valhalla13013 Dark Shield Perceives the GodsRegistered Userregular
edited October 2020
Cross-poasting because no one said anything at all in the SE++ thread. Does anybody have any ideas on how to run a haunted house? I am already planning lair actions for the ghosts involved, based on their personalities. Other than some spookiness because of the ghosts trying to communicate with/stop the players, I am not sure what else to do in this adventure.
I have another idea for a one shot for my daughter for Halloween. I love spooky things. And don't want to get too terrifying, but make this creepy and supernatural. So...
I'm gonna take the ghost from the Monster Manual, and make it... better. More cinematic. "The Haunted Mansion on the Crag" is Myerscough Mansion, abandoned for a hundred years and said to be haunted. In fact, it is.
A hundred years ago, Cleve Myerscough, close to losing the family fortune and imagining his beautiful wife, Willibroad, having an affair with the gardner, murdered her and their son, and then drinking heavily in his study, fell and hit his head on the fireplace in a twist of irony.
Now, she roams the mansion as a ghost while his ghost torments her spirit. As the party arrives, she will subtly attempt to help them in finding her body so that it might be laid to rest. Difficulty, he placed it in a secret passage. The son moved on to a better place when he died, he plays no part in this.
At times, she becomes frustrated and her ghostly form can only lash out as she is unable to express herself. She is awash in a blue spectral glow, and everything about her has that effect. But when she appears to grow agitated, sometimes she erupts in a putrescent green fire and her spirit will attack the players.
What the players won't know is that she has been driven away and replaced by Cleve, who will attack the players in an attempt to keep them from helping his wife and keeping her imprisoned here. Every time the ghost is green, it's Cleve trying to interfere. I want to try to give them clues to realize its two different ghosts also, other than just the color.
Guy's got issues.
So, I'm thinking about lair actions like rooms becoming freezing, or perhaps being plunged in darkness or blazing green fire. Hallways seeming to elongate, room exits leading back into the same room or a previous room, all in an attempt to confuse the players. I don't think Willibroad will hurt the players intentionally, but perhaps unintentionally in frustration. Cleve will actively try to kill them. I also watched a video on ghosts from... MonarchsFactory that went into revamping ghosts and got a lot of ideas from there.
Can y'all come up with anything along those lines to help? Maybe some incidental, thematic monsters that may have taken up residence in the mansion in out of the way places like the collapsed second story or the cellar?
How about adding a crazy couple that either live in the house as their descendants, or are the last of the old staff that are keeping things from falling apar- well slowing the rate of things falling apart. Perhaps one of each - the last scion of the Myerscoughs and the butler(/groundskeepers/cook/handyman now). Everyone in the village knows that they are quite mad, probably from staying in that damned house!
That way you can add a few other characters who can give a slanted backstory of the family scandal from either the upstairs and downstairs point of view. It also give you some NPCs for the ghosts to possess (the real reason other people from the village think they are insane - there's two different ghosts occasionally controlling the residents), as well as fuel for other encounters. Like finding the noble in strange places with no memory of how he got there or why he's been trying to tear down wall paper with his bare hands, or being sent to keep an eye on the butler as he's been behaving very strangely lately (whilst he's actually sneaking down to the cellar for a drink to settle his nerves).
As for other hauntings, finding yourself in the same house but back in time (maybe to when Cleve was a small boy even, not just the night of the murder) lets you do some fun things. Seeing rooms that have been boarded up, or secret passages that have been forgotten - perhaps even having to use the hauntings to solve the puzzle if some key part of the ritual to fix things doesn't exist any more; there's a relic that was in the old west wing tower which has since collapsed, but if the PCs realise that they are in the past they might realise that the west wing tower is still intact in that era, giving them a chance to either perform the ritual in a room that doesn't exist anymore or possibly even being responsible for the artefact going missing and the collapse of the tower...
Descent into Avernus is going pretty well I think, but there's definitely some issues with the module I've been having to work on.
So the basic early game is "Figure out mystery in Baldur's Gate, Get sent to Candlekeep to get the rest of the mystery, Get sent to Avernus to fix the problem."
But as we've been playing it, at least one player's character rightly doesn't love the idea of going on an adventure into the Nine Hells. Because why would you??
I basically had a flaming fist person threaten them that if they didn't go, they'd get thrown in jail/never work in this town again/etc etc oh and also we're watching you so don't you dare try to run off.
