Who Are You? Part 3 - Olgar Bristlebeard

Time once again for a look at a character I've played in Fifth Edition Dungeons and Dragons. It is fun to try to distill each of these characters to some key elements. And it will keep them alive somewhere (even if some of them don't make it to the end of the game). It may also help you get ideas for your next character or maybe a backstory element you would like to try.

Last time we took a look at my deadly monk Bryn Iron Talon. Today we take a look at the lighter side of the game... as in a Cleric of Light.

Surrounded by undead, Olgar's sunny personality
turns deadly... see what I did there?

• Olgar Bristlebeard - Dwarf Cleric/Light Domain - Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan
• In my quest to play just about every type of class and race Dungeons and Dragons has to offer, I went for a dwarf cleric. I wanted to try a bit of spell casting, and clerics are pretty versatile in that way.
• I had obtained Xanathar's Guide to Everything which included some excellent character creation questions to give your character a rich backstory. Olgar was the first character I used these on.
• I probably went overboard with the backstory, because I knew this was going to be short campaign, but it actually helped me flesh out a very fun character, even if I only got to play him for a few sessions.
• Once again Dice Camera Action played into my voice for Olgar. The DM on the show was using a pompous British commander style voice for his giant Hippo-man character. I loved it and felt that a slightly less pompous version of the voice would fit for Olgar.
• Backstory - Olgar had served in the Dwarven military as a lower level commander. They were doing battle in the Underdark and his entire unit was destroyed, only Olgar survived, but was blinded. As he groped in the dark the dwarven god of flame contacted him, and granted him sight. Olgar became a true believer of the god, and dedicated his life to him. This created a bit of a rift with his family - his wife left him. But he stays in contact with his children, even if they both think "dad is a little touched".
• Typical Olgar - Relentlessly cheerful and optimistic, Olgar was the cheerleader of a group trapped in a deadly ancient temple full of undead. The story hook was to seek out a way to open up a trading route for the rare fruit, mangos, to be traded to the city of Waterdeep. I'm not kidding. Olgar had never tasted a mango and become a bit obsessed with finding one. He would always ask if they came up on a treasure chest or if they were searching a sarcophagus, if there was a mango in there. He was doing it to bring levity, but after a while his obsession with mangos made him very dangerous. "I will not die in this Shrine! Not until I've tasted the sweet juice of the elusive MANGO!"
• Favorite Moment - I borrowed from Dice Camera Action again. Olgar couldn't get anyone's name right, especially picking on the elf rogue in the party. Poor Rolan kept getting called Ronald. It was great fun to have Olgar trying to cheer up "Ronald" and only making the elf more annoyed with the eternally cheerful cleric.

I used this as my character portrait on
Roll20 for Olgar. More great art from
Ray Cornwall. 

Who Are You? Part 2 - Bryn Iron Talon

Holiday schedules are playing havoc with getting the group together for session. But I still have plenty of 5th Edition characters to muse about. So I'll continue this little series until we get back on schedule. Last time I talked about my halfling rogue Milo Corvus. This time we are ready to do some damage!

Bryn Missenhein smiter of Dunderheads and hero
in training.

• Bryn "Iron Talon" - Half Elf Monk/Way of the Open Hand - Hubris and Ascension (Home-brew)
• I selected a Monk because I wanted to try a combat focused class. But not one that included a lot of magic to mess around with. 
• I went with a female character because all the characters in the game were male. I felt it would shake up some of the dynamics in the group - and it worked.
• I selected half-elf because I wanted some tension with her race (something the DM said would happen with the half races in his world).
• Bryn was another first name in the PHB. Since Bryn is very young by elvish standards, that name is considered appropriate for a child. Elves take a different name when they reach maturity.
• For her last name, I looked up the Tolkien Elvish words for missing and child and combined them. Missenhein (a warped approximation of those two) was her "family name" for a good portion of the game.
• Near the end of the adventure (the whole campaign lasted nearly two years), Bryn had become a true bad ass. She obtained a magical weapon carved from the talon of a giant bird called the Roc. From this, she took her new name Iron Talon.
• At the time we started the game, I was watching a live D&D game called Dice Camera Action. They were playing through the adventure The Curse of Strahd a series inspired by gothic horror. The DM was having fun with his eastern European accents. I liked giving Bryn a similar accent - unexpected for her character type, and fit in the concept that she was from a far away land.
• Bryn was the first D&D I had art commissioned for. Ray Cornwall did a great job with her design (using medieval Japanese influences). He's a D&D player as well (and known for his art featuring elven ladies). He seemed to be the perfect fit for this character.
• Backstory - Bryn was brought by her elf mother to a distant monastery on The Holy Mountain. Her mother died in childbirth, and she was raised by the full elf monks of the mountain. She wasn't treated well because of her mixed blood. She strove to prove herself, and was quickly gaining skills. Eventually her elders wanted her gone and manufactured a reason for her to leave. She was exiled and began traveling the world looking to help the weak.
• Typical Bryn - Everything was new to Bryn. So I had a great time with her being excited for new experiences such as seeing the ocean for the first time. But she was disturbed by the lack of discipline she saw in her companions. Bryn would often call people "dunderheads" and "dunces", about as extreme as her cursing ever got - but she was liberal with the use of dunderhead - it became her catchphrase.
• Favorite Moment - So many great moments with Bryn. It is hard to pick one. But I think she made a hell of an introduction. The party was exploring a dungeon hidden in a graveyard. Bryn arrived late, and discovered she had to jump into a grave to find the party. After commenting that "only a dunderhead jumps into an open grave", Bryn proceeded to do just that. Of course living skeletons attacked the party, and Bryn rolled like dynamite. She was kicking ass all over the place, saving the party and even managing to flip over a low wall and finish off the last skeleton. If I had tried to write a cooler introduction for the character in a television series or anime - I couldn't have. Bryn made an entrance and showed her personality and her abilities with one hell of a first session.

Bryn Iron Talon, in her final outfit and weapon for the campaign.
I love how the artist captured her more mature and deadly nature.

Who are you? Part 1 - Milo Corvus

Taking a little break this week, since we had some scheduling conflicts. But I figured I could share with you some of the characters I've played in my Fifth Edition journey. Each has been a lot of fun, and of course what player doesn't love sharing stories about their character. So here we go with the first.

He looks cool, but his luck is
always about to run out.

