WotBS Oginme's WotBS Campaign

I am about to start running this campaign myself (first long campaign, I usually just do one-shots). Your writes up have very much helped me feel ready to navigate my own PC's into a fun adventure. I would love to see your re-worked maps. I got the module, but have been less than impressed with some of them. (would love a way to tip as well if that's allowed)
I need to find the time to consolidate my session notes and do an update. I have two campaigns of WotBS running right now and it is amazing how much different each is in places.
 

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I wrote or edited the adventures, what, 17 years ago, and yeah, I feel a bit embarrassed by a lot of parts where I think now I could do better.

But I think as long as you involve the players in the setting so they care about the people imperiled by Ragesia, the adventures have plenty of fun elements where the PCs get to make their marks.

Adventure 5 is rather weak, though, I'll admit. I actually was working on some improvements of it here: WotBS - Mission to improve Mission to the Monastery of Two Winds
haha no disrespect, you put in SOOOOOOO much amazing work. Without you this board wouldnt be as active as it is. I love the story and so grateful you adapted it for all of us in 5e! I'm suuuuper visual (as is my party) so most of my prep goes into map/visual making. (its what put me on WoTBS, so much of the story doesnt need to be tweaked its awesome as is!) Its so tedious and I'm at an age now I'd rather pay people to make them for me :ROFLMAO:
 

Sorry, it has been a while since I posted any updates. The following extracted from the recordings along with my alterations and notes.

The party entered the forest, having vowed to stay on the road. It was only about 20 minutes when they came to someone off the road. He appeared to be burning while struggling to get back on the road. As they drew up, they saw him dressed in tattered robes of Gabal’s School of War burst into flames and die within a few seconds, only to repeat itself as the body came back to life.

Crystin drew back from the screams of pain and anguish, while Zander and Griff attempted to try to help. Realizing that they would need to step off the road to reach the student. Checking with Torrent, she advised them that there was not much they could do.

Zander attempted to kill the student, shooting him with several arrows, only to see the process was unchanged, except for the arrows which furthered the pain and agony. Regretting their inability to save the student, they continued along the road.

Along the next half of a mile, they observed other signs of objects which had fallen off the wagon which had passed the farm the night before. Examining a lost backpack which had fallen into the road, they heard a loud screech and saw a small mephit flying towards them with two giant bats which appeared to be engulfed in fire chasing the creature.

Frozen at what to do, they watched as the mephit cried for help, but not wanting to get involved, they saw the fire bats catch the mephit before turning back upon the party. They took down the fire bats with only a few minor burns and continued along the road.

A quarter mile later, they came to a bridge which appeared to be partially broken. As they carefully investigated the bridge, they saw the remains of the wagon at the bottom of the dried-up stream bed with the dead bodies of the remaining students strewn around the debris.

Disregarding the wagon, they sent Chennum across with a rope, followed by Haravandiir, Torrent with Crystin, and Zander. Griff moved across to help secure the rope before Ragna started across. With Ragna being a Minotaur and weighing over 300 lbs, he dared walking closer to the cracked section, eliciting another section to break away and fall into the crevasse below. Ragna scrambled and with the help of the rope, just managed to make it to a solid section as another part of the damaged bridge gave way.

Less than a half mile further along the road, they came to another bridge, and though it appeared intact, they stopped to examine the structural integrity. This was interrupted by a giant hell hound who stepped from the side of the road with a bone in its mouth.

The hell hound stepped to the middle of the bridge and dropped the bone before backing up and then disappearing into the burning forest.

Suspecting that this was a trap, it took them a while to build up the courage to step onto the bridge and walk over to the bone. Haravandiir was about to throw the bone into the dried stream bed below when he saw the writing on it.

With Haravandiir making the crossing successfully and reporting that the bridge was safe, they gathered at the far side and argued about what to do with the box and logbook. During the discussion, Crystin went into another trance, muttering that “the face reveals the true form” repeatedly before the trance subsided.

This broke the discussion, and they decided to continue with Griff carrying the box and Haravandiir retaining the bone.

