The Wonderful Wizard of….Alloureia

As the illusion fades and leaves standing there a small scrawny Wizard, he looks at the group and states ‘I’m Immerial, because my illusions aren’t immoral they’re Immerial!’ Which, as a comment seemed to do very little to win them over. Lia points out the fact that as he managed to fool their two magic users, well, they might as well put him to use. After a small disagreement and many reminders from Keridanyth to be nice, it’s decided they will listen to what Immerial has to say. Turns out having been in the village for a couple of days he’s heard rumours of missing people and, lookie here, there is glory to be had because one of the missing people is Larissa, daughter of Cithor, the most eminent Noble of the village. As is always the case in D&D here I have laid before my party the hook for this session a missing noble lady, possible evil, definite reward and what do they do? Well, two go to the library and three go shopping. Yeah. Priorities dictate all this should be taken care of before any young noble is saved. So, after a rather long, incredibly riveting conversation between Kuruk and the Barman that ran along the lines of, ‘is there an exchange place, where you can change monies into other monies?’ ‘Whot, the exchange?’ ‘Yeah that’ (imagine like 5 minutes of that and you’ll get the idea). Kuruk agrees to go off with Immerial to do some bartering and shopping, and yes the Rogue went too because she knows Kuruk’s intelligence level and Immerial certainly strikes her as someone with the potential to be Immoral, regardless of his declaration. Also, remember that time Grog did some bartering in Critical Role? Yeah, that’s exactly why Lia went along. Spiritas having learnt an important lesson from the Goblin incident decide he shouldn’t go off on his own and so while the rest go shopping, he takes the Druid to the library.

I won’t bore you with the shopping, needless to say, Lia takes the lead and with a little bit of trickery help from Immerial secures a good deal for the exchange of the gems and art objects they’d collected on their last mission. As a thank you Lia ‘kindly’ throws 50 gold coins at Immerial, she seems to like doing that and yeah, OK, she technically throws them on the floor! Meanwhile, on the other side of town, the Library trip with Keridanyth and Spiritas actually yielded some information. The found a single book which had a few references to Abaddon, from which they learn that Abaddon is a being and also sometimes a place, the place is sometimes the Abyss and the being is sometimes the Angel Apollyon. It wasn’t much and you could argue its usefulness but it’s not bad as far as small entries in ancient texts go, plus, when they inquired more from the eccentric librarian, Winthrop, self-proclaimed keeper of the books, they discovered the book came from one of the city libraries. Winthrop helpfully suggests that he’s sure there would be more books there.

On their way back to the Tavern, Spiritas and Keridanyth pass a temple to Bahamut and stop to see if they can gather any more information. Keridanyth now understands what an important Angel Spiritas must be as it seems they built a temple to him, we aren’t going to explain that Spiritas is not Bahamut or even follows that religion, trust me, Spiritas tried, it’s really not worth it. Spiritas learnt, not so much about Angels or anything useful for their main mission but did find out more about the missing noble lady, the daughter of Cithor, overseer of this village. The monk went on to explain how tragic this is because Cithor lost a daughter many years ago and that he has declared a reward to anyone who has information, can help, or can return his daughter safely. Not surprising that, with a reward as an incentive, our heroes decide they will see about helping out and so they head to the council hall to speak to a man named Wydare, whom they have been lead to believe is the Reeve of the village and also the man who can get them in to meet Cithor. Some very bad persuasion roles later, which nearly saw the party ending up in jail for being suspiciously knowledgeable about this missing Noble, they eventually win over Wydare. With their agreement to help they are given the last location of the missing girl, a rundown what happened that night and one of the village guards to help (think of it like a cross-agency posting, almost), one of Wydare’s best men. Not the best men that were supposed to be guarding Larissa, a better best men than that, just so you know. A young guard by the name of Jed, ‘We met a Jed in the last village’ utters Kuruk. ‘Well, you know what they say in Alloureia, there’s a Jed in every town!’ he happily replied and, just so you know, there really will be.

By this time, the party had spent so much time shopping and information gathering that they decided it’s too late to go off into a dark and dying forest. Especially one which the locals say is haunted and not the kind of place anyone with half a brain enters on their own. Having parted ways with Jed, who would have come to the pub but his Ma’d cooked him dinner, the party head back to The Drunken Goat to get rooms for the night. As Everwinter is known for its strong drink and our three and a half foot Gnome Druid, Keridanyth, is well on her way to developing a real taste for drinking, you can imagine how this plays out. After several strong ales and sampling a local tipple, Ice Dragon’s Breath she ends up perhaps is a little worse for wear and does a role-play vomit once again, this time outside with just a little splash on Kuruk’s feet. Still, worth it for Keridanyth and Immerial’s drunken fireworks off as they use their minor illusion cantrips to create elaborate displays in an attempt to out-do each other.

