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Post by HorizonsDream on Aug 25, 2021 19:01:49 GMT -8
Woooh, things are getting interesting. The ghost is a real ghost after all O: By the way Daos, I wanted to say that your writings are always easy to read and pretty engaging, bravo! Daos has written numerous stories over the years, and he used to post them on this site for the sake of getting feedback. He hasn't done that in awhile though.
As for the session last week, it was getting really interesting. He wasn't wrong when I was on the edge of my seat with the ghost prince encounter. I did roll my eyes because it is supremely arrogant to call yourself the ghost prince. It really isn't a wonder why Zinnia's mother ultimately denied Surrisk. He sounds like an ass, so I really hope that he doesn't turn out to be Zinnia's father. That would suck, and it would be extremely disappointing to Zinnia.
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Post by Daos on Aug 25, 2021 21:37:01 GMT -8
By the way, for those wondering, Horizon leveled up Zinnia and learned the Levitate spell.
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Post by GravityEmblem on Aug 26, 2021 3:52:12 GMT -8
Yeah, I've written my fair share of stories and fanfics, too--some better than others. The most recent was a retelling of Dragon Age: Inquisition with my own version of Hawke as Inquisitor--though unlike a lot of such stories, they're separate from the Herald "player character." I got as far as Skyhold, then stopped playing the game, and quickly abandoned the story. Oh, well!
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Post by Daos on Aug 27, 2021 14:53:33 GMT -8
We had our session yesterday, but I had assumed we'd be wrapping things up. Zinnia had found the tower and learned Levitation, so it was on to the endgame. But oddly enough, she just wound up faffing about for three days. Day 9 - Return to ChildhoodZinnia and Varni woke up and got breakfast. The inn was abuzz about the Ghost Prince and how Normand scared it off. There was no mention of the role Zinnia played in the story, though. She and Varni went to Beautiful Baubles to speak with Kendrick again. After some poking and prodding and a Tide of Chaos use on a Persuasion check, she finally managed to get him to come clean. He had been in love with Arabella. But he insisted it had been completely one-sided and they never got together, so there was no way he was her father. As they left, Varni expressed confusion about the whole matter, and Zinnia noted she used strange terminology, like 'mate' and 'offspring.' This led to Zinnia bluntly asking if Varni was human, which confused her. "I look like you, don't I?" she asked. But Zinnia corrected her, saying she was only half-human, and half-elven. This confused Varni further, as she thought elves and humans were the same thing. This led to other topics, but overall it seemed Varni comes from a very strange culture with an unusual way of looking at relationships. Apparently Varni was raised alone in the wild with her parents, not in a town or village. After they died, she didn't know where to go or where to find others of her kind, so she just wandered until she stumbled into Northbank. Zinnia also compared Varni's people to wolves or foxes, which seemed to offend the young woman. The pair went to Kitta's place to retrieve the scroll that was promised. However, Zinnia revealed that she could now levitate anyway somehow. Kitta asked for a demonstration, so Zinnia obliged. Horizon had completely forgotten she used a Tide of Chaos earlier, so this triggered a Wild Surge. Zinnia levitated into the air, and got shorter and younger, de-aging 9 whole years. As Zinnia is only 19, this meant she was now 10 years old! Neither Kitta or Varni had any idea what had happened or how to fix it. Kitta wondered if somehow Zinnia is drawing surplus mana from an unknown source, and it's bleeding out in the form of side-effects. However, this shouldn't be possible, by the laws of magic. Drawing out too much power should cause the spell to fizzle out and not work. It led Kitta to speculate that Zinnia is somehow not drawing mana from the planet's core, as other mages do, but from another source entirely. Zinnia was nearly on the verge of tears, though, so Kitta rushed her over to Dar's. Dar looked even more disheveled than last time, as if he hadn't slept at all in the past few days. He was largely annoyed at being interrupted, but was able to reverse the effect and age Zinnia back up to normal. Not sure what else to do, Zinnia and Varni headed back to the inn for the rest of the afternoon, waiting until night came and then went to bed. NotesThere's this running gag going all the way back to Day 1, where Zinnia enters a shop, the shopkeeper asks her what she needs, and she says, "Well, I'm not here to buy anything, I just need to ask you some questions." I joked that the shopkeepers were going to get fed up and demand she start buying stuff first. They're trying to run a business here, after all! Honestly, I think it would have been a hoot to finish out the module with a 10 year old Zinnia, but HorizonsDream wasn't into the idea, so I decided Dar had some way of undoing it. If something like that happens again, though, watch out! Dar won't always be around to fix it. Day 10 - Camping OutZinnia woke up the next morning and gathered up the whole party (including Lura) and headed off to Old Northbank. She visited Vel Marka at his hiding spot. He was not pleased she brought even more people this time. She tried to convince him to serve as bait. She wanted him to camp out with the party at his shop that night, and when the Ghost Prince arrived to kill him, the party would attack. However, Vel was largely cowardly and even Darrin had to admit they weren't even sure they could hurt the Ghost Prince. Ultimately, he decided to pack up and find a new hiding place altogether. He did agree to give Zinnia a key to his shop, if for no other reason to assure she didn't break into it again. Zinnia and the party went to Vel's shop and let themselves in. There, they waited all morning, afternoon and night, camping there for the entire day. However, the Ghost Prince never showed. NotesLater on, Horizon did the math and came to