Category: D&D Encounters

Last week the PCs traveled to the Caves of Chaos where they faced wave after wave of monstrous minions. They managed to save Otis, retrieve the Chaos Blade, and escape with their lives. They were too wounded to make the long trip back to Hommel Lane so they camped and took an extended rest.

They questioned Otis who was very forthcoming. He explained that the ghost who helped them was none other than Hafferon Hommel. He told Otis and his adventuring party all about what was really going on including that existence of a chaos mote, an imprisoned deity of evil trying to escape a celestial prison, and three items of power that were needed to seal the rift and stop this god from slipping through. The first item was the Chaos Blade blade which the party now possessed. The second was the Scroll of Final Words which the ghost beleived was in possession of an evil cleric known as “Beautiful.” The third was the Death Circlet which was currently in the possession of great evil near Hommel Lane.

This week I ran a table of five PCs. Elf Fighter (Slayer), Pixie Wizard (Witch), Tiefling Ardent/Battle Mind (hybrid), Drow Wizard, and Ryltar the Drow Fighter (Slayer) pre-gen.

Actual Play Podcast at Silver Snail (Week 4) Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Last week the party faced the bandits in the Moat House, this week they ventured to the Caves of Chaos. One of the things that I’m really enjoying about this season of D&D Encounters is that the players decide the order of events.

Despite some inclement weather in the GTA we still had a remarkably good turnout. We ran three solid tables with only two regulars absent. However, we had one new player show up so that was a plus. I think it really speaks to the quality of this season’s adventure that the players aren’t finding excuses to miss weeks. In the past a little bit of snow might have kept 1/3 of our regulars away, but not this season.

My table had four players from last week and one brand new guy. The returning players were running an Elf Fighter (Slayer), Pixie Wizard (Witch) and Tiefling Ardent/Battle Mind (hybrid). The player who was running the Fargrim pre-gen last week brought a Half-Orc Barbarian this week. Our fifth player was brand new to D&D having never played any edition before. He opted for Ryltar, the Drow Fighter (Slayer) pre-gen.

Actual Play Podcast at Harry T North (Week 3) Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Actual Play Podcast at Silver Snail (Week 3) Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Beginning this week every party participating in this season’s adventure will have the option of following one of three adventure paths. So there is a strong likelihood that the path my group took this week will not match the path your group took this week. It’s going to be tough to describe what happened without giving away some spoilers. Please be mindful of this as you continue reading.

Players who don’t want to know what’s still to come may want to delay reading this recap until they’ve had an opportunity to complete this part of the adventure. DMs who have not yet run this adventure path can hopefully learn from my ups and downs to make their DMing experience better when the time comes.

This week we had a great turn out as our numbers continued to grow. We had three tables with five players each. We haven’t seen this kind of turnout since the Dark Sun adventure back in season 2. My table had five players: two new players (one brand new last week, one brand new this week) along with three seasoned veterans (one a DM at another FLGS). The party consisted of an Elf Slayer, Pixie Wizard (Witch), Drow Wizard, Tiefling Ardent/Battle Mind (hybrid), and Fargrim the Dwarf Fighter (Slayer) pre-gen.

Actual Play Podcast at Harry T North (Week 2) Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Actual Play Podcast at Silver Snail (Week 2) Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

D&D Encounters Season 12, Against the Cult of Chaos, is finally underway. After a long break, Wednesday night D&D returned to FLGS across the country and around the world. This season returns to the more traditional D&D Encounters mold with one normal encounter each week. For an overview of what’s on tap this season I encourage you to check out our D&D Encounters: Against the Cult of Chaos – Preview.

One significant change this time around is that DMs have a choice of running the adventure using the 4e D&D mechanics provided in the adventure or downloading the play test kit and running it using the D&D Next rules. At both FLGS where I play we polled our regulars to gauge their interest. We had one or two at both locations say they were interested in trying D&D Next but they wouldn’t be terribly disappointed if we stuck with 4e. As none of the DMs have been involved in recent D&D Next play testing we opted to just stick with the 4e rules we already know.

At our FLGS we had 15 people, just enough to split into three tables. Despite losing a few of our regulars after the long break, we did have three brand new players join the fun. I got a good mix of experience and anticipation at my table. The party consisted of a Drow Wizard, Tiefling Ardent/Battle Mind (hybrid), Pixie Wizard (Witch), and Elf Fighter (Slayer). The player running the Ardent is the DM this season at another FLGS and the player running the Slayer was playing D&D for the very first time in any edition.

SPOILER WARNING: This season the party is given a lot of freedom to explore the town of Hommel Lane in whatever order they see fit. There are three threats to the village that can be uncovered and tackled in any order. If you have problems separating player knowledge from character knowledge then you may want to skip these weekly recaps until after you’ve completed week 7.

Actual Play Podcast at Silver Snail (Week 1) Play Now | Play in Popup | Download