Wyld Times with Zinnia Ballana

[Daos]

XP time:

Reading Azzmere's journals - 25 XP
Finding the Staff of Striking - 25 XP
Finding the ambush site - 25 XP
Defeating the huge spider - 20 XP
Finding the ancient ruins - 25 XP
Defeating the carrion crawler - 90 XP
Finding the amulet of Neconilis - 25 XP
TOTAL: 235 XP

That puts Zinnia at 2,301 XP total, which means she needs 399 XP to reach level 4.  Don't forget to update your character sheet, HorizonsDream .

[Daos]

Yesterday's session was very short, as Horizon was literally at the doorstep of the final boss, so there was really only one room left anyway.  I don't remember how long the session was, but I don't know if we even hit an hour, to be honest.

Day 03 (Part 2)
We picked up where we left off, in the final dungeon.  Zinnia systematically and thoroughly searched every single room again.  This time she found a hidden passage in some debris that led underground.  This passage led to a tunnel with a room at the end.  But the room was protected by some kind of magical shield.  When Zinnia approached, her new collar glowed and she passed right through the shield.  But everyone else who tried took 3d6 damage (half on save).  So Zinnia left the group behind and went on by herself.  She entered the room, which was mostly collapsed.  Before she could try anything, though, a small creature appeared.  Zinnia deduced it was some kind of fiend (a yugoloth, or daemon, in the common vernacular) and recognized that it looked afraid of her.  Nevertheless, it was magically compelled to attack.  First, it blasted her with its fire breath.  Then it started clawing her up.  For her part, Zinnia didn't seem to take it seriously as a threat, until her HP dropped drastically after only two rounds.  So she disengaged through the shield, hoping it would follow her.  It did not.

Zinnia brought the party back up to the first floor and again systematically searched every single room, hoping to find more amulets.  There were none.  So she returned to the shield and forcefully dragged Herken through it.  He took quite a bit of damage, but he is fairly hearty, so was only moderately wounded.  They then attacked the yugoloth together.

Herken wasn't much help, aside from being a meat shield.  The entire battle, I kept rolling 2s, 3s and 4s, so nobody really hit anyone.  And the yugoloth never recharged his fire breath successfully.  Zinnia found her cantrips were useless (its AC was just too high) so she blasted it with magic missiles to soften it up.  She kept urging Herken to hit it with his sword, and he finally rolled high enough to do so.  The sword shattered (I think she forgot that was a thing?), leaving Herken helpless.  However, Zinnia whipped out her staff of striking and finished off the creature by using three charges.

Searching the room, she found a Ring of Chameleon Power, a Robe of Useful Items, a Bag of Devouring, some coins and a ruby necklace worth 500 GP.  She also found a spellbook with the name 'Kyristan' engraved on the cover.

It was then her vision narrowed, as if she was about to pass out.  She heard a voice speak to her.  "So you found my old spellbook..."

Zinnia tried questioning the voice, demanding answers, but they were not forthcoming.  Apparently Kyristan used this area as a base for awhile, but has since moved on.  "I will find you," Zinnia promised.

With a sinister chuckle, Kyristan replied, "Oh, I'm counting on it."

Zinnia asked if there was a way to bypass the shield.  According to Kyristan, Dispel Magic would null it briefly, but nothing short of a Wish or perhaps a Rod of Cancellation could permanently take it out.  Otherwise, the only option were his amulets.  They were gifts for his most loyal lieutenants, allowing them to bypass his barriers.  But they also allowed Kyristan to constantly see and hear what they see and hear, to assure they never betray him.

Zinnia yanked Herken through the barrier again, and then the party headed back to New Haven.

Epilogue
After reporting back to the baron, Zinnia received 1000 GP for her services.  Azzmere's old tower was offered to her, but she had no interest in remaining here.  And as she was not actually a wizard, she'd have no use for it anyway.  Her lost hair grew back the following day.

Tillan returned to his duties, and started training a batch of new recruits to replace the ones who died, including young Burgot.

Rafel made a full recovery, much to Tanya's relief.

Herken returned to his family and resumed his life as a simple farmer, father, and husband.

As for Zinnia, she still needed answers.  After some downtime, she decided to move on.  She needed to find Kyristan, who could now scry on her whenever he wished.  She needed to remove the amulet.  And she needed to find answers--about her powers, about her father, and about who and what she is.

