Afterthoughts: The Wild Beyond The Witchlight

Minor spoilers ahead.

So, now that I've had a chance to read through the entire adventure, I wanted to talk more about "The Wild Beyond the Witchlight: A Feywild Adventure". I can honestly say this is unlike any D&D adventure I've played before, though whether that's a good thing is going to vary from person to person.

The module seems kind of easy, to the point that you could probably stay level 1 and still complete the adventure. Every combat can be avoided, though sometimes the peaceful option isn't very obvious. But even when fights occur, most of them aren't particularly deadly. Several creatures are under orders to capture your party alive, or otherwise stated to leave downed parties alone. There's also tricks to end certain fights early, though some of them require insane moon logic. For example, Redcaps don't like receiving gifts, and will drop dead from anger if you give them a present.

Honestly, a lot of Witchlight's logic doesn't make sense, and that's by design. It draws inspiration from The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and a bunch of classic fairy tales. Stories where children fly by thinking happy thoughts, eating cake changes someone's size, and witches can be killed by a bucket of water. So when Witchlight has you trading your shadow to get your smile back, just remember that you are in an absurd land with its own laws of physics.

There's not a lot for treasure hunters. Citizens of Prismeer don't seem to care much for gold, and mostly trade for trinkets. Sometimes more abstract concepts are used as currency, such as a happy memory or your ability to dance. There are a few decent magic items to be found, but serious treasure hunters aren't going to finish the adventure much richer than they started.

There's hardly any use for mapping the overworld, because the landscape of each region changes. This is a great bit of flavor, but it also makes it easy for the DM to railroad players into going straight to the next plot location.

I think it will require a special kind of DM to run this adventure effectively. I don't think I could pull it off. There's a lot to keep track of. Little things that happen in the first session become important much later, so you better write things down. The good news is that it reminds you to take note of certain events, and even includes a story tracker for you to copy.

Even with the right DM, I'm not sure all players can handle it. This module is heavily geared towards roleplay. Hack-n-slashers will still have a good time bulldozing their way through the adventure, but they're going to miss a lot of what makes this module unique.

At one point late in the story, the characters are forced to improvise a play. They're given slips of paper with lines they're supposed to work into their dialogue, making the scene feel like a game of "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" In fact, there were a few spots in the module that reminded me more of Fiasco than D&D. This is a lot to ask of some players.

It feels a bit short. I think most groups could get through it in 8 to 10 four-hour sessions. But roleplay-heavy campaigns can be deceptive. If a party really has a flair for the dramatic, they can stretch out some of the encounters for a long time. Even if it is short, replay value is pretty high. There's a ton of variables, so no two playthroughs are going to be alike.

There is an interesting twist in the final chapter, regarding the true identity of one of the characters. However, this reveal won’t mean much to some players unless they are big fans of D&D lore. The DM may want to work in some additional references to the character’s other identity early on, if they want the twist to make an impact later.

Honestly, this is the least “guided” 5e official adventure I’ve read so far. Several sections feel more like a programming flowchart than a story: IF the characters do “X”, THEN “Y” happens. Okay, that’s not uncommon for an adventure. But with most adventures, those are just side events to a mostly linear story. This adventure feels like nothing but a collection of flowcharts. You could probably play this one 100 times and get entirely different stories, but some DMs are going to feel lost running it.

Another thing I’m wondering about. As always, the book gives the layouts of several castles and lairs, with dozens of rooms in each. But since this is such a low combat module, I wonder if players will be as thorough about searching every room. With no need to “clear out this level”, I wonder how many PCs will head straight for their objective and miss some of the more interesting roleplay encounters.

Bottom line? I... don't know. I'm still lost. I'm not the best judge of an adventure anyway, but usually I can at least tell if I like a module after I read it. But this one really depends on DM and the players. It subverts the average adventure in so many ways, I can't tell what it will feel like to play it. It feels like an experiment, like they're testing the waters for more pacifist-friendly adventures.

I don't know if I want to run it, but I would definitely like to play it sometime. The good news is, with all those variables I mentioned, I don't think having already read it will spoil it for me.

Daggerford: Run Away! Run Away!

 Game Date: 10/30/2021

Location: Roll20
Campaign: Daggerford, Session 22

System: D&D 5e
DM: Mike

The Party:

Azul (Cliff) Dragonborn Fighter
Nikolice Gomez (Steven) - Human Fighter
Khemed (Rusty) Half-Elf Wizard
Navine/"Spider" (Steve) Elf Rogue
Vanya Bennett (Matt) Half-Elf Bard

The Session:

When we left off, we had cleared out some tombs, encountered Khemed/Arvik's "allies", and found a magical portal to Thay.  We used the portal to send a letter to the Lich King of Thay, asking to meet him in Waterdeep (it wasn't my idea).  Meanwhile, Azul noticed some fire elementals approaching from a room to the West.  Roll initiative.

Shortly after the battle began, a Red Wizard showed up and joined the fight.  The fire elementals set Nikolice on fire, and he climbed to the top of a statue.  Khemed went down in flames.  Azul hit all three enemies with his lightning breath.  An Ice Devil showed up, answering our letter.  It asked to see Avrik, and Nikolice pointed towards his unconscious form.

Nikolice leapt off his statue, flipping over a fire elemental and and attacked the Red Wizard.  Shortly thereafter, the real Avrik Zaltos showed up with a couple of minions.  It turns out the Ice Devil and the fire elementals were not friends, and they fought each other.  

The Ice Devil killed one of the elementals, and the real Avrik cast Banishment on the other.  Azul attacked the Red Wizard, but just took out his mirror images.  Nikolice then used an action surge to hit the Wizard four times, who then fled.  On Vanya's turn, she pointed the Ice Devil to its true enemy, the real Avrik Zaltos.  The Devil took out one of Avrik's guards, but Avrik managed to banish the Devil.  Azul and Nikolice pursued the lesser Red Wizard, and finished him off.  

One of real Avrik's guards, a Wight, attacked the party as we were regrouping.  Azul charged the creature and killed it.  At this point we knew we were being pursued by forces beyond our ken, so we started a hasty retreat.  We had found some iron coins, and used them to open some safes.  Azul found a jade frog statue and grabbed it; in other safes we found several unidentified potions, some gauntlets, and a battered copper chest.  

On level 2 we accidentally caught the attention of three earth elementals.  Nikolice tried throwing random flasks at the enemies.  Instead of fighting them, we fled towards a secret door we'd discovered a few sessions ago.  We went outside, meeting a couple of NPC Dwarf friends of ours.

