D&D 3E/3.5 3.5 Adventures in Meerheim

A friend of mine started her first 3.5 campaign a few months ago, but this thread was lost in the big server roll back, so I'm reposting the entire thread (I kept a backup).


(Playing the campaign in the garden at night. Mosquitoes and crickets, what better way to set the mood for an expedition through a swamp?)

She created her own maps, and started our merry band off on a quest to seek out what attacked a recent expedition.

A group of wounded men and women came into the town of Meerheim. They were attacked north of the town, at night, by something that came from the ground. They heard a rumble, similar to the sound of rolling thunder, and then chaos erupted. But they did not see the attackers. On their way to Meerheim they were also attacked by wolves, and they stayed the night at a farm as well.

So our party of adventurers signed up, while accompanied by two other npc's from the town. Our party consists of:

Sureiyã - Asian human swashbuckler (my character)
Bram - Half-orc barbarian
Mongo - Human ranger
Darius, Gnome Tinkerer
Eriny, Dwarf cleric

Sureiyã is the daughter of an ex-soldier, who grew up on a farm. She fights with a katana and wakizashi, and is very acrobatic. She is entirely dexterity based, with also a high intelligence, but with a low strength and wisdom score. The idea is that she constantly does acrobatic tricks to outwit her enemies, and she uses her nimbleness to boost her armor class, making her very hard to hit. Unfortunately this means she cannot wear medium or heavy armor, and she cannot carry much stuff. She needs to always stay light on her feet.

The first day

Before setting off, my character wanted to collect some information on the attack. Together with Mongo and Eriny they visited the wounded, and gathered some more information regarding the attack. She also made sure she didn't leave on an empty stomach, and quickly ordered some bread at the local tavern. Then we set off on our journey. We crossed hills and planes, and eventually had to take shelter in a small forest when it started raining, and it was also getting dark.

We were attacked by wolves during the night, much like the other expedition was. It was dark, and in the middle of a downpour, so our vision was limited. Sureiyã did a somersault over one of the tents, and flanked one of the wolves with her katana in hand. While Bram went into a rage, and made wolf-kabobs. Mongo fired some arrows at the wolves, while Darius used an improvised flamethrower. Unfortunately the wolves were quick and nimble, and were not impressed by the flames. Eriny was a bit unlucky on the dice rolls, and I don't think she got much hits in. One of our npc's got badly injured as well, and had to be carried on an improvised stretcher to a nearby farm.

The farm turned out to be the very same farm where the other expedition had stayed the night. It took some persuasion to get them to let us in. As it turns out, the farmer and his wife are very poor, their farm needs repairs, and their young son is sickly. This may prove to be very interesting for my character, since this may tie into her backstory. A hand of gold, and the promise of compensation for taking care of the other wounded, was enough to convince them to let us stay. Darius even made some plans to repair their roof. But we ended the session here, and we'll hopefully continue soon. I'll investigate what is making their son ill, and perhaps I'll seek out a cure.

Due to scheduling problems, we decided to have our next session immediately the day after our first session. I kind of like having two sessions so quickly in a row. What made this session extra fun, was the fact that we played outside at night in the garden. With actual mosquitoes buzzing around our heads, our adventures in the swamp were suddenly very immersive.

The second day

Our party spend most of the day helping out at the farm. Darius the gnome Tinkerer repaired the roof of the farm, while Bram the half-orc barbarian assisted by carrying wooden boards.

Meanwhile Sureiyã, Mongo and Eriny investigated the sickly son. The boy was only about 9 years old, and he had trouble breathing, drinking, or eating. He had a cut on his leg, which looked infected. According to his mother, he had injured himself on an iron trough. After some medical inspections, we concluded that he might be suffering from a Tetanus infection. The best thing to do at this point, seemed to be to cut away the infected flesh, and apply new bandages. We also tried to get the boy to breath with a steam bath.

Character development: During the treatment Sureiyã investigates the sickly boy for supernatural causes to his illness. She mentions that the illness of the boy resembled something that had happened to her brother at first glance, but does not go further into it. But it turns out this is a different situation.

