The Sudden Sea – Session 2

[April 24 and 25 – Watches and the hunt]

[This game uses the Hero System Fifth Revised Edition (FREd) roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened August 14, 2023.]

[This adventure takes place on the continent of Terik, two years after the appearance of the Sudden Sea due to the sinking and flooding of ~374,385 square miles of the Plains of Syrak.]

Player Characters

Sorvia of Stavros – female human ranger, local to County Modon (village of Stavros in particular)

Tharduk Lavabreath – male dwarf glassmaker from the Northern Dwarven Kingdom, had a glass shop in County Modon that is now underwater, literally

Kadruth Worldbender – male dwarf priest, serving He Who Protects, from the Northern Dwarven Kingdom

Anomin – female human shapeshifter, from lots of places, most recently County Modon

Islo Redgrass – male elf ranger, local to County Modon (village of Stavros in particular)

Via Roll20

Inserrant – female human musician, player of zills (finger cymbals) and singer

Spring

April 24, 56 I.C. (Imperial Calendar)

Evening

After setting up their camp in the space allotted inside the logging camp, the adventurers worked out a schedule for watches over the night.  Inserrant and Islo took the first watch, Tharduk and Kadruth took the second watch, and Anomin and Sorvia took third watch.

First Watch

Islo and Inserrant climbed up onto the roof of the camp barn as it gave them a good view of the logged areas to the south, over the camp barrier.  As all the attacks on the loggers had been to the south, this seemed the best area to watch.

Their watch was quiet.  They observed that 6 of the loggers were patrolling the camp in teams of two.  Two loggers would circle the camp perimeter, starting and ending at the gate, where the other four waited.  After a brief report, the next two would repeat the circuit, followed by the last two.

Second Watch

Rather than use the barn roof as a watch platform, Kadruth cast his Wall of Force spell to create a platform for he and Tharduk to stand on.  He placed this in the southwest corner of the camp, the point closest to where the last attack happened.

The two dwarves noticed that the human loggers on watch were starting to show signs of fatigue.  Instead of patrolling in groups of two they started patrolling in groups of three with more time spent standing at the gate between patrols.

About half-way through their watch, Kadruth noticed some of the taller grasses moving out in the logged area, 18-20 meters from the camp barrier.  He drew Tharduk’s attention to the moving grass, but neither could see what was causing the grass to move.  Kadruth attempted to cast his Wall of Force spell in front of where he thought the creature was heading twice, to make it reveal itself.  He failed both times.  Eventually, whatever it was seemed to leave the area with Tharduk noticing grasses moving further away.  The rest of their watch was tense if not eventful.

Third Watch

Kadruth reported what he and Tharduk saw during their watch to Anomin and Sorvia when the watch changed.  Anomin went over to the logger guards to warn them she would be turning into a cougar to stand her watch, so they should not panic if they saw a cougar up on the barn.  When they looked skeptical, she cast the spell on herself in front of them, transforming into a cougar.  This woke them up some and they accepted her warning.  Anomin then padded over to the barn to join Sorvia up on the roof.  [This did nothing good for the mules in the barn who could smell a predator above them for the rest of the night.]

Anomin’s sharper eyesight [and Darkvision] allowed her to see a trail where the grasses had been disturbed during second watch.  Something had moved by the camp and taken a look before leaving the area, heading south.

April 25, 56 I.C.

Morning

As the sky lightened and the camp started coming awake, Anomin shapeshifted into her human form and told Sorvia about the trail.  [Anomin cannot talk in most of her animal forms.]  When the loggers opened the front gate, the two women plus Islo exited the camp and circled around to the trail.  Sorvia pulled a field breakfast from one of her belt pouches of a strip of apricot leather, 2 dried figs, then small amounts of deer jerky and ate it as she approached the tracks.

The trail of tracks was obvious [to the rangers and Anomin].  Something large had moved though the area, large enough that the dwarves should have seen it.  The tracks led off in a southwesterly direction.  The two rangers started following the tracks while Anomin flew back into camp in crow form to update the dwarves.  [Her crow form can speak Koine, the local common tongue.]

During this time, Inserrant spent time practicing her singing and warming up her voice.  [She was using a spell to boost her natural singing talent for the day.]  Anomin found the dwarves and reported that she and the rangers were following tracks south.  The dwarves agreed to follow after breakfast and catch up.  Anomin rolled her eyes and flew off.

The dwarves went to eat breakfast with the loggers, helping themselves to large stacks of pancakes and bacon while promising to pay once they killed the animal attacking the loggers.  The camp cook allowed this but charged their tab significantly more for their food as a result.  [Blown negotiation roll happened on the players’ part.]

The tracks led southwest then west-by-southwest until they reached an unlogged section of the forest.  The rangers were certain that the creature was alone, bipedal, and large.  Neither ranger could think of what the creature might be.  [Mostly as neither had an appropriate Knowledge Skill.  I allowed Islo to make a roll on his Area Knowledge: Green Mountains as these creatures also live there, but he only had a familiarity and rolled high.]

