Encounters Season 6 – The Lost Crown of Neverwinter

The sixth season of Dungeons and Dragons Encounters: The Lost Crown of Neverwinter was also my last. Due to an ever-increasing busy schedule and the relocation of my local game store, I was forced to retire,for the time at least, and hand off the DM torch to another younger, stronger than myself. This adventure was a wild ride through the streets of Neverwinter, battling were-rats in the sewers and choosing sides in a war to determine who rules the city.

This was also the season I took the most liberty with, since I was playing with a group of mostly younger players. We had a recurring villain “Ninga-Jedi” and other fun stuffs. The reporting also became spotty, and for the first time, sessions went undocumented, forever left to the imagination. Sorry about that folks, read seasons 1 – 5 for some epic story telling. Overall, it was a great adventure, and in many ways, each season is an improvement on all the past seasons as the publishers learn and push the boundaries.

Played every Wednesday night at The Basement Games in Zona Rosa, KC MO. between the hours of 6 and 8 pm.

Session 1 – Lets Get This party Started
Session 6 – Trickster Magic
Session 6 (or 4) – Belly Flopper Bridge Battle
Session 8 – Sewer Rats and Crocs
Session 9 – Rat Fink Halflings

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D&D Encounters Lost Crown of Neverwinter Week 9 – Rat Fink Halflings

This week was marked by a table of uproarious adolescents around the gaming table. We had our two stalwart youths, and another 3 more they have recruited. All in all, the play was made up of Quinaro the ranger, Suldin the illusionist, Lord Frost the Dragonbon Vampie, Alvin the Paladin, and finally my son, the Jabber to my jibber, who played Edith the axe-wench. We left them last week floundering in the sewers after a battle with some rats and crocs. Searching amongst the sewer, they found 4 piles of slimy filth. Two of them held healing potions, while the third held an old moldering pouch with 7 gold. The dragonborn meanwhile was able to skin a croc and make a wonderful cloak to help protect his hids from the sun.

So doing, they continued down the sewer pipes, following foot prints and the squeaking of rats. Eventually they came to a long hall with a dim light at the end of it. Quinaro snuck forward to find that around a corner the passage opened into a wide chamber lit by a flickering candle, but the way was blocked by an iron portcullis. He reported his findings, then they charged forward.

Edith was first to go, and her muscles rippled as she pulled on the barbican. With a shriek of iron hinges, it began to rise, halfway up just to the level of the sewer flowing down the center of the hall. Edith paid for her success with 2 daggers thrown from hidden figures peering around a corner of wall.

Quinaro was next and he took a deep breath and dove in, swimming as far up the vile stream as he could. Alvin went next, and the paladin wrenched the portcullis the rest of the way up. He took three daggers from Halflings peering around the other side of the chamber ahead.

Lord Frost charged forward and sunk his fangs into a halfling, who began to transform into a rat even as he was struck. Then Sulding cast his spell, and the 5 halfling transformed into half rat half halfling and attacked. A wild melee ensued. Nobody was killed but the rats, though it was tough going for awhile.

I introduced a new house rule, (a variation of my home game houserule) that an action point can be used once per encounter but only if a successful save is made. This seemed to work well, since I didn’t want to keep track of everyone’s action points from session to session, especially since I am playing with a table of kids. The less tracking we have, the more fun they seem to have. My intent is to make each encounter its own story, since many of the kids have erratic schedules and are not their every week.

During the battle Quinaro discovered 2 silver short swords with jeweled hilts, and Suldin found a pile of coins and jewels that they divided, worth 100gp apiece. Lord Frost was lucky enough to find a suit of fine cloth armor that boosted his armor class by 1, while Edith uncovered a magic great axe +1. The way I hand out magic items, is that I have each of them roll a d20 and whoever gets the highest roll finds the item. (unless they already have found one.) In this case both players rolled natural 20s, so they each got items. When rolling on the table, they were sad to roll 2 and 3, but it worked out well for them!

I discovered while handing out this treasure that ALL the kids wanted to find something, so I had one find the short swords, one find the gold, and another find the jewels. Gotta be fair after all. Playing for kids is tough, but it does bring out my juvenile sense of humor, so I have a blast.

