Power Score

George's work schedule changed and Jessie has all of these Korean music concerts she's going to (she's going to see G. Dragon) so we've missed a few weeks. Hopefully we can work out a new time in a week or so.

We did play some Eberron yesterday. I'm a player in that one. My character is a 10th level sorcerer.

Character Arcs: Somebody asked me about character arcs and if I do them. I don't! Usually that kind of thing works out on it own. I feel strange talking about a character arc in D&D - the character is not my domain. As the DM give them situations, they declare how they react to them.

It got me thinking about my character's perspective. My guy is a gigantic, jolly, hairy sorcerer. The wizard of our party is a basically a studious librarian.

There was a point in this session where we went to a (vampire) party, and my character started to live it up. I figure that the wizard was going to try to make a beeline for a library in another room. I gave her a big speech, something like: "You know, we could be dead tomorrow. Remember when I wrestled that bear and it kicked the crap out of me? Remember when I literally got killed by a troll?! You need to enjoy life while we have it!"

It added a lot, at least, to my enjoyment of the game, so maybe I'll rethink how characters experience D&D and what I can do to make it deeper.

The Dracolich: We were in the Shadowfell. A dracolich attacked us. We spread out and I got breathed on for 72 points of damage! It was horrible. I have 82 hit points total, so I was still up.

This dragon was a white dragon in life. I forgot about that, and cast cone of cold. It did absolutely nothing.

Thankfully our fighter does a pile of damage with ranged attacks and we were able to take it down. It kept its loot in big hollow gem containers that were buried in a grave. We dug them up and decided not to open them until we were somewhere safe.

We had what we came for - two feathers of the Raven Queen that would allow us to repel the pending assault. Orcus and Lolth are trying to get into Eberron!

Vampire Party: We start heading home and we find a carriage waiting for us. It's drawn by two horses and there's no driver.

We didn't trust it. I was in favor of us using magic to fly back to the portal. I stopped in my tracks and had a teeny tiny existential crisis. Does the DM need us to use the carriage? If we don't follow this lead, are we missing out on cool stuff? Would my character do what I want to do?

The DM pointed out that there's wine in the carriage, so my character jumped in.

We took the carriage to Fallcrest where there was a big vampire party going on. The servants were zombies. When one vampire mistreated a zombie and slapped its head off of its neck, my character got offended. I stuck the head back on the zombie and gave her a bad Sean Connery-voiced dressing down which included me saying: "You blood shucker!"

We met this mysterious first warden, ruler of the entire Shadowfell (?). Guess who it was. Strahd! Strahd with an eyepatch?!

This campaign is linked to events in our 4th edition campaign from years ago. In our campaign, Strahd killed Vecna...! Also, apparently, Strahd is a close ally of the Raven Queen.

I love D&D lore and "official" NPCs so I was pretty bowled over. Strahd tried to convince us to take him to Eberron with us, but we weren't having it.

We were able to get home. We fired up the D&D hot tub (we obtained some magic heat boulders from a giant lair a while back) and set about opening our gem containers. We decided to open the gold one last, as that probably had the best treasure in it.

Over 12,000 gp each
A ring of x-ray vision
Magic armor
Slippers of spider climbing

I've run into a problem. Attunement! I have too many items that require attunement. I can only have three going at once, and none of these new items feel like they should be swapped in. I guess we can use them when it seems appropriate, but we'll need an hour to attune first. It seems hard to make that feasible.

What was in the gold egg? A stinking cloud! I took 40 points of damage, dangit.

That night, there was trouble. Agents of Orcus had somehow gotten into the city of Sharn and were killing people. Mohrgs are undead with intestines that are like blood-sucking snakes.


Mohrg

We ended up in a battle where we were all split up, each fighting a mohrg on our own. I thought that was really cool. I think I want to try to do that. I'm always wrestling with keeping encounters interesting and not letting it devolve into an exercise in number crunching. This seems like it would help.

I cast fly, grabbed my mohrg and took to the air. Nearby was a church of the silver flame, which actually had a flame burning in honor of their god or whatever it is. I chucked the mohrg into it. It was awesome.

Our wizard had a pretty epic battle inside - this band of mohrgs were breaking into the apartment she lived in. The fighter kicked the crap out of his. That's about where we stopped.

I really enjoy the use of Strahd, Orcus, etc. and I like experiencing Eberron fresh.

We hit 11th level, so now I'm getting to experience what it's like to play a high level character. It is really fun to have all of these awesome spells at my disposal.

I have absolutely no idea how these mohrgs got to Eberron. Maybe we'll find out next time.

Episode 57: Wrath of Strahd

Lots of preamble stuff.

Animated Intro: You should definitely check out this animated intro right here. It is beyond awesome. They need to dump a truckload of money on the creator so that they can polish it up for season 3. That's Nate's music for the theme, really awesome stuff.

Gutter by Dimas Wahyu

I commissioned some art of Diath's sword, based on the description Chris gave a few weeks ago. Here's the details that we know so far:

Gutter, the Magic Short Sword of Backstabbing:

The pommel has a fox head with a dark red gem gripped in its jaws.
The sword is light, a good fit for Diath's hand.
The red gem lights up when it speaks (?). It said to him, "Hello, Diath. It's so good to be with you." Only Diath can hear the sword's voice.
Worked into the hilt is a keyhole.
There are designs and patterns that indicate it is from Sigil. (I went with some DiTerlizzi Planescape -style curved blades and the Planescape "verdigris" color scheme)
In the blade are abyssal indentations - abyssal glyphs: It spells out: "Gutter".
The sword requires attunement.
The sword wants to be with the Woodrows.
+2d6 damage when backstabbing.

Relatives of Diath:

Ashton Woodrow (male), friend of the half-orc/half-dwarf. “We adventured together for years.” Ashton died and gave him the sword to give to Woodrow’s inheritors.
Dareth (female).
The sword told Diath: "If you'd like to use more about your origins, I suggest you use a key."
Note: Diath has a mysterious ring of keys. He's not sure how he got them or what they are for. He used one key a while back. It opened the tome of Strahd.

Shemeshka:

Using a key in the sword: A planar gateway opens. Stepping through the gate is a 6-foot tall robed arcanaloth wearing spectacles. Her immaculate robe is red with designs in black thread. On her head is a wreath of vines with razor-like spines (this is razorvine, see the DMG page 110). Some vines trail down her back and move of their own accord.
The nails of her taloned fingers are painted.
She did not recognize Diath on sight. She said: “I see the sword has found a new owner. And you are..?”
When Strix was in the care of her grandmother, Shemeshka may have tried to buy Strix as a slave.

Three Questions:

Shemshka said, "You have summoned me. I will answer 3 questions, no more than 3, and I will take that key with me. If you wish to summon me again, use another one of your keys."

She also said, “I am a researcher. If it can be learned, I know it."

The questions asked:

Who made this sword? "I did."
For what purpose? "As a gift to an ancestor. You bear a resemblance to her. Her name was Dareth."
Why are we dying? "This type of thing is exactly what might happen if an evil godling was in the world sucking energy to rejuvenate itself, feeding on the lifeforce of puny mortals. What world is this?" (Toril) "I suggest you learn everything you can about Acererak.

When the questions have been asked: She takes the key in her hand, leaps through the portal, and it closes up behind her.

The Half-Orc/Half-Dwarf

This guy is the mysterious friend of Ashton Woodrow. Here's what we saw:

When the half-orc guy shows up, he is in a bit of a daze, like he's sleep walking.
For a moment, he doesn’t want to give the sword away. He says: “No! The sword is mine! ...forgive me. It's not mine. I was a friend of an adventurer who shares your name.”
This NPC doesn't know where Sigil is. So if I heard that right, then Ashton adventured with this guy somewhere other than Sigil.
The guy rogueishly disappears into the shadows, suggesting that he is a rogue like Diath. If Ashton was also a rogue, then they could have been members of a thieves guild.
There is a half-orc/half-dwarf in "Danger at Darkshelf Quarry", the special prequel adventure to the slavers series written by Skip Williams. Chris Perkins was involved in this project, as he was he one who asked Skip to write it.
Brubgrok is a slaver. He is humorless, unkind, somewhat hunchbacks, and has "eyes as red as his coarse hair and beard." This doesn't sound like the NPC Diath met, but maybe this is where the idea to use a half-orc/half-dwarf came from.

The Tarokka Cards

Chris tweeted images of the tarokka cards set up in the alignment that the group found them in last week.

In the Curse of Strahd adventure, it explains how to read them (like a fortune teller). I’m going to dust off my guide to Curse of Strahd and see if we can glean any clues from these cards. I went overboard and looked up the 2nd edition version of reading the cards, too.

1. Rogue

5e Meaning: Location of the Tome of Strahd is the Blue Water Inn, home base of the wereravens.
2e Meaning: This is the focus card, representing the person the reading deals with. So, the rogue... Diath. "Are his intentions noble or corrupt? The answer cannot be easily told."

2. Raven

5e Meaning: The Holy Symbol of Ravenkind is with Davian Martikov - the old wereraven who owns the winery.
2e Meaning: This card represents the past and a hidden source of good - often a new ally or item. The Morninglord aka Lathander aka Butthander! He is watching over Diath!

3. Elementalist

5e Meaning: The sunsword is in the amber temple.
2e Meaning: This card represents things that oppose the focus (Diath). What's opposing him? The natural forces of the cosmos, this generally represents an elemental force coming into play. This could refer to the fact that he is dying thanks to Acererak's soulmonger.

4. Paladin

5e Meaning: Strahd's enemy - this doesn't match up exactly, but is easy to interpret. Sergei's tomb, aka Sergei. That works!
2e Meaning: This card represents the future - the triumph of good over evil! Wow, spoiler alert.

5. Healer

5e Meaning: This is where Strahd can always be found. The Shrine of the White Sun in Krezk, which has a statue of... the Morninglord! See Curse of Strahd page 146.
2e Meaning: This one indicates "the beneficial things that will speed the object of the casting along to his or her ultimate goal." It mainly represents good and holy clerics/entities such as... the Morninglord! It also warns of illness and disease like... the Soulmonger! Woo!

In 5e, there is only 5 cards in a tarokka reading, so all I can say is who or what the card represents.

What's interesting is that there actually is a 2e tarokka pattern that almost accounts for 8 total cards. The way Chris set them up nearly matches a pattern known as “the tower.” It goes like this:

9 10 11 (so, uh, if there's three cards on the ceiling, jackpot.)
   4         (rogue)
2 1 3      (raven, elementalist, paladin)
   5         (healer)
6 7 8      (executioner, marionette, tempter)

6. Executioner

5e Meaning: The brother of the devil's bride, Sergei or Ismark.
2e Meaning: This is the hangman in 2e. This card in this position means that someone will be caught doing something wrong and are punished, even if they are falsely accused. This marks aspects of the past that have informed the future. Like when Diath got hanged! Hung? Hanged.

7. Marionette

5e Meaning: Murderbot aka Simon aka Pidlwick II.
2e Meaning: This card indicates the presence of a traitor or a minion of some greater power as well as an aspects of the past that has informed the future. Welp.. that's Murderbot! His parents don't treat him like a traitor, but he keeps trying to kill nice people.

8. Tempter

5e Meaning: Vasilka the flesh golem bride.
2e Meaning: A person not aware that their values have been compromised and aspects of the past that have informed the future. That could be Diath's sword. Using the sword might/will lead to bad things in the future.

9, 10 and 11 would indicate the future - one of these will occur depending on the actions of the focus (Diath).

Time Travel

I looked up timelines to see how far in the past the group went:

2e: Looking at an old Ravenloft timeline, Barovia appeared in the demiplane of dread in the year 351. The year 740 is when the 2e adventures take place.
5e: On page 26 of Curse of Strahd, it says that in 346, Strahd inherited the land. He died and became a vampire in 351. The current year is 735.

It matches up! Curse of Strahd is a retelling of the original Ravenloft adventure, so this actually takes place before the wonky 2e “Conjunction cycle”.
This means the group traveled 389 years into the past. I don't think time passes the same in comparison to the Forgotten Realms.

The year is around 1491 in the Realms. 389 years ago is 1102, which is actually before the events of 1st edition and part of the insanely detailed history of Toril.

It's in the Age of Humans. 1102 is the "Year of the Chaste Maiden". Hmm! Nothing of note happened that year. The year before, the abbey and temple to Lathander became part of Waterdeep as the city expanded. There's also some covenant that lures the Red Wizards into a "series of portals."

The Party

(Anna) Evelyn - Human Paladin of Lathander
(ProJared) Diath - Human Rogue
(Nathan) Paultin - Human Bard
(Holly) Strix - Tiefling Sorcerer

The group was pulled into Barovia by Paultin's Shadow, which was possessed by a fragment of Strahd. Paultin stabbed his shadow with his sunsword and somehow the waffle crew got shunted back in time. They are at the wedding where Strahd will kill his brother out of jealousy. Tatyana, the bride, jumps to her death. Strahd’s actions here attract the Dark Powers and they make a pact with him, giving him tremendous power and transforming him into a vampire.

So far, this wedding is playing out differently. The waffle crew meddlers are poking around. They found a wedding gift and they unwrapped it. It was Simon, aka Murderbot. A fresh version! It shot poison darts into Tatyana's neck and she would have died if Evelyn hadn't healed her.

At one point last session, Strix snatched some poisonous plants from the garden.

Strix saw some tarokka cards. Chris points out that the 5th card was the healer. Three more cards were on the floor: The tempter, the marionette and the executioner.

These cards might refer to the Duchess and Simon. Paultin has a new mandolin, obtained from a guy named Jesper, who might be an ancestor of Paultin.

Lots of backstory! Here we go.

1e Tatyana

Jesper, the bard of Berez, is going to perform. The group has been mistaken for the wedding staff. The group ends up going with it, sort of. Strix casts death ward on Sergei.

Diath can sense that Sergei and Tatyana might flee if they get the chance.

The group prepares to infiltrate the wedding dinner. Diath disguises himself as a servant. Strix decides to be in gas cloud form. Paultin will be the performing bard and Evelyn will be his robot dancer.

Diath sees the duchess talking to one of the guards. She’s talking to Leo.. ohh sweet jaysus.

The duchess is his mother. A reader pointed out to me that this is Duchess Dorfinya Dilisnya. Her son is (possible spoilers in this link) a well-established NPC.

In Curse of Strahd, the group can find his severed head. I forgot.. I wrote about him in this old article about the Ravenloft/Strahd "prequel" adventures (also spoiler-y).

Diath hears her saying that she has made arrangements to leave the present in the room but if things go wrong, Leo should bring the guards in to take them out. "This marriage can not be allowed to survive."

Time for the dinner! Simon is disguised, too. He's got a pumpkin head now and a wig. The Duchess doesn't recognize him.

The group is basically alone in the room with the couple, Strahd, the Duchess and a few servants.

Strahd is slumped in his chair, obviously miserable. Strix un-clouds under the table. She uses her mage hand and slips a poisonous plant and drops it into Strahd's soup. I did not expect that! She’s being very proactive here.

The group is really excited and fired up. They are being very amusing.

Paultin gives her bardic inspiration. Nice! Nate is really sharp today. Strix rolls a 22 on her stealth... did Strahd notice the poison sprig?

Strahd picks up the bowl, dumps it on the floor, and puts it back on the table. Servants come to clean it up. One of them sees Strix under the table. Strix screams and turns into a cloud.

Strix seeps through a door crack. On the other side of that door is Strahd’s evil flunky, Rahadin. He grabs his sword. Strix leads him on a chase up the stairs.

Strahd has gifts for the couple! A tapestry of their father, King Barov, wielding the sunsword. Sergei is a man of peace, a servant of the Morninglord who never understood his father. This tapestry is a message to Sergei: This is who we are, this is who we have to be.

Here comes another gift. A gigantic painting of Tatyana. Strahd notes that the painter did not survive the experience. The painting is taller than she is and it captures her in an almost doll-like way. There's no life in her eyes.

Meanwhile, Strix loses Rahadin and sees Jesper (a bard apparently related to Paultin) creeping around. It looks like he's trying to quietly leave. Strix de-clouds and casts a spell so that she looks like Rahadin. Stirx/Rahadin demands to know what he’s doing and threatens him.

Jesper tells her he's a vistani and Strahd won't allow harm to come to him. Strix admits who she is. She wants Jesper to help the waffle crew. Jesper tells Strix that he's preparing a coach for the couple to escape with. Jesper says he is their only hope. Apparently the tarokka cards say so.

Back at the awkward dinner, Strahd tells Paultin to stop playing. Strahd starts playing the organ – a haunting tune that moves Evelyn deeply.

Diath makes a sweet stealth maneuver and crawls under the table. He snatches Strahd's sword. Somewhere in here, Rahadin re-enters the room.

Cloud Strix floats into the room and becomes solid behind the tapestry. She sets it on fire!

Strahd stops playing and looks at the burning tapestry. He tells Rahadin to get Sergei and Tatyana to safety. He sees that his sword is gone, and pulls a sword out of a secret compartment in a chair. He points the sword at the throat of the duchess and says, "Your treachery is revealed."

Evelyn decides to stand in front of and protect one of the couple. She chooses Tatyana! Oh no... Sergei's the one who's going to be killed. He’s wide open now.

Wait… Sergei grabs Tatyana and flees! Evelyn runs with them. Paultin and Simon run that way too.. but the exit is blocked by Rahadin.

Strix runs over and casts a cone of cold. It's a cone, is that going to hit the others? Nope. Chris says something about it coming down from above him. I must have missed something? That cone is massive (60 feet!). In theory, Strix could hit everyone and probably kill Sergei and Tatyana, just like Strix killed Ireena back at the Abbey of St. Markovia.

45 points of damage. Rahadin is hurt but still up.

Diath dramatically removes his servant clothes in a single sweeping motion. He describes this in a really hilarious way.

The Duchess throws herself at Strahd's feet and says this was all her son's idea and that she begged him not to do it. Wow, she threw her son under the bus. Not cool, lady.

The only image of Sergei I can find

Sergei and Tatyana head outside and get in the carriage. Jesper’s there, driving. They’re leaving! Rahadin stands in their way. Rahadin gets trampled by horses... he's still alive, but half of his face is missing. His sword is broken. He limps after the coach.

Strahd comes outside and calls his horse, Beucephalus. The group is quite amused at the horse’s name. It’s right out of the 1e Ravenloft adventure, if I remember right.

Strahd is going to chase the carriage! Strix stands in front of Strahd to block him from mounting Beucephalus. He stabs Strix with his back-up sword, doing does a total of 32 damage with most of it being necrotic.

Maybe the dark powers are already infusing him with power? Or maybe Strahd has a lot of cool items around.

Paultin tells Simon to dart the horse. Ha, great idea. He does! The horse is still up.

Diath draws Gutter! I think we just entered the danger zone. Diath stabs Strahd between his shoulders. Strahd is in pain, but still up.

It’s about time to stop. Earlier, the group glimpsed Strahd talking with Katarina/Madame Eva. Chris shares it with us, the viewers:

Katarina: “The gods have taken her from you. They mock you.”

Strahd: “What do these powers offer me?”

Katarina: “They can defeat time. They can make can make you immortal. They exist only to serve you, my master.”

Eva setting Strahd up with the Dark Powers! Yikes.

Overall

The group was so sharp this week, I don’t know what got into them. All of them were extremely pumped up. It was very fun to watch.

I really feel like DCA took a step up in the past few weeks in terms of popularity. The subreddit is getting more active, the view counts of the videos keep creeping up and up and up, and there are truckloads of fan art each week.

If you’re not on the bandwagon, you should definitely get on now! Season 3 is going to be really great.

I've been meaning to check this out for a while. Today we're going to look at the first four episodes of the Girls, Guts, Glory D&D show. You can watch it on youtube here.

This adventure deals with stuff in the upcoming Tomb of Annihilation book, so I think we are getting a look at some of the content from the book right now. These four sessions introduce a lot of the NPC guides and some of the locations from Port Nyanzaru, which is the home base from which adventurers can launch expeditions into the jungle from.

From what I understand, all of the players are working actors. Their game is heavy on the roleplaying, to the point that they wear gear at the table. If you're looking for lots of combat, you might not like this.

That said, there's a lot to like. The DM clearly puts in an incredible amount of effort into the campaign. Each player has a distinct, fully fleshed-out character. They're very funny, especially Sujata, who made me laugh every single episode.

The Party

(Alice) Rowan of Glen Hollyhock - Gnome Druid
(Rachel) Moira Muirren - Human Paladin
(Allie) Lilith Lucena - Tiefling Bard
(Sujata) Ichabod Ferndweller - Dwarf Fighter
(Erika) Lala Lemonboots - Pixie Ranger

If you check out their site, you can see that all of their character sheets are completely filled out, full of backstory and character notes. The only thing that jumped out to me is that Lilith is chaotic neutral, an alignment that's given some of us DMs a lot of trouble. Allie doesn't play it in a maniacal way, so no big deal.

