The Moles We Whack Along the Way

The Jolly Rogers set off to explore "off map," beyond the borders of currently played territory. We had a displaced nobleman that we aimed to help regain his seat in far off Sunndi along for the ride with the understanding that we'd take whatever adventure cropped up during the journey. We almost made it out of the harbor at Gradsul before the first diversion hit.

Lord Willers was assembling and transporting a large body of troops south to some place called Dawn's Cove, apparently the holding of The Holy Rollers, and was hiring every ship he could find. Well, we had ships and he was paying well so sign us up. Two weeks later and a tall stack of gold richer, we'd delivered a frankly terrifying force to some tight assed paladin and continued on our way.

Smooth sailing (and motoring) to the east brought us to a farming town. We kept the fleet under The Shadow's veil of fog and I sailed my galley The Trident into port to get the local news, of which there was little. Back to the waves where we picked up a message in a bottle that spoke of an adventuring party marooned on a volcanic island to the south. We had a general idea of what island it spoke of but we were close to the next port along the coast so we'd stop in there first.

Gryrax of Ulek was a mixed dwarf and human town, administered by dwarves and bustling. We were able to locate a community map of sorts, a general posting at the dockmaster's office that confirmed our suspicions about the bottled message. No other rumors or hooks jumped out at us so we set out to rescue The Mintiest Juleps, or their treasure, or both.

We landed our two longships on the black sand beach of the island and probed the jungle ahead, turning up a Julep's corpse. We were then accosted by a demon of sorts, who had apparently killed the adventurers but then had a pang of conscience and let the last one wander the island, mad and wounded, until he starved to death. It had heard of Dr. Phil and wanted to make contact to talk through its feelings or something. It offered a big bag of loot, likely the Juleps' stuff, for transport to Phil's island. We happened to like loot and knew where Phil was so it was a win/win.

We dropped it off on Phil's island, got our payment, and sailed back to the volcanic island to search it over for anything else of note. We fought some beetles, avoided a gorgon and some spiders, and left with a little more loot. It was getting late in the session so we decided to dock at Gryrax and count money. Unfortunately we were hawked down by a ghost ship crewed by draugr. We were unable to outrun them so had to fight.

The Shadow engaged the other ship by ramming it amidship and Farland and I held the deck crossing against the wave of undead. Meanwhile, Morgan compelled the Shadow to strike at the enemy's commanders with its living rigging, removing the captain and navigator from play and allowing her to exert her will over the remaining leaderless undead. She took control of a large portion of the enemy and with their help we were able to capture the ghost ship. All of this was made possible by her weird connection to The Shadow.

We retained the ghost ship and crew as an ace in the hole, resolved to keep it veiled near The Shadow since the ship itself acted as a sinkhole of evil. Can't really pull up to the docks like that. We finally made it back to port and ended the session much richer than before.

Dr. Phil

The Jolly Rogers were on tap for the session today and we needed to get our fleet in order. The Shadow was self propelled by magic, but our other sailing ship was the weak link and dependent on the weather. We contacted Captain Nemo the dwarf and had it outfitted with an inboard motor. Zoom Zoom.

We decided to explore the details around a treasure map that we had found in the hold of The Shadow, revealing an island that we were familiar with. A large banyan dominated the central rise and the map indicated some sort of back door which we found pretty easily.

It opened to reveal a talk show auditorium complete with a stage and a host, a 12 foot cacodaemon who bore a striking resemblance to Dr. Phil. He insisted on trying to get us to sit on stage and talk about our feelings but since I'm not gay I stabbed him. He was immune to everything and hit like a truck. He restrained himself from just beating us to death. I think the manner in which he killed us was important, like he had to trick us to get our souls or something. We were able to extract without casualty and escape the island of subpar tv.

Next we decided to explore the ocean beyond Gradsul. We expected the journey to be the adventure and we weren't disappointed. We hopped from Bastia to Bonevale up towards Gradsul, using The Shadow's unique ability to project a cloaking barrier of mists to mask our passage. The giant sturgeon that swam up underneath our fleet became the adventure and the session's score after we killed it and harvested it for caviar. We sold that at market in Gradsul, donating no small portion to the local Lord as an introduction. Pirates just keep on winning.

Pelor by the Slice

It's been a minute but we got back after it. The Holy Rollers had a handful of outstanding hooks so we ran a few errands. First up was contacting the heretic Mara about her scribe and his research that we liberated from slavery on Fairwind Isle.

