Applebuck
2013-08-31, 03:55 PM
Hey all, welcome to my first campaign journal ever and my like 90th attempt at starting a playable campaign! I've been playing D&D for years now, but always as a player, and rarely as a DM. As such, I don't have a lot of experience with this sort o' thing, so I figured a pre-made game was enough to test the waters, and what better pre-made then the granddaddy of them all, Red Hand of Doom. Despite this, statistics are NOT my strong suit. I will be making a bunch of mistakes throughout the course of this campaign, but fortunately for you, dear readers, most of them are hilarious. But enough of the boring stuff, lets get on to what you came here for.
Meet the PC's
Tikius (Elf Binder 5): Plays the different binds as someone with crippling multipersonality disorder. Always a hoot to have at the table. Has enough DM experience and knowledge of the rules to let me know when I'm being retarded. Veteran DM and Player.
Kartos (Kenku Rogue 5): Your stock standard Rogue, but with a refreshing lawful good outlook. Party face, despite being a hideous bird-man. Active participant in encounters, if not in roleplay. Veteran DM and Player.
Caland (Human Swordmage 5): Now I know I should be stoned to death for allowing a homebrew class from the internet into a game, but at the time it seemed like a harmless idea. (Again, my lack of a head for numbers screwed me over) He'll swap over to a full Scout in a few sessions, after myself and the other players realize that the class isn't okay. Notorious min-maxer, but usually restricts himself to the lower tiers, which is nice. Veteran Player.
Underscore(Warforged Crusader 5): Ah, Underscore. Our LE damage-oriented Crusader. Plays death metal during his turns, and follows the party for backstory reasons. An absolute riot to have at the table. Veteran PC and DM, though usually for other systems.
Session 1: Marauder Attack and the Witchwood
So the party is new to the Vale, but arrives with the promise of good lootin' in a place known as Vraath Keep (After all, if there is one thing adventurers respect, it is good loot). That's when the run into the Marauder Attack encounter. I mad Uth-lar a Warblade, and added the Draconic template to the hellhounds for some added oomph, but otherwise left the encounter as is. It was surprisingly eventful for the first encounter. Underscore had a nice RP'd duel with Uth-lar (who died horribly, but at least he got some good hits in) while Tikius kept the mooks off of him. Kartos ran off to deal with Zarr the Doom Hand Cleric, which worked out for him because Zarr rolled like poo. Caland, meanwhile, charged a group of three hobbos and a hellhound. He did deal them a ton of damage, but this is still the stage of the game where mooks can be dangerous (especially when they outnumber you 4-to-1). It didn't help that two of the hobgoblins criticaled him. The party managed to win the encounter, but bruised and bloodied. Lack of coordination does that to ya. Anyways, they got all healed up from looted potions (RPG's, encouraging desecration of the dead since the dawn of time!)and made it to Drellins Ferry. Unsurprisingly, Captain Soranna was called for immediately. Caland was the one talking to the guards, and he was being polite too, but the poor man just couldn't overlook the blood-drenched death machine or Kartos the man-avian (or Mavian as I like to call them. Patent Pending.) After some of grandmas' home-cooked roleplay with Soranna and Norro, the party set off into the Witchwood to look for Jorr, who should be able to guide them safely through the woods.
The Witchwood and Jorr
After a short but painful encounter with a digester (who coated EVERYONE in acid the first turn save the Rogue. Stupid Evasion)the party came across the sleeping hydra. Kartos successfully snuck past to the other side of the map, but unfortunately the rest of the party had to pass the old fashioned way-by killing the monster first. Now, here is where I make my BDMM #2 (Big DM Mistake) and I misread the hydra rules. I thought that the hydra only got to make AoO's with a single head, so when Caland charged the hydra he should have been nuked with six AoO's. Plus, the hydra went after him in the initiative order, so he should have been hit with another six attacks after that. Now, we all make mistakes, but if I didn't make this one then I am pretty sure Caland would have straight up been killed, though to be frank I almost wouldn't have minded, since charging a hydra in close combat is NOT smart. Anywho, despite the hydra doing better in the action economy then most big solo monsters, it couldn't stand up to the unrelenting beating of the party's melee combatants. Technically Kartos was shooting at it with his bow also, but he didn't do much, he was rolling crap that night. Even though the hydra was going to flee when brought low enough, underscore straight up killed it. *Cue fanfare. After dealing with the hydra and feeling good about themselves, they made it to Jorrs cabin. We didn't have any models to accurately represent his dogs, so they were represented by three colored dice, a red, blue and yellow one (Jorr named his dogs Ol' Blu, Ol' Redd and Ol' Yeller. Because I'm cute.) Anyways, I made Jorr a straight up hillbilly for my own amusement, though my party was less then impressed. (Meh. You can't win 'em all.) Underscore came dangerously close to painting the bayou red with the dogs, but fortunately the rest of the party diffused the situation. After convincing Jorr to follow them and guide them to Vraath Keep(It didn't take much. Jorr was easy to outsmart in the negotiations, plus the promise of killing goblins appealed to him.) Tikius was very disgruntled both in character and out that they had to take Jorr with him, but he just had to stick it in his juicebox and suck it up, as they made their way to the Keep...and their first Wyrmlord
Meet the PC's
Tikius (Elf Binder 5): Plays the different binds as someone with crippling multipersonality disorder. Always a hoot to have at the table. Has enough DM experience and knowledge of the rules to let me know when I'm being retarded. Veteran DM and Player.
