Blackmoor: Running Blog Pt.3 – Search for the Royal Botanist

Blog 16: 6/21/2024 – Session 20, 21, 22

Our heroes spent a month of downtime in the capital of Dantredun after spending around 17 days on the road to Stoney Marsh and back to the University of Blackmoor where they finished their final delivery.

I’m a really firm believer in large amounts of downtime. Here’s why:

• It helps a lot with realistic pacing. For this particular game, I’ve held a very diligent grip over the calendar. In past games, it has kinda bothered me that our characters go from level 1 or 3 nobodies to level 10+ characters pushing the confines of the world over the course of a few weeks or a month in game. It adds continuity and believability. In Blackmoor, they have spend about 3 months going from level 1-5 which seems more believable than just a week and a half or so.
• It helps with player agency. Players can use a month or more of in-game time to do whatever their heart desires. If they want to volunteer, work odd jobs, buy a place of operations, start a business, do research, it gives them a long time to do so.
• It gives time for in-universe plot to develop. Similar to the first point, this adds continuity for the DM. A few days for a political tides to change or an army to gather? Unlikely. A month? That’s a bit more realistic and believable. Time helps larger world events feel real and plausible to everyone involved.

The players used the month in a variety of different ways:

• Perzyk used the time to fix and modify Ramlis
• Baccaro used it to do Hollowmancy research and get a job at the university, partially in hopes to find information about the Black Trail
• Uro spent time helping Perzyk, doing odd jobs, and investigating into the Black Trail
• Moarte did some Black Trail investigating as well, even finding a new contact.
• Rhaegar did a ton of research regarding the secret they got from Wot’s Spire on the 9 Elemental Swords, revealing some competing theories and some old lore scribed by Bailyx of Marsh End from the pre-monarchical times.

The heroes met back up at the University of Blackmoor at the end of the month to commission hollowcubes.

Hollowcubes are a modular magic item which carries up to 6 different magical effects. The cube itself holds the magic and is pseudorandomly decided by a mix of alchemical and wild magic processes executed in the Tanks inside the University of Blackmoor.

Hollowcubes are the greatest strength for Blakmoorians, and the chief technology which allowed them to break the yoke of the Thonian Empire. It is a highly guarded secret, well regulated, and prohibitively expensive. They are a huge status symbol.

Below are the documents I used for Hollowmancy:

Price points were particularly challenging since the economics of each game are different. I basically anchored mine to the price of Hollowcubes, trying to think of appropriate price levels. I really just wanted players to have them since they had a big chunk of gold from the Midas Turnip. My initial intentions were for them to get it around level 7, but a lot of them didn’t get fully fleshed out cubes, so I think it struck a good middle ground at level 5. I wouldn’t recommend it any earlier to be honest.

They went through the halls of the massive University to the physical and economic heart of the college: The Tanks.

The crew had heard about the Tanks and Baccaro had even worked there while at his time in University; they’re the place where all hollowcubes and personas are made.

I think this is a good time to acknowledge a really big inspiration for this campaign: Tales of the Dying Earth by Jack Vance. I first got turned on to it by Matt Colevill over 5 years probably and the world really encapsulated a lot I wanted in Blackmoor—a lot of weirdness. “Mazirian the Magician,” Is likely the single biggest inspiration.

While there, they saw a few of the people Baccaro had met while working in the Tanks in the past month.

They first met Professor Mekt who greeted them as patrons of the University. He is half-elven middle-aged man with a widows peak and deep auburn hair, but with stress lines which have aged him considerably.

Professor Mekt is essentially the boss of all Tank operations in the University. He used to be just head of the Persona wing, but Baccaro later learned he was doing double duty the last several months because the head of Hollowmancy, Professor Rilus, went missing after a trip to the Duchy of the Glades.

Professor Mekt informed Baccaro and his friend working the tanks Warenna Sysilla that they may be joined by spectators part way through the cube making process for the party.

The party got a run down from Morris Shemplebrook who is the financial overseer of the books and in charge of all of the bureaucratic parts of owning Hollowcubes. In the eyes of the Blackmoorian government and the University, owning a hollowcube and hollowweapon is like owning a missile launcher.

Here are the hollowcubes the gang generated. The ones they took are bolded. In order to prevent putting in a bunch of money for something don’t really want, they generate two, and they pick their favorite. The University then takes the others to add it to their stores.

Baccaro:

Cube 1

• Blood Frenzy (After the weapon is used to kill 5 creatures, it grants a +2 to hit. After the weapon is used to kill 10 creatures it grants +1 extra attack. Bonuses last 10 turns. Killing another creature within the time limit resets the timer.)
• Sap If you hit a creature with this weapon, that creature has Disadvantage on its next attack roll before the start of your next turn),
• Anomaly (yet to be discovered)

Cube 2

• Banishing (You can cast banishment 5 times)
• Lion (gain proficiency in intimidation)
• Sanctuary

Uro:

Cube 1

• Sap (If you hit a creature with this weapon, that creature has Disadvantage on its next attack roll before the start of your next turn),
• +1 to hit and damage rolls,
• Resist Psychic Damage

Cube 2

• Mantis (gain proficiency in Religion)
• Banishing (You can cast banishment 5 times)
• Resist Psychic Damage

Perzyk:

Cube 1

• Lethargic (-5 to initiative rolls)
• Alien (wielder can hold breath indefinitely and is immune to vacuums)
• Mercy (once per a day, the weilder may decide to crit on their next attack)
• Stone (As a bonus action once per a day the attuner can shape the earth around them and create a 5-foot-tall cube of rock)
• Bravery (attuner cannot be feared)
• Green Thumb (If the weapon is planted in soil, a 30 foot tall tree will sprout from it in 1d4 days. The weapon is destroyed in the process as is the hollow cube. You can also cast druidcraft at will)
• (Chameleon: Grants proficiency to the stealth skill)

Cube 2

• Cliff (Cast featherfall once per a day for free)
• Chameleon (Chameleon: Grants proficiency to the stealth skill)
• Squirrel (Grants proficiency to the acrobatics skill)
• Flex (When you hit with a hollow weapon this cube is in that is versatile, you deal its Versatile damage even if you’re wielding it with one hand)
• Anchor (once per a week, as a bonus action the wielder may allow the weapon to hover as if it were an immovable rod. They may cancel this stationary aspect at any time)
• Warmth (Wielder cannot suffer from extreme cold)

Moarte:

Cube 1

• Susceptibility (When you make a successful attack with this weapon on a creature, it becomes vulnerable to a random damage type until the end of its next turn)

Cube 2

• +1 to hit and damage rolls

Rhaegar:

 Cube 1

• Cliff (Cast featherfall once per a day for free)
•  Reliable (Before rolling damage on a successful hit, the player may choose to use the average roll for the damage die)
• Resist Lightning Damage

Cube 2

• Resist Force Damage
• +1 to hit and damage rolls
• Crow (grants proficiency on investigation)

Half way through the generation, two people stopped in. One was familiar to Baccaro, but the other was a new face to all of the party. Baccaro recognized Quilara Rett, a Fetch agent overseeing security of the Tanks.

The Fetch is kinda like the University’s / Church’s inquisitors or FBI force.

The other was Safaar Denir a Kalshtar currier and liaison to King Uther III.

After all the paperwork and bookkeeping was done, the two figures introduced themselves to the party.

Initially the group was warry of both of the figures, primarily Quilara as denoted by her Fetch uniform, but even by association were warry of Safaar.

Safaar took point in the conversation explaining that he had a deal to propose the characters, from the crown, and was told they’d be here by Sir Damon, who was also the person who referred them for the job.

Safaar said that discussion of the plans would best be done in a more private locale, so they agreed to meet at a government compound across the street.

In the grand halls of the University, carrying their new cubes, the group discussed Safaar and Quilara.

Moarte and Uro were worried an engagement with the Fetch would bring them too close, but it may be enough to help get some info and inner workings of such a secretive and high-powered group which antagonized the Black Trail.

Baccaro told them it may just be coincidence and protocol that Quilara was there and to hear out Safaar. Additionally, it may not be great to discuss the Black Trail openly in the University, as it is the main grounds for Fetch activity.

The group decided to at least hear out Safaar, as Quilara had went off to do other stuff elsewhere.

When they met

Safaar he mentioned that the offer for this undertaking was 200 GP upfront, a 10,000 gold reward, and as a little extra something to sweeten the deal from Sir Damon if they choose to accept it, as the mission is not only in the interest of the kingdom but the interest of the White raven as well.

With this, the players would be at least interested in what Safaar had to say.

