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The event "The Assault on Taekir" is beginning in 1 day, 11 hours.

Vorthyn: A D&D Campaign based on AR
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Arunore



Joined: 05 Aug 2014
Posts: 200

PostPosted: Thu Oct 08, 2020 1:58 am    Post subject:

That's awesome! I'm wanting to make the crossover to virtual tabletop for my players as well. Seems much more time manageable, since we each live an hour away or so from one another. Do you use Roll20?
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Kalist19
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Joined: 19 Jan 2004
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 08, 2020 4:47 am    Post subject:

I’m hanging on your every word. I’ve already imagined a scenario where that nice old lady finds the sword and becomes a blood-crazed maniac!

Thanks for the updates, I had totally forgotten about this. Every time I see an AR reference I get a tingle.
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Olyn
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Joined: 23 Jul 2008
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Location: Pennsylvania

PostPosted: Thu Oct 08, 2020 1:16 pm    Post subject:

Our current setup is:

1) roll20 virtual tabletop
2) dndbeyond for character sheets and most dice rolling
3) discord for voice chat and screen sharing dice rolls (we mostly stick with the honor system on the dice rolls)

Roll20 is more robust than what we're using it for, but we have a couple of players who are new to the game, rules, etc. and the clickable rolls on dndbeyond give them a MUCH cleaner experience so they can focus on their character RP without getting hung up on dice rolling syntax or math.

Our dndbeyond setup consists of one person with some type of higher tier master subscription and the rest of us have free accounts. That person does all of our content purchasing on beyond and keeps track of the cost. We all split the cost of the subscription and all the purchased content once a year. Dndbeyond lets you share your purchased content with other people signed into the same campaign as you so one purchase lets us all use it.

One player had an audio issue with roll20 on our first session so we switched to discord for this. It actually works out for us so someone can join in via discord on their phone while they drive home etc and stll be part of the fun until they get computer access.
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Olyn
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Joined: 23 Jul 2008
Posts: 3244
Location: Pennsylvania

PostPosted: Fri Oct 09, 2020 4:59 pm    Post subject:

S01E03: Mr. Tyrgault goes to Treldmor or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Birdman
Code:
Upon reaching Treldmor, the party found themselves in the middle of a political mess. A city councilman had been murdered and the young, ambitious noblewoman known as the Red Fox, who was poised to take his place, was the chief suspect. After some sleuthing (and incidental murder of the Red Fox's personal assistant affectionately known as "the Birdman"), the party uncovered the murder plot was orchestrated by none other than the victim's best friend Dorgan in an attempt to frame the Red Fox and steal the upcoming election.

Tyrgault, who sat in prison for the murder of the Birdman as the final election events unfolded, was released when the Birdman mysteriously turned up alongside the Red Fox at an election rally. Meanwhile, Dorgan stood public trial for his crime. He claimed that he was forced to commit the murder by an unassuming local shop owner named Vinnie, who he claimed represented a powerful organized crime operation known as The Syndicate. Upon this revelation, and before the conclusion of the trial, Dorgan was suddenly assassinated when an arrow pierced his heart. The identity of the assassin is yet unknown, but witnesses reported seeing a man wearing a colorful knit sweater and carrying a longbow skulking across nearby rooftops just before the incident.

The party decided to investigate Vinnie's shop and found the small pawn shop was mostly abandoned. The place contained naught but rubbish, except for the large, six-sided stone upon which was engraved a tentacle. The stone looked very much like the ones in the lighthouse and the party decided to take it with them.

Afterwards, the Red Fox won the election in a landslide and announced one of her famous and notoriously exclusive parties to celebrate the victory. She invited the party members as thanks for clearing her name.
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Olyn
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Joined: 23 Jul 2008
Posts: 3244
Location: Pennsylvania

PostPosted: Thu Oct 15, 2020 12:05 pm    Post subject:

S01E04: The Masquerade of the Red Death
Code:
To celebrate her city council election win, the Red Fox threw one of her famous parties. The party was invited as thanks for their help in uncovering the murder plot and framing attempt. Upon arrival, the party members were magically transformed into their costumes so completely that they could not tell one another apart or identify any of the other guests by sound or sight.

The party itself was very odd and had strange entertainment and each room was painted a different color. Everyone seemed to avoid the black room entirely. When the clock struck midnight, guests began to get ill and fled the party. An investigation of the black room revealed a powerful presence. When the party fled, Wil-zeus was held in place by a powerful force beyond his comprehension. The being announced he had been "restored" and that a plague had been released on the entire land and many people will suffer and die. Wil-zeus was given a choice: he, and the rest of his party, would be spared from the effects of the plague if he agreed to be the servant of this mighty being. Wil-zeus agreed and found that his rusted breastplate was transformed into jet black plate mail forged by magic. He returned to the party, who was now taking shelter at a local inn, and kept silent about the one he would come to know as Rodyn.

