Epiro: Episode 111

CAST

• Atticus (elf druid 5)
• Ben’s gnome (gnome artful dodger rogue 5)
• Iola (wood elf centered breath monk 5)
• Josh’s new wizard (human evocation mage 5)
• Perseus (human Chaladin 5)

Now that they had a chance to breathe, they could see that the first room was a wide marble hall, with a ceiling supported by fluted pillars, and the center featured a very much vibrant tree with golden leaves and apples. There were two exits to the north and east flanked by statues, with another pair of statues along the west wall (some of which Perseus recognized as distant relatives).

The pair of statues without an entrance seemed suspect, so Josh’s wizard examined the wall for lingering earth-magics. He did not find any, but when Atticus gave it a mundane once over he noticed some faint imperfections that indicated this wall might have been magically sealed up a long time ago, more recently via mundane means, or maybe with magic that just did not register to Josh. In any case they could not find a secret door, so resulted to a good old bashing.

Unfortunately as he and Perseus tried to force their way through, it split into a pair of earth elementals.

If the Elemental Eye had a book of tricks, this would be one of the older ones.

They figured that there would be a trap: Perseus acted first, delivering a literally earth-shattering blow that split the elemental open, causing rocks and a person to come tumbling out. They could not tell the race or gender because it was wearing dark robes with a hood, and since it was not moving they decided to ignore it for now. The elemental did not seem deterred, and gripped Perseus with a crushing, stony tendril. Atticus tried clawing the other one apart, but was barely able to make a scratch.

Iola leapt into action next, also literally. She launched herself across the room and came down with both feet on what she assumed was the head of one of the elementals, stomping it into the ground like Mario on a goomba. She then leapt off of it and knocked the other one away from Perseus with a spinning kick, freeing him from its grasp. Josh’s wizard followed up by lobbing an explosive sphere of force that further scattered both them and pieces of them across the room.

The figure shakily stood up, glancing about in confusion. Despite my frequent mentions no one paid it any heed and kept hacking, blasting, and punching at the elementals until they were reduced to rubble (and uncut gems).

Precious, precious elemental guts.

It was only after the fight was over that they remembered that there was someone else there. Unfortunately at that point she had pulled back her hood to reveal a scaly face, with a head covered in writhing, hissing snakes.

Why did it have to be snakes?

Despite being slowly turning to stone, Iola managed to bridge the distance and give her a one-two combo. Perseus brandished his shield, which he had polished to a mirror-shine just for this occasion (however improbable). His tactic worked, causing her to avert her gaze, giving the rest of the party time to attack without being subjected to it. Ironically the greatest danger was when Josh’s wizard conjured up a whirlwind that sucked Atticus away while he was crushing her in a bear hug (he refused to let go, even with her save-penalizing poison).

Iola ended up getting turned to stone, while Perseus called on some divine aid to cure himself before rushing back into the fray. Since Josh’s wizard was still sustaining the whirlwind, Atticus simply let her go, causing her to fly across the room and crash into a wall. Finally free (for the second time if you count the elemental), the medusa tried to make a break for the temple’s entrance, only to catch a dagger in the head from Ben’s gnome (who might not have had a name since he made it just before, and kind of while we were playing).

He strode in, yanked his dagger free, and in one smooth motion wiped it off before sheathing it. He had been watching them for most of the battle, safely waiting outside to see how things went.

Why? It is not like we are playing 3rd Edition.

He introduced himself, and after some pre-party Mandatory Awkward Conversation decided to team up with them to hunt cultists.

(NOTE: Defeating a monster is worth some serious brownie points, especially when it has the added effect of restoring a petrified party member. It is also one of the few instances where kill-stealing is both acceptable and encouraged.)

With that out of the way, Perseus and Atticus decided to scout ahead while the rest of the party continued to check out the hall and scoop up gems. Initially there was nothing particularly interesting about the passage, but the further they went the colder it got: frost began to coat the walls, and they could see their breath in the air.

Eventually they found the source of the cold. Kind of. Something had…torn a hole in the wall, and freezing wind was pouring out of it. They went back to fetch Josh’s wizard, hoping that he could discern the nature of the phenomenon. When he could not detect any magical auras, he just poked his head through. His light spell had very limited range, and all he could see was that there was a black wall about ten feet beyond the hole that likely extended well beyond the range of his magic.

Unwilling to try climbing out to interact with it (the pit seemed to be bottomless and there was nothing to hold on to), they just kept going, and that is where we called it.

Behind the Scenes
So after some back and forth, we decided to switch Epiro from D&D Next to 4th Edition. On one hand the public playtest is petering out in September anyway, and on the other hand there is virtually nothing about Next that interests us: the only reason we dealt with it this long was to pitch in our two cents to try and shape the game. Without that factor at this point all we can do is wait and hope that things change or get added that will appeal to us.

Or not. We still enjoy 4th Edition, and have about three, maybe four other games—not counting board games—that we can still play.