Safaar told them that not long after they saw Lalard the Royal Botanist, he said he was going to the Duchy of the Lakes to do some research. Since then, no one has heard from him, nor has any scrying magic worked on him. Additionally, the posy of knights sent to look for him in the Duchy of the Lakes has also disappeared and have not been heard from.

The King is offering 200 gold pieces upfront for provisions and a 10,000 reward for the retrieval of Lalard—dead or alive (as specified by Perzyk)—and if they accept, Sir Damon would outfit them with hollowweapons.

Hollowweappons are basically weapons that can hold hollowcubes as a modular conduit. In my world, these act as both magical and silvered for the purpose of overcoming resistances.

The group debated by ultimately ended accepting the offer. They collected the 200 gold and went to work immediately, getting writs to investigate Lalard’s mansion.

The group joined Safaar in a return to their first stop of the campaign, Lalard’s house, and went to investigating a largely empty estate, only his chief servant was there and they collected clues as to Lalard’s whereabouts.

Moarte and Baccaro perused the libraries and found a few tomes missing from an otherwise perfectly manicured bookshelf. The surrounding books were on Godsdell. The two hunted some of the rooms and found a personal study that had a stack of books which matched the size as the gap in the bookshelf of the other room.

After perusing there was a book on the Crystal Caves region of Godsdell and they flipped open to a page which was torn out.

On the other side of the house the brothers found Lalard’s laboratory and scientific notebook.

They asked the housekeeper if they could go through the bedroom to look for any notes.

Lalard notebook:

21 Ril – The partial solar eclipse yesterday was riveting and it excites me for the upcoming lunar eclipse of Wode in some five or so weeks on Inmar 12. I do say that I am proud of myself for my work in astronomy the last few years, though not my forte, for now I’m set up handsomely I think not only for this celestial event but the estimated System alignment sometime late next year. Astronomy has been my biggest scientific and scholarly struggle. Where botany and plants come so naturally to my psyche, the stars and planets and the way the move and the calculations all took so long to master in the slightest, but it will all enable me to hopefully do during the alignment what has not been done: visit the Garden Moon of Wode. Yes, I quite know it will be one of the most splendid endeavors ever. I have yet to decide who I am to use as a portaler. Damon suggested Sir Edlor, Knight Errant, of the Clergy, but I know they have ties and he unashamedly favors dwarves. While Edlor is good, I find Lady Mindri of the Lakes a superior option—truly at the top of portaling as far as talent and she’s willing to take chances. Where Edlor rests at the edge of knowledge accumulation, Lady Mindri is always pushing for more, therefore methinks it a better fit on the whole, much to my friend’s chagrin. I plan to draft up a letter next week addressed to my final selection. I’m sure these pages will be full of speculation and findings regarding the eclipse, and certainly after that, my work will be fully fixed on the System Alignment. Oh, journal, do not tire of my scrawl, and please do not whimper at my musings, for with them their partner will be findings that could bring nigh unpresedented honor to my station. The Royal Botanist is already esteemed, yes, but that veneration should not be kept by the populace just because of Queen Aslymar’s heroics; nay, I must bring it honor still. The Literati and the Fetch can argue amongst themselves who is best, who is greatest, but botany is in the heart of Blackmoor, and with my already vaunted position, I will yet strengthen the heart and strengthen the kingdom I serve and love so.

22 Ril I spent all day in the depths of the Astronomical Wing of the Basilica today talking with Hrodlot Fein and Chalt Quickwindsail, both promising scholars but neither knights, regarding the Wode eclipse and possible System Alignment. They think that what I hope to accomplish in a year could be potentially done every time there is a lunar eclipse of Wode. If that’s true, it’s impossible to do now, but perhaps before I retire we could make somewhat regular lunar visitations to the Garden Moon. All this talk of the cosmos has made me weak and tired. I included some notes from our debates here. I’ll give them a more proper transcription in the coming days, so as to make them clean and have gathered thoughts regarding our objectives. Til then, I must tend the garden—more for my own sake than the plants.

• C: Biggest limitations is while we know much about Wode’s movement we know little of its surface making teleportation unfeasible
• H: There is a strangeness to how teleportation works here on Surat and elsewhere. The two seem incompatible at present. Likely shared commonality between Surat and other celestial bodies.
• H: poses the plants may have anti-teleportation properties.
• L: new focus not on teleporting or summoning rather divination to enable easier teleportation.
• H: Doubts Tank ability to teleport interplanetary distances. C disagrees. Need more research. Not done yet but ability to Astral Scry in correct conditions. Related??

Oh! I almost forgot, for I had just left my study when this thought occurred to me: I have a meeting next week with Botanist Tredenia Bixby regarding her research on plants. I dare say that if I were not so tied up in my station and could live a bit freer life, I’d join her in research of the symbiotic, magic plants that she has been tinkering with. Let it be known, as I have jotted many times in this journal, that this breakthrough will keep Blackmoor on top scientifically for three monarch’s time at least, further, when all has settled and her science becomes common place, I think she has chance to ascend to a station of exceptional heights: Bishop of Blackmoor and Duchess would be the front runners in my mind if it were not for politics, but I dare say at the least she would fill my shoes as Royal Botanist, and by then, the boots may be too small. Off to the garden!

24 Ril I regret to inform anyone who read this but the meteor storm that I had referred to, set to occur in just a few days as of now, will not have me as a witness this time ‘round. I will be procuring some notes and entries from my confraternity brothers in the Starwatchers.

28 Ril Alternative for Tongues potion base possible? Current formula too costly!

Upstairs they found a rather spartan bedroom with a bloodrose sitting next to the bed on a night stand and a large wardrobe. After searching through the closet, they found a journal tucked away.

Lalard personal diary:

22 Ril – I was in the garden tonight tending the yellowstalks when the slightest hint of the most miniscule feeling weighed on the back of my skull. I turned over my shoulder, and at first saw nothing, then later as I watered the craddleshrubs, out of the corner of my eye I saw her. My word what a specimen. Her eyes were wide with fright, and their color tainted by the lapis dome between us. She was slender, at first telling by her angular collarbone and obviously frigid from her goosebumped skin. I jumped back, startled that a stranger was spying on me through the glass. She, evidently startled, too, rushed away through the slush. As she retreated further into the night, the light from the dome caught her naked figure. Gobsmacked I was! I’d never been so scared, and yet I had also not seen such beauty at such a small glance. I dare say that usually I am not so enthusiastic about peepers, but the woman I saw—my word—you would not believe her sight. Perhaps I can make an exception if she were to ever grace me with her presence again—even if I do not see her. That makes me think: how many times had I not seen her? How many times has this nude woman of immaculate beauty graced my night and I none the wiser? And what of her? A spirit of nature? A barbarian lost from the March? A poor woman of Dantredun? I think none of the aforementioned, for by her looks alone she must be of the empyrean—an angel, no, a goddess. No other way could she approach such aesthetic divinity.

25 Ril – Dearest journal I have neglected you in a state of melancholy. Since that fateful night of the 22^nd I have not seen that graceful soul who so watched over me and my garden. I fear it has weighed so much on me as it has also afflicted the garden itself. Every time I go to the garden—my old place of serenity and peace which I love so—it feels like something is missing. I wait in anticipation, I find myself glancing to the glasswork every minute like a nervous disorder for the hopes of catching a glimpse of beauty incarnated from word to form. I will say I felt for the first time in some years a true fool: as I was cleaning part of the pond, I could’ve sworn I saw a rustle from outside, a quick rush, but when I went to investigate nothing was there—no prints or anything, yet still I marched outside the cozy walls of my abode and searched for 30 minutes (30!) to see if I could find anything. No luck. My patience runs thin, I fear I cannot take much more, but I must see this enchanting woman once more. I canceled my trip with the Starwatchers to stay here in case she may show her face again. I’ve seen several meteor showers in my day, yet only once still have a seen her. Perhaps I’m a fool, but those who are stricken by overwhelming attraction often are.

