This kicks off our new campaign. This session was really a prelude to the adventure. I wanted to give the PCs a way to bond and develop their characters before we actually got to Red Larch. I had everyone speak a little about his or her character to start the session, and then I asked the entire group to come up with a little story to explain where they all met and how they got to know one another. We decided that they all were in Triboar and started from there.
PCs (1st Level)
Pate the Half-Elven Bard (in possession of a map that shows the Sumber Hills perhaps an area where an elemental node exists)
Zeed the Arakocra Rogue (fearful of hippogriff riders who have attacked in the area – also hopeful to find more Arakocra in the Dessarin Valley)
Hundar the Half-Orc Fighter (Tracking Gar Shatterkeep, who sunk the ship Hundar sailed on)
Turvytopple the Gnome Paladin (A gnome trying to fight evil)
Kippipop the Gnome Sorcerer (Looking for mystery and lore)
Namfoodle “Foo” the Gnome Rogue (Trying to find riches)
The Gnomes in the group had some history together. Turvy was shipwrecked and ultimately found Kippipop’s Gnome village. Those two fell in love and decided to travel the world together, setting out for adventure with their good friend Namfoodle. They met with Pate, Zeed and Hundar in Triboar. Pate was playing for the crowd in the “Silver Horn Tavern” and Foo was quickly inspired to whip out his harmonica to play along. He wasn’t so bad, so Pate took a liking to the little fella. All the while, Turvy worked to create a mechanical hamster that could keep time with a little symbol. Unfortunately, Hundar, accidently on purpose stepped on the prototype and crushed it. This influenced both Turvy and Kippipop to follow him around and talk his ears off. Kippipop and Turvy bantered about adventures and plans for the future when they noticed a birdman swoop down from the sky. Zeed, the Arakocra, joined the group and they all traveled south toward Red Larch. All of the adventurers had also shared that they experienced strange anomalies with the weather over the past few months…surging tides, freak windstorms, wildfires, even some earth tremors.
After a day and a half on the road, they came to a ruined stone structure that looked like an old toll booth. There were two cloaked larger humanoids in the road. One of them held a stick with a flag on the end, with the flag down on the ground near its feet. When the group got close enough, one of the figures spoke with a guttural voice and asked for 2 gp toll per person. Zeed was able to see under the cloaks to tell that these figures were Half-Orcs. Hundar spoke Orc to them and tried to intimidate them into letting him pass. They were taken aback and let Hundar through. Pate spun a tale and convinced the toll keepers that he had aided their kind in a battle against goblins a long time ago. Miraculously they believed him and let him pass, but they were unsure, and the group heard them say something about how the boss wouldn’t like all this. Then Kippipop stepped forward and hugged one of the Half-Orc’s legs and talked about hugging and kissing instead of paying a toll. At this point one of the Half-Orcs turned to the other and said this was getting too silly. They realized that the group was trying to get past without paying. That’s when they twitched and went for their weapons. The Half-Orc with the flag raised it up into the air as if to signal others and then the fight started.
It was Foo who took an arrow in the chest, fired from a light forest area 40’ to the east. Luckily other arrows from that direction missed Hundar, Pate and Foo again. Kippipop who was standing near a Half-Orc, clapped her hands and a small thunder pop lightly hurt those around her. Unfortunately, it was her allies, Foo and Hundar, not the Half-Orcs. Zeed took to the air and fired an arrow down upon one of the Half-Orcs, hurting it badly. Pate tried to viciously mock one, but it would have none of that. Soon, the group realized that there were other foes firing arrows from the trees. Turvytopple was hurt by a half-orc’s battle axe, but soon the party took down the half-orc foes.
Hundar ran towards the trees. The others followed in turn. It was hard to spot the goblins that were firing arrows and hiding in the trees, but Hundar was able to cut down two eventually. Foo took down another, but the fourth one ran deeper into the forest. Zeed took to the air and was able to find the fleeing goblin. It looked as if it was running toward a cave. Zeed was able to overtake the goblin and land before it with rapier drawn. The little goblin ran right into Zeed and the rapier went clean through its chest. Zeed could see the cave, but realized he was pretty far from the rest of the party so he took to the air and flew back to them. Meanwhile, the others found some silver on the Half-Orcs, and a necklace with a tooth on it that they gave to Kippi.
