Campaign Recaps from 07/14/20 to 07/28/20

 07/14/20 The party prepares to head downstairs.  Ellalan summons all 3 of her creatures from her bag of tricks,  receiving a badger, a great badger and a panther. She names the badger lassie. She sends the giant badger down to scout the foot of the stairs. It encounters a spinyspawn but defeats it and escapes. The giant badger returns and reports. The party heads down and encounters a group of 4 ghouls, 2 ghasts and 2 spinyspawns. They use the narrow entryway to limit the foes that they have to face but still are about to be overrun. Lord Fatty uses Turn Undead and Summons a Spiritual Weapon. Thineli summons a Moonbeam. These help destroy the monsters but the ones that are turned flee and call for reinforcements, 4 more ghouls and 5 spinyspawns (hiding under the water of the small lake there). The battle continues, with the party awkwardly maneuvering around the moonbeam. They continue forging towards the area where Kegforged's lab should be. More ghouls are alerted and start to garter, waiting to charge past the moonbeam and spiritual weapon. The party is getting more and more damaged, suddenly two ghost appear out of the lab, using Horrifying Visage and Frightening most of the party. Aging Thineli and Lord Fatty by 40yrs each!!  Yousef yells out we should do "tactical repositioning" aka...run away, run away, run away! Ellalan hears people getting older!! Fuck No! She grabs her little badger spirit friend, Lassie, and run the heck out towards Keg Guy. The attacks the party unleash on the ghosts do nothing as they close closer while using Etherealness.. The ghost are moaning out in Dwarven "No one may desecrate the lab!", "Destroy the intruders!". The ghosts chase the party back to the stairs and they run up...

Kill count= 8 spinyspawn+5 ghouls+2 ghasts, escaped 5 ghouls+ 1 ghast

Exp= 400+1000+900+125+225=2650/5=530 

Current Exp Totals are: Ellalan 5818, JohanaHex 4214, Lord Fatty 5102, Thalluvk 1930, Thineli 6702, Yeusof 4692, Sir Dawnstar 1875. Thineli has enough exp to level to 5, but needs a long rest to do so.

 

07/21/20  The party arrives back at Kegforge's lair. Thineli tells about the ghosts that drove them out. Kegforged says the lab ghosts might be Theligeata and Brenbeline, his former lab assistants. He gives Thineli a sigel of his clan on a chain and tells them they may recognize it. Thineli gives it to Ellalan since she speaks Dwarven. Kegforge is unable to break the curse of aging on Lord Fatty and Thineli. As a last ditch effort, Kegforged leads Lord Fatty and Thineli in a pray to the unknow god that has been answering Kegforged's daily prayers to pray for devine intervention and remove the effects of the ghost's aging on the two of them...

How could this go wrong? Sir Dawnstar joins in the ritual since he worships "god" and  is spoken to by the unknown creepy god. He is offered a bargain and agrees to take on the curse to cure the other two. He is aged 40yrs and the other two returned to their previous ages. Sir Dawnstar wants ale now that he is drinking age... Luzed goes and gets him some. Sir Dawnstar gets +200 exp and divine inspiration for excepting the curse and roleplaying.

The party wants to take a long rest to both regain their spells and for Thineli to level to 5. 4 hrs later...

Ghouls are prowling in the south corridor so Girror and Dhukrina head there to see if they will attack. Suddenly four flameghouls (The ghoulmage's fantastic four!!) attack from the ghoul crawl tunnels to the east! They haul flameballs at Maggur, damaging him  and awaken the party. They rush to battle, Thineli summoning a moonbeam on the ghouls to the south... which has no effect. Girror yells out "These are illusions!! What are they planning??!?!" Meanwhile one of the flameghouls is dropped by Yeusof and the awakened dead, which explodes as the other 3 escape back into the crawls tunnels. 

They figure out this was an attack to keep them off balance and keep them from sleeping. The party debates and decides to head down to the stairs again. They decide that Ellalan should speak to the ghosts... Running to the stairs they trip off a small explosive trap taking some damage and do it again when they reach the bottom of the stairs. 