27 Ril – Madoc imbues my being! My word you would not believe it. I fought with myself, yet my heart has been conquered and my wedding wreathes have been weaved! The night of the meteor storm (26^th!) I was tending my garden late and I saw her once more. It was a dastardly day earlier with a late splashing of snow and slush before clearing up (luckily for my fellow Starwatchers). I had just descended the steps and from my vantage point I saw her. Excitement pierced me like an arrow, but in a moment of unprecedented wisdom, I feigned innocence of her “hidden” existence and tended my garden for a few minutes. Then, on my way next to the bloodroses near her hiding spot, I released a hoverbarb seed toward her. It hovered perfectly at the glass, and she was entranced! Her eyes shined with wonder and glee. I picked the redder-than-red rose nearby, caught the hoverbarb in my palm, and knelt across from her, rose in hand. At first, she seemed scared, but I held out the flower, put my hand on the glass, and beckoned her in. She looked round and gave a shy nod. I told the guards they were dismissed for the night, and for them to not worry about me and the estate until their next shift. Though their suspension was acute, they left without much fuss, and I met her outside, flower in hand and a cloak on my back. There I saw her in the blue luminosity from the garden. Her yellow eyes glistened and her figure was—by the green gods themselves—a work of distinguished art, a magnum opus. I gave her the bloodrose, the cloak, and then offered my hand, she took all of them and wafted the flower’s sweet, ferrous scent. Under the guise of night, we walked in to the estate and I led her immediately to the garden. She was worried in walking through the stone home, but once she saw the familiar blue glass and the floating drift globes, her wonder overcame her. She loved the warmth of the garden, she stared at each species of plant for minutes, and her look of aw was inspiring as I made different bits of vegetation blossom, grow, shrink, shed, or fly. We spent the whole night in the garden, but it felt like fond forever, a forever I could live every day. Oh, how I swoon! Before the next guard shifts and a few servants came round again, I guided m’lady to the spare chamber. I gave her some goodberries to tide over her stomach and my finest clothes and blankets to keep her warm and protected from the winter’s last breaths. Though we have not spoken yet, my love for her is overwhelming, and I know hers for me is just so. Never has anyone looked at me the way she does. I must procure some Tongues scrolls or potions as soon as possible, for while I have planted many things, I believe our love may be the most vital, strongest, and most important thing I will ever cultivate in my time here alive. I just hope the rest of my days are with her and nights are just like the last.

28 Ril – In a hurry and for a costly copper I procured several tongues potions for me and Pyiree to imbibe, but who cares for the cost when love is priceless? I ordered them not from my usual supplier (Jennings) since he was at a confraternity meeting all day, when I came back to the estate, servants and guards were back, and to my dismay, I found one of the maids (Mina) had opened the guest bedroom to find it substantially lived in but no one there. While my mind was confused my heart sank lower than any pit or cavern. I lied of course saying Damon had stayed the night after we killed a few brews in the wee hours of the night and I dismissed her rightly. I was inconsolable, I locked myself in her room and cried, grasping at the ghost of her essence. Where could she have gone! Oh, where could she have went! Was love so cruel as to come and go with such divine strength? There I sat, muffling my weeps, staining my cheeks and garments before a thin hand touched my shoulder. It nearly scared me lifeless, but my spirit stayed within me, guided by Love personified. Shocked, I was, for the locked door had not opened since my episode, yet here she was—the disappearing and reappearing lady of my dreams. I did not yet understand, but I embraced her, and for once in my life did not try to figure things out, only feelings and her slim arms grasped my being. I mimed her to stay put, retrieved the potions and brought two of them back to the small guest room. I then ordered the servants and guards not to enter the Guest Wing until I said so, after which I drank a potion and spoke telling her my name and that she was the most beautiful being I had ever laid eyes on, Poko Poko incarnate! Flattered but also stunned at our communication, she took a potion, and together we talked for hours. I learned she was a persona! I had my suspicions, but I also thought she may have been a sorceress of the North. She is so well spoken and intelligent and curious, so much so I believe her to be made by the hands of the Saints and Gods rather than in some Tank. For hours we talked and with each passing word I felt more enraptured in infatuation. It pained me to say but I did have other matters to attend to, but I told her she could stay as long as she pleased (and hope she will say forever)! I have Damon over tomorrow before he leaves town, which will be a well-to-do treat, but I worry he may have questions. Hopefully he is well, and he got his whole Dredge situation figured out.

29 Ril – Damon just left, as did his small group of men at arms. What a queer group of individuals! Though as strange of a group they are, they were quite considerate of my wishes not to go to the guest room. I told them there was construction going on in the wing—a simple enough misdirection when dealing with good and honest folk. One was perhaps the largest warforged I had ever seen, a pensive and somber figure he was though for every ounce he was imposing. Another by the name of Baccaro was pleasurably polite, though a bit difficult to shake in conversation. Well-meaning though I am sure! There were two other warforged in the party (seems as if Sir Damon’s insistence on hiring the people to spare the bottom line on food is finally being put to the test) as well, one with bow and exquisitely fashionable Dantredunian attire, and the other unlike the rest. T’would be bold to say the latter was of Cosero make, as the others clearly were. No, this one was much different, apparently Gyrdorion according to Damon. I had not known those people to be constructs or have constructs. Most curious. I must send post to Lady Caoimhe regarding these people, but alas with this I may thwart my own plan…. The other hobgoblin, Reegar I believe his name was, was what I imagined a Gyrdorion to look like, at least from their reputation and Damon’s glowing war stories about the folk. The last was a rough-and-tumble dragonborn, clearly not of the City. He went off to explore the grounds with the outlier of a warforged. All-in-all a nice enough visit, but there is never enough time with friends. Damon as always had somewhere to be. I hope this brood of strangers is enough to keep him safe on the road, from our letters he was clearly at his wit’s end with the Dredge and vowed to not pay them a quarter copper more.

I talked to Pyiree once the guests left. My, she is everything and more. My heart leaps and bounds just penning her name. Today we shared a moment so tender and sweet, and diary do excuse me when I add to the moments qualities, “physically romantic.” Nothing too obscene, but a few kisses none the less. She is surely like no other I have met, nor fancied even passing by on the street. Usually, I am not so quick to fall in love, for if I were to pick every flower I thought beautiful, the world would be left bare and ugly. No, admiration from afar, then going about my studies is typically my nature, but so too is my draw to her. Sad to say our current arrangement is no good, not to mention the taboo qualities surrounding it by our Kingdom. Though Blackmoor is grand, it is not perfect; I can see headlines from the broadsheets now. “Royal Botanist Publicly Courts Persona—Court Awry, Streets In Laughs! Gossipers, all of them. Though it is so common for knights and nobles to have harems or courtesans of Persona, for people of low coin to go to the local brothel and sample the Tanks’ finest, it is yet still such a crime and such a taboo for one to love, to care for, and to spend life with one of these beautiful creatures. If it hath not ben penned before, let it be penned now: Persona are people, much the same as myself, as the King, and as the lowest peasant. They’re intelligent, they feel, they get scared, happy, confused—is that not a universal condition of the lively? As much as it would be difficult, I don’t know how long I can stand it. How long I can keep this clandestine charade. Is it not better to be bold? I’ll have some thinking to do in the coming nights….

31 Ril My plans have coalesced with research. Godsdell has had some promising spots, namely the Crystal Caves. There is one of great mystery—Summermyst Cavern, the gods in their infinite wisdom are rumored to have created a cavern just for me and my love. Oh, but are these not just rumors? Just stories… a crystal cave for forbidden lovers? Maybe it is too perfect, but worth the research to be certain. I only have a bit of time to research before Pyiree is discovered. My servants are now my adversaries. While her presence makes me joyous, if I’m caught harboring a Persona, I can only imagine the hysteria. It may be my career, life style, but for love is this worth it? What about my own research, or Blackmoor? I’m conflicted, but I know action needs to happen and happen soon….

This exercise was really fun. I really enjoy Lalard’s voice and bringing out his character through these excerpts was fun for the players as well.

After reading through the books, the gang had enough evidence to try and find the Summermyst Cavern in Godsdell. They

Before they left on their trip however, they wanted to cover all their bases.

They checkd in at Blackmoor Castle and found that Lalard hadn’t been documented using the teleportation sigils.

Additionally, now that a persona, Pyiree, was in the mix, Uro and Moarte decided to check in with some contacts to see if they could help.

Uro went to The Mythril Thimble, a high-end clothing shop with an emphasis on persona fashion ran by a goliath woman named Yawyaw.

In his downtime, Uro had suspected her to be part of the Black Trail but hadn’t been able to confirm those suspicions.

He went into the shop inquiring about a persona and a government official, describing Lalard from their first encounter.

Yawyaw was rather guarded about questions regarding possible clientele, and Uro couldn’t tell if she just was being professional or guarding the Black Trail. Shortly after their odd exchange, Uro left.

Uro also went and visited the Black Ferret, a halfling couple living in a poorer area of Dantredun who work as a safehouse  and cause purposeful misdirection through false rumors and eyewitness testimonies. Uro had stayed with them for a bit before the campaign started while they housed Deetra, his adopted, persona daughter.

Uro asked if they had known anything in which they answered no, but they’d keep their ear out. Uro asked them to make preparations to receive when they return, just in case they need a safe place for Pyiree.

