After an agonizingly slow season, the season seven finale for The Walking Dead finally delivered the highly-anticipated rematch between Rick and Negan. Rick and company have a plan, but it’s going to take all their allies to bail them out as the first shots of war are fired. And one of our own isn’t going to make it out alive.
The Walking Dead has had a pretty rough season, and I’m being polite. A lot of fans understandably left after the ridiculous season six finale, which turned a huge character death into a cheap summer-long dangling carrot.
Things have only gotten worse from there, as the show continues to suffer from major pacing and writing issues. As we saw from the admittedly great finale there’s some hope for the future, but The Walking Dead as a show may be entering its twilight years.
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After over a year with our first D&D 5e characters, it was time for a change. You’ve already seen the announcement that our next adventure will be another officially published 5E campaign: “Storm King’s Thunder.” The other big news is that Chris (who played everyone’s favorite zealous Paladin Kalinaar) will be sitting in the DM’s chair, and I’ll become a player!
The streaming schedule, YouTube channel, and weekly recaps will remain the same. Our campaign will begin with Session 1 on Friday, April 14. But first we needed to create our new characters. Welcome to Session 0 – Character Creation!
To summarize our session, I’ve copied each player’s character backstory (as written by them) as well as a screencap of their level 1 character sheet. Wish us luck against the giants this year!
Played by Eric
Born as a bastard son of an elf lord, Kazin rarely met his aloof father. He was raised by his human mother in Neverwinter, but his father made sure they never wanted for anything.
Despite middle-upper class upbringing and schooling, Kazin never took to bookwork, instead displaying a natural athleticism. Around puberty, however, he began suffering from terrible headaches. He could hear the thoughts of others, and sometimes they could hear his. His mother sought after numerous physicians, mages, and caregivers. Finally someone showed up who could help, a most unexpected ally – a cloud giant wizard named Zephyros.
After some weeks spent aboard his floating tower, Zephyros delivered him to a solitary monastery nestled in the mountains, home to a little-known and even less understood organization called Mind-Zei. There he learned how to quiet his mind, and tap into the thoughts in his head, controlling them rather than letting them control him.
The Mind-Zei monks told him that many kids are born with “awakened minds” – those touched by the alien beings of the Far Realm. Whether through purpose or cosmic joke, many are driven insane after puberty, when their powers begin to manifest. The Mind-Zei attempt to reach them before that happens and train them to control their telepathic and telekinetic powers. They are not always successful, however…
Kazin flourished under their guidance. Instead of meditation and quiet solitude he would practice martial skills to help keep his mind focused. His natural talents and drive worried some of the order, but when he came of age they agreed to let him travel the world. Their only wish was for Kazin to maintain the harmonic balance within his mind, and help those who exhibit the same symptoms (or put them out of their misery).
Played by Reese
T.I.M. hails from Ardeep Forest and started out as a body guard for his master and creator. Although it was an odd occupation, since his (his? its? her? the androgynous construct’s?) creator was a bit of a hermit and needed no protection from the local fauna.
T.I.M. was taught the healing arts from his creator as well as how to spot a bog leach at a hundred paces. One day, as T.I.M. was out looking for said leaches, he returned home to find his creator dead and probably not from natural causes. What could have killed such a mighty god? Food poisoning? An impacted bowel? Healing bog leaches? A paper cut? T.I.M. had not a clue.
T.I.M. then shrugged at this unknown quantity. With a handful of leaches and no other humans to adhere them to, T.I.M. took off for the nearest town.
Before he left, he made sure to gather the holy book of wisdom written by his creator. A book his creator wrote in every day, usually in the evening, and had scrawled diary on the front for some reason. “Onward,” thought T.I.M., “to find other fellow humans that totally aren’t made of metal and wood! Just like me.”
Played by Heather
I grew up as the only daughter of Lyandra Esterborn. Lyandra ran a gambling parlor, Hope House in Baldur’s Gate. She was loved by everyone and despised by those who thought they could beat the house. She loved the irony of calling her business Hope House because while her patrons came in Hoping to fix their troubles they left worse off then before.
From a young age I watched my mother and those who came to Hope House and learned everything I could. I learned how to charm those around me and make them feel at ease even though they couldn’t see past my appearance. As a child they didn’t see me for the threat that I had become.
As a teenager I began to have issues with the world around me. I could feel a force inside me asking to be released. The more I tried to reign in this force the more dangerous I became. It was then that my mother found a teacher who understood what was going on. My teacher taught me that the force I was feeling inside me was the power and magic that was inherent in the world. She taught me how to find the power and how to harness it for my needs.
While I was learning to control this power I fell into the love of gambling. The feel of the cards in my hand, the risk of not coming out on top. My mother taught me how to always win, but with this new magic I never know what is going to happen especially when I left the magic take control.
Played by Raymond
For as long as Halfred can remember (which isn’t long given his worsening memory loss), he has served for his master, Wuce Brayne, and his family. Following the tragic murder of Wuce’s parents, Halfred took him in and raised him as a son. When Wuce came of age, he inherited his parents’ multimillion fortune and the best hill mansion money could buy, with Halfred still at his side.
Unfortunately for halflings, money doesn’t buy happiness. Years before the onset of this campaign, Wuce Brayne had set out on a soul-searching journey, inviting Halfred to join him. Along the way, Halfred learned a few basic combat skills and the skills necessary to survive out in the wild. After precisely one year, two months, and eight days, Wuce and Halfred returned to their home town, Gotham Shire.
Unfortunately, things were not the same. During their absence, a golden ring had gone missing. Giants, ogres, and harpies were becoming unsettled. They were terrorizing the halflings who just wanted to live peacefully and have their afternoon tea. Something had to be done.
It was at this point that Wuce realized his true calling. This journey gave him the strength to achieve what no other halfling could do. Wuce donned his mask and It was this day that the Wombatman was born.
Meanwhile, Halfred continued to serve Master Wuce as the only one who knew the Wombatman’s true identity. He continued to do a couple push-ups a day to maintain his upper body strength. Crime was down. Giants and ogres were no longer terrorizing the halflings of Gotham Shire. Then one day, Halfred could see the eureka moment in his Master Wuce. Wuce said in his gruff voice, “Halfred, the answer is in the giants. Follow the giants.” And with that, Wuce as the Wombatman drove off in his Wombatmobile, never to be seen again.
And thus begins the story of Halfred the servant.
Played by Rachelle
Korinn was a renowned warrior of a tribe of blue dragonborn. Tribal wars broke out with the treacherous and low white dragonborn.
In a pivotal battle, Korinn set her sights on the commander of the enemy tribe. One on one battle ensued. Drenched in his blood, she felt herself weakening with his blood corrupting hers and stripping her of much of her power. She was about to give the finishing blow but the enemy was upon her, striking her down. A mortal wound. Sensing death, they left her to her fate.
Alone on the battlefield, writhing in agony, and near the end, she was visited by Bahamut (or so she thinks) who gave her a chance at redemption to lead her tribe to glory. Too ashamed to face her tribe now that she is tainted with white dragon blood, she instead journeys to cleanse herself so that she might someday return.
