Dragon of Icespire Peak Campaign Diary - Episode 23 - The Haunting of Axeholm

 The prep...

Oh man, better plug your ears!

So I had most of Axeholm prepped from the last session. One thing I wanted to build up in this session was the banshee. I decided to have her moving around upstairs and causing her ghostly light to be visible from the balcony below. I was going to start the session with the characters seeing that before they open the doors to the throne room.

I also took some time to clarify ghoul paralysis with the players, so they understood that I caused Inverna to be held in error last time. 

The final change came from Bob Worldbuilder's YouTube channel about running this very adventure. I loved his idea of having the ghoul Castilian wielding a magic axe that the characters can use later. This will be especially important if things go badly at the Gold Toe Mine adventure. The Druid has the shillelagh cantrip already, and that will give her staff magical abilities.  But Inverna doesn't have anything magical. So this magic axe would be a good fit for this sidekick.

That was about all the additional elements I needed to add, but I went through the Lazy Dungeonmaster's checklist one more time, reread my notes on the rooms the party hadn't explored yet, and then got ready to play.

The story...

I'm sure that's nothing... or no one.

The Druid and Inverna were in front of the door to the throne room and about to proceed ahead, but noticed some flickering light from high above them... not fire light. Intrigued, they tried to get a better view of the light source, it was coming from the balcony, or behind it. The light was pale and bluish, and the player remembered Harbin mentioning the haunting (as well at the rattling shield they encountered when they first entered the fortress).

This lead to a bit of a sidetrack as the pair retraced their steps back up to the second floor and tried to find a way over to the balcony, or at least a better vantage point to see the light source. There were unable to do much, except see that the light appeared to be pulsing because it was moving back and forth by a doorway behind the balcony. A collapsed corridor prevented them from moving around to the balcony from where they had currently explored. The player decided to find a different way up there... through the throne room.

So the pair went back down and cautiously entered the throne room. I reminded them about light sources, and how dark it was inside. Inside the throne room they found the dwarf Castilian sitting on the throne. I had his decaying body holding the shimmering axe, seemingly untouched by dust. The Druid rolled a very high perception check and noticed his signet ring as well, and figured that was an important item.

Magic axe for all your 
dragon slaying needs.

The pair was super cautious, because this is obviously some kind of trap. As they neared the figure on the throne, the Druid used her collapsing pole to tap the axe free from a distance... and the ghoul sprung to life, enraged by their effrontery. Inverna went in close and the Druid cast spells from a distance, and the pair was making short work of him. But he let out a howl of rage, and there was movement from the chimney. It worked to keep the druid busy casting Entangle in front of the chimney just as other ghouls started to emerge. This kept things manageable for the party. Inverna took down the Castillian, and then hurried to the Druid to help finish off the other ghouls, three in total. A couple ended up breaking free from the engagement, and get some hits in on the Druid, but it was a pretty swift battle over all.

The duo took some time for a short rest before moving on to continue exploring the vast complex. They eventually reached a stairway where they could see the moving blue light again. Moving as quietly as possible they crept of the stairs and saw the shimmering shape of a woman moving up and down the hallway. The pair decided to time their move into an adjacent hallway so the figure wasn't facing them. They had some great stealth rolls and succeeded.

The explored the rooms, finding a luxuriously appointed chamber with elven style paintings and women's clothing. Then they found the Castillian's chamber. And here I screwed up. Because once again the player's version of the map in D&D Beyond shows the secret chamber in the chimney. My player saw it and pointed it out... well too late for me to hide it now. She found the secret brick and opened the chamber with the treasure chest. She had retrieved the signet ring from the Castillian and used it to open the chest and found a necklace of elven design in there, along with the magic items.

She has a quest for you.

This whole time I kept mentioning how the glowing light would come closer and move away. And would ask for stealth rolls from time to time. Eventually Inverna botched one and the banshee entered the room.

The party didn't attack. The banshee told them to leave, but stopped short realizing they were elves, and that maybe they were servants sent to help her. The Druid played into this a little bit, asking what was wrong with "the lady". The banshee lamented that she was trapped in this place, and couldn't leave until her amulet was returned and her enemies were destroyed. The Druid handed the necklace of elven design to the banshee, and she was delighted. She was even more pleased to hear that the ghoulish Castilian was dead.

Still the banshee felt the presence of two more of "those horrid little dwarves" and told the characters to finish them off. So the Druid and Inverna continued to search Axeholm to find that last two ghouls. Once they did, the pair made quick work of them and returned to the banshee. She thanked them for their help and then vanished into the gloom, leaving the amulet behind. Of course it was a magic amulet, now imbued with the power to cast Bless once. A powerful tool that may come in handy.

With the ancient castle cleared of enemies the ladies left for Phadalin, stopping at Umbrage Hill to pick up some more healing potions and share some tea with their old alchemist friend, who mentioned seeing the manticore and his mate flying by, and the male still wearing the silly white glove on his head.

The two got paid and of course got to level up as well! 

The post...

It is not haunted, it's previously owned.

I enjoyed this session in Axeholm a little more than the previous version. The combat with the Castilian was pretty intense and the interaction with the banshee made it feel a bit more dynamic. I will say that having the secret room show up on the player's map was unfortunate and made the search for the amulet too easy. So the resolution to the banshee encounter felt a bit anticlimactic. 

That said, I liked that the banshee had a bit more of a personality and that her story got told through the encounter. It made her a bit more like a Ghost as opposed to a banshee according to the rules as written, but I know my player enjoyed that element more than a straight up fight against the creature.

I'm planning on having Inverna pick up some better armor (now that she has some serious coin) and she should be ready for adventure with her new magic axe. The Druid is also excited for her new spells and getting to test them out. Looking forward to the next session for sure.

Up Next...

A Rat in the Toe

Dragon of IceSpire Peak Campaign Diary - Episode 22 - Stinky Fortress

The prep...

Lots of adventure potential in here.

I vaguely remember the Axeholm adventure from when I read it last year. I specifically remembered the banshee haunting the upper floor. I thought there were other undead creatures, but I couldn't remember for sure. So I pulled out the book to review the location and damn! This place is huge, containing lots of empty rooms and when you do run into monsters, they nearly all have the power to paralyze the characters. OK, this will be challenging.

I did like how part of the challenge was getting inside the building. I knew my player had a few tricks up her sleeve, but I was curious to see what she would come up with.

