Wandering Adventure Party

Wish I could just casually afford one of these. A tapestry is just a rug hung from a wall, right? #Eberronhttps://design-trend.com/products/dd1019-dungeons-dragons-the-continent-of-khorvaire-eberron-map-area-limited-edition-rug14418

This post originally appeared on the previous incarnation of this blog on September 22, 2024. Earlier in the week, I wrote about my first session of a new campaign. Last night, the group met online to do session 2 of that campaign.Our CastAhsha: High Elf Sorcerer, a runaway from Sharn, still learning to control her magic, seeking adventure.Duke: Harengon Fighter, member of a criminal trio who smuggle arcane goods, currently separated from the other two members of the trio while they lay lowFillip: Warforged Rogue, forging his own path after the Last War by working as a private eye. Has a passion for justice after a friend was wrongfully executed.Jed: Orc Fighter, his farm was destroyed by raiders, has come out to Aundair to seek a new place to call home. No nonsense.26 Rhaan, 998YK (Cont’d)They began on the road in the Forgotten Prince’s realm, having previously walked past the detritus of the forgotten pets who’d become blink dogs. They’d even befriended a blink dog (we’ll call him Blinky like I started doing in the game). Blinky had been leading them toward the castle down the road.As we begin, the party approaches a gate in a wall with forest on either side of the wall and forest between the wall and the castle. The gate is guarded by more of the shadow fey they’d encountered in the streets of Passage. (I used the Elf, Shadow Fey stat block from Tome of Beasts for these) The party speaks with the fey guards who tell them that they are not allowed to permit anyone to pass who is not on the list of invited guests put out by the Forgotten Prince himself. Ahsha tries a persuasion check asking how they can be sure that the party isn’t on the list. The dice declare this persuasion is not to be. The guards tell the party that they are sure they are not on the list because there is no list today.I’d expected a little more encounter here, since I’d built it explicitly knowing that Ahsha had the friends spell. Later on in the session I learned that her player had thought that the Advantage on saves vs. the Charmed condition meant that they were immune to the condition.The party, deciding that there is no sense dawdling with these guards because they need to get Rhaani out of the Prince’s Realm before the full moon wanes, heads into the woods to see if they can find a way around or over or through the wall. They notice some webbing around the trees based on a good Survival check by Jed, but then the dice decide they’ve had enough with being kind and the entire party rolls under 5 on Perception checks to notice the Ettercap hanging out above them.The Ettercap takes advantage of being unseen to launch webs at Jed and trap him. We then roll initiative with Ahsha and Jed acting before the Ettercap, and Duke acting after. (Fillip’s player was late to the game, so we put Fillip last in initiate to give time)Ahsha uses an arcane burst against the Ettercap, but rolls minimum damage, merely singing the creature. Jed pulls upon his internal strength to burst the bonds around him then surges into action to pin the Ettercap to the ground with his pitchfork. The Ettercap gets up and tries to bite Jed, missing, but rakes him with its claws. Blinky misses and Duke uses his long sword to sap the Ettercap and give it disadvantage on its next attack.The fight continues into the second round with the party using heroic inspiration and hero points to deal with required saves to finish off the Ettercap. Duke deals the finishing blow with his rapier and the party begins to search the area around them for the Ettercap’s nest, discovering 7 gems (tourmaline and sapphires, worth 10gp each).Better than the gems, the party discovers that the Ettercap had also breached the wall surrounding the Prince’s castle, the better to get at all the tasty fey within. They walk through the remnants of many spider dinners to get through the woods back to the road on this side of the gate.They reach the front door of the castle which is guarded by three guards (Darklings, from Volo’s Guide to Monsters). They begin with negotiation again, telling the guards that “Hey, we’re caterers, we’re contracted with the kitchen staff so let us in.” At first the guards aren’t buying it, but Ahsha remembers at this point that elves only get Advantage toward Charmed not Immunity and casts Friends on the guards. They weren’t even elves, and didn’t have the advantage, and utterly fail the save. They helpfully usher the party into the castle.Inside the castle, the party enters a great entrance hall with rooms off it along both sides and straight ahead. The castle is mostly dark and most surfaces are covered in dust like they’ve been left neglected for some time. The door closes behind them and disappears, they’ll need to find another way out of the castle. They hear crying from the room directly ahead, along with another voice that sounds like an attempt to reassure the person who’s crying.The party heads straight ahead. In a room they find a fireplace with contents of the Prince’s library burning to provide light and warmth to this room.Sitting around a table in the room are two human women and a gnome woman. The gnome is clutching her hands in her face and rocking. One human is doing measurements and pinning a dress that the other human is wearing. The bride to be is crying until she recognizes the Baker who came with the party and speaks with him.The party has a discussion with the woman about how her former fiancé back in Passage likely made a deal with the prince to stick her here and they’re here to rescue her. They discuss the finer points of deals with the fey and decide that since she didn’t make a deal that they can probably get her out of here without bringing the penalties of a fey deal down upon her and them. Just maybe anger an archfey a teeny bit. But they’re still planning the rescue.The gnome is hesitant at first to leave, saying she deserves to be here. She says that she was requested to kill someone back home by The Trust and carried out the instructions like she was told, like any Zil would. But she seems to be having a crisis of faith involving her worship of the Sovereign Arawei. As she speaks about the encounter, the fairy story field makes the bloodstains on her hands and clothes appear. Some therapy ensues, and the Party tells her they don’t need to take her home, but will help her get a new start wherever. This gets her to come along.The group enlarged by three new rescues begins to look around the castle. Fillip discovers a room filled with lost and forgotten official records, including both the deal with the Prince that got Rhanni here, saying that she was traded for a small fortune and a dragonmark, and some correspondance proving that Fillip’s friend was set up by some important people back home. He pockets the correspondance for now, figuring out how best to wield it.We end the session with the group gathered for their escape from the Castle of Forgotten Things. Using the session levelling rules, they level up to 3 and pick their new subclasses.Note: DriveThruRPG links are affiliate links

