View Full Version : [Campaign Log] The Slaves of Carshoon [5e/solo]
This is a log of a 5th edition campaign I am running for my wife. This is her first time actually playing D&D or any other RPG, although she’s heard plenty from me over the last few years.
Her character is Alissandre Elhat, a 26 year old half-elf rogue. Her mother died when she was young, and her elven father, a mercenary commander, went missing 6 years ago, and is presumed dead. Before he died, he took her with him on a couple of campaigns, teaching her how to hide and fight effectively for someone of her size and strength. She picked up a few other skills along the way.
(Starting: Rogue 2: Dex 16/Cha 16, Con 12/Wis 12, Str 10/Int 10).
Thanks to her father’s estate, she has plenty of money for day to day living, and is of high enough social status to get into most parties (all the way up to Governor level) if she can get an invitation.
She has decided that she is against slavery, which is very common in the Empire of Nerk, and wants to destroy or greatly reduce it. She has a few people she wants dead, including (male lowish level noble lout, name TBD), who mistreated and killed a childhood friend of hers who was a slave.
Our campaign is set in Carshoon. Carshoon is a port city, the northernmost outpost of the Empire of Nerk, which is based along much of the southern edge of the Moonlit Sea, and a trading hub. It’s set on a rocky peninsula on the north-central edge of the sea. Extending out a dozen and a half miles, and three miles wide at its base, the peninsula is relatively easy to defend against attacks from the mainland. It ends in a pincer-shape, with a great, broad valley sloping down from the rocky low mountains to a large, deep port. I have a map with 20 points on it, including the legion post, a the fort overlooking the port, and a well-fortified tunnel down to the Underdark. There's also a big necropolis a couple of miles outside of the city, run fairly well by the priests of Hades.
Our game opens with her doing a 1am walk-around of the Slave Market, a large area with a couple of auction stands, several barracks, training buildings, and the like. It’s surrounded by a 7 or 8 foot high wood fence designed to keep people in. She rounds a corner to see two human guards coming. One is holding a torch and truncheon, and the other holds a bottle and a chain to a hungry and mean-looking dog. The humans don’t see her, but the dog does. It slips its chain and charges at her!
The dog gets to about 20’ away, and then it wins initiative, charging in and biting her, dealing a serious injury (max damage – 7 – out of her 15hp). She stabs at it, but misses, and then backs off, disengaging and moving away around a corner as the guards start to try to figure out where their mastiff went. The dog runs around the corner after her, but she’s able to skewer it. She limps off through the neighboring buildings, moving quietly as the guards eventually catch up to the dog and find it dead, and then start arguing with each other in their inebriated state.
She finds a place to patch up her wounds and returns to her house. At this time, we determine that her house is three stories tall, has a small yard or garden in the back that’s fenced but not private, and that she has a 3rd floor bedroom with a balcony screened by grapevines and poison ivy, with a few plants growing on it. She can enter and exit the house quietly via this method if needed, thanks to her agility and familiarity with it. She goes to sleep at 2:30am.
End session 1.
Session 2:
We determine that she has 3 servants: Tasha, an older-sister type who is the cook & head servant; Ingrid, who does the dirty work; and Lisa who’s more of a companion-type. Lisa wakes her up, and Alissandre mumbles something and goes back to bed, not getting up until about 11am. Tasha gives her the eye, and Alissandre settles for cold breakfast and tea instead of waiting for lunch.
She takes Lisa and goes out “shopping” trying to find opportunities. By asking questions, she finds out from a jeweler (a dwarf with a last name of Glittergem) that he sells jewelry to the nobility frequently. He’s happy to brag that he just yesterday sold a bracelet to the wife of the second in command of the Nerkish Legion stationed in Carshoon. Her husband is new to the city, and she wants to make a good impression on her husband’s CO/CO’s wife at a party that the CO’s wife is holding in about 2 weeks.
Alissandre visits a couple of other places, but doesn’t find anything interesting. She sees a few slaves about, but nothing much; the skilled ones are probably hard at work out of sight. She then decides to go to the noble quarter to visit her ex-Fiance (Leopold, 30 year old ¾ elf social climber)’s new wife (Esme, human 18 year old, niece of the Governor). She visits the newly married couple’s cottage, and after initially making Esme nervous by being awkward, says she’s come to return a necklace that Leopold had given her, and that Esme should be the rightful owner. They chat a bit more, and she notes that the wine Esme offered her was offered by a servant (clad in decent clothes, no apparent mistreatment). She makes her polite goodbyes and then heads home, eating dinner and going to bed early.
... End Session 2.
So far this has been the most socially-oriented D&D game I've ever been involved with. She's still learning the system, and she has not settled on any sort of strategy yet. I expect combat to be infrequent for a while, especially if she keeps only going out in daytime in good areas of town. Each session has been around 1 hour. Levelups will be on a goal/milestone basis.
