@MrCZAR Twitter Feed live log 001
Fen and Mia begin their adventure at sunrise, sitting in a rooftop garden, sipping tea and playing Dragonchess.
Simon (previously Reave) is storming off from his home after a dispute with his father.
Ka'Lem is disembarking from a sloop docked under the cliffs of Urthspyre.
Fenwyse lost to Miaqirelle, and they packed up their stuff in preparation of the day's trip to the hunting grounds so they could each restock their material components. As they descend into the streets, they nearly run into Simon, who tells them to watch where they're going.
(he's kinda rude for a clergyman)
Ka'Lem walks into the conversation out of nowhere, asking how to get into the spire. Fen laughs at him. Mia tries to give him a more scholarly response. The doors to the spire have never been opened to any of our knowledge.
A pair of guards approach as Simon is chastising Fen for clearly not being prepared to go out to the Hunting Grounds (Fen doesn't use any physical weapon, so these strangers seem to think she doesn't know what she's doing). Simon needs to go anyway, and Ka'Lem has nowhere to be.
We're ushered out of the way, as we're blocking the path and the merchants need the path to ferry their carts through to set up for the daily market. One of the guards, Marcus, cracks some jokes with Fen and the party moves out of the way.
We head out of the city and encounter a pair of boars almost immediately. It's a bit of a scrap and we needed to stop to heal, but once we knew what to expect, we found another three boars and made quick work of them. It's our first loot table roll!
Ka'Lem had the highest hit, so he got the roll. I won't explain this every time, but since it's the first time, here's what happens: A 12 result puts him on the Common table, then the next roll. An odd result on the next table determines type. A 10 on the final spawns a spear!
More farming for material components results in another loot roll, this time for Fenwyse! Nobody in the party can identify what it is, so she puts the dodecahedral (d20-shaped) green object into her pack until it can be determined later. The party has received 2 components.
This xp-farming mechanic is pretty neat, and since all the crafting and trade in the game uses "material components" from monster drops, regardless of what the craft is. We've already encountered one random person on the road, and have heard other people hunting too.
A particularly brutal encounter occurs and the party barely scrapes by. It's probably time to stop for the day. After hunting the fields with each other for a while, our party has begun forming actual tactics. We head back into town after a successful day!
Ka'Lem and Fenwyse visit one of her merchant friends, Grimbeard, who owns a weapon shop. She successfully talks up the value of a spear that dropped in the hunting grounds and manages to pull 75 gold for Ka'Lem! (She keeps 5 for herself. Merchant's Fee, you know.)
Ka'Lem has nowhere to go. Simon can't return home. Mia doesn't have plans. Everyone goes to Fenwyse's house for dinner. Her parents are hurriedly preparing a massive feast as the party arrives. Mia helps with the cooking because she's good at that!
It's the next day, and after a bit of bullshittery, Fenwyse goes to run her stall and Mia gets her blue item drop appraised. It's a high quality yew wand! She offers it to Fen, but she's already got a holly sprig. She turns and sells the wand to passersby at face value!
There is a mass public meeting where the halfling councilman is proposing the structure of a merchant's guild, After a bunch of arguing and people disagreeing with the idea of the taxes, Fenwyse is the first one to sign the contract.
We're off to the Arcane Archives, because Ka'Lem wants to see the history of the Spire and learn more about how the doors work. Fenwyse laughs at him because those doors have never opened and the whole situation is preposterous.
Simon deciphers one of the elvish books in the archives and roughly translates it to Ka'Lem - long story short, there is no known way to open the doors to the Spire, despite the doors (are they even doors?) having weird impressions as though something could fit.
Mia takes us to the Slooping Boar, the tavern at which she works as a chef. Rothor Warblade is the dwarven proprietor, who also serves as the primary barkeep. I have come to the realization that I am the comedic relief and uhhhhhhh welp
We head out to the hunting grounds the next day. We need more supplies!
After a successful early afternoon of hunting, we manage to spawn our first boss monster - the Boar King! This is the first real fight of the campaign.
uhhhhhh okay so the Boar King gets completely destroyed It crit failed its charge attack against Fen, falling prone. Ka'Lem critically struck it with his longsword, granting advantage to his allies. Simon critically hits it with Inflict Wounds. Mia destroys it with Catapult.
Fenwyse sits there, in front of the boar, shield in hand... staring in awe as it bounced off her shield and was immediately destroyed by her comrades before she could do anything. Perhaps she should stay on their good side...
We've hit level 2! @komuroto said we'll probably crush these first three levels and then we'll hit the long draw for the appropriate pacing of the game.
