Mahrundl's Campaign

[mahrundl]

OK, this is where I'll be posting the sessions of my campaign journal (or at least, as many as I can locate ).

A bit of background:

It's essentially 5th edition, although there are a few house rules in there in places. I was very 'generous' with treasure, since this was originally just going to be an introductory session for some totally new players, and some who were just very rusty... I mainly wanted them to have some fun, and to play with a few ideas myself. If this campaign ever resumes, it will likely be with new characters.

Also, I never got around to polishing this up, so you get what is really the first draft. If the prose seems somewhat stilted, you can blame that - or just assume that I'm not much of a writer...

Anyway, on with the tale!

[mahrundl]

Session 1

Day 1:

A pack of bears was attacking farmers of Baron Campbell the Fair. With the bulk of his forces committed elsewhere, the Baron sent out a call throughout his lands, seeking adventurers to halt the attacks.

In the village of Tembrall, two young warriors (Gerrard De’Ath and Tony) and a wizard (Bill) heeded the call. Arming themselves, they sallied forth to locate the bears’ den.

As they picked their way through the forest, Bill felt a tingle of magic from just ahead. Creeping stealthily forward, they espied a trio of goblins in a clearing, squatting and drawing in the dirt. None of the adventurers spoke the tongue of Goblins, but Bill had studied the language of the Orcs and could make out some of the words. The goblins were planning an attack on a nearby farmstead. Leaping upon the creatures from the bushes, the party took the goblins by surprise and made short work of killing them. None of the adventurers was harmed, but Bill collapsed unconscious from his efforts in casting spells at the goblins.

Searching the creatures, Gerrard found a handful of gold coins and several dirks. As he relieved them of their paltry treasure, he noticed a key hanging around the neck of the largest goblin. The reviving Bill determined that the key was slightly magical, and felt a very faint echo from the northwest. The path they were following towards the bears led southwest, and the party decided to deal with the goblin threat first. They hid and waited for Bill to recover his strength, and were undisturbed, save for a wild boar trotting through the clearing where they had slain the goblins, and a crow perching on a branch and watching them for a while. They set off to the north-west and after walking for about an hour, they reached the edge of a large clearing hard up against a sheer hill-face.

Remaining concealed within the forest, they observed a solitary goblin standing guard at a cave mouth, clutching a spear. Moving stealthily, the party sneaked around to the south of the cave, where a slight curve in the hill shielded them from the goblin’s sight. As one, they dashed to the cave and slew the goblin before it could issue a cry.

Cautiously entering the cave mouth, they spotted a concealed pit in the floor just before them. Testing the ground proved that there was a safe but narrow path along either side of the pit. Passing into the cave, they found a cooking fire and a dozen or so tattered bedrolls, but no goblins. Searching quickly, they found several weapons in good condition, a few days provisions, a pouch of gold coins and a barrel of foul ale. Gerrard collected the weapons and Bill cast his ‘Detect Magic’ spell once more. Strangely, he could not detect any magic from Gerrard, even though the fighter still carried the key they had found. After some experimentation, they determined that the pile of weapons was causing the spell to be blocked, so they were put to one side while Bill cast his spell again. The key fairly blazed with magic this time, and the echo was felt, more strongly this time, from beneath the cook-fire.

After some searching, it was found that a crack ran all around the stone on which the cook-fire burned, but the adventurers were unable to pry up the slab. They brushed away dirt and ash from the slab, and discovered a small, dirt-filled hole. Scraping out the dirt, they tried to turn the key in the hole, but it would not fit the hole. At that point, it was realised that the hole was shaped as though to accept a spear tip, so the goblin’s spear was fetched. Inserting the spear tip caused the slab to rise up and rotate out of the way, revealing a dark hole in the dirt about 2’ long and 1’ wide. Peering into the hole, a small chest was spotted, and Tony cautiously removed the chest, hoping to avoid any traps that might guard it. They inserted the spear tip into the hole in the slab once more, and the slab rotated and sank back to the floor. An invisible wind seemed to blow dust and dirt around for a moment, and when it stopped, the slab was once more indistinguishable from the rest of the cave floor.

Leaving the cave in case the remaining goblins returned, the party noticed a second cave mouth about 50 yards north. Checking it with due caution, it was found to be fenced off and contained a donkey and harness, along with signs that other livestock were corralled there at times. The donkey was taken and loaded with the weapons from the cave, and the party hastened back into the forest. They located a dense thicket where they could rest and examine the booty they had found.

