Baba Yaga's Dancing Hut - The Cursed Berserking Sword

Natasha the Dark

I was determined to finish this adventure on Monday night. This is session 3 of my attempt to run a modified version of "The Dancing Hut" using the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG rules.

As I have mentioned previously, the original Dragon Magazine version of this adventure leaves out a lot of details for the DM to fill in, which is annoying. I was able to use the 4th edition version of the adventure to fill in most of the gaps.

Reign of Winter

But I still had a problem - this place is supposed to be full of magic items, and I had few to choose from. So I dug items out of another source - Pathfinder's Reign of Winter adventure path. This is an entire adventure path about Baba Yaga!

I almost ran Reign of Winter when it came out, during my traditional hemming and hawing campaign planning procedure. I have almost-ran many a great campaign. I spent months working on a Castle Greyhawk campaign that I ultimately decided not to run. I spent two months prepping Spelljammer, which I have pretty much decided against running. And Age of Worms has been almost-run on three separate occasions!

Reign of Winter is loaded with perfect unique magic items to place in the hut. I loaded the place up with DCC versions of these things, which includes a magic ushanka (furry hat with ear flaps) and a magic snowglobe that creates a blizzard in a two mile radius when shattered.

The Store

The store was thankfully less crowded tonight. Last week, the noise was unbearable. Usually Monday nights are full due to Magic tournaments, but lately there has been a massive drop-off in Magic attendance. I don't know what the deal is with that.

Since we run Adventurer's League stuff in the store, we got the 5th edition Dungeon Master's Guide early. I bought it and am working on a review. It is a really, really great book. And it even has a full page image of baba yaga's hut!

Room 8. Bestiary

If you recall, our heroes are in the hut because an evil double of a PC is an apprentice to Baba Yaga. I had Vladmir the telepathic cat guide the PCs through the hut, to cut down on wasted time.

The heroes came upon a bestiary/zoo, which I stocked with a bunch of monsters and references to my other campaigns which nobody else would get, though if you read this blog you would. I put a Predator in a cell, which caused the players to explode with laughter. Robert Downey, jr. was in another. I don't think I ever told this story, but last year I ran a session of Dungeon of the Bear with some new players. Short version - one of the newbies really wanted Robert Downey, jr. as her sidekick.

Basically our bad guy opened a cell and unleashed a DCC RPG hydra on the PCs. On paper, the hydra didn't look so tough. It had 7 heads, each head had 7 hit points. When you "kill" a head, two more grow back two rounds later. So basically, you have to chop off all the heads to kill it.

It was a little - a lot - more deadly than I anticipated! We came real close to a TPK, but the heroes persevered thanks to the use of some barrier peaks grenades.

Smirnoff the accordian player was torn to shreds. His little cymbal-playing monkey named Bristly was sad, but the heroes cheered him up. They have done drawings of him in real life, and insist that his name is "Mr. Peanut". I don't know why.

The heroes freed Robert Downey, jr. He became their new buddy.

Room 11. The Lakeland
 

This room has a lake with two "elf maidens" in it who beckon to the heroes. The heroes were wary, and decided that Robert Downey, jr. should go hit on them. He did. He rolled well. The PCs decided he'd be safe here and continue on.

They didn't know that these elf maidens were hags in disguise. As soon as the PCs left, they tore Robert to shreds. Poor guy could never catch a break in my campaigns.

Room 12. Treasure Vaults

This is where I loaded up the treasure. I altered this to have a single basilisk guardian. I figured Baba Yaga's good treasure was elsewhere. This excursion into the hut is really her testing her apprentice and the PCs for a special mission.

The Daughters of Baba Yaga

Somewhere around this time, the heroes met with Baba Yaga's adopted daughters.

Natasha the Dark: An evil, raven-haired sorceress. In some D&D editions, Natasha is said to actually be Iggwilv, the legendary villain from Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth and the Savage Tide adventure path. The heroes had an awkward meeting with her and moved on.

Elena the Fair: In the 1e version, she's a nice wizard. In the 4e version, she's gone mad and is being manipulated by a devil. I like the "nice" version so I used that.

Room 13. The Chasm

There's a chasm in here. If you fall in, you take a one-way trip to the astral plane.

A PC decided to fly into the chasm to check it out (he got bat wings from Slaughtergrid). And.. poof. He's gone forever. And of course, he's the one the evil double is trying to hunt down and kill! The double would have to settle for trying to kill the PCs, and then beg Baba Yaga to take the hut to the astral sea to finish off his rival.

Room 22. Smithy

This room is super-hot. You take 1 point of damage per round you are in it. In here are fiery beings called salamanders who are putting the finishing touches on a magic sword.

I have one player who is obsessed with magic items. He couldn't resist. He went in alone, took out the salamanders and snatched the sword. It was a cursed berserking sword. So basically, he was filled with the urge to murder his own allies.

An epic battle took place. The party rogue used her ring of super-muscles (also from Slaughtergrid) to wrestle him to the ground and disarm him.

Then another PC decided to pick it up and throw it into the chasm. As soon as he picked it up, he began berserking.

These kind of scenarios are very old school and should be used with extreme caution, but wow... it was effective.

The PC was subdued and the cursed berserking sword was moved without being touched directly. The heroes chucked it into the chasm.

So... there's probably a bat-winged dude with a cursed berserking sword rampaging across the astral sea.

Room 35. Fountain of Life

A good old-fashioned healing fountain! This was useful. DCC is a super-deadly game, so this fountain was used quite a bit over the course of the session.

Room 40. Crystal Grotto

This room is where the pool is that makes doubles of people. The bad guy was waiting here with some diakkas (bird-servants of Baba Yaga).

He had these magic boots from Reign of Winter which can turn you into a frost giant for ten minutes per day! An epic battle was had, with the dwarf hanging from the giant's beard and crowbarring it to death (with her crowbar - her pulse rifle had been destroyed).

Once the bad guy was slain, the PCs met with Baba Yaga. She wanted to cut them a deal: They could have the hut for a time if they would kill a mutual enemy of hers - Noohl of the Court of Chaos.

This campaign is ending soon, so I want to finish it with a bang. I am going to give the PCs the hut in its' magic item form and let them use it to battle a major enemy.

The hut is cool, but the original version is not fleshed out enough! You also need to create a reason/goal for the PCs to explore it. It's a classic adventure, everyone should probably play a version of it at least once.

Baba Yaga's Dancing Hut - The Soviet JS-1 Tank

This is the second session of the adventure. You might want to read the first one in case you missed it. I am running the 1e Dragon Magazine version enhanced by the 4e version, which fills in details and has great maps.

The Store Was Very Loud and Annoying

We got through a bit more of Baba Yaga's Hut last Monday, but wow were there some problems.

Usually the game store that I run this campaign in is pretty full of Magic players going through a tournament. This time, there wasn't much Magic going on at all, but there were a lot of board games. Loud, loud board games.

It was brutal. I told them to be quiet, and they were for a few minutes, but then it went right back up again. I ended up just shutting the game down early as I couldn't take it any more.

The Dancing Hut is Too Sandbox-y
 

I had prepared the rest of the hut in the week leading up to the session. What I found was that this dungeon has a problem: It's too wide-open. A lot of the rooms just have a fun little note about a hag sweeping the floor, and not much else. The hut seems to be meant to be a place to send the PCs to go on a mission in. Exploring it like a normal dungeon is going to be very uneventful.

