Wild Cats for D&D 5E

My daughter recently became a second-generation Game Master when she ran a session of OneDice Raptors for some friends over Christmas vacation. Since then, she has joined a newly formed role-playing club at her high school, and just this past week started running her first RPG campaign, using Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition.

She was already pretty familiar with many of the 5E rules from playing in my Tales from the Yawning Portal game, and has been avidly studying the rulebooks and online resources to help her plan her game. Her campaign is set in a fantasy rain forest, so she is eager to include many real-world animals native to that environment, as well as fantasy creatures based on them (like the grungs). The Monster Manual and Volo's Guide to Monsters have fairly skimpy offerings when it comes to natural animals, so she will need to re-skin* some stat blocks or make up her own from scratch to cover all the beasts she wants.

She was particularly disappointed that there was no stat block for a Small feline to represent her favorite cat, the ocelot, so she asked for my help in creating one. We compared the stats for a cat (Tiny; MM 320) and a panther (Medium; MM 333), and interpolated from there. Some parts of the stat block were easy (Dex, Con, Int, and Cha were identical, and both had Keen Smell) while others required more thought:

• We took the average of the cat and panther's Hit Dice (2) and applied the dice type for Small (d6). 
• We also averaged their Str scores, resulting in an 8, which felt about right.
• All big cats (lion, panther, tiger) have an extra +2 to Stealth beyond their Dex bonus and proficiency bonus, so we gave that to the ocelot as well. 
• The big cats also have Pounce, which appears to have a Strength-based DC. As a wild cat, the ocelot should get that, too, though we debated adding a limit to the size of creature they could knock prone. However, most Large and larger creatures will have high enough Strength scores to make that save trivial. For claw and bite damage, we dropped the panther's dice by one size.
• Comparing the ocelot to the jackal (Challenge 0) and mastiff (Challenge 1/8), it seems much more on par with the former.

The finished stat block appears below, and can be used for any kind of wild cats (ocelets, caracals, bobcats, lynxes, etc.) that fall between the size of domestic cats and the "big cat" species.

Wild Cat

Small beast, unaligned
Armor Class 12
Hit Points 7 (2d6)
Speed 40 ft., climb 30 ft.

STR 8 (-1), DEX 15 (+2), CON 10 (+0), INT 3 (-4), WIS 14 (+2), CHA 7 (-2)

Skills Perception +4, Stealth +6
Senses passive Perception 14
Languages --
Challenge 0 (10 XP)

Keen Smell. The wild cat has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell.

Pounce. If the wild cat moves at least 20 feet straight towards a creature and then hits it with a claw attack on the same turn, that target must succeed on a DC 11 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone. If the target is prone, the wild cat can make one bite attack against it as a bonus action.

Actions

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +1 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1 (1d4-1) piercing damage.

Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +1 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1 (1d3-1) piercing damage.

---------

* The first creature she wanted help devising was an intelligent monkey-like race. I explained the concept of "re-skinning" an existing stat block to serve as an entirely different creature, and suggested the goblin stat block as a starting point for creating her monkey people (which she has since dubbed "gremlins"). The only mechanical change needed was adding a climb speed, which is far too minor enough to affect the Challenge rating. 

The Forge of Fury #6-7: Forges & Dragons

Duergar

We've had even more delays in continuing my Tales from the Yawning Portal game, but we've finally completed The Forge of Fury. We ran two sessions over the kids' school vacation. The first was at my mother's house while we visited her for a few days after Christmas. (This was the first time I've run D&D there in 30 years!) The second, much shorter session, in which they faced the final level, was run just after New Year's.

Our heroes include:

• Raven Flare, female tiefling rogue 4 (assassin, urchin)
• Kalitni, female human ranger 4 (beast master, hermit) with Daikitsu, wolf companion
• Xuri, female blue dragonborn sorcerer 4 (wild magic, sage)
• Sir Dain (NPC/guest-PC), male hill dwarf paladin 4 (oath of devotion, knight)
• Erky Timbers (DM-run NPC), male forest gnome cleric 4 (life domain, acolyte)

See The Story So Far for an index to summaries of past sessions of our Tales from the Yawning Portal adventures.

(Warning: Spoilers for The Forge of Fury follow.) 

Part 6: The Forges Found

Last time, the heroes found the great hall of Khundrukar, where they battled three duergar who were occupying the chamber. After slaying the gray dwarves, they entered a room that was once the stronghold's shrine, but had been desecrated when the place was overrun by orcs. After destroying the undead they found here, the party barricaded the door and used the shrine as a place to rest and recover. 

During this long rest, Kalitni found a secret door in the east wall, so when the party resumed their exploration, they investigated this direction. Beyond a small room (and another secret door), they found a hallway with four doors leading to a chamber with a pool. Before they could continue further, the ghost of an armored dwarf emerged from a wall and attacked. Kalitni, Erky, and Dain were frightened by the ghost, and Raven suffered a blow from its withering touch. The paladin cast protection from evil and good upon himself in order to shake off the fear. The spirit cursed in Dwarven, bewailing its failure to save its kinfolk, so Dain tried to talk with it, but it would not pay heed to him, so he was forced to destroy it. 

The hallway led to many rooms that were once barracks, storerooms, and the like, but now held nothing but demolished furnishings and occasional skeletons of the dwarves and orcs who fought here a century ago. In one of these rooms, a half dozen skeletons animated and attacked, but the doorway and the cramped bunks made it easy for the paladin and rogue to dispatch the undead one or two at a time.