The group, thinking that these were bandits who perhaps had a hideout in the cave, traveled into the forest. Turvy wanted to smite evil so he urged the party forward. With Hundar and Turvy in the lead, they marched right into the cave. Inside they saw 4 goblins, 1 goblin chief and 2 half-orcs. Since the group was not sneaking in, the foes reacted and came at them. The battle was fierce. Kippipop tried to sleep the goblins and caught 2 of them. Turvy strode right in and confronted them directly. When he was in their midst, he dodged and juked to keep the foes from hitting him. Pate was able to make one of the half-orcs laugh uncontrollably for a few rounds. The others attacking as they could, missing a good number of times, and hitting some. The other goblins woke their sleeping brothers before engaging the party, and the entire battle lasted nearly 30-45 seconds. During the fight, Kippipop made the sound of an owl bear growling which kept the boss back an extra round since he feared moving toward the “strange magic.” A few rounds into the battle, Kippipop was slashed brutally by one of the goblins and she went down. Soon after, Pate was knocked down by one of the half-orcs. The others battled on, but it was looking bad for the party. Zeed eventually took one goblin down. He had a hard time seeing in the dim lighting of the cave though. Foo also took one down. Turvy dodged and weaved, but when Kippi went down, he moved toward her to guard her from more injury, attempting to bind her wounds as best he could. He ended up spending nearly 3 rounds holding her and applying pressure to her open would, and eventually he stabilized her. Hundar harnessing his second wind, hacked a few of the foes, but he too took a mighty blow that should have laid him low but for his half-orc resilience. Then, with one blow he took down the goblin chief (critical hit doing 21 points of damage). This turned the battle in the party’s favor. Zeed attempted to bandage Pate, but could not do it. Lucky for Pate, he stabilized on his own (with inspirational encouragement from one of the others) and did not die.
After killing the last foe, the group was able to take a few hours rest. Pate and Kippi both regained consciousness and everyone bandaged themselves as best they could. It was a tough first few days on the road.
The group found that the goblin leader was wearing a nice chain shirt, which Turvy took, they also pocketed some gold and silver, and found a scroll. Pate read over the scroll and could tell that it was magical. It could be used to cast a cure wounds spell and a lesser restoration spell. The group also found a crude map. Kippipop and Foo looked it over. It was a map of the Sumber Hills with Rivergard Keep marked and circled. In one corner of the map was a strange symbol. It also said, “Grimjaw pays for stuff.”
The group posted watches through the next night and used the cave for shelter. They were able to rest uninterrupted.
End –
Comments
1600 xp (1000 for the monsters and 600 for roleplaying and story awards) - the PCs are nearly 2nd level. They will be able to level up after a little more play next session.
The fight in the cave was very dangerous. I thought the group would go down, but they were able to use inspiration a few moments to avoid catastrophe. Hundar's class and race abilities really saved them too. It was cool seeing the Arakocra fly and overtake the fleeing goblin. That helped the group find the cave and eventually get the treasure and the map that they found.
Kippipop and Turvytopple had terrific interplay roleplaying their Gnome couple, while the others formed bonds based on other ideas each of the players had. Since the group has traveled together and has fought together, and nearly died together, they are beginning to adhere and feel a bond with one another.
My play summary does not do justice to the roleplaying. We spent about 45 minutes in the beginning setting up the PC relationships and "bonding". I like how that got us going.
You may notice how sometimes PCs don't do what's optimum in a situation. That's awesome. I really like when players roleplay and choose an interesting action rather than the "right" action. In one situation, Kippipop did her thunderclap cantrip with friendlies near her. That's why she's called Kippipop. Another time, Zeed hit a goblin in the cave with his first attack, but decided to use his off hand and not sneak attack because he thought the goblin was really injured. Unfortunately, he rolled a 1 for damage and the goblin had 2 hp. Needless to say, his other attack missed so he couldn't take down the goblin, and it was that goblin that slashed Kippi and took her down. Additionally, Turvytopple ran to try to use medicine skill on Kippipop (his wife) spending 2 or 3 rounds out of action just to save her from dying. (He had already used his lay on hands on himself during the first fight).