Notes
It took us about seven sessions to get through Wizard's Challenge, but only three to finish Wizard's Challenge II.  I'm not sure if this is because the second module is just shorter or if there were other contributing factors.  In any case, I figured we wouldn't finish until after Thanksgiving.  It's not even Halloween yet.

The final battle was a bit anti-climatic.  Largely because I just started rolling terribly for it.

Zinnia collected even more magical items that she will probably never use.  Fun fact, but I revealed to her later that her Lens of Speed Reading was stolen by Tanya, who is a bit of a kleptomaniac.  When Zinnia recruited Tanya, the reason she seemed so nervous was because she thought she had been caught.  But Horizon never even noticed it was gone.  (I used index cards for all of her magical items, describing what they do on them.  I slipped the lens card out between sessions, and she never noticed it was missing.)

The scene at the end with Kyristan was added by me, of course.  In the original module, it was Neconilis himself whose spellbook was being guarded by the yugoloth.  His demi-lich form was out there somewhere, and the module suggested he could be a villain in a later adventure.  Since Kryistan was already a lich, I decided to just use him in Neconilis' place.

Of course, a lich is CR 20 so there's no way Zinnia could face him any time soon.  Otherwise, I probably would have used him as the final boss and wrapped up Zinnia's storyline.

Some other fun facts:

* Azzmere had a Ring of Protection +1 on his finger, but Zinnia never searched his body and so didn't find it.

* The Book of Horrors is a cursed item.  When the yugoloth (who is terrified of mages, and so never attacked Azzmere directly and avoided Zinnia until he absolutely had no choice) was worried Azzmere was getting too close to finding the spellbook, he placed the tome where Azzmere would find it, gambling that it would kill the mage.  And it did.  Zinnia wanted to sell the book, but as far as I know, cursed items don't really have a GP value, so she agreed to burn it instead.

* The ruby pin she found in Azzmere's tower functioned as a Scarab of Protection for someone of Evil alignment.  As Zinnia is Good, it was useless to her.  She wound up selling it for 100 GP.

* There was a random encounter involving a large scorpion that Zinnia never got.  It was identical to the one she faced in Northbank, but this one had its poison sac intact.

* It is possible to play archeologist and search the Badlands for relics.  For each day spent searching one hex on the map, there is a 3% cumulative chance to finding something.  Among possible finds are old coins, broken pottery, rusted tools or weapons, corroded jewelry, petrified wood, and even minor magic items (including a chest with two potions of healing or a potion of hill giant strength, a ring of free action or a ring of jumping, a cloak of protection or a dusty rose ioun stone, a dagger +1 or a Murlynd's Spoon.

* As mentioned before, there was a hidden passage in the oasis.  You had to swim it, either holding your breath or using a spell to breathe water.  It would have taken her to some ruins that would have included a skeleton guard that could drain HP from you each round and another pair of amulets, so you can bring allies with you to the final battle.  The one amulet Zinnia found in the pyramid was the only one there.

* I also made Tallyhoe (level 4 Thief) and Thore (level 3 Champion) recruitable, but Zinnia never tried to recruit them.  Just as well, she had too many allies as it was, as it turned out.

* Once again, the big prize for this module was a spellbook, and once again, it's kind of useless for Zinnia.  The spellbook she found included a 6th level spell that would let you summon your own least guardian yugoloth.

* If by some manner you manage to remove the spellbook but not defeat the yugoloth, he suffers incredible pain unless the book is put back.  If you take the book out of the Badlands, he loses 1 HP a round until he dies.

So this raises the question, what is next?  I gave Horizon a choice.  She can roll up a new character and we can try out one of the other Challenge series (Fighter, Thief or Cleric).  Or we can stick with Zinnia and I can do some homebrewed content.  I'm fine either way.  If the former is chosen, I get more practice in converting 2E to 5E and get to see more of what some of the other classes can do.  If the latter is chosen, I get experience with making homebrewed 5E content and a headstart in converting my setting to 5E.

Either way, we'll be taking another break as I'll need to work on new content, whether a module or homebrewed.

[Daos]

XP time:

Defeating Yagdoo - 900 XP
Successful Completion of this Adventure - 300 XP
TOTAL: 1,200 XP

That puts Zinnia at 3,501 XP total, which means she is now level 4.  Don't forget to level up and update your character sheet, HorizonsDream .

