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D&D ADVENTURE: THE FALSE TOMB

April 12th, 2024

This adventure was originally developed as part of my In the Shadow of the Spire
campaign. When I posted the campaign journal describing what happened when my
players encountered the crypt (which you can read here), several people asked
where they could find a copy of the crypt for their own campaigns.

The False Tomb was originally designed for D&D 3rd Edition. It has been updated
to 5th Edition here. (Members of my Patreon will receive a copy of my original
3rd Edition adventure notes as special bonus content.)

The adventure uses the tomb spider, along with the associated broodswarms and
web mummies, from Monster Manual IV. Tomb spiders also appeared in Monster
Manual 2 for D&D 4th Edition, but have not received an official 5th Edition
update. You can find fan conversions here and here.

The original adventure used copyrighted content from two different RPG
publishers. Both publishers have fan content licenses, but for legal reasons I’m
uncertain both can be used at the same time. I am using Wizards of the Coast’s
Fan Content Policy and have, therefore, stripped the other IP from the
adventure.

BACKGROUND



Sagrathea’s Sigil

The PCs are searching for the burial compound of an archmage named Sagrathea. At
some point in the past, several of the stone sarsens above Sagrathea’s tomb were
taken from the site and reused to build the walls of a small crypt. These
sarsens were marked with Sagrathea’s sigil, which may result in the crypt being
misidentified as her tomb.

IDENTIFYING THE FALSE TOMB:

 * DC 15 Intelligence (Mason’s tools) or Intelligence (History): Recognizes that
   the walls were built using repurposed sarsens, suggesting that the presence
   of Sagrathea’s arcane sigil is coincidental.

Once the tomb has been identified as false, finding the actual tomb by searching
the surrounding area is relatively easy.

THE FALSE TOMB




ENTRANCE

> This crudely built crypt has thick walls formed from heavy stone slabs.
> Several of these slabs have the distinctive — yet heavily worn — sigil of
> Sagrathea worked into them. On one side of the crypt there is a badly rusted
> iron door.

DOOR: The door is rusted shut.

 * Batter Down: DC 20 Strength check.
 * Repair: DC 15 Dexterity (tool proficiency) check.

STAIRS: On the other side of the door there is a flight of gloom-shrouded stairs
leading down about twenty feet into the crypt. At the top of the stairs —
propped up against the walls — are the shattered stone remnants of the crypt’s
original door.

AREA 1 – ENTRY HALL


The floor is strewn with rubbled stone from the broken walls and ceiling. Thick
cobwebs are strung from the walls, although there is a more or less clear path
to the door on the far side of the chamber. This heavy door of stone hangs
half-open, its bottom half smashed apart.

Difficult Terrain: Due to the broken floor and webs.

AREA 2 – CORPSE HUSK


> An upright sarcophagus stands against the far wall of this burial chamber. It
> has been smashed apart. The corpse of its former inhabitant lies on the floor
> in the middle of the chamber. Thick webs seem to manacle the dried husk to the
> walls. The chest of the corpses appears to have been ripped open.

BODY — DC 10 Intelligence (Investigation) / Wisdom (Medicine): Something burst
OUT of the corpse’s chest.

AREA 3 – LURKING BROODSWARM


The webs are much thicker in this chamber. They almost look like snowdrifts as
they crawl their way up the walls. You can see what appears to be an upright
sarcophagus standing against the far wall.

BROODSWARM: There is a broodswarm lurking in the webs in the corner of the room
(Stealth +7). It will attack if anyone who gets caught in the webs

WEBS: Difficult terrain. DC 10 Dexterity check to cross the room. On failure,
become restrained in webs and must make a DC 12 Strength check to escape. (AC
10; hp 5; vulnerability to fire damage; immunity to bludgeoning, poison, and
psychic damage.)

SARCOPHAGUS: A large hole has been punched in the front of the sarcophagus.
Inside the sarcophagus is a corpse wearing a ruined mithril shirt — its chest
has been ripped open.

 * DC 10 Intelligence (Investigation) / Wisdom (Medicine): Something burst OUT
   of the corpse’s chest.
 * Mithril Shirt: Although useless, the raw mithril is still worth 1,000 gp.

AREA 4 – WEB-CHOKED ROOM


> This burial chamber is choked with webs. They literally fill every inch of
> open space. The far side of the room is completely obscured by them.

WEB MUMMY: A web mummy lurks in the webs. If the PCs disturb the webs in this
room or Area 5, it will attack. Otherwise, it will wait until the PCs are
confronted by the tomb spider in Area 6, emerging from this room while dragging
webs behind it.

WEBS: Difficult terrain. DC 10 Dexterity check to cross the room. On failure,
become restrained in webs and must make a DC 12 Strength check to escape. (AC
10; hp 5; vulnerability to fire damage; immunity to bludgeoning, poison, and
psychic damage.)

