Thursday, April 28, 2011

Sandbox Thoughts

There is some discussion among the OSR blogs about sandbox campaigns. Long-story-short, I agree with Chicago Wiz completely. (I'd tell him so on his blog, but the DayJob filters are blocking the comment entry script. If I have time to tonight I'll cross-post this there.) Additionally, having read his list of quests I realized my Southern Reaches campaign has room to grow - there are layers I need to add.

As to the difficulty in setting up or running a sandbox campaign, I find they take about the same amount of time to prep/work, just spread out differently. It definitely does require the DM to think on his feet more and faster and if you as a DM cannot do that or feel uncomfortable doing so, this is not the campaign style for you.

In the comments, JB states he has problems dealing with "reconciling MULTIPLE players wanting to do DIFFERENT things at once". This is a real issue, but not one inherent to sandbox campaign. This is a player group issue and would be an issue in any style of campaign. In story-driven campaigns it can be muted as there is a clear path for the party to follow, but even then the individual players may want to pursue things in different ways. This is herding cats at its finest.

I run a West Marches-style campaign and it does require the PLAYERS to agree on what the group is doing on any particular evening. Usually, the discussion is based on what they want to achieve that night (loot, xp, or exploration/knowledge) and who is available ("we aren't going to the trap-heavy Terrace if the rogue is not available"), but ultimately, the players have to decide to agree on a location or nothing happens.

A sandbox DM has to be willing to let nothing happen if the players don't get their act together and cooperate.

If the players can't work something out (we'll go here this time, but next time we are going where I want), then everyone's time is wasted. Sometimes the DM may have to step in and say "look, 5 out of 6 of you want to go to X, so I'm running an expedition to X tonight. Player 6, please accept that or we'll see you next time." If Player 6 is a repeat offender on this, you could run a separate game on a different night or just have The Talk with that player and explain that this is not the group for them.

Now if all the players want to go different directions and none will compromise, then you've got a pile of jerks and there's not much you can do with that. Other than run each one separately against a big monster(s) - after they have all died alone (possibly multiple times), they should start seeing the benefits of working as a group, not a bunch of individuals.

Sandbox campaigns should not be a surprise for the players. If the DM has explained what style of campaign is being run (the players have to go looking for adventure) and stayed at the table anyways, they have implicitly agreed to go with the precepts of the campaign. One of these precepts is that the party will agree on an objective for the session. In a pure West Marches-style game, the PLAYERS have to arrange the game times and the DM just shows up to run. The way most people seem to run it, the DM still arranges the time and place. This leaves the players with the job of figuring out where they want to go as a group. And if they want to go off the grid, it is up to them to warn the DM before the session so the DM can have something ready. If they spring it at the last moment, they may have to accept a "Under Construction" sign until the DM gets that location ready.


Now to follow the Joesky Rule, here is a random table:

1 Texas Drought: 1 in 6 chance of a wildfire happening.
   1-2 Started by a campfire
   3-4 Started by lightning
   5-6 Started by an idiot with fireworks

2 Mississippi Rain: 2 in 6 chance of More Rain
   If More Rain:
   1-2 1 in 6 chance of flooding, +1 per week of More Rain
   3-4 1 in 6 chance of tornado
   5-6 1 in 6 chance of river barge hitting a bridge (1-2) or other river traffic (3-6)

3 Ohio Late Snow Storm: It snows for 1d6 days, more than a month after winter is "over"
   1 It sticks to the ground and piles up
   2 It sticks to the ground, but melts the day after the snow stops.
   3 It melts immediately and may cause flooding (1 in 6)
   4-6 It melts immediately, but no one comes in to work.

4 Earthquake
   1 Arkansas: low intensity, multiple quakes. Caused by drilling/dwarven mining (based on campaign).
   2-5 California: Wakes people up, but then they go about their business.
   6 Alaska: 1 in 6 chance of volcano forming

The Aldelle Group – Session 24 – "They trapped their own bedrooms."

This session happened Tuesday, April 26, 2011.

Adventuring Group:
Harkaitz of the Red Soul (male human cleric of Ra)
   - Aziz of the Light (male human paladin of Ra)
Wednesday (female elf rogue)
Sahar (female human fighter)
Tre-ba Bel a sheer (female elf alchemist)
Frankie Hu, Master of the Distracting Fist (male dwarf monk)


Late Afternoon, April 13, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, for illuminating our path.

With drow patrols in the area and a shortened sleep schedule, we decided to leave Luna at the camp with Short John as security for our base of operations [the player was ill and could not attend the game].  Camp security is something I will need to take care of in the future.  Perhaps I can recruit people in the elven city we are heading to?  But I get ahead of myself.

In the morning we once again descended into the drow barrow.  Wednesday ranged ahead to scout without the additional noise and light we humans made and needed.  She heard a drow walking out of the prison area and gained sight of him carrying an empty food tray.  She relayed this to Frankie, who was around a bend behind her and he relayed it to the rest of us.  I advised that the two of them go and grab the prison guard.  Admittedly, my hand signals may have been taken to mean "give him a beat down", but what I meant was "knock him unconscious".  Either way, it did not matter as the drow noticed Wednesday when she stepped back around the bend and started shouting an alarm and running down a side passageway.

Frankie, Aziz, and Tre-ba immediately gave chase and surrounded him.  Sahar and Wednesday took a side passage we knew led to the only path out of the maze the drow was running into, attempting to cut him off.  I, somewhat slow to react [rolled a "1" for initiative], followed up behind and chose to follow Sahara and Wednesday so Sahar would have light to see by.  All of us ran into more than we expected.

There were two drow guarding the exit passage, who gave Sahar and Wednesday some trouble, but the three of us (once I finally arrived) defeated them.  The rest of the group thought they were capturing one drow, until two more stepped out of the shadows to support him.  Then another two drow arrived, one of whom was a spellcaster.  From what Aziz told me later, this fight was difficult due to the two groups being interspersed amongst each other, but the drow were eventually cut down.

After relieving the drow guards of their equipment (they had no other valuables), we investigated the prison area as Wednesday believed they now had a live prisoner there.  As it turned out, they did have a surface elf prisoner and Tre-ba knew the individual.  He was (eventually) introduced at Ferahal, Watch-Captain of the elven city north of here – I didn't catch the name of the city as the elves kept talking to each other in their native tongue, a language I have not been able to learn (they refuse to teach it).  [Actually, the DM hasn't named the city yet.  The elf players did talk mostly in Elven and do refuse to teach it, mostly so they can make catty remarks about the human characters, an amusing bit of role play.]  Wednesday finally examined the skeleton in the side cell, finding a pair of eyes of the eagle in one of the pockets.

After we freed Farahal from the cell he was in and I healed him from the beating he had taken from the drow who captured him, we discussed our plan of action.  We could escort him back to the elven city or press on our exploration of the barrow.  Farahal stated the drow had taken a key to the city's defenses and he needed to retrieve it before returning, so we decided to explore further.  I cast locate object to track down the magical gate we are looking for and followed the promptings. 

I could have tried for the key, but really, what is an elven city key compared to our divinely-mandated quest to find the gate and free it from the drow?  If we do not stop the drow from gating in the demons and devils here, the elven city will fall just like Terranor.

The trail led back to the entrance of the barrow and through the portcullis we had been spiking closed (of course).  After removing the spikes (and burning time on the spell) we moved forward as fast as Wednesday could clear the path of traps.  Just as the spell was fading we found a ramp leading down deeper into the earth.  Without a clear method to track the gate (I had several more prayers ready, but locate object was not among them), we decided to finish exploring this level of the barrow.  This would have the advantage of clearing out any enemies behind us.

A side cave was discovered to contain a secret compartment in the floor.  Concealed in the compartment was a chest of coins and jewelry, either the drow treasure or an emergency stash of coinage.  It was trapped with a fireball trap that Wednesday bypassed.  Once the chest had been emptied into a bag of holding, the chest was replaced and Wednesday attempted to reset the trap with a different trigger (at my suggestion).  Unfortunately, she instead triggered the trap herself, catching Tre-ba, Frankie, myself, and herself in the area of effect.  She and Frankie avoided the explosion entirely and Tre-ba mostly, but I took the full effect.  Luckily, Ra has seen fit to make me resistant to fire, so while it was painful, it was not as bad as it could have been.  After I channeled the light of Ra to heal Tre-ba and myself, the group moved on.  Before we got too far, I went back and scrawled, in Goblin, "Super Rat has your stuff" above the blast marked compartment.  Always good to keep your enemy guessing.

In another cavern we discovered a secret passage between the two halves of the barrow caverns.  The passage was trapped (of course), but Wednesday was able to disarm the dual lightning bolt trap.  We knew to look because the drow trap everything, even their bedrooms.  Not wanting to go through the passage yet (there was more to explore on this side) we backtracked and closed the secret door.

