Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft

I like to think I'm pretty selective about which 5e books I buy, but every once in a while I look at my collection and think, "Whoah, how much have you spent?"  Of course I have the core books (PHB, DMG, MM), and I've bought some of the books that have new races/subclasses (Volo, Tasha, Xanathar).  I only buy adventures if they're relatively open world (Strahd, Frostmaiden, Annihilation) or if they're collections of short adventures (Yawning Portal, Saltmarsh, Candlekeep).  I did buy both the Waterdeep books (Dragon Heist and Mad Mage), but mostly for their connection to the Yawning Portal.

I don't usually buy setting books.  The Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide was informative, but it didn't do anything for me.  Eberron is a decent setting, but I don't need a book about it.  I'm sure Wildemount, Ravnica, and Theros are great settings, but I'm not interested in learning about them at the moment.  

The truth is, when I DM, I prefer to make up my own worlds.  I might set a campaign in the Forgotten Realms for ease of PC backgrounds, but rarely are my players going to be visiting official cities like Waterdeep or Baldur's Gate.  I just don't have that much need for other people's lore.  I'm not saying my ideas are better than WOTC's, I'm just saying that pre-established cities and kingdoms tend to get in the way of the story I want to tell.

That said, I wouldn't mind a "Campaign Setting Sampler" book, with overviews of the most popular settings.  Maybe 10 pages each devoted to Forgotten Realms, Eberron, Ravenloft, Greyhawk, Dragonlance, Dark Sun, Spelljammer, and so on.  It might be useful for deciding where to set my next campaign.

Well, "Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft" may not be that book, but if you're into horror settings, it does a great job of getting you started.  Nearly half the book is just descriptions of the various realms of Ravenloft.  For the uninitiated, Ravenloft is not a cohesive world like Toril or Oerth.  It's more like a collective of pocket dimensions, separated by the magical mists that keep its inhabitants prisoner.  Some of these domains are as large as a continent, while others are as small as a single city.

It devotes 4-6 pages each to to 17 of the more well-known domains, with maps, notable locations, and in-depth descriptions of each domain's primary antagonist.  Then it gives short summaries to another 22 domains.  So if you want to run a horror campaign and need a place to start, or even just enjoy reading about horror settings, this book is a great resource.

So what else is in this book?  

The introduction explains the concept of Ravenloft's Domains of Dread, and gives a few tips on running horror games.  Next up, we have three new Lineages - The Dhampir, Hexblood, and Reborn.  Unlike the standard races, these lineages can be switched to after 1st level, to represent things horrible things that have happened to your character.  Maybe you were bitten by a vampire, maybe you were cursed by hags, maybe you died and were brought back "wrong"... or if you are 1st level, maybe you were just brought into this world in an atypical way.

The Hexblood didn't do much for me - I didn't care for the lore or the features.  The Dhampir was kind of interesting, with a (somewhat underpowered) vampiric bite and the ability to climb walls.  The Reborn has some features that make it hard to kill, which is obviously pretty useful.

Next it has a section on Dark Gifts.  These options give a character both advantages and disadvantages.  The book suggests having players select one at character creation, but they also work as plot rewards.  These are not the same as the "Adventurer's League" Dark Gifts that characters might receive after being resurrected in Curse of Strahd.  These are more in-depth, and they don't seem to be as detrimental to the character.

The Dark Gifts don't seem very balanced with each other, and some are very specific to Ravenloft campaigns, so make sure you know what you're doing if you use these.  For example, the "Mist Walker" gift is designed for characters who want to travel through the mist between domains.  Another one that stood out to me was "Deadly Touch" which gives your unarmed attacks some extra necrotic damage, with no downside.  Well, no mechanical downside.  Roleplay-wise, it means you'll never get to touch another character's skin without hurting them.  But if I were playing a Monk with a vow of celibacy...

Next up we have two new spooky-themed subclasses.  For the Bard, we have the College of Spirits, and for the Warlock, we have The Undead patron.  I don't see myself using either one, but they do fit the book's flavor quite nicely.

The book also contains two backgrounds: Haunted One (which previously appeared in Curse of Strahd) and Investigator. It also has an expanded version of Curse of Strahd's Gothic Trinkets table.  

There's a chapter on the Genres of Horror.  It has an in-depth look at the following genres: Body Horror, Cosmic Horror, Dark Fantasy, Folk Horror, Ghost Stories, and Gothic Horror.  For those genres it includes tips and tables for selecting the right plots, settings, and villains for the story.  Then it has a more abbreviated look at four other genres: Disaster Horror, Occult Detective Stories, Psychological Horror, and Slasher Horror.  This chapter is useful both for idea mining, and making sure your campaign keeps a consistent tone.

