My D&D campaign

[Trevor]

My nine year old nephew is just getting into D&D and I told him about the 2000 movie which was made from the game.

Oh, that is just mean Trevor. You will scar the poor boy for life. I'd have to admit to liking the third one in the series though.

 

I've actually never seen it 

[Alex]

The first one is just awful mate. Badly acted... So many things about it...

The best review I can give you came from my friend Garry "Not only was I not enjoying it in the cinema, but I had paid to not enjoy it. After half an hour I decided screw the wasted money and got up and left."

[Alex]

As they traveled through the day, they say signs they were being watched. Sunlight glinting off metal, scouts observing their progress. Val and Nigel rode off from the group to investigate and saw half a dozen Orc's running off behind a ridgeline. Not wanting to leave the main body of the party behind to investigate further, they returned to the safety in numbers offered by the caravan. On the hills to the north, they could also see a strange shadow moving over the hills. It didn't travel straight but zigzagged its way around. The shadow wasn't heading in the group's direction, until as evening drew on the wind changed direction, blowing from the group to the mountains. Sometime after this, the shape changed its random wanderings and headed directly for the party. As the light faded though they lost sight of it.

The guard for the camp was doubled that night, however, nothing untoward happened in the darkness and the sun arose finding them unmolested. Colesta and Zolis found they both had irritating headaches they just could not shift. As the day proceeded these pains would get more intense. As they travelled, Timus filled the group in on the details of the local tribes, their territories, (pre Dark Rise) numbers, tactics and anything else he could think of that would be useful to the party.

[Alex]

Zolis was looking sicker as the day continued until he fell off his horse, clutching his head. Colesta was looking equally ill, when from behind a nearby hillock a mass of insects rose up and swarmed the party, concentrating on the two spellcasters. It was a few seconds before the group realised it was a cloud of bees. Zolis gritted his teeth, pulled out his wand of fireballs and unleashed one into the heart of the swarm. Tens of thousands of the creatures were incinerated, but there was still enough to threaten the group. The crawled between the gaps in armour, stinging away. Both Colesta and Zolis found their magical energies being drained as they were stung. When anyone tried to speak, they found their words coming out in a jumble and being unintelligible unless they concentrated on every word. The buzzing noise was overwhelming and blood began to drip from their ears.

Praying to her goddess for fortitude, Colesta called on her divine power and unleashed a burst of sound like a thundercrack against the drone of the insects. The rest of the bugs fell from the sky, only a few dazed bees surviving. These were quickly hunted down by the party and their entourage.

Bruised by the Spelling Bees, but not beaten the group dealt with their injuries the best they could before continuing northwards.

As Kristi was feeling rather unwell in real life, we called the game there for the night.

[Alex]

Hmm... tempting.

[Alex]

The Ballad of the Band of the Icky Hand. Part 35.

Shaking off the last of the bugs, and pulling stings out, the party continued on their way northward. The party scouted ahead of the main convoy, while Almed kept outriders watching the flanks until they decided to halt, make camp and let the wagons catch up. Although the group has shown little interest in their employees, one of them decided to make himself known to the group. Their engineer ( a man called Longeron) came over to complain about the standard of his accommodation, pointing out that a man of his standing should not be expected to rough it in the wild. His demands did not impress the party much). They offered to pay off his contract and he could head back to the city.

Alone.

The next day the terrain slowly got rougher, low hillocks dominating the landscape. It would exhaust the pack animals to drag the wagons up and down each hill, so the caravan slowly wound its way between the hills. From up ahead though, the group could hear the unmistakable sounds of battle drifting towards them. Nigel headed up one of the hills and could see in the distance some humanoid creatures, perhaps two dozen or so, battling with each other. The group decided to stay out of the fight and started moving around to the east.

Had they went west instead, they would have missed this next fight entirely.

Zolis sent his raven up to scout ahead, he reported back that a bunch of large creatures were waiting to ambush the other creatures who were fighting each other. Each must have been easily twice the size of a man, and they were right in the parties path.