Lastly, Moarte, Perzyk and Baccaro went to St. Garreth’s Desire, a highly esteemed brothel, where Moarte rendezvoused with his new contact, the Black Hart, a young human woman. She knows a lot of stuff about low-level fetch operations like duty assignments, persona trafficking, etc. from her profession.

They discussed new information that they had received about Lalard and wanted to know if she knew anything. She relayed some info, but hadn’t heard anything about this case.

With all the Fetch contacts updated and consulted, the gang made preparations for a trip to Godsdell.

They traveled seven days to Godsdell, unperturbed on the roadways, by the Dredge or monster, they made it to the Crystal Caves region of Godsdell in the early evening. As they marched across hills and valleys, a storm brewed in the distance and swept across the land. The clouds were yellow, green, and orange—a wild magic storm.

The group looked for shelter and found in the distance a wagon next to a yawning cave.

The group ran over and found that the wagon had basically been cleared out and hadn’t been there for too long, judging by some lingering tracks coming from the north.

The shelf of the wild magic storm blew toward them. Trying to enjoy the arcane altering effects, Uro, Baccaro, and Rhaegar who spent time shooting off spells at a thicket of trees to see what happened.

 Meanwhile, taking refuge inside of the cave, Perzyk did some reading to try to find more information about the region, and Moarte explored a bit of the cave, roused by a rank smell from deeper within.

Torchlight in hand, Moarte delved deeper into the cave. He followed his nose, and the torchlight danced on a macabre scene: crushed corpses strewn about a campsite. Moarte looked on in interest and found a bloodstained journal.

He pocketed the journal and returned the short ways to Perzyk to alert him of the scene.

Together they read the newest journal excerpt.

Just made it through the Crowntrees and Crystal Caves overland. Now in the cave system that information broker told us about—Freldurge—according to map. Expedition seems promising. Resting in cave mouth before delving deeper. I don’t much trust these two women we traveled with. They mentioned another group here. The women are odd. Unsure if one is a persona, but the other is definitely a bitch. My band is in high spirits since arriving. Objectives still unchanged:

• Locate the Crawling City
• Search for new or lost Green Gods –Fourteen Towers?
• Gather gemstones
• Live to tell the tale

The two went back to the scene and checked on the bodies. Most of them had been bludgeoned to death by immense force and something big.

As they took stock of the massacre, a rumbling echoed around the cave as a creature phased through the wall.

I liked this ambush, because the stakes were pretty high. I didn’t think it was going to be anything the lads had trouble with, but if things went wrong, it could’ve been spooky, especially as it was a 2* on 1 with the rest of the adventurers outside playing in the rain.

The ambusher was a sapphire golem. A brown rock body surrounded a large blue sapphire head. Inside the sapphire was a small, impish creature controlling the body.

Combat ensued and the sapphire golem beat up Ramlis, and used telekensis to try and clap Moarte into Perzyk’s construct. Moarte stood his ground, but Ramlis fell, battered and prone.

As the protagonists pulverized the rock body of the sapphire golem, it emitted a pulse of energy, knocking back the creatures in melee.

The fight continued and as the gemstone bust and the suit of rock crumbled, the small imp exited the exoskeleton and ran deeper into the cave.

Moarte and the Duke chased down the creature and knocked it unconscious, capturing it for questioning.

In this cave system I designed a lot of different types of golems and creatures following a newish formula for monster design.

Each creature had the following: a melee attack, ranged attack, a bloodied reaction, and a death rattle when it hit 0 HP.

This design philosophy turned out to be a lot of fun and had good structure while making encounters dynamic. I think one challenge of the formula is making the bloodied reaction and death rattle not just a “F*ck you” to the players.

In the case to the sapphire golem, the bloodied reaction was a strength save that did a bit of force damage and knocked melee targets back 15 feet. It also gave the sapphire golem a fly speed which it didn’t utilize that fight but will later.

The death rattle was the imp got to move 60 feet without taking opportunity attacks as its suit disassembles, kinda like an ejector seat. The creature is functionally a minion after that, but it can escape and cause trouble later. Really it just takes an extra action or two to chase down, hampering protagonist action economy.

I’m going to keep using this formula for a bit because I really like it, and I think that toying with the dynamics is really nice. Even stuff like at half HP (bloodied) the creature’s AC increases or decreases can be fun. Or maybe it employs a barrier that gives it magic resistance. The limits are really at the bounds of the imagination.

Perzyk and Moarte gathered the troops and the imp. They relayed what they had encountered in the cave and woke the unconscious imp.

Baccaro translated for Eebweeb the sapphire golem imp.

Eebweeb told the characters that the sapphire golems had been employed by the Redala Gnomes to run interference and neutralize any cave interlopers top stop them from getting to the Dreaming Pools.

The group was interested in the Redala and the Dreaming Pools more specifically. Additionally, Moarte and Uro especially were motivated by there being another group in the cave they could talk to that had a possible persona.

Baccaro was squarely set on the Lalard task, but as the wild magic storm raged outside, they figured exploring the cave would be a fine option.

Moarte made a deal with Eebweeb that if the creature lead them safely to the Dreaming Pools, they’d let the little guy go, but they didn’t trust it enough to roam free in the caves or give it its exoskeleton back, for fear of Eebweeb just wallphasing and running away.

They went deeper into the caves and found an immovable rod tied to a long spool of rope.

Uro pocketed the rod, and they replaced it with a series of pitons before descending.

Eebweeb directed them to a valley of gemstones. They went down crystalline steps and around a corner and another rumbling occurred, and three sapphire golems emerged from nearby rocks.

This fight was a lot more dynamic in terms of action economy and map.

The fight started and Moarte immediately killed Eebweeb.

“A promise is a promise.”

 After a round of combat, the lads had spread out and a star-tongued jabber joined the fray.

Eebdweeb had hinted at the jabber before, mentioning they like chaos. The jabber had 4 attacks with modest to hit and decently high damage. I threw this guy in the mix as a striker who had little hp, low armor, but an immediate threat due to damage output. And it did as intend as it drew focus from Perzyk, who it had attacked, and Uro who peeled off one of the golems to help.

As the battle ensued, Rhaegar was ragdolled by the strength saves caused by the golems and rendered unconscious. Baccaro healed him in time to fell a runaway imp. The Other two upon reaching bloodied floated to the top of crystals and fired magic missiles from above.

As the fight ended, two heavily garmented figures joined the battle as well, throwing themselves on the golems and stabbing them to some small effect.

The dust settled from the fight. Ramlis was down, Rhaegar had been felled, and Perzyk was worse for wear after the jabber.

The newcomers introduced themselves as members of the Te’Osvar, a group of the cave who liv nearby. They thanked the adventurers for killing the sapphire golems and invited them back to their camp for rest.

As it was now night, the adventurers accepted, and followed Hildit, the Te’Osvar.

The gang went through the caves back toward the front. Uro had realized that in the caves, his normal swelling of untamed wild magic he experienced during the last storm in Mythhaven and even before he got in the cave had ebbed, despite the storm still raging outside.

They went through a petrified forest, which Hildit had mentioned was rather dangerous if treading in small numbers. They also told them about a labyrinth at the far side of the forest which was exceptionally dangerous for the lone traveler. They also mentioned a nearby dragon named Gengen who they had a weird somewhat mutual relationship with

Finally, they arrived at the camp of the Te’Osvar.

The group only spoke dwarvish and had similar attire to Moarte, suggesting them to be warforged, which Hildit later confirmed in mention of the Cosero.

They told them that the sapphire golems had been a real pain in their side because they had been preventing them from visiting the Dreaming Pools, a strengthener to their latent mind abilities.

Hildit showed them around and camp and mentioned the magic melder, an area of the petrified forest that can magically combine two like items or creatures. They used it to create extraordinary gemstones to give to Gengen. This piqued Perzyk’s interest a lot.

As the group rested they contemplated next steps. Many kept their eyes on the prize with Lalard and were determined to go and retrieve the botanist as soon as possible. Other things called them to the caves, but they were ready to leave once the storm blew over.

As they sat down to rest, the Te’Osvar approached the group. Hildit offered them a deal.

If the adventurers could help them deal with the sapphire golems, or deal directly with the Redala Gnomes, they would give them a potion from Gengen and would allow them to use the magic melder.

After some consideration the group agreed and thought how best to go about the job.

Hildit told them there was a few ways:

• Free the gem golem (Dorfdorf) that the Redala had captured and talk him into sieging the Redala
• An all-out frontal assault on the Redala.
• Destruction of a bunch of the sapphire golem.

They could also conscript help from the petrified forest: Borfit and Mugmug are a pair who can help bore through different rocks and parts of the cave and Lashem who they said they tried to convince earlier but they failed to, despite being a strong ally.

