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<blockquote data-quote="J-H" data-source="post: 7984998" data-attributes="member: 7020951"><p><strong>10/3/19</strong></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>We got a late start today, and then one of our players (Dmitri the Barbarian) got a call from his wife asking him to come home because their (little) kids were having a rough night. He rode with someone else, so the game stops for that; and then when they get back, someone else has to go pick up a kid… so instead of the usual 4-4.5 hours, I’d say we had less than 3 hours of play time.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>While long-resting after fighting the vampire, they hear scraping and scratching noises from the rotating tower. Four skeletons dragging big rope nets full of bones are coming up, and the group kills them all – using at least two spell slots and the barbarian’s very last rage, for 13hp skeletons that never even attack back.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Then, about the time the skeletons would have emerged onto the platform the party was on, the doors of the building across the bridge open and two big bone golems (the type from Baldur’s Gate II) walk out. The ballistas are used to do some damage, but the DR/magic keeps them from doing much. The golems are brought down, with our fighter briefly being knocked to 0 in the process. Our Arcane Trickster finally uses his Hat of Disguise (from session 1) to look like a skeleton. Bone golems have INT 3, so I run with it. The golem notices that it’s been sneak-attacked with a crossbow, but all it sees behind it is a short skeleton with its hands behind its back. Other skeletons are not enemies, so there’s nothing back there. Proceed forward, ignoring the damage.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The long rest is then completed, and the party moves into the bone golem factory.</p><p></p><p></p><p>They pretty quickly kill the skeletons that are shuttling parts around, and then split up. The barbarian and fighter get some big ballista shafts to feed into the intake area, the two casters start slowly chipping away at the runes in the golem assembly area, and the arcane trickster climbs up on the machine and attacks one of the balls of lightning. Everyone starts coming over and the lesser lightning elemental is dealt with pretty swiftly. The group kills the second one, and as they’re lining up on the third one, the door at the far end slams open, and Koronok the stone golem strides in. At this point, the barbarian and fighter are on top of the machine, and the other 3 party members are on the wood catwalk 30’ above the ground.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Koronok wakes up the gargoyle sapphires in their packs, and then spends the next couple of rounds doing a move->jump->grab routine to pull down large sections of the catwalk, dumping people onto the ground. The gargoyles serve as a nice distraction, and he lays out some good damage at +10 for 3d8+6, but nobody comes too close to dying. The party then loots the body (after I remind them), and kills the rest of the lightning elementals, before going back to the top of the tower for a short rest and to identify their loot.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I go ahead and tell them to level up before the next session, as the only thing left in this “area” is a non-combat encounter before entering the castle. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Our Fighter/Rogue multiclass player hasn’t shown up, so I think he’s gone. I am considering adding a 6th player, as a 5 player party seems a bit more stretched. Then again, maybe the party should feel stretched.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>10/24/19</strong></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I gave the opportunity for everyone to revamp their characters. 2 of my players took it:</p><p>Our Halfling Battlemaster Fighter is now a Wood Elf Kensei Monk, with weapons of Trident (since he has a +2), Longsword, and Longbow.</p><p></p><p>Our Elven Life Cleric is now a Dwarven Life Cleric (effectively swapped STR to DEX).</p><p></p><p>The Sorcerer swapped out Twin for Maximize, but he may have been able to do that just as part of being a sorc.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Our Fighter/Rogue(AT) is back, and is now a Fighter 2/Arcane Trickster 5.