Skyfell Campaign: Session 11
Skyfell Introduction
I started a once-per-month Dungeons and Dragons game in my Skyfell campaign setting. I wanted to provide my players with a log of their adventures and then realized that such a log might make for fun blog posts. See the Session Index for a complete listing.
The cast is:
Rodney - Tauffae Twofeather Topshelf - male orc, Fighter (Champion)
Dan - Drekzhar - male minotaur, Bard/Rogue (College of Swords, no specialty)
Michelle - Bronte Whitewinter - male firbolg, Cleric (Tempest Domain)
Session 11: Stranger Things, Part 3
!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!
This is the adventure that comes with the Dungeons and Dragon Stranger Things box set. Because this is a log of our campaign, I will be disclosing details of that published module. I will, of course, be altering some of those details to fit the campaign, but the overall adventure along with its puzzles and solutions will likely appear in the coming posts. If you don’t want to know these things...
...STOP READING!
You’ve been warned.
Preparation
<confession sincerity=“10” embarrassment=“2”>Look. I’m going to be honest here. I did not do much prep work for this session because I was binge watching Meteor Garden and Rookie Historian with my wife. While I very much enjoyed both those shows, it was quite difficult to multitask while reading subtitles. So I didn't get much done other than watching these shows. This is also why the Session 10 summary was so late in coming. Fortunately, I didn't get caught up with Midnight Diner until after the game, so there's that at least.</confession>
That confessional out of the way, I did actually do a few things. First and foremost, I acquired and painted a hydra figure. It is a plastic Reaper miniature. I don’t paint miniatures often but when I do, I enjoy it. Sometimes they come out great. Other times they really are horrible. I've posted pictures of these on Instagram here and there. For the hydra miniature that would be filling the roll of the thessalhydra, I use the color scheme from the old 1980s hydra bendable toy.
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| Hydra Bendable Toy by LJN (1984) |
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| Hydra Miniature by Reaper (2019) |
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| Hydra Mini Test Assembly |
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| Hydra Mini with Base Colors |
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| Hydra Mini with Details (Heads) |
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| Hydra Mini with Details (Belly) |
I also started gathering crafting materials to build a scale airship model for the corvette that the players wanted to somehow acquire. I didn’t want to jump into that project because I want to build that model to have much muchness. Instead I decided to start with a runabout for practice. These are the basic shuttles that carry people around Doraku as I described in the culture note in the Session 9 summary. I got as far as the basic shape before other activities pulled me away from the project.
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| Basic Outline of Runabout |
Another piece of prep work was making sure I had some dialog prepared for the Proud Princess. As I mentioned in the Session 10 summary regarding the Lost Knight, I had to modify the Proud Princess to fit my setting and overall story so far. If you read that post, you’ve probably already guessed the the woman that approached the party at the end of that session was the Proud Princess. She just needed a face lift. Here’s how she appears in the Stranger Things module.
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| The Proud Princess as She Appears in Module Source: Stranger Things Box Set |
Finally, I modified the final encounter a little once again to fit my story. For those of you who have read the Stranger Things module, the differences will be striking. It occurred to me that really, this game ended up being a simple outline more than a lock-step module. Which is fine. I don’t normally run published modules precisely because of my own wont to change things so much. The experience, however, has given me some ideas for some new DMs Guild offerings that I might start working on next year. I will only need to find some play testers once those projects get under way.
Oh, one more thing. I did get the Eberron source book. I am super happy to have both this and the Guild Masters’ Guide to Ravnica because I can (and will) be using them for story ideas and even to help flesh out Skyfell. I've actually already done that with Ravnica, as will be evident in an upcoming post as well as the next adventure that I'll be sending my players through.
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| Eberron 5e...Oh Yeah! |
Pre-Game
I started setting up the night before the game as I usually do. I built the entrance to the thessalhydra lair assuming that the PCs would get at least that far. I didn’t construct the interior in advance though because it was to be an unexplored area and I wanted to reveal the terrain as they went along. Anyway, since I built it at night, I was able to take a couple pictures of it in relative darkness which was pretty much how it would have looked to the characters as they approached under the Shadowfell moonlight.