At the far end of the hallway was a second chamber with a pool, and the corpses of a handful of dwarves and over a dozen orcs. Finding nothing valuable or mobile here, they backtracked to clear more side rooms. One of these was not looted or vandalized, and held a bed, desk, and beautiful rug. The heroes were paranoid about traps, so walked around the rug to search the other furniture. They found a chest full of coins and gems under the bed. However, Xuri's curiosity got the best of her and she stepped onto the rug--which animated and grappled her. She fought back with her draconic breath weapon, while the others attempted to fight it. They managed to destroy it before their friend was finished off by the rug of smothering. The rescued sorcerer, still fascinated by the construct, cut off a corner of the rug to study later.

Another seemingly empty room was an armory that held an animated armor stand, which the heroes dealt with handily. They returned to the second pool room, and a more thorough search led to the discovery of a secret door to the south. 

But first, they investigated the last remaining room in this area, which was a library. They found a human woman here, who begged them to release her from imprisonment by a wizard who lives here. The heroes were immediately suspicious of Idalla, so Dain used his divine sense--and cried, "Die, fiend!" upon determining she was one. She attempted to charm him, but he was warded by another protection spell; when Raven resisted her, Idalla swore in Abyssal. She did, however, manage to charm Kalitni, but before she could attempt to turn her against the party--or escape into the Ethereal--the heroes took her down with a divine smite from Dain, a guiding bolt from Erky, and an eldritch blast from Xuri. The dead body reverted to its true form:,a bat-winged woman with horns, claw, and a barbed tail--a succubus. With the threat gone, the heroes searched the library, and found many books of dwarven lore (including Khundrukar's history), as well a handful of spell scrolls.

The secret door led to a passage with two branches. The first one led to a secret door into the closet of a once-fine bedroom. The room seemed empty, but Kalitni heard a scraping noise, and warned her companions. Xuri used her wand of entangle, which revealed something large but unseen which resisted the spell. Dain stabbed at the space with his glaive, and hit something. Then the invisible foe revealed herself--an enlarged duergar struck Dain with her greatsword, but it was surprisingly weak blow. She took a witchbolt from Xuri and an arrow from Kalitni, and struck the paladin another feeble blow. Dain scoffed at her as he struck the killing blow. [The duergar's damage was 4d6+2 while enlarged, but I rolled only a few points above minimum damage for her both times.]

Besides her sword and armor, the gray dwarf had only a couple satchels of mundane supplies (food, clothing, etc.). The party tried to take a short rest here, but were interrupted by another duergar coming to the room. They heard the heavily-armored dwarf coming, and killed him very quickly. They pulled him into the bedroom, and investigated the audience chamber beyond. After using a scroll of alarm on the door on the far side of that room, the party resumed their rest in the bedroom. This time, they were undisturbed for the full hour.

The party then checked out the other branch of the secret passage, which led to a small ledge overlooking a chasm in which a waterfall poured down into darkness. A chain ladder was bolted to the edge of the cliff, going down. Xuri lit a torch and dropped it down next to the ladder, which let her see that the chasm went down about 120 feet to rock next to the waterfall; at the base, the water appeared to flow north, out of sight. The heroes decided to finish exploring this level before risking the climb down, so returned to the audience chamber. 

That room's exit opened into the great hall. They could no longer hear the sound of hammering to the south, so decided to explore that direction next. The southeastern door opened into Durgeddin's old bladeworks. A narrowed stream flowed through the room, with two bridges over it. On the far side, three duergar stood near a glowing forge. Two of these dwarves moved to block the bridges, while the third cast hold person on the hill dwarf paladin. Raven leaped over the stream and scored a critical hit on the caster. Xuri used an elixir of healing to free Dain, who then followed the tiefling to flank the duergar spellcaster. The other two duergar enlarged themselves and moved to flank the paladin and rogue, but Raven downed the wizard with a sneak attack before they could reap the benefits of that tactic. (The wizard's rat familiar, which was hiding behind one of the cold forges, fled when its master died.) Xuri cast twinned witchbolts on the remaining duergar, and hit them both. Dain hit one, and it turned invisible to try to escape. The other hit Raven hard [for maximum damage], and laughed evilly, but the ranger's arrow and rogue's rapier finished him. Xuri's still-active witchbolt took down the other, who became visible--and smaller again--in death.

They stripped the duergar of their gear, and found their stash of coins, jewelry, and a potion [which they later identified as hill giant strength]. Beyond the bladeworks, the stream continued a short ways to a waterfall into the chasm they had seen from the other side. 

They returned to the great hall, where only one door remained to investigate. This led to a kitchen, where an animated table attacked them. When Dain realized it was ignoring him to attack Xuri behind him, he yelled at it to stop--and it did. The sorcerer concluded that it had been placed here as a guardian but would not attack dwarves, but she doubted that Dain could command it to do anything but stop attacking. While the paladin watched the table, the others searched the kitchen and pantry, but found nothing of value here. They departed, Dain going last, and left the table here, behind a closed door. They returned to the bedroom--which had obviously been Durgeddin's in life--to take advantage of the alarm spell to take a long rest.

[They now just have the final level to explore.]

-----

Part 7: The Dragon at the End of the Dungeon

After their long rest and other preparations (such as Erky's habitual casting of aid on the melee types), the heroes returned to the chain ladder and descended it, one at a time. At the bottom of the chasm, the waterfall filled a pool that flowed out to join an underground river to the north. The muddy edge of the pool held some tracks of a Large four-footed reptile, which faded away when the tracks reached the harder stone near the river.

A low stone bridge crossed the river, and a second one re-crossed the water a short ways further upsteam. Kalitni's sharp eyes spotted a problem with the second bridge: it had settled some, and was pitted by acid. Dain's dwarven stonecunning told him that it would not hold his weight (and that of his heavy armor), but would hold the others if they crossed one at a time. Once they did so, he jumped the distance safely.