There's a section called "Travelers in the Mists" which describes some of the more notable characters  and groups you might run into during your travels.  This includes some minor retcons to Ezmerelda d'Avenir and the Vistani, in response to changing cultural attitudes.  Of course, now the less enlightened players are blasting WOTC for being too "woke", so you can't please everyone.

Then we have a chapter on Horror Adventures - More tips for running horror, including pacing, atmosphere, and setting boundaries.  Then we have a look at Tarokka decks and Spirit Boards, followed by a Horror Tookit - detailing rules for curses, fear, stress, and haunted traps.  There's also a section on "Survivors", which are basically simple characters that the PCs can control during expository scenes.

Next there's a short horror-themed adventure, "The House of Lament".  The PCs explore a haunted house, perform seances, and learn of the house's troubled history.  This is one of those stories where the horrors start out small but build over time, as the evil entities slowly awaken and become aware of the PCs' explorations.  And it is most definitely an adventure that should be run on Halloween, by candlelight, while spooky ambience MP3s play in the background.

And finally, we have "The Monsters of Ravenloft" - a mini bestiary with about 30 horror-themed monsters.  This includes tips on describing horrific creatures, and coming up with disturbing tactics that will keep your players on their toes.  I could be wrong, but some of these monsters look familiar, and might be republished from other modules.  My favorite monster in the book is the "Unspeakable Horror", which is a very customizable, amorphous... thing that is sure to make the PCs jump when they glimpse it in the mists.

All-in-all, it's a pretty useful book if you like running horror campaigns.  Despite the new lineages and subclasses, there's a lot more here for DMs than for players.  There is some repeated content, especially if you own Curse of Strahd.  But there's more than enough new content here to justify the purchase, in my opinion.  

Candlekeep: Afterthoughts

I already posted my first impressions of Candlekeep Mysteries, but now I've finished it, and I thought I'd post my impressions of the individual stories. Overall, it's one of my favorite adventure books. A lot of the chapters could be expanded into their own campaigns, and I like how most of the quests favor mystery over combat.

Note, there will be spoilers. If you plan to run these as a DM, feel free to read on. But if there's any chance you might play in them, skip this blog.  

I'm listing them in the order that I liked them, and I've given each story a star rating of 1 to 5.

Shemshime’s Bedtime Rhyme (Level 4) *****
I covered this in an earlier blog, but it feels like one of my favorite Doctor Who episodes.

Sarah of Yellowcrest Manor (Level 7) ****
You find the diary of a servant girl, which gives clues to some unsolved murders. You befriend her ghost and try to track down the killer, who is about to perform an evil ritual.

A Deep and Creeping Darkness (Level 4) ****
You investigate a ghost town that was abandoned after a mining collapse. Following the disaster, the townsfolk experienced nightmares until they fled the town. This one has more combat potential than the earlier adventures, but the mystery is still pretty cool.

The Curious Tale of Wisteria Vale (Level 11) ****
The PCs are hired to rescue a bard from a demiplane. This tiny dimension was designed to emulate a peaceful village, populated by enchanted mannequins that look and act like townsfolk. It has shades of Pleasantville, WandaVision, and several episodes of the Twilight Zone. And that's not even the main plot, which involves a Beholder trying to make the dimension its own. I can't wait to run this one just to roleplay the NPCs. I might have given it five stars if not for a couple of unfair encounters toward the end, including a "save-or-die" item that only serves to punish the curious.

The Book of Inner Alchemy (Level 12) ****
Some pages are stolen from a book of martial arts and mysticism. Hired to recover the missing pages, the party must fight their way through a martial arts camp. It's a fun adventure, but I would only run this chapter if there was a monk in the party.

The Joy of Extradimensional Spaces (Level 1) ****
I think this is a great, low key introduction to the book. The PCs get trapped in a Magical Mansion spell, and have to solve a puzzle to get back. Short and simple, but fun.

The Price of Beauty (Level 5) ****
A book teleports you to a temple of Sune. It's a spa where people can have all their physical flaws corrected, but these treatments come with an unexpected cost. It's run by a trio of beautiful elves, who are secretly hags in disguise. It has elements that remind me of Dorian Gray, and the hags remind me of the newest Resident Evil game. I'm a sucker for Sune, so I really enjoyed this story.

Kandlekeep Dekonstruktion (Level 9) ****
This one is kind of crazy. A secret cult in Candlekeep attempts to launch one of the towers into space. It's also interesting because once the action starts, the PCs only have an hour to stop the countdown. So no resting between fights, or attuning to any treasures they find. The story has several possible outcomes, including the PCs getting trapped in outer space, so that could be interesting.

