OAWYM: A Bridge Too Far

Game Date: 7/30/2016
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: OAWYM, Session 5
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Byzun (Gary) - Human Sorcerer
Malcer (Graham) - Human Warlock
Marcella (Lanessa) - Human Bard
Tamir (Other Matt) - Human Fighter Archer
Thokk (Daniel) - Half-Orc Barbarian
Val Ravensword (Matt) - Half-Orc Paladin

The Session:
Having just finished clearing out a bullywug cave, we untied their Halfling captive and asked him some questions.  He was a member of the nomadic "Reedfoot" clan, and we escorted him back to his people.  We stayed with them overnight, and returned to Tor's Hold.  There, our questgivers thanked us for stopping the bullywugs, and told us they'd meet us in Albridge later so they could help fight the Iron Circle.  Then they gave us some supplies to deliver to the Druid near Albridge.

When we reached the Druid's circle, she warned us that the Iron Circle had been looking for us.  She told us to head back to town and meet with the leader of the resistance.  We disguised ourselves as Iron Circle brigands and headed into Albridge. The resistance leader berated us for our silly disguises, and told us of a supply wagon the Iron Circle was going to send out the next day.  We decided to head out first and ambush the cart.

We headed a few miles East, passing several farms, and hid in a stonehenge-like sundail.  When the wagon finally arrived, we rolled badly on our stealth checks, and failed to get the drop on them.  It was a long fight, made worse by our efforts not to harm the cart.  We faced seven Iron Circle fighters (Brigands and Cutthroats), led by a spellcasting Dark Adept.  They also had a clockwork hound with them called an "Iron Defender".

The Defender ran out ahead of the wagon and engaged Val and Byzun in melee.  Then the Dark Adept conjured a spiritual weapon to annoy Val.  These two were the biggest problem.  The Defender was difficult to hit, and the Dark Adept kept healing his allies.  Tamir climbed on top of the sundail for a better sniping angle.  Malcer hit two of the fighters with Burning Hands, and Byzon hit three with Shatter.

At one point the baddies started moving the wagon again, so Thokk threw a javelin at one of the wheels.  It got caught in the spokes, breaking them and popping off the wheel.  Malcer jumped into the cart to engage the Dark Adept.  The Adept cast bless on some of his allies, raising their attack rolls.  When we were down to six enemies, Thokk got hit and succumbed to his cursed axe's Berserker rage.  He spent a few rounds mindlessly attacking anyone nearby, so we wisely kept our distance.

We were down to three enemies - including the Adept - when they started to retreat.  We kept attacking them from a distance.  Tamir finished off one Brigand, and Marcella stopped the Adept with a Sleep spell.  Unfortunately, one enemy (a Cutthroat) got away.  We calmed Thokk and tied up the Adept.  The Adept had a key to a lockbox in the cart, which we opened.  We interrogated the Dark Adept, and decided what to do next.

The wagon wheel was broken beyond repair.  Marcella took a horse to one of the nearby farmhouses, and bought a wheel from them.  We fixed the wagon and headed back to town.  On the way we had to cross a well-guarded bridge.  Malcer tried to disguise himself to fool them, but rolled a 1 on his deception check.  FIGHT!

We faced a combination of enemies similar to that of the previous battle.  Val's companion Dene blessed three party members right at the start.  Tamir, who had been driving the cart, moved it sideways so we would have cover.  Byzon used Thunderwave on two enemies, pushing both of them right off the bridge.  Then he used Shatter to hurt three more.  Thokk went berserk again, surrounded by enemies, while most of us were safe on the other side of the cart.

Thokk took a lot of damage, and Marcella did her best to keep him healed from a distance.  Tamir finished off another Dark Adept, and Thokk killed another Iron Defender.  Things were looking pretty good, but then Thokk went down, and more enemies started running up from farther down the bridge.  We had to end the session mid-battle, so we'll cross that bridge later.

This is how things left off:
Thokk is down, Marcella is adjacent to him, healing him.  There is a swarm of nine enemies near the pair, the closest one being seven squares away from Thokk.  Malcer and Tamir are in the wagon, Val is next to the horse, and Byzun is behind the cart.  Val, Thokk, and Malcer are blessed. 