We set off from Horizon and ran into a group of notItalians led by the brothers Mario and Luigi. A roadside conversion to Pelor later and we sent them on their way with a business license for a new pizza joint. They were warned to avoid association with the Whole Foods cult. We'll see how that goes.

In Bonevale, we threw up the fish signal for the aquatic themed Mara and killed some time in town, touring the local cathedral heavily funded by Fr. Cassian and my tithing over the course of our adventures. We also ran into Danconia the Khajit, who tipped us off to a ship in the harbor that we should investigate. He would not say why so we naturally assumed the worst.

Sheriff Kai'lan was receptive to our appeal for a legitimate reason to search the Aspirant and appreciative of our restraint. We are maturing beyond, "So anyway, we started blasting." Armed with a search warrant, the dockmaster Donny helped us secure the boat. I only had to subdue the officer on deck and one other clown who couldn't read the situation before we had the crew assembled and conducted our search.

We turned up a cadre of mages fleeing the south after their freedom fighter underground railroad efforts got them in a pickle. They weren't captives or slaves and after some discussion agreed to help Steve the Mage research the weird temporal portal time power arcane nerd shit that threatens to destroy everything. They were unkempt and numbered twelve. We called them the Dirty Dozen.

Mara paid us for our efforts and suggested she could help with the time situation by sending us into the future. That's a big ask so we put a pin in that for a while. Next up, checking in on our National State Bi-County Park Initiative.

Turns out the Werebears Smokey and Yogi had completed their task and took us on a tour of the park, showing us various animal dens and amenities for park-goers. I don't know if fantasy peasants have the means or energy to tour a cultivated park but the opportunity was there, complete with branded walking sticks, a gift shop, and ranger station. A group of unicorns also had moved in, blessing a small grove as a pinnacle of good. We love parks.

We had to get the Dirty Dozen and our diviner buddy Boblin out to meet with Steve and help his research. The trip was long but not that crazy. We ran across some man-sized faeries called spriggans that wanted the smoke. Our valiant heroes killed their ambushing party, tracked their path back to their cave, and exterminated the Chaotic nest for good. Some treasure required liberation as well.

Steve and the Groundhog Day Gnomes welcomed us, we lore-dumped and talked about options, then bounced back to Horizon. We got a line out to Bala Soto to see if the Patriarch of Sirlios has anything to add to the developing story. It looks like our next quest is a trip is into the future to kill the unknown big bad and take his lunch money (the crazy powerful artifact that allows him to manipulate time).

It's You or Me

The Shadow ghost ship has terrorized the east coast line of the map for the entirety of the campaign. In true player fashion, the more the DM pressed the hook the more we avoided it, but this session we were undermanned and didn't have any big brained ideas so Morgan was like "fuck it, we ball." She was determined to settle this thing once and for all.

She'd been linked to the ship through a magic ring for ages now and it was driving her mad. She had to get some resolution before her brain esploded. Namor and Vee rounded out the party, with some henchmen. Ok, so how do you convince the ship to fuck off or join the team or ... whatever?

It was a sentient thing, with a violent and impulsive nature evidently. She was gonna have to wrangle it. If the boat was some kinda evil entity maybe it'd require a blood sacrifice? High level sacrifices are the most impactful so we spent the first bit of the session in the slaver capital of the west, Monmurg, tracking down a suitable captive. The dice went our way and we got a lead.

A far eastern foreigner (east on the map, not weeb) named Lord Alphonse had lost his throne to an evil cult tied to the Sirlios time-dilation issue and been sold into slavery, where he'd been passed around due to lack of ransom funds. We contracted with a local syndicate of bicyclists led by Lance Solo to recover him and we'd buy his freedom. After a tense exchange, we got our man and confirmed that he was indeed of royal blood in line for a throne. Just a very distant throne.

See, my plan here was not to sacrifice this guy. It was really a contingency since we didn't know the true nature of the ship. I wanted to make an ally of him, help him get his throne back, and enjoy all the adventure that that might entail. But if the ship wanted blood, well, it'd get ole Alphonse's first.

Morgan's ring allowed her to contact The Shadow so we set a rendezvous and made our way there on my ship The Trident so as not to risk the party's main resources should this thing go tits up. It was a real possibility that we'd simply vanish at sea, eaten like so many others by the uber magical powerful sentient ghost ship of doom.

