In the prior sessions, the party faced way too many gnolls, found a possible remnant of the Necropolis of Andok Sur, magically returned to Fallcrest, and acquired a few magic weapons. Meeting with the Lord Warden and Bejik, they turned over a token from Jheri’s Tomb and learned that the serpentine dragonborn may be a follower of Zehir. After Bejik’s escape, further investigation turned up very little. And so, the party agreed to travel to Nenlast to see what might be going on there AND let the inhabitants know of the deaths of those that Aljuzae’s gnolls and abducted. On the road, they met a minstrel, Brandwick, and found an odd occurrence…the lands south of the Trade Road were burned and scorched. Following a set of tracks in the charred land, they learned of the involvement of the Mages of Saruun and found a charred stone tower. Let’s continue the recaps as the party approaches this stone tower.
Continue reading →Nentir Vale Recap, Sessions 16-19
After a little sidetrek into the Feywild, the party got back to their main “quest,” finding Jheri’s Tomb. They succeeded in that and dealt with the various guardians, both those with Aljuzae and those “native” to the tomb. They succeeded in acquiring Jheri’s Wing, an amulet as a token for Bejik, and rescued some prisoners before starting their trek back to Fallcrest. That’s when they became a band on the run, a fairly large force were following the party. Finding a fairly defensible hill with some ruins of an old Nerathi outpost, the heroes prepared themselves. Dozens of gnolls ringed the hill; let’s find out what happened.
Continue reading →Nentir Vale Recap, Sessions 12-15
Lots of information gathered and learned in the last couple of sessions. Mari’s map, in particular, had a lot of info…almost like it provides almost twenty different sites that an adventuring group might want to check out. If it only wasn’t for the rest of the pesky world interfering, the party could go off and do just that. Said interference in this case is something of a disturbing dragonborn that needs the tomb of the legendary Jheri Tiburcaex found and explored before a bunch of gnolls, led by a woman dressed all in black, plunder it first. And so off went our little group.
We pick up with Woody exploring away from the party…he needs a wall to smash to satisfy the requirements of Crius’ Rampart or lose some of his strength. Damn double-edged swords, er, shields, er, fey items! So let’s pickup with what Woody just discovered…
Continue reading →Nentir Vale Recap, Sessions 10-11
Previously on “The Nentir Vale…”
The heroes followed the “rock sausage” and found some ruins, days to the north of Fallcrest. Catacombs below held the crypts of the Riverroar family (a disgraced Nerathi noble family…rumored to be evil cultists). The crypt held an entrance to the Slaughtergarde. A few combats later, a bunch of demons (but not all) were dead, an Abyssal gate destroyed, and some treasure plundered. As an added bonus, our intrepid crew found the body of a halfling with a map of various locations in the Vale marked and a note for each…although I don’t think the group has yet translated the notes.
The group had completed their task and so were heading back to Fallcrest and we’ll pick things up there.
Continue reading →Nentir Vale Recap, Sessions 6-9
In our prior sessions, the party came together, got employed by the main authority in the Vale, fought an ogre, a bunch of gnolls and kobolds, and defeated a dragon. They also acquired some treasure and perhaps more importantly, a new plot hook! This hook is a rock, affectionately known as the “rock sausage,” found in the possession of an evil wizard from the Illustrious Order of the Black Pearl. It can act as a lodestone to gates to the Abyss in the demonic fortress Slaughtergarde. Remnants of this fortress lie scattered about the Midrealm and these gates could be used to summon demons. The group also built various contacts around Fallcrest, solidifying their relationship with Lord Warden Markelhay, meeting Nimozaran the Green, and others: Selarund Halfmoon, owner of Halfmoon Trading House; Ressilmae Starlight, priest at the Moonsong Temple; Dirina Mornbrow, priestess at the Temple of Erathis; and, Grundelmar, priest at the House of Pelor.
Oh, and Woody kept winning prizes at the Nentir Vale Inn for being the nth patron. Usually, it was a pitcher of ale delivered to his room. Once it was three free nights at the Silver Unicorn Inn (the posher establishment in town) but Wisara Osterman, the matron at the Silver Unicorn, was not having a Sky Pony in her establishment!
Hooked, the party started more direct investigation/intervention into the Slaughtergarde stuff starting with session 6.
Continue reading →Nentir Vale Recap, Sessions 1-5
Originally, I began writing these as a normal session log like we used to. After it taking me a couple of hours to do one for the first two session and realizing that I had at least thirty more sessions to go, I knew a change in approach was needed. So these recaps are going to cover the highlights and critical elements, often in bullet form, so I can get through (at least most) of this prior to our next session. That said, the six PCs arrived in pairs, with the members of each pair having traveled together and knowing each other fairly well. The pairs are (in order that they arrived as best as I recall): Fiona & Woody, Gandave & Sulrinn, and Aran & Nalniss.
