OAWYM: Decisions, Decisions...

Game Date: 11/26/2016
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: OAWYM, Session 14
System: Shadow of the Demon Lord
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Byzun (Gary) - Human Sorcerer
Grim Stormheart (Eric) - Dwarf Assassin
Malcer (Graham) - Human Warlock
Val Ravensword (Matt) - Orc Paladin
Dene Ledford - Val's Companion
Tatio - Malcer's Companion

The Session:
I missed last session, but I'm told they continued to party in town, met lots of new people, and Byzun got in a fight with a false prophet. Today the High Priest of Sarthal met with Byzun.  The priest asked about battle with the prophet, and gave Byzun a pouch full of money.  When the hour of the Feast arrived, we all put on our formal attire, and enjoyed a night of food, shmoozing, and dancing.

Dene wanted to dance with Val as much as possible, but other guests kept cutting in.  One woman in particular kept asking Val to dance, which angered Dene.  Val managed to calm Dene down, promising to dance with him more in the future.  (Note to self: Decide Val's sexual orientation.)  Later in the night, as our party all sat down together, Dame Gold joined us and asked a favor.  She wanted us to meet her just before dawn, to discuss another job.  We got in a night's rest, and went to meet with the Dame.

Gold swore us to absolute secrecy, then revealed that her brother was stricken with lycanthropy.  This brother, Hassan Gold, was currently bedridden in another city, on an island about a week's journey away.  Dame Gold gave us a potion that would cure Hassan's disease.  The catch is that it only has about 40 days of potency left, so time is of the essence.  The current protector of the potion, a Dwarf named Grim, was assigned to join us.  We left right away, riding towards a coastal town where we intended to book a ship.

After a few hours on the road, we realized we were being followed.  One of Gold's servants was riding hard to catch up with us.  His horse gave out and we turned around to speak to him.  "Disaster!" he gasped, and told us that Gold's manor had been raided and burned.  We rode back and investigated.  The manor was indeed now in ruins, many were dead, and many more were missing.  The Dame was nowhere to be found.

We looked for clues.  Rumor had it that the raiders left in ships with black sails.  We found a dead raider, who sported a blue and orange fish tattoo.  We discovered a journal in his possession, poorly written but still useful.  Between the journal entries and the direction the ships were seen retreating, we estimated where we could find the raiders.  Having memorized the contents of the journal, Malcer handed it over to the guards.

So now we faced a big decision.  Two possible quests - Continue to deliver the cure to Hassan, or follow the raiders and hopefully rescue Dame Gold?  It was a tough call, and we talked it over for a bit.

Hassan's medicine delivery had a strict time limit, due both to the potency of the potion and the advancement of his disease.  Besides, even if we did rescue the Dame, she probably wouldn't be too happy to see us if it meant we'd let her brother die.  On the other hand, if Dame Gold dies, there will be no one to pay us for saving Hassan.  And Gold's situation might have an even tighter schedule than Hassan's.  It's hard to say since we don't even know who has her and what they're planning to do with her.

We finally decided Hassan was the more pressing of the two.  We booked an inn in town, intending to leave at first light.  Before bed, we sat down in the inn's tavern to talk about the situation.  Soon a messenger entered and told Val to meet him outside.  Val went out alone, but told Dene to watch from the door.  When Val got outside, the messenger was gone, but a Tiefling was waiting for her.

He told her that the Iron Circle wasn't finished, and handed her a bloody sack.  The bag contained the head of one of our former contacts, a man who had helped us fight the Iron Circle earlier.  Then the Tiefling drew his sword.  Val charged, and the fight was on.  Dene reentered the inn and alerted the rest of the party.  Meanwhile, a Dark Adept and an Iron Defender joined the fight outside.

The fight lasted a few rounds.  Val hit the Tiefling with Divine Smite, taking off a large chunk of hit points.  Most of the party surrounded the Iron Defender, and Tatio finished it off when it provoked an opportunity attack.  The Dark Adept channeled "The Fury of the Demon Lord", which amplified his powers.  Byzun kept losing control of his magic, making small explosions at the end of each round, one of which finished off the Tiefling.

The Dark Adept cast a large zone of darkness, but Grim and Val had no problem seeing in it, so they continued to whack at him.  Tatio dealt the killing blow, ending the battle.  We stood there a moment, pondering the ramifications of this encounter.

So... at this very moment, the Iron Circle might be reasserting their power back in Albridge, rendering our previous victory moot.  Meanwhile, Hassan Gold is dying and needs the medicine in our possession.  And meanwhile, Dame Gold may be the captive of raiders, facing an uncertain fate.  Three possible quests, all needing immediate attention.

We turned in for the night, and ended the session there.

OAWYM: Here's Your Skull

Game Date: 11/12/2016
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: OAWYM, Session 12
System: Shadow of the Demon Lord
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Byzun (Gary) - Human Sorcerer
Robb (Daniel) - Human Rogue
Val Ravensword (Matt) - Orc Paladin
Dene Ledford - Val's Companion

The Session:
Last week we defeated Lord Nazin Redthorn, and returned to town. We did a few things in town and prepared to head for Sarthel, where we're supposed to deliver a magic skull.  We were also pursuing some of the remaining Iron Circle terrorists, but they had a couple of days head start. 