This post originally appeared on the previous incarnation of this blog on September 18, 2024.I recently started a new campaign with my group. It’s one I’ve wanted to do for ages, since I actually sat down and read the Eberron setting. Eberron is a setting which looks to answer the question “What would technology look like if it were made of magic?” There are trains and long distance communications and airships and magical robot soldiers and wandslinging wizard soldiers. The setting introduced the Artificer class to D&D, a class based around creating magic items using ‘Arcane Science’.While the new version of the Artificer, and in general new material for Eberron itself, hasn’t yet been released, my group was excited about their new D&D 2024 Player’s Handbooks and asked if we could use the 2024 options for their characters. With my own Tea Dragon cover sitting on my desk when that email came, I decided to try the new rules out.We’re beginning in 998YK, the default starting point for Eberron Campaigns. We are only 4 years out from the Mourning that destroyed the nation of Cyre before mysteriously stopping at its borders. We are 2 years out from the Treaty of Thronehold that ended the 100-year Last War and established the current status quo of the “Five Nations” of Khorvaire.Not all are happy with the way things ended with the Last War. Many blame the ir’Wynarn family, the Royal Family of the Five Nations, for their sibling squabbles that dragged the continent into war. Some look to the enrichment of the Dragonmarked Houses and ask “why do they get that monopoly?” Some asking the questions even have the money and the connections to start planning to do something about it.These are the political conditions surrounding the start to our campaign.Our unlikely heroes are:The Duke of Dirt Town, a harengon fighter and part of a trio who smuggle arcane goodsFillip Kento, a warforged rogue, would-be inquisitive (or detective) haunted by the wrongfully convicted friend he failed to saveAhshalla Elgolor, an elven cleric of the Silver Flame, adventure seeker who avoids direct conflict however she canJed, an orc fighter whose farm was pillaged by orc raiders and just wants to find a new place to put down rootsSo yeah, we don’t have casters mostly. That was something that was on my mind to see how it played out, given that I decided to start off at Level 1.26 Rhaan 998YKOur adventure begins with the adventurers leaving the lightning rail at the station in Passage, a large transport hub and home to House Orien, who run the trains, caravans, and virtually all land-based trade throughout Khorvaire. The pale blue dot Rhaan, one of Eberron’s 12 moons, hangs full in the sky.Immediately as they leave the station, they hear cries for help. A man in torn and dirty white cook clothes is running from two elves cloaked in shadow.The adventurers step in to help the man, interpreting themselves between him and the elves and fighting them off. The combat really showed off the new Weapon Mastery table of the 2024 rulebook as the two fighters kept inflicting conditions on the elves. Vex and Sap were great aids to the fighters. They really added some momentum to the fight, that could shift and sway as different characters applied their mastery effects. Reminded me that I should take a look at monsters I use, consider whether they’d have a mastery trait and apply the proper one in the future. Loads of fun to hear the players cheer for the advantage from a vexed enemy make a difference.As the fight ends, they are surprised by the fact that none of the other people in the street seem to have reacted to the fight or the man calling for help. The surprise is compounded when they look again and the corpses of the elves are nowhere to be seen.The PCs introduce themselves to the man they’ve rescued who introduces himself as Simon Baker. He glances back at the road he ran down into town and begins screaming when it is nowhere to be seen. He explains that he was chasing after his neighbor Rhaani, who ran away after she said that her fiancé claimed to have forgotten her on the night of their rehearsal dinner. He tried to console her but she ran down a road out of town and he was chased and accosted