Tuesday, December 28, 2021

FOW Logs 11-12 Phostwood

The Fish Outta Water (FOW) Campaign continues with...

Jerrison Shallowstream the half-elf tempest cleric,

Maw the gnome spirit bard, and

Zero-R-Alpha the warforged astral monk!


Session 11

The team has a week of travel with Lord Pierce the Spirit Naga. Since they were near the Gamboge Forest, the meadows, and the river to the Phostwood Forest they had to decide where to go adventure. The team chose the Phostwood because the trees there had a glow luminescence to them. Pierce agreed to a 50% loot split with the party while he stayed back in the tent-covered wagon. Jerrison, Maw, and Alpha entered the woods, where they met up with a group from the army of the Duchy of Tenth. They talked about the Old Faith. The leader, General Brand, recruited the team as irregulars (with badges) and sent them to go fight a group of Iuz-worshipping gnolls while his main forces took on the nearby bandits who were supposedly led by a necromancer.

The team found the pillar/obelisk area and killed some of the gnolls outside...

Session 12

Continuing from last time, the team approached the pillar and realized it was the size of a tower, about 120 feet tall. They took out the gnolls guards outside the main doors, went into each level, and defeated the enemies, which included: gnolls, pack lords, maw demons, shadow demons, a campion, detaches, a portal to a Balor demon, gnoll witherlings, and a gnoll flind! They found a decent amount of loot. Maw found a purple rock he was able to attune to and de-summon the tower (with a 10% risk of losing his identity and being turned into a mindflayer) and a potion of frost giant strength. Alpha got some eyes of minute seeing (which looked like purple gems). The team rested, leveled up, and brought the rest of the treasure to Lord Pierce (which included the flind flail holy weapon of "you-know-who," a tentacle-arrow+2, and some coins).

Discussing their future destinations, the team decided to wear south toward the County and Duchy of Urnst, where they would be able to stop in the city of Radagast to get supplies and such.

Saturday, December 18, 2021

Updated AL PC Portraits

 Updated AL PC Portraits

I've been playing around in HeroForge and updating my character portraits. I love all the color options and all of the new items that have been added to the website. I ordered a physical colored mini for Jermanthor of Cormanthor.

Here are some of the updated graphics...














(more to be added later)

New AL PC: Jerzilla

AL PC: Jerzilla


I'm really enjoying playing AL Season 11. I got into an online game of Lost Mine of Phandelver and created a new character for it named Jerzilla. He's an emerald dragonborn barbarian. We had a lot of fun in the session. Hopefully we will continue soon and do the entire module.

Sunday, December 5, 2021

AL Season 11 Update

 Adventurers League Season 11

I'm excited about AL again. Isn't that amazing? I haven't gotten back to playing in AL again yet, but I have looked online at some of the Discord groups and saw that Daddywarbux's server has an epic event planned for New Year's weekend and I signed up for it.

In looking at the Season 11 documents, which came out in September and October, it looks like the D&D team finally listened to more of the players complaints and removed a lot of the unwanted elements they had implemented for season 10. Thank goodness! It's nicer to play in an organized play system that has rules that are easier to follow. I've already contacted some of my buddies and we're looking into getting back into playing with roll20 and Discord so we can play online.

This also means I need to update my characters. I went ahead and worked on making sure Jermanthor could be ready for play in season 11. I re-designed his look with the color miniature options in Hero Forge. Here's what he looks like now (after traipsing around the Nine Hells):


I'll need to update the rest of my characters that I want to play. I'm thinking of maybe simplifying things some by trying to just have one major character per tier (tier 1, tier 2, tier 3, and tier 4) while probably mostly keeping the other characters as retired (though they have a lot of useful magic items they could potentially trade out).

If you're also playing AL, good luck adventuring!

FOW Logs 7-10 Belevor Quests

  The Fish Outta Water (FOW) Campaign continues with...

Jerrison Shallowstream the half-elf tempest cleric,

Maw the gnome spirit bard, and

Zero-R-Alpha the warforged astral monk!

