Austin Plays RPGs

Game tales from both sides of the table

[austinplaysrpgs-blog]

Tyranny of Dragons, Part 7: The Mere of Dead Men

Part 6 here

The party discovers a trail leading deeper into the swamp. They follow the marked trees for miles. The brackish water of the mere gets deeper and deeper the further in they travel, and before long, the party is wading through in water up to their waists.

Tylo discovers a humanoid body submerged in the muck. Helja is able to determine that the person suffocated, his lungs filling with mud. While the party muses over what this means, the black dragon Voaraghamanthar rises from the dark water behind them. The party is frozen in terror as he greets them. The dragon offers them safe passage out of the swamp in exchange for the destruction of the cultists that have taken up residence in the castle nearby. The party agrees, considering that they were already pretty likely to kill the cultists here anyways.

Satisfied, the dragon departs, and the party moves on ahead. The end of the day approaches, and the party begins looking for somewhere relatively dry to make camp. They find a straw hut on a small island and start to sleep when they're attacked by a small hunting party of lizardfolk that arrived in a few canoes. Henry obliterates them with a fireball. Afterwards, Andaraman muses that this staw hut was probably their home.

Betty finds a lizardfolk hiding in one of the canoes. He introduces himself as Snapjaw. He throws himself at Niko's feet and begs him to help his people. The cult has shown favoritism to the bullywugs over the lizardfolk, and the bullywugs have taken advantage of this favor by mistreating the lizardfolk. Niko agrees to help, imagining a small army of lizardfolk followers.

The party arrives at Castle Naerytar the next day. Snapjaw helps them get through the lizardfolk guard posts. Once they reach the lizardfolk huts, Niko gives the gathered lizardfolk a rousing speech, and collectively they charge the castle, killing any bullywugs in their wake. The party uses the distraction of the battle to slip inside the castle unnoticed. They catch crowds of bullywugs unawares, and the frog men die by the dozens.

The party investigates the central tower of the castle, which has an observatory at the top. They find Bog Luck and the Thayan man from the caravan inside. Henry tells Bog Luck that he's going to pay for what he's done, and a fight breaks out. The Red Wizard detonates a fireball inside the tower. Henry's squire, Pete, is obliterated instantly. The party prevails quite easily after this, however, and they continue poking around the castle.

They find cultists reboxing treasure and murder them all, claiming the gold for themselves. Several cultists retreat upstairs to a library, and the party gives chase. They find Rezmir's quarters upstairs and loot it for goods. They collect her notes and ledgers before heading back down.

They climb to the top of another tower. Betty checks outside, just in time to see Voaraghamanthar fly overhead and land on the observatory, crushing it. He calls out to the lizardfolk in the courtyard, commanding them to kill the intruders. In a frenzy, the lizardfolk pour into the castle after the party. Niko turns to look at Snapjaw, who appears nervous. Snapjaw seems to think for a moment, and then nods at Niko.

"We just hurry," he says.

Nowhere else to go, the party delves into the tunnels below the castle, where they tangle with the bullywug shaman. Tylo strikes the shaman down, but triggers a poison trap. Tylo begins tripping balls, seeing his companions as frog-like monsters. He tries to flee, but the party restrains him and cures him.

They find a teleportation circle in a misty room. They can hear the lizardfolk getting closer. Using the command word they found in Rezmir's notes, they activate the teleportation circle.

The party finds themselves in a forest surrounded by a circle of ritual stones. The clear sky and crisp mountain air informs them that they've likely traveled quite a ways. They discover three other circles here, but are uncertain where they might lead. Looking up the hill, they see a large hunting lodge. A small foot path leads from the stone circles up to the lodge, and they decide to try to get some sleep inside.

[austinplaysrpgs-blog]

Princes of the Apocalypse, Part 1: The Tomb of Moving Stones

Cast of characters:

Peter Brightwood (Me) - Human Bard - Lawful Good

Peter grew up hearing tales of the great duelist Gildas Swiftfoot, who once challenged and defeated all of the queensguard in duels, taking up the mantle of captain of the queensguard. Now Peter tells those same tales to a new generation, all the while training with the blade so that he can follow in Swiftfoot’s steps and become the greatest swordsman who ever lived.

Fud - Black Dragonborn Fighter - Chaotic Neutral

Fud was a solider in his tribe's militia, sworn to protect and serve his people. People looked down upon the chromatic dragonborn that made up his tribe and many picked fights with them. After many great battles, his people ended up either dead or enslaved to the nearby Dwarvish Clan Swordshatter. One day, Fud was able to be catch his slave master alone and kill him while making an escape. He carries his slave master's whip as a reminder of the pain and evil his tribe suffered, and the consequences of his failure to protect them.

Bolt - Human Fighter - Neutral Good

Bolt is a hermit who uses few words, preferring grunts and gestures. While living in the wilds, he found an artifact of mysterious origin and was given a vision of the horrifying power it had. He decided to guard it and make sure it did not fall into evil hands. Not long ago, he was forced out of his mountain home by a cult intent on taking the artifact. Now he looks for aid to make sure they don't use its true power.

Thokhan “Goodbook” Kristai-Anahtai - Goliath Cleric - Lawful Good

Goodbook only recently discovered his love and devotion to the god Tempus. He departed his tribe’s home and set out into the world to show them the good works and iron fist of Tempus. Often those are one and the same. Goodbook’s weapon of choice is a steel-clad tome detailing the dogma of the Lord of Battles.

We arrive in Red Larch after answering a job board listing from Kaylessa, the owner and operator of The Swinging Sword, the town’s largest inn. Kaylessa has grown very concerned by recent goings-on around town, and looked for outside help to investigate. Fud kicks open the door to the inn for no reason, starting our professional relationship with Kaylessa off on the wrong foot. Kaylessa, despite her irritation at our behavior, tasks us with cleaning up a few loose ends around town.

We take on a camp of bandits that have captured a bear. We spare the last bandit, who surrenders, to take him back to town for judgment. Fud decides to release the hungry bear, who immediately attacks him. Goodbook and Peter are big believers in 1 v 1 combat, and stand back to watch the fight unfold. Fud is felled by the beast, and after Bolt kills the bear, Fud's wounds are tended to. Goodbook, intent on converting this bandit to the grace of Tempus, suggests that the bandit fight the town's Constable in trial by combat. The bandit is killed quickly and efficiently by the Constable.

We investigate a ghost sighting out by a nearby crypt. Turns out the ghost is just goblins under bedsheets, shaking passersby down for cash. We strike them down for their misdeeds, and collect Kaylessa's bounty. She feels that we have proven ourselves as capable warriors at this point, and finally discloses the job she's been hoping we'd be able to complete.

There's been strange activity near Lance Rock, a nearby landmark. We discover that a necromancer has taken up residence inside, calling himself the Lord of Lance Rock. His undead goons are no match for us, however, and we slay him. We find disturbing symbols in one of the rooms. Bolt recognizes one of them and tells us that it's very evil. Peter finds a sword stuck in the wall up to the hilt and pulls it free. The blade disintegrates and he throws what's left into his pack.

When we return to town to collect our pay from Kaylessa, a sinkhole opens up in the middle of town. We fish the children who fell in out with rope, and go down to investigate. There's cult-y activity going on down here. We find a floating stone. Fud throws it on the ground, shattering it.

We stumble across a room of cultists. A teenage boy is pinned beneath a large stone. We kill the cultists and free the boy. He shares that he was put under the stone as punishment, and that he wasn't in danger. Goodbook recruits the kid, who is now called Boy by the group, to serve Tempus, tossing him a sword. We find an old priest named Baragustus further in. He is also given a weapon and told to serve Tempus or die. He tells us about the Tomb of Moving Stones, and how the cult has been protecting and preserving the Tomb, whose stones have given them visions of the future. Despite the priest's protests, we enter the Tomb.

Upon entering the Tomb, Boy and the old priest are immediately obliterated by a thunderous spell from the mad wizard inside. The swirling stones inside the Tomb make it difficult to spot the mage hiding out on the other end of the room, but we triangulate his position and kill him before he can escape. Goodbook bags up Boy and the priest's bodies and drags them out of the Tomb. We find a tunnel leading up into town, directly into Boy's father's place of business. Instead of opening the door out, Fud throws a clay pot full of sand at the door, shattering both. Boy's father, Rotharr, is furious that we've broken into his place of business. When we explain what happened below, and give him his son's corpse, he breaks down, sobbing.

"Baragustus should've stopped him from getting into danger", he says.

We give him the priest's corpse, too.

Due to Rotharr’s yelling and crying, this has become a scene, and curious townsfolk have gathered outside to see what's going on. Rotharr says that we are responsible for his son's death. Fud and Goodbook argue with him for quite a while before the Constable is summoned.

