Islands in the Sky, Session 4: Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, or how to use the Castle Ravenloft board game in your D&D 4E game.

First of all, apologies to everyone for the slow week posting here. Real life is busy, blah blah blah.


Love Stinks

We held our fourth D&D session last night. In attendance were myself, my wife Gabby, Kevin and Curtis. Lisa and Joey were unable to make it, and we don't anticipate seeing Joey again, as he and Lisa had a nasty break-up during the week. Bah. Drama. Lame.

Recap

Anyways, in Session 3, the Heroes foiled an Arkhosian plot and recovered a magical item, a large crystal ball that was the focus of the Dragonborn spell. The ritual would have caused dragons within a certain radius to become enraged and come attack the island. Fortunately, the heroes disrupted the casting of the ritual and no dragons came to Verys Hiladian.

So, just what is this large crystal ball? It is adorned with an ornate brass dragon circling it again and again, the feet of which come down for the ball to stand upon. No one knows. They informed the village council and the Princess about the dragonborn attack, and there immediately began a debate about whether to evacuate the island or fortify defenses.

To Barovia!

However, there was a more pressing matter for the heroes to attend to: the return of the human bodies and rescued prisoners to their home island of Barovia. Khaledra, Tarak, Avenger, and the Ice Queen accompanied the airship; Ember, the genasi swordmage formerly played by Joey, remained on Verys Hiladian to help fortify defenses for the impending Dragonborn invasion. After three uneventful days of travel, the heroes arrived at the mist-shrouded Shadowmote of Barovia. During travel, one of the rescued prisoners, a young widow named Jennalynn, develops a strong infatuation with Tarak, our half-orc ranger. She tells him the story of how her husband disappeared, probably killed by monsters, shortly after their wedding. He has not been seen since. Some think he succumbed to the shadow madness and leapt off the island; others believe he was taken by Count Strahd into Castle Ravenloft for crimes unknown.

Barovia is a small island, just a couple square miles. It is dominated by Castle Ravenloft on one end, atop a large hill, that overlooks the village below. The people here are all human! They are poor, hardscrabble folk who barely survive, and there are just a few hundred of them.

The Mists part and allow them to enter Barovia, land on the island, and begin unloading the bodies, but it is not long at all before the Mists gather again and a messenger comes forth. The ship's crew and the villagers all suddenly fall asleep, all except the heroes. The messenger informs the heroes that their presence has been requested at Castle Ravenloft; Count Strahd wishes to meet them himself. With that, the messenger disappears and the Mists part, showing the heroes the path to the Castle. They follow the path up the hill, all the while feeling like they're being watched. The Castle's drawbridge lowers for them, and they enter.

Into Castle Ravenloft

Here's where the fun begins. Instead of mapping out the monster-infested lower level of the Castle, I took some inspiration (and tiles) from the Castle Ravenloft and Wrath of Ashardalon board games. I built a randomized stack of dungeon tiles from the board game and laid tiles out as the heroes moved deeper into the dungeon. They were searching for the Secret Staircase to allow access to the upper levels of the Castle, and presumably to find Strahd.

This entire dungeon level counted as a single encounter, no resting. I printed out a custom-made "Encounter" deck which consisted of several monsters and a number of Events (such as traps, alarms, ghostly sightings, etc). Each monster dropped treasure, which was rolled for randomly. A strict adherence to initiative was kept, and on each player's turn (for the most part), a card was drawn off the Encounter deck and applied to the board as I saw fit. If a monster was drawn, they were simply added to the initiative stack before the hero whose turn it was. The cards for the monsters had their full stat-blocks printed on them, so there was absolutely no need to flip through the Monster Manual or Open Grave books.

This wound up all working very well. It didn't at all adhere to published encounter standards, but we don't keep track of experience points anyway. Tarak was the only hero who made it to the stairway without being Bloodied. Overall, there was definitely tension at the table as they explored and never knew what was coming around the next corner.

Final Tally

By the end of it all, the heroes took out a swarm of crawling claws, three deathjump spiders, several zombie and skeleton minions, a flaming skeleton, three very hungry ghouls, a couple dire rats and a brain in a broken jar.

Final tally on treasure: 190 gold pieces, vial of Beastbane, 5 potions of healing, 5 random ritual scrolls (to be determined as yet), 5 potions of recovery (homebrewed potion which allows a character to regain the use of a spent encounter or daily power), Hero's Armor +2, Alfsair Spear +2, and a Blooddrinker Axe +2.

It was a long, drawn-out combat encounter, yes, but it was constantly changing and so it didn't get boring. The exploration and combat together worked very well, as did the randomization of the dungeon itself with the board game tiles and the Encounter deck I built. I will be more than happy to make a PDF of the Deck available for download. It contains all the monsters, magical item treasure, randomness charts, events, and character cards for a few NPCs, one of which being Count Strahd. If people are really interested in how I went about putting it all together, I'll be more than happy to do a full blog post on how it works.

