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SCHEDULING NOTE: Next week’s session has been moved up to Thursday  (10/12) to accommodate a wedding on Friday. Same start time.

Previously on “Storm King’s Thunder”

“Monsieur Kazin.” A voice spoke with startling authority from behind us. I stiffened. Bryseis shot me a questioning glance backwards, but continued on outside the hall to follow Halfred and Diero.

I turned around to face a nobleman I didn’t recognize. I was instantly suspicious.

The man smiled thinly. “The Lady Atalia wishes she could be here.”

I stiffened, my mind a whirl. I walked up close and thrust my face into his. He didn’t so much as blink. “How the hell did you know we’d be here in Neverwinter?”

“We are in many places.”

“Who are you?”

“I represent a group you have meddled in the affairs with.”

I grinned, summoning up all the swagger I could muster. “We’re rather good at that.”

“Indeed. I come here tonight not as an enemy but as a friend. Your meddling is due to our poor choice of allies.”

“I don’t know you or your allies.”

“You’ve encountered us in Yartar. Our activities have been severely sent back, and you killed one of our number in Xantharl’s Keep.”

I steadied my voice and my gaze. “Who are you? Cut the bullshit. I could reach into your mind and pluck the information out if I wanted to.”

A voice rang out in my head, intrusive, confident. “And I could do the same” it spoke.

I tried to calm myself and remember my training, but my body shook with rage. At hearing Attalia’s name thrown out like a weapon. At this creature using the powerful psychic gifts as a force of subversive evil. 

The man went on, “I would like to extend an olive branch-“

I lashed out and grabbed him. He balked at my sudden physical assault, letting me get a solid grip and drag him out of the feast hall like a child throwing a tantrum, hoping no one took much notice. 

Outside the giant doors and into the large, but empty hallway I threw him to the ground. The man sprang up in a rage, his face melting into that of a Deep Scion, mouth separating into toothy quadrants, hair turning into slimy tentacles.

I focused my anger as my psi-glaive manifested in my hands. We squared off, and I saw Korinn in the corner of my eye begin hurrying over in response.

I took a deep breath and centered my thoughts on the creature. This was not the time nor the place. I planted a thought in its mind: we were no harm, and it should report that to its masters. 

The creature’s form was once again enveloped into the human noble. He blinked a few times, sneered at me, then went to get his coat and leave. I took several deep breaths, and rejoined the others.

We had another non-combat week as we wrapped up the Roaringhorn Gala in Neverwinter. Thankfully the events were much more dramatic and interesting this time around, including confronting an agent of the Weevil, discovering more of the origins of T.I.M., and a surprise guest star with a hero from our “Princes of the Apocalypse” campaign!

Our DM continued to use our initiative rolls from last week to focus on individual scenes and stories for each character. This is a daunting task! Lots of individualized story-telling for all five of us, but I’ll be damned if it didn’t work really well here.

Unfortunately Korinn’s player wasn’t here for the first half, so we just sort of watched her scene play out, which involved an ominous palm reading.

Halfred was still showing off his grabber arm with some hilarious results. He received a mysterious note which he later revealed as coming from his old master Wuce Bwayne!  We didn’t find him at the party, however. The note mentioned that we should look up a frost giant from their past – Harshnag. But no leads on where he could be.

T.I.M. had the most emotionally demanding scene of us all. A friend of his creator’s, Lucian, was startled to meet someone who shared T.I.M.’s unique accent. Lucian name-dropped the two friends, Tymerious and Enebrin, who had gone off to explore the world – and subsequently created T.I.M. Enebrin the ranger specifically had the exact same voice as T.I.M. Fascinating!

Clearly T.I.M. was modeled after this ranger, and indeed his holy book that he carried around was really Enebrin’s diary. One important mystery remained – what happened to Tymerious and Enebrin, and why and how did they create T.I.M.?

Bryseis received a fun blast from the past when Miri, a player character from “Princes of the Apocalypse,” (and played by the same character, but this time the DM!) strode up to her and informed us that the meek Giant scholar halfling who was currently trying to get Halfred’s attention was really working for the Weevil, the Zhentarim boss we were after.

Bryseis grabbed Kazin, who was still stuffing his face full of fine food, and told him to use mind trickery – or just warn Halfred. Kazin settled on the latter, nonchalantly strolling over to their table and telepathically telling Halfred we needed this person separated from the crowd so we could confront them.

Halfred easily lured the pitiful young man to the bathroom, with Bryseis, me, and Korinn a step behind them.

Kazin was stopped before they exited the feast hall by a nobleman. The others continued on.

His scene quickly turned nefarious as the man announced a vague alliance draped in understated threats. He represented the same group whom we had thwarted in Yartar. The nobleman admitted that allying with the Zhentarim were a mistake, and essentially wanted us to just stay out of their affairs.

Kazin was having none of this bullshit. I grappled the man and bodily threw him out of the feast hall. Despite his psychic prowess Kazin is more brawn than brains, and I enjoy role-playing him as such. We exchanged some more threats before Kazin finally “unsheathed” his psi-glaive and prepared to end this feaux nobleman (another Deep Scion in disguise) right here.

Meanwhile Bryseis and Halfred had trapped the halfling scholar Diero in the bathroom, with Korinn standing guard outside.

What followed was a hilariously dark scene of intimidating this poor man. He wasn’t so much an agent as a naive patsy whom the Weevil was using to gather intel on us while we were in Neverwinter.

Several Intimidation rolls later and the halfling was left shivering, crying, and naked. We learned the place and time for his meeting with the Weevil – a tavern called The Feral Hound, at about mid-day tomorrow. They locked him in the bathroom for good measure.

As they emerged they saw the scene between Kazin and the disguised Scion suddenly deescalate. The terrifying creatures’s melted visage suddenly composed itself back into the nobleman’s form. It sneered then strode off.

The party met up and Kazin explained he had tried one tactic before bloodshed – using Suggestion to tell the creature we meant no harm and for him to report that to his superiors. Kazin was hoping we could follow him and find out more about his group he had called “The K Society.”

T.I.M. had wrapped up his existential crisis and met us outside, where we all agreed to follow the disguised Deep Scion as he left the estate.

It was evening in Neverwinter. The nobleman strode straight North like a man on a mission, passing through the outer gates with nary a glance. He turned towards the ocean and dove straight off the cliff into the water. His form melted into the amphibious tentacled creature of his true form, and dove under the water. Well, crap, so much for following him.

We returned to the Roaringhorn estate to find we had missed the speeches we were supposed to give (huzzah, heh). Zelraun was a bit disappointed but overall pleased at the results of our attendance. He barely batted an eyelash when we told him about the scared naked halfling locked in his bathroom!

As a reward for our events here he offered us a choice of stunning magical rewards: a Folding Boat, or an Instant Fortress. An instant 20 x 30 ft tower? Yeah we’ll take that one! We were already devising hilariously dark ways to kill people with a 1-inch cube that exploded into a big ass building with a single word.

We went back to the inn to rest for the night. The next day we went across town to The Feral Hound. We had a choice between tackling it during the day when they were closed or at night, when there were more people.

We opted for a day-raid, which was more conspicuous but hopefully with less bystanders (and Zhentarim) in attendance. We ended the session as we began formulating a plan to finally confront the Weevil once and for all.

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A press copy of Warlock #1 and Warlock Lair 1 was provided for the purposes of this review.

Designed by: Wolfgang Baur, Troy E. Taylor, Ben McFarland, Richard Green, Dan Dillon, Jon Sawatsky
Published by: Kobold Press

Kobold Press recently launched a Patreon campaign for a bi-monthly RPG sourcebooklet called Warlock. Warlock uses the 5E SRD to produce material that’s compatible with Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition. In may ways Warlock represents Kobold Press’ return to their roots of Kobold Quarterly.

Warlock specifically dives into the lore, characters, and locations of Midgard, Kobold Press’ fantasy world and RPG campaign setting. Warlock is designed as a mini-sourcebook, though any DM could be properly inspired from the material presented here.

The first issue is small, both physically and in length, clocking in at 20 pages. It’s printed on thick card stock with black and white art. Its size belies the deep material inside, including a detailed overview of the evil land of Beldestan, a greenhouse of mutated plant life that would make Poison Ivy proud, and rules for those who venture too close to the Void.

Warlock #1 provides four separate articles, each written and designed by a different person (or collaboration) from Kobold Press’ impressive stable of RPG writers and designers. It also includes several fantastic pieces of original artwork by Gabriel Cassata, Pedro Potier, and Karl Waller.

“The Forbidden Mountains of Beldestan,” is written by Kobold Press founder Wolfgang Baur. It’s the most lore-heavy section, focusing on the Satrapy of Beldestan.

Beldestan is a Very Bad Place – but also rich with adventure. There’s an evil grove full of dark satyrs and a castle built atop a plateau that controls the skies with Rocs and Hippogriffs. The capital city of Galnas is home to temples of dark gods and darker rituals. There’s even a literal stairway to heaven with a giant rising spiral staircase.

Like the all the information in the booklet, if you don’t run a Midgard campaign this information will be of limited use, though it’s still a fun read.

The Beldestan locations are evocative and interesting. I could easily see adapting any of these areas, like the Stairs of Beldestan, into your own world.

“The Delights of Enkada Pishtuhk,” by Troy E. Taylor and Ben McFarland singularly focuses on a single character, the titular archmage. Instead of focusing on this mysterious character’s backstory and lore, most of the article is dedicated to the many exotic offerings that a player character could offer the archmage, in exchange for a number of boons or artifacts.

It’s an odd and quirky read. Enkada’s tastes could easily span the goal of an entire adventure, or lengthy quest. Specific items and food from exotic locations are heavily detailed, including jellied eyeballs (though not just any eyeballs), Elven lore books, and a pet Kot Bayun.

I was disappointed that Enkada’s magical gifts are just a list of items you can find in the Dungeon Master’s Guide. I could see this section developing into a side quest where the party needs a piece of information or key artifact, and must collect an exotic item for exchange.