Quick recap of recent events - the Boar King dropped a key item which, after identified, happened to be part of the complex keys needed to open the doors to the Spire. The party gets taken away by the guard and brought to the council immediately after drawing a crowd.
Because the boar "key" fit perfectly into an indentation on the left door, it sparked some sort of magical reaction from the Spire. The indentation on the right door flashed an image of a hornet, and then a giant keyhole appeared in the center between them,
The council demanded that we depart in the morning to the Ashenwood, the only place they know of that has giant insects. We are not allowed to inform our friends and family, which unfortunately means they'll assume we've died when we don't come back the next night...
Being the comedic relief allows for some awesome reactions. After six days of barely perilous travel, we arrive in Ashenwillow, the village near the Ashenwood. One of Ka'Lem's old companions makes fun of Fen's diminutive size and she threatens him with Primal Savagery.
The whole party recoils as she menacingly swipes at this poor NPC, and Simon says "hold on there Fenwyse, save your tiny fury for when it's needed." I died a little inside because it was hilarious but I know it would have wound Fen up even more.
We find our way to the sawmill in town because there was a lumberjack who disappeared a few months ago, and we assume that his comrades are our best lead into where to look next for these giant insects.
We have begun wandering through the forest. Fenwyse asks a bird for help, and Ka'Lem is EXTRA CONFUSED. The bird is useless. Mia summons a bunch of insects in the hopes that they can guide her in the right direction.
As we stop at a babbling brook to refill our waterskins, a brown bear emerges, angry that we're stomping through his territory. Uh oh. Fen needs to talk to the bear before this combat kicks up but it probably won't happen...
The goliath guard who came along with us "for the glory" of adventure ran in and shoved his spear through the bear's shoulder. Simon obliterated it with a Firebolt. Fenwyse is moody for the rest of the evening.
We progress further into the forest and retire for the night. We split the evening watches up, and four giant spiders descend upon the party during the final watch. Ka'Lem manages to see them just before they surprise him, and he bangs his sword to his shield to awake the party.
Our goliath escort got completely destroyed when a spider bit him and injected him with a bunch of venom. WELP. That's karma for picking a fight with a bear.
Binary is helping us play D&D.
We reach a small clearing and the party starts looking for fire sources to smoke hornets from their nests, but nobody prepared appropriate spells for that today. As they argue, Fen walks into the dead center of the clearing and casts Thunderwave, blasting six hives to the ground.
The echo of her screech booms throughout the forest. If there's a Hornet Queen nearby, she's gonna spawn for sure. The swarms angrily come alive and begin moving toward the party.
Fen casts another Thunderwave as the swarms move in on her. Mia summons her own swarm of insects to fight one of the injured swarms. Simon fires off a firebolt, disseminating one of the swarms. Ka'Lem moves forward to protect Fen. Four of the six swarms remain.
We wipe the other four swarms, and the Hornet Queen spawns immediately. We're not quite ready. Fortunately for us, the Queen is somewhat of a glass cannon. Mia casts Catapult and nearly wipes it in a single blow, then Fen runs in with a Primal Savagery swipe to bring it down.
As we start to move back toward town, we pass the area where our goliath guard fell... turns out, he wasn't dead, but just paralyzed by the spider venom. Oops! Ka'Lem had to give him his armor back. When we get back to Ashenwillow, we take a brief rest and we're level 3!
The party follows the road toward Urthspyre, debating about whether to stay in the ruins overnight, where all the bad stuff tends to happen. Ultimately, we decide to move on - we've got the other gold gemstone, which should morph into the other key once identified.
It's very early morning, and nobody is out and about in town... after briefly visiting the council, we move directly to the Spire. As we go up the stairs and approach the doors, Fen holds the gemstone up and it converts into the hornet tablet, snapping loudly to the door.
We reconvene with the council, who refuses to pay us until we "finish this ordeal," so they resupply us and send us with a detachment of two dozen guards to go back to the ruins in the middle of the night. It takes a couple days to get back and we formulate a plan...
...the plan is to camp out midday and prepare for a full night of watching the ruins. It's almost 3am when the graves nearby start to rustle, and twenty skeletons begin to emerge. Nobody is aware of it until one of the guards on the outskirts is run through with a sword.
As we begin to react to the skeletons around us, something much more menacing appears... a large skeletal minotaur with a greataxe materializes next to the pillar, as does the skeleton key we need for the doors to the Spire.
Fenwyse is the rat marker, Mia is the rogueish mini adjacent, Ka'Lem is the white paladin mini, Simon is the grey sorcerer mini. Our custom minis are still en route, and I won't see it until after Christmas. The d6 is Fen's healing spirit. The black piece is Fen's bear totem.