Streamed, recorded and uploaded every week. Subscribe for our weekly adventures. Join us live on Fridays at 7pm Pacific/10pm Eastern!
Streamed, recorded and uploaded every week. Subscribe for our weekly adventures. Join us live on Fridays at 7pm Pacific/10pm Eastern!
Making friends came easy to me; I had made plenty growing up. But none as strange as these. I carefully considered each one of them from beneath the cowl of the midnight-blue robes of my order.
The tiefling woman, Bryseis, was the first I met. She was also interested in the tales of the monolith in Nightstone. She seemed powerful, but unpredictable. I didn’t want to pin her obvious demonic heritage on her demeanor, but she seemed to delight in the chaos and magic around her.
A halfling tracker named Halfred found us, and he seemed nice enough. He was preoccupied with giants. Apparently they’ve been restless lately, and his path crosses with ours. Despite his size he carries a mean longbow nearly as big as he is.
I’d met few dragonborn in my day and Korinn certainly fits my understanding of them: proud, honorable, and quick to action. Despite being a sorcerer she likes to wield a crossbow. I believe she has some kind of military background, and seems to carry it around like a burden.
Our final member is stranger than all the rest combined. Calling itself “T.I.M.,” a living construct of wood and metal ambled out of the nearby Ardeep Forest on our way to Nightstone. Despite its grave appearance it was completely friendly – the friendliest one of all in fact. I’m still trying to figure it (him? her?) out, and grew even more alarmed when I witnessed T.I.M. channeling divine power.
We came upon the town of Nightstone, and Halfred went to work identifying the muddy footprints outside the drawbridge. The town had seen a mass exodus, while goblins and worgs filed in afterward. We could see a pair of worgs in the middle of the town, their mouths wet with blood as they feasted.
Halfred had some concerns about attacking the beasts, but this was our best chance. Bryseis lured one of them closer with a Dancing Lights spell, perhaps enjoying toying with it a bit too much. When it leapt at the lights we fired off attacks, spells and arrows. The beast lay dead before it even reached us.
We approached the town gate. Our adventure lay before us.
Welcome to four first official recap of “Storm King’s Thunder!” These recaps will be a bit different than our previous campaigns, as I’m not the DM. Instead I’ll include a fun little role-playing story at the beginning of each recap ripped from the session, then dive into the recap from my point of view as a player.
I really enjoyed the prologue our DM concocted to introduce our characters and bring us all together. Each little vignette included a skill check or save we had to make – all five of us passed! We are a very diverse bunch with widely different backgrounds but hopefully we can find a way to work together.
We met outside the gates of Nightstone, a fortified town near Waterdeep. Our halfling ranger rolled a critical success on identifying the footprints outside the gate, giving us clues that this town was a hostile area. From just outside of town we could see a pair of worgs, though they were busy eating.
Worgs are bad news, and often used as goblin mounts. Halfred and T.I.M. had some reservations about attacking them first, but this was our best chance to take them out. We launched a bevy of ranged attacks, Eldritch Blast, Firebolt, Longbow, Crossbow, etc. The first worg lay dead before it reached us, while the other didn’t even notice.
I suspect our DM was a little miffed we took out the creature so easily, so when we tried to get a bit closer before unleashing a similar assault, the second worg noticed us and charged, using Dash to close in fast. Still we got off a ton of attacks and downed it quickly.
The town resembled Thundertree from our Phandelver campaign; an outdoor dungeon with buildings to explore. And holy crap was it huge! I’m not a fan of the way the map simply halved the grid size, making all our tokens super tiny even when zoomed in all the way. But the sheer scale of this town is damn impressive and intimidating.
We checked out the temple first, since the bell hadn’t stopped ringing since we arrived. Inside was a pair of goblins happily pulling the rope of the bell. A fight broke out when I opened the door. Thankfully they both missed me, and I was able to murder one with a single blow from my staff. I used Awakened Mind and the fact that we were five against one to talk the other down from fighting and try to get some information.
The goblin was forthcoming but didn’t really know much. The town was empty when they arrived, and they were simply looting. The rest of the party asked their questions but no one knew how to deal with him. We decided to cut the rope, barricade the door, and trap him inside for now.
From there we scoped out the nearby inn. The town was full of giant rocks that had done significant damage to everything; the inn had massive holes from the ceiling down to the ground.
The inn contained a dead goblin and a fully functioning bar, huzzah! Unfortunately the Dynamic Lighting for the Roll20 campaign package screwed up a bit here, as we could see beyond the next room and the goblin that lay within.
We didn’t really plan anything and just opened the door, finding the goblin with a giant loot sack. He charged and did some nasty damage. We outnumbered him five to one and it still took us two rounds to take him down. T.I.M. had to cast Cure Wounds!
The lootsack was mostly full of crap, with a few broken treasure items we could sell.
The upstairs of the inn contained a number of doors and Halfred impressed once again with a 25 Perception roll. One room contained a strange woman who seemed bewildered by the attacks and looting. I made an Insight check with a 15, and could tell she was lying.
Things got a bit tricky here, as this woman eventually revealed herself to be a member of the Zhentarim, which apparently features into Bryseis’ backstory. That’s nifty, but Bryseis’ response was to attack her, while the rest of the party wanted more information. I mean hell, they didn’t want to attack the blood-thirsty worgs, of course they’re going to need more to go on here!
After a bit of arguing and information-gathering (the Zhents wanted to move in and take over, but we did learn that the rocks and damage was caused by a floating cloud giant castle, whoa!) Bryseis reached out to cast Shocking Grasp and get the party started.
In close proximity it was a simple back and forth trading of blows, though the spy had multiattack and cut me up pretty bad. I used Dissonant Whispers to drop her dead from psychic assault in response. Clearly the tiefling has some explaining to do, and we may need to make some ground rules for our party going forward lest we fall apart before our story gets started.
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Check out my previous Final Thoughts for Rogues’ Adventures. Keep up with my adventures in backlog gaming via the Facebook group.
Developer: Arkane Studios
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Release Date: November 16, 2016
I played the first Dishonored nearly three years ago during Rogue’s Adventures season four. At that point the game was already several years old, and I was able to play all of the post-launch DLC.
Dishonored 2 was a long time coming. As far as sequels go it plays things pretty safe, presenting the same cool steampunk world and satisfying magical-stealth gameplay. Where Dishonored 2 succeeds is in its incredible level design and far more engaging story.
Dishonored 2 takes place several years after the first game. Protagonist Corvo Attano had successfully rescued the daughter of the slain Empress and fought back against the new regime. Emily Kaldwin now sits on the throne, though it’s not exactly a time of peace and prosperity.
The opening introduces the delicious Evil Queen-like villain Delilah Copperspoon (I adore this series’ character names). She leads a coven of witches who wield the same void powers that Corvo used in the first game, and she appears to be startlingly immortal.
You’re given the choice between playing Emily or Corvo in the sequel. Each character has slightly different void powers to aid them in their skulking and assassinating.
I played as Emily of course. While it’s nice to see Corvo actually voiced (he was a silent protagonist in the first game) I definitely wanted to see how Emily developed as a character, and the displaced, reluctant young Empress seemed far more compelling.
