Saying Yes, Or How I Winged It

On Tuesday I ran Songs of Erui after about a month of down time. The party had traveled to the mostly-dwarf city, Cindervault, looking for the second fragment of a song that’s been the primary focus of the campaign since the ass-end of the first adventure. When they arrived they found that it was mostly abandoned, but figured out later that night that it was now under the occupation of a shit-ton of drow. Not wanting to end up as spider-chow, they made a beeline for Cindervault’s fortress under the assumption that something really expensive would be locked up there.

En route they ran into various drow entries cribbed from the Monster Manual (de-leveled of course to account for the fact that they were only level 9), in addition to a web golem, blade spiders, and some summoned mezzodemons (a drow demonologist needs him some demons). Now, after a few encounters they got to choose which way to take trying to get into the castle: the main gate or the access ramp for wagons and cripples, and deciding to tackle the main gate. Unfortunately, the gate was guarded by a purple dragon that I had to change to a black dragon after I realized that purple dragons go as’plode in the sun (WHOOPS), but in the end a summoned unicorn took it down and they got a level for their troubles. The session ended with the party on top of the ramparts observing 20+ drow and a drider communicating to a formorian king through a visual- and audio-only window.

That was all just pointless recap. The actual point to this post is that the following session they decided to stick to the wall and attempt to loop around the side of the walls where they hoped drow wouldn’t be skulking about as they so often do. Now, my plans were to have them more or less make a direct assault, using the various siege engines on the walls to give them an edge. I did not think that they would just side-step all the encounters I’d had planned. So…time to wing it.

There was a lot of wall to cover, and several towers, so I used towers as indicators for where encounters could still rationally occur. It was just a matter of rapidly populating them in the span of a few seconds. Blade spiders were level 10, so in the first tower I just had one using it as a lair. Inside they found that there was one lurking on the ceiling amidst the suspended, putrefied corpses of dwarves. One of the characters opened the doors, and they had the druid go in under the guise of a Medium-sized spider. Discovering the spider, she tried to communicate with it, and trick it into thinking that there was a threat just outside. A few Bluff and Nature checks later, the druid was able to distract it long enough for the ranger and cleric to take a few pot-shots at it.

The highlight of the combat was when the druid used pounce to latch onto its face and pull it off of the ceiling, and then the ranger made a very nice grab and bull rush checks to slam in onto a ballista, which the cleric used to launch it off of the ramparts, taking a total of, “enough damage to say it died without bothering to roll.”

That was the first instance of the session where I had to make up rules on the fly. How much damage does a ballista do? I dunno, 3d8 plus Intelligence modifier? How do I resolve the attack?  Make a level plus Intelligence modifier attack. I didnt want to make it just deal a shitload of damage, for fear the party would try and lug them around and potentially backstab shit with them. So, going off of damage that ogres can dole out with boulders, I think it was a nice benchmark that made it worthwhile. Anyway, it wasn’t the bolt that killed the spider, but the push effect that knocked it over the edge. A fairly easy kill, but all those nice rolls (including the use of memory of a thousand lifetimes)…fuck it. It was awesome.

The second moment came when the party decided to look for hidden passages into Cindervault so that they could avoid taking the door. I thought, sure, fuck it, give me a roll. After a Perception of 33 I was like, okay, you find a narrow crevasse that a halfling or gnome could safely get through. I figured that they could squeeze into it and that I could throw in some insect or vermin swarms to mix things up. Nope, not gonna happen: the druid used some level 10 daily that let her turn everyone into ferrets. Or rather, spider-ferrets (its D&D, animal combinations happen) and rapidly scurry through the opening.

And that was last night’s session. The players easily steamrolled my encounters through liberal use of bull rush, push-effects, and clever thinking. Easy XP, awesome session.

Pryamid of Storms Monster Mash

Some new monsters that I wrote for the third adventure for Songs of Erui. Some of them I probably posted before, but I updated them with Adventure Tools. Since the party hasnt encountered a lot of them, timely critiques are welcome!

Posted this before and got some feedback, but lost the comments after an author tried to delete the blog. This is a lower-level thematic elemental that I needed to round out an encounter.

Apparently there arent any 4th Edition stats for stags. I yanked goring charge from a minotaur since I think it worked well and also gave it a nifty skirmishing tactic, not to mention that the encounter I’m tossing this in has something that the party wont want to get pushed into. :-3

Took a cave bear, made it a standard monster, and gave it a soul-rending ability to make it more thematic as a “bear ghost”. Mostly I wanted high damage output since the party thinks things are too easy. >_>

And lastly a two-part elite. I based Taranis off of a warden, and originally his stat block looked very much like one: he would change into a partial bear shape, do extra damage, and also get access to a rending attack. I like “boss” monsters to really mix things up during battle, so instead made it much more extreme and had him use an entirely new stat block when he becomes bloodied.

