#not that all my npcs are men the ones i introduced this session just happen to be | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

ironmandeficiency · 4 years ago

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tf boys + dnd headcanons (bc i clearly have nothing better to do)

pairings: benny miller / reader (romantic) but platonic w the rest of the tf boys

word count: i’m typing this in the post itself good luck fuckers

summary: i got nothing y’all. just know that benny & will have a little extra info idk why

a/n: i’m semi-new to dnd but i’m armed w the player’s handbook and google so i will do my best

benny: i think dnd was a guilty pleasure for him during high school. yeah he was seen as a Hot Popular Guy™️ and played football and baseball, but there is and always has been a nerd living in that heart of gold. had one (1) set of dice he used for every campaign and even kept them with him when deployed. he joined a campaign for the first time in years after coming back from The Mission That Shall Not Be Named™️. creating new characters & a homebrew or two became a way for him to cope with everything that happened there and heal.

details abt (one of) benny’s character(s):

half-orc barbarian-bard multiclass, affectionately known as a bardbarian

college of lore + berserker pathways

himbo af and benny laughs a lot when he gets to act out said himboness

character has a tendency to start bar fights if his talent is questioned, and usually it’s beating them with his fists and/or lute. there’s an npc that owns an instrument shop the half-orc frequents that gives him a glare every time but will always repair or replace said lute

uses vicious mockery against the BBG (big bad guy) every time they face a new one and the guys have never laughed so hard at benny’s random insults

focuses more on utility spells bc it’s just that easy for him to beat the hell out of someone with fists and weapons. becomes a jack of all trades kind of guy (similar to irl) and enjoys the “oh shit he can do that?” questions when he pulls off an intricate

when you offhandedly mention dnd night with your friends while planning for a date, benny’s eyes go wide. “you play dnd?! why didn’t you tell me earlier, lovebug? i love dnd!” precious baby boy will gush abt his first campaign back in high school and find his first set of dice to show you. he’s excited bc dnd is now another thing you can do together as a couple. will ask if you two can make characters with interlocking backstories 🥺

will: he didn’t play in high school but knew some guys in basic training that played who explained the basics to him and his first thought was “oh benny would love this” bc he knows his brother that well benny never had the heart to tell will that he had been playing dnd for years before will told him abt it so will takes credit for introducing benny to dnd. didn’t join a campaign but a character was built & he was gifted a set of dice from that group’s dm in case he ever wanted to start. ends up taking this character with him when he joins one of your campaigns and enjoys it a lot more than he thought he would

details abt will’s character:

goliath male, abt 7’8” and 300ish lbs bc he a big chonk

ranger-fighter multiclass — “warrior who used martial prowess and nature magic to combat threats on the edge of civilization” & “master of martial combat, skilled with a variety of weapons and armor” (pg. 45, dnd player’s handbook)

you can’t tell me that william miller wouldn’t enjoy the FUCK out of this combo without your pants catching fire

favored terrain: mountain, forest at level 6, and arctic at level 10

fighting style: two-weapon fighting

archetype: beast master. prefers a wolf, hawk, or mule companion but isn’t too picky

less of an emphasis on strength (goliath characters already get +1 to strength & rangers need more dexterity and wisdom anyways); instead, put his higher stat rolls into dex, wisdom, and constitution

you mention dnd early in getting to know will partly to just make conversation (and to snuff out whether he was the kind of guy to look down on the game as a whole). he tells you abt benny and a few of his army friends that played, and that he didn’t consider himself a player bc he hadn’t used his character yet. you called bullshit and, after getting him to play once, discovered that will would make a fabulous dm. his memory? impeccable. session plans? infallible, no matter what the party can improvise. is somehow always able to steer the party in the direction he needs them to go without being forceful. no one has ever heard a “you can certainly try” sound so encouraging yet foreboding at the same time.

frankie: poor man is absolutely clueless. he joins in on the dnd fun bc he saw how excited benny was and figured that it would be better than sitting at home by himself watching western reruns. ends up being inspired by said westerns (namely “the rifleman”) when creating his character and is crossing his fingers the entire time hoping that no one calls him on the similarities. despite the emphasis placed on charisma, he’s drawn to the paladin class bc of their self-chosen holy quest and the desire to vanquish evil (trauma 🥺). is learning how spells work as he goes and is frequently apologizing for holding up the session bc of this.

details abt frankie’s character:

half-elf paladin male

neutral good alignment

worships helm, god of protection (forgotten realms)

strength & charisma highest stats

protection fighting style

takes the oath of vengeance — “a solemn commitment to punish those who have committed a grevious sin” (phb, pg. 87). the character’s own purity is inferior to serving the justice they believe is required. to me, this just SCREAMS frankie

with the guidance of helm, his character became the sole caretaker to a child whose village was slaughtered by his character’s sworn enemy. strives to defeat said sworn enemy both in the name of his adopted son’s lost family & simply bc helm was like “dude you gotta stop this guy” shortly before frankie’s character found the child

has a bunch of healing & defense spells instead of combat spells bc why would he need combat spells if he can just fuck someone up with a weapon of choice?

santiago: like frankie, santi was absolutely clueless. but unlike frankie, he did a fuck ton of research during the days leading to the first night of the campaign. he he showed up after actually having done research with a well-rounded character with fitting stats and an intriguing backstory. does what a lot of men can’t and won’t by giving the party a female that is a genuine badass and respected for her badassery instead of being talked down to simply bc she’s a female. enjoys putting feline tendencies into his rp and the guys make cat jokes a lot.

details abt santiago’s character:

female tabaxi monk, way of the open hand

chaotic neutral alignment

was raised in the monastery and became a teacher in the ways for a short time. left the monastery after her curiosity revealed corruption within the ranks & was only allowed to leave freely under the condition of not telling anyone what she found

she was called back to teach when a sickness took down a lot of the elders and despite the reluctance, when she learned her mentor was sick, she went back. taught until his death and is in search of a medicine to save the monastery

her curiosity is fueled by her passion to learn everything she can. sometimes this gets her into some shenanigans but nothing too bad

triple frontier taglist: @pedropasscals @max--phillips @likeshootingstarsinthenightsky @obirain @themarcusmoreno @catsnkooks @battletales @darthadeline @jedi-mando @book-of-anarchy @andysficrecs @purelypascal @whovianwar @lv7867 @kaermorons @princess76179 @greeneyedblondie44

#triple frontier imagine #triple frontier hc #triple frontier #frankie morales #will miller #william ironhead miller #benny miller #santiago garcia #santiago pope garcia #francisco catfish morales #dungeons and dragons #jay plays dnd #dnd

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general-mahamatra · 5 years ago

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Oops

So I am the DM of what was initially a joke and is now a seriously fun AU that is

Newsies in an Infinite IKEA.

I felt like sharing them with y’all, but I’ll go ahead and toss everything under the line to keep this from being much clutter. But first, here are the characters (and their play-by!)

Davey: Cleric -- @musicals-and-zazz Race: Thief (Rogue) -- @alltherays Smalls: Bard -- @albert-eats-cookie-cake Specs: Cleric -- @snakeyboimusical Spot: Barbarian -- @sweeps-of-london

<NPCS>

Jed: Guard ?????: ?? ???????: ??

?????: 65% (Medium) ???????: 32% (Low)

Welcome to the Infinite Ikea. As everyone knows, Ikea is massive and full of insane furniture and items with such weird names that if you tried to pronounce them, you’d summon a demon. But sometimes… sometimes it’s a bit too big. On the outside, it’s not that bad. It’s the size of a normal Ikea but with some exceptions. It is surrounded by a massive chain link fence and there is only one entrance: the main entrance. There are no garages for deliveries or side entrances for emergencies. There is only the massive door in the front of the building. Two men clad in black and holding guns stand on either side of the doors. You are huddled in the bushes outside of the fence. What will you do?

Spot, Smalls, and Specs try to enter IKEA through the front gate.

Spot and Specs insist upon needing to use the bathroom

Race is hella annoyed

Spot gets shot and killed by a guard

Return to the Beginning

Spot, Smalls, and Specs try to enter IKEA through the front gate

Smalls is on Spot’s shoulders it’s kinda cute

Spot asks if IKEA is open

Jed says “No”

They keep pressing that it’s open and Jed keeps saying no

With Jed distracted, Race climbs the fence and manages to sneak around behind the guards

Of course, Race was extra when he climbed the fence and flipped off of it. Style points.

Spot puts down Smalls and tries to go pee in a bush but he just kinda... he doesn’t pee

Race sneaks up behind Guard 2 and elbows him in the back of the head

Guard 2 falls pretty hard and hits his head on the cement, knocking him out

Race tries to do it again to Jed but just ends up tapping him on the back

Jed turns around and stares at Race, asking "How the fuck did you get in here?", trailing off when he sees his unconscious buddy. When he notices, he takes the defensive and swings his gun, hitting Race in the head.

Race took 5 damage

Race tries to lie and say he works at the IKEA

Smalls tries to play their kazoo to distract Jed

The kazoo distracts Jed and he doesn’t notice Spot climbing over the fence

Specs tries to climb the fence as well but gets caught on the chain link. His shirt starts to rip but he pulls himself free and gets over

Spot tries to go after Jed and take him out

Spot barely missed Jed, his attack just swiping by the guard

Smalls keeps trying to distract the guard

Jed is still pretty distracted but is just aware enough to swing at Spot. Only Jed fails miserably and ends up shooting himself in the leg

Race gets back to his feet but is whining like a little bitch in pain. He swings for Jed, as does Spot

Neither land hits and Jed swings for Spot again but his attempt was feeble and he missed by at least two feet

Smalls pulls out their Otamatone to distract Jed even more

It works and Jed gains disadvantage

Specs swings for Jed and lands a hit

Jed took 2 damage

Spot tries to disarm Jed and take his gun

Jed, some how holy mother of God, dodges out of the was of Spot and keeps his gun

it’s really important to me that i just share this with you guys. these were the two rolls for jed with disadvantage in order to keep his gun. (spot rolled an 18)

okay let’s continue

Race tries to swing at Jed with a knife

Race fuckin’ missed like RIP dude

Specs tries to disarm Jed since Spot failed

Specs is successful and the gun goes flying

Race tries to punch Jed in the head but misses like the little bitch he is

Specs also tries to punch Jed in the head but his punch misses so badly and it had so much force behind it that it sent Specs flying with his own momentum

Smalls tries to politely ask to get through to avoid the violence: "can i please go through pretty please with a cherry on top of a banana sundae"

Jed says “No, you cannot”

Spot tries to put Jed in a chokehold and it works

Specs tries to kick Jed in the gut and the hit lands

Jed took 3 damage

Smalls politely asks to get through again: "if you let me through you will be the literal best-"

It works perfectly. "I mean, sure, why not. It's not going to be my fault when you guys die."

