The Skeleton’s Key – A tabletop Campaign Journal
I want to keep a record of the campaign I recently started running at home, and if no one minds, this seems the perfect place to do it. I have no hope that this will be read and/or enjoyed by anyone else, so I will most likely be speaking to an audience of one (myself) but if I happen to attract any outside attention, I (who am an attention hound by nature) would love any questions or commentary. Let me start this thread off with a little background, first about myself, then the players, and finally the campaign world.
Myself – 30 something, started with 1st Edition in sixth grade, somehow skipped the entirety of 2nd edition (was adventuring in real life at the time) and got back into it around the time of 3rd edition. It was a series of events: the 3rd edition core rules release, Baldurs Gate, Neverwinter Nights, and my first Play-by-post game (roleplayinggames.net) that got me back into the game. Oh and the D&D movie came out about the same time. I have always been DM except for a few short interludes in high school when I shared duties with Roger (now lost to mists of time, I think he is a preacher somewhere.) The highest level I ever advanced anyone was 8th level and it ended in party-wipe (those were the days) after 18 months of world-saving. I plan on the current campaign going from level 1 – 20 at a relatively brisk pace, maybe 1 lvl per month average. (We’ll see how things hold together at the upper end of levels)
The Players – All players are in their 30s, there are currently 6 players, 3 women, 3 men, of which 1 is my wife, 2 are workmates, 1 is best friend. All have some experience with D&D, the girls less than the guys, but all are enthusiastic, witty, and we all have wanted to do something social for a long time. This seems to be a perfect outlet. There are 3-5 other people who are interested in the game and if I let it, the table could easily expand to 9 players. I haven’t let that happen yet, but I am tempted!
We have an alt, my 11 yr old son, who I allow to play the characters of anyone not able to make it to game nights, (Fridays 7-10pm) The threat of an 11 yr old with little knowledge of the rules playing their character seems to keep most people coming week after week! (He is learning quick and is a gifted boy, he will do fine and one day will be a full player I’m sure, if the interest keeps up.)
Location - We play in my living room, Friday nights, I have to 48” sq card tables side by side. We use miniatures (I did a quick and dirty $100 purchase of D&D mini singles from a web-site. This got me all the base monsters needed, and a handful of player character minis for those who needed them. Turns out 3-4 of the other players also have minis so it was not an issue, but I like to be prepared.
We use a battle mat, that I made by printing out a 1” grid on Architectural paper (24” x 36”) and then had my wife laminate it. I work in engineering, she works in the school system so it was a perfect storm – and it works great! I actually bought a flip mat and came very close to buying a Chessex mega-mat, but have no need to use either. The only down side is my solution is very flimsy, it wont last forever – but it was free and we can make new ones as needed!!!
Gameplay – Strangely enough, this is a 3E game, not 3.5 or 4. The reason for this is that everyone had 3E books, so we decided to just roll with it. In cases where the rule is obviously broken I will bow to 3.5 solutions, but most cases we get by pretty easy. I will make a call on the spot when there is a question, and no one minds. Hopefully they see me as being as reasonable and just as I see myself, lol. Basically we play rules-lite, i.e. no double rolling on crits, it just crits! No time wasting changing items from equipped to un-equipped, free use of ‘instant-action’ try to reign in the attacks of opportunity, etc. I am thinking of coming up with a critical hit/penalty roll table, or I might buy that deck of cards I see advertised here. (I wish there was a deck of monster cards –Paizo, order up!)
I have a large amount of source material to draw on, including all the core books (3.5 included) and many campaing, 3rd party resources. I also have a fondness for Dungeon Crawl Classics and Necromancer Games. Next post I will describe the campaign world and the introduction, then what follows should be a fairly basic week-by-week bloggie-style description.
Right so crazy week, just getting back to things now. I just finished our weekly tabletop, so this is the time to do it I guess. I was going to begin this section by describing the game world and campaign plan.
The world is homebrew, points of light dangerous world, tolkeinesque for sure, with magic and high power rare. There are 2 cities of man a major river bridge called Bard's Gate, and a Coastal city of Merchant Princes called Shalazar. Across the Azure Sea is a wild island metropolis called Freeport, but it isn't considered a "human" colony. The Dwarves have 9 Dwarven Halls all in the Mountains to the east, the Elves have a Neverending Forest to the west. The Ancient Dwarven River crosses the X River at the Great Dwarven Bridge, where upon both sides was built the Mighty City of Bard's Gate. A King has his palace in the center of town overlooking Dwarf Bridge, and he rules the lands far afield.
