HYPERBOREA » Khromarium Campaign Journal

Chainsaw · 8/28/2014 9:47 am

We held our first AS&SH game and had a good time.
Thankfully capitalbill, lige and cadam11 politely humored me through my first attempt to a) run an AS&SH game and b) run any sort of G+ game. On the logistics side, I would say that G+ hangouts worked pretty well, definitely surpassing play-by-post and play-by-chat as an alternative to face-to-face. As we went along, I drew a crude dungeon map on a community notepad, which kept everyone aware of their location and relative positioning without too much fuss and confusion. I think it’s easy to take for granted how quickly mapping and map-sharing can be done in a face-to-face game, so I didn’t mind cutting a few corners to streamline the process online. capitalbill still kept a nice map of his own, based on my crude drawing. On the AS&SH side, everything went smoothly except phase combat, which I bungled and then decided to put on hold until I learned it better. Not sure why it gave me trouble - maybe I was over-thinking it or something.

Anyway, here’s a summary of the session:

AS&SH Campaign Session 1 (August 11, 2014)
cadam11 – Gadas the Kimmerian warlock (level 1)
capitalbill – Gunnr the Viking berserker (level 1)
lige – Brandoch the Kimmeri-Kelt barbarian (level 1)
Archer 1
Archer 2
Linkboy
Porter

WARNING: Charnel Crypt of the Sightless Serpent Spoilers

Summary. The newly formed party opted to recover a few sabre-tooth tiger skins from an old crypt in the swamp. They successfully reached the crypt, narrowly defeated the sabre-tooths and decided to explore it a bit further before returning to Khromarium.

Seeking high adventure (or maybe just survival). A Kimmeri-Kelt barbarian, a Viking berserker and a Kimmerian warlock found themselves virtually penniless and drinking together at the Spiral Hell Inn and Tavern in Khromarium, scheming for a way to get rich quick. It was late in the year of the Mammoth, so the daylight was slipping away and the temperatures were falling. They needed some coin fast, as life was about to get a lot tougher.

A few options. First, Rheimar the Red, an unknown drinker in the tavern, said he’d sell them a map to the old Xavadar crypt, where he said couple of sabre-tooths supposedly lived. The skins were valuable and easily salable, especially heading into the cold season. Second, the barbarian said that his uncle, who worked security for a local merchant, said that one of the merchant’s friends needed some muscle for a local job, but details were vague beyond retrieving an item from a dilapidated fort in the Lug Wasteland. They’d have to meet an intermediary at the Death’s Door Tavern to learn more. Third, they could check the help wanted postings at the infamously dangerous Laughing Skull Tavern, where the skulls of those killed in barfights there lined the walls. Fourth, they could take a fight at the Arena. Sometimes that paid off. They chose the sabre-tooths.

Tracking sabre-tooths in the Xavadar Crypt. After hiring a couple of archers, a linkboy and a porter, the group trudged two days through the freezing marsh out to the crypt, narrowly avoiding a herd of wooly mammoths (but not the last of the black fly swarms). The front doors stood slightly ajar and the Kimmeri-Kelt barbarian found feline tracks nearby, so they proceeded cautiously through the doors and down some stairs bearing north. In the first room, they spotted some sort of long-dead and rotted lizard in the southeast corner, doors to the north, east and west and a cavernous tunnel opening leading out to the northwest. They searched the carcass and found several sapphires. From here, they moved northwest into the tunnel, suspecting the sabre-tooths were probably not behind the doors.

Surprise attack! The tunnel curved west and then south, opening from the north into a large, natural cavern filled with stalactites, stalagmites, softly glowing moss. To the east, west and south they saw more tunnels leading away. Searching east, they found a similar cavern, but smaller and with no exits. As they scouted the south exit, two saber tooths sprang from darkness, surprising them! The Kimmerian warlock took heavy damage, but between swords, missiles and a sleep spell, the group finished them off without suffering any fatalities. They examined the carcasses and found them to be malnourished and sickly, perhaps explaining their presence here and definitely explaining their easy defeat. Still, the hides would sell well enough.