Meanwhile, the bodies piled higher and higher in the streets of Treldmor until the party wondered if any might still be alive. They remained in place for three days before Wil-zeus informed them of Rodyn's word that they would not suffer the effects of this plague. The party decided to venture to the keep at Irynhold to put distance between themselves and the plague at Treldmor, and to investigate a rumor they had previously heard of ogres leaving the mountains of the Broken Spine in numbers.
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Olyn
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Joined: 23 Jul 2008
Posts: 3244
Location: Pennsylvania

PostPosted: Wed Oct 21, 2020 3:35 pm    Post subject:

S01E05: Tolmary was a Little Lamb
Code:
Three days into the journey to Irynhold, a sheep charged at the party. Whizzleteaks, never before seeing such a wonderful creature, tried to stop it to give it a hug. The sheep came to a halt and lifted its head into the air and allowed the awkward hug from the deep gnome. At this time, the party noticed the scroll in the sheep's mouth. As Whizzleteaks read the odd words, he discovered that he could now understand the sheep's speech!

According to the sheep, he was a wizard named Tolmary who had been practicing his craft in the nearby woods for the last few decades. During the last year, he had taken on a gifted apprentice. At first, the apprentice was a great help to the wizard's research, but over the last few weeks be had become increasingly rude. That very morning, Tolmary caught his apprentice attempting to still his yet unfinished wand of true polymorph. In the ensuing struggle, the wand caused Tolmary to turn into a sheep. He grabbed a 'speak with animals' scroll from the desk on his way out, fled the tree fort, and eventually ran into the party. Whizzleteaks was eager to help the majestic creature and convinced the wary party to join him.

The party located the tree fort and battled all sorts of horrific and mutated creatures, likely the result of the unfinished wand of true polymorph being used on various woodland creatures. The party then engaged the deranged apprentice and backed him into a corner in his bedroom. While grappling for the wand, the thing exploded in a cloud of smoke, but not before causing the wizard's massive four post bed to form wings and come alive! During the battle against the Great Bed Dragon, the apprentice managed to slip away and the sheep/Tolmary was slain.

Since its previous occupants were gone, the party decided the tree fort would be their new base of operations. They performed some minor repairs to the sections that were damaged in the battle and decided they would stop back at Willowdale to check for signs of the apprentice and to see if the plague had spread out of Treldmor before continuing on to Irynhold. It was at this time that the party realized they had never learned the name of the young and demented wizard's apprentice. Who could he be?
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Olyn
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Joined: 23 Jul 2008
Posts: 3244
Location: Pennsylvania

PostPosted: Thu Oct 29, 2020 5:46 pm    Post subject:

S01E06: Broken Back Mountain
Code:
The people of Willowdale had completely closed the village to outsiders. They reported no illness or casualties, but were willing to defend against any outsider intrusions with violent force if necessary. The party decided to leave peacefully and head to Irynhold, but not before enticing the young couple of Bael and Lola to leave the village and enter the service of the party by working at their new tree fort.

When the party arrived at Irynhold, the scene was chaos. Ogres everywhere! The militia was defending the gate against a surprising number of the large creatures, but some of the ogres seemed to be fighting each other as well. The party kept their distance from most of the ogres, but encountered a wounded one left for dead. According to the unfortunate creature, Lard the ogre seer had foreseen the death of the ogres if they remained in the mountains of the Broken Spine. They sought a place called the Barren Highlands and split their forces in half, sending half to the south and half to the north in search of this place.

As the ogres were driven off, it became apparent that the plague had already spread to Irynhold and was responsible for many more deaths than the ogre assault. The party decided to seek out Lard the ogre seer and learn more of the ogres' plight. Unfortunately, the ascent into the mountains was wrought with peril and the tracks of the ogres were soon lost. The party, after a number of near-deaths in the snow and ice, took shelter in a mountain cave. Exploration of the cave eventually led to a massive underground lake of ice. Here, the party decided to tie themselves to the same rope at 10 foot intervals so that anyone who fell through the ice could be pulled back to safety. A fine plan that was interrupted by the cave's occupant… a young white dragon! Tethered together and on ice, the party was limited in mobility but managed to overwhelm the dragon and find respite in the cave.

