The Test

-
When the party returned to Flotsam they were surprised find that they were no longer unwelcome (see "A Dungeon and a Dragon (Part 3)"), but were now hailed as heroes for rescuing all the prisoners from Brightstone keep (see "A Different Keep on the Borderlands - Part 3").

About one week later, while most of the other party members were training, Arterion received a formal summons to take his Test of High Sorcery (commonly refered to as just "the test") at a nearby location.

Arti was well aware that this was to be a rigorous experience meant to test all his skills and abilities, and that failure often meant death. With that in mind, Arti left behind
some of his personal possessions, including recent treasure the party had found in Brightstone Keep. With little fanfare, he set off down the path of his own personal destiny...

Ten days later, Browyn the Red, who had been mentoring Arti in Flotsam, informed the party of his apparent demise. Browyn didn't know the details what happened, but had been informed by the Order that Arti had failed his test.
The Test is one of the few times that I don't mind killing PCs (the other time being combat with a dragon). The "lore" of The Test, from various novels and game products, always emphasizes the deadly nature of this event. To capture feeling in my game, I pull no (or few) punches when it comes to keeping PCs alive.

The Test itself is actually a bunch of smaller tests, some of which are just annoying, others are dangerous if approached the wrong way, and a few of which mean certain death.

Overall I thought Julian did a good job playing the character and trying to solve the mystery (he did very well at the logic puzzles I included) , but ended up missing a few important clues and got involved in a combat that took a bad turn.

Popular posts from this blog

Character Sheet for New Players / Kid Players

-
Image
This sheet is great for a simple game where you've already decided to drop skills and feats out of the game (certainly doable in 5e). There is a small corner with a few helpful hints, but the white text on light purple background might be hard to read when printed. I was recently asked by a friend if I knew of any versions of the Character Sheet for D&D 5e geared toward kids. Seems he's teaching his children the game, and I applaud him for creating the next generation of D&D gamers. I've also been thinking of starting to teach my son, and maybe a few other kids the game, so I began looking around for alternate versions of the classic 5e Character Sheet that could be used with new players or kid players. I found a few that all seem to have some merit, so let me present my findings and you can decide for yourself. Some small, simplified sheets (not just for kids): The first is this nice simple sheet . The sheet has some color coding. It's a great she
Read more

A Different Keep on the Borderlands - Part 3

-
Image
After defeating the hobgoblins and draconian and securing their location (see part 2 for more details), the party took time to rest and heal from their wounds. With guards stationed on the roof, the night passed without incident. The early morning, however, was not as quiet. From the roof, the lookout could see several hobgoblins coming over to their tower, while a few others left the keep by way of the breach in the back wall. With the hobgoblins making their way over, inside the party made their preparations: * Hunter (the half-elven ranger) and Arterion (the elven mage) took secure positions on the roof with bow and arrow. * Meanwhile, Theodonis (the kender), Greybear (the druid), and Bergin (the minotaur cleric) took positions on the first floor, ready to strike should the tower door fall. From the roof, Hunter was able to kill one of the hobgoblins before they entered the tower. Once inside Theo, Bergin, and Greybear engaged the hobgoblins in melee combat. After a few minutes of
Read more

DM Tools: Graph Paper (The Right Tool for the Right Job)

-
Image
No other component of rpgs, from the earliest versions of Dungeons and Dragons to the latest Pathfinder or 13th Age releases, is more iconic or necessary to the game than The Map. The Map helps new and experienced DMs quickly describe a dungeon, lay out a town, or, in some cases, set up a temporal flowchart of actions and events. And the chief tool for setting any of these up is graph paper. Now graph paper is readily available in office supply stores and most retail stores. At 4 squares per inch, a single 8.5" x 11" sheet of typical graph paper yields 34 x 44 squares, which at 5ft per square (the de facto scale of modern maps) ends up being over 37,000 square feet of area to map. For most maps, this should be more than enough area, but what if you need something else? Maybe you want more area for a larger map, or to detail a major city, or what if you're like me, and you want extra area around the map to add all sorts of notes and legends? Then you might want to ch
Read more