2018

            Another year has come and gone. Can you believe that I started this blog back in 2013, and it’s still here six years later? Six whole years of a new blog every week – plus the bonus stories of my D&D games, for those who read them. I never thought I could keep it going this long.

            While 2018 may not have been the best year globally, it was a pretty good one for me. I mean, for starters, we didn’t have any rats in the house, which was fantastic. Aside from that, though, it seemed to be a year of growth and change.

            One of the biggest changes is that this was the first year since it started Ringcrafts, my chainmaille business, didn’t attend any conventions or festivals. While we were sad to miss out on the events and seeing the friends we made there, we stand by the decision we made – with the increased success of Colleen’s Green Door Life Coaching, there was no way she could commit to the shows, and the set-up and tear-down of the shows couldn’t be done by me alone. Apart from freeing up a great deal of time, the lack of shows has also greatly reduced stress, making for a more relaxed year.

            For me, that extra time has been divided between a number of enterprises. The first, and by far most obvious of those, is Dungeons & Dragons. Last November, I switched from playing D&D weekly at the Devil’s Bench to running it, and I’m keeping a record of the ongoing adventure. That campaign has been running for over a year now, and has also led to me being invited to several other games. Not only that, but come the New Year, I’ll be starting a second campaign at the Bench! Crazy, I know.

            Apart from that, I’m still teaching myself computer programming and steadily advancing my skills. It’s both fun and useful, and I’m slowly understanding more about how these machines work (they could have run by magic, for all I knew). The stories I could tell you... but I won’t, because I know that if you’re as interested in the subject as I am, you’ll go and learn for yourself! (It’s easier than you think!)

            My writing projects, on the other hand, have slowed down drastically. I’m still working on them, of course, but the pace has slowed to a crawl. Why is that, you ask? I really don’t know. My best guess is that with all the creative energy I’m pouring into D&D (and the time spent recording the story) and the brainpower being absorbed by coding, my mind just doesn’t have enough juice left for my previous writing productivity. That’s alright with me, though, because I’m still quite happy with my other projects.

            Over the summer, I discovered what promises to be an amazing game, and got involved with a community awaiting its arrival. I could talk your ear off about it, but I’ll spare you by simply saying go check out Chronicles of Elyria – you won’t regret it. Your wallet might, if you get obsessed with the game, but you won’t.

            Right now, the most interesting thing is to look back over the year and see what I can best describe as a steady improvement in life. I couldn’t point at specific things and say, “That! That is better now!” but, when viewed as a whole, the world (at least my little corner of it) is just a little better than it was before, with promises of a continuing trend.

            Now it’s time to look forwards into 2019. As with all years, it’s certain to have its ups and downs, but I have high hopes for it.

            To you and yours, I wish a happy New Year. May it be full of joy and wonder, empty of sorrow, and an experience worth remembering.

Check out my YouTube channel where I tell the stories of my D&D campaigns.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Season's Greetings

            I could write some deep, philosophical blog, or perhaps some nonsensical banter. Perhaps a short review, or some lengthy discussion on D&D or some other game. I could dig up some anecdote from my past, or ramble on about the future, yet none of that seems apt for today.

            Today, regardless of who you are, or what your beliefs, I would like to wish you a happy holiday season. If you’re spending time with friends and family, I hope you get along and have a great time – and if you’re not, I hope it’s because you’re happier that way, or that you at least engage in some activity that makes you happy.

            It’s a time of year full of celebration, but also one where the weather or old memories cause a great deal of depression or sadness. If you are such a person to be afflicted by such things, I’d like to remind you (because it’s easy to forget) that not all times are bad, and this, too, shall pass. I wish you the most cheery time you can manage and hope that the hard times pass sooner rather than later.

            I hope you all have a wonderful midwinter feast and joyous times, be they from games with friends or some quality time with a good book. Be kind to yourself and to others – that goes for the whole year round, too.

            And greetings to you from Salt, Pepper, Cinnamon, Ginger, Nutmeg, Oregano, Parsley, and all the other seasonings.

Check out my YouTube channel where I tell the stories of my D&D campaigns.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Dungeon Master Growth Patterns

            Those who have been following my blog for a while will have noticed how much Dungeons & Dragons has become a part of my life in the past few years. In that time, I’ve been part of about fourteen different games, and I’m currently involved in five active games. During this time, I’ve been both a player and a Dungeon Master, but what has captured my attention today is the rise of new DMs and how they follow roughly the same growth pattern that I went through.

            Most people starting out as a Dungeon Master (though not all) have played the game before, so they have a pretty good idea of how it works on the players’ side of the table. They know that it’s a challenge to switch to being behind the DM’s screen, where they essentially have to create and control an entire world – much like a writer does, only a writer doesn’t need to account for the craziness that players come up with.

            The first game the new DM runs isn’t bad (with a good group of players, it’s very hard to have bad D&D), but it isn’t quite where they want it to be. Often the plotline railroads the players – that is to say, there’s pretty much only one way for the players to go, and one way for them to solve problems. This isn’t ideal in a game that revolves around the decisions made by players, but it’s also extremely understandable – because allowing players complete freedom takes a lot of thinking on your feet, and that takes practice.

            That first game usually falls apart within the first few sessions, but the new DM doesn’t give up. They learned a lot in those games, few though they were. The next game they run is significantly better. They’ve learned to prepare for players doing crazy things, and so they adapt their new game for that. This game goes much better, but it still isn’t perfect. The rails are still there, and still noticeable, and the DM runs into two similar problems: the players don’t catch on to what they were certain was obvious, so they need to improvise huge hints; and the players respond to things in ways previously unanticipated. Once again, the game usually falls apart at this point – but the DM has learned even more.

            Now comes the time for over-preparedness. The new DM has realized that players are wild and uncontrollable, and so the solution is to have a plan for everything. A massive world begins getting built, populated with interesting people and things. Histories and mythologies are created, as well as multiple dungeons and ways to attract the players to them. It becomes overwhelming, and at some point the DM realizes that if they keep this up, they’ll never get to play again – and so they take a leap of faith and start the game with what they’ve prepared.

            This time, the game goes very differently. Instead of the players going in crazy directions and forcing the DM to improvise, they seem to stick to the plot and avoid 90% of the content the DM has painstakingly created. This isn’t out of malice – this is simply because the DM has improved enough that the players feel that they are on the most natural course. The game lasts longer, and now the DM learns and perfects the rest of their skills. Their world is more in-depth, so they find improvising easier when it’s necessary. They get more of a feel for how to run and balance the game. They learn how to anticipate what their players are going to do, and to plan accordingly – but also how to have backup plans for when the players surprise them.

            Finally, DMing begins to come naturally, and less preparation is needed for each game. A lot of work still goes into running the game, but it becomes easier and more natural – as does coming up with things on the fly when the player throws a curveball at them.

            This isn’t a precise formula, as different people improve at different speeds. Some people manage to hold together that first game, improving as they go, while others have a few more false starts. However, by and large, this is the basic pattern of learning and growth I’ve observed in multiple new Dungeon Masters, and I find it to be fascinating – because running Dungeons & Dragons isn’t a skill you can learn everything about by being taught, or reading a book. It’s a form of art that you can only learn by doing.

Check out my YouTube channel where I tell the stories of my D&D campaigns.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Lark's Landing, Episode 49

Colonial Caerdia: Lark's Landing is a story being told through a 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign I'm running at a local hobby shop called the Devil's Bench. If you aren't familiar with this ongoing story, you can follow this link to Once Upon a Tabletop on YouTube to hear the start of it or read the brief summary I wrote when I switched from video to blog.

You can find the previous episode here.


19th of Waning Spring - 31st of Waxing Summer, 1AL

So, the 3rd Watch have returned home to Port Noble, the vampire left behind for now. Patrick, having sent a magical message to his guardian, Saul, has been instructed to come home right away, as there is something he doesn't understand. He makes the painstaking decision to return home, but first informs the rest of the 3rd Watch, in case he turns up dead tomorrow.

