Tag: DnD

Double Feature

On By ravonlockeIn Journal, ReveliaLeave a comment

These new folks are trouble, I tell ya. Turning tents inside out, not even trying to pet the poor monkeys in sweaters. That Dispara lady even smashed the head of that hapless Helper in the Hostel. The big fellow, Kentaro, is doing a number on the Sweet Suite, but you can’t blame a fellow like that, I’d be hungry, too if I was that tall. Looks like Babs’s takin’ a liken to the bloke, offering to cook him up anything he brings her. They even picked a fight with some Blimps in the party room. Best and worst place to do that, I guess. Had to take a big rest, they did, after that.

Then they all split up into twos to check out the midway. Better’n ones, I suppose, but a dangerous thing, still. Dispara’s going to make Swoleston go tickets up at the Dead Ringer, but she don’t care. Rather be off at the food court. That strange elf turned the Dunk’n Do Not into a Bubble Bath! Poor Arms’s gotta muck it up again if Puddles wants to get anyone to play.

The strange young man with a gnarly stick and old Mr Tazrin, who come back to us finally, went shopping. Looking for things in Locke’s old trailer, and gettin’ an old poison shirt at the Big Nose. Helped the kitty with her kiddos, too. Awful nice of them. Needs to work on his jokes, musta got rusty out in the real.

Got all back together at the Court, writin’ all over McNally like he ain’t even alive. Maybe he liked it, didn’t hear no complaints. They’ll be wanting to make some Red, wanting to keep eating. It’s important to keep your strength up. Most people get played by the midway, but these folks are lookin to play it themselves.

First they run off back to Lost & Found and disappear in there awhile. Big ol’ Kentaro can’t fit though, so he goes and gets more to eat. Then the Dispara lady heads out for Felix’s place, causing a ruckus and slipping away again ‘fore the gumballers show up. Bunch of the rest of them head off to talk to The Toymaker, give him a silly little note, but it makes him happy. Strange ol’ contraption.

The Cleaning Lady and the fancy dwarf head off to the Big Top and interview with Arachne. She wants to clean even more things, ruining the atmosphere, I tell ya. He lets her go to it as she will. The other one, Tormirr he calls himself, the Sharpeyed, wants to join the show. I’ll grant him some fancy shooting, but I bet he regrets bouncin’ one off the mask of a Child. No one wants to see what’s behind there.

A trio head off to fight a donkey, and they put on quite the show, not one actually trying to use the carrots they were given. Nah, they just wrassle the poor beast around the ring and back into the cage. Ol’ Tazrin don’t even fight, he just hypes up the crowd to cheer folk on. Gets his prize anyway though.

Big Fellow and Sneaky Lady head on over to the Cloud Maze. Thinking they can just cheat and fly up, but cheaters don’t prosper or whatever. The lady takes to the game, but I think the big fellow’s still flying. But they land on the clouds and that’s enough. Supposed to be fun friends. Laugh, smile, and jump for joy ya rubes!

They get the idea better over at the mudwrestling. Kentaro and the sexy demon lady give the boys a good old go. Actin’ like they got a chance before they crush ’em in the muck. The boys don’t care though, they just wanna play all day. As long as the crowds, and Heckna, stay happy.

Then they make their first mistake, cobarooed plum gumballers. Got right in the way of the clown car n made ’em crash. Boy the look on er faces when he didn’t go down. Made ’em turn tail and run though they had to drag the big one away. Gotta get loads more coppers ‘for you go heading past the big tent.

Players stop reading here.

Was out for a week so I have combined the second and third session into one post.

After the initial heavy handedness of the first session, I gave them free rein to explore. They poke through all the rooms of the Hostel, and ended up picking the ones without people or creatures inside. They did get to learn about Blimps though, by virtue of throwing a dagger at one and then getting several to explode all over the party. First real danger of the carnival, but they did learn to retreat. I probably put too many in the room, but it was less a fight and more a trap.

Our rogue has already decided the Handy Helpers are fair game, completely destroying the one in the Hostel to get a single healing potion, when she figured out the tickets weren’t actually staying in the machine. The Toymaker may have to finally go fix it.