by fey when he tried to follow.A couple knowledge checks later, the party makes the connection that the month is Rhaan and the full moon is Rhaan and Rhaan is the moon tied to Thelannis, the plane of the fey. As our Orc Fighter put it, “Great, it’s fairy bullshit o’clock.”The PCs continue talking to Simon about Rhaani and her rich fiancé, Jessek Weaver, who seems to have suddenly in the last day or so had an increase to his fortune and is wearing the rings of the Aurum. The party starts talking about whether he sold off his memory or even sold off Rhaani to the fey. Since they figure that there are probably fairy rules afoot, they decide to hurry up and save Rhaani first in case the full moon is a key to getting where she is.They also drag Simon along, because he’s admitted some unrequited love for her by blushing when asked. By fairy rules, that might make him a key too. Can’t waste any possible key when fairies are involved.They try to experiment for a while with the road out of town, seeing whether they can summon the fairy road. Eventually Jed just grabs Simon and continues walking down the road saying “We’ll get there however I have to figure the way.” Slowly, and without any clear indication when, the party finds themselves walking a road through Thelannis instead of out of Passage.The road is cluttered with boxes offering puppies free to good homes. Some canine creatures are off in the distance but seem curious about the party. Food and scratches are offered to one of the more curious individuals, along with a fantastic Handle Animal check by Jed. The dog is offered a sniff of a ribbon that fell from Rhaani during her run and then it blinks down the path to lead them. The party follows the blink dog toward a castle in the distance.Impression of D&D 2024 and the SessionI had a lot of fun with this session and with the new rules. Like I said while talking about the fight, there was a lot going on that the fighters’ hits were meaning something to the pace of the fight more than just making hit points go down. They could sap an enemy going after a weaker ally to give protection, they could vex an opponent they were one-on-one with to secure themselves advantage.This was the first self-written session I’d done in a while and the pacing seemed to work. Shout out to Sly Flourish and Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master for the prep method I’m using to figure out just what I need prepped and set aside to roll with what the players decide to do at the table.These people are my usual group so mostly I got to throw a clue to them, then sit back and watch them work out the next three clues I would have given and run off to EXACTLY the scene I thought would come up. That’s the nice thing about a familiar group who you gave an idea of the themes you wanted, they’re pretty well bought in to the same things you think you’ll need to prep and your prep mostly hits the table.I’m looking forward to the next sessions, and also to figuring out some adaptations of Eberron stuff I can use to make the game better for the players.

Whenever I tell the tale of how the dragons of Argonessen ended the Giant civilization of Xen'dik, I begin by saying, "Dragons. Every one of them is a siege engine with legs. When a dragon needs to solve serious problem, that solution will have a blast radius."#eberron #dungeonsAndDragons #dnd5e #dnd

Currently reading through the second Nancy Drew book, The Hidden Staircase.The Mansion is giving me dungeon ideas for my Eberron game. Love secret doors and passages.#TTRPG #Eberron #NancyDrew

@tabletopgamingdeals Nope. a percentage of *all* DM's Guild stuff, both third-party and not, goes to WotC (50% last I heard). Another percentage (30% last I heard) goes to OBS, of course. The only difference between buying third-party stuff or not as far as money is where the percentage remaining after those two cuts (20% last I heard) goes.

Just finished #DnD night. Ended a chapter of the campaign when my players fell under the influence of an imprisoned rage demon and assassinated an Archbishop triggering a prophecy that shattered one of the shards of the demon's prison.So, uh, nice knowing you Thaliost.#TTRPG #Eberron #SessionStories