And their character still rightly considered it once they got on the road. End of last session they arrived at Candlekeep, so I'm gonna find something personal that will draw that player in. Rival with the same job shows up and curses them or something, only way to break the curse is to find and break the cursed object, which ended up in the nine hells funny that?
Despite that, I'm very excited for us to get into the meat of the adventure. I'm hoping to find a few more opportunities for players to open up about their characters (Gonna try to steal Brennan Lee Mulligan's "As your character looks at X, what are they thinking?" prompt for a bit more roleplay. The group doesn't know the warforged is a warforged for instance.
there's our last session where about an hour in I had that NPC tell everyone what they were doing under pain of jail/punishment/whatever. Feedback, suggestions, etc. welcome! I've been cutting the episodes down to 10 minute recaps but haven't done that for this one yet. We play Wednesdays, so I'll be doing that tonight.
Cross-poasting because no one said anything at all in the SE++ thread. Does anybody have any ideas on how to run a haunted house? I am already planning lair actions for the ghosts involved, based on their personalities. Other than some spookiness because of the ghosts trying to communicate with/stop the players, I am not sure what else to do in this adventure.
I have another idea for a one shot for my daughter for Halloween. I love spooky things. And don't want to get too terrifying, but make this creepy and supernatural. So...
I'm gonna take the ghost from the Monster Manual, and make it... better. More cinematic. "The Haunted Mansion on the Crag" is Myerscough Mansion, abandoned for a hundred years and said to be haunted. In fact, it is.
A hundred years ago, Cleve Myerscough, close to losing the family fortune and imagining his beautiful wife, Willibroad, having an affair with the gardner, murdered her and their son, and then drinking heavily in his study, fell and hit his head on the fireplace in a twist of irony.
Now, she roams the mansion as a ghost while his ghost torments her spirit. As the party arrives, she will subtly attempt to help them in finding her body so that it might be laid to rest. Difficulty, he placed it in a secret passage. The son moved on to a better place when he died, he plays no part in this.
At times, she becomes frustrated and her ghostly form can only lash out as she is unable to express herself. She is awash in a blue spectral glow, and everything about her has that effect. But when she appears to grow agitated, sometimes she erupts in a putrescent green fire and her spirit will attack the players.
What the players won't know is that she has been driven away and replaced by Cleve, who will attack the players in an attempt to keep them from helping his wife and keeping her imprisoned here. Every time the ghost is green, it's Cleve trying to interfere. I want to try to give them clues to realize its two different ghosts also, other than just the color.
Guy's got issues.
So, I'm thinking about lair actions like rooms becoming freezing, or perhaps being plunged in darkness or blazing green fire. Hallways seeming to elongate, room exits leading back into the same room or a previous room, all in an attempt to confuse the players. I don't think Willibroad will hurt the players intentionally, but perhaps unintentionally in frustration. Cleve will actively try to kill them. I also watched a video on ghosts from... MonarchsFactory that went into revamping ghosts and got a lot of ideas from there.
Can y'all come up with anything along those lines to help? Maybe some incidental, thematic monsters that may have taken up residence in the mansion in out of the way places like the collapsed second story or the cellar?
I don't read the SE++ one because few people say anything and the same people thought some of the half baked ideas I had for things I wanted to try out were bad
Just the 2.5 ghosts?
What other monsters would you do or have in mind? As wouldn't the ghosts and their activity scare away many from taking up residence ?
I would look at this week's Oglaf as an idea what to do with a ghost {OGLAF IS A NSFW WEBCOMIC}
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gavindelThe reason all your softwareis brokenRegistered Userregular
Take a look at the boardgame The House on Haunted Hill. You could steal scenarios out of that. You could even toss in a secret traitor mechanic
valhalla13013 Dark Shield Perceives the GodsRegistered Userregular
Interesting ideas...
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valhalla13013 Dark Shield Perceives the GodsRegistered Userregular
edited October 2020
Wait... how about... its sorta like a The Shining thing, where the pc's show up to this house, and are offered shelter for the night, and there are the normal inhabitants, but at the end, everyone there has been dead for a century?
Like, they're acting out the events of the night, but then everything is revealed, and they have to fight for their lives and lay the ghosts to rest.
Cool thing is, my daughter, because of her characters predilection for cooking, has a magic item that lets her get different spices, and she could probably use that to get salt. She loves Supernatural, so... here's hoping she thinks about it.
Edit: I'm really tired, and can't sleep, so... I may be babbling.