Given how I tend to run 4th Edition—flexible powers, approximate distances instead of a map, making up and changing monster stats on the fly (including adjusting hit points and powers), Dungeon Master intrusion, probably over-powered magic items, etc—we had considered 13th Age (and even Numenera despite the major shift in style and tone), but with the lack of a druid class and the monk still in beta, I felt that things would go smoothest if we just stuck with 4th Edition.

How did it go?

It was great. In my past reports I kept stating that yeah, we had fun, but not because of anything to do with the system. Actually, if anything it made it more difficult to have fun: characters within a class are too similar (and melee classes feel largely the same with their “roll to attack, roll damage if you hit” routine), monsters died too fast and/or did not do enough, per-day spells and magical healing wreaked havoc with pacing (especially since characters have virtually no capability to heal otherwise), the recent removal of skills, etc.

4th Edition’s system adds to the fun. I can focus on running the game and making things up without worrying that I am going to accidentally kill the party. The math makes it very easy to peg a monster so that it is challenging as I want it to be, and the monsters last long enough and do enough damage so that they can actually cause tension and excitement. Characters have a variety of things to do, and they are not reliant on magical healing in order to keep going.

I am pretty sure this is the first time I have ever used a medusa, and you know what? I’m was happy with the reveal, especially since anyone who started their turn within ten feet automatically got hit with its gaze attack. What I also liked about it is that instead of making a single save to see who just immediately died, that they had a chance to react to it, be affected by it, and try to deal with it: Melissa tried making an Endurance check to give herself a bonus on her next save, while Perseus used one of his prayers to get a save bonus.

Of course after the fight was over I just ruled that she turned back to normal: forcing the party to walk all the way back to town just to fix her would be one of those pace-wreaking issues I mentioned above.

Dungeon World: Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, Part 2

NOTE: Half the party was unavailable to play this time around, so I guess it was a good thing that most of that half were at the town square: it just meant that I had to run one character for a bit, until I could invent a convenient excuse to temporarily bench him.

Cast

• Haepha (halfling barbarian)
• Lakra (halfling cleric)
• Zelikman (human wizard)
• Vincent (human thief)

At the end of last week’s session Luther, Hawke and Vincent were safe behind a number of sturdy, if not exactly wagon-proof barricades, while the two halflings and wizard—who, I should mention, lacks offensive magic—were trapped within a mist-shrouded, zombie-infested, unfamiliar cityscape.

When things are this unfair, who says games are not like real life?

Haepha, Lakra, and Zelikman were making their way towards the town square. Though the street provided a straight shot, the mist forced them to use light spells in order to navigate around bits of zombie and other debris that had collected in the street. Normally this only might have drawn unwelcome attention (especially the divinely-fueled holy light), but the wagon collision had already attracted a fair number of zombies. Thankfully they do not have a Subtle tag, so they heard them long before they saw them.

Initially five emerged, arms outreached (for the ones that still had them and were not crawling, anyway). Haepha, as she is wont to do, rushed into the fray, sword swinging. Unfortunately when it comes to zombies, organs are more of an accessory than a necessity. Her sword became lodged in one, giving the rest an ample opportunity to chow down on the fun-sized barbarian. Lakra stepped up to intervene with a hammer to the knee, and before anyone could think of a tired Skyrim meme, followed it up with a blow to the face.

Though dislodged it from Haepha—almost dislodging its head in the process—who, now freed, was able to disarm a few of them, literally, before she was overwhelmed by a fresh batch emerging from the mist. Lakra tried again to assist, but was pulled down by one of the crawlers. She managed to kick it off before it could bite her and, realizing that they were getting surrounded again, decided to turn undead. Frankly given how well it worked last time, I was wondering what was taking her so long to use the move with a result that can “cause mindless undead to flee”.

Despite failing to cause them to scatter, she was at least able to keep them at bay. Haepha managed to escape from the throng, but lost her sword in the process, which still made her more immediately useful than Zelikman’s combination low-Strength and Hit Die. As they regrouped and tried to think of a way out, Haepha’s sword slid towards them. She picked it up as the zombies turned towards the source of the noise, giving Haepha an easy opportunity to fatally qualify them for the Small tag.

See, while Hawke and Luther remained behind to help the wounded and shore up defenses—you know, stuff that they could reasonably be expected to do, while keeping them behind the scenes—Vincent requisitioned something that while not exactly fashionable, still provided the same Armor rating as leather, and convinced someone to come with him as he ventured back out to try and rescue the rest of the party.

Thankfully he did not have to go far before he noticed the light from Lakra’s holy symbol shimmering through the mist. The brief thought that this might be easier than he feared however, was cut short when he noticed many lurching silhouettes obscuring it. They did not seem to notice him, and as he busied himself picking off stragglers with well-placed (and rolled) Volleys, he spotted Haepha’s sword on the ground. He kicked it to her, and the rest–like the zombies–was history.

Once they were safe behind the barricade—or, as safe as they could be in a game that encourages the GM to Reveal an Unwelcome Truth—they learned that the source of the zombies appeared several hours ago, and seemed to originate around the church. Thankfully one of the streets lead directly to it, making it an easy find despite all the mist. Lakra managed to heal up Haepha a bit, luckily without having her spells revoked, and Zelikman stayed behind (though not before happily volunteering his healing potions…sorry Josh).

