Author: rcuscaden

Dracanas and his plan

As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, the whole basis for the Dragonking campaign centered around an idea that I wrote back in 2016. In that original text file from 3/15/2016 I envisioned an old battlefield that once again was drenched in blood. But instead of what I have written already in Ulric and the Battlemoor, a magical horn was going to summon forth the demon Orcus. Here is some of what I wrote that day… (notice even the spelling of Dracanas has evolved).

“But the quest for the horn is just a reason to bring both armies together. Once all of the fighting has taken place Drakanas will stride to the center of the battlefield and shove his staff into the ground and cast a massive spell. Dark clouds fill the skies and lightning crackles overhead. His twisted staff dissolves into the ground and a black mist emanates.

Then a black shaft of darkness over 300ft wide bursts forth from the ground and shoots up into the heavens. From the ground an evil temple rises from the ground and it gives forth a putrid stench of decaying flesh. Black mist pours out of its many windows. Evil undead creatures start emerging from doors and windows of the temple.

Drakanas strides towards the temple…”Rise my lord, Rise lord Orcus, Lord of the Dead…” he slowly begins to transform and he reveals his true form… that of an undead dragon.”

For the most part, the story held true to what I envisioned with a few differences. To learn more about Dracanas and his plan, please come next to the fire and hear Father Beowin tell his tale on Dracanas.

The Dragonking Campaign

As I have mentioned before, for the past five or so years our group has been playing in and around the Kingdom of DhanKanath. The central theme to this campaign has been centered around the prince of the realm, Ulric Kanorian, his broken Dragonsteel sword and the High Chancellor of the realm Dracanas. The Dragonking has disappeared and the realm has fallen into the hands of the mysterious High Chancellor. Ulric fearing that something has happened to his older brother has started a rebellion against Dracanas in the March of Norgaard.

The lands of DhanKanath are primarily human but Dragonborn and Draconians have elevated privileges within the kingdom. Ulric’s claim to the throne is through his broken sword “the Kingmaker”, an ancient blade made from the magical Dragonsteel. For Ulric to lay his claim to the people, he must find a way to re-forge his blade and this can only be done at a place called the Dragonforge. The Dragonforge is controlled by a powerful magical item known as the Staff of Dragons and it is this staff and the retrieval of the different sections in which the Dragonking campaign is based around.

As you will read, there are many different threads in this story and you will eventually learn that Dracanas’ plan is much greater than just controlling the Kingdom of DhanKanath; but for now here is some information on the Dragonforge and the Staff of Dragons.

New Unearthed Arcana Feats

With the announcement of the new Feats in the new Unearthed Arcana that came out last week, I wanted to create a post with my thoughts on the release. For those of you have not seen the Unearthed Arcana post, you can find it here.

My initial thoughts are for the most part pleased and in some cases a little sad. I am pleased because there are a lot of really cool new Feats to try out; but a little saddened because some of these Feats take away some of the reasons to multiclass. First off, I would say that I multiclass at least 80% of my characters. The benefits gained in each class in levels 1-6 far outweigh (in my mind) some of the benefits gained at higher levels. Of course there are exceptions, Fighter level 11 for instance, but the benefits gained at levels 3 and 6 in most cases are pretty good. With these new feats, some of the benefits of multiclassing can now be gained in a feat.

I am not going over all of the new feats; but I will cover a few of them and give my thoughts.

Crusher: I like this one for the attack with advantage aspect. If you have a hammer and have 2 attacks and you crit on your first attack, your NEXT 3 attacks are on advantage. Say on one of these 3 attacks you crit again…you get where I am going here. Nice for a Monk and a flurry of blows too!

Eldritch Adept: One of my favorite class combos is the Eldritch Knight and Warlock multiclass. Now with an Eldritch Knight you can get an Invocation without becoming a Warlock. While you will not be able to use this with the Edritch blast Invocations, this is pretty cool. Devilsight for a human … sign me up!

Fey Touched: Yes please… Gain Misty Step and 1 divination or enchantment spell once per day and if you have spell slots by other means you can use those spell slots to cast these spells. So an Eldritch Knight can Misty Step and oh…say Hunter’s Mark or Hex… sounds good to me.

Metamagic Adept: This one kind of rubs me wrong. One of the reasons to play a Socerer over a wizard is the Metamagic. Now a Wizard can do the same thing. I think this would be best for a Socerer to take as the extra 2 sorcery points and two more Metamagic options is really good.