Lore of Lurue (Level 8) ***
The PCs enter a storybook and have to play their way through the tale. This one is kind of interesting because there's no real danger - if you die in the book, you are ejected back into the real world, where you can take a long rest before you jump back in. You're also unable to explore areas that are beyond the scope of the story, which reminds me of video games when you see messages like "You can't go that way." So it's kind of railroady, but somehow it works.

Alkazaar’s Appendix (Level 15) ***
A famous adventurer retired before he could complete his final quest. The PCs pick up where Alkazaar left off, on a mission to help a lost golem fulfill its destiny. Finding the golem is easy, but returning the golem to its master involves a trek through the desert, confronting a purple worm, helping a Dragon Turtle, and battling a Dracolich for possession of a powerful relic.

The Scrivener’s Tale (Level 14) ***
The PCs accidentally open a book that curses them. They have a limited amount of time to break the curse, or they are doomed. Also, the cursegiver speaks to PCs telepathically, attempting to mislead them. All in all, it's not a bad story, with a fairly epic boss battle at the end.

Mazfroth’s Mighty Digressions (Level 2) ***
You have to track down some counterfeit books, which leads you to some jackalweres, who have problems of their own. You can help them with their problems, or bully them into making amends. I like that there's more than one way to complete the adventure.

Zikran’s Zephyrean Tome (Level 10) ***
A book turns out to hold a trapped djinni, who offers to grant the characters a wish if they agree to kill his master. Along the way they might put a couple of ghosts to rest, parley with a dragon, and explore the ruins of a Cloud Giant fortress. My only problem is that the villain, while of evil alignment, isn't given much opportunity to show that he deserves to be killed. It seems like the PCs pretty much agree to kill him just so the djinni will grant them a wish.

Xanthoria (Level 16) ***
A terrible fungal plague is spreading through the land, affecting both plants and animals. Infected humans act like zombies, chant "Xanthoria" over and over, and eventually collapse into a puddle of goo. It turns out that Xanthoria is the name of a Druid who went insane and became a lichen lich. I hope your PCs have strong stomachs, because this adventure hits them will all kinds of molds, fungi, spores, and the like. It concludes with a heartbreaking choice, as the only way to permanently defeat the lich is to destroy her phylactery - which is in the form of a living sprite, who must be convinced to sacrifice herself.

Book of Cylinders (Level 6) **
You have to help a tribe of frog people who have had their village taken over by yuan-ti invaders. It's an okay story, but nothing to write home about.

Book of the Raven (Level 3) *
A treasure map leads you to an old house where you meet some wereravens, and... that's pretty much it. I do like the atmosphere - it's really cool having PCs hear creepy noises (like children laughing) from other areas of the house. But there's not much of an actual story here. I'm afraid it would leave the players wondering if the adventure was actually complete. It would be a good jumping off point for another adventure, though.

The Canopic Being (Level 13) *
There's a book that describes a dark ritual involving Mummy Lords and organ transplants, and the PCs' names are included on the list of future participants. I'm not much into Divination magic, and this adventure is full of it. Plus it's got some rooms that are hard to visualize, and some important items hidden in places PCs aren't likely to look. Overall, the adventure just didn't work for me.

Daggerford: We Didn't Start The Fire

Game Date: 5/15/2021

Location: Roll20
Campaign: Daggerford, Session 16

System: D&D 5e
DM: Mike

The Party:
Azul (Cliff) Dragonborn Fighter

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

The Session:

After last session's climactic ending resulting in two character deaths, we started this session with some downtime.  We sold some loot, bought some potions, made some contacts, and regaled the townsfolk with tales of our recent adventure.

There was a commotion from Daggerford's East wall.  The sky to the East was orange, from a distant wildfire.  The town prepared to receive refugees from Laughing Hollow.  

That night we attended a party hosted by Daggerford's royalty.  We were asked for a status update on our hunt for the Red Wizards, but we steered the conversation over to the situation in the East.  We were then tasked to look for an anvil-shaped altar under Mt. Illefarn.  We were given a guide, Navine.  

We were sent to see a clan of Dwarves, in order to have our weapons and armor repaired, and to get more details about Mt. Illefarn.  While speaking to the aged Dwarf leader, he died in front of us.  His compatriots scrambled to figure out who was next in line, and they finally cast "Speak With Dead" on the Dwarf king.  He made a much better impression dead, and gave us some cryptic hints about what we might expect to find under the mountain.

He told us that his brothers (Korin and Derwin) still live in the halls under the mountain.  He told us to contact someone named Alagarathas in Laughing Hollow (son of the great Elf King Melandrach), and he told us that "The owls are not what they seem."  

