Hoard of the Dragon Queen (Spoilers)
Mar 28, 2017 14:14:38 GMT
skunkape, matakishi, and 4 more like this
Post by vwilliams32407 on Mar 28, 2017 14:14:38 GMT
Hello everyone. I’ve lurked here on the forum for a long time but rarely have posted. My gaming doesn’t include home made terrain but I sure do enjoy looking at what you folks have done. I wish I had the time to commit to scratch built terrain but life gets in the way.
I thought I would post this here for anyone that may be interested. None of this terrain is scratch built. They are purchased sets but I did have to design the layout and build all of the pieces. This post is coming in at the middle of the adventure. If you would like to see the previous portion of this adventure you can catch them over on Fat Dragon Games or Cardboard Warriors forums.
fatdragongames.proboards.com/thread/3543/hoard-dragon-queen-spoilers
cardboard-warriors.proboards.com/threads/recent/7437
If this posting is not appropriate due to its “store bought” nature I understand and will remove it upon request of a moderator.
Finally my group got together for a session this Sunday. It has been quite a while since we last played and it was a marathon session of 8 hours! The party continued where we left off with what seemed to be a severed head in the middle of the road. They cautiously approached only to discover that it was actually a man buried up to his neck. After much debate, they decided to dig him up. They sorcerer in the group who happens to be a member of the Harpers recognized a tattoo on the man and identified him as a Harper agent. He escorted him back to the last town they passed through and would catch back up to the convoy in Waterdeep via a portal offered by the Harper agents in town.
Meanwhile the convoy continued north only to have the lead wagon attacked by ettercaps and giant spiders. The party members rushed to the head of the convoy only to find the lead wagon shrouded in webs with its horses gone. The barbarian and her horse were blanketed in webs and she spent the entire encounter trying to free herself. The rest of the party fought the creatures off and the wagon owners begged them to go rescue their horses from the monsters that drug them away into the woods. The gnome and Halfling were so scared of the giant spiders during the fight that one climbed on top of a wagon and the other climbed up a tree to get as far away from them as possible.
They followed the trail of the monsters into the woods and to their lair. It was covered in webbing and many silk wrapped bundles were seen hanging from the trees. They heard the panicked horses neighing but were to afraid to enter the lair and get tangled in the webbing. They decided to torch to entire place and were able to burn it down with the monsters in there. Unfortunately they were not able to save the horses so the halfling and gnome offered the wagon owners their riding horses the pull the wagon and they jumped on the back of their fellow party members horses.
They finally arrive at Waterdeep and observed the cultist linking up with a construction company that was sending building materials north to help complete the rebuilding of the road between Waterdeep and Neverwinter. That night they made merry in a tavern. The barbarian got drunk and arm wrestled some men to show them how tough she is and won some gold. The fighter purchased the company of a half-orc, half-human, and human concubine from a half-elf pimp. He failed his constitution save and contracted a nasty disease. We’ll see how that plays out! The rogue went out into the streets looking to pilfer some easy money however he rolled a 1 on his slight of hand check and was caught by the noble and his two squires that he was trying to pick pocket. The bard played so well at the tavern that he was able to procure rooms for the entire party.
The next morning they were woken by a gnome they had befriended on the trip and told that the cultist were moving out with the construction company and they needed to hurry so they weren’t left behind. The day before all of the party members except for the halfling and gnome had gotten jobs with the construction company. The company wasn’t interested in hiring the short guys but the others were hired as guards and laborers.
They traveled north for about 7 days and then entered the Mere of Dead Men. While there, a wagon got stuck in the muck and the captain of the convoy told the party to use their horses to help pull the wagon free. It was at this time that they were ambushed by some bullywugs and giant frogs. The gnome tried to escape attack by climbing on top of the wagon but the giant frog was able to jump right up there and swallow him. The ranger was able to shoot the frog off of the wagon and kill it. The gnome climbed out and avoided taking any acid damage from being inside the frogs stomach. The halfling was beat down pretty badly and when the fight was over he took a pair of frog legs as a memento of the battle.