In the final dead-end passage we checked on this side, Wednesday found a spiked pit trap.  After disabling it, I asked her to search for secret doors as a dead end was an odd place to put a trap, even for drow.  Wednesday found a secret door to a small chamber with a chest and an armoire.  The chest had more coins and jewelry (which we took) and a concealed compartment under the coins.  The concealed compartment was trapped (of course) with a poison gas trap, but I was ready with neutralize poison and halted the poison's effects on Wednesday.  Inside the concealed compartment was an amulet that turned out to be the "key" Farahal was looking for.  The armoire contained a set of monk robes that Frankie immediately donned.  Dwarves will wear anything.

Having cleared this side (except for the ramp down) we returned to the secret passage.  Inside we arrayed for battle and stormed out of the far door, right into a group of very surprised drow.  We killed most of them quickly, but one ran away.  Frankie, Farahal, Aziz, and Sahar gave chase, cornering and capturing the drow alive.  Frankie put manacles on the drow to keep him from getting into any mischief and we took the prisoner and all the loot back to our camp.  Aziz tells me that Farahal can shoot arrows around obstacles and make them magical.  The Watch-Captain is an arcane archer?  Interesting.

Short John is currently preparing a nice rabbit stew for us while our prisoner is tied up.  I am taking a moment to update my journal while I wait.  Once we have fortified ourselves with a good meal, we will set to questioning the drow.

*End of Session*

[This was a good session.  We got a lot done, dealt a solid blow to the drow, rescued a prisoner who will vouch for us at the elven city, and most of us leveled.  Next session will start off with the interrogation...or an attack by a drow patrol where we have to keep the captive alive so we can question him.]

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

The Aldelle Group – Session 23 – Sleeping Wednesday

This session happened Tuesday, April 19, 2011.  This campaign used the Dyson’s Delve dungeon pages on A Character for Every Game as a starting point, but has now moved on to new material from the DM-in-training.  I heartily recommend Dyson's Delve as a beginning adventure.

Adventuring Group:
Harkaitz of the Red Soul (male human cleric of Ra)
Wednesday (female elf rogue)
Sahar (female human fighter)
Tre-ba Bel a sheer (female elf alchemist)
Luna (female elf sorcerer)
Frankie Hu, Master of the Distracting Fist (male dwarf monk)


Evening, April 12, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, for leading us out of danger.

While I was updating my journal and the others were going through the belongings of the drow guards (mostly empty), Luna finally arrived.  After briefly bringing Luna up-to-date, we moved to investigate the doors the first group of drow were guarding.  (At this point I learned Aziz had already opened one of the doors and been hit by a javelin trap.  Hopefully he has learned now to appreciate the skills Wednesday possesses, even if he may not approve of their use sometimes.)

Wednesday checked the three doors and disabled another javelin trap on the third door.  While Sahar, Aziz, and I stood guard against a drow counter-attack, the others investigated the room Aziz had opened and the one Wednesday had cleared.  They were both dorms for the drow guards, each room containing beds for five individuals.  Unfortunately, the middle door, which Wednesday had declared safe, was also trapped with a poisoned javelin, which she fell afoul of.  The poison was a soporific and she seemed to be vulnerable to it, falling into a deep sleep from which she could not be awoken.  The room beyond was another dorm.

With Wednesday unconscious, this left us in a difficult position.  We knew there would be more traps and we would need her skills, but the barkskin elixirs we were under still had nearly an hour to go before lapsing and it would take two days for Tre-ba to make more.  Rather than give up the initiative in this incursion, we decided to press on.

The tunnels split and split again in every direction.  Pausing to listen, we heard furtive movement down two of the tunnels.  We dispatched Frankie to go stealthily investigate and report back.  When he returned, he reported a single drow sniper with a bow down a side passage that seemed to link up with another passage near us (he could see the light from my sunrod).  Sending Aziz, Sahar, and Frankie down the first tunnel, I and Tre-ba and Luna prepared to advance down the second once the fighting started to flank our opponent.

This did not work out exactly as planned.  There were more drow (there are always more drow) and Aziz was immediately flanked by their skirmishers.  But, due to some luck and a fireball from Luna, we were able to flank the drow party and defeat them.  Aziz was heavily wounded and I used the wand of cure serious wounds on him twice to return him to health (I having used most of my Ra-given spells in the earlier encounter).

Exploring further, we started linking up the various tunnels on our map and found the drow crypts.  Suspecting them of being heavily trapped, we decided to return to our camp and wait for Wednesday to return to consciousness.  Short John is now preparing a dinner for us.  Wednesday awoke a short while ago and is mostly over the poison.  Frankie wanted to test out the elixir of thorn body Tre-ba gave him at the beginning of the day and is "experimenting" with it by attacking trees.  He's stopped and I hear yelling.

Mid-night, April 12, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, for keeping us safe in the night.

Frankie's "experiments" seemed to have attracted the attention of a drow patrol.  They attacked him and we responded in kind.  We had to kill them all to keep them from reporting our camp's position, but one of them, a mage, escaped while invisible.  We tracked him and gave chase, but he was not heading to the barrow, like we thought, but to a drow encampment on the other side of the clearing.  We nearly caught him anyway, but were moments too late as he achieved the protection of their camp.

As a result, we have spent the last several hours rapidly moving our camp and hiding our trail.  We are exhausted and yet unable to sleep for fear of the drow.  After I am done writing this I will recite prayers to Ra to calm my mind and find some sleep before the dawn.  All praise to Ra.

*End of Session*

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

SR44: Hunting Giants

This session happened Friday, April 22, 2011, and was the only session I ran this past weekend.

Adventuring Group:
Su Bel (human cleric)
– Dame Yasha of Bereste (Su Bel’s human cavalier cohort)
Mog the Doomed (half-orc barbarian)
Thorngrim (half-orc sorcerer)
 – Kainen (Thorngrim’s human fighter cohort)
Alys Kaah (gnome summoner/cavalier) [via Skype]
– Mr. Boodles (Alys’s owlbear-looking eidolon and mount)
Xin (human wizard) [via Skype]


Note: the list of player characters is in player sitting order, from my left and then clockwise around the table and then on my laptop via Skype.

In-game Starting Date: October 17, 23rd Year of King Nikola V

"Ya, mon!  I and I put da fires out no problem!" ~ summoned water elemental to Su Bel

Returning to the problem of the dragon in the mountains to the south, the adventurers decided to go find some giants.  They headed south on Three Peaks Road, went through the foot hills around the western side of Three Peaks, and then down into the Sea of Grass.  Pushing south, they were able to cross the large, unnamed river that flowed east into the great canyons between Three Peaks and the southern mountains.  There they made camp in a (barely acceptable) tower of stone created by Thorngrim using several wall of stone spells.

During first watch, Thorngrim and Kainen observed a herd of wild horses stampeding by the tower, heading east.  Thorngrim also spotted what had set the horses to running - a pride of dire lions on the hunt.  Thorngrim immediately cast an illusionary wall to make that side of the tower look taller and then started casting fireballs through it onto the dire lions.  Xin leaned down through the hatch in the roof of the tower and yelled to wake up the rest of the adventurers, who were sleeping in the extra-dimensional space of a rope trick.  This roused most of the adventures, who moved to defend the tower and kill off the dire lions when they moved to attack the tower…except the two cavaliers, who were found still asleep and snuggled next to each other after the fight.  After Su Bel summoned a water elemental to put out the fires Thorngrim had started, the adventurers went back to sleep or watch, as was appropriate.

The next morning, the group made their way into the foothills, looking for giants and wary of the dragon appearing.  Just as they were reaching the actual mountains, the adventurers realized they were about to walk into a stone giant ambush.  Reacting quickly, the adventurers attacked the stone giant first and before they were in the center of the ambush.  Kainen single-handedly held off three of the stone giants while the rest of the adventurers killed the other five.  By the time they were done with that and turned to help Kainen, he had killed one giant outright, forced another to flee, and accepted the surrender of the third.

Su Bel cast zone of truth and the group questioned the stone giant.  They learned that the giant's name was Hafgrim and his tribe was being blackmailed into working for the dragon.  The dragon had seized all their valuables and many hostages.  Hafgrim also shared the location of the dragon's lair.  Hafgrim agreed to follow Kainen if the adventurers worked towards killing the dragon and freeing the stone giant hostages.

Wanting to share this knowledge with those adventurers not present, the group decided to return to Drop-off Tower.  While crossing the Sea of Grass, the adventurers spotted a barrow mound.  Feeling they were on something more important, they made a note of it on their map and continued on, arriving at the Tower the following day.

*End of session*

[While this was a full session, the recap came out kind of short.  I GREATLY summed up the fight, skipping over the cavaliers charging around the hill-line the stone giants were concealed behind and Mog hurling insults at the stone giants, trying to provoke them into attacking him instead of the spellcasters.  This is because I feel blow-by-blow descriptions of combat are only interesting if you were there or something important happened.  Plus, my notes are minimal and I've slept since then.  Meh.]

Monday, April 25, 2011

SR43: Showdown at the River

This session happened Friday, April 15, 2011, and was the only session I ran this past weekend.

