Beyond the Tomb of Annihilation - Episode 2

In the previous session, our heroes were introduced to the city of Sigil and were given a direction: find a way back home to Toril. The presence of the Ring of Winter is on the radar of the city's governance and the de facto police, the Harmonium, dictated that the group needed to head to the Lady's Ward in the morning to register the magic item. Unfortunately for our heroes, the ring was stolen by a Githyanki gish in the final moments of the last episode just as Reggie was preparing for bed.

The Party
Reggie (Joe T.) - An over-eager human paladin of Torm who in the events of ToA had acquired the Ring of Winter. It had tried on multiple occasions to corrupt him, but his heart of gold has remained pure.

Klaus (Tom) - Half-elf fighter who had been hand-chosen to bear the Ring of Winter by Artus Cimber and Syndra Silvane. He has struggled with the fact that the ring found its way to Reggie, but is determined to help him safeguard it.

Dino (Cliff) - Human bard; Ubtao's chosen to return to Chult to renew faith in the exiled god. He wears a leather dino suit in reverence of his patron.

Azod (Joe E.) - A githyanki ranger who is a member of Sigil's Planeswalker Guild. He has been hired at the outset of the adventure to help the party navigate their way back home to Toril.

Reggie ran to the back alleyway of the Bottle and Jug and saw no trace of the Githyanki thieves. A bramble of vines began to speak to him, not unlike Audrey 2 from Little Shop of Horrors, and said that it could tell them where the thieves went if they would feed it blood. After some contemplation, Reggie had moral reservations against this and decided to find another way.

The party came together to try to come up with a plan. Azod cast locate creature and picked up the signal of the bandits in a seedy part of town known as the Slags. The group traveled there and took notice of a crowd lining up near a door in a cramped alley. After some investigation they learned that an auction was taking place. Several failed attempts to get in revealed to the group that they weren't getting in without a proper amount of money to prove they were serious about buying. Reggie managed to get into the nondescript warehouse by bluffing that he was interested in selling his Dawnbringer sword. 

As Reggie made his way into the auctionhall who else should he take notice of making a bid on a magical crown but ACERERAK! No one in the hall wanted to upbid the lich and he made his way to a back room to finalize his purchase. Reggie made a number of bids on the next item with no possible way to bid, and went to the back room next to confront his adversary. Acererak warned Reggie against his temptation to strike (Acererak had no patience to deal with the aftermath of Sigil's legal system for killing him). Reggie and Acererak traded some words, and Acererak advised Reggie to find his home soon so he would have a chance to see it once more. An ominous warning...

Reggie found that this was a deadend. The object he bid on was a ring, but it was not the Ring of Winter he was seeking. He quickly grabbed it from the clerk whom he was dealing with and ran out the warehouse. Out in the alleyway, Klaus was tailing Acererak whom he recognized. He took notice as Acererak maneuvered down another alleyway and produced a key for a portal which he stepped through. The party had lost Acererak.

Empty handed, the party returned back to the Bottle and Jug. Barl Hoxun, the sour-faced bartender and proprietor, listened to their bad luck over the course of the evening. He offered, for a price, that he could give them a lead where they could meet with a known agent that worked with the Githyanki gang (known as the Red Seals). Barl said that a human man named Hulester was known to work out of a tavern known as the Ubiquitous Wayfarer. He has heard that Hulester worked as a middleman for the gang, arranging many of the deals with interested parties for their stolen goods.

Conclusion
The party ended the session empty handed. The next order of business that the party was dreading is that the Harmonium had bid that they make a meeting with the Fraternity of Order in the morning at the city's halls of justice to register the Ring of Winter (which they no longer have). They concocted a hasty plan to try to pass off the ring that Reggie had stolen from the auction as the Ring of Winter (which turned out to be a Ring of Earth Elemental Control). We shall see what the next session brings...

Quote of the Night
"Klaus...do you know who Ass-Crack is?" -Dino, in reference to Acererak

Join us on Twitch on September 26th at 7pm cst! twitch.tv/twentysidestoeverystory

Beyond the Tomb of Annihilation: Episode 1

The ending to our Tomb of Annihilation campaign ended in spectacular fashion with a final battle pitting the PCs against the lich Acererak. A bold sacrifice from one of the characters using the Eye of Zaltec brought forth the elven warlock known as the Starfallen to aid them in the battle and turn the tide. As Acererak was beginning to see that he could not win the battle, he maneuvered his sphere of annihilation towards the misty portal causing a rift that consumed everyone present and deposited them on the streets of Sigil.

Sigil, City of Doors

I felt anxious about bringing a party into the Planescape setting as my knowledge of the planes is quite lacking and there are no official 5e resources for it as of now. But in continuing a campaign of 13th level characters, I wanted something new that would stretch the characters outside of their comfort zone. They had just successfully dealt with one of the major antagonists of D&D canon, and I just didn't know what I could do with them in their home world that would live up to the quest they had just completed in destroying the Soulmonger. The next conflict had to be bigger and the stakes needed to be higher.

The Party
Reggie (Joe T.) - An over-eager human paladin of Torm who in the events of ToA had acquired the Ring of Winter. It had tried on multiple occasions to corrupt him, but his heart of gold has remained pure.

Klaus (Tom) - Half-elf fighter who had been hand-chosen to bear the Ring of Winter by Artus Cimber and Syndra Silvane. He has struggled with the fact that the ring found its way to Reggie, but is determined to help him safeguard it.

Dino (Cliff) - Human bard; Ubtao's chosen to return to Chult to renew faith in the exiled god. He wears a leather dino suit in reverence of his patron.

Azod (Joe E.) - A githyanki ranger who is a member of Sigil's Planeswalker Guild. He has been hired at the outset of the adventure to help the party navigate their way back home to Toril.

In the Cage
Klaus and Reggie wake up on the streets of Sigil, the hub of the multiverse, and quickly realize that they are not in Kansas anymore. Gazing around they took in the sight of buildings crowding down upon them from up above and took notice of creatures that seemed straight from the heavens and hells seemingly walking past each other on the street without a care. The bodies of their comrades Sindri and Mogh were lying nearby and a gigantic construct with spears sticking out of its back was picking them up and skewering them upon its iron spokes. A humanoid body collector seemed to be its owner and it was in possession of the Ring of Winter.