Once again, I took the Dungeon Dudes advice and printed out a copy of the Axeholm map, and then made notes on the same paper. This place had so many rooms, it forced me to write very small, but I focused on keeping my horrible handwriting legible. I made note of the treasure and monsters, but there was an element I wasn't fond of.

You can try to 
escape... but no.

According to the module, the banshee must be fought to the death. In addition there is an interesting story of how the elf that turned into the banshee was imprisoned here. I guess some my come out in dialogue with the banshee, but the way the encounter is set up the characters aren't going to hear it. Now if my player brings along Inverna again (and I think she will since that is her favorite of the companion sidekicks) then we will have two female elves that I think the banshee may want to communicate with. 

So I decided to include another element to the haunting, one where the characters don't have to kill the banshee to end the haunting and get something cool out of it if they follow this path. Besides my player is a big fan of scary movies, ghost stories and spooky podcasts. She will love the challenge of solving the mystery to help a ghost. Luckily I don't have to change too much. 

Future banshee?

I will have the banshee explain that her beloved amulet of the god Corellon was taken from her by the Castilian, who imprisoned her in this place to have her beauty with him at all times. She cursed the whole fortress in her rage and this transformed all of them into undead. If the characters slay all the dwarf ghouls and bring her back her amulet she can finally know peace. Of course the characters are tasked with clearing the fortress out anyway, so that was already in the cards. I hid the amulet in the secret treasure chest that requires the signet ring to open. Once the Banshee has this, she will vanish, leaving the amulet behind, but now it can cast Bless once as a bonus action.

Now this location has an interesting social encounter as well as the exploration and deadly combat. I think this will work well.

But I also needed to prep for the rest of the session which included the aftermath of the siege on the Hunting Lodge, traveling back to Phandalin to get the new job and seeing if they could find a dwarf who could decipher some of the information on the map they will find on the dead body of the orc druid. I got all that prepped Lazy Dungeon Master style and was ready to play.

The story...

We started in the immediate aftermath of the battle at the Hunting Lodge. The ladies helped Falcon find his two assistants and the animals. They also stuck around to clean up the place a bit (moving bodies and restoring the palisade to a semi workable version. They did a little looting of the bodies and found a couple of gems worth some gold. This took a couple of additional days in the world of the game. 

Falcon gave them a letter he wanted them to send to Neverwinter. He seemed to know Haylia and told them that she would be able to get the message to Neverwinter quickly. He gave them a couple gold pieces to cover the delivery. He also said he would help them out if they ever needed it.

Still watching everything in 
town.

Next the pair headed toward Phandalin. I had my player roll for the dragon again, and she saw it lift off from the area of the Shrine and head further north (Neverwinter). They weren't too worried and continued on without going full stealth like they did at the last dragon sighting. Arriving in Phandalin they met up with Haylia to get that letter sent to Neverwinter (that may come into play later if the Druid revisits Falcon). I also reminded them that Haylia had a dwarf working for her, and after they found out where he lived they visited him.

The dwarf reviewed the map they found on the body of the dead anchorite. I mentioned that there was dwarven runes scrawled on the map in certain key areas. The dwarf revealed that they appeared to be names (names of the anchorites in those locations). One showed the tower in the sea, one showed the manse, one showed the Circle of Thunder and one showed the Shrine. By the Shrine the word "Rats" was written. He also found a faint scribble near IceSpire Peak that said "old home". Just some hints to the players at what was going on with these orcs. They did ask about Axeholm and he said he had heard of it, but never been himself. He told them that any good dwarf fortress would be very difficult to get into if it was sealed properly. He did mention that there may be chimneys in the cliff around the gates, and some may be large enough to sneak into. 

Last stop in Phandalin was a visit to Townmaster Harbin. I do love roleplaying as the pompous Harbin and his interaction with Mr. Whiskers, his cat. It was quite a bit of fun having him talk a bit about Axeholm and how it was haunted and how it was in a very mountainous region. This was a not so subtle hint that they characters may need climbing gear... but my player wasn't worried. She had something up her sleeve.

The Druid then confirmed that Inverna could come along on this next adventure. Inverna accepted, but was a bit disappointed that she didn't get to kill more orcs, either at the tower or this broken circle spot on the map. The Druid promised they would head to one of those locations next. So after a good night's sleep they headed southeast to the location of Axeholm.

Rolls for random encounters went well for the characters. They were left alone on the journey. I did mention they passed Umbrage Hill, but I should have reminded them that they could purchase Healing Potions there... something I think we might all regret before this adventure is over.

Spider... did someone say spider?

Upon arriving at Axeholm I described formidable gate, the closed portcullis and the general feeling of unease in the area. The ladies decided to climb the up to one of the chimneys that looked big enough for them to enter (she rolled great on perception). Inverna is strong and athletic so climbing wasn't going to be a problem. And the Druid used a potion of Spider Climb and the two scuttled up the cliff face, and squeezed their way into the upper levels of the gate house.

Since this building is haunted by a banshee, I decided to do some spooky antics in the empty rooms on the second floor. The room she entered (the West Upper Barracks) has a lone shield on the wall. As the ladies got ready to explore I had the shield rattle a bit on the wall. Just a little tapping to startle them, but nothing else. I made it clear that there was no wind in the room, maybe a tremor?

I won't detail all the exploration and slow methodical search my player performed. I will tell you about the battle against the Giant Spiders, because that was nuts. It happens in the Upper Bastion and for my session it was four of these monsters. I described the area as having a strange mist in it (the webs). As she moved forward to examine I had her roll a perception check. She got a 10, so she only discovered at the last minute that the mist was webbing, and then initiative got rolled. The Druid immediately set the web on fire hoping to catch some of the spiders in the flame. I figured half of them would take 1d4 fire damage and she rolled a 4 so that was a good start. But soon enough the bite attack started and she was paralyzed. 

Ok, so I really wanted to avoid a TPK here. Like I said, this is a casual game for fun. It isn't fun to have your character paralyzed and the NPC doing all the work. The Giant Spider does not allow you to attempt to break from the paralysis on each turn, like a grapple. I modified the venom so that it was weaker and she could attempt a Con save each round to try to break out of it. Yeah, it isn't Rules as Written, but for this player and this type of game I think it was fine.

Oh so that is where the smell is coming from.

