Castle Caldwell and Beyond: (A 5e Campaign) - The Wrecking Crew (Inactive)

Game Master Terquem

Woo! Hoo! Finally Level 2...

I'll level up tonight.

1d8 ⇒ 7 Level 2 HP +11 hp (7+3+1)

* Channel Divinity: (Turn Undead / Guided Strike) Once per short rest.
* Additional 1st level spell slot

It doesn't seem that any of the characters has taken notice of one of their group being paralyzed.

'Help meeee!'

No : P

I'm not dead.

trying to update games - dealing with internet issues, stay tuned

The hole in the wall to the west leads to an unexplored area that is obviously connected to a room beyond the door you passed but did not open.

In order to get moving again, decisions about where to go and what to do need to be made.

Any questions?

I'm sorry guys. I'm going to back out of this game. There's nothing wrong with the campaign or players. It's just too slow for my liking. It was nice playing with you guys. Enjoy.

Good luck, have fun.

I think the game would move along a bit faster if players were engaged in making decisions on what to do, instead of just waiting to be lead to the next encounter.

I am really trying to be more active in posting, but you guys need to tell me what the characters are going to do. I don't want to just take control of your characters and move them along

I'm here. Waiting patiently.

I think you used my name instead of Grins in the last post though.

Yes I saw that mistake too late to be able to edit it, shoot, need to be more careful. I appreciate those who are willing to hang in there. Ayita was a champ, a truly good participant, I think I just let him down too many times.

I know the pace is slow, sorry everyone.

My biggest issue is that, character wise, Wylla isn't the first to charge along into things. She's keenly aware of just how weak she is when she steps up with bigger creatures (read, dang near everything in the world). Additionally, she's not sure what they're searching for, other than information about the former associate of those they came to deliver their message to. :/

Yes, that all makes sense Wylla, I agree with that assessment of the character.

So, then, it seems that either you would be alright with things not moving quickly, because Wylla is not going to boss anyone around, or step up to the others and start demanding to know what they had on their minds about what everyone was supposed to be doing, or, become frustrated by the lack of direction, focus, and take a leadership role.

If as a player the game is not fun for any of you, please don't try to stay in it for my sake. I want to give you the best game I can, but I am turning out to be not so good at this, well, not as good as I once was, but then again those were all table top games with people I knew.

I can try harder, but my style of DMing isn't leading the characters from one monster encounter to the next, and then just having some random npc tell you everything you need to know. I sort of get my enjoyment out of reacting to the decisions the player characters make. You tell me what your character does, and I tell you what happens because they made that choice. I also think the most positive way to keep the game fresh is too ask questions all the time, not just of the DM, but of the other players. Think about what your character wants to know, what does the door look like? Is there anything on the floor. If I stay real quiet can I hear anything. Does the character next to you have a plan? Does the character staying back in the shadows have some idea about what to be afraid of. The more you interact with each other, and with me, the more engaged you might feel. Sure you might have a character who is shy, cautious, not ready to have conversations with strangers, but I think a lot of people forget that this is a game and that your character doesn't have to be the one asking the questions. You, as a player can ask me questions, and ask other players questions, being clear that your character isn't acting out of normal, but that you, as a player just want to learn things that your character would normally learn by being present in the situation.

Ah, maybe I'm just cranky tonight, just forget my stupid ranting. I'll try to give you all a game you can find something to enjoy in.

Just my two coppers worth... It's hard to rebuild momentum in a game that's slowed down. The characters were built with certain things in mind, and as other characters leave the game some of that "role-playing" interaction leaves with them. Unfortunately, this game has been one of starts and stops, which can be frustrating, and speaking for myself I've kind of lost my train of thought with Klodd.

I think in a table top game or a fast posting game on here your approach to GM'ing is wonderful, unfortunately in a slow posting, inconsistent PbP I think you've got to lead us around a bit. I'm in other games which move slowly but work because the GM constantly summarizes, and in some cases presents us with our options multiple times in order to get us to react. Sometimes the games come back, more often they don't. It's just hard to restart a stalled game.