The party rounded a bend in the road and came upon a bearded devil in the middle of the road who hailed them and asked them if they wished to discuss a simple trade. He gave his name, Kazyk, and offered to help them make it through the forest if they would hand over the box and the logbook.

They questioned him about what type of help he would give them and Kazyk explained that he would help them cease the undying fires which consumed the forest and its inhabitants. They negotiated a bit more before rejecting the offer outright.

During the discussion, they attempted to move closer to Kazyk who was 80 feet away, but each time he warned them that another step and the deal was off. Upon rejection of the offer, Ragna rushed forward and Zander and Haravandiir loosed arrows at Kazyk.

With a snap of his fingers, Kazyk summoned four imps who had been invisible to immediately focus on those members who remained behind, mainly Griff, Chennum, Torrent, and Crystin.

Torrent moved to protect Crystin and Chennum came to Griff’s defense. Kazyk had backed off some more, requiring Ragna to again use his action to move close to Kazyk.
Zander turned back to help Griff fend off the imps. Haravandiir, being quicker, caught up to Kazyk and delivered a blow to the bearded devil.

Kazyk responded by casting misty step and left Ragna and Haravandiir in a small ball of fire to head towards Griff and the others. Reaching Griff as the others ran to catch him, Kazyk connected with both glaive strikes and his beard, bringing Griff close to death.

As Ragna and Haravandiir caught up, Chennum hit Kazyk in defense of Griff and finding himself trapped, Kazyk said he would give them one last chance before teleporting away. Torrent had dumped her highest healing spell into Griff which was the only thing that saved him as the fire washed over the party.

Now badly damaged and limping along, they continued along the road, trying to hurry, but being watchful for more attacks.

A mile further down the road, they came to a stretch where they could see a longer bridge in front of them. As they started down towards the long break in the forest, Crystin called out a warning to Haravandiir, giving him a chance to jump out of the way as a tree crashed across the road, separating Haravandiir and Ragna from the rest of the party.

A couple additional trees fell, and two fire stags appeared behind the party forcing them to fight or flee into the burning trees. Chennum eased the burning by casting rays of frost across each tree at a time, giving them just seconds to pass through the burning limbs.

Just before they were about to cross the last burning tree, the face in the form of a dragon appeared in the fires and offered to protect them from the flames and heat if they went down the river and freed him. The flaming face also offered them a resting place in the destroyed elvish village, just beyond the bridge. It disappeared, not waiting for an answer, but as they yelled a chorus of acceptance, the fires around them diminished just enough to allow them to pass.

At the bridge, they tested the door to the tower in the middle. Already they could feel a lessening of the constant heat around them and took that as a sign that they had made the correct decision of agreeing to the terms of the face in the fire.

Finding the door locked, Haravandiir checked the door for traps and discovered the rune embedded into the door. Disarming the rune with a few marks, he failed to unlock the door, leaving it to Ragna to break it down.

Inside they found the remnants of the last of the elvish guard and a glowing rock with the message to speak friend and enter. Being Tolkien fans, they immediately enjoyed the tip of the hat to the classic and were able to enter the tower without tripping the glyph of warding.

Making their way to the second floor, they found Bhurisrava’s book and message. They checked the desk and discovered the pouch with the seeds and a folded up paper inside. Taking the pouch, they decided to resist taking any of the seeds.

Back out on the bridge, they discussed if they should go upstream or down. Finally they decided that they needed to find a place to take a rest and headed for the elvish village.

Searching through the rubble of the buildings, they found the sylvan necklace and instruments before turning their sights on the shrine to Anyariel. Stepping into the dried out pool, they were accosted by a pair of ghasts who stepped out from behind the tree. This fight did not last long as Ragna waded in and quickly demolished the ghasts.

Discovering and opening the secret hatch which led to the roots of the tree, they descended into the chamber. There they found two bodies, one a Shahalesti soldier with the symbol of the Solei Polencis and the other a red-haired man in priest’s robes with slash marks across its neck and down his arms.

