A Life Full of Adventure

We were quite surprised at how we found our new party member, and exactly what race/class he was! I kept hearing there were witches outside of town, so I kept trying to recruit village folk to go adventuring with us, figuring that’s where our new party member would come from. Begrudgingly I was forced to leave town without anyone, only to find the new guy hanging from a tree in a cage.  The DM kept letting Zak try to climb the tree and pick the lock, no matter how badly I failed. Mostly it was to find out how long it took and what zany stuff happened while I was trying, including falling from the cage, and then also standing in Thanin’s saddle while she rode to stand under the cage.  Searching for the dwarf hold entrance, we were reminded once again how out of our element these characters are. I can see the benefit of a stable of rolled up characters, and then choosing the one used to the wilderness for this particular adventure. Zak is an in-town dude. He really needs to snap...

Zak – Half Elf Thief Wizard (Me) Thanin – Human Fighter Ogurdan – Dwarf Priest of Selune Heading to the town of Barrymore, the party met up with a shepherd named Abould. Once it was determined there were no witches in the party, Abould offered to show them to the village.  The village contained little more than a central hall, with surrounding house and farms. The townsfolk were on watch for witches after catching on sneaking about. They stated they hung the witch in a gibbet outside of town. The townsfolk would brook no discussion on the matter. Outside of town, the party met a gnome, Newfie Fuferbissle, hanging from a tree. In one cage was the diminutive fellow while his stuff was in another cage. Zak decided it was the optimum time to try his climbing and lock-picking skills. Many tries (and one short fall to the ground) later, the gnome was free and declaring himself with the party. From the gnome’s location, the demon bridge could be seen poking out of the treetops. Past the (...

Zak intentionally practiced Pick Pocket and made a few coins without getting caught. He also spent his downtime on the trip reading A Study of the Goblin Tongue . I’ll spend character points on that language when he levels up. Not a lot else went on during the session. There was a lot of out-of-game chat, and nobody felt the need to keep on task only.  Next session we welcome back another player to the table, so the party should meet a new friend!

Zak – Half Elf Thief Wizard (Me) Thanin – Human Fighter Ogurdan – Dwarf Priest of Selune The party took a room at the Red Hawk Inn, and then decided it was time for the in-town, money spendy type thing. They got an armorer working on making dwarf sized armor out of the ankheg plates they hauled back to town. There was a bunch of resupplying of arrows, rations, and the like. A couple purchases of note included a magical lock (command word: ginger), a poison antidote, and some healing potions. There was an increased concern of the other two being able to keep the cleric alive, should they get into more trouble. They were quite unexpectedly summoned to the Baron’s house for dinner. The Baron, Elward Aramax, offered to pay the group a monthly stipend if they fixed up their keep well enough for him to billet soldiers. Fans of the subscription model, the group agreed to his offer. To help, the Baron suggested the party obtain aid from mountain dwarves known to live in the north. The party pa...

Zak did nominate Thanin for party leader, after pointing out they may be suffering a bit from lack of a leadership structure. Poor Thanin has trouble not getting all the HP knocked out of her at any given fight, but we did sort of act as if there was a party leader a couple times after the nomination. I got more practice with Find Traps and Open Locks. I’m still quite a way from leveling up this multi class half elf. I haven’t been successful with spells other than Sleep so far, and it changes the idea I have for this character. If he’s not casting Illusion spells to cover his tracks, why *does* he bother with all the work of being multi class? It was quite amazing to pile our loot together and find we had enough for the keep. I don’t think even the DM knew it was going to add up before we did it. But just because you can afford to buy a keep doesn’t mean you can afford to repair and maintain one! Let alone defend it from predators. This seems like something that will be the center of ...

Zak – Half Elf Thief Wizard (Me) Thanin– Human Fighter Ogurdan – Dwarf Priest of Selune Zak and Thanin ended up poisoned when last we left off. They were able to make it back to the well room before the poison gave one last painful kick to the gut and dropped them both unconscious. Ogerdan spent the night casting his last healing spells. Reginald the talking water at this point shared that he was still able to cast spells. He conjured a Leomond’s Tiny Hut for everyone in the party to rest in relative safety.  When everyone was healed up and ready to explore some more, the party went back down the stairs, followed the previous hall, and explored until they came to a ladder heading up to a trap door.  Zak took his turn checking things out for spring safety and traps at the door. Finding none, he opened it. He door opened onto a beach on an island off the keep’s coast. The island had a small rowboat, as well as its convenient location. The party closed the door and headed back to...

There is a noticeable lack of leadership on this small team. Zak is intended to be a happy-go-lucky support character, but not the face of the team. The dwarf cleric seems like a good choice for a leader, but his player seems to have decided the dwarf is also a support character. And what a support character he is! Our characters have history together, so perhaps the fighter doesn’t think she should be the party leader. Also, she’s probably a bit self conscious at her AC and HP total leading her to go down in quite a few fights. Still, it would almost be better if she hired us. Maybe I’ll suggest that.  Also, Zak is still bad at finding traps! Slime from the ceiling? Spider from a dead body? Didn’t see either of those coming! Still, I got a few more chances to practice, so I’ll be raising those skills next time I level up. Theoretically,we’ll be done with this adventure next sitting. I have a hankering for something…more.  Maybe we can dive more into these characters, or ...

