Pillars

Thoughts on specific products

2011-12-31T02:49:00.000Z

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The Fae War (nWoD super scenario?)

2011-08-14T04:48:00.000Z

Reading about fetches in Changeling: The Lost gave me an interesting idea for a massive scenario for the new World of Darkness. The basic scenario is that the Fae start abducting a massive amount of people, many orders of magnitude greater then previous abductions. The reason for this is up to the storyteller, it may be unknown or Changelings may bring back the news. Whatever the reason is presents a truly epic problem for humanity: within a century all of them will be slaves in Arcadia.

The Fae are playing this very smart though. They have started making fetches who are actively in on the scheme. They cover up the abductions through whatever means their daily lives allow. With a massive increase in fetches the Fae soon have their hands in politics, the police, the press, Hollywood, the church, and just about any other influential organization. The general public will remain in the dark until it's far too late.

Supernaturals on the other hands will become aware of it. Changelings know all too well since they are escapees from that very prison. In fact the number of Changelings may likely surge a huge amount as the number of humans in Arcadia balloons. (Or they might not if the Fae have a need for humans other then as servants.) Either way Changelings are the first to sound the alarm. It's likely it will take Changeling society a long time to organize themselves and that presents many stories in and of itself.

It's possible, even likely, during this time that other supernaturals will encounter fetches. A lot of them won't know what to make of these odd soulless constructs. Reaction will be on a local scale as each type deals with the fetches in their own way. Encounters will inevitably become more common though and soon the local supernatural communities might do some serious investigation. It's until they probably get in contact with Changelings that the full scope comes together.

At the same time as supernatural entities begin encountering the problem some hunter groups may encounter fetches. It's likely that they will just find their initial fetches as another hidden monster lurking among men. There's not much left over to dissect or examine so some of the more research/sample mind conspiracies and compacts don't have much to go on. Many of them may encounter resistance from various parts of their organization that have quietly been compromised with fetches eager to bury the evidence of their dead fellows.

At this point Changeling society has now roughly unified in an attempt to deal with the threat to their, and everyone else's, existence. They already made some tentative alliances with other supernaturals and now as those groups become aware of the problem they begin to attempt to unify themselves as well. At some point hunter conspiracies get pulled into the fray. Things are not harmonious. All of these groups have their own antagonists and these have not gone way. Additionally all of them are fractious and wary making a stable alliance amongst each other a challenge much less with creatures that are huge unknowns to them. The going is slow with many setbacks and dustups.

The Fae soon hear of this attempt at a grand alliance and take steps to deal with it both through the subtle lens of human society (though they are unwilling to pull the wool over human eyes as a whole lest they are seen in the unveiling as well) and by influencing various supernaturals of their own. They work to subvert or co-op many of the existing enemies over to their side. Soon their enemies are being provided with either overt or subtle assistance furthering sowing the seeds of discord and confusion. The Fae keep working at subversion of these groups eventually taking outright control of several conspiracies and compacts, nominal control of VII, and striking cautious alliance with the Seers of the Throne. The Pure remain wary of the Fae but many packs are pragmatic enough to take some limited assistance if it will help them to finally crush their hated Forsaken brethren. Similarly Belial's Brood's vampires will gladly use information to cause additional mayhem and destruction but they lack the overall organizational structure to be completely subverted. Banishers may be pointed to obstinate mages the same way a hunter unleashes hounds.

Tactics vary. Up to this point the Changelings have been playing a delaying game. They lack the numbers and strength to do much more then police limited areas. Given past attempts to invade Arcadia but some of the more zealous they are also wary of an all out invasion.

With a vast array of supernatural beings aligned for the first, and likely only, time the variety of stories is huge. Researching why the Fae are abducting mass amounts of humans, uncovering fetches who've infiltrated key human establishments, leading scouting missions into the Hedge, diplomatic missions to keep the tenuous alliance together, bug hunts against Fae & their servants in the world, raids into the enemy camp, and strikes against their servants and allies in the world are just some of the missions that crop up for a group.

Some connections to pull different types:
Vampires discover fetches when they try to feed on one. Naturally it doesn't work. Worse some of their minions are being replaced. The Masquerade will soon almost certainly be breached by the fetches leaving them vulnerable.

Werewolves discover people who are being ridden very easily by spirits. Or are they trapping spirits and then using them for their own means. Investigation leads to the discovery that they aren't people at all.

Mages run into these odd soulless creatures and investigate. There seem to be a lot of them. What are they and where are they coming from?

At first Prometheans might mistake a fetch as a kindred spirit if they realize their construction but it's quickly obvious they work by different rules. They already act as if they are human and in fact are treated as such by people. Can Prometheans follow this path. When they later realize the true nature of fetches the truth will be the most horrifying to a Prometheans: their entire existence trying to become a human only to have that snatched away!

Changelings are self-explanatory. Like it or not they are the frontline of this war long before anyone else is aware what's going.

Hunters may discover fetches only to realize very quickly that they are everywhere in human society including their own organizations!

Sin-Eaters may learn about the issue in an odd way. The Fae stealing massive numbers of people may disrupt souls in a very specific way. Souls of people who in Arcadia are unlikely to be able to reach the Underworld due to the nature of the Hedge, Sin-Eaters may be enlisted in rescue missions to bring souls back from the far side of the Hedge. Their Geists may also realize that the Fae intend to take away their only means at interacting with the world!

Finally regular mortals with second sight or just everyday Joes may eventually get pulled into this through encounters with supernaturals engaged the war. Some may actually be able to handle the forthcoming information overload and be willing to help out as best they can. Lightweights in a super-heavyweight bought they still can contribute in unique and interesting ways.

Call of Cthulhu scenario

2011-06-30T23:01:00.001Z

So recently bear hunters discovered a huge pot growing operation in a remote national forest in Oregon. This got me to thinking, what if they hadn't stumbled onto a pot operation in the woods but something more sinister? A simple concept but a great scenario with a small group of hunters in an isolated canyon dealing with mythos goodness. The party is well armed although that may not help them much depend on the setup.

An alternative to the hunters that may present an interesting moral twist is to be the drug growers/guards for the operation who run into something in the woods. That allows for more isolation (noone is looking for them and they won't want to go to law enforcement) and still allows for some armaments. Since the skills sets would be more varied it might also make a better party.

Off the top of my head Ithaca (sp?) and Shub-niggaruath (sp?) might be good candidates to have cults or creatures in such a place.

Castle Whiterock 3 & 4

2011-05-10T01:27:00.000Z

Returning to the castle the party finally begins to explore the main building. They enter through a broken hole in the wall and carefully avoid a nest of bees. They find several rooms, all that are empty. One of the rooms is filled with rubble with the indications of a trap door buried under it but the party opts to explore one of the guard towers nearby that is collapsed. They determine that while overrun with vines that the vines themselves are not dangerous but that something large appears to be lairing in the tower itself.

Kazmuk examines a corpse from afar and determines that it's probably a giant mantis. Maka and Davor lead the way in unfazed by the threat of a large bug. The mantis obliges and leaps out and successfully clamps onto Davor. The paladin is knocked out and badly injured by the attack. Kazmuk manages to dart in and heal him almost immediately while Maka and the rest of the party lay on the hurt.

Mantis defeated the party explores further. They find the room of the boss half-orc (from session 1) and take a few minor things of his including a key. The also find a secret door leading deeper into the castle.

Exploring through the door they find a dark main room with several side rooms. The main entrance can be seen to be choked with rubble from this end as well. Kazmuk sees several bones lying near it and the party gives it wide berth. In one of the side rooms they find access to the guard tower (from session 2) and opt to not press upwards. Another side room is choked off by rubble. From the looks it used to be a room filled with statues or dummies for holding armor. The group determines it might be a good camping site though.

Finally the party decides to investigate the bones in the rubble. Their investigation is welcomed by a skeletal bugbear raising up and attacking. The fight goes slowly due primarily to the inability of either side to hit the other. Eventually the party manages to shatter the skeleton to bits. Below it they find a chest inside which lies the treasure of the half-orc boss.

A bit weary and beaten up the party decides to rest in the statue hall for the night before proceeding down the stairs to level 2. They also level up.

Moving down to the next level Besh finds two trip wires. She manages to easily disable one but the other she pulls when trying to cut it. Oddly nothing happens. She does hear sounds of movement at the base of the stairs. In attempting to sneak down though Besh isn't quite as stealthy as she believes. An orc jumps out and hits her with a guisarme and pummels Besh. Maka and Davor rush in to protect her engaging the orc and one of his buddies. After healing Besh rolls under the orc that hit her and stabs him in the back. She sees several other orcs hiding behind a low wall with crossbows. Maka finishes off the other orc and then charges the three with crossbows. Apparently these orcs attended the same archery school that Aeryn went to as they can't hit the broadside of a half giant. Aeryn shows a bit of improvement with her bow though and Maka cleaves the other two crossbow-orcs.

Besh hears movement from the room on the right so the party investigates in that direction. Davor gets a spear for the parties' curiosity, thrown by a mini-minotaur. The room is filled with hanging weapons. Maka and Davor wind their way over to the minitaur and proceed to slug it out. It's the toughest thing they've fought yet but Maka pounds on it and it finally falls.

The next room answers the question on where the people captured by the slavers have been going. A ledge goes around the edge of 3 sides of the room. 10 feet below are cages half filled with slaves. The cages are open with wood planks laid out over some of them to allow access to the slaves.

None of the slaves are evil and one was an adventurer previously sent by Lady Chauntessa to investigate Castle Whiterock. Just as Besh is pulling out rope to start hoisting the slaves out an orc guard appears at the far end of the room. He shouts a warning as Davor, Lem, and Maka (in that order) race to engage him. One of the slaves shouts that he will help fight if the party can get him out in time. Besh sends some rope his way and helps pull out prisoners.

Davor gets to the orc just as 7 of his friends arrive. He and eventually Maka duke it out with the orcs while, Besh (who proves surprisingly accurate with her crossbow), Aeryn, and Kazmuk engage in a shoot out with most of the orcs. Lem causes one orc to fall with ectoplasmic sheen but then is unable to it any others with his energy ray. Between Besh's crossbow bolts and Maka and Davor's blade & pick the orcs are whittled down. One flees through a door.

Pursuing Davor is attacked by three dog-like creatures. They have nasty bites forcing Davor to use his remaining lay on hands to keep himself and Maka in the fight. Besh arrives from the far side of the room and adds some crossbow firepower to the engagement. The group needs it as an orc archer adds additional strength to the slavers. The dogs almost have the two melee fighters on the rope before Maka connects with a cleave and clears two of them. The last falls almost right after and the orcs not soon after.

The party opts to leave the mother dog and her pups alone. They find the slaves' old gear and give it back to them before directing them how to escape back to Cilamar. One of the slaves informs the party that her brother is trapped somewhere else on this level in the mines. The party promises to do their best to find and free him.

Castle Whiterock 2

2011-05-03T23:41:00.000Z

The party makes it through the night without incidence and gathers up most of the remaining fake mining camp supplies (including horses and wagons) and returns to town with the surviving prisoners. They burn a couple tents and the stables to cover their tracks. The prisoners who didn't have much information other then slaves are given to the orcs one level down and there is a watchtower keeping an eye on the approach from the town. The party turns the "monks" over to authorities. The party picks up some healing potions and returns to the castle the next day but stays off the main road to sneak up on the watchtower.

Returning to the fake camp the party manages to find a path above it which leads to a tower. The entrance to the main floor appears to be sealed from the outside but undeterred Maka breaks his way in. A spider looms up from the back of the room and Maka charges in full speed...only to have his armor and dire pick rusted away. Besh attempts to pick her way but fails to see more webs and loses some daggers. Davor is hit by the spider's web attack causing his armor, shield, and weapon. In a stunning display of horrible ranged combat skills the party is unable to kill the spider at a distance. However the spider can only damage metal with its web attack so eventually moves into melee allowing Maka to kill it with his back up weapon.

The next level up is secured by a trap door. Peaking in Besh sees a bunch of large blood raven nests including hatchlings. Using her innate ability to speak with animals she manages to convince the birds that they only want to go up to the next floor. They warily agree and the party sneaks up the next floor. Here they ambush the lone guard and capture him and a caged raven (who doesn't seem to mind the cage). There are indicators that the bird was taking messages back to town. Needing new equipment the party opts to return back to town. They let the guard go outside the town with the hint he should make himself scarce.

In town Besh forges a message and attaches it to the raven which is then released. The message requests a back alley meeting. The party manages to locate where the raven goes, a coffin factory. The party lies in wait in the alley, Besh playing the role of the person who sent the message while Davor and Maka hide behind some barrels. Lem, Kazmuk, and Aeryn hide on a roof to provide fire support.

Soon 5 people appears, a noble looking man and 4 thugs. The man is obviously aware it's a trap and things degenerate almost immediately into a fight. Davor and Maka struggle to land blows but the fire support disrupts the noble's (obviously a wizard) spell. Lem hits the area with ectoplasmic sheen giving Davor and Maka a chance to rough up the guards. The wizard is knocked out by Aeryn before he can use his summoned swarm against the party members on the roof.

The party members relieve the wizard of his equipment (and also some money at his business the coffin factory) and turn him over the authorities. They re-equip and get ready to head back to Castle Whiterock.

Castle Whiterock 1

2011-04-23T20:25:00.000Z

Out of character background, 1 player running all 6 characters. Using Pathfinder rules and playing Castle Whiterock.

Cast:
Maka, male half-giant fighter 1 (NG)
Kazmuk, male dwarf druid 1 (N)
Besh, female gnome rogue 1 (CG)
Lem, male blue psion [kinetcist] 1 (NG)
Davor, male half-orc paladin of Iomedae 1 (LG)
Aeryn, female human range 1 (NG)

Backstory: The party from a smaller village dominated by an evil lord. Maka and Lem had happened upon the village where they helped Davor rescue Besh from the local jail. This resulted in the evil lord now hunting the four of them. Aeryn and Kazmuk helped them evade some of their pursuers and got lumped in with the group. Still the group worked well together but decided it was time to get out of town. Davor had heard that a Lady Chauntessa in Cillamar was looking for adventurers to go to a Castle Whiterock and that sounded like as good an opportunity as anything.

Our heroes begin entering through the main gates of Cillamar. After some scouting around and interacting with locals Besh and Aeryn determine that Lady Chauntessa to be the owner of Inn of the Slumbering Dragon and the party heads there. A quick word with the bartender insures that the lady is made aware of their interest. The bartender also informs Besh that a group of monks, possibly from order originally based at the castle, has been excavating the ruins. Later that evening she stops by and lays out what she would like the party to do. She has an interest in old books and scrolls that may be contained within the ruins of Castle Whiterock. The party accepts and sets out early the next morning.

After an uneventful half day's travel they arrive at Castle Whiterock. The entrance is a tunnel leading to courtyard. The end of the tunnel is blocked by a wooden door. Besh goes to investigate and is greeted by a guard on the other side who is associated with the monks. The party convinces the guard they have an interest in helping the monks explore the ruins. Davor detects an evil presence in the area but the guard is not the source. He leads them to some tents where the monks have set up their base camp. In the main tent the guard shows some pottery unearthed from the ruins and then asks the party to wait inside while he finds his leader.

Only Davor, Lem, and Besh wait in the tent while Maka, Kazmuk, and Aeryn wait outside (on the pretext of not wanting to fill the tent to overcapacity with people). Besh immediately determines that the pottery is brand new and concludes this is a setup. Lem takes cover in the table while Davor subtly informs the party members outside. Aeryn hides in the stables and everyone casually readies their weapons.

Finally a half orc arrives with several other men. He slowly approaches the party and then pulls his weapon as the tent is collapsed. Several monks begin attacking anything the moves under the tent while the half-orc and his henchmen take on those outside. Maka proves to be a match for any who stand against him initially killing one and knocking another out cold. The half orc manages score a solid hit him while another attacker wound Kazmuk. Aeryn's aim seems to be off as every arrow she looses flies false. Besh slips out from under the tent and attempts to down an attacker but is driven back. Davor manages to fend off several attacks from under the tent and then spears an attacker through the tent with his longsword. The half orc unexpectedly attempts to knock Maka out allowing him a chance to hit him hard with his dire pick. The half orc withdraws giving Maka a chance to finish off the other attackers who are beating away on the tent trying to hit Davor. Meanwhile Lem has been unsuccessfully trying to mind thrust the two monks going after Besh and Kazmuk. Several stink pots are thrown driving back the rogue and druid. Besh eventually manages to help Lem out from under the tent and Maka does the same for Davor after he easily finished off the attackers on that part of the tent.

Of the remaining attackers one flees after his boss (who escaped despite several desperate shots from Aeryn). Now Besh, Kazmuk, and Lem gang up on the remaining attacker who takes refuge in a tent. With Kazmuk and Lem covering the front and Davor the side Maka and Besh move to cut the monk from escaping out the back of the tent. He takes a stab at Maka, misses, and Maka kills him for the attempt. Meanwhile Aeryn finally gets a hit on the last escaping guard knocking him unconscious.

With two monks captured the party confirms the half-orc has fled into the main structure. Exploring the "camp" they find it is obviously a ruse as the digging equipment is dusty and unused. They decide to set up temporary camp in a crumbling guard tower while they recover and interrogate their prisoners. They use the table from the camp and an improvised barricade. Unfortunately right after Maka and Davor set up the barricade Lem, Besh, and Kazmuk stumble upon a nest of monstrous centipedes. Still licking their wounds the party manages to easily dispatch the centipedes without further injury.

Eclipse Phase scenarios

2011-02-22T22:05:00.000Z

Oddly enough for Eclipse Phase I've had a drought of ideas that feel really compelling to me. Having finally gotten Gatecrashing I have thought of a couple. Both are quite straightforward so probably not anything that hasn't been thought of before.

The first is a very simple one-shot of a party being the first-in explorers to a world. This seems like a great way to introduce people to the system of Eclipse Phase without having to explain much in the way of the deeper setting. You can hint at it (especially with pre-made characters) by having the group have different allegiances but otherwise it's just them vs the new world they've set foot on. Plus you can change up the world easily enough without having to do much else with the scenario. As I write this it occurs to me that you could run a very episodic sort of series where they party just continuously explores new worlds (a crack team of first-in specialist for instance). Sort of a dungeon a week kind of series.

