farther back, as does Nalia, and Ludwig is the only one taking that Fire Shield damage.

Each Efreeti guarded a piece of a painted clay funeral mask, and they also found a text in the hall – someone’s old journal – mentioning that the mask was necessary for those not of Strohm’s bloodline to gain access. They reassemble the mask after defeating 6/6ths of an Efreeti. Ludwig’s player is very much “I’m not putting it on. I’ve seen this movie.” I guess everyone’s seen the Mask? The one with Jim Carrey?

At this point, it’s showtime! They open the double doors to see an empty hall. Nothing happens. Ludwig steps inside.
Fireball, 8d6 (35!), two players go down. The hall is empty still. Ludwig casts Burning Hands, which does nothing. They fall back, using healing potions to revive the downed. They discuss using Identify on the mask, but all 3 charges on the glasses were already used, and casting it from a scroll takes a full minute.

The next round, Ludwig gambles and uses his action to put the mask on, and peeks around the corner. Now he can see the guardian, which looks much like a fire elemental! It attempts to throw a fireball at him, but the mask’s eyes flare white for a moment, and the spell fails.

It was getting late, so we stop there. They have to fight an enemy that’s still invisible to everyone but Ludwig, but at least it won’t be casting Fireball every round.

I know they’re about out of 1st level slots and low on HP despite going through at least half a dozen healing potions. I think they’re going to need to long rest in King Strohm III’s tomb. There’s still quite a bit to come, and they’ve had technically 13 combat encounters since their last LR, although 6 of those were only Fractional Efreeti.

[J-H]

Dream sequence 2: Mergand
(Mergand's player's responses are in italics)
You have a dream during the long rest on the journey. You stand in a large hall with bookshelves lining the walls, white marble floors, and some statuary around. Other people stand around... Ludwig, Hendak the barbarian innkeeper, Tirdir, the man you saved from being buried alive, and others. Some you may have seen in passing. Others are strangers. You can't move, so this must be a dream. A bad one. Irenicus, your captor and torturer, stands just feet away from you, his magically-enhanced body unnaturally tall and powerful. He gazes down at you with his blue eyes, then speaks. "Life... is strength.
This is not to be contested; it seems logical enough. You live, you affect your world. But is it what YOU need? You are...different...inside."

He points at a woman standing vacantly nearby. "This woman has strength of a sort. She lost her parents to plague, her husband to war, but she persevered. Her farm has prospered, her name is respected, and her children are fed and safe. She lived as she thought she should."


He casts a spell. She falls to the ground, dead. “And now she is dead. Is this what you are destined for? Is this what you need?”

I do what I do, because it is correct. Do I need to be remembered? That is a prideful assumption. Do I need to be remembered? Not by a lesser being like you.


“You are born of murder, the very essence of that which takes life. You have power, if you wish it.”

I’ve found that power tends to corrupt. Ultimate power corrupts ultimately. I wish nothing but to enjoy life and adventures.

“You would turn away from power?”

It sounds like something that would disturb my peace.

“Really? But the consequences are so very real. Your actions affect so many others than yourself. You will come to realize how little choice you have. You will do what you must, become what you must, or others will pay for your choice.”
Irenicus kills Ludwig and several others with Chain Lightning.

“You will accept the gifts offered to you.”

At the end of the day, all we have is our free will.

“Do you even have that?” And you wake up.

Mergand checks on Ludwig, then makes some tea and then goes back to bed.

The player is talking about visiting Candlekeep to get advice about these dreams. I may need to move the setting from Candlekeep to somewhere else next time.

Cormak the priest…the Tainted Mind priest with telepathic abilities… also gets a copy of this dream.

Session 27: 3/31/2024

Terry’s player is going to be out soon for a relocation, the online again until about August when he moves overseas as part of his role in the Navy. We have a new player who decided to attend tonight and just watch to see how things go before making a character.

The party retreats from the Guardian and short rests, as most of them were sub-15 hit points. They then move in. Ludwig is wearing the mask, so he can see it, and attacks, scoring a hit (but no sneak attack). The Guardian goes shortly after, punching him twice for about 18 fire damage after uncanny dodge. It’s basically a Fire Elemental with a few tweaks, and spellcasting that’s neutralized by the mask. The group starts hitting it, and Ludwig retreats. Terry moves up and is the target for the Guardian’s next turn. It punches him… and he had attuned to the Ring of Fire Resistance during his short rest, meaning that he’s immune to fire damage, so he takes no damage.
The guardian goes down.