We made contact near dusk, the now familiar mists that cloak The Shadow roiling on the horizon. It had a series of HR interview questions for Morgan as a preliminary to get closer, which she passed. It was heavily insinuated by the DM that failure at any step was very bad. I played the good first mate and kept the crew rowing. Once we closed, we were invited on board to "be judged." Gulp. We stepped on deck and nothing much was happening. I shrugged and grabbed the wheel but this weren't my story point and I was nearly killed by the animated rigging of the ship. Morgan latched on and continued her interview.

After some back and forth and passed saving throws, she was able to come to some kind of agreement or symbiotic relationship or... something... with the ship, gaining control of it and the vast treasure it held in its hold including a few captives that were great helps in organizing every thing. We dry docked it on the beach while I rowed The Trident back to town to get some craftsmen and the rest of the party. The shipwrights overhauled the horrible condition of the ship, restoring and upgrading it with fine woods, lacquers, and anything else Morgan wanted cuz she dumped a ton of gold into it.

I don't really know what happens next, but I'm certain The Shadow won't be plaguing this coast for much longer. I expect we'll sail our fleet north along the coast, maybe even to Greyhawk itself, before setting sights on Lord Alphonse's native Sunndi.

Bloodfall 29

Tadg the druid led a group into Freya's Fist, including Ormr with Augnir the golden spear in hand. The goal appeared to be filling in blank spots on the party's map, which they did with some success. Pius the cleric suggested some effort be made to clear the "mushroom room" prior to setting out, but the plan was apparently to go around it by way of a side passage. That didn't really pan out.

Some zombies were dispatched, revealing a weird necromantic black magicky cache of fetishes with some treasure and a journal of lunatic scribblings, but not before a fresh PC immolated himself with a fumbled oil flask throw. Then came a couple ogres that the party surprised and easily defeated, capturing Owen the Ogre in the process. Owen was easily convinced to aid the party instead of die and doped around in front. He warned them of "bad men" in one area that they avoided.

A long hallway with invisibly concealed traps at the end could have been disastrous, but a useless Norse cleric cast Find Traps and revealed like 4 or 5 separate traps clustered together. An attempt was made to talk the druid through the traps a la Catherine Zeta Jones in Entrapment. He failed and was nearly killed in a chain reaction of death. They scooped up some discovered treasure and realized they were trapped by a sliding wall, one of the many traps triggered in the chain reaction.

It took them a while but they eventually released the pressure plate causing the door to slide shut and escaped. Loaded down with heavy treasure they duck waddled their way towards the exit, right into a waiting ambush near a portcullis. The men lying in wait called out to the party and Floki the MU immediately responded by casting Sleep. Initiative rolls went out, Owen in the front soaked the crossbow fire, and magic won the day. Floki Wizard Locked the portcullis shut and the party fled for the exit.

I rolled how long it would take the remaining men to wake their partners, think through their options, and lay another ambush near the exit. Then counted the party's reduced movement speed and distance to the same exit. It was a near thing but without any other encounters to slow them the group made their way out with pursuit on their heels, loading their horses, killing Owen (who didn't see that coming?), and fleeing for Bloodfall.

Grading:

Floki: Excellent. Good use of spells, interest in weirdo magic stuff.
Pius: Excellent. Good use of spells. 
Ormr: Excellent. Front line, bold.
Tadg: Excellent. Good use of spells, caller
Drunan: Set himself on fire with a fumbled oil flask. RIP.

We had a lot of chatter about working with and then killing the ogre and what that meant for a Lawful and/or Good PC. Ormr actually took the action on the execution. Be careful cooperating with Evil (Good) and/or making and breaking deals (Lawful). It was borderline and I'm generally a pushover. Don't be surprised if a repeat event gets a harsher response.

Combat
Total XP:	680
Cuts:	8
PC:	170.00

Bloodfall 28

Raylan Dragonwing gathered his next closest friends, after his closest friends were all killed by dragon breath, and delved the Fist of the Angry Freya. I shan't bore you with a play by play of a pretty straightforward dungeon delve, but I'll try to hit the high notes.

Restocking and random encounters were extremely light, especially considering the time spent away from the dungeon. It was months at this point. However, I figured the corpses of their previous battles had the chance to turn into undead because ooooh mythic underwooooorld. Also, the known remaining entities in the dungeon had time to act, which I dropped a bunch of hints to starting with Norse runes for Death at every staircase landing. Very intimidating, I'm sure the players were beside themselves.

