The Reroll: A Weekly D&D Chronicle (Issue #5)

Welcome back, dear reader, to another issue of The Reroll!

This is a weekly chronicle of my Dungeons & Dragons game, where I cover what adventures I create for my players and what happens during those adventures when the dice start rolling.

This week, we have an action-packed end to our three-week stint in Sharn, the City of Towers.

The Adventuring Party

Last week, we had a surprise guest at our table, a former player, who brought us a new character: Monra, the changeling rogue.

If you didn't get a chance to catch up on their backstory, you can check it out in last week's issue.

Of course, Monra's player couldn't join us for this session, which means Monra is now under my control!

In preparation for this, I hopped on a phone call with the player in advance to discuss how they'd play out the rest of her tale.

When tasked with controlling a player's character, I never actually play as that character; I roleplay the character to relay whatever information the player provided me before finding them a logical exit from the narrative. And if the group finds themselves in combat before I can eject the character, I fade them into the background.

Speaking of fading into the background, we're still down Hellggah Boromar, but you'll find Krass Redbeard, Ilsensine, Alucard d'Canntih, Spein Veyn, and Osz all in fine form.

Last Week's Tale

Our adventuring party settled into their new Bastion, Sharn's newly formed district "Rising," only to be interrupted by an unexpected visit from the city's petulant Lord Mayor, Cathan ir'Demell.

Besides having to withstand Cathan's onslaught of petty insults, the party learned he possessed the key to access Breland's military base, Argonth, where they could gain an audience with King Boranel.

Since no one in the group knows how to Teleport, they'll utilize the public teleportation circle in Sharn's train station. However, to reach a secure location like Argonth, the circle requires the input of a unique "sigil sequence," or it will fail to take them to their intended destination.

Acquiring this sigil sequence led the group on an impromptu extraction mission to retrieve it from one of Cathan's private abodes, which he'd already retired to after patronizing them at their Bastion.

Even with a carefully laid plan and well-crafted disguises, the group found themselves in an all-out brawl against Cathan's forces outside his chambers, forcing them to act quickly and carefully not to reveal their identities.

This Week's Adventure

This week's session will consist primarily of combat: the players battle Cathan's bodyguards whilst searching his office for the sigil sequence, followed by somehow bypassing the guards at Terminus (which could also end in combat.)

Behind the Screen

An entire session dedicated to combat is typical for our table. The ship battle in Fernia recounted in Issue #2 lasted a whole session, and I imagine it's the same for many other tables, too.

Why? Because combat in Dungeons & Dragons is turn-based and time-consuming.

Six players each get a turn, and any of their pets, mounts, or companions also get a turn. Plus, the guards or whatever units I'm controlling each get a turn.

Just a single round of combat, which only accounts for six in-game seconds, could take fifteen real-life minutes to resolve, so it's best to dedicate plenty of game time to combat, especially for larger groups.

And when planning a session involving mainly combat, I challenge myself to create moments for two things D&D combat typically lacks: engagement and storytelling.

Since our last session ended on a cliffhanger, here's the battle map with where everyone was located (mind you, the other players are riding on a Skycoach just outside the building.)

Adding Elements of Engagement

So first, let's make this combat engaging.

• Cathan's "guest" (a gnomish prostitute) will flee the action during the first round, causing Sharn Watch guards stationed outside to arrive at the end of the third round.

  • If we stop the gnome from fleeing the scene, the reinforcements won't arrive (unless the players make a massive noise from a spell or some other source.)

• Cathan's office is hidden from plain sight behind a moving wall. To access it, you must locate the secret entrance and figure out how to open it.

  • Cathan is running around like a madman, terrified. We could force him to show us inside his office if we can catch him.

For the secret office entrance, I hid it behind a painting of an Eberron deity named Olladra, titled "Sovereign of Feast and Fortune."

Beside the painting was an altar to Olladra containing a pair of scales, a bag of nine coins (one being counterfeit), and an offering bowl.

If you're interested in the puzzle, it's based on this riddle.

In short, to access the office behind the painting, you must place the counterfeit coin in the bowl.

Puzzles like this typically have one solution, and when playing a roleplaying game, there's plenty of room for creative solutions, too.

But amid battle, with the clock against you? You've got to act fast.

Adding in Elements of Storytelling

"You are bad guy, but this does not mean you are bad guy." - Zangief, Wreck-It Ralph

One of the core aspects of the Eberron setting is moral ambiguity.

Cathan's apartment is above Sharn's city hall, meaning it's swarming with guards to deter any shenanigans. But are those guards bad guys?

Sure, we don't know their personal lives, but are they MORALLY bad? Probably not.

And what about those two members of the Redcloak Battalion, charged by King Boranel with protecting the Lord Mayor? Are they bad? Nope. Just loyal to the crown.

