The Face of Mystara, Part II (Session 5)

These notes are originally from 11.16.2014.

From the Journal of Alexandra Postoak

5:45

The group passes through the gate and continues on.  The golem still stands on the other side of the fire waiting to come after us.  Blanith cast Magic Missile at it to try and rid us of his presence.

We come upon a room that is filled with skeletons that wield swords.  As we move into the room all of the skeletons move toward us.  We take quite a beating from the skeletons but we manage to smash all of them.

6:26

We all discuss our next move.  Blanith casts Detect Magic on the room and the only thing that seems to glow, aside from us, is the door.  We all want to rest but the Warlock tells us that we don't have time.

6:33

Warwick sneaks through the door to look at what else there might be.  The rest of the group hears a voice saying "Intruders!  And I didn't even order a meal delivered!"

When Warwick comes back and tells us he saw a man in a parlor with an Alphatian slave, we continue into the chamber and talk with the odd-looking man.

We end up buying the slave girl for 300 gold.  She seems to be having trouble walking from the zzonga, so Blanith helps her along while we continue down the hall to the next door.

6:52

Behind the door we find a man behind a fire pit, standing in a magic circle.  There are three magical items on the outside of the circle, and each of them together reads:

"Unravel to Travel,

Be Swift and Be Gone;

With Arcane Words,
A Dweomer Unravels;

The Absence of Dark,

A Power that Travels."

The wizards manage to free the man in the circle by casting spells on the stones.  He says the last place he remembers was being in Waterdeep.  he decides to come with our group.  All of us continue to the next door.  Blanith peeks in and spots two ghouls, then quickly shuts the door.  Warwick decides to go in and look around.

He sees five ghouls in one room and a dragon in the other.  he comes back and tells us that he saw the ghouls and a blue dragon.

We go in to fight the ghouls.  Several of us are paralyzed quickly, but the group manages to destroy the ghouls.  Everyone waits until the paralysis wears off.

7:48

We head down the hallway toward the dragon.  We talk with him and he tells us that we should not enter the room without the key to open his manacles.  He tells us that he is guarding the tower of Caiustaius, which is linked to the tower bridgeway.

7:54

He tells us that the vampire we are looking for is Mandros, the odd-looking man we saw earlier.  We go back to look in the ghoul pit.  Blanith goes in and finds quite a bit of platinum, gold and copper.

8:20

Warwick wanders off again back down the hallways to look for the vampires.  He sees a cloud of smoke behind him then yells to us "It's a trap!"  He sees the vampires and skeletons.  He pours oil on the chair in the parlor and climbs up on top of a bookcase just in time to see a large pack of wolves.

Borion of Waterdeep destroys all of the skeletons, the majority of the wolves and the weaker vampire with a Fire Ball but the spell bounces back and maims the party.

The remaining vampire manages to cast Charm on me, and I turn and kill Rahanu.  I then attack the wizard Borion.

8:46

The vampire vanishes into a cloud of smoke and Blanith Webs me.

The wizards Dispel the Charm on me, and Blanith binds the wounds on Eventree and Rahanu.

Meanwhile...

Todd decides to go be ignorant and shoot at the dragon, then run away.  Todd then comes back as we all decide to go after the vampire.  He receives a very unfriendly welcome back.

We go to look in the vampire's study, but don't see anyone there.  Inside the room we find an evil-looking magic skull and a key in a box (that poisoned Blanith).  Blanith searches more and finds a secret door.

Inside we find a coffin and two treasure chests.  We go in and slay the vampire.  We find a magical sword, and a lot of coins.

9:17

We find several interesting books and a map in the study.

9:23

We give the key to Warwick, and he goes to free the dragon.  The dragon introduces himself as Magarastu, and says he wants to join us.  Then we continue on.

9:35

Our party (dragon and all) continues deeper into the dungeon.  A group of skeletons and powerful looking guy wait for us. 

Magarastu crushes a large number of the skeletons and the ominous looking man.  I am killed by a lightning bolt from one of the wizards.

The group destroys the rest of the wizards, and Rahanu Raises me from the dead.

10:15

We continue on.  Soon we come upon a room full of wizards.  While fighting the wizards, I'm Charmed once again.  I'm told to stop the dragon.  While I continue to try and stop the dragon from going, the others fight the wizards.  They manage to defeat them.  We collect all the magical items from the wizards.

10:49

We enter a room to find what the Warlock tells us is the Configuration Machine to the Vortex below.  He seems very interested in the machine and asks if his friend is inside.  A shadow came out that Sheen says is "part of his friend".

10:54

The dragon tells us there are three activations of the machine.  We can use the Rod to reset the thing.

From in the room behind us we hear "Wand of Lightning!"

Rulebook Ruminations: Dungeons & Dragons Expert

We're five months into our Dungeons & Dragons Basic / Expert campaign, and it has been a blast.  With 92 hours logged so far, we've managed to creep up the experience scale to right about 6th level.  We've enjoyed how simple the game is, but that only lasted so long.  Now, our players are hungry for those forgotten bits of complexity that gives Advanced and later versions their staying power and are beginning to branch out in ways they haven't before.

At 4th level, I allowed the Expert book to be used freely by the players.  It starts out with a treatise on higher level characters, up to 14th level.  However, the gains characters make each level are dispersed across the levels.  This results in massive boosts to certain classes at certain levels, while other levels don't do anything but give you a Hit Die.

More equipment is added, most notably sailing vessels.  This has been a focal point of our campaign so far, as it's based around the Sea of Dread.  Some other basic land transport information is given, but it's all "basic" stuff here.