Mongo learned from Frank the farmer, that bandits had raided their farm, killed their dogs, and thrown a torch onto the roof of the farm. This explains the hole in the roof, and the small graves behind their farm. Rumor has it that the bandits are hiding somewhere in the swamp. Since we were heading in that direction anyway, we decided to keep an eye out for these foes. While Darius continued to fix the roof, we helped out a little with other activities on the farm. These poor people would normally have their son helping out. But now that the farmer's wife was occupied most of the time with taking care of the son, a lot of work was falling along the way side.

The farmer and his wife were very thankful for all our generous help, and asked us to stay for dinner, which we agreed to. But we had to leave after dinner and get back on the road.

Character development: During dinner we find out that Bram the half-orc prays to all the normal human gods before dinner. There may be more to this brute than meets the eye.



The swamp - giant mosquitoes, oh my!

We camped outside the swamp, knowing that it would be a 5 hour journey through the water and the mud. But during the night we were attacked by giant mosquitoes the size of a normal human. Bram the half-orc barbarian spontaneously invented baseball, by hitting the mosquitoes so hard that they are probably half-way towards the moon by now.

Sureiyã swapped to her lighter wakizashi for this, so she would have the benefit of a higher attack bonus (but less damage than her katana). When playing a swashbuckler like this, I'm constantly making a choice between either a heavy weapon like the katana, for lots of damage, or a light weapon like the wakizashi, for lots of speed and agility. It is one of the more interesting aspects of this class.

Both our npc and Bram both took a fair bit of damage from the mosquitoes, so we're going to quickly run out of healing kits at this rate. We don't have a dedicated healer in the party, and Eriny the cleric won't even get any lay on hands or healing spells until she is a higher level.



Day 3 - More swamp and giant leeches, yikes!

We traveled into the swamp the next day. The tracks of the caravan were getting harder and harder for Mongo the ranger to read. And eventually it seemed the road had been consumed by the swamp completely. We had no other choice but to get our feet wet.

Note that a swamp is considered difficult terrain. So unless you have a feat or special ability against it, this sort of terrain imposes movement restrictions. You can only move at half speed. Sureiyã gains a swashbuckler ability at higher levels that allows her to charge across difficult terrain. But for now we're all level 1.

Halfway through the swamp Mongo noticed some activity in the water. There were some wrinkles in the surface of the water, both ahead and behind us. One of these disturbances turned out to be a harmless frog. But the others were giant leeches.



Our DM had made her very own miniatures for this fight, which looked really good.

Both Sureiyã and Mongo the ranger took the front, and suffered from a leech attaching itself to our bodies. Unless removed quickly, these nasty critters can cause considerable constitution drain, plus you can incur additional injuries if you don't dislodge them carefully.

The rest of the party tried their best to assist us in our struggle. Fortunately Bram the half-orc barbarian quickly came to my aid, and scored another home run for the team. My character was very unfortunate with her rolls. While I had the benefit of wielding a light weapon, which allows me to stab the leeches while in a grapple, Sureiyã lacks the strength to escape a grapple like this (she has an awesome escape artist score though). Plus I kept rolling 1's for her damage. In the end I suffered 3 constitution drain, which is rather painful. It will take a few days to recover from this fight.

The remains of the caravan

Our party stumbles upon the remains of the original caravan. Most of the wagons are in shambles, and one has been pulled into the earth, along with the horse pulling it. A few corpses remain, one torn in half. Some wolves are eating the corpses when we arrive, so we have a brief scuffle with them. The party then searches the bodies and gives them all a proper burial.

Character development: Bram says a prayer for the dead, which is quite unexpected from the half-orc. Sureiyã refuses to touch the dead.

A set of tracks leads away from the carnage, and further into the forest. Mongo the ranger decides to follow the tracks, while we follow. It seems some of the supplies have been looted. But could this be the bandits that we heard about? With weapons drawn we approach a large rock, with a door underneath it. Several guards are outside playing a game of cards, and completely unaware of our presence. We decide to surprise them, resulting in a bit of a stand off.