realize that the first night the Ghost Prince visits someone does not count as part of the three days. So if he visits you on the night of the 1st, he won't come back until the 4th, not the 3rd. Day 11 - A Hot Time in Old NorthbankZinnia woke up, disappointed the Ghost Prince never showed. She and the party headed back to the inn, and heard rumors of goblin sightings up in Old Northbank. Zinnia decided to check it out. They followed the rumors until they met a young girl who claimed 'ugly people' attacked her grandfather. The party tracked the goblins to a small, one story, one room building that had long been abandoned. Aldair easily picked the lock, so they just stepped inside and found eight goblins squatting in there with a pile of loot they had stolen from the locals. The goblins threatened the party, but Zinnia unleashed magic missiles into the leader, who died instantly. This seemed to take the fight out of the other seven, and Zinnia allowed them to run away, figuring they would not return. Lura wasn't so sure, and warned they may be back with greater numbers for revenge. Zinnia said they could track the goblins back to their lair, but it might take days, so it would take too much time. Zinnia led the party back to Dar's place. He did not answer, even after she knocked several times. Worried, she did what she always does--ask Aldair to break and enter. What could possibly go wrong? Well, it turned out that Dar had a magical alarm in place, and it went off when she stepped inside his tower. He came downstairs, looking like he had just been woken up. He chewed her out for trespassing. Zinnia said she was sorry, but felt justified because she was worried the Ghost Prince had taken him. She then tried to change the subject and ask how Dar's research had been going. But Dar wasn't having any of it, threatened to tell the mayor if they didn't leave immediately, and warned he would set up a fireball trap on his front door to prevent her from trying to break in again. Not sure what else to do, Zinnia went back to the inn for the rest of the day. NotesThe incident with the goblins was the final sidequest of this module. All that remains now is the main quest. I'm deeply amused by the idea that Dar went several days without sleeping to research the death of his brother, and when he did finally crash, Zinnia woke him up by triggering his alarm. I'll probably calculate XP tomorrow, after work.
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Post by GravityEmblem on Aug 27, 2021 15:33:56 GMT -8
Oh, running gags are the best. We have one where my IRL group gets all excited to buy magic items, but all they have are "potions and scrolls."
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Post by Daos on Aug 28, 2021 13:18:13 GMT -8
Alright, time for XP: Learning the truth of Kendrick and Arabella - 25 XP Learning about Varni's culture - 25 XP Routing the goblins - 80 XP TOTAL: 130 XP That puts Zinnia at 1,051 XP total, which means Zinnia needs 1,649 XP to reach level 4. Don't forget to update your character sheet, HorizonsDream.
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Post by Daos on Sept 2, 2021 21:34:20 GMT -8
We finished the module tonight. I'll get around to the summary tomorrow, after work, but I'm posting this here to remind me.
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Post by Daos on Sept 3, 2021 14:45:34 GMT -8
Let's wrap this up!
Day 12 - The Tower Waking up that morning, Zinnia gathered Darrin, Aldair, Varni and Lura and set off for the old Guild tower again. It took all of the morning and some of the afternoon to arrive. On a whim, she had Aldair search for traps on the front door, but he didn't find any. Zinnia opened the door and was nearly incinerated. (Aldair is really good at removing traps, but terrible at actually finding them.) It seems Surrisk set up some defensive measures while she was gone.
The party ascended all the way up to where they left off last time. Zinnia cast Levitate on herself and floated up the chute, dropping off a rope for the others to follow. They found themselves in a large, cylindrical room with burn marks and scarring all over it, and no ceiling--rather, just a shimmering Wall of Force above the walls. Zinnia figured this was some kind of testing ground for dangerous spells. She found a scroll of Create Spectral Wizard, a powerful (8th level spell) that seemed to be what created Surrisk. Zinnia realized it could be reverse engineered to create a spell to undo the effect, but it's far beyond her ability and for even someone like Dar, it would take months.
They moved on to the next level, and found what appeared to be a pair of guard dorms--largely empty of anything noteworthy.
The level after that was a bedroom, but it had been trashed. Searching through the broken furniture, Zinnia found a silver ring, a pair of glasses, and a dusty rose stone. She cast Detect Magic and determined the latter two items were magical.
The eleventh level was another bedroom, more or less identical to the last, but this one was intact and pristine. Well, except for the three skeletal guards. The party easily dispatched them, only taking a couple of minor wounds. Zinnia searched the room and found a pouch with three emeralds. There was also a magic bathtub, but it was too big to take.
The twelfth and final level was completely dark (where as the previous ones were all magically lit). Zinnia cast Light to illuminate things. It was a spacious bedroom, with a long rope uncoiled on the ground. Surrisk floated over by the bed, waiting.
Zinnia engaged Surrisk in conversation. He admitted he was planning on visiting her tonight, but she came to him instead. When she asked why, he said it was to offer her a deal. "Join you or die?" Zinnia asked. Surrisk admitted he wouldn't have killed her if he could have helped it, for she was the 'vessel.' Zinnia tried to get him to clarify what that meant, but he was pretty cryptic. But what she was able to put together is that Kyristan did something to her mother, or rather something to Zinnia herself when she was still in the womb. Her mother fled afterward, and Kyristan thought she had died and so forgot about her. Apparently Surrisk had chosen her for whatever experiment it was, because he was fond of her.
