Campaign play-by-play: Mouse Kingdom Adventure
(What if our adventure to Disney had been a D&D campaign?)
*
We rendezvoused with our guide at a high white encampment. Apparently it was used by an acrobatic tribe to hold rituals, but that campaign is for another day. We reached the entryway after a long trek, but you do not need to know the hours we walked per day, nor the number of rations or water we consumed. Water was an issue in our quest, but luckily water rations abounded.
The party consisted of three members. A young hobbit, a burly human male, and a half-elf. All began at level 0, but swiftly gained experience at the gate of the kingdom, where they were beset by a number of singing, cavorting bipedal animals. These proved easy to slay and skin, and the hides were turned into serviceable leather armor for the proto-thief. She especially liked her helmet, which was crafted from the ears of an oversized mouse.
Waiting for a chance to fly on a large-eared elephant took more adventure time than I care to recount, but while waiting, we gained a level. At level one, we gained the "get into dungeons more swiftly" skill. We proceeded to our first adventure, which was in a dungeon called "Small World."
The mobs were made up of curious clockwork puppets. Their attack was a song... I can't describe it, but it fills me with horror to think of it, even now. We were bested, and escaped only by the cunning of our hobbit thief, who sang at the top of her lungs to drown out their endless melody... We retreated to lick our wounds, but stumbled upon a Haunted Mansion instead of an inn.
This mansion contained a number of strange but ultimately harmless ghouls. The human, who is a cleric, cast several warding undead spells, and we managed to escape without harm. The young hobbit had to be talked out of bringing any of the items we found; they could've been cursed, after all.
From there, we were teleported to another strange house. This one was larger inside than outside, and required flying skills to navigate the figures -- more cogwork puppetry -- I sense a greater evil lurking at the heart of this land. The half elf, who is studying wizardry, was useful in enabling us to hover above the pitfalls below. We seemed to be peripheral to another party's adventure, which involved a pirate and a crocodile. The pirate met an unfortunate end, but... it was not, ultimately, our problem.
Continuing on, we paused to regroup and consult a map before continuing. We decided to journey to another part of the kingdom, a more tropical locale (probably due to magical weather conditions). We were taken on a boat ride to seek food, but found only more strange cogwork creatures -- these were animals, but obviously inedible. Our guide continually made horrific jokes, and at a certain point the young hobbit pushed him into the water. The cogwork crocodiles made short work of him... Sadly we lost faction with the water people, which came into play on our next adventure.
We paused to eat at a small inn. The food was adequate yet horribly overpriced due to our loss of faction. Then, we went to a small bay known for its overpopulation of pirates. The young hobbit soon fell in with bad company, finding the pirate's pursuit of ill-gotten wealth much more interesting than the law's pursuit of the pirate. Try as we might, we were no able to dissuade her. We could not carry much loot with us when it was time to leave, however, much to the disappointment of the small thief.
After that, we were returning to an inn in a slightly more welcoming part of the kingdom to eat when we heard a strange noise... Finally we saw the king of the realm -- a human-sized bipedal mouse. He cavorted before his subjects, along with women and men in strange garments (absolutely not suiting the weather, which made me believe that they were perhaps also animatronic). I tried to ascertain the mouse king's intent in creating these animatronic beasts, but was not able to -- his mind is more subtle than mine, so far.
The young hobbit became enamored of the local custom of glittery facial adornment and soon clamored that we go get one. We took her to the place where such a thing could be stolen, but sadly had to pay, undoubtedly due to our loss of faction from the earlier adventure. The human and half-elf soon grew weary of the town for various reasons, and insisted upon a ride home via a steam-powered locomotive. The locomotive took them swiftly through many places that might have been dangerous on foot.
Before the party returned home, they stayed to watch one final display -- a parade of singing creatures. The mouse king and his bride led the parade, which contained several more tasty-looking human-sized rodents of various kinds. The human and half-elf decided upon a likely-looking duck for their repast, but soon the weather of the passageway threatened a storm, and they had to retreat.
All in all, the adventure was troublesome to me. I cannot deem it a success because we never ascertained the inner workings of the mouse kingdom, nor the reason behind the bevy of cogwork creatures. Perhaps another journey is needed before we can know for sure -- I've heard the rumor of underground tunnels that might shed light upon this issue...