We took a long rest, and identified our loot.  The flasks turned out to be Potions of Climbing, Growth, Fire Breath, and two Healing Potions.  The gauntlets turned out to be Gauntlets of Ogre Power, which Nikolice equipped.  The battered copper chest contained a smaller silver chest, which contained a smaller electrum chest encrusted with gems.  Inside the electrum chest was a velvet Bag of Holding containing 200 platinum pieces and an empty flask.  The Jade Frog was a Figurine of Wondrous Power.

Thus endeth the session.

Why I Prefer 5e

Everybody wants different things out of their tabletop RPG. For myself, there are two factors that tend to impress me: Simplicity, and lots of playable races. Which is kind of funny, because those two factors - while not incompatible - often represent opposite ends of a system's design goals. I mean, Pathfinder (1st Edition) had a ton of playable races once you got into its splatbooks, but I found the system itself a little too simulationist for my tastes.

The reason I want a lot of playable races isn't because I play a wide variety of them. It's because it increases the odds of me finding a species I really love. I like fey creatures like Fairies and Dryads, plus I have a thing for cat people like Tabaxi. Rarely are these races found in an RPG's core rulebook, so a game has to be fairly prolific for it to include them.

And the reason I like simplicity... well, that's mostly because the more RPGs I try, the more difficult it gets to keep all the rules separate. When 3.5 was current, I learned it inside and out. Parts of it were more complicated than they needed to be, but that didn't bother me at the time because as far as I was concerned, D&D 3.5 was the world's only RPG. But with each new system I learned, it became harder and harder to keep them all straight.

I liked 4e at the time, because it was easier (for me) to create a character. While 3.5's classes all had their own sets of rules, 4e pretty much just had one set of rules governing all classes. Yes, a 4e fighter was slightly more complicated than a 3.5 fighter. But once you learned to play a 4e fighter, you could play any 4e class with ease. Unfortunately, 4e's drawbacks outweighed its simplicity, and that's when my groups began experimenting with other RPGs.

I glommed right onto 5e. For my money, it's the perfect balance between options and simplicity. My experience may not be as varied as some, but I have played a decent range of games. I've played games with fewer rules, but they didn't have enough character options. I've played more complicated games, and it took over an hour to build a character.

But here we get into the argument of "what even is simple, anyway"? I got into an online discussion a few weeks ago about earlier editions of D&D. I maintain that 5e is easier to learn, mostly because I've tried to learn earlier editions and found them to be about as easy as studying calculus. My opponents kept pointing out the page count of OD&D - instead of a giant PHB, its rules were confined to what was practically a pamphlet.

And you know, that would be fine, except that OD&D wasn't even a complete system. D&D's original release was more of a spin-off. It assumed you already knew the rules of two other games (Chainmail and Outdoor Survival). It didn't set out to create a brand new game, it was just a way to converting a mass combat game into a dungeon delve.

But that's just trivia, and doesn't really prove my case. The truth is, what one person finds simple, someone else finds complicated. As far as I'm concerned, truly enjoyable tabletop RPGs started with the d20 System. Any RPG that uses THAC0, to-hit tables, or any system where having low AC is better, automatically loses all of its simplicity points. 

This is how you play an RPG: You roll some dice. You add some modifiers. You try to get a result higher than a target number. Boom, period, that's it, done. This isn't golf, high numbers are always better. I'm not blaming older RPGs for being clunky, I know it took a while to streamline the rules. Older RPGs hold an important place in history, and without them we wouldn't have the games we have now. They should be respected and honored, but I'll be damned if I'm going to agree that they're "simple".

But again, that's just my opinion. Simple is in the eye of the Eye Tyrant. Personally I consider a system simple if it's easy for me to build a character. As long as you're not the DM, then you can learn most of the rules while playing. But building a character is one of the first things you have to do in a game (unless you're using pregens), and the process usually gives you a good idea of how complicated the system is going to be overall.

In D&D 5e, I can build a character in 5-15 minutes, depending on the class. Magic users take the longest, because of spell selection. And sure, you can draw it out if you want to nitpick over your equipment or whatever. But it's still one of the fastest and easiest experiences I've had with character creation. I've played some retroclones that took even less time, but it came at the cost of character options.

I frequent a lot of RPG message boards, and I see a lot of young people who want to start playing D&D, but find the size of the PHB intimidating. Most of them don't realize how little of the PHB you have to read in order to play. Sure, you'll want to glance through the races, classes, and backgrounds, until you know what you want to play. But you only have to really read the the race, class, and background you actually pick. That's probably less than 10 pages. That's enough to get your character started.

You'll want to spend a few minutes in the equipment chapter if you don't like the default gear. If you play a magic user, you'll have to read through some spells and the rules on spellcasting. Personally, I'd just make my first character a fighter and save the more complicated stuff for later. You'll probably want to read up on combat (9 pages) and maybe the chapter on adventuring (6 pages), though you can learn this stuff while playing.

Sure, it's more than you have to read to play Monopoly. But my point is, the majority of the book is stuff you can skip for now. You don't have to read all the classes, races, and backgrounds that you aren't going to play yet. There's nearly 80 pages describing spells alone. Even if you're playing a Wizard, you only need to read the spells you're thinking of taking at level 1.

There's a big push right now to get people to try RPGs other than D&D. Honestly I'd love it if people tried more RPGs, but I find the movement itself to be kind of insulting and gatekeeper-ish. It's all "Only noobs still play D&D" and "Real gamers don't play a game just because it's the most popular" or whatever. Surely there's a better way to convince people to play your favorite RPG. Maybe you could try... I don't know... mentioning the names of the systems you want them to try? And then maybe explaining what's so good about them? You know, stop putting everything down and actually stand up for something?

And every blasted one of them thinks they're putting forth this idea for the first time. "Did you know there's other RPGs besides D&D?" Well, duh, it's the 14th meme you've posted on the subject this week. If I didn't know before, I do now. But did you know that your geekier-than-thou attitude actually makes people less likely to try whatever system you're trying to push? And did you know that it's perfectly possible to try a wide variety of RPGs and still prefer D&D?

Anyway, I'm not claiming D&D 5e is the best tabletop RPG out there, or that it's even the best version of D&D. "Best" is a nonsense word when talking about personal tastes; it's not like there's a best flavor of ice cream that all people can agree on. There are things even I preferred about 3.5, and believe it or not, there's even a couple of things I miss from 4e. And if I were playing a different genre, like sci-fi, there's a few other systems I'd look at first before trying to shoehorn it into 5e (though I do want to try Star Wars 5e sometime).