Bright and early next morning (some less bright than others), they meet with Jed and head off to the forgotten, dying forest to see if they can track down the missing lady. I wish I could explain how many bad rolls this entailed they failed perception rolls and (as usual) stealth rolls, basically walking through the forest having loud chats while Immerial plays with his dancing lights. Not really the Heroes of Great Achievements but, well, they’ll get there right? On the way through the forest, they take on a Giant Constrictor Snake which Kuruk basically takes his great sword to and pretty much slices in half. Finally, as they are walking along they notice more dancing lights, Immerial drops his, and the party quickly discovering these are not of his making. Trying his divine sense Spiritias realises that the ground up ahead is tainted and that only evil walks this land.

This is, I should say, the point where you get to see how very different Spiritias and Immerial’s approach to things are. Both men stride straight toward the danger, one to smite it, in fact, to divine smite it hard, the other is trying an angle, working out how best to make himself seem all powerful while, at the same time, holding back as much as they can. Moving his dancing lights forward, they spy a cave and just inside the cave they see a bound and gagged girl in a dress of good quality. Could this be THE girl? OK, actually it’s a Green Hag disguising herself as the girl and it would have worked really well if the Wizard hadn’t seen through it and shouted out to the rest of the party. I have to say some of the best action rolls of the night came out of this fight as Spiritas steps up first, usually a master of fail rolls, deciding to believe Immerial because well he senses the tainted ground and evil, declares Divine Smite and doesn’t just hit gets a Crit! So. Much. Damage! In fact, Spritias’ Divine Smites my poor Hag twice, dealing her over half her HP in damage!

Meanwhile, it turns out the rogue can’t shoot arrows for love nor money, as she misses EVERY shot. Yes, every, single, shot. Even the fighter who has successfully cleaved his way through every enemy so far suffers a case of the misses. The Druid in Panther form deals some damage, but mainly struggles to land a single bite, and the wizard’s attempts seem to fall short although he’ll be the first to tell you they looked really cool. At this point, the battle is largely down to Spiritias and the lowly Guard NPC, Jed,  who are working their way slowly against the Hag. Miss after miss, even the Hag just can’t seem to claw the Half-Orc stood right in front of her. Top of the round again miss after miss, at this point, I know whichever person gets the next hit in will get the kill, and it’s Immerial’s turn and… It. Is. Spectacular. As he rolls I look up and utter the immortal words of the DM; ‘how do you want to do this?’ (After all, Matthew Mercer did say it was there for the using – and it works so well in these moments.) He looks at me and asks, ‘can I use Minor Illusion just to get the sound of a crowd cheering?’ You know what, yes you can, because this is my story and that’s awesome. So as Immerial lines up for his shot, slowly the clearing fills up with the sounds of a crowd going wild, screaming, cheering, clapping, feet stamping and then the chanting of ‘Immerial!, Immerial! As the illusionary crowd (and Keridanyth, bless her, she’s easily led) clap in time with the cheering, ‘Immerial! Immerial!’ and he fires, blasting the Hag back into poor old Jed, who pushes her off him and she falls limply to the floor.

I have to say it was glorious and truly in character to steal the kill with such a spectacle and taking all the glory in the name of Immerial. Needless to say, they swiftly rescued the missing noble girl and, after a quick loot of the cave and Hag’s body (well remembered Little One, Lia seems to be rubbing off on our Gnome somewhat!) set off back to return Larrissa to her father. The party aims for the quickest route home and to pass the time, Immerial asks Jed what he thought of all that happened back there. ‘It was great, really like the cheering’ and he raises his hands above his head and in time with his slow clapping chants ‘Immerial! Immerial!’ This doesn’t settle well with Spritias who goes into a speech about how every member of the team took part and that the holy glory filled them with the divine light to conquer the evil, to which Immerial replies ‘Yeah, but Immerial! Immerial!’ At this point because they are walking through an ancient, dying and decidedly creepy forest, not paying attention, well all I can say is…. Giant Spider attack! Considering how quickly they annihilated my Hag, it turns out they find Spiders really difficult to kill.

Eventually they make it back to the town and return Larrissa to her father, who, despite the wizard trying once again to make himself look grander than he is and failing (every time I swear they all see through his Illusions, even lowly Jed), is so pleased to have his only daughter returned he declares them the heroes of the village and, perhaps a little improbably but, hey, he’s super grateful, its saviours. In return for their help he offers them access to his Library should they want it and perhaps access to some in the cities. He agrees to tell all he can of the heroic deeds of the team (you know a party name at this point guys would be really handy!!!) as well as money, help whenever they need it and of course a party (not five gold and a party, though, that’s already trademarked!). And so we leave the adventurers, as the light fades out of the film, at a massive village party with illusions and fireworks from the Wizard and Druid, a rousing holy speech from Spritias and in the corner Kuruk sat, quietly pleased with all they have accomplished.

