Godsgrave Session 8 Recap

The new gods had just killed the Tarrasque and were trying to figure out how to prevent it from resurrecting at dawn. With only the knowledge from old mythology, they were not sure exactly of the mechanics of this, so the exact solution would be a shot in the dark.

As the sun set they began the long and arduous process of butchering the beast, hoping to cut it into small enough chunks that they could fit it through the magical door into a special pocket dimension that Esmerelda had devised to keep the beast imprisoned. They worked through the night led by Yugom, who worked as hard and fast as ten men, lead on by working songs sung by Sol, as Esmerelda began to create the demiplane.

Keeping a few choice peaces for themselves. they got the last part of the corpse through the door as the sun rose. Esmerelda now had a live Tarrasque trapped in a tiny plane only she had access to.

Using her new Tarrasque Eye to scry, Esmerelda looked upon the strange disc inside the ring of mountains called The Crucible to see if the Tarrasque had returned. They saw a new Apocalypse beast growing in the centre of the disc.

They decided that they needed time to rest, as they were spent, before they would face the creature, and they had bought enough time by slaying it initially that they could rest without risking any of the citizens of Ochyro.

When they returned from their rest inside of Sol's Magnificent Mansion, Esmerelda rode alone to a choke point between mountains near the dwarven stronghold, and the rest traveled to the disc of stone to see if they could figure out a way to stop the beast from returning if slain again.

They eventually discovered the disc was the top of a buried cylinder of pure adamantine, the material component in a grand spell created by the archmage Abi Dalzim in ancient history to imprison a more destructive force, and its destruction would unleash a far more destructive force.

Esmerelda trapped the Apocalypse Beast behind a pillar of stone that dwarfed the mountains on eitherside, allowing the citizens of Ochyro enough time to escape, but not before the dwarf mountainhome was destroyed.

They returned to Sorefoot Sanctuary to work with their spoils and plot revenge against Rimblatook for being foiled by him so long ago.

The Tarrasque skin and teeth were given to Amun Khun to see if he could make something of them at his forge.

They discovered Rimblatook had taken control of a city, patrolled consantly by a massive monitoring zeppelin, and built himself a massive, rambling, labyrinthine trap filled castle while he "experimented" on the city's population, which largely consisted of launching people into the fog and turning gnomes and halflings into flesh golems to "save" them from the fog.

Ubitsya discovered the name and address of one of the zeppelin's pilots, as well as one of the architects that had helped build Rimblatook's trap maze.

Their first plan was to use Sol's faerie rings to travel as close to Rimblatook as possible. Unfortunately Rimblatook had been spying on them and had learnt about Sol's Faerie magic.

The party teleported directly on top of a pressure plate built in the centre of an artificially grown mushroom ring, and the floor gave out beneath them, dropping them towards a pit of acid. Esmerelda used her magic to teleport everyone back home, and quickly scried on the room they had just left. She saw great gouts of flame and enormous spiked plates mashing into the acid pit, and when she scried Rimblatook, he was busy scrying as well.

Sol then decided to use his faerie rings to travel to the second closest ring to Rimblatook, and the new gods traveled on foot to enter the city from the outside. After dismissing the idea of entering disguised, they quickly changed their minds when they saw wanted posters depicting them plastered throughout the city.

They attempted to bribe information out of the architect, who Rimblatook had blinded and maimed to prevent him working ever again. Their attempts did not go well, as Sol was overrun with a desire for mischief, and turned himself into a giant owl before picking up the architect and flying out of the city.

The zeppelin took note of this, and began chasing the owl, charging a formidable looking lightning rod on the hull. As alarms rang throughout the city, the rest of the gods gave chase to their trickster friend.

Sol had not anticipated the zeppelin, and the architect was killed in a blast from the lightning cannon.
The zeppelin was hurting Sol badly, and the gods were unsure of how to face it until Leorah called heaven's fire from above, setting the zeppelin alight with a flame strike.

Esmerelda, exasperated from the trickster's antics, conjured the architect's soul and bound it in a cage so they could quiz the architect from beyond the grave.

They raced through the now panicking city, and used a secret tunnel to bypass Rinblatook's maze. They found the gnome god of traps sitting atop an enormous golem, flanked by more automatons and ringed with covering ballista fire.