Fud tells the Constable that we've murdered some people below, which sets off alarm bells in the Constable's mind. Pete offers to take him below and show him the Tomb that isn't supposed to be there. He agrees, on the terms that Fud and Goodbook be cuffed until the truth of the matter can be determined. We show him what lies below, and when we return, Rotharr has vanished. We find out that he's left town in a hurry, and with the Constable's blessing, we take off in pursuit.

[austinplaysrpgs-blog]

Curse of Strahd, Part 11: Castle Ravenloft

Part 10 here

We cross the bridge onto the castle grounds and start poking around. The courtyard seems abandoned. We enter the front door after not finding anything of particular interest. Four red dragon wyrmlings roost in the foyer, but they don’t seem aggressive. We follow the sound of an organ being played, and find ourselves in a dining hall.

Strahd plays the organ across the room, his back to us. When we enter, he stops, greeting us with a brilliant smile. Finally, we’ve accepted his dinner invitation. Leo detects that this Strahd is, in fact, an illusion, and we relax a bit. After we sit down and eat, Strahd welcomes us to Castle Ravenloft, and disappears. The lights go out, and we can hear doors slamming closed and locking from elsewhere in the castle.

And so the search for Strahd begins in earnest. We take a spiral staircase down into the depths of the castle. We find an accountant working in a small room tucked away off the beaten path. We leave him behind to travel deeper. Leo disguises himself as Strahd and goes back to the accountant, telling him that he’s free to leave. The man does so and is torn apart by the wyrmlings at the entrance on his way out.

Rolen and Frank reach the bottom, where there are several jail cells partially submerged under a few feet of water. They find a man trapped inside named Emil. They set him free and he joins the group enthusiastically. Meanwhile, Leo and Cras find an odd room with a harp and a wedding cake. They play the harp and a small spirit named Piddlewick appears. He scolds Cras for his lack of skill with the harp. Cras takes the woman figure off of the wedding cake. Around this time, Rolen and Frank find them and the party is whole once again.

A lot of things happen at once. We proceed into the next room, where Strahd is relaxing. It appears to be a library or study of sorts. A painting of Irene sits above a fireplace. Strahd springs into action to kill us. A strong wind picks up in the other room, the invisible stalker attacks Cras for messing with the cake. Emil turns on us, revealing that he is a werewolf servant of Strahd. Cras is suffocated and killed by the invisible stalker while the rest of us kill Strahd and his henchman. When the battle is over, Leo uses his power gifted by one of the amber sarcophagi to bring Cras back to life.

Strahd turns to mist and disappears. Esmerelda chimes in that he should have died, and that he must be regenerating somewhere in the castle. Rolen casts a spell to locate a coffin and we make our way to the back half of the castle, trying to pinpoint it. We reach the main tower of the castle, which extends above and below us for hundreds of feet. Rolen’s spell points down, but we can hear a rhythmic thump coming from above and decide to investigate that first. We find a huge, beating heart hanging like a chandelier from the top of the tower. Frank pulls out his crossbow and fires a bolt into it. The tower itself thrashes in pain, knocking us against the walls. Suits of armor come marching down the stairs, and we flee. Cras rides his shield to the very bottom, where he crashes. We regroup at the bottom of the tower.

We find a huge room filled with stone crypts. We read the names on each and open a few to see what’s inside. We find Irene shackled inside one of them, in very rough shape, but still alive. We free her and take her along with us. Rolen finds a long tunnel leading to a room with some sort of teleportation device. One of the teleport options takes us to the “master’s tomb” and we assume that takes us to Strahd’s resting place. We decide to take a quick rest before making the trip. 

Leo decides to explore a bit more while the rest of us take a rest. He’s extremely interested in the various crypts and what treasure they might contain. He goes from crypt to crypt, attempting to open them, when hellhounds emerge from one. The specter that follows behind them slays Leo easily without the aid of the party. 

When Leo has not returned by the rendezvous time, we hop in and find ourselves outside of Strahd’s tomb. Rolen teleports inside and opens the portcullis to let the rest of the party inside. When he does, three of Strahd’s brides emerge, expecting their lord to have returned. They spring into action when they see that we are not Strahd. While the rest of us are engaged in battle with the vampire brides, Esmerelda slides Strahd’s coffin open and drives a stake through his heart. He jolts up in pain and shock, he opens his mouth to cry out, but no sound emerges. He disintegrates into dust.

Rolen and Godfrey collect Argynvost’s skull and return it to its rightful resting place. Rolen opts to stay behind in Barovia with Esmerelda, to defend the poor souls trapped here from Strahd’s fury. Instead of escaping while the mists surrounding Barovia are thinned, Cras hunts down a drunk man in Krezk who once attacked him, and brutally murders him.

Frank escapes Barovia before Strahd comes back to life. He emerges from the forest and finds a keep that is currently under construction. A blue dragon head is mounted on the wall.

[austinplaysrpgs-blog]

Tyranny of Dragons, Part 6: Carnath Roadhouse

Part 5 here

Part 7 here

New characters:

Andaraman - High Elf Bladesinger - Neutral

Andaraman is an agent of the Emerald Enclave. He's keeping an eye on conditions in Waterdeep when he becomes entangled in the party's quest.

Old Betty - Human Necromancer - Chaotic Neutral

Old Betty is 93 years old. In her advanced age, she's been overcome with fear at the thought of her own death and sets out to find ways to extend her lifespan, preferably indefinitely.

Henry Dundragon - Human Draconic Sorcerer - Neutral

Henry is a wealthy noble dandy whose bloodline has been blessed with gold dragonsblood by his ancestor who made a pact with a gold dragon. His father believes that he cannot make anything for himself and has discarded him at the Carnath Roadhouse, an inn owned by the family. Perhaps if he can take care of such a small responsibility, he can be given more in the future. Henry has been living at Carnath Roadhouse for several months now with his squire, Pete.

The party visits The Yawning Portal on their day off in Waterdeep. After learning of the wealth that's been found in Undermountain over the years, they decide to take the well down and try their luck. They each take bets with the tavern's patrons on their own survival. They meet a high elf named Andaraman and he decides to join the party. Down they descend into the depths of Undermountain. Niko thinks the risk is unwise and stays in the tavern.

They spend a lot of time exploring, solving puzzles, and otherwise slaying monsters. Kai is eaten by a roper they encounter in a natural cavern they stumble upon. They consider going back up the well after this, when an elderly woman descends the rope. She introduces herself as Old Betty and she really wants to take a look around. They humor her by checking out a few more Chambers before they turn around and take the well back up.

The party splits the treasure they've found and hits the hay, content to leave with the caravan the following morning.

The party goes to collect their wagon and horses, only to find the wagon torn to pieces. There's signs of a struggle, and Charles is missing. There's drag marks leading to the road, where they disappear into the city traffic. Helja digs around the remains of the wagon and finds the symbol of a flying snake hidden on the surface.

In a rage, Niko begins hunting for Charles's kidnappers. The stable owner claims to not know anything, but eventually admits he was paid off when Niko intimidates him. Niko then heads to the city guard, where he finds out what guards were on watch. He tracks them down and asks them about what they saw or heard. They don't know anything about it, but share that stolen goods are probably on their way out of town via boat, if history is any indicator.

Niko, Tylo, Perry, and Helja head to the Dock Ward while Haeek takes Andaraman, and Old Betty to hold up the caravan. When Haeek reaches the caravan, he tells them everyone is ready to head out instead, because he is a Zhentarim agent, and responsible for the kidnapping of Charles.

Niko gets a list of names of boats that are scheduled to depart soon from the harbormaster and they begin checking each boat for Charles's presence. The captains and crews of these boats aren't thrilled about the idea of letting armed strangers aboard and they meet resistance. They get through the whole list without finding Charles, some of the boats having already departed. Defeated, they head back to meet up with the caravan. On the way, Niko reports the stable keeper to the guard for accepting bribes and ensures that he is brought in for questioning.

Through the process of elimination, Niko is increasingly certain that Haeek is one of the only people who knew about Charles and was present for both attempted kidnappings, and is intent on having a conversation with him about it. They reach the meet up point outside the city, and the caravan is gone.

They buy horses and rush to catch up with the caravan. Once they do, they wait until nightfall and gather the party together. Niko casts Zone of Truth and they all agree to the terms. Haeek attempts to divert attention away but is unable to directly answer several questions about the Zhentarim. Andaraman, feeling an inexplicable sense of comraderie and friendship with Haeek, who he only just met, creates a magical distraction while Haeek steals a horse and makes a run for it. The party is unable to catch up to him, and he avoids their spells as he rides south back to Waterdeep.

