Category Archives: D&D

Planning the Campaign

D&D, netrunner, RPG


Welcome to the next post in my series looking into planning campaigns and adventures for a role playing game. In particular I’m getting ready to start planning adventures for a party of adventurers in the Android universe for the FFG Genesys system.

I briefly mentioned in a previous post that FFG don’t publish scenarios/campaigns for their Genesys system outside of the initial taster scenario they put up on their website for each source book.

So if I want to run a one shot or campaign using the Genesys system then it’s all on me to come up with the everything (if I’m not using one of the available source books). This is a big thing for a noob GM like me, who has still to run a session.

Luckily as I’ve already established a lot of the work for me will have been done by FFG when they publish the source book for the Android universe. What is left for me to do is to come up with the campaign.

I keep bandying the term campaign around but what exactly is a campaign? The D&D Dungeon Masters Guide defines a campaign as:

“…When strung together, these adventures form an ongoing campaign. A D&D campaign can include dozens of adventures and last for months or years.”

It also gives the following advice in the opening of the campaign chapter.

“The world you create is the stage for the adventures you set in it. You don’t have to give more thought to it than that. You can run adventures in an episodic format,with the characters as the only common element, and also weave themes throughout those adventures to build a greater saga of the characters’ achievements in the world.

Planning an entire campaign might seem like a daunting task, but you don’t have to plot out every detail right from the start. You can start with the basics, running a few adventures, and think about larger plotlines you want to explore as the campaign progresses. You’re free to add as much or as little detail a you wish.

The start of a campaign resembles the start of an adventure. You want to jump quickly into the action,how the players that adventure awaits, and grab their attention right away. Give the players enough information to make them want to come back week after week to see how the story plays out.”

A lot of the campaign chapter is about planning the details of the world that the adventurers will be spending their time in. Which is kind of not relevant to this discussion and my current planning. Although once the Android source book is out the majority if not all of that has been dealt with.

With the definition that I have of a campaign what tools can I use from the comic book world to help with the planning of my campaign? I think that I can. If we treat adventures as an issue of a comic book. A campaign can be seen as similar to an ongoing series, miniseries, or maxiseries depending on how long you want the campaign to run for.

The miniseries and maxiseries have a definite end, whilst naturally the ongoing series just keeps going.

With a campaign length in mind I need to look at story arcs.

O’Neil defines a story arc as “...a story that takes several issues to tell.” Which in our context could be rewritten as “a story that takes several adventures to tell.”

How do story arcs map to the length of a campaign?

If the campaign is one of the finite lengths (miniseries and maxiseries) then the story arc would cover the length of the campaign. For instance a miniseries length campaign being the shorter of the two would most likely have just the single story arc. Whilst the longer maxiseries may have multiple story arcs. Naturally the ongoing campaign will have multiple story arcs, potentially interspersed with single one off adventures. Which may or may not be set ups for future story arcs!

When working with story arcs O’Neil gives the following bits of advice:

  • ‘…reintroduce characters and locales if they haven’t appeared for a few issues when doing an arc…” Pretty good advice. Players may have forgotten, not made notes, whatever the reason, if a character/locale hasn’t appeared for a session/adventure or two, a brief description or role play to remind them won’t hurt.
  • A rule from his miniseries section that is relevant to what I’m doing here (planning a story arc for a RPG) is “There must be a major change, development, or reverse in every issue. This is just another version of the ‘keep-the-story-moving’ dictum. Something important must happen in every issue of the series. Each must have at least one turning point or surprise. And in each, the hero must either accomplish or learn something.”
  • “Each issue should end on a reason for the reader to continue buying the series” or in our terms, give your players a reason to keep coming back. O’Neil suggests good old fashioned cliff-hangers (those 1930’s serials were experts at this) or something a bit more subtle.
  • “…incorporate a brief summary of what’s gone before.” A good GM does this at the start of each session naturally. Edmund does it on the Facebook event and at the start of the each session.

The first and least sophisticated is as O’Neil calls it the One-Damn-Thing-After-Another. It’s based on one of those 1930’s serials like Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers or King of the Rocketmen to name a handful.

O’Neil actually looks at this in the story structure section, but I think it applies also to the more macro campaign level also. This is just a series of encounters with an antagonist (who will somehow evade capture, or get free for the next encounter). At the macro level we are currently looking at this structure is best suited to the shorter campaign length. As an ongoing campaign it would soon get boring and repetitive.

Then O’Neil introduces The Levitz Paradigm. Which looks great for an ongoing campaign. In the words of the Paul Levitz himself this is…

“a plotting tool I used in the Legion’s heyday to keep track of the many fluid plots and subplots.  The physical ‘device’ is pretty simple, and the theory is one that was rapidly evolving in super hero comics in the ‘80s but which has deep roots in soap opera.”

I’m just going to save my fingers and quote from the man himself off his post. It’s not the most detailed explanation but google and O’Neil can cover the details in more depth for us.

“If the ‘paradigm’ was anything beyond a charting tool, it was a few (sometimes ignored by me, sadly) guidelines:”

“start your secondary plots low and raise them slowly (maybe as a C or D plot before it gets to be a B, much less an A).
every time you visit a plotline, it needs to progress in that visit (if it’s boy meets sheep, one of them should end the scene in an emotional moment, for example).
vary the number of beats before you escalate to an A.

And all of this is, of course, secondary to basic plotting rules like making stakes important to the characters, and flowing plots from the characters themselves.  Or one that I’ve grown fonder of in my recent years of teaching, that what reveals/defines character is choices, particularly choices with costs.”

Within the context of planning a campaign subplots are our means to “set up or introduce the main plot.” So during an adventure an npc may give a bit of information that is relevant later to a future adventure.

I do like the idea of nicking the subplot use from comic books of using them also to expand the world the characters are in, and make the npc’s more three dimensional by showing snippets of their lives. Which could at a later point turn into a story arc that the players get involved in.

O’Neil asks us to remember “Subplots are plots. They must advance toward a resolution, or at least the illusion of a resolution.”

So now I have some tools for planning a campaign from the comic book world. But could I also learn from the video game industry and how they create games like Skyrim or Zelda Breathe of the Wild? Is there cross over with what I have talked about here? This is an area I need to research. In the meantime the next part in this series will be at the adventure level, and planning an adventure.

The Paranoia Version Of How To Plan An Adventure

D&D, RPG

In yesterday’s post before going into the dramatic ramblings about the latest D&D session I promised to use the first half looking at how to plan campaigns and adventures. Or more to the point the process I will use that will involve a few sources out side of RPGs that I think are relevant and I can borrow from.

One of the things that got me thinking that these were valid sources of information was the Creating Adventures Quickly chapter in the 2017 update of the classic Paranoia RPG Gamesmasters Handbook. On an aside I think this is definitely a chapter that James Wallis (one of the authors of the update) wrote, after all this is a subject he knows an awful lot about.

It started off making the following promise that they would present a

“simple system for throwing a small pile of ideas into a coherent narrative that will entertain a bunch of people for three hours as long as there’s pizza.”

Quite a promise. Ok we haven’t got round to pizza at our sessions. But there are lots of sweets, and sometimes due to the start time one or two are finishing off a KFC or McDonalds. But back on track, simple is always good.

“All stories break down into a number of elements. Books have chapters, plays have acts and scenes. That’s all we’re doing here: taking the underlying framework of an adventure – the metastructure – and filling in the blanks. But to fill in blanks you need a blank framework to fill in.”