The fight was somewhat anticlimactic, as Sol flipped from making their lives to diffcult to easy, whispering in the ballista crew's ears and turning them against Rimblatook, and when Rimblatook tried to escape, Yugom simply outran him and slit his throat with little fanfare.

Meena volunteered to become the god of the little folk, and the group decide to bring back the divine essence of invention to be given to Amun Khun.

Godsgrave Session 7 Part 2

Returning from their fishing trip, The New Gods were greeted by Leorah and Amun Khun, who had discovered that the prayers were coming from the city of Ochyro, which lay directly in the path of a creature known as The Apocalypes Beast, The Primal Earth Elemental, The Tarrasque.

Leorah's research showed that they could not kill the beast outright, even if they defeated it in battle, it would regenerate within a day. She went on to add that they would probably not gain any power from this conflict, and the most they could hope for would be some epic spell components for Esmerelda to use in crafting her 13th level spell.

The goal then, is to delay the beast until the city can evacuate.

The new gods lept into action, organising supplies to be teleported through Sol's faerie rings. Elda Gem set her dwarves to work building siege engines, and the rest were set to lure The Apocalypse Beast to a ravine and trap it via mountain-summoning ( high level D&D really does give you the demigod feel).

Meena and Elda Gem took horses to the crucible of the beast to lure it towards their ravine ambush. They set up camp three miles away and waited. The Tarrasque burst out and began charging towards them, with roughly twenty minutes before it caught up with them. Some quick thinking from Elda Gem saved them as she summoned a celestial flying horse to carry them into the sky and safety.

The fight in the ravine was long and brutal, and extremely close, but everyone fought cleverly and wisely, and the beast was defeated.

Godsgrave Session 7 Recap Part 1

The New Gods decided this time to hunt down Hohonu, The Oceanfish. In the month leading up to the hunt they were troubled by more and more vivid dreams, with a common theme of a plea for help pertaining to their individual domains. They theorised they were hearing prayers and Leorah and Amun-Khun set to work ascertaining their origin while the rest set out to kill Hohonu.

Ubiytsa had procured a ship and captain in Tranheim for them to take out on the remaining ocean and hunt down Hohonu.

Upon arriving at Tranheim, Esmerelda briefly vanished and then reappeared almost instantly, saying only to the rest that she believed they were crossing the threshold into true godhood.

Captain Yoffrian had piloted and commanded The Mixed Bag, a fishing vessel, for the past 15 years, and agreed to help the gods if they could save his town. The New Gods interviewed him about Hohonu's actions, and he relayed that Hohonu had seemingly gone mad, and had been actively sinking ships until they stopped sailing out into the water and had since started occasionally beaching and smashing up the docks and buildings of Tranheim.

The party briefly considered if it was right to kill Hohonu but decided to sail out to sea and play it by ear.

Before departing, Esmerelda visited the graveyard and raised two dead sailors, with their permission, as wraiths to help slay Hohonu, to protect their families still living in Tranheim.

The day started clear as they sailed out but once they were out to sea proper a storm filled the sky with supernatural speed.

Hohonu rammed the boat, smashing a hole in the hull and water began to pour in. Before Hohonu could dive, Namjoon leapt onto its back and wedged a grappling hook between its scales.

The fight continued, with Hohonu ramming more holes in the boat, Namjoon willingly being swallowed by the great fish, and when the boat was about to sink due to water, Meena leapt into action and used her power of feasting to drink all of the water in the ship, as well as a few schools of hapless fish drawn in at the same time.

Esmerelda trapped Hohonu in a forcecage and the fight turned into a slaughter. The New Gods feasted on Hohonu's raw power but none of them gained the essence of oceans. They wondered if this is due to the way they killed Hohonu.

Godsgrave Session 6 Recap

The Party initially decided to hunt down Grummsh, the god of the orcs, to finish his rampage. Grummsh had already slain and consumed the gods of darkness, trade, and winter.

Study of Grummsh uncovered the only readily available myth where he was tricked and betrayed by the other gods, denying his orcs a home, for which he swore revenge, after which the elf god shot out one of his eyes to add injury to insult.