The group questions why they would die, Jed simply says "No one comes back out. Go before I change my mind."

Spot grabs the discarded gun (AK - 103) and somehow puts it in his backpack. Magic backpack

The group enters the IKEA

When the group goes inside, they are greeted by a pitch black IKEA. The only light source they have is the doors behind them casting the bright LED light onto the cash registers before them. Everything was completely empty and eerie.

The group tries to find a light switch but do not find one

Smalls lights a piece of paper on fire and they are able to see a little bit more

Specs does a cartwheel for no reason and falls halfway through, hitting his head on the floor

Specs took 2 damage

The group bickers while Spot tries to search for useful stuff

Spot finds half a roll of one-ply toilet paper and an IKEA hat

Specs follows suit and does the same

Specs finds half a roll of one-ply toilet paper and a little party hat

Race is a bit more suspicious but explores as well

Race finds a children's book titled ‘Good Night Moon’ and a pile of small bones

Race questions the group on who they are, they start to bicker some more

Race is recognized as a popular TikTok creator by Specs and Smalls. Davey and Spot have no idea who he is

They all introduce themselves

Davey takes the lead so the group can explore

When the group begins to wander away from the front door, the IKEA seems to grow darker. Soon enough the light source fades away and all they have is the quickly dwindling flame from Smalls. Spot gets the urge to try and go back.

Spot tries to go back and find an exit despite the protests of the group (Smalls is back on Spot’s shoulders by this time)

When Spot rounds the corner they just came from, instead of finding the front doors he comes face to face with more pitch black. But, because he had Smalls with him, he could see it was just isles of pots and pans. The front doors were gone.

Davey joins the two

Spot panics because the front entrance is now gone

Specs tries to stay behind but gets yelled at by Race and joins them

The group bickers about where the exit is supposed to be and how Spot must’ve taken a wrong turn

Everyone hears the faint voice of someone though they can't understand what they're saying. Davey, though, hears something along the lines of "The store -- exit -- building"

Everyone stops to listen to the faint voices

Race asks what it said and Davey repeats the chopped up dialogue

Spot shouts at the voice for it to speak up

"The store -- exit -- building" It was a bit louder this time.

The group starts to be iffy, commenting about how they’re being stalked

"The store -- closed, please exit -- building"

Race gets angry and shouts back at the voice

"The store -- closed, please exit -- building"

Specs comments about it possibly being a labyrinth

Checkpoint 1

The group agrees to try and find and exit

Spot thinks the voice is friendly

Race hears a voice that tells him to “Run” and he grows anxious, insisting that the group needs to run

The voice keeps repeating itself over and over, growing louder as the group stands around and argues about what to do. Some want to run while others want to stay.

Race’s panic and insistence on running starts to freak out the other group members

"The store is currently closed, please exit the building"

Davey yells at it to shut up

Davey hears the voice that Race did telling him to “Shut up, it hears you”

Davey is now freaked out and tries to silence the other group members

Race keeps trying to convince the rest of the group to run because he’s a scared little bitch

"The store is currently closed, please exit the building" The voice is much closer now, almost as if it's around the corner.

Davey keeps telling people to shut up because goddamn, Spot doesn’t know how to be quiet

Race hears the voice telling him to run again he screams and books it into the darkness

Davey and Spot chase after Race (after Spot set Smalls down)

Spot tells Davey to stay with Smalls

Davey goes back

Race is terrified and insists that they need to leave and Spot just kinda picks him up

Oh yeah they basically switched heights in this lol

"The store is currently closed, please exit the building"

The rest of the group joins Spot and Race

"The store is currently closed, please exit the building" "Please exit the building, we are now closed." There's two voices now.

Spot sets Race down but Race panics more and grabs Spot

"The store is currently closed, please exit the building" "Please exit the building, we are now closed."

Everyone books it

When the group takes off, two figures round the corner, the voices coming directly from them. One was tall...at least, its torso was. It had to be seven feet tall, its hands stretching all the way down to its knees. Of all of its height, his legs were only two feet. Its hands were the size of melons and its skin was white. And its face? There was nothing. It was flat and voice of all features. The other one was just as tall but more legs than torso. It looked vaguely more human than the other but with hands just as big and a bit wider. Both of them were dressed like IKEA workers. "The store is currently closed, please exit the building" "Please exit the building, we are now closed."

The group stops running and Race continues to panic like wtf he’s such scaredy cat. Smalls is literally just playing on Spot’s switch right now in Specs’ arms while everything is happening.

The voice Davey and Race could hear is loud enough for everyone to hear now. It whisper-yells, "RUN!"

The group listens and runs again

The humanoid figures faded behind the corner but one of them snapped their head in the direction of the group. "The store is currently closed, please exit the building" "Please exit the building, we are now closed."

Davey tells everyone to shut up again as if that’s gonna be any help

Race runs into a shelf

Specs makes fun of him

Davey forces Race to keep moving

The sounds of pounding footsteps came up behind them: the humanoids were running.

Spot stops running and instead charges at the humanoid workers, screaming at the top of his lungs with a frying pan. Who knows where he got it cause I don’t

Race screams so much he's literally like a little girl but he manages to muffle it and grabs onto Davey for dear life

Specs grabs a castiron skillet

Another large figure jumped down from one of the shelves, landing squarely on the mostly torso humanoid on all fours. No one could make out what creature it was, but one of the humanoids were down. The other kept charging the group. "Please exit the building, we are now closed."

Spot and Davey each try to attack the IKEAN but miss

The IKEAN misses its attack on Spot as well

Specs and Race both try to attack as well, both of them missing

Spot was close with his next attack but the IKEAN dodged out of the way just in time

Davey misses

The IKEAN misses Spot again

Specs aims for the IKEAN’s head with his skillet

Specs hits

IKEAN took 1 damage

Race misses

Spot misses

Davey finds a pan lying around and tries to hit the IKEAN with the pan

Davey hits

IKEAN took 3 damage

The IKEAN turns on Davey and swings at him

It hits

Davey took 4 damage

Specs lands another hit with a different pan

IKEAN took 3 damage

Race tries to swipe at the humanoid’s throat with his knife

Race completely misses and the humanoid actually swats him away, sending him sailing back towards where the creature is tearing into the other humanoid

Spot attacks the IKEAN again

Spot hits

IKEAN took 5 damage

Davey lands another hit

IKEAN took 6 damage

Specs successfully hits the IKEAN again

IKEAN took 3 damage

Spot missed again, just barely missing the humanoid

Davey missed again

The IKEAN misses Spot again

Whatever was mauling the other humanoid seemed to be barely paying attention. In fact, it barely registered that one of the humanoids arms got flung at Race who was now only a couple feet away.

Race is SHOOK TM and stares at the creature

The creature looked up, green, cat-like eyes somehow barely reflecting the light from Smalls' fire. When it made eye contact with Race, it darted away, disappearing in the dark and leaving the dead humanoid.

Race tries to communicate with the creature but it’s gone by the time he talks

Spot is running around the IKEAN making it dizzy and look stupid

The voice comes back to Race. It says: “Run. Run while you can.”

The voice is then with Spot. “Aim for the neck.”

Spot gains advantage for the rest of the battle

Spot honestly just sucks and still can’t hit the IKEAN

Race is about to run

A pair of hands press against Race’s back and whispers to him, “Not yet.”

Spot jumps on the IKEAN’s back

Spot grabs it by the collar of it's shirt, riding it like a beautiful fucking horse, and hitting it with reckless abandon

Spot is basically just playing the drums though and the IKEAN throws him off

Davey throws another pan and it hits

IKEAN took 1 damage

From somewhere in the shelves, an arrow comes flying and lodges itself directly in the skull of the humanoid. It stops flailing around and stops talking in that kind voice before falling to the ground with a thud.

Checkpoint 2

Spot is on the ground just dying like damn son

Davey is running around asking if anyone needs healing

No, there is no Genji

Spot makes some clever comments and breaks the fourth wall

Race is all “What the fuck is that thing?” About the dead IKEAN

The arrow appears to be made out of some sort of stainless steel attached to some sort of wooden dowel. The feathers on the end weren't even feathers, instead crude pieces of paper somehow attached to the wood. It was clear through the thing's head.

Davey take the arrow

A weird goopy residue covers the entire arrow. It's also sticky and white have fun.

Spot kicks the IKEAN’s body

Race begins to wonder if it means someone is on their side. “But this means someone else is on our side, right?”

Davey questions who else could possibly be there. "Who would come in this hellhole? Other than us, because you're all idiots."

An arrow thunked into a box on a shelf right next to Smalls who probably didn't react.

Spot immediately grabs Smalls and protects them

Davey and Race are really suspicious about the arrows

As Race glanced towards the arrow, the same set of green cat eyes appears behind Smalls.

Spot pulls Smalls away and stares at the eyes

The eyes turn towards Spot, staring for a few seconds before closing and disappearing.

Davey and Race try to figure out what to do when the voice returns and says “Hide.”

Davey suggests they climb and they do

First, Spot tries to grab the arrow and follow the eyes but the arrow is gone and the eyes too

The group brushes it off and climbs higher into the shelves

Race is short and gets a boost from Davey and Spot pulls him up

Another arrow lands near them, this time nearly hitting Spot and jamming into another box.

Davey grabs the arrow and examines it

In the metal arrow tip, there was an engraving: J.K.

They make it to the top and sit around using the small flame for a light as well as Spot’s switch

Davey brings this to the attention of the group

Spot thinks it’s J.K. Rowling

It’s not

Davey hands Race the arrow

The eyes appear behind Race, almost as if looking at the arrow.

The group reacts quickly, Spot grabbing Race, Race squeaking and panicking, and Davey being confused because he’s blind or something

They talk to the eyes, learning that the voice belongs to them

The group learns that whoever the eyes belong to knows one of the members

Davey tries to ask for its name but gets no straight answer

“You don’t know me.” It was a statement of fact, not a question. “You never did.”

Davey asks if it knows who J.K. is

“A friend.”

Davey questions if the eyes want the arrow. It does.

Davey: "I don't mean to be rude, but why are you talking to us? We're not exactly useful."

The eyes narrowed but no more questions came. A hand reached out from behind Race to grab the arrow but they missed because Race happened to move it. It didn't answer Davey.

The group notices and Race squeaks like a little mouse again

The very human-like hand quickly pulled back, retreating into the darkness.

Spot is weirdly entranced in the cat eyes it’s pretty funny

Race asks what the eyes want and they reply with “Nothing.”

Davey figures out it’s lying

The eyes don’t tell the truth

Race: “We were being shot at ten seconds ago! I think we deserve some answers!”

