Investigation Dagon - A D&D 5e Halloween Adventure for Level 16 Characters

Late into the Halloween game, but I wanted to share this adventure I wrote a few years ago and have consolidated into a proper document for other DM's to run. This takes H.P. Lovecraft's Dagon short story and turns it into an investigation adventure. 

I hope you enjoy. 

Updated: 10/09/2023 - Updated to fix grammar, typos, and some formatting issues. Improved newspaper layout for easier printing. 

#OpenD&D and ORC

If you are not in the tabletop gaming world, you may not have heard about the controversy surrounding Dungeons & Dragons for the past couple of weeks. In short, Hasbro, who owns Wizards of the Coast (WOTC), who make D&D had leaked an update to their gaming license that would've imposted some severe restrictions upon content creators, 3rd party publishers and pretty much anyone who did anything creative within the D&D world. What is/was known as the Open Gaming License 1.0a (OGL) has been around for around 20 years. This licenses allows content creators to create content in and around D&D without imposing upon WOTC's copyright or trademark. For example, you wouldn't be able to call your book a D&D book, but you could say something along the lines of "it is 5e compatible and has these new monsters I created". 

This all got into a big mess when WOTC had their new OGL leaked. There were many problems with it, but most notably it appeared to revoke the previous license, implied that WOTC could claim the rights to creator's work and required creators making more than $750,000 annually to pay ~25% royalty. It was a shit show to put it mildly. 

Gizmodo broke the story and it put the fandom into a maelstrom as WOTC failed to repond. When they finally did, nearly two weeks later,  the community was not pleased. 

As result, multiple companies in the TTRPG industry have now struck out on their own to avoid any potential issues like this in the future. The backlash to WOTC has been so strong and so swift that they have essentially now created more competition in the market against themselves. Kobold Press has announced that they are making their own RPG system, code named Project Black Flag, which will likely be a 5e compatible system (aka 5.5). MCDM productions announced their new system and Paizo has announced they are leading and effort with multiple other publishers to create a truly open gaming license to be called ORC that can be applied to any gaming license. 

On top of that the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Cory Doctrow have chimed in with numerous other sites detailing how the original OGL was not even needed and how it even restricted some rights which might be inherent. 

In the end it has been quite a disaster. 

At this point I don't intend to stop playing D&D, but I think this might be an opportune time for our group to take a look at some other RPG systems and try those out for 2023. Paizo has put many of their books one sale this week to encourage some different play. 

D&D: Encounter Idea - A Roadside Wedding.

Halfling Wedding

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After a long, hard day of traveling the party comes across a halfing with a cart caught in the mud. He is in need of assistance to free the cart.

Jacquot Jean

If the party helps him and repairs the cart he will invite them to the wedding he and his fellow travelers are going to.

After continued travel to about an hour past sunset, the party hears the rousing sound of music and merriment coming from just off the road. They find a large group of tents and many bonfires setup around with a handful of guards watching the perimeter. 

Wedding between Nicolle (Human Male) and Claricia (Female Halfling)

  • Upon arriving the party is immediately invited to attend the wedding ceremony, that was being held up waiting for Jacquot. 
  • The party may spend a few moments talking or introducing themselves to various members of the family before choosing a side to sit to. 

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Family Members 

There are dozens of people in attendance at this wedding, so feel free to make up any characters as you see fit for both families. A good place to start to build tension in the scene is to have the halfling family be very rowdy, drunk and celebratory. The human family may be much more reserved and feel uncomfortable with the ceremony. As the evening progresses, certain members of the family will "loosen up", perhaps with the party's assistance.

Members  

  • The bride (Claricia) – very nervous, worrying about everything and at some point late in the evening sneaks up to a member of the party to ask them to take her away in the middle of the night. She is terrified of being married. Her new husband is actually a wonderful man, she is just afraid of "growing up" and settling down 
  • The groom (Nicolle) – a bit nervous and drunk. Celebrating, but genuinely seems to be a wonderful young man. 
  • The father of the bride (Anthoine) – One of the only Haflings at the party not enjoying himself. He complains non-stop about how much this is all costing him.
  • The mother of the bride (Amelot) – is either crying about losing her baby or fussing over something at the wedding. 
  • The parents of the groom (Jacques and Odelina) – happy and enjoying themselves, most likely because they’re running up the bar tab which is being covered by the father of the bride.

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Encounter Ideas

  • During the ceremony anyone in the party may try to convince either of the parents that they are capable of conducting the wedding ceremony or adding their additional blessing. Per +17 at dis-advantage if not a Halfling or Cleric. 
  • Once the ceremony is over, several NPC's from the party to invite various members of the party to dance. This is an opportunity to throw in a "horn-dog" grandmother, a flirtatious young boy/girl who is way too young, a drunk individual who wants to know all about the party's adventures, the aunt who is suspicious of why the party is here, or any other character of your creation.
  • As the evening progresses there are several ability contests or competitions that the party may choose to participate in.
  • Somewhere on the campground will be a large tent setup for smoking. Inside will be a fortune teller (Danśe) who the party can make friends with and have their fortune told for free. The fortune that is told is insignificant. She is in fact a Warlock with a fiend patron. For every fortune told she hands out a small scroll with a glyph carved into into it. She instructs the individual to trace the glyph onto a floor or a door as a protection warding and upon the next new moon it will active releasing a number of monsters identified on a 1d6 below. She is very naive and does not know what she is handing out and even if told, insists that her patron would never do such as thing. 

