Sandbox Campaign Part 16: Assault on Castle Drenn, Part 2

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Sandbox Campaign Part 15: Assault on Castle Drenn, Part 1

This is part 15 of my ongoing Sandbox Campaign, also known as the Graverobbers Campaign, after the appellation of the group whose adventures it chronicles.  

When last we left the Graverobbers, they had attacked a prisoner of war camp run by the sadistic succubus Galvessa.  Monty, the armor-plated dwarf, had fallen under her sway and been granted an infernal boon to his strength, but soon broke free of the evil demoness' influence and turned his axe on her.  She teleported away, abandoning the POW camp to the adventurers.  Among the rescued prisoners were Sir Hugo of Granz, a Kaldish knight, and Cole Diaz, an old acquaintance of the twins Kat and Daphne.  He had been captured while trying to search them out in hopes of impressing Daphne with his wizarding abilities.  Armed with a crude map of the general area of the bandit queen Thalestra's domains, the party decided the best course of action would be to turn south and assault Castle Drenn.  Long ago, you'll remember, the Kaldish Emperor had charged the Graverobbers with retaking that very castle, promising the knight Sigrid and her paladin husband Hardrig lordship over the fortress and any surrounding lands they could conquer.

After resting and reaching level 10, the party heads south along the road to Castle Drenn.  They reach the bridge that they bypassed last time and decide to cross it, partly because they feel sorry for the lonely bridgekeeper, partly because they now have a small force of 16 freed prisoners of war trailing behind them.  The bridgekeeper comes out, eyes them appraisingly, and asks ten gold per head to cross.  Kat tells him, "Look, we're heading to Castle Drenn to kick Thalestra's butt.  My friend Sigrid back there is gonna be, like, queen of this whole place!  If you let us cross, we'll make you a baron."  Sigrid instantly objects, saying she won't make a promise she can't honor.  Kat backpedals, using her foreign accent to feign misspeaking.  Hoping to hurry things up, Rikkette walks up to the bridgekeeper, reaches into her coinpurse, and pulls out "SURPRISE COLOR SPRAY!"  The blinded bridgekeeper reels back, fleeing toward his hut and calling for 'Trillby'.  From beneath the bridge, a hulking river troll pulls itself up onto the wood, growling menacingly.  "You pay now or Trillby smash!" it growls in Kaldish.  Rikkette runs off, clutching a gem, then slumps over, apparently passed out with fright.  What she did not tell the party was that she took magic jar when she leveled up.  Unaware of Rikkette's plan, the party lays into Trillby.  Monty and Sigrid fire flaming arrows.  Zel enlarges Cameo, and the now elephant-sized bird swoops in and claws at the troll.  Kat casts dancing lights in the troll's face, and Cole hits it with as scorching ray.  When Rikkette's mind finally finds its way into the troll's body, the monster is unconscious.  Cameo drags the troll off the wooden bridge so they can properly blast it with fire.  One flame strike later, Rikkette wakes up in her gnomish body, having experienced death for a second time.  The party passes on, leaving the bridgekeeper to mourn his monster.

The saddest scene in Return of the Jedi, © 20th Century Fox and Lucasfilm Ltd.

Sandbox Campaign Part 14: Mappa Mundi

This is part 14 of my ongoing Sandbox Campaign, a campaign which, for a long time now, has totally not been an actual sandbox campaign.  But that will be changing soon, as our brave heroes begin this next phase of their adventure.

When last we left The Graverobbers, they had succeeded in overrunning a forward outpost of Bandit Queen Thalestra's barbarian hordes in Highfrost Pass, preventing the guards from lighting their signal fire.  Kat's cohort, Ryder, was slain during the fight, and Kat and Daphne nearly were as well.  After interrogating some captured archers, the party learned that there was a prisoner of war camp up by Barrow Lake, near where they had defeated Uli Blackeye over a year ago.  They decided to free the captured Kaldish soldiers and use them to take Castle Drenn.

Montilore "Monty" Bearbriar, CN Dwarf Fighter 10

After her near brush with death, Kat returns to Castle Morbis to send a letter to Björn, Sigrid's youngest brother (not to be confused with Big Bjorn Gundersson from my other campaign).  The contents of the letter remain unknown, but probably have something to do with how they really 'hit it off'.  Ryder, after actually dying and being reincarnated as a gnome, realizes that none of his magical armor and weapons fit him anymore, and begins to reconsider his life of adventure.   He does not return to the party when Kat does.