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The group left the bone golem factory and headed across the eerie open fields towards the castle. They spotted the statues around the altar, and were initially puzzled with the whole “prove you don’t work for Dracula” thing. A religion check gave them a hint, and out came the signs of the cross and their holy symbols. It didn’t take long for them to figure out that the candles contained something, and similarly they worked out the whip upgrade (regular whip to 1d6, +1 whip). I don’t think the whip was actually used, but it could have been.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The group entered the castle (I’m skipping the description for brevity). They chose to investigate the cloak room, which was, yes, really the “Cloaker Room”. The cloakers did not last long, although they did manage to latch on to a couple of the characters for a bit. Our cleric got stabbed and punched repeatedly by the monk while wearing a Cloaker.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Investigation revealed an ancient invitation in poor condition. This was pocketed. They were very, very wary of the room full of mirrors, but eventually entered it. The mirror portal (to the library) occupied them for a bit before they gave up.</p><p></p><p>“I try to go into the portal.”</p><p></p><p>“Give me your character sheet.”</p><p></p><p>(whole table gets concerned)</p><p>“Nope, you can’t pass through.”</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Our Fighter/Arcane Trickster uses Disguise Self to pretend to be Elizabeth Bathory, the vampire. There’s some dialogue with the really rather dumb Cyclops butler, who requires an invitation but thinks hers is too messed up to read. Our Arcane Trickster 7 has a Forgery background, and remedies this quickly. Even with the Cyclops rolling at advantage, the forgery is unbeatable (2d20b1-2 versus a 26). The group is given leave to enter the Ballroom area.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>They thank the Cyclops and make a U-turn for the locked and barred door to the dungeon. The cleric has Dispel Magic prepared for the first time ever, and breaks the Arcane Lock on the dungeon door. They enter it, and the vampire-disguised player successfully bluffs his way past the unintelligent golems (2 flesh golems, 1 bone golem) at the bottom.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>They proceed down the hall towards the central point checking doors. Some skeletons on the western wall, manacled there as decorations, rattle their bones and try ineffectually to reach the group. The party barbarian smashes them with his maul…. And yep, they’re hanging on the wall just outside the Minotaur bunkroom/rec room area.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>A minotaur opens the door and sticks his head out.</p><p></p><p>Minotaur: “Oi, what’s all that racket about”</p><p></p><p>Disguised-As-Vampiress: “Oh, that was just one of the people following me” (or something) “I’m here to feed from one of the prisoners.”</p><p></p><p>Minotaur: “Well, you’ll have to clear that with Adam”</p><p></p><p>DAV: “Who’s Adam?”</p><p></p><p>Minotaur: Eyes widen. “Schiess!” He shuts the door and the group hears yelling.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Adam is the Frankenstein’s Monster/boss running the dungeon.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Cue a battle where the party ends up lined up against 5 stock minotaurs, a minotaur sorcerer who opens with Lightning Bolt, and the 3 golems plus two bone pillars. Despite two fireballs doing a ton of damage to the mino’s, I’m getting worried about a TPK.</p><p></p><p>Cleric: “How thick is this wall?”</p><p>Me: “Why are you asking?”</p><p>Cleric: “Stone Shape will work if it’s 5’ thick or less. I want to make a door.”</p><p></p><p>Me: “The wall is 5’ thick, you can do it.”</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The party cleric uses her only 4th level spell slot to Stone Shape a hole into the minotaur rec room. Several of the party members duck into there, using it to hide from the golems as the minotaurs are finished off.</p><p></p><p></p><p>The minotaur sorcerer should have used Dancing Lights to alert the other minotaurs, but I genuinely had him “not worried” since there were so many of them and the golems were there to help. By the time it became apparent that the golems were too slow in arriving, and the minotaurs were falling too fast, he had lost his chance.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The Fighter/Arcane Trickster heads up the stairs from the minotaur rec room, arriving in the Ballroom kitchen. He investigates the two doors from there, quickly closing the door before being spotted by the Spectres in the blue room. The other door? He unlocks it, sees what an Arcana check identifies as Hero’s Feast, and then leaves.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The group decides that it’s too risky, Hero’s Feast is a high level spell, and that they’d rather lock themselves in the (small) minotaur armory for an hour for a short rest.