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Squirmonkey's Zeitgeist Campaign
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<blockquote data-quote="squirmonke" data-source="post: 8153979" data-attributes="member: 7025916"><p>Okay, Adventure One.</p><p></p><p>This one went mostly how you'd expect, but we got to know a lot of the characters better. Here's some highlights:</p><p></p><p>We defused the docker situation before getting on the boat without much trouble. My players didn't seem to resonate much with this skill challenge, so I'm going to be more careful with when I present challenges like this in the future</p><p></p><p>Raven and Tim became fast friends as the "go with the flow" faction of the party, while the rest of them were a bit more uptight/on-duty/responsible during several parts of the adventure</p><p></p><p>We were able to save the Coaltongue when Gai had the idea to detonate a barrel of firedust to break open the furnace. It's a good thing we did, because the party didn't realize what was happening in time to save the fire wards in the magazine. We blew a bit of a hole in the ship, but not one big enough to sink a ship of this size. Sokana Rell died in the fight, but Raven was able to get answers out of her anyway.</p><p></p><p>We had a great conversation on a dirty/polluted beach back in Flint where the King chatted one on one with the members of the party. This went really well, and I think most of the players came out of it feeling like the king was both wise and kind. (Amidst the players there was a bit of "Oh boy, the king's a good person, no way he survives this adventure")</p><p></p><p>We're playing by Roll20, so we weren't able to put Lya's puzzle out for them to play with, but I did have fun doing her french accent (Rick's player made my day by saying the accents made the Danorans seem foreign and mysterious), and one of the players was able to see through the puzzle with a good intelligence roll.</p><p></p><p>Gai and Neph got really into the conversation with Captain Smith on their way to Axis Island, discussing under what circumstances the Duchess's actions might have been ethically or morally justified. They concluded that while such circumstances could be theorized about, they very likely didn't exist in this case, and as such the Duchess's actions are not justified.</p><p></p><p>The party was clearly shaken by the death of the infiltration team, and it gave them a somewhat paranoid attitude towards Axis Island as a whole.</p><p></p><p>The fight in the mines was especially fun on Roll20 because we were able to use the vision system to simulate darkness in the caves. Only two member of the party (Gai and Raven) have Darkvision, so there was a lot of calling information back and forth to each other, casting spells for light, and generally using light related tactics my party hasn't gotten to see much in DnD</p><p></p><p>Martin took particular interest in the white stone column and the golden icons. He was particularly curious about the pillar, and how it seemed not to be natural, but to have been slotted into the stone in this place a long long time ago.</p><p></p><p>The party got strangely obsessed with the idea of digging up the mass grave outside the mines. They never did it, but they talked about it a lot.</p><p></p><p>Rick and Raven had the clever idea to use Disguise Self to make themselves appear to be in uniform as the Duchess' soldiers, and they escorted the rest of the party into the fort as "prisoners". This worked well, and helped them get to the sea gate without much issue.</p><p></p><p>We ran defending the sea-gate tower as combat rather than a skill challenge. I adjusted the enemy numbers pretty heavily from the ones recommended. This was a blast, we set up barricades and traps, Tim made really good use of some caltrops, Gai was an impassible barrier in a chokepoint. The party has a lot of ranged damage (Neph really shined in this fight), so we had fun pot-shotting tons of dudes as they were trying to climb up the inhospitable path the PCs had left for them. I added some extra Pseudodragons to this fight as well, and had them use their considerable fly speeds to get on the back lines and harass the ranged characters, so we had some fun melee too.</p><p></p><p>The PCs really pissed off the Danorans in the jail and decided it would be best to leave them in the jail until the fort was returned to Danoran control.</p><p></p><p>Most of the party was hesitant to follow Asrabey through the immurement, but Gai rushed ahead and the rest followed, not wanting to leave him alone.</p><p></p><p>The party was able to talk Gillie Dhu down, which I was fine with, since the looks on some faces made it seem like they weren't really looking forward to the labyrinth fight.