Poisoner: I like this one for an Assassin character. Being able to add poison as a bonus action instead of an action is huge. If you play with homebrew poisons, this could be very deadly.

Shadow Touched: I like this too for a Warlock or Eldritch Knight character, it is like getting a couple of extra spell slots.

Tandem Tactician: I really like this one for the ability to use the Help Action as a bonus Action. This is a DM boon as this will help multiple characters attack at advantage against you big boss monster. Great for those support characters.

Tracker: Really…you want to kill the Ranger class for good. Now with this a fighter can take this Feat and become a Ranger. I love the Ranger character, they have always been my favorite character type to play. In 5e and the last 5 years of playing the game, I have 0 (ZERO) Ranger characters. Please do something to make this class better. In AD&D the Ranger got +2 hit/dam vs their favorite enemies…is that too much to ask?

Let me know what you think!

In the Beginning

This post is going to be about the start of the our campaign in and around the lands of DhanKanath. One of these days I will have to also write about the lands that others in our group have created, as they are pretty cool too; but for now this is about the lands around DhanKanath and the Creation Myth.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I looked back through my old binder on the lands that our group created in college for inspiration and ideas. I started with a simple plan for the initial Kingdom of DhanKanath. A Kingdom ruled by a human King who’s family has sat on the Dragon Throne for several generations. At the time of creation, this is exactly what I had planned; but over time, this plan changed and the Human rulers have been replaced with the rule of… well I will save that for another post.

The religion information all comes from some desert lands that I created back in college; but that information never saw the light of a 20 sider as jobs, moving, family and other stuff all got in the way. So I figured it would be easy to lift and shift it to our new campaign.

In this story, Father Beowin will tell us a little about the history of the world and the original two races who inhabited the lands in the Creation Myth.

Start at the End

I wanted to use the blog on this site to tell the story and provide lore for the lands that our campaigns are based around. Our group has been playing this campaign for the last 5 years (2015-2020) and over that time we have gathered quite a bit of lore and history that I want to capture that on this site.

First off, I want to say that the lands are based around the Kingdom of DhanKanath. Secondly I would say that almost everything that can be found on this site I have helped developed; but I cannot say that about DhanKanath. This Kingdom was created by a great DM and friend, Jeff R, back in college many years ago. When our new group started playing again, I went back into my old books and Jeff’s kingdom name birthed the lands in which our group plays. So I cannot take credit for coming up with this kingdom, it was all Jeff’s work.

The way that I am going to use the blog is to tell the history and story of our lands through the eyes of an old warrior cleric named Father Beowin. He will be the narrator of our story as we move forward. Other times, I plan to blog about things pertaining to the game or gameplay, only time will tell where this journey will take me.

I want to start this blog at the end of our group’s last campaign. For the last 5 years we have had many adventures in and around the lands of DhanKanath. I actually wrote the skeleton of this final adventure back in 2016. Much has happened since then; but the last adventure was always the goal and it was the end of one campaign and the beginning of another, so let’s step next to the fire where Father Beowin is retelling the tale of the Ulric and the Battlemoor.

Welcome

I wanted to welcome you to my site and as I said on the Home page, I have too many Word and Excel files with history, story and lore to keep track of it all so I figured a website would be easy access to the information especially during the COVID times that we live in. As a DM, I am always looking for ideas, so if any of the ideas I share here tickle your fancy, please enjoy and if you have any feedback or thoughts, I welcome them.

I began playing DnD back in the early 80s, a few years after TSR and Gary Gygax first released the game. After playing AD&D right through college in the 90’s, I never touched a 20 sider in 20+ years. Then one fateful day back in 2015, I was asked by my college friends to come and play the new 5e ruleset and to bring along my 16 year old son. We have been playing DnD 5e for the last 5 years on a monthly basis.

I was amazed at the fond memories the game brought back to me. I got to once again enjoy the company of my old friends and to share in that enjoyment with my son. I have always been one for the story that the game creates. Sometimes the story is made epic with some heroic once in a lifetime critical, or sad when the dice tell a different story. As a DM I love putting the bones of a story together so that the players can bring the flesh and blood and bring the skeleton to life. All this possible thanks to this wonderful game.

I hope that the information found on the site is useful, enjoy!