They’re Off to Find Their Wizard….

So this week’s session of D&D On The Fly included our newest character, the Wizard. Who, it turns out isn’t a powerful magician but a fraud, a showman and a con man, everything is done with a dramatic flair and sense of style (when his minor illusion actually works). As this D&D journey began with Critical Role and the Critters I want you all to take the journey with us. with that in mind let me fill you on where the heroes have got to and all that they have discovered, now their adventure has truly begun. This will be split in two, part one; They’re Off to Find Their Wizard and part two; The Wonderful Wizard of Alloureia.

We last left our Heroes Keridanyth, Kuruk and Lia having joined forces with the divine Spiritas in a small village called Murkwell where they had discovered the village to be plagued by the undead. I want to take a minute to tell you what transpired in the little village of Murkwell.

While travelling through what appeared to be a deserted village the adventurers, Keridanyth, Kuruk and Lia were intrigued to find a group of survivours hiding out in the town hall. They learned that undead had attacked, seemingly coming from the depths of the church, set on the outskirts of the village.  Having agreed to help, the heroic fighters spent the next two days clearing out the infestation. On the first day they made headway in purging the church of the undead, risking a few near mortal wounds before they beat a tactical retreat, planning to return once healed to continue their purge of the undead. It was at this point that they met another traveller, also, on the road, also, passing through this, seemingly deserted, village. Spiritas, the Dragonborn Palladin, in white shining armour, who had set out from his order to spread the holy word. At the mention of unholy creatures, of course Spiritas agreed to help the Heroes.

Returning to the church the next day and after traveling deeper under the church than the previous day, they discovered an ancient Ritual of Awakening taking place. On coming to to an ancient alter they found two cultists chanting. Having failed to engage them in any form of conversation, the (surprisingly powerful) Druid Gnome entangled one in vines while the paranoid Rogue fired a crossbow straight through the other cultist’s eye. This failed to gain them any information from the entangled cultist who just continued his chatting. So, leaving him there for later interrogation, deeper under the church they travelled until they came to a small chamber, darkly lit. Inside they discovered the missing village priest. It was feared that he had never made it out of the church alive. In fact, he was quite safe, having himself been responsible for the undead horde. This is where is gets tricky because, you see, both the Pallidan and Half-Orc Fighter have links to Holy Men and before them stood someone of a religious order but, well, you know, dark altar, creepy rituals, that’s not good right? It did not, however, take our Fighter Kuruk long to charge with his great sword, once the priest declared ‘He Will Rise and Destroy you ALL!’ The ensuing fight largely involved Spritias smiting and Kuruk hitting, with back up delivered in the form of Druidic Magic and a shortbow. Having saved the day, intimidated the remaining cultist, and discovered that an ancient evil named The Destroyer threatens to return, the band of heroes left the village of Murkwell under the care of a Farmer named Jed.

Leaving the town and heading north, the adventurers, now with their new Dragonborn companion, agree to join forces to discover more about this Destroyer, more about Abaddon and what the hell the pieces of paper they found in the priests house meant and whether or not it had anything to do with Keridanyth’s letter? (As a side note, like true adventurers, they explored everything they could at the church including the small house belonging to the priest. In which they found, tucked away in a book, two pieces of parchment with strange symbols and an ancient language on them.) They travel for several days, sleeping out under the stars, mostly without bother, until, one night, they get attacked. Spiritas, who, as usual, was on last watch, undertaking his morning rituals of training and contemplation, spies movement in the trees and runs off to confront whoever goes there. On his way he shouts for the the others so, despite taking some hearty damage from one of the Goblins, he knows the party aren’t far behind. Fighting ensued with Kuruk beheading one Goblin and cleaving through the top half of the other as blood and bodily parts fall to the floor. The Druid, although just a tiny unassuming (yet beautiful – added by Keridanyth herself) Gnome, wild shapes for her first time into a panther and joins the fray. While the Goblin King fends off sword swipes and arrows, the druid (out of game,  as in game she’s a panther and therefore can’t speak) asks where she is in relation to him, well, says the DM, Little One, your snout is about balls height. Yes, you guessed it, the killing blow to the Goblin King was dealt by Keridanyth who, while still in Panther form ripped the genitals (the whole lot) from the Goblin King in one bite, tossing the remains in the air. As the Goblin King reaches for the gaping maw that once was his genitals, he slowly collapses in a heap of gore and blood on the floor.