They arrived at the gate to the roadhouse three days later. The guard out front directed everyone to a field across the road.
Slowly they brought two or three wagons in at a time to be unloaded and then the empty wagons were taken back outside of the compound to be parked. The horses were unhitched and taken back into the stables. After a couple of hours it was the party’s turn to bring their horses in to be stabled.
They met a young eager stable boy who took their horses and fed and washed them for a few silver pieces. They asked him a few questions and gave him some silver to keep quiet and let them know if anything strange was going on.
They headed out side and saw that everyone was lining up out side a warehouse and a half-orc was cataloguing their personal belongings and storing them in a strong room within the warehouse. Some of the players checked in some of their gear but the rest were willing to chance keeping their gear in their room. The rooms had no locks on the doors so it was a risky thing to do. The half-orc gave them their room assignment and they went to put their gear away.
They then proceeded to the mess hall where dinner was going to be served in a few hours. They were rationed 3 mugs of weak mead a day which they quickly consumed. A bland dinner was served and afterwards the bard entertained the crowd. They observed the half-orc and cultist talking quietly at a table in the corner. The halfling approached and asked if any work was available since he was to small to be hired as a guard or laborer. The half-orc told him to go see Gristle Pete, the cook, because he could use some help washing dishes. Gristle Pete was happy to have some help and while washing dishes the halfling overheard him complaining about not being able to sleep due to rats scurrying around under the floor of the mess hall which Pete slept in.
The next day they were given their work assignments and they headed off to go work on the road. The two short fellows stayed behind and snooped around the roadhouse. The bard made himself invisible and attempted to lift the bar to the warehouse but it was to heavy for him. He then cast a spell to make it look like smoke was coming out from under the door to the warehouse. The guards noticed and quickly responded by forming a bucket brigade from the well to the warehouse. They threw the doors open and started tossing buckets of water into the room only to discover there was no fire. The bard, being invisible tried to slip past the guards tossing water but failed his stealth and got splashed with water. The guards saw and outline of someone in the water that was tossed onto him and one instinctively reached out and grabbed him. All the other guards could see was this guard with his arm sticking out and bouncing around for no apparent reason. The bard was able to break the grapple and run away before they could figure out what had happened.
While this was going on the rogue was able to break into the half-orc’s quarters and snoop around. He found the manifest for the personal belongings of the workers and a list of room assignments on a desk. In the trunk by the bed he found a secret compartment in which was a paint spattered list of the number of crates and dates the cultist had unloaded. Next to them were annotations that said “all marked and ready to go”. He was able to leave the room undetected due to the commotion at the warehouse.
That evening the work crew returned and everyone gathered in the mess hall for dinner. The halfling offered his giant frog legs to be cooked for dinner and everyone enjoyed them. The halfling helped clean up again and tried to learn more about the rats and Pete stated that they only seem to scurry around after a shipment had arrived. Later that night Pete had kicked everyone out of the mess hall and he and the halfling finished up washing the dishes. At about 1:00 a.m. the halfling left for his room. While crossing the courtyard he was approached by the cultist that had blamed him for the murder of a collogue. The cultist was out for blood and attacked him. A crowd gathered to watch the fight and his fellow party members heard the commotion outside of their room. They went outside as did the rest of the cultist and all gathered around the fight. The half-orc and cultist held everyone at bay to let the two duke it out. There was a lot of pushing and shoving between the party and cultist but everyone stayed their hand. That is until someone shoved the barbarian and she went into a rage and all hell broke loose.
After the fight the party was left standing with the bodies of the cultist pilled up around them.
While this was going on the ranger and bard used the distraction of the fight to attempt to break into the warehouse. The outer door was not locked however the door to the strong room inside was. The ranger took a battle axe off of a weapons rack and started to hack through the door. She broke through in three rounds only to find lizardfolk trying to cart off marked boxes through a trap door in the floor. That is where we left off for the day. We had a lot of fun with this part of the adventure. I had no idea how it was going to play out. This part of the adventure was only three pages long in the book so it didn’t give me much to go with. I think my players and I did a good job improvising this chapter.
Here’s a few extra pictures of the map.