He returns home and is welcomed with a hug by Saul, who then reminds him of how important he is, as a god-touched child. Saul insists that it's too dangerous for Patrick to be out adventuring - if he were to fall under the wrong influences, it could be disastrous for the world. Patrick insists that it's better than being cooped up in the house forever, but Saul surprises him by saying that he just needs to wait until he's eighteen - which is in a couple of months. Apparently, when he's eighteen, he'll receive the proper sort of guidance - though even Saul doesn't seem to know what this may be. Patrick grudgingly agrees to wait for his birthday, on the condition that Saul acquires a new book for him.

So, the group decide to spend some time enjoying the comforts of home. Fiaeorri checks in with Gregor, hoping for more information on defeating vampires, but learns nothing new. However, Gregor does show her some impressive blueprints for a fortified mansion for the future new home of the True Daughters of Pagslas. Fiaeorri then spends the rest of her time alternating between training Ruby and continuing to learn the draconic language.

T'Zaric continues his indentured work, and also works to spread rumors that he is willing to do anything for a bit of gold - though this only appears to catch the attention of some militia members, who begin keeping a closer watch on him. Extang turns his attentions to trying to find a way to repair the magic mirror that allows the viewer to view portions of the past of a creature or object -  which he admits to the group he broke by using it on a god. Quib works on composing a song loosely based on the story Extang told him about the gold dragon he'd used the mirror on, then spends tome studying his former master's notes.

Early on, there is a concern brought to the group by Logan, because his apprentice, Lykos, is missing. Patrick quickly solves the issue by sending a magical message to Lykos, to which he gets the reply that everything is fine - he's out on patrol and should be back within a couple tendays. This satisfies everyone for the time being, but a couple tendays go by and Lykos still hasn't turned up. Another series of messages establish that he's lost, but he's fine.

Time goes on, and still he doesn't return. The group try to figure out who he went on patrol with, and find that neither the Militia or the Explorers' Guild sent him out. They ask Lykos who he is on patrol with, and he gives them names of the militia members he is out with - but Hargrom doesn't have people by those names in the militia. In fact, asking around town, no one has heard of them.

Now the 3rd Watch are worried that Lykos has been kidnapped, but they don't want to tell him because he might get alarmed and tip off his captors. Instead, they send him instructions on which direction to travel to find his way home, to which he replies that he's fine and says he doesn't need them to keep checking up on him. Patrick and Quib then pool their money and post a reward at the Explorer's Guild for the recovery of Lykos, as Saul is unwilling to let Patrick back out of his deal to stay home until his birthday - so they go back to waiting, keeping tabs on Lykos through Patrick's sending spell much to the boy's irritation.

On the 3rd of Waxing Summer, Fiaeorri wakes up to find her the birthday coin she was expecting to get, having seen her companions receive them. However, she's a bit confused, because the expressionless mask on the coin is not connected to her goddess, Pagslas, though she's not certain whatever else it means. However, it will temporarily improve her abilities, so she tucks it away for later use. She then heads out to arrange with Hammer to help Gregor construct his mansion - though more funds are required before the work can actually start. Hammer, having promised a favor to each of his former companions, agrees.

On the 31st of Waxing Summer, Hargrom summons the 3rd Watch to inform them that he'd found a militia member who had seen Lykos leaving Port Noble with a tall man wearing jade armor. The 3rd Watch recognize the description as that of the vampire, and horror dawns on them as they realize what has happened to Lykos. They tell Hargrom about the vampire, and he becomes very concerned - as there have been reports of other people disappearing as well. He chastises them for not telling him about the vampire sooner, and starts making preparations to add additional protections on the town at night.

Extang and Quib visit Feryon in the hopes that the wizard will know something about vampires. Feryon doesn't know anything, though he expresses great fear because vampires can turn other people into vampires - which is news to the 3rd Watch, and it sheds a new light on why people have been going missing.

They want to head out to rescue Lykos and slay the vampire, but it's still 24 days before Patrick's birthday. While contemplating what to do next, they realize that since Patrick can send magical messages to anyone he's familiar with, he can use it to contact the vampire. Plans begin being made for magically trash-talking their nemesis, but they can't figure out what is best to say. They settle for asking a simple question that they have been wondering about. They ask the vampire his name.

They receive an amused reply in response: "Hello, Bright Eyes. I am Zotzilaha, the vampire god of the underworld. Your friends are delicious."


And that brought an end to this game session. We reconvene in the New Year to discover what our heroes will do in Episode 50.

Sleep Beckons

            You know, I often see posts bouncing around social media about how much people love to sleep. While I agree with the associated sentiment that it can be very challenging to get out of bed in the mornings, I must say that I’ve always found sleep itself to be a dreadfully dull, yet unfortunately necessary, waste of time.

            To function at optimal efficiency, the average human needs eight hours of sleep per day. That’s a full third of the day where we basically have to shut down and do nothing! From a young age, I always found that to be exceedingly frustrating. Think of how much more we could accomplish if we didn’t have to sleep!

            As to it being enjoyable, I recognize that everyone has different experiences in life, but how can it be so? It begins with lying down and doing nothing for a long enough period of time that your body goes into sleep mode – boring! This is followed by a period of unconsciousness accompanied by dreams – which can range from amazing to horrible, but also most of which end up not getting remembered once you wake up. To be fair, dreams can sometimes be enjoyable, but it’s erratic and inconsistent enough that it can’t really be used to define sleep as enjoyable. Then, after that, you wake up and have to get up – which, as has already been mentioned, can be quite the struggle.

            So, how is it that sleep can be defined as enjoyable? It eats up time that could better be used elsewhere, only erratically contains entertainment, and is otherwise a whole lot of nothing. This really is quite the puzzler for me.

            Sadly, I don’t have the time to figure it out – as I must now go to sleep.

Check out my YouTube channel where I tell the stories of my D&D campaigns.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Lark's Landing, Episode 48

Colonial Caerdia: Lark's Landing is a story being told through a 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign I'm running at a local hobby shop called the Devil's Bench. If you aren't familiar with this ongoing story, you can follow this link to Once Upon a Tabletop on YouTube to hear the start of it or read the brief summary I wrote when I switched from video to blog.

You can find the previous episode here.


8th-19th of Waning Spring, 1AL

The 3rd Watch found a silver box. Inside the silver box was a copper fish figurine. The copper fish figurine had a hatch on the back. They opened it and found colorful glowing beads inside. They touched the beads, causing the hatch to close and the fish to take to the air and fly off down the corridor.

Now the 3rd Watch are in hot pursuit. They follow the fish until it comes to a door, where it stops, waiting... so, they open the door for it, and it flies into the room - which is filled with a decrepit army of clay statues. The fish flies around the room for a little, then goes to another door, which is barred on this side.

Fiaeorri takes this brief respite to begin training her fire beetle, Ruby. T'Zric looks around for treasure and grabs some coral beads from a sedan chair with a skeleton chained to it, though they have little value. By then, the fish is flying again, back out the door they had come in through. Extang follows, staying on the fish's tail, but Fiaeorri unbars and opens the door the fish had been waiting at, wondering if it might come back - it doesn't. She and the rest of the group check through the door anyway, finding that it leads to a sandstone block they had pushed out of their way earlier. They then hurry to catch up with Extang and the fish.

For over an hour, in the poisoned air of this ancient temple, they follow the fish figurine as it meanders around - leading them in circles a couple times - until, at last, having returned to the room with the cat motif, most of them decide it's a dead end. They return to their search of the lower levels - all except for Extang, who insists that the fish has something to show them and continues to follow it on his own.