They we did the time old tradition of Split the Party, but because we are so many, it was a four-way split. I could have handled this better, going between the groups, but they were mapping out the sections, so it didn’t make sense to skip around. Only the folks who found the shops really took too long, getting into conversations and a mini quest. But they’re started to get a feel for some of the fun and some of the horror of this place.

This week they took on a more divide and conquer, deciding they need to eat and drink, so they need to make sure they’re making tickets. Going for the games they think they’ll get the best returns off of, and some they just really wanted to try. Zephram continues trying to get folk to pay him to clean, and Tormirr has secured a spot in the small acts show in the Big Top.

We also started finding the plot again, or at least allies, in actually talking to Locke and doing a couple of his Tasks. Meeting The Toymaker, and having a second conversation with Dr. Stella. We have a few more steps before they really get to the heart of several matters.

Then they decided to “go find trouble.” And trouble they did find, in the form of a car of four Jawbreakers. Who beat the crap out of the party, but only put Kentaro down, before even one of them fell. They believe me now, when I say the top of the carnival is a dangerous place to go. I think it’s time for them to meet Heckna to kick of the next game, as they retreat from the fray.

Strange Travelers

On By ravonlockeIn Journal, ReveliaLeave a comment

The tickets were sent, the players called,
and I with my carriage went to fetch them all.

A hungover Duergar outside of a tavern.
A young monk praying outside of a cavern.
And an old janitor breaking his pattern.

A demon running from cops. An ogre from slavers.
And a strange running man without any manners.

Lastly, two finely dressed folks,
One with a sword, and one with jokes.

Off to the carnival, quick as a whip,
And gone again, into the ether I slip.


Oh good, they’re gone. You don’t care how they got there, do ya? You wanna know what they did inside, right?

That Kentaro fellow, he ate so many cupcakes, that Mina almost forgot to end the contest! 30 cupcakes in one minute! The nearest competitor didn’t even eat half that! You should have seen her face when he wandered back in to talk to Ellie, fortunately he was still full and she told him he wasn’t allowed to enter again today. Wait until he finds out there’s no tomorrow, just tonight! Hah! Elllywick better watch her mouth though, grumbling about all the changes around here. It’s a great place to be alive!

Better watch out for that red lady, though, Pretty sure I saw her snag some tickets right outa some rubes’ pocket. Nothing saying ya can’t do that, but if the Jawbreakers catch her, gonna be a bad day for somebody.

At least these new folks did some good. Scooter has stop wailing and pounding on the walls in the Hostile. Excuse me, Hostel, Ramona gets very picky when folks call it that. You ever been interviewed in there? I’ve been attacked by Schnoozlings! I think one of the new guys was, too, got those telltale scratches on his face.

Can’t wait to have them all join the clown brigade!

My Players: Stop Reading

I think it was a successful first game.

All the players met and got to know about each other. With such a large group, many were having side conversations at the table when others were acting elsewhere. While this made my job a little harder as my voice is soft and ears are old, I’m glad they’re getting to know each others’ characters. Something I’ll have to manage and balance with their help.

I used two of the music tracks, and they did alright at low volume, turning up or down as needed. Even hitting exactly the right beat when I turned it up for the oncoming parade. I think we’ll keep it for now.

We met two out of three NPC instigators and found the plot. The Heckna and Witchlight modules are very upfront about what is going on here. I gave some of the PCs invitations to actually join the carnival, but they quickly discovered that might not be a good idea. Maybe a little too quickly, really, but I wasn’t sure how else to handle it. Dr. Stella was a little vague, but clear enough about the dangers. Ellywick was very upfront about the danger and changes, but not as blatant as the book suggests. I think they’re meant to find her later in that first chapter, but it was only one chapter in Witchlight at the carnival. I think maybe Dr. Stella could have been waiting for them in a different place, or the parade could have interrupted her earlier, but some of the information is important up front.

Meeting Pinky was a bit of a scattered scene, but I think that’s alright. They really enjoyed Maphew, and have already cottoned on to keeping him put away for important conversations. I need to make sure I track that.

Kentaro had a good time at the eating contest, but they haven’t really dug into any of the regular foods yet, other than reading the menus. Looking forward to that, though he wants to stay in the Suite Sweet so he has constant food. Did mention he wants something other than sugar, big guys need protein. He’ll have to check out occasionally though, to let it refresh, I think.