Episode 1 - Port Nyanzaru

The heroes have been hired to find the soulmonger, a device that an undead villain named Acererak is using to slowly kill everyone who has ever been brought back to life by a raise dead spell. The soulmonger is said to be in a lost city somewhere in the jungles of Chult.

The heroes arrive at Port Nyanzaru. It is hot and humid. They are in awe of the gigantic dinosaurs used as beasts of burden.

The group needs to go to the Thundering Lizard to meet a guide. Before they can do so, they are approached by a pair of tabaxi guides.

Rowan seems to really, really like them. They're a brother and sister team. Their names: Rivermist and Flask of Wine, which amuses me greatly.

The group makes no promises, but is definitely intrigued by their offer.

The adventurers head to a tavern called the Thundering Lizard. The dwarf, Ichabod, goes into a rant about having thrown up his breakfast and how he might pass out if he doesn't eat soon. They are approached by another potential guide, Selena. She has a wife. Ichabod is very, very excited about this and the others begin to squirm. Ichabod is hilarious.

They drink tedge (tudge?), a fermented drink made from honey. The group sits down at a table.

They are approached by a good-looking dude named Pharul and a halfling named Gundolo. They want to be hired on as guides. Lilith is 100% into Pharul. The group isn't impressed with their offer, so Ichabod stammers out a very pointed and firm rejection.

On the Stream of Annihilation, Kim said that she edits this thing herself. With that in mind, I notice that there's a million cuts, just like a TV show. It's very well done. I imagine this must take forever. It looks like they are using three cameras, too.

We learn that a merchant prince named Jobul the spider is in charge of all of the guides.

They meet another guide who has dark hair and dark features. Her name is Azaka. She's the one who was recommended to them.

Ichabod drinks way too much tedge and begins weeping. He can't read! He was raised by wolves. When he sees people reading, it brings back a lot of bad memories.

Ichabod is hilarious. Sujata does this slack-jawed British accent, so good.

Looking at the youtube comments, I see that some people don't like Ichabod. That kind of boggles my mind. I think Sujata is really funny.

Episode 2 - Faryn Reed Underbough

The group debates which guides to hire. Rowan says she really likes the tabaxi dude. Ichabod says that the tabaxi's sister "stirred up a couple of feelings in my loins." I'm dying.

They don't have a lot of money. They throw around the idea of Lilith seducing Pharul as a way of convincing him to forgo the payment. Or, she could seduce him and rob him.

It looks like a lot of the guides want 5 gp per day, with 30 days pay in advance.

They get a room and go to sleep.

The next day, the underling of a merchant prince (even females are referred to as princess) named Jessamine has summoned the group to her quarters. A halfling boy named Faryn is her messenger. The DM ran Faryn in the awesome Mike Mearls session during the Stream of Annihilation.

The adventurers go to her home. Jessamyne is suffering from the death curse. Years ago, she was an assassin who was slain. Her benefactor paid to have her raised.

Episode 3 - Bubbasaur

It looks like there are sanctioned guides and unsanctioned guides.

Jessamyne says that she will pay for Azaka to be their guide. She's heard that Flask and Rivermist (the tabaxi guides) are "good in the jungle."

Faryn takes the group to the market. It begins raining. There's sound effects and everything. This show is very well done. It's noticeable even if you just listen to it.

The group makes their way through the city. People riding dinosaurs come racing at the heroes, yelling for the group to get out of the way. There are special dinosaur races happening today. One of the dinosaurs tramples Moira and Rowyn gets stepped on.

At the market, the heroes buy:

Camping gear
Insect repellent (3 vials of salve)
Rain catchers for drinking water
A longsword
A morningstar

Ichabod calls the salve "Slawve". They talk about pickpockets. I want to hear Ichabod say "pick paw kit" with force.

There's a stand selling giant lizards, flying monkeys and dinosaurs. Ichabod never had a pet, never had a family. "It would be nice to have something that loves me," he says somewhat matter-of-factly.

A hadrosaurus is making puppy eyes at them. It's a runt. The merchant say it's useless and that he plans on eating it when is grows a bit more. The hadrosaurus is actually in Volo's Guide to Monsters on page 140. It is a "semi-quadrapedal herbivore recognized by its bony head crests".

They haggle over the price.

The merchant agrees to 20 gold and a kiss on the cheek from Rowan. Rowan kind of blows him a kiss and they have themselves one pet dinosaur. They name it "Bubbasaur." He's six feet tall.

Episode 4 - Into the Jungle

The group has a pool of 98 gold pieces that they share. Lilith doesn't want to chip in for the dinosaur. Rowan points out that she can eat him later, which alarms some of the party.

Rowan can talk to animals. She talks to Bubbasaur and lies to Ichabod, telling him that the dinosaur really likes him.

The heroes go get their guide, Azaka, and head into the jungle.

They travel for a bit and then two zombies emerge from the tick jungle, shambling toward them. Rowan attacks one with thorn whip, rolls a critical! She pulls a zombie's head right off. Ichabod goes into a thing about how cornea juice is good for "the gastrointestinal." Ichabod lunges at the other zombie. He cuts its arms off and it dies.

Azaka says that a yuan-ti villain named Ras Nsi assembled a zombie army long ago. That army now roams freely in the jungle. Ras might be in the lost city of Omu.

Overall

Good stuff! Ichabod cracks me up and the whole thing is fun. Having episodes that are just 15 minutes long is a big plus, because a lot of these shows are just way too long to follow. I guess that means that the format of some of these shows is going to be more like a series of movies, with just a few sessions broken into little pieces to form an entire season.

I am very interested in watching these characters gain levels and see how they evolve. Rowan in particular is an interesting character. On her sheet, it says that she has a hard time relating to people. In the game, she is definitely a little off-kilter and seems almost like a bit of a schemer. She plays it very cool, but it comes out here and there.

It's only 15 minutes, so if this sounds like something you might like, definitely check it out!

In this guide, we'll go through old products and try to dig up all the information on Umber Hulks that we can find. They're definitely a monster that is well known but not explored all that much.

Essential Information

Here's the basic information:

They are big, beetle-like humanoids who tunnel through solid rock.
They eat people.
They love fighting purple worms.
They collect gold and silver - nobody knows what they do with it.
Rumor has it that they live in cities deep underground.
In some editions, they actually speak their own language.
Their eyes are valuable, useful components for spells and potions.
When they look at you, you suffer from magical confusion.
Many of them are lifelong slaves of the neogi.
Many of the variants are almost identical to the main type, except for the vodyanoi and the psi-hulk.
They worship two neogi gods: P'kk (god of bullying) and Kr'tx (god of wanton destruction).
Their babies are called.... "hulklings."

AD&D 1st Edition

Monster Manual

Here's what we learn:

It is chaotic evil, 8 feet tall, gets three attacks per round and can cause confusion.
Burrows through stone at 1" per turn and through loam at six times that rate. "Their prey includes young purple worms, ankheg, and humans."
They attack with claws and mandibles.
Any intelligent creature that views its four eyes must make a save or be confused for 3-12 rounds.
They have their own language!
They're black..? Shading to yellowish grey on the front.

Ghost Tower of Inverness

This is a pretty classic 1st edition adventure and contains a big dungeon. At one point, the group comes to a room with 5 tunnels leading from it. In this room is a locked iron chest that contains a pile of gold and a key they need.

Unless they leave the room immediately, there's this:

"You hear a rumbling sound from the southwest; it sounds like huge quantities of earth falling in the room, perhaps it is a cave-in."

And then.. "Any character who turns to look at the source of the noise - or asks the DM what it is - has looked at an umber hulk."

They helpfully give you the confusion chart. Roll a d10:

1 Wander away for 1 turn (10 minutes!).
2-6 Stand confused for 1 round, unable to attack.
7-8 Attack nearest creature for 1 round.
9-10 Attack the umber hulk for 1 round.

Fighting it while averting your eyes gives you a -4 to hit.

It's kind of weird that this encounter early on in the adventure is given two pieces of art, one of which is on the title page.

AD&D 2nd Edition

Monstrous Compendium

That's the Tony DiTerlizzi umber hulk. He's one of m favorite D&D artists. I think he did an awesome job actually depicting what a gorilla/beetle might look like.

The entry is similar to 1e, expanded a bit:

Their mandibles can cut through bone
Their four eyes are "mere blackened dots each the size of a small coin."
They still have their own language.
They dig a tunnel and then peer out of a crack where creatures are likely to stroll by.
Burrowing is 10 feet.. per turn?! 60 feet in soft eath. A foot per minute?
Their gaze causes confusion as per the spell.
They are slow and ponderous.
They won't hesitate to cause a cave-in
Their babies are born in a special nursery hollowed out by the mother. It takes the "hulklings" two years to grow big enough to hunt.
It is rumored that there are entire cities of these being underground with tunnels that radiate out, like threads in a spider's web.

Vodyanoi: This is an aquatic variant of an umber hulk. They have only two eyes and thus they don't have the confusion power. They can rend the hulls of vessels. They can summon 1-20 electric eels!

In 2015, Tony Diterlizzi did a sketch of a new kind of umber hulk:

Seems like that could be some sort of umber hulk lord.

Dungeon Magazine #36 - Asflag's Unintentional Emporium

This adventure is about a wizard's lair that's been abandoned (Asflag the wizard is enslaved in the Gray Wastes). In the lair is a zoo full of weird monsters that have gotten out, some of which are hunting in the city. The group needs to go to the lair and get things under control.

It's a massive place. In Asflag's library are some spell books. One spellbook has a magical trap. If you open it without uttering the passphrase, it summons an umber hulk. It appears in a thunderclap and proceeds to run amok for d6 rounds, and then is banished back to whence it came.

Dragon Magazine #152 - The Ecology of the Umber Hulk

This article is written as if it was an excerpt from a fictional book, "Creatures of the Earth's Deeps", by the sage and wizard Archmyel. Lots of factoids:

Umber hulks weigh 1500 pounds.
They have two sets of mandibles.
Two of their eyes are white with black irises, and the other two are purple with yellow irises.
They have no nose. They have gill-like structures on their necks that allows them to eat and breathe at the same time.
Umber hulks allow themselves to be swallowed by purple worms for the thrill of "tunneling out" and laying the worms.
They can breathe in water for up to 10 minutes
They almost always attack creatures weaker than themselves, but the sight of gold or platinum in large amounts stops them in their tracks.
The confusion gaze doesn't work on other umber hulks.
It's the two eyes on the forehead that cause confusion.
Females are rare. 1 in 4 is female.
Males live to the age of 50, females to 75.
They dislike bright light.
They speak "Hulkish". It is a fairly simple language that uses sounds that those without mandibles can't dulicate.
They will serve others for gold or platinum.
Nobody knows what they do with the gold and platinum. It says they might use it like gizzard stones. What's a gizzard stone? Let's look it up... apparently, some animals without teeth swallow rocks and pebbles, which sit in their gizzards and grind food. Apparently some dinosaurs did this.
Their lairs are large, spacious caverns.
Their eyes are ingredients for potions and magical inks.

Spelljammer Boxed Set

Now we're getting to the good stuff!

The neogi are evil little slavers, spider-eel things (they are in Volos' Guide to Monsters, page 179). Their race has enslaved many umber hulks. Each neogi has a personal umber hulk slave that is used as a bodyguard, manservant and useful set of hands. The slaves have a tattoo on their left shoulder, front and back, which denotes who their owner is.

The hulks are trained from birth to care for their every need. A neogi who loses their slaves is considered an outcast until it regains them. If they don't, they lose all social status and become a slave themselves.

Dragon Magazine #214 - Ecology of the Neogi

This issue has an extremely grim story about what happens when you get captured by neogi slavers. It's something akin to a snuff film without the snuffing. We learn:

Most neogi insist upon being carried everywhere by their hulks.
Powerful neogi own two or more hulks.
Umber hulks are the prized possessions of neogi. They refer to them as "lord-servants." Other types of slaves are known as "servant-slaves".
P'kk: This is a deity! An umber hulk with the head of a neogi, P'kk is the deity of those who like bullying and manipulating. P'kk is lawful evil and lives on Baator aka the Nine Hells! This entity refers to the Nine Hells as Ki'pik.
Kr'tx: This god lives in the Gray Wastes. Kr'tx is actually worshiped by umber hulk slaves who delight in brutality and wanton destruction. Kr'tx is a red neogi with burning claws and hair. It's chaotic evil.

Good article!

D&D 3rd Edition

Monster Manual

Very little info here:

They describe the eyes differently. Now there are two eyes like a beetle's, and two eyes like those of an ape.
They are not stupid, and they can tunnels to create deadfalls and pits.
Truly Horrid Umber Hulk: These are 16 feet tall loners feared by their own kind. Higher level hulks, basically.

Tome of Magic - Dark Umber Hulk

These things live on the plane of shadow. Black and gray armor plates cover their body. This entry is virtually identical to the one in the monster manual, word-for-word.

Expedition to Undermountain - Psi-Hulk

The group is sent on a quest to get a crystal-encrusted skull of a mutant umber hulk. They need to go into caves that are home to many umber hulk. These caves are home to large mushrooms and big insects.

The hulks are led by an umber hulk with a crystal growing out of its head. This crystal gives it special psionic powers. Its main power is a "psionic lion charge" and ability that lets it make a charge attack.

Its head is large, with knobby crystalline growths jutting like a crown of horns from its skull. When slain, its body comes apart, revealing a crystal skull.

Savage Species

This book has rules for making monster characters. The can be useful as long as their driving hunger and nearly constant need for destruction can be assuaged.

They definitely weakened the hulk a bit. Suddenly, tremorsense can only detect people within 10 feet. They don't even have confusing gaze until they hit level 7. They speak the language of "Umber Hulk."

Dungeon Magazine #102 - Zenith Trajectory

This is one of my favorite adventures of all time. It's part of the Shackled City adventure path, set in the city of Cauldron (a city built in a "dormant" volcano).

The group is minding their own business on Magma Avenue when an umber hulk pops out of the ground. There's a lot of people in the street, and they're all hit with the confusion gaze! Pretty awesome encounter, right?

There's a woman holding a baby which is about to fall out of a window, a fruit merchant who absolutely refuses to leave his fruit cart, a criminal who takes advantage of the chaos, and more.

Dragon Magazine #317

There's an article that lists components for spells and magic items. One of them is umber hulk eyes. They are worth 500 gp and are a component for the spell called Vision.

D&D 4th Edition

Monster Manual

In 4e, they don't speak but they understand Deep Speech.

Shadow Hulk: They are a variant whose gaze causes victims to attack their allies.

Monster Vault

Lots o' flavor:

"It steadily scoops away rock as easily as a humanoid might shovel snow."
"While a purple worm might create a great highway between the grand caverns of the Underdark, umber hulks make the backstreets and alleys."
"Drow, duergar, and illithids use trained umber hulks to dig tunnels to dig for them..."
Their tunnels are sometimes choked with rubble and prone to collapses.

Umber Hulk Tunneler: It has the ability to "snatch and tun." If it hits with a claw attack, it can drag that creature up to 25 feet. Rebuffing Gaze: The victim take psychic damage every time they move 5 feet closer to it.

Umber Hulk Bewilderer: It has a stunning gaze... yikes. Also has a staggering gaze that does psychic damage and slides victims up to 25 feet.

Dungeon #165 - Alliance at Nefelus

This is a fantastic adventure from the Scales of War path involving the group battling Chillreaver, a two-headed white dragon.

As the group makes their way through the glacier lair of the dragon, they come upon a cavern with a rift in it. This is home to four "icetouched" umber hulks, which are almost identical to regular umber hulks aside from the name.

I remember this encounter being very challenging for my players.

Dragon #427 - Ecology of the Neogi

It's so weird when they do ecology articles on the same entity in different editions. There are so many monsters that need development. Why would they do the same one twice? Umber hulks dig tunnels that neogi use to secretly travel in.

Dungeon #204 - Pearl of the Sea Mother

This is an adventure dealing with the amusing goddess of the kuo toa, Blibdoolpoolp.

As the adventurers make their way through her shrine, they come upon a few large chambers where umber hulk tunnelers lurk, along with a cloaker. The kuo-toas fear these creatures and don't patrol this section of the dungeon.

Later on, the group meets a band of really insane kuo toa who are worshiping the shell of a umber hulk.

D&D 5th Edition

Monster Manual

Those who survive an encounter remember little due to the confusion gaze, which scrambles their memory. Their body can withstand cave-ins.

Princes of the Apocalypse

Claws of the Umber Hulk: Magic item! These claws always comes in pairs and act as magical longswords. Once you are attuned to them, you are proficient with them, even if you're a wizard. They give you a burrowing speed of 20 feet.

Out of the Abyss

There is an umber hulk encounter where it bursts out from behind a wall and attacks the nearest party member. That's all I can find in this adventure. You'd think they would have done more with them.

Links

The 5e Umber Hulk is right here. It was a free pdf preview for the monster manual.
Umber Hulk Tactics
Homebrewed Umber Hulk variants
The deviantart page of the 5e umber hulk artist
There is an actual umber hulk website!
A quick description of what an umber hulk is on the official D&D site.

You can get the pdf of this book right here.
You can order it on amazon here.

Today we're going to look at a brand new product: the Tal'Dorei campaign setting. This is the realm in which the Critical Role show takes place.

I've only seen the first episode of Critical Role. I liked it, but the episodes are very long and it's hard to keep up.

That means that all of this stuff is going to be new to me. We'll go through and pick out the best ideas that could be mined for your home game. I'll try to give you an idea of what's in the book so you can decide if you want to get it.

I'm interested to see if the Raven Queen is in this, as I'm pretty sure she is used on that show. I also know that this campaign started in Pathfinder, which makes it a real mix of stuff. I am wondering what they can and can't use, legally.

I run a Planescape campaign and I love the idea of having my group go here for a session or two, so this should be a lot of fun to check out.

Essential Information

This book is primarily a description of the realm of Tal'Dorei.
A lot of the deities in this book are D&D entities that are not called by their normal name.
The art is top notch.
There are monsters and magic items, but it feels like there could have been more.
If you are looking for a setting or a book to pull (non-dungeon) locations out of to use in your game, this is definitely worth getting.
I think that players might really like some of the options in here.

Very Good Cover: I really like the cover (see the very top of this article). There's action! I'm real picky about D&D art and this is definitely the kind of thing I like to see. It's a scene that shows you the stuff you can do in the game. I also really like that they resisted the idea of making it a standard group shot of the characters from the show. Their backs are turned! Ballsy!

Lots of Names: Looking at the credits, I see that Mark Hulmes from High Rollers had some input. I love that guy. Crystal Frasier did some work on this, too. She wrote that epic first adventure of the Hell's Rebels path that I am dying to run. The main authors: Matthew Mercer with James Haeck.

History

We start off with the history of the realm. A lot of times, I hate these things because they are so long-winded and just too complicated. It's hard to get this stuff across to groups without their eyes glazing over.

When I see a wall of text, I'm not too thrilled. Only Ed Greenwood can walk me through big paragraphs. He has a breezy style that's easy to fly through.

It turns out that this section is written in a similar way. I was able to get through it without too much of a struggle.

Tal'Dorei is on a world called Exandria. Gods known as the Protean Creators made the elves, then the dwarves, then the humans. They created metallic dragons to protect them.

The Primordials didn't like this.. Heyyy! The 4e primordials! Awesome. Fighting broke out. Some gods wanted to fight back, others didn't. This formed a split:

The Prime Gods: Gods who battled the Primordials, creating things like alchemy to aid mortals in their fight.
The Betrayer Gods: Deities who aided the enemy, went nuts, etc. They were banished to their own prison planes.

The primordials were defeated.

The first great city was founded: Vasselheim.

Raven Queen: Hey! A mortal mage crafted rites to challenge the God of Death..! I smell a Raven Queen. I wonder if they'll have art of her.

There is one truth when it comes to 4th edition and that thing is as follows: Everyone loves the Raven Queen.

Somebody named Vespin Chloras freed the Betrayer Gods. This led to a massive war. The good guys won and the Betrayers were sent back to solitary. Years later, a woman named Zan Tal'Dorei led an effort to fight off spawn of the betrayers and other stuff. The land ended up being named after her.

A red dragon named Thordak the Cinder King wreaked havoc and was sealed in the Elemental Plane of Fire.

This led to a bunch of dragons called the Chroma Conclave becoming a problem. Vox Machina (heroes of the Critical Role show) took them down an that bring us to the present day.

Good Choices: There are a lot of good names and words in this book. The Frostweald, the Rimelord, the Verdant Expanse (! love that one), Brimscythe!