The bridges led to a ledge along the edge of a large underground lake. Just as they came to a place where the ledge devolved into a series of stepping stones, most of the party noticed a serpentine shape swimming towards them under the water's surface. They had time for Dain to ready his glaive and Erky to cast bless before a black dragon's head and neck rose from the water and the beast spit a line of acid at them. This breath weapon hit Raven and Kalitni (whose saves allowed them to take reduced damage). The tiefling's hellish rebuke scored the first damage on the monster, but then the severely wounded rogue drank a potion of invisibility and ran for cover. Xuri spat her own (much weaker) electrical breath weapon at the dragon, and demanded "What is your problem?!" in Draconic.

Erky summoned a spiritual weapon (which failed to strike the dragon, but followed it for a few rounds), and healed the ranger. (He saved his Channel Divinity healing power because he did not know where Raven was now.) Dain leaped across the stepping in order to reach the dragon with his glaive, and delivered a divine smite. The dragon cursed in pain, and Xuri replied, "That's a terrible thing to call your mother" (which greatly amused Kalitni, who also knew Draconic).

The dragon disengaged, and took cover under the water while its breath weapon recharged. This gave the heroes a moment to rearrange themselves and ready attacks for its return--and for Raven to drink a potion of healing. When the dragon resurfaced, Kaltni and Xuri shot it, but it breathed acid on the paladin and sorcerer. (As a hill dwarf with a martial class, Dain can absorb far more damage than Xuri, who was reduced to single digit HP, just as Raven had been.) Raven used her invisibility to sneak attack the dragon with her bow, then Kalitni shot it, Erky hit with a guiding bolt, and Dain hurled a javelin--while insulting the big lizard's ancestry--all of which wounded the dragon enough that it submerged and fled. It swam past a small island at the edge of Dain and Raven's darkvision, and was never seen again.

[The young black dragon had been dropped to 22 of its 127 HP. That's close enough to death that it abandoned its lair and hoard.]

The small island turned out to have the dragon's hoard piled atop it. This consisted of several thousand coins and a number of magic items: a wand of magic missiles, a +2 greataxe with Durgeddin's smith-mark, a +1 shield, and two potions. The party took a considerable amount of time removing the treasure from the cave, and carting it (and their previous loot from this adventure) back to town.

 -----

After selling the various nonmagical gear, goods, and jewels from Khundrukar, each PC ended up with over 2,000 gp--not counting the magical items they had already divided between themselves. They now plan to use some down time to learn new languages (Xuri now has a small library of Dwarven lore books she can't yet read), and get the orog's plate armor resized for Dain. The paladin has claimed the dwarven greataxe for himself, but his player is torn between using it and retaining the ability to protect allies with a shield. (I will probably allow him to retrain his fighting style, rather then rain on the fun of having a rare magic weapon forged by a master smith of his own race.) 

Our heroes ended about 1,000 XP short of 5th level, but the next adventure in Tales from the Yawning Portal is designed for 5th-level characters. While I could just say that they advance to 5th level, I will probably run a short adventure to get them there instead (perhaps one from the Mini-Dungeon Tome, for which I backed the Kickstarter). That would also give Raven an opportunity to find better armor (she would love some elven chain), and for Kalitni to seek out a magic bow. However, I will have some time to figure all that out, because we won't be continuing the campaign right away. Now that my kids are regularly involved in Pathfinder Society, and my "Time of the Tarrasque" campaign is active again, it's much harder to make time for D&D. But my family is still very interested in continuing with these characters.

This concludes The Forge of Fury! 

(L-R): The dwarf ghost; Idalla (in human form); Idalla (succubus)

Nightscale, the dragon at the end of the dungeon

2018 in Review: The Blog

"Studded Plate" is now four years old!

I started this blog in late 2014, and has been a weekly blog since early 2015. This time last year, I posted a brief review of what I had accomplished on my blog during 2017. In the interest of monitoring my own progress, and assisting any new readers I've acquired since then, I've decided to make this an annual tradition. 

To quote last year's review: "I write about roleplaying games, LEGO toys, and how I combine the two, with occasional forays into my other hobbies. I have a number of ongoing series that I add to as I find the time and inspiration. These include session summaries for the campaigns that I Game Master, reviews of RPG and LEGO products, and other subjects." Each item below includes a link to either the series index (if I've created a separate page for one) or to the most recent installment (which usually includes a list of links to earlier columns).

"Building the Bestiary" is my series on how I build LEGO miniatures for my tabletop role-playing games. It focuses on the first Pathfinder RPG Bestiary and the D&D 5E Monster Manual. It's my longest-running series here (19 installments plus the Index), but I only finished two new columns for it this year (Aberrations and Celestials).

I wrote more reviews of collectible LEGO Minifigures Series in 2018 than I did in 2017, covering The LEGO Ninjago Movie, The LEGO Batman Movie Series 2, Series 18: Party, and Harry Potter & Fantastic Beasts.

"Time of the Tarrasque" is a homebrew Pathfinder campaign that I started in January 2017. We had a hiatus of about a year due to some players moving away and others (including myself) having dramatic changes in employment, but we were finally able to start again in September with a smaller group. We've completed 17 sessions of this game so far, so I have finally made an index page for it.

I continued running Tales from the Yawning Portal (D&D 5E) for my wife and children. However, my kids are now playing in local Pathfinder Society games regularly, and "Time of the Tarrasque" has restarted, so we all have less time to devote to this game. That has seriously delayed us finishing The Forge of Fury, but I hope to fit that in soon so we can leave this campaign at a better stopping point while we wait for a good time to start the next adventure.