En route they encountered yet another group of zombies. Third time is a charm, and they served no better than a speed bump as Lakra’s turn undead utterly obliterated them (because I think that is cooler than having them run away), and they arrived at the church soon after. It was an ancient stone structure, and through the dead silence they could easily hear the low murmur of someone (or thing?) chanting. They gave a listen at the door, but were unable to make out what was being said. Still, the combination of chanting and zombies is never a good sign.

The tried the door, which of course was locked. Haepha tried to force it, but unsurprisingly failed to break something well over five times her height. They would have to find another way in and, at Vincent’s insistence, decided to explore the church perimeter together, as he learned from his very, very recent experience the hazards of going alone. They found a stained glass window, through which they could see flickering lights and the hear the chanting somewhat more clearly.

Vincent pried out a piece of glass and scoped out the interior. From his vantage he could see a robed individual, praying in front of a badly scored alter of some sun god. Motionless bodies were slumped over on the pews, thought it was too dark to make out any fine details. The entire room reeked of rot, and despite the chanting he could still hear the sound of flies buzzing about. So, pretty much, all the trappings of a zombie-spawning, unholy ground.

Reasonably assuming the worse, they figured that they would give ambush a shot. With a boost from Vincent, the vertically-challenged Haepha was able to smash in a window, hop inside, and bellow out, “Your reign of terror is over!” The robed figure stood and turned to meet her, pulling back his hood to reveal…the wide-eyed face of a ragged, old man, whose expression rapidly shifted from fear, to confusion, then back to fear again as he saw that it was in fact trio of bloody, armed strangers climbing through his shattered window.

I am not sure why, but the characters stopped and exchanged confused looks. I guess they were expecting something more immediately and overtly…sinister? Even more confusing was when they asked him why he had not “done anything” about the zombies outside, or the dead bodies inside. The zombies were not exactly push overs, but they had also run into a mhorg, and who knows what else was lurking in the mists. Even the priest from Dead Alive got taken out by zombies, so I have no idea what they expected this guy to accomplish.

He explained that the vampire Strahd came to the village several days ago to meet with the burgomaster. No one was sure why, but before he left he killed the burgomaster and several villagers, his son included. Most of the village believed that Strahd was punishing them for the burgomaster’s defiance, and that he would return again.

The next day after he had performed burial rites, and laid his son and the other slain villagers to rest, he found a leathery black book within the sacristy that he had not noticed before. The white pages were inked in red, and though he could not read the writing it whispered to him what he needed to do in order to gain command over the dead. The priest, in grief and desperation, forsook his gods in favor of this “darker power”, which instructed him on how to return his son to life and protect the village from Strahd.

Understandably they decided that leaving a grieving, unstable man with a mysterious, death-secret whispering book just might be a bad idea. Unfortunately they openly voiced this while still standing some distance away from both the old man and death-secret whispering book.

This meant that when Haepha moved to try and take the book he had ample time to conjure shadowy, grasping arms from the floor to bind them in place. Numbing cold seeped into their legs as they attempted to futility tear free. Lakra raised her holy symbol and began to pray, figuring that at least she could keep the zombies away, and was surprised when the arms also dissolved. The priest was likewise surprised, at least partially because Haepha was charging him. She managed to hack off one of his arms, but not before he struck her with a lance of dark energy.

Lakra moved in to finish him off, but hesitated when she heard a hoarse, rattling voice utter something that sounded like “father” from a hole in the floor that had previously gone unnoticed due to the lack of light. A long, skeletal armed yanked her to the floor, dragging her down into the basement. Momentarily stunned by the fall, she recovered just in time to see a creature that looked like a vaguely humanoid skeleton stretched a bit too much, with a too-wide mouth filled with jagged teeth, leap from the ceiling at her.

As the zombies threatened to surround Vincent, he noticed that the priest was still conscious, his hand was crackling with black energy, and—perhaps most importatly—he was reaching towards Haepha. She had just bagged the book and was heading towards the hole in order to give Lakra, judging by her frantic screaming, a much needed hand. He threw a dagger, which fortunately met the priest’s skull right between his eyes, killing him instantly. Unfortunately that was his last dagger, and, well, zombies.

Haepha now had to choose between helping Vincent or Lakra. Given that Vincent was facing off against a small zombie horde, she figured that Lakra had better odds (especially considering she could enchant her weapon and was wearing real armor), but when she went to help him fell through a rotting section of the floor (I did say it was ancient). So, Lakra it is. As she collected herself she saw the creature crouched atop Lakra, who was managing to barely keep it at bay with the haft of her hammer. Hefting her sword, she tells it that she just helped murder its father.

That got its attention. Its frenzied, murderous attention. It leaped at her, but she stepped aside and sliced it in half (hooray for a damage bonus, and the Messy and Forceful tags). By the time its upper half managed to recover from its collision with a support beam, both Haepha and Lakra were upon it, hacking and tenderizing the remains until it was reduced to a black paste. The destruction of the priest’s “son”, aside from stopping it from tearing them apart, also had the pleasant side effect of turning the zombies back into lifeless corpses before they could tear Vincent apart.