Where next? They searched the western tunnel and found some rusted armor and weapons (practically useless) and a few more sapphires. To the south they found that the tunnel split into two, with a west fork leading to the surface and an east fork leading to a frozen lake, then a small beach, then another tunnel, then a secret entrance to a wrecked library, then back into the main room with the lizard carcass. Now they mulled whether to proceed north, east or back to Khromarium.

Time elapsed: Three days
Treasure won: gold pieces (x27), sapphires (x4), sabre-tooth tiger hides (x2)
Enemies overcome: sabre-toothed tigers (x2)
Slain adventurers: none

Chainsaw · 8/28/2014 9:49 am

AS&SH Campaign Session 2 (August 27, 2014)
cadam11 – Gadas the Kimmerian warlock (level 1)
capitalbill – Gunnr the Viking berserker (level 1)
lige – Brandoch the Kimmeri-Kelt barbarian (level 1)
Archer 1
Archer 2
Linkboy
Porter

WARNING: Charnel Crypt of the Sightless Serpent Spoilers

Summary. We had another good session and ended on an exciting note. The party avoided some undead (lacking a cleric), managed through a few traps without getting killed, then beat back a surprise attack by some crab spiders. Really thought that crab spider attack would finish them off. I rolled the maximum amount and got surprise, but when they won initiative, a sleep spell and a few critical hits turned the tide quickly. Next time!

Back up slowly, then jump back quickly. The party pressed onward rather than return to town. capitalbill’s Viking berserker kicked open the eastern door and tip-toed through, into a dark hallway. He scouted farther ahead alone, peeking around a bend to the north. He saw dozens of sarcophagi in a dimly lit chamber and slowly tip-toed back to rejoin the party, muttering a “Let’s check north first instead.” Moving through the north door, the party discovered a long hallway, lit by violet-glowing moss. Old, mouldy tapestries hung from the walls. They proceeded forwarded carefully, tapping the tapestries along the way to check for recessions behind them. As they approached a double-door at the far end, they heard a click, then jumped back quickly to see the two walls slam together. They identified a pressure plate trigger, stepped over it, opened the double-door and capitalbill’s Viking entered into a hexagonal room.

Hold your breath. The room held six statues, one in each corner of its hexagon shape, and a rusty iron double door on the north wall, crudely painted with an X. Above it read “Xavadar.” Demonic sconces cast an eerie green light over everything. Capitalbill’s Viking berserker inspected the statues, noting four men and two women. The two women had arms that appeared to be movable, one set in an up position, the other in a down position. He moved the down positioned arms up, triggering the release of a mustard-colored gas cloud, which burned his eyes, nose, mouth and those of cadam11’s warlock, who waited in the doorway. They both took minimal damage (2d6 each). capitalbill then lowered the arms of the other statue, which opened a trapdoor in the room’s center. Peering down, they saw a ladder.

Down, down, down. So, they descended and found themselves in a narrow hallway leading west. They walked and walked, descending several sets of stairs, crossing a pit trap (spiked open by someone else) and a Xathoqqua idol (nothing noteworthy), and eventually the passage ended at an iron door. It appeared stuck, so cadam11 threw his shoulder into it, popping it open – unfortunately there was an open pit on the other side and his momentum took into through the doorway and into pit! He took four points of damage on 2d6, which was lucky because he only had seven hit points left! He recovered a couple of sapphires and a gold ring from two bodies in the pit, then climbed back out. Stumped, the party headed back to the hexagon room.

Thaumagorga (aka Time to head home). capitalbill’s Viking beserker slowly pushed the door open, just enough to see what lay beyond. He immediately saw a giant ten-foot statue of Thaumagorga, flanked on each side by six sarcophagi. The group decided they needed some clerical help to proceed, so they carefully closed the door and backed away. They headed south, into the tapestry hallway and toward the main exit.