Richard Green provides a fun killer-plant location in “Legacy of the Unhinged Gardeners,” which is also a fantastic title, and probably my favorite article of the bunch.

This is a great little location that a DM could drop anywhere within their own world. It includes a bit of lore and background information, a unique new statblock, and plenty of thematic hazards.

In this case we’re given the Warlock’s Trumpetbloom, a massive CR 7 plant monster that takes up a full page and a half, including several paragraphs of description and information. The inmates now run the proverbial asylum in this greenhouse gone amok. There’s even a funny reference to a Dread Gazebo, which houses the Trumpetbloom.

The final article is all about the Void, which I believe is Kobold Press’ version of the Forgotten Realms’ Far Realm. “Void-Touched: Warped Flesh and Twisted Minds,” is written by Dan Dillon. It provides detailed notes and rules on what the Void is, and what being exposed to the Void can do to your mind and body.

This can be useful information in any scenario where a tear into the Void is present, such as in “A Starry Breach” one-shot from Prepared 2. Void Exposure can be resisted with a CHA saving throw – finally a use for that stupid CHA proficiency that like half the classes in 5e have!

Void Exposure can occur not only when near an obvious breach, but also when attuning to Void-tainted magic, learning Void-tainted lore, or encountering a Void creature. This provides an additional layer of challenge that I really dig, particularly if your players are into role-playing the subsequent madness.

Stare into the abyss long enough and it gazes back, and probably drives you a bit crazy, Lovecraft-style. It would be easy to simply point to the Dungeon Master’s Guide’s rules for short-term, long-term, and indefinite madness. It does do that for short-term effects, but there’s an interesting cumulative system here based on your CHA modifier that can lead to a new indefinite madness, and ten creepy new flaws are provided.

In addition, the nasty effects of the Void can manifest physically instead of mentally, resulting in a unique Flesh Warp. This could be a great solution if you want to inflict the Void rules without subjugating your players to role-playing madness. A full page of ten Flesh Warps are provided, each given its own rules, such as replacing a hand with tentacles (!), growing tusks, or secreting slime.

I love that all of them provide both negative and positive traits – even the Eyeless one gives Daredevil-like Blindsight out to 10 feet. Even if the Void doesn’t exist in your campaign I could definitely see using these Cthulhu-like effects in a memorable scenario involving otherworldly evil.

One of the most intriguing aspects of Warlock is something I haven’t yet touched on. Patrons of Warlock can vote in polls to voice what kind of material they want to see in the next issues, such as more monsters or specific locations within Midgard. It’s a neat community-based system made possible through crowdfunded websites like Patreon and Kickstarter.

In addition to the Warlock sourcebooklet, Kobold Press is also producing short, one-shot lairs as part of the Warlock Patreon. The first is called “The Clattering Keep,” a 5-page lair designed by Jon Sawatsky for four 4th-5th level characters.

“The Clattering Keep” is awesome, and exactly what I want from a one-shot lair. It features a classic ruined keep dungeon, currently inhabited by a pair of dracolich wyrmlings! The only dracolich statblock in the 5E Monster Manual is for an adult, so “The Clattering Keep” provides a new creature statblock for the cool-named Unhatched.

The Unhatched aren’t in their lair at the start. Instead they’re a fun weapon the DM can employ during the perfect moment. There’s a necromancer camped out in the keep who can provide some fun role-playing moments should the PCs want to work with her to defeat the Unhatched. Some fun undead encounters, including ghostly servants and wight guards help fill out the theme of the haunted, evil keep.

I would definitely rank “The Clattering Keep” up there with some of the best one-shot lairs I’ve seen. The only caveat is that it doesn’t include a virtual tabletop-friendly player map. The black and white map has the same art style and feel of the rest of Warlock, but it wouldn’t work for something like Roll20.

Pros:

• The dark magic theme is well utilized, including evil regions, evil plants, and evil Void magic.
• Fantastic character art throughout the booklet, as well as a nifty regional map of Beldestan.
• Extensive statblock for an awesome new giant plant monster.
• Detailed rules for Void Exposure, including the cool Flesh Warps.
• “The Clattering Keep” is a fantastic one-shot dungeon featuring an undead keep and new dracolich wyrmling statblock.
• The entire Warlock PDF is only $1. The lair is another $2. A printed booklet is $5 (includes PDF copies).

Cons:

• The section on archmage Enkada has too much time and space dedicated to the many exotic offerings he’s seeking instead of the character himself.
• I would’ve loved to have a little dungeon map for “Unhinged Gardeners.” Show me that Dread Gazebo!
• No separate player map for the Warlock lair.

The Verdict: Warlock is a great little resource for Midgard with fun ideas, lore, and rules that any DM could adapt for their own worlds.

A press copy of Warlock #1 and Warlock Lair 1 was provided for the purposes of this review.

Read the full article on PC Gamer

THQ’s demise in 2013 left a number of game developers displaced, including Vigil Games, creators of the Darksiders series. Two studios spun out of the ashes of Vigil Games: Gunfire Games, who are making Darksiders 3, and Airship Syndicate, whose first game, Battle Chasers: Nightwar, launched last week. It’s a combination dungeon crawler and JRPG, featuring turn-based combat, randomized dungeons, and a striking art style based on a late ’90s comic series.

Over Skype I spoke with Joe Madureira, Airship Syndicate’s creative director and CEO (as well as writer and penciller of the Battle Chasers comic), and Steve Madureira, the lead designer and animator for Battle Chasers: Nightwar—two brothers who have been making comics and games since they were teenagers.

Read the full article on PC Gamer

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Previously on “Storm King’s Thunder”

The short tunnel ended in an odd wall of wooden planks. I was preparing to crash into it when I felt a firm grip from behind. Bryseis was reaching out and bumping into my invisible body.

“Do you see anything?” I asked her telepathically. 

She found a loose plank and pulled, and the entire section of wall swung open, creaking terribly. 

I realized we were about to breach the tavern through this underground secret entrance without updating Halfred and T.I.M. I reached out with my mind to try and find theirs. It should’ve clued me in to be worried that I actually did sense their minds nearby – far too close.

I sent them a message that we were inside and not to do anything foolish yet. We would laugh about that later.

A massive suit of armor strode into view in front of us. It was covered head to toe in gleaming, spiked plate mail. It glowed from the inside with a magical red light. There was nobody inside.

“INTRUDERS,” it intoned in a frightening monotone. “THEY ARE THE ONES WAITED FOR. KILL. KILL. KILL.”

We seem to be in an odd cadence where we have several role-playing heavy episodes, followed by one crazy big combat sequence. It happened in Yartar, and now again in Neverwinter as we stir up the entire hornet’s nest that is the Zhentarim outpost at The Feral Hound tavern.

We knew we would finally find the Zhentarim dwarf leader known as ‘the Weevil’ inside the Feral Hound tavern, thanks to our intel from the Roaringhorn Gala. We didn’t know what to expect beyond that, other than the tavern should be far emptier during the day (not exactly!).

We’d received a tip to check out the backyard of the tavern. We also had a plan to try and dress up Halfred as the halfling we had captured, Diero, who was set to meet with the Weevil.

We weren’t terribly organized with our approach. Korinn cast Invisibility on herself and Kazin, and the two of us went with Bryseis to check out the backyard. T.I.M. and Halfred remained out front, with the poorly disguised Halfred waltzing up to ring the front door.

I know, I know, don’t split the party and all. As I said, terrible planning!

Bryseis discovered something odd beneath some scattered bones in the back. I guess the bones in general were odd, but we did know the tavern was a seedy dog-fighting ring. We ended up finding a secret trapdoor and went down into a dark tunnel.

At this point the two teams both infiltrate the tavern from two different directions, just about at the same time.

Halfred and T.I.M. were brought inside the tavern and lead to the basement. There the Weevil chided them for being incredibly stupid, instantly seeing through the disguise. We didn’t even dress up T.I.M. at all and I’m pretty sure the Weevil knows who we are at this point.

More than half a dozen weapons were drawn as our heroes were surrounded. They were about to be lead to the cages but then they heard an alarm go off.

The alarm was in the form of a damn pair of Helmed Horrors. At the end of the tunnel the three of us had found a false wall of boarded up planks. Byseis plulled a switch to open it up, and suddenly we were face-to-face with a pair of automated sentries.

So much for the god damn secret entrance! I’m actually pretty irritated at this; that intel about the backyard was terrible advice, leading us into the waiting arms of the toughest creatures in the dungeon.

Combat exploded for both parties.

With a warlock and two sorcerers in the tunnel we’re not exactly subtle. Spells flung out at the Helmed Horror, who annoyingly stood its ground with a 20 AC and several spell resistances and immunities.

I had Kazin use Armor of Agathys (3rd level) to help tank the threat and protect the sorcerers. I would end up using both my spells slots to cast it twice, and ended up using almost all of those 30 temporary hit points! I believe it also hit several times for 15 cold damage each. For as disappointing as Mirror Image was last time I used it, Armor of Agathys was pure awesomesauce here.

Korinn would cast a twinned Haste on Bryseis and Kazin, but it still took us forever to carve our way through the beefy constructs.

Meanwhile Halfred and T.I.M. were in serious trouble, surrounding by a large number of Zhentarim. Halfred deserves the MVP for quick-thinking and creativity. He cast Fog Cloud right in the middle of the room, then used his Winged Boots along with a STR Check (using inspiration) to grab T.I.M. and fly the hell out of there (T.I.M. would also throw out a Silence spell for good measure).

What an awesome scene! They were still in hot water even as they flew to up to the first floor, which also contained several foes. From the frying pan into the fryer.

What followed was a lengthy combat sequence that lasted the entire session. The Weevil split off from Halfred’s group to come at ours, using a magical gem earring to try and blind us (unsuccessfully the first time, then successful the second).