So, this session ended on a much less chaotic note. The party was separated and the village was still shrouded in mist, but at least there were not any zombies…for now. I mean, they did have a whispering black book, after all.

After Game Commentary
I think I am getting the hang of the “no” and “yes, but” results. I actually took the time to write up a lengthy list of examples to reference during the game:

• Use a Monster, Danger, or Location Move: Zombies overwhelm, appear when it is least convenient, and attract more (as well as other, worse undead denizens). 
• Reveal an Unwelcome Truth: Zombie bites can transmit disease, ghouls can paralyze, a building might have trapped survivors, both directions of a street have zombies, rescued survivors might try to sacrifice the characters in order to escape, or a civilian turns out to be a ghoul in disguise. 
• Show Signs of an Approaching Threat: Loud noises, combat, magic (especially divine magic), and more could attract zombies: their moaning and wet sounds of their footsteps are all sure signs that they are en route. 
• Deal Damage: Zombies and ghouls claw and bite. 
• Use up Their Resources: Zombies can tear apart armor, weapons could get stuck in an undead creature (especially if you get overwhelmed in a fight), and you might lose other gear in the chaos. Characters might also use up supplies trying to barricade a door (hammer and spikes), climb up a building (rope and grappling hook), providing illumination, etc. 
• Turn Their Move Back on Them: Scouting characters might get detected, they might find a building that seems safe but discover that it is locked or inhabited by an inhospitable survivor, after barricading themselves in a building they might discover that there is a zombie (or worse) trapped in there with them (or just a crazed survivor). 
• Separate Them: An oncoming horde could easily divide characters, especially if they take different escape paths. 
• Point to a Looming Threat: Partially eaten corpses, moaning in the different, bloody foot- or handprints, scratching from behind doors, shambling silhouettes in the distance. 
• Introduce a New Type of Creature: Zombies are commonplace, but there are also ghouls skulking about preying on survivors and stray zombies. You could also introduce ghosts, skeletons, devourers, mhorgs, and other forms of undead. 
• Make Them Backtrack: A street could be clogged with numerous zombies, ghouls might stalk the rooftops. 
• Present Riches at a Price: Dead soldiers or merchants might be carrying weapons, armor, or jewelry. Fleeing victims might still have bags containing food, water, rope, and so on. 
• Present a Challenge to one of the Characters: Clerics can obviously turn undead, paladins can use their detect evil to help avoid throngs of zombies, fighters can try to break open doors to escape (or thieves could just pick the locks).

This is just for the village section. I wrote up other thematically appropriate move-reference sheets for other areas as well so I can be better prepared. Some, like the Svalich Woods, did not take much, but others, like Castle Ravenloft, will need quite a few.

After so many years of Dungeons & Dragons, I am also getting used to the idea of waiving rolls for certain things. For example, when Melissa had Haepha attack the zombies after they turned around, I just let her kill them. When they had killed off most of the zombies, I just told them that they were able to pretty easily take out the last few, because spending a lot of time watching them bumble around like the Three Stooges was getting pretty stale.

On the topic of zombies I think that at 11 hit points they are a bit much, especially for horde monsters. I reduced them to 7, making it feasible that melee-oriented classes have a chance of taking them down in 1-2 hits, instead of 2-3.

Dungeon World: Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, Part 1

Strahd is an iconic Dungeons & Dragons villain, that is a member of an iconic monster (vampire), and part of one of the more iconic campaign settings.

Despite most of my Ravenloft knowledge coming from the Swords & Sorcery 3rd Edition revamp, I bought Expedition to Castle Ravenloft as soon as it came out, as I heard that it would have notes to drop Castle Ravenloft in Forgotten Realms, Eberron, or even a d20 Modern campaign.

I never got a chance to try to run it until about two years ago, as a slapdash 4th Edition conversion. This resulted in a single four hour long pair of zombie-strewn encounters, in which zombie-bits were strewn about.  Though we did not pick it up again, I still kept the book–among a handful of other choice 3rd Edition materials–which was good because recently I decided to give it another shot.

Using Dungeon World.

Given that my last, probably most successful campaign, involved just a hint of planning along with a heaping pile of  me making things up as I went along, the way Dungeon World plays seemed like a good fit. Thankfully I had kept up on reading it, as I had always hoped to run the mini campaign at some point, so I had the plot and most of the encounters outside the castle–which, to be fair, is a big place–fairly well committed.

After about an hour of working out bonds and backstory, I started the adventure with the party–Hawke (human fighter), Luther (human paladin), Zelikman (human wizard), Vincent (human thief), Lakra (halfling cleric), and Haepha (halfling barbarian, hooray for playtest docs)–riding towards Barovia. I decided to be nice and give them a wagon and pair of horses for free, partly to speed up travel time, partly because a lot of them were in it for the money and it would make it easier to clean the castle out (again, it is a big place).

They rode through the gates, which slammed closed as they passed. After about fifty or so feet of muddy track flanked by imposing, werewolf haunted wilderness they beheld the rolling hills of Barovia. Well, they would have were it not for the oppressive mist. What they could see, far in the distance, were some flickering lights that they correctly pegged for a village. With no other direction they headed towards it.

