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2019-02-26, 08:27 PM
Rise of the Runelords 5e Campaign/DM’s Diary

Session Zero: Origins of… the… Beginning… of Destiny

Admittedly, I don’t have much experience as a DM. But, my gaming group’s normal DM is on a hiatus following the end of his most recent campaign, so I’ve decided to step up and try and run a couple of one-shots for my usual group. I’ve found that I probably like DMing more than actually playing sometimes, but I’ve never actually tried to run a campaign before.

Anyway, my DM’s niece had recently expressed interest in D&D. Sometimes she would sit in during our sessions, and other times she would try to participate without making a character. Regardless, my DM was excited at the prospect, but admitted that he still didn’t feel like running a game again. So I said, “Why not let me run a campaign and you sit in and help her as a player?” I figured that it would give him plenty of time to recover from his DM burnout, and give me the opportunity to experience running a campaign.

Getting the Band Together
Now, I’ve noticed a pattern when I ran my games and little mini-adventures; the harder I try and the more work I put into a game, the less fun everyone has. I tend to not take things too seriously because, you know, game, but I did want to try something more memorable. So, I figured “why not shamelessly steal from an adventure module?” Sadly, the only one that I owned was a Pathfinder thing that I blew way too much money on way back to the first time I thought about DMing (Mind you, I had barely started playing at the time). So, Rise of the Runelords: Anniversary Edition it was!

As much as I love being able to tinker around with Pathfinder, I didn’t want to subject my DM’s niece to the colossal chasm of choices that system brought about. Sure, we could have just made a character for her, but I’ve found that people tend to be more invested in their characters when they create them themselves, so I wanted to do a simpler game system. So, I figured that I’d try running it as D&D 5e. I got the campaign ready, so now all I had to do was gather the players.

I had my DM (whom I shall now refer to as Adam), Niece (Just gonna call her Jane), so I figured I’d gather a couple more. I asked around and pulled in Adam’s wife (Obviously calling her Eve), and two other players from our regular group who were never part of the adventure path when my DM ran it (Calling them Bill and Ted). Finally, I wanted to pull in my roommate (calling him John), since he was also relatively new to tabletops. John had played in a few one-shots and expressed that being the only new guy was kind of intimidating, so I figured having two inexperienced people might be better or something.

So, the campaign was decided, the players were gathered, and all that we needed was to make our characters. Oh, and decide on a time and place to play, since we still had our regular gaming group. Anyway, that’s not important so I won’t talk about it! I decided to work with the players using the following rules.

• Players begin at 2nd Level, with their starting hit die being the max amount. HP is rolled, and any subsequent hit die rolled cannot be lower than the hit die’s maximum (A 1,2, or 3 on a d8 hit die will become a 4, for example.)
• Starting ability scores will be rolled with 5d6 and dropping the lowest 2. If somehow your total ability score modifiers don’t equal seven or higher, you may reroll your all of your stats.
• Players can begin the game with either 2 potions of healing, or one uncommon magic item.
• While feats are allowed, the variant human rule is not.
• Any published D&D 5e sourcebook is allowed, and U.A. and homebrew is allowed with my permission.
• While Aarakocra are allowed in my game, all enemies and otherwise friendly NPC’s in the setting will make it their personal goal to end your avian abomination’s life as soon as possible.

Jane’s Character
So for Jane, it turned out that despite being relatively inexperienced, she had a bunch of ideas for her character, but after listening to a thousand ideas for backstory before she even knew what the campaign was about, or even having any ideas for a race or class. But I did sit with her as she summarized it, however. I don’t want to go into details, but I guess you could say it was really kinda… modern Square Enix-y? Still, I tried my best to work with her and weave her ideas with the campaign to create her character. Eventually, she decided to go with a Hexblade Warlock since it was a class that let her fight in combat in pretty much any way she wanted, as well as had an easy way to cast spells. She had some polarizing stats, so her hexblade ability of letter her attack with Charisma helped as well. Her first ability score roll was an 18, and she got a little more disappointed with each subsequent roll. After reading through the Magic Items list, we eventually decided on the +1 Rod of the Pact Keeper for simplicity’s sake. Regardless, though it took most of the day Jane managed to create…