The rangers sent Anomin back to see what was keeping the dwarves.  When she arrived back at the camp, they were just finishing breakfast.  Kadruth offered Anomin some pancakes, but she declined [all her forms are carnivorous, even the ones not normally].  Anomin reported what the rangers had discovered.  One of the loggers, late to leave breakfast, overheard part of the conversation and asked if they knew what the animal was yet.  The dwarves asked why and learned that the loggers had bets going on as to what the animal was.  Both dwarves got in on the betting before leaving camp.

It took them 30 minutes to catch up with the waiting rangers.  While waiting, Islo had hunted up some rabbits but had not cleaned or cooked them yet.  Anomin, still in crow form, helped herself to the rabbit eyes.  Once the group was together again, they headed into the wooded area the tracks led into.  This area corresponded to Zone 3 on the logging map, an area further from the Ladon River and not yet logged.

The tracks then meandered a bit until they suddenly sped off, nearly causing Sorvia to lose them.  She was able to follow the tracks as they zig-zagged a bit until they stopped at a large blood stain.  Sorvia and Islo consulted and decided that whatever they were tracking had hunted and killed a medium-sized animal here.  There was no sign of a carcass, and some blood drips along the trail where the tracks resumed heading south, suggesting that whatever it was was hauling the carcass. Sorvia suspected it had killed a deer.  Sorvia also commented at this point that whatever they were tracking, it didn’t seem to bother hiding its tracks.

After a couple hours of tracking, the adventurers seemed to be in a deeper part of the forest.  Sorvia had seen occasional marks on nearby trees suggesting the creature had three claws on its hands.  The claws were at a worrisome height above her head.  The adventurers could just hear loggers chopping down trees off in the distance to their left, suggesting they were in the new logging zone.

After a while the tracks stopped among a grouping of very large and old trees.  Anomin flew up around the main tree.  She found a deer head caught on a lower branch, but no sign of the creature itself.  [The creature was in a concealed bed of leaves and branches and it made its Concealment roll by 7 and Anomin "only" made her perception roll by 6.]  Anomin made a quick snack of the deer eyes before flying back down and reporting no sign of the creature or any arboreal trail away from this area.

The adventurers had a short discussion about what to do next.  Sorvia and then Inserrant both suggested the loggers be brought in to cut down the big trees.  This was declined as it would endanger the loggers.  Sorvia suggested a snare to hold the creature when it descended.  This sounded promising.  Islo set up a snare with one of the rabbits at the base of the largest tree.  He and Sorvia then concealed the trap.  He them moved away a short distance and set up a small fire to cook the remaining two rabbits, hoping to draw out the creature with aroma.

With still no sign of the creature, the adventurers decided to conceal themselves and continue waiting.  Kadruth cast his Wall of Force spell and created a ledge around a tree about 4 meters off the ground.  He asked Anomin to conceal it and she did a good job of it, joining Kadruth in the blind.  Islo and Soria hid themselves expertly [as rangers should] while Tharduk and Inserrant hid themselves as best they could [Narrator Voice: They were both totally visible.]

About Two Hours Later

In the early afternoon, something climbed down the immense tree it had been concealed on.  The group did not notice its stealthy descent.  The creature noticed the rabbit in the snare and contemptuously grabbed the rabbit, trapping one of its hands in the snare.  It roared [and I totally should have done a Presence Attack here].  At this point, all of the adventurers knew something was in the snare, but only Islo could see it.  It was very large, nearly 8 meters tall and 4 meters wide!  It looked like some sort of troll or ogre, but with large, intelligent eyes.

Islo shot it in the chest with his bow, causing it pain.  This angered the creature, which casually broke free of the snare and popped the rabbit carcass into its mouth while looking around for its foe.

It spotted Tharduk first.

End of session

Commentary

[Finally ran the numbers on the surface area of the sudden sea.  It has a surface area of roughly 374,385 square miles.  This puts it at 96% the size of the Sea of Japan or 64% the size of the Gulf of Mexico or 39% the size of the Mediterranean Sea, depending upon which body of water you are most familiar with.  For those in the US, imagine Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska sank and were flooded by sea water – that is the effect of what happened.]

[Sorry this was so late.  Work and life were super busy and distracting.  I still plan on publishing another blog entry before September 2.]  

[There will be a disruption of posting around the week of Labor Day as I need to travel to see my dad while he is as healthy as he will be for a while, possibly ever.  I don't think anything is imminent, but I am now very aware he will not always be with us, a realization I was hoping not to have for at least another decade or more.]

Sudden Sea Adventures

Last session: Session 1

Next session: Session 3

UPDATE: Corrected date in second day heading from 24 to 25.

Sudden Sea - Landing Page

Landing page for the Session Notes for the Sudden Sea Campaign, a campaign run using the Hero System Fifth Revised Edition of rules.

Session 1 - Job Enquiries

Session 2 - Watches and the Hunt

Session 3 - Against the Wendigo

Session 4 - Mail Intercept

Session 5 - Fight Conclusion

Session 6 - Nomi Arrival and Making Splashes

Session 7 - Shopping and a Midnight Fire

Session 8 - Secret Rooms and Murder!

Session 9 - Repercussions and Confessions

Session 10 - Start mapping the Mikro Dasos

Session 11 - Cyclopses and bears and...what is that!?

