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The Adventures of the Endhome 6+1. Rebirth of Barakus! (9-27-06, 19 and 20 back up)
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<blockquote data-quote="Scorch" data-source="post: 3071072" data-attributes="member: 1502"><p><strong>Adventure 2: Finding a good adventure…</strong></p><p></p><p>Our second session was coming up and while re-reading the city adventures for Endhome I came to the belief that they might all be a little bit too hard for the players. Later I learned that I should stop worrying and just throw stuff at them but at as a DM getting back into the game after so many years I was worried about those dreaded three letters: TPK.</p><p></p><p>I felt that the adventures they recommend for starting players in the city were a little too tough. The slavers and the were-rats were inviting trouble. No way in heck they could tackle the vampires. There was Barakus but I wanted to build up to that and it would require some trekking through the wilderness. They had just gotten into the city and I thought the narrative flow would be odd if I had them turn around and head back out again.</p><p></p><p>Fortunately help came to me in the form of a fellow ENWorlder and contributor on this forum as well: Pogre. He had written up a nice 1st level campaign that he emailed to me. Those of you familiar with his posting of Barakus on ENWorld know this as the Micon adventure.</p><p></p><p>During the hiatus between the first and second adventure I had created some miniature sets using Hirst Art blocks. I used my surplus of parts and laid out the entire complex written up by Pogre in his adventure. After taking a few photos of it on a digital camera, so I could remember the layout, I packed it all up for the game later.</p><p></p><p>Feedback from the players was very positive. They had a ball playing as first level characters again. I guess it was the adrenaline rush from the possibility of being one failed roll away from oblivion. It was a nice change of piece from the main campaign we played under WizarDru where we were annihilating invading armies of githyanki from the Prime Material Plane. Boosted by their encouragement I wrote up another outline of how I wanted to get them into Micon’s hideout.</p><p></p><p>The game started up where we left off last time, outside the city gates. I knew the first thing they would all do: look for the nearest inn to set up base. One quick inquiry to the local constabulary pointed them towards the King’s Road Inn outside of the west gates of the city. To reach there they would need to travel through Endhome. This provided me with an opportunity to layer on the flavor text, describing Endhome and some of its history. I made sure to point out the Temple district and the Wizard’s Academy, two points of interest to two of the characters. Of course, all ears perked up when I mentioned the market. They were eager to spend some cash but first, the Inn!</p><p></p><p>They arrived at the Inn during the lunch rush. The place was packed and after the usual “Meet the Innkeeper” banter, they got some rooms and sat themselves down for a meal. It was amusing to watch them count their silver pieces when it came to rooms and meals. The stark contrast between epic level and low level game play was very interesting.</p><p></p><p>Never one not to throw more plot hooks at the players, I had the evil adventuring party led by Dagon Ziss make a dramatic exit from the inn, knocking over a serving maid. Micca, the cleric, became upset at this rude behavior and tried to make his way to them but the crowd was too much and they were gone by the time he got outside. The evil party was book level at that point and could have mopped the floor with the player characters. No, I had other plans for them…</p><p></p><p>The players then decided to engage in what I consider the biggest time sink in any game: shopping. Sure, it’s fun to role-play the bartering but after a point you just set a house rule on core book prices and what percentage they get for used equipment. It makes things go a lot faster. Also, it is a good excuse for the DM to hit the kitchen for snacks while they debated what kind of bow they want to buy.</p><p></p><p>As soon as the last gold piece was spent and the last arrow purchased I hit them with the opening story hook to Pogre’s adventure: a big sewer explosion.</p><p></p><p>The sewer grate from the explosion landed right at their feet. Like any curious adventurer they made a bee-line right for the origin of the explosion. They found some city guards had pushed the crowds back. No one was hurt by the explosion and the guard were now debating what to do. Upon seeing the adventurers they said they would provide some monetary reward if they went down and took a quick look see.