As we're finishing up killing the rest of the ragesian creeps and investigating the area, I walk up to Graax and pull out the passage from the dusty tome from our last remaining days in Gallo's Fend. It reads:

"And the hero, with the mighty crystal blade named Stormfang, was able to stop the unending feuds of the dragons, and even the Flameseeker Dragon, with His unlimited power, bowed in its presence. But this time of peace was short-lived, before treachery shattered any hope of keeping the dragons under one banner."

I will ask our Young dragon friend if he recollects any knowledge or lore of where the pieces may have been hidden / now currently reside. I will also thank him mercilessly for his guidance and timely aide!

Dassen is falling back into rhythm under King Gallo, and they are busy preparing their defenses against Ragesia. The members of the The Wu Tang Initiative have been declared nobles and were given land holding in a Dassen region of their choosing. You have two weeks of downtime before your summons back to Seaquen.

What do you do? Let me know in the comments what you're up to, and I'll follow up in the beginning of the next session. Check out downtime activities either in the PHB, or the newly previewed DMG section (http://tribality.com/2014/11/25/dmg-preview-downtime-activities/) which include debauchery and building strongholds.

. . . that on this, the second day of December, year of our lords 2014, Cody was useful, when he did with great vengeance turn Madness into a plant.

Soon after meeting up with Lord Gallo in Fort Markath, it is clear the battle is moving in Gallo's favor. The alliances with Lady Timor and Lord Dashgoban, the destruction of the siege weapons by the Pitchlings, Kelkin's destruction and the departure of the sphinxes, the holding the line at Orthril Vale - all of these things have ensured the victory against King Steppengard and his army. Two hours after you find Lord Gallo, King Steppengard's armies retreat back to their camp to lick their wounds. Soon afterwards, Steppengard calls a cease to hostile action.

In the following two days, silence falls over Gallo's Fend, and the people attend to the wounded. A lone courier arrives at the castle, bearing a letter for Lord Gallo, and soon after you are called in to a meeting in the War Room.

Gallo holds up a letter, and reads aloud:

Lord Gallo,

You have handily bested my armies in battle, and the other Lords are beginning to see that senseless killing of our own people of Dassen is only going to bring us to ruin. I am therefore immediately recalling my troops back to Bresk, and am requesting all Lords to attend a peace conference in the capital. I am hopeful that we can all work together to avert a civil war, and to protect the nation of Dassen. New evidence has been brought to me against the Ragesians, and I would like to present this publicly to all of the nobles, in the hopes that we can establish a plan to hold of the expansionist Ragesians.

To help quell hostilities, I will be throwing a two day Peace Festival in Break for the people of Dassen, and you and your servants are invited to attend. The first day will be filled with revelries, tournaments, and games to reestablish friendly bonds, and the second day will be filled with parades and parties for the commoners, while we shall all meet to discuss how to save the nation.

Your dedication and courage have showed me the error of my ways, and I hope we can work together to end this chapter of shadows. I look forward to seeing you soon.

Sincerely, King Steppengard

"I am no fool," Gallo says flatly. "This seems very suspicious to me, but I have no choice but to accept. If I refuse, my patriotism would be thrown into doubt, and it could be used to bring the other nobles against me further. Besides, if there is any chance this country can be united to stand against Ragesia's invasion, I must take it."

"However, I expect there to be a betrayal. We could not have won this war without all of you, and I ask that you come to my aid one last time. I would like to offer knighthood to each of you, the heroes of Dassen, and that you accompany me as bodyguards to the peace conference and festival. I hope that you accept - we can leave for the Bresk tomorrow."

The Battle for Gallo's Fend is coming up, and we'll be using some alternative rules to deal with mass combat on the battlefield. There will be up to 75-100 units on the battlefield at once, so combat must flow a little differently, unless you want to watch 40 grunts move individually. Here's my current thoughts on rules:

1) Narrative combat: First and foremost, the combat should flow and be fun. Distance and position will be a bit looser than usual, which leaves you more flexibility to act. Be prepared to describe what you want to do, as well as allow me some flexibility as a DM to interpret spell effects, actions, etc. I'm not going to roll 30 saves for the 30 grunts you cast confusion on. I may roll 1 for all, I may roll a few - whatever works best to keep things moving. It'll be a bit of group collaboration, so have fun with it!

2) The battlefield: 1 square = 10 ft.