Ok they hooked me in. Started to relate the planning to something I might be familiar with. For this system all we need is a blank piece of paper, a pen or pencil and our imagination.

The start of this simple system they present is coming up with a theme for the adventure.

“What’s the big idea? What’s the adventure about? Write one line here. Ignore what your English Literature teacher told you: theme doesn’t have to be about big feels and personal growth, it’s just the layer of fertilizer that lets everything else in the story grow.”

This next little bit seems almost brainstorming like.

“Write your theme at the top of the paper. Underneath it, write down the first three things that occur to you as a result.”

Now they move onto the meat of the simple framework.

“You’ve probably heard of the Three Act Structure that is supposed to underlie all movies. We’re going to nick it.”

Oh ok I’ve heard of that structure, and one or two more (which when we start to look at story structure in a later post we will cover). It was this sentence that got me convinced about using external sources to help me with the planning.

“The three acts are: 1. Setup; 2. Confrontation; 3. Resolution. Each act has a job: Act 1 establishes the status quo, gives the central characters a problem or danger … The core of Act 2 is rising tension. Act 3 is discovering what’s really going on, thinking you’ve fixed it, realising you’ve screwed things up completely, really fixing it…

In proper screenwriting something important should happen at the moment Act 1 transitions into Act 2 and the moment 2 becomes 3. These are the Act Breaks. However, we are not writing a screenplay.”

That is a good basic and brief breakdown of the three act structure. There are books aimed at writers that look at this in much more depth. And for shadowing once more a future post, so will we.

So in this simple system they have us do the following.

“Divide your paper into three columns. Number them. At the top of each one write three things that happen in that act, either a key moment (‘find the grubby slippers’), a set-piece (‘big fight with the warbot’), or important information to be discovered (‘learn about Gehenna Incident’).

For an experienced GM that’s enough and the rest can be laid at the door of Make Some Shit Up. The rest of us may need a bit more hand-holding, a bit more detail in the metastucture.”

After that they apply the typical structure of a Paranoia adventure to the three acts. Which is for my purposes of little interest (until I finally decide to run a Paranoia one shot of my own design).

However this seems like a great simple brainstorming system. Applying a framework such as the three acts helps organise those thoughts. But it also could help generate ideas by providing a prompt or focus.

Naturally after this brainstorming/planning there will be more prep involved for us inexperienced GMs. But I’ll save that for a future post, I’m sure we will cover it at a natural point in this series of posts.

Dram the destroyer of goblins

D&D, RPG


In this first part of the post and it will be a running theme for the next few posts, I want to look at planning campaigns and adventures.

I’m not a GM, I don’t have tonnes of experience. But once the Android source book drops for Genesys I want to run a campaign in that universe.

Which as you have seen in some recent posts I’m getting together source material and inspiration to use in creating my own campaign and adventures in that world.

To help me in this mammoth task, I’m calling on not just information from within the field of RPG’s but also from comic book writing. Which in-turn makes use of the cinematic/tv world.

To me there are a few similarities between writing a comic book and a RPG campaign. Both are episodic, and usually have an over arching story that ties everything together. So the tools for one should be usable in the other. And we will see how that goes and if it holds true as I develop my campaign, and adventures.

Below are a few of the sources I will be calling upon for this series, and my journey in creating my campaign.

So now you know the direction this section of the post will be taking over the next few weeks. Although as I write this, it may spin out into it’s own dedicated posts as well. We will see how the mood takes me.

And now the moment you have all been waiting for, the dramatic retelling of the latest adventures of Dram, halfling wizard.

As the blood of the recently departed hobgoblins was pooling on the ground next to the corpses. A discussion was being held by the group as to what to do next.

Dram needed to recharge and recover from the stress and strains of casting all these big spells. But Grull, Ace and the gnome decided that they would compete in some foolish demonstration of strength by trying to throw the remaining three hobgoblin corpses into the pit.

Out of the three taking part, the smart money would have been placed on Grull winning this. What chance would an elf and gnome have against the hulking brute of muscle that was Grull? But what can only be described as a shock result, Ace won. Grull slipped and fumbled trying to toss his corpse (yes that could be a halfling euphemism). The gnome was more of a drag the corpse into the hole. Ace picked his limp hobgoblin corpse up, and threw it through the air and into the hole as if he was throwing a bag of spuds.

With the hole now full with hobgoblin corpses, the three competitors decided they’d set the pile of bodies on fire. With the aid of Nick and a fire bolt spell they finally got the burning pile of hobgoblin flesh they wanted.

Dram wasn’t impressed. This was wasting time and attracting attention. They really needed to be moving on and finding a safe place to rest.

They left the carnage behind them and faded into the forest. Hoping to avoid any more trouble that might be on the path they were following.

Finally the group made camp roughly a mile south of the ambush in a clearing. It was going to be a long, cold night. They couldn’t risk a fire. Wrapped in his fur and blanket, Dram drifted off into an uncomfortable slumber.

Dawn broke, breaking the darkness of an uneventful night.

The things I have to do, thought Dram as he chewed his cold breakfast of jerky.

After breaking camp they approached a castle. A castle that looked like it had seen better times, and was now in much need of some repair.

Ace went off scouting the perimeter of the castle looking for entrances, and see if he could spot anyone inside.

After a few minutes Ace returned and retold what he had saw and heard. There was a man and women arguing inside. Plus he had found a couple of entrances.

In hush tones the group discussed how they were going to get inside.

Eventually after much indecision they started to stealthily edge their way round through the trees to an iron door. Sadly Nick and the gnome were what can only be described as clumsy and loud. A travelling troupe of entertainers could have been more discrete.

While observing the iron door, and once again trying to formulate a plan. Ace crept up to check the door out. He heard voices the other side. That blood thirsty gnome wanted to rush in the front door and fight whatever came out.

Suddenly the iron door opened a fraction. Something peeked out. Closed the door, and the noise of bolts falling into place could be heard.

Through the front doors it was then.

Nick turned into horse and trotted up through the front doors of the castle, whilst the rest of the party from the cover of the trees watched on. Dram used his staff to cast Mage Armour.

Two goblins appeared and tried to capture Nick. I suppose fresh meat is in short supply in these parts. Horse is good as any to a goblin, thought Dram.

During the goblins failed attempts to capture Nick they spot Dram. Luckily Grull and Ace were quick off the mark. Ace kills one with an arrow, while Grull dashes forward and throws his javelin into the other killing it.

Using Grull as cover Dram ran up and stood behind Grull. But as he stood there he caught a shadow moving to his left. Dram cast magic missile at it. The shadow disappeared.

Ace and Grull enter the castle where Nick is. As the rest of the party join them, Ace is listening at a door. He hears voices the other side.

After much mumbling amongst themselves a plan is formulated to lure the occupants of the room out and ambush them.

Grull, Ace and Dram hide in a small side room, while the others went to hide in a similar room the opposite of the hallway. Except the gnome. He decided he was going to hide nearer the door. But he didn’t. The gnome set off a trap that collapsed the roof where he was, blocking that section of the hallway off.

Luckily for the gnome he managed to drag himself out from under the rubble before a goblin rushes out of the room they’d heard the voices in. Grull, Ace and Dram go unnoticed as it rushed passed them. Sadly the second goblin was not as lucky, as Grull kills it instantly with his axe, and then rushes into the vacated room. The luck of the first goblin didn’t last as Ace put an arrow in it’s back, killing it.

