Into the unknown?

I don't usually provide this much of a window into my DMing black box, but I was reading through old content and remembered something from early on. Below is a snippet of my “crib notes” from session #2:

The night they return, the village is ablaze; Malar cultists have pillaged everything. A wolf-beast stalks about the fires, destroying everything it crosses.

• Malar cultists (4): THAC0 19; AC 16 (hide); HD 1+1 (hp 11, 10, 6, 5); #AT 3/2 (spiked flail); Dmg 1d6+1, armed with flaming torches

• Korvich (Malar Clr3, NE, many scars, Zeb’s mentor): THAC0 18, AC 16 (hide); HD 3 (17 hp); #AT 1 (cudgel); Dmg 1d6+1
• Spells: cause light wounds, cure light wounds (2), command, invisibility to animals, charm person or mammal, hold person

• Carcerus, “The Black Devil” (wolfwere, CE): THAC0 15, AC 3; HD 5+1 (20 hp); #AT 2 (bite, wpn); Dmg 2d6, 1d8+1 (axe +1); iron or +1 weapons to hit; MV 15, MR 10%, XP 2,000; Int 16; 1 round to transform

Smoke envelops the party. If Zeb admits his allegiance, Tussugar and the woodsman turn on him. The smoke clears, revealing the ashen husks of cottages, whose remains smell only faintly of fire. In physical terms, a year or more has passed.

The sound of large forms shuffling around them awaken the party’s senses. The remaining cultists flee into the night.

A lone trail stretches to the east. In all other directions, the hills are forlorn.

Of particular note is the final sentence, “A lone trail stretches to the east. In all other directions, the hills are forlorn.” At this point, I still had an idea of potentially taking the campaign into Ravenloft, and the end of this session was going to be where that happened. As mentioned recently, despite wanting to keep this an open-ended campaign at most junctures, there have been points where I've executed a linear path to achieve a specific atmosphere. It's not been the easiest line to walk, though I think the results have overall been positive.

In the end, Ravenloft was obviously eschewed for staying in Forgotten Realms, while still incorporating Gothic elements for a “not quite traditional D&D” feel. But, prior to that decision, I'd drawn up an alternate path to follow the razing of Shadfeld, wherein the PCs would still meet a bound prisoner along the trail east, but in a much different context, one that would embark the party on a path into the Demiplane of Dread. I don't really want to get into more details than that, but it was something I'd not thought about for a year and felt like sharing...

(By the way, Sean is the one to thank for me not taking the campaign that direction. I knew Jason wanted Ravenloft, but I was fairly sure Sean didn't, and I was unwilling to go down a path that one player may really have not enjoyed.)

Standing out

What sets D&D apart from any other game is that you, as a player, can do anything, bounded only by the parameters of the campaign world and the limits of your own imagination. RPGs have always been distinct from other games, whether board, card, video, or pen-and-paper in this way; it's the primary reason we choose to play them.

Every D&D game I've ever run or played in has been a learning experience for me as a DM, and often, it's the latter that tends to be the most eye-opening. DMing is a fantastic way to gain comfort with the mechanics and managing the logistics of a complex, fantasy RPG. But it's the rare occasions where I get to step in and be a player that I'm truly enlightened to what elements I like and dislike in a game, whether it's the style, the setting, the edition, or anything in between. Those experiences are taken back and folded into everything I do as a DM going forward.

Most recently, it was the chance to play in Jason's play-by-post that showed me the real potential of a sandbox style game. I've always liked the prospect of a player-driven campaign, but have never been great at stopping myself from weaving elaborate narrative plots with pre-staged and scripted climaxes. And once you make the effort to come up with and start running through the scenes in your head, you develop a bias toward ensuring that they materialize at the table. While some players really like being a pawn in the DM's story, what Jason's game taught me was how much I, as a player, didn't.

In the play-by-post, my character Raith's future wasn't going to get pulled out from under me or dangled along by a string. The other players and I were in control, and this was of paramount importance to my emotional investment in the setting, which soared from the moment we started and for the duration of the time we played. This is the fundamental experience I want to deliver to my players.

To this point, I've done a good amount of stringing along, and have done so openly, to give the players a chance to meld and familiarize themselves with the game world. Now that this has been accomplished, however, and the PCs have found a measure of local notoriety defending a small fiefdom, I'm dropping the tethers and allowing the campaign to unfold as the PCs see fit. The options before them are endless.

More importantly, the choices are theirs.

At the risk of tainting the notion described in the opening paragraph of this post that the players can do anything, I'm going to enumerate a handful of the possible paths before them now. This is most definitely not to persuade or to suggest that these are the only courses they might follow, but rather to give the group a taste of its freedom. The characters could...

• delve into the Witherwood to battle gnolls and see what else they might find;
• stay hither and fortify Brithem and its surroundings;
• research the curious map given to Wren by an ex-shipmate;
• go after the bandits that robbed them along the road;
• travel to the city of Longsaddle and seek out the renowned wizard family that resides there;
• return to Luskan and become pirates;
• venture further north to Mirabar or Icewind Dale;
• set out for some faraway, famous location like the great library of Candlekeep

How do I prepare for such an array of possibilities? That's better a subject left for another post - after I figure out how to do it. It's a natural thing as DM, I think, to strive to control the direction of the party. To railroad; to set short- and long-term campaign goals, rather than let the characters define these for themselves. Relinquishing that control makes the DM's job both easier and more difficult at the same time. Easier in that plots need not be preconceived nor interwoven; harder in that there's much more pressure to exhaustively detail the landscape of the campaign world and how its regions, settlements, and populations subsist and interact.

D&DSM

Ravenloft is the sadomasochism of D&D. In Ravenloft, the DM teases, torments, and defiles the party not only to cause anguish but ultimately for the players' enjoyment. Ravenloft is a ticket that grants the DM free reign to wrest control from the characters at all times; to tear them away to new domains at the crack of a whip; to lead them along by a carrot that remains ever out of reach. Ravenloft is a diabolical, deceitful, and magnificent campaign setting. But it's also an excuse, and a crutch.

They didn't even need to tie him up...

That's the main reason in the end that I elected to stay away from Ravenloft, as much as its allure still calls to me at times. I wanted to give the players something they could truly make their own, without the mists always encroaching and threatening to intervene. There's a far greater challenge and much more to experience this time around.

Let's have at it.

Final Ravenloft XP totals

As I'll soon be removing these from the sidebar, I'm posting them here as a formal archive:

• Leilana - 8,224
• Aginot - 7,904
• Carmen - 7,550
• Gaertorin - 3,900/3,940

Ravenloft, Farewell

All good things must come to an end, and so it is that we've chosen to set our Ravenloft game aside, indefinitely, to begin a new campaign. This decision is more a result of real-life changes and availability than anything else, but Falkovnia and Drakov's Talons will surely be missed. We had a solid run of 21 sessions over the course of three years, with six characters between four players. Until we meet again...

...

In any event, something I'd like to try with the next game (aside from running a more traditional setting) is making the DM screen more transparent, as per some advice I recently picked up on. That doesn't mean players become privy to enemy stat blocks and unexplored map areas, but it would involve making most (if not all) DM dice rolls public. It seems like an interesting and worthwhile challenge - it definitely forces me to up my game, in terms of getting my rolls right and not pulling any punches for the PCs. I think we'll give it a go.

Edition-wise, I'm fairly sure we'll remain on AD&D 2e for the players, and for simplicity I'll likely follow suit, rather than having to deal with conflicting class and spell details in OSRIC. While 1e/2e/OSRIC are all nearly interchangeable at their cores, 2e still provides the best class options for wizards and priests, and remains the AD&D system I know best.

Look for more information on the new game in the coming weeks. Players can start bouncing around character ideas - in that vein, I leave you with this.

RL #21: The Touch of Death

Safely removed from Gorgi, the party began to set up camp. As they did, a trio of lantern-lights passed along the road, though at too far a distance for their nature to be discerned. The companions took their sleep in turn, though Leilana was startled during her watch when she turned to see Valana suddenly awake and staring at her intently. "One of your company possesses something of great significance to my people," the gypsy uttered. "You."

Valana reminded the druid of the scroll she carried, stating that it was penned by a Dukkar, a rare male Vistani gifted with Sight, many generations ago. The author, Hyskosa, recorded six verses, prophecies that together foretold the unraveling of the mists, rulers, and of the world itself. One of these verses had already come to pass. Leilana pressed for more details, but Valana answered her cryptically, then fell silent.

In the morning, a low haze covered the ground, and Valana explained that she could lead the PCs through the mists to find her family. The party followed the gypsy into a thick fog, walking until the sun shone high and hot overhead, and the ground was covered with sand. The mists burned away to reveal a vast desert, with endlessly rolling dunes in three directions and a steep cliff face in the fourth. They were standing near a road that led to a small village.

Valana was distressed and unable to say where the party was, or why. With little other recourse to escape the oppressive heat, they walked along the road until they came upon a brown, withered hand emerging from sand along their path. They uncovered a corpse, a dried-out husk dressed in a tattered garment. Unsettled, they proceeded on to the village, arriving at a spring in its center as lithe, brown-skinned villagers outfitted in flowing white robes and headdresses looked on. Standing next to the spring was a woman wearing a gold-trimmed gown, a snake's head circlet, a gold medallion, and several pieces of ornate jewelry.

