For All the Paladins in the World...

RPG Weekend Recap

So this weekend (Saturday) I ran 4th Edition D&D for my friends up in Sunland. Prior to the game, I made a set for encounters to take place. This game was supposed to be a 'holiday' D&D game, so I made a forrest with snowy trees. Here is the list of things I used to create the set and the result below:
-Sinister Woods Dungeon Tiles
-Black foam core board
-1 foam core block
-Fake grass (from a diorama kit)
-Snow covered trees (I got a pack of them at Michael's on sale for $8)
-Scotch Tape
-Green Acrylic Gems

I used Scotch Tape to stick the dungeon tiles to the foam core and did the same to tape the trees on top of the tiles (so they wouldn't fall over during the game). By the way, using Scotch Tape with the Dungeon Tiles did not damage them. I took the fake grass and cut it into a couple of pieces, then taped it to the foam core block to create a cliff in the environment. The result is the picture below (click on any of the pictures below for a larger view).

Shot 1


Shot 2


Shot 3


Here are some post game shots, showing how some of the combat encounters broke down. (For this game I used some ambient tracks from the artist, Robert Rich)

The group was in an Elven settlement, watching over things. They were expecting some cultists to attack and heard some screams from a nearby glade. They entered the glade.



This Elven glade was lined with magical, green crystals that provided warmth throughout the snowy glade (they also provided light in the dark and granted 2 healing surges per encounter to any ally of the Elves). Some Elves had been praying to the Raven Queen in the glade the group entered. The group found the Elves dead by the hands of the cultists they encountered there.


They spotted a Wyvern on top of a 40' high cliff in the glade too! (Yeah, I know the miniature is a dragon, couldn't find any Wyverns in time for the game).


Yuan-ti Malison Sharp Eyes (Archers), who were in control of the Wyvern were also on the cliff.


Combat ensued! (I used an empty dice container to indicate the Wyvern was flying.)






The group beat the cultists, then they went looking for their lair. At that point I had the players go through a skill challenge as they traveled to a more dangerous part of the woods. Eventually they ran into some Eladrin Lingerers (1 Encanter, 2 Knights).


(I rearranged the trees for this encounter)


By the end of the skill challenge, the guys were one success away from finding the Temple of the Emerald Dawn, and one failure away from losing the skill challenge entirely!

Their last roll was indeed a success, which brought the group to the dungeon door. We ended the night with one more combat encounter between their group and some cultists who were outside the temple, on guard.

Fortunately for them, they didn't have to find out what failing the skill challenge meant. Something else was lurking through those woods...


(yes, this is a photo of the actual miniature Wizards sells)

Harkenwold, Zealots and the Emerald Dawn Continued

Welcome back to Harkenwold!

The Baron's son has been recovered, but danger still plagues the land. When Elves, travelers and Goblins alike, were showing up dead throughout Harkenwold, blame for the deaths and the kidnapping of the Baron's son fell upon a group of cultists who were residing in the Witchlight Fens. The cultist's swampy den was raided by the Baron's second son and his companions - they slayed all of the cultists but did not find the Baron's kidnapped son and returned to Harkenwold empty handed.

Further North of Harkenwold, an abandoned tower in the Moon Hills region had been occupied by some pesky Daggerburg goblins. The goblins seemed to be raiding caravans further North than usual, for an unknown reason. The tower was attacked by an unlikely trio from Fallcrest, who stumbled upon the Baron of Harkenwold's son. Though Harkenwold suspected the cultists in the swamp had kidnapped the Baron's son, it turned out to be the Goblins who were the true culprits. He was hidden on the top floor of the tower. The Fallcrest adventurers quickly realized that it was the Baron's son and returned him to Harkenwold safely. The Baron's kidnapped son had been placed under a magical sleep spell, of which a cure is still being sought.

To the bewilderment of all in the Barony, fresh bodies were still being found dead and torn apart in strange ways throughout Harken Forest, even though the cult in the swamp had been killed. It was later discovered that the cultists in the swamp were not the only cult in the area. Two different cults, The Disciples of Zehir and the Emerald Dawn were warring between each other over territory. The bodies being found dead were ways for each cult to make a claim for territory (though both sides thought they deserved all territories in the land). The Disciples of Zehir were the cult in the swamp. When the Baron's second son raided and killed the Disciples in their den, the cult had been waiting for their leader, a Yuan-ti named Zarkan, to return for some time. Unknown by the Disciples, Zarkan had already been slain by the Emerald Dawn. Zarkan's body was found cut into small pieces and spread out across a glade near the Woodsinger Elve's settlement.

The slaughtered body of Zarkan that was found in the glade, was apparently a warning to the Woodsinger Clan. A Dragonborn emissary sent by the Emerald Dawn came to one of the Elven settlements in the middle of the night, with a message: All must bow before the Dawn. The message was shouted repeatedly in the darkened woods near midnight at the boarder of the settlement. The Elves searched for the crier and found him fleeing the locale, where he had left behind a Woodsinger Elf with his heart carved out. At dawn the next day, an attack was made by the cultists. The cultists have continued harassing the Woodsinger Clan ever since, which is bad timing with a yearly festival coming up, that is held between the Woodsingers and the Barony of Harkenwold.

Further, informants in Harkenwold have suspected that the sleep spell the goblins placed the Baron's son under, is the result of a potion that was given to the Daggerburg goblins by the Emerald Dawn. This has led to the assumption that the Dawn has a cure.