Interestingly, the dodge action worked really well as long as there were enough PCs going on the offense. Once Kippi and Pate went down, defense had to turn to offense. Oh...also, Pate actually rolled his death save with inspiration and averted rolling a "1" which would have killed him.
Sounds great 
Session 2 (About 2 ½ hours of play…including a quick level up time)
PCs (1st Level – Leveling up to 2nd Level)
Pate the Half-Elven Bard (in possession of a map that shows the Sumber Hills perhaps an area where an elemental node exists)
Zeed the Aarakocra Rogue (fearful of hippogriff riders who have attacked in the area – also hopeful to find more Arakocra in the Dessarin Valley)
Hundar the Half-Orc Fighter (Tracking Gar Shatterkeep, who sunk the ship Hundar sailed on)
Turvytopple the Gnome Paladin (A gnome trying to fight evil)
Kippipop the Gnome Sorcerer (Looking for mystery and lore)
Namfoodle “Foo” the Gnome Rogue (Trying to find riches)
The party spent the night in a bandit cave they cleared and got a good night’s sleep. The next day was a crisp and clear spring day making it a great day for travel so the party continued on their way south toward Red Larch. After nearly a day of travel they could see the town before them. They also saw an ominous black cloud move quickly over the Sumber Hills over the town and a fierce rain began pelting them. Without warning, the rain turned to hail, and as the group trekked closer to Red Larch, the hail got bigger and bigger. Tury put his shield over Kippi to protect her as Kippi studied the strange storm. She knew it wasn’t magical, yet it was strange that the weather would change so quickly and become so violent. Hundar, Foo, Pate and Zeed all began running toward Red Larch seeking refuge as they all got battered by the now painful pieces of hail. Tury did protect Kippi, but he got banged up and nearly lost his footing (hit twice down to 1 hp), so he continued to run and use his healing magic to bolster his step. Pate, Hundar, Zeed and Foo all got hit, but they were all able to make it to the Helm at Highsun, a two story tavern that seemed crowded and lively.
Inside, the dimly lit, wood paneled taproom was astir with what seemed like 40 or 50 patrons. The place was crowded and loud and there were no empty tables at all. The patrons looked quickly toward the party as it entered, but their revels at happy hour were not broken so they went back to their drinks, their games, their conversations. With a quick scan of the room, it was Hundar who noticed one table where a few humans and a half-orc female warrior were trading stories and rolling dice. Pate slipped into the room and headed straight towards a musician who was playing a lyre. Pate was not impressed.
The party moved up to the long bar at the back of the establishment and Tury got the bartender’s attention by flipping a gold piece up on to the bar. He ordered hot drinks for everyone in the party, and the bartender, a rotund man, called to another as he helped other patrons. The other man, started talking to Tury and the group. He was one of the owners, Garlen Harlathurl, and as he spoke the party learned that the weather’s been acting strangely for about 2 weeks. Another patron, sitting next to them, chimed in and said that Mintra Mahndyvvewr’s grandaughter, Pell told some strange story about a ghost she saw out by an old tomb.
Then Garlen mentioned that lots of new folk had been coming to Red Larch, boarding at Mother Yanlantah’s down the way. He said they were rowdy folk who drank hard and sometimes a bit too loud for his own liking. With that, Tury noticed that Garlen was looking at one of the tables with a snear. After a little more small talk, learning about the Swinging Sword and inn across the street and some other places of interest like Mandyvvewr’s Poultry down The Long Road, everyone heard the crashing of glasses in the middle of the tavern. It seemed that one of the serving girls had dropped a tray of glasses right near the table with the rude men Garlen was talking about earlier. She picked up some of the broken glassware and then stormed right by the party behind the bar, muttering under her breath how those guys need to keep their hands to themselves. When Tury heard this, he asked his pal, Foo, to sneak over toward that table to give a listen to what those rude men were on about. Foo disappeared into the crowd and got close enough to hear them talking about their work at the mines and their desire to stay close to the black earth. One of them teased another for pinching the serving girls bottom, and they all laughed piggishly.