We are considering grabbing Thokk and running.  Thokk should be calmed when he wakes up.  Here is a picture of how we left off:

OAWYM: Sidequest Inception

Game Date: 7/23/2016
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: OAWYM, Session 4
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Byzun (Gary) - Human Sorcerer
Malcer (Graham) - Human Warlock
Marcella (Lanessa) - Human Bard
Tamir (Other Matt) - Human Fighter Archer
Thokk (Daniel) - Half-Orc Barbarian
Val Ravensword (Matt) - Half-Orc Paladin

The Session:
Last session we fought some brigands from an evil organization called the "Iron Circle".  Today we headed for the town of Albridge, where we were told we'd find people who wanted to fight back against the criminal group.  We reached Albridge and entered a tavern called "The Mallard Inn".  All the patrons became silent as we entered the building.  Several of the customers were Iron Circle members, and they told us it was against the rules to carry weapons around.  We refused to surrender our weapons, and fighting ensued.

We faced seven foes - two brigands, two cutthroats, and three rabble.  Malcer won initiative, and took out an enemy with his first shot.  Thokk took some damage, and went berserk courtesy of his cursed axe.  Byzun hit a few enemies at once with Thunderwave.  Marcella used Calm Emotions on Thokk, and the barbarian fled the battle so he wouldn't go berserk again.  When we had two enemies left, one of the cutthroats critted with a sneak attack, knocking Val down to zero.  Once she was back on her feet, Val finished off the final enemy.

The bartender told us to get out.  She was afraid to be associated with any resistance to the Iron Circle.  We left the inn and encountered some village people (we refrained from singing "YMCA"). The villagers told us we should see the village elder, a halfling named Jared.  So, we went to Jared (we refrained from buying any jewelry, but we did make a few Subway jokes).  Jared told us to leave town, and wanted to make sure the villagers saw us leave so they could honestly tell the Iron Circle they witnessed our departure... but with a *wink wink* he also told us to visit the local druid outside of town.

The druid was an very ancient elf who told us to visit another village called "Tor's Hold", so we could defend them from some bullywugs.  Keep in mind our main quest was just to pass through these towns to deliver a skull to Sarthel, so this is a sidequest within a sidequest.  In Tor's Hold we met the inbred-but-friendly Bran Torson, who allowed us to stay overnight, and even threw us a party before pointing us to the bogs.  In the morning we set off to slog through the bog, finally finding the bullywug cave.

In order to enter the cave, we had to climb a small cliff next to a waterfall.  Malcer, Thokk, and Val climbed up first, and the occupants attacked us before the rest of the party made it up.  We faced a few stirges and several bullywugs.  More bullywugs kept joining the fight throughout the fight, but they weren't terribly tough.  The biggest danger came from a pair of grey oozes, which did some major damage to Malcer.

In the middle of the cave there was a large dragon skull. A bullywug spellcaster hid inside, firing spells at us. At one point he cast Entangle, creating a large zone of difficult terrain that lasted for most of the battle.  Thokk managed to go about half the battle without becoming enraged this time, but eventually he failed a Wisdom save and the madness took over.  We made sure not to get too close to him.

Thokk attacked the back of the skull, trying to break through to the spellcaster. Once everything else was dead, the rest of us fired ranged attacks into the skull's eyeholes, until we finished the caster off.  We kept him alive so we could ask questions.  Malcer knocked Thokk out so his rage would wear off, and we dragged him to the cave entrance.  While the rest of the party looted the room, Val worked on healing Thokk.  It was at this point that several more bullywugs and giant frogs entered the cave.

Most of our new opponents were easy pickings, but one bullywug was an enraged barbarian who was resistant to physical damage. At one point the bullywug grabbed Thokk's cursed axe and started wielding it.  The two struggled over the axe for a few turns.  We managed to hurt him a bit with magic damage, then Val landed the final blow with a Divine Smite crit.

These last bullywugs had been dragging a prisoner, a tied-up Halfling named Heron.  We released the Halfling and ended the session there.