• Milo Corvus - Halfling Rogue/Thief - Lost Mines of Phandelver
• The first ever Dungeons and Dragons I created way back in the mid 1980s was a rogue for the old Red Box starter set. So I figured I'd keep the tradition alive, since this adventure was part of the new Starter Set.
• Milo was not the first character I created. I made a couple of test drive characters to practice character creation and practice using the Roll 20 platform for on-line gaming.
• I saw the name Milo in the Player's Handbook (PHB) as one typical of Halflings, and I just liked the sound. Corvus means Crow, and it is actually an alias - rogues and aliases go together like peanut butter and chocolate.
• I used my cheesy Irish accent for Milo (note: all my accents are cheesy).
• Backstory - Milo was a spy in a noble house. He ended up on being blamed for helping in the murder of the count. He was looking for an exiled sister of the current count to help her regain her rightful title.
• Typical Milo - I will always remember Milo for his horrible dice rolls, especially when he was attempting to use his signature abilities. Need to sneak - Milo failed. Need to open a lock - Milo failed. Need to find hidden doors - Milo failed. He had great stats, but man the dice hated him. Poor guy. 
• Favorite Moment - This wasn't all Milo's fault, but the entire party nearly died - because of an underground river. Milo's cursed dice rolling struck at the worst possible moment. There was a rope, there were other party members, and yet everyone kept rolling poorly. Soon the whole party ended up in the water and hurtling toward the waterfall (and certain death). Finally the party was able to scrape out a couple of good rolls and made it to safety. But Milo was the last one and only a lucky grab of a rope kept him from plummeting to his death. A few moments later he was knocked unconscious by a rampaging monster with a taste for halflings. 

Right from the Red Box, Larry Elmore's trio of
non-human adventurers. Is that Milo in the middle?

The Dragon of Icespire Peak Campaign Diary - Episode 12 - Tempestuous Negotiations

The prep...

So the last four sessions have had a lot of combat and planning on how to execute that combat. That's all fine and dandy, but I wanted to shake things up a little bit for this session. The party hasn't had a real exploring/puzzle solving session since the Dwarven Excavation site. So I figured I'd have the shrine be a little more complex than it was in the original adventure.

First things first, I wanted to have the characters have a bit of interaction with the orcs. I came up with a few questions that the leader of the orcs wanted answered. If the party answered in the right way (and made a few charisma rolls) then they could maybe get past this without a fight.

"I came to eat cheese and kick ass,
and I'm all out of cheese!"

Because of some of the backstory contained in the adventure. I knew that the orcs scared away wererats from the Shrine. So I knew there would be remnants of the wererats' habitation. I also wanted to guide the players to the lighthouse, as well as give them something else to puzzle out. Since this was a shrine to a god of divination, I came up with a few little touches to imply that the player's arrival was predicted by the old order of monks.

I did the most work on coming up with the illusion trap inside the alter room. I thought it would be a fun puzzle to have the room trapped with a magical illusion. I gave them a hint of getting past the trap, but also kept in mind that they could break through the illusion using skills or physical feats. I also modified the vision that the alter grants, to give them a bit more of a pointer toward the lighthouse (and the magic weapon within).

Other than that, I transferred the stats of the remaining monsters (3 orcs and one ogre), reviewed the map one more time (hey there are holes in the main shrine structure that the characters can use), and got ready for the evening.

The story...

The leader of the orcs had the Unibrow look going, so that is what we referred to him as during the game. Because the Wind Wall was still up from the previous session, the orc was unable to communicate to the party. So he motioned to the druid that he wanted to speak. He motioned for his companions to step back, javelins ready, but to not attack until he had finished his parlay with the party.

"I wouldn't believe you, but you've got
that fine fine hat on, so..."

The Wind Wall finally ran out and Unibrow approached. What followed was a tense conversation, as Unibrow tried to determine who sent the party. Since these orcs were followers of Talos, the storm god, the party used that knowledge to their advantage. The druid put on her green charisma cap, and did some quick talking. She claimed to be a follower of Talos as well, and that she had been sent to the shrine by the god.

She rolled really well, and Unibrow believed her. He asked if she could succeed where his shaman failed. They were convinced that the Blessing of Talos was in the shrine, but had been unable to secure it. He told the players that if they could retrieve this information and share it with him, he would let them enter the shrine unmolested. Of course he wasn't completely trusting, and one of his fellow orcs argued against the idea (in orcish). As for the party, the Rogue was fine with a bit of trickery, but I made sure that Inverna voiced her displeasure.

So the group entered the ruins of the Shrine and started exploring. Instead of entering the front doors, the group entered through one of the cracked walls on the Eastern room of the shrine. As they examined the room, The Druid noticed that the mantle around the hearth had the image of the All Seeing Eye upon it. But the eye seemed to be looking slightly askew. Following its gaze, they found something carved to the right of the doorframe. The Druid examined it, but was unable to read the writing. Because it was in Infernal. The Rouge, being a Tiefling, could speak and read Infernal. It said, We knew you would come. Beneath the holiest place. I added this entire bit into the adventure to give them another clue, as well as pulling the Rogue's character directly into the story. It creeped the players out to think of these priests predicting that the Rogue was going to come here at some point.

The characters carefully moved into the next room, the main audience chamber of the Shrine. They did plenty of investigation in this area. They noted the belfry rising up to the sky and the huge copper bell looming above them. But there was no easy way to reach it. I did tell them that based on their exploration of the outside of the building that the Rogue figured she could climb up there easily enough. There was a bit of discussion about the bell, but they decided to peek into the room on the west side.

"Rodents of unusual size? I don't think they exist."

This whole time I'm describing how the rooms smell of rat urine and how it looks like nests were made here and there. The Rogue rolled a high investigation check and I told her that there were claw marks in some of the softer bits of stone that showed these were not regular sized rats, but big ones. Many Princess Bride ROUS jokes ensued. The West room contained more of the same rat evidence, but nothing else.

Finally the group went to the doors of the alter chamber. The Rogue made a thorough check of the door and found the magical trigger on the floor under the door. She wasn't able to make out what it was exactly, but knew it was some kind of trap mechanism. The Druid has a very high Arcana  score, and she rolled really well. I told her she was able to determine that it was either Illusion or Enchantment style magic. Armed with this knowledge the pair discussed how they wanted to proceed. I also mentioned that on the lintel above the doorway were the words Illuminate the Future. The Druid commented that this sounded like the Eyes of Mara from the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland... which yeah it kind of was.

"Don't look into the eyes of Mara!"

Finally the Druid decided to use her quarterstaff to open the door. As she did so, they caught a glimpse of the next room, the altar and columns within. Then the whole room erupted into flames, and a powerful gust of wind slammed the doors shut. The ladies were surprised, but then started to talk it over. So either the flames were an illusion, or they were enchanted in some way. The Rogue remembered that as Tiefling, she had resistance to fire damage. This meant she would only take half damage from an inferno. She also reckoned that with a good skill roll, she could leap into the room before the doors shut. Her acrobatics skill was pretty darn good.

So the Druid and Inverna prepared to open the door, and the Rogue readied herself. And they all rolled great. The door was forced open, the Rogue propelled herself inside, just as the gust of wind shut the doors behind her. I described how the flames were like a curtain. She could see them as she moved through them, but once past them, she was in a dark cold room. In fact the flames gave off no heat at all. Even the gust of wind was cold night air. The doors slammed shut behind her, so that even her Darkvision didn't work.

The Rogue told the other two that she was fine, and opened the doors of the altar room from within. Doing that caused the illusion trigger to cease functioning. The other two walked inside unscathed. They searched the room, with the Druid paying special attention to the altar. She noticed how it wasn't sitting on the stone floor directly.