[Daos]

I don't know if anyone is still reading this, but Horizon leveled up Zinnia to 4th level.  She took Infestation as her new cantrip, Mind Spike as her new spell and swapped out Levitate for Warding Wind.  She also got 4 HP and instead of ASI, chose the Skilled feat, taking proficiency in Investigation, Arcana and Stealth.

We decided we will continue adventuring with Zinnia for now, using homebrewed material.  She is going to return home to confront her mother and hopefully get some answers, so she's going to flesh out her backstory some and I'm going to start work on a small adventure surrounding her return home.  As this game takes place in a kingdom I haven't really fleshed out (Swadia), I'm starting from scratch, so it may take a few weeks, we'll see.

[GravityEmblem]

(im still reading it)

[Daos]

Alright, an audience of one is still an audience, after all.

We'll start with some world building.  This is all I have on Swadia right now, taken from the Basic Info thread over in the Gontoria game.  I wrote this back in 2015:

Swadia
Government: Swadia is a reich (kingdom) run by a kaiser (king or queen) who is always chosen from a council of bishops from the Church of Octhanus. The kaiser may be male or female, but has always either human or human descended (half-elf, half-orc, genasi, etc.) to date, although theoretically any race could become kaiser. As the church always chooses the heir, that means they are always either a cleric or paladin.

History: When Eonia fell, it is said Gonto appeared before a stern and loyal warrior of the old guard named Karl Maxis. He is said to have become the first paladin of Gonto after converting. With his holy sword, he brought order back to the land of what is now Swadia. He gathered like-minded men and women, forming the Holy Twelve, a group of devout warriors who served him. When Brianna the Uniter the queen of Tardiff offered a treaty to reabsorb the lands he had conquered into the old empire, the now venerable paladin-king agreed.

However, it was not to last. When the War of Sovereignty broke out in the year 65, Swadia broke away from the empire and declared its independence. The Swadians believed that the empire was corrupt and cared more about filling its coffers then anything else. When the war ended, Swadia's sovereignty was recognized by Tardiff and they signed a peace treaty. A Swadian princess was married to the new king of Tardiff to seal the deal.

Recently, Swadia has embraced the religion of Octhanus. After discovering it in the Octhanian Islands, it spread to the mainland and supplanted the faith of Gonto almost entirely. The culture of Swadia changed almost overnight as a result, becoming more concerned with helping others.

Politics: The land of Swadia is fairly stable and orderly. The kingdom is patrolled by the noble Ritterorden or Swadian Knights. They follow a strict code of chivalry and righteousness ("Helfen, Wehren, Heilen" or "Help, Defend, Heal"). Of all the nations, Swadia has a reputation for treating the common folk well, as well as outsiders and foreigners. Non-humans are even allowed to own land and become nobles, although it tends to be rare.

Religion: The main religion in is Octhanus, although Gonto still has a little influence as well. It's not uncommon to see places where the two religions have been merged together, even.

Trade: As Swadia is on the coastline and also hosts numerous lakes and rivers, their biggest export is fish. They have quite a fishing industry and make excellent ships, as well.

A lot of this is outdated and needs to be corrected.  For one thing, instead of Gontorism being replaced by Octhanism, I think it's more of a blending together.  The main faith in Swadia is Gontorism, but it's been heavily influenced by Octhanism, becoming a sort of hybrid.  The Tardish would consider this church a heretical splinter group from the main faith.  I'm thinking of calling it the Church of Coral, although I'm not completely sold on that name just now.  (The idea being that Gonto represents Earth and Octhanus represents water, so coral is a sort of earth found underwater.  Technically, in D&D cosmology, blending Earth and Water produces the paraelement of Ooze, but the Church of Ooze sounds pretty toxic.)

Actually, going with the whole German naming theme, maybe it would sound better to call it the Church of Koralle?  Korallism?  (Still sounds better than Church of Schlamm.)

Pure Gontorism and Korallism have a lot in common.  Both believe in a divine plan set forth for each person to follow from birth.  Both believe that the well-being of the group should place higher importance than the individual.  Both place high emphasis on culture, knowledge and civilization.

The differences mostly lie in interpretation of it all.  Gontorists believe that some may have to suffer, even die, in order to maintain the plan.  Korallists believe more strongly in the sanctity of life; thus, if people are suffering and dying, then clearly the plan is not being followed properly.  What sort of utopia can be built on blood and death?  Consequently, in Swadia slavery is outlawed entirely.  And while serfdom does exist, there are a number of rules in place to prevent nobles from abusing or exploiting the lower classes.

