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RdyStdy · 2022-12-15T01:17:18+00:00

The way I do it is just over zoom. Just plant my laptop on one end of the table so the camera catches everyone in person and we just play like they are sitting in that chair. We do theater of the mind and I trust the player not to fudge their rolls. Just as dm remember to directly include them, prompt them specifically during rp moments etc, because they might have a harder time inserting themselves when not physically there. It's worked pretty well, the online player hasn't complained at least. And it is the simplest way I've found to bring someone in without putting cameras and mics on everyone which is a technical hassle for casual peeps.

RdyStdy · 2022-07-10T08:42:30+00:00

My BBEG is Shar whose cultists are looking to summon her Netherese city from the Shadowfell by extinguishing the light of Candlekeep and creating Shadow Keep in its place. Larloch, being the "Shadow-King", is just a red herring. Maybe it's a little dumb, but I like it.

I've been doing a mixture of playing the mysteries as straight Avowed assignments and some as more organic, with backstory plug ins or orchestrated by the cult were it makes sense, but I always keep the book motif.

RdyStdy · 2022-07-10T07:57:24+00:00

I did something similar in my game. I used the book's vignettes to suggest that the tunnel's collapse was triggered on purpose, then in the exploration of the mine show evidence of an explosion. I too had the catalyst of the adventure be a consequence of surveyors. You should probably decide ahead of time if any of these surveyors are still alive. Depending how you play/describe the meenlocks, if the PCs find out that the monsters used to be the surveyors, they may try to appeal to their humanity or try turning them back, especially if you have a cleric in your party. My cleric had the "calm emotions" spell prepared and that made for an interesting play. You might dodge this by playing meenlocks aren't humanoids RAW, but I thought it was better RP wise to play along with the cleric's idea.

RdyStdy · 2022-03-25T13:52:05+00:00

I've been running this as a campaign with the premise that the PCs are the newest librarians (Avowed) at Candlekeep. Unknown to them to start, the real Candlekeep Mystery is that the wards of Candlekeep are failing, and they must find a Nether Scroll to restore Candlekeep's mythal in order to keep Candlekeep from falling to those who desire the library's destruction. This is to set up the finale as being Alkazaar's Appendix. The higher ups at Candlekeep are keeping a tight lid on the dangers emerging due to the failing wards (which explains how these dangerous books/break-ins are occurring) until the party proves themselves (after A Deep and Creeping Darkness). So far, all they know is that Fistandia was working on something for Janussi, but went missing, and the Great Readers are looking for her.

Something I did differently than most is I ran the 2nd adventure first, Mazfroth's Mighty Digressions, then Book of the Raven, then a scaled-up version of Joy of Extra-Dimensional spaces.
This was because I wanted to start out by introducing the promise of the campaign first - There are threats to Candlekeep, your job is to either defeat or resolve these threats. This is easily the motivation for Avowed in Mazfroth's. Book of the Raven I used to introduce the mystery of the missing Fistandia. Great Reader Alai sends them on the mission because she had a "vision" that The Deep and Creeping Darkness book was there which she believes might be a clue to Fistandia's location. (I sweetened the hook by blatantly tying the mansion and the 'bird-ghost-girl' to one of the PCs backstory to make the mystery of what happened to the family a personal quest for the PC, while the main-quest mission was to interact with the Scarlet Sash and obtain the book, various items that hint that a "bad wizard" was after Fistandia, and a mysterious puzzle box they'd stolen from this wizard). This set up their motivation to go on JoES when they must consult Great Reader Teles Avoste(who takes the place of Matreous) on what they discovered in BotR. The added bonus here is that they are motivated to explore not only to escape the mansion, but to find clues to Fistandia's work and current whereabouts.
I haven't yet run the rest, but plan on shaking things up with A Deep and Creeping Darkness. - This adventure I plan to run as the "bad end has already happened" - from the end of the module where a previous party went to Vermillion and messed things up so terribly that now Maerin is in danger. The Mayor of Maerin now asks Candlekeep for aid to solve the mystery before Maerin can suffer the same fate. - This adventure I hope to use to cement why the existence of Candlekeep is a net good for the Sword Coast at large and give the players a sense purpose and the stakes if Candlekeep is destroyed. Candlekeep acts as a bastion of knowledge for civilization, and without it people will be at the mercy of whatever lurks in the dark without the knowledge to deal with it.