Of course, more spells.  There aren't very many spells per level, which is great for new players or players using spellcasters for the first time.  It's easy to wrap your head around things and get the hang of the most basic of spells you may encounter in your adventuring career.

Basically, everything in the game is fleshed out to a higher degree.  There are more spells, monsters and treasures.  There is more info on combat, and how you can engage in combat.  Notable additions there are mounted, naval and aerial combat rules.

However, it's the wilderness rules that are the star of the show.  Not really much here in the way of text, but the way it opens the game up from just the basic rulebook is felt by all involved immediately.  Now you can travel from town to town, from town to dungeon, from dungeon to dungeon or whatever.  And also...ships.

Non-player characters are given more attention as well...especially the different kinds of specialist PC's can hire.  You'll need sailors for your ships' crews, and you'll probably need an alchemist or sage at some point.  Not to mention the brutal mercenary army you always wanted.

There's a bit of Mystara information in the very back as well, all centered on Karameikos.  It's very basic, but this publication was the seed from which the Known World was grown.  As it is, it shows the Dungeon Master how to set up an outdoor campaign setting in a traditional hex map.  This is nice, since everyone knows Karameikos is full of fun times.

In conclusion, the Expert rulebook is essential to a Dungeons & Dragons game that wants to expand from Basic.  However, all these rules are included in the Rules Cyclopedia.  None of this is still in print, but if you fancy giving it a go it and it's Basic and Companion cohorts can be had pretty cheap secondhand.

The Face of Mystara, Part II (Session 4)

This update is lagging behind.  These Game Session notes were originally from 11.09.2014.

From the Journal of Alexandria Postoak

The group tended to all the bodies on the ships.  Oliver Blessed each of the bodies and we took all items of worth from them before we threw the corpses overboard.


6:08

The group agreed that the newly captured ship would be a great thing to use to begin a new adventuring company.

6:12

Back in town, the group takes the magical items to get them appraised for 1000 gold.  We split up magical items and try to find some place to get new sails and banners for the ship.  While we try and find new sails we discuss what we are going to do with the treasure.

6:30

The next morning we all woke up feeling very nervous.

6:48

Blanith went out to hang fliers looking for a new first mate.  He seemed to be very nervous the entire time.

6:50

Utho commissioned a new excellent figurehead for the new ship.

7:00

We were at the inn having dinner and a strange man was staring at me.  He made it over to our table before I could even stand.  I can't seem to remember who this guy is.  The strange man gave us all something very odd to smoke (like tobacco), which drugged us all.

The man beckons us to follow him to a pier that was empty except fora  small, terribly dirty 13ft boat that looks like it came directly from the ocean floor.

The strange man put on a battered helmet from the boat and we all climbed on board.  The boat heads out to sea quickly.

Hearing splashing around us we looked out and saw a tentacle that is in chains.  It hands Utho a box.  The warlock opened the box and told us all to take a vial.  We all drank one and realized it had the taste of fresh blood.

We see what looks like the night sky around us after the man asks us if we have ever been to space.

The boat splashes down (into warm, loose sand) and we all jumped out.  We step away to avoid the tentacles we thought we saw earlier.

We spotted a large castle in the middle of a desert.  The warlock spent some time yelling at the castle and telling us that his "friend" was in the castle - and the builder of the castle is a "bastard for building it out here."

7:23

We all enter and the door seems to vanish behind us.  There is a portal behind us that the Warlock tells us that is not the way out, but goes back to where we came from.

We start down a corridor with the fighters in the lead.  We explore the corridors and its not long until we find a glowing circle in the floor.  Blanith tries to examine the runes but it seems to make him ill, so he steps back.

7:53

We venture to another room.  We see statues lining the room.  There are two gargoyles at the end of the room by a door.  We get an odd feeling but we try to open the door anyway.  When I try and open the door, one of the statures reaches out to grab me.

We manage to fight off the gargoyles and regain our composure.  The necklace (with a large gem in it) that was on one of the statues seems to be gone now.  Todd proceeds to try and pull over a statue.

We go through the door to see an elf fighting with two demons.  We kill one of the gargoyles and Blanith leaves one of them Webbed.

We speak with the elf, Eventree.  We ask him how he got there and are told that he went through a portal he should not have.  He says he is from Sigil.  He has an odd quality to him.

The Warlock starts telling the elf that he is trying to get to Sigil.

8:46

Eventree tells us the way out is through the seal on the floor.  A giant, shiny black monster comes from the hole in the floor and attacks Blanith.  Utho manages to fall down the stairs.  So we all try and follow...I jump after Blanith.

9:00

At the bottom of the stairs, after a very ominous warning of "It is very foolish to think I cannot come after you." we all continue.

9:20

Not far from the landing we find a doorway and go through to find a group of three ogres.  We tell them that "Dave sent us."  They let us in and then begin to yell at the shiny black monster, telling him that he "cannot bring the gargoyles down here."  While theya re bickering we makea  run through a set of doors to find five more ogres eating.

9:31

We make a run past the table, and down a corridor.  All we can find is a couple of giant ogres cheering on a lone ogre with a giant stick weapon that is fighting with a man that holds a flaming sword.

With so many ogres chasing us, we try and run down the otehr hall towards teh ogre and the man with the flaming sword.  The Warlock sets fire to teh hallway, blocking the pathway so the golem and the other ogres could not pass.

Blanith Webs one fo the ogres and puts the other two to Sleep.  The man with the flaming sword yells something, then the webbed ogre burst into flames.

10:25

The warrior introduces himself as Rahanu, then prays to his god Tempus to help us through the gate.