Waterdeep : Dragon Heist

After the fast-paced excitement of Hope's Last Day, we slowed things down a little and returned to D&D 5e. We did not play in our usual Saltmarsh campaign, but went back to 2nd level to start a new campaign in Waterdeep. Again, we were six players and a DM until around half-way through when a couple of the players had to head off home.

Characters - I will update as and when I can...

G : Wizard - (left early)

J : Fighter - (left early)
Erlathan Sylmaer (Ranger)
Rexius Trannyth (Bard)
Zorrion Oakwood (Rogue)
Theratis Wyrmsbane (Cleric)

The new campaign module - Waterdeep

We had been travelling through the Troll Swamps for several days, cold, tired, hungry and in need of a good rest, when lights were spotted in the distance. We had, at last, arrived at our destination - the town of Waterdeep.

The first tavern we came to was the Yawning portal, where we grabbed a table and some well-deserved food and ale. Whilst enquiring about the massive hole in the middle of the floor, which was rumoured to be an entrance to the underworld, or maybe just the sewers depending upon you outlook, a bar-room brawl broke out. The well-oiled machine of the City Watch came in, crashed a few heads together, and carted off the guilty parties. As we enquired about getting work, the barkeep pointed us in the direction of a fellow named Volo, a writer and purveyor of books about monsters, at the far end of the bar, but before we could get there, a troll and a flock of stirges emerged from the aforementioned deep hole.

The barkeep kept the troll at bay whilst we eliminated the stirges and then we returned to help with the troll, but the majority of the tavern's patrons had left quickly by the door. Volo, the only other person who did not leave the tavern, noticed our competence and offered us a job as we looked like we could handle ourselves in a tight pinch. We were to track down a chap named Flum Blagma, who was kidnapped a few nights ago.

Our enquiries took us to a variety of places and we were able to pick up a few clues; Flum was with the younger Lord Neverember on the night of his disappearance, both were dressed the same, Neverember left the tavern before Flum, both were followed by people in black robes as they left the establishment, Flum was accosted by the Xantharum crew. At one point during our investigations, we noticed three ruffians watching us. We followed them only to come across the results of an alleyway skirmish, but we were ushered away by the Watch.

At the docks we gathered a few more clues; the Xantharum crew marked their properties with a yellow chalked eye symbol. Looking around we found an old warehouse that bore that symbol. Opposite the warehouse was a little curiosity shoppe, where we managed to get more details of the kidnapping after purchasing a few trinkets from the proprietor. So, we recrossed the street and entered the premises, the gate was unlocked after all, to look around.

Our rogue picked the lock on the main door and we slid inside only to find the main warehouse room to be full of boxes, crates, and a dozen dead Xantharum cultists. From the bodies we managed to procure a few weapons and a bag of silver coins, but we were interrupted by three small creatures (Kenku). The bird-like kidnappers yelled out that there was nothing to fear, but our wizard responded to their obvious ruse by yelling back that of course we had nothing to fear from budgie smugglers. The melee was short and bloody.

The budgie smugglers (Kenku)

A search of the rooms in the upper storey of the premises didn't reveal much except a paper origami bird, a pouch of gold coins, thousands of shipping rosters and a couple of alarm bells (we snipped their chords).

We returned downstairs to investigate the only room left - the one under the stairs. The small room was full of linen and rugs etc. under which we found Renier Neverember. The Xantharum cultists had taken him instead of Flum due to a case of mistaken identity. As a reward, he gave us a key that didn't fit any of the rooms in the warehouse, but we pocketed it anyway. At this point, the ever vigilant City Watch had been called and had filed into the warehouse to investigate what was going on. We explained all that had happened and the leader upon hearing that we wanted to find Flum gave us directions to a sewer entrance and a bag of Healing potions - he said that we would need them.

We entered the sewer system via a marked entrance in Shark Street. We splashed along a corridor and stopped at a junction with a large column that supported the roof and a couple of arrow slits. To the north-west was a ledge with a stone door.

We managed to duck under the arrow slits and get to the door without being shot full of arrows and bolts, and found that the key that Renier Neverember gave us turned the lock.

After passing through an obvious armoury we arrived at one of the rooms that held an arrow slit overlooking the sewer outside. The sleeping goblin that was supposed to be on guard was quietly dispatched. Moving along further we came to a small barracks room with another sleeping guard. He too was quietly dealt with, as was the grey ooze that had previously taken a couple of goblins for supper.

The final room was fairly long with a raised dais at the end. In the centre of the room, an orc was torturing Flum whilst being watched by what appeared to be a Mind Flayer and an Intellect Devourer. We froze in horror knowing how powerful such beings were, but after a few moments the Mind Flayer left the room via a wall covering/curtain.

The sewers of Waterdeep

The sewers of Waterdeep from a different perspective

The melee was brief, with the end result being that the orc was defeated and the Intellect Devourer was stamped under foot by the ranger. Flum was untied and rescued. A quick look around the room revealed a small chest behind the throne on the dais that contained a number of coins and a few potions of Healing. Behind the curtain was revealed a room with a hovering sphere with ten rays radiating from it. We just noticed that the Mind Flayer from the previous room had just fiddled with a stone and disappeared into a void that the process opened. We did not follow.

We returned to the Yawning Portal tavern and handed Flum over to Volo. Volo skirted the issue of our payment until we demanded it of him, but all he could promise was a run-down three-storey building in Troll Skull Alley. We were not happy but accepted it none-the-less, but were pleased when the notary sorting out the deal mentioned that when done up it could be worth a lot more than the gold we were offered for the job.

The following day we paid a visit on Lord Neverember to check in on Renier who we rescued, but no reward was forthcoming. The City Watch also only passed a few coins our way and thanked us for our diligent work as we told them about the sewer complex and what we had seen.

At this point two of our players had to leave.

Over the next few weeks we began to renovate our new house and discovered that the origami bird was a magical device where we could write a message on it, say the recipients name and it would deliver the message to them and return once read.

One day we got a knock at the door from the City Watch requesting that we attend the High Magistrate immediately. Upon arrival we are ushered into the High Magistrate's presence to be told that one of the other magistrates has been turned in to a rat and she was needed back urgently. We would need to head to the graveyard to recover a staff that could accomplish this.

