The History of Grydain pt. 1

This is part one of me diving into the setting and history of the world I'm creating for my ongoing Dungeons and Dragons game, where I'm the DM (most of you already know this but just in case). This is a whole new world that I and one of my players have created. This particular post is the history behind Grydain, where the game is primarily taking place. Please enjoy.

The city of Grydain lies within the country of Nyldaria. Nyldaria was founded centuries ago, while Grydain is approaching its 200th anniversary. The Royal Family has a tradition that whenever they reach adulthood they may either become the new ruler of one of the cities as Jarl OR they may found a new city and become it's Jarl.

The Royal family also has a history of being notoriously prejudice against certain races. Most races in fact.

Now the Country of Nyldaria has been at war with the orcs for centuries. The orcs were/are relentless, as they have right to be (they were the original inhabitants of the land). In fact, the orcs were so hellbent on taking back their land that they began conquering and pillaging smaller cities and settlements. This in turn left many races seeking shelter and refuge.

The Royal Family lived in the City of Joelby, which was at the very heart of Nyldaria and was only allowing the wealthiest and noblest families to live their. It was full of Humans, High Elves, and Mountain Dwarves, and that was it.

When the refugees began pouring in, the Royal Family turned them away completely, with no hope of and type of aid or assistance.

This troubled Reynholm, the son of King Thomas. Reynholm, despite his raising, felt compassion for the refugees. He wanted to help them in some way.

And so, when he approached the "Age of Nobility", as the Royal Family had taken to naming their tradition, instead of accepting a Jarl position from one of the already established cities, he told his family that he wanted to establish a new city for the refugees that had nowhere else to go.

Outraged, his father rejected his proposal immediately. However, his mother, Lillian, reminded him that this was tradition, and they had no choice.

So, Thomas agreed to allow his son to establish a new city, but under two conditions:

1. He would receive no aid from the City of Joelby OR the Kingdom.

2. He had to have the City "up and running" with a Keep, a council, and a steady flow of economy ready in two years time.

Obviously, King Thomas assumed that his son would fail completely and come running home to take on a more "acceptable" position, but young Reynholm was determined to succeed.

And so, Reynholm left with only his family, a few guards, and some gold and provisions that his mother Queen Lillian provided for him secretly.

Dungeons and Dragons Summary: [Session 2] Trouble in Grydain (A Giant of a Problem)

Fair met weary travelers!

It is now time for the second installment of our ongoing adventure (and by that I mean here is session 2 of our D & D Campaign)!

Here is our newest party member:

Conch, the Olru`n Merfolk Druid

Jerome- an elephant that Chet receives as a gift (transforms from a small "toy" to the elephant)

Here are our newly introduced NPC's:

Patreon- (human) the late Jarl Wilhelm's uncle who is now, according to tradition, supposed to be the new Jarl of Grydain

Madame Mireal- (high-elf wizard) widow of the late Jarl Wilhelm, member of the counsel of Grydain, and founder of Grydain's college of magic

Vistra- (dwarf) blacksmith and owner of Grydain's Branch of the Bearion Family Armory

Leaf- (firbolg druid) owner of the magic shop known simply as Leaf's

????? - (?????) hooded figure who claims to work for "him"

and here are the enemies that were encountered:

Bugbears

Hill Giant

Minotaurs

Now for the Summary!

After completing General Landrorg's first mission for our Party, he managed to convince them to stay in town for a bit until the next mission. The city paid for everyone to stay at the Griffin's Wings Tavern & Inn with the exception of Zelladawn, compromised with the General and agreed to stay in the forest just outside of the city and was to only be disturbed under dire circumstances.

After a week of nothing but staying at the Inn, the party began to get restless and FINALLY received word from General Landrorg. As the Party made their way towards The Keep, they began to realize that they were receiving recognition from the citizens of Grydain. 

When they arrived at General Landrorg's Office, there was a heated discussion being had between the General, Grimm, Ango Boyland, and two people they hadn't yet been introduced too: a noble fine dressed human named Patreon and a beautiful green-robed high-elf named Mireal. Patreon is discovered to be the uncle of the now deceased Jarl Wilhelm and is there to take his nephew's place as Jarl. Mireal is found to be the widow of Jarl Wilhelm and insists that her former husband wished that the new Jarl of Grydain be chosen by the city's counsel. After many strong words being exchanged, Patreon leaves the room furiously. 

