It's still functioning but the currents are highly erratic due to to he tower collapsing on itself.

Dalgura: Please also make a DC10 Concentration to determine whether the Bless spell is still active after taking damage.

In reply to DM Shard (msg # 321):


18:55, Today: Dalgura Ironhammer rolled 12 using 1d20 with rolls of 12.  concentration check.

Not sure if I would get any adds to it or not.

It's a Constitution check. The target number is 10 (or half damage, whichever is higher), so a 12 is sufficient.

You can always make a bonus action once per round. You don't have to spend a regular action to have the option.

Blasting the Ice Witch a little more doesn't hurt, but it doesn't actually help you either :)

Oh I don't know.  I felt a lot better blasting her.

I suspect that it is fun to toss in a "Take that, bitch!" parting shot. :)

Hold on Kira, going for the standard "Evac then treat" option here...

Make sure Morgrim isn't at a deadfall before you throw yourself over. Morgrim is testing the currents because he knows hes the most likely to survive a full on plummet from this height if it doesn't work.

I absolutely love you all.  It made me cry reading how Morgrim sacrificed himself to protect Kira.  She adores the dwarven siblings and has grown to love everyone in the group.  Not sure right now where she stands hp wise.  I know Dal gave her 7 points but she was at -13.  Is she stable and awake or still unconscious?

Actually, PCs don’t into negatives anymore.  You get stuck at 0, and the death save mechanic is used to see if you recover consciousness, or “bleed out”.    Or am I not square with the 5e rules?

Yeah. No negative hit points. The only reason you track negative hit points is because death automatically occurs anytime a character takes damage equal to their negatibe hit point value.

Yeah. Kira is conscious again the moment she receives any healing. Let's assume she comes to consciousness as soon as Thane carries her outside the collapsing tower.

A thrilling conclusion to a great adventure :)

Well done and well-played, everyone! And many thanks for a fun campaign, Shane! :)
This message was last edited by the player at 01:03, Wed 07 Nov 2018.

That was a nail biter.  Glad that I was able to give some healing to you Kira.  Hopefully you and I can get a long rest soon.

Thanks for the kind words.

I'd like to give Arnan and Thane an opportunity to post and then I have a wrap-up post and Epilogue to close this thing out!

Always a great feeling to complete an adventure, but especially so in PbP, as games that conclude are the exception rather than the rule.

YAY!  Awww  Kira.  Loved your post.  :)  Congrats everybody.....we survived...so far anyway.  :)

I'm posting tonight.  Busy week!

Let me echo the thoughts already expressed - this was a great, fun, and well run campaign!  Thank you, Shane, for running it, and thank you fellow players for being a part of it :)

~Rob

I purchased the Legacy of the Crystal Shard adventure in September 2016 and had only played 5th edition a couple times prior to deciding to run this as my very first 5e adventure. What initially drew me to the adventure was its focus on story, the three different paths the adventure could go and the idea of choosing one path would lead to consequences in the other two paths.

As I mentioned to Bill and Rob when I first approached them in October 2016:



By this time in November 2016, Bill had recruited all of you to round out the cast and we were in the midst of character generation, waiting for the holidays to pass to begin the game. We launched on 1 January 2017 and worked through the adventure over the next 22+ months. I kind of figured it would take about 2 years to complete the adventure and had hoped we could retain all of the players to see it through the completion. We only lost one along the way, which is kind of remarkable, so thanks for all the help in vetting the cast, Bill!

Overall, I enjoyed the adventure as well. It was definitely a challenging adventure to run due to its relatively non-linear presentation and the fact the mechanics were sketchy and/or based on early "D&D Next" assumptions. But I liked the overarching story of 3 separate villains mucking up Icewind Dale and felt like you guys had an opportunity to shape the history of the region through your characters' actions.

In hindsight, I think I could have done a better job selling Akar Kessell as a villain, but his main role was as a villain in the Dwarven Valley, and your character sacrificed that hook in favor of the other two hooks. So you really didn't get to learn much about him and he is only in the final act as a hanger-on and not the main villain.