Speaking of Pathfinder Society, I've played nearly three times as many sessions this year as I did in 2017 (as of writing this, I have played or GMed 107 adventures in 2018). I also earned my first GM star (for running 10+ games) this year. I won't be able to GM as often now that Tarrasque has started up again, but I do plan to continue running occasional scenarios when needed. I rarely discuss those games here in my blog, but many of my "Building the Bestiary" models have seen use in those games (or originated in prep for them), and I recently posted photos of the iconic character minis that I built for PFS. 

I posted a couple of articles about Green Ronin's Fantasy AGE system towards the end of 2017, with the intention of doing more, but other games have taken up too much of my GM headspace to follow through with Fantasy AGE this year.

I did, however, continue my series of Freeport 5E articles. 2018 featured installments about using Volo's Guide to Monsters, Xanathar's Guide to Everything, the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, and Mordenkainen's Book of Foes with Green Ronin's Freeport setting; using the Book of the Righteous and Cults of Freeport together; and more reviews of new "Unearthed Arcana" and "Plane Shift" material. In addition, I backed four Kickstarters for third-party 5E products this year: Mini-Dungeon Tome (AAW Games), Tome of Horrors (Frog God Games), Strongholds & Followers (Matt Colville), and Pirate Campaign Compendium (Legendary Games). Once I receive my print copies of the last two, I plan to give them similarly Freeport-focused reviews. (I backed the first two at the PDF level only, so might or might not do the same with them.)

I participated in #Drawloween in 2016, but worked far too much overtime in October 2017 to do so that year. This year, I didn't care for the list of prompts for #Drawloween (too many weird, overly limiting puns), so instead decided to try #Inktober (which used single words). I posted those drawings in small batches here in the blog, but you can also see the whole set at my DeviantArt gallery.

During my 35+ years of gaming, I've almost always drawn portraits of my RPG characters, but for some reason, I went over two years in Pathfinder Society without drawing any of those PCs. I drew my first one during #Inktober this year, and drew and posted another (Cassilda Tillinghast) soon after. I've drawn a third PFS PC since then, and plan to do more, but I haven't decided yet how I want to share them here on my blog. (Meanwhile, I'll be posting them to DeviantArt as I finish them.)

Tales from the Yawning Portal: The Story So Far

It's been almost one full year since I started running the first adventure from Tales from the Yawning Portal for my wife and children. Despite numerous interruptions, we're now over halfway through  the second adventure, and everyone is still eager for more. I felt it was time to move the ever-growing appendix of links from the end of each session summary to its own page. From now on, I'll simply include a link to this page with each new installment.

Following that index are my house rules for the campaign, which for now just consist of the options from the core rules that we're using.

Our Heroes

Our heroes for The Forge of Fury include (from left to right, above):

• Sir Dain (NPC/guest-PC), male hill dwarf paladin 4 (oath of devotion, knight)
• Xuri, female blue dragonborn sorcerer 4 (wild magic, sage)
• Raven Flare, female tiefling rogue 4 (assassin, urchin)
• Kalitni, female human ranger 4 (beast master, hermit) with Daikitsu, wolf companion
• Erky Timbers (DM-run NPC), male forest gnome cleric 4 (life domain, acolyte)

The Story So Far...

Tales from the Yawning Portal (product mini-review; 4/19/2017)

The Sunless Citadel (2017)

#1: Down into the Ground (5/31/2017; started at 1st level)
#2: Lost Dragon (6/7/2017; reached 2nd level)
#3: Through the Dragon Door (6/14/2017)
#4: Goblin Boss Battle (8/9/2017; reached 3rd level)
#5: Through Pallid Gardens (9/28/2017)
[Campaign Update (9/28/2017)]
#6: Belak, at Last (10/5/2017)

The Forge of Fury (2018-2019)

[2017 in Review: The Blog (1/2/2018)]
#1: Orc Gruel (1/9/2018)
#2: Bloody Stirges! (1/16/2018)
#3: Into the Glitterhame (2/13/2018; reached 4th level)
#4: Even the Rocks Want to Eat Us (2/28/2018)
#5: The Wrong Kind of Dwarf (5/8/2018)
#6-7: Forges and Dragons (1/3/2019)

House Rules

Most house rules for this campaign pertain to available options for player characters, but I am also using a couple of the optional rules from the core rulebooks.

Books: At present, the only books that are being used for this campaign are the core rulebooks (Player's Handbook [PH], Dungeon Master's Guide [DMG], and Monster Manual [MM]), plus--of course--the adventure anthology Tales from the Yawning Portal.

Determining Ability Scores: Use the ability score array of 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8. (In order to keep character creation quick and simple, the Customizing Ability Scores option will not be used.)

Races: All PH races and subraces are allowed except for dark elves (drow). Variant human traits (p. 31) are an allowed option.

Classes: All PH classes and subclasses are allowed.

Backgrounds: All PH backgrounds (pp. 125-141) are allowed, including variants.

Starting Equipment: Characters receive equipment based on class and background, not random gold. (If we ever need to introduce a new PC later on, we'll combine this with the DMG guidelines for wealth at high levels.)

Multiclassing: (I have not yet determined if multiclassing will be an option for this campaign. And no one has asked to yet.)

Feats: Feats (pp. 165-170) may be chosen in place of Ability Score Improvements, or at 1st level if the variant human traits (p. 31) are chosen.

Combat: The flanking rules will be used; see p. 251 of the DMG.

Gods of the Multiverse: Tales from the Yawning Portal includes adventures that were originally written for multiple campaign worlds. There will be minimal attention paid to the world outside the adventures, so any gods from the Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, or Nonhuman tables (PH, pp. 293-299) are suitable.

