CoMT 15: Elemental Knight

The Adventures of the Criminals of Many Things continue with:
Seiken the elf kensei monk,
Elyrin the human necromancer,
Bleaksin Blackscale the kobold scout, and
(introducing) Ovin Snakestaff the eldritch knight/tempest cleric

CoMT Session 15
Homebrew FR Campaign (City of Many Things)
When the group rested down in the basement of the "Brainbeak Manor" they discovered that the person they had rescued was actually a water genasi, not a half-orc; he was Ovin Snakestaff, the "Elemental Knight" (eldritch knight/tempest cleric) and brother of Oozey Snakestaff. He told them his family was missing and he was looking for his sister, who was rumored to be in the region. They told him they knew Oozey and, when finished with this mission, would bring him to her in the City of Many Things; they also gave him use of the group's staff of healing. With his sending stone, Seiken called into FOE Waterdeep and gave them an update, telling them to start paperwork for Ovin.

Elyrin's undead minions were destroyed when the team fought a swarm of cranium rats, a mind witness, 2 gazer, and a gauth. Ovin picked up the maul+3 from the destroyed undead. In side rooms, the group fought a wizard (who teleported out via a circle that they then destroyed) and 2 gibbering mouthers.

When they went up the stairs to the ground floor, Seiken stepped into a gelatinous cube - but Ovin used his acid resistance (and the magic maul) and destroyed the creature. They searched the first floor and rested for an hour so Ovin could make the magic maul one of his bonded weapons. When they went up to the 2nd floor, 6 cultists and a wizard confronted them; the team quickly killed them. Unfortunately, while searching the loot in a side room, they found a bag of devouring that pulled Seiken into it thus destroying itself and Seiken's portable hole (with Mory's body) while also sucking Seiken, Elyrin, and Ovin into the astral plane. Bleaksin was left behind at "Brainbreak Manor" to finish the mission by himself.

4U 16: Shark Bait

The RPG SAGA continues in the 4th Universe
with "The Dream Team" of:
Koriel "Kori" the aasimar (human-looking) arcane archer,
Aegle the winged elf kensei monk,
& Malath the half-elf rogue/bard!

DM Note
Puff’s player did an amazing job working his new character into the group. This session's title "Shark Bait" comes from the insult hurled back and forth between the pirate first mate and Kori. We had a lot of fun and ran out of time, but there’s always next week...

4U Session 16 Log
Homebrew Campaign (Alternate Forgotten Realms)
[Modules: Modified Talon of Umberlee]
Kori and Aegle, still at Elvenport, decided to stay for the extended funeral services and reception to honor the life of Prince Mursalin. Aegle gave Lord Riverrest the dead body of Ariela to properly dispose of (though he kept a feather). Aegle also made a memorial painting for the services.

Two days later, along with the other special guests, the old long-bearded human called “The Green Wizard” showed up in his TREATISE [a.k.a. TREE-T – a teleporting tree like the TARDIS from Doctor Who] with the bard Malath. The Green Wizard introduced Malath to Lord Riverrest, Kori, and Aegle. Malath played music for the services and joined the adventuring group. The silver dragon also showed up to the reception, in elf form, and discussed the team’s progress in the region.

The Green Wizard agreed to use the TREATISE to teleport the Dream Team to the fields outside Waterdeep so they could go in and try to hire a cleric to join them. Unfortunately, everyone seemed to tell them that not a lot of high level clerics were available in the world. They spent some time talking with a Waukeen priest and selling extra gear at a wizard’s shop (to the apprentice, who gave them good prices).

After staying at the Jade Lily Pad for the night, they went out in the morning to the ruins of the Lathander temple and found the halfling Captain Littlechin, who recruited to go out to see and rescue the captured Lathander cleric that had stolen the Talon of Umberlee (which had been stolen back by pirates and Sahuagin).

In the dark of night Kori, Aegle, and Malath took a dinghy from Littlechin’s ship out to the pirate flotilla, where they killed the kraken priest and most of the pirates; in the end, they let 4 human pirates (3 women and 1 man) live and they prepared for the possible arrival of the Sahuagin forces.

4U 15: For Ariela!

The RPG SAGA continues in the 4th Universe
with "The Dream Team" of:
Koriel "Kori" the aasimar (human-looking) arcane archer,
"Puff" the gnome dream druid,
Aegle the winged elf kensei monk,
& the eladrin eldritch knight Prince Mursalin!

DM Note
This adventure almost led to a TPK, as in within a few hit points; it was crazy. The amount of natural-20’s rolled by the enemies to crit the heroes was insane. I roll my dice out in the open so the players know it was all legit, but wow – the campaign almost came to a shocking, sad conclusion.

4U Session 15 Log
Homebrew Campaign (Alternate Forgotten Realms)
[Modules: Modified -----]
The Dream Team (Kori, Puff, Aegle, and Prince Mursalin) made their way back through the swamp and into the secret thief entrance of the Obsidian Fang lower levels that they knew about. They bribed 2 yuan-ti guards who let them through and told them how to get to the secret snake temple with the blue and green snake statues.