They recklessly run across the area, heading south. Three ghouls and six spinyspawn slow them down as across the small pond a group of flameghouls and the ghastmage throw flameballs at them. They push through in spite of being injured and make it to the lab. When the ghosts rush forward to attack, Ellalan shows the sigel and asks for their help.. like a sailor "Stupid ghosts! We are on your side!" After a few tense moments with most of the party trapped and about to be overwhelmed by the ghouls, Sir Dawnstar manages to convince the ghosts to help them. The ghosts rush out of the lab and engage the ghouls, forcing the ghouls and ghastmage to focus on them. The party hurriedly searches the lab, finds the tools and manuals. The party then makes their escape as the ghosts continue to fight the ghouls...

 

Kill Count= 5 spinyspawns+1 flameghouls+2 ghouls, escaped=1 spinyspawn+5 flameghouls+ghastmage+2 ghosts

Exp=250+200+400+25+500+350+1100=2825/5=565exp each, +200 for getting the ghosts to help, +200 to Sir Dawnstar for accepting the curse and roleplaying,

 

Current Exp Totals are: Ellalan 6583, JohanaHex 4214, Lord Fatty 5867, Thalluvk 1930, Thineli 7467, Yeusof 5457, Sir Dawnstar 2840. Sir Dawnstar has enough exp to level to 4 and Thineli has enough exp to level to 5, but both need a long rest to do so.

 

7/28/20 The party returns with the tools and manuals. Kegforged gives them their rewards: Ellalan chooses an Autohealer (that she gives to Yeusof), Yeusof chooses Night Googles, Sir Dawnstar chooses an Autohealer, Lord Fatty gets Spectral Lens, Thineli requests Camouflage Field. They rest for 8 hrs (Long Rest), Sir Dawnstar and Thineli level up. Their gifts are made and received. The GhastMage makes his appearance! He shows up with 3 GiantSpikedFlameGhouls and a few FlameGhouls and Ghouls. He reveals his identity (as Kegforged’s chief apprentice, Urnead), tells them of his plan to conquer or become a power in the world he is in and leaves with the spawner and his army. Exiting the Mines soon afterwards, Lord Fatty discovered that traps had been left in place to slow them down...The party mostly gets past the explosives without an issues except when Yeusof accidently jumps on top of one of the mines and sets off 3 more....He takes a total of 18 and Thineli takes 3. Yeusof gets to use his new Autohealer and heals 3... yay! The party exits the mine and finds their mounts have been killed and eaten.. They decide to walk to the temple that is the entrance to the sunken ruins... they encounter nothing as they walk and as the sun rises they see the entrance in the distance with the ElderMoks small home nearby...Thineli trades 200gp and a chuck of crystallized mana to get a +1d4 lightning damage enchantment made onto his Scimitar by the ElderMok. Thineli then buys Sir Dawnstar's Autohealer for 200gp. Sir Dawnstar borrows 200gp from Ellalan and begs the ElderMok to enchant his Greatsword to Greatsword+1.

The party gets ready to enter the temple.

 

No Exp as there was no combat and everyone just bought stuff.

Current Exp Totals are: Ellalan 6583, JohanaHex 4214, Lord Fatty 5867, Thalluvk 1930, Thineli 7467, Yeusof 5457, Sir Dawnstar 2840.

Campaign Recaps from 06/23/20 to 07/07/20

 06/23/20 The party gathers, debates and decides to try to save their mounts, tracking the goblins. Ellalan realized the goblins that attacked from the north west were both spawns and slaves of some real goblins (?) or a wizard. The party tracks down the goblins to their lair and see they are hiding in a broken ground area, the tracks leading into it.. they know they are racing against time to keep their mounts from being eaten by the goblins.

They find an abandoned mine that the goblins are hiding in. Entering the first room, Thineli moves too close to a pile of debris against the North East wall, stepping on crunchy shells left on the floor. The noise makes an Ankheg charge out of it's nest and attack. They fight with the Ankheg and a couple of goblin lookout, to the west they can hear goblins and accuna struggling. They quickly kill the Ankheg and lookouts.