Dram followed after Grull into the room. Inside Grull was staring down a goblin. Dram tried unsuccessfully to cast a charm spell on it. But Grull was doing a pretty good job of intimidating it. So Dram worked his way down a passage way behind them and peaked round a corner.

In a hall that was obviously used for meals, were about six more goblins as far as Dram could count in the brief moment he had. Unfortunately one of the goblins noticed him. Dram cast darkness on them. And went back to Grull to warn him.

In a half hearted effort Grull managed to dislodge some of the passage roof, creating only a partial blockage.

Out of the darkness and over the top of the rubble a goblin appears and swings at Dram. But the goblin misses. It was the only chance it would get. In response Dram kills it with a magic missile, and uses a final one to bring the rest of the roof down. This time the passage was fully blocked with a small gap at the top.

Grull runs out of the room to go help the others, leaving Dram in the room with the goblin. This was enough to give the goblin a little bit of courage, and fancy it’s chances with Dram. The goblin throws its scimitar at Dram but misses.

Ace rushes in and grabs the goblin by the throat before Dram can react. Dangling by it’s throat Ace starts to interrogate the goblin.

During this interrogation Grull enters the room, and expresses his disappointment in the goblin to the goblin.

In the meantime Dram formulated a cunning plan. He got Grull to lift him up so,he could see through the gap at the top of the blockage. Dram then cast burning hands. Flames shot from his finger tips into the darkness of the hall. They could hear screams from the room. Dram repeated the spell. It was followed by more screams, then silence.

Grull was impressed by this magic. And started formulating plans about using in future encounters.

After extracting some information from the goblin, apparently there is an owl bear in the castle. Ace killed it.

Dram joined the others in the hall way. Scattered on the floor were the bodies of some hobgoblins. It looked like the others had been having their own fun. Why hadn’t they waited for him? Now his companions were looting the dead. Such scavengers,

With all that casting of spells, Dram was in much need of a rest. Would the others agree?

And we leave our adventurers there until the next instalment.

Baby Kraken Have Surfaced

D&D, RPG


Finally the Table Breaker dice that I backed on Kickstarter arrived. I say finally, but that’s me being impatient once I knew that they were coming.

In reality the dice are two months early. I shouldn’t be getting these dice until sometime in February. However thanks to a bit of good luck and filling in my backer details early, I was, along with 140 other lucky regular backers getting our dice early along with the early bird backers.

I went with the black and red colour combo. It looks cool, but more importantly it’s very readable. I’ve seen some dice that the numbers are not that clear.


The dice are beautiful, and have a nice weight to them. The whole presentation is really good. The metal storage case can have the foam for the dice in the lower half removed and be used as a mini dice tray. My only complaint is that the hinge seems a bit too wobbly.

But how did I ended up with these amazing dice?

It started as a joke! Longtime sufferers will recall that last year The Usual Suspect broke my folding gaming table. Which meant that one or two of my supportive friends in my hour of suffering, used that opportunity to make jokes at my expense. Some would consider this cruel, but it was good natured banter in reality.

The day after, my friend Bouncy posted a screen grab of a kickstarter page for these dice on the club Facebook page. I missed the intended joke totally, and went off looking for the dice, cursing my friend for not including the link. Naturally I liked what I saw and backed the project.

It wasn’t until much later in the day when Jonathan commented on Bouncy’s post that he had only just got the joke, that it dawned on me also. Wow how slow was I? But it was funny, and had also cost me money. Well it would do (the Kickstarter hadn’t finished at that point), I could have backed out of backing the dice. But they looked really cool, and the name was cool also. So I let it ride.

I suppose you would like to hear what Dram got up to in the first session of the New Year. So read on for more in the adventures of …

Dram Tactical Genius


Our party of adventurers awoke the next morning, sore, beaten, but more importantly not stinking of poison.

While the others in the group pottered around, Dram did what was second nature for him. He made and ate breakfast.

Breakfast was followed by a boring discussion about what to do next. Ace and some others in the group wanted to go to Cragmaw Castle. No one seemed on board with Dram’s idea about seeing the dragon again. Which seemed the more exciting option. Where was the fun going to some castle? Apparently there was some guy they had to search for there. Who might have a map to a lost mine. This really didn’t sound as much fun as Dram’s idea of seeing the dragon again.

Out voted, the group broke count and headed off towards Cragmaw Castle.

They were travelling light and fast. Which for a halfling was more like jogging along to keep up with these big folk. How that gnome and his heavy armour was keeping up he didn’t know. In the distance Dram could here the wings of the dragon flapping as it flew above it’s domain. Which for Dram was a constant reminder of the excitement they were missing out on.

Early evening the group pitch camp near the edge of a woods. After the evening meal, before settling down for the night. There was another debate about the path to take. Sarmyar made an incredulous remark during it that Dram had to pick her up on. She had remarked at one point that she wanted excitement, to which Dram responded “but you turned down seeing the dragon again”. That put her in her place he thought.

Sarmyar and Ace took first watch. Dram snuggled up under his blanket and fur skin blanket, and drifted off into a slumber.

The next thing Dram knows he is being woken by a commotion, Ace and Sarmyar had awakened the camp, they were under attack.

Dram could make out shapes and flapping. He cast darkness to hide and give him time to prepare his defences.

Unable to see, Dram felt around for his staff. With battle noises filtering through to him. Dram used the staff to give himself mage’s armour.

Fully protected and now ready for action, Dram made his way out of the darkness. The rest of the group were still fighting these creatures. Magic missiles flew from Dram’s hand as he guided them to hit the creatures attacking Nick, Sarmyar and the gnome. They dropped to the floor dead.

Dram had once again saved the day.

As they waited for the darkness to disappear. Dram looked at the creatures corpses. He recognised the small, leather winged blood sucking stirge.

The final watch after all that excitement was carried out by Dram, Grull and Nick. Which was rather boring, and uneventful.

As the sun rose in the sky, slowly warming up everything it touched, Grull and Sarmyar disappeared off to do a spot of hunting. Dram naturally made breakfast.

After breakfast had been eaten, and Dram’s thoughts had started to turn towards second breakfast. The hunting couple returned with a boar over Grull’s shoulders. Second breakfast was going to be awesome.

After breakfast Ace had the bright idea of taking a short cut through the woods to Cragmaw Castle.

Light was dappling through the overhead canopy. The walk was rather pleasant. The party hit a path that they decided to follow.

Suddenly Sarmyar disappeared into a hole in the ground. Dram reacted instinctively casting feather fall to save Sarmyar.

As the party gathered round the hole in the ground, hobgoblins appeared out from behind trees and bushes. Arrows flew through the air. One struck Dram.

There was only one response Dram had to this. Misty Step. Dram disappeared and then reappeared the other side of the hole Sarmyar had fallen into. Before anyone reacted or could do anything, for the second time in two days Dram was engulfed in a wall of darkness.

Once again whilst hidden, Dram used his staff to give him mage’s armour. He was ready now for this battle. The noises of which were making their way through the darkness. It sounded exciting.

Dram slowly made his way to the edge of the darkness. Poking his head out he saw the pit directly in front of him, now half full with hobgoblin corpses.

There were two hobgoblins attacking a dire wolf. Nick had transformed again and as usual getting himself into a sticky situation. Dram casts magic missile and directs them at the two hobgoblins, then fades back into the darkness. Well you need to see something first to hit it.

