4U 4: Puff's Green Dragon

The RPG SAGA continues with "The Dream Team" of:
Koriel "Kori" the aasimar (human-looking) arcane archer,
"Puff" the gnome dream druid,
Aegle the winged elf kensei monk,
and their allies...

DM Note
I've let myself be inspired by "West Marches" style games for some of my recent DMing. The players are exploring in short bursts, sometimes encountering things above their level, finding areas to explore later, and returning to the (somewhat) safety of the home town. It's fun, but I can already tell I'm going to want to change things up soon.

4U Session 4 Log
Homebrew Campaign (Alternate Forgotten Realms)
Having left Aegle back in the fairy plane Kori, Puff, and Frazzle were back in Tholmme and talking with some of their NPC allies. A huge female green dragon ("Old Gnawbone" as Puff knew her) came through the sacred tree portal with Kennara (the blue-haired eladrin woman). Puff told the dragon about the magic singing sword; she said she was going to go explore the forest to find it, but that she would return in 10 days to take over the town. Kennara went to the tavern after hiring the team, giving them 8 days to retrieve the sword for her.

Puff had some explaining to do to the group, but told them the dragon had saved his life and trained him as a druid. He said his plan was to somehow convince the dragon the town was cursed. Deciding they would try to get the magic sword themselves, the team went back through the woods and found that the dragon had placed a black tarp over the Ryali statue. Kori removed it. They found a "Thunder Circle" with a picnic basket trap and a naked guy; they had to fight and kill the dude when he refused to help them.

Each night, when the team rested in the forest, the green dragon came and spoke to them in a human or gnome form. Kori's dreams showed her that the dragon was no threat to Ryali, other than continuing to cover the statue. The next day, the team took on a group of 6 bandits; they killed 5, but took the other one as a prisoner. The surviving bandit was willing to show them the hidden bandit lair.

The bandit base was camp-hidden in the woods. The team tried sneaking up at night, divided up; they each killed a scout but the bandit leader released his cockatrices and Frazzle was turned into a statue. Kori and Puff fled and had to kill 1 of the cockatrices; the other one got away. When the dragon came to them that night, Puff asked her to de-petrify Frazzle and she agreed to help. The group explained that since this was an alternate universe and the elementals were more powerful here, that the green dragon was probably better off just going home and letting Puff continue to send tribute back through the sacred tree. Their persuasion worked and she left.

The next day, the team took on 2 bandits on patrol. They killed one, but took the other one prisoner (to replace the prisoner they had lost from before). They had to decide whether to go ahead and assault the bandit base or come up with a new plan.

4U 3: Is Granma a Hag?

The RPG SAGA continues with "The Dream Team" of:

Koriel "Kori" the aasimar (human-looking) arcane archer,
"Puff" the gnome dream druid,
Aegle the winged elf kensei monk,
and their allies...

DM Note
I've let myself be inspired by "West Marches" style games for some of my recent DMing. The players are exploring in short bursts, sometimes encountering things above their level, finding areas to explore later, and returning to the (somewhat) safety of the home town. It's fun, but I can already tell I'm going to want to change things up soon.

4U Session 3 Log
Home-brew Campaign (Alternate Forgotten Realms)
Out in the forests outside of Tholmme: Having restored Thunderer's Hill to normalcy, the group rested at the Ryali statue. They had different dreams/visions before heading back toward town. On the way, Aegle spotted that "Grandma" gnome's forest cabin was on fire, being attacked by fire elementals.

The large elemental plane-shifted away, leaving four magmin for the group to fight. This battle was interesting because they had to protect injured Grandma and themselves from the exploding magmin. After the team destroyed the elementals, the burning house collapsed in on itself and revealed a mysterious dark well beneath it (which the team decided to worry about later).

When the team returned to Tholmme with Granma, they split the party and went to different places - including the "Gnomes for Hire" tree, the blacksmith's shop (where Aegle got the blacksmith arrested for having a fire elemental imprisoned in his forge), the tavern, and the temple (where Kori recruited the gold dragonborn cleric of Bahamut to assist them).

With Granma and the cleric, the team tried to execute the necromancer (with permission from the mayor). He got away, but understood that he had been exiled by the group. The gave possession of the tower to Granma, who agreed to store their treasure in the basement. There was some concern that Granma might have been a hag because of some confusion with "Papa Gnome" at the treehouse and the mayor. The halfling druid in town helped sort things out; Grandma was not a hag monster.

A leprechaun from the fairy plane came to town looking for Lord Eagle and thought that Aegle was Eagle. After resting for the night, the group went with the leprechaun the next day (after it had painted the bridge over the river with a rainbow pattern) to the fairy plane. There, they met the archfey of the winged elves, who was also a primordial of the air spirits and thus the leader for Aegle's group - except the team is in an alternate universe (which Puff tried explaining from his vision earlier in the adventure) in which the elemental cults have more power than in their home universe (because they weren't stopped by the heroes of long ago).

Realizing the confusion, Aegle opted to stay with the archfey and attempt to find a way to rescue his universal counterpart, Lord Eagle, who was said to have been captured by the fire elementals. The leprechaun - meanwhile - took Kori, Puff, and Frazzle back to Tholmme...

CoMT 3: Introducing Mory Brewblood

The Adventures of the Criminals of Many Things continue with:
Seiken the elf kensei monk,
Parker the tabaxi rogue,
"Oozey" Snakestaff the water genasi moon druid,
and INTRODUCING
Mory Brewblood the dwarf cleric!

CoMT Session 3
Homebrew Campaign: The City of Many Things
After Seiken, Parker, and Oozey rested up again they met Mory Brewblood - the infamous pirate who was actually a cleric of Moradin. Mory explained that his cleric mother had an affair with the dwarf pirate Brewblood (who also ran a brewing company and delivered his famous ale via his ships), who left the woman when she was pregnant. She raised Mory in the church of Moradin, but when he was old enough he went adventuring and became a criminal so he could join his father's pirate crew. While bonding with his dad, he got a bad reputation.