But personally, for the kind of games I like to play, D&D 5e is my favorite. It's easy to learn and teach, character creation is fast, and it's flexible enough that you can make it crunchier if you choose to do so. Yes I've tried other RPGs. Yes I liked some of them. Yes some of them are better for telling certain kinds of stories. Yes I will continue to try other games.

But when I say "I prefer 5e", it's not because it has the "Dungeons & Dragons" brand name printed on it, or because I'm afraid to try something new. When I say "I prefer 5e", it's because I've tried other systems and found them lacking something I find important, even if others do not. I realized long ago that my priorities are different than most people's.

So sure, if you have any other systems you think I should try, comment below. I can't promise I'll be able to get a group together to try it, but I will at least read through the system with an open mind and give it an honest appraisal. Just don't be surprised if continue to prefer 5e.

Daggerford: Speaking in Tongues

Game Date: 10/2/2021

Location: Roll20
Campaign: Daggerford, Session 21

System: D&D 5e
DM: Mike

The Party:
Azul (Cliff) Dragonborn Fighter

Nikolice Gomez (Steven) - Human Fighter 

Khemed (Rusty) Half-Elf Wizard
Navine/"Spider" (Steve) Elf Rogue
Vanya (Matt) Half-Elf Bard

The Session:

When we left off, we were exploring some Dwarven tombs.  In one room we grabbed an idol, setting off a poison gas trap, but everyone got out of the room before taking any damage.  In the next crypt, we found a skeleton made of gold, and took it.  Another crypt contained hundreds of tiny diamonds, and three bizarre monsters.

The three Xorn gibbered in an alien language.  Vanya understood them through a Tongues spell.  They were more interested in eating the diamonds than eating us, but we weren't totally off the menu.  We rolled initiative.  These creeps could make four attacks per round, dropping Nikolice and Navine pretty quickly.  Khemed dropped a fireball into the room, hitting all the Xorn but also hurting some party members.

On Vanya's turn, she offered the Xorn a truce.  They stopped attacking us, ate the diamonds, and left.  We picked up a few bits of treasure and Nikolice's spleen, and took a short rest.  In another crypt we found the body of a Dwarf wearing a gold Death Mask, but left it alone.  The last crypt contained a very large suit of armor.  It stood, wielding a giant hammer, and everyone fled the room.

It got stuck in the doorway, giving us time to get a few hits in before it reached us.  Azul delivered the killing blow, releasing a swarm of zombie stirges, which Vanya took out with a Shatter spell.  Now done with the tombs, we explored more of the dungeon.

In one hallway we found a large marble door.  Investigating the door, we realized it was trapped in such a way as to crush people who try to open it.  In another chamber, we encountered a wary Dwarf.  She saw we were carrying the gilded skeleton of one of her ancestors, and guilted us into giving it back.  Pretty much done with this level, we headed for the stairway.

At the top of the stairs, Navine snuck up ahead and eavesdropped on a couple of Red Wizards, who argued about whether Khemed was truly who he had been claiming.  We went around the corner and engaged them in conversation.  They asked a lot of leading questions, subtly testing Khemed, but we covered for him as best as we could.  We split the party, with Nikolice and Navine sitting down to eat with the Red Wizards.  Khemed, Vanya and Azul headed further into the hallways.  

In one room, four Dwarf statues appeared to watch us.  To the North, a short hallway led to Dwarven barracks.  A giant skull occupied one corner of the room, filled with green flame.  GREEN FLAME!  Khemed identified the skull as a magical portal to Thay.  Khemed called for Nikolice, needing to use his abilities.  

We had to call the session there.  There is no game in two weeks.  Next session should be 10/30.

D&D Next Next

So, WOTC has announced that the next version of D&D will come out in 2024, ten years after 5e was released.  From what they're saying, the new version will be 100% compatible with 5e, making it more of a 5.5 than a brand new edition.  

Ten years is a pretty good run for a D&D edition.  Third only went three years before 3.5 came out, and 4e came out five years after that.  Hopefully 5.5 will be strong enough to last at least another decade.

To me, the longevity of a system's rules is one of the most important factors.  When you ask your friends to play Monopoly, nobody ever replies, "You mean Monopoly 3.5 or 5e?"  And really, that's what I want for D&D.  I want a set of rules that lasts for so long, that it just becomes "D&D".  D&D 5e had that sort of potential from the start, with its extra-long playtest and the "bounded accuracy" keeping the numbers in check.  Now that they've had 10 years of errata, tweaks, and customer complaints, I'm hoping that 5.5 is strong enough to keep D&D the most recognizable name in tabletop RPGs.

I don't care if it outshines other RPGs.  Different RPGs are better at different things, and that's great!  D&D doesn't need to be the best RPG, it just needs to be the most accessible.  Let people start with D&D, then move on to other systems once they know which aspects of tabletop RPGs are their favorite.  People who want more crunch can try X.  People who want even fewer rules can try Y.  People who want a system more optimized for sci-fi, westerns, or modern eras can try Z.  

In this role, D&D could actually benefit all tabletop RPGs, by bringing new people to the hobby.  And honestly, I think they tried to do that with 5e.  By simplifying the rules, and making an abridged version of the rules free on their website, they pulled in a lot of new players who might not have tried it otherwise.  D&D has experienced a boom in the last decade, and while I know there were other factors (such as Stranger Things, and the general mainstreaming of geek culture), I do think 5e's simplicity was a big draw.

So what do I want to see in the new version?  Frankly, I'm not the best person to ask.  My ideas for RPGs are all over the place, and I have no idea how to make one that appeals to the masses.  So let's start with the obvious:  Integrate all the errata from the past decade, address the most common complaints, incorporate the new stat bonus rules presented in Tasha's, and put a better version of the Ranger in the PHB.

Beyond that, I want 5.5 designed in a way that appeals to newcomers more than the old guard.  Experienced gamers already know about Pathfinder, Savage Worlds, and a thousand other RPGs.  If they're not satisfied with D&D 5.5 (and let's face it, they won't be), they already know what games they're going to play instead.  While 5e tried to appease everyone by offering alternate rules all over the place, this time I think the alternate rules should be confined to the DM's guide.

I want Standard Array to be the default way to generate stats.  I just heard some of you groan, but hear me out.  Point buy and rolling stats would still be listed in the DM's guide as valid alternate rules.  But Standard Array is the simplest way to generate stats.  It could still list a couple of alternate arrays for those who want a more specialized character, and those who want more average numbers across the board.  I would also like stat bonuses to be tied to class or background instead of race.  The Tasha variant is fine, but it feels like a patch.  