Plus, if you consider the fact that the PCs are probably being watched by Baba Yaga through her magic mirror, she could just pop up and destroy the PCs whenever she liked (her stats are insane - she is like a demigod).

The 4e version fixes this by expanding on it and making many of the rooms full blown encounter areas. This works for 4th edition, because that is what 4e does. 4e is all about encounters. I am running this for DCC RPG, however. I want some encounters, but also lots of exploration and tinkering with motivation.

Baba Yaga's Apprentice

I have set this scenario up with an evil double of a PC being an apprentice of Baba Yaga. Baba Yaga has allowed him to lure the PCs to the hut, and to use the hut to kill them. She is watching and finds the whole thing entertaining, as well as a test for her apprentice.

There is a pool in one of the final rooms of the hut that makes doubles. I have decided that the apprentice has mastered the pool, and can create doubles of himself that do his bidding. So basically, when PCs enter certain rooms, a double is waiting to do some nefarious deed. The PCs are going through the hut trying to find the real apprentice.

Room 6. Grand Throne Room

We left off in Baba Yaga's audience hall. A PC came very close to attacking her but decided against it. Baba Yaga explained to the PCs what was going on.

The heroes made their way to Room 6, which is a throne room. There's 4 giant skulls that shoot paralyzation beams, and a magic throne that has powers. It can create a prismatic sphere, cast rulership (I had this just dominate a lone PC) and creates a globe of invulnerability to protect the person sitting on it.

I had a double in the throne cackling as the PCs were pelted with skull lasers and a prismatic sphere. I did a gimmick where when a skull was destroyed, the globe flickered. PCs could ready and stab the double when a skull was destroyed. They caught on and eventually stuffed a barrier peaks grenade in his mouth and shot him with a laser pistol.

During this battle, the dwarf tried to use her pulse rifle and it malfunctioned. It blew up and almost killed her and a cleric.

Once people were healed (the cleric had to be rolled over... he made his luck check) the thief tried to pry a gem off the throne. Those gems are protected by a save or die effect! She pried one, seized up, but made her save. These crazy old school adventures and their instant death traps... good gawd.

Room 9. Fungus Gardens

There was some more exploring, and our heroes came to the fungus room. I like this one. It has a magic fountain that, when you drink from it, issues random magic effects. That is one of my favorite D&D tropes. The 1e version of the adventure leaves the effects up to the DM, but the 4e version has a fantastic list that I modified and used.

What ended up happening was that the PCs drank from the fountain and rolled very well. They kept getting the best result: one of their items becomes a sentient +1 magic item. The cleric had his sniper rifle (which he got when the heroes went to 1986 New York) enchanted. It was hilarious.

Room 10. Grand Museum
 

More exploring eventually led to one of the most memorable rooms in the whole dungeon: The museum. This room has a world war 2 soviet tank in it, as well as a steam-powered cannon taken from some steampunk world.

I had a double of the bad guy hiding in the tank. When the PCs entered and began exploring, the double fired an explosive shell at the PCs!

There was a massive explosion and the PCs were hurt really bad. I figured they would use the cannon, but instead they just kind of panicked (and remained in a clump, which made them great targets for a follow up blast.

The party thief bravely ran up to the tank, opened the hatch, and battled the double. This prevented him from firing again. He tried to hit her with force manipulation (the most feared spell in DCC RPG) but it fizzled. She stabbed him to death with Luna, the blood-drinking blade from Slaughtergrid.

The Breaking Point

It was at this point that it just got too loud in the store and I decided to just shut the game down for the night. The players were openly discussing playing this game somewhere else. I do not want to do that. I'll talk to the store about figuring out a way to move us to a quieter spot.

I think next session, if the PCs are amenable, I will have Vladmir the cat lead them to the notable rooms so we can bypass the uneventful rooms and get to the good stuff. There's so many doors and secret hatches that the constant choosing grinds the game to a halt.

Baba Yaga's Dancing Hut - "The Dancing Hut" Dragon Magazine #83

I've been branching out in my Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG World Tour game lately. The DCC RPG is great for running fantasy adventures of any system. I ran SlaughterGrid with it, and it worked great.

I have this shelf of D&D adventures I want to run some day. Some of the adventures on this shelf include:

• Labyrinth of Madness 
• Vault of the Iron Overlord 
• Crypt of the Devil Lich (I even have a mini of the villain for this)
• A tattered, cover-less copy of Dragon Magazine #83 from March 1984

The Dancing Hut
 

In that magazine is the original "Baba Yaga" adventure: "The Dancing Hut", by Roger Moore. I ran the 2nd edition version by Lisa Smedman, but people always say the original is the best, so I put it on my shelf.

I decided to run "The Dancing Hut" for my group. I sat down and began to prepare (I take handwritten notes to help me absorb and retain the details). As I got into it, I was shocked to see that tons of details are glossed over.

Basically, the hut is home to a sort of demi-god witch. On the outside, the hut looks tiny, but the inside is a massive extra-dimensional space (like the TARDIS from "Doctor Who"). There are 48 rooms in here, arranged like a tesseract.

A lot of these rooms contain trophies, monsters or people from many different dimensions. One room even has a soviet tank from Earth. This wacky stuff is part of the reason I felt this would fit perfectly with DCC RPG.

4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons to the Rescue

But I got to room 2 on page 39, where the are 6 glass statues that each have a different color. They have powers relating to the prismatic sphere spell. The details are not given. We have to look it up and figure it out on our own.

OK, well, no big deal. I can look that up. Then in Room 9, there's a fungus garden. There's a fountain. The adventure says: "Anyone who drinks from the fountain will suffer some strange effects from each drink; the DM can invent a random-roll table of peculiar effects..."

Click for full size

I was appalled. It's an old adventure, so this kind of thing was more common back then. Now I think the prevailing mindset is that an adventure does not give you homework. The homework is done for you. That's the whole point of buying an adventure.

I knew what to do. There was a 4th edition version of this adventure published in Dungeon #196. I dug it up, and by gawd the author Craig Campbell filled in all the details. All that is needed is some slight game rules translation, which is no problem. The 4th edition fungus room has a giant table for the magic pool!

Even better, this adventure has full color maps by mighty Mike Schley (my favorite map guy) for every single room .

So basically, I am running the 1e version with details and maps stolen from 4e.

The Adventure Begins
 

We started this adventure last Monday night. We had a newb join us - the group is almost getting too big. I had to do some story stuff involving a cleric and androids before we started the hut. The end result was that the PCs got their hands on some blaster pistols, grenades and a rifle from Expedition to the Barrier Peaks.

They also stole the bad guys' little spaceship/pod. I wanted this to happen, just to see what the PCs would do with it.

With that out of the way, I dropped the Hut hook on them. An evil double of a PC is an apprentice of Baba Yaga, blah blah blah. The hut is a few miles to the north of the PCs' home (the fortress from Sailors on the Starless Sea).

Outside Baba Yaga's Hut

The exterior of the Hut is a very elaborate encounter. There's a ton of details:

• It is surrounded by a fence topped with 24 talking skulls that can shoot fireballs if the PCs jump the fence rather than using the gate.
• The hut is on chicken legs and spins. The PCs must figure out how to make it stop spinning.
• The hut has a mouth instead of a front door. The PCs must issue a passphrase to be allowed to cause a door to appear. The hut's mouth makes it a point to warn: "Spies and thieves will be eaten."