Guns: Firearms are here but can be easily scrubbed out. It doesn't seem to be mentioned much at all.

Gods of Tal'Dorei

Let's check out the gods. It turns out that they don't refer directly to D&D gods by name. That's kind of a bummer. It seems to me that D&D has benefited tremendously from this show, and I think they should have allowed the use of certain entities that they don't normally allow.

The Prime Gods

The good guy gods.

The Archeart: God of magic and the fey. This looks like Corellon!
The Allhammer: God of dwarves, knowledge and war. Moradin.
The Changebringer: God of Trickery and Nature. "She Who Makes the Path."
The Dawnfather: Revered by those who hunt aberrations.
The Everlight: She believes that the corrupt can be redeemed. Apparently she was betrayed by "the Lord of the Hells". I think this might be the Pathfinder deity, Sarenrae. I really like that this show mixes Pathfinder and D&D concepts.
The Knowing Mistress: God of lore and knowledge. Ioun?
The Lawbearer: God of law. Has a "tempestuous romance with the Wildmother, a furious love that is only tempered when civilization and nature are in balance." Hot damn!
The Matron of Ravens (Raven Queen!): The few who have seen her says she's a pale woman wearing a white, porcelain mask.
The Moonweaver: Goddess of moonlight and love. She protects the "trysts of lovers with shadows of her own making." Well now, how about that. Sehanine?
The Platinum Dragon (Bahamut): It's Bahamut.
The Stormlord: God of strength and storms.
The Wildmother: Goddess of wild animals and "the heat-harried stillness of the desert." I love that rich description.

The Betrayer Gods

The Chained Oblivion: An "engine of utter destruction and madness." I think this is Tharizdun?
The Cloaked Serpent: God of snakes, poison and assassins.
The Crawling King: Looks like this is Torog from 4e! Nice.
The Lord of the Hells: Apparently the Changebringer tricked his armies onto attacking each other.
The Ruiner: Gruumsh! His missing eye shifted to the center of his face. That's a nice little way to reconcile the two different depictions of Gruumsh.
The Spider Queen: Lolth. The drow are in the thrall of Tharizdun's minions. Lolth can see through the eyes of all spiders. She hates the Stormlord, who impaled her against a cliffside with a thunderspear.
The Strife Emporer: Maglubiyet? Honorable warrior, evil patron of war and conquest. His broken armor litters a plateau - his massive helmet houses the capital city of a hobgoblin empire. Awesome!
The Scaled Tyrant: Tiamat.

Spicy Drow: There's some cool ideas about the drow being plagued by the Chained Oblivion, and some of them embracing him, becoming dopplegangers. Drow are a little boring and this seems like a good way to spice them up.

Turns of the Phrase: The master of D&D flavor text is James Jacobs. I'll never full recover from "wet and ruinous" and the "heaving birthflesh" from the demonomicon Malcanthet article from Dragon Magazine. Some of the stuff in here approaches those lofty heights. I love the description of the tempestuous affair between the gods.

Vecna: In the factions section we see that in this world, Vecna tried to ascend to godhood but it didn't work out. He's dead, sort of. His cult is trying to bring him back. The cult is separated into factions called the Eyes, the Voice, the Blood, the Hand an the Heart, which I believe is very similar to the groups in Vecna Reborn.

Gazeteer

This section makes up the bulk of the book. It details the realm, complete with adventure suggestions.

My favorite stuff:

The Moon Mistress: A night hag who takes the guise of a water nymph. You can stop right there! Sold.
A quasit heading up a team of griffon-egg poachers.
Centaur skeletons! Awesome art, really cool idea. The Herd of the Damned, succumbing to a curse of undeath.
Harpy pirates! Led by Captain Silvercomb, an arrogant, dashing, and well-spoken grandmother.
A city protected by an illusory dome. Powering it requires wizards to dump spell slots into it. I really like this one.
The Plainscow, a popular mount! I had a character who rode a cow once. I would cast fly on it and we'd zoom all over the place.
Graz'tchar, the Decadent End: A magic sword that contains the remains of a demon prince (sounds like it's Graz'zt). They have stats for it and everything.
The Holocaust Seed: An unborn primordial titan seed! Its presence makes the surrounding jungle thrive. If triggered, it awakens rapidly.

Class Options

I much prefer this depiction of halflings as compared to the halflings in the Player's Handbook.

The last 40 pages of the book deals with stat stuff. There are a few class options.

Class Options

(Cleric) Blood Domain: You can do extra damage, control people and make them attack others. You can study the spilled blood of a creature to find their current location and their state of health. That is awesome.

(Barbarian) Path of the Juggernaut: You can push creatures when you hit them, you can't be knocked prone, and you deal double damage to structures and objects.

(Sorcerer) Runechild: You have runes on your body that you can pump sorcery points into. When you get hit, you can use those runes to subtract d6 damage per rune! You can use them to get advantage on checks, and put them on other people.

I love this option and I would definitely play one, but I'd change the name. I like "runepriest" better.

(Monk) Way of the Cobalt Soul: You can recall lore, spend ki points to learn about the creature you struck, and "you can hit a series of hidden nerves on a creature with precision, temporarily causing them to be unable to mask their true thoughts and intent."

I love this one, too. I would like it if the "extract aspect" power let you learn about the creature's past, thoughts, that kind of thing. As it's written, you learn stat stuff: AC, vulnerabilities, immunities, etc.

Backgrounds

There's some backgrounds. I like the Ashari.

The Clasp: A thieves guild.
Lyceum Student: A rich kid, student at the highest place of learning in Tal'Dorei.
Ashari: Protectors of nature that are tied to the elements. There are four tribes, one for each element.
Recovered Cultist: Former evildoer.
Fate-Touched: Your soul is linked to history itself.

New Feats: There's a pile of them. The one that stick out is "rapid drinker." It lets you drink a potion as a bonus action.

The Vestiges of Divergence: These are powerful magic items that have powers that gain potency over time. I think there was something like this in 3rd edition.

The item advances in power at certain times, often manifesting in a dramatic moment. They are dormant for levels 1-8, awaken at 9-15, and 16+ they are "exalted."

So, as an example.. the Armor of the Valiant Soul:

Awakened: Can cast command once per long rest, +2 to AC, resist acid, immune frightened.
Exalted: +3 to AC, frightened immunity extends to allies within 15 feet, immune acid, DC of command goes up.

There's a lot of these items.

Variant Rules: We get a bunch of variant rules. Quicker rests, alternate resurrection rules and more.

There's a big section on resurrection. You lose 1 Con each time you're raised, you might have long term madness and you also might accrue corruption. There's an idea of a "resurrection challenge", where others must perform a ritual to convince a god to bring them back.

The loss of Constitution is an idea that goes back to older editions. It never really worked out, because generally you don't die that much and the Con loss is a bummer.

I do love the idea, though, of running an adventure where the character keeps dying, and they have to complete a task before their Con runs out and they're dead forever.

Monsters

There's pages of lore explaining how different monsters fit into the world. The origin of the orcs: When Corellon shot out Gruumsh's eye, Gruumsh's blood spilled onto elves and humans, transforming them into orcs.

I really like that. Although it is weird to say that during that battle, elves spawned from Corellon's blood and then a few minutes later, Gruumsh's blood changes them.

We get some stat blocks. The Ashari are very cool. The Ashari firetamers can actually turn into a fire elemental.

Cinderslag Elemental: I love the art for this one. They're part lava. They can seep through cracks, they have a molten gaze, very cool.

There's more. Goliaths, Vecna cultists, mostly humanoid NPC types.

That's it!

Overall

The Art: The art in this book is really good. In some cases, it is better than the art in the 5e core books. There is a consistent level of quality and it feels less restricted - the artists were able to show off their style while still adhering to the general parameters of D&D art. Bryan Syme really kicked some ass in this book.

The Presentation: I love the way the pages are set up. It's sort of a hybrid Pathfinder/D&D look.

This is a good book. If you're into Critical Role, I think you'll really like it.

If you're not, then you should definitely check out what's in it before buying. The vast majority of the product describes locations. There aren't any encounters to steal or anything like that. There's no list of magic items - at least, not traditional magic items. The vestige items are very cool though, and there's a lot of them.

I do think players would like this book. The character options are very cool, particularly the monk and sorcerer ones.

There you go. Thumbs up!

Episode 58: Bloodbath

Art: I've started getting DCA art for the blog. I'm going to get an image of each hero and then I'll probably start getting art of scenes from different episodes. The artist of the above image is right here. She's working on Evelyn right now.

If there are any scenes you'd like to see drawn, let me know. People on twitter gave me a real good list to start off from. Ultimately I'd like to have one piece for each episode.

Twitch Stuff: I decided to subscribe to the D&D channel just to see how subscribing works. Basically, you pay $5 and you get some emoji things. Here they are:

I assume some of the money goes to them. It's $5 a month. I would really like it if subscribers got something like a .pdf guide to the show or something. Maybe with some stats in it, summaries, character sheets, that kind of thing. They could take the best fan art and stick it in there, maybe.

They say that subscribing blocks ads, but I've never seen an ad on Twitch. Maybe firefox is beating them off with a stick or something.

If you want to be my buddy, my twitch name is PowerScoreRPG. We can be buddies... together? Maybe forever!

No Nate today. Chris will be running Paultin. I like it when it's these 3 playing.

The Party

(Anna) Evelyn - Human Paladin of Lathander
(ProJared) Diath - Human Rogue
(Holly) Strix - Tiefling Sorcerer

Last time, Strahd was about to chase Sergei and Tatyana, who fled in a horse-drawn carriage when they realized Strahd wanted to kill Sergei. Diath stabbed Strahd in the back (literally).

So, here we go. Strix gets on her broom and flies 30 feet up. Strahd gets on his horse. Diath stabs him again. Strahd takes the hit and rides off, chasing his brother.

Soldiers emerge from the castle. 12 are running at them, 12 more up on the battlements with ranged weapons. They can take them. A few Strix fireballs will take care of this. The others should get under the battlements so the soldiers don't have line of sight.

I think Evelyn could summon Mourning Glory, Evelyn and Diath could hop on and they could chase Strahd. Sorry, I'll stop backseat driving.

Diath wants to surrender. Diath is suffering from decision fatigue again.

Paultin uses his mandolin to heal Evelyn. The chat is saying that Paultin wouldn't do that.

The ground soldiers attack Evelyn. She takes a total of 21 points of damage. The ranged soldiers fire crossbow bolts at Strix. She has an AC of 14. Eep. Only one hits! She takes 8 points.

A priest of the Morninglord shows up. He casts bless on three of the soldiers.

Strix decides to go after Strahd. Land and blow them up! She's 100 feet above him. She still has the flask, right?

Evelyn uses her winged boots and disengages. She is going to fly after Strahd.

The soldiers grab Waffles.. eep. The bad guys take Paultin's mandolin. It looks like Paultin was able to turn Murderbot invisible.

Strix's hat blows off. She chases it. Dex check to grab it. She rolls a one. The hat flutters down. Strix barely stays on her broom.

Evelyn is hit by 5 bolts. She takes 22 damage. She's down! She falls from the sky and takes 9 more damage, costing her one death save.

Holly thinks if they turn off their computers this can't get any worse. But Chris will be there, waiting...

The cleric stabilizes Evelyn. Waffles scampers over and tries to revive her.

Strahd's crossing a bridge. Strix decides to try to ram him off the side. Opposed strength check. Strix rolls a natural 20! Strahd tumbles onto the mossy bridge. His horse keeps going.

He gets up and gets back on his horse. She tries to talk sense into him. He scowls and rides off.
I know natural 20's aren't crits with ability checks, but it feels like Strahd should have been dangling on the side of the bridge or something. The dice told the story.

Strix flies up and casts poison spray on Strahd. Apparently, she casts this by squeezing her pet cranium rat and it comes out like a fart cloud. She utters the immortal line: "Take my rat farts."

Strahd gets on the carriage and Jesper engages him. Strahd knocks Jesper into Strix and they both fall to the ground. Strahd's horse tries to trample them.

Strix hits Beucephalus with a fire bolt.. Wow! the Dark Powers reach out and use the flame, transforming Beucephalus into a nightmare.

Strahd riding Beucephalus

Strix is getting out of here but doesn't want to leave Jesper. He tells her to go. She gives him her drow spell book.

She slaps the horse around with mage hand to distract it while Jesper runs away. Then she takes flight.

Back at the castle, Rahadin hobbles outside. He took piles of damage last session. The priest heals him.

Rahadin summons a phantom steed to go help Strahd. Diath tells him about the tome of Strahd. He urges Rahadin to read it. Rahadin takes the book and heads inside.

It starts to rain. Diath and Paultin are being held by the bad guys... awkward.

Strahd pulls Sergei out of the carriage. Strix stats throwing stuff at him.. the driftglobe, a heart.

Strahd draws his sword and throws it at Strix. Strix has 1 hit point left. Strix tells Strahd he's going to regret killing his brother, and she flies away.

Strix decides to fly into the village of Barovia and look for a healer.

Strahd returns with the carriage an hour later. Sergei and Tatyana are still alive. Strahd orders Leo and his mother to be brought out. Strahd decapitates Leo in front of his mother. The Duchess is dragged to the dungeon.

Then Strahd calls for Paultin. He.. decapitates Paultin!

Diath's turn... He weeps, as he realizes he let everyone down. Diath is decapitated.

50 years pass.

Strix was in the village and learned that her friends were dead. She ends up living in a hut for years. Eventually, Waffles and Simon arrive. Scarecrows start popping up, spying on Strix.

There was an uprising in Castle Ravenloft, people died, the mists came. Strahd is a vampire again.

Over time, Strix makes friends with the vistani, the dusk elves, and the actual Kasimir (Rahadin pretended to be him for quite a while).

Eventually, the scarecrows lead Strix to another hut - the creeping hut of Baba Lysaga.

Holly says that Strix spent some of her childhood in a hut with chicken feet..! Baba Yaga's hut? Really? Was this ever said before? Did she mess with the tank?

In the hut is a bathtub full of blood. Someone sits up. It's an old woman, covered in blood.

They become friends. Lysaga takes goat's blood baths that stops the aging process. She teaches Strix how to do it.

Baba Lysaga was the midwife who brought Strahd into the world. Strix is not happy when she learns this and they are no longer friends.

She makes friends with the revenants of Argynvostholt and they eventually go to the Amber Temple on a quest to resurrect Strix's friends. It is soon revealed that they make dark pacts with the vestige of the corpse star. That pact gives them the power to bring the dead back to life.

Diath awakens in a coffin. He's a corpse.. living flesh forms, blood courses in his veins. Standing around him are vistani, dusk elves, and an undead knight. Strix is there.. so is a large, very old owlbear.

Paultin's resurrected.

Diath hugs Strix. He tells her he's sorry.

Is Evelyn going to be normal again? Is Chris going to roll on the resurrection chart? Nope! Light comes into her body. She's still a construct, fully restored and covered by grave dirt. She wakes up screaming.

They'd been trapped in the ethereal plane for 50 years.

So now they've all be raised, does that mean they all have the death curse? Does it count if they're raised somewhere other than Toril?

It turns out that the group was buried that place where Diath had a vision of himself being hung.

Evelyn opens the compartment where Juniper, her mouse, was. It's dead. Strix's cranium rat is dead, too. The revenants raise them, too. I find the idea of a mouse suffering from Acererak's death curse very amusing.

Kasimir says, "Thank you for everything you tried to do." The players are very shell-shocked.

A vistani gives the adventurers a wagon. Apparently it can be used to leave Barovia.

The group is missing all of their belongings. No.. the vistani stole it all back. They also give the group two big casks of wizard of wines wine.

Godfrey leads the group out. The heroes leave Barovia and return to Toril. That's where we stop!

Overall

Not sure how I feel about this episode! Interesting, at least. The players will have a week to think about what their characters did for those 50 years.

Evelyn: I hate the idea that she might lose faith in the Morninglord. I mean... she wandered the mists as a spirit, probably praying for aid, and the aid never came. Hopefully she remained positive. I am still wondering why Lathander was holding that baby when her spirit came before him and the saints.
Diath: When raised, his immediate response was to apologize. He felt like he failed. During those 50 years, he had time to mull over what mistakes he made and how he'd do it differently. Now he has a chance to make those changes. He also had a long time to think about the keys and the other Woodrows. Also, for those who think there's a Diath/Strix thing brewing, he'd have had 50 years to think about her and how he never got to get close to her.
Paultin: No alcohol for 50 years. Maybe he's sober? He had time to come up with some ridiculously epic songs. Maybe a dark power reached out to him or something.
Strix: Strix had 50 years to learn things. I'd guess that she knows a lot about things in general, having spent time with the vistani, the dusk elves, the knights and the hag. She could have learned cool magic tricks from Lysaga. I guess she'd also be very close to Waffles and Simon. Does Simon think of Strix as his mom now?

Time Travel: This session reminded me of a few things I tried as a DM a long time ago. None of them worked, so I had alarm bells going off as this episode progressed. Two things in particular stick out:

Glossing over the Passage of Years: The heroes needed repairs for their fleet of Spelljammer ships. How long did it take? 13 years, I declared. They did not like that at all. I just wanted to add some time to the campaign, because I don't like it when technically adventurers go from 1st level to 10th in 3 weeks time. It feels wrong. But yeah, the 13 years added nothing.

Actually Changing the Timeline: Near the end of my Al Qadim campaign, I thought it would be cool for the heroes to get a magic hourglass that would allow them to actually go back in time and change things that they regretted - mainly, one character had a twin sister who died. He wanted to save her.

So time travel happened, and the changes were made. I altered the campaign to reflect the changes. It actually made the campaign feel like it was no longer valid. All these things we'd done over the course of two years were erased. It felt cheap. Worse, I couldn't remember the changes! It got very confusing.

Skipping 50 Years: In this session we had Holly play through 50 years of life in 5 minutes. I'm definitely not saying that we should have sat there for months while they played through every event, but I think I would have liked it if Chris ran a special solo session with her over the week to allow for some consequential action.

Or..! Do an episode of their spirits wandering, flashing back to their past. We could see the characters play through significant events of their youth and learn some secret things. We could see Evelyn in paladin school, Diath on the streets of Sigil (!), Strix in Baba Yaga's hut and pre-drunkard Paultin.

Maybe that would be too weird. Lots of stuff to absorb this episode.

Still in the Past? Did the group return to present-day Toril? Are they in the past of the Forgotten Realms? It would be pretty cool to have them walk right into the Spellplague or something.

You can watch these episodes on Twitch right here.
You can buy Tomb of Annihilation right here.
You can buy Xanathar's Guide to Everything right here.

Force Grey is back for another season. This time, the adventure is linked to the Tomb of Annihilation adventure, which comes out in about a month.

If you haven't seen it, the premise is that there is an organization in Waterdeep that hires adventurers to complete missions of particular importance for them. For each mission, adventurers are selected from the ranks of Force Grey based on their skills or who is available at the time.

The bummer here for me is that my two favorite players, Shelby Faro and Jonah Ray, are absent. I know Jonah is busy with the new MST3K, so hey, what can you do?

The Party

(Joe Manganiello) Arkhan - Dragonborn Paladin of Tiamat
(Deborah Ann Woll) Jamilah - Human Barbarian
(Dylan Sprouse) Tyril Tallguy - Firbolg Druid
(Utkarsh Ambudkar) Hitch - Human Rogue
(Brian Posehn) Calliope - Half-Elf Bard

The players introduce their characters. Arkhan was lawful good but recently became a worshiper of Tiamat. Apparently Joe uses this character in his regular campaign. He owns a bar called "The Burning Cube." I'd like to hear more about that.

Jamila is a longtime denizen of Chult who is ready to move on Calliope has a rapier and she "looks like Becky Lynch from the WWE with an eyepatch."

Months have passed since the last adventure. The heroes are in a tavern in Waterdeep. Tyril and Hitch are playing cards with a guy. Calliope is playing music. The two new heroes are not with the party at the start.

Hitch tries to cheat at cards and rolls a natural one. The sailor he tried to cheat is angry, but Hitch bluffs his way out of it.

The door to the tavern opens. A middle aged woman in a cloak enters. She wears the symbol of a white hand, the emblem of the Watchful Order, mages who protect the city. She has come here to tell the heroes to head to Blackstaff Tower. It's time for Force Grey to force some grey on someone or something.

At Blackstaff tower, the group meets with a small woman with indigo skin. She's got a staff with a wolf's head on it. She explains that raise dead isn't working, and certain high masked lords of Waterdeep will perish from the death curse if this isn't dealt with.

The souls of those suffering the death curse are being pulled and fed to a device called the soulmonger.

The soulmonger is beneath a lost city in Chult. Force Grey's duty is to find the lost city. Arkhan joins the group as a new member of the party. He knows Hitch, apparently they've worked together before.