Unfortunately, the Brewblood fleet was recently attacked and destroyed. Mory survived since he was making a delivery of ale to the Roaming Gold Caravan Company. In mourning he got drunk and slept a lot as the caravan traveled through Naeb and to the City of Many Things. Once he sobered up, he found out about the missing heroes from FOE and went to go help bring them back. Thus he had arrived and met the party.

Using the silence spell over and over again, Mory helped the team sneak back to the kobold territory. They made their way inside and found out the the FOE team's hired gnome assistant had black tabards made for the team with silver thread. Seiken, Parker, and Oozey explored the team home some more while Mory bought the place next door (in hopes of turning it into a Moraine church/brewery).

In their HQ, the team found a hidden basement via a secret door in the fireplace; there was a dirt floor and torture equipment down there. The team met with the kobold area leaders and got permission to train 5 of their people. They also got permission to take 3 kobolds with them to go try to take over the bandit territory, with the promise to give 12% of the bandit loot to Braylinn. The team geared up and rested.

CoMT 2: Derv's Last Stand

The Adventures of the Criminals of Many Things continue with
Seiken the elf kensei monk,
Parker the tabaxi rogue,
Derv Dewstone the human champion fighter, and
"Oozey" Snakestaff the water genasi moon druid...

CoMT Session 2
Homebrew Campaign: The City of Many Things
After resting at the tower, the team strategized to try to come up with the best plan for surviving and getting back to Seiken's kobold allies. In case he died along the way, Seiken wrote a letter of introduction and gave it to Oozey. Seiken and Parker scouted ahead and then went back and got Derv and Oozey.

The team killed 4 orcs (1 of which was the war chief that had killed Seiken's previous party - thus the elf monk got back his magical cloak of protection with the city's markings on it). They rested back at their tower and then decided to go through the "badlands" toward the bandit headquarters. They battled 5 gnolls (1 of which was a pack lord who summoned 5 more gnolls to help the enemies in battle); the team killed all of the enemies, but Derv died in battle.

Seiken, Parker, and Oozey found a dilapidated building to rest in after looting their enemies.

4U 2: Releasing Spirits

The RPG SAGA continues with "The Dream Team" of:
Koriel "Kori" the aasimar (human-looking) arcane archer,
"Puff" the gnome dream druid,
Aegle the winged elf kensei monk,
and their allies...

DM Note
For the previous session, I prepared a village with some NPCs. This session was based mostly on randomizers, with the players rolling to determine what they found as they explored. It led to an exciting, though challenging (CR-wise) session for the characters.

4U Session 2 Log
Homebrew Campaign
In Tholme: Kori, Puff, Aegle, and their hired gnome fighter Frazzle left the necromancer's tower with the old wizard's journals; Puff declared his realization that they were in a different universe (since he realized the river ran along the same path as the stream back in the forest in the Forgotten Realms).

The "Dream Team" encountered a rival adventuring party, which included: a wizard, a rogue, a fighter, and a cleric that all seemed to worship someone called "The Thunderer." This rival party went into the tavern and quickly found themselves also on the quest to find the missing singing sword, suspected to be lost/stolen out in the woods. The rival party got a head start, but - humorously - Puff talked to their stabled horses and convinced them to flee.

Stopping at an interesting double-tree in the woods, Puff studied the plant. Kori somehow threw up a raven, which Puff pulled a feather from (and gave to Kori) before the bird flew off. Aegle scouted for the group by flying above the forest and told them he discovered a cottage in the woods. When the team went there, they met a grumpy old "grandma" gnome who eventually warmed up to them and gave them each a magic potion. She also told them about the hill where people had been buried - thus making this a haunted forest - but warned that thunder and lightning constantly struck the hill.

When the team finally went to the abandoned temple in the woods, where the rival party was looking for the singing sword, they disrupted the burned circle to "The Thunderer" outside and then went in. Of the rival group, only the rogue survived; the other 3 adventurers were turned into shadows. The team helped the rogue escape from the shadows. They also killed 4 rust monsters in an area submerged in water. Puff swam around and discovered a portal to an ocean-like area.

Realizing they couldn't defeat the shadows, the team went to the haunted hill - after checking out a beautiful statue to the goddess Ryali (which had a fountain of holy water); Kori took some of the holy water. They used the holy water to remove the effects of "The Thunderer" and release the spirits of the dead elves trapped in the hill. The rival party rogue went off with a couple of fighters who worshipped "The Thunderer" that had been at the hill.

After killing 2 vargouilles, the team spent the next day with Aegle flying back and forth getting holy water to finish removing the scorch marks of "The Thunderer" and thus making sure any more captured spirits would be able to escape.

CoMT 1: Sewer Escape

The Adventures of the Federation of Explorers Team 2 (FOE2) continue as...
The Adventures of the Criminals of Many Things...

CoMT Session 1 (follows FOE2 Session 6: Fallen FOEs)
Homebrew Campaign: The City of Many Things (CoMT)
FOE Team 2 survivor Seiken the elf monk was in some sewer dungeon cells with the three criminals Parker the tabaxi rogue, Derv Dewstone the human fighter, and "Oozey" Snakestaff the water genasi druid.

The "Criminals of Many Things" accepted Seiken into their group. They took out the 2 goblin guards and 2 orc guards, thanks to Oozey's druid shapeshifting abilities allowing her to get out of the cell and begin attacking the guards with the keys. They looted the guards and used their weapons to continue breaking out. They explored and took a short rest in some sewer tunnels before using stealth to take out another 3 orcs and 2 more goblins.

The new team used a ladder to get up into the "Orc Town" area. More stealth tactics ensued, with the party splitting into 2 groups: Seiken and Parker sneaked around on the ground while Derv and Oozey slow crawled across the rooftops. They took out 2 orcs on patrol and a goblin before escaping the area.

Thanks to Parker's climbing abilities, the group was able to secure a rest in an abandoned mage tower; she went in a window up top and came back down to unlock the magically sealed door from the inside. The team explored the tower and found the floors to be: (1) a potion shop; (2) office/study; (3) storage; (4) bedroom; (5) magic lab with items; and (6) an astrolab/observatory. The team found some magic loot as well.

4U 1: Tholme, Sweet Tholme

The RPG SAGA continues with new characters, in a new campaign...

