ang griffen's journal

I haven't been keeping up on my Scarlet Citadel Campaign Diaries, but I promise they are coming. I'm currently about six sessions behind. Whoops. However, I do want to say that I have been impressed with how well-designed the first two levels of the dungeon proper are. The Gaoler's torture room, the crypts, and now the Alchemist's Furnace encounter with Maksilov have all been really fun, especially when low-level encounters can often be very meh. The locations are well-designed and play well with the rest of the encounter. I've gotten several compliments on the big setpiece fights being fun, but the book itself really set me up for success with them.

<< Previous - Session #2

4 Thunders 482 AR

When we last left our adventurers, they were about to explore the other hallway from the Scarlet Citadel's entrance to see if they could find either Dugan Lovay's companion Barrett, or if they could find a key to the cells the prisoners were being kept in; however, they were interrupted by the crimson ogre, Scar, coming to investigate the noises he and his boss had heard.

The party fought Scar, and through a number of successful rolls, were able to deal enough damage to him to get him to back down and surrender before he was able to attack them -- luckily for the party! Arodan was able to intimidate Scar enough and Morrigan was able to confuse him enough to distract him for long enough for Razog to get the key to the cells from him. While the rest of the party went with Scar to get his things from his cell, Razog freed the two prisoners and hauled them to the upper ruins of the dungeon. Along the way, Razog grabbed Scar's morningstar, abandoned on the floor and tried to use it to jam the door to the oubliette shut.

While Razog was setting up the prisoners on the surface, the rest of the party returned to the entranceway with Scar, who attempted to retrieve his morningstar. Morrigan took this time to surprise Scar and finish him off. Arodan: "Ah. He tripped."

Murphy retrieved the brooch Scar had wanted to collect from his room, and Arodan went up to the ruins while Murphy and Morrigan agreed to scout ahead a bit to see if they could locate Barrett.

The two entered the oubliette, and the vengeful ghost of one of the dead in the room possessed Morrigan [based on Dungeon Dad's 5e update of the Corpse Candle], and showed him some information about the Gaoler and began pressing him toward killing the Gaoler.

Morrigan pressed on to the torture room, which was currently empty, as the Gaoler was camped in the Charun Shrine with Ushulx, as I'm running him with a bit more self-preservation than he is written as having in the adventure as written. While Morrigan unchained Barrett, Murphy explored what ultimately ended up being the Gaoler's chambers, and began to collect what seemed valuable.

Arodan and Razog ventured back into the dungeon, since the other two were taking a long time, and bumped into the dead bodies in the oubliette, activating the zombies. Murphy used lightning lure to drop two of the dummies into the hole to the bat caves below, and Arodan took out the other two with his twinned necromancy cantrips. The four, with Barrett in tow, exited the dungeon and began the slow trek back to town.

The party took the better part of the rest of the day and the following one traveling back to Redtower with the former captives. While Teastrainer confirmed he had been attacked and captured by the crimson ogre, Barrett said that he and Dugan had been attacked on the road from Peltzenheim to Schio by bandits with clockwork machinery. He said their leader had had some sort of ability to attack with her bones, and that they had likely been traded to the Gaoler's care in what he was assuming was some kind of peace treaty between the bandits and the Gaoler's group.

Lovay said that if the party could recover her stolen goods, cart, and or horses, she would be willing to give them a cut of the goods recovered in payment. Barrett said when he and Dugan had recovered in a week or two, he would be willing to go with the party to where they were attacked and attempt to find the bandit hideout.

 

5 Thunders 482 AR
The party arrived back at Redtower in the early evening. Murphy and Razog went to the Temple of Rava to get the items Muprhy found appraised. She appraised them, told him the pair of butterfly hairclips he found were enchanted, and told him that some of the items he found belonged to missing villagers, and he should speak with Mayor Broz to return them to the families. While there Murphy purchased a pair of goggles to try his hand at enchanting.

The two then went to speak with Zula, observing her doing a divination ritual using the entrails of a squirrel. They told her a bit about their adventures in the dungeon and purchased some healing potions for the party with the treasure Murphy found.

Razog inquired about having some teeth he'd collected put on a necklace, and was pointed toward Witek the leatherworker, who drilled holes in the teeth and tusks and sold him a thin leather strip to wear them on.

Meanwhile, Arodan and Morrigan brought Lovay and Barrett to the manse of Konrad of Runkelstad. The two suspected Konrad, who was expecting a delivery of "wizard stuff" may have set the merchant up. Instead they learned that Konrad is a bit of a charlatan who sells faulty enchanted goods to would-be adventurers. The two learned from Konrad that the bandit who can attack with her bones seems to be under the effect of some sort of blood magic. Arodan cheerfully intimidated him a bit and decided that he is less useful for items than he is for information.

