Campaign Chronicles

I am a Year-Round Shorts Guy. I hate wearing pants. When the mercury in the thermometer starts to travel upwards of 50°F, I start to sweat. If I am not working or attending a more "formal" event like a wedding, I will be in shorts. But this week, the low temperatures were between -25° and -29°F and that was beyond my ability to tolerate for more than just a few minutes at a time. I walked to the gas station across the street last night and there was an older gentleman who saw me and asked specifically if I always wear shorts and I told him pretty much what I just told you. He simply smiled and nodded in seeming agreement, paid for his purchase and left. That got me to thinking and that thinking led to this. "It's not the cold, it's the wind/damp." - common quote from a Year-Round Shorts Guy  Year-Round Shorts Guy is an Acquired Template that can be added to any Humanoid, referred to hereafter as the base creature. The base creature is unchanged but gains th...

Note: This adventure was based on "The Kingdom of Ghouls" from Dungeon Magazine 70 . Instead of fighting to defeat the ghouls, the player, who had himself been transformed into a member of the undead, was tasked with bringing the area under his control. 4th - 12th Day of the Month of Fireseek 591 CY calendar (1371 DR) Jamaros stood atop a balcony overlooking Kilenor. The stench of rotting flesh hung heavy in the air as he surveyed his newly conquered domain. He allowed his thoughts to drift back over the last few days and the victories he had achieved. After forcing his way into the Ashen outpost , the mighty Nordheimer sacked the stronghold, seizing control of the Marquis' forces. With his defeated rival's troops added to his own, he marched on the Coastal Outpost. Rather than resisting, Marquis Zun capitulated and allowed his guards to be absorbed into Jamaros' army. The newly expanded army then captured the Great Tombs and the Eastern Outpost. The Jotunbrund ...

Another Throwback Post to the time when the party was trapped in the Grimmlands . The group had arrived in Spinnenbruch on their way to the Fortress of the Three Pigs on the day of the Festivus Competition. I have edited out the parts that are not directly related to the contest itself but Cedron and Kysek were speaking with Niklas, (who had not even joined the party yet) to learn more about the deadly dungeon that lay ahead of them. Meanwhile, Grotto was catching up with his brother Mormund whom he had not seen in several years. I determined the results of the contest with a series of Constitution checks, adding up the results as I went. Any contestant who failed would either get sick, choke, or pass out and would then be eliminated. The top four contestants then moved on to the Airing of Grievances with Charisma checks measuring crowd responses and the top finalist earned the privilege of wrestling with Piotr (of "Peter and the Wolf" fame) for the title of Festivus Champi...

The party encountered these creatures during their time in the Grimmlands. They were adapted to 3.5e from the AD&D adventure module "Dungeonland." These flowers are ten feet tall. The petals are gold and silver-colored, surrounding a “head” filled with seeds made from a variety of gemstones. The leaves are long and supple, able to bend and grab objects while their stem is as thick as a large man’s wrist. These flowers are silly, vain, and rude. They make faces, obscene gestures, and disparaging remarks about passersby’s appearance, odor, and intelligence. Gemstone Flower CR: 3     Large Plant     HD: 4d8+12 (30 Hp) Init +0      Spd: 0’      AC: 15 (-1 size, +6 Natural); ff: 15, t: 9 Attacks: (BAB +3; Grap +12) ; +7 Slam: 1d6+7 plus Improved Grab (10’ reach) or +3 Stone: 1d4+5 (additional +1 hit/dmg within 30’) SA: Constrict 1d6+7; Improved Grab SQ: Blindsight 3...

08 Gild ember  348 AC Raz , Shadow , and Romulus left for their Tests of High Sorcery three days ago. The group's days have been filled with exploration of Silvanesti, visiting with their hosts, and other mundane activities.  Kysek and Onforithalas have spoken at length about being fathers. The Elf guardsman has shown great sympathy to the thief-turned-wizard-turned Knight of the Barrie Grange and the dilemma caused by the party traveling some 20 years into the past only to discover that his son has yet to be born to a wife who is still but a child herself. Finding a way to returning to the "present" remains foremost on Kysek’s mind.  Grotto’s experiments with edible "potions" continue unabated although without access to the magic granted by Hanseath, his progress is limited to say the least. On the deity-front, Cedron and Arthur make repeated attempts to commune with Malazzarr, also without success. Raven suggests that planting one of the magical seeds Cedron...