All Zinnia wanted was to know who her father was and what Kyristan did to her. Surrisk offered to take her to him, the Dead King, and he would answer all of her questions. She would be the key to the beginning of a new age, one that Kyristan would usher in from the ruins of the fallen Neconilis. Zinnia seemed to actually consider it, but ultimately decided to reject it. Surrisk informed her that she had no choice; he was just giving her the option of doing it the easy way or the hard way. The final battle began.
Zinnia won initiative, and in fact everyone beat Surrisk except Varni. She started the round by unleashing a level 2 magic missile, which did considerable harm. Her companions were far less effective. Lura, Varni and Darrin had to attack with disadvantage because of Surrisk's aura of fear, while Aldair stayed in the back with his bow, but because he was shooting mundane arrows, they only did half damage when they did hit. Varni freaked out and started to transform, becoming a full blown tiger. However, her claws and bites were at disadvantage, as well.
Surrisk spent his turn trying to cast Bind on Zinnia, with the rope on the ground, but she made her save and avoided it. I figured that would be it, and she would cast Magic Missile again and it would be over. But instead, she cast Shocking Grasp (using metamagic to cast it at range), which missed. So when Surrik's turn came again, he tried Bind once more and this time it worked.
Aldair tried to cut her free, but Surrisk cast Spook on him, which forced him to move away from her. Fortunately, Lura managed to get in a good hit and finish him off with the very sword Zinnia had gifted to her.
As his ethereal form disintegrated, Surrisk urged her to seek out Kyristan in Neconilis for her answers. Then he was gone for good.
Zinnia managed to calm down Varni, who eventually turned back into her human form. They searched the room and found Surrisk's spellbook, and then decided to head home. It was quite late when they returned to Northbank.
Epilogue The following day, Zinnia reported to the mayor, Kitta and Dar everything that happened. She returned the Gem of Seeing to Dar, and gave him Surrisk's spellbook. The tension gripping the town was relieved, and Zinnia was commended as a hero.
Darrin and Aldair returned to their lives as mercenaries. On her last night in town, Zinnia decided to throw Aldair a bone. By which I mean, she boned him. He did a lot of high-fiving the following day with everyone he met.
Varni became an apprentice to Kitta, deciding to dedicate her life to learning magic.
Dar decided to clean up the tower and reopen the guild, with himself as headmaster. This attracted a lot more business to the town, as young mages flocked to join the guild. Consequently, the economy was soon booming. Old Northbank was cleaned up, and the town thrived.
Lura returned to the temple and Normand's side, perhaps a little less wary of mages in general now.
Oswald easily won the following election.
As for Zinnia herself, she spent a few more weeks in town, mostly studying in Dar's library. She found some references to Neconilis in an old book, and with a lead to follow, packed up and headed west in hopes of finding it, Kyristan, and the answers she sought.
Notes I decided to add a couple of traps which weren't part of the original module, because I felt like Surrisk would want to set up some kind of defenses after what happened last time.
The trashed bedroom, as it turns out, used to belong to a wizard that Surrisk didn't like personally. So he trashed it. Kind of gives you an idea of what sort of person he was.
After the adventure, Zinnia got the glasses and stone identified. They were a Lens of Speed Reading and an Ioun Stone of Protection. Those boots she found in the hermit's cave were Boots of Varied Tracks, and the quarterstaff was a Quarterstaff +1. (Originally, it was a Quarterstaff of Proficiency. Basically, anyone could use it with proficiency, even if they weren't proficient in it. But this doesn't really work in 5E. Because every class has proficiency in the quarterstaff automatically. So I just changed it to a standard +1 staff.) She never used the inspiration I gave her way back in the first session, either, but that's not really surprising; it's been my experience so far that most players never use it.
You know, it just occurs to me not that with the exception of the Gem of Seeing, Zinnia never used a single magical item she found in the entire game. And there were a lot of them. She found every one except the tub (well, she found it, but she didn't realize it was magical and couldn't have really taken it anyway).
There is no mention of Neconilis in the module; that's from Wizard's Challenge II and it was just me setting it up as a sequel. The module just says Kyristan is far off and suggests the DM make up an adventure involving him to follow. But the stories of WCI and WCII are not actually in any way related, but I wanted to try and tie them together anyway.
I have no idea why Varni is a weretiger. Like, it has nothing to do with the story whatsoever. It's pretty random, and it's possible the PC never even finds out. I just decided to have her reveal herself at the final battle for fun.
The module only lasts 14 days. On the night of day 12, Surrisk visits the PC and makes an offer. On day 13, he kills Kitta (unless the PC somehow stops it). And then on day 14, if the PC still hasn't solved the mystery, Dar finally steps in and basically spoon-feeds it to them that they need to go to the tower.
Some other fun facts: * There's an abandoned house in town that has fallen into disrepair and is a haven for stray cats. If the PC finds it, they can clean it up and move in, avoiding having to pay for inn fees. (There are a couple of spell scrolls hidden there, as the former occupant was a mage; they include Light, Web and Dispel Magic).
* It's possible to convince Kitta, Han or even Dar to mentor the PC. But as Zinnia is a sorcerer and not a wizard, it never came up.