The Forge of Fury #5: The Wrong Kind of Dwarf

It's been a few months since we were able to fit in a session of my Tales from the Yawning Portal game, but we've returned to it at last.

Our heroes for The Forge of Fury include:

• Raven Flare, female tiefling rogue 4 (assassin, urchin)
• Kalitni, female human ranger 4 (beast master, hermit) with Daikitsu, wolf companion
• Xuri, female blue dragonborn sorcerer 4 (wild magic, sage)
• Sir Dain (NPC/guest-PC), male hill dwarf paladin 4 (oath of devotion, knight)
• Erky Timbers (DM-run NPC), male forest gnome cleric 4 (life domain, acolyte)

(Warning: Spoilers for The Forge of Fury follow.) 

Last time, the heroes descended to a new level of the dungeon, where they encountered a gray ooze and had a harrowing encounter with a roper. After a short rest to allow Dain to heal some of his wounds and Xuri to study the magic ring found in the roper's gizzard, the party was ready to finish exploring this level.

A door near the roper's lair led to a small long-abandoned prison. Two cells were open and empty, but the third held the corpse of a dwarf. Whoever had put him here had not searched him thoroughly, because the PCs found a small purse of coins and a key on the body. Dain did not wish to leave the dead dwarf here, so carried his remains back up to the Glitterhame to place within one of the empty sarcophagi there.

Once Dain finished performing simple rites for the dead, the party returned to the iron door with Durgeddin's smith mark. The key from the cell unlocked this door, and they walked up the stairs beyond.

At the top, they found an octagonal room with three large bronze statues of dwarves holding axes and shields. Between the statues were two doors, but Raven felt something was wrong about the one she examined--it didn't look like it had ever been used, and something had scored the floor in front of it. She stepped back and short an arrow at the door, but nothing happened. Meanwhile, Xuri had found faint tracks in the dust on the floor, which led to a secret door behind one of the statues. The party could hear the muffled sounds of hammering, and Dain thought it came from that direction. The sorcerer opened the door, finding a short flight of stairs up to another door, this one decorated with a glaring dwarf's face. She promptly walked up this other door, but as she did so, it animated to call out an alarm in Dwarvish.

[Xuri's impetuousness gave the enemy warning, but also meant that the other PCs didn't have the time to identify or trigger the other trap in the room.] 

This door opened easily, revealing a great hall with pillars carved with images of dwarves and dragons. The walls bore the remains of tile murals, which had been defaced with graffiti in an unknown language (they guessed Orc). At the far end of the room was a dais with a simple stone bench, and near it was a campfire surrounded by some pallets and packs. A voice from the shadows demanded that they go away. Dain, who was incensed at the defiling of this place, rushed to the foot of the dais, roaring a challenge.

Two bald, gray-skinned dwarves suddenly became visible as they hurled javelins, which hit the paladin. These were duergar, an evil subrace of dwarf, and the sight of them made Dain's fury boil over. Before he could move to attack his foes, however, a third duergar appeared right beside him, and sank her shortsword into his side.

Kalitni shot one of the first two duergar, scoring a critical hit. Xuri unleashed a witchbolt on the female dwarf, and Dain's sword landed a critical hit on her, boosted by divine smite. The two male duergar grew to double their normal size, but Kalitni downed one before he could attack again. Raven stabbed the other with both her rapiers, then moved to flank the female duergar. She withdrew and enlarged as well, but Xuri's witchbolt dropped her before she could do more. Dain and Raven promptly finished off the last duergar.

Erky forced Dain to sit still while he administered healing and the others searched the bodies and the room. Besides the gray dwarves' arms and armor, the woman carried a potion of healing that she never got a chance to use.

The great hall had five other exits, and the hammering came from beyond one of the doors to the south. The party decided to deal with whatever lay beyond the other doors first. They started by listening at the northwest one, which bore an inscription in the same language as the graffiti on the walls nearby. Raven heard nothing through the door, so Dain opened it. The room beyond was once a shrine to the dwarven gods, whose likenesses were carved on the walls. However, the place had been defiled: the pews were smashed, the gods' images defaced, and the altar was surrounded by piles of bones and a desiccated orc corpse. The paladin used his divine sense before entering, and detected three undead: the orc, and two piles of bones. When Dain drew his warhammer entered the room, the bones formed into two giant skeletons, and the orc rose and grinned evilly, its eyes lit with green fire.

Two giant skeletons and a wight
(mini with gray hair and white skin)

The orc and one skeleton closed with Dain, while the other lumbered over the broken pews to reach other members of the party. Raven maneuvered around to flank the orc, while Kalitni and Xuri flanked the second skeleton. The paladin and rogue whittled away at the orc, who proved to be resistant to nonmagical weapons. However, one of Raven's rapiers was magical, and Dain took a moment to sanctify his hammer with a spell. Meanwhile, the orc (a wight) consistently failed to hit the paladin with its sword and life-draining touch, and growled frustrated curses at him. (Dain replied with colorful Dwarven oaths.)

Xuri managed to line up an attack with her breath weapon that hit all three foes, though for minimal damage. Raven finally downed the orc, and turned her attention to the skeleton (which had only hit the paladin once, and flailed ineffectively otherwise). Dain downed that skeleton with a mighty blow of his hammer, then helped finish off the other one. The paladin continuing his cursing as he smashed the undead's bones beyond any change of rising again.

Searching the room, the PCs found a sack with some gold and two spell scrolls among the bones. A dwarf body lay on top of the altar, so Dain examined it carefully. This dwarf wore plate mail (now useless) and bore the marks of a brutal battle. The paladin guessed that the body had been laid here after death, before graffiti had been written over it and the altar. With soap and water, and help from Xuri's prestidigitation, they cleaned the room as best they could.