Corpse Collector

Reggie attempted to reason with the individual. She seemed surprised to see Reggie talking, commenting that he "was not as dead as she thought." She seemed to be a fan of death as she spoke in veiled jealousy of Sindri and Mogh for experiencing the "true death." Reggie was physically and emotionally exhausted and had no patience for such talk - the Ring was important and dangerous and he tried to take it away from her. The construct (a cadaver collector) intervened and a battle ensued.

Just as the clash of battle began, Dino and Azod who had been sent to find Klaus and Reggie by the absent god Ubtao. They helped to intervene in the battle which had quickly spiraled out of control with the construct summoning the spirits of the deceased corpses it carried. A well placed polymorph spell on the construct by Dino gave the party freedom to flee.

They made their way to the Bottle and Jug where an audience had been requested by Ubtao. The tavern's bouncers were trolls and the marquee promised patrons an opportunity to get into a boxing match with a cyclops. Our heroes were much to battle weary to be interested and just wanted to see Ubtao. In a private room at the tavern, Ubtao explained that he had been watching them and their heroics in Chult. With the taint of Acererak gone and the absence of the Trickster Gods, Ubtao wished to return to Chult and reaffirm the faith of the people in him. He also wants to help the PCs to return home, so he has hired the planeswalker Azod and wants them all to return to Chult with his petitioner Dino who will act as the voice of Ubtao to reinvigorate faith in him again. He worries that the waning faith of his people will deprive him of strength that he will need when he one day confronts Dendar the Night Serpent.

Evening falls and the party decides to take up rooms at the Bottle and Jug. As Reggie is going to bed he studies the Ring of Winter and decides to slip it back on his finger, deciding that it will be safest upon his finger. Just as he is putting it on, it telepathically was pulled away from him and into the hands of a Githyanki gish. She took the ring and quickly walked and passed right through a wall. The session ended with Reggie rushing out into the alleyway adjacent to his room to find no trace of the thief.

The Ring of Winter

Where Do We Go From Here?
In preparing this campaign, I decided I would borrow heavily from the Monte Cook book Dead Gods. I have done a thorough reading of that book and supplemented it with a read through of PowerScoreRPG's session breakdowns of the book (a fantastic resource for many other official campaign products - I reviewed their Tomb of Annihilation guide heavily to prepare the first season of the campaign).

I have also decided that I would try to not force my ideas on the players and to keep this campaign open. Borrowing heavily from a mechanic from Dreamchaser I asked all the players to write three milestones that they felt their character needed to complete. The intention here is to gather from the players the story beats that they want to see happen to help me design encounters and drive home certain themes that will help them play in a story that they want to see. Sometimes as a DM its difficult to predict what will be engaging for the players so this process will help the players signal to me in a non-obtrusive way what they want to see in future sessions. We shall see how it turns out when we return on September 13th, 2018 at 7pm cst!

Check out the channel at twitch.tv/twentysidestoeverystory
Check out the website at https://twentysidestoeverystory.com/

Review: Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game 30th Anniversary Edition

Fantasy Flight Games, no stranger to product delays, has finally made the 30th Anniversary Edition of Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game available for purchase! I picked this up the day it released from our FLGS and was immediately swimming in nostalgia. The box comes with both the original 1st edition corebook and the sourcebook.

To my surprise, both books are virtually unchanged and are word for word replicas of the originals right down to the iconic photos from the original trilogy and the Cold War era propaganda feel that comes from some of the art (only change I could find was the advertisements for old games like the Ghostbusters RPG have been replaced with the modern Star Wars RPG products from Fantasy Flight).

These books are special. Some have attributed the original Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game with keeping Star Wars alive through the dark period after 1983 when Return of the Jedi was released. The Star Wars RPG came out in 1987 after Star Wars fever had already drastically subsided. There were no more planned movies and fans needed an outlet for their inner-geek or risk turning to the darkside (which I assume for the Star Wars fandom is becoming a Trekkie). The expanded universe was built upon the foundation created by the source material for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game, and creators of official content would be given The Sourcebook to study by LucasFilm.

The corebook is going to give you everything you need to play the game. The game is a d6 system, so character creation essentially boils down to distributing a number of d6s to skills on a character sheet called a template. Templates are archetypes that fit generally the type of character you wish to play. You can also make your own template by distributing 18d6 to the main attributes before selecting skills. There are hundreds that you could find in other source materials from the original game or there are 24 to choose from in the back of the book to build your character from. Very simple character creation.

The remaining sections of the book are for the gamemaster to help them run the game and an adventure is included at the back of the book. Its fine enough for learning the system but it is not a terribly interesting or engaging adventure as it is basically an on the rails escape from imperial stromtroopers through a mine. I much prefer the module that came with the Introductory Adventure Boxset that I remember owning as a kid. All in all its a complete book that offers you everything you need as a player or a gamemaster.

I love these vintage feeling advertisements they have throughout the book. Gives Star Wars a bit of that Cold War feeling.

The sourcebook is your world building resource. It gives you all the explanations for how things work. In these pages you will learn how hyperdrives generate power and how astrogation computers find unique points in space as well as details and stats on specific types of starships like Incom's T-65C-A2 X-Wing (no longer in production after the Empire halted production, the Incom design team now works independently with the Rebel Alliance - the level of detail is impressive...most impressive). This is also the book that will detail alien races, creatures and imperial agents, providing a gamemaster with the most basic of stat blocks that can be used to create NPCs. This book also contains information on equipment and costs. Lastly, you get a look at some famous characters so you can learn details you would not have known just by watching the films and see how your player characters or NPCs stack up against Darth Vader's stat block.

Sourcebook Table of Contents

X-Wing Schematics

For a collector, I think this is a must. The black slipcase would look really sleek on a bookshelf or in a display case. The sourcebook is a blast to read through because of the light it sheds on things I never even thought about regarding the Star Wars Universe. If you are looking to use this to play the game it definitely has everything you need to run it. A quick look on ebay suggests you can pick up books of old adventures between $20-35 and you could certainly write up your own adventures with everything that is included with the sourcebook. That being said, the materials are firmly rooted in the Imperial Era, so if you are looking to play Star Wars in either the new Disney universe or the Old Republic era, you will need to do a lot of work as the source materials provided will not give you any direction for those settings. It is a limited run, so if you are on the fence about purchasing you might want to act fast. It certainly took long enough for one run of the books to get released; there might not be a second chance to pick it up.