It was determined that the weapon that had blocked the ‘Detect Magic’ spell earlier was a kris, a dagger of meteoric iron. All of the other weapons seemed normal, so the party turned their attention to the chest. It was a very small chest – 11” long, 7” wide and 6” high. The key fitted the lock and Bill opened the chest cautiously, leaping back as a small cloud of grey powder spurted out. He cautiously peered into the chest and found it empty, other than its lining of black velvet and traces of the grey powder.

Avoiding the powder, Bill searched for secret compartments in the chest. He found none, but discovered an invisible ring standing up from the bottom of the chest. He attempted to poke a dagger through it, to no avail, but when he tried inserting his finger into the ring, it slipped through with no difficulty. He pulled on the ring, with no result. However, he thought that it had moved slightly, so he tried once more. This time the ring moved – the chest folded around itself and turned into a much larger chest, 4’ long, 3’ wide and 3’ tall, with a dozen pockets around the sides. Seven of the pockets seemed to contain things, while the other five looked flat and empty.

Bill cautiously searched the flat-looking pockets, but found nothing. Turning his attention to the bulging pockets, he found a suit of mail armour. At this point Gerrard, growing weary of the wizard’s excessive caution, started pulling things rapidly out of the remaining pockets and tossing them on the ground. He was rather surprised when the fourth pocket turned out to contain a live and poisonous snake. Fortunately, the snake was too startled by being suddenly grabbed to bite before it was thrown to the ground. The party battled the snake, which only failed to poison Tony due to his having donned the lower half of the suit of mail found earlier. When the snake was finally dispatched, the party took its poison glands to allow them to poison their weapons later, and continued removing items from the chest. Along with two more suits of armour, they found a number of weapons, several flasks, and a couple of pouches. They also noted that even in its larger form, the chest did not weigh as much as it should based on the amount it contained.

They decided to return to Tembrall to rest and plan further. On the way, they notice a flock of birds high overhead, that seemed to be flying directly towards the cave of the goblins. Later, only an hour or so from the village, they were ambushed by a large mountain cat, which fortunately slipped and fell from the trees as it was about to spring on the party. The cat was dispatched, and the characters reached the village with no further ado.

It being near nightfall, they decided to sleep and travel to the larger town of Cambri the following day, to try to get some of the items they had found identified. Gerrard, who chose to sleep across the doorway to prevent nocturnal prowlers from entering, was woken around midnight by the door being pushed into his side and the sound of heavy breathing. It turned out to merely be the donkey, which had broken its tether and sought out the party. The rest of the night was uneventful.

Day 2:

Bright and early the next day, the party set out for Cambri. They walked for about 6 hours, arriving in Cambri in the mid afternoon, and immediately set about hiring a wizard from the Wizards’ Guild to determine the value of their new acquisitions. They were shown to a room with a 5th level wizard in it, and he began identifying items for 200 gp per item.

[Mhegrrrim Skulltosser]

I like the magic chest. It is more interesting than just some plain extra-dimensional box. Are they going to keep it?

Did they forget about the bears?

[mahrundl]

Oh yes, they're keeping the chest.

They didn't exactly forget about the bears so much as relegate them to a later time.

[Mhegrrrim Skulltosser]

I understand. A really cool magic chest does kind of distract people from finishing their jobs. I imagine it could be quite addicting to keep opening new pouches and sub-drawers to pull out something really cool. Almost sounds like a potential plot twist from the old Friday 13th TV series.

[mahrundl]

One of the things that they found in a flat pocket was a scrap of paper. I don't recall if they realised it, but it was part of an advertising brochure for the chest.

They never did work out what the grey powder was, nor did they use the chest again, as far as I can recall, before the campaign ended.

[mahrundl]

Sorry about the delay - here's the second part of the campaign journal:

Session 2

Day 1 backtrack:

The dwarf wizard Phrognoes stood before the dwarven elders. He was considered one of the best and brightest the village had produced in many a long year, and was gifted with many valuables to help him make his way in the world. Leather armour and a razor-sharp dagger were given to him, as well as a number of jewels, and he was sent forth to win glory for his people.