We left straight away, the lure of 500 gold crowns being quite the enticer, and eventually found the Lord Greyforce mausoleum in the out of town graveyard. We opened the iron gated entrance and entered the tomb to discover a number of urns and a large stone coffin dedicated to the great wizard Nashblack. We slid the top off the coffin aside and climbed down the spiral staircase within.

At the bottom of the staircase was a large room, in the centre of which was a pedestal with the letters N, E, S and W written on raised disks at the appropriate cardinal points. Our rogue pressed down onto the S disk and was immediately transported off somewhere. Not wanting to be left behind, we all followed suit despite not knowing whether he had just been disintegrated for his troubles.

We ended up in a dark room with a large stone statue holding a sword and shield. This came to life as we approached it and we had to fight for our lives to overcome the guardian. We eventually defeated it and it crumbled to dust revealing a disc with a zig-zag design on it, which we picked up. Two doors were also revealed upon the guardian's defeat.

We exited the northern door only to find ourselves in a similar situation, only there were two statues this time. Again we fought the guardians and caused them to crumble revealing another graven disk and two more doors.

As we were now very badly battered and in need of recovery, we took a long rest and decided to carry on once we had recovered our strength.

After our rest we went through the north door of this chamber as the south door didn't open. The next room revealed another stone statue, as did a fourth room - an encounter with a stone Beholder. We now had four discs with varying symbols on them and knew how the chambers and doors worked.

Within the tomb

After we exited the fourth room with the Beholder statue we ended up back in the first chamber with the N, E, S, W pedestal. We deduced that the discs we had picked up in the other rooms would need to be placed upon the pedestal in the correct order. We gathered they were relevant to each direction and guessed first time - the pedestal began to grate its way open to reveal another descending spiral staircase.

The chamber at the bottom of this staircase was almost identical to the one above except the symbols on its pedestal were linked to the elements, and there were four mirrors in the room; one at each cardinal point.

As we had the gist of what was going on by now, we looked into the first mirror and got transported to a small room containing an air elemental. We fought this being, and like before, when it was defeated, a small white/grey disc appeared on the floor and a mirror appeared on the north wall. We headed on straight through the mirror and encountered an earth elemental. This fight took most of our strength so we took another long rest before continuing onwards with our newly found green/brown disc.

After our recuperation we stepped to the next mirror only to find that the room beyond contained a small earth elemental. We fought this being but got no disc for our troubles. A quick think resulted in us working out what had happened; the rooms had all begun to regenerate their defeated occupants and  had moved round ninety degrees. We fought our way through the last of the elemental rooms to collect the rest of the four discs and got transported back to the first mirrored room with the pedestal. 

Again, we put the discs onto the pedestal in the correct order and the plinth opened to reveal a golden staff. We picked up the staff, wedged open the pedestal just in case and climbed the staircase out of there. We then passed through the upper chamber and emerged back into the crypt.

Pleased with ourselves, we left the crypt in a joyful mood, only to bump into a bent-over wizard with a rat in a cage. The old man, who was familiar to us from somewhere, asked us for the sceptre so that he could change the rat back to a person again. We naively handed over the sceptre and the old wizard duly slammed it onto the ground and released the rat from the cage. The rat turned into a dark-haired male individual, not a female as we were told, and snapped the neck of the wizened man. He then demanded our subservience and, to our shame, we all cowered in fear except for our Ranger who fought the charlatan. We each eventually overcame our fear and joined the melee, and finally defeated the black-haired man by weight of numbers. We reclaimed the staff and two potions of Healing, a pouch of coins and two small candles from the old man's knapsack. After hiding the bodies, we headed back into town to see the High Magistrate.

It turned out that the real High Magistrate, the woman who had supposedly been turned into a rat, had been out of town for a short period of time and that we had been hoodwinked into getting the staff. The old fellow was her scribe but she was unaware who the other man was. She asked us to return the staff to where it came from and that as a reward we could keep anything we found in the scribe's house. This turned out to be a rather splendid magical short sword, a magical quill and ink well and a gold ring with an emerald in it. There was also a ledger detailing more about the family Nashblack.

Alien - Hope's Last Day

This weekend we tried a new RPG/boardgame - Alien. The RPG is from Free League Publishing, who produce many great RPGs including The One Ring, Dragonbane, Mork Borg and Symbaroum to name but a few. This game is a one-off scenario that details the final hours of Hadley's Hope as it falls victim to the xenomorph incursion depicted in the film Aliens. Six players sat around the gaming table to suffer the stress testing of our GM.

Alien RPG - Hope's Last Day

The game is very much based on the mounting stress a character undergoes as a scenario plays out, using a very neat d6 mechanism to portray the stress and what can be achieved whilst under the influence of fear.

Another promo picture of the adventure

Anyway, onto the scenario, which takes place on the mining colony of Hadley's Hope - LV426 (from the log of Samuel Sung - mechanic)...

Dramatis Personae (to be edited as and when I get further information)...

G : Science Officer

J : ?
K : Chief mechanic
M : Samuel Sung (Mechanic)
R : Base team leader
W : ?

The grinding sound that came from the underside of the tractor got worse as we headed away from Hadley's Hope. We were ten clicks out when the drive train gave up altogether. We tried to call base but all we got was static on the comms.

As it was no good trying to carry on, and we were closer to home than our destination, we decided that we would suit up and walk back to Hadley's Hope. The walk was wearing on some of our number due to the harsh weather and terrain, but we all made it back in one piece.

The South Gate looked OK on our arrival although it was closed; the green light was on but things were very quiet. We pressed the button and opened the door, noticing a strange clear, sticky substance on the hand rail of the entrance.

Inside the base, the lights were flickering, a sure sign that the main generator was experiencing issues. As we stepped over the threshold, we noticed that the main entrance floor grid had a massive corroded hole in it - it looked like the corrosion also affected several levels below. We found a few cones from the storage rooms to either side and marked it off as unsafe and proceeded to enter the base, closing the door behind us to shut out the worst of the weather.

Whilst exploring the Geolab, Sterile Lab and the Survey Office, we noticed that there were many half-drunk, still warm cups of coffee and half-eaten donuts - meaning that the rooms were probably only abandoned thirty minutes ago. Some of the team were hungry, so they gathered what sustenance they could and ate their fill. We also noticed a lamp on the floor of the Sterile Lab with a little blood on it, and an air vent that looked like it had exploded inwards in the Survey Office had some of that clear goo smeared on it.