Adventuring Group:
Su Bel (human cleric)
– Dame Yasha of Bereste (Su Bel’s human cavalier cohort)
Thorngrim (half-orc sorcerer)
 – Kainen (Thorngrim’s human fighter cohort)
Alys Kaah (gnome summoner/cavalier) [via Skype]
– Mr. Boodles (Alys’s owlbear-looking eidolon and mount)
Sal Ty (elf wizard) [via Skype]
– Maenwen (Sal’s human wizard cohort)


Note: the list of player characters is in player sitting order, from my left and then clockwise around the table and then on my laptop via Skype.

In-game Starting Date: October 7, 23rd Year of King Nikola V

"It's not to the death, it's to the 'shut the fuck up'!" ~ Alys Kaah

Thorngrim, much to the consternation of the contractors, used the lyre of building to construct another two towers on the keep around Drop-off Tower.  This used up what little stone had been received from the quarries, forcing Agnes and Tycho to go arrange for more stone, again.  On the other hand, All four curtain walls are now up along with three of the four corner towers.  When more stone arrives, the workers can resume work on the front gate and the fourth tower – assuming Thorngrim doesn't do it all in week when the lyre is available again.

In the meantime, the available adventurers decided to go far afield and explore near the Spiderwood, an area the group has shunned since first laying eyes on the Table Map.  There was some discussion as to the actual route to take: either west on the Grass Road to the Ruined Hills and then south across an unexplored stretch of the Sea of Grass to the Spider wood or south along Old Road to Santa Fe, through those (mostly unexplored) hills, and then west across a different unexplored stretch of the Sea of Grass.  After weighing the amounts of unknown, it was decided to take the southern rout past Santa Fe [whose name, by the way, is a result of admittedly poor DMing never corrected – I'll fix that in the reboot].

The path along Old Road was quiet.  When the group arrived at the Sea of Grass, they found huge swaths burned to stubble from the fires a tenday ago.  Luckily it had no effect on Thorngrim's mage signs and the group was able to follow the path of the Southern Grass Road.  Along the way, they saw auroch herds moving north from their summer pastures far, far to the south.

Making good time on their mounts, the group crossed the hilly region near Santa Fe and the previously untraveled stretch of the Sea of Grass to the very fringe of the Spiderwood, where they made camp.  The trees of the Spiderwood were covered in webbing, with large nets of the stuff spread heavily from tree to tree and amongst the undergrowth.  On the positive side, there was little in the way of mosquitos or gnats in the area.  Sal used his engineering knowledge to assist Thorngrim in the construction of a basic tower by way of several wall of stone spells.  As opposed to the Crooked Tower, this one looked stable and safe to camp inside.

The next morning, the group pressed into the Spiderwood itself.  The going was slow due to the webbing, but progress was made by following the few relatively clear paths.  Around mid-morning the group came across a group of spider swarms looking for a meal, but quickly eliminated the swarms with a judicious use of fire and lightning.  During this fight, Dame Yasha fell back from a forward position so a lightning bolt could be cast without her being in the area of effect.  Afterward, Alys razzed Dame Yasha for "retreating from the enemy".  This did not sit well with the Knight of the Order of the Dragon.

The lightning bolt seemed to have attracted some attention as shortly thereafter they ran across a phase spider heading in their general direction.  Not wanting to deal with it, they took evasive actions and avoided it [they spent a resolve token to avoid the encounter].  As the sun set, the woods darkened quickly and camp was made.  Sal and Thorngrim worked together to create another stable tower for the group to camp inside.  Due to all the webbing in the area, Sal refrained from setting up a campfire wall around the tower.

In the morning, the group explored a little farther into the Spiderwood and were attacked by an ogre spider.  After killing it, they decided that they had had enough with spiders and turned back to return to Drop-off Tower.  When crossing one of the streams winding through the Sea of Grass, Dame Yasha's horse, Lakshmi, deliberately splashed a great deal of water on Alys and Mr. Boodles.  Alys, Knight of the Order of the Chimera, had had enough and threw her mailed glove at Dame Yasha, issuing a challenge.  Dame Yasha accepted, tired of the gnome and her little pet claiming to be a knight.

Once to the other side of the river, a jousting pitch was cleared and the two knights set up at either end of the pitch, with the rest of the adventurers taking seats to the side to watch the event.  The signal was given and the two knights rode at each other, (blunted) lances flying across the pitch.  There was a huge crash at the two knights struck.  Surprisingly, it was Dame Yasha who was unhorsed and was laying on her back gasping for breath.  As it turns out, Alys is a top notch jouster, significantly more skilled at it than Dame Yasha.  When Alys returned to the center of the pitch and offered a hand up to Dame Yasha, Dame Yasha accepted it and congratulated Alys on her victory – clearly Dame Yasha has significant respect for Alys's skills now.  Alys was also gracious about the event and both considered the matter settled.

Pushing on as fast as they could, the group of adventurers made it back to Drop-off Tower just as the sun was setting.  Tired from their travels, they settled in to the somewhat overcrowded tower for rest.

*End of session*

[The joust was spontaneously developed from the group's roleplaying and both players had a good time.  I put together a quick set of rules for adjudicating the joust, based on the critical parts of what was happening (how hard did each hit and were they able to stay mounted after the hit).  It was fun to give the knights a way to show off and challenge each other without an actual fight happening.]

Thursday, April 21, 2011

SR42: Diversionary Fires and Leucrotta

This session happened Friday, April 8, 2011, and was the only session I ran this past weekend.

Adventuring Group:
Mog the Doomed (half-orc barbarian)
Xin (human wizard)
Sal Ty (elf wizard) [via Skype]
– Maenwen (Sal’s human wizard cohort)
Alys Kaah (gnome summoner/cavalier) [via Skype]
– Mr. Boodles (Alys’s owlbear-looking eidolon and mount)


Note: the list of player characters is in player sitting order, from my left and then clockwise around the table and then on my laptop via Skype.

In-game Starting Date: September 27, 23rd Year of King Nikola V

"Oh this isn't going to end well." ~Sal after hearing Alys had a plan.

Having more heroic exploits to pass on to her PR flak, Alys went to Iron Keep to look Thomin up.  She found him passed out in Spider's Bar.  After borrowing a ready bucket of water from Spider, Alys awoke Thomin by drenching him.  Interrogating her bard, Alys discovered that Thomin had not been spreading the word of her good deeds, but had, instead, been spreading the legs of some local lasses and getting into trouble over it.  Alys was not pleased and read Thomin the Riot Act.  Afterwards, she gave him explicit instructions to arrange a coat of arms for her, come up a believable title for her, and to spread word about the "visiting dignitary from the Fae Court".  Thomin was not enthused, but 100 gold coins changed that quickly.

Alys also picked up a message from the Baron for "The Adventurers of the Tower".  The Baron apparently wants to meet to formalize the relationship between him and the adventurers.  The word "fealty" was used.  This was not well received at Drop-off Tower, but Sal sent a response indicating that a delegation would meet with him "in two full moons."

After the usual discussion about where to explore with those adventurers available, the group decided to scout further south in the Sea of Grass.  They followed Old Road south from the Tower, across the Edge Hills to where the Old Road ended at the Sea of Grass.  There was smoke everywhere and a huge grassfire could be seen moving towards the hills.

Not wanting to spend the magic to make the fire survivable, the group instead turned west and explored the southern edge of the Edge Hills.  While exploring, the group observed a lone air elemental making its way along the ridgeline.  Sal approached and greeted it in Auran.  This intrigued the air elemental enough to fly down and converse.  [Note: Air elementals have outrageous French accents.]  Sal played up to its ego and the elemental offered to make a deal: an exchange of information that would likely save their lives for a major favor later.  After some hemming and hawing, Sal took the deal.

The air elemental told the group about the air elemental at Old Stones.  The adventurers already knew of it and said so.  "Ah!  But did you know it is trapped there and has gone insane because of it?"  That they did not know and they agreed it was valuable information.  The deal concluded, the air elemental left.

Later in the day, the group was attacked by a pair of hungry griffins.  The adventurers killed the griffins and, after making camp, had griffin steaks.  Alys harvested the wings of one of the griffins with an eye towards the creation of wings of flying.  Or a really awesome hat.  Camp was a more traditional rope trick surrounded by a campfire wall.

During the second watch, with Sal, Maenwen, and Alys on duty, a group of leucrottas attempted to sneak close to the camp.  Sal noticed them and alerted the others.  Before the leucrotta could get close enough to do anything, Sal lobbed a fireball at them, Maenwen summoned a fire elemental and sent it after them, and Alys charged into combat on Mr. Boodles, nearly killing one of the beasts outright.  Being intelligent beasts, the leucrotta realized that this camp was much too powerful for them and they fled immediately.

The next morning, while exploring, the adventurers came across the tracks to the leucrotta and followed them.  They followed the trail to the entrance of a canyon.  Sal noticed some gnolls up on the canyon rim waiting in ambush.  Sal and Maenwen granted flight to the entire party and they attacked.  The gnolls had two ballistas and the crews to run them, plus some arches and some spearmen, but it was no avail – the adventurers were too strong for them and all the gnolls were killed.  Deeper into the canyon the adventurers found a fortified cave entrance.  It looked strong enough that they did not want to face it just then and so Sal teleported everyone back to Drop-off Tower.

