In the Mountains... (DM Campaign Journal)

[rweird]

I decided to make a campaign journal for a game I'm DMing, I started it about 9 months ago so I don't remember everything at the beginning. In the course of this game, the players have had two TPKs, and one of the players has died separately. I have the character below in order they appeared. Anything I mentioned though didn't explain will be explained later. If you are a player in this campaign, please don't read the secret DM stuff. It is things you don't know about.

1st Pair:
Juaro Fissy:
Human Rogue 1, Combat Expertise/Improved Feint, Longspear, using Feint to Sneak Attack, took improved trip at 3rd level.

Guaren Lyle:
Elf Ranger 1, pretty much the starting package, went archery, though used Yiddrish's masterwork Greatsword quite a bit, later took Regulika's +1 Greatsword. Was usually more effective with a Greatsword than a longbow.

Setting:
This is set in a homebrew world, I don't have many details about anything besides the mountains. They started on a step mountain with a single village and several shepherds, it is connected to another mountain by a bridge. There is another village on the other side. I'll go into more details as the party advances, though this is as far as the first group got before Garlgunk killed them.

First Session, A blocked Bridge:
They begin in town everything is going well until someone runs into town shouting "they've blocked the bridge, help!" The party decided they didn't know each other before hand, though they both where good and decided to help, they soon met each other and where on there way. They heard two scouts approaching town, hid, and ambushed them, they questioned them, where they mentioned "'Lord' Regulika" is the one behind it. They where taken to town and arrested. They went onwards, found four Kobolds, killed them, took there stuff and threw there bodies off the cliff. (The road was at the edge of a drop, the party decided that everything they kill should be thrown of the cliff, when on a mountain, assume they will throw all corpses off the mountain unless specified otherwise.)

After that, they came to the last bend in the road, beyond it is the bridge, a tall gaunt warrior stood in their path. He told them to leave or die, when they asked who he was, he said Yiddrish. They didn't leave and he fought, injuring them greatly, Guaren killed him and took his masterwork Greatsword, though they insisted Juaro killed him whenever anyone asked. They found a bone flute, and several hundred GP, and a helmet. They took that and threw him off the cliff. They peeked around to the bridge, saw another warrior much like Yiddrish standing on the center of the bridge with a Greatsword that looked like a red dragon's head shooting a tongue of flame, and a silver mask with eyes of black pearl. On the sides of the bridge the where several humans, more where on the other side, some Kobolds on the side they where on. They tried to bait some of the Kobolds, realized they probably were to injured and retreated back to town. They rested for that day, and came back the next day. Guaren bought a longbow.

The following day, they fought four humans guarding the bridge and leveled up. Then they tried to take on the bridge. They did pretty well, one of the most notable things was Juaro throwing Yiddrish's helmet at a Kobold, rolling a natural 20, and making him bleed out. Regulika seemed interested in this, and started using magic to daze them. They quickly bailed and came back the next day.

The next day, Regulika looked different, I didn't stress this though I mentioned him standing in scale mail instead of a breastplate, and carried a longsword instead of a greatsword. They players didn't notice. He wished to talk, asked who killed Yiddrish, asked what they wanted, they said passage and he granted them it. After they passed, they turned around and came back, and finished the bridge defenders, including who they though to be Regulika. after the battle was over, the first Regulika appeared at the center of the bridge. That was the end of the first session.

Secret DM Stuff and Current Plot:
If you are responding to this, please spoiler it and lable it Secret DM Stuff.

Regulika, though the player's still don't know, is a first level Githyanki fighter, he has a +1 Greatsword, a wand of invisibility (37 charges), a +1 breastplate of silent moves, and slippers of spider climbing. Yiddrish (Standard Githyanki warrior) was his second and he was the only one Regulika cared about. He wanted to know which on killed Yiddrish so he could take revenge. He used his wand to go invisible, his slippers to climb to underneath the bridge, and waited to hear what they said, he was about to go after them when they came back.

I planned on this all being planned by the Lich Queen and a Paragon Mind Flayer manipulating her. I dropped this idea when the first party died, because they wouldn't know the basics, I replaced her with Lodmol Klond, or 'Lord' Klond. They don't know about him yet, more later.