I was surprised that the Weevil himself was actually pretty weak, at least compared to the crazy strong Helmed Horrors. A few spells thrown in his direction and he was ready to flee. Hilariously both Korinn and Kazin got in some solid Attacks of Opportunity despite being blinded.

Bryseis would chase after the heavily wounded dwarf and he immediately surrendered. She clocked him and he went down like a sack of potatoes.

The rest of the fight kept going. Korinn and I finished off the last Helmed Horror while Halfred and T.I.M. fought off the entire rest of the tavern. Their Sticky Shields they had nabbed from the Kuo-Toa came in very handy here, disarming several of the Zhentarim fighters.

T.I.M. would spend at least two rounds just healing himself but he was able to stand his ground until the three of us were able to finally join them upstairs. Bryseis threw out a black bear from her Bag of Summoning and we cleaned up the last few Zhentarim (who stubbornly refused to surrender).

We successfully captured the Weevil, huzzah! I didn’t expect this session to be a dungeon crawl that quickly devolved into one big combat sequence. I thought we’d get a chance to role-play, sneak around, or play at some subterfuge. But nope, shock and awe it is! I for one am never taking a secret entrance again.

We gained enough experience to level up to seven next week. We can also interrogate the Weevil (he teased that he had some info for us) and turn his ass in to Mirabar for a sweet reward.

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In the last few years board games have become the new darlings of Kickstarter, raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars. A growing subsection are board games based on video games, with the latest, Jagged Alliance: The Board Game, hitting Kickstarter today.

The board game is being developed by German game developer Underground Games who are partnering with games publisher THQ Nordic.

“Making Jagged Alliance into a board game experience has been an ambition of ours since we first played the series over two decades ago,” says Jan Wagner, Co-founder of Underground Games. “To finally bring JA to board games and add to its great legacy, is a unique opportunity for us! We aim to make a game that is as challenging and varied as the digital version, keeping players on the edge as they make life and death decisions by the minute.”

Jagged Alliance: The Board Game is a cooperative 1-4 player tactical game featuring minis, modular maps, and multiple campaign books. Underground Games promises over 1000 hours of content through the replayable campaign and scenarios.

The scenarios and campaign books let you choose to play either a quick 45-minute skirmish map or a succession of missions in a full campaign.

The Kickstarter campaign is seeking 50,000 euros (about $59,000 USD). The cheapest pledge that nets you the game costs 59 euros (about $69 USD). If you want to shell out the big bucks you could become a lieutenant or even the other dictator boss in the game.

As always with Kickstarter games shipping is charged separately, with expectations ranging from $10 to $20.

The estimated delivery date is November 2018.

From glancing at the campaign I’m getting strong vibes of XCOM: The Board Game with the soldier minis and different missions. The Sector Maps looks to provide actual tactical combat that the XCOM game sorely lacked.

Despite loving the tactical strategy genre I never really got into Jagged Alliance, always preferring sci-fi or fantasy to modern military. But Jagged Alliance: The Board Game looks like a really solid, high quality effort to translate the video game into a very meaty tabletop production.

Read My full review at PC Gamer

Battle Chasers: Nightwar tackles the tedium of traditional JRPG turn-based combat by turning every fight into a tense interplay of meaningful tactics. Despite some frustrating elements and balancing issues, Nightwar provides some of the most satisfying RPG battles I’ve experienced all year—and looks nice doing it.

Read My full review at PC Gamer

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Previously on “Storm King’s Thunder”

The tavern reeked of blood, sweat, and death, but we had to remain a while longer. Bryseis bodily dragged the bound dwarf known as The Weevil down the stairs toward his office. He grunted and occasionally spat out blood, but the cruel smile never left his face.

“Give me a dagger,” he growled when we shoved him up to his office. Bryseis glared at him, then methodically pulled out her loaded crossbow and aimed it at the back of his head.

She slapped his own dagger back in his bound hands. “You try anything, your body will go first,” she replied menacingly.

“Don’t be stupid, dear,” he said. “If I was going to activate the trap, I’d be the first one gone.” He gingerly shoved the blade into the seal of the door, maneuvering it deftly. We heard a soft clicking sound on the other side, and the door swung open. He walked in and dropped the knife with disdain.

“Take a long around, what’s mine is yours, obviously.” He nodded to Bryseis and stepped back out. 

Bryseis hesitated, glancing back between him and the office.

The Weevil grinned. “Bryseis dear I’m not a dumb man. If I was to let one of you die from a trap, my life would end pretty quickly thereafter. For the time being I’m not going to let any of you die.”

After Bryseis disappeared inside he turned to the rest of us . “As I’m sure you’re aware, my employment with the Zhentarim is at an end. It appears I’m looking for a new job. And you’re looking for information.”

“It’s our lucky day!” T.I.M. remarked with child-like enthusiasm.

“It is.” That smile never left the dwarf’s face. “Here’s the proposition: you don’t kill me. You don’t use the notice you’ve got in your pocket. In return I give you everything I know on what The K Society was looking for, and where they were looking for it. And I continue to find more information on what they’re doing – for you.”

Entire sessions without combat are beginning to become commonplace, which still kind of weirds me out coming from the dungeon-happy campaign that was Princes of the Apocalypse.

But this session proved invaluable as we received a wealth of useful information from the Weevil, not to mention the shady new ally himself.

With the Zhentarim outpost of The Feral Hound full of dead Zhentarim, we roused the Weevil back to conciousness with a bit of Lay on Hands and got to work.

The Weevil was surprisingly forthcoming and pragmatic, and combined with Chris’ excellent voice acting immediately endeared him to us. Bryseis had the right idea to wake him up so he could dismantle any would-be traps in his office – and he did just that, saving us from an embarrassing fire-in-the-face gag.

In his office Bryseis found tons of loot, including incriminating ledgers and piles of coins and gems.

I lead the interrogation. Despite burning all my spell slots in the previous battle, I wouldn’t have to probe his mind at all. For the simple exchange of his life and freedom he told us everything he knew about The K Society, a Frost Giant named Harshnag, and the mysterious organization that was seeking to keep the Giants in their current state of escalating chaos.

It was an info-dump, but made fun thanks to the DM’s gravelly, surly depiction of the dwarven Zhentarim leader.

We learned that The K Society was lead by a powerful Kraken who was aiming to expand its control on the mainland, though its overall motivations and ultimate goals (generic conquest?) are still unknown.

Harshnag was the Frost Giant from Halfred’s past, apparently an ally. He (and everyone else apparently) was seeking out treasure sites from the Ostorian Empire, the ancient civilization of the Giants. The Weevil had located three such sites that we could follow-up on: Beorunna’s Well, Grandfather Tree, and Morgur’s Mound.

He knew little about that mysterious third organization of their tenuous Axis of Evil (Zhentarim and K Society being the other two). We’d met, and slain one of their members in the Xantharl’s Keep outpost, an orc emissary. This group was content on keeping the rampage of Giants ongoing, and we suspected may actually have caused the entire thing to start in the first place. The Weevil didn’t even have a name for them yet.

The Weevil had admitted his poor choice of allies, and revealed a bit about Bryseis’ and T.I.M.’s backstories.

Bryseis was all set-up to join the ranks of the Zhentarim before betraying them when her first big job was to hand over her mother’s gambling house in Baldur’s Gate to them. She’d been hounded by them ever since, and popped back up on their radar when we first met in Nightstone.

T.I.M.’s backstory became even more shocking when The Weevil revealed that ‘the statue’ was a heist job they stole for Enebrin, the ranger whom T.I.M. was modeled after. Curiously The Weevil could not remember anything about where they stole him from, as if a magical curse was placed upon him that physically caused him pain when he tried to remember. We had a bit of fun with that.

Despite staring at a 5,000 gold wanted poster we ultimately cut a deal with The Weevil: we’d take him to Miri Greycastle’s estate, former hero from the Princes of the Apocalypse. She’d use her resources and connections, including Kethra’s school of assassins, to keep the Weevil under guard. He was not to leave the city.

In exchange he would continue to feed us intel and information about the Giant threat. He’d be our own personal shadow broker!

I liked this idea. I figure even Lawful heroes would see the need to have such an asset during a worldwide crisis. We promised to reevaluate his standing depending on the actions and information he undertook going forward.

After a Long Rest we all reached level 7, huzzah! My Warlock/Paladin combo synergy really takes off here, with Divine Smite and Great Weapon Fighting coming online, as well as some low level mind-fuck spells like Command and Wrathful Smite.

We looked at our map at the three sites The Weevil had given us. Morgur’s Mound was the closest to Neverwinter, but without a main road leading anywhere near there (it was closest to Xantharl’s Keep, which meant teleporting to Mirabar).

The other two were farther out to the East, closer to Everlund. Oh right, the hippogriffs! We quickly decided it would be far better to actually use our hippogriffs to travel. We used the Harper teleporters to zip back to Everlund.

Beorunna’s Well was a few days travel, even by air, to the Northeast. The Grandfather Tree was in the middle of the High Forest, just over a day’s travel to the South. Grandfather Tree it is! And hey, that’s where we pointed Snigbat and the goblin kids into. Hopefully they’re okay.

We didn’t meet any resistance during our flight, and were able to use our Instant Fortress to safely camp for the night. The next day we flew down to the massive, 300 ft tall tree, which housed four regular-size trees beneath its great canopy.

The only clue we had was that ancient Stone Giants had buried something beneath its roots.

As we approached we heard ancient Elvish whispering among the trees. As a half-elf Kazin understood the language (as did Halfred’s Ranger experience). We followed the voice to one of the four trees.

At first I thought the tree itself was speaking, but it turned out to be a dryad. She and her sisters were protectors of the trees, and the Grandfather. At the same time Halfred’s Primeval Awareness was picking up half a dozen centaurs racing towards our direction.

I reassured the dryad that we were not here to harm the trees (not now anyway). We were investigating something that could help stop the giant crisis – an event that would eventually spill into the forests.