Having burnt the bodies, thus covering their tracks and making it look as little like they had ever been there, they continued on their way finally coming to the village of Everwinter, renowned for its strong drink and stronger constitutions. As it was nightfall, they decided to enter Everwinter in day light, especially considering the events of the last village (undead, skeletons, wolves, cultists, acolytes, priests and dark magic’s and so on). When day light arrives they approach Everwinter and find a large village, with aspirations towards becoming a town, laid before them. They decided to find the nearest Inn for somewhere to eat, to perhaps find out where the shops are and possibly, just maybe, to see if anyone could point them in the direction of a library of some kind or anywhere that could provide more information for their mission. Noticing two Inns, The Drunken Goat and The Slaughtered Lamb, Keridanyth runs off excitedly towards The Drunken Goat, and it is chosen that, that is the Inn they entered.

Inside they get ale, while Spiritas made enquiries as to where he could find a place that might hold ancient texts, discovering in the process that the village has a couple of temples and a small library dedicated to religious texts. While drinking their ale and making a plan for what to do while they are in town, Lia notices they are being watched. When she looks closer, seeing through the Minor Illusion she sees the opaque image of a being with a shining aura, at the same time she can faintly hear what sounds like a heavenly choir. Slowly, Kuruk and Keridanyth notice this being, both are completely taken aback by the image of such a glorious being, ‘Another Angel!’ Keridanyth exclaims. ‘I don’t think that’s an angel.’ Lia whispers to Kuruk. Even Spiritas sees the shiny glory of this being. Being no stranger to Charlatan ways, however, Lia recognises an illusory trick and mockingly invites the stranger to join them. Well, to be honest, Keridanyth had already asked him if he was an angel and seemed really excited for him to join them so why not! The stranger approached, seeing for his own part an opportunity to con these strong looking folk into helping him seek glory, at a minimum actually at no risk to himself, if he can help it. He quickly explains to our heroes, he’s travelling the lands to fulfill his mission doing good and gaining glory. At this point he so nearly has them hooked, as Kuruk nods in agreement at how plausible this all sounds the glowing being holding a powerful looking Sceptre before them vanishes and in its place is a scrawny, scruffy haired man in over-large wizard robes holding a tiny, weedy sceptre. Luckily for the wizard a few right words from Lia and the reminder from Keridanyth to not ‘be mean Squishy Bear’ and Kuruk doesn’t punch the Wizard. Just as well because, guys, you found your wizard, the wonderful wizard of…. Alloureia.

 

 

Critical Role, Critters and a whole lotta love

I’ve been wanting to write this blog since I wrote my first one, I’ve been working up to it because it’s gonna get a little personal and I haven’t been totally sure how I wanted to do this. This is largely going to be about Critical Role so first off apologies to my Dad who has just started reading these, I know this content is a little lost on you. Also, apologies as this may get personal and there will be talk about mental health so please feel free to step away now if you don’t want to read. So firstly, who are Critical Role? If you don’t know and you are reading this I suggest you take a look, you can find them on twitter @CriticalRole or #CriticalRole or on Geek and Sundry‘s website. They are voice actors and they play Dungeons and Dragons, Matt Mercer says it better so I’d recommend you go check them out so he can explain himself. It’s OK, I’m happy to wait till you come back. Go on, off you go. So the next thing in the title the Critters, these are the wonderful, talented fans of Critical Role. Honestly the artwork from some of them is mind-blowing, and their love and dedication to the team is phenomenal, you can find them all over twitter hiding in a multitude of places but the best place to find them is #Critters.

Around summer time last year a friend introduced us to Critical Role, he’d found his way to it via the wonderful one-off episode D&Diesel featuring Matt Mercer from Critical Role and yes Vin Diesel. Having then passed it on to us, this lead to a minor obsession from me and my other half, of watching everything Critical Role related we could get our hands on.  Honestly we’d get home from work and just binge watch episodes, I am surprised we even went to work, or out, or saw our friends. We talked non-stop about it trying to get everyone we know watching it, my sister I am pleased to say is now just as hooked. To be fair I still am, I’m going to make it compulsory watching for my new players, I figure it’s a great learning tool and well… who wouldn’t want to watch it.

Around the time we found Critical Role I had taken on some extra responsibilities at work and was pretty much trying to juggle two jobs, and getting messed around because of it. With a history of depression and anxiety, and for someone who has been treated previously for their anxiety, I should have known better and I should have safe guarded my mental health better. Should haves, could haves, hey… perhaps I’ll know better next time. However before I knew it I’d hit a bump in the road of my mental health. As I became unhappier, Critical Role become my focus and become something that my partner and I had together while everything else was a bit shaky. Thank you guys for producing material each week, you gave us something to do together when I couldn’t face doing anything else and you gave us something to laugh at when I stopped laughing at everything else.