Dispara is already picking tickets out of pockets. I think I’m going with nearest die, round up and roll to see the number of tickets gained. That’s a thing I think can be opposed by Observation maybe? I’ll check that out.

And they took my repeated bait to go do the first quest – find Scooter in the Hostile Hostel. They went at it a bit more skill focused than exploratory, so they didn’t ask Ramona questions or check for a guest book. They also didn’t check out any of the first floor rooms, nor the second floor – just did listen checks until they found the room it was coming from. It’s supposed to be echo-y all over, but I didn’t want to No their skill checks on their first challenge.

Dispara started checking rooms after they figured it out, and folks started finding cards. Which has Valara able to put her knowledge to bear. Though they haven’t let her check anything out, mostly just drawing the cards they find. We’ve found a Healer’s Kit, a Light Hammer, a +1 to attack/damage, and a quick heal if Dispara goes to zero HP – but that hasn’t happened, yet so.

We also had our first little fight, I got a Schnoozling onto Killjoy, but Kentaro cut it off before he made his first save. A simple and quick fight, but I wanted to practice the mechanics, and it was more of a trap than a real combat – they don’t even do damage. I figured out how to roll attacks by the end of it.

Looking forward to more exploring of the carnival next week – meeting Locke, checking out their shopping options, maybe getting to play a few games and some simple quests to get to know the area and people.

And find Water – Kentaro realized he needs to find easier and cheaper things to drink than Felix’s elixirs. Might have to make friends with Puddles or Capt’n Groggstache.

See you next week, Adventurers!

Welcome to the Revelia!

On By ravonlockeIn ReveliaLeave a comment

Last time I ran a campaign, I kept separate blogs for the game session summaries written by a wide cast of NPCs and my DM musings. If you’re a follower of this blog, you’ll have noticed a distinct falloff of posts in the last couple years, and for that, I do apologize <waves at the state of the world>. That said, I don’t want to overpromise by saying I will, again, keep two blogs, so I will endeavor to divide up these posts to hold both session recaps and DM musings, with a heavier emphasis on getting back into the habit of session blogging, and maybe DM musings in footnotes or something. Or maybe it will be chaos to match the campaign itself, only time will tell.

All that rambling aside, let me introduce you to the Revelia.

This campaign will combine Heckna! – a kickstarted horror campaign setting entirely within a carnival, The Wild Beyond the Witchlight – an official WotC product that begins in a carnival and ends in the feywild, and The Book of Many Things – an official WotC product describing the Deck of Many things, as well as many other available decks and chaos in the multiverse (and I may have added a few of my own). To top this all off, we are playing in 2nd Edition ADnD, so after turning on the blender of WorldAnvil to combine the books, I also had to do my best to convert it all to 2nd Ed mechanics. This also means that instead of the feywild, our backdrop is going to be Ravenloft in the second half of the game, depending on what the players choose to do. Success TBD.

Now, a campaign is nothing without the players, so let me introduce to you, in general terms, who will be attending this chaotic carnival:

  • A multiversal janitor
  • A Tiefling rogue from Sigil
  • A Dark Sun jester
  • A blind Ogre Mage gladiator
  • A Dwarven sharpshooter
  • A wandering monk
  • A forgetful pyromaniac pyromancer
  • And a Knight of the Solar Bastion

That’s right, we’re back up to eight players, plus the DM, at the table once again. Exciting and terrifying, but really, once you’re already up to 7, what’s one more?

First game is June 2nd so stay tuned for what happens when all these folks meet and enter Heckna’s Revelia!

Cultists and Death

On By ravonlockeIn Journal, PandoraLeave a comment

Heading down the stairs we follow some footsteps to a pair of cultists playing strip chess. They don’t mind us ransacking the room, seeming very focused on their game and each other. How strange, but they seem busy for the moment, so become a later problem.

The next room, I am encouraged to sneak into alone. It is a dormitory, full of bunks and chests. I rifle through each chest, avoiding the bed with the lone sleeper, relieving these cultists of their money seems the least I can do. Plenty of robes here, too, should the group decide to disguise up while we explore. The sleeper jumps up when I get to her bed, and a short scuffle ensues as she runs out straight into the rest of the party. Amazingly, Ard doesn’t kill her, but knocks her out and Gideon ties her up before waking and questioning her. Ashara tells us that she is well taken care of here. That Shamet promised her a better life. They knock her back out and bind her securely on her bed before we move on.