General Landrorg asks Ango to excuse himself, and the General, Mireal, and Grimm inform the party that there have been reports of an on-coming group of bugbears heading straight for the college. The bugbears are being accompanied by a hill giant. The general also inform's the party that Grimm will NOT be accompanying them, so they are on their own. 

After some encouraging words from Mireal, the General urges the Party to get whatever supplies they may need and make haste to deal with this threat. He also added that as a precaution, the citizens have been put under a city-wide house arrest, and that the occupants and contents have all been cleared out of the college, but if they were to come into contact with anyone to say nothing of the bugbears and giant.

After stocking up on supplies, including new armor from the Bearion Family Armory from Vistra, several new weapons from Bilfer's Bits-N-Bobbles, and another "toy" from Rosie, this time for Chet PLUS information on a piece of Conch's past from Leaf at Leaf's, the Party finally heads to face the on-coming threat. 

The Party passes the College and feel tremors with every step. Fifty feet out of city limits, they can see six bugbears coming their way, with another eight bugbears and the giant accompanying them another sixty feet behind them. The Party decides to try to set up a bait-and-trap, with Ogg as the bait. However, like most things with The Party, things do not go quite as they had planned. 

The Party managed to take out the first six bugbears through a series of blasts of cold breath from Ogg's winter wolf Bardou and Chet, Conch, and Raizos attempting to pick them off from the cover of some nearby trees. 

As this took place the Hill Giant accidentally took out two of his bugbearion allies as they entered into the combat. Chet released his newly found ally Jerome from his marble figurine and The Party advanced on their now present enemies. They managed to both blind and freeze the giant's heel, causing him frostbite and to fall to the ground. The bugbears began to throw their javelins into the trees to attack Chet, Conch, and Raizos,  but were defeated instead. 

Finally, with all but one bugbear vanquished, the party could all turn their attention to finishing off the giant. After what seemed like hours (5 to be exact) of combat, Bardou let out a furious blast of cold breathe freezing the giant into a massive block of ice, also freezing the remaining bug bear.

The Party began trekking back to the keep to inform General Landrorg that the job had been completed, a loud clang rang out from the Military's Barracks. The Party went to further investigate, and they found four large minotaurs carrying arms full of weapons and armor. Upon further inspection, The Party found that all of the minotaurs'eyes were glazed over through some means of magic. The Party then turned to see a hooded figure with a plague mask covering his face and a large tome strapped to his cloak. In one hand he held a lantern, and on the other arm a raven. was perched. He asked why they were snooping during the house-arrest and then claimed that "he" would not be pleased. Another clang rang out behind them, and the minotaurs were gone. When The Party turned back to see the hooded figure, but he was gone. 

The Party made it to the Keep just before a sudden violent storm began to pour down. The Party relayed all of the events that had taken place during this task, and the General Landrorg thanked them for help, but seemed to not be concerned with the Hooded Figure; he said that Vistra could re-supply what was taken and that they would increase patrols in the city, but that was all that could be done. This stunned our heroes, clearly being able to tell that something was being keptt from them from their supposed ally. 

All of the sudden, all of the lights in the Keep go out at once. There is a loud crash, and a scream rings out. The lights come back on, and there on the General's desk, is a beaked mask matching the one of the Hooded Figure. 

(This last part is taken directly from my notes) " 'Boys,' Landrorg says, looking very stern and concerened, 'get some rest. I’m going to get word to Zelladawn. It looks like your work here in the city just got started.' He takes another long drink. "

And that's where it ended! We will have our next session this weekend, so be looking for the next summary next week. Thank you all for reading, and until next time: may your geekery be strong and may your rolls be crit 20's!

Picture Credits: 

Conch- created on Heroforge.com

Jerome- https://mulpix.com/instagram/folio_drawing.html

Patreon- https://forum.rpg.net/archive/index.php/t-686001.html

Mireal- https://www.pinterest.com/drbell48/fantasy-elves/

Vistra- https://www.pinterest.com/sk37chyz/cant-touch-this-board/

Leaf- http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Firbolg

Hoooded Figure- https://www.pinterest.com/pin/229191068517070244/

Bugbears- http://www.aidedd.org/dnd/monstres.php?vo=bugbear

Hill Giant- http://www.aidedd.org/dnd/monstres.php?vo=hill-giant

Minotaurs- http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Minotaur

D&D Logo- http://engl393-dnd5th.wikia.com/wiki/D%26D_5th_Edition_Wiki

 

Dungeons and Dragons Summary: [Session 1] Trouble in Grydain (the Party Gathers)

Greetings Geeks and Nerdlings!