As the group attempted to slid the alter back, the Rogue had a vision upon touching the alter. I tweaked this slightly to have her rise up out of the temple in daylight, seeing the bell in all its golden glory. Then they flew out to the coast and saw the lighthouse rising up out of sea and lighting flashing and touching the lighthouse with a strange metallic sound. Then the Rogue flew back through the mountains and saw IceSpire Castle and heard a fell voice shout Cryovaine! And then she was back pushing the alter. The Rogue was stunned by this, but told the rest of the party of her vision. This caused some conversation as they attempted to determine what it all meant. Then they went back to the task at hand.

I has to open something... right?

The group slid the altar back and found a little cubby hole within. Inside were a pouch and a scroll case. The pouch contained the mystery key, an item that may open any lock with a 5% chance. Once it succeeds, the key crumbles to dust. Within the scroll case was a message in Infernal that said Talos' Blessing is at sea. There was also another spell scroll, this time for the wonderful utility spell Dispel Magic. The Rogue took the key and the Druid the scroll. And yeah I added the scroll, the other one was a big hit with the party, and the Druid was very excited to have this utility spell at the ready.

As the group headed back into the main room, they discovered that one of the orcs was watching them from the East room. He hurried away after being spotted and soon unibrow came back. Now the druid had never taken off her charming hat, so she continued to roll really well with the charisma checks. She was able to convince Unibrow that the message from Talos was that his true blessing was far to the north past Neverwinter. Unibrow was skeptical, but since he couldn't read Infernal, he couldn't prove otherwise.

His companions wanted to fight, but he was still convinced that the Druid was some kind of minion of Talos. He dared not battle her, especially after seeing what she did with Wind Wall. So he told them to leave and quickly. Inverna grumbled, but the group headed out of there taking their magical treasure and knowledge with them. The Druid's awesome role-playing and quick thinking earned her an inspiration token.

DRAGON SIGHTING!

It was starting to get late in the session, but I wanted to start the next session with the crew arriving in Phandalin. So we did a quick three day travel sequence. I had them roll on the random table I created a few sessions back, and they got a rainstorm one night, but dragon sightings two other nights. I actually fudged one roll which would have put them in an orc combat. If we were playing a typical four hour session I would have run it (because they didn't get much loot on this run). But I wanted to move things along. Luckily dragon sightings are intense, so that did a good job of reminding the players of their main objective, as well as making them realize that the dragon could show up anywhere or anytime. They saw the creature fly up from the Neverwinter Woods and then back... so they pondered at that meaning.

The post...

Illuminate the future?

So I think the puzzles in the shrine offered a nice break up from all the intense action we've had in the last few sessions. My players didn't figure out the answer to the puzzle, but made their own answer. I had put the hint Illuminate the Future in the hopes that they would use a Light spell, or light a torch or lantern. If they did that as they entered the altar room, then the illusion would not have activated. But they used their skills to enter and that was just as fun.

They also enjoyed negotiating with Unibrow and feeling like they outsmarted him. But now that they've left some enemies behind, I'll have to make sure they come back later. I get the feeling Unibrow is going to feel betrayed and thirst for revenge from the knife-ears that tricked him.

I think they vision sequence threw them for a loop, but they talked a bit about it after the game and pondered going directly to the lighthouse instead of Phandalin, but decided against it. They want their reward from Harbin as well as maybe trading in some of the gems to pay off the Rogue's debt.

Sounds like next time, that debt is going to be reminded.

Up Next

Session 13: Of rewards and reminders

The Dragon of Icespire Peak Campaign Diary - Episode 11 - Shriner's Convention

The Prep...

For this session I went back and reread the section about the Shrine of Savras, because I knew the characters were interested in it. I noticed that there were quite a few more openings in the walls and towers of the outer wall than I originally described to them when they made their initial recon of the area. I also noticed that that recon was probably impossible during the day, because there was no cover. They would have to make an assault at night.

I worked up the stats for the seven orcs and two ogres that were inhabiting the shrine. I gave them all characteristics that would help the players target them (Chest Scar, Drooly, Rash). I also rolled for loot on them. Now the adventure doesn't tell you where to place these creatures specifically. It gives you some guidelines, which I thought I would remember while we were playing... I didn't.

Finally I decided that in addition to the mithral shirt they got from Big Al, they should get a couple more magic items from Paellia. I figured some one time use items could help spice things up, and let them feel like they are accomplishing something. I get the feeling they think they should level up after this mission, but they actually have to complete another medium level mission before that happens. So giving them magic items is a nice way to let them feel like they are being rewarded.

I decided to give the Rogue a healing portion, and give the druid a spell scroll. I looked up the rules for spell scrolls, and decided to give her a spell that was higher level then she can currently cast. It is called Wind Wall and it creates a wall of wind that can be shaped, inflicts damage on anyone it is cast upon (or whoever tries to move through it) and messes up any missile weapons. I figured it might be useful, and the Druid could only cast it once before the scroll disintegrated.

With all that prepped we were ready for adventure.

The Story...

Unleash the wind!

In the morning Paellia talked with the characters, wishing them well and bestowing her gifts on them. She gave the Rogue the potion of healing saying, "Just in case your elf friend falls in battle, you have this." The Rogue was very please and relieved to have another potion. Now I picked up some Druid spell cards last year for my first attempt at a home game. So I pulled out the Wind Wall spell card and handed it to the Druid player saying, "Paellia hands you this scroll". I went over the spell scroll rules with her (how she has to roll a Wisdom check to attempt to cast a spell higher than her current level, and if she fails the spell doesn't work as expected). She was pleased with the scroll. But I did notice that the spell card was missing some of the secondary affects of Wind Wall, such as clearing out smoke or fog, and causing missile weapons to not find their mark. I made sure she read the full version in the Player's Handbook. They also decided to have the Druid wear the Mithral Chain Main shirt to boost her defenses.

"Petunia and I owe you some sarsaparilla." 

Paellia told them that she would keep them informed with a crow messenger with a single white feather. The characters waved Paellia away as she transformed into a crow with a single white feather  and flew off. Then they made their way over to Big Al and Petunia to say goodbye. He thanked them again and asked them to make sure to send someone back this way to help him rebuild the busted buildings. Inverna promised to come back personally, which surprised the players. He also said that if he didn't see them again soon, he would certainly see them at the upcoming feast day.

I was actually tracking time using the Forgotten Realms calendar (so I knew how many days passed to meet up with Paellia). This is on page 33 of the Dungeon Master's Guide and in more detail on page 14 and 15 of the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide. I set the campaign in the month of Client "The Fading", essentially the 9th month of the 12 month calendar. The feast day of Highharvesttide was coming up. Essentially a fall harvest festival. Phandalin will be going all out and I think I can have some fun with that.

