Session Three- Mill of Evil

The Story so far.

After finding the bodies of the children in the abandoned lair, the heroes returned to Rathe’s Wall in hopes of picking up the trail once again. Kado’s disease required immediate attention and so we found ourselves sidetracked with a new mission.

Journal

The church of Hades was kind enough to give us room and board for the night, as a gesture of kindness. It seems that while we were speaking with Althol, our comrades were trying to arrange a deal to get Kado cured of the death dog’s disease. He promised our services to the church in exchange for his healing. Bishop Nolrig seems a decent enough fellow, and it's nice to have some sort of connection with the town we are in. In addition to the healing he is also giving us a letter of introduction to the town guard. A useful way to place myself in a position where I can do good and continue to hone my skills.

First thing in the morning we headed off on our mission. We must defend the Thorn Estate’s water wheel from bandits who seek to force the owners off their own land. The journey itself is easy, but took the entire day. We arrived as the sun was coming down. Cresting the final hill we could already hear the turning of the wheel. A solemn sight greeted us at the wheel itself. Someone was being buried standing over the fresh grave was an older couple and a fearsome orc. I believe he is a barbarian from the mainland.

We introduced ourselves and state our purpose, the older couple explained that they are the owners of the mill. They were disheartened at how few of us they are, explaining that we are the same number as the group that accompanied Artek, the orc. I explained to them that this time it will be different, telling them that our party are veterans of many battles. With no improvement in their morale they proceeded to show us around the mill.

What a wonder of elven magic! The mill works itself and seems to refill the mortar automatically. I am not even sure what purpose the owners serve aside from monitoring it. I have never seen magic like this in all my days. It is even designed with a feature that changes the noise of the mill at night to improve the quality of rest of those who sleep in the mill. I haven’t had such a peaceful reverie since I left Nausil. Sadly I can not say the same for Thalous, his sleep was tormented by terrifying visions of tentacled beast devouring the mill. Whatever otherworldly being aids him certainly takes its toll. I only hope that with his lack of rest he will still be sharp when the bandits attack.

While I attempted to speak with the orc to try and get more information about the bandits that had been attacking, Thalous was exploring the mill. He found something disturbing in the basement, barrels of blood. I brought it up to Artek hoping to see what he knew, but he continued to ignore my attempts at cooperation. The owner heard my questions and demanded to know what I meant by blood barrels.  Running down stairs we saw that Artek had opened all the barrels, in his haste some of the blood had spilled on the floor. Before our eyes we saw the blood start to illuminate some sigils upon the support pillars of the basement. The pillars spoke of an ancient elven legend the First Founders, a group who thought the only way to make the world a better place was to create a united kingdom. We resealed the barrels unsure what would happen if they were emptied onto the floor. Then we examined them finding the symbol of Dohl’shelt’s cult upon them. This whole mission may have been a trap.

Concerned about what the dirt floor might be hiding we begin to clear it away. Beneath it was a stone floor with the same symbol from Thalous’s dream etched upon it. After a heated discussion we decided that we should poor the blood unto the floor and prepare ourselves for whatever evil it might unleash. Our plans were interrupted by our original mission making itself obvious again, a bandit attack. We made short work of them, and a search of the bodies revealed that they were involved with Dohl’shelt as well. Each one was branded with his sigil.

Heading back into the mill we decided to sleep before continuing with our plans for the basement. We made camp at some distance from the mill just in case it was attacked again. Thalous slept in the mill to see if he would gain any more visions. If he did he didn’t share them this time, all he let us know was that he had been branded with the same symbol in the basement. This gives me some hope that the symbol might be connected to him and not evil. We poured the rest of the blood onto the symbol reading the story of the Founders as it revealed itself on the pillars. Far from being altruistic their unified kingdom had themselves as the rulers and all other races as second class citizens. Before we could finish the symbol we were once again attacked, our only warning being the sound of the elderly couple screaming. We made it upstairs just in time to stop the bandits from killing them, and again brought our wrath upon those who would prey on the weak. Same as before a magical brand, but this time the leader carried a contract from Dohl’shelt. He threatened their lives if they failed in their task.

Pouring the last of the blood on the symbol it flashed with a bright light and then turned to obsidian. It seems that we had chosen poorly by pouring out the blood. In that moment we were once again attacked, these poor bandits had no idea that we were now expressing our frustrations on them. Thalous managed to capture one alive, but Dohl’shelt used him as a vessel to give us a warning, and to thank us for doing what he wanted anyway. I am personally going to murder that wizard when I find him…

We returned to Rathe’s Wall the old couple sold their Mill to the Magisterium, and we collected our rewards from the Temple of Hades. All in all it could have gone much worse, but we still have no idea what happened to the mayor’s daughter or where Dohl’shelt is. For now I must sleep and rest, for tomorrow the hunt for the kidnapper begins again.

Behind the Screen

This session had us doing more battle that what we had seen before, and it pointed out a couple of the major difference from 3.5 to 5e when it comes to combat. Everyone has their place now, and it feels like a cohesive team effort when combat is happening. It is much less likely to see a character bored and wait for their turn, because they need to be aware of what the rest of the party is doing so they can work out their next step.

Combat overall moves quickly with the advantage and disadvantage system simplifying the different situations that may come up in a fight. I found myself really missing my 5ft step, and charge actions. Not because they were needed, but because I was used to them. It just means I need to look into different tactics.