SARCOPHAGUS: A sarcophagus stands against the back wall of the room. It has been
broken open. (And is where the web mummy comes from.)

AREA 5 – WEB-CHOKED ROOM


> This burial chamber is choked with webs. They literally fill every inch of
> open space. The far side of the room is completely obscured by them.

WEB MUMMY: A web mummy lurks in the webs. If the PCs disturb the webs in this
room or Area 5, it will attack. Otherwise, it will wait until the PCs are
confronted by the tomb spider in Area 6, emerging from this room while dragging
webs behind it.

WEBS: Difficult terrain. DC 10 Dexterity check to cross the room. On failure,
become restrained in webs and must make a DC 12 Strength check to escape. (AC
10; hp 5; vulnerability to fire damage; immunity to bludgeoning, poison, and
psychic damage.)

SARCOPHAGUS: A sarcophagus stands against the back wall of the room. It has been
broken open. (And is where the web mummy comes from.)

 * A +1 longsword lies inside the broken sarcophagus.

AREA 6 – THE TOMB SPIDER


ANTECHAMBER:

> Through the broken door you can see an antechamber. A mosaic of glittering
> lapis lazuli has been worked into the floor, depicting a bursting star. Twin
> statues with red gemstones in their eyes flank a door leading into the tomb
> beyond. Each statue raises its right hand before it, as if to ward off
> trespassers.

THE BURIAL CHAMBER:

> In the tomb itself lies an iron sarcophagus worked in the likeness of knight
> with a sword and shield laid upon his chest. Thick webs are draped from this
> sarcophagus, shrouding the far corners of the room in darkness.

TOMB SPIDER: The tomb spider is on the ceiling of the burial chamber. It will
wait to attack until someone either stumbles into the entry web or enters the
burial chamber. It cannot be seen until someone is standing in the doorway of
the tomb chamber (Stealth +7, with advantage).

 * Tactics: As soon as it gets a chance, the tomb spider will throw a web across
   the exit.

ENTRY WEB: There is a finely-woven web draped across the antechamber just inside
the broken door. DC 18 Wisdom (Perception) check to notice it; otherwise the
character entering the antechamber will automatically stumble into it.

WEBS – BURIAL CHAMBER: Difficult terrain. DC 10 Dexterity check to cross the
room. On failure, become restrained in webs and must make a DC 12 Strength check
to escape. (AC 10; hp 5; vulnerability to fire damage; immunity to bludgeoning,
poison, and psychic damage.)

THE KNIGHT: The iron sarcophagus could not be broken by the tomb spider. The
heraldry on the knight’s shield can be recognized as belonging to the Order of
the Rosy Cross. The knight wears elven chain and a +1 longsword.



> The False Tomb is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content
> Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the material used are
> property of Wizards of the Coast. © Wizards of the Coast LLC.

Filed under: Roleplaying Games Comments (2) Article tags: ptolus remix, rpg
scenarios


STORM KING’S REMIX – PART 4D: THE HEKATON REVELATIONS

April 11th, 2024

Go to Table of Contents

Just like the other sections of the campaign described in Part 2 and Part 3, the
Hekaton investigation is ultimately organized around a revelation list, although
it may be useful to think of it in separate parts.

SETTING THE STAGE


Even before the PCs get directly involved with the Kraken Society, you’ll almost
certainly want to set the stage with some key revelations:

 * Storm Court is no longer in charge of the other giants
 * King Hekaton is Missing / Queen Neri is Missing
 * Serissa is acting as Regent of the Storm Court
 * Optional: Storm Giant Raids (if these are happening)
 * Optional: Mirran and Nym are opposed to Serissa’s regency

Basically, you want the PCs to know that the storm giants are in a state of
crisis and confusion — and, importantly, who King Hekaton and Queen Neri are —
so that when the PCs start encountering Hekaton-related revelations while
investigating the Kraken Society they’ll immediately recognize the significance
of what they’ve found.

Several of the clues we set up in Part 3D can serve double duty here, but you’ll
want to make sure these revelation lists are fully stocked. It probably wouldn’t
hurt for some/all of these to be seeded fairly early in the campaign.

STRUCTURAL REVELATIONS: THE KRAKEN SOCIETY


The core structural revelations are the ones we’ve already discussed — e.g.,
point-crawl accessible nodes → Involved nodes → Purple Rocks → the Morkoth.
These are the leads that will take the PCs through the various Kraken Society
nodes. The exact breakdown of this revelation list will depend on the options
you’ve chosen.