From there your character flees Dunwall with the help of Megan Foster aboard her boat the Dreadful Wale, which becomes your base of operation throughout the story. It’s a much smaller, simpler base than the first game with not much to do but talk to one or two people and move on to the next mission.
The overarching story becomes a sequence of hunting specific targets as you dismantle Delilah’s power structure and discover the truth behind her powers. It’s a bit too simple and structured, but the individual storytelling within each mission is fantastic.
In one of the later missions you have to choose between one of two terrible factions to help in order to access an area – or do a bit of extra investigation and help neither. There’s a lot of fun little scenes and NPC dialogue scattered around the world, making it very rewarding to leap around rooftops and spy on unsuspecting guards and citizens.
The level designs are exceptional. The Greek Island-like steampunk-whaling world of Dishonored is already amazingly cool, with evil witches, clockwork soldiers, electro-gates, and pistol-wielding guards. But the sequel introduces some fantastic new levels and toys, including a clockwork mansion that moves and shifts around you, allowing you to sneak in the in-between spaces.
The most astonishing level takes place during two different time periods. You’re given a device that lets you see into the past or present (whichever you aren’t in currently) super-imposed onto your current view, and it’s absolutely magical. The entire level becomes a puzzle you have to navigate, using your ability to time-shift.
At your disposal you have a host of special void powers that are so useful they make the game almost too easy – and I played on Hard. Emily’s powers include teleporting to far places, as well as grabbing people, easily separating foes from each other. If there’s too many simply use Domino to link them together and let fly a single sleep dart. If you’re really in trouble, use Mesmerize to stun a whole group as you teleport away.
The void powers are nicely empowering, and let you explore every hidden path on your way to collecting more runes and bonecharms. Runes are used to purchase powers and upgrades, and bonecharms are used to passively buff your stats or offer perks – like mana regeneration under water or longer Shadow Walk duration. You can purchase a power to let you craft bonecharms and stack the bonuses into becoming crazy overpowered.
The powers are a lot of fun but by the end of the game I was cruising through every encounter with ease. Granted I was taking my time and grabbing every rune and charm and was enormously powerful, but the game just couldn’t seem to deal with its own powers it gave me.
There is an option to refuse the void powers and go at it with grenades, mines, and crossbow alone, which feels like a suitable answer to those wanting a far more challenging experience. Alas, I barely have time to play games once, let alone replay with more challenge.
Early on you’re given a device that automatically tracks every rune and bonecharm in each level, which pretty much forced me to find and collect every one of them. Each level, from outdoor city scapes to giant buildings is fun to explore and offers a variety of challenges, including blood-fly nests, walls of light, wolfhounds, and patrolling guards.
The final DLC for Dishonored, The Brigmore Witches, is hugely important to the story of Dishonored 2. That DLC introduced what becomes the main adversaries for the sequel, which unfortunately took the wow factor out of seeing the witch enemies in Dishonored 2. Not to mention the aforementioned sliding difficulty at the end that made them more of a minor nuisance than a real threat.
I was able to complete Dishonored 2 with Low Chaos. The concept of Low/High Chaos returns from the first game, and again represents how many people you killed in your adventure.
Like the first game, killing people gives you the High Chaos ending = which is evil and bad. This time there’s no rat plague to make the body count a bad thing – you’re just not supposed to kill too many people. Want the good ending? You’ll need to be more Batman, less assassin.
I’m fine with a more nonlethal approach but it feels like a weird conceit, especially since some foes, like the witches, are super evil. The game also goes out of its way to let you take out each and every boss nonlethally. Each one requires you to do an extra side task that usually comes down to some easy busywork, like mixing a potion. You could complete the game without killing a single soul, which is impressive.
As a fan of the first game, Dishonored 2 gave me everything I wanted in a sequel and more. The story is far more interesting with a voiced protagonist and fun cadre of villains. The mission structure is still linear but individual levels take full advantage of offering unique gameplay experiences and story moments. And the Chaos levels, void powers, and choice of hero offers a lot of replay value. At this point I would be fully on board with a third game that lets me further explore this fascinating world.
While we patiently wait for Nintendo to confirm and announce the SNES Classic Edition retro console we can have a bit of fun speculating on which games it should include.
The Super Nintendo was blessed with arguably the greatest gaming library of any console. While Mario, Zelda, and Metroid didn’t start with the SNES, it was where they became titans of the industry.
The NES Classic Edition came bundled with 30 games, most of which were published by Nintendo. Let’s decide which 30 SNES games should grace the upcoming SNES Classic.
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Previously on “Storm King’s Thunder”
The warforged man of wood and metal flew through the air, landing hard, but solidly over the 15 foot gap in the bridge. Before we could formulate a plan to get the others across, a goblin came shrieking around a corner to the North.
Damn! We’d pitied the first goblins we came across, leaving one trapped but alive. As recompense it stirred up the hornet’s nest. We thought the town cleared. We were wrong.
We easily cut the screamer down, but a trio of goblins poured out of nearby buildings. T.I.M. leapt back across, a bit less gracefully, and received an arrow in the chest in response. Our party was flustered, missing too many shots, while the goblins appeared more galvanized than ever. They’d seen the bodies. They knew what we were capable of.
I surrounded myself in a protective barrier and charged them. The vicious beast sneered at my deliberate approach, and his whirling blade sliced right through my spectral shield. A gasp escaped my lips while the goblin yelped backward as the frost burned his skin. I heard shouting behind me, then nothing at all as I fell to the ground.
This week’s session was all about the goblin fighting. We continued exploring the destroyed town of Nightstone, now full of goblin looters.
We were still in the inn, standing over the body of Kella, a Zhentarim agent. T.I.M. used Spare the Dying and we disarmed and bound her
(and Bryseis commandeered her pet flying snake), though I’m unsure what fate awaits her. As we’ll find out soon enough, leaving enemies alive can swiftly come back to hurt us.
From our second story vantage point we spotted a pair of goblins arguing in a nearby farm. We deliberated on how to handle them, ultimately deciding that once again it was best to surprise them with a volley of ranged attacks.
With a surprise round and superior initiative rolls we easily took them out before they had a chance to respond. Feeling a bit overconfident we began to fan out of the Inn and explore the small chicken farm to the East.
Halfred strolled into a stable full of horses, and received a nasty arrow in the chest in response. A goblin hid in the upper loft! With five on one we cut him down, but we should have learned a lesson about carefully exploring the rest of the town.
The guard towers weren’t tall enough to provide a proper lay of the town, so we continued to the Southeast, blasting another goblin in a second guard tower, and ambushing two more playing with pumpkins in another farm.
As long as we could surprise and take these goblins on in small groups, we were fine. All our spellcasters except Kazin were drained and this wasn’t a safe place to Long Rest while goblins still milled about (we did sneak in a Short Rest in the inn).
In a building to the South Halfred noticed an odd creature – a small winged cat. He began feeding it, which is the universal video game logic to making that pet now loyal for life. Fitting that the ranger should care for it.
Its owners were dead, crushed by the insane attack of falling rocks from the sky from a cloud giant castle.
