Family Game Knights - The Emerald Enchanter, Pt 4

Exploring the Chained Coffin

Welcome to Family Game Knights, our regular tour through of the Shudder Mountains and  The Chained Coffin box set.  

For those uninitiated with the Chained Coffin, creative lead +Michael Curtis and the rest of the Goodman Games crew have created a wonderful and vibrant fantasy campaign setting based on Appalachian myth and legend.  During this journey, we'll be dipping into all of the adventures written specifically for the Shudder Mountains, as well as tossing in a few other favorites as well, thus turning this into a fantastic, ongoing campaign!  Special thanks to the DCCRPG G+ community for so many wonderful adventure suggestions.  

Here are our previously yarns:

• Session 1 - Sour Spring Hollow (from The Chained Coffin)
• Session 2 - Moonricket Bridge (from Tales of the Shudder Mountains)
• Session 3 - Doom of the Savage Kings (from Doom of the Savage Kings)
• Session 4 - Doom of the Savage Kings, Pt 2 (from Doom of the Savage Kings)
• Session 5 - Doom of the Savage Kings, Pt 3 
• Session 6 - Doom of the Savage Kings, Pt 4
• Session 7 - Attack of the Frawgs, Pt 1 (from Attack of the Frawgs)
• Session 8 - Attack of the Frawgs, Pt 2
• Session 9 - Discovering Ugly Bottom
• Session 10 - The Emerald Enchanter, Pt 1 (from The Emerald Enchanter)
• Session 11 - The Emerald Enchanter, Pt 2
• Session 12 - The Emerald Enchanter, Pt 3

Also to note:  I'm working on a Shudder Mountain soundtrack through a YouTube playlist.  Any suggestions?  Here's where we're at so far. 

The Adventuring Party

• Jen
• Wize Wizard McBride - Cleric
• Evie
• Jefffff - Warrior (she plans to add another "f" after each gained level)
• Carrie
• P. Specs - Thief
• Jeremy
• Sir Huey, Keeper of the Sacred Door - Warrior
• Ella
• Quinn & Kippy - Wizard & Squirrel Familiar
• Andy
• Walden - Thief
• Frank
• Zzizzle Fenderbender - Dwarf

Rugo USA QQ96, by Cooper Walls

The Emerald Enchanter, Pt 4

Look, I'm not gonna sugar coat tonight's game...

... it was a bit anti-climactic. 

After three previous sessions within The Emerald Enchanter's crazy lair, including a pair of trips back to town to restock and heal up, the party wrapped up the adventure by accepting a payoff to leave. That was it. No big boss battle. No pile of loot. No epic trip back to town, with a bunch of captives in tow. 

Nope, none of that. 

I guess the village of Ugly Bottom will continue to suffer under the ever-vengeful eye of the Emerald Enchanter.

Here are some of the details:

• The party did a bit more talking with dead things. Quinn used her Speak with Dead spell to converse with Gobur the skull, hoping to glean a bit more useful info about the Emerald Enchanter's Lair. She didn't gain much, only that the group's trip would take them past a prison holding area, and through a trapped room.

• The prisoner holding area included seven starving humans, a pair of cats that could shoot laser beams from their heads (totally in the adventure, I didn't make that up!), a boring snake, and an alien blob that only spoke in "wub" and "wub-wub's."

• Let it be known that the alien was henceforth known as "Wub Wub."

• The human prisoners were of little help, and the laser cat almost killed the Wize Wizard McBride, so the team turned their attention to Wub Wub. Through a series of "yes or no" questions (in which Wub Wub would answer Wub Wub for yes and Wub for no), the party was able to learn a bit more about the dungeons that lay ahead. Specifically of the dangers found in each room.

• A nearby trap room with a drop floor opening into acid (inspired by Grimtooth) really jacked with the party. On the other side of the short hallway consisting of this door was the chamber with a giant heat ray shooting skull. 

• It was around this time that Cooper (my 7 year old son) expected his monster/NPC to join the fray: Rugo USA QQ96. With skulls for fingers, and chainsaws around his waist, Rugo was a force to be reckoned with. But by a few lucky rolls, Walden was able to befriend the alien, who in turn attacked the skull, destroying it with his chainsaws. 

• The party followed a secret passage behind the giant skull to a room full of hands. Just a lot of hands, all being way too handsy. The hands had to be dealt with, and by combat, so that happened.

• At this point the Emerald Enchanter started to converse with the party. He was able to pay off the party pretty cheaply. He offered Wub Wub and a small gemstone that would help the user learn how to build spaceships better. I thought the offer sounded crazy, but the party bought it. Wild

And THAT is how we finished The Emerald Enchanter! I'm sure your trip was different.

Campaign Crematorium

• None this game... boo!

Banished to the Purple Planet - Part Four

Under a Weirdling Sun

Peril on the Purple Planet is an epic DCCRPG box set devised by +Harley Stroh. The adventure is a hex crawl, so player characters get to explore a completely open and lush world. Characters must discover artifacts, make alliances, battle terrifying worms, and sustain the deadly sun's rays if they are to ever make their way back home.

Care to hear about this week's banishment? Read on!

