Hey if you are part of the adventuring party and don’t heed the following warning. Just don’t blame me for any disappointment from knowing too much!
SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one.
This should be a very short post. A bit like the previous one really.
I actually had a moment of madness this morning and primed the new minis that arrived the other day. Plus also the four new minis I picked up last night from Colin at club night.
I now have four mummies. So super chuffed about that. Plus a mystery mini that inspired me when I was shown it.
I’m not sure what or who this humanoid is, but I think they will be the owner of the haunted house. Possessed probably and extremely dangerous with that meat cleaver(?).
The shadows I’ll finish first. They will get a dry brush finish similar to the one I did on the Alien figures to give them some highlights.
After that it’s a little research into how to paint mummies!
To whom it may concern, the following is for you. If you decide to ignore those words then so be it. But your enjoyment of the next D&D session is liable to be diminished. Even spoiled for want of a better word.
SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one.
The gap between session 3 and 4 has been increased to 4 weeks! Mainly due to a little confusion about when the next session will be.
However that’s given me time to do very little except order some miniatures! Which arrived today.
As you can see these were mentioned in the previous post for the haunted house idea. I’ve not been able to find any mummies, or ones I like. I already have zombies, and oozes. Not been able to find any giant bats or swarm of bats miniatures that are in stock or affordable! Etsy is so flippin expensive, especially the postage.
That’s one thing that doesn’t get mentioned about being a DM, the cost. Between printing out stuff at the library (cheaper than buying ink cartridges for my printer, that just acts as a scanner these days), miniatures, books, and various accessories. The cost mounts up.
Granted much of that stuff isn’t needed to play the game. However some of it does make life easier whilst running the game.
Cost is one of the factors in why I’m moving to using a battle map with the room drawn on it, odd bits of scatter terrain, and minis. It’s also quicker to setup during the session.
You hope that the players appreciate the efforts that go on behind the scenes to give them a fun time.
Now I have to get motivated into painting those minis. Especially the shadows.
Let the following warning/disclaimer be said. Then be it on your head if you ignore it.
SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one.
We have broke the fortnightly session routine already. But that’s on me. Instead of D&D I’d arranged an open gaming session that coincides with the celebration of achieving a 54th year on this Earth. So we will be having our next session the following weekend. A three week gap.
The start of the session will see the party waking up to a note from Adel sending them off on a hunt for another relic.
I knew I had some parchment images from a patreon I had backed a while back. Luckily I had them on my iCloud and was able to find them.
Below you will see my initial version of the note to check I have the look and feel right. I used the Dreaming Outloud Script Pro font within MS Word on the iPad to give me that hand written feel to the note.
Initial test of note for session
Naturally I’ll share on here the final note with all the plot hooks for the session once it’s completed.
As for what the party will be doing in the session I have the germ of an idea.
Obviously I’m going to be running with the overall theme based around Warehouse 13/Friday the 13th the series/Relics & Rarities/The Librarians.
However they still need that relic/artefact of the week to go retrieve.
But that could get boring/repetitive so I plan to break up that formula with the Stargate SG-1/Time Tunnel inspired style session with the party visiting another plane via the arches in the city. I might also throw in the odd Star Trek Deep Space 9/Babylon 5 style alien visitor to the City of Arches plot line.
I have the really inspiring tables from the Lazy DM Companion Hunt for the Relic page, and the City of Arches adventure generator pages, to help generate ideas for the session. The tables Sly Flourish provides generate some really great names for items. I’ve used them for naming the magic items the players have received already.
Over the last couple of days I’ve been mulling over setting the session in a haunted house. A ghost might be too difficult for the group to take on but shadows aren’t (must rewatch the dungeon dudes to see what they have to say about them). Plus I can throw in mummies, werewolves, the odd giant bat, have oozes oozing out of the walls. You get the idea.
I might after this artefact has been retrieved start to drop hints about a big bad. There needs to be that big bad. But I have “time” to think about that.
Now the red dragon wyrmling, who I named Littleflight, may or may not have something to do with that big bad. I need to sleep on this idea.
Anyway that’s where I am currently on my planning.
It’s the morning (6:30am as I’m writing this) of the planned session and I nearly forgot to say the following.
SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one.
With that bit of housekeeping out the way I can safely now share my last minute brainwaves for the session that I’ve had.