Kazin grew deeply curious about a locked notebook that contained pages of indecipherable code. Kazin isn’t normally into books, but anything magical breeds power, and it may contain clues as to what the hell went down in this poor town.
To the South lay a bridge to the keep. Thinking that we’d pretty much cleared the town, T.I.M. jumped across the 15 foot gap in the broken bridge to the other side. Before we could throw a rope, a goblin came screaming from the North side of town – the one bastard we’d left alive last session.
We slew him pretty quick, but not before he raised the alarm. Apparently the town was not yet empty, as one came out of a nearby general store to the North while two more emerged from the windmill to the West.
We hadn’t fought three goblins at once before, but still, how hard could it be?
T.I.M. jumped back across the gap, failing a DEX saving throw and sliding back down towards us (though thankfully not dropping into the river below). The nearest goblin shot him with his shortbow, downing the warforged cleric in a single hit! Another shot at Kazin, nearly downing me as well.
With our tank down, Kazin cast Armor of Agathys and charged at the two to the West, hoping to tie them up for our ranged attackers to take them down.
The rolls were cruel to us this round, with several misses and one non-kill hit. On their turn the nearest goblin cut me down with a single blow. It took some damage from the spell but all three goblins were still up, versus the last three party members.
I was legit worried that this may be a total party wipe, something that never even came close to us in the last campaign. Thankfully things went our way a bit, as our powerful ranged sorcerers and ranger were able to begin killing the goblins, though Korinn would fall to another damn goblin arrow before it was over.
I actually rolled a natural 20 on my death save, letting me pop back up. Though in the same turn the last goblin fell. Three of us went down in a single fight – holy crap!
But we survived, making it a thrilling end to the session. We carried the unconscious T.I.M. and Korinn to the general store. We had no choice but to Long Rest in here. Now the damn town should be totally goblin-free!
Between the 11 goblins we killed this session and the bonus xp for clearing the town, we earned enough XP for level 2. Low level D&D just basically sucks; even the designers know it since most of the published adventures’ main quests don’t really start until around level 3. Everyone is a bit too fragile and life and death is too dependent on one bad/good roll.
Next week: level 2 and onward to the Nightstone keep!
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We’re supposed to “reach for the moon” in our goals. That way if we fall short we’ll still land among the stars. That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense given that the nearest star is several light-years farther away than our moon. But the point is sound.
Zeboyd Games’ moon is represented by classic, beloved 90s Japanese RPGs such as Chrono Trigger, Suikoden, and Phantasy Star. It’s a big reason I backed the game on Kickstarter several years ago. To take on some of the best RPGs in gaming with an indie budget and two-person development team is a daunting challenge. While Cosmic Star Heroine falls short in some ways, it still lands among the stars as one of the best games I’ve played this year.
Computer Science is a vastly under served industry. Given how interconnected technology has become, all industries are looking at the next generation of workers to be well versed in Computer Science and engineering.
An organization called TEALS (Technology Education and Literacy in Schools) works at the high school level to provide tech-savvy volunteers, curriculum for teachers, and computer lab lesson plans. The goal is to empower teachers and schools to provide Intro level Computer Science courses to prepare young people for an increasingly tech-focused world. And they do it using video games.
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Previously on “Storm King’s Thunder”
As soon as he walked in the door I bashed him in the head with my staff. I can only imagine the look on his face. I was still disguised as their Zhentarim ally, Kella.
“We’re under attack,” someone shouted. Damn! I thought we’d been careful. The Zhentarim mercenaries stopped chasing their horses and drew their weapons. We still had one ace up our sleeve – Halfred in the windmill. One of the Zhents suddenly had an arrow protruding from his eye.
I grinned as I let the rush of adrenaline flow freely. The goblins had caught us flat-footed. This time we had surprise on our side.
This week I expected us to explore the Nightstone keep to the South. Instead we were given a rude awakening after our Long Rest (and level 2) – a small force of Zhentarim soldiers had arrived in town. Kella Darkhope, the Zhent agent we defeated in the Inn had mentioned their arrival, and we had to deal with this new threat.
It took us quite awhile to deliberate on how to handle this new scenario. Our discussions were compounded by the fact that only 3/5 of the group was there at the start, with others trickling in throughout the hour due to pesky real life. Our Skype solution is also a mess when people come and go; please forgive any weird webcam issues!
At level 2 my warlock received invocations, and I took Mask of Many Faces which allows me to cast Disguise Self at will. I figured using that with a high CHA, Charm Person, and Awakened Mind could make for some fun situations. I didn’t expect I’d get to use it right away.
I used Disguise Self to assume the form of Kella after Halfred scouted the newcomers and confirmed they were Zhentarim agents. Our group was still holed up the general store, fully rested. We could charge them but they outnumbered us seven to five. We needed some careful planning.
I stumbled out of the store with my disguise, and was greeted by their captain, an elf named Xolkin Alassandar who immediately expressed concern over his lover Kella. Oh crap!
Improvising with the DM was a lot of fun, and I played Kella as I remembered, haughty and snippy. She explained the goblin looters, how she survived, and how a group of adventurers came through.
Without much of a plan I told him they headed South to the Keep. I also managed to persuade Xolkin to give up a nice Potion of Invulnerability thanks to my bedraggled state.
The ruse worked! They headed South and dismounted from their horses. They milled about the broken bridge deciding how to proceed.
Here we deliberated further. We wanted to separate them as much as we could and give us as many advantages in the fight to come. Halfred stealthily ran up the nearby windmill to settle into a nice sniper’s nest 35 feet above the action. Korinn suggested we spook the horses to sow chaos and see if that would split them up.
Bryseis used Thaumaturgy to create earthquakes and thunderclaps, and the horses panicked. Several of the Zhents ran around trying to corral them, including one running North close to the store. I decided to draw him into the building (still disguised) where I and the others unleashed a surprise round of attacks to quickly down him.
Unfortunately we weren’t quite as stealthy as we thought. The others spotted us in the store and the fight was on.
Halfred had an elevated perch where he could rain down arrows. More importantly he was a hard to hit target that conferred disadvantage on anyone trying to shoot up at him.
The rest of us attacked the Zhents that ran at us. I tried to keep up the ruse to draw them closer, particularly Xolkin. But the captain received an arrow in the shoulder from Halfred and ran up the windmill to duel it out in a climactic melee battle high up in the air.
We traded blows and fired off attacks up at Xolkin, who was a beastly CR 2 bandit captain with triple multiattack (at least he didn’t have his potion to drink!). Korinn missed several attacks in the beginning, then proceeded to decimate everyone with an awesome throat-grabbing Shocking Grasp.
Halfred dodged a dozen attacks before a whirlwind of blades nearly downed him from Xolkin. Bryseis unleashed several Magic Missiles before Kazin ran up and cast Dissonant Whispers on Xolkin. The captain failed his save and began hurrying down the ladder. This incurred an attack of opportunity and allowed Halfred to deliver the killing blow with his bow. Talk about teamwork!
