- Joined
- Sep 3, 2014
Right then, so I actually ran a DnD 5e "one-off" yesterday (with the idea that whenever I got tired of running Only War, this'd be the replacement for it so we had a game). I've been wanting to play a 5e game for a while so I figure a quick and dirty run by the seat of my pants would be the best idea for it. Our cast of characters were the following:
Detroite: The clear muscle of the group. A rough around the edges Half-Orc sailor, he took the party out to the shoreline as a part of his contract, just wanting the money to pay off debts he accrued after some bad luck. He is enticed to stay on and dungeon dive with the party courtesy of an improved deal by the group’s employer. He was a Storm path Barbarian mechanically.
Flint: The hands of the group. A fairly educated but clearly from the slums goblin, he was hired on as ‘safety expert’ (read: trap disarmer) given the site was obviously a worn keep top of Dwarven make. He was in it purely for the money to join the Schola Arcanum. He was the Arcane Trickster subtype of rogue.
Jodak the Cudgel: Translator and bodyguard. An itinerant warrior devoted to St. Cuthbert, he was mostly added on as another stalwart guard by the benefactor. Given he was also a Dwarf, he also was thought to be and was clutch in a good portion of the dungeon diving. He was a Paladin dedicated to essentially smiting.
Ermalinda D’Miana: The party’s benefactor and the duchess of the Isle. She was intrigued by the recently uncovered ruins and sought out to see what might be found down there. She was their NPC and basically arcane specialist in case they needed a bit of a magic boost with magic that Flint lacked.
The party did have some initial problems coalescing together, given that Jodak had a keen dislike of the filthy goblins and not being too big of a fan of orcs either. The fight itself would be dismantled mainly by Ermalinda waking up due to the squabbling fronted mainly by Jodak. This got the trio to stop squabbling and prompted an attempt by Detroite to leave given the contract was up. After a quick renegotiation with Detroite, the group as a whole would enter via a damaged gateway, which seemed to be a keep.
The group would enter through the damp and cloying darkness, and very quickly realize that the keep was at least a few hundred years old (“A young Hold” Jodak commented blithely). They would even get the name of it, Zag Madruk (“*Something* of the Fisherman’s God”) due to these dwarves being fairly open with decoration. They also were given murals of the Saga of Ulric Stormfist, who took his people out of war stricken poverty and founded a new homeland on the Isle.
Some idea of the place in hand, the quartet stumbled into a large receiving room surrounded by doors, but ominously with a few dead goblins in the middle of the room. The goblins were looked at, and while Flint wasn’t familiar with their tribe they were from, he did figure them to be a fairly savage lot. The party eventually cottoned onto the fact that the suits of armor standing vigil were the culprits (the dried blood gave it away) and were a bit nervous about dealing with constructs. Luckily, one of the suits, a Helmeted Horror, would halt them and ask their business (they are an intelligent automaton). This would be about the time Jodak came into the clutch position.
You see, Jodak being a dwarf kind of unintentionally bamboozled the suits of armor, who thought him an ally or retainer of the hold. That he could also speak and read Khuzdul made him invaluable to the delving and in negotiations. The lead armor would treat with them and the party learned rather quickly that they were allowed access to the King’s Hall and Library, but that the Mint was off hands for the group. So the group gratefully thanks the armor and walks off to the library.
It’s around this time that I’ll mention something about how I like to run dungeons; to me it’s more the exploration than the combat (though I am horrifically guilty of doing straight combat slogs too). I also have a fondness for traps, hence why they came across a magically locked door barring access to the Library and why earlier Jodak almost got hit with darts if not for his shield saving him. Flint and Detroite combined were able to suss out the solution, which was a color coded series of arcane lights that had to be tapped to be a specific color. The traps and one other big event was why I’d say Flint was MVP of the group after Jodak.
They open the library, which obviously suffered some serious water damage. But in spite of this a variety of tomes were found, including journals of Marco Polo, human explorer, and Ulric Stormfist, First High King of Zag Madruk. The party had some time to ponder over it before they heard a wail from the southmost part of the library. A ghost of an archivist laments that everything was ruined and she can’t fix it. The party takes one look at this thing, do a 360 no-scope, and moonwalk right out of that door. They ain’t paid enough to deal with ghosts.