Before too much longer, the ground began to shake and everyone in the Helm got quiet. The tremor felt more like a small earthquake, and after a few seconds everyone could hear a grinding outside the front door and a high pitched cry for help. It sounded like a little boy. Hundar was the first to bound out of the tavern, hurdling patrons, tables and the like. When he got outside he found that the storm had passed, and the sun was setting, but there was a 20’ crater in them middle of the road. He ran up to the edge, but lost his footing as the ground around the edge crumbled away. He tumbled down some of the crumbling dirt into a pit 20’ down. At the bottom he saw that the pit opened up into a larger cavern. He also saw a frightened little boy who said he was just going to the Helm to find his daddy when the ground just gave way beneath him.
By this time, a crowd of people all stood around the sink hole in the road and the rest of the party was trying to look down into the hole. Tury got out a rope, fastened it to a hitching post near the tavern and then lowered it down the hole. The others got close and noticed that three of the townsfolk were trying to push everyone back away from the hole. One even came up to Tury and told the Gnome to move back. Tury could tell that the guy seemed to want to keep everyone from seeing what was in the hole. He even caught the guy looking over to a few other men that were trying to keep people back. Kippi and Tury gave that fella an earful of Gnome speak, and Tury was able to convince the guy to let him pull up his companion who had fallen into the hole. With that, Hundar, little boy in tow, climbed out of the hole and released the little fella, who promptly ran off to find his dad.
Tury, without missing a beat, told Kippi to stay up top while he went below to check out the area under the sink hole, which looked like a more open cavern area. Then Tury went down the hole. Kippi did not stay up top. She slid down, and so did Foo and Hundar. Zeed, the Aarakocra, and Pate the Bard, stayed behind (because they could not play longer, etc.).
Down below, the party found a tunnel leading far to the north and a stone doorway to the east. Curious, Tury led the way toward the stone doorway. When the group got closer they saw a some used black cloaks hanging on pegs near the doorway. Foo checked the door for traps and locks and was surprised to find that the doors just pushed open, no locks, no traps. Then Tury pushed the doors open and led the group down a long man-made corridor until he came to two Dwarves carved in stone blocks looking at each other on opposite sides of the longer corridor. Foo checked them out and could not find any traps or hidden features, but they all noticed that there was a 6” gap on either side of the stone. Tury put his shield in one of the gaps and used it to leverage the stone, which pivoted and revealed a hidden passage to the south. The party moved down the passage and began to smell a horrible odor. Tury and Foo could tell that this odor was worse than any out house they had ever visited. Foo took the opportunity to sneak ahead to scout, and he found a hole in the ground where the odor was most rank. This undoubtedly was a latrine so the party backtracked and went to the other stone door on the north.
They wound their way up another small tunnel behind the other pivoting door, and Tury was the first to come to a 20’ x 20’ chamber. In the middle of the room there was a pile of corpses and two giant rats were feeding upon them. Tury could hear the skittling of claws on stone in other parts of the room, but before he could really say much, Kippi moved right into the room and fired a frosty ray at one of the rats in the corner of the room. Since she was now exposed, three rats attacked her, but miraculously none of them could bit her. Then the others joined the fray and began to take down the rats. Hundar had some horrible luck, swinging wildly and missing a number of times. Foo got hit bitten once, but right after, he made some chittering noises to speak with the rats. Lo and behold, Foo got the rats to back away. Kippi was impressed by this, she too could speak with animals, and she realized that her friend was actually talking to the larger rodents. Hundar didn’t care. He kept on swinging, but couldn’t hit any of the rats. Tury took this time to inspect one of the corpses. That’s when he noticed that a strange symbol was carved into the forehead of the skull, a triangle shaped rune with a single line in the middle of the triangle, perpendicular to the base. Kippi fired her frosty ray once again, and froze one of the rats in place while Foo continued to speak with the rats to get the others to back away even more. Then he tried to befriend the most injured rat, and the rat seemed to take a liking to the Gnome. Hundar, not understanding all of what was happening, and angered by his inability to hit these creatures, swung his warhammer at the friendly rat and smashed it to a pulp. Foo was devastated by this, but Tury promised to make him a mechanical rat. So, before moving on, the party took 10 minutes to let Tury construct a mechanical rat for Foo to keep.
During that time, Hundar heard some shouts back from the way they had already come. People were searching for them. “Which way did they go?”