One successful Persuasion check later and the dryads agreed to help. They called off the centaurs when they spotted us, and even opened the way to the massive stone object under the tree. Turns out it was a doorway into an underground biome.

The dryads warned us should any damage come to the Grandfather Tree, they’ll take our hippogriffs and our lives become forfeit.

Hopefully we can find or learn what we need without it coming to that, but who knows what we’ll discover down here?

Streamed, recorded and uploaded every week. Subscribe for our weekly adventures. Join us live on Fridays at 7pm Pacific/10pm Eastern!

It should come as no surprise that the first tabletop-focused PAX convention, PAX Unplugged, will feature live shows of the some of the biggest live streamed D&D groups, including Critical Role, Acquisitions Incorporated, and Dice, Camera, Action!. PAX Unplugged 2017 will take place November 17-19 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. Here is the full schedule of events.

“The mission of PAX Unplugged is simple,” said Jerry Holkins, co-founder of Penny Arcade and PAX. “We want to recognize the tabletop community that’s grown year over year at our events with a show just for them. It’s going to be pretty amazing first outing, and I can’t wait to attend the show myself.”

The extremely popular Geek & Sundry powered, actor-fueled Critical Role ended their 100+ session campaign earlier this month. In lieu of a live adventure, several members will be hosting a panel called “Critical Role: Talks Machina” on Saturday, November 18. Marisha Ray, Liam O’Brien, Taliesin Jaffe, and DM Matthew Mercer will discuss the entire campaign of Vox Machina, hold a Q&A, and tease their next campaign.

If live D&D shows are more your jam, Dice, Camera, Action! will feature beloved DM and Wizards of the Coast designer Chris Perkins leading his group through Chult as part of their ongoing Tomb of Annihilation storyline. Holly Conrad, Jared Knaubenbaur, Anna Prosser Robinson, and Nathan Sharp will be joined by an unannounced special guest on Friday, November 17.

My personal favorite D&D group, Acquisitions Inc.: The “C” Team will host their very first PAX live play. Like TwitchCon last weekend, Ryan Hartman, Amy Falcone, Kate Welch, Kris Straub, and DM Jerry Holkins will play through a special one-shot session on Sunday, November 19.

And of course it wouldn’t be a PAX show, and especially a tabletop-centric PAX show without the venerable Acquisitions Incorporated team of Penny Arcade’s Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins, and best-selling author Patrick Rothfuss, with DM Chris Perkins.

Over the last year they’ve rotated their player fourth slot after Scott Kurtz’s departure. I’m really excited that they’ll move one of the “C” Team players, Kate Welch’s halfling grandma Rosie Beestinger into the group for their continued adventures in Chult. Acquisitions Inc. will take the stage on Saturday, November 18.

The keynote address for PAX Unplugged 2017 will be delivered by Wizards of the Coast president Chris Cocks.

PAX Unplugged is less than a month away but tickets are still available, including the discounted Three Day pass (though stock is low).

I personally would have loved to attend but the timing is bad, with just a week from Thanksgiving and two months from PAX South. Obviously as someone who enjoys playing and streaming our own D&D adventures, I adore watching other groups, particularly the PA teams and anything with Chris Perkins. I’m looking forward to watching all the streams!

Normally you would see an excerpt of my Walking Dead recap here, and the full post at Polygon. Unfortunately Polygon didn’t get the contract ready in time for the premiere, so I’m doing it right here on my website. We should be squared away starting next week!

War. War never changes. But sometimes it weaponizes zombies. The season eight premiere kicked off the war with the saviors with some literal bangs, and like Rick, it gave me hope for the future.

We left off last season with our three main groups: the Kingdom (lead by King Ezekiel), Alexandria (lead by Rick) and the Hilltop (currently changing leadership in favor of Maggie) all pledging to join forces against the growing oppressive threat of the Negan-led Saviors.

After some rousing gung-ho military-style speeches (of which King Ezekiel’s dramatic theatrics are particularly well-suited), they moved to execute their plan: assaulting the Savior factory headquarters head-on with armored cars, machine guns, and a giant horde of walkers.

It was a two-pronged approach. They had seemingly planned all this off-screen while we got to jump right into the action, not unlike the premiere of season six with the quarry outbreak.

On one team was Rick, Maggie, Jesus, Father Gabriel, and lots of redshirts from Alexandria and the Hilltop. They took a fleet of cars armored with metal shields and drove right up to the Savior’s base.

They had cleared the way of enemy outposts thanks to intel from Dwight – which hilariously enough was supplied crossbow-to-crossbow between he and Daryl, our two marksmen.

When our team arrived at the factory they fired into the air until Negan and his lieutenants waltzed outside. Negan was cool and charming as always, mocking and berating Rick for trying to get all his people killed.

Negan’s only bargaining chip at the moment was Gregory, the mincing, sycophantic leader of the Hilltop. Gregory tried to talk the Hilltoppers into going home by threatening to kick them and their families out, but no one moved. Jesus declared that “the Hilltop stands with Maggie.” Even Rick had turned to her previously and said when this was over, he was willing to follow her lead on building the future.

Gregory’s plan failed and he was literally pushed aside. Rick gave them one last chance to surrender before counting down from 10 – then opening fire when he reached 7.

It was a fist-pumping moment. For so long we’ve seen our heroes get beaten, physically, mentally, emotionally, and to see them finally fight back was vindicating.

They shot the hell out of the factory, though all the Saviors seemingly made it out safe. Negan was the most vulnerable and Rick began to lose himself in his personal vendetta to kill him. Father Gabriel snapped him out of it. They had to leave – the zombie horde was here.

Step two of their plan was executed by Carol, Morgan, Tara, and Daryl, who were busy corralling a giant herd of walkers right up to the Saviors’ doorstep.

Daryl had easily the coolest job in the episode: riding his motorcycle just ahead of the herd (as he did in the S6 premiere) while firing a flare gun to keep their attention.

The herd arrived during the firefight, devolving the entire battlefield into chaos. But it was all part of the plan, and our team made it out, save one – Father Gabriel. As he was leaving he spotted Gregory, and jumped out of his car to help him.

We know that Gregory is a giant fuckwit; he’s proven that every single time he’s been on screen. Unforutnately Father Gabe lacks that insight, and is shocked when Gregory leaps up, jumps in the car, and drives away, leaving poor Gabriel royally screwed.

In the final moments of the episode Gabriel runs through the horde, finally reaching an open door. He gets inside only to hear Negan’s pants-shitting speech that was so prominently uttered in the trailer. I don’t think Gabriel is long for this world.

This entire scenario echoed the comics pretty closely, though it seems to go even better for our team. At one point Carol and Morgan split off to join Ezekiel and the rest of the Kingdommers in their own raid against a major Savior outpost. This is a large scale war with multiple battlefields and factions, and will hopefully make for a much improved season.

The most interesting aspect of the premiere were the frequent flash-forward glimpses into a happy future. These softly-lit scenes featured an older, bearded Rick, hobbled with a cane but living a comfortable life with Michonne, Carl, and an older, talking Judith. We also get other, very brief glimpses of a sweaty, injured Rick, speaking about how his mercy prevailed over his wrath.

This is all important foreshadowing surrounding the fate of both Rick and Negan, and the show is quite blatantly teasing it out. I expect we’ll see Rick grow and evolve over the course of the season as he learns how to care about people again – and not just his people. The scene between he and Carl with the random babbling man at the gas station is proof that Rick has a long way to go when it comes to trust and mercy.

Winners 

The Triumvirate of Rick, Maggie, and Ezekiel – Our three groups have some great leaders. Rick remains the star but each one had some lovely speeches to give and moments to shine.

Daryl – Our badboy hasn’t had much to do lately. Sure he’s done the whole motorcycle horde-leading thing before, but I still loved seeing it again here. Plus, trading notes via crossbow bolts!

Hope – Yeah it’s corny, but after a season of getting their asses kicked, this episode felt far more hopeful than anything we’ve seen in a long time.

Losers

Father Gabriel – I hate to put Gabe in the Losers corner just for being a nice guy, but he did hear that awful speech Gregory gave threatening the families of the Hilltoppers. Gabriel’s gradually been redeedeming himself since he warned Dianna about our group when they first arrived at Alexandria, but he made a bad choice here.

Michonne – We’re making Michonne stay at home, really? She doesn’t strike me as the kind to kiss her boyfriend goodbye as he leaves for war.

Gregory – He’s a completely spineless asshole who keeps on surviving despite everyone hating him. Hopefully Gregory is bound for an inglorious death very soon. I’m just tired of him.

Read the full article on Pixelkin

Last year Disney abruptly announced they were ending Disney Infinity after three years. Earlier this year Activision gave the foreboding announcement that they would not release a new Skylanders game this year– for the first time in six years. This week Warner Bros. confirmed that they’re ceasing development on LEGO Dimensions (though online support will remain).

At this point there are more discontinued (or on hiatus) toys-to-life games than ongoing. In the span of a year we went from most major game publishers wanting a piece of the surging toys-to-life pie, to suddenly being left with a grim outlook for the future of the genre.

Read the full article on Pixelkin

Our adventures in “Storm King’s Thunder” have been rescheduled this week to make room for one of our players attending a Stranger Things season two party. I can’t blame them, Stranger Things is amazing and one of my favorite shows. It even included Dungeons & Dragons in a neat way.

So we’re moving our weekly session up to tonight. We’ll start in about an hour. Watch our excellent antics tonight, and watch the (hopefully excellent) second season of Stranger Things tomorrow!

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”

Whispered echoes raged throughout the dark hallways. The air was cold, and despite being underground grass crunched under our feet as we explored the labyrinth beneath the Grandfather Tree.

Halfred had recognized the literal writing on the walls – Stone Giants had built this ancient place. For what purpose we could only guess. Now it seemed to be a tomb for a host of restless spirits. They were not happy to see us trespassing.