The woman introduced herself as Isu Rehkotep, servant of Osiris, god of the dead. She welcomed the party to the village of Mudar in the land of Har'Akir, and explained plaintively that the villagers were wary due to a series of recent kidnappings. When the PCs mentioned the corpse they discovered along the road, Isu bid them to take her to it, and they did. Upon returning with the body, a female villager rushed to it in hysterics. Gaertorin attempted to comfort her, but the woman shrieked at the intrusion and several men surrounded her and the weathered corpse, finally carrying it away from the spring. Isu invited the PCs into her temple to help answer their questions.

The temple itself was a whitewashed, sandstone building of elaborate architecture, with two great statues guarding its entry. The first, a powerful male figure with the head of a hawk, depicted Ra, the sun god; the second depicted Anhktepot, the last pharaoh of Har'Akir. While Ra's statue appeared to be immaculately maintained, Anhktepot's was damaged and worn.

Inside, Isu led the party through a grand hall adorned with columns, prayer mats and tapestries before passing through a curtain into the priestess's public antechamber. Isu's exotic pet cat, Bashet, paced the room (showing a particular distaste for Aginot) as the priestess told the legend of Anhktepot:

The pharaoh Anhktepot ruled centuries ago in the land of Har’Akir. This nation encompassed the entire Abal river valley in the great Akir desert. According to our beliefs, the pharaoh is the link between man and the gods. The pharaoh is himself a god of this land. The pharaohs ruled by the divine grace of Ra, the sun god.

Anhktepot greatly feared death. It was known that when a pharaoh dies, he becomes a servant of Ra in the underworld, exalted above all other servants. For some unknown reason, Anhktepot did not want to die. Maybe he feared the wrath of Ra should the sun god discover that Anhktepot had been a false pharaoh. Anhktepot commanded his priests to find a way for him to cheat death. Many slaves and prisoners died horribly as subjects in Anhktepot’s gruesome experiments in immortality.

Frustrated by his lack of success, the pharaoh had several temples burned and razed. He stalked into the Kharn temple, greatest in all of Har’Akir, and cursed the gods for not granting him his heart’s desire. Ra answered Anhktepot. He told the pharaoh that when he died, he would live, though he might wish otherwise. However, for cursing the gods, Anhktepot would suffer eternally. Ra did not say how this curse would be manifest.

Anhktepot left the temple elated but confused. He still did not know how to cheat death. That night, when he touched Nephyr, his wife, she died instantly. Everyone he touched that night died. His wife, several of his servants, and his eldest child all died by his hand. According to our customs, they were mummified and entombed in great buildings in the desert. The funerals took over a week.

Anhktepot soon understood that after the sun left the sky, his touch was death. So long as Ra shone upon him, he was safe. But once he was no longer under the sun’s watchful eye, whomever he touched died horribly.

Shortly after the final ceremony of his wife’s funeral, he was visited in the night. A mummy wrapped in funeral linens entered his chambers. By the vestments he knew it was Nephyr. Unable to speak, the mummy tried to embrace Anhktepot. Horrified, he screamed for her to leave him forever, which she did. Nephyr walked into the desert and was never seen again. Her tomb has remained open and empty through all these years.

Anhktepot was also visited by the mummified bodies of those he had killed. He came to understand that he controlled them utterly. They did his every bidding. He used their power and his own deadly touch to tighten the reigns of his evil power over Har’Akir.

He killed many priests, making them into his undead slaves. Occasionally he would find one of his mummies destroyed, burned from the inside out. Some scholars believe Nephyr was responsible for the destruction of Anhktepot’s mummies, but no one knows the true answer.

One day, the priests rebelled against Anhktepot and murdered him in his sleep. He was still the pharaoh-a god and blessed of the gods. The priests gave him a funereal befitting his station. Shortly after the funereal, the Walls of Ra appeared, cutting us off from the rest of Har’Akir. All that remains of the life we once knew is Mudar and the tomb of Anhktepot, which lies a short way through the desert. All of this happened many generations ago.

Occasionally the villagers say they have seen the mummified body of Anhktepot staggering across the sand dunes. They blame most of their ill luck on him and use his name to frighten small children. I don’t know what has happened to Har’Akir or if Anhktepot truly does walk the land as one of the living dead.

Isu offered the party a place to sleep outside, near the spring where they would be safe. Strangely, many travelers had come to Mudar in recent weeks, she explained, but most often, the heat of the desert claimed them. The spring's water was sacred to the village; all were welcome to drink it freely, but filling a decanter or taking water away from the spring was considered a serious crime.

Distraught by the day's events, Valana bade the PCs to participate in a fortune-telling near the outskirts of the village, away from the populace. The PCs agreed, and seated themselves in a small circle, out of sight of any villagers. Valana removed a deck of cards from a pouch around her waist. She asked each companion to shuffle the cards in turn, then entered a trance-like state and revealed the following:

Six of Hearts - "The card of the hex. A sign of mystery and events to come. Look for the sign of six. The king understands the hex as the knave does not. [The heart] is the symbol of loyalty betrayed." 

Queen of Clubs - "This card is the traitor queen. She who should serve has betrayed her lord." 

Four of Diamonds - "The sun shall set this many times before the king can be sought. This time is called the Night of Thoth." 

Four of Hearts - "A strengthening of the aspect of the Night of Thoth." 

Jack of Clubs - "This card represents evil personified. He attempts to overthrow the king. The queen now serves this knave." 

Four of Clubs - "A further strengthening of the sign of Thoth." 

Before revealing a final card, Valana asked each companion to shuffle the cards again.

Ace of Clubs - "A singular presence. A symbol of those who do not belong. They have a terrible task ahead of them. [The club] is the symbol of physical power. This card holds the power to destroy."

Upon finishing the last reading, Valana broke from her trance and collapsed, stating that she needed rest. The PCs helped her back to the spring, where they set watches for the night.

In the late evening hours, after all the villagers had retired to their houses, Gaertorin spotted a lone figured illuminated by the moonlight in the desert, stray ends of cloth fluttering in the breeze as it walked among the dunes. Shaken, the half-elf assured the safety of his companions; when he looked back again, the form was gone.

During the midnight watch, Leilana heard a rustling sound and turned to see a brown, withered corpse attacking her from behind. The druid screamed, awakening her companions as the creature raked across her neck and face with its claws. Injured nearly to unconsciousness, Leilana ran the creature through with her spear, and Gaertorin crushed its skull with his mace.

The party dragged the body to the nearby temple steps, and the final watch passed uneventfully. In the early morning hours, as the sun began to warm the village, Leilana turned her focus toward the spring and began to cast a spell...

DM's Commentary

I'd never have thought that Carmen's decanter of endless water would come in so handy when I arbitrarily gave it to her as an initial magic item. So awesome when things like that just work out.

The only other thing to mention is that these session recaps shouldn't dissuade players from taking in-game notes - names, maps, and especially specific events like the fortune-telling should be recorded in as much detail as you think you might need later on. This time, I did include the minutiae since Aginot already posted his notes as well, but please don't count on me to always provide this stuff later, otherwise I may start omitting them from my write-ups.

RL #20: The Black Raven

Last night marked our twentieth Ravenloft session over the course of two and a half years, a pretty good track record in RPG terms. What's more is that the PCs are still fairly low level, so we have a long way to go before all is said and done.

In the Tally-ho Inn and Tavern, the party weighed its options at length. As they did, the pair of Talon guards from outside entered the taproom to the call of "The gypsy will curse us, you've doomed us all!" from a stumbling drunkard. One soldier approached the man, held him up with one arm and slugged him with a bladed gauntlet, laying him low. That quieted the patrons, but the whispers overheard from nearby tables were clear: the capture of a Vistani was a serious matter indeed, an order that would be given by no lesser than King Vlad Drakov himself. And why the carriage would be en route to the militant border-town of Stangengrad, no one knew.

Before long, the soldiers returned to the Black Raven with a gallon-sized tankard of mead for the dwarf. Not to be outdone, Aginot took it upon himself to purchase and offer up a five-gallon barrel in an attempt to win the men's trust. The effort proved fruitless, and the carriage was soon stabled for the night, along with the dwarf, the two Talons, and the two wolf-hounds. Carmen tailed the contingent, looking on as Valana was beaten to unconsciousness after she finally began to stir. A second pair of Talons helped secure the stable, then subsequently returned to the tavern.

The rest of the party took leave of the taproom, sneaking into a large, unlocked stable adjacent to the one that housed the Raven; Carmen, still invisible, lurked outside. The PCs plotted an ambush over the stable wall via the rafters, but as they did, their would-be victims detected the party's presence and took action: one Talon sighted Leilana through a hole in the stable wall with his crossbow, while the second led the dogs outside and into the party's stable, the dwarf lumbering drunkenly behind. Leilana was struck by twin crossbow bolts as the dogs rushed in, and melee ensued.

Carmen resisted the urge to call out a warning to her friends, knowing it would do little aside from exposing her position. Instead, she tactfully crept inside the Talon stable and stabbed the lone crossbowman from behind, canceling her invisibility but saving the party from additional fire. The soldier rose to his feet to assault the mage, but Carmen struck deftly again, laying the man low. A knock spell on the prisoner cage door and Carmen dragged the unconscious Vistani woman outside while her companions defeated the remaining enemies with sword and spell. Gaertorin cast cure light wounds on Valana and her eyes fluttered open, revealing her beauty.