We had an out-of-game discussion about "What are your character's goals?"
Right now it seems to be to acquire a lot of slaves that she can free and keep around to teach and train. She's realistic about only getting 40-50 combatants out of say, 400 (her numbers). Not quite sure what she's going to do. Her character has funds for day-to-day life and the maintenance of her home and servant, but nothing for this.
Right now I am putting the typical price for a slave at between 100 and 1000 gold, depending on age and quality of training (skilled craftsman worth more).
After some discussion, she didn't have a plan about how to make money. I ended up listing off "How to make money quickly in D&D." Most of the options involve stealing things, killing people or monsters and taking their stuff, killing monsters or criminals and being paid a bounty, etc.... or going into being a merchant or trader, or pirate or pirate-hunter, which takes us back to "kill people and get profit." She still wasn't sure what to do, so I asked if giving her 3 possible avenues to pursue right now was a good idea.
They are:
1) Visit the legion headquarters. Bounties are posted, including several for cultists of Nyarlothotetp. Most of them have a hidden tattoo somewhere on their bodies. Half credit for locating them and leading a patrol to eradicate them. Bounty is 25 gold per each. Cultists/warlocks in the city...may lead to sewers or old tunnel adventures. May involve contact with thieves guild or revolutionary or spy elements.
2) You meet a paladin who is looking for someone to help him get into what he believes is a tomb occupied by some undead. It's in a cave on a cliff, and he can't reach it. It's outside of Necropolis so the priests of Hades won't bother with it (and don't believe him). Offer is splitting any loot 50/50. You find this by walking through the temple area. He's frustrated, pacing back and forth. Loot. No magic items, apparently they are rare...but loot and a contact.
3) A rare white panther has been reported in the mountains, and a hunter wants to make quite a bit of gold from its pelt. He wants a second set of eyes with him, someone who can be sneaky. Pay is 5 gold per day, plus 100 gold if they get the pelt. (He stands to make around 600 gold from it). You find this because he's in the store negotiating what he'd get paid with a seller of fine furs. There are actually two panthers. Also, they will probably run across a small group of sahuagin raiders if they get close to the ocean, and will have the choice to engage or hide. There's a bounty on sahuagin.
Visiting a fur shop the next day, she encounters a female human hunter clad in a leather duster, with a bow slung across her back. You can tell by listening that she’s just agreed on a very high price IF she can bring in an intact fur from a white panther – a warm, glossy, water-resistant fur that’s snow white. As she walks past you, she mutters something about “Now I just need a spotter.”
Allisandre learns that she’s in the practices of never going alone up in the mountains, as a single fall or unseen predator could spell doom if unaccompanied. Her name is Surka.
Stats: Ranger-ish NPC: Surka
Str +12 Dex +14 con+12 int 10 wis 12 cha 10
AC 14 (dex+2 studded leather +2)
HP: 2d8+2 = 15hp
Speed 30’
Passive perception +3
Fighting Style: Archery, +2 to hit
Attack: Short sword +4, 1d6+2 OR Longbow +6, 1d8+2
Ranger spells: Alarm; Hunter’s Mark (bonus action, Concentration up to 1 hr, +1d6 dmg per her attack on target)
Other possessions: 1 healing potion (light, 1d8+1)
After changing and gathering, head up mountain. (now 11am) She tells about how she carries a healing potion in case she’s knocked out.
Both of them fail a DC20 perception check to spot a hidden snake at a distance, but Surka passes the DC 15 perception check to spot the snake when it’s right next to them. Alissandre rolls highest for initiative and stabs the snake before it can act.
Then they get up to the area and roll a 4 on a d4 for probability of finding panther tracks, followed by an 8 on a 1d8 probability per hour of finding the panther…so they find it at about 2-3pm instead of possibly having to take all day. Alissandre wins initiative and shoots it with her bow. The panther charges at her and misses, then Surka (NPC) misses her attack, and Alissandre stabs it again.
As they finish skinning the panther, they are both so busy working that a bear sneaks up on them! It claws Surka for 7 of her 15hp. Her wild sword swing misses. Alissandre uses her rapier and stabs it while it’s distracted (sneak attack) for over half its HP. It then turns and successfully bits and claws her, doing 12 hit points of damage (out of 15). Surka casts Hunter’s Mark and deals 12 damage, killing the bear.
After a short rest regains almost all (but not all) HP, the two spend the night camping on the mountain, with Surka’s Alarm spell up.
The next morning as they start to head down, Alissandre rolls a 20 on a Perception check and hears some strange, gurgly sounding voices. A 20 on her knowledge check means that she is able to identify them from her father’s stories as sahuagin. There’s a bounty of 25gp per sahuagin (collected per top fin) and she doesn’t want to leave them to kill other people.