Running into the large mined out room to save their accuna (mounts), they encounter the rest of the hill goblins. Ellalan has the giant elk enter the room and attack but with no light it runs into the accuna that was about to be slaughtered and kills it with it's hoofs...(Thineli's mount). The party quickly kill most of the goblins except for the 3 then ran into the tunnel to the west. Two of them took another tunnel to go back to the entrance to escape and encounterd JohnnaHex that chased them a quarter mile from the cave to finally kill them while the last one used his bow to draw two Carrion Clawers out of another room (the 2nd one eats him as it passes). 

Lord Fatty and Thineli search a few bodies. Lord Fatty finds a small leather bottle containing a mysterious liquid. Thineli find 8cp and takes an ear off a goblin. They hear a rumbling slithering from the cave to the west and when they investigate a Carrion Clawer charges into them. 

They kill the first Carrion Clawer but when the second one shows up they retreat from the mines...

The group find an abandoned bear den about a half hours walk from the mines and make a camp to take a long rest. Ellalan summons a Direwolf with her bag of tricks and has it guard the entrance to the cae.

8 hrs later as they are getting ready to head back to the mine they hear a huge voice singing in the distance in dwarven. They see the head of a giant over the rocks in the distance and hear a group of followers singing along. Cliffhanger!!

Death count of monsters is 1 Carrion Clawer, 1 Ankheg, 7 Hill Goblins, 2 Hill Goblin Archers, Escaped 1 Hill goblin archer and 1 Carrion Clawer.. 450+350+100+450+225+25=1600/5=333 Exp Each.

Current Exp Totals are: Ellalan 4143, JohanaHex 4214, Lord Fatty 3527, Thalluvk 1930, Thineli 5127, Yeusof 3117. 

 

06/30/20 John switches characters from JohnnaHex to Sir Dawnstar,  As the party hides in the cave, the giant and his group of goblins (it seems), set up a camp within three hundred feet of them. As goblin scavengers are running around looking for food, they conceal the entrance. The giant stays there and eats, talking to the goblins in dwarven. Ellalan and Yeusof listen as best they can, hearing several twisted nursery rhymes and songs the giant sings to entertain the goblins. They can barely hear another voice, translating and sometimes talking to the giant. Some of the stuff they over hear is the giant saying "Don't worry, the three will not find you where I am taking you" and "I will be another day of walking till we are there". After four hours of eating and resting, the giant and his band contain off to the south.

The group head back to the mines and sneak inside. They notice a lot of the corpses of the goblins are gone. Thineli investigates and believes a carrion crawler ate them. Thineli butchers the ankheg corpse and recovers 2 rations and 1 vial of acid. Lord fatty butchers a baby ankheg and injures himself for 2 hp, finding no meat. Ellalan searches the nest and finds nothing of value, except for a baby ankheg she smashes to death. Heading to the north up the tracks, Yeusof hears what sounds like digging and crying. The party encounters 8 zombies and defeats them. Searching all the zombies Ellalan finds 14 silver, Ellalan pockets 10 silver and gives each other party member 1. Yeusof burns all the bodies of the zombies (thinking they might return). Ellalan sneaks to the north and sees 3 ghouls and a ghast 'speaking' to each other in a side alcove, she sneaks back and warns the party but the ghouls run towards the party to attack. During the battle a ghost slides in from the east. Sir Dawnstar uses his divine smite to seriously damage the ghost and Yeusof finishes it off with his magic longsword. The last ghoul and ghast flee because of Lord Fatty's turn undead.

Death count is 8 zombies, 1 ghost, 2 ghouls. 1 ghast and 1 ghoul escaped.

Exp total is (8x50)+1100+(2x200)+((450+200)/2)=2225/5=445 +150 exp for encountering the giant and company, each player gets 595exp

Current Exp Totals are: Ellalan 4738, JohanaHex 4214, Lord Fatty 4122, Thalluvk 1930, Thineli 5722, Yeusof 3712, Sir Dawnstar 895. 