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| The Entrance to the Lair With REAL Shadowfell Lighting Effect |
The day of the game, I got my resources gathered and arranged. Jeff arrived a little early so we could review the “official” artificer rules that are in the Eberron source book. The rest of the players trickled in a little later. Since a few of the characters had leveled up after last session, I verified what everyone’s new abilities were. I also updated my list of passive skill scores. This list is calculated the same way that the passive perception is calculated, but it applies for every skill. This gives me a quick reference to see whether a player even needs to roll for a skill check. It’s just a way to eliminate what I sometimes feel is an unnecessary amount of dice rolling. (Though now that I have written that sentence, I realize there can never be anything “unnecessary” about dice, whether it be rolling, quantity, faces, shape, or color.)
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| Getting Ready for the Game |
Other than a minor snafu with the pizza I was ordering, it was only a matter of giving a quick summary of the previous session before we jumped right back into things.
In-Game
“Hail, friends,” a woman at the edge of the firelight said. As she raised her hand in greeting, dozens of ravens landed in the trees that surrounded the party. “May I approach?”
The soft creases at the corners of her eyes and thinned lips, as well as the nascent lines across her forehead and neck, hinted at a person on their initial steps into an honored age. But there was something more about her. There was an ancient grace in her demeanor that could only be earned by a breadth of experience far beyond the limited years her appearance suggested. And perhaps it was the weight of that antediluvian wisdom that darkened even her gentle smile with an almost profound sadness, a melancholy enhanced by her pale skin and gray hair.
Her sturdy, black, leather armor and knee-high buckled boots were embossed with elegant flourishes reminiscent of floral patterns. The cut of each piece was vaguely leaf shaped doing much to reinforce the impression of plant life. Where there would normally be stitching, there was instead metal studs that glinted in the firelight. Her deep purple skirt and black pants were both made from a glossy material and were strangely absent of all decorations. The armor bore neither insignia nor identifying mark but its craftsmanship betrayed an august origin. Even the bow slung across her back and the dagger on her hip were majestic accouterments worthy of royalty.
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| A Woman Hails the Party Source: Heroforge |
The design of the woman’s armor and even her countenance reminded Meribore of the Raven Queen’s messenger (see Session 9). Before any of the others could discuss whether the woman should be allowed to come nearer, Meribore granted her permission.
“I thank you,” the woman said. She approached but kept an obvious distance between herself and the party. “What purpose do you have in these woods?”
They explained they were hunting a thessalhydra and asked who she was.
“I am,” the woman said as she straightened her back and set her jaw. She radiated an aura of self-assured pride that only someone of royal lineage would ever dare to exhibit. The marks of age softened into a youthful glow. Even her gloom flickered. Then, the aged sadness returned, once again darkening her countenance. “I am Naivara, a loyal servant of my Queen.” She regarded Meribore. “As are you, I believe.”
Meribore acknowledged the truth in her words under a chorus of caws from the ravens.
Naivara continued, saying that she was tasked with hunting demogorgon spawn. Given that the party had killed two of them for her, she owed them a debt of gratitude that she was more than willing to pay for in some way. She also wanted to collect their heads as proof of their destruction.
The party consented and then asked her about the thessalhydra.
Naivara said that the thessalhydra resided in a nearby cave. A mad gnome, who worshiped a deity named The Glutton, seemed to be in command of it. She couldn’t recall his name but she understood him to be quite dangerous. Fortunately for her, both the gnome and his beast were more focused on traveling to other planes than causing any trouble in Shadowfell. They spilled the creature’s blood on a certain kind of mushroom, called ileth athil or “forgotten memories”, to open the portal. The fungus bloomed only once every few hundred years and this bloom was particularly large.
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| The Thessalhydra Source: Monster Manual II |
The party also asked Naivara about Auntie and the Cursed Labyrinth they had traveled through to get here. She knew nothing of either.