The two sneak over to a cave a few hundred feet away, and as Alissandre peers inside to see the three sahuagin, Surka rolls a 1 on her stealth check (I only had them roll 1 check each), falling to the ground with a clatter.
One of the sahuagin comes towards the front of the cave to investigate, taking a sneak-attack arrow to the face from Alissandre, who hides again (9 damage out of 22hp on the sahuagin). That’s where we had to leave off.
Initiative is rolled. Surka->Sahuagin->Alissandre.
Surka moves towards the cave opening and shoots an arrow at the first (damaged) sahuagin, taking it to 15 damage out of 22hp. It moves forward and attacks her, hitting for some damage. The other sahuagin start moving towards the cave entrance. I should have put them farther away, or made them react more slowly. Alissandre, from hiding, stabs the first sahuagin in the back, critting thanks to advantage and killing it with 11 damage.
Surka casts Hunter’s Mark on one of the two sahuagin, then misses with her arrow. They both move up to the end of the cave and spot Alissandre. One attacks, doing 7 damage, but the other is just out of reach. She strikes back, hurting that one.
Sahuagin get advantage on all attack rolls against creatures with less than full HP. This is now relevant on all attacks, and is a game-changer.
Surka fires another arrow and misses again.
The sahuagin both attack, doing substantial damage to both party members. After some thought, Alissandre, my wife’s character, disengages and fires an arrow, taking her damaged foe to 11/22hp. Surka misses again.
The sahuagin both attack with advantage and knock both characters to 0.
At this point in the campaign, that is GM fail. Suddenly, an elven hunter named Black Leaf, passing nearby, spots the sahuagin, and kills them both with his longbow. He helps Alissandre and Surka get stabilized and escorts them back to town after investigating the cave. It’s a route up from the water, and there are some low-value weapons stashed there.
They each pay him 50 gold as a thank-you, plus he gets 50 gold as bounty on the two sahuagin he killed, and the garrison gives him an extra 100 gold as a thank-you for letting them know about the sahuagin in the cave.
Black Leaf comes out of this with 250 gold.
Alissandre gets paid 100 gold by Surka, 25 gold for the sahuagin bounty, and then pays out 50 gold as a thank-you to Black Leaf.
Surka gets 600 gold for the panther pelt, 10 gold for the bear pelt, and pays out 150 gold in thank-you money...
So both the NPCs end up doing better financially than Alissandre. Oh well…she should have asked for a better pay deal up front, and not dying is important too.
We had a short discussion about other tactics, like engaging from a longer range, using Acrobatics to climb up on the rocks where she’s more out of reach, or dropping some ball bearings (in her pack) in the cave mouth to bottle them up.
I need to formally total up the XP but I think she’s still around halfway to level 3.
She’s considering hiring Black Leaf, an elven hunter who travels the world looking for things to hunt and kill that are worthy prey. Stats TBD…
By the way, I welcome feedback/suggestions...this isn't a story only thread.
We discussed adding a second player character to be run by her, but she was not able to make a decision.
We just had another discussion, where I explained the spectrum between sandbox (what I've been doing with her) and railroad. Right now, we are going to go the railroad route, so I'll put together a small adventure path, probably with 1-2 pre-made NPC allies she can find. I'll target "getting allies and experience" but perhaps also aim it towards her first assassination kill or set of slaves to liberate. It'll probably take her through about level 5.
A couple of mornings later, she takes a very early trip down to the harbor to buy fish.
Some of the fishing boats stay out overnight, then come close to shore when the sun starts to rise, docking with the morning. The waves are lapping around the wooden docks, and the smell of salt and fish fills the air. Seagulls swoop overhead, looking for an opportunity to steal an easy bite. There are a few dozen ships. She approach the dockside fishmarket, where several merchants buy the fresh-caught fish from captains, butcher them, and sell them. There are a number of slaves around, either on their own or carrying burdens for their masters.
Alissandre realizes that two fishing boats are approaching with nobody apparently onboard (“oh no, ghost ship? Pirates of the carribean?”). Sahuagin jump out of two late-arriving boats, and over a dozen and a half of them attack, spearing unwary sailors and merchants. Four of them quickly engage a team from the fort that was down buying supplies, and several others are throwing javelins into the crowd at random, while three more seem to be more interested in the merchants' moneyboxes than anything else. Two of them are heading your way!
A half-orc slave picks up the gnomish merchant he's with and throws it at one of the sahuagin, then grabs the leg of one of the tables and starts defending himself. One of the sahuagin engages him, while the other heads towards Alissandre. She moves towards the half-orc, throwing a bunch of ball bearings on the ground to try to trip the sahuagin up. It stays stable thanks to a good roll, and she and the half orc shred both sahuagin pretty quickly.