07/07/20 The party heads north and finds a staircase heading down.. they send the wolf down first and then follow at the bottom they see a tunnel complex with mushroom-like growths and the wolf smells lots of ghouls. They decide to go back up stair since they are injuried and mostly out of spells. Exploring to the south they find the area the ghost had come from and find the ghost's body, a female dwarf. They act overly cautious about their body, with Ellalan throwing a dart at the dead dwarf's body shattering it's skull. Yeusof searches the body and finds a book clutched in her hands and a small purse (inside the purse are 5 small gems, each about the size of a dime, 3 are glowing with flame, 1 is a muddy brown and 1 is a cloudy white. and 14 silver coins, 3 gold coins). Yeusof pockets the purse and shares the book with the party. Yeusof tries to slight of hand the purse but Thineli sees him do it. They argue for a few moments before the ghast from earlier returns with four ghouls. A fight ensues in which Lord Fatty and the Dire Wolf are paralyzed and almost killed before the ghast and ghouls are destroyed. They are just catching their breath from that when three armored dwarf-like figures approach from the tunnel to the east (where the zombies were). One of them points at Yeusof and says "YOU.. COME.. WITH US.. NOW!" Yesuof  realizes these are some kind of Undead and rushes forward to attack, smashing the one that talked with his magic sword.  The Dire Wolf follows his lead and also attacks one. The direwolf is quickly killed. As the others run forward another of the undead tells Thineli you must come now.. Yesuof keeps fighting with the one he attacked wondering why the rest of the party is standing around talking to the Undead. Yesuof gets a critical, thrusting his sword into an opening in it's armor but the figure pulls it self free and continues attacking. The rest of the party calms down Yesuof and go with the Undead Dwarves to meet their leader, Kegforged.  Kegforged tells his tale. 

( Originally this mine was in a different dimension.  The world they came from was dominated by Dwarfs as the primary race most belonging to a kingdom called Grilld.  The primary foes that these Dwarves faced were Elemental entities.  This resulted in the land of the doors having a lot of Elemental resources that they used to power their technology. They have a system of spells and devices and they all use Elemental gems. This mine is an Elemental Gem mine and it was brought to this place by a horrible Warp storm. When it happened the mine was invaded by a horde of Undead, Ghasts and Ghouls and somehow a Spawner also appeared in the housing section of the mines (now known as the Ghoul Tunnels). Almost all the dwarves were killed except for Kegforged. He prayed to his god for help but he was cut off by being in another dimension. Another, unknown god answered him, turning him into a form of undead. This was decades ago. He has spent his time developing a ritual to raise some of his friends as Awakened Zombies. He hopes to somehow open a portal home but needs his books, tools and such that are in the Ghoul Tunnels, but they have always driven him off.)

When Ellalan is told that Kegforged and his knight live by eating ambient magic, she uses her magic illusion to make a cheeseburger for him.  Kegforged asks the party to recover his tools and manuals from the Ghoul tunnels and in return he will make them some Elemental gem powered items. Thineli tries to get the Awaked zombies to go with them but fails.

The party takes a long rest and Dawnstar levels to 3

Ellalan tries to make illusionary goulash for kegforged, having studied the cookbook recovered from the female dwarf's corpse. Kegforged likes it and shares it with his knights, one of them recovering a memory of her past. 

The party is about to head to the stairs to the ghoul tunnels.

 

Death Count is 1 Ghast and 4 Ghouls. 

Exp Total = 450+(200x4)=1250/5=250exp plus +200 meeting kegforged's knights. 450exp each

Ellalan gets a bonus +100 Exp for roleplaying and Inspiration.

Current Exp Totals are: Ellalan 5288, JohanaHex 4214, Lord Fatty 4572, Thalluvk 1930, Thineli 6172, Yeusof 4162, Sir Dawnstar 1345. 

