limeskeleton
Explorer
Given how much fun I've been having with my other (4e-adjacent) campaign, I started another campaign with a smaller subset of players, playing on alternating weeks to the first game. I've long been in love with the Points of Light/Nentir Vale setting, so I knew I wanted to keep the Vale as the region. All three players expressed an interest in playing Divine characters, which further narrowed the narrative theming, hence the (somewhat facetious) campaign title.
First, our cast of characters:
Session 01: The Haunted Tower
The party decided they liked the idea of starting in Fallcrest, as well as exploring the hauntings in the Tower of Waiting and its potential connections to the land's history.
Our story begins with three adventurers yanking a piece of paper off a tavern wall, quite by accident. Nailed to the wall of the Nentir Inn was a notice, sent out by the Lord Warden of Fallcrest himself, Faren Markelhay. The Tower of Waiting, a watchtower on a small island on the Nentir River, long abandoned after the Bloodspear War, needed to be cleared and prepped for rebuilding.
The party set out to collect more information, beginning their search in the town's Temple of Erathis. This triggered a Skill Challenge, with success promising useful information (combat bonuses against the tower's inhabitants) and failure staked on arriving later at night and deprived of resources. They sought out the guidance of the head priestess, Dirina Mornbrow, who was quite happy to lend aid to a group of adventurers so faithful to the gods, especially ones hoping to clear the Haunted Tower. However, a group of rival adventurers, the Fallcrest Five (now only three, after some unfortunate losses) cut in, snatching the logbook Lou had been studying and muscling their way into learning more.
Their bravado didn't last too long after Forte stomped one of them into the mud, however, although it was more of a beating than a true fight--not an honorable offering to Kord. (A failure on a skill challenge check to beat down the rivals, trying to highlight the character's cvompetence by making the "loss" mean succeeding at winning the fight, but not in a way that pleased his god or the town). In the meantime, Lou was able to secure an enchanted weapon from the temple, which Dirina said might help with defeating the demons and ghosts within the tower (Magic Item reward for successful challenge).
The party's combined efforts informed them that the tower had once served as a prison for nobles and royalty too important to exile or execute. Its last prisoner, an eladrin princess named Elsinore Maldranthe, had been imprisoned due to her dabbling in demonology, which only grew more pronounced during her decades of imprisonment. Eventually, during the Bloodspear War, she starved to death in her cell, but not before she used her own blood to summon a number of demons. (This information granted some auto-successes on monster knowledge rolls and some damage bonuses during the next combat encounter)
In the aftermath, the guards who went to check on her were slaughtered and transformed into undead monstrosities, and were ultimately sealed within the tower alongside the demons and the princess herself, kept imprisoned once more rather than laid to rest. The players liked the idea of the entire Tower being sealed away in time, kept in stasis by powerful magic (likely what's kept it standing for so long without maintenance).
The party found truth to this legend quite quickly, finding themselves assaulted by Wisp Wraiths, a Specter, and a Ghoul. The latter two were clearly the remains of the guards who had attempted to uncover the princess' fate. After a tense battle, they looted a Potion of Healing and some gold before preparing to venture deeper into the tower dungeons.
Session 02 report to come soon! They had a crazy time of it in last night's session.
First, our cast of characters:
Forte Bronson (Tiefling Avenger of Kord): A former sellsword who's found religion, seeking the glory of his god through adventuring and testing his strength against the various evils of the land. Backgrounds include: Winterhaven Native, Fire in Your Veins (House Zolfura heritage), Missionary Life, and Fought against the Reborn Flame. The Reborn Flame is a fancy name for the Cult of Orcus, which ties him to a heavily-modified Keep on the Shadowfell (not keeping much aside from the keep and the cult, really).
Henry Prominence (Dwarf Invoker of Gruumsh): A vicious "might makes right" dwarf who has more in common with the Bloodspear Clan invaders than the mostly-peaceable followers of Gruumsh in his home city of Hammerfast. Backgrounds Include: Hammerfast Native, Oathbound Death-Seeker, Heretic, run-ins with both the Gray Company and the Blackfang Gnolls. We've yet to reach much of those antagonist groups, but they could provide some interesting narrative tension against the violent savagery of Gruumsh (Gray Company representing tyrannical order, and the Gnolls representing an even more chaotic and violent approach to violence).
