Daggerford: Taking Things For Granite

Game Date: 11/28/2020
Location: Roll20
Campaign: Daggerford, Session 8

System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Azul (Cliff) Dragonborn Fighter
Esmerelda (Christy) Halfling Rogue
Khemed (Mike) Half-Elf Wizard
Neven (Steve) Elf Monk
Sylvester (Steven) Drow Warlock
Vanya (Matt) Half-Elf Bard

The Session:
When we left off last session, we were searching for an elemental key. We had followed some footprints into a mausoleum, where two of our party members contracted a disease. Today, we started by searching more mausoleums.

In Mausoleum #3, Sylvester set off a gas trap. Ezmerelda deactivated the trap. In #2, we found footprints in the dust, leading to a hidden trap door. A passage led down to a small room, lit by a lantern. Neven led the way, and was jumped from each side by a couple of grave robbers.

The party parleyed with the ruffians. Just as things were starting to calm down, an imp appeared and tried to attack us. There was a short fight. Azul finished off the imp, and the two men surrendered. They told us that they were working for Darwa Dalion (a wanted criminal), and were the rear guard for her band.

We tried to hire them to come with us, but they turned us down. We asked them what else they could tell us, and they pointed out a secret door in the South wall. They also told us about the makeup of Darwa's party. After they left, we looted their adventuring gear.

We opened the secret door, revealing a long hallway. It ended after fifty feet, with no visible doors. We found scratches on the wall at the South end, but couldn't find any sort of secret door to open.

Khemed drank a potion of gaseous form, and slipped through some cracks in the wall. The hallway continued on the other side, with a side passage to the West and a dead end to the South. There was a statue of an Ogre that looked like it was pushing something. It turned out the barrier separating the party was a huge block of granite.

Azul and Neven pushed the block Southward, past the side hall, then we all proceeded West. We suspect that the Ogre statue will eventually push the block back to its original position, sealing us in. Hopefully there will be another exit from this dungeon.

The hall ended in a multi-chambered area, containing five crypts. The walls were adorned with murals themed around the elements. There was a room to the far West containing a red mist. We started to investigate the Southeast crypt, which looked like it had already been looted. As we investigated the crypt, three wraiths appeared and attacked.

The first wraith attacked Khemed, dropping him with one hit. Vanya healed him, but a few rounds later, another wraith dropped Sylvester. Then Azul went down. Things looked pretty bleak, but then the DM had an epiphany - the wrong monster stats had been used for this module. A few adjustments later, the fight started looking more fair.

Ezmerelda dealt the final blow. We were still pretty bruised up at the end of the encounter, but we survived. We ended the session there.

335xp each, bringing us up to level 4.

Tasha's Cauldron of Everything

My favorite 5e supplement has to be Xanathar's Guide to Everything.  It has a large helping of new subclasses, at least five of which I found tempting (one of which I'm using right now).  It has a background generator that almost rivals Central Casting for its depth.  It has new DM tools, expanded downtime activities, more spells and magic items, and a huge list of names for every race.  Overall, it's a great value.

So when I heard about Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, I was ecstatic.  Even if it was just another collection of Unearthed Arcana, that was enough for me.  Unfortunately, now that I've read it, I'm not as impressed as I was with Xanathar's.    

Like XGtE, Tasha also includes a plethora of new subclasses.  Unfortunately, none of them stood out to me as something I would like to try.  Your mileage may vary on that one.  Tasha also contains a bunch of new magic items, but again, I wasn't impressed by many of them.  Then it has a few more DM tools, including Sidekicks and puzzle ideas.  And that's pretty much it.  It just feels like it's missing a chapter.

Tasha's starts out strong.  After an introductory chapter, it leads with the much anticipated customizable origins.  Unfortunately these new, optional rules can be summed up in a paragraph, and aren't really worth buying a book for.  While the third party "Ancestry & Culture" supplement does an intensive job separating genetic traits from cultural traits, Tasha's pretty much just says, "Wherever the PHB says you get a bonus to a stat, you can pick a different stat instead." (Ditto for languages, skills, etc.)

Some players have complained that this will lead to min-maxing, and to a minor extent they could be right.  But the designers have admitted that the stat bonuses for each race have nothing to do with game balance, and everything to do with tradition and flavor.  So you're not going to break the game with your new +CHA Half-Orc Warlock.  

Next up, Tasha reprints the Artificer class, which is nice for those who weren't interested in that Eberron book.  But it still means that about 15 pages are taken up by content that was already published somewhere else.  

Then we have the subclasses.  It has about as many subclasses as Xanathar's, averaging about three for each class.  But like I said, none of them really did it for me.  It's like they were running out of ideas and really forcing it this time.  Then there were a few new feats, again with no real standouts.

Then there's a chapter on group patrons.  Who is funding your group, and sending them on missions?  I found this chapter useless.  I'm pretty good at worldbuilding, and I haven't had any trouble designing my guilds.  But I guess this could be helpful to someone else who having trouble finding inspiration.