Not so fassssst. Halfway down the hall, five crab spiders jumped out of nowhere to surprise attack the party! Two attacked the front rank of capitalbill’s Viking berserker (missing) and lige’s Kimmi-Kelt barbarian (hitting for 6, but successful save vs poison), two scurried up the wall to address the second rank (cadam11’s Kimmerian warlock and an archer) and the last crawled up into the apex of the ceiling (hoping to drop down). The group knew that survival depended on winning initiative and casting one of cadam11’s sleep spells. Thankfully for them, they rolled a six – but the spiders rolled a six as well! Luckily the party’s dex was higher, so they had the lead. cadam11 put three to sleep with a spell, lige’s barbarian landed a massive 17 point critical death blow against his spider and then the archers finished off the one on the ceiling (critical hit again!). So, they lucked out as far as I am concerned. Should be spider food right now! After this bit of excitement, they made it back to Khromarium safe, sound, wealthy and happy. Who’s buying the beer?

Time elapsed: Two days
Treasure won: Sapphires (x2), gold ring (x1) and various spider parts
Enemies overcome: crab spiders (x5)
Slain adventurers: none

Ghul · 8/28/2014 2:44 pm

Thank you for the detailed report, Chainsaw! Sounds like a lot of fun was had. They hired a linkboy! That's fantastic. I like the party, too: warlock, berserker, barbarian, and hirelings.

Blackadder23 · 8/28/2014 3:02 pm

Nice! When a party escapes a near-TPK it makes the spoils twice as sweet.

I also think it's hilarious the PCs saw a statue of Thaumagorga and a bunch of coffins and said, "We're out of here."

Last edited by Blackadder23 (8/28/2014 3:03 pm)

Chainsaw · 8/28/2014 3:13 pm

Ghul wrote:
Thank you for the detailed report, Chainsaw!

Haha! Nice of you to say. There is an art to writing these reports, where you balance chronicling the events and creating entertainment for players and non-players alike, but I'm well out of practice, so finding that sweet spot might take me a while. Plus, some people like short summaries, some people like all the details. Some people like to hear about the social aspects between the players, other people like to read a novelization of the session. Hard to please everyone.

Ghul wrote:
Sounds like a lot of fun was had. They hired a linkboy! That's fantastic. I like the party, too: warlock, berserker, barbarian, and hirelings.

We did have a good time. The first session was a little rough, but we hit the groove with session two and ended on a high note. Next week should be good. As for the party composition... they always make use of hirelings. I can't believe they're all still alive, to be honest. Usually my guys get them killed pretty quickly.

Blackadder23 wrote:
Nice! When a party escapes a near-TPK it makes the spoils twice as sweet.

Agreed! When I rolled up the d4+1 crabs as 5 and also rolled surprise, I shook my head. I was pretty sure the guys were toast. They pulled it off though, which was kinda cool.

Blackadder23 wrote:
I also think it's hilarious the PCs saw a statue of Thaumagorga and a bunch of coffins and said, "We're out of here."

Haha! Yeah! They'll be back with more firepower. Plus, they left all sorts of misleading markings around the traps, hoping to kill off anyone else who might be back for the treasure before they are.

Handy Haversack · 8/28/2014 8:02 pm

Chainsaw wrote:
Haha! Nice of you to say. There is an art to writing these reports, where you balance chronicling the events and creating entertainment for players and non-players alike, but I'm well out of practice, so finding that sweet spot might take me a while. Plus, some people like short summaries, some people like all the details. Some people like to hear about the social aspects between the players, other people like to read a novelization of the session. Hard to please everyone.

No kidding! These are great, though. I can't seem to find a balance between one-line recaps for our schedule as mind joggers and completely overwritten long-form writeups, which aren't sustainable.

Chainsaw wrote:
Haha! Yeah! They'll be back with more firepower. Plus, they left all sorts of misleading markings around the traps, hoping to kill off anyone else who might be back for the treasure before they are.

So. Evil. And great. I like 'em!

capitalbill · 8/31/2014 10:34 pm

Both sessions were a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to the third this week. Here's my map of what we've explored so far...

Chainsaw · 8/31/2014 10:54 pm

capitalbill wrote:
Both sessions were a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to the third this week.