Session 12 - “That” turned out to be a Nemean Lion!

Session 13 - Survey conclusion and cautiously back to Nomi

Session 14 - Anomin finds the goods

Session 15 - Unexpected guest and return to Mouzaki

Session 16 - Shopping, Shares, and Commissions

Session 17 - Caravan Guard Work, Lights, and Prisoners

Session 18 - Anomin vs. Calliope and Interrogations

Session 19 - Expected Ambush - Part 1

Session 20 - Expected Ambush - Part 2 and Return to Mouzaki

Session 21 - Clouds gather over Mouzaki

The Sudden Sea – Session 1

[April 24 – Job Enquiries]

[This game uses the Hero System Fifth Revised Edition (FREd) roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened August 7, 2023.]

[This adventure takes place on the continent of Terik, 30 years after the events of Tim’s Outlanders in what was known as the Crendia Campaign.  The Crendia Campaign happened over 10+ years of real time, ending in 2006, four years before I started this blog.]

Player Characters

Sorvia of Stavros – female human ranger, local to County Modon (village of Stavros in particular)

Tharduk Lavabreath – male dwarf glassmaker from the Northern Dwarven Kingdom, had a glass shop in County Modon that is now underwater, literally

Kadruth Worldbender – male dwarf priest, serving He Who Protects, from the Northern Dwarven Kingdom

Anomin – female human shapeshifter, from lots of places, most recently County Modon

Islo Redgrass – male elf ranger, local to County Modon (village of Stavros in particular)

Via Roll20

Inserrant – female human musician, player of zills (finger cymbals) and singer

Spring

April 24, 56 I.C. (Imperial Calendar)

Having looked over the jobs listed on the Jobs Board in the Refugee Market outside the walled town of Mouzaki, the beginning adventurers decided that three of the jobs seemed to be in the same direction: south-ish from Mouzaki.  The closest job was hunting a wild animal attacking a logging camp about a half-day away in the small Tsepi Forest.  In that direction but farther was a job of delivering some mail to the village of Nomi, 50 miles away on the other side of the Onomastike Hills.  The third job was past that at the border with The Shires, scouting for a reported monster in the Mikro Dasos.

Sorvia and Islo volunteered to go talk to Sheriff Raptis and get the details on the scouting job, like what it paid and how long they had to complete it and get paid.  Tharduk and Anomin volunteered to go speak with Postmaster Stefania Spyros to get the same information on the mail delivery run to Nomi.  [The job at the logging camp instructed those interested to speak with Chief Woodcutter Nik Papadimitriou at the camp, something the group could do on the way to the other two jobs.]

Tharduk and Anomin waited a bit in line to get into Mouzaki, until Tharduk showed his Certified Merchant badge and then they were waved in.  The mail depot used to be one of the smallest in the County and was now the only remaining office, so it was crowded and full of people.  Anomin noticed a side service window labeled “Bounties” that had no line and suggested she and Tharduk try there.

The duo made their way over to the Bounties window and rang the bell.  The clerk there was caught slightly by surprise while working on something else.  He had Anomin and Tharduk sign in and then escorted them back behind his desk and down a busy passage to the Postmaster’s office.

Postmaster Stephania Spyros was a human woman.  Her office was full but neat, with various packages and letters arranged on side tables.  Her own desk had neat stacks of reports.  She was polite and explained that she needed someone to carry two months of accumulated mail from Mouzaki to Nomi, a small village on the other side of the Onomastike Hills.  The delivery wasn’t urgent but was very much ready to go.  The job paid one gold up front for travel expenses and nine more gold upon return with a signed receipt and whatever mail Nomi needed delivered to Mouzaki.  Anomin and Tharduk would have a month or so to deliver the mail and return.  Anomin and Tharduk both agree this was reasonable and their team could handle the job.  Postmaster Spyros was visible pleased that there would be more than just the two of them on the job and pulled out a contract.  She asked that the entire team be listed so if anything untoward happened and Anomin and Tharduk didn’t make it back but other members of the team did, they could still get paid.  Anomin and Tharduk listed the entire team and then signed the contract.

At this point the Postmaster mentioned that if the team did not return in 5 weeks, a bounty would be put out on all of them for defrauding the post.  She was only slightly apologetic about this, stating that it was necessary to make sure the job got done.  She then pointed to a crate that was a two-foot cube and clearly marked Property of the County Modon Post Office and told Anomin and Tharduk that was the mail they needed delivered.  Anomin attempted to also pick up a very official looking, wax-sealed envelope, but the Postmaster noticed and politely explained that was not part of the mail Anomin and Tharduk would be delivering.  Anomin set the fancy letter back down and the duo left.

At the same time, Islo and Sorvia were on their way to see the Sheriff.  The Sheriff’s office was also inside Mouzaki and the two rangers had to wait in line to enter the walled town.  Not being merchants of any sort, it took them an hour to get inside the town.