The Graverobbers descend Highfrost pass into the snow-dappled foothills on the other side of the mountains, following the ill-kept road right down to a palisaded encampment.  Zel wild shapes into a hawk and flies over the camp, spying enough tents to house 15-20 men and a tower topped with an unlit beacon fire.  The inhabitants of the camp turn out to be an unlikely combination: trolls and dwarves.  The camp is divided down the middle, one half housing the neat and orderly dwarven mercenaries' tents, the other playing host to a scattered assortment of ramshackle dwellings thrown up by the mercenary ice trolls.  Zel reports back to the party and they form a plan.

Sandbox Campaign Part 13: Blood on the Snow

This is part 13 of my ongoing Sandbox Campaign, a campaign which, for a long time now, has totally not been an actual sandbox campaign.  

Before I get started on the adventures of the Graverobbers, I have some news!  My good friend Kent Hamilton, official illustrator of d20 Despot, has launched a companion site called d20 Doodler, where he will be posting daily warm-up sketches of characters, monsters, and scenes from my campaigns or just D&D/Pathfinder-inspired stuff.  I'll be using a lot of these as preview images for my posts, but there'll be plenty more over at d20doodler.com!  Let's check out today's preview image - a sketch of Rikkit, the Graverobbers' lovable goblin sorcerer:

The Death of Rikkit Nightingale - Kent Hamilton

Oh.  That doesn't bode well.

Sandbox Campaign Part 12: "We're Getting the Band Back Together!"

It's been a while since we last saw The Graverobbers, the famous adventuring party in my sandbox campaign.  You may want to refresh your memory.  As it has been over a year since the last session of this campaign, I thought it fitting to rejoin the party members a little over a year after Sigrid and Hardrig's wedding.  

Kat awoke, as she so often did, to the noonday sun right in her face.  She grumbled death threats to whatever hotel architect put a skylight right above the penthouse bed.  She looked over and saw a man sleeping in the bed next to her.  She didn't remember his name.  All in all, a normal start to the day for one of the most popular bards in Karcerinburg, capital city of the Kaldish Empire.  As she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, she spotted a note that had been slipped under her door.  She ran over to read it.

It said, in a practiced, lunate hand:

The note:

Kat - 

You are in grave danger! Gather the others, meet me tonight at the center of the hedge maze, before the Moon Maiden reaches her height.

-C

Kat was elated.  The note must be from Chernyx, the undead rogue/cleric of the Moon Maiden who had befriended the party, and whom Kat had killed and raised from the dead.  She ran to the bed to kick the mystery man out of her room, but as she did so she saw a shadow fall across the bed.  Seconds later, the leaded glass panes shatterd and a black-garbed figure leapt nimbly down onto the bed, brandishing two shortswords menacingly.

Sandbox Campaign Part 11: Dénouement

This is part 11 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.

With the dreaded Blackhide dead, the party began to loot the goblin den, during which time Zel and her roc Cameo rejoined the party.  They took the flaming morningstar and rat-hide cloak off of Blackhide's corpse, and combed the rest of the dungeon for treasure.  Behind one door, they discovered a mining operation powered by slaves, whom they freed.  One of the slaves, a dwarf, turned out to by Monty's long-lost son Jonnal, whom the giant orc Grathwar had carried in a cage at his hip for years before growing bored and selling him to Blackhide.  The party also looted a passel of potions from the goblin alchemists' "laboratory," picking them out of the more unsavory and mysterious devices and concoctions therein.  The other rooms surrounding the large open chasm that was the goblins' stronghold were less rewarding - only a few hundred silver and a few thousand copper came from ransacking the various caves and cavelets where the goblins slept en masse amongst filthy hides and furs, and nothing of value was turned up in the various wolf dens or the accurately named "meat room."

Finally, however, they came to Blackhide's private chamber and found it brimming with gold and jewels and treasure.  Rikkit was particularly interested in a stout, gilded scepter ("Just the perfect size for a goblin pimp cane") that turned out to be a Rod of Wonder.

As the party left the goblin den, they encountered a hunched old man in a rough brown cloak.  "You have slain Blackhide?" he asked of them.