*
We rendezvoused with our guide at a high white encampment. Apparently it was used by an acrobatic tribe to hold rituals, but that campaign is for another day. We reached the entryway after a long trek, but you do not need to know the hours we walked per day, nor the number of rations or water we consumed. Water was an issue in our quest, but luckily water rations abounded.
The party consisted of three members. A young hobbit, a burly human male, and a half-elf. All began at level 0, but swiftly gained experience at the gate of the kingdom, where they were beset by a number of singing, cavorting bipedal animals. These proved easy to slay and skin, and the hides were turned into serviceable leather armor for the proto-thief. She especially liked her helmet, which was crafted from the ears of an oversized mouse.
Waiting for a chance to fly on a large-eared elephant took more adventure time than I care to recount, but while waiting, we gained a level. At level one, we gained the "get into dungeons more swiftly" skill. We proceeded to our first adventure, which was in a dungeon called "Small World."
The mobs were made up of curious clockwork puppets. Their attack was a song... I can't describe it, but it fills me with horror to think of it, even now. We were bested, and escaped only by the cunning of our hobbit thief, who sang at the top of her lungs to drown out their endless melody... We retreated to lick our wounds, but stumbled upon a Haunted Mansion instead of an inn.
This mansion contained a number of strange but ultimately harmless ghouls. The human, who is a cleric, cast several warding undead spells, and we managed to escape without harm. The young hobbit had to be talked out of bringing any of the items we found; they could've been cursed, after all.
From there, we were teleported to another strange house. This one was larger inside than outside, and required flying skills to navigate the figures -- more cogwork puppetry -- I sense a greater evil lurking at the heart of this land. The half elf, who is studying wizardry, was useful in enabling us to hover above the pitfalls below. We seemed to be peripheral to another party's adventure, which involved a pirate and a crocodile. The pirate met an unfortunate end, but... it was not, ultimately, our problem.
Continuing on, we paused to regroup and consult a map before continuing. We decided to journey to another part of the kingdom, a more tropical locale (probably due to magical weather conditions). We were taken on a boat ride to seek food, but found only more strange cogwork creatures -- these were animals, but obviously inedible. Our guide continually made horrific jokes, and at a certain point the young hobbit pushed him into the water. The cogwork crocodiles made short work of him... Sadly we lost faction with the water people, which came into play on our next adventure.
We paused to eat at a small inn. The food was adequate yet horribly overpriced due to our loss of faction. Then, we went to a small bay known for its overpopulation of pirates. The young hobbit soon fell in with bad company, finding the pirate's pursuit of ill-gotten wealth much more interesting than the law's pursuit of the pirate. Try as we might, we were no able to dissuade her. We could not carry much loot with us when it was time to leave, however, much to the disappointment of the small thief.
After that, we were returning to an inn in a slightly more welcoming part of the kingdom to eat when we heard a strange noise... Finally we saw the king of the realm -- a human-sized bipedal mouse. He cavorted before his subjects, along with women and men in strange garments (absolutely not suiting the weather, which made me believe that they were perhaps also animatronic). I tried to ascertain the mouse king's intent in creating these animatronic beasts, but was not able to -- his mind is more subtle than mine, so far.
The young hobbit became enamored of the local custom of glittery facial adornment and soon clamored that we go get one. We took her to the place where such a thing could be stolen, but sadly had to pay, undoubtedly due to our loss of faction from the earlier adventure. The human and half-elf soon grew weary of the town for various reasons, and insisted upon a ride home via a steam-powered locomotive. The locomotive took them swiftly through many places that might have been dangerous on foot.
Before the party returned home, they stayed to watch one final display -- a parade of singing creatures. The mouse king and his bride led the parade, which contained several more tasty-looking human-sized rodents of various kinds. The human and half-elf decided upon a likely-looking duck for their repast, but soon the weather of the passageway threatened a storm, and they had to retreat.
All in all, the adventure was troublesome to me. I cannot deem it a success because we never ascertained the inner workings of the mouse kingdom, nor the reason behind the bevy of cogwork creatures. Perhaps another journey is needed before we can know for sure -- I've heard the rumor of underground tunnels that might shed light upon this issue...