The Sheriff’s Office wasn’t difficult to find but also had a line out the door.  This line moved quickly and before too long they were at the front desk facing Sergeant Greenpike.  When asked what complaint the two wanted to make, the sergeant was pleased to find out that they were actually there to ask Sheriff Raptis about the scouting job.  Sergeant Greenpike told the duo that the sheriff was stuck at the Count’s court at the moment and they should come back in an hour after the sheriff returned and had time to cool off.  When asked for details on the job, all the sergeant could share was there were reports of people disappearing, bloody stains, and what not but the Sheriff did not have enough manpower to send anyone south to go look.  Sergeant Greenpike gave the duo directions to a nearby tavern to wait at, recommending they tell the bartender she had sent them.

The tavern down a side street and around a corner and named The Courageous Plate.  Once inside, Islo and Sorvia realized that most of the patrons were either town guard or sheriff deputies.  The bartender rather gruffly asked what they wanted here, clearly not asking for their drink order.  Sorvia stated that Sergeant Greenpike had sent them.  The bartender instantly became much friendlier, as did the other patrons.  Islo and Sorvia ordered some ale each and cooled their heels for an hour.

Upon returning to the sheriff’s office an hour later, Sergeant Greenpike waved them over and had a lesser deputy show them to the Sheriff’s actual office.  The deputy knocked on the door and then opened it slightly to announce that some rangers were there about the scouting job.  Islo and Sorvia heard some glass clinking and a drawer being shut before the sheriff ordered them to be shown in.

The Sheriff was still wearing his courtly uniform and remained seated behind his desk.  The sheriff agreed that Islo and Sorvia looked the part and explained the job.  There were reports of some sort of monster in the Mikro Dasos, the forest near the border with The Shires.  With the Grand Duchy of Mercia getting froggy on the southwest border, the Count did not want the Tolk to get "worried" and send their own people to investigate and claim the forest.  Sheriff Raptis needed someone to go down there, scout around for a week, and then return and report.  He was willing to pay 10 gold for a detailed report of the situation.  There was a bonus of 30 gold if the report came with a detailed map of the forest.  There would be an additional bonus for any monster heads or trophies indicating dead monsters.  The value would vary based on threat levels.  Islo and Sorvia asked for copies of the reports so they knew what to look for and the sheriff had copies made for them.

Late Morning

All six adventurers met together in a small tavern outside Mouzaki in the refugee camp and discussed the information they had about the jobs.  The jobs seemed reasonable and could be done as a series [first the logging camp, then the mail delivery, then the scouting].  Inserrant had concerns about not being able to abandon any of the jobs if they became too dangerous, but no one else shared her concerns.  They all agreed to do all three jobs and share the wealth generated.

Afternoon

The adventures left the refugee camp surrounding Mouzaki just after Noon and followed a loose trail south, paralleling the Ladon River.  The area immediately around Mouzaki was plowed and seeded crop land.  Past that they walked several hours through grassy plains until they reached the Tsepi Forest as the sun approached the horizon.  Smoke from camp fires marked where the logging camp was located.

The logging operation was on the west side of the Ladon River at the old edge of the forest.  When they spotted the camp, they were slightly surprised to see a barrier of tree limbs and brambles surrounded the camp with a roughly hewn gate on the northeast side [towards the river bank] providing the only way in.  As the group approached they could see loggers walking up to the camp from the south and entering.

When close enough to talk, a couple loggers with axes challenged the adventurers as to their business. Islo [I think] stated they were there about the wild animal job and held up the job poster.  The loggers seemed pleased someone was here for the job and directed the adventurers to the camp office, one of the two permanent structures in the camp.

Once inside the barrier, the adventurers could see that the two permanent structures were the camp office and the canteen, where the loggers took their meals.  Behind those were a large number of 4 person tents, which appeared to be where the loggers slept.

The group approached the camp office where several men were talking and asked for Nik Papadimitriou.  A tall skinny man said he was Nik Papadimitriou and wanted to know what they wanted.  The adventurers explained they were responding to the job posted in Mouzaki about stopping the animal attacks.  Nik brightened up at this.  He sent the people he had been speaking to on their way and invited the adventurers into his office.

Nik explained that some animal was attacking his workers and he needed someone to kill it to make it stop.  The job paid 5 gp in coin and another 5 gp in company script for stopping the attacks.  The adventurers stated that the pay offered was agreeable and Nik start explaining the situation in more detail.

About eight days ago, on April 16, one of the scouts marking trees in a new logging zone disappeared.  One of their boots was found two days later, with the foot still in it.  On April 19th, the first group of loggers started working the zone.  They spread out as is normal and started cutting down trees.  After a bit, one of them screamed loud enough to be heard by several other loggers.  They all rushed to the sound of the scream.  They found only blood stains and the logger’s axe.  This started making people nervous and the loggers don’t spread out as far any more.  Work has slowed as a result and Nik asked the company to do something about the animal.  Two days ago, at night, one of the loggers was killed on the edge of the camp itself, so everyone spent yesterday building the barrier and the gate around the camp and got no logging done at all.  Nik used a map on the wall showing the logging zones and their statuses to show where each attack happened.  Sorvia attempted to make a quick copy of the map, but it wasn’t very good [she rolled terrible].