As he strode through the mines towards the surface, Phrognoes cast about him with his magical detection sense. To his surprise, he discovered, wedged in behind one of the support beams, a staff the likes of which he had never seen before. Sensing that this item might be valuable, he bound it to his pack and continued.

Leaving the mine tunnels, Phrognoes strode north-west, towards the town of Cambri. It was a long but not very arduous journey, which resulted in the dwarf reaching the town late the following day, and deciding to find out more about the staff he had found. Which led him to the Wizards’ Guild, coincidentally at the same time as Gerrard, Bill and Tony were paying for analysis of the last of their new items.

Day 2:

The various items were identified, and the analysing wizard offered them 5000 gp for a potion he identified only as Booster. When asked for more detail, he offered 8000 gp if the party would just sell it to him. When they declined, he admitted that the potion was designed to increase the capabilities of a wizard, and this one looked to be one of the more powerful types. He also identified 2 of the other potions as Lifter, a similar potion for Warriors.

The dwarf was invited to join the party, and introduced himself. Gerrard magnanimously offered to pay for the identification of some of Phrognoes’ items by way of greeting. The group, now numbering four, retired to a high-class inn to discuss their plans.

It transpired that Gerrard wished to try a Lifter potion. With the others watching over him, he drank the potion and fell unconscious to the floor. When he revived more than an hour later, he discovered that all of his attributes had increased substantially. The rest of the party decided to drink their potions as well. There was no potion for Phrognoes but one of his gems had been identified as a duplicator gem, which would duplicate any one container of fluid, so the duplicator gem was used on the Booster potion. A duplicate of the potion was created, along with a non-magical version of the duplicator gem. The original gem no longer glowed so brightly, but seemed to still be magical, so there is some hope that it may be able to be used again. After drinking the potions, the remainder of the party also felt their attributes had increased.

Day 3:

The following morning the party set out to find out more about the bears. Accosting the town crier, they attempted to bribe him but were unsuccessful in getting much useful information, but he referred them to the Baron’s castle. On arrival, they spoke to the Sergeant on duty, and were given details of the bears’ marauding. They also discovered that there was a reward for the elimination of some goblin raiders, so the party agreed to undertake that task as well…

Returning to the marketplace, the party shopped for clothing more befitting their new wealth, then returned to Tembrall, arriving in the early evening. They were woken by screams around midnight, and discovered a cook from the tavern standing in the road and screaming. Tony slapped her to try to calm her down, and she collapsed to the ground gibbering. The villagers arrived to see what was going on, and they took her home. At this point, a shadowy figure was seen slipping away into the forest. The party followed but could find neither tracks nor any other sign of the figure. Returning to the village, the cook was being watched over as she appeared to have totally lost her mind.

Day 4:

The following morning, the party set off to deal with the remaining goblins. Following the path to the clearing near the goblins’ cave, they discovered a trip-wire that close inspection showed to run across the clearing into the cave. Gerrard sneaked around to the side of the cave offering the most concealment, and then the trip-wire was tripped. A dull thud was heard from within the cave, but no other signs of life were seen. Gerrard walked into the cave mouth and discovered 4 goblins there ready to attack. He backed out of the cave while fighting them, allowing the wizards to get a clear shot. Two goblins were quickly dispatched, but then 4 more appeared, 3 of them bearing crossbows. Fortunately for Gerrard, all of them missed him, and the remainder of the party began closing in to help. Gerrard came perilously close to dying when the goblin leader stabbed at him, but the goblin’s attack was thrown off by a timely ‘Take That You Fiend’ from Phrognoes. With this aid, the goblins were soon slain, save for the leader who was merely knocked unconscious and bound to be taken to the Baron. The goblin corpses were dumped into the concealed pit. When the leader regained consciousness, Bill attempted to use his knowledge of Orcish to communicate, but got nowhere.

Believing that the shadowy figure was associated with the goblins, the party healed their wounds and waited in the cave for nightfall. A watch was kept and around 2 am there was a rustling sound at the entrance to the cave. Tony, who was on watch, woke the others and they waited for the creature to enter. Suddenly, there was a yelp and the sound of the concealed pit cover opening and closing, and a muffled thud. Rushing to investigate, they discovered a limping, emaciated wolf eating the goblin corpses. Figuring that this was no danger, the party returned to sleeping with a watch, but were undisturbed for the rest of the night save for a brief thunderstorm.