The half-orc looks around, then looks at her and asks if there’s gonna be a problem. She says no, and then when she realizes that he’s trying to figure out where to go, offers him a job. His name is Tash, and he's a 2nd level Champion fighter. She takes him home and gets him fitted for a good set of armor (shield + Defensive fighting style + chain mail). Other than that, they rest and recover from their minor injuries.
Party member +1!
We discuss some of the logistics of explaining things to her employees, and she decides to trust their discretion and knowledge that her dad was a merc and that she’s getting into adventury-type things.
The next day, she goes out and purchases 5 more bags of ball bearings. Hurray, she’s starting to think more about good tactical options. On the way back, a female dragonborn stops her and politely asks where she would go to find some adventurers. Alissandre volunteers after finding out that she’ll get paid 50% of the loot, and Zhrogar, a 3rd level Ancients Paladin, joins the party after a 5-10 minute diversion into “What’s a dragonborn,” a brief discussion of how dragons get around in 3.5, and some flipping through the PHB (she thinks the bard looks like a Korean drama/pop character). Zhrogar’s had a few dreams and has found a cave up in the mountains that match them, but she can’t make the 30’ vertical climb herself…she needs someone agile to climb up and secure a rope.
Alissandre, Tash, and Zhrogar arrive at the base of the cliff around 2pm, and that’s where we stop.
Up next: A cave, a giant spider with a zombie in its web, an old tomb with skeletons, and a deathlock-type thing behind bars. Someone was up to something?
I was planning on just gold as loot, but a minor magical item would be nice. I don’t have a DMG yet – suggestions?
Vogie
2019-02-19, 01:54 PM
We discussed adding a second player character to be run by her, but she was not able to make a decision.
Look up the MonarchsFactory video on Youtube labeled "Knights and Squires" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM5A3UzSl1k). That will give her a slowly-increasing mini-PC attendant that isn't a full Sidekick (UA) (https://media.wizards.com/2018/dnd/downloads/UA_Sidekicks.pdf), but could eventually get there. You could use that "squire" setup for the PC to have some commoner/urchin support that won't be terribly overpowered.
You can even have the PC gain support of these types of NPCs as a sort of network that gives that "rustic hospitality" from the Folk Hero background, and at a certain point, maybe she creates a compound-esque location with all of her allies.
Up next: A cave, a giant spider with a zombie in its web, an old tomb with skeletons, and a deathlock-type thing behind bars. Someone was up to something?
I was planning on just gold as loot, but a minor magical item would be nice. I don’t have a DMG yet – suggestions?
I like keying magic items to the encounters themselves. A zombie femur may become a rod that signals when other undead are within X feet, or a giant spider's fang (dagger) may permanently have the Paralyzing poison on it (always stuck at DC 11 Constitution saving throw on the Giant Spider stat block).
I think a paralysis item may be a bit too powerful for level 2. Right now, I'm planning on:
2 potions of CLW on the zombies (they are more recent, caught by the spider or something).
No equipment on the skeletons, but...
500+1d4x100 gold worth of gold, gems, and portable art in the ruined tomb, and:
Cat's eye dagger: The hilt and guard of this dagger are adorned with hammered gold, but it's faded and tarnished with age. A cat's eye gem is embedded in the pommel. Once per day, you can use your bonus action or reaction to activate the magic in the dagger, granting you advantage on your next attack roll or dexterity save. The magic fades after two rounds. The dagger must be held to be activated.
Should it be a free action? Maybe. Adding the ability to activate it as a reaction is also a nice "get out of jail free" card against a fireball, web, etc., though.
Alissandre takes 20 and scales the cliff without any issues. She sees that deeper in the cave is a mass of spider webbing. After calling down a warning, she drops a rope, and the other two climb up (+5 Athletics check and rope and plenty of time, no rolls needed). They advance up to the webbing, and then toss a lit torch into it. Not much happens at first, and then a giant spider becomes visible!
Alissandre goes first, and misses with her bow. The spider lunges out and rolls really poorly, missing Tash. The party clobbers it, with Alissandre finishing it off with a natural 20 and overkilling it. As the webs and the spider’s body burn, the group moves back near the entrance of the cave to get away from the smoke.
They see the webbing burn free of two bundles, and a couple of zombies tear themselves free (with 6hp damage from fire each). I give the party auto-win on initiative since they got the chance to stand there and watch the zombies, so they all use ranged attacks and damage one some. The zombies use their entire turns moving up to Tash, who then chops one of them down with his attack. Alissandre moves to flank the other one and rolls well with her sneak attack, landing nearly max damage and killing it.
They spot a hole in the back of the cave that is squared-off and leading to something artificial, and they find two potions of CLW on the bodies of a more recently-deceased zombie.
I ran the 3rd party member (Zhrogar, 3rd level Ancients Paladin dragonborn), but my wife will probably get control of that one later. Her character + Tash is enough right now. She’s talking about using highlighters to color the page edges to help tell them apart.