The new spells were okay, again nothing stood out to me.  Same with the magic items, for the most part.  The magic tattoos were kind of interesting.  I don't really like that they require attunement, though.  To me, the point of tattoos is permanence, so having a tattoo that disappears when you unattune to them seems silly.  If the designers thought the tattoos were too powerful, I'd rather they had nerfed them than to make them require attunement.  

An awful lot of the magic items were new kinds of spellbooks, maybe because Tasha's a caster.  I think it contains a new spellbook for every school of magic.  I don't usually play wizards, so these didn't do much for me.  They did throw a bone to the other spellcasting classes, too, with some new magic items that can be used as a spellcasting focus.

It contains a section on Session Zero, with a special focus on finding out each player's triggers so you can avoid scenes that cause discomfort.  This is important, and I wish more DMs took this seriously, but I also think it's common sense.

The book also reprints the rules for sidekicks, previously seen in the Essentials Starter Kit.  I really like the sidekick rules, so it's nice to see them in a more mainstream book - not everyone's going to pick up another starter kit.  But again, it's repeat information.  Btw, the Essentials Kit is way more useful than this book, even if you already have a starter kit, so please don't buy Tasha's just for the sidekicks.  As I type this, the Essentials Kit is $7.79 on Amazon - a real bargain for such a handy campaign starter.

It has a short section on parleying with monsters, which mostly involves bringing the monster an appropriate gift.  Then it spends several pages on environmental hazards, which were somewhat interesting.  It finishes off with a section on puzzles.  The puzzles were fun to read, though it seemed like several of them had similar solutions - variations of "collect a bunch of words, take the xth letter from each word, and unscramble the results for the solution keyword."

Like Xanathar's, Mordenkainen's, and Volo's books, Tasha's Cauldron of Everything includes little notes here and there commenting on that page's content.  Unfortunately, Xanathar is the only one who made these notes entertaining, and Tasha's in particular felt devoid of personality.

I know all this sounds negative, but I don't think Tasha's is a complete waste of space.  If you don't already have the Essentials Kit or Eberron: Rising from the Last War, then this is a good way to pick up the Sidekick rules and the Artificer class.  If your DM refuses to use rules that don't appear in a book, it's good to have the rules for customizable stats in print.

But overall, I just didn't find Tasha's to be nearly as useful as Xanathar's.  Bottom Line: Tasha's stew contains too much broth, not enough meat.

Towns & Taverns by Loke Battlemaps

I don't support a lot of Kickstarter ventures, but that's because I'm usually broke.  But when the right project happens at a time when I have a few bucks, sometimes I give in to the temptation.

Earlier this year I backed the project "Town & Taverns: 2 Modular Books of Battle Maps for Roleplay".  The books arrived this week, a month early.  Nice!

I've got to say,  these books are beautiful.  Each volume contains 40 pages of maps, with spiral binding so they can be opened flat on a table.  The two volumes are designed to work together.  Open each of the 60"x60" volumes and place them next to each other, and you have a gorgeous 120"x120" map covering the table.  

When stored together in their sleeve, the two books make a compact way to store a large number of maps.  They cover a good variety of town-themed locales: downtown, docks, interiors, courtyards, castle walls, and even some blank grids you can use for whatever you need.  You can draw your own details with dry erase markers, and your marks wipe away clean.

This is now my favorite way to store battle mats.  I'm still going to keep a couple of my Paizo flip-mats, but I might try to sell my D&D Dungeon Tiles and paper maps.  I'm honestly running out of room for D&D paraphernalia, and I don't think I'll ever go back to using paper maps or cardstock tiles.  

I bought the Towns & Taverns version, but they also sell dungeon and sci-fi versions on their website:  Loke Battlemats.  I hear they have a wilderness set in the works as well, so watch their Kickstarter page.  The books come in a few different sizes to fit your table's needs.  

So if you're looking for a compact way to keep battle maps, you can't go wrong with Loke Battle Mats.  Highly recommended.

Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden

I'm currently reading the module "Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden."  I don't read every module, just the ones I think I might run someday, assuming I ever DM again.  So far I own the following 5e modules:  The Curse of Strahd, Tomb of Annihilation, Tales from the Yawning Portal, Ghosts of Saltmarsh, and both Waterdeep modules.  

I've read through most of them.  A couple of them lost my interest about halfway through, but I think I can still use some elements of the book.  My favorites are the non-linear ones.  Curse of Strahd and Tomb of Annihilation are especially good about giving players the freedom to explore, and different playthroughs will undoubtedly feel like entirely different stories.

Rime of the Frostmaiden is also very good about this.  You can start the adventure in any one of ten different towns (collectively known as "Ten Towns"), and each town has its own minor quests.  Some of these quests encourage you to explore the other towns and the outlying areas.

As you gain levels, you start exploring the farther reaches of Icewind Dale, heading into the more dangerous tundras and facing deadlier enemies.  You'll pick up harder side quests, but you still have the freedom to accept or ignore certain plot hooks.  However, you will start to notice some common threads to some of these quests, hints at greater evils at work.