The next day, the heroes take a ship to Chult. The trip takes a week.

The group arrives at Port Nyanzaru. It is very hot. The sweat builds in their armor. This was also mentioned on Girls, Guts, Glory, I guess it' a thing in Tomb of Annihilation.

The heroes hit the streets. They see a domesticated stegosaurus with a rider. It is a beast of burden.

Nature is trying to reclaim the city, vines everywhere. The city is very old and some buildings are ruined.

The group heads to the Thundering Lizard. Calliope scans the tavern, looking for a guide. Let's see if the guides are the same ones on Girls Guts Glory. Calliope rolls a 1.

A noble catches her eye and waves her over. Hey.. these NPCs were on Girls, Guts, Glory. This is the good-looking dude who has a sidekick named Gondolo. They come over and try to impress the heroes.

Arkhan threatens them. Jamila is here in the bar, winning arm wrestling contests. She is low on money and eyeballs the adventurers.

Arkhan scares off the dudes. Jamila sees her opportunity and approaches the group. She starts talking and Hitch immediately says, "You're hired." What does Jamila look like? A female Joe Manganiello!

Jamila says that she can lead them to the city. She'll do it if they'll buy her rations and gear. She also says that Ubtao has blessed her.

The heroes are warned that the jungle is full of undead.

We catch a glimpse of the map of Chult. We actually see right where Omu is.

Jamila leads the group to the market.. whoop.. rolls a one in doing so. Welp. Tyril want to buy some antitoxin from a dude in a tent. The merchant gives him a clump of healing moss. Tyril applies Ronald Reagan's motto: "Trust, but verify." He probes the moss.

Hitch wants to steal it. He creeps over and snatches a clump. The merchant turns, wary. Hitch tells him he's looking for the bathroom. The merchant want to see his hands. Hitch says his hands are covered with feces. Good gawd, how far is he willing to go to pull this off?

Guards are approaching the tent. Hitch keeps saying he has poop all over his hands. Tyril wants to slip him some poo.. no.. the guards come in.

Arkhan tries to bribe them with 100 gold. The guards don't bite. After some deliberations, the merchant decides to take the gold. The guards throw Hitch into the street. They have no moss and they lost 100 of the 600 gold they were given to use for this trip.

That's where we stop!

Overall

I forgot that these episodes are only half an hour each. It goes very quick.

I'm a little torn on whether they should just cut to the action on this show or to run it somewhat like a normal game. If they had started in Port Nyanzaru with a quick explanation of their mission, we'd have gotten to the good stuff quicker. But starting at the start is more like a "real" D&D game, which you probably want viewers who are new to the game to see.

I like that we get to see the DMs of different shows running the same NPCs. I find it very interesting how each DM handles them so differently. Two people can run the same D&D adventure and they usually come out nothing alike.

On this page, I've tried to collect all that we know so far about the backstories of the Waffle Crew. I'll try and keep this updated as the show progresses. If there's something you think should be added, please let me know.

The main source is this page, which has the character sheets of the heroes. Most of them haven't been updated, but Paultin is 8th level. Did you know that he has dimension door?

The Beginning

At the start of episode 1, the group had just left Daggerford, a town featured in Scourge of the Sword Coast. The ruler of Daggerford is somewhat inept and there's a succubus looking to replace him. This succubus goes on to appear in Dead in Thay.

The group already knew each other at the start of episode 1. It has not been revealed what they'd done together before then.

They camped in the Misty Forest. They were pulled into Barovia through the mists of Ravenloft.

OK! Let's go in alphabetical order.

Diath Woodrow

Diath is a human rogue.

Personality Trait: Adventure and challenges are better than riches. Calm, collected, quick-thinking. I can get out of any situation quickly and smoothly.
Ideal: Seeking forgotten or lost riches is what I live for.
Bond: Everyone else's well-being is more important than my own. I will discover what my ring of keys goes to
Flaw: I am physically weak and want to avoid confrontation.
"I do not steal, pickpocket, or rob others."
Diath actually has an 8 Strength!

Backstory: Diath was born and raised in Waterdeep to a family that worked hard to get by. They weren't rich, but they also weren't poor. Until, that is, his family home was robbed.

From there it was a struggle to survive every day. Diath did odd jobs wherever he could, and on especially unfortunate days, he resorted to begging on the streets.

(episode 21) When Diath was a beggar, a mysterious person gave him the keyring.

The Keys: He's long forgotten their face, but this was when one cloaked figure simply placed a set of keys into his hands instead of a copper piece. He does not know what the keyring is for. It is later revealed that one key open the Tome of Strahd, and also that the keys fit into the magic sword Gutter.

Not Motivated by Greed: Adventuring quickly became his steadiest form of income. He does not desire fortune, but rather the tales and experiences he obtains from going on adventures. Any valuable gem, jewel, or trinket he discovered he kept for himself as a memento of how far he's come.

Not a Burglar: As a victim of petty theft himself, he refuses to outright steal. Diath has no interest in breaking into homes, cutting purses in the streets or taking from other citizens struggling to get by. For him, uncovering long-forgotten artifacts is far more valuable than any amount of coin.

Ancestors: It has been revealed that Diath has two ancestors:

Ashton (Father?) was an adventurer, apparently a rogue. He was friends with a half-orc/half-dwarf who eventually tracked down Diath and gave him Gutter, a magic sword passed down the Woodrow line.
Dareth (Mother? Grandmother?) is who was originally given the sword by its creator, Shameshka the Marauder. Dareth apparently lived in the city of Sigil.

Gutter: This sword has a keyhole that Diath's keys fit into. Each time he uses a key, a portal opens and Shemeshka the Marauder steps through and will answer three questions. In return, Diath must hand over one of the keys from his key ring.

Evelyn Marthaine

(Episode 1) Evelyn is immaculately dressed and very clean. Chris said that she has family ties in Waterdeep. The Marthaines have some sort of holding in that city.

Personality Trait: The common folk love me for my kindness and generosity.
Ideal: It is my duty to protect and care for the people beneath me.
Bond: My loyalty to my god is unwavering.
Flaw: In fact, the world does revolve around me.
Trinket: A four leaf clover pressed between inside a book discussing manners and etiquette.
Serves Lathander, God of the Dawn.
Oath of the Ancients

Lathander

Appearance: Evelyn looks like a flyer in cheerleading. Tiny, but built! You might describe her face and hair as cherubic. She's definitely "cute but deadly." The power of her God seems to flow through her in unbelievable feats of strength.

Juniper: In a roomy little pouch at her belt, or, at times, on her shoulder, she's currently carrying a little gray mouse that she has nursed back to health after finding it with a broken leg in the city streets. She calls it Juniper, and it's become quite tame.

Backstory: Evelyn came from a noble family and had a provincial, but overall privileged childhood, probably with some connection to Waterdeep. By tradition she should be addressed as "lady," but she never requires the honorific and encourages people to "just call her Evelyn."

Not Much Family: She doesn't really talk about it, but there doesn't seem to be much family or home for her to go back to. She's well known as a kind protector, and there's no particular scandal about her or her family, she just tends to focus on others and not say a whole lot about where she came from.

(Episode 13) Sometimes Evelyn didn't pay attention in paladin school because she was drawing horses. She had a teacher who wore the Icon of Ravenkind.

Doesn't Talk About Past: Her flaw "in fact, the world does revolve around me" manifests not so much in self-centeredness, but more in a steadfast, sometimes unreasonable optimism. "Everything will be all right" and "tomorrow is a new day" seem to be as far as Evelyn will go when talking about her past.

Mysterious Incident Involving Parents: She was from a very small, quiet, provincial town - but a rumor has been heard once or twice around town that something happened to her poor lord and lady parents, and the most sinister of those whispers imply that Evelyn left home because she may be somehow to blame.

Heirloom - Winged Boots of the Dawn: Fey, religious boots with a blissful quirk. Passed down as an heirloom by the church in Evelyn's hometown before she left, these boots glow in the moonlight, and are worked with the holy symbol of Lathander. When worn, they make the wearer feel fortunate and optimistic about the future, and harmless creatures seem to frolic in their presence. (4 hours flight per day)

Paultin Seppa

Paultin's character sheet has been updated all the way to level 8 as of this writing. Some of Paultin's traits may have changed from the original concept listed on his sheet.

Personality Trait: I love a good insult, even one directed at me.
Ideal: Creativity. The world is in need of new ideas and bold actions (chaotic).
Bond: I will do anything to prove I am superior to my rival. My rival is a voice in my head.
Flaw: I have difficulty keeping my true feelings hidden. My sharp tongue lands me in trouble.
Friendly. Entertainer. Musician.
Paultin is Chaotic Neutral.

Backstory: Paultin doesn't have a backstory on his sheet. All we know are bits and pieces gleaned from the show.

Ancestor: He may have an ancestor named Jesper (Yesper?), also a bard who drank a lot.

Paultin's Shadow: It appears that Paultin's evil shadow was active for a long time. The shadow is eventually revealed to be a shard of Strahd's spirit whose goal is to corrupt Paultin and make him an ally of the dark lord.

Dead Parents: (Episode 25) The story goes like this. The vistani brought one of their kind to Rudolph van Richten to heal them. Included in this clump of vistani were Paultin's parents and a very young Paultin.

The patient died despite van Richten's efforts. To avoid their curse, he urged them to take something of his in compensation. They took his son, Erasmus.

Zombies: When van Richten realized what they'd done, he tried to save Erasmus only to find that they'd sold him to a vampire named Baron Metus. Obviously upset, van Richten got the corpse of the vistani he was unable to save and rode into the woods. He was attacked by an undead horde led by a lich. For whatever reason, the lich protected him and magically warded him from the undead.

Protected, van Richten led the horde to the vistani camp, where they killed all of the vistani in that clan except for Paultin. A dying vistani cursed van Richten. From that day forward, all who became close to him would suffer a horrible fate.

(Episode 26) According to van Richten, he purposely spared Paultin.

Erasmus: Erasmus had become a vampire and he could not be saved. He begged his father to kill him. Van Richten did, and from that day forth, he was relentless hunter of vampires and other supernatural monsters.

Strix

Strix has a complex origin.

Personality Trait: I put no trust in divine beings. I hide scraps of food and trinkets away in my pockets.
Ideal: I kill monsters to make the world a safer place, and to exorcise my own demons.
Bond: A terrible guilt consumes me. I hope that I can find redemption through my actions.
Flaw: I assume the worst in people.
Pet: Strix has a pet cranium rat with one eye named Stinky.

Appearance: Pale skin, milky eyes, fluffy long black hair, small pointed fangs and two small brown horns protruding from the upper head, hidden when she has her hood up. Her black and brown tattered robes are held together by some leather belts and straps. Miscellaneous vials and trinkets hang from them.

She has a long, pale tail ending in a spade that she hides under her robes when around commoners who might be afraid of her heritage. She has a worn leather backpack covered in sigils that she drew and probably mean nothing.

Backstory: (Episode 7) Strix is the daughter of a devil and a mortal (who is described as "a lovely woman" by Lady Wachter). A deal was wrought to make her. Strix has an older brother named Izek, who has one huge, monstrous arm.

Stolen by Vistani: Lady Wachter said that she could have raised Strix as her own daughter, but the vistani ("wanton thieves") stole Strix from the Wachters. The vistani would have taken Izek as well, but he slipped through their grasp.

Lady Wachter claimed that she could help Strix harness the power inside of her.

Strix asked Izek about their family. He said: "It is just me. Do not speak of aunts and other relatives."

Sigil: (Info from this story Holly wrote) Strix was placed in the city of Sigil with the word "Strix" written on her arm. She lived on the streets in the Hive, the poorest and most dangerous section of Sigil. Strix made a living selling dead bodies as a member of the Dustmen faction.

The Bariaur: She was taken in by a bariaur (half woman/half goat) who ran an orphanage/bakery. Strix stayed there for years, bonding with her fellow orphans.

The Entity: A shadowy entity entered the bakery and killed everyone except for Strix. Strix does not know why it spared her.

Planar Adventures: Strix fled into the planes, traveling to:

The Outlands: She visited a number of gate towns. Apparently there was an incident of some sort in Torch.
Limbo
Bytopia
The Feywild

The Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga

In the Feywild, Strix was taken in by the legendary hag Baba Yaga. Strix lived in her dancing hut for a few years, making baked goods. Baba Yaga eventually told her it was time to go, and gave Strix the little black book that records her dreams.

Baba Yaga left Strix in a forest on a prime world. settled into a bramble hovel. The immediate aftermath of this is described here.

A few months ago, Planescape: Torment Enhanced Edition was released. It's a cleaned-up version of the original RPG, which some regard as a classic.

Holly, who plays Strix on Dice, Camera, Action, did a series of videos on this game right here.

I'm going to write a review and discuss my experiences with this game. Then I'll talk about how it relates to the tabletop RPG setting.

You Must Like to Read: If you want to know whether this is the game for you, it's pretty simple. Do you like reading? If you do, you'll like this. This game is 90% reading and choosing responses. There is combat, too, but you have to be willing to read through text scrolls to get to them.

Reception: I first played Torment back when it came out way back when. Torment was critically acclaimed but didn't sell particularly well. I have always felt that the thing that hurt this game the most is the cover. Look:

I think when you see that image, you get no idea of what the game is about and it really doesn't look appealing at all. The colors... gah. It's "different", but different doesn't mean good.

I've never liked the look of the main character. He looks like a gray-skinned caveman with dreadlocks. It just feels completely out of place with the Planescape setting.

Rules: The game uses a modified version of the AD&D 2e rules, complete with descending ACs (an AC 2 is good in 2e). Spells are modified, but most keep to the spirit of the originals.

The new menu screen, big improvement over the old one!

Premise: You start off waking up on a slab in the Mortuary, home of the Dustmen. You have no idea who you are or why you came back to life. There are tattoos on your body that provide clues. This game came out before Memento, and at the time was a pretty innovative idea.

From there, you wander and slowly piece things together, making allies who can join your group in the process.

Good and Evil: Your alignment changes according to your actions. If you do evil things, you become evil. If you do good things, you'll become good. I always like being a good guy in games, and I found it incredibly difficult to attain lawful good status. The closest I came was neutral good.

Classes: You start off as a fighter. Eventually, you get to choose a class to build on top of that. In my newest playthrough, I decided to be a mage. It takes an extremely long time before you get to make that choice. I think I was 15 hours in before I actually became a mage.

The cranium rat hive-mind

The best thing about this game are the characters. They're extremely original and many are quite complex. Almost every single person who can join your party is a really unique, interesting character. The city is overloaded with fun NPCs, from a blue-skinned magic item merchant to a guy who legit lost his head.

Quests: The game is full of mini-quests, many of which are optional. Some of them are pretty hard to figure out. If you're like me, you'll need to consult an online FAQ or you might get stuck.

Secrets: There are secrets everywhere. Items stashed inside zombies, secret portals, NPCs who admit things only if you dig, it's a really deep game. This is where your stat choices come into play.

If you have a high charisma or wisdom, you have dialogue options not available to you otherwise. I went with a high intelligence and charisma, and the game was quite a bit easier for me.

Graphics: I just looked at this comparison video, and it doesn't really look that much different. I can say that when I played the original, I found the city screen to be grainy and difficult to navigate. In this version, that is not an issue. Everything is very clear and it made a huge difference for me.

I was wondering if younger people would be OK with the look of this game. I saw one review on Steam where a kid said that the game is too ugly to play. It definitely has a 90's "rust" look to it which some might find unappealing.

The Pillar of Skulls

The other big upgrade that tuck out was picking up objects. I remember in the original, looting could be a real pain, as it was hard to click on stuff in certain areas. They cleaned that up for the most part in this version.

Getting to the End: I have played this game 3 times. Once when it came out, again about 3 years ago, and now. I have never gotten all the way through this game. I got stuck every single time. It's one of those games where if you don't play it for a few days and forget what you were doing, you're going to be lost and might just give up.

I generally avoid using an FAQ unless it's necessary. I'm pretty sure I will never get through this game without using one.

There was an Incident: In this newest playthrough, something weirder happened. There were a number of possibly connected "incidents" that led me to a wall.

There's this part in the game where githyanki attack you on the streets of Sigil. They keep coming at you, seemingly in endless supply. I decided not to run away. I stood my ground and killed as many as I could.

This became a comical encounter where I was running around and dodging them like a running back while the rest of my party killed them off. For some reason, the githyanki wanted me dead and they mostly left the others alone.

I eventually set up a "funnel" where the githyanki had to get through my allies to get to me and we just mowed them down like a meatgrinder. I'm pretty sure we killed at least 50 githyanki. Their treasure littered the street.

Toward the end of this encounter, some of the githyanki seemed to get glitchy. They'd run up to me and then not attack. They'd just stand there, twitchy. I got the feeling I'd broken something.

Glabrezu

I got stuck shortly after that. I couldn't remember how to get to the next part of the game, which involves the mazes. I went back to this tavern called the Smoldering Corpse. Bored, I saw a table of devils and I thought maybe I'd mess with them and kill them.

So we get into a thing and I cast this spell that sends a swarm of insects at them. This swarm spread to other people in the tavern, and the entire bar came after me. One denizen tore off his skin and revealed himself to be a demon (a glabrezu). He actually helped us kill the devils.

I ended up killing everyone in the bar until it was just the demon and one devil fighting each other. Weirdly, neither seemed able to kill the other. I killed the devil, and talked with the glabrezu, who was evil and menacing on his own. I left, rested, then came back and killed him.

I still needed to use an item to go find Ravel Puzzlewell. I eventually realized that the item I needed to do so was gone from my inventory. I might have accidentally dropped it while collecting the githyanki treasure mountain, but I don't think I would have done that.

The item was just... gone. You need this item to continue. I literally could no progress further, at least, as far as I know.

It's pretty sad that the third time I played this game, I made less progress than the times before.

Coaxmetal, the weapon-maker

Tabletop Use: The thing I love the most about this game is that it is a goldmine for material. If you run a Planescape campaign, you really need to check this out. It is so in keeping with the tone of the setting that I consider it "official" material.

Honestly, a lot of it is better than what's in the books. It is amazing. This game develop the githzerai race far beyond what had been done in the history of D&D. There are tons of worthy NPCs and locations to use. You can steal the quests, you name it. You could literally run an entire campaign based off of the material in this game.

I might see if I can salvage this playthrough. There is no way in hell that I am starting again from the beginning. I am thinking I will play through Torment: Tides of Numenara, and see what that's like.

George's work schedule changed so we weren't able to play for a few weeks. Now we're hopefully back on track. I hate missing so much time.

From '08 to '14 I was running 2-3 sessions a week and I got very used to the grind, so missing sessions like this feels really weird.

I was very rusty tonight, but it was still pretty awesome.

Plans Change: I had planned this session about a month ago. The group was going to go to the Wells of Darkness, utilizing material from an old adventure that is part of the Savage Tide path.

Yesterday, I was sitting there thinking that it just didn't feel like it was time to go the wells. I would have to sort of shoehorn it in to the story. Plus, the realm is cool, but there's not that much to do there. I didn't feel like I would be able to make it fun. I needed to mess with it a bit more.

Just a few hours before game time, I decided to completely change my plans. I wanted to run Bzallin's Blacksphere, a Chris Perkins Dungeon magazine adventure that I'd already laid the foundation for.

Learning How to Prepare: It took me about 6 years to learn how to prepare an adventure in a way that worked for me. I have to read the whole thing and write notes as I do it. That's the only way I can retain it and at the same time, I'm giving myself a "cheat sheet" to refer to when running it.

By going over the module in such a thorough manner, I can look up any spells, items or powers that would have tripped me up during the session.

Way back when I first got this issue of Dungeon, I was recovering from DM burnout. Planning a new campaign, I grabbed a bunch of issues of Dungeon magazine and decided to make a "sandbox". I was going to place all of the adventures on one map, link the stories, and then let the characters roam free.

I thought that if I could prepare all of the adventures in advance, that would give the players an incredible amount of freedom and I think the game would feel really fun.

I didn't actually run this campaign, I just prepared it. Bzallin's Blacksphere was going to be the final adventure. I mined the "mere of dead men" mini-path as the probable main storyline.

This morphed into another campaign. As I was working, I started getting a million idea that I was excited about and I realized that I didn't need these published adventures because it had inspired so much content of my own making.

I proceeded to run a campaign that I was extremely happy with, following up on a lot of tuff from previous campaigns. The god the dwarves died (the dude in the banner of this site - that's his body in the astral sea) and there was this mad gnome in a ruined city who was siphoning the power from magic items to create and fuel an army of clockwork golems. One of the heroes actually fell in the magic furnace and became a clockwork golem himself.