Alissandre makes a good stealth check and uses ropes to lower herself and peer down into the area below. It’s a partially collapsed old structure, with 4 skeletons standing around, and a 5th one with glowing eyes pinned under a collapsed wall.
The paladin (Zhrogar) jumps down (passing her Acrobatics check to go 15’ without falling), and moves next to a skeleton. Tash jumps down and rolls a 3, falling prone and only able to get up. Alissandre moves most of the way down and fires an arrow, which misses.
After that surprise round, the party wins initiative. They swiftly deal with the four normal skeletons. The pinned skeleton has Eldritch Blast (1d10); it misses with one hit, and by the time it gets to go again, the other skeletons are all kaput. It uses Poison Blast, hitting Tash for 5 damage; Zhrogar makes her save.
The group finds about 1100 gold, the Cat’s eye dagger, and determines that the tomb may have been engineered to collapse if anything tried to leave the area that the glowy-eyed warlock skeleton had been buried in.
And LEVELUP to 3! Tash goes Champion, and Alisandre goes Swashbuckler for all the dice all the time.
…
My wife still is catching on to how combat runs, having no gaming background, so I’ve decided to extend this. Zhrogar the Paladin will say “This isn’t it…I feel like there’s more.”
The tomb of Azar-Khuresh:
You dig through the collapsed wall, eventually clearing a pathway (faster: crawling size; slower: walking size).
A 10’ hallway leads down past two supply rooms. Doors are rotted. Each one contains a skeletal lizardfolk servant (no weapons). Appear to be food, water jars, and other consumables for the afterlife. Nothing of value save for 3d100 gold
Lizardfolk servant:
AC 14
HP: 24 (4d8+4)
Speed 30’
Str 15, dex 10, con 13, int 7, wis 12, cha 7
Multiattack:
Bite +4, 1d6+2
Claw +4, 1d4+2
CR ½
Vulnerable bludgeoning
Immune, poison
Results: 5 damage from the second lizardfolk landing a bite. No other injuries.
Right turn at end of hallway to a line of 6 skeletal guards equipped with partly-rotted metal shields and breastplates (+6 AC from base skeleton stats) stationed in two lines, in a room covered with hieroglyphs and paintings about the glory of some ancient ruler. The sun features prominently in many of the paintings, including him drawing power from the sun.
Skeletal Guard
AC 16 (armor + shield scraps)
HP: 13
Speed 30’
STR 10 DEX 14 CON 15 INT 6 WIS 8 CHA 5
Vulnerability: Bludgeoning
Immune: Poison
Attack:
Longsword +4, 1d8+2
One instead wields an adamantine short sword.
Each has a single iron javelin +4, 1d6+2
[I]Results: Alissandre snuck ahead to peek around the corner. I rolled a dice pool for the skeletons, and it ended up positive and with a 20. The group engaged the skeletons in the hall, where they could only come two at a time.Substantial injuries to all party members. 6 dead skeletons. Adamantine short sword loot. The Dragonborn Paladin used her cold breath for 2d6 (10!) damage, hitting all 6. All 6 skeletons made their save! It still removed one damaged one from the table and put the others down to 8hp left. 30 damage from a single action is good.
A set of broad steps leads down and to the left. You enter a room stacked with Egyptian-themed storage stuff, and piles of gold and gems that used to be in chests. An inscription on the floor reads in draconic. “Take a tithe and leave Azur-Khuresh to his fate. May he rot forever in darkness.” A pair of statues of winged lions are recessed into the far wall, flanking a stone doorway. (2 gargoyles, attack only if someone tries to pass through). pictures of solar eclipse dot the room.
Investigation DC12
2000 gold
Investigation DC15
+500 gold
Investigation 20
+500gp worth of gems
Gargoyle (weakened by age, -4 con)
Medium elemental, chaotic evil
Armor Class 15 (natural armor)
Hit Points 38 (7d8 + 7)
Speed 30 ft., fly 60 ft.
STR 15 DEX 11 CON 12 INT 6 WIS 11 CHA 7
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical weapons that aren’t adamantine
Damage Immunities poison
Condition Immunities exhaustion, petrified, poisoned
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10
Languages Terran
False Appearance. While the gargoyle remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from an inanimate statue.
Actions
Multiattack. The gargoyle makes two attacks: one with its bite and one with its claws.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) piercing damage.
Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) slashing damage.
[I]Results: All investigation checks flubbed, solar eclipses and only 2,000 gold found. Wife thinks that she may have to fight Azur-Khuresh in the dark. I may need to give him a glowy lamp or something to prevent this and the resulting disadvantage…or maybe not?
Gargoyles triggered by throwing javelins at them thanks to healthy paranoia. Both do substantial damage. Tash misses every attack; Zhrogar & Tash each face off with one; Alissandre starts by weakening one with a good sneak attack, but then goes to distract the other one when Tash gets down to 5hp from a couple of hits. Both gargoyles get to around 33 damage before going down in turn. Inefficient.