Churlish giggling sent a chill through my spine. I turned to see the ghostly apparition of a long dead elf girl rush toward me, as if in embrace. 

I lashed out with my psi-glaive, hoping to cut this one down before it could reach me, as I did the first. But I had hesitated. My mark was off, and I stumbled. My spear bit into the ghost’s side but didn’t deter it.

It seemed to pass right through me. I felt a horrible coldness I hadn’t experienced since I lay dying in the snow from the yeti mauling, and a scream echoed throughout my mind. I wasn’t sure if it was the ghostly girl, or my own. 

Just as quickly, the spirit vanished back into the nearest stone wall. The whispering continued. T.I.M. lay a concerned hand on my should, and I felt his healing magic warm my body. We all exchanged worried glances, and soldiered on through the darkness.

We’re back to dungeon crawling this week, albeit with a fairly short, straight-forward dungeon. I later learned that this dungeon didn’t even exist in the official “Storm King’s Thunder” campaign book. Player characters simply dig under the Grandfather Tree and find the artifact.

Thumbs up to the DM for providing us not only a fun little dungeon crawl, but one that was legitimately harrowing.

We’d entered the mysterious stone doorway beneath the Grandfather Tree to find a grassy biome. Long, twisting hallways were marked with stone walls inscribed with the Giant language. Definitely Stone Giant work. All that remained now were creepy whispering voices. Then we turned a corner and saw our first ghostly spirit.

The DM did a fantastic job making this whole scenario super creepy. The ghostly figures did all the classic spooky shit, including intoning foreboding warnings, screaming and pointing at us, and running both away and right at us, and through walls.

Instead of traditional combat encounters the spirits acted more like a dungeon trap that we kept stumbling into. Every time we made a wrong turn within the dense labyrinth we discovered another ghostly figure who fled, only later to surprise attack us through a wall. Since the spirits used their movement to come in, attack, and flee, we never triggered a real combat encounter. We did get lots of Attacks of Opportunities, slaying a few of them.

But they did far more damage to us. They only had a +5 to hit but they rolled 20+ on almost every attack, with a solid 3d6 damage. Even worse, they critically hit on at least three separate occasions if memory serves. That was painful as hell and effectively made us paranoid and fearful while we wandered through the maze.

At one point we stopped at a crossroads and no less than seven of them sprang out of the walls to attack us. Korinn would’ve gone down if not for her Shield spell, and she quickly cast Invisibility afterward to prevent another ambush.

I had Kazin use Shield of Faith, which helped prevent a nasty hit, and T.I.M. was definitely using Cure Wounds to keep us afloat. Bryseis summoned an animal army from her Bag of Tricks, and rode atop her brown bear.

Eventually we crawled our way to the central chamber and saw a rune inscribed on the ground. A magical stone orb floated in the middle. Let’s grab it!

Approaching the artifact summoned the big bad leader of the spirits, a cool-looking undead Wraith Giant. The undead fiend had the ability to create more spirits, so we focused our attacks on it while all the spirits converged on us.

Thankfully we still had plenty of spell slots to unload. Korinn and Bryseis flung Lightning Bolts and Fireballs. After realizing the foes were resistant to nonmagical attacks, Halfred put down his shortbow in favor of his silvered darts, which did some impressive damage thanks to his Colossus Slayer and Hunter’s Mark.

I used Mirror Image for defense, then unleashed some Divine Smites upon the Wraith Giant. Two Divine Smites plus my multiattack and Polearm bonus action equaled 64 damage in a single round, huzzah!

Paladins are awesome single-target damage dealers and I’m loving the synergy between bladelock and Paladin multiclass – though I easily burned through all my spell-slots.

The Wraith Giant fell and we quickly cleaned up the pesky spirits. We claimed our prize: the Orb of the Stein Rune. It’s a neat defensive magic item that can also be used as a permanent enchantment on a shield or boots. How very videogamey!

The whispering voices ceased and we got the hell out of there. Back on the surface the centaurs lowered their spears at us, but the Grandfather Tree remained unharmed, so they and the dryad protectors let us go.

We hopped back on our hippogriffs and returned to Everlund. I thought we were choosing which site to go to in order to advance the story, but it looks like we’re just choosing the order, and may need to do them all anyway. If they all award spiffy artifacts we should probably do them all anyway. Next week: Beorunna’s Well!

Streamed, recorded and uploaded every week. Subscribe for our weekly adventures. Join us live on Fridays at 7pm Pacific/10pm Eastern!

Since we began doing weekly D&D sessions over two years ago, I’ve always wanted to do a special Halloween ‘episode.’ As the regular DM it was always too much for me to prepare on top of the regular campaign.

Now, however, I’m currently a player in our “Storm King’s Thunder” campaign, giving me the perfect excuse to temporarily don my DM hat once more and invite my group for a spooky, haunted evening of thrills and scares.

Our Halloween one-shot session will take place tonight, Monday October 30, beginning at 7pm Pacific/10 pm Eastern, streaming on my YouTube channel.

I’ll be adapting the one-shot adventure “The Haunt” from the DMs Guild. I’ve custom built the map in Roll20 and made several changes to downscale the 4th/5h level adventure for our 3rd level party, while keeping it scary as hell. We’ll be bringing in characters from previous one-shot adventures, and we’ll have at least one new character as well.

I think of this group as The Defenders of our D&D Cinematic Universe. They take care of the street-level threats while the big Avengers team tackles the world-threatening Giant uprising. Best of all – this one-shot will in no way interrupt our regular weekly adventures with the A-team.

Tune in tonight for extra bonus D&D goodness!

Welcome to another Roll20 Review, my written and video series in which I review the paid modules available for sale at Roll20. A review copy of the module was provided.

“Tyranny of Dragons” was the name of the first two campaign books released for Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition back in 2014: “Hoard of the Dragon Queen” and “The Rise of Tiamat.”

As the first official campaign story published for 5E, “Tyranny of Dragons” is a bit rough around the edges. Some of the rules weren’t quite solidified yet. The Monster Manual wouldn’t even be released until several months after RoT; the Dungeon Master’s Guide and even Player’s Handbook not until after HotDQ.

“Lost Mine of Phandelver” was designed as a the first intro starter adventure, whereas “Tyranny of Dragons” had to evoke a full campaign. While it tells a fun story of both dungeons and dragons, it’s very linear and railroady, with few overly large maps that don’t look very good on a virtual tabletop.

Both modules draw from classic D&D scenarios and monsters and use lots of fun locations, from a flying Cloud Giant castle to a White Dragon lair in the middle of the Sea of Moving Ice, culminating in the dark dragon goddess being summoned to Faerun.

The Roll20 package offers both modules together for the normal campaign price, or you can purchase each one separately. While the original adventure may be the earliest, and roughest of the 5E campaigns, Roll20 has steadily been refining their D&D 5e adaptation process, adding in lots of welcome bonus features to “Tyranny of Dragons” such as rollable loot tables, a Council Scorecard, and extra random battle maps.

Since you can purchase the modules separately I’ll be reviewing them one at a time, then give my overall thoughts of the entire campaign at the end.

Hoard of the Dragon Queen

The following content is included in the $29.95 Hoard of the Dragon Queen module:

• 7 5-ft battle maps (4 locations) with Dynamic Lighting (for Roll20 subscribers)
• 2 10-ft battle maps with 5-ft subdivisions (Dynamic Lighting)
• 3 20-ft battle maps (1 location) with 5-ft subdivisions (Dynamic Lighting)
• 2 non-gridded maps (Greenest town and Raider Camp)
• 1 overland map of the Sword Coast
• 6 5-ft original battle maps by Roll20 (town, camp, forest, swamp and day/night road)
• 20 tokens for all potential caravan travelers in episodes four and five (though no pics/handouts)
• 23 named NPC character sheets with matching tokens (16 w/ pics & handouts)
• Over 70 NPC monster sheets with draggable tokens, vision, and separate player handouts.
• Rollable tokens for shape-shifting creatures
• 17 Magic Item player handouts (6 w/ pics)
• Journal organized into 8 episodes, each containing DM notes and player handouts
• Rollable tables for random encounters
• A fully searchable database courtesy of the Standard Rules Document for 5th Edition

Of the two modules, “Hoard of the Dragon Queen” is the messiest. With an unfortunate reliance on way-too big battle maps and a large chunk of the middle of the adventure devoted to a lengthy road trip, it doesn’t translate very well to a virtual tabletop.

It begins with an exciting premise: a dragon cult attack (with adult blue dragon!) descend upon the small town of Greenest. The player characters instantly jump into being heroes, helping townsfolk and mitigating the devastation (episode 1).

The Greenest map is non-gridded, though it is properly measured and scaled. Tokens are about 20 feet in size, meaning you’ll have to somewhat abstract real tactical combat.

Alternatively you could use the Random Battle – Town map that Roll20 provides to simulate smaller, individual scenarios, kind of like how a JRPG would shift to a separate battle screen.

I believe this is the first time Roll20 has provided original battle maps in the official 5e modules that weren’t just a blank page. The maps have Dynamic Lighting lines drawn in, though the settings need to be enabled if you want to use them.

The Greenest map includes all the tokens you could ever need right there on the GM layer, including both random and scripted encounters. One of Roll20’s biggest strengths with the official 5E campaigns has been in providing all the extra tokens and information directly on the map, and nowhere is there a better example than right at the beginning in Greenest.

I like the way the adventure kicks off, but it quickly grows linear as the players are captured while exploring the cult’s nearby camp, then escape and return to explore a nearby dungeon (episodes 2 and 3).

The Raider Camp is needlessly large (a recurring theme), with 20-ft tokens and sans any grids, making “Hoard of the Dragon Queen” an awkward introduction for any new players to Roll20.

Episodes 4 and 5 represent the low point of the entire campaign. The players are tasked with accompanying a caravan of the Cult of the Dragon as they make the incredibly long journey from Greenest through Baldur’s Gate and Waterdeep up to the Mere of Dead Men (about halfway to Neverwinter). That’s about 1000 miles to cover.