Hundar told the others and then worked his way back to the bend in the tunnel to see if he could see anyone there. He couldn’t make anything out although he could still hear some conversation behind the pivoting stone Dwarf door. The party decided to head back to see who had come after them. When they got close to the door, they saw the flickering of torchlight beyond. Hundar charged out to find 6 humanoids in robes…two with torches and scimitars, the others with scimitars as well. The cloaked humanoids said that they were “The Bringers of Woe” and nobody but the “Believers” should be there. They were going to make sure that the intruders would never leave. Hundar was hit badly by one of the men (crit double sixes!) Three others engaged as others fired crossbow bolts. Hundar stood his ground as Tury came to help…then Kippi and then Foo. Kippi tried to put the “Bringers of Woe” to sleep, but only 1 fell. Tury got hit with a crossbow bolt right in the chest (another crit), and then Foo stepped in to stab and kill one of the foes.
That’s were we ended for the night….mid battle.
Comments
After the party saved the little boy, I awarded them 300 xp, which got them each to level 2. We spent about 10 minutes leveling up and then kept playing. I like how easy it is to level up in 5e (especially with Fantasy Grounds character sheets in the FG gametable).
Hundar had horrible luck, missing nearly every attack he made.
Kippi’s sleep spell kind of fizzled, only rolling 15 hp worth of sleep.
The group did a lot of roleplaying and found some important information in town and in the dungeon.
Pate’s player was not around tonight, and Zeed’s player had to bow out early, so we just had those two PCs stay in town.
Fun stuff! Some comments from a player's perspective.
First: all due credit to Rhenny. He sets the stage well and envelopes us in the world he's sharing with us. He exhibits the first (and only important one in my opinion) sign of a good DM: he and his players are all having fun!
Second: I agree that the system is very casual friendly, easy to play in, and quick to level up in. Didn't take long to go from 1st to 2nd and continue on our adventure. Advantage, disadvantage, and inspiration are all fun aspects to play with, and simple to use. And while I do miss some of the specialization expanded skills and proficiencies offered, I also cannot argue with how straight forward this more generic use of abilities and skills is. Hop into a character and play. We are all in this together. It also has helped lessen the need for specific "role" archtypes, which is good (except for, perhaps, healing, which still feels a bit of a required role).
Finally: On playing Turytoppple, it's definitely more about the role than the roll. A 100mph motor mouth with a good heart and a desire to stamp out the "bad people who ruin the fun of life for others" is a much more serious character than it probably sounds. Yes, there is some comic recklessness to his actions and humor (and irritation!!!) to his squeaky (often tangential) run-on sentences, it's that it's all Turytopple. It's not funny or silly to be funny or silly, it's just him as he is. Which harkens back to my first point - it's great to have a DM who realizes that my spastic gnomish knight is as seriouis a character as the grim warrior I could have played instead (for example).
As an aside, one interesting aspect I am interested in seeing is if roleplaying characters can survive the brutality of what D&D has become. By this I mean, can a character that is played imperfectly survive now that most encounters in D&D seem to be designed for those who play with optimization in mind. It's not to say that I play Tury "dumbly", but I play true to his personality which is far from perfect or strategically sound all the time. Running to protect his fallen wife (instead of disengaging) or stopping in the middle of a dungeon to build a mechanical rat (that plays a drum) for his heartbroken friend probably not smart, but both acts were 100% Tury. He's passionate, reactionary, naive, lacking some serious common sense, and good-hearted to a fault. Most of my faith is not in the system (to be honest), but in the DM I have great respect for.
Roleplaying is easy in 5E, but I don't think that necessarily means it is easier than any other system because the onus is still on the player to see the character as more than a sheet full of numbers and how much damage (or healing or "tanking") they can do. That said, I do appreciate some of the fluff and roleplaying encouragement that has been added to 5E that, quite frankly, 4E seemed to lack. Again, I am not banging 4E (as I did enjoy my time in that edition), because I could just as easily roleplayed in that system as I am in this one. However, there is definitely a greater feel of individuality and character in the creation process than there was in 4E.
Still, I must admit, it was hard to create a Gnome Paladin in 5E that didn't feel a little underwhelming, though I did my best to mold him into something as useful to the party as it was fun to play.
Does that matter? Actually, no. I realized well before I even dropped (or clicked on, in the case of Fantasy Grounds) my first dice to roll with Turytopple that I was excited to play him.
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