Enter Vadania

My childhood was a time of simple innocence.

I lived In a village, deep in the wilds, with my family. I was raised by my mother and father among a tribe of elves. My father was not an elf, but instead a human. Apparently my mother had married another man before, who had fallen in battle, so the man I call my father was not biologically my parent.

The day I turned 100, I was tasked with finding an adult name for myself. Having found a good one, I returned to my camp, only to find it razed to the ground. Both my mother and father were slain in battle, as they had been striding in the open and were easy targets for the beast's wide swoops. I came across my mother's nearly dead body and rushed over to her side. The only words she spoke that I could make out were "Vadania", which roughly translates to goodbye in Elvish. From then on I decided that my adult name would be Vadania, and that I would spend my time

lingering in the shadows, waiting to strike, as that strategy would have been most effective against the green dragon that killed my family.

I came to Greenest to follow a lead I had on the cult of the dragon queen. There I met Auric and Kerri, who would become important allies for my quest in dismantling the cult of the dragon queen.

After breaking away from Auric I went to the harpers, figuring since I joined them I might as well see what they are like but after seeing their methods I realized I needed more power. Beginning to hunt down more and more cult members I spread my name while searching for this power, and finally found it in the name of the Zhentarim. Having no family left of my own, I found it only natural to join their ranks, and began to work for them, honing my skills even further.

Over the various trials I faced, I collected several items that will aid my quest for vengeance. First, I found an incredible broom of flying, hidden in a treasure hoard of the cult. After that I found a hat of disguise (Thanks to donor Austin Laughery). Finally I found a rapier called the Dragon Slayer (Thanks to donor Kevin Anderson) hidden deep within the recesses of an ancient shrine. In my solitude I trained steadfastly, in order to wield this new weapon I became a dual wielder, and my training also made me more alert to ambushes.

Having honed my skills, I am now ready to fight the dragons, and avenge my family.

THE CRIT OF THE CENTURY!!!

HERE LIES THE CRIT OF THE CENTURY (THE ONE THAT GOT US $25 MORE!!!)

Halfway video!

We made it halfway! Here's a video celebrating our progress thus far.

The end of the line PT II (Charimon)

Charimon reached the end of her life at the hour of 8:52 pm. Fighting the green dragon she was uncouncsiou and destabalized by the dragon's horrible poisonous breath. The first time, she was stabalized by her party member Akorishok. However! The second time death was the only option for Charimon. She welcomed death as she welcomed life. It came as no surprise to her, she reached the end.

...

...

...

Or did she? 

The End of the line - Written from the POV of Charimon (Katie)

As a cleric who serves the great God of murder Bhaal, I have a natural ability to sense when people should die. As our party fought the cult members and Blue Dragon on the boat, it became apparent to me that it was the end of the line for Clonk and Örök. However! But some unnatural intervention neither of them perished in the fight.
When things like this happen, its my duty as a servant of Bhaal to try and right the natural order. That's why, with semi-sadness I took it upon myself to kill both Clonk and Örök. When I explained to them what had happened both of them seemed ok with it.
Clonk and Örök departed our party in braveness and honor. In death they will be remembered as valiant members of our party.
I for one, am happy that I was able to maintain the natural order while helping my beloved god Bhall.

Goodbye Clonk and Örök.

A Duel of Dragons

As the party traveled back to Waterdeep from the Sea of Moving Ice, Kerri disembarked at the city of Luskan in order to meet up with the Arcane Brotherhood and return their stolen books. (And perhaps convince them to join the cause!) The rest of the party continued to sail south.

Sometime that afternoon, Charimon spotted a gold speck off in the distance, the sunlight making it sparkle like a far away gem. As it drew closer, Charimon recognized it as some sort of gold-skinned humanoid flying towards the ship.

A moment later, Auric the once-dragon "half-elf" landed on the deck of the ship, a giant grin on his face.

"Where's Kerri??" he asked. "I've been sent to join her and her friends."

Much to Auric's sadness, he learned that he would not be able to meet up with Kerri until the next Council of Waterdeep. Still, he had no time to feel lonely, for at that moment a sinister bluish shape appeared high in the sky, the sun framing its form: a blue dragon, with five people on its back.

The dragon tore down through the air, intent on engaging with the heroes. Auric immediately turned to his replacement-Kerri, the fighter Belkira (played by Colby), and made her and himself invisible. The black-robed assassins leapt from the back to attack the heroes. A furious battle ensued, in which the dragon's fearsome lightning breath weapon wreaked havoc on the heroes and the assassins alike. Fortunately, due to the quick thinking and martial prowess of the adventurers, the tide was soon turned in their favor.

The final blow of the battle was dealt by Auric: summoning every ounce of his draconic magic, he opened his mouth and released a deluge of flame upon the blue dragon, which staggered for a moment before toppling into the sea. It was a glorious day for flames.