Dram repeats the manoeuvre. This time there is a single hobgoblin left attacking the dire wolf, and a cleaved hobgoblin corpse between the dire wolf and Grull. That lone hobgoblin took the full force of the magic missile. It’s body slumped to the ground, expired.

Gnomes are such carrion-scavengers. Our “paladin” was true to his race, and rushed over to go through the pockets of the hobgoblin that Dram had just killed.

Dram was concerned about Sarmyar. He didn’t think she had bumped her head from her fall, after all he had saved her. Which she could have been grateful about and at least said thank you. Maybe she got hit on the head during the excitement of battle. That’s what is had to be. Why else would she keep going on about a dust cloud, and waiting for it to disappear? There was no dust cloud.

The gnome went over to Grull and showed him a bit of paper that he had found on the hobgoblin corpse.

Feeling brave Ace went looting the remaining bodies. Who then starts handing out pieces of paper to the rest of the group.

Dram looked at the piece of paper handed to him. It was a wanted poster with his likeness crudely drawn on it. “I’m going going to send that back to mother, she’ll like this”, spoke Dram to no-one in particular.


If Dram thought gnomes were carrion-scavengers, Ace was going to make what the paladin had done look like the height of good taste.

Ace started hacking off one of the hobgoblins heads, and then tied it to his belt using the remains of the hobgoblins hair.

With that image firmly in your mind we leave our adventurers for another week.

The only two things in life you can guarantee

D&D, RPG


I thought in this first part of the post I’d talk about playing Dram.

It wouldn’t surprise some of you to know that I’m a fan of the Dragonlance books, in particularly the Chronicles trilogy that tell the story of the War of the Lance. The actual story itself is told through the eyes of a bunch of adventurers led by Tanis Half-Elven. One of his companions is a Kender named Tasslehoff Burrfoot. Tasslehoff or Tass embodies his race, he’s curious, out on a wanderlust, light fingered or borrowing/looking after the object until it’s rightful owner turns up.

Kenders are the halflings of the Dragonlance universe. Which as we know are the D&D name for Hobbits. From when I first read The Hobbit back in the early Eighties, followed by Lord of the Rings, I’ve been a hobbit fan over other races. So it will come as no surprise that when I read the Chronicles trilogy books that Tass was my favourite character. I loved the childlike innocence of the character, the humour and his affection for his close friends like Flint the dwarf and Tanis.

So when it came to Dram how was I going to play him?

A major influence has to be hobbits and kender from the books and movies I’ve read and seen.

The whole second breakfast, and making sure he eats well comes from hobbits. When they make camp Dram is the first with his cook set out, fire started and cooking his meal.

I wanted to capture a bit of Tass in Dram as well. I didn’t want that “looking after it” side of things. After all Dram was a wizard. So I decided on that curiousness, bored easily, gets into trouble but always somehow lands on his feet element of Tass. He knows no fear. Although Tass unusually did know fear, fear for what would happen to his close friends.

So you see that in how I play Dram. He gets bored easily, goes wondering off by himself. Gets into trouble.

Naturally the character of Dram will grow, especially as I introduce new elements to his character. But having this basic template will make it easier to add them, and make sure that they are consistent.

After this weeks session I did have to research what the beliefs of halflings were. And I’ve fed that into the appropriate spot of this posts dramatic retelling of Dram’s adventures. Maybe I’ll go into all that and other halfling stuff in a future post.

Now for your reading delight I bring you the further adventures of the little wizard himself Dram…

“Typical that tree hugging Ace walks off to look at the building him and Grull saw before the fight. Doesn’t he know we have an important decision to make about where to eat? Ok the others seem to think it might be about something else. But come on casting spells makes me hungry.” Muttered Dram to himself as he started to wander off from the rest of the group.

But before Dram could get too far away from the group Ace returned talking them all into following him back to the building he’d explored.

They all arrive at the building. It looks in pretty good nick considering the surrounding derelict buildings. Obviously this has been looked after by some-one.

Inside it was getting a bit crowded with everyone there. But there was a strange old man in the room also. Funny everyone seemed quite happy to talk with him, and stuff without being introduced! Who was this old white haired guy?

During the boring conversation Drams attention started to wander. Suddenly the decor of the room seemed interesting and worth investigating. Then Drams ears pricked up when the stranger started talking about a green dragon being in Thundertree. There was also mention of some other strangers in the village, but Dram ignored that part of the conversation. There was a green dragon. Here. Dram had never seen a dragon before. He really wanted to see the dragon.

The conversation once again started to get boring. Grull seems to have developed a fixation for tea. And was pestering the old guy about whether he had any? Sarmyar was looking healthier after the old guy had looked over her. Ace had disappeared from the room. “Had he gone to see the dragon without me?” Thought Dram to himself. “That’s not fair, I want to see the dragon too”

So Dram left the room too.

Dram made his way towards the tower. It was easy to spot, it was on a small hill, and taller than anything else in the village.

Ahead of Dram between the wall of a building and some trees were some big cobwebs blocking his way. This was an interesting problem, obviously a big spider made these, and it would be cool to see one. But Dram wanted to see the dragon first. There would be time for spiders afterwards.

As Dram was contemplating the dilemma, and deciding if he should Misty Step pass the cobwebs, the gnome turned up with a possible solution. Apparently Ace knew a way round them. Dram decided to follow the gnome, maybe his problem would look differently from the other side.
As the group made there way round the village Dram saw more of the moving bush/tree things that they had killed earlier. This time they didn’t attack, they just stood there rustling like a light breeze had moved them. For some reason their very presence was sending the gnome into a “sap” rage. He wanted to turn them into kindling. For a fellow vertically challenged person he sure had a big chip on his shoulder about something.

The group eventually get to the other side of the path that was blocked by the cobwebs. It did indeed look a little different to Dram. Ace looked like he too was interested in the cobwebs.

Unusual for Dram he was more focused on seeing the dragon, and continued up the hill to the tower with the rest of the group, leaving Ace behind.

The path led to a small cottage on the side of the base of the tower. Which had the corpses of two large spiders decaying away next to it. Obviously something bigger had eaten them. Like a dragon.

As they stand at the closed door of the cottage Ace appears and pushes his way to the front. The group argues a little about Ace going in first. Dram wants to be the first to see the dragon. But eventually Ace wins, and enters the cottage first. The time between Ace entering and hearing back from him was too long for Drams liking. So he entered the cottage. The gnome joined him. Ace was standing by the door that connected to the tower. Grull shoved past both of the small folk.

Ace disappears into the tower, followed by Grull. “Hey not fair. I want to see the dragon.” said Dram. And followed them in.

Inside the tower stood Ace, Grull, the gnome and Dram. Above them was a young green dragon.

“Wow! You are amazing, so beautiful.” a gobsmacked and amazed Dram said. He was finally seeing a dragon.

The dragon told them to leave. But the gnome in what was now becoming a recent bloodlust shouted words of defiance and what was like a challenge to the dragon.

Suddenly a green poisonous gas filled the room.

All of a sudden Dram was standing in bright sunshine, in the middle of a field full of ripe corn, with a small farmhouse in the distance, smoke drifting out of it’s chimney. He started to walk towards the farmhouse, he could make out an old halfling sitting on it’s porch with a dog sleeping by his feet. As Dram got nearer the old halfling looked strangely familiar. The sun was shining in Drams eyes, he had to squint to see.