A road trip without battle maps isn’t an easy thing to convey in Roll20. There’s a single visual handout included and lots of information on scripted and random encounters that a DM can employ.

The random battle maps help salvage this awkward portion. Four of the maps can be used here. The forest map includes a road in the middle, while the Day and Night Road maps include the Sword Coast (or a river) on one side, and caravan tokens on the GM layer in case you want to use them. Finally the Camp map looks like it’s designed for the entire caravan’s campsite with over two dozen tents.

Eventually the caravan finally reaches its destination, and the players discover a massive Castle deep within the swamp (episode 6). Castle Naerytar is a huge dungeon made up of four separate battle maps.

Unfortunately the scale is a little crazy; three of the four maps originally used 20-ft squares, forcing Roll20 to subdivide them to create 5-ft squares, which makes for super teeny tiny tokens within a gigantic battle map.

The Swamp Random Battle Map could be he used here in the surrounding areas, particularly as a solid half of the Ground Floor map encompasses the swamp west of the Castle itself. The Castle can make for a neat scenario with two different factions (lizardfolk and bullywogs) who don’t particular like each other, but once again the maps are just too damn big.

The adventure picks up once players find the portal and teleport to the Greypeak Mountains. There they can ally with a Dragon cultist at a Hunting Lodge before journeying to the nearby town of Parnast (episode 7). Unlike most town maps I’ve seen in Roll20, Parnast is gridded and subdivided into 5-ft squares, making it usable to actually battle on.

Parnast has a docked Cloud Giant castle floating nearby, a formidable mobile base of operations for the cult (episode 8).

Skyreach Castle represents a really neat dungeon design, with giants, Red Wizards, a vampire, and a white dragon. Here the huge scale makes a lot more sense, being a damn Cloud Giant home, though the 3-dimensional design of the 3-in-1 dungeon could prove tricky to navigate in Roll20.

“Hoard of the Dragon Queen” begins and ends strongly, and the random battle maps could prove invaluable in the stages that lack any maps. There’s a lot of content here but it’s very linear, and doesn’t provide a satisfying ending to the overall dragon cult plot. For that you’ll need “Rise of Tiamat.”

The Rise of Tiamat

The following content is included in the $29.95 Rise of Tiamat module:

• 2 10-ft battle maps with 5-ft subdivisions (Dynamic Lighting)
• 3 15-ft battle maps with 5-ft subdivisions (Dynamic Lighting)
• 1 20-ft battle map with 5-ft subdivisions (Dynamic Lighting)
• 1 overland map of the Sword Coast
• 6 5-ft original battle maps by Roll20 (town, tavern, forest, ice floe, volcano, evil temple)
• Interactive Council Score Card page
• Journal organized into 9 episodes, each containing DM notes and player handouts
• 16 named NPC sheets with matching tokens (14 w/ pics & handouts)
• Nearly 100 NPC monster sheets with draggable tokens, vision, and separate player handouts.
• 37 Magic Item player handouts (12 w/ pics)
• Rollable tables for random encounters and treasure hordes
• Organized DM notes for Villain and ally factions and races
• Detailed, organized notes on each council member of the metallic dragons and Council of Waterdeep
• A fully searchable database courtesy of the Standard Rules Document for 5th Edition

If you like your fantasy adventures with healthy doses of political machinations (and Game of Thrones has definitely proven that audiences do), “Rise of Tiamat” will be your preferred module.

We move well beyond disrupting supply lines as the adventurers join in with the official Waterdeep Council to gather crucial allies in the war against the dragon cult.

Although you start at a higher level, “The Rise of Tiamat” isn’t exactly the Baldur’s Gate II of the 5E adventures. In fact it’s actually distressingly light on content, featuring only a handful of battle maps, none of which originally had 5-ft square grids.

The political maneuverings of the adventurers are nifty, from trying to sway very different factions to a whole council meeting with the good mettalic dragons of Faerun to broker a powerful alliance.

Of course none of that is represented in any battle maps, with only a few handouts as visual aids. What you do get from the Roll20 module is an interactive Waterdeep council scorecard page, which is designed for the DM’s eyes only.

The scorecard lets the DM translate the players’ decisions into a point system, which ultimately will determine how much (if at all) their choices and alliances affect the climax. It reminds me of the ending of Dragon Age Origins, where your choices affected which factions helped you in the final battle.

Of course you can just download the scorecard from Wizards of the Coast, but it’s nice to see an option to do everything within Roll20. The total scores as rollable tokens work well, but moving the plus/minus signs from the GM layer to Token layer isn’t a great solution as I could hardly tell the difference; better to just delete or move them around as you need.

Like HoDQ, RoT is still a linear adventure, though it’s far easier to add your own content or modify the plot. Instead of literally following the cult around, you’ll be given missions and messages that send the party to various dungeons. The variety is nice, from an ice dragon lair in a giant iceberg to a mummy yuan-ti dungeon to a wizard tower with surrounding puzzle-filled hedge maze.

Unfortunately every single map uses 10 to 20-ft scale grids. Roll20 has made the proper adjustments, resulting in correct sizes but tiny tokens that will require you to zoom in. Every map feels overly big, with lots of unused spaces.

The Roll20 battle maps once again can help alleviate a lot of the map issues by providing smaller, more tactical battle maps. The forest and town maps are brought over from HotDQ, while we get four new area -specific maps, like an Ice Floe for episode 1’s icy incursion, and volcano and temple maps for the final climactic dungeon crawl into the Well of Dragons.

Despite similar map issues “The Rise of Tiamat” translates a bit better to the virtual tabletop format. There’s no large map-less sections other than the semi-scripted cult retaliations, which you could use the provided random battle maps for. Most of the map-less portions involve political role-playing, which shouldn’t involve any combat.

Roll20 has provided many welcome features in “Tyranny of Dragons” with the original random battle maps, rollable encounter tables, and council scorecard. “Tyranny of Dragons” is still the weakest of all the published Fifth Edition adventures, however. The bad map-scaling and parchment-like design is a big turn-off when using the original maps as a virtual tabletop, and the strict linearity could turn off many a role-playing group who prefer a more open sandbox world to explore.

Other groups may appreciate the linear story-telling – mine certainly would. If you are going to play “Tyranny of Dragons” on Roll20, the paid modules are definitely the way to go. Of the two “The Rise of Tiamat” is the more exciting adventure (though a bit trickier to run), and can easily be played as a high-level campaign with just a few lines to summarize the events of “Hoard of the Dragon Queen.”

The Pros:

• “Hoard of the Dragon Queen” and “The Rise of Tiamat” can be purchased separately ($29.95 each).
• The original Roll20 random battle maps are an excellent inclusion, perfect for providing random encounters and in filling out sections that don’t feature any set maps.
• The Sword Coast map has all the location names and markers on the GM layer, letting you use it as an interactive Player Map.
• Interactive council scorecard page lets you keep track of events within Roll20, with the added bonus that you could choose to show it to your players at the end.
• Rollable tables for treasure hoards and random encounters.

The Cons:

• Most of the official maps did not originally use 5-ft square grids; Roll20 adjustments correct the sizing, but the results are huge maps with tiny tokens.
• Neither module comes with very many dungeon maps; many of RoT’s episodes are designed as role-playing-only, while the middle of HotDQ relies on random encounters on the road. As a result the entire campaign feels very light on content.
• The three areas of Xonthal’s Tower (maze, tower, dungeon) are all included on a single battle map in Rise of Tiamat; I would’ve preferred 3 separate map pages to make navigation less confusing for the players.

The Verdict: The Tyranny of Dragons Roll20 modules provide many welcoming extra features that help elevate the otherwise weakest campaign in the Fifth Edition pantheon.

A review copy of the module was provided.

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It’s bonus D&D week! In a nod to Halloween I temporarily took over the DM reigns to host an extra horror-themed one-shot adventure this week, using our pre-built characters from previous one-shots.

Welcome to the “The Haunt!”

I used a one-shot adventure from the DM’s Guild called “The Haunt,” by P.B. Publishing. I built the entire two-story mansion from scratch in Roll20, and also needed to make several adjustments for both time and difficulty.

While I wanted a horror one-shot to be challenging, the original adventure was written for a party of 4th-5th level, whereas the PCs we were using were only going to be 3rd level.

Our cast (all 3rd level):

• Gramosk, half-orc barbarian
• Falafel, half-elf bard
• Filkur, gnome druid
• Scarlet O’Fair, human paladin
• Zinli, gnome rogue

Furthermore I needed to run the whole thing in a single evening, which for us is ideally around three hours. We skipped some fights and a few rooms and still took an additional 40 minutes but we got it all in and had a great time.

The published adventure provides a few hooks to get the PCs directly in front of the haunted mansion. Since we were mostly using PCs from our last one-shot, “Den of the Rotten Kings,” I modified the Elderly Wizard Looking for Magic Shit hook by using an overwizard of Luskan to send the party on a mission.

I didn’t have time for any actual role-playing here so I railroaded the players through an intro cutscene until they were in front of the house, at night, with a single light in an upstairs window.

My players took a hell of a lot longer investigating the outside entrance than I planned. The front doors are designed to open only once the party has essentially given up trying to open them, but they tried their damndest, including Filkur the druid using a Wild Shape spider form to climb up to the second story.

Once they began exploring around the other edges of the house the doors flew open and they went inside. They were immediately suspicious of the Gargloye statues flanking the inside entryway – as they should be! Filkur the spider investigated by waving a leg in front of one of them from above, and they sprang to life and attacked.

A pair of CR 2 gargoyles is a solid combat encounter for five level 3 PCs, and I got several solid hits in. I waived the gargoyles’ nonmagical resistance as it would’ve made the fight drag on too long (only one of them had a magic weapon – and gargoyles are immune to Filkur’s poison from the Dagger of Venom). I would do the same nonmagical hand-waving later on when the party fought a ghost.