Another difference is intent.  Both faiths want to spread their teachings around the globe, but the Korallists are less forceful about it, preferring to use social pressure and slow assimilation over violence.  Both faiths have an interest in learning and preserving knowledge, but the Gontorists are more interested in just documenting it for the sake of it, while the Korallists want to use that knowledge to help lift up the world.

The big point of contention between Gontorists and Korallists is wealth.  Having incredible wealth in Tardiff makes you very powerful.  Having incredible wealth in Swadia, however, places more responsibilities on you.  A wealthy lord is expected to take better care of their people.  There's a heavy expectation on the rich to spend their excess gold on charity.  The wealthy are also taxed far more in Swadia than in Tardiff.  These taxes are used to help all the people of Swadia with things like infrastructure, education, and safety net programs.

Both the Octhanist Church and the Gontorist Church have their clergies divided into three factions.  This basically boils down to the front-line warrior priests (high martial ability, low magic ability) like the Enforcers and Shieldbearers, the back-row caster priests (low martial ability, high magic ability) like the Seekers and Mercies, and then the middle-of-the-road utility priests (medium martial ability, medium magic ability) like the Minters and the Hearthtenders.  I figure Korallism will have the same setup.  But I don't know yet what these factions will be called or what they'll look like.

Anyway, that's all I got right now.  I'll have to think on it all more.  If anyone has their own ideas, feel free to share.  Feel free to ask any questions, too, to help me fill in the gaps.

[GravityEmblem]

The thing that strikes out to me most is the nods to communism--the rich paying lots of tax, and the founder's name being about two letters away from Karl Marx. Looks pretty neat!

[Daos]

Huh.  Interesting.

Not intentional, though.  I came up with that name six years ago, and I'm pretty sure I was just looking for a German sounding name.  I'm usually not so on the nose when slipping in a joke name like that.  (Plus, I don't consider paying taxes to be communism.)  I should probably change the name then, just so as to not cause any confusion.

In any case, Swadia is still very much a feudal monarchy, like Tardiff.  They are incredibly religious, like Tardiff, too, even if their actual faith is a bit different.  The church holds a lot of political power (so much so, they even choose the nation's leaders).  And like the Tardish, they aren't really tolerant of other faiths, especially those that oppose their own values.  There's no law against openly following another faith, but there's a lot of social stigma involved.

Race, however, is another issue altogether.  While the Tardish have racism baked into their laws, the Swadians believe all life is sacred, not just human life.  Thus, all races have the same rights, at least in theory.  This isn't to same racism doesn't exist in Swadia, it's just not explicitly written into their laws.  This means in Swadia, an elf could be knighted, a half-orc could inherit a barony, a gnome could be made kaiser.  To date, only those with human blood have ever sat on the throne, but theoretically, there's no law that says it must be that way; it's just tradition.  Races that are often associated with evil or chaos (tieflings, goblinoids, orcs) may find a cooler welcome than others, at least until they are able to prove themselves pious and righteous.

What about classes, though?  Well, like Tardiff, mages are expected to have supervision, but instead of either the church or the state, it's just the church in Swadia (one could argue church and state are basically the same there, though).  Clerics and Paladins would be expected to be Korallists.  Those who are not will find themselves unpopular.  Thieves (those who actually engage in theft, anyway) are frowned upon.  Druids and Barbarians are often seen as primitive and backward, and might face a lot of well-meaning (if not annoying) proselytizing.

I should probably come up with few other factions, too, including one that opposes the majority, like the Equalists in Tardiff do.

[Matt4]

(I'm still following Zinnia's adventures as well, not sure why I wasn't receiving notifications from this topic anymore O: )

[Daos]

I recently came up with a basic outline for an adventure, so now all that's left is actually prepping it and fleshing it out.  Fortunately, I have the next week off, so I'm hoping that will give me the time to get it all ready, or at least put a significant chunk in it.

But at least I'm not aimlessly just brainstorming anymore.  Honestly, that's the hard part.  Everything after that is far easier, if not more time consuming.

[Daos]

And we're back!  It's been three months, and I've spent that time working on the game whenever I could find the free time to (which wasn't very often).  It would have taken even longer, but I managed to wholesale swipe several little quests and NPCs from some modules, which helped speed things up.

Of course, in that time Horizon's work schedule has changed.  So instead of Thursdays, we'll be having sessions Saturdays instead.  And the first one will be tonight.  So if you're still interested, stay tuned for that.

