w00t!
After a long hiatus from playing D&D, we finally got our weekend campaign going again! Given the lack of enthusiasm about the H1 - Keep on the Shadowfell module, which is what we were playing before, I decided to come up with something on my own for tonight. Given that this was my first foray into creating everything myself rather than running a pre-made dungeon/module, I think it went really well.

Everyone rolled up new characters. Mike now has a Druid, Sam a Warden, and Izzy a Sorcerer. Several other people were told about it but weren't able to make it I picked up a D&DI subscription this weekend, so we used the character creator on two different laptops to speed things up. With PHB2 about to come out, only having the first couple levels of the preview shouldn't be a problem.


The Goblins
The party found themselves waking up in a cell, mildly disoriented. Everyone was able to recall their backgrounds, etc, but the more immediate details of why they're together and why they were there escaped them. Shortly after waking up from unconsciousness, there was a loud yell outside, "NO! NO! DON'T!" followed by a grunt.

Leaving out the door that was, for some reason, slightly ajar, the party found themselves in a prison room, with jail cells and a few doors. On a table in the room was a somewhat-mangled goblin with a few gashes across his face, lying in a pool of his own blood. Directly across from the door, the party saw a man ~5'5" sitting against the wall in a robe. He looked over at the dead goblin, looked back at the party, winked, then disappeared.

The druid decided to enter the other cell room (as opposed to the more typical barred jail cells also present). Inside, he found a small room with a duck in it. Upon picking up the duck, it exploded and covered him in feathers.

The party decided to take the southern exit out of the prison room, and found themselves in the sleeping quarters of the area. On the ground directly beyond the door was a goblin that lay dying on the floor. With his last breath, he screeched, "RUN!" The party found themselves fighting three goblin zombies and two fire beetles.

Exiting the sleeping quarters via one of the two options for doors, there was a room that appeared collapsed in for some reason. They turned and took the other exit out of that room, and found themselves in the main entryway of wherever it was they were (this is also where the other two doors they bypassed led to). In there were four goblinoid skeletons, which were eliminated by the group. There was a small storage room off of this area that had some gold in it.

Entering the final unexplored door, behind which they could hear the sounds of combat, the party witnessed a Hobgoblin named Sin fighting with skeletons. With a swing of his spiked chain, he dealt a finishing blow to three skeletons surrounding him. Long story short, the party ended up failing a skill challenge in an attempt to negotiate things and had to fight him. After a somewhat rough fight, they pulled through and finished him off. Taking Sin’s key to the locked gates that led outside, they party exited through the tunnel and found themselves outside on a hill.



The Pigs
The party decided to head to the nearest sign of civilization to figure out what the heck was going on. They traveled to a small farming village nearby, and entered the tavern. The bartender freaked out upon seeing them, and passed out after hyperventilating. Puzzled, the party wanted to head to the town hall; however, upon exiting the tavern, they found themselves surrounded by over a dozen farmers holding pigs under their arms.

Upon being asked about the pigs, the farmers simply had no idea what the druid, warden, and sorcerer were talking about, and eventually backed away as though disturbed greatly by the party. Heading to the town hall, they asked a secretary what was up with all the pigs. Also puzzled, the secretary simply told the party that she had no idea what was going on. The party even brought a pig which was randomly on an office desk to her, and she talked as though everyone was crazy!

Baffled and incredibly annoyed, the party left the building. Once again, there were a bunch of pig farmers who were just standing around them. Sam couldn’t contain himself anymore and attacked a pig. Cleaving the pig in two, the two halves formed two new pigs. He started repeatedly striking down nearby pigs to no avail. Suddenly, there was a rumbling followed by what appeared to be a pink blotch storming over a nearby hill. There was a pig stampede coming.

Izzy and Mike decided to bolt, but Sam stood his ground. Just as the giant swarm of pigs was about to hit him, there was a bright flash of light which sustained for a few seconds, then faded. They were surrounded by a bunch of villagers acting normally. As usual, nobody had any idea what the three were talking about when they kept inquiring about pigs. The druid even tried shapeshifting and communicating with the pigs, but they seemed more concerned about food than anything, and were also confused by his strange questions.

The party, freaked out, decided to get the heck out of there. Following a road, they ran into a man, dressed very similar to all of the strange farmer, on a horse that was pulling a cart. In the cart, of course, were a bunch of pigs. When asked what was in the cart, he was dumbfounded that the three travelers were asking such silly questions. “They’re pigs!” he exclaimed.


Final Thoughts
Sam had to leave, so we ended up wrapping up there. We didn't use a battle grid for the entire session, and it ended up going very well for the combat without it. We'll pick up the story next week

MadLordOfMilk