Season Finale - Tomb of Annihilation

It is hard to believe that seven months ago we streamed our first live D&D 5e session of Tomb of Annihilation. In many ways, the story of the characters trekking through the unknown in the jungles of Chult mirrored my own journey trying to learn and navigate the challenges of streaming a weekly tabletop rpg on Twitch. Two dropped episodes, sound issues, scheduling conflicts and a myriad of other issues all seemed like meta-level traps designed by Acererak to ensure we would never make it to this day. As we prepare to conclude the first season of our story, I am pleased to see how far it has come and looking forward to seeing where the development of these characters leads.

I would like to write a bit about each of the characters in hopes that it adds some context to where they have been and what the stakes are leading into Saturday's finale.

Klaus Kringle

This story in many ways began with Klaus, the half-elf fighter who was employed by the party's benefactor, a wizard named Syndra Silvane. Klaus came to be in her service after she purchased him from slavers from his home in Sossal. In exchange, she offered him the opportunity to work for her to pay off this debt and to be her student in the arcane arts. Syndra fell ill with the death curse and quickly assembled the party using her faction contacts to round up the characters.

Klaus has had a number of struggles with his confidence during the journey. His training from Syndra was incomplete, and for much of the way he has had to discover his latent control over the Weave by trial and error. He had visions of ice and snow covering the sweltering jungles of Chult. As the party neared the lost city of Omy they met Artus Cimber, a man wielding a ring that could manifest snowstorms and ice creatures. Klaus knew his fate was tied to this man, but he did not know how.

Artus and Klaus did not see eye to eye and had several arguments along their journey. Artus became extremely displeased with the party and Klaus in particular for his role in brokering a deal with a Yuan-ti overlord named Ras Nsi. Artus explained that Ras Nsi was responsible for the deaths of many in Chult and was the only thing keeping Artus' wife, Alisanda, from returning from her self-imposed exile.

While in the Tomb of the Nine Gods, Artus felt the presence of one of his former enemies. Artus then disclosed to the party that he was a friend of Syndra Silvane's and that in a former life they had been agents of an organization known as the Harpers. They had been working together to foil the plans of a beholder named Belchorzh from becoming a lich. During their mission, Syndra had been killed from a death ray originating from one of the monster's many eye stalks. Artus managed to survive and brought Syndra's body back to the Harpers who arranged for her revival.

When the time came to confront the beholder, Artus gave Klaus a letter to deliver to Syndra. Artus seemed to be holding something back from Klaus, but there was no time to waste. The battle with Belchorzh turned out to be Artus' last, as he was disintegrated by the gloating aberration. Klaus later read the letter, which was laced with the revelation that Syndra had been grooming Klaus to become the inheritor of the cursed item. The Ring of Winter, as Artus called it, is an artifact of great evil with the power to plunge the entire world into an ice age. There are many in the world that would delight in using its wickedness to extinguish life, thus it required a guardian. Artus was growing weary of his days on the run keeping the Ring safe and longed to reunite with his wife. He had asked Syndra to find a new bearer so he could rest, and it would seem Klaus was the answer to that question.

The Ring did not find its way into Klaus' hands, however. During the battle with Belchorzh, it was Reggie who took initiative to recover the Ring from Artus' ashes and use it to defeat the beholder. Since then, Klaus has been watching Reggie to see what it might do to him - recognizing that perhaps its corrupting influence might destroy even the most idealistic and pure of heart. If that were true, what chance would he have of containing its power?

Klaus now wields the fabled spear of Shagambi, one of the Nine Trickster Gods. Shagambi's influence and encouragement have helped Klaus reclaim his confidence so that he might be a deciding factor in destroying the Soulmonger and putting an end to the Death Curse.

Reginald "Reggie" Itsame

Reggie is a paladin of Torm who was sent on the quest to destroy the Soulmonger at the bequest of his mentor, Iwata Moto. Reggie began the campaign as a cheery, idealistic and naive knight-in-training. An early mishap by the party ended with incarceration in Port Nyanzaru. While captive, Reggie met a half-orc cleric of Torm named Undril Silvertusk. Undril was the epitome of everything Reggie aspired to be: patient, thoughtful and willing to give everything of herself to Torm's teachings. An early delve into a trap filled hallway led to an explosive fireball which took the life of another member of the party named Sindri. Undril Silvertusk prayed to Torm and made a deal to trade placed with Sindri before his spirit was devoured by the Soulmonger. This sacrifice left a tremendous impression on Reggie, who has looked to her as a saint ever since.

While in the jungle the party took refuge at a fort that had been established by a number of faithful from Reggie's order. Among them was his childhood friend, Niles Breakbone. Reggie had always looked up to Niles, but the party quickly learned that he was an incompetent leader. Talking to others in the camp revealed that Niles had lost control of one outpost and had been ordering his forces to do reckless sweeps through the jungle into the heart of undead activity. Worse, Niles had placed the party's guide under court-martial. The party then had to spring to action to free her and escape the camp.

Once in the tomb, Reggie became inhabited by the spirit of Papazotl. This influence gave Reggie an ego and made him believe he was a natural leader that the other members of his party were beholden to follow. He soon began to act similarly to Niles by making rash decisions that led the group into many dangerous situations. It was the hubris of Papazotl's personality that led to Reggie picking up the Ring of Winter after Artus' death.

Reggie had a terrible nightmare shortly after acquiring the ring. He saw a vision in which he murdered his mentor, Iwata Moto, in cold blood. During a separate occasion, he had a passing thought about murdering Klaus when his back was turned. These thoughts have been contained thus far, and Reggie has resolved that the power of the Ring is too valuable not to use to destroy the Soulmonger.