We left J in the Survey Office whilst the rest of us headed towards the stairs (we didn't trust the lifts what with the current electrical issues). He returned to us very quietly and with a shocked, pale face to tell us that in a chair in the corner of the office by one of the computer terminals he noticed a dead body - the face was half-missing - but the person was identifiable as Miranda Reynolds, a Weyland-Yutani executive, from her pass card.

We made it to half-way up the stairs when the lights suddenly went out completely. This caused a few of the team to cry out but the emergency lighting kicked in a few moments later.

It was as the emergency lights began to switch on that the movement tracker carried by R sprang into life; there was movement in the ducts above us. We tried to get a bearing on it but as we passed the morgue, the movement stopped.

We managed to get to Ops without any further incidents but found that all of the systems were dead. A quick tweak managed to get the CCTV working but everywhere we looked was dark and we could make out very little except for a shroud-covered body on the table in the morgue and a brief glimpse of a humanoid shape that moved in the surgery room along with a worm-like thing.

Once we got a few more terminals up and running we were able to interrogate the system to see what had happened. We were able to ascertain that the Ops manager reported 34 people missing, many staff were locked in their rooms and that there were three or four creatures on the loose. We all looked at each other at this point and wondered whether the things that we saw on the CCTV were these creatures. We tracked the identity chips implanted into everyone's bodies who work here only to find that almost all were located by the heat exchangers - had they gone there to hide? K and I began to weld the vents to the room shut as we were a bit skittish about the mention of creatures on the loose and the movements within the ducts displayed on the tracker earlier.

It was also reported that Weyland-Yutani staff were present; Miranda Reynolds and Theodora Kominska. We had found Miranda but there had been no sign of anyone else so far. Theodora had made an entry in the station log stating that a parasite had been removed from a person's face, but the person had died. The specimen was in a suspended animation tube in the Stasis Room.

As the Stasis Room and med lab were close by we decided to go take a look but picked up more motion on the tracker in the maintenance centre, in the morgue and the med lab. Suddenly, one of the welded air-duct covers flew open and there were some massive bangs on the door to Ops, but as the cameras were down for the corridor outside we could not see what was causing it. K began to weld the door shut to keep whatever it was out there as the door began to buckle. The route to the med lab was easiest so we headed there only to find the room in an absolute mess; a large egg shaped thing was settled on the floor, a metal table was half-melted and two legs stuck out from below it.

As we looked at the legs, we noticed that whoever they belonged to was still alive; it was Theodora Kominska. She was in a frightful state and R, the only other woman in the team, had to slap her to get her out of her hysteria as nothing else would work. Whilst Theodora was being administered to we investigated the egg and looked for other ways out of the lab. The egg seemed to have something moving around in it. It was only when Theodora was fully removed from under the table that we noticed another opened egg was under there with her.

Whilst I was waiting to see what we would do next, some of that clear goo we had seen earlier dripped onto me as I was stood under one of the air ducts. This, and the fact that the banging at the Ops door had stopped gave us the wherewithal to make for the other exit from the room only for it to suddenly burst open. K slammed it shut again and locked it whilst we decided what to do. A small xenomorph ran around the room, over the table and disappeared into an air duct. It all went quiet.

Taking Theodora by the hand K exited the room with a curse and headed towards the stairs to get out of the base and away from the danger. Unfortunately, the large xenomorph that had been banging on the Ops room door only moments ago returned from the stairwell at that same moment. R shot at it with her bolt gun but the xenomorph shrugged off the projectiles. W was stood rooted to the spot so I took the only other weapon we had from him and shot the creature again. The xenomorph grabbed R and then, with some weird internal mandible, ripped her face off. This caused J and G to run away in terror (J to the Maintenance Centre and G back into the med lab).

Part-way through the scenario we are attacked by a xenomorph

It was at this point that the way was clear for K, W and I to run past the xenomorph whilst it dealt with Theodora in its grisly manner. Luckily, K had grabbed Theodora's pass card on the way out of the lab, so we could get onto the shuttle parked a short distance away on the landing pad.

The three of us got downstairs without any further incidents, and to the main entrance when there was a massive explosion from the Ops centre. G had managed to set off a seismic charge to blow out the windows in order to escape, but the only place he had to go was the roof.

We found a number of tractors outside in order to drive to the landing pad, but it took a few attempts to get one of them going. Just as we pulled away we saw G on the roof being attacked by several small xenomorphs, and a basic synthetic droid at the main South Door. We did not wait for it as we drove to the landing pad.

The gateway to the pad was locked so W got out and went into the gatehouse in order to try to open the gate just as another tractor smashed straight through it. W quickly jumped back onto the tractor and we followed what turned out to be J and the aforementioned android to the pad itself. We had to climb the metal steps to the pad above us but just as we got to the level top several of the small alien creatures jumped us. I was at the back so most of them got onto me and the android but K, W and J got into the shuttle.

This was when my main directive cut in. I had to save the xenomorphs at all costs, so I picked up two of them and flung them into the slowly closing airlock ramp without any of the ship's inhabitants knowing. I then tried to shoot out the windows of the shuttle with the bolt gun I had picked up but the plexi-glass was too tough.

I watched the shuttle take off knowing that I had secured two xenomorphs aboard, and the base was now overrun by them. The company would be pleased with my work.

Addendum: It turned out K was also an artificial person, and when the shuttle took off, with only two stasis couches, he volunteered to not go into one. W and J got into their couches and perished at the hands of K who found a nest of xenomorphs already aboard the shuttle.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh (#27) - The Spire III

Day 61 - continued

After waiting a minute or so at the ready, the threat did not materialise. Confused, at the no-shows, we set about returning to the entrance room to see what had happened to those that set off the silent alarm. We advanced cautiously, but when we got there we found nothing but footprints in the blood from the previous fight.

We decided to carry on with our scouting mission as we didn't have nearly enough information yet, but headed south this time. We entered a large room with two sub-chambers to the north. The main room was an armoury of some sort as it contained a large array of weapons (at least 120 spears, tridents and war hammers) and benches upon which to prep for war. The two northerly rooms were full of other war accoutrements; belts, buckles, straps and so on, along with hides, leathers and studs for making armour.

