OAWYM: What's In The Box? What's In The Box?

Game Date: 6/25/2016
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: OAWYM, Session 1
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Addamon (Gary) - Human Druid
Malcer (Graham) - Human Warlock
Thokk (Daniel) - Half-Orc Barbarian
Val Ravensword (Matt) - Half-Orc Paladin
Dene Ledford (NPC) - Val's Companion
Tatio (NPC) - Malcer's Companion

The Session:

To start off this new campaign, our characters were hired by a merchant to accompany his cart to Fallcrest.  As the sun started going down, Addamon heard footsteps in the trees.  Goblins!  Twelve of the little monsters burst from the trees, surrounding us.  Only Addamon beat the goblins' initiative, and he missed on his first roll, so our enemies got in the first hits.  Not off to a great start.

But things got better.  Malcer critted on his next attack roll, and Thokk pulverized a goblin with a crit of his own.  Then Val... got the first fumble of the campaign.  She continued to miss a lot throughout the encounter.  Addamon managed to hit three with a Thunderwave spell, killing one of them.  Then he took a hit which brought him down to zero.  Val brought him back up on her turn.

During the battle, one of the goblins climbed up into the cart, grabbed a box, and started to run off.  The remaining goblins also began to flee.  We pursued, killing off all but the box thief, who disappeared into the trees.  Thokk managed to find his trail, but the merchant called us back to him.  He gave us each a Cure potion, and implored us to get back that box.  It seemed very important to him.  We agreed to follow the trail.  We asked our NPC companions, Dene and Tatio, to stay behind to protect our employer.

The treeline finally broke and we saw the goblins running through the hills.  In the distance we saw a human mounted on a dark horse, watching us.  The goblins ran past him, and the rider rode off in their direction.  We tracked them to a cave.  There were two visible entrances: one open, and one blocked by a boulder.  We decided to see how difficult it would be to move the boulder, in the hopes of attacking the goblins from behind.  We only moved it a couple of inches, noisily, and gave up.  So we headed for the open entrance.

There were several goblins inside.  While we entered the opening, a few goblins squeezed out through the boulder entrance and attacked us from behind.  Thokk killed one with a single hit, and Malcer took two out with Burning Hands.  After a bit more fighting, Val dropped the final one.  We kept this last goblin alive for questioning.

Our captive told us he worked for a human wizard named Malareth.  We asked him a few more questions about the area, but he wasn't very forthcoming because he wasn't afraid of death.  But he did mention something about a large white dragon.  We tied him up and promised to release him on our way out.  There were two sets of doors leading farther into the caverns.  We took a long rest, picked a doorway, and opened it.

In the next room we met a pair of goblins who asked us to leave.  There was a horse tied up on the far wall, but it looked well cared for.  We couldn't reason with the goblins, so we fought.  The battle was immediately joined by a guard drake and a third goblin, this one a hexer.  The hexer kept trying to cast Command on us, but kept failing.  Thokk and Val ganged up on the drake, though Val kept missing.

After several misses, the hexer finally got one good hit in - an "Inflict Wounds" spell on Malcer.  This did enough damage to kill the Warlock outright, but since Malcer was born on the the Plane of Positive Energy (something that came up when we were rolling character backgrounds using Central Casting), the DM gave him a break and ruled that the Negative Energy spell didn't do the full damage.  Instead, Malcer was stricken with a fear of goblins.  From now on he will have to make a Wisdom save at the beginning of every goblin fight.

When the battle was finally over, all four party members had exactly 1 hit point left.  We explored the area.  In one alcove we found an eternal flame, connected somehow to the Elemental Plane of Fire.  In the drake's room we found some water that functioned like a Cure spell, and we each recovered some hit points.  Once we felt ready, we opened some more doors.

In one room we found an altar to Bahamut.  A pair of kobolds stared at us, and Thokk and Val growled at them.  Thokk critted with his first hit, killing his kobold.  The other one fled around the corner, where another pair of kobolds waited.  Malcer killed two with Burning Hands, and Thokk killed the last one.  Then we opened some more doors, and fought four more.  We took them out quickly, Addamon delivering the final blow.

In this series of connected rooms, there were several altars to various gods.  Instead of heading deeper into this half of the dungeon, we went back to the horse and tried out some of the unopened doors there.  In one room we saw a giant rat, which Thokk took out quickly.  After that was a room with three goblins.  Thokk, Val, and Malcer each killed one, and we kept going.

In yet another room we faced a goblin and another rat.  Thokk killed the rat, but the goblin brought Val down to zero.  Addamon healed her.  Thokk and the final goblin attacked each other simultaneously, and both went down together.  We healed Thokk, looked around a bit more, and decided to take a long rest.  We went back to the drake's room as it seemed the most defensible, rested, and leveled up.

We ended the session there.  Here is what we have explored so far:

Character: Val Ravensword

This my character for our upcoming 5e Campaign.