The main party make their way down to the lower levels, and then through an already open secret passage behind a statue, dropping down from high on the wall of a large hall lined with frescoes.

Back with the fish, Extang follows it through the open secret passage behind the calendar stone in the cat room, down a narrow tunnel, into a wider hall with three doorways off of it - one closed, one opening into a closet, and one opening into a large room. He follows it into the large room, which is filled with a diorama of a city built around a lake and rivers of what looks like liquid metal. The two do a circuit of the room - with Extang noticing some potential treasures but not stopping for fear of losing the fish - then back out of the room, into the hallway. The fish flies through the open door into the closet - and vanishes. Extang follows behind, and also disappears.

Down in the hallway, Fiaeorri is far in the lead, the others having hesitated before following her through the secret passage. She opens the doors at the far end of the room, and hears a horrible shriek. 120 feet back down the hall, the fish figurine appears under an archway, followed by Extang, but much more noticeable to her are the hundreds of swarming rats that come boiling out of the walls and ceiling to attack her.

She begins fending them off, with her friends helping mostly from afar, but then an enormous wolf-sized rat comes from beyond the doors into the dim light cast by Ruby to join the fray. The rest of the 3rd Watch (except Extang, who is casting from a distance while strolling along behind the fish) rush in to help, but they're having their own problems - as more rats have dropped out of the ceiling to land on them.

Eventually they clean up the pest problem and continue on down the hall, which goes down some stairs before the floor gets quite wet. The hall eventually opens up into a strange, half-flooded room with a stony beach and crystal ceiling. They pause here to refill their waterskins and for T'Zaric to wash off the liquid light that would be drowning him were it not for his magical cloak that lets him breathe underwater. Except for Extang, who follows the fish to a door, where it pauses. He tries to open the door, but finds it blocked by mud and silt. The fish turns around and leads him back the way he had just come from.

The rest of the 3rd Watch have decided they've had enough of this temple, and it's time to go home - with or without the vampire. They start heading out, passing Extang on the way, who argues that the fish must be leading them somewhere. Fiaeorri and T'Zaric continue on, in spite of Extang insisting on staying behind, but the others pause long enough to restrain him with spells and rope, then drag him along behind.

T'Zaric and Fiaeorri wait for the others to catch up with them once they get out of the poisoned area, then they all continue on out of the temple - with Extang finally cooperating once he's realized the fish is long since lost. They emerge into the night, which immediately alarms them as they know this is the time of the vampire. They push on for a couple of hours before making camp. Everyone on watch duty is exceptionally observant that night, and they are very glad that nothing dangerous occurs.

They rest throughout the day, deciding that they should travel at night so everyone is awake and conscious should the vampire come after them. Struggling through the jungle at night, it takes them much longer to get home - but the push on, arriving on the 19th of Waning Spring. They split the tiny amount of treasure they found on this trip and head off their separate ways.

T'Zaric goes to the council and asks if, as part of his penance for his crime of murdering Balasar, he can establish an archive or library. His suggestion is turned down, however, as the settlement currently has no need for such an establishment - but they agree to revisit the idea in the future when it will be more practical. Fiaeorri visits her shrine to Pagslas and works on training Ruby some more. Quib moves his nest from his lean-to to the 3rd Watch headquarters and begins looking over his notes. Extang goes to the tavern and Caerdian Explorers' Guild to complain to Stor about the new members he's stuck him with, talking about how they got cold feet at the first sign of trouble. Stor insists that they just need time and experience, and ends up more concerned that Extang had been planning to stay in the temple alone.

Patrick goes to the shrine to Epesta and asks one of the worshipers for a place to stay. Unfortunately, it seems that Saul, his guardian, has been worried and has asked people to keep a lookout for Patrick. The worshiper encourages him to go back to Saul so the old monk won't be worried anymore. Instead, Patrick goes to find Logan, who gives him permission to stay in his old house. Once there, Patrick sends a magical message to Saul, assuring him that he's safe, alive, and well, and has done well on the adventure he went on. Saul's reply is relief that Patrick is alive, but also an urgent request that he comes home immediately, insisting that there is something he doesn't understand.


And that's where this game session comes to an end. Check back in a week for Episode 49.

Sifting Thoughts

            I recently had a discussion about honesty which resulted in the conclusion that saying the first thing that comes into your mind isn’t honest. This flies in the face of many common ideas, because what is honesty if saying the first thing to come to your mind isn’t the most honest thing to say?

            I periodically see a post show up on my social media claiming that a study found that people who swear more are more likely to be honest. The logical connection being made is clearly that people who swear are more likely to be spouting whatever is on their mind, and that’s honest. Isn’t it? Well, let’s take a closer look at that.

            When you stub your toe on something, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind? Unless you’re a remarkably logical person, most likely the first thing on your mind in that moment is to be mad at the inanimate object you just stubbed your toe on, and be very angry at it for being there. If you were to shout out your anger at the object (as I’m sure you might), scathing it with the fury of the first thing that came to your mind, are you expressing your real and honest opinion on that object?

            Technically, the answer is yes; in that very specific and precise moment, those horrible things you shout at that poor innocent inanimate object are precisely what you are thinking about it. But, that opinion is fleeting and won’t last. It fades with the pain, leaving you feeling a little silly for shouting abuse at something that doesn’t even have ears – and which you probably put there in the first place. Unless you’re a remarkably stubborn person, you’ll most likely even admit to yourself that an inanimate object can hold no responsibility for the pain you just experienced. And, just like that, your totally honest response to stubbing your toes crumbles into meaningless lies that you spewed out in a moment of emotion. Your actual, honest opinion on that inanimate object and the part it played in causing you pain is the one that comes after letting the pain die down and taking the time to think about it.

            Now, naturally, there isn’t that much trouble with shouting at inanimate objects – unless, of course, it’s fitted with some very sophisticated Artificial Intelligence – but consider if it had been an impressionable child you’d tripped on when you fell and hurt yourself. Why you left a child lying on the floor is beyond me, but that initial, ‘honest’ response of yours could do everlasting harm.

            Let’s take a look at prejudices. These are ideas that we’ve been trained into believing, sometimes since childhood (possibly by having them shouted at us after having been tripped over). We look at someone, and we instantly make certain decisions about them based on how they look, how they’re dressed, how they move – anything. As an enlightened person, you are aware of at least some of your prejudices and know them to be untrue (and, frankly, in some cases, ridiculous. I mean, seriously, just because it’s a spider, it doesn’t mean it’s out to murder you). Yet, there’s that trained piece of your brain that throws the prejudice to the forefront of your thoughts. If you voice that prejudice, because it’s what’s right on your mind, you won’t be being honest – because your honest opinion comes after all that hard work you’ve put in to quashing that horrible prejudice (spiders are people too, you know).

            So, speaking what is on your mind clearly isn’t inherently honest. I would call it impulsive, and only honest out of happenstance or if the person you’re conversing with asked about the first thing that came to your mind. Honesty is what you get after you’ve taken the time to form well-reasoned thoughts.

            That, in itself, is something of a revelation, isn’t it? True honesty doesn’t come from impulsively speaking what you happen to be thinking; in fact what you say can become more honest by sifting it through mental filters before speaking.

Check out my YouTube channel where I tell the stories of my D&D campaigns.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Lark's Landing, Episode 47

Colonial Caerdia: Lark's Landing is a story being told through a 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign I'm running at a local hobby shop called the Devil's Bench. If you aren't familiar with this ongoing story, you can follow this link to Once Upon a Tabletop on YouTube to hear the start of it or read the brief summary I wrote when I switched from video to blog.

You can find the previous episode here.


7-8th of Waning Spring, 1AL

In a room full of stuffed cats, the 3rd Watch are once again facing off against a vampire - and T'Zaric, who has fallen under the creature's influence. The worst part is that as the group attempts to cast spells to bring T'Zaric back to their side, they discover that the changes that occurred when he made his wish prevent a lot of their spells from being able to take hold on him.