[Alex]

As the humanoids (Orcs and Bugbears) clashed on a hillside the Ogres watched waiting for the moment to charge. Meanwhile, the party crept ever closer to look at the Ogres. Zolis climbed to the top of a nearby hill and lay down in the grass to spy on them (and was surprisingly stealthy for a man in a bright red robe). Colesta and Nigel stayed on the lower ground, peering around the edge of a hill. Unfortunately, as the Ogres charged towards the fight, two of them spotted the party and charged them instead. With their greater height and reach one of them was able to swipe at Nigel, its cudgel smashing into his chest. Nigel, however, was too far away to strike back and would have to close with it in order to hit it. This would leave him open to a further, equally painful blow that almost knocked him off its feet. Zolis fired off a pair of scorching rays at the second creature, which with a roar of pain charged up the hill towards him.

Lying down on the ground while an Ogre barbarian pounds on you with half a tree trunk is not the ideal position and he was almost broken in half by its assault. The mage did something he had not done for quite some time, and decided the rest of the party could handle the fight while he went for a sleep.

During this time I reminded the party that drinking a potion of healing was a free action, and that if Val was attacking creatures from behind then she could do sneak attack damage as apparently she had forgotten this was one of her abilites. I thought we were about to lose one or two party members, although at this point I also decided to let the dice roll as they may and if a character died then so be it.

Seconds later, finally succumbing under the hammer blows of the other Ogre, Nigel joined Zolis in the dreamtime, slowly bleeding out. Both Ogres were by now badly wounded too, although still on their feet. Could Colesta and Val finish them off before falling themselves?

[Alex]

Val drew her pretty pink bow (and her player in no way hates me for giving her a pink bow at all), took aim at the Ogre on the hill and sank an arrow deep into the back of it's head. Gurgling on its own blood the massive creature crashed to the ground.

Right on top of the unconscious Zolis.

Oh well, I am sure it would stop him from getting cold.

Colesta meanwhile drew deep from her well of arcane power and send a gout of flame to engulf the second Ogre. It screamed in pain, but did not fall. She then cast a healing spell, returning Nigel to consciousness. Seeing the Ogre towering over him, he found where his face had fallen and smashed it into the monsters foot. Howling and hopping on one foot, it was then easily finished off by the pair. The party watched as the rest of the Ogres massacred both the other tribes, collected up the bodies and headed off to the north west, apparently heedless of their missing comrades.

Breathing deeply and feeling the pain of her wounds, Colesta poured healing into herself and Nigel. Val and Timus joined them, the latter of whom exclaimed that the Ogres tribe lands were to the east of here. What were they doing here? Traditionally they were known for being very lazy. And why did they ignore their fallen comrades?

Rather than heading off and risking running into the other Ogres, the party decided to make camp for the night. Then they remembered Zolis, who was quietly bleeding to death and suffocating beneath the someone pungent bulk of the other dead Ogre. It took some doing, but they managed to drag his supine form out of the dent in the ground he was lying in.

Had he died, this would have actually been quite handy for the group. They could just have rolled some stones on top and called it good. That is if they actually decided to go to the effort required for a funeral. I've noticed they tend not to bother with these when players die. Kill off an NPC and they are all over it though.

Once they'd found a suitable campground, they waited for the rest of the caravan to catch up. Once Almed had been told of what had happened he decided to double the guard. The night passed peacefully enough, although the sounds of the wilderness caused then a fitful sleep at best.

In the morning over breakfast, Nigel asked to speak in private to the others. He had been praying to Lathander a lot for guidance and had decided to give up all his worldly possessions. He would no longer wear armour, or use magic items keeping only his normal clothes and his mace (as his horse is a supernatural creature I allowed him to keep this and his saddle and still be within the terms of his vow)

This caused quite some consternation within the group. Would they now be effectively carrying a much weaker party member? They tried talking him out of this course of action, but Nigel was determined that he had to undergo a penance for his actions and indirectly causing the deaths of two children.

I wonder if the party made the connection between it being Ogres that killed the children and the ones they had just fought? If they did no one mentioned it.

Nigel passed his goods and valuables out to the rest of the group which they took with mixed feelings on the matter.

[Alex]

I had been going to throw a second encounter at the players but given how close they'd came to being wiped out, I backed off and let them have a quiet day.

The caravan headed northwards once again. By the end of the days travelling they could see the towers of their castle in the distance. As the sun dipped below the horizon they could see a flickering light from a tower window.

Someone was apparently living in their castle.

Dum dum DAH!