Very basic stuff, but there is plenty of room to fill in, as I intended it. The east is a general term "Eastern Beastlands" and there could be tiny pockets struggling for survival. Mainly it is a land of broken rocks and horror. Orc tribes war with each other when they are not invading the west. The Northern Arctic regions are home to the giants.
So narrowing in, There is a Great King's road, which runs north and south between Bard's Gate and Shalazar. Shalazar and its surrounding lands are on a peninsula that sticks out and divides the waters into the Western Jade Sea and the Eastern Azure Sea. The peninsula, Inner Shalazar, Is narrowest at its base, merely 40 miles across, and here and ancient wall spans the distance. On the western edge, the wall ends at a Lighthouse on the edge of mire. To the east, the wall is anchored to a tall tower overlooking the craggy cliffs of the Azurre sea. In the middle of this ancient barricade is the quaint town of King's Gate, where lies the only passage thru the wall other than the rough and tumbling Orinoco flow, twenty miles to the east.
Ya, King's gate is a tiny town, probably too tiny considering all the trade that would pass thru this bottleneck. I could see it as actually an enournous tax revenue bringing colony... but its not. It is little more than a village. The tavern Frank's Place (joke) was a sturdy tower, to which the old wooden gates from the Ancient Barricade, were made to add the two-story inn. It is across the doorway, to the other side is attached the guardhouse, attached to the Tower-wall. and next to it the mayor's home.
To the north is a bazaar square, and north of that is a fair-ground, to which gypsie travellers and merchants come once per year for a great festival. They call it Night of the March Hare, in mid-spring, just before planting. East and west the town dwindles to farmhouses. A strict martial presence is kept about the town, and in times of danger, the town can evacuate into Inner Shalazar, and bar the gate. Not this time around, though...
The campaign begins on a dark and stormy night (of course lol) where the group all gathers at the tavern (of course again, lol)
Actually, I will describe in better detail, the more detail the better, hopefull it isnt too dry.
Generally it is caravans who travel the King's Road as it is moderately dangerous, especially to small groups or slow individuals. Orcs send a constant stream of tribal warriors in from the east, and they often raid, as well as some others. A few of the characters met on the caravan. Another came from a distant land, and two elves had grouped up together.
It was awkward that first night playing, and there was a lot of taking of deep breaths, but we all got thru it. Half the party was in the tavern (elf rogue, gnome bard, elf wizard) one was across the street at the temple (human cleric) and on the portico of the temple human druid with riding dog companion. The sixth player - my wife(!) couldnt make it opening night.
The only NPCs were a priest in the temple and a bartender. Oh and also there was a hooded bard plucking at his lute idly. I should have added more for flavor, but my plan had so many variations, and I only settled on a final plan as I was setting up the board (battlemap of town pre-drawn. I used a piece of un-laminated architectural paper, and used all sorts of colors of pens. There was a fountain, a couple other building, it looked pretty good!
Well, thats where the characters were. When I had to descirbe the opening scene. It gets a little muddled but basically lightning cracks three times, the temple bell starts ringing, the bard leaps up and runs into the street, and black clouds start brewing and swirling. The bell was pulled by the priest who comes careening out of the back room pursued by 3 ghouls. He pulls on the bell cord and dies. The human cleric witnesses this.
The druid witnesses clattering of bones and ranks of skeleton warriors come marching north out of the great barricade. 8 step forward, but ranks upon ranks line up just inside the wall. (Shalazar is captured by the undead. Orcus is attempting to take over the lands of SHalazar as his dominion on the prime material.) The armies of the undead are led by these Mummy Princes whose uneasy corpses rested in the many catacombs beneath shalazar.
A Mummy Lord commands the undead attacking Kings Gate (who are in actuality merely sealing off the wall in prder to prepare for an assault that must come.) He makes an appearance on top of the wall to prove a point but the elf mage shot her magic missile at him, so he retreated and cast a 30' globe of permanent darkness on the gate.
So the bard npc dashes across the street, thru the temple and grabs this bronze 'crucible,' to St Cuthbert the temple deity, and exits thru the back. The ghouls attack him as he passes, but he evades. The cleric tries to turn but fails miserably twice in a row. The druid and dog rush in to fight with the ghouls and they slug it out, he goes down paralyzed for 2 turns, gets up and ends the battle at 1 hp I think. The cleric chases one into the back room, and finally downstairs into a crypt, where one of them lies open with a large 5' wide hole in the bottom. the bard npc must have gon thru it.
