Castle Mac: D&D

Today we continue with the party journals from Hoard of the Dragon Queen. The in-game dates are Marpenoth 1st and 2nd (by the Calendar of Harptos). The party infiltrates the cultists' camp, and learns what they can of their activities while trying to rescue Leosin Erlanthar. For more information on the characters or the campaign in general, check out the Tyranny of Dragons Index . From the Journal of Danaeron The walk to the half moon canyon was easy enough, but I confess I was nervous. Sneaking in broad daylight and pretending to be a member of this idiotic cult is not my strength. I walked a few steps behind Sallos and Ennis. Nithbis was nowhere to be found at that moment. I wondered where she had gotten to or perhaps she was invisible. Druids control a wide variety of magic. As we enter the camp I made it my mission to scout. Numbers, weapons, layout, escape routes. Sallos does a good job of playing his part as a lieutenant in the cult. Kicking kobolds and staring down

Warning: Thar Be Spoilers! The events of Episode I took place over two sessions . As I previously outlined, I mostly ran it as-is from the book, but shortened many of the unnecessary "Kobolds & Cultists" fights, and cut some missions for time. Episode II sees the heroes tracking the cultists to their camp and rescuing Leosin Erlanthar. The episode works okay, but you need to really read between the lines to make sure the right info comes across. Merric's Musings has an excellent article on the goals and key points that need to be hit. I went so far as to generate about 25 personalities for the characters to encounter including cultists and mercenaries. I settled on 3 disparate factions of mercs working with them. I don't know a ton of the Sword Coast lore so in "Castle Macanon" I just made up some merc groups who had different agendas, MOs, and preferences. They were thinly held together, lacked any espirit de corps, and would desert the cult

Today, the heroes continue their quest after the events of Greenest. The party tracks the cultists across the Green Fields, on their way to find the cultists' camp. Read the previous entries by checking out the index page here: . img source: https://charaday5e.tumblr.com From the Journal of Danaeron: For the first time in many days I'm in my element. Tracking prey across woods and plains. They were so many that it isn't difficult. I count over a hundred. Men and kobold and one barefoot traveler. I stay a few yards ahead of our party. I come back to relay information. I try to bring Ennis with me while scouting. I want her to know how to track and I would like some time to just speak with her. I make a few attempts to talk. I'm not even being quiet with my steps as it takes all of my concentration to find the words. She half smiles and I feel it must be an invitation to keep talking but she doesn't respond and walks on ahead. Ahead I see a campfire. Small but

After the second HOTDQ session, all 4 players wrote journals! (Nathan sadly bowed out of the campaign for a few weeks, so Yenorin was NPCd) If you haven't already, check out the first journal ! Obviously, there are spoilers ahead. Make sure to check out the Tyranny of Dragons Index for more!. Danaeron  night 2 journal On the turret of the keep we stood. Maybe 30 in total. The dragon strafing the keep and letting out bursts of lightning upon the defense. Castle guards fired wildly but their volleys did nothing. Yenorin helped keep shields up. The governor looked on in horror. Castellan the dwarf gritted his teeth but there's little he can do with that axe. I quivered an arrow and shot. I know I shot true and my arrow must have struck my quarry, but alas this beast didn't even flinch. Another pass and another volley. My second arrow was waved off in the wingbeats. An arrow flies past my side from below and I know it must be elven bow training. Ennis’ arrow finds it

This post will include spoilers for Hoard of the Dragon Queen! It will also assume some familiarity with the adventure. After more than a decade away, I had a group ready to play D&D! I had heard great things about fifth edition, and after picking up the books I was not disappointed. Until now I had never ever ran a pre-generated adventure, but the idea was appealing these days (oh, if only we could get another day in the week!). I picked up Hoard of the Dragon Queen and sat down to read through the entire book so I could be prepared. I didn't read the reviews until I was done with it and already committed to running it, but my own thoughts aligned with the general public (I'll write a proper review soon!). The adventure was very rail-roady, frequently makes little sense, and would require a lot of effort to make into something memorable. Initially, I was a little bit upset about how much time I would need to spend making each episode tense, memorable, and fun for m

This is the first in a long series of In Character journals written by the players (mostly my friend Sean who is quite prolific!) detailing their adventures as I DM Hoard of the Dragon Queen. The Player Characters (and authors of their journals!) are: Sallos Zha Zhoala the Human Rogue played by Jeff Ennis Naïlo the High Elf Cleric played by Lydia Nithbis the Tiefling Druid played by Raven Yenorin the Half-Elf Fighter played by Nathan Danaeron the Wood Elf Ranger played by Sean Journals after the cut!

This is a D&D blog. On it I plan to post in character journals from various ongoing campaigns, "behind the screen" DM thoughts, and whatever else floats the boat. Word.