[Daos]

Wyld Times at Affburgh

Session 01 - Deal with a Tiefling
After a few weeks in New Haven, Zinnia decided she needed answers and the best place to find them was back home, in Affburgh, by speaking with her mother.  The cursed choker is still around her neck, but she has not heard from the lich since that day in the ruins.  As she steps through the gates, her hood is kept up so that nobody recognizes her--the last thing she wants is people noticing the Champion of Affburgh has returned.  Oddly, there are no guards manning the gate so nobody stops her.  She finds this a bit odd, but otherwise the town seems normal.  It's a chill autumn morning, the air crisp and the sky overcast.  The streets are filled with people going about their business, preparing for the upcoming harvest festival.  The area is filled with the smell of cider and pumpkin.

Upon arriving home, Zinnia finds the front door is hanging ajar.  Peeking inside, she finds the place a mess.  It looks as if someone searched it quite thoroughly.  But there is no sign of her mother, as Zinnia moved through the house calling for her.  Kyristan speaks through the choker, commenting on how 'interesting' this development is, but promising he had nothing to do with it.  As Zinnia started searching around for clues, she suddenly got the feeling that someone was sneaking up on her.  She tried to reach for her dagger, but was too obvious and the person behind her demanded she drop it.  Turning, she realized it was her ex-boyfriend, Mirko.  He had a club raised to strike her, but put it down when she lowered her hood and he recognized her.

Mirko apologizes, explaining he was passing by when he noticed the door ajar and heard someone yelling inside.  He thought Zinnia was a prowler.  He admits he isn't sure when this happened or where her mother is, but wonders if maybe one of Zinnia's old friends--Raiann, Vicavor, Nemeia or Kelra might know.  He knows Raiann is a guard these days, so she should check the barracks.  Vicavor is studying at the Krumbridge Magic Academy, while Kelra is working at the Temple of Korall.  And Nemia is usually running with some bad crowds down in the slums these days.

Zinnia notices Mirko is now wearing a wedding ring and congratulates him.  He says he is married to the innkeeper's daughter, Ruby, and their families hope he'll take over the inn one day.  The conversation is a bit awkward, what with Zinnia being his ex.  Zinnia asks him to not tell anyone she's back in town, and decides she'll start with trying to find Nemeia, as she feels she would be the best option in knowing what happened to Zinnia's mother (as Nemeia often stayed with them in this very house, back in the day).

Placing her hood back up, Zinnia heads for an unnamed tavern in the slums (well, it has a name, but the sign broke so it just reads 'The' now).  Asking around, she learns Nemia is in deep water.  A couple of days ago, she ran afoul of Augury, a local and powerful crimelord.  Augury's men took Nemeia, and nobody has seen her since.  Word is that Augury is ruthless, especially against traitors, but she's also a businesswoman first and foremost and always keeps her word.  Zinnia wonders if maybe some kind of bargain can be struck, and decides to seek an audience with Augury.

After a bit of searching around, she makes her way to an abandoned warehouse where an unsmiling guard escorts her in to meet Augury.  She's a red-skinned tiefling with large golden horns and a calm and cool demeanor.  She knows who Zinnia is, and is intrigued at the idea of having the Champion of Affburgh's services.

Augury explains that Nemeia is alive and still in one piece...for now, stewing in a cell while Augury comes up with a creative and painful punishment.  But she would be willing to trade her for someone else.  It turns out there's a halfling bard, Clover Whitthorn, who owns Augury a debt.  She intends to recoup that debt by providing Clover's services to a client of hers.  But there's a problem; after a duel with a noblewoman went wrong, Clover was arrested and is locked up in Onyxgate Prison.  If Zinnia can somehow sneak in, free Clover and return her, Augury offers Nemeia's freedom, 50 gold and most important (at least, as far as Augury's concerned) her trust and respect.

Of course, even a war hero can't force her way inside a prison alone.  Stealth and subterfuge is the better path.  Augury outlines the two biggest obstacles--Warden Fardaff and Jailer Na'Krasha.

Fardaff is an angry, cruel man and his guards are always on high alert when he's around.  But when he's not around, they tend to slack off.  So Zinnia needs to find a way to keep him away from the prison that night.  She doesn't want him dead--her people have been spending months on corrupting him, and doesn't want to see those efforts wasted, and besides, it will draw too much attention.  However, her spies tell her that Fardaff visits a local and small temple known as the Temple of Love and Light (a sort of break-away sect that focuses more on romance and matchmaking) and there might be some clue there.