Campaign Recaps from 05/05/20 to 06/16/20

 5/5/20 Lord Fatty/Thineli/Ellalan/JohanaHex+(Lars-rescued woodsman) make it to the river, see the island, some giant crabs in a small semi-submerged ruin. Thineli animal friendships one and winds up having the feed the pack of 4 giant crabs. Rest of group goes to island and saves Godwin (another woodsman), they have some difficulty with Swarm of Quippers but chase them off using the crabs.. then have to fight three of them (Exp (150+50)/4) 50exp each. Thineli loots a Crab Claw (can be crafted to a dagger). They continue up the beach and encounter the camp of Earl Wallace Viktir, whom is very cold and rude to them, refusing to join them or even let them enter his camp/clearing. The party retreats and debate about making a raft and escaping down river but decide to head back around and seek another way forward. Returning to the Druid's Clearing (area F) they encounter a group of 5 Twig Blights and 3 Needle Blights (Exp 275/4) 69exp each, +100exp each for rescuing Godwin and not fighting with Viktir. 

Current Exp Totals are: Ellalan 2149, JohanaHex 2170, Lord Fatty 1483, Thalluvk 1930, Thineli 3058, Yeusof 1450.

 

5/12/20 Lord Fatty/Thineli/Ellalan/JohanaHex+(Lars+Godwin-rescued woodsman) heading from the Druid's Clearing (area F) group makes it to Central Hollow (area B). They enter and fight with Nergis, Mother of Briars and four Thorn Wolves. Lots of injuries, no deaths, Nergis escapes into the woods. Lord Fatty skins a Thorn Wolf recovering a hide. The party decides to take a long rest setting up watches (JohanaHex/Lord Fatty/Ellalan/Thineli). They are attacked three times during the night (4 Twig Blights/ Ving blight+ Needle blight/ 4 Needle Blights). They receive (Exp 750/4) 188Exp, plus (Exp 350/4) 87exp for driving off Nergis.

Current Exp Totals are: Ellalan 2424, JohanaHex 2445, Lord Fatty 1758, Thalluvk 1930, Thineli 3333, Yeusof 1450.

 

05/19/20: Lord Fatty/Thineli/Ellalan/JohanaHex/Yuseof+(Lars+Godwin-rescued woodsman) 

Following the twisty narrow path to the north, north west the party enters a large clearing.. looking in they see several twig blights standing around in the sunlight. They rush in a start smashing them, wakening the other plant creatures here and Nergis in her tent, In the end they drive away Nergis and defeat 6x Twig Blights, 2x Needle Blights, a Thorn Wolf and 3x Briar Child (150+100+100+300+350=1000exp/5=200Exp each). During the battle Ellalan had summoned two fey creatures (A Dire Wolf and a Giant Badger) that harried Nergis, drove her back to her tent and then into the woods to escape. Ellalan started harvesting the body of the BriarChild that was undigested by Thineli Toad...Meanwhile Thineli, JohanaHex, Lord Fatty and Yeusof crowd into the smelly hide tent that Nergis left behind in her escape. Thineli finds scraps of bones, fur, leaves.. and they a dark brown carved wood box, with elaborate designs all over it.. he quickly opens the lid and a Thunderwave trap engulfs the three of them, blowing the tent to scraps and sending them all injured thumbling away from the text...Ellalan comes over to help, stabilizes JohanaHex. She notices the Bag of Tricks animals almost entering the forest so he walks over and finds an area with a hidden nature shrine. She is very confused by it, thinking it is evil and should destroy it but the area seems to calm her down. The rest of the group follow her to the shrine area. Ellalan searches the leaves at the base of the shrine and finds a healing potion (that she used on Johana), a scroll case and a glass jar.This glass jar, 3 inches in diameter, contains 1d4 + 1 doses of a thick mixture that smells faintly of aloe. The jar and its contents weigh 1/2 pound. As an action, one dose of the ointment can be swallowed or applied to the skin. The creature that receives it regains 2d8 + 2 hit points, ceases to be poisoned, and is cured of any disease. Keoghtom's Ointment 3 doses. Scroll case contains Shield 1st lvl spell.  After a big battle in this clearing the players decide to rest near the nature shrine. Short or Long...It's 7am... and they have been moving for an hour...Thineli determines that if they take a rest here they will each gain Inspiration.

Exp is 200exp per person.. +25Exp surviving the thunder trap, +50 exp for Ellalan for finding the shrine. 