Kerri's First Dragon

On our quest to find a scholar who could tell us about the Drakkhorn, we ventured into the Sea of Moving Ice north of the Sword Cost. Kerri hoped to face the white dragon Arauthator ("Old White Death") and free the nearby village of ice hunters from his thrall. We delved into caves deep in his iceberg lair, Oyaviggaton, sliding down an icy tunnel into a huge cavern.

Without any warning, a blast of icy breath hit us from the ceiling of the cavern. The blast downed Alaria and heavily injured the rest of the party - save for Belkira, whose draconic ancestry protected her from the cold. Looking up, we saw a white, reptilian shape hanging from the ceiling - Old White Death himself!

We quickly improvised a plan. Clonk and Charimon worked together to heal the party and ward them against the dragonfear, while the newly healed Alaria cast a fly spell on herself and Kerri. Kerri flew to attack Arauthator, gaining purchase on the dragon's back and stabbing into a weak point between its wings.

The rest of the party spread out on the ground, where they prepared for battle. Clayton transformed into a bear as Clonk continued to cast healing spells. The dragon shook Kerri off its back, but the fly spell kept her aloft as Alaria unleashed a flurry of blows with her twin swords.

Realizing that most of the party couldn't fight the dragon except on the ground, Kerri and Alaria coordinated a strike on the ice cavern's roof. Alaria weakened the ice (and hurt the dragon) with a fireball spell, then Kerri smashed the rest of the ice, knocking the dragon down and into the air.

This opened up an opportunity for Clayton's bear form. He leaped at the dragon, clinging to it and ripping through its scales. Belkira followed suit with her pike, driving it deep into the dragon's hide.

Injured, Arauthator fled through a hole in the ice. Although Clayton shifted into a shark in pursuit, he was unable to match the dragon's icy breath, which froze the water around him, immobilizing his shark form.

Kerri may not have slain this dragon, but she worked together with her friends to drive it away from its lair - and for that, she is happy. We found the dragon scholar Maccath the Crimson, and now the party journeys south to find the Cult's Wyrmspeaker, Varram.

Belkira's Duel: Our Adventure So Far (Colby)

Us adventurers have traveled to the Sea of Moving Ice to find White Death. Along the trip I've started to grown fond of most of the other adventurer's with me. I've found the most fondness to Alaria, the noble high elf. I, as dragonborn, have never found myself to particular of elves throughout my lifetime but both elves present on the trip are proving themselves quite powerful. Alaria has a good head on her shoulders. She reads of dragonborn nobles and is fond of their past. Charimon is quite interesting as well, though she is quick to liking anything death related. The half-orc and gnome are mostly doing there own thing. Kerri has gotten a little on my nerves. She is too headstrong for my liking, yet I have not seen her fight yet. She talks of fighting too much seeming to find the fight more pleasurable than the purpose of the fight. Regardless, it is just the beginning.

As we found our way to the nearby village one of the warriors there stuck his spear in the ground as a means of communication. While the others pondered the meeting of this I knew this was going to show who we are. I copied his movements and what embarked was a duel. He fought very well, almost taking me out. The local shaman limited our magic abilities during this duel. This is fine as I wanted to show are brute strength as proof of our power and respect. We gained the respect from the shaman and they told us of White Death, the white dragon who has kept the village under hostage. These white dragons also cause chaos among the colder climates. They need to be slain. Us silver dragons must retain the power for the metallic dragons. We have embarked into a ice cavern now searching for this evil beast.

Bits and Pieces including duel

Upon climbing the ice steps the group comes across stacks on stacks of meat. While Kerri loudly asks for a fire to make herself breakfast, the group of 50+ villagers encircles the adventurers. A bone and shell clad shaman steps forward with a man in a loincloth and spear. The man with the spear steps forward and stabs his spear into the ground. Not knowing whether this is a sign of war or peace (Colby) mimics the action with his spear. It soon becomes apparent that the two have now agreed to some kind of duel. Kerri gives Belkira Nysriel her cloak and the two begin to duel. Belkira charges at the spearman missing by inches. The Shaman stops the fight and gestures at the cloak… Apparently magic is not allowed. The duel restarts this time without the cloak. The two battle furiously.

In a last ditch attempt at survival the dragonborn figher Belkira breathes an icy blast in the spearman’s face. Shocked, the spearman stops attacking. The shaman steps forward and asks in common “what was that.” Through the ensuing conversation the adventurers tell of their quest to slay the white dragon and find Maccath the Crimson who disappeared in the area three years ago. Clayton gets himself a flask of seal liquor from the shaman. They rest in the shaman’s hut before heading out down a chute in the shaman’s hut into the ice caves.