Since this is an RPG game, the PCs did something I didn't expect. They tried to fly their spaceship over the fence. Fireballs were launched, the ship exploded and our heroes barely survived. They had to rest and come back.

They made their way in to the hut (with the aid of a mysterious raven familiar that one PC acquired during Blades Against Death),

Room 1.

This is just a normal-looking hut interior. In here is a talking cat named Vladmir. The adventure kind of lets the DM use Vladmir in any way they wish. Vlad explained some things to the PCs and took a shine to the party cleric, who is a cat-man (thanks to a potion from The Emerald Enchanter).

Room 2. Entry Hall

This is a room with incredibly valuable tapestries made of gold, silver adamantite and platinum wire. Each is worth 40,000 gp. They are guarded by the six glass statues that each have a prismatic sphere power.

The party rogue tries to steal everything, but the heroes begged her to leave the tapestries alone.

Room 5. Recreation and Dance

The heroes took a left door and ended up in this weird room which has a lot of hobby-oriented stuff. There's a table for playing cards, there's sewing stuff, and in the middle is a performance area. There's a performer nervously practicing for a gig in here. Baba Yaga has told him that he must perform for her, and if it is not up to par, she's going to eat him.

I made him one of those guys with an accordian and a helper monkey who collects tips in his little hat. I did this mostly so I could do my bad Russian accent.

The group took a liking to the guy and convinced him to come along with them. They are going to try and help him escape the hut.

Not sure why the PCs wouldn't just go out the exit, drop him off at home, and come back. I also wonder what the skull-fence and the hut itself would think of this.

Room 4. Art Gallery

This is the art gallery with a lack of description. I placed art from my old D&D campaigns, references the players wouldn't get but I would. I do stuff like that just for me - I like having a continuity among my campaigns. They all exist in the same cosmos. Baba Yaga has appeared in many of my old games, so I included references to all the other times I used her.

I took an idea from the 4e version of this room, and had a medusa in here. She was veiled and acted like a pleasant museum guide. There were many statues of terrified adventurers in here.

The group immediately realized she was a medusa and panicked. Ekim's Mystical Mask was cast (it can aid against petrification attacks). Somehow, a PC ended up making out with the medusa with the mystic mask on, don't ask me how.

During this panic, two PCs fled through a door...

Room 3. Audience Chamber

Those two PCs stumbled right into Baba Yaga's audience chamber. The great witch was sitting on her ruby throne.

One PC, a chaotic wizard, was about to attack her but he saw the look on my face, meta-gamed, and backed down. I didn't mind... I mean, she'd kill them. I guess she could have just gave them a curse or something. In the 4e version, there's som detailed curses which are fantastic. Maybe I'll do that next week.

She has two hill giant skeletons in here and there's a trapper on the floor under their feet.

My intention here was to have Baba Yaga declare the whole gimmick I had in mind for this adventure:

Her new apprentice, an evil double of a wizard PC, asked her to lure the PCs to the hut and kill them. She decided that her apprentice would have to kill them himself, to prove he was worthy of being her apprentice at all.

So this adventure is meant to be a jaunt through the hut where the apprentice messes with the PCs and uses the rooms to try to kill them.

For example, when the PCs go into the prison room, I am going to have him free the hydra. When the PCs come to the trophy room, he's going to be in the tank and will fire the cannon at them.

We had to stop there. We'll do more next Monday.

So far I like the adventure. It's very much a "sandbox". I do not appreciate the lack of details in the original, but the 4e version solves that problem and then some.

Continue to the second session, where the heroes face off against a world war 2 tank.

Interview with RPG Author Craig Campbell

 

You can check out Murders & Acquisitions right here.
You can get the CAPERS preview right here.

Recently, I reached out to ask some RPG professionals to play on one of my Youtube shows. One of them is Craig Campbell, a man who's written a pile of D&D stuff and is now making his own RPG products.

I really wanted Craig on my show because I love his version of Baba Yaga's Hut and I think his nerdburger podcast is hilarious.

I was even able to interview him! I wanted to pick his brain and learn more about D&D and RPG stuff. Here's what I got.


How did you get into freelancing for Wizards of the Coast?

"I went to college with Jason Bulmahn and he became an organizer for Living Greyhawk back in 1999/2000. He had me write a module for the Highfolk region."

"Eventually, I wrote a feature article for Dragon Magazine when he was an editor at Paizo. Through him, I met Chris Tulach who had me write a few adventures for the RPGA. Around 2009, I started freelancing in earnest. My name sort of got passed up the line to other folks at WotC, which got me work writing for the website as well as both digital magazines during the 4e period."

"I pitched a lot of ideas and got a few accepted, but much of my work came from specific assignments. Also, WotC pitched a list of things they’d like to see to regular freelancers and I picked up a few of those articles and adventures."

You knew Jason Bulmahn in college? Did you game together? What RPGs did you play?

"We were both going to school for architecture. We actually met playing Magic: the Gathering at a hobby shop across the street from the college. Eventually we were each playing in each others’ games. We played a lot of D&D but also some Vampire, Call of Cthulhu, Deadlands, and even tried Rolemaster."


Tell me a little about Murders & Acquisitions.

"It’s a game of subterfuge, espionage, intrigue, theft, and murder in an absurd, over-the-top corporate world. Characters are literally backstabbing their way to the corner office. It’s filled with hyperbole and not meant to be taken too seriously."

"The game system is a custom one I designed. Pretty simple dice versus target number but with a few other things added in to make things fun when dice hit the table. The character sheet looks like a resume and features skills like Loss Mitigation, Force Application, and Resource Management."

Can you give an example of how to work monsters into a Murders & Acquisitions adventure?

"The optional stuff for monsters is built around the idea that monsters exist in this version of the world. So any of the intelligent monsters, particularly those that pass for human, can be actual corporate officers and workers. Some of the monsters have descriptions of how they’re used by corporations."

"For example, the cockroach people are used as scavengers and cleaners. Some of the bigger monsters might be employed as bodyguards or to watch over sensitive technology or information."

Do you have any good campaign stories about sessions of Murders and Acquisitions that you have run?

"In the magic and monsters variant of the game, there’s a monster called a thumpster. It’s basically a mimic that looks a big, green, trash dumpster. I had a character prepping to throw a lit Molotov cocktail at the thing in an alleyway when it opened its maw and pulled him inside it with its trash-tentacle tongue. Then the cocktail exploded. Things went poorly."


Tell me a little about CAPERS.

"CAPERS is a super-powered game of 1920s gangsters. You play gangsters looking to make their fortunes in the Prohibition era of the US, but you have mid-range superpowers. And so do your rivals. And so do the feds."

In CAPERS, you use a poker deck in place of die rolls. Have you thought about making a custom deck of cards to use in the game?

"Already done. When the Kickstarter goes live (Tuesday, March 6, 2018), you’ll see more specifics, but suffice to say there is a CAPERS-themed deck of playing cards that will be available. If the Kickstarter does well, the face cards will feature portraits of NPCs from the game."

Any good CAPERS playtest/campaign stories?

"During playtests, I was trying out different scales of combats to run the system through its paces. I had five players and we’d been playing for a few sessions when I introduced a big combat. Five super-powered characters versus four super-powered foes along with five weaker mooks. The whole thing took about an hour. It was my first chance to see that big combats aren’t necessarily going to bog down."