Another arrow landed in the box next to Race, all while the eyes stared at him. It had the same carving as the arrow Davey had.

Davey tries to make a deal with the eyes where they keep one arrow and give the other to the eyes

It fails

The eyes need them both

They come up with another deal

The two arrows for help and trust

The eyes ask how old everyone is and quickly starts to grow confused

Davey is 19

Race is 16 (Lied about being 18 but the eyes knew it was a lie)

Specs is 19

Smalls and Spot don’t answer

The eyes glanced around at the group, narrowing slightly. The voice seemed to have soften, a more human voice with confusion poking through. “That can’t be right.”

The group was confused

“You should be younger...” The hand took the arrow from Race without any hesitation and then the arrow from Davey.

Davey asks for the voice’s pronouns. They eyes don’t care.

The eyes disappeared

The group bickers some more

Spot tries to climb back down into the store

A hand grabs spot by the back of the shirt, reaching out from the darkness. “Don’t go down.”

Spot complains and asks why

“Be quiet and listen.” If they're quiet, the members can hear another faint voice of a worker.

The group goes quiet and listens and Race is a whiny little child and wants to go home

The slow thud of heavy footsteps passed below them. If they looked, they would see another white humanoid in an IKEA uniform.

The group is :o

The hand let go of Spot once the humanoid was gone. “Never go down in the dark.”

The group learns about the day and night cycle

"You stop telling time when you've been here this long."

Specs: "Is there anything we can use to tell how much time has passed, like if those things walk by on an hourly basis?"

"There is no rhyme or reason."

A small cat darts into the light illuminating the group. Green eyes gaze up at Davey. “You.” Yes, its mouth moved.

Davey: "Me?"

"What is your name."

Davey tells the cat his name.

The cat turned towards Race, its tail flicking. Its ginger fur seemed to stand out in the light of the flickering flame; an orange tabby. “And you?”

The cat makes its way around the group, its large green eyes illuminated by the light, just as piercing as the ones that followed the group around.

When the cat gets to Spot, Spot has a counter

Spot refuses to tell the cat his name unless he gets a name from the cat

The cat slithered back into the darkness, returning to a pair of eyes that were definitely far to high up to be right. “Why should I tell you?”

Spot: "Well, if you want my name so bad, I'd only be fair if I knew yours."

The voice went silent for a bit before finally saying, “Talon.”

#newsies #newsies dnd #god this took forever to transcribe #it was worth it #have fun with this

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multimask · 7 years ago

Note

For the DnD ask: 1,2, and 13

1. A favorite character you have played.

A favorite character I’ve played would have to be my current character, partly because they’re the one who’s gotten the most playtime in a campaign. They’re a wood elf ranger with a fascination in fire. I’ll describe them in a bit more down the post.

2. Your favorite character that someone else has played.

That would probably be Mollymauk Tealeaf being played by Taliesin Jaffe on Critical Role Season 2. Molly is an incredibly amusing tiefling, and I can’t wait to learn more about that character.

Not going with streamed campaigns, it would 100% be Ruby. She was a sorceress, but should have been a bard, made by a friend for his first time playing. Ruby will seduce all of the things, and she’s going to be making an appearance (properly built as a bard) as an NPC in a session starting in the fall. The session that saw her was incredibly amusing, and full of antics, and I’m excited to see her again, even if it’s just as an NPC.

13. Introduce your current party.

My current party is a blast. Technically, I’m in three parties right now, but I’m going to introduce my ranger’s party since that’s the one that’s seen the most play. There have been a few joke nicknames tossed about that they players use to refer to us: Team Pyro, or Team Z are the two most common, though we do now have an official in-game team moniker.

Meet The Silver Foxes:

To begin, there is the moon elf wizard who is a former prostitute, escaping that life by burning down her pimp’s establishment. Adriel is their name, and they aren’t terribly fond of men and masculine-presenting people, though they’re warming up to our party’s sorcerer. She’s paranoid about lots of things, but is too gay to function, developing a massive crush on the dark elf librarian in one of the towns. Which, as we the players were told the other day in a discussion about the character’s sexualities (partly bc we’ve all been teasing Adriel and her player almost nonstop), ended up saving the town, since the DM had planned to wipe it off the map, but didn’t bc of the relationship the players had developed with some of the NPCs, not least of all the librarian.

Our sorcerer is Jaren, a human guy who has this weird arm he keeps wrapped up, and has recently acquired something to make it look like a regular human arm. He’s broody, not much of a people person, a fan of the darker colors, and hasn’t really had anyone he can call friend without something horrible happening to them until now (at least, so far). He’s also one very much so for manners and keeping clean, unlike the party child.

The party child is the human(?) warlock Katya, who was kicked out of her hometown when she was 8 or 10 years old because she was starting to gain magical abilities and accidentally burnt down a temple. Her patron is named Lilith, who has been taking care of Katya, which means Katya’s understanding of human customs in civilization are questionable at best. The party has taken this wandering child under their wings and are trying to teach her the ways of manners and social customs. We’re pretty sure she’s human, but the fact she has darkvision (and a few other things) have at least the players questioning her humanness. Along with the whole warlock/patron thing. Safe to say, Katya’s alignment is a ‘trash fire’ in the words of her player.

Speaking of burning temples down and being kicked out of their hometown, our gnome cleric shares a similar tale. A follower of the goddess of light, magic went awry and resulted in another temple up in flames and our cleric finding herself without a home. She believes herself to be ‘the best cleric/holy woman/priestess’, and none of the party are so inclined to correct her. She’s a bit more hypocritical than she’s aware of, but that just makes her interactions all the more amusing. Before getting kicked out of her hometown, she had a buff blacksmith girlfriend.

Lastly of the PCs, there’s my ranger, Glynwen. They grew up in the forest, and have a fascination with fire. It’s dangerous and deadly, but contained and controlled, it can be incredibly beautiful. They’ve witnessed devastating forest fires, but have also witness those same forests spring back as lively as ever after those fires, and have an appreciation for the duality of its nature. While they do interact with different cities and towns, whether trading/bartering for supplies or warning of disasters/helping clean up afterwards, they aren’t really a people person, either, and would prefer the company of the forest over people. Despite this, the party has been growing on them, and they’ve been quickly becoming a parental figure for the group (highlighted in a recent fight by pulling a Molly Weasly shouting “Not my gnome/sorcerer, you bitch” at a couple enemies targeting a party member, dealing an epic final blow to them). Glynwen also fidgets. A lot. They’ve got a pretty uneven piece of stone and a textured seashell that they use to fidget with.

(Quick Edit: The party is so queer/LGBTQ+, both players and characters, and that’s been highly amusing so far during sessions, and the DM is more than willing to throw queer/LGBTQ+ NPCs at us. It’s amazing, and a ton of fun)

DnD Ask Thing

#isa babble #dnd ask thing #response #thank you for the ask!#and the ability to ramble about my party!#in the off chance the dm and wizard of #this party see the post #hope you don't mind me rambling about it #this is my understanding of the characters #and there isn't really anything about glynwen that isn't known by the party #or at least not hard to tell/info that's readily available in sessions #if prompted either player or character would gladly share it in sessions #tho mayyybe the fascination with fire is new info?#like it's been discussed but i don't think it's really been actually told to the party #since that was a thing that really solidified after the last session #faust-does-dnd-characters

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nemossubmarine · 7 years ago

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DA RP Write-up #6

And we have finally caught up. This is the campaign where I started noting things down towards the end, though these “write-ups” in total amount to maybe 400 words, while these days I regularly write about 1k/session. So I’ll bridge this gap by writing this campaign down as well.

My third campaign. I really wanted to do a break-in, and it just happened to fit perfectly with the previous adventure plot-wise. This adventure introduces Darian, Randy’s old friend from way back, as well as Kustaa, our very first qunari-NPC and Boshara’s LI. It’s also the first campaign where we get to talk to a well-known character from the DA-universe, namely Nathaniel Howe, though significantly younger than in games, and boy howdy was I stressed about playing him, haha.

Campaign started January 2015 4(?) sessions 1528 words

Our heroes head out of Amarathine, south to be exact. Kempers, as promised, leads them to some friends of his who might also be interested in giving Arl Howe his comeuppance.

The people turn out to be an entire Dalish clan; a small clan by the name of Delbask, who Cahair has had contact with before. With them are three people, a small group of outlaws. Their leader is Darian Priddy, a human woman, who Randy recognizes as his old childhood friend. Darian used to be a sellsword traveling with Randy’s caravan, but became disillusioned with the lifestyle and took off. Apparently she now works as a part-time criminal, Robin Hood -style. With her are Cerys, an older human man and a qunari only known as Kustaa. Darian had given him that name as he didn’t seem to remember his own.

Apparently Arl Howe has not been very pleasant with the Delbask clan, forcing them to move out of “his land” several times, and seemingly wanting to pin some crimes against them. And of course now there’s the whole thing of Howe allowing Orlesians to kidnap people.

What our heroes need is proof. Apparently the Delbasks know a secret way into Vigil’s Keep, the arl’s Keep. The arl himself and his family is out of town currently, which would be a perfect opportunity to strike. It is decided that the Delbasks along with Cahair will lure most of Arl’s men out of the Keep to chase them, while our heroes sneak into the Keep. There they have hopefully until daybreak to find the proof they need to prove the Arl’s guilt.

So this is the plan. As they start the break-in only after nightfall, our heroes have some time to socialize. Randy and Darian catch up on old times and new. Jelaina receives some lessons in barding from Kempers as well as a brief introduction to lockpicking from Cerys. Boshara, very fascinated by Kustaa the qunari, tries to hit on him, only to have her advances thwarted by the mere fact that she is a mage, which Kustaa doesn’t appreciate.

As the evening approaches, our heroes are led to a cave by the cliffside near Vigil’s Keep, currently blocked by a huge rock. The person doing the leading is Fiach Delbask, the First of clan Delbask. He demonstrates some fanciful elven magic by ordering roots of the trees to remove the boulder. He also asks whether our heroes would accept from him a blessing of his god, Dirthamen, god of secrets. Humbert (as well as someone else, though I can’t remember who) declines, but the others take him up on his offer. Some godly assistance can’t hurt, eh?

The cave leads them to the cellar of the jailhouse of Vigil’s Keep. From there they climb up. It doesn’t take them long to be spotted, but luckily it’s not a guard that spots them, instead there’s someone jailed there, a man, who says to have been wrongfully accused by the Arl of murdering his own family. This sounds par the course for this scumbag, so our heroes promise to help get the man out, once they have gotten what they need.