Again the night was a peaceful enough one and in the morning they knew a few hours travel would bring them to their castle. Timus filled in the group on the history of the castle and how while the castle was under siege by Sembians to prevent Irilian entering an alliance with Cormyr all the inhabitants had been found dead. Cormyr had sent an army which had annihilated half the Sembian army at Irilian proper, then marched to relieve the castle. Caught between the castle and the Cormyrians, the remaining Sembians surrendered. Although the walls had not been breached everyone inside was dead. The Cormyrians blamed their prisoners and had them executed on masse, said the castle was accursed and quit the area. With the nobles all dead, and no obvious successor the alliance had fallen apart and Irilan continued on its decline.

[Alex]

Approaching midday they finally arrived at the castle. It had been a long time since they'd first heard of it, way back when they liberated a nameless village on the outskirts of Teziir from Black Hand mercenaries. The castle itself was built out of the mountain rock, molded by magic. Outside lay the long-abandoned siege engines that had once threatened the castle. To the west, a waterfall poured down the mountainside before snaking its way around the castle walls and then disappearing into a cave on the eastern side. Over this moat stood a bridge, large enough to take two wagons and allow them to pass in different directions, but over seventy years of neglect had left it in a somewhat dilapidated state. Behind that stood the main gatehouse, although both the gates and portcullis had fallen to the ravages of time. Entering through the gaping gate they noted one of the western towers had collapsed completely and much of the west wall had been brought down.

Were the stories of the castles fate missing some details?

The castle itself appeart to be built in two squares forming a digital number 8. The outer box contained a two story keep in the middle and some buildings around the side, including a stable and blacksmith. The squat keep had one heavy door which lay open. Peering inside the group found their first evidence of a fight. A jumble of skeletons lay scattered around. This had been no ordered defence but a scattered melee. Other than the skeletons, all that could be seen on the ground floor was a well and a staircase leading upwards. About half the ceiling had collapsed, but the party were able to safely make their way upstairs. The remains of the second story contained an armoury with many bows, crossbows and ammunition for them. The stairs continued up to the roof. Nigel went up to investigate but found nothing else of interest. Deciding the outer castle had nothing else worth investigating at the moment it was decided to move to the inner area.

The partition wall dividing both sections was intact as was the inner wall. The sad tattered remains of some knotted ropes hung from the wall. Perhaps this is how the scouts checked the inner castle out?

[Alex]

Colesta climbed up over the partition wall and walked down into the courtyard of the inner keep. Although the west wall was also damaged here, the damage seemed less than the outer area. Whereas the outer courtyard was hard packed ground, the inner one was cobbled, although grass and weeds had grown in the cracks between the stones. She moved the bar from the main gate allowing the others to enter. At the rear of the inner courtyard were a number of buildings built into the mountain. A very ornate door on the western edge of the buildings attracted their attention and they decided to start with that.

The double doors opened into a hallway. Directly across from the doors was an archway with a crude barricade pilled up before it. Off to the right was a staircase going both up and downwards. It was decided that they would investigate the ground floor first.

Just as well really, I haven't finished designing those parts of the castle yet.

Clearing away the barricade, the group revealed what seemed to be a throne room. The middle of the floor was dominated by a heap of skeletons, while two more corpses sat on thrones at the back of the room. Judging from their clothes one was male, the other female. Each held a golden chalice on their lap.

[Alex]

Three other exits led from the throne room. One was a set of double doors near the thrones on the north wall, while two others were in the east wall. Opening the double doors first, they found themselves in a shadow wreathed garden of some kind. A faded sign, barely legible read "The Night Garden - Beware of the plants!"

It was decided for the moment, not to investigate this area and they returned to the throne room. The first of the eastern doors led to a guard room, and in a further room beyond that, an armoury, still containing many usable weapons and some suits of armour. This was however a dead end and they had to return to the throne room. The next door led to another room, about the same size as the guard room, but with no clue as to its function. Another door did lead onwards however. That left just one room in this part of the castle unexplored, the night garden, and the stair case. The party decided however to now move over to the other side of the buildings and explore there.

And with that we ended the game for the night.

[Alex]

The Ballad of the Band of the Icky Hand. Part 36.