</p><p></p><p>The rogue scouted down into the hole and discovered the source of the explosion was a magical firetrap going off by a door set in the sewer wall. Another rogue had set it off while trying to disarm it. The doorway led down a five foot wide corridor into the darkness. Absinthe made her way back to the top, after looting the corpse, and made her report.</p><p></p><p><img src="http://pics.livejournal.com/gm_scorch/pic/0004rbf8" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> </p><p></p><p>I was worried when some debate arose among the players that they had done their duty and could go but more reckless heads prevailed (yay!) and they decide to investigate further.</p><p></p><p>Standard marching order was then discussed and implemented by the party. Rogue up front by 15 feet followed by the rest of the party. I made a note of who had a light source and who had low light or dark vision.</p><p></p><p><img src="http://pics.livejournal.com/gm_scorch/pic/0004t8r1" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> </p><p></p><p>After marching down a 20’ corridor they came to the first room containing two zombies. The rogue sneaking into the room activated them and the fight was on. Three rounds of combat later the zombies were down and no one suffered any injuries.</p><p></p><p><img src="http://pics.livejournal.com/gm_scorch/pic/0004wx75" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> </p><p></p><p>The next room was investigated as well as the adjoining bedroom. There they discover Micon’s notes on his desires to become a lich. Ravenspur tucked those away for later. </p><p></p><p><img src="http://pics.livejournal.com/gm_scorch/pic/0004xzcc" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> </p><p></p><p>Another room revealed four skeletons. The party charged into battle. The rogue, fearing bodily harm ran back two rooms when it looked like the skeletons were going to push past the front line bricks. Ravenspur started using Harm Undead to great effect at this point. His player gloated that he had yet to cast a first level spell so far in the game. A turning by the cleric sent two of the skeletons running away down a passageway carved into the earth.</p><p></p><p><img src="http://pics.livejournal.com/gm_scorch/pic/0004zkkw" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> </p><p></p><p>The party started heading down the earthen passage. I believe Pogre stated that it goes off for two thousand feet before reaching the tomb that Micon is hiding in. I decided that Micon would be alerted to the players by the two skeletons and that he would take command of them to help him in his fight. </p><p></p><p>The problem was that after 700 feet into the passageway the players were deciding to turn back. I really, REALLY wanted them to fight Micon, a CR3 Ghast, so I shortened the distance of the passage so they eventually reached it before turning back. They reached the end and came to a ladder leading up to the tomb within which Micon awaited.</p><p></p><p>Absinthe climbed up the ladder to sneak a peak and nearly got her head taken off by a skeleton. She caught a glimpse of what was waiting the party and she boogied back on down to let them know before running back down the corridor (did I mention she has very low hit points). The rest of the party follow, hearing Micon and his minions chasing after them. They decide to set an ambush at a choke point back where the passageway opened up into the room.</p><p></p><p>Micon sent his skeletons through to try and push past the party but they cut them to pieces. The monk then tumbled past the ghast to get the flank and they start taking him down. They were very worried that if he connected with his paralyzing powers then things could get ugly but they finally cut him down with minimal damage done to the party.</p><p></p><p><img src="http://pics.livejournal.com/gm_scorch/pic/0005213b" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> </p><p></p><p>They scour the entire complex for any treasure they missed then make their way back out to the market to report to the lone guard who was left behind to watch the hole. The guard wrote up a voucher for their reward. 5 whole gold pieces… YAY!</p><p></p><p>To wrap things up I decided to finish some business with what Micca’s player had inquired about which was the location of the Temple of Hieronius. The party traveled with him to the temple district and they found it without a problem. It was in disrepair and boarded up. An inquiry to a local guard revealed that it had been abandoned for over a year and the city had it sealed up six months ago. If Micca wanted to enter it he would need to inquire with the city government. On that note I ended the game for the night.</p><p></p><p>Experience was tallied up and reward. Unfortunately one player was not present for the game and neither was his character so: No experience for him! I decided to rule that if you were not there and there was a plausible reason for the character not to be there then they did no participate and no XP for them. If this happened in the middle of a dungeon crawl then I thought it would be silly to say that the character suddenly had to take a powder. The player would get XP since their character was there and contributed resources to the adventure. Of course this would mean they were run as a brain dead NPC by the DM and the other players would lose that much experience. No one seemed to mind this ruling.