Categories
Editorial

D&D Encounters: Keep on the Borderlands (Week 9)

Level 2. It took nine weeks, but we finally made it. In addition to this week’s write up we’ve got level 2 versions of the pre-gens available for download below. This week’s encounter began a few days after the events from chapters 1 and 2. Our DM waved his Wand of Revisionist History and we suddenly remembered things differently now that we’d had a week to think about it.

After returning to Restwell Keep and turning Ronnik over to the guards, he was tried for his crimes. The evidence the PC already acquired was quite damning. Ronnik was found guilty after only a few days of deliberation and is scheduled for execution. The PCs spent some time trying to find anything to prove of disprove Ronnik’s innocence since the revelations that happened during the last encounter. All they found was more damning evidence including confirmation that Ronnik purchased supplies from the nearby outpost that were later found in the Cult of Tiamat hideout. No one in the keep had anything good to say about Ronnik either. It turns out he wasn’t very popular.

After a few days rest, Benwick invited the party to dinner with the hint of a new job opportunity. Once at Benwick’s home he introduced us to the captain of the watch, Gorn Hammerfall. He explained that Gorn is a direct descendent of the Dwarven bandit lord Greysen Ramthane, a former resident of the keep. Before Greysen was overthrown by Nerath’s forces he hid his wealth somewhere in the keep. Gorn has found the bandit’s cache but needs our help getting it. He’s concerned that if Lord Drysdale (the current lord) discovers the loot he’ll keep it himself even though it’s Gorn’s by right.

Categories
Editorial

D&D Encounters: Keep on the Borderlands (Week 1)

D&D Encounters: Keep on the Borderlands kicked off yesterday. Although the number or participants at my FLGS has been steadily dwindling over the past few weeks we had enough people to run the first encounter last night.

D&D Encounters is a great way for new people to try their hand at being the DM. And that’s exactly what happened at our table. Few players at my FLGS have made every game since D&D Encounters began, but one of the most consistent participants decided that he was going to step up and DM this time around. I don’t know if this was his first time ever DMing or just his first time DMing D&D Encounters, but he did a phenomenal job.

Categories
Player Resources

D&D Encounters Season 3 Characters

D&D Encounters season 3 begins today. Using new rules from the D&D Essentials line, the season 3 adventure is a re-imagining of the D&D classic, Keep on the Borderlands. The adventure is broken into five chapters, each one running four weeks (yes, that’s a total of 20 weeks for those of you doing the math).

Players are encouraged to create their own characters using the new D&D Essentials rules found in the recently released Red Box. Wizards of the Coast hinted that Character Builder would be updated with the Essentials materials in time for everyone to make suitable PCs for D&D Encounters season 3. Unfortunately that didn’t happen. So unless you’ve picked up the Red Box and are happy making a character without character builder, then for at least the first week you’ll have to use one of the six pre-generated characters provided.