Everyone has low HP now, and even after a short rest, most of them are still down 4-8hp. A couple of them have hit dice left. I am going to have to down-power the fire elemental some.
No Paladin spells have been used yet, ever.
The stone doorway is a single slab, press-fitted within a heavy and perfectly smooth doorframe. You could use ropes and a chain to pull it out, but you would not be able to get it back up.
(this traps the fire elemental “buffer/insurance policy” forever in the next room until opened.)
Her immediate response is: We’ll drive 3 pitons into it, then use a rope to pull it down. They take a long rest.
The next room is featureless and black, with the rock all burned to ashes. A large, humanoid form stands ready, and moves to attack. It breathes words out with the fire, but none of you can speak Ignan, so you can’t understand it. It seems dimmer and cooler than you’ve heard of such things being.
Very Weakened Medium Fire Elemental
Armor Class 12
Hit Points 58 (8d8 + 10)
Speed 50 ft.
STR 10 DEX 15 CON 12 INT 6 WIS 10 CHA7
Damage Immunities fire, poison
Condition Immunities: exhaustion, grappled, paralyzed,petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained, unconscious
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10
Languages Ignan
Fire Form. The elemental can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing. A creature that touches the elemental or hits it with a melee attack while within 5 feet of
it takes 1 fire damage. In addition, the elemental can enter a hostile creature’s space and stop there. The first time it enters a creature’s space on a turn, that creature takes 1d4 fire damage and catches fire; until someone takes an action to douse the fire, the creature takes 1d4 fire damage at the
start of each of its turns.
Illumination. The elemental sheds bright light in a 30-foot radius and dim light in an additional 30 feet.
Water Susceptibility. For every 5 feet the elemental moves in water, or for every gallon of water splashed on it, it takes 1 cold damage.
Actions
Multiattack. The elemental makes two touch attacks.
Touch. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.
Hit: 1d6 + 2 fire damage. If the target is a creature or a flammable object, it ignites. Until a creature takes an action to douse the fire, the target takes 1d4 fire damage at the start of each of its turns.
Results: They take out the fire elemental, including a use of cold breath that rolls max damage (2d6 ->12 x 1.5). Two people get temporarily lit on fire and there’s substantial damage. The first use of “delay” in combat is used by Alisandre to keep from rushing forward and being the elemental’s sole target. It randomly targets each round as determined by dice roll. All of the 15 points of Lay on Hands and one healing potion is used to heal up before the next room. The group short rests to get cold breath back, but it was after she decided to have them use LoH and the potion, so no hit dice are used.
The other door is similarly wedged into place.
They hammer pitons into the door, tie their rope to it, and pull it down with a thud. Whatever’s on the other side knows they are coming…
Beyond it is a room, decorated as though it were the tomb of a king. A golden sarcophagus lies on a dais in the middle of the room…. But dirt and rock shards fill three of the four corners of the room, and a narrow, crude tunnel has been dug out through the back wall. The contents of the room seem to have been gathered into a messy pile, and scraped and dusty shards of metal dominate – perhaps things used for digging. Anything large and of value seems to have been used and ruined.
A dead man wrapped in cloths sits in the tomb. Rising, he takes hold of a mace with a head shaped like that of a cobra, and proclaims something in a long-lost language. Two lizardfolk skeletons come out of the tunnel, covered in dust and dirt.
Azur-Khuresh
AC 12 (+2 natural, -1 dex, +1 bracers)
HP 58
Speed 20’
STR 16 DEX 8 CON 15 INT 6 WIS 10 CHA 12
Saves: Wis+2
Vulnerability: Fire
Resist: physical damage from non-magical weapons
Immunities: Necrotic, poison, charm, exhaustion, fear, paralysis
Multiattack: Any two of
Dreadful glare: DC11 wisdom save or frightened and lose a turn. If succeed on save, immune for 24 hours
Cobra Mace: +7 to hit, 1d6+3 damage plus 1d4 poison damage
Cursed Touch: +7 to hit, Constitution save (DC 11) or HP recovery from all sources of healing is halved until the next long rest.