Me too, me too. I am not the world's greatest referee, but I accept constructive criticism happily, so let me know what we can do to improve the experience (apart from fixing my damn internet connection).

joseph · 9/01/2014 1:19 pm

Sounds really good guys! My group has discussed doing some online gaming but we're kind of on the fence. I need a headset.....

Chainsaw · 9/01/2014 1:48 pm

joseph wrote:
Sounds really good guys!

Thanks!

My group has discussed doing some online gaming but we're kind of on the fence.

It's not as good as real life, but if distance or timing is killing your real life game, it's better than play-by-post and play-by-chat, in my opinion.

My biggest concession (so far) is drawing a crude map on the community doodle pad rather than trying to describe it to a mapper. We always do traditional mapping in real life, but in G+ it's a huge pain in the ass in my experience. I have found that people just can't get on the same page with the referee or with each other as easily as in real life. Creates unnecessary confusion and wastes time. So, I think it bogs things down and people lose focus. You can use Google docs to set up a doodle pad and then send the link to everyone playing. They pull it up in a window and can watch what you draw as you draw it. There should still be a guy copying your map, because as things change, you may erase parts of your map and all of that. If they haven't been keeping their own map, then they can't speed through explored areas and may be subject to additional wandering monster checks. We also use Google's free excel program to keep track of various things in a community file.

We don't use a dice rolling service either. People roll on their own and say the result. Has worked fine so far. Honestly, I wouldn't play with someone if I thought "cheating" would be an issue. Got better things to do than police die rolls in a make believe game.

I need a headset.....

My brother (cadam11) uses one (sometimes), but capitalbill and I just use our laptops' built-in speakers. If you have a quiet room to use as a command and control center, you might be fine without a headset. I would at least give it a shot before spending any money.

Chainsaw · 9/09/2014 9:34 am

AS&SH Campaign Session 3 (Sept 8, 2014)
cadam11 – Gadas the Kimmerian warlock (level 1) – KILLED (smashed to bits by crushing wall trap)
capitalbill – Gunnr the Viking berserker (level 1)
lige – Brandoch the Kimmeri-Kelt barbarian (level 1)
NPC 1: Sorros – Hyperborean Cleric of Xathoqqua (level 1) – KILLED (smashed to bits by crushing wall trap)
NPC 2: Archer 1 – KILLED (decapitated by capitalbill’s viking berserker during a murderous, psychotic berserker rage)
NPC 3: Archer 2– KILLED (smashed to bits by crushing wall trap)
NPC 4: Linkboy– KILLED (smashed to bits by crushing wall trap)
NPC 5: Porter

WARNING: Charnel Crypt of the Sightless Serpent Spoilers

Summary. Lot of fucking death and destruction this session, heh! After hiring a Xathoqquan cleric in Khromarium, the party returned to the Xavadar crypt to see what treasure remained. Once inside, they destroyed a bunch of skeletons (child’s play), fed some Thaumagorga worshippers to a tentacle monster (why not?), had several party members crushed to death in a sliding stone wall trap (ouch!), got locked in a room with some ghouls (panic-inducing), had their berserker decapitate one of their own mercenaries (haha) and then crowned it all by defiling Thaumagorga’s statue, which promptly released an ear-shattering roar, nearly killing the barbarian, who fell to the ground unconscious and bleeding profusely from his ears (haha). The survivors hauled ass back to town, where they returned the cleric’s body to the temple and resurrected the warlock. Much gold and magic was also recovered along the way, so all’s well that end’s well.

Skeletal guards – no problem. Fearful of looming undead in the Xavadar crypt, the group hired a cleric from the Temple of Xathoqqua (1000 gp) in Khromarium and promptly headed back to the crypt. As they approached the entrance, the barbarian noticed some tracks in the marsh and they decided to enter through the sinkhole entrance (around to the west) rather than the front doors (as they had last time). Moving through natural caverns toward the main entrance chamber, they crossed an icy pond and were knocked down as giant tentacles thumping against the ice from underneath (even cracking the ice a little). They ran like hell out of there and into a dozen skeletons in the main entrance room. The Xathoqquan cleric turned nine of them (ran away) and the team dispatched the remaining three easily.