One of the guards hurries inside and warns their leader. A man named Reynier meets us outside, along with all his armed men. Reynier informs us that they have taken care of the survivors of the expedition, and that they are safely inside. Eriny the cleric is the first to lower her weapons, after which Sureiyã doesthe same. Sureiyã decides to be the one to check on the survivors. She accompanies Reynier inside. She tells the rest of the party that if she does not return in 10 minutes, then they know what to do.

A moment for diplomacy

As it turns out, Reynier was speaking the truth. But we would only find out about this at the start of the next session. Reynier takes Sureiyã inside, and shows her the survivors of the caravan. One of the survivors had not survived, he informs her, despite their best efforts to tend to his wounds. Another had lost his leg, and two others were simply weak, but able to walk. Reynier explains how he and his people lived out here in the wilderness, taking what they could find, when scouts discovered the remains of the expedition.
Sureiyã understands that it was quite a gesture of mercy that they decided to tend to the wounded, given their limited resources. Sureiyã thanks Reynier for his help to the survivors, and inquires about the creatures that attacked the expedition. Reynier does not know what these creatures were, but confirms that they would sometimes hear them here as well, and that they would stay very quiet when they did. Sureiyã discusses the looming threat of the underground creatures, and the risk that they pose for his people here. She also asks Reynier for help with moving the wounded back to Meerheim. Reynier agrees to provide an animal to pull the carriage, so that the party could transport the wounded back to Meerheim, as long as he would be compensated for it. Sureiyã promises this.

After meeting with the rest of the party again outside, and putting their concerns to rest, Sureiyã discusses the option of killing the underground creatures with the rest of the party. Some of the party members take issue with the fact that Reynier took some of the supplies from the caravan for himself. Sureiyã on the other hand feels that they should consider themselves lucky that this group took the effort to provide care to the survivors. The party seems in agreement that it would be far too risky to transport the wounded in their current condition, with those creatures still about. So they travel back to the site of the attack, and prepare a trap.

The thumper

Darius the Tinkerer figures that it would be far too dangerous to fight these unknown creatures underground. It would be far safer to lure them to the surface.

Character development: Sureiyã mentions how her father often talked of how the army would dig holes to create drums during the war, which could communicate for miles. Darius was some what inspired by the idea, and started on a device of his own.

While everyone prepares for battle, Darius and Bram construct a wooden thumper, that should create noise to lure the creatures. Despite the time and effort, the construction proves unsuccessful, and quite feeble. After a second try, the construction collapses, and the plan is scrapped entirely.

With the over complicated plan out of the way, the party settles for a more straight forward approach.

The tunnels

The party descends into an underground maze of round tunnels. They notice that the creatures avoided a nearby source of water, and made a 90 degree turn away from it. The party considers flooding the tunnels, but Sureiyã reminds the party that they want to make sure these creatures are dead.

(I decided to take the initiative to encourage going into the tunnels, because the rest of the party seemed a bit reluctant to do so, and the DM obviously had this all planned out for us. I figured my character had a good reason to want to make sure these monsters were really dead.)



After a few turns, and a few junctions, we reach a dead end. And here we come face to face with a couple of pale looking giant worms.



More custom miniatures!

Mongo is now Tom

Since this is a rather new campaign, players will sometimes change their mind on their character as they slip into their role. Eriny was changed from a paladin to a cleric last time. And now Mongo's name has been changed to Tom Holder.

Clearing out the worms

The group had been traveling through the dark labyrinth of tunnels for almost a day, when they discovered a breeding room. In this room they encountered several giant worms. This room also had a ledge that could be used as a vantage point.

(Our DM used clay rock pieces to illustrate the cave for us.)

Bram the half-orc barbarian, charged in bravely, and started tanking the worms. This time around, the dice were more in Darius' favor, and the gnome engineer was able to use his improvised plasma weapon to do a lot of damage. Tom the ranger also got some great shots in, and was able to strike one of the worms right where one of the plasma bolts had molten through the armor plates of one of the worms. Sureiyã was able to hit, but I rolled really low for her damage. Since her strength is really low, she does not get a bonus on damage till she's gained more levels as a Swashbuckler. But fortunately she also has a very high armor class, due to being really dexterous and nimble. After clearing out the worms, a smaller one entered the room through the wall on the ledge. Sureiyã stamped her foot, to draw the worm down the ledge, which gave our cleric Eriny an attack of opportunity against the beast. Unfortunately the worm was distracted by Bram. But the party quickly made short work of the creature. Eriny's bless spell was very useful here to boost our attacks and she kept our tank on his feet.