DM Note
Technically, this log is for the RPG SAGA’s session number 1501 - but I’ve realized that’s a lot of numbers and it’s easier to go ahead and restart my counting since we have a new campaign going on. 1501 - wow - that’s a lot of roleplaying over the years! We've had so many wonderful characters, stories, and adventures. I'm going to be trying out new things. I love low level play and decided to homebrew my own village and quests, setting aside the premade modules and returning to my roots as a storyteller. Here we go again…

Side Note: Tholme is an anagram (sort of) of Hommlet; I’m paying my respects to Gargy Gygax and the old T1/T1-T4 modules.

New Campaign Character Backstories
The aasimar arcane archer Koriel Andrast, follower of Ryali’s love domain, was born on Mystara but spent years travelling through the Feywild. Her divine visions told her about a sacred tree that could unlock a portal, allowing her to go quest; the vision included a berry pie, a barrel of darkbrew ale, a widow mourning her lost husband, and an 18 year old miller’s son. Her divine contact took her to the Forgotten Realms, where she went to find the sacred tree in a forest...

The winged elf kensai monk Aegle had been helping the air spirits fight off dragons in the elemental plane of air. After a victory there that left a magical wound on one of his arms, he was returned to his winged elf clan in the hills to the east of the Graypeak Mountains. The clan hosted a party, celebrating the return of their great hero.

The gnome Davic Eldon Bevins “Greenscale” “Puff” Schepper had been spared by a green dragon, who decided to mentor him in the ways of the dream druid. To honor his mentor, once he was on his own as a druid in the forests to the east of the Graypeak Mountains, he had been secretly sending back treasure to his dragon mentor. He had befriended the nearby winged elf clan and was invited to their party. They called him “Puff” because of his trinket (a pipe with smoke that came out in the shape of skulls).

4U Session 1 Log:
Puff met Aegle at the winged elf party and revealed his hermit epiphany about a sacred tree in the forest that had the ability to open up a magical portal. Happy to provide some muscle to help Puff check out the sacred tree, Aegle agreed to come along. When they arrived at the tree, they found Koriel standing there. She and Puff shared the stories of their dream visions, which were similar. Aegle helped them find a magical device on the tree with a number tumbler and a letter tumbler, realizing that they had to put in a special combination to unlock the portal.

Kennara, a blue-haired eladrin woman, appeared from the leaves of the tree and claimed to be the guardian of the portal. Aegle doubted her. The team decided to exclude her as they figured out the riddle on their own and kept her from going through the portal with them (by pulling out the number tumbler on their way through, thus closing the portal behind them).

Puff, Koriel, and Aegle appeared at a tree near a bridge, just outside of a village called Tholme. They went into the tavern “The Singing Sword” and found a tiefling woman named Vivacious delivering a barrel of darkbrew ale. Hilarity ensued as they ate pie, drank ale, and found out about the locals; the party also saw a large community bulletin board with various wanted ads (quests, land for sale, etc.).

First, the "Dream Team" went to the brewery owned by Vivacious and discovered her to be a succubus in disguise (after Aegle and Koriel became inebriated and Puff had to quickly make them some detox potions to save them); Vivacious escaped into the woods and her human servants were happy that she was gone.

The Dream Team's adventures in the village also took them to a half-elf widow (mourning the loss of her husband), to the treehouse of the “Gnomes for Hire” (who happily adopted Puff into their group, with official contracts signed), to the arrogant Miller’s son, back to the tavern (where they met the angry goliath owner Jafferton who wanted his stolen singing sword found and returned to him), and to the young necromancer’s tower (where they needed the notes of the dead old wizard to give them clues about restoring the soul of the widow’s lost husband).

Aegle and Koriel rested overnight at the tavern while Puff stayed with the gnomes at the treehouse. At the necromancer’s tower Puff was almost trapped in a magic circle, but they got the old wizard’s journal and convinced the young necromancer to destroy his undead zombie and skeleton guards. Aegle (whom the necromancer thought was a fiend he had tried to summon) had fun taking the magic wand of scorching ray from the necromancer, over and over again. Aegle thought he heard the air spirits calling out to him...

Thoughts: Tabletop Simulator

Fighting Goblins Online!
My DM wanted to try running some online sessions through Tabletop Simulator so I gave the program a chance. I downloaded it, for free, through Steam. In the Steam community section, they link to searches for free content for Tabletop Simulator. It took a while to find a good set of online dice that I could right-click and re-color the way I wanted, but I figured it out. I am actually really impressed with the program and I think it works well for people who want to simulate the 3D environment of being around a table and actually moving the minis around a map.

Rolling the dice online is more fun than just clicking a button and generating a random number. The dice towers are fun to use in the online 3D environment. I color-coded my dice so that the d20 were purple, the d12 were blue, the d10 were green, the d8 were yellow, the d6 were orange, and the d4 were red. That made for an easy visual cue when it came to zooming in and out, picking up the vritual dice, and rolling them. In fact, going through that process online made me go through my actual dice and organize a new set the same way, with the same color-coding system, as the online dice.

In the last month, I played two online games of D&D 5E on Tabletop Simulator. The first session was just to test the system and get used to the interface. The DM had me (as a war cleric) and another player (a dwarf fighter) battle some goblins and wolves in a cave. We survived, victorious. For the second session, those two characters joined with two more (a barbarian and a warlock) to fight more goblins and their bugbear leader. Unfortunately, online scheduling issues happened with some of the other players and the DM decided to end the mini-campaign.

Of all the online options for playing D&D, Tabletop Simulator has the most immersive, realistic 3D environment. At first, I saw that as a hindrance, because I thought it was unnecessary - but I actually really enjoyed playing in that environment once I learned how to easily zoom in and out. Even for old school gamers like me, the learning curve should only be a couple of hours.

Other than online scheduling issues though, I enjoyed my first foray into online gaming with Tabletop Simulator. I think I’ll give some of the other online RPG programs a chance and report back again, but I would be happy playing in a weekly game on Tabletop Simulator.