I can make them all douchebags, but our adventuring party is predominately good-aligned characters, so even that behavior isn't deserving of death.

Shit---I COULD make them all crooked, demon-possessed, devil-worshipping, puppy-kickers, but it doesn't challenge the players, nor does it make for an interesting story.

The Redcloaks and Sharn Watch are merely handling the adventuring party as the dangerous threat they've presented themselves: infiltrating city hall in disguise, breaking into the Lord Mayor's private chambers, and demanding he hand over an item he is legally obligated not to.

This forces the players to hold back, making them think twice about what spells they can cast, what weapons they can use, and even what they can say to one another aloud.

Last Stop: Terminus

Once they have the sigil sequence, it's onto Terminus, which is patrolled by at least a dozen visible guards.

I have a set of four maps for this location, providing ample material to play around with depending on the direction the players take.

Besides the dozen guards with the potential for reinforcements, I've populated the boarding platform (the location of the teleportation circle) with a Sharn Watch officer with whom the group has a storied history: Captain Riot.

Riot is a warforged member of the Sharn Watch, with a RoboCop aesthetic.

The players met Riot back when he was a sergeant, and they've since watched him rise through the ranks due to his can-do attitude.

He'll also be backed up by a duo of spellcasters, two members from the Blackened Book, a branch of the Sharn Watch consisting of mages who investigate magical anomalies.

What the group won't know, and what Captain Riot will, is that the two members of the Blackened Book are compromised, both secretly Aundarian spies placed here to stall the investigation into why (and how) Terminus was attacked.

JUICY!

At the Table

Right at the start, the players rolled for initiative and were thrust back into combat.

Monra held her own against the two Redcloaks, eventually busting through the doors to Cathan's bedchamber.

Meanwhile, Alucard covered his and Krass's entry with a Pyrotechnics spell.

Monra and Alucard focused on nabbing Cathan, forcing him to take them to his office, while Krass held off the Redcloaks with support from Spein, Osz, and Ilsen from the Skycoach outside.

Cathan opened the secret door for Alucard and Monra, and all three disappeared inside, pursued by one of the Redcloaks, leaving Krass with the other.

The gnome managed to flee, cueing the Sharn Watch reinforcements to arrive and placing Krass in a dire situation.

Alucard faced off against the Redcloak inside the office, summoning a clay golem to fight alongside him. The Redcloak took one turn of damage from that golem before deciding it was time to yield.

Cathan then handed over a green dragonshard, the sigil sequence, to Alucard, who trapped him in a magical bottle (more on that later) before jumping out a window.

Meanwhile, the Skycoach crew launched a daring rescue maneuver to pull Krass, now surrounded by enemies, out of the chamber through the balcony window.

Osz shot Krass a magical grappling hook he crafted via the Web spell, leaving a layer of sticky webs in its wake. Ilsensine then used his wizardly 18 Strength to pull Krass onto the Skycoach while Spein dropped a Confusion spell on the five guards, removing any chance of pursuit.

All that, and they still managed to catch Alucard.

Then, upon their arrival to Terminus, they decided to use their true identities as the "heroes of Sharn" in tandem with the sigil sequence they now possessed to persuade their way past the guards and onto the train platform.

Of course, they were stopped short by Captain Riot, who knows this crew and their antics all too well.

The exchange between the party and Riot heated up until Alucard gambled on a hunch.

While roleplaying with Riot, Alucard could tell Riot was acting strangely, so without hesitation, Alucard shot a Firebolt at one of the mages flanking Riot, prompting Riot to bust out his arm blade on the other.

Alongside Riot, the party brought down the two Aundarian spies.

It was not nearly as complex as the fight earlier. Still, it was packed with drama and added a new layer of appreciation to a character that the players would have never imagined fighting alongside.

Oh, and don't worry, they reached the teleportation circle.

Riot helped them use the sigil sequence before saying his farewell, making a final snarky comment that he'd return it to its proper owner.

The Roll-Up

The players genuinely seemed on the edge of their seats for the session, besides most of it being in a turn-based format.

It's also always a treat to see how well this group works together. They all trust one another implicitly, which results in each player attempting risky and potentially deadly actions because they know their other party members have their back.

The Riot cameo and Aundarian spy reveal was some serious HBO-level cinema, and despite having battled against a ton of Sharn Watch officers, it was cool to see the players leave Sharn on a good note, with one of the Sharn Watch's top officers clearly on the right side of justice.

I look forward to sharing our tales from Argonth with you. It's a location I've been itching to have my players visit and explore since first starting this campaign in 2019, and I've got plenty up my sleeve for when they arrive.

But until then, happy rolling! - Dace