The party returned to The Cage to rest up for the night, and over dinner heard about Eva's son Gabe having strange dreams after allegedly taking a dare to spend the night at the Lifeless Clearing outside town.

Morrigan had strange nightmares over night from his ghost, but all party members achieved a long rest that night in town and leveled up to Level 2

 

6 Thunders 482 AR

The party headed out again the following morning, this time taking the smaller service road toward the Citadel. Along the way, they discovered some local lumberjacks who warned them of nearby tree falls and sinkholes.

That evening, the party found the partially-intact ruins of an old lookout tower with a small cellar, from the Holzanger era, and were able to set up camp there overnight. They made a note of the tower's location on their sketched map.

 

7 Thunders 482 AR

The party awoke to light rain the next morning, but trudged on toward the Citadel, arriving to the ruins around noon, ready to make another delve, and hopefully deal with the Gaoler for good.

Next - Session #4 >>

Gráinne
Druid (Circle of Land: Arctic) 3
Human | Background: Folk Hero | CN | Color Wheel: Blue / Green / Red [Temur]

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<< Previous - Session #0

2 Thunders 482 AR / 92 FY / 1749 OC*

Arodan, the elfmarked cleric of Baccholon, has recently found himself in the White Forest due to shenanigans, and through his conversations with the denizens of its villages, has arrived in the village of Redtower, a small town with around 600 permanent residents. He stops at the stables and asks for directions to a place he can rent a room from a stablegirl, who points him toward the tavern and inn known as The Cage. Arodan gives her a copper piece from the Grand Duchy of Dornig.

The Cage is known as such because its initial construction was crafted from the ribcage of a giant. Its interior decoration is eclectic, containing hunting trophies and strange trophies and architecture from all over the Crossroads. Its owners, the twins Ariadna and Ambrozy Gjorski claim to be from a long line of adventurers, although given enough time talking, one will realize neither of them is particularly experienced in the adventuring life.

Heading into The Cage, Arodan discovers two actual adventurers, the minotaur Razog and his companion, a human named Morrigan. The two arrived in Redtower a few days prior and are looking to put together a party to investigate the ruins of the Citadel. The two do not immediately approach the elfmarked man, and instead observe him while he talks Ambrozy about the history of the Cage and the village.

At this point, Murphy, the gearforged artificer, arrives from the Temple of Rava in town, where they've been receiving repairs after their previous party failed to infiltrate the Citadel. They've heard about Razog and Morrigan, and they approach the duo. Ultimately the three agree to attempt to delve into the Citadel, and approach Arodan to see if he wishes to join them.

During his conversation with Ambrozy, Arodan learned about a witch who lives just outside town who may sell alchemical remedies and healing potions. The four agree to venture out to her cottage that day, and then return to finish anything they need to do in town, then head out the next morning.

They visit the witch and have some tea with her and learn her name is Zula. She gives them her price for healing potions, and tells them she's always interested in finding new materials to work with in her alchemy. She trades some cooking herbs with Razog, who asks if she's heard about or seen Ichbon Teastrainer lately, since he hasn't seen him since his first day in town. Zula hasn't seen him since before he met Razog and tells him so.

Zula also tells the party about bezoars that can be harvested from owlbears and how they work, as well has about owlbears originating in this area of the world.

The four return to town, and Morrigan takes a brief moment to visit the old church of Khors in town, where he leaves a few cents and lights a candle. He sees the local blacksmith, Agnieszka, entering the building on his way out.


3 Thunders 482 AR

The party wakes up early and begins their trek out to the Scarlet Citadel. Murphy tells the rest of the party that it's about a six-hour journey by the main road, but he wasn't sure how long the other ways of traveling to the Citadel would take. The party agree to take the main road to the Citadel.

Along the way, they wander into a strange mist where they are attacked by goblins. During the fight, Murphy is knocked unconscious and is healed by Arodan. Arodan discovers the mists function as a kind of wild magic zone -- in this case causing his healing spell to be more powerful than he intended.

The last goblin tries to flee, but is slain by Arodan, which disappoints Morrigan as he wanted to try to talk to the goblin, since goblins aren't usually seen this far east in the world.

While the party bicker over the few coins they found on the goblins, Murphy attempts to heal thenself, but the mists cause their spell to fizzle, leading Morrigan to question Murphy's effectiveness as an adventurer, or at least as a magician.

Ultimately, the party find a spot to stop to eat a light lunch and rest up before continuing the rest of the way to the Citadel...


* 482 After the Elven Retreat, or 92 Free Years since Zobeck became a republic, or 1749 years on the old calendar, dating to the formation of the old Elven Empire.

Next - Session #2: "The Owlbear" >>

I'm about to embark on running the Scarlet Citadel D&D 5e dungeon-crawl campaign*.