Most recently, the party delved into the lair of a coven of hags known as the Sewn Sisters. Within a cage the party discovered an imperfect clone of Reggie. The clone confessed to telling the hags about the Ring of Winter, and he also admitted that he has thought about hurting Klaus. The true Reggie has thus far denied that these thoughts are real, though secretly he is terrified of what the thoughts might mean for him.

Sindri of the Steephill Clan

Sindri is a dwarf cleric of Lathander who studied archaeology. He came on the quest to find and destroy the Soulmonger not so much out of a sense of duty but because it offered an opportunity to delve into the rich history of Chult. Early in the adventure, while investigating a statue that resembled a man giving a piggyback ride to an aligator, Sindri tripped a trap which caused an explosive fireball to strike him down. As he laid dead on the floor, the half-orc cleric of Torm, Undril Silvertusk, prayed to her deity for him to intervene and allow her spirit to go to the Soulmonger and give Sindri more time to complete his quest. Sindri was given new life, but it was in Undril's body that his spirit now resided. Though the party knew that it was Sindri posessing Undril's body, he still seemed to attempt to mimic her language and behaviors.

Once the party entered the Tomb of the Nine Gods, a drink from a water well reversed his biological sex and he suddenly became a male half-orc. It was at around this same time that Sindri inherited the fretful zorbo spirit Obo'laka. Obo'laka constantly chattered away in his brain that everything was dangerous and that they should play it safe. Sindri seemed to adopt this cowardly persona and started to warn the party about perceived threats he saw left and right.

After the battle with the beholder, Sindri suddenly changed. He started acting gruff and bold. He also started to refer to himself as "Tang Big-basket" and made up stories of past adventures that seem impossible. The party is unclear if something in the Tomb is making this happen or if Sindri is legitimately having a personality crisis.

Mogh Roith

Mogh is a human druid and the newest member of the party. They found him when they helped free him from a mirror that was magically holding him prisoner. He introduced himself as a member of the Company of the Yellow Banner, an adventuring party that came to Chult looking for the Eye of Zaltec. Mogh and his companions believed that if they found the Eye of Zaltec, they could use its power to resurrect an entity called the Starfallen who traveled with the party as a spirit inside a lantern. Mogh agreed to help the party with their quest in hopes that he would become reunited with his comrades.

As time passed, it became clear to Mogh that the Company of the Yellow Banner had all perished. He found the lantern containing the Starfallen next to the body of the company's leader, Lord Brixton. Mogh now carries the Starfallen who directed him towards where the Eye of Zaltec could be found. After narrowly escaping being steamrolled by an ancient device of destruction, the Mogh successfully retrieved the Eye of Zaltec with the aid of the party. He now believes it is imperative to destroy the Soulmonger so that its wicked magic will not interfere with his attempts to resurrect the Starfallen whom he has sworn an oath to protect.

Satuday, May 19th at 4pm...

So now the heroes stand before a set of doors that stand between them and the Soulmonger. Will they successfully destroy the Soulmonger and end the death curse so that the world can breathe a sigh of relief? Or will Acererak succeed in dismantling the design of the divine and infernal with the creation of his very own death god? Find out on Saturday, May 19th on Twitch at 4pm: twitch.tv/twentysidestoeverystory.com! 

Tales of the Shudder Mountains - Sour Spring Hollow Recap

Our Twitch channel, twitch.tv/twentysidestoeverystory, recently started a new Dungeon Crawl Classics campaign and we kicked things off with a funnel. Each player rolled up 3 level-0 characters and I filled out our numbers with some expendable NPCs to help ease the pain (with only four players, it seemed like the best adjustment to make it playable). Here is a play report for the Sour Spring Hollow funnel from the Chained Coffin mini-campaign box set.

Actual Play Videos

Tales of the Shudder Mountains Episode 1: Newscombe Wedding

Tales of the Shudder Mountains Episode 2: Sour Spring Hollow

The Wedding Guests

• Cliff
• BB Beakman - Elf falconeer
• Sydney Fezziwig - Costermonger
• Johnny Appleseed - Apple farmer (accompanied by a pet hen)

• Charlie
• Armell - Beggar
• Marzin - Cheesemaker
• Bran - Alchemist

• Tommy
• Moonshine Davis - Beggar
• Leggy Armstrong - Elf sage
• Milton Jackson - Blacksmith

• Joe
• Jacob Manyears - Corn farmer (accompanied by pet duck named 'Feathers')
• Woodsy - Elf forester
• Jimsy Twocopper - Swindler

It was the 8th day of the Bloom, the year 991 in the Grand Course of Days (GCD). It was supposed to be a glorious day of celebration of love. People came far and wide to attend the Newscombe farm for the big wedding between Tum Dankers and Ivy Newscombe. It was a delightful little wedding with a big party afterwards. The stump whiskey was being passed left and right, the eligible bachelors and bachelorettes were flirting and dancing, and Leggy Armstrong showcased his amazing speed racing a rooster back behind a couple of sheds: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/246221872

The morning after, everyone woke up in a mysterious place. The old barns and cabins that stood around them were not from the Newscombe farm. The bride and groom embraced each other for comfort, when suddenly Ivy Newscombe's dress became stained with a deep red sanguine color. Poor Tum Dankers began to float twenty feet into the air when his entire body was ripped in half, spilling his organs to the ground below. Terror filled the hearts of the farmers and tradesfolk as they witnessed several apparitions come into view. The toothless grins and overgrown eyebrows of the phantoms were full of malice and amusement with each fatality.

Your players will give you a lot of grief if you use MS Paint for your player handouts.

It was the liquor that brought them to this mysterious place, but there was no time to investigate. They were on the losing side of a massacre as one by one the wedding party became casualties. Some brave souls tried to stand their ground and fight the spectres but their weapons simply passed through their misty forms to no resistance. Johnny Appleseed and Jimmy Two-copper led the party to a cabin nearby. Grammy Hopyard was hobbling forward, but the chivalry of one of the characters allowed her to enter first. When they entered, the cabin revealed itself to be a gigantic mimic that devoured the first 4 characters that entered and they were crushed up together into a gigantic flesh cube like a bunch of people who had just jumped into a trash compactor together.

The characters investigated the farm, avoiding the spirits, to try and find clues that might aid them in returning home.