"I’ve had multiple playtesters tell me the system is very engaging. When you roll dice, you often roll it, look at the number, determine what that does, and move on. In CAPERS, you can flip multiple cards on your turn, but each time you flip one, you have a choice to make. Players really get into it, including paying attention to other players’ turns and giving advice on whether they should flip another card."

In Murders & Acquisitions, you play as ruthless, backstabbing corporate types. In CAPERS, you play as a super-powered gangsters. It seems like the players are playing some fairly villainous character types in both games. Why did you make that choice?

"I didn’t make a conscious choice. It occurred to me that my first two games are about playing “bad people” a few months back. It just sort of happened. I guess maybe I find “bad people” and antiheroes more intriguing with more potential for character depth. Or maybe I just like to pretend to be a bad person. Hard to tell, really."

What do you plan on doing once CAPERS is released?

"I’ve started designing a GM-less, dice-lite, narrative-heavy story game called Die Laughing. You play characters in a horror comedy movie and you’re all gonna die. It’s just a matter of when and how funny it is. Even after your character is gone, there are things for you to keep you involved in telling the story. A single session only lasts 1-2 hours, depending on the number of players."

"I have a few other ideas floating around my head, including a couple that DON’T involve the players portraying “bad people.” There are some heroics in there somewhere."


Dungeon #177: Nightmares Unleashed

This one has Blando maps! Do you get to pick who makes the maps?

"I never had a say in which cartographer or artist worked on my adventures. Though I did write some of the art orders during the later projects, so I had some say in what the artwork would look like. And I had to submit my own crudely drawn maps which people like Jared Blando would then make much nicer."

Redra's Nightmare is listed as a devil. Is the nightmare something conjured up by her dreams, or did that devil exist prior to all of the nightmare episodes?

"I imagine the devil existed previously but didn’t have a way to exert influence until it latched onto Kirstal’s (and then Redra’s) dreams."

The nightmare monster serves a devil currently trapped in the plane of dreams who believes that it will be killed by Redra's daughter when she is grown. Did you have a particular devil in mind? Is it a new pseudo-archdevil?

"Given that this was a side trek adventure, I didn’t have plans for the devil beyond that little adventure. I suppose it could be an “up and comer” devil that could turn into a recurring villain if you were to devise a way for it to keep coming back. If it’s a devil that’s specifically tied to recurring nightmares, it’s only appropriate that it be very difficult to kill once and for all."

Dungeon 193: The Beached Leviathan

Did you come up with this?

"I had told WotC I was open to doing quick pick-up work when an author had to drop out for real life reasons. The only time this happened for me was right in the middle of working on Baba Yaga’s Dancing Hut. The Tavern Profile series was still running then and they wanted something to tie into Neverwinter. So I crunched this article out in two evenings and then went back to Baba Yaga."

Any ideas on how someone could turn a person's shadow against them? A ritual? Infusing an actual shadow (monster) into the person's shadow?

"Using a ritual is kind of the default for something like this, but I feel it lacks flavor. Maybe a side trek to the plane of shadow to commiserate with a being that lives there and convince it to inhabit an enemy’s shadow."

"Or if a shadow is the “negative” of a person, maybe you give up a little part of yourself, your soul, to create the shadow being. This could be part of a pact with a greater being (like what warlocks do) or an ability in a devious artifact."

Dungeon 196: Baba Yaga's Dancing Hut

Why did you change Elena the Fair to Elena the Mad?

"In previous iterations of the hut, Elena is generally mentioned only in passing. She’s a blonde and she’s kind. I wanted to twist her up a bit. Spending centuries with Baba Yaga should do things to you. So I built on how her sister Natasha had left the hut and Baba Yaga was off trying to become an archfey, leaving Elena all alone and eventually going a little mad."

What is your take on the connection between Natasha the Dark and Iggwilv?

"My understanding is that Natasha the Dark left the hut and eventually BECAME Iggwilv. Dream Natasha, who is still in the hut, was conjured out of Elena’s madness at missing her sister."

Did you refer at all to the 2nd edition Baba Yaga adventure?

"My adventure is a reimagining of the classic 1984 Dragon magazine adventure “The Dancing Hut” by Roger Moore. The bulk of the layout is the same, just with a few things repurposed. The inhabitants are similar, though some changes took place translating an AD&D 1st edition adventure to 4th edition. Certain monsters didn’t match power level. Some didn’t exist in 4e (allowing me to create a few). And a bunch of new stuff came out of 4e design principles."

Did you consider taking the tank out of the adventure?

"Gods, no! Part of the charm of the adventure is that it expands Baba Yaga’s world hopping to our actual real world. I even briefly considered writing rules for using it. But that felt a little too Barrier Peaks to me."

Did you run this adventure?

"I ran two playtests, though we never made it through all the rooms in either playtest. I focused on things that needed actual playtesting, like some of the random stuff and the curses. I didn’t concern myself with most of the combats, since 4e design principles already had CR and EL and all that stuff worked out."

Dungeon #207: Starhaunt - with Chris Perkins

How did this work? Did Chris write an outline that you worked from? What was it like working with Chris?

"This adventure came from a list of things WotC folks wanted to see in the magazine. I’m 99% certain Chris Perkins put it on that list. I designed the whole thing and submitted it."

"Normally, anything submitted by an author goes through a certain amount of development before reaching its final form."

"Chris added and modified so much that he felt it warranted a co-design credit and I agree. He got rid of a few parts that didn’t work all that well and added some really fun stuff."

Dungeon 217: A Rhyme Gone Wrong

This one has a whole sleep-theme going on. You've mentioned the plane of dreams in another adventure. Do you have a particular interest in the plane of dreams?

"I’m fascinated by dreams, mostly because I rarely remember mine in any detail and I have friends who have recounted very specific dreams. I even know someone who is adept at lucid dreaming, which makes me super jealous."

"In gaming, I like how dreams can be used to manifest things that don’t otherwise have rules for such a thing. I’ve used dreams a number of times as major plot points and important milestones in several campaigns I’ve run."

Thanks to Craig! You can check out CAPERS right here.

Dragon+ Issue 33

I'm all caught up now! You can read this issue of Dragon+ right here.

Imagining The Ampersand: Wylie Beckert

We get a full look at the alternate cover to Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, by Wylie Beckert.

Heyy, check it out. They confirm that Tasha and Iggwilv are the same person: "The adopted daughter of the Baba Yaga, frenemy of Mordenkainen, and real name of Demonomicon author Iggwilv, she is now also the star of her own D&D sourcebook."

I wrote a really ridiculously huge Guide to Iggwilv a while back.

On the cover, you can see Graz'zt and the Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga.

Wylie says she worked in Tasha's hideous laughter, and that the art brief called for Graz'zt to be "looking flirtatious."

In the Works: Tasha's Cauldron of Everything

Tasha's Cauldron of Everything comes out on November 17th. Jeremy Crawford confirms that Tasha was raised by Baba Yaga and is a "frenemy" of Mordenkainen.

We get a rundown of what's in the book. Stuff like the artificer class, group patrons, and sidekicks (Jeremy says that playtest feedback showed that people love the sidekicks).

The Demonomicon of Iggwilv is in the book! I think I wrote a guide to that, too. There is a new artifact - a tarokka deck that can capture evil beings.

There are supernatural environments - areas that have been transformed by magic.

In the Works: Curse of Strahd Revamped

Apparently the basic idea of Curse of Strahd Revamped was to put the book and the tarokka deck in one package. So what we have here is a good old-fashioned boxed set that comes with a deck of cards.

