Tales from the Table
Home of all the stories from my RPG sessions.
In this section
Veil of Whispers
A D&D campaign about rescuing a kidnapped princess. Started in January 2024—a new year with new players, new adventures, and new opportunities to wreak havoc and terrify the townspeople. And this time I got to be a player!
The World Rune
The World Rune was a D&D 5e campaign that I ran between December 2022 and November 2023. Beginning with a noir-style murder mystery in a steampunk city, the story quickly became one of world-shattering events. Traversing the continent by airship, the heroes found themselves racing against the clock to save the fabric of reality from being torn apart. The final part of the campaign even launched off into space and became a spelljammer adventure.
Enter the Hollow
Enter the Hollow was a campaign for Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition that I ran for twenty-one sessions between January and July 2020. Beginning with a mysterious event where the entire population of a city disappeared, the players quickly found themselves up against a group of shadow people from a dark realm, hellbent on completing a ritual enabling them to take over the entire material plane. To make matters worse the shadow people would possess the rich and powerful to further their nefarious goals. No one could be trusted.
All posts
Veil of Whispers 12: An Unexpected Finale
The curse of high-level encounter balance rears its ugly head.
Veil of Whispers 11: Behold My Broken Build
The beholder gets what’s coming to him.
Veil of Whispers 10: Tomb of the Necromancer
Twenty years later, not much has changed.
The Only Time the Party Ran Away
I decided to throw some horror in the players’ direction. It was nice.
Veil of Whispers 9: Giant Spiders with Chainsaws for Legs
The party hunts for phylacteries. It does not go well.
Veil of Whispers 8: Army of Darkness
The party investigates yet another kidnapping and uncovers a great threat. They also launch themselves from a catapult.
Veil of Whispers 7: Enough Grease Already
In which our so-called heroes complete their so-called noble quest.
Veil of Whispers 6: Child of a Messy Divorce
The group rescues the princess at last. Montgomery narrowly escapes death. Others don’t.
Veil of Whispers 5: I Can't Believe Your Adventurer Licenses Haven't Been Revoked
Nessie finds her long-lost father. Rosa threatens people.
The Story of My Favorite Trap
Traps are a classic element of D&D. You walk down a dark dungeon hallway and hear a click as you step on a hidden pressure plate. You only have a moment to react. Will a poison arrow launch at you from a hole in the wall? Will a boulder drop from a hatch in the ceiling? In The World Rune I created something far worse.
Veil of Whispers 4: Attack of the 50 Foot Cow
The party’s procrastination problem continues as they reach Duskridge. A bovine of unusual size appears.
Veil of Whispers 3: Caves & Kobolds
The gang crawls their first dungeon. Montgomery feels the need for speed.
Chrismas in Hell
When our Dungeon Master suddenly had to leave the group I took it upon myself to create a worthy ending to his campaign. The result was… not what the group had expected.
Veil of Whispers 2: There's a Cow Somewhere in My Family Tree
In which we continue to do everything but save the princess.
Veil of Whispers 1: The Princess and the Cheese
A brand spanking new campaign, the first session of which was spent creating characters who would go on to fight evil and consume cheese.
A Dragon Flew Away With the Tavern or: How To Start a Campaign
The party met in a tavern. You won’t believe what happened next! Although it’s right there in the title.
The Tower at the End of the World
Thinking back on all the games I’ve run, the penultimate session of Enter the Hollow must surely claim first place as my favorite. Derivative as it may have been it turned out very memorable, with the fantastical location of the tower, and the high tension that arose despite the lack of any real combat. It truly captured the magic of the game in a way that has been hard to replicate.
An Incident at the Bathhouse
Once upon a time, a group of adventurers entered a public bathhouse for a friendly chat with one of the patrons. The events that followed weren’t quite what I had expected.
The Hare and the Hag
A strong gust rattles the bare branches of the sallow trees and makes the loose snow dance in the air. It is the coldest winter that anyone can remember in Haarlan. Usually snow trickles once or twice during a winter only to disappear shortly after, but this winter it has been coming down in droves. The cold bites harshly outside and some argue this is not just a weather phenomenon, instead muttering that it is “the red winter” from old stories come again.
The Ballad of Sir Garner
This is the story of Sir Steven Garner; A bizarre man who met an even more baffling end deep in the deserts of a faraway land. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. This story begins with a player named Gustav. A childhood friend of mine and by far the one who’s played at my table the longest, he always takes detailed notes and rarely misses a session. A great player in every regard except one: