SAGA Log 1432 Iymrith's Lair

Session 1432: Iymrith's Lair
Module: Storm King's Thunder (Chapter 12 "Doom of the Desert")

Pylia (with her shield guardian), Blue, Drizmar, Ark, Bek, and Himo (their EV cleric) finished their preparations for battling Iymrith the ancient blue dragon by convincing Harshnag to rejoin them. King Hekaton reported success in convincing the giants to stand down in their hostile activities against "the little folk" of the Sword Coast. He also insisted he leave his guards with his daughter to guarantee her safety while they went into battle.

[Technically, at this point, the team achieved the main goals of the module, but they insisted on taking on their new arch-enemy in her lair. And who can blame them? This dragon needs to die...]

At the desert half-coliseum ruins, the team had to fight: 30 gargoyles, 9 yuan-ti, and Iymrith herself! One by one, the team was killed - King Hekaton, Harshnag, Bek, Ark, Himo, and Drizmar; the shield guardian was also destroyed. Blue was knocked out, bleeding to death as the gargoyles were dragging the dead bodies into the sinkholes below. Pylia managed to teleport out (to their rented manor in Waterdeep) with the bodies of Blue and Drizmar. On the enemy side, Iymrith and 15 of the gargoyles had survived.

Pylia gave Blue a healing potion and he used revivify to bring Drizmar back to life. They discussed whether or not to go immediately recruit help and go back in while Iymrith was damaged, but eventually admitted to themselves they needed at least an hour's rest. They paid the EV agents to get Blue's siblings (Mercy the tiefling fighter and Blood the satyr cleric) from the Feywild to join them, along with a retired centaur fighter (with lightning-resistant armor and magic swords).

Module Review: Out of the Abyss

Dungeons & Dragons 5E
For this week's fantasy review I'm going to complete another module review since I have so many D&D modules to catch up with. Out of the Abyss quickly became one of my favorite modules. As usual, I made modifications for my players and weaved in some other modules/adventures along the way.

Out of the Abyss
In my opinion, this adventure stands out as the best 5E module yet. Thus, as you read my criticisms below, please know that I greatly enjoyed DMing this campaign and my players enjoyed the gaming sessions. According to the book, the adventure was made for levels 1-15, but I highly recommend starting the campaign at a higher level because the Underdark is deadly.

Our group loves "naked challenges" in which the players need to escape from a dungeon without any of their equipment so this campaign's opening premise of starting out as drow prisoners/slaves, while not original, stood out as a fun possibility.

The book layout centered around chapters for the different locations, which I think helped me a lot as a DM. Unfortunately, this setup also comes with problems because it can be difficult to put all of the story threads together. I find that I have to read these modules at least 3 times for them to really make total sense.

The adventure also contains the most interesting NPCs in any of the D&D 5E modules thus far. With the Underdark races being used, the characters have many different bizarre personalities and motivations. Some characters from D&D novels also make appearances.

For a campaign starting as a slave escape, the adventures easily become a sandbox (after a while). One of the biggest criticisms of the campaign is that half way through, the players make their way to the surface and then are supposed to get support before going back down into the Underdark - but why would they return? While down there, the players have a chance of gaining insanity levels each time they rest. With the additional material that I weaved in, I got my players interested in the drow capitol city of Menzoberranzan:

As usual, these campaign books require some extra work and really skip leveling requirements for XP by using milestone leveling instead of really sticking to the numbers. My players were also able to skip sections since they didn't need to go to each location to achieve their goals (which is fine, but as a DM I had spent time preparing all of the locations).

Overall, I give this module a rating of 8 out of 10 because of the fun NPCs and the high number of usable locations but the best part of the module was the inclusion of 5E stats for 8 demon lords at the back (Baphomet, Demogorgon, Fraz-Urb'Luu, Graz'Zt, Juiblex, Orcus, Yeenoghu, and Zuggtmoy). With those stats, it would help DMs convert more of the old modules that featured these demon lords.

FOE Log 17

Federation of Explorers (FOE) 
Homebrew Campaign

Session 17: Introducing Thunderforge
After the party was wiped out last time (TPK), our gracious DM offered to let people play their characters as captured drow slaves with no equipment or to make new characters (who would also be captured drow slaves with no equipment). Our other 2 players wanted to continue on as their characters, but I felt it fitting that my character Thok had met his end since I had already rolled 1 death fail when we had stopped (and he had already achieved his story goal of having his child Thokson).