The poster map is made of a more durable material so that it doesn't rip when folded.

Aha. This is what I was wondering about: "The D&D Team also took the opportunity to make a few small changes to the adventure itself, incorporating errata that players have discovered over the years. While this didn’t involve any major structural changes or heavy rewrites, it did include a number of finely tuned improvements throughout the book."

There are changes to the depiction of the vistani and Ezmerelda's artificial leg.

The first thing you see when you open the box is an image of Strahd lying in the dirt. On the reverse side is Strahd's stat block. Nice!

In the Works: Beadle and Grimm's Curse of Strahd Legendary Edition

I generally don't write much about these releases because I just can't afford them. But this one caught my interest because there are new maps involved.

They show us some maps, which are new. I don't want to show the whole thing (you can see it in the article), but here's a slice:

That's the bonegrinder. Check out the border, which is quite similar to the 2e Ravenloft cover border.

The cartographer also did a new map of Barovia. Here's a chunk:

This set comes with a ton of stuff, including the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind. There are also Barovian coins which depict Strahd.

You can order curse of Strahd Legendary Edition here.

D&D Classics: This month, we get olympic-themed .pdfs.

We get a .pdf from the 3e Races of Stone book, which is where the goliath game of goatball actually came from (it's in Rime of the Frostmaiden).

One of the "Challenge of Champions" adventures is here, from Dungeon Magazine #91. I ran the first one, which was in issue #58. It was tough for me because each entry was very dense, but my group really liked it.

Good old 4e gets some attention! Dungeon #176's Cross City Race is here for free - a race through a city where anything is fair.

We even get a slice of one of my favorite rooms from the 5e White Plume Mountain: The "jumping platform" room.

Unearthed Arcana: Feats & Subclasses Part 4

This playtest document features new feats.

Chef: This one cracks me up, but is also useful. +1 to CON or WIS, your meals allow characters to heal more on a short rest, and you can make delicious treats that grant temporary hit points.

Fey-Touched: I like this one just because it links you to the Feywild. +1 to INT, WIS, or CHA, plus you learn misty step, and a 1st level spell!

Poisoner: This is cool, as it encourages the use of poison in the game. Although that can be a headache sometimes for a DM, poison can lead to a lot of fun stuff.

Shadow Touched: You're linked to the Shadowfell. Love it. It's like the Fey Touched feat,, but you gain use of the darkness spell (another hard spell to handle for me as a DM) and one 1st level spell.

There is a second .pdf with come new subclasses.

Bard: College of Spirits: It's a bard who can commune with spirits. These spirits can grant random powers when you use a Bardic Inspiration. You roll on a chart to determine the random effect - you might heal an ally, teleport an ally, all sorts of things. You might get to breathe dragon breath.

Warlock: The Undead: The warlock's patron is an undead entity like Acererak or Strahd (!).

They can take on a 'form of dread' for a minute, giving them temporary hit points, immunity to the frightened condition, and more.

Wow, once they hit 6th level they no longer need to eat, drink, or breathe.

Very cool, love the warlock. The bard is fun but, while I love random charts, not sure how I feel about some of the results.

Comic: Ravenloft

This one of those epic walkthrough maps by Jason Thompson. This has been published before. I think I actually used it as reference in my Guide to Curse of Strahd... because this thing is amazing. This guy doesn't get nearly the recognition he deserves.

Maps of the Month

We get a Theros arena map (everyone needs an arena map, IMO).

We also get some nice city maps and some fantastic grid maps of forest areas.

Heyy we even get a map of that room in White Plume Mountain!

Dang, they even throw in another Jason Thompson walkthrough map, this one of the Hall of the Fire Giant King.

Decent issue!

D&D Unearthed Arcana: Gothic Lineages

by April Prime

There is a new D&D playtest document out, and I thought it would be fun to go through it and check out the lore.

Trying to guess what new D&D books will be coming out is a source of joy for me. I'm almost always wrong, but it's fun to try to envision the future of the game.

No Sourcebooks? I keep expecting sourcebooks, like in previous editions. Ones I assumed we'd have gotten by now:

• Manual of the Planes
• Draconomicon
• Undead Sourcebook (like Open Grave, Libris Mortis, etc.)
  

But instead, we get:

• A mega-adventure that also acts as a source book (Dragon Heist detailed Waterdeep, Rime of the Frostmaiden detailed Icewind Dale, etc.)
• Monster books with lore.
• Player's books with new spells.
• Licensed settings (Critical Role, Magic: The Gathering, Acq Inc)

It Works: The way they do things really weirds me out. It's so jumbled and disorganized. But! From what I can tell, it works! It is my understanding that, in the past, adventures just didn't sell very well. By making an adventure also serve as a sourcebook containing new monsters, items, and spells, there's enough stuff in there to convince most fans that it is a must-buy.

Their strategy has made D&D an epic success, so I guess they should just do what they do.

Books I Wish to See: If I had my way, I'd like to see a lot of different things:

• A Planescape Setting Book: Detailing Sigil and the factions, all that stuff.
• A mega-adventure focused on Vecna.
• A Baba Yaga Book: Either a mega adventure that goes beyond just a remake of the Dancing Hut adventure, or a lore book that gives us more info on Baba Yaga, her allies, and her schemes.
• A Rod of Seven Parts Mega-Adventure.
• A series (?) of books that detail the planes.
• A book full of magic items and lore: Like Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium.
• An adventure or sourcebook that takes the story of the Abyss forward - Grazzt/Tasha, maybe Demogorong getting de-throned/split into two separate beings, something like that.
• Spelljammer Stuff: I know most people don't care about this, so I'm happy if they just keep sprinkling Spelljammer things in each book.

Unearthed Arcana: This new document details "Gothic Lineages." Three new racial options:

• Dhampir: A vampire-type race.
• Hexblood: A race created by hags.
• Reborn: An undead race.

Dhampir

I think I wrote about these creatures in my Guide to Vampires. Maybe I'm thinking of vrylokas, who had red hair, red eyes, and bright white skin.

We get a chart of suggested "hungers" that the character might suffer from, which include blood, cerebral spine fluid (!), and "...a color from one's appearance."

Origins: Then we get a list of possible origins, my favorites being:

"Your pact with a predatory deity, fiend, fey, or spirit causes you to share their hunger."

Strahd obviously is a fun choice for this one. Yeenoghu could work. The Lich-Queen of the githyanki would work - she needs souls, I think. In fact, almost all liches need souls for their phylacteries, right?

"You survived being attacked by a vampire but you were forever changed."

That's the Alan Moore League of Extraordinary Gentleman's Mina Harker right there. I loved the first two volumes of that series.

"You loved an immortal and were willing to be transformed into a vampire to join them, but tragedy interrupted the transformation."

Wow, I really like this one! In fact, I like all of them.

Vampiric Bite: It's a melee attack. "When you are missing half or more of your hit points, you have advantage on attack rolls you make with this bite."

It has a special effect that you can activate a few times per day: You can use the bite to regain hit points or gain a bonus on your next attack roll/ability check.

Seems fun! Very simple. I really like how 5e is able to keep things concise.

Hexblood

I think in 2e or 3e, there was something similar to this known as "The Witchborn."

"Some who enter into bargains with hags gain their deepest wishes but eventually find themselves transformed."

Eldercross: All hexblood have an eldercross, s crown that serves as a visible mark of the bargain between a hag and a hexblood, a debt owed, or a change to come.