I know that this is not an original idea but here is my take on using tea lights to simulate a camp fire.
My modification to this map was to not have rooms on the first floor but stalls for the building materials.
During the build of this map I put some of the tea lights in the stalls just to see how it would look.
I thought I would post this here for anyone that may be interested. None of this terrain is scratch built. They are purchased sets but I did have to design the layout and build all of the pieces. This post is coming in at the middle of the adventure. If you would like to see the previous portion of this adventure you can catch them over on Fat Dragon Games or Cardboard Warriors forums.
fatdragongames.proboards.com/thread/3543/hoard-dragon-queen-spoilers
cardboard-warriors.proboards.com/threads/recent/7437
If this posting is not appropriate due to its “store bought” nature I understand and will remove it upon request of a moderator.
Finally my group got together for a session this Sunday. It has been quite a while since we last played and it was a marathon session of 8 hours! The party continued where we left off with what seemed to be a severed head in the middle of the road. They cautiously approached only to discover that it was actually a man buried up to his neck. After much debate, they decided to dig him up. They sorcerer in the group who happens to be a member of the Harpers recognized a tattoo on the man and identified him as a Harper agent. He escorted him back to the last town they passed through and would catch back up to the convoy in Waterdeep via a portal offered by the Harper agents in town.
Meanwhile the convoy continued north only to have the lead wagon attacked by ettercaps and giant spiders. The party members rushed to the head of the convoy only to find the lead wagon shrouded in webs with its horses gone. The barbarian and her horse were blanketed in webs and she spent the entire encounter trying to free herself. The rest of the party fought the creatures off and the wagon owners begged them to go rescue their horses from the monsters that drug them away into the woods. The gnome and Halfling were so scared of the giant spiders during the fight that one climbed on top of a wagon and the other climbed up a tree to get as far away from them as possible.
They followed the trail of the monsters into the woods and to their lair. It was covered in webbing and many silk wrapped bundles were seen hanging from the trees. They heard the panicked horses neighing but were to afraid to enter the lair and get tangled in the webbing. They decided to torch to entire place and were able to burn it down with the monsters in there. Unfortunately they were not able to save the horses so the halfling and gnome offered the wagon owners their riding horses the pull the wagon and they jumped on the back of their fellow party members horses.
They finally arrive at Waterdeep and observed the cultist linking up with a construction company that was sending building materials north to help complete the rebuilding of the road between Waterdeep and Neverwinter. That night they made merry in a tavern. The barbarian got drunk and arm wrestled some men to show them how tough she is and won some gold. The fighter purchased the company of a half-orc, half-human, and human concubine from a half-elf pimp. He failed his constitution save and contracted a nasty disease. We’ll see how that plays out! The rogue went out into the streets looking to pilfer some easy money however he rolled a 1 on his slight of hand check and was caught by the noble and his two squires that he was trying to pick pocket. The bard played so well at the tavern that he was able to procure rooms for the entire party.
The next morning they were woken by a gnome they had befriended on the trip and told that the cultist were moving out with the construction company and they needed to hurry so they weren’t left behind. The day before all of the party members except for the halfling and gnome had gotten jobs with the construction company. The company wasn’t interested in hiring the short guys but the others were hired as guards and laborers.
They traveled north for about 7 days and then entered the Mere of Dead Men. While there, a wagon got stuck in the muck and the captain of the convoy told the party to use their horses to help pull the wagon free. It was at this time that they were ambushed by some bullywugs and giant frogs. The gnome tried to escape attack by climbing on top of the wagon but the giant frog was able to jump right up there and swallow him. The ranger was able to shoot the frog off of the wagon and kill it. The gnome climbed out and avoided taking any acid damage from being inside the frogs stomach. The halfling was beat down pretty badly and when the fight was over he took a pair of frog legs as a memento of the battle.
They arrived at the gate to the roadhouse three days later. The guard out front directed everyone to a field across the road.
Slowly they brought two or three wagons in at a time to be unloaded and then the empty wagons were taken back outside of the compound to be parked. The horses were unhitched and taken back into the stables. After a couple of hours it was the party’s turn to bring their horses in to be stabled.
