Donegeons and Dragons

The Adventures of Kienna the DM-a and her D&D groups. Avatar drawn by rubynymph

[donegeonsndragons]

I’m in the DM’s seat on Encounter Roleplay with a full season of homebrewed 5e D&D! It premieres tomorrow and continues every Thursday from 1-4 pm EST for 16 episodes! And if you can’t catch it live, it’ll be archived on YouTube.

Watch the adventurers return back home where things are a little different than they remembered...especially the large tower that now sits in the capital city!

[rubynymph]

Into the Feywild… 

commission for Kienna @donegeonsndragons as a deviously dangerous Dungeon Master in her new DnD campaign with EncounterRolePlay!

 https://twitter.com/KiennaS/status/930602527975968768

[donegeonsndragons]

I’m DMing a brand new show every Thursday 1-4 pm EST on the Encounter Roleplay stream!

Into the Feywild will run from November 16th until December 21st, come join me and an amazing cast on twitch.tv/encounterroleplay!

[donegeonsndragons]

Narratuary: Behind the Scenes

Now that we’re finished the campaign, I thought I’d let you all know the secrets that weren’t explicitly revealed in the story! Most of this has been at least alluded to, but I think it’s fun to show this kind of stuff.

Although Councillor Astorio was motivated by making Narratuary a global power through her project, she also had another motivation that drove her over the edge

Her biological parents were murdered by a wildmage driven mad with power, and so she wants to control magic 

She had revived the Fist of Iron in case the High Council didn’t agree (basically, she’d stage a coup)

Councillor Ava had some idea of this, and so did Councillor Galanodel

Councillor Ava supported her, but Councillor Galanodel was skeptical (especially since he was romantically interested in her adoptive mother before she passed)

The sorcerer at the centre of the Magidemic was named Aeqar

All Aeqar wanted to do was travel between planes, but that would require a lot of energy

He originally created crystallized feyarc, something VERY difficult to do, and he only had one successful attempt: Lucille

However, the crystal wasn’t enough, and thus he ended up raising her as his daughter

He created a machine which was supposed to delve deeply into the feyarc of the world to power the machine

Unfortunately, as the machine pulled a huge amount of energy from the arckey the fortress was built on, the amount of feyarc was too much

The energy ended up rushing back into the arckey and causing a surge in the amount of feyarc

The sudden surge in energy ended up causing an explosion that resounded in all of the arckeys connected by leylines 

The explosion ended up sending the fortress to another demi-plane, and it also sent Lucille flying off many miles away

The explosion also separated Aeqar’s body and soul, with the soul being trapped in the demi-plane and the body being sent also many miles away 

All of the items the party collected are related to Aeqar in some way

The book written in archaic infernal was Aeqar’s research notes and some more insight into the building of the machine and why

The mirror of true sight was Aeqar’s arcane focus, and it also helps to visually see leylines and the true nature of things 

The talisman was a device Aeqar created to detect arckeys, which also just happened to have an animation effect as a by-product

The gauntlets was a key system to rooms within the fortress, and when Aeqar wears it he can unlock rooms, it also allows for the user to go invisible

The red mithril rod was a prototype power source for his machine, and as we’ve seen, is able to transform its shape into any weapon

And finally, the crystal is a prototype power source that ended up developing a sentience 

[donegeonsndragons]

Narratuary: Session 20 Finale Highlights

A last deal is made, a demonstration is presented, and the truth is revealed. 

Am incredibly grateful for a lot of things.

Thank you to all of the D&D community out there, on streams and shows and Twitter and Tumblr. You inspire me and help me grow as a DM.

Thank you to my players for being invested in the story and bringing your characters to life. The game would be nothing without you, and it’s a rare opportunity to bring to life and close a long-term campaign like this.

And thank you to anyone who has ever read or been interested in this campaign! We’ll be back with another story in the new year, but for now, enjoy the finale!

Corrick sets Councillor Astorio down, and Carlin revives her

After taking a moment to recover, she asks what happened

She tells them that it’s a big disappointment that she wasn’t able to get her questions answered but is grateful that the party mostly got out safely

The event, her presentation of her machine, will still go on, as the councillors she invited are already on their way, just the demonstration won’t be nearly as impressive

The demonstration will only affect the nearby cities, rather than the whole country as she was hoping to do (and she promises she’ll be returning the magic to the land after she temporarily removes it)

Aurora glances over at the diagrams, and the machine there looks almost identical to the one in the demi-plane

She asks Councillor Astorio if the machine will be safe, considering that the other machine in the demi-plane might be related to the Magidemic

Councillor Astorio assures them that Arca is a better place than the ground zero of the Magidemic, as it’s much more secure place (being connected to more leylines)

She also tells Baldwin that even if there are complications, she will uphold her agreement 

After this, Councillor Astorio dismisses the party, encouraging them to stay around for the presentation but also tells that they’re free to go

Carlin steps outside and comes across Dee, who is talking with two men, though the conversation stalls as they appear

Carlin, his eye trained to spot shiny things, notices that the two men aren’t wearing High Council colours, but are instead wearing dark armour and have a tiny iron fist dangling from their swords

Carlin manages to strike up conversation with one of men, a middle-aged guy who seems fairly easy-going

The man remarks that Carlin and Innchie must be part of the adventuring group that also works for Councillor Astorio

He tells them that they’re also under hire, and they do whatever they’re told needs to be done

Carlin: so like murdering or like picking daisies? Man: ...whatever needs to be done

The man asks who the rest of the party is, and the door swings open as Innchie struggles through with Karn’s body to reveal the rest of the party

The man nods, and says that he must be on his way, but if their missing member is ever around, to tell him that an old friend would like to reconnect

Carlin and Innchie are left confused, as they never told him that there was a missing member

They leave to wait until nightfall to bury Karn

Meanwhile, Baldwin collects on his contract and prepares to leave 

He had offered to Councillor Astorio that he would establish himself as quickly as possible to give her more political support 

Aurora goes to talk to her scientist contact, who gives her a quick tour of the lab

She comes across a room filled with the items they collected (minus the rod and the crystal), and the scientist explains that they’re doing readings of the items, as they seem to resonate on a level that connects strongly with the environmental feyarc, something important for the tuning of the machine

She also comes into a room filled with magical creature parts and spots the three cages with the strange familiars the party had confiscated earlier

She asks if there’s a chance to look inside, and the scientist is convinced since it was his original job before he got pulled into the machine development 

They discover that the familiars aren’t familiars, instead the cage had disguised dragon eggs 

Aurora realizes that these are the dragon eggs that belong to the dragon they made a promise to

After doing some more convincing and some paperwork, she now has possession of the eggs

She tells Baldwin the new development, and they set it on Baldwin’s caravan

As night falls, the caravan sets out and Carlin and Innchie go off to bury Karn

They do get stopped by a guard who is a little weirded out by two people trying to drag a body elsewhere, but they manage to get outside of the city

They place Karn into a hole they dig out, make him look a little more peaceful, and then cover him up

They place Carlin’s mirror and Innchie’s lightstone as a grave marker in the sand

As everyone rests, Carlin has a strange dream

He’s back in the demi-plane, but he feels like there’s a degree of separation (noticeable when he tries to interact with anything)

This is the main room, and the celestial being (which at this point Igtbtgh knows to be the sorcerer/Karn’s soul) and Igtbtgh appears to be talking

Igtbtgh is telling a story, and Carlin realizes this seems to be Igtbtgh’s life story

After leaving the orphanage, Igtbtgh and his friend Ferrick joined a military group, where they’d be able to get room and board and good pay

The two managed to get hired under what was essentially a death squad run by the government at the time, and they signed a contract, saying that they would always answer the call of The Fist of Iron

Igtbtgh hesitates at this point, and tells the sorcerer that they did a lot of evil things in the 10 years he was actively part of this, especially killing innocents who publicly dissented against the High Council

After the Fist of Iron was disbanded, Igtbtgh had left his friend and went off to try to find a way to do good

Unfortunately, Councillor Astorio knew about the contract, and had him join the party under the words he had promised

She had promised that she would break his contract as soon as the quest was done, but it was too late now

The sorcerer seems to be contemplative, then stands up 

The sorcerer says that they both have unfinished business, with the sorcerer needing to deal with the legacy he had left behind and Igtbtgh still wanting to good

Therefore, he says that they have one more chance to do something good, and offers his hand to Igtbtgh

They will fuse together, the sorcerer sharing Igtbtgh’s body with him

Igtbtgh pauses, then asks if he will then be able to read 

The sorcerer laughs, and says yes

The two shake on it, and Carlin is enveloped in bright white-blue light right before he wakes up

Immediately scrambling, Carlin wakes up Innchie and shouts in the stone of far-speech to wake up Baldwin and Aurora, telling them about his dream

Baldwin is skeptical that this isn’t just a dream, but Aurora and Innchie want to figure it out

They head out to talk to Councillor Astorio, going through the already bustling streets as the councillors are starting to arrive in Arca

They find an exhausted Councillor Astorio and tell her everything

She doesn’t quite believe Carlin, thinking that Carlin is probably traumatized and emotionally unstable

But she takes it into consideration, and ups the number of guards around

Carlin leaves upset, and Councillor Astorio catches up to him, telling him that she’s sorry for brushing him off, and that they should both get some rest

Baldwin and Aurora take the quickest horses they can find and head out, catching up with the caravan 

They don’t want to be in the area in case something goes wrong, and they also want to deal with the dragon as quickly as possible 

They travel for almost 2 days until they reach the town that the dragon had destroyed and summoned her using the bonfire

The dragon is pleased to receive the eggs, and tells them that they should be safe from whatever might happen in Arca here

Aurora manages to make a good impression on the dragon, and the dragon tells her that if they ever want to talk, they can find her in her lair

The dragon takes off, and Baldwin and Aurora make camp and await for news

Meanwhile, Innchie tells Carlin they should maybe talk with Lerissa (Councillor Ava), and they quite literally bump into her

They decide to walk and talk as Lerissa needs to supervise and direct some things in the labs

Along the way, Carlin and Innchie explain everything that happened

Lerissa is skeptical, but is convinced they aren’t lying 

She says they can’t cancel the event, but that maybe they could move it a bit earlier since things are mostly ready and the councillors have all arrived

Innchie and Carlin think it’s a great idea, and they find Councillor Astorio 

Though it’s difficult, they manage to convince her that it’s an ok idea, rescheduling the presentation to happen 10:00 tomorrow morning rather than the originally planned time

Councillor Astorio and Lerissa go off to make final preparations of the machine, leaving Carlin and Innchie to inform the visiting councillors

