Candlekeep Mysteries - PCs

Links

• DDB Campaign (The Breakfast Sandwich Club)
• Owlbear Rodeo
• PM Recruitment Thread (EtyenAndiros)
• Digital RPG Consent Checklist
• Agbadza79's D&D 5e House Rules
• Agbadza79's D&D 5e References

Schedule

Sundays, 7:30pm to 11:30pm EST (approx.) It sounds like Mondays might be another day when a decent number of people could play, if there's sufficient interest. I'm also willing to do PbP in Discord or DDB for downtime or individual character stories on an ongoing basis.

2024

• 01/07 - Cliffside Session 21
• 01/14 - Descent Into Avernus Session 22
• 01/21 - Spelljammer Session 7
• 01/28 - Cliffside Session 22
• 02/04 - Spelljammer Session 8
• 02/11 - Superb Owl Night
• 02/18 - Descent Into Avernus Session 23
• 02/25 - Cliffside Session 23
• 03/03 - Spelljammer Session 9
• 03/10 - Descent Into Avernus Session 24
• 03/17 - Cliffside Session 24
• 03/24 - Spelljammer Session 10
• 03/31 - Tied Up By Red Claw: A Knotside Diversion
• 04/07 - Descent Into Avernus Session 25
• 04/14 - Cliffside Session 25
• 04/21 - Spelljammer Session 11
• 04/28 - Descent Into Avernus Session 26
• 05/05 - Cliffside Session 26
• 05/12 - Spelljammer Session 12
• 05/19 - Descent Into Avernus Session 27
• 05/26 - Cliffside Session 27

• 06/02 - Spelljammer Session 13
• 06/09 - Descent Into Avernus Session 28
• 06/16 - Spelljammer Session 14
• 06/23 - Cliffside Session 28
• 06/30 - Descent Into Avernus Session 29
• 07/07 - Spelljammer Session 15
• 07/14 - Cliffside Session 29
• 07/21 - Descent Into Avernus Session 30
• 07/28 - Spelljammer Session 16
• 08/04 - Cliffside Session 30
• 08/11 - Descent Into Avernus Session 31
• 08/18 - Spelljammer Session 17
• 08/25 - Cliffside Session 31
• 09/01 - Descent Into Avernus Session 32
• 09/08 - Spelljammer Session 18
• 09/15 - Cliffside Session 32
• 09/22 - Descent Into Avernus Session 33

2023

2023

• 01/01 - Descent Into Avernus Session 11
• 01/08 - Cliffside Session 12
• 01/15 - CKJttRC/TftYP Lvl 8: Trail of Destruction/White Plume Mountain - PCs
• 01/22 - Descent Into Avernus Session 12
• 01/29 - Continuation of CKJttRC/TftYP Lvl 8
• 02/05 - Descent Into Avernus Session 13
• 02/12 - Suberb Owl Night
• 02/19 - Cliffside Session 13
• 02/26 - Continuation of CKJttRC/TftYP Lvl 8
• 03/05 - Descent Into Avernus Session 14
• 03/12 - Cliffside Session 14
• 03/19 - Continuation of CKJttRC/TftYP Lvl 8
• 03/26 - Descent Into Avernus Session 15
• 04/02 - Cliffside Session 15
• 04/09 - Easter
• 04/16 - Continuation of CKJttRC/TftYP Lvl 8
• 04/23 - Cliffside Session 16
• 04/30 -The World's Greatest Escape Room!
• 05/07 - Continuation of CKJttRC/TftYP Lvl 8
• 05/14 - Cliffside Session 17
• 05/21 - Continuation of CKJttRC/TftYP Lvl 8
• 05/28 - Discord Activities and hangin' out
• 06/04 - Edwin's Adventures in Avion Session 1
• 06/11 - Continuation of CKJttRC/TftYP Lvl 8/9
• 06/18 - Edwin's Adventures in Avion Session 2
• 06/25 - Continuation of CKJttRC/TftYP Lvl 8/9
• 07/02 - Canada/Independence Day