* There are five possible companions to recruit. Darrin and Aldair are the easiest; just have to pay them. Varni joins if you agree to teach her magic. Lura joins if you find the magic sword and give it to her. The fifth and final companion was actually Kitta. She only joins if you wait until after she is threatened by Surrisk. She is so afraid she'll basically do anything you ask, including joining the party. She's a level 5 Enchanter, though, so not terribly useful against undead. Dar and Han do not join. Dar is a 9th level Academician and Han a 7th level Mystic Diviner.
* The mayor is a former adventurer, and once Han dies, you can ask him to loan you his magic dagger +1.
* Norada was taken to Kyristan, so maybe she'll turn up later. After he knocked her out, Surrisk put her on a Tenser's Floating Disc. This is why there were no footprints leaving her home, and why there was a strange cut in her crops (the disk was floating in mid-air).
* Normand and Vel Marka were never in danger. Surrisk couldn't touch a priest, and Vel actually is successful in his hiding that Surrisk never finds him. Kitta is the only one who can die and will if the PC doesn't stop it. Han's death can be avoided, but it would take a lot of luck or foresight to pull it off. Same with Norada's disappearance.
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Post by HorizonsDream on Sept 3, 2021 15:32:30 GMT -8
Overall, I had a pretty good time. I was a little nervous about the boss, but I'm glad I used magic missile as a second level spell at the beginning as that really helped. I should have cast it again, but I wanted to try different spells other than magic missile. Plus, I hadn't used my metamagic before, so I thought I would give it a try.
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Post by Daos on Sept 4, 2021 12:56:40 GMT -8
Time for XP: Realizing Surrisk might have set some traps - 25 XP Realizing Create Spectral Wizard could possibly be reversed - 25 XP Defeating the skeletons (x3) - 30 XP Rejecting Surrisk's offer - 25 XP Defeating Surrisk - 360 XP Successful completion of adventure - 300 XP
TOTAL: 765 XP That puts Zinnia at 1,816 XP total, which means she needs 884 XP to reach level 4. Don't forget to update your character sheet, HorizonsDream .
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Post by Daos on Sept 5, 2021 12:33:35 GMT -8
Well, hopefully I wasn't too rusty after all these years. I admit, the whole endeavor went far better than I would have initially guessed. However, the idea was to start building up a group of players, but the truth is, the pandemic is still going pretty strong in this country. So for now, we've decided to move on to Wizard's Challenge II. It has nothing to do with the first module, so I'll have to rework it a bit. So we'll be taking a break while I work on not only converting it from 2E to 5E, but also rewriting the story to make it a proper sequel to the last adventure. Like WCI, this module has a lot of unique items, spells and monsters that will probably be a challenge to convert, but at least I have some practice in that now. So hopefully it will be a bit easier for me. I have the entire week off from work, so I'll probably make some good headway during that time in getting it all prepped, but I can't say for sure how long it will take to finish.
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Post by Daos on Oct 7, 2021 13:57:54 GMT -8
Well, it's been a month, and I'm pleased to announce that the second module is now ready. Well, except for the final boss. Once again, it's a new, original creature that has no 5E equivalent, so I'll have to try and translate it myself. But everything else is set and ready, and we'll probably have our first session a week from today (the 14th).
For those who need a refresher on our hero:
Zinnia Ballana (Half-Elf Wild Sorcerer 3, Folk Hero, NG) STR 11, DEX 14, CON 16, INT 14, WIS 14, CHA 16 AC 12, HP 26 Magic Items: Ring of Thaumaturgy, Lens of Speed Reading, Jar of Ooze, Slime and Jelly Beans, Crucible of Melting, Boots of Varied Tracks, Decanter of Endless Water, Ioun Stone of Defense Cantrips: Light, Shocking Grasp, Prestidigitation, Ray of Frost 1st level spells: Magic Missile, Detect Magic, Thunderwave 2nd level spells: Levitate
Zinnia's backstory is that she was raised by her elven mother, but never knew her human father. All her mother would tell her is that he was a powerful mage. Zinnia herself had no interest in magic, and even kind of resented it a bit, so she grew up and joined the local army to become a great soldier instead. But one day during a battle, she suddenly and inexplicably manifested magical powers that she could not control. She is now on a mission to track down her father, in hopes of getting answers.
After traveling to Northbank in hopes of tracking her father down, she learned he may have been an evil necromancer named Kyristan, the Dead King. After dealing with the Ghost Prince, Kyristan's apprentice, Surrisk, and saving the mages of Northbank, she discovered a lead that suggested Kyristan was hiding out in the ruins of a forgotten and lost kingdom called Neconilis. And so she set off westward, toward her next great mystery and adventure.