The party needed to heal and recover spells, so they barricaded the door with some of the broken benches and settled in for a long rest. Before doing so, however, Xuri expended her last spell slot to place witchbolt in her new ring of spell storing.

Duergar

Ogre skeletons, with normal skeletons for comparison

Tales from the Yawning Portal: Past Columns

The Sunless Citadel

#1: Down into the Ground
#2: Lost Dragon
#3: Through the Dragon Door
#4: Goblin Boss Battle
#5: Through Pallid Gardens
Campaign Update
#6: Belak, at Last

The Forge of Fury

#1: Orc Gruel
#2: Bloody Stirges!
#3: Into the Glitterhame
#4: Even the Rocks Want to Eat Us

The Forge of Fury #4: Even the Rocks Want to Eat Us

Our heroes for The Forge of Fury include:

• Raven Flare, female tiefling rogue 4 (assassin, urchin)
• Kalitni, female human ranger 4 (beast master, hermit) with Daikitsu, wolf companion
• Xuri, female blue dragonborn sorcerer 4 (wild magic, sage)
• Sir Dain (NPC/guest-PC), male hill dwarf paladin 4 (oath of devotion, knight)
• Erky Timbers (DM-run NPC), male forest gnome cleric 3 (life domain, acolyte)

(Warning: Spoilers for The Forge of Fury follow.) 

Last time, our heroes tracked a troglodyte into the Glitterhame, a large cavern named for the shiny bits of rock in its walls and ceiling. They found the troglodyte lair and slew most of the tribe, but spared the young and the handful of adults forming their last defense. They then retreated to their outpost in the upper halls to rest and recover.

After a long rest, the party returned to the Glitterhame, and investigated the last few chambers that they had not yet seen on that level. The first was off a side branch near where they had fought the bear and first couple of troglodytes. In this cave, two skeletons were covered with yellow mold, which Dain recognized. After warning his companions, he took a torch and tossed it at each body in turn, safely destroying the fungus. The first skeleton, a dwarf, held a longsword with Durgeddin's smith-mark. It was still bright despite the long time it had spent in this damp room full of rot, so they guessed it was a magical blade. Dain was keenly interested in this dwarven-made sword, but he already possessed a magic sword (Shatterspike, given to him by Sir Braford), so agreed to let Kalitni wield this one.

In the Glitterhame proper, the party investigated the high ledge along the north wall. As they approached it, Kalitni spotted two worm-like creatures [gricks] hiding in the rocks of the 20-foot-high ascent to the top of the ledge. The heroes quickly dispatched these creatures, though one took a bite out of Dain. A short passage at the top of the ledge led to the monsters' lair, which held the remains of past meals, and a scattering of coins.

The party then investigated the metal door that they had spotted at the far eastern end of the cavern. Dain was able to determine that this iron door was designed to pivot on a central point, but it was locked. After a couple tries, Raven was able to pick the lock. Beyond was a short worked passage that led to steep stairs going up--to the lost forge they sought, they hoped. However, after some discussion, the party decided to investigate the rest of this level of the cave network before exploring this passage. With some difficulty, Raven relocked the door until their return.

The high ledge on the southern wall was free of dangers (or much of interest), so the party then proceeded to the long cavern to the south, where an underground stream plunged into a large hole. Near it was a narrow passage leading downward, but Xuri insisted on peering into the big hole first. She secured a rope to both herself and some pitons in order to cross the slick floor safely, and Dain held the rope just in case. The dragonborn sorcerer lit a torch and dropped it down the shaft. Even with the torch, she could not see too clearly due to the mist thrown up by the waterfall, but she was able to see enough to conclude that the water fell about 60 feet into another chamber below.

The heroes then entered the twisting stairway, which led to the cavern where the waterfall ended in a pool that fed a fast-moving stream going down a passageway to the south. The east end of this chamber held a wall of worked stone, and two wooden doors swollen shut by long exposure to moisture. They listened at both doors, and even knocked upon them, but heard nothing. They chose to explore further south and come back to these doors later.

A passage parallel to the stream's channel led them to a long, narrow cavern stretching a long way to the east. At the nearer, western end, another underground stream joined the one from the north, then exited the cave through an opening fully beneath the water's surface. The heroes quickly realizing that falling into the fast-moving water would quickly sweep them into this airless passage--a potentially fatal fate. They crossed a small bridge over the river, and followed the bank upstream. After a short distance, they found a short flight of stairs gong down to a door in the south wall of the cave. These stairs and the room beyond appeared to be flooded with stagnant water that would be over the head of all party members except for Xuri.

The party returned to the doors in the northern chamber, and opened one of them. The rooms beyond were empty except for useless detritus. When they opened the other door, they saw that the room held vast heaps of rotted foodstuffs. A gray ooze, which appeared to be a puddle until it moved, lurked just inside the door. It reared to attack, but Raven and Xuri quickly destroyed it with a rapier thrust and an eldritch blast. However, Raven's rapier (her old blade, not her shiny new magical one) was corroded by the ooze's acid. It remained usable, but in need of repair.

The adventurers found nothing of value here, so returned to the half-flooded stairs and door. Xuri, as the tallest member of the party, reluctantly volunteered to investigate what lay beyond. She submerged her everburning torch in order to see what lay in the water better. After searching of the flooded, rank-smelling rooms, she found an orc skeleton with a rotted pouch holding a couple of potion vials. The party took a short rest so that Xuri could use prestidigitation to clean herself with compulsive thoroughness. Meanwhile, the others determined the contents of the potions, and confirmed that Kalitni's new longsword was magical [a +1 weapon].