We got on our horses and left for Laughing Hollow.  The roads were crowded with evacuees headed for the safety of Daggerford.  We came across some Elves fleeing from an Orc war party, accompanied by an Owlbear.

Vanya started things off with a Shatter spell, hitting all the enemies and killing one.  Then Khemed hit the Owlbear with Tasha's Mind Whip.  A fleeing Elf finished off another Orc.  One bloodied Orc charged Azul, who finished the Orc off.  The Orc chief ran off, leaving us alone with the Owlbear.  Azul made quick work of the Owlbear with a riposte reaction, and we checked up on the Elves.

Having comforted the Elves, we continued East.  From a distance, we could see the Orc chief calling for reinforcements.  Vanya warmed up her guitar, which can cast Call Lightning.  A couple of trolls showed up, accompanied by three Orcs.  Khemed fired off a Chromatic Orb at one Troll, just missing.  As one Troll rushed toward the party, Navine hit it with a powerful Sneak Attack.

Vanya kept calling the lighting on each round, dropping the first Troll.  The second Troll closed the gap, and more Orc reinforcements showed up.  Vanya and Azul temporarily dropped the second Troll.  He got up a few times, but eventually Khemed finished him off with a Firebolt.  Navine intimidated the final bloodied Orc, who surrendered.

We interrogated the Orc, but he didn't know how the wildfires started.  His warband just took advantage of a bad situation, by attacking the fleeing refugees.  We went ahead and ended the session, and we'll continue our journey in a fortnight.

Daggerford: Mistcutter Isle (Part 4)

Game Date: 5/1/2021

Location: Roll20
Campaign: Daggerford, Session 15

System: D&D 5e
DM: Mike

The Party:
Azul (Cliff) Dragonborn Fighter

Khemed (Rusty) Half-Elf Wizard
Neven (Steve) Elf Monk
Sylvester (Steven) Drow Warlock/Doctor
Vanya (Matt) Half-Elf Bard

The Session:

When we left off last week, we had inadvertently helped the villain by activating the evil magic altar.  Go us!  Today we began session 4 of our increasingly inaccurately named "one shot".  The big boss - an evil Naga - approached the party.

Khemed engaged her in conversation, offering to be her apprentice, while the rest of us reunited at the bottom of the pit.  The Naga asked Khemed to prove his loyalty by killing one of his allies.  

Meanwhile, Sylvester attempted to contact The Great Old One using an incantation.  He offered to devote his life to vanquishing his patron's enemy, Lolth.  He ended up summoning "Jubilex, the Faceless Lord", who took over his body.  

The Naga engaged Jubilex, so they fought one-on-one for a while.  Khemed focused his attacks on our ally Germonme'.  Sylvester cast Tasha's Hideous Laughter on Khemed to keep him from casting more spells.

One of the treasures we picked up last session was a musical instrument that Vanya used to cast Call Lightning on the Naga.  Jubilex cast a Hold spell on the Naga.  Neven went down a couple of times in the battle, and Azul rushed to protect him.  Khemed summoned an Allosaurus, using an item from earlier in the campaign.

Jubilex dealt the killing blow on the Naga, but we weren't out of the woods yet.  Azul picked up Neven's unconscious body and fled towards the exit.  The summoned Allosaurus downed Germonme', then charged Jubilex.  It wasn't able to damage the demon, however.

While the rest of us were fleeing, Neven decided to stay behind to destroy the altar.  Jubilex finished off the Allosaurus, and headed toward the altar to claim it for himself.  Neven dove into the pit, smashing both himself and the altar upon landing.

There was a flash of light, and Jubilex was dispelled.  The dungeon started to collapse, and the survivors fled through the tunnels.  Azul, Khemed, and Vanya made it back to the ship and set sail.  

Sylvester and Neven will be remembered fondly.

2700 XP for the survivors.

Daggerford: Mistcutter Isle (Part 3)

Game Date: 4/17/2021

Location: Roll20
Campaign: Daggerford, Session 14

System: D&D 5e
DM: Mike

The Party:
Azul (Cliff) Dragonborn Fighter
Khemed (Rusty) Half-Elf Wizard
Neven (Steve) Elf Monk
Sylvester (Steven) Drow Warlock/Doctor
Vanya (Matt) Half-Elf Bard

The Session:

Last week we left off right before the boss fight.  We decided to take a long rest next to the creepy well.  A few hours into our rest, we started hearing some loud noises, and saw some eyes watching us from the dark.  A small monkey stood in the hallway, holding something in its hand.  We gave it some food, and befriended it.  It was holding what looked like a small doll made of sticks.