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D&D Encounters Lost Crown of Neverwinter Week 8 – Sewer Rats and Crocs

Another week of D&D Encounters sees our doughty group of heroic swimmer, the Bellyfloppers, looking to make their next splash. This time is the district of Black Lake, where the Sewer Rats make their hideout. They were attacked by members of the Dead Rats gang last week who also claimed to be good friends with the Lost Heir of Neverwinter. After the fight, the tavern owner congratulated them on clearing out the trash and offered them free room and board. He also told them where tofind the Dead rat hideout. “Follow the street out front until you can’t follow it no more.”

So bright and early the party makes their way down the ruined avenue towards Black Lake. Once a small pond in Black Lake Park, thought to be bottomless, the lake expanded to be over a mile across, flooding the neighborhood around it. Now forlorn ruins, steeples, chimneys and walls stuck out of the water at precarious angles as they neared the end of the street, which continued on right into the waters of black lake.

Next to the water’s edge, a small wooden boathouse sat, with an empty dock jutting into the black water. The ranger Belgos determined that many feet went in and out of the boathouse, and under a mildewed rug they found a big green sewer pipe with ladder rungs descending into darkness. Soon they discovered they were under the lake itself, and fould water dripped from th stones of the sewer pipes. The twisting and turnings were difficult to follow and each character took a turn leading the party.

They had a horrible time, getting stuck in one way tunnels, finding themselves in noxious fumes, and going in circles for hours. Eventually they came to an area that was recently traveled, and knew they were close. But turning a corner they saw a humungous fat crocodile, lazing half in the putrescent water Quinaro wasted no time but launched an arrow that glanced of the horny crocodile hide.

The rest of the party moved into the long narrow hall to attack, but no sooner had they done that, then two huge dire rats spilled out of a pipe behind them. Caught between rats and crocs, the heroes were hard pressed. At one point, the wizard Suldin was down to 1 hp, and his familiar owl was knocked out of the air by a dire rat. He risked all to get to his owl, and rescued it.

Not so fortunate was Jarvix the mentalist, who was grabbed by the crocodile and pulled to the back of the hall. Jarvix miraculously recoverd and pulled himself out of the crocs mouth, only to be bit again. This time, his legs and arms fell into the water as the crocodile swallowed what was left of the unconscious Jarvix. Played by my son, I showed no mercy describing the awful death of Jarvix. His half orc barbarian may have avoided the death blow for two years and 14 levels of play, but when I found the chance to slaughter Jarvix, I could not say no to the coup d’etat.

Nearly everyone else died in this battle, and I am sure they would have if I had not started pulling punched. When one of my favorite players Trent got quiet and ashen faced upon hearing the news that his owl was struck down by a rat, I knew that this was not the night for a lesson in hard core. The new player in the group, Belgos, was still standing and had a few hit points left.

One thing that was different from the way the encounter was written was that I used a large and a huge crocodile instead of 2 medium ones. The reason for this is that I have large and huge croc miniatures, but I would have had to use frogs if I went with the recommended medium, and that would be lame. Also, for whatever reason, any time I bring a croc into a fight, whether it be at Encounters or my home game, the battle always becomes intense, so I brought them for the drama. I kept all their stats as written.

About this encounter, the most I can say, is WOW was it deadly. Those rats hit for some major damage, and this ould easily have been a wipe if I had not let a replacement for Jarvix show up mdway throught he fight. Edith the fight came screaming down the stairs to help slaughter the implacable beasts and finally, luckily, the heroes vanquished their foes. Good battle, too hard, but fun. For once no one went swimming, must have been because of my 5 minute soliloquy on how disgusting, vile, and noxious the thick soup of human waste was.

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D&D Encounters Lost Crown of Neverwinter Session 6 (or 4) – Belly Flopper Bridge Battle

Ok first off, for anyone curious, I substituted this week’s encounter with the Twig Blights. The reasons are manifold, but namely that gawd I hate twig blights, and the encounter seemed random and unimportant. For that reason, I decided to look back to encounter 4 or 5 (which we missed due to my late start this season) and found the bridge encounter be more inspiring. Its triage out here man, for the best encounters possible, and culling the twig blights for some plague spell mayhem felt more epic and connected to the 0overall story.

