So Jon and I played Magic since our D&D session got kind of a late start. I have some older decks full of cards that are not old enough to be valuable and not new enough to be hip with current game play. Actually pretty much all of my collection is like that but it's still such a great game. Some of my favorite combos are still old-school: Orcish Artillery with Spirit Link. Elves with, well with more elves (same thing for merfolk). Goblin Recruiter with Song of Blood. Emperial Armor with weenie birds. Yeah, I guess maybe I'm easily amused...
For D&D it was Hadgi & Foxy, Shamash, Willakers and Jorel vs. the Aboleths and Kua-Toa. Basically it was to be a prison break as it were, with 30' walls, crossbowmen and slime magic protecting two cells which supposedly held the Deva architects of the Dragonborn city Bane is planning to invade. Combat wise we did fine, but in the end the prisoners were not there. Our best guess is that the intel was old and the prisoners were moved before we got there or perhaps teleported at the last minute. Anyway, we did level to 18th. Treasure wise there wasn't much of value.
Oh, so I was leveling up Min (B-Team)and yes, I remembered we do get 1 first level magic item.
Sunday, December 05, 2010
Nov. 20 B Team & Gamma World
Again, I didn't get a blog entry in right away. So we played the B Team and finished taking out the leadership of the Blue hand goblin clan at Port Hope, a silver-mining and fishing village built long ago by dwarves and previously rescued but then forgotten. Anyway, the party leveled to 2nd level.
Fat Groley is a bugbear ardent who is the party's motivational speaker. He lives in a bog down by the river.
Min Vizardio "of the Formorian Empire" is a gnome warden who claims he was supposed to be a wizard but instead of connecting to the arcane world, he discovered a liking for nature and the art of the short sword and shield.
Gnoll is a half-orc battlemind who stubbornly insists that no deity should hold sway over people. He is very independent.
Cyn'Dar is a dragonborn wizard who loves fire. Yes, wizard -- you heard right.
Gibbon Ghoulish is a dwarf rogue who likes the finer things in life and dresses much like a musketeer.
Scourge is a revenant deva cleric virtually drowning in his own hypocrisy. Good guy though once you get past the fact that he resembles DEATH and wields a scythe. Once you get to know him.
Orin Banner is a human paladin who is gifted at the wrong things to be a paladin - which bothers him not at all.
--
Okay, so then we played some Gamma World. Good game, simple to play right out of the box and a lot of fun. I like that it doesn't take itself too seriously. Mechanics are good too.
Fat Groley is a bugbear ardent who is the party's motivational speaker. He lives in a bog down by the river.
Min Vizardio "of the Formorian Empire" is a gnome warden who claims he was supposed to be a wizard but instead of connecting to the arcane world, he discovered a liking for nature and the art of the short sword and shield.
Gnoll is a half-orc battlemind who stubbornly insists that no deity should hold sway over people. He is very independent.
Cyn'Dar is a dragonborn wizard who loves fire. Yes, wizard -- you heard right.
Gibbon Ghoulish is a dwarf rogue who likes the finer things in life and dresses much like a musketeer.
Scourge is a revenant deva cleric virtually drowning in his own hypocrisy. Good guy though once you get past the fact that he resembles DEATH and wields a scythe. Once you get to know him.
Orin Banner is a human paladin who is gifted at the wrong things to be a paladin - which bothers him not at all.
--
Okay, so then we played some Gamma World. Good game, simple to play right out of the box and a lot of fun. I like that it doesn't take itself too seriously. Mechanics are good too.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Placeholder for missing posts
I got busy and also was a bit ill for the last two posts:
Last session: The "B" Team, we came up with new characters whose racial ability modifiers don't help their character classes. I have some new plans for this campaign that could be interesting, but for starters, as first level characters the storyline is pretty basic. It's similar to the movie "Mystery Men," only in D&D terms. A party of heroes, including a lot of dwarves (who basically run the planet) saved a silver mining town from goblins way back when they were low level. The "A" team heroes then went on to adventure together and accomplish great things. Years later though, the goblins came back and reclaimed the original mining town. With their original heroes long gone and nobody else stepping up, that's where the new party stepped in. This campaign is more about heart than ability. There are wonderful possibilities for this group and what they can experience, both from an adventure and from a story point of view. There's something compelling and comical as well as a bit desperate and an underdog feeling from the beginning. Anyway, it looks like the goblins are beginning to fall out of power already, though their name for the town still translates to "our silver mine." Oh, and there are flying squirrel monkeys and a nasty swampy delta covered with mining sludge.
Two sessions ago: Star Wars. Roger Roger took what would normally be Destro's role of blowing everything up. The party are heading into the Corporate sector of the galaxy under the direction of Dabbo the Hutt. In the process, they are discovering new threats and opportunities. The climax of the adventure was the rescue of the top genetic engineer for a biotech/military supply company from a world of both environmental and Imperial hostility. This adventure is largely (but not entirely) complete and I will detail it out later.