I want them to at least attempt to future proof their language.  "Race" should now be called heritage or ancestry or something along those lines.  Look, I don't personally think "race" is a dirty word; in fact I think the word makes more sense the way D&D uses it than the way real life uses it.  But it is a politically-charged word, and it already was so before 5e hit the shelves, so WOTC has no excuse for ignoring trends.  If they change it in 5.5, there will be some grumbling from grognards, but newcomers won't care.  And newcomers are the future of the hobby.

This won't happen, but I want books divided by category.  Instead of splatbooks that contain 8 new subclasses, 4 new races, 20 new monsters, and some lore, I want a book of races, a book of subclasses, and so on.  

I'd like the Bard to have a specific "Bard Song" feature by default, or at least have a subclass in the PHB with that feature.  Just a song they can sing, instead of Bardic Inspiration, that gives a small buff to one ore more members of the party.  See the "Battle Hymn" feature in the EN Publishing's "Level Up" playtest for an example of this.  I love Bards, but 5e's version never felt Bardy enough for me. 

I want more app integration.  Apps are probably the future of tabletop RPGs.  I don't want to have to pay for the physical book and then buy it again on D&D Beyond.  Have each copy of the PHB include a sealed envelope with an online code inside.  

Beyond that, I think 5e is a perfectly lovely system, and I'm looking forward to the updated version.  I hope they didn't shoot themselves in the foot by announcing the update so early.  Early announcements like this have been known to be self-sabotaging, as consumers put off purchasing the current product in favor of waiting for the new version.  I wonder what their book sales will be like for the next three years.  Only time will tell.

First Impression: The Wild Beyond the Witchlight

I'm a sucker for the Feywild.  While others might prefer the more grounded, "King Arthur meets Lord of the Rings" campaigns, I tend to favor the fairy tale aspects of RPGs.  I don't always buy campaign books, but I knew "The Wild Beyond the Witchlight: A Feywild Adventure" was going to be mine as soon as it was announced. 

So what's in this book?  It's mostly an adventure set in the Feywild, with a few pages of Feywild-related character options.  

The introduction includes a chart of 100 Feywild-related trinkets, followed by two new backgrounds: Feylost and Witchlight Hand.  Feylost are people who spent a few years of their youth lost in the Feywild.  Witchlight Hands are people who work at the carnival where this module's adventure begins.

Next we have two new races:  Fairy and Harengon (Rabbitfolk).  These races are slightly updated from their previous appearance in Unearthed Arcana.  Most of the changes are just wording, though the fairy did lose its "Fey Passage" ability from the UA.  This book does not include the Owlfolk or Hobgoblin races from the same UA.

The adventure is designed to take characters from level 1 to level 8, though you can start at level 3 for an easier campaign.  I haven't read through the entire adventure yet, but supposedly every combat has a non-violent option, in case you want to make a pacifist run.  However, only clever players will be able to find ways around every combat.

The story begins at the Witchlight Carnival, a traveling fair that visits many dimensions.  It only visits this plane every eight years, so there is some pressure to accept the quest before it packs up and leaves.  While the theme is similar to the Carnival domain in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, they aren't related as far as I can tell (Edit: Turns out they do share a connection, but they are not the same carnival).  So apparently there's more than one dimension-hopping carnival in the D&D universe.

There are two possible plot hooks.  One involves the PCs looking for something they lost at the Carnival in their youth, such as their ability to smile or their sense of direction.  In the other hook, a retired warlock hires you to find his missing patron.  If you pick the first hook, the locations of the lost items are determined randomly (similar to the Tarokka reading in Curse of Strahd), giving the adventure more replay value.

While exploring the Carnival, the PCs eventually find a Fey Crossing that takes them to the Feywild Domain of Prismeer.  Prismeer is divided into three lands: Hither, Thither, and Yon.  The adventure culminates in the centrally-located "Palace of Heart's Desire".  

After the adventure, there is a section on new magic items.  Of note, there is a "Pole of Collapsing" that reminds me of Diana's weapon in the 80s cartoon.  Then we have a section on factions of Prismeer, which describes important members of each faction.  This includes some familiar faces from classic D&D, such as Kelek, Warduke, and Strongheart.  I used to have some of their action figures, and I can't wait to see how they figure into the adventure.

Next we have a section on monsters used in the adventure.  It's nice to see the Campestri (happy singing mushrooms) again.  It appears this book is full of classic D&D references, and I'm probably not even catching half of them.  

Then we have some roleplaying cards and story trackers meant to make running the campaign easier.  It looks like you're meant to photocopy these pages, so you can cut out the cards and write on the trackers.  At least I hope people aren't cutting up their books and writing in them.

Finally there is a fold-out map, meant to show to the players.  One side is a layout of the carnival, and the other side is a general map of Prismeer.  I'm not crazy about the maps, as they aren't really detailed enough to be useful, and including maps only hurts the resale value of the book when the maps inevitably get damaged or lost.  Even tearing out the map leaves a sort of torn mess at the back of the book, but leaving the map in makes the pages turn funny... look, I'm just not a fan of removable maps.

While I can't really comment on the adventure itself yet, I like what I've read so far.  I do wish they had included more playable races, but it is meant to be a campaign book, not a sourcebook.  Overall, I think the book is worth the money.

The Domains of Ravenloft

Earlier this year I purchased "Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft" and posted my initial impressions. The largest section of the book described several of the more prominent Ravenloft domains. I saved this section for last, partly so that I could write my previous blog sooner, but mostly so that I could savor the book.

As I said before, Van Richten's Guide has more for DMs than players. In fact, the majority of it feels like a book of writing prompts. When it's not offering tips on how to give your story a scary atmosphere, it's giving you once sentence plot hooks you're expected to flesh out yourself. The Domains of Dread chapter is no different.

We're given just enough information about each world to jump start our own creativity. If you use this book - and no other source - to start a campaign, you'll probably take the adventures in directions the world builders never considered. You'll probably even end up contradicting established canon, but hey, it's D&D. All worlds are your world, to alter and expand as you please.

Each domain gives examples of typical adventures in the domain. These are invaluable to me, as I sometimes have trouble seeing past a domain's main schtick. Seeing what typical minor quests look like helps me figure out how to craft my own. Otherwise, my mind might be stuck on defeating the Darklord.

Here are my impressions of the domains presented in the book. Other than Barovia, I had no previous knowledge of these universes. I won't be surprised if my impressions are off, given the limited space each domain is given in the book.

I've given each domain a rating between 1 and 5 stars.  This should in no way be used to indicate the quality of the world, just my own interest in playing/running such a campaign.


Featured Domains - These domains are given about four to six pages each, with lengthy descriptions of their Darklords, geography, and sample plot hooks.