Inside, the team fought through an epic battle against more powerful yuan-ti than they could really handle (and snakes and snake statues that came to life), as well as the evoker wizard [who, after being downed, rolled a natual-20 for a death save and got back up to sling more spells at the team before finally dying for once and for all]. Sadly Ariela (the person they were trying to rescue), Prince Mursalin, and Puff all died. Ariela and Mursalin’s bodies were contaminated by yuan-ti potion that covered them in scales. Only Kori and Aegle survived, with just Aegle left standing.

Kori and Aegle brought their dead friends with them through the swamp (where there were lots of dead yuan-ti from the snake civil war) and to Tholme. In Tholme, the tavern now belonged to Kennara and Bearfoot was again in control of the village. Bearfoot reincarnated Puff as a wood elf, but he decided his brush with death was enough to cause him to stop adventuring for now and focus on protecting the forest while living at the elven elemental temple.

Puff got all of his gear back and said his goodbyes, but Kori and Aegle went with him so they could bring supplies from Bearfoot and release the trapped air spirit at the elemental planes. The air spirits took Kori and Aegle to just outside Elvenport so they could return there with the prince’s body. In Elvenport there were no clerics available and the half-elf Riverrest insisted that Prince Mursalin would not have wanted to be reincarnated or resurrected.

Riverrest planned the funeral rights for the prince and introduced Kori and Aegle to the gnome woman who had arrived to romance Puff. They made her a map and explained where she could find Puff. Kori and Aegle stayed in Elvenport, but made plans to soon travel to Daggerford in hopes of finding a cleric powerful enough to do a true resurrection for Ariela.

4U 14: Yuan-Ti Civil War

The RPG SAGA continues in the 4th Universe
with "The Dream Team" of:
Koriel "Kori" the aasimar (human-looking) arcane archer,
"Puff" the gnome dream druid,
Aegle the winged elf kensei monk,
& the eladrin eldritch knight Prince Mursalin!

DM Note
There was an episode of the TV show LIE TO ME in which they explained that you can’t see the signs of someone lying if they think they are telling the truth; thus one trick is to have the manipulating person convince someone else that something is true and send that person to go tell that information to the expert in lie detection. I tried to use that type of trickery, but my players saw right through it…

4U Session 14 Log
Homebrew Campaign (Alternate Forgotten Realms)
[Modules: Modified -----]
The Dream Team (Kori, Puff, Aegle, and Prince Mursalin) made their way through the wilderness and mountains toward the silver dragon’s lair. On the way, Aegle scouted ahead and saw two groups: (1) was a bunch of yuan-ti carrying treasure, led by a 2-headed albino and (2) some brown and red kobolds coming and going from a system of caves.

When the team confronted the yuan-ti, who were from the Obsidian Fang and not the Bayou Brigade faction, the enemies wanted to talk since they were on a mission to persuade the dragon to side with them over the other yuan-ti clan. The Dream Team just wanted to kill the enemies, but it turned into a bloody combat; in the end, the team survived with just one of the yuan-ti – a woman with a bracelet that they let go warn the others after they learned that Ariela (the female winged elf) had been successful in causing a huge civil war with the yuan-ti, but now she was captured by the evoker at the Obsidian Fang.

After the battle, the team found the red-brown kobolds and convinced them to take them to the silver kobold/dragon territory; they realized the kobold factions were also enemies with one another. Kori, Puff, Aegle, and Prince Mursalin got permission to enter and speak with the silver dragon. The dragon was very friendly and interested in hearing news from them. The team had captured the “treasure” the yuan-ti were going to offer the dragon; some “ancient elven wine” but it was actually yuan-ti potion to try to convert and mind control the dragon; luckily the team realized it before the dragon drank it.

With the silver dragon, the team came up with 5 objectives to help the region: (1) kill the evil evoker of Obsidian Fang; (2) take out the death cleric of the Bayou Brigade; (3) kill the yuan-ti Dendarian cleric; (4) defeat the mummy and devils that had the red-brown kobold caves; and (5) then be strong enough to take out the elder elemental phoenix held at Elvenport. They also realized that it was possible the undead version of Old Gnawbone the green dragon in this universe that the devils and red-brown kobolds had could possibly be brought back to life with Puff’s staff since it probably had a spark of Old Gnawbone’s soul in it.

The team rested in the silver dragon’s guest quarters while making plans to go save Ariela from the evoker in the swamp.

4U 13: Downtime in Elvenport

The RPG SAGA continues in the 4th Universe with "The Dream Team" of:
Koriel "Kori" the aasimar (human-looking) arcane archer,
"Puff" the gnome dream druid,
and Aegle the winged elf kensei monk!

DM Note
Downtime sessions can be a lot of fun because they break up the normal pace of adventuring. For this one, I had us go month by month (which somewhat annoyed one of the players, but was needed in case they wanted to do something that would alter what would happen in future months). I even put in some “plot traps” that they managed to avoid.

4U Session 14 Log
Homebrew Campaign (Alternate Forgotten Realms)
[Modules: Homebrew]
The team (Kori, Puff, and Aegle) took a year of downtime in Elvenport while their magic items were being made for them. Major events included:
*Puff learning elven from Aegle;
*Kori learning draconic from the eladrin prince (Mursalin);
*Aegle painting;
*3 druids from the High Forest came to have one of them challenge Puff for status in a druid ritual; Prince Mursalin asked Puff the throw the fight and he did;
*Aegle worked for the local wizards by getting monster eggs from the mountains, thus getting him black goo (which he took to “Grandma” in Tholme and learned that the goo was evil – she took it to destroy it);
*Aegle also scouted the two yuan-ti tribes of the swamp; one of them had occupied Tholme;
*meanwhile Kori had befriended Prince Mursalin and had a deal to to tell him one secret a month as he got to know her better; Kori found out Shar had destroyed Mystara in this universe
*Ariela the female winged elf showed up trying to woo Aegle; she came up with a plan to turn the two yuan-ti tribes against each other in a snake civil war.