I'd be willing to keep playing with Klodd, but probably am not going to push the action forward too much, as I'd have to reread the entire thread, and have other players interact to get the momenteum back. If you pull us along for a while it might come back... or it might be time to start something else anew.

Thanks, for running, and I like playing with you...it's seldom just the GM or just the players fault when things don't work out.

Hi All. I haven't been checking much as its been slow. It's time for me to make the call and bug out

Sorry for any inconvenience. I wish you all the best with your games

Thanks Gringling, good luck to you

The party is down to four members - What will the rest of you do?

I know it is slower than most players want a game to be, so if you want to quit, because it is slow, I don't have a problem with that.

However, I do not accept all the responsibility for the game being slow.

I'm not sure I "get" how role playing games are supposed to be played in this format, really I don't, but I kind of expect players to make choices, or ask questions if they don't know what their choices are, and then I tell the players the results of those choices.

That didn't happen here as much as I was hoping it would, in fact, it doesn't seem to happen in any of my games, which tends to tell me that I am doing this wrong, so there is that.

Just let me know what you want to do.

We still haven't heard from Wolfgang yet.

I don't hold any grievances against you and would still like to continue with the game even if it's slower than I'd like. Eventually interest will pick up and so will the pace.

Sometimes players need a swift kick in the ass to get s+~$ done.

I will make an attempt at rear end kicking

If you have decided that this game is not interesting anymore and you don't want to play in it, please let me know. I am trying to give you all opportunities to learn something about the dungeon and its dangers.

I'm probably going to drop Klodd from this game. Just having a really hard time getting into his character. Thanks for the opportunity, and look forward to gaming with all of you in the future.

Thanks for the message Klodd, good luck.

Isaiah
Wylla
Wolfgang

do you wish to continue?

I'm fine continuing, though if the group would rather drop, I understand.

Yup

Tally ho. =3

Um, do we have any healing?

I know Healing Word...

We lack any front-line, too.

Isaiah, what do you think of one of us should ask to change to a cleric of some kind. Probably WarCleric. I'll do it, if the DM allows.

I don't think anyone needs to change class, you are trying to rescue a Cleric now, the sooner the better I suppose, haha.

as to front line, let me run an interest check idea around in my head.

We can just negotiate/mind bend our way around.

Rescuing Valarie should be no problem for you, and you may or may not encounter the two men running the slave trade out of this castle before you are through.

Once you have rescued Valarie you can leave and return to Pawkatukit, with a report on what you found. While in the town you might decide to stay together as a group and visit the local Inn, maybe try to hire a fighting man to accompany you, should you decide to return to Castle Caldwell.

Now, this is a bit awkward.

I know the game was often slow, but I did try to keep it going, and I know I could have done better.

But, with none of the original members of the Wrecking Crew still in the game, this part of the adventure is now sort of , well, hard to pull off. You see, the man in the cell will tell you he is Clifton Caldwell, but none of you will know the significance of this.

"Look, there isn’t enough time to spell it all out. There is a team of the Solution Society, six miles east of here, at Castle Caldwell and I believe they are walking into a trap. This Skarda’s Mirror you’ve heard me mention, well, we don’t know much about, but we know it is not something that can be left lying around unguarded. I’m paying the four of you one thousand alars, each, if you can get to Castle Caldwell today and warn the other team about the danger. I’m not sure where to find them, but they should be somewhere in the castle. Tell them that there is something dangerous there. Tell them that Caldwell was holding out on us, and then get out of there. Under no circumstance are you to go looking for the mirror. Trust me, you can’t handle it. Get those others back here, and I promise all of you that after we are shut down I’ll do everything I can to get you hired on in another lodge."

Key points are Castle Caldwell and Caldwell was holing out. Enough to reasonably draw some conclusions and ask questions.