• 07/09 - Edwin's Adventures in Avion Session 3
• 07/11 - The Cursed Brewery of Brickbeard the Brilliant (special Tuesday event!)
• 07/16 - ????
• 07/23 - Continuation of CKJttRC/TftYP Lvl 8/9
• 07/30 - Edwin's Adventures in Avion Session 4
• 08/06 - Spelljammer TED Talk
• 08/13 - Continuation of CKJttRC/TftYP Lvl 8/9
• 08/20 - Descent Into Avernus Session 16
• 08/27 - Spelljammer Session 1
• 09/03 - Labour/Labor Day
• 09/10 - Continuation of CKJttRC/TftYP Lvl 8/9
• 09/17 - Descent Into Avernus Session 17
• 09/24 - Spelljammer Session 2
• 10/01 - Finale (!) of CKJttRC/TftYP Lvl 8/9
• 10/08 - Descent Into Avernus Session 18
• 10/15 - Spelljammer Session 3
• 10/22 - Cliffside Session 18
• 10/29 - Descent Into Avernus Session 19
• 11/05 - Spelljammer Session 4
• 11/12 - Cliffside Session 19
• 11/19 - Descent Into Avernus Session 20
• 11/26 - Spelljammer Session 5
• 12/03 - Descent Into Avernus Session 21
• 12/10 - Cliffside Session 20
• 12/17 - Spelljammer Session 6
• 12/24 - Christmas Eve
• 12/31 - New Year's Eve

2022

2022

• 01/09 - CK Session 0
• 01/16 - CK Lvl 1: The Joy of Extradimensional Spaces - PCs
• 01/23 - Continuation of CK Lvl 1
• 01/30 - Completion of CK Lvl 1, RP in Beregost (optional)
• 02/06 - CK Lvl 2: Mazfroth's Mighty Digressions - PCs
• 02/13 - Superb Owl Night
• 02/20 - Continuation of CK Lvl 2
• 02/27 - Completion of CK Lvl 2
• 03/06 - CK Lvl 3: Book of the Raven - PCs
• 03/13 - DM is on travel, so ... guest DM appearance?
• 03/20 - Continuation of CK Lvl 3
• 03/27 - Completion of CK Lvl 3
• 04/03 - Cliffside Session 0/1
• 04/10 - CK Lvl 4: A Deep and Creeping Darkness - PCs
• 04/17 - Cliffside Session 2
• 04/24 - Continuation of CK Lvl 4
• 05/01 - Cliffside Session 3
• 05/08 - Completion of CK Lvl 4
• 05/15 - Cliffside Session 4
• 05/22 - CK Lvl 5: The Price of Beauty - PCs
• 05/29 - Cliffside Session 5
• 06/05 - Continuation of CK Lvl 5
• 06/12 - Cliffside Session 6
• 06/19 - Completion of CK Lvl 5; Start of Don't Say Vecna!
• 06/26 - Continuation of Don't Say Vecna!; DM went to Hastings D&D Festival
• 07/03 - Completion of Don't Say Vecna!

• 07/10 - Descent Into Avernus Session 0
• 07/17 - Descent Into Avernus Session 1; DM at Sterling Renaissance Festival
• 07/24 - Descent Into Avernus Session 2
• 07/31 - DM at Glengarry Highland Games, so ... take the week off!
• 08/07 - CKJttRC Lvl 6: Sins of Our Elders - PCs
• 08/10 - Cliffside Session 7 (special Wednesday event!)
• 08/14 - Descent Into Avernus Session 3
• 08/21 - Completion of CKJttRC Lvl 6
• 08/28 - Descent Into Avernus Session 4
• 09/04 - CK Lvl 7: Sarah of Yellowcrest Manor - PCs
• 09/11 - Descent Into Avernus Session 5
• 09/18 - Continuation of CK Lvl 7
• 09/25 - Descent Into Avernus Session 6
• 10/02 - Cliffside Session 8
• 10/09 - Descent Into Avernus Session 7
• 10/16 - Continuation of CK Lvl 7
• 10/23 - Cliffside Session 9
• 10/30 - Descent Into Avernus Session 8
• 11/06 - Completion of CK Lvl 7
• 11/13 - Cliffside Session 10
• 11/20 - Descent Into Avernus Session 9
• 11/27 - Azura's Lvl 20 Session 1
• 12/04 - Descent Into Avernus Session 10
• 12/11 - Cliffside Session 11
• 12/18 - Azura's Lvl 20 Session 2
• 12/25 - Some sort of widely recognized event is going on, so ... take the week off!