Islands in the Sky: Session 3: An Arkhosian Plot Foiled

Tonight we had our third session of the Islands in the Sky campaign. We were short two players, Kevin and Curtis, who had to cancel last minute. This screwed up my plans a bit, as I wanted a full table for what I had prepared for this session. However, I had a backup plan and we implemented it. 

Quick recap: last session, our intrepid heroes went back into the mines to investigate the pit of dead bodies, discovered the gnoll lair, killed the gnolls and rescued the prisoners. The local priest discerned that the spirits of those killed by the beholder would haunt the mines unless their bodies were returned to their families and laid to rest. The captain of the currently docked airship, Captain Misha, offered to take the heroes, the gnolls' captives, and the bodies to their home island of Barovia. 

Yes, that Barovia. 

Also, there is the impending threat of Dragonborn Imperial invasion. 

So the plan had been to get on the airship and take the bodies to Barovia. I had an awesome adventure put together, but there was plenty of role-playing involved which means we need Kevin, as he is our big role-player. 

So, tonight, instead, our heroes foiled a Dragonborn plot to get some dragons to attack Verys Hiladian. While the bodies were being loaded on the airship, a squirrel came and informed the druid, Khaledra, of some Dragonborn activity at an old abandoned wizard's tower. They arrived and found the area crawling with them, and a pair of Dragonborn wizards attempting to cast a ritual focused on a large crystal ball. 

Long story short: the heroes managed to disrupt the ritual before it could be completed. They learned that some of the Dragonborn invaders are undead. One of the Dragonborn Snipers escaped, but the rest were killed. Khaledra, our druid, took out a level 8 brute on her own. And now they have the big crystal ball that the Dragonborn were attempting to cast the spell through. 

Next time, this coming Saturday evening, our heroes will figure out what the deal is with the crystal ball and head for Barovia. 

Yes, that Barovia. 

What worked: propped-up, folded-in-half index cards displaying enemy defenses for everyone to see helped speed things up in combat. Having monster stat-blocks printed out on 4x6 index cards completely eliminated page-flipping through the Monster Vault.

What didn't: me trying to run a missing PC. Even though I probably have a better grasp on the tactical side of things than my players. I handled Avenger for the combat, and while he did alright, I was probably missing some things. I have enough dice to roll without running a PC.

Also, I'm thinking we need to have a combat and tactics seminar of some sort, just so every player has a better idea what their powers really do and how they can work together.

Island in the Sky: Farhome

Farhome is an island dominated by its central feature: a volcano. Some say that it is the resting place of a long-dead primordial, or that the volcano exists due to an open portal to a fiery realm of the Elemental Chaos. Regardless of the how, the fact remains that the volcano is active and regularly discharges lava and ash into the sky. 

Needless to say, things can get pretty hot on Farhome. It has always primarily been home to the Genasi, and a couple thousand, of all elemental persuasions, call the island home. There are several thousand more Genasi spread throughout the world who consider Farhome their ancestral home. 

And so it is with great dismay that word spread from island to island that Farhome had been conquered, taken by the Dragonborn Empire of New Arkhosia, and bound to the Arkhosian earthmote. Many of the Genasi were able to escape during the invasion, but there were many who were no so lucky. The Genasi are a proud people and do not take to slavery well. 

Farhome is one of the crown jewels in the Arkhosians' Empire; a mighty, powerful people brought down and conquered, their symbol of power, the mighty volcano, subjugated to the will of the Dragonborn and helping to fuel the expansion of the Empire...

Islands in the Sky: People of Verys Hiladian, Part 2

And continuing on with this series... hopefully some of you find a use for some of these! If people are interested, I can make a PDF of all of them available for download. 

Davril is a retired Satyr ranger who has long been a guardian of Verys Hiladian. He has lived there his whole life, and when Tarak arrived, took the orphan under his wing and taught him the ways of the forest. Their relationship was never father-and-son, but rather master and apprentice.  Once Davril had taught Tarak all he could, Davril was finally able to retire. He has no house on Verys Hiladian, but lives simply amongst the trees and animals of the woods.

Ember (one of our PCs) is a Firesoul Genasi Swordmage. Ember learned from an early age not only how to control his elemental powers, but to channel them through an item, and the path of the Swordmage came naturally to him. Most of his life was one of peaceful work; he has a gift for enchanting items, particularly with elemental energies. A year ago, the island on which he was raised, Farhome, was invaded and conquered by the New Arkhosian Empire. He was one of the lucky ones who escaped with his life. Many of his old friends and a few family members are still there, enslaved by the Dragonborn.

Griffendian is an eladrin with a knack for training griffons. He has been doing so for many years, and every griffon in Verys Hiladian's Air Defense Corps was trained by him. His aerie is carved into the side of the island, and all the young griffons still being trained are housed down there. Fully trained griffons who are part of the Air Defense Corps reside in a stable near the airdocks. Griff is very protective of his griffons. He is generally more comfortable around the beasts than he is around other people. 