The skeletal minotaur immediately rushes toward Ka'Lem, connecting but barely taking damage. He's still got some of the temp HP from the bear totem. Mia materializes a swarm of insects in a nearby skeleton's face - it may be immune to the damage, but its vision is obscured.
Ka'Lem feints against the minotaur, drawing attention and granting advantage against it. The skeletons begin their assault, scratching and scraping against the guards around us. The guards retaliate, dismantling some of the skeletons.
Fen moves the healing spirit to assist a pair of the guards with whom she is familiar, then charges in to the skeletal minotaur, slashing at it with a Primal Savagery claw attack.
Simon moves around behind the minotaur and nails it with a massive Inflict Wounds. The minotaur doesn't like that, and turns to drop the greataxe onto Simon. All the temp HP is gone and he still takes a tough blow afterward.
From back on this little ledge, Mia casts Catapult on a busted pillar from the ruins and launches it at remarkable speed past Fen's head. The skeletal minotaur explodes into pieces.
The skeletons take another round against the guards, dealing some fair damage. The guards hit back, nearly weeping the remaining skeletons near the pillar. Guards and skeletons are still skirmishing further away.
A couple more skeletons shamble into the fray, and one immediately falls to Mia's Ice Knife. The party maneuvers to assist the rest of the guards.
Little bits of combat remain. Ka'Lem picks up the skeleton key as the barrier around the pedestal dissipates. A chest materializes, and Simon is the first one there. He gets a handful of extra gold and material components, as well as an extra dagger.
Upon returning to Urthspyre, there's much celebration and such when our families realize we're all alive - and that we've discovered how to open the Spire after centuries without progress. There's a ceremony at the Spire.
One of the councilmembers puts on a display, calling forth a bright young age of adventurers, then gestures toward the party. Ka'Lem has the key, and as he inserts it into the doors, it dematerializes. The doors light up in colors and runes, and they crack open.
A rush of stale air sweeps over the crowd. Inside, it's dark. Only Mia can see what's going on, so Simon casts Dancing Lights to give us a little visibility. There's a language that's similar to sylvan, but Fen can't understand it. She knows almost all the languages!
After the smallest bit of exploration forward, the interior of the room lights up, revealing a massive, three-dimensional maze sprawling out across the floor and climbing up the walls. And that's the end for this week. See you next Wednesday!
Fenwyse lost to Miaqirelle, and they packed up their stuff in preparation of the day's trip to the hunting grounds so they could each restock their material components. As they descend into the streets, they nearly run into Simon, who tells them to watch where they're going.
(he's kinda rude for a clergyman)
Ka'Lem walks into the conversation out of nowhere, asking how to get into the spire. Fen laughs at him. Mia tries to give him a more scholarly response. The doors to the spire have never been opened to any of our knowledge.
A pair of guards approach as Simon is chastising Fen for clearly not being prepared to go out to the Hunting Grounds (Fen doesn't use any physical weapon, so these strangers seem to think she doesn't know what she's doing). Simon needs to go anyway, and Ka'Lem has nowhere to be.
We're ushered out of the way, as we're blocking the path and the merchants need the path to ferry their carts through to set up for the daily market. One of the guards, Marcus, cracks some jokes with Fen and the party moves out of the way.
We head out of the city and encounter a pair of boars almost immediately. It's a bit of a scrap and we needed to stop to heal, but once we knew what to expect, we found another three boars and made quick work of them. It's our first loot table roll!
Ka'Lem had the highest hit, so he got the roll. I won't explain this every time, but since it's the first time, here's what happens: A 12 result puts him on the Common table, then the next roll. An odd result on the next table determines type. A 10 on the final spawns a spear!
More farming for material components results in another loot roll, this time for Fenwyse! Nobody in the party can identify what it is, so she puts the dodecahedral (d20-shaped) green object into her pack until it can be determined later. The party has received 2 components.
This xp-farming mechanic is pretty neat, and since all the crafting and trade in the game uses "material components" from monster drops, regardless of what the craft is. We've already encountered one random person on the road, and have heard other people hunting too.
A particularly brutal encounter occurs and the party barely scrapes by. It's probably time to stop for the day. After hunting the fields with each other for a while, our party has begun forming actual tactics. We head back into town after a successful day!
Ka'Lem and Fenwyse visit one of her merchant friends, Grimbeard, who owns a weapon shop. She successfully talks up the value of a spear that dropped in the hunting grounds and manages to pull 75 gold for Ka'Lem! (She keeps 5 for herself. Merchant's Fee, you know.)