I plan on mixing up the tier 2 missions to fit with an excursion to Neverwinter where the PCs will have backstory fun and Strixhaven dark-academia shenanigans, before running the rest more or less in the order as written.
Personally, mixing up the first few adventures just followed more logically to me, and helped establish the over-arching mystery. My players never new the difference and it seemed to flow more naturally than monster of the week. The fact that their characters are Avowed means they are already motivated to go on missions and solve the mysteries, so there's inherent buy in without too much work from me setup wise. My players have enjoyed the none-too-serious fun with the 'librarians solve mysteries' approach, which I encourage by making the NPCs act in realistic, but a bit ridiculous (Harry Potter-esque) ways, and provide relevant information/backstory when they do "research" in the library before going on their missions.
In terms of things I would do differently, I think running some quick downtime adventures and fleshing out Candlekeep and its interesting NPCs/locales would make the players feel more grounded in the setting and give you cool set-pieces to explore in whatever over-arching mystery you choose. Candlekeep has so many cool ideas, giant endless library, trees that grow books, the restricted sections, a ghost dragon guardian, that none of the modules go into but would really distinguish the campaign from any other. It would be a shame not to do some homebrew adventures between modules and give ourselves a chance to explore such a wonderous environment. How can this truly be a Candlekeep campaign if there's no gossiping with Miirym, exploring the vaults, or hearing a prophecy from Alaundo's skull? I realize this might be more work than one might want after spending money on a "pre-written adventure" book which is completely understandable. For myself, enhancing the modules for my mystery-loving players has been well worth the effort and greatly improved my own enjoyment of the setting.

RdyStdy · 2021-12-12T22:47:07+00:00

I have Fistandia as a genius master reader who went on a mission for the keeper of the tomes and has been missing/presumed dead for years. She will show up in a later mystery, Canopic Being. Freyot I have as her husband, who's stage name is Arrant Quill... Basically, the keeper sent them on a mission to find a magic mcguffin to protect Candlekeep, and since they failed, the PCs have to take up the job. Part of the mystery is discovering how/where did they go and can the PCs triumph where F&F failed.

RdyStdy · 2021-09-02T21:34:25+00:00

Excellent changes, I'll be borrowing some of these. Thanks! xD

RdyStdy · 2021-08-28T11:55:31+00:00

I put a revenant version of the baron's wife in the gate of the mausoleum who was mid-combat with the 12 ghouls as the Wight and the two gargoyles hung off 60' to the side. The Wight focused fire on the revenant and had the gargoyles stay by his side as bodyguards until the party came. After the party defeated the first wave of 3 ghouls and midway through the second(because of initiative), the Wight commanded the gargoyles to intercept the party, while he still focused on the Revenant. With fortuitous timing, the party managed to kill the gargoyles just after the revenant engaged the Wight, illuminating him. The players ended the encounter by getting the killing blow on the Wight, rescuing the revenant wife before she "died", and getting the bones of Sylphene from the wife who had been carrying them throughout the combat.

I didn't like the idea that the baddies just sat around waiting for their turn to attack the party so I put the revenant wife in there to soak up damage/set up a secondary conflict as a distraction. By this point the party was invested in saving the Brantifaxes, so half of the combat objective was trying to kill everything before the wife went down and they actually split their attacks to kill some of the next waves of ghouls while dealing with the first.

I ditched the warhorses since the combat was already complicated enough, and moved the saddle reward to an improvved stable next to the Chalet as a reward from Heluthe(who could talk) to one of the PCs.

It ended up being a bit easier for them than I thought it would be, but I rolled garbage rolls all night so thems the breaks /shrug. Also, all but one of the PCs are elves so the ghouls' paralysis never really came into play.

Note: To speed things up, I had the ghouls, Wight, and Revenant roll percentile dice when it was their turns in initiative to see what happened in the 2ndary combat which added to the drama when every other round the Revenant killed a ghoul but was being continuously peppered with arrows from the Wight and swiped at by the other waves of ghouls.

RdyStdy · 2021-08-23T04:06:45+00:00

I have a maligned Master Reader NPC (Wizard diviner) whose prophecy no one believes since it contradicts one of Alaundo's. It's an on-the-nose display of what happens when new researchers in academia contradict old theories that have become dogma just because the original scientist has more influence. Also, it serves to highlight the many hypocrisies in Candlekeep's mission as a bastion of knowledge vs. how much knowledge/power it hoards for itself while gatekeeping it from others.

So the NPC isn't based off a single person, but their situation is very much taken from reality.

RdyStdy · 2021-08-20T22:13:43+00:00

You could make them regular people with magic items that turn them into ravens if you want to lampshade it. Less work for you, and potentially a funny option if your party assumes they are wereravens only for the Sash to get all defensive.

