Rifting

So I actually went a created a Rifts character last night. Well most of one. I went with a Glitter Boy pilot because Glitter Boys are just generally awesome. I let him be a major physic as well which was a nice touch. The thing I noticed with Rifts is that if you don't have magic/psionics you'd better have nice toys. Anyone with both is pretty well off. I've heard the system is somewhat broken but I think it'd still be fun to play. Boy with their toys is all I can think because the tech is pretty downright awesome.

Carl's D & D Rnd 3

Thinking of Just saying Carl: Rnd # so I can type less...anyhow Name are listed PC (actual player) spelling may be off!

Our next mission leads us to an old bag's house (take old bag in the most extreme manner, she's unpretty to say the least). Our job is to protect her and/or her daughter. Immediately she takes a liking to Mist (Chuck), Anson (Dorie), and Merle (Teckla) but decidely is cool towards Tepet (me) and Tayla (Krystal). We get the basic lowdown of the situation and on watch the first night I hear the old lady's dumbwaiter being used, it's how she gets up and downstairs in her wheelchair, and although I cannot see who is using it when it reaches her room I can hear her wheelchair through the door.

The next day most of the group basically gets dress clothes for the dinner that night and in the meantime Sharice (Ray) goes and finds the plans for the house. This includes a second basement that can be only accessed by the dumbwaiter. After a quasi-disastrous evening meal the group splits up to take action. Mist, Tayla, and Sharice opt to sneak down the dumbwaiter shaft to the second basement while Anson and I stand watch. In the meantime Merle and Liz's character whose name escapes me at the moment talk to the old bag. I end up helping to distract the halfling butler by helping put away dishes from the evening meal (really good diplomacy roll what can I say?). However the descent takes longer then expected due to the nature of the dumbwaiter shaft so I am forced to "accidentally" drop some fine china for the cause. Merle and Liz's PC come down at the sound and scold me and help the now slightly overwhelmed halfing clean up the mess.

In the meantime Mist and crew arrive at the bottom of the shaft and enter into the basement. They discover a wall composed of dead bodies (*cough* suspicious evidence/wth is up with City of Stone and necromancers?!?) and a menacing two headed dog that they manage to subdue fairly quickly.

By chance at this point Merle is going upstairs to explain the broke china to the old bag. She enters into the old bag's room to find an albino halfing, whom we were supposed to be protecting her from, on her windowsill. She doesn't realize the halfing is in the employee of the old bag and thus the two are in cahoots. The old bag screams alerting just about everyone else that something is up. Anson, Liz's PC, myself, and shortly thereafter Mist, butler in tow, and Tayla all head upstairs.

Merle gets critted by halfing who turns out to be a rogue and goes down. Liz's PC and Anson are next in. However neither are extremely combat oriented so Liz casts a sleep spell that ironically just puts Anson to sleep. I arrive at this point and attempt to whack the halfling. Meanwhile Tayla arrives. Tayla takes down the dog but then the old bag starts using a wand of magic missiles on her. I whack the halfling something good a couple times but he still doesn't go down. Mist tumbles in and shortly thereafter takes down the halfling but not before the old bag takes down Tayla. To make things more confusing Merle's split personality comes to long enough to put the room under a darkness effect that I cannot break with my black candle mystery.

Mist now attempts to dissuade the old bag from attacking anymore but she zaps me with her wand. Right as I am about to attack her -yes an old lady, she just shot me for nearly half my HP!!- her daughter comes in and intercedes. The old bag knowing that Mist and I are probably close to harming her fakes the innocent old lady routine. Mist convinces her daughter to go with Tayle to see what momma kept down in the basement and in the meantime tries to threaten her to spill her guts. Anson wakes up and is somewhat concerned and confused by the situation. Not much happens and eventually Tayla returns with the daughter who has passed out from seeing the basement.

Sharice returns and tells us to wait here while she gets the City Watch. She notes there are a number of laws being broken here including an "unregistered cemetary" which had to be the best line of the night. She runs into two higher ranking "watchmen" almost immediately who take Merle's body away although we don't realize it at the time that they aren't who they say they are. Poor Merle suffered the fact that several of us had cure light wounds on us but forgot-even when glancing at our character sheets-until she was nearly dead and they did nothing for her.

In the meantime with Merle being dead I am sent to retrieve her possessions and take the time to the loot the place (as per plot device orders!). I find a useful key, apparently Kitty had one at some previous time but noone knows this, that gets me access to some very nice equipment that have the symbol of a very famous old smith. In splitting the loot I give Tayla the full plate and chain mail, Sharice the shield and opt to keep the bracers and broke longsword for myself after discussing what to do with it with Mist. I'm not that evil of a looter!