With the gargoyles defeated the party explored the foyer, which held another gargoyle statue, a couch with a doll, and a spiral staircase leading both up and down (though the way up was barred).

Zinli rolled to investigate the statue and found one of the arms was a lever. Filkur grabbed the old doll and shoved it onto his hat.

Pretty quickly the party found the moving wall section east of the tea room. They briefly debated trying to use some sort of rope to get everyone into the pair of sliding walls together, but ultimately decided to just split the party. Scarlet and Falafel would remain behind while they worked the lever to move Zinli, Filkur, and Gramosk through the secret passages.

Splitting the party is always a hilariously bad idea, and doubly so for a horror-themed adventure! For that reason I absolutely adored this part of the adventure. It’s amazing how a simple sliding wall feature of a dungeon can create such an interesting, dynamic scenario without any actual combat.

The barbarian and the gnomes explored the east side of the house. There’s actually not a lot going on on that end – I removed the CR 8 Cloaker in the library for obvious reasons.

I did insert a fun little horror scene where everyone saw the walls in the empty thoroughfare drenched in blood and bodies, and used that opportunity to make the doll escape. I gave out some library books as potential monetary loot, while they found the journal entries in the wizard’s bedroom.

Falafel and Scarlet weren’t about to sit and wait. They explored the rooms to the south. Here were the primary story scenarios of the dungeon, and only half the party was witnessing them!

The dining room featured a ghostly dinner party that ended in terror, while the ballroom provided clues as to whom (or what) lead to the downfall of the General and his mansion.

Meanwhile our other team was growing frustrated having not found a way out, and now realizing they were trapped on that side of the house. I had them roll Perception checks while they checked the various rooms, finally discovering the secret wall in the Spell Practice room that lead outside. They could quickly go around and meet back at the main entrance and the obstinate doors.

Falafel and Scarlet were in much more danger when they went beyond the ballroom into the swimming pool area. I replaced the guardian Beholder Zombie with the slightly less terrifying but still pretty tough Black Pudding, and telegraphed its presence with the bubbling, roiling thick black liquid that filled the pool.

A magical bejeweled sword near the pool enticed Falafel, however, and he attempted to skirt around the side to snatch the sword.

When he got close the Black Pudding sprang to life and attacked. I rolled a crit on the attack, though Falafel mitigated that by using Cutting Words (I don’t think he was supposed to get a reaction during a surprise round, but I’m pretty sure had he not used this tactic the damage would’ve straight killed him instead of just render him unconscious).

With the only thing in the pool area downed, the Black Pudding retreated back to the pool. Scarlet very gingerly crept up behind Falafel and pulled him to safety where she used her Lay on Hands to revive him. She told him the sword was fake, just to get Falafel to leave it alone.

My poor PCs. The sword was actually a very powerful Flametongue magic sword, though they would’ve had to fight and destroy the Black Pudding to obtain it.

The humbled Falafel and Scarlet finally doubled back to the main entrance, where they realized the other half of the party was now stuck outside. It took them a few moments to remember in order to open the door they had to turn away and ignore it, a fun little gag.

At this point the party had thoroughly explored the ground floor, so I reminded them of the open path down to the basement.

The basement is another fun scenario in the adventure. It’s basically one big puzzle room as the players are trapped inside with poisonous gas seeping in. There’s an unfinished flesh golem on an operating table with buckets of numbered body parts. They have to solve a math sequence to figure out the correct parts, which they did in an impressive amount of time.

The adventure doesn’t say what happens to the flesh golem after it awakens and opens the trapped door of the basement, so I inserted a little cutscene. I had it rush upstairs, breaking the way open to the second floor before it died in a hail of screams and thuds off-camera.

The party followed it up, seeing the freaky green glowing veins that pulsed throughout the second floor.

The second floor of the manor feels more like a traditional dungeon crawl, with a bunch of rooms that contain Bad Things. A laundry room held a ghost who quickly disappeared, while my players Nope’d right out of a room covered in spider webs and egg sacs.

I really liked the woman-dead-in-bathtub routine ripped straight out of The Shining. I had her wearing a fancy necklace so the PCs would be a bit more incentivized to check it out. When they did, she attacked!

Without her nonmagical resistance she wasn’t very tough at all, though the single attack I got off did some solid damage (ghosts are basically glass cannons, as we learned in our most recent “Storm King’s Thunder” session).

I wasn’t sure how and when to use the recurring Evil Doll who plagues the PCs throughout their exploration of the upstairs, so I went ahead and added it here.

I quickly realized I had made a major error – I hadn’t scaled down this enemy at all. The Evil Doll was an original CR 4 statblock designed for this adventure, but this adventure was designed for a 4th/5th level party. The Evil Doll had over 100 hit points, A DC 15 AOE Frighten/Paralyze, and an effective multiattack.

I began with its 1/day Frightening Lullaby which hit all the non-gnome PCs. The Evil Doll downed Zinli, the last one in the bathtub (who had grabbed the ghost woman’s necklace, a Periapt of Wound Closure) with a single multiattack round, and I started panicking a bit.

All the Frightened PCs all failed their next saves and were paralyzed while Filkur rushed to heal Zinli. Thankfully for the PCs, the doll is not designed to stick around and fight, and I used its Shadow Blend to retreat. The party immediately hunkered down for a Short Rest.

The session was starting to run late, as I figured it would. They explored the blood-stained southern door, where they could clearly hear animal-like sounds on the other side. The servant’s quarters contain a trio of ghouls, including one ghast.

For once the PCs were able to rush in and slaughter their opponents quite brutally. The ghast went down in a single blow from Scarlet’s Searing Smite, and the others weren’t too far behind. The rooms contained little of value, other than a key.

When they had first entered the upstairs they briefly split up to try the doors, and I locked the one to the north, not wanting them in the finale too early. Finding the key signaled to them that the path to the north was now clear.

They found the funny skeletal clerk and saw another scene that portended Gertrude, the evil woman who had seduced the General and driven this mansion and its people to evil.

The doll made a final appearance in the waiting room outside the General’s office. I quickly shaved its hit points in half and gave the PCs a surprise round, which helped even the fight and make it more manageable.

I’ve learned in my time as DM that simply giving enemies more HP is a poor way to up the challenge. Making enemies stick around after they’ve worn out their welcome can quickly become tedious. I would use this same knowledge in the final fight to come.

The General’s office held the culmination of the living veins: the general himself (or at least his desiccated body) molded into the muck on the ceiling, while the veins were attached to a gruesome figure in a chair like an IV drip. When the PCs approached, the figure sprang to life, revealing herself as Gertrude the Night Hag.

A Night Hag has a surprising amount of HP and AC for a spellcaster. They’re not nearly as strong without a coven, mostly hurling Magic Missiles.

The adventure states that Gertrude summons up a trio of ghouls every other round, which definitely sounds like a slog (again, we’re running very late at this point). I swapped out the ghouls for zombies and the PCs ignored them in favor of ganging up on the Big Bad, which is always a solid strategy.

Gramosk’s frenzied rage and Scarlet’s Divine Smite did a number on her on the third round, finishing her off after I halved her hit points. The Night Hag wasn’t actually a terribly fun or interesting boss encounter to run given that she’s not able to utilize her Change Shape or Nightmare Haunting abilities. It’s probably the only complaint I have over the entire adventure.

With Gertrude slain the general was released from his torment, his spirit able to finally leave his now rapidly decaying body. Freed from the necromantic energy the house began to collapse in on itself. The party snatched the evil emerald that had caused all this mess and fled, leaving behind nothing but fond memories of a fun spooky night of laughs and scares.

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You’ve watched my video review of Dice Throne and know that I’m excited about Season 2 of Dice Throne, which is launching on Kickstarter next week, February 14.

Publisher Roxley has been teasing pictures of the new and improved components for the new characters, and they are jaw-droppingly gorgeous (images below).

Huge new tri-fold game boards featuring the hero front and center, individual art on each ability box, color-coded dice, and artwork on all the cards. They look absolutely incredible. I’m actually worried the poor originals will look a bit dour in comparison!

Season 2 will feature three two-character expansion packs, each at a lower price point then the full six-character base game, which I guess we’re calling Season 1. Technically any of those Season 2 packs are stand-alone for playing 1v1 games. The Samurai and Gunslinger are included in the Battle 1 box. The others are Tactician/Huntress and Cursed Pirate/Artificer.

Dice Throne Season 2 hits Kickstarter February 14.

Last minute reschedule! Due to one player being out at a wedding and another out sick, we are moving our weekly D&D session to this Sunday, February 11th. Same start time at 7 pm Pacific/10 pm Eastern. See you then!

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Previously on “Storm King’s Thunder”

More empty rooms. The barracks within the Eye of the All-Father were as giant-size as everything else, but also completely barren. I poked my head into one of the side bedrooms while Bryseis darted further into the receding darkness of the long hallway.

As I turned to leave the ground began to shake. I heard Bryseis make a startled sound and saw glimpses of her running, followed by the brimstone poof of her Misty Step.

That’s all I saw before the open doorway in front of me suddenly became a solid stone wall, as if there had never been an opening.

“Uh, guys?” I called out, my voice echoing off my newly sealed tomb. 

The rumbling grew louder and louder, as did the shouts and screams of my friends. I took a few steps back as something large rolled by, violently shaking the ground. I pressed my head up against the stone, heart beating rapidly as I listened for the sickening crunch of bone.

It never came. The rumbling began again, but this time slower and more rhythmic. As it passed by once again the stone wall magically melded back into the sides. I raced outside. To my left I saw a massive stone boulder rolling back into the darkness. To my right I could make out the prone forms of Bryseis and Halfred panting, with a wild look in their eyes. But they were alive.

This week we finished our battle with the giants, and delved further inside the Eye of the All-Father temple.