The vampire zips around the room for a bit, confidently ignoring the great deal of damage being dealt to him, until several swarms of bats arrive, answering his earlier call. At that point, he departs, instructing T'Zaric to keep the others occupied while he finishes his preparations down below - and telling him he can forget they ever met after he's expended his powers.

With the vampire frustratingly out of the picture, the group turn their attention first to eliminating the bats, then to taking down T'Zaric - who has mostly been kept in check by counterspells from Extang. When T'Zaric finally falls, they make sure he's not dying, then tie up his unconscious form.

Next comes an argument about what to do next. Quib expresses that he thinks it's time to go straight home, and Patrick wholeheartedly agrees. Fiaeorri isn't ready to give up on destroying the foul undead vampire, and Extang insists that this is all part of their job. However, they all agree that they need to recover from this encounter with the vampire before moving on, so they retreat to a side room on a higher level where they barricade themselves in so they can rest. They wait almost a full 24 hours for T'Zaric to stop struggling after he regains consciousness. Then they head back down, much to the dismay of Quib and Patrick.

They wind their way into the poisoned depths of the ancient tunnels, recovering some ropes the Extang and T'Zaric had forgotten on their firs journey here. At the bottom of a ramp with stone rollers set in the floor, they barely manage to push aside a sandstone block and make their way down a corridor which leads them to a lozenge-shaped room familiar to T'Zaric and Extang. Having been looted before, there isn't much of interest in the room, but T'Zaric suddenly has a strange experience.

While looking at the strange, pictograph language on the walls, some of the images seem to rise out of the wall, translating into  and flickering between languages he knows. He reads aloud portions of what appears to be a history of this temple, with claims that this is the home of the true gods who will awake to defend their people. There is also mention of followers being lost to a snake-god, and other people turning to worship the rival dragons, Fremrossa the Eternal Flame, and Quatheig, Bringer of Death.

After the strange words have left, T'Zaric examines the pictographs that the translation came from, finding some images that seem to link up - including snake-people, a gold dragon, and a green dragon. Intrigued by this information, Extang uses his magic mirror to see if he can peer into the past of Fremrossa the Eternal Flame and views clips of images from the life of a gold dragon. He pieces together the disjointed images as best he can to tell the story to Quib, who excitedly writes it down.

The group continue on through one of the doors out of the room, down a hall to another room filled with rubbish and giant fire beetles. Having been here before, T'Zaric and Extang tell the others that the beetles are harmless if they and their trash pile isn't disturbed. Fiaeorri, after wandering into the room and getting a cursory examination by some of the beetles, decides she wants one as a pet and manages to get one one a leash without upsetting it. She names it Ruby.

T'Zaric and Logan open one of the doors off the room and see a corridor that turns to the right - where there appears to be some sort of flickering light moving away from them. They head up to the corner, but by the time they get there the light is gone. They call over the rest of the group before proceeding further.

They proceed down the corridor, but Fiaeorri - who has been fastidiously searching for traps up until now - is distracted by Ruby and forgets to be on the lookout for danger. They trigger a pressure plate that drops heavy wood and copper walls both in front and behind them. They begin trying to lift the doors, but don't seem to be able to get a good enough grip. T'Zaric casts a spell turning himself into a mist and drifts up into the mechanism, hoping to find some way to raise the doors again - but finds that they were designed only to drop once.

He returns to the rest of the group to find that some openings have opened near the ceiling, and shortly after he gets back sand begins pouring out of them, piling up on the floor. Desperation strikes them, and Patrick blasts one of the doors with a powerful spell - managing to damage it a little. That's when a little ball of light comes through the door and begins attacking them.

Quib manages to temporarily drive the glowing creature back through the door while the others smash at the door until it breaks open. The 3rd Watch rush out with the sand pouring behind them and quickly finish off the light-creature. They proceed forwards, carefully checking for traps, and come to a dead end - but Fiaeorri notices that it looks like the wall can be rotated. She pushes on one side, and it does turn, opening up a narrow passage to a hallway beyond - past a pitiful pit that everyone can easily jump over.

The hall leads to a corridor with stone sculptures of animals on the walls. They follow it in one direction, which winds its way back to the lozenge-shaped room, before coming back and turning down a side corridor. This side corridor has its own side corridor which leads to a small alcove with a pedestal and silver coffer on top. Fiaeorri immediately notices a hinge across the floor and, upon closer examination, determines that the floor will tilt in towards the alcove and lock in place, trapping anyone who is on the other side. She works at disarming the trap, but it proves a bit tricky for her - so T'Zaric pulls out his own thieves' tools and smugly finishes the job.

They enter the alcove and retrieve the coffer, opening it carefully. Inside is a strange, copper, fish-like figurine with some kind of writing on the side. Extang pulls it out to take a closer look at it, and discovers a small sliding panel on the back. He opens it, finding a wall of colorful, glowing beads inside. At the urging of the others, he pokes the beads, hoping to find something else inside. Instead, the hatch slides closed all on its own. After a couple of seconds, the figurine then rises into the air and flies off down towards the corridor.


And that brings this game session to an end. Discover what happens next week in Episode 48.

Complications

            Life is a complicated mess filled with inconsistencies and contradictions. Particularly life in relation to humans and how we view and interact with the world.

Take our brains’ view on change, for example. We hate change with a fiery, burning passion. We like things to be predictable and consistent. Yet, if it is predictable and consistent, we get bored and go stir crazy, with our brains demanding something new. If we rearrange a room, we’ll adapt to it quickly, with our brains not minding very much – but don’t you dare return the room to an old arrangement! No, then something is clearly out of place and wrong.

            Similarly, people often speak of wishing they didn’t have to work a job so that they can accomplish more of what they want to do. However, if you speak to people in such a position, you’ll quickly learn that they wish they had a job to help fill their time. Because having all the time in the world to do whatever you want somehow takes away from the enjoyment of doing what you want.

            We come up with morals to clearly define right and wrong, and very soon break into factions because some things that are clearly right contradict other things that are clearly right, and some things that are wrong contradict other things that are clearly wrong. Ideas that seem so simple to one person appear nonsensical to another – and both can back up their perspectives with valid arguments.

            We seek freedom while binding ourselves with laws – though, of course, the laws are required to prevent ourselves from violating others’ freedoms, and to protect our own. We try to understand the world better, yet as soon as we discover something that doesn’t match what we believe, we’re more likely to dismiss the new information as being incorrect or inconsequential.

            We pay people money to go out and raise money. We have annual feasts when, agriculturally, food is the most difficult to come by. We spend our best years working to achieve dreams we’ll be too old to enjoy by the time we achieve them. We fight wars to achieve peace.

            And as I go through all the strange and confusing contradictions in life, I notice that the common factor is humans. How we view the world. How we treat each other. How we examine and categorize things.

            And I wonder... is life really so full of paradoxes? Perhaps life is actually extremely simple, and we overcomplicate it in our efforts to understand.

Check out my YouTube channel where I tell the stories of my D&D campaigns.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

How To Train Your Players

            The more I run Dungeons & Dragons, the more I realize how important it is to train the people who are playing in your game. Not in the sense of teaching them how to play (though this is also very important), but in training them how your world will react to the actions their characters take. Every Dungeon Master runs a slightly different game, and every player comes in with their own expectations – establishing how the game will be run is important, otherwise halfway through you’re liable to have a character get in trouble for murdering or stealing and be surprised that they can get in trouble in a game.

            If there are going to be consequences for actions in the world you create, you need to establish this as early as possible, but with minor situations rather than major ones. If the characters storm around doing whatever they want from the start, without any consequences, they’re going to keep doing so for the rest of the game – and, likely, get upset if suddenly something unexpected happens. They didn’t get in trouble before, why should they now?