The Ice Queen (another of our PCs) is an Elf Ranger who wields a frostbow. Like Ember, she is also from the conquered island Farhome; she and Ember narrowly escaped with their lives on the night of the Dragonborn attack. Together, they and several others found Verys Hiladian, and the island offered them refuge.  She is called "The Ice Queen" for her affinity for the cold elements and her skill with the frostbow. She does not know her true name; she awoke one morning on the island of Farhome with amnesia, a stranger in a strange land, but the genasi there took her in and helped her.

Kalistros is a Kalashtar, and operates a magic item shop called "Flying Carpets and More" where she sells the many magic items she spends her nights dreaming up and crafting.  Many of them are strange, few of them have any functional use, most of them can be quite entertaining in the right hands, and she hasn't crafted a Flying Carpet in decades. She often speaks in riddles and verse, and usually has a faraway look in her eyes. 

Kelana Dhoram is an Elf wizard and a very accomplished alchemist. She operated a little shop called the Potion Panty. She is very outgoing for an elf and is known all around town for throwing the best parties. Whether this is because of the force of her personality or the contents of the punch bowl is a matter of heated debate in certain circles. 

Islands in the Sky: People of Verys Hiladian, Part 1

Here are five of the characters that can be found on the island of Verys Hiladian as we begin our game. Please note that I do not own any of the images on the cards. WotC owns most of them, I think, but some belong to other people. Regardless, I'm using them anyway for my home game. Now, without further ado, and in alphabetical order, the personalities of Verys Hiladian. 

Arsenal is a warforged blacksmith. He is the only smithy on Verys Hiladian that makes weapons of any kind, and they are all for the sole use of the island's defense. He takes everything said to him quite literally, especially figures of speech and sarcasm.

Andros, Terran and Trite are the halfing owners of a magic item shop of the same name that specializes in items that allow for long-distance communication. Crystal balls, ear pieces, and all other manner of devices are made and sold here.  They do a robust business installing these devices on airships that pass through Verys Hiladian as well.  Andros is the male and Trite is the female, and no one has ever seen Terran.  They are all siblings.  They have a bad habit of changing prices on customers mid-sale, by adding on services and such, but they mean well, and they have the best products.  

Avenger (one of our PCs, played by Kevin) is a Revenant, sent back by the Raven Queen for some as-yet unrevealed purpose.  He awoke on the island of Verys Hiladian in the Chapel of the Raven Queen, and was found by the druid Khaledra and the ranger Tarak during their morning rounds.  He was a Shadar-Kai in his former life.  The island he lived on was conquered by the Dragonborn Empire of New Arkhosia.  He was part of the resistance, but was captured, tortured, and killed.

Barred is a Shardmind and the owner of Barred's Beacons, where he makes airship and island beacons.  These magical devices allow airships to "see" faraway islands that have installed beacons. Barred has difficulty turning off his mind-reading abilities and knows a lot of everyone's dirty laundry.

Boldrick works with Arsenal at the weaponsmith, crafting the magical weapons that enable Verys Hiladian to defend itself.  He has an appetite for ale that is a bit too healthy, but the weapons and armor he forges are all top-notch, masterwork pieces. 

Islands in the Sky: Session 2: Critical Fails, Critical Hits

Islands in the Sky, Session 2

Watch out, this is a long report, but worth it. 

We had a full complement of players yet again! I had Lisa and Joey's new characters fully statted out, and Gabby and Curtis' characters got some minor changes. Lisa wanted to play an elf archer-ranger, which was the type of character she used to play in WoW, so that was pretty easy to stat up. We call her "The Ice Queen". I gave Joey the choice between a fire genasi swordmage and an elven warpriest of Kord, (the party is desperately in need of both a defender and a leader) and he selected the swordmage "Ember". 

Gabby's character, "Khaledra", underwent a minor cosmetic change in that she went from being an Eladrin to being an Elf, which I approved from a purely min/max standpoint, as her Predator Druid is a more potent build as an Elf. Curtis' half-Orc ranger "Tarak" went from an Essentials Scout build to a traditional 4e dual-wielding Ranger build. Kevin's Revenant Avenger, whom for now we are calling simply "Avenger" is a powerful build as is, and required no changes whatsoever. 

So yeah, three straight-up strikers, a controller who acts like a striker, and a defender. Good thing we gave them some healing potions. 