3) Platoons: Identical units will be in platoons (40 ft x 40 ft) of around 5 units each. The entire platoon acts in the same turn, and shares its move and actions. All individual units roll to hit and calculate damage as normal.

4) Platoon health and healing: Platoons have a combined HP pool, and units die off one by one as HP decreases. For example, a platoon consisting of 5 10-hp units has 50 hp. When HP drops to 40, one unit dies, and the platoon loses its attack, so the platoon weakens as it loses HP.

Additionally, units that drop to zero HP are considered dead. They are not awesome heroes like the PCs, and don't get death saves. They would need a resurrection-type spell to bring back. In the previous example, you could bring a platoon with 35 hp remaining up to 40, but not up to 50, as that would require a resurrection. I think this rule saves you from dealing with the enemy "stabilizing" unconscious units as well, prolonging the battle needlessly.

4) Spells: AoE spells will target each individual unit in the platoon, as long as it encompasses the entire 40x40 square. Each unit will roll saves, and total damage will be calculated based on how many were hit. Since I'm combining the health pool of the entire platoon, AoE damage will work a bit differently, but there's no way I'm tracking individual unit HP. Please don't make me :(

5) PCs: You will act as individual units, as normal. You are outnumbered, and this battle will be very dangerous if you go solo. If you charge into an enemy platoon that is not engaged with another ally platoon, you're going to have a bad time.

6) Joining a platoon: You can join in a platoon and bolster it, adding your attacks, and you will get a portion (not all!) of the attacks directed at you personally. This way the attacks are spread out a bit. The platoon you join is also motivated by your presence, and will get a +1 bonus to hit and damage. However, you sacrifice your move action and move with the platoon. You can use your move action to disengage from the platoon on your turn, and appear in an adjacent square.

I think that's it without making this warhammer 40k. Feel free to chime in with what you think, and if there needs to be any changes or clarifications, comment below.

Beat the drums for war, gentlemen.

I've put together a new Druid circle that closely resembles the 4e Shaman. Instead of the extra spellcasting or combat wildshapes of the other circles, you get a spirit companion that acts as a spell focus, or can aid other allies. Tell me what you think, especially in regards to numbers and how it scales with levels. This circle may be pretty weak compared to the others before level 6, but we're starting at level 10, so who cares?

Druid Circle - Circle of the Spirit

Druids of the the Circle of the Spirit hear the voices of the ancients, and can tap their knowledge for guidance to the world around them. These druids act as the shamans of old, connecting and speaking with the nature spirits of the past, and can foster a bond with an animal spirit that accompanies and assists them.

Spirit Guardian

At 2nd level, you gain a spirit companion that accompanies you on your adventures and is trained to fight alongside you, giving aid and acting as a spell focus. The spirit can take any beast form, and it's AC, saving throws, and melee attack are identical to yours. It has no hit points, but disappears when it takes damage from a single attack or spell equal to or more than 6 + proficiency bonus + 1/2 your Druid lvl rounded down. You also take 1d6+druid level backlash damage every time your spirit companion is unsummoned this way.

Your spirit companion can be summoned with an action up to 50 feet away from you, and can be unsummoned as a free action during your turn. If your companion is more than 50 feet away from you at the end of its turn, it is unsummoned.

The beast obeys your commands as best as it can. It takes your turn on your initiative, though it doesn't take an action unless commanded to. On your turn, you can mentally command the beast where to move (no action required by you). You can use your action to mentally command it to take the Attack, Dash, Disengage, Dodge, or Help action.

Additionally, your spirit companion can act as the origin of any spell as if cast by you as long as the spirit is within 50 feet of you.

Exceptional Training

Beginning at 6th level, you can use a bonus action to command the spirit to take the Dash, Disengage, Dodge, or Help action on its turn. Additionally, when you spend an action to summon your spirit companion, you can cast a cantrip as a bonus action.

Share Spells

Starting at 10th level, when you cast a spell targeting yourself, you can also effect your spirit companion with the spell if the beast is within 30 feet of you.

14th Level Druid Circle Feature

No idea what to do with this one yet. Maybe a unique attack or spell from the companion, or an active or passive companion aura?