Ironically in the aftermath Liz's PC's character finds some very nice stuff in her uncle's shop allowin Tayla to sell the full plate and chainmail at a tidy (3k+ gp) profit to a weaponsmith/fence we are introduced to by one of the old lady's guests at her evening meal. Several of the items seem very non-descript but OOC they are major artifacts! Mist and Liz's PC are holding onto them although neither know exactly what they do. Tayla now has white dragon scale armor, I have 4 potions of mercurcy dragon's breath (these items came from AD & D supplements so we'll have to sort out what they actually do), Mist also got 10 bolts of lightning, and Merle will get a longsword of dragon slaying. Did I mention that "dragons don't exist" in the City of Stone's world and "everybody knows this"?

Anyhow, now most of us are leaving the Swan District for Crystal Lake. Crystal Lake is apparently a hole. Sharice is part of the City Watch's attempt to reestablish a presence there. I am being sent to link up with Mist by the Guild. Irontusk is sending Mist in with Tayla to meet up with Sharice who is now nominally attached to that organization. Liz's PC is joining me as we head north partially in search of Tayla and I believe Anson is tagging along. Noone knows the situation with Merle whose body was taken away by fake watchmen. We should probably look into that but then again she'll probably turn up...

Dani's D & D Rnd 3

This round we finally got some more people. Rio, Nash, and a girl whose name I did not catch all joined us so we had a full size group.

So our initial mission after meeting each other is to basically pass a riddle challenge given by an old copper dragon. Luckily Isaac is good with riddles (I'm utterly useless) so we get by easily enough. The highlight here was the psionic squirrel returned and killed Russ my 1 HD animal companion and US Senator so we lost the pyro/cryo hydra. The next challenge leads us to a desert looking plane (or demi-plane). Waiting for us is the unkillable Russ now in a small obsidian wormlike form (think the Dune worms). Afterall it's hard to keep a senator down.

Our enemies incidentally are Russ's big brothers and/or sisters. We never really got genders from them. They charge up with good old worm sign and most of the group takes off using various modes of flight. I opt to turn into an earth glider and peruse from below. Nash and Isaac turn the area where the majority of the group is standing/hovering into a large plate of obsidian. I sidle up under this and freeze to surprise the worms. When they pass by I turn into an adamantine golem and hitch a ride.

As they break through Nash opts to really ruin their day by reversing gravity. So all 6 worms, Isaac, and myself start falling up. Flying creatures can fly out of the field no problem so the rest of the party simply moves out of the affect. Isaac opts to make this whole mess more painful. He creates an adamantine disk with nice spikes right above them and then creates an identical one on the ground way below. He then proceeds to fly away. Now I intended to fly off about 3 seconds before they quit falling up however the plane's border comes first so they and I clank into the top disk. However I switch into force dragon form and get out of the falling back down part whereas they do not. Somehow despite all the massive damage several of the worms survive so Isaac traps them.

Then poppa arrives. Think collassal+ size (that's well BIG big). Inside him is the item we need to locate and retrieve. Isaac opts to dig into it from the side. Rio hops on as well. I opt to let it swallow me after turning back into golem form. Isaac is already in by the time I get swallowed. He retrieves the item and seeing as I have nothing better to do I decide to "steer" the monster towards the adamantine plates. Not very hard since it was going that way already. At this point Rio suggests that we should keep this "mobile home" alive. It's large and spacious. So Nash creates a gateway to one of Isaac's demiplanes and I drive a very large worm through it.

Thus at the end we have a mobile home named "Bob". And finally I am a full shifter, yay!

Carl's D & D Rnd 1 & 2

Alrighty, rather late in the coming but here's the recap.

Carl plays pretty strict by the rules D & D. We start out as Level 1 characters. I'm a Shadowcaster trying out one of the Tome of Magic classes. Our group is somewhat random and diverse and not quite sure I could re-hash them all for you. Suffice to say we have one of almost everything except for a cleric.

The intial plot is that all our group is in a section of the Stone City. Several are attached with various guilds (some of which are all connected without prior knowledge of the underling PCs) who have dispatched them on missions. One is a city watchwoman who apparently has a pretty lousy track record. A couple are just there and one is investigating the death of an uncle. The group all essentially arrives at the funeral procession of a serial killer and another man (later found out to be the uncle). In the middle of this a necromancer attacks. After a lot of mayhem the wagons carrying the corpses dissapear into the city and the necromancer escapes. The city watch deputizes most of the group to track down the culprits. After some random searching and information gathering the group eventually realizes they need to investigate a butcher's place in the next area over. Along the way about half the party discovers that whatever the people are doing there it could end the world. One of the guild members has been ordered to assasinate all 4 brothers who operate the place. Another (my PC) has been ordered to terminate the necromancer.