The jailhouse entrance leads them to a courtyard. The Keep looms in front of them, but before they can get in it, they have to get over the courtyard and find a window or something of the sort. Randy and Jelaina manage to make it to the other side just fine, but unfortunately our mages and Humbert get spotted by a groundskeeper.

Humbert claims to be the father of these two dubbed Belinda and Pamela, and that they have been lost and are looking for a place to stay, since there are elves running rampart outside and all that. The groundskeeper takes them to his hut, which he shares with his wife and proceeds to make beds for them. This just can’t do, so the three of them gonk the lovely couple, tie them up and take their leave.

Outside, they notice a section of the courtyard dedicated to a dog pen which is filled with mabari puppies! Our mages, despite Humbert’s protests, nick one and put it in Elspet’s backpack.

Our heroes reunite and get on the inner wall. There’s a gap of sorts they need to traverse across, as they don’t want to take the guarded front door. Again, Jelaina and Randy make it out alright, but both Boshara and Elspet find the task too difficult and fall. Humbert has to follow them and help them up. Luckily they remain unspotted.

The window they had chosen as an entrance took them to a kitchen of sorts. There’s also pantry attached, which gets ransacked for late-night snack as well as something to eat for the puppy, now named Aarli Hauveli. The information on the layout of the Keep they got from Kempers indicates that the living quarters of the Howe family are above them, and that’s where they’ll find the evidence they need.

But first they have to get there. There seems to be few guards still posted around here, though the manpower of the Keep is significantly lower than it would be, because of Delbask’s distraction and the Arl’s absence. One guard they snatch right up and throw into the pantry all tied up in a bundle, taking his uniform while they’re at it, including his underpants for some reason.

The other guard they spy having a tender moment with an elven servant. They almost screw this one over and the elf almost gets away to get help, but Humbert’s commanding tone has him stopping and Humbert promptly dismisses him, telling that there’ll be trouble if he doesn’t get back to his proper place.

There’s also a small chase involving the guard, where Jelaina tries to throw sleeping powder but manages to slip on it herself and knock herself out for a moment. But in the end all guards have been dealt with so they can go to the upper floor.

There, first, they come across the Howes’ sleeping chambers. It seems that Arl Howe and the wife employed different beds, clearly not the fondest couple in the world. There’s no evidence here, but our heroes do steal some souvenirs in the form of fancy dresses and other assorted clothing (including fancy underwear).

They find a music room and a library and finally what appears to be the Arl’s office. They start rummaging through his papers. Jelaina is of great help with opening locks, but not very much of help when it comes to reading what’s in the papers. It might be that our bard is suffering of some kind of dyslexia.

While there’s still some papers to go through, Boshara and Humbert decide to go have look through the rooms they still haven’t gone through, just in case. This is when they find, up in one of the towers of the Keep, all alone, reading a book and enjoying a midnight snack, someone who was supposed to not be there. Nathaniel Howe, Arl Howe’s son, who apparently had decided to stay behind while the rest of the family went away on their business.

Well, this is troublesome. Nathaniel is a teenager, about Boshara’s age, wildly unco-operative, and who could blame him, these people just broke into his house! From what Boshara and Humbert manage to gather, he has no idea the business his father is in, namely kidnapping people and bullying elves.

The others, having found sufficient evidence of the wrongdoings of Arl Howe, join their two friends and their new problem child. They need to do something, but also, Nathaniel Howe has seen their faces and that will be a problem. Humbert advocates for killing him, which the others find a little harsh, as he has done nothing wrong other than being a very angsty teenager.

In the end they drug him, and Elspet sends him weird dreams in hopes that his story will be so incoherent that no one will believe him.

With that done, it’s time to leave. Unfortunately by the time they get back to the courtyard, the guards at the Keep have been alerted about something happening, so our heroes’ retreat is a hasty, panicked one. This includes Elspet leaving Glyphs of Paralysis behind, and buying them just enough time to rescue the man in the jail as they promised, even if it brings them great danger.

At the end, our heroes get out alright. There’s a celebration among the elves, and the new friends. Boshara gets a haircut and manages to seduce Kustaa by the sheer appeal of that alone. Our heroes give the incriminating papers out to Kempers to deliver to proper authorities, as he has some access to finer folk. He says he’ll take them to Highever, where Arl Cousland resides.

Darian and her friends will travel with Kempers for a while, and then continue on to look for other work. Our heroes will return to Amaranthine, but as we all know, they will never reach the city again, being intercepted by templars and unceremoniously dropped into the Deep Roads for few months in the next adventure.

#nemo roleplays #campaign tag: little robbers in vigils keep #da rp writeup #i had only five pages written down about this campaign #so not very many notes #and i only have like main npc names written down #ah well #that shouldn't be anything new at this point #any way #i think i will put a brief addendum to campaign four up and then call it done #im very curious to find out when i put all of my write ups together how long it will be #i didn't remember much about this campaign at first thought over #the haunted house sticks out to me i think mainly bc of the backstories of the characters #which is v noticeably absent here #but i think this was actually really fun campaign

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sepiadice · 7 years ago

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SepiaDice GMs D&D5e (7/20/17): After School Excursion

After much time, I finally return to the GM’s seat, watching and plotting behind my screen!

So, after many months of scheduling conflicts, and playing other games, I got a small band from my Improv Group (mostly different from the cast of the last campaign) to subject themselves to me. Which is charitable on their part, especially since I’ve still haven’t really read the fifth edition rules…[1]

I went in with my favorite amount of preparation: an opening spiel, a vague idea of what I’d like to have happen, and a large swathe of empty, terrifying space to just let the players run rampant with.

I don’t plan sandboxes, just to be clear. Because that would imply I prepare NPCs and locations. I entered with five paragraphs of introduction and a puzzle.

Of course, my players are seasoned comedy improvisers, so I could’ve also come in with nothing, and they would’ve entertained themselves, even if most of them were new to Dungeons and Dragons.

I told them to make characters, stressing that they should have no backstory before we start. Not even a name or alignment. Because I had an opening twist.

The story began with a spooky dream. Disused lighthouse, shadowy figure, and glowing runes.

Then they had a school day. Because, as it turns out, they’re normal High School Juniors. I followed this reveal by letting them dictate what their school is like.

I admit, if my goal was a normal high school with maybe a couple anime-esques tropes, I shouldn’t have allowed greenhorn players with backgrounds in comedy dictate the terms. However, it does accomplish the more important task of getting the players to make the world their own.[2]

So what I got was a giant, wall-less warehouse named after the setting of High School musical.

Sure, at first I thought “I can interpret wall-less as just being a California High School”, but the players then insisted on specifying that, no, it’s literally a building with no classrooms, instead operating off a grid system.

Also, it’s super-cliquey, poorly funded, and originally a mansion that was part of the underground railroad and bootlegging, so there might be secret tunnels.

After establishing there’s been gossip of the shared dream going on in the (nonexistent) hallways, it’s now lunch, and they’re probably just vaguely themselves,[4] I just let my players go.

(Luckily, unlike me, my players have common names, so I’m going to go ahead and just use them.)

The party reveled momentarily at the chance to go back and do it right, before quickly conceding that, no, they’re totally nerds.

Chris, for whatever bloody reason, decided he wanted to be class president. And also a super Christian, but he’s playing a Paladin, so that’s just foreshadowing.[5]

The others then quickly established his crush on a girl named Tiffany, which they built upon for a bit. Then I brought Tiffany over, only to have three of them immediately give her grief and make her leave.

Which was a nice, subtle method of telling me they didn’t need too much NPC work from me. Again, I prepared very little, and they introduced Tiffany, so I’ve got nothing against that. Let the players define the terms of their entertainment, and fill in what needs be filled in while having fun yourself.

So, after I clarified what is known about the lighthouse (it’s always been there, but they’ve never seen it lit, and it’s on an island), they decide to skip class and go to the docks.

I had hoped to dedicate the opening portion of the game with them investigating and trying to figure out how to get to the lighthouse.

Jason,[6] wanting to be helpful, decided to get into an argument over the fact that I gave everyone a different rune in their dream, and used that as inspiration to go to the lighthouse to prove the rune he saw was the correct one. Also, there was optimism that they’d end up as Power Rangers. Which is… fine as a motivation…

It was as they searched for a ride that I realized an easy way to differentiate their high school forms from their future form: use the Adventurer stats, but with disadvantage on everything![7]

Brook wanted to try and skip the dock sequence by establishing her father has a boat. Not wanting them to brush over things too quickly, I subtly killed that and tried to get them to convince a fisherman to take them.

They started with Tim, who, as a compromise, had his shirt both tied off and also just off and draped over his shoulder. Brook tried to flirt with him to get a ride. I decided to play the ‘Ah, no, you’re fifteen, and I’m an adult angle.’

So Jason improvised inexplicable blackmail, because apparently when given enough agency, my friends default to Loony Toons. He also established that Tim’s a furry.

Jason failed the persuasion check, however, so Tim gets to be a proud furry. Little more discussion, and Tim offers to take them to the lighthouse if they could get some dirt on a rival.

Who I named Dave.

So they go to Dave, who casually admits to criminal activity, but also belief in a giant squid cryptid, which the party then spun to get a ride at midnight, forsaking Tim.

They then went to Tiffany’s party, which was made up to handwave time. I made it midnight in case they wanted to do a youth adventure, gearing up sequence, but instead they went to a house party.

Midnight comes, and Dave sails for the lighthouse, since the party told him light attracts the giant squid. The party then enters the lighthouse, where I finally sprung a puzzle on them!

I bought some wood blocks, drew runes on them, and they had to figure out the sequence to open a magic portal.

I colored the runes differently on each of their handouts, and I expected them to share the notes at some point. Once they identified the correct side, it was a simple matter of following the rainbow.

I apparently underestimated the paranoia the last campaign left with Jason, because no one looked at anyone else’s notes. They successfully communicated what the runes look like, but they never picked up on the different colors, even though that was a passing mention in the argument that got them there.

Basically, it was exactly the subtle time killer I hoped the puzzle would be. Even had pull out the ‘roll INT for hints’ trick once or twice.[8]

Like a good pun, a puzzle should be obvious afterwards, but engaging during the set up.

Anyways, go ahead and steal that one for your games, GMs!

Once they solved the puzzle, the portal opened. I described it and gave a little space to let them decide if they’re going in by their own power or if I need to Digimon them.

They walked in. Because who needs self preservation instincts?

Once in, they obviously turned into their Adventurer selves, waking up at the dead end of a dungeon.

‘Do we still have our own minds?’ “No, all this high schooler stuff was just a Shaggy Dog story.”

I had the players introduce what they looked like at this point. By pure coincidence, the one player who made a human went last, describing himself as just looking aged up.