Jerrison

Session 7

Continuing from last time, after resting, the team found robes of the Pelor priests in a side room. Jerrison took the nice archbishop robes. There were also crates of incense candles, rancid meat, etc. There were sounds of footsteps from the stars going down below; the team followed to a gunnel with a side room with 5 ash skeletons (with 5 shields of Pelor that the team took). Jerrison also took a small pewter statue of Pelor and Maw took the silver candelabra. Alpha spotted tracks as if an invisible person was following them around. Down the hall there were 4 defaced statues of Pelor. To get through the "door" of Pelor, Jerrison allowed Marlon to possess him; Marlon said the puzzle to protect the inner sanctum involved: charity, modesty, perseverance, and self-sacrifice. With that clue, the team was able to finish the ritual (which included Jerrison destroying his lightning symbol) and open the magical portal. That let to an encounter with a wraith and 2 shadows inside of an inner sanctum. The team rested again before going down another stairwell...

Session 8

The winding stairs led to huge metal double doors. There was a note on the door: "...it's too late... their battle will end us all... the church is sinking... only time can stop it..." Alpha opened the doors and the group saw, frozen in time, a solar fighting a valor demon with a female cleric-wizard with a sun staff flying above them; the team heard a screaming boy and ran past the "frozen in time" group to go down the hall to try to save him. In the crypt, the boy was being attacked by a cambion wizard and a devourer! Once Maw put the cambion to sleep, Jerrison put the sword in his hand and had Marlon possess him; Marlon was able to stop the ritual and used the magic lantern to sanctify the area. Jerrison tied up the wizard. Alpha stunned the devourer long enough for the team to kill it. As the area was destroyed, Jerrison grabbed the boy and the team escaped the cave-in, assuming the wizard was killed by it. On the way out, the "frozen in time" group phased back in sync with time and the woman said "What have you done? They will come now!" She disintegrated while the Solar and Balor were locked in combat, killing each other. The place caved-in on them as well, while the group continued running out for safety; the last statue seen on the way out had a purple glow to its eyes. When the group got to the top, they saw what looked like an "unending hole of darkness" left behind. Marlon explained he used the Lantern of Sanctification to do the stuff backward, to save the kid. 

The team returned the kid, Fritz, to town; he said the woman had been a Chosen of Pelor and was his grandma; she was afraid of something. Maw agreed to keep the kid's secret. After leaving Fritz with his family, the team reported to the constable, who at first accused them of lying, but paid them for completing the quest. The next day, the team reported to Father Milton and Jerrison offered himself up for reprimand. Father Milton used a horn to summon his army to "check on this hole." He said the lantern could be useless and for Jerrison to keep it. The team followed him outside and marched with the army. When they got to the area, they didn't see the unending hole there; it was just flat land. Jerrison took the lead inspiring the army and leading the clerics, organizing re-sanctifying the land/area (which was Maw's idea, but Jerrison was happy to run with it). Father Milton was annoyed when he finally realized what Jerrison was wearing, but realized it was too late to challenge his self-promotion to archbishop. Alpha found a small purple rock at the main doorway into the dungeon. He freaked out some of the Pelor soldiers when he used his astral arms to put the rock into his backpack. Maw calmed down the soldiers. After the ceremonies were over, everyone went back to the town.

Session 9

The next day, the team went to the general store to spend some of their money. Jerrison used his position in the church to requisition 3 healing potions (1 for each member of the FOW team, for their question to go after the local bandits). The team took their wagon and horses/donkeys down the west road (which was said to take 2 days to get to the next town), but on the first night while Jerrison was singing and the other two (Alpha and Maw) were hiding in the cart, the bandits showed up. Jerrison loudly surrendered to them and let them steal the cart, which the bandits brought to their hidden forest keep with white marble walls. Jerrison silently followed their tracks. In the courtyard was a cathedral-like building and a huge tree in water. Alpha and Maw popped out of hiding to fight 4 bandits; Jerrison joined in once he ran in from outside. Alpha and Maw found some stolen goods. The team loaded the card with more books, jewelry, and statues. Inside, they found some meeting rooms, meditation and training areas, and a trap door leading down into darkness. When they went down, they had to fight a powerful shadow monk with smoke tattoos on his body; it was challenging combat for the team.