Frit, who had spent a little time butchering the four-legged monster with antlers (see Session 10), was now busy cooking up some of its meat. (As part of the butchering, Frit removed the antlers and gave them to Meribore.) The party invited Naivara to sit and share a little food. Naivara hesitantly agreed before joining them and explained that the animal Frit was preparing was an elk and that it usually made for a delicious meal.
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| The Monster that Rushed Our Heroes Source: Pixabay with some digital changes |
When Naivara came within five feet of the group, everyone felt her melancholy settle on them. Their moods immediately darkened. Drekzhar played an uplifting song but though the tune was usually a toe-tapper it did nothing to lighten anyone's mood. Bronte began working on another grass doll to cope with his own sorrow. Tauffae offered Naivara a shot of the whiskey that Auntie had given him. While this did not lift the sorrow, it did warm his heart. It also made him quite drunk. The only one who was mostly unaffected by the sadness was Meribore. It was as though she understood it, perhaps even a part of it, and was therefore somewhat immune. Even so, she brewed a tea from the leaves Paela had given her (see Session 8) and shared a cup with Bronte. The tea had an immediate effect on Meribore whose perception was altered just as it had been at the Encampment Green. Bronte, however, seemed unaffected and continued to work on his grass doll.
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| Bronte's Grass Doll As Made Bronte's Player, Michelle |
While this was happening, Naivara commented on how well Frit had prepared the venison. It was strangely reminiscent of her hometown near the Fortress of Memories. When Frit said she would like to visit there, Naivara explained that it was really by invitation only. Meribore hastily suggested it was not an invitation Frit wanted to receive.
Both Tauffae and Drekzhar were quite interested in Naivara’s armor and made a big fuss about it. Tauffae in particular fawned over it. In gratitude, Naivara gave him a handkerchief decorated with the same elegant pattern as was on the armor. Tauffae plucked a feather from his hat and offered it as a gift in return. Omagoshno cast a minor illusion of Naivara on a piece of paper so that Drekzhar could take it back to Highwater to have a similar set of armor made for himself. What followed was a rather odd modeling shoot as the party, in their strangely altered states, attempted to find the best “action pose” for Naivara to assume. Naivara, for her part, was mostly accepting of these shenanigans mostly out of a sense of gratitude. This patience was not extended to the unkindness of ravens that cawed with obvious amusement until her cold glare silenced them. This is when Tauffae noticed Naivara’s dagger. it seemed to be made of the same material as Shadow's Dark Bite (the great sword that Lady Axiotis had given him as part of payment for taking on this quest back in Session 8).
After a little more time, Naivara left and the party broke camp. All the ravens but one departed. That single remaining raven perched on Meribore’s shoulder. To the others in the party, this just seemed like a strangely friendly bird. Meribore, however, sensed there was something different about this bird. There was something of the Weave about it, something of The Raven Queen.
As the party continued to follow the thessalhydra’s trail, Meribore decided to try to wild shape while in her altered state. She failed to control her transformation and end up as a Tanystropheus. She remained in this state even after they found the lair. The trail led directly into a large opening in the side of a hill. Dozens of mushrooms, some whole and some obliterated in the same way as they had been in Skyfell, sprouted up all around the entrance. There were also hints of massive webs that were clearly spun by some sort of enormous spider. Thankfully, most had been torn down by an even larger beast, likely the thessalhydra itself. The odor of rotting flesh and feces bubbled up from the darkness.
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| Adventurers: Assemble! |
A nice side-effect of Meribore’s wild shape was that Omagoshno was able to fashion a headlamp of sorts for her to wear as a fantasy flashlight. Since the passage was large enough for a thessalhydra it was more than large enough for her to fit. The party entered cautiously and were almost immediately greeted with a split in the tunnel. This was also the time that Tauffae noticed that the runes on his sword were now glowing with a soft blue light.
The thessalhydra trail went one way. The other way was covered in webs and reminded the party of the kind of trap that normal spiders might set for their prey. The size of the webs pointed to a creature obviously much larger than your everyday spider though. After quite a bit of debate that centered mostly on leaving their backs exposed to an unknown danger, the party decided to ignore the web-filled passage and follow the thessalhydra trail.