Ludwig kicks open the doors to the tomb of King Strohm III. They find a sarcophagus, wall paintings, a sword, a shield, and a shelf with some old tomes on it. The sword and shield appear to be magical. They pick those up, and specify that they are not touching the sarcophagus.
I point out that they are behind a warded door in a guarded area, and that if they’re going to long rest in the dungeon, this is the place to do it.

They take the hint.

Before leaving, Ludwig decides to place the mask on the corpse of King Strohm. Mergand leaves the room, but everyone else stays to see what happens. He plays with looking at the skeleton with the mask on, then with it off, and then putting it on the skeleton. It turns out that putting a mask on a dead skeleton means you have a dead skeleton with a mask.
Ludwig takes the mask back with him, talking about starting a collection. “Do you put it back on?” “No.”
Someone takes the humerus bones from King Strohm III, joining the Hand from the Sewers and the vampire skull from the cavern in the party’s collection of body parts.

They head back out and have a conversation with Samia. She’s pretty grateful and asks about leaving and the route being clear. As the party gets ready to move on, she yells “Hey Akae! Your plan worked, get out here!”
The door behind her that nobody had ever asked about (they knew it was there) slams open, and initiative is rolled. There’s a wizard, a dwarf cleric, an ogre with a shield and battleaxe, and an elf with a katana and wakizashi.
This is supposed to be a big battle, and they each had their own statblock with a range of 42 hit points (wizard) up to 72 (ogre). Akae is a Dex-20 fighter-type with 3 attacks per round and is a Bhaalspawn brought in for a shot at his brother by Firkraag.

Akae chugs a potion of Haste, then charges out (eating an OA) to attack Mergand twice (Haste action + BA attack), scoring a hit and a miss. Ludwig shoots someone with a bow, then Nalia Fireballs the enemies, most of whom haven’t gotten to go yet. 37 damage, save for 18. The ogre fails his Dex save. The enemy cleric goes next, and drops Silence on the room the party is in, covering nearly the entire room. Mergand retreats outside of the Silenced area, eating an OA to do so, and lightning bolts Samia. Cormak then moves up and uses his Staff of Thunder and Lightning, which does not say it requires a verbal component to activate, to Lightning bolt the Ogre, cleric, and wizard. 35 damage, and 2/3 fail the saves. The ogre goes down and the wizard goes down, and then Terry moves in and chops up the enemy cleric. The ogre and wizard never even got to go.
I had gone a bit light, specifically having them use Bless, Shatter, and Silence instead of Fireball for fear of a TPK. Obviously I didn’t need to bother.

Samia, pretty badly injured, Shoves Mergand prone and makes a run for it. Ludwig pursues. Akae the Bhaalspawn runs over and stabs Mergand 3 times, but it’s not enough to kill him, and despite Haste, Akae doesn’t get another turn. Mergand is aware that it’s better for him if he strikes the killing blow, but just says “No, just make him dead!” Terry’s player “The DM says “here’s something for your plot, and you just say make it dead?” “Yep.” Mergand, meanwhile, retreats to the side room and readies an action to Fireball himself, Terry, and Akae if Akae gets close. I’m not sure how he was planning to manage dealing all that damage to himself.

After this it’s looting and distributing loot, plus discussing the new player’s character.

Items from King Strohm III’s tomb:

Peridan, Longsword +1: Dragonslayer
Few dare to create items such as this, for who does not fear the wrath of
dragons, and what action would more tempt their reckoning? Yet, at a time
lost in Faerun's past, there was a need, and this sword was forged in answer.
Tempered by a wizard's skill, this blade protects the wielder from the fear
they should rightly feel while staring down a dragon's maw. It also bolsters
with healing, dispels the trickery of invisibility, and dares to do extra
damage against the greatest creatures of the Realms.
Requires attunement: Immunity to fear; Mass Healing Word 1/day (BA, up to 6 visible creatures within 60’ heal 1d4+2hp); See Invisibility once per day for 1 minute; deals +3d6 damage to dragons.