They recognize some of these councillors, namely Councillor Galanodel 

After doing this, they rest and sleep for the night

This time, both of them are in the demi-plane though their connection is barely there, and they see Igtbtgh standing alone, his back turned to them

When Igtbtgh turns, facing them, they notice that his eyes are like galaxies

Carlin feels his most recent memory being pulled forward, the one of them informing the councillors of the new time, before they’re locked out of the dream and wake up

Both of them panic

They find Councillor Astorio in the observatory where she’s overseeing the construction and set-up of the machine

She tells them about the dream, and that the sorcerer must know that they’re planning on having it at 10:00 that morning

Councillor Astorio doesn’t let it show on her face, but she crumples her speech notes out of anxiety and agitation 

She says she can’t cancel it now, as her reputation is on the line, and the councillors would never approve of the project if they delayed it further

Carlin, motivated by love rather than anything else, says that he would cause a commotion to delay it so that way the blame wouldn’t be placed on her 

After much thought, Councillor Astorio agrees, and says she’ll also make sure that not all of the parts will be included in the construction in case something goes wrong 

She gets Carlin disguised as one of her guards, then oversees the rest of the construction 

Innchie finds a quiet place and performs a ritual, seeing what the outcome of Carlin’s distraction will be

Innchie pulls the highest card for good results and also pulls the highest card for bad results

As 10:00 starts to roll around, the construction is done and the councillors start to arrive for the presentation

Innchie stays at the back of the room alongside the scientists and the pile of unused parts covered in cloth

Carlin stands by Councillor Astorio next to Dee

Time seems to stretch, and it’s finally 10:00

Nothing happens

Councillor Astorio starts the presentation, and there’s still no disturbance

The speaking part finishes, and Carlin takes out his ball bearings

With precise aim, he throws it right at Dee’s beak

At the same time, everyone feels a ripple, one familiar to Innchie and Carlin

In front of the machine appears Igtbtgh, though he has the sorcerer’s galaxy eyes and unnaturally dark antlers

Carlin and Innchie panic, getting the guards and Dee to take the councillor and scientists out of the room

Innchie casts banishment on Igtbtgh/sorcerer and succeeds

Councillor Astorio flies towards the machine and starts pressing buttons on the control panel 

Carlin tries to convince her to come with him, but she refuses

Innchie focuses on the banishment, but she manages to notice that the pile of cloth next to her supposed to be holding the parts is empty

She calls out, saying that the parts are missing and the machine won’t work, and Councillor Astorio replies saying not to worry as she knows exactly where they are

Councillor Astorio continues to furiously press buttons and there’s a hum from the machine

Carlin hits the control panel, attempting to stop the machine

Innchie blasts the control panel as well

Throughout this, Carlin is plagued with a series of visions, as Igtbtgh (in his normal form) tells him to let him free as the sorcerer isn’t out to get anyone

Carlin shouts at Innchie about this, but also isn’t sure that Igtbtgh is telling the truth 

Carlin then attempts to grab Councillor Astorio to tie her up and stop her

She manages to wrest out of his grasp and tells him “I’m sorry,” touching him and sending him flying back as the glove on her hand shocks him

Innchie blasts her, still maintaining the banishment spell

After Carlin tries to stop the machine again, Councillor Astorio shocks him again and releases a smoke bomb, preventing Innchie from blasting her

Carlin, realizing that there might not be any way to stop this, drops oil on the ground and strikes up a match

He manages to get out of the cloud of smoke towards Innchie, but Councillor Astorio stays in long enough to catch on fire

However, the machine lights up, glowing blue

Innchie and Carlin turn their attention to attacking the machine, and although they’re denting it the glow continues to intensify

Igtbtgh reaches out again to Carlin, telling him that if he’s not released everyone is going to die

Carlin passes the message onto Innchie as they watch a burnt and disheveled Councillor Astorio emerge from the smoke

Councillor Astorio goes to stop Innchie from attacking the machine, missing her attempt at shocking her

Innchie drops her concentration on banishment and casts shillelagh on her quarterstaff, cracking Councillor Astorio in the face and knocking her out

Igtbtgh/sorcerer appears in front of the machine and pulls out his trident

As he lifts up his weapon, the trident and his entire body lights up in bright white-blue light 

The trident pierces the machine, and in a blinding flash, the machine fades to dull metal

Carlin ties up Councillor Astorio

Igtbtgh, feeling weak and that his tether to this plane is almost gone, hears the the undistorted voice of the sorcerer in his head (sounding exactly like Karn), and the sorcerer tells him that their time is up

Igtbtgh starts to walk out of the room, but turns and faces Carlin and Innchie, giving them one last farewell

He heads out of the building and collapses on the stairs, and he takes his last breath, knowing that he’s done good

It’s one week later

Carlin leaves Councillor Astorio and heads back home, returning to his parents

Although he never truly gets over the trauma, he goes to a therapist and eventually the nightmares go away

He goes to college and learns about all sorts of things, and he befriends people of all kinds 

He grows up a more mature and wiser gnome

Baldwin, hearing the news, still manages to set up his monastery just fine

Although it gets off to a rocky start, he negotiates with the High Council and sets up Morai’s Gate as a city independent of the state

As the following of Morai thrives, he knows that his mentor would be proud of him

Aurora, also hearing the news, decides to go back to Arca and offer her testimony in Councillor Astorio’s trial, where she is being tried for treason and endangering the people

Aurora leaves and explores more of the world and finds more people like her, victims of the Magidemic and users of wildmagic 

She visits the dragon sometimes, and although she’s careful about what she promises, Aurora has become the unofficial babysitter of three tiny adorable green dragons

Innchie collects on her contract and picks up the books about Tharizdun that she was promised and spends a long time just reading

Now feeling a little more familiar with her background and her patron/father, she meditates and speaks with him

He is fascinated, and tells her that she is on her way to becoming his favoured child

Innchie visits where Karn and Igtbtgh are buried side by side, cleaning off their grave markers

And as she looks up at the sky, she hopes that wherever they are, they are at peace

[donegeonsndragons]

Narratuary: Session 19 Highlights

Demi-planes are visited, sentences handed out, and a DM is broken.

I...I honestly don’t know how to preface this. I thought I had it all planned out and then things went from 0 to 100 so quickly. But this sets up things in an interesting manner for next session, which happens to be the finale!

Premise: having traveled through the dungeon, the party has stumbled across a small magical girl that can only be their last quest item. The girl will go with them but only if they help recover her father, who may or may not be their beloved NPC companion...

After Lucille addresses Karn as father, the party has a “wtf???” moment

Karn looks utterly confused, telling the party he has no recollection of ever having a child, though his memories from anything past 150 years ago are gone

Lucille now looks confused, saying that Karn is her father, but also not quite her father

She says perhaps Karn is part of her father, and that would explain why she can also still feel her father’s presence on the other side of the mirror portal

By this point, the party has come to the conclusion that the father must be a very powerful magic user, and perhaps even the sorcerer dealing with the Magidemic

The party manages to convince Lucille to come back to Arca in order to open up the portal

Igtbtgh ends up being the one carrying the mirror, being very careful with it

Baldwin and Corrick consult their books to see whether Lucille is related to the Magidemic, but don’t find any trace of a small girl being mentioned

However, the sorcerer is mentioned to be an elven man like Karn

Baldwin makes a visit to the Morai temple, going through the ritual to receive an audience with his goddess

She answers his questions, telling him that the portal seems to lead to somewhere between the material and astral plane, that visiting the portal wouldn’t inherently introduce chaos into the world, and she suggests he explore and understand the mysteries to prevent such chaos from happening again

Lucille doesn’t sleep, but ends up sitting at the door of her tent, taking in the wonders of the world she had never seen

Throughout the journey, Innchie pokes Karn, telling him to “being a better father” to Lucille, to which Karn just looks panicked

Eventually, the party reaches the familiar walls of Arca

They’re recognized and easily let in

They take a quick breather, with Igtbtgh making a visit to one of his favourite shops (a shop selling explosives) and Aurora making contact with one of the people she’s made a partnership with 

Baldwin also gathers information from his network, which informs him that the city has been bustling as it is expecting an entourage of councillors to arrive at the end of the week for a grand event run by Councillor Astorio

They head to the main research building, and the guards let them know that Councillor Astorio is currently working with Councillor Ava in Councillor Ava’s office in the tower (which the party is familiar with)

Aurora tells the rest of the party that she needs to duck out for a moment 

She finds her contact, a scientist working in the main building, and she asks what he’s been up to

He says that for the past month, he and the other researchers have been busy trying to finish up this big project that’s been going on for some time

When she talks about Lucille and the fact that she may have a portal that leads to the sorcerer, her contact immediately gets excited and tells her to inform Councillor Ava right away

Aurora runs up to join the rest of the party right before they reach Councillor Ava’s office

They find Dee standing in front of the door, on guard as always, and indicates that the party may pass

They knock on the door and the door magically unlocks for them

They see Councillor Ava and Councillor Astorio poring over a messy table filled with diagrams and drafted formulas, both looking frazzled and exhausted

Councillor Astorio looks relieved at seeing the party, tells them that she’s happy they’re safe, and asks if they’ve brought the last items

Baldwin puts down the bag that has the red mithril rod in it, and the party explains that the last one is Lucille

The party also says that they had promised to help Lucille with reaching her father through the portal, explaining the situation 

During this, Igtbtgh excuses himself to the bathroom and quickly returns (this is actually an important point, just wait and see)

The party hints at the connection between Lucille and the sorcerer at the centre of the Magidemic

Councillor Astorio seems to catch on, and her eyes widen 

She asks Councillor Ava to take a break and check in on the researchers downstairs, and she asks Dee to take Karn and Lucille outside of the office for a moment

Once gone, the party can see just how exhausted Councillor Astorio is as she lets down her guard

She tells the party that their contract is complete, and thus she will honour her side of it as soon as possible and she will understand if the party immediately wants to leave

However, she asks the party if they can do one last favour for her: go through the portal with her and if the sorcerer of the Magidemic is there, to help her answer some questions

Councillor Astorio tells them that she’s trying to establish Narratuary as a global powerhouse, and she wants to do so by controlling the availability of feyarc (a currently freely accessed resource) so that Narratuary is the only one with the resource

She’s doing so by working on a machine based off of designs and objects created by the sorcerer at the centre of the Magidemic, the main reason why she has had the party collect items that are related in some way to the Magidemic and wild magic

She says that half of the High Council is still not convinced by her plan, and so she had invited them to come to Arca at the end of the week

However, the machine is just on the verge of a breakthrough and they’ve been stuck for weeks on this last obstacle

Thus, if the portal does indeed lead to the sorcerer, then she wants to go and ask him questions about how to complete the machine 