Na'Krasha is a half-orc who is said to be terrified of ghosts.  Zinnia doesn't know any necromancy or illusionary magics that would be useful, so Augury suggests she visit a green witch who lives outside of town named Morelia who might help.

Zinnia heads for the Temple of Love and Light first.  There she meets a pretty little red-haired gnomish woman named Edith.  Edith assumes Zinnia is there for matchmaking and her hood is up because she is shy.  She drags Zinnia into a private room to speak without judgment, but Zinnia assures her she isn't interested in romance, just information.  As they talk, Edith serves Zinnia some tea, and it seems to really relax her.

Edith admits openly that Fardaff visits her frequently.  He first came to seek her services, but instead decided it was Edith he was interested in.  But Edith does not reciprocate and is uncomfortable with his advances.  But she is running out of excuses to get rid of him.  She jokes that about the only thing he likes more than her, is her tea.

This gives Zinnia an idea--if the tea can relax a person this much, could it perhaps do so even more?  A more potent dose could knock out Fardaff for the night.  The two discuss ingredients and ratios and eventually come up with a recipe that should knock someone out for several hours.  Edith agrees to give this concoction to Fardaff when he arrives that afternoon.  With that accomplished, Zinnia decides to set off to find Morelia.

Morelia lives out in a cottage in a clearing in the nearby forest.  A well-walked path leads from the town to the cabin, and Zinnia has no problems getting there.  Stepping inside ,she finds the witch brewing a strange and alien concoction in her cauldron--but it turns out to just be her lunch.  ("You have to caramelize the onions before you add the tomato sauce," she explains.)  Zinnia explains she is searching for a way to make a person look like a ghost.  Morelia knows of a mushroom known as the whispcap that when powdered, can be sprinkled on someone to make them glow with a faint blue light and emit ghostly tendrils.  It she had any, she could whip up the powder in an hour.  They grow nearby, at Whispcap Pond, but the place is heavily guarded by little gremlin things known as Shinwacks.  "Cute little creatures.  Nasty tempers, though."  They like to eat the whispcaps and guard them jealousy.  If Zinnia is willing to brave the pond to retrieve some, Morelia will happily make some powder for her.

And so, Zinnia delves deeper into the forest, all by herself...

Notes
Affburgh is a name Horizon came up with.  She also came up with Mirko, Raiann, Nemeia, Kelra and Vicavor, and gave me a little bit of backstory on them all.  And this is why it took me so long to prepare this session.  I decided that each of her friends would have a quest to complete to find them.  So four quests, but I had no idea which order Horizon would do them in.  So I needed all four completely done before we started.  Not the smartest idea, but it worked out in the end.  Nemeia's quest was the third one I worked on.

Nemeia's quest was originally different.  In my original version she was captured by a crime lord still, but was actually innocent and Zinnia had to track down the real thief, who was able to turn invisible for an extra challenge.  I later came across a published one-shot with a similar premise, so decided to save myself some time and energy and adapt that instead.  If I'm honest, this is probably better than what I would have come up with myself.

At one point, Zinnia tried to 'turn on the charms' with Augury (Horizon decided that Zinnia is bi, but generally prefers men), but she rolled a 5 on her persuasion check, then used Tide of Chaos and rolled a 3.  So much for seduction! 

Making the tea was something of a small puzzle.  There was a song that explained what ingredients you needed and how much of them, that Edith's mother used to sing to her.  Horizon had to go through the song, and go through the possible ingredients, and come up with a recipe that will knock someone out.  She struggled a bit, so I gave her some hints after a medicine check (DC 10).  It took her a couple of tries, but she came up with one on her own after that.  I don't normally do riddles or puzzles in my games, so she's probably not had a lot of practice in them.

We decided to end things just as she heads into Whispcap Pond, because again, I didn't know what order she would be doing these quests, and as a result, I didn't know what level she would be or how many companions (if any) she might have with her.  So I had to sort of be vague with any combat encounters.  Now that I know she's doing this quest first, is level 4, and is alone, I can recalculate things by next week.

[Daos]

XP time:

Not getting clobbered by Mirko - 25 XP
Learning about Mirko's nuptials - 25 XP
Reaching an accord with Augury - 25 XP
Scheming with Edith - 25 XP
Solving the tea ingredient puzzle - 25 XP
Making a deal with Morelia - 25 XP
TOTAL: 150 XP

That puts Zinnia at 3,651 XP total, which means she needs 2,849 more XP to level up.  Don't forget to update your character sheet, HorizonsDream .