Continue reading →Nentir Vale Campaign
My last post, back in January, was about our 2020 gaming and I mentioned that our current D&D campaign (5th Edition) was set in a reimaging of the Nentir Vale setting from 4th Edition. This campaign has continued on through 2021 (to date) and has continued online via Foundry VTT (hosted by The Forge) due to the ongoing pandemic. Things had been going great and then I had to go and have a health emergency (not Covid related) and we couldn’t play for at least six weeks. When I was in a position where we could start playing again, not everyone else was available. I was unwilling to start the campaign up without all of the current players. So, instead, we did some side stuff, with the available players but now, we’re getting ready to pick up the main campaign again. Since it has been so long and the players haven’t been doing session recaps, I figured that I should put together a recap of the campaign to date to help myself (as well as the players) remember what has come before. Since I’d be writing it all up anyways, I might as well post it too.
Rachel’s session notes have been invaluable in putting all of this together.
Before we get started with the recap, I suppose I should introduce the characters.
Continue reading →2020
Well, it has been almost a whole year since I last posted something. There are numerous reasons for that: 2020 and Covid, of course, impacted our gaming; I had stopped asking the players to do write-ups each week; our regular campaign in 2019 had gone on hiatus due to a debilitating injury to one of our players; and, of course, my natural inclination towards laziness. 
I guess I feel obligated to get in at least one post a year so here’s an update on our gaming.
Continue reading →Stonehell Environs
Because our main campaign is based on Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, I went ahead and put our Stonehell in the Forgotten Realms simply for the advantage of some familiarity for the players (mainly for the religious pantheon). I’ve placed it in a box valley in the Nether Mountains and re-written the background a bit. Stonehell was a prison created by a wizard of ancient Netheril. A curtain wall blocks the valley’s mouth and an ancient Netherese magical dome of force covers the top of the valley, extending down into the curtain wall. A tunnel through the wall provides the only known access to the valley.
The small town of Hawk’s Nest has grown from a watchtower to a small town up against the outside of the curtain wall. Services for adventurers, or Hellions as the locals call them, is the primary economy of the town. Because the game is focused on adventuring in Stonehell, we’re largely hand-waving the interactions in town. There is an inn, the Stonehell Inn, for the characters to rest and recover (at the cost of 1gp per day). Sidekicks can also be hired at the inn. There is a shop and “bank” where recovered treasures can be sold and wealth stored. All prices are fair…no haggling allowed. That’s the extent of the town so far. A tunnel pierces the curtain wall and gives access to the valley beyond. Hawk’s Nest charges a toll of 1gp for each Hellion entering and an additional toll of 1gp for each Hellion leaving. Hawk’s Nest also has a Department of Tourism and Treasure that produces a brochure for wannabe adventurers, but I’ll save that for another post.
I’m not using the curtain wall or the valley as written. Instead, the wall is–as far as anyone knows–solid with the exception of the aforementioned tunnel. The valley beyond is a desolate wasteland. The magic dome covering the valley leaves it in perpetual shadow. A constant, thick mist obscures vision even more, visibility is only about fifteen to twenty feet, and sounds are muffled. The ground is covered in a layer of ashy pale grey dust, about six inches deep. No fauna of flora exists. It is an eerie and apparently lifeless place.
However, it is not empty. Barrow mounds dot the valley and various caves and worked complexes pierce the valley’s walls. Some of these, so far, have been persistent from foray to foray. Others have not, with new mounds appearing in new locations or where a different mound was found previously. These barrow mounds are largely from Greg Gillespie’s megadungeon, Barrowmaze. I originally adopted this approach to the valley to mix it up some (we’ve played a few sessions of Stonehell before). It has, however, taken on a bit of a life of its own and now has something of a background story and logic in my head.
To date, there have been eleven separate forays beyond the curtain wall. Only two of these have actually been into Stonehell proper. The others have all explored various locations and barrows in the valley. Eight different PCs have been involved in these forays and half of those did not survive the excursion. Another eight sidekicks have perished in the explorations as well. It has been a little deadly.
While the dungeon of Stonehell follows the standard trope of the deeper you go, the higher level you need to be, the Valley does not (Up a Level, Down a Level). One of the “tombs” in the valley wall, for example, is blocked by a set of large iron doors. A sigil is prominent upon the doors. One group of PCs (sadly no longer with us) identified the sigil as that of an infamous vampire warlord. If true, even a party with a good bit of “experience” under their belt would likely not survive that encounter. The current PCs have talked about going in but do not. Something about it looking a bit scary, dangerous, and well beyond their capabilities…nothing at all about knowing it belongs to a vampire warlord. 
This is somewhat analogous to how wilderness encounters in older editions would often include creatures that would be quite difficult for a party in a straight up fight (or any fight). It would often be in the players’ best interest to avoid such encounters outright. When that shadow of a flying dragon passed across a low level party, it was typically wise to head for cover. The Valley is similar. The encounters are not necessarily “Level Appropriate” for the player characters. (One might even say that they are nearly random, if were one so inclined and could be guaranteed that his players would never read this.) It is incumbent upon them to decide if they should risk the encounter or not. It would likely be even better if they can recover whatever treasure might lie in a barrow and avoid the inhabitant(s) as much as possible. All of those PCs deaths I mentioned up above…they’ve been in the Valley and not the dungeon.