Thaumagorga worshippers – meet tentacle monster. All of a sudden they heard voices coming from the main entrance passage to the south, then saw four men burst into the room – three were wearing heavy plate and helmets resembling Thaumagorga and one had on black robes. The PCs attempted a conversation, but the Black Robe told them to leave or be destroyed by Thaumagorga’s might. Our guys didn’t take kindly to that ultimatum, so we rolled initiative, which the PCs won. cadam11's warlock cast sleep and all four enemies slumped to the ground instantly (they dodged a bullet here!). At this point, someone joked about tossing them to the tentacle monster, which the Xathoqquan cleric fixated upon as a great idea and insisted they do before proceeding any farther. So, they stripped the four of their belongings and armor (with plate donned by the barbarian and berserker), hauled them back to the ice pond room, tossed them out onto the ice, banged on the ice and ran off, watching from a nearby landing. Sure enough, the giant tentacles beat against the ice again, this time breaking it open and lashing out, grabbing all four screaming bodies and pulling them below into the icy depths. All was silent, except for the Xathoqquan cleric who slapped his knee, shook his head in amazement and chuckled to himself.

Crushing wall, then ghouls attack! They returned to main entrance room and moved north, down the violet-lighted hallway and into the hexagon room with Xavadar statues. They opened the northern door that led to the Thaumagorga statue room with the twelve caskets. The berserker crept in alone, staying by the caskets near the door. He searched a few, finding unmoving skeletons and some treasure, which encouraged the barbarian to join him. The rest of the group remained in the small hallway between this room and the previous one. As they continued to search the caskets, they neared the statue and heard an ominous click. Suddenly, back in the hallway, two huge stone blocks slid out of the walls, instantly crushing cadam11's warlock, the Xathoqquan cleric, the archer and the linkboy to death! All saves failed! Ouch! Meanwhile, seven skeletons and two ghouls crawled out of the caskets and attacked the remaining party members. The barbarian and berserker (now raging) dispatched the ghouls in two rounds (amazingly, none of the ghouls hit – so no paralysis saves) and then polished off the skeletons. Victory!

Berserker aftermath! Unfortunately, the berserker rage continued for two rounds following end of the battle, as capitabill rolled a 1 on the d8 roll, hahaha. So, in his first round, he decapitated the archer nearby and in the second round, took a chunk out of the barbarian’s shoulder! As quickly as it came, the rage wore off and he surveyed the carnage around him. Victory! Go team!

Crowning insult, then back to Khromarium. The berserker and barbarian were both super pissed at how the trap unfolded, killing many and nearly causing a TPK, so they threw a couple ropes over the Thaumagorga statue and use a combined extraordinary feat of strength roll to topple it over. When the statue hit the ground, it landed with a loud clang and suddenly they heard an intense, ear-shattering roar throughout the room! Apparently Dukes of Hell don’t like to have their statues desecrated! Capitabill saved vs the sonic damage, as did porter (back in the hallway), but poor lige’s barbarian failed and he fell to the ground, bleeding profusely from both ears, as the damage was enough to put him at -2 (after capitalbill’s beserker rage damage). Haha! Gotta love it! Thankfully capitalbill’s berserker had a few healing potions and he administered them to the barbarian, who then recovered. They pulled the stone slabs open, stuffed the crushed party members’ remains into bags and went back to town. The Xathoqquan priests thanked them for returning Sorros’ body and offered to discount a resurrection of cadam11’s warlock (only 2000 gp). Far as I know, they plan to return to the Xavadar Crypt again next week, this time heading east from the main entrance room.

Time elapsed: three days
Treasure won: Pearls (x7), rubies (x3), diamond (x1), Ring of Protection (x1), Thaumagorgan Plate (3x), two-handed scimitars (3x), chain mail (x1), mace (x1), healing potions (x7), cleric scrolls (x2)
Enemies overcome: skeletons (x19), ghouls (x2), Thaumagorgan Devotees (x3), Thaumagorgan Cleric (x1)
Adventurers slain: 5/8, including PCs (x1) and NPCs (x4)

joseph · 9/09/2014 11:19 am

You should keep a party/ hireling death tally right there with your days elapsed.