They arrived without any incident, and quickly noticed that there was not only no one around to greet, ominously warn, or chase them away, but they also could not hear anything. Haepha went to the nearest house and started pounding on the door, because nothing breaks the ice more than a group of heavily armed and armored mercenaries banging on your door in the middle of the night (especially when vampires, werewolves, and other creatures of the night are a thing).

Luther sensed a powerful concentration of evil in the north-western area of the village, which combined with plenty of lesser evil presences skulking about the village overwhelmed him, causing him to vomit. With everyone’s attention turned to him, only Vincent and Lakra noticed the door opening. Lakra pulled Haepha out of arms-reach of the arm reaching for her, followed by the rest of a rotting female corpse. Vincent tried to stick her with a dagger, but missed, losing it somewhere inside the house.

Luther recovered and engaged the zombie, running it through with his sword. This did not seem to inconvenience it much, though to be fair its teeth fared equally well against scale armor, too. While Hawke and Haepha tried to assist, another zombie appeared–a little girl, this time–and bit Haepha from behind. Hawke tore the larger zombie off of Luther with his…spiked…chain? Really, a whip? Well, this slipped into Castlevania territory faster than I would have guessed.

Anyway, he was able to use it to yank the zombie off of Luther, giving everyone a chance to hack it to pieces. Even though Zelikman lacked offensive spells of any kind, Josh put himself to use using his quarterstaff to keep them at bay. Haepha, not afraid to fight someone her own size, reached behind her and lobbed the zombie-child over her shoulder. It collided with Luther, impaling itself on his sword and knocking him over. It seemed to take awhile, but eventually the combined efforts of six armed adults were able to put it down for good.

Zelikman investigated the remains, but was only able to ascertain that the culprit was in fact not conventional necromancy. Vincent, on the other hand, got a better payoff when he investigated the house and found both his dagger and some 30-odd coins for his efforts. Haepha decided to scout ahead a bit, but after hearing the sounds of both scratching from behind a door and something slurping and crunching bones in the mists ahead, quickly made her way back to the rest of the party.

Wanting to catch a live specimen for study, Zelikman proposed cracking open another house and tying one up. Luther was opposed to this, because paladin, but eventually settled on the possibility that studying them might help prevent it in the future and/or make it easier to stop. In an act that would make a blonde, scantily clad horror cliche decry as foolhardy, Vincent decided to creep around the house, alone, to find a back door.

He did find a back door, but it was ripped off its hinges. Literally. The hinges were still attached to the house. The realization that this might not have been a good idea finally dawning on him, he started to make his way back, when something got his back. He managed to crawl away, losing his armor and half of his shirt  in the process.

Despite his cries for help everyone just kind of waited for him to make it back, expecting him to come barreling out of the mist, followed by a single creature. However, what came out was not some spry, snarling monster with rending claws, but a large…what do you call a group of zombies? A pack? A shamble? Anyway, there were ten or so of them. The fact that Vincent was only three-quarters clothed might have been funny if it were not for that.

Since Jeannie is pretty new to this whole thing I tipped her off that her character can Turn Undead, so Lakra help up her symbol and invoked the name of her god, which radiated a holy light that kept the zombies at bay. Everyone huddled close, and after a very lengthy argument on what to do next, Zelikman took the initiative, running towards their wagon that had been left some 20-feet away. He cast Cause Fear on the horses, which in retrospect should not have been necessary, because zombies.

The horses bolted towards the zombies, which was good because over a ton and a half of horse and wagon is pretty ideal for turning zombies into hamburger. What was bad was that that combination is also pretty ideal for turning humans and halflings into hamburger, especially when they are both in the way and huddled close together (though on the plus side live people make for fresher meat-stuffs).

Everyone dived out of the way and tried to grab onto the wagon. On the bright side, not only did almost everyone make it into the wagon but most of the zombies were also crushed. On the downside the horses could not be stopped (because, zombies and Cause Fear), and the two abandoned characters were the healer and one of the heavy-hitters. On the other downside, the mist reduced visibility by a considerable amount and the wagon crashed into a barricade. On the other other downside, the barricade was used by the surviving townsfolk to keep the zombies out of the town square.

The characters picked themselves up, some a little worse for wear, some cushioned by others, and took stock of the situation: about six decidedly not-zombified villagers were standing about in various degrees of shock and confusion, armed with makeshift polearms. Lanterns hung from various buildings, providing some much-needed light. Oh, and zombies were dragging themselves over the recently demolished barricade.

Luther and Vincent tried to convince the villagers to help. Half stayed, but the rest called them fools, proclaimed their imminent demise, and ran into a large building. The door slam was followed by the unmistakable sound of the door being barred, which was then followed by whatever sound furniture makes as it is being stacked against a barred door. Probably heavy dragging and lots of thuds.

Vincent and Hawke went about shoving their wagon into the breach, forcing some of the zombies back and effectively sealing it for the moment. They followed up respectively with thrown daggers and spiked chain, while Luther scanned the area for his sword. He found it, but it was behind a zombie that was shambling towards him. A quick shield bash sent the zombie sprawling, allowing him easily pick up his sword, properly join the fray, and destroy them.