At the end of the year, Prince Mursalin and his right-hand man (the half-elf Riverrest) revealed that they had been testing the group and decided they had great respect for them. They told the secrets of Mursalin’s family – how his grandfather had made a deal with demons and how his father felt horrible shame. Mursalin, thanks to Kori’s encouragement, embraced Ryali’s ways. He also explained he needed the group to, eventually, take on an elder elemental that wanted to destroy the city.

The wizards of elvenport had been sacrificing kobolds in a blood ritual to keep an elder elemental at bay, but some day it needed to stop and they needed to defeat the primordial enemy. Puff suggested Prince Mursalin join the group while they traveled and became experienced enough to take on the elder elemental. The team left the next day to go travel to the cave of the silver dragon in the nearby mountains – though Prince Mursalin mentioned that he had sent for a beautiful gnome girl to come in hopes that Puff would like her and marry her.

CoMT 14: Brainbeak Battle

The Adventures of the Criminals of Many Things continue with:
Seiken the elf kensei monk,
Mory Brewblood the dwarf cleric,
Elyrin the human necromancer,
Bleaksin Blackscale the kobold scout, and
Dribbledip the deep gnome druid!

CoMT Session 14:
Homebrew FR Campaign (City of Many Things)
Dribbledip found an interesting plant and decided to head back to her pond in Llork to start growing it there. Seiken, Mory, Elyrin, and Bleaksin continued clearing out the monsters in the ancient “Ghost Town” while looking for the Netherese pillar. As the team went around town Mory bashed zombie skulls while the others fired their ranged attacks from the rooftops of the buildings.

They made it to what they called “Brainbeak Manor” (because it was where Bleaksin had previously spotted the aberration).  The place made them feel a sense of dread and the team, in their strange emotional state, wasted time with some arrow-rope tricks and climbing around the roof and chimney; during this time, Seiken ended up falling down the chimney and discovering a furnace room. He came back out and the group just decided to go in the front door.

From the inside of the manor, the team tried to go up the stairs toward the 3rd floor – but the stairs turned out to be a trap that turned into a metal slide that sent them hurling down into the furnace cage; Seiken managed to avoid the trap, but jumped down to stay with the rest of the team as they fell into the trap. In the trash room that they fell into, the team had to kill 2 otyughs – which almost killed them.

After breaking out of the trash area of the basement, the team went for the next room down the hall. They found 3 “brainbeaks” (grell) and 2 “brain dogs” (intellect devourers); Mory’s brain was eaten and he was mind-controlled to fight the others, until they destoyed the “brain dog” that had taken him over. Mory was permanently dead, brainless at the end of the battle [and his soul would have likely gone to Tharizdun as per the ritual from the "Green Tide" battle]. Elyrin, Seiken, and Bleaksin survived. They also rescued 3 prisoners, only to find out 2 of the prisoners were already dead. The living one had green skin and they assumed he was a half-orc. They needed to wait out the day and take a rest again.

Player Note: Since I play Mory I was hit really hard by his in-game death. I tried to play it off as no big deal, but after playing him for 12 adventures (December to June) I had gotten really attached to the character. At least he had a little bit of a redemption arc before his death. The good news is that I get to make a new character for the next session… yay!

CoMT 13: Streets of Undead

The Adventures of the Criminals of Many Things continue with:
Seiken the elf kensei monk,
Mory Brewblood the dwarf cleric,
Elyrin the human necromancer,
Bleaksin Blackscale the kobold scout, and
Dribbledip the deep gnome druid!

CoMT Session 13:
Homebrew FR Campaign (City of Many Things)
Seiken, Mory, Elyrin, Bleaksin, and Dribbledip found themselves in battle when a swarm of undead came running out to confront them [because Mory had failed his stealth check]. While the rest of the team jumped into the window of the house near them, Mory stayed out in the street – wanting to be swarmed so he could use his channel divinity to turn and destroy as many undead as possible.

Seiken, Elyrin, Bleaksin, and Dribbledip had to contend with a team of 5 vampire spawn inside the house while Mory battled 4 zombies, 5 skeletons, 2 shadows, and 3 ghasts out in the streets. With good team work, Mory’s cleric powers, and Seiken’s sun sword the team survived the battle.

They explored the home. In the master bedroom was the vampire lord with 2 more vampire spawn and 2 ghosts. This time Dribbledip freaked out during combat and Elyrin was possess for most of it. Again, the sun sword was the main contributing factor to the team’s survival and victory. After the combat, Dribbledip turned into a spider and put webbing around the area to secure it for a long rest.

CoMT 12: To Llork

The Adventures of the Criminals of Many Things continue with:
Seiken the elf kensei monk,
Mory Brewblood the dwarf cleric,
Elyrin the human necromancer,
Bleaksin Blackscale the kobold scout, and
Dribbledip the deep gnome druid!