Sounds like a great game, awesome job!

Chainsaw · 9/09/2014 11:35 am

joseph wrote:
You should keep a party/ hireling death tally right there with your days elapsed.

Good idea! I will edit and add that item.

Sounds like a great game, awesome job!

Yeah, I think so. Lot of laughs, which is my main barometer of success.

Chainsaw · 9/29/2014 12:51 pm

AS&SH Campaign Session 4 (Sept. 22, 2014)
cadam11 – Gadas the Kimmerian warlock (level 2)
capitalbill – Gunnr the Viking berserker (level 2)
lige – Brandoch the Kimmeri-Kelt barbarian (level 2)
NPC 1: Nalsai – Common man Cleric of Xathoqqua (level 2)
NPC 2: Spearman 1 – KILLED (cut down in melee by a Thaumagorgan cultist)
NPC 3: Spearman 2 – KILLED (cut down in melee by a Thaumagorgan cultist)
NPC 4: Archer 1
NPC 5: Linkboy
NPC 6: Porter

WARNING: Charnel Crypt of the Sightless Serpent Spoilers

Summary. Undeterred in the face of session three’s near TPK, the party headed back to the Xavadar crypt, sensing good loot still remained. They tangled with some Thaumagorgan cultists out front, then descended into the crypt, quickly moving past the room with 48 sarcophagi (empty) and toward the stairwell leading down. At the bottom, they found a room full of imprisoned maidens and, beyond that, a giant summoning chamber, wherein a Thaumagorgan priest was invoking a demonic minotaur warrior. After a hard battle, the party emerged victorious and collected some good loot and a new adventure lead.

Need a New Xathoqquan Cleric. After losing poor Sarros (their last Xathoqquan cleric) to the crushing wall trap, they headed back to the Xathoqquan temple to hire someone new. The receiving priest initially ushered them out, but upon receiving 100gp of incentive, led them to a man named Nalsai, who agreed to accompany them for 1,000gp. Unbeknownst to the group, I rolled a chance to see if Nalsai knew Sarros and whether he would attempt to avenge Sarros by betraying the group at an inopportune time. Turns out that he did not know Sarros. Lucky dogs! They also hired a couple of spearmen and an archer, then set off back to the crypt.

No Way In. As they approached the crypt’s entrance, they found some tracks in the road. They hid in the bushes and sent the barbarian forward alone. Moving through the bushes, he scouted ahead and saw a few skeletal guards, four Thaumagorgan cultists in plate and a Thaumagorgan cleric guarding the front door. Unfortunately for the barbarian, they heard him and gave chase, but he outran them easily, being unarmored and very fast. When the barbarian returned, they decided to enter through the sinkhole instead of the front door, but found it impassable because someone had piled it full of debris.

Foolproof Plan. They came up with a seemingly foolproof plan. ligedog’s barbarian would approach the main door, incite the guards to chase him down the path and then the group would spring from the bushes and ambush their way to victory. So, he ran down the main path and into the guards’ view. I think he said something like “Hey you!” but before he could run away, the cleric raised his hand, pointed his finger and gave a command of “Sleep!” that caused him to fall to the ground unconscious (oops!). After a few minutes the party realized something was wrong, so they approached the guards in a full frontal assault, guessing they had no better option. cadam11’s warlock cast sleep, putting all four of the plate mailed warriors to sleep. They then cut down the remaining skeletons pretty quickly. The cleric ran away during the commotion, fleeing into the crypt.