The last Zhent began to run away, and Korinn delivered a critical hit with max damage on her Ray of Frost, annihilating him in a laser beam of ice. Despite the large number of foes things went much smoother than last week. What a difference a level makes!
That one battle took up the rest of the session, and we ended after crossing the bridge and finally approaching the Nightstone Keep. I thought we’d end up exploring the entire keep this week, but I did enjoy the fun diversion with the Zhentarim, forcing us to improvise and plan battle tactics. I’m definitely going to enjoy being the mind-fuck Jedi warrior!
Streamed, recorded and uploaded every week. Subscribe for our weekly adventures. Join us live on Fridays at 7pm Pacific/10pm Eastern!
Streamed, recorded and uploaded every week. Subscribe for our weekly adventures. Join us live on Fridays at 7pm Pacific/10pm Eastern!
Previously on “Storm King’s Thunder”
Programming Note: This episode was streamed and recorded on Sunday, May 7.
There were too many of them, too damn many. The guards, glorified royal servants really, were busy cowering behind us. They refused to even draw their bows.
We had taken a few successful shots at Captain Xellan, but his small army of Zhentarim soldiers advanced, each full armored and hefting heavy crossbows. We had the wall, but they had the numbers. It was only a matter of time.
“Look out, coming through!” A massive shadow descended upon us, followed by the rush of wind and splinter of wood as the drawbridge exploded from the inside. A fully grown bronze dragon crashed right in front of the army and laid waste to half the standing army with a single blast of its lightning breath.
It was equal parts exhilarating and terrifying. The surviving Zhents screamed and scattered, the Captain turning on his horse and fleeing. The dragon seemed to vibrate and blur for a moment, then assume the shape of a friendly halfling with golden hair.
He turned and waved. “Hey, how you guys doin’?”
Nightstone is quite the bustle of activity. The keep was not the mini-dungeon I was expecting. Instead we found the last townsfolk holed up inside. A few guards mourning their dead leader of the town.
They didn’t know much more than what we’d already figured out between the goblins and the Zhentarim we fought off previously.
We did learn what happened to the rest of the townsfolk. The innkeeper Morak lead a fleeing group of maybe 30 of them to the nearby bat caves within the Ardeep Forest. That’s apparently the emergency exit plan since they couldn’t get to the keep during the Cloud Giant rock-attack. But that was three days ago, and no one’s returned.
So we finally have our first official quest of the adventure – go to the caves and find the missing townsfolk. But we’re not finished with Nightstone yet.
While busy looting the deceased Lady of the Keep’s bedroom, Bryseis escaped a Flying Sword trap and went to the roof. There she and a guard spotted a line of approaching soldiers. We figured this was the bulk of the Zhentarim forces, lead by Captain Xellan, who planned on taking over the town.
This poor town! First attacked by giants, then looted by goblins, and now invaded by Zhentarim.
We tried to convince the guards to get the hell out of there but they wanted to stay and defend the town. Nightstone is impressively fortified with a moat and walls. They didn’t want such a prize to go to the Zhentarim. Plus, the townsfolk wouldn’t have a town to go back to.
We gave the guards bows from the goblins and Zhentarim we’d previously slain (the town definitely looks like a war-zone now), pulled up the drawbridge and assumed positions inside the guard towers.
The enemy arrived. Over a dozen Thugs – not Bandits, and their leader. All were armed with crossbows. We had height advantage and cover, but they had a buttload of HP and we were only level 2. After two full rounds we hadn’t taken down a single one, and we starting to get hit. Things were looking bleak.
That’s when the dragon showed up.
This was a fun moment even if it meant the entire exercise was moot. After a few rounds a bronze dragon crashed into the front gate and melted half the army with his lightning breath. The army scattered and we were left dumb-founded.
Apparently the dragon, Felgolos, had been hunting the Zhentarim. He was pleased that we had stopped them from holing up in the town and making his job a lot more difficult. I loved his care-free personality. Dragons are often stoic or menacing or haughty. Felgolos was just goofy and friendly.
It was a fun little deus ex machina as the dragon flew off to continue his pursuit. We collectively shrugged, told the guards to hold the fort, and set off to Ardeep Forest.
The journey was not uneventful. Despite the short jaunt we ran afoul of a pair of goblin hunters, mounted on their annoyingly powerful worgs. We’d taken down a pair of them in our very first session thanks to surprise and range. We had neither here, and one of them ripped into T.I.M. after we slew its goblin rider.
Things might have gone real nasty but Bryseis used her Tides of Chaos, and the DM had her roll on her very first Wild Magic Surge table. The result was turning everyone invisible!
This brought us some precious time to try and stabilize T.I.M. and avoid the nasty attacks of the worgs. Halfred downed one worg, but the other tore into Korinn. Two down! Thankfully we had back-to-back crits on the last goblin and worg to turn things back to our favor.
The caves lay just beyond but pretty sure we’ll need to rest up here and tend to our wounds. Plus we’ve conveniently gained enough experience to reach level 3. This has been a very fast leveling curve and I couldn’t be happier since low level D&D kind of sucks. Next week – bat caves!
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Sim games tend to either focus on realistic physics and sciences, such as Kerbal Space Program, or a more casual approach, such as Spore.
Birthdays the Beginning is a life sim and god game that successfully straddles the line between the two philosophies. It uses the real-world applications of geology, temperature, and ecosystems to craft a diorama of life. Everything is wrapped within a cute veneer of youthful colors, relaxing music, and playful designs to create an intuitive entry into learning about life’s delicate balance.
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Previously on “Storm King’s Thunder”
I could smell the stink of the ogre as he roughly lifted me up like a child and carried me deeper into the cave.
The little bit of light at the mouth of the large cave gradually receded. The ogre stopped in front of a ledge and dumped me over. I braced for impact, careful to keep my telepathic disguise in place.
My ruse had worked – I’d disguised as an escaped prisoner, and the dumb brute had brought me right to them.
Some 30 bedraggled people, the refugees from Nightstone, stared at me curiously. I reached out with my mind to the dwarf near me, Morack the innkeeper if my memory served.
Do Not Be Alarmed; We Are Here To Rescue You, I thought, and he nodded vigorously. I turned to the ogre, who remained blinking at me at for several moments.
Before his feeble mind could process an escapee, I reached out and invaded his thoughts, sorting through the passageways of his mind. They lit up before me easily. This was by no means a clever creature.
My Friends And These Townsfolk Are Extremely Important. You Must Protect Them With Your Life, I intoned. The ogre’s confused expressions slackened for a moment, then he let out a wide, terrifying grin. “Yes,” he growled excitedly, “You all peoples good food. Me save you!”
I finally felt myself relax a bit as I smiled back at him. “Now, all these people need to be let outside to use the bathroom. Lead the way!”
This week we reached level 3, which is a a nice power spike in Fifth Edition D&D. The sorcerers got Metamagic, the Ranger his hunter conclave, and I my Pact of the Blade, which I flavored as a psi-blade. Bring on the bad guys!
We approached our first real dungeon and already ran into a big problem – only two of our five person party has darkvision. Went we up to the gaping mouth of the Dripping Caves, and just inside was an ogre taking a mud bath, flanked by goblin archers up on ledges surrounding a large cavern. It was a deathtrap waiting to happen.