The other would be one of the Solar gates is destroyed by an antimatter explosion, ostensibly the last ditch defense mechanism and the party are the first to be sent in to investigate. I just have pictured the explosion from Planetes when part of the ship is destroyed on the Lunar surface and using that as the initial start point of the scenario. All they have is the result, some garbled transmissions before the facility goes up, and the day's schedule of gate travel to work off of. I'd suspect many people would have back-ups at the facility but those backups would be unlikely shed any information to the party unless they had emergency farcasters. A detective story with a twist.

Exalted and Bending

2011-01-17T19:35:00.000Z

I've been watching Avatar the Last Airbender of late and rather enjoying their use of the elements in combat. Sometimes it can be rather staid and straightforward on how they use them but other times the uses are rather unique and thoughtful ways to exploit the elements at hand. The odd thing for me is that when I see them bending elements that is how I originally perceived Dragonblooded from Exalted. To a certain extent Dragonblooded have never felt quite like they met their potential for representing the elements with just their charms. Which led to the thought, why not replace their charms with bending? They would naturally be able to bend the element of their given caste, the more they bent the more their anima banner would flare. The higher the essence the more capacity they could bend is the very basic explanation of how it would work.

Here's a more detailed breakdown for Dragonblooded: inherently they would bend the element of their caste so an Earth aspect would bend earth, Wood would bend wood, etc. (I realize that the first thing any gamer who sees this will says is they want to be the earth bender who bends fire just so they can be a unique and special snowflake, I'm going to ignore that for now.) The base control for how much you can bend period is your Essence. However replacing charms I think would be dots in a given element (Air, Water, Fire, Earth, Wood) that represent the control over a given element you have. As you buy up dots of an element your capabilities in manipulating it expand. Essence would also act as a cap to the max dots in any given element you could have. The dice pool for rolling what you can do it Element + Essence. At 5 dots in an element you can buy a specialty that allows for the unique variations of bending (eg, metal-bending from Earth, blood-bending from water). Every dot above 5 allows for another specialty to be bought. Dragonblooded can learn other elements then their own but their would be an Essence surcharge to use those powers (until they mastered (eg 5 dots) them) and they could never have more dots in an element then their natural element.

For Solars they have it easier. For one they are not limited to learning any one element at a time. Also they can learn any of the natural elements up to 5 even if their Essence is lower then 5. However learning beyond 5 requires their Essence to be equal or greater then the amount they want to increase it to. Beyond ease of ability to learn the bending of any of the 5 natural elements Solars can learn to bend ANY* element that is bendable (see Abyssals and Inferals below) making them incredibly versatile. (*With a view caveats)

The magical materials provide an interesting side note: they can be bent too but they require a certain degree of alignment to them so each Exalted type can naturally only bend the magical material related to them (using the standard relations set out in the Exalted core). Alchemicals by their nature can bend the magical material their caste is related too. Since they are limited too their own magical material that means even Solars who wanted to make great works of magitech were limited to doing things by hand or getting the assistance of other Exalt types when making their great works in the first age.

Abyssals act similar to Solars but their "natural" elements are: pyre-flame, jade, bone, blood, and prayer
Infernals are somewhat different as the only "natural" element to Hell is vitriol. The other common associated elements are brass, sand, glass, basalt, and obsidian. (As an aside I am unsure as to whether they should just use those as the elements or handle this differently...)

Sidereals and Lunars are somewhat less powerful then their Solar (and Solar analogue) kin. While they can learn other elements more easily then the Dragonblooded they cannot raise anything other then their unique bending ability above their essence. So a Sidereal could have Air and Earth bending but if her Essence was three these bending abilities could not be above three.

Sidereals unique bending ability is that of Fate and Lunars unique ability is to bend themselves into new forms.

Alchemicals are somewhat unique in that they have 6 specific elements (oil, smoke, metal, steam, lightning, and crystal) These element they can learn akin to Solars not being limited by their Essence unless they want to take an element above 5. However they are limited to elements outside of those 6 by their Essence and they cannot have more then 5 x Essence total dots of bending active at one time. This represents their modularity. Alchemicals also can bend their magical material.

For Fair Folk, they have an inherent Wyld bending ability (which can be learned by other Exalt types) but outside of the Wyld to have the bending cause an actual affect rather then being limited by Bend: Wyld + Essence it's limited by Bend: Wyld + Glamour.

One thing that this new system lacks is as much affect on mental/social combat, leadership, etc. A possible work around is a bonus related to how many dots you have in an element that is associated with the ability you are using.

More to come on this possibly...

Forgotten Realms Campaign Idea

2011-01-15T22:59:00.000Z

So I own all the books for Forgotten Realms for D&D 3.0/3.5. I've always kind of wanted to use them in a campaign but I've never had the chance to run Forgotten Realms nor even play in a FR campaign. (Come to think of it I've only run three D&D campaigns: 2 in Rappun Athuk, 1 in Ptolus) It got me to thinking: how do I create a campaign that might actually get a chance to employ most of the FR books I own? It would have to be continent spanning as the books are mostly setting oriented. How do I get the players to travel everywhere without necessarily railroading them to specific points I want to see (especially when I want to see everywhere)? This is what I came up with, pick two points on the map (in my case Port Nyranzaru in Chult and Winterkeep in the Endless Wastes). Make the end point inaccessible by magic so mid-level characters can't just teleport there (what fun is that?). After that you just need a reason the characters would have to get there but one that allows a reasonable amount of deviations and side-plots. I just haven't quite figured out my hook yet to get the players rolling.

Characters - Blue Planet

2010-11-18T03:14:00.000Z

Every once in awhile I get on a character building kick, thought I might toss some of them up here. Not sure what, if any, purpose this will serve but have a look maybe they'll be useful.

Starting off with some Blue Planet (v2) characters I made. These are pretty quick to generate other then figuring out equipment and biomods. I used the elite character method working with the concept that this is an elite team put together to research aborigines by the GEO. They're basically being sent out to independently scour Poseidon for clues and hard(er) facts then have previously been obtained.

GEO Research Scientist

Build: 0 Fitness: 1 Agility: 0 Dexterity: 0 Awareness: 1 Intellect: 2 Presence: 0 Will: 2
Endurance: 0 Reflex: 0 Strength: 0 Toughness: 0
Aptitudes (Superior): Life Science, Medicine, Physical Sciences (Strong): Administration, Communication, Human Science, Tech, Vehicles

Origin Package: GEO
Background Packages: GEO, University
Professional Packages: Science (Expert - Life Sciences), Survival (Novice), Medicine (Novice)

Language (English): 7 Pharmacology: 4 Bureaucracy: 7 Computers: 6 Earth Culture: 5
GEO Culture: 6 Language (Interspec): 6 Politics: 3 Incorporate Culture: 1 History: 1 Writing: 5
Mechanics: 1 Piloting: 2 Psychology: 1 Remote Operations: 5 Genetics: 8 Biochemistry: 7
Botany: 7 Zoology: 7 Astronomy: 3 Chemistry: 5 Geology: 3 Meteorology: 4 Physics: 3
Longarms: 3 Driving: 1 Surgery: 1 Sailing: 1 Vet. Medicine: 1 Aquatics: 2 Fishing: 2
Foraging: 2 Hiding: 1 Mountaineering: 2 Orienteering: 2 Sneaking: 1 Tracking: 2
First Aid: 5 General Medicine: 4 Navigation: 3

Biomods: Anti-Poison, Implanted Computer (w neural jack, implanted calculator), Immunological Symbiote, Electro_muscular analogs, Enhanced Smell, Infrared Senses

The basic concept is a university professor with a fair amount of field work. He's got a ton of experience on the ground on Earth but non on Poseidon. This doesn't mean that he hasn't studied up and that he doesn't know anything about survival but he's just got enough to maybe keep himself alive. His real strong points are his textbook knowledge of life sciences and chemistry. For the group he is the nominal "head" charged by the GEO with assembling this team although ironically he doesn't have really any aptitude for leading people he's truly a researcher at heart and this assignment is a dream come true. Initially he was a pre-med student before discovering his love of research but his medical knowledge has been an asset in the field more often then not.

Rappun Athuk Wrap-Up/Item List

2010-10-02T22:13:00.002Z

Since Google Wave will ultimately have been shutdown by the time the game revives the party has made it to level 7 room 7 in Rappan Athuk.

Party loot as follows:
Group Items:
Helm of comprehend languages and read magic
Partially functioning rod of res.
Dust of sneezing and choking
Scrolls of stinking cloud, jump, ventriliquism, anti-magic shell
Ale sock:40 copper
Robe of blending (1hr alter self)
magical book (tome of understanding +2)
potion of reduce person
delusionary cure light wounds potion
cure serious wounds potion
Scroll of Protection from Energy lvl 10
map to castle whiterock.
masterwork, silver edged two handed sword
bottle of brandy
potion of flying
silver dagger
2 cure light
2 cure serious
1 cure disease
1 potion cure critical wounds
4 potions (ghoul touch, levitate, lesser restoration, remove paralysis)
ring of 2 limited wishes
3 flasks oil
flint and steel
journal:7 rumors, engineering mutation info, and description of the mithral gates on level 9A, and mentions healing property of the honey.
gold torque (1000gp)
wand of searing light (11 charges)

Group money: 120pp, 5gp, 6sp

GenCon 2010

2010-08-11T01:10:00.003Z

Well another GenCon has come and gone. If you hit RPG.net you might have seen some of my conclusions but here's the longer scoop:

Gaming was awesome! This was one of my goals this GenCon. Last year I actually got to do a little gaming (Eclipse Phase and mortals Exalted run by Alan Alexander) but that wasn't as much as I'd like. This year I got into 4 games, two Cthulhutech, 1 Alpha Omega, and 1 Hunter: The Vigil. They were all fun but the Hunter game took home the prize for most awesome. It was a late night game (started at 10) and we pretty much went the comedy route with it. This made it awesome and if there was a horror aspect to it that might have been due to the bad jokes flying about. However everyone had fun and we ganked the 400 year vampire in a single round to finish off the night! The other games were enjoyable as well but not nearly as crazy as that one.

Picked up a ton of books: Sunward, Ancient Enemies, Eoris (apparently one of about 20 people to own it at the moment!), Delta Green & DG: Targets of Opportunity plus a bunch of used books. No Titan Games this year but Chimera Hobby (from Appleton, WI) had a buy 1 get 3 free deal similar to Titans offer. Found a couple interesting books there. White Wolf let me down with no book sales at their booth instead pushing for the Grand Masquerade which doesn't hold much interest for me because a)I'm not going b)It's a LARP event primarily c)Vampire's not my thinking [except for killing them in Hunter games I guess] d)Booth Babes == Big Turn Off [see PAX banning booth babes]. Plus I was really looking forward to Return of the Scarlet Empress. Fortunately Noble Knight came through in a pinch for me there and it was waiting for me when I got home on Monday. That being said there felt like generally less stuff on the floor then in previous years so after a couple hours on Thursday I felt like I'd pretty much seen and gotten everything I wanted. Only Adam Scott Glancy's quality sales pitch got me to fork up for DG & DG:TOO (based partly on the amusing games he runs for RPPR every year).

For panels we just did 2 of the 3 White Wolf panels. Would have done all 3 but because they got listed late already had a C-tech game during one of them (also forced us to leave another one early but them's the ropes). The panels were excellent as usual. I greatly enjoy listening to the White Wolf guys speak and I was glad that Eddy Webb, Rich Thomas, and Ethan Skemp braved the fandom to come out and chat. The last year hasn't garnered a lot of love for White Wolf on the web so to come to GenCon (especially when they weren't even books to placate people at the booth) is quite awesome! Can't praise the guys enough and I am curious what news comes out of Grand Masquerade even if the event itself doesn't hold a lot of interest for me. Plus we did get the new pdf schedule for next year and that's pretty awesome.

Wrapping up good GenCon, can't wait for next year but I have some reading to do between now and then!

Cthulhutech...

2010-05-11T01:46:00.002Z

Not sure if I can really say I have campaign ideas for Cthulhutech. I finally finished the corebook (only nearly 2 years after getting it at GenCon '08). The one that seems like an interesting tangent to do although it might not have a huge amount of action in the same vein as a mecha/engel or tager story is that of the team of arcanotechnicians that take care of mecha/engel. In a way I am thinking of the three techs in Neon Genesis Evangelion who are kind of ever present but almost provide the regular human reality that is otherwise absent from the show. Another example might be the countless techs who service the Gundams in Gundam Wing. These guys are along for the ride but somehow they keep the Gundams not only fully armed but fully repaired. Considering how continuously the Gundam pilots beat their machines to a pulp and then need them on a moment's notice that has to be a tense work environment. Also toss in the fact that the things attacking are targeting the mechanics ship.

Not entirely sure how to catch that kind of thing into a game that is fun on a weekly basis as it could get repetitive. Breaking up the tension include spies or saboteurs on base, attacks on the base, techs having to pilot mechs in a pinch, field retrieval of units, and competing with other groups of techs to tweak their machines to out perform each other.

Werewolves in Russia

2010-04-28T23:23:00.004Z

Apologies if this whole thing has been covered in Rage Across Russia...

Thinking about Chernobyl has made me conclude that this has a fair amount of story potential for a roleplaying game. In this case I think a Werewolf game would be oddly most suited for this. Either old or new would work but as I am somewhat more familiar with old let me lay out why it would be a good idea.

As an ecological disaster Chernobyl had a huge effect on the environment and as such werewolves who are defenders of Gaia would have a huge investment in making sure such a disaster would not occur. A pack becomes aware that something (Black Spiral Dancers, a Mage, random banes, pick your poison) is going to cause the Chernobyl reactor to go critical and thus the pack must attempt to infiltrate the facility and try to stop the disaster from occurring.

Is it possible for them to succeed? You could play it either way but even if they fail the pack still has a lot of story options. Going into the Umbra to try to repair or lessen the breach is certainly an option. They might even be able to enlist local Weaver spirits to aid them. Probably more playable as a one shot or a short campaign then a long term one but might be an interesting backstory.

Exalted Campaign Ideas Redux

2010-04-10T23:15:00.003Z

It's been awhile since I've posted. And longer since I put in Exalted campaign ideas although they still bounce around in my head. I've been plugging away at Exalted 2nd Edition books recently (just finished reading Yu-Shan and now working through the Blessed Isle) and I thought that while I was reading it I should blog about interesting campaign ideas I had. If all else fails it'll be a nice reference point for me someday.

Anyhow to kick this off I'm pulling from Compass of Celestials Directions 1: The Blessed Isle p. 112 describing wonders of Juche Prefecture. Therein is described the manse The Foremost Vault of the Imperial Treasurey which happens to be the clearing house for nearly all of the Jade that the Scarlet Empire mines and mints. It's also where they store it until minted or otherwise shipped. As such this quite possibly the largest concentration of jade in all of Creation that's not in its natural (eg unmined) state. So here's my thought. A Circle of Solars are out in the Threshold doing their thing. Then suddenly they need a lot of jade. Pick your reason why, I prefer some crazy N/A artifact but anything can really work here. Now the Solars could go about mining it but they need a lot and it's debatable they can find or buy that much in the Threshold at least without drawing a lot of attention and setting themselves up for a huge risk. But with a Lore or Occult check someone points out that the Realm does have this much thus: bank heist!

If was a Solar in this I'd probably go the entirely underground route. It might be the most feasible. Plus you can pick up some Mountain Folk assistance (I'd have to double check Scroll of Fallen Races but I think the Solars get first dibs on the whole Geas thing so they could trump the current Dragon Blood one especially if they took the time to help out the Mountain Folk). In addition there are a contingent of Mountain Folk helping to guard the jade so if they can be turned then you have people on the inside as well as an unexpected entry/escape point. Bonus points go to the fact that Mountain Folk territory extends nominally everywhere in Creation. It might take some effort traveling to and fro but that can't be beyond Solar capabilities.

The basic concept seems small but the scope is gigantic (especially using the Mountain Folk angle which is by no means the only or best idea I'm sure). Cross-Exalt adventures probably benefit too since jade is valuable for artifacts and monetary value everywhere. Alchemicals for one would find this of much interest, possibly more then Solars as the resource shortages in Autochthonia might be of greatly alleviated in one fell swoop plus the incidental of making contact with the Mountain Folk.

That's all for now.

Hunter Game Notes 18

2009-12-02T02:24:00.001Z

Aiden sees big werewolf go into house at 5PM, still limping a little. Day two, wiry guy comes back at about midnight. As morning comes, it looks like house is empty again. That evening, wiry guy comes home and acts like someone else there. Aiden threw a Molotov cocktail and on the 2nd try, it set the porch on fire and some got in the house. Big werewolf comes out and throws door off hinges, kills tree. Rocket takes out first big werewolf. Second comes out of window, V snipes and Aiden beheads while Kira and Rachel reload. Third werewolf comes up behind K and Rachel, hard to see. Attacks them and they shoot, but disappears again. House is thoroughly destroyed. When hear sirens, book it out of there and go back to safehouse to heal a bit. Bits on the news, very choppy. Werewolf problems on North side decrease, but don’t go away completely. Something sets V’s house on fire when she wasn’t there (it’s ok, it was insured). End of Story

Hunter Game Notes 17

2009-11-18T02:41:00.000Z

Word of the day: sucktitude. Liberated weaponry from Sentry (Anti-tank missile (3 missiles), armor-piercing sniper (1 clip (10) has silver tip), automatic shotgun, stun grenades, tasers). Super taser pole, and taser halberd. Also buy new night vision goggles. K and Rachel go bar hopping to find out more about werewolves. Guy we saw in bar last time is seen with 2 buddies at times, big guy and little wiry guy. There are rumors of epic gun battle and wolf problem gotten much worse. Big guy may still be injured from our fight, hasn’t been seen recently.
Find places to have defended and snipe from. Also find place to put car and shed to hide in. Throw party to make bottles for molotov cocktails.
“That’s the problem with these statues… all they need is a bottle of booze and a table.”
Is still April.
Janitor appears at party, says “we” will not interfere so long as our goal is to fight the “pure” (pack we fought a while ago).

Hunter Game Notes 16

2009-11-18T00:34:00.001Z

Group minus Rachel goes to check out V's place, rear screen door is ripped off and inside is trashed, but front looks ok. Go to Kiera's place next, appears untouched. Is now April.

Hunter Game Notes 15

2009-10-21T01:12:00.001Z

Wolf runs into house, there is larger wolf in gauru on the roof. Rachel shoots it and does damage, making him angrier. They fight for a while until Rachel takes a big hit and is almost killed. V and K reach scene, but run away again in terror. Werewolf takes Aiden’s halberd and breaks it, so Aiden books it away with werewolf behind him. V stabilizes Rachel and tries to drive her to hospital, finds K and gets her to drive. All get found and herded to hospital. Next day report in and let know what happened. Funds available for medical costs and supplies. Down time for spending xp.

