Campaign Report - The Price of Freedom - 05

The party had just arrived to the Caravan Gate of Tyr and the ex-templar in the group, Abbadon (Ranger) spotted among the Templars scouring the people entering an old rival, Cubda. She was a merciless templar who, many believe, have murdered, bribed, robbed and done everything she could to climb higher on the hierarchy of Tyrin templars. The ranger, then, decided he was going to hide among the people they were rescuing in a attempt to hide from Cubda.

When their time to be inspected came, Cubda thought they were trying to get in Tyr with slaves, since there were a lot of people cramped inside a small wagon and was about to threaten the group and ask for a bribe when she saw Abbadon inside the wagon and realised that he would be a slave then. She was happy with that and just asked the group to treat him badly. They were all relieved.

Campaign Report - The Price of Freedom - 04

The dark sun of Athas was set, and the chill of the night winds were sharp as blades. The group of adventurers had to chose between trying to cross the stony barrens with twenty or so ex-slaves that were wounded and terrified or to find shelter for the night and help the fragile to recover. They decided it was best to wait the morning to venture out of the ruined temple.

Errich, the halfling monk, made an improvised tomb for his fallen companion, Thalai, the half-giant barbarian. And went inside the temple with the rest of the group. The ritual that Szur performed had damage the structure of the temple and some of its parts were in risk of collapsing, but the ranger, ex-templar, managed to identify a safe passage and room for them to spend the night.

At this point the group decided to split and do different things. Eben, the battlemind, Arbitria, the shaman bard, and Abbadon, the ranger, decided to look further into the temple to make sure nothing would attack them during the night, while Errich, the monk and an ex-slave named Rain, a shifter ranger, stayed back to take care of the ex-slaves, treating their wounds and raising their spirit.

Campaign Report - The Price of Freedom - 03

After chasing two slavers into the ancient temple, the adventures found out that it still had some working traps. They managed to avoid them but the shaman's spirit companion wasn't so lucky.

The group was still hearing sounds of people talking loudly ahead and decided to go forward instead of checking the door on the right side of the room they were in. The corridor ahead was in total darkness so the battlemind and the shaman picked up a torch each and started moving.

They soon reached a small room with four pillars in the center and saw what seemed to be a corpse on the far side of the room behind a pillar. The battlemind decided to look a little closer and saw that the man behind the pillar was still alive, but paralyzed, his eyes still moving and looking at them with terror. At this moment giant scorpions plunged at the group. The battle was fierce, the scorpions had a venom that could immobilize and deal ongoing poison damage, and once bloodied they would deal acid damage to every creature adjacent to them. It was a fun combat. One of the largest scorpions ran away into a passage to the right when his companion and all of his hatchlings were killed.

Campaign Report - The Price of Freedom - 02

After recovering from the battle against the bloodsucking plant and the Id Fiend, the party studied the map they found with Volkur and found out they could follow two different paths to get to the slaver's hideout. The first was longer, but the path was easier to follow, it went through flat sand wastes and dried river courses. The second was shorter, but it would pass through canyons and stony barrens, making it hard on the party's vigor.

After considering each one, they decided to go through the shorter but harder path. They felt they had no time to waste and they needed to be quick. Guided by Arbitria (Druid) and Abbadon (Ranger) they followed the path until the spotted two individuals on the path ahead, a half-giant carrying a huge obsidian great sword, and a halfling carrying a spear with a very roguish appearance. The group tryied to hide and observe the couple, but Eben (Battlemind) did not manage to stay silently.

This lead to a fierce discussing about who was who, and what do each group wanted, and where they were heading. In the end, both realized they were after the same guys (The slaver Szur) and they decided to join forces to go after them.

Campaign Report - The Price of Freedom - 01

Last sunday, july 3rd, we gathered for our first game session. We've met before to discuss what kind of campaign we wanted, but this would be our first time actually playing. The group is composed of 7 people, me as the DM and 6 friends. For the first time I can recall my group has an equal number of female and male members.

This first session only 4 out of the 6 players showed up (one was traveling and the other was sick). The characters created were the following: Eben, a male battlemind mul, that after helping the rebellion to free Tyr of Kalak decided to set higher objectives and spread the good wherever he would go; Arbitria, a female half-elf Sentinel Druid, that, despite her relationship with the spirits of Athas, is more interested in taking advantage over those spirits to achieve her goals;  Abbadon, a male human Scout Ranger, a former Templar of Tyr that abandoned his post during the rebellion and now lives as a head-hunter and mercenary; and Althea, a female eladrin seeker, who lost her home to the defilers of Athas and now roam the world in search for vengeance and a meaning to survive. The party formed because of the circumstances in Tyr and the need to get resources to survive in the chaotic states of affair in the city.

Campaign Report - The Game We Want to Play

This is going to be a new series of articles on this blog. I will write about the campaign I will be DMing to my friends now that I am back to my home town. It has been 3 years since I last played D&D or any other tabletop RPG so I am kinda rusty.

On the other hand, I never read so much about DMing and creating a nice campaign and interesting adventures, so I do not feel so unprepared. One of the things I read about (in the Dungeon Master Guide 2) was Colaborative Campaign creation. So I decided to give it a first try with my group.