Dram opened his eyes. He was back in the old mans room. Dram was not feeling good. He felt like he was going to be sick any moment.

Dram overheard the old man tell the others in the group that Dram had actually been dead for a while, and he had exhausted all of his powers to bring him back.

The dragon was on the move. Something in the South of the village had disturbed it. It was now heading towards the old mans room.

It was time for everyone to make a quick escape and hide in the woods.

As the dragon got closer the majority of the group managed to hide successfully under the cover of the foliage of the trees. A couple were less successful in their attempts to be stealthy, and their clumsiness attracted the attention of the dragon. It was then a game of cat and mouse as the dragon tried to locate the “mice”. Luckily for them the dragon got bored and flew back to his tower.

Dram and he could only assume the others were also doing the same, worked his way through the forest.

The defeated group made their way back to their previous nights camp spot after cleaning themselves up as best they could in the Neverwinter river.

At the camp Dram started to make supper. As folks started to process the events of the day, Grull suggested that Dram May have been dropped on his head, and talked about returning to Phandalin to become an innkeeper. Did he not appreciate how cool it had been to see a dragon, die, and live to tell the tale? This had been an amazing day for Dram.

And that’s where we leave our adventurers for the Christmas break, licking their wounds and getting a good nights sleep.

Killing groots family!

D&D, game night, RPG


Schedule conflicts, or otherwise known as life, sometimes gets in the way of things. Which meant that we had our next D&D session a week early. We will move back to a fortnightly routine again from this session. But in the mean time it means you get to read some D&D stuff earlier than usual.

And now for your reading displeasure the further dramatic retelling of Dram’s latest adventuring.

Ace went off on a supplies run while Dram and the others had breakfast. Dram had asked Ace if he could get a lump of coal for him and some bat fur. Both vital ingredients to that new spell he’d been given by the necromancer a few days ago.

After second breakfast had been polished off, and seconds and thirds followed the same way, Ace stepped back in to the inn from his little excursion. Ace had got the coal but no bat fur. Although he’d been given a hot tip for getting some.

As luck would have it Alderleaf Farm had a bat problem. Wow an excuse to see my fellow halflings thought Dram.

So after the last morsels of the fourth helping of second breakfast were polished off, Dram and the others made their way to the farm. It happened to be on the way to some other place. Dram was sure the others had said where they were going but something more interesting came up at the time that caught his attention, another plate of food.

At Alderleaf Farm his fellow halfling after exchanging pleasantries did indeed have a bat problem in her barn. And it wasn’t a euphemism either. They were real bats, in a real barn.

Ace offered to help Dram get a bat. So they both headed off to the barn.

Inside the bats were sleeping in the rafters. Too high up for Dram to get to them easily. Maybe if he cast misty steps to appear next to one, grab it, and then cast feather fall. He could get one.

While Dram was pondering over the merits of his plan, and what could be mistaken as looking up at them helplessly, Ace made his way up to get one.

Just as Ace was about to grab a bat, an arrow from nowhere struck one, killing it. The remaining two bats awoke. Saw Ace. Jumped to the wrong conclusion and attacked Ace. Ace responded by grabbing one and snapping it’s neck. The third one Dram dispatched with a magic missile. Overkill? Maybe, but it’s good to remind folks that this little guy is more than he seems.

After the little skirmish, it turned out Sarmyar had fired the arrow. Luckily there were two bats that Dram was able to clumsily skin with his little knife to get that much needed fur.

With a little spring in his step, happy he could now cast this new spell if he wanted, he joined the others outside the barn.

After getting directions, which can never be made interesting, and would explain why instead of listening Dram dug out 5 silver coins from his money pouch. By the time he’d done that they were ready to continue on with this new adventure. As they all left Dram handed the coins over to his fellow halfling.

Apparently they were heading to a place called Thundertree. Which took them by the scene of their first fight together. Oh the memories of that skirmish. Nothing like the smell of rotten horse corpses to bring them to the fore front.

A day or so later the party hit the Neverwinter River, where they decide to make their second camp before heading into their destination.

Ace decided to take a swim in the river. An evil thought for a cool practical joke went through Dram’s mind. Wouldn’t it be funny to apply a little electrical charge to the river? But Dram’s better nature got the best of him, and he resisted temptation.

While Dram was having the inner tussle, Ace had pulled Sarmyar into the river. She didn’t seem too impressed with that trick. Dram had to admit it wasn’t much of a trick. Not nearly as cool as the one he’d thought up.

Sarmyar was by the fire drying off, when a dripping wet Ace walks naked passed her.

A question entered Dram’s head, “do elves like have mating seasons?” Which was quickly followed by another question “is this what passes as sexual tension for elves?”

The next morning after breakfast the party made their way into Thundertree. As they made their way into this derelict town they passed a sign with a warning on it. It said “Danger. Plant monsters and zombies. Turn back now.” As a precaution Dram used his glass staff to cast mage armour to protect himself. You can never be too cautious.

As they all stood at the entrance to Thundertree, Ace and Grull were trying to formulate a plan. Something about checking the outer buildings first, blah, blah. There was little being decided. “That building looks interesting”, thought Dram, “and its on the outside.” So Dram went right to the building that had caught his eye. While at the same moment Grull and Ace went left!

Dram poked his head into the old building. It was an old inn. “Hey folks, matured beer might be here” he shouted. He stepped inside.

“Oops”, as Dram entered the inn, standing just inside the door way he saw four dust covered zombies. Blocking his escape was Sarmyar. So Dram did the only thing he could do. Misty Step. One moment he was standing inside the inn, the next he’s standing behind Grull in the street.

The next thing Dram sees is Grull rushing to the door and dragging Sarmyar out of the inn. She wasn’t looking in a good way, and was covered in a white powder. Dram ran over, used his healing potion on her and washed away the white powder as best he could. There was a little guilt having left Sarmyar to handle the zombies. But he would have been in the way. It was a tactical retreat, that way Sarmyar and the others could more easily fight the zombies without him blocking them. Yeah that’s why he cast Misty Step.

The zombies streamed out of the old inn attacking the gnome and the druid. The druid cast Thunderwave. It was so cute when the druid tried to be like a real magic user.

While everyone is fighting the zombies, and trying to make sure they stay down. Ace shouted something about some trees.

Trying once again to be like a real magic user the druid casts a gust of wind at a zombie.

Just to make sure nothing else was going to come out of the inn and attack them, Dram poked his head through the door and looked inside. Then the druid pushes past Dram and hides in the old inn.

While Dram was confirming no more threats were coming from the old inn. The others went to look at some bushes, that apparently they thought were moving. What weirdos.

The gnome starts going all berserk and attacking the bushes. So Dram fires off a magic missile at a couple.

For his efforts Grull shouted at him “stop dicking about and get here and help out”.

Dram felt a little hurt by that comment, and pointed out he wasn’t dicking about. He was making sure there were no more surprises coming from the inn. And who did he think cast the magic missiles?

The next thing Ace is trying to be a peace maker, and trying to talk to the bushes. But that psychotic gnome was having none of it.

Sarmyar once again collapsed to the ground. The moving bundle of twigs had put her down. Lucky for her the druid had decided to give up hiding and ran over to heal her.

In all of the excitement, and what can be only explained as combat fatigue, Ace decided to hug a tree and started talking to it. Had he need hit on the head?

But before Ace’s delusions could fully kick in the gnome turned Ace’s latest love interest into kindling.