We saw a second monkey peeking out from farther down the hall, and came to join the party.  More eyes glowed from the distance.  Eventually we had a full monkey party going, with a variety of different types of monkeys.  

They all held similar stick objects, with a skull on one end and a triangle on the other.  The objects looked similar to an iron key Sylvester found earlier on the island.  Sylvester pulled out his key and showed it to them, and the monkeys swarmed him.  

Khemed cast Sleep on the swarm.  We realized there was an arcane eye watching us from the ceiling, and Sylvester destroyed it with Eldritch Blast.  Then he set the sleeping monkeys on fire, and we attempted to finish our long rest.  More loud noises interfered with our sleep, but we waited it out.

We proceeded to the giant room at the end of the North hall.  The room had an open ceiling.  Three trolls were feasting on a dead Allosaurus.  We rolled some bad stealth rolls approaching the room, but they were too occupied to notice us at first.  As we approached the room, they started taking cover.

We engaged them, but they seemed more interested in hiding than fighting at first.  Khemed cast Enlarge on Azul.  Neven stepped into the room and was attacked by all three trolls at once.  We concentrated our attacks and used Sylvester's "Create Bonfire" spell to keep them from regenerating.

We used some good strategy, but it still wasn't easy.  Azul, Neven, and Khemed each went down at least once, but Vanya healed them.  Azul finished off the final troll, and we moved back into the hallway to assess our damage.

There was a raised platform in the room, surrounded by four statues of scaled beings.  In the center of the platform was a dark pit.  Sylvester couldn't resist investigating the pit.  He tied a rope to the statue.  With Neven's help, Sylvester started to climb downward.  At the bottom was an altar made of bones.  

Neven and Sylvester were hit by blasts of pollen and gripped by vines.  Khemed enlarged Azul, and Vanya used Featherfall on him so he could jump down to help his friends.  Sylvester was drugged by the pollen by this point, and resisted Azul's attempts to rescue him.  

A vine monster in the pit implanted some seeds into Sylvester.  Those of us at the top of the pit stressed to find ways to help our allies.  Vanya tried a Shatter spell, which helped a little.  Azul's breath attack proved fruitless, as the creature was immune to lightning.  Neven hit the creature with a powerful set of punches, finishing it off and causing all the vines to come crashing down into the pit.

Sylvester dropped to 0 due to the spores.  After Vanya revived him, he used a potion of gaseous form to remove the spores from his body.  Still at the bottom of the pit, Azul and Neven searched the area and found some loot:

A white pearl (worth 300 gp)

A blue/green pearl (value unknown - might be magical)

A silver statue (worth 100 gp)

They also found a keyhole on the altar.  They decided to try the key from earlier - the one with a skull on one end, and a triangle on the other.  Which led to one of those classic DM questions: "Which end of the key are you going to stick into this thing?"  Eep.  They picked triangle.  

A secret door opened up.  Everything started to glow and we could all feel waves of magical energy emanating from the altar.  They started climbing the rope, but took some radiant damage as a beam of magical energy shot past them.  Neven couldn't survive a second blast, so dropped back down and ducked into the secret door.  

In the secret chamber, an evil being revealed himself to Neven, and thanked him for activating the device.  We ended the session on that cliffhanger.

Additional loot from the secret room in the pit:

Staff of the Python

Sword of Life Stealing

Two does of Oil of Sharpness in a clay amphora

900 gp primitive jewelry and assorted trinkets

An axe

Unearthed Arcana: Draconic Options

There's a new UA out today, "Draconic Options".  It includes alternate versions of the Dragonborn and Kobold races, as well as some new dragon-themed feats and spells.

Overall, I like it.  It splits the Dragonborn race between Metallic, Chromatic, and Gem.  Chromatics get a power that lets them make themselves temporarily immune to certain damage types.  Metallics get a second breath weapon.  Gems get telepathy and spectral wings.  

Kobolds get one of three "Draconic Legacy" abilities, and a roar ability.  I like the new Kobolds better than the previous one; in fact, I might even consider playing a kobold now.  (It's still pretty low on my list, though.)  

One of the spells is named after a Dragonlance character, giving hope to those who have been waiting for a 5e DL campaign setting.  

I do wish they let Dragonborn players pick whether their breath weapon is a line or a cone.  As it is, Chromatic Dragonborn get lines, while Metallic and Gem get cones.  I really don't think it would break anything if the player could choose line or cone every time they use the power.  It's not a big quibble, it just seems like the kind of thing that Dragonborn would learn through practice (like learning to whistle), rather than determined by the type of their scales.