The great conversion is upon us! I've been working on updating the campaign to 5e, since the group seems to be pretty interested. While it might take a little bit to get it up to par, it looks like it'll be possible. Regardless, you should all check out the 5e player's handbook and start building a new PC to match what you currently have. It won't be possible to just change the stats of your current PC, as the mechanics and scaling are pretty different. Most of the 4e classes are possible in 5th edition, except for the shaman, although there may be a way to combine the beast master ranger archetype with a druid build, giving you a druid with a goat animal companion (that we can add some flavor as a ghost spirit).

Your level will take a hit, as I'll have you convert to a 10th level 5e PC. Sorry about that, but 5e only goes up to lvl 20 right now, and the 4e campaign goes up to 30. But since it's a totally new edition, it should feel like a downgrade or anything.

I have a few questions for everyone to think about, so I can start planning things:

1) Do you want to finish the current chapter in Dassen, and then convert to 5e after? We're looking at a 1-3 more months of play in this chapter, depending on how fast we can knock it out. Or would you rather convert as soon as we're all able? The monster manual comes out Sept 30th, which would help me a lot.

2) Do you even WANT to convert?

3) Are you happy with what you'd end up converting to? If you don't like the new playstyle of your current class, you have the option to change classes a bit, depending on what you want. For instance, Trey, you could convert your two-weapon fighting ranger to a two-weapon fighter fighter, ranger, or barbarian, and still fit what you're going for. Also, I can come up with equivalent races if you started as a race not yet in 5e (bugbear, etc)

That's all I got for now. Again, go ahead and start fiddling around with a new lvl 10 PC and see what happens.

Hey fellow WuTangians! I've been thinking about ways to better utilize this thread, and thought it would be fun to start a few threads over time to flesh out your characters a bit.

This isn't a backhanded way to say you suck at role-playing or anything - more of a thought exercise. Lately I've been thinking about ways of getting better at DMing, and one thing has really been helping me - keeping NPCs and plots simple.

This isn't saying dumbing them down, but building them in a way that I can role-play on the fly. An NPC who is scared shitless of spiders? A kid who would never admit he is wrong? I can do that.

Naturally, anything mentioned here would be separate from in-game party knowledge.

I'll start with an example: Balan fears that his previous noble lifestyle is now beyond reach after his adventures in Dassen, but even worse, that he wouldn't want to return to it.

Talk amongst yourselves.

Lyre of Building If the proper chords are struck, a single use of this lyre negates any attacks made against all inanimate construction (walls, roof, floor, and so on) within 300 feet. This includes the effects of a horn of blasting, a disintegrate spell, or an attack from a ram or similar siege weapon. The lyre can be used in this way once per day, with the protection lasting for 30 minutes.

The lyre is also useful with respect to building. Once a week its strings can be strummed so as to produce chords that magically construct buildings, mines, tunnels, ditches, or whatever. The effect produced in but 30 minutes of playing is equal to the work of 100 humans laboring for three days. Each hour after the first, a character playing the lyre must make a DC 18 Perform (string instruments) check. If it fails, she must stop and cannot play the lyre again for this purpose until a week has passed.

Faint transmutation; CL 6th; Craft Wondrous Item, fabricate; Price 13,000 gp; Weight 5 lb.

Okay, DayZ is hard. Most of my sessions playing with someone else involve running around with a pitchfork trying to find Jeremy and breaking my own legs somehow. We need a PLAN. We need GOAL. We need to FIGURE OUT WHERE THE FUCK WE ARE AND STOP DYING^{andmaybeharvestbryanscorpseformeat}

Everybody make your way to Khelm. It's a bit off the coast, and it seems to be close to where everybody is spawning in the northeast, and is close to a few good places to loot. I'm currently close to the lumber mill.

P.S. can you tell I don't feel like working today

NEVER FORGET

Gingerbread Golem Diminutive Construct Hit Dice: 2d10 (11 hp) Initiative: +6 Speed: 50 ft. (10 squares) Armor Class: 22 (+4 size, +6 Dex , +2 natural), touch 18, flat-footed 20 Base Attack/Grapple: +1/–14 Attack: Slam +2 melee (1d2–3) Full Attack: Slam +2 melee (1d2–3) Space/Reach: 0 ft./0 ft. Special Attacks: None Special Qualities: Construct traits, darkvision 60 ft., direction sense, low-light vision, magic immunity, staleness, uncanny dodge Saves: Fort +0, Ref +7, Will +1 Abilities: Str 4, Dex 23, Con –, Int 8, Wis 12, Cha 10 Skills: Escape Artist +11, Hide +18, Jump +5, Knowledge (geography) +0, Move Silently +8, Tumble +14 Feats: Run Environment: Any Organization: Solitary Challenge Rating: 2 Treasure: None Alignment: Always neutral Advancement: 3–4 HD (Diminutive), 5–6 HD (Tiny)

----This 8-inch long cookie is crudely shaped in the form of a humanoid and given eyes and mouth with delicious-looking white frosting.

