NDT session 1: Misha and the Bear

Our Protagonists:

Glimmer, a Dragonborn ranger

Rurik 'Treehugger', a Dwarf Druid

Aengus, a Gnome Rogue

Aiamiir, a Half-Elf Warlock (and bounty hunter) from Glantri

Namfoodle, a Gnome Wizard

'Snake', a mysterious Yuan-Ti cleric, from far off lands (The Serpent Peninsular)

Kelven, Grand Duchy of Karameikos, Early Spring:

The party met with Stephan who offered them a job helping to transport some horses from his families homestead Sukiskyn on the edges of the Dymrak forest to the Elven village of Rifflian.

They were original offered 100gp each but after some careful negotiation they settled on a figure of… 100pg each.

Stephan left to conduct unspecified other business but not before booking them on the first boat of the year upriver.

Thaumont 7th

After final prep the party board the boat, skippered by Kalanos. He would take them as far as Misha’s Ferry, a day's walk from Sukiskyn.

They made good progress until suddenly the boat jerked to a halt, causing a number of the characters to fall prone. The others who kept their footing were targeted by some archers who emerged from the undergrowth. Some other men dived into the icy water swimming towards the boat.

Attack on the riverboat

A short battle resulted in the defeat of the bandits whose leader quickly assessed that the best option was to run away.

The PCs debated whether to take the chain that had stopped the boat but Kalanos was keen to reach his final destination (a lumber camp upriver from the ferry) before nightfall. A quick search of the archers bodies reveal nothing of worth except a few arrows but they all had strange scars on their wrists and necks that looked like they had spent a long time in shackles.

The rest of the trip was without incident apart from some party bickering and Misha's Ferry was arrived at in late afternoon. 

Misha was not around but Kalanos told them she often went off hunting with her bear. Kalanos told them to make themselves at home until she came back and then bid them farewell.

Snake started cooking a meal while the rest rested up in the hut but were soon disturbed by a roaring sound and the largest bear they had ever seen emerged from the undergrowth.

Rurik turned themself invisible and attempted to talk with bear. It demanded the party tell it where Misha was and that it had not seen her since the day before. It was in no mood for chatting once it smelled the Dwarf's location so it attacked and wounded him. The party fought back, wounding the bear. Glimmer decided they should subdue the bear to find out more information but it was already badly hurt and scampered back into the woods.

Nanfoodle noted that there had been no sign of a struggle in the cabin. 

Misha did not return but the party wisely decided to stay in the hut overnight, barricading the door and shuttering the windows.

DM notes: 

I was a bit timid with the first encounter - the original had either 22 or 18 combatants depending which paragraph you read - decided to have 11 but an entangle spell dealt with most of the swimmers so I decided the leader was not suicidal and [redacted] would not happen.

Cave bears in 5e are much less formidable than in BECMI - only two attacks and no hug. So I’m not surprised that my group decided to attack instead of hiding in the hut. Again I decided it would run off when wounded.

Next time: a walk in the woods.

Night's Dark Terror, Session 0

You've not been in Kelven before a red-haired man approaches you with an offer of work...

So my group started rolling up PCs. Unless things change we've got 2 gnomes (rogue and wizard), a half-elf Hexblade from Glantri, a Dwarf Druid, a Gold Dragonborn Ranger (easily explained by Mystaran Gold Dragon's polymorph ability) and Yuan-ti cleric from the Serpent Penninsula...

I've given the group some background on Karameikos. I've decided to set it sometime around 980 so I can ignore all the gazetteer stuff I don't like. We all had a good laugh at the city of Specularum...

I've decided to give some extra incentives to the group beyond "I'll give you 100gp if you shift some horses". They've also been offered the use of Sukiskyn as a base of operations to complete their various tasks before heading off to Rifllian.

The Yuan-ti player suggested that they had been captured by slavers as an explanation for why they are so far from home. The half-elf has a bounty hunter background, so I've suggested that they've heard rumours of slavers in Karameikos but have lost the trail in Kelven.

The gnomes have something to deliver to some fellow clan members who have recently started a new mine.

There may also be rumours of an evil presence in the forest and on the moors that the ranger and druid may wish to investigate.

Next session: A river cruise

Painting part 1

 So I’ve decided to paint minis again.

Bear

This chap was mostly done with Vallejo xpress color- wasteland brown. It’s a song of ice and fire skin changer mini but I’m going to use it for a D&D cave bear.

New monsters

The newest inhabitants of my house

Sad news

Sadly, my cat died the other day from cancer.

Here is an excellent picture of him being absolutely livid because someone picked him up.

so.. monsters then

What would D&D be without monsters? Well it would be called "Dungeons and" for starters but anyway...

Which monster is the best: obviously it's the Owlbear.

But which is the worst? Well there's one in my Rules Cyclopedia called a Revener which looks like an undead but isn't, is hard to hit and takes load of damage and if it hits you... you lose one of your senses. Apparently, if elves (and only elves) lose their sense of touch they can no longer find secret doors.

However, there are many other terrible monsters, particularly in the Fiend Folio.

The Sea Bishop sadly not statted for D&D

So Basic D&D had some monsters that don't appear in other editions. I (like Bargle and the Hutaakans) am quite fond of Living Statues - a sort of cut-price golem with odd abilities. I'm not sure why we need Giant Ferrets and Giant Weasels (but also why we don't get Giant Stoats, Pine Martins or Polecats). So my plan is to convert some of these for 5e instead of just picking something similar.

I may even stat up a Sea Bishop.

Mystara musings (Part 1?)

So my introduction to Mystara, or The Known World as it was then know, was in 1986 when I got the Dark Blue Expert box Set for my 11th birthday.

Of course, the most exciting thing about that set is not the rule book but the supplied module - The Isle of Dread. This was the second version with the Orange cover and a picture of some guys in the sea fighting a flipping T-Rex! Which was obviously really cool if you are 11. Dragons? Pfff.

"Those T-Rex look so stupid with their tiny arms... There's one right behind me, isn't there?"

So back to the Expert Rule book, well there wasn't much about the Known world in there. A bit about The Grand Duchy of Karameikos and a bit more about the small town of Threshold and that was it.

There was more info about The Known World in The Isle of Dread - a very brief description of each country and that was it. The Known World was our oyster.

And so it stayed for the next couple of years - there was dribs and drabs of info in various adventure modules and a world map in the Master Set. I think there was more in the Immortal Set but I never owned that.

A then came the Gazetteers. 

But next up - I'm going to think about monsters. Possibly.