Borderlands Campaign Session Five

 In this session, campaign regulars Ashton Scholastic, the human magic-user and Delly Isshues the halfling were joined by Edric Valmont the human paladin. They returned to the Caves of Chaos to find that two Orogs had taken up residence in the cave where the Ogre had once inhabited. They dispatched the two without being harmed, mostly thanks to Edric's armor.

 They then visited the kobold caves to see if the kobolds would join them again on adventures. However, they quickly learned that something was wrong, as a smell of decay came from the cave. They discovered that the kobolds had been slain, or at least the males. I had actually played this battle out before hand. Shortly thereafter I had to bring the game to an abrupt end.

Borderlands Campaign Session Four

 In this session, the players were approached by two prospective retainers. They rejected one, at least for now, who was in training to be a cleric, but recruited one, Alvarus, as a bodyguard for the magic-user, Ashton. They also recruited Dania again. Then they headed to the Caves of Chaos once more.

 Once there they decided to take out the Ogre. They sent the halfling, Delly on ahead and then lured the Ogre into a trap. Despite a close call with the Barbarian, Marlow, they successful sprung their trap and after some bow fire, hits from the melee fighters and some burning oil, the players defeated the Ogre.

 However after looting the Ogre's treasure, they noticed that three hobgoblins where lured by the sounds of the battle. They attacked them, and after a quick battle they were victorious- but at the cost of their retainer's life. After this they decided to return to the Keep with Alvarus's body. 

Borderlands Campaign Session Three

 So this time Delly Issuhes the halfling, Ashton Scholastic the magic-user and Marlow Dietrich the barbarian gathered to travel back to the Caves of Chaos. They sought out Dania the fighter to join them again and began the journey to the Caves.

Upon arriving, they sought out their newfound kobold allies, who brought with them their pet giant rats. They all headed to the cave of the goblins, where they quickly took out a guard room. They found that the room had a stairway leading up.

They took the stairway up, leading to the cave of the hobgoblins. They quickly attacked, knowing from their kobold "friends" that they are allies of the goblins. After quickly striking them down they explored the cave for a bit, before turning back, with me hinting that bad things might happen if they were stuck in the dungeon between sessions. After rewarding their kobold allies they headed back to the Keep.

Borderlands Campaign Session Two

 We had two players for this one, Delly Ishues the Halfling and Ashton Scholastic the magic-user. They sought out the services of an NPC, the 3rd level fighter Dania, a seasoned warrior from northeast of the Worldscar. After provisioning themselves and paying a visit to the guild house they set out for the Caves.

 Arriving at the caves they entered the kobold cave. They quickly laid into the kobolds, dispatching most of them through clever tactics using lamp oil. Arriving at the main chamber of the cave they discovered the warriors that survived guarding the women and young. They parleyed with the kobolds and got them to surrender. Then they met with the kobold chieftain and with a Charm Person spell managed to get them on their side for further expeditions into other caves. Then they returned to the Keep.

Borderlands Campaign Session One

 So last Sunday I ran the first session of my Borderlands campaign, playing B2. We had six players with their characters being Aeron the ranger, Ashton Scholastic the magic-user, Delly Issuhes the halfling, Flynn Carver the thief, Kalgor the cleric and Marlow Dietrich the barbarian. These characters arrived at the Keep and after being challenged to declare their names and reasons for wanting to enter the keep.

 After going to the Inn and talking to some merchants, they decided to reconnoiter the caves. They entered the goblin cave and soon encountered some goblins. Instead of attacking the goblins merely inquired as to what they were doing their. The PCs actually managed to get some information. Unfortunately I then had computer trouble and by I got back they had decided to leave the caves and come back later. Hopefully we will get to do more next time. We are still looking for players if anybody is interested!

The Halls of Knowledge and the Azure Havens

 So I have been giving more thought to my Post-Apocalyptic Alfheim campaign and my megadungeon now has a name- The Halls of Knowledge. Or possibly Halls of Divine Knowledge. Also, I have decided that I will be saving the creation of this adventure for later and for now will be focusing on a simpler scenario to start the game. Here is some of the background I have been developing

The campaign will start off in the Azure Havens, a series of elven nations along the eastern coast of the continent. Specifically, one of their cities has been greatly expanded to accommodate traffic from the continent to the east, one more similar to medieval Europe. This is where many of the elves emigrated long, long ago due to a second, less destructive schism with those who wanted to follow the leader of the Great War as their Overking and those that did not. Essentially those that followed the Overking were high elves and those that did not are wood elves, though I am uncertain as to whether I will have a mechanical difference between the two.