Kartos (Kenku Rogue 5): Your stock standard Rogue, but with a refreshing lawful good outlook. Party face, despite being a hideous bird-man. Active participant in encounters, if not in roleplay. Veteran DM and Player.
Caland (Human Swordmage 5): Now I know I should be stoned to death for allowing a homebrew class from the internet into a game, but at the time it seemed like a harmless idea. (Again, my lack of a head for numbers screwed me over) He'll swap over to a full Scout in a few sessions, after myself and the other players realize that the class isn't okay. Notorious min-maxer, but usually restricts himself to the lower tiers, which is nice. Veteran Player.
Underscore(Warforged Crusader 5): Ah, Underscore. Our LE damage-oriented Crusader. Plays death metal during his turns, and follows the party for backstory reasons. An absolute riot to have at the table. Veteran PC and DM, though usually for other systems.
Session 1: Marauder Attack and the Witchwood
So the party is new to the Vale, but arrives with the promise of good lootin' in a place known as Vraath Keep (After all, if there is one thing adventurers respect, it is good loot). That's when the run into the Marauder Attack encounter. I mad Uth-lar a Warblade, and added the Draconic template to the hellhounds for some added oomph, but otherwise left the encounter as is. It was surprisingly eventful for the first encounter. Underscore had a nice RP'd duel with Uth-lar (who died horribly, but at least he got some good hits in) while Tikius kept the mooks off of him. Kartos ran off to deal with Zarr the Doom Hand Cleric, which worked out for him because Zarr rolled like poo. Caland, meanwhile, charged a group of three hobbos and a hellhound. He did deal them a ton of damage, but this is still the stage of the game where mooks can be dangerous (especially when they outnumber you 4-to-1). It didn't help that two of the hobgoblins criticaled him. The party managed to win the encounter, but bruised and bloodied. Lack of coordination does that to ya. Anyways, they got all healed up from looted potions (RPG's, encouraging desecration of the dead since the dawn of time!)and made it to Drellins Ferry. Unsurprisingly, Captain Soranna was called for immediately. Caland was the one talking to the guards, and he was being polite too, but the poor man just couldn't overlook the blood-drenched death machine or Kartos the man-avian (or Mavian as I like to call them. Patent Pending.) After some of grandmas' home-cooked roleplay with Soranna and Norro, the party set off into the Witchwood to look for Jorr, who should be able to guide them safely through the woods.
The Witchwood and Jorr
After a short but painful encounter with a digester (who coated EVERYONE in acid the first turn save the Rogue. Stupid Evasion)the party came across the sleeping hydra. Kartos successfully snuck past to the other side of the map, but unfortunately the rest of the party had to pass the old fashioned way-by killing the monster first. Now, here is where I make my BDMM #2 (Big DM Mistake) and I misread the hydra rules. I thought that the hydra only got to make AoO's with a single head, so when Caland charged the hydra he should have been nuked with six AoO's. Plus, the hydra went after him in the initiative order, so he should have been hit with another six attacks after that. Now, we all make mistakes, but if I didn't make this one then I am pretty sure Caland would have straight up been killed, though to be frank I almost wouldn't have minded, since charging a hydra in close combat is NOT smart. Anywho, despite the hydra doing better in the action economy then most big solo monsters, it couldn't stand up to the unrelenting beating of the party's melee combatants. Technically Kartos was shooting at it with his bow also, but he didn't do much, he was rolling crap that night. Even though the hydra was going to flee when brought low enough, underscore straight up killed it. *Cue fanfare. After dealing with the hydra and feeling good about themselves, they made it to Jorrs cabin. We didn't have any models to accurately represent his dogs, so they were represented by three colored dice, a red, blue and yellow one (Jorr named his dogs Ol' Blu, Ol' Redd and Ol' Yeller. Because I'm cute.) Anyways, I made Jorr a straight up hillbilly for my own amusement, though my party was less then impressed. (Meh. You can't win 'em all.) Underscore came dangerously close to painting the bayou red with the dogs, but fortunately the rest of the party diffused the situation. After convincing Jorr to follow them and guide them to Vraath Keep(It didn't take much. Jorr was easy to outsmart in the negotiations, plus the promise of killing goblins appealed to him.) Tikius was very disgruntled both in character and out that they had to take Jorr with him, but he just had to stick it in his juicebox and suck it up, as they made their way to the Keep...and their first Wyrmlord