In addition to the standard revelation list (i.e., the leads pointing to a node
from other nodes), I would also make a list of pointcrawl-acccessible nodes for
easy reference. “Encountered on Pointcrawl” is, of course, a legitimate vector
pointing to a node and can also be included on the node’s revelation list,
satisfying one of the three clues for the Three Clue Rule.

You’ll also want to include any leads from the Three City hooks or faction
missions pointing to Kraken Society nodes. It can be useful to sketch these out
ahead of time, but keep in mind that you don’t need to fully flesh out the
faction missions until you know which (if any) of the factions your group is
getting involved with. If you want to do this systematically, include a Kraken
Society lead in each of the Three Cities and for each of the factions.

Friendly factions can, of course, give the PCs direct leads to Kraken Society
nodes as missions, but missions can also point to the Kraken Society indirectly
— i.e., the PCs are given a mission to do X, which is unrelated to the Kraken
Society, but doing so will tangentially bring them into contact with the
Society. (An easy example of this is, “go do X, which is coincidentally in the
same location as a pointcrawl-accessible Society node, thus triggering the
Kraken Society encounter.”)

Along similar lines, even enemy factions can deliver Kraken Society leads: The
PCs target the faction, and discover that faction’s Kraken Society-related
intelligence (e.g., “Why are the Zhentarim so interested in the activities of
Lord Drylund of Yartar?”).

CORE CONCEPT REVELATIONS: WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING?


In addition to just moving from one Kraken Society node to another, there are
several key concepts that the PCs should be learning so that they can figure out
what’s really going on:

 * The Kraken Society kidnapped Hekaton.
 * Hekaton is on the Morkoth.
 * How to locate the Morkoth.

You’ll likely want to make sure that the clues for “the Kraken Society kidnapped
Hekaton” are seeded into the entry point nodes for the Kraken Society: Learning
this will give the PCs a very specific goal for continuing their investigation
of the Society. Without establishing a goal like this, the only thing motivating
the PCs to continue investigating the Society will be simple curiosity. This can
work, but it tends to be less reliable and less compelling. (Of course, it’s
also quite possible that the PCs — or perhaps their factions — will end up
providing their own anti-Kraken Society motivators.)

THE IYMRITH CONSPIRACY


Strictly speaking, the PCs can probably end up rescuing King Hekaton from the
Kraken Society without ever figuring out the deeper conspiracy involving
Iymrith, Mirran, and Nym. But ideally they’ll figure out this deeper truth, so
we should set up a revelation list:

 * The Kraken Society is collaborating with someone in the Storm Court.
 * The Kraken Society’s collaborator is Iymrith.
 * Mirran & Nym are conspiring with Iymrith.
 * Iymrith is actually a blue dragon.
 * Optional: The location of Iymrith’s lair.

It’s likely a lot of clues on this list will be pulling double duty (i.e., a
clue that indicates that Iymrith is conspiring with the Kraken Society AND that
the Kraken Society know she’s really dragon). The clues in Part 3D, once again,
include several more clues that are pulling double duty for these revelations.
Also remember that clues pointing to these revelations can also be seeded into
the Storm Court itself.

One structural note here is that any clue pointing to “the Kraken Society’s
collaborator is Iymrith” will almost certainly also reveal that “that Kraken
Society is collaborating with someone in the Storm Court,” but the latter is
listed as a separate revelation because — while it’s not strictly necessary —
it’s probably more effective to establish the mystery of “Who is the
collaborator?!” before providing the clues that resolve the mystery.

In other words, you want three distinct clues for “Kraken Society is
collaborating with someone in the Storm Court” that don’t overlap with “their
collaborator is Iymrith,” and you’ll want to seed those clues into “earlier”
nodes. (For example, maybe “there’s a collaborator” clues can be found in the
pointcrawl-accessible nodes, but “it’s Iymrith” clues can only be found in nodes
that can only be reached by investigating the pointcrawl-accessible nodes.)

Since node-based scenarios are, obviously, nonlinear, it’s still quite possible
that the PCs will learn Iymrith is the collaborator at the same time they learn
there IS a collaborator. They might also learn, from other vectors, that Mirran,
Nym, and Iymrith are all collaborating together before they learn that they’re
working for the Kraken Society and/or are involved in Hekaton’s disappearance!
That’s just fine. Our goal isn’t to lock things down. We’re just seeding our
clues in the most effective way possible.

The final thing to consider here is designing a proactive node for Iymrith
and/or the sisters. In other words, if/when Iymrith learns of the PCs’ efforts,
what action might she take to oppose them? Some or all of them might choose
intervene directly. Or, alternatively, send agents who can be tracked back to
them. In addition to being a fun encounter, this is obviously also a perfect
opportunity to include some Iymrith Conspiracy clues.

