Welcome to The Reroll: A Weekly D&D Chronicle

Hello, once again, dear reader!

Today, I unveil a new weekly blog series covering my experiences as the Dungeon Master of a weekly Dungeons & Dragons game!

Why Start This Series?

Every Tuesday for four hours, I play Dungeons & Dragons with six players---my friends, brother, and fiance---in what has become the highlight of my week.

Dungeons & Dragons has profoundly impacted my life. Perhaps in another post, I'll cover how I found my way into the hobby. Still, the short of it is that without Dungeons & Dragons, I wouldn't be here today, making tabletop games and essentially doing everything else I do with my time.

With that said, I've started this new blog series covering the content of my weekly D&D game, with bits of insight into how my skills as a game designer and freelance writer inform the adventures I create for my friends.

What to Expect

I write and design my adventures for our game, so you'll find primarily original content. However, I utilize a setting called Eberron, a popular alternative to the typical D&D settings of The Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk.

Author and game designer Keith Baker created the world of Eberron in 2002 during the Wizards of the Coast Fantasy Setting Search contest.

Originally dubbed Thrilling Tales of Swords and Sorcery, Eberron blends The Lord of the Rings, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Humphrey Bogart's The Maltese Falcon, introducing themes of pulp-action-adventure and noir crime drama into a high fantasy setting. Morality is painted with shades of grey; you never know who to trust, and the villains often return in the story, sometimes with new power-ups or allies, or perhaps even the players' allies, if only temporarily.

Eberron also introduces the concept of "wide magic" as opposed to the typical "high magic" of D&D. Magic can be found virtually everywhere in the setting, enhancing everyday life in simple ways, like ever-bright lanterns to light a dark street at night or cleansing stones that magically whisk all dirt from your person without needing water and soap.

But in Eberron, spells that summon meteor swarms or teleport you over great distances are rarely wielded by mortals, more often relegated to properties of ancient artifacts from a long-forgotten civilization.

If any of this sounds even remotely interesting, I'm sure you'll enjoy the tales I have to share.

Meet the Adventuring Party

So, with our setting set, let's introduce the players!

Out of six players, only four have been with this storyline since the beginning four years ago. As an honor to their longtime service, I'll feature them today, with the other players covered next week.

Krass

First, we have the reluctant leader of the group, Captain Krass Redbeard. Once the prince of a piratical city, he faced a great betrayal from one of his shipmates, sending the latter half of his life into a seemingly unending downward spiral. But everything changed when Githyanki marauders, a militant space-faring species, raided the backwater town where he drowned his sorrows. After standing up to the leader, Krass was promptly captured and hauled off to one of their outposts.

There, he met several other adventurers down on their luck, and they formulated a plan to escape. Little did Krass know, their escape meant fleeing to an entirely different planet, where his swansong and quest for redemption would soon unfold.

Nearly half a year has passed since that fated day, and Krass has once again taken up the mantle of "ship captain," although this time, his vessel is not one of the sea but of the sky.

Alucard

Next, we have Alucard d'Cannith. Native to Eberron and hailing from the continent of Khorvaire, Alucard descends from one of thirteen bloodlines, possessing a magical manifestation on the skin's surface known as a "dragonmark." Alucard's is the line of Cannith, with their dragonmark known as the Mark of Making; they're behind modern marvels such as trains and airships powered by bound elementals and a sentient race of construct soldiers.

In our story, the five human kingdoms of Khorvaire recently penned a tenuous treaty after a hundred-year-long war abruptly ended. Cyre, one of the kingdoms, was consumed by an unknown, supernatural event in mere minutes, leaving behind a country-sized wasteland. Cyre was Alucard's home, and from what he remembers, he witnessed and somehow survived this catastrophe.

Having produced much of the weaponry and war machines, House Cannith is often blamed for the countless deaths during the century-long conflict. It is even rumored to have caused Cyre's mysterious cataclysm.

It now falls to Alucard to unravel his family's mysteries and discover the truth behind the fate that befell his home.

Hellggah

Our third adventurer is Hellggah Boromar. Also native to Eberron, Hellggah is the estranged daughter of the most influential crime boss in Eberron's equivalent to New York City, the city of Sharn.

Hellggah grew up outside her father's influence, instead raised in the distant Talenta Plains, the ancestral land of the halflings. The halflings live a nomadic lifestyle there, living off what the land provides them and taming dinosaur-like beasts for riding and protection.

But during the war mentioned previously, even the Talenta Plains saw its fair share of conflict. As a result, Hellggah was pulled into a mercenary's life, fighting under Cyre's banners before the country was consumed.

Hellggah, too, witnessed and somehow survived the catastrophe that befell Cyre. However, like Alucard, her memory fails to recount any details of that day.

With nowhere left to turn in a post-war fallout, Hellggah thought her life at a dead-end. That is until she discovered her parentage and their level of influence. But now the question remains: why raise Hellggah outside her father's reach?

Ilsen

Lastly, we end with our Githyanki, Ilsensine. For those familiar with D&D lore, yes, this character is named after the god of mind flayers.

Suffering the most extreme case of amnesia out of the bunch, Ilsensine has no memory of his entire past, up to the point a cult of mind flayers captured him. He was experimented on in horrific ways, leaving him with heightened psychic abilities and an unfortunate appetite for brains. He eventually freed himself using his newfound powers, only to be imprisoned by his own kind, where Ilsensine crossed paths with Krass and the others. Had it not been for Ilsensine's great well of unpredictable power, they'd all still be in shackles under the Githyanki. Thanks to him, to Eberron they fled. But with each passing day, Ilsensine's power grows, leaving his allies to question what exactly he underwent and what possible horror has been unleashed on the planet.

This Week's Session?

This section will replace the character introductions, but as this is the inaugural post and I'm already at a high word count, I think it best to start a session recap next week.

If you've read this far, thank you for taking the time to do so.

I've spent the last four years watching the player characters grow, change, laugh, and cry; it would be a dishonor, both to them and to you, to not share their "Thrilling Tales of Swords and Sorcery" with the world.

With that, I'll see you next week, same-ish time, same place.

Until then, happy rolling! - Dace