The party decided finding the ogre seer was unlikely, as was finding safe passage through the mountains, and decided to return south and check on their tree fort.
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Olyn
Immortal


Joined: 23 Jul 2008
Posts: 3244
Location: Pennsylvania

PostPosted: Tue Nov 10, 2020 11:34 am    Post subject:

S01E07: Peace, Love, and Understanding
Code:
The party returned to the tree fort to find that it was overrun with burned out hippies. There were dozens of these squatters and, although the party's claim of ownership was flimsy, they felt that they needed to leave. The hippies, calling themselves "the New Order" politely declined the invitation to leave and would not raise their voices or raise a weapon, even in self-defense. The situation caused much debate within the party: they all wanted to see the New Order gone from their new base, but most of the party was not willing to use force on these obviously peaceful people. To complicate matters, none of the New Order members seemed to have seen Bael or Lola upon their arrival.

Further investigation revealed that one member, a man named Polik who seemed to be held in some esteem within the New Order, was lying about the young couple. Polik was bound and questioned with only a little painful persuasion, much to the dismay of the New Order members. Even so, the peaceful folk only watched. Polik revealed that a woman named Myria convinced him to bring the New Order here. Myria had entered the tree fort first and had left with the young couple behind her in an almost trance-like state.

The party released Polik, and Irri was able to locate the tracks of Bael and Lola as they left the area. She tracked them for a day and a half before the tracks led into a small cave. Inside, the party found Bael completely dismembered and Lola strapped to some kind of torture device at the hands of this woman called Myria. Whizzleteaks, a master of illusion himself, knew this was not as it seemed. He dispelled the glamour over the woman and revealed that this was not a woman named Myria at all, but the naga that had previously enslaved the village of Lundy. As before, the naga was defeated but the party lacked the means to end its seemingly immortal existence.

Before it fled, the naga issued a new warning: "If Rodyn would rather toy with you than end your miserable lives, then my master will see to it himself. We will see you in Shadow." The party returned to the tree fort to find the New Order members much less enthusiastic about staying and they dispersed shortly thereafter.
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Olyn
Immortal


Joined: 23 Jul 2008
Posts: 3244
Location: Pennsylvania

PostPosted: Tue Dec 08, 2020 7:00 pm    Post subject:

S01E08: Into Shadow (Never Split the Party)
Code:
After a well-deserved rest at their tree fort, the party decided to check in at the village of Lundy to see if the plague had spread that far, as well as look for signs of the naga's return. On the way south, the party encountered three men arguing. Apparently, one of the men has an illness that causes him to have fits and sometimes injure himself or his companions. Two of them want to tie up the third man each night before they sleep, but he is refusing. The party decides to keep an eye on these men and take shelter in the nearby lighthouse. As the party approached the lighthouse, they saw a bright flash of blue light from the top. They hurried inside, but, as before, the place was empty. There were tracks leading up the stairs to the top and the mysterious circle of six-sided stones. The party was able to place their own stone engraved with a tentacle on one of the indentations, but nothing happened.

The party decided to encourage the men not to tie up their friend and help keep the watch. Sure enough, the man did have a fit but he emerged from it in the form of some kind of hairy beast with tiger stripes! The party was reluctant to attack this man/thing without provocation and, thankfully, he fled the lighthouse entirely. Disturbed by this, but not really wanting to get involved, they continued on to Lundy at dawn.

The village of Lundy was eerily quiet as the party approached. Upon entering, it was obvious that the place was deserted. An inspection of the place saw some of the villagers died of the plague, while others appeared to be cut down as if by a sword. The mayor's house was completely destroyed, and the party found another of the six-sided stones in the ashes; this one was engraved with an orb. Here, the party argued about what they should do next. Whizzleteaks and Wil-zeus wanted to take both of the party's six-sided stones to the lighthouse and place them on the impressions near the circle. Irri, Val'orian, and Tyrgault wanted to look for survivors of the plague elsewhere and continue the search for Irri's missing brother.

Whizzleteaks, who was somehow the one carrying the stones, announced that he was going to the lighthouse with or without the rest of the party. They reluctantly followed. Atop the lighthouse, he placed the tentacle stone on one impression and the orb on the other. A brilliant flash of blue light pierced the dark night. Whizzleteaks, Tyrgault, and Wil-zeus, who were standing on or near the circle, vanished. Irri, Val'orian, and Ra'kek could find no trace of them. Irri and Val'orian decided to return to Lundy and regroup, while Ra'kek went his own way.
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Olyn
Immortal


Joined: 23 Jul 2008
Posts: 3244
Location: Pennsylvania

PostPosted: Fri Dec 11, 2020 3:54 pm    Post subject:

And that was how "Season 1" ended. Life got busy for some of us. A couple of players moved away (alas, Whizzleteaks...) and we wanted to pause this on the cliffhanger until we knew everyone would be able to resume. We switched over to playing on virtual tabletop when we were ready to resume due to the pandemic. We picked up a couple of new players, too.