I don't have much else to say about it, but I'm a big fan of the Dragonborn race, so I might use some of these options in the future. 

Candlekeep: Shemshime’s Bedtime Rhyme

I'm only about six chapters into Candlekeep Mysteries, but I wanted to throw out a special mention of chapter 5: Shemshime’s Bedtime Rhyme.

I love this one.  It feels like a Doctor Who episode (specifically, "Midnight").  The adventure features a small cast of characters, confined to a basement beneath Candlekeep.  The party and the NPCs are all afflicted with a killer earworm.  Everyone gets the same nursery rhyme stuck in their heads, and they self-quarantine so it doesn't spread.  

It's the kind of story where things just seem a little off at first, only for the weirdness to escalate to disturbing levels.  Like Midnight, it's the type of story a TV series might pick when they need a low budget episode to flesh out the season, only to find it becomes one of the most beloved episodes of the series.

Unfortunately, it needs the right kind of DM to pull it off, and maybe the right kind of group to enjoy it.  Hack-and-slashers need not apply.  This is a story that requires the proper use of tension, and players who enjoy investigation.  

Candlekeep Mysteries has already proven worth the money, and I'm not even a third of the way through it.  I hope it has at least a couple more stories of this quality.

Candlekeep Mysteries

I think one of the more underrated books for 4e was "Dungeon Delve."  It was basically a compilation of 30 mini adventures, one for each party level.  Each adventure had about three encounters (and let's face it - given the length of 4e battles, three encounters could easily take multiple sessions).  Of course they were light on plot, but that just meant you could drop them into any campaign.  The main draw was that you always had a quick adventure ready if you decided to hold an impromptu game.

5e's "Candlekeep Mysteries" is a lot like that.  It contains 17 standalone quests, one for each party level 1-16 (there's two for level 4).  But unlike Dungeon Delve, CM's adventures center more on plot than fighting.  I'm about three adventures into it, and so far, I'm really liking it.

The book opens with a chapter describing Candlekeep - a huge library containing rare books from all over the world.  It's a short chapter, but detailed enough that it could inspire many adventures.  Each of the 17 short adventures involves a book in some way.  Maybe you're hired to recover a stolen tome of eldritch lore.  Maybe an absent-minded wizard attempted an unfamiliar hex he found in an ancient spellbook, and you have to clean up the mess.  Maybe an old diary contains a map to a mysterious treasure.

In an odd way, it kind of reminds me of "Friday the 13th: The Series" (no relation to the movies), where the owners of a cursed antique store had to hunt down several lost artifacts, each episode centering on a specific artifact and the trouble it caused.  

If you were to build a campaign around this book, it might start to feel a little repetitive after a while.  Although if you were specifically wanting a "Librarians" themed campaign, this would be a good start.  Otherwise, you might want to pick and choose which adventures to use.  Save this book for a night when you don't have anything prepared, and run whatever chapter is appropriate for your group's level.

My only complaint is the map.  It comes with a foldout map of Candlekeep, which is not fully repeated in the book itself (the courtyard part is repeated, but not the Inner Ward).  I keep my maps separate from my books, so they don't fall out while reading them, and I honestly would have found this map more useful if it were inside the book.  

It's not a particularly useful map for campaign strategy, like the overland map in Rime of the Frostmaiden or the hex map in Tomb of Annihilation.  This map seems to be more for flavor, and I'm surprised they bothered to make it a foldout map at all. 

But despite that little nitpick, I think it's a great book for any DM to have.  These adventures require a little more prep time than the ones in 4e's Dungeon Delve - and by that, I just mean you'll actually have to read ahead a little.  But it's still a lot more "grab and play" than the adventures in "Ghosts of Saltmarsh" or "Tales from the Yawning Portal".  

Definitely worth a read.

Daggerford: Mistcutter Isle (Part 2)

Game Date: 3/20/2021

Location: Roll20
Campaign: Daggerford, Session 13

System: D&D 5e
DM: Mike

The Party:
Azul (Cliff) Dragonborn Fighter
Khemed (Rusty) Half-Elf Wizard
Neven (Steve) Elf Monk
Sylvester (Steven) Drow Warlock/Doctor
Vanya (Matt) Half-Elf Bard

The Session:

Last week we left off in the caverns below Mistcutter Isle.  We began the session in waist deep water.  We took a short rest in a dry cave, waited for the water levels to lower a bit, and explored the deeper tunnels.  We encountered another shark, but it was trapped by the low water levels.  We finished it off so it wouldn't attack us later.