Overview

Welcome, hearty adventurers! I'm more than pleased that you've joined together to aid the scholars of the library fortress, Candlekeep, and the good people of the Sword Coast in solving mysteries and driving back the darkness that is always rearing its ugly head in Faerun.

Candlekeep Mysteries is a collection of adventures, ranging from levels 1-16, written by a wide variety of authors in the D&D community. They vary wildly in theme and setting, but in general they revolve around the following narrative conceits:

1. The characters discover a book in the library that contains a mystery. Getting to the bottom of this mystery requires embarking on an adventure.
2. The characters come to Candlekeep on a quest for information, perhaps to solve a crisis elsewhere in the world. During their research, they uncover a book and the mystery it contains, which leads to adventure.

— Candlekeep Mysteries, Using the Adventures, p4

As you can imagine, each of the adventures contains an element of mystery, so that is an overarching theme, but the adventures collectively contain elements of all three pillars of D&D: roleplay, exploration, and combat. Don't feel limited to creating characters that excel only in one aspect or another.

Party

Player	Pronouns	Discord	DDB	Character	Pronouns	Race	Class
Alex	he/him	Preternatural20	Abam	Bunkleton Requer	he/him	Half-Elf	Rogue
Steve	he/him	agbadza79	EtyenAndiros	DM & NPCs	all	all	all
Edwin	he/him	Azura	Azura_GoodWitch	Celeste Plover	she/her	Dragonborn	Monk
				Aubrey	she/her	Water Genasi	Cleric
Chris	he/him	Leaky_Pencils	MBsnowman	Karras Nadoth	he/him	Drow	Sorcerer
Josh	pronouns	jdkc4d	jdkc4d	Cornelius Copper	he/him	Vedalken	Artificer
Toby	he/him	Legally Dead	TobyKiddo	Creed	he/him	Tiefling	Warlock
player	pronouns	Mr.Wolf	ReapenWolf	Clint "The Western Cobra"	he/him	Variant Human	Fighter
				Sits In Open Boxes	he/him	Tabaxi	Barbarian
Alan	pronouns	thebana	thebana	Vanyel Dusktalon	he/him	Owlin	Ranger

Campaign Information

General Rules of Conduct

I want to run my games very much in the same spirit as WreckItRaccoon put forward in her original post and since you all responded to that, I hope that's still cool! Basically:

• LGBQT+ and all kind human beings friendly
• No min-maxers/power gamers/rules lawyers/edge lords - a little edge is okay ;-)/murder hobos/evil and CN characters (i.e., don't make the game not fun for your fellow players and DM). If folks want to do a one-off evil/chaos adventure, that's cool, too, just not what I'm generally looking for in D&D. If you want to min-max, please RP the heck out of your weaknesses and have a great back story.
• I will do my best to be prepared and make it worth your time, which includes incorporating your characters' back stories - if you want!
• I should be able to consistently make the time I mentioned above, but if not, I will let you know as far in advance as possible.
• I like rules, but I like fun, so I'd say I fall somewhere in the middle of RAI and Rule of Cool. Flexible w/in reason.

Remember that we're all here to have fun. Don't put any pressure on yourself in terms of how "well" you're playing, role-playing, solving puzzles, etc. Just enjoy it and do your best! Ask questions whenever you like, we're all here to help and learn. We will try to be encouraging without being stressful and we will remember that players are free to play their characters how they want, even if their decisions are "sub-optimal". That being said, let's try to avoid "my guy" situations where a character is consistently making the game not fun for others. Most of all, let's keep it civil and be decent human beings. No politics, religion, etc., unless they relate to the adventure, of course! Please don't violate the golden rule and we won't have any issues.

Setting and Continuity

Candlekeep, the setting in which the adventures I'll be running originate, is a library fortress on the Sword Coast of Faerun, relatively close to Baldur's Gate. In this campaign, I'll be attempting to link the adventures together with a common base setting in which the party will congregate, spend downtime, advance individual character stories, etc. In the following paragraphs, I've outlined one possibility that makes sense with the canonical setting of Candlekeep. Feel free to make suggestions about the lore of the area, as I'd like to include your input in constructing the world in which your characters reside!