Go to Part 5: The Final Act

Filed under: Roleplaying Games Comment (0) Article tags: d&d, rpg scenarios,
storm king's thunder


PTOLUS: RUNNING THE CAMPAIGN – MISSING THE OBVIOUS

April 10th, 2024

DISCUSSING
In the Shadow of the Spire – Session 36D: Crypt of Webs

> “Maybe it’s a magic box. Maybe our memories are trapped inside,” Ranthir said,
> only half-joking. “We just open the box and we get our memories back.”
> 
> But wishing the box open wouldn’t make it happen…
> 
> … unless they’d been over-looking the solution.
> 
> “What about the key from Pythoness House?” Tor asked. “The one that can open
> any lock?”
> 
> “Would that work?” Tee asked. “There were no moving parts in the lock.”
> 
> Ranthir shrugged. “I don’t know. It might.”

This moment from earlier in Session 36 – where the PCs abruptly realize,
completely out of the blue and more than a dozen sessions after getting the
all-key, exactly WHY they were looking for the all-key in the first place – is
the one of those moments that would feel completely “wrong” in a film or book.
After a hundred pages, the detective just suddenly realizes something for no
reason? Just because? That feels forced and unsatisfying.

Authors, therefore, feel compelled to offer some explanation for what prompted
the character’s sudden insight or new idea: Another character will say something
innocuous, but it has a double meaning that ignites a light bulb! Or a beam of a
light falls on something that jars their memory. Or a burnt out neon sign
transforms its meaning. Or, if all else fails, a montage of flashbacks reveals
the hidden pattern.

At the game table, though, these moments feel completely natural and are often
deeply satisfying. Because they are, of course, really happening, in a way that
the events of a novel or film can never be.

On the other hand, you might be looking at this and thinking: “Hang on… They
found the all-key in Session 23 on June 7th, and then they just… didn’t do
anything with it until Session 36 on January 24th? And the campaign just stalled
for seven months?”

Well, no. The campaign didn’t stall. As you can see from the campaign journals,
lots and lots and lots of stuff was happening. But this can be difficult to wrap
your head around if you’re used to prepping and running linear scenarios and
campaigns. In those campaigns, if the PCs don’t trigger the next scene or
scenario in the sequence, then the whole campaign runs into a brick wall.

What we have in this case is a meta-scenario that’s running alongside the
primary campaign structure. One of the great about meta-scenarios like this is
that you can just let them simmer — often for very long spans of the time —
while the main line(s) of the campaign continue apace.

But you can get similar results from any non-linear campaign structure: For
example, in a hexcrawl the clues pointing the PCs to Siren’s Cove can be ignored
for almost any length of time while the players are exploring any number of the
other hexes available to them. Similarly, in a node-based campaign, the hook to
a scenario can lie dormant while the PCs are busy engaging with the other
options they have.

In some cases, these lengthy delays will be entirely due to the decisions the
players are making: They know those clues point to Siren’s Cove and they could
choose to go there at any time, but they were simply more interested in the Fane
of Pandemonium and, while they were trapped within the Fane, the situation in
Bluewood has turned into a crisis that they need to deal with immediately.

In other cases, though — like the current session — the players literally
haven’t solved the mystery yet: They haven’t figured out how to decipher the map
to Siren’s Cove. They don’t make the connection that “M.R.” are the initials of
Montgomery Rosemount. They haven’t realized the all-key can unlock the box.

Those are the times when you can get the big payoff — that ultimate moment where
they decipher the map, abruptly discover who the mystery “M.R.” is, or open the
box that’s tantalized them for months or years — by just being willing to give
your players the space to struggle for a while.

And what is the payoff?

It’s that little thrill you feel in knowing that if you HADN’T figured it out,
the GM was never going to give it to you. It’s the tingling little frisson that
runs up the spine when you discover that your actions in the game truly matter.
There’s no script and you’re certainly not following it. The good stuff happened
because YOU made it happen, and if you don’t want the bad stuff to happen,
you’re going to have to try a little harder.

I said that this moment works in an RPG because it’s really happening, and
that’s also the root of what makes the payoff so satisfying.

What can make these payoffs feel HUGE for the players is literally the
anticipation: They’d been wondering what was inside this box for nearly two
years at this point!

Of course, I’d figured that the pay-off for that wait would have come when they
snagged the all-key… but it didn’t. They didn’t make the connection. And I
really wanted to see that payoff. I’d been waiting for it, too! It was so
tempting — and so easy! — to say something like, “Do y’all have any locks you
haven’t been able to open?” or, “Do you remember that box your woke up with?” Or
maybe I could have had them make an Intelligence check to see if one of them had
the idea to use the all-key on the sealed box? (Ugh.)