OAWYM: Axe of Rage

Game Date: 7/16/2016
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: OAWYM, Session 3
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Byzun (Gary) - Human Sorcerer
Malcer (Graham) - Human Warlock
Marcella (Lanessa) - Human Bard
Tamir (Other Matt) - Human Fighter Archer
Thokk (Daniel) - Half-Orc Barbarian
Val Ravensword (Matt) - Half-Orc Paladin

The Session:
Last session we defeated the evil Necromancer and recovered our employer's stolen box (which turned out to contain a scary-looking magic skull).  We took a long rest, walked back through the temple, and into the goblin cave.  The cave now contained several skeletal orcs, feasting on the goblin corpses.  Outside the cave, there was a skeletal horse and rider, a Tiefling mage, and a Wererat.  We rolled initiative.

The skeletal orcs surrounded us right off, but they weren't that hard to defeat.  At one point Malcer used burning hands to hit several at once (and Val).  The skeletal rider was pretty rough - he hit hard, and had some great movement.  Last session Thokk picked up a cursed battle axe, which now caused him to go berserk and attack his own party members.  We probably faced more danger from him than our enemies this session.

Val eventually used Turn the Unholy on the skeletal rider, who rushed out the door (provoking multiple OAs), and we never saw him again.  The Tiefling also eventually fled.  The Wererat was immune to non-magical weapons, but to his surprise we found ways to damage him anyway.  We kept him alive and asked him some questions.  All he could tell us was that they had been hired to retrieve the skull.  We let him go, and returned to our employer.

We rode on to Fallcrest, where we met up with a trade guild called "The White Lanterns" (no, not these guys). We asked them about the skull we'd retrieved.  They told us it was one of three necromantic skulls.  None of them were very powerful on their own, but when put together they would become a powerful magic artifact. They had planned to take this skull South to the city of Sarthel, but now that they knew others were trying to steal it, they wanted a new plan.

They decided to send a very public decoy caravan North, while secretly sending us to Sarthel with the skull.  Byzun joined our party, and we left town the next day.  We traveled for five days without incident.  As we approached the outskirts of the Harkenwold region, we saw smoke in the distance - there was a farmhouse in distress.  As we got closer, we saw several brigands and a pair of wolves threatening the owner of the farmhouse.  Tamir recognized their clothing as belonging to "The Iron Circle", slavers who worship Asmodeus. 

We took them out pretty quickly.  Byzun cast Shatter on two, and Malcer hit four (and Val) with burning hands.  Thokk went berserk again, and Val had to grapple him to protect the final brigand (who had surrendered).  Marcella used a Calm Emotions spell to end Thokk's rage.  While Malcer and Val looked the other way, the party killed the surviving foes so they wouldn't report back to the Iron Circle.  The farm was owned by a middle-aged Half-Elf woman.  She said these Iron Circle guys pass through occasionally collecting "taxes", and last time through they killed her husband.

We asked the woman more questions about the area.  She told us to avoid Harken village, as it's been fully taken over by the Iron Circle.  However, we might find allies in the village of Albridge.  Marcella gave the woman a few gold pieces, and we prepared to journey to Albridge.  We ended the session there.

OAWYM: Battle Chess

Game Date: 7/9/2016
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: OAWYM, Session 2
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Addamon (Gary) - Human Druid
Malcer (Graham) - Human Warlock
Marcella (Lanessa) - Human Bard
Tamir (Other Matt) - Human Fighter Archer
Thokk (Daniel) - Half-Orc Barbarian
Val Ravensword (Matt) - Half-Orc Paladin

The Session:
Last session our employer asked us to retrieve a box stolen by goblins.  We fought several battles against goblins and kobolds, while exploring the twisting halls of an old temple.  After one intense battle we took a long rest.  Today began with two more of our companions joining the party.  Our employer, Traevus, had sent Marcella and Tamir to check up on us.