*End of session*

[This session was most unusual because I had two players present and two attending via Skype.  One of the players physically attending has moved out of town for work and wants to keep playing via Skype, so it is entirely possible I may have a game where there are more virtual players than living bodies at the table.  The future is strange.]

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

SR41: The Crooked Tower

This session happened Friday, April 1, 2011, and was the only session I ran this past weekend.

Adventuring Group:
Su Bel (human cleric)
– Dame Yasha of Bereste (Su Bel’s human cavalier cohort)
Thorngrim (half-orc sorcerer)
– Kainen (Thorngrim’s human fighter cohort)
Alys Kaah (gnome summoner/cavalier) [via Skype]
– Mr. Boodles (Alys’s owlbear-looking eidolon and mount)

Note: the list of player characters is in player sitting order, from my left and then clockwise around the table and then on my laptop via Skype.


In-game Starting Date: September 17, 23rd Year of King Nikola V

Between sessions (prior to the in-game starting date), a few things happened. Alys went to Iron Keep looking for a bard. In one of the “townie” taverns, she found Thomin, an orange-haired gnome bard. After getting him over to Spider’s Bar, she hired him to spread good (positive) stories about her in town, paying him 20 gold coins.

Back at Drop-off Tower, Thorngrim was able to make a good showing on his lyre of building, converting all of the available stone supplies into the keep walls and completing one of the corner towers. This moved the keep well ahead of schedule, but left the workers without much to work with until more stone could arrive. This forced Agnes and Tycho to go to the quarries to place an emergency order for stone. Mog wandered off somewhere and the three wizards (Sal, Maenwen, and Xin) were performing arcane research.

Once the available adventurers assembled, the small group decided to go to Old Stones and attempt another breach into the Elemental Chaos. When Alys asked for explanations of what this entailed, they essentially talked themselves out of doing such a dangerous thing and instead decided to explore the Edge Hills north and west of the Old Road.

On the first day of explorations in the hills the group was attacked by a manticore, a fight that went quick, and found giant ant trails. Later in the day, they were attacked by three wyverns, during which Su Bel summoned a bishonen warrior, er, a Bralani azata to assist in the fight. Much later in the day the group located the wyvern nest and found quite a bit of loose loot, including a set of platemail +1. Sadly, the only one who could wear it was wearing better armor. With “waste not, want not” as their motto, the armor was packed away for later use.

Without several people who had become part of the groups camping SOP, a new plan was devised: Thorngrim would use wall of stone to build a stone tower for the group to camp in. While a fine idea, without a good set of plans and Sal’s engineering expertise, Thorngrim created what is now known as the Crooked Tower. Plus, it was relatively short – only 20 ft tall. Thorngrim would come to regret this.

During first watch, a dire tiger, the one creature whose lethality the adventurers truly respect, moved into the area, tracking the scent of wyvern steaks. Alys wanted to go out and charge it on Mr. Boodles and had to be physically restrained by Dame Yasha. Sulking, Alys returned to the roof of the Crooked Tower where Thorngrim watched the dire tiger’s approach. The tiger was attacked at range [I don’t remember by who, but the PCs definitely initiated the fight]. When the tiger attacked, it charged the tower and leapt up at the top, catching hold just enough to lash out with a claw and grab Thorngrim, pulling him down to the ground when it let go of the tower.

Thorngrim, rather than attempt to escape (which he knew he would fail at), cast scorching ray at the dire tiger, one of his two rays burning the skin and much of the flesh off the animals head [a critical hit for near maximum damage]. Hearing that Thorngrim was on the ground from Alys, Kainen bolted out the tower door and attacked the critically wounded dire tiger, putting it out of its misery.

After the fight, Alys was very contrite and apologized to Thorngrim for pushing to attack the dire tiger. Thorngrim accepted the apology and they were good friends again.

The next day, the small group explored further, reaching the northwest tip of the hills, following signs of a bulette. They eventually cornered the bulette. During the fight, Alys charged the beast and Su Bel summoned an earth elemental. Between Alys and the elemental, the bulette did not stand a chance.

The beast killed, the adventurers returned to the Crooked Tower to camp. In the morning, they made their way back to Drop-off Tower with their loot and trophies.

*End of session*

[This was a short-ish session as we did not get word that Agnes and Tycho would not be available until later than normal. That said, the group did get most of the hills north and west of Old Road explored and created a new landmark on the map – the Crooked Tower. I like it when players physically add to the world as it gives me things to work with that are tied in to the world in a way the players have a stake in.]

New SR Log Posted Later Today

My wife and I are getting back into painting miniatures after a five or six year hiatus.  Last night we went through our paints, adding distilled water to ones that dried out to see if we could save them.  Most reconstituted, but a handful were inert and will need to be replaced.

As a result of this activity, I did not get any writing done last night.  I have my notes with me and will get the next Southern Reaches adventure log written up during my lunch break and posted early this afternoon.

Tonight is The Aldelle Group, so there will likely be no post tomorrow, but Thursday should have a post and most likely Friday as well.

Tangentially, Xin's player has moved out of town due to (a lack of) work reasons and may be Skype-ing in along with Sal's player and Alys's player (the inestimable Erin Palette).  This will give me three online players and four players at the table, assuming all the local players are able to make the game.  At this rate, I may need to look into virtual tabletop software.  Three of my "local" players actually have to drive 45-60 minutes to get to the game and the same to get home.  As a result, two of the players (Tycho's and Agnes's players) have not made the game for several weeks.  If we went to a virtual table top, preferably one compatible with Hero Lab, they could make the game more often without the long drive and we could start the game earlier, even allowing time for the getting of dinner.  Something to give some thought to.

That's it for now.  Later!

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Improvised Jousting Rules

So last night the two cavaliers in my Southern Reaches campaign finally reached the snapping point in smack talking at each other and a challenge was issued (see SR 43: Showdown at the River when I finally get it typed up).  The two cavaliers lined up against each other at an improvised list...and suddenly I needed jousting rules.

Now I could have used the combat system in the Pathfinder RPG rules and run it that way, but that seemed wrong - initiative and to hit rolls just don't work when the action is supposed to be simultaneous.  So after some quick thought, here's what I came up with:

Assumption: Cavaliers have trained specifically to ride at someone and hit them with a lance, so they are very competent at it.


Conclusion: Rolling initiative and to hit is pointless, therefore they are skipped.  Only damage and a Ride check to stay on matter.

Step 1: Describe cavaliers taking place at each end of the list.
Step 2: Describe them riding pell-mell at each other and hitting in the center (just like in the movies).
Step 3: Both players roll damage, remembering multipliers for lances in a charge.
Step 4: Divide damage by 5 (round down) and apply it as a negative modifier for the opponent's Ride check.
Step 5: Both players make a DC 20 Ride check, including the penalties from their opponent.
Step 6: Check results:
            Both make Ride check: both stay mounted - apply damage (non-lethal if blunted tips were used) and line up again for another pass.

            One makes Ride check: successful rider stays on and wins, the other falls to the ground and loses.

            Both fail Ride check: both knocked to ground - apply damage and check to see who's conscious:
                       Both conscious: remount and repeat process
                       Only one conscious: conscious one is winner, other loser
                       Both unconscious: both fail and lose honor

This gives a fairly quick resolution and makes the Ride skill just that more valuable to a cavalier, which it should be.  Running a joust this way levels the playing field and gets rid of a bunch of extraneous stuff that would hamper the scene.  Initiative is meaningless when the two combatants are, by definition, moving at the same time.  To-hit rolls are also meaningless for several reasons.  The only critical parts are "how hard did you hit" and "can you stay on".  Experienced jousters will have more ranks in Ride and be better at staying on their mount, plus have feats to improve their capabilities at jousting.  Less experienced riders won't and it will show.

Not needing to roll to hit is from the Streetfighter RPG, which uses the assumption that streetfighters are competent and can hit anyone they want, the real question is how hard.  Dividing the damage by 5 is from the Hero System, where dividing by five to get a modifier is fairly standard for many situations, plus it gives some good modifiers without wiping out the skill of the rider.


This worked out really well in-game and I'll use it in the future when I run some sort of jousting tourney in-game.

Friday, April 15, 2011

The Aldelle Group – Session 22 – First Steps

This session happened Wednesday, April 13, 2011. This campaign used the Dyson’s Delve dungeon pages on A Character for Every Game as a starting point, but has now moved on to new material from the DM-in-training. I heartily recommend Dyson's Delve as a beginning adventure.

Adventuring Group:
Harkaitz of the Red Soul (male human cleric of Ra)
Wednesday (female elf rogue)
Sahar (female human fighter)
Tre-ba Bel a sheer (female elf alchemist)
Frankie Hu, Master of the Distracting Fist (male dwarf monk)

[Luna’s player was out due to a college astronomy lab again. We’ll be moving the game day back to Tuesday until the end of the semester so Luna can participate, though we may lose Tre-ba to a business conference in May as a result.]

Evening, April 11, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, for illuminating our way.

We spent the day scouting some more and verifying we are at the correct location. I cast locate object several times from different sides of the clearing to triangulate the location of the magical gate we seek. I was able to verify that it is towards the center of the clearing and below the surface.