The party decided upon learning this that perhaps they could parley with Grummsh and see if he could be reasoned with. To aid them in their diplomacy they decided to retrieve his missing eye, which they scried and discovered was in the home of the now deceased elf god, whose forest was now mired in the grey mist.

Sol and Yugom traveled by faerie ring into the woods, and retrieved the eye, hearing voices in their minds while exposed to the fog, but otherwise seeming to experience no ill effects.

The party then intercepted Grummsh in the northern tundra, and tense negotiations followed.
Grummsh trusted Sol, the only elf in the group, the least.

After a series of tense negotiations, Grummsh agreed to join the pantheon, on return of his eye, Sol's excessive life-energy, and Sol must submit to having Grummsh's speartip placed at his throat. Having been betrayed once before, he was wary to trust again.

Sol agreed to this bargain and forged a bond of trust between himself and Grummsh.

Godsgrave Session 6 Pre-Game

Hello Lovelies!

Please level up to 13 for next session, or show up early and i'll help you level up.

Report from Ubi:

Rimblatook has taken control of a large port town, Calmwaters and has transformed it into a bizarre Orwellian city. He dwells in a maze of traps and is guarded by golems and a new airship which patrols the city with ballistae and scorpions mounted on its hull. He is launching people into the fog, in various contraptions, attempting to get someone past the fog to the other side. So far there have been 0 successes.

Ubi has discovered one of the master builders who helped create Rimblatook's maze. Although he is blinded and crippled (by Rimblatook) it is possible he could provide you with helpful information in navigating the maze.

Ubi has also found one of the pilots of the airship, and can provide you with is home address if that is of use to you.


Ubi has also kept tabs on Grummsh. Grummsh has succesfully killed and eaten the god of winter, and is now travelling south to try to find the god of death.

There are rumours that the god of war, who has never been defeated in battle, fled once he entered the fog, and is now hiding inside his magic sword, Pangtax, who can never be taken from it's owners hand in battle.

Hohonu is now trapped in small section of the southern ocean about a square mile in size. His frenzy has grown and he is now destroying coastal villages, towns and cities as well as boats.

There are rumours that the Apocalypse beast is stirring in the east.

There are rumours that there is a city were nobody can die or leave.

There are rumours that a magic tree is appearing overnight in villages, and those that eat of its silver fruit become gods.

There are rumours that the king of the gods is dead.

Godsgrave Session 5 Recap

The party discovered that devils and demons were no longer answering summoning spells through Esmerelda's experimentations. Thirsting for more knowledge, they decided to chase down Lucian, The God of Knowledge and Magic, and Leorah's father.

Sol used his faerie magic to transport the party to the toadstool ring closest to Beacon, the city founded and ruled by Lucian. As they approached Leorah warned the group that while Lucian was the god of knowledge, he hoarded it and many in Beacon were illiterate serfs working to support the scholar caste. Leorah did not know why, but Beacon was also deeply chauvinistic in its customs.

Approaching Beacon, the party found a crowd gathered to burn an 11 year old girl, who was condemned for witchcraft due to her ability to read and write.

Tempted by violence, the party instead opted to have Sol distract the group with his divine music. Sol played so well that the group was complete enchanted, along with Nam-Joon. Sol lead the witchburners away into the forest before disappearing into the toadstool ring with Nam-Joon. The party gave the little girl money and a knife and set her on the path to Sorefoot Sanctuary.

Sol and Nam-Joon found themselves briefly stranded deep underground, as the peasants had dug up the toadstool ring looking for Sol. With a little help from Amun-Khun's beetle worshippers, they appeared in a forest and Sol turned into a giant owl to fly himself and Nam-Joon back to the party.

The party encountered Lucian on the edge of the mist, where he was studying its effects on various people, including a new demigod he had fathered, and Leorah proclaimed with disgust and disbelief that she had a new baby sister who was suspended in a cage above the deadly fog. Leorah used her divine insight to try to discover more about the fog, but it was hidden from her. She turned her omniscience on her father, and discovered that he knew deep down that he was responsible for the mist, but would never admit it, not even to himself.

Lucian had been watching the party with divination since the start of their journey, and was apparently expecting them with their favourite foods and drinks, expertly prepared. Eventually the whole party sat down, although many did not eat or drink, fearing poison.