Hunter Game Notes 14

2009-10-14T02:04:00.001Z

Aiden watches house first, sees guy leave in beat-up car, no other cars in driveway, but there is garage. Looks empty for a while, Rachel sees someone, but is able to take cover. House looks empty again, V goes up to house, looks unkempt, like den or nest inside. Pretty small. Rotting smell comes from kitchen. There’s a rotting severed head in the fridge, V pukes and hears car door slam outside. Books it out back door, but is eventually noticed and chased outside. Gets into car, wolf rips top off car and they fight for a bit. Help arrives and wolf jumps away into woods. Aiden and Rachel follow wolf into woods with night-vision goggles. See wolf heading back towards house, but is no longer bleeding.

Hunter Game Notes 13

2009-10-07T02:18:00.001Z

“I’ll duck tape a butter-knife to it and then it can be a halberd” –Dani
Big scary guy from bar is at coldstone, video footage says he hangs out with 3-4 other big burly guys. They head north while guy heads into bar we were in. When guy leaves, he goes north and looks bigger and hairy-er. Long talk by Aiden. Found good spot near house to set up a watch, bought 2 way earpieces.

Hunter Game Notes 12

2009-08-21T01:58:00.001Z

K and V take road trip to Appleton to shop. Get call from Vic, Dendari guy. He asks us to take care of werewolf problem and says he will send in 2 experienced guys to help us. Will also get deed to safehouse changed so is in our name, or at least we can legally be there.
Do some “volunteer” work for Pest Control in V’s neighborhood and campus. People seen big dogs/wolves for about past year, they do fight every now and then. One person lost pet, found lots of blood. More common closer to river, person saw them over a year ago. Group of students saw some weird animal skulking in woods near intervarsity field. Some had seen big dogs/wolves on campus, called campus security. Some drunk stories about guys seeing wolves change into people. K goes to visit campus security. Large dog seen late at night, near residence halls and by security building. When seen in residential areas, usually seen in groups, but on campus, usually only one seen at a time. Guy at Emmy J’s says it sounds like they’re scouting, like a human military when fighting. Home base for university probably in north. If draw a line where wolf trails go, they meet at an apartment area just north of SPASH near some wooded areas.
V and K go to bar and chat with people. One bar has creepy, feral-looking guy (early 40’s). V tries to talk to him, but K drags her away. Football guy bumps into feral guy, who backs off and tries to leave. Football guy grabs buddies and follows him out. Get into argument outside, V sneaks out and follows. One of football guys throws punch, feral guy dodges and growls at him. Guy who threw punch freaks out and backs off, others want to fight. Feral guy ducks into less populated alley, football guys follow, then book it away yelling about a monster. V peeks into alley, but it’s empty.
Head home for the night.

Hunter Game Notes 11

2009-07-17T01:54:00.000Z

Large dogs/wolves on news North of city. People investigating, haven’t been able to find them, some pets reported missing, no people yet.
K has a very nice apartment near river, across from park (by Emmy J’s). V has small house in northern part of point, NW of Spash area, kinda wooded area. Booby trapped house is by Evergreen church.
V sees wolves in back yard of neighbor, calls pest control. Guy comes out and looks around, but wolves no longer there. V goes to bed, hears car door slam and car streak off. Gets call next morning from police saying they found guy in WI Rapids next morning and he can’t remember what happened.
V calls Dendari security, says lots of calls about wolf pack, suggests it is werewolves fighting amongst themselves. Wants us to investigate. No update on janitor.
V goes out to investigate, lots of disturbed plants, some blood. Very large claw print, whole hand fits in it. Whatever made it was bigger than janitor guy in big form.
Dog-size tracks lead to deeper wood near 2nd street North of city. Big tracks only right by home area.
Place where we end up is by smokestacks, reminds us of map. Go back home to check, Map says “furries” by university and NE of town. Nothing on that map for where we were.
Diary says small pack in NE, but larger, smarter pack in university, though not doing much. The university pack spends more time NW though, as if protecting from something in West, possibly other pack. They’ve had issues with fairies in past.
V and K venture back to booby-trapped house and check garage, is empty. Set up flaming rag ball trap at basement stairs, disable garage door, and tape other doors.

Hunter Game Notes 10

2009-07-15T00:07:00.000Z

Buy stuff for traps for house.
Return to house, check first floor, all clear. Go to basement and destroy more boxes. Find leaky pipe, old newspaper (Mid January, Stevens Point journal), and safe which is bolted to floor.
Room also has shotgun, very nice non-civilian one. Find breaker box and get lights back on.
Set up machete trap in basement, behind door to small room with safe.
Go home to sleep, next night is rainy and stormy, so we stay home and watch movies.

Hunter Game Notes 9

2009-06-26T01:41:00.001Z

Box contains copy of the jump drive sent in, and big field manual for Dendari security.
K is not a werewolf, nor needs to worry about becoming one.
Flash drive has journal on it, very wordy and boring (used to be very long, but was condensed since some files were corrupted)
Maxwell is mentioned in diary, giving orders
Matthew VonStraud is not mentioned in the journal, probably because it’s his journal
Close to a point where guy is talking about Maxwell, he mentions a lot about Chicago (K not familiar with most clubs mentioned, but there are some really famous ones that she does recognize) Guy has encyclopedic knowledge of clubs and nightlife
All healed up.
V persuades K to return to house to set up traps

Hunter Game Notes 8

2009-06-19T02:06:00.002Z

Wed. March 11th, still, night time though.
Wolf gone, statue in chunks, lots of wooden coffin boxes.
Office area in separate room, some papers, one has royal seal (stylized I with circle in center and six arrows coming out, 3 on top, three on bottom (some squiggly, some square), in middle of circle is laurels around human skull with 2 pointy fangs) looks like it was done in blood.
Also is deed to house, some papers with police routes for several cities in the area, almanac for WI (has date for feb 10th circled (sunrise time)), newspaper clippings about recent resurgence of wolf sightings in the area.
Power works in house, wolf tracks leading towards car, then goes past car. No one seems to have noticed the gunshots.
Head home with the car to heal, K gets call from company and explains what we had been up to. Tells about statue and that we’re tracking down potential furry suspect.
Ralph Thompson is name on paper from sentry with house info and deed.
We can write off purchases as company expenses through the website.
Person from the company did not provide much help, but will keep tabs on us every couple of weeks, whether we like it or not.
Research time:
I symbol is associated with some nightclubs, Chicago area businesses (K knows some of the places)
Note says: (very formal) I Maxwell, prince of the city in the name of the Invictus, proclaim this location under the ownership of the herald Matthew Von Strahd. I declare this place to be an Elysium for all kindred on the route to the twin cities, as of (June 5th 2007). Signed, Maxwell (symbol)
Names not associated with burned down house.
Almanac has some sunrises and sunsets circled in January, does not look like there’s a pattern.
Time for healing and spending xp.

Hunter Game Notes 7

2009-06-12T02:08:00.003Z

Today is Wed. March 11th, 2009.
V goes to get ice cream @ Belts, eat ice cream and watch movies, then sleep. Purchased flak jackets, and lots of other stuff from Sams club. Also got hunting rifles.
Took week break to heal and get guns.
Go to investigate basement.
Mr. Spoodles is all alone now, why did Fluffy have to die?
Find statue and big basement room, fight statue and V gets knocked out. Janitor appears and kills statue, K passes out as well. Wake up back at home with note from Janitor saying we’re not his enemy, but also not his friends. Time to heal again.

Hunter Game Notes 6

2009-06-12T02:08:00.002Z

Save the pie!!!
Papers gotten from janitor’s apt.: bus schedule, employment app. for university (has some personal info on it), list of names from Sentry offices, lots of newspaper clippings and printouts of news stories about some of the arsons (highlighting and underlining of incidents with statues), long Wikipedia printout on gargoyles, junk mail (toppers add).
Sentry paper: names and addresses. List of possible claimants, some local, some not (~50 names).
Seems like more than one statue, scattered around US.
V drives by some houses on the list, one (near Evergreen church) looks like in slummy area, run down, not well kept and not plowed out. Another by Marvins, kid in yard, well kept. One in Plover, in wooded lot, hidden.
Key fits in door of house near V’s place, goes to check it out. Entire place is very dust and seems unlived in for a long time. Find note with address and Feb 10th 2009, 7:07AM. V heads back to house with note.

Kirsten: I got bit on the butt by a werewolf.
Mr. Carlson: Awe, did it hurt?

Hunter Game Notes 5

2009-06-12T02:07:00.000Z

Mailing flash drive with instructions to Sentry place in Chicago.
Geared up and go to Janitor’s apartment. Get door open, is very dark. Sparsely decorated, very dusty except for bedroom. While there, someone comes in door, V grabs papers off desk in bedroom and K and V book it for fire escape in back. Guy smells us and we run to car.
See him shift to giant wolf and throw down door. He jumps down onto a car, destroying it, and gives chase.
V shoots him, does a little damage, gets clawed and wolf keeps going. K keeps running, wolf is catching up. Shoots and hits twice more before it catches up to K. K gets bitten, but shoots him. V shoots again and wolf runs off. We hear sirens in the distance and make it to car. Drive to V’s place to heal.

Hunter Game Notes 4

2009-06-12T02:06:00.001Z

In box:
Map: Area of Point and surrounds, lots of marks. Circle around Schmeekle “fairies”, circle around UWSP “furries?”, circle NE of town “furries”. Lines on streets, look like routes.
Jump drive: big
Slip of paper with number like bank account #
Key: looks like house key

V tried to break through security on jump drive, failed and deleted itself. Took to work and assigned people to recover info.
Map is of major police routes in Point with times.
Googling # gives nothing.
Find article about fire, little suspicious, found no bodies, was probably not arson. No names, insurance place had hard time tracking too, had gotten a pseudo-name.
Building-explody-capable

Hunter Gaming Notes 3

2009-03-20T01:19:00.000Z

There’s a weird medallion on the side of the statue room. It was on statue when found them. House that burnt down is on South side of town. Neither the statue nor the medallion were damaged from fire.
Statue attacked 2 police officers, knocked them out. V shoots at it, does slight damage, K tries to open door, won’t open. Statue attacks V, does some damage. V shoots again, takes off most of head of statue. Statue tackles V, knocks her unconscious. K shoots and destroys statue.
Police officers wake up and take weapons from K, stabilize V. EMT’s get door open with help from janitor. Janitor comes in and pockets medallion, papers, and contact list. Scares K. V wakes up in ambulance with K there, all being transported to hospital.
Make it to hospital, K looks up statue with VII on it on phone/internet. Not much found other than conspiracy sites, but have dendari name mentioned. Also mentions something called taskforce valkyrie. No mythology or other ties.
K calls dad and rants for a while. Dad says we’re in another league now, and we may get paid more. They’re sending a better team up soon to debrief us and handle the situation.

Hunter Game Notes 2

2009-03-13T01:30:00.000Z

Leaving the safety of the office to go rescue Ishkawa.
V and Kira take elevator 5 up to 3rd floor, when get to intersection with hall to elevator 2, Kira sees a pair of glowing eyes from area of elevator.
We find Ishkawa and attempt to bandage him up, badly. Begin moving back to elevator and run into large wolf creature (~400 lbs). Rips away V’s sub machine gun, she pulls out glok and fires, hits, but does little damage. Wolf lunges at Kira’s gun, misses and runs off towards E2. Group moves towards E5. Makes it back to security room safely.
Cops come with paramedics, V explains what happened to the cops, paramedics take 3 guys away. Cops ask V and Kira to take them to scene of dead body, punch code on door is on paper V found in janitor’s cart. Get into room with statue, everything looks the same. Cops examine dead Bato and…cliffhanger.

Hunter Game Notes 1

2009-03-11T02:11:00.003Z

Group is in sad shape in office.
Looking back through video surveillance cameras -
Floor where found smashed walkie-talkies, cameras out in order where things would have been occurring
Looking at 2nd floor where dog prints exited stairwell, doesn’t look like anything near stairwells (cameras don’t point towards stair well)
Talk of stealing (borrowing) a company car…
Kira freaked out over phone at her dad, then the Night security head quarters, then the head security guy
Called 911, thought Valerie was on drugs, then got disconnected. Tried other #’s, no connection, just dialtone.
Janitor guy reappears on 3rd floor, right under where walkie-talkies were on 4th floor. He was paged, and told about broken window. Hadn’t seen anything suspicious.
One of cameras goes out on level 2, stays out, must be damaged.
Valarie grabs electrical tape, gun, etc, and goes to 2nd floor (taking the stairs)
Gunshot in camera, camera on 3rd floor goes weird, two figures, one goes on all fours. One finds valarie near elevator, she loses flashlight and books it back to office.
Get call from Ishikawa on 3rd floor, very bloody, says got bit, needs help.
Opened gun cabinet: 8 gloks, 8 mags, and box of ammo, 2 tasers, 2 sub-machine guns (nice ones), 1 sniper rifle, 2 assault rifles, shotgun. 2 flash-bang grenades.
Kira: 1 glok, 1 extra mag, taser, shotgun
Valarie: 1 glok, 2 extra mags, taser, sub-machine gun
Ready to go…

Ah Cthulutech

2009-02-12T02:18:00.000Z

From the RPG.net boards:
Q: Who equips a robot with a giant acidic tongue?
A: The Engel Project.

Adding a mythos to the new World of Darkness

2009-01-08T02:24:00.002Z

So the actual running of a Hunter nWoD game is coming up fast. I am somewhat putting off the initial start up as I find running games rather intimidating (although I just ran Sinister Secret of Whiterock (aka DCC 51.5) 1 on 1 and that went decently) so have a tendency to put things off.

That said one of the things I find I don't like about the nWoD is the lack of an overarching mythos. There is no metaplot, there really isn't even a plot. Just plot hooks and ideas and toolkits. Now granted this toolkit approach is probably a really good idea for flexible game play but it does ruin my favorite activity of just reading a book on the side. I'm still not sure how I finished Hunter: The Vigil (well I have some idea but is unrelated to this post) and I wonder if I can focus in and tackle Witchfinders.

Getting back on track, as noted above, there is no overarching metaplot so common to oWoD in nWoD. Now initially I thought this was an issue but of late I've realized that this isn't a problem it means that I can use the nWoD toolkit to build a mythos of my own (pilfering the parts I like from oWoD, which admittedly I know little about, and leaving the rest) into something that's hopefully as interesting or better and imminently more flexible as well.

However creating that mythos is a huge effort, it's a big world and in the World of Darkness it has multiple layers including Twilight, Farie, and beyond (I forget the technical names for most of these to be honest!). So start local and work your way out with an eye towards the big picture. But keep in mind that not everything will touch a small city so not everything need effect it. Players can and may travel to places where you can expand the mythos. If you want some bigger mysteries jot them up but don't expand on them, as the players bump into them you can flesh them out. Heck since they will be a mystery to you at that point it might even make it more mysterious!

That's all I got for now. More later as I actually develop this?

Blue Planet Scenario idea

2008-12-04T23:43:00.002Z

So I had this idea today on an interesting scenario for Blue Planet.

One of the things that gets me about Poseidon is that there aren't a lot of large naval vessels surface or submersible. It seems something of a shame to me that there aren't huge navies roaming about. Granted the politics and industry haven't been there to generate the need or capability for the most part. So what happens when those things start occurring?

The basic story idea is that somebody (any one the myriad groups involved in the Serpentis system) is building a large battleship. A full all out 15-18 inch main gun batteries, etc, etc battleship. The idea here (and my science is weak so this might not hold up) is that a large heavy warship like this can ride out the storms in the storm belt without too much suffering or sinking and then pop out and raid, threaten, or otherwise intimidate the areas around the storm belt and then disappear back into the weather before serious calvary can arrive.

Naturally the players must investigate and find out if these rumors are true and if they are find this battleship before it is complete since it will be nigh unstoppable even for the GEO. As a matter of practicality I'd figure this ship also acts as a mother ship for smaller craft including submersible and possibly jump craft or VTOLs. I don't think it could submerge (although def. drifting away from hard science fiction I can't help but think of the ghost ship from Blue Sub 6). It would be armored to the hilt like the true old battlewagons and so a lot of the firepower that local forces could bring to bear would be unable to sink it. Most would create superficial damage.

When the players did finally locate the island or atoll that this vessel is being built at I'd also toy with the idea that the ship is gone and all that they find are dead crew members and yard workers who seemed to have turned on each other. What happened and where did the ship go? Only the aborigines know!

That's the plot in a nutshell, pretty good I think!

Thoughts on Gaming V

2008-12-04T02:20:00.002Z

Looks like (assuming everything goes to schedule) that Exalted will pick up Fair Folk, Infernals, and Alchemical Exalts next year, possibly see the return of the Empress (although she may wait for 2010) and we'll finally get to see the South (and 101 new ways to destroy Gem) and the North and Malfeas. Also we'll get a book on playing mortals in Creation and a book on major players in Creation (this will be interesting to see how they execute it as there were a lot of complaints about how this was done in Dreams of the First Age however White Wolf has shown a willingness to learn of late).

I am attempting to read completely through Hunter before attempting to run a game of it online after Dani's D&D game wraps up this winter. I'm about 2/3rds through and if I complete it'll be the second RPG I've finished ever. Ptolus has first honors but I figured if I was gonna spend that much on an RPG I'd better read it.

Thing to keep an eye out for in 2009 are definitely Cthulutech, Alpha Omega, and Blue Planet (Red Brick picked BP up so hopefully we'll get to see the setting expand, considering how amazing it is I am quite excited).

For 4th Ed D&D I am up in the air. It's painfully tactical and although there are times I like that I think prefer more opened ended combat like Exalted. Especially after Brady actually ran a game which I got to play in. 4th Ed just seems to be drifting slowly away from the more standard gaming goodness I like. Ironic that Carl loves it (he was entirely skeptical at time of release) and I am more indifferent now. Total role reversals.

The Actual GenCon Wrap Up

2008-08-20T22:53:00.002Z

GenConw as awesome. First off despite eating pretty lousy (and irregularly) I managed to lose weight. This might be due to the fact I was on me feet for many many hours most of the time lugging hardcover books! But none of you care about that:

The highlight of the con for me really was the White Wolf developers. I went to two of their panels and they greatly impressed me with their knowledge and enthusiasm. Especially cool were suggestions on how to get oWoD players to enjoy nWoD. Looked forward to the play with the White Wolf Developer game as well but then GenCon events double booked our play area so instead Joe Carriker (the Vampire line developer) chatted with us about White Wolf gaming including upcoming stuff.