Zelikman managed to escape the town square before the breach was sealed, easily slipping past the zombies in search of Lakra and Haepha, who were following what they hoped was the same direction that the wagon went. They heard something running towards them, and after Haepha asked who it was got an answer in the form of a ghoul leaping out of the mists at her. It knocked her to the ground, but she was able to easily kick it off, back out of sight. A quick, brief scrabbling of claws on stone was followed by silence.

Shortly after they saw light approaching: Zelikman. He told them what had happened, and as they turned about to head towards the town square were confronted by a skeleton with a sac of grotesque organs suspended in its rib cage. A cord of tooth-capped intestine snapped at Haepha. She grabbed it, but dropped her sword. Zelikman tried to hack at it with her sword, but could barely lift it. He tried to toss it to her, but she failed to grab it, smacking Lakra in the head.

Lakra quickly recovered and smashed one of its legs with her hammer. In a frenzy, it bit into Haepha. She braced her legs against its ribs and pulled, shredding the organs against ribs and teeth and destroying the monster…aaand that is where we stopped: split party in a mist-shrouded, undead-infested village.

After-Session Commentary
Even after running a few sessions on the side I feel like I do not have a good grasp of how things work in Dungeon World, especially when it comes to those “no” and “yes, but” results in combat. There were plenty of times where they rolled a six or less, and I was not sure how to proceed. Even 7-9 results were tricky, especially when there were only two zombies about. I guess I could have added more, but I did not want to bog the game down with a never-ending zombie grind.

A few of the players were new to the scene, and the idea that I could just hurt them or do other nasty things without “needing” to roll was completely alien to them. Oh, you missed? Zombie bite. You threw the zombie and rolled a 7-9? You get it off your back, but knock someone else over in the process. These things kind of tripped me up, because I was not sure if I was “supposed” to allow a Defy Danger, or what. I think a big book of moves and responses would be great.

Eh, I prefer to learn by doing anyway, so we will see how it goes next week.

Homebrew: Map of Erui

One of my players says I take too long drawing maps. I dunno, I like the payoff.

Erui, Episode 1: Edgewood

It has been a long time since we last visited Erui. This time I am taking a looser, more “sandboxy” approach as opposed to planning lots of stuff about. I spent a lot of time just drawing vague maps, creating factions with goals, and generally just giving myself and my players a lot of legroom to basically do whatever they want. I am not really going to break things up into adventures and take a more episodic approach, as well as make up magic items, creatures, effects, and just level them up whenever I feel that they have hit a point where they have “earned” it.

I used Neverwinter Campaign Setting to give myself a good idea of how to approach this–mostly the amount and depth of content–and was pretty happy with tonight’s results; there was one combat encounter, and the rest of the night was filled with the players interacting with the scenery and NPCs, and being pulled in various directions by hooks that they chose to bite. I also had fun telling the players to describe NPCs to me. I envisioned Mirri as fairly young, but when I left it to Beth to describe her, she came out as somewhere in her mid 40’s. I dunno…giving creative licence to the players is pretty nice, and probably makes them feel more invested in the story.

Heroes

• Moon Piercing Fist (male halfling monk)
• [Randy] (male goliath runepriest); he had a name, but I totally forgot it.
• Treetoots (male pixie swordmage)

Non-Player Characters 

• Ynvgarr (male human): Captain of the Scraghammer.
• Kasaki (female human): Captain of the Sword Guard.
• Einar (male human): An old man that they found in the Arcane Circle. He was able to open a hidden stair that lead to a forge by speaking, and he seems to be stronger than Randy despite his age.
• Chisel (male personality warforged): A squat, broad warforged that speaks with a dwarven accent. His hands turn into a hammer and chisel, and he knows a lot about runes.
• Enorian (male noble eladrin): An eladrin baron that serves as the voice of the Summer Court in Edgewood.
• Sabd (male deer spirit): A servant in the Summer Court enclave.
• Seliana (female swan): A servant in the Summer Court enclave.

Earthday, Ghael 6th 

As the Scraghammer makes port in Edgewood it is attacked by a hydra. A hydra with black scales, horns, and acidic breath. While trying to evacuate the ship, an assassin tries to kill Mirri using cold-iron bolts. Treetoots notices that the hydra is charmed and sends her Sidhe servant after the assassin while she tries to protect Mirri. The assassin kills the servant using a cold-iron bolt, and both Moon and Randy manage to corner the assassin before a White Owl traps him in an icy prison and teleports away.

Treetoots is debriefed by Kasaki before escorting Mirri to the Summer Court enclave, where Enorian is saddened to learn of the jarl’s words. He charges Treetoots with learning about the charmed hydra and assassin. Treetoots then leaves to find Moon and Randy, who after trying to trick the owner of a rundown inn out of his business decide to investigate the Arcane Circle for information about runes. There Randy speaks to Einor and Chisel, who helps him refine his fire runes.