Loot: Bracers of Armor +1, Cobra Mace (magic, +1d4 poison damage)
Lizardfolk digger skeletons (no weapons)
AC 14
HP: 24 (4d8+4)
Speed 30’
Str 13, dex 10, con 13, int 7, wis 12, cha 7
Multiattack:
Bite +3, 1d6+1
Claw +3, 1d4+1
CR ½
Vulnerable bludgeoning
Immune, poison
BOSS FIGHT! Alisandre gets to go first, rushing forward and stabbing Azur-Khuresh. She succeeds in landing a good hit with sneak attack, but only does half damage. She succeeds on her wisdom save, and I believe he misses with his mace. The other two move up, and Zhrogar uses cold breath on all 3 enemies to do a bit of damage. For about the next 3 rounds, Azur-Khuresh completely negates Tash the fighter with repeated Wisdom save failures! He also crits for 20 damage, forcing Alisandre to run away and hide behind Zhrogar to heal with the last healing potion. Zhrogar uses Smite Evil twice to bring the lizardfolk skeletons down more quickly. Alisandre returns to the fight, then takes another hit from the mace and gets knocked to 0. After failing two death saves, Zhrogar circles around behind Azur-Khuresh and expends her last spell slot on a “Cure Wounds”. I recommend checking the character sheet, and Tash uses action surge to land two hits in a row. Eventually, they manage to bring the mummy down, and he collapses into a pile of dust. They loot the room, getting the bracers and mace, and take a long rest….
Group heads back to town, and gets to their house, ready for a bath! They have rested a couple of times and it’s been a couple of nights. Tasha greets them and begins preparing food immediately, while having Ingrid draw up some water and heat it for washing. “Oh, did Lisa find you? She left yesterday afternoon to look for you or maybe check the garrison and ask for help. You said something about a short trip and she got worried. When she didn’t come home we thought she’d found you.”
(worried expression)
Alisandre pays a couple of messenger kids, but gets the report back from the garrison that there’s nothing except some recent problems with cultists. She visits, speaking to Centurion Jones, who knew her dad. Cultists have been kidnapping people, sacrificing to summon things. Have busted a couple of places, they take some building and make it look normal. We don’t know who’s behind it or we’d come down on them with an entire century. They are hard to track down …or you could check the route you took out of town.
Zhrogar suggests visiting a temple for some help, and they visit a temple to a god of knowledge (I need to determine who). The priest is actually happy to have someone specific to look for, versus just having general questions. I flub the scope of the 4th level spell, and a 100gp donation gets them a pretty accurate location.
or information brokers.
Target: Medium-sized house in moderate disrepair on the border between the docks & slums area.
Watched by someone from thieves guild – paid to provide security, not aware of what’s going on inside. I had a whole spiel ready for him, complete with a “wait 5 minutes so I can take a bathroom break” concealed in Thieves’ Cant. She hears “A guy walking around and keeping an eye on the place” and decides he’s a guard, so the party walks past him and never engages.
Two-story house with basement:
1st floor: 3 cultists in kitchen (“Cultist” x 3)
2nd floor: 2 apprentice cultists (using Cult Fanatic & Cult Sorcerer from 5e SRD; 4d8hp, 4th-level casters)
Basement: 2 “Thugs” equipped with heavy crossbows and a very limited number of Sleep bolts (CON DC11 or sleep.
Alisandre checks out the back of the house without detection. The back door is determined to be barred, so she decides to sneak in the 2nd floor window (rear-facing). She does so successfully, emerging into a large bedroom that’s unoccupied. She hears two voices outside, and eventually cracks the door open enough to hear. The two people are talking about a ritual gone wrong, waiting for a boss to show up, being annoyed at having to sit around waiting for the boss’s schedule, and not knowing what had gone wrong.
She keeps listening, and one of them eventually slams his hands on the table and stands up, walking out to the hall. I put a bit of pressure on for time, and she ends up deciding to dash past the guy (who’s standing at the doorway) towards the stairs at the far end of the building, dropping ball bearings in front of him on the way…. Instead of maintaining stealth and backing out. Not what I would have chosen.
She does so and wins initiative, sneak-attacking the caster with her shortbow for over half his hitpoints, then runs downstairs to find 3 cultists just standing up and drawing scimitars; thanks to roguish action speeds, she’s able to unbar the door and get just outside it. The cultists attack her, drawing some blood. The injured caster goes to the head of the stairs and then down, missing with a Ray of Frost, while the other one will spend the next two rounds flopping onto her back repeatedly thanks to the ball bearings.
Alisandre is knocked down to 5hp, and kills a cultist before disengaging and spending the next several rounds standing against the wall not putting herself in harm’s way. The downstairs caster casts Scorching Ray at Zhrogar, but misses with all 3 attack rolls. My wife was very surprised when I mentioned the 6d6 damage avoided! Thanks to a crit from Tash (Champion crits on a 19!) the 2 remaining cultists and downstairs caster go down fast. The upstairs caster finally makes it, landing a Hold Person on Zhrogar. Tash runs up the stairs, moves Zhrogar out of the way by lifting her and turning in place, then action surges to attack. The caster counters with Inflict Wounds (‘uh oh’ reaction when I look for 3d10) and then gets splattered.
The group stands around for a moment distributing some Lay on Hands, until one of the two thugs comes up from the basement and fires a heavy crossbow at Alisandre. She passes the sleep save, and then the three combatants dogpile the thug before he gets to go again. The last one in the basement lasts a bit longer due to congestion (5’ hallway).
