NontheistCleric
2019-01-11, 12:50 PM
Unlike most campaign journals, this one will not be written from the perspective of the DM, as I am not the DM of this campaign. Our group consists of three people, including the DM, playing D&D 3.5.
The campaign was started extremely hurriedly. The DM simply picked up Barrow of the Forgotten King (an adventure module) and we had 20 minutes to get characters ready. It's this DM's first time as DM.
Character Creation
Although Barrow is meant for 2nd-level characters, the DM decided that as there were only two of us, we would start at 3rd level instead.
What we came up with in 20 minutes, rolling 4d6 and dropping the lowest for stats, were:
Darren
CN Female Human Warlock 3
Str 11, Dex 15, Con 18, Int 14, Wis 9, Cha 15
Feats: Point Blank Shot, Mortalbane
Skills: UMD 6, Spellcraft 6, Concentration 6, Sense Motive 6
Invocations: Baleful Utterance, Eldritch Spear
Carries a morningstar and wears a chain shirt.
50 gp
Darren was originally from a large family. Her parents and three siblings were tragically killed by burglars, which led her to dedicate her life to tracking down and killing the murderers using any means necessary. As she developed eldritch powers, the specific means became more clear.
She was successful, eventually finding the killers and blasting them into oblivion. Unfortunately, she then lost her life's purpose, and took to aimlessly wandering in search of it.
Nameless Anagram
LG Male (?) Tomb Mote RHD 3
Str 9, Dex 16, Con -, Int 16, Wis 11, Cha 20
Feats: Academy Graduate, Weapon Finesse
Skills: Bluff 6, UMD 6, Hide 6, Move Silently 6, Diplomacy 6, Listen 3, Search 3
SQ: Quickness, Disease (corpse bloat)
Wears leather armor and carries a heavy wooden shield (later realised that he wasn't actually proficient with the shield and he should have been hit a lot more, but it was too late)
10 gp
Nameless Anagram was created in a graveyard, from the covert necromantic experiments of a student at an academy that taught many things, including magic, in a large city. For a time, he haunted the academy, competing for space in the walls with the other pests, but a visiting warlock intrigued him, and he decided to hitch a ride in her backpack.
Session 1, Part 1
The session opens with the DM reading the introductory text about some mysterious individual forcing a varag to dig for something.
Then we get to Darren, whose latest wanderings have brought her to the town of Kingsholm, where she has just entered the Coronet and Cabbage Inn. She is approached by a large man, a uniformed woman, and a richly-clothed dwarf. The man asks if she is a mercenary or adventurer, as the town needs help with 'trouble up in the old graveyard'.
Nameless Anagram chooses this moment to make his entrance. Emerging from Darren's backpack, he proclaims himself to be 'The Graveyard Spirit' and that he has come to the town to assist with their graveyard-related troubles. Since this is, at the very least, not the truth, Nameless is made to roll a Bluff check. It succeeds against the trio's Sense Motive.
'Oh Great and Wise Graveyard Spirit, you have come to help us!', exclaims the woman. 'Tell us, what is happening to our graveyard? You must know, being its spirit!' The newly rechristened Graveyard Spirit deflects this by saying that he is more like an angel sent by the gods that govern graveyards, not a particular graveyard's spirit, but that he and Darren would be happy to help with their problem. The woman seems somewhat disheartened at this.
Darren, who was unaware of the Spirit's presence in her pack, is somewhat bewildered by this turn of events but goes along with it.
The trio are introduced as Ian Turbrand, the inn's owner, Mia Desarna, Captain of the Guard, and Gran Stoutbrace, a dwarven merchant. According to them, a family that went to the town graveyard's mausoleum two days ago to entomb a dead grandfather went missing. Two guards sent to investigate have also gone missing. Ian offers the PCs 50 gp each to investigate the disappearances or 300 gp each to catch and destroy whatever is causing the disappearances, although the benevolent Graveyard Spirit would surely require no payment. Spirit agrees, saying that his share should be used charitably.
Spirit brings up the issue of the pair having no healer. The town leaders can offer either healing potions (or in Spirit's case, inflict potions, which the townsfolk do not question) or the use of the town cleric, a worshipper of Olidammara they hold in low regard, resorted to only since the old Pelorite cleric died. Darren would rather have the potions, so they are granted 10 cure light wounds and 2 inflict light wounds potions.
Mia then leads the PCs on the road up to the graveyard. The DM reads a description of the ivy-wound cemetery gate, which is open.