On the up side we successfully got the original crew to abandon mission so.... there's that.

Yes, but , well, see this is not the man who hired the wreaking crew...

But, yes you do have a point.

Ah, of course, recently there was a change to the way DropBox allowed users to share files. I am going to have to go back to all my games and update links to images I have saved to DropBox

Also, as a heads up warning. I will be travelling to Redondo beach, CA for training beginning on 3/19 and until 3/25. I expect to have little to no ability to update images (almost everything is saved to my home computer) and if I can post to games I will try, but the class I am taking is supposed to be challenging and I might be doing homework projects every night.

Thanks, everyone

Waiting for the attack rolls from Wolfgang and Wylla. Then the battle might be over, and you can decide to exit the dungeon now, or go looking for more trouble.

Sorry, had a post typed up and thought it got submitted. Apparently the forums hate me.

Each character receives

100 experience points

For defeating the orcs

If you have the time. I'd like to get some feedback from you, the remaining three players, on exactly what you would like to do now.

There is still much that could be done exploring Castle Caldwell

I could generate a small down intrigue adventure concerning the situation of Clifton Caldwell

I could set the scene for the next adventure that is part of the Castle Caldwell and Beyond Module

Or I can let you hear a few various rumors in the local tavern and decide what sort of adventure you are interested in.

I also think that a recruitment of at least one "Fighter" type is in order, and I am giving that some thought (or you could hire a henchman to fight for you I suppose).

Finally, you have the matter of the trapped vampire in the basement of Castle Caldwell. Will you take up that adventure?

I'd be down to add a fighter type or even a battle cleric.

I'd also be fine with exploring the vampire thing or seeing this thing through with Val and Caldwell.

Well yeah, a WarCleric would probably be best, but sure, a frontliner would be welcome. Do you want to do a general recruitment, or should we try and invite people we know first?

I'm one who usually tries all the side-quests before moving on with main quest, so I'm in no hurry to get on with the Castle Caldwell module proper. =) That said, the vampire thing seemed interesting. I don't mind a dungeon crawl, so long as it's not overly long.

(Although with both a Warlock and a bard in the party some kind of city-based thing with social tests mighty be fun later. =)

I'd like to do the vampire bit, it certainly seemed interesting.

I agree that a city-based social thing could be fun, especially given that Wylla isn't your normal run out and adventure type, she's the bookish studious crafter type, so navigating city life would be interesting.

Recruiting others, I have no strong feelings toward general recruitment or inviting friends, but a war-cleric or other heavy frontliner would be awesome. Bear totem barbarian, as an example, could be a wonderful "up in their face" kind of character. Not sure how well that'd fit with the general story idea.

Running a little behind in game updates this week. I closed two games (taking the remaining players from one game and adding them to the players from the second, then starting an all new adventure for them)

I hope that by tomorrow night I'll have something up for you guys.

Thanks

Sorry! We're at the beach for vacation and this rental has substantially worse internet and signal than any we've had in the past. So I'm here, just slowly able to update things!

I've got one more post to make from Nickels, and one from Brunhilde, then the floor will be open for questions, if you have any - and then you can decide on your next move

Also, this weekend I'll be setting up some new playground equipment for my granddaughters, and otherwise getting pulled into a few Easter day shenanigans, so my posting might be slow this weekend (well, slower than it is for my usual slowness anyway).

Eat some chocolate if you are allowed such things (I'm currently not, sheesh)and have a happy Easter

If I am luck tomorrow I can build a little map of the town, and then we can control how you all want to search for the imposter.

I've posted a link, at the top of the page, to a BMP file image of the town of Pawkatukit. It is crude, but should work for the next part of this adventure

Later today I will edit the map and add some numbers for specific buildings everyone would know, and areas of interest, and then post, in the campaign info tab, a key to those locations, names of taverns, inns, important people, and places. Then you can decide where to go first in your search for the imposter

Any questions?