Fiction Campaign #1 in Ta-netjer'Ra

[Lord-Marcus]

Greetings lizard friends.

I finally have a D&D group after many years of not playing. I am acting as dungeon master, and my four friends are making up the party members.

We have had three successful evenings of play, and it looks like our games will be mostly every other week. We do have the odd week in March where we will not be playing due to a pre-planned event.

In this thread I will be detailing the trials and travails of the party as they navigate my custom setting, Ta-netjer'Ra. This will be done relatively short form, and will not be a beat for beat explanation of their adventures.

To begin, let's meet the party:

ID10T - a warforged cleric of Cheesus, whose holy artifact is a wheel of cheese lodged in his chest cavity.

Lola - a harengon paladin

Munin - a kenku Rogue

And Wyatt - a human fighter aged 10 years old who carries a box inscribed with runes.

For context, we are playing 5th edition.

Session 0/1

Roughly a month ago in real world time, we had our first session of play. This also was front loaded by character creation assistance for those who did not have books or did not know what they were doing. We have a couple new or vaguely aware gamers in the group who haven't played before or only played ages ago.

In the beginning, all four of our party members found themselves suddenly in an elaborate Middle Eastern inspired Palace after a flash of red and a billowing of smoke.

1. As it turned out, they had found themselves in the Palace of the local Shah, who had asked a Djinn to send him the saviors of his realm with his last wish. The local area was beset by a bandit menace calling themselves the red hand, and there were portents of dire evil awakening. He also told them they were in his city of Ates-khmun.

Our party came from multiple places, some not of the world that they now found themselves in. Regardless, they all basically accepted their fate.

Unfortunately, the shah had no further information regarding what this calamity is evil could be. He left his guard Captain Ibrahim at the party's disposal, lend them a room in his Palace for a few evenings, and bid them to solve his quandary.

Ibrahim gave the party horses and then accompanied them to the main market of the city. Once there, the group picked up what adventuring materials they felt they needed, and investigated a local message board.

There they found several notices. The first was from Captain Ibrahim himself, offering silver for every red-hand bandit ear brought to him. The second was a request for someone to act as a courier between a lord of the cities minor nobility and one of the dwarves in their hold of Demirhane. Finally, there was a request for guards from a merchant called Basim, who was going to brave the northern passage across the split spine mountains to hopefully reach the merchant city of kaer-drak.

At one point, while ID10t was reading the notice board, Wyatt came up to him and asked for assistance so that he could also read. What followed was id10t carrying Wyatt like a shield for the rest of the session. All the while, Wyatt was holding on to his room covered box.

The party decided to meet with Ibrahim and discuss the caravan guard contract. They eventually settled on a sum of 500 gold, half to be paid up front.

They then retired to the shah's Palace to rest for the evening without exploring the rest of the city.

Thus ended session 1.

In my next post, I will catch you up on session two, and then follow that up with our latest session. We reconvene not next Thursday but the week after. Expect roughly regular updates to this thread as we go along. Not only for fun, this also helps me keep a rough note of what's going on.

 

[Killer Angel]

ID10T - a warforged cleric of Cheesus, whose holy artifact is a wheel of cheese lodged in his chest cavity.

Why do I think the mood of the adventure isn't particularly serious?

 

[Lord-Marcus]

Why do I think the mood of the adventure isn't particularly serious?

Frankly, that's just the player. He's also my mentor in fencing, and the running joke is that he is the cheesiest guy around.

Partly because he loves cheese. Partly because his battle cry, and by extension the house battle cry, is "Con Queso!"

But yes, we're here to have fun, though I'm trying to weave in some roleplay moments so that the newer players get a taste.

 

[Killer Angel]

Frankly, that's just the player. He's also my mentor in fencing, and the running joke is that he is the cheesiest guy around.

Ah, makes sense.

 

[Imrahil]

As it turned out, they had found themselves in the Palace of the local Shah, who had asked a Djinn to send him the saviors of his realm with his last wish

Marvelous way to join the party, haven't seen this one before.
Have fun with the party, don't go to hard on them

I gladly will follow their journey and your attempts to kill them

Grrr, !mrahil

 

[Lord-Marcus]

Marvelous way to join the party, haven't seen this one before.
Have fun with the party, don't go to hard on them

I gladly will follow their journey and your attempts to kill them

Grrr, !mrahil

I need to write up part two. I'll try to do that tonight.

My plan is simply fun. I'm not trying to make this activated hard mode at all. The group is composed of my friends from fencing. We all have day jobs and simply needed a break to roll shiny math rocks and disassociate from our daily lives. I'm going to weave in danger, but not make things truly hard on them except by accident. I am still learning how to properly calibrate enemy CR

 

[Lord-Marcus]

Session 2

We returned to the party well rested, after a nights sleep in the Shah's palace.

Not wasting time, they immediately set out to meet Basim, then to proceed to guard him on his caravan route. They arrived to Basim's shop/warehouse where they were greeted with the sight of two carts loaded with boxes of silks, Basim, and his other guard/driver. Without fanfare, the expedition departed Ates-Khmun. The party adopted a defensive formation around the carts, sticking near the road to avoid the treacherous sand dunes. Keep in mind all 4 party members were mounted on horses provided by Captain Ibrahim.