Become a Hag: "Hags can undertake a ritual to irreversibly transform a hexblood they created into a new hag..." Once a hexblood becomes a hag, they become an NPC under the DM's control.

This is very cool. I think in earlier editions, a hag would eat a person and then give birth to them in hag form. This hexblood version of had creation is a bit more palatable.

Origins: My two favorites:

1. "A coven of hags lost one of their members. You were created to replace the lost hag."
2. "You made a deal with a hag, but they twisted your words and transformed you."
   

Some of the origins are a little out there. It seems like the Hexblood is a pretty concrete concept - it's a creature made by a hag, that is set to become a hag in due time.

Magic Token: You can use this to maintain telepathic contact with an ally within 10 miles. You can even see and hear through it.

Hags Are Fun: I have a half-finished Guide to Hags sitting on my computer. I can't get over my compulsion to try to find every hag from every D&D product, even though I know that's an insane task, because hags appear so frequently (especially in Dungeon magazine). In 5e alone there's got to be, what, ten new hags?

I do love the idea of a known hag creating a hexblood. You can connect your character to a really cool NPC, like:

• Baba Yaga
• Baba Lysaga (Strahd's "mother" from Curse of Strahd)
• The Sewn Sisters from Tomb of Annihilation
  

If a had is creating you to ultimately be a friend and companion, but you reject them... all sorts of fun stuff can come from that. Maybe the hag ultimately becomes the group's patron? Maybe the hag makes another hexblood that hunts you down for betraying her?

What if the hexblood just doesn't ever want to actually become a hag?

This is such a great concept. Love it!

Reborn

I think this is similar to the "revenant" character race in 4th edition. You're undead!

"Some reborn exhibit the scars of fatal fates, their ashen flesh, missing limbs, or bloodless veins making it clear that they’ve been touched by death."

This remind me of the Nameless One from Planescape: Torment.

Resting: Reborn don't sleep. They sit and dwell on the past.

Faded Memories: Many of them can't remember their past. Sometimes they have a vision of a past event that hits them out of nowhere. Example:

"A memory brings with it the voice of someone once close to you. How do they advise you?"

This is so Nameless-One-y. You shuld probably get a mimir to start with, too.

Origins: We get a list of possible origins:

"Stitches bind your body’s mismatched pieces, and your memories come from multiple different lives."

That's a crazy one! Basically, Vasilka from Curse of Strahd - a flesh golem.

"After clawing free from your grave, you realized you have no memories except for a single name."

Love this, gives me Kill Bill vol. 2 vibes (I really like the middle hour of that movie).

"You were a necromancer’s undead servant for years. One day, your consciousness returned."

OK! These are all great. I don't want to just cut and paste them all.. this is a fantastic list.

Deathless: You have advantage on death saves, you can finish a long rest in 4 hours, no eat/drink/breathe, etc.

These are all tremendous ideas! 

What I really like is how it seems like the designers start with a cool idea, and then build around it. They don't limit themselves to converting what appeared in earlier editions, they just go with whatever is the most fun.

Thanks for reading!

Dice, Camera, Action: Tomb of Annihilation - Episode 62

Episode 62: Abandon Ship

• Follow the show live on twitter here 
• Order Tomb of Annihilation here 
• Season Two Dice, Camera, Action Episode Guide 
• Dice, Camera, Action on Reddit 
• The Reddit Dice, Camera, Action Index 
• The Dice, Camera, Action Youtube Playlist 
• Read up on the backstories of the Waffle Crew

We jump into the Tomb of Annihilation adventure this week. It's always interesting to see which parts of an adventure Chris chooses to use.

The Waffle Crew

(Anna) Evelyn - Human Paladin of Lathander
(ProJared) Diath - Human Rogue
(Nathan) Paultin - Human Bard
(Holly) Strix - Tiefling Sorcerer
(Dani Hartel) Captain Xandala - Elf Sorcerer

We left off last time on the air ship. Captain Xandala wants the ring of winter. Artus Cimber has it, and does not want to give it up. The group summoned Shemeshka, who can teleport 8 people to Chult. The problem is that there's more than 8 people on the airship. Also, Klauth, the legendary red dragon, is coming towards the ship right now.

The people on the ship: The heroes, Shemeshka, Xandala, Summerwise, Sir Godfrey, Waffles, Simon, Juniper, Artus Cimber.

The group realizes that if they leave right now, the others might be killed by Klauth.

Diath has yet to commit to the geas spell. Until he does so, Shemeshka won't teleport anyone. Strix gets on her flying broom. Xandala casts fly and invisibility on herself.

Godfrey, the undead knight, says that if he dies he will be reborn in another body, so no big deal. Strix polymorphs Godfrey into an albatross so that he can escape.

Klauth can see invisible, and he chases Xandala. Klauth is wielding two wands. YIKES. Xandala uses mage hand to give him the finger.

Klauth wants to know where his ring is. She tells him it's at Port Nyanzaru. Klauth breathes on Xandala. She rolls a natural 20 on her saving throw... still fails. The DC is 24!

People in the chat were very offended by this. A natural 20 is an auto-success on attack rolls, not saves and skill checks. I understand their reaction - why roll if you can't succeed? I think the DC is very high, higher than the DCs of most of the demon lords in Out of the Abyss!

I actually had the exact reverse happen in 4th edition. A character tried to jump from one airship to another, and rolled a 1 on his skill check. His bonus was so high that he still succeeded. It was very weird and I wasn't sure what to do, so I just let it be. The player and I both felt weird about it.

Anyway, the group teleports to Port Nyanzaru. This is a jungle city where dinosaurs are used as beasts of burden.

Shemeshka is with them. She casts geas on Diath. Diath is now magically compelled to find the spectacles and the spell book, which Chris says is actually X the Mystic's arcane grimoire. That is right out of Tomb of Annihilation. I was wondering if he'd make up another book. Do you think he'll change what is in the book?

Shemeshka leaves.

A citizen of Chult recognizes Strix as a dinosaur racer. The whole group gets excited and wants to race dinosaurs, especially Paultin and Evelyn. Artus Cimber wants to find accommodations.

The citizen/Strix fan hands Strix a trinket - a piece of a mural/mosaic tile. She gives him a half-eaten pastry in return, which grosses him out.

The group decides to stay at Kaya's House of Repose, which is the more fancy place to stay in Port Nyanzaru. People want to buy and eat Waffles the owlbear.

Dani has a great idea.. enter Waffles in the dinosaur race. They should do that!

Paultin has a concert. Evelyn is his brand manager. She wants to set up another show for him. He's on his "Drunk and Dying" tour. Evelyn might have him do a show at the Grand Coliseum or perform private shows for the Merchant Princes (the 7 rulers of Port Nyanzaru). He actually makes 145 gp from this performance.

A strange man approaches the group. He tells them dramatically to seek the guardian at Orolunga. This person is wearing a pendant with the symbol of a lidded eye. Vecna?

The group decides to get the spectacles and the book first, because violating the geas spell will probably kill Diath. Do you think she's used geas spells on Diath's ancestors? Seems likely.

Someone is following them. Avery pale dude with a satchel. The group approaches him. His name is Leric Dashland. He's from House Dashland of Waterdeep, where Evelyn is from. He wants the group to create a map of  some of the mysterious ruins in the jungle - Orolunga and Nangalore. In return he'll give them a ship. Strix is very excited about getting to name the ship.