Anyway, with that seed planted, the characters started back to Phandalin along the Triboar Trail again. The group chatted a bit, with Inverna feeling like if they were going to attempt to clear out the Shrine, they needed to do it at night. She had a feeling they got real lucky last time. And as the DM I told them I screwed up a few sessions back, and that they shouldn't have been able to sneak so close to the shrine without being caught in daylight. But I said that guard was changing and that distracted the orcs as they moved past the guard tower. The players were fine with this, since I told them they got to keep all the intel they picked up.

"Oi! Do I look like a raccoon to you?"

So the crew waited for nightfall and then started not their way to the shrine. As they neared they could see firelight flickering within the walls. The moon was a crescent, but it was a clear night. They knew that the rear wall of the shrine offered the most opportunity for them to sneak in, as well as the most opportunities to escape if things went bad. After some discussion the Druid decided to use Wild Shape again to do some recon. She changed into a raccoon, they figured that the orc would ignore the critter. But a quick check in the Monster Manual and Volo's Guide to Monsters revealed no stats for a raccoon. So I took the stats for a badger, and replaced the burrow speed with a climb speed from the cat. And we went with that.

As the Druid/racoon did recon, her companions hid in the grasses outside the rear wall and tried to keep quiet. So I was had both groups rolling stealth checks every once in a while. The Druid got some great rolls in and was able to explore the entire inner courtyard of the shrine. She didn't like what she saw. Two ogres and six orcs, with a seventh in the tower. As she tried to get past "Drooly" the ogre, she rolled poorly and he saw her. But since I described him as drooling on himself and staring at the moon, the Rogue asked, "Is he high?" I decided on the spur of the moment, that yes he was high. Seeing the raccoon, he just assumed it was part of his trip, so we went back to staring at the moon. But later the The Druid was spotted by a couple of guard orcs who thought it would be funny to throw rocks at her. One hit, but just as she was escaping through a hole in the wall. Meanwhile Inverna knocked over a rock as they were hiding. One of the orcs came out to investigate, but they rolled really well on stealth. The orc assumed it was some kind of critter and went back to the campfire.

The web spell can give any D&D monster a bad day.
No matter what the edition.

The Druid returned and described what she saw. They came up with a plan to take out the guards in groups. There was one orc by the tents. He became their first target. The Rogue managed to get the jump on him, even after Inverna failed her stealth check. A single shot with her Assassin abilities triggered killed the guard instantly. They discussed what to do next. Continue heading east and they would face three orcs. Go south and there was the high ogre. They discussed for a long long time. So I just had the pair of orcs (that threw rocks at the raccoon) start toward them. The Druid cast Web which stretched between the gatehouse and the shrine and blocked their path. The orcs saw it, and after jabbing at it with a javelin, they got into an argument on what to do next. The group move quietly south, hoping to avoid the drugged out ogre.

They rolled really well on stealth, and he didn't notice them. The moon was just too damn fascinating. As they passed I told the Druid that she noticed some mushrooms lying next to the ogre, and she knew they had hallucinogenic qualities. They felt pretty good about leaving him behind. They moved toward the campfire, where there were three orcs playing dice and the ogre with the rash hanging out. Unfortunately this failed their stealth check, and all four enemies spotted them. The Druid managed to roll very high for initiative and so she cast Wind Wall. She stretched it from one all of the shrine to the outer wall, catching all four enemies (I had described them as being in a rough line before - my bad). The Druid passed her wisdom check and Wind Wall hit like a mini hurricane. I'm not exaggerating. She rolled some amazing damage with he spell. The three orcs were swept up and blown around and all died! The ogre took some serious damage, but he came surging forward and at them.

"I hear elf taste good... taste elf NOW!"

Battle was joined and the group realized how deadly ogres really were. They have a bunch of hit points and are very strong. The heroes valiantly whittled away at the ogre. But when he landed a hit with his great club on the Druid, he rolled a natural 20. With double damage he basically one shot the druid, knocking her out with a single blow. The players started to panic. But I told the Druid's player that if she wanted to use her inspiration token, she could cause the ogre to roll at disadvantage. She got Inspiration way back at the start of the game because of she came up with giving the Manticore the white glove. She gave me the token, and I rerolled for the ogre. He still ended up hitting her, but she wasn't immediately knocked out.

Eventually the ogre fell to their blows. But before they could do anything else, they saw the two orc guards who were messing with the Web earlier come running over and seeing with Wind Wall. One went running off to get the boss (the guy in the tower) the other stood there dumbfounded... and that is where we ended for the night. One drugged out Ogre and three orcs left.

The Post...

You know you're playing well when even the other party
members are a little scared of you.

First off Wind Wall was a crazy powerful spell at this level of play, and the Druid used it at the perfect moment. By taking out those three orcs immediately, she really allowed them to focus on the Ogre and take him out. That said, I think I screwed up, because according to rules as written, her Web spell should have ceased the minute she cast Wind Wall.

Also I ended up placing the enemies oddly. I essentially did this, as the Druid was scouting things out as a raccoon. I probably shouldn't have clustered so many together, and even put the ogres in opposite sides of the shrine. But I was winging it, and couldn't remember exactly where campsites were supposed to be located. I didn't want to slow down the game by looking it up. In the end, I'm the only one who was frustrated by this. The players had a good time, and felt like they did a good job sneaking into the shrine. The especially liked the drugged out ogre. They don't want to kill the guy, which I find very funny.

I've got some interesting ideas for the next session - the orcs are going to try talking to the party. The Rogue player made the comment to the Druid, "You're pretty damn scary, you know that. Casting these Web spells, and then that Wind spell, I'd be terrified of you if I was an orc." It got me thinking...

Up Next...

Session 12: Tempestuous Negotiations

The Dragon of Icespire Peak Campaign Diary - Episode 10 - Bearly Surviving

The prep...

Not a lot to prep for this session. I had all my orc stats left over from the previous session, including the much tougher leader orc (with the max hit points). I also gave him a villain action (taken from Matt Coleville's very interesting video on making your boss battles more engaging). Essentially I gave the leader orc the ability to attempt to knock an enemy prone using a bonus action.

I remembered to roll for loot this time. I rolled for each orc, and the put the lowest amounts on the orcs downstairs. I gave the richer loot (including two different types of gems - since once again the orcs rolled platinum. And I don't think these guys would be carting around platinum) to the orcs upstairs. They are gambling after all.

Other than that, I just prepped the magic item card for the Mithril armor and pulled out the Monster Manual in case the Druid wanted to try to wild shape into something new. I asked them before the game if they had thought about how to deal with the orcs upstairs... and nope, they hadn't. Well, let's see what happens next.

The story...

I started off reminding them that it sounded like the orcs were holding position upstairs. What followed was a lot of discussion on the best way to take the orcs out. I was a kind DM and let them really talk this out. Since these are newer players and this is a casual game, I didn't want to pressure them too much. If I was playing with more advanced players, I would have had the orcs make some kind of additional moves, maybe taking positions at the top of the stairs, or in one of the rooms. Instead I had another, simpler plan in mind.

The druid was very specific
about what the cat looked like.