Last session: The "B" Team, we came up with new characters whose racial ability modifiers don't help their character classes. I have some new plans for this campaign that could be interesting, but for starters, as first level characters the storyline is pretty basic. It's similar to the movie "Mystery Men," only in D&D terms. A party of heroes, including a lot of dwarves (who basically run the planet) saved a silver mining town from goblins way back when they were low level. The "A" team heroes then went on to adventure together and accomplish great things. Years later though, the goblins came back and reclaimed the original mining town. With their original heroes long gone and nobody else stepping up, that's where the new party stepped in. This campaign is more about heart than ability. There are wonderful possibilities for this group and what they can experience, both from an adventure and from a story point of view. There's something compelling and comical as well as a bit desperate and an underdog feeling from the beginning. Anyway, it looks like the goblins are beginning to fall out of power already, though their name for the town still translates to "our silver mine." Oh, and there are flying squirrel monkeys and a nasty swampy delta covered with mining sludge.
Two sessions ago: Star Wars. Roger Roger took what would normally be Destro's role of blowing everything up. The party are heading into the Corporate sector of the galaxy under the direction of Dabbo the Hutt. In the process, they are discovering new threats and opportunities. The climax of the adventure was the rescue of the top genetic engineer for a biotech/military supply company from a world of both environmental and Imperial hostility. This adventure is largely (but not entirely) complete and I will detail it out later.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Bane and our existence
So Carson ran Saturday (10/9/10). Garza, Rod, Mat & Ava and I played.
Picking up where we left off, the party decided we were tired of that wet swampy town we just saved that "wasn't even good enough to have it's own real dragon, just some weather dragon out in the ocean making it rain more." or something to that effect. So we headed back to Free Port. Almost immediately upon arrival we were jumped by gnome rebels who were mad at the local drow, and asserted that effectively Willikers' "Family" were the real (crime) bosses of Free Port. To make their point, the gnomes hurled lots of alchemical things at us that hurt. A lot. As it turned out, this was an ineffective and dangerous way of getting our attention, and those who assaulted the party paid the price. Hadji and Willikers struck back with a vengeance, with support from Shamash, Aurora and Jones.
Though some racial tensions continue, the lizardmen are still the majority (about 1500), and the squabbling is mostly between whoever the newest arrivals are (in this case, about 300 gnome refugees arriving in Apperati of Kwalash submersibles), and whoever confronts them (in this case the 200 or so drow). The goblins were the outsiders before but by now about 500 of them have settled in just fine. Anyway, most of the gnomes decided to leave because their "refuge" of Free Port has turned out to be essentially a den of thieves. Not that they're wrong about that...
But nothing unites people like a common enemy. Some Bane clerics among the goblins were talking about a coming military conquest of the biggest, richest dragonborn city, which happens to have lots of drow and dwarven slaves. After a lot of discussion and hand-wringing (and a prayer/astral projection by Aurora) the Uprisers decided to actually join in on the attack. Bane may be evil, the thinking goes -- but not as bad as the five heads of Tiamat. Hadji thinks Aurora knows something else too, that she might be keeping a secret. After gathering some militia and other troops from among our friends and allies, the Uprisers made their way through the desert to the mustering army camp of Bane. We had dinner with him and everything. Impressive guy, basically Attila the Hun only 12' tall and with fangs. He was very happy to have the Uprisers join his forces, in part because of our fame and recruiting power. Most of the troops we are with are monster types, bugbears and the like. "Our" troops that we brought along are really Bane's troops now, no question. The guy oozes leadership, and he's bad - but not all bad. We talked politics, religion and tactics and agreed on several common goals.
So the party's assignment is to rescue a couple of Devas who are very old - they are the original architects of the dragonborn city of Tharagar, as it turns out. Apparently they have been captured by a group of Aboleths.
Treasure: one 18th level magic item, possible boon TBA
Current xp total: 95,517 (level 17)
Picking up where we left off, the party decided we were tired of that wet swampy town we just saved that "wasn't even good enough to have it's own real dragon, just some weather dragon out in the ocean making it rain more." or something to that effect. So we headed back to Free Port. Almost immediately upon arrival we were jumped by gnome rebels who were mad at the local drow, and asserted that effectively Willikers' "Family" were the real (crime) bosses of Free Port. To make their point, the gnomes hurled lots of alchemical things at us that hurt. A lot. As it turned out, this was an ineffective and dangerous way of getting our attention, and those who assaulted the party paid the price. Hadji and Willikers struck back with a vengeance, with support from Shamash, Aurora and Jones.
Though some racial tensions continue, the lizardmen are still the majority (about 1500), and the squabbling is mostly between whoever the newest arrivals are (in this case, about 300 gnome refugees arriving in Apperati of Kwalash submersibles), and whoever confronts them (in this case the 200 or so drow). The goblins were the outsiders before but by now about 500 of them have settled in just fine. Anyway, most of the gnomes decided to leave because their "refuge" of Free Port has turned out to be essentially a den of thieves. Not that they're wrong about that...