CoMT Session 12:
Homebrew FR Campaign (City of Many Things)
Seiken, Mory, Elyrin, Bleaksin, and the FOE clerk (Authel) were followed on their way out of the city by the deep gnome druid Dribbledip (who had been asked by FOE to join the group on their journey to Llork). Since Dribbledip failed to properly introduce herself (and purposely dressed like a homeless beggar child), it led to enough confusion that the guards down at Waterdeep’s docks almost arrested Seiken for kidnapping.

Once the team got on their way, sailing in their magical folding boat, Mory tried to bond with Dribbledip and discuss battle strategy. She turned into a dolphin and later explained that she was mostly a pacifist who tried to avoid being in direct combat. Battle scared her and talked about herself made her uncomfortable. When the team got to Llork, they found out it was a mid-sized city with a population of mostly humans and dwarves that had learned to live together. The team convinced the mayor to sell them a house, which they dubbed the Llork House of FOE. Dribbledip also bought a nature park with a pond she called “Lake Stout.” The clerk made plans to live at the house and start the official FOE chapter there.

The next day Dribbledip used her sage lore to help the team find where to go for the old Netherese magic ruins. The Llork town ranger warned the group that there were a lot of undead seen in the northeast region. The team traveled for 3 days, having to destroy 3 will’o’wisps. They made their way into a devastated area with sand and an ancient “ghost town” with undead. Bleaksin scouted ahead and reported back about interesting brain-beak creatures in one house and what sounded like possible vampires in another.

When the group tried to stealth across the city, Mory accidentally made a bunch of noise... [to be continued]

CoMT 11: Waterdeep FOEs

The Adventures of the Criminals of Many Things continue with:
Seiken the elf kensei monk,
Mory Brewblood the dwarf cleric,
Elyrin the human necromancer, and
Bleaksin Blackscale the kobold scout!

CoMT Session 11:
Homebrew FR Campaign (City of Many Things)
Seiken, Mory, Elyrin, Bleaksin, and the new bard recruit were all on their boat bonding on the way to Waterdeep. Mory asked Elyrin what he thought about them secretly being the “Criminals of Many Things” as a division within FOE (The Federation of Explorers) – as per Mory’s original talks with Oozey. This conversation upset the new bard and allowed Mory to realize Seiken never really realized that he had joined the Criminals of Many Things (back in the sewers with Derv, Oozey, and Parker). The situation was also news to Elyrin, who ultimately brought up a moral dilemma that someday Mory might have to pick between FOE and the Criminals of Many Things (which Mory thought was a ridiculously absurd possibility, until later in the adventure…).

At Waterdeep the new bard left the group to go off on his own adventures. The city guards wouldn’t let the team into the streets with their weapons because they didn’t have a writ as adventurers. Seiken refused to leave his sword behind to go into the FOE Offices of Waterdeep to get the proper paperwork; Mory, familiar with the city but not the FOE Waterdeep division, volunteered to go. Unfortunately, the team soon found out that the Waterdeep division of FOE did not consider Mory, Elyrin, and Bleaksin official members of the organization.

Once they got the entire team into the city and up to the 3rd floor offices of FOE, Arty the clerk introduced the team to the leading council of the FOE Waterdeep Division: Lt. Hayes (the red half-dragon with a cool pocket dimension office), a half-elf, and a human. They told the team that the new guys could be probationary members and earn full status if they completed a quest consisting of 3 parts. The had to (1) bring a clerk with them to start a new division of FOE in Llork, (2) search the hills and forests north of Llork to find a magic pillar rumored to be left behind by ancient Netherese wizards, and (3) somehow bring the pillar back to FOE. Bleaksin got a double-sided map with the Sword Coast on one side and the High Forest region on zoomed in on the other.

The team researched in the libraries of Waterdeep, where Elyrin learned that the pillar – in legend – was associated with an egg or a building or a hammer forge (maybe all 3?). They also met with Mory’s mother Kathra, who was the assistant head cleric at the Moradin temple. She confirmed that in her younger years she foolishly fell in love with Mory’s pirate father. She also gave the team info to trade items with two different dwarf magic item dealers.

With his mom, Mory had recommitted to doing Moradin’s work in the world and apologized for falling into bad habits in his quest to know his pirate father. The next morning, the team went to the Waterdeep FOE tavern to pick up the young human clerk Authel (and Seiken picked up a sending stone so he could magically send reports back to Arty).

Player Note: Both myself (playing Mory) and the player of Elyrin were upset by the way the Waterdeep FOE officials totally disrespected our characters - which was weird because the DM said after the session that he hadn't intended for the NPCs to come across that way. Apparently our assumption that Seiken could recruit people into FOE in the City of Many Things was not the same as what the DM had the NPCs think about the organization.

CoMT 10: Orc Loot

The Adventures of the Criminals of Many Things continue with:
Seiken the elf kensei monk,
Mory Brewblood the dwarf cleric,
Elyrin the human necromancer, and
Bleaksin Blackscale the kobold scout!

CoMT Session 10:
Homebrew FR Campaign (City of Many Things)
After the victory against the “Green Tide” the team needed to search the entire orc sector for loot. They started with the stronghold, moved on to the streets, and ended up at the docks. Some of the more interesting items were a bunch of fine art, a magical unfolding boat, a ram’s head ring, and a pearl of power [likely the one Fox had earlier in the campaign].