Darius, Eriny and Sureiyã investigated the tiny tunnel that it came from, but were able to recover only some minor spoils from previous worm victims. Tom also found the remains of some victims, old and new, in a corner of the room. Most importantly, he recovered a mysterious old scroll that mentioned a devious lord, and an evil dragon that was terrorizing a nearby town.

Character development: Bram admitted that he knew nothing of dragons. And Sureiyã pointed at the decorative dragons woven into her clothing, and shared the stories she had heard about dragons. She told him how supposedly dragons lived for hundreds of years. Most of them were considered noble creatures by her people. But old dragons, especially those that incurred injuries over the years, could grow vile and evil. They were creatures that were in constant pain, and would take their frustration out on innocent people. A dragon was a terrifying and deadly foe, according to Sureiyã. Although admittedly, she had only heard stories and legends. She had never seen one herself.

With the room cleared, the group retraced their steps, and investigated other tunnels. Two tunnels seemed to go on forever, and so it seemed best to leave them be. A third seemed to be part of a natural system of caves. And a fourth tunnel ended in a room with furniture in it.

The outpost

The party carefully approached a cave that had furniture and a fireplace in it. Sureiyã and Bram went up front. And just look at how cool the cave looks. Our DM really outdid herself on the scenery.



It wasn't long before the party spotted two more worms, waiting at the back of the room. But Sureiyã used sound to draw them to her, as before. She pounded the ground with her foot, and then scattered caltrops in front of her. Caltrops are an often underused item in D&D, but they are extremely useful. Any enemies that move into a 5ft. square with caltrops, or spend a round on top of a square with caltrops, are at risk from taking damage from them. The caltrops make an attack against the creature, and the creature is denied its armor, shield and deflection bonus to armor class when this happens. As soon as the creature takes damage, it's movement speed is reduced by one half. This means that not only is it an easy way to slow enemies, but they will keep on taking damage as long as they are standing on top of the caltrops. With enemies that are blind, or when fighting in tight spaces, this is super useful.



The party maintained a close formation, with Sureiyã and Bram fighting the worms, and keeping them on top of the caltrops. Meanwhile Darius and Tom provided essential ranged support to take the creatures down. The first worm went down fast, taking constant damage from the caltrops, and being pelted with plasma bolts and arrows by Darius and Tom. Again, Sureiyã was less fortunate with her damage rolls. But that is the way the dice sometimes roll.



With the first worm down, we could now all focus on the remaining creature. And it wasn't long before it too bit the dust. Now we had time to explore the outpost. We found the remains of former members of Reynier's band. And a quick search uncovered a secret passage behind the wall. Sureiyã pushed against the wall in vain, but Bram was eager to roll his muscles, and opened the passage easily. Sureiyã grabbed an old lantern off a hook on the wall, and lit it.

It seemed logical that this passage must have been made by Reynier and his people. And if so, it was not unreasonable to assume that it may be trapped. Eriny went up front, since a dwarf might be quicker to spot any such traps. And indeed it was trapped. Darius was able to jam one side of a pressure plate, with several holes in the ceiling looming overhead. Whatever these holes fired, it wouldn't be good. Bram held his shield above his head, and was the first to try if it was safe. Which it was. It seemed Darius' tinkering had disabled the trapped effectively.

Further on in the passage we encountered several tripwires at various heights. Sureiyã used her graceful dance moves to pass over and beneath the wires without touching them. But it was doubtful if Bram would be quite as graceful, so Tom decided to cut the wires, just to be sure.

The party also discovered that certain hidden levers could be used to switch the traps on or off. This must be how Reynier's people traversed the tunnel safely. At the end of the tunnel was another secret door. Bram pushed the door wide open, only to be greeted by Reynier's men with crossbows.