'That's not good,' Mia remarks. Mia decides to leave the PCs to their work and starts back to town.
As the PCs move through the well-kept graveyard, they draw close to the mausoleum. Both PCs meet the DC 15 Spot check to notice gravel around the structure has been stirred up.
At the mausoleum, they find two bloody humanoid corpses in town guard uniforms, clearly savaged by beasts. Around the base of a nearby statue, they spot two wolves and a darker wolf-shape prowling behind them. The wolves attack first. Darren drops one wolf in two blasts, while Spirit has a high armor class but only does 1d4-1 damage per bite and so remains locked in combat with the other until Darren blasts it dead too.
Spirit, guessing that the dark wolf-shape may be something more, tries to speak to it in Common, Goblin and Sylvan. It responds to Goblin. The DM reveals that this is a worg. Spirit speaks soothingly to the worg and offers it 1 gp to go in peace. The worg accepts and Spirit decides to give it 2 gp as a reward for cooperation. It then bolts.
Spirit decides that Mia needs to be told about the death of her two subordinates, and Darren agrees to wait while Spirit runs back to town to report. Spirit leaves.
Darren, all alone, is then ambushed by the worg. After a brief struggle, Darren drops into negative HP and goes down. The worg is about to deliver the finishing blow when Spirit returns. Shouting to draw the worg's attention, he engages it in melee, while maneuvering to feed Darren a healing potion. Darren is conscious again. Spirit instructs her to stay back.
As he fights the worg, Spirit appeals to it to stop attacking and instead subordinate itself to him, citing the earlier gift of gold and the fact that the worg seems unable to hit him as proof of his great power and ability to reward fittingly. At the same time, Spirit manages to infect the worg with corpse bloat, calling it the 'curse of justice'. The worg is unconvinced and continues to attack, but as the fight goes on, Spirit only takes a single point of damage due to DR 2/cold iron or magic, while the worg is reduced to 2 HP. At this point, the worg surrenders and agrees to become what Spirit calls his 'apprentice'.
Spirit's first act as master is to confiscate the 2 gp, but it seems that the worg has eaten them, so Spirit settles for not healing its wounds in punishment for its belligerence. The worg is then instructed to wait for Spirit and Darren.
'You're not going to make me go with you?' asks the worg.
'I wouldn't ask such a thing of my wounded apprentice,' Spirit replies.
Then the PCs enter the mausoleum.
The campaign was started extremely hurriedly. The DM simply picked up Barrow of the Forgotten King (an adventure module) and we had 20 minutes to get characters ready. It's this DM's first time as DM.
Character Creation
Although Barrow is meant for 2nd-level characters, the DM decided that as there were only two of us, we would start at 3rd level instead.
What we came up with in 20 minutes, rolling 4d6 and dropping the lowest for stats, were:
Darren
CN Female Human Warlock 3
Str 11, Dex 15, Con 18, Int 14, Wis 9, Cha 15
Feats: Point Blank Shot, Mortalbane
Skills: UMD 6, Spellcraft 6, Concentration 6, Sense Motive 6
Invocations: Baleful Utterance, Eldritch Spear
Carries a morningstar and wears a chain shirt.
50 gp
Darren was originally from a large family. Her parents and three siblings were tragically killed by burglars, which led her to dedicate her life to tracking down and killing the murderers using any means necessary. As she developed eldritch powers, the specific means became more clear.
She was successful, eventually finding the killers and blasting them into oblivion. Unfortunately, she then lost her life's purpose, and took to aimlessly wandering in search of it.
Nameless Anagram
LG Male (?) Tomb Mote RHD 3
Str 9, Dex 16, Con -, Int 16, Wis 11, Cha 20
Feats: Academy Graduate, Weapon Finesse
Skills: Bluff 6, UMD 6, Hide 6, Move Silently 6, Diplomacy 6, Listen 3, Search 3
SQ: Quickness, Disease (corpse bloat)
Wears leather armor and carries a heavy wooden shield (later realised that he wasn't actually proficient with the shield and he should have been hit a lot more, but it was too late)
10 gp
Nameless Anagram was created in a graveyard, from the covert necromantic experiments of a student at an academy that taught many things, including magic, in a large city. For a time, he haunted the academy, competing for space in the walls with the other pests, but a visiting warlock intrigued him, and he decided to hitch a ride in her backpack.
Session 1, Part 1
The session opens with the DM reading the introductory text about some mysterious individual forcing a varag to dig for something.