The team also rescued four humans from a warehouse, where demonic sacrifices had been made. After nursing them back to health, the team brought them to the tavern; Elyrin burned down the warehouse. One of them was a bard and decided he wanted to join the adventuring party.

With downtime for about a week, the team was able to achieve some goals, including: Seikin visiting with the Noble District FOE Team (Parker, Oozey, and the gnome clerk) and meetings with the faction leaders (Braylinn in charge of the kobolds, the Roaming Gold Caravan leader, and Bruth of the refugees). In the end, the team gave money to each group and organized a defense for while they would be out of town.

The gnolls appeared to have withdrawn into their area, no longer being as aggressive. Thus the team decided it was time to head out on their boat with a mission to visit Waterdeep to try to get more resources and hire more help to finish saving the City of Many Things. Note: They could have gone to a closer city, like Daggerford, but Mory was concerned about comments Elyrin had made about his mother and father (implying that Mory’s father might have forced himself on Mory’s mom since he was a pirate and she was a cleric, instead of it being a consensual love affair) so they were going to Waterdeep to her Moradin temple to ask her about the truth behind Mory’s origin.

Player's Note: As the player of Mory, it was exciting to get the folding boat and become Captain Mory. This was a fun roleplay-oriented session.

CoMT 9: The Green Tide

The Adventures of the Criminals of Many Things (the evolution of the FOE2 Team) continue with:
Seiken the elf kensei monk,
Mory Brewblood the dwarf cleric,
Elyrin the human necromancer, and
Bleaksin Blackscale the kobold scout!

CoMT Session 9
Homebrew FR Campaign: The City of Many Things
Continuing from last time, locking themselves in the wizard's tower: Mory, Seiken, Elyrin, and Bleaksin found themselves surrounded by "The Green Tide" army of orcs and goblins. There were well over 100 enemies surrounding the tower while the team tried to figure out what to do. When Mory looked out the window, the goblin archers hit him with enough arrows to knock him unconscious. The rest of the team plugged up the window.

Seiken and Bleaksin looked through all of the magic supplies and messed around in the potion lab to figure out how to make some magic explosives. Elyrin read through the necromancer's books to figure out how to use the portals; he discovered a portal that went to the old Karse lich trapped in the city's central tower. Mory discovered a ritual to make a pact with Sothragot, an agent of Tharizdun, via the astrolab,

The team prepared 8 bags of wild magic bombs and, once night came, opened up the ceiling to use the astrolab. Seiken, Bleaksin, and Elyrin held back the army of orcs and goblins for 10 rounds while Mory did the ritual to commune with Sothragot. Sothragot demanded Mory's eternal servitude, but destroyed all of the orcs and goblins in the City of Many Things! The orcs and goblins disintegrated around the team.

4U 12: Magma Dragons

The RPG SAGA continues in the 4th Universe 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
Before the session started, I made sure to tell the players that I have been enjoying the campaign and they hadn't done anything to upset me; I wasn't trying to punish them or purposely kill off their characters, but I wanted them to know they had wandered into a deadly area on their own and it might not go well for the party. As always, they impressed me with their strategy as they miraculously escaped a TPK.

4U Session 12 Log
Homebrew Campaign (Alternate Forgotten Realms)
[Modules: Modified -----]
The team (Kori, Puff, Aegle, Frazzle, Acidfire, the 3 kobold allies, the 2 leatherworkers, and the captured modron) teleported into the lava level beneath Obsidian Fang - with most of them falling into the lava. Only Kori and Puff had land to stand on; Aegle was able to fly and temporarily save a kobold and one of the leather workers - but in the end only Kori, Puff, and Aegle lived through the encounter because there were 2 magma dragons and 2 fire elementals that attacked them.

After killing the monsters, the survivors found themselves overheated by the environment and realized they needed to escape. They took the dead dragon heads and claws with them. They also recovered the obsidian scythe (assuming that Mel was dead) and used it as their portal key to get back up to the celler level.

Thanks to Puff's dream druid abilities, they were able to hide and rest in the swamp before making it to the mountains. Puff's jade crown taught him the ritual to replace his eyes with the fire-emeralds from the magma dragons. After Puff got his new magic vision, the team decided to head north, along the edge of the mountains and up the Delimbyr river in hopes that they could trade magic items at Elvenport. They safely made their way there, where they were greeted by friendly elves, half-elves, and eladrin citizens of a walled elven city with a beautiful palace.

First they traded out gear and handed over their displacer beast and dragon body parts to magic-smiths to make them new items; the elves said it would take a year to make everything they wanted. The team visited with the eladrin prince leader of the city; the prince liked them and told them they could live in the palace for the year. Aegle even got the prince to agree to provide art supplies so he could start working on making paintings detailing the stories of his adventures.

4U 11: Obsidian Portal

The RPG SAGA continues in the 4th Universe 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
Providing an open campaign with options for the players to go wherever they want can lead to funny moments. This time, the players (both in character and out) discussed their options for quite a while before doing anything. As a DM I was ready. Go left? Sure. Right? Sure. Back? Ok. Downtime? Great! Ultimately, they decided to go back, because treasure...