Name: Valchra "Val" Ravensword
Race: Half-Orc
Class: Paladin
Alignment: Lawful Good
Deity: Raven Queen
Background: Inheritor

Personality Traits:
If someone is in trouble, I'm always ready to lend help.
I have a strong sense of fair play, and try to find an equitable solution to problems.
Ideals: Fairness - No one should get preferential treatment.
Bonds: I protect those who can not protect themselves.
Flaws: I'm convinced of the significance of my destiny, blind to my shortcomings.

Rolled Background Details (from Central Casting):
Cultural Background: Civilized (+4 culture)
Social Status: Well-to-do (+2 social)
Birth Legitimacy: Legitimate
Family: Mother & Father, no aunts or uncles
Siblings: Two - One older Sister, one younger brother
+10% Starting Money
Birth details: Born in hospital, no unusual circumstances
Parent occupations: Father did not work, Mother was basket-weaver.
Childhood Event 1: Village destroyed, no loss of life, rebuilt better.
Childhood Event 2: Ran away from home and never returned.
Adolescence: Inheritance. (Starting Money x10)
Saved someone's life, became her companion.
Companion: Male, in love with Val.
(Companion is secretly the god of luck in disguise.)


Misc:
(from Inheritor background): Has also inherited a secret that she believes to be part of her destiny.

Val's family pronounces their surname "Raven Sword", but she has learned they have been mispronouncing it for several generations.  It was originally "Raven's Word", relating to some sort of forgotten pact in her family's history.  Val hopes to one day find out the whole story.

Other Party Members:
Daniel - Half-Orc Barbarian (Immune to disease)
Gary - Human Druid (Has a magic foot)
Graham - Human Warlock (Born on another plane of reality)

Miniature: Pathfinder Irabeth

Shattered Star: Xindgame

Game Date: 6/5/2016
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: Shattered Star, Session 56
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Bjertha Brawlbaker (Matt) - Dwarf Fighter
Fellany Mertien (Gary) - Human Fighter
Gustav Greycastle (Graham) - Human Necromancer
Maruca (Daniel) - Elf Ranger/Cleric/Rogue
Slancio Brioso (Thomas) - Human Bard

The Session:
When we left off, we'd just finished off a rune giant, and took a long rest in Gustav's magic mansion.  Then we took an automatic stairway to the next level.  In the next room there was another one of those arcane chairs that Gustav keeps playing with, this one focused on Necromancy.  There was one door, which opened into the lair of Xin, our campaign's final boss.

It was an epic battle that took up pretty much the entire session.  Xin's skeleton was housed in a clockwork reliquary, and he was guarded by three Axiomites and a couple of Elder Crystallises.  We all used our best powers.  Gustav started things off with a lightning bolt, while Slancio used a Shatter spell.  We put down a zone of Silence over the enemies.  One Axiomite tried Hold Monster on Bjertha, but Slancio had already buffed Bjertha with Mind Blank.  Bjertha finished off the first Crystallis.

The second Crystallis was Hasted, but Slancio dispelled that.  Fellany got off several crits on the Crystallis in one round, and Meruca finished it off.  Xin fired off some powerful darts that ignored armor, and dispelled the zone of Silence.  Xin's armor kept transforming, which effected what effects he was under.  Sometimes he was hasted (giving him five powerful claw attacks), and other times he auto-passed all saving throws.  His armor also had poison spines.  However, whenever Xin would roll a one, he would become stunned for a round, due to his unstable mental state.  At one point he was both stunned (auto fail all saves) and in the "auto pass all saves" mode at the same time, a contradiction that nearly destroyed the universe.

Another Crystallis appeared from a crystal in the center of the room.  Slancio hit it with Shatter, to which the Crystallises were vulnerable.  Gustav's zombies stayed in the first room, strafing across the doorway while firing Magic Missiles.  Gustav would sometimes strafe with them, using his wand of lightning.  At one point Gustav used Meteor Swarm on the enemies.  The Axiomites managed to evade the spell, but Xin took 142 points of damage... bringing him down to "bloodied". 

Bjertha kept two of the Axiomites busy and away from the rest of the battle.  The two Axiomites kept trying to use sneak attacks on Bjertha, but the fighter's Displacer Cloak kept them from hitting.  One Axiomite was brought down by a Magic Missile, and Meruca killed another.  Then Xin used Chain Lightning on Slancio, Gustav, and Gustav's guards.  Xin kept trying to use something called "Mage's Disjunction" on our Sihedron, which never worked but made us nervous.

Slancio used a polymorph spell to turn Gustav into an adult Silver Dracolich.  Then Slancio put down another zone of Silence on our remaining enemies.  Xin and Gustav faced off.  Xin hit the Dracolich with a blood power, making Gustav vulnerable to all of Xin's attacks.  Then Xin prepared to use five consecutive claw attacks, which probably would have hurt a lot... but Xin fumbled again, stunning himself. 

Yet another Crystallis appeared.  Meruca killed the final Axiomite.  Fellany made made one final attack on Xin, doing a couple of Crits for a total of 101 points of damage.  This destroyed Xin, causing the Crystallis to die as well.  The crystal tower began to shudder and crumble apart.  We loaded ourselves up however possible, and escaped the tower.

With Xin destroyed, the tower collapsed, and we headed back to town to celebrate our victory.