It is as Detroite and Ermalinda explaining why it isn’t wise to deal with spirits that pitter patter of feet catches Detroite’s and Flint’s ears. They were able to catch a small trio of goblins offguard, and a very successful intimidate from Detroite makes them metaphorically shit themselves. So the goblins try “subtlety”, and accidentally whisper their plan to the point Flint heard them, himself a goblin able to speak his race’s language.
You see, these goblins of the Osprey tribe were planning on tricking the party into “Da Ringah”, a series of traps that would annoy, hurt, or maybe even kill the party while they ran off laughing. This failed given the party knew what was up, and a well timed grapple and intimidate from Detroite gave the goblin (who is named Dimak due to living) the fright of his life. He cowardly sells out his friends by giving out the list of traps to expect, which triggers the saddest fight ever.
The first goblin charges and tries to skewer our sailorman, but fucks up so badly (literally rolling a 0), that I ruled he accidentally impaled himself on the re-triggered punji sticks they laid as the first obstacle. Our barb looks with annoyance and contempt and axes him horribly, smashing his shredded carcass into the spikes more. Obviously the other gobbo runs like the dickens after that moment.
Dimak is rewarded with a writ of passage by Ermalinda and decides to leave the dungeon. The party does convince the Helmeted Horror (or Darkhelm as Jodak’s player liked calling him) to join them in goblin extermination given his orders to protect the keep, but sadly he was too heavy to reliably go through the Ringah.
What follows is the best sequence of trap defusing ever. Detroite uses the corpse of the goblin as a bowling ball and manages to trigger a pitfall trap to a semi-flooded room with a plesiosaur (who promptly eats the corpse). Detroite actually finds another pit using his block and tackle, and clever usages of ropes and chains (chains came in clutch for our heavy characters) allowed them to navigate “Da Ringah”’s hole. Jodak even finds a new weapon, a Dwarven Quartermoon-blade the goblins used as a part of the trap. The only time anyone came close to getting hurt was Flint when he was a bit too confident and nearly got injured by the “Crusha” a very heavy stone sticking out with rusty daggers.
Regardless, the group enter the lair of the goblins, and note with annoyance they were ready for them (Da Ringah doing its job of delaying with the pit traps mainly). Their leader, an enterprising hobgoblin intended to make a murderhole with his troops at hand; Detroite took one look and laughed uproariously before using his intimidate and succeeding (which his player pretty much always succeeds in due to being lucky). This prevented the goblins’ prepared action after a bit of a tussle over the rules, and allowed his Storm Warden powers to hurt one of the goblins badly.
Things rapidly fell apart for the Osprey tribe as the party casually slaughtered them. Flint was abusing his stealth and effectively tumbled in and out to snipe shot goblins, Jodak put down two goblins with a nice hammer to the head and chest, and Detroite was the guy who took down the Hobgoblin, who while a better fighter than his men and able to get them into formations was still no match for him. Even Ermalinda helped by greasing up the place and getting the goblins to fall over. When all said and done, it was a slaughter.
The group check around, but barring some trinkets the goblins had there wasn’t too much that they’d consider useful. Detroite probably got the most interesting haul, a stone much like his own lucky gem. The group check south and one last goblin was there, who immediately shits his pants and disarms a trap given that his tribe was wiped out; it had to be given he was guarding their south from the dwarven automata. He shows them an Elvish buzzsaw trap the goblins rigged up to keep the armor at bay and essentially flees when allowed. Detroite decided to keep it and use it like a fuma shuriken.
The group investigate the hall a bit and realize they very likely found themselves outside of the Mint. In this case, pragmatism warred with greed among the members for a bit. They remembered the automata told them no access was allowed to the Mint, but they also wanted to see if they could also check it out. After a brief discussion, pragmatism won out, and they decided to show the automata the hidden door that was present. While they did get a bit aggressive at first, the Darkhelm managing the “dumber” constructs thanked them once they left the hallway and got the other two to stand down. He again mentions that the King’s Hall is open to visitors, and the party after a brief discussion on whether or not they should go down votes to; they did want a good haul and did not want to offend an ancient guardian by ditching.