The caravan continues north, eventually reaching the Mere of Dead Men, the ever-expanding saltwater swamp that the High Road skirts. The caravan comes to a stop at Carnath Roadhouse, a fairly large inn just outside the Mere. A half orc innkeep named Bog Luck logs everyone's cargo and locks it away in the storage room while everyone settles in for evening.

In the middle of the night, the cultists jump the party, attempting to murder them in their sleep. The party is able to fight them off, waking everyone else in the inn in the process. They meet the inn's owner and operator, Henry Dundragon, who is less than pleased that blood has been shed in his business. Everyone returns to bed, not wanting to miss any precious sleep.

The next morning, the party checks the cult's belongings and wagons and discover an anonymous note outing Niko as an enemy of the cult. Presumably written by Haeek. Then the party checks the storage room for the cult's cargo but don't find it. There's a locked strong room hidden away inside, and the party is pretty sure it must be in there. They check Bog Luck's ledger and find that the cult's cargo is not listed, he must have been working with them to hide their shipments. When they go to Bog Luck's room to question him, they find it empty.

The party asks Henry to unlock the strong room. He agrees, and when there's no treasure to be found, Helja uncovers a secret tunnel beneath the inn, leading in the direction of the swamp. One by one, they jump into the tunnel, crawling into the swamp to follow the treasure. Henry, seeing an opportunity to make something of himself, hands ownership of the inn off to the cook, Gristle Pete, and jumps in after them, squire in tow.

[austinplaysrpgs-blog]

Curse of Strahd, Part 10: The Amber Temple

Part 9 here

Part 11 here

We take the Wereraven child to the outskirts of Vallaki where the Vistani lived. The child supposedly knows someone who lives there. Here we are introduced to a dusk elf by the name of Radguard. He takes the child in and asks us to accompany him on a journey to a hidden place to the north, known as the Amber Temple. His deceased sister has been telling him to come there in his dreams because there is a way to bring back the dead. We figure, what the hell, maybe we can find ways to defeat Strahd.

We travel north into the mountains and find the temple built into the side of the mountain. We begin poking around and find a small hunting party of barbarians resting in one of the rooms. We kill most of them but make a lot of noise in the process. Flameskulls burst through the door and fireball us while the remaining barbarians flee.

Once the Flameskulls are taken care of, we delve deeper into the temple. We go down a floor and discover some amber sarcophagi, one of which is defended by a gang of nothics. The creepy one-eyed beings encourage us to touch one sarcophagus but not the other. Leo and Frank begin touching sarcophagi and making deals with dark beings for power. Craz and Rolen, alarmed, argue with the rest of the group that we shouldn't just be running around and touching these things all willy-nilly.

We spend far too long arguing about whether we should leave a door open or not. Leo and Frank, irritated at their companions' overt caution, turn themselves invisible and run away to find more sarcophagi.

They're assaulted by an unseen force once they reach the main hall. Rolen and Craz come running to save their friends and together we take down an Arcanaloth. Now that we're reunited, we continue even deeper.

We spring some traps, fight some ghosts, and eventually find a chamber that is filled with piles of treasure and a chariot. When we touch the treasure, we are attacked by a huge amber golem who had been hiding in the back of the room, invisible. Rolen is polymorphed against his will into a giant ape by Leo, and we eventually prevail in spite of the fact that Rolen's punches are largely ineffective against the construct.

We pile as much of the treasure into the chariot as we can and strap it to Leo's newly summoned griffon. We leave it behind and squeeze through a tunnel in the back of the room. The large room beyond has several sarcophagi. Before we can begin touching them, we are ambushed by vampires. They're no match for the light of the Sun Sword, however, and the fight is trivial.

We take the spiral staircase up and find a large library overseen by a forgetful lich. We learn that the dark powers resting here in this temple have imprisoned Strahd here in Barovia as punishment. The lich doesn't know if there's a way to free Strahd, but we may be able to get some of the population out once we kill Strahd.

Radguard is ready to get the power from the sarcophagus that can resurrect his sister. Frank beats him up and knocks him unconscious to stop him. We argue about this for a bit but eventually let him do his thing. Once he does, we leave, golden chariot in tow.

On our way down the mountain, we're trampled by a giant goat. It knocks Leo unconscious, and he begins to shift, his skin turning a purple-blue sheen. We slay the goat and turn to our downed friend. We're shocked to see that Leo is actually a doppelganger. Initially we are worried that our friend has been replaced, but Frank comes forward and vouches for him, saying that he's known all along, and agreed to keep the secret.

We travel to Vallaki to drop Radguard off and get supplies. Then we hide the chariot away and travel to Castle Ravenloft to square off against Strahd once again.

[austinplaysrpgs-blog]

Tyranny of Dragons, Part 5: The Road to Waterdeep

Part 4 here

Part 6 here

New characters:

Varis - Half Elf Eldritch Knight, Chaotic Good

Varis was raised by his elven mother in the Misty Forest. He never knew his human father. While he was away on Emerald Enclave business, his village was attacked by the green dragon, Chuth. His wife and two children were killed in the attack. He has traced the attack back to the Cult of the Dragon.

Helja - Hill Dwarf Life Cleric, Lawful Good

Helja is a member of The Order of the Gauntlet. Her now-estranged husband, Varram, has been outed as a high-ranking member of the Cult of the Dragon. He's gone into hiding. Helja intends to find him and set things right. Likely dismantling the cult in the process.

Tylo - Human Shadow Monk, Lawful Good

Tylo was orphaned by a Zhentarim raid that went sideways. He was taken in by a group of monks and trained to be a spy from a very young age. When he came of age, he was recruited by the Harpers, where he sought a chance to strike back at the Zhentarim. For now, Leosin Erlanthar has sent him on a quest involving the Cult of the Dragon.

Porunga - Platinum Dragonborn Eldritch Knight, Lawful Good

Porunga, also known as Perry, is an anointed knight of Bahamut, and acts as Bahamut’s emissary on the material plane. He finds himself on the road to Waterdeep when he happens upon the party’s caravan. It’s highly unlikely that this was a coincidence. He has a very particular hatred of the unpredictable evil that is Goblins.

The next day, Varis, Helja, and Tylo meet up with the party, having been sent by Leosin. Together, they wait until the cultists arrive, and join up with the caravan headed north to Waterdeep. Rezmir is nowhere to be seen, however.

There are seventeen wagons in the caravan, including the party’s own wagon. They spend time getting to know the various merchants and guards in each wagon. There’s a woman who is green from head to toe. Her name is Imsa, but she won’t divulge information about her past despite the party’s prodding.

One night, while the party is camped out in the Fields of the Dead, a scream rises from the hills outside of camp. One of the guards comes running, and tells the party that Green Imsa was taken by something. The party, sans Varis and Niko, suit up and take off into the fields. They find a crypt hidden beneath one of the hills, guarded by undead. A necromancer has taken up residence, and intends to sacrifice Green Imsa for some nefarious purpose. The party breaks her free of the ritual and kills the necromancer.

The caravan happens upon a turned over wagon under siege by hobgoblins. The party steps in to save the merchant and guards hidden behind it. The merchant buys a horse from the party and joins the caravan.

A large thunderstorm follows the caravan for several days. When they awake on the fifth day of rain, mushrooms have grown everywhere, coating the ground as far as they can see in every direction. Stepping on or otherwise disturbing the mushrooms causes the mushrooms to wail in pain and let out a puff of black spores. The party suspects that the mushrooms are poisonous, and when the mushrooms visibly start to grow, they panic and begin cutting a path through the mushrooms. The cries of the fungi are disturbing. Tylo in particular is haunted by the sound, and has nightmares for several days afterwards.

A couple of days later, the caravan catches up to a couple of women travelling down the road. The sisters are looking to travel to Waterdeep and are happy to travel with a large group. Later on that evening while Varis is on watch, the sisters approach him. They use Varis’s loneliness to lure him away from camp, where he is promptly murdered. The next morning, the party awakens to find the three of them missing. Unwilling to form a search party and lose time, the caravan moves on.

A stag with a golden coat is spotted on the hill by the road. The fur trader springs into action to slay the beast, but Kai and Haeek stop him so they can hunt and kill it themselves. After they collect the remains, Kai sells the pelt to the fur trader. On the caravan’s next rest day, a group of townsfolk armed with torches and pitchforks approaches, demanding repayment for the death of their good luck charm. Several members of the caravan and party point out Kai as the person who killed the stag, and he is forced to pay the townsfolk the money he made off the fur. He is resentful of the people in the party who outed him.

The party stops at a nearby inn called The Golden Stag. Three men have bought up all of the rooms and the stables, and are having some laughs at travelers being turned away and forced to sleep outside. The party attempts to appeal to these men, but it just seems to encourage them. The innkeep is apologetic but won’t sell them rooms that are already paid for.