With all the moving bushes now only good for fire wood, Grull decided to lecture us all on staying together and being more careful. “When Grull gets like this he’s no fun. All this talk is boring.” Thought Dram.

And that’s where we leave our exhausted adventurers, being told off and deciding what to do next.

By royal decree

D&D, game night, RPG


Somehow I missed being in the crowd for the royal visit to Wisbech on Tuesday. Despite having a holiday home not an hour away in Sandringham, we rarely see them or get invites. But us serfs of Wisbech on Tuesday were spoilt by having Charles and Camilla visiting.

Frankly I wish they would visit more often. Since the announcement last week of the impending visit the town has actually seen a police presence on the streets. The teen cycle gang that has been terrorising the centre of the town the last few weeks has been finally tackled by the folks in blue at the weekend. The stone steps and path by St Peters Church and the museum has been cleaned. Coincidence? Apparently the homeless in Wisbech had disappeared for the day. Large sections of the town centre (including car parks) were restricted access. Wisbech for a day only, had become some sort of utopia. Just once I wish the royals got to see the real town, and not some sanitised version that papers over the cracks and flaws.

For weeks (at least a couple) locals have been terrorised by that teen gang. Complaints seemingly falling on the deaf ears of the police. And now as I pointed out all of a sudden the man power has been found to do something about the gang! Let’s see if this high police presence and conviction to tackle the gang continues after the visit.

Wow where did that soap box rant come from? Not exactly the best start to a blog post about D&D.

Ok, time for the dramatic retelling of the latest adventures of Dram and that motley crew. Who if you remember were just about to fight 12 zombies after the necromancer Ace was talking to just disappeared. Shit was about to get real…
Grull rushed in swinging axe at the nearest zombies, that little gnome managed to take out a zombie all by himself. So while the others were going hand to hand with the undead, Dram started firing off one of his cantrips, Ray of Frost at the zombies.

All of a sudden a skeletal hand appears from nowhere and grabs Dram. It squeezes hard around Dram’s chest, getting ever tighter and pushing the air out of his lungs. As suddenly as it appears, the skeletal hand disappeared. Severely winded, it took a moment or two for Dram to get his breathe back. Then realising he was vulnerable Dram decided he needed to relocate quickly. So he quickly cast Misty Step.

One moment Dram was near Sarmyar and Nick who were fighting zombies the next he was gone. The others didn’t see Dram reappear out of sight at the side of the tent. Before he could decide what to do next, black magic missiles hit the others.

“Lay prone, weapons down, and we can talk”, boomed a voice.

Still reeling from that skeletal hand attack, and the casting of his own spell, Dram decided to crawl into the tent and hide. Inside the tent Dram saw a wooden chest. “Look at the craftsmanship on that chest. Like wow.” Thought Dram.

Once again the voice boomed it’s command.

Deciding the only way to appreciate such fine wood work was to sit on it and rest, Dram sat on the chest.

“Can I get up yet?” Shouted Dram.

The next thing Dram heard was Ace’s voice “drop your weapons and give up.”

Suddenly two zombies appeared in the door way and just stood there. Followed by that booming voice once again issuing a command, “leave or he dies”.

“That doesn’t sound good” thought Dram, followed by “I wonder who will die?”

The zombies moved aside and let Dram out of the tent as he made his way to leave. Right next to the necromancer was Ace just standing there not moving. As Dram went passed the necromancer he tipped his hat and complimented him on his magical skills. Dram could have learnt a lot from him he thought.

After joining the others of the group outside the walls of the ruined tower, Dram noticed Grull was missing. ‘Oh well he’ll turn up, something that big never stays lost for long.” thought Dram.

As if from nowhere the necromancer appeared next to Dram and says “if you ever want to join the dark side” and handed Dram a small bone tube.

Before anyone notices Ace also disappears. Maybe Ace and Grull have gone ahead. So Dram and the rest of the group head off back to Phandalin. The depleted group decide to make camp at a previous camping spot.

After setting up camp Dram and Sarmyar took the first watch. This gave Dram the opportunity to examine that small bone tube he’d been given. Wow it was a scroll of Darkness. Dram couldn’t wait to copy that spell into his spellbook back in Phandalin.

The rest of the watch went relatively quietly. That is until Grull suddenly appeared and ran up and grabbed Dram. Sweeping him off his feet, and in a vice like grip, Dram’s natural instinct was to grab Grull and cast Shocking Grasp.

The electric shock got Grull to let go of Dram.

Grull angrily asked “Why did you not fight?” Dram then spent the next few minutes explaining to Grull in little words what happened to him during the recent battle with the necromancer and his zombies. Grull seemed happy with the events and reason it appeared Dram had done nothing in the skirmish.

Nick and the gnome were still sleeping through all of this. They must have been really tired from the days excitement. They even missed Ace trying to convince Grull to drink perfume! Which he goes and does anyway, well a watered down perfume.

Once the hilarity was over. The rest of the night passed away without any incidents. After breakfast the group continued their journey to Phandalin. The following two days of traveling were pretty uneventful, and saw everyone arrive back in good time for the evening meal.

Dram was feeling particularly generous and bought a meal for himself, Grull and the gnome. Do you know how the gnome repaid that act of kindness? By boring Dram to death with a story of how he had come to meet up with this rag tag band of adventurers. Talk about snooze fest. Dram was gobsmacked that Grull was finding the story interesting. Dram was struggling to stay awake. This gnome just didn’t know how to tell a story. ‘Blah blah, betrayed, blah, blah killed son”. So Dram made an excuse needing go to the toilet, and disappeared up to his room.

Back in the room, Dram copied the Darkness spell from the scroll to his spellbook. Dram had only just finished this intricate activity there was a knock on the door. When Dram answered, there was Ace who handed him a healing potion. It was the potion that Dram had paid for before their little visit to see the banshee, and get their butt kicked.

And so dear reader, well done for making it through that dramatic retelling of Dram’s latest escapades. Join us next time when Dram will once more astound you with his magical powers, and reviews of the funniest eating establishments.

The magic behind the wizard

D&D, game night, RPG

Welcome to the second D&D post. The last one took a while to write, but now we are all up to date on the adventures of Dram and the large folks these posts should be quicker to write.

Naturally when I retell the events of the adventuring that week they will be told from the ground level that is the world that Dram occupies.

But who is Dram?

Dram is a halfling wizard. Think miniature Gandalf. Hence the colour scheme I painted the miniature I found for him.

Dram’s mouth gets him into so much trouble on his wanderlust over the Forgotten Realm. That’s despite the sage advice his pop often repeated to him “engage your brain before opening your mouth” as he was growing up.

Dram from an early age found a love for reading, particularly manuscripts and scrolls. Which luckily the village elder had many of. They told stories of fantastical creatures, and wild and dangerous places full of interesting things.

Then one day a wounded wizard stumbled into the village. The village druid patched up the wizard, and a place was found for him to recover. The days following the villagers dressed the wounds, fed and watered the wizard. It was during this time that Dram while helping his father and mother take their turn looking after the wizard stumbled across the wizards belongings. Which had these strange books and scrolls that he hadn’t seen the likes of before.

This interest in the spell books and scrolls hadn’t gone unnoticed by the wizard in his weakened state. While recuperating the wizard started to teach Dram how to read the magical incantations. It wasn’t long before Dram was able to make a stick create light. He was a natural.