As there was not much in the way of loot (except a bit more of that glowing blue seaweed and some more shells - which we pocketed just in case), we headed south again into a very large chamber with a few extra rooms in it. There were several pillars holding up the vaulted ceiling and all the walls, and floors, like the rest of the complex, were made with quality stone. The three smaller rooms contained what looked like accoutrements for leaders - there were fewer beds and benches in them, but all were in complete disarray. These side-rooms were also, strangely, not as good quality as the main rooms.

Again, finding nothing of interest, we decided to complete the circuit back to the room with the sledge hammer and caskets of seaweed. Whilst milling around trying to figure out what was going on, Drakkon, our fighter on look-out duty, thought that he heard a groaning sound coming from the southern corridor.

Navda investigated the sound and returned to us saying that there was a room to the south with several Sahuagin milling about; including a couple of types we had not encountered before, and the room had three arches leading out of it. From his vantage he couldn't see much more. We decided to go and investigate and also maybe try to find out what the groaning noise could be.

We were spotted as we got towards the end of the dark corridor, and arrows and magic began to flow in both directions. One of the Sahuagin priestesses cast a Spiritual Weapon at Gladreth, which annoyed her royally. Not messing around, she Fireballed the entire room. This had the desired effect and we were able to mop up the survivors in short shrift.

Map of the dungeon under the spire

A Prayer of Healing or two returned most of us back to full strength, so that we could explore our new surroundings. We scouted each archway to see where they might lead and followed the sound of the groaning into the northern chamber via another portcullis system.

This opened out into a long room supported by four large pillars, behind one of which was a chained up human. There was a bowl of some foul smelling brown gruel in front of him, and upon investigation we found a huge trough of the stuff in the south corner of the chamber. The man wore spectacles and had ripped trews. It turns out that he was a member of one of the previous adventuring bands sent to investigate the tower but he had been captured and tortured. We tried to Heal him so we could get him out of there, but none of our spells or potions seemed to work. However, it did take him out of his trance-like state enough to answer a few of our questions.

Apparently to the south-west there was an underwater city with hundreds of Sahuagin inhabitants led by a powerful priestess. It would need specialist underwater equipment to get there, but his comrades had managed to acquire some to which he gave us directions. Unfortunately, the rest of his party were captured or killed there.

As we felt bad for the man, we freed him from his chains and tried to move him to his feet, but a gush of black-red fluid erupted from his mouth all over Navda. The man fell to the floor - dead.

Gaming Weekend 2 - Alien and D&D 5e

This weekend just gone, I was invited for a second weekender gaming session with my fellow D&D Thursday Nighters. This time round we got to play a couple of different games away from the ongoing Saltmarsh campaign. First off, we immersed ourselves into the sci-fi genre with an Alien RPG/boardgame, before returning to the fantasy realms with the first section of another D&D 5e adventure; but this time with some pre-generated characters.

For both games we had a GM and six players, although towards the end of the D&D adventure we lost two of the players and had to continue on without them. Unfortunately, I was unable to get a list of the character names, so I will have to refer to them either by their class or player's initial in this summary write-up. Hopefully, the DM can supply me with a list of the characters in each game and I will be able to add them to the after action reports on these soon; right after the write-up of last Thursday's Saltmarsh outing.

The Alien RPG/boardgame was called something like Hope's Last Day, and it involved a bunch of terra-formers trying to make sense of what happened to their home base when they returned from an aborted mission to the out. They returned to Hadley's Hope a few days before the colonial marines arrived on the scene; they are the last survivors (other than those in the Aliens film), and this is their last few hours. We each played a character that had their own agenda for the final few hours of the colony's existence.

Hadley's Hope LV-426 is the scene for this RPG/boardgame

The Alien game's characters were all pre-generated handouts:

G : Science Officer

J : ?
K : Chief mechanic
M : Samuel Sung (Mechanic)
R : Base team leader
W : ?

The D&D adventure was the first part of the Waterdeep : Dragon Heist campaign. Our characters were all 2nd level for this game. If we take this forward, we will most likely rename, or at least amend, the names of our characters.

Waterdeep - a new D&D 5e campaign

The D&D game's characters were also pre-generated:

G : Wizard - (had to leave early)

J : Fighter - (had to leave early)
K : Ranger
M : Rexius Trannyth (Bard)
R : Zorrion Oakwood (Rogue)
W : Cleric

Next up should be the latest Saltmarsh campaign session, followed by write-ups of the Alien and Waterdeep adventures.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh (#26) - The Spire II

Day 61 - Continued 

Navda, our trusty rogue, was quick off the mark with a well-placed arrow-shot that brought down the first of our assailants, before the main melee was joined. Our fighters, Druss, Drakkon and Dharion, went toe-to-toe against the three remaining Sahuagin. It was a bloody affair that required the use of my Healing skills, but the fighters dominated the combat and won through quite quickly with the aid of Navda's archery skills and Gladreth's magic.

There were three exits from this chamber, and after taking a quick peek along each corridor, east, west and south, we decided to travel eastwards. Dharion set an Alarm to alert him of any being that passed through that room.

After a short while, we came across a side chamber that was different to the rest of the complex; rather than the usual very well-dressed white marble that was throughout the complex so far, this room was completely covered in dark green tiles. It contained four coffers, one of which glowed blue, and a well-worn sledgehammer. Not knowing what this all meant, we just opened the coffers and took a look at the contents. One contained a pile of white sea-shells, two contained plain green and red-brown seaweed and the blue-glowing casket contained a blue-glowing seaweed. All of the seaweed was damp to the touch but not sodden. We pocketed a small amount of each.

Inside the Spire

Whilst the rest of the party investigated the chamber, Dharion and I were supposed to be watching the corridors. Unfortunately, my attention must have been elsewhere as I completely missed seeing the true-thrown spear from the southern corridor that hit me. Three Sahuagin warriors followed straight after.

I retreated into the room to nurse my wound and the fighters stepped forward to block the entrance. Druss took the first Sahuagin warrior down very quickly and then Drakkon joined the fray. Unfortunately another Sahuagin warrior, very well armed and armoured, joined the melee from the south, and Dharion was sorely pressed in the northern part of the corridor as a few more Sahuagin warriors attacked him; for some unknown reason he missed the Alarm that he had set in the last chamber we left.

Navda, shot his trusty bow from the shadows and managed to take down another one of the warriors, and Dharion's retreat from the Sahuagin in the north part of the corridor brought him face-to-face with the armoured Sahuagin warrior. He didn't break stride as he slew the champion and joined us in the room.