We started by looking into an unopened door on the opposite end of the map.  We encountered a (relatively) small dragon, but we managed to avoid a fight, and continued our explorations.  In another room we discovered a giant chessboard, containing several life-sized chess pieces.  It took us a while to figure out, but we were supposed to move like specific chess pieces, using the pattern assigned by which square we started from. 

If we moved incorrectly, we took some psychic damage.  After a couple of failures, the chess pieces on the other side of the board came to life and approached.  We faced four pawns, a queen, a knight, and a rook.  It was a rough fight - several of our party members went down more than once.  Tamir stayed outside the room, firing arrows from a distance.  Eventually he was the only one still standing... at which point, since no conscious party members were on the chessboard, the enemies retreated to their starting positions.

Tamir managed to reach Val and drag her out of the room.  Once she was on her feet again, Val lassoed each of her allies one by one, dragging them out of the room as well.  We healed up as well as we could, but Addamon was beyond saving.  Malcer destroyed the remaining chess pieces with ranged attacks.  Then we made our way across the board again, using proper chess moves this time. 

The next room contained a couple of statues, and four human guards.  We tried talking to them first, but they were committed to following their orders.  This battle wasn't as difficult as the previous one, but we still had trouble staying on our feet.  Once our enemies realized they weren't going to win, one of them turned against the others.  We saved that one for last, and made a truce with him.

We kept our defeated foes alive this time, and tied them up.  The one that helped us turned out to be a doppelganger rogue named Jinx.  We asked him why he helped us, and he said he wasn't getting paid enough for this.  He gave us an extra healing potion, told us what to expect in the rest of the rooms, and joined our party for a bit.  We headed for a storage room next, where Jinx told us to expect some goblins and a bugbear.

The goblins were a breeze, going down in one hit each.  Then the bugbear charged into the room, taking Val down to zero in one hit.  Jinx turned out to be a worthy ally, and a few rounds later the bugbear was no more.  We healed up again and searched the room.  We found some minor loot, considered resting, and (stupidly) decided to go through the next door instead.

It turned out to be the room of final boss, the necromancer Malareth.  He was guarded by three skeletons and a zombie ogre.  Barely looking up from his work, he nonchalantly ordered his followers to kill us.  Jinx changed to look like the bugbear we'd killed earlier, and tried bluffing Malareth.  Jinx told the necromancer that we were prisoners, and Malareth told the bugbear to kill us.  We closed the door again, and made sounds like we were getting killed.

Of course the ruse didn't work, and the skeletons opened the door to attack us.  This battle might have gone better if we'd been at full health, but it still would have been pretty difficult.  We killed two of the skeletons pretty quickly, Jinx finishing off one and Marcella insulting the other to death.  Then the ogre zombie reached us, and things got tough.  Jinx finally took the zombie down, but that's when Malareth decided we'd been a nuisance long enough.  His Shatter spell hit all of us, and taking four of us down to zero.

Of the two remaining party members, Jinx fled and Marcella closed the doors.  Jinx continued to run all the way out of the dungeon, untying his former allies on the way out.  Those guards took a different hallway to check up on Malareth.  Marcella used some ropes to tie the doors shut, keeping her safe while she tried reviving her teammates.  She used the party's final healing potion to bring us to our feet, and we used up whatever healing powers we had left.

We're using a house rule where we don't start rolling death saves until someone checks on you, at which point you roll all the death saves at once.  All of us survived except for Tamir, who failed too many saves.  Feeling it was our darkest hour, Malcer said a prayer to Pelor.  He rolled a 1 on his prayer roll, which was the best he could have rolled.  The light of Pelor gave all of us some major healing, and brought Tamir back to life (as well as Addamon, who we had left back near the chessboard). 

Take two!  We reopened the doors, still having to face Malareth, the third skeleton, and the guards Jinx had freed.  The guards were still low on health, so they went back down pretty quickly, and Malcer took out the final skeleton.  Val and Marcella both went down during the fight.  Thokk faced Malareth in melee, while Malcer and Tamir each made ranged attacks from the safety of the hallway.  Malcer made the final hit, bringing down the evil necromancer.

We searched the room, found lots of wizard stuff, and made sure none of us were still dying.  We ended the session there.