Thoughts: DCA 61-67

Thoughts: Dice, Camera, Action Episodes 61-67

#WaffleCrew
Chris Perkins as DM
Anna as Evelyn the paladin of Lathander
Jared as Diath the rogue
Holly as Strix the sorcerer
Nathan as Paultin the bard

Tomb of Annihilation
The #WaffleCrew, combating the death curse, made their way to Chult. These adventures felt less awkward than Season 2, which was a relief. The guest stars this time included a pair of goblins named Chumba and Wumba; hilarity ensued.

Episode 65 was a live Twitch stream, but half of it was lost due to faulty tech. Before Episode 67, Chris Perkins did a "Sock Puppet Theater" show as a synopsis of the plot for Episodes 1-66. It was both funny and weird (I was glad it was only about 30 minutes long):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSENvC-E6S4&t=66s

Now that I'm caught up with their adventures, I'll have to wait for each new episode. Week by week. Sigh. But it should be worth it to see what becomes of the #WaffleCrew.

SAGA 1500: Retiring the Party

The RPG SAGA continues...
with the conclusion of the story of Force Green, aka Team Tortuga, aka the Fey Knights Gen 2!

SAGA Log 1500: Retiring the Party
Module: Tomb of Annihilation (Modified for High Level)
On the world of Merth-Yoril:
Pylia the half-elf bladesinger, Blue the satyr paladin, and Artus Cimber the human wielder of the Ring of Winter were in Port Nyanzaru while Drizmar the drow assassin and Blood the gnome cleric were in Pylia's demiplane. The team from the Harpers was repairing the Tortuga for them.

Pylia, Blue, and Artus went on a mission to loot Veersalla's treasures; they encountered five liches, but defeated them after 10 rounds of combat. Blue had to revivify Artus and Pylia had successfully saved the Ring of Winter from falling into evil hands. While investigating, they realized some additional liches might have escaped, but they destroyed six phylacteries and the phoenix-summoning stone. They rested for the night before returning to the port city. After a week, their ship was fully repaired and they decided to use their full power to permanently kill off Veersalla.

They spent about a week flying their ship home to the Feywild, where they brought Artus to the Summer Queen. She was able to destroy the Ring of Winter and free the true city of Mezro from the Feywild. Thus Artus was reunited with his wife and able to convince the Mezro leaders to return the ancient city to Chult. The team also realized Oberon and the Summer Queen were dating.

From messaging their family, they realized that the team who had gone into the Far Realms on their quest had returned. Gargle-Gargle had died, but the rest of that team was back and happy. Azel and Ylara were back in Balder's Gate. Gloria and Borngray I were back in the Sapphire Coast. Borngray II was back in the Jade Empire. Daria and Alt-Oran were back to seeking primordial power.

The "Core 4" teleported to Waterdeep, gathered the Slarkathel cult, retrieved the tome to summon the kraken, and killed off the evil cultists. They summoned Slarkrathel in the desert and killed him. Drizmar went off on a side mission and killed Ivanja. He also invited Laz, who had been friends with Drizzt, to come live on Oerth in Pylia's swamp city.

Blue bonded with Va'Zarbreena and realized the underground mining operations extended beyond their territory throughout the Feywild Underdark. He convinced the Mind Lynx cats to return to Merth-Yoril to go live out their lives there. He also released his Chwinga spirit friend into the Feywild, who gave Blue a divine blessing and recruited more Chwinga spirits to come live there. Alt-Oran came and taught Blue how to become an archfey - thus, after a month, Blue became the Lord of Thorns. Mercy was happy to be relieved of responsibility and planned to spend his time focused on raising his son.

Meanwhile, Pylia: fortified her city on Oerth, made sure Fritz and Brodo of GOAT were staying out of her affairs, regularly went to the Feywild to meet with Va'Zarbreena and Blue, met with Keraptis to let him know he could back off with the fiend-protection, gave her elven soul crystal to her Evermeet allies so they would start teaching her elven high magic, and researched how to make magic items auto-attune without a negative curse.

They had a huge party in the Feywild to celebrate Blue's coronation as an archfey. In the end, he was able to sit on his magical dragonbone throne.

THE END

(for now...)

DM's Note

Ending a campaign is always bittersweet. It's fun and worthy of celebration, but it's also sad to leave behind the characters. We played out this group for a year and half, meeting almost every week for 5-8 hours at a time. But more than that, they continued to explore stories and connections from their family member's stories from the last several years of roleplaying so it really felt like everything came together from years of storytelling.

We have copies of Xanathar's Guide to Everything and are considering options for the next campaign. We want to try something different so it should be fun and somewhat fresh.

Thoughts: DCA Season 2

Thoughts: Dice, Camera, Action Season 2 (Episodes 32 – 60)

#WaffleCrew
Chris Perkins as DM
Anna as Evelyn the paladin of Lathander
Jared as Diath the rogue
Holly as Strix the sorcerer
Nathan as Paultin the bard

Special Moments
There were some really special/different moments this time around:
*Episode 44 = Anna, Holly, and Jared played the group’s pets!
*Episode 51 = live play for Stream of Annihilation (without Nathan Sharp, but with guest Allie Gonino of Girls, Guts, Glory as a tiefling bard who actually played some music).
*Interview from Stream of Annihilation (sans Nathan, as usual):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cMheUEE2xo
*Bonus: Interview for Dragon+ with Chris, Holly, and Anna:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoL4-hf7CSo

Review
I'm a huge fan of the #wafflecrew. Sometimes this season felt awkward, even though overall the players had grown into their characters. I remember, especially, Episode 52 had an awkward dramatic feel to it because the paladin was talking about sacrificing herself and giving her items away to the other party members when clearly none of them wanted her to do that for them.

There was also a lot of “split party” roleplaying throughout the entire season and I sometimes felt annoyed that multiple sessions would go by sometimes without the team reuniting. I did like that Perkins, as DM, brought back the Ravenloft themes and issues even though the season was disguised as being about the storyline with the giants.