She asks if the party is on board

Baldwin immediately says yes but only if he and his organization are involved to help establish divine law, as this is a way to control the chaotic nature of magic

Aurora is conflicted, but is convinced by Baldwin that this is a way to prevent other children like herself from being orphaned by wild magic

Innchie says yes, though mostly driven by her own curiousity rather than the politics

Carlin and Igtbtgh stay quiet and don’t object

They bring Lucille and Karn back in

Lucille looks visibly distracted and distressed, and Carlin asks what’s wrong

Lucille says that there’s an overwhelming feeling of her father’s energy in this place, and when asked where it’s coming from, she points at the rod and downstairs (assumably where the other items are)

After being comforted, she tells them that this means she barely has to draw on their energy (which was really the energy that they collected from being exposed to the items)

She closes her eyes and focuses on the mirror, and her form flickers 

The energy in the room surges, blinding all of them temporarily in bright white-blue light

After the party blinks the spots away, Lucille, whose form is faded and ethereal except for the crystal in her forehead, reaches out and touches the mirror

Her hand passes through the glass like mercury

She immediately runs through, and the party plus Karn and Councillor Astorio run through

Lucille runs ahead, leading the party through what appears to be a fortress, untouched yet clean, as if it was frozen in time

When they glimpse through the windows, they see nothing but stars and space and fragmented rock

After chasing Lucille through many rooms, they finally reach a large set of metal doors

Just as Lucille is about to knock, Karn walks forward and pushes the doors open, walking confidently into the room

Inside is a large observatory with a large machine inside, one that bears resemblance to the diagrams on the table back in Councillor Ava’s office

Karn continues to walk forward, not responding to anything the party is saying

From behind the machine walks a strange shadowy being

This being looks somewhat humanoid in form, with large obsidian antlers and pupil-less eyes that look like galaxies

When they look at the being, bits and pieces of itself seem to fragment and disappear and reappear, making it hard to focus on it for very long

The being and Karn start walking towards each other with purpose

Baldwin runs and steps in front of the being, asking it what it’s doing 

He’s sensing something very celestial about this being, not quite like a god, but definitely up there

The being speaks in a voice that sounds like many voices that it’s simply trying to finish what it has started, and for Baldwin to move please

Baldwin refuses to move

The being says it just simply wants to be reunited with itself, and for Baldwin to move

Baldwin still doesn’t move, suspicious that this is indeed the sorcerer, and it wants to rejoin a body in order to start another Magidemic

The being then just moves through Baldwin, filling him the buzz of static electricity 

From here, things get a little crazy

Baldwin attacks the being, which causes a ripple in the fabric of reality that everyone feels, and the being seems to flicker between two potential results (being hurt and being not hurt) before settling on being perfectly fine

Igtbtgh tries to tackle Karn to try to take off with him, but Karn manages to evade him without even thinking

Igtbtgh then uses his net and ensnares Karn, ready to haul him away

Baldwin and Aurora seize the opportunity to strike devastating blows on Karn, killing him easily

Innchie covers Lucille’s eyes and Carlin and Councillor Astorio just stand in shock

The being shrieks with it’s unnatural voice and unleashes an attack against everybody, spinning their minds and knocking Councillor Astorio out

Igtbtgh, fearing for the party’s safety, attempts to hit the being, which results in the same simultaneous results of hurt/unhurt before the being settles on hurt (though hurt is mostly just an inconvenience it seems)

Lucille manages to wiggle out of Innchie’s grasp and runs towards the being

Baldwin raises his hammer and hits Lucille straight in the forehead where her crystal is 

Her form immediately dissipates, and Baldwin grabs the now cracked crystal

He holds it up and tells the being that the being, the sorcerer, has lost, and he’ll only get the crystal back if he lets the party leave safely 

The being, less angry than it is sad at this point, agrees and takes what remains of his daughter

The party starts to leave, and the being, the sorcerer, just asks why they did this

Baldwin tells him that the sorcerer had done something terrible by causing the Magidemic and must repent 

The sorcerer is well aware he made a mistake, but that the party had just murdered his only chance to leave and his only family 

He has been repenting in this demi-plane for 150 years, which has been thousands of years in this demi-plane, and now he is truly doomed to stay here alone forever

The sorcerer tells them to leave before he changes his mind

Corrick picks up the unconscious Councillor Astorio and heads towards the portal alongside Baldwin, Aurora, and Carlin

Innchie lingers for a moment and offers to use banishment on the sorcerer to help him leave

The sorcerer shakes his head, telling Innchie that he was never at home on the material plane 

He says all he wanted was to travel to other planes and visit the stars, but something went horribly wrong instead

Innchie nods, and quietly apologizes before leaving

Igtbtgh is the last one out of the room, deep in thought about what had just happened and how they could’ve done good instead of whatever they just did

Aurora, Carlin, and Corrick carrying Councillor Astorio quickly go through the portal 

Innchie and Baldwin are waiting at the portal for Igtbtgh to go through, but he stops advancing about 40 feet away 

Igtbtgh tells them that he’s staying here, and that the rest of the party should leave without him

He tells them that he’s out-lived his usefulness, and that he has things he needs to repent for as well

When Baldwin moves to try to convince him to come with them, Igtbtgh strikes up a match

Innchie and Baldwin now notice that underneath his armour, Igtbtgh is wearing what appears to be explosives in the form of a bomb vest (remember the bathroom break? This is what he was doing)

Baldwin gives up, thinking that Igtbtgh is a crazy old man, and starts to go through the portal

Igtbtgh calls out to beware the Fist of Iron

Innchie is the last one to leave, and she tells Igtbtgh that she hopes he finds peace

She tosses him a crystal doorknob, telling him to keep it as a reminder of the good times

She joins the rest of the party, who are a little dizzied by the shift in time as it has only been a few seconds on the material plane 

And as the party turns around to look through the portal, all they see is rubble and void

[donegeonsndragons]

Narratuary: Session 18 Highlights

Traps are tricky, magic is rebellious, and a little girl is found.

Fun dungeoning! Never thought I’d say that, I’m personally not a huge fan of pure dungeon crawls. But this was interesting to design and it was really fun to see how the players navigated it. Because it is a dungeon, this will be a long one, but I promise it’s interesting (especially the end).

Premise: the PCs are headed up north, following reports of a mysterious building that appears and disappears and also seems to never have people return from its depths...

On their way north, the party stumbles across a recently abandoned camp and find an unfinished map detailing the forests and a lake on the way to the building

As they walk, Aurora is having a sense of deja-vu but she’s not sure how or why

Deeper into the forests, the trees seem to stretch upwards far beyond their sight and things get eerily quiet

Everyone can feel the increased presence of feyarc, though for the magic users it starts to feel like they’re walking through thick humid air

Out of the corner of their eyes, they see a blue flicker flitting through the trees, and Baldwin stops the party to be on guard

From the trees emerges a large raven made out of blue energy

Aurora immediately wants to befriend it

However, the raven stays behind the group, not getting too close

They camp for the night, and Aurora manages to coax the raven to come closer and eat 

The raven just pecks at the food without really eating it, tugs on her hair, and then flutters off

Aurora starts pulling up some long buried memories of spirit animals that live in these forests and that as long as they don’t mess with them, the party should be fine

Innchie sends Rupert to go and make friends with the raven

Innchie: any luck? Rupert: *dejectedly* no...

During his watch, Baldwin notices that to the north, in the direction they’re heading towards, there’s a faint glow in the sky 

The next day, the party continues on their way and come across the part of the forest with the lake

The trees show signs that this is the new growth after a forest fire

The area triggers memories in Aurora, who remembers this place as from her childhood

She remembers fire, her hair not being red before, figures that appears to be her parents, and a small girl that she was friends with 

The memories are fragmented, but she’s starting to piece together that this is where she lived, and whatever fire she survived changed her

The raven flutters down, perches on Aurora’s shoulder, tugs on her hair, then grabs the little silver raven trinket from her belt and flies off with it

Aurora feels a little betrayed, but feels a little better when she realizes the raven is keeping ahead of them but not trying to escape

The party reaches an unnaturally rectangular clearing, and the rangers confirm that this is the building footprint they found 

They investigate, finding that there appears to be an entranceway of sorts if the footprints leading to the foundation means anything, and they also find that the border of this foundation is covered in small archaic runes that none of them can read or recognize

They set up camp, and Baldwin’s followers all take watch while Aurora stays up 

The raven hops down and returns the trinket, surveying her with intelligent eyes

It then tugs on her hair until she pulls a strand out, and she watches as it turns from red to a dark brown in the raven’s beak

At this point, the clearing lights up with a faint glow

Aurora wakes everybody who isn’t already up and points out the clearing

There still isn’t a building, however Aurora, Innchie, Carlin, Igtbtgh, and Karn all head to the hypothesized entrance

Aurora sticks her hand out and feels that there’s nothing ahead of her

She steps forward, and she vanishes

The others quickly follow as Baldwin and his followers stay outside and keep watch

The party finds themselves inside of a building, the walls made out of white stone and there’s magical lighting 

Magic still feels weird in here, and every time the magic users use spells, they feel like they have to struggle with the forces of feyarc to make it cooperate

The raven, which was perched on Aurora’s shoulder, dissolves into light and disappears

There’s a door behind them, and three doors ahead of them

They try the door behind them (which they think they came through) and they realize that it doesn’t lead outside, but rather leads to a different room

The party is able to contact Baldwin outside with their stones of far speech, though the connection is a bit iffy 

They open up one of the 3 doors, which opens up into an identical room with 3 more doors

They open up one of those doors and there’s another identical room with 3 more doors

They try opening all of the doors before realizing there might be too many doors this way

So they double back and look at the room behind them 

Aurora confidently approached the door to check if it’s locked, and the door slams downwards onto her before snapping back into place 

Karn tries to investigate the door and is also slammed by the door

Aurora, her pride and her body injured, blasts the door but it seems resistant to the damage

She blasts the floor where the door slams downwards instead and discovers that there’s a secret stairway 

Carlin sneaks down the stairs and sees that it’s another room with a small easily jumpable gap with a door on the other side of the gap

He gets the others to come down the stairs, but the steps trigger and shift into a ramp

They all manage to keep themselves steady while Carlin and Igtbtgh construct a rope handhold 

They all notice that oil is pouring into the room, making the ramp and the floor very slippery

Aurora casts rope trick above the gap and swings over 

When she peeks down into the gap, it seems like it goes downward infinitely

Curious, she tosses down a feather, and then her bongos, seeing it fall and then get enveloped in the void

Outside, Baldwin watches as a feather floats down right next to him, and then the bongos fall right on his head

Innchie tries to grab onto Aurora’s rope and slips instead

She falls flat on her face and starts to slide towards the pit, and after she struggled to get up on her feet in time, Karn manages to get over to her and get her up