Kai sneaks around and enters the men’s rooms one by one. Inside one, he finds the body of the innkeep tucked under the bed. Something is squirming inside his chest cavity. Kai decides he doesn’t want to mess with whatever that is, and goes back to the lobby to tell the rest of the party. When one of the men starts walking upstairs to the rooms, Kai attempts to charm him. When he does this, the men drop their facade, as they and the fake innkeep shift into their true forms: green slaad. A terrible fight breaks out. The tides are turning against the party when a platinum dragonborn kicks the door in and helps them slay the slaad. They go upstairs after the battle is finished to check on the innkeep’s body. There’s a hole in his chest cavity, and a slime trail that leads out the window. The party shrugs and moves on.

The caravan is stopped by a man buried up to his neck in the ground. “OATHBREAKER” is written on his forehead. The party argues for hours about whether they should dig him up or not. Eventually they dig him up anyways. The man claims that the family of his betrothed did this to him after he broke off their engagement because the family were criminals. The party is unreasonably suspicious of this story but they eventually let it go and move on.

The forest thickens on either side of the road and closes in, forcing the road into a narrow pathway. Ettercaps and spiders assault the caravan, killing horses and carrying them off into the woods for food. The party dispatches them before all of their horses are killed. Niko checks on Charles after the fight, only to find a hole burned in the floor of the wagon with acid. The party looks around for tracks and follows them into the woods. 

They find Charles webbed to a tree, and this is when the huge spider decides to strike. Its legs are like tree trunks, and the party has difficulty distinguishing between them. One of the legs lifts up and impales Anian. Tylo punches several different trees in a fury, to no effect. A tendril lashes down, picking Anian up and lifting him to the mouth of the spider. The party wails away at the creatures legs and some trees while the creature bites Anian, killing him. The party is eventually able to fell the beast, which falls to the ground with a crash. The party cuts Anian out of the webbing to take his belongings.

They return to the caravan, where they sneak Charles back into his wagon. Niko is very cross with the rebellious wyrmling, who is getting stir crazy cooped up inside the wagon. The party carries the body of Anian along with them for a couple days just in case he comes back to life again, and then burns his body in a pyre. Anian’s skin burns away to reveal golden scales, and his golden dragon spirit flies into the sky.

The caravan arrives in Daggerford, which is closed to visitors. The party is really curious about getting inside and disappointed that they don’t get to sleep indoors. Kai pays a guard to get an audience with someone in charge. The guard goes back into town and doesn’t return, pocketing Kai’s gold. The party is able to find out through the local tanner that there’s a quarantine going on and decide to hit the road. An uneventful tenday later, the party arrives in Waterdeep.

[austinplaysrpgs-blog]

Tyranny of Dragons, Part 4: Urban Hijinks

Part 3 here

Part 5 here

New character:

Khron - Goliath Barbarian, Chaotic Neutral

Khron hails from the Sea of Moving Ice, where his barbarian clan, the Ice Hunters, have been enslaved by a white dragon. Khron managed to escape to the south, where he sought aid to free his people.

In the dragon hatchery, Anian awakens with a gasp. The party has left his corpse behind, and not knowing where they’ve gone, decides to travel directly to Elturel and meet back up with them.

The party buys a wagon in Greenest and loads the dragon egg inside. They gather supplies and begin the six day journey to Elturel. On the third day, they catch up to Anian. He’s very cryptic about his survival, but the party shrugs it off. One less comrade to mourn.

On the fourth day, the dragon egg hatches, revealing a black dragon wyrmling. Niko communicates with it in draconic. The dragon responds to Niko’s draconic heritage and sees potential gain. Niko names him Charles, after his deceased comrade he’d only known for a couple days. Niko urges Charles to lay low so that he is not murdered on sight. Charles reluctantly agrees, on the basis that Niko is supplying him a constant stream of food and shelter.

The party arrives in Elturel, the second sun known as The Companion blazes overhead. Niko stays outside of town with Charles while the rest of the party goes to meet with Leosin. Niko gives instructions to them to also find his mentor Ontharr Frume with The Order of the Gauntlet to meet with him outside of town. 

The party goes to A Pair of Black Antlers, the tavern through which the Order operates. Ontharr and Leosin are there, and are eager to speak with the party. A northern barbarian tribesman is also there, he introduces himself as Khron. The party shares the intel they’ve gathered regarding the stolen treasure. Leosin and Ontharr instruct the group to travel to Baldur’s Gate, catch on with a caravan, and follow the Hoard to its destination. Khron will travel with them, hopefully his knowledge of the northern wilds will prove useful.

They’ve already bartered passage on a barge downriver to Baldur’s Gate. An alchemist named Fitzsimmons is looking to start his business up north, and his wagons need guards for the trip. This will be the party’s cover story to join the caravan. More agents of the Harpers and Order will join up with them in Baldur’s Gate.

For some reason, the party expects Leosin to pay them the gold that would be paid to their deceased companions. He doesn’t, but he does produce a beautifully cut ruby the size of his fist, offered up as payment for their travels north. Kai snatches the ruby up and runs off to the jeweler to get it appraised. 

The jeweler tells him it’s worth probably 3000gp. Kai tries to sell it to the jeweler, but gets the feeling that the jeweler is attempting to rip him off. Kai threatens to murder the man, leaves the store in a fury, and knocks over a display on his way out. The jeweler calls for guards, who restrain Kai and force him to pay for damages. He grudgingly does so, and the jeweler gives him a smug grin.

Ontharr meets with Niko outside of town, where Niko shares the existence of Charles. Ontharr has serious reservations about carrying around a baby dragon in their wagon, especially an evil one, but his trust for Niko’s judgment prevails in the end. Ontharr hopes that nothing horrible will come of this.

Kai plots to return at night and rob the jeweler, only to remember that The Companion doesn’t set and the city is still well lit. Undeterred, he convinces Haeek to help him rob the place. They stake it out and see the jeweler lock up from the inside and go to sleep in his room upstairs above the store. They wait to see how often guards come by before running up to the front door and picking the lock. When the door is opened, an alarm goes off. The two of them take off down an alley and out of sight before the guards show up.

The next day, they go to the docks to board the barge to Baldur’s Gate. They’re stopped and questioned by a town guard. The jeweler’s shop was broken into just last night, and Kai was seen having an altercation with him. The jeweler reported the threat on his life, as well. Kai denies any wrongdoing or knowledge of wrongdoing and they quickly board the barge before action can be taken. The trip to Baldur’s Gate is uneventful, and they arrive roughly five days before the cultists are expected to. Niko parks the wagon containing Charles outside of the city and begins teaching him proper etiquette for dealing with humanoids.

Anian decides to go find a shrine to Bahamut in town. Still suspicious of his reappearance, Haeek and Kai decide to follow him through the city. They all pass through the square, where a half elf man in a white mask is playing a song. They stop to listen, and a spell drifts over the crowd, charming Anian and Haeek. Kai is able to shake it off and watches as the masked man begins robbing people in the crowd. Kai yells out, commanding him to stop. The man freezes, notices the gnome looking at him, and takes off. Kai pursues, but his legs are short and the man outpaces him. Kai rounds a corner after him, only to find an empty alley. 

He looks around and discovers a secret door in the ground, leading down a set of stairs. Instead of getting backup, he descends the stairs. There appears to be a series of hallways and rooms hidden down here. He checks a few doors and finds mostly storage before he hears voices coming from one of the hallways. He sneaks down and finds a group of men standing around a table. The half elf stands with his back to Kai, mask resting on the table. A half orc seems to be calling the shots here, and is reprimanding the half elf for coming back here. The half orc instructs them to start packing up; the operation is moving out of this district.

Kai hides himself and communicates with the half orc telepathically. The half orc responds out loud to Kai’s greeting, and after Kai responds, is able to deduce that Kai is within earshot. The men flush him out and attack him. Kai flees deeper into the complex and finds himself trapped at a dead end. There’s a crypt hidden down here, deeper in. Desperate, Kai produces the ruby and offers it up. The thugs knock him out and take it, as well as most of his other belongings. 

Kai wakes up a couple hours later laying in the road. Furious, he gathers the rest of the party and tells them what happened. Niko stays with the wagons while the rest of them set out to take out the bandits. When they arrive, the place is cleared out. They go deeper to the crypt, and attempt to open the sarcophagi. Wights emerge from them and attack the party. Khron is slain, sacrificing himself so the rest of them can retreat.

While this is happening, several figures in black attack Niko, attempting to steal the wagon containing Charles. Niko turns a couple of them into meat paste with his maul, and the two remaining figures flee. The ones he killed don’t seem to have any distinguishing markings or symbols. The party returns, defeated, and decides they probably should stay out of town until the cultists arrive. 