Session 10

Still below the bandit keep, the team continued from last time, exploring the rooms; they found crates and barrels, statues of a woman with a black snake, and lots of side rooms. Alpha messed with the second statue and nothing happened. The team backed into a corner and Maw played loud music to lure out the hidden monks: 6 monks campout to fight (4 with scales infused into them and 2 with smoke tattoos; 4 of them were so intimidated, they ran away during the fight). Searching more rooms, the team found an alter with snake stuff. They put a dead monk on it and the alter seemed to accept the body as a blood sacrifice; the secret panel opened up with 3 scales available. Alpha took all the scales the team found. The next important room had 6 coffins with people with scales infused into them. Down the next stairs, the team found 2 statues, this time the woman and snake were separate. In the inner sanctum there were 4 meditating monks and 8 smoke mephitis keeping a spirit naga prisoner. FOW defeated the enemies and freed the monstrous creature by removing 3 searing spears (which the team kept). The spirit naga told the group his name had been long forgotten so Maw named him Pierce. The naga's story was that he regenerates and was captured for generations; he said the spears sucked out magic. The team offered to journey with the naga. On the way out, he burned the tree in the courtyard. He said he wanted to go to the Valley of the Mage, but said the team would make stops along the way to get treasure. The team rested and Jerrison reported back to the town about completing the mission; Father Milton seemed pleased that Jerrison was leaving.

To be continued...

Monday, September 27, 2021

FOW Log 3-6 For Pelor

 The Fish Outta Water (FOW) Campaign continues with...

Jerrison Shallowstream the half-elf tempest cleric,

Maw the gnome spirit bard, and

Zero-R-Alpha the warforged astral monk!



Session 3

Continuing from last time... Someone was in the room behind the orb; he called himself "The Carrion Crawler" (the necromancer later revealed to be named Victor). Victor wanted the group to release an evil force upstairs that was being held back so he could destroy the tome. He also revealed that Lord Foller from the town had been his apprentice, but they were now at odds. He promised to give the group a Wand of Binding in exchange for helping him. The team went back up and managed to get to the second floor, where they took out a group of zombies before finding the journal of Marlon the Paladin (who was Martha's son, the "lost boy" the group was tasked with finding and putting to rest). The team had to destroy a malevolent spirit of Marlon's squire Gav. They then got a map and the tome/ingrediants to do the ritual to release the magical force.

Session 4

Ritual time! The team heard a scream from below as the tome was destroyed by Victor. Marlon's spirit went into a magical sword with a citrus sun gem, claimed by Jerrison. As promised, Victor helped and gave the team the Wand of Binding. The team looted Marlon's library of Pelor lore before burying the evil tome under an elder oak tree that was a 20-minute walk from the keep ruins. They then walked a day back to the village to find the town in chaos (Victor had gone ahead); skeletons and zombies were battling each other as a war raged between the forces of Lord Foller and Marsha the Hag. The team decided to focus on infiltrating Marsha's manor...

Session 5

Victor sent a floating skull messenger to the group to let them know he was in the church, fighting his former apprentice Lord Foller. The team continued into the yard of Marsha's estate, defeating scarecrows in the courtyard. Inside were a team of boggles; Jerrison used magical wind to hold them off and then he and Maw used shatter spells to take them down. Upstairs, Marsha had transformed into "Hagatha" and had some varguille minions. The team defeated her! Then an old man named Vlad, his wife Elsa, and their two daughters (about 8 and 12) showed up needing protection from the undead. The team decided to help them, took a horse with two donkeys and a wagon, and left town with the family and the Pelor library.

Session 6

The group, along with the family they saved, arrived in the town of Belevor, a bastion of Pelor worshippers. They met the religious leader Father Milton and the mute paladin Daveth. They traded the Pelor library for a Ring of Protection for Alpha. The team was accepted into the Order of Pelor as a new division known as Fish Outta Water (FOW). Hijinks ensued with Alpha making pies, Maw befriending some locals, and Jerrison making door signs for their new quarters at the church. Daveth introduced the team to the local unstable Flint and his ranger friend Belboar, who gave the team some quests: (1) deal with the bandit problem on West road; (2) find the missing stable boy who disappeared chasing lights in the woods; (3) deal with the cambion (demon offspring) that are about. Father Milton also tasked the group with re-sanctifying a nearby burial mound. The team went deep into the woods/swamp looking for the lost boy and found the burial mound. Jerrison allowed Marlon to possess him to try to read some words in Celestial in the underground Pelor temple, but Marlon didn't know the words. Alpha and Maw found someone's journal in the side hall, who wrote how they tried to summon an angel to save them from the invading demons...