For my new character, I created the mountain dwarf storm cleric Thunderforge who had been a healer in the dwarf army. Since we were in a "Naked Challenge" situation, I did not have a holy symbol and could not cast my cleric spells yet. But it was refreshing to play a fun, combat-loving joke-cracking dwarf. Onto the adventure...

[I created the image below with HeroForge.com]

Thunderforge

The 2 survivors of the Federation of Explorers (Regnar the human ranger and Zen the half-elf monk) woke up naked in a drow dungeon cell with 3 naked dwarves around them (Thunderforge and 2 of his soldier buddies). They worked together to bend the bars and break out. Zen KO'd the nearby drow guard and the group took his gear. Thunderforge broke off the table legs to use as clubs.

The group continued on, into the halls and nearby rooms, killing: 4 more drow guards and the drow prison warden. This allowed the group to pick up more gear; the location was actually a drow-captured former dwarf manor so there was a shrine to Moradin with a holy symbol Thunderforge could use. Much fun was had in the kitchen, where the group improvised by: turning the stove doors into shields for the dwarf fighters, using the knives as throwing daggers for the monk, and having the ranger collect flour into a pouch (that was later used to help see where the invisible mage was standing).

One room contained a draco-drow possessed by the black dragon in Regnar's acid sword. After the group killed him, they returned to the warden's office and rested for an hour. They found a secret passage that went up to the main manor, where they killed the drow mage that had led the TPK against the group in the previous session.

The final battle in the main halls featured a chain devil and his 3 imp minions, but the group ultimately overcame the enemies and took a long rest before looking out over the underground drow-infested former dwarf city. One of the NPC fighters said he thought he knew of a sewer tunnel that could get the group into the main keep.

Module Review: Curse of Strahd

The Return of Lord Count Master Strahd
I really enjoyed running this module and my players had a ton of fun, so keep that in mind even though I may sound really critical with some of my comments below...

Considered one of the greatest D&D villains, Strahd maintains a special place in D&D lore. Despite that, I found myself upset when Wizards of the Coast originally announced this module because my multiverse already dealt with Strahd (many times). I know WotC markets to millions of people and my campaign stands out as a rare, special situation in which we actually include over 1,000 sessions as part of a continuing multigenerational storyline, but I wished WotC used a new/different story.

How difficult would it have been for WotC to connect the Strahd lore to something new? Not very. I considered re-flavoring and modifying the campaign for a different character and just using the stats and similar maps, but in the end I gave into the Strahd-craze once again. Luckily, WotC announces their upcoming releases months in advance and I was able to plant the seeds to bring back ancient Barovia into my multiverse (because it had already been destroyed and Strahd was supposedly permanently killed). Having taken care of that, I prepared to re-introduce the setting to the current group.

The module was designed for levels 1-10, but not really. The levels 1-3 part belongs to the "Death House" chapter that they added (in what looks like an after thought - though it is a fun spooky house module within itself). The experience point leveling system in the book relies on "story-based" "milestone" leveling more than actual XP calculation; I prefer actual XP calculation, which means I have to add more into the campaign or weave other modules in with it (which is what I did). If I had the time, I would make a spreadsheet and show the numbers, but it's a busy week; using the monsters and situations in the book, the XP would not equal out to progress a group of 4-5 characters from level 1 to 10, even with a few random encounters thrown in. Other than Death House, I think the book is really just enough material for levels 7-10.

As a positive note - once the group ends up in Ravenloft, it's possible to play the campaign as a horror sandbox and that's what we did. WotC included some nice new locations. Our group had the most fun at Old Bonegrinder and the Amber Temple. The Amber Temple almost wiped the party and, for many groups that know how to strategically fight vampires, that location will be more of a challenge than Strahd's castle (which means the challenge progression is off in the module). That location also includes some fascinating lore regarding the Dark Powers of the  Domains of Dread (but not really, because it's only hinted at). See below:

The ultimate end of the campaign is still to confront Strahd at Castle Ravenloft. I realize some groups may struggle with the combat options there, but my players hardcore plan and the campaign provides all of the magic items they needed to take him down. Honestly, Strahd comes across as a weaker main villain to me because vampires have so many weaknesses built in.