Dragon Scale Shield +1
Another powerful item created by the warlock Wormsor, this shield consists of red dragon skin stretched over a steel frame. Green and white dragon scales adorn the red background in a pattern that, when looked in the right way, reveals the face of an ancient dragon.
Grants the bearer resistance to fire, cold, and lightning damage.

Loot from Samia’s dead ambush party:
1975gp in gold & non-magical items
Battleaxe +1
Plate +1
Scimitar +1
Wand of Magic Detection
4x Greater potion of healing, 4d4+4
Pellan's Shield +2
This dwarven-made shield was commissioned by Pellan of Tyr, a brash paladin
known for unquestioning courage and an almost total lack of common sense.
Upon hearing that a red dragon was ravaging the countryside, Pellan mounted
his horse and rode off to do battle. As it happened, Pellan and his armor
digested readily enough, but the shield gave the dragon severe stomach
cramps. Subsequently coughed up, it lay in a hoard for years until retrieved
by Pellan's son, a warrior who knew when to sneak.
Superior craftsmanship is supplemented by a permanent lightness spell, which
makes the shield very easy to wield.


DM Notes:
The group has a really great alpha strike in terms of Fireball, Fireball, Lightning Bolt! The side room the ambushers were in was not huge, so Cormak was able to line up 3 in a line.
They have also now used at least half of their high-damage AOE for the day. Tazok will be pleased.


I'd like to give the new player some options. Unfortunately I'm running low on "extra background"
Bhaalspawn
Dhampir (have one)
Harper (have one)
Tainted Mind (have one)
Betrayer (Yoshimo; not a good fit for joining 25 sessions into the campaign)
Normal person
Replace Valygar Corthala (no long term quest hooks beyond the Planar Sphere, and I think they have enough to chase right now)

I really only have the Bhaalspawn and Normal Person backgrounds to offer at this point.
Ideas for others?
The only new one I have is
Resurrected Paladin - one of the Paladins slain by the PCs due to Firkraag's trickery, Raised from the dead by the Order's clerics. What extra features would this have beyond "must be a Paladin"? Advantage on saves vs. necromancy spells, plus Good Reputation and the ability to call on the Order for reinforcements?

[Batcathat]

I really only have the Bhaalspawn and Normal Person backgrounds to offer at this point.
Ideas for others?

Maybe someone with a background/connection to Brynnlaw and/or Spellhold? Though I'm not sure what that might bring to the table aside from some potential plot hooks.

[J-H]

I offered him Bhaalspawn, Normal Person, Zhentarim Agent (skill proficiencies, the ability to use a Sending Stone to get backup occasionally, but he'll have to explain the masked assassin backup to the group, a good shot at bribing/stopping some fights with mercenaries - I'm thinking the party in the sewers, Amkethran, and maybe a few other spots), or Resurrected Paladin (one the party just killed, riding hard to catch up; gets Death Ward or True Sight once per day).

Session 28: 4/7/2024
Only 3 were able to make it tonight… no Terry the fighter, and our new player had a busy week plus a livestock escape to deal with. Notional start time 6:30, everyone arrived/online 6:50, really started around 7, ended at 9:26, so 2.5 hours.

Mergand is probably going to get a second casting of Expeditious Retreat with his additional Bhaal taint point.
Moving on from where they fought Samia and crew, there’s only one more door. It leads to an empty room resembling the orc archer rooms, but without the arrow slits. They cautiously move into it, then open the doors at the far end. It’s another cross-ways room where they can pick left or right. The left door is locked, and I set the DC at 25 because I’d rather they have to find the key, but won’t force it. Ludwig doesn’t make his lockpicking check.

They open the other door and find what appears to be a dark old chapel. A decent religion result makes it appear to have perhaps been dedicated to Tempus. Near the middle of the room are a man in an old-fashioned suit with a top hat, holding a chain that restrains a fairly large dog.