Highlights

• The players began to discover corn husk dolls throughout the farm. Each one was dressed similarly to a character that had been slain by one of the ghosts. They believed them to be voodoo dolls. Jacob Manyears picked up the one that resembled Jimmy Two-copper. The rest they threw in an old well.
• Johnny Appleseed continued to lead the rest of the wedding party around to the cabins, but was spooked by the sight of a symbol scrawled on one of the wooden doors. He decided to lead them to the cornfields to try to hide but the spirits took advantage and took a few casualties. Eventually he was forced to lead the party back to the cabin. It turns out that the symbol was a protective ward scrawled there.

• Johnny Appleseed tried to fend off the ghosts to help the wedding guests escape. He tried to throw oil at one of them and rolled a natural 1. As he was throwing the flask of oil, quite a bit of it sprayed backward and soaked into his clothing. One of the ghosts later lifted the flint and steel from his pocket and it hovered right in front of him, causing a spark that immolated him.
• Leggy Armstrong, Woodsy and Marzin explored the graveyard south of the cabins which was marked by pine wood crosses. Leggy started digging and Marzin was spiking the grave markers into the ground. Tremors prefaced the appearance of several strange boar-dogs that crawled up from underneath them. Leggy Armstrong ran away and dove to the ground, turning onto his back with a dagger held upright and drove it right into the hound's heart as it dove to attack him. 

• The party found some illustrations that were clearly drawn by a child. It depicted a priestess who was clearly an enemy of the family that lived at this farm. She was seemingly killed, and her holy symbol thrown into the well.
• The characters coordinated and lowered themselves down in the well where they ended up finding the holy symbol of the priestess in the illustrations. Unfortunately, they also disturbed a giant bramble creature that was imbued with unholy chaotic energy. Leggy Armstrong met his end as the creature pierced through him with his branch arm. BB dropped down into the well and drenched the creature in oil that the others procured for him and they lit it up to allow them to recover the holy symbol.
• As the characters returned to the surface, the ghosts returned to torture them further. In addition, the corn husk dolls that the party had been collecting started animating and attacking them. The party with haste climbed the terraced corn fields on the western end of the farm and placed the holy symbol in the hands of a scarecrow dressed like the priestess in the child's illustrations. This ended the nightmare and returned them back to the Newscombe farm. Only four characters survived: Milton Jackson, BB, Armel and Jacob Manyears.

Favorite Quote

"My falcon sure would like to meet your duck."

Products I Used for this Adventure

• Chained Coffin Box Set - The entire inspiration for the campaign. Includes several adventures including the Sour Springs Hollow funnel. Also includes a map of the Shudder Mountains and supplements that provide rich information on the history, religion, culture of the region as well as new mechanics and monsters.
• Adventurer's Almanac - One of my most valuable game prep tools. Includes a living calendar that you can use in any setting, with holidays and important events; ability to provide characters birthdays and inherited roleplaying traits based on astrological sign; and hundreds of adventure hooks that help inspire writing an adventure on short notice.

Tales of the Shudder Mountains: A Campaign Primer

On Wednesday, March 28th at 7:30pm cst, our Twitch channel twitch.tv/twentysidestoeverystory will be debuting a new campaign entitled Tales of the Shudder Mountain. It will be a Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG campaign using Michael Curtis' Chained Coffin mini-campaign setting and will take the characters into the rich culture and terrifying unknowns of the Appalachian inspired region of the Shudder Mountains.

The Snuff Steppes

Our tale does not start in the Shudder Mountains but rather within their shadow. The region south of the Shudder Mountains is labeled on most maps as the Sotho Plains, but among its residents it is known as the Snuff Steppes. Its mild winters and long growing seasons have made it a region of abundant agriculture and cattle farming. Many families grow a variety of vegetables that they subside on, while soybeans, tobacco, wheat and rice are all common staples which are grown for the benefit of the Manncaster family. 

The Manncasters lay claim to the entire region and lease this land to the residents of the Snuff Steppes. The farmers and workers are expected to give 20% of the production of their labor back to the family as rent. This system of taxation is all regulated and managed by a lone agent named Sheriff Wex LePage. He is not a villain who exists simply as a pawn of the family, however, and is well regarded by the denizens of the plains. He is known to turn a blind eye or make "clerical errors" when folks are unable to provide their rent.

Map created using Inkarnate: https://inkarnate.com/

Religiously, people revere Justicia, goddess of justice and mercy. People are generally distrustful or even hostile to those of other faiths. Folks in these parts believe that sins carry weight based upon its severity, but that all are redeemable through good works. A common saying is that all people are guilty of sin, but all can atone through earnest labor.

People live very far from one another and tend to only come together when their children become of age to be wed. Weddings are celebrations that bring folk together, and often beget further engagements between eligible bachelors and bachelorettes. 

Commerce is limited, but some goods are traded back and forth with the "Shud folk" of the mountains. The residents of the Snuff Steppes are quick to describe Shud folk as "dirty" and "drunkards"; the imbibing of alcohol being seen very much as a sin in Justicia's eyes. Though as the gossip swirls and slanders the people of the Shudder Mountains, it is usually followed by a caveat that hopefully Justicia, in her infinite mercy, will find a way to forgive them and lead them down a path of redemption. Coal and precious metals such as silver are prized commodities that originate from the Shudder Mountains. The Shudfolk are also renowned for their quality wool products such as blankets, quilts, furniture covers, etc.

Our Story Begins With a Day of Matrimony

It is a celebratory occasion as the story begins. It is the 8th day of The Bloom in the year 991 of the Grand Course of Days (GCD) and folk gather for the union of Tum Dankers and Ivy Newscombe to be joined in marriage. Clim Wills and Son Carver have prepared a pig roast and a wide spread of dishes prepared with recipes passed from generation to generation. Jam Ranson and his three sons have come packing fiddle and flute to help folk get their shoes clicking and dancing until the sun goes down. And Father Gajers has come to officiate the wedding and give judging looks to the not-so-stealthily passed flasks and jugs of stump whiskey that the party goers likely will imbibe.