After investigating Edgewood for signs about Randy’s missing mentor a crow warns Moon that “they are watching,” before flying away. The characters then head to the Summer Court enclave to rest. In the middle of the night they are awoken by screams. As they take up arms and head to the street, Moon looks up to see that several of the stars look like monstrous eyes. When he blinks, they look normal again.

Next Time…

The characters want to followup on the White Owls and figure out why the assassin tried to kill Mirri. Of course that might change once they figure out what is going on in Edgewood…

Notes 

• The hydra seemed to be combined with a black dragon (and ended up with seven heads before the charm wore off and it just fled).
• The White Owls are a secretive organization that deals with fey matters. They employ lots of cold-themed magic to restrain targets.
• In the Arcane Circle they saw a large, spherical object covered in runes. Einar said that it was similar to something they found in Mithrendain, though they modified it a bit (with a beholder’s eye).
• Chisel was able to help Randy refine his fire-based runes (giving him a +1 bonus to damage), and told him that he should seek out Cindervault if he wanted to learn more. He also said that if Randy found anything, to let him know and he would teach him more of what he knows.

Tenmei: Part 1

[[Random thoughts ahead.]]

Though I enjoy Eberron quite a bit, I also like the idea of gradually biulding my own campaign setting, one point at a time. The first such area was Erui, a land infused with spirits and severed from the rest of the world by the World Serpent after the Dawn War as a kind of safe haven for said spirits and fey creatures.

Watching a lot of anime, Kung Fu Panda, and wuxia films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon has gotten me really stoked about running an asian-themed campaign, and so I’ve begun working on the second area in my homebrew setting, Tenmei.

Unlike Oriental Adventures, I didnt want it to feel like Japan-in-Dungeons & Dragons. Rather, I wanted to stick to D&D’s guns and incorporate some flavor since I like players being able to play whatever the hell they want. In that regard I’m not going to inherently disallow any races or classes, so paladins, druids, dwarves, etc are all in. They might end up having appearances and/or themes changed, but you can still play, say, a dwarf paladin with no trouble at all.

For equipment, I’m going to just do reskins. I hate the idea of oriental weapons being inherently exotic for no real reason, especially when so many sucked ass in 3rd Edition. I figure that characters native to Tenmei will likely use weapons from there, while characters that arent wont use them anyway. If they do, oh well, I dont require characters to be proficient with dwarven-crafted waraxes, or elven-crafted longswords. Some might be superior, but obviously by virtue of having something awesome that it can do.

To me this evokes a similar feel to Planescape, where adventurers might have varied equipment: some asian, some western, and even a few pieces made by differing races. Like Planescape, I want Tenmei to feel like it has a history and have a “lived-in” feel. Its not isolated from the rest of the world. This also helps justify having all the races and classes possible. Even if the entire party is made up of characters from other parts of the world, oh well: they’re adventurers. They stand out.

In Scales of War our party looks like (as Josh puts it), “a goddamn random encounter table.” Thats fiiine by me. ^_^

That being said, I’ll need to dust off Oriental Adventures and find that chart in the back that has all the weapon comparisons. That way if players want a katana, tanto, no-dachi, or tetsumo, they’ll know the best fit for it (and in some cases they might be superior, but at least the feat will be worth it).

So at this point I’m going to have to write up some character creation guidelines to make sure everyone is on the same page: what fits best, what needs work and some examples, etc. This way they can make the character that they want with minimal book-reading/referencing/fuss.

Of course, this also means that I’ll need to get around to writing a few thematic races like nezumi, spirits, maybe some other random shit I come across, and of course actual adventures. Thankfully the term is almost over. @_@

I dont like to plan shit that I’m not going to use. I dont world-built for fun, but for practical purposes. I write stuff that has a purpose in the campaign world, and if there isnt a need for it I’m not going to bother with it as I have a busy life and stuff to write that needs to be in the game for it to run properly. What I’m getting at is that Tenmei only exists insofar as I want to write another adventure path and want it to have an asian flair. What is this adventure path about? Well…

My general method for planning an adventure path is to just work with some concepts and then build the setting around that. I feel that by having a map in the first place limits your imagination (which is why I get torn in running Eberron, though in its defense its veeery open and vague), though sometimes a map also inspires ideas or locations that I didnt think about before. In the end I prefer to plan as much as I can without a map, draw the map to cater to my plans, and then let it influence me after the fact. Eliminster loves to map, and so drew one up before I had any concrete plans in mind. Here’s the first draft.

So…now its onto working on adventure ideas, a campaign outline (at least for the Heroic tier), a home-base, and some original content. Yay. :-3

Songs of Erui: An Overview

Songs of Erui is my first stab at a D&D adventure path. I created it after I hit a snag running Scales of War and was really digging the story content for primal classes. I hit up Wikipedia for a crash course on celtic mythology, and quickly laid out a rough outline for a campaign that would ideally run my players from 1-30 over the course of 12+ adventures (extra encounters added to taste). The adventure path heavily emphasizes primal classes and races, and aside from whatever I could find on celtic myths borrows quite a bit from The Hallowing, Mythago Wood, and Lavondyss. CharlieAmra got me hooked on The Waterborn and Black God, which I began liberally applying as fast as I could after the fact: I’d done a lot of planning before I read the books, but its been extremely valuable stuff.