Ka'Lem has nowhere to go. Simon can't return home. Mia doesn't have plans. Everyone goes to Fenwyse's house for dinner. Her parents are hurriedly preparing a massive feast as the party arrives. Mia helps with the cooking because she's good at that!
It's the next day, and after a bit of bullshittery, Fenwyse goes to run her stall and Mia gets her blue item drop appraised. It's a high quality yew wand! She offers it to Fen, but she's already got a holly sprig. She turns and sells the wand to passersby at face value!
There is a mass public meeting where the halfling councilman is proposing the structure of a merchant's guild, After a bunch of arguing and people disagreeing with the idea of the taxes, Fenwyse is the first one to sign the contract.
We're off to the Arcane Archives, because Ka'Lem wants to see the history of the Spire and learn more about how the doors work. Fenwyse laughs at him because those doors have never opened and the whole situation is preposterous.
Simon deciphers one of the elvish books in the archives and roughly translates it to Ka'Lem - long story short, there is no known way to open the doors to the Spire, despite the doors (are they even doors?) having weird impressions as though something could fit.
Mia takes us to the Slooping Boar, the tavern at which she works as a chef. Rothor Warblade is the dwarven proprietor, who also serves as the primary barkeep. I have come to the realization that I am the comedic relief and uhhhhhhh welp
We head out to the hunting grounds the next day. We need more supplies!
After a successful early afternoon of hunting, we manage to spawn our first boss monster - the Boar King! This is the first real fight of the campaign.
uhhhhhh okay so the Boar King gets completely destroyed It crit failed its charge attack against Fen, falling prone. Ka'Lem critically struck it with his longsword, granting advantage to his allies. Simon critically hits it with Inflict Wounds. Mia destroys it with Catapult.
Fenwyse sits there, in front of the boar, shield in hand... staring in awe as it bounced off her shield and was immediately destroyed by her comrades before she could do anything. Perhaps she should stay on their good side...
We've hit level 2! @komuroto said we'll probably crush these first three levels and then we'll hit the long draw for the appropriate pacing of the game.
Quick recap of recent events - the Boar King dropped a key item which, after identified, happened to be part of the complex keys needed to open the doors to the Spire. The party gets taken away by the guard and brought to the council immediately after drawing a crowd.
Because the boar "key" fit perfectly into an indentation on the left door, it sparked some sort of magical reaction from the Spire. The indentation on the right door flashed an image of a hornet, and then a giant keyhole appeared in the center between them,
The council demanded that we depart in the morning to the Ashenwood, the only place they know of that has giant insects. We are not allowed to inform our friends and family, which unfortunately means they'll assume we've died when we don't come back the next night...
Being the comedic relief allows for some awesome reactions. After six days of barely perilous travel, we arrive in Ashenwillow, the village near the Ashenwood. One of Ka'Lem's old companions makes fun of Fen's diminutive size and she threatens him with Primal Savagery.
The whole party recoils as she menacingly swipes at this poor NPC, and Simon says "hold on there Fenwyse, save your tiny fury for when it's needed." I died a little inside because it was hilarious but I know it would have wound Fen up even more.
We find our way to the sawmill in town because there was a lumberjack who disappeared a few months ago, and we assume that his comrades are our best lead into where to look next for these giant insects.
We have begun wandering through the forest. Fenwyse asks a bird for help, and Ka'Lem is EXTRA CONFUSED. The bird is useless. Mia summons a bunch of insects in the hopes that they can guide her in the right direction.
As we stop at a babbling brook to refill our waterskins, a brown bear emerges, angry that we're stomping through his territory. Uh oh. Fen needs to talk to the bear before this combat kicks up but it probably won't happen...
The goliath guard who came along with us "for the glory" of adventure ran in and shoved his spear through the bear's shoulder. Simon obliterated it with a Firebolt. Fenwyse is moody for the rest of the evening.
We progress further into the forest and retire for the night. We split the evening watches up, and four giant spiders descend upon the party during the final watch. Ka'Lem manages to see them just before they surprise him, and he bangs his sword to his shield to awake the party.
Our goliath escort got completely destroyed when a spider bit him and injected him with a bunch of venom. WELP. That's karma for picking a fight with a bear.
Binary is helping us play D&D.
We reach a small clearing and the party starts looking for fire sources to smoke hornets from their nests, but nobody prepared appropriate spells for that today. As they argue, Fen walks into the dead center of the clearing and casts Thunderwave, blasting six hives to the ground.