Clearly I enjoy watching the group play D&D and I look forward to soon being caught up with where they are in real time so I can go check out their Reddit forum and websites without being worried about spoilers. One of the benefits of them playing online with a huge fanbase is that they get lots of cool fan art:

SAGA 1493-1499: Freeing the Phoenix

The RPG SAGA continues...
DM's Note:
For the RPG Saga numbers, I'm folding in the FOE2 Sessions 1-6 as SAGA #1493-1498 since that campaign is at a transition point and it lines up well with this part of the SAGA coming to an end. A player from the FOE campaign joined us (playing a monk, as he loves to do) for SAGA Session 1499. The players agreed that this would be one of the last two sessions for this campaign season. Xanathar's Guide to Everything is coming out soon and we will be looking at new character options...

SAGA Log 1499: Freeing the Phoenix
Module: Tomb of Annihilation (Modified for High Level)
On the world of Merth-Yoril, the order of monks that protect the mighty phoenix sent out their strongest warrior - Methos, the death monk/wild magic sorcerer - to go rescue their phoenix from Veersalla. He went into the jungles of Chult, met a group of chwinga spirits, and they - through the power of Ehlonna - teleported him to join with Pylia, Drizmar, Blue, Blood, and Artus Cimber in the depths of the Tomb of Annihilation. Methos quickly bonded with the team.

They made it through a maze after hearing Captain Drufi’s giants battle with the yuan-ti in the dungeons, joined up with the victorious giants (who didn’t know Artus was Artus), and led the giants into the trap with the mirror of life-trapping. Only Drufi and two of her warriors survived. The giants split from the group after they went down to the next level. The team killed three shambling mounds and escaped an acid trap before dealing with a mysterious telepathic voice from the water that controlled a minion and strange machines.

The team went down again and found three strange constructs (one of which they killed, before the other two surrendered crying). The giants came in, overheard Methos calling Artus his name, and were tricked into killing the naked clone of Methos before charging forth and killing the three hags. The team solved five puzzles in the side rooms.

Advancing into the final room of the dungeon: the team found a lava pit, the atropal/soulmonger, Cap, and their solar nemesis Veersalla (who teleported out, leaving behind a two-teleport-circle choice of going to either rescue their family in the Far Realms or pursuing her). The three giants turned against the team. Methos almost ended up in the lava, Artus was surprise-attacked from behind by Xandala, Pylia finished off the soulmonger to free the captured souls and end the Death Curse, two of the giants were killed, Blue ordered Drufi to leave (letting her live after tricking her into thinking that the Ring of Winter had been destroyed), and Cap surrendered (explaining the dilemma choice with the ERK-stone).

They killed Cap, teleported to Veersalla’s mansion, freed the phoneix, and Blue give a final knock out punch to the solar to defeat her (after Slarkrathel, who was in a well, abandoned her). Methos bid them farewell after the phoenix thanked them. The team planned how they would keep Veersalla prisoner with a binding circle in Pylia’s demiplane. Blood and Drizmar guarded their prisoner while Blue, Pylia, and Artus went back to Port Nyanzaru and convinced Zindar and the Harpers to help repair the Tortuga. Artus also volunteered to ice-petrify Veersalla for them the next day, after they had rested. It occurred to Pylia that they should go back and destroy Cap's phylactery and loot the rest of Veersalla's place.

Next time the team may be ready to retire from active adventuring, though Pylia might still like to go finish off Slarkrathel, the Ploop cult, and Ivanja. Will they become the Chosen of their gods? Will Blue become an archyfey? Will Blood become a powerful church leader? Will Pylia lead her city and wizard school? Will Drizmar secretly assassinate people? Will Artus find his missing wife in the Feywild?

Thoughts: Idle Champions of the Realms

The new video game Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms has a great logo with beholder art:

The game includes an interesting use of characters from all over Realms-lore:

It's free on Steam Games, but...

unfortunately...

Idle Champions is a click game that is an obvious attempt to get people to shell out money for a "Free to Play" game that is much better when you enhance it with purchases. Don't get me wrong - it's fun to click-click-clickety-click for hours to advance in the game and level the characters (with a coin-based style of leveling), but the fun is overshadowed by the blatant attempt to lure people in with a "free" game that really needs the add-ons that you have to purchase. Your alternative is to log out for a day or so and log back in to collect your coins for while you were out of the game. Otherwise, it's impossible to level up fast enough for some of the campaigns.

Having said all of that though, I really need to stop typing so that I go play some more Idle Champions - because where else are you going to have Bruenor, Jarlaxle, Asharra, Celeste, and Minsc (with Boo) team up to fight random monsters?

FOE2 Log 6: Fallen FOEs

The Adventures of the Federation of Explorers Team 2 (FOE2) continue...

with Fox the tempest cleric/diviner wizard, Ox the barbarian, Seiken the monk, and Goffrey the sharpshooter fighter!

FOE2 Session 6: Fallen FOEs

Homebrew Campaign: The City of Many Things (CoMT)

The team of Fox, Ox, Seiken, and Goffrey decided to go back out to the "Wildlands" area in order to lure some bandits out to battle. Fox used disguise self to make himself look like an injured orc. The plan worked and, once they found some bandits, the rest of the team came around the corner - killing 3 of the 4 bandits (and captured the last 1 after an exciting chase).

On the way back to the kobold zone, the group ran into 5 orcs (2 normal, 2 "Eyes of Gruumsh," and 1 "War Chief"). The team was overpowered, with Ox going down first. Goffrey fell next. Fox and Seiken tried to run, but Fox went down third. Seiken could have made it back to the safe area, but decided to make one last attempt (with just the "War Chief" and 1 "Eye" orc remaining). The enemies took Seiken prisoner since they were slavers...

Seiken woke up day later, in some dungeon cells of the orcs. He assumed Goffrey, Fox, and Ox had been killed by the orcs. He introduced himself to 3 criminals (a tabaxi rogue, a human fighter, and a water genasi druid). He told them about FOE and they mission. Seeing an opportunity for treasure, they said they would join with Seiken and the kobolds - but first they would need to escape from the orcs to avoid being sold as slaves.

Sadly, Seiken realized that Fox - the diviner - had predicted his own death; in the previous days, Fox had them setup the guild hall because he was afraid they would not return from the "Wildlands" area if they tried to take out all of the bandits.

Thoughts: DCA 16-31

Thoughts: Dice, Camera, Action Episodes 16-31

#WaffleCrew (2nd Half of Season 1)
I continued my quest of constantly using my free time to listen to/watch Dice, Camera, Action in my spare time and finished up "Season 1" of the show. I enjoyed these episodes even more than the first half of Season 1.