Some of our funniest moments came when Strahd got annoyed with the players and started charming their allies. The NPCs would give themselves away by referring to him as "Lord Count Master Strahd" in conversations with the players; I was inspired to do that based on Xander's behavior on the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer when Dracula showed up and charmed him. After all, Strahd is basically a clone of Dracula.

Overall, I want to rate this campaign module book lower because it forced me to rework my multiverse to bring back Barovia and Strahd (and WotC needs to move on to new material instead of relying on the nostalgia factor and proven success of the past modules), but my players enjoyed it so much that I will give it a 7 out of 10. If someone wanted to just steal locations from this module and plop them into a campaign for fun combat situations, I would highly recommend: Death House, the Bonegrinder, the Amber Temple, and the Baba Lysaga battle.

SAGA Log 1431 Saving Hekaton

The RPG Saga continues with Session 1431: Saving Hekaton...
Module: Storm King's Thunder (Continuing, with Chapter 11)
The current team of Pylia the half-elf bladesinger (with her shield guardian), Blue the satyr nature paladin, Drizmar the drow rogue (nephew of Drizzt), Ark Ebonscale the lizardfolk fighter, Bek Ebonscale the lizardfolk fighter, and Himo the EV elf cleric of Corellon continued on their quest to rescue the Storm Giant King and restore order between the giants and the "little folk" of the Sword Coast. [Laz still had not returned from his journey with Drizzt Do'Urden to deal with their legal troubles.]

They arrived in Tinker Town, rented an airship from a greedy gnome (who tried to trick them into paying him 10,000 gp in "repairs" for his ship), flew out to the Purple Rocks, and assaulted The Kraken Society's ship Morkoth.

The first mate was all too happy to let them attack and kill the captain since he wanted to take over the ship, but once the crew freed King Hekaton the storm giant king killed off the first mate (and would have killed the team if Pylia had not calmed him down).

The group claimed Morkoth as their own and decided to use its parts to help repair their broken ship Tortuga. Thus, they went to Theymarsh and hired some EV wizards to help shrink Morkoth and teleport it to their allies at Evermeet. While in Evermeet they also traded out magical gear to prepare for battle against Iymrith the ancient blue dragon. They returned King Hekaton to his throne room, where he reunited with his daughter and pledged to help the team assault Iymrith's lair (after a good rest).

Review: Sagard Gamebooks

Sagard the Barbarian
Gary Gygax worked with Flint Dille to create four Sagard the Barbarian Gamebooks (which were similar to Choose Your Own Adventure, but with the reader keeping track of hit points and equipment during the story).

I enjoyed reading the books; their very existence created controversy for D&D Greyhawk fans because they seemed to be set on Oerth (though it's an alternate version, maybe Yarth?). I found it funny that the cover for book #1 (above) featured an ice monster on the cover even though the actual ice creature in the book turned out to be lost technology left behind on the world long ago.

Tales of a Player (FOE Logs 1-16)

Federation of Explorers (FOE) Sessions
Homebrew Campaign set in a modified Forgotten Realms
Back on Sept. 28, 2016 some of us came together to start a new campaign DM'd by AMC. I created a half-orc druid (with a criminal background) named Thok Darkvale. JW made a human ranger named Regnar Thalik who had lost his memories about his past. GD created Magnus, the human barbarian. We were all working in the Calimshan region as caravan guards for some merchants, but the starting story was that the caravan was attacked and we were captured...

[Above: Thok]

Session 1: Escaping Sapphiraktar's Lair
Thok, Regnar, Magnus, and the main "human merchant" woke up naked in a cage hovering over some magical energy. The group broke out, killed 2 bandits (taking their equipment), and explored. In fighting out of the lair, the group killed: 16 crawling hands, a minotaur skeleton, 9 guards, 2 human skeletons, and a wraith. They also set off a magical explosion and stole some magic items (that turned out to be cursed); Regnar took an oath bow, Magnus grabbed a totem that turned him into a werebear, and Thok put on some demon-shell armor (and took 3 random books from the library). The merchant (who turned out to be a lich) obtained the hand and eye of Vecna before thanking the group and teleporting away to his lair in the north. They found out they had been in the lair of the blue dracolich Sapphiraktar.