But... when they arrive, the house appears normal, the servants greet them, they're introduced to the household, but then things happen, and seem off, until they start getting flashes of the house collapsed around them and the servant's bones turned to dust.
I want her to figure out that is the present, then we switch to my original idea of the ghost of the wife attempting to communicate with them so her body can be laid to rest and she can move on, and the husband's ghost ( who might be an empowered spectre) trying to stop them.
So, normal start, but everyone seems odd or insane, then trying to escape a ruined manse while battling ghosts.
It's a one shot isn't it? Perhaps even have parts of the mansion slip deeper into whatever nightmarish demiplane is trying to consume the big bad. So you're trying to put the ghosts to rest that'll either buy you time (as they're no longer behaving like paranoid lunatics) or are able to give you a brief clue or item to help the PCs before they depart to the Outer Planes.
One shot can definitely be helped by a race against time, you just need a certain number of failures trigger the endgame - so you've got a 'firebreaker' ghost that sees their hated rival slip into the nightmare realm and come to the realisation that the pursuit of this vendetta has almost truly damned them, then revealing their bit of secret knowledge that lets them go fight the boss. But if the PCs are diddling then have the mist start pouring in through the cracks in the wall, and the floor to start boiling away into shadow.
But yeah, remember you want no more than 5 encounters/events plus boss for something doable in 3-4 hours. There's a ton of potential for a weekend or extended sessions in this plot, but if it's just something for Halloween you want as few fights as possible, some simple choices that are real dilemmas and most importantly - a grab bag of 'hauntings' to slow down a party that's steaming ahead on a mission or to provide clues for a party that's stuck overanalysing every choice.
valhalla13013 Dark Shield Perceives the GodsRegistered Userregular
So, my one shot was completed a few minutes ago, and my daughter said she was on the edge of her seat the whole time! I didn't have her fight the wife, just learn she needed to be laid to rest and fight the husband, a spectre I beefed up, a few times.
I simplified a lot of it, by having a priest NPC who was escorting them to the old castle they need to get to for the main adventure, then seeking shelter during a storm in this old mansion.
Together, between the magic users' religion checks, the priest NPC and luck, they managed to find the skeletal remains of the wife, lay her to rest in the family crypt in her son's sarcophagus, so she can rest with him (he died the winter before her husband went insane.)
They managed to destroy the spectre afterwards, then hightailed it as the sun was rising. The last thing she saw was the two servants' ghosts in an upper story window waving and fading away.
You know what I love? A nice, tightly run adventure with a great hook, an engaging story, and a tidy ending.
I know it was a one-shot, but sometimes I feel like even within individual game sessions that are part of a larger campaign, it's nice for each segment to feel like it has a beginning/middle/end.
My CoS group has our Halloween session tonight. Our DM has sent a carriage the Blue Water Inn in Vallaki with an invitation to Castle Ravenloft to have dinner with Strahd.
webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
Fuck, I have a session tonight and I thought of a couple branching paths that would be super cool and now I have to work them into the prep! this is what I get for daydreaming while working. It will give my players a lot more control over their destiny though.
My feminist, female hexblade with 20 charisma challenged Strahd directly over dinner about his misogynistic attitudes towards regarding women as chattel, about how he keeps chasing a particular woman who repeatedly over multiple lifetimes tells him no, about how he surrounds himself with controlled wives who know they are 2nd, 3rd and 4th fiddle to this Tatiyana.
Well...apparently he liked the cut of my jib and while on a tour of his castle he had separated me from my party, bit me and left me with a vampiric roofie hangover in the back of his carriage. Eventually I reunited with my party, robbed the chapel and I made sure to destroy his organ on the way out.
Now the Paladin has both the Holy Symbol and Icon of Ravenloft. The Barbarian has a Mace of Disruption. And I'm angling to claim the Sunsword whenever we find it.
I mean, I was on board with ridding the land of the evil lord before dinner.... Now? This bitch is about to set fire to the patriarchy.
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webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
Ughh, I have to get better interacting with my players as my NPCs. I feel it is EASILY the weakest part of my DMing toolset.
...and I made sure to destroy his organ on the way out.
I'm getting a "Sin City" vibe here. First I destroyed his organ, then I smashed his piano... :P
It crossed my mind. But we're only 5th level with a lot of adventure to go. So I keyed his car and promised to come back later.