The main bit of inspiration I had was around the treasure that hasn’t been found yet.
If you check my notes in the post mortem for the previous session there is the equivalent of 400 gold pieces somewhere in the sewers. Plus two magical items.
One of the magical items has been lost and they will stumble across it easily enough early in the session.
But what about the rest?
The loot mentioned above has to be somewhere. It’s from the victims of the giant spider (deceased) and the giant crocodile (sleeping).
I wanted a creature that hordes loot, even shiny stuff.
Kobolds.
Yep I’m going with a classic D&D creature that low level parties tend to come up against.
This group of kobolds have found a wyrmling and have been venturing into the sewers to collect the gold from the victims to grow the wyrmlings hoard.
This also presents an interesting situation for the party. “…kobolds are bitterly hateful toward gnomes.” Volo’s Guide to Monsters, page 65.
50% of the party cause intense feelings of hatred in kobolds!
I think my caption for the above photo (taken from the last session) sums up the problem they will face with the kobolds.
Which makes negotiations with the kobolds that tad more trickier, nah impossible I’d say.
If things did go awry or tits up as I like to say with the kobolds. Then Volo’s offers the following advice for combat (same page as the above quote).
“Although they usually don’t seek out gnomes to do them violence, if hostile kobolds encounter a mixed group of gnomes and other humanoids, the kobolds instinctively attack the gnomes. Kobolds in battle with gnomes are much less likely to run away because their hatred overrules their sense of self-preservation.”
I think one of the secret doors on the sewer map will lead to the liar the kobolds have been tunnelling for the wyrmling.
I’m going for a red wyrmling as that gives me that pokemon charmander vibe.
Now to dive quickly into Fizban’s for some last minute game breaking ideas!
Will the party ever leave the sewers and meet Adel?
SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one.
Right if any of my group 2 adventures are still reading then it’s on you if the following spoils your sense of wonder and surprise in our next session. I did warn you to stop reading.
I’ve updated my Checks Sheet with the hand written notes you may have noticed in the photos on the session 2 post mortem. Which has also been printed and added to my DM folder. The original aim of this sheet was to be a quick reference for various ability checks. So if anyone wants this as a pdf let me know and I’ll send them a copy.
My Updated Checks Sheet for D&D
I have also printed out the following since I was at the library already printing out the Checks Sheet.
Side view map of City of Arches A3
City of Arches Core Adventure Generator A4
Dyson Logos version of Caves of Chaos map A3
I held off the new location descriptions because in the next update there are some corrections coming apparently so I saved my money until then.
That’s all practical stuff for running the next session or prepping for it. But what about ideas for the next session?
I don’t know who or why yet. However in the next session the group will be learning from Adel that some-one has been collecting magical relics, beating her agents to them, and in some cases killing her agent.
Adel will have arranged some accommodation for the party within the Lower Reaches. Naturally the payment for this will be deducted from any reward she was going to give the party.
I still need to dig out my Pathfinder npc cards and find a suitable one for Adel.
Plus what are the adventurers going to do after they have long rested?
SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one.
At the moment the party are pretty battered. They need a long rest. But first they need to get out of the sewers. I think Tantalos Whitetail will have to give the party a parting gift of restoring some of their HP. After all there are shriekers, a gelatinous cube, and maybe some other unnamed creatures still in the sewers.
I have the Mot the Sporeling mini from MCDM (but needs to be cut and glued) that is a Sporeling Companion. I’m very tempted to introduce Mot to the party. An even bigger temptation is to run the gelatinous cube as a companion. I need to read the MCDM rules on companions first. Some light reading for the weekend.
When the party finally make it to Adel’s Emporium of Magical Relics the party need a new job from Adel after they have rested. I’ve got time to rewatch some Warehouse 13 episodes for inspiration. Failing that I do have the Lazy DM Companion Hunt for the Relic page, plus the City of Arches adventure generator pages to fall back on for inspiration.
Well that’s my brainstorming so far. Maybe I’ll get more inspired whilst at work!
SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one.
Looks like I need to get back to the library earlier than planned to print out the new stuff from the update to the City of Arches I need in my DM folder to aid in the prep for the next session and the subsequent ones.
What’s new in the City of Arches pdf
Obviously the two pages that make up the adventure generator will be printed. This is a version of the Core Adventure Generator from the Lazy DM Companion geared towards the City of Arches.