Everyone has managed to get on their feet and wobble close enough for Aurora to toss them the rope from the rope trick, and they all swung over (not trusting their abilities to jump on oiled up floors)

On solid non-oiled ground, Aurora swings down and opens up the next door

This room has a table in the middle with 5 small boxes and a door at the far end 

Aurora picks up one of the boxes with her mage hand, but doesn’t find anything inside of it

However, she and Innchie quickly realize that something’s wrong, as they can’t seem to speak or hear any sounds

However, Aurora is able to maneuver her mage hand to open up another box, and the party is engulfed in darkness

Thankfully, because she didn’t move the mage hand, she was able to close it, and the darkness disappeared

They close the silencing box, and then use the mage hand to rapidly open the rest 

One of them shoots out vines that don’t quite reach them and withers to the floor

Another is completely empty and nothing happens

The last one is a magical music box, which has a tiny crystal dancer spinning midair while a tune plays

Somewhere deep in her memories, Aurora recognizes this song as something that the small girl in her memories would sing

Aurora doesn’t remember the lyrics, but she hums along with the music box

The door at the other end of the room swings open

They venture through and enter into a room filled with dolls and teddy bears having a tea party

Everyone OOC and IC is creeped out

Carlin throws in a ball bearing, and all of the dolls and teddy bears heads snap in the direction of the party

Aurora panics and sets the whole room on fire

Among the ashes of the toys, they find a key, which they use to open the door

This room has four doors, one on each wall 

The noticeable thing about each of these doors (other than the one they just walked through) is that their handles are made out of crystal

Aurora asked Karn to take a look at the doors, but as he gets within 10 feet to the one on the left, he just suddenly vanishes (failing his charisma saving throw)

Innchie immediately rushes towards the door, also vanishing 

Karn and Innchie find themselves in a small room covered in a layer of crystal

They can see a door behind the crystal layer, but they would have to break it and neither of them are very strong

Their thoughts are interrupted by Carlin’s badger landing on Innchie as it was also transported

Innchie magically infuses her quarterstaff and hits the crystal, creating a small crack

However, her spell backfires as the feyarc rebels and causes a wildmagic surge, and suddenly Innchie is levitating

Karn points out that there seems to be a small hole appearing on the crystal wall, but not connected to the crack in the crystals

Instead, it seems like it’s the starting of a portal

They call for help using their stones of far speech, and Igtbtgh steps into the door, purposefully failing his save 

He strikes the crystal wall once, and the portal hole opens up exponentially, and they think that a couple of more failed attempts would make a portal that would swallow them up

Thankfully, on the next blow, the crystals shatter and the party members in the room scramble to the door

They call for Aurora and Carlin to follow, and so they pass through the door, through the crystal room, and into the new room

This room is very large, with a small waterfall cascading into a pool at the far end of the wall, an empty pedestal in the middle of the room, and what looks like children’s drawings all over the walls

Using Igtbtgh’s helmet, they pour water from the pool onto the pedestal, which causes the waterfall to part enough to see there’s another room

Aurora, Carlin, and Innchie all head inside

They see that this is a bedroom, and standing in front of a mirror is a small girl, probably around 10 years old

As she turns to face them, they notice she has dark almost black skin, which contrasts with the iridescent white hair that floats around her, her pale blue almost white eyes, and the blue crystal in her forehead

Even just standing in front of her, they can feel the pure magical energy emanating off of her

The little girl focuses on Aurora and Aurora is suddenly flooded with memories of spending time with this girl, Lucille, in the forests after Aurora’s home and family perished in flames

She also remembers that Lucille disappeared, and shortly afterwards Aurora moved to the parts of the forests that had more civilization

Aurora asks how Lucille is doing and what she’s doing here

Lucille explains that she is hiding in here away from the bad guys, and asks if these people with Aurora were bad guys

Aurora says that the party members are her friends and aren’t bad, and Lucille nods and seems to lose focus for a second

Baldwin is suddenly transported into the bedroom 

Aurora asks if the raven was Lucille, and Lucille says that it was a part of her energy

They ask more about who the bad guys are, and Lucille says that it’s the people her father warned about, people who would want to use her powers for bad things

The party, now realizing that Lucille is the magical item they’re tasked to bring back, try to convince her to come back with them as she’ll be safe with them

However, she refuses, as she’s been trying to reach her father, and tells them that she’ll only leave if the party can help her 

They ask her where her father is, and she says that she’s not on this plane, but she thinks she’s finally found a way to access him

Lucille gestures towards the mirror, and the image wavers to reveal that behind the reflection it looks like a window to another world

She says that she can’t open up the portal herself, as she can’t control her power, and every time she tries, she ends up shattering her form and has to expend energy and time reforming

She closes her eyes and focuses, and everyone in the room feels a surge of power as they watch her form flicker

The group talks among themselves, trying to figure out the best way to go about this, whether to actually help Lucille or take her by force

While this happens, Lucille asks why the other people (Igtbtgh and Karn) aren’t stepping into the bedroom

Before the question is answered, Lucille walks over to the entrance of her room and looks out

She makes eye contact with Karn, and Igtbtgh sees her face light up

Lucille: Father?

[donegeonsndragons]

Narratuary: Session 17 Highlights

Werewolves roam, new spells are fun, and curses are coped with.

Whoops, this session happened over a week ago but I’ve been busy! Had a long weekend spending time with family, writing essays, and preparing my D&D podcast (which is coming so so soon). Here’s to hoping I didn’t forget anything...

Premise: the party has settled into a mercenary town to rest and secure it for a pilgrimage of Baldwin’s followers which are on their way, but Innchie awakens to the sound of howling...

Innchie circulates the room and shakes everyone awake, pointing wordlessly at the moon and the howling outside

The party is able to guess that the howling within the town is a few blocks away

Aurora recognizes that the two group of wolves are doing some call and response, and so she decides to mimic and join in, though she doesn’t seem to do anything other than disrupt the conversation

Aurora finds a random mercenary sleeping in the inn and wakes him up, convincing him to go check out the wolves (he thinks that it’s just someone screwing around)

The mercenary goes and never comes back

Baldwin wakes up on his side of the city, and he’s able to detect that the wolves on the outside seems to be moving towards the main gate

He starts to move towards the gate alongside one of his rangers, using the stone of far-speech to message the rest of the party and tell them to head towards there

The rest of the party then heads towards the gate, meaning they were going to walk through the section of town with the howling

They choose speed over stealth, especially since Igtbtgh doesn’t have dark vision and was therefore using a torch

Innchie gets the feeling that they’re being watched, but when she sends Rupert to go check out the windows he doesn’t see anything

They get into an alleyway when 4 werewolves leap down from the roofs and attack 

The spellcasters blast the hell out of these werewolves as Igtbtgh and Carlin make good work on their own werewolves

Aurora casts polymorph on one of the wolves and succeeds into transforming it into a glowworm 

Innchie tells Rupert to go eat the glowworm, but unfortunately the damage that Rupert dealt by picking up the glowworm in his beak managed to break the polymorph

The glowworm transforms back into a werewolf who now has a very disturbed Rupert attached to its ear

Although they’re managing to fight back, Innchie, Carlin, and Igtbtgh all get bitten (in meta, Carlin and Innchie failed their saving throws and Igtbtgh succeeded)

Aurora decides to try out banishment and successfully banishes one of the werewolves to a pocket demi-plane 

After finishing off the remaining werewolves by reducing them to bloody bits and ashes, they wait for the banished werewolf to appear before murdering that one too very quickly

Piecing together that this was just supposed to be a distraction, the party runs towards the gate

They get there before Baldwin does and they see that the gate has just opened big enough for people to slip through, there’s someone standing on top of the gate, and that someone is manning the opening mechanism 

Igtbtgh rushes to the gate with his pike to hold the intruders back, and although he tries to push the door close it won’t budge

Innchie and Aurora head over to the person manning the mechanism and blast him away

Carlin scampers to the top of the gate and sees Manny, the person who let them in the first time around

He also sees that there’s at least 50 werewolves outside the gate, all in hybrid or wolf form

When Carlin asks why he’s doing this, Manny says that the people in Morai gate won’t let the werewolves in despite them needing shelter, and that the party wouldn’t understand as outsiders

Carlin asks whether Manny and the werewolves are on their side, and Manny shrugs and tells him that it’s up to the party to decide, but they’re not going to stop their infiltration

Carlin shrugs back and then uses his rapier of force to strike at Manny

The amount of push is just enough to send Manny tumbling off the edge into the werewolves below

Baldwin finally arrives and helps Igtbtgh to pull the mechanism that closes the door (with Innchie using her rod of immovability to make extra sure that the door stays shut)

Aurora now scrambles to the top of the gate and blasts the wolves with fire, turning some of them into ashes and sending the rest scampering away

Having dealt with the issue, they realized that three of the party has been bitten (and they were able to find other townspeople who had been bitten as well)

Corrick is able to remove the curse from Carlin, and the rest of the party decides to tie and lock up Innchie and Igtbtgh in separate cells in the abandoned jail alongside all of the mercenaries who were bitten

Everyone else goes to sleep as Innchie and Igtbtgh weather the uncomfortable night in a dark cold cell with ropes biting into their skin and the sounds of some of the mercenaries turning into werewolves and going berserk in the neighbouring cells

Me (OOC): so what are you doing to cope Igtbtgh? Igtbtgh (OOC): having ‘nam flashbacks

Innchie feels an itch inside of her, a feeling of rage and violence, but she manages to hold onto her mind, calling over Rupert to tell her stories and gossip so she keeps her sanity

In the morning, Corrick removes the curse from Innchie and Igtbtgh and all of the mercenaries he can

Over the next couple of days, the party clears out dead bodies of people mauled by the werewolves, finishes curing anybody with lycanthropy, and prepares for the pilgrimage 

They settle the pilgrimage (which definitely fills the empty space in the city), including Baldwin throwing a ceremony of sorts 

After a couple of days of this, the party decides it’s time to head to their final destination to the north...

[donegeonsndragons]

CoS: Session 7b Highlights

A dinner is held, a tempting proposal is made, and a deal is done.

Guys. Holy shit. This had some of the best cinematic moments I’ve ever had the pleasure of being involved with, so huge kudos to my co-DM and Damakos’ player. My co-DM and I had this planned for awhile and just to see everything unfold perfectly makes my heart so happy.

Premise: the party is on their way back towards Castle Ravenloft when Damakos wakes up in the middle of the night with the feeling of dread...