In this case, the ideal situation for the Te’Osvar and ideal situation for the players were different. They offered to try and get Lashem then take on the sapphire golems at the Dreaming Pools.

They marched through the prettified forest to try and find Lashem and did so after about 15 minutes. A half giant with a ruby-covered face, an overgrown left hand and a right one which was replaced by a lance of re gemstone rode atop a large flail snail.

Lashem telepathically welcomed the newcomers. He was joyous. The party told them the situation and he’d said he’d offer his strength to anyone who could beat him in a joust.

I didn’t actually know how the group was going to solve this. They needed a mount, but I wasn’t sure if they were going to try and capture one, parlay with another monster or what, but the obvious answer presented itself: Ramlis.

Over the month hiatus, Perzyk replaced the smaller Ramlis model with one that was size category large, making it usable as a mount.

Perzyk stepped to the challenge. The jousters readied and the group tried their best to give some advice.

The first round was an exceptionally close endeavor, as the flail snail propelled from a slow and steady drag to a respectable slither forward, outpacing Ramlis, but Perzyk weaved the end of the ruby lance and dragged his hollow pike along Lashem’s center/ ruby plated chest.

The next round Ramlis charge forward and Lashem planted firmly still in deep concentration. As Perzyk came closer, Lashem’s lance arm rapidly grew to 15 feet long. Perzyk ducked the end of the lance and countered with a decisive blow to the head.

In a quick set of jousts bested Lashem on the back of Ramlis (literally).

Lashem and his mount Bakbak were now firm allies.

The party pondered the Te’Osvar problem. They asked how long it would take the Te’Osvar to recoup their powers in the Dreaming Pools and Hildit said it would only take a short while. The group proposed the Te’Osvar to go with them to the Pools so tat way when the sapphire guardians were defeated, they could claim their powers and if they wanted to mess with the Redala afterward was their choice.

The Te’Osvar agreed. After a small rest and organization, the adventurers led 40 or so Te’OSvar warforged through the caves, assisted in navigation by Hildit.

Their path would be the Sapphire Valley, into the Ruby Rocks, and finally to the Dreaming Pools.

They took a shortcut to the Valley and passed where Eebweeb had led them as a trap. Eventually they reached the Ruby Rocks which were inhabited by huge ruby giants.

Hildit and the Te’Osvar were very clear these guys meant business and they are some of the more powerful beings in the cave, as none of the other golems ever mess with them and often pay their toll which involved various types of intellectual and psychic syphoning to fuel the Ruby Giant’s psionic abilities.

The Ruby Golems demanded a toll to be paid to safely cross the Ruby Rocks River.

The party struck up a deal that at the Dreaming Pools they would bring back either a mana golem or a group of mana beetles as payment.

The ruby giants excitedly agreed, but warned there would be repercussions if the toll wasn’t paid on the way back.

After crossing the Ruby Rocks, the jagged gemstone caves morphed into an underground jungle with plants overgrown with latent magic. The red hued river morphed to purple then a deep blue as the group finally approached the Dreaming Pools.

Rhaegar and Perzyk went invisible using their Gyrdorion techniques and scouted the scene.

In the middle of the dreaming pools on an island were two sapphire golems and another one on the near beach next to three mana beetles. Above the beached one was a stalactite which gleamed a pink and purple fire within. Far away there was a pool of honey-colored liquid, and sitting in the mana pool itself nearby was a giant mana golem.

They ran the info back. The Te’Osvar held nearby out of earshot and waited the end of the fight. The posse went in along with their flail snail cavalier friend Lashem and the fight commenced.

These sapphire golems were the same, the mana beetles could dispel magic and counterspell at third level, the pink glowing thing was actually a Deep Plasma Golem and the honey-pool was a stealthed Amber Golem.

Amber Golem had two attacks, a tap (1d6+5, +9 to hit) a slam (4d8+5, +9 to hit), Amber Radiance (2d6 radiance) as a bloodied reaction, and its long range attack as the Entombing Beam.

Deep Plasma Golem had a ranged Glob attack (3d6+6, +10 to hit), two melee attacks, plasma punch (2d8+6 fire) and Hand of Dying Starlight (2d6 Necrotic +2d6 Fire +6), Superheat as a bloodied reaction, and no death rattle.

Mana Golem could dispel magic and counterspell to absorb spells into their being, could slam three times for 3d8+5, magic missile at third level, bloodied reaction drain 1d6 spell slots from all characters within 60 feet, and restore 3d6 of spell levels on a death rattle to whoever killed it. Mana beetles have a similar death rattle but it restores 1d6 spell slots.

This was the type of death rattle I really want to employ more as a boon. I also put it the mana monsters deeper in the dungeon, so if the party wanted to keep going, they could farm some bugs or mana golems for spell slots to keep grinding.

The party assailed the first sapphire golem which held out a while. Rhaegar and Uro tried to occupy the ones in the middle island, and Rhaegar thunderstepped from invisibility bringing the Dragonborn with him.  

 The fight was now split into two zones, the central island and the beach. The mana beetles and mana golem equally thwarted the sapphire golems and PC magical effects, even consuming a sapphire bloodied reaction.

As the sapphire golem weakened, in round two, the Deep Plasma Golem joined the fight, dropping next to Perzyk and beating him down a bit on the flank. Later, the Amber Golem joined and was largely a menace with its entombing beam.

Rhaegar fell unconscious once more in the fight, but Uro dragged him to the far beach for safety before rejoining the fight and engaging the two in the middle once more.

The battle raged. Lashem taxied people around on Bakbak, making the battlefield mor manageable. At one point, the amber golem was about to entomb Uro with a beam, but Bakbak’s anti-magic shell negated the AOE effect.

In a snap of annoyance, Perzyk shot an arrow at a mana beetle, felling it, but angering the mana golem in turn. The fight was now a full-on fiesta.

The Dark Plasma golem met its end as Perzyk used the Mercy rune to crit the golem to death. The beach sapphire golem fell, at Moarte’s blade.

Meanwhile Rhaegar was brought back up by Baccaro who had gotten a ride from Lashem. One of the Sapphire golems had been petrified by the amber golem.

The battle raged. Moarte pierced the mana golem with the immovable rod, thrown to him by Uro and pinning in on the beach, freeing him to go and collapse on the amber golem.

The fight settled and the heroes eventually defeated the team of golems and knocked the mana golem unconscious.

There was a lot of moving parts to this fight. I loved making all these different golems as well.

When we pick up, the heroes will be deciding where they go next in Freldurge, their current cave.

Blog 17: 7/25/2024 – Session 23 & 24

After the fight in the Dreaming Pools, the heroes and some of the newly invigorated Te’Osvar moved the unconscious mana golem through the nearby subterranean forest to the Ruby Rocks where the ruby giants were.

They offered the golem as payment and the giants were delighted. They picked up the golem and mercilessly killed it, imbuing themselves with a charge of energy (the death rattle for the mana golem was to restore 3d6 spell slots or some other type of magical ability like sorcery points).

The giants told them if they ever needed to pass again, they’d have no trouble.

The adventurers returned to the Dreaming Pools for a short rest. While resting in the Dreaming Pools, they earned an additional 10 temporary HP. I think this as a nice reward for a difficult fight that also nudges the players to keep exploring and not long rest.

I’m not anti-long rest but I think there’s a time and place for it and it can kill a bit of the tension of going through a magical cave. My players are pretty good about being reasonable about rests so its really no trouble, but this was a carrot to put in front of them just in case. I also allowed them to recover a spell slot or a charge of a magical ability like Uro’s Wild Magic Rage.

After some deliberation, Perzyk used Druidcraft from his hollowblade to see what the weather was like outside. The wild magic storm still had a few hours of raging in the region before it dissipated, so they decided to explore Freldurge a bit more. The Te’Osvar offered them to join their raid on the Redala, but the party declined, opting instead to try and find the Crawling City, which they had read mention of in the front of the cave.

Uro led the way to the Crawling City, rather blindly yet confidently, and got well lost and out of the way. I rolled a random encounter and they stumbled upon a noxious mushroom grove, and as they took in the scene, they heard loud, awkward gibbering from behind the, getting closer.

This was a fun encounter because it still allowed the players to be on the front foot still or at least be crafty. They knew something was coming, but not necessarily what and had a split moment to hide or prepare.

Most hid, others poured grease on the patches of moss near the cave entrance and rested in wait. Three star-tongued jabbers walked into the area accompanied by a small petrified treant.