The party realised they had missed out a room and returned into the complex. The final room had the appearance of a barracks. Many beds filled the room, each with a single wooden chest. Looking through the boxes the party found old clothes and the occasional private geegaw. It was then decided to descend the stairs and check out beneath the castle. The stairs went down much further than the group expected, and they ended up somewhere around thirty feet underground. They found a set of cells, some with skeletons inside, an 'enhanced interrogation' room with all manner of classic torture devices, although no long expired corpses were in place and a long-abandoned guard room. A jug and some wooden tankards sat on the table which Zolis attempted to drink from. When the party later returned to this room, he tried to drink from it again, claiming that someone might have refilled it while they were out.

It was pointed out to him that people up stairs had died from poison and drinking anything could be a risky business.

They also after following a long corridor found a pit. Dropping a coin into the darkness, it fell for a count of eight before the heard it chink against the floor beneath.

Nigel asked for an arrow, cast a spell to make it glow like a bright summers day and dropped it down the hole. The group watched it fall. The hole got narrower until it was only broad enough for a body to fit through. The party could not see what was beneath well, but something was down there and it did not like the light.

An unholy, raging howling filled the air. Screams and shouts echoed all around making a confusing mess of noise. Zolis attempted to cast a spell that would allow him to float gently down the hole, but the rest of the party persuaded him this was a daft idea. Finally, the group followed a long, narrow passageway that wound its way north and east, gently leading upwards twisting and turning several times. Eventually, the sounds faded with distance or ceased as the spell dissipated. They emerged into a massive wine cellar. Val pocketed a few of the bottles and the group agreed one, not to let Timus loose in the room, or even mention to him that this place existed. Two, they should not let Zolis in here by himself.

A set of stone steps led back up and the group found themselves in an ancient kitchen. Utensils had long since rusted to the surface. A set of double doors let to the south and an archway to the west. Heading westward, first of all, they found they were in a room filled with shelves and jars. The scents of spices still hung in the air. Nigel said no one should taste of them though and turned around to see Zolis with a guilty look on his face, his hand half in an open jar. Another archway led further westward. This time however the room was only decorated with hooks hanging from the ceiling. Some of them had bones still dangling from them, while other bones lay on the ground beneath them. Any meat that had once covered them had long since decayed. This room was a dead end, so they returned to the kitchen and took the southernly door.

[Alex]

The next room was the largest they had yet seen. Long tables ran the length of the room forming a 'C' shape. A spiral staircase and a grand staircase both led upwards. The ceiling had collapsed inwards, leaving a few denuded wooden beams pointing up into the air and giving the room a skeletal air. A set of stained glass windows once looked out over the courtyard outside, but most of them were now broken. At the far end of the room sat a spherical mass. It looked as if it was made of wood, but did not look natural. A two-foot wide hole led inside, and with an excited whoop Zolis ran over and stuck his head inside, shouting "I think this is a huge wasps nest!"

Almost immediately an angry buzzing noise arose from inside the next.

Zolis pulled his head out of the nest and asked "Did I just do something stupid?"

[Alex]

Angry wasps starting pouring out of the hive, each around two feet from mandible to stinger and swarmed over the party stinging them repeatedly. Colesta summoned some sound burst spells, damaging both the party and the wasps but not killing them.

The party had hit a couple in melee by the time Kristi cast those spells and they'd found out the insects had a decent amount of health. The AOE weapons Kristi used weakened them considerably, and although they weren't powerful enough to kill the creatures, did leave them badly wounded. The party however concentrated all their attacks on one creature at a time to kill them off, generally achieving a lot of overkill. Had they spread their damage out a bit more, the fight would have been much easier on them

Each sting brought with it a load of poison which left the victim feeling disorientated, hitting their fine motor skills. Eventually, this overcame Colesta and she collapsed to the ground, conscious but unable to do more than twitch spasmodically on the floor. Zolis was overcome by the cloud of flying creatures and collapsed.

At this point I changed Zolis's name to 'The Great Nacralepto**'. I wonder how long it will be until he notices.

Val and Nigel bravely battled on as more and more angry wasps* came to fight the intruders (each round I rolled a dice, starting with a D3 and going up to the next size dice each round for how many wasps emerged until they were all out of the hive.

Near death and wondering why they were being bugged by so many flying insects recently, the survivors were surrounded. Despite taking many more hits from the creatures they eventually stood alone in a room, surrounded by battered and splattered insect bodies and ichor everywhere. Fortunately for the group they now have hirelings they can have clean up this sort of mess for them now.


*Like angry birds but would make a better movie.
** If any narcoleptics out there are offended by this, before you reply just sleep on it.