GreatWyrmGold
2015-08-10, 10:51 PM
Me, my younger brother, and my father felt like playing D&D. So I searched for some free modules and picked one I thought they would like, with a recommended level somewhere between four and eight. My father leveled up Dain, a dwarven eldritch-knight fighter, to 7th level; my brother made a dwarven cleric of either Thor or "Thorn," who was also seventh level (eventually named Odin); I handed out some magic items1 and tweaked the adventure.
The intrepid dwarves came to Bridgepuddle, a small town built around a bridge over a middle-sized river, near the edge of civilization. They promptly go to a bar, a lower-class (but not decrepit) place called the Third Circle just off the market, run by a man named Jak (not that they ask). They order dwarven spirits, chat a little, and ask about work. Jak promises to let them know if he hears anything, and they stay in an inn across the street.
After getting rooms, they check out the market. There's one man selling magical weapons called "blasting wands," devices made of metal with an odd bent shape that's apparently more ergonomic than standard wand designs.2 They were made by an archmage named Archibald the Fair. Odin buys one, then picks up and fires another. The merchant immediately calls for the city guard, who are naturally not far from the market.
After a brief discussion and some failed Persuasion rolls, Odin is brought to the town hall for judgement. Along the way, quick Perception rolls give subtle hints at the town's racism and show that some of the guards have blasting wands. Dain follows at a distance to make sure that Odin isn't being dragged to his execution. Some roleplaying ensues, and Odin—failing to mount a decent defense—is fined.
After a brief stop by a higher-class tavern/inn, the dwarves return to their room. Late that evening, Jak tells them that Archibald the Fair has a job for them, something about missing reagents.
The next morning, they head over to the archmage's tower, which is located on the largest island in the river. He invites them to breakfast, where they discuss the problems (and establish Archibald as an eccentric, absent-minded, slightly madman...who has twice their levels, which doesn't stop Odin from (clumsily) trying to scam him out of thousands of gold using his absent-mindedness). They determine that a bunch of magical reagents have been being taken from Archibald's reagent warehouse, where he keeps the stuff too bulky to store in his tower and not worth the protection of being in the tower. This includes powdered rose petals, bat's breath, pickled toads, and...silver dust, which is the most-stolen product. Archie can't think of any specific rituals they might be used for, or other mages powerful enough to copy his blasting-wand designs. With this, the PCs head to the warehouse to search for clues.
(Oh, and Archibald has a mute, more level-headed half-elf apprentice named Bobby Bertrand, or "Bonny". Dain's player asked how he casts spells. I have no idea. The best idea we have is sign language.)
Going over the bridge and down the street, the dwarves chat with Archibald's warehouse's door guard; once they enter, watched closely by said guard, they feel invisible forces3 feeling them, and see a pen recording everything they have on them. This is explained: It's a log of everything brought into and taken out of the warehouse. It's pretty accurate, aside from not being able to identify the dwarven spirits Odin carried and mistaking their coins for a few ounces of powdered precious metals.
After chatting with various employees, they determine that the warehouse is guarded during the day by three guards and a handful of workers and at night by one old guard and his less old dog; the thefts have been happening for a few weeks, with powdered silver every night and other stuff some nights; and one of the laborers paid off some gambling debts a few weeks prior. They decide to take a nap until dusk and check out the warehouse at night.
Their naps are interrupted by the innkeeper, who asks Odin to exorcise the evening's meat. He comes to the kitchen, and recommends stabbing the twitching hunk of ham. After the cook follows his advice, the meat stops moving. Ten minutes later, he's called back to try again, harder; Dain follows and chucks the meat into the fire, recommending the innkeeper get new meat.
He tries, but everyone's meat is the same. Also, there are sounds coming from the mausoleum.
Then, we broke for dinner.
When we came back, Dain bought five more blasting wands, and Odin somehow rolled high enough on his Persuasion roll to borrow the last one in stock for the rest of the day. They head to the mausoleum, and after Dain butted heads with the captain, they head in to clear out the undead within. Between Odin having a long-duration emanation spell that dealt more damage to the zombies than they have hit points, good rolls by the guardsmen, Dain hacking up the rest, and the zombies rolling like crap, I abstracted a mostly painless clearing of what zombies made it out of their tombs. The process took an hour or so, and by the time they finished, fires had started and the undead had begun to spread.
They head over to the tower, fight off some zombies, and enter; during this time, Archibald's warehouse catches fire and explodes. Archibald invites them to a late, light supper, over which they discuss the reagents and whatnot. It's determined that they're probably a lost cause. Archie checks backup records of what was stolen (after his apprentice finds them); nothing which could clearly be used to cause all of this is discerned. A quick, actually-played combat later, Dain has the lower half of a zombie which was using the thorn whip cantrip when it was out of melee range; after a quick identify spell, he determines that it was animated by...something like an animate dead spell, but different. More ancient. Archibald conjectures that time travelers are involved before going off to do some tests.
And that's where we left it for the night. I hope we get to continue the campaign.
1: Some healing potions and ointment; a potion of climbing; a wand of magic missile; a driftglobe (glowing, floating orb); a staff of the adder (this edition's rod-of-the-viper); pipes of the sewers (summon rats); and a pearl of power (bonus spell slot). They don't come into play—I don't think the players used a single magic item this session.
2: They're based on ancient magical devices, and deal 1d3 damage per hit. After that, they recharge for...I haven't decided how long, I'm thinking somewhere between 1d4 and 1d10 rounds. Naturally, they aren't the city guards' only weapons; most carry crossbows, and all have batons. They probably have spears or something for sieges and whatnot. And yes, they aren't cheap; I decided on 200 gold pieces.
