Here In Grimroar is a 5e Dungeons and Dragons campaign started in late December of 2022, hosted by Dungeon Master Connor Anderson. The story takes place in the large island of Grimroar, a patch-work world based loosely on the original tellings of the Brothers Grimm were common sense looses its senses. The campaign was designed with new players in mind, starring a brutish, orc-raised soldier (Skull), a survivalist air elemental (Iris), a conniving dragon-born (Opp), and a “where-the-wind-takes-her” high elf (Celeste), one-by-one waking up from their home land into the bizarre kingdoms and forests ahead. With twisted men and mysterious militia, our heroes must find not only their way back but themselves.
Each chapter takes place over the course of four hours, showing each player the mechanics of the game and how their choices affect the story. All characters start the campaign at level five, allowing for broader techniques and more exciting encounters from the get go.
Here In Grimroar contains examples of:
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: Skull’s short sword, The Oblivion. Skull could notice how it would “cut” the air when he used it.
- Absurd Phobia: Castle of Stone guard Spitz has a fear of goats. He even starts to shake and sweat just thinking about it.
- All There in the Manual: The very naked Blacksmith of Granite’s name is actually Buck.
- Ambiguously Human: After braking into the royal bedroom of Castle Stone, Iris soon found a strange, disturbing human-sized marionette doll on floating strings. Complete with a royal crown and glowing eyes, it’s left unclear wether the doll was actually the Queen or something more.
- Ambiguous Situation: Each of our main cast wakes up in strange and unfamiliar world with stinging headaches and weak legs. How or why has yet to be explored or questioned by any of them.
- Anti-Hero:
- Skull, despite being a modal soldier, falls more in the Chaotic Neutral side of things. He is quick to kill if he sees a tactical advantage and sees every opportunity as one to win.
- Iris has had to kill to survive for quite sometime and, because of this, holds few feeling for others around her. Somewhat played with, since she’s grown attached to her four goats in “Chapter 1”.
- Opp’s motives are rather vague, but from what we’ve seen he’s not against harming animals or the elderly, and is more than willing to steal under the King’s nose.
- Artifact of Doom: The mysterious whip Iris was told to find. The Devils very own creation, it will grant any material wish with a whip crack.
- Asshole Victim:
- Rope-seller Daryl, after threading and noosing Skull against his counter and getting squarely knocked out by Opp moments later. Subverted when it’s revealed by the Blacksmith that Daryl suffers from Alzheimer’s.
- Skivers of the dark clothed militia definitely counts. Held up Skull at gunpoint, threatened to kill Iris and Opp to boot, just generally a jerk. The only one he kind of liked was Opp in “Chapter 3”, but that realization was met with a swift fist to the jaw by Skull as revenge. Even Duke felt it right to take his chain armor for Celeste while Skivers was knocked out.
- Backing into Danger: The Youth in “Chapter 0”, after getting surprise attacked by both Skull and Opp, backed away from them… straight into Iris who stealthily stabbed the Youth in the back of the neck three times.
- Banging for Help: After discovering a fake armory and getting locked inside, Celeste tried knocking and yelling for help. Unfortunately, this would lead to an increasingly angry blob encounter.
- Blatant Lies: Celeste tries to get away with a number of these when exploring the castle. Namely claiming to be dating one of the King of Stone’s sons, therefore being royalty. It doesn’t work very well.
- Blob Monster: A small, green ooze was found and thrown away by Opp in a junk room. Flash forward to the following morning, where the guards and gang must fend off said blob, now far more large and dusty.
- Cool Sword: The King’s Gambit, a golden rapier with a hilt that forms to the owners grip. It’s blade glow when around mystical objects and, to the user, hums in a higher pitch the closer they get to said object. Given by the King of Stone to Opp, it’s even rumored to turn those it kills into solid gold.