But I didn’t succumb to that temptation, and the payoff was even better for it.
Because it was worth the wait. And because it was their reward. They’d earned
it. I hadn’t stuck my nose in and undermined their moment.

Of course, not every instance of “missing the obvious” will burn low for
multiple sessions. Often the payoff comes a lot quicker. For example, at the end
of this same session the PCs went looking for Alchestrin’s Tomb:

> It was only a couple of hours before dusk and the sun was already low in the
> sky, but they felt they had already wasted enough time. They headed to the
> Necropolis, aware that they would need to finish their work there before
> darkness fell.
> 
> Once they had reached Darklock Hill, Dominic used his connection with the gods
> to fixate upon Alchestrin’s sigil and locate its nearest occurrence. He led
> them to a crudely built crypt with thick walls built from heavy stone slabs.
> Elestra recognized that these slabs were, in fact, repurposed stone sarsens.
> Several of them had the distinctive – yet heavily worn – sigil of Alchestrin
> worked into them.

This scenario was designed to be deliberately deceptive: Someone had scavenged
the sarsens from the stone circle above Alchestrin’s Tomb and used them to build
their own tomb nearby. So somebody looking for the tomb would likely spot
Alchestrin’s sigil on the false tomb instead, become confused, and go on a
little mini-dungeoncrawl.



At the actual table, though, I was surprised when Elestra made a point of
specifically examining the sigils. I don’t remember exactly what skill check I
called for, but she rolled well and would clearly recognize that the sigils were
carved into stone sarsens that had been repurposed for the walls of this tomb.

At this point, I figured the jig was up: If the sarsens weren’t originally part
of this tomb, then obviously this tomb couldn’t be Alchestrin’s Tomb.

But then the players… just didn’t see it. They missed the obvious.

It was only later, as more and more stuff about the false crypt didn’t add up,
that Ranthir suddenly realized the importance of what Elestra had seen and
doubled back to check his hypothesis.

> “I think I have the answer,” Ranthir said, coming back down the stairs from
> above. “The stones on which Alchestrin’s sigil is marked are stone sarsens –
> originally designed as part of a stone circle. They must have been scavenged
> to build the walls of this crypt.”

Now, in this case I could have been tempted to fudge Elestra’s original check so
that she wouldn’t learn that the walls were repurposed sarsens.

Or, after she made that check, I could have been tempted to spell it out and
make the connection for her: “No, no. I said they were repurposed sarsens from a
stone circle! So the sigil doesn’t belong to this crypt, but to wherever those
stone sarsens came from!”

But how much more satisfying was it for the players to not only (a) finally make
that conclusion for themselves, but also (b) realize that they’d had the
solution the whole time and could have avoided the whole fiasco!

This wasn’t something that I had, as the GM, had done to them. I hadn’t pulled a
fast one. I hadn’t cheated. And so the outcome was infinitely more satisfying on
every level.

(And, of course, if it had all played out differently, that would have been
okay, too. That is, after all, the whole point.)

Campaign Journal: Session 37A – Running the Campaign: The Adventure Not Taken
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index

Filed under: Roleplaying Games Comments (2) Article tags: d&d, in the shadow of
the spire, ptolus, running the campaign


IN THE SHADOW OF THE SPIRE – SESSION 36D: CRYPT OF WEBS

April 10th, 2024
IN THE SHADOW OF THE SPIRE



SESSION 36D: CRYPT OF WEBS


January 24th, 2009
The 19th Day of Kadal in the 790th Year of the Seyrunian Dynasty



Being tethered to the Banewarrens – effectively limiting their actions east of
Oldtown – was becoming completely untenable. Their affairs in the Banewarrens
required them to seek out Alchestrin’s tomb, but the Necropolis was well out of
the range.

To solve the problem once and for all, Ranthir spent the next couple of hours
tracking down several scrolls which described the arcane creation of a small
missive token that would allow its holder to communicate a brief message
directly to his ears… no matter the distance between them.

In short order, Ranthir was able to give one of these tokens to Kalerecent. If
Kalerecent’s guard upon the Banewarrens were disturbed, he could instantly
summon them.

“Oh, good,” Dominic said. “And we’ll only be a quick half hour away. I’m sure
he’ll be fine.”

Tee shrugged. “That’s no worse than what we were doing before.”

“The only other option,” Ranthir said, “Is for us to camp in the Banewarrens
until the green-haired hag comes out.”

That didn’t sound like much fun. And there were too many other things demanding
their attention…

CRYPT OF WEBS


It was only a couple of hours before dusk and the sun was already low in the
sky, but they felt they had already wasted enough time. They headed to the
Necropolis, aware that they would need to finish their work there before
darkness fell.