Combat commenced, and the party did a great job of controlling the cave entrance choke point, mostly by Uro’s forward positioning and Rhaegar’s moonbeam that he spellcrafted. The jabbers area punishing force because they have 4 attacks and hit rather hard. The petrified treant hits hard but only once. In hindsight, this gave the fight a decent amount of variability which may not be great for random encounters like this, but I’m pretty confident in my players, and they had an advantage to set up prepare.

Uro was nearly torn to shreds by the group of Jabbers, but he held the line for long enough to stave off the jabber’s pure assault and left the petrified treant left standing.

The treant used lithokinesis to throw boulders around the battlefield but Moarte defended against it with his shield, and Rhaegar took cover behind a rock. The boulders clapped together and erupted in a thunderous crack, but eventually they destroyed the treant and it crumbled to pieces.

Uro noticed the symbol of Gad, god of petrification, emblazed inside of the petrified treant’s remains.

After gathering themselves again and some close calls with Perzyk trying to collect poisonous mushrooms and failing, they group carried onward out of the cave. After a few more hours in the caves, piercing through still the slight jungle of shrubs and tall, viny plants, a moving horizon moved against the black cavern backdrop. The Crawling City was within sight.

The party climbed over rubble ramparts, climbed crumbled quarries of construction long crushed from its original form. Dust covered the dilapidated city like a fog and an eternal grumble shook the flagstone streets.

Seven towers, fifty feet tall, wide, with an elliptical helix crowning its summit stomped eternally around the Crawling City. Every foot fall further pulverized stone to pebbles and pebbles to sand.

The party stealthed past them into central part of the city, and like a beacon, a fire in the distance caught their eye.

Perzyk turned himself invisible to investigate. As he neared, one of the towers approached his position and though Perzyk was invisible, shot a passing glance at the artificer with its blue gem eye, before continuing on its march.

Perzyk approached the fire, and sitting by, huddled in conversation were four familiar faces and one new one: the members of Wraithwatch (Eridna, Dunna, and Rovick, whom they met in Brasenwood outside of the Purple Towns), The Unnamed Woman from the road, and another woman with a bow, a skirt, and angular fey-like features.

Perzyk remembered the unnamed woman from last time, for last they met he was invisible, and she was bleeding out by the side of the road next to a pile of corpses.

He stayed around camp a bit in shroud of invisibility before returning back to the party and communicated the information.

The group decided it would be nice to see some friendly faces and journeyed toward the camp.

The group approached. At the sounds of their entrance, the Unnamed Woman shot to her feet and pointed her emerald sword at Baccaro.

The crew raised their hands in surrender, meaning no harm, and it was soon after the old faces remembered the party.

The group welcomed them to the fire.

Eridna and Dunna explained that Wraithwatch had come here along with a researcher from the Purple Towns to look for the Tower of Kainen which they had thought to be in the Crawling city, located in Freldurge (all of which they were right about).

They were soon joined by Verrona and Vestelle on the roadway who looked to travel in numbers and swore their usefulness in the caverns.

Wraithwatch had escaped some scraps with the sapphire golems before inevitably making it here after some more treacherous marches.

Vestelle and Verrona were on the fence about the Tower of Kainen. When asked why, they had mentioned that they were looking for a way to combine themselves back to their original form.

After Wot’s Spire, Uro mentioned that they may need all the help they can get and offered to help converge them using the Te’Osvar magic melder in exchange for their help in the Tower.

Vestelle and Verrona agreed, so the two forces decided to team up and enter the Tower together. Though getting there was an unknown path: seven towers walked around the old ruins of the city, which was the right tower? How could they enter?

They rested at camp and toward the end of the rest, Eridna, after flipping through her notes and tomes found that the Crawling City had a group of servants located in the vast, labyrinthine sewer called Librarians who were rumored to answer any question about the city.

As opposed to messing with the unknowns regarding the seven towers, the group opted to try and find one of these Librarians… if they still existed.

The now combined party slinked through city streets, past the wandering structures, and found an old bathhouse. Deep near the back they found an old, oxidized grate which blocked off a staircase which descended to darkness beyond sight.

Moarte and Rovick yanked the grate out of place. The Adventurers descended into the undercity.

The group went through the old sewers. Water still flowed lazily through the waterway and they traversed the thin causeways until in the darkness a figure stood tall with armor and a strange looking head.

Rhaegar took point and approached the figure. The armor plates were a crude, ancient bronze which covered moss-smothered stone. An ancient tome of yellowed papyrus cloaked in bitten, hide leather topped the body. It wore a sword at its side.

“Are you a Librarian?” Rhaegar asked it.

The book opened toward Rhaegar and the resto of his companions. The old leaves flipped one way then another, oscillating in duration and direction as if an ancient binary language.

“We wanted to ask a question regarding the Towers above.”

At this, the pages flipped once more and the Librarian unsheathed their ancient sword which itself looked like a magical scroll, arcanely strengthened and sharpened to a durable weapon.

Initiative ensued. Two other types of creatures joined the fray—a sewer golem which had a breath weapon of explosive discharge which would do small damage and poison creatures who failed a con save. Small Crawling City defenders who had higher damage and to hit mods the farther they had traveled in their turn (making their entry dangerous, but not really subsequent rounds). The Librarian was the true nuance to this combat. They were rather hearty and had an ability that allowed them to cast any third level spell from any class, but once they hit half hp, they could only cast first level spells. This gave a rather meaningful mechanic. Rhaegar and Vestelle worked in tandem to chase down the Librarian after it had teleported out of the melee and dealt just enough damage to thwart it from casting a Fireball on most of the party, leaving it handicapped with only its sword and first level spell options. Most of the time I had them focusing on a paladin smite, which caused the group to dogpile debuffs on the Librarian to not run the risk of it doing massive damage to a single target.

As they defeated the construct, it asked the person who lowered it to 0 hit points what their question was.

“How do we enter the Tower of Kainen?” Rhaegar asked.

“You must stop each of the seven crawling towers from moving, then the Tower of Kainen will appear.”

After the Librarian answered, it walked away, resuming its eternal march in the sewers.

Then came the question: how do we stop the towers? They’re over 50 feet tall ginormous constructs.

This incentivized the players to chase down another Librarian after some deliberation. They tracked the original into the tunnels and I set up a combat in which two Librarians fought together. Some health pools were worse for wear, namely Baccaro and Uro, but upon defeating the Librarians answered a question: “How do we get each of the seven towers to halt,” and “What is inside the Tower of Kainen?”

L1: The towers can be stopped by offering them a material that they enjoy, one of stone, wood, thatch, copper, wax, gem, and cloth (materials commonly found in cities or which make cities) or they can be stopped manually via a large amount of brute strength or magic.

L2: Inside the Tower of Kainen there are five different areas: The City, The Sewers, The Farm, The House and Hearth, and finally, the Inner Tower. The first four in that list have to be bested in totality in order to gain entrance into the Inner Tower where a final challenge awaits. After besting that, they may claim the tower and get access to the vaults.

I like the idea of challenging what it means to “defeat” an enemy. In this case, dropping a Librarian to 0 hit points doesn’t mean it dies or ceases to exists, rather it proves the heroes resolve to a powerful entity and the entity grants it a reward. Overall I really like the Librarians. Their design is overall simple, scalable, and they give reward beyond just XP.

After their encounter and answered questions, the group returned to the surface.

On their way back to camp, they decided to try and collect resources the Librarian had told them about. Rhaegar used locate object on ‘gems’ after placing all their gemstones into the pumpkin of holding. Across the city and down.

They marched across the town and found an old storehouse. Inside there was a collapsed, cavernous floor. The locate object still pinged below.

Uro repelled down into the cavern which smelled musty and mildewy, mixed with smoke.

Uro tracked the object to be buried under a wood panel which had swelled from years of gaseous buildup to block some sort of recess in the rock.

Uro studied the panel and realized striking a hole in it quickly might cause a release in the tension, manufacturing an explosion.

He carefully slipped a piece of metal into different parts of the wood, releasing the gas and causing it to loosen.

I think this was a fun, natural trap.

Uro destroyed the panel and lifted out a clean lockbox.

The crew hoisted Uro up and Baccaro saw a glint of magic on the box with his Ultravision, but Perzyk’s detect magic revealed it was weak transmutation magic (prestidigitation).

Inside there were 3 rubies of 400 gp each.

The group pocketed their materials and went on their way to camp.

Out of game we had two consecutive weeks of off time: one was due to a hurricane knocking out most of our player’s power  and the other was to learn the Kingdoms & Warfare System by MCDM. This system is really cool and I’ve had a lot of fun playing and learning. We’ll definitely be using it in the future (stay tuned).