So, on to what actually happened in the game. At the end of the first session a week ago, the party slew the beholder gauth and all its minions deep in the heart of the mine. As we began the session, the party was heading back to town with their loot. They headed to the Rusty Dwarf, one of two local tavern/inns, where they met a few people. Salvana Wrafton (yes, name ripped out of "Keep on the Shadowfell"), a tiefling and the owner of the Rusty Dwarf, was the first of the NPCs they met and chatted with. They met Captain Misha, an eladrin skyship captain, and her crew. They also met Griffendian, proprietor of Griff's Griffons, the island's aerie. Griffon mounts are Verys Hiladian's primary form of airspace defense. Kevin always gets into the "talking parts" and did the lion's share of role-playing here. Nearly started a fight with the pirates, erm, I mean, the skyship crew, but for the arrival of Princess Elianna, the halfling ruler of Verys Hiladian. The Princess was very thankful they slew the beholder. Some questions were soon raised though, concerning the beholder's activities.  There were numerous dead bodies in the pit below the area where they fought the beholder, but there are no missing citizens of the island. Who are these people? How did they get there? Just what was the beholder up to, anyways? 

Kevin's Avenger decided to do things his way, and no one else joined him. Having befriended Griff, and having promised to get to the bottom of the beholder-related mysteries, Avenger hopped on a griffon and set about flying around the island. He made a pit stop at the temple to the Raven Queen and prayed, whereupon Curtis played his "Divine Intervention" PlotTwist card, and the Raven Queen gave Avenger a vision of what part of the island to search around and what was waiting for him there. 

Meanwhile, Tarak, Khaledra, Ember and the Ice Queen headed back to the mine, where mining operations had ceased for the time being. They went back to the beholder's lair, and Tarak went down into the pit to investigate. Sure enough, he found a hidden door under a body in the center of the pit. The party descended the stairs and found a hallway and a door. Listening at the door they heard some monsters. They managed to sneak in without alerting the gnolls to their presence. There was a long hallway, which opened into a big wide room, followed by another big room with locked cells and prisoners. There were six gnolls: one Fang of Yeenoghu, one Huntmaster, and four Deathpledged. 

A pretty tough group for four 3rd level heroes. Tarak took two shots with his longbow... And missed. And alerted the Gnolls to their presence. 

Back outside, flying around, was Avenger. He easily located the cavern entrance, which was big enough to fly an airship into. Kevin failed his nature check to get his griffon to fly in there, however, so he just jumped off the griffon and tried to make it to the ledge. He failed his acrobatics check to jump that far but succeeded at his athletics check to grab onto some rock and shrubbery and keep from falling several miles into a watery grave. He climbed his way up and found himself facing two of the gnolls, a huntmaster and a deathpledged.  They knocked him around pretty good, but a little help showed up in the form of Griff, riding a griffon and firing his bow into the gnolls. 

Back inside, the gnolls were refusing to just run down the corridor into the party's midst. They had cover around a corner. The bowmaster critically failed his FIRST ATTACK and broke the string on his bow, rendering him pretty useless as artillery. The Fang of Yeenoghu just hung back and laughed at them, and all the gnolls joined in, taunting the heroes. The heroes eventually moved forward, and battle was joined! 

The Genasi Swordmage attempted to use his encounter power "Incendiary Sword". The power requires he throw his sword into the target square, it does burst fire damage, and the sword reappears in his hand. Joey rolled a 1. Fail. I had him roll again to see if it was a really bad fail. He rolled another 1. The sword stuck in the ground in the midst of the gnolls, and nothing happened. And it was stuck there. So now the swordmage had no sword. 

Gnolls turn. Deathpledged rushes forward, attacks Tarak, and I rolled a 20. Critical hit. Tarak uses his Disruptive Strike encounter power... And rolls a 20. 

So we just saw someone roll two 1s in a row, followed immediately by a pair of 20s. I had to rule that such an obscene display of dice-rolling deserved an equally ridiculous in-game display, so that Tarak dodged the gnolls attack and ran him straight through with both swords, killing him straight-out. 

This wound up being the turning point in the battle, although the rest of it was hard fought as well. The party used three of their four healing potions, and Khaledra's Healing Seed, a daily power. This battle was really close. It very easily could have resulted in a TPK, which would have led to them waking up shackled on board the gnoll slaver airship. However, that did not come to pass. They killed all the gnolls and rescued their hostages, whom were all, shockingly, human! 

The humans claim to be from an island called Barovia, which is ruled by a vampire named Baron von Strahd... The bodies in the pit were all from that island as well, and must be taken back to their families, lest their souls haunt the mines for an age, which would put a serious dent in Verye Hiladian's economic situation. 

Oh, and as they were headed back to town, a flight of dragonborn from
New Arkhosia landed in the town square to demand tribute from Verys Hiladian. Before the Princess could say much of anything, Avenger gave them all a lewd gesture, and they laughed and vowed to return and conquer the island. Captain Misha offered them a ride to Barovia to return the slaves and the bodies to their families. Her price: a future favor from them all. She slapped a magical tracker on Avenger to be able to find them in the future. They spent all night loading up the bodies and soon set off for Barovia...

Contents of a beholder's bag of holding

In PDF form, cards

For my 4E group, the contents of the bag of holding they have just taken from the lair of the beholder.

