The return of the D&D campaign: This time it's potatoes

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Wrathbone
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Re: The return of the D&D campaign: This time it's potatoes

Post by Wrathbone » Fri Jun 21, 2019 9:59 am

Hopefully the solution to the door puzzle should become clearer at the start of the next session. ;) I don't think there's anything more you could have done to figure it out without taking the course of action you did.

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Re: The return of the D&D campaign: This time it's potatoes

Post by Sly Boots » Fri Jun 21, 2019 10:31 am

That's good, I felt terrible that there was something really obvious we were missing and you were sitting there thinking 'just figure it out ffs!' :lol:

Although Truss wandering in and hitting the door was probably the manifestation of that.

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Re: The return of the D&D campaign: This time it's potatoes

Post by Mantis » Fri Jun 21, 2019 12:11 pm

How much of this campaign has been home-brewed or just made up on the spot so far? I didn't even realise that there was any official material out there for 5th edition covering Neverwinter and we've been in the city for quite some time. I'm enjoying how much intrigue there is compared to our more standard dungeon crawl Phandalin campaign.

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Re: The return of the D&D campaign: This time it's potatoes

Post by Wrathbone » Fri Jun 21, 2019 6:36 pm

Everything up to the defeat of the Black Spider was based on the starter set Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure, with some changes (running a published adventure exactly as written is often near-impossible and not necessarily beneficial). Everything since has been my own campaign, with some details on locations and people taken from other published material. In general, I’d say about a third of each session is covered by stuff I’ve planned with the rest being improvised, which is often terrifying but always fun. I may also steal parts and ideas from other published adventures if appropriate, which is apparently how WotC expected many DMs would run 5E games.

I’m glad the intrigue is working to some extent! Most of my planning goes into character motivations and figuring out how various people and factions are going to react after each session, and how that changes the playing field (you’ve genuinely made some big impacts in areas you don’t know about yet). That way, wherever you go and whatever you choose to do, I’ve some idea how the world will respond. It’s a hugely rewarding creative exercise for me, and hopefully the game ends up being fun for you guys as a result!

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Re: The return of the D&D campaign: This time it's potatoes

Post by Wrathbone » Sun Jul 07, 2019 8:44 pm

Got a busy end of the week, so I'll only be able to do Mon, Tues or Weds this week if that works for anyone.

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Re: The return of the D&D campaign: This time it's potatoes

Post by Sly Boots » Sun Jul 07, 2019 9:01 pm

Any good for me :)

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Re: The return of the D&D campaign: This time it's potatoes

Post by Raid » Mon Jul 08, 2019 6:35 am

Can't do tonight, but Tuesday or Wednesday should be fine.

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Re: The return of the D&D campaign: This time it's potatoes

Post by Mantis » Mon Jul 08, 2019 2:44 pm

Tuesday would be best for me I think.

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Re: The return of the D&D campaign: This time it's potatoes

Post by Wrathbone » Mon Jul 08, 2019 2:47 pm

Cool, we'll aim for tomorrow.

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Re: The return of the D&D campaign: This time it's potatoes

Post by Sly Boots » Tue Jul 09, 2019 9:17 pm

Image

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Re: The return of the D&D campaign: This time it's potatoes

Post by Mantis » Tue Jul 09, 2019 9:25 pm

I don't think for a second that Wrath expected any less of us when it came to being tempted into pushing that button. :lol:

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Re: The return of the D&D campaign: This time it's potatoes

Post by Wrathbone » Tue Jul 09, 2019 9:30 pm

:lol:

There was no way that button was not being pushed eventually.

PS - The question about whether vampires have souls in D&D appears to be a point of substantial debate, delving into what constitutes a soul, the manner of death, the nature of morality, the method in which a soul is owned or retained and many other factors! I’ll look a bit closer tomorrow. I’ll probably end up just saying yes they do, because I want to see you convince it to be restrained in the soul extraction device.

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Re: The return of the D&D campaign: This time it's potatoes

Post by Wrathbone » Wed Jul 10, 2019 11:14 am

The recap:
The giant rose to its feet quickly and angrily, having been woken by Truss causing a ruckus. As it gathered its bearings, it averted its gaze from the party stood by the mirrored door and asked: "Password...?" Taken by surprise, the Unmentionables insisted that of course they knew the password, but how did they know the giant knew it? This delaying tactic allowed them time to observe the giant and establish that he was averting his one remaining eye from the mirror. A hefty rumble from the giant's stomach and its increasing rage at not being given the password clued the party in that the giant was seriously hangry. After some magical trickery with an illusion of the mirrored door and some rations being held as bait in front of the real mirror, the giant was deceived into gazing into the mirror and thereby opening the door. The giant did not take kindly to this, and the party quickly fled down the stairs as it charged them. Thankfully for them, it was too big to follow.

