Tesla_pasta
2016-06-16, 10:30 PM
I've been DMing dungeons and dragons for a while, but it's been a while since I was a player in a dedicated game. Not only that, but this is the first time I've been a part of an adventure done over the internet (using roll20) so I'm gonna start this campaign journal to document what I hope will be a new, fun experience for me.
We're adventuring in a setting that is very heavily inspired by the City of Salt in Wounds. (http://www.saltinwoundssetting.com/) we're using D&D 5e.
Edran, the Half-elf warlock (played by myself). He's a librarian.
Kimaru, the Human Rouge/Shadow monk/Warlock. He's an assassin completing his training, and has an overly complex build.
Ralf, the Gnome diviner. He was born in the City of Salt in Wounds.
Grimrock, the Dwarf fighter. He's a veteran of the goblin wars.
Theodora, the elf druid. She's an orphan raised by wolves.
Alynola, the half-elf rouge. An orphaned tomb raider.
All of our party ends up in a Dwarven labor mine in the city of Belgost for one reason or another. Our first session begins with our group meeting each other as we descend an elevator into the mines after being sentenced. A guard, Bellwar, instructs us that our first task is not mining, but rather the harvest of Fire Beetle thorax. One of the old prisoners warns us that a friend of his went missing performing the same task. We decide that an escape attempt isn't practical without more preparation and intel, so we start out on harvesting the Fire Beetles.
We travel down a tunnel into a large cavern with a sinkhole in the middle, with a solid half dozen beetles milling about. The large space makes it pretty easy for our casters to pick off the beetles at range, so we make short work of them and collect the glow glands. After harvesting as much as we can, we move a bit deeper into the collapsed tunnel to explore, and get ambushed by a few rat swarms. The tighter spacing makes it hard to kite the rats, so Kimaru and Grimrock drop unconcious in the first few rounds on some unfortunate crits. Ralf and Edran retreat up the tunnel and pummel the swarms with magic while Theodora desperately tries to stabilize the downed fighters. Kimaru nearly dies, but Hex damage and some good rolls on Ralf's part add up and end the rats before we lose anyone for good.
After clearing out this section of the mine, we discovered a few hidden nooks and crannies where prisoners had stashed some hooch and playing cards, as well as the corpses of the missing prisoners. Wounds indicated that the rat swarms had gotten them not long ago, so we looted the bodies and ran before any more rats showed up. Back in the main section of the mine, we regroup and talk with the Old prisoner again. He asked us if we found his lost shiv, but no one said they found it (in truth Theodora did, but she decided to keep it for herself). Chief guard Bellwar commends us on a job well done, and lets slip something about Ankheg being a problem in another part of the dungeon. The group then tries to convince Bellwar to let them help clear out the abandoned branch in exchange for shorter sentences. He doesn't agree outright, but he admits that we could be useful for a side project. The rest of the evening is spent recovering from our wounds in the main area.
In the morning, Bellwar wakes us and explains this 'side project' to us. He is expecting a group of dwarf guards from outside the mine to come in and enter one of the closed-off portions of the mine. For some reason, he doesn't trust their intentions, and wants us to follow them in secret and report back whatever they're doing. He also gives us back our weapons in secret in case we run into any Ankheg.
Moments later, a team of heavily armored dwarves with black metal pickaxes descends and begins to argue quietly with Bellwar. After a few minutes, the armored dwarves get fed up arguing and leave down towards an abandoned section. The sneakier party members follow close behind, using telepathy to let the rest of us know when to follow. Before long, the armored crew stops and uses some sort of magic drill spell to delve into a hidden chamber beneath the mine shaft. We stay back until we hear fighting, and rush in too late to make any difference in a fight between the dwarves and a group of automatons. The leader was missing, but the rest of the armored crew is dead or unconscious. As we drop into the room, the last automaton stands up and attacks us. With 6 of us, it falls to our concentrated fire pretty quickly. After it falls, one of the thrones in this chamber pulls the broken parts towards it and begins to reform the automaton. Our rogues attempt to 'turn off' whatever magic is in the chair, but can't quite figure it out, so we just try and break it. that doesn't work either, so we just keep going and hope it doesn't follow us.
Continuing through the hidden chambers, we find some mechanical part storage, a forge room, and a longer hallway. In the forge, we find some blueprints for equipment for the automatons, as well as a key hidden inside a flow of lava. Mage hand grabs us the key, which we don't take the time to Identify until later. It does however, fit a lock that disables the regenerating automaton via control panel. Further down the passage, we run into the leader of the Dwarf team, who seems to be sizing up another automaton. The key we used earlier also is able to deactivate this automaton. The Dwarf captain shares with us that his purpose is to uncover lost secrets of automaton construction. The deactivated automaton seems to be guarding a tomb that is the last resting place of a legendary Azer named "the craftsman", which the Dwarf captain wakes up. For whatever reason, the Azer is furious and attacks us, wielding a massive fiery war hammer. He hits pretty hard, but again our concentrated fire drops him pretty quick, and the Dwarf captain subdues him with magic. Our help in subduing the Azer earns us the gratitude of the captain who offers to appeal our sentences to his uncle, a high ranking member of the clan. We find our way back into the main chamber of the mine after some mild climbing issues, where Belwar and Rook (the apparent name of the Dwarf captain) have another argument about waking up the craftsman. The session ends as we ascend the elevator back into the sunlight.