So she was able to break out of the paralyzed state, but she still had the Poisoned condition on her. So she still used spell Lesser Restoration to remove that. Soon enough Inverna suffered the same fate, being paralyzed for a round and then breaking out. The Druid cast Lesser Restoration again, and eventually the two defeated the four spiders... barely. They were both low on hit points. So they retreated to the Barracks and had a short rest.

At this point I was getting worried. This adventure is balanced for 5th level characters. She is 4th. So I was already wondering if I should maybe drop some of the numbers for the ghoul battles coming up. But then again elves are resistant to ghoul's paralyzing touch... so maybe it isn't so bad after all. I'll have to play it by ear.

The pair explored the northern half of the upper hall. I told them about the smell of death coming from the tunnels below. I had them hear a strange moan coming from across the vaulted ceilings of the Gathering Hall. Eventually they went down to the Lower Halls and explored. They ran into a single ghoul feeding in the West Hall. At that time I forgot that ghouls could not paralyze elves (for some reason I didn't remember that transferring over to 5th edition). So Inverna did get paralyzed, but they made short work of the creature before it could do more damage. I was careful to describe how it was obviously a dwarf that had been warped by some hideous curse or magic. Needless to say the player was disturbed.

We stopped right before they entered the throne room, which should prove very interesting. 

The post...

Payment, one coin at a time.

All in all it was a solid session. The first half was role-playing heavy but a lot of fun as we got things sorted after that last battle and prepped for the new adventure. Getting to play Harbin again is always a treat for me. The second half ran pretty smooth, but it felt a little slow. Much of Axeholm is empty rooms, so it really falls on the DM to build on the dread of the place. Really give the players a feeling that this place is cursed and dangerous. The smell of decay coming from the ghoul nests should drift up tunnels and down open corridors as the players get close to them. Make sure the banshee leaves some ghostly clues like rattling the shield, leaving footprints that disappear as you focus on them, or just moaning in sorrow. The module doesn't really give you those tips, but I think they make this setting come a bit more alive. 

Even so it feels like there should be a little something else to find in here. My player did miss out on an encounter with a Stirge, because she didn't mess with a chimney. And they also didn't go any deeper into a ghoul's nest that they found the entrance to. She'll need to do that at some point, but as a whole the second half felt a little less exciting then I hoped. Still I am looking forward to meeting with the banshee and seeing where that goes.

Up Next...

The Haunting of Axeholm

Dragon of Icespire Peak Campaign Diary - Episode 20 - Orc Webbing and Black Bear Brawlin'

 The prep...

Time to smash some elves.

In light of how I felt during the last session, I headed over to one of my favorite Dungeons and Dragons YouTube content creators: The Dungeon Dudes. I remembered that they covered running a game based off a module, so I decided to give that a rewatch and see if there were any tips they had. Sure enough, the Dungeon Dudes had some great advice.

They suggested printing the map out and then making some quick notes right on the paper. This way you don't have to keep flipping to the section in the book as much. I did this (but I admit right now, my handwriting is pretty dreadful. Hopefully I'll be able to read my notes). I also used sticky note tabs to flag the places in the module where the monster stat blocks are located (I'll also try to remember to open tabs on my tablet in D&D Beyond before the game. But this is a good back up in case I forget to). 

The Dudes also suggested creating a roster of main NPCs and villains so you can keep it all straight. Now Dragon of Icespire Peak is a bit unique in that it is fairly short (for an official campaign) and that it doesn't really have an antagonist that directly interacts with the party that much. Cryovaine is just a menace tormenting the people around Phandalin. He doesn't have an active plot or design. He's just hungry, bored and enjoys terrorizing folks.

But the orcs worshiping Talos... I could do something with them. I went over the sections of the module where they appeared and found three named Anchorites of Talos. I essentially made these the sub-antagonists for the campaign. These three would be coordinating the orc takeover of this area. The party would learn more from the first encounter with one of the three: Grannoc the shaman. Grannoc is the big bad guy at this location. So I would have him do an evil monologue about how he was one of three and defeating him would only strengthen the other two.

But digging up these named half-orcs and having them handy I will be able to foreshadow events later. I kinda wish I did this from the beginning, but hey, I got it down now and hopefully it will make the later adventures against the orcs feel a bit more planned.

I did some minor work with the other two half-orcs seeing them as a cleric and a paladin of sorts for Talos. I might tweak with their stat blocks to give them some abilities of those classes (clerical spells and smites). We'll see how it goes with this one.

After that, I gave everything a review going by the Lazy Dungeon Master material. Not a lot to change form the last session, just a few more notes about the three anchorites. I felt ready to run the session.

The story...

Is your kitchen rated for shape changing
druids?

So we picked up with the pair of heroes exploring the Manse and seeking out a way to clear it out. The Druid reverted back to her elf form and with Inverna the two decided to go upstairs. Unfortunately the stair were trapped and the Druid failed her Dexterity Saving Throw (a trend to continue through the night). After taking a bit of damage, she used Misty Step to teleport to the top of the stairs. She had Inverna hold the lower level. They each had Sending Stones from early on in the campaign, and they could use these to communicate.

Now I did screw up a bit here. There are Stirges hiding at the top of the stairs, and I forgot to have them attack right away. I ended up using them later, but just something I should have been more mindful of. The Druid did great on her perception checks, and found foot prints leading to where a group of orcs were hiding out. She also explored the Master Bedroom and found all the magic items inside the loose stone in the mantle as well as finding the magic item vault. Of course my description of the secret door was pretty obvious (hidden behind a tall painting of a waterfall). The Druid recognized the Cloak of Billowing and got a kick out of it (it featured in a D&D live play she watched). But she was unfamiliar with the other items. 

Repulsive little beasts.

The Druid then used the Sending Stone to communicate to Inverna to come up using the vine covered balcony. The warrior did this and felt she was unobserved. The two then made their way back to where the orcs were hiding out. They burst in and attacked. The Druid cast Web and nabbed two of the five. One was slowed but not restrained and the other two attacked. These orcs were rolling really badly to escape the webs. But they did hit the heroes a few times, nearly killing The Druid again (she keeps refusing to Wild Shape). Finally she torched the restrained orcs in the web, and they looked for a location to take a rest. Here is where I unleashed the Stirges on them. But a well timed Moonbeam  spell took out most of the vile creatures and Inverna rolled a natural 20 on her shot with the bow, so they were not a threat.