Current Exp Totals are: Ellalan 2699, JohanaHex 2670, Lord Fatty 1983, Thalluvk 1930, Thineli 3583, Yuseof 1700.

 

05/26/20 the party takes a short rest burning all their hit dice, except for Yuseof saving 1. Then they decide to head south. They enter and see a man trapped in a cage of bark and leaves in a large oak tree. They decide to free him and discover the two large trees in the center are Awakened!! They battle 2x Awakened Trees, 4x Needle Blights and 1x Whirlwind of Leaves (900+200+450=1550/5=334Exp each). The party returns back to the area from before and waits till nightfall to take a long rest...Encounter rolls are 4x1d6=5+5+4+1, so on the 16 hour 3 thorn wolves attack and are killed (50x3=150/5=30Exp). Party to take a long rest, Watch order is Thineli, Yeusof, JohnaHex, Ellanlan, 2hrs each. The night passes slowly but without incident. In the morning,  JohnaHex and Ellanlan are 4th lvl. Now it is 6am of the third day! the group enters the Earl's clearing and convinces him that they know the way out.. Ellalan summons a Giant Elk that slows the groups down by a lot as they slowly wind their way back to the logging camp. When they enter the clearing with the massive tree stump, they see a giant tree waiting for them to enter the clearing... It is Onnu, the nature spirit! It monologues a bit and the Nergis appears. They run into battle and after three turns we end on a cliffhanger... in the middle of a massive battle.

Current Exp Totals are: Ellalan 3073, JohanaHex 3044, Lord Fatty 2357, Thalluvk 1930, Thineli 3957, Yuseof 2074. no Exp from the current battle added. 

 

06/09/20 Death count is Omnu, the Nature Spirit, Awakened Tree, 3 Briar Childs, 3 twig blights, 1 needle blight, Nergris escaped.Chunks of Crystallized Mana.. Each can be turned in a potion by an Alchemist DC 10 common, 12 uncommon, 16 rare, 20 very rare. A fail ruined the chunk, each attempt takes 4 hrs.  Returning to the scene of where Nergis's tent was, they can see someone has been digging in the debris.. they find a chest that has been opened and the contains spread about.. left about is 900 cp, 7000 sp, 3000 gp, Lacquered Wooden Vase (250 gp), Silver Ewer (250 gp), Circlet of Blasting (uncommon, dmg 158)

thineli keeps the circlet of blasting.

Loot is worth 3579gold/5= 596.5gold

Exp =2300+450+600+75+50+350=3825/6=637.5

Current Exp Totals are: Ellalan 3710, JohanaHex 3681, Lord Fatty 2994, Thalluvk 1930, Thineli 4594, Yuseof 2684. 

 

06/16/20 Riding back to Erindale from haunted forest, 1.5 days on Acuna. 3 encounter rolls. Nothing was encountered. The party purchases various things. 

JohnnaHex spends nine days and with a total expense of 50+50+180+180=460gp Johnna has his cloak of protection. Thineli brings his drake fangs to a jeweler and has then has them worked into a silver necklace worth 50gp, (costing 25gp) He wants to enchant it to give INT 19 (Uncommon), He hires a wizard to assist him in enchanting (100gp). 5x30gp=150gp, five days later the item is destroyed in an enchanting mishap... 250gp down the drain... Lord Fatty wants to enchant his shield to be able to cast Bless once a day. He hires an assistant for 100gps. and starts the nine days of enchanting...10days later...1 failure... he has his shield finished... 10x20=200gp and it is finished!

The party goes to the Black Market (run by the Black Masquerade, a thieves guild that dresses as grimy clowns and jesters). The party buys several things.. Most notable is a Magic Longsword for Yeusof. (It's embossed and runed Longsword +1 to hit, +1d6 Frost damage, bought for 555gp). Lord Fatty bought a Pocket Battle Deamon (silver and copper 1str Centaur). Eallalan bought 5 minor climbing potions.

The party decides to return to the Ruined temple that Thineli had escaped from in the past... leaving behind his friends, Asteroid, StormShadow and Lord Lodex....