As a human is a ghost that wields his iconic warhammer, and looks very much like your typical warden might. I also gave him a recharging marking mechanic that does damage but otherwise acts like the warden’s mark.

Once he’s on the ropes, however…

Well…its different. No more marking, just lots of damage output. I still wanted to keep his defenses up there, so kept his role the same (especially since in this fight there are other brutes around). Though its not called in the stats, he doesnt regain anything: lost hit points are still gone, and a spent action point is still spent.

Songs of Erui: Designing Dorsen

Dorsen is the “homebase” for my Songs of Erui campaign. Its a farming community with strong spiritual ties, since I wanted to emphasize the influence and importance of spirits in the campaign early on. Dorsen surrounded by a ring of menhirs that have been carved with crude depictions of various animal gods, and they have been integrated into a wooden wall for defense. The wall contains a particularly powerful spirit named Corann that can defend the folk of Dorsen. The wall and menhirs give the village a circular shape, and I kind of divided it into “tracks”: farmland is on the outside (closest to the wall), while houses are closer to the center.

In the middle I dropped a hundred-foot deep pit for some reason that I figured I’d expand upon later (and I eventually did). Currently no one is aware who/what made the menhirs or pit, or what purpose they serve. At the time I just wanted some interesting features that might see usage later in the campaign, and to add some mystery since Erui existed long before humans and other mortal races showed up. The village also incorporates a lot of natural flora, providing a stronger link to the spirits. I didnt draw in all the trees, but they are basically located between all the housing (you can kinda see where they were gonna go).

I dont didnt really intend for any major adventures to occur in Dorsen, but I like to have village maps because it helps players get a sense of scale and location. Plus, its a great visual reminder when it comes to maintaining consistency. As with any good starting village, it provides the party with basic necessities for adventuring/plot-advancement: they can buy equipment, set up kip if they need to, and give various NPCs a shot at making skill checks that they botched. This is really an easy list of requirements to meet, you just make a list of shit that the party might need to do, then make one or more NPCs that can meet the need.

• Buy weapons
• Buy armor
• Buy adventuring gear that isnt weapons or armor
• Buy magical variants of the aforementioned (optional)
• Tavern/Inn

Weapons: For weapons, I just tossed out a male human named Koun for a start. He gets his metal from dwarf caravans that make the rounds out of the Red Hills. While his specialty is making metal farming tools, he can also turn out functional Simple and Military weapons. Superior weapons need to come straight out of Cindervault or Carbost. If looks matter, its about an even mix of human, dwarf, and eladrin make.

Armor: Armor…well, yeah. Most armor falls into the light category, with heavier stuff necessitating an order from Cindervault or Carbost. As such, I didnt actually put anyone in the village that specializes in that: most anyone knows how to make/mend leatherworks. Just costs money to get the supplies and do it yourself if need be. Thus, virtually all metal armor in Dorsen is decidedly dwarfy in style when it can be found at all.

Mundane Gear: Adventuring gear isnt sold out of any one store, but brought in from merchants or traded with the locals who might have what the players are looking for. Merchants set up shop in the Bear Market, which is an open bazarre reserved for transients. For ease of play, players can pick up anything for the list price out of Player’s Handbook.

Magic Loots: Magical gear is a lot harder to get your mitts on, obviously. Aside from low-level potions and a handful of rituals, its almost impossible to find anything magical in Dorsen that anyone would reasonably want to part with. Frankly, most characters end up finding their own magic loot anyway so its a pretty moot point. Really I just need for them to be able to pawn the shit they dont want, and thats easy enough in the Bear Market or perhaps via “sage” NPCs.

Tavern: There’s only one tavern/inn-type place in Dorsen, the Red Hall. Its also the only stone building, constructed by Dorsen’s dwarven neighbors a decade ago after a particularly devastating spat with gnolls that decided to stop by. Its a sturdy, defensible structure with an extensive underground section for folk to hole up that doubles as an inn for dwarf visitors. As such, it only serves dwarf spirits and food.