Once they had reached Darklock Hill, Dominic used his connection with the gods
to fixate upon Alchestrin’s sigil and locate its nearest occurrence. He led them
to a crudely built crypt with thick walls built from heavy stone slabs. Elestra
recognized that these slabs were, in fact, repurposed stone sarsens. Several of
them had the distinctive – yet heavily worn – sigil of Alchestrin worked into
them.



On one side of the crypt there was a badly rusted iron door. It was, in fact,
rusted shut. Tee and Agnarr were able to pry out the hinges and lever out the
door with a minimal amount of fuss and noise. On the other side there was a
flight of gloom-shrouded stairs leading down about twenty feet.

Tee led the way into a long entry hall strewn with rubbled stone from the broken
walls and ceiling. Thick cobwebs were strung from the walls, although there was
a more or less clear path to the heavy door of stone that hung half-open – its
bottom smashed apart – at the far end of the hall. Four open arches led off form
the hall, two to the left and two to the right.

Choosing at random, Tee headed towards the first arch on the left. It opened
into a small burial chamber, with an upright sarcophagus standing against the
far wall. The sarcophagus itself had been smashed apart. The corpse of its
former inhabitant lay on the floor in the middle of the chamber – thick webs
seeming to manacle the dried husk to the walls. The chest of the corpse appeared
to have been ripped open.

Tee quickly inspected the corpse, but found little of interest. (Perhaps if she
had recognized the damage to its chest as an exit wound they might have had some
warning of what was to come.) She turned back to the others to report, but
spotted movement in the webs of the opposite room. Acting on pure instinct, she
whipped out her dragon pistol and fired.

The shot harmlessly blasted away a patch of web, but a moment later a carpet of
large, reddish spiders poured out of the room. In the entry hall, Agnarr,
whirling towards the spot Tee had shot, was suddenly covered in the things –
they bit him repeatedly, sending a rush of painful venom into his bulging veins.

With a roar of rage and a mighty cry, Agnarr swung his flaming sword through the
spiders, using the flat of his blade to crush those crawling up his legs.

Elestra, thinking quickly, dropped a ball of magical flame into the middle of
the spiders, but they swarmed away from it and over the top of the others –
biting at every bit of exposed flesh they could find.

Dominic ran for it, heading back up the stairs and escaping the worst of it. But
by the time Agnarr was able to scatter the swaming mass, Ranthir had been badly
hurt – the painful, fist-sized welts leaving him gasping for breath.

But when Elestra laid her hands on him and sent a burst of healing energy into
his body, Ranthir screamed in pain and collapsed.

Dominic, who was coming back down into the crypt after hearing the all-clear
from Agnarr, heard the scream and hurried down the last few steps. “What
happened?”

“I don’t know!” Elestra knelt next to Ranthir, trying to figure out what had
gone wrong. But her further ministrations only made things worse. Even the
slightest touch of positive energy raised vicious welts and gaping wounds on the
unconscious mage.

But even as she was focusing on Ranthir’s dilemma, Elestra was using the back of
her mind to guide her flaming sphere into one of the other web-choked crypts.

As the webs began to burn, a web-wrapped mummy stumbled through the crypt’s arch
and attacked Tee from behind. Agnarr charged the sudden foe, shoving Tee out of
the way, even as a second web mummy emerged into the entry hall.

Agnarr made quick work of his first foe: His sword cleaved the mummy’s chest in
twain. But no sooner had the top half of the mummy fallen to one side than more
of the crypt spiders began to pour out of the severed torso. Tee, in a panic,
fired at the already dismembered corpse. This had little effect, but Agnarr –
thinking quickly – plunged his blade into the mass and used it to create a
sudden pyre.

But with his weapon thus preoccupied, Agnarr made an easy target for the second
mummy – who clubbed him over the back of the head. As the barbarian fell,
however, Tor moved to block it from attacking the others. As he shifted into
position, the mummy brought both of its hands down on the kinght’s shoulders in
a crushing blow. Tor could feel his spine compressing under the sheer force of
the blow, but gritting his teeth he bore the pain and swung his sword strong.

The mummy’s head flew free… and spiders began to crawl out of its neckhole.

Tee, however, had retrieved a flask of oil from her bag of holding. She tossed
it at the decapitated mummy’s corpse while Tor scooped up Agnarr’s sword and lit
alight spiders and mummy alike.

SPIDER’S CRYPT


Now, however, the unconscious Agnarr was exhibiting the same symptoms as
Ranthir. Any attempt to heal his wounds was backfiring.

However, Dominic – finally given the breathing room to give the afflicted a
proper examination – was able to determine that the effect was being caused by
the venom of the crypt spiders. Their mystical poison was creating an inversion
of positive and negative energy, foully turning the life-touch of the gods to
injurious pain.

