Tag: Wizards of the Coast

During their time in the library last week, the party discovered the floor plan to the Monastery. They knew only two rooms were on this floor. Even if there was more undead within, how difficult could it be to explore those two rooms and kill anything that shouldn’t be there? The heroes were about to find out.

This week at our FLGS we ran a double session at both tables. The heroes had the opportunity to explore the two rooms that made up the main floor of the Dwarven Monastery before heading down to the caverns below. The adventure said that the PCs could explore the rooms in whichever order they wanted to. Since the rooms were likely to just be two back-to-back, hack and slash encounters with minimal role-playing, we decided to run them both tonight. My table decided to explore the Meditation Room (the week 12 encounter) first. The other table decided to explore the Sleeping Quarters first. But by the end of the night we’d all completed both encounters.

“Salazar Vladistone is a hero.” At least he was during his lifetime, according to Faldyra. After last week’s battle against the ghosts of Hammerfast, this week’s encounter began with a quick breather in the library. The PCs found Faldyra pouring through old dusty tomes in the library’s basement archives. She’d discovered information about the leader of the Phantom Brigade as well as a possible way to defeat him once and for all.

This week at our FLGS we were running with a skeleton crew. My table had only three players, but one of the veterans was willing and able to run both Belgos and Valenae. The other two players were running Jarren and a new addition to the party, a Dragonborn Fighter. The other table at our FLGS had five players, all of them still sore from the TPK they suffered last week and looking to get back into the game.

When the encounter’s called “The Death of Aldus Splintershield” it’s a safe bet that the party is in for one hell of a fight. After defeating the infected foresters last week, Brother Splintershield allowed for only a short rest before the party continued deeper into the woods to discover the source of the strange plague infecting the men and animals.

A good DM learns from his mistakes. I’ve certainly made plenty of mistakes as a DM. This week I had the opportunity to learn from one I made just a few weeks ago at D&D Encounters. During Week 3the party explored the ruins of Castle Inverness. Unfortunately the only 1-inch scale battle map provided was for the corner of the keep where the monsters were hiding. As soon as the players saw this, they knew that nothing “important” was likely to happen anywhere else.

Last week I tried to emphasize that just because there’s a map doesn’t mean that there’s certainly going to be combat or that there’s even any threats present. The result of my craftiness regrettably ended with Belgos the Dragonborn murdering Steve… poor guy.

This week I tried to learn from my Week 3 mistake. I didn’t produce the 1-inch scale battle map until it was actually time for combat. I found a copy of the Harken Forest online in the Wizards forums. I printed a colour copy on an 11 x 17 page and presented this to the players. Without a clear indication of where the battle would take place, they were extremely cautious when exploring.

The town in the ruins of Castle Inverness grew over the past six months. The PCs went on with their regular lives as productive members of the growing community during that time. The ghostly tower that appeared on the first night the settlers arrived still stood in the centre of town. All attempts to gain access failed.

Chapter 2 of The March of the Phantom Brigade began on a cold winter’s night like any other. Having met up after their daily responsibilities were completed, the PCs headed to the local tavern for some food, drink, company and entertainment. While there they join Faldyra for supper and engaged in conversation with some of Malgram’s scouts.

The scouts explained that they’d recently discovered a number of animals infected with some kind of unknown illness. The creatures were unusually aggressive (if still alive when encountered). The infection was a red-gold crystalline growth that surfaced from beneath the skin. No one, including the heroes, had an idea what it was or what was causing it.

Brother Splintershield stormed into the tavern seeking Faldyra’s aid. Some of the foresters just returned from their logging camp and the situation was not good. He beckoned for the PCs to come along as well.