Mystri Glitterstar, Chaotic Good Scourge Aasimar Warlock 2 (Hexblade)
STR 7, DEX 16, CON 14, INT 9, WIS 11, CHA 20
Amnesiac Background (Slightly modified version of the Far Traveler Background)

Brief Backstory: Mystri is still a young Aasimar and doesn’t have any memories of before she woke recently. Her first memories after waking up alone in the forest was being captured and brutalized by a group of Goblinoids, one of which was a terrifying Bugbear by the name of Bruthazmus. Thankfully, she was rescued by an Elf ranger by the name of Shalelu Andosana. The Elf had been tracking the Goblins and together the two managed to escape. There, the two lived out in the wilderness for a few weeks, where the ranger taught the young Aasimar the basics of combat and self-defense, and with that young Mystri was able to tap into her strange powers. Not wanting to endanger the girl any further, she had decided to leave her in Sandpoint with a friend in town, an Elven Sorceress that had a unique understanding of both the arcane and the divine.

Other Notes: With her permission, Jane doesn’t know Mystri’s missing memories, but only knows that she has vague dreams from time to time without understanding the meaning of them. Jane knows that Mystri’s celestial blood has given her some kind of calling, but it’s completely up to her to answer it.

Adam’s Character
Adam had already DM’d RotR all the way through, but I trusted him not to metagame through certain aspects of the Campaign. Just in case, I told him that I would occasionally diverge from the book for certain parts, but hopefully he won’t call my bluff. Regardless, making a character with him was easy, since he had already told me about the next character he planned on playing. Some aspects didn’t quite mesh well with the setting, but they were by no means deal breakers. He typically picked characters with healing or major defensive capabilities when he played, and this time was no different. He went with an Eladrin Divine Soul Sorcerer, because Cleric Spells + Metamagic = Winning D&D. For his magic item, he chose the circlet of blasting because early game blasting = Winning D&D. He uses that phrase a lot when he plays, and I feel like he’s somehow provoking me in some way. I’m probably just incredibly insecure. Regardless, he rolled up…

Zilvia Aernwyn, Lawful Good Eladrin Sorcerer 2 (Divine Soul Bloodline)
STR 11, DEX 16, CON 15, INT 15, WIS 13, CHA 17
Noble Background

Brief Backstory: Youngest daughter of a noble family and strict followers of the Elven Pantheon, Zilvia was raised as a priestess and cleric, yet showed little potential, until a divine spark grew within her. She began to channel divine-like spells through arcane means, but when she began to explore her abilities further, her secret was discovered, and she was exiled for a century-long pilgrimage as penance. Ten years into her journey, she finds herself in Varisia, specifically during the time of the Sandpoint Festival, as the Cathedral’s recent reconstruction has interested her. Recently, she has been tasked by an old traveling companion and local guide to look after a young Aasimar girl with peculiar abilities.

Other Notes: Adam typically seems to play “big sibling” type characters, so it’s not entirely surprising to see this kind of character. Having a story-driven reason to look after his niece’s character just seems kind of cute, though, so I tried to weave together their backstories just a tiny bit, just enough that they weren’t necessarily close enough to be forced to like each other.

Eve’s Character
Eve typically doesn’t play for the combat or mechanics aspect. Sometime ago, she was shoehorned in as a party cleric and hadn’t really left that role, regardless of what other people play. (Fun fact: Having three clerics in a party is a fun way to anger your DM.) She essentially just showed me an already completed character sheet, and the rest of the time was going over her backstory. Some people may think that just reskinning your character with a different face and backstory is lame, yet Eve’s characters still end up being one of the more reliable party members. And representing ol’ faithful (hopefully) is…

Amelia Rosevale, Neutral Good Human Cleric of Shelyn 2 (Life Domain)
STR 16, DEX 10, CON 14, INT 12, WIS 18, CHA 11
Acolyte Background

Brief Backstory: Raised as an acolyte of Shelyn in Magnimar, Amelia was thrilled to become a fully-fledged cleric to spread Shelyn’s message of love and bring beauty to the world. While her artistic “talents” are… ahead of the times, her cheerful optimism and sunny disposition are welcome in any point in time. It was this outlook, in fact, that lead her to join Shelyn’s clergy in the reconstructed Sandpoint Cathedral. Journeying alongside her older brother and self-appointed bodyguard, she knows her days in Sandpoint will be filled with peaceful times. And even if storm clouds are on the horizon, it’s nothing a little ray of sunshine can’t fix, right?

