Picture Credit: Wizards of the Coast
My current home game is "Storm Kings Thunder" with a few homebrew elements thrown in. The real world start date was October 9th 2020 and it is the first long-form campaign any of us have been involved with. The Sword Coast is being explored and exploited by three of my oldest mates with (usually) weekly online sessions. I am the DM using my own DIY Virtual Tabletop and a stupid-huge excel spreadsheet for tracking everything from active quests, to combat, to player knowledge, to time, date and season. Starting in a shambles just outside Nightstone at Level 1 I'd like to say after a year of play things have gotten much better and more organised, but that would be a lie.
I have a lot of catching up to do but will endeavour to post as much of the early story as possible until I am posting concurrently with our heroes(?) latest shenanigans and you will be able to follow along pretty much in real-time. That's the plan anyway.
I honestly have no solid recollection of where "Mickale" came from but it has been a collective noun associated with our friendship group since high school. It may have something to do with the fact half of them were named "Michael" and to this day, twenty-five (ish) years later, none of them are yet to be called that by anyone other than their mothers.
OH! Fair warning. This is NOT a politically correct or child-friendly campaign. While I will curb the table side language employed in the heat of battle, there is simply no ignoring or excusing the plethora of adult and sometimes disturbing themes that run through this particular campaign. Reader discretion is advised. Needless to say, there are no Lawful Good Paladin characters here. We will meet our adventurers more fully in the next post, but here is how they started out...
DM Zalgar: I only played 5 or 6 times and ran a total of 1 D&D session before jumping into a full-fledged campaign as Dungeon Master to this motley Mickale Crew. I love an excel spreadsheet and spend most of my time trying to make the party do something other than killing everything that moves for the sweet, sweet XP. We are heavy on ROLL play over ROLE play and I quickly learned my players are happiest in combat. They will surprise me at times with their choices, executing what their character would do rather than what they know to be the 'best' option... then again they will also stand around and argue for 40 minutes about whether or not they should enter the swirling glowing magic portal that mysteriously appeared in front of them as they try to flee a raging army of orcs. So, pretty standard really.
Smacksnaga 'The Bastard' Bear-Eagle - aka Smacky
Male Half-Orc Totem Warrior Barbarian (Chaotic Neutral Soldier)
Rolled Stats: STR 16 - DEX 14 - CON 16 - INT 8 - WIS 10 - CHA 10
Smacky was born in the hills around Wyvern Tor to an Orc mother, the progeny of her union with a wealthy human estate owner from Thundertree. His only education was that of the land, the school of hard rocks. (Mostly to the head if he got too close to either Orc or Human settlements). He loves nature, the wild, adventure, and taking risks but he gets extremely frustrated and angry when there is too much talking and not much action. When he came of age, he fell in with mercenary crews along the coast and found fulfilment as Muscle-for-Hire.
Pinko of Neverwash - aka Pinks
Male Wood Elf Circle of Moon Druid (Chaotic Neutral Hermit)
Rolled Stats: STR 8 - DEX 16 - CON 14 - INT 12 - WIS 14 - CHA 8
Pinko grew up in the strict Druidic commune called "The Grove of the Furries" deep in the south of the Neverwinter Woods. He had never ventured beyond the bounds of the forest, the outside world an enticing mystery. He was a particularly avid student of fungi and 'mind widening herbs, already having discovered the delights and downfalls of several dozen varieties at a young age. The sacred ritual of Druidic transformation came less easily to him however and his first attempt at graduating from the ranks of novices and joining the Grove proper through Wild Shape would be a night he'd never forget.
Cockseepage the Tormented
- aka Seeps
Female Tiefling Hexblade Warlock (Chaotic Evil Haunted One)
Rolled Stats: STR 10 - DEX 14 - CON 10 - INT 14 - WIS 10 - CHA 16
As a child in Triboar, Seeps remembers being happy even though she was preyed upon by a group of local younglings for her Infernal ancestry. Tieflings may not be inherently evil, but if her horns and tail would mark her out as cursed, then she would show them all the devil inside. Mysteriously, none of those childhood ‘friends’ ever saw their 12th winter. This unexplained coincidence did not escape the notice of her now Patron, a being of malevolence from the Shadowfell, who sought her out, praising her talents and making her an offer she could not… and had no wish to refuse. All it cost her was 99 years of torturous servitude on the Plane of Shadow. A bargain, really, she often reflects.
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