</p><p></p><p>Next Adventure: Why the hell not? Let’s throw some were-rats at them!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Scorch, post: 3071072, member: 1502"] [b]Adventure 2: Finding a good adventure…[/b] Our second session was coming up and while re-reading the city adventures for Endhome I came to the belief that they might all be a little bit too hard for the players. Later I learned that I should stop worrying and just throw stuff at them but at as a DM getting back into the game after so many years I was worried about those dreaded three letters: TPK. I felt that the adventures they recommend for starting players in the city were a little too tough. The slavers and the were-rats were inviting trouble. No way in heck they could tackle the vampires. There was Barakus but I wanted to build up to that and it would require some trekking through the wilderness. They had just gotten into the city and I thought the narrative flow would be odd if I had them turn around and head back out again. Fortunately help came to me in the form of a fellow ENWorlder and contributor on this forum as well: Pogre. He had written up a nice 1st level campaign that he emailed to me. Those of you familiar with his posting of Barakus on ENWorld know this as the Micon adventure. During the hiatus between the first and second adventure I had created some miniature sets using Hirst Art blocks. I used my surplus of parts and laid out the entire complex written up by Pogre in his adventure. After taking a few photos of it on a digital camera, so I could remember the layout, I packed it all up for the game later. Feedback from the players was very positive. They had a ball playing as first level characters again. I guess it was the adrenaline rush from the possibility of being one failed roll away from oblivion. It was a nice change of piece from the main campaign we played under WizarDru where we were annihilating invading armies of githyanki from the Prime Material Plane. Boosted by their encouragement I wrote up another outline of how I wanted to get them into Micon’s hideout. The game started up where we left off last time, outside the city gates. I knew the first thing they would all do: look for the nearest inn to set up base. One quick inquiry to the local constabulary pointed them towards the King’s Road Inn outside of the west gates of the city. To reach there they would need to travel through Endhome. This provided me with an opportunity to layer on the flavor text, describing Endhome and some of its history. I made sure to point out the Temple district and the Wizard’s Academy, two points of interest to two of the characters. Of course, all ears perked up when I mentioned the market. They were eager to spend some cash but first, the Inn! They arrived at the Inn during the lunch rush. The place was packed and after the usual “Meet the Innkeeper” banter, they got some rooms and sat themselves down for a meal. It was amusing to watch them count their silver pieces when it came to rooms and meals. The stark contrast between epic level and low level game play was very interesting. Never one not to throw more plot hooks at the players, I had the evil adventuring party led by Dagon Ziss make a dramatic exit from the inn, knocking over a serving maid. Micca, the cleric, became upset at this rude behavior and tried to make his way to them but the crowd was too much and they were gone by the time he got outside. The evil party was book level at that point and could have mopped the floor with the player characters. No, I had other plans for them… The players then decided to engage in what I consider the biggest time sink in any game: shopping. Sure, it’s fun to role-play the bartering but after a point you just set a house rule on core book prices and what percentage they get for used equipment. It makes things go a lot faster. Also, it is a good excuse for the DM to hit the kitchen for snacks while they debated what kind of bow they want to buy. As soon as the last gold piece was spent and the last arrow purchased I hit them with the opening story hook to Pogre’s adventure: a big sewer explosion. The sewer grate from the explosion landed right at their feet. Like any curious adventurer they made a bee-line right for the origin of the explosion. They found some city guards had pushed the crowds back. No one was hurt by the explosion and the guard were now debating what to do. Upon seeing the adventurers they said they would provide some monetary reward if they went down and took a quick look see. The rogue scouted down into the hole and discovered the