After a dangerous journey across tundra and ice, the party arrives at the Dark Duchess pirate ship in search of treasure. But more danger awaits below deck.
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Starring:
Valravn, level 8 Eladrin Bard of Eloquence
Fray, level 8 Halfling Barbarian of the Beast/Fighter
Celeste, level 8 Half-orc Sun Soul Monk
Edmond, Level 8 Human Alchemist Artificer
Thimbleweed, level 8 Gnome Swarmkeeper Ranger
We left off last week with a frost giant mounted on a woolly mammoth barreling down on the party. Like many D&D encounters, it didn’t quite go as anyone would have planned.
An encounter is a single one-off event. A lair is a self-contained dungeon crawl. An expedition, from what I can tell, is the next step toward full-length adventure.
Extraordinary Expeditions (also available on the Crit Academy website) includes ten mini-adventures, from levels 1 – 10. Each expedition is 10-12 pages in length, and typically features outdoor monster hunts rather than dungeon crawls.
The quality varies; I enjoyed some of the expeditions far more than others, but the overall layout, presentation, and organization is top-notch.
Inspiration is a clever tool in D&D 5e that awards players a free re-roll for doing whatever the DM deems rewardable: an awesome kill, a clever plan, or stellar role-playing.
Inspiration 2.0 adapts the Fortune Cards system from D&D 4e, transforming the bonus cards into Inspiration rewards. The result is a player-focused Inspiration supplement that feels unnecessarily restrictive.
Starring:
Valravn, level 8 Eladrin Bard of Eloquence
Fray, level 8 Halfling Barbarian of the Beast/Fighter
Celeste, level 8 Half-orc Sun Soul Monk Edmond, Level 8 Human Alchemist Artificer
Thimbleweed, level 8 Gnome Swarmkeeper Ranger
The marshals return to Bryn Shander, minus Vellyne. Ten Towns remains in dire shape, with Speaker Shane doing all she can to run the only two functioning towns in the region.
Others leave to rebuild (or never left) but request aid that will never come. If the everlasting night isn’t solved soon, surviving the dragon’s assault won’t matter.
With that in mind, let’s so searching for pirate treasure!
When I think “monster weakness” I picture glowing red parts of a monster’s body in old school boss fights. In D&D, exploitable weaknesses are few and far between, such as a skeleton’s vulnerability to bludgeoning damage.
Monster Weaknesses includes over 500 new traits that clever player characters can discover and exploit, all of which are far more interesting and detailed than simple damage vulnerabilities.
Starring:
Valravn, level 7 Eladrin Bard of Eloquence
Fray, level 7 Halfling Barbarian of the Beast/Fighter
Celeste, level 7 Half-orc Sun Soul Monk
Edmond, Level 7 Human Alchemist Artificer
Thimbleweed, level 7 Gnome Swarmkeeper Ranger
In a span of a few seconds, the ghost of Nass Lantomir possessed Vellyne and summoned an otherworldly mass of tentacles from the Far Realm (Hunger of Hadar).
The gnome bodies exploded, transforming into Deathlock Wights. Thimbleweed’s player secret was violently revealed when Vellyne-Nass ripped the insectoid growing inside him, reducing him to 1 hit point and changing his secret from The Host into The Evolved.
Vellyne-Nass grabbed the orb from the gnome body and the insectoid hatchling from Thimbleweed and teleported away, as the Earth Elemental continued to rampage.
Normally I would dramatically declare, “Roll for Initiative!”, but we were already in combat. Initiative continues!
Isolated snowy areas and horror go together like vampires and freshly-washed necks. Crimson Snow blends several reliable horror tropes into the beginnings of an interesting story, though the inevitably bloody final act comes way too quickly.
The mini-adventure is designed for levels 10-13. It’s exciting to review a Tier 3 one-shot, but the entire thing is barely 10 pages long. Lack of content and a sprint towards the big climax are its biggest problems.
Starring:
Valravn, level 7 Eladrin Bard of Eloquence
Fray, level 7 Halfling Barbarian of the Beast/Fighter
Celeste, level 7 Half-orc Sun Soul Monk (played by Valravn this sesh)
Edmond, Level 7 Human Alchemist Artificer
Thimbleweed, level 7 Gnome Swarmkeeper Ranger
Having explored about half of the dwarven mining facility, the Marshals were left with the magically protected security door to the arcane laboratory. Valravn had dispelled the Arcane Lock, but only Edmond knew how to properly pick locks, and he couldn’t safely make it across the yawning chasm.
After scratching their heads a bit, the party decide to find another path (and hopefully a key). They explore the eastern side of the dungeon, through more half-destroyed hallways and storage rooms.
The beholder crime boss of Waterdeep is sure to have more than a few treasures stashed away. Xanathar’s Secret Stash features over 100 magic items, including armor, weapons, boots, belts, staves, and wands.
Starring:
Valravn, level 7 Eladrin Bard of Eloquence
Fray, level 7 Halfling Barbarian of the Beast/Fighter
Celeste, level 7 Half-orc Sun Soul Monk
Edmond, Level 7 Human Alchemist Artificer
Thimbleweed, level 7 Gnome Swarmkeeper Ranger
The Marshals short rest in the shipping room, with the barbarian and bard rolling all of their hit dice to recover their wounds from the snow golem battle.
A more secure storage room to the west held food and water. The party search for any useful medical supplies but come up mostly short, finding only a single healer’s kit (the Investigation checks were hilariously bad).
Exploring north they found a destroyed office room. Almost everything was picked over, but they did find a log book written in dwarvish, presumably by a supervisor of the mining facility.
The logbook detailed the arrival of the new boss, Vaelish Gant, and his obsession with excavating chardalyn. It also included his discovery of the motherlode, and his subsequent disappearance and arrest, causing the rest of the dwarf miners to loot and flee this facility.
Thimbleweed donned his Piwafi cloak and stealthily peeks around the long hallway stretching east to west, where an eerie blue light emanates from a shambling figure roaming the hallway.
Eric Watson 