Fully healed the wizard was ready to leave and continue on his journey. But before doing so he spoke to Dram and his parents. He wanted Dram to go with him and continue his studies to become a wizard.

Dram was still too young to go on a wanderlust. But technically this wasn’t one he argued to his parents, he was going off to school, not find adventure. Dram’s parents reluctantly agreed.

Years later a letter was delivered to Dram. It was from his friend Targi. It was fortuitous in it’s arrival. Dram was just about to have his studies cut short due to his mouth getting him into trouble once or twice. It might have been more but who was counting? Oh the senior wizards, that’s who.

Dram decided to head off on his travels looking for adventure and his friend Targi. They needed to talk.

Which is how Dram ended up in Neverwinter, and bumping into the motley crew he’s ended up helping and saving on the odd occasion. They’d be helpless without him.

His current spellbook is…

Before I get onto the latest of Dram’s journal entries. Thought I’d include pictures of pilfering Ace. Naturally outside of the game I can refer to Ace as that, but inside the game Dram currently has no idea.

Now on to the latest adventuring…
It was weird. Dram didn’t know how to exactly explain it. One moment he’s chatting away and then the next he felt all different. He couldn’t quiet put his finger on it. Dram felt like if he tried he could remember more, even last longer trading magical blows with another wizard. Was the staff causing this? No. Dram would have noticed that when he examined the it, wouldn’t he? He started mumbling words he’d never used before.

After the conversation had finished with the nun lady Dram headed back to the inn for a late brunch, while the others went off and did their thing. “Weird”, thought Dram, “why wouldn’t they want to eat now and do other stuff afterwards?”

Back at the shrine, everyone had done their “thing”, and Grull wanted to see this banshee. Which kind of sounded interesting. Dram hadn’t seen one of them before. “Besides without me Grull is bound to get into all sorts of trouble, I better go with him” was the thought process that flashed through Dram’s mind before chirping in that he was going.

After getting directions we all set off to see this banshee.

We set up camp in a familiar spot, and Sarmyar and Dram took first watch. As luck would have it a dire wolf and some wolf friends of it’s turned up. The dire wolf was standing right behind Dram, while the wolves were trying to wake up the rest of the party. Dram decided to show the dire wolf a cool party trick called witch bolt. Which it didn’t seem to pleased about. But luckily it took that frustration out on Sarmyar’s pet panther.

“AGAIN! I’ve done all the work!” exclaimed Dram as Sarmyar finished off the dire wolf.

“Good grief that gnome is sleeping through all this excitement, and there are wolves standing right over him!” Grull and Ace rush over to help the paladin, who wasn’t asleep. But out for the count.

While that was going on Dram turns his attention to the last wolf and mumbles some new words and casts a scorching ray. Which drops dead as it tries to run away.

After the excitement, everyone tries to get some rest in before morning.

The next morning Grull and Dram come to a deal, Dram will make breakfast for Grull, if Grull makes a nice dire wolf blanket. So while Dram is cooking, Grull is skinning and tanning away. Ace smelt the food, and tried begging some free breakfast. So Dram threw him some ol’ jerky.

Over breakfast Grull started hallucinating that he could talk to the panther. Not just the panther but to all animals. Dram replayed the previous nights excitement back in his head. He didn’t remember seeing Grull get hit over the head at any point. “Strange Grull is going completely bonkers. I must keep an eye on him”, thought Dram.

As luck would have it a cart came along that was going our way. It was nice to not have to walk and be able to just relax and take in the scenery as we went along.

The party was dropped off at some ruins that apparently was our stop. It was evening but everyone else thought it would be a good idea to go see this banshee. Even more remarkable we found her woodland lair and she was in. Ace did all the talking with Grull chipping in. Dram thought Ace likes to think he’s a ladies man, and his charm would even work on a banshee. Dram thought it was pretty cool seeing this dead elf hovering there, he could see right through her.

Ace gave her the comb that he’d been given to use with the banshee. But Dram had drifted off now and was bored. “If the banshee wasn’t going to do anything cool like attack Ace, why were we hanging around?”, he thought.

After the banshee disappeared we headed back to the ruined town and made camp. That was uneventful too. This trip was starting to get boring.

The next morning fully rested, the gang headed South.

Late afternoon, early evening the party arrived at a tower. Upon closer inspection from afar 12 zombies came out and started to gather round a human and the tent he was stepping out of.

“Obviously this guy is up-to no good”, and instantly before the others could react, Dram had cast his Scorching Ray and hit the human.

“How is he still standing?” Thought a puzzled Dram. “He should be frazzled.” But he wasn’t, it turns out he was a “fellow” wizard but of that awful necromancy school. Dram don’t trust him. 12 zombies isn’t innocent and self defence.

Ace once again started to try and sweet talk the wizard. Ace is standing next to the wizard trying to bargain for something. When suddenly the wizard disappears and Ace is surrounded by zombies. Dram knew it. You can never trust those necromancers.

And that is where our adventure finished until the next instalment.

The Story So Far…

D&D, RPG

Thought I’d start talking about the D&D sessions that I’ve been taking part in. It also explains why I have posted more than usual about MtG. This post took a while to write.

Our group of noobs to D&D, returning after a long break players, and experienced D&D players has been meeting since the Summer. My notes have the date of the first session being 10th July. Because of this mix with the majority being in the new and returning camp, we have gone with the the adventure the Lost Mine of Phandelver from the D&D Starter Set as our first campaign but using our own characters not the supplied ones. Oh and yes it is D&D 5th Edition that we are using.

I’ve not been recording the D&D plays in the game plays tracking app I use. Which I may change. Luckily I have the dates noted in my notebook that I use. But I’m still unsure about whether I should be tracking the sessions within the app.

Our party of adventurers is made up of Grull a really tall brutish violent chap (William), Ace “thinks he’s stealthy” (Justin), a gnome paladin (Jacob), Sarmyar the elf (Jess), Nick Smith a clumsy druid (Nathanial) and Dram a halfling wizard (myself). Overseeing this motley crew, and acting as the voice of a higher power is our DM Edmund.

The Story So Far…

Our story started in the sprawling metropolis Neverwinter, where our rag tag group of adventurers first meet, and get hired to escort a wagon to Phandalin by a dwarf called Gundren. On the way we get jumped by some goblins in the woods. After successfully fending them off (read kill and forcibly interrogate a survivor) we head off into the woods along a trail that leads us to the hideout of the goblin attackers.

We end up killing a couple of goblin guards, before entering the hideout through what can best be described as a wolf kennel. Being the animal lovers that we were, the wolves were freed from captivity.

After feeling good about our humane deed of the day, we ended up in a cave room with surprise surprise goblins in. During the combat our Druid managed to knock Dram unconscious while trying to kick a dead corpse! Yeah I know what you are thinking why the heck would he do that? We still don’t know to this day. To ease his guilt the Druid gave Dram 5 gold coins. Which mysteriously disappeared, sorry correction, let’s use the correct terminology here, a thievin’ git stole while we rested up after the battle. However I’m rushing ahead of myself here. Having defeated the goblins, looted their bodies, we had found and freed Gundren’s hired muscle Sildar.

With Sildar providing extra muscle we work our way through the caves taking by surprise (I think) 3 goblins. We then surprisingly for us also launch a second surprise attack on the goblin leader Klarg the bugbear, his pet wolf and a couple of goblins. It was in this battle that Dram used his magic missile for the first time. Somehow no matter which way I read that it doesn’t stop sounding filthy to me.

