So last time here on this blog in November 2020 I discussed the first book of the Doomstones campaign I am running in 5th edition DND. Here is another follow-up of sorts, info on my current campaign, what worked, what didn't and plans for the future.
Last time
They were 9/10ths of the way through before after about 8 sessions and were level 4. They got the Crystal of Fire, a legendary Dwarven artifact that is more than it seems. The half-Elven Fighter acquired it and generally just uses it for Fireball, to great effect. They defeated the Orc mage known as Torgoch and got out of the dungeon intact. An ancient medallion was revealed to them with the location of Three Peaks mountain crudely carved on it.
Nearby was the town of Landbridge so they travelled south out of the valley to there. They undertook various jobs and met up with their original benefactor in the castle. He is trying to overthrow the Queens who rule the land and set up a new order. They participated in the arena and same as the first one there was a Battle Royale, Duels and Group stages. The BR involved the 8 participants picking a small model out of a bag and then at the start of the battle were polymorphed into that animal! The two PCs came 2nd and 3rd. This also provided their seed for the Duels, which the half-Elf Fighter won for the second time, making her Local and Area Duel Champion. Will she do as well in the Regionals?
The regionals:
Sidebar, I love when an idea jumps into my head and I just have to work it out somehow.
Final result after all the messing around figuring out what I wanted to do. Bottom concept drawing based off scribbles on various papers.
Players 6-12 will start on the blue pods on outside, then work their way into the middle. After a certain number of people are eliminated on the outside, the hexagon opens at various points. There will be some random d12 effects in the area outside hexagon. They enter hexagon and after a round or two the outer area blows up or whatever and the hexagon is the new arena, continue fighting. After one or two more eliminations, into the middle square. There can only be one winner! Same with previous edition, battle royale place determines seeding for the Duels, considered the more prestigious competition.
They won't do this until the timing is right anyway, probably in next few sessions/ level 8. If there are not enough players (most likely) I am going to give them a random 'ally' not unlike the random bag element of the previous one. Only this time instead of being turned into animals they may have them as friends and possible penalty for getting them killed...
On the way to the sandbox
They ignored the plot and went north and skipped book 2 of the adventure and opened book 3, the Eyrie and the Crystal of Air. I was more than happy to run with this and get to run a gigantic battle, which I considered a big success.
The Orcs surrounding the thing.
They had to collect about ten of these and unbeknownst to them match up the big words. 'Atop the tallest flag pole' or whatever - they sorta got it.
The Eyrie. The Orc army would have to cross the bridge but would also attack from under the earth, via air elemental paradrops and goblin grapnels.
The ground floor that they spent most of their time in.
The entrance. I made a crude bridge and a simplified battle map featuring just this and the area above it, getting rid of the various catacombs and whatnot.
They got the Crystal of Air right before the battle as planned and as I did with previous one it auto-attunes and all abilities are there to use. It is essentially a cursed item in dnd terms. Amazing power with amazing downsides if they fail a Wis 13 save. Might need to increase that as they get more powerful/hopefully acquire more crystals...
The battle in film! Two parts.
Sandbox
So they elected to go north toward the Confederacy and Highroad, a vast savannah that separates the desert Confederacy from grassland Lacour. Officially part of Lacour, it is loosely governed and full of monsters and adventure... perfect! Lacour is probably too domesticated by this point in history for a bunch of adventurers.
It also took me slightly offguard, I had the next dungeon ready but they didn't go that way! So I had to prep my sandbox area.
It also took me slightly offguard, I had the next dungeon ready but they didn't go that way! So I had to prep my sandbox area.
Super zoomed out. Early days.
My faithful friend, MS Paint, helping me figure out what the shit I am doing ha.
After a trip to a Beholder-run Inn full of Spectators that ended in blood and a new player joining the game, a Fire Genasi Wizard, they made their way north and encountered a blockade of a town. Confederate. They almost surrendered to them before fighting their way out, releasing a load of villagers. They made their way to the Wall while the party decided to circumvent the blockade by going up the hills to the east of the town.