[austinplaysrpgs-blog]

Curse of Strahd, Part 9: Khazan’s Tower

Part 8 here

Part 10 here

A black tower juts forty feet above the lake on a small island. A narrow land bridge allows foot traffic to reach the tower. Ricktavio's wagon rests at the base of the tower, as does the corpse of an armored saber-toothed tiger.

Rolen rushes to Loki's side, tears streaming down his cheeks. He begins digging a grave off the shore of the lake. Frank runs up to the wagon and opens the door, triggering the trap inside. The wagon detonates, the sound of the explosion carrying for miles. Frank is nearly killed in the blast but we manage to stabilize him.

Rolen buries Loki and performs a funeral while Leo plays a dirge. It's a very moving event. Wiping tears from his eyes, Rolen turns back to the task at hand. The tower appears to have no entrance beyond the main door. There are no windows.

A plate on the door displays a pattern with small stick figures making different gestures. We perform the gestures in the order noted on the plate, and the door swings open silently. Inside, a wooden platform suspended on four metal chains makes an elevator that travels all the way to the top. Four clay golems pull the chains once we step onto the platform and we reach the top. Apparently Ricktavio had spent some time up here hiding inside the antimagic field that permeates the tower.

Ricktavio himself is nowhere to be seen, however, and there are no notes left behind that leave clues as to his whereabouts. We spend some time debating what to do when we hear knocking on the door below.

We take the elevator down and look outside only to find Strahd waiting outside, arms spread in a welcoming gesture. He heard the explosion and just had to see what was going on. He's very excited to see us, if only to let us know how killing everyone we've ever met is going. Ricktavio is on the run, but the werewolves will find him soon enough.

We're still pretty beat up from the wagon exploding, so we tell Strahd to prepare for our arrival at Castle Ravenloft: we'll be accepting his dinner invitation. Of course, we have no intention of doing so.

He's very pleased by this turn of events, and tells us he'll send a coach to pick us up. With that, he leaves. The werewolves stay behind to make sure we don't leave. We decide to sleep for a bit and recuperate.

After about an hour, one of the werewolves enters to tell us the coach has arrived. We walk outside to the coach, and in a very shocking turn of events, attack the werewolves. We kill most of them and spare the last, who surrenders. We stuff the dead werewolves in the coach and send it off to Castle Ravenloft. The remaining werewolf, Markham, reluctantly agrees to accompany us.

We travel back to Argynvostholt, which fortunately is still there, and speak with the paladins there. They are not receptive to our quest to kill Strahd; they've done it too many times, and he always comes back. One of the paladins, Godfrey, agrees to come with us. He believes that if we recover Argynvost's remains from Castle Ravenloft, the Order's hope may be restored.

We travel to the winery, which is unsurprisingly destroyed. We find one of the sons hiding in a tree. He's pretty beat up from a fight, and thinks his family is probably dead. We're unable to find bodies aside from his brother's. He reveals that his family were Wereravens and that they'd been looking out for us when they could. We decide to escort him back to his other brother in Vallaki after we check in on the resurrected son of Krezk's burgomaster.

Strahd meets us on the road to Krezk, with a dire wolf and four animated armors in tow. Behind him stands a small child, the youngest Markinov boy. Strahd has grown tired of our antics and disrespect and says that our time has come to an end. Leo begins to lie and tell him that the coach left without us before he remembers that we jammed the werewolf bodies inside.

A battle ensues, in which Strahd kills the werewolf and wereraven before turning his attention on us. Rolen emanates sunlight from his amulet and brandishes the Sun Sword, intent on taking Strahd down. The animated armors are very tough, and take a lot of attention away from Strahd. Cras jumps inside one of the armors and rolls around like a buffoon for a while. The Sun Sword tears into Strahd, who feels the tide of the battle turning against him.

Rolen is finally struck down by Strahd in a tense duel. Strahd collects Irene and summons his Nightmare to escape. As he tries to fly away, Leo and Cras perform a last ditch effort to keep the vampire from escaping, teleporting above and dropping on top of him to knock him from his steed. Strahd manages to deflect their assault, and they fall to the ground. Cras leaves a small dwarf-sized crater in the ground. The fall knocks them both unconscious. Strahd escapes on his Nightmare, having claimed his prize.

Frank is the only one who is still up and running at this point, and he leads the armors away before doubling back and dragging us to safety. After a few hours we've all awoken and tend to our wounds.

The defeat stings our pride, but hopefully we gave Strahd enough of a fight that he'll give us some space to recuperate and grow stronger.

[austinplaysrpgs-blog]

Tyranny of Dragons, Part 3: The Dragon Hatchery

Part 2 here

Part 4 here

The next morning, the party travels back to the gorge, only to find that the Cult has packed up and left, pretty recently in fact. Only a few hunters seem to be left, and after a brief discussion with one, the party determines that they must be locals.

The party enters the cave, where they are ambushed by cultists that could easily see them coming. The battle expands as several cultists emerge from another room and attack, having been warned about approaching adventurers. Once the cultists are slain, the party takes the hallway they came from, choosing not to brave the mushrooms in the main hallway. Off to the side is a storage room, where they find a drunk cultist passed out. They slap him silly until he wakes, and they pepper the man with questions. He doesn’t seem to know much of anything. His name is Anthony, and the party decides this guy is kinda charming, bringing him along.

They find the command room, where a map of the Sword Coast is spread out on the table. The map indicates that Rezmir is travelling west to the coast and then north up the road to Baldur’s Gate. A note next to the map mentions a place named Naerytar as the final destination of the treasure.

Kai inspects the rug on the floor and finds a chute with a rope ladder that leads maybe thirty feet down. If anyone had been in this room, they’d likely retreated down the ladder. In a very bold move, the party descends the ladder, only to be greeted by Langderosa, a pair of tribesmen, a couple of armed guards, and a human woman in purple robes. The room at the bottom of the ladder is a shrine to Tiamat, the evil dragon goddess. The party doesn’t have much time to process what this means.

Langderosa chuckles at the party, and challenges Charles to yet another duel. Charles knows he can’t win and declines. The ensuing melee is anything but pretty. Langderosa beats Charles raw, knocking him unconscious with a few swift strikes of his greatsword, and roars in triumph. Langderosa turns his attention on the rest of the party and breathes lightning on them, killing Anthony. Charles is healed by a party member and springs into action, plunging his longsword into Langderosa’s back, killing him.

The party is already barely holding on by a thread when the purple-robed woman casts a spell, summoning spectral devils around her that kill Charles, Anian, and Salazar. The remaining members of the party manage to kill the woman and end the fight, but down to just four members and low on resources, they’re not sure what to do next. They catch their breath for a second and look around. The Tiamat shrine is very confusing, as the Cult of the Dragon has no ties to the Church of Tiamat that they know of.

They decide to push a bit further, but are prepared to retreat in the face of danger, if necessary. The next room down the stairs is large and dark. There’s a caged staircase leading down into the chamber. Using the light of his torch, Niko spots a couple of black egg-shaped objects in the room, and his eyes are filled with lust. Finally, he can reach his goal of raising an evil dragon to be good. He doesn’t get to claim a dragon egg just yet, a group of kobolds spring from their hiding spot and toss improvised explosives at the party.

After dispatching the kobolds, they warily walk down the stairs and open the gate. Once Niko walks in and grabs one of the eggs, he’s jumped from behind by a pair of drakes that were hiding under the stairs. Niko is knocked unconscious, but the rest of the party steps in to save him from certain death and slay the drakes. Tibbitticus, Kai, and Haeek drag Niko and one of the eggs out of the room, lifting them up the chute with some rope.

Haeek and Tibbitticus decide to go back for the second egg, which proves to be a dangerous endeavor. As they lift the 150-pound egg, a pair of ochre jellies drop on them from the ceiling. Haeek manages to escape, but Tibbitticus is covered and consumed. Haeek flees, unable to help his compatriot, and meets up with Kai at the top of the chute. Together they hole up and wait for Niko to come to. A few hours later, he awakens, and they pack up the egg, traveling back to Greenest to rest.

[austinplaysrpgs-blog]

Tyranny of Dragons, Part 2: The Raiders’ Camp

Part 1 here

Part 3 here

The party happens upon a small group of raiders making camp in the fields. They surprise them, killing all but one, who they work for information. The raider tells them that the camp is situated inside a gorge nearby, and that a rearguard is in place to dissuade pursuit from the town. They insist on taking the man back to town, where he is executed by the governor after an interrogation.

The party scales the gorge from the side and looks down into camp. There’s hundreds of cultists and mercenaries celebrating a successful raid. The party observes that it would be fairly easy to enter the chaotic camp unnoticed in these conditions. They slip down into the camp past the rearguard.

They investigate the command tent and the cave at the end of the gorge, both of which are heavily guarded, and think better of it. While they make their way around camp, Salazar is spotted by one of the raiders, captured, and brought to the command tent. Inside, he is questioned by the leaders, and when he is not forthcoming with information, he is put to work with some other prisoners.