We continue on, finding a room with two people conversing quietly. I unlock the door and the group rushes in, to find what Tasha calls an Oathbreaker in black armor and a woman in leathers. I stay in the hallway while the group takes care of them. Once down and dead, they are relieved of all of their earthly possessions, many of which are magical, including a portable hole, currently empty, but quickly filled with everything, including these bodies. It takes some convincing to get Tasha to try on the platemail because it is blackened, a symbol, she says of oath breaking, but she’ll be safer in it.

Onward, we find a crypt with 5 bodies laid out in death. We decide to leave them be for the time, instead heading down nearby stairs to a single door. Inside, a woman in black robes reads from a book. I, once again, stay in the hallway while they fight her. Unfortunately, a man in red robes comes from up the stairs and tosses a spell at me. A quick shriek brings help out into the hall to deal with him, while I run into the room, tossing some rocks at the woman. She responds by summoning over a dozen zombies. It is very unpleasant in there until we get some turning power going. Afterwards, we have to head back to the entrance to get a quick rest and some medical care before we can continue.

Having still not found the prisoners, we have to head back in. Back in and to the right this time, we find some doors, an open sacrificial room, and a temple full of unmoving undead. There is a bell in the back of this latter room that seems like it might activate the undead – 30 skeletons and 30 zombies. They don’t seem to care if we’re in the back of the room by the hall, however. So, I open a nearby door to find just 6 undead, three of each type, guarding a couple women, Aseneth and Arpad, and merchants. We unlock them all and draw up a map back to the entrance to get them out.

We all head back down the hallway together, finding a collapse behind one door, and a double bedroom behind the other. This one has a couple more cultists who immediately attack and must be put down by the group. Laramond finds some historical tablets here and a book translating them – the story of the evil goddess this place is dedicated to.

Moving on, we check out the sacrificial altar room. The altar hold bloodstained containers, and the walls are frescos showing a man fighting past monsters that guard seven tombs to reach a woman in black. There is a single cultist here, a man hiding behind deep red pillars. We talk him out without a fight, tie him up and take him back to where Ashara is still bound.

Not ready to fight 60 undead, we head back to the crypt with five. And their shadows rise. Laramond is able to take control of some and between those and the recently found magic weapons, the group is able to put them down. They look around, but don’t find much else here.

We head back to the temple, checking out the small rooms around the edges, without bothering the silent undead. Finding a bedroom with a secret door hiding a treasure room. Using the new portable hole, we steal all the treasure. Tala comes back in from guarding the back entrance and takes a look for secret doors – many of which lead to the disorienting tunnels. Back in the sacrificial room, Ard tries to pick up the vessels on the altar, and is nearly possessed by one, so he uses a skeleton to move them all into the portable hole for later destruction. We’ll have to talk to Rafe about borrowing the forge for a few hours one evening.

Then we really do have to deal with the sanctuary. Do we collapse the tunnels? We don’t have the right gear for that, even if I could figure out how. Instead, we prepare a bottleneck. Gideon and I set up a tripwire in the hallway. The fighters line up to fight them, with the new Mace of Disruption in the middle. Then the clerics and Laramond line up behind them. I go hide in a little room with a locked door with the rescued prisoners, and eat the final remnants of Mendel’s food. The group wins out, but poor Tasha is unconscious for the effort.

We head back to the room where they fought the Blackguard, to see if his stone horse will wake up with the magic bridle they had found. It does, and Ard rides it back to the keep, with Tasha draped across its haunches. It looks stable enough, so we head out to go back to the keep.

Unfortunately, the bandits from a few days ago find us in the woods, and they’re unhappy at having been robbed. They demand half of what we took from the cultists, instead of just what we took from them. Laramond tries to negotiate with them. Several folks want to just fight them, but with Tasha down, and the others not feeling well, we should not chance it. Laramond pulls some money bags and art pieces off of his donkey and sets it down for them – around 2000 gold worth. They accept this offering and head off toward the caves. Gideon, Terak, and I trail them a little ways to be sure of their direction and number, about 20. Then we all get back to the keep for some rest and healing.

