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.