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Post by Daos on Oct 15, 2021 15:49:35 GMT -8
Yesterday we had our first session of Wizard's Challenge II. It went on a bit longer than I expected, but a lot of progress was made. Day 01 - Arrival in New HavenIt's been about a month since the events of Northbank occurred, and Zinnia has been steadily making her way westward since then, in hopes of finding the ruins of Neconilis, where Kyristan is said to be hiding. She eventually tracked these ruins down to an area called the Badlands, which were within the barony of one Tigus Felmoor. The session opens with Zinnia meeting the baron, who is eager to make a deal. It turns out, he really needs a mage. Felmoor explains that he has recently (10 months ago) set up a small settlement called New Haven on the western border of his territory, to clear out the land and start farming there. The settlement is right on the border of the Badlands. So far, things have gone well. The first bounty of crops should be ready to harvest soon. But two weeks ago, something went awry. The militia he set up to protect the settlement sent out an exploratory party into the Badlands to start mapping it out (more to give them something to do, as there is very little crime in New Haven, as it has a population of less than 50 people). Only one of the scouts returned, badly wounded and with a broken sword. He claimed a monster attacked them and slaughtered all of the militia save for himself with his fire breath and massive claws. Any weapon used upon the beast shattered on impact. This news troubled the baron, because this monster--whatever it might be--could be a threat to the settlement. It's clear this creature is magical in nature, and unable to be harmed by conventional weaponry. Only magic can defeat magic, as the old saying goes. There is a hermit mage that lives near the town in an old tower, but since the attack he's refused to answer the door and nobody has seen him anywhere. So the baron tells Zinnia that if she handles this situation, he will give her full access to explore any ruins in the Badlands, and a thousand gold pieces on top of that. She agrees, so he gives her a writ that basically lets her command the militia on the baron's authority. He then has some men escort her out to New Haven to meet with the leader of the militia, Captain Buregard Tillan. The captain keeps Zinnia waiting for an hour before he sees her. He's an older man, mid-fifties, and quite tall (6'2") and muscular for his age. It's clear from his tone and body language he does not like Zinnia, does not want her here, but has no choice as his orders come from the baron himself. He tells her that the young soldier who returned alive (Rafel) is resting in the barracks, in and out of consciousness (the settlement has no magical healing whatsoever, so the boy has to recover the slow way). The local weaponsmith, an old dwarf named Thore, was the one who forged the sword that shattered. The monster attacked happened somewhere northwest of town. The hermit is a mage that lives in a tower outside of town. Nobody has seen or heard from him since the attack, and the captain finds that very suspicious. That's about all he knew. The settlement was quite small. Aside from the ten farms, there was the barracks, the general store, the inn and the smithy. Zinnia goes straightaway to visit Rafel, but he's currently unconscious. So she decides to try again later. Instead, she heads to the inn, a place called The Rock, largely because there was a giant boulder in the middle of the room with various scrawlings on it, sort of serving as a makeshift guestbook. It is run by a halfling fellow named Tallyhoe Nimbletoes, and his two servers, a large half-orc named Burgot and a young 15 year old woman named Tanya. Zinnia ordered a meal and listened in on some local gossip. One rumor was that the hermit mage unleashed a demon from the Abyss into the Badlands after he lost control of it and it killed him. Another rumor was that the so-called monster attack was just a mundane jackal attack, but the militia made up a cover story to hide their incompetence. Another rumor by some of the militia off-duty was that an undead beast lives in the Badlands and everyone it kills turns undead; and that's why Rafel is in such bad condition--he's slowly turning. Zinnia decided to continue her tradition of visiting shops and not buying anything, much to the shopkeepers chagrin. She visits the smithy and meets Thore, a grumpy and very old dwarf who claims his swords were in excellent condition, so only magic could have shattered them. He apparently used to forge for kings for 200 years, but decided to move out here for his retirement. She also met Augmen Cudlebutt (is that last name supposed to be so hilarious?), a human running the general store. Augmen didn't really seem to care about the so-called monster attack and had little to say about it. At this point, a young man--about 14--approached Zinnia. He reeked of horse manure and was dressed like a stableboy. His name is Steewee, and he claimed that Tallyhoe had requested dinner with her that evening at The Rock. He also seemed quite interested in Zinnia's magical abilities, but ran off when he saw some soldiers nearby, as it turned out his uncle was none other than Captain Tillan, and he knew the man disliked mages and wouldn't want Steewee to talk to one. Zinnia went to the inn and got a free, if basic, meal. During the time, Tallyhoe offered his help in the investigation and also probed her on what progress she had made so far. She also learned that Tanya is Rafel's girlfriend, and both she and Burgot were adopted off the streets of the capital by Tallyhoe. Zinnia decides to rent a room for the night and gets some rest. NotesAs previously mentioned, Wizard's Challenge and Wizard's Challenge II have no connection, but I tried to fit them together. The two are somewhat similar, though, in some respects. Both are roleplay heavy and combat light. Both center around solving a mystery. Both have the PC being a stranger and having to earn the trust of the locals. Both involve very small towns (although New Haven makes Northbank look like a metropolis in comparison). I think Zinnia went to check on Rafel two or three times on the first day? There was a 25% chance he'd be conscious, so I had Horizon roll for it, and she kept rolling high. The Rock is an interesting place. The titular boulder had several phrases written on it, and some were kind of funny. They were: "I wish this rock didn't block my view of the barmaid." "To the best, and unfortunately the only, innkeeper in New Haven." "Remember not to swindle any of my soldiers, halfling--Baron Felmoor." "Justa rolll me unda dis rock if I passt out." Oh, yeah, that first one reminds me of something weird about the module. Steewee is 14 and the module acts as if he's a little kid (even the name Steewee makes him sound like he's 6 or something). On the other hand, Tanya is only 15, but the module mentions how attractive she is and several characters also comment on her beauty. Just seems a little odd...and creepy, really. Anyway, the first day was mostly just getting acquainted with the the town and its residents. New Haven is much smaller than Northbank, so there are fewer places to visit and less people to meet, though. Day Two - Forming a PartyThe next morning, Zinnia entered the common room and immediately met Herken Strongplow, one of the farmers. In fact, he was something of the de facto leader and spokesman of the farmers. He's a big, bear of a man, nearly 7 feet tall and quite muscular. He offers to help in her investigation in any way he can, and also invites her to lunch at his farm that afternoon. Zinnia accepts. She then peeks in on Rafel again, but he's still unconscious. So she goes to the barracks and presses four of the soldiers into service to escort her to the hermit's tower. It only takes about 20 minutes to get there, it's easy to find (they just need to head north and keep the forest in sight) and they don't encounter anything on the way. The tower is quite old, and Zinnia realizes that it might date back to centuries ago. It was probably an old guard tower that the hermit (named Azzmeer, according to Tallyhoe) moved into. The door, on the other hand, looked much newer. It had no knob or keyhole, but was covered in faint magical runes. Zinnia manages to read them and access the password, which opens the door. Searching the first floor of the two-story tower, she finds evidence that nobody has been here in awhile. There's a dried up and browned salad sitting on the dining room table, untouched. All of the vegetables and herbs in the pantry have gone bad. The bedsheets are undone. She heads upstairs and finds a massive library, then enters the study and is suddenly assaulted by a terrible smell (she makes her CON save, though, and doesn't puke). The hermit lies dead here, having decomposed for at least a fortnight. He has a terrible look of terror on his face, and is clutching his heart. It looks like he was trying to make for the door, but died before getting there. Over on his desk, there is a stack of journals and an old, mystical looking book that lies open. Zinnia goes right for the open book, tries to read it, and immediately has a very powerful fear attack that very nearly kills her. Instead, she manages to survive and fall unconscious for five hours. When she comes to, she's back in the barracks, lying next to Rafel. The guards explain they carried her back after she passed out. As it turns out, Rafel is actually awake, so Zinnia takes the time to question him a bit before he passes out again. He claims the monster that attacked was 10 feet tall and breathed fire. He managed to escape it while it was killing the other guards. Zinnia heads to Herken's farm to have lunch with him. She meets his wife, Dana, and his two boys Trevor (6) and Joseph (4). They have a nice home-cooked lunch together, then while Dana and the boys are doing the dishes, the two talk business. Zinnia notices that Herken is built more like a warrior than a farmer. There are certain muscles that are only developed through swordplay. He clearly doesn't like talking about it, but after lots of probing, he admits he used to be Herken the Strong, an amoral adventurer who took whatever jobs came his way, not caring from who. He did a lot of things he isn't proud of now, but he swore to leave that life behind him. This is why he's so eager to help solve the mystery, because the other farmers are pressuring him to take up his sword again, and he doesn't want to. Nevertheless, Zinnia pressures him to take up arms again to join her. First, she tries to appeal to his sense of obligation, but botches her roll. She then tries appealing to his desire for redemption...and rolls poorly again, but manages to save it by finally burning the inspiration I gave her way back in the first session of the last game. So he reluctantly agreed, but all he has left is a magic ring and his great sword--the rest of his gear, including his armor, was sold a long time ago. Zinnia agrees to help equip him. At this point, they hear Dana scream in the kitchen. Rushing in, they see she is looking out the window and can see a young farmhand (a boy, perhaps around 9 or 10) being swarmed by five jackals. Herken and Zinnia rush outside to his aid. Together, they manage to kill three of them in the first round. Luckily, the jackals rolled poorly, so the boy is wounded but not killed. In the second round, they finish off the jackals. Herken binds the boy's wounds with his cloak, and states he will take him home and make sure he gets help. He tells Zinnia to come get him when she's ready. Zinnia manages to buy some hide armor for him at the general store, then heads to The Rock. She speaks to Burgot, the big hulking half-orc and asks for him to help her. He eagerly agrees. Zinnia offers to pay him (2 gold a week), but it becomes clear he was going to agree anyway. She gets the impression he likes to fight and kill, and this seems like a good way to do so without getting into trouble. She also learns despite being over six feet tall and quite muscular, he's actually on 12 years old. (Note, however, that in 2E half-orcs are shorter lived than humans; a 30 year old half-orc is middle aged, and a 12 year old is the human equivalent of 15-16.) She then speaks to Tanya and learns she was orphaned at 10 when her parents died of a plague, and she actually met Tallyhoe by trying to pick his pocket and getting caught. Tanya at first is nervous and seems to think Zinnia is confronting her about something, but Zinnia instead hires her to help (also for 2 GP/week). Although she has to use Tide of Chaos to pull it off. Finally, a soldier approaches her and says Captain Tillan wants to see her. She meets the militia leader in his office, and he demands a progress report, as it's the end of the second day. Zinnia seems put off by this--she, after all, had a couple of weeks to solve her last