Sorvia and Islo exited the camp to inspect the site where the last attack happened.  Unfortunately, many people had walked through there and the branches and bramble bushes that made up the camp’s barrier wall had been drug through as well, obliterating any signs of the attack.  Sorvia and Islo then had to hustle to get back inside the camp before the gate was closed for the night.  Luckily, Tharduk stood in the way of the gate to make certain Sorvia and Insl were let back in.

The adventurers were given a small clear area to set up their own campsite.

End of session

Commentary

[This campaign started with a desire on my part to return to an old campaign world.  I had a rough idea where I wanted to start and the situation I wanted the characters to start in, but not much past that.  I updated my character creation guidelines and the relevant documents the players would need to make their characters (languages, dwarven clan names, available martial arts, a little bit about the gods, and a map of the starting area).  Doing this was like coming home.  I enjoyed returning to this campaign and updating it as needed for running the game.]

[Starting with some guidelines for the players to create characters is how I started most of my home-brew campaigns.  I create a starting situation and see what interests the players and build off in that direction, staying just far enough ahead that they don’t catch up.  This campaign starts with the PCs in a refugee camp after the sudden sinking of the land and water rushing in to flood everything.  They’ve just finished helping with the spring planting organized by the Count so people will have food, but feel they can do better than farming.  I provided a list of jobs posted to the local jobs board and let the players pick what they wanted to do.  That’s where this session starts.  We’ll see where things go from here.]

[I feel I should also point out that the economy is based on copper pieces, not gold like most RPGs so the payouts might seem small but are significant for the jobs.]

Sudden Sea Adventures

Last session: None

Next session: Session 2

Hell Comes A’Glittering –Session 5

[Day 3 – Conclusion]

[This game uses the D&D 5E roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened July 24, 2023.]

[SPOILERS!  This is part of a published adventure set, Prepared 2: A Dozen One-Shot Adventures for 5th Edition, by Kobold press.]

Player Characters

Blaze Fulmen, Lord Auctor Braccas – male tabaxi (Noble), 6th level Storm Sorcerer; NG

Cecilia Payne – female tabaxi (Outlander), 6th level Circle of Stars Druid; LN

Joe Trade – male human (Guild Artisan), 2nd level Celestial Warlock, 4th level Armorer Artificer; LG

Via Roll20

Donnis Dustdrifter – male human (Investigator), 6th level Shadow Monk; CG

Bjoern Bjoernson – male human (Urchin), 3rd level Totem Warrior Barbarian, 3rd level Circle of Moon Druid; CN

Min – female tabaxi (Hermit), 6th level Mercy Monk; N

Autumn

Day 3

Late Morning

[Resume mid-fight.  The gnome woman summoned a crystalline entity and Lord Blaze cast a weak Lightning Bolt at the entity just prior to this point.]

Bjoern, in bear form, advanced to the gnome woman, standing on a broken display case and towering over her, and swung his great axe with rage, wounding the gnome.  The crystalline entity attacked Donnis twice, missing once and hitting critically with the second attack, dropping Donnis in one blow [it did 40 points of damage with a sneak attack]!  Donnis failed his first death save, slowly bleeding to death from the wound.  Hearing the crackle and boom of a lightning bolt, Cecilia realized a fight was happening inside the shop.  She used her Feline Agility to sprint over the low building and into the front door, where she shifted into her Starry Form [Bonus action] with the Sign of the Chalice prominent [bonus to healing].  Min followed suite, but being a Monk [with lots of extra movement] was able to arrive at Donnis’ side and use Hands of Healing on the downed monk, stopping his bleeding and reviving him.  Joe Trader placed a Strength Hex on the gnome woman and cast twin Eldritch Blasts at her, dropping her to the floor.

On the floor, the gnome woman bled.  Lord Blaze Transmuted his Lightning Bolt into a Thunder Bolt and cast it at the Crystalline entity, Empowering it [and rolling just under average damage on 8d6 after the rerolls], wind and lightning whipping around Lord Blaze [Heart of the Storm effect] and his cloak billowing dramatically [bonus action to activate Cloak of Billowing – yeah, he’s a drama queen].  Bjoern wildshaped into the form of a velociraptor, stepped to the crystalline entity, and multi-attacked, hitting with both claws, once critically.  The crystalline entity released a cone of crystal shards, hitting Donnis and Cecilia, dropping the monk unconscious again.  Donnis’s body fought to contain his soul [he made his first death save].  Cecilia upcast Healing Word [using a third-level slot] on Donnis to great effect [healed 21 points of damage after bonuses] and then drank a healing potion herself.  Min hopped up on a display case and attacked the crystalline entity from on high [gaining advantage] and strongly struck the creature.  Joe moved his Strength Hex from the unconscious gnome woman to the crystalline entity and cast dual Eldritch Blasts at it, hitting once.

The gnome woman bled out, her damned soul leaving this plane.  [She rolled a 1 on her death save, which counts as two failures.  Combined with her previous failure last round, she died.]  Lord Blaze cast Rays of Thunder [transmuted Burning Rays] on the crystalline entity, dropping the thing.