One of the benefits of running adventurers as a series of loosely connected one-shots is that it grants us flexibility. If a player can't make it to a session or drops out altogether, that won't disrupt the progression of the story. If a player wants to swap in a new character, that works just as well. The adventures in Candlekeep Mysteries are each targeted for a specific level, so you can simply advance the character you want to use for that adventure to the appropriate level.

My current thinking is to set the party in Beregost, a town due east of Candlekeep and situated on the Coast Way. With its location on the major trade route between Amn and Baldur's Gate, a wide variety of interesting people make their way through Beregost, carrying all manner of trade goods.

As currently understood, Beregost features a significant temple to Lathander, called Song of the Morning. It also has several noteworthy inns and taverns, a renowned weaponsmith, and is patrolled by the Flaming Fist of Baldur's Gate. The current Governor of the town is the high priest of the Song of the Morning, Dawngreeter Tholman, per the AL article referenced below.

Beregost is also south of the Cloak Wood, which provides another avenue of entry for our adventurers. It is believed by at least some scholars of Candlekeep that the Cloak Wood contains a number of portals that open connections to other realms. These could include any campaign setting, such as Ravnica, Ravenloft, Theros, etc. Obviously, if the characters are particularly exotic, their RP should reflect that. Similarly, characters that wish to enter the FR through a portal should incorporate their experiences in and escape from the Cloak Wood into their backstory.

• Candlekeep
• Beregost
• Beregost (AL Wiki)
• Lathander (FR Wiki)
• Cloak Wood (FR Wiki)
• Wood of Sharp Teeth (FR Wiki)

Recruiting a Candlekeep Super Team

I've enjoyed and been inspired by the ongoing discussions of how to address our potential lack of healing, given the absence of a traditional cleric (or druid), particularly the idea of opening a potion shop. Two of our initial batch of PCs, Celeste and Bunk, have proficiency with the Herbalism Kit, a requirement for crafting Potions of Healing and antitoxin, both of which would have come in handy on our mini-dungeon crawl. However, both lack the ability to cast Cure Wounds, and there is a requirement for a "special ingredient" in the rules that I've elected to use for brewing said potions. In order to run a shop, we'd need both a caster and a supply of the ingredient. Solution? NPCs, of course.

The first is a halfling druid, Subean Greenbottle, who is associated with a coven found in the Cloak Wood to the north of Candlekeep, but spends considerable time in Beregost, assisting with obtaining supplies and raising funds for the coven to maintain its existence. She can serve as both a supplier of the ingredient and a caster, if necessary. A portion of the 25 gp cost associated with each creating potion would go toward her troubles and to support her coven (perhaps unbeknownst to the PCs).

The second is a tabaxi, Moxie Rockets, a bit of a showman and an effective agent of Candlekeep. Previously a merchant, Moxie was drafted into the service of the library fortress for his ability to seemingly get anything and go anywhere. He is a facilitator for the party in gaining them access to adventuring supplies and destinations, and relays information from Candlekeep regarding new assignments or other noteworthy developments. Those might include items related to the character's back stories. Moxie is accompanied occasionally by a slightly off kilter tabaxi barbarian (Path of the Beast, naturally), Mikael Tysahn, when some muscle is required. (Yes, these NPCs are based off my cats. I'm not sorry.)

Finally, you might be wondering about my use of the word team. I was flipping through TCoE and came across the group patrons section, which reminded me that they can serve as 1) a useful rationale for bringing a party together, and 2) a steady source of income, adventures, and supplies. I am imagining a mid-career, but ambitious, scholar at Candlekeep who has perceived the growing number of "irregularities" that have been occurring related to books found at the library. She has proposed assembling a group of adventurers to have on retainer to deal with these situations. Since they can't be housed at Candlekeep (the Avowed wouldn't tolerate their continuous presence), after their recruitment they will be based out of nearby Beregost. In order to fund their missions, they will purchase a building in which they can reside and operate a potion shop with the assistance of Moxie Rockets. Moxie has identified Subean as a reliable supplier and crafter. In addition to the income generated, they have the nice benefit of a ready supply of potions for their missions. (I can use the Running a Business downtime activity from DMG p129 and some random rolls to figure out the economics and your potion supply on a per adventure basis.)