            The way to do this is to show the world reacting to the characters – both in positive and negative ways. Every time a character does something seemingly inconsequential – you know, pranks or other things they may do just for fun – think about how people or the environment would realistically respond to them, and make it happen. Even if it’s just something in the background that a random person mentions in passing, having the little details there will show the players that what they do makes a difference in the world – and they’ll begin to treat the world with that expectation. In my current campaign, I’ve had incoming new players told, “Everything that’s happened is our fault!” which isn’t entirely true, but it tells me that I’ve taught my players well.

            There is no easy way to deliberately train players into the feel of the game you are running; that can only come with time, because that part of the game is determined by everyone in it, and it will change as players come and go (if you have players coming and going in your game). For that, there is only patience. Every group forms its own culture, and that can be guided by the game’s content, but not controlled. Give the group time to settle and everything will usually sort itself out.

            One of the more challenging things to teach your players – especially less experienced ones – is how to conserve their resources. In many ways, this is up to them to learn on their own, but it really behoves a Dungeon Master to help them along the way – otherwise the players will simply take a nap to regain their abilities after every battle, which slows the game and takes away from the strategy, the fun, and the sense of imminent danger in the game.

            So, how do you train your players into this? There are two simple ways. The first is to put them in a situation where they can’t rest, be it because of how many monsters there are around, or because there is something like poison in the environment that interferes with resting. The other method is very similar to what I was talking about at the beginning – show them the consequences of their actions. If the players stop to sleep more than once in the same 24 hour time span, the rest of the world isn’t going to stop to sleep with them. The monsters are going to keep moving. The villains will continue constructing their nefarious plans. And the players need to see this in action – be it from visible changes in rooms they’ve already been in, monsters surrounding them when they wake up, or some sort of evidence that their sleep wasn’t quite as undisturbed as they had thought. The world doesn’t stop moving because the main characters are sleeping – and the sooner the players understand this, the sooner they’ll start conserving their skills and spells so they won’t have to sleep as often.

            To make sure your game runs smoothly, you need to make sure everyone is on the same page as to what to expect from the game and the world. Some of this, you can simply explain to the players, but some you have to show them. As a Dungeon Master, it isn’t your job to punish players for not understanding the world you built; it’s your job to educate them until they do understand (or, in the extreme case where they understand but don’t seem to be having fun, to adapt and change the world into one where they will have fun).

Check out my YouTube channel where I tell the stories of my D&D campaigns.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Lark's Landing, Episode 46

Colonial Caerdia: Lark's Landing is a story being told through a 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign I'm running at a local hobby shop called the Devil's Bench. If you aren't familiar with this ongoing story, you can follow this link to Once Upon a Tabletop on YouTube to hear the start of it or read the brief summary I wrote when I switched from video to blog.

You can find the previous episode here.


7th of Waning Spring, 1AL

The 3rd Watch have once again descended into the depths of an ancient, ruined temple, seeking the vampire they believe lives within. They have come to a room decorated with a cat motif which has several doors exiting from it. They choose to go through the only one not explored on the previous visit. Beyond is a hallway with walls carved as guards holding hatchet-headed polearms leading up to a pair of doors etched with the head of a panther god.

Finding no signs of traps, Fiaeorri leads the way and is surprised when two of the guards swing out of the wall, crossing their polearms in front of her with a blue spark. The only way to pass seems to be to go underneath. T'Zaric leads the way, making it look easy - however, Fiaeorri, following behind, brushes one of the polearms and receives an electrical shock on her way under. Everyone else makes it through except for Patrick, bringing up the rear. As he slides under, he gets such a jolt of electricity that he gets paralyzed where he is. The others begin to argue about how to get him the rest of the way through, but soon realize that he's still being injured by the electricity and pull him out.

After recovering from their shocking experience, they open the door into the room beyond. A long, narrow room runs to the right and left, lit by faint light. To the right is a well with light glowing from within and a hole in the high ceiling above it, and to the left is an enormous statue of an ogre-like creature sitting on a bed of hot coals, surrounded by skulls and broken weapons. At the base of the statue, a panther crouches, though it gets up and begins stalking forward as Fiaeorri enters the room, heading for the statue. However, there's something strange about it - it seems confused, and looks tight through Fiaeorri as if she wasn't there.

Then T'Zaric enters the room, and the panther makes straight for him, attacking him. T'Zaric evades it by flying up to the ceiling. As the rest of the group enter the room, the panther doesn't seem to be able to see them either, and continues to leap into the air swiping at T'Zaric's feet.

Fiaeorri climbs the statue to have a look in its mouth and is disappointed to find nothing there, while Patrick examines the bones, determining that they are over 10000 years old. Then everyone turns their attention to the well at the other end of the room, which appears to be filled with some sort of liquid light. T'Zaric uses a magically formed hand to fill a crystal flask with it. A tiny amount clings to the outside and appears to be spreading, but he managed to clean it off. Fiaeorri then gets him to pour a drop on one of her lead coins, and they watch as the drop slowly spreads to cover the whole thing - though, oddly, it stops there and doesn't spread to anything else touching it.

Fascinated, T'Zaric dips his mask in the liquid light. Extang uses his ten foot pole to find that the well is about five feet deep, resulting in the pole also getting eventually coated in light.

Frustrated by the continued aggressive attention of the panther, T'Zaric flies up the hole - and finds himself emerging into a room and being smacked into the wall by a giant blue creature with pointed teeth and yellow eyes that declares him to be lunch. T'Zaric grins nervously, then teleports back down into the room below, gibbering to his friends about what he just saw.

Fiaeorri takes the magic whistle that allows someone blowing it to fly and zips up the hole to attack the thing. It delightedly swings back, doing a considerable amount of damage. Most of the others can't do anything, as they can't fly or get a line of sight on the creature up the hole, but T'Zaric follows Fiaeorri back up to throw some spells at the creature. Fiaeorri, of course has decided to get in a few more hits before retreating from this dangerous foe, leaving T'Zaric as the only target. With a couple glaive swings, T'Zaric is barely holding onto consciousness, and he also retreats from the hole, trusting that such a large creature won't easily fit down it.

Below, Quib is furiously trying to heal his friends as best he can. They all wait for a few moments, but nothing happens. Not happy with the idea of letting something live if it wants to eat him, T'Zaric flies to the bottom of the hole and sends a fireball up into the room above, and is rewarded with an enraged roar. Then, down the hole comes the creature - though it seems to have shrunk small enough to fit through - swinging its glaive. A number of others gather around on the ground, attacking from a distance. T'Zaric ignites another fireball, right in the creature's face, taking a fair amount of damage himself, but it still isn't enough to take the creature. It swings its glaive... and T'Zaric is knocked unconscious and begins to fall. Luckily, Patrick is ready for this, and he manages to revive T'Zaric with a spell - which is a very good thing, because T'Zaric then fell into the liquid light, which isn't a very good place to be unconscious.

The creature, heavily wounded, retreats back up the hole, but T'Zaric isn't ready to let it get away. He launches another fireball and follows behind it, finding that it has finished the job - the creature is dead and has returned to its full size. He does a quick search of the room, which is covered in charred and smoldering furs, before getting a rope and tying it to the creature's leg so the others can climb up. The treasure that T'Zaric didn't sneak for himself is gathered and they decide it is time to rest - a feeling reinforced by the poison in the air weighing on them.

They make their way back to the big room without the poisonous air and begin to make camp - but, as they go, they notice that a bit of the liquid light was still clinging to T'Zaric and was spreading. They try many magical ways of removing it, to no avail. Slowly it begins to cover all of T'Zaric - and as it creeps over his nose and mouth he finds his breathing cut off. Thinking quickly, he pulls up the hood of his cloak that allows him to breath under water. This appears to do the trick, saving his life - but leaving him as a strange glowing creature.