The two went to the magical vault and took that short rest to get some hit points and spell slots back. The player also took some time to look at the strange metal rod they found. After playing around with it, she realized it was an Immovable Rod. The concept delighted the player and she started thinking up all kinds of ways to use it. Then they continued exploring (using the rod as a makeshift stepladder to climb from a second story window).

Those orcs were hiding upstairs.

They had seen the strange tree growing out of the well in the central courtyard from the windows above. So they made their way down. Now this whole time I was rolling behind the screen to see if anyone was going to be looking for the Black Bear that the magical Boars saw wander in the kitchen. But luck was on their side, and they weren't looking in the right rooms.

So the elves examine the tree and find that it smells like blood, has an oily texture to the bark and is just generally gross. The Druid assumes that some evil magic is at work (she's right of course) and declares that the tree must be burned down. She decides to her combo of Web and Produce Flame to burn the tree down. The minute she webbed the tree the two Vine Blights hiding in the tree emerged and attacked. 

The battle was going poorly for the Druid as she kept failing her Strength and Dexterity saves to avoid being entangled by the grasping vines. They were both taking quite a beating, and this forced the Druid to finally wild shape into a Black Bear again. With the added strength and extra attack she did more damage to the cursed vines and the elves won.

The tree burning was bound to attract attention and soon the Anchorite of Talos, Granoc the Druid emerged from the ruined laboratory. Enraged at Inverna for burning down his tree and seeing the black bear he was warned about running amok, he took matters into his own hands. With a sinister threat he prepared to attack... next session.

The post...

Evil on the vine!

So this session went a lot smoother than the last. My description makes it seem short, but there was a lot of careful creeping around the manse, as well as lots of conversation and pondering on how to best explore and what to do. Also role-playing the two characters messing with the Immovable Rod was a lot of fun (and a nice slow point between the combat encounters). It was a solid balance of exploration, roleplaying and action. I will say that they nearly got overwhelmed by those orcs. Those axes hit hard and it was only through bad saving throws for the two webbed ones that they were able to hold their ground.

Printing out the map and making notes right on the paper was a HUGE help. I only opened the book to check the monster stats. I was using my laptop to show the player the map of the manse, otherwise I would have had the laptop displaying the monster stats and would have barely opened the book at all. I also prepped the magic cards early on, but I should have prepped my combat information on paper ahead of time. I usually write down AC and HP for the monsters head of time so it is all in one place and I don't have to keep referring to it. 

All in all it was a fun session and leaving it as a cliffhanger for facing the boss of the area is going to be exciting. Probably the first Boss Battle of the campaign. I'm pondering having him wild shape into a boar to attack them to start for a real battle royale. And lets not forget there are still some Twig Blights hanging around. Looking forward to the next session.

Up next...

Dueling Druids and a BIG Ham

Dragon of Icespire Peak Campaign Diary - Episode 18 - Graboids?

The prep... 

Only the Essentials

I'm as surprised as you are. I had considered this campaign over. Then the player of the Druid mentioned that she was a bit sad to not see this adventure to the conclusion. Sadly our player who handled the Rogue was unable to join. I told the Druid player I had no problem running the game for her as a single player with a sidekick. I would have to adjust a few things I had originally planned, but it wouldn't be too hard. She declared she wanted to take that damn white dragon down, and so I pulled out my copy of the Essential's Kit and reviewed my notes. 

Now, I've been running my homebrew campaign for almost thirty sessions now, so I've gotten pretty good at using the techniques from Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master to prep for my weekly games. But I'm making up all that material: from the lore of the world to the adventure material. So picking up Dragon of Icespire Peak again and realizing how little I'd have to do was kind of a pleasent surprise. 

Going of my notes, I saw that I had focused so much on the Harvest Festival in Phandalin as the next big event. I also realized that a bunch of that stuff, while fun and entertaining, would work so much better for two players and the DM. It was all homebrew material, and I'm going to use it someday, but I know my Druid player. She is goal oriented. For her, getting to the Dragon was the big prize. I decided to just skip the festival, and say that her character had a good time and enjoyed it. I also mentioned that her partner the Rogue decided to work off her debt to Haylia and do a job for her in Neverwinter. 

Bout that time ol' Inverna showed up...

I asked the Druid player to look over the available quests. There was the Goldtoe Mine (which was the one I think they were going to do after the festival) and the logger's camp. She read over both quest cards and picked the logger's camp. Simple enough, deliver supplies to the loggers through the Neverwinter woods. Still she was wary and asked her old friend the Cowgirl Elf, Inverna to come along. 

Since I was pulling this together on the fly I flipped to the adventure in the book and gave it a quick read. I noticed a few key things. First was the boar they run into on the way (which is an anchorite in disguise) could act as foreshadowing for a later adventure. There is a totem hidden in the chimney of one of the ruins that is causing the Ankhegs to swarm. Finally I've never used Ankhegs before (but I remember them from the old Balder's Gate game). I was amused by the fact that the Ankhegs can tunnel, grapple and spit acid... damn. Luckily the adventure was pretty self contained and short - the perfect one for a quick pull up session.

I wanted to add the possibility of one more random encounter on the two day journey to the logging camp. Since they had run into undead orcs in a previous session I created a scene where the Druid and Inverna could come upon two more undead orcs set up as a trap. Other than that, I took a few notes for secrets and clues (the boar is an orc shaman, the totem is calling's the Ankheg, Tibor is a coward) and then got ready to DM. 

The story...

Sometimes a boar is just a bore.

We started with the pair going to Barthen's Provisions to pick up goods. Had a quick role-play moment as Barthen told them the name of the ox pulling the cart was named Vincent and that Barthen expected to have Vincent come back in one piece. I asked if they wanted to pick up anything else from the provision's store. However the pair had a bunch of stuff already (I just shifted a bunch of the magic items the Rogue had over to the Druid). So with that the pair was off.

I had her roll 1d6. On a 1 she would get the zombie orc encounter. Otherwise they would run into the boar in the clearing. She rolled a 5, so I told the Druid that Inverna was a bit more talkative than normal and the two ladies caught up discussing the happenings at Butterskull Ranch (where Inverna stayed to help in a previous session) and the excitement of the festival (we rolled and Rupert the goat lost to Black Phillip in the Goat races).