A note on spell selection, if you are playing a caster avoid the mistake I made. I didn’t pick any ranged cantrips, and so I had a hard time contributing when the party was closing in on the enemy. I had the choice of either wasting 1st levels spells, or throwing my one dagger. I will say every dagger throw was pretty impressive(I got very lucky), but an acid splash would have been nice.

Session Two- Stupid Swarms!

The Story so far…

In the last session the party had just started to try and make a difference in the chaotic happenings around them by searching for missing children. Their investigation has led them to a cave in the woods that was thought to be a displacer beast lair in ancient times. No displacer beasts, but the cave was guarded by devotees of Hades.

Journal

Reverie was restful last night. I had some concerns sleeping in an enemy encampment, but the simple fact that we couldn’t open the door gave me some peace. Add to that our watch and how noisy the door would be and it wasn’t too bad.

Once morning came we were able to at last open the large slab of rock blocking our way. Getting the mirrors positioned just right took longer than I would have imagined. I think it was the twitchy nature of the drow, she seems constantly excited and bemused by the world. How could an elf, even a dark elf, have led such a cloistered life into adulthood.

Beyond the slab the cave was pitch black, only my elven senses allowed me to see the slope just feet from the door. In the distance I could see some sort of swarm, probably rats. If this is someone’s lair they certainly don’t do a great job of maintaining it. Looking over at Kado and realizing he was again blind, I decided I would lead the way. The slope proved to be a trap, slick and full of jagged stones. I was able to navigate it with little trouble. Even with the light provided by Cerebus, Kado didn’t do as well. I could see some blood dripping from his hands and one leg from his fall. This was off to a great start.

Taking a few steps down the tunnel I was suddenly enveloped in a cloud of bats. Their small fangs tearing into me as I tried to fight them off. I could hear my comrades trying to be of assistance, but it wasn’t until Thalous unleashed the power of his patron that the bats dissipated. Moving on we approached the rat swarms, they appeared to be chewing on two small bodies. The warlock called once more on his magic to create an illusion hoping to frighten the rats, it caused them to frenzy destroying the illusion and then attacking me. When I left home I didn’t think my greatest enemy would be swarms of vermin, but here we were bloodied after facing off against just two groups.

After scattering the rats we attempted to identify the bodies, they seemed to be the missing children. Kado took a finger and hair from them in hopes that when we got back to town it would help identify them. It seemed needless desecration to me, but what do I know of human burial practices. As we continue to go deeper into the complex it becomes obvious that the traps were in place to stop daytime incursions, which begs the question what defended the lair at night.

We found a room full of locked doors, and we had used our last key to get into it. After Kado trying to force one of the doors, Cerebus found that one of the others was unlocked. It seemed to have been some manner of kennel, the cages of which were all covered. When Kado lifted the blanket we found out why, blink dogs. I tried to call out to them. Blink dogs are allies of my people, but these hounds had been branded with fel runes of some nature. The dog attacked us in a frenzy and I was forced to call upon my magic to kill it. No sooner had the first dog died than a second lept into the room. Kado was able to stop it, but not before it did serious damage to Cerebus. A search of the rest of the cages turned up more dead blink dogs, and a key to the last door. What kind of fiend uses his prisoners to guard his treasure.

Opening the second to last door proved to be a mistake that nearly cost us our lives. At last the purpose of the blink dogs was revealed, whatever was in charge of this complex was creating death dogs. As soon as the door opened the dog bit into Kado and we could see the disease tracking through his body, Thalous’s otherworldly powers once more stopped what would have been a disaster. During the fight I could hear screams coming from the last door, and as the fight drew to a close smoke was curling out from under the door. Smashing open the door I was confronted with a room engulfed in flames. In the back corner a dwarven child was screaming in fear. Leaping over the flames I went to her side and carried her out of the room. Thalous was able to find some sort of journal half consumed by the fire, it confirmed my suspicions that this was all done by Dohl’Shelt.

We carried all three children back to town. Hoping to find the family’s of the dead as well as the living. Kado and Cerebus left to find him healing, while Thalous and I searched for Althol and the families. We were unable to identify the human girls, but we did manage to find an uncle to place the dwarf girl with. At least some good was done.

We questioned Althol further about Dohl’shelt, but he had very little access to him after he was assigned to transmutation. Tomorrow we will have to find the transmutation teacher Professor Dreer. For now though it has been a long and trying day. As we prepare to depart Althol tells us that the problem has become more severe, the Mayor’s daughter is now among the missing. The clock is ticking to save the girl’s life.

Behind the Screen

This session was full new things. We dealt with traps, swarms, large monsters, fire, and all in the span of a few hours of in game time. It would have been much less if we hadn’t stopped to take a short rest twice.

The mechanic of short rests and long rests are great for keeping the game going. You no longer have this situation where your party has run out of options and the only thing you can do is sleep, even if its only noon. It keeps the pacing of the game up and makes things run much more smoothly.

We faced a couple of different kinds of monsters here, blink dogs, death dogs, and two different kinds of swarms. What struck me as it always does is how deadly swarms are in these games. It feels even more so in this new edition where damages seem to have been upped a little bit. I was nearly killed twice by the rat swarm, but the mini boss of the dungeon, the death dog? His greatest danger was actually the disease he inflicted on the paladin. If anyone has any tips for dealing with swarms in 5e I’d love to hear them. I figured some AOE damage would do it, but apparently they lost the rule of double damage from AOEs between editions.

Overall the game was a blast, even these mostly minor monsters felt like epic challenges to our low level selves. Defeating them was a real sense of accomplishment. The DM has also said that our actions are going to be judge using the renown system and I am dying to see how that works out.

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.