Tuesday, December 31, 2019

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. 

Tuesday, December 24, 2019

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.

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

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?

    Tuesday, December 10, 2019

    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

    Tuesday, December 3, 2019

    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