The end of 2015/2016 I got very low, let’s just say the bump turned into a crash and by the end of January I wasn’t sure how much longer I could hold on. During this time the one thing my partner could offer as comfort was an episode of Critical Role, a cuddle and his wonderful patience. I have to be honest these are some of my absolute favourite things in the world. During this time my sister made a suggestion inspired by the Wonderful Felicia Day and her book, You’re Never Weird on the Internet, (Almost). After one awful weekend visit, in which the cracks were now outwardly showing – I’d stopped being able to hide it – as she was listening to the audio book on her way home, thinking about what might help, Felicia came to the rescue. She (my sister, not Felicia) wanted to find a way to help me and while listening to the book she had the idea that I should find a creative outlet to help channel myself and more importantly to give me hope, to be the best damn goat herder I can be! (Go read the book and you will understand the goat herder bit.) She said, why not do a book review blog and before I knew it this blog was born. At the same time I just so happened to find my charity work and, more importantly, the healing Critical Role had done inspired me to play D&D again. Somewhere along the way I found my love of being a Dungeon Master, I never thought I was creative and now I have a whole world I have created before me.

So when I say my Dungeons and Dragons campaign is dedicated to Critical Role and the Critters I truly mean it, I would not have this world if it was not for you, I would not have taken the chance and if it wasn’t for the Critters’ online support, with likes and tweets I might not still be doing this. Don’t get me wrong, my family did an awful lot to help me out of a dark patch, they encourage me and believe in me and I tell them daily thank you. This is for the people who don’t know they have helped, who have no idea that meeting once a week to roll dice bought a little bit of light into my world. In addition to finding my way back to D&D I totally hold this all responsible for my ridiculous idea of a 24 hour D&D marathon, that was totally inspired by you guys! If you aren’t sure what I am referring to please do go check out my blog on that D&D Charity Geek – Are you Ready for A D&D Marathon?

These days I take it easy on my mental health and I have greatly reduced my work stress, by just doing one job. Without the stress, anxiety and because now my head is no longer screaming at me, I spend my time thinking about my campaign, my world and all the creatures and beings the players will find. Two things happened yesterday that made me realise I’ve made it a long way done the road.  The first was while food shopping after work with my other half, I was dancing and singing to myself, actually I was singing repetitively ‘Critical Role to London, Hey!’ He asked me what had got into me, and what was wrong with me. I replied that I was in a good mood and he joked he’d forgotten what it looked like to see me happy, it had been so long, that made me realise it really had. Then, last night while lying in bed, my other half (who also plays in my campaign) was worrying about what happens if the team don’t want to take the side plots I’d planned, what happens if they think they are on a time limit to defeat the bad. He made the suggestion that perhaps I could make up an NPC who can guide and reassure them, I responded with ‘don’t worry I already have NPC’s planned for all eventualities’ to which he replied ‘you really are a natural born DM’. This is probably the sweetest thing he could say, after all he knows what being a DM means to me.

And on a side note I really do have the NPC’s planned I really want to tell you about them but major spoilers as I think Keridanyth and Kuruk might be reading this.

So, once again, thank you to the community out there, and as the final bit of the title says, a whole lotta love to you all. Of course my family too, you know that and it goes without saying, but there’s room for more in the family surely? Like only all of the Critter community out there.

D&D on the fly part 2……Well slightly less on the fly.

Having Dungeon Mastered for the first time, on what should have been a quick 1 maybe 2 session dungeon encounter, it was now clear that this small encounter needed to become the start of my campaign. From running a quick session on the fly with a handful of stats by my side, I was now spending the time between that first session and the next trying to weave a story out of what I’d already started. I do have a confession; as I started to grow and weave the story in my mind I discovered, that subconsciously I had already set up a story, there were the innocent villagers and a potential greater evil afoot (Keridanyth I still don’t mean an actual evil foot.) So 2 weeks after the 1st session we arrived at the next one, we had even invited new players. I’m beginning to think when I take on a challenge I like to make it as hard as possible. Our new player this week had never played any D&D, but is a fantastically quick learner and I have to say got into the swing in no time at all.

I will be honest I still have no actual story written down, I have a ton of plots and sub plots and an overriding story arc in my head. Honestly, my head is full of world maps, rocky mountains, dessert landscapes, forests, swamps, cities, towns and farming villages, as well as all sorts of creatures and an evil so ancient that in its slumber it was forgotten about. But no more on that, I’m sorry, my players could be reading, and for that reason I will tell you what they have done but you will have wait to find out what evil is to come as our intrepid adventurous find out. For now the making it up approach is working but I am aware these thoughts need to become a coherent story and soon. The advantage I’ve so far had, is that with each new session I have had to introduce a new player, this has allowed me to start the story small and sow little seeds to hook them in.