Extang, who mostly sat out the last fight, isn't quite ready to rest yet. He grabs Logan and goes to check out the one side passage that hasn't been thoroughly explored yet. It leads to a room the 3rd Watch had approached before, but had determined not to cross. It has a thick layer of dust on the floor that, when disturbed, forms into figures that move around the room. Previously, the 3rd Watch had decided to leave the spirits to their rest, but Extang is determined to explore. He and Logan make their way through the room, attacking the aggressive guard-like figures and finding them to be quite insubstantial.

They pass through the room, and into the hall beyond which takes them to the cat-motif room. Extang notices that the statue of the panther-man is missing just as it attacks him from the shadows beside the door, not so statue-like anymore. Logan is quick to defend Extang, but the creature seems entirely focused on the dragonborn, as if it recognizes him. Extang flees down the hall, and the panther-man follows, tearing into him. Logan, quick behind, is able to arrive in time to kill the monster before it kills Extang - and they watch as it turns back into stone. Not wanting to fight this thing yet again, Extang searches it for anything it has that might be reviving it, but his best guess comes from the strange cavity in its chest.

The two return to the others and join them in sleeping away much of the rest of the day. None of those on watch notice anything out of place. When everyone is awake again, Extang expresses great curiosity about that panther that can only see T'Zaric. They agree to go experiment with it a bit, but on their way there they must go through the cat-motif room - where someone is waiting for them. The vampire they came to hunt stands in the room, commenting on how good it is to see them again. He raises his arms to the sky and calls to some unseen friends.

The 3rd Watch begin their attacks on him, and are surprised to find T'Zaric flying over to defend the vampire. Logan charges in to fight, while Fiaeorri attempts to charm T'Zaric back to their side, only to find that the spell has no effect on T'Zaric - likewise, Patrick discovers that his spell to hold a person in place isn't powerful enough to trap a vampire. So, the young cleric breaks out his secret weapon, casting a spell called Daylight, filling the room with brilliant light. He and the group had discovered that sunlight was the only way to permanently destroy vampires, and they believed this was a surefire way to do the job.

The vampire, however, is entirely unaffected. It seems that, in spite of its grandiose name, Daylight does not produce the lethal light of the sun.


And that's where this game session ends. Find out how our heroes will fare next week in Episode 47.

Out With The Old

            As time moves on, everything we take for granted changes. Traditions rooted in purpose and significance have their origins lost, yet continue to exist because it’s tradition. Festivals and celebrations evolve or get co-opted, becoming entirely new events with little or no relevance to their original purpose. The meanings of words and the structures of languages change, leading to disagreements about recorded information from earlier ages. Sometimes records are destroyed, out of embarrassment or malice, erasing whole sections of history. When events of the past century have been clouded, muddled, and denied, what can we be certain of from even earlier times?

            It doesn’t take long for things to change. How many memes are there about kids not understanding common objects from twenty years ago? We fail to pass on knowledge and history because we take it for granted that it’s common knowledge, and it fades into obscurity. And let’s not forget that history is written by the winners, or that history is nothing but words – and, with enough influence, words can be changed.

            It’s important to remember the important things. It’s important to pass them on. And it’s important to stay aware of how meanings change over time, and move to correct it if we see it happening. Otherwise, it’s out with the old, in with the new.

Check out my YouTube channel where I tell the stories of my D&D campaigns.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Lark's Landing, Episode 45

Colonial Caerdia: Lark's Landing is a story being told through a 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign I'm running at a local hobby shop called the Devil's Bench. If you aren't familiar with this ongoing story, you can follow this link to Once Upon a Tabletop on YouTube to hear the start of it or read the brief summary I wrote when I switched from video to blog.

You can find the previous episode here.


37th of Waxing Spring - 7th of Waning Spring, 1AL

After reestablishing herself with her former cult, Fiaeorri takes a trip to visit the bronze dragonborn woman whose husband she had murdered. The dragonborn had put out a contract with the adventurer's guild asking for her husband to be found - or some evidence of his death - offering a large reward, presumably with the money the 3rd Watch had given her to help her support herself and her child who has yet to hatch. Fiaeorri is not happy about this and intends to discourage the widow from continuing with her search.

Fiaeorri magically disguises herself as a hideous creature with bloody swords and sneaks into the house where the dragonborn is sleeping, curled around her egg. She shouts out, waking and terrifying the mother, threatening to smash the egg if the search for her husband continues. At that, the dragonborn belches lightning at her and starts screaming for the guards. Mildly singed, Fiaeorri retreats, reiterating her threats before vanishing into the night which is coming alive with people woken by the ruckus.

In the morning, the guards are more active than usual, and T'Zaric catches rumors of an attack the night before, but the group isn't too concerned seeing as how the militia seems to be on top of the situation. They're far more concerned about tracking down the vampire.

Hammer has his own concerns after having been taken over by the vampire. He goes to Stor at the adventurer's guild, now dubbed the Caerdian Explorers Guild, and asks him to find a replacement for him. He doesn't feel up to the adventuring life anymore. He was a guard before, and a guard he shall be again - plus he has plenty of skills he wants to learn now that his life is his own. Stor assures him he understands, and that he will find someone. Hammer returns home and informs the rest of the 3rd Watch. They are sad to see him go, but understanding as well.

Extang sets out to carry on with a plan he had come up the night before, getting a cake baked and arranging a surprise farewell party for Stor. That evening, they all burst into the tavern and the connected guild hall with their cake. Stor breaks out the mead and they have a great time, with their newest member, Quib, entertaining them with music and magic.

Partway through the evening, the door opens and a scrawny young man with over-sized armor and eyes like the sum comes in. Stor waves him over and introduces him as Patrick, the replacement for Hammer. The group immediately begin to question him, but he's hesitant to talk about himself in public, so they return to their home base with them. There he tells them that he's a divine child, born to two worshipers of Epesta who sent him to safety with his monk guardian - who he has snuck away from to be here. As for his skills, he's a cleric of Epesta.

With first Quib, and now this strange young man, some of the group are beginning to question Stor's recruitment talents. Nevertheless, they accept Patrick as one of their number - at least for now.

The next day, they spend their time preparing for their next adventure and gathering what information they can on vampires - with Fiaeorri asking Gregor, as undead are loathed by Pagslas, and T'Zaric seeking knowledge from Patrick's collection of books, which is delayed because Patrick's guardian isn't happy that his charge has been sneaking out and is worried about Somvidian spies. In the end, they do manage to gather some useful information.

The following day, the 3rd Watch finally head out to hunt down the vampire, aiming to start with the ruined temple. There was a little concern about finding their way without Stor's memory for landmarks, and his ability to find enough food to feed everyone, but it ends up not being a problem. After the seven day journey, they camp outside the temple. A couple of them notice that there seem to be more bats and rats around than there were before.

In the morning, they enter the temple, working their way down into the lower levels - noticing along the way that a few traps had been reset. They reach the large room where Extang and T'Zaric, along with the old members of the 3rd Watch, had fought a giant snake with a head on each end. Here, they have three doors to choose from - they decide to go through the middle one, which wasn't explored the last time they were here.

Beyond is a passageway, filled with a yellow haze in the air. After about ten feet, the floor drops away into a long pit with plants filling the bottom and metal bars set across the top every five feet. T'Zaric decides to test walking across the bars, figuring he can fly if something goes wrong. The bars seem stable enough, but the plants below begin flinging thorns up at him. This proves to be little more than a nuisance as he, Extang, and Logan clear the plants, allowing everyone to cross to the far side, where there is a door that looks very much like the back of a secret door.

They open the heavy door, and find themselves looking out into a room decorated with a cat motif, with an ajar calendar stone on the far side, a statue of a panther-man, and stuffed cats everywhere.


And that's where this session comes to an end. Find out what happens in a week with Episode 46.