Bjoern rushed into the back room of the shop, following the blood trail on the floor.  Joe Trader went to the gnome woman and announced she had bled out and was dead.  Several members of the party were upset at this, wanting to question her further or see her on trial for her crimes.  Joe collected a dagger and her rapier to turn over to the guards as evidence she was the one who was the killer.  He also identified the crystalline entity as a crystalline devil.

Lord Blaze followed after Bjoern, also curious about where the blood trail led.  He paused at the door to the back room, observing a chest and some shelves.  Bjoern was looking down a set of stairs in the far corner, where the blood trail continued.  Lord Blaze called out to the others that there was a chest in the back room and that he was following Bjoern down some stairs to a basement.

Donnis walked over to investigate the chest.  Inside he found six potions of healing.  He quickly secured all six on his person, notifying the other investigators of this.  Cecilia and Min spend some time not moving [to recover use of their Feline Agility ability].

Heading down the stairs, Bjoern and Lord Blaze observed crystalline growths starting to appear on the walls and floor, getting more numerous as they descended.  At the bottom of the stairs, to the left, they found the body of a dead human, the source of the blood trail.  Ahead of them was the first room of the basement, with several side passages off to the right.  

By this time the rest of the investigators had caught up with Bjoern and Lord Blaze.  As the group moved forward, they could see through the first passage on the right.  It was short and led to another chamber with a long worktable on which sat six kyanite hearts.  Seated at the table was a golden devil.

The devil asked, “Who are you?”

“We’re here to stop your silver-tongued ways!” Donnis replied.

Bjoern screeched out a battlecry and the fight started!

Cecilia used her Feline Agility to rush down the stairs past her allies to the entrance to the room and cast Thunder Wave at the devil.  The devil resisted the spell itself but was knocked over by the worktable as it flipped over onto him from the force of the Thunder Wave.  In response, the area around Cecilia sprouted large crystal that attempted to box her in but failed.  [This was a Lair Action, something unique to 5E D&D.]  Bjoern advanced and pounced on the devil, hitting critically with both claws and massively biting the devil.  The devil attempted a [Legendary] action on Bjoern [the exact effects I neglected to write down], but Cecilia’s Cosmic Omen caused it to fail.  The Devil then multi-attacked Bjoern, hitting the barbarian twice.  Donnis then circled around the devil to flank it and hit it with a Stunning Fist, stunning the devil.  [Clone DM 1 did not give the devil a Legendary Save, so this shortened the fight significantly as the devil never got to act again after this.]  Min advanced, struck the devil, and then unleashed a flurry of blows by focusing her ki.  Sadly, only one hit from the flurry landed.  Joe Trader moved into the room and moved his Strength Hex from the fallen crystalline devil to this one.  He then struck the devil with his twin Eldritch Blasts.  Lord Blaze finally stepped into the room, amongst the crystals on the floor and cast Magic Missile at the devil, the wind and lightning surrounding him damaging the crystals.

Cecilia moved out of the crystal patch and upcast Healing Word on the injured Bjoern.  More crystals erupted from the floor [Lair Action again], this time forming a crystalline pillar between Bjoern and Joe Trader, damaging and grappling Bjoern, forcing him to revert to his human form.  [The damage done was enough use up the raptor’s hit points, which forced the wildshape to end.]  Bjoern raged and attacked the devil, missing the stunned devil completely [even with advantage].  The stunned devil did nothing.  Donnis struck the stunned devil with his Stunning Fist again, stunning the devil and dropping the fiend.

With no other foes in the basement, Lord Blaze and Cecilia left to report the situation to the Guard.  Joe Trader identified the devil as a gilded devil.  While waiting for the guards to arrive, the others looked around and found a Lapidary Guide marked “Property of Anni”.

Once the Guard show up and took control of the building as a crime scene, the party of investigators left, going to a tavern for lunch [taking a Short Rest].  Afterwards, Lord Blaze played dragon chess with Bjoern [who cheated but Lord Blaze never noticed].

Several Hours Later

The group of investigators were summoned to appear before the Starosa.  Once there they made a full report of their investigation with Lord Blaze doing most of the talking.  The report matching up with the other reports filed on the situation, the Starosa agreed that the group had successfully completed the job and paid out 1002 gold pieces [because 1000 does not divide by 6 evenly].

Outside the Starosa’s office, Lord Blaze split the bounty with the others and they went drinking.

End of session

End of Adventure

Commentary

[Clone DM 1 very much regretted not giving the gilded devil a Legendary Save and now understands why they are necessary for your Final Boss to have.  He was honest about it and did not retcon giving it one, which was the right thing to do.]

[Would I play 5E again?  Yes.  It is a different style of D&D that has some things I like very much and some things I’m more iffy about.  I very much have Monk Envy as the 5E Monks have many benefits over monks from any other edition, notably the ability to apply Stunning Fist AFTER you see if you hit or not.  It makes Stunning Fist useful and not a big gamble to use.  Also, monks in 5E recover ki after a short rest, so even if they have to use it to power Flurry of Blows, they recoup it much easier and faster.]

[With this adventure complete, we next switch over to a new campaign of mine, reviving an old campaign world I ran for 14+ years.  We also return to using the Hero System 5th Edition Revised as the game system, my favorite game system.  Next week I’ll post short synopses of the player characters and the starting situation they are in.  The week after that will be the session notes for Session 1.]