The last part of the melee was a bit of a blur. I cast a Prayer of Healing on my compatriots whilst they dispatched the rest of the Sahuagin warriors: Gladreth with a series of Magic Missiles, Navda with his bow, and Druss and Drakkon with their trusty swords.

After the melee we paused to catch our collective breaths, but just as we thought that we should get out of there, the padding of feet and war cries filled the air from the south, and Dharion's Alarm screamed at him that more warriors were on their way from the north. So much for sneaking in and out unnoticed.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh (#25) - The Spire I

Last night we managed to get together to start on the next chapter of the Saltmarsh campaign. It was a two-part session as we levelled up (to 6th level) part-way through - we will most definitely need that HP and skills boost if any of our past dice rolls and luck are anything to go by.

Day 60

It was inevitable that our days of rest and recuperation would come to an end. We were summoned to a secret council meeting in the marsh where the underlying threat to the lands around us was discussed. It was a long moot session, with the local lizardman and merfolk populations also involved; hence the location. Although we were there primarily to be on guard, we did pick up on the gist of the meeting; none of the local populations were involved in this threat - it seemed, from the evidence gathered, that there was a threat from a band of Sahuagin raiders.

Day 61

Just as we thought that we would not be called upon to act in this latest kerfuffle, we were summoned by the mayor of Saltmarsh to a council meeting. The town hall was heaving with dignitaries, guards, adventurers and general members of the town, when we got there, and we were announced to loud cheers. The mayor took us off to a side room to discuss the latest plans. From the meeting held in the marshes yesterday it was ascertained that a large Sahuagin insurgency had taken up residence in the swamp to the south, and the threat needed to be observed and calculated so an appropriate reaction and defence could be formulated. We would be needed to go to the encampment, a tower in the swamplands about an hour's journey south of the marsh border, and observe enemy movements, numbers, armaments and so on and then report these details back to the council within a two day period.

After some negotiation we settled on a suitable level of recompense and requested a restock of supplies, ammunition and means of getting there. We were given all we needed as well as a crude map for directions and a keel boat with two guards to take us here.

The journey only took a few hours to get to the drop-off point, where our guides told us to return to the following day at dusk. They would not wait for us either at this point or when it came to the pick up - we would be on our own. This would give us a little over a day in which to find the tower, reconnoitre the base and return with our information.

Luckily, the map showed our path would be along a wooden walkway that headed due south through the marshlands. This made the going quite easy despite the thick mists laying around about. After about an hour, the temperature dropped quite dramatically and the fog thickened. We began to notice small lights moving through the fog in the distance that winked in and out of sight on occasion, and the muddy ground to the side of the path showed the occasional set of footprints, that could have been from Sahuagin or, perhaps, crocodiles.

It was at this point that Dharion and Navda decided to scout ahead just in case we were heard; especially me in my heavy armour. After about an hour the scouts returned. The sun was beginning to wane meaning we only had a few more hours of daylight left to get to the tower and investigate what we could. They reported that what appeared to be the tower was only a short distance away, and that the flickering lights were torches carried by pairs of well-armed Sahuagin sentries - they had worked out the sentries' patrol patterns.

The Spires of Saltmarsh

We made our plans to infiltrate the tower and, when the guards had moved away from the man entrance, we headed for the large ledge upon which the smooth stone doors were ensconced. It took our rogue, Navda, but a few moments to work out how to open the doors and we made our way safely inside. It was pitch black, so I cast Light on a number of objects to help those of us in the party without infravision to see. 

Unfortunately, the Sahuagin in the room were waiting for us and attacked without mercy. We were stunned to begin with but soon took the guards down before any of them could sound the alarm on the large gong in the room. After the melee, we moved the bodies into a corner, out of sight, and mopped up the blood. We also disabled the gong and closed the entrance doors.

The walls and floor of the inside of the tower were very well made and not as rough as the outside of the tower would have us believe. We readied ourselves again and headed to the south as that was the only way that we could see to go. Unfortunately, the way was blocked by a heavy wicker portcullis. However, there was a mechanism on both sides of the portal that allowed us to raise it high enough for us all to pass under it. A counter-weight kept it in position so it did not fall back to the ground and block the corridor again.

Map of the Spire

Just as we began to pass under the wicker portcullis, we were made aware of several more Sahuagin in the room beyond. We would be in for another fight.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh (#24) - The Isle of the Abbey V

Thursday's gaming session was a relatively short one as we managed to complete this particular campaign section. If our rolls weren't so dire in all of the other encounters prior to this session we would have got here much sooner. I have never known so many sub-5 rolls (and more 1's than pretty much anything else) in a campaign. These dire rolls meant that not only did encounters take probably three to four times as long to play out than they should have done, but we went through all of our spell slots, and had several character KO's in each session meaning we had to take so many long rests to recover. I am dreading the next part of the campaign as, apparently, the danger level ramps up for us. TPK in the first session?

Day 52 - continued

The two figures within the heat-hazed room looked like they were made of iron; a smooth round ball of a head upon broad, squat shoulders. These beings were not tall but were powerfully built. The addition of a sword and hammer in place of arms and hands made for awe inspiring enemies.

Most of us still carried injuries from the previous encounters, and we were pretty much depleted magic-wise prior to this encounter, but Gladreth, Dharion and I still, thankfully, had one or two spells left each.

The fighters stormed straight into the room and attacked the metal beings but were sorely pressed and often knocked prone due to the strength of the metal constructs. The rest of us piled on missile pressure from our bows and slings, taking small chunks out of their iron hides. The fighters hacked away and also caused many great clefts in the statues' metal skins.

On one occasion, one broke through the ring of fighters and got to the second rank where it proceeded to spin its top half to great effect; the sword and hammer causing great damage to those unlucky enough to be caught by them. A Prayer of Healing restored most of us to full health but the battle raged on.

At one point I yelled out to Gladreth to use her Magic Missiles. She cast the spell within the next few moments and the first of the constructs, the one that had begun the spinning attack, finally fell with a loud clang.

A short while later, Gladreth spotted that the second iron golem had just run its top half into a spin whilst fighting Druss and Drakkon. Thinking that it too must be close to being destroyed, she cast her final Magic Missile spell and that one also fell to the floor with a clang.

