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The “A-Team”, a group of ragtag adventurers from various walks of life, recently saved the village of Opal Town from a goblin raid searching for a mysterious goblin artifact. Shump, unable to resist the figure’s strange powers, attempted to use it and saw a brief vision of something running through the forest. After consulting with Shelby, they all decided to travel to Biel to consult with a wizard about the exact nature of the figure.

On the second day of travel, the party came across a group of mercenaries, several of whom had been wounded, who claimed they were hired by the Hearing House in Biel to drive out goblins in the south due to reports of increasing unrest and a spike in raids in the area.

They claimed they’d been ambushed and had only just managed to fend off the assailant goblins, then offered the A-Team 100 gold if they would assist in catching the goblins before they could escape. The group agreed, and set off into the woods. However, upon finding the goblins, Shadyboi and Brottor noticed many of them weren’t armed and their medicine bowls had the markings of Meriadar, the Patient One, the goblinoid deity of pacifism, compassion, and understanding.

They spoke to the goblin chief Fric Rockmore and learned this tribe was actually on a peace-making mission to restore goblin relations with the rest of the continent. The mercenaries had lied to them and tried to trick them into killing this innocent tribe. Incensed by the unfair treatment, the A-Team made their way back to the mercenaries for revenge, killing them and bringing their rations and gold back to the goblin tribe as retribution. They assisted in healing the wounded, and everyone agreed to make camp together to celebrate their new friendship.

That night, Shump dreamed of a dark spire spilling blood and heard a voice calling for him to feed it. He saw a vision of goblins running in the woods, drawing ever closer to their location. The totem’s true owner had found them. Shump woke in a panic and warned everyone else. The goblins quickly set about packing things up to make an emergency flight. Meanwhile, the A-Team prepared to stay behind and fight to give the goblins time to get away. In spite of their protests and his own distaste for violence, Fric stayed behind as well to ensure his wife and child could get away safely.

They did their best to prepare, but were surprised when their assailant and the true owner of the dark totem was actually a powerful mage. The battle that followed was intense. Shadyboi found himself burning through most of his spells, unable to successfully cast the majority without being countered.

Although the mage brought a force of troops for backup, he faced the A-Team alone. At one point, all seemed lost when he cast a charm spell on Shump and tried to force him to hand over the totem. The totem, however, appeared to have other plans, appearing to reject the mage twice. This distraction was what the party needed, and they landed several good blows on him. Just when they thought they had him on the ropes, he vanished in a cloud of mist, siccing his troops on them while he fled.

The A-Team made quick work of the troops, but realized they knew nothing about this new man. They kept two of his minions alive, unconscious and bound, while they prepared for an interrogation…

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This game started with everyone having a party, and it provided everyone the opportunity to role play a little bit. They’re still having some trouble getting out of their shells. I can get them to roleplay with me some if I run an NPC, but they don’t converse much with each other. I’m trying out providing them with conversation starters for when they have down time and offering them extra XP if they choose one or two to get a conversation going. We’ll see how that works.

I tried out a mechanic in this game that I absolutely want to use again in the future. After everyone went to bed, and after I finished with the dream sequence with Brandon, I set a timer in front of everyone and set it for 15 minutes and said, “Based on what Shump has told you…they’re on their way.”

Everyone FREAKED. It was so great. They were frantically coming up with a plan to try to take on this guy, but had no idea how many to expect or what kind of fight they were in for. The first time the mage counterspelled Justin, I thought he was going to shit himself.

This was a great way to introduce a big bad for them to fight. He may not end up being the villain of the whole campaign, but now there’s more urgency to deal with this totem. Additionally, I’ve been introducing new capabilities of the totem. Now, whenever my brother deals damage, he gains back 1 hp. It’s not a lot, just enough to be a nice little bonus, especially since he can attack multiple times in a turn. I think he’ll unlock more abilities the more he uses it. And, of course, when he does use it, he hears a deep, menacing voice in his head urging him to spill more blood.

Brandon is dismayed at this development, and frequently exclaims, “Oh man, I gotta get rid of this thing.” Meanwhile, Justin keeps saying, “Man, I wish I could steal that from you.” He’s tried a few times in game, but he always rolls really, hilariously poorly.

I’m thinking Oscar is probably going to drop out soon. He left before we showed up, complaining of allergies. I think something isn’t clicking with him, which is a shame. I really liked seeing him more often, and he seemed to be engaged with the story? But I guess there’s not much to be done.

‘Til next time.

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