Other Notes: The neat part about making your character quickly is that you can integrate them with other character’s backstories pretty easily. Eve didn’t have too much to go with her backstory, and Ted was struggling with his character, so the two of them essentially spent the entire session making their backstories together. It’s gotten all three of us excited to see how this plays out. Oh, and Ted and Eve each picked each other’s Magic Item and just said they were in-character gifts at one point. Amelia received a Cloak of Protection

Ted’s Character
As stated earlier, Ted had some difficulty deciding what to play. He tended to play either rogues or wizards and knew that someone else was planning on being a rogue. He didn’t quite want to be a wizard, so when Ted and Eve made their backstories together, he just made a character based around the backstory. Since Amelia was such a bubbly and positive character in a world full of monsters and demons, he wanted to make a character that aggressively made sure that none of those would ever get to her. Thus came…

Adelwen Rosevale, Neutral Good Goliath Barbarian 2
STR 19, DEX 15, CON 19, INT 12, WIS 14, CHA 9
Acolyte Background

Brief Backstory: Abandoned at birth, Adelwen was taken in by a kindly couple acolytes that served the church of Shelyn. When he was six years old the couple had another child, and when he was told it was his responsibility to look after his younger sister, Adelwen took it to heart. Instead of being jealous of a younger, natural-born sibling, the adopted sibling instead found the opportunity to repay his gratitude. While Amelia trained as an acolyte and eventually as a cleric of Shelyn, Adelwen trained is body to the extremes, even managing to channel the anger within himself to protect what he sees as the most righteous thing in the world.

Other Notes: While Ted picked a Cloak of Protection for Amelia, Eve picked out a Periapt of Wound Closure for Adelwen. Another thing I found cute was because Adelwen is secretly ashamed of his racial baldness, he wears a ratty-looking wig wherever he goes.

John’s Character
John had an idea of the next kind of character he wanted to play but didn’t know the right way to go about it. He didn’t really have any ideas for a generic backstory right off the top of the head, so he just dove into his Urchin background and let me handle some of the rest. It seems lazy, but there wasn’t much point in waiting for a backstory from an inexperienced player that despite my best efforts to explain the setting, he knew next to nothing about. Besides, he seemed a little more excited to sneak around and stab things, and there’s generally nothing wrong with that. Also, John chose the Robe of Useful Items as his uncommon magic item, a recommendation from Bill and Adam because they knew I hated rolling that it up. As punishment, I made Bill and Adam roll up the items, which is something I deeply regret. Of the 4d4 items they rolled up, they rolled a 15, meaning that not only does Varis have over 2000 gp in Silver Coffers and Gems, but 16 Healing Potions, 2 Horses and 2 Mastiffs on standby. They also plan on using those same d4’s to roll up all the HP they heal up from all those potions. Regardless, he made…

Varis Galebrook, Chaotic Good Half-Elf Rogue 2
STR 13, DEX 18, CON 13, INT 12, WIS 16, CHA 15
Urchin Background

Brief Backstory: Raised as an overlooked urchin in the streets of Sandpoint, Varis has had to cheat, steal, and occasionally make a squalid living at knifepoint. He was close to making a living as a fully-fledged criminal in Sandpoint’s seedier elements before a couple years prior to the story, an innkeeper of the Rusty Dragon by the name Ameiko Kaijitsu, took him in and gave him a chance. There he found his talents as a cook’s assistant, quickly able to take up the trade. He’s incredibly grateful for Ameiko for giving him the opportunity towards a better life but hearing old war stories from the adventurers that the inn catered to, inspired a sense of wanderlust from the young man. Varis dreams of becoming an adventurer himself and is close to achieving that goal but has decided to help the inn out during the events of the Swallowtail Festival before setting off.

Other Notes: John was cool with the pitches that I was throwing out, and Iwas getting the feeling that he just wanted to play the game. He’s kind of the impatient type that just likes to go out and do stuff, so him being a rogue will either be very useful, or end very, very badly for him. Thankfully, it seems that he’s well-supplied for almost any situation. Also, a nice little addition was that he named all the daggers that he acquired after the names of directional winds. It was nothing impactful to the game, but it was a nice little addition of flavor I like to see.