We deliberated quite awhile on how best to tackle the situation. In a callback to our first session, Bryseis fired up her Dancing Lights and to distract the guards, leading the ogre as far away as he could.
Unfortunately that also alerted everyone to something happening, including awakening a second ogre. We had to act fast.
We decided to quickly light up the entrance to the cave and try to kill the two closest goblins before anyone realized what was going on. We rolled amazingly well and Halfred and Korinn were able to quietly dispatch them at range.
Our clever plan didn’t last long, as the other goblins soon began calling out for the dead friends. We didn’t have much of a plan and definitely did not want to face a pair of ogres.
I used my at-will Disguise Self to look like an escaped Nightstone resident. During the distraction we’d overheard that the townsfolk had indeed been captured by this goblin horde. I stumbled into the cave and purposefully got myself captured so they could lead me to the prisoners.
I had no plan and the rest of the party simply shrugged to see how all this would play out. Hopefully we’re still working out some early game jitters – we really need to start coordinating some tactics that don’t involve all-out assaults.
It ended up working in our favor, at least a little. The ogre dropped me off in a nearby alcove stocked full of 30 bedraggled refugees, and a hole full of sleeping bats. Morack, the dwarven innkeeper was there. I told them we’d come to rescue them, then used Suggestion on the ogre. Success!
I told the ogre that these people were under his protection, and that they all needed to use the bathroom outside. Off we go! Of course we didn’t make it but 10 feet before the other ogre and goblins stopped us. At that point the ogres were shoving each other and the rest of the party unleashed attacks.
I got a nice crit with my repelling Eldrtich Blast to knock a goblin off his perch, while the rest of the party tore apart the second ogre. A pair of goblins plinked at us from the darkness but we shrugged them off. T.I.M. got a little too defensive and placed himself in front of my charmed ogre, which the ogre took to be a threat and began attacking. Thankfully we were able to take him down quickly.
For once we had a big combat sequence where no one went down! In fact we barely got injured at all thanks to some stellar dice rolls on our side and bad ones from the bad guys.
Morack was eternally grateful, and mentioned they’d been stuck in those caves for days as prisoners. They were free to return to the poor destroyed town (“Oh by the way, a dragon destroyed your drawbridge…”). We needed to press on further into the caves to take down the goblin boss, and perhaps find more survivors – and loot!
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Marvel has been a dominant force in cross-media entertainment for the last decade, earning the franchise immense mainstream popularity (despite the occasional misstep). That broad popularity has yet to transition to the comics the franchise draws its source material from. And it might not anytime soon, what with Captain America being revealed as a sleeper Hydra agent in Secret Empire.
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Previously on “Storm King’s Thunder”
A bolt of flame came singing out of the darkened tunnel. I heard the goblin behind me let out a startled yelp. The sound of smoked flesh filled my nostrils. I smiled. Bryseis had my back.
I kept my attention on the large, armored goblin in front of me, Hark. He wielded a mace of human bone and his eyes spoke of a depraved evil that made his underlings look like innocent puppies.
I clutched my robes and focused my mind, expanding my presence outward. Several grotesquely giant rats scurried near my feet, lunging at me again and again, ripping apart the duplicates I had confused them with.
As T.I.M.’s frighteningly giant, floating leech lashed out at them I reached into Hark’s mind, causing him to feel the pain and despair of those he had harmed. His eyes grew wide and blood dripped from his eyes and nose. He took one look at me, turned, and ran.
I saw the opening and took it. My psi-blade flashed out as an extension of my body and my mind, and caught the goblin boss straight in the back. He didn’t make a sound as he crumpled to the floor, but I couldn’t help myself. “This is for the people of Nightstone,” I whispered.
This week we continued our excursions of the goblin-infested caves. We’d defeated the bulk of the goblin forces last week and rescued the poor townsfolk of Nightstone. But the goblin leader Hark was responsible for the looting and kidnapping and needed to be dealt with. Plus there could still be some townsfolk alive.
We headed West and were surprised by a relatively friendly, terrified goblin who was willing to turn state’s evidence on his boss. Snigbat provided us with some very useful intel: Hark was waiting for us in his room up ahead, flanked by two guards and a bunch of pet giant rats he planned on whistling to surround us.
Getting a heads-up to a big ambush with a boss monster is super helpful. In return Snigbat just wanted to take care of the goblin young in another part of the caves, as well as deal with a “blob” monster in the tunnels to the Southeast.
If this was an excuse from the DM to get us to explore all of the caves before we left, it worked. We agreed to take care of the blob after dealing with Hark.
Tactical planning is not our strong suit, but we decided we could take out a few of the giant rats who were designed to flank us before entering Hark’s area. Bryseis unleashed a Firebolt into the rat hole, incinerating one while two more hurried out, and we slaughtered them all.
Feeling confident we crept into the bigger room ahead. Hark noticed us (we weren’t really stealthing) and I strode up, cowl pulled down to confront him.
I don’t think this was meant to be an actual diplomatic negotiation. Hark was literally eating the captive townsfolk, and he had a magic orb and an evil-looking club covered in human bones. He was bad news and after some delicious villain monologue-ing by the DM, the fight was on.
Any RPG player worth their salt knows to take out the boss first, if possible. We did a good job concentrating attacks on Hark, though the confined tunnel we emerged from proved problematic when Hark threw his orb like a grenade. It shattered into a mist of caustic, blinding gasses. Thankfully everyone made their CON saves.
I charged Kazin in and cast Mirror Image, followed by T.I.M. and Korinn, while Bryseis and Halfred plinked with arrows and Firebolts/Chaos Bolts. On my next turn I used Dissonant Whispers on Hark, and finally someone failed the save, triggering opportunity attacks from T.I.M. and me. I rolled a crit and murdered Hark, though not before he whistled a bunch of rats to help defend him.
The giant rats got a lot of nasty licks in, and Korinn and I definitely got our money’s worth out of our Mirror Image spells. Poor T.I.M. would take the brunt of the damage despite his insanely high AC. His Spiritual Weapon spell AKA Spectral Leech proved useful once again.
Soon the last of the goblin forces lay dead. A woman, Daphne, lay cowering to the North. She was Hark’s next victim and apparently the Lady of Nightstone’s close servant. We had to break the unfortunate news to her about the Lady’s death. She was inconsolable despite avoiding a grisly fate herself.
We gave Hark’s magical mace to our cleric, and Halfred found a secret passage leading to the bulk of the goblins’ loot, which wasn’t terribly impressive. Some golden knick-knacks, gold pieces, and a Potion of Growth.
We Short Rested again and I’m starting to like the Warlock spell system more and more. Especially in dungeons where we can Short Rest more often, I can better gauge my abilities. It’s interesting deciding when to use defensive spells versus offensive, and I love role-playing my badass psi-blade.
T.I.M. attuned to our first real magic weapon, Souleater. It wasn’t even a +1, but it did have some nifty abilities. Defeating a foe awarded temporary hit points, and you could opt to take some psychic damage to deal extra damage to a foe who was near death. A neat little push-your-luck system. It was also cursed – it wouldn’t let T.I.M. administer non-lethal blows.