They low-key ask around for information, and discover that these raiders, the Cult of the Dragon, have been plundering several towns of their valuables, in order to prepare a hoard for a “dragon queen”. Greenest was the biggest and most prosperous town they’ve raided yet. They also learn that a black half-dragon, Rezmir, is the leader of this chapter of the Cult, and should be departing with the treasure soon.

Charles is recognized by another cultist because of his duel with Langderosa. He is also brought to the command tent and then put to work moving rocks with Salazar. Charles does a damn good job moving those rocks and everyone is impressed by his strength. Tibbitticus spots his friend Leosin amongst the prisoners, and with the camp on alert for intruders, the party decides to wait until nightfall and break the prisoners free.

When the sun goes down, the prisoners are chained up in the center of camp, and this strikes the party as the perfect opportunity to escape. They sneak up, cut the ropes and briskly make their way out of the camp. Haeek and Kai climb the guard tower and perform a really badass tag team assassination on the guards inside, covering the party’s escape. Not long after they exit the camp, the alarm goes up, and they hurry off to town before the raiders can organize and find them.

Back in Greenest, Leosin thanks the party for their help, and brings them into his operation. He’s a Harper who has been tracking the Cult of the Dragon for a while. When they attacked Greenest, he slipped into their ranks and spied on the camp, before being caught and imprisoned. He must travel to Elturel to meet with contacts and report, and offers the party gold for a job. They must return to the raider camp, find out where the Cult is going from here, and find out what is inside the cave. They can report to him in Elturel when they are finished. The party is both curious about the Cult and interested in gold, so they accept with no hesitation.

[austinplaysrpgs-blog]

Curse of Strahd, Part 8: The Village of Krezk

Part 7 here

Part 9 here

The burgomaster of Krezk greets us at the gate. He explains that this town is a commune. Everyone can partake, but all must contribute. They're not capable of taking on several new villagers. We explain that only Irene is here to stay. The rest of us are just passing through.

The burgomaster asks Rolen to perform a funeral for his son, who recently passed. Once that's taken care of, we make our way to the abbey on the other side of town; the abbey is supposedly a refuge that Irene hopes to use to remain hidden from Strahd.

On our way there, we pass a pristine, glowing pool. Frank jumps in for a swim. Irene looks in, only to see the reflection of a man. The man reaches up to her, calling her Tatyana. She seems to recognize him. He reaches up towards her, a watery arm extending from the pool. Frank swats her hand away before he can grab her. Lightning strikes the pool, and we hear Strahd's voice call out in anger, "She's mine!"

Irene vaguely remembers that the man's name is Sergio. She knew him many lifetimes ago, she thinks. Frank's pretty crispy from the lightning but he dusts himself off and we approach the abbey.

We're greeted at the gate by some animal-human hybrids. They're strange, but friendly. When asked, they explain that the abbot made them like this at their request. They lead us inside and we meet the abbot. He's an odd fellow. He's made a whole lot more of the mongrelfolk than the two we saw previously. We're weirded out by that but he seems to be well-intentioned.

We head back to town to rest, the burgomaster having offered to let us stay in his home. In the night, the abbot visits, and raises the burgomaster's son from the dead. We object, but the burgomaster won't have it.

We each find a letter from Strahd offering us the chance to leave Barovia. If one of us says yes and the rest say no, that person gets to leave. If more than one says yes, we all stay. If we discuss the letters before dropping our letter over the town wall with our answer, Strahd will hunt and kill everyone we've ever met in Barovia. We all say no, but Leo rips his letter and says no aloud, making his vote known to us and breaking the terms of the letter. Leo does not negotiate with terrorists.

We go back to the abbot the following morning to talk some more about his work. They find the abbot teaching a stitched together woman how to dance. Rolen is able to divinely sense that the abbot is a celestial, and the woman is undead. This alarms him greatly. The abbot explains that the woman is meant to be Strahd's bride.

Rolen takes the abbot aside while the rest of the party pokes around, checking out the various mongrelfolk. Rolen asks the abbot how a celestial could just give in to Strahd. The abbot tells Rolen that Strahd cannot be killed, only appeased.

Rolen has a zero tolerance policy for bootlicking evil entities, and brandishes Justice, the sun sword, to strike down the undead construct that would be Strahd's wife. The abbot reverts to his true form, an angel, and we fight him off, killing him and the woman.

Rolen feels a prick in his side, and an invisible woman instructs him not to move. She's very irate that we just killed the Abbot, she had been using him as a means to law low. Rolen states confidently that Strahd must be beaten. We can't stand idly by.

The woman drops her veil and we speak at length. We as a group are able to piece together that this woman, Esmeralda, is the apprentice of Ricktavio. We decide to depart Krezk and meet with him north of Lake Zarovich like he'd said previously. Irene doesn't feel safe here in Krezk and we offer to let her travel with us until we can find a safe place for her.

We pack our belongings and leave, taking the road northeast to Lake Zarovich.

[austinplaysrpgs-blog]

Curse of Strahd, Part 7: Argynvostholt

Part 6 here

Part 8 here

On the road to Vallaki, a silver mist envelops the road. Warriors form from the mist, clash in battle, and disperse back into mist. As we watch, a large battle plays out. A silvery mist dragon flies overhead, it’s breath cutting a swath through the battle before crashing into a castle ahead of us. The mist clears, the battle apparently over, but the castle remains. We know that castle was not here before.

We open the door and walk inside. The castle seems to be abandoned. Paintings and busts of knights are found in several different rooms. Each room is decorated with dragon motifs. We squash a few spiders that have taken up residence inside and push deeper into the castle.

We reach a large, two level chapel. Three figures kneel in front of the altar, backs to us. Rolen calls out to them, and they turn to us. We are dismayed to find that they are undead paladins. They attack, and are far too strong for us. We scatter, fleeing to different floors of the castle. Frank and Cras make it outside.

Rolen runs up to the second level of the chapel. There's another paladin watching the battle from above, he seems amused by this turn of events. Rolen pleads with this man, claiming that we are allies that would see Strahd destroyed. The paladin calls it a fool's errand, dismissing Rolen, who then jumps from the balcony to the chapel proper and also flees outside.

Leo decided to take the stairs down and finds himself in a fenced in area. A large crypt sits inside the fence. A figure inside seems to watch Leo through a window, and the doors to the crypt swing open. When the revenant pursuing him arrives, Leo flees into the crypt and hides, the doors swinging closed behind him of their own accord.

The rest of us are outside at this point and can see Leo's predicament. Frank hops the fence with some help and tries to help Leo escape. Leo doesn't seem to want to escape for some reason, and Frank climbs back out. The revenants gather outside the crypt, content to wait Leo out. Flustered by Leo's stubbornness, we attempt to distract the revenants.

Leo seizes the opportunity and magically disguises himself as one of the revenants. He slips through in their confusion and runs away, where he joins us outside. We are pretty over this castle and continue to Vallaki.

When we arrive, we send Cras into town to check on Irene and gather the Markinov brothers. He bribes the guards and walks to the church. Irene is fine, but she's grown uneasy in her time here, she wants us to escort her to Krezk. Cras agrees on our behalf, and informs the Markinovs to be prepared to travel.

They emerge from town ready to go just a while later. Not long after we've left, we hear a crowd approaching us from behind. We turn to see a mob of townsfolk, torches in pitchforks in hand. Isaac leads them, pointing at us. The mob is worked up and out for blood.

Leo charms the mob, while Rolen and Cras run up to them and kill Isaac. We're divided on whether that was the right thing to do or not, but we agree that we're not sticking around and leave the mob stunned. We drop the brothers off at the winery and travel to Krezk, Irene in tow.

[austinplaysrpgs-blog]

Tyranny of Dragons, Part 1: Greenest In Flames

Part 2 here

Cast of Characters:

Nikodamus Donaar Turnuroth Ashbarren - Black Dragonborn Paladin, Lawful Neutral

Niko is a member of the Order of the Gauntlet who really loves to share his full name to anyone who asks. He is a servant of the dragon god Lendys. Ontharr Frume, one of the leaders of the Order, has taken Niko under his wing. When Niko begins having visions of chromatic dragons destroying the world, Frume gives him permission to follow up on these visions, which seem to pull Niko towards the town of Greenest.

Sobri Kai - Rock Gnome Rogue, Chaotic Good

Kai hails from the Misty Forest, where a green dragon named Chuth has been terrorizing the community. After the dragon destroys his village’s sacred tree, he discovers that the dragon is getting outside help from the Cult of the Dragon, and attempts to infiltrate them. He’s found out, and the Cult attempts to murder him. Kai makes his way to Greenest, hoping to law low while he formulates his revenge.