As mentioned in my last post, I've begun a bi-monthly D&D game with some friends here in Magnolia! So far we've had two rather intense sessions, both of which lasting longer than five hours!

I've had several people say that they were interested in the sessions, as in they'd like to know more information or they just to know where the story-line is going. So, since I don't have the resources to start a pod-cast, and my players would find filming the sessions to be both embarrassing and an invasion of privacy, I asked if I could start posting a summary of our sessions here on my blog, to which they all agreed!

Please note: I promised to keep all the players identities a secret.

Also, this is a fifth edition homemade campaign. All of the books I've used to create this world are all either official Wizards of the Coast Dungeons and Dragons books OR from the Dungeon Masters Guild website. We mostly go by the book, however I'm laxed on some rules (primarily because I'm still learning).

Before we get started on the summary, here are our four (more in the future, not everyone could make it our first night) players characters:

Chet, the Fey-Blood Bard

Raizos, the Beast-Folk Blood-Hunter

Zelladawn, the Dark-Elf Rogue

Ogg, the Orc Witch-Hunter

Bardou, Ogg's Winter Wolf Companion

Serephere- a giant owl that Zelladawn receives as a gift (transforms from a small "toy" to the giant owl)

Here are the NPC's Introduced in this session:

Sylvia- (half-ling) secretary to General Landrorg [stressed out and skiddish]

General Landrorg- (dwarven fighter) General of Grydain's Military [longs for the front-lines of battle]

Griim- (dragonborn cleric) High Priest of the Temple of Bahumat in Grydain [longs for adventure]

Bilfer- (gnome) owner of the Bilfer's Bits-N-Bobbles shop [eccentric]

Robbie- (Mul) Bartender of the Griffin's Wings Tavern & Inn [keeps his nose down and does his job]

F`ul-Shoon- (half-orc) farmer responsible for feeding Grydain's Troops [longs for acceptance/prone to depression]

Pey and Keele- (humans) lumberjacks never seen working [patriotic and accepting of all races- except orcs]

Rosie- (pixie) native of the forest who agreed to aid our heroes [innocent and seemingly naive]

Ango Boyland- (half-elf) owner of the Griffin's Wings Tavern & Inn and an important figure in the community [somewhat mysterious and extremely flamboyant]

Klar-Taxx- (goliath) a mysterious figure who claims to work for "him"

And here are the enemies that were encountered:

Goblins

Orcs

Orogs

Blink Dog

Displacer Beast

Ogre

Now that all of that is out of the way, on to the summary!

The City of Grydain is under great stress since the murder of Jarl Wilhelm, as well as the continuing onslaught of the invading orcs, which the city has been at war with for over one hundred years.

Recently the crops designated to feeding the military's troops has been targeted by a band of goblins. General Landrorg and the city's counsel has decided that since they have no soldiers that they can pull from the battlefield, that they would bring in aid from elsewhere. Enter our heroes (specifially Chet, Zelladawn, and Ogg)! 

General Landrorg and Grimm, the city's high priest, meet our heroes at Grydain's Keep and inform them that they were to eliminate threat within forty eight hours, but if was completed before dawn, the payment would increase. 

There is a bit of tension in the room what with an orc present, but Landrorg informs the party that Ogg was chosen, hopefully, as a sign that Grydain believes in second chances. Landrorg also informs Zelladawn that the completion of this task will repay the debt that Zelladawn owes him.

Landrorg tells the party to meet him at the Griffin's Wings Tavern & Inn at dusk to meet the final member of the party and further instructions, Grimm agrees to accompany there party on this task as well as show them around the city. The party begins to leave the Keep when they encounter a Winter Wolf, who seems ready to fight. Ogg walks over and pats him on the head, and informs the group that this is his companion, Bardou.

The Party does some shopping at Bilfer's Bits-N-Bobbles, meets Robbie and day-drinks at the Griffin's Wings Tavern & Inn (where Chet out-drinks Ogg, who then almost gets into a fist-fight with Pey and Keele), and also meet an extremely drunk half-orc named F`ul-Shoon, who just so happens to be the one growing the crops that are being raided. He informs the party that the goblins always attack at night, and that they are raiding in a specific pattern. He heads home to sober up and wait to meet the party at his home. 

Landrorg finally arrives and introduces the party to their final member (Raizos) and points thr group in the direction of F`ul-Shoon's cottage. Upon arrival, F`ul-Shoon tells the party where the next next projected area of the crops would get hit. 