Sorry for the wall of text, more later. Sorry for being vague, This happened almost a year ago so my memory isn't perfect. If you have questions, ask, I will try to answer them, if it is about the plot, please put it in a spoiler, titled Plot? My player, if you read this, please don't read the Secret DM Stuff and Plot spoilers. This is my first Campaign Journal, I hope you like it. The name is the only thing I could think of, if someone has another idea, please tell me.

[rweird]

Session 2; Of Plots and Dragons:
This session we resumed where we left off, on the bridge. Regulika uses his wand again and turns invisible, there is a pause where we look up the rules for invisibility, they hear him coming, though they don't pinpoint him. He appears behind Juaro, attacks and brings him into negatives. Guaren then charges, criticals, and takes Regulika to -7, he tries to heal Juaro, succeeds in round three, and then Regulika dies and his body turns to darkness and is blown away by the wind. Juaro dreams of a voice saying 'Regulika has fallen.' Guaren loots the camp and heads back to town to get his friend healed.

They pays a wizard to identify his sword, his wand, and mask. The mask isn't magic, though the sword is a +1 greatsword, his wand is a Wand of Invisibility. They sell his mask and masterwork breastplate, though they keep the wand, they never try to use it. The sell some other things and Guaren bys a masterwork composite longbow +2 str. Taking the greatsword they set out to new adventures.

Crossing the bridge they arrive at the other mountain, as the approach, two Krenshars attack. They make it to town and learn that the shepherd's flocks are being prayed upon by Krenshars, as well as wandering travelers. The party decides to help and goes down the mountain, is attacked by two bandits, and after a few (IG) hours hiking, they turn back, next they try the road they took previously, they spot two Krenshars standing guard outside a cave. After killing them they go inside, kill a few more, and find a door. When they try to open it, darts fly at them. The light it on fire and go back to town for the night.

The next day they return, and find a few Krenshars that where out hunting at the time. They quickly dispatch of them, find the door smoking, open it and drop prone, to be missed by most of the darts. They proceed onwards and are attack by a 'Krenshar-that-walks-like-a-man' with an axe. (Gnoll) They defeat it and follow the passage, they follow it to a branch, take the one that goes lower and arrive at a freezing cavern with other 'Krenshars-that-walks-like-men', one is talking with a cloaked apparition. It tells them to 'Take him and leave, they are on to use, I am dispatching someone to deal with them. Let him mature.' Then he fades, and they attack, they find a key one the apparent leader take unlocks an iron door, inside is very cold, a baby white dragon is eating a frozen Krenshar, it telepathically tells then to leave or he will call his master. They retreat, take the other passage, and find the way to disable the dart trap. Then they return to town and tell them of what they found.

The next day, they head there and meet the dragon, it is tiny and deals a grand total of 2 damage to each of them with its breath weapon before Juaro scores a critical and slays it. (So far, that has happened to each on of my main villains that have died.) They loot the place and return victorious to town, and the town holds a feast in their honor.

Secret DM Stuff and Current Plot:
The dragon was a wymling white dragon, 'his master was the Paragon Mind Flayer, Regulika's fall meant he would dispatch someone to deal with his killers. He knew that the killers where strong enough to kill the dragon, but given a few years, it would be a valuable asset for mountain domination.

Session 3, TPK I:
The feast is disrupted by screaming, and when the party arrives, there are two dead guards, and one wounded. They say a warrior in iron came and demanded that Juaro Fissy, and Guaren Lyle come and face him, or he will destroy the town. They set out, are ambushed by another bandit, find several zombies and skeletons, who they kill, though take a beating, level up, and return to town.

After getting healed they set back out and came to his camp, above the road, a skeleton came with a challenge issued by Garlgunk, to single combat. Juaro accepts and faces a fully buffed Garlgunk, though Garlgunk has bad luck, Juaro isn't able to get past his Full Plate and Protection from Evil spell and eventually falls. As Juaro fails, Guaren tries shooting at him, he deals about 9 damage, and then Garlgunk's zombies attack. The session ends with them both bleeding out and dying.

I don't really remember more, they may have faced more zombies, skeletons, and bandits, though the end result was the same.

Secret DM Stuff and the Current Plot:
Garlgunk (DMG 5th level cleric with the Death and Evil domains instead and a cloak a resistance +2, and a masterwok dagger in stead of a mace) was a servant of the Lich Queen (Mentioned in the Githyanki entry monster's manual), though this plot died with the TPK. I thought of a new plot after the session, there is an ancient sorcerer (or wizard) named Lodmol Klond. A thousand eight hundred years ago he ruled this area, though his spirit was imprisoned by the dwarves in a dungeon, and his was body buried far off, his body still lived as an undead, and it broke the seal and has found his way up. He is going about excavating the dungeon and wants to isolate all the villages so they cannot unit as they did last time to stop him.