Lucian had coated the chairs in a slow acting paralysis contact poison, although he failed to take into account the party's divine constitutions. A small fight started until the party realised that Lucian was merely an illusion.

Tired from the fight, the party decided to rest. Lucian reappeared in the night and trapped all but Nam-Joon in the forcecage. He captured Nam-Joon with the intention of studying him and then studying the effects of the mist on this "new god".

The party mobilised to rescue Nam-Joon, but Esmerelda let slip that Nam-Joon was still charged with energy from the Well of Souls and could simply suicide to reappear with his friends.

As soon as Lucian heard this through his arcane sensors, he sent his guards to restrain Nam-Joon, but it was too late. Nam-Joon reappeared in a burst of golden light with his friends.

The party ascended the tower, noting that the guards were instructed to stand down and let them through, passing some traps, before enountering multiple floors of empty magic circles inscribed to imprison demons and devils.

On the highest floor with these circles, the party discovered one devil and one demon still within their circles. The devil, desperate for freedom, bargained with the party, offering complete and honest information and safety for themselves and mortals for 300 years if they would simply release him from the circle. The party did so. True to his word, as devils must be, he told them everything he knew.

Lucian had been working on a project for the past 200 years. He had been trapping devils and demons, destroying them to their elemental components, discarding the pure Law and Chaos, and instilling the Evil into a scythe blade which he sent off to another god. The remaining devil and demon were apparently not needed to create the blade, and he had seen thousands of his kind destroyed to make it.

The party moved on to encounter Lucian, who sat in a throne surrounded by nine mirrors hanging from the ceiling.

The fight was brutal and in some ways, lacking in the misdirection and deviousness they had noticed before. The party did discover that Lucian had created 9 True Simulacra which dwelt inside the mirrors (portals to demiplanes) and that they could not kill him until they killed all the Mirror-Lucians.

While some of the party battled in the real world, the rest traveled from plane to plane, slaying each Lucian.

At one point the party disrupted Lucian's casting of an epic spell, and in the resulting arcane chaos, an enormous monster broke into the material plane and began to attack them.

Eventually, Amun-Khun slew the last mirror Lucian, and Esmerelda slew him in the real world. Leorah inherited his knowledge, and Esmerelda took his magical power.

Godsgrave Session 5 Pre-game

Hi guys, please level up to 11 or come early and i'll help with level up.

Dwarves have set up a forge and rice paddies at the foot of the mountain. (all weapons and armour available for sale)

A band of elves has returned with Sol and are establishing a herb garden and apothecary ( 3 healing potions available for purchase)

Ubiytsa returns with extra information:

1) Lucian, God of Knowledge and Magic, is conducting experiments with the grey mist in the north eastern theocracy of Beacon. (Lucian is Leorah's father and ruler of Beacon)
[This may reveal information about the fog]

2) Hohonu, The Great Ocean Fish, is rampaging through the western oceans, destroying ships and coastal cities.
[This is a powerful god and will give you 3 levels if you win rather than 2]

3) Grummsh, God of the Orcs, is going on a journey similar to your own, he is hunting down other gods and taking their power. He is currently in the far north, hunting the god of winter.
[Grummsh is incredibly warlike and will represent a difficult fight, but will yield an additional divine power]

Ubiytsa has also heard rumours that spells like Infernal Calling, and other demon summoning spells, have stopped working.

Godsgrave session 4 Recap

The party returned from their battle with Moradin to find a man in the temple awaiting their return. Ubiytsa was a conman and thief who wanted to be their angel. Esmerelda eventually took him up on the offer and sent him off to gather information on other gods for them.

The party travelled to the western forests to confront the elven gods, Corellon and Lathuan. On their way into the forest they found and confronted the elf spirit. They eventually defeated this spirit by a river of cursed water that would kill all who touched it. Yugom was splashed and died, using up the last of his divine reserves to create a new avatar for himself.

Across the river they entered the elf forest, which they quickly surmised was dead and necromantically animated to present a picture perfect ideal of a forest. On their way to confront the elven god they met the necromancer responsible and defeated him, Esmerelda taking his spellbook.

They confronted the elven god(s), Sol playing a song of countercharm to defend against the elven charms. Eventually the gods were defeated and Sol was made new god of the elves.

Upon leaving the forest Esmerelda was touched by the grey fog but survived.