Unlike when he DMs Acquisitions, Incorporated - Chris Perkins actually looked up spell descriptions and rules during these sessions; for some reason, I really like seeing the more human side of his DMing.

The regular crew members were on their game:
Holly Conrad as Strix, a tiefling sorcerer;
Anna Prosser Robinson as Evelyn the human paladin of Lathander;
Jared Knabenbauer as Diath the human rogue; and
Nathan Sharp as Paultin the human bard.

At this point, the players had really grown into their characters and thus had fun playing out their unique personalities and being playful with the tension between them. One of the episodes was actually a live play at a convention (with the players in costume), which is always fun:

The guest stars were even better and more interesting than the first half of the season, with several of them returning and a new surprise with professional actor Sam Witwer playing the "Mad Mage" Mordenkainen in a couple of the episodes. Witwer's voice/accent and phrases were hilarious and perfect for the character since he portrayed he as an old grognard.

They finished Curse of Strand and, ***SPOILERS*** escaped Barovia in the finale ***END SPOILERS***. Thus it leads to Episode 32 starting with the team playing part of Storm King's Thunder...

FOE2 Log 5: Guild Hall

The Adventures of the Federation of Explorers Team 2 (FOE2) continue...
with Fox the tempest cleric/diviner wizard, Ox the barbarian, Seiken the monk, and Goffrey the sharpshooter fighter!

FOE2 Session 5
Homebrew Campaign: The City of Many Things (CoMT)
Still back in Naeb, the group was loading all of the hired mercenary guards and merchants onto their rented ship when the city guards came to force the team to go to a meeting with the Naeb leader triumvirate (where those leaders demanded three things after the CoMT is cleared: for their guards to come to the CoMT, for control of trade, and for a Bane church as the official religion of the city). Despite Fox greatly protesting that they didn't have the authority to do any of that, the triumvirate seemed to think that an agreement had been reached.

They met back up with their hired crew and the "Roaming Gold Caravan" and spent two days sailing down the river. They unloaded before getting to the CoMT so they could trek through the woods for three nights (fending off fey creatures who tried to lure away merchants and guards), before getting to the kobold entrance to the CoMT.

Once they all made their way in and secured the alliance with the kobolds and the mercenaries, the team setup their Guild Hall manor (with six bedrooms and FOE signage). The next day they paid 50 gp to hire a gnome clerk and 5 gp to hire a kobold guard.

Braylin, the green dragonborn leader of the kobold army, moved their barricades out to take over more of the "wild lands" territory. Fox, Ox, Seiken, and Goffrey went out and battled 5 gnolls (killed 4, with the last one running away). They recovered magic items with runes that matched the city's runes (a glaive+1, a cloak of protection, a scrying orb, and a dagger+1). They gave the dagger+1 to Braylin and returned to the Guild Hall, where they established an armory/storage area in one of the bedrooms. They rested.

Concerns for the future: (1) Who is the "Dragon Lord" of the kobolds? (2) Could the group save the slaves the orcs are keeping and recruit them as reinforcements? (3) When the month contract with the mercenaries runs out, will they renegotiate or leave or become enemies of the kobolds? (4) How long will it take to defeat the bandits, defeated the orcs and goblins, and secure the docks? (5) When they get high level, will they have to go back to Naeb and defeat the leaders there?

SAGA 1492: Entering Omu

The RPG SAGA continues with...
Force Green: The Lost City of Omu
**Not to be confused with Force Grey: The Lost City of Omu: http://dnd.wizards.com/forcegrey/lostcityomu

SAGA Log 1492: Entering Omu
Module: Tomb of Annihilation (Modified for High Level)
with Skarkrathel (from Storm King's Thunder)
On Merth-Yoril, continuing their vengeance quest:
Pylia, Drizmar, Blue, Blood, their unicorn, the five duplicates, and Artus Cimber spent a day traveling to the “Forbidden City of” Omu. They scoped out the area and formed a plan, splitting the party so that Artus went with the core team to the island surrounded by lava while the team of duplicates went to the well (with areas flooded by water).

The duplicates stealthed their way around to try to avoid patrols of yuan-ti guards, but they were eventually spotted (once they were near the muddy entrance to the well). While between two groups of yuan-ti guards, the team was immobilized and captured by Slarkrathel and two beholders (that had yuan-ti scales on them)!

Meanwhile, the core team (with Artus) investigated the Shrine of Moa; they killed four jungle snakes, survived the traps, destroyed the dozen archer statues, and spent a while figuring out the puzzle cube situation (with multiple cubes/illusions). They eventually realized the puzzle cube didn’t do anything inside the shrine. They tried magically messaging the other team, but got no response. In frustration, they decided to have Blood use her spells to locate where they needed to go, which was an area at the other end of the valley/ruined city.

Arriving near the entrance of an old Acererak dungeon, the team killed a red wizard and detected the false entrances. Drizmar’s skills and the team’s magic carpets helped them evade multiple traps and issues in the dungeon (after they spent several minutes destroying the puzzle-cube-keyed door, since they didn’t want to go find the other eight puzzle keys needed to unlock it). Blood communicated with a ladybug to discover which way “the angel lady” had gone, thus putting the team on a path to the main stairwell of the dungeon. After they dealt with the gargoyle puzzle at the bottom of the stairs, they were attacked from above...

The two yuan-ti-beholders flew down carrying the yuan-ti converted duplicates, thus resulting in an epic battle as the team fought yuan-ti versions of themselves. Pylia disintegrated her duplicate self. The yuan-ti constrictor snake (former unicorn) killed its duplicate. They teamed up against the yuan-ti version of Blood. Drizmar killed the yuan-ti duplicate of Blue. Blue killed the duplicate of Drizmar. Artus used the Ring of Winter to ice-petrify one of the beholders. Pylia polymorphed the second beholder into a bunny.

In the end, somewhat worn down, the team stood victorious: Pylia, Drizmar, Blue, Blood, and Artus. Blue wanted Pylia to use her wish to give them the effect of a rest. Blood suggested they leave the dungeon to rest. Pylia insisted they not rest (and not use the wish spell yet) since they had more dungeon to clear out before getting to Veersalla.