This they did for a little further until the came to a twenty-foot wide pit that dropped at least thirty feet. The bottom of the pit was filled with feces and other biological matter. On the other side of the pit, a shovel rested against the wall. The party also discovered a door disguised to appear like part of the wall. There was a rope dangling from the ceiling made to look like a root. When they pulled this rope, the door opened to reveal a humanoid-sized passage cut into the rock. Somewhere beyond was light. Frit, Tauffae, and Omagoshno were the first to travel down this hidden passage.
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| A Secret Passage Found |
Just a short way in was a chamber with a large fire burning in a firepit. There were numerous pieces of furniture and various kinds of crated and barreled supplies. There was also a bed upon which sat a small, red creature. From its torso up, it looked like an emaciated, horned fairy with red skin, sharp fangs, and small horns. From its torso down, it look more minotaur-like with furry legs and hooves. The being was busy reading a book.
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| The Being Discovered in the Lair Source: Fiend Folio |
The team withdrew back to the main passage to explain what they had seen to the rest of the party. The creature’s description sparked Drekzhar’s memory. He had heard poems and songs about creatures called forlarren that sounded a lot like this creature. Armed with this understanding, and being the most charismatic one in the group, Drekzhar went forward to talk to it. He did not count on the language barrier. His attempts to communicate were met with fear and anger as the creature, that was clearly a female, jumped up from her bed and brandished a dagger at him yelling words he didn’t understand.
Meribore and Bronte, however, could hear her shouts even from out in the main hall. Both recognized she was speaking Sylvan, so Bronte went forward to act as an interpreter. Through an awkward conversation, the party pieced together that the being was named Makaria. She worked for Laeri Raptorstein. Her job was to care for the thessalhydra while he was away. She became very defensive, shouting back that she had done nothing wrong and that there was no need for Raptorstein to send others to do her job. She begged to know what she had done wrong. She yelled that she would destroy those who wronged her and spread lies. Despite the schizophrenic ranting, the party convinced her that Raptorstein had actually sent for her and explained that the dragonborn guards would escort her to him. They instructed the guards to take her to the entrance of the Cursed Labyrinth and wait there.
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| Negotiating with Makaria |
This wrinkle seemingly taken care of, Drekzhar examined what Makaria had been reading. It was the second book in a series written in Sylvan called Fantasy Twilight. The other books were in a shelf near Makaria's bed. The party looted all four first-edition books. Tauffae drew Shadow's Dark Bite once again (he had put it away to be less threatening to Makaria); its runes were still glowing a soft blue light. Meribore returned to her normal firbolg shape at this point. Thus prepared, the party continued through another cut passage on the other side of Makaria's room. This new passage went on for quite a way before opening into an elongated chamber with numerous cubbies cut into the walls. Inside these cubbies were various trinkets, treasures, baubles, doodads, whatchamacallits, and other sundry items that someone clearly had collected there. Some looked worn and damaged as though they had been soaking in acid. Others looked perfectly fine. Some were quite valuable. Others appeared to be only junk.
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| A Long Chamber is Discovered And a Finger Photo-bombs the Scene |
At the far end of this chamber was another humanoid-sized passage. As Frit quietly peeked around the corner, she got an eyeful of eight dragon heads. All of them were staring back at her. Among these heads was a giant mouth filled with razor teeth. Even at twenty-five feet, she could smell its sweetly acrid breath rolling toward her. By the time Frit understood that this was the thessalhydra, and that it knew they were there, the monstrosity spit a ball of yellowish saliva into the long chamber. It exploded against the floor, splattering Frit, Tauffae, and Drekzhar. The stuff immediately burned their skin and armor.
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| Peek-a-Boo All My Heads See You |
Angered by the attack, encouraged by the glow of the runes on his sword, and still a bit traumatized by Meribore’s death at the start of this quest, Tauffae charged into the lair to face the thessalhydra alone. His initial onslaught did massive amounts of damage, severing two of his enemy’s heads. With each strike, a rune on Shadow's Dark Bite winked out of existence.