Godsgrave session 4 pregame

Pretty simple this time guys, just level up to 9 before the session or come a bit early and i'll help you level up.

Godsgrave Session 3 Recap

The party decided it was time to deal with Moradin, God of Dwarves. On their travels there they ran into a shapeshifting elf spirit that was convincing a pack of wolves to commit suicide. Suitable unsettled, they travelled on to "The Big Dig" where they heard Moradin was leading the dwarves.

The Big Dig turned out to be a hole about a mile across and immeasurably deep. The dwarves aboveground were working to send supplies and withdraw crushed rock from the bottom of the hole.

The party managed to get parachutes and descend into the hole. At the bottom was an armoured, mobile city, continuously digging down.

The party moved swiftly through the city, stopping briefly to raid an armory, stealing crossbows and a scorpion siege engine, before descending to Moradin's Forge.

Moradin was clearly mad and discussion ended with the party firing the scorpion directly at him. During the battle, the city descended deeper and eventually The Fog began seeping through the floor. Esmerelda was briefly touched by the fog but seemed to escape unscathed.

Moradin became obsessed with killing the dwarves in the city before they could be touched by the fog. The party dispatched him and Elda became the god of Dwarves and Amun became the god of smiths.

Godsgrave Session 3 Pre-Game

Hello lovelies!

Please make sure you're levelled up to level 7 before the game starts. The Well of Souls has detected three viable targets for you this session.

1) Moradin, God of Dwarves, dwells in a vast Dwarven Stronghold to the Southwest. He is desperately attempting to prepare the dwarves for the apocalypse, abandoning the majority to save a few.


2) Corellon and Lathuan, God and Goddess of the elves, are leading their people to accept the end of the world with grace and dignity. The dwell in a forest to the West.

3) Jild, the God of Traders and Merchants, is offering a vast reward of riches to anyone who can get him and his followers out of this predicament.

I'm also deducting 500 gold to re-equip the party with any equipment lost in the ocean. You're down to 500 gold now.

Thanks guys!

Godsgrave Session 2 Recap

The party, minus their rogue, bard, one of their clerics, and their wizard for the first half of the adventure, decided to go after Rimblatook, the god of gnomes and invention. He had killed the god of halflings and was experimenting on the small folk in the southern deserts.

On their journey to the desert they ran across a dwarven caravan heading to The Big Dig. The party was distressed by the fact the dwarves had shaved their heads and beards, and were talking about the saved and those left behind.

They also ran across a goblin party. The goblins were celebrating the fact that they had killed their god, who was crucified in the middle of the party. Nam-Joon decided to absorb the dead god's powers. Nam-Joon also absorbed his responsibilities, so Nam-Joon is now the god of goblins.

They found gnomes hiding in the desert, and proceeded to try and stuff one into their backpack. This is when Rimblatook's Airship captured them via rocket powered cages. They were deposited in a jail cell, which is when Esmerelda materialised.

They proceeded to break out of the cell, being chased by a golem called The Warden. They stopped briefly in the chase to light a fire under the central boiler system. They proceeded to rush to the lower deck and face off against Rimblatook and his army of golems. They didn't do well.

Luckily the boiler exploded before they could all die and Rimblatook became more concerned with escaping than killing the party. The party managed to barely escape with their lives thanks to some quick thinking.

Godsgrave Session 2 Pre-Game

Hello Lovelies!

Quick reminder for our next session, please level your character up to level 6 before coming over. If you need any help with leveling up, let me know. We are using the hit dice average for leveling up, not rolling. (If you're not sure what that means, ask one of the players you don't know so well.) 

The people of Sorefoot Sanctuary are grateful to their saviors, and have helped patch up some of the damage to the Well of Souls Temple. They are now also worshiping you, once a week. You know when it is worship day because you feel a rush of energy, almost like you were holding your breath without realising, and taking a deep lungful when they begin to pray.

They need about 1,000 GP to help them rebuild their town and recover from Golgoltha. Please decide if you would like to donate them that money.

All of you who would like to have taken turns studying the Well of Souls. It has revealed to you three demigods who are within your power to defeat.

1) Moradin, God of Dwarves, dwells in a vast Dwarven Stronghold to the Southwest. He is desperately attempting to prepare the dwarves for the apocalypse, abandoning the majority to save a few.