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webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
edited October 2020
Alright folks, this is the moral quandry I'm going to be placing in front of my players tonight after the penultimate encounter for the halloween oneshot. What are your thoughts?
the players know that they have came to town to rescue the Alchemists Daughter from a powerful "Being" that has kidnapped her. The daughter is turning 13 in a couple days.
The backstory I've shared before, but here it is again. 10 years ago, the Alchemist, her husband and daughter were all involved in a terrible accident along the road, killing the husband and daughter. The Alchemist called out to have her family brought back. A powerful Fey being said that they could bring back the young daughter, but the husband was unwilling. To do this though, the Alchemist would have to trade a life for a life, and then after 10 years the Fey would come to collect the daughter to be a warlock in the Fey's patronage.
The Alchemist agreed, murdered an elderly pumpkin farmer outside of town, and was given her daughter back for 10 years. The Mother and Daughter came back to town wrecked, and the murder was ruled an accidental death, as the Alchemist is also the defacto doctor and was able to cover her tracks. It is now 10 years later and the Fey is back to collect, but in the intervening years it has sent the daughter a little pumpkin companion that has shown her magic and the ways of a warlock.
The conundrum that will be spelled out at the end (if they don't figure shit out) is that the players are interfering with a contract made in blood and bound in magic, and that they have no right to interfere. One of my players is a warlock of the same Fey, and if the players still choose to fight, they'll have to face the warlock in the final battle.
Is the choice a good one? The Daughter wants to be a warlock, the Fey isn't inherently evil, just different, but taking a 13 year old child isn't awesome, for sure, but the child will become the apprentice of the Warlock PC. The Alchemist should have never murdered the farmer to bring her daughter back. I think this will make my players think about going through with the final fight to get the daughter back or not, or let the Fey have her.
I thought I'd do a moral quandry with a hagspawn girl once but they just tossed her off a cliff assuming she was just disguised magically and not a real child who was on the verge of becoming a hag
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webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
I thought I'd do a moral quandry with a hagspawn girl once but they just tossed her off a cliff assuming she was just disguised magically and not a real child who was on the verge of becoming a hag
then they found a harpy chick and dragged her to chult and moved heaven and earth to defend her/pay reparations/fines because harpies are predatory and she kept eating people's pets around Nyanzaru and almost killed someone (I rolled all 1s for fall damage!) that she lured to fall 40 feet
they ended up convincing the aarakokra to help raise her on the basis that they're winged humanoids and harpies are winged humanoids so they must know how to take care of a harpy
I can't judge, I rolled my way into keeping a mimic as a pet. The DM had the last laugh as he then repeatedly used "and then this horrible monster you've repeatedly refused to get rid of decides to do something bad. Because it's a MONSTER".
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joshgotroDeviled EggThe Land of REAL CHILIRegistered Userregular
I can't judge, I rolled my way into keeping a mimic as a pet. The DM had the last laugh as he then repeatedly used "and then this horrible monster you've repeatedly refused to get rid of decides to do something bad. Because it's a MONSTER".
The nothic from LMoP is still following the party around because they didn't immediately try to kill it in our game.
I can't judge, I rolled my way into keeping a mimic as a pet. The DM had the last laugh as he then repeatedly used "and then this horrible monster you've repeatedly refused to get rid of decides to do something bad. Because it's a MONSTER".
The nothic from LMoP is still following the party around because they didn't immediately try to kill it in our game.
Ours developed a huge crush on the party's psychopathic grung monk. Even sent him a care package full of bones and body parts.
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NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
Waaay back when, in my players' first adventure in Keep On The Shadowfell the group found Splug the goblin thief and freed him. I played him as reasonably trustworthy, and while most the party was indifferent my buddy's Monk more or less adopted the wayward grot. Splug went on to travel with the party for many months, performing admirably while being treated well, before eventually being separated from them by circumstances (and a city watch that was particularly sensitive to goblinkind).
After a couple of full story arcs, the party was aided during a recent ambush by a familiar face, riding a wolf and followed by a shambling group of spore zombies; in his time away, Splug had found a community of Spore Druids and found his calling. Now calling himself Splug'nok (an appellation all Spore Druids from this circle take in deference to their founder), he rides with the group as a local liaison and faithful friend.
My buddy, playing the Monk, could not have been more tickled when the little goblin showed up again.
One of our party members went to unsheathe their weapon which caused the Nothic to attack us but I went first and crit with a 2nd level guiding bolt and did 47 damage (10d6).
