Ninjadeadbeard
2012-09-15, 12:54 AM
This will be the page where I detail the first campaign I have ever hosted that was of my own creation, and past middle school. I honestly expected doom and gloom from all the horror stories I've read from other people here on the forums, but what I have found so far is...interesting. Very interesting.
If this is the wrong forum, would a Moderator kindly move this where it's more appropriate?
This was a heavily homebrewed setting with equally heavy homebrew rules and the like, so don't expect these to conform to any one system too well. The world that this adventure is based in can be found here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=251914).
So without further ado:
The Players
K: K is a very close friend of mine. He's a pretty good RPer and is, like C, deeply enamored of The Spoony One's antics. Thus he wanted to do clever things and be a useful skill monkey to the party.
S: S is K's girlfriend and a pretty fly gal (they still say Fly, right?). She's very new to D&D but she has played PC RPGs so we assumed she could handle it.
C: C is a fairly new friend I met through K. He's the most experienced among us and managed to build a very powerful character right off the bat. He's deeply paranoid about everything I set in front of him, always looking for a greased hole filled with acid.
V: I just met V tonight, and he's quickly grown on me as a player and a friend. Very cool guy, though as new to D&D as S, and has the loudest, most building rumbling laugh I've heard in a while. Also became the Favorite of the Party.
The Characters
Slepnir Silver-Tongue: K's character. A bard from the frozen north and one of the Isleut, a raider peoples. Called "Viking" by Bohemnir and "Iceman" by Astor, a DMPC. Slepnir is the Face of the party and tries to be an eager skill monkey. Thus far he tends to lead the party, though he often defers to others.
Don Peithos: A very naive Halhvannen (Half-Elf) Sorceress who for some reason works with these fools. She acts very calm and peacefully towards others, and is still feeling out who she is. Played by S.
Zephyr: C's character and a particularly paranoid/cynical Druid of the Deniri. He tends to look every gift horse in the mouth, bite every coin, and make sure the Bard is constantly sweeping for hidden doors. Has a peculiarly powerful build for a Druid and partly serves as a tank (what is this I don't even).
Bohemnir: Played by V. Also known as Bo, the Invisible Hulk! He walked in, wrote up an Elf Monk, dumped everything accept Str, Dex and Con, and proceeded to roll 18's and 16's for his stats. The man is a combat BEAST. Also a bit of a kleptomaniac and has a move silently check through the stratosphere.
The Plot
The party is a band of Assassins working for the Temple of Nol, the Dread Father. They have been tasked with replacing the previous group of assassins who performed their duties for the city of Icharus. This is very specifically a True Neutral organization.
The big mystery the party has been confronted with has been the assassination of all the assassins. The local priests haven't a clue (and Nol has forbidden their resurrection), and so are willing to defer to the replacements. The one odd thing is that one of the old assassins never turned up, not even a body.
How'd it go?
Oh joy. As we began, an Elf named Astor was leading Slepnir and Don to Icharus. En route they were waylaid by imperial soldiers. The guard botched his bluff check and Slepnir figured these soldiers weren't collecting a lawful toll. He intimidated them to drop the outrageous price from 50 gp (everything they had) to 5. Once the party was past and at the gates to the city, one of the guards there also asked for a toll. When confronted about it, the guard admitted that the previous one was probably the 14th Cohort screwing around for drinking money, but there was nothing he could do about it. The Guard Captain had served with the 14th.
So Slep and Don entered the city and passed by the stables where Zephyr worked. Zephyr was with Bo, the Hulk, and they introduced themselves. They'd been ordered to the city as well. The four hit it off and were ordered to make their way to the Temple of Nol in the temple district by Astor, who left to run his own errands.
This is where my notes ended. I hadn't worked out anything else.
The party decided to visit the Forum. At first they just mulled around the stalls, looking over sheets of contracts and the like. Then Bo decided he wanted to hear what the newsreader was jabbering about. The reader was just talking about some slaves that had fled from Aufidius Lento's home, and gave an advertisement about the grain-workers and sandals. Just some flavor. Nothing special.
And then Bo decided to pick his pocket. In front of the man. And his guards.
If Slepnir wasn't there to convince the armed men that his friend was a simpleton, there would have been a bloodbath. They got out of there quick, though not before they used Don's feminine wiles to lift a magic scroll they spotted. Sure, it was just a scroll of Darkness, but this is a pretty low-level game. Now in the Temple District Bo revealed his awesome power. After a nat20 from Slep revealed that muggers were closing in on the party, Bo slipped away and scaled the side of a building.