Demonic Minotaur from the Pit! The party quickly marched inside, hanging a right in the main chamber and proceeding into the room with 48 sarcophagi (empty). They descended some stairs in the back of the room and emerged in a jail-like room that had half-a-dozen maidens chained to the walls. These poor folks began screaming in fear and then suddenly the group heard chanting coming from a nearby passage. Thinking they had no time to spare, they ran toward the chanting in an effort to disrupt it before completion. They entered from the south into a large room, wherein they immediately saw a cleric chanting in the northwest corner and a group of two plate-mailed cultists and four skeletons on either side. Braziers burned in each corner and a giant black pit sat in the room’s center. Winning initiative, cadam11’s warlock put the cleric to sleep and the group split up to face each of the two enemy groups. Suddenly, though, they noticed a giant demonic minotaur crawling up out of the pit, armed with a black two-handed scimitar and looking mad as hell. Breaking off to fight the minotaur alone, lige’s barbarian almost instantly took a severe blow, but then landed a massive uppercut with his hammer (critical 20, followed by a six on the modifier table!) that nearly felled the abomination in one blow. lige’s barbarian dodged one more hit, then finished off the beast and knocked him back into the pit. lige breathed a huge sigh of relief, as the barbarian only had a couple of hit points left and would have died had he been hit again. In the meantime, cadam11’s warlock found himself surrounded and not so lucky. He took a few hard hits and wound up unconscious, bleeding out and needing healing from Nalsai. capitalbill’s berserker went into rage mode and destroyed his opponents with relative ease. lige’s barbarian rejoined the main battle and aided in the ultimate victory. A couple of the spearmen bit the dust in the fray, but Nalsai, the archer, the porter and the linkboy all made it out alive.

The Loot. The party found some good stuff (below), but also learned from one of the captives that an Ixian at the Death’s Door Tavern was responsible for her kidnapping…

Time elapsed: four days
Treasure won: Diamonds (x4), Greezq’lul’s Insect Armor (x1), Uzolok’s Ring of Jumping (x1), Two-handed Scimitar of Frozen Might (x1), Thaumagorgan Plate (x8), two-handed scimitars (x8), chain mail (x1), spellbook (x1), gold pieces (x210)
Maidens rescued: seven
Enemies overcome: skeletons (x14), Thaumagorgan Fighters (x8), Thaumagorgan Cleric (x1), Minotaur Demon (x1)
Adventurers slain: Two hired spearmen

Blackadder23 · 9/29/2014 2:14 pm

Great stuff!
I really like the magic item names.

Chainsaw · 9/29/2014 2:44 pm

Blackadder23 wrote:
I really like the magic item names.

Thanks man! I find that taking two seconds to name something makes it seem way cooler and brings the world to life a bit. Plus, it sometimes also triggers related follow-up adventures. Who was Greezq'lul? Will he (or it) come looking for that insect armor? Etc

Also, I have intentionally accelerated the pace of XP/treasure distribution because of the G+ format. I think the format requires a little more payoff than a face-to-face game to keep everyone engaged and feeling like they're making progress. Things are as deadly as ever, with near TPKs almost every session so far, so I think everyone still feels like they've earned it, which is important to me.

Blackadder23 · 9/29/2014 3:42 pm

I always give out tons of treasure at low levels. It helps the PCs gain levels so I can start using the tougher monsters that I prefer.
I usually hand out plenty of magic weapons for the same reason.

Chainsaw · 9/29/2014 3:49 pm

Blackadder23 wrote:
I always give out tons of treasure at low levels. It helps the PCs gain levels so I can start using the tougher monsters that I prefer.
I usually hand out plenty of magic weapons for the same reason.

Haha! A man after my own heart.

Handy Haversack · 9/29/2014 7:30 pm

Chainsaw wrote:
Blackadder23 wrote:
I always give out tons of treasure at low levels. It helps the PCs gain levels so I can start using the tougher monsters that I prefer.
I usually hand out plenty of magic weapons for the same reason.
Haha! A man after my own heart.

I just start using the tougher monsters! The survivors get that much more XP. And it's fun to watch them toss the one magic sword from PC to PC!

Chainsaw · 9/29/2014 8:01 pm

In prior campaigns, I have been stingy on magic: make it rare, make it meaningful, make it magical and all of that serious stuff. Nowadays, I'm more interested in making it fun. I'm not sure it's fun to play D&D and have your first magical item will be a +1 dagger at level five (or whatever). Let them have some cool stuff and balance it out with gnarly monsters. Win-win situation.