[Note: I decided to work gnolls into Erui after a player decided to make a gnoll artificer. Gnolls seem like a good fit for a primal campaign, and this bit of bad history made for some interesting roleplaying opportunities after the party went back to Dorsen to gather information and do some shopping (even though her character didnt participate in the carnage: it was another tribe of gnolls). This was one of many examples where player input shaped the campaign, in a good way methinks.]

Simple so far, but that only covers gear. Sometimes the party fucks up an important skill check, or just cant piece together a puzzle. When that happens I like to be able to have a good narrative method for helping them solve a problem and not get hung up. For example, if the party needs to consult someone about an item, a glyph they found, or research a topic. Sooo lets expand the list for skills!

• Arcana
• History
• Nature
• Religion

Now, I’m not a fan of having the players just defer to NPCs to solve their problems, but it certainly helps to have them around if they get stuck on something. If anything, they’re kind of like party-life lines. I’m using these skills as a check list, as its possible that a NPC might specialize in two or more skills (such as a sage being really fucking good at Arcana and History). Since the players will be interacting on a more personal level with these guys, its important to have more details about them…like a name, personality, and other details.

Talibah: She’s the spiritual leader of Dorsen. She can see and communicate with spirits, and the village runs to her when they need advice on handling spirits. She also knows a lot of songs, and can potentially teach players some of them if they need them. So, her specialties would be Nature and Perception (since she is a dreamsight shifter and is surrounded by ass-tons of spirits). At the start of the campaign she played the role of herald, gathering the party up and sending them on their merry to go butcher goblins and dig up secrets.

Karad: To try and mix things up, the sage-figure in Dorsen is actually a dwarf who emphasizes the use of runes, so he makes sense thematically. If the party cant make heads or tails of magic stuff, they can let him give it a shot. He also sometimes has magic items and rituals for sale, or is at least willing to take them off the party’s hands. He’s a bit scatterbrained and unorganized after too many awry magical experiments, and relies on eladrin assistant to keep his stuff in order (of which years of work has made him versed in History for purposes of locating relevant information).

Belanus: A priest that maintains shrines to Melora and Bahamut (whom is depicted as a green dragon in Erui), he’s also pretty good at Nature shit. I guess you could say he focuses more on natural critters and plants, while Talibah is more spiritual. Anyway, who the players go to is personal preference: I play this guy as very serious, stern motherfucker who doesnt talk much except when giving sermons. He’s got a lot of scars and wields a fullblade.

That takes care of the skills that I think will need the most handling in the game. I would drop in a NPC with Streetwise if it was more urban in nature, but since its not and I dont expect that to be used ever, I’m not going to bother. The main thing I could see Streetwise being used for is locating rare items, but since merchants stick to a small location I’d rather just let them know on a case-by-case basis.

Now obviously settlements can have a lot more going on than just this, but I prefer to only generate content that I’m going to use. I have a list of male/female names in case I need to pull a NPC out of my ass, but I’m not going to write up a bunch of extraneous information that has no purpose. I think that by keeping it simple its easier to adapt to unexpected events or circumstances, anyway, but that might just be my style.

Songs of Erui: Concerning Dwarves

Dwarves have been around since before Erui was established, way-back-when during the Dawn War. They helped the gods tackle the primordial’s less-less-lesser lackeys, and when all was said and done they set up kip in castles that formerly belong to giants and titans, renovating them to better suit their size (except for stuff like big-ass halls: dwarves love them their big-ass halls). This means that dwarves didnt have to deal with any spirits living in their houses, but they did have to contend with them in the mountains, which usually meant they just beat the shit out of them in traditional dwarfy fashion. To be sure, they placated the major ones that they couldnt smash back into the ground, but that doesnt mean that they have to like it (happiness isnt what being a dwarf is all about).

So, yeah. Dwarves still live in the mountains, and they have to deal with goliaths, orcs, ogres, giants, and other typical dwarfy-enemies that live in mountains. Oh, and earth elementals. Yep, them’s a bitch. Aside from being one of the few races in Erui that regularly makes lots of metal arms and armaments, they also have a mastery of rune magic, having been taught 27 runes by Moradin before he went back to his beer-and-gold laden Astral Dominion, leaving his sons and daughters to fend for themselves in a land where beer-and-gold just arent happening. Well, beer is…but not gold. Actually, spirits like the smell of booze as well, so…sigh. Being a dwarf is hard.

Since only one player is actually playing a dwarf, I didnt really bother to work out many kinks with rune magic as it exists in Erui. Magic (arcane and divine) utilized by a dwarf will use a lot of runes (even in visual spell effects), and runes are used to mark and ward places that dwarves dont want you going into. Also, dwarf-magic items are also drowning in runes. They love that shit. This way, I get consistency and individuality between dwarf stuff and other stuff. I think that races come into and use magic in their own ways, so being able to differentiate between them adds a layer of immersion to the campaign. For dwarves, its runes. Other races might use runes, but they got a monopoly on it.