The journey to the Ruined Temple will take 1 day by Acunca back. Six encounter rolls for the day and then 4 for the night. During the second watch six goblins attack the camp from the northwest. JohnnaHex is on watch, awakes others and they head out into the darkness to kill the goblins. 

The party kills the six goblins that attacked from the north but failed to notice the other goblins stealing four of their mounts and gear. JohnnaHex has the only mount left. 

Exp for battling the goblins is (6x50)=300/6=50Exp. Bonuses +100 each to JohanaHex, Lord Fatty and Thineli for enchanting. +50 each for visiting the Black Market.

Current Exp Totals are: Ellalan 3810, JohanaHex 3881, Lord Fatty 3194, Thalluvk 1930, Thineli 4794, Yuseof 2784.

Desolate Wastes: Campaign Diary 2/4/20

2/4/20: Snake Eyes has a dream and a mysterious voice guides him to a hidden alleyway where he find a magical treasure; A piece of dried magical fruit that gives advantage on saves vs fear and charms for an hour after eating it. He doesn't like it, so goes to Narrine to sell it, getting 200gc. He then has dinner with Narrine and exchanges rumors. Meanwhile, Lord Fatty (human male Cleric 2) enters the city after wandering out of the Desolate Wastes. He has no idea where he is but knows he wants to find a tavern. He winds up at the Maid & Shield. He and Snake Eyes banter a bit then decide to adventure together. Over hearing a rumor that the Black Gate Brewery is overrun by giant rats they head over to it to see what they can do. Snake Eyes remember Pint o' Fish also had a rat problem. At Black Gate they meet the owner, a gnome named Bogdan Gostgot. He tells them there is at least 6 giant rats in there and offers a bounty of 2gc per head and a bonus if they rid the Brewery of all of them. They kill 10 giant rats and 2 rat swarms before Lord Fatty's nerve breaks and he runs off from Snake Eyes and tries to break out of the Brewery. Snake Eyes, covered in a rat swarm, jumps and rolls into a pile of burning nestings and rags to get the swarm off and also runs to the main door, using his crowbar to pry open the door. Lord Fatty runs off into the city. Snake Eyes tries to convince the owner he has killed all the rats but refuses to enter the Brewery, the owner slamming shut the door as a giant rat tries to rush out. Getting no pay, Snake Eyes returns to the Maid & Shield. When Lord Fatty returns shortly after that, he find Snake Eyes drinking and smoking at the bar. Not smoking cigars, just his armor smoking. The next morning, Suntunu the bard shows up, wanting to hear all about the adventure and paying for breakfast. Suntunu goes off to add to his "Snake Eyes Saga song". Snake Eyes and Lord Fatty convince Kiki (male halfling Barbarian 1) to join them to hunt wolves for the Tyrant's bounty on them. They spend the day and kill 7 wolves over two encounters, SE managing to skin two for their furs and LF keeps the tails. LF later uses the tails to quiet the string of his crossbow. Bounty on the wolves is 4gc each (4x7=28gc) and two wolf skins (1gc each), so they each got 10gc.

Sectorbob's Adventure running rules

1- Be prepared.. you only have two hours so should only take you a few minutes to get playing. carry extra pregens, pencils, dice etc.

2- Cut to the chase... NPCs should be pretty direct in their dialog. don't waste time trying to lure or trick players into the right path.. give them maps, clues should be detectable by characters with the right proficiencies (don't care about a roll.. if its important then they get it). Use clue-by-4s as needed.

3- Make the players feel like the heroes of the story... not every combat is or should be life threatening.. (also if it isn't keep it short and violent). Players should feel badass from level 1 as they are noticeably tougher and more skilled then 90% of the people they meet. Use mooks for unimportant foes (a mook is like a regular creature but only has 1hp).

4- Skill rolls... Only people with proficiency roll. Also things that are color or details that add depth to the adventure are gimmes, don't waste time making lots of rolls for bullshit that won't further the adventure. Rolls should only be used for Skill Challenges.