So, to meet the characters. In time I will get each one of them to tell you their backstories but not yet for we’ve only just met them. What I can tell you is there are currently 4 of them, Kuruk, Keridanyth, Lia and Spiritas. Kuruk is a Half-Orc fighter, he’s done this adventuring life before and bears the physical and emotional scars to show for it, he’s a reluctant part of the group and is here because he was asked but more importantly also to protect the Little One, after all he is a true Folk Hero.

The Little One is an adorable 3 foot Gnome call Keridanyth, a potentially powerful Druid if she could only focus herself. Her hair is a wild mess of beads, feathers and plant life and she has a sweet heart and the taste for beer. She found a letter, with a map, in a book, in a language she doesn’t understand and feels that it was definitely for her, her quest is to go out and discover its meaning.

Lia is a Half-Elf Rogue who spends her day sneaking through the shadows. In a previous life, before tagging along on this adventure, she was a street urchin turned thief. In a moment of haste and fear she seized an opportunity to escape her life and to help Keridanyth. Finally there is Spiritas, a Dragonborn Palladin, who shines and glows white and gold like an angel. Well, that’s how Keridanyth has asked I described him, to her he is a glowing angel of righteousness. I will be honest, I am not sure Keridanyth understands his holy mission, I think she’s so transfixed and blinded by the glow of his armour. Spiritas has been sent out from his Order to spread the Holy word and return home triumphant.

So that is the party so far, they passed through the same town, they fought evil together. They discovered a plot to unleash something terrible on the world and together they shall go on to fight to rid the world of this growing evil. It was lucky such a being as Spiritas came along and allowed them to join his holy mission, well I am sure that’s how the Dragonborn Palladin sees it.

Now I need to plan how they will meet their Wizard, the last member to join. He’ll be trickier as he has no desire to do good in the same way. He’s not on a Holy Mission like Spiritas (or in Keridanyth’s case an assumed, possibly misunderstood, mission.) Unlike Kurak he is not a Folk Hero at heart. Even Lia, who is a thief and a con artist is there because she’s safer than she was and, well, yes, OK they are her friends but she doesn’t want to talk about it any more, especially, don’t tell Keridanyth who wants to do hair braiding. However, what he will be is a little bit vain and an illusionist, you could say he’s a little like the Great Wizard of Oz and in that case every bit as eager to ‘fight’ the bad (from a distance of course, quite safely at the back) if for no other reason than to prove he can. I suspect just like Marty Mcfly he won’t want to be called chicken. Of course this is speculation as I have not met him yet, he’s somewhere in a tavern waiting for our adventurers to turn his life upside down.

 

A full weekend with Diablo, D&D and Diablo

So this is looking to be a short, extra blog. I had been aiming for 2 a week on a Tuesday and Thursday. I already have Tuesday’s planned but it turned out I have more to say after the weekend and a blog about the weekend seems silly at the end of the week. Seeing as I am taking on a ridiculous D&D Marathon Challenge for charity, that I am hoping you will all support and get behind, I figured you might want to know about the campaign. Therefore tomorrow will be an intro to the characters and a first sneak at the journey they are taking, the evil they are uncovering.

Friday when I left work a member of management told me to actively have fun this weekend. The stipulation was not to have active fun but to actively have fun even if its not active. Well this weekend I filled my time up in as geeky a fashion as I could.

My sister was coming down as we were meant to be going to a Metal Night and we had D&D. Turns out we never left the house on Friday, after a horrid drive down to ours and a long week on my side we stayed in. Our plan was to either fight stuff (play Diablo) or watch other people fight stuff (CriticalRole). We chose Diablo in the end, mainly because we are so many weeks ahead of her on CriticalRole. However as you can see by the photo we put a lot of work over the weekend into our characters.

Saturday was town and D&D day! Last minute flicking through the books and away we went. I will write more on D&D for tomorrow as this was a 6 hours of glorious fun. We introduced a new player and a new person to D&D, I was so pleased when she said it was the best night she’d had in ages. As a DM and someone who loves D&D its always nerve wracking to introduce someone new to D&D. What if they don’t like it, I’ve based part of the story around them, what if the laugh us out the room! She laughed and laughed a lot, but I don’t think it was at playing D&D I think it was a lot more at the misunderstanding’s her character made. I still don’t think our Druid has recovered from being told that eating Lamb is good for the Holy Mission because as food they fuel the Holy Mission, I will be honest though Karak did find this very funny.