My current SKT party started as newbs in LMOP, and the goblin Doop (? I don't remember if he had that name, or if the party gave him that name) was a servant of the Redbrands. When they killed the gang, I gave them the hideout as a reward and they decided to keep Doop on and have him clean the place up a bit so they could live there. Doop was more than happy to sign on, as it likely was better than being kicked around by Bugbears all day. They even gave Doop some coin to keep the place running.
They party is now a third of the way through SKT and has never returned to Phandelver. I have half a mind to have Doop actually be the most competent Goblin there ever was and have him be the mayor of a ridiculously prosperous frontier mining town and trading post. All he needed was a leg up from some friendly adventurers and chance to make it in this crazy world.
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webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
Hahaha we did a similar thing. It was great.
In other news, I overprepped my Halloween session and now we are going to finish it up on Sunday. It has gone swimmingly though so far, my players are really interacting with the world and the NPCs, and are very interested to see where it goes.
"Doop is now Townmaster of Phandalin. Just because Doop no talk good common no mean Doop is dumb dumb. Good head for numbers Doop has. Made new friends in prospector's guild. Made for big big money. Now hoo-mans like Doop. Elect Doop even. Now Doop is boss! You pay me taxes now, yes?"
Hee hee. Now I'm kinda excited for if/when the party ever returns to Phandalin. :biggrin:
NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
So there's a preview of Tasha's over at IGN, and looking at it I'm surprised to see the revised Psi subclasses from UA show up. This is fortuitous, because one of my players (that Monk, again!) told me he wanted to rework or work-toward some changes in his character, bending away from "punchy punchy" and more towards some psi telepathy "talk with all the strange things" situation.
I've read the revised UA on the Psi stuff a few times now, and it doesn't seem particularly...awesome? Maybe underpowered, especially in the feat (which by RAW, if I'm understanding right, his Monk will have to get his Psi mojo from)? Or just lackluster? I've played a lot of D&D, but I'm really unsure of the stuff in the revised UA doc.
What do people think of WoTC's latest attempt at Psi stuff? I'm dedicated to helping my player get where he wants with his character, but I also want to thread a line between "this power suite sucks" and "this power suite is dominating every encounter". Do I wait for Tasha's, or should I hit DM's Guild to see what else is available (spoiler: I already looked a bit).
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webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
We're wrapping up Avernus in the next week or two, then another player is going to be DMing something homebrew! We'll be playing that and some other one offs until we can get back together in person to start the Frostmaiden adventure. I'm Very excited. I'm going to go with the Artificer Armorer and be iron man. thinking a two level dip in warlock for eldritch blast to really sell it. It'll depend on how our stats roll out. I do just love the image of rolling around in battle armor, punching shit and shooting energy blasts out of my hands.
IGN has a preview of Tasha's, including the Table of Contents (which reveals, among other things, that there are shockingly few new spells in the book but a lot of magic items):
Of the 21 spells in the book, four are reprints from SCAG (green flame blade et al), one is a reprint from Rime of the Frostmaiden, eight are summoning spells that summon creatures with unique statblocks as opposed to how previous summoning spells worked, and the rest are either psionic flavored spells to go with the various psionic subclasses or new "Tasha's" spells.
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That way you can add a few other characters who can give a slanted backstory of the family scandal from either the upstairs and downstairs point of view. It also give you some NPCs for the ghosts to possess (the real reason other people from the village think they are insane - there's two different ghosts occasionally controlling the residents), as well as fuel for other encounters. Like finding the noble in strange places with no memory of how he got there or why he's been trying to tear down wall paper with his bare hands, or being sent to keep an eye on the butler as he's been behaving very strangely lately (whilst he's actually sneaking down to the cellar for a drink to settle his nerves).
As for other hauntings, finding yourself in the same house but back in time (maybe to when Cleve was a small boy even, not just the night of the murder) lets you do some fun things. Seeing rooms that have been boarded up, or secret passages that have been forgotten - perhaps even having to use the hauntings to solve the puzzle if some key part of the ritual to fix things doesn't exist any more; there's a relic that was in the old west wing tower which has since collapsed, but if the PCs realise that they are in the past they might realise that the west wing tower is still intact in that era, giving them a chance to either perform the ritual in a room that doesn't exist anymore or possibly even being responsible for the artefact going missing and the collapse of the tower...
But as we've been playing it, at least one player's character rightly doesn't love the idea of going on an adventure into the Nine Hells. Because why would you??