2) Corellon and Lathuan, God and Goddess of the elves, are leading their people to accept the end of the world with grace and dignity. The dwell in a forest to the West.


3) Rimblatook, God of Gnomes (and now halflings) has gone mad. He killed and ate the god of halflings, and is building monstrous Golems and experimenting on his people to change them into a form that can survive the coming armageddon. He watches over his people in a giant airship that circles the desert in the far south.


Please comment below with:

1) MANDATORY: Which God you will face next.

2) OPTIONAL: Will you donate money to the people of Sorefoot Sanctuary?

3) OPTIONAL: A brief description of what your character has been busy doing for the past month.

Godsgrave House Rules and Update

3 quick things

1) You can choose to fail a saving throw if you want.

2) I'm adopting a friend's houserule: Your familiar can concentrate on a second spell for you, as long as it meets the regular guidelines for spells you can cast through familiar.

3) I'm considering doubling short rest resources for fights. We will see if that is necessary as the game goes on, this is just a heads up


Namjoon's player wasn't happy with their out of combat God Power. Their new Power is:


Heart's Desire: You can find out the greatest love of a person by touching them.If you use this power on someone, you have disadvantage on attack rolls and deception checks against them.

Godsgrave Session 1 Thoughts

So with the next session barreling down on me I thought now would be the perfect time to post my thoughts and feelings about the first session.

Recap

The session began with the party of newly-minted demigods protecting the well of souls from an army of emaciated bandits. Everyone showed up in a dramatic and kick-arse fashion. Good stuff.
The party then descended Cloudpiercer Mountain to investigate the warcamp set up at the base. There they learnt that the bandits served Golgoltha, who had been a minor god of feasts and festivals, and he had settled in the town called Sorefoot Sanctuary.

The party travelled to Sorefoot Sanctuary, noting starving farmers working tirelessly to send wagons of food to the town.

Golgotha sat in massive tent, being constantly fed by an army of cooks overseen by a famous chef (was hoping he'd be a person of interest but my group was laser focused on their goal)

Party cleverly set up an ambush attack on Golgoltha and pulled it off, Golgoltha downed one party member and nearly downed another (raise threat level for next game)

Once Golgoltha was defeated, Power rushed into the group, and Meena ingested a glowing yellow orb that came from his defeat.

Meena is now the demigod of ancestor worship and feasts and festivals. This has a nice cultural ring to it. (Imagine years in the future, where every feast has one plate set for your ancestors, or saying grace at dinner thanks your grandfather that planted the orchard you now rely on for survival. Properly Miffic!)

Thoughts

1) I'm very lucky to have the players I have. 9 people is an insane number to run a game for, and it is solely thanks to the quality of player that it is even doable. People were engaged with other peoples' turns, nobody tried to hog the spotlight, and there was a general air of positivity and cooperation.

2) Starting a campaign with a combat is brilliant. It gets people involved straight away. Introducing the players one by one, turn by turn, was also great as everyone got a turn in the spotlight, rather than rolling through character introductions all at once. However, some people had to wait a really long time for their turn in the spotlight, and spent probably the first hour just watching the game. (Sorry!)

3) My descriptions still need work. I wanted the temple to be clearly ancient and crumbling, with snow drifts built up where there are holes in the roof, and a general feeling of ancient times and neglect. Missed that. I think the players got the feeling of the cold, sunny day, and I think I described the ruins of Sorefoot Sanctuary and the Obese Demigod fairly well.

4) Everyone said they had fun, but my usual DM paranoia has me keen to make sure noone gets neglected next game (to the best of my abilities)

DM Tips: You are a seeing-eye DM

I'm writing this mostly for my own benefit, to warm up for some freelance writing, and as a reminder to myself. I'm no Matt Mercer, but I like to think i'm a decent Dungeon Master. I've learnt a lot mostly through trial and error, having been my various groups' forever-DM for the past.... 15 years? But there are lots of different ways to improve your DMing skills

A great way to learn about DMing, especially if you're used to always being the DM, is to take a turn as a player, and noticing the things that other DM's do that you like or dislike.

Which brings me to the lesson I learned about DMing by playing in a game with my Dad as the Dungeon Master.