This beholder had probably just recently taken out a group of adventurers, as the contents of its bag of holding contains several items that are quite useful for our heroes.

They have found 4 potions of healing and a variety of alchemical concoctions. There is a Cask of Liquid Gold, Gloves of Recovery, Claw Gloves, and a Map of Unseen Lands.  There is also a set of musical instruments (a djimbe drum, a flute, a horn, a lute, and a lyre) that are all wildly out of tune but when played together sound quite strangely in-tune somehow, and several pieces of artwork.  There are twelve statues and twenty-two paintings of mind-flayers dressed up as circus clowns, and they are all clearly the work of the same (mad) artist.

Islands in the Sky: Session 1

Islands in the Sky, Session 1 

Play began with Kevin and his as-yet-unnamed Revenant Avenger of the Raven Queen. In his previous life, he was a Shadar-Kai and was part of a rebellion against the New Arkhosian Empire, which had conquered his Island and bound it to New Arkhosia. In a daring raid, he was captured, tortured, and ritually sacrificed in a most gruesome manner. The Raven Queen sent him back and gave him the Ravenblade, a black fullblade +1 with a carved raven for a hilt. He awoke in a temple to the Raven Queen and was found by Tarak, half-orc ranger, and Khaledra, eladrin druid, as they were making their morning rounds about the wilderness areas of their island, Verys Hiladian. 

Strange things had begun happening on the island. There were rumors of a giant spider, and little blue gnomes, and the mosquitoes biting people were unnaturally large. People in town were experiencing weird deja-vu moments, and things felt very... off. 

Khaledra, Tarak, and Avenger were joined by Ripper, the warforged warden, and Arriana, the tiefling invoker. They tracked the giant spider up to the mines, but none of the miners had seen it. This is when Kevin played the Plot Twist card "Erratic Behavior", which I ruled caused a cave-in deep inside the mine (the cave-in was plotted to happen that evening anyway, so I just let it happen then). A number of miners were trapped inside. Our intrepid heroes went to investigate, of course, and see if they could help. 

It didn't take long to discover that there hadn't really been a cave-in, but actually an attack by a group of earth elementals! The heroes pretty well clobbered the elementals, and the stirges that flew in to back them up. They were then faced with a right-or-left path choice, and went down the corridor the stirges had flown in from. This led to a Xirbolg lair, evil little blue gnomes, whom they also handled with ease. All along the way, the heroes were easily winning initiative and throwing down critical hits. Meanwhile, the DM was missing about 85% of the monsters' attacks. Definitely will be using a different D20 next time. 

After clearing out the Xirbolgs, they made their way to the end of the mine, and found the source of all the trouble: a beholder gauth had taken up residence and was performing some kind of ritual, using captured miners as sacrifices. Definitely not good. 

Of course, I proceeded to miss all but one of his eye-ray attacks and he was quickly clobbered, and a critical hit ended his life with a sword to the Eye. All in all, far too easy a romp, but good for a first night out. Kevin and Curtis knew that a beholder could do some nasty shit if it hit with its eyerays, and that knowledge alone, even though everyone was in pretty damn good shape, health-wise, was enough to raise the tension level at the table for a bit. They found some treasure in the form of a bag of holding full of strange art items and other things. What kinds of art would a beholder be collecting...?

Game Night: Success!

So we actually played some D&D! Wha? Only a month and a half after I had hoped to start the Islands in the Sky campaign, but hey, its started! Five players and myself running the game: Kevin, a Revenant Avenger of the Raven Queen who was a Shadar-Kai in his past life; Curtis, a half-Orc Ranger Scout (Essentials build); Lisa and Joey, playing pre-gens I took from the WotC website, a Tiefling Invoker and a Warforged Warden; and my beautiful wife Gabby and her Eladrin Druid. 

Kevin's Revenant Avenger we stole outright from the WotC message boards Character Optimization Forum. And he kicked ass. He likes a lot of story and plot mixed in, and took a little bit of time trying to figure out his motivation for helping everyone else, but it was definitely all good. 

I honestly wasn't impressed with WotC's convention builds. A warforged warden? I'm sorry, I just have a hard time connecting a mechanical/magical construct with the primal power source. And there are better ways to build an Invoker. That being said, Lisa and Joey are real champs for sticking with it and being ready to come back for more. I'll be searching for proper builds for them over the next couple of weeks, before our next game, so they can also kick some major ass. 

But yeah, it looks like we might have a team of (mostly) strikers by the time I'm done printing character sheets. 

A couple more things before we get into the play report. We played with a couple of supplements, to make things even more confusing for the noobs: D&D Fortune Cards (which I handed out to the players) and Paizo's Plot Twist Cards. The Fortune Cards only got used a couple times, but I think there are two reasons for this. First, the party pretty much cake-walked through the encounters. Second, nobody yet has a great grasp of the rules and terminology. I'm the only one with the books or the DDI subscription. So the Fortune Cards will probably see more use as players get the hang of the mechanics of the system. All the players were drawing from my one deck (I only ever picked up four or five booster packs), so I think a lot of them got cards that were kinda useless. 