Anyway, thats what I did with dwarves, which is to say I didnt do much to change them from their default incarnation, so even in other areas of my PoL campaign they’d probably be very similar. Frankly, I didnt need to once I’d written them into Erui. It might have gone different, but a player wanted to make a dwarf paladin, and in the end it made sense. There are some rune-themed paragon paths, and I was considering making some rune-centric feats that modify magic that they can do (like Reaper’s Touch). Actually, I think a rune-magic multiclass tree would be cool. Yeah…

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.

Songs of Erui Session 7, Part 1

Party (Level 3)
Grey; razorclaw shifter archery ranger
Grynn; gnoll artificer DEAD ^X_x^
Kegan; dwarf paladin (Strength primary)
Maev; elf druid
Sigis; goliath valorous bard
Zan; stormsoul genasi assault swordmage

The last session ended on a cliffhanger. They party had defeated a pair of bear-totem eladrin wardens, and were trying to open the door that someone had closed behind them before the fight ever started. After a bit of fumbling they managed to open it, and they heard something say, “Hello, Grynn.”

What they saw, I described as such: it was about three-feet tall. The head looked like a crude wooden mask, with one eye missing and the other constantly bleeding stuff that made it look like it might be crying blood. There was no actual mouth, but what might be considered a jagged smile was carved where the mouth could be. This “mask” was attached to a wolfen head, which in turn was stuck on top of an exposed spinal column that ran into a rounded, cracked, woody torso that was oozing blood and had fungus growing out of it.
It had two arms, one that looked like a hyena leg with a spidery, wooden hand stuck on the end. It was rotting, with exposed muscles. The other arm was entirely of wood, with circles and whorls running along its entire length. It looked slightly longer than the other.
Of the legs, the front two were wooden and looked like a cross between a crab and spider, with more fungus growing out of the joints. One of the hind legs was a hyena’s, while the other was a human arm (both also rotting, of course).

Before initiative was rolled, he commanded Grynn to step forward, which triggered Josh to immediately declare initiative time as Grey sprung into action….or would have if the creature hadnt rolled a 29. Its action was to simply touch Grynn, causing much of his skin to peel off (25 necrotic damage right up front).

After that Grey tried to pull Grynn to safety, and the rest of the party tried ineffectually to damage him. A new player arrived with Zan, a stormsoul genasi swordmage, managed to arrive just as combat started. He had been sent by an eladrin council to investigate who had violated one of their crypts, and took a round or two just assessing the situation (not sure who to attack).

The creature did get hit, turning invisible (this is when they realized that whatever it was, it had probably been a gnome). One its turn cycled back around, I had it teleport next to Grynn and finish him off. Since it was invisible, they just saw Grynn’s head jerk up, and a black aura surrounded him. All of his skin and organs melted off, and every part of his skeleton except his skull turned into dust before getting sucked into nothing. The creature then appear, holding Grynn’s skull, and attached it to a cord on its waist.

For visual effect, I had it wipe its hands as if it had just made a sandwich, and then burn an action point to summon a wall of zombies. Unfortunately, only it and Grey were on one side, and everyone else was on the other.

Grey started his turn grabbed by the zombies, and the rest of the party tried to chop their way through. This display of powerful necromancy caused Zan to declare the bizarre spider-gnome-undead-plant-thing as the greatest threat, and he ran in and started detonating zombies with his thunder attacks (showering the party with zombie guts in the process).

The creature was able to effortlessly clamber up to the top of the wall, and it blasted Kegan with a powerful necrotic bolt that also weakened him. Zan critted him with lightning lure, which accounted for one of two hits they were able to land the entire battle. The creature simply teleported away and used another wall of zombies to cut off everyone else except Maev from the exit.

With Maev by herself, she really didnt want to do anything to it. Almost no one was landing any actual hits on the thing. It walked over to the corpse of the tree god that they’d kill last session and animated it again, before booking it to the exit. Zan got crit in on the wall with an encounter power, blowing out about a quarter of it, allowing the party to usually wiggle to freedom if they didnt get grabbed. The zombified-tree-god, however, blocked the hallway leading to the exit portal, so Zan teleported through, then swapped places with Kegan. This allowed Kegan a clear shot at the creature, which he totally did not take.