All that was left was to take care of the blob. We journeyed down the tunnel to the Southeast, carefully. We found a large stalagmite covered in deep holes. Surely the ooze was in there! But it wouldn’t be attracted despite our half-hearted attempts to draw it out.
We explored a bit further in, finding a small underground waterfall and some mushrooms. On the ceiling was the ooze. But instead of dropping down it retracted, and then oozed out of the large stalagmite.
Black Puddings are nasty, capable of dealing acid damage to melee attackers and permanently weakening regular weapons and armor. It’s a fighter’s worse nightmare. Thankfully all of us use magic and/or ranged attacks, so the damage was minimized. We did discover that slashing and lightning damage split the thing up, but we still outnumbered it.
Korinn used Mirror Image again but this time it let us down; she rolled a 1 to see if a fatal blow would attack her or a dupe. The damn ooze downed our dragonborn sorcerer in a single hit before we could destroy it. We were humbled but the ooze was destroyed, and the Dripping Caves were clear.
All that’s left is to check back in with Snigbat and then return to Nightstone. Our DM helpfully informed us that we’ll be reaching level 4 upon completing the Dripping Caves. We are definitely fast-tracking through these early levels! It’s kind of nice, though I worry that we’ll have way less magic items when compared to running a whole campaign in early levels like Phandelver.
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The Cooking Mama series has been around since the days of Nintendo DS and Wii. Touchscreen mobile games were burgeoning into a dominant gaming genre for many kids and adults. These days playing a game on the Nintendo 3DS that could be almost entirely replicated on a phone feels quaint.
Cooking Mama: Sweet Shop doesn’t offer enough new gameplay or progression to warrant yet another installment in the franchise.
Check out my previous Final Thoughts for Rogues’ Adventures. Keep up with my adventures in backlog gaming via the Facebook group.
Developer: PlatinumGames
Publisher: Activision
Release Date: October 6, 2015
After two big AAA stealth-action games I opted for something a bit tinier in scope. I’ve already had to shuffle my schedule around this season as my initial line-up of games proved far too optimistic in the amount of time I could devote to backlog gaming.
Transformers: Devastation caught my eye for obvious reasons. I love Transformers! The eye-popping art style and slavish devotion to the original 1980s cartoon characters was right up my alley. Unfortunately I fought with the gameplay the entire step of the way.
PlatinumGames has filled a niche market with hyper-intense action-brawlers, which is not exactly the kind of game I usually enjoy. Transformers: Devastation is a single-player brawler that feels like a modern-day Beat ‘Em Up – except with repetitive level designs, limited enemies, and frustrating difficulty spikes.
I was immediately drawn into the colorful world. The art style creates a rich, glossy texture for each character, who are painstakingly recreated to look exactly like their 1980’s, polygonal “G1” version. Often while playing I felt like I was walking around an HD episode of the original cartoon, and it set my nostalgic fan heart a-fluttering.
The story and writing synced up nicely with the art and superb voice acting, which brought back the talents of Peter Cullen, Frank Welker and more.
The story begins with New York City under attack by giant claw arms, sort of similar to the third Michael Bay Transformers film. The city is conveniently evacuated off-screen so we can skip right to the bot-punching and pew-pew lasers.
The plot centers around Megatron and the Decepticons discovering Cybertonian technology, and using it to “cyberform” Earth. It’s mostly an excuse to charge through linear chapters destroying everything in your way, though I did find the frequent cutscenes humorous and enjoyable.
The highest mark of Transformers: Devastation is that they completely nailed the tone, humor, and characters of the original series.
The bad news is I mostly hated playing the actual game.
Now I’ll be the first to admit that I am no good at quick action games. I can enjoy the right ones, such as the Batman Arkham games. But even on the medium difficulty level I was often frustrated and annoyed with Devastation‘s combat.
Every battle forces you into melee combat, often outnumbered. Small sounds and arrow symbols alert you that an attack is incoming and you need to dodge. Multiply that by several foes and you spend most of the time rolling around every fight like a jackass. The characters did not at all feel like lumbering, powerful robots. Even the largest brute, Grimlock, had to nimbly roll around and throw punches or swing his sword.
Remember in the cartoon how every character charged each other for a brutal melee? Me neither! The ‘bots and ‘cons always shot at each other, only going in for melee combat under the direst of circumstances. Every other Transformers game knows this.
Transformers: Devastation is the opposite, with ranged attacks being an awkward afterthought with limited ammunition and low damage for anything other than the grenade launcher, which was tricky to aim.
Compounding the problem were laughably bad level designs. You’d think an empty NYC would prompt a fun, large area to explore. Nope! Instead the buildings act like giant walls as you funnel through linear tunnels of city streets from one battle to the next.
Even worse, chapters reuse the same areas of the city, with the same branching paths. Without anything larger than the mini-map it’s easy to get lost and retreat a same-y looking path, completely wasting your time.
I usually enjoy exploring in games and collecting things but for Devastation it was the opposite effect. I stayed close to the objective and was careful not to leave the primary path lest I stumble down an area I’d already explored.
Some of the areas proved extremely problematic when it came to combat, such as a tight-quarters bridge that surrounded you with large foes, as well as aerial combatants that you couldn’t even hit thanks to invisible walls. Aerial foes in general were horribly frustrating to fight, zipping around the battlefield and strafing you with laser fire while you watched helplessly.
I was already frustrated with the limited combat mechanics. You had a light and heavy attack, and when you hit things enough you could tap the dodge button to transform and ram your opponent. That was about it. A special attack meter charged up and did some impressive damage, which felt completely necessary during the tougher battles.
Combat was supposed to be augmented by the loot system. It felt super weird to have a random drop loot system in a game like this, and you couldn’t even check your inventory or equip things (or switch characters) until you reached specific, infrequent checkpoints or between chapters.
Being able to equip different kinds of weapons was a nice touch, but also made the different characters feel a little less unique. You could play as Optimus Prime, Sideswipe, and Bumblee, and later Wheeljack and Grimlock. It was a good mix of light/heavy/fast, though Wheeljack’s focus on ranged combat felt gimped given the game’s lackluster ranged attacks.
Anyone could equip almost any weapon, which had their own levels and stats. It felt half-baked and by the halfway point in the game I stopped equipping new weapons altogether since better ones never dropped.
Also I loved that the game let me play as Grimlock, but it felt super weird running with him and charging over ramps and through glowing circles that made him go faster.
I’ve never felt such a disconnect between a game’s look and feel and its actual gameplay. I adored how it completely pandered to its nostalgic G1 fanbase. Fighting Devastator, trading barbs with Megatron, reveling in Starscream’s inevitable incompetence. It was a fantastic recreation of the old cartoon, in stunning HD graphics.
But I honestly would have preferred to simply watch the cut-scenes rather than slog through the awful level design and frustrating combat of Transformers: Devastation. I’m thankful it was a very short game. For my money if you want the best Transformers games, that honor remains with High Moon Studios’ Cybertron series.