Up next was the encounter with the boar in the clearing. The Druid was cautious and decided to have the cart and ox go around the creature. I had her roll Animal Handling and she succeeded on the DC: 13. Vincent obeyed her commands. I also asked her to roll for Inverna to roll Strength/Athletics to help move the cart off the trail so it wouldn't get stuck. She also succeeded. So the ladies avoided the boar, and it raced off into the forest to the east (planting the seeds for danger in an upcoming adventure).

Then it was time for the evening stop and setting watches. On the fly I decided the "boar" would return to see what they were up to. The Druid detected the animal watching them, but she remained quiet and observant. Since she didn't react, the boar headed to the east again.

I'm sure it is nice and safe...

The next morning I had them roll another D6. She got a three this time, so no encounter again. Instead the the party arrived at the logger site. I read the description of the camp to the player. She was immediately suspicious of the holes in the tents and how damn quiet it was. They dismounted the cart and investigated the tents. I kept things eerie and mysterious as they examined the damage to the tents and the bedrolls. The Druid rolled poorly for Investigation and wasn't able to determine what kind of attack this was. As they started toward the next campsite, the first Ankheg attacked!

The ankheg rolled poorly on stealth, so it wasn't able to sneak up on the Druid. She heard it coming and we rolled initiative. It was a pretty intense battle. The Druid used Moonbeam to great effect, and Inverna swung with her blade. But the acid attack was vicious and both ladies were burned in the attack. They finally defeated the creature with a combination of Frostbite and a mighty strike from Inverna. The player sighed and said, "So now we're dealing with Graboids!"

Not quite Graboids, but
an incredible simulation!

The party returned to the cart. There the Druid cast Beast Bond on Vincent the ox, to communicate with him and he with her as they explored. He could warn them if he saw something coming or if he needed help. The two then went to the only standing building: the office. They circled the building peeking in the windows. They saw the floor was wood, easy for an Ankheg to burst through. But they didn't see anyone inside. They did see a closed door to a storage room, so they headed to peek into the window of the storage room. 

Unfortunately for them one of the Ankhegs heard them messing around (they weren't being stealthy), and it attacked. This time they were not caught unawares either. In fact they had a clever plan. The back of the office is close to a stone plateau. Inverna was able to climb up that easily enough, and she managed to get a rope down to the Druid at the last minute and pull her up, just as the Ankheg erupted from the ground. It was time for another dose of Moonbeam, Produce Flame and Inverna unleashing attacks with her longbow. The Ankheg did get an acid blast against Inverna, but they were able to take the creature out with little issue.

They climbed back down and headed to the storage room, peaking inside. There they saw the lone survivor, Barthen's brother Tibor. He barricaded himself in the storage room. They entered the office and told him they were there to rescue him. He was dubious that they killed all the creatures. Sure enough another one was charging toward the office. Tibor screamed and the ladies prepared for battle. The Druid hurried out doors and when the monster exploded forth she cast Entangle. The Ankheg was strong enough to break free, but the ground was still difficult terrain and his movement was slowed. But things got dicey, the Druid exhausted her spells.  She was doing the most damage to it, so the monster focused on her, driving forward and finally knocking her out with a deadly bite attack. Luckily it was also very hurt, so Inverna finished it off with a longbow shot. She then used their only healing potion to bring the Druid back up to her feet.

Could easily be in the
Monster Manual.

The pair hurried back to the office and found that Tibor had tried to escape through the window and was stuck. The ladies extracted him and got him back to the cart. He assured them that no one else has survived the Ankheg attack and that they should return to Phandalin. The ladies took him at his word and turned the cart around. Soon enough Tibor reveled his cowardly nature (mentioning that he was willing to sacrifice Vincent the ox and hiding in the middle of the crates in the cart for the whole trip). Both ladies were not impressed.

On the journey home I had them roll for the zombie encounter, but once again it didn't happen. I did have the boar return in the night, and this time the Druid got a good look at the boar. Still she didn't react, so the creature hurried away to the east. The next day the group returned to Phandalin, and returned Tibor to his brother. Barthen paid the ladies (100gp!). The Druid gave Inverna half the pay, and then spent 50 of the GP on another healing potion, because that last one came in real handy.

I told the player that the notice board had new adventures and that she leveled up! She was excited to increase to see what she got at level 4 and picked up a new Feat from Tasha's Caldron of Everything. I leveled up the sidekicks and the player picked the Woodland Manse as the next stop for the adventure.

The post...

It was a lot of fun throwing this quick session together. The book provided me with enough information to run it pretty smoothly with such short notice. I was able to adjust the difficulty as we went through the session (there can be up to 4 Ankhegs around). Since they are fighting the creatures one at a time it is easy to drop one or more from the adventure if you need to. After the Druid fell unconscious I figured it was probably a good idea to ignore that last one. 

I had a blast rolling physical dice again, and seeing my player's face as events occurred. Playing online has many advantages, but since we play audio only it can be hard to read how well the players are enjoying the adventure. I did stumble a bit, referencing the book a few too many times. I keep forgetting that I have the adventure on D&D Beyond, and can reference the text as well as the images for the adventure. I also goofed when showing my player the map. She was able to see some text behind it, and a spoiler for the site was revealed. 

The player had a good time and was looking forward to playing again. The Manse it a bit more complicated so I'll have to take some time to prep that one, but all in all this went well. 

Up Next...

Session 19: The Falcon and the Pumpkin Patch

Perception or Investigation - Dungeon Master Tools

Why open a "trapped" door yourself when a friend can
open it?

Like my previous look at Athletics or Acrobatics, I'm going to examine the difference between Perception and Investigation skill rolls in 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons. These two checks come into play a lot during a game, and they are often ones that seems to cause some contention at the table. Usually you have characters with higher wisdom scores, like Clerics or Druids competing with higher intelligence scores like Wizards and Rogues wanting to use the skill that best suits them. Let's take a close look at the situation and see what skill is really called for.

Classic example, the adventuring party is tracking down the orcs who have abducted the village wizard and spirited her away to their overlord. As they pursue the orcs into a dense woodland, the group is staying on alert, knowing that orcs aren't completely stupid. The monsters may anticipate a tail. Sure enough a group of three orcs lie in wait to ambush the party. You ask for a Perception check from a character who is proficient. The Druid says he is and starts to roll, but the Rogue says that she has a higher Investigation skill modifier and wants to roll too. What do you do?

That dragon has one hell of a
stealth score!