I basically had a flaming fist person threaten them that if they didn't go, they'd get thrown in jail/never work in this town again/etc etc oh and also we're watching you so don't you dare try to run off.
And their character still rightly considered it once they got on the road. End of last session they arrived at Candlekeep, so I'm gonna find something personal that will draw that player in. Rival with the same job shows up and curses them or something, only way to break the curse is to find and break the cursed object, which ended up in the nine hells funny that?
Despite that, I'm very excited for us to get into the meat of the adventure. I'm hoping to find a few more opportunities for players to open up about their characters (Gonna try to steal Brennan Lee Mulligan's "As your character looks at X, what are they thinking?" prompt for a bit more roleplay. The group doesn't know the warforged is a warforged for instance.
there's our last session where about an hour in I had that NPC tell everyone what they were doing under pain of jail/punishment/whatever. Feedback, suggestions, etc. welcome! I've been cutting the episodes down to 10 minute recaps but haven't done that for this one yet. We play Wednesdays, so I'll be doing that tonight.
I don't read the SE++ one because few people say anything and the same people thought some of the half baked ideas I had for things I wanted to try out were bad
Just the 2.5 ghosts?
What other monsters would you do or have in mind? As wouldn't the ghosts and their activity scare away many from taking up residence ?
I would look at this week's Oglaf as an idea what to do with a ghost {OGLAF IS A NSFW WEBCOMIC}
Like, they're acting out the events of the night, but then everything is revealed, and they have to fight for their lives and lay the ghosts to rest.
Cool thing is, my daughter, because of her characters predilection for cooking, has a magic item that lets her get different spices, and she could probably use that to get salt. She loves Supernatural, so... here's hoping she thinks about it.
Edit: I'm really tired, and can't sleep, so... I may be babbling.
But... when they arrive, the house appears normal, the servants greet them, they're introduced to the household, but then things happen, and seem off, until they start getting flashes of the house collapsed around them and the servant's bones turned to dust.
I want her to figure out that is the present, then we switch to my original idea of the ghost of the wife attempting to communicate with them so her body can be laid to rest and she can move on, and the husband's ghost ( who might be an empowered spectre) trying to stop them.
So, normal start, but everyone seems odd or insane, then trying to escape a ruined manse while battling ghosts.
One shot can definitely be helped by a race against time, you just need a certain number of failures trigger the endgame - so you've got a 'firebreaker' ghost that sees their hated rival slip into the nightmare realm and come to the realisation that the pursuit of this vendetta has almost truly damned them, then revealing their bit of secret knowledge that lets them go fight the boss. But if the PCs are diddling then have the mist start pouring in through the cracks in the wall, and the floor to start boiling away into shadow.
But yeah, remember you want no more than 5 encounters/events plus boss for something doable in 3-4 hours. There's a ton of potential for a weekend or extended sessions in this plot, but if it's just something for Halloween you want as few fights as possible, some simple choices that are real dilemmas and most importantly - a grab bag of 'hauntings' to slow down a party that's steaming ahead on a mission or to provide clues for a party that's stuck overanalysing every choice.
Source
MIMIC COLONIES
I simplified a lot of it, by having a priest NPC who was escorting them to the old castle they need to get to for the main adventure, then seeking shelter during a storm in this old mansion.
Together, between the magic users' religion checks, the priest NPC and luck, they managed to find the skeletal remains of the wife, lay her to rest in the family crypt in her son's sarcophagus, so she can rest with him (he died the winter before her husband went insane.)
They managed to destroy the spectre afterwards, then hightailed it as the sun was rising. The last thing she saw was the two servants' ghosts in an upper story window waving and fading away.
You know what I love? A nice, tightly run adventure with a great hook, an engaging story, and a tidy ending.
I know it was a one-shot, but sometimes I feel like even within individual game sessions that are part of a larger campaign, it's nice for each segment to feel like it has a beginning/middle/end.
He also posted this to our group chat get us in the mood....
I am super excited!
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Well...apparently he liked the cut of my jib and while on a tour of his castle he had separated me from my party, bit me and left me with a vampiric roofie hangover in the back of his carriage. Eventually I reunited with my party, robbed the chapel and I made sure to destroy his organ on the way out.
Now the Paladin has both the Holy Symbol and Icon of Ravenloft. The Barbarian has a Mace of Disruption. And I'm angling to claim the Sunsword whenever we find it.
