The First Adventure: A Reader's Guide

  • Backhanded Apology: Elathan managed a rather nice one with Rel: since he's "not a real drow", he didn't deserve all the crap Elathan had been giving him.
  • The Bad Guy Wins
  • Big Fancy Castle: Cateye Castle and Castle Heralmoor.
  • Big Heroic Run/Hero Stole My Horse: Willem and Farrln chased after the drow that had kidnapped Elathan and commandeered some horses. It didn't exactly work out.
  • Chekhov's Gun: The sample from the Taintlands was the first clue to who Imirain really was.
  • Cluster F Bomb: Willem was very upset to hear that Elathan had gone missing a second time.
  • Collector of the Strange: Concetta wanted Kayla's flask of drow knockout poison quite badly.
  • Cool Sword: Oh, Adinious.
  • Absurdly Sharp Blade

  • Empathic Weapon
  • Famed In Story
  • Forged By The Gods
  • Loyal Phlebotinum
  • Named Weapons
  • The Sword That Speaks
  • The Sword of Plot Advancement
  • Cold Blooded Torture: Horen literally flaying Gaylia in front of everyone was a form of this.
  • Curb Stomp Battle: Willem vs. Horen.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Karrashiva wears a lot of black and generally has a foreboding appearance, but is actually fairly pleasant to deal with. Usually. Though she wasn't always that way.
  • Different As Night And Day: Elathan and Kayla.
  • Easing Into The Adventure
  • Elves Versus Dwarves: Subverted with Elathan and Kayla.
  • Enemy Chatter: Used in one of the write-ups between two orcs.
  • Empire With A Dark Secret: Farrlmarr.
  • Failed A Spot Check: Running Gag with Willem.
  • Five Man Band:
  • The Hero: Willem.

  • The Lancer: Farrln.
  • The Smart Guy: Elathan.
  • The Big Guy: Gaylia (played with).
  • The Chick: Audria (played straight)/Kayla (The Medic/The Heart variant).
  • Sixth Ranger: Rel.
  • Comic Relief: Lysldar.
  • Team Pets: Tasha, Relk, and Bramble.
  • Forbidden Zone/Death World: The Taintlands.
  • Fruit Cart: One showed up with Elathan and Kayla were chasing Rel in Silvershore.
  • Good Guy Bar: The Black-Hearted Maiden, ironically enough.
  • Herald: A messenger from Farrlmarr started the whole adventure.
  • Here There Were Dragons: Staple for D&D.
  • Adventure Friendly World

  • Adventure Towns: Every place has a quest.

  • Heroic BSOD: Willem broke down pretty hard after Elathan was kidnapped right out from under him in Farrlmarr. Getting his ass kicked by the Big Bad and having his best friend turned to stone didn't help.
  • Heterosexual Life Partners: Willem and Farrln.
  • Hopeless Boss Fight: The first encounter with Horen were actually this.
  • Info Dump: Caraliss' explanation of who the Watchers really are and what they do.
  • Jigsaw Puzzle Plot/Kudzu Plot
  • The Lady's Favor: Both Caraliss and Karrashiva like to give things out.
  • Kill And Replace/Dead Person Impersonation: Horen with Imirain.
  • Knight In Sour Armor: Danad.
  • Light Is Not Good: Horendithas always wears white and tends to favor bright, flashy spells. He also likes flaying people alive.
  • MacGuffin: Subverted with Adinious, since it acutally does something.
  • Mandatory Unretirement: Yenfalcon.
  • Missed Moment Of Awesome: Most of the good parts of the battle between Horen and Karrashiva happened "off-camera".
  • Narrow Escape: The party's escape from the mountain with the yuan-ti.
  • Never Live It Down: Farrln still gets poked about impersonating a consort of Sharess.
  • Motive Misidentification: Horen is trying to destroy Farrlmarr! ...no, he's trying to restore the Taintlands. That's not so bad. Oh, it's because he's trying to become a god. ...oh, crap.
  • Not Himself: Elathan after being captured the second time due to Brainwashing.
  • Non Human Sidekick: Tasha to Elathan; Relk to Gaylia; Bramble to Rel; Farrln to Willem.
  • Non Indicative Name: The Taintlands weren't so much cursed with evil magic as devoid of it entirely.
  • Odd Friendship: Elathan and Kayla.
  • Only One Allowed To Defeat You: Horen and Willem to each other.
  • Plot Leveling: Everyone from the first campaign who appears in the second campaign will have more levels.
  • The Quest
  • The Reveal: Everyone was a little surprised to hear that all the high-ranking members of the Watchers were Really Seven Hundred Years Old.
  • Running Gag: Willem constantly failing to see things and every conversation between the characters ending with a comment about Willem's eating habits.
  • Thirsty Desert: The Shifts.
  • Turn In Your Badge: Karrashiva essentially does this to Willem after Elathan was captured the second time, but not for the reason everyone thought.
  • Vagueness Is Coming: Horen's comments at the Celestiana Festival: "Everything will be as it should."
  • Villain Exit Stage Left: Subverted in that all of Horen's exits were noticably graceful.
  • Villainous Rescue: Horen saved the party from the cave-in in the south, though it was mostly to save Elathan and he saved everyone else by proxy.
  • Working The Same Case: Reldaerqel and the part met when they were both investigating Moundmire Castle.
  • Xanatos Speed Chess: Everything goes according to plan for Horen. Even when it doesn't.
  • Year Inside Hour Outside: The group spent five years on the Battleplains, but only two weeks had passed on the Material Planes.
  • You All Meet At An Inn: Subverted. Everyone already knew each other prior to the start of the campaign, but an inn/tavern later became something of a base for everyone.

Feature: 04/04/11 | Posted By: Kei | 4 comments | Other Internet | Tags: N/A