The result was the above map(s), they started in bottom right and made a number of rolls to see which way the went. Bottom left was a manticor sanctuary which was fun to run, 4 flying cores did well but not well enough, then they slept and were NOT attacked by phase spiders on the right, they never encountered the birds in the last or the trolls on the top right but they did encounter the harpies and their pet, a paragon creature. 3 health bars of 110, hit like a train and got stronger as it broke down but no, the goliath berserker put him down. They were almost levelled to 7.
The result was the above map(s), they started in bottom right and made a number of rolls to see which way the went. Bottom left was a manticor sanctuary which was fun to run, 4 flying cores did well but not well enough, then they slept and were NOT attacked by phase spiders on the right, they never encountered the birds in the last or the trolls on the top right but they did encounter the harpies and their pet, a paragon creature. 3 health bars of 110, hit like a train and got stronger as it broke down but no, the goliath berserker put him down. They were almost levelled to 7.
Moonwheat shenanigans/buying stuff/what's next
They arrived in town but not before I put a little camp of bugbears, displacer beasts, chimeras in their way... Good time to get them to level 7. I always try to have a handful of encounter maps and whatnot prepped ahead of time for various reasons. This is mainly a combat-heavy/experience point-based/get to level 20 campaign.
They managed to free the lady Susie but not the villagers, who were consumed by fire, but kind of worked out for them in a way, I guess. She got them into town hassle free, and the lord owes them one. The session after that they spent exclusively shopping, we had 2 hours or so and they spent the whole time buying stuff and seeing what quests are available so while it wasn't the most exciting session I'd say it was useful as this was their first major town in... months of real time so they spent a load of their hard earned gold and upgraded all manner of equipment. Feeds into the whole 'throw tougher monsters at them' approach I'm taking.
All the CR match, so if they are level 7 I got for CR 7 but I throw in loads of other shite. They are about to fight a variety of stuff including two hopefully clever CR 8 encounters that fuck them up a bit. I don't want to kill them but I want to give them a challenge. I've not fudged like 99% of my rolls and if I ever do it's to SAVE the players, not hit them. But trying to not do even that and just call it as it is. Brutal campaign attempt!
The main thing as stated elsewhere is to deprive them of 'resources' to create challenge. By that I mean if they have spell slots, have them fight all day, three different encounters, and see what happens. They almost never take short rests, not in a while, so might try and do that again. Even in the Battle of the Eyrie versus maybe 500 enemy tokens they never quite were beaten. The berserker has 82 health now and is tough as nails, the rogue is re-spec'd even sneakier (with a Crystal) and the wizard knows not to get hit. They also have a former PC turned GMPC who is a broken ass fighter who can cast spells from a chaos rock so they are TOUGH.
All the CR match, so if they are level 7 I got for CR 7 but I throw in loads of other shite. They are about to fight a variety of stuff including two hopefully clever CR 8 encounters that fuck them up a bit. I don't want to kill them but I want to give them a challenge. I've not fudged like 99% of my rolls and if I ever do it's to SAVE the players, not hit them. But trying to not do even that and just call it as it is. Brutal campaign attempt!
The main thing as stated elsewhere is to deprive them of 'resources' to create challenge. By that I mean if they have spell slots, have them fight all day, three different encounters, and see what happens. They almost never take short rests, not in a while, so might try and do that again. Even in the Battle of the Eyrie versus maybe 500 enemy tokens they never quite were beaten. The berserker has 82 health now and is tough as nails, the rogue is re-spec'd even sneakier (with a Crystal) and the wizard knows not to get hit. They also have a former PC turned GMPC who is a broken ass fighter who can cast spells from a chaos rock so they are TOUGH.
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| Moonwheat, credit to author in bottom right |
I also recently caved and bought a subscription for Roll20 and I love it. I just love the possibilites with Dynamic Lighting, more to follow but one character has no dark vision so should be interesting!