For Vampire players (not me) he mentioned two upcoming books: Ancient Mysteries and Ancient Bloodlines. Sounds like they go somewhat hand in hand with Vampire: Rome but also can apply to current settings. They also deal with very old Vampires.

For Exalted: We are getting Alchemicals. I didn't get a date but if that's confirmed I'd guess maybe the hardcover for next fall (since this Spring is Infernals and it sounds awesome from what Joe said). Tying in with Infernals is a possible Return of the Empress book covering optional plotlines akin to the 1st Ed Alchemicals 3 plots. This sounds really cool to me. Also he noted that via Dynasty charms the Empress may be able to insert Celestial level mental influence on all her kin, aka the Scarlet Dynasty. This is a rather scary thought. Also, the leaders of Stygia may be the ghosts of the fallen Incarna. The last two aren't cannon persay but just possible implied connections. Kinda like the 13 Deathlords equal the 13 oWoD Vampire clans(?).

Books acquired: Hunter: The Vigil, Witchfinders, Roll of Glorious Divinity 2, Reign, 3:16, Spirit of the Century, Cthulutech, Vade Mechum, Deus Ex Machina, Starship Troopers Pocket Edition, Promethean: The Created, and Deities and Demigods. Plus some dice and a Gir print.

A nice swag haul if I do say so myself. Also when I got home the lastest issue of The Red Star was waiting for me. So now I am off to read. Alot.

GenCon Wrap Up

2008-08-20T01:41:00.000Z

Coming soon. Tonight is unpacking and organizing books. Results will be in tomorrow although I'll be posting on RPG.net tonight I think.

4th Edition Gameplay Round-up

2008-07-01T21:58:00.002Z

Well we've run two sessions of 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons. I admit I was skeptical (see below or here) but it's won a spot in my heart. The Wotc people did their homework. Carl was running the Keep on the Shadowfell adventure. We mostly used the pre-gens.

Our initial party was played by just myself and Casey doubling up on characters. Casey had Chip - the pre-genned rouge and Dale - the pre-genned wizard. I was playing Zipper - the pre-gen fighter and Monty a warlord (self gen).

Warning if you are planning to play Keep on the Shadowfell spoilers may ensue!

The initial group ventured down the King's Road towards Winterhaven. We didn't even reach the place before being semi-ambushed by kobolds. Zipper charged right in and promptly became flanked, surrounded and in deep trouble. Luckily the warlord moved up to cover soon joined by the rogue. The kobolds did a good job shifting to keep the warlord and the rogue from using their tactics to end the fight in any hurry. The wizard did a stand up job with ranged firepower until the fighter could finish up.

Early thoughts here: geez, combat is brutal. Kobolds ain't wimpy anymore. Sure they outnumbered us a little but we had a couple one off minions in there too. Rule number one: don't run into battle on your own. Rule number two: second wind, and healing powers (ie warlord class power) are key to battle. PCs lose HP fast since enemies can go toe to toe. Rule number three: Like I said enemies aren't wimpy anymore, a 1st level kobold is equal to a 1st level PC.

The party managed to survive and make it to the town where they learn the basic lay of the land and take on the job of clearing out kobolds from town as well as find their lost mentor.

More to come from the 1st two sessions but must pack now...

RPGs on the big (or little) screen Pt. 2

2008-06-17T02:15:00.002Z

While I am unsure Dungeons and Dragons on its own would make a very good show since it lacks a definite setting Forgotten Realms could be done. It could be done in a very interesting Babylon 5ish political fashion. "A story about great armies", etc (I can't find the exact quote from Babylon 5's "In the Beginning" but it truly gets the gist of Forgotten Realms at least in 3rd edition. The scale of the Realms can be a truly epic battle for good versus evil with the Harpers taking the role of the Rangers and perhaps the Dales/Cormanthor being akin to Babylon 5 itself. That's how I see doing the Realms at least. I don't think it can be done in a movie form but a long tv series perhaps.

Rifts strikes me as a true war epic where everday is a struggle. Following the neverending struggle to beat back the tides of unending enemy. Possibly dealing with an attempt to close the rifts forever. Another tv show as a movie would struggle to truly encompass the whole thing.

That's all I got for now. I notice my theme seems to be long reaching epic stories rather then short movies...I guess I am not terribly original.

4th Edition

2008-06-17T02:12:00.001Z

Not quite a double post but my thoughts on the 4th Edition of the Dungeons & Dragons can be found on my regular blog here. Yea, two self references back to back in one sentence, live with it!

RPGs on the big (or little) screen

2008-06-11T01:20:00.002Z

So this thread got me thinking. What RPGs off my shelf would make good movies or tv shows?

My first thought really was Exalted but as much as I love it I am not sure how easily you could convert that to any other medium. Exalted's larger then life format makes it kind of hard.

Next thought was Blue Planet. BP I think would make a great movie although my personal thought would be do a movie about the natives dealing with humanities return to Poseidon and how the world begins to change. Certainly an emphasis on the amazing location of Poseidon both above and below the waves!

Another great one would be Jovian Chronicles done as a war epic. Not even sure who would be considered the good guys. Possibly some just the UN SolaPol bringing about a united war against the Venus Bank? The possibilities of a Firefly-ish series or a Babylon 5ish series also seem like good fits.

Thoughts on Gaming IV

2008-05-24T21:23:00.002Z

Well Dani will be running BESM 3rd Ed for GenCon and Brady will be running Exalted 2nd Ed. I'm already spinning up a Twilight cast sorcerer (naturally) for Brady's game. I'm very excited to be finally playing Exalted although I will need to brush up on 2nd Ed rules as I've only run 1st Ed. Maybe I can sneak in some Dreams of the 1st Age charms?

Carl's City of Stone game is probably going to collapse in on itself due to scheduling issues. Also just a general kind of neglect as I don't think anyone is blown away by the game. Game enjoyment wise I've kind of been in a drought. Carl is a good DM but I think he is attempting to follow too many masters. Primary among them is that he wants to write fiction for this world and therefore he imposes stricter rules onto the game so that the world is more believable. Also there are the players who play their characters towards personal growth and those of us (I'm generally in this camp of late) who are just out to kills things and take their stuff. Maybe I'd be better as a GM/ST rather then a player? Plus he tends to want the players to resolve conflicts amongst the group and that just doesn't make sense to me. Understandable that the players should be able to resolve some issues but when it's an ongoing problem as the person in charge I think you gotta be able to step in. Anyhow, them's my thoughts on the current game. As I said due to scheduling issues and some general apathy don't think anything will be going for much of the summer.

Still toying with running a game. Maybe a 2nd Ed Dragon Blooded game to get myself rolling on the new system? Hard to say.

Thoughts on Gaming III

2008-04-10T02:06:00.002Z

Of all the various games I'd like to run: Ptolus re-hash (or just finish the original campaign), Exalted in all it's varieties although favorites here are straight up Solars, Dragon-Blooded "defenders of the Realm", Sidereals "The Office", and an all out high-XP "So the world came to the end last Tuesday", Rappun Athuk, Nobilis, and Forgotten Realms, nWoD "Stevens Point by Night" all being bandied about the one setting I'd like to run but really am not sure I could pull off is Blue Planet.

Yet I think Blue Planet reaches out to the widest non-gamer audience. It's hard science fiction so while it may push the boundaries it's not outside of the realm of belief. It also touches an area that at least locally people care a lot about and that's environmentalism. Now granted I am not a huge environmentalist so it took me awhile to realize that this might be a draw to people.

Think of it though, all those young bio and wildlife majors getting to game out their actual majors. I haven't got to do that although I might be able to ad-lib in Blue Planet as well. Maybe it's just that most of the games I've been in are fantasy and set in what would equivalents to the past. Of all the games above that I have listed only nWoD applies to modern/futuristic setting and that has strong fantasy elements to it. It's also darker which focuses on an odd crowd.

So anyhow maybe I can swing a Blue Planet game this summer. If I can stay focused enough to develop one that is.

City of Stone Gestalt 1 & 2

2008-04-01T00:58:00.003Z

"Can I heal that?" - Josh and he couldn't

Luckily they meld well together. Sadly I am even worse with names in this game.
The party initially is: Myself as a Modron Urban Druid/Shadowcaster named Drego. Casey as a human Archivist/Savant named ?. Julie is the same elan wilder/barbian (minus 11 levels) as the Prospero Hall game. Teckla is the same blind human monk/psion as Prospero Hall named Mira. Mira and a new character played by Josh who is a human something from the Book of Nine Swords/Shaman (from Oriental Adventures) named ???.

The initial story is that Casey and myself are sent to escort Julie's character to a prison and then transfer two people back. We are joined by a young Sharice (Ray's legendary character). The party takes the sewers and the warden sends them down to the prison level. The prison is also a vineyard. The prison is deserted and the party moves slowly in. Shortly after getting down Julie's character escapes from her Shackles. Meanwhile Casey and I attempt to find the prisoners we are to transfer but are attacked by other prisoners. After making a hasty retreat back top the party overwhelms the current management and sets themselves up as new management. They then return to the prisons to retrieve their transferees.

The party frees Teckla and Josh's characters and are immediately attacked. Several characters take mental damage from strange mandibled creatures who then dissapear. Josh does manage to injure one and determines they can teleport. The party discovers most of the remaining prisoners are missing although they retrieve their transferees. However Teckla lets many of the prisoners go and the party is forced to go back and eventually they sneak up the service elevator while Teckla waits with the prisoners.

Teckla is attacked in the meantime and the party manages to rescue her but not before she is knocked out. They withdraw quickly back to ground level. Casey and myself opt to return our prisoners while the rest of the party tackles their various own causes.

We quickly learn we grabbed the wrong two guys. So we return and lock these two prisoners away upstairs. Almost immediately one of the people who is above ground is determined to be one of the needed men and is detained as well. Then the problem is to return below ground to find the Blessed of Pelor.

The expedition mark two goes badly. The creaures harry the party and cause Teckla to attack Julie and then Julie attacks back until Josh knocks her out. Teckla heads back out but becomes surrounded by the creatures but Josh rescues her. In the meantime Casey and myself investigate a hole and find it is a tunnel leading to the rest of the prisoners. We retrieve the Blessed of Pelor but leave the other two (who attacked Teckla). The rest of the party decides to investigate the tunnels and caverns further but find nothing but more of them leading off into the whereever. In the meantime Julie and Teckla opt to withdraw from the prison and the rest of quickly follow suit.

And thus it stands...

Prospero Hall 3

2008-04-01T00:30:00.002Z

This will be really short cause this was a while ago.

Lowran wakes up in his bed feeling a little worse for wear. Mira is also bedded down but she remains asleep. Ironman and Julie's character return to the party eventually finding Prince Prospero. There they discuss current events and try to get information about the town and its situation. Prospero remains evasive about the situation outside. Eventually Lowran finds his way to the rest of the party and whilst Julie continues to attempt to learn more the two non-humans try to understand the debauchery-this level being the white level-going on around them. Prince Prospero joins their commentary before going off to attend other business.

Julie goes off to explore on her own after looking in on Mira whilst Ironman and Lowran go in a separate direction. They discover an aspiring artist who is very protective of his artwork. Unluckily for him Lowran is rather bullish and nosy and takes a look anyways. The artist attacks him until subdued by Ironman. Lowran attempts to damage the painting but finds it impervious to destruction so while Ironman pins him down Lowran takes the painting outside and sinks it with an anchor into the bay. Qual's Feather Token User #195b. It is unlikely it has any affect. For that matter Ironman does not succeed in do any damage to the artist either despite easily pummeling him. In lieu of this the two finally leave the poor artist and go back to the front entryway.

Julie's character encounters a ghost and then an odd painting. Finally she is attacked. She expends a fair amount of power and heads back to find the others.

Ironman and Lowran go back and attempt to free the people trapped in the crystals. Their attempts are interrupted by inevitables who seem to be protecting the crystals and/or the hall. Fighting them off the two manage to succeed in freeing several people who mostly turn on them. This and the inevitables eventually fell Lowran and then Ironman dies atop of him.

Julie's character arrives to see the battle but then opts to leave the two to die and wanders off.

After this session Carl opted to end this campaign. So we switched to a 1st level gestalt game in City of Stone.

Late Night Thoughts

2008-03-16T07:25:00.002Z

Ok I know I'm overdue two game reports here. The Prospero Hall wrap-up and the new City of Stone report. As a fill in, our group opted to switch to a City of Stone game. It's something of a re-hash of an earlier aborted attempt. The lack of gaming in between then was due to a PointCon (rather lackluster Carl reports, I hear good things for next year tho) and a weekend of me & Carl being out of town.

So I had random deep thoughts that I was gonna attempt to sort out but then I realized it doesn't really matter. Like anything you take your free time to do all that matters is that you have fun doing it and enjoy the company you keep.

Memorium

2008-03-07T02:07:00.001Z

Thank you.

Thoughts on Gaming II

2008-02-20T02:34:00.003Z

So I am looking at my large collection of books and thinking I should really run one of these games. Now granted I don't think anyone reads this so I don't suppose I will get much of any feedback but if I am gonna post this it has to be here (with maybe a cross-post to Pointless Pointer).

Anyhow the short (or not) list: Exalted (1st or 2nd Ed), New World of Darkness (mortals only tho), Blue Planet (1st or 2nd Ed), Nobillis, Jovian Chronicles, D & D including Forgotten Realms, Scion, Ptolus (technically D&D), Forgotten Realms (also D&D), Rappun Athok (more D&D), Serenity, The Red Star (a D20 modern variant), Engel (a D20 variant), BESM (2nd or 3rd Eds), Haven: City of Violence, Lord of the Rings RPG (the Decipher version), Rifts, Fireborn, Trinity and last but not least Fading Suns.

I should really break those out and describe them for people at some point. If anyone shows any interest let me know. Or if anyone reads this...

Prospero Hall 2

2008-02-18T01:46:00.002Z

Well the party meets up with our last member who is a Wilder/Barbarian (Julie). The party heads for the door but has a somewhat frustrating quarrel over tactics and teamwork. While its debatable whether anything is solved several statues are destroyed, Ironman (Casey) gets himself a magical rod and we eventually get to the doors after taking 40 minutes on the stairs.

Needless to say the doorman is less then happy to see quests and makes everyone wait while he checks with his master. When he returns his attitude is quite different and he leads the group in. In the entry area there appear to be people enclosed in something in the ceiling. The hall is decorated in a very macabre fashion which would normally creep people out but considering the group it goes without comment. Eventually the party is shown to the public baths so they can clean up.

No sooner does Mira (Teckla) get into the water then the water surges up around her and attempts to drown her while the doors lock the party in. Ironman, Lowran (myself), and Julie's character (forgot her name) attack the water while trying not to hurt Mira who struggles to get free. Lowran's dust of dryness fails to kill the creature but Julie uses telekinesis to push Mira free and then blasts the creature with acid. Subdued the creature returns to the pool while the party backs off. Ironman attempts to psionically unlock the door but fails so Lowran removes the door from its hinges and/or temporal self.

Tired Julie's character calls it a night whilst the rest of the party prepares to go the big masquerade ball being held that evening with the intent of meeting Prince Prospero. Ironman goes as himself with a shrinking belt make him smaller as does Mira although she is dressed to look like Ironman. Lowran goes as himself carrying the other two on his shoulders.

The ball consists of various rooms looping (in an upwards fashion?) with different groups of people. The party makes their way through the rooms. The rooms start out with commoners and basic revelry and goes to more important people whose revellry becomes baser as the floor progress. Eventually murder, sex, and mayhem are presently part of the festivities in the highest rooms. The topmost room is different however. It is made of obsidian with giant (armed) statues and weapons along the way. The party is warier and moves slowly through this room which appears to be entirely deserted. Mira opts to use a psionic power that will tell her more about the room while Ironman and Lowran investigate an object at the far end of the room. That object turns out to be a grandfather clock that chimes horribly disrupting Mira's power and injuring her mind. Ironman tells Lowran to take down the clock and he does in full charge reducing it to debris/dust. As soon as he hits it though he dissapears...

Sidereals, the Kukla, and the Apocalypse

2008-02-14T02:56:00.002Z

So paging through the 2nd Ed Sidereals reading up on the setting part namely the Convention on Natural Disasters and I came to the part dealing with Arcadelt, God of World-Shattering Events. Fairly easy job since he's had exactly three (3) to deal with in his long storied career. However he also happens to be the keeper of (tada!) the scrolls that can release the Kukla and his new (?) progrenny Oo-Tahn the Annohilator and the Black Cloud of An-Teng. Fun stuff especially since security only stops Gods. A mortal could absentmindedly walk in and acquire the access to one of the most legendary monsters of Exalted. In 1st Edition at least. I am about to embark on a book-binge reading the 1st Edition informaton on the Kukla and on An-Teng- do they mention the Black Cloud of An-Teng? - and then peruse the 2nd Ed about the Kukla and see if BCoAT is in there as well.

However being a diligent officer minion it has struck me in general how close to home Sidereal lives are. Working for multiple bosses is a well known joke amongst corporate folk (see Office Space those of you thusly unemployed or ridicuously blessed to work someplace without this) and the Sidereals have that in the form of divine beings no less. What can be worse then having multiple bosses, try ones with mandated powers to rule existense, fun stuff! Seems like a good way to keep the plot flowing and have a legit way of controlling the story a little bit. Plus how much crazy fun will it be when your boss(es) order you to recover a lost scroll to release Kukla or else you'll get sacked!

Prospero Hall 1

2008-02-09T06:02:00.000Z

I amused myself with my own quotes. Hopefully others will contribute as well:

"But I can barely read in six different languages!"
"Guys! I've come back and seen the light! OPPRESS THE LESSER RACES!"

Well we spent a lot of time getting characters up and going but the short of it was we're gestalt characters. There's Casey's (I cannot remember his character's name) warforged monk/psion/rogue/warblade/swashbuckler/maybe something else, my Yak-folk barbarian/fighter (Lowran "Wallbreaker") and Teckla's blind half-elf psion/monk (Mira). Julie will be joining us as a wilder/barbarian I believe.

The party starts out en-route to Prospero Hall. The city next to the Hall seems to have been struck with a plague causing a steady trickle of refugees whom avoid the odd party of a heavily robed monk flanked by a warforged and a yak-folk. In the city the party determines that the nobles and high priests packed up a while ago and retreated to Prospero Hall. Since then the gods have quit speaking to them and the temple has been boarded up. The plague is raging out of the control. The party opts to investigate the temple but after removing the door from its hinges discovers that the temple is cursed as a plague ridden man finds out by entering and dying a somewhat more violent death.