</p><p></p><p></p><p>The Arcane Trickster 7 player returns to the table at this time, and says “Well, I’m going to sneak up there anyway.” So he gets to start next session with the benefits of Hero’s Feast.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I’m not sure if they will continue to do the dungeon next, or if they will try to explore the ballroom area from the kitchens on. If they leave the dungeon for any length of time, the minotaurs will definitely find the dead “off duty” guard shift and will take measures including tripwires, caltrops, ball bearings, etc. I may have some minotaurs go hunting for them….</p><p></p><p></p><p>If they stay, I sort of have the question about why the central guard post didn’t hear the fight. I have some ideas on that front, including simply the portcullis being shut (in which case they will need to bash through it).</p><p></p><p></p><p>The only loot this time was the dungeon key and the returning dagger+1 & whip upgrade from the area outside, but no worries.</p><p></p><p></p><p>There were also only two battles the entire session – the cloakers and the minotaurs. Lots of talking, a couple of non-combat encounters, forgery, lockpicking, trying to figure out how to get a portal to work, etc. It was fun and productive.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>11/14/19</strong></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Everyone was there! The team departed the dungeons (which will now be well-prepared behind them), and explored partway through the ballroom maze. They fought some skeletons, some flying swords, some specters, and a Death-possessed wizard skeleton that opened with Circle of Death while under the effects of Greater Invisibility. They overcame the invisibility by spraying oil in a 10’ radius AOE (including 2 players) and then lighting it all on fire. The skeleton’s 2nd spell was Black Tentacles, and after that, its 105hp were gone and it was dead.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>At the end of the session the barbarian’s player mentioned that he had been at 8 hp when Circle of Death went off. He thought it was “save for none” instead of “save for half”. Oops.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>There was some good fun trying to piece together how this maze is laid out and how all the rooms link together. I think they’ve covered about 1/3 to ½ of the rooms. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>They investigated most of the rooms, but did not follow up on the aura of magic in the blood fountain (Mace of Disruption in the top) or investigate that room (secret passage to dungeon). Oh well! </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Highlights include dice poker (yahtzee) to see who got the spider climbing armor and who got the ring of sneakiness, and a debate over what to do with a well-crafted 10x10 3D map table of Europe. The barbarian (Russian Orthodox) smashed the location of the Vatican on the map anyway.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The session ended with a long rest as the party returned to the Hero’s Feast room from a different direction. Most of them are actually running short on Attunement slots.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="J-H, post: 7984998, member: 7020951"] [B]10/3/19[/B] We got a late start today, and then one of our players (Dmitri the Barbarian) got a call from his wife asking him to come home because their (little) kids were having a rough night. He rode with someone else, so the game stops for that; and then when they get back, someone else has to go pick up a kid… so instead of the usual 4-4.5 hours, I’d say we had less than 3 hours of play time. While long-resting after fighting the vampire, they hear scraping and scratching noises from the rotating tower. Four skeletons dragging big rope nets full of bones are coming up, and the group kills them all – using at least two spell slots and the barbarian’s very last rage, for 13hp skeletons that never even attack back. Then, about the time the skeletons would have emerged onto the platform the party was on, the doors of the building across the bridge open and two big bone golems (the type from Baldur’s Gate II) walk out. The ballistas are used to do some damage, but the DR/magic keeps them from doing much. The golems are brought down, with our fighter briefly being knocked to 0 in the process. Our Arcane Trickster finally uses his Hat of Disguise (from session 1) to look like a skeleton. Bone golems have INT 3, so I run with it. The golem notices that it’s been sneak-attacked with a crossbow, but all it sees behind