Joël's campaign (now: Har'Akir desert arc!)

[Zilfer]

Thank you very much!

Do not hesitate to ask if you have a question

You'll see the campaign is very free flow, where the players have the impression they really choose their path (well, most of the time!). I tried to create a campaign similar to the real world, where you meet a lot of persons, and not all of them a relevant to the current adventure. Like real life

Joël

Yes, actually i like that style very much from reading it. I want to do something similiar in my next session though I'm afraid I'm going to have 3 wild cards up in the air next session so we'll see what happens. Not sure where I want to take it either. I may steal the 'dog fights' idea. I thought I had the Gaz for Invidia so i was going to have them go there but i am sadly mistaken. T.T

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

This is an extremely Ravenloftish dungeon (manor) crawl. I really suggest all DMs should incorporate it into their campaign. It fits in really well, and has its own cool background story.

So, I take it you skipped the ogre upholsterers with the saws?

Yes, I’m good at opening story parenthesis, now I had the chance to close a few ones

I hear you. Let's start a club. Brotherhood of the (. Our official symbol is: ([{<«`

Needless to say, when they got the invitation to diner (which was kind of neat I thought )

Yes, that invite and the Market one were both very nice.

As I wrote in the journal, the fact I also had a map where I asked them to point where they were seated was also a cause of stress (even if nothing was going to happen, battlewise)…

Good call.

> - I do love the Midnight Market. NeoTiamat came up with a great one there. That upside-down gargoyle(?) picture on the invite is unnerving. what is that?!??!?!
I don’t know, from the net, somekind of fey.

Whatever it is, I love/hate it. I don't know why it gives me the creeps so much.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

45:
- I take it the connection between Kendra and Iesha was added by you? (Paizo's adventure paths don't directly connect to their adventures outside of the AP, right?)
- love the nosferatu images... And a clever use of domination, too.
46:
- I like the scheming/discussion of the other PCs behind Virevan's back. Did the player take it well? It seems so, but I can't be sure from the text. Strange though that they leap so quickly to arresting or killing him. Did no one propose finding a cure?
- "went cucumber." ha!
- hehehe! brilliant to recruit him into the Kargat! I need to remember that idea for my werebat.
- I see you like to use Supernatural. I should probably check the show out sometime. Do any of your players watch? That's always the fear I have when pulling something from a TV show, that the players will have seen it already.
- It's been a long time since I read the early sessions and I forget... is the business with Mac and Gundar's bride established already? Was Mac really confused or pretending not to know what she meant?
47:
- Strange bit with the Crooked Kin and the spiders... are they from the HoH adventure? (haven't read this one yet either, I'm ashamed to say)
- "Vrood seems to be a member of some evil organization, Hazan suspects." LOL

[Zilfer]

Alright I'm curious about that Strahd thing at the end of the first one of your journals unforunately I can't read whatever language it's in.... i'm going to guess french out of ignorance because it doesn't look German or Russian to me. xD Ignorant american again.... Anyways.

Going to go in some broad strokes here and may jump around a bit....


First of all wasn’t sure I was going to like, I force myself through the first two and then it picked up glad I did. Not sure how the sessions themselves look but if it’s anything like the journal’s suggest awesome DMing. Wish I could pull off what you do.

Loved the dog fights part of it like I said earlier, especially since the group didn’t know for the longest time? I myself would have been curious to watch the dog fights <.< not sure it would have been that obscure but who knows!

Your pretty good at keeping them moving from one thing to the next so they generally always have something to do. Definitely throwing NPC’s at them faster than I can keep up reading. xD I’m surprised your players keep them straight all the time but I also had the disadvantage of trying to keep the character’s straight. xD

Good thus far looking forward to reading where the adventures take them next. Just ended with Borca, and is Tara have a crush on one of the members? <.< and I may have missed it but was it the one of Von Zarovich descent? If so Irony…. And definitely intentional by you .