Sunday dog walks and more Diablo, a very sleepy day from to much D&D, after all they had taken on a dark and twisted priest in the depths of an ancient vault – most people would be tired after that. After dog walking, see I was briefly active with my fun! There was more Diablo, lots more Diablo and lots of new weapons, I am not happy with her current bow, but level 70 is close at hand and some lovely legendary weapons to chose from!

Each one of these activities I think fulfill the active fun requirement which I know was designed to give me something positive to focus on and to keep hold of this week. With Monday morning looming over us all, I feel a warmth and peace inside because as bad as work might be I am not on a journey to fight evil just writing it. Also as bad as Mondays are hopefully when I get home they will be the gift of CriticalRole to watch. So on a Monday morning my message to you is I hope you actively had fun this weekend too and keep that close to you when the week gets tough. But remember it could be worse you could be facing an a dark evil priest or more terrifying an Ancient Red Dragon.

D&D Charity Geek – Are you Ready for A D&D Marathon?

This weekend I attended a BootCamp held by the charity Child.org. The weekend was designed to give all their 2016 Charity Apprentices a chance to Network, meet the team, meet each other, learn about the industry and, ultimately, to motivate and inspire and discuss our Personal Fundraising Challenges. I’d signed up as a Charity Apprentice never thinking that I’d ever be interviewed, let alone become one of the 50 people given a chance to work with such an amazing charity. I’m sure you have questions; what is a Charity Apprentice, who are Child.org, what was the Fundraising Challenge? First off, Child.org are a charity who believe every child deserves an equal opportunity, they do what works. I genuinely encourage you to go and look at their website and explore the wonderful things for yourself: Child.org don’t forget to come back here though – we’ll wait for you before we continue.

The weekend was, I’ll be honest, a terrifying concept for me. What if I am rubbish? Or they all hate me? I am happy to admit I was close to a panic attack in the car, at the train station, while trying to convince my boyfriend that he really didn’t need to worry about letting me wander off on my own into London, I was practically hyperventilating. I am not really sure why he was so worried, I had the panic attack under control, eventually. In the end, it turned out to be a fantastic experience and this is from the girl that really doesn’t do ‘bonding’. The other Charity Apprentices as well as the presenters and the Child.org team are some of the most passionate, inspiring people I have been lucky enough to have to socialise with. Guys, just so you know, if I had to spend Valentine’s away from home I am glad it was with you all.

It was amazing to see how hard the team had worked in order to provide an educational weekend for their apprentices. Yes of course the more we engage in the course, the more likely we are to stay on it and, of course, hopefully raise money for the charity. But that’s not what the course is about. This is where we get to the course, so secondly: Charity Apprentice, First and foremost aims to offer you the opportunity to make changing the world your day job. Expanding your knowledge of the charity sector and to provide you with challenges designed to open your mind to new ideas and to take on your own fundraising challenge. On a side note if you think that sounds like a perfect thing for 2017 you can check out more here: Charity Apprentice again don’t worry we’ll wait, the really exciting bit is coming up.

I have to say if you are offered the chance to do something so radically out of your comfort zone as I was, Do It! Not only am I glad I went because, for me it was brave, but hey, I also learnt a lot about myself, my expectations, my ideas. I became impassioned and empowered to take on the world! Or at least to fund raise.

For me, the best part of the weekend was realising I had a wonderfully special and unique fundraising plan. Over the next year you’ll see my brand grow and with it you will see the shaping of D&D Charity Geek or Charity Geek. Keep an eye out because it’s gonna be an exciting ride, you’ll want to watch out for the hastags when they come up (#DandDCharityGeek #CharityGeek #CharityMusicGeek). Having been so inspired to become Dungeon Master, inspired to play D&D once again and inspired to do something good and something creative. I figured out this weekend that I love charity and I love CriticalRole, so my gift to them will be this Challenge, in the name of CriticalRole and Vox Machina, I am going to try some extreme D&D fundraising, you guys inspire me to keep trying and to keep pushing myself.

Finally the question you’re all dying to know what is the challenge? Well for the first part of my fundraising, which I’m really excited about, we’ll be trying to do a D&D marathon, the aim will be to run a 24 hour marathon challenge. Here’s the part where you’ll all come in, the more you donate the more we’ll do. So, if you want to see us hit 24 hours your donations will be our incentive. There’ll be planned hourly updates throughout, videos, photos and, if you get really into the idea, I am totally prepared to explore other streaming options – maybe a bit of live updating via Periscope? Perhaps for those who help us reach our target goal there’ll be a special thank you video with footage from the night, because, if we make it to 24 hours, who doesn’t want to see a very tired Dungeon Master trying to tell a story?

For now I am in the planning and crafting stage, I just wanted to share the beginnings of what I hope will be a great and different route into fundraising for an equally great charity, with you and because I’d also love your feedback. What would you add/change/keep? Please, comment, suggest, and get involved.