Instead, they clustered around the zombie-god and beat it to death, and the creature got away.

And thats how the first encounter for the session went.

They took an extended rest and introduced themselves to Zan. He was an agent of the eladrin Winter Court, and after some…words, were traded, decided that they werent responsible for breaking into it and robbing everything. After their rest they checked out the rest of the room and found two more hidden passages. One contained six statues carved like owl totems, which Grey’s sword identified as “god-houses” that were used when a spirit wanted to sleep.

Then Kegan decided to smash one, which fell on another…and another, leaving three, three god-houses. Ah ah ah ah.

The spirits looked like flowing white tendrils with white masks, a theme that they’d seen quite a bit. They’d encountered the spirits before, but they didnt really do anything except scare them. Until now, that is.

The three spirits who were recently evicted from their homes were none to happy about the whole situation, and started attacking them from the walls. Sigis and Maev wanted no part of it, and just left, and eventually the rest of the party followed suit. Thinking that everything was okay, they went into the last hidden door, which contained a massive idol of a bear god.

…with six of those white spirits that they had just angered floating around it.

What followed was a lot of dialogue as Sigis traded her magical spear for knowledge of the “weapons” required to defeat the Sleeping God in her mountain. She learned that three songs are required, but that it didnt know what or where they were. The rest of the party, except for Zan, traded items in exchange for their lives (since they’d pissed off a lot of spirits and violated a lot of graves on the way down).

With that out of the way, they started back to Dorsen.

To be continued…dun dun duuuuun…

Songs of Erui, Session 6: Improv-Edition

Got back to running Songs of Erui after about a 3ish-week hiatus while we got some new players added to the mix, giving us a nice, stable party of five to play with (technically six since I have to NPC Grynn for about ten minutes into the next session, hee).

I wanted to do something a bit different with my dungeon layout, and ultimately decided not to draw a map at all. Instead, I jotted down a list of monsters, role, and level, and left it at that. Each monster that the party encountered was an original creation of mine that had no stat block at all: they just did things that I felt were appropriate for them, and had hit points roughly where I wanted them to be, and that was it.
This was a dungeon that, aside from my shorthand Notepad notes that amounted to a vague monster listing, was entirely winged from start to finish. I added details and changed existing ones as I thought of them, with only a vague notion of what was going to happen.

Encounter one had two dire bear skeletons (level 2 elite brute) and two skeletal bear warriors (level 2 skirmisher). Initially I wanted them to be riding the bears, but I ended up changing it so that the bear skeletons would come out of illusionary walls that were carved to look like entrances to caves, and the warriors would just teleport in through a hidden door. I made the room fairly large to account for two Large creatures and give the warriors some room for mobility, though there were a lot of roots that were difficult terrain/provided cover against melee attacks.

Encounter two had a minor tree god (level 4 solo controller) that was tasked to guard this area of the crypt, and had a bunch of gravestones and corpses stuck inside. It was Huge-sized, so I made the room even bigger than the last and added a bunch of roots that would deal automatic damage at the start of its turn to anyone that was too close, since I figured that the ent could animate them to attack people. This aura effect (created on the fly) would also act as difficult terrain, and he had threatening reach to boot.
I didnt give him full solo hit points, since they can take awhile to beat down, and in the end I think that the fight ended about when it should have.

The third and final encounter involved two mummy wardens (level 3 elite soldiers) that could also summon bear spirits (level 3 minion brutes) as a minor action to harass everyone. On the downside, they kept getting killed too quickly to make a major impact, but I didnt have an established “cap” on the number so that was good for the party. They could also deal a lot of damage with a big slide effect, and had the warden’s marking mechanic. Unfortunately (for me) they died too quickly to use their bloodied ability that gave them a bear spirit aspect. Sigh…

The players really got a kick out of this session. I think it went well, considering that I had only a rough idea of what I maybe kinda-sorta wanted to happen. I didnt have time to consider a lot of interesting or more dynamic “role mechanics”, so the brutes did lots of damage with a push, the controller had lots of area-effect attacks and a controlling aura, and the soldiers were a bitch to hit and could mark. I decided to let them summon spiritual allies because initially I think I was going for some kind of leader-type shaman warrior concept, but changed it at the last second.

One thing I did like about this method was that I wasnt “married” to specific events ahead of time. I think it made me more open to let bizarre and unexpected things to occur, since I didnt have anything remotel close to a solid plan in the first place. For example, during encounter three, I was able to have a “creature” yank Maev’s sunrod off of her necklace, plunging the room into darkness. I was also unexpectantly able to leave it on a cliffhanger: they’ll get to see who/what Grynn’s been running from since before the campaign started.