There’s some conversation with them asking business and the top hat man being vaguely helpful and interested. Eventually, the key-holder (not that they know it) is able to identify them. “Oh, I know who you are. You’re with a… Mergand Zander, right?” Ludwig talks more, and the dog starts growling and moves towards him, restrained by the chain (“Down, Serena! The man says; party checks to make sure that’s not the name of the person they’re here to rescue). Something seems a bit off about it. Mergand walks into the room and up to the dog, just out of range of it. It starts lunging and snarling at him. He confirms his identity, and the suited man drops the chain. The illusion breaks as the vampire lunges towards Mergand, maybe grappling him and trying to bite him (but missing the bite). I don’t recall. Mergand misty-steps back or moves back – I don’t remember, and I may have not caught 2 leveled spells going off in a turn, because I know he cast Fireball in round 1, which killed the two Shadows hiding in the corners that the party hadn’t even seen yet.
Anyway, this burns the illusion off the suited man, revealing him to be a mummy (standard Mummy with double HP, +2 to hit and save DCs, vulnerability to fire).
What follows is a battle in close quarters in the hallway. Ludwig ends up blocking the door; he’s immune to fear and the Mummy only manages to punch him once or twice over 2-3 rounds. The vampire uses her Legendary Action to close in with Mergand and grapple him. On Mergand’s next turn, he tells her to “be careful what you wish for” and Polymorphs into a crocodile. She uses legendary actions (I let her have only 2) to bite him. He manages to bite her on his next turn, so they have each other grappled, and the vampire restrained.
This goes on for two or three rounds, and eventually I remember that vampires regenerate 20hp/round without taking radiant damage.
The whole fight takes around 5-7 rounds, and Mergand gets bit 4 times, giving him a Proficiency Bonus of -1 until the condition is cured. Each bite also heals the vampire around 6-8 (half the necrotic damage dealt). She claws and bites her way through his Giant Crocodile hp, then on Mergand’s next round, he casts Spirit Guardians and manages to bonk her with his quarterstaff, dealing a bit of radiant damage. The group ends up finishing her off, having missed with Guiding Bolt, 2 Chromatic Orbs, and some weapon attacks. Ludwig actually did the most damage, hitting fairly consistently for 20-30 damage thanks to sneak attack. Somewhere in this process, they also killed off the mummy, who didn’t really get to do a lot.

The vampire turns into a cloud of mist and disappears through a crack in the chapel ceiling. If the party returns to challenge Firkraag later…she’s still around.

Nobody in the party is good at Strength anything, and Mergand only has so many Misty Steps to use to get away from a vampire that wants to grab him and drink divinely-tainted blood.
He has to heal up. Ludwig took 11hp of damage in that fight, and Cormak took 5. Nalia took no damage. All that was just one vampire. Mergand now has -1 to all attack/save/skill rolls, as his PB is -1.
I wonder how they will react when they realize they’ll face a whole coven? 
It would have gone faster with a fighter or paladin though.

Retrieving the key from the mummy’s charred corpse, they see a long hallway with hobgoblins behind some wooden barriers at the end. Mergand moves up until he can see them, and casts Create Bonfire… I decide that yes, it does put out light. Using nearly no spell slots, they finish off 4 hobgoblins and one caster (archery, melee, fire bolt, etc.).

Around the corner is another door, leading to a broad stone bridge across a big circular room. There’s an obviously-added-later wooden bridge off to the side, a door ahead, and a winch with a rope leading down. They lower a lit arrow down on a rope and discover water about 80’ below, and can see that the rope is hooked to something like a handle. They pull and confirm it’s a bucket.

As the bucket is about halfway up, it rocks back and forth in the wind, and an Air Elemental whooshes up onto the bridge. Ludwig shoots it once, then it takes a turn, moving into Nalia and Cormak’s space and using Whirlwind. Nalia saves, and Cormak fails. He takes damage, and I roll a d12 openly… and roll a 6, which is dead across the bridge into the far wall. He’s flung into the wall and takes falling damage, but unlike almost any other direction, he is not flung off the bridge and down 80’ into the water!
The air elemental gets one more turn, in which it hits Ludwig twice, rolling 19 and 20 on the dice and dealing quite a bit of damage. Then it’s gone, and someone takes a drink from the bucket. The water is nice, except for the metal thing that just bonked the drinker in the face…

Dragon Helm
The skillful hand of the warlock Wormsor carefully worked several dragon scales into this powerful helmet. Red, white and green scales overlap, protecting the wearer from normal blows as well as fire, cold and electricity. It is hard to determine whether the benefits originate within the scales or the spells of the mage.
Grants the bearer +5 to saves against fire, cold, and lightning effects
It does not require attunement. Cormak now wears it.