The floor below appeared to be a mix of living quarters for two wizards and a treasure room. In between the quarters stood a relatively small, incredibly detailed dragon statue, which Charr - with his draconic ancestry - identified as being a real, petrified white dragon wyrmling. In the north quarters, Sage found numerous magical artefacts and scrolls, along with a library of books regarding planar travel and other related subjects. His pilfering of everything in sight was momentarily interrupted when the chest he opened bit his wrist and revealed itself to be a mimic. The party swiftly battered it into submission, but Slythe, trying out his newly-upgraded shortbow, discovered that the magical force imbued within it was powerful enough to cause a painful magical backblast as the arrow was loosed.

To console himself, Slythe proceeded to the treasure room, where he scoured the place of as many valuables as he could carry. One item of intrigue caught his eye - a hand mirror, which displayed a different face each time someone looked in it. Sage and Charr examined it and determined that someone with the right mind could temporarily change their face to the one in the mirror. Seeking a willing test subject, they handed the mirror to Truss and watched as his hulking brow and chiselled jawline receded into a round, bookish scholarly visage. Despite assurances that it would be fine, Truss could not seem to revert back to his own face and appeared to be stuck with his new mug.

Charr explored the south quarters, finding an alchemical lab and a book detailing common potions. In one corner there was a locked safe, and in another corner was an un-heated cauldron with a green liquid bubbling away. As with all liquids of an uncertain nature, Charr naturally dropped a potato in, which sank unceremoniously to the bottom. Inspection of a journal on a desk suggested that the cauldron was the key to opening the safe. Sage tested the green liquid with a fork, but then decided to throw caution to the wind and plunged his hand in. Luck, for once, was in their favour, as Sage's hand emerged unhurt and with his index finger transformed into a key which unlocked the safe, after which his finger returned to normal. Inside the safe was a jug with many coloured stoppers, a heart-shaped philter and a scroll of stone to flesh.

Proceeding to the bottom level of the tower, the party found a control room of sorts with odd contraptions. A scrying sphere showed the city of Neverwinter below them, and a control panel with many levers and glowing crystals displayed a map of the Sword Coast. A conspicuous red button on the control panel had a note nailed next to it which read "DO NOT PUSH". Nearby, a skeleton in a scorched robe sat against a pillar. On its remains a note was found detailing how some of his companions had perished and he was trying to return to the tower. He also mentioned finding an alternative power source and that he could "still profit" somehow. In an antechamber, a gnomish journal detailed the workings of the control panel and its purpose: it seemed the tower could jump between planes of existence, and the crystals indicated it had enough power remaining for three jumps. Investigating the possible source of power, Sage found a restraining rack with a suspicious extraction funnel above it, which led the party to conclude that the tower was powered by extracted souls. Troubled not by the harrowing implications of such a contraption, Sage casually offered that they could use criminals for fuel. A green energy policy for a crime-free Neverwinter!

The Unmentionables considered the possible dangers of seeing where the tower could take them, and weighed it against having to exit the tower past the giant which they had enraged. Eventually, they decided to boldly go... somewhere... literally anywhere in the multiverse, and so pulled a random lever and hit the DO NOT PUSH button with ill-earned confidence. The tower shook violently, the scrying sphere emitted a blinding flash and the tower emerged in another realm of existence. Charr dutifully examined the horrifying, gloom-ridden hellscape that the sphere depicted beneath them and compared this to the notes in book of the planes he had found, and concluded that they were in the Shadowfell: a terrible realm of undeath; a vicious and twisted mockery of the material plane, swarming with malign creatures and overseen by the bone-chilling Raven Queen. The Tripadvisor reviews were poor at best, and all agreed to return immediately to the material plane.

As the tower whirred into action again and the sense of impending doom subsided, the party breathed a sigh of relief. That relief was short-lived, however, as a bat fluttered down the stairs and transformed before them into a pale, red-eyed humanoid who looked each of them over and then declared: "I claim this tower as my own. Leave now."
Image

How many more minutes can the Unmentionables survive? One, ah-ah-ahhhh! ;)

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Re: The return of the D&D campaign: This time it's potatoes

Post by Sly Boots » Wed Jul 10, 2019 1:11 pm

Warming up the old persuasion check skills...

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Re: The return of the D&D campaign: This time it's potatoes

Post by Wrathbone » Mon Jul 15, 2019 11:26 am

Should be fine for Weds, Thurs or Fri this week.

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