When the muggers got close, Don tried to convince them they didn't mean any harm. After Slep yelled that she'd cost them the element of danger with that remark, Bo decided he'd seen enough. He descended upon them like Batman, instantly turning the last mugger into mulch. The second one went down to a combination of Magic Missile and Bo kicking the man's head off his shoulders. The last one got off a startled slash at Bo (2 damage), Slep hurled his spear into the dark alleyway, Don cracked him one with a sling, and Zephyr split his helm with a spear thrust.
The muggers had three daggers and two silver pieces. That's what you get for lingering in an alleyway when the DM wants you to get on with it.
They head to the Temple of Nol where a zombie is out front begging with a bowl. For charity. The priests usher the party inside, Bo finally failed his astounding Move Silent check, and they were brought before the High Priest. He was unimpressed. Specifically, he thought they were a bunch of blockheaded numbskulls who'd be dead in a week. He did point them towards the old home of their predecessors (whose bodies were on display in the temple), and the party was away. On the way out they did note that two of their kills in the alley were already zombies and already holding bowls.
At the old hideout for the previous assassins, the party looked around for clues. Bo rolled beautifully on his silent checks and basically hung around as a 6'5'' Hulking Elf that no one could see, while Slep led the search for clues. After rummaging through the debris, they found a note where the old assassin leader Flavio Massius had written that he wants another of his kind, a lizardman named Castra, to undergo treatment at the temple. He was apparently a little mad. Eventually, they found Flavius' body at the bottom of a staircase hidden from vies. He had scrawled a letter that appeared to be an "F" on the wall. Castra's body was not discovered, and the party and the priests believe he may have something to do with this.
The party made sure to head to the next place they were told to by one of the Priests: The Sloppy Mare Tavern. There they met a Brutum bartender (imagine an entire race of Klingon-Shaquille-O'neals) named Jok who was an ex-assassin. He showed off his peg leg, and answered some of their questions regarding Castra, mostly confirming the poor guy was a conspiracy nut and probably stayed in the sun too long. Still, the general antics of a huge, hulking bartender reciting the drill sergeant bits from Full Metal Jacket got Bo to laugh himself silly and finally lose his move silent check. Jok just congratulated him on being so stealthy "for such a big bastard!" and offered him and the others free drinks. The druid purified the water as best he could (it tended to rot metal spoons), but Slep got himself horribly drunk.
They decided to call it a night and work things out later, though not before Slepnir rolled a natural 20 on a perform check and brought the house down with "Freebird". Of course there were only two or three people in the bar, but that was okay.
This was some of the most fun I've ever had, and even C thought I was the best DM he'd ever been with. After a wildly successful night, we've decided to continue playing next Thursday, when I'll update again.
Good story?
If this is the wrong forum, would a Moderator kindly move this where it's more appropriate?
This was a heavily homebrewed setting with equally heavy homebrew rules and the like, so don't expect these to conform to any one system too well. The world that this adventure is based in can be found here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=251914).
So without further ado:
The Players
K: K is a very close friend of mine. He's a pretty good RPer and is, like C, deeply enamored of The Spoony One's antics. Thus he wanted to do clever things and be a useful skill monkey to the party.
S: S is K's girlfriend and a pretty fly gal (they still say Fly, right?). She's very new to D&D but she has played PC RPGs so we assumed she could handle it.
C: C is a fairly new friend I met through K. He's the most experienced among us and managed to build a very powerful character right off the bat. He's deeply paranoid about everything I set in front of him, always looking for a greased hole filled with acid.
V: I just met V tonight, and he's quickly grown on me as a player and a friend. Very cool guy, though as new to D&D as S, and has the loudest, most building rumbling laugh I've heard in a while. Also became the Favorite of the Party.
The Characters
Slepnir Silver-Tongue: K's character. A bard from the frozen north and one of the Isleut, a raider peoples. Called "Viking" by Bohemnir and "Iceman" by Astor, a DMPC. Slepnir is the Face of the party and tries to be an eager skill monkey. Thus far he tends to lead the party, though he often defers to others.
Don Peithos: A very naive Halhvannen (Half-Elf) Sorceress who for some reason works with these fools. She acts very calm and peacefully towards others, and is still feeling out who she is. Played by S.
Zephyr: C's character and a particularly paranoid/cynical Druid of the Deniri. He tends to look every gift horse in the mouth, bite every coin, and make sure the Bard is constantly sweeping for hidden doors. Has a peculiarly powerful build for a Druid and partly serves as a tank (what is this I don't even).
Bohemnir: Played by V. Also known as Bo, the Invisible Hulk! He walked in, wrote up an Elf Monk, dumped everything accept Str, Dex and Con, and proceeded to roll 18's and 16's for his stats. The man is a combat BEAST. Also a bit of a kleptomaniac and has a move silently check through the stratosphere.
The Plot
The party is a band of Assassins working for the Temple of Nol, the Dread Father. They have been tasked with replacing the previous group of assassins who performed their duties for the city of Icharus. This is very specifically a True Neutral organization.