4U Session 11 Log
Homebrew Campaign (Alternate Forgotten Realms)
[Modules: Modified -----]
With a nice rest, the group was all back together again with their kobold recruits and leather workers (cutting up the dead dragon body); the team discussed what to do and where to go next. Some of them wanted to return to the Bayou Brigade fort, some of them considered returning to Tholmme, and some wanted to go back to the shattered Obsidian Fang. They went back and forth debating whether or not to take downtime, but they ultimately chose to seek out treasure at the Obsidian Fang.

Puff noticed lots of snakes in the swamp now; he used "speak with animals" to find out the snakes had been oppressed before and were now happily retaking control of the area. The team had first traveled part of the way to the fort, but Aegle's scouting revealed some yuan-ti doing a ritual and snake banners at the fort now; that was why they headed back to Obsidian Fang.

In exploring the levels of Obsidian Fang, the team defeated: a minotaur, a clay golem, a mud mephitic, a cockatrice, and 2 displacer beasts; an evocation wizard escaped via a purple-swirly magic portal. The team also found a nice amount of treasure - including a captured modron that was able to communicate with Kori. Some of the treasure auto-attuned and may have been cursed - including a dagger that made Puff try to stab himself through the heart.

The team gave Mel (the former lycan) some of the best gear and he went through the portal first (to scout); the portal required a magic portal key; when Mel never returned, the rest of the team figured out the cursed dagger was also a key and Puff ended up stabbing himself as he tried to use it; Puff survived and the team (Kori, Puff, Aegle, Frazzle, Acidfire, the 3 kobolds, the 2 leather workers, and the captured modron) went into the portal...

Sidenote: There were also some antics with carrying around the mundane chest that seemed to be a "Chest of Holding."

CoMT 8: The Old Gods

The Adventures of the Criminals of Many Things (the evolution of the FOE2 Team) continue with:
Seiken the elf kensei monk,
Mory Brewblood the dwarf cleric,
Elyrin the human necromancer, and
Bleaksin Blackscale the kobold scout!

CoMT Session 8
Homebrew FR Campaign: The City of Many Things
Still at the wizard's tower: Mory, Seiken, Elyrin, and Bleaksin ascended the stairs - up to level five; they found teleportation circles in a wizard's lab. The group heard a voice from up above; the evil necromancer who had taken over the tower was in the astrolab. The group had to defeat him, his mind-controlled ghost, and 5 zombies. After that, they took a good rest.

Uninterrupted, the team was able to spend two days reading/studying. Mory learned about "The Old Gods" from books in the tower; this lead to him gaining an obsession with Tharizdun. They also learned about the ancient Karse rich trapped in the City of Many Things central tower.

Wanting to kill more orcs, the team went out. In the streets, they defeated 3 orcs and 6 goblins before advancing on the orc keep (where Seiken and others had previously escaped up from the sewers). There, the team took down 3 orcs/orgos, 6 goblins, and 2 trolls before strategically retreating. They heard war cries as more orcs/goblins swarmed out. The team made it back to the tower.

4U 10: Flooded Cave

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 this session, we ended up with more combat than roleplay and that's fine because we balance it out over time. It was nice to vary things up with the water combat, but the team did their best to avoid going into the water as long as they could (which is good strategy so I don't blame them).

4U Session 10 Log
Homebrew Campaign (Alternate Forgotten Realms)
[Modules: Modified -----]
Continuing from last time (outside the Obsidian Fang, after finding out the dead dragon's body was missing) Aegle flew off to check on his leatherworkers and kobold ally. Kori, Puff, Frazzle, Acidfire, and Mel continued to the "Dark Lady's Cave" with their kobold scout leading the way. In the forest, they battled and killed six troglodyte warriors.

At the cave entrance (with a river, rocks, a bridge, and debris), Aegle rejoined the group as they battled 6 lizardfolk warriors, the lizardfolk captain, and the Dark Lady. The team defeated their foes and took a short rest before progressing inside.

The Dark Lady had flooded the cave, thus the team had to fight monsters in water - including water elementals, mephits, and genasi leaders. Puff used his captured earth elemental to help with the battle. In the end, they were able to retrieve the dragon's dead body before the ritual was complete; thus they prevented the creation of the dracolich.

CoMT 7: FOE Lady

The Adventures of the Criminals of Many Things continue with:
Seiken the elf kensei monk,
Mory Brewblood the dwarf cleric,
Elyrin the human necromancer, and
Bleaksin Blackscale the kobold scout!

CoMT Session 7
Homebrew FR Campaign: The City of Many Things
Before the group (Mory, Seiken, Elyrin, Bleaksin, and the rescued refugees) left the half-burned down fort in the woods, Elyrin checked out the messed up teleportation circle. The team managed to return to the City of Many Things without difficulty. They treated the rescued refugees to a nice dinner at the FOE tavern, even hiring one of them to become "FOE Lady" running the new base operations for this chapter of FOE. They went ahead and paid her salary for the month, along with a bartender and server; she was able to trade out the armor and weapons that the team had been collecting from their adventuring.

Mory, Seiken, Elyrin, and Bleaksin went through some of the disputed territory and killed 2 orcs, 1 gnoll, and 2 goblins. They made it to the wizard tower (that Seiken and the others had previously secured) but Oozey still had the key and someone else had taken up residence there. Seiken made his way up the wall, into the 4th floor window with the team following after them. They killed 6 zombies, a ghast, 3 ghouls, and 4 skeletons. There was a teleport circle and some books in the room.