In a way, Bzallin's Blacksphere was the catalyst that finally brought me to a point where I was happy with how I was running games. There's still a million things I wish I could do better, but it gave me the confidence to know that I could run a game that I personally was proud of and I have not suffered any kind of creative burnout since then.

Anyway, Bzallin's Blacksphere involves a pocket dimension/lair inside a cube. The map is literally a cube:

I hastily slapped together a cube map of my own:

I bet a lot of you could make a really cool homemade cube map.

The Party

(Jessie) Bidam - Platinum-Scaled Dragonborn Fighter
(George) Theran - Elf Wizard

Last time, Graz'zt had a temper tantrum. He flew a chaos ship into the Abyssal Undersump and destroyed the portal to Thanatos that the group and their devil allies were using.

Their pit fiend friend proved he was loyal to the heroes and made Iggwilv really angry.

The adventurers had gone to the abyssal realm of Bidam's wife, Bazuuma. Bad guys had installed a sphere of annihilation in the center of this realm, and it was growing.

Worse, two demon lord avatars were there, alone with 13 wizards, intent on killing the adventurers and Bazuuma.

Nocticula

The demon lords:

J'zzlshraak: A beetle-woman demon lord right out of Bzallin's Blacksphere.
Nocticula: The pathfinder demon lord of succubi/assassins/shadows.

Both of them are controlled by Iggwilv the witch queen (she knows their truenames). Iggwilv has set up this assault as a way to please Graz'zt, so he will release her from her prison - she's trapped in his palace.

J'zzlshraak has allies:

Bzallin: A very powerful wizard
12 apprentices, each pretty powerful in their own right.

The group's ally is Bazuuma, a "good" demon lord of positive energy with 20 eyes that she can shoot eyebeams out of.

The Blacksphere: Theran quickly scanned the sphere of annihilation. He could see that it was going to grow slowly, it would take a month to engulf the entire realm. In my game, I say that things "destroyed" by the sphere of annihilation are actually teleported to the plane of Acheron, where in ten minutes' time they turn to iron and become part of the mass of a huge cube.

The Plane of Acheron

This cube is the home of a rust dragon named Coirosis, who the group had a harrowing encounter with long ago.

Let's Jump In: Theran thought that they should... jump into the sphere. Yes, jump into a sphere of annihilation. They'd take a lot of damage, but they'd survive. They'd appear in Acheron and they would have ten minutes to get out of there before they turned to solid iron.

I really didn't expect that. They came extremely close to doing it.. but they remembered that Bazuuma would probably die here alone.

The Deal: Nocticula contacted Theran telepathically. She wanted to make a deal... she'd spare the heroes if they swore to find a way to free her from Iggwilv's control. They agreed. She took a dive.

Bzallin, acting like a teacher, told his students to carefully prepare to cast magic missile. They did. Then he told them to cast it. They did. 36 missiles came hurtling at the heroes and tore into them. They were still up, but it definitely hurt.

Bidam charged J'zzlshraak (one of the most fun names to say out loud in D&D) rolling a natural 20 with the sword of sharpness! He sliced into the demon lord's carapace.

Bazuuma fired off a thick combination eyebeam that hit J'zzlshraak and the clump of wizards.

J'zzlhraak teleported away. The wizards fled through a planar gate. They figured their job was done - the sphere was going to grow and completely obliterate the realm.

You really shouldn't hold it like that

Theran studied the sphere and saw that it was a portal to the quasi-elemental plane of vacuum, an airless void. So.. yeah, jumping in would have been bad.

The sphere had been infused with negative energy. He surmised that there was some magic device that needed to be nullified to reverse the growth effect.

He'd soon learn that Bzallin has a talisman of the sphere that he magically altered. That talisman is the source of the problem.

Sigil: The heroes went home to Sigil and we did a bunch of goofy stuff before they rested:

Baba Yaga's hut marched into deadbook square. Out of it came Burba Larga, Baba Yaga's goofy stepdaughter that my players enjoy. She had come here to tell Zaraga, the hag of deadbook square, that it was almost time for the Gloom Meet, a hag "convention" that I have been planning ever since I wrote the guide to nightmares a few years ago.

The Michael Jackson NPC, Eo Kaplan, was carrying around a pet monkey. In real life, Michael Jackson had a monkey named Bubbles (if you are interested in the 80's, you should check out my favorite book of all time - The Clothes have No Emporer by Paul Slansky). So, since my game is stupid, Eo's monkey was named Nipples.

The heroes were slightly alarmed to see Eo interacting with Baron Flumph (D&D Barron Trump) and his mom, Mel Narnia. Mel seemed to like Eo. Eo seemed to like Baron. Baron looked bored.

Somehow we ended up a doing a thing where Burba Larga tried to do a moonwalk and by gawd she rolled a natural 20. People in the square gathered around and cheered.

I also had the "official" stepdaughters of Baba Yaga make an appearance. Elena the Fair (aka Elena the Mad) and Natasha the Dark. I pointed out that Natasha looks exactly like Iggwilv, and the group freaked and started asking a million questions.

Basically, Natasha is Iggwilv. She grew up and left the hut. The Natasha in the hut now is a magical duplicate created by Elena, who misses her sister.

Then we did some perverted stuff involving golems and lightning, then moved on to Bidam's employees watching him perform lewd acts. It was a long rest well spent.

Fall From Grace as she appeared in Planescape:Torment

Favorite NPC: The next day, the group was surprised to see their good friend Fall From Grace had the day off from her "secret mission" with the Sensates. The group hates that mission. She's definitely their favorite sidekick NPC. They ask me about her chastity bodice every single time we play.

I think part of the reason is because I pronounce it "BOW-diss" rather than "Bod-iss" and they like correcting me on it.

She's a succubus who has never committed an "act of passion". As long as she remains chaste, the Bow Diss grants her special powers.

Fall From Grace agreed to come with them to foil Bzallin's scheme.

The heroes decided that they needed to find Bzallin and top this item that's causing the blacksphere to grow. Theran is a member of the Society of Lumeniferous Aether, and has access to their incredible library.

There, he found a spellbook/journal written by a former apprentice of Bzallin. In it was a sigil sequence that the group could use to teleport to Bzallin's lair. They hired someone to cast a teleportation circle spell, and in they went.

Bzallin's Cube: The cube lair of Bzallin is technically its own demiplane. It is made of smoky marble and the floor is covered in patterned tiles.

The Statues: The heroes appeared in a chamber with five green doors. There were 3 statues of barbed devils. The group immediately was pretty sure those statues would come to life and attack them.

After closer examination, they saw that these were real devils hit with flesh to stone spells.

Let's Begin: The group had to choose one of five exits. We're in room 1. Where did they go? Room 2? Room 3?

Take a look:

Room 30. They skipped the whole dungeon. They started laughing when they saw my face. Jessie pointed out that this was like the time that they skipped that evil carnival from Dead Gods - a huge locale full of encounters that I meticulously prepared and the group had no interest in investigating.

This is also similar how the group demanded that I create a cow lady NPC with 6 udders, and then were completely nonplussed when I introduced her with a special voice and everything.

The Laboratory: The heroes crept up to a door and listened. There were sounds of bubbling, clanking and murmuring. Bidam stealthily cracked the door open to peek in. Rolls a natural 20 on his stealth check! He saw four of the apprentices in a lab with tables made from hovering crystal. The room is LOADED with magic items.

This whole dungeon was completely overflowing with magic items. It's a high level 2e adventure, and in 2e, magic items were necessary for bad guys to be a challenge. My groups ended up with more +1 swords than they knew what to do with.

Mountain of Treasure: I had decided already that I was going to leave all of this treasure in there. We're nearing the end of the campaign, so I thought it would be fun to back a dump truck full of magic items on them and see what happened.

In 5e, thanks to attunement, it's not really that big of a problem. All of the really good items require attunement, and you can only be attuned to 3 of them.

Bidam saw this and the group got really excited about the treasure. They exploded into the room, getting a surprise round. They killed two of the four apprentices (I used Evoker stats from Volo's - deadly!) before they even turned around. One apprentice dropped to his knees and begged to be spared. The other fled into a room and said Bzallin's name.

Almost Done: Yes, the bad guy's room is right there. We're at the end of the dungeon. They thought that was very funny.

This actually isn't a problem because they'll still want to explore the rest of the place to get all of the loot.

I should note that Bzallin has a shadow demon sidekick named Gloomwhisper that I placed elsewhere. He has this thing where he can trap a soul and I didn't really want to get into that.

Keeping the Cube: When preparing this, I was wondering if they would want to "keep" this place as a home for themselves. As written, this place falls apart into nothing once Bzallin i defeated. I know my group, so I decided to see how they felt about the place.. if they liked it, I'd have it remain, at least for a while. It's a very cool location, it feels like a waste to destroy it.

The heroes mercilessly murdered the begging apprentice and crept up to the door. Fall from Grace and Theran got up against the wall on either side, and Bidam busted through the door.

Battle With Bzallin: Beyond it was a study/library. Bzallin and his apprentices were there. They'd cast stoneskin on themselves - a pretty useless spell that I shouldn't have chosen. It gives resistance against non-magic damage. This group does nothing but magic damage.

Bidam sliced at Bzallin twice, but rolled really low and missed both times. The bad guys got off two chain lightning spells, which devastated the group. Bidam also got hit with a finger of death as the bad guys misty stepped around.

Theran spotted the modified talisman of the sphere hanging on Bzallin's neck. He could see that it was magically modified. He knew that the talisman is what was causing the sphere of annihilation to grow.

He cast mage hand, summoning the talisman to his hand. Bzallin was alarmed, to say the least.

Bzallin called forth a cloudkill spell in the main room where Theran was. This dropped him.

Fall From Grace grabbed Theran' body and pulled him into the hallway. Bzallin activated a guards and wards spell, which filled the hallway with mist and arcane-locked all of the doors.

Bidam killed the apprentice. He noticed that striking Bzallin was strange - he did not bleed or get cut. Bzallin dropped his illusory appearance - he was a lich!

Bzallin ignored Bidam, intent on killing Theran and getting his talisman back.

In the hallway, Fall from Grace healed Theran back to consciousness. Dispel magic unlocked the door.

Bidam charged Bzallin and sliced into him, reducing him to dust that vanished in a flash (he's a lich, so he'll reform by his phylactery).

Time to Loot: The heroes were hurt very badly, but they hadn't cast many spells. They have this sack of goodberries that they used to heal themselves to full and went on a looting spree.

They didn't have time to examine everything fully, as this place is full of creatures who probably heard all that lightning and would probably be here soon to see what happened. The loot:

Ohm's Black Box - No idea what this is, will have to google it.
Magemask - Same deal
Black robe of the Archmagi - wow
Wand of Armory: ??
Dagger +1
Ring of Protection
Rod of Energy Draining - This thing is black and was owned by an apprentice named Talica. Look at this cheeky comment in the adventure: "Nothing tickles Talica's fancy like touching someone with her black rod..." That's not an accident. No way.
Vest of Protection
Cloak of protection
Bracers of defense
Many scrolls
2 spellbooks
Wand of lightning bolts
2 ioun stones - One gives you immunity to non-magic weapons, the other allows you to understand every spoken language.
Flask of Curses - if you open it, you are cursed to fail every saving throw. In your life. Forever.
Staff of the Magi
Bone of Slaying - Make a melee attack. Roll a 19 or 20, the opponent must make a saving throw... or die.
The Book of Vile Death - A tome that outlines the process of turning oneself into a lich. It can only be understood by wizards of 17th level or higher. That will be Theran pretty soon. He was quite excited about this.

The players were giddy.

I love the idea of the group getting all these items, then arming a small force of soldiers with them for some special mission or something.

We should finish the cube next week. I'll have to make up a list of all the items in this place to give to them.

I know I'm a Perkins fan and all, but I honestly think this is a classic adventure. If they ever do another Tales from the Yawning Portal type of book, this should be in it.

Episode 59 - Snowflakes in Kronenheim

Lots of pre-game notes!

I made a page for the backstories of the wafflecrew.

I signed up for Holly's patreon. She actually made a D&D adventure, which of course I grabbed and devoured right away.

Devastus: While making that page, I rewatched lots of old episodes. On episode 8, when Strix is meeting with Lady Wachter, Strix learns she is the daughter of a devil. Lady Wachter notes that her "devil bible study group" is reading The Grimoire of the Four Quarters, a book that details an entity known as Devastus, who led one of the "greatest diabolical cults in history." Devastus was torn apart by "heretics" and it sounds like he was broken into four pieces and scattered.

Who is Devastus? Did Chris make him or her or it up? I dug deep into google. The only thing I could find was in Dungeon Magazine #77, edited by one Chris Perkins. There is an adventure dealing with Keraptis, the villain from White Plume Mountain. At the end of it, the group might go to a plane called Devastus. It has some pillars/standing stones (like those found in every published adventure so far).

I have no idea what the deal is with this or why Chris even mentioned it at all. Is Devastus the father of Strix? Is there any connection to the plane of Devastus?

Lots of art and writing this week:

A fan made an awesome Strix gif here.
D&D's official art dude did a sketch of Strix right here.
Jared wrote a story about Diath's final thoughts before being slain. Diath's Story
Holly posted Strix's backstory, which is full of awesome details. She lived in Baba Yaga's hut for a few years!
Holly wrote a story detailing how Strix changed during the 50 year gap.
Here is a story about Strix's time as "The Witch of Luna's Fork".

Last Name of Strix: Holly was asked on twitter: Is Strix's full name "Strix Strazni?" This question refers to the fact that this is the last name of her brother, Izek (the guy with the monster arm from Vallaki).

Her answer: "Not technically. That secret will be revealed soon."

The Waffle Crew

(Anna) Evelyn - Human Paladin of Lathander
(ProJared) Diath - Human Rogue
(Nathan) Paultin - Human Bard
(Holly) Strix - Tiefling Sorcerer
(Dani Hartel) Captain Xandalla - Elf Sorcerer, I think

Strix is driving a vistani wagon, cutting a path through the snow. The heroes have returned to Toril (the Forgotten Realms). Evelyn is sitting next to her.

The snow is high - it is up to the horse's stomach. There is a skeletal horse following them ridden by Sir Godfrey. Also following is Waffles the owlbear, who is now very old.

In the wagon is Diath, Paultin and Simon.

Strix starts humming and Evelyn joins in. They actually sing a song on the stream. It's very good!

We learn that someone named "Father Sunbright" sang the same song.The group is aghast that everyone in Evelyn's life has these ridiculously sunny names.

After 50 years as a lonesome spirit, Evelyn didn't realize that this was real. Now she's snapping out of her stupor.

There are two casks of wine in the wagon, which Paultin begins to drink from. Once the group left Barovia, Paultin felt a weight lifted from his shoulders. The wagon hits a bump and a bunch of stuff stashed in a weird spot in the carriage falls on them.

Among the detritus is an envelope with a seal that bears the emblem of Strahd. In it is a note: Chris posted it on twitter, I hope it is OK for me to repost here:

Chris mentions the narcissist's curse - Strahd cannot love anyone other than himself. I'm sure I'm not the only one here who learned that lesson the hard way.

The waffle crew have emerged in a different section of the realm. They are very far from Citadel Adbarr. The heroes were supposed to help the fake king, but methinks that guy is screwed.

They make camp. Evelyn realizes that Paultin's son is 50-something. They send Simon out for firewood and he comes back an hour later with a single pine cone.

Strix drinks from a flask of goat blood, which she now uses to remain eternally young. Waffles goes into the woods and comes back with blood on her. She hunts for her own food, now.

Strix speculates on the possibility of shoving Simon into the fire. Simon gives her the finger and she returns the gesture.

Here comes a flying ship... It's the airship from Storm King! It is kept aloft by a giant balloon.

It's got a draconic symbol on it and has ski runners on the bottom. It has mounted weapons: A harpoon and a heavy crossbow.

Dani's character is Captain Xandalla, who spots the group. Her crew is dressed in black and wearing masks. Sound like the Cult of the Dragon.

He first officer is Nyzroth. The crew is right out of Storm King's Thunder: Nyzroth, Brassik, Laz, Oriskus, Perella, Tralt, and Zalthia.

Diath realizes that they're a cult. The captain has a pet pseudodragon named Summerwise. The pseudodragon likes Paultin, who pets it.

The captain offers to give them a ride. Offer accepted!

Strix has a bunch of new gear and new clothes. She has three puppets, one that looks like each of the heroes.

Xandalla meets with the group in her cabin and explains that she's on a secret mission to the spine of the world. The cultist crew kind of came with the ship and are unaware of what her true goal is.

Xandalla asks the waffle crew to help her. She's a member of the Harpers, a secret organization of good guys. Her mission is to obtain... the Ring of Winter! It's in the hands of the bad guys. The ring is mentioned in Storm King and apparently is part of Tomb of Annihilation. Maybe Chris is using this to get the group involved in the new storyline.

Captain Xandalla actually mentions Artus Cimber. who is the last person known to have the ring. Artus is the star of the old novel The Ring of Winter. A relative of his is in Storm King.

Dani actually made models of the pseudodragon and the severed hand. Really awesome, especially the hand!

The group agrees to help her. The waffle crew is going to Kronenheim, a lair that not much is known about.

We learn that the year is 1490. The group came back to the time they left.

Chri mentions that Paultin had no drinks for the 50 years he spent as a lonesome spirit.

The heroes are given cabins to sleep in. They'll need to buddy up. The players amusingly declare they don't care who sleeps where. The arrangement ends up like this:

Strix and Diath: Strix sleeps in a circle of salt and screams in her sleep.
Paultin and Evelyn: Waffles squeezes in here, too. The cabin is transformed into a dutch oven.

We learn that the group did take the horse that was pulling the carriage along. Sir Godfrey is on board as well.

The next day, Strix notices that the ship's crew is acting shady.She spots one of them is talking into a sending stone, a device that allows you to communicate with someone else long distance.

The group informs the captain that treachery is afoot. She knows about this and she says that she knows who they're talking to. he doesn't tell the group. I is probably the legendary red dragon, Klauth, who is part of Storm King and appeared in one of the recent Acquisitions Inc games.

It is pointed out that Paultin can use his mandolin to make things invisible. Diath goes invisible to spy on the bad guys. He rolls well. The bad guys communicate this through the stone in draconic, which Diath doesn't speak.

Dath and the heroes go to tell Captain Xandalla, who is below decks talking to Gale, the air elemental that powers the ship. The heroes notice that Xandalla's skin has light scales. Sounds like she is a dragon blooded sorcerer, just like my Eberron character!

Xandalla is quite unimpressed with Diath's attempt to recall and relay draconic words and phrases. My favorite made-up word that Jared comes up with is "Letallica," who fans agree peaked with their fourth album.

The ship has drifted over a canyon of ice. As they look down, they spot a closed-off section. There are giant buildings built into the ice that protrude slightly. This is the frost giant village of Kronenheim.

As the ship descends, the adventurers see that the plaza of the town is full of dead giants and slain giant wolves.

The airship lands. Cautious investigation reveals that these corpses have been in the cold for some time. The snow has obliterated any tracks. All of the lodges have huge open doorways.

The wounds indicate that the corpses were torn apart by something much bigger than them. Sounds like a dragon. Maybe the white dragons they spotted at the start of this season.

Yup.. Nyzroth says he thinks that the giants were killed by a white dragon.

Sir Godfrey is going to watch the ship. Xandalla asks Summerwise to stay on the ship, along with waffles. I kind of wonder if this is a fateful decision.

The heroes enter a building and spot the tracks of a lone humanoid. This person made their way from the rift up into the lodge. The tracks are very recent.

The heroes come to a big hall. There's a massive chair that has skulls piled around it. The tracks lead to another area. The person seems to have climbed up a pillar.

The heroes ascend the pillar, which leads to the rafters. No more tracks. There's a huge horn here. It's 30-40 feet long. Evelyn yells "hello" in the horn. It echoes throughout Kronenheim.

Uh oh... Three voices, giant voices, ask each other what that noise is. A billowing curtain pulls away. It's a 30 foot tall frost giant with three heads! That's where we stop.

Chris says that next week is the finale of season 2.Chris loved this session and that Holly and Evelyn's song was a blessing - he's never ever had anything like that in his game before. Holly says they both were in choir - they wrote the song and the lyrics.

PAX West is coming up. The waffle crew will do a Q&A there.

Holly will be streaming while creating a list of items that Chris made. She's going to make a jar of tongues and Diath's magic sword, Gutter! She actually has already started:

That's the bottom of the hilt - the red gem is in its mouth.

Chris says that the next episode is called the Red, the White and the Crew.

Overall

Very good show! The players seemed to have put a lot of thought into how the 50 year gap affected their characters in a fun way, which was a relief for yours truly.

Dani: Dani was really fun, probably one of my favorite guests so far. She had a cool character and she has a wry sense of humor that added a lot to the game.

