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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Bloodfall 27

Following the attack on Bloodfall by Frostvinge and Isfang the Ice Dragons, our heroes gathered to deal with the menace once and for all. Long ago, promises and oaths were made and today was the day they would be fulfilled.

Raylan had the helm, using scrying from Ojisan's Palantir to help zero in on the dragons' lair. They had moved from their previous glacial spot after the PCs robbed their hoard some months back. Turns out satellite surveillance wasn't on their bingo card.

Using a bunch of math to convince me to roll 2d6, Ojisan worked with the rangers to locate the long ravine that the dragons had holed up in along with the remainder of their gnoll army. They scouted a bit and located the gnoll tribe underneath a large overhang. The adventurers did not see the cave one of the dragons was sleeping in because it was hidden behind ILLLLUUUUSION. Ooooh, aahhhh.

Anyway, Thorgal wanted satisfaction from the very same gnolls that chopped off his hand after agreeing to set him free during a prior captivity. He rolled up with some mercs and demanded a duel with Chief Biter. See, gnolls are chaotic evil and not very honorable or trustworthy. Biter said suuuure buddy let's duel, with no real intent of risking himself to danger. His 7 bodyguards were to jump in if Biter got hit or after a few rounds.

So that happened, alerting the rest of the party hidden away that things had not gone Thorgal's way. They rushed in to engage the gnoll tribe with their small merc army as Thrice-killed parried for all he was worth. A battle made too long by unlikely morale rolls dragged out. Once contact was made, I had determined there was a chance the patrolling Isfang would return. Ojisan on overwatch discovered the ancient dragon was inbound and warned the party.

Raylan bolted to go fight the dragon at the top of the ravine while the rest of the warriors finished off the gnolls. Ojisan flew invisibly and threw his Rope of Entanglement at the dragon, hoping to cause it to crash. A white dragon is longer than a storm giant is tall, which is the largest creature mentioned in the item description. It was close enough that I left it up to chance, requiring an attack roll from the magician. He hit, Isfang crashed to the ground, and Ojisan jumped on her back to stab her with his dagger. A 50 year old magic user that "speaks with spirits" btw.

Tons of noise from the dragon fight above woke the sleeping dragon in the cave, who started to stomp and rumble. I failed to roll the dragon fear for Isfang as Raylan arrived and Ojisan flew away. Oops. With leveled PCs it wasn't that impactful anyway. Isfang broke the rope and charged Raylan who drew the dragonslaying blade Istand and met it. Raylan chopped off a dragon wing, took a shot from a bite, and Isfang collapsed. Ojisan dropped flaming oil on her head and that was that. One down, one to go.

Frostvinge, with Leadbelly's spear sticking out of his eye, emerged from the illusory wall and roared. This time I remembered the fear and then realized it really only matters for mercs and low level folks. The party found themselves without their dragonslaying sword since Raylan was up top. They were undaunted, declaring unanimously that they would charge the beast (except Floki who was paralyzed with fear). Initiative would decide how impactful that charge might be.

Frostvinge reacted faster, breathing a cone of deadly ice shards on most of the party. That killed Thorgal and Rune the warriors outright, severely damaged Ormr and Broderick, and killed some horses. It was do or die, so Broderick and Ormr charged. Frostvinge rocked from the initial blows, but killed Broderick the Neon, Hersir of Bloodfall, with a wicked 123 combo. Ormr hung in and Ojisan flew his last flaming oil in to drop it on the dragon's head. The beast fell, the terrors of Bloodfall slain, but at what cost? Ormr plucked the glowing raven tipped spear from the dragon's eye.

Floki and Ormr ate of the dragons' hearts, the party recovered what hide and scales they could, and the group returned with their friends on their shields. Cairns were raised with the arms and armor of the heroes interred within to continue the fight in Valhalla. A great donation was made in Thorgal's name to finally get Thor some mfing representation in Bloodfall. Temple will just need a priest.

Grading:

I don't want to. The death toll on this one hurts. ~11 PC levels gone, like tears in rain. Funny thing, Norse gods can't really heal or raise dead. Not the ones you'd want to do it anyway. Deities and Demigods stays winning.

Thorgal: Excellent. RIP
Ormr: Excellent. Held the line, supported his brother warrior, no guts no glory
Raylan: Excellent. Led, bled, slayed.
Rune: Excellent. RIP
Broderick: Excellent. RIP
Floki: Excellent. Used his single spell to effect, tried to be useful. MU1 is a mfer.
Ojisan: Superior. Great use of magic and magic items to locate and engage the enemy. Jumping on the dragon's back, while metal af, was outside of MU territory.