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| Tauffae Strikes Out at the Thessalhydra |
The thessalhydra tried to retaliate but was so stunned by the brutality of the attack that it could only flail about uselessly. In fear for its life, it let out a blistering screech that rang through the entire lair. Moments later, the air near Tauffae filled with a static buzz as a whirlpool of blue lightning crackled into life. The energy bent and coalesced into the shape of a giant spider. Even as the final remnants of magic still skidded across its blue and white body, this new creature attacked. Frit and Omagoshno rushed in to help their comrade who was now dangerously outnumbered.
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| A Spider Appears Out of Nowhere Source: Monster Manual, 5e |
A moment later, another spider appeared in the long chamber to attack those who had not yet had a chance to join the main fight. In the end, Tauffae delivered the killing blow to the thessalhyrda, burying Shadow's Dark Bite deep into its stinking maw. The spiders were also destroyed, but not before Drekzhar fell to the poisonous fangs of one of the creatures. The wound left him paralyzed. It was an hour before that poison would wear off.
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| The Fight Intensified |
During their recovery, the party collected the heads of the thessalhydra and placed them in the Bags of Holding that Lady Axiotis had given them. They also gathered some of the monstrosity's blood to use for their transportation back to Skyfell. It was during this butchering that they noticed a coin, similar to the coins that allowed them passage through the Cursed Labyrinth, was embedded in the thessalhydra's chest. Flesh and scales were growing over it, implying that the coin had been their for a while. Stranger still, the thessalhyrda had patches of tiny mushrooms growing on its hide, as though it had been infected with the fungus.
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| The Coin Embedded in the Thessalhydra's Chest |
This bloody work complete, the party explored the lair. They found a pair of magic boots buried in a fresh heap of feces that had not yet been pushed into the pit. The boots looked a lot like those Naivara had worn. There were the remains of three Skyfell dinosaurs piled in one corner of the lair as well. Dozens of bones from every sort of creature were scattered about. In the long chamber in one of the cubbies, they found a bronze, clockwork brain suspended in a glass cylinder filled with transparent blue fluid. They also found a vial containing a black liquid that twinkled like the Shadowfell sky. Using his identify ritual, Omagoshno understood these to be Boots of Shadar-kai (see Boots of Elvenkind in the Dungeon Master's Guide), an Ersatz Sage (see my DMs Guild supplement Common Curiosities and Trivial Trinkets), and vial of Sweet Dreams Calming Tea (see my DMs Guild supplement Bracing Beverages).
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| The Boots of Shadar-kai Found in the Lair |
Among the many mundane items in the cubbies, including a beautiful lump of lapis lazuli, were a chest of mithril ore and a soul fire gem. These were the last two components needed to finish Bronte's arm (see Session 6 for the component list). They gathered all this loot together and stuffed it into the Bag of Holding Omagoshno had created for the party's use. (See the Supplemental section below for a complete list of the recovered loot.)
Satisfied that their work was complete and that there was nothing left for them here, the party headed back to the entrance of the Cursed Labyrinth to link up with the dragonborn and Makaria. From there, the group would return to the mushrooms outside the thessalhydra lair and use the monstrosity's blood to travel back to Skyfell. When they reached the entrance however, they found Makaria wounded, tied up, and wildly begging forgiveness. Medrash was nervously standing over her, spear aimed at her heart. The dagger Makaria had brandished at the party when they had first encountered her was tucked into his belt. He too was mildly wounded.
Worse, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were dead.
End session 11.