The Plot Twist Cards were definitely better, helped move the game along and kept me on my toes, but in a very good way. I loved what they added to the game. More on this in the Actual Play run-down. 

Another thing that was a big help was having little pop-up monster info cards. 3x5 index cards, folded in half, with monster defenses written on both sides. I set them out at the beginning of combat and it definitely cut down a lot on me having to look through books and sheets during combat. Some might argue that players shouldn't know all that info right off the bat; I don't really care. It helped speed up the game and it helped players make decisions. All numbers in the game are purely meta knowledge anyway, so we might as well lay it all out on the table. 

I also didn't use a DM Screen, probably for the first time. All rolls were out in the open, no fudging at all. I found this extremely liberating. 

All in all, the players had fun, I had fun, the game ran well and everyone is coming back for more! The next post will be a proper report of what all went down. 

Wha? Some Actual Gaming?

Finally! We have plans to actually get a game half-way up and running on Sunday!  Islands in the Sky will get its first test-flight.  I'm letting the players start at level 3, just because.

My beautiful wife will be playing Khaledra, Eladrin Druid who's all about her Ferocious Tiger Form.

Hopefully Kevin will have his character all built up in the Character Builder, so we will see what he comes up with.  Also hopefully, he will bring Curtis along, and I will have Curtis' old character Thrack the Half-Orc Ranger leveled up to 3rd for him.

We also have Drew and Paul along for the ride. Drew has gotten the hang of D&D pretty quick in the few times he's played.  Paul is a n00b and I have no idea what kind of character he's going to come up with.

I have a pretty good idea of the adventure I'm going to send them on. We're starting on the island of Verys Hiladian.  I have plenty more prep work to do here, so this blog post will be short. I will be posting a full accounting of the session on Sunday evening.

Islands in the Sky: Verys Hiladian

First of all, allow me to apologize for my lack of posting of late. I try to be a daily poster to this blog, but this past weekend I found myself to be quite ill and so this is the first I have been able to get much writing done.  I hardly picked up my D&D books I felt so poorly!  Anyways, allow me to introduce you to the Island of Verys Hiladian...

Verys Hiladian is a smaller island in the sky, although it is a bustling, busy one.  Roughly 2 square miles of terrain on top, which slopes from one side to the other.  The higher side is rocky, rough land, and is home to an elemental crystal mine. The lower side is where the town is situated, and it is home to some five hundred souls.  Thirty people work in the mines, and another thirty work at the town's docks.  There are some fifty talented people who create all manner of generally mundane items imbued with the magic of the elemental crystals that are mined up the hill.  Everyone in town is skilled in some way; most are artisans but many others are capable constructors and smithies, and several others still have a high degree of competency in magical arts.

First and foremost, the aforementioned Elemental Crystals. These are found in great abundance in the ground of Verys Hiladian. Individual crystals contain the essence of some specific type of magic, be it fire, ice, thunder, or other, darker powers (basically, every damage type in 4E D&D will have a corresponding type of Elemental Crystal associated with it). They require careful extraction from the rock surrounding them. These Crystals are never sold or traded, and always used by the artisans in town in the crafting of their wondrous items.  

These wondrous items account for a wide variety of magical enhancements to everyday life.  One of the most popular are the Beacons that allow airships to find certain islands. Long-distance instant two-way communication crystal balls are also in high demand.  Cooking aids, farming tools, alarms, locks, enchanted books and pens and paper, toys, bags of holding and boots of speed, cloaks, gloves, rings, goggles and glasses; all manner of magical items are produced here on Verys Hiladian.  

Magical weapons, however, are another matter. There is a single smithy who will enchant weapons on Verys Hiladian, and those are strictly for the defense of the Island. Magic weapons are never sold here. Several years ago, someone began illicitly producing and selling enchanted weapons. It was not long before he was kicked off the Island... in a most literal sense. 

Verys Hiladian will be the starting location for my upcoming Islands in the Sky campaign. As such, I will soon be posting up information on various NPCs about town. Verys Hiladian is home to people of several different races, and even a number of humans are found here!  There has been peace in town for many years, but all that is soon to change... 

Islands in the Sky: New Arkhosia

I know I said I would post up some more of the D&D the CCG cards, but I'm still working on it. I would like to have a full first level character put together to post up. This will require a bit more work.

In the meantime, I have an overview of another Island in the Sky for my eponymous campaign, which should be getting started in the first weekend of March.

New Arkhosia

New Arkhosia is the new Dragonborn empire. They are collecting islands and binding them to their large central mote, and have developed a means of magical propulsion to control the movement of New Arkhosia. 

New Arkhosia has a population of almost ten thousand dragonborn, and another twenty thousand subjects, primarily dwarves, goblinoids, lizardfolk and a smattering of other races. 