No one would accuse Activision-Blizzard of being the “little guy.” But when it comes to the MOBA space, Heroes of the Storm remains in a distant third (or maybe even fourth) position behind Valve’s Dota 2 and the reigning champion, Riot’s League of Legends.
For the last two years, Heroes of the Storm has benefited from a steady flow of balance patches and additional heroes and battlegrounds. The iterative updates have culminated in a massive overhaul known as Heroes of the Storm 2.0.
The Heroes 2.0 update launched in April, adding an entirely new loot chest system, revamped experience and leveling, UI improvements, and more Overwatch content. It has never been a better time to jump into the most intuitive and user-friendly MOBA.
The original Endless Space launched in 2012 as the debut title from indie developer Amplitude Studios. It posited the Civilization-in-Space concept that had been tackled several times before. Endless Space offered a simple yet effective interface and many interesting new gameplay mechanics to make it a very underrated turn-based strategy game.
Endless Space 2 is very much a direct sequel, building upon all the core gameplay features of the original. This time around, Amplitude has several more games under their belt – specifically the much more intriguing and innovative Endless Legend.
Endless Space 2 utilizes all the best elements of Endless Legend and stirs in a well-integrated political system to craft a fantastic follow-up that easily emerges from its Civilization shadow.
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Previously on “Storm King’s Thunder”
We took one last look at Nightstone as we trotted away on the horses they had given us. The town was in shambles, the drawbridge destroyed, the keep ruined. But we’d saved dozens of people from an even worse fate. Maybe there was a reason our group had come together on our journey.
Morack had provided us with our next clue: the coded tome we had found belonged to a Harper agent who was reporting on Giant activity. The Harper agent had died in the Cloud Giant attack. But she had a daughter, another Harper agent, who could decode the book.
The daughter lived hundreds of miles to the North, and we were all grumbling about the journey. I’m pretty sure the wooden construct had never even ventured outside of Ardeep Forest. We discussed taking a caravan, or even a boat out of Waterdeep once we reached the city.
The wind suddenly picked up as we crested a hill leading out to the main road. Everyone gasped as a giant cloud descended to the ground, a gigantic tower in the shape of a wizard’s pointed hat resting on top. Stairs formed in the clouds leading to the ground.
The others looked at each other in bewilderment. I grinned, “Zephyros!”
This week’s session we finally got introduced to the overarching main plot, presented rather awkwardly by a literal figure descending from the sky to explain it. Our DM made him a fun character, but it was still a lame instance of having a giant info dump (get it…GIANT).
As a DM I’ve certainly been guilty of that many times. I was hoping we would end up with a bit more mystery and investigation on our end as to why the Giants are so uppity lately.
After turning in our quests and returning to Nightstone we were finally able to leave the newbie/starter area behind. As far as catapulting us through the lower levels it wasn’t bad – featuring armies invading a town, a deus ex dragon, and a mini-dungeon with a boss fight. Balance-wise it’s pretty weird having one magic item between the five of us and barely any gold upon reaching level 4.
Level 4 in 7 sessions, wow! Even Wizards of the Coast knows low level D&D sucks, heh.
I did enjoy the follow-up investigation we had to embark on – seek out the daughter of a slain Harper whose book we carried that was written in code. She had been gathering information on the giants, and we found her coded book back in Session 2.
What I didn’t like was the daughter lived hundreds of miles away, in Bryn Shander. That was several weeks travel up the Sword Coast, which could easily be an entire campaign in of itself.
Morack the Nightstone innkeeper gave us horses but we were balking at the journey, deliberating on if we should find a boat or a caravan in nearby Waterdeep.
Turned out it was moot. Not five miles outside of Nightstone a giant floating wizard’s tower on a cloud landed in front of us, beckoning with stairs. It was the Cloud Giant wizard Zephyros, my character Kazin’s once-mentor who saved him and brought him to the monastery.
Kazin told the party everything was okay and ran up the stairs where we were greeted by the funny old Giant. He was much worse for wear – absent-minded would be a euphemism. But he was able to explain what was happening with the Giants.
The ancient caste system that kept them in check – The Ordning, had been shattered, and Storm Giant King Hekaton had seemingly disappeared. Each Giant tribe now vied for a new position in their order, naturally by wrecking shit all over the Sword Coast.
Zephyros stated that we were marked for destiny, our names known to the Outer Realms. We had to investigate King Hekaton’s disappearance and bring order back to the Giants lest they destroy themselves and the world around them.
For now our initial quest of finding the Harper daughter remained unchanged, and we began drifting North. This was an awkward period where we had a big single room to hang out in for several days with nothing to do.
I’m not sure if there are random encounters or scripted events, but after a few days (and another brief conversation with Zephyros) a small army flying on Giant Vultures approached the castle. We tried waking the sleeping wizard to no avail. We didn’t want to shoot first having not been fired upon, so we let them land, nine riders and mounts total.
Air cultists! Son of a bitch! Didn’t we wipe all these guys out in the last campaign? Tenacious little bastards. They came in the name of Yan-C-Bin, the Prince of Air (and incidentally one of the final bosses of Princes had they chosen Air last).
This would’ve been a really interested segue into that campaign but felt a bit weird considering we’d just dealt with these guys (DM stated this campaign takes place after Princes).
This was a tricky fight as were vastly outnumbered. Cultsits aren’t strong, barely better than goblins. But two Cult Fanatics had that nasty Inflict Wounds spell, and their vulture mounts had multi-attack. To top it off one of them had a magic bag that released an Invisible Stalker, which joined the fight several rounds in.
I think our DM sensed that things could go south really quick, and mostly kept the vultures out of the fight, saying they were poorly trained for combat. The only reason we kept up was repeated misses on that Inflict Wounds spell – and some clutch Shield spells from Korinn.
I got some really good mileage out of Armor of Agathys, hilariously killing and severely wounding several foes without even lifting a finger. T.I.M. got to use Soul Eater and Inflict Wounds on the Cultists, making him a terrifyingly offensive cleric.
It took us several rounds of setting up buffs and debuffs but we were able to emerge victorious. The Invisible Stalker caused us pause, however. The DM ruled we could attack with Disadvantage but that was proving problematic. We tried manipulating the magic bag it was released from which caused it to scream. The next round the creature simply ran away, diving off the cloud castle. We’ll take it!
The interesting thing about travel encounters is that the players can freely unleash abilities. Unlike dungeons there’s no need to conserve resources (unless you’re getting into multiple encounters per day) so the fights can be trickier and bigger than dungeon battles.
Even so I’m very glad our DM mostly took the vultures out of it as we would’ve been slaughtered. We took some wounds but nobody went down, and everyone used at least half their spell slots. Everybody had cool killing blow moments – Korinn melting two cultists at once with a Twinned Witch Bolt being particularly satisfying.
Level 4 + lengthy plot exposition + big battle = our longest session yet. We went over by a solid hour! Traveling via giant cloud tower is nifty, like an airship from Final Fantasy. Right now we’re still forced onto a linear path, and all we can do is wait and fight off baddies until we reach our destination. But our DM has said that the world will open up soon. I’m hoping we get to keep the flying tower to adventure in.
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