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

48:
- a second cleric, huh? Interesting choice. Any stepping on toes there?
- very strange findings at the chemists' shoppe. Did they remember Matthew Nash from way long ago or did they have to be prodded?
49:
- cute misdirect with the shapechanging baker.
50:
- Yikes! Dead kids... you don't pull punches.
- Aha! The baker's a skin thief? Nice! I always liked those guys. The closet of skins is a creepy touch.
51:
- Will definitely check out that album...
- I doubt you need to apologize to the toothless man. He looks like he's happy to be there.
- probably not worth changing, but FYI, I find the font for Lorimar's writing to be very hard to read.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

52:
- the link to the children's song is broken, can we fix it?
53:
- they seem very insistent on finding this missing dog. why?
- I love the haunt hallucination of Petrak being raised a year later.
- nice of them to cover for Gibs with the lie that they got Jorfa's name by magic.
54:
- Sinead O'Connor - The Funeral - did you get that one from me or find it on your own? Perfect RL music, no?
- did anyone consider trying to clean her name from the monument? Would that work?
- Keys in the pelvis? well, that's one way to hide them!

yay, finally all caught up! Looking forward to more...

[Joël of the FoS]

So, I take it you skipped the ogre upholsterers with the saws?

Indeed! I’m a great fan of Pathfinder, for the bricks it gives me to play with. I usually use bits inserted into my campaign.
HoH is the only one so far that I played as is, after I have inserted my own things in it, of course. But I didn’t remove anything from it, it was played from A to Z.

I hear you. Let's start a club. Brotherhood of the (. Our official symbol is: ([{<«`

It reminds me of Movember

45:
- I take it the connection between Kendra and Iesha was added by you? (Paizo's adventure paths don't directly connect to their adventures outside of the AP, right?)

Indeed! As I wrote elsewhere, HoH takes for a fact that the players know Petros Lorrimor for a long time. Which wasn’t the case in may campaign, obviously. So I needed as much « sympathy » links as I could add, without being cheesy. So Kendra knew Iesha, Petros is also a friend of Van Richten, and the heroes saved Kendra from the nosferatu. After all that, he could consider them friends and the adventure as written makes sense. Took the time, but it was worth it, and worked well.

- love the nosferatu images... And a clever use of domination, too.

The image is from PF. It was fun catching this player off guard, he who is usually the kind to do these tricks to enemies
But this Nosferatu is from another PF cycle, Curse of the Crimson Throne. I used it in my HoH intro, since the guy was cool… only to find out he was recycled in CC#5 as “some kind” of good guy who needs help. Oh well, I’ll have to think about it if I play CC#5

46:
- I like the scheming/discussion of the other PCs behind Virevan's back. Did the player take it well? It seems so, but I can't be sure from the text. Strange though that they leap so quickly to arresting or killing him. Did no one propose finding a cure?

That was great, even more profound that I expected. I expected them to give him another chance, while keeping him on a short leash But they really went ballistic over this one, and closed the books on him.
They already tried the cure, a while ago, but that didn’t work. They know only one attempt can be made in RL.

- "went cucumber." ha!

- hehehe! brilliant to recruit him into the Kargat! I need to remember that idea for my werebat.

Adventure hook, adventure hook!
And I know this player will keep his mouth shut about it, until his old PC is back.

- I see you like to use Supernatural. I should probably check the show out sometime. Do any of your players watch? That's always the fear I have when pulling something from a TV show, that the players will have seen it already.

I asked them if they did watch it, and only one said « very occasionally ». And what I used is from year 1, 7 years ago. I was quite confident they never heard of it.
Yes, I like Supernatural, they baddies are sometimes very interesting. Try season one, you’ll probably like it.
It’s a good inspiration for GEE too I guess.

- It's been a long time since I read the early sessions and I forget... is the business with Mac and Gundar's bride established already? Was Mac really confused or pretending not to know what she meant?

Well I took liberty with the player’s background. So in game at first, he wasn’t remembering, then it came back to him. A little shameful thing that was burried deep.
My players are OK with me playing a bit with their background. And it wasn’t something of an extreme importance for the future, that would handicap him. So he thought it was fun.

47 - Strange bit with the Crooked Kin and the spiders... are they from the HoH adventure? (haven't read this one yet either, I'm ashamed to say)

Intro from the second adventure in the CC path.

