Sandbox Campaign Part 8: "This One Time at Bandit Camp..."

This is part 8 of my ongoing account of the sandbox campaign I am currently running.  Updates are frequent, if irregular, and at the end of each post I talk about one or more subjects pertaining to the adventure but more broadly applicable to all campaigns.  You can find the previous parts here.

Leaving Zel and Rikkit to rest in the bloodstained ogre cave, the rest of the party headed back to explore the underground dwarven trade road.  After following it for two days, they reached its end: a door disguised as the face of a cliff.  It opened into a trackless forest north of the Frostspines, a favourite haunt of bandits and savage tribesmen.  Chernyx returned to report their findings to Zel and Rikkit while Monty, Sigrid, Daphne, and Kat sought out Castle Drenn, Castle Morbis' sister castle, now long occupied by the barbarians.  They were soon ambushed by a sizable group of bandits and, after struggling against the bandits' nets for a few rounds, agreed to throw down their weapons and come with them.

Sandbox Campaign Part 7: Kill Wighty

This is part 7 of my ongoing account of the sandbox campaign I am currently running.  Updates are frequent, if irregular, and at the end of each post I talk about one or more subjects pertaining to the adventure but more broadly applicable to all campaigns.  You can find the previous parts here.

After a 16-hour rest, the party followed the only path remaining: deeper into the tomb.  They discovered a bottomless tankard of ale in a sarcophagus and another room that was mostly destroyed by a cave in.  After passing through some rubble, they came to a large set of double doors.  Beyond them was a massive stone vault filled with dwarven sarcophagi, one wall broken out into an adjoining cavern by a collapsed pillar.  Prowling the rows of the dead were a small pack of ghoul wolves and two skeletal ogres dragging greatclubs.  At the far end of the room stood  a skeletal grizzly bear and a dwarven barrow wight adorned in ancient bronze chainmail and wrought torcs, bearing Orc-Gutter (+1 dwarven waraxe, deals additional 1d3 points of bleed damage to creatures of the orc subtype).  Beneath the ethereal blue lights that dimly illuminated the hall, he challenged the party: "I am Chief Krannax.  I was the first dwarf to walk these halls, and I will be the last."

Monster Monday: Gegenes, the Six-Armed Giant

Today's Monster Monday entry is the gegenes, a six-armed giant that packs powerful punches in its many limbs, scales cliffs with ease, and throws over-sized rocks at its enemies.

The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is (C)2013 Jonah Bomgaars.

Sandbox Campaign Part 6: "This is no mine. It's a tomb"

This is part 6 of my ongoing account of the sandbox campaign I am currently running.  Updates are frequent, if irregular, and at the end of each post I talk about one or more subjects pertaining to the adventure but more broadly applicable to all campaigns.  You can find the previous parts here.

After resting up from their encounter with the flail snail, the party crossed the stone bridge over the chasm and found a chamber abutting a stone wall, featuring a door flanked by two dwarven statues.  After dispatching a trio of cave scorpions, they were able to make out a dwarfish inscription above the door that read:

Into this place let no enemy creep 
douse all lamps and into darkness leap

Monster Monday: Tikoloshe, Evil African Leprechaun

Today's Monster Monday entry is the tikoloshe, an evil water spirit from Zulu mythology.  They are somewhat like leprechauns, equipped with an array of mischief-making spell-like abilities including at-will invisibility, but where leprechauns are tricksters, tikoloshe are purely evil.

The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is (C)2013 Jonah Bomgaars.

Sandbox Campaign Part 5: Dungeon Denizens and DMPCs

This is part 5 of my ongoing account of the sandbox campaign I am currently running.  Updates are frequent, if irregular, and at the end of each post I talk about one or more subjects pertaining to the adventure but more broadly applicable to all campaigns.  You can find the previous parts here.

After checking out several villages, the party returned to Castle Morbis for some R&R.  Monty, meanwhile, had abandoned Crow Dance to his barbarian wanderings and finally reached the castle as well.  After offending the guards at the main entrance, he bluffed his way into a postern gate.  He wandered around the town, searching for his party, and ended up taking a liking to the Buxom Witch.

The rest of the party (sans Zel and Rikkit) also bummed around town, searching for a venue for Kat's bardic stylings after she rolled two natural 1s in a row on perform checks in the Rusty Glaive.  They returned to the Buxom Witch - Kat in disguise since she had punched the barkeep last time - and met up with Monty.  Soon, the barkeep offered to sell Monty a map to a treasure guarded by an orc horde.  Monty, not realizing that this was the same map that sent Sir Hardrig to his doom, and also not wanting to pay for the treasure map, punched the barkeep, threw down a smokestick, and tried but failed to steal the map.  He ended up fleeing down the street pursued by the barkeep's hired thugs, where he ran into Guy de la Rue.  Guy was a seasoned fighter who had served with Sigrid's oldest brother Ranulf and had come up in search of Sigrid with her middle brother Bjorn.  Now that that situation was resolved, he was just bumming around Castle Morbis looking for work.  He helped Monty dispatch the thugs while the rest of the party stole the map, failed to remain unnoticed, and failed to convince the barmaids that they were just rescuing the map from a fire.  The whole party fled to the dwarven smithy, where they told their side of the story to Dorninn the armourer, who promised to pass it on to the guards.  The party decided to head out to the mountains in search of the rumored underground pass while the situation in town cooled down.

Sandbox Campaign Part 4: Backstories and Town Adventures

This is part 4 of my ongoing account of the sandbox campaign I am currently running.  Updates are frequent, if irregular, and at the end of each post I talk about one or more subjects pertaining to the adventure but more broadly applicable to all campaigns.  You can find the previous parts here.

In the previous session, while resting in the tower, Sigurd, Zel, Kat, Daphne, and Rikkit had a discussion of their backstories.  Sigurd, the third child of a Valsc raider who settled down with a Kaldish weaver, had run away from home seeking adventure and the chivalrous life of a knight.  Kat and Daphne, frightened of the prospect of inheriting their father's terrible and unsanitary sandwich shop, fled north to make something of themselves.  Zel, one of many illegitimate offspring of a witch and her various expendable lovers, fled her home along with her eldest brother.  They travelled in opposite directions to minimize the chance of them both getting caught.  Rikkit was cast out of his goblin clan by the terrible chieftain, Blackhide.  He fled to an isolated manor house, where the lord took pity on him and taught him to control his budding sorcerous powers.  Soon, however, Blackhide and his tribe descended on the manor and slaughtered all inside, save Rikkit who escaped with his favourite cat Bartleby.  Ever since, Rikkit has hated goblin kind and vowed to one day kill Blackhide.

Sandbox Campaign Part 3: Crowns and Corpses

This is part 3 of my ongoing sandbox campaign, now meeting twice weekly when possible.  Click here for parts one and two, or to refresh yourself on the cast of characters.  

The session began as Crow Dance dragged unconscious Monty out of the castle to safety in the woods while the rest of the party stole a rest in the tower of the castle they had just cleared.  Unfortunately, their rest gave the enemy time to prepare, and they were awoken by a kobold unstealthily unbarring the downstairs door.  When most of the party had gone downstairs to deal with the furry little infiltrators, the two upstairs doors were similarly opened, revealing a kobold, a hobgoblin, and a bugbear at each door.  The fight was tough going for the party, but they pulled through and the devious enemies were defeated.  Sir Hardrig, the rescued prisoner from last session, spent the last of his lay on hands paladin ability to heal himself (just enough) and his friends.  He told them how he had grown accustomed to keeping this divine healing in reserve, for when he used it on himself in the cage his tormentors would just beat him some more.  Now it was time to move on to the main keep.