They find a creepy summoning ritual area, with five cells on the far wall. Three are standing open, and two are shut with solid metal doors. One has a Nothic, and the other has Lisa, the person they’re there to rescue. After a reminder that she could call out, Lisa is liberated and spills her story about pacting with The Sleeper Beyond (deep space cthonic entity who wants to walk in her dreams to relive her mortal days for entertainment). The question is asked “is anyone else down here” and “did the summoning succeed”. With the answer of “something came through that they didn’t expect” my wife goes “Nope, we’re out of here – we leave.” They check the bodies, picking up 2 Sleep Bolts and 60 gold.
They head out the back alley before any reinforcements arrive from the thieves guild, and stop to buy 8 healing potions (because they had none) before going to the house. I charged 50gp per healing potion, which may be too much…but oh well.
It was a long multi-phase fight with lots of action. Lisa (Warlock 2) does not have Hex, as that’s a pain to track. Charm, PFE, and Dissonant Whispers – I explained about the AOO triggering possibilities.
I think the thieves guild may have tracked Alisandre after this. Possible next leads: Investigate cultists. Get a message from the thieves; decide to assassinate bad dude; something else.
I have a few days to come up with something.
(75xp total))
Cultist
Armor Class 12 (leather armor)
Hit Points 9 (2d8)
Speed 30 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
11 (+0) 12 (+1) 10 (+0) 10 (+0) 11 (+0) 10 (+0)
Skills Deception +2, Religion +2
Senses passive Perception 10
Dark Devotion. The cultist has advantage on saving throws against being charmed or frightened.
Actions
Scimitar. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 4 (1d6 + 1) slashing damage.
2nd floor; apprentice cultists (researching; may make mention of “the boss”; Cult Fanatic http://www.5esrd.com/gamemastering/monsters-foes/npc/cultists/npc-cult-fanatic/ & http://www.5esrd.com/gamemastering/monsters-foes/npc/cultists/cult-sorcerer-3pp/ & 1 cultist) 925xp; they will set environmental traps if they hear combat. They wear face-concealing hoods.
Thug
Medium humanoid (any race), any non-good alignment
Armor Class 11 (leather armor)
Hit Points 32 (5d8 + 10)
Speed 30 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
15 (+2) 11 (+0) 14 (+2) 10 (+0) 10 (+0) 11 (+0)
Skills Intimidation +2
Senses passive Perception 10
Pack Tactics. The thug has advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of the thug’s allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated.
Actions
Multiattack. The thug makes two melee attacks.
Mace. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) bludgeoning damage.
Heavy Crossbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, range 100/400 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d10) piercing damage. + Sleep DC Con DC 11
Nothic
Medium aberration, neutral evil
Armor Class 15 (natural armor)
Hit Points 45 (6d8 + 18)
Speed 30 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
14 (+2) 16 (+3) 16 (+3) 13 (+1) 10 (+0) 8 (−1)
Skills Arcana +3, Insight +4, Perception +2, Stealth +5
Senses truesight 120 ft., passive Perception 12
Languages Undercommon
Challenge 2 (450 XP)
Keen Sight. The nothic has advantage on Wisdom (Perception)
checks that rely on sight.
Actions
Multiattack. The nothic makes two claw attacks.
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.
Hit: 6 (1d6 + 3) slashing damage.
Rotting Gaze. The nothic targets one creature it can see
within 30 feet of it. The target must succeed on a DC 12
Constitution saving throw against this magic or take 10 (3d6)
necrotic damage.
Weird Insight. The nothic targets one creature it can see within
30 feet of it. The target must contest its Charisma (Deception)
check against the nothic’s Wisdom (Insight) check. If the
nothic wins, it magically learns one fact or secret about
the target. The target automatically wins if it is immune to
being charmed.
Total xp: 1500 + detective work with no Nothic. Pretty close to level 4!
My wife wanted a multiple choice set of options for what to do next. She chose to try to investigate the cultists some more. She knows there’s a big boss out there who, as she put it, they thankfully have not met. Her plan is to ask around at the garrison, tell them about the house she crashed, and re-check that house for clues.
Now I need to figure out who’s running the cult, what their goals are, and what resources are being employed where. I think one of the empty (and un-investigated) cells in the basement may lead to a secret entrance to the sewers or some old tunnels under the city. After all – if these cultists are summoning demons or devils or whatever, how else would they get them around?
The bad dude who killed her main character’s childhood friend is a student at the school of wizardry, so I’m leaning towards having the cultist boss be a priest of Asmodeus or something similar for variety.
-Ties to thieves guild
-Big boss
-Multiple other hideouts
-What are apprentices doing?
-What is overall goal? (corruption, destruction, overthrow, personal gain?)
Time to do some thinking.
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