Eventually the decided to have the Druid use her Wild Shape ability to transform into a cat and climb up the side of the farmhouse and see if any of the windows were open. We spent a few minutes figuring out what kind of cat she would transform into (because players love that kind of thing). I described a kind of porch outside, and they asked if it was covered. I decided it was, so it was actually very easy for the cat to climb up to the overhang. The plan was to have the Rogue and Druid go upstairs, give Big Al a signal to come up, and then move from there. Except what they didn't really talk about, or make clear to Al, was what he was supposed to do. So I had assume he would come charging up the stairs and into battle.

She noticed that one window was open, the one overlooking Big Al's office. The room was trashed, but no orcs could be seen. The Rogue rolled well on her climbing check, and soon the two players were in the office. The Rogue did some quick ransacking of the room, but there was nothing to be found. (She actually missed a stash of Al's coin hidden behind stacks of boring paperwork which even the orcs ignored).

At this point they heard some sounds. A gentle orc command, and then the sound of wood gently touching another wooden surface. It wasn't coming from close to the heroes, but somewhere to their right. They decided the orcs were up to something, but not sure what. So they signaled, Big Al by tapping a pattern on the floor. Sure enough the rancher walked up the stairs.

Orcs do love their javelins.

As the stairway opened into the upper hall, Al saw that the orcs had taken his gaming table and set it up as a barricade at the end of his hall. I rolled a wisdom check, he failed, and so he went charging down the hall right at them instead of ducking into a doorway. These guys had javelins prepared and were ready for combat.

The Rogue and Druid cried out in dismay as it seemed that once again an NPC had gone off roading. But we rolled initiative. As I stated the turn order I added that near the end a "mystery guest" got to act. This caused both players to panic a little. Who else was here? Who else was participating in battle?

Well I had my back-up plan in place. If things started to go south I was going to have the local druid Paellia show up, heal Inverna and then join into the fray herself if things got dire. Remember, that my Druid player had left a message at Conyberry for the local druid to meet them at Butterskull Ranch. Well Paellia got the message and would show up this session in one way or another.

And pretty soon it was obvious that the player characters needed the help. Big Al got one good swipe in with a great axe he lifted from the downed orcs in the floor below, but two javelins brought him down. Remember he only had 9 hit points to begin with because he had been beaten up when the characters found him. The rogue used her bow to fire down the hall, but the barricade was making it tougher for her to hit the orcs. The Druid, still in cat form, raced down the hall, transformed back into an elf in front of them, and then dragged Big Al into a nearby bedroom. She was going to try to stabilize him the next round. But that was her last use of Wild Shape for the day (she had already turned into Petunia the cow earlier).

I allowed that the orcs by the barricade were stunned by the cat transforming into an elf, and so didn't act that round. This gave the Rogue another free shot, rolled a natural 20 critically hitting the orc and taking him out of the fight. Only one orc was at the barricade.

Local druid, at your service.

Meanwhile Paellia healed Inverna downstairs and Inverna used her Second Wind ability to boost her hit points further. She was ready to fight and moved into position downstairs. Of course the players had no idea this was happening.

The Druid stabilized Big Al using her healer's kit. But wasn't sure what she could do next. She was obviously trying to keep her final healing spell ready. The Rogue noticed a rat peeking at her from the top of the stairwell. Suddenly a voice in elvish called out, "Time to clean up the cobwebs, if y'all know what I mean." The player of the Druid got a bit grin on her face and said, "I drop concentration on the Web spell."

Now a piece of orc armor got caught in the webs, so it fell to the ground, alerting the orcs to something else happening. The orc leader ordered one of his men down the stairs, and battle was joined. The Rogue lined up her next shot, but she rolled a natural 1, and we are using fumble rules - so her bowstring broke. She had picked up spares, but it would take a full action to replace them. At that moment, the rat raced down the hall and joined the Druid. She transformed into a female halfling wearing furs, with a slightly unstable expression on her face and asking happily, "Are we having a battle?"

Entangle, the spell that can change the battle.

With Paellia and Inverna joining the battle the tide turned. Inverna took out one orc down stairs, so the leader ordered his remaining companion to deal with her. He moved to the game table, hefted it up with his massive strength and attempted to block the two druids behind it. His objective was to break line of sight so they could stop casting spells at him (he was hit by Entangle and Frostbite over the course of the battle). He would then engage the Rogue in single combat. But the leader rolled well to lift the table, but poorly to maneuver it. He kept slamming it into the hallway. The Rogue got in a free hit, but the guy wasn't falling. Meanwhile Inverna was taking hits downstairs, and was missing quite a bit.

I'll be honest and say the dice hated my players that night. They rolled a lot of natural 1s and the orcs kept making their Constitution and Dexterity saving throughs. Spells weren't hurting them. I could see the combat was getting frustrating, so I figure it was time to end it. Paellia asked the Druid if it was time for Bear. The Druid saw what was coming and said, "Yes. Bear Time, for sure."

Sometimes you've got to Be the bear.

Paellia transformed into a black bear and hurtled at the orc leader and his table. She pinned him under it, and did some brutal bite damage on him. The Rogue was able to edge past him and finish off the orc dueling with Inverna on the stairwell, delivering a one shot killing blow. The orc failed his strength check, and Paellia shoved the table down hard on the orc, crushing his spine and killing him.

After the battle ended, the Druid healed Big Al and got him back on his feet. They then moved to clean up the mess a bit. The players picked up the loot from the downed orcs and were pleased with the gems. Big Al gave them his mithril shirt as promised. He also invited them to stay the night at his place and rest up. The group agreed.

Paellia finally got a chance to talk to the players, and we had a good bit of roleplaying there. I had her talking in quick sentences, moving in birdlike ways and seem to take joy in fighting in animal forms. She explained how she wanted to find out where the dragon originated, because she suspected that something worse was happening to the East, where the dragon flew from. She felt that whatever forced a dragon to flee would pose a bigger threat to the world. She is part of the Emerald Enclave, a group of druids and rangers who protect the natural order. She offered a place in the order to the Druid if she could help protect the area around Phandalin and take care of the dragon. The characters accepted, being the heroic types they were.

Paellia dropped an important hint. If the heroes could figure out where the orcs came from, then they would determine where the dragon is currently residing. Because all the orc trouble seemed to start when the dragon moved in.

The session ended with the characters bedding down for the evening, after helping Big Al clean up a bit more around the place.

The post...

Mithral Shirt - armor anyone can wear!

So this session was dominated by a tough combat for the players. They spent time planning, but because they didn't specify what the objective was to their NPC, things went poorly. But also, man did the dice hate them. Having Al taken out so early in combat was a real problem, and why I held Inverna in reserve. But the fact that the orcs were just not getting hit, while the players were taking damage forced me to bring Paellia into the fight.

The players did ask me if that was part of the plan the whole time. I admitted that I held her in my back pocket in case things went badly. But I really think they could have healed Inverna or Al before battle and things would have gone much better. I know the Druid was trying to conserve her spells, but it would have been better to have some strong arms at full (or near full) health going into the battle.