We entered a tunnel that was glowing with a bluish light, with skeletons arranged like trophies.  In another tunnel, a patch of kelp tried to grab Neven and pull him under.  Sylvester fired an Eldritch Blast at the kelp, to help set him free.  As Neven finished freeing himself, a Merrow (an ogre-sized merman) joined the fight.

The rest of the party stayed in the shallower water and fired ranged attacks, while Neven kept punching the creature.  Vanya finished the Merrow with a well-stated insult.  After the fight, Neven noticed a lot of bodies at the bottom of the chamber.  Apparently this creature had been working with the kelp to make meals of visitors for a while.

In the next chamber, Sylvester and Neven found a statue of a maiden with a marred face.  There was a skull sitting on a rock shelf, which contained a black pearl worth 500 gp.  Then they met a woman, who thanked them for saving her from the Merrow.  She claimed the monster had trapped her, planning to eat her later.  

She lied.  When they tried to leave the cave, she revealed her true face - a sea hag.  The hag used Drowning Glare on Neven, which left him gasping for breath.  It was harrowing at first, but we made some good attacks and brought her down in a few rounds.  Sylvester delivered the final blow using Create Bonfire.

We backtracked and explored a large chamber to the West.  There was a small island in the middle of the cave, surrounded by deep water.  We saw movement on the ceiling, possibly bats.  Sylvester swam to the island.  He saw something moving in the water.  He tried to reach out to it with Awakened Mind, but only detected anger and pain.  A pair of Sea Tigers burst from the surface and attacked.

These things hit hard.  Their first attack nearly wiped out Sylvester, who went down the following round.  Khemed enlarged Azul, who soloed one while Sylvester and Neven fought the other on the island.  Azul delivered the killing blow on both monsters.  We healed up a little and went North.

The next passage led to some stairs.  While searching for traps, we triggered one.  A large cylindrical stone rolled down the staircase.  We climbed over it and proceeded upwards.  To the West we found an altar with a water-filled well.  Of course Sylvester was the first to check it out, and he was attacked by a Water Weird.

It grabbed Sylvester and pulled him into the well.  While Sylvester made underwater death saves, the rest of us wailed on the Weird.  It tried to slow us down with blinding attacks.  Sylvester rolled a 20 on his a save, climbing back out of the well right after Azul finished off the Weird.

Something glittered at the bottom of the well.  Neven swam to the bottom, and gathered up 1,350 gp worth of coins and small gems.  Down the next hall we saw some large murals.  Two statues (Coral Golems) tried to hide within the murals, but we noticed them.  Vania started the battle by casting Shatter twice, getting us off to a good start.

Khemed enlarged Azul again, and he took point.  The Golems had a few immunities which made things difficult.  Azul went down, but Sylvester managed to finish off the last one with an Eldritch Blast.  The end of the hall opened to a very large, square, "boss fight"-looking room. 

We didn't go in yet.  We were low on resources and time, so we took a long rest by the fountain and ended the session there.

Unearthed Arcana: Folk of the Feywild

This month's Unearthed Arcana was of special interest for me.  Finally a fairy!  As I mentioned in my bucket list post a few months ago, I've always wanted to play a fairy character in a tabletop RPG.  Judge me if you want, but I used to play one in NeverWinter Nights, and I really enjoyed it.

It looks like a decent race - it gets flight, a couple of innate spells, and the ability to squeeze through tight spaces.  I definitely look forward to trying this out, and will instantly preorder whatever splatbook it eventually appears in.

That said, overall this edition of Unearthed Arcana was a bit of a letdown.  Four races: Fairy, Hobgoblin, Owlfolk, and Rabbitfolk.  For a Feywild document, it's not Feywild enough.  I would have preferred Dryads, Nymphs, and Satyrs to all these animal folk.  And we already had a playable Hobgoblin the Volo's Guide to Monsters, so I'm not convinced we needed another one.

Of course, that's just me.  I mean, I have to be in the minority, wanting to play a fairy.  I'm sure that for every oddball like me, there's someone out there who has always wanted to play a rabbit person.  So, sure, throw in more animal people, see if you can pull in the furry crowd.  The more fringe groups we can get to try D&D, the better.  But I hope the final book also includes Dryads.

I'm also a little wary of the new stat system.  A few months ago I read Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, which has optional rules for stat generation.  Side note, I've been rereading Tasha's recently, and I think I must have been in a bad mood the first time I reviewed it.  It's still not as useful as Xanathar's, but there's definitely some stuff in there I can use.  I particularly like the Monk subclass that can heal their allies by punching them in the face.

Anyway, Tasha's took the first steps in D&D's push to eliminate racial stats.  It presents the optional rule that during character creation, you can trade out stat bonuses for other stat bonuses.  This allows you to play characters that grew up in non-traditional environments for their race, and distances the game from problematic stereotypes.

