Wow its sure has been a long time since I last made an update here on the blog. I planned to have this post up way sooner then now but work has had me beyond busy and the lack of a regular game has made it a bit difficult to make regular updates a thing. Good news is the bug has bit me again with having a chance to play again got the ol juices flowing. Look for at-least a few more posts from me here in the following days/weeks as I put pen to paper once more.
Now as for FRPGD day I have been going to a new game shop since my old one closed down shortly after Ucon. I brought the idea up to the new shop after visiting a few times and making friends with the store owners. I am always happy to bring the joy of events like these to places that did not even know they existed. I showed up to run mutant future and swords and wizardry, however as it is still a fairly new store in a much smaller community the number of participants was pretty dismal. I was able to collect a few quick start rules I wanted to check out and I was even awarded a dice tray(which I never knew I would love so much). Since things were going slow we opted to get a game going with who we had available.
I am not the biggest fan of 5th edition, I don't hate it I just however prefer not to deal with the overall crunch now a days of the newer systems. I was ready and willing to rock and roll as a DM but the new guy behind the counter was adamant he really wanted to DM a game of 5th and well I just wanted to play so I took the neutral evil dwarven sorcerer(with dragon heritage hehe) of 5th level. My brother in law took a 5th level rogue/tinker mage, the store owner a super tank(22 AC) cleric who surprisingly didn't murder me for my self serving antics, and a nice kid I just met that day by the name of Ben who showed up and took over trodgar the npc barbarian. We was quite the motley crew.
The adventure was something the DM wrote himself involving all of us being members of a adventurers guild who gave us the assignment to go to the village of nowhere and go to the mayors tavern(of which I'm assuming was in the middle of nowhere) in exchange for a 2,000 gp per person to solve what is going on there. Apparently we were to be paid an advance but th rogue had walked off with it and "forgot" to tell us about it. We head to nowhere and once there find every one is in some sort of a weird daze. There are 2 kids hitting a dead animal with a stick in which I took an immediate dislike to and placed an extended hold person on one of them. The other child begins to smack the frozen on with their stick now but with no real sense of emotion. The place was certainly getting a weird vibe about it. we walk over to the tavern and got a bad feeling about what may lay on the other side so in true murder hobo fashion I went back, got the frozen kid, and once the door was open threw him in ahead of us. The tavern goers rough him up a bit before throwing him back out into street except for one really odd looking fellow with a near permanent grin and a strange looking golden badge. we go inside and he doesn't say a word but just keeps smiling like the joker and waving us to come hither. Having found my signature spell at this point I extend a hold person on him in which no one in the tavern even seemed to blink an eye. The cleric sighed and took the moment to at-least check for evil auras in the room in which the whole town sort of reverberated bad ju ju but the held guy did not. With some reluctance I released my hold and he went right straight into being overly cheerful welcoming us to the town and that we should not dawdle and get to the church right away. Wanting to get through this as quickly as possible and out of this weird no horse village we opted to follow him to the church in which a withered old priest brings us inside to tell us what is going on.
Apparently some 50 years ago a necromancer was looking to ascend himself to lich status, so the church sent one of their noblest of clerics to take care of the problem. The necromancers castle and the cleric dissapeared and had been missing until only a few weeks ago when the necromancers castle once more was next to the mountains in which it originally stood. Since then a miasma has invaded the town and only those who have a badge of the god of purity have been able to resist the drull that emminates now from the village. We are each given such a badge(the golden thing we saw the mayor wearing as well as the old priest) and told that we will be rewarded with 10k gp each for the destruction of the lich and the end of the miasma. We each received 2 healing pots, a pot that gives back 2 used spell slots, a good berry, and some sort of magic item based on if we asked for weapon or armor. the cleric got a +4 warhammer, the barbarian got his battle axe blessed from a +1 to +3 so long as he never lets it touch the ground(aka don't fumble), I got a ring that provided +2 dex and +1 to my lowest stat, and the rogue got some sort of dog tag that would become clear when the time came to use it. Shortly after his badge turned to wood and he too fell to the miasma and wandered off toward the bell tower above. the rogue started going through his journal and found a passage saying should the miasma take me please don't let me ring the bells, god please don't let me ring the bells. The cleric and I were already following the old guy up the tower and I use up my last hold person for the day and upon hearing the rogue say don't let him ring the bell we cut the rope. I didn't want to leave anything to change and "accidentally" knocked him down the flight of stairs in which the cleric being the good guy that he is tried to catch him and instead went for a tumble down the steps being cushioned by the old man. He barely survives and I make a strong case for he may try to bring the lich's wrath upon us before we are ready to deal with him and at-least we should tie him up so we can get out of here. So we ended up tying him up to the altar and after finishing the journal got a hint to avoid the main entrance.