Songs of Erui takes place in a remote location in my implied world, called Erui. I’m really not sure where it is precisely located in relation to other areas (Arkhosia, Bael Turath, etc), as its the only part I’ve managed to flesh out so far (though in the story bible I keep mentioning that its somewhere north of the remains of Nerath, likely the northern-most part). During the rise and fall of the old kingdoms, Erui was kept isolated from discovery and conflict by a massive range of mountains, the Serpent Mountains. The mountains are so high, that it is said to climb them would allow you to reach the Astral Sea (havent decided if this is true or not).
Aside from their size, the other distinguishing feature is an old stone highway that passes through it, called the Dragon’s Road. People who travel its length are never heard from again, and it is rumored to be inhabited by monsters or some form of old guardian.

Since no one actually knew what to expect, they created a bunch of random theories, the most popular of which that its a “forbidden paradise” of some sort, maybe like Eden or Nod. Really, I got this idea from Shadows of the Colossus, which also served as a very nice visual reference.

The real reason why people who travel through the mountains is that Erui resists mortal races, which I cribbed from Mythago Wood. You can try to go there, and you will be misdirected, probably suffer lots of terrible accidents like rockslides, and be met by extreme weather even when you shouldnt. If you can survive through it all, you might eventually find yourself in Erui (or just crapped back out into the northern regions of Nerath). The current inhabitants of Erui are mortals who made a pilgrimage there hundreds of years ago, or were there from the start (like dwarves, goliaths, and many fey creatures).

Even when you get there? It still sucks. The land itself is made up of hundreds of thousands of spirits that range in size and scope. Some inhabit a tree, while others are a large stretch of land. What they all have in common is that they do not take kindly to someone walking up and carving them apart. So, there’s a long history of conflict between the spirits and mortals, especially the ones who try to build too much or tame the land. Sometimes minor spirits will kill a handful of humans, sometimes animals will overrun a farm, and sometimes a seemingly natural disaster will strike. Sometimes? A massive animal god shows up and just proceeds to ruin everyone’s shit. It is because of this that shamans are valued: they can see and talk to spirits, making bargains and ensuring that they do not anger them.

Some humans take a more direct approach and just kill them, or find ways to weaken them with rituals before making the attempt (a necessity with many). Others make bargains with them, as some spirits dont mind if you kill the tree spirits that live on them, for example (they can be territorial). Hell, some dont mind being changed from one form to another, and many houses have very minor spirits living within them, providing protection in exchange for gifts of food and/or wine (they like the smell), and songs (each spirit has their own song).
The starting village, Dorsen, is a place that lives in harmony with spirits. The village is built within a circle of stone menhirs, and it is surrounded by groves of trees and farmland. They are very careful to take only what is needed, and gifts for spirits on specific holy days.

Songs play an important part in the campaign, and bards and shamans have default access. Singing a song specific to a spirit works in a similar fashion to a Diplomacy check, but is often used as part of a skill challenge to reduce the DCs, remove a failure, and other stuff that depends on the spirit, situation, and character. Its a pretty loose system that I like, and its prompted Josh to pick up shaman multiclassing so that he can call out the spirit in his sunblade, see into the spirit world, and better communicate with them. On the other hand, its also prompted Dave to start asking around for as many songs as he can in order to give himself an edge when it comes to dealing with them.

Heroic Tier
Here are the three Heroic tier adventures that I’ve planned. As written they can boost a party of five characters up to 11th-level. They are designed to introduce characters gradually to some of the key concepts that surround Erui in addition to giving them a sense of direction and purpose in the bigger picture of the campaign.

The Hydra’s Grave (level 1)
The first adventure, this has the players tracking a band of goblins that are messing with farmers and shepherds around Dorsen (the starting village). Following the goblins, the party stumbles upon an old eladrin crupt on the outskirts of the Bone Forest. Mostly, this was a traditional dungeon crawl that allowed the party to get a few levels under their belts, learn a bit of Erui’s forgotten history (namely the bard Morrigan and her three songs), and also start dealing with spirits (especially the Bear god).

The Hounds of Ulster (level 4)
After retrieving the remains of Morrigan, the party heads to Ulster in order to find a bone-speaker (ie, someone who can cast Speak With Dead) in order to ask Morrigan a few questions. Along the way they get attacked by undead in the river, as well as werewolves that are following them for some reason. Things dont go smoothly even when the party gets to Ulster, as the city is overlooked by an ancient castle and its ghostly king who ventures forth on full moons to hunt the populace. Unfortunately, timing is everything and the moon is almost full by the time they get there.

The Bone Forest (level 8)
With a new heading providing by the tormented ghost of Morrigan, the party mounts an expedition into the Bone Forest, a deadly realm that is haunted by fickle fey spirits and the mortal creatures that they’ve hunted and killed. The treasure they seek is one of Morrigan’s three songs, rumored to have the power to force gods into an eternal slumber, which probably explains why someone buried it deep within a druid pyramid.