Bill’s Character
So… Initially, I hesitated on bringing Bill in. He’s not necessarily a bad guy, but he tends to… destroy rails whenever he begins to sense that he’s being moved in any direction. But he’s knowledgeable mechanically and fun to roleplay with as he really tends to get into whatever goofy persona he comes up with. I asked him to go easy on me since this was my first full-blown campaign and based off an adventure path, and he agreed with an evil smile. Like Adam, he already had an idea for a character and after running it by me to see if it fit, he made…

Nara Velvetsong (Sven Havinthem), Chaotic Neutral Forest Gnome Bard 2
STR 9, DEX 17, CON 11, INT 15, WIS 14, CHA 17
Charlatan Background

Brief Backstory: Born Sven Difrint Naems Forthe Sakof Havinthem (Fully aware that it’s only six different names, and so is Bill) was born in the City of Magnimar. Despite being impoverished at birth, Sven used his clever mind, his silver-tongue, and charming smile to weave his way near the lower nobility. With his clever uses of disguises and forgeries, he amassed a decent amount of wealth, eventually obtaining allies (lackeys) and contacts in the criminal underworld. He had planned on being the next big crime lord, but after running afoul with a bigwig in Magnimar, one of the thirteen Justices named Ironbriar, he found that the small network he had amassed had been arrested or outright killed. Fearing for his life, Sven used the last of his resources and abilities to flee to Sandpoint and forge a new identity for himself, a young gnomish woman by the name of Nara Velvetsong, a songstress and aspiring actress.

Other notes: He had expressed interest in a Bard Archer build in the past, so I guess he was using this opportunity.

Warm-Ups
Now that I’ve introduced the players, I’m going to mostly refer to them by their character names, mostly so I don’t forget whose name is whose and whatnot. But regardless, that’s what the party looks like. A rogue with eleventy-billion potions, a life cleric, and with a divine soul sorcerer and bard around, it’s unlikely that anyone’s going to die anytime soon.

Before the campaign got started for real I wanted to get some people together and have them get a feel for their characters, so I ran a little prep-less one-shot for the group, splitting them up into pairs so the newbies could get a feel for the game being run. It was essentially just a little bit of roleplaying followed by a goblin fight, and none of the sessions went on for any less than two hours.

Still on the road a day away from Sandpoint, the siblings encountered an overturned cart with two injured guards. Not falling for my attempt to get Amelia to waste her healing spells, she instead used her medicine skill to patch up the two (If she did heal them up in any way, they would have helped the pair in the upcoming combat). In preparation for the Swallowtail Festival, they were delivering a shipment of candles and fireworks from Magnimar to Sandpoint until they got attacked by goblins. Their horses were killed in the attack, and cart was overturned. The goblins made off with most of the cargo, making no attempt to hide their tracks as they fled into the woods. Amelia offered to help the two guards, the Rosevale Siblings set off after the goblin party.

Now, I made tracking the group of goblins an easy ordeal, but when Adelwen rolled a nat 1 on his survival check they found themselves lost. Amelia could have helped, but she instead decided to have faith in her brother. Meanwhile, Adelwen was far too prideful to admit he had gotten lost. Thankfully, thanks to the DM throwing them a bo… er… a stroke of luck, their perceptions revealed a dropped candlestick that was presumably part of the cargo. They managed to make their way back to the trail, though it was nearly dusk by the time they got to the Goblin camp. Amelia solved this with the handy Light cantrip that totally didn’t attract anyone’s attention.

With stealth not even remotely close on their mind, the group got attacked in the dark almost immediately and they found themselves almost getting surprised by group of six goblins. For Amelia, her Shield of Faith spell nearly made her untouchable, and an opening Guiding Bolt Spell that nuked a Goblin round 1 didn’t help the Goblin morale. As for Adelwen, having 32 HP, halving damage that he took, and nearly one-shotting every goblin he hit made quick work of the group.

An interesting note I’d like to note how Adelwen performed in combat. He could have easily raged, charged in, and slaughtered the goblins himself, but instead stood by Amelia’s side the entire fight, using his glaive’s reach to slice at anyone who dared attack his sister while not even caring about the damage he took. Amelia did sustain heavy damage, but it wasn’t anything a cleric couldn’t cure.