I thought they would use the wand and try to assassinate Garlgunk so I gave him Invisibility Purge as a way to foil it. i didn't think they would accept his challenge so he would burn many of his combat spells, they didn't what I thought they would, the challenge was bait, and they took it.

[Savannah]

Out of curiosity, about how many sessions have you had? (Or how many do you have to go to catch up?)

[rweird]

Nine, Six left to do. In the school year there aren't that many.

[rweird]

Sorry for not updating it in a while, I had a busy last few weeks. Without further ado:

The New Characters:
The person that had played Guaren Lyle decided that using a greatsword is more effective than a bow and rolled up a dwarf barbarian named Ulfgar Ungabunga (I let the silly name slid, maybe it means stoneforger in dwarven of something), he didn't have a big backstory (I didn't really require on for the first characters, I thought that having fun and playing is more important, I hoped it would come out later.), however, he gave him a short backstory, he lived in the mines, they mined under a forest and the elves that lived there got mad and killed his clan, he ran to these mountains and lived wild with a hatred and desire to kill all elves. (I let him trade his bonus against either orcs or goblins, I don't remember which, to against elves.)

Ulfgar Ungabunga, 3rd level dwarf barbarian (standard, not spirit lion, not whirling frenzy, streaight out of PHB), Feats: Weapon Focus (greatsword), Power Attack, (He never understood the true potential of power attack though I was surprised how quickly he learned to use it, when I started playing, I thought of power attack as a useless requirement for the Power Attack feat chains (Cleave, Improved Bullrush, etc.)), he had nothing in his mental stats and kind of overplayed his stupidity. He maxed ranks in listen, spot, and survival.

Juaro Fissy became Hable, a Halfling summoner bard. (I let him have the specific summoning variant, and let him use 3d6 to roll his summons abilities), took Augment Summoning and Spell Focus (Conj), had two wands of CLW, a spiked shield that he never could do much with. His backstory is that he got teased by other Halflings, but learned to make them laught with him not at him, as he roamed he met someone that taught him summoning.

Session 4, Roll up New Characters:
A lot of this session was used making new characters (Hable was made in between sessions but Ulfgar wasn't) after that, they came, found out what was happening, went to the previous place Garlgunk camped and fought a few undead and bandits, and found his camp deserted. They went back to town and rested. Ulfgar found some elves and was convinced not to kill them, after that he never went to town. That night they both dreamed of a conversation between a warrior in iron and a cloaked figure, the cloaked figure (the BBEG) told Garlgunk to send his undead to hold the bridge and return. They saw a cave like the one the previous characters fought the dragon in (they heard about it from the townspeople).

In the morning, they went to the cave and saw Garlgunk talking with the cloaked figure's projection, it told him to crush the crystals to collapse the cave and leave, and to 'destroy the evidence', after he faded, they attacked Garlgunk, Ulfgar scored another critical hit and brought Garlgunk to 0 HP, it seemed the dice had there own sense of drama for this. He struck at them and fell, bleeding out. They looted the cave, found there old character's stuff, Garlgunk's loot, and forgot about breaking the crystals to collapse the cave and tried it. The cave began to collapse and the cloaked figure projection came out of the crystals and, after a quick OoC argument decided they didn't want to fight this guy in a collapsing cave, and ran. He chased them though quickly fell behind, and they escaped. They went to town, and Ulfgar saw a half-elf, he decided to half kill him. The EXP they got brought them up to 4th level. After an awkward encounter with the town guard they left. They remembered the orders he gave to Garlgunk, went to the bridge and took out a few skeletons. We ran out of time so I ended the session.

Session 5, A Heroic Last Stand:
They went to the town on the side of the bridge Fissy and Lyle started, and saw an elf, Ulgar tried to kill him and bull rushed hable out of the way several times, after this, the person who played Ulfgar decided it was to much of a pain to do this and stopped going after elves. They heard that the undead killed several shepherd families, they walked back towards the bridge and found a new group of skeletons to hold the bridge. (More in Secret DM Stuff and Plot) they fought and got pretty beat up, Hable failed to do much because of his strength of 6 and him not taking ranks in concentration to cast defensively, he realized his character was badly built with that and wanted to die, so he had a heroic last stand. Hable kept trying to hurt the skeletons though he failed. The battle took a lot of the session. Hable in the end, Hable fell, and Ulfgar grabbed him and ran. After running for a while Ulfgar tried to heal Hable, and failed, Hable died. I ended the session there.