mystery. Nevertheless, she explains she plans to return to the hermit's tower tomorrow morning and investigate it more thoroughly for clues, as she thinks the hermit's death may have something to do with the incident. Tillan nods and states he'll see her tomorrow morning then. Zinnia is surprised by this. Tillan says he wants to make sure she isn't wasting time, so he will be accompanying her, as well. With that, Zinnia heads back to the inn to rest for the night. NotesWe have a bit of a running gag, where Zinnia meets a very tall and muscular man (Tillan, Herken and Burgot) and she comments on it, both in and out of character (e.g., 'Oh, he's so big!' or 'Wow, so tall!') and I started joking that Zinnia is thirsty for big guys. Horizon claimed that wasn't the case, but it kept happening, so now it's canon as far as I'm concerned. It was kind of funny that Zinnia went straight toward that trapped book. It was actually deadly, but by 2E standards, it went pretty easy on you--there were three chances to survive. First, upon reading it, you need to make a spell save based on Wisdom (I changed this to a Wisdom save). If you pass, you get really scared but are otherwise okay. If you fail, then move on to stage two. Stage two is you make a system shock check (I changed this to a CON save). Pass, and you are incapacitated for 1d6 hours. Fail, and you move on to stage three. Stage three you have to make a Constitution check (I changed this to a CON save, too). Pass, and you call into a coma for 1d3 days. Fail, and you die. Fortunately, Zinnia passed stage two. Otherwise this would have been a short adventure, indeed! Herken isn't actually recruitable in the module. In fact, nobody is--except Burgot (and I guess technically Tillan). But it's weird that several people are statted out and given adventuring class levels and gear, but then their bios outright say "they will not enter the Badlands under any circumstance." This seemed weird to me, that you could only recruit a single character, so I went ahead and changed it. Herken is a level 4 Fighter and I gave him the Banneret sub-class. The jackal attack is quite important, story-wise. If the boy dies (and if Zinnia does not meet Herken for lunch, he automatically dies), this really hurts the PC's relations with the town. Burgot is a level 1 Fighter, and Tanya is a level 1 Thief (changed to Rogue). Tillan is a level 5 Fighter; I gave him the Battle Master sub-class. By the end of the second day, he demands a report. If it becomes clear the PC has no plan of action and hasn't learned anything, he gets annoyed and decides to take some men and go out into the Badlands on his own the next morning. They are all killed, and this again, really hurts the PC's relations with the town. On the other hand, if the PC does have a plan, he insists on joining the next day. I went ahead and made two additional NPCs recruitable, but we'll see if Zinnia finds them or not. I'll have to remember she used Tide of Chaos next time she casts a spell. Anyway, next week, looks like we'll be heading back to the hermit's tower.
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Post by Daos on Oct 16, 2021 12:26:22 GMT -8
Now for XP: Asking Thorne about his weapon quality - 25 XP Dinner with Tallyhoe - 25 XP Interviewing Rafel - 25 XP Lunch with Herken - 25 XP Recruiting Herken - 25 XP Defeating Jackals (x5) - 25 XP Saving farmhand - 25 XP Recruiting Burgot - 25 XP Recruiting Tanya - 25 XP Having a plan for Tillan - 25 XP TOTAL: 250 XP That puts Zinnia at 2,066 XP total, which means she needs 634 XP to reach level 4. Don't forget to update your character sheet, HorizonsDream .
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Post by Daos on Oct 22, 2021 16:56:13 GMT -8
Horizon sort of blew through most of the module, skipping a bunch of stuff and making a beeline right to the final dungeon. So next session will probably be the last one! Day 03 - Ruins of NeconilisOn the second night, Zinnia has a strange dream. She is walking through New Haven, heading for the Badlands. But when she gets there, the desert wasteland transforms into a sprawling, populous city. An old man approaches her and summons a griffon made of crystal, bathed in flame, then offers it to her. When she accepts, she feels a sense of safety. Then she wakes up. Zinnia gathers up her party (Tillan, Herken, Burgot and Tanya) and gives Herken the hide armor she bought yesterday. She also returns to the general store and gets leather armor for Burgot and Tanya, then grabs a long sword for Burgot and short sword for Tanya from the armory at the barracks. Then the whole group returns to Azzmere's Tower. Upon returning to the wizard's corpse, Zinnia realizes this was the man she saw in her dream. This time she closed the book that nearly killed her and shoved it into her pack. Instead, she went through his journals. They covered the past 40 years, but only a few entries were relevant: * An entry from 40 years ago establishes that he found this tower and started cleaning it up as a base of operations to continue searching the Badlands for signs of Neconilis. * An entry from 15 years ago reveals that he found a coin bearing the sigil of Neconilis (a raven perched on a skull) near the oasis, which gave him hope he was on the right track. * An entry from 5 years ago states that west of the oasis, he found buildings similar to the tower that were uncovered by a sandstorm the previous week. He also remarked he had a distinct feeling he was being watched. He later claims that a small, monkey like creature with uncanny speed is following him around in the Badlands. He names it Rupert. * An entry from 1 year ago marks the baron's men approaching him to buy the land on the edge of the forest that borders the Badlands. Azzmere agreed, because he had grown lonely in his old age and missed having people around, and hoped that maybe he'd find a suitable apprentice among the farmers. * The final entry is from two weeks ago (around the point of the attack on the soldiers, and also when he seemed to have vanished), where he claims to have found an ancient tome. He notes it is odd, because he found it in a place he had already searched, but chalks it up to his mind starting to go in his old age. He then adds he plans to study it right away. It's at this point Zinnia puts it together. Azzmere finished his entry, tried to read the ancient tome, and had a heart attack and died. And the exact same fate nearly happened to Zinnia herself--good thing she was still quite young