It All Begins With a Funnel

The players will all be starting this campaign having rolled up three level-0 characters. They are no heroes. They are farmers, woodcutters, and laborers who have come to celebrate the day with their neighbors and kin. Not prepared for heroics, they will soon be sent on an adventure that will change their lives forever. And not all of them will make it out alive.

The level-0 funnel is the DCC RPG way of creating characters worthy of adventure. During the course of play they will find that many of their characters will meet fatal conclusions, leaving only a select few alive at the end to advance to become full level-1 characters. It is at that point we will learn who will take on the mantle of the protagonists in this tale of sorrow and woe.

Hope you can join us at 7:30pm cst on Twitch for Tales of the Shudder Mountains! We just need 8 more followers for March to meet our goal - if we reach our goal we will be raffling off a delightful coloring book I obtained at GaryCon from Darlene the Artist. Give us a follow and share us with a friend so we can give away more cool stuff! twitch.tv/twentysidestoeverystory

Help us meet our Twitch follower goal for March so we can raffle this off to one of our viewers!

GaryCon X Highlights - Part 2

Friday at GaryCon was looking good as I readied myself for my first games of the Con as a player. My day began by hitting up the exhibition hall and scouting out things I might want to buy. In particular, I was looking for something unique to use as a giveaway for our Twitch channel. I discovered Darlene the Artist (darlenetheartist.com) who had a fantastic coloring book which I thought would be the perfect thing to give away if we meet our March follower goal.

"Color Me Powerful" is a mindfulness coloring book with each page dedicated to helping to helping one connect to an aspect of their feminine spirit. It was exactly what I was looking for. 

Darlene even personalized the book for our lucky follower who wins this prize! If you are interested in winning this item, head over to twitch.tv/twentysidestoeverystory and give our channel a follow!

My goal for GaryCon this year was to get as much Dungeon Crawl Classics experience as a player as possible. I signed up for Brendan LaSalle's "And You Shall Know Us By the Trail of the Dead." His games had been suggested to me at last year's GaryCon by +James Walls and I am very pleased I committed that name to memory! The concept of the adventure was that our characters all belonged to a 1970's rock band that was still trying to find its muse and establish itself among the greats. Hailing from Boise, Idaho we were known as Electric Potato. We were on tour and down in Georgia when we performed our largest gig yet. While we were on stage, time seemed to stop and a dimensional rift exposed itself out amongst the crowd. It turned out that the cosmic expanse we were experiencing was not from the hash oil our characters had consumed before going on stage. We met our biggest fan from the future (his name we Magpie) who came riding in on a cosmic jet plane. He told us he needed our help to defeat an enemy named Queen Coyote.

Decked out to show off my DCC fandom.

We eventually found our way to a special room aboard the flight. It contained holograms of famous fantasy characters such as Conan, Gandalf, King Arthur, etc. My character lit up a joint and headed in, examining Gandalf as he took a deep inhale and extended the arm and said "Hey man...you shall pass." I became the wizard.

Brendan was a very animated Judge who kept every minute feeling energized. Definitely created a GaryCon memory for me!

Queen Coyote eventually succeeded in getting our aircraft grounded and we had to take refuge in a tower. We descended into the cavernous undercroft and met a character named "Catfish" who seemed likely to be a demon of sorts that needed our assistance getting free from its prison, finding the "Well of Many Worlds" which seemed to have powers beyond our comprehension, and ultimately we had to play a final gig in hell to distract and keep the demons who were getting ready to invade the multiverse entertained long enough for them to miss they opportunity at cosmic destruction. Of course we rocked it out to a song I wrote entitled "Chaos is a Ladder to Redemption." Electric Potato 4LYFE. If you ever have an opportunity to play in one of Brendan's games, I highly suggest you do so.

Electric Potato - 1974 World Tour.

The final event I had for Friday was to DM for the Return to the Ghost Tower of Iverness event through D&D Adventurer's League. +Joe Alfano shot me a tweet earlier in the day asking if I was available, so I headed to the Adventurer's League area to get the module and begin doing prep. Whew! I spent some time with the module and made a few homemade visual aids before the event began. It was a blast! I had a really fun group of players who were more than forgiving when I had a few missteps as we were playing. Best part of the event was facing off against cranium rats who used dominate person spells to gain command of several of the players. It became quite a PvP slugfest with me rarely rolling anything for the majority of the encounter. Quite fun. Lots of laughs were had and they did very well with the traps and puzzles they faced. It was a fantastic Friday at GaryCon!

Adventurers League DMs preparing to be merciless during Return to the Ghost Tower of Iverness written by Elisa Teague.

GaryCon X Highlights - Part 1

If you are a tabletop gamer and you have not been to Gary Con, you need to mark your calendar now and make this a priority. This convention, which is named after the father of D&D himself, specializes in creating an intimate gaming experience where friendships and memories are made over the bonding power of rolling dice. Whether you are looking for organized play experiences through Adventurer's League, trying to find a niche game system to try out, or are interested in hearing stories from the Gygax family or gaming legends like Tim Kask or Frank Mentzer, you will have those opportunities and more at Gary Con.

The Table of Honor in remembrance of Gary Gygax (photo courtesy of Derek White)

This was my third trip to Gary Con. I was excited for a number of reasons, but the "theme" of this year for me was digging deeper into a wonderful gaming system called Dungeon Crawl Classics. I wrote about one of my first experiences with it here. I signed up to play a game with Brendan LaSalle at the recommendation of +James Walls who ran a fantastic game of a Star Wars inspired adventure at last year's Gary Con (zombie Gungans!). I also signed up to play a game with +Michael Curtis who authored one of my go-to game mastering books the Adventurer's Almanac and is the creator of the Shudder Mountain campaign setting that our next Twitch campaign will be taking place in. Finally, I was excited to run my first non-AL game at Gary Con - the Return to the Labyrinth!

Thursday

An early morning drive as I left home at 4:45am to get from my home in Oshkosh, WI to Lake Geneva. I was running on very little sleep since I was streaming the night before, but the adrenaline pumping through my system was enough to keep me amped for the majority of the day.

Getting ready to roll out to Lake Geneva!