The kids were watching "The Jungle Book" earlier tonight. I was in the kitchen, half-listening for the songs, when they got to the part of the movie where Bagheera is asking the elephants for their help in finding Mowgli. Colonel Hathi then turns to his troops, gives his orders, and tells them that they will have the "element of surprise."  But that is not what I heard. What I heard was "Elephant of Surprise."  So, here we are. I decided to go with a Chaotic Neutral Fey. I'm envisioning a creature who sneaks up behind you and yells "BOO!" before collapsing in a fit of laughter.  As your party progresses through the woods, the Ranger catches sight of a creature up ahead: an elephant standing upright on its hind legs, hiding behind a tree. You are stunned to realize that if your scout hadn't said anything, you would have walked right past the creature without noticing. The Elephant of Surprise CR: 7     Huge Fey     HD: 11d6+55 (91...

My youngest boy is obsessed with Sharks. And dinosaurs. But, for a loooong  time, it was Sharks and only Sharks. It didn't matter if they were real-life Sharks or Cartoon Sharks. Baby Shark's Big Adventure played on repeat for much of 2021. And then, one day, a video made its way into the "Recommended for You" list on YouTube. It was a short, catchy toon and there were dozens of animated videos to accompany the song. That song was "Scary Flying Shark" by Boom Buddies. It told the story of the eponymous shark, its death, and its subsequent hunt of children. He loved it. More recently, he has discovered (i.e. rifled through the DVDs upstairs) the 1980s Dungeons and Dragons cartoon and realized that the show was based on the shelves of game books that take up much of the wall in the living room (beholders are his current favorite). This has led to me needing to provide stats for the previously mentioned "Scary Flying Shark". This is basically...

The party first met Mary Sawyer and her ram companion, Aries while traveling through the Checkerboard Kingdoms with Jill, wife of King Jack . The group was on its way to the pasture of the Cow That Jumped Over the Moon so they could ask the Man (although they would later learn that it was Men) in the Moon if he had seen what had happened to Jack after he fell from the Hill. Mary was investigating several missing people and suspected Bo Peep and Little Boy Blue of engaging in human trafficking to replace sheep they had irresponsibly lost/killed/allowed to die. A brief battle ensued that resulted in the two erstwhile slavers being brought to justice and Cedron acquiring the Witching Cloak. Mary Sawyer : female Grimmlands Human Ranger 4 CR: 4     Medium Humanoid (Human) HD: 4d8+4 (24 hp) Init: +3     Spd: 30'     AC: 17 (Masterwork Studded Leather Armor, Masterwork Light Wooden Shield, +3 Dex); t: 13, ff: 14 Attacks: (B...

8th Day of Gild ember , 348 AC Romulus looks out over the road, surveying the path ahead and begins walking. Fog rises from the ground, quickly enshrouding everything within sight. He steels himself, mentally preparing for whatever his next trial might be. As the mist clears, he finds that he stands within a thick forest that has recently suffered from a forest fire. Despite the winds howling, the dead trees are strangely still, their twisted branches frozen mid-gesture, reaching for the night sky. All around, dense thickets of leafless branches surround him. Solinari’s silvery moonlight barely touches this place through the entwined canopy, and yet there is no lack of illumination. An eerie yellow fog rolls across the scorched earth, smelling of sulfur. Bestial cackling rings out from behind a nearby tree, then crescendoes around you from all directions.  A white-furred hyena-man wearing tattered clothes lumbers from the tree line, their long arms swinging madly back and forth. ...

7th Day of Gilde mber , 348 AC The night passes quietly in peaceful comfort. The next morning in the Tower of Wayreth is quiet and a sense of tension hangs in the air. None of the other Aspirants are anywhere to be found, perhaps having already started their tests. As the long, isolated hours pass, the sun rises and falls. Romulus takes a walk around the empty moonlit courtyard.  Coming back from his walk, he glances into the grand hall where the leaders of the Conclave gather. The Hall of Mages is an immense obsidian chamber with a 60' ceiling. Twenty chairs sit in shadows, while one central chair gives off a cold, white glow - the hall's only light source. All twenty-one chairs face the north wall. The longer he looks into the room, the larger it seems. Despite not declaring for any Order, he can sense the history of the place, spells of incredible power woven by the world's greatest mages, and the critical decisions made about the future of the Conclave.  As he turns aw...