The new side map is a must. To give you an idea what this looks like I’ve put a snippet below. I will need to create a relevant snippet for Mark to aid in his characters knowledge of the city.
Finally the new location descriptions will need to be printed out.
I’m glad this update has been released. It will be very helpful in preparing the next session.
You know it’s the law that I have to say the following.
SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one.
It only clicked yesterday that the players characters haven’t healed or had a long rest yet. So when levelling up they should not be increasing their current hit points to match their new maximum. So I reminded them of this today. Better late than never.
I think I’ve also settled on how session two will start. As the party are escorting the two cultist prisoners to the business establishment of their patron, they will be ambushed by other members of the Children of Ibraxus cult.
It will be a “you are are surrounded and out numbered. Handover your prisoners.”
From there who knows what will happen!
I’m leaning towards the party having to go into the sewers to locate a relic. The old urban legend about crocodiles/alligators living in the sewers of L.A. I feel like making that a real thing in the sewers of the City of Arches. Others creatures I’d like to use possibly are a swarm of rot grubs, and definitely a swarm of rats. I’m also feeling pulled towards using some oozes, maybe a cube of some sort.
I had the Creature and NPC Cards by Gale Force Nine arrive today. I have the cards they do that cover the Monster Manual. Which I like. They are handy to just have the relevant monster cards for the sessions encounters to hand without having to carry the Monster Manual with you. So now I can do the same with the creatures and NPCs.
As the bottom photo above shows the way I store them for use at a session is with some Ultra Pro 9 Pocket folder pages. Obviously these go in my DM folder with all my other notes.
SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one.
As soon as a session finishes the clock resets and the countdown begins once more until the next session.
I did cave at the end of the first session and let the players level up their characters. Naturally I’m waiting for the new stats to be sent to me. I’ll probably send a gentle reminder at the weekend.
Although I suspect I’ll be running The Delian Tomb next session or a variant. I might stick to goblins. Plus maybe add one or two other surprises, such as a slime or two.
I think my main prep will be to come up with more “jobs” for the party to do for their patron.
This campaign could easily turn into a D&D version of Warehouse 13. I don’t mind having them retrieve the artifact of the week so to speak. But like Warehouse 13 I need that story arc, a big bad for them to lock horns with.
For this I think the “Hunt For The Relic” adventure generator in the Lazy DM Companion might be very handy for generating the artifacts for them to go after.
The nice thing is some of these artifacts can be keys to opening one of the many arches that give the City of Arches it’s name.
There is also with the arches the opportunity to have the “alien” of the week mashup like episodes with them arriving at the city through an arch. This could be very Star Trek/Stargate like. Or there is even the chance for them to visit other realms via the arches and the relics they retrieve. Once again very Stargate or The Time Tunnel influenced.
I think that’s enough brainstorming for this post. Catch you in the next one.
SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one.
Tomorrow (Saturday, well today when this gets posted) is session 1 of the group 2 campaign.
I was going to use the Core Adventure Generator from The Lazy DM’S Companion. However as I was looking through the City of Arches pdf there was a two page adventure at the end called The Obsidian Skull.
It is described as “…a two-hour adventure for two to five 1st level characters set in the City of Arches. The characters reach 2nd level when completing this adventure.” City of Arches pdf
This sounded perfect. I haven’t run a “published” adventure before. The nearest I’ve come is the Delian Tomb adventure by Matt Colville for first time DM’s. But that was very bare bones, basically an annotated map!
I need to change a couple of things to suit our campaign, such as the patron and the reason the adventurers are there. But they are minor changes to make.
Today involved visiting the library to print some bits off ready for tomorrow.
Ok the first two aren’t actually needed. Well might be. I might not advance the party to level 2 at the end of this first adventure. I’ll make that decision at the end of the session.
The two A3 maps are player handouts for the session. Although the city map will be used for multiple sessions.
Oh before I forget here is how the party are made up.
The Group 2 Characters
I still have some Secrets and Clues to do. But these I’ll do tomorrow morning. I like one or two prompts from the Lazy DM Companion Creating Secrets and Clues page. Such as “What family history might be revealed?”, “What dungeon entrance just became revealed?” or “What monsters recently appeared in the realm?”
I get the feeling that the party may not be leaving the catacombs of the Cliffs of the Dead anytime soon.
Right see you next time with the post mortem of the session.