Fortunately, Dominic knew a simple spell to suppress the effects of the venom.
And the mystic properties of the poison were rapidly burning up in any case. It
wouldn’t be long before those afflicted could be healed normally.

While Dominic was restoring Agnarr and Ranthir, Tee finished searching through
the outer crypts. She found another corpse with its chest torn open (this one
with a ruined shirt of mithril which had been torn asunder by the spiders) and
in another sarcophagus she found a magical sword.

After much deliberation, however, they decided to leave these tombs (and their
meager treasures) undisturbed. The strange, corpse-inhabiting spider swarms had
already done enough to disturb the rest of those who had been buried here.

Tee therefore turned her attention to the door of broken stone at the end of the
entry hall. Looking through it she could see an antechamber. A mosaic of
glittering lapis lazuli depicting a bursting star had been worked into its
floor. Twin statues with red gemstones in their eyes flanked a farther arch
leading into the tomb beyond. Each of the statues was raising its right hand
before it, as if to ward off trespassers. In the tomb itself she could see an
iron sarcophagus worked in the likeness of a knight with a sword and shield laid
upon its chest. Thick webs were draped from the sarcophagus, shrouding the far
corners of the crypt in darkness.

Agnarr and Tor were able to wrench open the door. Convinced that the lapis
lazuli floor was dangerous, Tee used her boots of levitation to reach the
ceiling and pull herself across to the arch on the far side of the antechamber.
Lowering herself to the floor there, she proceeded cautiously into the crypt on
foot.

She had not gone far, however, when a gob of web suddenly flew through the air
and clogged up the exit. Tee whirled to look at it, even as one massive,
chitinous black leg descended from the ceiling above…

It was followed by seven more, encircling her completely. Looking up, Tee saw
the bulbous, befanged body of the spider whose legs nearly filled the entire
chamber. With a lurching leap, she narrowly dodged the venom-dripping fangs –
each of which was nearly as long as her arm.

Seeing the spider descend, Agnarr leapt across the antechamber (barely clearing
the lapis lazuli) and used his burning greatsword to quickly cut his way through
the web.

But even as Agnarr came up on its flank, the spider continued its attack on Tee
– its head jutting towards her again and again, until it finally succeeded in
sinking its monstrous fangs into her flesh.

The saucer-sized puncture wounds alone might not have felled the elf, but the
venom of the arachnic horror rushed to her brain and swallowed her in blackness.
As she fell, the spider was free to turn its fury upon Agnarr.

But by now Tor, too, had leapt across the lapis lazuli and moved to flank the
creature – catching it between the party’s warriors. Although their blades had
difficulty cutting through the thing’s chitinous hide, and even though Tor was
caught fast in another entangling gob of web, they were eventually able to hack
the creature apart.

As Tor plucked his blade from the creature’s head (leaving it to collapse in a
shuddering pile), Dominic uttered a short prayer to Vehthyl and – seeing that
the floor of lapis lazuli was not, in fact, magical – walked across it bravely
(crossing his fingers in the hope that there would be no mundane traps). Using
his skills as a healer, he was able to apply his curative spells to Tee in a way
which avoided triggering the inversive properties of the spider’s venom and soon
had her on her feet again.

FALSE CRYPT


Barely sparing the spider’s corpse a glance, Tee quickly turned her attention to
the iron sarcophagus. With the help of Agnarr and Tor she was able to leverage
it open, revealing the undisturbed corpse of a knight. The knight wore fine
chain of elven make. Upon his chest a sword of fine craftsmanship was laid under
a shield bearing the heraldry that both Tee and Tor recognized as belonging to
the Knights of the Golden Cross.

“It’s not possible that the Knights would have had anything to do with
Alchestrin or the Banewarrens,” Tor said.

Tee frowned. While the others replaced the lid of the sarcophagus (not wishing
to disturb the rest of a knight), Tee began a scouring search of the small crypt
that lasted for the better part of an hour.

But, in the end, she found nothing.

“I don’t get it,” Elestra said. “Why would Lord Zavere send us here?”

“I think I have the answer,” Ranthir said, coming back down the stairs from
above. “The stones on which Alchestrin’s sigil is marked are stone sarsens –
originally designed as part of a stone circle. They must have been scavenged to
build the walls of this crypt.”

“Then how are we going to find the actual crypt?” Tee asked. “Would there be any
records kept?”

“I don’t know.”

But now the sun was getting low in the sky. If they were going to escape the
Necropolis before night fell, they would have to leave now. Uncertain of what
their next action should be, they headed for the gate.