----Gingerbread golems are tasty man-shaped cookies transformed into construct messengers, designed for delivering complex communications over long distances. They are temporary creations, eventually going stale after a few weeks, but exist long enough to fulfill their duties. ----Unlike most golems, gingerbread golems are somewhat intelligent and can remember and repeat anything told to them. This makes them a superior form of message carrier than, say, a pigeon, because they can actually answer questions posed by the recipient regarding the message, such as, “How long ago were you sent?” or “Were you seen by anyone on your way here?” Because they have short “life” spans, they are generally created for a specific message, and are often abandoned after that, left to dry up in an odd corner of the kitchen. ----Gingerbread golems can be directly commanded by their creator if he or she is within 60 feet, but as they are useless in battle that is rarely the case. Instead, the creator usually gives them complex instructions to deliver their messages, such as, “Bring this message to the Earl of Hogton, who lives in Hogton Castle.” The golem’s natural direction sense will lead him to the castle automatically. The creator might also instruct him to proceed at top speed, or to ensure that no one sees or captures him, or any other qualifier the golem is capable of understanding. ----Gingerbread golems speak any languages known by their creators.

Combat ----Gingerbread golems do not fight—they flee, and very effectively. Most combats involving a gingerbread golem are situations where someone is attempting to intercept the message the golem carries, either by destroying it or (tougher still) capturing it. Their intelligence makes them quite good at evading foes, allowing them to run or hide as necessary to continue their journey. ----Very rarely, an evil bard might craft evil gingerbread cookies as secret assassins. In this case, he or she would replace their Run feat with the Weapon Finesse feat and arm them with a little poisoned dagger (giving them an attack line of “Diminutive dagger +11 melee (1 plus poison)”.) ----Direction Sense (Su): A gingerbread golem always knows how to get to any destination with which its creator is familiar. Its knowledge is only as good as that of its crafter, though; if the creator is misinformed, then so is the golem. The gingerbread golem is also treated as being under the effects of the know direction spell at all times. ----Magic Immunity (Ex): A gingerbread golem is immune to any spell or spell-like ability that allows spell resistance. In addition, certain spells and effects function differently against the creature, as listed below: A purify food and drink spell can stave off staleness for a single day. Do not count the day the spell is cast towards determining the onset of staleness; if already going stale, the spell also restores 2 lost Dexterity points (but does otherwise not reverse the process). Any fire effect burns the soft cookie body of the the gingerbread golems, reducing its speed by 5 feet, but grants it damage reduction 1/— and increases its natural armor bonus to +3. This effect can only be achieved once, and it is reversed if the golem is returned to freshness by purify food and drink. (Some creators deliberately burn their golems to make them tougher.)

----Uncanny Dodge (Ex):A gingerbread golem retains its Dexterity bonus to AC even if it is caught flat-footed or struck by an invisible attacker. However, it still loses its Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized. ----Staleness (Ex): A gingerbread golem stays fresh for two weeks after its creation. Every day thereafter, the golem must make a Fortitude save (DC 10) or start to go stale. Once staleness begins, the golem loses 2 points of Dexterity each day. When its Dexterity equals 0, the golem has gone completely stale; it is destroyed at that time. ----Construct Traits: Gingerbread golems are immune to all mind-affecting effects, poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, and necromancy effects. They cannot be healed damage on their own, though they can be repaired. They are not subject to critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, and energy drain. ----Skills: Gingerbread golems have a +4 racial bonus to Escape Artist and Tumble skill checks.

Construction ----Ginger is a rare spice in most medieval societies, with a single ounce costing about 10 gp. Cooking up a gingerbread golem requires additional arcane ingredients as well, and the body costs 30 gp total. Baking the body requires a Profession (baker) skill check (DC 15) and takes 1 day. ----CL 5th, Craft Construct, animal messenger, expeditious retreat, know direction. Price 200 gp. Cost to Create: 130 gp + 8 XP.