The party made haste for the north gates, staying off the main road and bribing the gate-guards to exit the walls safely. Once outside, they fled into the night, finding sanctuary in a forest grove a half-mile from town, and in desperate need of healing.

DM's Commentary

This session ran pretty smoothly, with the party spending most of its time deliberating the optimal course against the Talons. There was a brief opportunity early on where Carmen (invisible) might have been able to steal the carriage while the first pair of guards were busy fetching ale for the dwarf, but the moment was fleeting and I'm not sure they'd have had time to execute the theft cleanly. I liked the direction the party was going when they snuck into the adjacent stable and plotted an attack from the rafters - unfortunately the stable walls were paper-thin and they just couldn't be quiet enough not to be heard with a Talon guard awake and on watch. If there's one mistake the group made this adventure, it was spending too long in the stable without action.

Mechanically, the party had some breaks, but made some sound decisions as well. Aginot's hold person spell was key, even though he unluckily rolled a '1' for the number of individuals he could target. Gaertorin reaped the statistical benefits of multiple attack rolls per round, and Carmen used good tactics to find advantage in melee combat, even as a lowly wizard. Leilana fell victim to some rather poor rolls - we had a critical moment where Aginot was at 2 hp and unable to escape one of the dogs, and Leilana needed any damage roll other than 1 (which she of course rolled) to kill it. Fortunately, the dog missed on its final attack and everyone survived, but it was close. On the plus side for the party, I made consistently bad initiative rolls for the enemies throughout the combat.

Someday I'm sure the numbers will get the best of the PCs and one of them will die horribly, but I'm glad it hasn't happened yet. You really have to play to your advantages, know when to fight and when to flee, and especially how and when to use your spells. AD&D doesn't offer much margin for error.

A Word About Morality

Ravenloft is very much centered around morality (or lack thereof), and frequently a situation arises that gives me a bit of pause. Last night, the party discussed the option of setting fire to the Talon stable. It could just be that the repercussions of such an approach were lost on the players at the time, but the party had witnessed a village fire spread quickly once before (in Chatain) and would do well to consider the potential loss of innocent lives and destruction of homes and property before heading far down so dangerous a path.

The other instance worth mentioning was Gaertorin's coup de grace against a magically held Talon soldier after the combat was effectively won. We talked briefly about how Alaric (a paladin) would never have allowed such an act, but a character not adhering to a specific class or code shouldn't constitute a free pass to look into a defenseless man's eyes and kill him without remorse. Now, in this specific case, I think the slaying was reasonably justified - it would be easy to argue that killing the soldier was in the best interest of not only the party, but the entire town as well. So it's not a matter of imposing any kind of penalty on the PCs - I just think these kinds of actions warrant enough in-game roleplaying to ensure that the moral aspect of the event isn't lost on anyone in the group. It's a delicate line to walk, and Ravenloft especially is known for acknowledging those that stray from a moral path - even in the heat of battle. Tread carefully...

XP

Some solid XP awards to hand out for this session:

• Defeating the two Talon soldiers, dwarf guard, and two Falkovnian wolf-hounds - 500 XP
• Rescuing Valana from the Black Raven and safely exiting the town gates - 1,500 XP

That's 500 XP each, and Carmen gets her 10% prime requisite bonus for Intelligence. Updated totals:

• Leilana - 8,224
• Aginot - 7,604
• Carmen - 7,550
• Gaertorin - 3,750/3,750

No new levels gained this time. I'll keep an eye on XP advancement over the next few sessions to make sure the story awards are sufficient based on the Ravenloft style of game (i.e., high roleplaying, relatively low combat and treasure acquisition). I can make adjustments if need be as time goes on.

RL #19: Transitions

Tonight marked a major transition for our campaign, with the exit of Alaric and Nora, and introduction of two new characters (played by the same players), Gaertorin (male half-elf ranger/cleric) and Carmen (female human transmuter). Also our first session back after a long hiatus due to real-life dealings, so it was great to get back into the swing of things.

We picked up in Morningsong - or, the shell of what the village once was, abandoned, weathered and aged - as the characters found it when they returned. Aginot awoke alone in a roofless and dilapidated inn; exploring the grounds, there were no inhabitants - only a few long-dead skeletons - though when drawn to the chapel gates by an unexplained ringing of the church bell, the four friends noticed that the placard outside had changed. Where once read:

"Let this chapel stand for eternity

As a reminder of the consequences of sin."

Now proclaimed:

"Let this chapel stand for eternity

As a reminder of heroes and good will among men."
*

Underneath the stanza was etched the coin insignia of Aginot's order. Additionally, the well behind Ellidora's cottage was still collapsed as the party had most recently left it. A sign of decades taking their toll, or something more?

With little other recourse in the village, the PCs took the day to rest and then set off along the trails, hoping to again find the river. As they waded into the depths of the forest and night began to fall, a cool breeze ushered in the sound of wind chimes in the distance. The party followed the haunting notes, arriving at a colorful gypsy wagon situated beside a blazing campfire with five individuals seated around it. Of these, three were Scarengi, Ryana, and Carloni - the same Vistani family that the party had encountered before arriving in Marais d'Tarascon. The other two, a half-elf man and a human woman, were unfamiliar, outfitted in adventurer's garb and clearly not gypsies.

Scarengi offered seats around the fire, warm stew, and bread. While kind in demeanor, the gypsies answered questions cryptically and seemed not to remember the previous visit with the party in Souragne. The two non-gypsies were quiet, but when asked, explained that they'd been scouting along a dangerous trail at night when they were ambushed by skeletal warriors, known to be minions of an evil warlord named Soth. As the skeletons began to overtake them, the trail was surrounded by a thick fog. Suddenly, the trail and skeletons were gone, leaving Carmen and Gaertorin alone in the woods amid a grove of black, dead trees, the likes of which they'd never before seen.

Soon, the pair heard wind chimes in the distance and came upon the Vistani wagon. Alaric, Aginot, Nora, and Leilana arrived shortly thereafter.

The travelers' tale seemed of little consequence to the Vistani, and notably, Scarengi and Ryana's daughter Valana was not present in the camp. Scarengi explained that Valana had been captured by Talon guards aboard a "Black Raven" (a Falkovnian prisoner carriage) along the road to Stangengrad, persecuted for her gift of "Sight." As if knowing the companions' own eagerness to locate this same road, Scarengi offered to lead them there, so long as they agreed to trail Valana and rescue her. The Talons would likely be found in Gorgi, a small town less than a day's march north. The party accepted, and all settled in for the night.

As Gaertorin and Carmen were exhausted from their travails, Alaric and Aginot stayed awake for the first watch, during which time Alaric demanded that Aginot return Ellidora's mask to him so that he could find a way to destroy it. Aginot refused, waking Leilana and entrusting the item to the druid instead. Disturbed by Alaric's uncharacteristic brashness, Aginot committed to foregoing sleep through the remaining watches, though fatigue eventually overcame him.

In the morning, Alaric and Nora were nowhere to be found, and the mask was missing from the folds of Leilana's cloak. The forest was scoured, but Leilana and Aginot uncovered no sign of their friends. Saddened but seemingly with no other option, Leilana etched a message "Farewell, Alaric and Nora" into a tree and the pair followed the Vistani to a well-beaten trail that surely hadn't been present the night before. The vardo disappeared into the morning fog, leaving Leilana, Aginot, Carmen, and Gaertorin alone.

The foursome traveled throughout the day, cresting a final hill and looking down upon a small, gated town at sunset. Warning the new companions - whose foreheads were unbranded - of the various mistreatments typically suffered by Falkovnian citizens, the party circled the valley eastward and entered Gorgi from the north, an effort to deter any suspicion that the PCs might be pursuing the Black Raven, if it was indeed here.

The gatemen barely questioned their entry, and the companions found their way to the town center, marked by the "Tally-ho Inn and Tavern" and the Black Raven coach - guarded by a pair of Talon soldiers - tethered outside its doors. The party observed the carriage, drawn by two jet-black mares and adorned with a prisoner cage easily large enough to transport a half-dozen men - but which in fact contained only a single, female form.

Gaertorin, Aginot and Leilana steered clear of the Raven and entered the tavern, while Carmen cast invisibility and approached the cage from behind. Up close, she surmised that the captive - sleeping or unconscious, but certainly not dead - was indeed Valana, based on the party's description. She noted, too, a set of iron clubs wrapped in bloody rags hanging from the carriage side, and a pair of wolf-like dogs laying attentively in the shadows. To each dog was tethered a harness, and the ends both harnesses were clutched firmly in the hands of a black-armored dwarf. Having seen enough, Carmen looped back around and made her way into the taproom, reconvening with her allies still fully invisible.

DM's Commentary

A paladin's road is never easy, and Alaric's was no exception. His need to destroy Ellidora's mask, though driven by a desire for good, turned to near-obsession in the end. When Aginot and Leiliana wouldn't surrender the mask to him, he employed the party's thief to steal it while the rest of his companions slept, and together the pair trod off into the mists. Though Alaric quickly realized his mistake, when he and Nora attempted to return to the Vistani wagon in the dead of night, all they found was an empty forest grove.

In the land of mists, fate seems ever at odds with those seeking to do good, and Alaric may have just taken his first step down a very dark path. A warrior who might have been destined to end the reign of an evil king in an oppressed land has departed his companions, lost within himself... to what end?