My Thursday was completely booked with DMing. After I picked up my badge I was off to the Adventurer's League hall. I love to signup to run any of the tier 1 adventures, particularly ones that I suspect new players might jump in on. My suspicion was correct as I had quite a few first-time players as I ran several instances of City Over the Edge. It is really rewarding to help people get acquainted with our hobby and have that first convention adventure that stays with you forever. I was lucky enough to have a fantastic DM (+Joe Alfano) who ran Death House during my first Gary Con and it is a game that gets mentioned frequently in our gaming circle.

Once I completed my Adventurer's League commitments, I had to head to the Timber Ridge Lodge and get checked into the hotel, and more importantly, get decked out in my Jareth costume for Return to the Labyrinth. I forgot my eyeliner pen so I had to improvise. My friends gave me a hardtime afterwards, but I think I looked pretty fly.

After navigating through my own personal labyrinth through the basement of the Grand Geneva to find Forum C, I finally made it to my table. I had a fantastic group of players join me and they came up with a lot of fun personalities for their characters. The beginning of the Labyrinth adventure leads with the characters, all teenagers, receiving an invitation to attend Toby Williams' 16th birthday (he was the baby from the original Labyrinth film). I always pose to the group the question of how their characters know Toby. Here is what they came up with:

• Obligatory weed dealer (literally have this hook every time I run this adventure)
• Toby's former babysitter
• Pool hall owner who lets Toby hang out in his establishment for a cut of his winnings
• Foreign exchange student who trades punk rock CDs with Toby (at least until he started getting into lame shit like Fallout Boy)
• Young republican who was trying to steer Toby from his libertarian leanings
• President of the yearbook club who was attending the party to get some photos

Once at Toby's party, gifts were exchanged and the players learned that Toby was kind of a prick. One by one, each of the player's learned of a personal grievance Toby had with them. Later in the evening, as everyone was having fun and Toby brooded in the corner while playing with a crystal ball he received from an unmarked package, a bunch of goblins tour through a mystical portal that ripped through the wall. The goblins were evidently looking to abduct Toby, but were not given enough detail on which one Toby was. Not ready to return home empty handed, the goblins abducted all the teenagers and brought them to the world of the Labyrinth.

 The spunky teenagers found themselves captive and learned that soon a coronation would be held to name him the new Goblin King. Jareth showed up to share this news and offered the PCs a deal; if they could navigate to the center of the Labyrinth before Toby took the role, he would pardon them and return them home. The heroes encountered doors which gave them a look into their own closets, they navigated a very tricky set of hallways, battled the cleaners and stole their pedal-operated contraption, bribed Hoggle with loose change, and navigated a hedge maze with the help of a riddle. We shared laughs and beers and learned that one of the players had never seen The Labyrinth - hopefully the adventure was still entertaining despite missing out on the movie callbacks.

 The finale of the adventure found the party in the Escher-style chamber of dizzying hallways and improbable staircases. Jareth was present and altered the deal - he was tired of Toby's nonsense (quite an insufferable brat) and he declared that a battle royale would be held for any who wished to take his position as Goblin King. A mad scramble at the end was full of ridiculousness and it was our punk-rock foreign exchange student who grabbed his skateboard and did a grind along a banister to sweep into the throne and claim the title of Goblin King!

My Thursday was a blast and I felt so blessed to play with an incredible group of players! More to come in the following days...

Rule Books? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Rule Books!

A few weekends ago I went with some friends to spend some time in northern Wisconsin to hit up some breweries, see dog sled racing and enjoy some time in a big house reading by a fire. It was very relaxing, but the drive up there was destined to be lacking 4G and instill pressure for intimate conversation. Being super nerdy, we could not allow ourselves to get trapped by the pitfalls of other road trips playing the ABC or license plate game. We decided to delve delve into the darkest depths of our minds and use our IMAGINATIONS.

It was an interesting proposal. One of our friends had never witnessed or experienced Dungeons and Dragons before. We didn't have any guide books with us, nor did we have any dice. No problem. I quickly scrambled to search online for a simple dice simulator that would work in the web browser of my phone. My other friend began to set the scene of our tale and we began to weave tales of the characters we were playing. Let me tell you the story of our wacky improv game where the rules were made up and the difficulty checks were completely arbitrary.

The Quest for the Golden Shower Cap

It was myself, Sadie the rogue, along with a warrior and a wizard. We had traveled to a remote location deep in northern lands searching for the most elusive mythical item of them all: the Golden Shower Cap. It was said that whomever possessed this odd artifact would find themselves "showered" with riches daily, unable to spend the accumulation of wealth they could expect to come into. Upon further investigation at the tiny village that rested just outside the glacier caves, where rumor told of the Golden Shower Cap's location, the townsfolk insisted the item was well guarded in the largest cavern by a dragon (or as they called them, flying fire cats). After spending some time harassing the local bar owner and lightening the gold from the cash register, we moved on to talk with his brother, Billy Bob, who was a renowned dog sled owner.

Billy Bob was an agreeable sort, and he was inclined to help take us to our destination with the aid of his sled dogs. He had a condition, however: he desperately craved to have some venison to eat. Being a terrible hunter, he needed our assistance to bring him some fresh meat. In secret, we all realized we were in no better a position to help him with his hunting needs. Thinking we could fool old Billy Bob, we headed to the local horse ranch to test if we couldn't pass a pony off to appease his appetite.

Once at the ranch, I did my best to distract the farmer who worked there. I pretended to be a clumsy lass and he was quite irritated with me as I fell into crate after crate inside the barnyard area. As he came to clean up the mess I was making, my comrades tried to make off with the horse. In doing so, they met a stable boy who provided the names of every horse at the ranch. Knowing their names, we didn't have the heart to butcher them.

Desperate to find the Golden Shower Cap, we decided to steal old Billy Bob's sled dogs and make our way to the glacier on our own. A chase scene ensued which played out much like a round of Mario Kart with oil, sleeping bags, and various other materials being thrown to obstruct our pursuer. We soon outmaneuvered Billy Bob and made it to the glacier cave entrance.