We left a few party members in Albridge to help wrap things up, but they'll catch up to us later.  After half a day on horseback, we passed through Harken village, where everyone was putting out fires and tending to their wounded.  The Iron Circle had attempted to torch the village on their way through. 

We kept on, eventually camping in the Elven woods.  Just before dawn, we saw some magical sparks around our campfire, and heard some laughter.  Some invisible fey creatures were teasing us.  Val set out some treats for them, and they left us alone.  We rode on through the day.

The next night, a giant spider called a Shadoweaver attacked us during the night.  It had the ability to vanish at will, and it did so after every attack.  It had some powerful poison attacks, but we outnumbered it and took it down in a couple of rounds.  Robb managed to harvest some spidersilk from the corpse.  The next morning we continued our ride.

The next town was called Bell Well.  It had a lot of empty buildings, but the remaining population was pleasant enough.  We stopped at a saloon/pawn shop called "The Cock and Balls".  The proprietor was very friendly, and we bought some potions and had a nice meal before resuming our trek. 

The woods thinned out and we rode on through some meadows, until we reached a crossroads.  There we faced a group of Iron Circle soldiers.  Two Lackeys, another iron dog, and a Watch Commander.  We thought it was going to be a fight, but we managed to convince them that we'd been sent by Lord Nazin.  They let us pass and we rode on.

We reached a caravan of merchants called the "White House".  It was the same merchant company that had hired us earlier, and they let us join them.  The next five days were uneventful, and we finally reached Sarthel, the City of Silver.  It was impressive, larger and fancier than any cities we'd visited to date.  As we entered we were warned that the unauthorized use of magic is not allowed in this city.

We asked the White House where to find our contact, Dame Gold.  We were directed to a large manor in the nicest section of town.  The Dame greeted us and led us into her lab, where she opened the box and examined the skull.  Satisfied with the artifact, she paid us and asked us to stay for a while.  There is a party coming up in a few days, "The Feast of Edoira", and she would like us to attend.  We agreed, and she even gave us a little extra money to buy some nice clothes.

We did a bit of shopping in town, and ended the session.

OAWYM: Have Fun Storming The Castle

Game Date: 11/5/2016
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: OAWYM, Session 11
System: Shadow of the Demon Lord
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Byzun (Gary) - Human Sorcerer
Corbin (Daniel) - Human Wizard
Falling Leaf (Skye) - Pixie Sorcerer
Malcer (Graham) - Human Oracle
Val Ravensword (Matt) - Orc Paladin

NPC Companions:
Dene Ledford - Val's Companion
Robb - Corbin's Companion
Tatio - Malcer's Companion

The Session:
I missed one session, in which we escaped from prison and rescued the Baron Stockmer from his own keep.  Today we returned to the keep so we could confront the evil Lord Nazin Redthorn.  The pixie Falling Leaf joined our party, and we approached the keep after dark.  We considered several plans before finally sending in our invisible pixie friend.

Falling Leaf went in through one of the arrow slits, and saw several sleeping Iron Circle soldiers.  She explored several rooms of the keep, passing through the kitchen and going up two flights of stairs.  On the third floor she found a room full of enemies, including a clockwork dog.  The dog detected Falling Leaf, so she proceeded back down the stairs as fast as possible. 

She returned to the party and gave us the layout of the keep.  We decided to sneak in and take out the sleeping guards.  Falling Leaf used a shrink spell on the door, and we entered through the kitchen.  One of the guards was awake, and the fight was on.  After we took him out, we went into the adjoining room and killed the sleeping soldiers there.  Then we started up the stairs.

On the second floor we fought two more soldiers, one of which started knocking loudly on a side door.  We finished him off, but the door opened revealing a room full of foes, and more enemies started coming down the stairs from the third floor.  We faced several assorted baddies, including a Tiefling spellcaster, that mechanical dog, and Lord Nazin himself. 

The battle took a while, and it was difficult because of the layout of the room.  With the one doorway and the narrow stairs, we had to do a bit of repositioning to let all our melee fighters reach the enemies.  Falling Leaf had a plethora of healing spells and kept us on our feet.  Lord Nazin had a lot of hit points, but we managed to keep him prone and blinded for much of the battle.  Our most dangerous foe was the Tiefling, because she kept casting dangerous spells.

Eventually we finished off Nazin.  Corbin dealt the final blow.  But then the Tiefling cast a spell that made Corbin's eyeballs explode.  He is now permanently blind, at least until we find a way to regenerate his eyes.  When it was down to three enemies, one of them fled, provoking three OAs which killed him. The final two enemies surrendered.  We tied up the prisoners, took Nazin's head, and returned to town.

Afterthoughts:
So far this has been a D&D 5e campaign, but today we decided to play using Shadow of the Demon Lord rules.  I'm enjoying learning the new system.  I love D&D 5e, but I also like shiny new things and this one is pretty interesting.  I like the simplicity of it, and the variety of races.  I hope to play a pixie of my own at some point. 

The fact that it was so easy to make Corbin's eyes explode is a bit of a concern for me.  I'm not a very hardcore player, and at our level we shouldn't be facing a lot of "save or die" spells.  But SotL appears to be a more deadly system than D&D.  Officially I'm not fond of tough systems like that, but it fits the mood I've been in lately.  Only time will tell if I enjoy playing this as much as D&D, but for now I'm happy to give it a few months.