They met a young eager stable boy who took their horses and fed and washed them for a few silver pieces. They asked him a few questions and gave him some silver to keep quiet and let them know if anything strange was going on.
They headed out side and saw that everyone was lining up out side a warehouse and a half-orc was cataloguing their personal belongings and storing them in a strong room within the warehouse. Some of the players checked in some of their gear but the rest were willing to chance keeping their gear in their room. The rooms had no locks on the doors so it was a risky thing to do. The half-orc gave them their room assignment and they went to put their gear away.
They then proceeded to the mess hall where dinner was going to be served in a few hours. They were rationed 3 mugs of weak mead a day which they quickly consumed. A bland dinner was served and afterwards the bard entertained the crowd. They observed the half-orc and cultist talking quietly at a table in the corner. The halfling approached and asked if any work was available since he was to small to be hired as a guard or laborer. The half-orc told him to go see Gristle Pete, the cook, because he could use some help washing dishes. Gristle Pete was happy to have some help and while washing dishes the halfling overheard him complaining about not being able to sleep due to rats scurrying around under the floor of the mess hall which Pete slept in.
The next day they were given their work assignments and they headed off to go work on the road. The two short fellows stayed behind and snooped around the roadhouse. The bard made himself invisible and attempted to lift the bar to the warehouse but it was to heavy for him. He then cast a spell to make it look like smoke was coming out from under the door to the warehouse. The guards noticed and quickly responded by forming a bucket brigade from the well to the warehouse. They threw the doors open and started tossing buckets of water into the room only to discover there was no fire. The bard, being invisible tried to slip past the guards tossing water but failed his stealth and got splashed with water. The guards saw and outline of someone in the water that was tossed onto him and one instinctively reached out and grabbed him. All the other guards could see was this guard with his arm sticking out and bouncing around for no apparent reason. The bard was able to break the grapple and run away before they could figure out what had happened.
While this was going on the rogue was able to break into the half-orc’s quarters and snoop around. He found the manifest for the personal belongings of the workers and a list of room assignments on a desk. In the trunk by the bed he found a secret compartment in which was a paint spattered list of the number of crates and dates the cultist had unloaded. Next to them were annotations that said “all marked and ready to go”. He was able to leave the room undetected due to the commotion at the warehouse.
That evening the work crew returned and everyone gathered in the mess hall for dinner. The halfling offered his giant frog legs to be cooked for dinner and everyone enjoyed them. The halfling helped clean up again and tried to learn more about the rats and Pete stated that they only seem to scurry around after a shipment had arrived. Later that night Pete had kicked everyone out of the mess hall and he and the halfling finished up washing the dishes. At about 1:00 a.m. the halfling left for his room. While crossing the courtyard he was approached by the cultist that had blamed him for the murder of a collogue. The cultist was out for blood and attacked him. A crowd gathered to watch the fight and his fellow party members heard the commotion outside of their room. They went outside as did the rest of the cultist and all gathered around the fight. The half-orc and cultist held everyone at bay to let the two duke it out. There was a lot of pushing and shoving between the party and cultist but everyone stayed their hand. That is until someone shoved the barbarian and she went into a rage and all hell broke loose.
After the fight the party was left standing with the bodies of the cultist pilled up around them.
While this was going on the ranger and bard used the distraction of the fight to attempt to break into the warehouse. The outer door was not locked however the door to the strong room inside was. The ranger took a battle axe off of a weapons rack and started to hack through the door. She broke through in three rounds only to find lizardfolk trying to cart off marked boxes through a trap door in the floor. That is where we left off for the day. We had a lot of fun with this part of the adventure. I had no idea how it was going to play out. This part of the adventure was only three pages long in the book so it didn’t give me much to go with. I think my players and I did a good job improvising this chapter.
Here’s a few extra pictures of the map.
I know that this is not an original idea but here is my take on using tea lights to simulate a camp fire.
My modification to this map was to not have rooms on the first floor but stalls for the building materials.
During the build of this map I put some of the tea lights in the stalls just to see how it would look.