Everyone else is sleeping or resting, and Damakos makes an excuse to Buzzlorn that he’s going outside to go to the bathroom

Once outside, he can see the figure of Strahd’s demon horse waiting for him with a chariot

After trying to run from the horse (and the horse keeping easy pace with him), Damakos reluctantly gets into the chariot and it takes off into the sky at unnatural speed

He arrives quickly along the path headed towards Castle Ravenloft’s gates, where guards let him in

An elf waits for him outside the castle’s doors and leads him inside, introducing himself as Rahadin the chamberlain and telling him that “the master is waiting”

Damakos is lead to the third floor, where he passes though many corridors and rooms, including a room with an organ in it

Notable things include a portrait of King Barov and Queen Ravenia, sets of armours lining the walls, tapestries showing war scenes, and a portrait of Strahd in armour holding a sword

They finally come to the dining room, where Damakos is told to enter and wait for the master to appear

He examines the room, which has more tapestries; a family portrait containing the King, Queen, Strahd, and a younger softer looking man that looks similar to Strahd but wearing holy vestments; and a window showing the courtyard and other towers filled with guards

Damakos takes a seat and startles as the door opens

In walks 4 people: a small childish young woman, an older woman with cold eyes and a tight smile, a man with long blonde hair and finely kept clothing, and an elven woman with vacant eyes

Damakos notices that they’re all fairly pale, and all of them have bite marks on their neck

Immediately uncomfortable, Damakos watches as these vampires seat themselves down, except for the man, who approaches Damakos and introduces himself as Escher (who has perfume that barely covers the smell of death around him)

Escher gets the others to introduce themselves as Strahd’s companions/consorts (the young one is Gertruda, the cold one is Anastaysia, and the spacey one is Padima) and have Rahadin serve some red liquid 

After some awkward conversation, Rahadin starts bringing in food with the help from some mongrelfolk and Damakos hears the faint sound of organ playing echo down the hallway

The organ piece is sad but it’s being played heavy-handed and angrily, and Damakos can almost hear the slamming of the keys

After the piece finishes, everyone falls silent as they can hear the sound of boots stepping towards the dining hall’s door

Rahadin opens the door, and in steps Count Strahd von Zarovich 

He sits down and drinks a bit, encouraging Damakos to eat as the food is solely for him (he gets no pleasure from eating anymore)

After letting Damakos eat for a bit, Strahd asks why Damakos was here

Damakos states that he was hoping Strahd could shed light on that, but that he ended up in Barovia because of a mission involving Lincoln and a “Man with No Face”

Upon hearing Lincoln’s name, Strahd asks whether Damakos is working with him, and Damakos lies through his teeth saying that he doesn’t deal with traitors

Pleased with this answer, Strahd tells Damakos that everything that Damakos and the party has been through has been a test, and Damakos is the only who has passed it 

He tells Damakos that he is bored, and that he wants to leave Barovia and see the rest of the world, but that Barovia needs a master

Strahd wants Damakos to be the new master of Barovia, as they’re not so different: both of them are monsters, but Strahd could give him the power to rise above those who fear and hate him

Damakos makes a point that while people view him as a monster, Strahd is truly a monster

The consorts tense up as if waiting for the outburst, but Strahd calms himself and tells him that he doesn’t wish to be like this, merely that the land and the people need him to be like this

He tells Damakos that he’ll let the rude remark pass as manners can be taught, but there’s something in Damakos that can’t be taught that would be perfect

Damakos sits and ponders, trying to figure out the best way out of the castle at this point, but comes up with nothing

Catching onto a mention about his mother, Gertruda asks Damakos what happened to his mother, and he explains that the villagers he grew up with set his childhood house on fire, killing his mother 

Strahd says that he has lost loved ones too, and that becoming the new master of Barovia would let Damakos have control over the humans that hate him and exact the revenge he wants

Damakos asks how he can become the master of Barovia, and Strahd informs him that he must commune with his “deity,” or as the Barovians call it, “the forces of darkness”

Tempted but hesitant, Damakos asks if Strahd could show him the way to where he can commune with said deity 

Strahd, along with Escher, take Damakos downwards, going past a room that Strahd closes before Damakos can get a peek 

Using a metal basin and a white coloured stone, Strahd reveals a secret door that leads down to likely one of the lowest levels of the castle

They descend into the musty air into the crypts of all of the royalty and nobility of Barovia that have died 

Strahd heads down the corridor and taking a turn to a large room that he opens the door to

Inside is bright light illuminating the walls which have stone and gold carvings of a beautiful woman that bears a striking resemblance to Ireena, as well as a perfectly kept marble sarcophagus that lies in the middle of the room 

Strahd says that this is where his lost loved one lies 

Damakos: I’m sorry Strahd: ...so am I

Strahd leads him to the back of the room where an iron door and the scent of rust sticks out against the surroundings

He tells Damakos that only one person can go inside at a time and they must be chosen by the darkness, and so Damakos steps inside 

It’s unnaturally dark inside, darkness that dissolves light magic and prevents anyone from seeing

Damakos: hello? ???: hello!

Taken aback by the cheeriness and non-sinister nature of the voice, Damakos says that he was told he had to come in here and be chosen by the darkness to become the master of Barovia

The voice tells him that Strahd was lying to him, and had sent Damakos in here to be devoured

The voice takes on a form of a humanoid figure of darkness wearing a jacket, a wide-brim hat, dark pieces of glass covering his eyes, and a smile with far too many sharp teeth

The voice, the darkness, introduces himself as Strange when Damakos tries to call him “Forces of Darkness”

Strange tells him that he won’t eat Damakos, as he’s bored with Strahd and wants the adventurers to continue what they were originally planning to do: kill Strahd and his companions

But Strange needs something back from Strahd: a necklace he wears

Damakos asks if Strange is able to get Damakos out of the castle, as Strahd would be expecting Damakos to be devoured

Strange says he could, but it wouldn’t be for free

When Damakos asks what the price is, Strange grins

(this isn’t word for word but I think I got the sentiment right)

Strange: Nothing has a fixed price. The price is dependent on what value you assign to it. So tell me, Damakos, what do you value as highly as your life? 

Damakos thinks and thinks and thinks, as Strange clarifies that the value of whatever Damakos gives him will decide how far from the castle and how close to his friends Strange transports him to

Damakos finally makes a decision

In exchange for his life, Damakos will give Strange the memories of his childhood

Strange extends a hand, and Damakos reaches out and shakes it

For an instant, Damakos is in a place outside the void, a place filled with the smell of rust and fire, the heat of flame and forge, the sounds of metal clanging and scraping, everything overwhelming his senses before he is suddenly back in the material plane

Damakos stands outside a church on the mountain pass, and out of the corner of his eyes, he sees the Man with No Face, complete with tan jacket, wide-brim hat, and sunglasses

The Man with No Face rushes up into Damakos’ view, places a finger up to his lips and shushes him before dissipating into smoke

And Damakos is once again alone, having no memories of the deal he just made, no memories of his mother or his traumatic childhood, and no drive or desire for the revenge he once had

[donegeonsndragons]

Narratuary: Session 16 Highlights

A holy sidequest calls, goddesses are visited, and repairs are very important.

Premise: having left the cursed mines, the group is heading towards the northern forests to find the mysteriously disappearing building...

Knowing that Morai’s Gate, a formerly holy place for Morai, is along the way to the north, Baldwin says he’ll be making a detour there and that the group is welcome to come along

The entire party decides to go

Baldwin also tells them that he had set up a pilgrimage before they had left Fortuna, and that they should be arriving at Morai’s Gate soon so he needs to check in on that

They come across the city of Morai’s Gate, with walls that are made of sheer seamless black stone and large metal gates

A couple of scouts that were part of the pilgrim are camping outside the gates, and they tell Baldwin that the pilgrimage is about a day or two away and that the people living inside Morai’s Gate won’t let them in 

The party approaches the gates and knock 

Baldwin: hello? Person inside: FUCK OFF

After some conversation and the party promising they’re not part of the High Council, the person on the other side of the gate lets them in

Morai’s Gate is mostly abandoned, with one section of the city becoming a home for mercenaries and other ne’er do wells

The man who lets them in, Manny, tells them that there’s nothing much to do other than rest and hire people on 

Manny points them in the direction of the makeshift inn, and tells them to “head towards the creepy building” but warns them not to go in there cause it seems unnatural

As they head there, they notice the occupied buildings contain groups of mercenaries and thieves groups (including the Zhentarim)

Baldwin asks one of his rangers to go with Carlin and see if there’s any other way to enter into the city

The rest of the party decides to go towards the strange building

This building is a 2-storey box made of the same black stone, with stairs that lead to the second floor and a metal door with the carving of Morai’s raven on it

Karn takes a quick look and presses the raven, unlocking the door

The group enters into a room with several rows of benches along each wall facing towards the center of the room that has a podium for a speaker

Aurora, Innchie, and Karn decide to poke around as Innchie declares that “this isn’t creepy at all” while Igtbtgh takes a nap

Baldwin spots a door leading downwards and takes Corrick with him 

They enter into a room softly lit by lightstones and a large circular pool of black liquid in the middle flanked by two statues of one-winged celestial beings

Praying and chanting, he and Corrick look around the room, and spot some carvings on the wall that seems to illustrate a ritual

Consulting his books and the archaic holy symbol of his deceased mentor, Baldwin is able to see that this is the Ritual of Rebirth, a ritual that takes place in this place and allows those who go through it to meet with Morai, though the participant has to either literally or figuratively drown and then be brought back if Morai deems them worthy

Following the ritual the best he can, Baldwin gives his clothing and equipment to the statues, gets Corrick to cast some buffs on him so he won’t be afraid of dying, and slowly steps into the liquid as he clutches his holy symbol

He submerges himself completely, and as he feels himself drown, he is suddenly in the void 

A woman with ebony skin and stark white hair and eyes approaches him, her black dress trailing behind her, and Baldwin’s divine sense is off the charts celestial 

Morai tells Baldwin that she has been watching, and gives him some advice that he should be less worried about the laws of mortals and more about the universal law

She reassures him that his current path is the right one, and that she tasks him with reigning in the chaos and enforcing order

She says that she hasn’t had such an interesting paladin in so long, and is interested to see how it unfolds

Morai steps towards him and places a cold hand on his chest, gifting him with her blessing, telling him that unless he dies under her name, he will be unkillable 

She says that she hopes that he will do well and return to her side, and with that Baldwin is back to the material plane and surfaces from the liquid much to Corrick’s awe and amazement 

Meanwhile, Aurora, Innchie, and Karn go to the inn and get some rooms, gamble on some dice games, and get some drinks

Innchie asks the bartender whether she knows anything about the building in the forest, but the bartender says nobody travels into the forests and comes back untouched by the wild magic, and so nobody goes there

Baldwin wakes Igtbtgh up and they head to the inn, meeting up with everybody and Carlin, who arrives telling them that there’s another set of gates on the more abandoned side of town but that the mechanisms seem to be rusted and broken 

The next morning, Karn takes a look at the gate’s mechanism and sees that he can probably fix up the gears, but the chain has a high chance of breaking in its current state

The party is able to find a replacement chain and Karn is able to fix the gates so that it can open wide enough for one person at a time, though he says he can’t promise it won’t all break 

They test it out, and satisfied with the results, they rest for the remainder of the day

Baldwin and the rangers camp out at the newly repaired gates while the rest go back to the inn

In the middle of the night, Innchie wakes up to the sound of wolves howling, not just right outside the city, but also within...