Out of game, Alaric and Nora's players were both new to RPGs when we started the campaign, and Nora, particularly, was rolled up with literally an hour's notice. Both players were enjoying the game but felt that they wanted to go in a different direction, now that they've had a chance to wet their feet. It's definitely a move that I support - these kinds of transitions provide interesting new story arcs, and it's important that players are playing characters they can have fun with.

XP

Fifty XP to Aginot for yesterday's post. Gaertorin and Carmen will begin with 7,000 XP each. I typically start new characters at a total slightly below the otherwise-lowest party member. This helps reward the characters that have stuck around longest and provides incentive not to change (or die) too often.

RL #18: The Phantom Village

Tonight we resumed where we left off, with the party regaining its bearings in the aftermath of its battle against the kobolds. They set back out to the tunnels, following the nearest fork a short distance to a dead end, then backtracking to a crossing of two paths in an 'X' and taking a downsloping outlet marked at the top by a decades-old mine cart.

That tunnel led back in the direction of the village, and at its end, miles later, was an enormous chasm where a waterfall poured into an underground lake from one side (Alaric correctly deduced the waterfall's source to be the river cavern nearest the kobold lair). The tunnel itself opened to a 100-foot drop, ending in a rope ladder and a small iron barricade used to prevent mine carts from rolling over the ledge. Far below, smoke from a bonfire billowed up to the cavern's uppermost recesses; around it loitered a handful of man-sized humanoids.

A plan was devised to throw stones from the ledge and wait for a scout to ascend the ladder. It worked, though it took several minutes, and the orc that climbed up was assailed with arrows and fell to its doom. Thereafter, the party began its descent, covered by the readied bows of Ainsley and Rooks, and Leilana's spells.

The orcs below had taken to the shadows and fired crossbows from hiding as the companions climbed down. Kleigha was pierced in the back and plummeted to his end, soon followed by a second longswordman. Alaric, Nora, and two men-at-arms reached the bottom, and when finally the orcs charged in, bloodshed came quickly and fierce. The party's strikes proved far truer than those of their enemies, and even after a hulking ogre joined the fray, the band from Morningsong knew victory. The cavern was scoured for secrets and gold coins, and a final orc who fled from the melee was tracked down and slain. With that, the party made its way back to the cave's entrance, exiting to the moonlight.

After only a few hours of rest, they set out for home, trudging through fog as the early morning sun finally began to glow. As they closed in on the trails that led back to the village proper, the PCs inexplicably lost sight of Rooks, Ainsley, and the lone surviving longswordman. They searched and called out, but found nothing: the men seemingly had vanished into thin air.

A short time later, Alaric, Nora, and Leilana arrived back in Morningsong, and what their eyes beheld chilled them to their very core. The village was desolate and abandoned. And more than merely abandoned, it looked as if no inhabitant had graced it for years, even decades. The wells were dry, the farms barren, and the structures they remembered as homes and establishments were dilapidated and decrepit. Confusion turned to horror turned to fear.

End.

XP

The XP awards for the past three sessions are as follows:

• Avoiding the dire bear - 489 XP
• Kobolds slain - 83 XP
• Orcs slain - 132 XP
• Ogre slain - 180 XP
• Gems, coins, and items recovered - 232 XP
• Story award - 1,000 XP

In total, that's 2,116 points, though the allotment will be divided into five shares: one to each PC, one to Ainsley and Rooks, and one to all other allies. That makes 423 XP per character. Updated totals are:

• Alaric - 7,774
• Leilana - 7,724
• Nora - 7,303

Leilana hereby attains 4th level. I don't have any additional commentary, though players are welcome to add/post their own. Looking forward to hopefully having Jason back next time we play!

RL #17: Unwelcome Return

Last night we resumed in Morningsong, with the party quickly deciding to further investigate the mysterious cave by the river. Calling a meeting in the Lion's Head tavern, Alaric imparted the danger of the mission at hand, offering a chance for any unwilling man to stay behind. All pledged their allegiance to the journey, though before the group could part ways for the eve, Rooks entered from outside, accompanying an injured young man who brandished sword and bow. The wounded hunter, Ainsley, brought word of a vicious orc trio that had slain a fellow woodsman near the forest outpost. Alaric healed Ainsley, who offered his aid to the contingent as well. With heightened urgency, the band departed at middark, aiming to reach the cave shortly after sunrise.

Their ill-advised nighttime passage through the forest ushered in a veil of thick fog as they closed proximity to the river. Without warning, the din of a marching army sounded off in the distance, singing to them like a nightmare. Recognizing the omen, the PCs bade their allies to close their ears and focus on the trail ahead. One of the men-at-arms (Vedrane) fled with all speed from the group, disappearing into the mists. The remaining eight travelers began chanting a bold chorus of "Stay strong for Morningsong!" to drown out their fears. When finally they found the river, the phantom noise was gone, and the fog began to break. Rooks and Ainsley led them to a shallow crossing and they made quickly for the cave.

Outside, no activity was detected, and the party filed into the rocky passage beside the running stream. Nora traversed the precarious ledge, toting a grappling hook attached to a hundred-foot length of rope. Securing the grapple in place for the others, Leilana followed next, slipping on a wet section of rock and plummeting into the chasm below. Nora scaled the cliff to administer healing in time to save her friend, though lifting the half-elf to safety and helping the rest of the companions across consumed a great deal of valuable time. Worse, as they toiled, kobolds slung stones from a ledge across the waterfall. Bowmen picked off two, frightening away the others.

Finally, the party took to the tunnel, traveling more than two hours and passing multiple forks before encountering a lone orc backed against a heavy, iron-banded door. The orc turned tail, but when the party followed, they found themselves inside a kobold lair. A battle ensued, the PCs routing the kobolds into an expansive cavern blocked by an underground river - the same cavern they'd travailed on their venture from the well in the village, this time entering from the opposite side, mere yards from the pit trap where they'd nearly met their demise.

The kobolds proved unprepared for the assault, and the party's combatants (with the help of Leilana's dust devil) made short work of the minions, slaying them all.

DM's Commentary

This was a pretty fun session, though admittedly, allowing Leilana to fall from the ledge nearly ruined it. A 5% chance to slip followed by a failed Dex check had her toppling fifty feet to a rocky chasm below. In the end, she took 17 points of damage (average rolls on 5d6), falling unconscious at -2 hp and dropping all the way to -5 before Nora made it to her side. These are the kinds of unlucky mishaps that I find myself most tempted to fudge in the party's favor. I had a bad experience several years ago where I allowed something similar to happen to a player, whose PC died and who ultimately decided not to play D&D anymore afterward. Despite that incident, I stayed true to the dice last night and everything still played out reasonably OK. Those are always tough calls to make, especially in the heat of the moment.

That said, I probably was a bit lenient in allowing Leilana to retain her spells and continue to operate at full capacity after being brought back to positive hp through magical healing. I didn't care to take the time to look up official rulings, and we've spent enough time playing with a party member completely debilitated in recent sessions. I think I made the right call on that too.

Of note, Alaric entrusted the black mask to Aginot prior to leaving Morningsong (Jason was good enough to agree to this via text even though he wasn't playing). Also, the party recovered coins and gems inside the kobold lair. No XP will be awarded until we reach a true resting point, but as a reminder to myself for later, here are eligible accomplishments from the past two games:

• Avoiding the dire bear in the forest by way of entangle
• Slaying 12 kobolds in the dungeon
• Recovering a haul of copper coins and a handful of valuable-looking gems

Last but not least, remember for the next session that the orc who led the party into the kobold lair was nowhere to be found after the combat ended. As the PCs scoured the cavern diligently, it presumably found an escape.

RL #16: Shadows in the Forest

Picking up after a couple months off, the PCs assembled a contingent of eight that included Rooks and four other able-bodied men and took to the forest trails outside Morningsong. Shortly after reaching the first outpost, they encountered a twelve-foot tall bear, which advanced toward them aggressively before being held fast by Leilana's entangle. Moving fast, the contingent circled around it and pressed on until it fell out of sight. From there, they reached the river-crossing, and elected to follow the stream downriver.

Toward late afternoon, one of the men-at-arms, Vedrane, spotted a fast, fleeting movement on the opposite shore. Investigating from afar but finding nothing, the party hoped (but did not truly believe) that the sighting was simply a large fox. Continuing on, the contingent arrived at a previously uncharted fork in the river as twilight began to set in. The fork led away from the opposing bank, into the open mouth of a small cave. Rooks pondered the strange formation, doubly concerned that it seemingly had sprung up from nowhere, as Morningsong's hunters travelled this route often.

Deciding to camp for the night, a fire was set ablaze and watches were arranged. In the early hours of the morning Nora caught sight of two yellow eyes peering near the cave opening, but as with the earlier phantom, a shake of her head and they were gone. Unsettled, Nora awakened Leilana and passed the remainder of the night in the druid's company.

Rooks advised that the river could likely be crossed a short way further down, so the party continued on, traversed the shallows, then doubled back. Near the cave mouth was a semi-concealed rocky passage that led behind the stream, into a cavern and along a precarious ledge that ended in a man-sized tunnel. The river fork itself poured down a fifty-foot waterfall, ending in darkness below. Wary of delving too deep underground, the contingent marched back upriver, back to the outpost, and finally back to Morningsong before nightfall.