Irri and Val'orian stayed on. The player of Tyrgault decided that he would start a new character for this next chapter to try something new and leave Tyrgault "lost" in the shadow realm with the two others who, by coincidence, were the players who moved on.

The new characters:

Fidgit - a goblin artificer in search of new junk with which to tinker and build. He is hilariously short, even for a goblin, and usually walks using a set of mechanical stilts that allow him to be the same height as other goblins. He fled the dump outside of Irynhold when the plague began.

Ursino - a bearfolk berserker. The realm does not include a "bearfolk" race so the character is treated like an unusually large and hairy disfigured human by others. Ursino is motivated to travel to taste all of the honey in the world.

Nymphacea - a firbolg druid. The realm does not include a "firbolg" race so the character is treated as an ogre by civilized races when she does not disguise her appearance. She recently lost her wooded home at the edge of the Blood Swamp due to a blight (coinciding with the plague) rotting everything.

I also decided to update maps and switched from Campaign Cartographer to Wonderdraft. The party acquired a physical map of this land early in season 2 and learned of areas outside their immediate vicinity for the first time.

http://abandonedrealms.com/img/olyn/Unsiliel_compressed.png
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Olyn
Immortal


Joined: 23 Jul 2008
Posts: 3244
Location: Pennsylvania

PostPosted: Mon Mar 08, 2021 7:14 pm    Post subject:

S02E01: The Fifth Elemental

Code:
Upon their return to Lundy, Irri and Val'orian found three others gathered outside the village. A large, ogre-like woman calling herself Nymphacea, a large, hairy, and surprisingly gentle man named Ursino who looks quite a bit like a bear, and a very odd and very short fast-talking goblin named Fidgit. An unlikely group and even unlikelier for them to all arrive at the same village at the same time. Before they could wonder too much at the coincidence, they were greeted by a voice from the balcony of the freshly repaired inn. The party marveled at the voice and the condition of the inn, since the place had been abandoned and the inn was still a burned out shell of a building just a few days earlier.

The voice belonged to a tall blonde woman calling herself Jemira. Jemira claimed that acquaintances of hers would be arriving in a few days and may be able to help find Tyrgault and the others. She called the circle in the lighthouse a Nexus and explained that certain nexus stones could be placed on the impressions to travel to other similar circles. Doing so consumes the nexus stones, so more would have to be found for the party to reach Tyrgault. Jemira believed there must be a way to craft new nexus stones, but she does not know how.

In exchange for her help, Jemira asked the party to find a nearby canyon that was festering with wild elemental energies and retrieve the essence of each of the five elements that she believes can be distilled into raw essence and stored in a special amulet. The party agreed and set out for the elemental canyon. Inside the canyon, the party was under constant assault as their surroundings constantly erupted with elemental energies. They were able to find and destroy creatures of fire, lightning, air, water, and earth and gathered the essence of each into their elemental amulet. As promised by Jemira, each of the elemental creatures also left behind an elemental weapon. The party gathered a fiery dagger, a sparkling lightning sword, a dream catcher, an icicle dagger, and an earthen mace to help them on their journey and made the trek back to Lundy.
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Olyn
Immortal


Joined: 23 Jul 2008
Posts: 3244
Location: Pennsylvania

PostPosted: Fri Jul 16, 2021 6:56 pm    Post subject:

S02E02: The Hunt for Red Octuva Part 1

Code:
The party returned to the inn in Lundy to find Jemira in the company of two duergar. The first called himself Fynth. Fynth wore jet black armor almost identical to that of Wil-zeus and spoke with a heavy lisp. Fynth told the party that they were indebted to him. In exchange for protecting them from the plague that they now carry, his master Rodyn requires a task of them. They are to enter the realm of Shadow through the Nexus and return Wil-zeus to this realm so that he may continue in his master's service. To do so, they will need to gather the two necessary nexus stones and use them at the lighthouse. Refusal would mean the end of Rodyn's protection, after which they would surely succumb to the plague.