PLOG 89: 650,000+ Deaths

THE PLOG CONTINUES...

I took these screenshots about a week ago, but you can see the death toll in the US is higher than people had predicted it would get (and we're still in the middle of this pandemic:

One:

Two:

Three:


Be safe out there!

Monday, August 2, 2021

FOW Log 2: Chaos in the Basement

 The Fish Outta Water (FOW) Campaign continues with...

Jerrison Shallowstream the half-elf tempest cleric,

Maw the gnome spirit bard, and

Zero-R-Alpha the warforged astral monk!

Session 2

After clearing out the undead on the ground level, the team rested. During that rest some strange things occurred: (1) Jerrison noticed, even though he worshipped the storm god, that the sun god was trying to connect with him; (2) Alpha felt a dark presence, but he fought it off; (3) Maw heard tormented voices in his dreams. The group went down the well, into the basement, where they cleared out a bunch of rooms and tunnels of undead (lots of bodies left behind from some sort of battle, skeletons, dretches, and shadows). They looted some old coins with Pelor's symbol on them. Jerrison was able to seal away chaos energy. Alpha poured demon blood on some Iuz statues and gained glabrezu demon claw powers, and had a conversation about truth and his goals with supposedly Iuz. He then destroyed the Iuz statue and the team entered what looked like the final room with the book they had been searching for in a large glowing green orb.

To be continued...

FOW Log 1: Fish Outta Water

In true PLOG style, I feel I should give an update on the pandemic before diving into the RPG log this time:

Many of us have been vaccinated, but not everyone in society sees the value in getting the vaccinate. Unfortunately, the Delta Variant of the virus is about to hit us hard here in the US, as it's already been doing in many parts of the world. Apparently scientists are saying it's as contagious as the chicken pox, which is a horrible concept when you consider that schools are about to start again, mostly in full force in person without the proper funding for social distancing and safety measures:

News Link (with chicken pox comparison and more): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj_jNORM8PU


But now, for an escape from reality...

FOW Log 1: Fish Outta Water

After over a year and a half break from our in-person weekly gaming, we finally met together again last week. That was before the new numbers were released to the public and before this new chicken pox comparison, but oh well. We're back together again for at least a little while. We decided to start fresh, which is good since the pandemic created this huge gap in our gaming time, but also unfortunate since that means the FOE3 group will be left on an ending cliffhanger like the finale for the TV series Angel. I'll just assume for now that our character weren't all killed by the drow army.

We created characters and had a short introduction adventure. I'm a player, not running the game. I made a (no surprise here) half-elf tempest cleric. His name is Jerrison Shallowstream and he's an archeologist from the Forgotten Realms who, while investigating a strange map he had found, went into a dungeon and ended up going through a portal into another world (which turned out to be AMC's Oerth) where my character found some new friends. That made him a "fish outta water" so to speak so he suggested they name their new party FOW (which was also a tribute to FOE, which he knew of, having even been trained by Clover).

The other players are a a warforged astral monk who was put in stasis during the times of the ancient Netherese of the Forgotten Realms, though apparently on the other side of the portal. He was discovered by a forest gnome spirit bard that both released him and opened the portal for my character to come through. The three of us bonded, accepted that we were "fish outta water" so to speak, and ventured out to realized we were in the region of a bunch of evil people. We accepted quests to go destroy some undead and try to find an evil book left behind by a necromancer. We found the ruins of the keep we were directed to and took out some undead on the ground level. We saw there was a well going down to some underground stuff and missing stairs up to the second floor. We decided, for the next session, we would continue exploring there since we hadn't found the missing book yet.

It was awesome joining friends in person for the game. I hadn't played D&D in over a year. That's right, not even online. I just hadn't been in the mood with the pandemic. I've been working on writing my own stories and trying to get published.

Be safe out there. Peace!

Tuesday, March 2, 2021

PLOG 88: We're Screwed

I'm breathing a little bit of life into the PLOG to share this news article about how screwed Texas is, starting Wednesday, March 10 (with the governor rescinding the Coronavirus mandates and no longer requiring people to wear masks):

https://news.yahoo.com/texas-governor-lifts-all-coronavirus-restrictions-on-businesses-rescinds-mask-mandate-204327939.html




Good luck out there!