Running the Campaign: Missing the Obvious – Campaign Journal: Session 37A
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index

Filed under: Roleplaying Games Comment (0) Article tags: campaign journals, d&d,
in the shadow of the spire, ptolus


PTOLUS: RUNNING THE CAMPAIGN – GROUP CHEMISTRY

April 3rd, 2024

DISCUSSING
In the Shadow of the Spire – Session 36C: Hunting the Hunters

> They headed back up to Oldtown and gathered Ranthir from the Nibeck Street
> mansion. From there they retraced Elestra’s steps, rapidly tracking the
> query-laden trail of the cultists who had been asking after “Laurea”.
> 
> They caught up with them in the Boiling Pot, a small tavern in the southern
> end of Oldtown. There were five of the cultists – easily picked out from the
> crowd by their prominent tattoos depicting black hands. Each also appeared to
> be marked by some horrible deformity or mutation. They were scattered
> throughout the crowd, asking their questions.
> 
> Tor and Tee, having barely stepped through the door, turned to look at each
> other – forming a plan of action in less than a glance. They split off from
> the others (who were left somewhat confused near the door). Tor headed into
> the crowd, quietly warning people that they should leave. Tee, meanwhile,
> palmed a dagger and headed towards a cultist who was draped over the bar,
> favoring a hideously twisted arm.

What’s described in the journal here is basically what happened at the table:
Tee’s player and Tor’s player look at each other and, without saying a word,
knew exactly what their play was going to be. The other players were momentarily
baffled and just kind of carried along in their wake.

This sort of thing, at both macro- and micro-scales, will happen all the time in
an RPG campaign as the group racks up time playing together. You’ll spend less
time talking your way through all the options and more time knowing exactly
what’s going to happen next.

You can often see this in a very tangible way during combat. It’s one of the
x-factors that make challenge ratings and similar encounter building tools
“unreliable,” because groups that get into this groove will not only make fewer
mistakes, they’ll start discovering collaborative tactics and synergies between
their characters that can greatly increase their effectiveness both tactically
and strategically.

It’s also why I think, in a game like D&D, it’s important for PCs to spend at
least three sessions at each level. Because it’s deeply rewarding to learn new
abilities, play around with them for a bit, and then master them before adding
even more new stuff. And what we’re kind of talking about here is that there’s
even another level beyond mastering our own character’s abilities, and that’s
when you start mastering the other PCs’ abilities: You know what they need. You
know how to set things up for them. You know what weaknesses they have and how
you can defend them.

But as you can see from the example of this session, this sort of party
chemistry – the collective mastery of the group – extends beyond combat. Whether
it’s solving mysteries or masterminding heists, the group will be learning what
techniques work best, and they’ll be refining those techniques with experience.
Where do you look for clues? How do you gather intel on your target? Who’s best
at this? Who enjoys doing it the most? (Try to get these last two to align…
although breaking up these patterns of behavior and seeing what happens when
people are thrust into unfamiliar circumstances can also be fun.)

Another fairly concrete example of this is splitting the party: When the PCs
need to do X, which subgroup becomes their go-to? If you’re a player,
consciously realizing that this is a thing and consciously thinking about how
you can improve your results can be a really big deal. If you’re the GM,
recognizing these patterns can allow you to either play into them with
confidence OR spice things up a bit by deliberately challenging the easy habits
of the group. (When they need to do X, that’s usually character A. But when they
need to do Y, they usually send A, B, and C to do it. Well… if you frame things
up so that X and Y need to happen at the same time, then the players will feel
pressure. Where is A most needed?

Along these same lines, something else that can be easy to overlook is that, as
the GM, you’re ALSO part of the group. As you run more and more game, it’s not
just that you’re gaining more experience as a GM. It’s that you’re gaining more
experience running games for that specific group. You’ll learn the types of
stuff the group likes to do, and you’ll figure out better ways of handling the
actions they propose. You’ll also learn how to counter their best shots. (And
there’s endless philosophical debates about how/when/if it’s appropriate for you
to do that.)

And it’s not just about how you handle them at the table. This chemistry with
the group, and understanding that each group’s chemistry is unique, will also
improve your prep: You’ll figure out not only what you should be prepping to be
“ready” for the players, but also what will let you rise to the opportunity and
help them soar.

Campaign Journal: Session 36D – Running the Campaign: Missing the Obvious
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index

Filed under: Roleplaying Games Comments (2) Article tags: d&d, in the shadow of
the spire, ptolus, running the campaign
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RECENT POSTS

 * D&D Adventure: The False Tomb
 * Storm King’s Remix – Part 4D: The Hekaton Revelations
 * Ptolus: Running the Campaign – Missing the Obvious
 * In the Shadow of the Spire – Session 36D: Crypt of Webs
 * Ptolus: Running the Campaign – Group Chemistry

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RECENT COMMENTS

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 * Golden Bee on Ptolus: Running the Campaign – Group Chemistry
 * Jordan on Ptolus: Running the Campaign – Missing the Obvious
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