In the village, the PCs and Rooks convened privately with Jorah, Kleigha, and Aginot. The older residents of Morningsong showed grave concern for the findings, citing similar happenings from twenty-five years ago, when hunters would return from the forest bearing tales of inexplicable new landmarks amid well-known territory. Their most serious failing, they believed, all those years past, was in neglecting to root out the evil that threatened them until it was almost too late. As such, Jorah particularly impressed the need to investigate further, and not again leave the village's fate to mere chance.

DM's Commentary

This was a tough one, starting back after some time off. It's always hard to get your head back into the game and recall all that transpired previously. The party's investigative approach, too, didn't feel all that exciting, though it did uncover some interesting new details. No XP to award right now, we just need to play again soon so that we don't feel the lag next time too.

RL #15: Out of (and into) the Dark

Last session left the characters in a particularly bad spot. We resumed with the orc gazing down at them from the top of the ten-foot pit where they were trapped; after growling a few undecipherable orders to the surrounding kobolds, the orc left and I put the players on the clock, with one minute of real time equalling one minute of game time.

They tried a few things initially (searching the walls, attempting to scare the kobolds away with a torch, attaching a grappling hook to the underside of the raft), but didn't seem to yield any real benefit. Finally, seventeen minutes in (three minutes before the orc would return with allies to turn the pit into a cook-fire, though the players didn't know this), Alaric donned Lady Silva's black mask.

Black tendrils of smoke clasped the mask to his visage, and Alaric took the form of a hulking orc chieftain bearing a giant hatchet. Succeeding a few key ability checks, he climbed the already-secured rope and swung to the nearest ledge, pushing the raft aside just enough to fit through. Where prior to the change, the kobolds prodded at the PCs aggressively from above with their javelins, from orc-Alaric the creatures backed away, slowly and warily.

Nora was hoisted up next, and as Leilana followed her out, a half-dozen orcs came running for the corridor. Alaric slung Nora over his shoulder and burst through a line of kobolds, racing for the upriver raft while accepting hits from flying javelins. Once aboard, Alaric cut the tether and he and Leilana paddled with all speed.

The orcs reached the bank and leveled crossbows, but with the party outside the range of their infravision, the bolts sailed wide - and with the last remaining raft still covering the pit-trap, the enemies had no easy means to follow. The companions crossed the river, took to the tunnels, and fled from the well, all alive.

Back in Morninging, Alaric sought healing for Nora, and as she was revived, Leilana organized a team of villagers to collapse and seal the well. In the following days, the trio recovered from their wounds and readied a team of hunters and men-at-arms to scour the forest for additional threats.

DM's Commentary

This was a short session; we didn't have a ton of time, and while I didn't know at the beginning how things would play out, I figured that one way or another, resolution would be quick. Things ended as well as the players could possibly have hoped, and I'm not really sure if the party had another out after the mask (of note, Alaric required a save vs. spell to remove it from his face, though he made the roll easily). Alaric's Strength checks in the pit were key - while failure to climb out quickly wouldn't have caused damage, it would have cost valuable time. When finally the PCs escaped, Alaric was left with one hit point from the javelins (the players saw my actual damage rolls).

Morningsong, while thankful that the well is sealed, is more concerned than ever that orcs and kobolds are lurking barely a mile from the village, albeit underground. To those villagers that survived the battle twenty-five years prior, the fear of imminent danger is all too familiar.

XP

Not a ton of XP to award, but the party's foray in the catacombs wasn't entirely unfruitful:

• 12 kobolds slain - 90 XP
• Sealing the well - 500 XP

That's 197 points each (216 for Nora). I think the award for sealing the well is justified; the party could easily have left it intact for further exploration and plundering, but by sealing it off they ensure that no monsters can use it to invade the village, even after the characters leave. XP totals are updated on the right.

All in all, I'm surprised everyone made it out. Had Alaric gone down, Nora would likely have been lost as well. The party had a brief window for escape before the orcs returned, and to their credit they made the most of it.

The pitfalls of being an adventurer...

"Maybe Lord Hanwey will save us," Leilana whispers quietly. "He wouldn't let us die here, would he?" she asks it aloud, though seeks no response. Waiting upon a ghost to save them seems rather unlikely and unfortunate.

She cradles Nora's lifeless form in her arms. Her slow, shallow breaths, the only evidence that life still flows within her veins.

"How could we have been so careless, Alaric?" Leilana asks, as her eyes roam over the stone walls of the enclosure. "We were so careful upon entering, checking each hall for traps, and at the first sign of defeat we panicked. We let fear consume us, and now..." her eyes slowly meet his, "...the village may be lost."

Desperation paired with exhaustion rolls over her spirit in waves. Her eyes search his for an answer, any answer. She knows the brave paladin would gladly sacrifice himself in order to save his friends, this town, or his village. There is courage in that, she thinks, perhaps not wisdom, but courage no less. Her eyes study his, filling with pity at the thought of the oaths he has sworn, the sacrifices he has made, the promises that will go unfulfilled. And for what reason? Because death has been brought at the hands of creatures that use rocks for weapons.

When the boat is pulled over the enclosure from above, their situation suddenly feels all the more dire.  As the darkness settles in, Leilana's senses become more acute as her half-elven heritage surfaces.
Suddenly the fear of dying, of defeat, of all of Morningsong being utterly destroyed by these pesky little rodents, is too much to bear. Fear turns to determination and she pulls herself upright. The hair upon her arms stands straight up as she turns to Alaric and declares, "This will not be our tomb. We will not surrender ourselves, nor the town."

She sets her jaw as she looks for a way out. She turns the remaining spell over in her mind, Create Water, as she studies the walls. The rocks seem jagged, but may provide enough foot holes to climb. If the creatures were to climb down, a slippery surface would hinder their descent.

She paces the small floor, thoughts forming quickly. "We have a rope. We have a hook."  Her voice, just above a whisper, is higher than normal, though her words come out even, set with determination, "We will need a distraction."  Her eyes catch the sight of the torches in Alaric's bag. A thought quickly arises, and she pushes it out in a rush before changing her mind, "Smoke will blind them. We will set the boat on fire, flip it over, use it for cover, pull Nora up with the rope, and run like hell." Even as she says it, she knows it seems unlikely that it would succeed.

"And if that doesn't work," she faces Alaric and quietly states, "I will put the mask on." Without hesitating she adds, "I know you don't agree." Her eyes meet his one last time, pleading for understanding, "But Alaric, we must escape and warn Morningsong." She lays a hand on his shoulder and plainly says, "I expect you to destroy the mask by whatever means possible once they have been warned." The ramifications of what she implies lies heavy in the air between them.

She takes a step back and begins preparing the rope and grappling hook. The thought of dying by Alaric's hand is actually a relief then the idea of dying by whatever lies above.

RL #14: Kobolds in the Well

Our group has decided to keep playing, without Aginot temporarily, under the pretense of the party electing to remain in Morningsong to help prepare for winter. The PCs have delayed their departure for Stangengrad until the situation in the village, under-provisioned and lacking a true leader, is more stable.

In the wake of that decision, what happened last night was far from expected. However the party comes out of it (if they do), is likely to alter the campaign forever.

We picked up a few days after the unmasking of Lady Silva; late one night, Alaric, Nora, and Leilana were awakened by an alert call from one of Ellidora's cottage guards. The guardsman was injured, bleeding heavily from a puncture wound in his side, and nearby was the body of a three-foot tall, dark-skinned creature which Jorah identified as a kobold. Kobolds were known to toil as the slaves of orcs; suddenly, the timing of Azrael's attacks against the hunters after years of apparent dormancy seemed not so disconnected and random.

It felt even less so when the PCs trailed the kobold's snowy footprints back to the dried out well behind the cottage, where Azrael had been spotted loitering suspiciously.

The friends elected to watch the cottage for the remainder of the night, and when dawn came, they descended the narrow well-shaft using a rope. At the bottom, Nora discovered a five-foot-high dug-out tunnel leading away from the village. Alaric bid the remaining guards to send word to Jorah and Aginot, and the PCs took to the passage, following it by torchlight with heads and necks bowed for nearly two hours before emerging in a taller, rocky cavern with slime-laden walls.

Leilana's timely casting of detect snares and pits revealed a hidden pit trap which the PCs averted by sidling along the slimy walls. Seemingly unharmed by the ooze, they traversed a new series of dry, forking tunnels, triggering a lone spear-rack trap from the ceiling and felling two kobolds that threw stones at them from the darkness.

The tunnels led to a massive, underground chamber bearing a two-hundred foot wide river that flowed with a powerful current. The party's torchlight couldn't reach the other side, but as they made their approach, they spotted a lone kobold drifting away from the nearest bank atop a log raft. Acting quickly, Alaric plucked the creature with an arrow, and Nora expertly grappled the raft back to shore. After careful evaluation of the current, the PCs dragged the vacated raft upriver and rode it across. On the opposite bank were two more empty rafts and a single, wide passage that led deeper into the complex. They shipped their raft downriver and made their way to the tunnel, whose entrance was adorned with a six-foot wide barrel-drum, tactfully disabled by Alaric.

Satisfied, the PCs advanced along the passage walls, taking care to not disturb the center of the floor. Stones (many stones) assailed them from the darkness, and Nora hurled her torch forward, illuminating the kobolds' lair. Dozens of the minions scrambled to evade the torchlight whilst bringing more stones and javelins to bear. The party returned fire, Nora and Alaric loosing arrow upon arrow as Leilana conjured a dust devil to attack their adversaries. More than a third of the kobolds were laid low in all, but when finally the dust devil was defeated, the horde united in a final push to drive the invading characters away.