and hale. The final door was arcane locked, so she had Herken smash it down (casually mentioning it might be trapped and would hopefully not kill him). Inside was a bunch of chests containing all of the items that Azzmere had spent his life collecting and cataloguing from ancient Neconilis. This included some coins (which Zinnia took), old pieces of pottery and broken items, a magic ruby pin (which she took) and a staff topped with a crystal griffon. Zinnia realized the griffon was just like the one in her dream. Inspecting it, she learned it was a Staff of Striking, and more than that, the griffon was enchanted so that the wielder of the staff had fire resistance. She took that, too. From there, Zinnia felt their next best lead was to check out the oasis. Tillan knew of it; his men had just finished mapping it out before they were attacked, at least according to Rafel. The party makes for the oasis, where they find the lair of all the jackals in the area. Because the party is large and they are guarding young, the jackals aren't looking for a fight unless provoked, so the party leaves them be. The oasis pond itself is next to a giant rock, which Zinnia investigates but keeps rolling poorly so she can't learn anything about it. She suggests the party refill their skins at the water, but takes no interest in it herself, as she has her endless decanter. The party manages to find the site of the attack not too far from the oasis. The soldiers bodies are still there, but have been picked pretty clean by vultures and other scavengers. But Zinnia notes there are signs of claw attacks and burn marks on the bodies, and scorch marks on some of the nearby rocks, too. There are also a number of swords, shattered into pieces, just like Rafel's. Probably the oddest thing are tracks--not human, quite small, and only two-toes. They seem to be all over the place, but then just vanish instead of going off in any particular direction. Completely lost on what to do next, she has the party return to the oasis. They are attacked by a huge spider, but Herken and Tillan cut it down in a single round without breaking a sweat. Zinnia poked around the giant boulder again, but that led nowhere. She wasn't sure what to do, because all she remembered from the journals was that there was something at the oasis. She flubbed all of her INT checks to remember, so she tracked all the way back to the tower and read them again, this time taking more detailed notes, and remembered that Azzmere found old ruins west of the oasis. So they headed back to the oasis, then westward from there. They came across some ancient ruins; it appeared to have once been a large pyramid, but the entire top part had crumbled, leaving only the ground floor intact (even the ceiling). There was a large entrance to the south, so the party went inside. Entering the first room, they see that the doorway to the next area is blocked by a wall of sand. Zinnia realizes this is not something that could have happened naturally--someone built this sand wall as an obstacle. It takes the party nearly an hour to dig out enough room to walk through it. From there, they move on to a long hall that seems to have been an audience chamber, as there is a stone throne at the end. There are several murals on the walls, depicting Neconilis' rise to power. From here, the party started checking different rooms but not finding much (or rather, I would say there was nothing there, and Horizon would just take my word for it and not bother searching ) other than more two-toed footprints that seemed to abruptly stop here or there. They eventually found a room with a dead jackal in it, and it seemed that something laid eggs on the corpse. Tillan recognized them as belonging to a carrion crawler. Zinnia (or rather, Horizon) had no idea what that was, so the captain explained it was a like a giant worm. They then went into the next room and had to fight a carrion crawler. It was the toughest battle so far, with Tanya going down and Herken getting paralyzed, before the party managed to slay it (nobody else was hurt). Zinnia had the killing blow it with a level 2 Magic Missile, which caused all of her hair to just fall out due to a wild surge. At this point, they had explored all of the rooms they could find, and Horizon was stuck again. She then started trying investigating/searching the rooms, but she kept rolling 4's on her checks. She cast Detect Magic, which caused a beard of feathers to sprout on her face (which blew off when she next sneezed). She did manage to find a few minor items (a coin, some pottery), and at one point discovered some rubble that had a skeleton beneath it, its skull crushed. There was a dent pendant around its neck that had the Neconilis sigil on it and had some magic in it. Zinnia put it on her own neck, and the cord shrank until it was a collar around her neck, too tight to remove (but loose enough that it wasn't choking her or anything). She also felt a shudder down her spine upon donning it. We decided to call it there, as Horizon had no idea how to proceed, and even if she did, this was the final dungeon and I hadn't statted out the final boss anyway. NotesI can just imagine Azzmere's spirit screaming, "They belong in a museum!" when Zinnia just starts looting the artifacts he spent a lifetime collecting. Zinnia now owns yet another magical item (and her second magical staff), but she's never used any of them once so far. Kind of funny. According to the module, the jackals in the den only attack if the PC is alone or appears wounded. Neither was the case, so they ignored her. There was actually another mini-dungeon in the oasis; you had to investigate the water itself, and notice there was an underwater tunnel down there. However, Zinnia never went near the water (I even asked her if she was going to, and she said she wasn't). But it wasn't overall important to the story or anything, just a few extra goodies down there. The fight with the giant spider was so quick, I suddenly realized why the module wanted to keep the party relatively small. She was going to get very few XP from any fights because of the large party she collected. Oh, well, at least she didn't recruit the last two I had set up. The carrion crawler would have been a serious challenge otherwise (aside from the Magic Missile at the end, Zinnia only used cantrips against it, because the rest of the party could handle the heavy lifting). Oh, well, live and learn.
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