I mean, I was on board with ridding the land of the evil lord before dinner.... Now? This bitch is about to set fire to the patriarchy.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
I'm getting a "Sin City" vibe here. First I destroyed his organ, then I smashed his piano... :P
It crossed my mind. But we're only 5th level with a lot of adventure to go. So I keyed his car and promised to come back later.
The backstory I've shared before, but here it is again. 10 years ago, the Alchemist, her husband and daughter were all involved in a terrible accident along the road, killing the husband and daughter. The Alchemist called out to have her family brought back. A powerful Fey being said that they could bring back the young daughter, but the husband was unwilling. To do this though, the Alchemist would have to trade a life for a life, and then after 10 years the Fey would come to collect the daughter to be a warlock in the Fey's patronage.
The Alchemist agreed, murdered an elderly pumpkin farmer outside of town, and was given her daughter back for 10 years. The Mother and Daughter came back to town wrecked, and the murder was ruled an accidental death, as the Alchemist is also the defacto doctor and was able to cover her tracks. It is now 10 years later and the Fey is back to collect, but in the intervening years it has sent the daughter a little pumpkin companion that has shown her magic and the ways of a warlock.
The conundrum that will be spelled out at the end (if they don't figure shit out) is that the players are interfering with a contract made in blood and bound in magic, and that they have no right to interfere. One of my players is a warlock of the same Fey, and if the players still choose to fight, they'll have to face the warlock in the final battle.
Is the choice a good one? The Daughter wants to be a warlock, the Fey isn't inherently evil, just different, but taking a 13 year old child isn't awesome, for sure, but the child will become the apprentice of the Warlock PC. The Alchemist should have never murdered the farmer to bring her daughter back. I think this will make my players think about going through with the final fight to get the daughter back or not, or let the Fey have her.
Thoughts?
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
God i love D&D players.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
they ended up convincing the aarakokra to help raise her on the basis that they're winged humanoids and harpies are winged humanoids so they must know how to take care of a harpy
The nothic from LMoP is still following the party around because they didn't immediately try to kill it in our game.
...I want one.
Ours developed a huge crush on the party's psychopathic grung monk. Even sent him a care package full of bones and body parts.
After a couple of full story arcs, the party was aided during a recent ambush by a familiar face, riding a wolf and followed by a shambling group of spore zombies; in his time away, Splug had found a community of Spore Druids and found his calling. Now calling himself Splug'nok (an appellation all Spore Druids from this circle take in deference to their founder), he rides with the group as a local liaison and faithful friend.
My buddy, playing the Monk, could not have been more tickled when the little goblin showed up again.
They party is now a third of the way through SKT and has never returned to Phandelver. I have half a mind to have Doop actually be the most competent Goblin there ever was and have him be the mayor of a ridiculously prosperous frontier mining town and trading post. All he needed was a leg up from some friendly adventurers and chance to make it in this crazy world.
In other news, I overprepped my Halloween session and now we are going to finish it up on Sunday. It has gone swimmingly though so far, my players are really interacting with the world and the NPCs, and are very interested to see where it goes.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Hee hee. Now I'm kinda excited for if/when the party ever returns to Phandalin. :biggrin:
edit: No idea why that image tag won't work, but this piece of CritRole fan art sold me. https://criticalrole.fandom.com/wiki/Wensforth?file=Wensforth_-_BuckMoonArt.jpg
I've read the revised UA on the Psi stuff a few times now, and it doesn't seem particularly...awesome? Maybe underpowered, especially in the feat (which by RAW, if I'm understanding right, his Monk will have to get his Psi mojo from)? Or just lackluster? I've played a lot of D&D, but I'm really unsure of the stuff in the revised UA doc.
What do people think of WoTC's latest attempt at Psi stuff? I'm dedicated to helping my player get where he wants with his character, but I also want to thread a line between "this power suite sucks" and "this power suite is dominating every encounter". Do I wait for Tasha's, or should I hit DM's Guild to see what else is available (spoiler: I already looked a bit).
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Source
Of the 21 spells in the book, four are reprints from SCAG (green flame blade et al), one is a reprint from Rime of the Frostmaiden, eight are summoning spells that summon creatures with unique statblocks as opposed to how previous summoning spells worked, and the rest are either psionic flavored spells to go with the various psionic subclasses or new "Tasha's" spells.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Most DMs aren't sophisticated enough to detect CheatEngine.exe running in the background.