Necessary Compromises

            The latest event in preparation of the upcoming game Chronicles of Elyria (now that we’ve overcome the plague) is map voting. It’s an extraordinary opportunity for the future players of this game to vote on, and determine, what the map of the world (well, the starting continent) will look like. And each server will have its own unique map – making for a very different game depending on which server you play on. Of course, to me, the most interesting part is how the community reacted.

            I can’t speak for the whole community – only the small piece I interact with – but I suspect it’s a fairly accurate representation of what happened elsewhere as well. It all started with the releasing of the maps...

            I promptly looked through all the maps. Taking into consideration the needs of my kingdom, duchy, and county, I promptly narrowed what I felt would be the best maps for us down to 3 or 4. Within an hour, I had chosen a favorite, which matched one of the favorites of the count of my county.

            At the duchy level, we had a discussion on each of the maps. I was happy to see that the map I’d chosen was also popular at this level of our organization, and I believe it even made it into the top three.

            After a few days, there was a meeting of all the duchy leaders at kingdom level. Each of them had brought their favorite maps – and then they selected the map that they felt suited everyone’s needs, and announced it to the community at large – saying they were free to vote however they wished, but this was the map the leadership felt would be best for our kingdom’s needs.

            I was surprised, and disappointed, that the map was one that hadn’t even been seriously considered in my duchy. I wasn’t fond of it at all, and I wasn’t the only one. A fair number of people were expressing their disappointment in the choice, and demanded answers from the leadership.

            Our king then answered the questions, expressing that this map wasn’t the best pick for anyone, however it was the map that best suited the combined needs of all the groups in our kingdom. He went into further detail about the process that was used, and it was more than enough to make me (and others) accept this map. I promptly switched my train of thought to figuring out how to adapt to this new map, and I was satisfied that, while it was far from the best map, it was quite adequate.

            And, as usual, it got me thinking about the whole scenario, and applying it to the world at large. No matter what decision is made, at any level of an organization or a government, there are always people who speak up and are unhappy about it. It always seems the most remarkable when the leaders, who made the decision in the first place, are unhappy with it – why would they make the decision if they knew it wasn’t great?

            Often (not always!) it comes down to being a compromise. The more people you add to a group, the harder it becomes to make everyone happy about any one thing – and it’s outright impossible to make everyone happy about multiple things. So, in comes the compromise – the decision that nobody particularly likes, but is the best that can be done to make everyone happy.

            Yet, so many people insist on raging and being angry about these decisions. They will shout their anger to the world at large. Strangely, I don’t blame them – because the only thing that is usually presented is the decision, not the means of reaching it. Once a decision is made, it tends to be presented as the best option available, even if it clearly isn’t the case – the goal being to show confidence in the decision. I can’t help but wonder, would it work better if the leadership expressed that it was a compromise? It seems like people are more willing to accept a decision that’s a compromise if they know that’s what it is (provided they actually care about trying to make as many people happy as possible). At least, that’s how it worked out in the case of my little Elyrian microcosm.

Check out my YouTube channel where I tell the stories of my D&D campaigns.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

When Ghosts Come To Call

            Wooo woo woo wooo woo woo. Woooo wooOOOoooOoo woo woowoo woooo woo. WooOOOooo wooo wooooooo wOoOoooo woOOooo wooo. WoooOOOO woooOoOOooo woo wooo wooowOOwooo woo. Woowooowoo woo wooOOooowoo wooo woo wOO woo. Wooo woo woo?

            WoO woo, wooo woOooOo woo woo, woo wOooo woo wooo woooOOOOOooo wooo woo. Woo wooOOooo woo woo woowoowOOoowoo woo wooo woo. Woo woo wOOO wOOoooOOoo wooo woo. Wooo woo woo, woooOOoo woo wooo woo wooOOOOoooo woo woo.

            Woo woo wOOwoo wooo, woo woooo wooo wOoo wooo woo woo woo. WOoo woooOoo woooOo woo woo wOOooOoo woo woo. Woo! Woo wooo woooOoooOOOwooo wooo woo woowooo wooowoOo woo woo – woo woowoo woo woo.

            Woo woooOooooo, wooo wooowoo woo woo woo. Woo woooo woo woo, woo wOOOoo woo woo wooo. WoooOOOooooOOOoooOOoOo wooo woo. WooO woOOoo wooo woo, wooo woo wOO woOoo woo wOOoowoo woo!

-Guest blog by I.M.A. Ghost

Check out my YouTube channel where I tell the stories of my D&D campaigns.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Lark's Landing, Episode 44

Colonial Caerdia: Lark's Landing is a story being told through a 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign I'm running at a local hobby shop called the Devil's Bench. If you aren't familiar with this ongoing story, you can follow this link to Once Upon a Tabletop on YouTube to hear the start of it or read the brief summary I wrote when I switched from video to blog.

You can find the previous episode here.


35th-37th of Waxing Spring, 1AL

The 3rd Watch have been woken during the third watch of the night by what appears to be a vampire seeking retribution for the desecration of his temple. Battle is joined, but with the added challenge that Hammer has been put under some sort of influence by the vampire and is fighting his friends. In addition, the vampire is moving with inhuman speed. He darts across the field of battle, avoiding all those clustered around to attack him, and grabs Extang - whispering that his friends don't need his help before sinking his fangs into the dragonborn's neck to drink his blood.

Extang, however, is more resilient than the vampire anticipated, and manages to keep his concentration on the spell he cast to enhance Fiaeorri and Stor's speed. Once again, the melee fighters swarm in to batter the vampire - with Hammer on their heels - while T'Zaric hangs back in the air, casting spells. However, the vampire focuses attention on Extang, trying to break his concentration on that spell - and finally tosses him to the ground, unconscious. The ending of the spell leaves Stor and Fiaeorri exhausted and unable to fight for a moment, allowing the vampire to take some swipes at them with his axe.

As soon as he sees Extang hits the ground, Logan kneels down to heal his wounds with his divine powers, earning a jibe from the vampire about the sentimentality of mortals. Extang then uses his magical boots to leap up into a tree, out of harm's way while the vampire continues to hack at Stor and Fiaeorri with the confidence that Hammer is taking care of Logan.

However, after more spells hurtled by T'Zaric and Extang, as well as the attacks from the others, the vampire decides that he bit off more than he can chew. He retreats from battle, commenting that the group is more formidable than he anticipated - but he doesn't mind. Now that he knows where they live, he is more than happy to play the long game, preying on their friends and family. He asks Hammer to hold off the group, turns into a bat, and flies off into the jungle. T'Zaric tries to follow after, hoping to finish him off, but loses sight of him in amongst the trees.

The group turn their attentions on Hammer, quickly knocking him unconscious and binding him in ropes. They then move camp a little ways, just to be safe, and finish their night's rest - being awoken early in the morning by Hammer, who is determined to follow his vampiric friend so he can protect him. He eventually breaks out of the ropes and begins walking off into the jungle, but the rest of the group manage to weaken him enough for Fiaeorri to use her magic to put him to sleep. They tie him up again and, when he wakes up, convince him that they are taking him to the vampire, but can't risk untying him because he was attacking them before.

When they finally arrive at Port Noble near the end of the day, Hammer is infuriated. However, he is convinced that 3rd Watch simply got turned around and will head right back out after they stop at home. Once they arrive home, they sneakily knock Hammer to the floor and place their immovable rod - a magical item that is nearly impossible to move once its button has been pushed - on top of his back to keep him in place.

Stor heads off to his new room above the adventurer's guild, checking in on the lower building as he passes - and isn't entirely surprised to see Siha, leader of the 4th Watch, camped out there. He leaves her asleep and heads up to his own room.

The rest of the group also go to sleep, keeping an eye on the restless Hammer. Part way through the night, at about the same time as the vampire had struck the night before, a sudden change comes over the sentient construct. He's suddenly back to his normal self and extremely embarrassed and ashamed about how he was behaving. He is released from the immovable rod and the rest of the night passes uneventfully.