[donegeonsndragons]

Narratuary: Session 15 Highlights

Research notes are found, power can drive you mad, and a clusterfuck of a fight happens.

Premise: the party has stumbled across a strange area built deep within the mines, and have defeated the flaming skull guards...

After some discussion, the group decides to push forward and not take a rest

The next set of doors are metal and very large, and Karn points out that it seems to be bolted from the other side

However, with the combined help of Igtbtgh and Baldwin pushing the door, Aurora firebolting the metal bar, and Carlin squeezing through the new gap and lifting it up with newfound strength, the group is able to get through

Going down the corridor cautiously, they find an unlocked wooden door

They now find themselves in what appears to be a circular room that acts as someone’s study, with a desk piled with books, a full-length mirror against the wall, and an empty pedestal 

Baldwin and Corrick investigate one of the older piles of books

The books belonged to a scholar named Gryffin Darkdrop

Gryffin was asked by her friend Aeqar to study whether red mithril can be used as a way to hold vast amounts of feyarc energy 

It notes that Aeqar has made a machine and is looking for a way to power it, and since Gryffin is familiar with mithril, she’d work on that while Aeqar works on trying to crystallize feyarc

Aurora investigates another book with some extra help from Innchie

Gryffin had been able to create a red mithril rod that was able to hold a lot of feyarc

As a test, she funnelled transmutation magic into it, which had the side-effect of making a rod of transmutation

Unfortunately, when she went to go test it up north in Aeqar’s lab, it didn’t work out

She notes that Aeqar seems to be almost done with the breakthrough, and that they agreed she’ll continue her research until a breakthrough happens

There’s some time, and then around 150 years ago, Gryffin makes a note that she hasn’t heard from Aeqar in awhile and should visit him soon, and then those notes go into a panic about the Magidemic

Carlin unfortunately isn’t very interested in research notes so he doesn’t pick up much from his stack of books, but Innchie helps

After the Magidemic, Gryffin has come to the realization that red mithril may be dangerous as it seems to be absorbing large amounts of wild magic, especially the rod

The writing seems to get more sporadic and paranoid, with some notes on making traps based off of Aeqar’s designs (which she then burned) as well as a secret entrance (which she also burned the design for)

Also makes mention that when the mine reached her abode, she made a deal with Amber Torenn to leave her be

The last entry was from a few months ago, and it was barely legible

Baldwin and Aurora take a look on the desk and find some diagrams of the red mithril rod as well as a lot of spilled ink

Karn and Igtbtgh take a look around, and Karn notices that the mirror is on railings and can be moved, and the party notices that they actually can’t see their reflection (but can see the reflection of the room)

With some help, Karn was able to move the mirror along the railings until it reached the end of the tracks behind the desk, where a secret corridor was revealed with the “mirror” being a portal

The corridor goes downwards and then around a corner

Karn mutters a bit sulkily that he only knew what to do because he thought he invented it first 

He notes that the mirror has to be held in place since it seems like the railings have been warped in such a way that it’ll start sliding back towards its original position

They send a ranger in to take a look, and upon first entering the portal, ends up standing on a drow woman’s corpse

Upon examination, they’re able to conclude that this must be Gryffin herself

The ranger ventures in with a rope around his waist and turns the corner, saying that there appears to be steps but there’s no light so it’s difficult to tell

Within a few moments, the party hears a scream of pain and they start hauling the rope to pull the ranger to safety, only to realize that it’s definitely dead weight

After getting the ranger’s corpse back, Karn volunteers to go in, armed with Igtbtgh’s shield

Without fully going around the corner, he’s able to tell that the stairs do lead up, but there doesn’t appear to be a clear entrance

As he says this, the group sees a spear fly from down the steps and embeds itself into Karn’s shoulder before flying back up

Karn runs towards the portal as an elven man with plate armour, tattered vestments with the symbol of a sun, and a red mithril rod steps into few

Carlin feels the tug to go see this really cool rod and steps through the portal

As Carlin gets closer, he hears the elf muttering to himself about how he can’t do it again, but “it’s mine it’s mine it’s mine”

And this is where the clusterfuck of a battle begins

Carlin attempts to grab the rod from the elf’s grasp, manages to hold onto it but is almost thrown against a wall

Igtbtgh gets into the fray and manages to do some damage to the elf

Aurora attempts to charm the elf and fails miserably, and she stays behind to tend to Karn’s wounds and make sure the rangers keep the mirror put

Baldwin, using thunderous smite, is able to grab hold of the rod and blast the elf prone (though it also blasts Carlin prone as well)

Holding the rod, Baldwin feels the temptation to take it for himself and use it to uphold Morai’s will, but he manages to shake it off

The elf mutters that he can’t do this by himself he has to get what’s his, and calls for his friends: his former adventuring party of 4 transformed into zombies

As the party deals with zombies for a bit, the elf is back to trying to grab the rod back from Baldwin, even transforming the rod into a spear that dug itself straight into Baldwin’s shoulder

Carlin attempts to grab the rod by climbing up onto Baldwin, and Baldwin swats Carlin off of his back using his hammer, knocking Carlin unconscious

Innchie’s eldritch blast pushes the elf into Igtbtgh, who sees an opportunity

Igtbtgh takes the hilt of his sword and punches the elf in the face with it, and then, with the sword in just the right spot, brings it across and just about slashes the top of the elf’s head open

It was a pretty fucking awesome HDYWTDT moment

Blood falls on pretty much everybody in the corridor, and they finally manage to dispatch the zombies

Corrick takes Carlin to the study and heals him, though Carlin is still fairly shell-shocked

Baldwin tucks the rod into his bag and then investigates the bodies, finding some basic adventuring things like potions and gold, as well as a letter from a High Council councillor giving permission for the party to explore and recover anything of interest in the mines

Two rangers investigate the top of the stairways and found that the exit had been blocked off by a cave-in, and although the party was tempted to blow it up, they decided to backtrack instead

They camp out in the fresh air and then make their way back to Omi’s Crown, informing Councillor Camden that the mine is dangerous and should be shut down once and for all

He thanks them, and offers them a magical weapon or armour upgrade, one each

The party levels up, and are on their way to their final task to the north...

[donegeonsndragons]

Update: An accidental mini-hiatus

Hey everyone!

Sorry to for the accidental hiatus these last few weeks, things have been hectic over here. I have a couple of players who are moving to different continents for school, while others have been busy with school and work and life in general. I’m also prepping for my brand new project: a real-play D&D podcast! I’ll have some news on that soon enough :)

Hopefully, we’ll be able to hop back into it starting the second week of September, when most of us will be settled back into our routines.

Until then, you can find me on Twitter as always, as well as Encounter Roleplay where I’m currently playing on the Monday 1 pm game, but I will be moving to the Thursday 1 pm game starting September 14th.

See y’all around, and thanks for being patient!

- Kienna the DM-a

[donegeonsndragons]

Narratuary: Session 14 Highlights

Red mithril is alluring, there are so many passageways, and flying skulls are dangerous.

Premise: the party has discovered that red mithril might be at the centre of some strange violent behaviour, and are delving into the mines...

After crossing the bridge and dealing with anti-gravity and undead, the group faces 4 passageways

With Carlin’s intuition, they were able to narrow it down to 2 passageways

The party sends out the rangers and Rupert to go scout around

Through Rupert’s eyes, Innchie is able to see that this passageway leads to red mithril ores that have been half mined out, a room of abandoned smelting tools, and a door that’s slightly ajar with an arm sticking out of it

Knowing that’s the only path with a clear way forward, the party makes their way there, passing by old mine carts with skittering sounds inside them and walls starting to glint with red ore

Carlin goes to investigate the room with the door that’s slightly ajar

Peering inside, he sees that the arm belongs to a dragonborn, and that the next passageway is unlit and covered in dead bodies

Stepping on the dragonborn’s body, he investigates the pockets, finding some silver coins and a portrait of the dragonborn’s family (which he pockets to give to the family if he ever sees them)

The group heads down the passageway of bodies, Aurora casting light on one of the bodies in the middle

In the new light, the carnage is even more visible

The bodies are in similar shape as the ones found in the jail, with heads and chests caved in or torn apart by pickaxes and hammers, nails torn off, limbs broken

Even the walls have splatters of blood, making it look like the red mithril ores are bleeding

As the light glints off of the ore, Igtbtgh, Aurora, and a few of the rangers feel a compulsion to stop and touch the metal

Baldwin starts up a religious chant to snap the rangers out of it, and grabs Aurora to hustle her out of there 

Me: are you just going to grab her? Baldwin (OOC): well if I was lawful good, maybe not, but I’m not that kind of paladin

Igtbtgh, sensing that this isn’t a good idea, picks up one of the pickaxes and hits himself in the head with the blunt end, managing to push back the compulsion long enough to reach the end of the passageway

With the help of Karn, Carlin is able to get the next door unlocked 

The door enters into a downwards staircase where they can hear the rushing of water

Carlin takes a single ball bearing, throwing it down to see if it’s trapped (it’s not)

When they climb down the stairs, the group reaches a rushing underground river, the ceiling stretching up the floor they were on earlier

The water is dark with mining off-shoot, and smells sharply of rust

The rangers scout out the place, finding a large metal door with no handle on the left and an abandoned dorm room on the right

Igtbth, Corrick, and Baldwin head over to the dorm room, finding a note that reads “The elements follow the process from which our metal is born”

They regroup with the rest of the party and head towards the door

Karn and Aurora are able to recognize symbols on the door as alchemical symbols for the elements air, fire, water, and earth

The party decides to try to activate them in order of the smelting process, however Karn is able to point out that they don’t seem to be moveable or pushable in any way

Aurora picks up one of the stones on the ground and holds it up to the symbol for earth, which lights up

Encouraged by this, the group tries to activate the symbols according to the smelting process

Aurora uses a firebolt on the fire symbol

Carlin uses Innchie’s bagpipes to blast air onto the air symbol (and causes the sound of bagpipes to echo throughout the mine)

Igtbtgh takes his helmet to scoop some of the water out of the river and splash it onto the water symbol

The door glows before opening

The new room is full of hallways that are not carved out but built in, tiled and clean

They find a storage room (where Aurora tries some wine that tastes like vinegar) and a bedroom with nothing but some books for night-time reading

Party (OOC): so....porn? me: NO IT ISN’T PORN

After some more poking around, the party comes across a large door, which Carlin opens to a large room with four sets of archaic plate armour in each corner and another door on the other side

Carlin throws a ball bearing into the middle of the room and nothing happens

He throws a ball bearing with perfect accuracy at the armour closest to him, causing the helmet to open and a skull wreathed in green flames with glowing red eyes to emerge, and the same happens for the rest of the armour

Time for some initiative!