Under the quasi-cover of a riot started by the citizens over the loss of the serial killer's body (no closure for them) the party attempts to sneak in. This involves a multi-pronged uncoordinated assualt. The core of the group eventually enters a side window and kills a few dogs before encountering one of the brothers. The remaining three members, including myself, sneak in a back way and get stuck in a fight with an ogre whom fairly easily overpowers them all. While the assasin struggles to kill the ogre the other two attempt to aid him without much success.

In the meantime the core group overwhelms the first brother but do not kill him. Some watch the situation with the ogre but eventually the ogre is overpowered by the original three. The somewhat injured and frustrated assasin now finds the monk(?) talking with the brother and kills the brother and then somewhat frustrated by the situation leaves.

Several party members opt to loot some of the rooms on the first floor and encounter another brother who takes in the situation and flees to the basement.

(End first session)

Looting and exploration of the first floor continues and discovers two new party members. A somewhat down on his luck guy and another spellcaster. Several zombies are encountered and trapped in the freezer/meatlocker. Secure in the knowledge that the necromancer is probably around here the party proceeds into the basement. The group follows voices into a large central room where they get attacked by zombies, the necromancer (with more zombies) and the surviving brothers. In a fairly long chaotic combat sequence the zombies and the brothers go down. The necromancer is knocked out and then coup de graced be my PC who needs to kill the necromancer. Basically I was afraid they'd want to let her live to question her and she might escape.

Exploration of the basement turned up evidence of the serial killers activities, the bodies of the serial killers and the uncle (thus making one of our wizards the owner of a rare books store), one rather beaten survivor, and an altar. After some proverbial looting the group splits up to report to their superiors.

The group has now reassembled in another district with the decision to work together.

Dani's D & D Rnd 2

So a slightly delayed (not as long as Carl's D & D game) report:

Well tonight it was just myself and Isaac as PCs so I was a little worried but not terribly because Isaac's character is da-pimp and if all else failed I could always write up a clone of the character possibly slightly tweaked to better survive.

This one has a combat portion and a puzzle portion. We opted got combat first. Pretty much straightforward go out and beat down the locals. We end up on Carcerri (spl?) and run into a large group of demons and an ooze-like fire demon thingy (I think, I could look it up I suppose but we never really IDed it). It never gobbled Isaac whilst I did minor damage to it. Mainly I thwarted it by being a prismatic golem that doesn't pack a huge punch but when hit acts like a prismatic wall (ie you take random types of damage) so I dinged it a bit. Of course Isaac when he gets swallowed goes postal on it from the inside out and afterwards the demons around us decide to go partake in the Blood War rather then the obvious death at the party's hands!

Next half of the session was a puzzle. Basically enter a room with a single door. Of course being the brilliant thinkers that we were Isaac and I opt to make a hole in the nearest wall first. No luck, have to use the doors. Poor walls though. Basically its a puzzle (whose wording I cannot remember now) that gives 3 doors. Our initial attempt gotten by me attempting to decipher things out led us into a room with a pyro- and cyro- hydras. My attempt to seriously mess with the hydras by being a progenitor race but that has limited success so I opt to becoming a black slaad and then an infernal ooze. Much more fun. We eventually hack off all the heads and kill the hydras after I successfully figure out what's up (took several tries kinda pathetically, luckily Dani allows knowledge re-rolls).

I remain in ooze form and we return to the main room. My fire newt has now become a half pyro/cyro hydra of very small size. Russ is still selling food but now he can do hot and cold meals :D Using random nice (ie a die roll) we find the next room on our first second try. We guess wrong again tho and encounter a large undead worm of collossal type. Isaac turns me invisible and then throws some wood into the middle of me so there is a campfire that looks very animated. It amuses us as we attempt to kill the creature. I opt for making it bite its own tail as my ooze's attacks don't do anything. Isaac prefers damage by random thrown objects (including a bar of soap). The creature gets lucky and kills me with Finger of Death so my dead now human form hits the ground and Isaac wails on it til its death and then revives me. This is my first death.

Amazing lady luck (ie rolling a die and guessing) gets us through the rest of the puzzle perfectly. Our final encounter a pair of giant rock like creatures. I have very low init and get killed again before I can even assume another form. Isaac revives me and I get killed almost as soon as he does so. (Deaths 2 and 3) Russ and Mort (my grimlakin) watch in shame as master gets pwned repeatedly. Isaac quicken miracles me back to life and in the same turn splices the two birds ending thus the combat.

Random Find

So poking around on the RPG.net and found a link to Violence (find it by Google searching "Violence RPG"). Despite vulgar language and the fact that the characters are essentially evil it was a most amusing read. It's written by a writer who is playing the indifferent, lazy, and I'm not getting paid enough cards so the system is fairly simple and it's just amusing to read if you don't mind bad the language. Just throwing that out there.