- "Vrood seems to be a member of some evil organization, Hazan suspects." LOL

Well as I often say, being a DM is sometimes being very lonely at the top, so you have to entertain yourself What's a little nerdish fun?

[Joël of the FoS]

52:
- the link to the children's song is broken, can we fix it?

I'll update the link in my journal next time I have a new session written.

Joël

[Joël of the FoS]

Alright I'm curious about that Strahd thing at the end of the first one of your journals unforunately I can't read whatever language it's in.... i'm going to guess french out of ignorance because it doesn't look German or Russian to me. xD Ignorant american again.... Anyways.

French, my mother tongue!

First of all wasn’t sure I was going to like, I force myself through the first two and then it picked up glad I did. Not sure how the sessions themselves look but if it’s anything like the journal’s suggest awesome DMing. Wish I could pull off what you do.

Thank you!

Loved the dog fights part of it like I said earlier, especially since the group didn’t know for the longest time? I myself would have been curious to watch the dog fights <.< not sure it would have been that obscure but who knows!

No they expected fights between real dogs, not defenseless humans against dogs!

I’m very proud of this session, they were really stressed about the event, and they feared what was going to happen. They fleed the place! It was one of the first time I was thinking I made a good RL DM job.

I had fun mixing other things into it of course, as you have read.

Your pretty good at keeping them moving from one thing to the next so they generally always have something to do. Definitely throwing NPC’s at them faster than I can keep up reading. xD I’m surprised your players keep them straight all the time but I also had the disadvantage of trying to keep the character’s straight. xD

If you want, you can read a text I wrote in the USS, on my views on how to plan a campaign. Of course, it didn’t worked as previously planned, that’s the fun with freeflow campaigns: since the players can change the orientation of the campaign, they do!

Good thus far looking forward to reading where the adventures take them next. Just ended with Borca, and is Tara have a crush on one of the members? <.< and I may have missed it but was it the one of Von Zarovich descent? If so Irony…. And definitely intentional by you .

No, lol. It’s Petrak, an anchorite too. I figured Tara as very pure in thoughts, so an anchorite at first, a good man, and a bit shy too (like that player) would be a good choice.

[Zilfer]

I kinda lost where Tara went after awhile, when she and the twins were supposed to stay behind for the killing of Nathan Timothy.... very exciting btw, AND i'm not even playing in the game!

Furthermore, the whole godefroy segment+weathermays and that ring was pretty damn cool. Seems session 30 ends off on a sad note, but damn things are getting interesting.

Heh, good job thus far, i'm sad that i'm maybe 66% done reading? It doesn't seem like there'd be an end anytime soon, but that's DnD for you!

[Joël of the FoS]

48:- very strange findings at the chemists' shoppe. Did they remember Matthew Nash from way long ago or did they have to be prodded?

Yep. The name rang a bell. Thanks to an Ipad, they narrowed it down quickly. They were very surprised! Another story parenthesis closed.

49: - cute misdirect with the shapechanging baker.

These guys were investigating the PCs, since their visit at the chemycal shoppe. Who are they, who are they speaking to?

50:
- Yikes! Dead kids... you don't pull punches.

Yes, I know. They hated me too That was added by me, not in the original adventure.

I wanted despicable foes, that the halfling guild could hate too, so they would help the PCs.

- Aha! The baker's a skin thief? Nice! I always liked those guys. The closet of skins is a creepy touch.

The closet is from the adventure.
Yes, and he isn’t dead, so that means a shape changing foe that hates them I made him an agent of the Whispering Way. With the children dead, they hate this guy.

51:
- Will definitely check out that album...

The 99 Darkest pieces of classical music. Highly recommended!

- I doubt you need to apologize to the toothless man. He looks like he's happy to be there.

Ah ah!

- probably not worth changing, but FYI, I find the font for Lorimar's writing to be very hard to read.

Ah OK. It was easy to read, but perhaps after the PDF conversion, it is somewhat blurred. Will check it.

53:
- they seem very insistent on finding this missing dog. why?

I don’t why, it struck a sympathetic chord with them.