The dragonborn are militant imperialists, and are led by Emperor Drakkon the Red. There is an elected Senate, which largely serves to rubber-stamp the decrees of Drakkon. 

The main island is a testament to dragonborn militarism in every aspect. Barracks, smithies, training grounds, everything built with precision, simplicity, and purpose. 

New Arkhosia has mastered the magic of controlling the movement of its earthmotes. An eldritch engine deep in the bowels of the main island powers the movement of New Arkhosia, and also helps bind the other islands to the central mote. When they conquer a new island, the magic helps move it into place, and they build several bridges to connect and further bind them.  

The dragonborn also build powerful, fast airships. They are fully capable of not only defending their airspace from threats but also launching raids and invasions of islands they desire to bind to them. 

In the five years since Drakkon the Red took over the senate and cast himself as Emperor, the newly militant New Arkhosia has bound 72 islands to itself, some large, some small, all populated and rich in resources. Each individual island has its own Dragonborn Overlord. Most are cruel bastards who rule their domain with an iron fist. Certain islands are better assignments than others. All Overlords serve at the pleasure of the Emperor. To fail is to die. 

Islands in the Sky: Random Island Generator!

This generator will be used when the PCs are traveling the skies and happen across a random Island in the Sky. 

Per 6 hours of sky travel: 1d6
1 Nothing
2 Nothing
3 Another skyship! 1: Pirate 2: Cruise/pleasure ship 3: Military 4: Fisherman 5: Merchant 6: Adventurers (and roll on race chart below)
4: Monster attack!
5: Wild Weather! 1: Tornado 2: Thunderstorm 3: Snowstorm 4: Windstorm 5: Heatstorm 6: Hailstorm
6: Island in the Sky (roll on following charts)

Size in square miles: 2d4
2 1d10+20
3 1d10
4 1d4
5 <1
6 1d4
7 1d10
8 1d10+20

Inhabitants 1d8+1d12
2 Artisan Town (magic items)
3 Mining Town (rare minerals)
4 Ghost Town
5 House on a Hill (occupied)
6 House on a Hill (abandoned)
7 Mining Town
8 Organized Militaristic Humanoids
9 Wilderness
10 Humanoid Monster Packs/Clans
11 Ancient Ruins
12 Small Trading Village
13 2d6 homes around shared farmland
14 House on a Hill (abandoned)
15 House on a Hill (occupied) 
16 Ghost Town
17 Mining Town
18 Artisan Town
19 Mining Town (rare minerals)
20 Artisan Town (magic items)

Terrain Type 2d6
2 Arctic
3 Desert
4 Jungle
5 Mountains
6 Forest
7 Plains/Prairie
8 Swamp
9 Badlands
10 Fey or Shadow
11 Volcano
12 Watermote

Racial Make-up d20 (25% mixed 1-6 races)
1 Elf
2 Eladrin
3 Gnome
4 Halfling
5 Dwarf
6 Dragonborn
7 Drow
8 Shadar-kai
9 Wilden
10 Tiefling
11 Cyclops
12 Gnoll
13 Goblin
14 Orc
15 Kobold
16 Lizardfolk
17 Troglodyte
18 Undead
19 Fomorians
20 Human

Island in the Sky: Myth Aerial

Myth Aerial is the home of the Eladrin. It is an earthmote of about a hundred square miles on the surface, all of it covered in Feywild forest. The trees grow larger towards the center, and one gargantuan hollow tree in the middle serves as a castle of sorts, where Queen Zdena holds her lonely court. 

There are only a few hundred eladrin in Myth Aerial. The eldest among them, twenty-two of them, were around when the Islands in the Sky were ripped from the earth, and the sin of humanity was washed away. These eladrin are all of noble blood and all can be considered paragon-tier, leveled adventurers. There are no common eladrin in Myth Aerial. 

Myth Aerial is highly defended with the powerful mythals that protect all eladrin cities. Magical wards abound; the eladrin will never be caught off guard by surprise attackers. 

The eladrin of Myth Aerial trade openly with those they trust. Trusted merchants are given a writ of passage that allows them to land on the island. The eladrin do not need to trade to survive, but do so out of a sense of tradition. 

The island itself is very much an extension of the Feywild. Fey creatures and magic abound; it is very difficult to find one's way around without a guide. 

Myth Aerial is one of very few Islands that has buildings that predate the Rending of the Earth. The Tower of the Tree, the massive central structure on Myth Aerial, is an ancient eladrin relic in and of itself. Some say that the great and terrible ritual that caused the Rending of the Earth was cast from the Tower of the Tree. This is only partially true. 

Pack of Pirate Gnolls

Ahoy matey! You thought Gnolls were scary when they were riding dinosaurs around? I'll show you scary! Jam a hundred of those filth-ridden bastards on an airship to raid the skies, now that's scary! 

