oaken
2013-11-13, 10:58 PM
Hi! Recently I started DM'ing a campaign for a group of friends. I figured I'd write down a campaign journal to help me in keeping track of the story, as well as to get feedback and new ideas/suggestion from people in the forums.
Please be welcome to read and share any opinions/suggestions/feelings you have about the story, settings, characters, or whatever else!
We're playing standard D&D 4E and we have been using all of the core books plus some things from Essentials. Our group is composed mostly by D&D newbies or people who played for short periods of time in the far past (myself included). One of us has more experience with D&D, but it was previous editions. He DM'ed the previous campaign and now we switched places.
This campaign picks up from the previous one, our previous DM created a character and joined the group, as I stepped out to take the DM role.
As such, it's probably easier if I write a short summary of our previous campaign first:
The previous campaign
The story starts in the small city of Orvil and its outskirts, where the Orvil forest lies.
Nature is going crazy in the forest and a weird mysterious portal is found by the forest's big lake.
We entered the portal, killed some monsters, and exited it only to find we had traveled a few hundreds of years to the future.
Here, with the help of a powerful elf NPC called Altariel we find out that the portal was part of a ritual conjured by an evil doer with the intent of becoming a god.
We later found out that such evil doer was in fact one of the PCs (called Maguyuk), even though he himself was not aware of that.
It turns out he had multiple-personalities and was using some magical gems trafficked by a group of thieves commanded by a drow to make sure the ritual worked as he had planned, which required all of us to be in a given place at a given time.
We also found that one of the side-effects of the ritual was a giant skeleton king, that would bring destruction to a vast area of the world.
In the end, Maguyuk found himself reluctant at the prospect of becoming a god, since he was a Shaman follower of the spirits and had small sympathy for deities, but in an attempt to save his friends from the skeleton king, he became a god and helped everyone.
The group managed to keep the skeleton king from being unleashed into the world and go back to their original time, again with the help of Alatariel.
That's where our new campaign begins.
The group
We have some characters that are coming from the previous campaign and new ones joining now.
The ones following up from the previous one:
Aegon: An elf druid that was raised by a family of human farmers, only to find the whole family killed inexplicably at about the same time he started to discover his nature-controlling powers. He now lives by himself in the Orvil forest. (my own character in the previous campaign)
Garfo: A goliath barbarian that had his whole village murdered, now seeks revenge. Your typical big brute barbarian that hits first and asks later.
Hael: A half-elf bard that leads a chaotic and hedonistic life.
Ilias: An eladrin wizard who quit the magic school out of boredom and in search of new adventures.
Quibrunn: A warlock gnome that is a bit much too keen of herbs.
New characters joining for this campaign:
Greip: Dwarf warden, a bit older than the others, likes his ale and a good conversation, as well as to give advice to the (ones as he perceive as) younger ones. (played by the same guy who previously played the now-a-god Maguyuk)
Johnny: Human rogue, treasure is what he seeks, though he won't steal from those who do not deserve to be stolen (played by our previous DM).
Vinna: A tiefling psion that was raised by humans and is now in search of her own nature. (new player in the group)
In the beginning of the campaign the characters are all in either level 5 or 6.
We started a few weeks ago so I may not remember all the details, but here's a summary of our first day:
Day 1 - Negotiation with Toromir
It all starts with Vinna, Johnny and Greip at the Must Pada tavern in Orvil. Johnny and Greip are old friends, and they have recently met Vinna in the city, though none of them are really locals. In the last few days the city has been alive with talks about weird things happening outside the city, specifically in the forest. People talk about hidden treasures and unknown dangers, and none of the adventurers who have left with intentions of exploiting or exploring have, so far, come back to tell the story.
One drunken adventurer in the tavern tries to recruit partners to investigate what all the fuzz is about but he is, as expected, ignored by everyone - except for a classy, well dressed eladrin, who enters the tavern at the exact time the drunken adventurer is about to get out. The eladrin calms him down and leads him back to his seat, then walks towards a table that is already occupied by a group of people.
Noticing the commotion, and feeling the scent of gold, Johnny approaches the eladrin. Soon Greip and Vinna join the conversation. The eladrin introduces himself as Toromir, and he says he seeks those called the gems of power. He says he hears they can be found at the forest, and offers a certain amount of gold coins to the adventurers in case they are willing to investigate the rumors and bring him any gems they find.
After some negotiations, the eladrin pays 10 gold coins to each one of the three, and promises 100 more for each gem they bring back.
And so they part in direction to the forest.
Day 1 - Forest Webs
Aegon, Garfo, Hael, Ilias and Quibrunn come out of the portal opened by Altariel and are in the forest in the outskirts of Orvil, back in their original time.
As soon as they come out, Aegon notices something is not right in the forest and starts walking ahead of the group. They are attacked by a group of giant spiders and spider swarms.
It's right at that moment that Greip, Johnny and Vinna arrive at the forest, so the two groups join forces against the spiders.
At this moment I pulled a bunch of spiders out of the dark areas of the forest. One of them was busy for a few rounds spinning webs around Aegon (my character)'s body, while the others kept the group busy. The spider kidnaps the elf, as the group finishes off the other ones and start off after their friend.