Secret DM Stuff and Current Plot:
Garlgunk's master planned on luring the PCs to the cave so it could collapse and kill them, when the cave collapsed, Lodmol would teleport in and get Garlgunk out of there. Garlgunk was going to destroy the crystals in a controled way to make the outside area collapse first, blocking there escape. When the PCs destroyed the crystal, Lodmol teleported in and saw what happened, he cased them out and then teleported Garlgunk out to be healed, they never killed him and I rolled, he naturally stabilize and was teleported out, they haven't seen the last of him. Lodmol then sent a group of desecrated skeletons with bows to try to kill the PCs, lead by a Spell-stitched Awakened Skeleton. They arrived after the PCs so at first they had it easy the first time. When they went back there where a bunch of them, though with firing into melee penalties, the archers didn't do much.

I've had another more session since the last update before this though not much happened in it or the one before it so I may combine them.

[rweird]

New Character:
After Hable died, he decided to play a more effective summoner, a druid! I let him use the specific summoning variant this time as well. His animal companion was an ape. Because he was a Gnome, he had a very long name, lets just say it ended in Beastspeaker.

Really-Long-Name Beastspeaker, 4th level Old or Venerable gnome druid, Spell Focus (Conj.), Augment Summoning, had dragonhide armor, best AC of the party, spent a lot of his time in a barrel strapped to his ape's back.

Session 6, We'll Unblock that Bridge when we come to it:
Ulfgar returned to town and went to the druids to get healed, there he found Beastspeaker, they rested that night. The next day they heard people came and shot at some of the villagers, they went out and found some people with bows, the party made short work of them, my favorite part of it being one of them using handle animal to get the ape to leave them alone. The PCs questioned them and they said that they sided with the victors. The party continued to the bridge where they found about three dozen skeletons, across from them was a skeleton that yelled attack, the rest of the session was the battle, they fought well, Beastspeakers summons causing much damage and beastspeaker using Hable's wands of CLWs to keep them healthy and hurt the undead, even with that, they still didn't finish the battle by the end of the session.

Session 7, Bonebath, Breakthrough, and Beasts:
The most part of this session was the battle, the archers on the other side lead by the talking skeleton crossed the bridge and when they reached the place Regulika had fallen, darkness wrapped around them and the leader took on the ghostly form of Regulika. Ulfgar took him out with one hit, (like he did on Regulika, only this time with Regulika's own sword), and the wrapped up the battle, Ulfgar kept on falling into negatives and being healed back up. In the end they prevailed, though at the loss of Beastspeakers ape. (It had some trouble influencing the battle because it doesn't normally fight undead and didn't get the trick to do so) They leveled up, returned to town and rested, Beastspeaker spent 24 hours getting a new ape. Refreshed, they headed down the mountain.

They came to a crossroad, they took the path to the east, leading towards the starting mountain, after about twenty IG minutes of walking they came to a man that forbade them to pass saying a monster that rides a beast hunts anyone that tries to cross and that is took his family, and that if they cross they will die. After a few minutes of OoC conversation, they went forwards, after Beastspeaker reprepared spells to deal with this new threat. They came to some rocks and from the rocks swooped down, the rider wielding a spiked chain and the beast trying to grab Ulfgar and pull him into the sky. In the end the ape killed the rider and the mount carried Ulfgar 60 ft. into the air before a summoned hippogriff slew the mount sending it and ulfgar plummeting, Ulfgar survived, injured, and Beastspeaker took the head and they turned back. They met the person that warned them not to go and showned him the head, he told the to cast it aside but he kept it in the barrel with him. We checked the time and realized we'd run late, saying goodbye, the session ended.

Secret DM Stuff and Plot:
The BBEG is down the path of the beast, and the persons family did survive, though they where trapped in the lair, high on a cliff. The man didn't no this, or the PCs, they though this was all there was this way and didn't go any further. The Rider was a Fiendish Tiefling Fighter 2, and the mount was a fiendish Dire Bat with Improved Unarmed Strike and Improved Grapple.