Then we get to Darren, whose latest wanderings have brought her to the town of Kingsholm, where she has just entered the Coronet and Cabbage Inn. She is approached by a large man, a uniformed woman, and a richly-clothed dwarf. The man asks if she is a mercenary or adventurer, as the town needs help with 'trouble up in the old graveyard'.
Nameless Anagram chooses this moment to make his entrance. Emerging from Darren's backpack, he proclaims himself to be 'The Graveyard Spirit' and that he has come to the town to assist with their graveyard-related troubles. Since this is, at the very least, not the truth, Nameless is made to roll a Bluff check. It succeeds against the trio's Sense Motive.
'Oh Great and Wise Graveyard Spirit, you have come to help us!', exclaims the woman. 'Tell us, what is happening to our graveyard? You must know, being its spirit!' The newly rechristened Graveyard Spirit deflects this by saying that he is more like an angel sent by the gods that govern graveyards, not a particular graveyard's spirit, but that he and Darren would be happy to help with their problem. The woman seems somewhat disheartened at this.
Darren, who was unaware of the Spirit's presence in her pack, is somewhat bewildered by this turn of events but goes along with it.
The trio are introduced as Ian Turbrand, the inn's owner, Mia Desarna, Captain of the Guard, and Gran Stoutbrace, a dwarven merchant. According to them, a family that went to the town graveyard's mausoleum two days ago to entomb a dead grandfather went missing. Two guards sent to investigate have also gone missing. Ian offers the PCs 50 gp each to investigate the disappearances or 300 gp each to catch and destroy whatever is causing the disappearances, although the benevolent Graveyard Spirit would surely require no payment. Spirit agrees, saying that his share should be used charitably.
Spirit brings up the issue of the pair having no healer. The town leaders can offer either healing potions (or in Spirit's case, inflict potions, which the townsfolk do not question) or the use of the town cleric, a worshipper of Olidammara they hold in low regard, resorted to only since the old Pelorite cleric died. Darren would rather have the potions, so they are granted 10 cure light wounds and 2 inflict light wounds potions.
Mia then leads the PCs on the road up to the graveyard. The DM reads a description of the ivy-wound cemetery gate, which is open.
'That's not good,' Mia remarks. Mia decides to leave the PCs to their work and starts back to town.
As the PCs move through the well-kept graveyard, they draw close to the mausoleum. Both PCs meet the DC 15 Spot check to notice gravel around the structure has been stirred up.
At the mausoleum, they find two bloody humanoid corpses in town guard uniforms, clearly savaged by beasts. Around the base of a nearby statue, they spot two wolves and a darker wolf-shape prowling behind them. The wolves attack first. Darren drops one wolf in two blasts, while Spirit has a high armor class but only does 1d4-1 damage per bite and so remains locked in combat with the other until Darren blasts it dead too.
Spirit, guessing that the dark wolf-shape may be something more, tries to speak to it in Common, Goblin and Sylvan. It responds to Goblin. The DM reveals that this is a worg. Spirit speaks soothingly to the worg and offers it 1 gp to go in peace. The worg accepts and Spirit decides to give it 2 gp as a reward for cooperation. It then bolts.
Spirit decides that Mia needs to be told about the death of her two subordinates, and Darren agrees to wait while Spirit runs back to town to report. Spirit leaves.
Darren, all alone, is then ambushed by the worg. After a brief struggle, Darren drops into negative HP and goes down. The worg is about to deliver the finishing blow when Spirit returns. Shouting to draw the worg's attention, he engages it in melee, while maneuvering to feed Darren a healing potion. Darren is conscious again. Spirit instructs her to stay back.
As he fights the worg, Spirit appeals to it to stop attacking and instead subordinate itself to him, citing the earlier gift of gold and the fact that the worg seems unable to hit him as proof of his great power and ability to reward fittingly. At the same time, Spirit manages to infect the worg with corpse bloat, calling it the 'curse of justice'. The worg is unconvinced and continues to attack, but as the fight goes on, Spirit only takes a single point of damage due to DR 2/cold iron or magic, while the worg is reduced to 2 HP. At this point, the worg surrenders and agrees to become what Spirit calls his 'apprentice'.
Spirit's first act as master is to confiscate the 2 gp, but it seems that the worg has eaten them, so Spirit settles for not healing its wounds in punishment for its belligerence. The worg is then instructed to wait for Spirit and Darren.
'You're not going to make me go with you?' asks the worg.
'I wouldn't ask such a thing of my wounded apprentice,' Spirit replies.
Then the PCs enter the mausoleum.