The second duergar, wearing the hat of a ship's captain, introduced himself as Ronus. He had come south with Fynth on some unnamed purpose, but will be returning north to Timaran where his ship, The Marauder, is in port. Ronus also claimed that he knew where one of the nexus stones could be found. The party, seeing no other option but death, agreed to accompany Ronus.

The party expressed their concern that they had never heard of a place called Timaran. Jemira explained that most southerners were ignorant of Unsiliel's geography beyond their local villages, and offered the party a map. She then gathered the party and sent them directly to Timaran by means of a teleport. She and Fynth did not accompany them.

Timaran was a city at least a hundred times larger than any town that the members of the party had ever seen. Ronus also informed them that the city had very strict rules about fighting and that any physical altercations would end with them put to death by the lawkeepers, known as the Justices. Tired and overwhelmed, the party spent the night at the Gold Mine Tavern, ready to accompany Ronus to some kind of meeting the next morning.

The tavern was packed full for the meeting, with every seat taken and others standing shoulder to shoulder. A dwarf named Dargrim announced that he had invited the captains of the five fastest ships in the realm to the meeting and that he sought a gem called the Red Octuva. The gem was held in a secret vault on a deserted island, and whoever retrieved the gem for him would be rewarded with a large sum of gold and a magical bejewelled battle axe. After this announcement, he threw several knapsacks on the bar and yelled, "Begin!" The ensuing chaos saw a massive scrum and the party eventually escaped with a knapsack and sprinted for The Marauder. With other ships in pursuit, the party set sail with Captain Ronus. Irri was navigating using a special compass found in the knapsack, Ursino rallied the crew as first mate, Nymphacea oversaw the cannons in destructive exchanges with other ships, and Fidgit repaired the damaged sails and damaged hull. As Timaran disappeared beyond the horizon behind them, only one other ship remained close in the Hunt for Red Octuva.
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Olyn
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Joined: 23 Jul 2008
Posts: 3244
Location: Pennsylvania

PostPosted: Sat Oct 23, 2021 12:08 am    Post subject:

S02E03: The Hunt for Red Octuva Part 2

Code:
The party navigated a fierce storm at sea and arrived on the island.

They met another group of suspicious-looking adventurers who said that they are hunting the Red Octuva but their ship was wrecked. After a tense stand-off, the other group's leader, a drow named Ygin, tossed a smoke bomb, obscuring all sight. When the smoke cleared, Ygin and Irri were gone, and both crews were confused. With the two drow nowhere to be found, the two crews set off together to find the cave said to hold the Red Octuva.

After several hours, the party found that using each of their magic compasses in tandem allowed them to accurately pinpoint the location of the cave. They went inside, taking two members of the other crew with them, and leaving the rest outside "to stand guard."  The party worked their way through the cave, defeating monsters and avoiding traps, all while seeing shadows flicker at the edge of their vision and hearing a menacing voice whispering inside their heads. The voice repeated the words, "We will meet again in D'al Kadar." Finally, the party came upon a sickly fish creature with a glowing red chest. They decided that the creature must have eaten the Red Octuva and fallen ill. Nymphacea carefully cut the massive gem out of the creature and stitched its wound. The grateful creature fled into a nearby pond. The party took the opportunity for a brief respite and then departed the cave, Red Octuva in hand. Outside, the remaining crew of the other ship were gone and there was still no sign of the two missing drow. Eager to be done with the island, the party, now including Val'orian the elf and Krooghug the dwarf, boarded the Marauder and asked Ronus to sail back to Timaran.

Once back in Timaran, the party returned to the Gold Mine Tavern and exchanged the Red Octuva for the sum of gold and the bejewelled battle axe as promised. When the transaction was complete, Dargrim began to laugh. First in amusement, and then grew more and more hysterical. In a flash, Dargrim the dwarf turned into a wizard. Val'orian recognized the wizard as the apprentice who stolen the rod of polymorph and killed his master nearly a year earlier. It was clear that the apprentice had grown in power significantly. Val'orian threw a dagger at the wizard, but the mage stopped it in mid-air by raising a finger. He introduced himself as Xanthak and thanked the party for obtaining the gem from the island that had been warded against him. He claimed to be a powerful magus reborn in a new age and had much work to do now that he had regained "his stone." He then spoke the words that the party had heard in their heads back on the island, "We will meet again in D'al Kadar," and vanished.
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Mr. Forgotten



Joined: 18 Aug 2005
Posts: 539

PostPosted: Sun Jul 24, 2022 2:00 am    Post subject:

Is this still a thing? When I was in Georgia for basic, I dm'ed a campaign for some guys who didn't know how to dnd based on AR classes/races. I'd definitely be interested in joining this.
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