The echo of her screech booms throughout the forest. If there's a Hornet Queen nearby, she's gonna spawn for sure. The swarms angrily come alive and begin moving toward the party.
Fen casts another Thunderwave as the swarms move in on her. Mia summons her own swarm of insects to fight one of the injured swarms. Simon fires off a firebolt, disseminating one of the swarms. Ka'Lem moves forward to protect Fen. Four of the six swarms remain.
We wipe the other four swarms, and the Hornet Queen spawns immediately. We're not quite ready. Fortunately for us, the Queen is somewhat of a glass cannon. Mia casts Catapult and nearly wipes it in a single blow, then Fen runs in with a Primal Savagery swipe to bring it down.
As we start to move back toward town, we pass the area where our goliath guard fell... turns out, he wasn't dead, but just paralyzed by the spider venom. Oops! Ka'Lem had to give him his armor back. When we get back to Ashenwillow, we take a brief rest and we're level 3!
The party follows the road toward Urthspyre, debating about whether to stay in the ruins overnight, where all the bad stuff tends to happen. Ultimately, we decide to move on - we've got the other gold gemstone, which should morph into the other key once identified.
It's very early morning, and nobody is out and about in town... after briefly visiting the council, we move directly to the Spire. As we go up the stairs and approach the doors, Fen holds the gemstone up and it converts into the hornet tablet, snapping loudly to the door.
We reconvene with the council, who refuses to pay us until we "finish this ordeal," so they resupply us and send us with a detachment of two dozen guards to go back to the ruins in the middle of the night. It takes a couple days to get back and we formulate a plan...
...the plan is to camp out midday and prepare for a full night of watching the ruins. It's almost 3am when the graves nearby start to rustle, and twenty skeletons begin to emerge. Nobody is aware of it until one of the guards on the outskirts is run through with a sword.
As we begin to react to the skeletons around us, something much more menacing appears... a large skeletal minotaur with a greataxe materializes next to the pillar, as does the skeleton key we need for the doors to the Spire.
Fenwyse is the rat marker, Mia is the rogueish mini adjacent, Ka'Lem is the white paladin mini, Simon is the grey sorcerer mini. Our custom minis are still en route, and I won't see it until after Christmas. The d6 is Fen's healing spirit. The black piece is Fen's bear totem.
The skeletal minotaur immediately rushes toward Ka'Lem, connecting but barely taking damage. He's still got some of the temp HP from the bear totem. Mia materializes a swarm of insects in a nearby skeleton's face - it may be immune to the damage, but its vision is obscured.
Ka'Lem feints against the minotaur, drawing attention and granting advantage against it. The skeletons begin their assault, scratching and scraping against the guards around us. The guards retaliate, dismantling some of the skeletons.
Fen moves the healing spirit to assist a pair of the guards with whom she is familiar, then charges in to the skeletal minotaur, slashing at it with a Primal Savagery claw attack.
Simon moves around behind the minotaur and nails it with a massive Inflict Wounds. The minotaur doesn't like that, and turns to drop the greataxe onto Simon. All the temp HP is gone and he still takes a tough blow afterward.
From back on this little ledge, Mia casts Catapult on a busted pillar from the ruins and launches it at remarkable speed past Fen's head. The skeletal minotaur explodes into pieces.
The skeletons take another round against the guards, dealing some fair damage. The guards hit back, nearly weeping the remaining skeletons near the pillar. Guards and skeletons are still skirmishing further away.
A couple more skeletons shamble into the fray, and one immediately falls to Mia's Ice Knife. The party maneuvers to assist the rest of the guards.
Little bits of combat remain. Ka'Lem picks up the skeleton key as the barrier around the pedestal dissipates. A chest materializes, and Simon is the first one there. He gets a handful of extra gold and material components, as well as an extra dagger.
Upon returning to Urthspyre, there's much celebration and such when our families realize we're all alive - and that we've discovered how to open the Spire after centuries without progress. There's a ceremony at the Spire.
One of the councilmembers puts on a display, calling forth a bright young age of adventurers, then gestures toward the party. Ka'Lem has the key, and as he inserts it into the doors, it dematerializes. The doors light up in colors and runes, and they crack open.
A rush of stale air sweeps over the crowd. Inside, it's dark. Only Mia can see what's going on, so Simon casts Dancing Lights to give us a little visibility. There's a language that's similar to sylvan, but Fen can't understand it. She knows almost all the languages!
After the smallest bit of exploration forward, the interior of the room lights up, revealing a massive, three-dimensional maze sprawling out across the floor and climbing up the walls. And that's the end for this week. See you next Wednesday!
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