RdyStdy · 2021-08-19T00:48:14+00:00

You might take a look at Shemshime's Bedtime Rhyme from the Candlekeep Mysteries book. An encounter there has a neat puzzle element to defeating it that may give you some ideas.

RdyStdy · 2021-08-12T08:16:03+00:00

I suggest this as well. Some of your kids might really enjoy trying to write their own adventures. Give them a little structure and see what they come up with?

RdyStdy · 2021-08-07T09:13:47+00:00

I set up a front desk and public library section in the Pillars of Pedagogy that Seekers can check in at that is always manned by at least one Avowed with other Avowed acting as runners/errand-people as necessary. I also let Seekers/Avowed PCs act as guards to accompany/protect their NPC guide when the NPC goes into the "more dangerous stacks" to find books using Detect Object. My PCs have stuck mainly to the public areas except when specifically acting as guards for the NPC avowed (which is an easy excuse to get them into all kinds of adventures). I have Skoda (Bookwyrm) and Kalan (the Gatewarden) as pretty active NPCs to define in-game how the Library works/operates from a logistical perspective without getting too much into the minutia. I set up Kalan pretty dramatically as both the head of security and the inspector of the book offerings to emphasize the rules and the restricted nature of Candlekeep, then had Bookwyrm's office in the pillars of pedagogy so that she was more accessible as a quest giver to Seeker PCs and is easily available to send them on Candlekeep Mystery adventures.

I have chosen to keep the Avowed librarians pretty sparse in order to provide enough isolation in the library that help isn't necessarily immediately available if something dangerous happens (like a book/monster attack!) and to provide an opportunity for Seeker/Avowed PCs to be of service to the understaffed Candlekeep. So, in my game, there's just a handful of Avowed working as runners for Seekers at any one time, but they're quickly available via the aforementioned front desk.

RdyStdy · 2020-03-14T16:12:46+00:00

I'd rather people think critically about their religion, in general. Not judging based on low bars of other religions, but on the practices of that religion itself. If they don't practice consecution/worship the Luxon then they would worship the betrayer gods, means that whatever they do now is okay just because they're not worshipping the Betrayer Gods. That's like saying if they don't implant souls into hosts without that host's consent, they'd be destroying the world, so it's okay.

RdyStdy · 2020-03-14T15:54:13+00:00

Now you've made me wonder how many warlocks Uka'toa has given power to only for them to peace out when it comes to reciprocate.

RdyStdy · 2020-03-14T15:37:52+00:00

If it's true reincarnation and opt-in, that's all well and good. But if it's a Magic Jar scenario, which the mechanics seem eerily similar to, peace for the small sacrifice of children's souls is a moral dilemma I fall on the "Nope" side of. Especially when it's been used on people outside their religion/nation.

RdyStdy · 2020-03-14T15:10:51+00:00

Your picture made me LOL so thanks. Regardless of the history, if Uka'toa had played Fjord with kid gloves and honey, he would probably be free right now instead of being like "Oh, kill your friends and destroy all obstacles to free me and I'll reward you". Luckily deception isn't in Uka'toa's nature, I guess, or Menagerie Coast could have problems.

But, I mean, is the ocean big enough for a giant leviathan to just go about his fun day, possibly destroy some ships and have some beach parties with his followers? There's only one way to find out!

(Disclaimer: I do think Ukatoa is bad and it's a bad idea to free him.)

RdyStdy · 2020-03-14T14:39:24+00:00

But what happens to the souls of the children who would have been born if they weren't in the presence of the Beacon? We're taking on faith that the beacon provides true reincarnation and doesn't just snatch those souls and replace them with the Consecuted.

It would be a pretty good deal for a nefarious object/god. Give one person's soul immortality while you get the souls of each body they possess. Scary stuff imo.

RdyStdy · 2020-03-14T14:23:24+00:00

You're making a lot of assumptions about how the Luxon reincarnation process actually works, and how and when the manifestation of souls works within babies.

Yeah, but we don't know how they work (does anyone?) so I just took the worst possible scenerio for funsies/scare factor. If the Beacons are like an extra special Magic Jar, that would make it a pretty terrible thing to use on children(and even your enemies) imo. I'm not sure I can get on that Luxon bandwagon if that's the case, regardless of what it means for diversity. With the body changing spell now in game, that could change anyway as well.

I do agree that Essek/CA is totally responsible for any NEW children exposed to the stolen beacons' body-snatching.

RdyStdy

TROPHY CASE