This Unearthed Arcana continues the trend by not having set stat bonuses at all for these new races.  Instead, it just says, "When determining your character’s ability scores, increase one of those scores by 2 and a different score by 1, or increase three different scores by 1."

This is a great system, but it might have gone over better if they had included some suggested stat increases for each race.  After all, that "pick whatever stats you want" rule was supposed to be optional, and not every group intends to adopt it.  Even if you intend to trade out the suggested stats, some people are going to wonder what stats would be traditional for that race's society.

But I guess even asking that question is to skirt racism.  Saying "Most Orcs are stupid, but your Orc is smarter because they were raised by Elves" is no better than saying "All Orcs are stupid".  And since some people draw parallels between D&D races and real world ethnicities, it's probably best to just drop automatic stat bonuses going forward.

If only they could have made that realization during 5e's playtest phase, they could have worked it into the system, and maybe let stat bonuses be come from your class instead.  As it is, this late-stage change makes the system feel sort of messy.  Hopefully they will reprint the PHB at some point, so that the core book is more consistent with the follow-up material.

Until then, I think they're doing the best they can.  I can't wait to try the fairy.

Daggerford: Mistcutter Isle (Part 1)

Game Date: 3/6/2021

Location: Roll20
Campaign: Daggerford, Session 12

System: D&D 5e
DM: Mike

The Party:
Azul (Cliff) Dragonborn Fighter
Khemed (Rusty) Half-Elf Wizard
Neven (Steve) Elf Monk
Sylvester (Steven) Drow Warlock/Doctor
Vanya (Matt) Half-Elf Bard

The Session:

Today we switched our DM with one of our players.  The session took place in the same universe, but may or may not be canon going forward.  We started with some haggling to sell our loot from the last dungeon, selling to a guy who was obsessed with teeth.  Then he presented us with this week's plot hook.

People were having nightmares of ill omen, possibly related to some evil priest activity.  Clues pointed to an old pirate outpost on Mistcutter Isle.  We set sail aboard a ship with a lizardfolk captain. 

It was dark when our ship reached the island.  After scouting a landing location, we decided to wait until morning to row ashore.  Early in the morning, our ship was attacked by a large sea creature.  We all headed topside so we could start firing at it.  After a round, it leaped out of the water and landed on the ship.

It ate one of the pirate crew.  Azul hit it with lightning breath, bringing it down to bloodied.  Neven finished it off with a bunch of punches and psychic attacks.  We patched up the ship, and had a funeral for the fallen crewmate.  We spotted some caves at the base of the island, near an arched outcropping with a large statue.  

We rowed our boat ashore (hallelujah), landing north of the outcropping.  Sylvester and Vanya investigated the arch, spotting a large square stone at the end.  It looked like the stone was originally the base of the statue, which had later fallen into the water down below.  Sylvester found a rune-covered metal rod, which he tucked into his backpack. 

A large snake attacked them, but Neven showed up and scared it off.  They rejoined the rest of the party.  We set up camp, and all had bad dreams about being dragged against our will to an underground temple.  At about 3 AM, a blast of purple appeared in the distance.

No going back to sleep now, so we went to investigate.  It looked like the blast came from above the caves, so we headed towards the cave entrances.  Water kept rushing in and out of the caves, and we came upon a brown slime.  

The passage was very narrow at this point, making it difficult for anyone but Azul to attack the monster.  Another slime appeared on the ceiling above us.  Azul attacked one of them, and it split into two.  We tried to favor magical attacks for the rest of the fight.  

Once they were dead, we continued to explore the caves.  The water got deeper, and we had to use dancing light spells so Azul could see.  Pretty soon we couldn't proceed without swimming.  Neven scouted ahead, and was attacked by an angry shark (doo doo doo doo doo doo).

The rest of us were too far back to know he was being attacked, so he had to solo the shark for a few rounds.  Eventually he managed to swim back to us, leading the shark towards us.  We attacked it with ranged attacks, standing in water too shallow for the shark to reach.  Azul finished it off with a crossbow.

Sylvester and Khemed went down one short passage, and found a puzzle involving a skull and some seashells.  There were four colored seashells - yellow, green, brown, and blue.  They managed to trigger a few traps while figuring it out, taking damage from falling blocks.  (They didn't know how to use the four seashells.)

After some experimentation, they found the correct order to press the seashells.  They were awarded with some pirate treasure - a pearl handled comb, a decorative curved dagger, a painted hand fan, a golden locket, a gold earring, and a silver chain.  

We stopped the session there, with the benefit of a short rest.  We will pick it up in two weeks.