Opting to leave the temple be the party heads to Prospero Hall which is on an island just beyond the city. The bridge to the island has been destroyed but the party easily swims it. On shore they encounter an old man who tells them the Mariner and the Sea story ("Yes I have read a poem, try not to faint.") and then walks off into the water. Shortly after a void mind mountain troll attacks. Initially it gets the upper hand grappling the warforged and smacking up Mira's psi-crystal and Lowran. Howver Mira pummels it with some choice psionics and the warforged and Lowran get in some choice blows and eventually the troll drops. Rather luckily for a badly pummelled Lowran. However the troll proves impervious to fire, cold, electricity, sonic, adamantine, cold iron, and alchemical silver attacks so the party is forced to keep pounding it down. Observations conclude that acid (if it had been available) would not have done anything either leaving the party wondering what to do until the sun rose killing the troll in a permanent fashion.

The Hall itself awaits a party already somewhat bruised from its first encounter.

Hunter: The Vigil

2008-01-06T06:12:00.001Z

Interesting.

Another nWoD idea

2007-11-13T03:55:00.000Z

So worked late tonight and realized just how spooky my big (somewhat old) office building can be. It's a major building in the city and headquarters for the company so it made me wonder what kind of gaming possibilities it had. I'm enthralled with the concept of Stevens Point by Night.

So anyhow the idea would be that the PCs are night staff, primarily security guards but maybe some maintenance crews and have to deal with the fact that strange things happen at night. They always clear up by day when there are hordes of people around (weekends are dubious tho). Since its nWoD I might let the security guards be armed although the company (hereafter referred to as The Company) is a little vague as to why they are armed.

In theory the story could evolve out to other places in the city as the employees investigate ties with other parts of the community to The Company (bloody hell, now it sounds cheesy). This also might let me get away with the other local game I want to run set in Nelson Hall although it might be more of a localized thing.

Not entirely sure if I could tie the Jericho theme I have been toying around lately. I don't think the two settings will mesh. However the city has lots of places that could work for creepy setting material and its old enough that such things could be pulled off.

Thoughts on Gaming I

2007-10-28T04:34:00.000Z

So want to try and collect some random thoughts on gaming:

First off: gaming quote from Joe's D&D game (Exodia) on Carl's character: "He's emo but when he goes super emo he writes alot of poetry and I have to mock him extra hard."

New books: D&D Rules Compendium. I got it more for insights into the writer's minds then necessarily the rules info although that could be useful at some point. I also snagged a couple sets of the Dungeon Tiles. They actually look pretty cool and seem rather sturdy, I'm impressed by the quality.

I've been paging through Changeling: The Lost of late trying to get a better sense of Changelings. Since I have Vampire and Werewolf laying around as well as the core (which covers mortals) I've been toying more about running a game. More about that below.

Apparently White Wolf may have misprinted a cover. It's ironic because of late they seem to be making a concerted effort of late to improve quality. Their livejournal seems to be a pretty useful tool.

So anyhow, onto gaming thought stuffs: I got the first season of Jericho a few weeks back and tied in with my interest of running a mortals nWoD game set locally. So I wondered: what would happen to most of the nWoD communities in the event of a nuclear attack? This would dramatically shift the balance of power. My first thought was that vampires would lose a lot of power. They generally congregate in large cities which would be prime targets in either a terrorist or strategic nuclear attack. Werewolves would do better being more capable of living off the land and general survivalists. However from my understanding reading WoD: Chicago a fair amount of them do congregate near cities if any to challenge the Pure who are directly opposed to humanity. I'm less familiar with Mages and Prometheans but my guess is that both are generally more individually focused and thus are more spread out. Mages because they would compete with other Mages so it might be as useful to be in less populated areas as populated areas. Prometheans as I understand have a very lousy affect on people so they probably are not in large cities. Changelings strike me as being located all over although they do have freeholds and courts (which I don't know much about) which might be located in large cities if anything to make it easier to find other Changelings.

So I think the conclusions are: werewolves become the big movers and shakers but are pushed closer to their survivalist roots. Vampire society nearly collapses. Mage organizations may fragment some but they'll continue on and rebuild. Prometheans clout in the world stay about the same although the radiation might increase their numbers. Changelings numbers probably decrease because as the world changes (drastically) they have a harder time finding their way home.

Overall supernatural creatures now have an opportunity to act more openly when the mortal populate is fragmented and disorganized. Plus its a more violent world and people disappearing will be more common allowing easier hunting for the predators.

Anyhow that's it for now. nWoD and nuclear weapons.

Rappan Athuk Outside & Lvl 1

2007-09-01T15:44:00.000Z

"I choose to disbelieve the cricket!" - various
"Hey Mr. Fireball, you owe me some hit points!" - Zee to Larry (after a badly aimed fireball)

So this party of intrepid explorers attempts decides to go look for treasure and/or kill Orcus and friends over in Rappan Athuk. The party finds a few rumors and heads out. The dungeon itself is fairly easy to find since the normal forest wildlife tends to avoid it except for one cricket of whom the party disbelieves. Upon entering the forest the party finds their way to the edge of a large depression.

Before them lies the graveyards atop Rappan Athuk, low lying depressions hold a well, and three masouleums as well as numerous tombstones. In the middle appears to be a statue. A group of rats scurries into some holes in the ground.

The party consists of Ugh(Jesus), a half-orc monk who has sworn a vow of poverty; Steve(Troy) a human hexblade, Dras(Teckla) a human rogue/whirling dervish, Zee(Julie) a dwarven paladin/dwarven defender, and Larry(Carl) aka "Shit" a favored soul/arcane spellcaster of some sort/mystic theurge.

Immediately upon spying the well Ugh remembers the wisdom of an old adventurer whom he talked to: "Don't go in the well!" although this does not stop Steve and Larry from investigating. They find claw marks in the interior. Zee throws a pebble down to no affect so Larry casts light on a stone and tosses that down. They see a 90 foot hole with water at the bottom. Despite making more noise no movement can be seen from below in the well.

Dras pushes towards the statue looking at gravestones as she goes. Neither she, nor any other members of the party recognize names any names until she runs in 9 open graves with the party member's names on it. The party investigates and Larry attempts to obscure his name with dirt. The dirt just slides off so he attempts to wrap rags around all the tombstones. They fall off. Zee is unnerved by her open grave so she fills it in. Everyone waits...the grave remains filled in.

Dras pushes on to the statue to discover it is the statue of a dwarf. A little epitath is written at the base and a hidden compartment is just below that. She opts to not open the compartment fearing traps. Zee demands that noone touch the compartment since it may have remains of the dwarf and the party should not disturb it. She then proceeds to head to one fo the smaller masouleums. Larry waits until she turns away and opens the compartment and finds a key which he pockets.

The masouleum is locked so while Dras attempts to unlock it Zee and Larry investigate the other small one. Meanwhile Ugh decides to investigate the perimeter around the large masouleum. As soon as he approaches several gargoyles animate on top of it. He pulls back and awaits their move shouting a warning to the others.

Four gargoyles attempt to attack the monk but find he's a superior challenge. He begins to reduce them to rubble. Dras and Steve converge from the right and Larry and Zee come in from the left. Ugh reduces another gargoyle before the other two withdraw to safer altitude. Four more gargoyles split off and (warily) attempt to attack Zee and (not so warily) attack Larry. Larry fires a fireball off attempting to hit all four but misjudges slightly and insteads vaporizes one above himself and damages Zee and one other. Zee looks a bit annoyed and proceeds to annihilate the two attacking her. Larry brings down the last one above himself.

In the meantime the remaining two gargoyles, now somewhat worse for wear due to a mixture of Ugh's fists and Steve's sword attempt to grab Dras. Somehow they succeed but are unable to lift her off the ground and fly off. She is however magically held although the usefulness of this to the gargoyles is limited as Ugh and Steve quickly finish them off. Steve and Larry determine that Dras is thankfully not about to turn to stone and just as Larry is about to cast Freedom of Movement to unstick her the hold breaks and she lands gracefully next to him.

Ugh notices that the gargoyle eyes have survived and the party opts to destroy them lest the gargoyles come back. After confirming that the smaller masouleums are in fact empty the party advances to the main masouleum. Larry opts to try and open the door with a key he "found". The door opens without trouble (but the key teleports away) and the party cautiously enters the room. All they find is a sarcophogas that appears to be shaped to fit perfectly into the ceiling. Larry goes back to get the key again but the compartment won't open. So he has Steve go wait by the compartment and closes the door to the masouluem. Steve retrieves the key and Larry opens the door, incidentally triggering a trap as soon as the doors close. Almost immediately the party notices the floor is rising and the doors-which open inward-won't open. Zee manages to notice a secret door on the floor and attempts to open it with the help of Ugh and soon Steve. Larry opens the sarcophogas and is presented by a laughing black skeleton whom he shuts back into the tomb.

Zee manages to open the secret door and urges everyone to quickly get through before they are trapped more permanently. Larry barely gets through in time. The party finds themselves in a dimly lit lower level. Dras takes the lead checking for traps, etc and leads the party into the first room. This area is mostly unfinished cave with an empty coffin. The passageway remains blocked off. The party opts to try another route and passes through an empty room and into a worn down viewing room with another empty and stripped coffin. Dras avoids a trap on the stairs rather gracefully and the party discovers a skeleton playing cards with little poisonus ants all over him. He's got a losing hand. Avoiding him and a pit trap the party enters a long finished hallway...

Ptolus 6

2007-05-07T01:40:00.000Z

Ok, well since we sort of ran out of time for Ptolus we decided to get everyone to the towers of Jabel Shammar at the top of the Spire (and add about 16 levels so they were lvl 20).

The party starts out having used a soul magic spell in the Necropolis that dumps them out on the walkway between the Tower of Malice (the large central spire) and the Tower of Blasphemy.

They opt to tackle the smaller towers prior to the big one so the party (consisting of Greg, his cleric cohort, El and her huge tiger, and Nes and his shadow, and if I mixed up El and Nes again I'm sorry :D ). Concerned about the evil that might corrupt the shadow it is kept outside.

Using Nes's spells (he is a rogue/wizard/shadowdancer now) the party manages to determine the first room is a trap with a nightcrawler beneath its illusionary floor. The party opts to confront it and after several swallowings the party overwhelmed it and killed it. An elemental fire monolith may have been involved. The party opted to spend the night but awoke realizing that time spent in Jabel Shammar was slowly starting to corrupt them starting with the cleric cohort who became lawful neutral from lawful good.

The party moved its way upstairs and encountered a room of utter darkness that Greg's Holy Avenger managed to dispel. There they found two vats of liquid shadow that filled an entire bag of holding. Moving upwards the party discovered the lance of endless night, half completed. Without a way to take it with them or easily destroy it they instead moved on to the next level.

Here they found 3 basins of water. They only opted to touch the Font of Immorality which caused several characters to be stunned.

The next level up finally brought a decent challenge. Upon entering they were confronted by several mummies. Not exactly intimidated both Greg and his cohort prepared to turn undead. Nothing happens. El attempts to cast a spell. Nothing happens. Nes does get a spell off. The party realizes arcane spells function but divine does not. The mummies move in firing spells and attacking. El retreats while Nes goes ethereal. Greg stands his ground. The battle is essentially a stalemate as the mummies cannot do much damage but the party cannot quickly destroy them. El summons another fire monolith in the level below utterly destroying it (no room for anything else in the room). Greg is now effectively trapped but manages to hold his own. The Holy Avenger manages to help give him an edge while quasi-ethereal Nes also picks off targets. After quite awhile (and one torched room below) the party succeeds.

And that's where we left off. One tower down, 3 to go...

Deux ex Machina

2007-03-22T00:13:00.000Z

This is an interesting article on the ol' hand of God in RPGs. I used to think I'd be ok with killing PCs in my games. However I've fudged it more often then not. Only one person has died and I essentially force resurrected him.

I have much to learn on the running of games. Too much death is bad but so perhaps is too little.

Ptolus 5

2007-03-21T23:56:00.000Z

Wow this was several weeks ago. This past weekend was canceled due to all the players getting spring break.

Anyhow the short and quick of it is that through various sources the party learns that one of the legendary "Swords of Ptolus" may be in the Warrens. For various reasons they head down to attempt to find the sword. Initially their goal is to find the sword as payment to help them hide from the various parties they have ticked off in their previous adventures. An attack by some very clumsy muggers-with somewhat obvious connections to more powerful people-gives warning to what is to come.

They approach by their old friend the sewers and arrive at a house on the edge of the King's River (gorge) right next to one of the bridges crossing it. They sneak into the basement of the house suspected of housing one of the swords and listen in on a fight between some guards and some drow. After letting the two fight it out the party jumps them and easily overwhelms the few attackers.

Before they search the basement the party is interrupted by a centaur attempting to make it down the stairs. He doesn't fit too well and the party, led by Gregory engages him. Unfortunately for Greg he is still an excellent swordsman with a very, very powerful sword. Greg gets nearly hewn in half and the rest of the party retreats with his dead body. Nes finds an old sword and takes it with because it's kind of shiny.

Luckily for Greg his employer, the Church of Lothian, takes good care of its paladins and clerics and he is brought back at no penalty except the need to serve the church further. Lothian himself asks Greg to return to the world of the living. The Warrens are in a massive uproar and riot and the party learns of rumors of a 4th sword of Ptolus held by the centaur who killed Greg no less. Greg vows to avenge himself against the centaur.

The party meanwhile further cements their relationship with House Dallamothan.

Ptolus 4

2007-02-19T04:34:00.000Z

Greg (Carl who could not be here) is summoned for a day of reporting in to the Lothian church higher ups on events. Apparently after the ship being blown up in the harbor they are curious what is going on.

In the meantime El (Joe) and Nes (Dani) are left to their own business. At breakfast Nes notices a strange figure across the way in the market who seems out of place. El doesn't notice anything as he is staring up at the Nobles Quarter. Nes sends Coz (her animal companion) to sniff the stranger. Coz obliges and El notices the wolf sneak over and sniff the lady. Then he recognizes her as someone he's vaguely met before. It turns out it is the young female Silver dragon he met at House Dallamothan. He notices a pickpocket about to attempt to steal from her and intervenes (nicking the pickpockets own stuff) and offers to take her around the city.

He finally gets her name: Yavanda and also learns that the House is trying to protect him by keeping their distance while the other Houses (primarily Vladaam) look for who is behind all the mess. She suggests that El look up a figure in the Necropolis who might be able to aid the party in protecting them. She seems to enjoy El's company though.

Nes goes for a swim in the bay and afterwards decides to go look up a druid who her masters in the Viridian Lords mentioned. Oddly enough he lives in the Necropolis. Both she and El head over there and meet Andach the Druid who lives on Clasthamus Isle. He decides to help protect the party if they are willing to help him defend the Isle on the next Godsday (coming up in a month or so).

Afterwards they visit the Dark Reliquary or at least look at it from the outside. Then the two head home and El runs into a Longfingers Guild contact who warns that the Balacazaars are closing in on whoever did the damage to their drug network and that House Vladaam is looking quietly for him as he helped steal something from them so that the Longfingers Guild would help him escape. The contact suggests that El might want to look into what he stole just for his own protection...

Ptolus 3

2007-02-17T03:35:00.000Z

So the party opts to follow up on the information that maybe the crates they found in the sewer came from a ship in the harbor. Specifically according to a ship's ledger, the SS Andalusia. El and Greg visit the harbormaster and after a subtle exchange of coinage are given more info on said ship. It unloaded some cargo then withdrew to off Beacon Island under a self imposed quarantine. El spends some time in the bars and learns that oddly that ship's crew is all ashore at the moment. Thoroughly suspicous the party rents a boat and heads out to the ship the next night.

On approach they see several figures dropping crates off the side into the water. They look scalyish. The party slips their boat around to the island side of ship (opposite of the figures) and El stealths aboard. He then gives the all clear and slips behind some of the crates on deck to ambush the scaly creatures (who are sahaugin but the party never IDs their race). Greg hoists up Ness's wolf while she takes cover behind the mast. El manages to sneak attack one of sahaugin from behind the crates but doesn't quite finish him off. Luckily in the confusion of that creature's attack Ness's wolf finishes him off. Greg attempts to push the remaining couple of sahuagin off the side but they manage to keep their footing. Greg, El, and Ness's wolf do manage however to overwhelm the two aboard the ship and drop another climbing up. However one of the sahuagin in the water ducks down and swims under the ship to sink the party's boat and trap them.

El figures this out and heads over to the other side of the ship pulling out his gun to the shoot the sahuagin before he can do any damage. Then El drops his gun and starts a fire in the crates. Ness in the meantime falls down onto the boat and lands square on it giving the sahuagin a concussion but not before he badly damages its hull integrity. Greg and El realize that there is a good chance one of those crates contains gun powder and prepare to abandon ship along with Ness's wolf. El and the wolf make graceful exits. Greg in full plate goes over the side like a 500 pound pile of scrap metal hits the party's dying boat, goes straight through (Ness barely jumping aside into the water), and proceeds to the bay bottom luckily sloping up as it is close the island. The party swims/walks along the bottom in eerily glowing fashion to the island. Halfway there the ship explodes and sinks rather quickly.

The lighthouse keepers arrive to find a soaked party. They warily help out but refuse to lend their boat unless the party cleans out the haunted old lighthouse on the opposite end of the island. The party initially is unhappy, they want to pursue the drug-runners in the sewers and further hit their supply lines. They persuade the lighthouse keepers that they will return to clear the place out as soon as they finish their mission. However after some thought while drying off the wonder if the old lighthouse might be a front. So they investigate.

El sneaks around the lighthouse and sees evidence of a recent work done on the far side. He sneaks in a back window while Greg and Ness make a more direct entrance through the front door. The party searches the first floor and in one of offices finds a used looking trapdoor. But before they can do anything Ness's wolf detects something going up the stairs. The party pursues and searches the second floor. As they are looking about the new lighthouse's light passes over the old lightouse its light half illuminating the second level. Right in the middle of the party is a displacer beast. Despite it's ability to be concealed and the less decent lighting in the old lighthouse the party manages to subdue the displacer beast so that is sues for peace. It is bound by its master to gaurd this place. But it will let them go about their business if they let it live. Eventually they decide to let it go demanding its service when they have defeated its masters. Greg would rather kill it now.