To the east, the cavern narrowed until it ended in a narrow passageway that crossed the river again, and led to another cave. Here, a strange stalagmite stood on the opposite side of the river, and an albino cave fish lay flopping on the bank next to it. There was also a half-open door set into the north side of the cave, opposite the strange rock formation. Raven, who cares a great deal about all animals, wanted to help the fish get back to the water, so Dain led the way into the chamber.

That's when the stalagmite came to life and shot a tendril at Dain, grappling and restraining him. Erky summoned a spiritual weapon, but the spell failed to hit the the creature [a roper]. Raven jumped across the narrow stream and kicked the fish into the river, but missed the monster. She then jumped away, trying to stay clear of the thing's tendrils. The roper then grabbed Xuri and pulled her and Dain closer. It missed Raven and Kalitni with its other tendrils, and failed to bite Dain. Erky used his sacred flame cantrip to much better effect than his spiritual weapon's continuing misses. Dain tried once to break free but failed, so started trying to strike the roper with his sword (with little success). Xuri cast a very well-placed witchbolt and inflicted a critical hit on the monster. Raven managed to dodge the roper's tendrils, and decided that staying close to the thing would allow her to do more damage with sneak attacks due to her allies being next to it, too. The roper finally grabbed Kalitni, pulled her and Xuri closer, and bit Dain hard. However, it soon fell to Raven's punishing sneak attacks.

After the fight, Dain immediately used his lay on hands power to restore most of his lost health. Kalitni had the thought to cut open the roper, and found a half-dozen gems and a ring in its gizzard. The party stopped for a short rest so that Xuri could study the ring: a ring of spell storing. Her companions agreed emphatically that she should wear it.

-----

The party now just one more location on this level to explore before they return to the iron door in the Glitterhame.

Erky received enough XP this session to reach 4th level. He is taking the Healer feat, so that he can provide more healing to the party without using up his limited spell slots as quickly.

Minis for the gray ooze and gricks

The roper mini

Tales from the Yawning Portal: Past Columns

The Sunless Citadel

#1: Down into the Ground
#2: Lost Dragon
#3: Through the Dragon Door
#4: Goblin Boss Battle
#5: Through Pallid Gardens
Campaign Update
#6: Belak, at Last

The Forge of Fury

#1: Orc Gruel
#2: Bloody Stirges!
#3: Into the Glitterhame

The Forge of Fury #3: Into the Glitterhame

Our heroes for The Forge of Fury include:

• Raven Flare, female tiefling rogue 3 (assassin, urchin)
• Kalitni, female human ranger 3 (beast master, hermit) with Daikitsu, wolf companion
• Xuri, female blue dragonborn sorcerer 3 (wild magic, sage)
• Sir Dain (NPC/guest-PC), male hill dwarf paladin 3 (oath of devotion, knight)
• Erky Timbers (DM-run NPC), male forest gnome cleric 3 (life domain, acolyte)

(Warning: Spoilers for The Forge of Fury follow.) 

Last time, our heroes finished clearing out the rest of the orcs from the first level of the dungeon, and descended into the natural caverns that lay below. There they fought many stirges, then encountered a couple of troglodytes and their captive brown bear. They slew one of the reptile-men, but the other troglodyte escaped, taking a tunnel to the south. Kalitni used a spell to befriend the bear, and persuaded it to leave and be free.

The heroes then took a short rest, before exploring the tunnel to the north that the bear had taken. This passage went on for about 500 feet before exiting on the far side of the Stone Tooth from where they had approached the hill. On this side, they could see a small lake to the east, at the foot of the 'Tooth. They turned back, and investigated the tunnel the escaped troglodyte had taken.

This passage branched a couple of times, but led generally south. After a short time, it opened into a large natural cavern lit by phosphorescent fungi. Bright flecks could be seen in the rock walls and high ceiling. The cave had some high ledges to the east, south, and west, with a small forest of giant capped stalks, puffballs, and other fungi in between. They could also dimly see a door to the east. Dain proclaimed that this space must be the Glitterhame spoken of in the stories of Khundrukar that had led the party here.

As much of the Glitterhame as would fit on one map sheet

The western ledge

The troglodyte's tracks led south and west along paths through the fungi, so the heroes headed that way. As they came closer to the large ledge to the west, they could see that it held several large boxes intricately carved in dwarven style. The tracks led towards a small passage to the south, but they decided to take a look at this area first. Stairs had been cut up to this area, which held almost two dozen stone sepulchres, each carved with the likeness and name of a dwarf on its lid. Three of the sarcophagi--of Borgol the Old, Gharin Orc-Doom, and Numik the Unlucky--had been marked with dates of death and a summary of the named dwarf's great deeds; these also had warnings not to disturb the dead. Xuri could not contain her inquisitiveness, and with help from her companions, opened one of the boxes that did not contain the additional writing. It was empty, as were all of the others. Over Dain's grumbling, the party then opened the three with more complete information, and found remains of a dwarf in each. All had been interred without much funerary wealth apart from the exquisite sepulchre itself, but one body bore a gold ring in the shape of a dragon, and another held an ornate, jeweled warhammer. Numik lived up to his name "the Unlucky" by having no wealth.

At one end of this gravesite, a tunnel had been blocked with rubble and mud. The heroes decided to leave the crude wall intact until they had explored further, and found the troglodyte they sought. They left the ledge, and pursued the tracks south through a short, narrow passage into another large natural cave.