Still the combat was fun, and Paellia was a fun character to role-play. I also made sure that she was doing what the players wanted, by having her always ask the Druid, "What do you think? Entangle?" or "What do you think, Bear?" I'm really trying to be careful about the NPCs taking the spotlight away from the players. And while I think that did happen a bit with Paellia killing the orc leader, she is not going to be involved in the adventure any more. If we continue playing into my planned Princes of the Apocalypse campaign, then she will return for that.

All that said, the players had fun and were curious to see what was going to happen next.

Up Next:

Session 11: Shriner's Convention

The Dragon of Icespire Peak Campaign Diary - Episode 9 - Who Let the Cows In?

The prep...

"Time for to fight!"

This was going to be a tough one. We had a farmhouse full of orcs. We had many rooms they could be hiding or lurking in. We had the potential for an ally or two, but this could go very poorly if the players didn't handle it right. As I mentioned the Druid was a planner, so I had faith that they would come up with something.

The adventure asks for roughly three orcs per player character. I did this, but kept in mind that I could reduce or increase the number of orcs as needed. I decided to have one leader among the group, not a chieftain from the Monster Manual but an orc with max hit points. I also made him a bit smarter than the others, he would order the others around.

I placed three orcs downstairs in the mess hall of the farmhouse gorging themselves on food. The remaining three/four would be upstairs in the gaming room playing cards and drinking. The ranch owner Big Al would be locked in the cellar.

One thing I forgot to do was roll up some loot for the orcs to be carrying. But I did include a note that these were not the Talos worshiping orcs.

The story...

The party took great pains to check out the entire ranch, moving quietly and carefully. The first stop was the barn, which was intact, if not a bit bashed up. They secured the three horses and the wayward cow in the barn and continued their survey. They examined the burned out smithy and made a very high Investigation roll. They determined that the fire was probably caused by accident during the battle.

They found the bodies of some slain orcs, as well as the bodies of three humans viciously hacked up in a fury. It looks like this had only happened a day or two ago. The players were on their guard as they finally moved closer to the farm house. This whole perimeter sweep ended up taking quite a bit of time, as the players were trying to glean as much information as possible about the events here.

When they arrived at the farmhouse they could hear the voices of orcs coming from within. They snuck closer and noticed that the cellar door was secured with rope. They spent a bit of time trying to determine if the orcs were keeping a prisoner down there, or if the orcs had been trapped inside. The Rogue decided to use her stealth to creep close to one of the windows and peek inside (after they both examined the well, which was clear of enemies). The Rogue got a look at the kitchen which was empty but trashed.

They talked a bit about sneaking into the building. Then I helpfully reminded the Druid that she had the Wild Shape ability, which she could use to gain additional information. She decided to focus on spell casting with her character, but one of the class' unique features is the ability to turn into animals. The character gains all the physical abilities of the animal, but keeps the mental abilities of the character. However the druid can not cast spells in animal form. They can maintain concentration on long duration spells after transforming.

This cow has her eyes on you...

There was a lot of discussion about what type of animal would be the best for the job. Since they are low level characters, the Druid was limited to the type of creature she could transform into. No creatures with swim or flying abilities. She decided that transforming into the cow they found along the road would work. If the orcs saw the cow they wouldn't think anything of it. I didn't tell them that the cow might make tasty steaks for the orcs.

So the Druid used her Wild Shape ability and transformed into the ranch cow. She carefully walked around the building, pretending to be a disinterested bovine. She peeked into the windows as she went, and finally spotted the three orcs in the mess hall eating, drinking and joking around. They didn't notice her. She also heard more orc voices coming from upstairs. She returned to the Rogue and Inverna and stamped three times to indicate three orcs.

The Rogue then moved to the cellar door and listened at it. This was great, because I didn't even have to recommend doing that. She rolled very high on perception and hard the sound of wood scraping against stone. Discussion followed with the Druid nailing it - someone is tied up in a chair and it scraped against the stone floor. The Rogue untied the door and peeked inside. They found Big Al, the head rancher, tied up in a wooden chair with a burlap sack over his head. The Druid, still in cow form, let out a soft "Moooo", to which Big Al whispered, "What in tarnation are you doing here Petunia? I told you to run! Darn cows don't have a lick of sense." The players got a kick out of the cow's name as well as my poor Yosemite Sam imitation.

"You ready for some sarsaparilla?"

I described him like an tall lanky old time cowboy, and the players said, "Oh like Sam Elliot." And I totally rolled with it. So now Big Al is played by Sam Elliot, and has a thirst for sarsaparilla (for all you Big Lebowski fans out there). When the players pulled the sack from his head he was startled by the Rogue's fiendish appearance. But was more concerned that "Petunia" was still on the ranch. The players had some fun messing with Al, before the Druid returned to her elf form.

Big Al offered to give the players his shirt of mithral chain mail if they helped him retake his ranch from the orcs. He explained that the orc leader was obviously smarter and tougher than the rest. It was his idea to hold Al hostage, and maybe ransom him to the people of Phandalin. The players agreed to help Al, but warned him that it wouldn't be easy, and Al was beat up al ready (only 9 HP at this point).

The characters moved back to the porch and discussed how to best ambush the orcs inside. Eventually they came up with a plan. The Rogue would snipe through one of the half open windows. Inverna and Al would burst in through the kitchen and go for hand to hand combat. The Druid would use her Web spell to block one of the stairways, to keep the orcs upstairs from moving in that direction to back their friends up.

The group managed to roll well on stealth and entered the kitchen. Al armed himself with a wicked meat carving knife and prepared. Inverna and Al burst in and gained suprise on the three orcs. The Rogue had some issues with sniping since I ruled that the orcs had some cover from the half closed window. The Druid got her spell off no problem.

Inverna unfortunately got ganged up on. The orcs got in a series of hits on the poor elf and she was knocked unconscious. Big Al got a couple of good hits in, but it was the Rogue who moved in closer to the window once the battle started, and removed the penalty to her target, that did the most damage. The three orcs were killed, but the commotion caught the notice of the orcs upstairs.

The Rogue stabilized Inverna using the Healers Kit they had purchased a couple sessions earlier. They put her in the pantry, out of the way. Meanwhile the orcs tried to go down the stairs but ran into The Druid's web. They heard a fierce voice shout a few orders and then it went quiet.

The orcs weren't going to come rushing down... but what could the players do to finish the job? I thought that was a great place to end the session.

The post...

Quote from Inverna.

The great thing about having planners in the party is that they take the situations seriously and give added weight to the overall story and world. The bad thing is that they can be overcautious and the game pacing may suffer. I had planned for this to be an intense battle filled session, but most of it was spent creeping around, peeking in windows and planning the next move. So yeah, I might have been a bit disappointed. But the players were really into it, and that was fun.

The bit of Sam Elliot humor broke up the tension a little bit, but I think it worked well in the overall scheme of things. The battle against the orcs felt a bit one sided. The characters surprising the orcs gave them essentially a full round to beat up on the monsters without being attacked back. Also the four sided dice hated Inverna. Each time I rolled to see which target the orcs were going after, it was always Inverna. The up side is that neither of the player characters were hurt. The downside is, their toughest character is now out of the game.

