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| #1TiaNadiezjaAug 20, 2014 1:37:34 | So... I finished my first adventure with the full rules last week. Started it last week, too, come to think of it - people jumped on the chance to play a second time, so we played. Here we go!
I only have two players, which makes running a game a little frustrating but also lets me do some interesting little tricks without slighting anyone - for example, in this campaign, each player is playing as two characters. One began play at level 3 and is an outsider to the Threshold region, the other at level 1 and is a native.
I'm only using one houserule (though there's a decent amount of homebrew going on). PCs are created with a 29-point point buy, but can spend two of those points to "invest" them. If they do so, they gain a feat at level 3.
V1 In Search of the Unknown
Characters: Nuriyah - Human battlemaster from Ylaruam. A member of a mercenary house, Nuriyah seems to mostly be pursuing fortune and glory for herself and her family. She fights with swords, a dwarfish warhammer, and a unique weapon called a firewand, which uses a magical powder to produce bursts of flame. Stats on the firewand will be included at the end of the post, with the other homebrew material used in the game. Soldier background. Started at level 3. Has the Firewand Mastery feat.
Phaenna - Loresong Faen Dragon Sorcerer. A soldier of the Diamond Throne, she's become an adventurer and best friend of Nuriyah. Phaenna really enjoys alcohol. REALLY enjoys alcohol. She has the Spryte feat, and started at level 3. Her background is Soldier.
Tyreshia - Half-fiend, created using the Tiefling race and the Fiendish Warlock class - in her case, her class features have been reflavored to be racial abilities from her fiendish blood. Tyreshia is the daughter of the mysterious Witch of the Woods near Threshold, a malevolent old spellcaster who the townspeople tolerate because of fear and because she also brews and sells potions. Whatever the Witch is planning will not end well for the people of Threshold - or, possibly, of Karameikos, or the Known World, or Mystara as a whole for that matter. Tyreshia hasn't done much socializing and is a bit of an innocent, but is fascinated with death and fire and makeshift shrines to Laogzed. Yeah, she's a complicated one. Started at level 1. Unique background, based on Folk Hero but using evil cultists instead of commoners. That girl's going to have all sorts of issues when she grows up...
Eridne - Human ranger, Outlander background. Eridne is the daughter of the local weaver and the apprentice of Magog, the town's half-orc retired adventurer constable. She loves her family but doesn't get on too well with most of them, and her talent set led Magog to pick her up as an apprentice. She knows the local area very well, and is quite respected by the people of Threshold, especially for one as young as she is. Started at level 1.
Badger - Gnome Bard, Entertainer Background. Before leaving to have an adventurer, Nuriyah wanted to hire a healer. After interviewing two, she and Phaenna settled on Badger. Badger was the apprentice to Halzad, a dwarfish bard, and he sent her instead of going himself for reasons unknown at the time (though they became clear later). Her name and background are tightly-kept secrets. Started at level 1.
The Adventure Itself
The adventure opened, not in a tavern, but in the aftermath of one - Phaenna having been arrested for intoxication and placed in a barrel by Magog. After Nuriyah bailed her out, they set about finding a guide and a healer to help them raid the newly-rediscovered Caves of Quesquaton, which had once been home to the fabled heroes Roghan and Zelliger. The Caves were, at last report, inhabited by the Gnashroot tribe of goblins. They hired Eridne as their guide, and, after interviewing two prospective candidates, Badger as their healer. Tyreshia followed the party in the shadows, but was caught by Eridne. While Eridne was confronting Tyreshia about her sneaky behavior, a giant centipede attacked the party's camp. It was quickly dispatched but interrupted Eridne's train of thought, and Tyre was able to continue following with only Eridne knowning about her presence.
They reached the Caves, and followed a route through that I wasn't expecting... the map of the Caves (I was using the one in the original B1 module, which, by the way, is NOT the right map to use when your players are just starting to do in-game mapping and you haven't run a dungeon crawl that expected player mapping in nearly fifteen years) included a pair of secret doors near the entrance that I'd set the DC to find higher than I expected a low-level character to roll, but Eridne blew the roof off that d20, so they found the secret doors and used them instead of the more obvious path. This took them through the core of Gnashroot territory first, and made the mapping process even more complicated than the overly-complex dungeon I was using already made it.