(out of game note: Not everyone has models yet. We are using some stand in dice for encounters)



A few hours out from the city, the caravan came upon an upturned cart, with a hooded figure crouched inside, keeping out of the sun. For reference, it was about 3pm in-game when they came upon the cart.

Lola approached the figure, who explained he had been set upon by bandits. They had killed his horses and taken much of his supplies. After returning to the party and discussing, all members thought something was fishy about this mans tale.

Munin headed off to the west side of the map to scout, and discovered another man crouching amidst the sand dunes with a bow and arrow in his hands. Squaking "Ambush" to alert his companions, the party prepared to fight.

This was an encounter with 8 total bandits Munin took down 4 with his bow, apparently a very proficient ranged-rogue. The bandit by the cart would eventually get trapped after Id10T kicked the cart to pin him. The Warforged cleric would later jump atop the cart and throw a hand axe through the witless mans skull - Just after he had extricated himself from its wooden bulk.

While Basim was injured in the fighting, the rest of the bandits would be made mincemeat by the various personages. Early in the fight, wyatt would shatter his runed wooden box on the ground, revealing a greatsword almost as tall as he was and broad as a cleaver (think the buster sword from final fantasy, wielded by a 10 year old with extra enthusiasm.)

The party would loot two notes, a smattering of currency, and 16 ears from the would-be ambushers. The blood spattered notes would reveal 1 of the bandits to be a family man, with a wife and child eagerly awaiting his return from whatever "employment" he had found. The other note revealed a bandit stronghold at a nearby Mastaba.

Seeing Basim's safe conduct as their first priority in his subroutines, Id10T would suggest taking Basim to the nearest mile-house - roughly an hour north of their current position. They then spent the rest of the evening preparing for any combat ahead.

I'm still getting a hold on Challenge Rating.

(art below sourced from google until we get miniatures for the party)

 

[Lord-Marcus]

I've been super busy. I will post session 3 ASAP this weekend.

Tonight, we have session 4

 

[Imrahil]

I've been super busy. I will post session 3 ASAP this weekend.

Tonight, we have session 4

Have fun!

Grrr, !mrahil

 

[Lord-Marcus]

Have fun!

Grrr, !mrahil

oh we did.

Lola, our Harengon (rabbit) paladin, munching on a carrot from her supplies while lounging... "The Kid's got a point."

ID10T, our robot Cleric, turning his head to look at the Kenku (Crowman) rogue seconds after a dart impaled his chest "Aren't you supposed to be doing something?"

In response after a check for traps "Oh...Yea, there's a dart trap ahead."

 

[Lord-Marcus]

Part 3: the Mastaba

When last we left our intrepid heroes, they had secured their employer Basim, his additional cart driver/guard, and the two carts at the nearest mile house.

After this, and making sure they were ready, they retraced their steps to the site of the caravan battle, and afterwards followed the map to the mastaba.

For those of you unaware, a mastaba is a flat topped Egyptian tomb structure with shafts from the roof into the tomb themselves. They usually have a low retaining wall at a distance from the structure itself.

There were bandits posted outside the structure, but it looked like very few of them for a hideout.

After a quick encounter, these bandits were neutralized and their ears taken for the reward with Captain Ibrahim.

During the fighting, Lola had noticed a hole roughly broken open in the side of the mastaba. While the majority of the party went in through this entrance Munin clambered onto the roof and eventually descended through the opening. "Queued to the mission impossible theme" and giving a thumbs up as he passed another roughly hewn hole (this time broken into the funerary shaft he was descending through.)

The remainder of the party explored the upper floor. The walls were covered in an odd runic script and wall art depicting a figure wielding a flaming orb and wearing kingly regalia. None of them could read the script. There were also two statues in seated positions, one of white marble apparently depicting the tombs occupant, and the other of black stone depicting the orb wielder. His flesh was carved as dessicated and decayed.

Exploring the bottom of the tomb shaft, munin found several mummified corpses sitting in kneeling positions with their arms. Crossed. He also found several boxes which look to be entombed life goods. He took a khopesh +1 from these boxes.

The rest of the party descended from the first floor. Id10Ts bulk alerted the bandit captain, who was conversing with a wizard-like figure through a purple portal.

Upon alert, the bandit captain turned to face them, the portal closed, and 4 of the tombs mummified servant corpses arose in unison. All attacked, and all were dealt with.

One of the zombies was wearing what turned out to be a helm of comprehend languages. There were two other magical scrolls among the loot: let's scroll over viable fire and another scroll which I cannot remember. Offhand. I will have to look at my notes when I get home from where I am.

Wyatt had taken an etching of the wall art in the floor above and presented this to id10t who had donned the helm of comprehend languages. I will post the text he deciphered in my next post.

Finished with the mastaba, the party returned to the mile house to find it burning, The carts stolen, and the inhabitants butchered. Basim was still alive but had to had his left leg cut off. Id10t stabilized the merchant, will begin to argue with the robot and the rest of the party for leaving him alone. Apparently a party of the bandits had attacked the mile house while they had been gone.

During this exchange munin searched and sampled drugs basim had stashed on his person. These turned out to be magical. One a liquid, one a powder.

While the war force declared was still arguing with their employer, Wyatt callously ran up and decapitated the merchant, decrying his argument as chaotic and saying that it he had felt it needed to stop.

At the death of Basim, we closed for the evening and would pick up in session 4. The party also leveled up after their infiltration and displacement of whatever the red hand bandits were up to in the mastaba.