Some of the guest stars have trouble adjusting to the group's style and hey, who can blame them? It's hard to hit the ground running with a new group. I think Dani watches the show, so she's totally familiar with everyone and was able to jump right in.

Frost Giants? Chris really threw me with Kronenheim. A white dragon killed the giants? Where is the dragon now? What's the deal with the 3-headed giant? Is it a titan? I feel like I should know some of this, but I am drawing a blank.

Season 3: There will be a few weeks between seasons 2 and 3. They did a great job this season of keeping a weekly schedule, and I think it helped tremendously. Last week felt like a turning point for the show and it has led to a very palpable surge in popularity.

How Long is this Campaign? It was smart of Chris to slow down the leveling. It isn't noticeable, but means that the group will have more episodes to play around with before they hit those heady high levels and max out. Maybe Chris is shooting for 100 episodes total? 125?

He could be thinking of it in term of storylines. The crew could do Tomb of Annihilation and then whatever comes out after it.

I guess we'll see!

You can watch these episodes on Twitch right here.
You can buy Tomb of Annihilation right here.
You can buy Xanathar's Guide to Everything right here.

This week, the adventurers head into the jungle. Half hour episodes are very easy to watch.

The Party

(Joe Manganiello) Arkhan - Dragonborn Paladin of Tiamat
(Deborah Ann Woll) Jamilah - Human Barbarian
(Dylan Sprouse) Tyril Tallguy - Firbolg Druid
(Utkarsh Ambudkar) Hitch - Human Rogue
(Brian Posehn) Calliope - Half-Elf Bard

The heroes are getting equipment for their expedition into the jungle to look for the lost city.

The adventurers head into the jungle. It's hot, there's a thick canopy up above and they hear all sorts of weird animal noises.

Jamilah leads the group to an area near the river. She's wary of flying monkeys (seriously). The group hears a roar in the distance.

The heroes hide, and Tyril turns invisible. A tree falls over. A huge creature with plates on its back comes lumbering by. It has a mace-like tail. Stegosaurus?

It passes by. The heroes set off a plant that releases a spore cloud. The group makes their saves and are unaffected. They notice there are many more of these plants all around them.

Tyril has a great idea. He transforms into a mole and digs a tunnel to get the group out of the area safely. It takes about half an hour.

The group makes their way through the tunnel safely. On the other side, they find the bones of a long-dead explorer. There's loot on this here body!65 gold, some silver, a rusty short sword, a mostly-dissolved suit of armor, and a pair of boots that are untouched.

Calliope casts identify. The boots are magic... boots of elvenkind. Jamilah is wearing a pair just like them.

Calliope keeps the boots and the group continues on for a bit. They've traveled for a few hours, total. Tyril hears a birdlike noise. Arkhan warns them that there are a band of evil aarakockra here that serve a medusa. That's where we stop.

Overall

Nothing wrong with this, I guess. In the teaser, they reveal that the group encounters pterafolk next week, so things should get rolling a bit.

You can get this book right here.

I read Teos Abadia's review of this the other day and it sounds really cool. I bought it both in pdf form and in print. The print one won't be here for a few weeks, but I got the pdf right here, right in my face, right now.

What is the Tarrasque? The Tarrasque is more or less the ultimate D&D monster. There's only one in existence (supposedly). It has been used in adventures in almost every edition, and there's been at least two cults created in different issues of Dragon Magazine that worship it.

It sleeps for years, then it wakes up and goes on a rampage like Godzilla.

This book is 80 pages of material all dedicated to the tarrasque. I'm interested to see what ideas they came up with.

Foreward: There's a forward by Ed Greenwood, who actually wrote the ecology of the Tarrasque in Dragon Magazine years ago. He gives some advice and some amusing stories about old TSR employees using the Tarrasque in their games.

Running the Tarrasque: The author has run the Tarrasque against many groups, so he has a lot of insight as how to best use it. The main thrust is that level 15+ groups can handle the Tarrasque pretty easily. Give it regeneration.

As far as implementing the recovery of hit points, there's a very cool idea on "tiered regeneration". Basically, the more damage the Tarrasque takes, the more points it regenerates each round.
Lots of really good stuff:

Rules for charging, trampling, chucking buildings, etc.
How a bad guy might take control of the Tarrasque for a time. There is a really awesome section on getting swallowed. It explains how you move in there, the AC of the innards, damaging the heart, etc.

Walking the Tightrope: The author has a similar mentality to mine. He talks a lot about holding back, and ways to run the monster in a way that feels menacing without giving away that you are helping the group out.

The thing about that is when the players see that you are holding back, it takes the game down a few notches. Usually the players are too into what's going on to notice, and they're so relieved to have breathing room that they don't think about what the DM just did for them.

When players get to know you, that's where it gets tricky. You don't want to invalidate your own encounter, but in this case it is hard to work around it. It's the Tarrasque! It does a pile of damage in a single round!

I think if you play it like it is a dumb monster (which it is), then you give yourself some leeway. It can have moments of surprising cunning when needed.

One awesome tactic in this book blows my mind involves a zombie and a potion of growth.

This is an incredibly thorough book, the author has really rolled up his sleeves and got into the nitty gritty. He talks about flying PCs, reverse gravity, polymorph, tricks with bags of holding and portable holes. Then he gets to the wishes.

Wish Spells: I have a real thing about wishes. The advice here is to "look for the loopholes." I don't like screwing over players with wishes, it just feels wrong. If wish is fundamentally a game breaker, then it shouldn't be in the game, right? Who is going to cast a spell like that when they know the DM is going to try to twist it?

Worse, people casting wish have earned it. They're really high level. They clawed their way to the top to get what is one of the ultimate spells. Now we're jut going to block it and slap down everything they want to do with it?

Here's a quote about wishes from page 20 of the book: "Of course you can just grant them with the intent they had in mind, but where is the fun in that."

Well... it would be fun for them! The problem is that the spell could turn the encounter into an anticlimax. I'm not sure what the answer is to this, although the wish spell is pretty limited as it is written in the Player's Handbook.

Surprise Material: The author mentions his campaign setting, which sounds really great: "...a homebrew setting where the world is dimensionally locked and teleports gone wrong, spelljammers, or banishment type spells trap people on 'Lockworld.'"

Later, it is suggested that this "Lockworld" was made to keep the Tarrasque imprisoned there.

That is really epic, I am definitely going to use that in my campaign when I can squeeze it in.

There's other really great ideas:

Trolls were actually created to feed the Tarrasque endlessly.
A lich wants to transfer its essence into the Tarrasque
They actually mention the world of Falx from Spelljammer! A traveler comes bearing small creatures - young Tarrasques, which have an incredible appetite and begin growing.

We go over the appearances of the Tarrasque in older editions and products. Some stuff I didn't know:

Rob Kuntz (A co-DM of Gary Gygax's Castle Greyhawk) has made reference that there is a spike on the Tarrasque's tail that is a relic linked to Tharizdun.
In the old D&D comics (which I owned but never read.. they just looked too weird and non-D&D to me), an evil magic user with a staff that held five severed heads of dragons summoned the Tarrasque and the heroes fought it off with.... golem bombs..?

There are a ton of note on the Tarrasque appearing in 3rd party products and video games.

The Machine of Unmaking: We get an adventure for 15th to 20th level characters. Basically, the Tarrasque is on a rampage. The destruction is powering a "machine of unmaking" which is warping the world. The longer the group takes to get to the end of the adventure, the more difficult the final encounter will be.

There's a very handy chart to describe how the unmaking works. In the early stage, when a character roll a 1 on a d20, something they own disassembles into component parts. I love that. At the higher end, the ocean begins to evaporate, forests are unmade... egad.

The adventure seems pretty cool. There are "mini-Tarrasques" normally kept in adamantine cages.

Then we get a pile of handouts. I love the "Inside the Tarrasque" playmat.

Overall

The book is very professional-looking and it is very easy to read. The thing I like the most is that it is fueled by experience and expertise. The author read up everything he could on it and he ran many encounters with the Tarrasque.

I personally would have liked more artwork. Some of the art looked too comic-booky for me. I would have liked om e pictures of the Tarrasque rampaging, fighting a party, that kind of thing. I know that art isn't cheap, though!

I think it is definitely worth buying if you have any interest in using this monster at all.

I love assigning "experts to D&D topics. That's one of the cool things about the game. If you use one official thing in your game a lot, and you read everything there is about and expand on it, you are pretty much the world's authority on that thing.

D&D is so vast that there's a billion monsters, items, and NPCs to flesh out. While writing for this blog, I've stumbled upon a few such experts:

Matthew Hargenrader: Ioun Stones
John Arcadian: The Tarrasque
Derek Myers: The Xanathar
Todd Stewart: Shemeshka the Marauder

Looking forward to finding more!

Last night, we continued going through an old Chris Perkins adventure from Dungeon Magazine called Bzallin's Blacksphere. I honestly think that this is an adventure everyone should know about. There is so much to pull out of it to use, especially the 12 apprentices. Each and every apprentice is unique and has an interesting story. Many of them make for great villains for any campaign.

The one problem I have with this adventure is that it is incredibly dense. It's a very intimidating wall of text that I have a lot of trouble wading into and making sense of. I think that's more a problem local to my brain than most of you.

I decided to get a pixel art gif of Bidam and Theran. Here's Bidam so far:

This adventure is loaded with treasure! Dozens of magic items and over 100,000 gp in gold, gems, and lewt. I converted a lot of old, obscure items like:

Ohm's Black Box: You can trap someone in this box. Inside, a custom, luxurious realm is created. There is no escape except for a wish spell. Once 5 days have passed, the prisoner is magically released.
Magemask: This is a half-mask with a crystal eye lens that gives you the ability to see invisible, spot hidden glyphs, etc.
Ioun Stones: This thing is loaded with ioun stones. My favorite is one that can absorb 5th to 8th level spells. That is very handy for this group.

The heroes had defeated the lich named Bzallin. They'd taken his talisman of the sphere, which is the source of the growing sphere of annihilation in their friend's abyssal realm.

Handing Out Treasure: I had made index cards for the magic items, so I could just hand them over instead of wasting time at the table telling the players what they did and them writing it down and inevitably asking question about it.

One of Bzallin's items is a black robe of the archmagi. In all the time I've played D&D, I don't think I've ever seen this item used. I didn't even know what it did! They come in different colors. A black robe can only be attuned to by evil creatures. A white one is only for good creatures. The robe gives a +2 to your spell attack bonus and some other stuff.

He also got a staff of the magi, which can absorb spells and can cast 50 levels worth of spells. It's an amazing item.

The Summoning Room

Hordelings

The heroes listened at a door and opened it a crack to peer in. Stealth check... natural 20! They saw a vrock guarding a spellcaster who had summon a 10 foot tall hunchbacked fiend with two 12 foot (?!) long tentacle arms and two arms that end in pincers. It's a hordeling, another monster I have never used outside of an old campaign where each session, the D&D heroes went to another RPG - Marvel, Shadowrun, etc. It might sound dumb, but that campaign really clicked.

Theran dropped a fireball in here, with the intent of melting the gold paint that comprised the boundary of the summoning circle. The hordeling immediately lashed out, grabbing a vrock and throttling it (I rolled a natural 20). I rolled a lot of 20's tonight. I had forgotten my dice, so I was using Jessie's white dice and that white d20 is like a critical hit factory.

The caster woman fled to another room to get reinforcements. The reinforcements:

A githzerai caster wearing a girdle. She had been shunned by her people for her evil nature.
A male caster who had an accident with a polymorph spell that warped half of his body into the form of a nabassu (demonic gargoyle).
6 zombie assistants.

The heroes dropped that fireball in there, shut the door, and hid.

The zombies opened the door. Fall From Grace turned them. The group was hit with a chain lightning spell that did a pile of damage.

The hordeling killed the vrock, and the other two casters killed the hordeling.

Bidam and Fall From Grace charged into the room and killed the main caster I gave the apprentices the stats of an evoker from Volo's. They only have 66 hit points but they have incredibly powerful spells (up to 6th level!).

Theran's spells got counterspelled and Bidam and Fall From Grace chopped up the half-gargoyle. The githzerai pleaded with the group to let her leave.. I dropped a whole bunch of githzerai-talk like "There cannot be two skies" and saying "know" a lot. She was able to flee the scene as the heroes killed the gargoyle guy.

Treasures: They grabbed a massive pile of loot, including four ioun stones. The spellcaster's spellbook included a ritual that could summon hordelings. Theran had been trained in summoning when he was an apprentice of Iggwilv, so I'm interested to see what he does with this. Every hordeling is completely different. I should read up on them some more.

Yugoloths: I should note that this adventure has a lot of yugoloths in it. I have never liked yugoloths and I replace them with demons or devils whenever I can. If you're not familiar, it goes like this:

Devils are lawful evil
Demons are chaotic evil
Yugoloths (also known as "daemons") are neutral evil

When I was younger, I found this to be very confusing. There were too many fiends to wrap my head around. I've always felt that it is simpler to focus on demons and devils.

The Prisoner: The next room contained a prison. There were two prisoners: A troll with 6 arms and two heads, and Narkel, an apprentice who tried to steal a magic staff from Bzallin.

In the adventure, it says that Narkel will betray the group if they let her out. She's chaotic evil. The way things played out, Fall From Grace decided to try to teach her how to be good. I used some ability checks to see if Fall From Grace was convincing.

In the beginning, Narkel was not buying it. As the session wore on, Narkel warmed up to them. The heroes were extremely accommodating and nice to her, and she weirdly fit in well. Theran likes the idea of making her one of his apprentices, although she's just about as powerful as he is, at least in terms of what spells they can cast.

Narkel knows the layout of this place. She excitedly told the heroes that they should loot the treasury! This treasury is LOADED with stuff.

The players were extremely fired up about this idea. They really like this adventure and are getting a big kick out of looting piles and piles of magic items.

No Collapse: In the adventure, this lair is supposed to fall apart very shortly after Bzallin dies. This place is a small dimension in the shape of a cube. I figured my players might want to "keep" it so I didn't have it disintegrate. They started talking about claiming it as their home, so it looks like we are headed in that direction.

The group looted a lab and scored formulas for making potions: invisibility, frost giant strength, etc.

The group busted in on an apprentice named Pentriss, who was talking in a magic mirror with a demon, trying to convince it to join the cause of Bzallin and the demon lord J'zzalshrak in the Blood War.

Narkel hates this woman and busted into the room, cursing her out, which amused the group greatly. Poor Pentriss didn't know what hit her. Her little dretch minions were reduced to stink clouds by Theran's magic missiles.

Theran was really interested in the mirror. It is magic item that allows you to contact anyone on any plane, more or less. I'll rule it needs to be someone the user has met. Still... a very fun magic item. It's really big and really fragile. The group was afraid to move it, and they became more certain that this place was going to be theirs.

The group went into a bedroom (the two hag cooks sleep here). It was unoccupied. The secret entrance to the treasury is here. Narkel had never been in the treasury and didn't know what traps or monsters might be in there.

The Treasury: After much cautious prodding and peeking, the group cracked open the secret door and saw... a room that was empty save for a massive ball of prismatic light. It's a prismatic sphere, an old spell thing that lashes out and does all sorts of bad stuff to you.

The deal here is that the sphere must be destroyed. When that happens, the treasure appears in the room.

The group had obtained a scroll of antilife shell. Theran decided to try to cast it. It's high level, so he had to make a roll. He succeeded, but just barely.

The shell was centered on him. All of his magic items became mundane and no spells could be cast. He walked into the room and to his relief, the sphere vanished and the items appeared!

The heroes got to looting. Here's the highlights:

The Libram of Silver Magic: A five foot tall book. In old editions, when you read it, you gain XP. I changed it so that you gain 2 points of intelligence.
The Dread Wand of Orcus: Seriously! This is a replica/facsimile of the wand. It can animate and control undead. It can also cast finger of death. This plays right into Bidam's story. He has a dark pact with Orcus, and is expected to claim Orcus's former abyssal realm for his own.
Iron Flask: This item can trap one creature. When you release the prisoner, they are friendly to you and obey your commands for one hour.
Cubic Gate: Yup, the group now has two cubic gates.

The cubic gate can take you to 6 locations:

The Material Plane: Bzallin's home world - Tal'Dorei, the Critical Role setting.
The Abyss: J'zzlshrak's Realm
The Nine Hells
Limbo
Elysium
The Elemental Plane of Water

The group can go to Tal'Dorei, where Bzallin's home and phylactery is! The players say that they plan on doing this. I like the idea of them going to each plane to learn of Bzallin's schemes and connections. He's on the side of demons, yet he can go to the Nine Hells. Why? What is he doing there?

The group shook the flask. They felt a soft thunking noise from inside. Someone was in it! The group excitedly opened it.

The Mysterious Iliara: Out of the flask came a 5 foot tall asian woman with prismatic-colored hair, black eyes, and a huge sword that left a trail of necrotic energy. Her name was Iliara and she was from the Elemental Chaos.

Fall From Grace did not sense evil from her. Iliara excitedly started talking and then suddenly recognized the group. She glared at Theran and said, "Renbuu changed you! You imprisoned a slaad!"

This is a reference to an event that happened a long time ago when the group went into the plane of limbo. Theran busted open the head of a slaad, pulled out the gem inside and used that gem to control the slaad. Slaads are beings of pure chaos, and being controlled in this manner enrages them.

Shortly after that, the heroes met a slaad lord named Renbuu, a guy who goes around changing black dragons into gold dragons and stuff like that. Renbuu was deeply offended that Theran had come before him with a slaad slave and demanded Theran release the slaad. Theran refused!

Renbuu flipped out and changed Theran from a regular elf to a drow. In a later session, he turned Theran's skin red and slipped him a golden ball, a "prank" that will come into play soon.

Iliara was perturbed - she was now under the control of Bidam and Theran and she was not thrilled about it. The power of the flask made her friendly and obedient.

The group got really curious about her and kept asking her what she was and how she knew Theran. Iliara was evasive and crazy and revealed that she'd seen Theran driving his modron machine through Limbo way, wayyy back in the great modron march.

This made the heroes even more curious. I was doing a stupid voice for her and the group really got a kick out of her. I realized that this NPC was really clicking. The group was fascinated with her and really wanted to figure her out.

In the adventure, she's supposed to turn against the group. In my campaign, even the bad guys are kind of nice and I think in the case of both Narkel and Iliara, it's more interesting to just play it out and not commit to them being traitors. Let's let the group's treatment of them determine their reaction.

That's where we had to stop.

So here's the deal. Iliara is a death slaad. In the adventure, it says that the death slaad takes the form of Iliara to deceive the group.

I made up her physical appearance based on Jessie's love of korean pop culture. She really likes this guy "G. Dragon" and a group whose name translates to "Bulletproof Boy Scouts", which I find extremely amusing. You can pay to go to their concert and give them a "high touch", which is not a sensual caress but rather a great new name for a high five.

In older editions, there are only a 4-6 death slaads in existence. They are the most powerful slaads aside from the slaad lords.

Ygorl

Judging by what I am seeing from my old guide to slaads, it looks like most death slaads directly serve Ygorl, lord of entropy, the most prominent slaad lord. Ygorl is the "Bringer of Endings" and he rides a brass dragon infused with chaos energy.

Here are the "official" death slaads in D&D lore that I know of:

Sorel (Dragon Magazine #221): Sorel is being groomed by Ygorl to become a new slaad lord.
Thurupl the Kicker (Planes of Chaos): Thurupl leads a gang of blue slaads called The Quick Tongue. They hang out at the spawning stone in Limbo.
Skirnex, Voice of Ygorl (Plane Below): Skirnex is a three-armed death slaad, a pseudo-priest touched by the Far Realm. Skirnex speaks for Ygorl.
Vinakr Abudn (Plane Below): A black slaad who meditates near the Great Red Tempest of Limbo. Vinakr is trying to find a way to tear down the walls of creation.
Iliara (Dungeon Magazine #64): It just says that she's afraid of Bzallin, not sure what her full story is.

Next time, the group will clear out Bzallin's lair, then probably rest in Sigil, an then go hunting for Bzallin's phylactery. Methinks that phylactery article in Dragon Plus will be extremely useful.

Episode 60 - The Red, the White, and the Crew

There were a few interesting tweets from Chris Perkins leading up to this episode:

"Remember that D&D live game after the battle vs. Isohedrus when Viari threw a pile of ?? at a big red dragon to appease it? I do."

"Well, in next week's season finale of #DiceCameraAction, I finally get to pay off that "payoff.""

Then there was a question and answer:
"So the blood sacrifice Strahd made to the Dark Powers was....The Waffle Crew???"

"Well, they *do* represent all that is good in the multiverse, so yeah."