In the IRL downtime, I wrote a short story for what happened at camp so that way the players had some continuity, could immerse themselves back in the world, and get to know Wraithwatch and Verrona and Vestelle better, which I liked a lot and included below:

Blog 18: 9/19/2024 – Session 25-28

After their long rest in preparation for the Tower of Kainen, the adventurers went out to investigate which material each crawling tower wanted and would cause them to stop and admire the gift.

A few of the player characters went out scouting and noticed that the towers mostly moved in patterns (zig zag, clockwise, counter-clockwise, square, one line, random, crescent). This was a pretty helpful organizational tool, essentially naming each one.

They split their different ways and had a slight conversation with each tower, each one having a slightly different personality and a roundabout way to answer what kind of material they were interested in.

Eventually they reconvened, made sure everyone had the correct materials, and then headed back to their respective tower.

I think that this puzzle could’ve been made harder by having the players track them down and make sure their timing was correct (like how do you coordinate giving the towers the right materials at the same time across a city could be its own puzzle and need for creativity), but I didn’t want to detract from the Tower of Kainen, and they already had to go through the Libarians to get the answers.

After each of the towers was gifted their proper material (one of stone, wood, copper, wax, gem, thatch, cloth), they stood still, and as they did a new tower appeared in the center of the city. A stationary one which reached high overhead in the cave. Its walls were of ivory stone and a tall archway with an open portcullis awaited them.

The players rushed into the Tower and after a few moments, the tower gate closed behind them into a large room with several desks and tomes.

Perzyk gathered everyone for a pre-Tower meeting. He remembered Wot’s Spire. He remembered how close they came to death through their disjointed actions and how him and Rhaegar left the party for fear of a fool’s errand.

They made it clear when to pull out of the Tower.

With everyone bought in, they prepared for the first door, a set of large oak slabs with handles and above it in common read “The cost of civilization is supporting the specialized—a product of excess.”

Next to it was a small box.

They caught on pretty quick that it was talking about taxes and left a tax in the collection box.

The doors lurched open and gave way to a large, towering hallway that wrapped in a circle.

Each area had a combat focus and “something else” whether it was a puzzle or minigame or skill challenge.

This is also a good time to remind y’all that in these towers, the players can short rest but can’t long rest.

The Sewers

The group walked through an archway which read” Sewers” and maneuvered through a maze of tunnels which led to a cistern with pipes and grates yawned in front of them.

A large construct stood in the middle. It was made of cobblestones  and had sharp geometric exterior which twisted and turned. On its head, stones revolved around a single opening.

The party neared. In an instance, they found themselves scattered in the depths of a shifting sewer system.

This was a prototype for a different type of encounter system I’m brainstorming and was a really rough iteration. I’ve workshopped it a lot since then and am happier to use it in the future (and it will be featured here). Right now, I’m calling it the Battle of Wills.

The players were basically tasked to figure out the sewer system, to not get lost, and to find others. As an abstraction of being stuck in this magical, sewer demiplane and figuring it out, they had two stats: their offensive stat Dungeoneering (homebrew wisdom skill inspired by 4e) and defensive stat which is their intelligence. When “attacked” by the sewer (basically subjected to its confusion and motion) the players had to roll under their intelligence score to succeed. This made it to more intelligent characters were less confused on average, also distorted what was a “good” roll vs a “bad” one which I think added to the encounter’s flavor.

With addition to this a successful offensive roll did three “damage,” but characters could also permanently decrease stats or skills in order to deal more damage, sacrificing part of their psyche to overcome the sewer’s confusing nature.

In retrospect, I didn’t like this mechanic too much. In future iterations, it’ll be different

For this one I combined the combat with a “something else.”

Farms

This archway led to a short hallway flanked by two grand doors. The left opened to a room with a flat stone table which displayed a small landscape hologram. Around the table were levers, faucet handles, and nozzles. With a large map

When they approached, one of the hexes was outlined in gold and listed next to it were a bunch of descriptors like temperature, water access, elevation, whether it was coastal which were obviously wrong. There were also a few switches which could change which hex was highlighted.

The puzzle was for each of the descriptors to match the characteristics of whichever hex was highlighted. This led to two ways of solving the puzzle. Either they could try and find the characteristics of the hex the map starts on when the players found it, or they could change the hex to a place they’re familiar with (if they can find it on the map) and plug in the characteristics there. So, there’s a bunch of unique answers to the puzzle but two real methods.

As they tried to solve this, they investigated the other room which led to flat plains.

This acted as an accidental red herring on my end because the players thought then they had to match the hex/ hologram of the table to the landscape of the other room, when in actuality they were completely separate entities.

As a DM, I had to go out of my way to add to the descriptions of the room to make it more and more otherworldly, so they’d deduce that this thing was not related to the other puzzle.

They eventually picked a place in Blackmoor (I believe Godsdell) and matched it to its characteristics.

Across the way, there were lush plains and farmlands. A windmill stood vigilant over the farm and ethereal cries could be heard from voiceless indviduals screaming “protect the windmill; if we don’t have that, we’re ruined.”

I set this combat up as kind of a wave defense game where there was one type of enemy, then a different kind that had a special move, then another, and finally combined them all so the party would know how they could interact. One of them were the turnips from Mythaven which was a fun callback, another was a walking barrel with circular saws on it that would slice in a circle if it got bloodied, hitting everything in its area, even friendlies (this could cause a chain reaction), and lastly were explosive pumpkins (basically mephitis) which would explode when killed.

Putting all this together in the final wave, along with a King Turnip and the party was able to maneuver the battle while spacing the creeps to do minimal damage to them. They played it really intelligently, hardly taking a lick of damage.

The windmill had like 60 hp. I think it would have been okay to throw some more rounds at them or lower the windmill hp because I think only a couple turnips ended up hitting the thing.

I’d like to revisit this “wave” style combat again because it’s pretty familiar to people but still fun., especially when protecting an objective.

Home and Hearth

Same shit different day, they went through an archway with words above it which read:

“Where the fire burns warm and controlled, where laughs are shared and stories told | over meals and drinks tween young and old, the hearth will heat and the walls will hold | firm from heat and strong ‘gainst cold, there we can call that hold a home.”

They found two doors. They found one which had a table and 7, identical rods. The second door led to a Jack-And-The-Beanstalk-esque kitchen.

They stuck to the former and observed the rods, each of which had a piece of parchment above it. The rods were the same weight, felt the same, looked the same, smelt the same, but the players needed to identify which one was made of wood, stone, copper, wax, cloth, thatch, and gem.

I basically stole this puzzle from reddit, but it’s one of my favorite ones I’ve seen and it has a lot of different ways to solve it creatively.

They eventually found the order and labeled each one and the table glowed.

In the other room, they stepped in and were immediately dispersed onto a gargantuan kitchen table.

We rolled initiative and the players set themselves blindly onto the kitchen table where a tiny (or normal sized?) Baba Yaga’s Hut waited to fight them.

Designing Baba Yaga’s Hut was fun. If someone went inside of it or was consumed, they could get out via an investigation check, OR they could look for potions and alchemical supplies within it. I gave it a roaring chimney which if a certain number of rounds passed would’ve resulted in it launching a fireball from its chimney. All great stuff.

After the fight, they were able to use the foodstuffs to restock on provisions, rested, and headed to the next room.

 CITY

The words “The city is alive—it consumes, it grows, it wastes, and it too can die, decompose, and become something new,” marked the entrance to the City.

When they entered they found an exceptionally tall, sinewy creature with several sets of horns, and a flat face sitting in front of a battle mat painting clay figurines. Similar batches of clay figurines and armies filled shelves on the wall, and different tables scattered across the room depicted grasslands, deserts, oceans, etc.

The group introduced themselves and the creature responded in kind, calling itself Welmatat.

The players quickly put two-and-two together, realizing that this guy, similar to Wymeld from Wot’s Spire, was some type of steward to the Tower.

Welmatat is the Effigy of Battle. He sits here and basically plays Warhammer 40K with real people.

As part of their challenges, the party had to play Welmetat in a warfare.

We used MCDM’s Kingdom and Warfare rules for this combat. We had already tried the rules out a few times so that everyone got a grasp of them. Overall, they were pretty simple to learn , and making maps was rather easy overall.

This is the setup for a standard battle dimension-wise with four different ranks. The dwarves were defending a tower which gave them bonuses. I put some quick reference rules on the margin which helped everyone.

The gnomes (the players) could win by wither having more than double the points of the opponent (standard victory conditions) or they could seize the tower, in which case they would win automatically.

I think having different win cons makes any game more fun in general, but I think it’s really important to have some type of alternate win con with this warfare system.