Not knowing what dangers were still lurking, Dharion and I used our last spells to heal some of those most sorely injured, whilst Navda tested all of the chests and boxes for traps. After the healing was completed and all the chests were checked, we opened them to reveal a great hoard of treasures, that included gold coins, gems, jewellery, potions, fine armour, bolts of fine silk and a wondrous Bag of Holding.

The Abbey Dungeon in full

Not knowing how much more of this dungeon lay ahead of us, we traced our steps back towards the main entrance via the northern corridor. We discovered several more traps, but this time no-one succumbed to them. We had finally searched the entire maze and rid it of all dangers.

A few days later we returned to town and claimed our 2000 Gold Crown reward from the Mariners Guild. They were happy with the job we had done and set out straight away to begin building a new lighthouse and fortress on the island.

We hung around the town's taverns and inns telling our tales of daring and generally relaxing after all the troubles we had been through. We gathered though that it would not be long before we were called upon again to rid the town of some new danger.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh (#23) - The Isle of the Abbey IV

Thursday last week, we were able to continue with the online Saltmarsh campaign. It has taken a little longer than normal to get the session written up as a lot of real life got in the way over the weekend. Anyway, on with the show...

Day 52

We rested well for the rest of the day and then overnight but everyone had a nagging feeling that things were still going to be rough for us. We retraced our steps back to the large crystal minotaur and continued to follow the southern corridor.

We wound up in a twisted maze of corridors with many more traps. Again, even though I trod as carefully as I could, I fell into a poison-spiked pit. Navda also fell foul of a trapped door that shocked him with a bolt of lightning when he tried to open it. It needed Gladreth to Dispel Magic on the door to enable us to get through it.

The other side of the door revealed a large, square chamber full of chests and scattered treasures. It was presided over, from the centre, by a jade green statue of a beautiful elf maiden.

Navda made a lasso and managed to cast it at one of the treasure chests scattered about the floor, so he would not have to enter the room to retrieve it. Unfortunately, even though his first cast was successful and he began to draw back the chest, it was too noisy and the jade statue's head turned. The elf maiden's visage turned into a hideous be-fanged vampiric demon.

Gladreth swiftly cast a Lightning Bolt at the jade being but it had little effect - maybe we should have heeded what happened to Navda when he attempted to open the door? We would be in for another tough fight again. This time I had the foresight to Bless our main fighters, which helped them in the combat. The statue was damaged severely, but not without it causing carnage on the fighters that required a Prayer of Healing to restore.

Unfortunately, the bites of this vampiric demon led to the blood of several of our party to begin to boil. Luckily Dharion and I were able to arrest its development before it caused serious issues for those affected.

With the demise of the jade demon we were able to search the room, but it turned out that all of the treasure was false - all the coins were base metal painted to look like gold and silver, and all the jewels were paste.

The open way northwards just led back to where we had come from, so we looked for another way out of the room. It had previously been affirmed by the acolyte Odim, although he had proven a liar with other things he had said, that there was a great treasure here, so we kept our hopes up that we would eventually be rewarded for our efforts.

Navda was rewarded for his efforts whilst searching the room for secret exits by finding a false door in the eastern wall. He disarmed the dart trap and opened it to reveal a corridor with a fine granite floor with golden veins running through it. We initially avoided the room directly ahead of us when we found that we could not open the door, but the door that was ajar at the southern end of the corridor looked promising.

The door was slightly ajar, so Navda and Gladreth carefully approached it. After listening intently at it for a while and checking it for traps, they pulled the door open only for the ceiling above to collapse upon them. I used up pretty much all the rest of my spells Healing them. It was only when things quietened down a bit that we began to hear a ticking sound coming from along the corridor.

A bit more of the dungeon below the ruined abbey

Navda and I thought that it may be yet another trap on some kind of timer so we advanced along the corridor as quickly as we could, narrowly avoiding another pit trap set in the south-eastern corner.

The northern end of the corridor ended at a wooden doorway from behind which we could hear the ticking sound. Navda disarmed a trap set on the door and when the portal was opened the ballista behind it was also permanently put out of use. The ticking sound came from a large clock that had a second hand that was ticking but the pendulum was not moving. Gladreth realised that the pendulum needed to be restarted in order to activate it again, so Drakkon reached out and got it back into motion.

Just as the pendulum began to swing, we heard a shout from the rest of the party still at the unopenable door that the door had actually just swung open. We hurried back to join the rest of the party and found that the chamber beyond the door contained two massive pillars. The floor was covered in bags and stuff but what mainly caught our attention, were the two shimmering figures that were moving around.

Midgard : Scenario 6 : Aftermath

This post is a brief summary of what happened in the last game of the campaign and how I felt the campaign panned out overall. I will also discuss a little about Midgard going forward for my various world settings (Britannia, Doggerland, Lord of the Rings etc.).

Midgard : Heroic Battles

The Final Reckoning scenario saw relatively few casualties on the British side compared to the Romans, but those that were casualties made for an interesting ending to the narrative overall.

On the Roman side, Caecilius Rufinus Pulcher was killed but the other two Roman heroes survived. The rest of the Roman army was reduced to just one unit of auxiliary spearmen, one scorpio battery and the onager - these would most likely not have survived another round of combat if the game had continued on.

The Britons lost relatively few units again, but the death of their army leader, Vellocatus, tipped the balance down to a Narrow Victory, thus securing the Britons fewer campaign victory points.

The Britons' losses (155pts):

• Vellocatus (47pts)
• 2x mounted warriors (32pts)
• 1x hounds (22pts)
• 2x Skyclad (32pts)
• 1x warriors 3 (22pts)

The Roman losses (189pts):

• Caecilius Rufinus Pulcher (43pts)
• 2x legionaries (68pts)
• 2x archers (58pts)
• 1x scorpio battery (20pts)

This final scenario made for a good ending to the campaign; the Romans won the campaign overall, but only narrowly. The objective was to get some troops home safe, and that was accomplished - but very nearly was not on a few occasions.

The scenarios, and numbers of troops available to fight in them, needed relatively little fudging to make them work together. I am going to mark this campaign as a successful one from that point of view. I will also mark it as a successful introduction for both myself and my son to the game of Midgard. My compliments to James Morris for writing a great game.

So, the campaign scenario order went thus...