The others were a dragonborn (the Furry Christian), a Tiefling (Jason played this up for the ‘which afterlife did we go to!?’ angle) and a half-elf dressed in leaves (Brook’s playing a druid.)

So, again, sit back and just let the players enjoy themselves. Then, when I got bored, have Kobolds show up and pick a fight.

I surprisingly wasn’t bored. Probably helped that it was an intentionally easy fight just to introduce the mechanics to the players, who mostly one shotted the Kobolds.

After killing six tiny lizard men, and with no clear way out, the players went deeper into the dungeon.

Jason fell into a trap, and they were ambushed by Gnolls, knocking them out.[9]

End of session.

So, lesson? Low expectations and little planning is a good method if you feel your players are fine building off themselves. I probably would never attempt this structure with less improvisational players, but I knew they could take it.

Still, I probably should’ve had a more clear plan for the dock sequence, and maybe a firmer hand on the school environment. However, I had fun, the players tell me they had fun, so it was a success. Hopefully I can manage to get them back for a session 2. Because I have intentions.

Until next time, may your dice make things interesting!

[1] However, I have years of experience in other systems, have played in a couple 5e games, and I principally learn by doing over reading. [2] Besides, if I actually wanted to anime it up, I already have a setting for that.[3] [3] Maybe I’ll let them play in it someday. Maybe. [4] I could’ve pushed them to establish High School Personas, but, again, Improv Club. Just let them do what they want and hope. [5] I can concede that it’s painfully obvious where my set-up was going, but it’s okay to telegraph things to players so they can subtly help the story. [6] Previous roles include Windy Jerk and… other people? [7] I love the Advantage/Disadvantage system. I’m going to houserule it into everything. [8] Well, I gave a freebie by clarifying all the runes are meant to be hexagons. [9] I love gnolls, which is why it’s surprising this is the first time I’ve ever used gnolls.

#SepiaDieGMs #d&d #Dungeons and Dragons #SchoolKidsCampaign #5e #dnd 5e

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strahd-von-asthmavich · 3 years ago

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The Dread Lands of Ravenloft - Mod Van Richten’s New England In-Table Campaign [Session 1]

Session 0

I was excited to share the introduction of this newest campaign I’ve begun. I’ve also started construction on a fandom wiki, where I will make my ideas and concepts for the setting of Ravenloft, supplemental changes I made to Curse of Strahd and NPCs, and all the shenanigans and conquests my players get up to. I hope you all continue to enjoy their adventures in Ravenloft!

Side note: Any art that I share of NPCs within these highlight posts is my (Mod Van Richten) original and fan art. Any art that I use for my players that wasn’t created by myself but by other artists online is kept private and within our friend circle. We don’t repost art in this house.

Abrascus Barbarian (3) Path of the Ancestral Guardian Race: Tortle Background: Haunted One

Direthorn Rogue (3) Swashbuckler Race: Drow Background: Urchin

Flopsy Barbarian (3) Path of Wild Magic Race: Rabbit Man Background: Experiment

Mangus Monk (3) Way of the Open Hand Race: Half Elf Background: Urchin

Neracahne Wizard (3) School of Evocation Race: Eladrin Background: Noble

Nyra Rogue (3) Phantom Race: Fairy Background: Noble

Here come their adventures from this session under the cut:

After the revelation of the two letters being from different people, they decide that they’re going to continue forward. They arrive at the Village of Barovia within an hour. Stanimir leaves them with one last piece of advice: If they’re in trouble, they should seek out Madam Eva at Tser Pool, a Seer who’s known for helping people in need of guidance.

Direthorn insists that Flopsy should go to the door of the largest house in the village, which they quickly find out is the Burgomaster’s mansion. Awaiting should be Kolyan Indirovich, like in the letter. Flopsy nearly breaks down the door however, and alerts not Kolyan, but his son, Ismark Kolyanovich.

The party gives Ismark the first letter that they received from Arrigal, to which Ismark is confused. The signature is not his father’s, and the wax seal is the Von Zarovich crest. They show the second letter and confirm to them that this one was actually written by his father. When they ask where he is, Ismark tells them that Kolyan had died three days ago of a stroke. He also tells them that Ireena is his sister, and she soon comes downstairs to see what the commotion is about.

Ireena is a beautiful young woman with deep red hair and green eyes. She appears to be fine and in good health. She does tell them, however, that she did get bitten. She was bitten a day before their father died.

Kolyan’s coffin has been in the study this whole time, and everyone in the adventuring party insists that they go and transport the body to the church as soon as possible. Flopsy was able to take the coffin there all on his own, and the villagers merely look on from their houses as the procession unfolds. On the way to the church, they meet a young noble from the town of Vallaki named Vasili von Holtz. He’d just so happened to be coming to visit Ireena and Ismark, since the funeral was originally planned for the next day. Ireena is enamored with Vasili, the two of them showing mutual interest in one another. In fact, Ireena was very excited that he was here.

Vasili discusses with the party members out of earshot from the other nobles that he’s worried about Ireena’s safety. He doesn’t feel that Ismark is a good guardian for her, and she’s tried to run away from home before. Vasili had to save her from wolves, because she didn’t know how to fend for herself properly.

At the church, everything seems to be in disrepair. The front of the church is covered with old burn marks and claw marks. The pews inside are all broken into shards. The air is tense. As everyone is waiting for the priest to get the rites for the funeral ready, Nyra notices crying coming from the undercroft. The priest, named Father Donavich, seemed like he was hiding something. So, Nyra and Direthorn sneak off with Ireena to check it out. They find that one of the room closest to the front door has a trap door inside that was chained shut.

Meanwhile, Flopsy attempts to intimidate Donavich into telling him what’s going on. Although he didn’t come across as intimidating as he’d wanted, Donavich insists that he’s just trying to take care of his son, Doru. However, the ruse is up when Neracahne alerts Donavich by causing some of the floorboards to creak while she attempted to follow Nyra and Direthorn. That’s when everyone can hear Doru yelling for Nyra, Direthorn, and Ireena to come downstairs because he’s “so starving” and is sick of his father taunting him with potential food.

Doru is a vampire, albeit a weak one. Everyone manages to quickly dispatch him, with some notable highlights: Abrascus gets Flopsy to throw him through the floor to get down to the undercroft quickly. Flopsy bashes Doru’s head in, and that seems to do the job. Father Donavich is understandably distraught and insists that they need to pay for the damages done to the floorboards.

The funeral soon takes place, now symbolically for two people instead of just Kolyan. During the ceremony, they are visted by two dark-skinned elves. One of them, who’s feared by the Barovians, is named Rahadin, Chamberlain of Castle Ravenloft.

His younger companion is named Iulian. Rahadin delivers a proclamation from Strahd von Zarovich himself.

Transcription: By Order of the Count, Ismark Kolyanovich, your father, Kolyan Indirovich, Burgomaster of the Barovian Village, has committed treason of the most heinous of sorts in the Valley. His death means the punishment shall fall on the current Burgomaster. For your father’s crimes against the Count, you are hereby removed from your position as Burgomaster. Henceforth, your bloodline will not hold any power within the Valley. You are to remove yourself from your position and your manor. The Count himself has appointed a new Burgomaster, their rule effective immediately. You have three hours to gather your belongings and vacate your premises. Shelter will not be provided for you. Heed the Valley with caution. Direct Orders from the Ancient and the Land of Barovia Himself, Count Strahd von Zarovich

The adventurers attempt to challenge Rahadin, but he quickly shoots them down and tells Direthorn in particular to mind their own business. When Direthorn talks back to him, they’re suddenly dealt with an onslaught of screams that currently only they can hear. All the while, Iulian seems interested in them and wants to know their name before he’s quickly told by Rahadin that they’re leaving.

Ismark and Ireena are distraught over being evicted, and they only bring with them the equipment that they can carry. Vasili suggests to them that they all should travel to Vllaki to stay in his home, which is the nearest town yet pretty far away on foot. They manage to convince Vasili that they’ll only take Ireena there if they have transportation. He’ll have a wagon for them the next day.

After Vasili leaves to take care of that, they go to the tavern and stay the night. Ismark’s abilities are a little bit more established, when the adventurers find out that he’s a bard that knows healing spells. His spellcasting focus is his balalaika. While at the tavern, it is revealed that in Barovia, the values of gold and silver are swapped, with silver holding more value because of lycanthropy being so prevalent. The distribution of wealth is a little strange for them now.

The adventures are suspicious of the way Ireena and Ismark have been acting now that their father is dead. Some of them notice that the two siblings don’t even seem sad about it. They get Ireena to drink some wine, and Ismark had four pitchers on his own, in order for them to talk.

During this, Ireena admits to being a little upset with Direthorn that they didn’t let her fight in the undercroft. She insists that she knows how to use a rapier and is well versed in combat training. They don’t entirely believe her, but she challenges them to a friendly duel. Although Direthorn wins, they see that Ireena can indeed hold her own rather well, so they agree to let her join in on the next fight.

When asked about their father, Ireena reveals that Kolyan wasn’t exactly a kindhearted man. She implies that Ismark’s alcoholism and Kolyan’s disdain for him is linked to something that happened ten years ago. The Village calls him “The Lesser,” after their eldest brother, Frederich Kolyanovich, was among the men that died in a hunting party. The others that died were named Kristofor, Lazlo, and Hans (late brother of the local shopkeeper). They all blamed Ismark for the catastrophe, because one of the survivors called him lazy. Ismark angrily tells the adventurers as the story is told that it was a lie. The truth was that the wolves that attacked them came from the area that Hans was supposed to keep watch at, for Ismark didn’t see anything in his section of the perimeter. Of course, no one in the village believes him.

The next morning, there’s a wagon waiting for them from Vasili. Before they leave, they grab some free breakfast from a lovely older woman named Granny. She sells pies to the villagers, and every newcomer gets their first pie for free. Everyone except Ismark gets one, and they buy Ireena one after she tells them that her father never let her have pie.

The man Vasili sent to drive the wagon is a man named Escher von Precious. This blonde gentleman has two different colored eyes, the one with the white pupil being a fake eye. He tells them that the blind eye was caused by what he calls a “run-in with a ghast.”

The session ends as they all leave the Village of Barovia and head for Vallaki. An interesting thing about Escher is that when he’s introduced to the adventuring party, he seems to give Neracahne a smile, something that he doesn’t give to the others.

#curse of strahd #curse of strahd campaign #ravenloft #ravenloft 5e #ravenloft campaign #dungeons and dragons #dungeons and dragons campaign #dungeonsanddragons #curseofstrahd #mod van richten #dread lands of ravenloft

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ciathyzareposts · 5 years ago

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Camelot: Won! (with Summary and Rating)

There I am, third from the top, above even the creator himself.