Thoughts: Dice, Camera, Action 1-15

#WaffleCrew

Sure enough, after seeing the character Strix in the latest Acquisitions, Incorporated live session I wanted to go back and watch the series she came from (so good job Wizards of the Coast). During the last few weeks I’ve kept the Dice, Camera, Action episodes on YouTube playing in the background while doing other things and I have to say that, overall, I enjoy the series.

Chris Perkins, as usual, masterfully DMs the sessions. It’s been interesting to see how he has adapted to players missing sessions, just as any normal DM must do in a regular home game. I almost wonder if he asked the players to each come up with a quirk to explain how their character behaves when they can’t be there; one of them gets drunk, one of them hides or runs away, etc.

Instead of just playing with WotC employees, as has happened on the previous WotC YouTube steam games, Perkins recruited various Internet personalities to join the game. I think that move produced some good results and interesting characters. I also appreciated the guest stars from YogCast, though I have to admit that they – at times – outshined the regular cast of characters.

Holly Conrad plays as Strix, a tiefling sorcerer. This was the character that got me to watch in the first place so I was happy to see her as her typical overdramatic, tense self.

Anna Prosser Robinson plays as Evelyn the human paladin of Lathander. At first her fake accent annoyed me, but I realized she is satirically playing the do-gooder and thus her character has become one of my favorites.

Jared Knabenbauer plays as Diath the human rogue. It took me a while to tell that his character was a rogue since he doesn’t necessarily initiate doing rogue-like things. The player is funny, but I wanted to see the character do more. When he ***SPOILERS*** died and became a ghost, ***END SPOILERS*** he became a much more interesting character. Unfortunately, he has missed several sessions.

Nathan Sharp plays as Paultin the human bard. In real life he is a musician and has been in multiple bands so I wish we could hear him actually sing or play instruments, but he’s still an interesting and playful character. I just wish he didn’t have his character get so drunk during the quests.

For sessions 1-15, they have been playing Curse of Strahd. It’s fun to see how Perkins interprets the official modules (since we know he helped put them together). Since the entire campaign is focused on this one module, they spend a lot more time on the little details than I was inclined to do when I ran my group through the same adventure path. It’s fun to see the characters react to the NPCs and situations of the horror setting. The group came together, originally, looking for waffles somewhere in the Forgotten Realms; thus the #wafflecrew on Twitter.

Overall, I highly recommend this stream/series for people who enjoy D&D and enjoy watching others play the game. I’m looking forward to continuing to watch it and see what happens to the Waffle Crew.

(Above: #WaffleCrew Fan Art)

SAGA 1491 The Death Curse

The RPG SAGA continues with...
Force Green (a.k.a. Team Tortuga, a.k.a. The Fey Knights Generation 2): Pylia the half-elf bladesinger, Drizmar the drow assassin, Blue the satyr paladin, and Blood the gnome cleric.

*Former party members (Ori, Travak, Laz, Goldy, etc.) have been off on their own quests.

SAGA Log 1491: The Death Curse
Module: Tomb of Annihilation (Modified for High Level)
Pylia, Drizmar, Blue, Blood, their unicorn ally, and their duplicates were gearing up to go assault Veersalla at her homeworld of Merth when they were messaged by Alt-Oran to come to a family meeting. They arrived at Cobalt Castle and met with Alt-Oran, Daria, Glora, Borngray I, and Borngray II. They had the servants buying them more scrolls while Alt-Oran told them about his idea to borrow Gargle-Gargle so he could take Daria, Glora, Borngray I, and Borngray II into the Far Realms to rescue Azel and Ylara (whom he could locate via a magic stone provided by a primordial fairy).

Pylia refused to have the primordial fairy join their team and said she felt the mission was both a bad idea in general and bad timing. Eventually she relented that she had no problem with them trying to rescue her other set of grandparents. Blue and Blood also expressed concern that the team going into the Far Realms might be driven insane, but they agreed to let Alt-Oran borrow Gargle-Gargle and the command whistle.

While Alt-Oran took his team off to the Far Realms, Force Green hired a chef and bought two barrels worth of food to load onto The Tortuga for their space journey. They travelled through the Phlogiston, to the coordinates for Merth - where they found a fleet of fifty Alpha-Omega ships with a shield-barrier around the planet, guarding it because Veersalla had told them that "The Death Curse" was spreading on the planet (which was referred to as Merth-Yoril - a combined sister world of both Oerth and Toril, similar to the concept of Abeir-Toril or Kalibruhn-Toril).

When the fleet admiral refused to allow the team to go in, Pylia consulted her notes from Acererak and realized "The Death Curse" was real but that Veersalla was using it to manipulate the Alpha-Omega Organization. She decided they should ram the barrier anyway and risk damaging the ship to get down to the planet to stop Veersalla (and get their revenge).

The heavily damaged Tortuga crashed down into the water outside of Port Nayanzaru on the border of the jungle Chult, where they had to bribe the real dragon turtle Aremag with a headband of charisma. They also encountered a ship of frost giants, who were trying to salvage the ship for magic items. The team made a temporary alliance with the giants and had them tow the ship into port, where the frost giant captain began flirting with Blue. Pylia thought the artifact the giants were looking for was what as causing the death curse.

In the port city: they spent time at the tavern, spoke with the famous explorer Volo, chose not to participate in the dinosaur races, decided to allow Xanadala the half-elf sorcerer (who said she was looking for her father Artus) join them, and elected to hire two guides. They spent two days going into the jungle before deciding to turn around and return to port (killing zombies and skeletons along the way). They left Xandala at the port, along with the guides, before using a gate scroll to teleport around the coast and fire mountains.

After avoiding a red dragon and firenewts, the team spent about eleven days going deeper into the jungle. Other than a battle with zorbas, they mostly avoided trouble. Blue befriended a Chwinga spirit. About one day outside of Omu, they encountered Artus Cimber (and realized the giants were looking for the Ring of Winter, which was the artifact he carried). Artus befriended the team and told them about both factions nearby: the Yuan-Ti and the Red Wizards. He also revealed that Xandala was not his daughter.

