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FR - 5E - More Threads Revealed

Page history last edited by Jon Goranson 4 years, 12 months ago

More Threads Revealed

 

April 3, 2019

 

The group is in the cave after Nadir got away.  They rest a bit while Tyrel explains how he knew the password.  They are all understanding and move on, never to talk about it again.  They decide to check out the rest of the cave. 

 

They find another similar looking rock portal with espruar runes around it.  These go out after a few seconds, unlike the other one which stayed on until toggled off or four were entered.  They all look toward Tyrel, well, Maldar is suspiciously quiet, and he suggests, "Daggerford."  Jinn tries the elvish word for Daggerford and the portal opens!  They see an orchard and apple trees.  Jinn suggests Chandi go look and she does.  She is gone for perhaps ten minutes before returning with a small pouch that she puts at Hang's feet.  She then says that it's apple and orange trees.  She didn't see anyone.  They could tell it was day time, about the time they expected it to be.  Han opens the pouch to find small oranges.  

 

They try a few more but don't want to step through.  They try Silverymoon and a cityscape appears.  Tyrel recognizes the bridge and knows it is Silverymoon.  A child sees them and comes closer but when Jinn tries to get information, it terrifies the young child, who runs away.  They close it as city guards start to appear.  They try Cromm's Hold but while it connects, there is a barrier there so nothing they can do.  They don't know of any place they want to go and head back to the other portal.  They open it and head back to the stairs, going up and up and up until they get to the waterfall door.  That opens up and they are truly under a waterfall.  There isn't much of a cave under it, going to the left, and to the right, it comes out along the river created by the waterfall.  They send Chandi through and Jinn loses contact with her, so they know it's more than a mile away.  When she tries to come back, they see her paw at the wall but can't get back to them.  Jinn is able to reach through, grab her, and pull her through.  They don't want to be lost someplace, so decide to skip it.  

 

They come out and search some of the other corridors.  They do hear a strange slurping sound at one point, which turns out to be a gelatinous cube.  They are curious but more from what they see in it and attack it, easily killing it after driving it off with fire.  A signet ring of the duke's family is found.  Going to one of the doors, they find a strange wax area next to the door, with the seal of Daggerford, same as the ring.  Maldar looks at the door and the others see that as he's looking at the magical traps on the door, his eyes have gone black as night.  They press the ring into the wax and it takes a while but eventually, the traps are removed.  Stepping through, there is another room and a door but going into it starts a fight with clay golems.  The fight is tough but they prevail.  

 

More searching reveals an outlet, so they don't need to use the cistern, and another wax sealed room.  They also find a place where a fair amount of sewage is dumped and something is in there, living off of it.  As several of them lose their breakfast to the stench, they decide not to go that way unless they really have to.  

 

Finding nothing else, they go out near the temple of Chauntea and go see the high priestess.  It's perhaps mid-afternoon and the doors are shut.  Dorn doesn't remember the doors being shut.  Knocking brings an acolyte, who recognizes them, and takes a chance and lets them inside.  Talking with Maerovyna, it turns out something happened at the festival and Kelson Darktreader, friend to Daggerford and town ranger, attacked the Duke!  Then a dozen elves joined him.  People got out of there and as far as Maerovyna knows, no one was killed but injuries happened.  

 

They try to get to Miller's house but looks like she was probably at the barracks when it happened as nothing looks amiss.  They heard something happened at the market, so head there.  They see a few figures looting and try and stop them!  After a pathetic chase, they catch up and it turns and attacks.  They do cut him down but make sure he doesn't die.  Then head to the temple of Lathandar.  There, they get treatment for him and talk to Liam.  Liams says that something has turned people into lizard people, same as they saw on this person.  Liam had just figured out it's not a disease but poison and antidote or protection from poison can cure it.  However, he has run out and still has two dozen patients.  As they watch him treat someone, a scratch happens and they realize it can be transmitted that way.  Liam says that's how it has traveled so fast as most of the temples had injured.  