Camelot

United States Independently written and released on university PLATO system in 1982

Date Started: 20 April 2019

Date Ended: 5 January 2020

Total Hours: 69

Difficulty: Moderate-Hard (3.5/5)

Final Rating: (to come later)

Ranking at time of posting: (to come later)

Summary:

The last of the PLATO RPGs, Joshua Tabin’s Camelot united the two previous traditions present on the terminal-mainframe system. From the Dungeon/Game of Dungeons/Orthanc line, he took the single-player approach using a multi-classed character. From the Moria/Oubliette/Avatar line, he took first-person dungeon exploration (with a menu town on top) and a combat system where you fight “stacks” of multiple monsters. Players control individual characters but can message each other as they explore the same shared dungeon, which resets on the hour or whenever all the rooms of a level are cleared. The ultimate goal is to get strong enough to explore Level 10, get Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake, and use it to force Lucifer to cough up the Holy Grail. It takes a while to learn the game’s features, and it’s pretty hard even with its “relaxed permadeath” approach, but it has an addicting approach to leveling and inventory acquisition

*****

I’ve often wondered how I would have fared if I had been a student at one of the PLATO universities in the 1970s or early 1980s, and now I have my answer: my life would have been ruined. I would have skipped classes, missed deadlines, plagiarized papers–anything to spend more time on the computer. I know because that’s basically what I did this week. I procrastinated on an already-overdue report to win this 40-year-old game. The fact that money, and not just a grade, is riding on this report probably makes it worse.

Like all of the PLATO games, Camelot is about mechanics. It hardly has any story at all. Its allure comes from its constant sense of character development–the idea that the next level, the next epic item, the next 10,000 points (putting you one position higher on the leaderboard) are all just around the corner. This is the kind of game that transitions you from 1:00 AM to 4:00 AM before you’ve noticed what happened.

I don’t often schedule my games to offer compelling comparisons, but what an amazing lesson in contrast we have between Camelot and Challenge of the Five Realms, written 10 years apart for very different audiences. Challenge has all of the content of an excellent RPG–game world, NPCs, dialogue, and plot. Camelot has the mechanics of an excellent RPG–statistics, inventory, and combat tactics. I think it’s fair to say that I appreciate and enjoy Challenge‘s approach, but I am addicted to Camelot‘s.

Part of the fun of my experience came from author Josh Tabin’s occasional presence as I played. (He and his son stayed up with me until 1:00 AM the other night, cheering me on as I won.) I couldn’t experience the game the way it was with 20 players swarming the dungeon, but at least I got some of the experience. He helped me fight a few tough battles (the game divides the treasure among the number of people in the room, I discovered, even if you can’t see each other) and alerted me where he’d seen a particular foe or item. I want to say that he gave me a lot of hints, but perhaps a better way to say it is that he led me to a lot of hints. He avoided most outright spoilers and instead said things like “Hey, I saw a TARDIS in the shop–you should buy it and see what it does.”

Unfortunately, players can’t directly help each other by giving each other money or equipment. But they can alert each other to where they’ve seen, say, a group of lizard men with a particularly large chest, knowing that lizard men often drop magic boots. They can say stuff to each other like, “I just sold a Manual of Quickness to the store if anyone wants to buy it.” And of course they can help each other directly in combat.

I think it’s been a while since Tabin had anyone take such active interest in his game. He used the occasion to make some tweaks while my own experience was in progress. One was to add a “difficulty setting.” He said the programming was already in there, but he had never turned it on. Now any player can customize his own difficulty from “easy” to “nightmare.” Easier games make enemies less effective but also give you a lower score. “Nightmare” lets you build your character fast for some extra risk. He also added a few more trap types and introduced a system by which low-level enemies run away from high-level characters. I’d often wondered why some of my charmed companions would up and ditch me for no reason, and it turns out that they do it when you attack other enemies of the same type. In a recent update, he made that explicit by having the companion say “he was my BROTHER!” as he leaves your service.

The author added a difficulty setting during the middle of my session.

In my previous entries, I talked a lot about the game’s difficulty. It is perhaps most accurate to say that like a good roguelike (which Camelot does an excellent job anticipating), it is very difficult until you get a lot of experience and get a natural feel for what’s going on. I was well into my 40th hour before combat tactics really “clicked,” and I started to learn instinctively when to use spells, when to attack, and when to run. It took a while before I got to the point that I always had my hands on the right keys as I entered a room, allowing me to act before the enemy. I died a couple dozen times in the first 30 hours of the game and only half a dozen in the last 30.

Another important insight was learning how to strategically develop inventory. Each item has a label (the game calls it a “table”) from 1-12 associated with it, and these levels are highly calibrated with the monster levels. A mithril sword (Table 3) simply isn’t going to do much against a red dragon (Table 8) no matter how high your level or attributes. So instead of blundering all of the dungeon hoping to find anything, you prioritize trying to upgrade your lowest-level items. The average “table” of a looted piece of equipment is the same as the dungeon level on which you find it. So let’s say that most of your stuff is Table 7, but you’re still stuck with Table 4 armor (Frosty Plate Mail). Hopefully, you’ve noticed that dragons tend to drop armor, so you want to be on dungeon Level 7 looking for a Table 7 dragon (blue dragon) carrying Tale 7 Azure Plate Mail. If you’ve mapped carefully, you’ve noted that dragons tend to show up in rooms with scorch marks on the walls, and you thus head for that room on Level 7. No luck? Wait for the hour to roll around and the dungeon to reset, or reset it yourself with a TARDIS.

Running into a high-level enemy with a high-level chest in a “stud room,” I use my Scroll of Identification to check the odds.

I had originally thought that a lot of the dungeon room messages were just flavor text, but they actually alert you to the type of enemy you’re most likely to find there. Monsters of the “slime” table (green slimes, yellow molds, ochre jellies, black puddings) are usually found in rooms that say “the ground is very soft here.” If you want to avoid slimes, you avoid those rooms. If you’re trying to find enemies from the “bad cleric” list and the potions and scrolls that they often carry, you look for rooms described with “crosses and an altar.” Thieves are in rooms with “empty wallets” on the floor. The specific composition of the rooms resets on the hour, but the locations of the rooms of each description do not.

The dungeon levels are full of the types of navigational obstacles that you’ve experienced if you’ve played any first-person wireframe game. These include spinners, pit traps, one-way chutes, and teleporters. Some of these are necessary to navigate the dungeon, and you have to map carefully. For instance, you can take regular stairs all the way to Level 6, but to get to Level 7, you need to take a teleporter behind a hidden door on Level 3. Level 8 can only be reached via a teleporter from Level 5, which is in a section that can only be reached via a teleporter on Level 7. Despite the complexity, you learn the steps pretty fast, and I found I could make it from the town on Level 1 to Level 10 in about 3 minutes–faster, of course, if I had the rare Wand of Teleportation.

As you explore downward, it’s a good rule of thumb to make sure that either your weapon or your spell item is one or two levels higher than the current level you’re exploring. You can do this by repeatedly attacking each level’s “stud room”–cued with a note that the walls are covered in blood–which reliably offers monsters and items 1-2 levels higher than the level’s average. So if you defeat the stud room on Level 6, there’s a decent chance you’ll find a Table 8 item.

I was lucky to get a Ring of Wizardry (Table 9) at the stud room on Level 7, and it let me blast my way through the rest of Level 7 and Level 8. (Downside: every time you use a spell item, there’s a chance it will run out of charges, and re-charging it at the store is expensive.) Then, early in my Level 10 explorations, I ran into a “friendly” Asmodeus and bribed him $140,000 to drop his chest and leave the room. It had the Level 12 Ruby Staff of Asmodeus in it, which let me kill most things on the level.

Leveling is pretty constant during this process, but it caps at Level 60. I don’t like level caps, but in this case I think most players would be hard pressed to hit the level cap long before the end of the game.

My map of Level 10. The numbers are all teleporters.

Level 10 has the game’s final encounters with Lucifer and the Lady of the Lake. Lucifer has the Holy Grail but kills you instantly if you don’t have Excalibur. The Lady of the Lake, meanwhile, won’t give you Excalibur unless you’re fully outfitted with Table 12 gear. How do you get Table 12 items when there are only 10 dungeon levels? You can get extraordinarily luck, as I did with Asmodeus, or you can camp out at the Level 10 stud room, which will feature a new Table 12 enemy every hour on the hour. The Table 12 enemies are a rogue’s gallery of pop culture references: Asmodeus, Tiamat, Zeus, Poseidon, The Evil One, beholders, Thor, Jubilex, Lolth, Saruman, Sauron, the Master of Shadows, and–at the top of the “bad clerics” list–Jerry Falwell.

Finding a Level 12 artifact.

There’s no guarantee that these enemies will always drop Level 12 artifacts. And if they do, there’s no guarantee you won’t accidentally destroy them by fumbling the trap. So you have to churn through dozens of encounters to assemble your list. If you don’t want this to take dozens of hours, you have to load up on TARDISes (which reset the dungeon manually) and keep using them. This took me about 6 hours by itself and would have taken longer if Tabin hadn’t sold one of his character’s extra TARDISes to the store.

When you finally have a complete set of Level 12 gear, you go to a water room at the bottom of Level 10, and the Lady of the Lake hands over Excalibur.

Yes, everybody knows it’s no basis for a system of government. Please let it go.

From there, it’s just a few steps to the stairway to HELL, where you meet Lucifer. He cowers the moment he sees Excalibur, hands over the Holy Grail, and flees.

Satan flees and hands over the Holy Grail.

Once you have the Holy Grail, you need only return to the town, where the game gives you the option to retire permanently. If you want, you can keep playing and finding more treasure to increase your score, which affects your position on the leaderboard. I retired with a score of 673,809. That was enough to put me at the third spot on the board, behind two characters fielded by the mysterious “greg” or “gregl.” I could have beaten his high score, but it would have taken another 6 hours of gameplay, roughly.

Am I ever.

When you retire the character permanently, you get the following endgame text, suggesting a never-ending cycle of grail-finding. Then again, there has to be a rationale for more than one winner.

In a GIMLET, Camelot earns:

0 points for the game world. I thought about giving it 1, but I couldn’t even justify that. Despite its name and the presence of the Lady of the Lake (nonsensically on the bottom of a dungeon), the game doesn’t make any use of Arthurian themes, nor does it replace or supplement them with any story or sense of place. This was the norm with the PLATO series.

4 points for character creation and development. There are a few choices in character creation–particularly the race–which make a big difference during gameplay. I chose to take the elf, a weak character who has a low risk of dying of old age (he ended the game about 30 years younger than he started, thanks to Potions of Youth). During the game, leveling is continually rewarding even though it doesn’t give you any choices. The little sub-quests to kill specific monsters to reach some levels was a fun addition.