In addition, I changed the party start position to be the back edge on the bridge – really trapped, not that weak sauce start position the module recommends. Next, I made it so the party was surprised, and the monsters got a free action except for those who got above 20 initiative. (Heh, I have to maintain my reputation for evil, don’t I?) And the final piece of the puzzle was a slight change to one of the monsters, from a lame-o plaguechanged wretch with nothing but a similar melee claw attack as the 3 brute allies, into a ninga-jedi who fired a plaguechanged hand-cannon. (pronounced neen-ga for copyright issues. Jedi is fine though.)

These jedi were hidden in doorwells and one hand glowed white hot and shot out bolts of cold-flame. Each character hit ended up with their face either frozen with ice or blackened by flame. They are Ninga! They actually ended up pretty lame anyway, though to great hilarity and suspenseful action. One of them was riddled with no fewer than 3 magic missile holes in his forehead (making a smoking slot) and finally when he was ultimately destroyed the top of his head exploded into a volcanic eruption of brains that rained down on everyone for moments afterward.

The other one was in a personal duel with the eladrin sword mage. New player wanted an eladrin sword mage, but the best I could do was an eladrin mage – with a sword! He had an encounter long duel one on one with a ninga-jedi and was down to 1 hp at one point, but never fell. As his finishing move, he used his teleport to appear next to the ninga and then stab him with his sword. Sadly he missed, but I told him that the ninga screamed like a little girl when he appeared and wet himself. The next wizard finished him and sent him flying backwards into the river, and the ninga’s last words were that at least no one would notice his wet pants.

Meanwhile everyone refused to leave the bridge by any other means than jumping into the fould smelling black and oily river with jagged rocks just below the surface. Sounds exciting don’t it? Well we all expected Quinaro to dive into the river, but whn the illusionist Suldin, did a cannonball, everyone was surprised. The wizard had just finished doing 0 damage on a hit while stabbing with is obsidian dagger (1d4-1 ya thats right he did 0 damage, though I ruled it was minimum 1 after describing the frail mage’s weak chicken arms stabbing stabbing stabbing and leaving not but tiny red marks on the plaguespawn’s back. One of the ninga saw his action and said “Surely this is a mighty wizard who is so powerful that he can afford to forgo his mighty spells and stab with his puny blade” thereupon hitting him with his hand cannon.He had little choice but to dive off the bridge after that fiasco.

Then the ever tactical minded Belgos did a bellyflop into the river and it was anarchy. He actually landed on an enemy and impaled him on the sharp rocks, transferring the falling damage to the plaguespawn and impaling him on the rocks, which he then rode like a boogy board for awhile. It was at this point a crowd started peaking around nearby corners shouting things like “Hey look its that new adventuring group in town, the Bellyfloppers!”

There was so much more that happened. Like the magic missile that chased a ninga all the way up a drain pipe, across a roof and down the other side before hitting him, there was the cat One Whisker who sheathed his claws in the head of a plaguespawn, and a statue that got chipped to pieces every time the ninga’s hand cannon missed Berrian the eladrin mage with a sword. Etc.

End time 8:02, mission success.

Addendum. My wife says I play to the crowd. Tonight’s average player age: 12.5

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Encounters Season 5 – The Dark Legacy of Evard

This adventure was a very fun romp through the Shadowfell in an almost fairy-tale way. A city is cursed to spend each night in the Shadowfell and the characters are trapped until they manage to break the curse. Featuring a duel between two (dead?) wizards, gypsies, werewolves, and other scary things that go bump in the night. The season was only marred by the incompetence of the DM running the event, as he decided to take the month of August off, French style, for what he calls a “sabbatical.” On top of that, the last few sessions were not even recorded for prosperity! Despite the fact that the not-so-humble DM even deigned to climb from his throne and partake of the adventure from the players perspective in a couple of the encounters while his son, DM Jr stepped in to take over.