There were a few moments that were scares for me. I had done room descriptions taking into account the plots that I'm planning on doing in this campaign, but was relying on random encounter tables to generate the fights. In the dining room, my table generated a result I'd allowed for because I liked the rest of its probability spread but was not prepared for - a group of eight goblins. I warned the players that they were likely outmatched; they chose to fight anyway... and Sleep spells from Eridne and Badger broke the encounter up into manageable chunks. Sleep was by far the most powerful ability used by anyone in this adventure, and both Eridne's and Badger's castings of it turned very dangerous fights into... well, not cakewalks, but they made the fights much easier. All three spellcasters hoarded their spell slots, only casting levelled spells when they thought the resource expenditure was really important.
I'm generally fairly good at homebrewing and avoiding overpowered stuff, but I still get nervous. Phaenna's flight will likely come into play more later, but here it mostly just gave her the same movement speed everyone else had and a nifty visual. Nuriyah used her firewand twice - once to hit two giant spiders at once with its flamethrower attack, and a second time she loaded it at the start of a fight but didn't get a chance to fire. I'm still a little worried about its area attack, but the fact that it can't be carried loaded means that attack effectively takes two rounds to activate - it's a powerful trick but not a general-use ability.
When the party started learning the backstory of Roghan, Zelliger, and their third companion Melissa, the storytelling got fun - the three of them were lovers, and Zelliger was fond of writing very... vivid... poetry about his experience of the other two. Tyreshia took one of the books of Zelliger's poetry; that might become interesting later.
The western half of the dungeon had fallen out of goblin hands and into those of troglodytes. In my setting, troglodytes are basically as evil as humanoids get - rather than being created without full free will like the orcs and goblins and such were, the troglodytes swore themselves to the dark god Laogzed, sacrificing their free will for the power to cause more suffering and death than they could without Laogzed's support. Even now, their hatchlings are given to Laogzed for his "blessing." Where the troglodytes go, taint follows - the troglodyte-controlled parts of the Caves were infested with horrors. The party managed to defeat a grick in one room, though it gave them a scare with its toughness and appearance.
Overall, while I can see how deadly level 1 can be - and am aware that a few fights threatened to give us more practical experience with its danger turned out not to by pure cleverness by my players, luck of dice, and the power of Sleep (eight goblins) or Nuriyah and Eridne's single-target damage output (grick), we didn't run into any real trouble. Characters used resources, took damage, took I think four short rests and one long rest over the course of enough encounters to get the level 1 characters to 2, and had a grand time.
Today's experiment: Success!
Now they have to go to a certain Keep on some certain Borderlands to sell their loot...
Homebrew Material
Equipment:
Firewand - Exotic Weapon. Deals 2d10 Fire damage. Long loading, two-handed, heavy, ranged (20/16). Flame Piece - Exotic weapon. Deals 2d6 Fire damage. Long loading, light, ranged (15/40).
Long Loading - A long loading weapon can only be fired once before needing to be reloaded. It requires an action to reload.
Feats
Firewand Mastery. * Gain proficiency with firewands and flame pieces. * Ignore Disadvantage at close range with firewand and flame piece attacks. * In place of an attack during an attack action, you may reload a firewand. * Add your Dexterity modifier to damage with firewands. * As an action, you may make one firewand attack against each enemy within 5 feet of you.
Spryte. Prerequesite: Faen At any time after you gain this feat, you may enter a cocoon for 100 days. When you emerge from the cocoon, you are transformed into a Spryte. You retain any previous racial traits, except as noted here:
Races
Faen
Ability Score Adjustment: Dexterity +1 Subrace: Choose Loresong or Quickling. Size: Small Slippery Mind: You gain Advantage on saving throws against charm effects. Fey Ancestry: You are considered a Fey rather than a Humanoid. Darkvision 60’ Languages: Common, Aegis Speed: 25 feet Quickling Faen Alacrity: You gain +5 feet to your ground speed. Quickling Nimbleness: You can move through the square of any creature of larger size than you. Entering or leaving the square of a creature of larger size than you does not provoke attacks of opportunity. Touch of the Wild: Once per day, you gain Advantage on an initiative check. Loresong Faen Lore: You gain proficiency in one additional Intelligence-based skill. Magic of the Fae: You know the Dancing Lights cantrip. When you reach third level, you can cast the Faerie Fire spell once per day. When you reach fifth level, you can cast Mirror Image once per day. |
| #2RhennyAug 20, 2014 5:03:51 | Wow, great stuff Tia. I like the darkness in some of those pcs.
I also like how sleep works, and a lot of how our sessions play out really does depend more or less on the random roll of the dice (the fickle hand of fate).
Actually one of my players refused to have his wizard learn sleep because he thought it too powerful. Oh well, his loss.
Good luck in your future sessions.
Cheers.
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| #3TiaNadiezjaAug 20, 2014 5:41:13 |
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