I just turned Level 60. I assess the level of my equipment as the game gives me my next mission.

3 points for NPC interaction. Okay, there are no NPCs. But for past PLATO games, I gave a couple points here for the PC interaction that accompanies those titles, and I like how it works here. You don’t need other players to enjoy the game, but they can enhance your experience. I also gave a point here to the ability to charm monsters to joining your little “party.”

4 points for encounters and foes. The game’s long list of monsters may be derivative, but Tabin did an excellent job programming their various strengths and weaknesses. A player has to balance his desire for treasure with the knowledge that thieves can steal treasure and slimes can destroy it. A careful player has to note what enemies cause sleep, paralysis, petrification, and destruction. The best part is that all of these strengths and weaknesses are determinable with a Scroll of Identification.

4 points for magic and combat. The game has a nice set of options for dealing with creatures, including spells, physical assaults of different types (trading accuracy for power), popping in and out of rooms until you “surprise” the enemies, hitting and running, stealing their treasure out from under them, and bribing them to go away. Only the spell system is underdeveloped, with the character only having access to one “spell” (more of an inventory item) at a time.

6 points for equipment, one of the best parts of the game. The player has 15 equipment slots with 12 levels of items for each slot. Even better is the wide variety of equipment that works in the “Other” slot–scrolls, wands, potions, and the like. There are manuals that permanently improve attributes, cordials that temporarily improve them, scrolls and wands that make navigation easier, items that charm different types of enemies (figuring out what works on which type is a mini-game in itself). Particularly well done is the Scroll of Identification. You can use it at any time, including in-combat and when in the middle of pulling items from a chest. Use it on a monster, and it tells you his hit percentages, damages, and special abilities. Use it on an item, and it tells you what it is and whether it’s cursed. Use it on an unopened chest, and it tells you what trap you’re facing.

The store always held a chaotic selection of items.

6 points for the economy. For most of the game, you’re trying to make enough money just to level up, so deciding whether to sell a potentially useful item for some extra cash, or whether to splurge on that item in the store, or whether to bribe a particular enemy (who may have more gold than the bribe in his chest) presents a continual set of decisions. Even late in the game, when you have plenty (especially after you hit the level cap), finding money contributes to your score.

3 points for quests. There’s only one main quest with no decisions or role-playing options, but there are also sub-quests throughout to kill specific monsters.

3 points for graphics, sound, and interface. The graphics are what they are, although I think the monster portraits are well done. There’s no sound. The keyboard interface for me was easy to master (and the game usually shows you all available commands at the current moment), and I like how everything is always laid out on the main screen, even if it makes the exploration window a bit small.

3 points for gameplay. This is from a 2020 perspective, of course, where I could have fit three other games in the time it took me to win Camelot. There were a lot of moments of frustration, and the linear nature of the dungeon reduces replayability even as the character options (and ever-present leaderboard) increases it. What feels to me today too long, with too many moments of frustration, would have felt the opposite on a college campus in 1982, with plenty of friends around to compare experiences and jockey for high scores.

The final score is 36, which crosses my “recommended” threshold, but not by so much that it would be absurd. It is notably the highest score I’ve given to a PLATO title. What’s particularly amazing is that Josh Tabin wasn’t even a college student when he wrote Camelot–he was 12! As a member of the Explorer Scouts, he had access to a special program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (where PLATO was born) that taught middle- and high-school aged kids how to write code. Tabin explicitly joined the program because he wanted to play Oubliette (1978) and Avatar (1979) on the PLATO system. Somehow, he found time to complete Camelot in 18 months. Years later, he attended the university as a student and kept adding to the program.

It’s an extremely mature game, and the age of the programmer doesn’t come through at all except in a few bits of juvenile humor (in addition to “poison dart,” there is a type of trap that rhymes with it; one of the magic bags is called a “large hairy sack”) and the varied but predictable pop culture references. The game mixes the monster list from Dungeons and Dragons with the TARDIS from Doctor Who and the occasional quote from Blade Runner or monster or item from Lord of the Rings.

(Tabin waited a long time for this review. He first contacted me in 2013, and I assured him I’d play the game eventually. Somehow it disappeared from my master list, so he contacted me again in late 2017 to ask what had happened. I apologized and promised again that I’d get to it “soon.” In anticipation, he sent me a long, enormously valuable set of instructions. Then, it wasn’t until July 2018 that I took an initial look at the game and sent back some questions, then April of 2019 before I fully engaged it.)

I’m one of only four wins in 15 years (since the PLATO system was ported to Cyber1), but there were 43 winners between 1985 (when Tabin started keeping track) and 2003, including an early 2000s war between two users who went by the names “kappes m” and “pilcher,” each of them winning about a dozen times, trying to push each other off the leaderboard, and changing their character names to poke fun at each other. “kappes m” was responsible for a 20-hour speedrun in which he managed to get the Grail at character level 30 using a challenging pixie character, basically exploiting the pixie’s high dexterity to run dungeon levels that should have been out of his league and to steal high-level items from creatures that would normally have been able to stomp him.

But I’m the only one to have documented the ending, which is good enough for me. And with this, we have finally played the last of the PLATO games. I won’t be returning to the setting unless I go insane and decide to try to win Oubliette or Avatar or record some video of the games I’ve already won. It’s been a fun ride seeing the complexity that these amateur games achieved in the pre-commercial era, and Camelot was a fitting capstone to the series. But now I’ve got to stop procrastinating and work on that report.

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/camelot-won-with-summary-and-rating/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost

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swipestream · 7 years ago

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In All Their Looks & Words: The Tomb Of Niankhkhnum And Khnumhotep Part 2

This article consists of prep material that works better if you’ve read the intro and Part 1 of this series.

Investigative Game Prep

I will say, investigation games take a lot more prep than I’m used to. Do some more research into how these types of RPGs are planned and try to work that into your prep. What I can give you here is more of an atmosphere or setting, as well as an outline that could be a short session, or a side adventure B Plot to your normal game. This follows a generic Three Act Structure and should be loose enough to work into your prep. Obviously no plan survives first contact with the players so you will likely need to tweak this as appropriate.

Act 1:

The Esoterrorists (Pelgrane Press) could be an intriguing system to wrap around this story

An up and coming scholar is trying to do some research on ancient sexuality for an upcoming conference and has decided to investigate Nianknkhnum & Khnumhotep. However, he is barred from entering the tomb itself because his boyfriend is currently in prison and he himself has been flagged by a watchdog organization. He reaches out to the PCs to provide some more interesting evidence, or to go to the tomb on his behalf.

Act 2:

Upon reaching the tomb (or upon returning home) the PCs find that the scholar’s work has been challenged by a conservative organization, and his spot has been pulled from the conference. The scholar asks the PCs to look into what happened. It turns out that the scholar has an academic rival who tipped off the hate group and stole the scholar’s conference spot. If investigated, the PCs discover many artifacts in the rivals study that could be traced back to the Saqqara burial plots.

Act 3:

As the date of the conference approaches, the scholar’s boyfriend is released from prison and the two men again call the PCs for help. Desperate, the scholar tells the PCs that he may not have much time in the country left and this conference was his chance to make a name for himself before he has to return home. Later, if the PCs stay with the scholar they are privy to these events, but if not, the rival shows up at the PC’s home and recounts a tale: the scholar and his boyfriend confront the rival either because of, or despite the PC’s advice, but get in over their heads. A small artefact, a plate taken from the tomb and on loan from a museum in Egypt, is damaged in the scuffle. The scholar & his boyfriend double over in pain and shrivel over before crumbling to dust. The rival admits to sabotaging the scholar but has no clue what happened and is in a state of panic. If the PCs go to the conference, or see any promotional material, the two faces of Nianknkhnum & Khnumhotep stare out from a flyer, eerily similar to those of the scholar and his boyfriend.

YA-Fiction Style Game

Monsterhearts, by Avery Alder, is a great game to tell this story.

Heru & Seth have been an off-again-on-again item for the past four months. Now, as the Halloween Dance approaches, the local art history museum in which the dance is to be held receives a last-minute addition to their Ancient Egypt wing: duplicates of Niankhkhnum & Khnumhotep’s burial engravings. With this addition came a wave of anti-gay protesters and historical “purists” who malign these relics’ inclusion. Now it seems like Heru & Seth’s relationship is rockier than ever before, and as committee members on the Dance Planning Committee, their split may cause the whole production to fall apart. (Catch this third-party skin for Monsterhearts, The Mummy)

Characters

Heru – Junior & part time lifeguard who loves sunbathing & eyeliner. Comes from a rich family & likes to go falconing in his spare time.

Seth – Senior & amateur storm-chaser, Seth is a key figure on the school’s rowing team and loves to tell the story of how he rowed a race with a frantic garter snake who had stowed aboard.

Ambrosia Tun – Museum Curator who is a little too excited about Ancient Egypt, and a little “doesn’t quite get it” when it comes to relationships.

Gerred Gere – Evangelist & self proclaimed “historical purist” who’s in town protesting the “gaywashing” of ancient history.

Menace: The Looming Halloween Dance

Stakes: Will the Dance Planning Committee reconvene in time to save the Halloween dance? Will the PCs find dates? Will Heru & Seth get back together or are they better off split up?

Threat: Heru & Seth were the backbone of the Dance Planning Committee.

Craving: Intimacy (Isolate them)

Offerings: Sex (Seclude them & seek promises)

Capacity: Cold Betrayal (Turn their friends against them)

Custom Moves:

When you make plans for a date to the dance, roll with Hot. On a 10+ you have what you need to see the date through. On a 7-9 you’ll

Isolate them, seclude them & seek promises, turn their friends against them.

need to ask someone for help lining things up.

When you try to get the planning committee together, tell the MC if you go to Heru or Seth first. They’ll remember your choice later.

Menace: A Charged Exhibit

Stakes: As “moral panic” spreads over a modern reading of ancient relics, will the discussion remain academic? To what lengths will the protesters go to shut down the museum? How does the town see the role of ancient art in modern lives?

Threat: Gere’s right wing protesters rail against a modern view of Nianknkhnum & Khnumhotep as lovers.

Craving: Ownership (Viciously protect coveted things)

Offerings: Inclusion (Show them what they’re missing)

Capacity: Sudden Violence (Outright kill someone they love)

Custom Moves:

When you try to deescalate a bigoted mob, roll with Volatile. On a 10+ choose two from the following list. On a 7-9 choose one.

