Tanuki Tales
2011-09-24, 10:13 PM
Alright, this here is my first attempt ever at writing a campaign journal. The group I'm currently DMing consists of five players and all but one of them have been playing the game for several years now. We've been in a major lull of any structure for a year or so (jumping between games but not having any real continuity or dedication to any of them) and with this game I was hoping to fix that.
This campaign entails me converting the old AGDQ adventure path from AD&D (which consists of the following: A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity, A2: Secret of the Slavers Stockade, A3: Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords, A4: In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords, G1-2-3: Against the Giants, D1-2: Descent into the Depths of the Earth, D3: Vault of the Drow, Q1: Queen of the Demonweb Pits) to 3.PF (3.75, Dungeonfinder, etc.) and adapting it to the Eberron campaign setting.
Each journal entry will be labeled with "Day X"; these are sessions and not actual in-game days.
I will also make a log of what changes I've made to the campaign.
Now, without further ado, the group!
The Party
- Davor, a level 4 Chaotic Neutral Half-Orc Armiger (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/3rd-party-classes/s/armiger)
- Andromeda, a level 4 Chaotic Good Catfolk Time Thief (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/3rd-party-classes/s/time-thief) and her pet cat
- Aramil, a level 4 Chaotic Good Human Dragon Shaman [Refluffed to be Elemental]
- Anakaka, a level 4 Chaotic Good Relluk Metal Wu Jen
- Oswald Solf, a level 4 Neutral Good Jaebrin Master Summoner and his Valenar Elf hireling
Day 1: What do you mean Mission Impossible is lame?
Opening words of the campaign: Sharn, the City of Towers. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. You must be cautious.
The five members of the soon to form party are summoned to a nondescript location on the lower levels of Sharn. They were either hand-delivered a manuscript, or found it hidden on their person, that offered them 2,000 gold if they came to the listed address at 8 pm that night. The address ended up being for a run down, boarded up home on a street with broken lighting up and down it.
The first to arrive was Aramil and he quickly approached the door with caution and paranoia. After being satisfied that there weren't any traps he pushed the partially ajar door open and proceed to toss an Ioun torch into the pitch black room. The Ioun torch was greatly muted for unknown reasons but it was sufficient for Aramil to venture further inside. He discovered a table with a five chairs around it, a sputtering candle on its center, but nothing more.
Within the next half an hour the rest of the party arrived one by one, a fight almost breaking out between Aramil and Andromeda because of their grating personalities. The fight was defused and all of the party save Davor took their seats and began making small talk. After another half an hour it became obvious no one else would be arriving and Davor took his seat.
It was then that the party was surprised by the sudden arrival of a man hidden under the folds of his own cloak. Davor was quick to his feet and a hand on his hilt, but any further aggression from him and the party was silenced by the sound of dozens of crossbows being cocked. Little did the party know that the man before them was a Dark Lantern and that the impenetrable darkness around them and the sounds they heard were all fabricated by the items on his person.
The Dark Lantern, secretly representing a coalition of Breland, the Shadow Marches and Aundair, informed the party that they had been selected for a mission to be carried out for the Brelish Crown.
For some time the fringe villages and towns along the Brelish, Aundarian and Shadow Marches' coast line had been assaulted and plundered by slavers, mysteriously dodging and slipping through the privateer forces of the nation. The slavers had been tracked back to a former Brelish city-fort in Droaam, but The Daughters of Sora Kell claimed no knowledge of such things.
The party was charged to infiltrate the city-fort, to find the leaders of the slavers and kill them and to rescue as many of the captured slaves as possible. If caught or killed the Crown would disavow any knowledge of their existence.
The party was promised 10,000 gold for their service and was paid half of it upfront. They were given 8 hours to make preparations, the boat that would drop them 2 miles from the target site leaving at the crack of dawn. They divided it evenly amongst themselves and bought some light provisions before turning in for the night.