[Above: Regnar]

Session 2: Meeting the Quest-Givers
Magnus ran off at night as a rampaging werebear, leaving Thok and Thalik alone in the swamp/woods. Because Regnar's cursed oath bow demanded a sacrifice each day, they killed a faerie dragon and rested. The next morning they helped Var the fire genasi wizard and Hector the dwarf fighter defeat 2 shadows and a spectre before finding a fortified human village.

They befriended Talindra the elf druid (who suggested they clear out undead from the nearby cemetary), Stool the frogman cleric of Semuanya (who wanted them to go clense a monster-filled temple), and Mayor Garval (who needed them to stop his evil bandit brother). Regnar acted as town executioner so he could get his kill for the day. Thok took the 3 stolen evil books to the local sage and left them there for the old man to study. They stayed at "The Goblin's Cauldron Taver-Inn."

[Above: Var]

Session 3: Rescuing Brandol
Thok, Regnar, Var, and Hector decided to call their group the Federation of Explorers. They found out about a missing 12 year-old boy named Brandol and agreed to go find and rescue him. They found the cave where he was held prisoner, killed the slavers (4 regular lizardfolk, 2 enhanced lizardfolk, 1 human bandit, and 1 human captain); they saved Brandol and 2 human adults.

When the group returned to the human village, they met with Talindra who explained that Regnar had been marked by Malar and they needed to kill a black dragon (who was the son of a dragon that had brought Tiamat back into the world in the past).

Session 4: Clearing the Graveyard
Thok, Regnar, Var, and Hector decided to take out the dangers in the graveyard before going on the dragon slaying quest. They destroyed: 9 zombies, 3 skeletons, 1 skeletal minotaur, 1 wight, and a flameskull. One the way back to the village, the flameskull reformed and they had to keep destroying it until they got some holy water to finish it off.

Session 5: Introducing Son of the Sun
Hector told Thok, Regnar, and Var he wouldn't adventure with them anymore because of Regnar's evil Malar mark. Luckily, Son of the Sun (the half-elf monk) showed up and offered to join the group with their questing because he was hunting a necromancer that had destroyed his shop. The group went and cleared out the bandit keep led by the mayor's evil brother; FOE killed 5 gnolls (2 regular, 2 lords, and 1 "Fang of Yeenoghu"), 1 orc berserker, 1 human scout, 10 bandits, and the bandit leader). They donated everything back to the village, except for 1 wagon with horses that they kept for adventuring.

Session 6: Slaying the Black Dragon
Thok, Regnar, Var, and Son were about to leave to go find the dragon's lair when a half-dragon and 4 kobolds showed up to collect the dragon's "tax" from the village. The group killed the enemies, hired a wagon driver, killed 3 slavers (rescuing a captured gnome), and proceeded to slay the black dragon; the dragon's soul was captured into the oath bow, getting rid of the curse and altering the magic item into an acid bow. The group allowed the 3 surviving kobolds to become paid servants working for FOE.

They encountered 4 elves who took them to a nearby elf village; there, they befriended the high cleric of Corellon and paid magic-smiths to turn the black dragon's hide into acid-resistant cloaks with "FOE: Federation of Explorers: Out to Kill the Forces of Evil" imprinted on them. The group then returned to the human town, where they found out the sage had run off with the evil books and they paid 100 gp to buy his abandoned 2-story home.

Session 7: Clearing the Semuanya Temple
Thok, Regnar, Var, Son, and the 3 kobolds brought Stool Deevi along in their wagon to go clear out the monsters in the Semuanya temple. On the way, they killed 2 will-o-wisps and 4 spined devils. Inside, they killed: 3 purple bearded devils, 1 barbed devil, and 7 imps; they rescued a human, an elf, and a lizardfolk. They clensed the temple and did a ritual that turned Thok's cursed demon armor into "Champion of Semuanya" treebark armor. Stool said they would collect frogfolk and lizardfolk from the swamp to come keep the temple secure.