Splitting up the party was also a drag. During that time, I started having doubts on my ability to see this game through to completion and was happy to work everyone back together and phase out the non-contributing party member who caused the split in the first place. Things definitely got better once the two groups reunited, at least from my standpoint. Note to self: don't allow PbP parties to split up anymore. It never works out well!

At any rate, I am curious to know what you specifically liked or didn't like about this adventure, the way I ran it, writing/posting style, etc. Any feedback is appreciated, as I am always working to improve my craft and get better as a storyteller and DM.

Thanks again!

Shane

NEVER doubt your ability to GM.  You did a GREAT job and I know it couldn't have been easy with me asking all my questions, etc.  :)

I also want to thank all the other players for helping me learn 5E.

What specifically did I like?  EVERYTHING.  You had high points and low points in the game.  You encouraged us to continue.  You listened to us.

I liked how you posted the damage each round and the synopsis of the battle.  You made us think and we had difficult choices to make but we also had time to relax and get to know each other better.

Are you planning on carrying on with these characters?  I've had so much fun with Dal.  :)

I quite enjoyed the adventure path, or at least those parts of it that I saw while the group was split. Its a rare treat to see an adventure through from start to finish on this platform, and to keep much of the same party along for the ride is remarkable. You've got a good group, now lets keep it going ;)

My criticisms, if any, were early on and I think had more to do with the growing pains of much of the table learning a new system while also having to update D&D Next material to full fledged 5e. The balance seemed 'off'. But that resolved itself nicely, and since we joined forces again I've not felt that was a problem.

Akar Kessell did seem to come out of nowhere after we failed to make progress on the Dwarven Valley hook. I chased that as far as I could take it without causing another schism within the party. I feel like Morgrim and Thane both managed to nicely set aside their disagreements though, and were stronger for having gone through it ultimately.

Morgrim remains the first and only druid I've played in 5e. I'm still not sure I'm sold ;) Mechanically he's fine, but the long periods of silence while he's wildshaped are new for me. I tend to write a lot of dialogue. Having Dalgura there to physically play off of made a huge difference.

I enjoy your posting style. It keeps the scenes dramatic, where other games degenerate into walls of dice rolls. Actions seem more consequential as a result, even if its only a handful of damage done on a blow.

In reply to Morgrim Ironhammer (msg # 341):

Awww.  Glad to be of help furrybutt...I mean brother!  :)  I can see where it could be challenging for you to have to be quiet but you did a great job!  You were most awesome with your wildshapes, etc.  Made a huge difference both in combat as well as giving Dal something to play off of.  :)

I enjoyed how you ran the game very much, Shane.  We had the difficulty of the party split early on, and we did bargain pretty hard to pursue two of the three trails as well.  You handled it well enough, from my perspective as a player, that I didn't notice any hiccups on your part!

Akar Kessell came out of nowehere, though, and fortunately went back into nowhere once we really started beating him up.

I'm hard pressed to mention any areas where I think you need to improve, or stop doing certain things a certain way, or start doing certain things a different or new way.  This was my first 5E game so the rules and such were "new" and really most of my in-game surprises were not from how you ran things as opposed to me having to learn how interestingly different the classes are from prior editions!  :)

For example, never did I think that the druid would be the real combat force that Grimbear and Grimwolf turned out to be.  At first, I was a bit jealous.  I hearken back to 1e, 2e, and 3e where fighters were the real force du jour of melee combat.  In 5e...not so much, apparently.  But I got over the jealousy once I figured out that this was a planned feature for the druid class, ability to shape change and basically be a high damage inflicter but vulnerable damage soaker, while the fighter is the "stand toe to toe and go blow for blow" type, being hard to hit and able to withstand melee for a lengthy period of time.  Shift of paradigm for me, really.

Still don't have the best feel for the other classes, honestly, but overall I like the system and would like to continue playing Thane if that is a possibility.  There's lots of story left for him, that's for sure.

Again, I greatly enjoyed the game and how you ran it.

~Rob

For what its worth, Moondruids excel from level 1-4 when hitpoints are scarce and multiple attacks per round are a rarity. At level 5 most martial classes gain extra attack and have bulked up on hit points and armor. In the mid game fighters and barbarians start to take off in damage, and by the late game they are the clear leaders in round to round single target damage.