Tre-ba has been brewing a number of extracts for us to use. I will have expeditious retreat (which can be used to advance, thank you), shield, and barkskin. Aziz is receiving barkskin and haste. In fact, all of us will have an extract of barkskin, which should keep us alive longer tomorrow.

Tomorrow we enter the barrow.


[In hurried script]
Midday, April 12, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, for granting us strength against our enemies.

We approached the barrow as quietly as we could (which for Aziz, Sahar, and myself is, admittedly, not very quiet), using the tree stumps as cover. Wednesday and Frankie were our vanguard, moving near silently and scouting the way for traps and enemies. We achieved the tunnel with no response from the drow, which was good and unsettling – they had set no watch.

The entrance to the barrow angled steeply downward from the entrance for 20 feet and then leveled out. The initial hall forked and Frankie set off a portcullis trap on the right-hand path. Wednesday and Frankie heard footsteps moving away along both paths, so they knew we were here. Wednesday found and circled in chalk the portcullis trap on the left and did the same for the trigger on the right. After lifting the right-hand portcullis and locking it back in place, we lowered the left-hand one. Unfortunately, Sahar slipped and I could not hold the entire weight, so it dropped into place noisily. We spiked it shut with four spikes.

The right-hand path curved sharply to the right and then split multiple times. Wednesday scouted the most right tunnel as I thought it would link up with the left-hand path after curling under the entrance. It didn’t – it leads to a drow oubliette with three cells, one which had skeletal remains. When we went to explore the next corridor, a group of drow attacked!

There were two scouts with bows and rapiers, a mage, an evil cleric, and a heavily armed and armored warrior. My first action was to throw a fireball down the corridor at the scouts (who were all we saw at first). They evaded the fire, but I later learned the others were not so lucky. Frankie then led the charge, attempting to suppress the archers by being right on them, which mostly worked but left him vulnerable to many attacks. The tight (five foot) corridors made combat difficult, but we eventually killed them all, with Aziz refuting the evil cleric’s unholy words using the holy fire of Ra dancing upon his sword.

Just as we were defeating these foes, another group started unjamming the portcullis we had spiked to avoid just this problem. Tre-ba was far enough back to hear them at it and warned us. By the time they had pulled two of the spikes out, we were on them. This fight was hampered by the portcullis, but I drove them off by placing a wall of fire along the walls and ceiling of their side. We killed two of them and drove the other three away having been burned terribly by the wall.

Have a respite, some of the group went back to loot the bodies of the first set of drow while Aziz stood watch over the paralyzed Wednesday, who had a hold person spell cast upon her during the fight. I am taking time to update my journal before we continue exploring (not being disposed towards handling the dead to remove their valuables).

*End of Session*

[We ended the session in media res, which is a benefit for us as we will not have to fight our way back to this point. On the other hand, we are down spells and potions and still in the dungeon. With the switch in the day we are playing, Luna will be available and full up on spells and hit points, so we should be good to go.]

[We had a heated discussion during the second fight about whether or not a drow reaching through the portcullis to remove a spike in the middle of the combat was subject to cover and or had his DEX-bonus. This came up due to Wednesday getting a critical hit on the drow in question. The DM ruled that he did not have cover and was denied his DEX-bonus, but was not exposed enough to suffer Wednesday’s sneak attack damage as the DM felt that a single arm did not provide an adequate vital point for the sneak attack damage. This was unsatisfactory to the players to say the least. I expect some discussion on this at the beginning of next session to clarify how portcullises will be handled in the future and then we’ll go on. We sort of ran out of time at the end of the session to discuss it then and some distance will be good.]

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Adventure Log Scheduling Switch

I was planning on getting up to date with the Southern Reaches adventure logs, but neglected to bring my notebook with those notes.  As last night was my Wednesday night game (The Aldelle Group, a.k.a. Super Rat), that notebook was in my computer backpack.  I have a bit of time while waiting for folks to get out of meetings so I can ask them questions on the next thing I'm doing, so I decided to write up last week's session.  I may write up this week's session during lunch - depends on how things go.

Later!

The Aldelle Group – Session 21 – Scouting the Barrow

This session happened Wednesday, April 6, 2011. This campaign used the Dyson’s Delve dungeon pages on A Character for Every Game as a starting point, but has now moved on to new material from the DM-in-training. I heartily recommend Dyson's Delve as a beginning adventure.

Adventuring Group:
Harkaitz of the Red Soul (male human cleric of Ra)
Wednesday (female elf rogue)
Sahar (female human fighter)
Tre-ba Bel a sheer (female elf alchemist)
Frankie Hu, Master of the Distracting Fist (male dwarf monk)


[Luna’s player was out due to a college astronomy lab. We moved to Wednesday from Tuesday as I and my wife (Tre-ba’s player) were away on our 12th wedding anniversary trip. As there is no easy way to remove Luna from the scene, she is considered to be guarding the camp with Short John. This is a bit more realistic than assuming she was lured away by pretty elf boys. Barely. ;-)]

Evening, April 10, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, for showing us the way.
Having tentatively identified the location of the gate (or at least the location of the drow), we set to scouting the area, looking for an alternate way into their barrow. The plan was for Frankie to stealthily scout an area 100 ft around the large clearing, moving in a counter-clockwise direction while Tre-Ba did the same while flying in a clockwise direction. The both move quickly and with the double-check, we should have found any nearby hidden entrances.

This is not how things went.

Frankie only made it a quarter of the way around when he ran into a drow patrol. Luckily Wednesday had given him a signal whistle, which he actually used immediately. In the past he has tried to deal with a situation on his own and got more injured for it. As the healer, I know. Anyways, he blew on the whistle and the rest of us moved into action. Frankie was able to hold his own for a short while before the drow’s poisoned arrows knocked him out. Again lucky, Frankie fell unconscious just as we started to arrive. Tre-ba was there first, flying at reckless speed directly across the 350 ft clearing. Due to this her bow fire was not very accurate. Sahar arrived next on foot and cut one of the drow down with her holy sword while Wednesday charged into combat with another drow. Eventually Aziz and I arrived.

Aziz and Sahar took down the next drow while Wednesday traded bow fire with him. I used our wand of cure serious wounds on Frankie [15 charges left] to heal his wounds, if not cure his poison-induced sleep. Tre-ba then swept in behind the last drow, grabbed him, and started flying up with him. Sahar and Aziz got into position incase the drow escaped and dropped back to the ground. This turned out to not be necessary. Tre-ba flew up as far as she could, holding onto the drow until she was 160 ft up – then she dropped him. The drow did not survive the fall. In fact, he splattered on Aziz and Sahar. A lot.

While we were waiting for Frankie to awake (with my healing assistance), Tre-ba quickly finished her scouting circle around the clearing. Sahar scouted the immediate area around the fight, but found no tracks. At this point Frankie awoke and checked the tree branches for tracks up there and found none, speculating that the drow’s soft shoes would not have left much of a mark on the hardwood branches. Tre-ba eventually returned, reporting no additional entrances. We then obscured our tracks back to camp so the drow could not backtrack us.  We are now planning our assault on the barrow mound itself.  Ra's will be done.

*End of Session*

[Short session as we did a lot of talking and I and my wife were a little late showing up (it took longer to fix dinner than planned). Plus, we wanted to wait until Luna was actually available again before entering the barrow and stopping here was a good place to do that. It didn’t work out that way, but that was our thinking.]

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

SR40: Ghosts, Terra Cotta Warriors, and a Lightning Elemental

This session happened Friday, March 25, 2011, and was the only session I ran this past weekend.  Due to DM frazzlement, no game was held on the 18th, but we did play boardgames, including Arkham Horror.  I strongly recommend this co-operative boardgame.

Adventuring Group:
Su Bel (human cleric)
– Dame Yasha of Bereste (Su Bel’s human cavalier cohort)
Mog the Doomed (half-orc barbarian)
Tycho von Helmont (elf alchemist)
Agnes Sunbeard (dwarf rogue)
Xin (human wizard)
Thorngrim (half-orc sorcerer)
– Kainen (Thorngrim’s human fighter cohort)
Alys Kaah (gnome summoner/cavalier) [via Skype]
– Mr. Boodles (Alys’s owlbear-looking eidolon and mount)


Note: the list of player characters is in player sitting order, from my left and then clockwise around the table and then on my laptop via Skype.

In-game Starting Date: September 7, 23rd Year of King Nikola V

Since the previous outing, Alys sold her cheetah pelt and used the proceeds to purchase a cheetah fur cloak, floppy hat, and a lining for her saddle (this was through a deal with clothier).  If only she could have had it dyed purple like she wanted...

After some discussion, the group decided that a return to the Terrace of Fallen Horses was in order. The group left Drop-off Tower and headed west on mounts, first along Gravemarker Road and then on the Grass Road. Arriving as the sun was setting, the group camped beside the reflecting pond in front of the terraces.