1. Battle (book scenario 1) - played in May 2025
2. Encounter in the Mist (book scenario 4) - played in May 2025
3. None Shall Pass (book scenario 2) - played August 2025
4. Take the High Ground (book scenario 3) - played November 2025
5. Last Stand (book scenario 5) - played December 2025
6. The Final Reckoning (my own scenario) - played December 2025

Campaign take aways...

• A unit of Roman Legionaries is a very tough nut to crack, especially with the Spears as Tribute trait and a decent hero to lead them
• Being on a hill and having other units around to make those vital saving rolls when outnumbered is a massive boost for defending units
• The British units were numerous but quite brittle - Reputation got eaten up more quickly than I thought it would and games were soon over due to quick losses rather than tactics. Using a brittle force will require a bit more thought in future - at the end of at least two of the games the Britons were about to make the killing stroke but their Reputation ran out just prior to the plan coming to fruition

The future for Midgard in my gaming calendar

I will most definitely be using the game system in other settings as well as a few more Roman versus Britons/Celts games. I understand that a new, official, scenario book will be released for the game soon, so maybe those new scenarios can be used to tell the ongoing stories of Marius Pollux and Gaia Pomponia Thrax (a rename of this hero is on the cards after a very interesting discussion on the Lead Adventure Forum with member dadlamassu - here )?

As mentioned above, I am slowly de-icing my old setting of Doggerland - I have played numerous games and campaigns (play-by-email strategy games, AD&D etc.) in this setting over the years, and will be starting a fresh Five Leagues from the Borderlands campaign later this month. This will then, hopefully, lead on to a mini-campaign using the Midgard rules to move the world narrative on a little further for maybe another D&D campaign in the future?

I also have nigh on a thousand of Games Workshop's Lord of the Rings miniatures that are itching for more than Strategy Battle Game usage. I don't really have any completed armies, so that will be a task for me this year - to paint some miniatures for use in further games of Midgard.

In addition to the Lord of the Rings miniatures, I have several small forces of fantasy figures that need a bit of time on the table. These are part of another world I have in mind separate from Doggerland, Roman Britain and Middle Earth. More food for thought for those future battles and campaign world building.

Midgard : Scenario 6 : The Final Reckoning

It took a while but it is finally here - the last battle of the Midgard : Britannia campaign. This was played on New Year's Eve, and is the first game that I have played against an opponent; admittedly I had to teach my son how to play as we went along and he didn't get to choose his own forces, but it was nice that someone else took the decisions for the opposing side. We diced for who we would play - I got the Britons whilst my son got the Romans.

I have played all of the scenarios from the rule book, so this one needed to be a little different. It would still be an all or nothing battle, but with a couple of additional objectives laid on for the Britons to rescue something from their previous results (in order to allow them to still win the campaign from this game). There are a number of objectives that can add up to an additional 7 points so they don't have to have a Crushing Victory as well as meet all of the objectives to win the campaign overall.

So, each side still has the ability to win between 1 and 3 points depending upon the size of their victory in this scenario, but the Britons will also be able to earn extra points depending on what they can achieve...

• 3 points - if Vellocatus defeats Caecilius Rufinus Pulcher (either in single combat or if his unit destroys Caecilius's unit with him in it) and thus gets revenge for his father
• 1 point for each Roman leader/hero killed by the Britons (doesn't matter who does the killing)
• 1 point for finishing the battle prior to the end of Turn 8

This scenario depicts the survivors from Scenario 5 trying desperately to get to the safety of the last Roman fortification. This scenario has the stragglers situated half-way down the length of the table with the Britons chasing them from 4.5 ST behind and their reinforcements 4.5 ST ahead of them.

The Briton army (97/239=366pts):

• Vellocatus 3 (47pts)
• Maviloduus 2 (32pts)
• Aucissa 1 (18pts)
• 2x Warriors 3 (@22 = 44pts)
• 4x Warriors 2 (@17 = 68pts)
• 1x Slingers (10pts)
• 1x Archers (15pts)
• 2x Skyclad (@16 = 32pts)
• 2x Mounted Warriors (@16 = 32pts)
• 1x Hounds (22pts)
• 1x Female Warriors (16pts)

The Britons

Right wing: Maviloduus, 4x Warriors 2, Hounds, Female Warriors

Centre: Vellocatus, 2x Skyclad, 2x Warriors 3

Left wing: Aucissa, 2x Mounted Warriors, Archers, Slingers

The Roman army (85/220=305pts):

• Caecilius Rufinus Pulcher 3 (43pts)
• Gaia Pomponia Thrax 2 (21pts)
• Marius Pollux 2 (21pts) 
• 2x Legionaries (68pts) - one full strength the other = 2 Stamina
• 2x Auxiliary Archers (58pts) - one full strength the other = 2 Stamina
• 1x Auxiliary Spearmen (24pts) 
• 2x Scorpions (@20 = 40pts)
• 1x Onager (30pts)

The survivors from Scenario 5 being chased by the Britons

The Roman reinforcements

The reinforcements

Roman Stragglers: Marius Pollux, Gaia Pomponia, Legionaries (2 Stamina), Auxiliary Archers (2 Stamina)

Reinforcements: Caecilius Rufinus Pulcher, Legionaries, Auxiliary Archers, Auxiliary Spearmen, 2x Scorpio, Onager

The idea for this scenario was that the survivors from Scenario 5 are trying make it to the safety of their own lines before they are run down. I decided to up each unit's Stamina to 2 as I thought 1 Stamina would be just too low for them - this represents the addition of the last of the wounded and other stragglers from the cohort joining them on the final leg of the journey to the watchtower. Caecilius, being mounted, got to the watchtower ahead of the stragglers, called out the last of the cohort and waited in readiness to support their comrades when they arrived.

Once the Romans had retreated from the hilltop, Vellocatus, son of Bellicus, returned to the battlefield and searched for the body of his father. He found him atop a heap of Roman bodies; their shades would accompany him to the otherworld. Casting around he found the legendary sword that was always at Bellicus's side. Raising it to the heavens, he swore that he would avenge his father and drive the hated Romans from their lands.

In the meantime, Caecilius Rufinus Pulcher had hastened his last few remaining men to help any walking wounded to their feet and ordered them to march as quickly as possible to the final watchtower where help would be waiting for them. He placed his two most trusted centurions, Marius Pollux and Gaia Pomponia, in charge of the retreat whilst he jumped astride his horse and rode pell-mell to the watchtower.