Once inside, we were given three paths: a tunnel moving towards an incline, a level path straight forward, or one that descended into darkness. We went up and met a Snorlax guarding a heap of treasure. We tried taking some of the loot and invevitably caused it to cascade down into the room, waking the Snorlax and forcing us to flee out of the room before he could catch us. We then descended down, where we met the dreaded flying fire cat. It was sleeping and we discovered how to pacify it by simply scratching its belly. It seemed friendly much to our surprise, and it offered to simply give us the golden shower cap in exchange for something it wanted; an herb that was sealed within glass in the middle cavern. This fire cat nip was much desired by the beast, and we agreed to make a deal.

In the middle cave, we navigated a very fragile looking cavern network. My character needed to take her pants off after they were caught on a piece of stone and looked as if they would collapse the entire cavern if tugged on. We navigated through and came upon a chamber where we could see a large glass aquarium which surrounded an air pocket in the middle which contained a pedestal where the dry cat nip rested. We recognized that the fire cat probably couldn't get inside for fear of getting wet - we had no issues with becoming drenched so we went to work to shatter the glass shell of the aquarium. The water which rushed forth caused one of our party members to get rushed back into the dilapidated cavern and caused an avalanche. A hole in the ceiling was present and so we took the catnip and climbed up and out, back with a very upset Snorlax. Using a technique right out of the Empire Strikes Back scene on Hoth, we used two characters with ropes to run circles around the Snorlax to bind his feet and cause him to trip and fall. Navigating back to the flying fire cat, we delivered the cat nip and were wealthy for the rest of our days...

...At least one of us was. There was kind of a last minute betrayal by one of the party members and we were almost to our destination so the resolution of the story got kind of sloppy.

What Elements are Important for a Role-Playing Game?

This experiment with on the fly, 100% improvisational D&D got me thinking: what really makes a tabletop role-playing game? The level of fun and entertainment I had with this game was about on-par with any other one-shot I have ever played. Mechanically it was extremely dubious...we were rolling a d20 to resolve anything that happened that potentially had a consequence. No modifiers were really involved or character stats other than an abstract idea of health and mortality. The only goal or objective was to have fun.

It was a refreshing experience and reinforced the "rule of cool" - the notion that the DM should disregard the rules when it may allow for something really interesting and engaging that the players will be entertained by. I have often felt that my favorite games to run are with newbies that have no command of the rules, because they always seem more liberated to allow their imaginations run wild and describe to me what they want to try. They aren't thinking about mechanics; they are describing what they are doing and putting it in my court to interpret what they are attempting and apply the rules to their situation to resolve the outcome.

I love what Wizards of the Coast has done with 5e because they have provided a pretty well thought out system that gives me as a DM enough flexibility to allow fun ideas from the players to succeed in a fairly unobtrusive way (simplicity of skill checks and advantage/disadvantage is a godsend). I love Dungeon Crawl Classics just as much, if not more, because the system and the adventures that get written for it are just wacky and beg for players to come up with oddball ideas to accomplish their goals.

I don't have a lot of player experience so my view on game systems is usually from a DM perspective. What elements of a role-playing game do you seek out? What is appealing or unappealing about systems you have tried? Drop a comment and share your thoughts!

Using Rory's Storycubes in D&D

This past November at Gamehole Con I played a game of Original D&D with former Dragon Magazine editor Tim Kask. During our time together we played through his zany adventure that pitted us against giant squirrels and provided unexpected answers to biology questions (I wish we'd known that ants have a dufour gland that will secrete a chemicals that will attract other ants BEFORE we decided to hack to pieces a lone member of the colony). Afterwards, Tim took some time to talk about his approach to DMing at conventions and what helps him get his creative juices flowing. Before we parted, he insisted that Rory's Story Cubes are a key tool for any DM who needs help improvising ideas for an adventure, NPCs, or brainstorming in general.

Me with Tim Kask at Gamehole Con 2017

What are Rory's Story Cubes?

Rory's Story Cubes are six-sided dice that have various images printed on each facing. The cubes were originally created by Rory O'Connor and Anita Murphy through their work as creativity trainers and to help adults with problem solving. They are now used by adults and children alike to generate ideas for use in storytelling, language development and other educational purposes. They are also a wonderful resource and tool for gamemasters to use in their tabletop roleplaying games.

Fantasia themed story cubes are perfect for D&D.

How to use Rory's Story Cubes in D&D

Last minute session prep: 

Its Friday night and its been a long week. You scheduled a D&D session and everyone is coming over in 45 minutes and you have no plan. No problem; pull out your Rory's Story Cubes and let the dice decide where the story will go. Lay out your dice sequentially and let your improvisation skills interpret the cubes as story beats.

Or you could take a different approach to laying out your story. Identify one cube (or several) to frame the central conflict of your session. Pull out another to help you develop an antagonist. Use another to help you determine the setting. Maybe another helps you to brainstorm an NPC that will be useful to the party. The possibilities for coming up with wacky and fun game sessions on the fly is endless.

Character Introductions

I did a one-shot adventure of the Death House adventure from Curse of Strahd and everyone was using pre-generated characters. In order to bring some life to the backgrounds, I had all of the characters begin the session telling their stories around the campfire. I gave each player 3 dice to help them tell the beginning, middle and end of their most notable adventure to date. Some of the stories were funny, some were confusing, and some I even integrated into the session to help the players have a stronger emotional investment in the session. This worked so well that I have used this technique multiple times since and my players love it.

Critical Hits and Misses

Natural 20s and 1s are great opportunities to allow some surreal and gonzo elements to creep into your game. I try not to take my games too seriously and love it when wacky events bring some levity into the session. Rory's Story Cubes are a great tool for describing what comes next. Give one or more a roll and allow them to give you the jumping off point you need to lay out the sequence of events that occurs after a lucky/unlucky roll.

Where to start?

My first set of story cubes was the Fantasia set and was what I primarily utilize during my sessions. I also have found that the Voyages themed set has some great images that work for D&D themed stories. If you have other applications for story cubes, the original set is quite versatile and worth taking a look at (especially if you have kids...these will provide quite a bit of entertainment even outside of a gaming environment).

Do you have experiences using Rory's Story Cubes in your gaming sessions? Leave a comment and tell me your story!

Follow Twenty Sides to Every Story on Twitch: twitch.tv/twentysidestoeverystory
Subscribe to Twenty Sides to Every Story on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfOc41UKeUZt1dgEEQVnc8w