The Waffle Crew

(Anna) Evelyn - Human Paladin of Lathander
(ProJared) Diath - Human Rogue
(Nathan) Paultin - Human Bard
(Holly) Strix - Tiefling Sorcerer
(Dani Hartel) Captain Xandalla - Elf Sorcerer, I think

Last time, the group made friends with Captain Xandalla and they went to find the legendary ring of winter. They ended up in a frost giant village called Kronenheim in a glacial rift, where the frost giants had been killed by one or more dragons. Evelyn blew a giant alpine horn, and alerted a massive three-headed giant - an everlasting one from Volo's Guide to Monsters.

The giant charges across the room and Xandalla takes flight. Paultin summons the hut and takes refuge inside. Paultin and the dragon cultist crew are in it together, safe.

Diath runs up, draws Gutter and hacks into the giant's ankle. Chris reminds him he gets his sneak attack damage and Jared makes a funny/sleazy cackle.

Xandalla casts fireball and does 42 points to the everlasting one. The group is very pleased with this. Strix is dismayed.. she never gets applause for her spells.

Paultin is dismayed when he notices that the cultists are quietly discussing slitting his throat.

Xandalla sees that the giant is regenerating. The giant rages and does 56 points to Xandalla, who is very bloody but still standing. Some of her blood pours onto the dome of the magical hut. Paultin is even more alarmed.

Evelyn blinds one of the three heads with blinding smite. Strix polymorphs the giant into a three-headed bantam chicken. What the hell is a bantam chicken? I googled it. They are small chickens.

Everybody, including Chris, is really excited today, sort of giddy.

Diath grabs the chicken.

From the back of the hall comes a giant vulture made of ice ridden by a human in a winter parka. Artus Cimber? Yup! Xandalla recognizes him. That's the guy with the ring of winter from this novel.

Xandalla tells the group that he has the ring. Paultin really wants the ring so that he can create his own ice vulture.

The cultists leave the hut, run up and destroy the vulture. Artus plop to the ground.

Description of Artus Cimber: He is middle-aged, athletic, handsome man with a mustache and beard. He has hair down to his shoulders and wears leather armor. He's got gloves on, probably covering the ring on his finger. The chat declares that Artus Cimber is Nicholas Cage.

Evelyn runs over to him and tells him to stay down "in the name of Lathander."

Paultin chugs on over. He tries to convince Artus to give him the ring, saying "Ice bird please." Artus warns him that the ring will control one who is weak of mind. It is evil.

Paultin casts levitate on him. It works! Artus is hovering.

Strix is on her broom and now she has the chicken. She sticks it in one of the cages up near the ceiling.

Diath watches the cultists for a moment. He doesn't trust them. He spots a white dragon in the sky! Eep.. it's an old dragon. It might be the same dragon at the ranger's lodge. It is. It's Isohedrus, the dragon that Acquisitions Inc fought on one of the last live shows.

Xandalla tells Paultin to get the sending stone from the cultists - the cultists have been using it to talk to the red dragon, Klauth, who was also on the Acquisitions Inc. show.

The cultists turn against their captain. Nyzroth chucks daggers at Xandalla, but she uses a shield spell to block them. Dani is very sharp and she has a real good grasp on her character.

The dragon approaches! Frightful presence kicks in. Evelyn and Paultin fail their saves. Wait... Evelyn uses inspiration. She's been rolling bad today. Re-roll... she rolls an 18. She makes her save! Chris decides to give Paultin advantage because he's drunk. Nate rolls a natural 20.

Strix kills all but two of the cultists in a fiery explosion.

Nyzroth is still up and so is the woman with the stone. She's grappling Evelyn. Diath runs up and yoinks the stone with an earth-shattering 31 on a sleight of hand check. Wow.

The dragon claws and bites Artus, who is bloodied. I assume his mullet is still intact. Didn't Nicholas Cage go to jail in The Rock just because he didn't walk away from some dudes who were saying mean things about his wife? That was dumb, Artus. Although, to be fair, he saved the world from a plane full of serial killers.

The dragon hisses to the heroes, "This is between him and me." The group is accepting of this.

Xandalla knows this might be Isohedrus, a dragon that lives in a crashed icy citadel.

Xandalla tries to polymorph Isohedrus into a sea cucumber. It makes its save.

Artus uses a power called flesh to ice. If the dragon fails three saves, it will be an ice statue. Does it have legendary resistance? Chris explains after the show that the dragon used up its 3 legendary resistances fighting the giants.

Artus starts running for the airship. The female cultist runs over to Xandalla and hits her twice, once with a critical hit, dropping her to exactly 0 hit points.

Evelyn drops the cultist with Treebane. Nyzroth is the only cultist left. Strix fireballs Nyzroth, shaping it around Diath, and Nyzroth is very dead.

The dragon breathes ice and hits Diath. He takes 54 damage and he's down. Evelyn uses lay on hands and Diath springs back to life. Evelyn takes back the Heart of Spinelli, her flaming sword that he had been holding for her.

The flesh to ice spell is successful. The dragon turns into an ice sculpture. Evelyn heals Xandalla and gives her the stone. Evelyn wants to use her fire sword to try to melt the statue. She writes an "E" for "Evelyn" in it.

Xandalla hears a voice through the sending stone. It says, "Report." Xandalla says that the cultists are dead. Klauth says, "I'll come to you in three days."

Diath notices that Strix is gone and he is extremely concerned.

We learn that while the group was mopping up the bad guys, Strix had heard somebody talking over her shoulder. Someone was peaking arcane words - an infernal incantation. She's gone. Sound likes she just went to hell?!

Diath grabs Xandalla and demands to know what she did.

Heyyy... he's going to have to use Gutter to find out what happened! Right?

The group gets on the ship, ready to search the area for Strix. Jared doesn't waste time putting a key in Gutter. I blow an air horn in celebration.

Paultin feels an itch. He scratches himself and a piece of his neck comes off. That's where we stop!

Sounds like Paultin got himself a death curse, bah gawd.

Chris says that this is the last show of season 2. Season 3 begins on September 19th. Apparently there are a bunch of announcements that can't be made yet. I know there were hints on twitter of some kind of crossover with Acquisitions Inc., which would be awesome.

Overall

Apparently something was announced an hour after the show ended. I'm writing this a few hours after, so let's go see. Here it is!

Holly is going to be on the next Acquisitions, Inc live show! Wow. They've got art and everything. Jim Darkmagic, Omin Dran, Viari, and Strix.

If you want to see where they left off in the Acq Inc game, I have a summary of their last live show here.

On that show, the heroes learned that the soul of Omin's sister is in the soulmonger. The group will need to defeat the.. "Sewn sisters"? And their child?

Strix was pulled away by an infernal entity? Infernal usually means hell, aka devils. Strix is half devil. Maybe her devil parent took her?

Thinking about it - devils would be angry about the soulmonger. Devils traffic in souls, and Acererak is likely stealing souls that should be going to hell.

Who could Strix's father be? If it's an archdevil, the choices are:

Dispater: The paranoid guy who rules the city of Dis
Mammon: The greedy guy
Belial: The sleazy guy
Levistus: The dude frozen in a glacier
Baalzebul: The slug guy
Mephistopheles: The cunning schemer
Asmodeus: Lord of Hell

Asmodeus is the most dramatic choice. That would make Strix related to Glasya, who is extremely dangerous and would want Strix dead. If they're not related, maybe he wants Strix to be his bride. His wife was killed by his daughter, so there's a ruby-studded diadem worth 50,000 gp up for the lucky gal who is ready to relocate to the bottom of the lowest crack in Nessus.

Mephistopheles would be a cool option, too. There is plenty of room for Chris to flesh him out. I'd love to see more info on his wife, Balphegor.

I wrote a really long guide to the archdevils on my blog here.

Aha.. a podcast went up! There's a whole podcast session of Acquisitions Inc with Holly up right now. I'll write that up, hopefully, tomorrow. Sounds like it explains some of Strix's origin!

Dani: I think Dani is one of my favorite guests so far. She's very comfortable and "real". She feels like your friend, or someone you'd want to be friends with.

Season 2 Thoughts: Thinking about this season as a whole, I'm not sure how to sum it up. I love that they kept to a regular schedule, and I personally like the lessened emphasis on guest stars.

The popularity of the show grew greatly, especially in the past few weeks. It very much feels like something that will be around for the long haul.

There were two very significant episodes this season that were probably the highlights of the series so far. The whole campaign definitely has an emotional heft to it that a lot of D&D campaigns don't have. I think a lot of that is due to the enthusiasm of the players. They love playing the game, and that makes it very fun to watch.

It was interesting to watch Chris kind of dance around, mixing concepts from the published adventures. There is something so relieving about watching him run games and doing things that you've done or would like to do. He's a DM just like us! He leans toward whatever takes hold with the players and works in stuff that he thinks will be cool.

The show is very good and I think season 3 is going to be a very big deal!

You can listen to this show right here.

Season 2 of Dice, Camera, Action just ended, and we got ourselves a surprise! A special podcast D&D game where one of the heroes of DCA joins the Acquisitions Inc team.

This is a hilarious show and you should definitely check it out.

At the end of Dice, Camera, Action episode 60, Strix disappeared, drawn away by some kind of infernal force. In this show, we find out where she went and learn more about her mysterious origin.

The Party

(Jerry) Omin Dran - Half-Elf Cleric
(Mike) Jim Darkmagic - Human Wizard
(Patrick) Viari - Human Rogue
(Holly) Strix - Tiefling Sorcerer

Omin Dran is flying the airship. He drops K'thriss, who was a guest star in the last Acquisitions, Inc. show, off in the Dessarin Valley. He flies to Waterdeep and leaves Morgaen there.

The group needs to pick up some interns for a new mission. We get into a discussion as to whether the word "mook" is racist.

Omin picks up some interns in a dismissive manner. I think the group makes these people up on the spot. The interns:

"Hell's Adjacent" Hibner: A tiefling that doesn't sleep much.
Tweed Barsum: A gnome.
Alandria Primp: An acolyte in her early days of wizard training.
Scubby Hornswallow: A scruffy forest gnome with small, rough hands.

Viari is suffering from the death curse, apparently caused by the incident with the apocalypse dagger. Jim has sores on his body that he is covering with powder, sunglasses and a wig. The wig is of black, luxurious curly black hair. Jim is strutting around, looking good.

Omin has been buying stuff, like how some companies buy medical debt. One such acquisition is an infernal contract, which is a binding agreement linking a soul to the owner.

Wow. We learn a lot about Strix! This is what Omin learned: The Skizzixes were a human family from Sigil that feared annihilation from their rivals. They made a pact with Asmodeus to become tieflings and they were also awarded vassals - devils to serve as bodyguards and assistants.

This contract that Omin has lets you call forth the family's most powerful member: Strix!

This representative of the infernal house is bound to do as Omin commands.

Strix Speculation: I don't even know where to start with that. Strix appeared in Sigil as a child with writing in green on her arm that spelled out "Strix" as her name. People assumed that was her name. Is it possible that it actually said "Skizzix?"

Who were her family's rivals? Was it one of the factions of Sigil? Why did her family turn to Asmodeus? What's the link to the Wachters?

Was the enemy of the Skizzixes wiped out? If not, they would have come after Strix when she was dropped off in Sigil. Maybe they didn't know she had come back. Maybe that's who sent the shadow monster after her... but then, the shadow monster didn't kill her when it had the chance.

Summoning Strix: Anyway. Omin uses the contract to summon her. A pentagram forms and Strix appears in a flash. She's got her staff in one hand and her flying broom in the other.

Strix freaks out for a second. Jim tries to figure out her deal with an insight check. He rolls a 1. He declares that she is a dumpster witch, or maybe a trash witch.

Strix can see that Jim is suffering from the death curse, the same curse that She and Diath had been suffering from.

Omin explains to Strix that her family is in league with devils. Omin was able to buy her contract for a cool 10 gold. Wait.. 9 and change. Strix is insulted. Is there a name on that contract? Who signed it?

Jim has been trying to shake off the death curse by juicing. Strix and the Acquisitions Inc. team get to know each other and compare robots. The waffle crew has a kid-killing robot. Acq, Inc. has fraternized with beer robots.

Omin informs Strix that once this mission is done, he promises not to summon her again unless he feels like it. He might summon her for a snail-eating competition, something like that.

Traveling to Chult: The group flies to Chult, a trip that takes 10 days. Strix sometimes chucks hand-written notes over the side of the ship, hoping to make contact her friends. Jim sees this and tries to be all smooth, offering her a dove. Strix loves birds. She nonchalantly thanks him.

The curse is slowly killing Jim. His max hit points drop by 10. He's down to 28. Yikes.

As they get close to Port Nyanzaru, they see some winged gnashers and they spot a massive turtle in the water.

A creature flies up to their ship. It is a friendly half-dragon with gold scales holding a staff. He is Zindar the Quartermaster.

Jim is very into dragon loving, it is one of his fetishes. People and polymorphed dragons really tickle his fancy.

Omin tells Zindar that they need to find the soulmonger, but Zindar knows nothing. He's a nice guy.

Zindar explains that normal sailing ships pay a dragon turtle in gold and gems for safe passage to the bay. There are pirates out there causing problems for the city, and they have a secret cove. Omin really wants to take down the pirates once the death curse is dealt with.

Skills Assessment: The group asks Strix how she is in combat. She talks about shaping her fireball spells and Jim declares that it is impossible to do such a thing.

Jim realizes that she's a sorcerer. Jim says that she is a pervert. Viari can't believe that Jim is calling her a pervert - he assumes she must be into really freaky stuff for Jim to say such a thing.

The group wants to see what Strix can do. Viari shoves Hibner over the side, and he begins falling toward the ocean below. Strix flies on her broom and tries to grab him. She rolls a 9. His shirt rips and he keeps falling. She tries to polymorph him into a bat. He rolls a save... natural 20. Hibner falls into the water.

Strix has flashbacks to when she accidentally killed Ireena. Viari dives in and they find Hibner in the water, alive and unconscious. Strix polymorphs him into a bat. They bring him on the ship and give him bat CPR.

Strix shuts off the polymorph spell. Hibner gets up and punches Viari in the nuts. Omin authorizes it.

Jim is not impressed with her magic, and he notices that people in the harbor are watching this spectacle. Viari takes off his shirt off, because it is so hot out.

We get a description that includes hairy barrels... or Harry Barrels, the dockmaster. This should definitely be an NPC.

The group lands and heads into Port Nyanzaru, a jungle city where dinosaurs are beasts of burden.

There's a really nice boat with a bright blue sail. The crew waves in a friendly manner. Omin sends them fruit baskets. "A galleon of seamen," Viari notes. Truly exquisite wordplay on this podcast.

Port Nyanzaru: The heroes heads toward Kaya's House of Repose in a nicer part of the city.

A little kid offers her candy. Strix shakes the kid and more candy falls out. Jim's makeup is running.. He has a purple silk parasol for protection against harmful UV rays.

Viari wants to buy some clothes to fit in. He gets a turban and billowing Errol Flynn-style clothing. A long time ago, I read Errol Flynn's autobiography. He once got stabbed and had to run through the streets holding his guts in. He had a big, hairy friend named Dr. Mahamoti that I have based many NPCs on. Amazing book!

Make a Wish Foundation Dinosaur: Ankylosaurs are pulling a ship into a berth. Jim walks up to one of them and puts a hand on it, Jurassic Park style. His handlers poke him with 10 foot poles.

Jim wants to buy one. They go check out dinosaurs for sale. They learn that the city holds dinosaur races. Omin thinks Jim doesn't have much time left, and maybe this would be nice for him.

Jim acts sicker and claims that dinosaur racing might be something he needs.

The group agrees that a triceratops is the way to go. They want to raise dinosaurs. Strix doesn't.. wait.. her infernal contract kicks in. She wants to be pit crew for the races.

Viari feels sympathy for Strix, knowing what it's like to be an intern. He buys her a custom witch hat. It's light and has pouches. Strix cries and says how nice it was. Viari wants a hug. Strix doesn't do hugs. She gives him a weird hand touch.

Jim's makeup is running. He rudely tells Strix that he can give her makeup tips. She casts alter self to look like him and insults him. Jim runs away, weeping, saying that they need to get rid of this trash witch.

The Merchant Prince: They meet with a merchant prince to discuss getting in on the dinosaur races.

The prince offers them pistachio nuts and the group is all over it, Strix especially. The prince learns that Strix beat the death curse and wants to hear about it over dinner. She panics, and then is relieved when the whole group is invited.

Jim, resentful of Strix, says she's lying about the cure, and also, she can't cast any good spells. Strix quietly sets the bottom of his robes on fire. He snaps his fingers and puts the fire out. He threatens to set her on fire. Someone points out that she's a tiefling - fire doesn't bother her all that much.

Jim quietly says to Omin, "I'm going to roast this pervert." I died.

The Meeting: Later, the group is going to meet with the prince. They're in a tavern. A woman gives Jim a harlequin mask. "Prince Wakanga offers you this gift. A magic item given to him from a friend long ago. It will enhance your natural beauty."

Jim puts it on and it creates an illusion that makes Jim as handsome as he's ever been.

The prince meet with the heroes. Jim is very annoyed that the merchant prince is paying attention to Strix. He finds a picture of himself in the place and offers to autograph it. Nobody's impressed.

Jim "accidentally" spills wine on Strix, but she doesn't notice because she's generally a pretty filthy person. She rings it out and drinks it.

Viari like this prince and gives him a gift. He returns the favor and gives them a spellbook. Both Jim and Strix lunge for it. They roll off to see who is faster. Jim wins. Strix starts crying.

There's these weird rugs with mouths on them. Jim "accidentally" knocks her into one. She fails her save. It's a rug of smothering! It engulfs her.

Omin scolds Jim. Strix escapes it by turning into a cloud. Jim goes: "gross."

The Library: The group goes to the prince's home and checks out his library while they wait for him to be ready. They decide to read some books. Chris wants the group to roll percentile to see what book they find. Seems like Chris has a list, maybe this is something right out of the Tomb adventure. Viari rolls a 100! Wow.

The group learns a ton of lore. They learn about Ubtao, a god who lived among the people, the father of Chult. The Chultans became so warlike with each other that Ubtao left Chult. He wanted them to solve their problems themselves. Ubtao loved mazes and it is said that if you trace a path through one of his mazes, you earn his favor.

The group also learns that there are rumors of a portal to the underworld in the mountains. Lurking there is Dendar the night serpent, who will devour the sun if she is released. Dendar is a god of the yuan-ti.

Bad Guys: As the group reads, 4 assassins creep into the room. They're wearing black and they have wavy daggers. Omin spots them.

Omin is very interested to see Strix's capabilities. Viari warns her - no fireballs in the library. She does it anyway and she shapes the fireball so that it doesn't harm the group or the books. She looks at Jim while she does it.

Jim is not happy.

The assassins are snake people. One tries to charm them. Jim casts magic missile. Strix heckles him for using a 1st level spell.

The heroes pummel the assassins. Viari likes the snake lady assassin. She flees the scene. That's where we stop!

Overall

I thought this show was hilarious! Strix vs. Jim is top notch. This podcast was so fun and laid back, definitely makes me want more.

This story will pick up at PAX West, which takes place in a few weeks.

Some crazy stuff happened tonight!

Tonight I wanted to finish Bzallin's Blacksphere (a classic Perkins adventure), do a little fun stuff in Sigil, and then check out the planar locations that their new cubic gate is attuned to.

The group had gotten an altered talisman of the sphere (a device that let you control a sphere of annihilation, moving it around and putting holes in people). Bzallin's talisman:

Its' made of platinum and it has a black gem in the center.
It can cast the identify spell.
With this talisman, you don't need to make arcana checks to control a sphere!
If you have an aura of negative energy (basically, if you're undead), the sphere you are attuned to will slowly grow in size.

The "no arcana checks" trait is a huge deal. A while back, Theran was trying to move a sphere around while Iggwilv was beating up his friends and he failed every single check. The whole encounter! He has a real hard time moving this thing.

Also, a few sessions ago, Iggwilv stole Theran's talisman of the sphere. Now he has a new, souped-up talisman to replace it. It sets up a really epic potential sphere vs sphere battle.

The NPCs changed everything in this session. They are:

Narkel: One of Bzallin's assistants who joined the group.
Fall From Grace: The succubus paladin who wears a chastity bodice. As long as she remains pure, she is a paladin. Legend has it that her kiss will kill you in one shot.
Iliara: A short asian woman with prismatic hair and shiny black eyes who had been trapped in an iron flask. She knows a lot about Limbo. The group has no idea what her deal is, but they like her. The truth is that she's a black slaad, a very powerful entity.

Black Slaad: AC 18 HP 170 +9/+9/+9 12 dmg + 7 necrotic dmg!
She can go invisible at will. She can cast fly, plane shift and cloudkill.