The party explores the trap door and finds the real SS Andalusia ledger which is all illicit materials. They also discover that the area under the lighthouse leads to a sea cave that seems to be a staging area for the material. While they'd love to destroy the whole place right down to the old lighthouse the party lacks the ability to do that so opts instead to withdraw to the mainland. After saying the old lighthouse's haunting is over but to keep away from it the party returns to shore.

On shore Greg reports to the church and El attempts to report to House Dallimothan. The House major-domo shies him away being wary of either side being seen with each other at the moment as the entire city is in an uproar over the exploded ship.

Gaming Book Front

2007-01-23T04:26:00.000Z

So I haven't written much of late but the occasional game report. Not a lot to write about. My book buying has been forcibly slowed down by me so I can consume the vast amount of current material and maybe game with some of it. I am running Ptolus as just about anyone reading this should be well aware (look on post down for further proof). I have all of Exalted 1E and have never quite read through all of it. Even the setting. I am getting into Exalted 2E at least the thinsplats that detail out parts never covered in 1E. They are going to be my primary purchases in 2007 along with Scion: Demigod, Scion: Hero and the 3rd Scion book if it comes out this year. It's hard to judge what comes out when with White Wolf as their livejournal (see my other blog for the link) talks about stuff months and month out. They love to spoil.

As for D&D I probably will not get much this year. I have a ton and at the moment it seems unlikely that I will be in any game demanding new books. Carl's City of Stone is on indefinite hiatus. I will be in Brady's Eberron game but I have no interest in purchasing the Eberron setting books and as a Healer my flexibility is limited. I'm a medic and will probably stay a medic. Otherwise I'm still debating attempting a New World of Darkness one shot. Other games quietly lingering in the mental wings are a Red Star game and a Blue Planet game (heh colors, whee). Also maybe a Dragon-Blooded game. But these are far away things!

At some point hopefully Rapan Athuk Reloaded will arrive. It's in theory due to ship soon from Amazon but we'll see...

Ptolus 2

2007-01-23T01:56:00.000Z

So we pick up the party taking a short break from their previous adventures. However they are itching to go back and follow up. So they return to the building where they found the rat hole and discover it has been cleaned up and semi-repaired. Greg (Carl) attempts to break down the door until he notices it's unlocked. Ness's (Dani) wolf notices that the trapdoor to the basement has been sealed up so the party (using a sewer map that El (Joe) had picked up) take to the sewers to backtrack to the "back" entrance. The search finds an empty area but they do notice a half ruined map of the sewers. Doing some backtracing the party finds another "staging" area.

El sneaks past the sentry by slipping through the sewage. A careful sneak attack kills the sentry and the party attempts to bait out the ratmen inside. The ratmen don't take the bait so the party advances in only to be confronted by a ratbrute who dumps Greg and El into the sewage. The party manages to overwhelm the brute and several ratlings and enter a room with many crates. Greg sweeps the room and finds a tunnel similiar to the one that connected the two rooms before. El investigates and sure enough there are a ton of ratmen in the other room.

The party baits them out and slaughters a ton of ratlings until several ratlords jump them from behind. The battle becomes more pitched, Ness gets shot. However the party perseveres and route all but the ratlord with the gun who escapes.

Half alive the party goes through the crates destroying huge amounts of drugs. However in the process they recover guns, magic items, other "items", and cash. A nice take. The "items" turn out to be chaositech. Greg goes to one of the bigger churches to attempt to get the items destroyed but is thwarted by a stiff bueacracy that sends him back to his direct superior. Greg is not totally happy about this.

And that's where things left off. One stinky but wealthier party.

One Shot: Bastion of Broken Souls

2007-01-02T04:28:00.000Z

Well we got started off rather late for the one shot here so I myself didn't get a chance to finish it as I needed to return to make sure things were in order for first day of work on the 2nd. Here's the short run-down.

Brandon picked up Bastion of Broken Souls and decided to run it for Carl and Adam although they were allowed only to be 17th lvl characters cause they are just that darn good at what they do. I got allowed in and Ray showed up and played one of the pre-genned characters out of the back of the adventure. Bastion of Broken Souls is a 3.0 adventure so Brandon would get some fun adapting things.

Run down on characters: Carl is a Elan Psion 15/Monk 1/Thrallheard 1 with a (Elan? Human?) Psion 15 cohort. I'm a pixie Lurk 13. Adam is a human(?) Cleric ??/Radiant Servant of Pelor ?? and Ray was a Rogue 18 (benefit of playing a pre-gen was he got to be max level).

The initial start (after a somewhat dull 4 hour wait for people to create characters, etc, etc) had our party meeting in a bar after a successful mission. We are attacked by some sort of demon that we never quite identified but would prove to be important. She bee-lines straight for Carl and really hammers him but he manages to remain concious and thus keep her from teleporting away. Adam throws down Dimension Anchor as she kills Carl by tossing him across the room. I stay invisible and plug away with my cross-bow for minimal damage. Ray also engages with similiar success at melee before retreating to ranged. Eventually another person appears and engages the demon. With several people now attacking from multiple directions (several who are invisible and sneak attacking because of it) and Carl back on his feet after his cohort used our trusty Rod of True Res the demon retreats.

The party discovers that Carl's character is the blood of Dydd who killed some evil dragon and for some reason that is important. The locals point them to a circle of druids and a dream cult a hundred miles away. The female demon is tracked to the capitol that is 700 miles to the north. Opting to gather more info the party travels (via Adam's windwalk) to the dream cult. There they encounter the Dreamer Prime who refuses to awake unless they overcome here defenses. She proves hard to sneak attack and here dream creatures give the ground troops severe wisdom damage that Carl and Adam manage to allay somewhat with restorations. I float above her apparition and plug away with the Lurk's abilities to be able to augment their attacks to a)have ghost touch and b)do ability damage. Eventually her wisdom purged she is defeated and the party talks to her and the party learns alot about what's going on.

Enroute to meet the druids the female demon ambushes the party again. She almost immediately kills Carl, who is slipping from her massive grapple attempts, and teleports away with a bit of his remains and immediately ressurects him so his loyal cohort cannot. The rest of party the fumbles about in the smoke that came from Carl's Endless Bottle of Smoke while a pit fiend attacks. However before either side can really engage the druids arrive and the pit fiend flees. The party is sent to the circle where they determine that Carl is indeed not dead and that he is needed for something related to a dragon his ancestor defeated and lots of other plot elements. Adam learns all this and then uses commune to pinpoint roughly where Carl is. The druids sends the party to the capitol city where he is being held in secret below the capitol building itself (unawares to anyone there).

Carl's cohort finally manages to find the dungeon but is forced to retreat to the surface. The party in random fashion returns using an earth monolith and manages to kill Carl again but this time we manage to True Res him. The city is in minor panic but this is the point alas where I had to leave.

Towards the end things slowed down a lot for me which was frustrating. Carl started acting essentially independent to get his my character back to the point that noone else got to do much except for Adam a little bit. Oh well, it's how things roll. Probably woulda got to do nearly the whole thing had we started sooner but what can ya do? It was interesting overall, makes me want to do a standard dungeon crawl sometime cause I never really have. Off to bed now so I can work!

Quiet

2006-12-18T07:45:00.000Z

Yea, December is a time of little gaming for college students even graduating ones. Sorry folks. Maybe over break I will get something gaming related done that I can talk about. In the meantime keep an eye on the White Wolf LJ, it's an amusing Monday afternoon read.

Ptolus 1

2006-12-03T06:30:00.000Z

So I know I've neglected the other games for a bit. Sorry about that. Things get busy and it can be a challenge to motivate myself to keep track of them. Maybe I just don't get as in to them as I did Carl's game. Exalted was easy to remember because I was running the trainwreck, I remember the tracks!

Anyhow, here's Ptolus kick off. I am doin' this without notes so character names are abbreviated and a bit suspect (I cannot might have switched Dani and Joe)

Our heroes start off in Midtown near Delver's Square and St. Gustav's Chapel. The party consists of: Gregory (Carl) a paladin of Lothian, El (Joe) a courier (rogue) and Nes (Dani) a druid with her wolf companion Coz (Cos?). The party lives in a rented single story house near Delver's Square. They are working as semi-adventurers/group for hire.

Greg sets out to find some work and notices an Imperial Proclomation from the Church on rat tail bounties. Armed with this and some information from the head of St. Gustav's he leads the party into the Longbottom neighborhood of Midtown where problems with the local rats population have been reported. After scouting around for information El and Nes with the help of Coz identify a probable rat hole. Greg also manages to convince the locals that the City Watch is about to sweep mostly by accident.

Entering the house by sheer finesse -Greg removed the door from the hinges and nearly the rest of the front half of the building - the party investigates the main floors but finds only vague tracings of a rat nest. A careful search reveals a trap door which due to squeaky hinges is carefully, carefully removed and the basement is discovered.

El goes down first and sees nothing so he makes room for Greg by sidling up into a corner. Greg simply jumps down in his usual subtle manner. Nes then proceeds to toss him down a sunrod which reveals two ratlings waiting in ambush. The party is caught a bit off gaurd but the ratlings fail to get much out of the surprise. El and Greg join the fray trading blows with the ratlings and Nes and Coz scramble down to join the fray. Yes, Coz can do latters the wolf is cool like that.

The ratlings brought down the party forges on through the basement. The initial room is a fairly tiny normal basement but an passageway leads to a larger room with what appear to be rat nests. El sneaks off at the edge of the sunrods light looking for attackers taking cover behind the nests while Greg breaks the nests to displace any rats hiding within. Near the back of the room as Greg goes to demolish a nest a ratling springs out to attack him. Nes and Coz take it down only be to challenged by several dire rats emerging from a nest in the far corner. The entire party pitches in to take down the dire rats. Afterwards El discovers a tunnel beneath the last nest in the corner. After some probing by the party he ventures in to discover that it leads to another room with a bunch of ratmen working. Withdrawing he and the party divise a plan.

El will bait the ratmen into the other room where the party will pick them off as they exit the tunnel. The plan works pretty much perfectly and several dire rats and ratlings go down. One ratling and a larger rat fall back and are pursued. However the ratling successfully fights a reargaurd and escapes into the sewers.

In the next room the party finds several crates. Upon opening them they find what they determine to be a processed natural substance in the form of a black powder. Unable to easily determine what it is except that it's bad and after a search of the crates that it is owned by the Balacazar crime family. Based on this they determine to destroy the contents of two crates by dumping it into the sewers and then taking the remaining crate back to St. Gustav's for advice from the head clergy Brother Thisk. El has nothing to do with this last part however going off to do some other business.

The party eventually identifies the stuff as shivvel a common drug that is worth about 20gp a dose so they have just encountered a sizable shipment of the stuff. They hatch a plan to enlist the help of one of the good noble houses to support them, as they have just made enemies with the major crime family and probably several other evil houses, by acting as independent agents for one of the houses. Greg and El under the guise of church business go to the Nobles Quarter and negoiate with House Dallimothan (the Dragon House). The House tenatively accepts and the party destroys the rest of the shivvel.

That wraps things up. Things started out slow but are starting to roll by the end. Sad that it'll be a month or more til we meet again!

Ebberron Rnd 2

2006-11-06T16:57:00.000Z

So anyhow when we last left off our group had been deposited in the jungle near the ruins of a large city. Apparently some of the group had been here before. Advancing in we encounter a gaurd who somehow the healer takes down even the healer is not sure how.
Once into the ruins themselves the party opts to sneak in so as not to get overwhelmed. This works fairly well although a few gaurds have accidents with the warforged's weapons mostly involving them getting stuck in them for a brief period. Sadly it tends to be somewhat fatal.
Eventually the party manages to find itself in an abandoned ampitheatre where they can avoid patrols. Sadly someone hears them and a velociraptor is sent to investigate over the noise of someone singing very badly in celestial.
Alas the raptor is followed by several of his peers including Megaraptors (bigger, badder, with sharper Ginsu claws!).
The combat gods were our war-forged who cheerfully pummel Jurassic Park star after Jurassic Park stuff into paste. In the process the wizard, the monk, and the healer get rather beat up. Lo and behold during the mayhem they discover the source of the bad singing as another human. He manages to extricate himself eventually and join the fight.
Alas party death came to one the dwarven monk cut down by one of the last raptors. The healer could not do enough to save him (useful medic...). Oddly enough the monk is reborn though as a pseudonatural monk. Tentacle demons return this week!

((On a side note, I coulda actually healed the monk as I did not correctly add all my healing bonuses in. Alas but at least he got chicken.))

Exodia Rnd 2 & 3

2006-11-02T22:06:00.000Z

Ah our group spends a lot of time in the sewers and its rather damp down there. Our heroic leader Sir. Isenbaun sends the party out to go raid a castle. Entry point is as usual through the sewers. Oddly enough my monk tends to be considered the best at sneaking/scouting although he did not do all that well here. Our other sneaky person is our beguiler but he's not as good at the scouting part.

Our three fighters (Dani, Isaac, and myself as close combat fighter, ranged fighter, and hug happy monk) handle gaurd removal and in the meantime the beguiler discovers a very very nice sniper rifle and enough cash to allieviate the any budget issues in the nation for a decade or so. My monk also discovers an entire room full of gunpowder to complement the barrel he totes around on his back. Post-raid demolitions are on his mind. Actually pre-raid demolitions but the rest of the party tends to be less explosives happy then he.

The two fighters in exploring the rest of the castle basement discover an officer torturing a prisoner and kill the officer (after some effort and a point blank sniper rifle shot) and release her. In the withdrawal the monk happily demolishes the castle and everything with a couple city blocks of it.

Sir Isenbaun does not appreciate the demolition portion of the mission so after chastising the monk slightly has the party elect a leader and a treasurer. Isaac's ranged fighter/sniper with gun o' doom is elected as leader and the pyro monk becomes the treasuer. Once again the party is going through the sewers but this time to assasinate some officers.

Monk sent on scouting mission and botches it immediately. Gets shot. Hugs attacker. Gets help killing (er hugging) attacker. Party splits up (with additional characters including a cleric, another fighter (or paladin) and the female prisoner (blackgaurd?) joining) and engages several different gaurds. The new party members use their shields to good effect and the guards are taken down without too much pain and only a couple of dunked characters.

The basement of the house we are infiltrating has much food storage but not a terribly large amount of major treasure. Eventually our leader and the beguiler go upstairs and get pulled into a hairy battle that gets crazier as people trickle up the stairs.

We do manage to kill the two officers we were sent to engage however so the party returns with another mission under the belt.

Also my monk now uses a fake russian accent, I dunno why...

Oy

2006-11-01T05:22:00.000Z

Yea I'll admit I've neglected updates for the past two weeks. They will be coming hopefully although I'll admit details from 2 weeks back will be fuzzy (I blew up several city blocks and Isaac got a sniper rifle I remember fo' sho').

Playing dragons smart

2006-10-14T07:22:00.000Z

So at GenCon the guys who run D&D at Wizards have a 20th level game call "Dungeon Delve" where they take 20th lvl characters and put them on one sheet of paper that is easy to figure out. The idea this is a one shot dungeon scenario vs. some dragons. Last week I read about the characters they pre-designed and this week covers the dragons. My favorite part is the R&D note on dragon's and spellcasting. It's hilarious :D

Exodia Rnd 1

2006-10-12T03:04:00.000Z

Well technically Rnd 0 & Rnd 1

Initially Joe ran a short precursor to get our characters up and running. My monk was sent out alone to scout the area for a possible enemy incursion on our nation's side of the river. After running afoul with some dwarves I manage to locate the probable building being used and attempt to gracefully investigate. After fall from a low roof I do manage to sneak up onto the roof of the building. There I find a ballista that has been assembled. It appears that a soldier had put it together when someone jumped him. This someone then goes to attack me but somehow I manage to overwhelm him and capture the mini-fortress for myself and my party should we ever need it.

The main mission saw us attempting to cross a big and sneak into the enemy territory. The bridge proves to be well gaurded and my monk and Dani's fighter (don't have names for this game yet sorry) move in and clear off the gaurds on the bridge. Isaac's fighter snipes away guards and we make it across only to be confronted by troops in plate armor. However our patron knight arrives and helps us out. Several amusing battles with mostly said knight finishing off the crowd finally gets us to where we are going to stage from. Our wizard/thief type loses an arm in combat but by some sheer luck we find a way to fit him with a mechanical substitute.

Afterwards we go on a raid of the enemy armory. We manage to surprise the gaurds and through various means outflank them and allowing each person to do their own thing. We then move on to clear out the sewer areas before withdrawing back to our base of operations.

Updates on Games

2006-10-01T23:18:00.000Z

I suppose I should run some updates here. Carl's game did not happen due to lack of players this Saturday. My Exalted game is on hiatus due to similiar issues. Instead I am playing in Joe's Exodia campaign. I may also run a nWoD Mortals one shot and possibly something for Ptolus. That's the news. Enjoy the recap of Brady's Eberron game below!

Eberron Rnd 1

2006-10-01T23:09:00.000Z

The party finds themselves all on a ship with a single other soul aboard, its master. Rescued from sure death all each member is given a second chance of life by this strange ship. Together they are are told that they must complete a task before they will be allowed to go their seperate lives. The party consists of a couple of warforged, a dwarven monk, a wizard, a ranger, and a healer. This odd group is not nessecarily all that interested in each other but circumstances requires they work together.

They find themselves in the north somewhere surrounded by ice, snow, and cold water. Beyond the ship sits a cryo-hydra of the seven headed variety. At this point the mission is fairly obvious: cryo vs. party. The party moves out into the snow doing their best to move and engage. Heads fall only to be replaced by more heads as there is no way for the party to seal of the stumps. The hydra does recognize that it is significantly outnumbered and attempts to maneuver itself and the party towards deep, and invetitably cold, water.

In the process the dwarven monk discovers the creature's horde and a flaming war axe. Hydra bane in its finest form. As the party struggles to stay on its feet and alive. Healer and wizard repairing the warforged and healer healing everyone. The warforged prove to be fairly fatal to the cryohydra eventually overwhelming it's ability to heal itself sending it sinking to the frozen depths.

The party gets some minor loot before being presented with what to do next. They do realize that they work alright with each other and so they opt to join up on another mission and are off to a tropical ruin of a city.

Random Interest

2006-09-27T03:52:00.000Z

Seem Wizards of the Coast is updating their webpage including updating the ASP.net back end for the product search. The "Insert Ravenloft Title here" and "Insert Ravenloft Author here" amused me. Obviously they were doing some testing and weren't careful to clean up their dataset! It does have a nicer look and feel though and is a little easier to navigate. And yes I am that much of a nerd that I notice, comment, and analyze website for RPGs I play. IT and RPGs mixing, who woulda thought?