The boat left at the crack of dawn, a small fishing vessel, and traveled until noon.
The party was dropped off just east of the drop point. Andromeda changed into a red ball gown before the party made the trek to the drop point, which turned out to be a deep ravine littered with bramble patches. The party made their way to the bottom, finding a small crevice dug out of one of the walls for them to take shelter in until nightfall.
The ground began to shake as the group was suddenly assaulted by two Ankhegs. Aramil won initiative and put up his Energy Aura (Acid) and failed to hurt the second Ankheg. Oz began casting Summon Monster II while his hireling threw a javelin at the first Ankheg, injuring the monster. Andromeda likewise attacked the first Ankheg from a distance, injuring it further. Anakaka moved forward and cast Iron Scarf, injuring the second Ankheg. The first Ankheg burrowed underground and popped up beside Andromeda, and let loose its line of acid on her, Oz and Davor.
The second Ankheg got slammed pretty hard by Aramil as it attempted to mimic the tactics of its fellow but still got away, catching Anakaka and Oz in its acid line. Oz passed the concentration check for the first line but failed for the second, losing his spell.
Aramil tried to flank the Ankheg but got hit by the attack of opportunity it gained, hitting Aramil pretty hard and winning the grapple with him. The first Ankheg also grappled with Davor, but the PCs ended up breaking out of both grapples.
The encounter winded down as Anakaka let off a Rain of Needles spell and Aramil let loose a Clinging Acid Breath Weapon attack. The first Ankheg survived a coup de grace from Anakaka only to die of blood loss and the second was slaughtered by a Coup de grace from Aramil.
The session ended up with the encounter clean up and Aramil popping his Vigor Aura.
Change Log
- The setting was changed from Greyhawk to Eberron.
- The Sea of Gearnat was changed to the coast of Breland, Droaam, the Shadow Marches and Aundair.
- The city of Highport was changed to be an unnamed former Brelish city-fort in Droaam.
- The local lords have been replaced with unknown parties in the Brelish and Aundarian governments and some unknown portion of the Shadow Marches.
- Play begins in Sharn, the city of Towers instead of right outside the city.
This campaign entails me converting the old AGDQ adventure path from AD&D (which consists of the following: A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity, A2: Secret of the Slavers Stockade, A3: Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords, A4: In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords, G1-2-3: Against the Giants, D1-2: Descent into the Depths of the Earth, D3: Vault of the Drow, Q1: Queen of the Demonweb Pits) to 3.PF (3.75, Dungeonfinder, etc.) and adapting it to the Eberron campaign setting.
Each journal entry will be labeled with "Day X"; these are sessions and not actual in-game days.
I will also make a log of what changes I've made to the campaign.
Now, without further ado, the group!
The Party
- Davor, a level 4 Chaotic Neutral Half-Orc Armiger (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/3rd-party-classes/s/armiger)
- Andromeda, a level 4 Chaotic Good Catfolk Time Thief (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/3rd-party-classes/s/time-thief) and her pet cat
- Aramil, a level 4 Chaotic Good Human Dragon Shaman [Refluffed to be Elemental]
- Anakaka, a level 4 Chaotic Good Relluk Metal Wu Jen
- Oswald Solf, a level 4 Neutral Good Jaebrin Master Summoner and his Valenar Elf hireling
Day 1: What do you mean Mission Impossible is lame?
Opening words of the campaign: Sharn, the City of Towers. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. You must be cautious.
The five members of the soon to form party are summoned to a nondescript location on the lower levels of Sharn. They were either hand-delivered a manuscript, or found it hidden on their person, that offered them 2,000 gold if they came to the listed address at 8 pm that night. The address ended up being for a run down, boarded up home on a street with broken lighting up and down it.