Assailed with flying kobold weapons, the PCs fled back down the passage, utterly failing to exercise the same caution with which they entered. Leilana, in front, sprung a pit trap in the floor. She and Nora both fell, and though Alaric initially kept his balance, the trio had also triggered another spear-rack from the ceiling. The pikes swept down and struck Alaric from behind, toppling him forward into the pit atop his friends.

Nora was incapacitated by the fall, having suffered numerous lesser wounds in the battle. As Leilana worked to stabilize her, the monsters surrounded them from above, dragging one of the large rafts from the river to cover the pit opening. Minutes passed, the companions helpless and injured, kobold guards watching them hungrily. Finally, a larger creature arrived, its towering form shadowing down from above as its pig-nosed face and yellow eyes bore into them like drawn daggers.

The face and eyes of an orc.

DM's Commentary

That's where we had to stop. At this point, we'd been playing for more than four hours and it was well after midnight. The players at least deserve a chance to play this part out with clearer heads, though I think everyone's prepared for the fact that this might be the party's end. It looks really grim. The characters were bold in descending the well with no additional support from the village; ironically, the success with which they navigated the tunnels initially made escape that much harder in the end.

This game was a hard lesson in how one wrong move or moment of carelessness can undermine a whole session of solid play. I cringed when I saw the PCs running for the pit trap, especially after they smartly avoided it by staying to the walls on their way in. The decision to flee (along with three failed Dex checks) negated all the good they'd accomplished to that point. Leilana's spell selection was excellent, Nora had some really insightful plays (studying the river current and throwing the torch to illuminate their enemies and help conceal the party), and Alaric and Nora's attack rolls were efficient.

So where do they go from here? Nora is "stable" at -4 hit points. The players should read this to make sure they know exactly what that means. The kobolds made a lot of high attack rolls against her during the fray, making the added fall all too deadly. Alaric and Leilana are in reasonable shape, but Leilana is out of meaningful spells.

The idea of donning the black mask was raised. Alaric dismissed it immediately, saying there's no way he'd allow it, though I made a point to remind him that not only his friends' well-being, but possibly the entire village might be at stake. Alaric has been willing time and again to sacrifice his body for his allies, but what about his morality? This is by far the toughest dilemma he's been faced with, if the party really does want to try that route.

The players have some time to think (a lot more than their characters do). Whatever ends up happening, I doubt the party comes out of this the same. It definitely will be a turning point, for better or for worse.

RL #13: Illusions Unmasked

(Thirteen must really be unlucky, because I had almost my entire post written when a single keystroke inexplicably wiped it out with no way to recover. This is attempt #2.)

Thursday night, after three arduous sessions, the party finally brought closure to the dealings in Morningsong. Upon their return from the forest, word of Dowding's demise spread like wildfire. A gathering ensued, and Lady Silva was quick to implicate the PCs, claiming Alaric's red talon mark a baleful omen. Jorah and members of the travelling party dismissed the notion and tempered the governess, though it was evident that fear of a desolate winter had begun to set in amongst the villagers.

Of note, as the gathering dispersed, the PCs caught hearsay that Silva had fallen ill and bedridden the previous day. Apparently the Lady suffered from some chronic ailment whose onset was sporadic and usually short-lived. (If the party's suspicions of Silva weren't heightened already, they most surely were now.)

In much need of rest, the PCs slept until early the next morning. At sunup, they located Rooks, one of the hunters who accompanied them previously, and enlisted him as a guide. Together, they delved back into the forest, reaching the first outpost at midday under a veil of light snowfall. Deciding to remain for the night, the PCs dispatched Rooks to the village, bidding him to return on the morrow with any able bodies willing to join.

A fire was built hours before dusk to battle the wintry winds, and when night fell, Alaric and Leiliana kept watch while Aginot and Nora slept. Shortly thereafter, Leilana became aware of (and rebuked) an attempt to infiltrate her mind. The party was wakened, and Alaric, on a hunch, pinpointed the location of an invisible presence using detect evil.

Leilana cast faerie fire to magically outline their foe, and Alaric and Nora advanced. In the ensuing rounds, Leilana cast entangle, and after a series of thwarted attempts to control and poison the PCs, the foe became caught in the twisting branches. At long last, both armed with magical longswords, Alaric and Nora ran the creature through. As it convulsed and died, its invisibility subsided, revealing the visage of the mute, Azrael, before transforming into the body of an imp.

The companions waited out the night until Rooks returned with a small contingent at midday, then they all returned to Morningsong, where Lady Silva was nearly comatose in her cottage. When Alaric's attempt to detect evil was met by chaotic visions of a swirling black mist, Leilana used detect magic to reveal a powerful illusion aura upon the woman's face. Pledging his trust in the PCs, Jorah presented Aginot a clerical scroll inscribed with dispel magic.

Aginot uttered the incantation, and a thin, black mask peeled away from Silva's visage. As it did, her features transformed to those of another - Lord Hanwey's (supposedly) long-dead daughter, Ellidora.

She awakened.

DM's Commentary

In the little she was able to offer in terms of explanation, Ellidora revealed that, in the waning days before Azrael's control over her became absolute, she imparted the details of her condition unto her older sister. Subsequently, Angelina's "attack" on Ellidora, regarded as an act of jealousy by the village, was actually an attempt to exorcise the imp from her sister's mind. But when Azrael used his powers to feign the younger sister's death, Angelina's grim fate was sealed. Ellidora succumbed fully, and later would don the guise of Lady Silva (a purely fictional persona) by way of the magical mask.

Overall, this was s very successful session for the group. Alaric had some outstanding revelations, particularly in identifying the common thread between the men-at-arms' behavior in the forest and the conflict between Hanwey's daughters. Equipping Nora with one of the party's enchanted longswords was key as well. In addition, a few critical dice rolls landed in the party's favor - notably, the random chance to detect evil in Azrael's direction (25%), Leilana's racial resistance to charm (30%), and the two final attack rolls against the imp.

Protection from evil was paramount in the combat with Azrael. While the effect is generally useful against most malevolent enemies, it really shines against otherworldly creatures like an imp, preventing physical contact with the protected individual. Without protection from evil, it's likely that one or more characters would have perished.

Despite all the good, one thing the party needs to sort out going forward is Leilana's use of entangle. The lack of coordination between the caster and her allies when it comes to this spell is a ticking time bomb, surely to kill at least one PC before long. Entangle is an extremely powerful spell in woodland environments, but one that needs to be wielded tactfully and with the utmost care.

XP

Really glad to finally be able to award some well earned XP. The spoils:

• Saving the Morningsong men from Azrael's mind control - 700 XP
• Defeating Azrael - 1,200 XP
• Freeing Ellidora from her imprisonment - 1,000 XP
• Recovering the black mask - 3,000 XP

That's 1,475 XP each, and Aginot has attained 4th level. Nora, as a newcomer to the party, is starting at 5,000 XP, though her 10% bonus for high Dexterity should catch her up with the others in due time. Updated totals are below, and also posted on the right.

• Alaric - 7,054
• Leilana - 7,054
• Aginot -7,004
• Nora - 6,622

A Reprieve

With real life events soon coming to the forefront for one of our players, it may be a while before we play again. I hope not too long - the campaign's going strong, and everyone seems to be having a lot of fun. We're at a decent stopping point now, with the party readying to strike out for Stangengrad before the early-season snows make many roads and trails impassable.

Winter is coming.

The importance of finding another way (and AD&D combat math)

(This ended up being a lot longer than I intended, but once I started writing I just kinda went with it. Hope the party finds it helpful.)

This last session, I saw so many 2s, 3s, and 4s rolled by the players in combat, I swear I wanted to throw up in my shirt. And it wasn’t just attack rolls. DM rolls a 2 for initiative? Players roll a 1. Players roll 5? DM rolls 6. Players roll 6? DM rolls 6. (All of those actually happened.)

So many unlucky rolls, how could the PCs possibly prevail?

That’s what I was asking myself afterward, particularly when Jason mentioned a “dice bowl” idea where players can remove a d20 from a bowl of dice to re-roll an attack or save, then the party gets XP after the session for any dice still unused. It’s a neat gimmick, a little game within the game that helps solve the fundamental “problem” of a party bogged down by terrible luck.

I’m always a little hesitant to make changes like this to my games. Partly because it feels like cheating, but also because it’s hard to remove them without causing disappointment.

So, I took a step back and started thinking more deeply about what I was trying to solve, and specifically the combat math from Monday night’s game. Let’s take Alaric, the party’s undisputed best fighter (actual rolls notwithstanding).

Alaric is a 3rd-level paladin that hits a well-armored (or very small/dexterous) opponent of AC 3 on a 14 or better with his longsword +1. (The math is THAC0 18 - AC 3 = 15 needed to hit, with +1 to his roll from the sword.) That’s a 35% chance, an expected hit rate of about once every three rounds.

That’s not super great to begin with, but passable enough to justify a swing, especially considering that the player doesn’t know the opponent’s actual AC during combat. But what about when the opponent is invisible? That’s another -4 to hit (see here), which plummets his hit chance down to 15%, less than once every SIX rounds, on average.