Gnolls, Zombies, and Skeletons

On By ravonlockeIn Journal, PandoraLeave a comment

Back at the Keep, Laramond figures out what the Goblinoid sign said: Comrades, join the cause, repel the loathsome invaders who profane our ancestral caves with their sacrificial alters. All humanoids welcome. Well, that is very well written for goblins, and it gets everyone curious. The discussion at the table over what to do next is rather lively bouncing between gnolls to goblins to a lady necromancer who has gone missing.

The lure of gold and reputation wins out, and in the morning we head south the investigate the gnolls in the forest. Who, for my money, are doing good work of attacking bandits instead of caravans. It’s a long hot walk in the forest and we have to backtrack a couple times. Just so we can get attacked by big furry spiders. Yuck! They party kills some and chases the rest off before we can continue on.

I’m still hidden from the spider fight when the gnolls arrive, surround the group, and take them prisoner. Gideon is quite polite though, so they are escorted to their camp instead of killed outright. There are several dozen gnolls and hyenas there. The three largest come out to meet the party, one of which can speak the common tongue. They are killing the bandits because they are among the invaders who took their caves from them. Others came in robes – the cultists, likely – as they say those kidnap and kill people. Laramond asks if they’ll help us get rid of them, but they want proof we mean to help. They do share a map of the area with a few things marked that we did not have – one with a letter Laramond says is a Q. I lost track of the conversation at that point because a hyena got too curious and I had to feed it my jerky rations.

The party is walking away when I’m done with that, so I join back up. We check out the flooded road area, but it seems fine. Then head up for the Q place, which is just south of all the caves, up on the higher land around the valley. Turns out it is a big stone door in the back side of the hill. Terak finds skeletal footprints heading inside. Ard lifts the door open to find an antechamber with a couple dozen skeletons standing in rows. Gideon and I set a tripline in front of the door, but the party ends up going inside to fight them, and also scaring them further into the cave instead of pulling them out. They make such a racket that a bunch of zombies come out to join the fray, but the holy folk and Laramond turn and take control of enough to handle everything.

Once everything is under control, we discover barrels being stored here with false bottoms, with A.K. burned into the bottoms. The cooper is Asham, maybe this is what he’s grumpy about. Putting Laramond’s new pet skeletons in front, we head down a very long tunnel. The first room we find holds skeletons kneeling in worship to the most beautiful woman in the whole world. Terak and I go and join them, but Tala pulls me away and then things get fuzzy for a few minutes. When I come back to my senses, the group is talking about putting a tent in front of the lady, but decide not to waste the time and tent.

The next room is some sort of mausoleum with robed bodies in open graves. They begin stirring, but the holy folk go in and shut them up again so the swordsy folk can cut their heads off. There isn’t much to find in there. So, we head back and try a different path, which leads us to one of the entrances into the valley. Further along this path there are a few more doors. The first one leads to stairs, but the group wants to finish up here before going down.

The next door leads to a lavishly decorated room, where the toady merchant Mendel is sitting, with his two guards and the latest of women serving him sweet treats. He tries to get us to go away and leave things be, but the group is having none of that. I enjoy a few snacks while Gideon asks him his business. Gideon doesn’t like his answers and throws a couple darts into his chest, which signals Ard to promptly cut off his head. This convinces his guards to immediately surrender, and also causes the two women to come out from under a charm spell.

They admit he was supplying people, mostly off caravans, to the cultists. This included the cooper’s daughter to keep him quiet, and the necromancer lady who had disappeared, and the last two women he’d had with him in town. They offer to take the women back to the keep, but Tasha doesn’t trust them. She pays them a handful of gold to officially ‘hire’ them for this task. They take off and we take a look around, and I take as many sweetmeats as my pockets can hold.

Tasha finds a secret door in the back of the fireplace. It leads to a very strange twisting tunnel. We decide to investigate, and I try to lead the way, but I keep running into the walls and it feels terrible. A loud thumping begins further down the tunnel and we decide that leaving might be a better choice at this point, and head back to Mendel’s sitting room for a quick breather.