 This city is a mix between the old elven city and newer, largely human architecture. There are large sections devoted to the armies coming from the lands of men. Much of this is devoted to kinds of entertainment that the elves would eschew... Not far from this city is a citadel that has been destroyed by the goblinoid horde and has yet to be reclaimed... partly because the ruins have been occupied by fell creatures, including some remaining goblinoids. To clear out this citadel will be an early goal of the campaign. I am considering even having a portal to the Halls of Knowledge in the ruins of the citadel.

 I have given some thought to the other races. The dwarves are also generally split into hill and mountain dwarves...  with "hill dwarves" being those on the outskirts of the dwarven hegemonies (there are seven, one for each of the dwarven forefathers, though some are more centralized/intact than others) and the "mountain dwarves" are those in the metropolitan heartland, including the subterranean homelands, each centralized aground a great "manor," that may or may not be still inhabited by its original denizens. Except on the elven continent are the duergar, who dug too greedily and too deep and disturbed eldritch beings which altered them. Part of the drow have been corrupted by these same eldritch creatures after being driven into the depths of the world by their goblinoid former servants (though some remain under the drow's aegis).

Castle Acheron

I am currently planning a campaign, or, rather two campaigns. The one I'm discussing in this post, however is intended to be an experiment in old school styles of play. It will be a sandbox campaign in structure, focusing on a megadungeon, "Castle Acheron", but also including the area surrounding that edifice.

Castle Acheron was the domain of a powerful necromancer, known by the title of "Gravelord". The Gravelord seized control of the castle due to it's presence at a convergence of laylines. He then proceeded to command his dwarven servants to create a series of catacombs, which served as not only a place for his dark laboratories where he experimented with bridging the gap between this life and the next, storage places for his powerful magical treasures, and housing for his minions and undead creations, but also he sought to use the construction to in fact weaken the barriers between the material world and the dread realm of Hades. This is why I chose the name "Castle Acheron" after the river that serves as the border of the land of the dead. In fact, it's likely that the players will visit the realm of the dead, by finding a portal to Hades in one of the lower layers.

As for the upper layers I'm pretty sure that dwarves will be a common threat. My dwarves are quite different then other dwarves, which I will elaborate on in my next post. Common dungeon threats such as goblins and kobold may not appear, which again I will address in my next post. Undead of various types are likely to be spread throughout the entire dungeon, in varying degrees depending on the layer of course. There will certainly be various kinds of vermin. Traps and tricks of various kinds will be a major feature. The lair of a powerful necromancer is a dangerous place. As you go lower, the influence of the land of the dead will get stronger. The idea that the region beneath the surface of the world is closer to the realm of the dead is true everywhere, in fact my world's equivalent to the Underdark is called the Underworld like the land of the dead it's self because of this fact. Castle Acheron is built to take advantage of this.

Old School, New School? I don't know!

I feel somewhat torn. You see I have been reading a lot about the Old School Renaissance lately. This is, if you do not know, an attempt to explore the roots of the Dungeons and Dragons roleplaying game and thus roleplaying in general. I find it quite fascinating, and a lot of what people say resonates with me, but I also am not certain about other things.

For instance, though I agree that the prevalence of strictly plotted adventures is detrimental to the hobby, I don't think that a game about saving the world is necessarily a bad thing. Also, though the pulp origins of Dungeons and Dragons mostly include morally ambiguous protagonists who sometimes do questionable things, I generally prefer that characters in my campaigns do nothing truly evil. Also, though I agree that characters should start off weak and work they're way up, I do think that truely mythic levels of prowess should be attainable. After all did not a 1st Edition Adventure involve taking on Lloth, a Goddess? In my opinion the characters who can achieve such a goal should be closer to Heracles, Cu Cuchulain and Son Goku then Conan, Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser.

I plan to explore these subjects further and I will of course record my thoughts in this blog.