At the end of the last watch, a ghost floated out of a tomb on the upper terrace (the last tomb the adventurers had explored up there). As the ghost approached, Mog charged the ghost, which promptly possessed him. The possessed Mog then turned on his companions, slaying Xin in one blow. Su Bel was able to drive the ghost from Mog [turn undead feat] and Thorngrim was able to evaporate the ghost via a fireball.  Mog needed healing from the clobbering an invisible Agnes handed to him while attempting to subdue Mog.  At dawn, Su Bel raised Xin and cast a restoration on him, reducing the worst effects of his death. Luckily, Xin appeared to have blanked the memory of his death, although he now gets unaccountably nervous when Mog rages.

Having explored all of the tombs on the lower terrace, the adventurers decided to resume explorations of the tombs on the upper terrace. Mog was set to removing the earth from the next tomb down (the one next to the ghost's tomb). This tomb turned out to be fairly simple, consisting of a corridor and a single chamber. The walls of the corridor were painted to show the travels of the king. There were scenes showing the king standing on the steps of a stepped pyramid, talking to people in a town on stilts in a swamp, talking with dog-headed warriors in their camp, and among giants wrapped in furs on a snowy mountain.

The king's burial chamber contained a large stone sarcophagus and five terra cotta warriors, each slightly different in appearance. Agnes carefully checked the statues and the sarcophagus for traps and found one set to launch a hail of spears across the chamber and down the corridor. Due to her great experience with the traps of the horse people, she was able to disable the trap fairly easily. The sarcophagus contained only a few treasures, but they were very valuable, including an amulet of might fists, and adamantine dagger, and four urns full of gold coins.

The next tomb was much more complex, with several side chambers. Additionally, the bottom half of the corridor walls were stone covered and the top half covered in stucco. The wall paintings were of the highest quality found so far on the upper terrace, on par with the lower tombs. The first chamber contained a chariot with a jewel encrusted shield in it and wall paintings of the king riding to battle in the chariot. The next room contained two stone sarcophagi, the wall paintings indicating these were the king's wives. The third chamber was dominated by an immense wall painting showing the family tree of the king. Thorngrim took the time to copy this down for later review.

The final room was the resting place of the king. The chamber doors of this tomb had been covered with river stones and then plaster, as was common here. The stone layer for this king's chamber was nearly four feet thick and took a great deal of effort for Mog to break through. When he did, a greater lightning elemental was unleashed. This provided some challenge to the adventurers, but the lack of space for the elemental to maneuver worked to their advantage. After defeating the elemental, the adventurers were able to actually explore the room. The sarcophagus was ornate lacquer work and gold and was treasure in and of itself. Inside were the remains of the king, who had a twisted left leg, covered with a gold "boot".

With their bags of holding full and the day getting late, the adventurers returned to their camp. Luckily, the night was quiet, and the next day they returned to the Iron Keep to convert their findings to coin. This was one of the most profitable expeditions in some time and an evening of celebration was had.

*End of session*

Monday, April 11, 2011

Adventure Log Schedule and Level Titles

Now that The Aldelle Group is mostly caught up (still need to type up last weeks notes), I'm catching up with the Southern Reaches game. In the future I will be making a stronger effort to keep both campaign logs up-to-date while still posting material for the Hero Traveller game. Not certain how it will play out, but there will be at least two posts per week, usually on Tuesday and Thursday. Additional material will post when I have something ready.

There has been some discussion on level names recently (I can't remember exactly where - if I do or you remind me I'll provide a link). My junior high school group never used them when playing AD&D, so I have no memories attached to them. Thinking on it, I've decided I like the use of something similar as a way of describing character levels in-game without getting all clumbsy about it. When I do the reboot of the Southern Reaches, one of the things I want to incorporate is a nomenclature for character levels certified by institutions ingame.

Sal wants to establish a university with a magical college, which would be good for covering arcane power levels. Su Bel wants to establish a temple, which would cover the divine. If Thorngrim's player has Kainen establish a training school for his signature whip and shield fighting style, then I would have something for martial characters (something like martial art belts). Fifty to seventy years later, each of these could become fixtures in the campaign background, providing certifications or at least a common set of terminology for each group, so when new players and/or characters join the game, they have a way to indicate what they are capable of without breaking character.

This is something I'll need to file away for now and bring out later when it is time to advance the Southern Reaches as a region.

Later!

SR39: Cave Fishing with Alys

This session happened Friday, March 11, 2011, and was the only session I ran this past weekend.  Erin Palette of Lurking Rhythmically joined the game via Skype this session, playing Alys Kaah.  Normally I wouldn't call out a player like this, but Erin'd never forgive me for not doing so.  Just ask her.

Adventuring Group:
Mog the Doomed (half-orc barbarian)
Tycho von Helmont (elf alchemist)
Agnes Sunbeard (dwarf rogue)
Xin (human wizard)
Thorngrim (half-orc sorcerer)
 – Kainen (Thorngrim’s human fighter cohort)
Sal Ty (elf wizard) [via Skype]
– Maenwen (Sal’s human wizard cohort)
Alys Kaah (gnome summoner/cavalier)
– Mr. Boodles (Alys’s owlbear-looking eidolon and mount)


Note: the list of player characters is in player sitting order, from my left and then clockwise around the table and then on my laptop via Skype.

In-game Starting Date: August 28, 23rd Year of King Nikola V

Alys Kaah came across the Southern Sea to Westcastle Crossing to avoid boredom.  She was not impressed.  The town was full of miners, quarrymen, and farmers.  When she heard adventurers were in the village tavern, she went there immediately to introduce herself.  She did this by jumping up into Thorngrim's lap and declaring she too was an adventurer and she would like to adventure with the group.  This direct approach (and the gnome's very strange appearance) took the group back a bit, but they decided they could use another person when they eventually faced the dragon.  Alys was happy as fighting a dragon would definitely not be boring.  The group left Westcastle Crossing and headed east on the Road of Grass to return to Drop-off Tower.

After introducing Alys around at the Tower, the group discussed what they would do next.  It was decided that a puzzling marking east of Santa Fe on their map should be investigated.  The group head south on Old Road.  While still in the forest, the group was ambushed by dire tigers out hunting.  During the combat Maenwyn was killed by one of the dire tigers before the party could kill the tigers.  This forced Sal to detour back to Drop-off Tower using flight to have Su Bel cast raise dead on Maenwyn.  He (and the newly risen Maenwyn) caught up with the group where Old Road ended.

At the end of the day the group camped on the Sea of Grass.  While the rest of the group went about the process of setting up camp (and their defenses), Alys explored the nearby area.  She found two cheetahs stalking the camp and charged them riding Mr. Boodles.  She killed one of the cheetahs with her lance, while Mr. Boodles's attacks drove of the other.  Alys returned with the dead cheetah and had Mog skin it for her.

In the morning, the group started exploring the plains east of the Adobe Hills.  They found a steep cliff surrounding a large depression in the plains with several rivers draining into what appeared to be an enormous sinkhole, nearly 100 ft across.  The sinkhole was deep enough that the bottom was shadowed.  Pooling all the rope they carried, they were able to make a single line 300 ft in length (if of varying diameter and materials).  Using an improvised pulley system, Alys (the lightest) was lowered into the sinkhole.

The walls fell back from the edge and Alys could see that the sinkhole was actually a deep cavern whose ceiling had collapsed in the past.  The rivers pouring over the edge spread out as it fell until it filled most of the cavern, drenching Alys and masking most sounds.  She could see that there were many cave fishers crawling along the walls, catching birds for meals.  This would make the trip back up much less than boring.

At the bottom was a jumble of fallen rock with brush and other plants growing thickly.  There was a small lake where the falling water gathered and then flowed deeper into the ground through a very low tunnel.  In the opposite direction was a wide and tall tunnel leading to the west.  Alys untied herself from the rope to explore the area some.  Mog noticed the lack of weight and started pulling the rope back up to see what happened.  When he was done and the rope was found to neither be cut not damaged, the group decided Alys was looking around and would very much want to see the rope again, so Mog fed the rope down again.

Alys did indeed very much want to see the rope again and eagerly retied herself to it when it returned.  She then yanked twice to get Mog to pull it back up.  One of the cave fishers did notice the Alys-shaped meal on the rope and caught her with its sticky tongue.  Thorngrim, who had been watching, relayed this to the group and Kainen joined Mog on pulling the rope back up.  After a short tug of war, the cave fisher's tongue lost and Alys broke free.  Thorngrim lobbed a fireball down to get the creature to back off while Mog turned and ran with the rope, pulling Alys the rest of the way back up at nearly dangerous speed.

After some discussion, the group decided to explore the cavern further.  Sal and Thorngrim cast feather fall on everyone and then the group leapt over the edge.  Judicious use of magic spells kept the group safe all the way down.  At the bottom, the group started down the tall tunnel, seeking where it went.  Not very far down the tunnel the group was attacked by a gargantuan purple worm!

During the chaotic fight, Kainen was swallowed by the purple worm.  Mog was able to kill the beast and cut Kainen free just in time to save Thorngrim's cohort.  The group uses what little healing magic they have with them to heal up.  Mog then started cutting up the carcass and skinning the parts he could get to (much of the worm was still in its burrow.  Alys had a tooth removed from its maw, with plans to have the tooth made into a gnomish greatsword for her use.