Being younger, Zander did not recognize the uniform, but certainly identified with the emblem of the Solei Polencis on the soldier. This was the source of confusion for the young high elf.

A medicine check of the elvish soldier did not reveal his state, but they felt he was still alive since the body had not dried up or decayed. As they attempted to move the body, a Deva appeared to warn them away from interfering with the man. Talking to the Deva, they were able to convince the creature that they meant no harm, but left the body to check out the glass case.

Checking with the Deva, Griff took the mace which was just inches from the body of the priest. Examining the case, they found a number of golden hairs amid the shards of broken glass. Griff took the hairs and folded them in a piece of parchment, feeling that there was some connection to what was in the case.

With the blue glow and coolness in the underground chamber, they bargained with the Deva to be able to shelter in the shrine for a long rest.


DM notes: I added a lot of visual handouts for this module. Pictures of burning forests, and especially the flaming dragon face really made an impact on their willingness to test leaving the road.

I had remade all the maps, and changed the tower to be only two floors, placing the seeds in the desk drawer.
 

Next Session:

Waking up in the underground section of the shrine, they argued on the direction they should head. A couple of the members thought they should head north, following Bhurisrava’s notes while the rest were more pragmatic and wanted to follow the directions from the fiery face and go south.

Griff attuned to Bhurisrava’s mace, happy to receive the ability to heal without expending a spell slot. They discussed once again if they should try to do anything about the elvish soldier in some type of stasis, despite the presence of the deva, but gave that up, not knowing what to do with the body afterwards if they could not revive it.

They continued discussing their options as they headed back to the bridge to follow the river. They had finally come to the decision to go south with the agreement that they would follow the river north once they had freed the trapped creature.

As they approached the bridge, they observed a thin, winged figure peeking down the walkway which led to the tower. As they drew closer, a few more similar figures appeared, sneaking up on the slender female fey creature.

They stopped, confused, until the first of the ones sneaking up on the fey creature, who was now approaching the door of the tower, attacked her. At that point, they started racing towards the group which now closed in on the wounded woman.

Haravandiir arrived first, placing himself between the rest of the group and the two fighting fey creatures. Ragna ran in and grabbed the assailant, pulling them off of the wounded woman who retreated to the door of the tower. Chenum moved up next to Harvandiir to keep the rest of the attackers from reaching the fey woman. Zander and Griff came up and started questioning what they were doing.

The group of assailants broke out into a chorus of reasons, with most being centered on the victim, named Tiljann, was encouraging the rest of the village to continue singing, against the will of someone named Vuhl.

They explained that they were being forced to sing everyday and Vuhl has suggested that they stop singing. Tiljann was one of the Seela who insisted that they continue to sing, pointing out that she was singing the song of forms even as she left the village herself to explore up the river.

Tiljann was asked about this by Chennum and she responded that there was a creature trapped at the bottom of the lake. The Seela needed to continue singing to hold the creature, because if it left, the Seela would perish as the fire consumed the trees and their lives were tied to the trees.

The four antagonists cut in to insist that there was no proof that the Seela would die if the fires were allowed to burn freely.

When the party asked for more explanations, Tiljann told them they should talk to Popuvin, the Seela leader. Several more minutes of discussion between the three parties ended with them marching downstream with Tiljann leading and the party acting as a barrier between her and her four assailants.

Arriving at the lakeshore where a long beach of sand and ash separated the burning forest from the lake. Small shelters dotted the beach on both sides of the river. A three story tower was set on the edge of the lake and three Seela could be seen on the top singing a repeated song.

Stepping out to greet them was a young, vibrant Seela who introduced himself as Vuhl.

He quickly dismissed the actions of the four assailants, taking the responsibility for talking too metaphorically in his discussions of stopping their plight and gaining freedom.

As he was telling the party about the history of the Seela suffering and the lack of evidence that they would die if the creature were to be let free, Haravandiir grew suspicious of the young looking Seela.