Captain Blacktooth is a big nasty gnoll with a flair for the dramatic and a taste for flesh. Specifically, he thinks halfling flesh is the most tender, tastiest morsels he's ever ripped off a bone. Blacktooth is probably the most well-dressed gnoll you'll ever meet, as befits someone of his station, being Captain of one of the most feared skyships ever to pirate through the clouds: the Vulture. 

The Vulture was once an elegant eladrin Cloudskipper, the Peregrine, until Blacktooth captured it in a daring midair raid. He slew every last eladrin on board and took the ship as his own, corrupting its very nature with his presence alone. Ever since he has terrorized the skies. 

The Vulture has a crew of some hundred and fifty battle hardened gnolls. They are loyal to Blacktooth to the death. When not out pirating the skies, they can typically be found on the Crag, a pirate haven and generally lawless island. 

Islands in the Sky: FeyIsles and Shadowmotes

In the standard 4e setting, there are two parallel planes to the normal world, and they are called the Feywild and the Shadowfell. I wish I could remember, but some D&D blogger somewhere had the brilliant idea to make the Feywild and the Shadowfell actual areas of the normal world, that didn't require extra-planar travel to get to. I really liked that idea and I think it fits really well with my Islands in the Sky campaign. I love the idea that the characters could easily land on the wrong island and get lost in the madness of the Feywild or trapped in the treacherous Shadowfell, and being able to do a one-shot like that without getting into the messiness of extra-planar travel is a big bonus for me. 

Something else occurs to me. For smaller islands that the PCs will invariably encounter, we need some randomness charts! I'll be workin on these in the days ahead and will hopefully soon have a few nice ones to draw from. 

Islands in the Sky: Verisimilitude

Okay, so this whole "Islands in the Sky" campaign setting confounds my sense of verisimilitude, purely on account of resource logistics and management. The very nature of these earthmotes is to isolate; each Island is its own little world, connected only by the arrival and departure of airships. 

A number of questions quickly arise. First is a question of consumption that I have yet to find a satisfactory answer to: how much land is needed for a thousand people to survive off? As in, how much food must they grow? What other resources do they require? With such a limited amount of land available, is it possible for people to thrive in any way? Or does society fall into a survival of the toughest type of existence, due to the scarcity of resources? Seafood would obviously be pretty important, as would having airships to get down to the ocean in order to fish. 

What about communication? At what point do magical means of communication in a fantasy setting become farcical? Obviously, it would be silly to have cell phone or star trek type communicators. But what about something like a weekly newsletter that gets dropped off in town squares? That would be more appropriate to the fantasy feel while still allowing for plenty of communication between islands, although the islands are still dependent on airships with this idea. 

So, if our little societies get most of their food from the sea (and some that they shoot out of the sky), and most of their communication comes from delivered newsletters, this leaves one most important, supreme resource: the airship. 

So let's put some Gnolls on some airships! Pirate Gnolls! Ahoy matey! 

A Pack of Gnolls on Dinosaurs

So, what's scarier than a slavering, bloodthirsty, 'roided-out pack of gnolls? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

A slavering bloodthirsty 'roided-out pack of gnolls riding dinosaurs, that's what! 

I think this Pack of Gnolls would be most appropriate in the 4e published Eberron setting, where "behemoths" (aka dinosaurs) are common enough critters that barbarian halflings ride them around the Talenta Plains. 

A clan of gnolls that has trained a number of dinosaurs to be mounts and pack animals would be a force to be reckoned with as they travelled across the plains. They would undoubtedly butcher whole tribes of halflings and use their skulls to drink their blood. Nasty stuff like that. Because gnolls are evil, you know. 

Come to think of it, this clan of dino-riding gnolls may get its own Island in the Sky...

Islands in the Sky

Since I'm starting up a new campaign pretty soon, so here's an overview of the new campaign setting.




Millenia ago, there was a great and terrible war of aggression across the land, as two mighty human kingdoms sought to reign supreme over all the land. The war ravaged the lands, drawing in all other countries and peoples, until the whole world was embroiled in combat.


War destroyed much of the land and millions of people. In an effort to bring the terrible war to an end, elven magi, in conunction with wizards, sorcerers, and warlocks from every affected nation, devised a final solution, and carried it out. The land was all ripped asunder and hurled into the sky, and in the sky, it all remains. Most of humanity was washed away in the aftermath of the rending of the earth. To this day, humans are considered evil and dangerous, and are generally killed on sight, although none have been seen in ages.


The islands in the sky are always in motion, although their movements do not seem to be orbital or anything else that can be mathematically deduced.


There are several large motes that are several miles across, and hundreds, if not thousands, of smaller islands, most no larger than a thousand feet across.


There are airships that travel from mote to mote, facilitating trade between islands. Each major island has a magical beacon that allows specially equipped airships to locate them as they move through the skies.


Next up, our PC's starting island, and an overview of some of the major islands in the sky.