Fiend Monsters

  1. 1 Imps
  2. 3 Imps 
  3. 2 imps+ 2 Quasits
  4. 2 Spinded Devils
  5. 2 Hellhounds
  6. 1 Shadow Demon 


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Ability Contests

  • Strength: Wrestling match where participants are shirtless and oiled. If one of your party wishes to participate they may succeed in consecutive strength checks of increasing difficulty (per DM's discretion) and may not use any magic items for this competition. Reward: Heart of the Sleeveless
  • Dexterity: Competition to scale a 30' wooden pole. The first person to scale the pole without using magic gains the item on the top of the pole. If one of the party wishes to participate they may succeed in consecutive dexterity checks of increasing difficulty (per DM's discretion) and may not use any magic items for this competition. Reward: Fortune's Flower
  • Charisma (Performance): A dashing young man is dancing and singing near the food and drink at the event. He is joined in a song with several other people. If one ore more member's of the party join in and actually sing the song below. They each will be rewarded. Reward Singing Stein

Tip: Consider throwing various alcoholic beverages, some magical, if you so choose at the party throughout the celebration to impact the potential competitions above. 

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Cup of Mead Song Lyrics

I rose up in the morning and I felt a dire need,

To dream away the dreary day and down a cup of mead.

I felt the sting of honey bees, from last night's revelry, I'm looking for the honey that'll cure my soul's disease...


Hey!

Hey!

Hey!

Hey!


I drank another cup or two, and sleep did close my eyes,

A nightmare of a desert dry and not a girl for miles,

I dreamt I saw a waterfall, a waterfall of mead,

I need another cup or six, to clear my memory...

So brother won't you roll another barrel to the bar?

And pour another cup or two so I can soak my heart !


Hey!

Hey!

Hey

Hey!

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Rewards

These were all taken from Griffon's Saddlebag, and I highly encourage you to check them out for additional resources on these items and more. https://www.thegriffonssaddlebag.com


Heart of the Sleeveless

This vest is made from a luxurious, silky material that seems to always make the wearer appear more fit. The clothing gently hugs the wearer, redistributing weight and muscle to flatter and accentuate their physique. It seems to deflate sadly once taken off. While worn, the fabric’s color changes with the wearer’s mood or flash of emotion. Refer to the table below for the vest’s colors when under different emotions. While unworn, the fabric’s color becomes a muted blue.

Emotion Color

  • Anger Red
  • Anticipation Orange
  • Joy Yellow
  • Love Lime
  • Fear Green
  • Sadness Blue
  • Disappointment Indigo
  • Disgust Purple
  • Jealousy Black
  • Surprise White


Fortune's Flower

These magic flowers are said to bring good luck and are often given as gifts at weddings. You can use an action to pull off and drop one of the flower's five petals. When you do, there is a 5% chance that the petal glimmers in a flash of light as a rune is burnt into it, recreating the effects of the augury spell. When it does, 1d6 new fortune's flowers grow at that petal's location after 30 days if the ground is suited for growth.

The plant has no seeds and can't be re-potted for travel. An unpicked fortune's flower regrows one flower every year. Once picked, the flower can survive up to 7 days before it withers and dies.


Singing Stein

While this pewter stein holds at least a sip’s worth of potable alcohol, the face adorning it comes alive to sing songs based on the kind of drink. The stein is not sentient, but does have a pleasant singing voice. If there are multiple steins in the same room, they can sing together in harmony if they have the same drinks within them. The stein sings songs slightly out of key if the drink inside is poisoned, which can be heard following a successful Wisdom (Perception) check as determined by the GM.

If there are multiple kinds of alcohol within it, the stein either alternates between song types or does its best to combine their various lyrics. Example drink Type of song Wine Ballad Rum Sea Shanty Ale Drinking song.

I Built A Gaming/D&D Table for My Rec Room

I've had a great spot in my rec room since I have moved into this house for a gaming table, and that has been a project that has been on my radar for the past two years. I thought I was going to get to that project during COVID last year, but that didn't quite come to fruition. With the advent my friends and I getting back together in person this spring, I was finally compelled to get the table built. 

The Table Concept

There are some really cool gaming tables online that I have seen. Some of them have raised or sunken play areas. Others have built in TV screens or plugs for computers. I looked at all of those as options, but that is not exactly what I wanted to do. My idea from the start was really to try and create the table you would find in that dungy tavern that so many of our RPG adventures start in. So that led me down the path of researching a farm table. My search put me at a blog called Tommy & Ellie, who built a great farm table and served as an excellent starting point for what I wanted to do. I'll also give a shout out to The Spruce Crafts, which is a superb blog for all sorts of FIY and home wood projects. 