Barovia *****
Having already read "The Curse of Strahd", I didn't learn much new here. But for those who haven't read COS, there is a good bit of info here to get you started. Barovia is the ultimate horror domain. While it's primarily themed around Dracula-type stories, the domain is also home to werewolves, zombies, witches, and other classic monstrosities. This is the world I would reskin if I was running a "Castlevania" campaign.

Bluetspur ***
Do you like mindflayers? This Illithid world is interesting, but it feels mostly geared toward one specific plot. Remember that episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" where interdimensional aliens kidnap crew members while they sleep, so they can perform experiments on them? Well, here's an entire domain based on that episode. Of course it has more potential than that, but it still feels pretty limited as a world.

Borca **
A domain filled with shady deals and social intrigue. It feels like a cross between a mob movie and a soap opera. I like the domain's two Darklords, they remind me of DC's Poison Ivy and the Toyman. I wouldn't be against playing in this world, but I wouldn't want to run it. I don't think I could manage all the complex manipulations.

The Carnival *****
This is one of my favorites, and I wish they had devoted more pages to it. It's exactly what it says on the tin - a traveling domain that takes the form of a carnival. It might work best in a low magic setting, where the characters aren't as jaded by wondrous sights. The domain's Darklord is not a person, but a sentient weapon, which is a neat twist.

Darkon **
It's hard to get too excited about a setting with an oh-so-creative name like "Darkon". This is a post-apocalyptic domain, but it's not your everyday apocalypse. The domain no longer has a Darklord, and his departure triggered this world's doom. Now the land is divided by tendrils of impassable mists, making it difficult to travel between areas. The Darklord's absence has also left a power vacuum, and several powerful characters vie to fill that void.

Dementlieu ***
The Darklord is a twisted version of Cinderella, who disintegrates people she believes are acting above their station. And yet every week, a grand Masquerade is held where poor people attempt to pass themselves off wealthy aristocrats. To these people, it's worth the risk of death to keep up appearances. It's a cool concept, but once again it seems to only lend itself to a handful of plots.

Falkovnia **
A land beseiged by hordes of zombies, where survivors are forcibly conscripted into military service. The citizens know that their land is doomed, and would prefer to take their chances fleeing into the mists. But the domain's Darklord is an evil general who executes any who try to flee. Feels more like a war story than zombie horror. Reminds me of World War Z.

Har'Akir **
A world inspired by Ancient Egypt. The Darklord is a mummy who is looking for a missing piece of his soul. It's not bad. I'm not a huge fan of desert settings, but there's a lot of potential here for massive dungeons, tomb raiding, and Indiana Jones style adventures. Just one of the suggested plot hooks - having the Darklord's soul split into several pieces, each in its own dungeon - could make for an entire campaign.

Hazlan **
A world ruled by powerful, careless Wizards. Non-magical citizens live in fear of the devastations the Wizards cause, often in the name of experimentation. It kind of reminds me of the Dark Sun setting, except taking place before the apocalypse that turned it into a desert.

I'Cath **
An Asian-inspired world that is divided into waking and dream lands. Conscious people fight for food during the day, and hide from ghosts during the night. Sleeping people share a dream where they are forced to do repetitive jobs to please the realm's Darklord.

Kalakeri *
Tropical rainforests, political intrigue, warring factions, and nothing I found interesting. It has a spin-off world, Niranjan (in "Other Domains of Dread", below), which I found much more intriguing.

Kartakass **
All the world's a stage, yada yada yada. A land of actors, musicians, and werewolves. Most of the domains are meant to be prisons for their Darklords, but this is one of the few where the Darklord isn't the most powerful being in the domain. As a Bard lover, you would think this would be one of my favorites, but it didn't do much for me.

Lamordia ****
I love this one. Basically an entire domain based on Frankenstein. Lots of steampunk tech and science gone wrong. Reminds me a little of my own Itropa. It also has one of my favorite Darklords. I'm not sure if I'd run a campaign set here, but I'm definitely stealing the Darklord and putting her somewhere in my next campaign.

Mordent ***
Ghosts, ghosts, and more ghosts. This is probably the second most well-known domain of Ravenloft, home to characters such as Rudolph Van Richten himself, and locations like the House on Gryphon Hill. Everyone who dies here becomes a ghost, so it's the perfect setting for a good ghost story.

Richemulot **
It feels like the entire setting is based on the Black Plague. The domain is plagued with disease-ridden rats, with a Wererat organization behind the scenes. I like the Darklord, but the setting is just so-so. But it is timely - if you wanted to incorporate this past year's events into a campaign, this would be your domain. Not me, though. I game to escape reality.

Tepest ****
Another really good one. This one has elements of The Wicker Man, Children of the Corn, or really any "creepy little town" story. In a domain full of evil fey, one community is unusually friendly toward visitors. But soon the PCs notice the town's odd little quirks, leading up to a seasonal fertility ritual that culminates in a sacrifice.

Valachan ****
Another hit. Drawing inspiration from Predator and The Hunger Games, Valachan is a living jungle filled with dangerous plants and werepanthers. The Darklord forces victims to participate in a blood hunt called the Trial of Hearts.


Other Domains of Dread - These domains are given much less page space, usually just a paragraph describing the world and its Darklord. What I said before about writing prompts is doubly true here; there's just enough information to spark your imagination, but you'll have to supply the meat yourself. It's hard to rate these, since there's not much information there, but I'm still giving them stars based on how much they spark my imagination.


Cyre 1313, The Mourning Rail ****
I wish this one had gotten more space. This is a mobile domain, a ghost train from Eberron that travels through the mists.

Forlorn *
I Was A Teenage Dhampir. The Darklord is a perpetually young man who is a dhampir during the day, and a ghost at night. It tells almost nothing about the land itself, though.

Ghastria **
Shades of Dorian Gray. The Darklord's immortality is tied to a painting, which he sometimes uses to absorb people's souls.

G'henna *
Features a Darklord who sacrifices people to a fictitious god.

Invidia **
A bad mother, a devious child, and a long line of servants who mysteriously disappear.

Keening ****
A spin-off realm of Tepest. Residents of a village intentionally deafen themselves so they don't fall victim to the wails of a nearby banshee.

Klorr ***
An apocalypse world. This is where other domains go to die.

Markovia ***
A land of sapient animals, the result of a scientist's strange experiments.

The Nightmare Lands ***
Exactly what it says on the tin.

Niranjan ***
This was once a part of Kalakeri, but it became its own domain. In a remote monastery, a wizened sage offers inner peace to those who seek out this domain. Except it's all a scam, and those who fall for it are stripped of their possessions and lives.

Nova Vaasa *
A nomadic tribe led by a Darklord with a split personality.

Odaire ****
Evil toys killed all the parents in a village, and now the children are literally ruled by a puppet dictator.

The Rider's Bridge **
A haunted bridge leading who-knows-where, guarded by a headless horseman. Cool and creepy, but feels like it could just be an encounter in another domain.

Risibilos ***
A music hall featuring a cursed ventriloquist act.

Scaena ****
A theater that only produces bloody, deadly plays.

Sea of Sorrows ****
A pirate ship with a cursed crew travels the waters between domains. There's a lot of potential with this one, and it could easily be worked into any Ravenloft domain that borders the ocean.

The Shadowlands **
This feels like a corruption of the King Arthur legend, but it doesn't have enough information to get my imagination started.

Souragne **
The Darklord is a sadistic warden who enjoys torturing prisoners.

Staunton Bluffs ***
A neverending war, as a traitor is forced to relive the worst day of her life over and over.

Tovag **
Once Vecna's champion, the vampire Kas betrayed his master. Now he searches the domains of Ravenloft to find his infamous sword, so he can face Vecna again.

Vhage Agency ***
A single-room domain, the office of a detective agency. Everything appears black-and-white, and the detective/Darklord tracks mysteries across all of Ravenloft's domains.

Zherisia **
A city where citizens are stalked by a doppelganger serial killer.

Daggerford: Khemed is Sus

 Game Date: 9/4/2021

Location: Roll20
Campaign: Daggerford, Session 20

System: D&D 5e
DM: Mike

The Party:
Azul (Cliff) Dragonborn Fighter

Nikolice Gomez (Steven) - Human Fighter 

Khemed (Rusty) Half-Elf Wizard
Navine/"Spider" (Steve) Elf Rogue
Vanya (Matt) Half-Elf Bard

The Session:

When we left off, we were running around the halls of Dragonspear Castle, and ran straight into a jailbreak.  Several humans, elves, and halflings were fleeing from Red Wizards and Undead.  We changed perspective to see what Khemed had been doing at the same time.

While we had been exploring last session, Khemed had been working with an apprentice wizard, who wanted to overthrow the imposter leader of the Red Wizards.  The apprentice had mistaken Khemed for their true leader, so Khemed played the part.

The apprentice showed Khemed around their operations, including the prison cells guarded by wights.  Khemed tried to bluff his authority over the wights, but failed.  The wights attacked.  The apprentice fired off a fireball spell, hitting all the wights and himself.  The fireball also destroyed the cell doors, causing the prison break the rest of the party encountered at the end of last session.

The apprentice prepared to throw another fireball at the fleeing prisoners, hoping to raise them as undead slaves.  Before he could fire, Navine fired an arrow at the apprentice.  Khemed then pulled rank and ordered the apprentice not to fire.  Finally... somehow... we managed to deescalate the fighting, and reached a truce.  We took a short rest.

We left our Dwarf allies and ex-prisoners in a room full of Dwarven ale barrels, and we accompanied the Red Wizards as we explored more of the castle.  Navine scouted North to look around the corner, and saw where two wights were still guarding the Dwarven King's room.  She fired off a shot at one wight, then ran back to the party.  We all prepared actions, but the wights didn't attack us.  Navine went back to the corner and looked again, but the wights were gone.

We headed back to the room where we fought all the suits of armor last session.  There were a couple of doors on the North wall that allowed you to regenerate hit points and spell slots faster.  We opened the doors to find some animated armors waiting for us.  An imp joined the fight, but was taken out almost immediately.  Khemed enlarged Azul, who fought two armors in a doorway.  Nikolice killed one armor with a psionic strike, and Khemed killed one with a firebolt.  Navine finished off the final one by firing a shot between the enlarged Azul's legs.

Vanya used the spell recovery room, along with the Red Wizards.  She chatted with them, playing up Khemed's false identity.  They were skeptical, but Vanya rolled high on her deception check.  Azul and Nikolice used the hit point recovery room.  Meanwhile, Khemed explored some of the nearby halls, discovering some barrels of tar.  Once we were all rested, we headed South.  In one room, Nikolice found a large, flat, iron coin.  This was significant because we've found several chests with coin slots in various rooms.

Then we spotted some giant rats peeking from around the corner to the South.  Nikolice gave them some rations, but more showed up.  Soon he had seven giant rats staring at him expectantly.  He tried to tame them, but rolled badly.  Then Azul used his dragon breath on them, and they fled.  

We explored more hallways.  At the end of one was a small room, with another one of those iron chests.  There was also a hole in the wall, about Dwarf height.  Navine saw someone staring at him through the doorway, but they ran off.

Nikolice put the coin into the safe, and it opened.  It contained a Climber's Kit, a Healer's Kit, 3 flasks of Alchemist's Fire, a bronze merchant's scale, and a magnifying glass.  We went back South where the rats had been, and found a secret door to the outside.  In another hallway we found some stairs covered in rubble.  

We returned to the hallway East of the regeneration rooms, and headed North.  At the end of the hallway, another hallway ran West-East, with five doors on the North side.  Each doorway led to a crypt containing a sarcophagus.  The middle sarcophagus appeared to be opened.  Nikolice and Navine went to the middle crypt and examined all the frescoes in the room.  This is where we ended the session.  

Daggerford: Navine Shot First

Game Date: 8/21/2021

Location: Roll20
Campaign: Daggerford, Session 19

System: D&D 5e
DM: Mike

The Party:
Azul (Cliff) Dragonborn Fighter

Nikolice Gomez (Steven) - Human Fighter (Absent)

Khemed (Rusty) Half-Elf Wizard
Navine/"Spider" (Steve) Elf Rogue
Vanya (Matt) Half-Elf Bard

The Session:

When we left off, we had separated from Khemed, and found ourselves face-to-face with the venerable Dwarven king.  We spoke to him for a bit.  Vanya managed to offend him at first, but Navine was able to recover for us.  The king told us a bit of the history of Illefarn.  He told us that the halls were plagued with both ghosts and Red Wizards.  We asked how he could help, but he didn't have much hope.  He said if we took out the wizards, the ghosts would overrun the halls, and vice versa.

We asked if we could have some help against the Red Wizards, who were also looking for the same Fire Key as we are.  He couldn't help, as he was bound by an agreement with the Red Wizards.  But a couple of his subjects agreed to help us.  We left the king to his depression, and explored more dungeon.  Our Dwarven escorts dissuaded us from the Northeast hallway, so we sent Navine to scout ahead.  The Rogue found a large empty room that looked like the site of a battle.  We saw more stairs, but decided to clear out this level first.

