NDT session 22: Xitiqa you and I know How the heartaches come and they go

 Ext. The vicinity of Xitaqa.

Rurik and Namfoodle retreated back to camp to luck their wounds and decide what to do next. There they found Sbske in conversation with a young Human woman and a Halfling man.

The irritating woman said her name was Rosie and she was looking for her mother, who was the Halfling’s wife. The halfling was a veteran fighter named Ham.

The group decided to rest up before heading back to the ruins. The night was uneventful apart from some growling nearby and the group headed off towards the tower.

Approaching the tower, the group came under fire by a small band of hobgoblins. This annoyed Rosie who charged towards them and turned into an angry bear.

Rosie-Bear, Ham and Rurik made short work of the hobgoblins but were then attacked by another winter wolf that emerged from the tower. It’s icy-breath caused some damage to the pcs (mainly Snake) but was wilfully put down.

The group rested up in a nearby empty building before entering the tower from a side entrance. Inside they found a dusty library full of old scrolls and a giant spider. Rosie turned into a spider as well and proceeded to win the duel of the spiders.

Ham then blundered into the spiders nest which was the home of its mate who attacked, protecting her young. Ham killed it with one might blow of his great-sword - the magical one they had obtained from Vlack.

Within the nest were many little spiders and a scroll case containing a comprehend languages spell.

DM notes: the  creature passing in the night was a wandering mountain lion, which I decided wasn’t suicidal. Rosie is a Barbarian-Druid and Ham is a champion Fighter. 

NDT Session 18: The Lion, The Witchbolt and the Orc Goths

 Int. Gnome Mine, Wulfwolde Hills

Cast: Rurik, Bait, Glimmer, Namfoodle

The party started to head down the tunnel the orcs were guarding and immediately another small group of orcs ran down it to attack them. A few seconds later more black-clad orcs arrived including their leader. 

The fight was fairly desperate with Bait and Rurik getting badly wounded but Namfoodle’s Witchbolt spell badly hurt the leader and Rurik’s Bear wildshape causing finishing off a few wounded orcs meant the party prevailed.

However, the party had hardly time to get their breaths back before another small group of orcs appeared. Rurik cast a moonbeam spell on them and they fled. The party decided they might be getting reinforcements so they sldo retreated to the relative safety of the gnomes mine to rest up for the night.

The next morning they returned to the orcs lair, which had been mostly stripped of valuables. The remaining orcs had left during the night via a different exit of the tunnels. The only thing of note left was a tatty stuffed lion. This appeared to contain valuables but to get to them required putting one’s hand in its mouth triggering a trap.

Instead the party decided to hack it open revealing some silver, some jewelry, a scroll that had unfortunately been cut into pieces and a single magic boot. Rurik seemed to think he had seen a similar boot somewhere in Sukiskyn so they packed it away.

The party then moved onto the large cavern that had been blocked halfway by stalagmites until  the gnomes had broken through a few days earlier. The only exit was a tunnel 30ft above the floor. Rurik turned into ape form to climb up carrying Namfoodle and they then helped the rest climb up with ropes.

TBC

NDT session 14: Babushka, Babushka, ya, ya

A battle with a shadow.

 Wolfskull Lair.

Present: Namfoodle, Bait and Glimmer.

The party finished exploring the lair and found some treasure including magic arrows.

Then they took Babushka back to Sukiskyn. Along the way she explained some of the plot and revealed the hobgoblins were looking for a ‘great map’ and there was someone known as ‘ole skinny legs’ at Xitaqa.

The residents of Sukiskyn didn’t know anything about Xitaqa but Stellios and Kuzma suggested they ask the Horse Lord in the hills. He could be summoned near some ancient tombs by standing on one leg and whistling at midnight for 3 nights running.

The party travelled to the tombs with the intention of travelling in to see the gnomes. The tombs turned out to be 3 burial mounds of scorched barren earth. The camped out and at midnight Glimmer did as suggested. The next day the party decided to explore the ruins. After losing a race to the bottom of the mound, Glimmer had to go and lead the party into the first tomb.

 As soon as she stepped onto the mound darkness surrounded her. This was not apparent to those still outside the mound. 

Worse was to follow as 5 shadows emerged and attacked Glimmer draining strength as well as causing significant wounds. A desperate battle followed as the shadows wrecked havoc on the part. However the battle finally started to go the way of the party when Bait turned the undead.

To be continued…

DM notes: I let the party level up after finishing the wolf skull lair, which probably saved them from a near TPK by the shadows, which are nasty.

NDT Session 11: More Goblins

A Petrified Forest within the Dymrak Forest

Present: Rurik and Glimmer (plus Droop)

The group had arrived at a petrified forest, presumably caused by some ancient curse, that was said to be the home of the Wolfskull goblins.

After travelling along a creepy trail they heard a group of goblins and wolves approaching. The party successfully hid themselves and ambushed the patrol.

The party gained some unexpected assistance from another goblin, who seemed quite handy with a whip. The Wolgskull’s were quickly dispatched. 

The newcomer turned out to be a renegade Wolfskull called Bait who was seeking revenge on Kloss the King of the Wolfskulls. He decided to join forces with the party.

Bait led the group to the Wolfskull lair which was formerly a copse of tree surrounded by a black stream. 

The party crossed the bridge into the lair where they were attacked some goblin guards and a wolf. A couple of the guards ran off deeper into the lair.

The remaining wolf and goblins were quickly despatched, mainly by a moonbeam spell from Rurik but more wolves kept arriving from deeper in the lair. The guards had obviously started releasing them from pens within.

To be continued.

Vampires: the blathering

 Inspired by a comment from The Guvnor on The Gaming Tavern, I’ve been thinking about Ravenloft and The Known World aka Mystara. Although this post then rambles off in a totally different direction. Probably too much caffeine.

There are two regions in the known world where Vampires are said to be prevalent - Glantri and Karameikos. 

In both cases, the vampires seem to have been introduced in the Gazetteers. Glantri didn’t seem to have much in the way of a description before then, apart from Castle Amber and the odd mention in other modules.

However, a province ruled by vampires fits as part of the country and indeed you could easily set Curse of Strahd there with only minor tweaking.

Karameikos on the other hand is an odd beast. Vampires fit in quite well with the cod-eastern-european culture. But very few published adventures set in the country have them. There’s everybody’s favourite Goth Hobgoblin*, King Vlack in Nights Dark Terror. There may be actual vampires in other adventures but on the whole Karameikos is a bit of a low-level adventurer place for tangling with Vampires. Lycanthropes, there’s loads of, right from the original description of Threshold. vampires, not so much.

So what’s the point of this blog then? I don’t know. Except… maybe there could be a better Known World!

There are strong thematic links between Glantri and Karameikos… but they are nowhere near each other. So in a better known world they would be much closer. 

Glantri also has similarities to Darokin so that would be nearby. That’s is the Byzantine empire so that could be the other way. Just get rid of all the slavery stuff *shudder*. Ylarum and Ethangar would be beyond that.

Hmmm, so basically, I’ve come up with a plan to just put all these places in medieval Europe. Averoigne could actually be part of the known world** and all the racist bits could be lost in translation.

So anyway, I seem to have started a new series of posts on the theme: things that I like that are actually rubbish.

* go on name another 

** the known world needs more weird horror.