We were exploring an ancient underground city, as you do, and my wizard was walking around the edge of an open air, exposed atrium, on a covered walkway. The DM told me I spotted someone or something in the middle of the atrium square, and asked me what I wanted to do.

I told my dad I wanted to walk over to the object of interest and investigate it. He responded:

"You step off the walkway and fall 20 feet, landing on the ground, taking...(dice rolls) 14 damage"

Now some of my imaginary readers will be wondering why I was dumb enough to step off a second storey walkway. Hopefully a few others are wondering this 20 foot drop came from, as I was at the time.

I asked my dad what the hell just happened, and he told me I had been walking on the second floor of the atrium walkway. I told him I hadn't realised that, and thought I was on the ground floor, and asked if we could rollback the action. He's a bit more of the old-school, adversarial DM style, so my wizard, for no reason, faceplanted onto the ground.

This left me feeling like I'd been asked to do a trust fall with someone and they had walked away as I fell back.

Which leads us to the importance of descriptions. Let's say the players are searching a dungeon for a magic artefact, a green crystal.

 You can over-describe : 

"You are in a 20 foot by 15 foot room, a magical workshop of some kind. The stone brick walls are made of a dark stone, weathered with age, but the mortar is holding strong and not crumbling. On the floor is a periwinkle blue and gold carpet, going slightly threadbare in the right hand corner, with a depiction of 2 peacocks and 3 peahens in masterful embroidery. Lining the western wall are 3 bookshelves, crammed with books of various ages and colours. There is a desk in the western corner, beside the bookshelves, made of solid oak wood, with an alembic, mortar and pestle, hookah pipe, 3 books, "A history of herbology"  in a green leather cover, "Wyverns and how to raise them" in a faded tan paper cover, and "Collin's Curious Cantrips" in a bright purple, and stacks of papers scattered across it, as well as a leather pouch of gems, some of which have leaked out, a brilliant tigers-eye, a few sparkling rubies, a green crystal, an opal, and four glittering emeralds. Hanging above the desk is a copper bracket with dried herbs hanging off it, lavender, thyme, frogwort, and sage. In the northern corner...."

I got bored of writing this, I wouldn't blame you for skipping that paragraph, or my players for tuning out either.

You can also under-describe:

" You are in a 20 foot by 15 foot stone room, a magic workshop of some kind. There is a desk in the corner and some bookshelves on the walls"

I tend to be guilty of under-describing, for two simple reasons:

1) I like to give players room to imagine their own version of the world I present for them. If I describe everything in too much detail, that gets lost.

2) I'm lazy

You can have a very clear picture of the landscape in your head, but if you don't effectively communicate it to your players, they will have a very different picture, so what's the solution?

For me, it's quite simple: If your player tells you they're about to do something that seems totally illogical (calmly stepping off a balcony) stop and re-describe the scene and ask them if that's still what they want to do.

This is slightly different to the DM code-phrase: "Are you sure you want to do that?" which really means: "You're probably going to die if you try that". This is just making sure your players have the information they should have before they make a decision.

You are the eyes, ears, hands, and nose of your players. If they do something insane, or seem to be missing something obvious, make sure they're seeing what you think they're seeing.

Godsgrave Introduction and Lore

Welcome to Godsgrave

We'll be going over most of this in Session 0, but some players will be coming later/ want to read a bit now/ will probably appreciate this being available.

The world of Scala Somnis is venerable and vibrant. Its gods are plentiful, and were thought powerful, until the last decade.

Mortals have been left to wonder, were the gods too lazy, greedy, blind or cowardly to prevent the slow, creeping apocalypse that has blighted the land.

Ten years ago, most of the gods stopped answering prayers and divinations. Secular magic quickly uncovered the reason why. The world, and the outer planes, were surrounded. A strange, sucking grey murk now encompassed the outer reaches of our reality.

No mortal who touched it survived. No god who touched it remained sane or healthy. Several pantheons had already ridden valiantly off to defeat this new threat to the realm, to return twisted, and warped.

Different cultures have reacted differently to this menace, some attempting escape, some still try to fight it, some accept it as retribution for imagined slights, some seek ways to control it, others ignore it, you will see in your travels the various ways that different empires have reacted.