Hell Comes a’Glittering

Last session: Session 4 

Next session: None – Adventure complete.

Hell Comes A’Glittering –Session 4

[Day 2 and 3 – Further investigations and solution?]

[This game uses the D&D 5E roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened July 17, 2023.]

[SPOILERS!  This is part of a published adventure set, Prepared 2: A Dozen One-Shot Adventures for 5th Edition, by Kobold press.]

Player Characters

Blaze Fulmen, Lord Auctor Braccas – male tabaxi (Noble), 6th level Storm Sorcerer; NG

Cecilia Payne – female tabaxi (Outlander), 6th level Circle of Stars Druid; LN

Joe Trade – male human (Guild Artisan), 2nd level Celestial Warlock, 4th level Armorer Artificer; LG

Via Roll20

Donnis Dustdrifter – male human (Investigator), 6th level Shadow Monk; CG

Bjoern Bjoernson – male human (Urchin), 3rd level Totem Warrior Barbarian, 3rd level Circle of Moon Druid; CN

Min – female tabaxi (Hermit), 6th level Mercy Monk; N

Autumn

Day 2

Evening

After eating dinner, Lord Blaze went up to his room in the inn and smoked some of the elf weed he had confiscated.  It was quite potent.  Once the primary effects wore off [two hours later], Lord Blaze decided to go out looking for a late night meal.  Surely a trade town like this would have some sort of late night street food vendors in the bazaar.  Bjoern went along, stating he “knew some places.”

Lord Blaze secured some food from a vendor Bjoern knew.  Bjoern wildshaped into a bloodhound again and searched for scents familiar from the crime scenes or just vaguely diabolic.  He found none.  Once Lord Blaze was done eating, the duo went back to the inn.  Lord Blaze went up to his room to sleep while Bjoern found a quiet spot in the common room and slept there.

[I was actually fishing for another attack by the murderer and hoped to be nearby to stop said attack.  No luck.]

Day 3

The group of investigators reassembled at the nice inn (the one Blaze was staying in) for breakfast.  They discussed the plan to follow Cecilia after she cast Locate Object to find the kyanite hearts.  They would need to travel quickly as the spell’s duration was not overly long.

Once breakfast was done, Cecilia pulled out the wooden heart Min had carved the day before as a go-by.  She then cast Locate Object and let the spell extend to its fullest extent.  She felt a tug to the southwest and started moving in that direction.  The rest of the group cleared the path in front of her, Lord Blaze brandishing his token of authority from the Starosa.

The trail led to the gemcutter’s guildhall.  The group paused but Lord Blaze was firm on advancing, stating the gemcutters would be the perfect way to change the shape of the hearts so they were no longer recognizable.  Bjoern wildshaped into a bear.

Lord Blaze pushed open the front doors to the guildhall, announcing loudly the group was on official Starosa business.  A tall man attempted to intervene, but the group bulled past him, following Cecilia into the main workshop of the guildhall.  The trail ended at a halfling woman working at a workdesk.  The “kyanite heart” she was working on had a wooden core and she was applying shards of kyanite, cut to fit, to it.

The tall man caught up and introduced himself as the guild leader and demanded to know what was going on.  Recognizing that the spell had led them to the wrong thing, Lord Blaze immediately made apologies, explaining that they were attempting to track down a killer and had followed an incorrect lead.  The man, Argus, demanded to see the token of authority while the rest of the gemcutters watched.  Lord Blaze handed over the token and, after examining it, Argus announced it was authentic.  He then asked the group to follow him to his office so they could stop distracting the work of the guild.

In Argus’ office, Lord Blaze explained the details of why they had arrived and what they were looking for.  Argus explained that kyanite was a strong but brittle stone and required very high levels of skill to cut without fracturing.  If someone cut out a kyanite heart without breaking it, they would be very skilled and there were very few in Nogvurot with that skill.  There are only three shops in town with gemcutters able to do the work.  He provided the names and locations of the shops and, after being asked, a letter of introduction.  Joe Trade fished for information about the other guildmasters in the Nogvurot but essentially learned that they did not match their profile of the killer at all.

After the group left the guildhall, Bjoern stated that one of the locations, Kendri’s Fine Works, was in a part of the town known to do work with no questions asked.  He recommended they start there.  As Bjoern was the local in the group, the group followed his suggestion.  The group walked along the primary streets of Nogvurot, heading first east and then north to the area near the docks.  While cutting through the bazaar, Lord Blaze purchased a tasty beverage.

When the group entered the courtyard adjacent to Kendri’s, several members of the group could tell something was off.  There were no animals in the area, including birds.  Min and Cecilia volunteered to keep an eye on the courtyard while the rest went around the building Kendri’s was in to the entrance on the other side.  Lord Blaze thought someone might try a hidden back exit when the group entered the front doors and he wanted quick people on watch.  [Also, if a fight started, these characters would be out of it for a period of time, so we wanted players to volunteer.]