In this case you can have both characters roll for their individual skills, because both apply. Let's look at each skill individually. According to the Players Handbook, Perception "lets you spot, hear or otherwise detect the presence of something. It measures your general awareness of your surroundings sand the keenness of your senses." It is directly tied to Wisdom with "reflects how attuned you are to the world around you and represents your perceptiveness and intuition". It would be safe to say that the Druid's experience of living within the woods, knowing the sounds of bird and beasts would allow him to perceive changes in the environment that may be caused by the orc rearguard. A Perception check makes sense.

The Players Handbook describes Investigation as when you "look around for clues and make deductions based on those clues." It is tied to Intelligence score which "measures mental acuity, accuracy of recall and ability to reason." So if the Rogue notices some broken branches on a cluster of shrubbery, the lack of animal sounds in the area and even the slight indentation of a boot print, she may put the pieces together to determine that someone is hiding and waiting to ambush.

You can see right away that there is a grey area here. How can the rogue pick up these clues without perceiving them? How can the Druid deduce from the signs of nature the ambush around the corner? In this case, I have no problem letting both characters make the roll. Perhaps the characters work together to piece the ambush together (if both roll well). Or you can have the Rogue roll with advantage (roll two D20s and use the higher roll) to say that the Druid was assisting her with the Investigation. Or vice versa. Like my previous post explained, the goal is to make sure you let your players do the cool things their characters can do.

Between the two of them, I think they got this mystery
solved.

Let's flip the tables a bit. Suppose the party is looting the office of a corrupt mayor looking for evidence that he is being bribed by the evil wizard. The Druid's high Perception will not help in this case, because what they are looking for is specific documents or a paper trail. The Rogue's Investigation skill will be a big help here as she pieces together the correspondence that proves the mayor is corrupt. Luckily she has the Druid along with her to keep an eye out for trouble. So when the mayor's deadly elf bodyguard tries to sneak up the stairs, the Druid rolls his high Perception skill and detects the assassin.

Another way they can work together is in detecting and disarming traps. The Druid may be able to find the discolored cobblestone on the floor. But he will need the Rogue's keen Investigation skill to put together how the trap works, and then her nimble fingers to disarm the danger.

The main idea is to keep the two skills distinct enough when possible so the players feel like they are specialized and able to use those talents when needed. It keeps the players working together to solve problems. It also lets you as the DM to build encounters that play to their strengths or prey on their weaknesses. Because sometime even heroes have a bad day.

The Dragon of Icespire Peak Campaign Diary - Episode 16 - Botched Bountyhunters

The prep...

"How tough can a rogue traveling with a druid
and a unicorn really be?"

I wanted the players to start the session with a bit of combat. Things have been simmering between them and Haylia's hired toughs for a while now, and I figured it was time for the two groups to face off. I decided that the Halfling spy was tired of being humiliated and he convinced the other three toughs that they could capture the Rogue and get the bounty on her head for themselves. So they set up an ambush for the characters as they were leaving Gnomengarde. Unfortunately for the goons, the group decided to spend the night with the gnomes, so any advantage they would have attacking at sundown would be lost. Still, these guys are stupid, so I figured they would try it in the morning anyway.

I also prepped for the Highharvest Festival that I had been hinting at over the course of the game. I had found some ideas for fun festival activities. I also decided that Lillian would be selling silvered weapons at a discounted rate (one of the upcoming adventures contains creatures that can only be hit by silvered or magical weapons).

Unfortunately we had a real late start this session and we didn't get much past the goon attack. The group spent some time in Phandalin afterward doing some minor things, but we decided to end the session before the festival started (little did I know this Festival was turning into a major part of the game).

The story...

Gnomish goodbye?

We jumped backward in time a little bit, as I had the characters settle in the bunkhouse for the evening in Gnomengarde. I asked them about watches and the decided to take them. During the Druid's watch, she heard a strange noise from outside. She did some investigating (making some great stealth rolls) and could just make out a figure moving away from Gnomengarde toward the narrow pass leading into the area. She returned to the bunkhouse and told her companions about the figure the next morning.

The party said their goodbyes to the gnomes and then headed out. But they were being super careful, rolling for perception checks and survival checks to find footprints. They rolled very well and noticed sets of fresh footprints in the area. They saw the spot where the gorge narrowed, and realized it would be a great place for an ambush. So they were ready when that ambush occurred.

I was using the standard Bandit stat blocks from the Monster Manual for these guys. I tweaked some of the weapons a bit by adding a short bow here and a hand axe there. It didn't impact the damage output too much. All it really did was alter the flavor of the encounter. I had two of the thugs attack from range and under partial cover. The other two would get in close with clubs and try to knock out the Rogue. Well the party rolled really well for initiative, and got some of the first shots off. The bandits rolled poorly and missed just about everything at range. The Druid unleashed her Moonbeam spell again and pretty much torched the two thugs with clubs. The WORST SPY EVER was knocked out by a Sleep spell from Donnabella and the last one surrendered when he failed a morale check.

Sleeping halfling dreaming of a gooseberry pie
as big as a mountain!

I do like rolling morale checks for enemies. I essentially have them make a Wisdom Saving throw against a DC I decide. If the battle is going poorly the DC is higher. The last thug, a dwarf, rolled pretty badly and surrendered. The group questioned him and he said that the WORST SPY EVER came up with the idea to ambush them and convinced them all to do it for the coin. He also told them a little more about the bounty hunter that was after them. He said she was known as The Huntress, and that she was very famous for always taking her bounty. But that she thought of the whole thing as a game. The group let him live and he ran off toward the sea. But the group took the sleeping halfling spy and tied him to the collapsing pool and dragged him back to town.

What followed was them dragging the poor guy along with them as they visited each and every place in town as a public display of not messing with them. They visited the general goods store, and experimented with the Treasure Barrel. They purchased the petrified mouse, and then tried to send the construct fish back through the barrel. It didn't work, but I kept rolling a 1D4 to see if it anything would happen. Then they went to the inn and had a drink. I had Quinn Hightopple run in and punch the tied up spy in the crotch, much to the delight of the players. Then they went to the Shrine of Luck, and finally visited Harbin.

Every adventuring party needs a pole.