We step outside and all of the village people of no where were standing outside their doorsteps and as soon as they saw us leave the church they all go inside and put out their lights. Happy to get away from them we avoid the main road and opt for an animal trail that went parallel to it. We eventually see the castle and decide to camp out until morning to get back my spell slots and to tackle this place at daylight instead of in the middle of the night. We all get rested no random encounters and when morning comes it is still pitch black and well the moon is still out....dun dun dun dunnnnn..... so to the side of the castle we go. Luck was on our side as we searched around and found a secret way inside through a loose cobblestone. I create some dancing lights and send them down the steps to light our way. Everything is good right up until we get inside and the door disappears and arrows start flying at my lights (I had them a good 10ft ahead to act as sort of an early detection system as well as light). We arm up and head down to face off with 17 skeletons. Captain cleric goes in and lays down the holy law putting the fear of his god into 14 of the 17 skeletons. the barb rolls in and starts going to town on the remaining non-frightened skellies while I cantrip away (I still cant believe I got to throw around 2d10 firebolts for free every round). The next round we hear a unholy groaning and then the skellies eyes burn brighter red and appear to have shaken off the fear(something just bloody bolstered the bastards) and so we had to face off with the rest of them. Super cleric held the line with the rogue backstabbing the hell out of everything aided by the multiple attacks of the barb and my firebolt spewing finger guns(pew pew) and eventually they were all reduced to dust and bone once more.
Now that we could actually take a chance to examine our surroundings we found 4 cells with chests in 2. I put on my magic detection(yeah magic eyes) and find in one of the other cells is a small hole in the wall radiating immense magical power. I pull out a strange looking deck of cards which then triggered a collapse of the other 3 cells...oops. I put the deck in my robes but eventually it started to burn and I had a compulsion to draw a card. In doing so I got a pendant which in my mind told me it would protect me from all magic, useful but I wasn't about to throw it around my neck just yet. Every one else opts to draw a card of which I don't quite remember what every one else got. When the 4 card was drawn the deck change to be much smaller in side and the back had that of a dragon. When I drew this time I got a horn that filled me with greed. I blew into it 3 times and on the third I actually succeeded at my perform check (18 cha FTW) and it blew away the rocks from the chest cell I was next to before disappearing and with it my new found additional greed. the cleric goes and opened the chest and found within a bright shining sword which the rogue succeeded on a lore check and found out it was a sword of luck and that it had charges of the wish spell. Here is where things fell apart quickly and in much humorous fashion...albeit in a very childish fashion. The rogue slight of hand reached for the sword and subtly wished that the cleric mis-identify it as a well I wont say here but it was pretty awful but funny in a dark sense of humor. The cleric goes on to misidentify alright but the spell didn't go quite as it was intended(do they ever...) and the DM rolls on his table of potential magic items, and apparently he believes in letting the die land as it may as it turned into a deck of many things. It detailed the rules and well I drew first and was rewarded with the sun card 50k exp, the experiences of my ancestors flash before my eyes and suddenly I was 9th level adding haste, banish, and cone of cold to my spell repertoire. the rogue got one of the other cards that gave some additional xp taking up to 7th level I think, the barb pissed off a demon, and the cleric refused to draw and thus the deck vanished.
Moving on I eat my good berry healing up and gaining back all my spell slots. We find the body of a cultist with a journal bragging out a terrible trap involving a mirror and the eventual ascension of his master...yada.yada.. and we decide to move forward through the stone doors which the barbarian had to bash down(which he did with ease) and down the corridor we found the mirror. The cleric saw something that looked like a chest with teeth staring back at him...in which I asked "like a mimic?" in which the mirror cracked some revealing a new image to the barbarian who said he saw a sphinx...which caused the mirror to crack some more but also released the sphinx....and that battle hurt. Long story short we eventually took it down and then the mirror disappeared leading us to a room with a skeletal knight. He greeted us and said he was here to slay the necromancer and was attempting to stop him from ascending to becoming a lich. He recited his hour long name and we recognized him as the paladin who came to stop the necromancer 50 years ago. Its at this point the door melted into the stonework and a terrible face emerged from the wall and proceeded to attack us from floor by causing jagged shards to flow up at us. I did not get as much damage done as I would have liked because the damn thing kept making his saves for half damage or straight up counter spelling my lower level spells(but I made the bastard burn all but one of his spells in the process) while the rest of the team attacked the moving face with everything they had. Eventually down to his last spell and attempting to still claim lichedom he cast reincarnation.....and turned himself into a female wood elf with no memory of their former life as a necromancer. Naturally as soon as this happened the place began to crumble and we had to make a mad dash out of their. The day was saved we got paid and the town was a little less bleak. Overall every one had a great time, the DM got some more experience under his belt, and there was a lot of laughs.