We kept checking out more rooms and hallways.  In a room to the Northwest, we saw a man in red robes, working on some masonry.  He was accompanied by two Dwarf assistants, and the room contained ten suits of Dwarven armor.  The wizard gestured us to wait, as he was engrossed in his work.  Navine shot the Red Wizard.

Azul rushed in, striking the wizard twice.  But then the suits of armor came to life, and surrounded the Dragonborn.  Azul used lightning breath, hurting the wizard and killing one of his bodyguards.  Azul escaped the room, but the wizard hit us with a fireball.  The suits of armor stopped attacking whenever we weren't in their line-of-sight, so we tried to stay out of the room as much as possible.

The wizard fired another fireball, then fled out the opposite door.  We spent a few more rounds  fighting the suits of armor.  A couple of Dwarves approached us from the South hallway, acting suspiciously.  Navine heard them speaking to each other using a Red Wizard dialect.  The suits of armor were immune to Vanya's Vicious Mockery, so she helped to revive one of the NPC Dwarves who had been hit with a fireball earlier.

With four suits of armor remaining, we decided to drop out of combat and leave the room alone.  We headed toward the king's chambers, but as we reached that hallway, we saw two undead creatures guarding the front of the entrance.  We sneaked past them and continued South.  We heard a commotion further South, and went to check it out.  

Navine scouted ahead.  Several disheveled people ran past her, including some Elves and Halflings.  Then she came across a chaotic scene involving Khemed, more wizards and some undead.  We're not even sure which side Khemed is on at this point, but we ended the session on that cliffhanger. 

The Ups and Downs of Metagaming

Usually, if someone talks about metagaming, they're specifically referring to the act of using out-of-character knowledge to give yourself an in-game advantage.  For example, your character has never heard of the exotic monster you now face.  But you, the player, has read the Monster Manual, and you know that this monster is weak to cold.  Your character uses this out-of-game knowledge, and defeats the monster using ice spells.

Some consider this cheating, some consider it a necessary evil to speed up combat, and some just don't really care.  But that's not really the point of this blog.  Today I want to talk about some of the less commonly recognized forms of metagaming.  

Eleven years ago today, I played a D&D 4e session that took place on a zombie-infested island.  I'm not going to link to the session, because I don't want to blatantly call out the problem player by name, but you can find my session recap if you look hard enough.

One of the players, let's call him José, was a bit of a rules lawyer.  He had a reputation for being good at combat tactics, which is probably why he liked 4e so much.  But he also had a tendency to pick fight over flight, even when all signs were pointing to flight.

In this session, scores of zombies converged on us, herding us towards a church.  The plot required us to take refuge in the church.  Tactics-wise, our smartest move would be seek refuge in the church.  Common sense told us that we would be safest in the church.  Really, the DM might as well have shown us giant red arrows floating in the sky, pointing at the church.

José would not be herded.  He had total confidence that his character could survive hundreds, if not thousands of zombies.  For him, D&D was about combat, so this was heaven for him.  The rest of us were a bit less enthused by the endless hordes.  Especially the squishy bard and warlock.  

Since José wouldn't follow us toward the church, we climbed onto the roof of a house.  A few zombies tried to climb after us, but they were incapable of making it that far up.  We were safe to pick off zombies from a distance, with little risk.

But José wouldn't have it.  He didn't want to climb onto the roof, because he didn't have any decent ranged attacks.  But he also didn't like that he was the only one taking damage.  So he resorted to psychological warfare - he gave us a guilt trip.  "Your hit points are a party resource," he told us.  "Now get down here and take your licks with the rest of the party."

Our bard and warlock were not designed for melee.  The warlock in particular was a glass cannon.  From the roof, he could take out three or four zombies per round.  My bard wasn't quite as destructive, but her support abilities were still helpful to the other characters.  On the ground, getting pounded from all sides, neither the bard nor the warlock would have lasted three rounds.  But José, who considered himself a master tactician, tried to make us feel bad for maintaining our position.

And at the time, we did feel bad about it, and we even started to climb back down.  But we somehow managed to convince him that our opponents were infinite, that this was more of a roleplay encounter than combat, and that he wasn't really earning more XP so much as bleeding out his own resources.  We fled to the church and barricaded the door behind us, surviving to play another session.

"Your hit points are a party resource" burns me to this day.  Not only was José's request tactically unsound, but it reduced our characters to numbers on a sheet.  In a way, that sums up everything I didn't like about Fourth Edition.  It's like it was designed from the ground up to make people think of their characters as data instead of people.  

José's request was also metagaming, to a degree I hadn't previously experienced in a D&D game.  Our characters weren't exactly cowards, but it still would have been insanely out-of-character for them to do something so reckless as to dive into a swarm of zombies just to get XP.

Of course, it was also metagaming for me to recognize it was a plot encounter.  I knew early on that zombies would keep spawning forever, because the goal was to herd us to the church.  But it was also the most logical thing for our characters to do, so that little bit of metagaming wouldn't have hurt the story.

Since then, I've seen a lot of metagaming from both players and DMs, but never anything that dramatic.  One thing people forget is that metagaming works both ways.  Sometimes players act on knowledge they couldn't have had, sure.  But sometimes the players are denied knowledge their characters should have.  In both cases, out-of-game knowledge (or lack thereof) influences in-character actions.

One fun part of D&D is solving puzzles.  Unfortunately, sometimes the players aren't as smart as the characters.  It's always funny when character with intelligence as their dump stat solves the puzzle, simply because that was the player who figured it out.  But other times, the party is stumped even though some of the characters have 20 INT.  

Of course, a good DM won't let the story grind to a halt over such a thing, and will give the players hints in exchange for INT checks, or have an NPC help them.  But it can be frustrating playing a character smarter than you are, when most of the puzzles are designed for the players to solve, rather than the characters.  

My point is, it isn't really metagaming for a player to ask for hints to solve a puzzle.  The metagaming occurs when the DM requires an 8 INT player to solve a puzzle his 20 INT character should have figured out instantly.

Back when I hosted a NeverWinter Nights server, I had a lot of talks with other module designers.  One of my designer friends didn't like the fact that the game showed the names of characters above their heads.  From a roleplaying perspective, this allowed you to know another character's name before you had actually been introduced.  He was looking for a way to disable that feature for his module.

I strongly disagreed.  As I explained to him, NWN only had about ten heads for each race.  This did not mean that humans only had ten different faces in Faerûn.  The fact is, the characters had access to more data than the players did, because in-character, they could recognize each other's faces.  Having our names over our heads was an out-of-character tool that actually helped players stay in-character.

