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Running player commentary on PCat's 4E Campaign - Heroic tier (finished)
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<blockquote data-quote="Piratecat" data-source="post: 4849387" data-attributes="member: 2"><p>Sagiro has a work deadline this week (even cancelling his game tomorrow), so I think I'll write this up and nab the bonus action point that I normally give Sagiro for my monsters instead. Bwah ha ha. First some plot background, then some analysis. Folks reading this may come to some conclusions as to what's going on, but please don't share any spoiler-y predictions in this thread if you do.</p><p></p><p>Plot background: The PCs have clues that a woman (swamp hag?) named Alene seems to be behind the recent lizardman invasion because she needed something in Floodford and wanted time to find it. They aren't sure where Alene is or what she looks like. Out in her lair in the Bubbling Fens, the PCs had found a rubbing of an old map; after checking with a local scholar the map showed an ancient shrine of Demis (the goddess of Agriculture) in relation to the Grey Guard tower in Floodford. Last game they disarmed a trap, found the old mausoleum of Floodford's fabled "guardian angel" named Aleph and activated a teleporter in an empty coffin.</p><p></p><p>This game we started by the group entering the teleporter one by one. I asked each to make a secret choice: 1, 2 or neither. Choice one or two brought them (at half hit points) squeezed out of a cobblestone in one of Floodford's squares; choice "neither" brought them out of both cobblestones at once, at zero hp and dying. As Sagiro said at the time, "Worst dungeon <em>ever.</em>" After they saved the dying, a local beggar informed them that (a) some very angry woman had tried this twice before (Alene?), and that the cobblestones had come from a dungeon (underneath a nearby smokehouse) that was discovered years ago by adventurers, before it was completely stripped of anything useful. </p><p></p><p>Conclusion? That teleporter was supposed to lead into the old dungeon, but whoever reused the stones flummoxed up the magic.</p><p></p><p>The PCs sweet-talked the bar's owner, got into the bare sub-basement (now full of beer kegs), found another secret trapdoor that had been missed, opened the trapdoor with a prayer, and dropped down into a sub-sub basement that looked like nothing more than an underdark version of a zen garden: phosphorescent moss paths, blind and vicious koi, blind flocks of sparrows, and lots of large mushrooms (including some small motile ones.) Statues rose up out of the darkness; <a href="http://www.painetworks.com/photos/hc/hc1711.JPG" target="_blank">one in particular</a> showing hundreds of people climbing atop one another. The PCs were moving to examine the central pagoda when they were attacked by the aforementioned Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, along with the darkswallow swarm.</p><p></p><p>They examined the pagoda post fight, where a weed-encrusted sword in a jeweled scabbard floated in mid-air. They heard a voice:</p><p></p><p>[sblock]<em>"I greet myself upon my return. You have found the Furrow, our home and refuge, as we have hundreds of times in our past. I imagine you were reborn from the sacred circle of earth that Demis has granted us here, or perhaps you have followed the clues that a previous incarnation of ourselves has laid down. That's what I had to do. I imagine you are confused. I was as well when I was reborn. You may pick whatever name you like, but in your heart you are Aleph, sacred warrior of the Goddess Demis and an angel clothed in flesh. It is your soul's sworn duty to combat the taint of the soil and to further the worship of the Goddess in whatever way you can. This may mean smiting her enemies, or a peaceful promoting of her interests. That is up to you to decide your own path. Do not stray towards corruption.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>In this place you will find the tools you need to start our new life, and upstairs are many diaries. Read them when you can, and add to them. Other refuges that you may eventually remember hold everything that has served us over the millennia: our art, our statuary, our wealth, our clothing, and our secrets. Find them and you will gain strength, but your true strength comes from Demis. </em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>There are guardians in the garden, but they will respond to you once you identify yourself. My memories are a part of you; you will soon know if you are making all your past incarnations proud."</em></p><p><em></em>[/sblock]We ended with movement in the darkness as something large, something distinctly mushroom-shaped, moved forward to attack.</p><p></p><p>Analysis? The mystery part went beautifully, with the players making good and interesting guesses as to what was going on. I ran a mini-skill challenge (difficulty 1) in the bar as the PCs had to tell a riveting story of monster-hunting in order to gain admission to the sub-basement (discrediting Runcible Parsons in the process.) Lots of social skill uses, and the heal skill ended up saving a life after the teleporter. Two character are eyeing the new Eberron alchemy rules with interest, and Dr. Caldwell changed his multiclass feat from cleric to artificer to better model his use of alchemy and medicine when healing.</p><p></p><p>It'll take us a bit to get used to how the shaman's spirit companion works. No one is used to those rules, so there was some confusion and fumbling. I'll probably make up a summary card for people and hang it on my DM screen.</p><p></p><p>And man, that fight with the WISC was a sad thing. Most of that was the daze (can you spend action points for extra actions while dazed? I didn't, thinking it wasn't legal, and perhaps should have.) and me slightly messing up auras; the encounter would have benefited greatly by a previously drawn battlemap and by using the transparent aura/blast templates in the 4e Battlebox. Sic transit my awesome, goofy 1e monster. Until next time!