Heroes of Shadow 1 Page Characters
A Pair of One Page Character Sheets
Week 1 – Whose Enemy Anyway?
Week 2 – Attack of the 8 Legged Hairy Tail-less Lizards
Week 3 – The Shadows Attack
Week 4 – Shadows linger, and finally some brains
Week 5
Week 6 – Party at Vontarins House
Week 7 – Basement Got Devils

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D&D Enclounters Lost Crown of Neverwinter Week 6 – Trickster Magic

Week 6 begins on the heels of the combined week 1 and 2 encounter from last week. Having helped the supposed Lost Heir of Neverwinter defeat a dragon by turning it into stone, the nearby city folk broke into cheers and came rushing into the central square until it was full to bursting with jostling crowds. The gravelly voiced knight in unmarked armour thanked them for the aid, and ave each of them a large amethyst gemstone with an inlaid golden ‘N.’

As they tried to speak to the stranger who seemed to be wearing the Lost Crown of Neverwinter (said to be enchanted that only a true heir of the city’s ancient ruling family can wear it without dying an agonizing death.) But the crowd was geting more and more boisterous. People began chanting “King King King” and oher groups called back “Governer Governer Governer” and the scene was threatening to tip over into violence.

Then the lost heir was suddenly gone, and Quinaro’s keen elven eyes saw a hand grab the knight by a shoulder and pull him into the crowd and disappear. The rest were being pushed by the crowd. Oh and one other figure, a dwar in armor and carrying a battle ax also grabbed an amethyst and the lost heir’s thanks. Apparently he had shot off one quick spell at the dragon as it was petrifying. The dwarf introduced himself as Allen, some sort of fighter-magic user.

Quick aside: Allen was a character a passer-bye happened to have with him. It was a 3rd edition character, and he didnt know or care about any of that, he just REALLY wanted to play Allen the dwarf. So I let him, converting his antics into the current edition as we went. It was hilariously fun. I told the group that after 30 years of DMing, the rules of d&D had coalesced in my mind into one grand structure that spanned all editions and renditions, weaving them into a pastiche that allows this type of cross-edition improvisation. Im still not sure how the 1st level fighter/wizard/some-other-crazy-shit managed to have the spells eyebite and enlarge, as well as full plate and 58 hp, but that is a tale for a DIFFERENT type of improv.

The crowd was about to start rioting so each of them tried to do what they could to calm the crowd. The new dwarf acquaintance Allen cast enlarge upon himself and began to grow above the heads of the throng. Then the illusionist created a storm above the dwarf, making his appearance even more sinister. The ranger Quinaro was on his hands and feet sniffing the ground next to his mountain lion One-Whisker.

The dragonborn Lord Frost Stepped up to the growing dwarf and hissed at him while he was still shorter, intimidating the dwarf, but the attempt backfired and shot up to a respectable 8 foot 8 inches. The crowd backed off forming a circle around the two but the dragonbon bowed to the dwarf as the dwarf began roaring at the crowd.

Just then a lady came through the crowd. She was panting like she had run a great distance, but was otherwise quite attractive or an elf. She said the governer wanted to see them at his headquarters in the green zone, and that they should accompany her, which they did. He offered them 500 gold to hunt down the truth of this lost heir, and the dwarf was about to intimidate him for more money, until he realized that he couldnt fit through the door. He had grown tobe 8 feet wide aswell as 8 feet tall. It was up to the wizard tosmooth talk the governer which he did and got them 100 gold up front. The governer told them to go to the Blacklake area, which they did, stopping along the way to buy some stuff, such as a claymore for the dwarf (which he used for the entire battle when not casting spells such as eyebite.)

They found the store tha used to bea fine clothes store but was now a shady tavern. Mannequins and full length mirrors filled the room, giving it a strange funhouse aspect. They asked the barkeep if he knew anything about the lost heir, and was pointed toward a halfling at the back of the hall.

The halfling was rude and mocking, then suddenly though down a smoke bomb and disappeared. The wizard used his arcana check to detect that beside his natural cunning, the halfling was using “trickster magic” to augment his hiding skills. Out of the dark leapt four robbers with knives in one hand and heavy head thumping maces in the other.