The media is on your side

You don’t get hurt

The mob disperses

You have some connection to the museum. When you first visit the new exhibit, choose one from the list below and work with the MC to flesh out its inclusion in your game:

A Friendly Face: You know someone who works in the museum who could sneak you in whenever you want

Research Skills: You know your way around the museum’s research systems, providing you with special access to their records

Cultural Ambassador: You spent some time as a neighborhood liaison for the museum & have cultural connections on its behalf

Dungeon Crawl:

Dungeon World is my go-to for dungeon crawling fun

For a chance to explore the space during a dungeon crawl or more traditional hack & slash RPG feel. The PCs stumble across a tomb while exploring ancient burial grounds. The debate on the ethics of grave robbing is better left for other folks, and the party ventures inside.

Agenda: Make the world fantastic. Fill the character’s lives with adventure. Play to find out what happens.

Goals: Establish details, describe. Use what they give you. Ask questions. Leave blanks. Look for interesting facts. Help the players understand the moves. Give each character a chance to shine. Introduce NPCs. Fill out your worksheet.

Dungeon Moves: Change the environment. Point to a looming threat. Introduce a new faction or type of creature. Use a threat from an existing faction or type of creature. Make them backtrack. Present riches at a price. Present a challenge to one of the characters.

Questions:

When did you realize you were lost in the burial grounds?

Whose tomb were you originally looking for, and what treasures did you hope to find?

What curse did the locals threaten you with to try and keep you out?

Why did you venture forth anyway?

How thick was the layer of dust outside the tomb, and how thick is the dust inside?

Impressions:

A cracked stone door, impossibly old

Shattered remains of a beautiful fresco

A noise, just down that dark stone hallway

The grinding of sand between two stone objects

A large statue of two men holding hands

Darkness, total and complete darkness

A plaque, declaring this tomb to be the burial site for Nianknkhnum & Khnumhotep, royal manicurists of the great pharaoh

A room full of inexplicably labeled containers

An empty burial chamber where two bodies once lay together for eternity

Footsteps in the dust that may be weeks old, or centuries old

Dozens of images of the two men holding or supporting one another in various poses

A cool breeze as if from outside air

A scene where the men enjoy the outdoors together, spearing fish and bird hunting

The sound of competing grave robbers, hopelessly lost but unaware of your presence

The entrance to their offering chamber, where Nianknkhnum & Khnumhotep are shown nose to nose, kissing as their belt buckles touch, joining them at the waist.

A hallway nearly blocked by debris, or the wreckage of a cave in

In some hieroglyphs, their names are joined in a wordplay that could suggest that they are now joined in death as they were in life

Some creature that’s made its life down here

One inscription featuring a musician calling for a song about The Two Divine Lovers

Sand, so much sand…

Custom Moves:

When you enter a new room, roll +Str. On a 10+ you enter unimpeded. On a 7-9 you are winded from clearing debris and must take a moment to breathe & look around you.

When you closely examine the art, roll +Wis. On a hit, you learn a new detail of the lives of these two men. On a 10+ you take +1 forward when acting on this information.

The silence of the grave is complete. Take -1 ongoing when you try to discern reality based on your hearing.

When you open an ancient container, roll +Con as a cloud of arcane dust fills your senses. On a 10+ the dust grants you a vision. On a 7-9 you still receive the vision, but the dust Sickens you.

When you sleep in the tomb, you are visited in your dreams by one of the people from the decorations who will speak with you for a time but will not answer any questions.

Sand, so much sand…

When you inadvertently wake a mummy, roll +Cha. On a 10+ you can parley with it and it may even be friendly. On a 7-9 you can choose either to parley or to have it be friendly, but not both.

When you think you’ve found a way out of this room, roll + the amount of dreams you’ve had while in the tomb. On a 10+ you’ve found an exit. On a 7-9 you can see the other side but there’s no way you can reach it. On a 6- the mirage clears and you’re left once again in the darkness.

Well, that’s our show!

As we wrap up here, I’d like to do one small plug for this list of queer/LGBT+ gaming resources I curate over at my site, RiverhouseGames.com. Like I said in the first installment, I don’t quite know how to answer my question of where I want queerness in tabletop to go. That said, reading others’ work, playing queer games, and working through some creative processes has given me some great enrichment in this area. How about you? I’m only one person and I’m limited to my own experiences. What would you like to see in the future of this series?

In All Their Looks & Words: The Tomb Of Niankhkhnum And Khnumhotep Part 2 published first on http://ift.tt/2zdiasi

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dmoftheapocalypse · 7 years ago

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Campaign Diary 1; Trouble in Westbridge

@dargon899 and @ominouswalrus you’re more than welcome to read but I have dm noted throughout marked obviously lol so DON’T READ OR YOU WILL HAVE THE WRATH OF GOD DOWN ON YOU lol

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After the long and hard battle of Dellmon Ranch the group was successful against the army of Orcs using the disasters and disturbance from the activity of the Cults to sweep the land for their tribes. They headed back to the small village of Beliard where they gained a few horses and headed back on the road. Heading northwest on The Stone Trail towards Westbridge.

They traveled relatively fine, though coming close to Westbridge they had a run in with a mystery group following them for a bit though when they tried to talk and they never seemed to get closer. Naivara thought maybe mirror images and it confused the others and they decided to forget them and head into Westbridge.

Westbridge a decently sized and somewhat rustic looking village on the middle of the main travel road, the Long Road (basically a medieval highway). It’s grown in size as of the last decade or so as it’s been taking over by a Halfling businessman Ghaliver Longstocking.

Getting to Westbridge they head on to the largest building, the three story Harvest Inn. They ended up meeting a talking with the owner of the Inn, a curly haired Halfling man named Hervin Dardragon with a big personality. They chatted for awhile where found out that a noble is coming threw town soon and that a group of black cloaked “bandits” that took over the town a few tendays (Faerun’s versions of a week it’s just 10 days not 7, hence tendays) but a group of a few adventures took them out not long after, as well as some problems within town with supplies going missing. Though a supposed Halfling and large Half-Orc men fellow was trying to figure it out.

Before finding out any more the noble arrived and people headed out to greet him. He was a Dwarven Noble named Lord Fallgal and apparently a good friend of Hervin. It want long as it was late before people began heading home and through group headed to the Inn except Morogash who decided to stay behind everything watching expecting something to happen. And Faldorn. Hervin, Lord Fallgal and Faldorn and quick chat and Morogash over heard something about a talk in the morning. After they headed back in Morogash headed to the back following the old man driver moving the horses and caravan to the back to put the horses in the stables, and finding a back window to the third floor room that the Lord was staying in.

Inside Naivara mentions to the others that she thinks everything went too smoothly and in suspious as well and decides to send in her familiar turned spider over night to watch just in case. Nyx finds out Faldorn was chatting with the Lord and is worried he’s hiding things and when they go to bed (as they always share a room, Nyx in a drawer while Faldorn has the bed) she asks him and because of a very high deception roll from Faldorn she believes him.

In the morning Faldorn sneaks out to meet up with the noble again in the morning where H341 was “sleeping” outside (He’s a Warforged so you know sentry mode lol). Though doing everything everyone says he doesn’t do anything about it after Faldorn tells him not to worry. Naivara checks in with her familiar and sees nothing happened with the noble overnight and then hears Faldorn down and sends her familiar to see what’s happening only to find out that Faldorn has left with the noble.

There’s a panic argument downstairs when she wakes everyone up to tell them. They are told he left a note saying something came up I’ll meet you all in Red Larch. They were interrupted with they’re angry argument by Hervin bring coffee to the “not really morning people” group all while another Halfling man playing a lute comes in.

[DM NOTES] Honestly fully expected them to chase after Faldorn with they’re horses and see what was going on.. but they didn’t which was nice tbh haha [END]

But introducing Frodo Bardgins a Halfling Bard played by Paige (switched out Faldorn for the moment) that’s from another campaign. Mainly because she wanted to play him again just for a small thing.

After some talking which honestly poor Paige was interrupted a LOT when she tried to introduce Frodo and give out information about the thieving problems in town as Frodo was the one on the case mentioned. They decided to leave Faldorn be and distract themselves with what was going. Which was apparently smart rats??

They investigated the Warehouse where Frodo killed on but the body was no longer there. They also met a Dwarf named Bolthenar which they misheard for Brunthenar (similar I know didn’t mean to) and thought he was more than an NPC lol and Mr. Kildark two strong workers though it was soon revealed Mr. Kildark was Ryder, Frodo’s traveling partner who is helping out with the warehouse while Frodo was looking into the rats.

After some running around in and out of the warehouse they found that the rats broke in and stole supplies, mostly food. Morogash eventually found tracks outside though most were covered so it took him some time. Though the tracks seemed to spread in all directions so I rolled for him to go one and he found himself inspecting a small house that was dark inside when the rest of the group found him. Nothing came out of the house but there was a shed close by and he decided (with the encouragement of Frodo and Naivara) he breaks down the door and digs around. All while Reinar man contact with the owner in the house tried to ask questions. He was a short and very old high elf, not very nice either…didn’t help at all.

Morogash eventually found a hole in the back of the shed going into the grown but was only small enough for Nyx, Frodo and Morogash’s boar companion to go in. We’ll Naivara went too but had to crawl as she’s pretty small for a Wood Elf. Inside they fought some Giant Rats and a lot happened at this hole. They tried baiting the rats out running back in and trying to kill more, even fighting with the crotchety old elven man with them breaking into his shed.

[DM NOTES] They were very focused on this hole and didn’t go to like anywhere else to try to find another entrance…honestly that was a little annoying XD this was one of many and like damn I’m shocked they didn’t just go ask around (my players never do anything I except even if I plan WHAT THEY ALWAYS DO…feels bad man lol) [END]

Eventually after many failures to get the rats to come out, Nyx turned into a giant badger and dug a large hole into on of the tunnels underground so the rest of the group could go down…well other than H341 as he’s like 400 lbs and wouldn’t be able to get back out lol

Finally they made some progress and made it into a long room that they could actually all stand in. Where they found 7 Giant Rats and another smaller skinnier rat which as they fought them it had raggedy clothes on and in the end was knocked out and revealed as a Wererat! But it turned back to a small child…DUN DUN DUN!!!

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And at that we ended our extra long session as Paige is going to comic con 😭 so we can’t play for two weeks!

[DM NOTES] SO I am really excited about how things happened bc right at the start with the Wererat, Nyx rolled low on her CON save against the Wererat's bite which means she is now inflicted with lycanthropy! Which I'm interested in how that'll go! Tempted to like not make it too obvious to see what happens bc the Remove Curse spell won't be able to fully cure it after her first full moon which is technically in like 5 days! And it's not the last Wererat they need to fight so more might be infected! [END ]

If your wanting to find out with everyone stay tuned for the next Campaign Diary but if your curious to what is happening with Faldorn I’ll be posting a side Diary for that!

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