When the group returned to the human village, they found out an army of undead had been spotted heading that way. Thok sent as many villagers as possible to head toward the Semuanya temple for shelter while the rest of the town prepared the defense.

Session 8: Defending the Human Village
Hector, who was helping defend the village, told Regnar how they originally met; Regnar's forgotten backstory included working for Malar in the past, killing dwarves, but Regnar had refused to kill Hector and was punished with memory loss.

When the undead army showed up, FOE took on the enemies coming from the back of the town while the mayor led the front defense. FOE destroyed 3 skeletons, 3 zombies, and 1 ghast before the front invaders joined in: 1 necromancer (the old sage possessed by the book, thus the same spirit Son was after), some flameskulls, more skeletons, and more zombies. The town won the battle, but Talindra and Hector were killed (along with many of the human guards). When Thok had tried to destroy the evil necromancer book, it summoned a spectre to defend itself and Son had to finish it off. Var used magic missiles to destroy the book. Talindra's male elf assistant took over protecting her grove.

Session 9: The Orbs of Denial
Thok, Regnar, Var, Son, and the 3 kobolds (Kriv, Shamash, and Nala) took along a lizardfolk to go to the elf village and form a human-elf-Semuanya alliance for the swamp and forest. The elf high cleric asked FOE to go into an abandoned elf village, into the underground, and retrieve the lost Orbs of Denial so the elves could put up magical protections from the undead. Son negotiated sending elf supplies to help the humans. Thok hooked up with the elf barmaid Sarael.

[Above: Sarael]

On the way to the abandoned elf village, the group encounter 10 satyrs that charmed and kidnapped Thok and the 3 kobolds. Regnar, Var, and Son ended up lost in the woods searching for them. After being seduced by the satyrs, Thok and the kobolds escaped. With the party back together, they made their way down into the elf ruins. They killed 5 drow guards, 1 drider, and 1 drow mage (with her summoned shadow demon); they freed 2 male drow slaves and looted the place.

[Above: Shamash]

Session 10: The Human-FOE Mining Project: Part 1
Thok, Regnar, Var, Son, Kriv, Shamash, and Nala took the loot from the elf ruins and returned to the elf village to rest. The baelnorn's journal told them about the Twisted Rune Society members: the merchant lich from the 1st adventure, the dracolich Sapphiraktar, and someone else). The high cleric agreed to the political alliance and said they would work on setting up the magical defenses with the orbs.

Sarael agreed to continue the romance with Thok; they bought a nice elf carriage and hired an elf driver. When the group returned to the human village, they accepted a quest to clear out a nearby mine in exchange for 10% of the mining profits to go to FOE. At the mine: Kriv, Nala, Sarael, and the driver stayed with the wagon and carriage while the rest of the group went in and cleared out: 5 giant spiders, 6 violet fungi, 3 gas spores, 2 piercers, 1 roper, 1 basilisk, and 1 grick; Son was petrified by the basilisk and turned into a statue.

Even though there were more mining tunnels to clear out, the team brought the Son statue back to the human village and used all of the money to pay Talindra to reincarnate him; Son came back as an air genasi.

[Above: Son]

Session 11: The Human-FOE Mining Project: Part 2
Thok, Regnar, Var, Son, and Shamash (with support from Kriv, Nala, Sarael, and their elf driver) travelled back to the abandoned mines. They burned away the glowing fungus and continued into more tunnels. They killed: 1 hook horror, 3 ettercaps, 1 phase spider, 2 giant spiders, and 2 spider swarms, 2 gelatinous cubes, 1 shambling mound, 2 yellow ocre jellies, and 1 hydra; 1 phase spider escaped and Shamash died.

After the battle, Son was skinning the dead hydra while the others were getting for the loot.

Session 12: Into the Wizard Maze
Thok, Regnar, and Var (with support from Kriv, Nala, Sarael, and their elf driver) brought the loot from the mines back to the human village after the surviving phase spider killed Son and took his dead body into the Ethereal Plane. At the village, the group met Zen Bloodmoon (who was another half-elf monk, but obsessed with dead bodies instead of the Sun). They spent their new loot reincarnating Shamash as a human. Regnar made some money training people as rangers while Thok and Sarael continued their romance.