3: Unseen servants, permanencied.
The intrepid dwarves came to Bridgepuddle, a small town built around a bridge over a middle-sized river, near the edge of civilization. They promptly go to a bar, a lower-class (but not decrepit) place called the Third Circle just off the market, run by a man named Jak (not that they ask). They order dwarven spirits, chat a little, and ask about work. Jak promises to let them know if he hears anything, and they stay in an inn across the street.
After getting rooms, they check out the market. There's one man selling magical weapons called "blasting wands," devices made of metal with an odd bent shape that's apparently more ergonomic than standard wand designs.2 They were made by an archmage named Archibald the Fair. Odin buys one, then picks up and fires another. The merchant immediately calls for the city guard, who are naturally not far from the market.
After a brief discussion and some failed Persuasion rolls, Odin is brought to the town hall for judgement. Along the way, quick Perception rolls give subtle hints at the town's racism and show that some of the guards have blasting wands. Dain follows at a distance to make sure that Odin isn't being dragged to his execution. Some roleplaying ensues, and Odin—failing to mount a decent defense—is fined.
After a brief stop by a higher-class tavern/inn, the dwarves return to their room. Late that evening, Jak tells them that Archibald the Fair has a job for them, something about missing reagents.
The next morning, they head over to the archmage's tower, which is located on the largest island in the river. He invites them to breakfast, where they discuss the problems (and establish Archibald as an eccentric, absent-minded, slightly madman...who has twice their levels, which doesn't stop Odin from (clumsily) trying to scam him out of thousands of gold using his absent-mindedness). They determine that a bunch of magical reagents have been being taken from Archibald's reagent warehouse, where he keeps the stuff too bulky to store in his tower and not worth the protection of being in the tower. This includes powdered rose petals, bat's breath, pickled toads, and...silver dust, which is the most-stolen product. Archie can't think of any specific rituals they might be used for, or other mages powerful enough to copy his blasting-wand designs. With this, the PCs head to the warehouse to search for clues.
(Oh, and Archibald has a mute, more level-headed half-elf apprentice named Bobby Bertrand, or "Bonny". Dain's player asked how he casts spells. I have no idea. The best idea we have is sign language.)
Going over the bridge and down the street, the dwarves chat with Archibald's warehouse's door guard; once they enter, watched closely by said guard, they feel invisible forces3 feeling them, and see a pen recording everything they have on them. This is explained: It's a log of everything brought into and taken out of the warehouse. It's pretty accurate, aside from not being able to identify the dwarven spirits Odin carried and mistaking their coins for a few ounces of powdered precious metals.
After chatting with various employees, they determine that the warehouse is guarded during the day by three guards and a handful of workers and at night by one old guard and his less old dog; the thefts have been happening for a few weeks, with powdered silver every night and other stuff some nights; and one of the laborers paid off some gambling debts a few weeks prior. They decide to take a nap until dusk and check out the warehouse at night.
Their naps are interrupted by the innkeeper, who asks Odin to exorcise the evening's meat. He comes to the kitchen, and recommends stabbing the twitching hunk of ham. After the cook follows his advice, the meat stops moving. Ten minutes later, he's called back to try again, harder; Dain follows and chucks the meat into the fire, recommending the innkeeper get new meat.
He tries, but everyone's meat is the same. Also, there are sounds coming from the mausoleum.
Then, we broke for dinner.
When we came back, Dain bought five more blasting wands, and Odin somehow rolled high enough on his Persuasion roll to borrow the last one in stock for the rest of the day. They head to the mausoleum, and after Dain butted heads with the captain, they head in to clear out the undead within. Between Odin having a long-duration emanation spell that dealt more damage to the zombies than they have hit points, good rolls by the guardsmen, Dain hacking up the rest, and the zombies rolling like crap, I abstracted a mostly painless clearing of what zombies made it out of their tombs. The process took an hour or so, and by the time they finished, fires had started and the undead had begun to spread.
They head over to the tower, fight off some zombies, and enter; during this time, Archibald's warehouse catches fire and explodes. Archibald invites them to a late, light supper, over which they discuss the reagents and whatnot. It's determined that they're probably a lost cause. Archie checks backup records of what was stolen (after his apprentice finds them); nothing which could clearly be used to cause all of this is discerned. A quick, actually-played combat later, Dain has the lower half of a zombie which was using the thorn whip cantrip when it was out of melee range; after a quick identify spell, he determines that it was animated by...something like an animate dead spell, but different. More ancient. Archibald conjectures that time travelers are involved before going off to do some tests.
And that's where we left it for the night. I hope we get to continue the campaign.
1: Some healing potions and ointment; a potion of climbing; a wand of magic missile; a driftglobe (glowing, floating orb); a staff of the adder (this edition's rod-of-the-viper); pipes of the sewers (summon rats); and a pearl of power (bonus spell slot). They don't come into play—I don't think the players used a single magic item this session.
2: They're based on ancient magical devices, and deal 1d3 damage per hit. After that, they recharge for...I haven't decided how long, I'm thinking somewhere between 1d4 and 1d10 rounds. Naturally, they aren't the city guards' only weapons; most carry crossbows, and all have batons. They probably have spears or something for sieges and whatnot. And yes, they aren't cheap; I decided on 200 gold pieces.
3: Unseen servants, permanencied.