He mentioned this to Chennum and Griff in short whispered conversations, causing them to start questioning the smooth, silky voice of Vuhl.

They were interrupted by a strong but much older Seela who introduced himself as Papuvin, the Seela leader. He told Vuhl to stop spreading his lies among the Seela and causing dissent.

Vuhl stalked off, throwing evil looks at Papuvin. Papuvin told the party of the Elven warrior Anyariel and her fight with the beast who invaded the forest. He described how the creature could change his appearance and took the form of a mighty stag.

The stag and Anyariel fought with the Elven warrior coaxing the creature to the shoreline. There the Seela joined together to sing the song of forms, locking the creature into its chosen form as a stag and Anyariel impaled it using the weapon given to her by her lover.

With the creature held captive and pinned to the earth of the forest, its influence soon became apparent, as living things connected to the forest were unexpectedly prevented from dying. When the fires were started in the forest by the goblins, the creature again prevented the forest from being consumed by the fires, but that also trapped the other creatures within the forest, burning.

Split in who to believe, the party was offered to spend the night on the beach with the Seela. That night, they were approached by Vuhl who told them that the only way they could escape the forest was to free the creature at the bottom of the lake, and the first step to do that was to kill the dryad who protected an old tree about a third of the way around the lake.

He assured them that they would be doing her a favor by putting her out of her misery.

These comments elicited another examination by Haravandiir and again, he saw signs that Vuhl was playing them false. As Vuhl slipped off into the night, Haravandiir addressed the others, saying that he noted a few times when Vuhl appeared to be lying.

He suggested that they go see this dryad, but keep an open mind and listen to what she had to say, which was quickly agreed upon by the rest of the party.

The next morning, they received directions from Papuvin to visit the dryad and he told them that she protected the one tree which enabled the Seela to be bonded to the land. Without her protection, he warned, the Seela would die.

At this point, everyone is making an insight check and no one detected any sign that Papuvin was being honest in his statements. Confused, they talked as they waded along the edge of the lake towards the Dryad’s refuge.

DM notes: This was a very RP heavy session, with the party talking through what they had encountered. They questioned the Seela for a long time before drawing any conclusion. Haravandiir’s insight into Vuhl’s nature was interesting, as he mostly kept the information quiet, talking to each character as they were able to withdraw from the party conversation.

I had changed the image of Vuhl, making him a younger, more likeable figure, which led to much consternation over Haravandiir’s comments that he was trying to deceive them.

My changing the image is not unusual, as I searched around for images which I think fit each of the important NPCs and many of the minor NPCs. For the most part, I keep the images to match their descriptions, but this was one case where the image I found reinforced Deception’s abilities.
 


That last one was, I think, about four hours. It is sometimes difficult to recall, as I generally speed up the recordings and drop out the beginning banter.

This group is very invested in the story and game which helps a lot also. They spend a short time debating actions OOC, then RP the interaction and adjust their actions/questions/comments on the fly.
 

That last one was, I think, about four hours. It is sometimes difficult to recall, as I generally speed up the recordings and drop out the beginning banter.

This group is very invested in the story and game which helps a lot also. They spend a short time debating actions OOC, then RP the interaction and adjust their actions/questions/comments on the fly.
Ah, makes sense. My players (in both of my groups) take a long time to make decisions OOC :p.
 

Ah, makes sense. My players (in both of my groups) take a long time to make decisions OOC :p.
These people have been playing together for 4 years now. They get along well and know how each is going to react to things which happen in the game.

My second group is more chaotic. No one wants to assume a leadership position, so actions come at the end of a long discussion with many halts and silent moments waiting for everyone to chime in.

I started a third campaign the other week which will be very interesting. Group of experienced players, but they have always defaulted to being semi-murder hobos. They had come to me most of the way through another campaign when their DM had to step down. After learning a lot about taking the time to find out what is really going on, understanding that moral dilemma require more thought, and realizing they are not the strong bad-asses they thought themselves to be they wanted a campaign where there was more of an opportunity to RP through some encounters.
 

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