Six rounds? The PCs are likely dead before then - and that’s the party’s best fighter.  I’m pretty sure the other three characters each need to roll a 20 in that situation.

That brings me back to the dice bowl idea, which subverts the “natural” AD&D combat mechanics in favor of the party. Now, if your hit chance is already around 40% or better, or if trying to survive some kind of save-or-die effect, the dice bowl is pretty helpful. But at 5-15% to hit an invisible enemy, a single mulligan roll doesn’t improve the success chance all that much. Taking last session’s rolls as examples, even if those 2s, 3s and 4s were all 12s, 13s and 14s, almost every one of them still would have missed. And that’s a testament to the fact that, last session, luck wasn’t really the problem. Knowingly or not (and I think mostly not), the PCs made very statistically poor choices.

The truth is, when you’re up against an invisible enemy who’s darting around and stabbing people in the back with poison, you’re best off finding another way to address the issue. Attack rolls are normally well and good (not to mention a core element of the game), but in this situation the attack roll shouldn’t have been plan A. Spells, chalk, rope, blankets, practically ANYTHING should be tried before swinging a longsword for a 1-in-6 chance to hit. Shooting 3s from half-court isn’t winning basketball.

And that’s where D&D really shines, because RPGs are all about thinking outside the box to find another solution. For me, it’s probably my favorite part of the game, the biggest reason I still DM and play. It’s about stepping into your character’s shoes and asking, “My life is literally on the line here, what do I try to do?” AD&D is awesome at accommodating that mindset.

The flip-side to this is that players can sometimes drift so far in the direction of “outside the box” that they forget the box even exists. This happens when you see a party trying to take down a warband of orcs by tying all their daggers together as some kind of ridiculous lasso-tripwire. This approach to combat tends to not be very lucrative either. You want to find the right balance between being creative and pragmatic.

So, having gone through all that, I think the first thing I can do to help with the “bad luck” problem is to show some typical hit percentages for our party:

	Roll needed to hit...
PC/weapon	Lightly armored opponent (AC 8)	Moderately armored opponent (AC 5)	Heavily armored opponent (AC 2)
Alaric (longsword +1)	9 (60%)	12 (45%)	15 (30%)
Aginot (staff)	12 (45%)	15 (30%)	18 (15%)
Leilana (spear)	12 (45%)	15 (30%)	18 (15%)
Nora (short sword)	11 (50%)	14 (35%)	17 (20%)

Look at those numbers closely, because there’s only one in the whole grid that’s higher than 50%. It’s noteworthy that Nora has a +2 Dex bonus when firing her bow, making those chances 10% better (bows also can fire two arrows every round). Opponent invisibility effectively reduces any hit chance by at least 20%, so that’s something to keep in mind as well. Incremental advantages like being on higher ground can impact the rolls, too.

The point is, before blindly choosing to bust out sword or mace, try to think a couple rounds ahead to how events might play out if the dice fall like the numbers suggest they should. If that result looks a little grim for the PCs, you may want to reevaluate your options to see if there’s another approach worth trying.

In closing, my games have never been strongly focused on mechanics, and I don’t want players to feel like they have to memorize the rulebooks to play. A side effect of this, though, is that I probably need to do more to ensure that players are comfortable enough with basic combat math to have a feel for when it makes sense to attack as opposed to looking for other ways to win.

Sometimes it definitely makes sense to swing the sword. Sometimes it’s the only option you really have. But often, success or failure is ultimately determined before any rolls are made at all.

RL #12: Invisible Assailant

The party delved into the forest while the sun was still low, following the walking paths established by Morningsong's woodsmen, and numbering twelve: the four PCs, Dowding, Kleigha, four additional men-at-arms, and two hunters. After stopping at a small campsite for their midday meal, the company came upon a stream, where a weathered cowl adorned with a lion's head brooch was found in the shallow rocks. Splitting themselves six-and-six to investigate further, the upstream group located the corpse of a woodsman, bearing a single piercing wound between his neck and shoulder. A few erratic bootprints and a lone claw-like track were spotted in the mud nearby.

The downstream group returned with no similar discovery, only a wounded militia man after an altercation with one of his allies related to the logistics of their search. Dowding seemed not overly concerned; undaunted, the company continued on as the sun set, hoping to reach the next outpost before nightfall.

As they marched along the darkening, forest trail by torchlight, the altercation from the stream again rekindled, this time resulting in both weapons and blood drawn. The other men-at-arms were ordered to bind the aggressors with rope, but as they did, more skirmishes erupted amid the contingent until a full-on melee ensued. Attempting to think quickly, Alaric used to detect evil while Aginot cast enthrall.

By the time the men from Morningsong were clinging to the priest's every word, Leilana had turned against the captain and Alaric was striking off after a presence he located in the trees - and according to the paladin, the ghostly, mounted rider presumed to be Lord Hanwey could be seen in the distance, beckoning him on. Nora and Dowding followed Alaric on faith, not seeing the "apparition" for themselves but sensing that something was amiss.

As they searched the grounds, Dowding was attacked by an invisible assailant who leaped upon his back and stabbed (something) into his neck. The PCs struggled to fight off the attacker, and though they eventually caused it to flee by way of sword and spell and the militia men were saved, Dowding succumbed to poison in his wound and perished.


All through the night and for the better part of the next day the party trudged back along the trail until they returned to the village, both their condition, and news, grim.

DM's Commentary

I hope this was a fun one to play, because it was frustrating as hell to run. The players' rolls were beyond awful, and every 50-50 decision felt like the wrong one. Kudos to Aginot for the enthrall spell, an effort that single-handedly saved the majority of the woodsmen. That really was the highlight, as every other course taken seemed to end in disaster.

Not how I expected the session to end, but that should make things all the more interesting for next time. The party definitely has a lot to think about. All for now.

RL #11: A New Ally

The group picked up last night (all in person, this time!) in Morningsong, eager to learn more of the village and its happenings - and the deeper the party delved, the more certain they became that something dark and sinister was shrouded in the past. Aginot, particularly, felt drawn to a sense of duty that the supposed "ghost" of Lord Hanwey needed the PCs' aid to somehow reconcile the events that led up to his demise in the famed battle against the orcs.

As the party plodded about the village and conversed with Dowding and Lady Silva, they met two new personalities of note: Nora, an unbranded, runaway thief from the town of Morfenzi whose history with the Talons was all-too-similar to their own, and a retired man-at-arms named Kleigha who spoke his remembrances of Lord Hanwey and his daughters inside the pub. Nora had arrived in Morningsong only two days prior, and circumstances warranted that she join the party as their ally straightaway.

After uncovering little in their first full day in the village (aside from a local rumor that Lady Silva's mute servant was actually her younger brother and only living relative), the companions took their sleep willingly. During the night, Aginot woke in a haze and spotted the mute, Azrael, peering into his first-story window. A second later, he was gone.

The next morning, the PCs plotted to tuck a slip of parchment bearing a message on Azrael in the village square, though the attempt failed. Afterward, as Dowding assisted a feign-swooning Aginot back to the Lion's Head tavern, Nora and Leilana trailed Lady Silva back to her cottage, then followed Azrael around back when the governess and her escort stepped inside. The mute approached a lonely well and delved briefly into the surrounding trees before Leilana revealed herself and drew near. The mute shook his head when asked if he could read, eyed the druid with suspicion and retreated from her advance. In the end, Nora and Leilana returned to the tavern to reconvene with their friends.

Aginot yet hoped that Azrael would return to meet them, but his augury yielded only more uncertainty:

You meddle in things that you do not fully understand.

The message was interpreted as neither weal nor woe (or at least, unable to be determined), and after the mute failed to arrive, the party again took refuge for the eve, this time with Nora hidden in the shadows outside. Around midnight, Azrael wandered into the village square toting a wooden bucket and drawing water from the communal well. Nora trailed the mute at a distance but departed after he (predictably) entered Lady Silva's cottage. How strange, Leilana pondered the next morning, that the servant would make the effort to visit the common well during the dead of night, when a seemingly adequate one was located just outside his own cottage?

The session ended as the party prepared to depart the village with Dowding and his contingent, unsettled as they were that so many questions remained unanswered...

DM's Commentary

This was a relatively quick session run on little preparation, and considering that, it went well. Most importantly, we welcomed a new player (new to our game and to D&D in general) into the party. Hopefully Kristen had a good time and came away with a good (and positive) feel for how the game works. Her PC, Nora, was rolled up only about an hour before we played, and even so meshed seamlessly with the rest of the characters.

As last time, no XP to award right now. Jason, would you mind posting the contents of the message that Aginot intended for Azrael, when you can? Anyone who has questions/clarifications or any other thoughts to add about the session can feel free to post them in the comments below.

RL #10: Morningsong

"I'm confused."

That seems to be a recurring theme in this campaign. But that's kind of what Ravenloft is all about, so I try to play it up as best I can. ;)

Tonight marked the tenth session in our game, which is now just over a year old. We started off with the PCs exiting Chatain on horseback en route to Stangengrad; over the vast, green countryside they rode, descending a low valley on the second day of their journey as the road wound northwest, deeper into Falkovnia. That night, as they prepared to camp, they heard the distant clangor of what sounded like a veritable army mid-march within the valley.

The noise grew louder, and soon the PCs shuffled off their hillside to avoid whatever was making its approach. But no matter where they moved, the racket only became more thunderous and frightful, booming in the companions' ears as they found themselves fleeing in a dead run. When finally Aginot tumbled over a jutted root, the commotion suddenly stopped.