Louisiana Purchase* (Dragonborn Cleric of Bahamut): A bit of a goofball with a sheltered upbringing that makes him a little confused about the world at-large. He was at least partially raised by an angel in service to Bahamut, which contributes to his eccentricity. Backgrounds include: Fallcrest Native, Dragonborn Iconoclast, Touched by an Angel, run-ins with both The Iron Circle and Vestapalk the Mad Green Dragon. One or both could be driven by his angelic benefactor, who might ask that he intervene with those threats before they cause even greater injustice in the Vale.
*Yes, really
Henry Prominence (Dwarf Invoker of Gruumsh): A vicious "might makes right" dwarf who has more in common with the Bloodspear Clan invaders than the mostly-peaceable followers of Gruumsh in his home city of Hammerfast. Backgrounds Include: Hammerfast Native, Oathbound Death-Seeker, Heretic, run-ins with both the Gray Company and the Blackfang Gnolls. We've yet to reach much of those antagonist groups, but they could provide some interesting narrative tension against the violent savagery of Gruumsh (Gray Company representing tyrannical order, and the Gnolls representing an even more chaotic and violent approach to violence).
Louisiana Purchase* (Dragonborn Cleric of Bahamut): A bit of a goofball with a sheltered upbringing that makes him a little confused about the world at-large. He was at least partially raised by an angel in service to Bahamut, which contributes to his eccentricity. Backgrounds include: Fallcrest Native, Dragonborn Iconoclast, Touched by an Angel, run-ins with both The Iron Circle and Vestapalk the Mad Green Dragon. One or both could be driven by his angelic benefactor, who might ask that he intervene with those threats before they cause even greater injustice in the Vale.
*Yes, really
Session 01: The Haunted Tower
The party decided they liked the idea of starting in Fallcrest, as well as exploring the hauntings in the Tower of Waiting and its potential connections to the land's history.
Our story begins with three adventurers yanking a piece of paper off a tavern wall, quite by accident. Nailed to the wall of the Nentir Inn was a notice, sent out by the Lord Warden of Fallcrest himself, Faren Markelhay. The Tower of Waiting, a watchtower on a small island on the Nentir River, long abandoned after the Bloodspear War, needed to be cleared and prepped for rebuilding.
The party set out to collect more information, beginning their search in the town's Temple of Erathis. This triggered a Skill Challenge, with success promising useful information (combat bonuses against the tower's inhabitants) and failure staked on arriving later at night and deprived of resources. They sought out the guidance of the head priestess, Dirina Mornbrow, who was quite happy to lend aid to a group of adventurers so faithful to the gods, especially ones hoping to clear the Haunted Tower. However, a group of rival adventurers, the Fallcrest Five (now only three, after some unfortunate losses) cut in, snatching the logbook Lou had been studying and muscling their way into learning more.
Their bravado didn't last too long after Forte stomped one of them into the mud, however, although it was more of a beating than a true fight--not an honorable offering to Kord. (A failure on a skill challenge check to beat down the rivals, trying to highlight the character's cvompetence by making the "loss" mean succeeding at winning the fight, but not in a way that pleased his god or the town). In the meantime, Lou was able to secure an enchanted weapon from the temple, which Dirina said might help with defeating the demons and ghosts within the tower (Magic Item reward for successful challenge).
The party's combined efforts informed them that the tower had once served as a prison for nobles and royalty too important to exile or execute. Its last prisoner, an eladrin princess named Elsinore Maldranthe, had been imprisoned due to her dabbling in demonology, which only grew more pronounced during her decades of imprisonment. Eventually, during the Bloodspear War, she starved to death in her cell, but not before she used her own blood to summon a number of demons. (This information granted some auto-successes on monster knowledge rolls and some damage bonuses during the next combat encounter)
In the aftermath, the guards who went to check on her were slaughtered and transformed into undead monstrosities, and were ultimately sealed within the tower alongside the demons and the princess herself, kept imprisoned once more rather than laid to rest. The players liked the idea of the entire Tower being sealed away in time, kept in stasis by powerful magic (likely what's kept it standing for so long without maintenance).
The party found truth to this legend quite quickly, finding themselves assaulted by Wisp Wraiths, a Specter, and a Ghoul. The latter two were clearly the remains of the guards who had attempted to uncover the princess' fate. After a tense battle, they looted a Potion of Healing and some gold before preparing to venture deeper into the tower dungeons.
Session 02 report to come soon! They had a crazy time of it in last night's session.