Regardless, at the end of the fifth round, the last remaining goblin fleed for its life, scooping up as many stolen goods as it could along the way. Adelwen scooped up what they could in a sack, the siblings carrying the rest, and the pair made their way back towards the resting guards (Their names were Lance Bordis and Olivia Gorchek, though Amelia or Adelwen never asked…) After being showered with praise and gratitude, the pair offered to escort Bordis and Gorchek to Sandpoint. After wondering how they would still get the cargo to Sandpoint, Adelwen simply placed everyone into the cart and rage-pulled them all the way there the next morning, just in time for the Swallowtail Festival.

Other notes: Sometimes I forget that barbarians can just kind of walk through early game encounters. Regardless, I like Adelwen and Amelia’s dynamic, and I’m looking forward to how they interact with everyone else.


Having lived in Sandpoint under the care of Zilvia for almost a month, and undergoing boring lectures based around helping her understand both arcane and divine magic, Mistri decided to sneak out one morning, while the town of Sandpoint was preparing for the Swallowtail Festival. After being sheltered for so long, it didn’t take long for her to attract attention. Her unusual Aasimar features caught the commonfolk’s eyes, and after Mistri tried to explain the heritage as best she could, they began to react like some sort of prophecy had come true. They began to pelt her with questions and made strange requests. One man asked her to bless his pregnant wife, while another old lady asked for a lock of her hair for her herbal remedies. Confused and disturbed, Mistri made a mad dash as far away from the populace as possible, past the outskirts of the town.

Cueing to Zilvia, the Elven woman went after the Aasimar child, asking around town for her whereabouts. There, she managed to glean a little bit more information. Apparently, there was an Aasimar who had previously resided in the old Cathedral but had perished back during the last fire. Now that the new Cathedral was complete, the townsfolk took the appearance of another Aasimar as a blessing of the gods. Finding this information intriguing but irrelevant, Zilvia set off beyond the town’s limits to search for the child. Making a survival check, she managed follow her trail, but wasn’t quite able to determine the nature of other strange tracks around the area…

Moving back to Mistri, the Aasimar’s aimless wanderings let her stumble into sounds of a nearby argument. Successfully sneaking up, she found a group of goblins arguing amongst each other while a half-elven man stood nearby. While somehow able to understand the goblin’s tongue, Mistri wasn’t quite able to hear what they were arguing about, only being able to pick up the words “longshanks” and “fireworks”. Eventually, the half-elf told the Goblin group to quiet down and that they were heading back. It was at this moment that Zilvia caught up. Noticing the group, she attempted to get to Mistri but couldn’t move silently enough. The half-elf made a run for it while the goblins attacked.

Outnumbered, the two decided to make a run for it, firing off Eldritch Blast and Firebolts at the Goblins whenever they got close. Their game of getaway managed to take down two of the goblins with Mistri only taking a single hit, but the remaining four goblins surrounded the pair. They had no choice but to make a stand, and when they did… the goblins didn’t stand a chance. Zilvia shot off her circlet’s Scorching Rays and turned one goblin into a grease stain. Mistri’s warhammer smashed a Goblin completely while a green flame blade and armor of agathys took out another one. When the last one tried to escape, Zilvia shot it with a Chaos Bolt and melted the poor goblin with acid. Then she used her remaining spells to heal themselves up to full and the pair made their way back to town. Mistri once again caught the populace’s attention, but only because this time she was covered in goblin blood.

Other notes: From the start I was already thrown off my game. My initial plan was for the townsfolk to exposit a bit, then say someone spotted a Goblin just outside of town and have the pair investigate, but Mistri deciding to run off right off the bat took me by surprise. Managed to get things to the encounter I prepared, plus managed to set up some backstory for the first part of the campaign.


The day before the Swallowtail Festival, Varis was sent out to gather supplies for the Rusty Dragon for preparation. Stopping by the General Store owned by Ven Vinder. While Vinder gathers the supplies, his youngest daughter Shayliss keeps him company, complaining that her father hasn’t had his head on straight ever since word got around that her older sister Katrine was shacking up with some guy from the lumber mill. On the way back, he was stopped by a songstress’s performance that had drawn a large crowd. Nara was putting on a show in preparation for tomorrow, telling everyone to come see her perform at tomorrow’s festival (And earning 12 sp in the process).