Once everyone was mostly healed, the group decided that perhaps they wanted to have their healer with them before exploring any further.  Through the use of Sal's magics the group returned to the surface safely and then rode their horses back to Drop-off Tower.  Sadly, Su Bel and Dame Yasha were away, assisting in the Baron's iron mines where a collapse had killed and injured many workers.  Again.

*End of session*

Thursday, April 7, 2011

The Aldelle Group – Session 20 – The Forest of Angry Elves

This session happened Tuesday, March 29, 2011.  This campaign used the Dyson’s Delve dungeon pages on A Character for Every Game as a starting point, but has now moved on to new material from the DM-in-training.  I heartily recommend Dyson's Delve as a beginning adventure.

Adventuring Group:
Harkaitz of the Red Soul (male human cleric of Ra)
Wednesday (female elf rogue)
Sahar (female human fighter)
Tre-ba Bel a sheer (female elf alchemist)
Luna (female elf sorcerer)
Frankie Hu, Master of the Distracting Fist (male dwarf monk)

[This session started after a cliffhanger.  The PCs discovered they were no longer in the vrock cave, but rather in a forest none of them recognized.  After Harkaitz healed folks from the fight they were transported out of, some scouting was done to determine A) if this location was safe and B) where this location was.]

Evening, April 9, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, for delivering us from evil.

After Tre-ba flew around some at a height, she was able to determine that we were inside the Vaardenfelt, a great forest several days southeast of Terranor.  This was significantly safer than the vrock cave, although Frankie was upset about our failure to kill the vrock as we were clearly close to success.  On the other hand, the pig-demon and the demon of smoke and fire were also about to kill all of us, so clearly Ra had delivered us to safety.  The others may be uncertain, but Aziz and I recognize the pure light of Ra when it engulfs us.

The Vaardenfelt is home to elves, which would not be an issue if it were not for the on-going civil war between a faction known as the "drow" and all the other elves.  To avoid any issues (and avoid getting pulled into the civil war due to traveling with three elves), we set a path to the northwest.  This path should take us out of the forest as quickly as possible while heading back to Terranor. 

We have just finished a fine dinner prepared by Short John.  I am taking this time to update my journal.  Aziz and I will be on the first watch, but we are expecting little trouble.  I will make my next update once we are out of the forest tomorrow.


Morning, April 10, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Blessed is Ra, in whose service we fight!

Last night, Aziz and I were visited by a winged messenger of Ra!  The holy messenger told us that Terranor has fallen to the demons and devils.  The demons and devils follow a plan to seize all the gates and unmake the world!  The drow of the forest have made a deal with the demons to secure the gate in the heart of the Vaardenfelt and turn it over.  Ra commands us to go there and defend the gate.  We are to fight the drow and make allies with any other elves we can.  The winged messenger then marked the location of the gate on my map with a glowing sigil and departed.

I attempted to tell Wednesday, Tre-ba, and Frankie about this when we awoke them for the second watch, but they were reluctant to believe, suggesting we wait until the entire group was awake in the morning.  Aziz and I reluctantly agreed.  It took time to calm down enough to sleep, but when I did, I slept soundly in the knowledge that we have a holy mission from Ra.

Once camp is finished being packed (and I finish my prayers), we will reverse our course and make our way to the Forest Gate.

Midday, April 10, Year of the Earth Rabbit

Blessed is Ra, who provides for His servants.

We are taking a break after some boars charged us, including a dire boar.  Not surprisingly, Short John is cooking boar steaks on the fire.  Short John is also smoking more of the meat to supplement our travel supplies.

Evening, April 10, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Blessed is Ra, who show us the path.

We have marched an entire day towards the Forest Gate.  Other than the boars around mid-day, there has been little to report.

Evening, April 11, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Blessed is Ra, who blinds our foes.

After several hours of hiking through the forest, we arrived at a broad, circular expanse where all the trees had been cut down, leaving only stumps of a uniform height.  After we moved into the clearing to get a feel for its size and shape, Frankie moved towards the center to investigate if the Forest Gate was there, leaping from stump to stump.  Tre-ba used a potion of flying to scout from 40 to 50 ft high and the rest of us fell back to the edge of the clearing as the sun started to set.

Frankie spotted a raised area of earth, possibly a barrow, and changed his course to investigate it.  He was sniped at by two drow with longbows for his troubles.  Tre-ba noticed this, although those of us at the edge of the clearing missed it.  We did not miss Tre-ba's bombs exploding.  Surmising that they were under attack and that Tre-ba was accurate in her aim, Luna lobbed a fireball over a 100 ft away at the location of the explosion, filling that area with fire.  We later learned (from Frankie and Tre-ba) that this killed one of the drow and forced the other to retreat underground through a concealed opening in the barrow.

Frankie and Tre-ba returned to the rest of us, explaining what they had seen and what had happened.  We pulled back away from the clearing into the forest, locating a defensible location to camp.  I write this with the last light of the sun.  We do not dare to start a fire as the drow would surely find us that way and overwhelm us.  Good thing we smoked some of that boar meat yesterday.

*End of Session*

[It has occurred to the party that Harkaitz and Aziz did not ask for the name of the angel that delivered the quest to us, reducing our ability to verify anything.  That makes no difference to Harkaitz and Aziz, but it is a bit of a worry to me.  Guess we'll find out later if the DM has set us up.  I'm hoping not as this is a cool quest to be on.]

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

The Aldelle Group – Session 19 – The Devil's Cave

This session happened Tuesday, March 22, 2011.  This campaign used the Dyson’s Delve dungeon pages on A Character for Every Game as a starting point, but has now moved on to new material from the DM-in-training.  I heartily recommend Dyson's Delve as a beginning adventure.

Adventuring Group:
Harkaitz of the Red Soul (male human cleric of Ra)
Wednesday (female elf rogue)
Sahar (female human fighter)
Tre-ba Bel a sheer (female elf alchemist)
Luna (female elf sorcerer)
Frankie Hu, Master of the Distracting Fist (male dwarf monk)


[This session ended with a cliffhanger.  I am writing with the advantage of having played the following session already, otherwise this entry would have been very brief.]

April 9, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, for His light makes all things visible.

Over the week after the attack on Terranor by the demons and devils, we gathered each evening in the common room of the Murdered Manticore after assisting in the recovery of the city to discuss our options.  We could go to the vrock cave and search it further, we could go to the university to seek Professor Walsh, or we could seek new trouble to get into.  We all agreed that it was very unlikely that Professor Walsh would be available if he was in and if he wasn't back yet, he likely will not be back for a while.  New trouble did not seem appealing (we were also uncertain as to which way we wanted to go), so we eventually decided on the vrock cave.  Plus, there was still a reward for defeating the vrock.

We contacted Guildmaster Jarr (now in the guild's temporary headquarters within the walls of Terranor) and informed him of our plan.  We also suggested he attempt to get a better fee for defeat of the vrock, as it seemed much more dangerous than a week ago.  We then paid Short John for the previous week and the next week and had him lay in supplies for another trip into the countryside.

We have traveled half a day to reach the vrock cave.  Once we arrived here, we scouted the area and then set our camp in a secluded and defensible spot.  We are about to enter the cave and put an end to the vrock and hopefully stop the attacks on Terranor.


[In hurried handwriting]

Blessed is Ra, whose light protects us!

The cave was both better and worse than we expected.  Magic had reshaped the tunnels and caverns past the barghest side caves.  Those side caves were now home to a pair of bearded devils (now defunct). 
Most of the rest of the caverns were empty.  The evil shrine was once again malevolently active and I once again purified it.  This time we were determined to turn over the altar and possibly break it.  Instead, Sahar, Frankie, Aziz, and I lifted the top off and found a hollow underneath containing a skeleton that radiated evil.  These bones were also cleansed with holy water and blessed, hopefully purging the shrine once and for all, but I do not expect to be able to verify that for some time.

The final length of the cave was achieved through a set of secret doors, starting in the shrine.  The passage beyond was trapped, with the trigger was at the far end.  Wednesday missed it and triggered the release of a lightning bolt down the corridor, catching Sahar and Aziz (Frankie was able to avoid the bolt and the rest of us were out of the area effected).

Behind the door at the end of the passage was the vrock's chamber.  The vrock was sitting in a pentagram, chanting - a pentagram similar to the gate in the Delve.  Frankie charged into the room, hoping to use a tanglefoot bag on the vrock to keep it from dancing (a method of generating a large area attack according to Tre-ba), but he discovered two quasits and two things that looked like very large quasits (later identified by Tre-ba as nabasu) were also in the room and invisible – or were invisible until they attacked!

Sahar and Aziz charged into the room, also seeking to close in on the vrock, but were unable to reach it before being swarmed by quasits.  Sahar was able to kill most of the quasits with a mighty cleave of her holy longsword, freeing Aziz to reach the still chanting vrock.  Aziz and Frankie flanked the vrock, but not before it gated in a pig-like demon.  The pig-demon concentrated attacks on Aziz while Aziz and Frankie concentrated their attacks on the vrock.  I moved into the room to keep everyone as healed as I could and to cast bless.  Luna used an elixir of fly from Tre-ba to move in and cast spells from relative safety – until the nabasu took flight and started attacking her.