A wild melee ensued, with Charl popping out of a shadow to stab some one in the gut with his shortsord, as the toughs ganged up and beat their opponents over the head. The wizard went down twice, and stood up twice, healed once by Allen and once by a great death save. The dwarf was stabbed twice in the gut before the ranger was able to slay the halfling with a lucky shot. The dwarf had just thrown an axe which embedded in the halflings chest, grievously injuring him. The halfling then risked all to use a daily, but missed. doing half damage. The arrow struck the axe, pushing it deeper into Charl, slicing into his heart.

The robbers fought half heartedly for a few more rounds, then they each tried to run ans were cut down mercilessly. Good encounter.

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Wednesday Encounters Re-Starting Tomorrow!

Your humbly awesome DM is back from his energy revitalizing sabbatical, and is once again ready to start shredding characters and making women, children and grown men cry. Join me every Wednesday Night from 6-8pm at the Basement Games in Zona Rosa for a heaping helping of Dungeons and Dragons. This time we adventure north to the ruins of the once great metropolis known as Neverwinter.

Over the next few weeks, we are going to go high-power and hard core through the first 4 encounters in the new season until we are all caught up, since I am starting the season a bit late. It should be a blast.

He donned his war-gear, indifferent to death;
his mighty, hand-forged, fine-webbed mail
would soon meet with the menace underwater.
It would keep the bone-cage of his body safe.

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My Life with Encounters – One Helluva Wild Ride

A well thought out adventure with great encounters

Circumstances beyond my control (also known as ‘life’) have conspired to knock me off my pedestal of stability, and hence my Wednesday Encounters sessions were beginning to suffer. Having missed 2 weeks out of the last 3, and with worries that I would be forced to cancel further games as the relentless summer melted us all into pools of ourselves, I made a hard decision yesterday. This was to be the final week of Encounters for me. After 5 seasons of Encounters played at 2 different stores, the Evil DM was hanging up his Cat O Nine tails and unbuckling his belt of shackles.

Before I go into a brief recounting of the epic finale, I want to give thanks to everyone who showed enough interest to come to the local game store on a weekday night and throw dice for a couple hours. It is my great honor to have DM’ed for every one of the players who showed up at my table, numbering in the hundreds of unique players over 70+ weeks of gaming. I met a lot of great players during my run, and had the distinct pleasure of teaching dozens of people the basics of the game, and husbanding them through their initial foray into the world of Dungeons and Dragons. At some point I may write more eloquently on the subject of spreading D and D to the masses, but for right now I will just say that this is my own personal prime directive, and the Encounter program allowed me the chance to do that on a scale heretofore unimagined.

Special thanks go to that handful of players who showed up week after week, season after season, to submit themselves to my maniacal meanderings. It is to these hardcore few that I owe my run, long and fun as it was. At this point I should begin a list of names of those whose presence kept me coming back for so long, but I am notoriously bad with names, and have to choose between remembering their character names or their people names.

Finally, the biggest thanks of all need to go to the two game stores for which I DM’ed, Game Café in Independence, and The Basement Games in Zona Rosa. Without the time energy, and well, table space, of these fine establishments and the people who work in them, this project would never have even started. Everyone who plays and loves D and D owes a debt of gratitude to the small business owners who struggle to keep a point of gaming light open in a struggling market. I hope my efforts helped bring revenue to the stores who participated. I know I tried to make purchases at the stores I played at, when possible. (That permanent 34% off at Amazon is a hard discount to pass up.)

A new adventure awaits!

There remains one entity worth thanking, and that is the company piloting the flagship Dungeons and Dragons game, Wizards of the Coast. The Encounters program was ingenious. The adventures were awesome. The rewards were inspiring, and the chance to be a part of something bigger, a world community of like minded gamers was like being in a real world guild of friends and fans of the game. Wizards of the Coast created something new and valuable with the Encounters program and my fondest wish is that it continues to expand and draw in crowds while delivering epic fun for all involved.

That is my wish. My goal of bringing Dungeons and Dragons to every living soul (and thus creating a world of peace, plenty, and hacking and slashing) is not dead, only sleeping while I deal with the slings and arrows of a world disinterested in the good things in life. I will be back.

Part 2 – The Splendid End in which the party is victorious against the darkness and shadow

(There may be spoilers about the rest of the season, so be prepared if that sort of thing matters to you, o gentle reader.)