That's the end of the first floor, and I'll tell the second half of the delve later; it was a fairly long campaign session by my standards (5-6 hours) and I need a bit to recharge from this.
Detroite: The clear muscle of the group. A rough around the edges Half-Orc sailor, he took the party out to the shoreline as a part of his contract, just wanting the money to pay off debts he accrued after some bad luck. He is enticed to stay on and dungeon dive with the party courtesy of an improved deal by the group’s employer. He was a Storm path Barbarian mechanically.
Flint: The hands of the group. A fairly educated but clearly from the slums goblin, he was hired on as ‘safety expert’ (read: trap disarmer) given the site was obviously a worn keep top of Dwarven make. He was in it purely for the money to join the Schola Arcanum. He was the Arcane Trickster subtype of rogue.
Jodak the Cudgel: Translator and bodyguard. An itinerant warrior devoted to St. Cuthbert, he was mostly added on as another stalwart guard by the benefactor. Given he was also a Dwarf, he also was thought to be and was clutch in a good portion of the dungeon diving. He was a Paladin dedicated to essentially smiting.
Ermalinda D’Miana: The party’s benefactor and the duchess of the Isle. She was intrigued by the recently uncovered ruins and sought out to see what might be found down there. She was their NPC and basically arcane specialist in case they needed a bit of a magic boost with magic that Flint lacked.
The party did have some initial problems coalescing together, given that Jodak had a keen dislike of the filthy goblins and not being too big of a fan of orcs either. The fight itself would be dismantled mainly by Ermalinda waking up due to the squabbling fronted mainly by Jodak. This got the trio to stop squabbling and prompted an attempt by Detroite to leave given the contract was up. After a quick renegotiation with Detroite, the group as a whole would enter via a damaged gateway, which seemed to be a keep.
The group would enter through the damp and cloying darkness, and very quickly realize that the keep was at least a few hundred years old (“A young Hold” Jodak commented blithely). They would even get the name of it, Zag Madruk (“*Something* of the Fisherman’s God”) due to these dwarves being fairly open with decoration. They also were given murals of the Saga of Ulric Stormfist, who took his people out of war stricken poverty and founded a new homeland on the Isle.
Some idea of the place in hand, the quartet stumbled into a large receiving room surrounded by doors, but ominously with a few dead goblins in the middle of the room. The goblins were looked at, and while Flint wasn’t familiar with their tribe they were from, he did figure them to be a fairly savage lot. The party eventually cottoned onto the fact that the suits of armor standing vigil were the culprits (the dried blood gave it away) and were a bit nervous about dealing with constructs. Luckily, one of the suits, a Helmeted Horror, would halt them and ask their business (they are an intelligent automaton). This would be about the time Jodak came into the clutch position.
You see, Jodak being a dwarf kind of unintentionally bamboozled the suits of armor, who thought him an ally or retainer of the hold. That he could also speak and read Khuzdul made him invaluable to the delving and in negotiations. The lead armor would treat with them and the party learned rather quickly that they were allowed access to the King’s Hall and Library, but that the Mint was off hands for the group. So the group gratefully thanks the armor and walks off to the library.
It’s around this time that I’ll mention something about how I like to run dungeons; to me it’s more the exploration than the combat (though I am horrifically guilty of doing straight combat slogs too). I also have a fondness for traps, hence why they came across a magically locked door barring access to the Library and why earlier Jodak almost got hit with darts if not for his shield saving him. Flint and Detroite combined were able to suss out the solution, which was a color coded series of arcane lights that had to be tapped to be a specific color. The traps and one other big event was why I’d say Flint was MVP of the group after Jodak.
They open the library, which obviously suffered some serious water damage. But in spite of this a variety of tomes were found, including journals of Marco Polo, human explorer, and Ulric Stormfist, First High King of Zag Madruk. The party had some time to ponder over it before they heard a wail from the southmost part of the library. A ghost of an archivist laments that everything was ruined and she can’t fix it. The party takes one look at this thing, do a 360 no-scope, and moonwalk right out of that door. They ain’t paid enough to deal with ghosts.