Last night we had a short character creation session, and I love every last one of the weirdos my players brought to the table:

• Razog, a minotaur barbarian, who is a ship's cook from Triolo. Considered blessed by Hecate, he was inspired by both his ship's captain and Admiral Golden Horn to become an adventurer and prove his worth via glory, battle, and the acquisition of treasure. In his travels toward Redtower, he disembarked in Schio to travel overland, where he met Morrigan, and the two have been traveling together for about a week.



• Morrigan, a human rogue from Schio, a spy for the Lock who also took occasional work for the Temperance League. He has been traveling with Razog for about a week. Morrigan is seeking to discover the source of the bandits disrupting the trade route between Peltzenheim and Schio -- which is also a major trade route between the Crossroads and the Seven Cities. But he's also seeking information on the political allegiance of Gellert the Gruesome, who is rumored to have pledged fealty to both Melana and Magdar.



• Murphy, a gearforged artificer from Zobeck. Lured here by curious rumors of strange mechanical trinkets found in the nearby White Forest, they are now the sole remaining member of a party that perished in the Citadel Ruins. They've been convalescing in the Temple of Rava, befriending the acolyte Norneth and the priestess Cecylia for the past couple weeks.



• Arodan, an elfmarked cleric of Baccholon hailing from Salzbach. Arodan became lost on a Shadow Road in the Grand Duchy and arrived in the Crossroads, where he has been wandering ever since. Through sheer luck, Arodan has just now found himself in the village of Redtower, full of rumors and legends of far-off lands -- including the tale of an ancient elven library that once stood where the Scarlet Citadel's ruins now lie.


Can't wait to see what nonsense these weirdos get up to.

* While the Scarlet Citadel is a cool dungeon, I would not recommend running this campaign unless you already have a lot of the Kobold Press third party books. To run it "well" really requires Tome of Beasts, The Creature Codex, The Midgard Worldbook, and Deep Magic, as well as the map pack if you're not playing online, since much of the overlay information isn't included in the adventure proper. It's well-designed, but Kobold Press is not very up-front about how many additional books are recommended-to-required to run the adventure.


Next - Session #1: "Redtower" >>

So I don't want to get back into men's sports RPF because male professional athletes have such a high propensity for being disappointing, on account of being dudes whose educations largely were ignored, and who were never corrected about personality stuff on account of them being good at sportball, and who are usually very large and have a lot of privilege, and become extremely famous in their early 20s, and are drenched in a culture of excessive alcohol consumption. Which is, you know, a perfect environment for regular dudes to come out of perfectly socialized.

But anyway, the problem is also that all that stuff that makes me intensely distrustful of sportmans also makes me really fucking love sports RPF because you can pitch me any old idiot plot and I'll be like "I absolutely believe the dudes involved are dumb enough to do that."

So, you know. It's hard.

It's cold and dark all the time, I have no desire to watch the one show I was kind of giving a shit about for a while there, none of my bras fit*, and my D&D campaign got cancelled. I'm not, like, deeply morose, but I'm exhausted and having a hard time giving a shit about things right now, and it's the worst. Also, my ADHD medication just isn't working the way it used to (I'm still basically on the starter dosage because we never increased the dosage to full adult dosing in the first place because it was still working at that point), and I don't know if I want to go up in dosage or not? Executive dysfunction is a bitch, though, so I probably should, I guess.

Like, I should finish Voltron so I can get mad about it and write fix-it fic, because right now I want to write, but don't feel like I care enough about anything to actually focus enough to write something, but that would involve... watching Voltron, so, you know. See above, I guess.

Anyway! Hi! Welcome to my Dreamwidth! This is just how it is here sometimes!

edit: ALSO one of my WoWPvP twitter mutuals is making this really false equivalence about the Tumblr NSFW thing. ("Not liking this change means you didn't want them to do anything about child porn," basically.) And it's so wildly wrong that I'm having a hard time replying to him about why he's wrong so I'm just, like, not replying to his argument, I guess?

* Me, in 2016: I will lose weight and then! Then! my breasts will get smaller! And it will be easier to find bras that fit!
Me, in 2018: I lost weight and all that happened is my underbust got smaller so now it's even harder to find bras that fit because now I'm not a standard small fat bra size.

Has anyone posted any big friending memes for certain fandoms/fandom in general since a bunch of us moved back to DW?

My Dumb To-Do List:

• DW: Go through my Reading/Access Lists and cull dead blogs/add new active blogs! Find new DW communities!


• DW: Edit icon situation to more reflect my current interests.


• Set up Nintendo Account, Buy Smash Ultimate


• FF14: Find FFXIV account info, decide if I want to re-up my sub, do server research?


• EQ: Find Project 1999 account info


• EQ: Talk to Auld Lang Syne about joining on Cleric


• VLD: Get caught up on Voltron?


• Stuff: Info on Ruby, start prepping for January for this


• Stuff: Get in touch with local SCA