Anian Drakolo - Aasimar Sorcerer, Lawful Good

Anian has the blood of gold dragons running through his veins. He feels the call of Bahamut to do good deeds and earn his place at Bahamut’s side in the afterlife. Little is known about his personal history.

Charles - Hobgoblin Fighter, Lawful Neutral

Charles’s clan was wiped out by a blue dragon named Lennithon. Charles was the sole survivor. Sergeant Xander Markguth with the town militia of Greenest took him in and Charles found himself a new home and community to call his own.

Tibbitticus - Bronze Dragonborn Paladin, Chaotic Good

Tibbitticus once had his life saved by a monk named Leosin Erlanthar. When Leosin contacts Tibbitticus and asks him to meet in the town of Greenest, Tibbitticus is quick to respond. He owes Leosin a life debt, after all.

Haeek - Aarakocra Rogue/Warlock, Chaotic Neutral

Haeek had his wings removed by an evil cult, and, as a result, has rejected the power and influence of the gods. Haeek travels to the small town of Greenest to gather information on the Cult of the Dragon.

Salazar - Human Ranger, Neutral Good

Salazar’s childhood friend, a half elf named Talis, is rumored to have been kidnapped. Salazar has been investigating her disappearance, and traced it back to the Cult of the Dragon. His investigation has brought him to the town of Greenest.

A wagon transporting adventurers rolls up to the town of Greenest. Sergeant Xander Markguth and Charles greet them at the edge of town, and briefly question the adventurers. It’s unusual for adventurers to be visiting a farming town like Greenest, and the Sergeant is suspicious of their motives. A couple of them give fake names, and Markguth instructs Charles to keep an eye on them.

Charles leads them to the town inn, named The Golden Finch. The party splits and visits several different places in town. Niko requests an audience with the Governor, and Kai covertly follows him to eavesdrop on their conversation. Niko expresses concern that the town may be in trouble, but Governor Nighthill is dismissive.

In the middle of the night, the party is awoken by alarm bells in town. Screams fill the night air. They rush outside to see robed cultists, mercenaries, and kobolds terrorizing the townsfolk. A man is torn apart by kobolds in front of his family, and the party steps in to save his wife and children. The woman urges them to hurry to the safety of the keep.

As they approach the gate to the keep, they hear a man on the parapet call out.

“Dragon!”

The party breaks out into a full sprint. Charles looks over his shoulder and sees the dragon responsible for the death of his clan. Thunderclouds roll in. The party manages to squeeze in before the gates close.

Governor Nighthill gathers the party and offers them gold to use the secret exit tunnel to go out into town and gather stranded townsfolk. Escobert, the master of the keep, unlocks the gate into the sewer below and the party makes their way down the tunnel. They are swarmed by rats, but the party fends them off.

After emerging from the tunnel, they spot smoke coming from the direction of the temple. Kobolds are attempting to knock the doors down with a battering ram. Without taking time to observe or plan, they plow headfirst into the host of enemies in front of the chapel. Another force of kobolds rounds the corner and joins the fight, sandwiching the party and nearly crushing the party. They mount a desperate defense and manage to hold them off.

They enter the chapel to find a couple dozen townsfolk holed up inside. The priest inside thanks them and gives them a couple of potions for their courage. The party whisks the townsfolk away in a hurry to the secret tunnel and ushers them inside.

The keep shakes from the battle going on above. Lennithon swoops in and obliterates a row of guards with his lightning breath. Charles hops on the keep’s ballista and fires off a round at the dragon, steely determination in his eyes. The bolt strikes true, and the dragon howls in pain. The dragon wheels back around and dives down at the ballista. Charles leaps out of the way just in time to avoid the bolt of lightning that destroys the ballista. The dragon seems to keep his distance after this, however, which the defenders of the keep consider a victory.

The party looks down to see that the keep has been surrounded. A blue half dragon emerges from the crowd of cultists with four prisoners in tow. A woman, a teenage boy, and two young girls are led out and blades are put to their throats. The half dragon calls out in challenge. The lives of these prisoners in exchange for a fight with Greenest’s greatest warrior. Markguth recognizes the prisoners as his sister and her three children.

Charles volunteers to fight for the town that so graciously took him in, and marches out to face the beastly figure. As a show of good faith, the children are released, and they run to the keep. The governor sends out a healer to help Charles, expecting his defeat. He wasn’t wrong. Charles puts up a good fight, but the half dragon is simply too fast and strong and plunges his spear into Charles’s guts. The half dragon roars in triumph, leaving Charles laying in the field, bleeding out. The woman prisoner is released, and as the raiding force departs, the healer runs to Charles’s aid, saving his life.

The raid is apparently over, and the party takes this opportunity to rest up and get their bearings. Nighthill approaches the party and offers them a bounty in exchange for information about the raiding party. They happily accept, gather their belongings, and leave town in pursuit of the raiders.

[austinplaysrpgs-blog]

Did you ever encounter Zalkore in ToA? I’m having a hard time finding her hit points and I just wanna know how long I gotta in battle because my group is only level five and I don’t want to party wipe yet 😩

My players never made it to Nangalore, unfortunately. My party missed a lot of content that I was really excited for. But I believe you're supposed to use the Medusa stats from the Monster Manual which would give her 127 (17d8+51) hit points.

[austinplaysrpgs-blog]

Curse of Strahd, Part 6: The Ruins of Berez

Part 5 here

Part 7 here

Crasmuth - Dwarf Barbarian, Chaotic Good

Crasmuth found himself in Barovia after taking a job board posting. Werewolves had been spotted in the area, killing livestock. A group of fighters was assembled and set out to take care of the lycanthropes. While out on the hunt, a mist appeared and enveloped the fighters. When the mist cleared, Crasmuth found himself alone in a strange land.

We take off in pursuit of the animated tree and engage in a large battle with the druids and blights surrounding it. One of the druids casts a spell on the tree, and it sprints off in a blur. We pick off the crowd of evildoers and chase the tree down.

The tree reaches the vineyard as we catch up to it. Rolen teleports into the crown of the tree and hacks away with the sun sword. The branches of the tree batter him and he falls to the ground, unconscious. Out of healing spells, Leo drags him into the vines and dumps him out of sight while they struggle to keep the tree away from the winery. Frank is knocked unconscious and constricted by vines, and the tree advances to the winery, pounding on the structure with its huge limbs.

The building is on the verge of collapse when Garfield and Leo finally fell the creature. The green magical seed falls out of the tree, onto the ground. We collect the seed and return it to the owners of the vineyard. After we rest, we agree to escort a wagon of wine to Vallaki. Considering our reputation in that town, we decide that we will part ways with the wagon at the gate.

On our way, we are set upon by a large group of zombies. We dispatch them with some trouble, only to find that our dear friend Garfield was slain. We shed a tear, take his gear, and leave his body. Rolen performs a ceremony to prevent Garfield’s body from becoming undead, and we roll up to the gate of Vallaki.

The Markinov sons ask us to escort them home after they unload all of the wine in town. Annoyed by this change of plans, we tell them to wait a day, we have a mission to get the other seed back first.

While we’re arguing with the Markinovs, a dwarf man approaches us from the town. He introduces himself as Crasmuth. Apparently he had been turned away at the gate, and thought he could join up with us. The empty space left behind by Garfield was quickly filled, as luck would have it.

We leave the sons behind, telling them we’ll return the following day, and make our way to the town of Berez. It’s supposedly been abandoned, but we know that a hag lives there. While we poke around town looking for signs of life, scarecrows around town spring to life and attack in a frenzy.

The scarecrows prove to be no match for our martial prowess, however, and we plunge forward to the large tree in the center of town. A green light radiates from the tree, and we’re pretty sure we’ve reached our destination. Leo calls out towards the tree, requesting the hag surrender, her spawn vanquished. She cackles, and flies out above us inside of a hill giant skull. She fireballs us, laughing maniacally, and tells us that we will make great scarecrows.

Rolen teleports atop the skull, having not learned his lesson from the tree the day before. He gives her a few good licks with the sun sword before she turns around and beats him senseless with her staff. She whistles, and the tree springs to life, crawling its way towards the party on the ground. 

Frank runs up the tree and inside the door in its side, to the living quarters of Baba Lysaga. There’s a green light coming from under the floorboards, and he begins pounding a hole in them with his fists. The tree doesn’t take kindly to this, however, and shakes violently, battering Frank against the walls. He gets his bearings after a moment and reaches into the hole, ripping the seed free. The tree slouches, no longer animated.

Leo stuns Baba Lysaga with a spell, and Rolen grapples her. Rolen jumps forty feet down from the skull, using Baba Lysaga as a cusion under his feet. The collision of a 350 pound man in chain mail sandwiching Baba Lysaga to the ground breaks her spine with a loud snap, and the party beats her down before she can get up just to be certain there’s no shenanigans. We loot her home and make our way back towards Vallaki, seed in hand, to pick up the Markinovs.