The first to arrive was Aramil and he quickly approached the door with caution and paranoia. After being satisfied that there weren't any traps he pushed the partially ajar door open and proceed to toss an Ioun torch into the pitch black room. The Ioun torch was greatly muted for unknown reasons but it was sufficient for Aramil to venture further inside. He discovered a table with a five chairs around it, a sputtering candle on its center, but nothing more.
Within the next half an hour the rest of the party arrived one by one, a fight almost breaking out between Aramil and Andromeda because of their grating personalities. The fight was defused and all of the party save Davor took their seats and began making small talk. After another half an hour it became obvious no one else would be arriving and Davor took his seat.
It was then that the party was surprised by the sudden arrival of a man hidden under the folds of his own cloak. Davor was quick to his feet and a hand on his hilt, but any further aggression from him and the party was silenced by the sound of dozens of crossbows being cocked. Little did the party know that the man before them was a Dark Lantern and that the impenetrable darkness around them and the sounds they heard were all fabricated by the items on his person.
The Dark Lantern, secretly representing a coalition of Breland, the Shadow Marches and Aundair, informed the party that they had been selected for a mission to be carried out for the Brelish Crown.
For some time the fringe villages and towns along the Brelish, Aundarian and Shadow Marches' coast line had been assaulted and plundered by slavers, mysteriously dodging and slipping through the privateer forces of the nation. The slavers had been tracked back to a former Brelish city-fort in Droaam, but The Daughters of Sora Kell claimed no knowledge of such things.
The party was charged to infiltrate the city-fort, to find the leaders of the slavers and kill them and to rescue as many of the captured slaves as possible. If caught or killed the Crown would disavow any knowledge of their existence.
The party was promised 10,000 gold for their service and was paid half of it upfront. They were given 8 hours to make preparations, the boat that would drop them 2 miles from the target site leaving at the crack of dawn. They divided it evenly amongst themselves and bought some light provisions before turning in for the night.
The boat left at the crack of dawn, a small fishing vessel, and traveled until noon.
The party was dropped off just east of the drop point. Andromeda changed into a red ball gown before the party made the trek to the drop point, which turned out to be a deep ravine littered with bramble patches. The party made their way to the bottom, finding a small crevice dug out of one of the walls for them to take shelter in until nightfall.
The ground began to shake as the group was suddenly assaulted by two Ankhegs. Aramil won initiative and put up his Energy Aura (Acid) and failed to hurt the second Ankheg. Oz began casting Summon Monster II while his hireling threw a javelin at the first Ankheg, injuring the monster. Andromeda likewise attacked the first Ankheg from a distance, injuring it further. Anakaka moved forward and cast Iron Scarf, injuring the second Ankheg. The first Ankheg burrowed underground and popped up beside Andromeda, and let loose its line of acid on her, Oz and Davor.
The second Ankheg got slammed pretty hard by Aramil as it attempted to mimic the tactics of its fellow but still got away, catching Anakaka and Oz in its acid line. Oz passed the concentration check for the first line but failed for the second, losing his spell.
Aramil tried to flank the Ankheg but got hit by the attack of opportunity it gained, hitting Aramil pretty hard and winning the grapple with him. The first Ankheg also grappled with Davor, but the PCs ended up breaking out of both grapples.
The encounter winded down as Anakaka let off a Rain of Needles spell and Aramil let loose a Clinging Acid Breath Weapon attack. The first Ankheg survived a coup de grace from Anakaka only to die of blood loss and the second was slaughtered by a Coup de grace from Aramil.
The session ended up with the encounter clean up and Aramil popping his Vigor Aura.
Change Log
- The setting was changed from Greyhawk to Eberron.
- The Sea of Gearnat was changed to the coast of Breland, Droaam, the Shadow Marches and Aundair.
- The city of Highport was changed to be an unnamed former Brelish city-fort in Droaam.
- The local lords have been replaced with unknown parties in the Brelish and Aundarian governments and some unknown portion of the Shadow Marches.
- Play begins in Sharn, the city of Towers instead of right outside the city.