As soon as he arrived, his sweating horse was quickly replaced and the three remaining units of Roman soldiers were called out to await the arrival of the last of the cohort. Once in position, the field artillery for the cohort was drawn up; an onager and two scorpio batteries.

Turn 1 (Reputation B10, R8):

It wasn't a long wait before the last two Roman units came into view. Unfortunately, they were being hotly pursued by the raging Britons. The mounted warriors closed very rapidly but were deterred from coming too close by the arrows of the Syrian archers. The fresh Roman contingent held onto their patience whilst they waited for their brothers-at-arms to join them.

Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo at the start of the game and at the end of the first turn. Suffice to say most units advanced rapidly (2 moves each with the aid of some Command Tests being bolstered) but a few of the more reluctant ones got left behind.

Turn 2 (Rep B10, R8):

The Britons carried on advancing as rapidly as they could. The cavalry caught up with the Syrian archers again and exacted revenge upon the shock retreat they had suffered earlier, wiping out the unit. Gaia Pomponia managed to extricate herself from the melee and continued her retreat towards the Roman lines.

Seeing what had happened to the archers, the Legionaries did an about face to prevent the same from happening to them just as the artillery let loose.

End of Turn 2

Roman losses = 1 unit Archers

Turn 3 (Rep B10, R4):

It was lucky that they did as the cavalry unit impacted the half-strength century at full pace. The legionaries withstood the impact, suffering a number of casualties, but the cavalry were defeated. British war dogs bayed for Roman blood as they launched themselves at the Roman spearmen taking a few warriors down.

Meanwhile, the Roman garrison advanced to help out the beleaguered legionaries in the centre of the field, which gave time for Gaia to join the Gallic archer unit. But the legionaries under Marius's command would have none of their glory taken away so took the fight to the skyclad unit directly in front of them. The Roman artillery were again able to show their accuracy by hitting the unit of hounds which caused them to retreat (I made a mistake here, one of this unit's Traits means they do not retreat from combat).

End of Turn 3

British losses = 1 unit cavalry

Turn 4 (Rep B8, R5):

The legionaries' minor victory was short-lived as the skyclad Britons pushed their attack and defeated them; Marius barely escaped with his life. The rest of the British lines advanced but the hounds did not fare so well against the Roman spears and were finally culled. The Roman artillery failed to find its mark against the rapidly approaching wave of hate and iron.

End of Turn 4

British losses = 1 unit hounds
Roman losses = 1 unit legionaries

Turn 5 (Rep B6, R1):

The British cavalry noticed that the Gallic archers had become detached from the Roman defensive lines and appeared to be isolated, so charged home. This was to be their undoing as they were destroyed as a functioning unit.

On the Roman left, the defeat of the hounds opened the way for the British warriors to make their charge against the Roman auxiliary spears, but they were repulsed. Recognising that they had to defeat a unit at a time, the Roman artillery consolidated their ire upon the skyclad but to very little effect.

End of Turn 5

British losses = 1 unit cavalry

Turn 6 (Rep B6 R1):

To avoid the wrath of the Roman war machines, the skyclad turned their fury upon the isolated Roman archers to their left. They attacked them with half of their number, but the other half were still available as targets and were destroyed by the combined power of the artillery.

Now that the skyclad were out of the way, Caecilius Rufinus spotted his chance to take out the newly appointed British leader. The fresh unit of legionaries plunged into the melee in the centre of the field, put many of the British elite to the gladius and injured Vellocatus in the process. Unfortunately Caecilius also took a wound in the process.

The Roman auxiliary spears, buoyed up by their repulsion of the British warriors renewed their attacks on that unit, but Maviloduus called upon a Favour of the Gods and was able to defeat that unit.

End of Turn 6

Roman losses = 1 unit Archers

British losses = 1 unit skyclad

Turn 7 (Rep B5 R1):

Now that the spearmen were out of their way, the warriors on the British right flank saw the opportunity to destroy the dreaded Roman artillery. One of the scorpio batteries was completely destroyed in this onslaught and then the warriors eyed the onager as their next target. But, before the warriors could get there, the onager sent forth one final volley of missiles to destroy the skyclad warriors attacking the Gallic archers.

The British archers engaged the weakened Roman archers hoping for more success than their naked brethren, but under Gaia Pomponia's command they proved to be a tough nut to crack. The Roman archers pushed the British skirmishers back.

Marius Pollux saw that the artillery was about to be rolled up by the huge numbers of British warriors on his left flank, so he moved some of the scorpio machines away from the main back line in order to support Gaia Pomponia before they were overrun.

Vellocatus was now aware that the man who killed his father was before him, and in a rage charged forward with his much reduced band of followers. All were cut down to a man, but not before he reiterated the dying words and actions of his father "Though I die, I smite thee". In his glee at defeating another major British leader, Caecilius Rufinus spurred his men on to attack the next band of elite British warriors in their path. Alas, for the Roman leader, these proved to be a fresh unit with vengeance on their mind. Caecilius and the last of the legionaries were cut down.

The loss of both leaders caused each side to halt hostilities and retreat from the fray. The Roman cohort had done it. They had just about survived the gruelling journey and killed off the main British antagonists from this area's tribe.

End of Turn 7

Roman losses = 1 scorpio unit, 1 unit legionaries, Caecilius Rufinus Pulcher

British losses = 1 unit skyclad, 1 unit warriors 3, Vellocatus

Final Tally (Rep B-2 R-6):

This seems to be a fitting ending to the game and campaign. Again, the Roman units proved extremely hardy and numbers were never really able to be brought to bear against them in a truly effective manner. The main British leaders have proven very tough in the previous games but my saving rolls have been poor for them in the last two games, and the Legendary Weapon has failed to cause any wounds. I was a little surprised that the Roman general was taken out, as this turned the Narrow Victory (1 point) over to the Britons.

The Britons also managed to secure a couple of their objectives:

• Kill Roman leaders - Caecilius Rufinus was killed but not quite by Vellocatus or his unit - so only 1 point was earned here instead of 3
• The game did not reach turn 8, so this objective was achieved - 1 point

So, the final tally for this scenario was 3 points for the Britons and 0 points for the Romans giving...

Campaign Score: Romans 8 Britons 6

This final game was a close run thing in the final turn as Reputation leaked rapidly away from both sides. I will post an aftermath of this game in the next day or so and sum up what will happen to the Roman cohort's survivors and my interaction with the Midgard rules in the coming months.