it is a short skeleton with its hands behind its back. Other skeletons are not enemies, so there’s nothing back there. Proceed forward, ignoring the damage. The long rest is then completed, and the party moves into the bone golem factory. They pretty quickly kill the skeletons that are shuttling parts around, and then split up. The barbarian and fighter get some big ballista shafts to feed into the intake area, the two casters start slowly chipping away at the runes in the golem assembly area, and the arcane trickster climbs up on the machine and attacks one of the balls of lightning. Everyone starts coming over and the lesser lightning elemental is dealt with pretty swiftly. The group kills the second one, and as they’re lining up on the third one, the door at the far end slams open, and Koronok the stone golem strides in. At this point, the barbarian and fighter are on top of the machine, and the other 3 party members are on the wood catwalk 30’ above the ground. Koronok wakes up the gargoyle sapphires in their packs, and then spends the next couple of rounds doing a move->jump->grab routine to pull down large sections of the catwalk, dumping people onto the ground. The gargoyles serve as a nice distraction, and he lays out some good damage at +10 for 3d8+6, but nobody comes too close to dying. The party then loots the body (after I remind them), and kills the rest of the lightning elementals, before going back to the top of the tower for a short rest and to identify their loot. I go ahead and tell them to level up before the next session, as the only thing left in this “area” is a non-combat encounter before entering the castle. Our Fighter/Rogue multiclass player hasn’t shown up, so I think he’s gone. I am considering adding a 6th player, as a 5 player party seems a bit more stretched. Then again, maybe the party should feel stretched. [B]10/24/19[/B] I gave the opportunity for everyone to revamp their characters. 2 of my players took it: Our Halfling Battlemaster Fighter is now a Wood Elf Kensei Monk, with weapons of Trident (since he has a +2), Longsword, and Longbow. Our Elven Life Cleric is now a Dwarven Life Cleric (effectively swapped STR to DEX). The Sorcerer swapped out Twin for Maximize, but he may have been able to do that just as part of being a sorc. Our Fighter/Rogue(AT) is back, and is now a Fighter 2/Arcane Trickster 5. The group left the bone golem factory and headed across the eerie open fields towards the castle. They spotted the statues around the altar, and were initially puzzled with the whole “prove you don’t work for Dracula” thing. A religion check gave them a hint, and out came the signs of the cross and their holy symbols. It didn’t take long for them to figure out that the candles contained something, and similarly they worked out the whip upgrade (regular whip to 1d6, +1 whip). I don’t think the whip was actually used, but it could have been. The group entered the castle (I’m skipping the description for brevity). They chose to investigate the cloak room, which was, yes, really the “Cloaker Room”. The cloakers did not last long, although they did manage to latch on to a couple of the characters for a bit. Our cleric got stabbed and punched repeatedly by the monk while wearing a Cloaker. Investigation revealed an ancient invitation in poor condition. This was pocketed. They were very, very wary of the room full of mirrors, but eventually entered it. The mirror portal (to the library) occupied them for a bit before they gave up. “I try to go into the portal.” “Give me your character sheet.” (whole table gets concerned) “Nope, you can’t pass through.” Our Fighter/Arcane Trickster uses Disguise Self to pretend to be Elizabeth Bathory, the vampire. There’s some dialogue with the really rather dumb Cyclops butler, who requires an invitation but thinks hers is too messed up to read. Our Arcane Trickster 7 has a Forgery background, and remedies this quickly. Even with the Cyclops rolling at advantage, the forgery is unbeatable (2d20b1-2 versus a 26). The group is given leave to enter the Ballroom area. They thank the Cyclops and make a U-turn for the locked and barred door to the dungeon. The cleric has Dispel Magic prepared for the first time ever, and breaks the Arcane Lock on the dungeon door. They enter it, and the vampire-disguised player successfully bluffs his way past the unintelligent golems (2 flesh golems, 1 bone golem) at the bottom. They proceed down the hall towards the central point checking doors. Some skeletons on the western wall, manacled there as decorations, rattle their bones and try ineffectually to reach the group. The party barbarian smashes them with his maul…. And yep, they’re hanging on the wall just outside the