My home Greyhawk campaign continued with the characters seeking the third part of the Rod of Seven Parts.
The group teleported back to Brusinton, a small town in the west of Veluna, after slaying the dragon. This has been their home base for several months, but it was now under occupation by the Shadow Fey.
Checking in at Home
The Shadow Fey had concluded an alliance with the Ket nobility, and this was the result. However, as detailed elsewhere, the other set of player characters were negotiating with the Fey Queen – a process that took a year. As we are only a few months into that in the rest of the timeline, the occupation is still in force!
However, as negotiations were continuing, the Shadow Fey did not interfere with the characters and were moderately pleasant!
We spent part of the session here discussing the building of strongholds. I own Matt Colville’s Strongholds and Followers book, and although I have reservations about its content, it provides a baseline to work with for stronghold construction in this edition.
Some of the characters are thinking about building a keep, others about a temple. Or more than one temple. Given these players, perhaps a temple that has sections for two gods. Or temples on either side of a street, competing with each other!
They certainly have enough gold! The party is 12th level or so and has far more than is recommended in the DMG. What can I say? I like giving out treasure – and they recovered a lot of treasure in Tsojcanth!
Travelling South
I brought out the old Darlene map of Greyhawk, and the players all (virtually) clustered around it and determined which way they wanted to go. The segments of the rod already discovered now gave an indication to distance as well as direction.
This put their destination somewhere in the Vale of the Mage, or in the mountains that surrounded that domain.
I let the players see the description of the Vale from the 1983 boxed set, so they had an idea of what to expect. That description is very good for my players, as it hits the important points without giving away too much. Of course, most of the extra details were meant for the DM to fill in! And, given I dislike the official explanation for the Mage, I will be using my own version.
The players quickly determined they would take the river down to the capital of Bissel, then head southwest towards the Realstream, cross it, then enter the Dim Forest and make their way to the Vale of the Mage through there.
Although I knew what would occur at their destination, I had not planned out the details of their journey. So, to the random tables I turned!
Handling Wilderness Travel
There are three basic ways I handle travel in Dungeons & Dragons.
The first is to handwave it away and say the characters arrive safely. This is good when you want to get to the next adventure location quickly and progress the story. It works best in civilised areas where few hostile encounters occur.
The second is to predetermine encounters that occur along the way. I use this sparingly, but it comes in handy when I can enhance the story by doing so. “Oh, Iuz is sending assassins against the characters? Then I will use an encounter with some assassins!”
The third, and for me the most popular, is to roll randomly on encounter tables.
Exactly which encounter tables depends on how I am feeling. As this campaign is based heavily on AD&D lore, I have been using the tables in the World of Greyhawk Glossography and the AD&D Dungeon Master’s Guide. I might create my own if the players spend enough time in the area.
I have heard of other methods of doing it (travel montages, etc.) but those are the three I use.
For this trip, I decided the river journey was uneventful. I did not feel like dealing with the trouble of running a water encounter. And so the party reached Thornward.
Thornward Tales
Thornward was the largest settlement visited by the characters for a while, so they spent a little time restocking on healing potions and the like. They also had the chance to catch up on some news from the area.
My version of the World of Greyhawk is based heavily on medieval Europe, with all the tension between nations that implies. So, I told the players that there had been some unpleasantness on the border between Bissel and the Gran March. Yes, they were normally allied and friendly with each other, but when that ever stop trouble arising in the real world?
The other news was a delegation of elves had left the Dim Forest and crossed the southern reaches of Bissel on their way to the Gran March. This intrigued the players, but no-one in Thornward could offer more details; just too far north! It is likely the party will investigate as they head south.
The Lonely Vampire
At this point I started rolling dice to see what the characters encountered. The group reached the Realstream without incident. (And yes, that is its name). And then realised a problem with their plan to cross the Realstream: they did not have a boat!
They started travelling south, looking for a settlement. I grabbed the random encounter tables from the AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide, but I also turned to the section that gives random chances of discovering settlements.
They discovered a monster before they found a settlement. The roll indicated a vampire. So, as the party set up camp in the dusk, a well-dressed traveller appeared and asked if they wanted to join him for supper at his nearby home. The cleric was suspicious, and he became even more so with a good Wisdom (Insight) check, so they sent him away.
He came back during the night and a battle began!
The Riverbank Fight
The players determined who was taking each watch, and so only two of them were awake when the vampire returned. The barbarian charged the vampire as the rest gathered themselves together. The vampire, after taking a couple of hits, fled south with the barbarian in hot pursuit. Literally hot, as some of the trees were now on fire due to fireball spells cast by mages of the party! The barbarian deliberately put himself on fire so he would take damage and maintain his rage.
However, the vampire’s retreat was a trap, which succeeded.
Once out of sight of the rest of the party, he charmed the barbarian. I interpret the charm of the vampire as incredibly potent, so the barbarian charged back to attack the rest of the party! The vampire, meanwhile, was dodging fireball spells and using his superior (and legendary) movement to skirmish against the others. He grabbed the wizard and bit him!
The wizard used dimension door to escape the vampire, and so the vampire went after the cleric, grabbing him instead.
And then the vampire rolled incredibly poorly. Five attacks, all misses. The cleric has a good Armour Class, true, but it wasn’t that good. The dice on Roll20 just hated the vampire, it seemed!
Finally, when the vampire was downed, the barbarian recovered. The party looked at the mist heading south and resolved to follow it.
The Mansion by the River
The retreating mist led them to a stately mansion by the river bank. Fortified, of course, and one that was old. The doors were of iron bound oak, secured by a regular lock. The sorcerer wasted no time getting out his lock picks and opening the door.
Except the door failed to swing open. It was also barred from within. The wizard cast knock to gain entry, alerting everyone around that the party was there.
Who was around? That would be six vampire spawn waiting in the entry hall. With no thought for property damage, fireball spells and a turn undead quickly reduced the strength of the swarm, and the barbarian, fighter and cleric quickly polished off the remainder in melee.
The group then searched the manor, finding old portraits but little else of value. Or at least of easily portable value.
There is a small settlement near the manor, where I expect the party can find a boat, but that we would leave for the next session.
A Final Thought
During the battle, the wizard used dimension door to get away from the vampire. He also has teleport. I am pretty sure that most of the party realised they did not need a boat after seeing his spell-casting In the battle!