DM'ing for "The Saviors" (Thanks MT Black!)

Every month or so, I host a grand Dungeons and Dragons game at my house where I am the Dungeon Master. After playing several games at my house where Jeff Toney is the DM, he convinced me to also give DM'ing a shot with an alternate game. Thus we began trading DM duties every month for our group.

First, let me introduce you to the group that calls themselves "The Saviors."

When Jeff Toney is in your group, you get custom character drawings!

• Creed -- Creed is a Human Paladin played by Jeff. His character has a soft spot for orphans and is almost too serious for his own good.
• Elliwick -- Elliwick is a Dwarf Cleric played by Jeff's daughter.  She has a pet bat and a tendancy to charge into battle.
• Hungry -- Hungry is a Teifling Ranger played by my oldest son. You guessed it, he's always hungry, and he has a pet Black Bear who's even hungrier than he is.  He carries around a standard 40 rations.
• Whedab -- Whedab is a Black Dragonborn Sorcerer, a folk hero from her town who also somehow always gets the kill shot so they can take credit for the kill. Whedab is played by my daughter.
• Twelve -- Twelve is a strangely colored blue Wood Elf Warlock who also happens to be a spy with the ability to disguise herself at will . . . and also just happened to let an enemy of hers rot in prison for a crime she committed . . . Twelve is played by the Uber Wife.

The following is kind of a travel guide to how the group's adventures have played out and how I've been stringing together adventures to get them to the point they're at now about a year later.

For our first adventures I've been stringing together one-shot adventures from the very talented MT Black, created two adventures of my very own, and after one more MT Black adventure, I'll be transitioning them into the campaign called the Tomb of Annihilation.

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Their quest began in Neverwinter where they were contacted by a nobleman known as Jorseth Smythe, who contracted them to check on his sister Eemyth in the town of Frickley.  He felt like there was something terrible going on with her.

This hook worked perfectly to start the beginning of the Giant Slayer adventure. All I did was add a strange "healer" in town (an Obeah woman of sorts) named Eemyth.

They did great in the adventure! They ended up contacting the old giantslayer named Jahia and convinced her to come help them stave off the hill giant attack on the town, they chose the 14-year-old boy named Bayle to be their guide, which led perfectly into having Jahia adopt Bayle after the adventure.

After this I had them follow a cat with a magical collar into a portal, which took them back to Neverwinter and segued into MT Black's King of Cats Adventure, which is awesome . . . such a well written adventure. I chose "Pouncivil" from King of Cats to be a cat owned by Jorseth Smythe, which led back into an adventure I had been crafting.

In my adventure, the players journeyed back to the town of Frickley, but this time to save Eemyth and the town from the influence of the Shrine of Loviatar there and also a pack of lizardfolk that had taken up nearby residence.  It was pretty epic and "The Saviors," as they had by now coined themselves, removed Eemyth's curse and broke the shrine found in the town.

There were some great moments, like when Whedab belly flopped off a waterfall and Creed was able to see through the eyes of one of Eemyth's spider pets. I also gave Hungry his wish to face off with his favored enemy choice of oozes, which btw has got to be one of the worst favored enemy choices ever.

At this point I was going to lead them to Triboar to travel through the Terror at Triboar adventure, but they chose a different path and returned back to Neverwinter.  While detailing their adventures in Frickley to Jorseth, a new NPC crossed their paths that led them instead through the Wizard in a Bottle adventure.

They loved Wizard in a Bottle more than I anticipated. The females in the group really connected with Amilya Grayheart's plight of being trapped in a bottle for 20 years and losing everyone she loved.

On their way back to Neverwinter to collect their spoils and drop off Amilya, I had "The Saviors" run into a Centaur who needed help. This led them deep into Neverwinter forest into another adventure of my own design. They just barely finished up this adventure on Saturday and are headed back once again to Neverwinter.

I've already put the group in contact with a ship captain, and they're super excited to head on the high seas for The Dawn Chasers -- yet another MT Black adventure. All I need to do is modify this just a touch and they'll be all set to head into the jungles of Chult, where they ultimately will conquer the Tomb of Annihilation.

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Whew . . . it's been quite the adventure and the first time I've really given DM'ing a shot.  It's not an easy task and especially with this group. :) They seem to be having a good time though and I love the family and friends time I'm able to have with them.

Behold the view from behind the DM screen

Happy Dueling!