 

In talking with Liam, he says that Maerovyna probably has what is needed for antidotes in their garden, something Lathandar doesn't normally do.  They go and see if they can get supplies for it.  Maerovyna is happy to give them supplies for that but they think they found a way to get to Orlbach's tower fast, as he might have more antidote.  They have an acolyte take the supplies as they head toward the tunnels.  

 

Heading back down, the door has been locked.  The one they left unlocked, maybe even ajar.  After Maldar disarms and opens it, again,, the rest can't see in the darkness but Maldar can.  He verifies nothing is out there but it takes him a second to realize there was darkness at all.  He just didn't see it.  Now that he knows, Maldar looks at the darkness, reaches out his hands, and tugs.  Ever so slightly at first but then more.  Like folding a piece of cloth, the darkness gets smaller and smaller until it's only a foot sphere but Maldar has to keep holding it.  They rest go to the door where the stairs are but it's also locked.  Dorn takes out his hammer and slams the door with it, hoping to send the door careening across the room.  He does bash it open on the latch, which catches and slams it against the wall.  

 

Paine is waiting.  

 

"I'm sorry I missed you before now but this is as far as you go."  

 

She's not alone.  Several ophidian are there as well as a yuan-ti.  Tyrel steps forward, humming.  "Let's talk about this later tomorrow after you leave here?"  Paine's eyes gloss over and she steps forward, "yes, we can talk tomorrow."  However, a shimmer in the air reveals a Naga

 

She is not amused and while she doesn't snap Paine out of it, she takes over and says they will go no further.  Dorn is ready to attack but Hang and Jinn say they are out of their big spells for support.  Reluctantly, Dorn backs off and the naga don't pursue them.  

 

They had back to Liam and tell him what has happened.  He offers some paladins to clear them out but can tell that they aren't in any shape to fight.  He says he will take the paladins and lead them himself.  Dorn really wants to go with and at least shows them where it is but Liam insists he head back as the rest of the group would be unprotected.  Liam waits until Dorn is fully gone before turning to his fellow paladins and leading the way.  

 

The group goes back to Maldar's to rest, scribe scrolls, and gather their strength.  

 

GM Notes

  • Tyrel explained how it was that he knew the code.  Everyone was satisfied and happy.  
    • We put a placeholder at the beginning in the caves where this happens.  We won't do it in person until everyone is there so no one misses what happened.   
  • Several saw the Gamers and I loaned two my copies, so they can understand a few references I do! 
    • One such reference was when Dorn, highest Con of the group, fails and throws up at the stench, while one of the weaker ones doesn't.   
  • I was okay with the music. 
    • I realized that Syrinscape has a LOT more sounds than I thought.  That's good and bad.  Searching for battle doesn't reveal any subset, just the main names.  So, if I'm looking for a particular battle subset, I have to know where it is.   
  • I was only okay with descriptions as well. 
  • I was happy with the area down below and the secrets.  They figured out many of them, so that worked well.  
  • I told them later that this is what Paine had been doing, getting a poison that converts people to snake people.  Since they had avoided her, they never found out anything about it. 
  • Further, they didn't go to the festival, so they didn't see the rising violence that culminated in the elves attacking the Duke. 
  • I'm learning a lot about sandbox games.  I mean, sure, I could have made it dramatic and only have things happen when they are there but I like a balance of GNS theory in my game.  So there was a timeline. 
  • I still can't decide on 5E as a system.  Again, it's not bad just different.  However, to be fair, playing a sandbox like this with PF it probably wouldn't be much different with all of the threads that came together.   
  • John has done a great job keeping player knowledge to himself, as he knew what last week's bad guy was long before it was revealed and the gelatinous cube from this week. 
    • Is that wrong?  Again, 5E is more like 2E than 3E, which made it more about challenging the characters, while 2E was about challenging the players.  Should player knowledge be character knowledge?  I don't know.    
  • I'm probably going to extend and ignore more rules.  Hopefully not to the point of it not being 5E but to fit with the concept more.  This is seen in how Maldar could shape the darkness.   

 

 

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