Not something I would recommend all the time, but an interesting mental exercise nonetheless.

Dungeoncraft: Songs of Erui, Part 1

Songs of Erui is the first long-term homebrew campaign that I’ve tried to run in a long time. It was largely inspired by the works of Robert E. Holdstock (Lavondyss, Mythago Wood, and The Hollowing), Hellboy, Princess Mononoke, and reading the chapter on The Feywild in Manual of the Planes. I decided that I wanted to do a campaign with lots of heavy celtic influences, and with Player’s Handbook 2 rolling out the primal power source it seemed like a sign.

Using Wikipedia I brushed up on celtic mythology to mine for ideas, changing what I needed to best make it all fit within the “points of light” concept and default D&D assumptions (such as monster origins, history, and cosmology). I wanted to emphasize the existance of primal races and classes, but not discount anything. It was an interesting exercise, and helped a lot in providing me with a rough framework for levels 1-20 (at this point, Epic tier is still being a bitch).

The basic idea is that Erui is the original birthplace of many primal spirits (might be all, I havent fully mapped out my homebrew world). Its a wild cradle of life that is isolated from the rest of the world, located far north of Nerath. It is separated by a massive mountain range that is said to be so tall that if you climbed to the top of its peaks that you would reach the Astral Sea. A ruined bridge called the Dragon Road cuts directly through the mountains, but those that walk this ancient path are never heard from again, and no one knows why.

The land is sentient to a degree. Excessive damage to Erui can cause it to conjure up massive animal spirits that defend it (like the animal gods in Princess Mononoke). The forests can cause you to get lost or transport you great distances through time and space (Mythago Wood). Wierd stuff like that thats not really covered at all in the rules. Of course, its also defended by more tangible threats like malicious fey.

Natives of Erui include primal and/or savage races such as gnomes, elves, eladrin, goliaths, gnolls, and (of all things) devas. Devas have a special place in Erui that coincidentally ended up being almost identical to what was described in Ecology of the Deva.
However, since I wanted to allow every race I had it so that several hundred years ago many other races migrated north for whatever reason: pilgrims seeking a “holy land”, explorers, or refugees trying to escape the war that was consuming Nerath.
Whatever was necessary to get them up there, and in the end dragonborn and dwarves became some pretty major players.

Songs of Erui: Session 5

More than a bit late, I’m starting to get foggy on specifics, so I’m throwing this up anyway.

Only had one encounter last night, the rest was the party exploring Dorsen and getting to know the NPCs and layout. Greymalkin already knows everyone there worth knowing, since he’s been around for awhile. Grynn knows some of the more important people, but doesnt stick around long. The rest of the party, on the other hand, has no clue whats-what.
During the three hour walk back, they discovered a hyena corpse, which wouldnt have been odd except that Grey knows that hyenas dont come out this far unless they are with gnolls, and it was missing most of its head and two legs. This put the party on edge for the rest of the trip: they were waiting for a random encounter that I didnt plan, which is good.

Back in Dorsen, Grey was welcomed more or less as a hero, while Grynn got at best grudging tolerance (and I’m sure that the bone spurs sprouting out of his body didnt help matters). Maev kept a low-profile, since elves were a rarity and she wanted to avoid making a scene. Kegan wandered off in search of a dwarf-free watering hole, which apparently no one thought was the least bit strange.

First on the order was checking Grynn into a sawbones, which basically means the NPC with the highest bonus to Heal. Maebe doesnt know any instant-cure rituals or magic (much to Grey’s chagrin), she’s just really good at what she does despite what her work environment might imply. She claims to know over a hundred elven remedies, but since no one actually knows any elves they just have to take it on faith.
None of her training or experience prepared her for what the cat (ie, Grey) dragged in. She was put off by them bringing in, of all people, Grynn. She charged up front for an examination and charged quite a bit for the “courtesy” of being able to cut him open. Grynn’s anesthetic involved a piece of wood between his teeth, the alternative a large hammer to the head. After about an hour of work, she was able to deduce that he was infected with a demonic-warping disease, and that the metal rods in his spine could not be safely removed without magical aid.
She prescribed tonics that contained iron filings and holy water, and kept him confined to a dirty cot for observation.