(Above: Artus Cimber)

SAGA 1457-1490: Wedding Stories

The RPG SAGA continues with...
Side Adventure Updates...

SAGA Log 1457: Wedding Story 1: Sword Coast Legends
Modules: Sword Coast Legends Video Game (Modified)
During the wedding reception for Drizmar and Pylia, Blood listened to the tales of Hommet Shaw Harpell. He told about his team and their adventures along the Sword Coast, working for the Order of the Burning Dawn and stopping an evil drow from using a relic of Sehanine Moonbow.

SAGA Log 1458: Wedding Story 2: Goldy's Jade Aventure
Modules: Jade Regent (Modified)
During the wedding reception for Drizmar and Pylia, Blood listened to the team's former companion Goldy tell his stories about his individual quest into the "Forest of Spirits" in which he found off giants, hobgoblins, elementals, gorgons, samurai, nagas, etc. to find the Library of Lost Lore. He met with Hirabashi Jiro, one of the princes of the region, and worked to defeat undead and shadows. He returned to the Jade Throne and used the new info and alliance to free to ancient emperor from the sword.

SAGA Log 1459-1490: The Federation of Explorers
Modules: AMC's Federation of Explorer's Game 
(in a homebrew/alternate version of the Forgotten Realms)
DM Note: Since I like to include the adventures that I play in with my log numbers, I am now wrapping in the completed first saga of the Federation of Explorers. The logs are here on the blog, under "Tales of A Player" for 1-16 and then they continue as FOE with individual numbers 17-31.

FOE2 Log 4 Near Mine

The Adventures of the Federation of Explorers Team 2 (FOE2) continue...
with Fox the tempest cleric/diviner wizard, Ox the barbarian, Seiken the monk, and Goffrey the sharpshooter fighter!

FOE2 Session 4
Homebrew Campaign set in the Forgotten Realms
Inside the City of Many Things (CoMT), Seiken wanted a longsword. FOE Team 2 spoke with Bruth (the leader of The Exiles), who told them about a nearby abandoned mine in the forest (about a day's journey from the city). The team went to get their donkey Jack back from the bandit stables. On the way, they defeated a team of 4 gnolls.

At the bandit base, the team gave the leader the weapons from the gnolls (and he owes them a longsword). They took Jack and the cart and went to the abandoned mine. After a day of travel, they killed the 4 goblins and 5 orcs (1 of which was a war chief) outside the mining cave. They rested for the night. Down in the mines, they killed 2 giant spiders, 1 phase spider, 1 constrictor snake, 1 giant constrictor snake, and 3 giant poisonous snakes. They found ore deposits.

After leaving them mines, the team spent 10 days going back to Naeb; along the way, they killed a faerie dragon and defeated 3 pixies (that they let live). In Naeb, they met with their merchant allies (The Roaming Gold Caravan); the merchant leader agreed to use their 10 guards and hire 10 more guards to go with them to the CoMT (after 2 days of making arrangements - and in exchange for a special trade deal with Raylinn Sunsoaker).

Fox, Ox, Seiken, and Goffrey sold some of their loot so they could hire 25 mercenaries as guards for a month and rent out a ship large enough to hold all of the team and the merchants (also for a month). Also, Seiken bought a longsword.

SAGA 1456: Wedding Bells

The RPG SAGA continues with...
Force Green (a.k.a. Team Tortuga, a.k.a. The Fey Knights Generation 2): Pylia the half-elf bladesinger, Drizmar the drow assassin, Blue the satyr paladin, and Blood the gnome cleric.

DM Note:
The player characters are now level 19 and seem to be bringing this generation's campaign to a close with the plan to retire after getting vengeance against Veersalla. We are also looking forward to seeing the new book Xanathar's Guide to Everything because the timing should be just about right for the group making new characters to start up the next campaign...

SAGA Log 1456: Wedding Bells
Modules: 4E Tomb of Horrors Campaign (Modified for 5E)
Pylia, Blue, and Blood finished their combat with the Acererak-wannabe Caperaktis; Blue pushed one of the undead bodies into the sphere of annihilation! They defeated the demilich skull and the undead body of Orcus; their Ehlonna-summoned unicorn ally banished the undead body of Demogorgon. During the battle, they rescued Drizmar. Cap managed to escape, teleporting out in the construct body.

Post-battle, the team returned to their Feywild palace to rest. Drizmar finally proposed to Pylia, with the help of Blue and Blood. They decided to have the wedding in one week. Blue and Blood spent 280,000 gp to have special magical rings made for Pylia and Drizmar. Pylia and Drizmar spoke with Va'Zarbreena (about House Do'Urden) and Pylia's family (to get help planning the wedding).

Pylia and Drizmar also visited with Ori at his dwarf island and convinced him to come to the wedding (as both their friend and the grandson of Va'Zarbreena) while Glora was tasked with getting Ori's brother (the paladin from Neverwinter) to attend at well. In coordinating wedding security, Blue visited with Oberan the Green Lord, who was upset about Alt-Oran and Daria being back. The team spent the week of down time learning from their magical stat-tomes.

For the wedding, they had an outdoor garden ceremony followed by a reception; all of the important family members and allies of the group were there. Pylia and Drizmar left their gifts at the palace, but went back to their city on Oerth. During the party, Alt-Oran and Daria told Glora they were planning a special adventure in the near future.

The next day, the team finally learned more about Veersalla. They thought about how they first met the villain, the lynx cats they picked up form her lair, and used some legend lore spells. They learned the mind-lynx cats were from Veersalla's homeworld, which they realized was on the star charts from the Tortuga ship; they picked up their ship and retrieved a tome from the family's library at Cobalt Castle, confirming that Veersalla was from Mirth (a.k.a. Merth). They also had their Evermeet allies make simulacra of the team and their new unicorn ally; Pylia made Drizmar's simulacrum since he was paranoid about it. They used their money to gear out their duplicates.

For next time: they want to fly the Tortuga to Merth, capture Veersalla, keep her from eating the heart of a Phoenix for a week, and then slay her. Surely they will encounter some challenges along the way...