The elf village leaders send a letter asking for FOE's help; the group journeyed there and accepted a quest from the high cleric to go find the lost elf city of Faegil ("Spirit-Star") and find out what happened to the previous group that was sent there. Thok convinced Sarael to stay behind for her own safety (since he suspected she might be pregnant). Thok, Regnar, Var, Zen, Shamash, Kriv, and Nala spent four days searching the forest before finding a strange magical barrier that kept the kobolds from passing through. Kriv and Nala had to stay behind with the donkeys.

Thok, Regnar, Var, Zen, and Shamash went into a wizard maze with puzzles and traps (and dead elf bodies); they made it through a water/invisible barrier room, rolling rock trap, a dragon statue timer trap, some sphinx riddles, some poisoned darts, a mimic, and a room with 5 shadows, and an ooze trap (where Var died in the lake of oozes). The group then went through a wall portal (into an eladrin wizard's room)...

Session 13: Freeing Faegil
At the eladrin's dining room: Thok, Regnar, Shamash, and Zen were offered food (the hearts of angels) and wine by the eladrin wizard; the food refreshed them, but the wine gave exhaustion. The wizard, 2 statues, and an animated carpet attacked the group; the wizard teleported out after Zen poured the wine down his throat. As the group continued in the eladrin's lair, they killed: 1 Frankstein-like chimera, 3 zombies, and 5 intellect devourers; Shamash died again, but the group rescued an elf sorcerer and elf fighter. Together, they killed the eladrin wizard (who turned out to be a rakshasa in disguise) and freed Faegil from a magical painting enchantment.

The group realized they had been temporally displaced by 2 years when Faegil returned from the Feywild to Toril. When they returned to the elf town with an ambassader from Faegil, it was a ghost town and they realized the entire forest had been attacked by an undead army; according to the high cleric's journals a bunch of the civilians travelled north to seek shelter with the dwarves in the mountains while the rest of the town stayed to fight the undead.

Session 14: Finding Thokson
Thok, Regnar, Zen, the 2 elves, and the Faegil ambassader headed north to find the dwarves in the mountains. Along the way, the group encountered a vampire and ghost; during battle, the ambassader was killed and Thok was aged 30 years. At the mountains, a dwarf scouting party led FOE to Khemdural, an underground city with refugees living there.

Thok found Sarael (who had been working as a barmaid) and their child Thokson; Thok gave Sarael his 150 gp to buy the family a nice home. Zen paid to get a message sent to Faegil to warn them about the undead. The dwarf magistrate hired FOE to go clear out the drow from below that had taken over some dwarf underground settlements.

Session 15: Killing Drow: Part 1
[I was actually sick and missed this session. I gave the DM and group permission to play Thok in my absence. They told me what happened during the session.]

Thok, Regnar, Zen, and the 2 elves were joined by the dwarf cleric Bolder Lighthammer; they went down deeper into the dwarf underground via a shaft. In the drow-infested stronghold, they fought and killed lots of drow. They also took out a bearded devil and bone devil. They tried to rest, but enemies found them. The elf sorceress died in battle. Eventually, the group was able to successfully rest.

Session 16: Killing Drow: Part 2
Thok, Regnar, Zen, Melnair (the elf fighter), and Bolder continued their quest in the drow-infested dwarf stronghold. The group killed: 3 drow, 1 drider, and 4 swarms of spiders. They also destroyed a bunch of monster eggs. They found an exit into a huge cavern city taken over by drow, undead, and fiends. They spotted a far off palace keep and a noble estate nearby; the center of the city featured lava flows that went to undercity rivers.

FOE sneaked into the noble manor, killing 2 hell hounds. The group rested in the stables before sending Zen out disguised as a drow guard. Zen led a drow mage, 3 regular guards, and 3 elite guards back to the estate's courtyard for an epic battle with FOE that resulted in a TPK when the drow poison kept knocking people out; FOE killed most of their enemies, but the drow mage and 2 of her guards won in the end. Melnair was pushed into a pool of lava that killed him. Zen and Regnar were KO'd while Thok and Bolder bled to death from their wounds.

[Despite the TPK, we all had a wonderful time. My FOE logs will continue with updates on Tuesdays.]