A Sliver of Despair

Searching the Sewers After taking a short rest to allow Shudo to recover from his rat bites, the party headed back down into the sewer to search for Rosie Emberhelm and the rumored "Ratman". The sewer was a typical sewer, stone walls and murky water with plenty of chunks flowing slowly down the passages. All of the party with the exception of Erzenei ,"Z" as he liked to go by, are demi-humans and have darkvision. So "Z" was relegated to lighting and carrying a torch so that he was not blind during their exploration. They explored the exits to the north, south and west to find them all ending in a heavy grate mortared into the walls. The bars were two inch thick steel and even with a herculean effort, they could not budge them. Finally, they headed down the long easterly passage to discover a four way intersection. They peered down each passage and quietly listened to decide which way to proceed. All they saw was more darkness down each tunnel, but whi...

The Ground Floor As the adventurers consider their options while standing near the open door to the house that the thug was trying to escape to, a couple of them notice a man trying to sneak up on them. After their last encounter they are on high alert and immediately draw their ranged weapons, while questioning the human. "I am Erzenei, a local, and only came down here because I heard the commotion of a fight. Are you the adventurers that are looking into the abduction of Rosie Emberhelm?". After introductions are completed, the party accepts Erzenai into the group. The door stands invitingly open and they can see what looks like a typical living room for the area: chairs around a dining room table; a large fireplace with seats nearby; and a welcoming rug at the entrance. The party decides to investigate the house, to look for any signs of Rosie. The party heads into the house, with the exception of Fosgrim, who took a bit of a beating from the thugs, so he decides to t...

Adventure Location All of the characters travel to the town of Daggerford. Daggerford is located centrally in the Sword Coast, just south of Waterdeep along the Trade Way. Although small in size (population around 2000), because of it's location it plays an important role in the region. The town is walled with a central keep, a reflection of its origin as the feudal seat of a lord within a much larger kingdom. Its customs and laws are holdovers from that time. Rule is hereditary, with dukedom going to the firstborn male of the family. The current Duke is Maldwyn Daggerford, a selfish and arrogant man more interested in being lavished and admired than ruling. Daggerford is an important hub for trade, located next to the Trade Way and on the banks of the Delimbiyr river. The river becomes shallow at Daggerford, so boat traffic from the east must stop. This traffic meets with caravans traveling north or south on the Trade Way. Adventure Hook While the characters are in Da...

Setting The 'Sliver of Despair' campaign will be set in the Sword Coast area of the Forgotten Realms using the Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition rule-set and homebrew rules changes as the need arises. Each of the characters are from different areas of the realms, so there will be some pre-adventuring time spent building a motivation to gather all of them in a single location. I decided on Daggerford as the initial gathering spot. It provides a convenient location for future adventuring, being located between the cities of Waterdeep to the north, Baldur's Gate to the south and the Sea of Swords a short distance west. The Characters Kalain Galathil Callin is playing a wood elf Ranger named Kalain Galathil. His early life was spent in a small village in the High Forest with his parents and two siblings. It was a peaceful, typical elvish life until the village was attacked by a horde of undead. The undead laid waste to the entire village, other than Kalain, who with ...

Inspiration I was inspired to start a campaign after reading the book "Empire of Imagination," by Michael Witwer. It made me feel nostalgic for my old gaming sessions growing up in the seventies and eighties. Those were great evenings spent with a large collection of friends in the Yocom basement. I felt like my life lacked the creativity that I had as a youth and I was eager to recapture some of that. The Challenges My desire was to run a game with some of my old friends from my youth. Luckily I have stayed in touch with a good number of them, some more loosely than others. My first concern was that I was not sure how many of them would be interested in playing again and willing to put the time into it. Next, there was the issue of logistics. I currently live in the Bay Area, whereas the majority of my old gaming buddies still live in the Salt Lake City area. The final concern was what version of Dungeons & Dragons were we going to play. It had been 8+ years si...