The group heads to the inn. Time to use the stuff to summon the Sewn Sisters. The ink is meant to be applied to the scroll. Strix makes sure everyone has gone potty before she starts.

The ink slithers out onto the floor and crawls toward the parchment. It leeches into the parchment and purplish writing appears on the scroll until all the ink is gone and has become writing on the scroll. It has become a magic scroll that Strix can cast from.

Strix says, "I'll give it a gander." Evelyn perks up and says, "Did someone say Lathander?" which killed me.

The writing looks like it is in Baba Yaga's handwriting. Wow. OK. o how did Shemeshka get this stuff? Is Baba Yaga keeping tabs on Strix and helping her from afar? Has Shemeshka inserted herself as a go-between? Baba Yaga could show up at any time in her dancing hut.

Maybe she is a rival of the Sewn Sisters, who are powerful hags on their own. As a coven, they're a formidable threat. Perhaps she wants Strix to kill them.

Something hits the window. Evelyn runs to check it out. It's a winged snake. It's gone.

Strix uses the scroll and she's pretty sure that the hags will come to them when they sleep. Everyone is going to sleep in Strix's room.

At one point the group finds Artus downstairs chatting up a half-orc woman who is wearing the symbol of Torm.

At night, everyone but Evelyn feels something climb on top of them. A spectral, ghostly figure of an old crone, thin and spindly. She spits in each of their mouths. Chris makes sure to point out that this is somewhat sexual, and the players are really repulsed. Paultin likes it, though.

The next morning, Artus tells the group that he'd like a priest to come along on the journey. He wants to go to Camp Vengeance, a fort held by the Order of the Gauntlet. Another camp was destroyed by undead. The group will have to pass by it to get to Camp Vengeance.

As the group prepares to shop, Diath notices a winged snake quietly heading off somewhere as Artus leaves the group.

Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away, Xandala falls... burning.. and she sees Klauth fly off to the south, towards Chult. Chris says she's dead. She took 91 points of damage. That's where we stop!

Overall

Decent show. I'm glad to see the heroes in Port Nyanzaru. I was hoping to see a waffle dinosaur race, but it looks like that's not in the cards. Chris basically laid out where the group will be going this season, although that could change at any time.

The camp is such a complex place, IMO, I am interested to see what he does with it. When I read it, I felt like I'd have a hard time handling it. It seems like it could be a drag if you're not careful.
The ruined camp, on the other hand, is awesome.

Orolunga and Nangalore are really cool places, I am very much looking forward to the group going to Orolunga in particular.

Sunday Oct 22nd, Twitchcon will have a live DCA show. That's in one month! Should be awesome! Nate can't make it. Dani said she'd be in the crowd, so that means we might get the return of Dee, which would be awesome.

I'd be fine with Dani playing with them at the live show. In fact, I think she should just stay for good. She adds a lot to the game. She's sharp, funny, and she knows her stuff. I'd love to see what kind of character she would make.

Tales from the Infinite Staircase - Planewalkers

We played some Planescape last night. I had spent some time over the week brainstorming and I had a flood of ideas.

The Iron Shadow is a vague entity in the Infinite Staircase. I decided I want to have a sort of  'video game boss fight' with her at the end and I was able to map out the basic idea of how it will go.

Splitting the Party: If you watched this past week's episode of Dice, Camera, Action, you saw Chris Perkins willingly split the group up. He also killed a character. I'm pretty sure I know what is going to happen - the slain rogue is going to rise up as an undead revenant, which is something discussed in Curse of Strahd.

I decided that I want to try splitting the party up in my game and see how it goes. I also had an idea for killing off a party member. I set up the split this week, and the possible "death" will happen two sessions from now.

The Plan: My plan is to run some of the Staircase adventures, and I'm going to mix in For Duty & Deity, which is linked to the Staircase. After that, I have an idea for a hag-centric adventure and a succubus-themed adventure. I've started planting seeds for them now. I am very excited about the hag adventure and I can't wait to run it.

I was thinking about hag covens (when all 3 hags are within 30 feet of each other, they have a pool of powerful spells they can use). I decided that there is a Sigil coven:

• Zaraga: The hag in the Screaming Tower in "Umbra."
• Virinis: The hag who owns The Worm's Guts, also from "Umbra."
• Ravel Puzzelwell: The hag from Planescape: Torment. She is mazed, but I'm going to say that people visit her in the maze. Ravel knows the way out, but she fears what the Lady of Pain would do to her if she left.

The Plan: I've prepared most of the Staircase adventures. This book is very hit or miss. I don't like the art, and the adventures are really wordy. If there's a 14 page adventure, it has 9 pages of backstory and then a brief 5 page sketch of an adventure. The ideas are good but they're not detailed enough.

Tonight my plan was to run the group through a condensed version of the first Staircase adventure, and then do a whole pile of fun stuff in the City of Sigil. It was a good session and I'm quite excited to run the next two sessions.

Last Time: The heroes had entered the Infinite Staircase to save their friend. Apparently there is a demon on a rampage.

The Party

(Jessie) Bidam - Platinum-Scaled Dragonborn Fighter
(George) Theran - Drow Wizard
* NPCs - Fall From Grace (Succubus Paladin), Selinza ("Litorian" Wizard, level 5) 

The group came to a landing where three giant spiders lurked on webs that linked to another landing. They made quick work of the spiders, and Selinza got to use her new abjuration powers. Basically, when she casts an abjuration spell, she gains a sort of force field that absorbs 13 points of damage. It's very cool. I started using her to try out spells people don't use much, like aid and beacon of hope.

With the spiders dead, the heroes climbed the webbing up to the next landing. As they made their climb checks, I foreshadowed the idea of them falling into the void of the Staircase. They have been told that if they fall into the void, they will appear in some other plane and will never be seen again.

Manes

Demons: The group came up to a landing where the servants of the demon (Gerrzog, a glabrezu) lurked. The group pounded 13 manes and then fought an evil knight who could throw hovering "snake spheres."

With that done, the group came upon the demon, who was actually sleeping in this precarious metal structure between two landings. The idea here is to just send the structure and Gerrzog hurtling into the void.

But this is D&D, so, when presented with this scenario, what does Bidam say? "Let's cut his dick off!"

There was a bunch of debating and hand-wringing. The glabrezu is extremely powerful. Bidam suddenly realized they could just send the whole structure plummeting into the void, and they did so.

They rescued their friend and returned to Sigil, where I had a million little things planned.

The Contest: Throughout the rest of the session, the employees of the festhall decided to have a competition. Each night, they wanted to see who could seduce Bidam or Theran. In my head, I thought that the heroes would refuse to sleep with any of them. Especially Theran, who is a bookish sort of fellow.

Many of the NPCs who work in the festhall are based on ideas from the infamous "harlot table" from the AD&D 1st edition DMG. Others are from Ed Greenwood's epic list of "paid companions" (check out the third post down right here).

To my surprise, Theran spent the night with an 'expensive doxy,' and a 'saucy tart' the next night. Bidam hooked up with the "Snakehips" (contortionist), and the "Footwarmer" (experienced older lady) the next evening.

The competition among the employees then became who would be rejected first. That happened on night 3, when the flesh golem lady came calling.

Setting up a Big Event: I made sure to include a number of moments of Theran and his apprentice, Selinza, in their wizardly lab making whispering motes (githzerai healing powder). I want to establish this for my big scene in a couple of weeks, where Theran might be murdered depending on how things play out.