So, to all those D&D fans out there, to all the Critters, to Vox Machina themselves, I dedicate this fundraising madness to you all, if you are able to help me, please keep an eye out for more details on how to do so.

And one final mention; Ellie hope you are happy I’ve made the photo as on brand for you as possible. Thank you both to Ellie and Anjali for the weekend and the course as a whole and to Thomas for the idea development. Thank you for all the hard work you do!

My first DM experience: D&D on the fly!

The idea to start playing D&D, was a fabulous one! I’d been looking to play it again and what can I say too much Critical Role on Geek & Sundry and I was desperate to immerse myself in a campaign, to get lost in someone else’s story.

So 2 fairly new players too D&D (role playing yes, but not Dungeons and Dragons) and a totally new player later we had our PC’s. Character sheets were created, spells and weapons chosen and back story written. We went away pleased with ourselves, we were ready to D&D…..

Weeks later no sessions had happened, partly due to time, January was a busy month! And partly due to the question, who would DM first? So towards the end of last week, in a fit of guilt that my newly D&D introduced sister was yet to play a campaign, and with a date set in the diary for our first session that was fast looming upon us, I said ‘well I’m gonna offer to…. Unless some else does’ they were never meant to accept, but accept they did!

So what started off as a fabulous idea, was suddenly feeling a little like an albatross, I wasn’t sure what they’d do/fight. With 3 level 1 characters were there actually any monsters they could fight! Armed with a PDF version of the Monsters Manual I attempted to find out (for the record I am buying 1 for next session but it wouldn’t have arrived before the game.) I found a few, I knew I wanted a crypt or a vault so Skeletons, Zombies and Crawling Hands would do.

Saturday, 6pm Game Time. The Skype was loaded and there sitting in front of me my two PC’s. Beside me was a selection of manuals and 1 piece of scrap paper where I had written notes. I’d, at this point, like to say that there were all sorts of notes and character details, plot and story-lines, but no the notes were fight combinations that I knew they could handle, there to throw in at some point probably while I desperately flounder for a point to the story.

What was a terrifying start turned out to be an amazing journey, I’d never thought about a plot, they were only ever going to smash some monsters. Then suddenly I had bar patrons being intimidated and poor Jed the Farmer being insight checked. I had characters, real characters with stats! As the game unraveled I started thinking like a DM, how am I going to get my players to visit the church? Quick what kind of story hook would work? Actually why are they in the town hall? This makes no sense quickly change the plot!

The game ran for 5 hours and I am pleased to say I don’t think I have ever had as much fun role-playing. I will be honest here I think about hour 2 in I started channeling Matt Mercer, from Critical Role, what would he do? How does he encourage his players to role play? He’s really fair and fair is something I wanted to be, it’s all fun playing God but it’s all about having fun with your friends, no one wants an unfair DM – God status can go to your head. In turn suddenly I’m asking my poor little drunk Druid Gnome for a constitution saving throw (don’t worry I remembered the golden rule: have fun DMing but you don’t need to be a dick) and suddenly there is role play vomit everywhere and the imaginary tavern dog cleaning it up and I realise I doing it!

When the season came to an end my other half turned to me and said I’m really gutted you want to play D&D, for a moment I thinking What?! But?! I’ve not even been a PC and I am out of the game?! Tentatively I asked him what he meant, he turned to me and said ‘I’m gutted because I really want you to stay as a DM’. In that moment I realised something too, being a PC is fun but nothing quite beats being a DM. The God like element, don’t get me wrong is awesome but more to the point taking a group of friends on a journey, telling them a story you have created and possible created just for them is definitely for fulling and having fun while you do it! What else was I going to do that’s more fun on a Saturday night? We laughed the whole time and the time flew.

And so the point of this blog, I know 700 or so words later, you did read the welcome didn’t you. I warned you that there would be rambling, perhaps I should have emphasised the waffling too. What I learnt is, DM’ing isn’t terrifying, it doesn’t have to be in-depth with maps and worlds and religions and even names. Don’t get me wrong some of the most beautifully crafted games I have watched are epic stories with whole worlds created, but seeing as your PC’s can totally ignore the epic story you create and go on a tangent, then hey not creating it all works too. As I spun a story that has, undead, and mystery magic’s, a missing priest and questions to answer it dawned on me I can totally see why some people favour being a DM, as this world unfolded unaided by maps into my head I realised if the group want I will become a permanent DM.

For the record my PC, if I ever get to play her, is a Rouge called Lia (yes pronounce it as Liar – well charlatan background what do you expect) and yes her stats are awesome, it could be a shame if I never get to play her.