Session 4 Summary

This was the start of the mission of the party to find out what happened to the missing and dead men in the abandon mine shaft.  Course, going in they would be beseeched by the creatures that are in the mine shaft.

The party consisted of a half-elf sorcerer that doesn't cast spells, a half-elf warlock with an imp familiar, two high-elf wizards, a wood-elf ranger, a human druid, and a silver-dragonborn paladin.  It was a busy day.  So much so there were a couple of monsters that I wouldn't have played otherwise.

So, they go in to find some bats and spiders, and they are hungry of course.  Nature checks verify that the bats are bats, and the spiders are spiders, though the sorcerer rolled a 20 on that, so I kindly told him one of the spiders were kinda blue.  The player of the sorcerer memorized the monster manual, so he got unnerved, as he deduced, rightly, that it was a phase spider.  So the players tried to get the spider first, with the druid, having wild-shaped into a giant spider, restraint the phase spider.  The phase spider survived to its turn to ethereal jaunt its way out of the material realm and into safety.  Course, this did not sit well with the players.

So, the players were focusing on bats and spiders, quickly taking them out, however a surprise was hinted when a percentage check revealed to the druid, still in spider form and therefore knows when there is something on the webbing, that there was a surprise on the ceiling of the cave.  The party panicked and assumed it was more phase spiders.  Course, the paladin starts to advance, and a failed perception check had something come moving off of the ceiling, and was able to attack on AC, thus wrapping itself around the paladin's head, blinding and suffocating him.  So the paladin resorted to using his breath attack as he is dragonborn.

The sorcerer wanted to know what that was, and was made to roll arcana as it wasn't a natural creature.  He rolled a 20.  So I told him it was a Darkmantle, and showed the party what it looked like from the monster manual.  This was the monster they saw:

So, the party straight up shit themselves, forgetting about the phase spider that was still somewhere in the ethereal plane, and were determined to kill the Darkmantle, and then two other ones that came from the ceiling, attaching themselves to one of the wizards and the sorcerer.  The party, in a panic, were shooting and casting spells on them before the three party member started suffocating.  There were a lot of "Are you wearing a helmet...?  Don't care, that thing is ugly!  Kill it with fire!"

Lastly, the phase spider materialized behind the warlock, as the warlock spent the entire encounter hiding in the back letting his imp doing the fighting.  The other wizard (the one that wasn't attacked by the Darkmantles) saves the warlock.

So, with the monsters down, the adventures can carry on with their investigation.

Session 3 Synapse

So, the party follow the owl into the next room. The party, consisting this week of a human druid, a half-elf sorceror, a half-elf warlock with an imp familiar, and a paladan (not sure of the race, I think it was human), listened at the door, noting the sounds, including someone screaming orders in Common. The sorceror opens the door a crack to see that there are rats everywhere, and at the centre of the madness is a wererat. At the end of the room is magical darkness. The imp, who is invisible, sneaks in, and sees through the magical darkness with demon sight, and finds two thrones, one with that owl sitting on it, and the other being occupied by a drow sorceror.

With that the druid, now in bear form, bursts in and starts to attack. The warlock gets his familiar to attack some rats as does the paladin. The sorceror goes on to using a crossbow to fight some rats. Course the wererat is biting, then pulling out a sword to attack mostly the paladin and the druid. In the end, when the wererat is fallen, he shrieks in his dying breath "You said you were going to save me.". Before reverting into a human.

As this happens, remaining rats scury away, and the magical darkness fades to revel the drow and the owl (warlock was all like " by the way guys..."). It is noted that sue is wearing the crest of the Order of the Ori, an organization trying to rid the world of corruption and strife. The drow comes out of trance and says into them thus:

"I see you past the test, not bad for short notice, given the circumstances. I must thank you for ridding the world of one more wererat. Now the magical seal in that one room should be gone. Your employer should be waiting there with your pay. Good day."

With that she and her owl dimension door out of the manor.

The group go into the room to talk to the employer, an elf who introduces herself as Ailef Alsome, region baroness. She further tells them of a plight in a network of abandoned mines that were being retrofitted as a sewer system. The workers in there are either going missing or turning up dead with the rune of Knarule carved into them. The quarry foreman is refusing to send anymore people into the mines until the issue has been dealt with.

Course, a halting measager bolts in to inform Ailith of a failed business preposition. At which the elf tries to leave.

Course, the druid asks "there are many displaced due to your king, holed up in mountains, freezing to dead. Surely you could spare space in your manor for them, could you not?"

Ailith replies "Even if I did, there isn't the space for everyone."

The druid presses on , "but you could have some people in, surely that is better than no one. I mean, your manor is huge."

"Let me see what I can do," she replies, "now, if you excuse me, I have business to attend to, business that will better all the displaced.". Then walks away.

The group spends the night at the tavern cave. As they leave they see Ailith talking to the barkeep. They have a heated discussion regarding Ailith renting out part of her manor to the dwarf, and the drawf refusing because Ailith is a baroness of the same king that displaced Everholm. During this the paladin gets a drink to closely easdrop while the sorceror sits at a distance , the warlock sending his imp to investigate, and the druid shape changing into a cat for a better look.