After the sadness of breaking my players hearts by telling them this was the last week for us, I gave a quick run-down of events that lead them to the manor house of Vontarin on the outskirts of town. The weird sky of the Shadowfell hung overhead as they approached the house, and they knew their quarry was inside. They merely had to get to him.

The house was large, stone and imposing. There were no windows on the first floor, and only a few narrow windows above. The only entrance was a heavy oaken door with iron fittings. Now, anyone following along for any length of time will know that the heroes of this and the last adventure have a hrd time with walls, and climbing in general, and have learned from the bruises and blood loss to climb only as a last result. This meant Merrick the halfling thief had to curb his natural desire to climb intot he upper story window and instead content himself with picking the lock. He rolled a natural one, resulting in a puff of orange dust in the thief’s face. No it wasn’t poison, the rusting tumblers collapsing into a fused mess, the lock was unpickable.

Next up the minotaur, who has opened countless doors before, tried his standard method of charging the door, but dare I say, he toorolled a natural one. This was no ordinary door! The minotaur lost his footing and hit the door wrong, bruising his shoulder and causing him to sit down for a moment to recover. The mighty door remained locked.

Kaleth mentioned that this might spell the end, and they should perhaps give up and go home. Merrick eyed the windows above, but Thorn held him back. He found a long piece of masonry to use as a battering ram and I know it is unbelieavable, but he too rolled a natural 1 on his athletics check (three in a row!) and the masonry became lodged in the door. Now they truly were thwarted by this legendary door.

As the invoker started backing away towards home, and the thief started eyeing the window ledge above, Torrin the dragonborne calmed everyone down and said he had a plan. With a huff and a puff and a prodigious blast of dragon fire, he blew the door down. Thank Bahamut he didn’t roll a 1 on that attack door! He was attacking the broad side of a barn, that is true, but I was not pulling any punches with the critical failures. He blew a dragonborne sized hole in the door, the edges still smoldering, and heard the spectral yelp of another two headed dusk beast, whose fur was singed by the fiery blast.

A battle began in the little 10 ft square foyer of the mansion as the party squeezed into the chamber to get a hit on the devil dog, who quickly expired under the attentions. And then as it burst into quickly dissipating smoke, they discovered it.

Another locked door.

The paladin could hear the soft growling of more dusk beasts on the other side, but the run of bad rolling ws (mostly) over and some one, I forget who, but probably the minotaur Jack, burst the doors asunder without further ado. So began phase two of the battle, beating on a trio of double-headed dusk beasts, while getting shot at from behind a curtain, and ensorcelled from a balcony above.

In this battle, I loosened the reins and let pretty much anything awesome or crazy happen. There was much jumping on backs, throwing of enemies, and all kinds of hijinks. It created an atmosphere of anything goes, but it was also a very difficult fight, so the balance of fun and crazy was maintained.

Some highlights were when Merrick threw his grappling hook up to the balcony, then rolled a natural 1 on his climb check (of course!) Causing him to fall flat on his back. When he made it up the next turn, Vontarin grabbed him by the neck and hurled him off the balcony. This time the little halfling caused a domino affect of falling bookshelves that completely covered the invoker in Encyclopedias – for 17 damage!

This was only topped by the minotaur, who also rolled a one on that slippery rope, and when he made it up to the top, , he too was thrown back down! For awhile there it seemed like no one would make it up to the second floor, especially because the mess of books created an area of difficult territory all around the stairwell, making the run up the stairs a slow, slow process.

Vontarin was cackling the whole time, daring them to continue. Suddenly the rune priest cast a spell that gave everyone in the party a big boon, but it had one slight cost – the healing surge from an ally, and of course the rune priest picked the biggest burliest fighter with the most healing surges for his target – willing or not. It was Jack the minotaur.

Wrong move.

The boy who plays the minotaur decided that was the last straw, and voiced his determination to join the forces of darkness surrounding them. Vontarin welcomed him to his side, and spoke of the wealth he would heap upon the minotaur for his aid. Now, having players turn on one another is always a risky business, and as the player of the minotaur was the sone of the player of the rune priest, I wasn’t too worried about hard feelings (though sore bottoms are another matter!) but I didn’t want the game to get out of hand. The game so far had been an improvised, inspired mess, and with this turn of events, your humble DM had a masterstroke of genius. He calmly told the minotaur that the best thing he could do would be to grab his erstwhile allies and begin hurling them up onto the balcony (thereby avoiding the whole problem of getting upstairs.