This space was long and narrow, with a stream passing through it, entering from the northwest and running swiftly to the east, where it plunged thunderously into a large shaft at the end of the cave. Kalitni noticed that the floor sloped down toward the stream, and was slimy from the mist thrown up from the waterfall. However, a narrow path along the north edge was safe footing. Just in case, the party took some time to rig ropes, a grappling hook, and pitons to give themselves some safety lines in case they slipped and fell into the stream.

The tracks led west, and went into the water where the cave branched. Both branches opened into new chambers, one of which was blocked by a large pool that fed the stream they followed. The other led to a chamber where a huge albino lizard was chained to the wall, guarding two iron chests. Kalitni used animal friendship to calm the lunging reptile, which allowed Raven to get close enough to use her tools to free it from the chain. The ranger then persuaded the lizard to leave the cave, and it headed downstream into the chamber they had just vacated. The chests held a great pile of silver coins, as well as two potions. The heroes took the potions, and used the chain and rope to secure the chests until they could come back to reclaim them.

Kalitni befriends the giant subterranean lizard

The heroes then continued to the chamber with the pool, which was about 20 feet across, and an unknown depth in the middle. The cave continued north and west beyond the reach of their light. Raven swam across the pool to scout ahead, and spotted a troglodyte watching her from where it tried to blend into the wall. Dain followed her, and spotted that reptile-man as well as two more a bit further inside the room. They called warnings to their friends just before the troglodytes attacked the rogue and paladin. One hit Raven, whose hellish rebuke slew the monster. She then moved around to flank another and killed it with a sneak attack. The third troglodyte, wounded by now, disengaged and moved to call a warning where a plug of mud and wattle sealed off another passage. Then Kalitni's arrow finished it off.

Dain moved to guard that crude door while the others crossed the pool. He heard hissing voices and other noises beyond it, and guessed that the troglodytes were blocking the passageway further. Kalitni and her wolf Daikitsu had some trouble crossing the deep water, as neither is a skilled swimmer, but made it across after a couple attempts. Meanwhile, Raven, Xuri, and Erky searched the chamber, which held nothing of note beyond the butchered bodies of some game animals (and a couple orcs).

With the party reassembled, Dain forced open the mud door and saw a troglodyte hiding in the room beyond. Kalitni, right behind him, spotted three, and wounded one with an arrow. Raven entered the room, saw five of the reptile-men, and stabbed the closest before dodging back behind her companions. Xuri cast blur and moved forward, and Erky killed a troglodyte with a sacred flame. The other wounded reptile attacked the sorcerer, hitting once despite her spell. Dain then moved to the front and killed the troglodyte. The other three stayed hidden, but soon realized they had been spotted when Raven stabbed one and Xuri hit the others with a thunderwave. The rogue and sorcerer moved forward and saw another chamber beyond where a large number of hatchlings cowered behind a half-dozen adults. Xuri moved to the entrance of that room, and tried to speak with the troglodytes, to convinced them that she was not going to attack them. They did not understand any of her languages, but stayed where they were, between her and the young, ready to attack if the intruders moved closer. [In 5E, troglodytes speak their own language instead of Draconic.] 

Angry, desperate troglodytes defending their home

Meanwhile, Kalitni and Raven had scouted some of the other chambers branching off of this one, and the ranger found another mud-and-wattle door blocking one of them. Dain kicked in the door, and saw a pony-sized giant lizard, which attacked him. Erky moved up behind the paladin to provide some healing. Then a troglodyte suddenly appeared--it had been invisible--and cast sleep at the party. The spell put Xuri and the wolf Daikitsu asleep, but could not affect the others. Erky worked on waking them while Dain used a divine smite to slay the lizard. Raven rushed in after the paladin, and moved behind the spellcaster--whose shield spell failed to deflect the rogue's attack. Dain hit the troglodyte with a divine smite, wounding it severely. It cast invisibility on itself, but then the paladin heard it move past him towards the door. He followed, and bumped into something, and tried to swing at it, but missed. Kalitni, however, managed to shoot it with an arrow, and a moment later the spell ended, revealing the dead troglodyte.

Troglodyte boss fight

The giant lizard and its master

The heroes searched the room, finding a chest of silver coins in plain sight, and a hidden piece of silk in which was wrapped a small ruby. They left the hatchlings and their guards in peace, and left with the treasure. They badly needed to rest, heal, and regain spells, so only stopped to collect the chests from the albino lizard's former room before trekking back through the caves up to the orc barracks room where their other bulky loot was stashed. (They caught glimpses of the huge white lizard hunting in the Glitterhame as they passed through that cavern.) At the barracks, they hid their treasure in the secret passage, barricaded themselves in, and settled in for a long rest.

Our heroes know of at least three more tunnels, plus a door, that they need to investigate when they descend again to the Glitterhame. They have yet to locate any of the fabled forges and weapons of Khudrukar itself.

-----

The original four heroes have now reached 4th level. (Erky lags a little behind his rescuers on XP.) We're using the optional feat rules, and all four chose feats in place of their Ability Score Improvements: Dain took Heavy Armor Mastery (raising his Strength and reducing the damage he'll take from nonmagical weapons), Xuri took Spell Sniper (which increases her range and ignores most cover when using ranged attack spells), Kalitni took Observant (raising her Intelligence and passive Perception and Investigation scores), and Raven took Dual Wielder (so that she could fight with both her rapiers at once).

Tales from the Yawning Portal: Past Columns

The Sunless Citadel

#1: Down into the Ground
#2: Lost Dragon
#3: Through the Dragon Door
#4: Goblin Boss Battle
#5: Through Pallid Gardens
Campaign Update
#6: Belak, at Last

The Forge of Fury

#1: Orc Gruel
#2: Bloody Stirges!