Additionally, something that is vital for players is to have different type of units (more on this later). Gameplay can be really stale if a player has just one of the same kind of units. Variety is definitely the spice of life. Although on paper it may make sense to have Player X in charge of the archers, as a gaming experience, it makes turns less interesting.

I plan to use K&W more in the future and try out some new things based on my player suggestions.

Overall, I really like the system. The unit traits are definitely the meat of the system though, I can’t stress that enough.

The players bested Welmatat in which the Effigy of Battle congratulated them and asked if they would like a wager match.

Perzyk asked what they would lose if they lost the wager match, in which Wlematat answered that they wouldn’t lose anything and hey could still continue in the Tower, but if they won, they would get rights to the Lost Army.

Perzyk was rather outspoken that this was a sucker’s bet. “Obviously we will take this wager, if we have nothing to lose and everything to gain.”

This started a new game which was a battle on two fronts.

The outline and gridding from this map is from Kingdom’s & Warfare, I just took out the coloring and superimposed it onto a rather generic background, but I really enjoy the way it came out.

This one was much bigger in scale. The party controlled a dwarven army that had a water elemental and several higher tier units versus two much smaller forces: humans and elves. One key distinction was that the elves had cavalry and both oppositions had 3 or 4 archers while the dwarves were mostly focused with melee units.

We had a week out of game to think about this. The players strategized and planned to crush the elven army then turn on the humans and stomp them out.

When push came to shove however, the dwarves were unable to when due to some poor luck and expert shooting from the human archers.

While the players’ dwarven army had higher tier units, the elves and humans combined had more units which gave them overall a higher combined health pool.

The players lost the warfare and were unable to get the rights to the Lost Army.

“I suppose their blood was spilled for nothing but a lost wager,” Welmatat said to Perzyk. “A bloody battle indeed.”

(Moarte’s player said “did we just get Ender’s Gamed” and I just smiled. Yeah you did lol.)

Before the group entered the city fight, they asked Welmetat if they had any advice or a hint at what to expect in the fight.

“It is easier to siege a castle from within; it’s what makes insurrection so dangerous.”

My players took this very literally, and what was meant to be more of a foreshadow/ pseudo advice to stay close to their next opponent, it caused my players to throw a wild curveball at me.

The players opened the door to the city and were met with a sweeping field with hills. In the middle was a small castle with cobble walls, a few turrets, and a ballista.

They entered and felt the grass underfoot, a breeze passed by, and the ground beneath rumbled. The walls from castle shook and unearthed, then morphed into a large golem. The cobbles magically shifted, and the ballista mounted its shoulder.

Combat started and the City Golem went toward the players, near one of the hills they were on and fired at them with a ballista shot.

Moarte and Uro launched into melee, but the first questions I got were, “Does it look like there is any way to enter this thing?”

This is a tough situation to be put in as a DM. The players have an idea of what this inside (no pun intended) information means, meanwhile I meant to say, “don’t try to kite this thing you will lose.”

I took it as a challenge though—I wanted to meet the player’s expectations. Mismatched expectations are fertile ground for disappointment.

I answered with, “Not yet.” It was a fair statement given that the combat had just started.

Uro proceeded to jump on top of the gigantic golem and look for an entry through the top and found a hatch.

When I said there was a hatch, at the time, I didn’t know if it was locked, barred, magical etc. other than that it was something that was a bit versatile and could buy me time.

Combat went on and after the first round, the party and Wraithwatch traded blows with the City Golem. At the top of the next initiative round, the CG summoned walls around it and most of the players, leaving Rhaegar on the outskirts, blocked from view by a 20-foot wall and the nearest entrance 40 feet away and blocked by a portcullis.

This was the initial hint at the combat, but because of the players, the combat had evolved. The CG battered and struck at the characters and on his turn, Uro entered the trap door into a chamber.

Inside of the chamber was an armillary sphere which encircled an orb crackling with lightning energy.

Once there, he struck at the sphere, causing damage to the monster from the inside.

Now this is a pretty powerful place and didn’t want players to be unthreatened, so I gave the sphere a backlash effect of 3 lightning damage every time it was hit with an attack.

Uro called to Moarte who also climbed atop the golem. The party was effectively split with the main melee tanks infiltrating the golem, and the rest outside to be targeted. This gave a particularly deadly dynamic.

The bash brothers did work from the inside of the castle golem, dropping it to 50% hp and released some Crawling City Defenders who chased down those outside, downing Baccaro with a powerful first strike.

To up the tensions inside of the castle golem, I also released some of the city defenders there to threaten Uro and Moarte, which I think really upped the stakes.

After teleporting to the top of the rampart, Rhaegar fired from afar, the sphere inside the golem degraded, and exploded. The Castle Golem crumbled and Moarte and Uro were far within its depths.

I halted the combat to have a quick best-of-three skill challenge for their escape from the collapsing castle and they did well to evade with minimal damage.

The party mopped up the fight and were able to best the challenge.

Inner Tower

With all of the four areas of the Tower of Kainen completed, it was time for the Inner Tower, the last trial.

In might be a good time now to talk about how I managed Wraithwatch, Verrona and Vestelle in this time.

I definitely had enough going on to where I didn’t want to control these NPCs myself, so what I did was give each player a dumbed down version of one of the NPCs (three members for Wraithwatch, Verronna, and Vestelle each distributed to one of the five players).

Each one had a basic attack (like a longbow attack) which was modest, a spell or some type of ability represented by their class, and finally a one-time-use ultimate ability. The ultimates were quite strong. For example, Rovick could encase someone in stone and make them take no damage from an attack, Dunna had two portent rolls, Verrona could make an attack do max damage, etc.

This pulls from the retainer system also from Matt Colville at MCDM.

One  part that was rough around the edges is that sometimes these retainers were a bit forgettable in a literal sense in combat, but I don’t want them to be so strong they outshine the player characters.

One way to quell this would be a ruling that my friend Peter does, where if your PC hits, their retainer hits. It speeds stuff along and is basically just a bonus to damage. I think I’d do it this way if I’d do it again. The Ultimate abilities were homebrew though and I would definitely suggest those to anyone wanting to use a retainer.

The party rested up and entered the final area rather healthily. I was really proud of their resource management to be honest.

The final area was a facsimile of the Crawling City except a lone Crawling Tower faced them.

The combat ensued. This thing had an exceptionally high AC but it could be reduced by either destroying one of the three shields toward the top or if it used a legendary resistance, one of the shields would disappear as a bit of a tradeoff.

High on the idea from last combat, Uro tried summiting the tower which has a green aura at the top. This put him out of harm’s way for the melee attacks but basically put him into a microwave.

I also had a Librarian join the fight so that way it was just a single raid boss and didn’t pull nay punches as the Librarian came on the flank. This also allowed for if the players got stuck at one time against the crawling tower, that if they “killed” the Librarian, then they could ask it a question.

This fight went down to the wire as the false tower swatted at people and used Scatter to teleport people into its rather substantial AOE spells.

Baccaro and Perzyk narrowly survived the Librarian. Rovick saved Rhaegars skin from a monstrous attack, Verrona helped Perzyk (best frenemies btw) land the final and decisive blow. The crawling tower collapsed.

Another close fight but the heroes prevailed.

In the center of the town square where they fought, a circle gleamed and opened a staircase which led downward.

The Lost Treasury

I took this concept from my good friend and great DM, Kit. At the bottom of the staircase, they reached a room where there were 7 different areas barred from a the central chamber. Behind the bars were magic items, gold, magic tomes, etc. all organized by type (for mine it was the library, misc. and mats, wonderous items, treasure (gold), armor, weapons, and consumable).

Next to each of the gates was a pedestal as well as one next to the stairway where they entered which held a weightless crown, which small that only one person could carry it.

The crown acted like a key for each of the seven areas; when put on a pedestal, the gate would raise, but as they took stuff out of the treasury, the crown got heavier in accordance to its value. I chose 20 gp of value would add 1 pound to the crown because that works with the economics of my game (my friend used 10gp, it really depends on your campaign).

This allowed for the players to pick their rewards strategically, practically combining a shopping session with rewards. It also creates a bit of a game, some bartering, etc.

Wraithwatch bartered almost exclusively for money, Verrona and Vestelle each got a smaller item, and the players went to town. They did break this encounter a bit by casting Enhance Ability and upping Moartes carrying capacity, but it was good thinking, and I didn’t mind showering my players with gifts.

After finalizing their haul (and leaving the crown on the library pedestal so they took all the books).

As they left the Tower of Kainen, they also received a boon which gave them +2 to Diplomacy, Streetwise, and Constitution (also raising their con maximum).

They rested with Wraithwatch, Verrona, and Vestelle, exhausted by their endeavor.