We were close to killing the vrock, we all knew it, and were possibly going to win the whole fight – until the vrock finished its chanting and opened a portal to a terrible place.  After the portal opened, a demon of smoke and fire with a burning whip stepped through, filling us all with dread.  We might kill the vrock, but we were now too late to stop its mission and surely the demon of smoke and fire would not let us escape alive.

Then a miracle happened.

The whole room was infused with light – a light so bright that none of us could see.  When it finally dimmed, our entire group, including Short John, his donkey, and all our supplies were standing in a clearing in a forest somewhere.  I immediately healed everyone in case we were attacked again, and then we took stock of our surroundings.  Tre-ba is scouting around right now, under the influence of a fly elixir.  I am taking this time to update my journal for – she's back.  More later.

*End of Session*

[The actual session ended with the bright light and no other explanation – a classic cliffhanger.  The actions afterward (including finding ourselves in a forest) actually happened at the beginning of the following session.  Due to my switch to a character journal format, I'm stealing a little from the following session to explain when Harkaitz had time to write all this down.  I thought about just ending the entry after the third paragraph, but thought that would be cheating - fun, but cheating.]

Monday, April 4, 2011

The Aldelle Group – Session 18 – Devils at the Gate

This session happened Tuesday, March 15, 2011.  This campaign used the Dyson’s Delve dungeon pages on A Character for Every Game as a starting point, but has now moved on to new material from the DM-in-training.  I heartily recommend Dyson's Delve as a beginning adventure.

Adventuring Group:
Harkaitz of the Red Soul (male human cleric of Ra)
Wednesday (female elf rogue)
Tre-ba Bel a sheer (female elf alchemist)
Frankie Hu, Master of the Distracting Fist (male dwarf monk)

April 2, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, for He shows us the way.

Today started with high hopes and the anticipation of putting an end to the vrock.  Such was not the outcome, but a worthy goal was achieved none-the-less.

The day started with a hearty porridge cooked by Short John with apple slices stirred in.  While I made my morning prayers, my companions packed up our camp so we could be off quickly.  We escorted the halfling "Stunty" and his deceased companions back to the Adventurer's Guildhall outside Terranor.  We found Guildmaster Jarr in the common room and presented the surviving member of The Comet of Katin and gave our report as to what we found in the cave.  He granted us a reward of 1,000 gold kroners (500 for the live guild member and half that for each dead guild member).

We decided to split up to pursue several courses of action while in town so we could speed our return to the cave.  Tre-ba searched the guild's library for spell formulas she could convert into alchemical fluids.  Wednesday stayed in the common room to "gather information from the other adventurers there".  What she really meant was, she was going to gamble with them and see how much coin she could take them for.  She is willing to make use of this coin to our group's benefit, so who am I to complain about its source?  Luna wandered off somewhere else, probably to indulge in her taste for companionship.  Elves.

My plan was to go check at the Temple of Ra for messages, notably to see if Professor Walsh of the Royal University Department of History had sent a message that he was back in the city and willing to look at the golden sarcophagus lid from the Delve near Aldelle.  Frankie followed.  At the Temple, I met with Becket, the High Priest.  After exchanging pleasantries, he informed me that I had no messages at the temple, but there was a person here looking for me.  Frankie and I waited to see who it was with some curiosity.

The man escorted in and introduced to us was Aziz of the Light, a paladin in the service of Ra.  Aziz is of average height, but he has quite a presence, with short black hair and piercing blue eyes.  His armor and shield are made of dragonhide and the pommel of his scimitar bears the All-Seeing Eye of Ra. 

After being introduced, Aziz explained that an oracle of Ra had told him to seek a man in the north with a "soul of fire".  He traveled many weeks searching for such a man, arriving in Terranor yesterday.  Becket continued the story, explaining that when Aziz arrived at the Temple and asked after "a man with a soul of fire", Becket immediately thought of my sobriquet and recommended Aziz remain at the temple until I next stopped by.  Frankie and I welcomed Aziz to our group and we made our good-byes to Becket.

Frankie and I decided that it might be a good idea to stop by the university to see if Professor Walsh had returned, but not had time to answer our request for a meeting.  Part way to the university, bells started ringing all across the city.  The locals immediately started closing shops and men in armor started moving through the streets toward the city walls.  Not knowing what was happening, we stopped a passerby and asked.  The bells were the city's system of warning of an impending attack!

As the guild house is outside the walls of the city, we made haste to the main gates, hoping to either get out of the city and meet up with our friends of find them as they entered the city.  When we arrived at the main gate, it was closed and militia men were swarming around.  We spotted the others off to one side and joined up with them.  We then made our way into the center of the courtyard, where Sheriff Reynolds was dispatching people to defend the city.  We offered our services in defense of the city and the sheriff directed Luna and Sahar to the Main Gate, while sending Wednesday, Tre-ba, Frankie, Aziz, and myself to the Side Gate, which had a greater need of defenders.  [Out of game, this is how we split off the characters of the two players not present this session.]

The Side Gate was light in defenders, with only 15-20 militia men to hold the gate.  Wednesday, Tre-ba, and Frankie joined the defenders on the walls while Aziz and I bolstered the 8 men in the courtyard, at the ready in case the gate was breeched.  We were needed.

The attackers were a mixed group of demons and devils, mostly lesser creatures, but with a few noticeable exceptions.  While the bulk of the horde attacked the Main Gate, a smaller force of approached our position.  The militia men on the walls rained arrows on the attackers when they came within range.  Suddenly a creature like a purple ape with horns and stubby wings appeared in the courtyard, using a dimension door power to bypass the gate entirely.  Aziz and four of the militia men attacked it immediately.

Aziz had blessed his longspear, thinking to attack through the portcullis if the gate doors were breached.  When the kalavakus (the name of the purple ape we later learned, from Tre-ba again) appeared, Aziz dropped the spear and drew his bonded scimitar, channeling the holy powers of Ra into it, alighting it with the burning light of the sun.  It was magnificent to behold.  Aziz then charged the demon (or devil, I cannot remember) and held it in mortal combat with the assistance of the four militia men.  I assisted where I could, mostly by healing Aziz of the grievous wounds the kalavakus was able to inflict.

At the same time, Wednesday, Frankie, and Tre-ba were attacking the creatures rushing the walls.  They and the militia men were able to kill all the dretches at the wall, but the lemures were able to smash down the gate.  Luckily, the portcullis held long enough that most of the lemurs were destroyed before the final lemure raised the portcullis – just in time to be cut down by the militia man with Aziz's blessed longspear.  Aziz had finally slain the kalavakus, freeing up the militia men assisting him to move to the portcullis and assist cutting down the lemures.  All told, it was an arduous fight and if the attackers had had any reserves, the gate might have fallen.

Having stopped the attack on the Side Gate, we sent a runner to the Main Gate to see if they needed assistance.  We received word that the attack there was mostly stopped, but a few demons had made it into the city before being killed.  There was much flame and smoke in that direction.

At the end of the day we returned to our rooms at the Murdered Manticore and ate our dinner there amongst a much subdued crowd.  The air is still heavy with the smell of smoke, although all the fires have been extinguished.  I think tomorrow we will have to seriously discuss our plan of action, but that is tomorrow's problem – now it is time for sleep and recovery.

Blessed is Ra, who fills us with His light.

*End of Session*

[At the end of the previous session, Harkaitz had enough experience points to make seventh level.  I debated as to which feat to take and chose Leadership, gaining a cohort.  After thinking about it a bit, I decided to try out a paladin, especially as it seemed likely that a paladin would be easy to introduce.  As it turned out, Aziz rocks and he quickly became a critical member of the team, especially with the demon/devil story that Geoff (the DM in training) is running.  It is interesting to see the mix of foes selected by someone not familiar with the D&D backstory.  This is one of the main reasons I like gaming with people new to the hobby – fresh eyes bring fresh ideas.]

Saturday, April 2, 2011

The Day of Sevens

The Day of Sevens has been selected:  Saturday (7th day of the week), July (7th month) 16 (1+6=7), The Day of Sevens will happen!

7 Movies, 7 Scripts, 7 Genres, 1 Plot: The Seven Samurai

The Original, The Western, The Space Opera, The Animated Movie, The B-Movie, The Summer Blockbuster, The Viking Movie

All showing at my place - be there!


This will be the second in a series of movie fests held at my home this year.  The first was Go Go Godzilla Day, held February 26th (see the write-up here).  I plan on doing these about once every six months, as long as I can put together a good theme and gather all the movies on DVD.  This is one I've been mulling over for a few years (I originally wanted to do this on July 7, 2007 or 07/07/07, but it was a weekday) and finally worked out a numerically good date and a roster of seven movies that meet the criteria.

This event is open to friends, and folks who RSVP by July 9.  I don't have the schedule set yet, but we will start with Seven Samurai and then make our way through the genres, probably in order of release, but that is not set in stone.  We will also do a pizza dinner from an awesome pizza place nearby, so bring $10 in cash to throw in.  We did this for Go Go Godzilla Day and no one left hungry.

Later!