The party gets some pretty solid hits on the skulls, quickly realizing that piercing damage isn’t super effective

So the group uses a lot of bludgeoning and acid to quickly take down two of the skulls, with help from Karn who just throws small vials of acid that he has on him

Meanwhile, the skulls weave in and out of battle, floating above their heads, and blasting them with fire rays (mostly hitting Innchie and Carlin)

Down to two skulls and too far away to reach it, Igtbtgh throws his pike, realizing too late that pikes are not meant for throwing as it clatters to Carlin’s feet

Carlin attempts to throw his rapier, and crit fails

The rapier flies upwards and lands point first on his own foot

Igtbtgh takes out his net and throws it over one of the skulls, grabs the ends, and whips the skull to the ground

Taking advantage of this, the rest of the group quickly finishes off the skull leaving one left

The last skull, cackling and shouting “intruders!” non-stop, casts fireball in the middle of the group

Though most of them managed to minimize the damage, Aurora and Carlin were caught fully in the flames, leaving Aurora barely standing and Carlin knocked out and on fire

Equipping his crossbow, Igtbtgh takes one acid arrow and nocks it into place before shooting it dead centre in the skull’s forward, bringing it down

After getting out of the remnants of the fire, the party brings Carlin back to consciousness and heals up, then head towards the next door...

[donegeonsndragons]

Update: the DM-a and Livestreaming!

Hey everyone!

No D&D this weekend, but I’ve got some exciting news...

If you remember, I’ve been playing in some viewer games on the D&D livestream Encounter Roleplay for the past couple of months. A couple of weeks ago, I got an invitation to join as a cast member on the show!

I’ll be joining the Beginner’s Play group, which plays Monday 1-4 pm EST. I’ll be playing as my tiefling life cleric of Ilmater named Eona, a reformed criminal who has a complicated relationship with suffering. You can learn more about her and her backstory here!

(Art credit: @chiipls, go commission them!)

You can watch me playing on https://www.twitch.tv/encounterroleplay, so come drop by and say hello!  You can catch up on where the adventure currently is on the Encounter Roleplay YouTube channel or using the handy short recaps written by one of the players. 

Hope to see you all Monday!

[donegeonsndragons]

CoS: Session 7a Highlights

Deals are completed, vampires are annihilated, and a familiar face appears.

Premise: having gone to Vallaki to find eyes and a wedding dress for the Abbot, the group managed to free some prisoners, kidnap the executioner, and narrowly escape being captured...

Along the way, Rictavio proposes that the party splits up, so that Raynn, Vogal, and Buzzlorn go to meet the Abbot while Rictavio, Mu, Damakos, and the varana go to meet up with Lincoln

So we’ll be following Raynn, Vogal, and Buzzlorn for now...

Rictavio will drop them off in Krezk, but there’s a 3 day journey until then

On the first night, Damakos slips out of the caravan in the middle of the night, and Buzzlorn could hear the sound of horse hooves from outside

Realizing they don’t have a wedding dress, the three of them decide to take turns trying to make something that will work

They find a plain white dress hidden among all of Rictavio’s extra clothing and costumes

Vogal has no idea what to do and just passes it on to Buzzlorn

Buzzlorn holds the dress aloft as the hornets start to weave in and out, embroidering delicate honeycomb patterns

Raynn finishes it off with dark blue flowers on the bottom edge to match the executioner’s eyes

They’re left with a masterpiece of a dress

Buzzlorn (OOC): what are we even doing as adventurers? We should just set up shop

This is not how I expected the start of the game to go but oh my god

The caravan drops them off at Krezk, and they make their way past the guards who almost don’t let them through

Annoyed and carrying both the executioner and the dress, Buzzlorn approaches the mongrelfolk guards, and intimidates them into letting them through

They storm up to the abbey gates and knock on the door, where after a moment the Abbot greets them, haphazardly dressed

Seeing the dress, the Abbot grabs a mongrelfolk to model it, and is very happy about it

Afterwards, they show the Abbot the executioner, who is still muffled by a sock

The Abbot is pleased with the choice of dark blue eyes, and just sticks his fingers into the executioner’s eye sockets, grossing out the party

The Abbot fetches Anna as per their agreement, kicking her down the stairs and Buzzlorn manages to just miss catching her

She falls straight on her face, as her hands had been handcuffed behind her 

Vogal frees her and Buzzlorn heals her and her slightly messed up eyes (due to the Abbot’s poking and prodding)

She thanks the group, and says she’ll keep her end of the bargain of showing them around the castle

Buzzlorn decides to offer his services as a priest to preside over the wedding, though Vogal and Raynn point out they should ask for something in return

They ask the Abbot for a magical item, but he refuses, saying that supplying them with something that could be traced back to him and threaten his ceasefire with Strahd isn’t something he can do

But he says he can give them information that the church he thinks the prophecy refers to is the church on the mountain pass up the mountain towards Castle Ravenloft

Buzzlorn performs the ceremony with some stumbling but a lot of heart, which is both weird and kinda sweet, and the party leaves as soon as possible

On the way out, they investigate the shack that previously had Strange’s shop, but there was nothing but crazed mongrelfolk inside

They start the 3 day journey by foot towards the mountain pass at the edge of the village of Barovia

As they travel through the forests, they hear the sound of movement, and from the fog appears three vampire spawn

One of them they recognize: Ireena’s brother Ismark

The vampires attack the group, one of them latching onto Vogal in a grapple

Ismark vampire goes to attack Raynn, but appears to have a moment of humanity as he stops, but the bloodthirsty glint returns to his eyes

Vogal manages to splash holy water from the spring onto the vampire holding onto him, wrenching free from its grapple

Raynn holds out the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind and expends a charge to hold the vampires

Vampire Ismark and the vampire near Buzzlorn fail their saving throws and are paralyzed, and the one that got splashed by holy water is able to shake off the effect

Buzzlorn uses a third level smite and crits on his hit on the paralyzed vampire

As Buzzlorn’s swarm forms and he laughs, with one mighty smash with his morning star glowing with divine energy, he decimates the vampire with one hit

Having another attack, he moves over to vampire Ismark and hits him for a mighty (but not nearly as impressive) blow that knocks the prone vampire onto the ground

However, vampire Ismark’s wounds start to heal as he regains health

The non-paralyzed vampire just manages to scratch Buzzlorn’s bark, with no real damage dealt

Vogal goes up to the now prone and paralyzed vampire Ismark and plunges his two shortswords into Ismark’s eyes with a crit 

As vampire Ismark gasps with a dying breath, Vogal lets go of shortswords and slams the swords down so hard that they sink down to the hilt 

The Ismark vampire goes limp

Raynn takes the Holy Symbol and expends charges to create a sunlight and takes aim at the last remaining vampire

The vampire shields its eyes, blisters forming, as Buzzlorn takes his morning star and slams it into it

The vampire staggers back, eyes unshielded, and it disintegrates into ash

Y’all this took like...2 and a half rounds of combat, I gotta say that I’m impressed

The rest of the travel is uneventful, and they finally make their way to the mountain pass

Headed up the pass, Raynn spots an abandoned looking church

The church is rotting, windows broken, but they can hear the sound of someone playing the piano

They quietly enter the church, and the figure at the end of the aisle playing the piano stops and turns

The party recognizes him as Mr. Strange, the owner of the shop

And now that they properly see his face, down to the sunglasses and the strange hat and the shark-like teeth, they suddenly also recognize him as the man who gave them all the job that lead them to Besnik and the tome that started it all

Mr. Strange tells the party that he has what they’re looking for, and he’s willing to give it to them for a price

Vogal asks if he can have the sword, and Mr. Strange smiles at him, saying that he’s so greedy, especially after Vogal has stolen from him

Mr. Strange snaps, and Vogal’s pouch seems to get lighter, and as he looks into his coin pouch he notices that all of his gold had been turned to ash and the only remaining coin is the GS coin that he took when Mr. Strange disappeared

With Vogal in shock, Mr. Strange tells the party that he’ll give them the sunsword if they can retrieve the red gem necklace that Strahd wears (but he won’t tell them why)

The party agrees, and Mr. Strange gives Vogal the sunsword, which appears to just be a golden hilt, and nothing happens

Vogal passes it to Buzzlorn, and Buzzlorn feels the warmth of the hilt in his hands

And as he thinks about smiting down the evil with this sword, the warmth encompasses his whole body as from the hilt a blade of sunlight appears

As Buzzlorn holds the sword and marvels, a voice inside his head says “So you’re my new partner, looking forward to working with you,” to which Buzzlorn replies “Oh, you have many new friends,” as a hornet lands on the hilt

[donegeonsndragons]

Narratuary: Session 13 Highlights

Metal is suspicious, corpses are everywhere, and undead and gravity don’t mix.

Premise: After making their way up Kroken Mountain, the party has reached the peak where Omi’s Crown is situated. However, upon entering, they realize that it’s eerily quiet...