Assuming everything would be fine, Grey and Maev paraded around Dorsen going from major NPC to major NPC as they tried to find the best place to hawk their eladrin-themed goods and try to make sense of the eladrin crypt that they’d apparently stumbled upon. So, taking it from the top…

Talibah (female shifter) is the leader of Dorsen, and the one that set the party on their initial quest to hunt out the goblins that were terrorizing the outlying farmlands. She awarded Grey with 200 gp for services rendered to the folk of Dorsen, to be divvied up as he saw fit since he was the only guy left from the original expedition that bothered to show up. This was also worth a minor quest award.
Grey also wanted to check out the sunblade that they found that could zap them with psychic damage when they tried to use it, so it was off to see the wizard which in this case is an absent-minded-yet-skilled dwarf named Karad. Grey was able to get a free Enchant Item ritual out of him in exchange for “allowing” him to analyze the sword, and was able to determine that the intelligence trapped within the sunblade is that of an eladrin soldier who is very confused about what the hell is going on.
Grey also asked about the writings that they found in the Hydra’s Grave. Karad’s assistant Willow (male eladrin) is far more organized than his “boss”, was able to provide Grey with a primer on ancient elven (aka, sylvan) in the form of a stack of unorganized parchment. He spent the next day studying it and transcribing it onto a more durable medium.
Finally, it was time to pawn loot. The Bear Market is the only place to find tradesmen and merchants from other parts of Erui, and Grey was hoping to find an eladrin there that might be interested in millenia-old goods of a fey origin, and as luck would have it there happened to be one that was flanked by a massive pair of wooden golems.
After a lengthy exchange between the characters and players, they decided to just give him a good deal of the stuff that they’d found in the crypt, keep some of it, and sell the rest. Grey waffled back and forth about whether to keep the sunblade before finally opting to hang onto it “just in case.” Out of all the loot, the merchant recognized that one of the items (a pact longsword) belonged to an ancestor of his, and eagerly gave Grey a wooden box bound in iron chains. He even managed to squeeze out a thank you in the process.

Not wanting to open the box in public, Grey and Maev went to the Red Hall to check in. The Red Hall was constructed after a gnoll attack ten years ago, as a good-faith gesture by dwarves from Cindervault to help protect their neighbors (Dorsen grows a lot of food). Its a sturdy brick fortification that is mostly used by dwarf merchants passing through. However, it has an extensive underground section that villagers can hide if invaded.
The Red Hall is run by Hjort (male dwarf), son of a noble in Cindervault entrusted to run this place to teach him some responsibility, but is almost always found in some stage of inebriation. He’s friendly enough, but likes to play a drinking game where he takes a shot whenever anyone else does.
Anyway, the box itself is designed to prevent it from being teleported or turned invisible. A theft precaution that would be handy if you were running shit through a fey-inhabited forest. After a Pulp Fiction reference, they found out that it contained about 1,500 gp worth of silvery residuum (it has different…properties, we’ll say, than “normal” residuum).
With that, Grey decides to get hammered and check for rumors, so I drop a bit about how a dwarf faithful to Miach stole a family sword and fled Cindervault a couple days ago. He’s got a hefty prince on his head by his own father. So, yeah, I’m curious how Josh takes the news.
Maev, on the other hand, cant stop bitching about how much dwarves smell and decides to find someplace to sleep outside. Forgetting she is a druid, she eventually heads to a shrine dedicated to Melora and Bahamut and just dozes off on the ground. Me? I would have used wild shape to change into an animal of some sort just to be more comfortable and blend in better. In hindsight, mebbe I should have called for an Endurance check to chalk off a healing surge? Oh well.

For some reason the next day, Maev decides to head back to the shrines and apologize for crashing on the priest’s clean…dirt…floor. She couldnt see anyone there initially, so started calling out while searching the shrine. This is when she noticed a white mask staring at her from within the shadows. Now, she’s fought ghost-things that had white masks, and heard Kegan flip out about running into one in the forest, so figures that she’s in a bad spot. Slowly, she backs away to run, and as she turns is confronted by a grotesque humanoid that looked part rotting human, part tree.

“Where…is…Grynn?”

Maev was…surprised, we’ll say. She didnt want to reveal where he was and didnt want to risk lying since she, “doesnt have Bluff”, and he was by all accounts still recuperating, so tried to run. It grabbed her, and told her that she could tell it where Grynn was, or it would tear out her brain and figure it out anyway. Resisting, she tried to break free and it grabbed her face, starting to burn through her flesh. She managed to escape after taking a minor amount of damage, and fled. Watching her back, she saw the creature collapse into a pile of moldering leaves.

This is about where the shit just got real.