In the street, the elf rogue and the gnome bard, both new players, spend the next 2 or 3 turns going to upstairs windows. The mage shoots an arrow thru the window. Then breaks out the window, casts mage hand on his staff, and wacks a skeleton (I gave him -4 but he rolled really well) doing 1 point of damage and killing it. The tavern-keep, actually a level 0 commoner holds off 4 skeletons until the mage kills one and the rogue shoots down on one and kills it with her heavy crossbow (I know -elf with crossbow lol) the tavern-keep takes down one with his club and I cant remember how the other one goes down. Anyhow, that is how the night ends, at the tail end of the battle, only 1 skeleton is left alive of the 4 that veered into the temple. Everyone lived.
Game Night No.2
Hmm,it is a few weeks ago now, so let me try to reconstruct the evenining. I believe everyone may have been in attendance. I started the game post-battle, joking that the barkeep took the last skeleton down and it was enough XP to take him to 2nd lvl Bartender. It was needless to set everything up and get the initiative order just to off one last foolish skeleton. No one seemed to mind.
So the first decision was, to follow the bard thru the hole in the ground immediately or wait till morning. They chose morning which I thought was a little timid considering only a few spells were cast, but on the other hand at 1st level, one doesnt get much more. So, they pile into the tavern and spend a tense night. There are a few roving bands of skeletons and much of the village is burned or destroyed. Those few survivors are either gathered in the fortress like tavern or cower in their darkened homes.
Next morning is grey. Roiling clouds spiral above the city of Shalazar, far to the south. The globe of darkness remains in place and at dawn the Mummy Prince stands on the towqer and proclaims the news about Orcus taking over. The characters rush across the street, meet a young priest cleaning up the gore, and go down into the hole.
While in the narrow tunnel they are attacked by 3 dire rats which ends up being a pretty funny encounter since they are in confined quarters and have no room to swing the larger weapons. The main fighter has to drop her bastard sword and fight with a dagger, but quickly dispatches 2 of the rats. The mage who only has a staff is out of luck. Wants to break her staff in half and use it as a club, but lacks the strength (lol I used that trick last night.
So they make it thru the tunnel which opens in the bole of a tree in a graveyard on the edge of town. They don't know where to go, or what to do, but someone thinks of using the riding dog track skills to follow the NPC bard. Good thinking! Sadly, I forgot to note who made the suggestion, probably the druid.
They enter the woods I had intended them to enter hot on the bards tail the previous night, but the trail is cold now, so begins a random trekking about first to a druid enclave where the speak with an oracle who gives them some pertinent riddles. Then to a monestery where they learn the crucible is one of 4 magic items used to bring back the Forgotten King. And so the goal of the adventure materializes at last: to retrieve the 4 magic items and bring back the Forgotten King who will battle Orcus and free the land. (Heh heh, so they think. Its a lo-o-ong way to level 20.
The monestery points them to the Tomb of the Dwarf Lord, where one of the items, the Sword of Konnag, rests in the Dwarf Lord Konnag's vault. Sadly, the tomb has been sundered and a tribe of orcs uses it aws their base of operations.
The group makes their way towards the monestery, and on the way met with a wandering party of 4 orcs just coming from there. They dispatch them with ease. Soon they come to a clearing in which is a rocky hill 30' high maybe 100' around. There are two partially worked cave openings, one at ground level one 20' up the side of the hill. 2 orcs stand inside each opeing. Oh, and it is morning, they spent the night at the monestery.
Now it is important to remember that everyone is either new or rusty at this, I know I have made many errors since we started, and some make me cringe to think of them, I'm sure I'v emade just as many that I havent caught. But the players have made their share, and coming cockily off the qick 4 orc encounter, they rush willy-nilly into this one and it is almost their undoing. The orcs weild short bows and looted masterwork dwarven short swords. 2 more orcs and the orc lieutenant rush out of the lower cave on the 3rd turn. The druid and his dog charge up the hill, while the fighter charges up to the lower and is quickly surrounded by 4 orcs.
The elf mage wildly runs up to save the fighter (the mage feels guilty for not pre-casting mage armor, this is a trend so far) and miraculously rolls 18 to hit, and does 7 damage, killing an orc! And that is where we end the night (it had already run late) with the fighter surrounded and down to very few hitpoints and 5 or 6 strong orcs still alive. Ended up being a very cliff-hanger ending, unintentially, but it created some good buzz for next week...
Game Night No. 3
Ok, it was a long week of strategic planning and worry for the players but Friday finally arrived and with it the weekly D&D game. One player was absent (the druid and his super-dog) so Jackson my 11 yr old son got to play the character. He did all the dice rolling and moving the miniature around, but decisions were made by committee. It worked out well and the boy enjoyed the game and came one step closer to being a ‘regular’. The fact that we have a full party of 6 players is the main reason he isn’t already a full player. In time.