"Yes, we have.  He will trouble this region no more."

The old man threw back his cloak, revealing shimmering garments of red and blue, a cunning face, and a long beard of black and white.  "You have killed one of my pawns.  For that you shall pay, in time.  But for now, know this: I have my eyes on you, and where my eyes go, my servants follow."  With that, he vanished in a cloud of green smoke.

Sandbox Campaign Part 10: Nemeses

This is part 10 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.

Monty, Sigrid, Kat, and Daphne set out into the wilderness in search of Grothmagog, or Greypeak, supposed location of the dreaded Blackhide's camp.  After a day or two of trekking, with early autumn snow falling around them and catching in the trees, they saw in the distance a mountain peak comprised mostly of sheer stone faces which rejected heavy snow accumulation.  A grey peak amongst white ones.  They headed toward it.  The trees began to shake rhythmically with tremendous footsteps, more and more snow sloughing off the branches as the source drew nearer.  Soon, they heard two voices speaking in slurred, booming words:

"Oy, Filk, 'ow much longer we gotta haul deeze little guys around for?"

"Buck up, Wallitz, it's ee-sen-shull for da war effort!" the second voice replied.

"But our back 'urtz!"

"Well dat's da price we'ze gotta pay in order not to get jumped by packs of greasy, disgusting 'umans, innit?"

Then there was a loud sniffing sound, and a third voice cut in, "Quiet, you two! I smell sommat wot I 'aven't smelt in years..."

"Wuzzat, boss?"

"Turnips!"

At that, Monty charged toward the sound of the voices and footsteps.  As he broke out into the clearing made by a dry streambed, he saw a hunch-backed, two-headed giant brandishing twin flails and with a crude wooden howdah strapped to its back from which three goblin scouts peered over the trees, surveying the land.  Two ogres marched at its side, and leading them all was a brutish, orcish-looking giant in splint mail armour.  

"Grathwar!" shouted Monty.  "You'll pay for what you did to my family!"

Sandbox Campaign Part 9: Cheating Death

This is part 9 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.

Armed with new intelligence on the bandit problem here in the north, including the whereabouts of the goblin chieftain Blackhide, the party decided to undertake a long journey southwards to resurrect the fallen Sir Hardrig.  But first they had to stop off in Castle Morbis again.  They met with Guard Captain Husker to inform him of their success and collect the bounty on Uli Blackeye's head and a sizable collection of bandit scalps, then retired to the Rusty Glaive for some well-deserved rest and relaxation.  In the common room of the establishment, they met a familiar sight; a mysterious cloaked stranger sat in a shadowy corner of the bar.  It was Spider, the Death-worshiping, undead-hunting ranger.

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."

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

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.

Sandbox Campaign, Week 2: Assault on a Fortified Position

This is part two of my ongoing sandbox campaign, now meeting twice weekly when possible.  Click here to read the first part or refresh yourself on the cast of characters.  

The session began with the party on the run, headed north to Castle Morbis in search of a healer to remove the ghoul fever from Monty the dwarf fighter and Cameo the roc (general consensus is that a roc ghoul would be terrifying).  They traveled all night, then realized what a bad idea it was to exhaust yourself in a dangerous forest and slept in the daytime.  Upon returning to the road, they discovered a riderless warhorse, saddled and in plate barding armor, with blood on his flanks.  They calmed the horse and determined that the horse was uninjured and thus the blood must be someone else's.  In the saddle bag, they discovered a map showing a route through the forest to a big X.

Sandbox Campaign, Week 1: Zombie Bombs and Shadowy Figures

This summer, I've started running a sandbox campaign.  This is my first time doing such, as I tend to have a central plot that drives the story (Choo-chooo! All aboard the Plot Railroad!).  I am excited about the prospect of letting the characters guide the story completely, taking the main plot out of my hands but still  letting me infuse the game with mini-stories and adventure hooks.  I keep telling the players, "You can do anything you want.  Well, you can try to do anything you want."  That is quite freeing for the GM as well, because there is no plot-critical event that must happen, no NPC that must be encountered, no monster that must be slain, no player character that must survive.  Not that I ever really force that stuff in anyways, just that there is a greater air of freedom in this campaign.

I'm running the campaign about twice a week, and I figured I would post short updates here for your reading pleasure.