We're adventuring in a setting that is very heavily inspired by the City of Salt in Wounds. (http://www.saltinwoundssetting.com/) we're using D&D 5e.
Edran, the Half-elf warlock (played by myself). He's a librarian.
Kimaru, the Human Rouge/Shadow monk/Warlock. He's an assassin completing his training, and has an overly complex build.
Ralf, the Gnome diviner. He was born in the City of Salt in Wounds.
Grimrock, the Dwarf fighter. He's a veteran of the goblin wars.
Theodora, the elf druid. She's an orphan raised by wolves.
Alynola, the half-elf rouge. An orphaned tomb raider.
All of our party ends up in a Dwarven labor mine in the city of Belgost for one reason or another. Our first session begins with our group meeting each other as we descend an elevator into the mines after being sentenced. A guard, Bellwar, instructs us that our first task is not mining, but rather the harvest of Fire Beetle thorax. One of the old prisoners warns us that a friend of his went missing performing the same task. We decide that an escape attempt isn't practical without more preparation and intel, so we start out on harvesting the Fire Beetles.
We travel down a tunnel into a large cavern with a sinkhole in the middle, with a solid half dozen beetles milling about. The large space makes it pretty easy for our casters to pick off the beetles at range, so we make short work of them and collect the glow glands. After harvesting as much as we can, we move a bit deeper into the collapsed tunnel to explore, and get ambushed by a few rat swarms. The tighter spacing makes it hard to kite the rats, so Kimaru and Grimrock drop unconcious in the first few rounds on some unfortunate crits. Ralf and Edran retreat up the tunnel and pummel the swarms with magic while Theodora desperately tries to stabilize the downed fighters. Kimaru nearly dies, but Hex damage and some good rolls on Ralf's part add up and end the rats before we lose anyone for good.
After clearing out this section of the mine, we discovered a few hidden nooks and crannies where prisoners had stashed some hooch and playing cards, as well as the corpses of the missing prisoners. Wounds indicated that the rat swarms had gotten them not long ago, so we looted the bodies and ran before any more rats showed up. Back in the main section of the mine, we regroup and talk with the Old prisoner again. He asked us if we found his lost shiv, but no one said they found it (in truth Theodora did, but she decided to keep it for herself). Chief guard Bellwar commends us on a job well done, and lets slip something about Ankheg being a problem in another part of the dungeon. The group then tries to convince Bellwar to let them help clear out the abandoned branch in exchange for shorter sentences. He doesn't agree outright, but he admits that we could be useful for a side project. The rest of the evening is spent recovering from our wounds in the main area.
In the morning, Bellwar wakes us and explains this 'side project' to us. He is expecting a group of dwarf guards from outside the mine to come in and enter one of the closed-off portions of the mine. For some reason, he doesn't trust their intentions, and wants us to follow them in secret and report back whatever they're doing. He also gives us back our weapons in secret in case we run into any Ankheg.
Moments later, a team of heavily armored dwarves with black metal pickaxes descends and begins to argue quietly with Bellwar. After a few minutes, the armored dwarves get fed up arguing and leave down towards an abandoned section. The sneakier party members follow close behind, using telepathy to let the rest of us know when to follow. Before long, the armored crew stops and uses some sort of magic drill spell to delve into a hidden chamber beneath the mine shaft. We stay back until we hear fighting, and rush in too late to make any difference in a fight between the dwarves and a group of automatons. The leader was missing, but the rest of the armored crew is dead or unconscious. As we drop into the room, the last automaton stands up and attacks us. With 6 of us, it falls to our concentrated fire pretty quickly. After it falls, one of the thrones in this chamber pulls the broken parts towards it and begins to reform the automaton. Our rogues attempt to 'turn off' whatever magic is in the chair, but can't quite figure it out, so we just try and break it. that doesn't work either, so we just keep going and hope it doesn't follow us.
Continuing through the hidden chambers, we find some mechanical part storage, a forge room, and a longer hallway. In the forge, we find some blueprints for equipment for the automatons, as well as a key hidden inside a flow of lava. Mage hand grabs us the key, which we don't take the time to Identify until later. It does however, fit a lock that disables the regenerating automaton via control panel. Further down the passage, we run into the leader of the Dwarf team, who seems to be sizing up another automaton. The key we used earlier also is able to deactivate this automaton. The Dwarf captain shares with us that his purpose is to uncover lost secrets of automaton construction. The deactivated automaton seems to be guarding a tomb that is the last resting place of a legendary Azer named "the craftsman", which the Dwarf captain wakes up. For whatever reason, the Azer is furious and attacks us, wielding a massive fiery war hammer. He hits pretty hard, but again our concentrated fire drops him pretty quick, and the Dwarf captain subdues him with magic. Our help in subduing the Azer earns us the gratitude of the captain who offers to appeal our sentences to his uncle, a high ranking member of the clan. We find our way back into the main chamber of the mine after some mild climbing issues, where Belwar and Rook (the apparent name of the Dwarf captain) have another argument about waking up the craftsman. The session ends as we ascend the elevator back into the sunlight.