The PCs had wandered far off of the road, and at a distance, Alaric spotted a mounted rider wearing a great helm and braided beard, and carrying a shield emblazoned with a lion's-head crest. Again and again the figure slipped away into the foliage and then reappeared again, always barely out of reach, as the companions diligently followed it, eventually discovering a hidden trail that led further into the forest.

They took to the trail by the moonlight, losing sight of the rider but arriving at the edge of a small village, nestled secretly within the surrounding groves. Warily, they entered a lamp-lit tavern bearing the same lion's-head insignia on a banner outside. Inside, the patrons and proprietor met the PCs with suspicion, and particularly so when Alaric told tale of the horseman, whose description elicited the name "Lord Hanwey." One tavern-goer dashed out to fetch Jorah, the local cleric, and after a sultry greeting, arrangements were made for the party to take refuge for the night at the pub.

The village, Morningsong, was home to only a hundred or so villagers - that number made fewer in recent weeks when a handful of able-bodied hunters inexplicably failed to return from the forest. The next morning, the PCs met Dowding, the militia captain, and Lady Silva, the town governess, who rode on horseback, accompanied by a non-mounted escort of two casually-outfitted men-at-arms and a lowly-looking servant who appeared to suffer from mental illness. Through exploration and questioning, the party learned a bit of history behind the town's modest chapel, whose signpost out front bore the following scripture:

"Let this chapel stand for eternity

As a reminder of the consequences of sin."

As explained by Dowding, some twenty-five years prior, two fair sisters fell in love with a brooding, young soldier from a faraway land. The younger girl, Ellidora, was to be married to the the gallant, but out of jealousy-turned-hatred, the elder sister, Angelina, slew Ellidora, slitting her sister's throat on the steps of the chapel where she was to be wed. Three days later, Angelina was stoned in the chapel courtyard by the light of the full moon. As she was bound to the totem, she vehemently denied wrongdoing and accused Ellidora of being a witch, possessed by evil.

In the wake of the sisters' deaths, the young gallant rode off into heavy mists one cold autumn morning and was never heard from again. A month after ordering the execution of his eldest daughter, Lord Hanwey, the town's governor, was slain by orcs in a great battle to protect the village (which the militia ultimately won).

We ended with the PCs pledging their aid to Lady Silva as village sought to learn the fate of its missing woodsmen.

DM's Commentary

No XP to award at this time. Players can feel free to use this thread (or just email) to ask questions or carry out menial dealings and conversations in the village. Not much else to add other than I thought this was a really good session, with fantastic atmosphere throughout.

RL #9: A Debt Repaid

Sometimes, under the threat of utmost peril, even the most downtrodden and oppressed can rise up to defend that which is worth defending. And so it was that, as Leilana rode the Talon captain's plundered steed back to the edge of Chatain, a party of six able-bodied villagers strode boldly out to meet her and travel at her side: Karsten the innkeeper; Merena the warrioress; the boy Elias and his uncle; Alpin the loremaster; and an armored militia fighter. Together, torches blazing, they made their way into the night.

After a several-hour march, a campfire was sighted in the distance, and the company from Chatain extinguished its light sources. The party knew that the Talons had been slowed, both from having lost two horses in the village and from the burden of prisoners among their ranks.

Making use of her infravision, Leilana circled around the camp whilst the remaining would-be rescuers fanned out to either side. At Leilana's call, the allies began clashing their weapons, causing steel-on-steel to ring across the glade and alerting the Talons to an unseen threat.  The Talons stood with swords raised, firing arrows haphazardly between the trees at their captain's call, though they hit and saw nothing.

Suddenly, the trees around the camp began wrapping the Talons in unnaturally-moving branches, holding fast the captain and two others, along with the still-shackled Aginot and Alaric. The rescuers charged into the fray, and bloodshed quickly ensued. Talons fought vehemently, but they were outnumbered in the wake of Leilana's spell. In the end, Karsten and two enemy soldiers were laid low before the last standing Talon surrendered. When the entanglement finally ceased, the Talon captain was held at sword point.

Leilana tethered two of the surviving Talons to their horses by their feet, though a third bolted into the night after serving a boot to the druid's face. The captain yielded the key to unlock his prisoners, and then was bound hand-and-feet in those same iron bands. Victorious, the companions deliberated their course.

At long last, the party turned back for Chatain, five horses and three Talon captives in tow. They arrived at sunrise, though instead of entering the village, they circled around it, to the edge of Souragne. Throughout the morning, a makeshift raft was constructed of fallen logs and rope, and as the sun rose high overhead, the Talons, still bound, were set adrift in the marshes, never to return. Finally, the contingent returned home, where Karsten would be laid to rest and the adventurers could heal.

Taking only enough time for Alaric to recover from his wounds, the trio of Aginot, Alaric, and Leilana rode forth from the village on horseback two days hence under a cloudless sky, leaving their memories of Chatain far behind.

DM's Commentary

It was definitely a crazy night, and once again the entanglement spell played a huge role in the outcome. At this point, I think it's important that I do some research and provide official rulings as far as what can and can't be done within the spell's area of effect. Off the cuff, I don't think that insta-kills of entangled opponents is reasonable - "held fast" isn't the same as unconscious or completely incapacitated in my interpretation, and coup de gras should really be saved for those situations where the opponent has zero awareness. (Aside from that, though, such an action is likely not something Alaric would ever support...)

In that vein, the most interesting part of this session, for me, was the moral discussion around what to do with the Talon captives. Alaric wasn't present for the game last night, so Aginot's and Leilana's players had to weigh not only their own characters' actions, but the paladin's moral compass as well. In the end, the decision to ship the soldiers off into the swamp was a pretty brilliant way of letting justice be served while not resorting to rash solutions like maiming or execution (both of which were considered...).

XP/Spoils

First, a list of noteworthy items plundered from the Talons:

• The captain's longsword (given to Alaric)
• The captain's iron ring - embedded with a red, swirling, marble-like gem, which looks very out of the ordinary
• The captain's belt and boot daggers
• The captain's belt pouch - containing 100 gp in coins along with a valuable-looking, jewel-encrusted necklace
• Three longswords, two short bows, and several daggers and dirks taken from the remaining Talons
• Five suits of chainmail - all either left behind or submerged in the marshes
• Various food and miscellaneous supplies found in saddlebags - the PCs are free to assume whatever reasonable provisions they can carry, with the rest handed over to Chatain

As for XP, I'm only posting a high-level breakdown to avoid revealing too much specific information:

• Soldiers defeated - 1,060 XP
• Items recovered - 2,750 XP

That totals 3,810 points, however the XP is divided five ways, between Leilana, Aginot, Alaric, Merena, and all other surviving villagers (none of which warrant a fully equal share). Therefore, each PC receives 762 XP for the past two sessions - the fact that Aginot and Alaric were captured doesn't detract from their awards. Additionally, Leilana receives two individual awards of 100 XP and 50 XP, the first for orchestrating and executing the rescue plan, and the second for the idea of setting the Talons adrift in the swamp and reconciling the moral disparity within the party.

All that said, updated XP totals are:

• Leilana - 5,579
• Aginot - 5,529
• Alaric - 5,479

No levels gained, to my knowledge, but this was nevertheless a very solid end to an extremely problematic situation. Leilana, especially, should feel proud of what was accomplished. I'll end the post with Karsten's dying words:

"Someday, a champion among men will defeat Vlad Drakov and put an end to his reign of terror. Do not let me have died in vain."

RL #8: Captives!

Last Wednesday we ran a relatively brief session, starting with a week of in-game downtime for the PCs. Aginot made a point to play philanthropist during the repose, and his actions were notably well received across the village. Chatain boasts little in the way of proper defenses (for King Drakov's forces do enough to see that no major threats encroach on even the most meager of Falkovnia's settlements), and by now the heroism of Alaric, Aginot, and Leilana is known by all.

Merena, the warrioress that helped the party defeat the loup-garou Rapacion, confronted the trio as the week came to a close, inquiring as to their short-term intentions. The PCs planned to leave Chatain for Stangengrad, they explained, and offered Merena a place among their ranks. Merena committed to providing an answer the following morning, when the group would be set to depart.

But before morning could dawn, evening saw a band of Drakov's Talons return to the village seeking recompense for their previous losses, commanded again by the same Talon captain whom the PCs had engaged on the fateful night that led them into the depths of Souragne. Alaric strode forth from the Winter Wolf Tavern and a melee ensued. Although the PCs quickly gained the upper hand with their spells, Talon reinforcements on the village outskirts began setting fire to Chatain's shops and houses on the captain's order. Crippled by the captain's promise to leave no structure unscathed, Alaric and Aginot finally surrendered whilst Leilana sped from the village on the back of a captured steed. As the moon rose high overhead, the half-dozen Talon soldiers departed Chatain, Aginot and Alaric bound with iron shackles alongside them.

XP and DM's Commentary

Really cool session, the way things played out. Rarely do the enemies' plans come to fruition as well as they did here, with the Talons barely wounded and two-thirds of the party captured (and the remaining third having fled into the foreboding darkness of night, alone). King Drakov will most assuredly be pleased.

No XP to award for this game, though I might find some points to apply retroactively when all is said and done. Next session should be an interesting one, to be sure.