"Politics and morality coming together? That doesn't happen everyday." -Vir Cotto

Enlightenment

2006-09-23T04:43:00.000Z

Monk Gelatinous Cube. Need I say more?

Games Games Games

2006-09-21T17:42:00.000Z

So it looks like due to lack of people my Exalted game will go on hiatus (from summer hiatus, so maybe extended hiatus?). Instead myself and about half my players will be joining Joe's Exodia campaign. More information at Arcandio.com.

Carl's D & D Rnd 9

2006-09-19T02:33:00.000Z

So the group is now setting off at the behest of Irontusk's people to investigate rumors of zombies to the north of the City of Stone. The group heads north and ironically the only one who has been out of the city is Veras (who hails from the north). As a result there is much excitement as the party passes the point where all wood is petrified.

The party is supposed to meet a lady named Marzina at Blackwell Keep. Just in the distance the sound of combat draws the party north to the Keep. The keep in turn appears to be under siege.

Atearia charges into combat and discovers that the attackers are lizardfolk. She dispatches one and literally dissapears into the mist. Nerolia and Merle go around the corner following our barbarian while Mist and Taylan engage a very large number of lizards on the near side. Veras stays back somewhat indecisively.

Needless to say Mist mows through several lizards including the leaders. After their leaders death most of the lizards disperse except for one very unlucky fellow who was captured by Nerolia and Merle.

Questioning the surviving soldiers of the keep and interogating the captured lizards fills in that the lizardfolk normally do not attack the keep but yet they raided it and then laid siege to it. Unfortunetly they captured Marzina which means the party needs to pursue into the trackless marsh.

In the meantime Veras and Merle discover that the former mage stationed at the keep had gone out to the lizardfolk village and came back slightly different. Eventually he became somewhat feral and is now locked in the basement.

The party opted that the mage would keep in the basement and Marzina might not in the lizardfolk camp so pursuit is important.

Eberron Pre-Game

2006-09-14T05:43:00.000Z

So Dani's game has wrapped for the summer obviously. Carl's game is now running every other Saturday, last Saturday being an off day. My Exalted game in theory starts next week but might get pushed back two more depending on a variety of things. I have joined Brady's game and tonight was character creation for half the group and character tweaking for those already in it or already somewhat prepared. So that's sort of the schedule for the fall. Keep tuned in for game reports.

Hmm

2006-09-11T19:56:00.000Z

Random games I'd like to run:

One shot for Blue Planet where everyone is stuck on some floating station during a massive hurricane. Stuff happens and there is now way off the station during the storm. (Perhaps a bit cliche but a good way to introduce the system yes?)

nWoD series following people investigating the paranormal locally. Using this area as a base so people can really coordinate and increase the sensory aspect of it all.

Jovian Chronicles combat. Just fleets duking it out as the rest of the setting only slightly interests me. Of course this would involve a very intricate understanding of their combat system.

Forgotten Realms set out of the Dales. Basically get a bunch of PCs as high as they can and make as many changes to the world as they can.

I'd like to play in some of these too but that's really unlikely alas.

Carl's D & D Rnd 8

2006-09-05T20:59:00.000Z

So, having survived dealing with Durgeddin the party (now down to a mere 5 members because of random dissapearances, what a freaky city) negoiates with some duergar and their succubus leader to gain their assistance in the final battle. The succubus houses them in the local duergar temple which is very, very haunted but only on the front half. Amazingly enough nothing bad happens to the party that night although they do realize that the Inevitable may have gotten the wrong duergar. Mist also attempts to destroy the crystal that has been messing with his mind using a hammer acquired from Durgeddin. He crushes the crystal but the shards inhabit the hammer which he hastily returns to the bag of holding.

In the morning the party meets the duergar but Mist realizes its an ambush. Nerolia and Mist put some smack down killing most of the duergar and then Veras finishes of the succubus. The remaining duergar (singular) beats a hasty retreat somewhere else.

Mist and Veras head off and explore somewhat indepently while the other party members acquire some weird black water. Eventually the entire group arrives at the main forging area. Running through the middle is a stream that drops into a hole. Using their awesome powers of deduction the party concludes that the importance stuff is probably down the hole and journeys down it.

Down the whole is a huge chamber that is flooded with several small islands, including one with a forge, and a very large black scaled thing commonly referred to as a dragon. Even though dragons don't exist of course. Regardless of its existential issues this dragon seems to be part of some sort of device that is draining random fluids out of it as well as keeping it restrained. It barely notices the party and when it does it only manages a minimal reaction even when it does notice.

The party notices a very deceased adventured in the corner and Veras investigates. The deceased adventured is quite well equipped. In the meantime Mist and Moros move onto the island with the forge, the water is easily wadeable, and investigate it. As they do the local defense forces, aka two pit fiends, rise up out of the water to attack the intruders. Veras goes down (WIMP!) but Mist manages to pull out Durgeddin's hammer and shatter the forge before the pit fiends get to him and Moros.

Giant explosion.

Moros is hurt pretty bad post explosion but being the die hard he is remains standing/floating. The pit fiends collapse into the water and the fire elementals bound with them offer a silent thanks to Mist. The black dragon begins to die but Veras briefly halts it thinking that someone else might be able to heal the great beast. However the dragon communicates briefly with Nerolia asking to die and apparently explaining the identity of the dead adventurer. Merle then sneaks up onto the dragon and kills it while the others are figuring out what to do about it. It proceeds to dissolve into a pool of acid.

The party then opts to return to the surface and meets with Irontusk, Shadow, and Illustan who inform them of a current "doomsday" situation. The party is off to their next adventure.

On the docket

2006-09-02T05:37:00.000Z

So with my ardent alive because of events in the session I missed (apparently his death along with the wizard and the invetitable were just a "vision" so they never happened, no complaints here I keep an arm) it looks to be an interesting session.

If the ardent doesn't make it though I already have a fully prepared fighter in the wings. I am currently working on a swashbuckler and a bard as backups for my backup as well. Not sure which will rate in the #3 spot but I think maybe the bard just because it's a really new area for me. Also his perform skill is reading textbooks and he's damn good at it (+12 @ 4th lvl based on just ranks & ability mod). The swashbuckler could do some nice damage though and has spring attack and enough dex based skills to be useful in rolling through things. We'll see I guess.

That said I am excited for Carl's game. I've hit the point where casualties are ok cause I can hop right into the game again and it'll be more or less an in-house joke at this point I suppose.

Oh and if you don't read my normal blog then you may have missed that Carl added the Colossal Red Dragon to his mini collection. It now stands at that and the Gargantuan Black Dragon. The party is, needless to say, concerned!

I went to Denver and all I got was this squeaky ball!

2006-08-31T16:43:00.000Z

Oh and some other stuff!

So the haul from Valhalla's Game Store:

D & D Planar Handbook
Forgotten Realms: City of the Spider Queen
Tekumel: Empire of the Petal Throne
Haven: City of Violence and one of its supplements: Path of Rage
The Red Star Campaign Setting
Rift WB 13: Lone Star

Also a couple minis for use in Carl's game. Clown Wars expansion for Star Munchkin. Junta!

Additionally Lars sold me d20 Modern Core, Menace Manual, and d20 Future. The Red Star requires d20 Modern to play so it was useful timing!

That's the take, it was a good trip RPG wise!

In gaming news it sounds like my ardent didn't lose his arm because the whole events surrounding his near death were in fact just a vision that the party avoided. The party did go on to fight Durgeddin however so alas I missed that fun. But it sounds like this sunday a couple of pit fiends and a black dragon await us! Good times, good times.

D20 a class

2006-08-18T04:57:00.000Z

So persuant with my high casualty rate and the fact that now that I had my single "get out of death almost free" session I need a fast and efficient way to generate new characters as I suspect my dice will continue to assasinate them as often and repeatedly as possible.

It occurred to me that I could probably fit all the playable classes onto a list of 20 or less. Now granted this comes from only books I own because technically WotC has now released somewhere upwards of 100 playable classes. That's alot and there are a billion prestige classes beyond.

Anyhow, here's the list, please note clerics and pally-whacker-dins are not allowed in the City of Stone due to an absence of gods who pay any attention to anything or some such thing. Also dragons don't exist unrelated as that is...

1) Ardent 2) Bard 3) Barbarian 4) Divine Mind 5) Fighter 6) Hexblade 7) Lurk 8) Monk 9) Psion 10) Physic Warrior
11) Ranger 12) Rogue 13) Samurai 14) Shadowcaster 15) Sorcerer 16) Soul Knife 17) Swashbuckler 18) Wilder 19) Wizard
20) Druid or Re-roll or Your Choice (Why is druid special? Cause City of Stone hates them. It also hates trees, like Goulet.)

Dani's D & D Rnd 6?

2006-08-17T03:23:00.000Z

Well alas only I showed up for what should have been the last week of Dani's game so kind of a downer but we hung out so I got to be social at least.

Carl's D & D Rnd 7

2006-08-16T18:44:00.000Z

Enter Veras (me) an Ardent who is Mirv's brother looking for Mirv and if Mirv is no more retrieve the family heirloom. The rest of the group has now moved down the stairs that the Duergar had been protecting. A cautious meeting between Veras and the party has Veras eventually joining the party who is still somewhat wary of him.

The party enters a room and are confronted by what appears to be the god St. Cuthbert who happens to be Moros' (Dorie) deity. Mist (Chuck) and Heame (Adam) are a bit skeptical however. After "St. Cuthbert" gives the party a mission and then tries to leave. Heame creates a wall of force however and traps the "deity" and he and Moros investigate. In the middle of this tho Atearia (Bob) and Merle (Teckla) have discovered some goblins.

The bad news is that these goblins think this "god" is a god. The party is thus struck with ticking off a large horde of goblins, including blues (psionic goblins)or exposing the fake god. Eventually they opt to go and talk to the goblin chief and learn what is going on.

The goblins are fairly friendly and some of them are aware of the ruse being pulled on them, specifically the blues and the chief. However, they are hamstrung by believers who incidentally have decent enforcement. Among the goblins is a human named Fred (Troy) who really wants an excuse to leave. So the party opts to fake a sacrifice to the "god" and then expose him.

So Mist, Haeme, and Moros become sacrifices-Moros is really ticked off that this being is impersonating his god- and the rest of the party are converts or gaurds. Specifically Nerolia (Liz) is impersonating a rather large goblin. Mist is first up on the sacrificial block but of course all the sacrifices bonds are and Nerolia has their weapons close at hand.

The goblin shaman starts a crazy ritual which involves filling the room with fog. Then as the "god" appears darkness is cast so Heame and Moros can escape. The "god" casts some sort of light spell and the two sort of split the room into light and dark. As soon as he is free Heame uses a potion of Mercury Dragon's Breath on the "god". A side affect is that Fred and Veras are blinded.

Now there is confusion as Mist, Heame, and Moros go after the "god" and the goblins start fighting each other along the lines of belive it's a god/don't believe. The goblins actually kill a fair amount of each other off. The "god" turns out to be a human who manages to escape as his initial appearance is simply an illusion.

The party does track the "god"-obviously a wizard-down to a room of fallen pillars. Veras dimensionally hops to one of the pillars as the party confronts the wizard. The wizard admits that he has been duping the goblins and that he is trapped here because of an artifact called "The Forge of Fury" that is slowly draining him. He wanted the party to help destroy it.

The party starts to mull this over when an Inevitable posing as Death attempts to capture him. The wizard casts web on the party and then attempts to run across one of the pillars and falls when the trap activates. Veras dimensionally hops to catch him without judging that he could hop back. Mist and Heame attempt to save the two falling people and Mist even gets his grappling hook out to Veras but they are falling too fast. The rope nearly severs Veras' arm and the only reason they survive is that the wizard casts feather fall and just barely keeps them from dying. Veras is in fact very very near death and the wizard is out cold.

Heame floats down and kills the wizards and retrieves the barely alive Veras. The Inevitable manages during this to fall to its to death. Veras gains a gimp arm and the rest of the party sits back to rest a bit.

//It'll be three weeks til I game again. Next week Carl is gone and then I am gone. This was a somewhat frustrating session for me because when Veras fell he actually died. I had said after Mirv died that if Veras died I'd be done with the campaign (done in retrospect would prolly mean take a break I do enjoy Carl's game too much to not want to keep playing). Ironically of course Veras then goes and more or less accidentally kills himself despite much efforts by the party and Carl to give him a chance to live. In fact if I had better die rolls (especially on hit dice and certain saves) he'd have been fine. However Carl prolly didn't realize how frustrated I would be at dying again so I put him in a really bad spot. Adam suggested that Veras take slightly just less damage then would kill him so he barely lived.

It puts Carl in a tough spot now tho. I don't want him to pull punches so I've had my rebellion and hopefully I'll just roll better now. Otherwise I've created another character and am working on creating a system to quickly generate characters. It's not something I considered before but if you want to play a strict rules game then you'll have to realize characters may die, alot.

Carl's D & D Rnd 6

2006-08-08T03:36:00.000Z

Mirv (myself), Atearia (Bob), and Nerolia (Liz) awake to find themselves in the old camp of the first party. Nerolia recognizes the camp as the watch of Mist (Chuck) and Taylan (Crystal) realize there are some strange new people sleeping amongst them. After some initial confusion, including the realization that Nerolia and company had been with Mist's brother Dust, the new party members take the rest of the watches.

In the morning the group sets out down past the puzzle with the frogs that they had solved previously. As they go through here Atearia notices a pile of coins that is a blatantly obvious trap. Being a barbarian however she is not the brightest star in the sky and she manages to irk the ire of several swarms of rats. The rat swarms aren't much match for a large party of well armed people. Beyond this they find a simple pit trap and a door. After opening the door they find themselves in nicely adorned room with immaculate pillars and a mural the covers every wall of the room. Several members of the party realize very early on that the room is an illusion and in fact the room is quite run down and in the middle of the room is a stairway leading down.

Most of the party does not realize this however or notice the duergar who, using their psi-like invisibility powers, manage to surprise attack the party. The problem for them is there is less of them then us and they lack casters. As a result Sharice (Ray) freezes several and Mirv zaps a few and the rest of the party punches, slashes, and otherwise inflicts large amounts of bodily harm to reduce the 5 dwarves to a more peaceful state. One is barely alive and Moros manages to stabilize him and Mist ties him up. Mirv attempts to interogate him without much success until Moros and Merle (Teckla) comes and stare over his shoulder. The duergar still remains fairly unhelpful.

In the meantime Atearia, Mist, and Taylan go to explore the far end of the room and the door there. Sharice investigates the stairs and pillars in the middle of the room. Upon breaking down the door the three are almost immediately enveloped in a darkness spell. In the confusion several more duergar get past them into the main room. The three interogating don't notice any of this until obscuring mist is cast right on top of them. Moros and Merle join Sharice, and the others in attempting to ferret out the enemy caster and his minions. The two normal duergar get caught between the darkness and obscuring mist and are easily dispatched.

The caster proves more elusive however. Sharice casts random shots into the mist but only when she moves completely over into the mist does she determine the location of the caster. The caster finds her first tho and hurts her rather badly. Moros renders aid and Mist moves in to give support. In the mayhem of killing the caster somehow Mist is blinded. Mirv eventually kills the duergar captive rather then have him keep shouting out his location.

Efforts to heal or even really determine the exact cause of the blindness by the party prove uneffective. The party eventually opts to head back to the surface to get healing as Mist would now be a great hindrance to himself and the party. On the way out the party discovers many of the traps previously disabled have been reset including the blade traps right before the rope bridge trap. Atearia gets mildly injured from the trap before Sharice casts several orbs worth of acid on the trap.

Topside most of the party disperses to get new orders and sell off loot. Mist goes to his brother Shadow for help but Shadow has no way to help his brother. He does however want to meet with the party to stress that they help his brother out so that he himself is not forced to join the party on their guild's behalf. The party opts to pony up enough money to pay some of the few local clerics to heal Mist. In a very long ceremony the clerics manage to return Mist's vision.

The party then returns to mines. Unsurpisingly the traps are reset but the blade trap is easily avoided. The crushing ceiling trap however is gaurded by the ghost. Mirv fires off a energy missile at the ghost who avoids it much to Mirv's surprise. He thought even ghosts could not avoid energy attacks and thus rather then talking would solve the ghost problem. Mist manages to make it through the room before the ghost permantly drops the ceiling cutting off the route for the party.

The party is thus forced to loop around. They were taking the secret backway around the blade trap machinery and through the ceiling drop-trap room rather then trying the roap trap again. Upon getting to the blade trap machinery they discover it has somehow reversed itself. Merle throws a bead of force she has acquired at it. The bad news is she and Mirv are both in the room which is small enough that it will be smaller then the blast radius. Both are knocked out and Mirv is trapped in a Ottoluke's Reslient Sphere. Somehow Mirv is cut to pieces while in the sphere. The remaining party member disable the device through sheer firepower and revive Merle.

Coordinating with Mist the party members, even Sharice, manage to make their way across the rope bridge and return to their previous room to lair. This is where the party stopped to recoop and regroup.

OOC: So I am rather miffed that I died again. I shouldn't be too miffed about it cause it was mostly bad luck but well two of my characters have died so I have 2/3rd of the casualties and the other one was by choice of the player. Also how does one get chopped up while in an Otto's Resilient Sphere? I realized we'd used one in Dani's game so I looked it up and its a force affect so there is no way a bladed object could pierce is (barring some uber magic). Have to ask Carl about that as I was helping to run init for him so didn't exactly get much chance to realize what happened as nearly all of it happened where before my initiative. At the moment I am semi-burned out because of that though but will see if next week fares better. It just sucks to create a character concept not once but twice and have it forcibly ended. Most gamers probably know the feeling of that. Anyhow, tune in next week and all that.

Dani's D & D Rnd 5

2006-08-06T06:57:00.000Z

Hokay, well this time we got a puzzle and then a little repeat of the previous time for me.

The start actually was surprising as we faced off some Yuan-Ti using TrueName magic. They gave me several negative levels (that Isaac easily fixed). To protect myself-being one of the few in the party who can be affected by being negative levels-I opt to become an adamantine golemn. Isaac however casts silence on the casters who then are unable to speak. As a gag John casts wish making it impossible for either caster to speak unless then they hold the "speaking stick". We fairly easily slaughter the poor casters. Moving down the next tunnel we finish off a couple more. There is a puzzle to finish off this final part of the encounter. Isaac uses hypercognition and simply brute forces the puzzle.