Day 5:

In the morning, the party prepared to leave. Bill levitated the now bloated wolf out of the pit and over to the edge of the forest, where it fled into the trees. They checked the stock cave, and discovered a horse (with tack), 2 more donkeys and a cart designed to be pulled by 1 or 2 donkeys. The goblin leader was dumped into the cart, and the party returned to Tembrall slightly before noon. They set out for Cambri almost immediately, with the hope of arriving before dark.

About an hour’s travel north of Tembrall, a large mound, about 80 yards across and 15 high, was noticed off to the east side of the path. It appeared to be some sort of burial mound, but no-one from Tembrall had ever mentioned it to any of the characters while they were growing up. They noted that it showed signs of having been there for some time, but nothing could be seen to grow anywhere on it.

Arriving in Cambri just before dusk, the party travelled immediately to the Baron’s castle and delivered the goblin leader to the Baron. The Baron spoke to the goblin in its own tongue, and then sent several guards to accompany it to the dungeon. The Baron told the party the goblin’s name was Glaardash, he had been causing problems in the Barony for quite some time, and the Baron knew him from his adventuring days. The party were then paid for the destruction of the goblin raiders: 50 gp per head for the ordinary goblins, 100 gp for the lieutenant, and 500 gp for delivering Glaardash alive. In addition, the Baron identified the horse as a thoroughbred stallion stolen from his stables by the goblins, and gifted the party with a horse each as a reward for returning it.

The party spoke to the Baron about the shadowy figure they had seen. The Baron had heard of it but knew little of what it was. He sent them to speak to his magical adviser, Saliac, to see if their experience could shed any more light on the nature of the creature. Saliac allowed that the creature sounded most like an undead creature known as a dire wight, except for the lack of a barrow where it was interred. The party mentioned the burial mound they had seen near Tembrall, and Saliac decided that it was very likely the creature’s grave. He asked the party if they would take on the task of destroying the dire wight, gave them what little information he had on the creature, and proved them with a scroll to set up a circle of protection to contain the creature.

The party retired to their usual inn for the evening.

[order99]

I like the pace you've set-encounters met, a goal or two reached, a new mission and some prep...timing is crucial for this kind of thing!

BTW, if none of your players read this forum-what WAS the grey dust for?

[Mhegrrrim Skulltosser]

I find it interesting. The delvers are out to find and slay some bears and keep running into goblins instead. Ther wouldn't be a Cult of the Bear temple nearby would there?

[mahrundl]

order99 said:

I like the pace you've set-encounters met, a goal or two reached, a new mission and some prep...timing is crucial for this kind of thing!

BTW, if none of your players read this forum-what WAS the grey dust for?

The dust was essentially just dust. It was magically restocked every time the chest was closed, so it could spray out again the next time. There was a tiny chance - about 1 in 500 - that it would react with *something* each time though. So after getting dust on themselves with no harm for months or years, suddenly they'd find themselves choking in the fumes produced as their magical armour dissolves... ;D

[mahrundl]

talonfire said:

I find it interesting. The delvers are out to find and slay some bears and keep running into goblins instead. Ther wouldn't be a Cult of the Bear temple nearby would there?

Actually, since this started as a one-off session, I was just going to run them through level 1 of Dungeon of the Bear. When I discovered that some of them needed a simpler introduction to the mechanics, I ad-libbed most of session 1 as I've posted it. It worked rather better than I expected, since they decided that they wanted to keep playing.

The bears were some distance away from their homes. The goblins ended up being closer, but less of a threat to the barony at that stage, and their raids had been in other directions.

Sadly, some tensions in the group led to the campaign stopping after only 5 sessions. Should it ever resume, the characters will find that the bears are in a cave system of my own devising rather than a published module.

[mahrundl]

So - who else is going to post a campaign journal?

[zendog]

mahrundl said:

So - who else is going to post a campaign journal?

Is it okay if I start a journal for the play-by-post game I'm running at RPGnet? It's not strictly a campaign in the face to face sense.

[order99]

Is it T&T and/or MS&PE? If so, I doubt that anyone here would object! I recommend a New Thread though.

[mahrundl]

Zendog, you may certainly post play-by-post sessions here, for T & T, MS&PE, and anything else that seems 'on-topic' for these boards. 'Campaign Journals' can even include one-off sessions in a solo!

But yes, in a new thread please.