Carlin immediately heads towards the tavern to find the criminal contact that he messaged during the downtime they had, followed by Baldwin

The tavern is very quiet, with a very focused bartender and two men (human and dwarven) sitting at a table silently

Carlin sits down at a nearby table and speaks in thieves cant, hoping to garner his contact’s attention

The human man stands up and comes to his table, and replies in thieves cant, saying that the city isn’t safe, and that they should ask the councillor of Omi’s Crown

When asked why, the man stands up and sits back down at the original table

When Baldwin calls out to him, asking where to find the councillor, the man raises a finger and points at the table he’s sitting at

Baldwin and Carlin shift over to the table and sit down, and find out that the dwarf man is Councillor Brandt Camden

Councillor Camden is very fidgety and nervous looking, constantly tapping his fingers and fidgeting with something in his pocket

They speak with him, with a lot of poking and prodding, to find out that the red mithril mine had been reopened a month ago, and then things started to go downhill from there, with people starting to become paranoid and violent to the point where people are being killed in the street

People have taken to either shutting themselves into their homes or heading to the mines where they never return

Meanwhile, out in the streets, Aurora spots what looks like to be a dead body in an alleyway and goes to investigate

She finds the corpses of a dragonborn and a human, both with severe stab wounds

On the dragonborn she finds a coin pouch which includes gold, silver, and a strange red coin, and Aurora pockets the pouch

The human is clutching something in his hand, but Aurora can’t pry it open, so she decides to cut it off instead 

Innchie tells her that she has a very nice hand now

They regroup in the tavern, where Baldwin and Carlin explain to them what happened to the city, mentioning the red mithril

Aurora immediately takes the pouch she had pocketed and throws it across the tavern

Baldwin picks it up and empties it out onto the table

As soon as the red coin lands on the table, Councillor Camden immediately snatches it

After a brief struggle, the coin was dropped and Baldwin presses Councillor Camden for everything he knows

He tells them that the red mithril seems to have a strange allure to it, and that Amber had been selling it to the merchant houses for a cheap price

The human pipes up, saying that the mine had been locked since last week and the last person to have the key to open it was the person who spearheaded the reopening of the mine, Amber Torenn

Unfortunately, Amber was murdered about a week ago by one of the heads of the merchant houses Erik Morethorn, after she returned one night with not enough red mithril to sell, and the key has gone missing

Satisfied with this, Baldwin places Councillor Camden under house arrest under watch by one of his many followers

Igtbtgh helps Aurora by opening up the clenched fist of the hand she cut off, and a shard of red metal falls to the ground

Baldwin carefully (without directly touching the red metal) puts the coin and the shard into a pouch and around his neck

He also gets the followers to gather up the bodies and do a proper cremation, which results in 25 bodies and the hand being burned in the middle of the city

The party heads over to Amber Torenn’s house, which they’re easily able to get inside due to Carlin’s lockpicking skills

Inside had a few notable things which the group was able to find easily

They found some gold stashed away, a small family portrait of a dwarf woman with her son, a couple of incomplete maps that show the way to the mine, and a letter with a High Council seal

The letter is unnamed, but asks Amber to propose the reopening of the mine, as there may be materials of interest inside

Baldwin recognizes this handwriting in the letter as Councillor Astorio’s handwriting, but doesn’t say anything

After this, the party heads towards the jail

Inside is a gruesome sight: a guard with a sword through her stomach, a man in a cell with his chest caved in and nails torn off, and a man with his head caved in

The party is able to identify the man with the caved-in head as Erik Morethorn based on the descriptions they received, and they also find a key

The party also spots a pile of red mithril armour and weapons that are tucked in the corner, and decide not to do anything with it

They decide to make their way to the mine and camp out there so they can enter the mine come morning

After setting up camp, Aurora and Innchie try to use spells to discern the nature of the red mithril

Innchie is able to say that red mithril seems to enhance the properties of whatever item it creates (mechanically speaking a +2 to whatever you’re using it for)

The next morning at the crack of dawn, the group unlocks the door with the key found on Erik Morethorn and head into the mine

With the help of the follower scouts, they’re able to find an abandoned forge room which seems to just be a dead end, a passageway that had been blocked off by a barrier made of shelves and mine carts, and a door leading forward

Deciding not to break open purposefully placed barriers, with some help from Karn, they’re able to swing open the door and enter into the next section of the mine

In this section, they’re able to see a network of mine cart tracks, caved-in passages, a river down below to the left, and a large crevasse ahead with a bridge that crosses it

As they approach the bridge, they can hear the sounds of skittering and clattering coming from down below

They also see 5 crystal orbs on stands, two on each side of the bridge and one in the middle

Carlin starts to travel across the bridge, tumbling and cartwheeling as he melds into the darkness

As he reaches the centre orb, he can see there’s a faint glow coming from the orb

All of a sudden, he’s floating up towards the ceiling, the bridge curves upwards, and the sounds from down in the dark of the crevasse moves upwards toward them

And from the darkness floats up more than 100 undead creatures ranging from skeletons to ghouls to zombies

Innchie uses hypnotic pattern to incapacitate 30 or so of these creatures

Aurora sets half of them on fire, instantly incinerating them into ashes 

Carlin, as he hits the ceiling, realizes that gravity seems to be reversed for him, and starts running across to the other side

The others attack the floating undead, killing them as they hit the ceiling

Carlin climbs down to the floor, which to him, feels like climbing up a cliff

Karn shouts out that the orbs are probably powering this effect

Aurora and Corrick kick over the orbs on their side

Baldwin leaps forward, taking advantage of the reverse gravity to reach the centre orb, shatter it, and make it to the other side

The scouts and Igtbtgh make quick work of the ones on the other side of the bridge

As the last one is shattered, Carlin falls a short distance onto his head, Baldwin lands safely, the bridge reverts to its normal state, and all of the undead fall back into the crevasse with a crunch

With that obstacle conquered, the party ventures forth...

[donegeonsndragons]

Narratuary: Session 12 Highlights

Travel is long, dragons are bargained with, and explosions are fun.

Premise: After a week of some interesting downtime, the group meets back up in Fortuna to head to investigate the possibilities of two more items. One is in Omi’s Crown at the top of Kroken Mountain in the Ormir mountain, where there were reports of an old mine being reopened before trade and communications suddenly stopped for almost a month at this point. The other is in the northern forests, where there’s a strange building that pops in and out of existence, and anyone who has tried to go in never comes back out. 

So before they all leave, Councillor Astorio speaks to them to say that she’ll be in Arca as her work there is almost complete

She wishes them luck before leaving

Innchie has brought Karn, who says he’s happy to meet Carlin and Igtbtgh and see the others again, and that it looked like the group had worked together to continue adventuring as a group after chasing after the suspicious ninja 

Baldwin also has 25 new people with him, a variety of rangers and scouts to help

As the party regroups, Corrick tells Baldwin that he noticed that Innchie’s right eye looks different, but Baldwin decides to not say anything

They decide to take the pathway that leads through the forests at the base of Kroken Mountain, which is northwest to Fortuna

After a couple of days, they reach a river that is wide, fast moving, and only has bridge posts and no bridge

Innchie casts fly on Carlin, who has no idea how to fly around

So we have a floating gnome who’s flailing and doggy paddling in the air holding two ropes

After Carlin tied one end of the ropes to the two posts on their side of the river, Igtbtgh tosses floating Carlin over to the other side of the river, where he was able to tie the other ends of the rope

The group was then able to cross over on their improvised rope bridge

Innchie dispelled fly, causing Carlin to fall flat on his face from 10 feet off the ground

They reach what used to be the farming town of Aren, except most of it has been crushed or destroyed, with dying crops and bloated corpses of High Council guards everywhere

Carlin and Corrick are able to identify this as nasty poison damage

The party remembered that their were rumours of a rampaging dragon in this area, and that the poison might be the dragon’s work

As Aren seems to be mostly empty, they attempt to salvage stuff

The party found a seemingly empty room with a trap door, and end up calling Carlin to come investigate it

Inside, they find a middle-aged human woman with her young son and baby

They ask her what’s happening, and she confirms that there’s a dragon that lives in the forest, and for almost a month now it appears every couple of nights to wreak havoc

The woman continues, telling them that she has no idea why the dragon was doing this, but that there was a group of travellers like them that had passed through town, went into the forest, and then passed back through on their way out about a week before the dragon attacks began

She says that some people left to find help, including her husband, but they never returned

She tells them to take her children away from here, but that she feels like her husband is out there somewhere and would want to wait around

Carlin tries to convince her that she should come as well, as they’re not prepared to take care of children

Crit fail on that persuasion roll

The woman gets mad, saying that how dare they question her will and why would she want to leave

Baldwin gets suspicious and casts Zone of Truth on her to make sure she’s telling the truth (she is)

Knowing that the dragon is due to arrive tonight, the party tries to figure out how to go about this

They could try to book it, but the open fields would give them away; they could try to ambush attack it; they could try to negotiate

The party decides to set up some fires around town, negotiate with the dragon, and if things go wrong ambush attack the dragon

So Innchie and Baldwin are negotiating as Igtbtgh hides behind some rubble ready to attack, Carlin and Aurora squish together in a hidden nook in a half-collapsed house, and the entourage hide out in the remaining intact houses with small fires to heat up weapons

As night falls, a green fog seems to settle over the forest, and the party hears the steady sound of wings 

They look up to see the figure of a large dragon cut across the moon, circling before landing 

Igtbtgh, remembering his last run-in with a dragon in his youth, is frightened

Baldwin speaks to the dragon, asking why it was rampaging

The dragon says that her eggs were stolen, and that by gathering attention she can incentivize people to apprehend the thieves

However, anybody who has arrived here since the thieves have just tried to attack her, and so she retaliated

Baldwin, being very sincere, says that he’s a man of the law and that if the dragon lets them through the forest in peace, the party will find the thieves if they’re in Omi’s Crown

The dragon looks at him, and says that she’ll allow them to pass in peace and stop wrecking Aren if he makes a vow to bring “them” back before one year’s time

Baldwin accepts, and the party rests before headed through the forests to Kroken Mountain

As they look up at the peak, they can now see just the tiniest glimpse of a city

There’s a mountain pass carved into the mountain, and everyone starts the long hike up

Half of the party hears the sound of rolling rocks far up ahead, and so they get Carlin to go investigate

Carlin decides it would be faster to climb up the face of the mountain to the next section of trail, and he scales the 120 feet no problem

As he reaches the top, Carlin senses impending movement and jumps to the side just as a rock rolls off the mountain side where he was 

He sees that there’s a pile-up of rocks, sandwiched between two mountain walls and reaching 60 feet high

Carlin tries to get his badger to investigate, but badger just looks at him and ignores him completely

So he uses his new stone of far-speech to tell the others that there’s an obstacle up ahead

After some investigating and discussing, the group sees that there’s no real way around it except for climbing up the mountain wall about 600 feet up or climbing on top of the possible unstable rock pile

At this point, Igtbtgh pulls out the newest addition to his weapons: homemade contained explosives (pretty much dynamite), something he learned how to make from an explosives specialist in Arca

Carlin and Igtbtgh set up the explosives in some weak points at the base of the pile-up while the others make their way back down the pass to avoid getting hit

Carlin lights up the explosive, and the two of them book it

They manage to avoid getting rolled over or blasted, but they get clipped by a now loosened rock and pelted by fragments and dust

Igtbtgh: I’m too old for this shit

Now with the pass cleared, the party camps out in the newly created small crater in the ground and continue onwards to the peak

As they get closer to the top, they pass by empty guard houses which seem to have been abandoned

And as they reach Omi’s Crown and pass through the gates, normally billowing chimneys barely have smoke passing through them, and they see almost no signs of life...