source of the explosion was a magical firetrap going off by a door set in the sewer wall. Another rogue had set it off while trying to disarm it. The doorway led down a five foot wide corridor into the darkness. Absinthe made her way back to the top, after looting the corpse, and made her report. [IMG]http://pics.livejournal.com/gm_scorch/pic/0004rbf8[/IMG] I was worried when some debate arose among the players that they had done their duty and could go but more reckless heads prevailed (yay!) and they decide to investigate further. Standard marching order was then discussed and implemented by the party. Rogue up front by 15 feet followed by the rest of the party. I made a note of who had a light source and who had low light or dark vision. [IMG]http://pics.livejournal.com/gm_scorch/pic/0004t8r1[/IMG] After marching down a 20’ corridor they came to the first room containing two zombies. The rogue sneaking into the room activated them and the fight was on. Three rounds of combat later the zombies were down and no one suffered any injuries. [IMG]http://pics.livejournal.com/gm_scorch/pic/0004wx75[/IMG] The next room was investigated as well as the adjoining bedroom. There they discover Micon’s notes on his desires to become a lich. Ravenspur tucked those away for later. [IMG]http://pics.livejournal.com/gm_scorch/pic/0004xzcc[/IMG] Another room revealed four skeletons. The party charged into battle. The rogue, fearing bodily harm ran back two rooms when it looked like the skeletons were going to push past the front line bricks. Ravenspur started using Harm Undead to great effect at this point. His player gloated that he had yet to cast a first level spell so far in the game. A turning by the cleric sent two of the skeletons running away down a passageway carved into the earth. [IMG]http://pics.livejournal.com/gm_scorch/pic/0004zkkw[/IMG] The party started heading down the earthen passage. I believe Pogre stated that it goes off for two thousand feet before reaching the tomb that Micon is hiding in. I decided that Micon would be alerted to the players by the two skeletons and that he would take command of them to help him in his fight. The problem was that after 700 feet into the passageway the players were deciding to turn back. I really, REALLY wanted them to fight Micon, a CR3 Ghast, so I shortened the distance of the passage so they eventually reached it before turning back. They reached the end and came to a ladder leading up to the tomb within which Micon awaited. Absinthe climbed up the ladder to sneak a peak and nearly got her head taken off by a skeleton. She caught a glimpse of what was waiting the party and she boogied back on down to let them know before running back down the corridor (did I mention she has very low hit points). The rest of the party follow, hearing Micon and his minions chasing after them. They decide to set an ambush at a choke point back where the passageway opened up into the room. Micon sent his skeletons through to try and push past the party but they cut them to pieces. The monk then tumbled past the ghast to get the flank and they start taking him down. They were very worried that if he connected with his paralyzing powers then things could get ugly but they finally cut him down with minimal damage done to the party. [IMG]http://pics.livejournal.com/gm_scorch/pic/0005213b[/IMG] They scour the entire complex for any treasure they missed then make their way back out to the market to report to the lone guard who was left behind to watch the hole. The guard wrote up a voucher for their reward. 5 whole gold pieces… YAY! To wrap things up I decided to finish some business with what Micca’s player had inquired about which was the location of the Temple of Hieronius. The party traveled with him to the temple district and they found it without a problem. It was in disrepair and boarded up. An inquiry to a local guard revealed that it had been abandoned for over a year and the city had it sealed up six months ago. If Micca wanted to enter it he would need to inquire with the city government. On that note I ended the game for the night. Experience was tallied up and reward. Unfortunately one player was not present for the game and neither was his character so: No experience for him! I decided to rule that if you were not there and there was a plausible reason for the character not to be there then they did no participate and no XP for them. If this happened in the middle of a dungeon crawl then I thought it would be silly to say that the character suddenly had to take a powder. The player would get XP since their character was there and contributed resources to the adventure. Of course this would mean they were run as a brain dead NPC by the DM and the other players would lose that much experience. No one seemed to mind this ruling. Next Adventure: Why the hell not? Let’s throw some were-rats at them! [/QUOTE]
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