Of course, everything gradually leads up to the main quest, which involves defeating the goddess Auril.  She has been keeping the sun from rising in Icewind Dale, making the harsh land even harder to survive in.  I noticed that it shared a plot point that is similar to Curse of Strahd - once you find yourself in Icewind Dale, it's difficult to leave until the final boss is defeated.  I suppose this keeps you from fleeing, leveling up a few times somewhere safer, and coming back with fresh supplies and magic items.

Also like Curse of Strahd, Rime of the Frostmaiden has been described as a horror-themed adventure.  While it certainly does have some horror elements, I fail to see the overall theme.  Curse of Strahd is full of horror icons like vampires, zombies, and werewolves.  Icewind Dale has a harsh environment, and a few shout-outs to movies like Alien and The Thing, but for the most part it seemed about as horror-themed as any other D&D module.  Tomb of Annihilation is much scarier, IMO.

Still, it's a decent adventure.  I think the most notable selling point is the freedom.  It's practically an open world MMO given how much leeway characters have to forge their own path, especially in the early levels.  It's not my favorite 5e module, but it's probably in the top five.

Daggerford: Blue Fungus Among Us

Game Date: 11/14/2020

Location: Roll20
Campaign: Daggerford, Session 7

System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:

Azul (Cliff) Dragonborn Fighter

Esmerelda (Christy) Halfling Rogue

Khemed (Mike) Half-Elf Wizard

Neven (Steve) Elf Monk

Sylvester (Steven) Drow Warlock

Vanya (Matt) Half-Elf Bard 

The Session:

Last week we left off right before a battle.  Several goblins had trapped an elf at the bottom of a ravine, and some pixies needed us to save the day.  Khemed won initiative, and started by dropping four goblins with a sleep spell.  Azul hopped down the embankment and splattered one, Neven sped downhill and killed another, and Vanya killed three with a Shatter spell.

Once the final goblin was defeated, we kept one alive for questioning, and healed the bleeding elf.  The elf introduced himself as the King of the Woods.  He said he was out tending the hollow when he was attacked by a group of goblins.  For saving him, he gave us a leather pendant that would give us passage through Laughing Hollow.

We interviewed the surviving goblin, and he told us that his comrades were chasing the Baron.  Sylvester convinced him to lead us to them.  We let him guide us for a while, until we realized he was just leading us in circles.  Eventually the goblin admitted he didn't know where the group was.

While we wandered though the forest, we encountered a woman who claimed to be Lady Bronwyn, the woman we were searching for.  This seemed a little easy, and we were suspicious.  But she seemed to know details that only Bronwyn would know.  She claimed that the Baron didn't know she was a spellcaster, which allowed her to escape.  

We started to head back to Daggerford, when we ran into the Baron and his men.  He claimed he was an honorable man, and offered to settle this in one-on-one combat.  We talked for a minute, then Sylvester attempted to charm one of them.  Combat ensued.

Esmerelda killed one of the Baron's men right off.  The rest of them lined up nicely for Azul's dragon breath, and Vanya finished them off with a Shatter spell.  This left the Baron by himself.  Neven weakened him with some solid punches, and Khemed hit him with a Mind Spike.  

After one of Neven's hits, the Baron took him out with a Hellish Rebuke.  Then he used a mind spell to control Esmerelda, who proceeded to stab Sylvester.  Khemed used a portent roll to keep Esmerelda from killing Sylvester, and another one to make her save from the spell.  Khemed finally finished off the Baron with another Mind Spike.

Lady Bronwyn was a little perturbed that we killed the Baron, since he was royalty.  After the battle, we were attacked by more goblins.  We decided to flee.

We managed to outrun them.  We got back on the road, headed for Daggerford.  We gave the Baron's body to the authorities, and they chose to have him raised.  They thanked us and gave us each 50 gold.  I swear, we're going to have to start charging by the hour.  But at least they allowed Azul to keep the Baron's plate armor.

We spent a few days in downtime, getting some personal business done in town.  Our fame had increased, and people were calling us dragon slayers.  There was even a puppet show about our exploits.

Last session, we had made an appointment to see the wizard Delfen, and it finally came around.  He gave Khemed a book about Red Wizards.  He also gave us a wand that detects secret doors, and a plot hook to investigate the ruins of the Ambergul Estate.

It took about two days to reach the estate.  It was full of overgrown stone crypts.  There was snow on the ground, and we saw some bootprints headed towards the graves.  We opened one of the crypt doors, and saw a lot of bootprints in the South West corner.  Using that wand of secret doors, we found a hidden passage.  A set of brick steps went down into the darkness.

At the bottom of the stairs was an underground room filled with urns and a blueish-white fungus.  The air poisoned Neven and Khemed, giving them blue lung disease.  Until cured, every time they take a short rest, they will lose 1d6 hit points, until they reach 1 hit point.

We ended the session on that happy note.

Session XP: 725 

Total XP: 2509