[Daos]

Wyld Times at Affburgh

Session 02 - Death Becomes Her
We picked up where we left off, with Zinnia heading deeper into the woods.  She comes across a clearing with a small pond, lots of tall grass around it, and patches of slightly glowing blue mushrooms on the shore.  She also notices small, brown-furred humanoids darting around in the grass, speaking Goblin and grabbing mushrooms.  Rather than try to stealth, Zinnia simply casts Warding Wind on herself and strolls forward, confident it will protect her.  All it does, though, is buy her a little more time as it creates difficult terrain before the two shinwacks that emerged to attack her can reach her.  She doesn't take them seriously enough as a threat, trying to fight them with cantrips, and they quickly beat her into submission.

At this point, I told Horizon we could end the game there, or we could find a way to move forward.  She said she didn't want to die in the second session to something called 'shinwacks' so I came up with something and had her wake up at 1 HP.  She discovers that the two shinwacks are not only dead at her feet, but completely decayed--little skeletons as if they had been dead for years.  Likewise, everything within 20 feet of her is dead--plants, etc.  It is as if something had sucked all of the life energy from everything around her.  Confused, she uses her Robe of Useful Items to create four Potions of Healing and downs two of them.  She then walks to the pond to gather the mushrooms.  She notices in her reflection in the water, though, that she now has a streak of white in her hair.

With the mushrooms collected, she returns to Morelia who agrees to make her a powder and keep the rest of the mushrooms as payment, but it will take an hour.  Zinnia spends that time getting in a short rest, and also buys two Potions of Greater Healing.

By this point, it is nearing nightfall.  With the powder in hand, Zinnia heads for the Onyxgate Prison.  Sure enough, the guards are quite lax, as the warden is likely unconscious back at the Temple of Love and Light by now.  Zinnia easily slips in while the one guard on the battlements is busy peeing over the other side.  She manages to get inside and it doesn't take long to find where Clover is being kept--largely because she hears Na'Krasha yelling at her.  She rubs the powder on herself, making herself look ghostly and then tries to put on a show, making ghostly noises.  Na'Krasha runs out terrified, but the two guards with her don't buy it and attack.

Despite the guards being significantly weaker than the shinwacks, the same thing happens again, and Zinnia goes down.  This time when she gets up, the guards are skeletons at her feet and the bard is cowering in the corner of her cell.  She claims that Zinnia has bright red eyes now, and refuses to discuss what she saw happened to the guards.  The only thing that gets her out of the cell is when Zinnia name-drops Augury.  Apparently that's the only thing Clover is more afraid of.

Keeping the hood of her cloak up, Zinnia escorts Clover back to Augury.  Augury pays her 50 gold and tells her guard to escort Zinnia to Nemeia's cell.  Zinnia uses her Ring of Chameleon Power to make herself look normal again before seeing Nemeia.  Once Nemeia has been released, Zinnia quickly escorts her back to her mother's house.  There she questions Nemeia about where her mother is, but Nemeia isn't sure, as she was captured a couple of days ago and isn't sure what has happened since then.  Frustrated, Zinnia decides to check with Vicavor next, as she needs help with her new appearance.  She fills Nemeia in on everything that's happened (her wild magic, her new strange appearance) and asks for her help.  Nemeia agrees.  The two clean up a bit and then bed down for the night.

The following morning, the two set out for Krumbridge Academy to find Vicavor.  It's a large school with two towers connected by a covered walkway with benches where students can sit and study or wait for friends.  It also looks rather expensive, which makes Zinnia wonder how Vicavor can afford to attend.  Nemeia explains that he got a scholarship.

As luck would have it, they find Vicavor in the garden, pacing back and forth and swearing profusely under his breath.  He is surprised to see Zinnia and Nemeia again.  Zinnia explains she is looking for her missing mother and is maybe cursed now?  But Vicavor explains he has bigger problems right now.  He was trying to Conjure Minor Elementals in his room for an assignment, and things went...sideways.  Instead, he called forth some kind of devil.  He panicked and fled, and isn't sure what to do.  He doesn't believe the devil has harmed anyone yet, as he hasn't heard screaming or seen people running.  But it's only a matter of time, and he's sure to be expelled if found out.  Zinnia agrees to help out, so he hands her a key to his dorm and asks her to look for it while he goes to the library and tries to research the devil in question.