After the now usual looting of anything that can’t fend off the probing hands of our band of adventurers, we made our way to Phandalin. Before we could get out of the woods those ungrateful wolves attacked us, forcing us to forget that we were founding members of the Forgotten Realms PETA.

Naturally after all this fighting we were cream crackered, and needed a rest. During our sleep I don’t know what we had all been eating and drinking, but we all woke up somehow feeling different, more powerful.

In Phandalin we made for the tavern, rested some more. Went and did some wheeling and dealing (got a cool silver dagger, and fancy spellbook), collected monies owed to us. Listened to local gossip. It’s here we found out about some local ruffians called the Redbrands, and their leader Glasstaff. That an Iarno Albert has gone missing and something about a wizard. Dram was very curious about the wizard, any chance to learn new spells. New spells that could go in his new and expensive spell book that he’s just bought.

On our way to investigate a local manor we bumped into a group of the Redbrands outside a tavern. Naturally diplomacy failed, oh wait we didn’t try. So we ended up fighting them. It was here that we found out our Druid could transform into a wolf!

We ended up in tunnels and rooms under an abandoned manor. It was here that Ace proved he was a master of disguise by putting on a red sash. Which turned out to be a brilliant idea. Mainly because these skeletons we bumped into ignored him and attacked the rest of us without a red sash on! It was here that Dram demonstrated what a great spell Thunder Wave was. It also might have attracted the attention of any hostiles in the area because it is not a silent spell, the clues in it’s name. But Dram did manage to do some grave robbing and find a rather neat platinum ring in a coffin.

Ace and Grull afterwards freed some prisoners of the Redbrands. After a bit more stumbling around we did combat with this one eyed creature that had been corrupted by magic. Sadly there wasn’t anything for Dram to add to his collection of magical knowledge. With no time to recover from the encounter, we ended up fighting some more Redbrands that had 3 bugbears gate crash the end of the party!

After the mega battle, those bugbears were not easy to defeat, Grull made a new friend. This new friend was a goblin! We blocked ourselves in a room that looked like living quarters for the Redbrands, and got a much needed rest.

Fully rested we continued exploring the underground complex. Which lead us to what looked like a wizards laboratory. Searching the room Dram found 3 small vials. In a connecting room that could only be described as a bedroom was a journal that looked like it was written in dwarfish. ‘Who reads or even more important writes in dwarfish these days?” thought Dram.

We made our way back round to the chamber we fought that one eyed creature in, where the others managed to capture the mysterious wizard. Who while captive gave me 2 scrolls, and I think Ace gave me his glass staff. It was Glasstaff the wizard! Guess we know how he got that name. Sadly my comrades failed to tie Glasstaff’s feet, so he managed to escape, casting some sort of invisibility spell.

With that little embarrassing failure casting what other wise was a successful mini adventure, we made our way back into town.

At the inn Dram rented a room for 100 days so Dram had a safe place to use as a base for his magical research. Oh and not have to carry loads of heavy stuff like the journal and spell books.

Our stay in town was spent replenishing stuff, Dram selling these ruby earrings he’d found, and getting a diamond to use with a spell (the ring came in handy offsetting that cost). Grull and Ace committed everyone to going off and killing some orcs. Apparently we would be getting into the property renovation business if successful!

Dram had found some time to study the vials, scrolls and staff while the others drank and were merry! Dram had lucked out. The Glasstaff was a staff of defence/protection, that would be handy. But the scrolls were supper useful. One was a charm person spell (that he copied straight into his spellbook) and a fireball spell (sadly a tad too powerful to go in his book).

It was time to head off on this mission we’d been committed to.

After a couple days walking our party reached Wyvern Tor, home of the orcs we had been hired to get rid of. It would have been sooner if we’d not been led off course a little by Ace.

There was an orc guard outside the orc camp. The big folks tried being sneaky and take the guard out quietly. Which they did, kinda. A badly burnt orc (don’t ask) ran off into the cavern, Ace blindly ran in after him.

And that’s where we join the action.

Last Weeks Session…

“Ace came running out of that cavern pretty quick, I wonder what he saw?”, Dram poked his head round the corner and looked in. “That’s interesting” was Dram’s response to seeing 6 orcs and a blooming big ogre inside the cavern. “It looks like it would like a chromatic orb”.

The chromatic orb seemed to have upset the ogre, who rushed up just short of Dram and roared in his face. One of the orcs ran up and joined him, swinging and missing Dram. Dram moved back and cast a witch bolt at the ogre. It hit, but sadly the ogre lunged forward and knocked Dram to the floor, and out of the ensuing battle.

Dram woke up with the ogre dead at his side, and a bloodied mouthed wolf standing over the corpse. ‘Bloody typical”, thought Dram, “I do all the hard work, and someone else comes along to get the glory”.

Dram rejoined the action by casting a witch bolt at an orc. That once again one of the big people finished off.

That gnome paladin did an impressive single blow kill on an orc before succumbing to a blow himself. Whatever happened to the gnome while he was out Dram had no idea. But whatever it was it had driven him over the edge. After the last orc was dispatched he went round cutting ears off the corpses as trophies.

Ace went looting and found some more vials. Throwing caution to the wind, he swigged one of them. It turned out he has the most flowery breathe of us all now, he’d just drank perfume!

Our journey back to Phandalin was pretty uneventful. Apart from Sarmyar and Nick abandoning their watch and coming back with a panther they’d found trapped.

Back at Phandalin Dram retired to his room to grab a couple hours of resting in comfort.

The next day our party collected its reward for killing the orcs. Apparently that dark gnome wasn’t as dark as Dram had thought. It appears that a necklace of dead orc ears is good proof that the job had been completed successfully. Who knew? Well apart from this gnome?

As a group we visit this sister for information, between her and Sarmyar we find out that the dwarven journal Dram had talked about a lost mine and a mighty magical weapon. Three of the party paid the sister to make some healing potions for them.

Our adventurers were left about to set off in search of some banshee to get the banshees help for the sister.

FOOTNOTE: By the time I finished writing this post I had decided to record the D&D sessions. Just thought I’d mention it, you know in case anyone was remotely interested.

Ravnica Weekend – Next Weekend

D&D, magic, MtG, news

Next weekend is Ravnica Weekend at my FLGS The Hobbit Hole, and many others.

But what does this mean?

Well just over a week later, around the 20th November WotC are releasing their MtG and D&D crossover product Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica. So on Ravnica Weekend my FLGS is running a preview adventure from Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica.

Plus along side this D&D/MtG taster/preview stores can run “four-pack Booster Drafts with Guilds of Ravnica and award participants with a Ravnica foil basic land. They can also host casual Guild Kit battles with the Ravnica Guild Kits.” My FLGS is holding just the draft after the D&D/MtG taster/preview. There is also the potential for a Standard Showdown happening for those that don’t want to take part in the D&D stuff. But that’s not guaranteed. Sadly no Guild Kit battles at my FLGS, but that’s because they sold out of the stock they got in.

I’m hoping this animated GIF by WotC works. It should show the promo foil basic lands you get for taking part in the booster draft.

There are also 10 Guild prints to be used to support the drafting.


WotC through their WPN program are tracking by the looks of it the participation for both types of event for the weekend. Which I can see why. They want to know how successful this new format is, and if it’s worth doing again. It’s nice to see them try different things.

So you can see it’s a very busy weekend for MtG, more so than normal.