The Hag Covens: There's a hag that lives in the square that the heroes own, named Zaraga. Last session, the heroes went to Barovia, killed some witches and interacted with the Creeping Hut. Bidam made friends with the hut, which I played like a dog, basically. Baba Lysaga, one of my favorite Curse of Strahd NPCs, has tracked the heroes down. She flew through Sigil in her magic upside-down giant skull, with the Creeping Hut scampering after her.

Baba Lysaga was set to attack the heroes, when Zaraga stepped up to defend them. Zaraga warned Lysaga that she did not want to spark a war between the Sigil coven and the Barovia coven. After a bit of back and forth, Lysaga decided that she would call upon the heroes for a favor (which will happen when I run my hag adventure).

I had her spray them with sprinles of water, which enchanted their items. Basically, Lysaga wanted to give the group something that could tell the heroes when the favor was to be called in. So the Strahd dummy and the hag doll that they bought in Barovia last session were brought to life. When the time came, the dolls would tell the heroes what to do. In the meantime, I get to do a goofy vampire voice and a cackling hag voice.

Theran really didn't like his vampire dummy, because in order for it to talk he needed to put his hand through the "rear." The dummy thinks he is the real devil Strahd and I rattled off a bunch of lines I had prepared before the game.

Baba Yaga

I was impressed when, as this whole thing unfolded, Jessie actually asked if Baba Lysaga knows Baba Yaga and "Burba Larga." In a previous campaign years ago, we did a whole bunch of stuff involving an NPC I made up: Burba Larga, Baba Yaga's embarrassing, untalented daughter. Burba Larga provided some of the biggest laughs in any campaign I've ever run, and Jessie actually pretty much guessed where I'm going with this hag stuff without even realizing it.

Chad Menses: I had come up with an idea for a "frat bro" NPC last week (whose friend, Dorpin No-Beard, is a dwarf who is always hammered). I introduced him to the group and he was a huge hit. Next week, I think I am going to have the heroes party with him.

Basically, this is another excuse for me to do a goofy voice. I researched a bunch of dumb things for him to say, including "We're going to Sylvania to PTV" (pound that vag). And, "My dwarf bro Dorpin is already turnt!" He called Bidam and Theran "B-Slice" and "T-Slice" respectively. I think I am going to try and google "legendary party stories" and see if I can make a fun little skill challenge out of whatever I find.

Low Level Drama: We did some other stuff with the low-level NPC party, which involved some drama with the paladin and his lady love. Basically, there's a woman who is sure her god told her to have a baby with the paladin, as the child is destined for great things. But the paladin is in love with somebody else. The group was batting ideas around involving a "glory hole" and/or a turkey baster. They decided to mull it over for now.

This whole storyline just started out of an impulse, and I'm letting the group do what they want with it and see what happens. I'm assuming I'll be able to tie it in to a main adventure sooner or later.

Raja Khan

Foreshadowing: I included a couple of little things to kind of build up to major stuff. I had a dabus who has a magic sword (from "Nemesis" originally) greet Theran and give him a meaningful look. Theran was weirded out by this.

Basically, this Dabus is going to play a role in my "murder" scenario in a couple of weeks. I also had Selinza mention wanting to go find her enemy Raja Khan a number of times. I want Raja Khan in their heads, because he will also play a part in the "murder" scenario.

Judge Gabberslug

The Court of Woe: Another long story. Basically Bidam is infecting people with weird powers linked to the Lady of Pain. One of these people, a reave masseuse, was arrested. It turns out that she cut someone up real good. The reave tried to explain that all she did was look at the person and that the cuts appeared magically, just like how the Lady of Pain does it.

A lawyer asked the heroes to come to the reave's murder trial to testify on her behalf. This allowed me to use Judge Gabberslug, an awesome NPC from Uncaged: Faces of Sigil. Basically he's a demon who has a courthouse in the Negative Material Plane. The courthouse itself is made up of the calcified faces of those he has found guilty.

The heroes testified on the reave's behalf. Gabberslug thought their story was a joke. He pointed to a dustman in the court and told the reave to look at him and cut him. She tried, but nothing happened. The judge laughed, and told Bidam to do it. Bidam looked at the guy... and suddenly, cuts appeared all over his body. The poor Dustman's eyes were cut out!

The court erupted and went into chaos. Bidam was shocked at what he had just done. Gabberslug was terrified of being involved with the Lady of Pain in any way, so he immediately declared the reave innocent and begged the heroes and her to leave his court at once.

I love Gabberslug and I hope I can find a way to use him again. I'd love to do some sort of "courtroom drama" session of D&D, but I have absolutely no idea how to pull it off.

With that done, Jessie (Bidam's player) was really shocked and pumped up. Bidam had the power to cut people just by looking at them! Bidam remembered that the Lady of Pain had stopped using that power for a while, and the heroes thought maybe she had transferred the power to Bidam somehow.

I plan on having this be a thing where Bidam can't really control it, but it will come up once per session (especially if a battle starts to drag). Theran will also soon develop a cool power, but that won't come for another 2 or 3 sessions.

The Dream Well: That night, Theran had a dream about a thing called the Dream Well. This is what the next session is about. Theran sensed a connection to the Dream Well, and that it would enchant his spell book. He dreamt of a path through the Staircase that led right to it.

When he woke up, assembled the group and headed into the Staircase. He wanted to check out the Dream Well.

Each set of stairs in the Infinite Staircase are made of different materials. As they ascended a set of glass stairs, the glass cracked under Bidam's feet and he fell through. Selinza cast feather fall as a reaction, but he still fell 60 feet in a single round. Fall From Grace took flight and tried to grab Bidam's hand before Bidam vanished into another plane. We rolled, their hands clasped - and both of them vanished.

Cheating: This is something I almost never do. Whether Jessie made her saving throws or not, her character was going to fall into the plane. I really don't like doing it, but I decided to give it a try after I saw Chris Perkins steering his group in a similar fashion. When the glass cracked, Bidam rolled a save to grab onto the edge. He made the save, but I said that the glass he grabbed on to immediately cracked and he fell.

When Fall From Grace flew to catch him, I had Bidam make a check to grab her hand. He made this too. I narrated it as meaning that because they were touching, both of them fell through into some other plane. If Bidam had failed that roll, Fall From Grace still would have fell through.

The Group is Split: Theran and Selinza looked down in shock. Were their friends lost forever? The glass stairs cracked under their feet. Theran flung a rope up to a railing on a landing above, and some good rolls were made. The stairs collapsed beneath them, and Theran held onto the rope while Selinza held onto him. A lillend (guardian of the Staircase) appeared and helped them up.

Theran was really thrown by this. I think his player, George, was in uncharted territory. I have NEVER split the party like this before, so he was wondering if there was some kind of hook or gimmick to solve this problem. There's not! Next session, the party will be split and they should reunite by the end of the session. I am especially excited to run Theran and his apprentice on an adventure alone together. It just seems like a cool thing to do.

So overall, the wheels are in motion. A very good session. I am considering trying to plan out my sessions so they build to a big event every 3 or 4 times we play. I get a little worried about the game getting stale and I want to make sure the players have plenty of "holy crap" and "remember when..?" stuff happening.

Watching Chris Perkins each week is helping me immensely. I'd highly suggest you check out Dice, Camera, Action some time. The latest session was very good.

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