Minotaur bunkroom/rec room area. A minotaur opens the door and sticks his head out. Minotaur: “Oi, what’s all that racket about” Disguised-As-Vampiress: “Oh, that was just one of the people following me” (or something) “I’m here to feed from one of the prisoners.” Minotaur: “Well, you’ll have to clear that with Adam” DAV: “Who’s Adam?” Minotaur: Eyes widen. “Schiess!” He shuts the door and the group hears yelling. Adam is the Frankenstein’s Monster/boss running the dungeon. Cue a battle where the party ends up lined up against 5 stock minotaurs, a minotaur sorcerer who opens with Lightning Bolt, and the 3 golems plus two bone pillars. Despite two fireballs doing a ton of damage to the mino’s, I’m getting worried about a TPK. Cleric: “How thick is this wall?” Me: “Why are you asking?” Cleric: “Stone Shape will work if it’s 5’ thick or less. I want to make a door.” Me: “The wall is 5’ thick, you can do it.” The party cleric uses her only 4th level spell slot to Stone Shape a hole into the minotaur rec room. Several of the party members duck into there, using it to hide from the golems as the minotaurs are finished off. The minotaur sorcerer should have used Dancing Lights to alert the other minotaurs, but I genuinely had him “not worried” since there were so many of them and the golems were there to help. By the time it became apparent that the golems were too slow in arriving, and the minotaurs were falling too fast, he had lost his chance. The Fighter/Arcane Trickster heads up the stairs from the minotaur rec room, arriving in the Ballroom kitchen. He investigates the two doors from there, quickly closing the door before being spotted by the Spectres in the blue room. The other door? He unlocks it, sees what an Arcana check identifies as Hero’s Feast, and then leaves. The group decides that it’s too risky, Hero’s Feast is a high level spell, and that they’d rather lock themselves in the (small) minotaur armory for an hour for a short rest. The Arcane Trickster 7 player returns to the table at this time, and says “Well, I’m going to sneak up there anyway.” So he gets to start next session with the benefits of Hero’s Feast. I’m not sure if they will continue to do the dungeon next, or if they will try to explore the ballroom area from the kitchens on. If they leave the dungeon for any length of time, the minotaurs will definitely find the dead “off duty” guard shift and will take measures including tripwires, caltrops, ball bearings, etc. I may have some minotaurs go hunting for them…. If they stay, I sort of have the question about why the central guard post didn’t hear the fight. I have some ideas on that front, including simply the portcullis being shut (in which case they will need to bash through it). The only loot this time was the dungeon key and the returning dagger+1 & whip upgrade from the area outside, but no worries. There were also only two battles the entire session – the cloakers and the minotaurs. Lots of talking, a couple of non-combat encounters, forgery, lockpicking, trying to figure out how to get a portal to work, etc. It was fun and productive. [B]11/14/19[/B] Everyone was there! The team departed the dungeons (which will now be well-prepared behind them), and explored partway through the ballroom maze. They fought some skeletons, some flying swords, some specters, and a Death-possessed wizard skeleton that opened with Circle of Death while under the effects of Greater Invisibility. They overcame the invisibility by spraying oil in a 10’ radius AOE (including 2 players) and then lighting it all on fire. The skeleton’s 2nd spell was Black Tentacles, and after that, its 105hp were gone and it was dead. At the end of the session the barbarian’s player mentioned that he had been at 8 hp when Circle of Death went off. He thought it was “save for none” instead of “save for half”. Oops. There was some good fun trying to piece together how this maze is laid out and how all the rooms link together. I think they’ve covered about 1/3 to ½ of the rooms. They investigated most of the rooms, but did not follow up on the aura of magic in the blood fountain (Mace of Disruption in the top) or investigate that room (secret passage to dungeon). Oh well! Highlights include dice poker (yahtzee) to see who got the spider climbing armor and who got the ring of sneakiness, and a debate over what to do with a well-crafted 10x10 3D map table of Europe. The barbarian (Russian Orthodox) smashed the location of the Vatican on the map anyway. The session ended with a long rest as the party returned to the Hero’s Feast room from a different direction. Most of them are actually running short on Attunement slots. [/QUOTE]
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