The Party

(Jessie) Bidam - Platinum-Scaled Dragonborn Fighter
(George) Theran - Elf Wizard

The heroes had just looted the treasury. Bidam had found a replica of the wand of Orcus! Bidam had made a pact with the vestige of Orcus and the vestiges that only he could see gestured wildly for him to take it. This wand can cast a "death" spell.

Theran GIF-in-progress

Bidam has long been aware that Orcus wants to transform him into an undead abomination known as a devourer. In my head, I decided that if Bidam used that death spell, he would transform into a devourer right on the spot.

The group began to explore the rest of the cube. One of the apprentices had fled from the group last session. She alerted the rest of the denizens that Bzallin was slain and the invaders were tearing through the place.

Some apprentices fled the cube. The rest banded together for a final assault.

The group came upon a demon named Vzarro eating a meal. He just kept eating. The apprentices made their move.

Four housecats tried to creep into the room unnoticed, but the group made some high perception checks. These cats each had a collar that allowed them to polymorph. They weren't cats.. they were solamiths! My favorite D&D monster.

Solamith

The group tore into them and in round two, one of the apprentices entered the room. He has a really great magic item: the cloak of the umber hulk. It lets him turn into an umber hulk!

He made a dramatic flourish with his cloak and transformed.

The confusion gaze kicked in on the heroes' turns. Theran made his save. Bidam failed. He had to run in a random direction.

As fate would have it, he ran into the kitchen, where two annis hags were cooking. They looked at him, he looked at them. Bidam thought quick, and asked them if they were going to be going to the Gloom Meet (a "hag convention" coming up in this campaign).

They were surprised and said that the were. Bidam was able to be cool with them and convinced them to leave the premises without incident.

In the next round, another bad guy entered the fray - a gnome driving a clockwork spider. It has a wand appendage that shot viscid globs. Theran blew this thing up with a fireball. The gnome got out and ran away.

A few more bad guys entered and all were killed.

Through the whole fight, Vzarro kept eating, amused.

The heroes searched the rest of the place and looted a ton of magic items, which I had written on index cards for them. It was a lot of stuff!

Then they turned their attention to finding Bzallin's phylactery. The cubic gate has a button that goes to Bzallin's home in the realm of Taldorei (the Critical Role campaign setting). They hit the button and appeared in a teleportation chamber of a ruined, partially-wrecked fortress.

5 flameskulls guard this place. Narkel told the group that to get to Bzallin's actual room in this place required the use of a red crystal wand. With it, you can say "Bzallin" out loud and touch people with it, they would appear in Bzallin's private sanctum.

Theran cast locate object and sensed it was in the outer hall, a vast room lined with statues of angry people in loose-fitting garb.

The statues were 30 ashari firetamers, cool NPC people from the Taldoreii book. They can actually turn into fire elementals! The group didn't try to free them, even though they looted a ring that can do so.

The heroes evaded the flameskull guards and found the wand. They used it to go to Bzallin's sanctum.

The sanctum is awesome. Rows of spellbooks! They contain every spell, levels 1-8. That's right out of the adventure. It works out so well because Theran's goal has been to learn every single spell.

There are two "chairs of comfort", magic chairs that let you learn and memorize spells twice as fast as normal.

Also in here was a paladin of good. He was a warforged (a living suit of armor, more or less). He actually worshiped the same deity that Fall From Grace did.

Immediately... IMMEDIATELY... both players said "He's the phylactery."

When planning this, I thought it would be fun to take one of the idea off of the lich phylactery list in Dragon Plus 15. That list is really great. Obviously I went with "warforged paladin.

I'm always up for a dumb name, so this guy's name is: Sir Digip Fingle.

Sir Digip Fingle

The idea was to just plop this in here and see what the group would do. They always come up with something I would never have thought of.

It takes a slain lich d10 days to reform by their phylactery.I rolled prior o the game: 1 day. Of course! Theran was able to figure this out.

Crazy Iliara wanted to kill him and Fall From Grace got mad. Theran started flipping through hi spell books to look for a solution to the dilemma. Narkel was picking spell books off of the shelves and calling dibs.

Bidam took out the replica wand of Orcus and cast the "death" spell. Sir Digip Fingle was dead.

Jessie started laughing. Theran was flabbergasted. I think at this point, he used a spell to destroy the replica wand of Orcus.

Devourer

Suddenly, Bidam began to change. He shriveled. His scales turned red and black. He grew ram horns. Hi ribcage opened up. He turned into an undead devourer!

Fall from Grace began to weep. She prayed, and turned Bidam, forcing him to get as far as he could from her (which was not far in this tiny room).

Then she walked over to him and whispered, "Forgive me," and kisses him. Bidam rolled a Con save to see if the kiss killed him... it did.

Bidam died!

Everyone was shocked. It was a shock-a-palooza chain of events, where it piled on one after another.

Fall from Grace's chastity bodice turned to dust! She used her kiss, and thus the holy power left her. She was jut a regular succubus. All her work toward atonement was lost.

Crazy Iliara attacked Fall from Grace and dropped her to two hit points.

Fall From Grace cursed at Iliara, and stabbed herself.

Fall from Grace has a demon amulet, which means that when she is slain, she doesn't die. he reforms next to tat amulet, wherever it is stashed.

Fall from Grace actually re-formed next to the amulet once before. Her amulet had been stashed in Shendilavri, the abyssal realm of Malcanthet, queen of the succubi (FFG's grandmother). Fall from Grace was thrown in prison, and a slew of paladins and the group's most hated rival, "the greatest thief in Sigil" Ash Vodiran went and rescued her.

They got the amulet, too. The group probably doesn't remember, but she once mentioned that after that harrowing experience, she'd placed her demon amulet with the paladin lord who lives in the outlands.

After a few minutes of recovery, Theran picked up Bidam's corpse and headed back to Sigil using a complicated process involving the other cubic gate and the infinite staircase.

He brought Bidam's body to a temple of the raven queen, and I got to use alternate universe Evelyn from the waffle crew again.

Orcus and the Raven Queen

Raise dead takes a while. While that was happening.. Bidam was a soul rocketing through the Shadowfell. He and many other souls orbited the spire of Zvomarana, citadel of the Raven Queen.

These souls are filtered into he appropriate plane to begin their afterlife, sent to hell, to mount celestia, wherever.

Once in awhile, the Raven Queen judges a unique or powerful soul.

Bidam was drawn into her throne room and given a humanoid form. She wanted to judge his soul.

For a short while, Bidam has been becoming the living embodiment of the multiverse, known as "rule of three". To have an embodiment die was... not good.

She decided to send him to the place where the freak souls, the unsortables, go to: Vorkhesis, the Master of Fate.

I love Vorkhesis. He is from the shadowfell boxed set.

Bidam, in soul form, began orbiting this 20 foot tall dude with no eyes and a halo of lightning. My Vorkhesis is a bitter, jealous entity who is angry that his mother, the Raven Queen, pays him no attention.

In my campaign, the Raven Queen is "dating" a character from my 4e HPE campaign. He's a shadar kai who wields the Shadowfell Blade from Nightwyrm fortress.

Vorkhesis hates that guy! He wants him dead.

Nerull

It's been hinted at least that the father of Vorkhesis is Nerull, the old god of the dead. The Raven Queen was paired up with him for a time, and then she killed him and took his place.

In my game, I had established that Nerull was not dead in my Shackled City campaign. In my campaign, Nerull is trapped in an asylum in the prison plane of Carceri. He has a big hole in him, a sphere of annihilation wound.

In that campaign, the group gawked at him. He held his hand through the bars, trying to touch them. The group got freaking out and moved on to the final battle against Adimarchus.

Anyway.. Vorkhesis questioned Bidam about the boyfriend. Then.. he sensed the pact with Orcus. Orcus and the raven Queen are bitter enemies. The whole HPE path is about Orcus trying to kill her! He almost succeeded in my campaign, but the adventurers saved her.

Vorkhesis raised his scythe, ready to obliterate Bidam's soul completely.

Then... the raise dead kicked in. Bidam was back among the living!

Bidam did a status check - it appeared that his pact with Orcus was fading away. He was no longer bound to him!

I had a bunch of goofy Sigil stuff planned. Everyone was kind of.. spent from what happened. I did them anyway:

I introduced Annie, a woman who had been robbed. She proceeded to say the opening verse of "Smooth Criminal" to the group in a regular voice. Then, Eo Kaplan appeared on the scene, to check on his friend Annie. He went "Annie are you OK? Are you OK Annie?"

Stupid campaign!

I should note that Theran tried to ditch Iliara, but she showed up at their home in Sigil.

They don't know that Iliara has plane shift. She knew they lived in Sigil. The heroes are famous, so all she had to do was ask people if they knew where a red elf and a platinum-scaled dragonborn lived and she was on her way.

We did some other goofy stuff with their festhalls and a guru who is trying to teach Bidam to control his junk. Bidam has 4 balls, two of which are from a balor. This has transformed his, uh... Basically, he has a demon/dragon wang. It roars and stuff.

Jessie has been rolling so awful on every one of these "Train the Groin Dragon" sessions that I've pretty much decided that Bidam's dragon junk is simply untameable. It is his id run amok, a force of nature.

The group took a long rest and then decided to check out the places that their new cubic gate could take them to.

6 locations:

Taldorei, the critical role setting.
The Nine Hells
The Abyss
Elysium (the chaotic good plane)
Limbo
The Elemental Plane of Chaos

The group picked Limbo. Iliara was excited.

They appeared in a building inside the pandemonium tone. The pandemonium stone is this huge rock that floats in Limbo. Sometimes, a bunch of slaads fly up to it and sing/croak at it, causing it to vanish from reality, only to reappear somewhere else.

The guy who runs the place warned the group this was going to happen soon. He told them they'd appear outside of time. They decided to go along for the ride.

The slaads sang and poof, the pandemonium stone appeared in a white, timeless void. In my campaign, there are a few time-traveling entities:

Zagyg

Zagyg, the Mad God: He's from Greyhawk. I've used him as a crazy meddler for a long time. This stems from when I was a kid. About 5 sessions into my campaign, a player asked me who the gods were in my campaign. I said: There's only one. His name is Gygax."

They groaned. They hated it! So I eventually made their characters the gods of the world. They lasted about 1,600 years of campaign time, and then they moved on to the Dungeon crawl Classics setting to make room for a new crop of hero-gods, which have reigned in my campaign since 2010 of real-life time.

Norsar the Many: A unique slaad that the heroes freed about 50 sessions ago. Norsar is a time traveler. The group is unaware that slaads believe that there a many alternate universes, and that they exist in all of them. That' why they're so crazy. They want to merge all of the realities into one.

The Chronomancers: A class from a 2e supplement. I had a player make one, based on Dr. Who.

Time Dragons: I've never used them, but I want to.. someday.

Basically, all of this boiled down to the group watching Zagyg give Norsar some kind of artifact. Norsar used it, and merged three realities into one!

This created lots of little changes in the campaign. I wanted to make Umbra the overall goddess of good. So that's one change. Here they are:

Umbra is the goddess of good of all the spheres.
The goddess of love and healing is gone. Her agents are "love spirits" now.
Iggwilv is not imprisoned in Graz'zt's mansion! She's free!
Everyone knows that these changes occurred. History wasn't changed.

Bidam was/is rule of three - he died, so three realities "died", too. Worked out pretty well!

On a whim, I decided to see if this merged affected the Fall from Graze situation. I decided to roll a d20. 15-20 meant something good. 1-5 meant something bad. I rolled... a 1.

That's where we stopped!

This session exposed a tricky dynamic. Jessie like doing crazy crap, like the time in Shadowrun that she used a rocket launcher to blow up the house of a crabby old lady, the mom of someone they owed money to.

Jessie likes to do crazy things, and gets a little bummed when the logical, negative reaction kick in. I think she wants a campaign that is a little wackier, where stuff like that isn't taken too hard.

George is a very grounded guy, and is always shocked when Jessie does stuff like that. I think it's part of the fun of the game.

I am going to see if I can find a way to lighten the tone/style in a way that allows for more insanity but doesn't make the game feel like a consequences-free slapstick cartoon.

You can watch these episodes on Twitch right here.
You can buy Tomb of Annihilation right here.
You can buy Xanathar's Guide to Everything right here.

Getting caught up! These two episodes feature the group going through a series of random encounters in the jungle. It gives a bit of a look into what's in the adventure.

The Party

(Joe Manganiello) Arkhan - Dragonborn Paladin of Tiamat
(Deborah Ann Woll) Jamilah - Human Barbarian
(Dylan Sprouse) Tyril Tallguy - Firbolg Druid
(Utkarsh Ambudkar) Hitch - Human Rogue
(Brian Posehn) Calliope - Half-Elf Bard

Some pterafolk come close. Tyril is still in mole form. One spots Arkhan and swoops down at him.

Arkhan breathes on it and it swipes at him for 7 points. The mole/Tyril attacks and rolls a critical.

The chat is a perpetual stream of the following comments: "Is she from daredevil?""Is that guy from Zach and Cody?"

Another pterafolk divebombs Jamilah, but misses.

Jamilah pulls out her sword, Lady Deathbringer, and rages. She misses. Hitch rolls bad and falls. He gets up and sneak attacks,

Calliope fires off a lightning arrow and blows up four pterafolk. This causes the bad guys to flee.

That whole episode was a combat. I had a hard time getting into it.

Episode 5

Arkhan scans the area.. rolls a 1. It's 3 hours until dusk. The group pauses for a moment to collect themselves and then continue on for a bit longer.

Jamilah leads the group further into the jungle. They run into a big flower.. looks like there's a severed arm on or near it.

The group thinks a zorbo is nearby. Nope.

Setting up camp, Jamilah is worried about their campfire drawing undead.

Tyril wants to assume mole form and make burrows. What a great idea.

Calliope plays a super-quiet song of rest. Arkhan keeps watch. Rolls a perception check.. 7. Eep.

Hitch takes watch. He spots an undead creature wandering nearby. It is heading away from the group. Wait.. there's three more.

Hitch wakes the group up. The zombies are out by the river. Arkhan wades in. Hitch wants to ride on his shoulders. Arkhan is not having it.

Arkhan kicks the crap out of one zombie. They spot another one on the other side of the river. It is swept away by the current.

The group goes back to sleep. Hitch is still keeping watch. He hears a dinosaur in the distance.

Tyril takes watch. He sees some trees shaking in the distance. The dinosaur is still out there.

They make it through the night. That's the end!

When do we get to the fireworks factory?

You can buy Tomb of Annihilation right here.
You can buy Xanathar's Guide to Everything right here.

An adventure was sent to game stores a week or two ago. This thing previews Tomb of Annihilation and looks like it is the first two adventures for the upcoming Adventurers League season. It's got tons and tons of material from the upcoming Tomb of Annihilation adventure.

I am assuming these will be up for sale on the DMs Guild soon. It's 92 pages long - a total of 10 mini-adventures. The first 5 mini-adventures are for heroes levels 1-4, the rest are for levels 5-10.

Don't Be a Ruiner: Today I'm going to write about the first mini-adventure: "A Snake in the Grass." I'm going to try not to spoil too much, but if you might be playing this, don't read it! You'll ruin it for yourself and/or the other people at the table.

This adventure is about bad guys trying to smuggle an amulet into the city. It's broken into four pieces and is called the Dreamer's Amulet.

It look like each mini-adventure is linked to one of the 5 faction representatives:

Order of the Gauntlet: Alastar Bol - Is convinced people are being abducted.
Lord's Alliance: Klevin Van'heran - This guy is a jerk.
Zhentarim: Pock-Marked Po - Has secret schemes!
Emerald Enclave: Screaming Wind - A tabaxi.
Harper: Soggy Wren - Displays a "lack of sober wit and judgment", is a well-known local.

I definitely like the name "Soggy Wren".

We learn the details of the death curse. This has been openly discussed on many shows, so I don't think this is new info:

Timing: This is supposed to take 60 minutes. In my experience, DMs running store games take much, much longer than expected. I remember a group in the game store that was still in chapter 4 of Hoard of the Dragon Queen after 6 months of weekly play.

I think some DMs really zoom in on little details and let the players take in the scenery. I can definitely see this adventure taking groups longer than an hour, especially if they're cautious.

The story of this involves the group trying to track down a piece of the Dreamer's Amulet. They end up in a tunnel-type setting which involves mostly traps, hazards, and investigations.

New Traps: This shows off the new style of presenting traps. We get about 4 paragraphs of info - general description, triggers, effects, and countermeasures.

Each trap is very well-thought out. There's a very cool way of activating a secret door, and I LOVE the area that precedes the climax of the adventure.

I have two qualms about this trap thing. When running a game, there's no way you can glance down at these trap descriptions and quickly see what you need to know. I always write shorthand notes. The fact that they stuck the countermeasures (including how to spot the trap!) at the very bottom makes it a real pain for me to reconfigure.

That said, I would guess that there are pluses and minuses to every method of presenting a trap. This method has definitely lent itself to cooler traps without tending toward the mind-bending intricacies of the Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan (which was hell to prepare).

Maps: Adventurers League maps have, up until now, been hand-drawn stuff on a blue grid. I always wondered why they didn't pay someone to make nicer maps. I felt like it did the authors a disservice.

Well, they kicked it up a few notches. It's print-friendly, so it's not full color, but much better! I'll show a small, non-spoilery piece of the map so that you can get the idea:

They even whipped up a player handout! Pretty awesome.

Magic Items: I have talked endlessly about what a pain in the butt it is that the D&D adventures give references to chapters rather than page numbers. Check out a magic item in this adventure:

It's like a knife to the neck. It would take less words just to write what it does! Ready?

This potion heals you for 2d4+2 hit points.

No page number, no chapter number, nothing! Why bother with the elaborate presentation?

The next mini-adventure looks incredibly awesome. I'll write about it tomorrow.

You can buy Tomb of Annihilation right here.
You can buy Xanathar's Guide to Everything right here.

This is the second mini-adventure from the 1st Adventurers League module of the Tomb of Annihilation storyline. This module is available to people who run games in game stores, and I assume it will be for sale on the DMs Guild pretty soon.

Spoiler: If you might play in this adventure, stop reading! This adventure is awesome. Don't ruin it!

Story: We are looking for pieces of the Dreamers Amulet, an evil artifact that is somehow linked to the soulmonger, which is the thing that is causing the death curse and all that stuff.

We learn that the "Old City" section of Port Nyanzaru has three ziggurats, "...each of their terraces reworked into platforms housing numerous tents and bamboo huts." I really like that.

Our heroes meet with... Pock-Marked Po. He's covered in scars, is blind in one eye, and is tended to by trusty female assistants. A very cool NPC.

He wants the group to join an event and try to win the prize. The prize includes a bunch of gold, a magic object, and "a collection of fine perfumes". Perfumes!

The heroes will enter and compete as a group. The name of their group shall be... the Bladefangs. This whole thing has me dying of laughter.

The Market Ward: We learn a bit about the Market Ward of Port Nyanzaru. It has:

Modest homes and shops
A public bath house
A golden-roofed temple of Waukeen (goddess of cash money)
A Grand Colosseum

So guess what we do in the Colosseum? A dinosaur race!

Each adventurer gets to ride an allosaurus. They'll be racing against another team called the "Green Vipers". Each rider gets a "rider's pole" to poke and prod rival riders.

If you kill someone, your team is disqualified. Using elemental or spell damage is forbidden.

A long time ago, I ran a race in an Al Qadim campaign where the heroes were in a race where the mounts were nightmares. I spent a bit of time cooking up a simple, abstract way to handle the race and it went off pretty well. What they have here is a billion times better.

This dinosaur race section is extremely well-thought-out. I am dying to run this. It's written in a very concise, clear manner and there are so many possibilities for cool moments.

On each character's turn, they can move up one position and take one special action such as dash, taunt, trip, etc. Once everybody has gone in the round, they roll to see if there's an obstacle in their way. Obstacles include mud pits and vine traps.

This is really great. I think that any player would love to go through this.

Once the race is done, we go to phase two: The Gladiatorial Arena!

The group fights some dinosaurs and other stuff in an iron cage that has special vines wound around the bars. The vines have their own little gimmick that I won't spoil.

Reward: If the group is victorious, they are brought up to receive their fabulous prizes from one of the merchant princes! It's a female, but they don't call her a merchant princess for some reason.

Her name is Kwayothé. She's beautiful and is attended to by 3 males and 3 females. I immediately had a million idea for this.

So yeah, the group gets their perfume and everything!

Fantastic adventure. Just a few pages long but full of great stuff! Even if you aren't running tomb, the racing rules can be used in any campaign using horses, chocobos, whatever.

Great adventure!

Click here to read about the third mini-adventure. It's got killer plants and a very cool section of the city called Malar's Throat.

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