That’s enough for this post. A bit more on the Hawk’s Nest Department of Tourism and Treasure and the adventuring “Rules of Stonehell” in the next post.
Stonehell Interlude/Side Campaign
Due to one of our players having a bit of an accident that left her wheelchair bound for a few months and my place not being very handicap accessible, we’ve put our Waterdeep campaign on hold. Also, with it being the holiday season, players would be missing various sessions for various reasons. So, in its place, we’ve been playing Michael Curtis’ excellent Stonehell mega-dungeon (with, of course, some modifications and a bit of tongue in cheek). We are not, however, using Labyrinth Lord (for which it was published) or any other OSR systems or pre-d20 D&D editions. We’re still playing 5e. I’ve encouraged everyone to play characters “against type” from what they usually play and to use this as an opportunity to explore the rules of 5e and take risks a bit more.
Speaking of rules, we are using some house rules specifically for this little side campaign and that’s what this post will focus on.
No experience points are gained for defeating monsters or going on adventures nor are we using milestone xp. Instead, characters need to train to go up a level. The cost of training is a number of gold pieces equal to the XP that would normally be required to level up (e.g., it costs 300gp in training costs to reach 2nd level). Oh, we’re handwaving any training time. This is my “gold as XP” approach and, I hope, it also encourages the players to approach their adventures less from a kill things and take their stuff slog and more of a be creative and intelligent in looting the dungeon.
It also puts the players in the interesting (they might say agonizing) position of having to choose what to do with the treasure that they recover. Do they save and “bank” it towards the cost of training a level? Or do they use it to get better gear (e.g., better armor for a higher AC) to improve their chances of surviving a foray into Stonehell? Do they sell that magic item for a nice, tidy sum or do they keep it to use? Since resource management isn’t really that big of thing in 5e, but is for “old school” games, this introduces an element of that sort of tension.
As a general rule, long rests cannot be taken while in the dungeon. Do they risk pressing on after they’ve depeleted their spell slots, hit dice, and the like? Or do they return to the safety of the nearby town, Hawk’s Nest, to recover and recoup at the risk of the dungeon “restocking” as well? Given how some of the sessions have gone so far, this has added a different kind of tension to the game than our normal campaign. One that, dare I say it, lends a hint of an old school feel to it.
Oh, if the party does get “stuck” or “lost” in the dungeon and can’t find their way out, I do take pity on them. The organization, Hawk’s Nest Hellion Extrication, Liberation, and Perquisition Services (Hawk’s Nest H.E.L.P.S.), can come to the rescue and recover the survivors for a small fee of 100gp per PC per level. This gives the players the pleasure of yet another significant and potentially costly or deadly (if they press on) choice to make. (P.S., Adventures in Stonehell are called Hellions in Hawk’s Nest.)
Lastly, we are using Sidekicks from the recent 5e Essentials Kit. A sidekick can be hired for an equal share of the treasure recovered in the foray that they accompany the party. For some reason, the first two sidekicks hired were both named Bob (which became a theme). Originally, I had let everyone know that if they mistreated their sidekicks, word would get back and other sidekicks would demand a larger share of the treasure to travel with such dangerous adventurers. That, I soon realized given the number of sidekicks biting the dust, would require that I’d have to start tracking it so I came up with something else.
By decree of the World-Expansive Brotherhood-Extraordinaire of Buddies, Oppos, Bulwarks, and Sidekicks (aka WeBeBOBS), in the event of the untimely demise of a sidekick or in the event that they do not otherwise return from the expedition into Stonehell for any other reason, WeBeBOBS shall receive the share in lieu of the member receiving it. This seemed like an easier way (at least for me) to handle it. Oh, and yes, all the sidekicks are now named Bob…the guild of sidekicks is WeBeBOBs after all.
I found a random personality trait table of one word adjectives for NPCs (you can find it here). Each Bob gets one random adjective and I ham it up to the amusement, chagrin, and groans of the players. The sidekicks are known by these traits (e.g., Macho Bob, Self-Serving Bob, etc.). Outside of the hamming it up, the players largely control their sidekicks (with the sidekick going on their initiative turn to keep things simple). There is no guarantee that a prior Bob will be available when the PCs want to hire a new one. Originally, I was going to say one Bob per player. After our last session with four Bobs to be hammed up (Impudent Bob, Odious Bob, Smart Bob, and Weepy Bob), I might just reconsider that.
That’s enough for now. I’ll post more about the different changes to Stonehell, the town of Hawk’s Nest, and my use of OneNote and D&D Beyond for running this game in some (near?) future posts.