</p><p></p><p>After listening in on Asrabey's conversation with Ethelyn and Nathan, the standoff was fantastic. Through negotiation and brinksmanship, they got Asrabey to agree to let them have the Duchess (on the condition that they communicate to the King that the Court demands her death), but Asrabey wanted to keep Nathan. Most of the party was ready to take that deal, but Neph felt it wasn't good enough and attacked. The fight was very one-sided, the party had enough heals though to withstand him for a couple rounds, but wasn't able to hurt him. He reminded them that there is no shame in surrender, and much of the party surrendered, but Neph kept fighting. I had Asrabey give him a line like "You are an honorable warrior, it's a shame you're saddled with such cowardly companions. I'd prefer not to have to kill you, and out of respect for your courage you may have one of the prisoners, your pick". Neph was not happy with this deal, but realized that he probably wasn't going to get better and couldn't win the fight. He chose to keep Nathan, and we had a fun shock-and-awe moment when Asrabey acknowledged this decision and then beheaded Ethelyn on the spot and walked away.</p><p></p><p>I forgot that Raven could speak to the dead, so she just chatted Ethelyn up and learned a lot about the vision she'd been given, and her relationship with Nathan and Axis Island.</p><p></p><p>When Lya returned to the island, the party wanted to keep exploring the island and find out what Danor was doing here. They realized (to their frustration) though that once they signed the documents, Lya was going to make them leave the island. They asked for extra time to show the documents to a lawyer, and I had Lya go kinda hardline on them here ("You may have ze remaining three hours to do whatever you need, but I must insist zese documents are signed by ze deadline"). In that time, Raven and Tim slipped out of the fort to go exploring, and found a strange factory hidden in the woods guarded by massive golems that sounded to Raven like screams. They decided not to get too close, out of a fear that detection would make the diplomatic part of this mission more difficult.</p><p></p><p>And that's pretty much how Adventure 1 went! Next time I post, it'll be to talk about Adventure 2.</p><p></p><p>Edit:</p><p>Oh also, I have a habit that my players enjoy of picking a song for super cool plot moments, boss fights, or any fight that's especially neat or setpiece-y. We used a couple pieces of music in Adventure 1 if you're curious:</p><p></p><p>For battling the assassins on the Coaltongue: [MEDIA=youtube]fjeQA-PkNo8[/MEDIA]</p><p>For holding the seagate against the forces of the fort: [MEDIA=youtube]Gy7oD4NowhI[/MEDIA]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="squirmonke, post: 8153979, member: 7025916"] Okay, Adventure One. This one went mostly how you'd expect, but we got to know a lot of the characters better. Here's some highlights: We defused the docker situation before getting on the boat without much trouble. My players didn't seem to resonate much with this skill challenge, so I'm going to be more careful with when I present challenges like this in the future Raven and Tim became fast friends as the "go with the flow" faction of the party, while the rest of them were a bit more uptight/on-duty/responsible during several parts of the adventure We were able to save the Coaltongue when Gai had the idea to detonate a barrel of firedust to break open the furnace. It's a good thing we did, because the party didn't realize what was happening in time to save the fire wards in the magazine. We blew a bit of a hole in the ship, but not one big enough to sink a ship of this size. Sokana Rell died in the fight, but Raven was able to get answers out of her anyway. We had a great conversation on a dirty/polluted beach back in Flint where the King chatted one on one with the members of the party. This went really well, and I think most of the players came out of it feeling like the king was both wise and kind. (Amidst the players there was a bit of "Oh boy, the king's a good person, no way he survives this adventure") We're playing by Roll20, so we weren't able to put Lya's puzzle out for them to play with, but I did have fun doing her french accent (Rick's player made my day by saying the accents made the Danorans seem foreign and mysterious), and one of the players was able to see through the puzzle with a good intelligence roll. Gai and Neph got really into the conversation with Captain Smith on their way to Axis Island, discussing under what circumstances the Duchess's actions might have been ethically or morally justified. They concluded that while such circumstances could be theorized about, they very likely didn't exist in this case, and as such the Duchess's actions are not justified. The party was clearly shaken by the death of the infiltration team, and it gave them a somewhat paranoid attitude towards Axis Island as a