You and your lifelong friends decided something different. The old gods let this happen, and are proving useless to stop it. It's time for someone else to have a go.

You have spent the last 10 years apart, scouring the lands for the Godswell, as legendary artifact that grants deification to the user. And one of you has just found it.

Before you parted ways with your friends, you all pooled your gold and bought each of you an expensive magical item, an Amulet of Calling and Answering.

You reach down and break the amulet, calling your friends to your location. It's up to you to save the world.

Scala Somnis, 10 years ago

Scala Somnis, Now

House Rules and Mechanic Tweaks for Godsgrave

House Rules and Mechanic Tweaks for Godsgrave

1) You are demigods. If you want to play a Golden-skinned, Rhinocerous-headed beefcake, that's fine. Pick the race that fits most closely mechanically (e.g Minotaur) and then describe yourself however you like. I will help you pick the race.

1A) No sexy catfolk. I've seen enough of them to last a lifetime

2) Players have requested we roll stats. I don't like rolled stats, but i've come up with a compromise: Rolled Array: Everyone rolls their stats, then everyone can pick from the rolled stats to use as an array. E.g: Bob rolls 18, 16, 15, 12, 10 and 8, while Fred rolls 5, 3, 5, 8, 12 and 14. Fred decides he's going to use Bob's rolls for his wizard. Bob also decides to use his rolls. Everyone has a great time.

3) You start with one free resurrection, as a bonus of being a demigod.

4) No flanking rules.

Table Rules for the Godsgrave Campaign

Table Rules for the Godsgrave Campaign

I am not a smart goblin. If I was, I wouldn't be attempting to run a game for 10 people. My problem is, all of these people are awesome and I found it very difficult to turn anyone away.

Since you're joining me in this mad science experiment, we're gonna be making some houserules to hopefully make the game run a bit quicker and smoother.

TABLE RULES

1) We will be going over ground rules of what's ok and what's not ok at the start of the game (I for example, will not be Roleplaying torture or sex scenes with any of you weirdos).

Having said that, if at any point in the game, some subject matter or behaviour is making you uncomfortable, you can privately or publicly ask for a break, no questions asked, and we can go over what the issue was either as a group or privately.

2) Being on your phone is fine, as long as I don't have to re-describe the whole situation to you (none of you are guilty of this, just a bugbear from a past player)

3) Don't talk over other players.

4) Side-chat is fine, just make sure you're not too loud. Because we're a big group, we're going to have to be aware of the amount of noise we're making.

5) I've noticed I've become a bit of a rules lawyer at the table I play at. This is due to another past player. If we're in the middle of play I might make a quick ruling and we'll move on, later we can look up the actual rule.

COMBAT RULES

1) Roll attack and damage dice at the same time. If you miss, don't worry about the damage dice. If you hit, it saves a bit of time.

2) When it comes to your turn, you must tell me immediately what you do. Otherwise you take the dodge action. This seems rough at first but it keeps the combat moving. Plan your move on someone else's turn. Look up spells on someone else's turn. If you're worried about it, come up with a "go-to" attack you can spam without thinking.

NOTE: If you are uncertain about something because I made a shoddy description, you can ask me that without worrying about losing your turn. If anything is unclear, feel free to ask me.

3) If you rolled a 15 last turn and it hit, and this time you roll a 17, just tell me you hit. We don't need to know the exact number.

4) If you forget a bonus, we are not rewinding to apply it. Similarly if I forget a bonus or penalty for my monsters. 

ROLEPLAY RULES

1) Act in character, but make a character that works with a group. This is an ensemble show, and " it's what my character would do" is not an excuse for disruptive behaviour. You control your character, not the other way around.

2) Whenever there is contentious decision, I will set a half hour timer. Everyone in the group will get a chance to speak, then at the end of the timer, a group vote is held. Majority rules, and sometimes you will have to go along with the group even if you really don't want to. Just channel your attitude last time you helped a friend move, or got dragged out to an event you didn't want to go to. Sometimes we act against our nature for the sake of our friends.

This is where I'm going to leave it for now, but if we discover more issues, we may make more rules to deal with them.

A final note: These may seem intimidating, just remember we're here to have fun, that is the only goal. I've handpicked this group to avoid problem players, so apart from the speeding up combat rules, the others can probably be ignored as you're all lovely people.