It is as Detroite and Ermalinda explaining why it isn’t wise to deal with spirits that pitter patter of feet catches Detroite’s and Flint’s ears. They were able to catch a small trio of goblins offguard, and a very successful intimidate from Detroite makes them metaphorically shit themselves. So the goblins try “subtlety”, and accidentally whisper their plan to the point Flint heard them, himself a goblin able to speak his race’s language.
You see, these goblins of the Osprey tribe were planning on tricking the party into “Da Ringah”, a series of traps that would annoy, hurt, or maybe even kill the party while they ran off laughing. This failed given the party knew what was up, and a well timed grapple and intimidate from Detroite gave the goblin (who is named Dimak due to living) the fright of his life. He cowardly sells out his friends by giving out the list of traps to expect, which triggers the saddest fight ever.
The first goblin charges and tries to skewer our sailorman, but fucks up so badly (literally rolling a 0), that I ruled he accidentally impaled himself on the re-triggered punji sticks they laid as the first obstacle. Our barb looks with annoyance and contempt and axes him horribly, smashing his shredded carcass into the spikes more. Obviously the other gobbo runs like the dickens after that moment.
Dimak is rewarded with a writ of passage by Ermalinda and decides to leave the dungeon. The party does convince the Helmeted Horror (or Darkhelm as Jodak’s player liked calling him) to join them in goblin extermination given his orders to protect the keep, but sadly he was too heavy to reliably go through the Ringah.
What follows is the best sequence of trap defusing ever. Detroite uses the corpse of the goblin as a bowling ball and manages to trigger a pitfall trap to a semi-flooded room with a plesiosaur (who promptly eats the corpse). Detroite actually finds another pit using his block and tackle, and clever usages of ropes and chains (chains came in clutch for our heavy characters) allowed them to navigate “Da Ringah”’s hole. Jodak even finds a new weapon, a Dwarven Quartermoon-blade the goblins used as a part of the trap. The only time anyone came close to getting hurt was Flint when he was a bit too confident and nearly got injured by the “Crusha” a very heavy stone sticking out with rusty daggers.
Regardless, the group enter the lair of the goblins, and note with annoyance they were ready for them (Da Ringah doing its job of delaying with the pit traps mainly). Their leader, an enterprising hobgoblin intended to make a murderhole with his troops at hand; Detroite took one look and laughed uproariously before using his intimidate and succeeding (which his player pretty much always succeeds in due to being lucky). This prevented the goblins’ prepared action after a bit of a tussle over the rules, and allowed his Storm Warden powers to hurt one of the goblins badly.
Things rapidly fell apart for the Osprey tribe as the party casually slaughtered them. Flint was abusing his stealth and effectively tumbled in and out to snipe shot goblins, Jodak put down two goblins with a nice hammer to the head and chest, and Detroite was the guy who took down the Hobgoblin, who while a better fighter than his men and able to get them into formations was still no match for him. Even Ermalinda helped by greasing up the place and getting the goblins to fall over. When all said and done, it was a slaughter.
The group check around, but barring some trinkets the goblins had there wasn’t too much that they’d consider useful. Detroite probably got the most interesting haul, a stone much like his own lucky gem. The group check south and one last goblin was there, who immediately shits his pants and disarms a trap given that his tribe was wiped out; it had to be given he was guarding their south from the dwarven automata. He shows them an Elvish buzzsaw trap the goblins rigged up to keep the armor at bay and essentially flees when allowed. Detroite decided to keep it and use it like a fuma shuriken.
The group investigate the hall a bit and realize they very likely found themselves outside of the Mint. In this case, pragmatism warred with greed among the members for a bit. They remembered the automata told them no access was allowed to the Mint, but they also wanted to see if they could also check it out. After a brief discussion, pragmatism won out, and they decided to show the automata the hidden door that was present. While they did get a bit aggressive at first, the Darkhelm managing the “dumber” constructs thanked them once they left the hallway and got the other two to stand down. He again mentions that the King’s Hall is open to visitors, and the party after a brief discussion on whether or not they should go down votes to; they did want a good haul and did not want to offend an ancient guardian by ditching.
That's the end of the first floor, and I'll tell the second half of the delve later; it was a fairly long campaign session by my standards (5-6 hours) and I need a bit to recharge from this.