The battle with the giants continued to prove painful and tricky. Halfred’s Fog Cloud was saving us from a barrage of rocks from the other stone giant, but it also stymied our ability to hit the ones inside the cloud.

The Frost Giant mage, called an Ice Caller, let loose with an explosive ice blast, slicing into most of the party, though everyone was able to hold on to their concentration spells.

We swiftly retaliated, surrounding him and attacking with Bryseis-Rex chomps, Halfred’s arrows, and a blast of lightning from Korinn. Halfred dropped the Fog Cloud and we moved on the final Frost Giant and his pet wyrmling, finally helping Harshnag with his protracted battle.

Meanwhile that stone giant I had cast Fear on earlier had been lurking in the shadows of the elevated section to the north. As the Fog Cloud dropped the rocks started coming. Thankfully we were out of his ideal range, and lucked out with some bad Disadvantage rolls by the DM.

Flying Halfred and Bryseis-Rex tried to go after him by scaling the ledge, but he began fleeing toward the entrance to warn that full ship of frost Giants docked outside.

We definitely couldn’t let that happen. Harshnag surged after him, and I hopped on for a ride. I leapt off and dramatically cast Compelled Duel to force him to stay.

He resisted. Stupid wise stone giants! Harshnag then pulled out a rock and flung it at the stone giant’s head, downing him. Ah well, that works too.

We were hurting badly and drained of spell slots, but we couldn’t afford a full 8 hour long rest in such a dangerous spot. We were on the clock with those other giants, and needed to get our information from the oracle quickly.

We opted for a Short Rest, and Halfred found a Brooch of Shielding on the Frost Giant mage, along with a bunch of random goofy giant loot that we really couldn’t take.

The door to the temple was frozen shut, so Harshnag suggested we explore the outer areas.

Halfred could slip through some bars in the Northeast to arrive in the main room, noting that all the ice was built up on the door on the other side. The others located a large switch in a featureless square room, discovering that it lowered the giant stone blocks in the ceiling we’d seen earlier. We essentially sealed ourselves inside.

The frozen door was a bit of a problem, so Korinn pulled our her runic horn of blasting and let loose. The ice cracked slightly and the doors parted by about a foot. She and I unleashed our cantrips of lightning and force blasts, violently spitting the ice apart until we cleared a path.

Inside was a massive chamber. A gigantic statue of Anam, the All-Father of the giants, was surrounded by six slightly smaller, but still giant-sized statues, representing each of the giant races. Pedestals lie before them. We needed to place our collected Ostorian relics in their correct places.

We’d taken notes of what the various rune symbols meant, particularly from what we learned in the puzzle-filled Cloud Giant Library. We were able to identify most of our runic items, such as Korinn’s horn for the Storm Giants, and T.I.M.’s orb for the Stone Giants.

As we placed them correctly their pedestals glowed, as well as the weapons being held by each giant, as if offering them out to us. The DM informed us that two of the weapons were missing.

When placing our items we were given a choice: get our rune item back, or sacrifice the item to receive a permanent stat boost. We had no way of knowing which stat would be boosted. Each giant offered a different boon.

Everyone save Korinn ended up taking this offer. None of us were particularly impressed by our relics, and sadly none of us ever actually used their abilities to imbue them onto another piece of armor (T.I.M.’s would have been far more useful, instead of forgotten). Due to the attunement limit in D&D 5e, if you don’t like a magic item, it’s best to just drop it, and what better method than trading it for a stat boost?

We were embarrassingly stymied when the arch runes began glowing, but we were unable to walk through, slamming into a stone wall. Harshnag (AKA the DM) picked up one of the glowing weapons and touched the runes on the arch, transferring the magic into the rune, where it glowed. The weapons were the key, which was bad because two of the weapons were missing. We needed to explore the temple.

We went north into the barracks. This was a weird map, very big but very empty. Korinn took some stairs to find a grizzly sight: a long-decayed giant body. But in a nearby sack lay the giant club, one of the missing weapons. Harshnag was happy to be our packmule.

The rest of us explored the long, empty hallway that stretched even further north. I went into an empty bedroom, while Bryseis ran forward as the rest ambled along the hallway. Bryseis suddenly gave a yelp and began running back toward us – and Misty Stepping, as the entire area began to shake.

Stone slabs melded into the doorways of the bedrooms, trapping me inside, and creating a perfect deathtrap hallway for the rolling boulder that came barreling down. Everyone in the hallway – Halfred, Bryseis, and T.I.M. had to make a DC 12 DEX saving throw to avoid the terrifying 62 damage trap.

Thankfully it was an all or nothing save, and everyone made it! Afterward the boulder slowly rolled its way back up, and the bedroom stone doors slid back open. This place may be empty but it’s still dangerous as hell, and we still had one more weapon to find.

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A review copy of Destiny Abroad: The Voyage of the Rose Marie was provided for the purposes of this review.

Designed by: Matthew Gravelyn

If you can’t already tell by the title, “The Voyage of the Rose Marie” is a ship-based adventure that takes place during a lengthy sea voyage. It’s designed for brand new level 1 PCs, and at 11 pages you should be able to finish it within a single session. It features a heavily scripted mix of role-playing, combat, and skill checks, and even a major choice for the party to make at the end.

Apparently there is a whole “Destiny Abroad” series planned, though this adventure can easily be played as a stand-alone, as well as incorporated into any campaign or world that features sailing ships.

The first page serves as notes for new DMs and some light background information on the ship and why the PCs are there. I would have liked to see a summarized rundown of the ship size, crew number, and important NPC names.

The first scene is basically a giant rat fight, which has long been made fun of as the typical cliché newbie situation to throw at level 1 players. In this case the ship’s quatermaster Eran approaches the players, tells them to take care of the rat problem, and basically shoves them into the hold. There are a few notes on Eran and how to roleplay him, and even a little stat block.

The rats provide a pretty standard fight with three giant rats, though we’re given some options on whether the rats drop in for a surprise round or whether the PCs can discover them, depending on how challenging we want to make the fight.

Afterward the party is supposed to know to dispose of the rat bodies. I know my players wouldn’t even think about it, they would wipe their hands, say ‘job well done,’ and return to Eran. So I’d recommend that Eran specifically tell them they need to dispose of the bodies, and/or to investigate where the rats came from or what damage has been done. The goal is to get the PCs a bit deeper inside the hold where they meet the prisoners.

Two crew mates are being held captive in the ship’s brig, Tammer and Slick. There are a lot of fun role-playing notes on these two. Slick is confident and jittery while Tammer is more brutish. Both of them are in here for insubordination. The goal here is just to talk to them and learn about the near-mutiny inspired by first mate Jeras.

After meeting these two, disposing of the rats, and returning to Eran, the PCs will witness an altercation between the captain and Jeras. The two are arguing, and Jeras storms out. This is another role-playing only scene where the players can talk to the captain, but he downplays the argument. My worry here is that the PCs might feel they’re not really doing anything, but instead just reacting to a series of heavily scripted scenes. Hopefully the PCs engage in these scenes and fun with them.

The next scene features a storm on the seas, which boils down to a skill check. The adventure encourages players to get creative with how they survive the storm, such as lashing themselves via ropes or hunkering down in the hold. There’s a few examples with DC checks given, with failure resulting in some damage, as well as notes for spicing things up with a crewmate who may need rescuing.

During the storm (or I guess right when it calms down) Jeras makes his move, freeing the prisoners and trying to take over the boat. Mutiny!

The PCs will have to deal with Slick and Tammer, which should be fun since they’ve already met them earlier. It can be played as straight combat but clever PCs can also get them to fight each other or at least argue using Insight and CHA skills checks.

I like that there are specific notes throughout that point out these outside-the-box features that makes D&D so much fun, and something that newer players and DMs might not otherwise engage with.

The climax occurs when the player’s make it to the main deck and find the captain held hostage by Jeras. It’s here the PCs can make a choice and determine which team to side with, and which to fight.

Obviously Jeras is the logical target for a heroic adventure but it’s up to the players, and both sides will reward them. There isn’t a lot of information on Jeras or his motivations other than generic disgruntlement. I feel like an earlier scene between the PCs and Jeras, so he could explain his point of view, would have made this choice much more compelling and interesting. Instead it becomes a clear-cut good guy-bad guy situation.

Since our PCs are level 1, the battle is between the appropriate leader and two crew mates. The crew mate stat blocks are basically bandits from the Monster Manual while the leader (only Jeras stat block is given but I assume the captain has the same stats) looks like a cross between a noble and a bandit captain.

The end obviously differs depending on the choice the PCs made, but either way they are rewarded with money and safe passage off the ship and onto their destination. The adventure continues in Part Two of “Destiny Abroad,” which I guess is still forthcoming, but “The Voyage of Rose Marie” certainly works as either a self-contained adventure, or a one-shot in your own campaign whenever the PCs are on a ship, and you want to spice things up with a good old fashioned mutiny.

Pros:

• Lots of notes and suggestions for letting your players think of clever solutions in and out of combat.
• Easy to take the seeds and structure of the mutiny and apply them to any campaign when your PCs are on a sea voyage, or even as a one-shot.

Cons:

• A total lack of any maps or NPC pictures.
• Jeras’ minions end up being more fleshed out than he is, making the final choice a bit of a no-brainer for all but the most rakish of parties.

The Verdict: A short and simple ship-based adventure featuring a fun little mutiny for level 1 Pcs, though lacking in any maps or portraits.

A review copy of Destiny Abroad: The Voyage of the Rose Marie was provided for the purposes of this review.

Read the full review at PC Gamer

Things were going well until the escort mission. My regular tactic of hiding behind towers and traps didn’t work when I had to safeguard a caravan across a level full of monsters, trying to keep things moving while also juggling multiple characters and opening pathways for them. After several failures I recruited a co-op partner, and the challenge suddenly went from frustrating to exciting. Aegis Defenders can be an enjoyable cooperative mix of tower defense and platforming, but playing solo did test my patience.

Read the full review at PC Gamer