Lord Blaze, Bjoern, Joe, and Donnis walked around the south end of the building.  The entrance to the shop was down a narrow alley between the shop and the adjoining workshop.  Both were quiet and dark with shutters drawn despite it being near Noon on a business day.  The group approached the door cautiously, concerned about potential ambushes in the narrow passage.

The door to the shop proved to be locked.  Joe pulled out a set of lockpicks and set to picking the lock while Donnis, Lord Blaze, and Bjoern stood and kept watch.  It took Joe two attempts, but he finally unlocked the door.  Bjoern cast Pass without Trace on the group.  Lord Blaze went to enter the shop but was stopped by Bjoern who wanted to check for traps first.  Once Bjoern said it was clear, Lord Blaze walked in.  The room was L-shaped with the back of the room extending further to the left and out of sight.  Several display cases were laid out in the back half of the darkened shop.

[There is a discontinuity here.  Blaze entered and walked a diagonal line to the right wall and followed that to a broken display case.  I did this for tactical reasons.  The other members of the party followed as I had proven those areas safe from traps.  Once we were in, Clone DM 1 realized the path taken was also the path of a blood trail on the floor that the room description in the book buried two paragraphs in, so he had missed it.  We decided to retcon that we had followed the trail on purpose and that retcon is how I will describe what happens next.]

The interior was dark, but Lord Blaze, as a tabaxi, had darkvision and was not bothered by it.  Joe cast a Light cantrip on an unlit torch to provide light to the humans.  A blood trail was apparent on the floor.  Someone bleeding heavily had been dragged from the door towards the right wall and the back of the shop.  Lord Blaze followed the trail, careful to not step in it.  Donnis followed Lord Blaze into the shop.

The two paused at the first of the display cases.  The glass on the case was shattered and nothing was in the display.  Donnis noticed some movement off in the area to the far left, where the light from the torch did not fully reach.  He made gestures to indicate this.  Joe and Bjoern entered the shop, heading to the corner on the left to provide light in that area.

In the light they saw a gnome woman hiding behind a display case.  When she noticed the light she started talking.  She didn’t seem to be talking to any one of the investigators, just out loud or maybe to herself.  She stated that she had been promised the best skills in exchange for kyanite hearts.  She wanted to be the best gemcutter ever.  Legendary.  Bjoern and Donnis talked at her some and she admitted she had to kill some people to get the hearts but her skills were now legendary.  She then asked if she would be let go.  The investigators, cautiously closing in, said “No.”

Another voice entirely, deeper and sinister, responded, “That’s unfortunate.”

The gnome woman took off a necklace and tossed it down on the floor.  When it landed it immediately grew into a human-sized crystalline humanoid.

The gnome woman attacked Donnis, who by now was adjacent to her, with her rapier but missed.  Lord Blaze cast Lightning Bolt at the crystalline entity that did little damage to it [due to a below average damage roll] but knocked out the power at my house and the entire neighborhood!

End of session

Commentary

[Actually, something else knocked out the power in the area, but it literally happened right after I announced the damage from the spell.  We heard police and firetruck sirens right after, so we think someone hit a power pole.  The power was out for maybe 5 minutes or so, but by the time it came back on we had decided to call it for the night.  Our normal stop time was approaching and we were just about to start a fight of unknown duration so the power outage seemed to be a sign.]

[Oh, and the Locate Object spell failed because Cecilia did not know the object she was looking for as well as the spell requires.  Clone DM 1 threw us a bone with the gemcutters rather than just have the spell just fizzle and fail.  Solid call on his part as it rewarded creativity and moved the plot along in an unexpected direction.]

Hell Comes a’Glittering

Last session: Session 3 

Next session: Session 5

Status Now, Writeups to Follow

I spent all my available writing time the last two weeks to get ready for running my new campaign (The Sudden Sea Campaign) for the Monday Group.  This consisted of getting all the character creation guidelines written plus a listing of languages spoken in-game plus a listing of the martial arts available.

We did Session 0 this past Monday, which was wrapping up character creation (most people had their characters mostly done but had campaign or rules questions they needed answered so they could finish.  We spent a minimal time stringing together reasons for the PCs to know each other.  5 of the 6 players were able to complete their characters and send me copies.  The sixth player has been swamped at work (in fact he could not attend that night because of work) and is also one of the new parents in the group.  He should have a support character ready by the first game session, work and life allowing.

We played sessions 4 and 5 of Hell Comes a'Glittering the last two weeks and wrapped up the adventure.  I have a better grasp of D&D 5E now and some ideas on how I would have built my Sorcerer slightly differently.  It was a good experiment and did the job necessary to bridge us from the conclusion of the Shattered Star, Book 3 adventure to the beginning of my "new" campaign.  Clone GM One did a good job.

My goal is to have session 4 of Hell Comes a'Glittering posted by Friday as I'm running my monthly Adventures in the Green game on Saturday and doing house chores (and maybe a movie) Sunday.  Session 5 (the conclusion) will post next week.  Session 1 of the Sudden Sea Campaign will get written up and posted the week after that, allowing a week between when a session happens and when it gets posted.  We'll see how it actually goes.

Later!

CORRECTION: Hell Comes a'Glittering made it to FIVE sessions.  I adjusted the text above to count for that.