They gave Harbin the Hat of Wizardry for 50 gold. But he wasn't interested in the other items. He asked them to stay for the festival (he is thinking it would be good to have them around for extra security). I told them about the events at the festival, so they would have an idea. Harbin also reminded them about the other two missions. One is an escort mission to the Gold Toe Mine and the other is to check on a Logger's Camp. The characters had seen the dragon flying around near the forest, so they weren't too excited about going there. But they also didn't fancy an escort mission. They talked it over for a little but in the end decided to figure it out after the Festival. They are also intrigued about the lighthouse and the source of power within it.

Finally they paid Donnabella for her time, and she said she would be happy to travel with them again. Then they dragged the Spy back to Haylia. She was very very upset after the party told her what happened. She assured them that she had nothing to do with the ambush and that the spy would be punished and that they wouldn't have to worry about seeing him... ever again. It was rather ominous. She also mentioned that she was more annoyed at the loss of money from the whole thing and that working for her was lucrative and the option was still open for the Rogue.

The group headed back to the inn, and we ended the session there.

The post...

Everyone loves gourds, right?

This session felt a little flat to me. I think it was because we got started late. But also because the players decided to drag the spy around with them through the whole town as a kind of punishment. This added extra town material to the session that I wasn't planning on. I had assumed we would jump right to festival day.

The players had fun, but I felt like I was spinning my wheels. I just need to get over that kind of thing as a DM. If the players want to drag the annoying halfling prisoner all over town, let them do it. I admit there were some funny moments and comments from the locals that came of it. But I was itching to get to the festival events. I'm going to want to prep some handouts for the next session so they have things to reference about the festival. All this material is home-brew, and I see how much the group enjoys handouts and other physical props.

Up Next...

Session 17: The Night Before the Festival

Don't Mephit Up - Low Level Elemental Enemies

One thing I've noticed when watching/experiencing low level play in 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons is the tendency to use either goblins or kobolds as the first couple encounters for a low level party. Nothing wrong with that, but you or your party may want to try something a bit different the next time. And no, having them kill rats in a cellar doesn't count either.

One variant you may want to look into are Mephits, found on page 215 - 217 of the fifth edition Monster Manual. These little guys are elemental based enemies with a variety of abilities to make combat encounters challenging, but have low hit points (HP) and average armor class (AC) to keep them from getting overwhelming in low numbers.

"Here's mud in your eyes!"

You get six flavors of Mephit, and depending on what kind of environment you are using they can fit into just about any one. Mephits are made from a combination of two elements. So the mud Mephit is made of water and earth. A steam Mephit is fire and water. They are tricksters by nature, and they are usually summoned by magic to guard an area or defend a spell caster.

Most Mephits have the False Appearance ability, which allows them to hide in plain sight, allowing them to get the jump on a party, especially in their favored environment. So mud Mephits hiding a swamp are going to be very hard to to detect. All Mephits also have the Death Burst ability, which causes them to explode when they are killed, causing a Saving Throw for anyone within 5 feet of them or there are consequences. Sometimes it is damage, but other times it can be a condition. For example if a dust Mephit is destroyed, anyone within 5 feet of the Mephit must make a Constitution Saving throw or be blinded for one minute.

Mephits have a standard claw or fist attack that typically does 4 of a standard damage type (slashing or bludgeoning). But a few add some elemental damage to the average damage (typically fire). They also have a breath attack they can use once and recharge on a die roll of 6 on a 1D6. These breath weapons act much like the Death Burst causing damage or a condition impact if the saving throw is failed.

With six types to choose from and a bunch of different abilities and actions you can come up with some really interesting encounters for a low level party to deal with.

His breath is actually very refreshing.

I used Mephits in a one shot adventure for 1st and 2nd level characters. The Mephits were part of a defense system a wizard had put in place in his lair. They acted as guardians and part of a larger puzzle to figure out. So the Mephits would lie in wait using their False Appearance ability for the characters to make the wrong selection during the puzzle and either attack or just mess with the characters. The Ice Mephit could create a Fog Cloud that caused problems for the characters trying to solve the puzzle. While the Mud Mephits were acting more as attackers for a combat situation.

You can also have the Mephits working as minions for a wizard. Maybe the sorceress sends Magma Mephits to start a fire in a keep, or heat the metal weapons of the guards as she attempts to sneak into the keep and poison the characters.

As in most cases, at 1st level these little guys can be lethal, especially with their Death Burst ability. So you may want to keep the numbers low. But at higher levels, even if they get one shot, Mephits can present a challenging encounter and one that is sure to shake things up if you are looking for an alternative to goblins or kobolds.

Who Are You? Part 6 - Niobe Morkoth

One of the players from Hubris and Ascension invited me to play in his home-brew campaign. He described his world of the Fifth Sorcerer and the premise intrigued me. He was hoping it would a long running game, with our characters making it up to 20th level. Ambitious indeed! How could I say no? But the question became, what kind of character should I play this time.

Well part of me never felt all that satisfied with the way Milo turned, so I figured it was time to try a roguish character again. But in so many ways Klio would be the opposite of Milo. Where he was short, mild mannered and didn't like to draw attention to himself, Klio was tall, spoiled and loved all the attention on her constantly. Yeah, this was going to be quite a switch.

My pal Kat drew this lovely bust of Klio with her
ridiculous hat. "The hat says it all, darling."