[austinplaysrpgs-blog]

Tomb of Annihilation, Part 14: Cradle of the Death God

Part 13 here

The party steps down into a large room with rocking chairs and sewing supplies. Three small figures approach through the green mist that fills the room. They’re all children’s toys. The straw doll speaks up, urging the adventurer’s to keep quiet and leave, lest the Sewn Sisters hear them and come back.

They pelt the toys with questions and discover that each of the toys has a child’s soul trapped inside. The toys also tell them about the “lookie like” over in the corner. Inside the cage is a being that looks exactly like Emliy. When they engage her in conversation, she seems to remember everyone and everything they’d done up to this point, but is unable to cast spells. While they’re chatting up the dolls, Seward makes his way down the stairs and yells up at the party.

They return him to normal size and start looking around for ways to get out. There’s a large green door on the opposite end of the room. Goblin skeletons are carved into its surface. Five keyholes are carved into a bar that runs along the front. Unfortunately, each keyhole is currently plugged. When asked, the straw doll tells them that they will have to complete the trials to open the keyholes, gesturing to the doors on either side of the large green door, each with a different shaped keystone above the door.

The party rolls their eyes, grumbles, and begin working their way through the trials. One by one, they solve the puzzles and open the keyholes. Edward inserts each skeleton key with an unnecessary acrobatic maneuver. When the last keyhole opens, The Sewn Sisters make their appearance, bent on stopping the party from interfering any further. They’re no match for Roderick’s furious punches and kicks, however, and the party stops to rest before inserting the last skeleton key. Seward uses the Eye of Zaltec to bring Starfallen back to life, sacrificing his own life in the process.

When they are finally ready to face what’s beyond the door, they insert the key and twist. The green door grinds up into the ceiling, revealing a large chamber beyond. In the center of the chamber lies the Soulmonger, a large glowing cylinder suspended over a pit of lava by adamantine struts. Acererak’s new death god, the atropal, isn’t fully grown, but it is bent on ill-intent and assaults the party. 

They ignore the atropal in favor of destroying the struts, which break under the strain and drop the Soulmonger into the lava. It bursts open, and the captured souls spill out. Edward collects Emliy’s soul with a soul bag, while Starfallen collects Seward’s inside the ghost lantern.

The loss of its food source enrages the atropal, and it becomes more aggressive, summoning a wraith to tangle with the party. They slay the atropal, and it drops into the lava. The party doesn’t get any time to catch a breather before Acererak steps out of a portal and announces his intent to murder each and every one of them.

Acererak sends a sphere of annihilation speeding through the party, consuming Tlad entirely while the others dive out of the way. The rest of them realize the gravity of the situation and spread out. Acererak teleports away from would-be attackers and disintegrates Alphonse. He paralyzes Roderick, and the scales begin to tip in his favor. In a desperate last-ditch effort, the party defeats Acererak, destroying his material body.

The party don’t immediately teleport out of the Tomb, much to their dismay. They walk through the misty gate on the other side of the room, only to find a black stone chapel. Eight nothics are shackled to the walls. They chant in undercommon, demanding the adventurers set them free. The party cuts them all free and ask how to escape. One of the nothics looks down the hall beyond the chapel and tells them to “mind the bones.”

The altar in the center of the chapel sports an altar. Resting atop the altar is a leather bodybag. The party pokes and prods but there’s no movement from inside. They open the bag, revealing a knight of Torm, who is alive but unconscious. Unable to wake him, and unwilling to carry him, they leave him there.

The hallway beyond features several archways, with different colored tile pathways leading to each. A scorched body lays in the center, pointing at an archway that has no path leading to it. Raine and Edward find a library hidden away. An old man named Mr. Fox is the caretaker of the library, and exchanges a few quips with them before dozing off in his chair.

Starfallen finds a small room with a pool of black liquid. She experiments with tossing objects into it, and is stumped. She encourages Raine to check out the archway they hadn’t investigated yet. When Raine touches it, she is teleported to the oubliette Emliy and Levi had been sent to before. She finds the levers inside the nostrils inside of the demon head, and flips one. The mouth opens and sucks Raine in, devouring her. Somewhere in the multiverse, someone shakes their head in disbelief.

The party fools around with the black pool for a few minutes, before remembering the black marbles they’d taken from the hags. They toss one in, and the liquid forms into a black obelisk. One by one, they jump through the obelisk, emerging outside the tomb. Artus and Dragonbait come running up to them in a panic.

Frost giants have stormed Omu, slaying Ras Nsi in the process. Artus urges the party to flee with him to Mezro. They’re pretty drained and in no shape to take on a raiding party of frost giants, so they comply. When they arrive at Mezro, Edward uses his Wish spell to resurrect Emliy, and the two of them stay in Mezro, along with their father, Roderick, who is finally freed from the death curse.

Ragkum, Lock, and Starfallen make the trek back to Port Nyanzaru, where they barter passage back to Baldur’s Gate. Syndra Silvane is alive and well, and happy to only be rewarding a handful of the adventurers she had originally sent on the quest. Ragkum uses his newfound fortune to buy a ship and hires on Lock and Starfallen as crew members.

On another plane of existence, Acererak wakes in a new body. He’ll never forget the faces of the adventuring party that got the best of him and thwarted the ascension of his new death god.

[austinplaysrpgs-blog]

Tomb of Annihilation, Part 13: Gears of Hate

Part 12 here

Part 14 here

The party lands in a pentagonal room, the floor is covered in vines, moss, and refuse. A sprinkler juts out of the floor in the center of the room. They march west into another similar room. There’s carvings of black dragons on the walls, but not much else seems to be going on. Beyond this room is a a control room. Inside stands a skeleton key, which the party makes quick work of and tosses its skull in their bag with the rest.

The control panel has several levers and dials, and there’s a diagram on the wall displaying different positions that they can rotate the rooms into. Now that they have some perspective on the layout of this floor, they can see that the pentagonal rooms are sitting on large gears in the middle of an underground lake. Edward instructs the party to go back to the center room while he rotates the rooms into position. He then flies over to the center room, where the party has come under attack: the plant life sprang to life and attempted to devour the party, while green gas pours in from a previously hidden room. The party clears the room and retreats to the next room. Alphonse, Edward’s mechanical companion, goes back in and digs around the hidden room. Inside he finds the body of the final member of the Company of the Yellow Banner, and collects the valuables.

The new room that they find themselves in has five wardrobes in it. Each wardrobe has a different scene carved into the door. The hallway leaving this room is blocked by a portcullis. The party opens each in turn, and they all seem to be portals to different planes. After felling the various enemies that emerge from each wardrobe, the portcullis raises, and the party moves on.

The next hallway is filled with junk. Rotting corpses, rusted armor and weapons, torn clothing. Edward tosses a handaxe down the hall. The wooden haft shriveled and the head rusted as it clattered across the floor. Across the hall is an archway. The keystone is a bone carving of a bull’s head, with an ivory ring in the nose.

“I got this,” Edward says, and strips naked. He walks across the hall and climbs the archway, dangling from the nose ring. He gives it a good yank, and the ring pops free. The objects on the floor begin to repair themselves, returning to normal. There’s a staircase going down, but the party decides to investigate the next room.

This cylindrical chamber is extends 200 feet above and below. A massive chain cranks on a gear in the center of the room and disappears into a portal in the ceiling. Edward recognizes it as a Mechanus Chain. It can probably power this whole tomb easily. Spence transmutes a bridge across the room to the opposite side. As they cross the bridge, modrons pour out from the portal above and fire on the party with bows. A pentadrone inside a crystal dodecahedron leads the charge, opening the crystal to pour paralyzing gas on the party. Planius runs up the wall and leaps into the air to punch the crystal housing, and the pentadrone plummets to its death.

An armillary sphere fills the next room. When the party approaches, the planet in the center opens up, revealing a chair with levers on each arm. Edward hops in without hesitating and aligns the planets and sun in a line. Edward is gifted the ability to cast Wish one time. He decides he’ll use the Wish to resurrect Emliy once the death curse is lifted.

A nycaloth bursts forth from the sun sphere and attacks the party, forcing them out onto the bridge into the next room. Despite their precarious situation, the party prevails. They’ve had just about enough of this floor and decide to go down the stairs. 

Seward splits off from the party to go search for the Eye of Zaltec. He has a couple of close calls with an elephant-shaped death roller before claiming a red gemstone. He’s very close to death at this point, and decides that whether this stone is the Eye or not, he needs to get back to the group. He uses Withers’s amulet to teleport, and he shrinks. Undeterred, he slowly makes his way down the stairs after the rest of the party.