I think this session went very well, and the ending was great. A tension filled cliffhanger is always a good way to stop the session and keep the players wondering what is going to happen next. Looking forward to seeing if they plan for their next move in between sessions.

Up next...

Session 10: Bearly Surviving

The Dragon of Icespire Peak Campaign Diary - Episode 8 - Village of the Dead

The prep...

A Bard with necromantic spells?

Since we didn't get all that far in the previous adventure, I pretty much kept all my prep notes the same from the previous session. I really didn't think they would get much further than the Shrine and Coneyberry. I was proven right, but not quite how I expected (Which is actually expected. The players never do what you think they are going to do). I was really hoping they would trigger my zombie attack. I mean we were playing the week of Halloween - it needed to happen. I will say this is the lightest prep I have done for the campaign yet. I reread my notes for Coneyberry and the Shrine, but that was about it. I felt like I was winging it a bit, but everything worked out well in the end.

I figured out what my issue with D&D Beyond was. It was user error. I was able to update The Rogue's character sheet using "custom" features. This will work fine for our little home game, and now The Rogue can use her Assassin traits. Sadly, these traits didn't come into play this session.

The story...

I spent a few moments going over The Rogue's new assassin abilities. She was pleased to be able to activate some serious damage at times. We then jumped into the adventure.

"It's about time for some orc slayin'."

This session I wanted to show them the dangers of unpredictable non-player characters (NPCs). Inverna had been playing well with them for the previous adventure. But this time they were going straight into battle with orcs, and she is not going to let good sense get in her way of killing every single one of them.

This was proven after the players explained to Inverna what they saw in the night. She was angry they didn't wake her up to kill the orcs. When they went to investigate the severed heads on the stakes, I described how angry Inverna got. She then proceeded to knock down the heads and spit on them. The players were disturbed by her intense hate. They tried to get more out of her about it, but she just said that all orcs were blights on the world and deserved death. I made it clear that any attempt to parlay with orcs wasn't going to happen with Inverna around. The group did notice that the severed orc heads did not have any signs of the tempest god Talos on them, unlike the orcs they ran into at the dwarves ruins.

The Druid did finally cast detect magic on the folded piece of green cloth she found in the treasure barrel. I told her it glowed with magical light and was part of the school of Enchantment. A really good arcana check revealed that it would boost charisma in some way. She messed around with the cloth and it unfolded into a classic green Robin Hood hat, complete with feather. Putting it on made the Druid suddenly more dapper and appealing. The players got a kick out of this items. And it can be useful since neither of them have a very high charisma score.

"Ladies..."

The characters started toward Conyberry. The rogue moved took to off-roading approaching the ruined village from the west. Doing some snooping she discovered the village was deserted, but she also found more signs of horse prints in the ground. The Druid and Inverna approached the village along the road. They encountered the only semi-standing structure still reamaining, an old church or town hall. Inside they found a huge symbol of Talos carved on one wall and inked in blood, three lightning bolts. They also found fresh dug earth and four posts with severed orc heads on them. Like the other heads these did not seem to have any symbols of Talos upon them. Inverna wanted to ruin this site too, but the Druid talked her down.

The rogue found the horses near the other end of the village, near a trail leading toward the ancient shrine that Inverna told them about. Both characters tried to use animal handling to approach the horses, but the Druid rolled an natural 1. I described how she approached and promptly stepped in horse dung which was much more distracting to her than actually trying to approach the horses. The ladies left them to graze and started down the trial to the shrine.

As they approached they saw the ruins of the shrine. They determined that it wouldn’t be hard to defend, with the huge wall around it. They saw a guard in the only remaining tower, and stealthily manuvered their way around the whole structure. They rolled really well on stealth, so they were succcessful at staying hidden. It was a good thing too, because they saw an ogre wandering around inside the shrine’s walls. The behemoth was too intimidating for the group so they snuck back to Conyberry, much to Inverna’a annoyance.

When they arrived at the ruined village, the two players let Inverna blow off some steam and destroy those orc stakes. They tried the animal handling again and this time rolled very well. The horses were befriended. They noticed that th horsed were branded with BAK. There was a bit of discussion about what that may mean but they didn’t have too much time to consider because Inverna cried out in horror. The two heroes raced over and saw something shambling out of the structure toward Inverna.

"Oy! We're here for the fancy dress party!"

Headless Zombie Orc corpses lumbered up front the fresh dug earth with one goal, to tear apart the ladies. The Druid used quick thinking to cast her Web spell on the doorway. This trapped the first zombie inside the doorway, and the remaining ones were too dumb to do much more than wander right into its back. The Rogue and Inverna took turns slashing the trapped zombie and took him out.

The Druid dropped her web spell and the remaining three zombies stumbled forward. The Rogue and Druid were able to avoid taking any hits, and did plenty of damage against the undead horrors. Inverna wasn't so fortunate and she took a bit of a beating. One of the zombies popped up one last time for a good scare before the Rogue dispatched it with a quick flick of her rapier. Inverna apologized for letting her anger get the better of her. The Druid healed Inverna and the three took to the trail again, this time riding the three horses they befriended.

[Side note: We aren't using miniatures so I had to once again come up with descriptions for each of the orc zombies. It was tough to come up with unique descriptors for headless monsters. Another DM challenge I hadn't considered. I ended up using names like "Grey", "Stump" "Hole" (huge gaping hole in his abdomen) and "Pegleg". It ended up being a bit funny sounding, but the players enjoyed it.]

Along the trail they ran into a wandering cow also with the BAK brand on it. The players came to the conclusion that the animals were somehow freed from the ranch, which only means more trouble. They were able to roll really well once again for animal handling (both of them again nailing it), so the cow was now following them to the ranch.

The pair finally arrived at Butterskull Ranch, and saw that it was indeed in disruption. Pigs were roaming the fields and orchards, it looked like a couple of buildings had been burned or smashed. There was no sign of anyone around (other than the pigs). With this eerie setting established, we stopped for the evening.

The post...

Looks like she rolled high on her Stealth check.

This was another good session, got a bit of roleplaying with Inverna in there. The players got to understand the depths of her hatred for orcs. This has made her a bit unreliable when it comes to battling these foes, so they will need to think about how to keep her from doing reckless things. So far they have been able to talk her down, and her mishap with the zombies was embarrassing. So we'll see.

They did some exploration, sneaking all the way around the Shrine. This actually took a bit of time, since they were moving slow and I was describing what they saw a little at a time. Those stealth rolls were so good, they were able to remain unnoticed. They also have a pretty good idea of the layout of the shrine. So if they wish to return (and it sounds like they do) they will have an idea of how to get in. They did spend a good bit of time talking about whether they should attempt the shrine before the ranch. Inverna wanted to, and wasn't afraid of any ogre. But the Druid player is a planner, and she didn't want to rush in without something place. She felt their mission was to resolve Butterskull Ranch, and they would handle the Shrine on the way back. So we got a good bit of roleplaying in that section as well.