One of the main things I wanted to accomplish with this table was to create something that was "extra wide". Most kitchen tables top out at around 38" wide, which doesn't leave much space on the table after you factor in your playing map, and player gear. With that in mind I wanted to use 2x12's for the extra width. (Word of note: 2x12's are not 12 inches wide!) 

D&D: Artbreeder.com - AI Generated profiles for D&D and other cool art

I came across what has to be one of the coolest website I have seen in a long time. It is called Artbreeder.com and it utilizes AI to morph and merge images together. You essentially input two parent images and it will create an offspring. There are several categories on the site that you and select from, so I presume the the AI system has been tweaked for each one to get the best results. As you can see from the image above, where I have the portrait system selected, there are some sliders for various features you can select. 

The results are algorithmic, so you don't have any control over the creation. This isn't drawing, but it is an easy way to get an endless amount of good imagery. I have found the portrait mode to be very useful and something you can easily kill a few hours just going down the rabbit hole on. 

The only quirk I have found with the portraits at least, is that they tend to favor very "soft" female features. You also have to pay a fee to upload your own images, which is understandable, if unfortunate. 

D&D: Testing Bibisco for D&D and Tabletop RPG Planning


I have spent a long time trying to find the right tool and system for campaign planning for D&D. I posted about my struggles and my approach back in 2019, and I have to say that since that time I never found a perfect setup.  I like to keep my session notes to paper as much as possible, and the Tül notebook has severed me really well, but with the past year going fully online for all of our D&D play, that has shifted my approach and perspective a bit. The notebook works great for my individual session planning, but has proven to be a bit harder to manage long term planning and tracking of multiple narrative arcs. 

I have tried a whole ton of different apps for the past couple of years, ranging from Evernote, to Apple Notes, to Onenote and more. I even tried online systems like World Anvil, Kanka and Obsidian Portal. All of them have left me "wanting" in different ways. 

OneNote was a strong contender for a while and there is an excellent template setup online. Unfortunately my work uses Office 365 and at least when I last checked this out in the spring, there wasn't a way to login to multiple accounts for OneNote on a single device, so writing and development became a bit hard. The OneNote template also looked gorgeous, but I found myself often times fiddling a bit too much with formatting and not actually "writing" the campaign out. 

I also looked quite a bit at the various online systems, such as World Anvil, etc. While I did like them, at the end of the day I just can't pay for another online service. They also never felt "quick enough" for me. I couldn't login and get to the page I wanted to fast enough to just "idea dump" when something came to my mind. 

What I have discovered over the past few weeks though is an application called Bibisco. I have found that it has a really nice breakdown of writing sections that works really well for campaign planning, breaking narrative elements into Scenes. This has worked out really nicely for how my brain approaches my D&D planning. There is too much to breakdown into a single blog post, so I have instead put together a video overview of how I have been using Bibisco over the past month or so. The software isn't perfect, and I try to identify some of its shortcomings, but it has been one of the better fits that I have found to date for D&D planning. 

If the developers take a few notes to improve some areas, it could really become an ideal world building application. 

D&D: Testing Out A New Way to Roll Stats - TicTacToe

I have never been a fan of point buy system for D&D stats. I feel it lends itself a bit too much leeway for those people who are obsessed with building the "perfect" character build. I am not saying it is wrong, just I like the idea of D&D having a bit of randomness in everything it does to make the outcomes exciting and unpredictable. Typically I use the Standard Array system, but that admittingly gets pretty boring. There is of course the standard roll and drop method too, where you roll 4d6 dice, and drop the lowest number. You do that six times and add up your scores to get your character's scores. That works fairly well, but it can really skew someone's stats if they end up with even two very high or very poor scores. 

I have seen this "TicTacToe" method online which I sort of like, which should give people an option to not feel "locked in" if their roll and drop doesn't go their way. 

Here is how I understand to do it. Do your standard 4d6 roll and drop the lowest. You do it 9 times instead of 6 and place it into a 3x3 grid in the order you rolled it, left to right, top to bottom. You can then select one row and one column of numbers. They can overlap, but you cannot have your row and column overlap your highest number. This should give you a bit more options for choice and compromise and not have to feel so locked into to just choosing six numbers. It might even have you weighing some options or compromise. Do you take a row that has on really high stat with two low ones, or do you take the other row with all three numbers more balanced? 

So in this example attached I chose the 2nd column and last row, resulting in 16, 15, 15, 12,  9, 8.

I could not choose the 1st column and law row, because that would result in two 16's, which are the highest numbers in this case. Thoughts on this system? 


D&D: Storm King's Thunder - Silence at the Table

A couple of weeks ago we had our regular Friday night D&D session with a new player coming to the table. Our group is still playing through Storm King's Thunder (nearly 3 years now), running around the countryside in chapter 3. They are in a home-brew session at this point, on assignment from the Harpers. 

Our party was working their way up to Termalaine looking for four other Harper agents. When they arrived in the city they found it to be eerily quiet, with the gates swung wide open. Our monk shadow stepped his way into the city to investigate and found a city that was in ruins from a recent attack by a war party. 

The usual D&D banter and roleplaying ensued from there with several of the NPC's. What happened next though caught everyone at the table by surprise, including myself.