Experience earned:
Bronte - 1602 (7500 total)
Drekzhar - 1582 (8031 total)
Frit - 1594 (6329 total)
Meribore - 1517 (8230 total)
Omagoshno - 1797 (8350 total)
Tauffae - 1847 (8433 total)
Supplemental Materials
The Thessalhydra Encounter
Regarding the thessalhydra encounter, some might be wondering, “What the f**k?” There are times in a session where the dice are insolent little buggers that have a mind of their own. In this instance, they made a collective decision to completely render my boss monster useless. I believe out of seven rolls only one scored higher than an 11 (this includes the attack bonus). Yes, it was that freaking bad. I was doing so poorly that I needed to do something to raise the challenge to something more appropriate, especially since I had killed a character with a minor encounter just two sessions earlier. The spiders really are a part of the lair. In the Stranger Things module, they are only giant spiders. These would have been under-powered though. That’s why I made them phase spiders instead. This also gave me the excuse to have them waiting in the wings as backup should the thessalhydra’s actions go sideways (which they obviously did). So, all in all, I think it came off pretty well. Plus, I got to use one of my all time favorite creatures. Bonus points for me!The Emo Landscape
The Dungeon Master’s Guide (p52) has an optional rule for what it calls Shadowfell Despair. The idea is that the landscape itself affects the emotions of anyone who is not from Shadowfell. The DMG includes a small table for this purpose. I elected to use this optional rule for the Shadowfell. This was the melancholy that nearly infected the PCs in Session 10. (The sadness radiating from Naivara is just part and parcel of the whole shadar-kai routine.) Being the kind of DM that I am, I decided to spice up the table a little. For the game mechanic, I had even printed up little emoji tokens to give the players to remind everyone that their character had slipped into an emotional state. I present it to you.The Rule: Each day at “dawn” or after a long rest make DC 10 Wisdom save (against magic). Upon a failed save, roll percent and consult the following table. At the end of a short rest, players can make a DC12 Wisdom save to shake off the effects. If this fails, they cannot try until dawn the next day.
1-50% - Apathy
Flaw : “I don’t believe I can make a difference to anyone or anything.”
51-60% - Dread
Disadvantage on all saves, except death
Flaw: “This place is going to kill me.”
61-80% - Weakness
Disadvantage on checks for Dex, Str, and Con
Flaw : “I don’t have the strength to get through this.”
81-100% - Madness
Disadvantage on checks for Int, Wis, and Chr
Flaw : “I can’t tell what’s real anymore.”
The Full Loot
Here's the complete list of stuff in the thessalhydra's lair, including all rooms.1 small chest of mithril ore
1 soul fire gem
1 Boots of Shadar-kai (uncommon magic item)
1 Ersatz Sage (common magic item)
1 vial of Sweet Dreams Calming Tea (uncommon magic item)
1 diamond
1 jade statuette of a frog
1 tiny jar of cardamom
1 tiny jar of cinnamon
1 platinum hair clasp with misc gemstones (obviously quite valuable)
1 silver hatpin
1 lump of lapis lazuli
1 red banner with a silver cog
1 wooden statuette of an elk (the monster that had attacked the party)
1 half-complete set of wooden pawns
1 withered yellow musk creep blossom
1 set of Fantasy Twilight first-edition books (1 through 4, signed by the author)
3 carcasses (animals from Skyfell)
3 bottles of fine wine
5 lbs of rotted food stuff
10 PP
12 bits of multi-colored thread of various lengths
42 bone fragments
350 GP
Additional Notes
Michelle brought the grass doll to the session again. This is a wonderful prop. Everyone loves it. |
| Everyone Loves a Grass Doll |
The group did a little extra role-playing and planning after the main session was completed. We also had some additional discussion on Discord. That, however, I will include in the summary for Session 12.
Maps and Stuff
Normally I would post the maps and other resources I used for an arc once the arc is completed (or mostly completed in this instance). Since this was a published module, I don't feel entirely comfortable doing that. Even though my posts do offer some spoilers, I feel that I've changed the adventure enough that anyone could still go through it and enjoy it. Posting the actual maps, however, really do cross a line for me. So, I'm not doing that. If you really want to see the maps, I'm sure you can find them online. Or better still, by the Stranger Things box set.I can at least share the background music I used for this arc. Here ya go:
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Collection of gnome-related backgrounds, feats, magic items, and more. - Great House Servants
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A tool for creating adventure prompts for one-shots and story arcs. - The WhatNot Shop’s Absurd Accoutrements
A collection of unusual magical items. - The WhatNot Shop's Bracing Beverages
A collection of strange potions. - The WhatNot Shop's Common Curiosities and Trivial Trinkets
A collection of common magic items and trinkets. - The WhatNot Shop's Dastardly Doodads and Orc Oddities
A collection of orc-themed common magic items and trinkets.
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