They hear the sounds of kobolds around the corner. charimon goes around to kill them. They throw rocks at her (rather effectively) and run away. Alaria casts fireball killing all 12 sleeping and running kobolds in one fell swoop. The group follows the path the kobolds were running towards, looking to find out where they were going. They come upon a room of junk. They walk through the next door to a room of supplies. many kinds of frozen meat and furs. Clonk takes the gauntlet, hilt of a dagger (no blade) and brooch which are among the supplies.

They come upon a giant curving pit with an iron hook above it. The room appears to be the room the villagers make their offering to the white dragon.

THEN THEY ALL GO GET SOME REAL LIFE FOOD FROM COMMONS. NOMNOM.

Clayton's Impressions From Start Thus Far . . .

We six heroes were summoned by the Waterdeep Council. The Lord of the Council had for us a quest: to go north, to the Sea of Moving Ice.
There will be a boat, you see, and this greatly pleases Clonk. However, there will be no moss up north.
The quest, clearly, would be quite arduous. We were to take the boat, Ross Skimmer, to these cold seas, in search of a sort of iceberg-castle in which a dragon resides. We also were to look for more information regarding Maccath the Crimson Failure to vanquish this foe is not an option.
After five days at sea with no sight of the castle, I started to get horrible dreams of white fire burning moss. Soon after, we dock the boat, and at night, while Charimon and Belkira stood watch, they saw a polar bear chasing a human, who spoke some incomprehensible Uluic tongue. Luckily, a crewmate could more or less understand him -- it was clear enough that his village was wrought with death, and that we should follow him, but not then, rather the next morning. I could not sleep.
His advice was quite effective. After some scouting, we found the iceberg-castle atop an ice plateu. Though we had to retrieve our boat from the other side of the glacier, delaying our journey by a day, we soon made it atop the plateu, only to be greeted by what seems to be many villagers, none of which speak any common tongues with the party.

I have not written a poem about moss in over a week and I grow weary, but my visions of the flora's destruction  compels me forward.

Introducing Kerri Windreaver

Kerri exists only in our imaginations, but the
HeroForge website did a pretty good job of recreating
my idea of what she would look like.

Hello. Sidney here.

In a little more than a day, I and nine of my closest friends will be sitting down to play Dungeons & Dragons for 24 hours - straight. Why, you ask? For charity.

I'm one of the three Dungeon Masters for the event - I'll be rotating out with Ben Campbell and Ryen Martinez to run the Rise of Tiamat adventure - but when I'm not running the game, I'll be playing my own character.

Kerri Windreaver will return from Hoard of the Dragon Queen to take on the Cult of the Dragon and stop them . Her grandmother was a legendary dragon slayer, but Kerri is quickly becoming a legend herself. She's famous for her brawling fighting style, forgoing armor and weapons to wrestle her monstrous opponents to the ground. An early donation benefit gained her a pair of Gauntlets of Ogre Power, which she used to good effect to become one of the most powerful members of our adventuring party.

Kerri's determined to protect her friends and prove her might in battle, and with this new adventure, I think she'll have plenty of opportunities for glory. With all the dragons flying around, I'm determined to have Kerri wrestle at least one and win!

We won't be able to do it without your help, though. To donate to the Extra Life charity - and grant in-game benefits to our characters - just click this link to my donation page. Help Kerri be awesome, and help support sick kids!

Welcome to 24 Hours of D&D: The Rise of Tiamat

Hello, and welcome to 24 hours of D&D: The Rise of Tiamat!

This adventure picks up where The Hoard of the Dragon Queen--our previous 24-hour D&D marathon-- left off. I (Ben Campbell) and my two co-Dungeon Masters (Sidney Parham and Ryen Martinez) will be running the adventure for a group of brave heroes--and when we're not running, we'll be playing ourselves!

This event, like the one back in October, is an effort to raise money for the Extra Life charity. As such, our supporters will have the opportunity to donate money, which has the added bonus of in-game benefits for the player/character of your choice! Trust me, having read the adventure, I can say with confidence that we'll need every bonus we can get...

This adventure will be of truly epic scale! Starting at level eight or nine gives characters access to abilities such as Wall of Fire, Fly, Indomitable, and Raise Dead, and by the end world-shattering powers like Earthquake, Teleport, and Reverse Gravity. That said, the enemies we face will be stronger still, including necromancers, giants, and, of course, dragons!

Subsequent blog posts written by each player will provide their own introduction and description of their character. I will start with mine--some of you may remember Auric, the once-Gold Dragon-turned-Half-Elf, with a penchant for flying around and launching fireballs out of his mouth... as well as charming just about everybody he meets.

Let the adventure begin!

Player Schedules

Curious who's playing when? Here's a handy primer (click the image to make it bigger):