The Norse pantheon by and large can't heal, except in very particular circumstances, which means neither can their clerics, and I had recently notified the players that I would be enforcing that reality better than I had previously. Many jokes were made about how useless clerics were now, especially since two showed up for the session, until they ran into a bunch of undead fights made trivial by the Turn Undead ability of said useless clerics.

I thought they'd seek a way to a lower level or go back to the sekrit hand teleport room. Instead, Raylan led them back to the fire trap from their last delve to see what had changed. The treasure had melted under the unrelenting inferno into a molten pool. It was still inaccessible without risk of burning so they passed it up.

New parts of the dungeon revealed two things of note: A room full of life-like statues that veteran players immediately associated with petrification and a magical painting of a cavern entrance that tried to eat anyone who approached. They didn't find a basilisk or medusa nearby and nearly avoided being swallowed whole by the magic wall while figuring out how to disable it. It did 3d6 damage in a 30x30 area and swallowed whole on an attack roll of 18+. One very smart use of Detect Magic and one very bad attack roll by the wall saved a lot of heartache.

Richer by some magic treasure, a bit more knowledge about the potential threats of the dungeon, and a partially expanded map, they called that a win and bounced. I think to settle who might use some magic armor some of the players grappled for it. When asked if I would moderate said grapple, I wisely responded with, "Lol, lmao." Character loot distribution is a player responsibility. Someone won it or something idk, I suppose I have to figure that out for their magic item experience distribution. Good thing Discord records everything and is searchable.

Grading:

Dagnr: Excellent. Turned undead, focused on Freya detective work in dungeon.
Tadg: Excellent. Destroyed abominations to nature in undead. Good spell use.
Impius: Excellent. Bold, tracking
Raylan: Excellent. Bold, tracking, caller
Skelbroj: Excellent. Undead make it hard to flex as an Illusionist. Investigated the clearly magic mural, statues, wall thing
Laeser: Excellent. RIP
Bolvador: Excellent. Turned undead, good spell use.

Combat
Total XP:	808
Cuts:	12
PC:	134.67

On Adventuring Sans Dungeon

There is a shift in mentality when your group of players finds itself in an adventure outside of the dungeon. The walls of the mythic underworld oppress and funnel energy in a series of fixed directions. Every decision point is binary, every scenario considered for survivability, and an expectation exists of a conclusion to the endeavor; the ruby to be acquired, the big bad boss to be killed, the princess to be freed.

Adventures that take place outside of the dungeon are different. A broader world awaits where the players must have considerations beyond the tactical. Creative juices flow, resulting in a changed dynamic among the party as those normally passive players in the dungeon use this freedom to provide more input and take more action. Priorities and goals are set with broader parameters as the unknown variables multiply dramatically.

DMing these adventures is challenging. It’s easy to see many steps ahead in a dungeon by following the binary decision points. You can still get curve balls but you know, unless you’ve been forced to zero prep the dungeon, the likely results of any given action that the party takes deeper into the depths. Conversely, few decisions are binary outside of the dungeon. Most events will depend heavily on subjective inputs. The efficiency of the session relies on your ability to parse declared actions and provide feedback that the players can use. Hone your skills with reaction checks, encounter tables, and abductive reasoning to keep up with your players.

Playing in these adventures is challenging. It’s easy to see the options available to you in a dungeon; left or right, open or close, fight or run. When offered the breadth of an urban sprawl or vast wilderness, many players simply seize up with analysis paralysis. Avoid this by maintaining your bias for action. Observe your environment, Orient yourself towards desired outcomes, Decide what actions to take, and Act to realize those outcomes.

Calling in these adventures is challenging. It’s easy to guide a group through tactical challenges, apply binary inputs to binary decisions, and maintain an effective tempo in a dungeon. All that goes out the window when you leave the dungeon. You are figuratively herding cats, good luck. Your goal is to pick an objective out of the cloud of ideas that will thunder above the party’s head and try to maintain some kind of focus of action. The alternative is a diffusion of “can I”s and “what if”s that will kill the session flat.

The game doesn’t have to take place in a dungeon and many of the most memorable sessions that I’ve had over the years have been in the wilderness or an urban environment. The key is that you make the most of your session time and MAKE SOMETHING HAPPEN. The DM’s temptation to exposit on setting details that no one cares about and the players’ temptation to scout and recon and acquire intel and ask questions and discuss options must be curbed by action. Play the game, don’t talk about it.

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