Rod's Game, last Sat.

For Roddy's campaign, I played the high level version of the Arcane Admiral, Fergus Dowrimple (25th level, with 10 levels of Arcane Trickster, 10 of Wizard, 5 of Rogue). There were eight of us there, though not everybody was actively playing D&D. Alma mostly slept and played Star Wars on one of several computers. Lance had no problem playing Everquest and D&D at the same time; he even managed to be mildly obnoxious too. Marshall played a character with powerful psychic powers who could boss the bad guys around, and had amazing skill at disguising everybody in the party to look like members of the Brotherhood of Steel guys. Shawn's character could grow to 72' tall at will, and was amazingly strong. Carson's guy was kind of a super agent businessman/rogue/fighter with seemingly unlimited funds. Robby's mysterious wizard teamed up well with Fergus to get the party on the site of the Brotherhood of Steel facility for the adventure (sort of a fool's errand). Shane's character, while quite lawful, has very powerful psychic abilities, and a terrific bluff--he was the one who got us all past the impenetrable doors. Rod's npc chic, the daughter of Khadgar from my world, was a paladin to her own father, with a few levels of wizard, and served as the party cleric. She seems to be fond of Fergus, and the "old home week" friendship could potentially grow into something more once Fergus gets to really know her. Details remain to be determined. Chaun even stopped by and said hi, though he didn't play. I meant to write down all the character's names, but I've forgotten almost everything by now.

After casing the Brotherhood's super soldier research facility, the characters were able to ultimately get inside. Ancient, powerful systems were finally beginning to come online with the help of an alien being that had been brought inside. The group was getting closer to some kind of psychic-boosting portion of the building when it was attacked by very powerful three-headed doglike creatures. Fergus, using a magical nailgun he had devised, was able to damage one of the creatures for 360 hp. It still stood. Unfortunately, I had to leave the session shortly afterward, as I had a solo cello performance on Sunday (see my other blog, http//cellodad.blogspot.com for more). So I handed my Fergus over to Robby to play. I look forward to hearing how the rest of the session went.

Dorville, Underdark City of Drow

The guys descended the spidery cliff path to the drow city two miles below the surface of Aarde, each wearing a Hat of Disguise (except the kobolds, who fit right in anywhere in the underdark) to look like drow. Rivet went shopping at a toystore and picked up a man-sized "nutcracker" wind-up halberdier. Secro and Fergus stepped into a teleportal and battled a drow priestess (dubbed Dr. Drowkenstein) and her flesh and clay golems, eventually killing her and escaping as her creations battled each other. Revan, Joseph, Taito, Black-Eyed Bill and their various sidekicks went right to the center of Dorville and into the most official looking building they could find, a large, black, spidery domed building, sunken below street level, with pillars coming down and stairs curving upward like great arachanid legs. The group entered the ominous, menacing building, populated largely by well-dressed drow women conducting unknown official business, pushing their five-wheeled "briefcases" across the black marble, slate and granite floors. The group entered a large meeting room, possibly a drow courtroom, and Revan's natural paladin ability to detect evil picked up at least 200 sources in that one room. Joseph, with his new seventh level spell, Word of Law, blinded, deafened, and killed outright most of the drow in the room. This shortened the encounter considerably, though the rest of the party still had plenty of work to do. On the way out, the party was confronted by a crowd of drow constables and rabble, some mounted on giant spiders and giant bats, some casting fireballs. The two bards in the party ultimately brought the crowd under control on the second enthrall spell, after using a wand of baleful polymorph to change the lead heckler (who prevented the first attempt at enthrall) into a yellow centipede.
Experience: 2,500 xp each (subtract 500 to 1,000 xp if not present for whole session) Treasure: 3,300 gp value each.
We will not have a session the 17th, because I have two or possibly three cello gigs that weekend. Since I can't reschedule for Sunday the 18th, and the following Saturday is the 24th (Christmas eve is not an issue for me, but you guys do have families...) I guess we'll try to do a long session on New Year's eve Day, the 31st. Also, it looks like I'm going to be able to play my high level version of Fergus in Roddy's campaign next Saturday from about 7pm to 11:30 or so on the 10th. I'm really looking forward to that, though I will warn everybody I'm probably a better DM than player.