It seemed our movements through the tunnel had triggered some alarm bells, and so Reynier's men were ready for what ever came through that door. And in a reflex they accidentally shot one of our party members with their crossbows. Fortunately Reynier himself showed his good will, and provided medical assistance. He was very thankful that we cleared out the tunnels for him, and apologized for the crossbow incident. As we learned from him, the bodies that we had found in the tunnels, were of two of his own people... but they were thieves.

The trial

As our party rested, and planned the journey back to Meerheim, Tom and Sureiyã made a logical deduction. Did the farmer not say that bandits had taken his cattle? And did they not see the exact same number of cows at Reynier's base? While this was very suspicious, Sureiyã believed Reynier to be an honorable man. Tom and Sureiyã decided not to bring it up directly, but they would ask the farmer for more information. Bram noticed the cows as well, and was less discreet. He confronted Reynier directly about the matter, which resulted in some interesting plot developments.

According to Reynier, two of his men had been paid to buy cows from a nearby village. But it seemed that rather than buying the cows legitimately, these men had kept the money for themselves, and stolen the cows from the nearby farm.

The two men were brought in for interrogation. Interestingly enough, it was Bram who suggested that perhaps they should talk to these two men separately, so they could not confirm each others story quite so easily. The first suspect denied all the charges, and gave an alibi. But would his partner in crime tell the same story?

Under interrogation, the second and much younger suspect, broke under questioning. He admitted that he had been forced to cooperate with the plan under threat of his life, by suspect number one, and two other men (the two dead thieves we found in the tunnels). But he also claimed that he had not set fire to the farm, nor killed the farmer's dogs. He blamed all that on our primary suspect.

After searching the sleeping quarters, Reynier was able to recover the pouch of money (or most of it), hidden in the mattress of the first suspect. With the guilt of the first suspect now clearly proven, Reynier turned to our party for advice. The responses from each party member were very interesting.

Tom, felt the man deserved no mercy. He had committed high treason, theft, attempted murder, arson, and threatened his own men. The punishment for that should be death. Tom's lack of mercy for the man was surprising. He also made some suggestions for other cruel punishments, which Bram strongly disapproved of. But the suspect should at least hang for his crimes.

Bram, refused to make a judgement. These were not his laws, and not his responsibility. Bram felt it was entirely up to Reynier to make that call, and not him. This felt entirely in line with his neutral alignment.

Sureiyã, advised mercy. She felt that life was precious, even the life of someone so cowardly and disgusting. lives should never be taken carelessly. He could simply imprison the man for life to prevent him from doing any more harm, have him flogged, or deliver him to justice in Meerheim. Sureiyã is lawful good, obviously.

Darius and Eriny, both were in favor of mercy. This was understandable from a cleric, but surprising from the tinkerer. Darius felt quite strong about not walking the same path as an executioner, and having blood on your hands. He felt mercy was the sign of a noble man, and not a weakness.

Click to expand...

Judgement

After pondering the advise that had been given, Reynier decided that mercy was the way to go (even though many of his men wanted to see the bastard hang). The main suspect would be whipped (a sentence he would carry out himself) and then banished. The younger suspect would be put to work at the farm, to try and undo the damage that was done. Further more, our party would return the stolen money to the farmer as compensation.

Unfortunately the suspect didn't like his sentence very much. Right after enduring a severe whipping (and not making a peep throughout the entire ordeal), he made a foolish attempt to escape. He quickly snatched a knife from one of the guards, and attempted to kill the younger suspect. In a quick and EPIC move, Eriny dived forward to cast a sanctuary on the younger lad, to keep him from harm. Sureiyã moved in to disarm the suspect with her Wakizashi, while Bram grappled the man to the ground. Tom kept his bow raised, ready to disarm the suspect as well, and to fire the moment the suspect even tried to lay a finger on more weapons.

Epilogue

Our party readies to return the wounded from the caravan back to Meerheim. We have patched up a wagon, so we can transport the few who can't walk. On our way we'll stop by the farm, and drop off the gold and the young suspect. With the ominous story about the dragon in our minds, we might have a new objective. The idea of a nearby dragon is a much bigger threat to the safety of Meerheim than any mere bandits or worms.