This is what happened in our first day. We've played a few more times since then, but I will stop writing for now. Please let me know what you think!
Please be welcome to read and share any opinions/suggestions/feelings you have about the story, settings, characters, or whatever else!
We're playing standard D&D 4E and we have been using all of the core books plus some things from Essentials. Our group is composed mostly by D&D newbies or people who played for short periods of time in the far past (myself included). One of us has more experience with D&D, but it was previous editions. He DM'ed the previous campaign and now we switched places.
This campaign picks up from the previous one, our previous DM created a character and joined the group, as I stepped out to take the DM role.
As such, it's probably easier if I write a short summary of our previous campaign first:
The previous campaign
The story starts in the small city of Orvil and its outskirts, where the Orvil forest lies.
Nature is going crazy in the forest and a weird mysterious portal is found by the forest's big lake.
We entered the portal, killed some monsters, and exited it only to find we had traveled a few hundreds of years to the future.
Here, with the help of a powerful elf NPC called Altariel we find out that the portal was part of a ritual conjured by an evil doer with the intent of becoming a god.
We later found out that such evil doer was in fact one of the PCs (called Maguyuk), even though he himself was not aware of that.
It turns out he had multiple-personalities and was using some magical gems trafficked by a group of thieves commanded by a drow to make sure the ritual worked as he had planned, which required all of us to be in a given place at a given time.
We also found that one of the side-effects of the ritual was a giant skeleton king, that would bring destruction to a vast area of the world.
In the end, Maguyuk found himself reluctant at the prospect of becoming a god, since he was a Shaman follower of the spirits and had small sympathy for deities, but in an attempt to save his friends from the skeleton king, he became a god and helped everyone.
The group managed to keep the skeleton king from being unleashed into the world and go back to their original time, again with the help of Alatariel.
That's where our new campaign begins.
The group
We have some characters that are coming from the previous campaign and new ones joining now.
The ones following up from the previous one:
Aegon: An elf druid that was raised by a family of human farmers, only to find the whole family killed inexplicably at about the same time he started to discover his nature-controlling powers. He now lives by himself in the Orvil forest. (my own character in the previous campaign)
Garfo: A goliath barbarian that had his whole village murdered, now seeks revenge. Your typical big brute barbarian that hits first and asks later.
Hael: A half-elf bard that leads a chaotic and hedonistic life.
Ilias: An eladrin wizard who quit the magic school out of boredom and in search of new adventures.
Quibrunn: A warlock gnome that is a bit much too keen of herbs.
New characters joining for this campaign:
Greip: Dwarf warden, a bit older than the others, likes his ale and a good conversation, as well as to give advice to the (ones as he perceive as) younger ones. (played by the same guy who previously played the now-a-god Maguyuk)
Johnny: Human rogue, treasure is what he seeks, though he won't steal from those who do not deserve to be stolen (played by our previous DM).
Vinna: A tiefling psion that was raised by humans and is now in search of her own nature. (new player in the group)
In the beginning of the campaign the characters are all in either level 5 or 6.
We started a few weeks ago so I may not remember all the details, but here's a summary of our first day:
Day 1 - Negotiation with Toromir
It all starts with Vinna, Johnny and Greip at the Must Pada tavern in Orvil. Johnny and Greip are old friends, and they have recently met Vinna in the city, though none of them are really locals. In the last few days the city has been alive with talks about weird things happening outside the city, specifically in the forest. People talk about hidden treasures and unknown dangers, and none of the adventurers who have left with intentions of exploiting or exploring have, so far, come back to tell the story.
One drunken adventurer in the tavern tries to recruit partners to investigate what all the fuzz is about but he is, as expected, ignored by everyone - except for a classy, well dressed eladrin, who enters the tavern at the exact time the drunken adventurer is about to get out. The eladrin calms him down and leads him back to his seat, then walks towards a table that is already occupied by a group of people.
Noticing the commotion, and feeling the scent of gold, Johnny approaches the eladrin. Soon Greip and Vinna join the conversation. The eladrin introduces himself as Toromir, and he says he seeks those called the gems of power. He says he hears they can be found at the forest, and offers a certain amount of gold coins to the adventurers in case they are willing to investigate the rumors and bring him any gems they find.
After some negotiations, the eladrin pays 10 gold coins to each one of the three, and promises 100 more for each gem they bring back.
And so they part in direction to the forest.
Day 1 - Forest Webs
Aegon, Garfo, Hael, Ilias and Quibrunn come out of the portal opened by Altariel and are in the forest in the outskirts of Orvil, back in their original time.
As soon as they come out, Aegon notices something is not right in the forest and starts walking ahead of the group. They are attacked by a group of giant spiders and spider swarms.
It's right at that moment that Greip, Johnny and Vinna arrive at the forest, so the two groups join forces against the spiders.
At this moment I pulled a bunch of spiders out of the dark areas of the forest. One of them was busy for a few rounds spinning webs around Aegon (my character)'s body, while the others kept the group busy. The spider kidnaps the elf, as the group finishes off the other ones and start off after their friend.
This is what happened in our first day. We've played a few more times since then, but I will stop writing for now. Please let me know what you think!