After making camp and whilst waiting on the impending battle, the party is visited by a Pixie who claims to have seen the group of goblins and orcs, and also gives the party Rogue Zelladawn a gift: a "toy" emerald owl that can turn into a giant owl (named Serephere). 

Five goblins finally appear, and our heroes make short work of four of them, and try to interrogate the fifth, only to see a sixth previously unnoticed scout tucking tail and running. The party then kills one of the remaining goblins while the other escapes, not getting any information out of either. 

The party investigates for tracks, and with the aid of Rosie manage to pick up their trail, leading them to the war camp.

After taking out two of the drunk guards, the party makes their way into the guard towers and get a better look at the camp, seeing the goblin that got away entering a large tent guarded by two orogs and near that a large cage where blink dogs are being made to fight a displacer beast and five orcs looking on. There is also a large bon fire in the very back of the camp. The party decides to send in Ogg and Grimm (Ogg pretending to bring Grimm in as a prisoner). Just then the tent opens and out steps a massive goliath whom the orcs call Klar-Taxx. He asks why Ogg brought the dragonborn, and unsatisfied with Ogg's answer, he orders everyone to attack!

Klar-Taxx steps back beside the fire while the Party fights the orcs and orogs. After an unsuccessful to lift and throw the cage by Serephere, the cage breaks open and the displacer beast escapes. While the battle rages on, Klar-Taxx takes several attacks without so much as a flinch. After the orcs and orogs are defeated, Klar-Taxx blows a small horn, and an ogre leaps over both the wall and fire and lands in front of the party, allowing Klar-Taxx to escape. 

After SEVERAL close calls from fighting the orcs, Grimm claims to have help on the way. Just as the ogre leaped into combat, General Landrorg appeared at the gate ready to join the fight. He and Grimm unleash a flurry attacks, followed by the party laying into the ogre before he even had a chance to engage, and the battle was over. 

After returning to the Griffin's Wings back in town, Landrorg bought a round for everyone.He thanks everyone, pays them their wage, and tries to convince everyone to stick around, promising that there will be much more danger to come. Before they could drink, there's a loud roar and a thud at the door of the tavern, The door flies open, and in walks an extravagantly dressed dark-skinned half-elf who yells, "Do not fret my friends, it is just moi, Ango!" 

Ango walks over to the table where Landrorg sits with the party, buys yet another round, quickly consumes his drink, and leaves claiming he's looking for a tasty morsel to devour and then chuckles and walks away.

Landrorg raises his tavern and says, "For the Jarl!" The party raises, repeats, drinks, and that is where our first session ended.

And there you have it! I know this was rather lengthy. I promise to shorten these as much as possible. Anyways, be looking for the summarized second session coming at you soon! Until next time, Raise your Tankard High and Embrace the Light of Geekery!

Picture Credits:

Landrorg- http://www.padnd.com/arkuth/races_dwarves.php

Grimm- https://www.pinterest.com/pin/318418636135853893/

Ango Boyland- https://www.pinterest.com/pin/217650594470556962/

Sylvia- https://www.pinterest.com/pin/285204588880664780/

Robbie- https://mygirlfriendisadm.wordpress.com/2010/08/27/review-dark-sun-campaign-setting-part-1-new-races-builds/

Rosie- https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?748101-Let-s-Read-D-amp-D-5e-Monster-Manual/page154

Pey & Keele- https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2014/09/key-peele-review-season-4-premiere.html

Bilfer- http://geekandsundry.com/dear-vox-machina-ask-victor-the-gunpowder-merchant/

F`ul-Shoon- https://www.pinterest.com/pin/211035932513919459/

Klar-Taxx-  https://www.pinterest.com/pin/46654546117865869/

Goblins- http://www.aidedd.org/dnd/monstres.php?vo=goblin

Orcs- http://www.clevermovegames.com/2014/10/02/11-of-the-best-monster-entries-in-the-dd-5e-monster-manual/

Orogs- https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?748101-Let-s-Read-D-amp-D-5e-Monster-Manual/page147Ogre- http://www.aidedd.org/dnd/monstres.php?vo=ogre

Displacer Beast- http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Displacer_beast

Blink Dogs- http://dndbits.com/monsters.php

Chet- made at heroforge.com

Raizos- made at heroforge.com

Ogg- made at heroforge.com

Zelladawn- made at heroforge.com

Bardou- http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Winter_wolf

Serephere- http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/worlds-magic-origins-2015-07-09

D&D Logo-  http://engl393-dnd5th.wikia.com/wiki/D%26D_5th_Edition_Wiki