Then we return to that chaos demiplane (which this time is Arborea, an improvement?). We're fighting the same dragons but this time I let the others have some of the fun. John puts himself in an Otto's Resilient Sphere and I start rolling him for the heck of it. The others mess around in the various ways of dragon killing. I eventually get embroiled in one of the kids while in Force Dragon form. On the side Russ, my little multi-creature United States Senator from Wisconsin now was a umbral blot, opts to sit on several of the dragons heads until they disintegrate. Now keep in mind Russ isn't extremely bright so he just manages to figure out he damages them not that he disintegrates them so his disintegrating them is kind of luck and/or fun.

Anyhow that's where we got. One session left!

Inspiring

2006-08-02T18:36:00.000Z

Everyone should check this out. It's amazing and generates tons of good ideas!

What If? (for Forgotten Realms)

2006-08-02T06:17:00.000Z

What if magic got completely sundered from Forgotten Realms? And by sundered I mean like magic users up and croak so entire races would die. Good bye gnomes and dragons for instance. Shadow weave and its users are gone. The deities who all have magical powers: croaked! Divine magic is not immune from the sundering! Most of the planes are gone and so are nearly all outsiders (most who have some sort of spell-like abilities). I'd figure the elemental planes survive alongwith other "basic" planes but the outer planes are all probably toast. 90% of the uber-powerful NPCs also don't make the cut cause they are generally magic users. Everybody's magic items break. Mythals go off like mini-nuclear bombs eradicating whole population centers and devastating the area around them. Basically we're talking utter chaos. Suddenly the hordes of orcs who generally speaking are simple warriors, barbarians, or fighters lose one of the major checks to their power. Entire nations like Thay lose their ruling class. This is the time for more martial orders to stand up and fight back.

The catch is that psionics would be unaffected. Thus psions, who hitherto are relatively unknown nobodies in Faerun, rise to the top. They fill the role of magic users easily with their similiar powers and in many places rise to power by nessescity or out of simple greed or lust for power. Psions and their various psionic brethren are suddenly the power. In the Underdark this means that duergar and illithids find themselves top dogs in a suddenly much less hostile environment. The drow and dwarves have now lost their powerful spellcasters and rune magics leaving them vulnerable. Entire communities of aberations have probably ceased to exist. Necromancy and all its created minions has ended.

Problems of course are with classes like the ranger who eventually gain spell casting abilities. Do low level rangers survive and simply become a weaker class? Anything with spell casting or spell-like abilities dies. Supernatural abilities are unaffected however so some creatures and races and even classes slip through the disaster unscathed. The natural order shifts. Religion shifts now as religion becomes one of ideas as there are no gods to answer prayers or give powers. Ardents become the powerful clerics while divine minds represent the ideals of now dead gods in a fading effort to carry on their goals in regards to Faerun (or to attempt to revive their dead masters).

This event really turns Faerun into a post-apoclyptic setting as the life and death struggles get much worse for the setting. A lot of the powerful places (especially for good) use magic and their loss generally tips the balance in favor of evil. Of course evil is substantially weakened as well. The first few years probably see little significant change beyond a regional level. As non-magic/non-psionic users struggle to assert control and then as psionics users begin to realize their increased potential.

That's food for thought anyways.

Carl's D & D Rnd 5

2006-08-01T06:12:00.000Z

The game has returned now that Carl is back home. Quick note. OOC since most of our original group was missing or the people who were there had their character's pass away in the previous session this group was sidetracked on a slightly different mission (find the original group or investigate the mine's where that group was) and only Nerolia (Liz) from the original group ended up in this session. I have now been semi-empowered to chronicle things, mostly what NPCs we off for XP purposes, so in theory this retelling will be more accurate as I will have solid numbers of kills. That said...

The party meets up at the Blue Pelican in the Crystal Lake District of the City of Stone. Nerolia woke up in a room in the Blue Pelican having gone to sleep in a cave back in the dungeon. Oddly enough when a huge hulking figure who declares his name to be Dust (Chuck) announces he needs people to go explore a cave he gains several willing members of which hardly any state their reasons for volunteering short of payment and adventure. The group is composed of Dust, a fighter who goes by Thavik (Troy), a confused wizard [Nerolia], a silent Favored Soul [Moros (Dorie)], and an oddly willing Psion [Mirv (myself)].

The group follows after Dust who leads them into a mine that Nerolia quickly recognizes as what she has just recently traversed. Sadly she manages to direct this group about as well as the previous time and although the party makes it down the lift and into the central room it does so more by Dust's directions and less by her actual expierence. As the party exits the lift they are confronted by two gaurds.

Moros attempts to talk the gaurds down from a fight but it quickly degenerates into a battle as Thavik is rather rearing for a fight. Thavik primarily engages the gaurds blocking anyone else from easily engaging. Despite wounds he dispatches the gaurds. One of the gaurds during the tense attempted negioations manages to raise the alarm and they are replaced by 8 skeletons. Thavik gives way so that a thoroughly frustrated Moros can finally help out and engage. Mirv also quits leaning on his quarterstaff and gives a helping hand. He uses a sonic energy missile to great affect on the skeletons dropping several. Thavik and Morose finish off the rest. Shortly after the last skeleton drops Dust and a newcomer barbarian [Atearia (Bob)] make it down the lift.

At this point Mirv loots the bodies while the rest of the party begins to explore the room. Thavik finds that one end of the room has a chilly pool of black surrounded by stairs and raised platforms. On the highest platform he finds a small pouch which he pockets without investigating further. In the meantime Atearia explores down one of the doorways. For no particular reason the rest of the party follows, rather to Atearia's bewilderment.

This portion of the dungeon is an unlit maze-like structure of hallways the corner sharply and randomly making navigation a challenge and limiting line of sight. The group doesn't get far before out of nowhere a pair of feral dire weasels leap out and attack. They manage to attach themselves to Atearia and Mirv. The rather severely hurt both draining much blood. Dust removes the one from Mirv's chest with a single swing. He then collects the surviving weasel claws to add to his tree stump-cum-warclub. Atearia with some help eliminates the other weasel.

Now the party takes a moment to regroup in the weasel's den. Thavik leads an attempt to determine if there are other weasels in the area. He is convinced there are but the rest of the party is just as convinced there are normal weasels at least none denning in this room. Dust decides to attempt to loop around through a side corridor. In the process he encounters two strange humanoid bird creatures. He kills one but the other escapes around a corner and has dissapeared completely when Dust pursues.

Suddenly Dust hears Atearia under attack close to the entrance to this portion of the dungeon. Incidentally Atearia and several other party members who are resting also hear her under attack. Needless to say the party investigates from various directions. The ensuing time involves many confusing ambushes, escapes, and faked party noises created by an unknown number of those humanoid birdmen. The party eventually retreats to a room with a known exit and a known secret door. Mirv who had at this point managed to get himself shot or attacked then the rest of the party combined actually helps out finding the door using the stone mind power and unlocking it with psionic knock. With known exits covered the party opts to rest allowing Moros healing magic to help those who had lost blood and hit points to recover.

Dust and Thavik then venture out to retrieve two composite longbows that had been on the dead gaurds back in the lift room. Mirv had looted and distributed the rest of the loot but at the time noone wanted/needed ranged weapons. Now the party faced with a lack of ranged firepower needed it to counter an enemy who could snipe and duck behind a corner into a secret passageway before pursuit could follow. They were surpised to encounter a stranger with an old dog by the gaurds (Heame [Adam]) who opted to join up with the strangers. Although both sides were somewhat suspicious they decided to take each other at face value.

On returning the birdmen attack again but suffer casualties when engaged by the bow wielding Dust and Thavik. They severely injure one and pursue another. They take the surviver back to interogate him as they rest. During the night watch Dust helps to heal up the birdman and then intimidates him into giving some basic information and then attempts to convince him to help out. The birdman is willing to do so out of fear for his life and Dust releases him with the threat that he would "kill them and eat their souls" if they bretrayed him.

The next morning "Chip", the released birdman, is nowhere to be seen. The party proceeds with caution anyways. As they approach the dire weasel den they are attacked from nearly all sides. The attack begins with a bead of fireball dropping into the group nearly killing Nerolia who is barely standing. Dust promptly bashes the birdman in front who seems to be the leader reducing him to an appropriate sized smear. Tree trunk + birdman = dead chicken seems to be valid party math. Atearia charges down a right side hall to engage several birdmen. Thavik and Heame find themselves nearly flanked by birdmen directly on either side and farther back down the hallway. Moros pursues more birdmen down a left side hall but not before another bead of fireball hammers Thavik badly and takes down Nerolia. Mirv, now somewhat pissed off because he has not been able to kill any of these birdmen who had shot him several times previously, max powers an energy missile and toasts 4 of the birdmen straight to the Colonel's specifications, minus the spell breading. Moros engages several birdmen in side hall killing one and encountering the true leader. Dust follows in her direction. Thavik gets taken down by crossbolt fire. Heame attempts to engage one of the nearby birdmen. Atearia, now bereft of his initial target due to Mirv, circles around and flanks the birdman who took down Thavik. Mirv revives with his last potion Nerolia who then proceeds to cast blindness on the birdman by Heame. Mirv as soon as he has administered the potion to Nerolia max energy missiles the birdmen at the end of the hallway removing those three from the fight. Heame revives Thavik with a potion and Thavik engages the blinded birdman elminating him. A fiery explosion from where Moros and Dust signifies another bead of fireball being used. Shortly thereafter Dust's club elminates the leader. Atearia cuts down the last surviving birdman in the rear. Nerolia casts sleep on an unlucky birdman who turns up in front of the party making him a new captive member of the party.

The party now exhausted opts to rest and then carefully explore this area now, unsurprisingly, devoid of any life other then their own.

Oz

2006-07-21T01:45:00.000Z

So last week ECSP showed The Wizard of Oz. It occurred to me that this movie could actually be a pretty good setting for a D & D campaign or any fantasy system. Obviously the plot would be a little different and the setting would probably incur an increase of evil creatures (the Wicked Witch of the West will get more then evil flying monkies, evil flying donkies now too, oh and other stuff).

Guess this is the summer of campaign ideas for me although I'll lack the time and players to run more then just my Exalted game this fall.

Woah

2006-07-18T21:16:00.000Z

And I thought my collection was alot. Apparently not so much.

More Lunar Fun

2006-07-18T04:00:00.000Z

So make a Lunar an akuma. Who was designed to kill Solars. Throw against party, primarily super unkillable Dawn. Watch mayhem and see if they can kill this guy. :D

I'll prolly use this guy later in the campaign but I kinda need to let the other Solars get a little more combat oriented charms of some sort so they live. Or at least have a chance. Lunars as soak monkeys are very very scary. Guess the question is whether he can hit them or not tho...

D & D vs Setting Heavy

2006-07-09T06:11:00.000Z

One thing I've found with D & D vs. other books that are more setting heavy is the inability to read them for very. I can pick up pieces of information but straight up core books are otherwise dull. System stuff doesn't interest me terribly much as a free time read. I glance through to gauge power of affects, etc and anything that might be relavent to play but otherwise they go onto my shelf to be pulled out if and when I need to utilize the book for one of my characters. As a result my D & D collection expands some usually when I play because I hate having to rely on other people for books. I cannot plan ahead after the game what my *insert random character class here* will do next level or what fun prestige class I want to shoot for. For me that is half the fun of playing is planning to grow.

On the other hand I highly enjoy reading setting information for Exalted, Blue Planet, Forgotten Realms, and Jovian Chronicles because they have interesting settings. Ok, well mostly I read Jovian Chronicles for the mecha. These tell stories, stories I can think about playing a part of or running a game in. I may never do it but it exercises the imagination. I like that in my reading.

Dani's D & D Rnd 4

2006-07-09T06:04:00.000Z

This'll be a short entry as I was the only one who showed for Dani's game. Solo play is alright but kinda awkward in a way especially for this kind of D & D game.

Anyhow I arrive on basically a semi-chaotic plane. I flex the ol' shifting joints and become a slaad (pick an epic type one, been them all). I face several adult chaos dragons. These turns out to be relatively easy to smack down although to speed things up I opt to become a force dragon. Force dragons wipe the floors with chaos dragons. Momma Chaos Dragon proved to be a bit more of a challenge so after force dragon didn't do much and adamantine golem proved too weak I opted for the brain gather (from the epic book, I forget the name, however its sole occupation is as stated). After a couple attempts I got lucky and the momma botched her Will save. Sans brain she dies.

That was about it. I love becoming epic level creatures. :D

Carl's D & D Rnd 4

2006-07-03T05:13:00.000Z

Later in history the group would remember this as "The First Culling" except within 8 sessions their probably won't be any members of the original group. :D

The basis of this mission was to investigate a mine area to fine the work area of this Durgeddin (spl?), the famous smith whose material we have acquired. After some dinking around the party made its way down the mine shaft. Nominally we followed the maps that Nerolyia (Liz's PC) had acquired from her uncle's shop. The maps were incomplete and the initial direction we set out was somewhat off the beaten path and turned up several dead grimlocks, although we never identified them as such, and cat creatures. Eventually we turn back and back track down another path and still remain loss. Finally Nerolyia manages to convince the party to pay attention and gets us down the right path. (Sorry for the lack of detail above, I discovered my PC had leveled wrong and was repicking Mysteries.)

We finally go the right way and enter a room. It is obviously trapped but some careful work allows us to pass. Entering the next room it's pretty obvious things are a trap. There are arrow slits along the walls. I use Bend Perspective to peer through the slits and discover some sort of booby trap. I then use Umbral Hand to attempt to disable the trap. I get very lucky on the Disable Device roll and set the trap off but keep it from resetting. Mist then attempts to carefully make his way up the other side of the room but accidentally sets off the other trap. Somehow I manage to hold it just barely so he can extricate himself and most of the party bolts through. I get cut up pretty bad as I trail in. However Merle does not run through and has to maneuver through the jammed side. She does manage it fairly well with only minor injuries.

The next room is, well, scary. It's a rope bridge. Mist being the most skillful climbs out and discovers its a trap that twists the bridge all over the place attempting to throw off or crush (by twisted ropes around them) anyone on it. He's quite talented and slips across. Sharice attempts to follow and makes it halfway before getting stuck holding onto the base rope. Sharice manages to hang on and start inching towards Mist and the safety of the other side. Then she loses her grip. This fall is fatal. Even feather fall won't help, our caster's just don't have the level for it to last long enough. A couple of bounces and a splash seem to be the end of our city watchwoman. It's about this time that Merle snags her with a lasso made from the huge amount of rope she carries saving Sharice from a fatal fall. After this the party uses the various ropes they have along with those of the bridge and make it across.

Next hallway has a simple booby trap: four thunderstones pop up in the middle and go off. Half the party is deafened for an hour after failing their saves. Only a couple succeed or are far enough away to be fine. Luckily that is the last major trap. Now we've found ourselves in a natural cave complex. Making our way to the areas on Nerolyia's map that are constructed. We find a room that seems a bit dangerous so I open it with umbral hand. Inside is a weird stormy display that I determine, to myself since anyone else who would care is deafened, is necromantic. Mist walks right in and the storm forms into what appears to be a living spell. Additionally several undead appear as well. Mist engages the spell while I attempt to use another Mystery on it. I fail and mist is engulfed by it. Immediately one of the undead stops moving. Mist is unable to do any damage to the spell but it and its undead minions don't get much in on him either. I eventually figure out that the living spell is both animate dead and control dead. I pass this information on to Mist who finds it less then useful. Eventually he pulls out of the spell and lets the casters (most of whom are working only 80% of the time because of the deafness) bring down the living spell while the rest of the party engages the undead. I amazingly put the killing blow on the spell and the room is cleared.

The party is now tired, hurting, low on spells, and half deaf. We opt to set up camp in this dead end room. At the end of the first watch though Mist awake me to tell me the Anson has died and I need to take the extra shift. Nerolyia is a wreck at the news and somehow everyone else is unawares of the situation. In the morning Mist fills everyone in. Anson panicked and fell/jumped trying to escape and is dead. The group is somewhat rattled but both Mist and myself urge to push on and Sharice quickly agrees as well. (Out of game I later learned that Mist helped Anson "sleep-walk" off a cliff after killing him in his sleep. Just noone woke up when he did it and he has a high bluff.)

At this point we head up the hallway essentially in the same direction we had come the day before but parallel so although my character felt eventually we might be backtracking we were still exploring new territory. The first room we come across appears to be a pit trap but after Sharice blasts the pit several of us realize it's an illusion and cross. Ironically the door on the other side is a fake. We head further down the hall avoiding a statue that probably is a trap. The next room is booby trapped in such a way that when you open the door part of the ceiling drops down. This is not an issue because we are coming in the back way. Nerolyia and Sharice figure out what is going on and also realize that the other door trigger the trap differently. Using Merle's rope we manage to get all the doors open safely. The hallway is a dead end.

Mist quickly discovers a secret door that leads back to the rope bridge and past the booby trap mechanisms disabled a ways back by my umbral hand. At this point Haem (pronounced Him, played by Adam, I accidentally called him Hin last post) appears and helps Mist find another secret door that leads to the booby traps on the far side. They also run into an angry dwarven ghost that attempts to possess them. It fails and sneaks back and possesses me as I head back to wait for the party by the collapsing ceiling room. This ghost had in his more corporeal life designed most of the traps in the place and is only slightly bitter that this group has disabled most of them. He opts to us my character to bait the rest of the party into the stone ceiling room and then crush all of them, including myself. It won't hurt him if I die. The trap almost worked but Carl, who was rather amazed that I suggested this plan, allowed the PCs to realize something was up and only Mist entered the room and avoided the collapsing ceiling. However, the ghost didn't bother to move my character out of the way. Splat. The Shadowcaster is now rather flat.

Tayla returns at this point (I should note PCs have a tendency to appear and dissapear randomly in the City of Stone) to find a very confused and somewhat distraught group.

The group did troop on at this point and figure out a very strange puzzle involving swarms of frogs to get into the final room. I'll confess I did not pay much attention as I was generating a new PC. I admit my reports on sessions are somewhat self-centric/PC centric. Although I think I honestly actually held my weight rather well this time. Forgive the bias and the ramblings that change tense/perspective tho!

My new PC will be a Psion. I'll prolly use him as an excuse to buy the newer Psionics books. Carl is now gone the next three weeks for military training so nothing new will come of this until prolly late July or early August. I can't wait honestly. I just hope this guy will last more then 4 sessions!

Rifting

2006-06-28T21:52:00.000Z

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

2006-06-26T18:57:00.000Z

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

2006-06-22T15:29:00.000Z

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!