I mean, what if two players happened to use the same head, and wore similar outfits?  This actually happened to me on multiple occasions.  If it weren't for the names over our heads, the rest of the party wouldn't have known who was who.  Does this mean they were twins in-game?  Obviously not.  From the characters' point of view, they would have had completely different faces.

One NWN server I played on was very strict about roleplaying.  I liked the RP-heavy environment it created, but sometimes the moderators went too far and it actually broke the immersion.  The moderators often complained that players leveled too fast, they spent too much time farming for XP, and that they treated death like a slap on the wrist.

They often threatened to make death more permanent, so that players would pick their battles more carefully.  It sounds good on paper, I guess, but did they consider how often PCs got killed by lag?  Or server crashes, or their computers locking up?  I'd be pretty pissed if my computer crashed, and when I got back in my character was permanently dead, all in the name of "better roleplaying."  There's nothing "in character" about that, just bad moderators.

A more recent example is from my current Daggerford campaign.  In an early session, my bard decided to fire a Shatter spell into a room full of centipedes.  This turned out to be a bad idea, because another party member was in the room with the centipedes.  So why did she fire?  That's not like her.

Well, it's because we were using Roll20, and the other party member was occupying the same space as a centipede swarm.  Roll20 displayed the centipede token on top of the character token.  In character, Vanya definitely would have seen her teammate in there, fighting off the centipedes.  The other players warned me it was a bad idea, but they only said that it was a waste of a spell slot.  None of them mentioned that there was a party member in there.

When I realized my mistake, I told the DM that I wouldn't have done it if the player's token had been visible.  But it was too late.  I still think it was a bad call by the DM, but everyone makes bad calls now and then.  The fact remains that my character would have made a different decision if we'd been playing in person, with miniatures.  

Requiring players stick to decisions influenced by interface problems is a form of metagaming.  Maybe not metagaming in the traditional sense, but it's still allowing out-of-game factors to affect the story.  The format should never change the plot.  

The bottom line is, while a little metagaming can be good for the game, most of the time it's a bad thing.  But reverse metagaming - that is, letting out-of-character ignorance slow down the game - can be even worse.

Daggerford: Splitting the Party

Game Date: 8/7/2021

Location: Roll20
Campaign: Daggerford, Session 18

System: D&D 5e
DM: Mike

The Party:
Azul (Cliff) Dragonborn Fighter

Nikolice Gomez (Steven) - Human Fighter

Khemed (Rusty) Half-Elf Wizard
Navine/"Spider" (Steve) Elf Rogue
Vanya (Matt) Half-Elf Bard

The Session:

Last session ended mid-dungeon, on a quest to find the Elemental Key of Fire.  We were still hurting a bit from our last fight, so we took a short rest in the temple room.  During the rest, we felt like we were being watched, and we could hear some movement from elsewhere in the dungeon.  There was a large anvil in the center of the room, with "Praise Moradin" inscribed on it in Dwarven.  Khemed cast Detect Magic, and discovered that the anvil was full of conjuration magic.  We pondered trying to move the anvil, or interact with it in some way.

We tried striking the anvil with a hammer we found in a nearby room.  A spectral Dwarf child approached us, and gave us a warning. "Shh!  They'll hear you."  After a bit more interaction, he ran off.  We heard some other Dwarven voices from a nearby room.  Azul peeked around the corner, and promptly failed a perception check.  

A couple of Stoneghosts attacked Azul.  One of them phased through the wall and attacked Vanya.  After a couple of rounds, they both fled into the walls.  We decided to explore one of the rooms to the West, where we found the remnants of a classroom.  Azul heard another baby crying in the distance.  We noticed that the ceiling of the room was bulging, like it was about to collapse.

In another room we found a nursery, and some Dwarven picks in another.  Then we heard the howling of Orcs running toward us.  Several Clotskull Orcs and a Red Wizard quickly approached, and we rolled initiative.  One attacked Vanya, and two went straight for Khemed.  Nikolice pulled one Orc towards himself with his Psionic powers, and Azul finished that one off.  

The Red Wizard saw Khemed, looked afraid, and vanished.  One Orc hit Vanya with two greataxe attacks, dropping her.  Another one knocked Khemed down.  The rest of the party finished off the Orcs, and helped revive the downed party members.  Since two of us were out of hit points, the party retreated from the dungeon and looked for a safe place for a long rest.

While resting, Khemed received a message via Sending spell.  We managed to get through the long rest without any random encounters, and approached the dungeon fresh.  We checked a few more rooms on the ground level, nearly triggering a total ceiling collapse.  Then we approached the stairs.  Azul set off an alarm spell, but we proceeded upstairs anyway.  In the first room, there were some runes on the floor.  Down the West hallway, a couple of Dwarves hunched behind a table.  

Nikolice attempted to talk to them, and they shot him with a crossbow.  Then he held up some gold, and they stopped firing.  They gestured towards a North hallway, as if trying to warn us to be quiet.  Then a fireball came from down the North hallway, grazing Navine and Nikolice.  Some enemies approached from the North hallway.  Three Orcs, an Ogre, and the Red Wizard.

While the enemies were still clustered, Vanya fired off a Shatter spell, killing one Orc and damaging the rest.  The enemies charged down the hall.  On Azul's turn, he managed to hit three of them with his Lightning Breath.  When the Ogre missed Azul, the Dragonborn used his riposte to finish off the Ogre.  This left the Red Wizard, still down the hallway.  Khemed approached the Wizard, who recognized him, and dropped a wall of fire behind him.  We couldn't hear the discussion between Khemed and the Red Wizard.

When the flames finally went out, Khemed and the Red Wizard had vanished.  The rest of us ran down the West hall to talk to the Dwarves, who indicated that we should be quiet.  Navine tiptoed off to look for Khemed, while Azul, Vanya, and Nikolice followed the Dwarves.  The Dwarves didn't know much Common, but enough to communicate.  We asked them what happened here, and the Dwarves answered, "Curses."  The Dwarves gestured down one hallway and indicated that it held some prisoners.  

Navine kept sneaking around and exploring the hallways, found a nest of giant rats, and avoided them. Another hallway led North to a large room.  But before she could investigate it, some enemies in a South hallway spotted her and started to attack.  She fled and hid.  When one enemy approached her location, she sneaked past them and hid again.  

Meanwhile, the rest of the party continued to follow the Dwarves, unaware of Navine's plight.  Eventually they led us to the same hallways Navine was hiding in, and she rejoined the party.  The Dwarves led us to a room containing a distinguished older Dwarf, who they introduced as the King of Illefarn.  We ended the session on this cliffhanger.