• Niobe Morkoth (aka Klio Illuvia) - High Elf Rogue/Swashbuckler - The Fifth Sorcerer (Home-brew)
• It was time for another long term epic campaign. I really love playing rogue characters (I usually create stealth ranged attackers in roleplaying video games), so I wanted to try a rogue character who could potentially get to high levels. Milo was a thief/spy focus, but for this character I wanted to try the swashbuckler subclass.
• The DM and I talked about a potential backstory for the character, and based on that discussion, I felt it would be interesting for the character to be High Elf. Klio doesn't really get all that many benefits because of that (High Elves are more suited for magic focused classes). But it makes for an interesting racial element that has come into play a few times.
• This is the first time I've played an actual evil character. Klio is a noble born selfish woman. She is essentially the femme fatale of the group, and her dark secrets threaten the whole party time and time again.
• The hardest thing was figuring out how an evil character could and would work with a party of mostly good people. I worked with the DM to come up with a story, and added that Klio will have an arc. If the other party members try to help her, she may become less and less selfish - and perhaps a little less evil. 
• While building Klio's backstory I thought it would be fun if all of her family and the elves in the area would use ancient Greek names. It was fun - until we had to pronounce them. Ugh!
• Morkoth is a corruption for the Tolkien elvish word for Darkness. It is also a hideous monster in Volo's Guide to Monsters. Only one of these was intentional.
• Backstory - I essentially took the noble story from Milo's backstory and turned the noble sisters into the main characters. The Morkoth family has fallen out of favor in the grand game of the elven political world. The family turned to dealing with devils to regain the power. Niobe and her sister Kallisto were raised in this environment of diabolical dealings and backstabbing. Niobe was the older and saw first hand the evils around her. She rebelled in her own way, becoming the black sheep of the family. Kallisto was treated much differently, because her parents had other plans. A ritual was performed and Kallisto was somehow linked to a devil lord, but Niobe managed to resist (with some infernal help). Kallisto's sweet and caring personality was changed into a malicious and spiteful one. A series of unfortunate events lead to Niobe killing her lover based on Kallisto's schemes. Niobe fled County Morkoth in search of a way to kill her sister once and for all. A "curse" keeps the sisters from directly hurting each other. Niobe changed her name to Klio and joined the party. She is using them to help her find a way to remove the "curse" and finally take her revenge. (just a little bit complicated, but that's just Klio).
• Typical Klio- Arrogant, spoiled and snarky: Klio is a blast to play. She flirts with just about everyone. Loves to drink wine and is a connoisseur. She has no problem lying or weaving stories. She loves her ridiculous hat, and uses it to distract from her other actions (such as cheating at cards, or preparing a dagger for stabbing). Over the course of the game she refers to everyone in the party as "darling", is obsessed with seeing the stronger characters do push-ups for her and has managed to get two party members to fall head over heels in love with her.
• Favorite Moment - I have to pick one? Is that possible? Well one moment does stand out, and once again my rogue just can't roll right when it comes to something she should be insanely good at. During the exploration of a ruined town Klio and her cleric buddy found a wine cellar. Since Klio LOVES wine of all kinds she was very excited. I said that Klio dances over to the wine rack. The DM took this literally (as well he should) and had me roll a performance check. Klio has a wicked high performance skill - and she rolled a natural 1. So the DM said she tripped and crashed into the wine rack, the whole thing fell over and shattered, covering her in wine. She was only able save a single bottle, and it wasn't even that good of a vintage. As she was lamenting her ruined clothing, the cleric decided to "help" with a spell called "create water". Three gallons of freezing water fell onto Klio drenching her further, but hey, now she was clean. The cleric couldn't stop laughing. When the two ladies got back to the group, Klio looked like a half drowned cat holding a bottle of shitty wine. Klio was not amused, but everyone else was. Klio did get her revenge on the cleric - the woman is now hopelessly in love with her.

Klio isn't all pretty hats and wine. When it comes to
adventuring, she is ready to go. "Oh how cute.
They think they going to get out of this alive."
SpaceFriend drew this image of Klio plotting
an ambush.

But yeah, she is mostly about hats, and wine.
"Oh have you come to join me darling. How nice,
and with a lovely Merlot. Well, the evening just got
better." Kat strikes back with another sketch
of Klio.

Who Are You? Part 5 - Gev Luka

As much fun as it was bing a traitorous scum (aka Vulmar Arnulf) for a short campaign of Dungeons and Dragons, I don't want to make a habit of it. So for the next home-brew game by that same DM I wanted to play someone a bit different. I had learned a bit about spell casting mechanics with my cleric character. But I wanted to give something a bit more involved a try. I ended up creating a druid.

But I had my eye on Circle of the Coast variant of druid. This adventure was going to be set in the island nations off the same continent that Hubris and Ascension took place. There would be pirates and other nautical dangers to avoid. So I figured a druid with spells and abilities focused on the water, wind and ice would be helpful. I've been keeping as close to the theme as I could, and had a lot of fun with this character.

What most folks think of when it comes to D&D druids.
Elves wandering with nature magic in forest... not Gev.

• Gev Luka - Human Druid/Circle of the Coast - The Right Thing (Home-brew)
• Decided to finally play a human, because why the heck not. The DM was allowing us to select Feats (special abilities beyond the typical abilities related to classes). So I went with the variant human with allows me to start with a feat.
• Decided to play my first full spell casting class - druid. I was going to focus on spells over the animal transformation (although Gev can do that, he uses them more for utility instead of combat).
• Turned out another player was going to also be a druid. (He rolls stats first and lets those decide what kind of character to play. He rolled the perfect fit for a Druid). We chatted and decided to play brothers in the campaign. I would focus on spells, he would focus on beast transformation and interaction. Since the player is from the south, I gave Gev an accent (cheesy Texan accent, I work with a lot of Texans and can mimic it pretty well). 
• Backstory - It was a bit of fun to coordinate backstories with another player. Gev is the younger of the two brothers. The older brother left home after a big fight with the parents. Gev stuck around for a bit, but eventually left home. He wanted to find his brother, but also just wanted to see the world. Gev became a sailor and had several adventures. After getting washed overboard in a storm, he met a sea elf, fell in love with her and was brought to the Circle of the Stone Eye. This druid circle developed Gev's affinity for the sea and its powers. He became a member of the circle. He was sent back to the islands to identify a dangerous imbalance involving "the shadowless".
• Typical Gev - Gev is also a very cheerful fellow. His positive outlook is reflected in his "winning smile" a big cheesy grin that he flashes to anyone watching. Gev is a talkative guy as well. He runs his mouth constantly and tries to keep everyone smiling and laughing. He can be a bit much at times, especially compared to his more morose brother. Gev's "winning smile" is going to become a drinking game.
• Favorite Moment - Gev has been a blast to play. His interactions with his brother and the mysterious rogue Sikia have all been really entertaining. But one of my favorite moments was the great escape. The two brothers were captured by a village full of orcs. The two managed to survive, with Gev quick talking to the Orc leader, and pitching the brothers as healers. Things went as well as they could. In the end the orcs decided to threaten to hang the brothers as a show of force. As the two were dropped with the nooses on their necks, they both transformed into animals (Gev transformed into a brown tabby cat) and escaped to their companions. The explosive battle that followed made the whole sequence one of the most exciting of the campaign yet.

It was impossible to find a good image of a coastal druid.
So I made one using Hero Forge miniatures. Gev is ready
for adventure and stories... did he ever tell you how he
lost his hair? Well it's quite a story. You see...