Ever creative, the minotaur took it one step further and actually through his fellow PCs at the few PCs who were already upstairs – namely his sister who was playing the vampire Connie. It was beautiful, and I thought the nirvana of gaming had been achieved. This night could not get any better. There was just one small cloud hanging over this beautiful day in the annals of adventuring.

The poor paladin, had been missing all night. Sure he broke the impasse of the legendary door –nothing to shake a stick at (though they tried that, along with bribing, bluffing, and intimidating the door) but as for combat, the only thing the paladin hit all night was that first dusk dog. He was slowed, slipping and stumbling amidst the books as he tried to make it upstairs. He even missed on his epic daily power that had only the weakest of effects on a miss. In short, he was pissed.

By this time Vontarin was reduced to minion status. He had one HP left and had retreated to the far end of the chamber. Miss after miss extended his life by a few seconds until it was the paladins turn to go. With great dismay he looked down at the map to realize there was no way he could make it to the wizard, even with a running charge, and he had no ranged attacks or weapons.

There was only one thing to do, double move, and watch as his glory slips out of his fingers. But oh no, Torrin would not go out with a whimper. He Heaved his great axe spinning through the air as an improvised thrown weapon. Everyone looked at him, and pointed out that the wizard had a realy high armour class, and that the paladin was only +1 with a ranged basic. He practically needed a critical hit to get him.

What do you know, natural 20.

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Dark Legacy of Evard 7 – Basement Got Devils

In an interesting twist to fate, the fabric of reality itself shifted to result in your humble evil dungeon master not DM’ing this week’s session of D and D. Ah no, he was a player instead, in the session DM’ed by his apprentice, his minion and henchman, his heir and son, DM Jibber Jabber we shall call him. I also sometimes call him Jackson Delaney, but only when I am especially angry at his antics. This week his antics were spot on, and the dragonborn vampire-paladin Lord Frost made his appearance in the party out to explore the mystery of the dark legacy of Evard.

We were in a basement it seems: a dank cellar below an abandoned manor house, repurposed into a bandit hideout. The bandits were devil-men. Their skin was red, they had horns and tails, and things seemed to catch fire too close around them. This did not stop Lord Frost, the bringer of cold, from engaging in such nefarious activities in the subterranean depths and he charged in with gusto. Their were two rooms full of the devils. One on the left Lord Frost pretty much ignored. The minotaur Jack had stripped his last devil foe of its burning bastard sword, and now wielded it with as much precision as he had his previous rapier.

But in the room ahead, the foes were not so easily defeated and it seems as though Lord Frost was struck with a weapon he least expected from such ignoble foes – the blast of radiance. He fell to his knee, bloodied by the blow, but the white-hot invisible flames continued to tear into his vampirical flesh. He prayed to five headed Bahamut – Why have you forsaken me great draconis? Must I suffer the privations of undead-like flesh, and a proclivity for blood for you? I am a paladin of the five headed dragon, out to to god and justice for those deserving?

The holy prayer went unanswered and Lord frost fell to the ground his pearlescent scales blackening under the radiance he could never wield again. Luckily the rest of the party slew his foes and a rune priest drove the radiance from his body just before he went to the open embrace of the five slavering maws of Bahamut.

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Dark Legacy of Evard 6 – Party at Vontarins House

After missing last week due to some emergency dental surgery (ugh) it was nice to be back in the saddle. Since my son (and co-dm) was in the middle of an intense Warhammer 40k battle with one of the players when I arrived, we decided to let them keep playing and consolidated the DnD’ers into one large table of 7. It was a nice experience. I have always favored large groups for Encounters, it was great to have a large table again after so many weeks of playing with 4 or 5. I was also glad to see most of the regulars were back. After standing them up last week, I was sure that they would do the same to me. Thankfully, I was wrong, and it shows what an awesome crew of players I have to put up with my shenanigans and return week after week.

