First Session- The Adventure Begins

Background Information

First let’s discuss the party.

Alaric Kado-Human Paladin of Hades

Cerebus- Drow Cleric of Hades

Aurelion Silverspear-Elven Bladesinger

Thalous- Half Elf Warlock with an unknown Patron

Our DM gave us the following blurb to start out what the world was:

The story is going to revolve around two separate invasions on an island nation that was in a peaceful accord of five kingdoms. The game starts with two out of the five kingdoms having been ravaged by the opposition with their forces bleeding further into the island. To the north, a coalition of monstrous races that have banded together under a single warlord threaten to push further inland. To the south, a chaotic frenzy of an undead scourge continue to push ever inland, bolstered by the very innocents they ravaged.

The game centers in on a group of unlikely heroes brought together by the warring state of affairs and in the hopes that the last kingdom stands against the oncoming hordes.

- - -

This is a time for heroes.

This is a time for legends.

This is a time for your story to unfold. . .

He filled it out a little more explaining to us how the invasions were affecting our characters. The majority of the party came from the elven nation of Na’usil which is being invaded by hordes of undead. My uncle Rialoth made a pact with the undead to conquer my home city and kill my family. This turned me into a refugee heading north where I met up with the rest of the party on the road. Kado was a former member of the Na’usil army who took part in a disastrous battle, he doesn’t say too much about it. Cerebus had never left the temple before meeting Kado as he left Na’usil, and Kado has made it his penance to keep the cleric alive. Thalous is a complete mystery.

Journal

4 Days ago we arrived in Rathe’s Wall, the flight from Na’usil, was harrowing and long. I was fortunate enough to find other travelers on the road, and we banded together for mutual protection. I am unsure what to think of them as of yet. Cerberus, and Kado are devotees of Hades and have the pragmatic view on life that comes when you worship Death. Kado was a military man though, and that is worth a bit of respect. Thalous is a mystery to me. He has some sort of connection to the beyond, but is less than forthcoming about what is there. All said this is a group that could do some good in the world if only they could be guided along such a path. I will stay with them as long as possible, there is a destiny here I can feel it. This is the type of adventure that will get me closer to my goal of defeating my uncle.

In the time since we have been in Rathe’s Wall we have seen a high demand for mercenary work of every sort. Most of it lacked the zest that my travelling companions needed out of work, until a particular mystery fell across our laps. Althol, a teacher at the Magisterium, has contracted us to track down several children that have gone missing. He believes that they were abducted by a creature of legend called the Thundermaw, he even recited the nursery rhyme that speaks of the beast. I remember hearing of the legend long ago, but didn’t pay enough attention for it to be of use in this quest.

We started our investigation at the Magisterium, one of Althol’s students by the name of Dohl’shelt was researching the Thundermaw, and this seemed like the best lead we had. As we searched his chambers we found that his books didn’t seem to fit with the level of practice his teacher felt he had. We also found a displacer beast forelimb, a reagent that is prohibited by the rules of the school. None of this gave us a solid direction to continue our investigation, but it gave me the feeling that the student was our suspect.Next we decided to investigate the homes of the missing children. As we left the Magisterium we overheard the end of a discussion between Althol and a town guard.

The party split up to investigate the homes more quickly, Thalous and myself went to the second home, Cerberus and Kado to the first. Our investigation didn’t turn up as much as we would like, mostly more questions it seems that the child was taken from the bed as her brother slept beside her. The only thing of note that we found was the residue of ectoplasm on the external wall, it wasn’t until we all met up that we found that the beds themselves were filled with ectoplasm. Whatever is going on the Ethereal Plane features heavily in this.

When we met at the final home and compared notes, we found a once heroic man who crawled into the bottle after losing his daughter. I am not sure I can blame him, I can only imagine such a pain. I just wish he would put his talents to work finding this missing child. Searching the room we found a variety of dolls in the forms of all sorts of magical beasts. As I examined them it became clear that they were somewhat out of order. In the fixing of the order I came upon an inscription in abyssal. Thankfully the drow could speak it, and she was kind enough to translate, although not before she set off some sort of magic mouth spell by reading the abyssal aloud. The message was “The mists have parted. He is coming.” Kado being the good man that he is tried to speak with the father and he was able to find that there was a displacer den 2hrs North of the city. Our path becomes ever clearer.

When we arrived at the den it was guarded by devotees of Hades, who had no interest in entertaining guests. We made short work of them before being stopped by a door that could only be open during the day. Thus we camped for the evening, all in all a very active day.

Behind the Screen

First sessions of new games always take most of the time with people getting accustomed to the setting, and the group. Ours was no different, the GM gave us our history lesson so we could understand the terrible state that the island was in. Then our adventure hook, children missing. We started with our mystery searching around, the first thing I noticed from the system was the change to skills, there were fewer and we got fewer. This made it very clear what each character’s role in a given situation was. I do appreciate the fact that it feels like the brought back a ton of utility that I felt had fallen by the wayside in 4th. Now, I feel like there is as much to do out of combat as in combat.

Our investigations went off without any serious issues, Kado may have a permanent fear of beds from here into the future after he found that all the beds were filled with pressurized ectoplasm. I really enjoyed the session, but there wasn’t enough rules to really get a feel for them. All in all can’t wait for the next session.

So it begins!

Introduction

So, let's start off.