whole. The fight in the mines was especially fun on Roll20 because we were able to use the vision system to simulate darkness in the caves. Only two member of the party (Gai and Raven) have Darkvision, so there was a lot of calling information back and forth to each other, casting spells for light, and generally using light related tactics my party hasn't gotten to see much in DnD Martin took particular interest in the white stone column and the golden icons. He was particularly curious about the pillar, and how it seemed not to be natural, but to have been slotted into the stone in this place a long long time ago. The party got strangely obsessed with the idea of digging up the mass grave outside the mines. They never did it, but they talked about it a lot. Rick and Raven had the clever idea to use Disguise Self to make themselves appear to be in uniform as the Duchess' soldiers, and they escorted the rest of the party into the fort as "prisoners". This worked well, and helped them get to the sea gate without much issue. We ran defending the sea-gate tower as combat rather than a skill challenge. I adjusted the enemy numbers pretty heavily from the ones recommended. This was a blast, we set up barricades and traps, Tim made really good use of some caltrops, Gai was an impassible barrier in a chokepoint. The party has a lot of ranged damage (Neph really shined in this fight), so we had fun pot-shotting tons of dudes as they were trying to climb up the inhospitable path the PCs had left for them. I added some extra Pseudodragons to this fight as well, and had them use their considerable fly speeds to get on the back lines and harass the ranged characters, so we had some fun melee too. The PCs really pissed off the Danorans in the jail and decided it would be best to leave them in the jail until the fort was returned to Danoran control. Most of the party was hesitant to follow Asrabey through the immurement, but Gai rushed ahead and the rest followed, not wanting to leave him alone. The party was able to talk Gillie Dhu down, which I was fine with, since the looks on some faces made it seem like they weren't really looking forward to the labyrinth fight. After listening in on Asrabey's conversation with Ethelyn and Nathan, the standoff was fantastic. Through negotiation and brinksmanship, they got Asrabey to agree to let them have the Duchess (on the condition that they communicate to the King that the Court demands her death), but Asrabey wanted to keep Nathan. Most of the party was ready to take that deal, but Neph felt it wasn't good enough and attacked. The fight was very one-sided, the party had enough heals though to withstand him for a couple rounds, but wasn't able to hurt him. He reminded them that there is no shame in surrender, and much of the party surrendered, but Neph kept fighting. I had Asrabey give him a line like "You are an honorable warrior, it's a shame you're saddled with such cowardly companions. I'd prefer not to have to kill you, and out of respect for your courage you may have one of the prisoners, your pick". Neph was not happy with this deal, but realized that he probably wasn't going to get better and couldn't win the fight. He chose to keep Nathan, and we had a fun shock-and-awe moment when Asrabey acknowledged this decision and then beheaded Ethelyn on the spot and walked away. I forgot that Raven could speak to the dead, so she just chatted Ethelyn up and learned a lot about the vision she'd been given, and her relationship with Nathan and Axis Island. When Lya returned to the island, the party wanted to keep exploring the island and find out what Danor was doing here. They realized (to their frustration) though that once they signed the documents, Lya was going to make them leave the island. They asked for extra time to show the documents to a lawyer, and I had Lya go kinda hardline on them here ("You may have ze remaining three hours to do whatever you need, but I must insist zese documents are signed by ze deadline"). In that time, Raven and Tim slipped out of the fort to go exploring, and found a strange factory hidden in the woods guarded by massive golems that sounded to Raven like screams. They decided not to get too close, out of a fear that detection would make the diplomatic part of this mission more difficult. And that's pretty much how Adventure 1 went! Next time I post, it'll be to talk about Adventure 2. Edit: Oh also, I have a habit that my players enjoy of picking a song for super cool plot moments, boss fights, or any fight that's especially neat or setpiece-y. We used a couple pieces of music in Adventure 1 if you're curious: For battling the assassins on the Coaltongue: [MEDIA=youtube]fjeQA-PkNo8[/MEDIA] For holding the seagate against the forces of the fort: [MEDIA=youtube]Gy7oD4NowhI[/MEDIA] [/QUOTE]
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