Zak – Half Elf Thief Wizard (Me) Thanin– Human Fighter Ogurdan – Dwarf Priest of Selune The party’s negotiations with the werewolf pack leader did not go well. There seems to be a lack of leadership within the party itself, so there was no real plan on challenging the pack leader. A fight ensued, centered around a well that took up most of the floor of the tower. Again, Zak’s Sleep spell made the fight more manageable, once it actually went off. Before then, the fighter was dropped by a gang of werewolves. The cleric held his ground until the other wolves could slowly be felled by arrows. A couple more wolves joined the fight from the stair above, but the party survived to fight another day. The cleric had his hands full with healing spells. The well turned out to be sentient, at least the water therein, holding the personality of a bard from long, long ago. The bard had served in the keep under Lord Crest. The bard also never shut up. Zak learned many things from the talking water bar...

I think we were all done with fighting goblins. The DM had the pack leader in the next room. He gave himself up and assured us the goblins (and his ogre) would leave us alone. The rest of the night (until the end) was exploring. It’s really good to mix in the exploring after so much fighting. I still need to get better at Find/Remove Traps, as one blasted me pretty good.  I played the character a little more chaotic, and it was kind of fun. Probably not the type of fun that the other PCs feel they can rely on to watch their back, though. The fun thing about chaotic neutral is I can lean into it whenever I’m looking to spice things up. The rest of the time I can be more reasonable and reliable. The cleric held its own again. I really think he may be the best option for fighting the alpha werewolf. We’ll have to talk it over and see what the others think. I know Zak isn’t the best choice! If we can defeat the alpha wolf, it should wrap up this little adventure nicely. 

Zak – Half Elf Thief Wizard (Me) Thanin – Human Fighter Ogurdan – Dwarf Priest of Selune The party rescued a captured human from goblin (and Aarakocra) clutches. The bird man  refused to let the party tie him when he gave himself up. He asked the party to clear out the central tower for him, and also introduced his ogre friend. He said the ogre and the remaining goblins would not attack the party anymore. They holed up for a spell in a room that held the remains of the human’s previous adventuring party. There was a lot of gear in that room, and some other trinkets found hidden away. They also found a trapped locker. That wasn’t as exciting, as Zak took quite a blast. He’s got to get better working these traps! The human was blasted unconscious. It was the perfect time to go through his spellbook.  After the party was all sufficiently healed and had an adequate number of spells available, they headed for the bridge to the central tower. It was tenuous going, but everyone made ...

I like to increase thieving skills as I practice them, unless I know for sure there is something else I want to improve during downtime. In the last sitting, I mostly used Hide in Shadows and Find/Remove Traps. Once I get high enough level, I’ll be using an Invisibility spell to hide. Until then, I need to keep using and increasing this skill. We should get enough XP for me to go up to wizard level 2. That will get me 1-2 HP, and every HP is precious for this character. Also, I get a second first level spell. Sleep is great, but I do look forward to a second utility spell I can use. I like the idea of Spider Climb, but my Climb Walls is already 70%. Maybe I can brainstorm some cool ways to use Phantasmal Force. I wasn’t as good with my attack rolls, which is really what I would expect over a larger number of tries. The group fighter got a lot better, also as expected. The cleric is a beast. He really optimized his character build and the benefits of a specialty priest. That’s defini...

Zak – Half Elf Thief Wizard (Me) Thanin – Human Fighter Ogurdan – Dwarf Priest of Selune Once night fell, Zak headed out to scout the keep. He started at the back corner, where it met the ocean. As he worked his way to the front, someone started throwing stones at him. He couldn’t tell where it was coming from, but he assumed it was somewhere along the front wall. He reported back to the party. Zak went to the other seaside corner to start scouting that side, back to front. Ogurdan headed to the front of the keel to cast a Light spell over the gate. The spell showed a goblin on the wall above the gate, likely the stone thrower. Zak found an opening in the eastern wall, into the corner tower. It was a good place to enter, in the morning once the team was informed and spells were prepared. The morning was spent fighting goblins in the walls. The sole exception to the goblins was a rattlesnake Zak found in a footlocker. With foresight, he opened the locker from behind, allowing Th...

I  didn’t want my thief/wizard to be a melee character. Neither one of those classes have armor at low levels. But things don't always go as planned when there are only 3 players, with 1 PC each. So I used all my extra character points to make sure I could use at least 1 weapon semi-proficiently. That kept me from some nonweapon proficiencies that may have fit my character, but I can work on those as we adventure. I’ll find out what my character is interested in and what the party needs for skills. So far that may include Riding - Land Based and maybe Rope Use. Rolling two natural 20s in our first night’s combats may give me an unrealistic view of what this character can do with a bow. I still need to make sure I’m staying on the periphery of action, and that I’m keeping spells to protect myself. The fighter and the cleric can hopefully take care of themselves. My last concern is that my thief skills are a bit watered down, as I wanted some ability in each one. Tips I’ve read ...

  Zak – Half Elf Thief Wizard (Me) Thanin – Human Fighter Ogurdan – Dwarf Priest of Selune Our desire for adventure took us through the desert to the fortified city of Schabol outside the Barony of Aramax.  One of our first sights was a dwarf being harassed by a tall, muscular human. The dwarf picked himself off the ground, spotted us, and offered to sell us a keep “a ways” outside of town. We were to meet at The Pit later in the day to discuss the offer further. While waiting, we found a cartographer and bought a map of the area. It contained everything between Schabol and the Great Wall. With our map to peruse, we went to The Pit to get our bearings and await the dwarf. The Pit ended up being a dwarf bar. Thanin and Zak were the only non-dwarves in sight. Thankfully everyone was hospitable. Boris had been deeded the keep by his father, but had never had occasion to visit. He wanted to sell the place. He had a map, placing the keep to the east, outside the Great Wall. He told...