Eschewing the wooden and less-well-built bridge, they go through the door, finding themselves in a short hall. There’s a door at the end, or the opening out the side into a natural cavern. Cormak steps into it and hears voices arguing in Goblin (which he understands). Two are complaining about the danger and the pay, and the other is ordering them to get back into line and back to their posts. He leaves and tells the party to be quiet.

Instead, they open the door after unlocking it. They meet a human and a half-elf, who ask if they have come to rescue them! Ludwig’s player goes “I’m so over this. Name, occupation, why you’re here.” “I’s Bob, this is George! We fought hobgoblins!” Cormak uses Detect Thoughts. One of them sees him and says “Oh, you are a cleric. We have much wounded, come heal them!” but thinks “Oh boy, a cleric. I’m hungry, I hope they come in here.”
Cormak signals Ludwig and they start to pull the door shut, but the two werewolves move to stop them as they transform.
We stop there due to the time.

Maybe they’ll reach Firkraag next time! Only two fights left to get to him.

The vampire+mummy battle is, in the original game, like 4 vampires and 4 mummies, and best handled with Fireball+Fireball+Holy Smite. I think backing it down to one of each worked out fine. I think Ludwig’s player does have a point… this deep in the dungeon, the werewolf plan is really dumb. But the werewolves think that too…or some of them do, anyway.

[Abuzorg]

Hey! Would you be willing to post a short update of what the party composition is like when they next level up? With all the new characters joining I feel I often have to check back previous posts to get a reminder of who's who.

Otherwise, I have to say I'm quite pleasantly surprised on how this dungeon is turning up. I always thought it was thematically weak compared to the rest of the act 2 dungeons... well apart from the Firkraag boss fight, obviously.

[J-H]

New player: Unknown, possibly Hexblade?

Ludwig: Half-Elf Arcane Trickster, Lucky & Tough feats, 70-ish HP (inclusive of +5 from Helm of Balduraan), 14 str/14 Dex/16 con, wielding Namarra or Kondar +1 longswords, Tuigan Bow +1 (A), Helm of Balduraan (A), and I don't recall his third attuned item. Wearing Orc Leather studded leather armor. AC 17.

Cormak: Half-elf Storm Cleric of Thor, 50ish HP, AC 21. Has the Telepathic bonus feat IIRC from Tainted Mind, Wis 16, Int 14, Str 14, Dex 10, Con 14, don't recall Cha. Usually swings the Flail of Ages or Staff of Thunder and Lightning. Attuned to the staff, the Girdle of Piercing (-3 damage from projectile damage), and the Shield of Harmony +1

Mergand: Half-elf or elf (don't recall) Bhaalspawn sorcerer. Dex 16? AC 16 with Mage Armor and Ring of Protection+1. Attuned to Ring of Protection, Ring of Human Influence (sets Cha to 19), and I forget the 3rd item. Around 35-40hp. Wields a Quarterstaff +2 obtained from Sadaat near the druid grove.

Terry: Dhampir Battlemaster, Strength 18, AC around 23 with shield +2, full plate +1, wielding Frostreaver, attuned to the Ring of Fire Resistance (attunement means full fire immunity).

Plus Nalia, Rogue 2/War Wizard 5, AC 18 because her bonded De'Arnise signet ring is pretty good.

If they all equip the appropriate gear for a dragon fight, they'll have 1 with fire immunity, 2 with resistance to fire, and another with +5 on saves vs. fire effects.
I don't think they can handle Firkraag at this point, but I could be surprised. They are certainly building up a dislike of him and his stupid games. I'm sure they'll be...seething...when they find out why they have been put through this!

It is definitely disconnected in terms of "why are vampires, mummies, hobgoblins, orcs, werewolves, golems, and trolls all in the same dungeon?" However, looking at it from a "Bored dragon making a gauntlet to run people through" perspective, it makes sense in terms of keeping things "entertaining."

This was the first time I've seen a vampire actually connect and stick well with bite attacks and grappling. I think they will need to be probably around level 9 to take on Bodhi, and 10 might be better. I also hope they actually go shopping and upgrade their gear. Azuredge is sitting there in plain sight on the list for the Copper Coronet.
I also need to figure out where to stick the Daystar. If the new player goes Paladin, it might be a nice loaner from the Order after he does the first couple of sidequests.