5- Skill Challenges.. this is where you use skill rolls. A skill challenge could be a contest (like an archery contest, a joust or a race), over coming an obstacle (like crossing a chasm or river, climbing a tower, etc) or escaping a deathtrap.. There are a couple of components to a Challenge... 1) Successes needed (usually 4), 2) If there is a time limit how long (in turns), 3) what happens on a failed roll (usually a setback or damage, might be able to avoid with a different skill roll by another player) and 4) what proficiencies are useful in this challenge (see examples below).

6- Spotlight the players.. each player should get a turn being in the spotlight doing what their character is good at.. Fighters in combat, thieves in stealthy things, bards doing whatever they do.. etc. Don't force a player into the spot light as some don't want to be put in it and are playing for other reasons.

7- Each player character is a snowflake.. don't be afraid to make characters feel special.. minor magic, henchman, pets and named items that have history attached to them make players feel special. This leads to PC investment.

8- PC investment. The players should feel that their characters are part of a thing; a team, a region, a world. This is hard in a shortish game, but things that can help are named NPC that appear regularly, family members, friends, NPCs that know them.

9- player agency... players should always feel they have control of their actions and choices. Don't railroad the players or give them no choices. This doesn't mean don't let the players suffer consequences for bad/stupid choices..

Be a fan of the characters.. the best stories are where the heroes beat the odds and come out on top.
The purpose of role playing games is to have fun...if the group isn't having fun you are failing as a Gm.
Your goal as a Gm is to set up a fun environment that makes the players feel heroic and like they mattered to the story.

House Rules
1- Mooks: Included in groups of NPCs and Mobs, basically everything the same as a regular NPC or Mob but only 1 Hit Point.

2- Roll damage at same time as to hit roll. It speeds up combat.

3- For important combats, each major creature will have a hp card (use post-its) that the player that gets the killing blow gets to rip up (player investment for the win!). Or use candy trophies (ala Ken).

4- Magic Items.. should have a card with a name, description and affects on it. And a space for Owner/Attuned to.

5- The main enemies in this campaign area going to be animals, undead and ancient autonomous war machines. I don't want the players killing other sentient beings as a general thing.

6- Ransom and enslavement is more common as everyone wants to live. Players should know if they surrender they will not be killed and most NPCs will feel the same.

7- Morale rules are used so not every fight will go to the last creature standing.

Desolate Wastes: Rules (Morale)

Since I want retreat to be an option for my monsters and NPCs, who might not want to fight to the death, here is a standard based on some rules of thumb for when a unit should retreat or rout.

Check Morale when:

If they lose half their number.
If their leader is killed in a bloody or disgraceful way.
If escape would be easy and more beneficial for their mission.

Opposing factors, those that would have even a coward stay to fight, would be:
Risk of torture or imprisonment.
Their leader inspires them to fight on.
Their leader's death was inspiring and tragic.
The players are clearly going to kill everyone behind them, so they need to stay and protect them.

Roll d20+level or CR of monster plus any opposing factors, on a 10+ morale is good and they continue with their plan, less then 10 they look for escape or surrender (if possible). Use individual checks where feasible.

Desolate Wastes: Rules (Fixed and Levelers)

While most races are Level 0 creatures (or whatever the base for that race is as per Monster Manual etc), there are 2 other types of race members, fixed and levelers. Fixed start out at a random level (usually 2d4 (on a 4 add 4 and re-roll that die)) and stay that level forever. Levers started at level 1 (2 if PCs) and have the potential to go up in level, giving greater stats and more ability slots. Levelers gain Experience Points (or XP) by training, killing monsters and consuming Mana Crystals. Fixed do not gain Experience Points or change level.

360 days in a year, 12 months of 30 days, 6 days in a week, 5 weeks in a month, 60 weeks in a year.
50 hours of training a week possible if in a monastery, school or training facility, 25 hours if working at a job that is similar to class.

Beings that have that speed of training
1 exp per hour (PCs)
1 exp per 2 hours (x2, SuperGenius NPC )
1 exp per 5 hours (x5, Genius NPC)
1 exp per 10 hours (x10, SubGenius NPC)
Exp has no effect (the bulk of all races)