I was sad to miss week 5, since it seemed especially awesome, but week 6 looked good too, so I was caught in a conundrum. In the end, I decided to work both encounters into one, and with the 7 players, it made it possible to combine the monsters, or one notable monster that is.

The party was just waking up from their naps, after spending the night chasing shadows, when a young strangely dressed fellow showed up, begging them to come see his grandmother. He wore clothes with strange patterns embroidered into them, and wide flapping lapels. The paladin knew his kind –Vistani. They were a nomadic people who never stayed one place long, and who were often accused of nefarious activities. This kid seemed honest enough under the paladins glaring eyes, and so they agreed to follow him.

Mother Grivelda met them at a house outside town, and had heard of the heaors exploits. She had one question for them – who was buried in Evards tomb? When they guessed Evard, he chuyckled and told them no, the body was switched and Vontarin was buried in the tomb. She said his old house was nearby, and they they should seek it out for clues to the curse that has befallen the town of Duponde. As she spoke, they heard a long wailing howl of a wolf in the woods outside. She then asked them if they would like to have their fortunes read, and Gale the hunter, Connie the vampire, and one or two others agreed. She told them of dark times ahead, and of the fear of loss, and told the vampire specifically to keep to the shadows. The party then left and made their way down the lane towards the abandoned house of Vontarin.

As they walked, they heard more wolf sounds, this time from closer, and Gale thought she might have seen a flitting shadow, but soon they left the woods behind, and came to a hill atop which the ruins lay. The courtyard was empty, and a fountain with black sludge stood between statues of Vontarin, one on horseback, one on a seahorse.

The invoker stepped forward and tried the door, it was locked. The house was in ruins, with part of the roof caved in, but all the windows were shuttered, and some looked recently nailed shut. Also, there were recent tracks of men and beasts leading to the locked door. This was all the minotaur needed, and he charged forward, slamming into the doors with his be-horned head, smashing the doors off their hinges and 10 feet into the dark, dusty interior. He was immediately attacked by a pair of drakes. If dogs are man’s best friend, then drakes are surely monsters best friend. No self respecting humanoid is without at least one guard drake. In this house were a pair. One was small, but what it lacked in stature it made up for in fangs. Its had fangs hanging out of its mouth, pointing every direction, and it knew how to use them. It charged the minotaur and bit into his thigh. Meanwhile, the other drake was larger and covered in green scaly hide. It sat back on its haunches and its throat expanded like a bull frog’s before disgorging a huge glob of acid that arced across the room and splashed into the minotaur.

The rest of the party moved into the room, except for Gaunt the shadow wizard who moved around one side, and Gale the hunter who kept alert outside the front door. She noticed a shadow flit behind a nearby tree and without hesitation she fired an arrow at a shoulder just visible. A wolf-like howl met her attack, and out of the cover of the tree a half-man half-wolf came bounding. Along the way it pulled the arrow out of its shoulder, and Gale watched with fear as the wound began to close. It then slashed the hunter knocking her down. It bit her too, then leapt into the doorway to take on the others.

Meanwhile, a party of 4 red-skinned demi-humans with tapering horns on their heads – tieflings – stood up from one back corner of the house where they were playing a game of cards. They rushed forward ,and from the other end of the house came a huge tiefling with a flaming bastard sword in his hands. He struck out at the paladin and the rune priest.

Connie the vampire wore a wide brimmed hat to keep the sun off, and as she was hit with a glob of drake spit, the hat began crumbling from the acid. I warned her that it was a good thing she was in the house, since it was high noon outside and her hat was destroyed. On her turn as a minor action, she put on another hat.

The melee was fierce as the allies and enemies crowded into the front room of the ruined manor. The card playing tieflings went down quick, but their boss was harder to kill, and he stood in front of the spitting drake, protecting it. The werewolf tore into the allies from the door, while the tieflings hit them from the other side. But these are heroes, and they turned the tide. After the minions and the chihua-drake were slain, the party ganged up on the boss and the werewolf, and the battle was won. The poor spitting drake was the last to go down, spitting and backing away until it was finally, mercifully slaughtered.

After seeing the flaming bastard sword, the hulking minotaur knew that he would feel inadequate if he continued using his rapier, and he took it with a smile. Now that’s a sword worthy of a minotaur.

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