So, the scene opens with the main fighter surrounded by 3 orcs. The wizard standing to her flank. The druid and dog was at the higher cave entrance holding off 2 orcs. We re-rolled initiative to get a fresh start. The elf rogue, who was absent the week before rushed towards the sound of battle and made her appearance and the tide of battle turned with the party victorious without anyone falling. The elf rogue and gnome bard then proceeded into the cave mouths to inspect the area before the party left to return on the morrow.
(I am glad I planned for this eventuality. With half the orc footmen down, the remaining orcs rig the barrow with traps throughout the day. I would have had to improvise rigged traps if I didn’t prepare for the possibility of them leaving without going on. It always pays to prepare!)
So the rogue and bard, two girls with the least experience, proceed into the cave mouth and into the now-deserted barracks room. There is a chest in one corner (trapped) and a door in the far wall. The girls make every mistake in the book, and try to open the chest without looking for traps, and then the thief has no thieves tools! Strangely enough the bard does have a set, so they manage to get it open and out leaps a poisonous spider (lol!) but they get some loot.
They listen at the door but hear nothing (it is just a hall) Then they go to the upper cave mouth and peer in. It is filled with bones and corpses,the floor is invisible from the gore. (that was a clue) Across the hall is a big dwarf-carved door. The bard, riding the druids riding dog, enters the hall and falls in a concealed 10’ pit, oh that was funny! She took 7 points damage from spikes at the bottom and was covered in gore. The riding dog, who made his save stopped and she flew over his head! It was rich.
So they decide that is enough for the day, though it was only 9 am, and retire back to the monastery to heal and memorize for another assault the next day. To wrap up, they come back, there is mo hijinx with even more traps. The funniest part was the same chest, the one they already looted, was re-trapped, and they went thru the whole rigamarole again, luckily disabling all the traps this time! They open the door, proceed down a hallway where 3 spiders are waiting to drop from the ceiling, 2 ppl get bit and lose Con. Then they barge thru a door and have the penultimate fight – an Orc Shaman and his two bodyguards. This was a weird battle where the elf rogue and elf wizard moved first so they ran into the room and each targeted the shaman. The shaman went down before he ever had a chance to make a move (argh!) but on the orcs turn, the two orcs each take down an elf before themselves dying. So the evening ends right at the end of this battle. Each elf had a Cure Light Wounds cast on him (from the absent Druid lol – make the guy who’s not there memorize all the cure spells) and so it ends.
Game Night No. 4
Assault on Kingsgate.
"The girls" had to be absent this time, so the game basically came down to the druid, the mage, and my son, who played an elf monk. Since it was more of an "optional night" I mixed things up, and rolled back the clock so to say. I had this take place a s secret mission the previous night while they stayed at the monastery. The idea worked pretty well, and it was hinted that bonus xp, and maybe even a magic item would be rewarded. This was mainly to get the cleric to attend, which he didnt so too bad for him.
OK, so Kings Gate was abandoned, doomed, deserted, burning, and under siege. There were pockets of survivors, namely at the Gate tavern, and two marauding ogres had found a perfect place to spread ruin and destruction. Additionally an elven enclave had a child missing who had been staying with the human herbalist when the city was attacked. So the mission was two-fold: destroy the ogres and find the child.
It went down with great battle and destruction. They found the child just as a patrol of 8 skeletons showed up. The dog and druid sacrificed themselves while the monk ran for the elf-child and he escaped. Meanwhile mage, druid and dog are all knocked below zero! The mage had been stabilized and hidden in an over-turned fish cart. But the druid had a chance of recovering, which miraculously he did! And then, his riding dog did (much to my chagrin - I hated that dog as being over-powerful, even though he was within rules.) And finally at 4 am he became conscious, revived dog and mage, and they dragged themselves back to monastery. It was quite a recovery, and though I had resigned myself of the druid's death, I was impressed at his survival!
Oh, the magic item they received was a 'memory sash' that allows 1 extra spell per level while wearing, or grants any item it is wrapped about that has a daily use limit, it will add one.
Game Night No. 5
Back to the orc lair
Many traps, more than the day before, the remaining orcs prepare for defense, party fights its way thru, comes to trapped door.
Game Night No. 6
Must solve the locked door, fight ghost of dwarf lord within, using holy water as one of few weapons ablwe to damage the incorporeal ghost. Gain magic flaming b. sword +2 (main weapon of fighter)