- Don't Go in the Woods: The Black Forest, first seen in “Chapter 4”. Many of the residents of Castle Stone claimed that no one was allowed near the area, with the forest being a hot bed of Fae kind. Even Froggert, after realizing the group made their way into the forest, grew weary and told of tales about mercenaries from there.
- Elemental Motifs: Iris fits the air element well. She is free willed and quick yet adventurous with a dash of uncaring. Her being a air elemental just bolsters her identity.
- Fake Wizardry: Barnacle, who works at the Wizardry in Castle Stone, has… questionable methods to say the least. Any time he’s mentioned in conversation as a wizard, it’s always in air quotes.
- Fantastic Racism: The dark clothed militia of Castle Stone have been stated to be against Fae kind, which may just translate to “different than us” kind. It’s possible that not every member feels this way, with Duke saying his mother raised him better then that and even calling Skull and the rest friends.
- Fractured Fairy Tale: Having Grimroar be a stitched-together map of Grimm’s design, it’s a given to find such things as talking frogs or wolves disguised as humans. Though commonly with strange subversions, as the frog in question was never human or princely, and the wolf’s disguises being literal human skin.
- Haunted Castle: The dilapidated castle most of the group found themselves waking up in. Covered in chains and illusions, it acted as the first test and introduction to Grimroar.
- Hive Mind: How Iris’s race functions, coming from the Realm of Air allows one to exist in the realm as a conglomerate of scattered minds melded into one while also materializing as a personal, mortal body. However it’s left unclear if Iris has any connection to the realm to begin with, given how her parents separated from the hive mind to have their own family before she was born.
- Kick the Dog: After retrieving the “golden” orb at the bottom of Her Well, our heros came across a small, talking frog. Cue Opp who is immediately grossed out and knocks the little guy off of him.
- A more explicit moment happened in “Chapter 2”. Opp, after following the glow of his sword, finds a hand-sized green ooze, scared and shaking. The Dragonborn then proceeds to find “the dirtiest courner (he) could find” in order to throw the ooze away.
- Lured into a Trap: After finding a massive armory larger than what could fit in a castle, Celeste was invested in finding her own weapon. Only for the illusion to fade and for Celeste to find herself in a very small and very locked room with no weapons to be found.
- Our Demons Are Different: The large, lion-like shadow monster from “Chapter 0”. The King and others had claimed the castle to be haunted by the Devil himself, with Iris seeing both the Devil and the beast one more time via dream sequence.
- Planimal: The Chestnut Horses that are under the Kingdom of Stones reign, seemingly made of smoothly chiseled chestnut casings. Exceptionally fast and lacking a mouth, they otherwise act like a common stead.
- Talking Animal: After their mission in the town of Granite the gang met Froggert, a very sleepy and very bashful talking frog.
- The Place
- Token Human: Duke the dark clothed militia member, who Skull had convinced the King of Stone to bring along. In a central cast of mythical races, Duke tags along after bonding with Skull over wine chugging.
- Useless Useful Spell: The glass bottle of foul-smelling liquid given by Barnacle to Skull, who wished to have him make a “healing potion”. During a round of commotion and spite, Skull had grabbed Barnacle during the green ooze’s siege and downed the bottle whole while running across the infected ground. Skull then preceded to fall asleep for ten minutes standing up as the ooze slowly climbed his body. After the event passed, Skull didn’t feel any different, with Barnacle revealing that the potion put ten years onto Skulls full life. Skull was not impressed.
- Vocal Dissonance: The lion-like Devil spawn in the haunted castle had a child’s voice, which needless to say doesn’t belong there.
- Wound That Will Not Heal: After confronting the “Twisted Man” (The Devil) in a dream, Iris was branded on her forehead with the man’s thumb, leaving a large, burning red scorch mark that remained on her body after waking up. The mark shows signs of cooling down, but never healing.
- You Wake Up in a Room: Skull, Iris, and Opp all woke up, one at a time, to a sealed, castle room with a possessed chair. Celeste meanwhile woke up in the Castle of Stone’s guest quarters, a day after the others.