4U 9: Shattered Fang

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
What fun we have! The group keeps recruiting more NPCs. And when the NPCs die, they keep paying to bring them back to life. It's funny because they just keep getting more and more of them.

4U Session 9 Log
Homebrew Campaign (Alternate Forgotten Realms)
[Modules: Modified -----]
At the Bayou Brigade Fort: Kori, her former werewolf friend Mel Ramhorn, Puff, his kobold druid trainee, Aegle, Frazzle, and Acidfire ate breakfast together after Puff had visions of displacer beasts coming toward the fort. They finally received their invitation to go to Stormkeep (a.k.a. The Obsidian Fang), but decided they first wanted to go clear out the remaining enemies at Spellgard. Acidfire hired two human leatherworkers to follow them around (in hopes of getting displacer beast hide for future magic cloaks). A group of ravens were in the swamp.

On their journey, the team defeated 4 displacer crows. They arrived at the Spellgard ruins and rested in the monastery. In the morning, Puff handed over the cursed crown to Kori, who put it in the bag of holding. Mel took them through the catacombs and they found magical explosion trap rigged to destroy the tower and the underground tunnels. Puff was able to animal form into a badger and safely set if off while burrowing into the ground.

After the group blew up the tower, Aegle found a brownscale kobold who told them the gnome wizard and oni had already fled, in the direction of Stormkeep. In the swamp there was a huge battle with aberration monsters versus the lizardfolk army - leaving most of them dead. The team witnessed a huge magical explosion that destroyed the above ground "Obsidian Fang" and went to investigate. The ancient black dragon was dead! Kori ended up with a blackscale kobold on her shoulders. They had to kill the evil dozen kobold guards (with 3 kobold clerics). They explored the ruins and found underground levels below.

They helped 2 scared-looking gnomes escape - but later realized that was the evil wizard and oni in disguise; the villains used their remaining magic to hide in the swamp (specifically, in a secret thieve's den hideout tunnel that went below Stormkeep). The team bribed the 12 assassin ladies patrolling the level and then fought/killed the main enemies: the assassin leader, the assassin's cleric, the evil gnome wizard, and the oni.

In the end, they were going to go get the leather workers (who stopped back in the swamp to get displacer beast hides) and go back to the fort - but instead, they found that the ancient dragon's dead body was gone from the field outside the keep; a blackscale kobold told them "The Dark Lady" wanted to raise the body as a dracolich! Puff said they had to stop her...

4U 5-8: The Dream Team

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...

4U Sessions 5-8 Logs
Homebrew Campaign (Alternate Forgotten Realms)

DM Note
I haven’t done a good job of keeping up the logs. January/February was cold, freezing cold, and we missed a lot of RPG time; February/March also saw work schedules getting in the way of game time, but we have managed to get together and roll the dice a few times. We also skipped a week to go watch the movie READY PLAYER ONE. We may miss again soon for AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR. Since the campaign is starting to get settled, I’ve been doing more DM prep (though, hilariously, I’ll plan for the team going left and they’ll go right causing me to still improvise more – but that’s ok because it’s fun).

Session 5: 
This adventure was framed around the team being assaulted by the ooze-infected earth elemental at the beginning (with him stealing Puff’s crown) and then the team ultimately tracking him down and defeating him (to get the crown back). Along the way, they also explored the swampy underground mines/tunnels (killing the nagas/guards who warned them of the snake people living under the hills). They also found magic gems with elementals trapped inside (one of which Puff used to defeat the ooze-infected earth elemental). In the end, the singing sword was encased in gem. Also, the old mayor and Red’s mom were killed by the main enemy; the team went back to the village and helped the druid Halfling Barefoot become the new mayor.

Session 6: 
Not wanting to face the bandits at their hideout just yet – Kori, Puff, and Frazzle decided to explore the well underneath Grandma’s old house in the woods while Aegle spent some downtime making Puff bone armor. The team met “Kelp” (who looked like a water genasi gnome and seemed to be a warlock of some strange power in the swamp south of the forest), who joined them. In the tunnels under the well, the team also befriended the young black dragon “Acidfire” who had been looking for the ancient Netherese treasure vault he called the Obsidian Fang. They got barrels from town and went to the Ryali statue to fill them with holy water – but ended up leaving them behind. Acidfire and Kelp died while helping the team defeat the enemies at the bandit HQ (which included Vivacious the succubus and the young necromancer). The team destroyed Kelp’s strange idol and brought Acidfire’s dead body back to Tholmme, where Barefoot reincarnated him as a half-elf.

Session 7: 
Barefoot (who was sick with a magical curse) assigned Kori, Puff, Frazzle, and Acidfire to find out why the river was drying up; they left a note for Aegle, who flew out and joined them as soon as he could. Their investigation led them to the hills, where they had to kill 2 hill giants and fight a yuan-ti who called himself Mr. Underhill; the yuan-ti escaped after telling them a rumor about a silver dragon living nearby. The team found the Bayou Brigade’s wooden fort in the swamp with water elemental symbols; they were a team of mostly lizardfolk warriors who served the ancient black dragon of Stormkeep and had a death cleric shaman lady. Puff agreed to take the oath to serve the old dragon and the next day the team met “The Dark Lady” (half-black dragon) to give magic items as tribute and arrange for a message for a future meeting with him. The Dark Lady gave them the magical cure for Barefoot and agreed to use their water elemental connections to restore the river. The team returned to the village and saved Barefoot. After six days, the river returned to normal.