Maev is able to find Grey and Grynn and tells them what happened. Grey wants to know what the fuck that is, and if they should be concerned. Grynn only reveals that its his former master, and that they need to leave immediately. They pack up shop and start to head out, deciding to clean out Hydra’s Grave, and find a scene at the entrance to Dorsen. People are panicking, but are overjoyed when Grey shows up. He’ll know whats up!
The crowd parts, revealing a large portion of a dead body. Its missing its head, arm, and leg…which matches the fleshy bits that Maev could see on the creature that she saw. Grey tells them to calm down and he’ll get to the bottom of this, and by the bottom meaning that he’ll shake down Grynn later to find out exactly what the hell is happening. On the way, Grynn reveals that her master is extremely powerful, mostly with necromancy, and that if they encounter him to run.

The trip back to Hydra’s Grave is uneventful, until they get there. The tree outside is covered in dead gnolls that have been nailed to it, which the words, “Be back soon!” written on it in blood. Of course, they decide to go in anyway.

There is only one area of the last crypt that they havent investigated. Its got a big door in front of it, and finally Grynn puts his Thievery to good use and manages to open it without relying on the brute force method. There is a single, plain sarcophagus inside. Checking it for traps, Maev notices a figure walking down the hall towards her, dressed in white with a white mask. Dun dun duuuun! She just stands there, and it calmly walks by her. Grey and Kegan just watch as it strolls idly by them.
On my side of the screen, I’m waiting for someone to do something, but everyone hesistates. In retrospect, Josh claims that he assumed it was some kind of ghost or ghosty echo, reliving a past scene or something. Ha! It walks to the wall behind the sarcophagus, looks into a tiny hole, and teleports through. Grey checks it out, and sees the stranger inside a larger, more magnificent room, rifling through alcoves in the wall looking for something. As if on cue, everyone starts battering the wall down. Fuck trying to find the hidden latch, that guy is stealing the shit they were going to steal, and damnit they saw it first!

Once they break on through to the other side, its time for combat. The stranger goes first, and opens things up by summoning a wall of ice that also contains numerous frozen bodies inside of it before fleeing through another illusionary wall in the back. As the party chops through this wall, they start freeing undead stuck inside that claw and grab them. Once they punch a hole through it and hack their way through more undead, they discover that whoever the hell that guy was, he escaped through a fey crossing in the hidden chamber (it was a circle of mushrooms).

And thats how the session ended. At least there is still loot in the room (hint hint).

Tiefling Sneaky Feylock

A new player is joining in Songs of Erui and wanted to make a tiefling warlock/rogue build.

====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&DI Character Builder ======
level 2
Tiefling, Warlock
Eldritch Blast: Eldritch Blast Charisma
Eldritch Pact: Fey Pact

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 8, Con 10, Dex 15, Int 16, Wis 11, Cha 18.

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 8, Con 10, Dex 15, Int 14, Wis 11, Cha 16.

AC: 16 Fort: 11 Reflex: 15 Will: 16
HP: 27 Surges: 6 Surge Value: 6

TRAINED SKILLS
Intimidate +10, Insight +6, Arcana +9, History +9, Thievery +8, Bluff +12

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics +3, Diplomacy +5, Dungeoneering +1, Endurance +1, Heal +1, Nature +3, Perception +1, Religion +4, Stealth +5, Streetwise +5, Athletics

FEATS
Level 1: Sneak of Shadows
Level 2: Sly Dodge

POWERS
Warlock daily 1: Curse of the Dark Dream
Warlock encounter 1: Sprite War Call
Warlock utility 2: Beguiling Tongue

ITEMS
Leather Armor, Spear, Spiked gauntlet, Adventurer’s Kit, Implement, Rod
====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&DI Character Builder ======

The spear is because it is a thematic weapon for eladrin, and he derives his power from a noble eladrin. This is also why I gave him sprite war call. I think Jarrett’s decision to dabble in rogue stuff is fitting for a tiefling that has abilities tied to fucking with the mind and perception, and the end result is a thematic yet functional character.
I decided to go with two rogue multiclass feats, given that Sly Dodge lets you add your Cha mod against opportunity attacks (+4 in this case), and also because it gave training for another skill. The skill selection makes sense for someone to have when dealing with eladrin and fey magic in general. I was sorely tempted to take ethereal stride or fey bargain. They all make sense! Aaaargh. Oh well, I can always opt out at level 3.
What I did and what Jarrett will do isnt necessarily the same thing, I just wanted to help him along the creation process and see what I could cook up that would be fun for myself, and to see how will it would synergize.