After the crowd had dispersed, Varis realized that the supplies that he had been carrying were missing. Looking around, he spotted them in the hands of a small cloaked figure that was darting off into an alley, knocking down Nara in the process. With Varis wanting to get back his supplies and Nara wanting revenge over a scraped knee, the two followed the cloaked figure to an abandoned house near the outskirts of town. Listening in before going inside, they heard what sounded like an argument, but neither of them could understand the language. Eventually the voices began to get further away, and the pair quietly made their way inside.

No lights were on, but the pair’s darkvision allowed them to see what used to be a living room with a single goblin sleeping on a torn apart couch. Successfully sneaking up to him, Varis was able to cut the goblin’s throat in its sleep. They didn’t notice another Goblin hiding in the kitchen, however, until it began screaming to alarm the remaining goblins upstairs. Varis’s dagger and an arrow from Nara’s shortbow silenced the goblin, but they heard movement from upstairs. Four goblins began running down the stairs, and initiative began.

Varis hid in the kitchen, away from any goblin’s eyes and prepared to throw a dagger once one got close to either of them. Nara prepared a spell for when the group got to the base of the stairs. When the goblins got there, two managed to succumb to drowsiness, while the two remaining goblins approached Nara. Varis’s dagger missed the target, however, and both goblins sliced into the gnome. Varis moved towards the fray, stabbing it with a shortsword but not quite killing it. Nara took this opportunity to heal himself with just a word before viciously mocking the injured Goblin’s asymmetrical ear sizes. The goblin couldn’t live with this realization and died of shame.

With just one goblin still able to fight, its heart just wasn’t in it anymore and its attempt at stabbing Nara failed spectacularly, dropping its knife by accident. Varis stabbed it through the head, then moved on to execute the two sleeping goblins. After being reminded to pick up his thrown daggers, Varis gave Nara one of his potions which the gnome happily accepted. They then resumed their search, quietly heading upstairs. There, they saw bedrooms that looked like a feral cat’s playground. After a quick minute of searching Varis managed to find his belongings. Nara perused the area, finding nothing else of consequence other than finding a few gold pieces lying around. After telling Varis he found nothing, the two made their way out.

Varis discussed contacting the authorities, but he was late as it was on his delivery. Nara offered to talk to the guards about it, and the two went their separate ways with Varis able to tell Ameiko an exciting tale (Which she thought was just an excuse for his tardiness), and Nara purposefully not telling anyone about the goblin house, instead thinking someone would eventually find out about it once the bodies started rotting. She had a performance tomorrow, after all.

Other notes: For this one, I wanted to set it up as a room-by-room encounter, since I figured the rogue Varis wouldn’t be getting a lot of flanking support from the frail bard archer. Nara was fun to have at the table, switching up his use of pronouns to confuse Varis, as well as normally talking in a gentle girly voice then using a gruff Scottish accent whenever she cast a spell.

Final Thoughts: Hopefully, everyone is somewhat used to their characters. Mistri had watched people play from time to time so she got the general feel and pace, but mechanically speaking, she struggled making decisions. Even so, if she keeps at it that should eventually pass. I think Zilvia was trying to show off a little, not to brag about the character or anything, but more along the lines of trying to say, “Hey, isn’t this game cool?”. Adelwen really got into character both in how he talked and what actions he took in combat, so it was fun to see it. Amelia really enjoys watching people get into character as well, I’m sure playing with Adelwen was rewarding for her. I wondered if Varis was going to resent essentially being pulled around the entire session, but he seemed cool with it, and really got into it once combat arrived. I half-expected Nara to just ignore the cloaked figure and walk off on his own, but thankfully he went along with it.

Anyways, that was the Session(s) Zero of my D&D 5e version of Pathfinder’s Rise of the Runelords campaign. I don't really know what kind of format I want to write this in just yet, but I'll find one eventually. If anyone has any comments, questions, or suggestions, feel free to post. I'm primarily writing these so I'll have an easier time remembering key elements in previous games, but figured I'd post this out on the webs and see if someone else can't be entertained as well.

Tune in next time where everyone finally meets everyone else, they have fun at the Swallowtail Festival, and absolutely nothing goes wrong!