I am Israel Abel, owner of the Silver Dragon Tavern & Games, a game store coming to Miami, Fl this summer. This year marks my 20th year playing Dungeons and Dragons in some form or another. D&D wasn’t my first game that honour goes to Battlemasters, and Heroquest which I started playing when I was 9 and 8 respectively, but it is the game that is closest to my heart. When I started playing my dad was my DM, and so I got plenty of time as a player in my youth, as I got older I became the DM for my group of friends and my play time dwindled to almost nothing. The running joke is that I have player exactly 2 characters for more than 5 sessions in the last 15 years.

With 5th edition coming out and this being the 20th year of my D&D life I wanted to come back to the game I loved for so long, after the disappointment of 4th edition. The trick, I wanted to be a player! Luckily for me a friend was looking for a party and invited me to join. I decided this would a perfect time to do two things, one write about my journey rediscovering playing as well as learning the new rules, and remake my first ever character for the new edition. Thus was born Aurelion Silverspear, and this blog.

The idea here, every two weeks I plan on making a blog post. It's going to be split into two parts, the first part will be Aurelion’s journal about what is currently going on in the game and the second will be my thoughts on rules and mechanics stuff that happened. For this first one I am going to talk character concept creation, and his prologue.

Prologue

Everything was going precisely as it was supposed to, Aurelion was attending the bladesinging school that had been founded by his ancestors centuries ago, his family was respected, and his inheritance was being wielded by his father, Lariel.

This was not meant to last long, Rialoth, Aurelion's uncle wanted the blade for himself. Conspiring with dark forces from the wilds beyond the town he attacked the city killing Lariel and attempting to take the blade for himself. The blade rejected him and now he keeps it as a trophy of his victory. Rialoth wants Aurelion dead as the only remaining heir to the blade. Aurelion wants his vengeance and to reclaim his family's legacy, but for now he must train.

((For a character background, I prefer something short and sweet that gives the story plenty of room to grow. I know as a DM a character having so much background that his story doesn’t gel with the overall impedes things.))

Character Creation

That first character long ago came right out of the Complete Book of Elves a fighter/mage kit called the Bladesinger. Even though most people know me these days as a hardcore dwarf player when I was younger it was the Fae Folk that I found most interesting. Conveniently the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide(SCAG) brought back the Bladesingers as a wizard tradition. This made my first two choices, race and class, very easy.

Next step went into deciding stats, knowing that the idea was to be a close combat wizard I decided that my main two stats would be dexterity and intelligence. We used a point buy to create our attributes, and so I decided that before racial modifiers I would be at: 13,15,10,14,10,10. Giving Aurelion a respectable Str 13 Dex 17 Con 10 Int 15 Wis 10 Cha 10 at first level. In retrospect I should have gone with the 13 Con and stuck with finesse weapons, but I didn’t learn that they added to damage as well as to hit until I hit level 2.

For character background the inheritor out of SCAG fit right in with what I was trying to do with him. He was someone who was trying to regain the inheritance that had been taken from him by his evil uncle. For the feature I went with a tattoo which was in keeping with the bladesinger fluff that each school had its own tattoo.

For the final step of character creation was choosing spells. Now this was actually one of the more difficult parts, spell lists have changed a ton since I was really playing last. Things like unlimited cantrips, and spells scaling differently made me look at things very carefully before deciding.

Cantrips

True Strike: The ability to grant myself advantage on my next attack was just too big to pass up. I figured I can use this as my prepping for combat spell or if the party finds itself facing something that we just can’t hit.

Green Flame Blade: SCAG also added some cantrip that make the bladesinger a feasible option, and as far as I am concerned Green Flame Blade is the best of the three. It gives you the ability to damage to opponents with one melee strike. This one was a no brainer.

Sword Burst: Another SCAG cantrip sword burst is a PBAOE that I thought would be rather useful if I ever found myself surrounded. It also scales really well.

Message: I decided to take a little bit of utility for my last cantrip thinking this might be useful. We are four sessions in. I greatly regret it. The character lacks any kind of reliable missile attack, and this makes it difficult when the party is in a tight corridor.

1st Level

Find Familiar: I took this out of nostalgia, a wizard isn’t a wizard without a familiar.

Mage Armour: This has been a standard since AD&D and as a close combat wizard it's even more needed. Having a base AC of 16 is the only thing that keeps you going when you are this squishy.

Magic Missile: Another wizard staple. 5e has really increased its strength and it went from being an opening spell to something to save for bosses.

Detect Magic: Utility, and the ability to cast it as a ritual makes it a must have.

Burning Hands: Some more AOE usefulness for those times when we see more quantity of enemies of quality. More proof that first level spells are now forces to be reckoned with. It's a brave new world.

Identify: When magic is around, it's the wizard’s job to know what it is, so identify.

Character Progression

Before starting the game I did a bit of research into how people were playing the bladesinger, I wasn’t overly convinced with the straight wizard path. It was just too squishy and not enough slashy for what I was used to seeing from a bladesinger, so I decided I was going to go Eldritch Knight/Bladesinger. This would give me the feel of the class I was looking for. It’s going to be interesting to see where I go with it, but for now I know the plan is to be 12EK/8BS at level 20. This gives me access to some really powerful spells while taking advantage of the ability stat increases of the fighter, and some of the special abilities of the Eldritch knight.  The plan being to take level 2 as a fighter for some more health and fighting style, then 3 as a wizard to pick up bladesong. After that I will be taking mostly fighter levels for a while. Let’s see how it goes.