In the morning, they all gather by the adventurer's guild. Fiaeorri insists that they must go out and destroy the foul vampire, but Stor asks them to wait a few days - he's sticking to his plan to retire, and he wants to find a replacement for himself before they go out again, as they were nearly overwhelmed last time. Fiaeorri isn't happy about it, but she and the others agree.

They then get an update from Siha on what's been going on at the guild, as she decided to watch over the place since no one else was. She tells them about the minor contracts dropped off by various people, as well as the people interested in joining the guild - who, so far, are mostly the 4th Watch. While this is going on, Extang splits the money they found into equal shares and hands them out before taking T'Zaric's portion directly to the council, as per their arrangement. T'Zaric is greatly saddened by this, though he cheers up a bit when Hammer gives him and Logan some of his share as an apology for attacking them during the fight with the vampire.

Stor puts out the call for people interested in joining the 3rd Watch and, naturally, the 4th Watch are quick to respond. Another candidate also arrives, brought over and being vouched for by Wyatt. It is a bird-person, about the height of a dwarf and with arms instead of wings. He looks a lot like a giant green-and-yellow budgie.

The 3rd Watch aren't quite sold on their candidates, as the 4th Watch are quite young and the bird-person - named Quib - can't even speak unless he's imitating someone. Even after showing off some impressive magic, Quib's acceptableness is in doubt - until he plays his lute for them. His performance is so beautiful that he wins over everyone except Hammer, who wants to test the 4th Watch first. That, however, doesn't take long, and Quib is accepted into their group.

They all head off to their own tasks for the day. Fiaeorri finds herself at her shrine to Pagslas, and gets approached by a halfling attempting to buy her necklace. As the necklace is priceless to her, Fiaeorri simply brushes him aside, and is shocked when he makes a grab for it - though he quickly backs off and apologizes. He turns to leave, but not before Fiaeorri sees him tucking a necklace that looks remarkably like hers back into his shirt. She lunges for him, but he runs - though he's fairly easy to catch with his shorter legs.

Grabbing out his necklace, Fiaeorri demands to know where he got it. He eventually admits to being part of a group that was sent to get it, however he snuck ahead of the group and took it for himself. When he returned, the gnome who had been the group's guide was gone. The next day, when the group discovered the missing treasure, the gnome had taken the blame and the halfling was happy to let it go at that.

When Fiaeorri insists that she's taking this second necklace, the halfling twists out of her grasp and runs off again - this time getting into an area populated well enough that Fiaeorri can't catch him without making a scene. Instead, she follows at a distance until she sees him enter a house, then heads home - intending to return in the night.

However, as she walks through the village on her return journey that night, Fiaeorri finds herself face-to-scarred-face with Meglin, one of the elite guard of the cult Fiaeorri grew up with. Meglin leads Fiaeorri to a house on the edge of the village. Inside is another woman from Fiaeorri's past - Aliya - though she looks much different now - so different that Fiaeorri had actually served with her in the militia without ever noticing. The other person in the room, lounging in a very rough chair, burned and scarred nearly beyond recognition is Gregor - the leader of Fiaeorri's cult.

She immediately falls to her knees and offers him her necklace - which had belonged to him in the first place. Gregor thanks her for keeping it safe and informs her that she has been deemed to be still trustworthy, and that he seeks to rebuild the True Daughters of Pagslas. Fiaeorri is very excited about this prospect - so much so that she doesn't even bat an eye when Gregor asks her to go out into the world to fetch money to fund the project. In a heartbeat, she agrees.


And that's where this game session ends. We won't be playing next week, so come back in two weeks to find out what happens in Episode 45.

A Matter of Perspective

            This morning I was doing a touch of research on a magic item in my Dungeons & Dragons campaign, and I found myself reading an article (more of a rant, really) about what the writer believed to be some of the strangest items that have appeared in the in the D&D multiverse over the years. I found the premise of the article intriguing, but as I read it I found myself to be quite disappointed – because, apart from the basic descriptions of some magic items, everything the person said, from what makes a good D&D game to how magic items come into being, was wrong.

            Okay, not wrong; let’s be fair here. This was an opinion piece, and therefore couldn’t be wrong. However, the writer was suffering from the delusion that how they play and think about D&D is the one and only way to play and think about it – and, as a result, greatly misrepresented the entire game.

            They started off by explaining that every magical item must be made by someone, and therefore a lot of the more ridiculous magic items have no right to exist – because who would bother investing the large amount of time and resources needed in creating – for example – a ring that makes the person wearing it disagree with whatever anyone else says to them. Now, the beginning of the argument is sound. It does take considerable time and resources to make a magical object, however there are two very important considerations left out: the first is that a great many cursed items were created to guard treasures and strongholds from thieves, and the second is that people can make mistakes while crafting a magical item and end up with something entirely different from what they intended. These two points explain the existence of any magical item imaginable.

            It’s also worth mentioning that the writer stumbled upon the latter of these two points part way through the list – with a magic item that specifically states in its description that it was a mistake – but they failed to amend the premise at the beginning, making me wonder if they didn’t think of it, couldn’t be bothered, or didn’t make the connection that other magical items could be mistakes as well.

            A few numbers in came another comment – about an item that gives players a bonus for agricultural abilities for a year. The writer went on at length about how any game where such a thing would be useful would mean there’s something wrong with the game. A later comment about an item that allows anything to be turned into something edible is that someone who is worried about that is missing the greater point of D&D.

            From this, I gathered that the writer believes D&D is about one thing: delving into dungeons, defeating monsters, and leveling up. And, you know what? That’s true of one type of D&D game – called a dungeon crawl. It’s fun, it’s fast, it’s dangerous, and it’s essentially the same as playing a hack-and-slash video game. However, D&D offers far more than that. It can be a survival game, where a lack of food might actually become a serious problem. It can be a game focused on the story, where the dungeons are hardly important at all. It could be focused on the roleplaying aspect, which could even lead to never even going into a dungeon at all – indeed, even spending a year tending a farm.

            In fact, the game actually has a large number of rules laid out for “downtime”, which is when players aren’t out adventuring. Because, let’s face it – there are only so many adventures to be had, and even the most seasoned adventurers need a break some time. There can be weeks, months, even years between adventures – and there’s a lot of fun to be had in those times as well.

            The final statement that told me a lot about the writer was that an item known as the Wand of Wonder was included on this list. This is a magic item that causes a random effect when used, from powerful offensive magic to a harmless cloud of butterflies. The writer believes this is a useless item, because of its unpredictability – would you carry a gun into battle that sometimes shoots bubbles and sometimes shoots bullets? Which tells me everything I need to know about this person. They believe that D&D is a combat game, and all that matters is making your character as powerful as possible. Which is perfectly acceptable for some games, but it isn’t representative of all D&D games.

            Why would you take such an item into battle as your weapon? Because this is a game, and that wand can do some amazing things. What’s more, it provides a wonderful storytelling opportunity because you don’t know what’s going to happen until you use it – and I grantee that the big bad villain getting peppered with butterflies will be a moment everyone at the table remembers and laughs about for a long time!

            So, if you find yourself so inclined to write an article about the odd magic items in D&D, try to do your research and find the items that truly are wacky (they exist!) rather than rather ordinary ones that have no point for your preferred style of play.

            In fact, if you find yourself inclined to write about anything, particularly if you’re presenting something in a less-than-positive light, take the time to find out why things are being done the way they are. You may discover that your frustration comes from your particular outlook on the subject, and that if you take the time to understand someone else’s experiences you may come to understand why things are the way they are. This may not make you any happier about it, but at least your article will come across as enlightened.

Check out my YouTube channel where I tell the stories of my D&D campaigns.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.