- I love the haunt hallucination of Petrak being raised a year later.

Yes, but that was very short. If I redo this with another team, the victim will fall into a coma for at least an hour, so I can develop this conversation.

- nice of them to cover for Gibs with the lie that they got Jorfa's name by magic.

Yes, they are also visiting their grandmother on her birthday, bringing flowers. Nice guys, really!

54: - Sinead O'Connor - The Funeral - did you get that one from me or find it on your own? Perfect RL music, no?

I do not remember where I got it, but indeed there si a good chance it could be from your journals. It is a great theme for Vesorianna!

- did anyone consider trying to clean her name from the monument? Would that work?

Strangely, no! And no, it wouldn’t change a thing.

The only thing to do is to find the person writing these letters and forbidding him to in a way or another. But their idea was that it was written by a supernatural force that couldn’t be stopped, some kind of spell.

- Keys in the pelvis? well, that's one way to hide them!

See it more like a torture he was given? :shock : indeed!
And that was in the book, not added by me!

As someone wrote on the Paizo board: "The prisoners were clearly good empiricists and trying to teach him about a posteriori knowledge."

yay, finally all caught up! Looking forward to more...

Thank you very much for your time! I’ll do the same with your next journals, I’m a few sessions behind.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Ah OK. It was easy to read, but perhaps after the PDF conversion, it is somewhat blurred. Will check it.

It was ok in small doses, but for the longer sections, I had to copy it into another font to read it easily.

[Joël of the FoS]

I kinda lost where Tara went after awhile, when she and the twins were supposed to stay behind for the killing of Nathan Timothy.... very exciting btw, AND i'm not even playing in the game!

Thank you! I write these journals for my own use mainly, but I try hard to make them fun to read.

Tara stayed back in Mordent when the PCs tracked Nathan Timothy and killed him.

Furthermore, the whole godefroy segment+weathermays and that ring was pretty damn cool.

The halo was designed by John Mangrum. It was a lot of fun.

Expect it to come back in my campaign one day - when exploring Necropolis!

Seems session 30 ends off on a sad note, but damn things are getting interesting.

I like to add these sad notes once in a while. If I can put tears in my own eyes thinking about it, the players will

It's the whole DMing experience which is at challenge in this campaign. I try to do things a bit differently, anc stick close to real people and real emotions. But it's still D&D!

Heh, good job thus far, i'm sad that i'm maybe 66% done reading? It doesn't seem like there'd be an end anytime soon, but that's DnD for you!

I've been playing with this team of friends since 1987! Good chance we'll be still playing at the retirement home

Joël

[Zilfer]

The retirement home thing sounds like what I was imagining. I can't really imagine a time without DnD. I feel sorry for Ron for his limited play time however he still seems to rock it.

I know it will probably end up that way for me eventually too in a few years. Me being 22 for now and most my friend around my age don't have jobs/cars so .

[Joël of the FoS]

Ladies and gent, it's been a while but here’s the link to four new sessions of my campaign!

Session 55 : the end of the great Pathfinder adventure, Haunting of Harrowstone . They zap the last two villains, and put Vesorianna to her final rest, with the help of Gibs.

Session 56 : Back to Martira Bay, then on the SS Bonniville to Mordent. You recognized the boat name? I inserted the Sea Wolf Dungeon adventure. The players were never really threatened by the villain, but still they loved this murder mystery story.

Session 57 : end of Sea Wolf. Back to Mordent where assassins from the Whispering Way were waiting for them… Then travel to Levkarest.

Session 58 : Arrival in Krezk, where they meet the infamous Jacqueline Montarri! You’ll see it was devilishly fun playing this NPC! She really disturbed the PC’s assurance.

In this last session, you’ll see I added the Whispering Way (from Carrion Crown)’s evil plan to my campaign, changing some of the needed components for the evil ritual, and adding things from my campaign to it.

---

Next session will start with a bad night spent in the Barovian Dreadpass…

Then around Karina again, for the Abbey of Sante-Lyrimin (a location in Carrion Crown), to stop the plans of two witches. Then to Hunadora for the final battle with the Whispering Way!