WB1, Session 8: Buried Alive...and Dead

Session 8: "Buried alive...and dead.
Tuesday 23rd, March 1001 AC
(destiny token: 1)

And so the companions found themselves back at the Raven Claw Pass, sitting around a small fire, resting after their encounter with the White dragon and their recent escape. Outside the small cave, the stars were bright and the skies clear. Protected from the chilly northern winds, the party discussed their future and made a quick count of their resources before setting up a watch for the night as Grom quickly fell asleep.

A new take on Critical Hits (and lasting injuries)

I wasn't really satisfied by the default package way of resolving critical hits so I decided to see if I could cook up something a bit more interesting for my current campaign. I'll give the house rule below a test run for a couple sessions, see how it goes...

WB1, Session 7: Welcome to the Menguls!

Session 7: "Welcome to the Menguls!"
Monday 13th, March 1001 AC
(destiny token: 1)

Morning came upon Pflenzen and the companions all met in the main room of the Odin's Beard Inn to share a breakfast. Urist, chugging ale, seemed light-hearted today, as if the night had eased his mind. After a brief discussion, it was decided that they would meet with Knight Banneret Mandred, then head out on the trail again.

WB1, Session 6: Of dots and men

Session 6: "Of dots and men"
Thursday 10th, March 1001 AC

(destiny token: 1)

It was the middle of the night and the camp was silent but for the rain and echoes of thunder in the distance. All around were traces of the earthquake with tents broken and trees uprooted.

Ties of Destiny / Destiny Tokens

In one of my recent adventures as a player, there was a situation, quite dire, where our group was pressed for time and had to find a specific location in a cave. Caves being caves, we encountered some enemies and other challenges and each was draining on our resources (including time left).

WB1, When the Earth Growl, how it started

With five sessions done and posted on this blog, I thought I'd post a bit more information about how it started. 

WB1, Session 5: Into the Wild

Session 5: "Into the Wild"
Sunday 7th, March 1001 AC

And so the party returned to the eastern trail, heading toward Hrodik's farm. The way was well known to them now and the journey was uneventful. Spring was showing more and more signs of it's arrival, the snow slowly thawing into mud with the temperatures slowly rising but dark clouds were amassing in the west. As they walked, the companions also noticed the lone wolf, sometimes trotting alongside them, sometimes disappearing into the distance.

Wizardy: School of Conjuration

With Danik, our mage, reaching level 2, I wanted to give a try to make another Wizardy option available: Conjuration. I already had some ideas before but this was a good time to flesh them out on paper (or whatever this is).

The hardest part is to estimate the balance of this. Wizardy schools in the package are quite powerful I think however, so nothing below should be over the top. If Danik goes this route, it'll be a good time to test things out but he might go Illusion instead...

Help & Hinder, a new take on combat actions

In session 3, Serrin our rogue was faced with having to pick the lock of the big metal door in a hurry, what with being chased by tons of goblins and all that. I house ruled on the fly that he could either rush it in on turn but at disadvantage, or take 5 turns and do it normally.

When he decided to go ahead and rush it, Grom decided to "Help" him, therefore removing the disadvantage. I wanted to try the basic rules so I let things happen but already, it didn't make much sense how an half orc druid with no lock experience could just "help" to such extend.

Afterwards, I thought about this and came up with these two little house rules for Help and Hinder.

Druids and Wild-Shaping

I just HATE the latest druidic wild-shaping from the latest packet. Since Grom is a druid, I figured I'd give a try to some severe house-ruling.
This is what I came up with so far.

The Art of Map-Making

Another house rule, this time regarding map making.

While playing on Roll20, I realized that map making was not very compatible. I also never liked player and paper map making because puts things in the hands of the player, not the PC so you could end up with a 6INT barbarian keeping tracks of everything just because his player is an artist and make superb maps.

Spell-casting and Interrupts

This is a new combat action I added to give potential interesting tactics in regards to spell-casters.

Divine domain: Knowledge

This is my attempt as fleshing out a domain: Knowledge for D&D Next. Our cleric Urist is a priest of Kagyar and figured it might be interesting for him to have the option of a new domain.

I didn't really have a chance to test this out yet but seems fine and interesting.

Dwarves, Rockhome and their god Kagyar

I summed up some things about Dwarves for Urist, our dwarven clerics. It's mostly pure Mystara but modified it slightly to suit my needs, as most things.

Campaign's common knowledge and other stuff

This is some of the basic information I provided before we started. I keep adding and clarifying things here and there as we play. Overall, it's a modified Mystara world setting, keeping what I enjoy, dumping what I don't :)

WB1, Session 4: There and Back again

Session 4: "There and Back again"
Wednesday 3rd, March 1001 AC

And so the morning finally came with no further hints of the goblins...

WB1, Session 3: The Battle of the Cold Heart Mines

Session 3: "The Battle of the Cold Heart Mines"
Tuesday 2nd, March 1001 AC

And so the party had arrived at the Cold Heart mines but a horde of goblins was hot on their heels...

WB1, Session 2: Steps into the North

Session 2: "Steps into the North"
Friday 27th, February 1001 AC

And so the party was at the inn, discussing what they had learned recently. After some time, Danik decided to go and report for duty at the militia barracks and Serrin went into the streets to see if he could find more information regarding Njall Thrinnsson, the wanted son of the old Governor. Meanwhile, Urist, having learned about the delay in the arrival of the dwarven caravan from Cold Heart Mines, decided to pray for their safe travels and asked Grom to participate.

WB1, Session 1: The Caravan to Pflenzen

(I’ll be using a standard Gregorian calendar to keep things simple.)

Session 1: "The Caravan to Pflenzen"
Monday 23rd, February 1001 AC

It was early morning and the caravan was getting ready to depart. the Hognisson brothers (Jonas and Hinrik), a young woman (Heindina) and two guards were loading the last crates up the carts when the first travelling companions arrived. Greeted by Jonas, Urist, Danik, Serrin and Grom quickly introduced themselves.