Previous Tales of the Banished

• Banished to the Purple Planet - Part One
• Banished to the Purple Planet - Part Two
• Banished to the Purple Planet - Part Three

The Banished

• +Marc Plourde
• Floyd Pink, Gladiator (PC class under development)
• +andrew lyon 
• Ssof Rehtaf, Cleric
• +Alex Perucchini 
• Nicodemus, Thief
• +Paul Go 
• StarRider, Wizard
• +Jonata Sodre 
• "Screaming" Otto, Warrior

Banished to the Purple Planet, Part Four

Holy crap, it's been a long time since I've done a blog post! Over a month. Sorry about that. Not that we haven't been gaming... we have. It's just that life, the holidays, family stuff, and work stuff all just got in the way a bit. But we're back on the Purple Planet, where we belong. 

On to the journal entries:

Day 5

• The group kicked off their 5th day of travel at the edge of a corrosive lake, trying to figure out how to get the submerged skiff out of the deadly water.
• Imric put together an idea to use Force Manipulation to raise the skiff, and successfully cast his spell. In just a few moments, the silvery machine was brought on land. 
• The crew then spent the next twenty minutes or so trying to figure out how to get the device to work. Much like other artifacts on the Purple Planet, the Skiff had a series of eight rune-carved buttons that had to be pressed in order.
• Nicodemus and Floyd did most of the pressing while Ssof Rehtaf watched, just waiting to have to heal someone. Eventually StarRider started pressing buttons too.
• Eventually the party got the Skiff moving, and they set out for adventure! Tough decision to make though: where to go?
• Nicodemus, the Thief with a 4 Intelligence, effectively made himself captain of the Skiff, and travelled south, hugging the edge of the mountain range while staying over the water.
• The Skiff travelled 54 miles before stalling out. The craft needed greenstone shards to operate, although it could still hover while a new shard was swapped out. Otherwise the Judge would've had a TPK as the party sank to the bottom of the corrosive water.
• If these weren't long-term characters, you know full well that I would've scored that TPK!
• The Skiff traveled another 12 miles before coming to a greenstone cache resting on a stalagmite-looking pillar rising from the water. On the top of the pillar the party found a cache of greenstone shards.
• Ssof Rehtaf cast Detect Magic on the shards and gleaned some details about the magic crystals. First, the shards are part of large greenstones, which must be much larger. Second, enough greenstone shards (at least 25) would have the same arcane effects as the larger greenstone. Third, this conversation reminded the party about what the actual plot of the adventure.
• The Skiff traveled another 18 miles before Nicodemus had the bright idea to try to run it up the mountain. Yes, the craft hovered, but no, it didn't do inclines too well. The the skiff tipped, and half the party fell out and took damage.
• Back to the coastline travel.
• After another 24 miles, the skiff was able to start moving southwest as the mountain range started coming to an end. 
• At the edge of the beach Nicodemus saw a legless Kith body clutching a rayrifle. The Thief-Captain ordered Screaming Otto to retrieve the artifact. Screaming Otto jumped onto the land but when he rolled the body over, it appeared that the Kith was still alive! He blasted Otto twice (nearly killing him), and the party was forced to slay the legless assailant. 
• I should note that +Jonata Sodre had to spend a METRIC CRAP TON of Luck to make two DC 15 Fortitude saving throws so that his character didn't get disintegrated. 
• Back on the Skiff.
• Another 24 miles and the Skiff ran right into a dust storm. The brutal weather scoured the skin of the team, and forced the craft to move randomly. Fortunately, it randomly made landfall in the nearby wasteland hills!
• Having reached the south-western edge of the corrosive lake, and with the weirdling sun near rising, the party set up camp beneath the skiff. 
• They also forgot to turn it off, so eventually they burned out the greenstone shard that was still in use. 

Day 6

• After a full day's rest, the party decided to take the Skiff towards a forest they saw in the distance.
• A few miles after breaking camp, they came across the husk of a 45' long worm. 
• StarRider poked around the inside of the dead worm after making an incision in its side. Clutching the skull of a dead Kith, there was a live Kith! 
• Rather than attack the Kith, StarRider showed that he meant it no harm. 
• The two struck up a strange conversation, and started understanding each other.
• The Kith's name was Dukdiv, and he believed that StarRider was the one who saved him from death. So he pledged himself to the wizard.
• This gave the Judge an excuse to allow a player to try out the Kith character class featured in the Purple Plant Boxed Set!

Quotes

"James, this is good news! You finally come to Brazil! You don't have the excuse of money." - Jonata. 

"The party needs a nurse." - Alex grateful that Andy was playing his Cleric. 

"There's no seatbelts in medieval times." - Judge James to Andy, who was asking about safety equipment.

"Paint me like one of your French girls, Nicodemus." - Paul to Alex, after the comment about the skiff being like the Titanic. 

"I'm really screaming now!" - Screaming Otto after getting blasted by the Rayrifle a second time. 

"Not quite a colonoscopy." - Paul about digging into the dead death orm.

"He's a genius. Like Antonio Banderas." - Jonata

In Memoriam 

• None this adventure

Legends of the Great SCOT 

The Free Company successfully completed the Great Sunken City Omnibus Tour. Care to find out about their previous quests? Follow the links below to greatness...

• Perils of the Sunken City, Part One
• Perils of the Sunken City, Part Two
• The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk, Part One
• The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk, Part Two
• The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk, Part Three
• The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk, Part Four
• The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk, Part Five
• The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk, Part Six
• The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk, Part Seven
• A Gathering of the Marked, Part One
• A Gathering of the Marked, Part Two
• A Gathering of the Marked, Part Three
• Return to Slither's End
• Lair of the Mist Men, Part One
• Lair of the Mist Men, Part Two

As always, Die Rodney!