During the conversation, Ailith hands the dwarf something wrapped in cloth, which the dwarf peeks at. The imp notes that inside then cloth was the crest of the order of the Ori. The dwarf hands it back to Ailith and tells her " I'll think about it." As Ailith walks away.

Session 2 Rundown

Sorry about the delay, you know, life and that. Anyways the summary.

So, the party session 2 consisted of a wood elf ranger, a high elf wizard, a half-elf sorceror pretending to be a ranger, and a human druid. This session the party was continuing the clearing out of the manor of that elf lady. In the room that looks like the foyer the party comes upon a room full of rats. The rats were with four mephits: a magma one, a dust one, a mud one, and a steam one. There was the front door, which was sealed somehow, another entrance that had a magic barrier on it, and a door leading to the next room.

Right away the dust mephit blinds the druid, whom was in wolf form at the time. Later a mud mephit restraints the druid, both conditions last an in game minute (so 10 rounds). The rats and mephit pummel the druid, as the druid was tanking at the front. Course, the sorceror casted sleep at one point to put some of them to sleep, for them to be awaken on the next rat turn.

The druid reverts back to true form to cast some are, which renders all the remaining rats to 1 HP, and the party deals with them easily, with the wizard casting aoe of his own.

At the end the party notices an owl spying on them. Efforts to capture it failed as the party watch it fly into the next room.

Session 1 Summary

The town of Everholm had been invaded by the kingdom further out, and the city-state was taken over, and the residents of the town where forced out.  The campaign begins at a guard outpost that is being used as a refugee camp, with a cave that is being used as a makeshift tavern.  The cave had a few run down tables and stools laying about, with a makeshift counter on the corner where the kegs were.  The counter was being manned by a dwarf barmaid.  The cave was lit up with illuminated fungus.

The party this session consisted of a human druid, a shape-shifting hermit on a mission to save/protect the earth and its denizen, a half-elf dragon-sorcerer with the pretence of being a ranger/hunter who has been on his own since his home burned down and earns his living as a con-man, and a half-elf warlock with an imp summoning who is a known spy in the criminal underworld.  The druid sat by himself, sipping his ale in the corner, eyeing the patrons as they came and went.  The sorcerer was hustling various 'assholes' in the tavern with a dice game... that had loaded dice.  The warlock was sitting with his imp, surveying the patrons for anyone of suspicion.

A elf races in with a wide look in her eyes.  "I will... I have..." she shuddered before saying "I have a ... rat infestation in my manor... I bought the manor site unseen, and there are rats.  I will give 50GP each to anyone interested in removing the infestation."

The druid sees that she is lying, mostly about the 'rats', and can further see that she is wearing the insignia of the king that displayed the citizens of Everholm.  Suspicious, he transforms into a cat and follows her out, followed by the sorcerer who happily volunteered, and the warlock who after falling a stealth check to simply follow behind her, states that he will follow.

These get weirder when the elf tells them that the manor, which is a castle-like dwelling nearby the guard outpost, would have to be entered from a side entrance as the front door is barracked shut.  The sorcerer presses her to admit that there wasn't simply rats in this place, and the druid peers into a window to see a humanoid-looking rat.  After the elf promises the party to give them an extra 10GP each if they clear out the entire manor of vermin the party goes on in.

The first room had larger rats and a strange creature known as a mephit, that the sorcorer knows are usually summoned by wizards.  After fighting these things, with the party thinking the smoke mephit was more than it was, the group collects themselves before venturing into a treasure room, with coins scattered all over the place, and the head of a blue dragon on display.  The warlock decides to roll in the money, where he then narrowly avoids being smothered by a rug of smothering.  The parry then has to fight the treasure room defence system consisting of two animated armours, two flying swords, and a rug of smothering.  After that they verify that there is no more traps in the treasure room, the party pockets some of them, while wondering where they got the stuff.

The druid can see through the crack under the door leading to the next room and can see more rats, and four more mephits on the other side.  The group takes a short rest inside the treasure room.

Order of the Ori revisited

Due to lack of interest the campaign didn't initially go through.  However, things have changed, and as a result the campaign can go through.

Now, there are some differences in this iteration than from before.

One, the campaign is going to be in Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition, so the resources that are currently available for it are there.  Next, a venue has been secured for the time being.  The Dungeon Master in the who runs the Wednesday's pick-up group at the local gaming supply shop wanted to take a break from DMing, so I offered to DM the group.  So it couldn't be any more 'come on down!' on that front.

So, if you live in Barrie, Ontario and are looking for a group, come by the Sir Games Alot, located in the lower floor of the Bayfield Mall with a level 2 5th edition character sheet on Wednesday at 7:00PM, and from there we shall go!

Don't live anywhere near Barrie?  Yeah, you can always read along at some of the adventures that are to transpire!