The dorm rooms are in the first tower, over the library.  Zinnia and Nemeia head up there and find Vicavor's room (#14) and go inside.  They find it fairly messy, and a lot of clutter has been shoved aside to make room for a summoning circle in the middle of the room.  All that time Zinnia spent researching magic in Northbank paid off, as Zinnia was able to recognize that the circle had numerous errors in it.  The chalk was also smudged a bit.  Neither Zinnia or Nemeia could find any clues on where the devil might have gone, but it was clear it wasn't in the room anymore.  Stepping into the hall, they hear a strange chittering sound.  They head down into the common room and discover five pixies flying around, wrecking things.  They appear to have been corrupted by some kind of fiendish energy.  There's a golden cage nearby, but the bars have been bent, suggesting the pixies escaped.  Using her Robe of Useful Items to summon a sack, Zinnia attempts to catch one but fails.  This causes the corrupted pixies to start swarming her.  Zinnia casts Warding Wind, which causes the pixies to be swept up and unable to fly under their own power.  She then easily catches them all in her sack, ties it up and stuffs it back into the broken cage.

Searching the common area, she finds a burnt out hole in the floor leading down in the library, hidden behind a couch.  Using her rope, the two slide down into the library and find Vicavor in a panic.  He explains he saw the devil and it ran off, but he isn't sure where.  He did have luck in finding out what it is, though.  He shows Zinnia a passage in a book describing a 'barbed devil...'

Notes
So, Zinnia died twice in this session.  Both to minor fights that were completely optional.  The fight against the shinwacks could have been avoided if she had stealthed her way to the mushrooms and then used slight-of-hand to grab them without being noticed.  The fight with the guards could have been avoided had she intimidated them or frightened them, but her rolls failed on both attempts.  Ironically, I actually weakened both fights.  Originally there were three shinwacks and three guards.

After some thought, I think the problem was overconfidence.  The first two adventures I ran for her, the Wizard's Challenge modules, were designed for 2E and I converted them to 5E.  Mages in 2E are super weak at low levels, so the modules went pretty easy on her.  As she was a 5E sorcerer, she was considerably stronger than a 2E mage and so breezed through any combat encounters.  Plus, she also had an entire party with her early on, most of whom were higher level than her and were so basically carrying the fights.  Now, even though she's higher level, she's on her own and the combat encounters were stronger.  I noticed in both fights, she hesitated to pull out her stronger spells and attacks until it was too late.  She was used to coasting by on cantrips, I think.  Plus, she kept forgetting some of her abilities or items.  (I asked her later why she didn't drink any of those potions she acquired during the guard fight; she said she forgot she had them.  There were other instances of this, too; she forgot about her Ioun Stone when I asked her what her AC was, she forgot her Ring of Chameleon Power gives her advantage on stealth checks, etc.)

Well, it would have stunk to just end the game on either fight.  I did spend over three months working on this, after all.  But I had the idea to tie it into her backstory about being 'the vessel,' whatever that might mean.  It seems that each time she dies, Zinnia returns but looks a little more inhuman with each revival.  Well, now she has some party members to help and hopefully will be more cautious in the future.  Especially considering a barbed devil is significantly more powerful than shinwacks or simple guards.

At least she didn't have to fight Na'Krasha.  She was pretty tough, with levels in Barbarian.  It is possible to fight her and beat her, though.

Anyway, Nemeia Verloren has joined the party.  She is a Tiefling Thief, level 4, with the Skulker feat.  She's outgoing, charming, likes music and had a troubled childhood.  Her demonic heritage makes life difficult for her, but she always found a friend in Zinnia.

Vicavor's quest looked a bit different originally.  Instead of a devil, I was going to have him accidentally open a portal that released a bunch of elemental mephits that were flying all over campus, wreaking havoc.  So the party would have to hunt them all down and destroy them.  This turned out to be very similar to another quest I have set up, though, so instead I decided to simplify things and make it one powerful single enemy instead of a swarm of weaker ones.

It was possible to restore the pixies.  I left it pretty open on how; I figured I'd just listen and keep an open mind if she had any ideas.  Had she managed to restore them, they'd have helped her find where the devil went and given an idea of what it was up to.

[HorizonsDream]

Well, now that I know it is possible to restore the pixies, can I go back and try?