The big mystery the party has been confronted with has been the assassination of all the assassins. The local priests haven't a clue (and Nol has forbidden their resurrection), and so are willing to defer to the replacements. The one odd thing is that one of the old assassins never turned up, not even a body.
How'd it go?
Oh joy. As we began, an Elf named Astor was leading Slepnir and Don to Icharus. En route they were waylaid by imperial soldiers. The guard botched his bluff check and Slepnir figured these soldiers weren't collecting a lawful toll. He intimidated them to drop the outrageous price from 50 gp (everything they had) to 5. Once the party was past and at the gates to the city, one of the guards there also asked for a toll. When confronted about it, the guard admitted that the previous one was probably the 14th Cohort screwing around for drinking money, but there was nothing he could do about it. The Guard Captain had served with the 14th.
So Slep and Don entered the city and passed by the stables where Zephyr worked. Zephyr was with Bo, the Hulk, and they introduced themselves. They'd been ordered to the city as well. The four hit it off and were ordered to make their way to the Temple of Nol in the temple district by Astor, who left to run his own errands.
This is where my notes ended. I hadn't worked out anything else.
The party decided to visit the Forum. At first they just mulled around the stalls, looking over sheets of contracts and the like. Then Bo decided he wanted to hear what the newsreader was jabbering about. The reader was just talking about some slaves that had fled from Aufidius Lento's home, and gave an advertisement about the grain-workers and sandals. Just some flavor. Nothing special.
And then Bo decided to pick his pocket. In front of the man. And his guards.
If Slepnir wasn't there to convince the armed men that his friend was a simpleton, there would have been a bloodbath. They got out of there quick, though not before they used Don's feminine wiles to lift a magic scroll they spotted. Sure, it was just a scroll of Darkness, but this is a pretty low-level game. Now in the Temple District Bo revealed his awesome power. After a nat20 from Slep revealed that muggers were closing in on the party, Bo slipped away and scaled the side of a building.
When the muggers got close, Don tried to convince them they didn't mean any harm. After Slep yelled that she'd cost them the element of danger with that remark, Bo decided he'd seen enough. He descended upon them like Batman, instantly turning the last mugger into mulch. The second one went down to a combination of Magic Missile and Bo kicking the man's head off his shoulders. The last one got off a startled slash at Bo (2 damage), Slep hurled his spear into the dark alleyway, Don cracked him one with a sling, and Zephyr split his helm with a spear thrust.
The muggers had three daggers and two silver pieces. That's what you get for lingering in an alleyway when the DM wants you to get on with it.
They head to the Temple of Nol where a zombie is out front begging with a bowl. For charity. The priests usher the party inside, Bo finally failed his astounding Move Silent check, and they were brought before the High Priest. He was unimpressed. Specifically, he thought they were a bunch of blockheaded numbskulls who'd be dead in a week. He did point them towards the old home of their predecessors (whose bodies were on display in the temple), and the party was away. On the way out they did note that two of their kills in the alley were already zombies and already holding bowls.
At the old hideout for the previous assassins, the party looked around for clues. Bo rolled beautifully on his silent checks and basically hung around as a 6'5'' Hulking Elf that no one could see, while Slep led the search for clues. After rummaging through the debris, they found a note where the old assassin leader Flavio Massius had written that he wants another of his kind, a lizardman named Castra, to undergo treatment at the temple. He was apparently a little mad. Eventually, they found Flavius' body at the bottom of a staircase hidden from vies. He had scrawled a letter that appeared to be an "F" on the wall. Castra's body was not discovered, and the party and the priests believe he may have something to do with this.
The party made sure to head to the next place they were told to by one of the Priests: The Sloppy Mare Tavern. There they met a Brutum bartender (imagine an entire race of Klingon-Shaquille-O'neals) named Jok who was an ex-assassin. He showed off his peg leg, and answered some of their questions regarding Castra, mostly confirming the poor guy was a conspiracy nut and probably stayed in the sun too long. Still, the general antics of a huge, hulking bartender reciting the drill sergeant bits from Full Metal Jacket got Bo to laugh himself silly and finally lose his move silent check. Jok just congratulated him on being so stealthy "for such a big bastard!" and offered him and the others free drinks. The druid purified the water as best he could (it tended to rot metal spoons), but Slep got himself horribly drunk.
They decided to call it a night and work things out later, though not before Slepnir rolled a natural 20 on a perform check and brought the house down with "Freebird". Of course there were only two or three people in the bar, but that was okay.
This was some of the most fun I've ever had, and even C thought I was the best DM he'd ever been with. After a wildly successful night, we've decided to continue playing next Thursday, when I'll update again.
Good story?