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Piratecat, post: 4849387, member: 2"] Sagiro has a work deadline this week (even cancelling his game tomorrow), so I think I'll write this up and nab the bonus action point that I normally give Sagiro for my monsters instead. Bwah ha ha. First some plot background, then some analysis. Folks reading this may come to some conclusions as to what's going on, but please don't share any spoiler-y predictions in this thread if you do. Plot background: The PCs have clues that a woman (swamp hag?) named Alene seems to be behind the recent lizardman invasion because she needed something in Floodford and wanted time to find it. They aren't sure where Alene is or what she looks like. Out in her lair in the Bubbling Fens, the PCs had found a rubbing of an old map; after checking with a local scholar the map showed an ancient shrine of Demis (the goddess of Agriculture) in relation to the Grey Guard tower in Floodford. Last game they disarmed a trap, found the old mausoleum of Floodford's fabled "guardian angel" named Aleph and activated a teleporter in an empty coffin. This game we started by the group entering the teleporter one by one. I asked each to make a secret choice: 1, 2 or neither. Choice one or two brought them (at half hit points) squeezed out of a cobblestone in one of Floodford's squares; choice "neither" brought them out of both cobblestones at once, at zero hp and dying. As Sagiro said at the time, "Worst dungeon [i]ever.[/i]" After they saved the dying, a local beggar informed them that (a) some very angry woman had tried this twice before (Alene?), and that the cobblestones had come from a dungeon (underneath a nearby smokehouse) that was discovered years ago by adventurers, before it was completely stripped of anything useful. Conclusion? That teleporter was supposed to lead into the old dungeon, but whoever reused the stones flummoxed up the magic. The PCs sweet-talked the bar's owner, got into the bare sub-basement (now full of beer kegs), found another secret trapdoor that had been missed, opened the trapdoor with a prayer, and dropped down into a sub-sub basement that looked like nothing more than an underdark version of a zen garden: phosphorescent moss paths, blind and vicious koi, blind flocks of sparrows, and lots of large mushrooms (including some small motile ones.) Statues rose up out of the darkness; [url=http://www.painetworks.com/photos/hc/hc1711.JPG]one in particular[/url] showing hundreds of people climbing atop one another. The PCs were moving to examine the central pagoda when they were attacked by the aforementioned Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, along with the darkswallow swarm. They examined the pagoda post fight, where a weed-encrusted sword in a jeweled scabbard floated in mid-air. They heard a voice: [sblock][i]"I greet myself upon my return. You have found the Furrow, our home and refuge, as we have hundreds of times in our past. I imagine you were reborn from the sacred circle of earth that Demis has granted us here, or perhaps you have followed the clues that a previous incarnation of ourselves has laid down. That's what I had to do. I imagine you are confused. I was as well when I was reborn. You may pick whatever name you like, but in your heart you are Aleph, sacred warrior of the Goddess Demis and an angel clothed in flesh. It is your soul's sworn duty to combat the taint of the soil and to further the worship of the Goddess in whatever way you can. This may mean smiting her enemies, or a peaceful promoting of her interests. That is up to you to decide your own path. Do not stray towards corruption. In this place you will find the tools you need to start our new life, and upstairs are many diaries. Read them when you can, and add to them. Other refuges that you may eventually remember hold everything that has served us over the millennia: our art, our statuary, our wealth, our clothing, and our secrets. Find them and you will gain strength, but your true strength comes from Demis. There are guardians in the garden, but they will respond to you once you identify yourself. My memories are a part of you; you will soon know if you are making all your past incarnations proud." [/i][/sblock]We ended with movement in the darkness as something large, something distinctly mushroom-shaped, moved forward to attack. Analysis? The mystery part went beautifully, with the players making good and interesting guesses as to what was going on. I ran a mini-skill challenge (difficulty 1) in the bar as the PCs had to tell a riveting story of monster-hunting in order to gain admission to the sub-basement (discrediting Runcible Parsons in the process.) Lots of social skill uses, and the heal skill ended up saving a life after the teleporter. Two character are eyeing the new Eberron alchemy rules with interest, and Dr. Caldwell changed his multiclass feat from cleric to artificer to better model his use of alchemy and medicine when healing. It'll take us a bit to get used to how the shaman's spirit companion works. No one is used to those rules, so there was some confusion and fumbling. I'll probably make up a summary card for people and hang it on my DM screen. And man, that fight with the WISC was a sad thing. Most of that was the daze (can you spend action points for extra actions while dazed? I didn't, thinking it wasn't legal, and perhaps should have.) and me slightly messing up auras; the encounter would have benefited greatly by a previously drawn battlemap and by using the transparent aura/blast templates in the 4e Battlebox. Sic transit my awesome, goofy 1e monster. Until next time! [/QUOTE]
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Running player commentary on PCat's 4E Campaign - Heroic tier (finished)
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