Combat
Total XP:	3940
Cuts:	8
PC:	985.00

Touched

Back into the tomb for the umpteenth time, now with Zimon the Touched, Chosen of Sirlios. We had hoped to trigger some kind of response simply by proximity but that didn't fly. Zimon used a scroll to get some divine guidance, we rested outdoors, then returned once he had his prophetic dream.

He jumped in the moon pool and met with Sirlios, Goddess of Time or Dimensional shifts or something. He reported that Sirlios was in danger both in the future and in the past, threatened on each of two dual timelines that we were interacting with. Combined with the discovery at the gnome village, it appeared that some antagonist was angling for the destruction of all time by having her killed.

Being the heroes that we are, of course we jumped right to trying to solve the problem. Unfortunately we're really bad at guessing the DM's intent behind things. We conscripted some halflings to provide the security and supply line to the mage Scuba Steve at the gnome village like we had previously agreed and bounced back to town.

The elven court was concerned and intrigued by the problem and promised some level of magic research to be done in coordination with Steve. We traveled back to Horizon where we will continue to muster arms and consolidate resources to point at the problem. Bala Soto of Bastia needs to be in the loop, Boblin the diviner could help narrow in on the date in question maybe, and I am owed favors by Keoland that I intend to collect.

Bloodfall 26

Small group this time, with only Raylan, Thorgil, and Pius showing up to Raylan's call to arms. He'd had this Blackblade crazy evil sword locked away in a lead lined box for ages now and finally had a lead on a volcano to throw it in.

Captain Fili, some swarthy foreigner at the helm of a Viking longship, agreed to ferry them out to the volcanic island east of Sland, but only within about 1000 yards. Wreathed in smoke and guarded by a giant sized castle, it was a formidable fortress that guarded the only approach from a black sand and rock studded beach.

They poked around, found a tough way to climb, and managed to dodge any detection from whoever might be home in the castle (it's fire giants). The way ended at a drop into a pit of refuse, discarded bones and gristle of humans deposited from a trash hatch that hung ajar in the volcano's wall. Pius was in the process of fashioning shields to his feet as "gore shoes" when Thorgil tossed a rock in and saw the whole mass quiver.

Pius was lowered down to investigate and nearly killed by an abominable monstrous segmented arm of gristle and sinew that rose out of the pit and thrashed about. The rangers reeled him in before he was clobbered and they shot arrows and threw oil at it until it submerged itself back in the gore. A massive boulder was pushed off their ledge to try and crush it but it missed. It did make a ton of noise no big deal.

The group spent some time discussing various options while I determined if the occupants had heard the noise. Eventually a fire giant poked his head out of the hatch, saw the rock, but didn't see any arrows and figured it was just a landslide. He closed, and latched, the heavy metal hatch behind him. One point of ingress was made more difficult but they had some good recon on the place and bounced.

Back to Sland and nervous about fire giants they opted to avoid the island for now. Temple of the Jotun time. The eastern buildings held a runed stone that gave of Thor vibes in tones of approval. They cleared the east wing and went upstairs, finding a patrol of goblins that had exploded into bone shrapnel. Wisely, Thorgil tossed a piece of bone into the room before entering, triggering the trap? Trick? Whatever that animated the bits and pieces with black lightning and sent another corpselike abomination at them. Despite their separation, it seemed to the group that the two monstrous beings encountered this session were linked.

The rangers held the line, Pius successfully turned undead, and the thing cowered as they beat it to death. Good thing, it was a nasty bugger. There was some black scale mail stowed nearby with Hel themed decoration, too. They finished the map of the 2nd floor and went down to the disgusting pus-lined rift in the central room. Thorgil tried to approach it and light it on fire but succumbed to the smell again and ran to the corner to puke. Raylan tossed oil and a fireball erupted for a minute or two from the gap. Good thing Thorgil failed his first time.

They dropped into the rift, poked around some narrow cavern hallways, and found a shrine to Hel, goddess of death, pestilence, and disease. Pius's Find Traps spell shone around the rune-rimmed iron bowl sitting atop the pedestal. Raylan threw a javelin, disturbed the bowl, triggered the spear trap, and they found some loot stashed. Off they fucked back to town with a bit of ruby and some intel about both locations.

Grading:

Raylan: Excellent. Called, bold
Thorgil: Excellent. Good teamwork w/ Raylan, bold
Pius: Excellent. Good use of spells. Turn undead clutch

Combat
Total XP:	630
Cuts:	6
PC:	210.00