Session 8: 
[Module: 4E Scepter Tower of Spellgard]
Puff finally had enough time to figure out treasure locations from the book Old Gnawbone had given him, matching them up from that universe to this one. Kori, Puff, Frazzle, and Acidfire decided to go to the nearby ruins of Spellgard in hopes of getting treasure there. They left a map and note for Aegle and headed off, killing 4 ettercaps on the way. Aegle joined them after the battle. Outside Spellgard was a monastery inhabited by an obviously evil rival adventuring party (that called themselves the FCC). The FCC had already cleared the catacombs, but agreed to let the party clear out the tower; the team killed ettercaps, spiders, gnome warriors, and gnome wizards; only Kori, Puff, and Aegle survived. They then, with the help of some kobolds, had to kill the 5 FCC team members (thus rescuing a captured wererat). When another wave of enemies (an oni with 8 kobolds who served the master gnome wizard) came at them, the team intimidated them into leaving.

Kori, Puff, and Aegle made it to the Bayou Brigade Fort and paid to have Frazzle and Acidfire resurrected by the frogfolk druid/cleric (with a snake holy symbol). They spent days waiting to hear back from the ancient dragon of Stormkeep. Puff went through the initiation ritual to become an official shaman for the fort and got to know the guards. Aegle spent time with the strange old human smith lady with a shop there. Kori paid 500 gp to cure the wererat/human fighter they rescued from the FCC (and spent time befriending him).

CoMT 6: Burn it Down!

The Adventures of the Criminals of Many Things continue with:
Seiken the elf kensei monk,
Mory Brewblood the dwarf cleric,
Elyrin the human necromancer, and
Bleaksin Blackscale the kobold scout!

CoMT Session 6
Homebrew FR Campaign: The City of Many Things
While Mory, Seiken, and Elyrin were having breakfast at their new FOE tavern – the blackscale kobold scout Bleaksin interrupted them with news that the forest orcs had kidnapped some new refugees from Naeb that were travelling toward the city. Bleaksin joined the team, traveled a day out to the wooden orc fort, and prepared to assault the place in order to rescue the captured humans. On the way, they defeated 2 brown bears.

In a huge battle, the team defeated the troll leader and 9 orcs (most of which were actually orogs) by setting the place on fire. The captured humans were freaked out, but managed to survive by fleeing and hiding in the woods during the battle. All together, the team saved 8 refugees. At the end, the team was still at the half-burned down fort – but they were planning the 2-day trip back to the City of Many Things with all of the loot/gear they had acquired.

CoMT 5: Reclamation

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,
Mory Brewblood the dwarf cleric,
and Elyrin the human necromancer!

CoMT Session 5
Homebrew FR Campaign: The City of Many Things
After defeating the bandits and claiming the tavern as the new FOE HQ – Mory, Seiken, Oozey, and Parker went outside and saw the main city gates open up for the one-eyed human wizard/necromancer Elyrin. The team told him about the City of Many Things, the Federation of Explorers, and the wizard tower that was still in the orc-controlled territory. Elyrin was mostly interested in the wizard tower, but he agreed to join the group and help them. Mory claimed the brewery for himself. Oozey and Parker were offended by Elyrin being a necromancer and decided to leave the adventuring party and work out of the noble district FOE HQ after the team looted the area (calling it “reclamation” instead of looting).

The entire team went through the “wild lands” district to get back to the noble district; they had to fight and kill 3 gnolls and a shadow demon. Once back, they met with Breylinn (kobold leader), Bruth (refugee leader), and the leader of the Roaming Gold Caravan in order to arrange people moving to the newly acquired area. Breylinn sent a silver dragonborn with 15 kobolds, in addition to the 5 kobolds that were now training with Mory. The team spent time getting the human guards and caravan to the new area as well. They put up defenses with barricades and traps. They also calculated they would need about 5,000 gp and 100 days to setup a fortification at the nearby mines in the forest (which take about a half-day to get to). They would need to accumulate more money for that.

CoMT 4: Bandit Naeb-ors

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 Mory Brewblood the dwarf cleric!

CoMT Session 4
Homebrew Campaign: The City of Many Things
After Seiken, Parker, Oozey, and Mory rested up again they made plans for assaulting the bandit area of the City of Many Things. They picked up the 5 kobold cleric trainees and left them at FOE HQ. They also picked up 3 kobolds to help them assault the bandit HQ.

On the way to the bandits, the group was attacked in the "wild lands" area; the team killed a squad from Naeb (2 guards and 1 wizard who were there to check on the progress of the FOE team); unfortunately, the 3 kobolds died from a cone of cold. The team returned to the kobold quarter and gave the loot to Brayin while they apologized for the kobolds getting killed so quickly.

After resting for the night and waiting out much of the next day, the team timed their assault on the bandit HQ to coincide with nighttime (to get advantage at stealthing in the darkness). The team took out about 25 enemies (2 were guard captains and about 5 or 6 were adventurers) in their rush into the bandit courtyard and inn; the team succeeded without losing anyone else! Mission accomplished!

Note: the team was using great strategy with Mory's cleric spells (aid, spiritual weapon, and bless) and Oozey's wildshapes (not to mention the great optimization of Seiken and Parker).