Finally they got in some combat, as I had the reckless NPC trigger my zombie trap. Since I had been building up Inverna's frustration with not begin able to attack the orcs in the shrine, I think it worked out very well to have her lose her cool and start messing with things. The zombie battle went really well for the players. That Web spell is really effective, and it allowed them to remove one creature right away. The rest of it was just some damn good rolls by the players and poor rolls by the zombies. But hey, we had our Thriller moment worked in for the Halloween week and that was good.

All in all a fun session, and a great foreshadowing for the challenge looming next time.

Up next...

Session 9: Who Let the Cows In?

The Dragon of Icespire Peak Campaign Diary - Episode 7 - Along the Triboar Trail

The prep...

I calculated that the trip to Conyberry was going to take around three days to travel. So I decided to throw together an random encounters table. I put together 12 encounters that the group may run into on the way to Conyberry. These were not all combat encounters, some were just strange things they notice along the road. I tied to tie them to the story as much as I could. So they might find carnage from a dragon attack. Or signs of orcs passing through. Some are weather effects. Some are just raccoons raiding their camp during the night. They will roll 1D12 for each travel day and see what happens. If they roll the same number more than once, than they will get a free day. I rolled up some additional random loot for these encounters as well.

I wanted Conyberry to have a bit more of an adventure to occur there. So I came up with the idea that the orc shamans are using some kind blood ritual to give them Talos' power. In Conyberry the group will find this ritual in progress. If they disturb it, then zombie orcs will attack. I've got a few more hints of the ritual on the way to Conyberry too, as part of the random encounter table.

They should have enough to fill in the time for this session with this amount of work. But the Shrine is nearby, and that is a full blown battle in itself. They should also meet with Paellia here, so I've got her prepped as well.

The story...

Savior of goats named Rupert.

So after being sick for two weeks, we finally got back to playing. Things didn't get off to the best start. We were messing around with D&D Beyond for a bit, as the Rogue was trying to activate your subclass features for the assassin. Unfortunately, I confused the way D&D Beyond works and it we were going around in circles. We spent way too much time trying to figure it all out and ended up just putting aside her ability updates for now and start playing (in the end it didn't matter all that much since there wasn't any combat in this session.

So it started with the Druid and Rogue going to the Inn to find out more about the dragon attack in Phandelver. They chatted with the innkeeper and then went to talk to Donnabella the magical unicorn who saved the goat from a messy end. She told them a bit more about the dragon, mentioning again about how arrogant it is and how it filled the whole town square when it landed. I wanted to ensure they understand this is a young dragon and something they can take on once they get to a high enough level. Donnabella was still injured so the Druid used some of her healing magic to help the recovery process along. This fascinated the young "unicorn" and she thanked the characters, and reminded them that she would be happy to accompany them on an upcoming adventure if they needed magical aid.

After that the group split up the remaining loot with Inverna. She thanked them and also said she would be willing to accompany them if they had any other orc related shenanigans they wanted to get into. They asked her to come along with them to the Butterskull Ranch, and she agreed. They would meet up the next morning.

The duo headed over to Barthen's provisions. They picked up a couple of Healer's Kits. These can be used to stabilize a character who has been downed in combat, and keep them from bleeding out. In other words, it keeps characters from rolling those nasty Death Saves. A good idea to have a few on hand, just in case the healer (aka the Druid) goes down. The Druid also reached inside the treasure barrel. She found a folded piece of green cloth. I kept trying to get her to unfold the cloth, but she never did. If she did, something fun happens. Hopefully she'll remember she has it and it doesn't get lost in the bottomless pouch.

Quinn is ready to PUNCH!

As the group headed back to the inn they finally ran into Quinn Hightopple. This halfling fighter loves punching anyone in the crotch (yes it actually says that in his NPC information). Tobin the Innkeeper yelled to the women to watch out, and they were able to use the door to knock the halfling pugilist down. He offered his services (and ability to punch dragons in the crotch). They declined. I played this mostly for laughs and they found him just annoying enough. Tobin was able to placate him a bit, and the ladies went to bed. Once again they barred their door with a chair, partially from robbers but also from Quinn.

The next morning the group started their two and half day journey toward Coneyberry and the Butterskull Ranch. I asked them to roll on the table I created and they rolled for the raccoon rummage. So during the day I described how the trek was uneventful. They tried to get Inverna to tell them a bit more about the dragon and the area around. I was careful to describe some the issues around the area, but not give away too much. Inverna knows some stuff, but I want the characters to rely too much on her knowledge to get in and out of trouble. That night during the watch the Rogue heard something sneaking toward the camp. It was a bit of fun as they tried to determine if it was an enemy or worse... Quinn! Turned out it was just a raccoon. The rogue did a catch a release program with the little guy.

The next day they rolled on the chart, and got WIND! So the winds started battering the ladies as they traveled, making things miserable for them. It slowed them down so that it added a half day to the travel. This will come into play on when they meet Paellia the local druid who is waiting around Conyberry. As they traveled they came upon a couple of strange things. They found traces of horse hoof prints around the area closer to Conyberry. They also found dried black stuff. A good survival roll revealed it to be dried blood, possibly orc blood. The group was wary, but settled down for the evening.

Area around the Triboar Trail is pretty open.

I had them roll on the chart for the third day, and they got a random encounter with an orc party. We were getting near the end of playing time, and I knew a full combat would take too long. So I adjusted the encounter a bit. If the characters drew attention to themselves, then a battle would start the next session, but if they kept quiet they would see something interesting.

During the watch the Druid noticed some torchlights coming along the trail. She kept quiet and watched as a group of orcs passed by. Two were carrying large stakes, and one was carrying a bloody sack. They were talking as they walked and this awakened the Rogue (Inverna was sound asleep). The two adventurers observed the orcs plant the stakes and then remove two heads from the sack and place them on the stakes. Then the orcs trudged back to Conyberry muttering to themselves. The players had a chat about what they saw and decided to investigate with Inverna the next morning. And that is where we stopped.

The post...

The 12 sided dice, least used
of the dice.

So we had another session without any combat. But I think it went as well as it could. We were messing around quite a bit with character sheets and talking some game mechanics at the start. That will happen sometimes. I think once again wandering around the town and talking with the NPCs took up a lot of time. I didn't mind so much because we hadn't played in a couple weeks, and it helped get us all back into the world of the game.

While I had everything set up for a combat on the random encounter table, the players just didn't roll them up until the end. This worked out fine, because it gave the game world a bit more reality. Living in California, we know all about days where the wind just blazes away for days. So that moment worked really well (I could see the scowls on the ladies face as I described the wind). Again, I was playing it off the cuff here to make sure the game moved at a good pace and end on time. The ladies had a good time during this session, and the mystery of the orcs got them curious about the next session. So overall, it was a pretty successful session, but I'm looking forward to some combat next time.

Up Next...

Session 8: The Village of the Dead