But nothing unites people like a common enemy. Some Bane clerics among the goblins were talking about a coming military conquest of the biggest, richest dragonborn city, which happens to have lots of drow and dwarven slaves. After a lot of discussion and hand-wringing (and a prayer/astral projection by Aurora) the Uprisers decided to actually join in on the attack. Bane may be evil, the thinking goes -- but not as bad as the five heads of Tiamat. Hadji thinks Aurora knows something else too, that she might be keeping a secret. After gathering some militia and other troops from among our friends and allies, the Uprisers made their way through the desert to the mustering army camp of Bane. We had dinner with him and everything. Impressive guy, basically Attila the Hun only 12' tall and with fangs. He was very happy to have the Uprisers join his forces, in part because of our fame and recruiting power. Most of the troops we are with are monster types, bugbears and the like. "Our" troops that we brought along are really Bane's troops now, no question. The guy oozes leadership, and he's bad - but not all bad. We talked politics, religion and tactics and agreed on several common goals.
So the party's assignment is to rescue a couple of Devas who are very old - they are the original architects of the dragonborn city of Tharagar, as it turns out. Apparently they have been captured by a group of Aboleths.
Treasure: one 18th level magic item, possible boon TBA
Current xp total: 95,517 (level 17)
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Bait & Switch; Raven & Mouse
Sorry there was no blog entry for the Sept. 11 session. That was just a game of Talisman, B. won as the Wizard. I played the Sorceress and P. was the Elf.
---
9/25/10 Robby ran D&D. Ebocha & Garth, two shabbily dressed strangers, convinced Shamash to bring the Uprisers south from Freeport a couple days to Angel Reef to rescue them from their dragon. With Hadji, Willikers, Rholain, Elle Enchanted and Trusty Ol' Sticky Fingers, Shamash and the pleading admirers of the party set off. Upon arrival they found a cold, wet and rainy, sad and angry coastal village. When asked whether he was normal, one guy told Willikers, "Of course I'm normal, I'll even sit by a fire like any human would." or some such thing. A funny thing to say, but it did not rouse any suspicions. So that night the party visited the local watering hole, "The Mouth," a bit like the bar from "An American Werewolf in London," in that no one wanted to talk, and no one seemed to trust the party, even though we were there to help them. Apparently the mission was secret because through fear the green dragon had intimidated the villagers into loyalty, it was said. We were to meet with Cecilia the Sea-Witch the next morning. Meanwhile, that night Rholain met with her. Willikers and Shamash were attacked by a psychic black slime that very nearly killed us. It covers you, so when your friends come to help attack it, they have to damage you too. Hadji arrived and was able to help. The black ooze dealt acid damage, but also attacked psychically, asking each of us if our friends were true heroes, whatever that meant. Of course we all think each other are heroes. Maybe in a Robin Hood kind of way for a lot of us, but yes, true heroes nonetheless.
The next morning, we went below the village, into the seacliff caverns of Cecelia the Sea-Witch. She was a nasty old hag. She asked us to stand on circles so she could use her magic to see if we were true heroes. White light shone down on us and our feet came off the ground like we were being abducted by Martians or something, but nothing came of it and we were set back down. Cecelia screamed at us in anguish, "you are NOT true heroes! Even though you said you were, and you think each other are and my black ooze tells my you're not lying. Now who can I sacrifice to the great sea dragon?" The dragon itself had been trapped below the city of Angel Reef, and somehow the sacrifice of noble heroes would have given Cecelia power over it, and it would have been able to roam free, answering to her but able to reign terror on all with the disastrous storms under its control.
A fight ensued, as Cecelia revealed her true identity as a mind flayer. She and her entourage of Kua-Toas and other Mind Flayers were not easy to deal with, as they had powerful magic capable of turning us on ourselves and each other. After winning the tough battle we realized that Ebocha and Garth had lured us into a trap, and they themselves had been Koa-Toa in disguise.
Party Treasure: 28 Art Objects worth 300 gp each. +4 Robe Aquaeous Armor; Two Level 17 Items. 10 Level 1-5 Wondrous items and 10 level 5 poisons.
XP = not known, but we're not going to be leveling to 18 any time too soon I don't think since we just leveled.
---
So later that night Alma ran his new White Wolf wild west campaign at Rod's. My character is Paul "Mouse" McPherson, a Scotts-Irish prospector/miner. He's 7 feet tall, has a hair-trigger temper and knows his way around dynamite and pick-axes. He can even speak Chinese. Carson's character is a circus performer, Alma's is Raven, a Shaman/businessman. Rod plays an armored nun who is deadly with silver Kukri daggers, Rob plays a Reverend cowboy on horseback who performed an exorcism, Lance plays a freed slave convict, Marshal plays an East Coast businessman.
Our party was hired to perform an exorcism on the Governor's young daughter, which was successful. After that, he granted a pardon to Lance's character, who was about to be hung. An instant later, a hairy man in the angry mob shot the governor dead and a riot began, with the crowd attacking the party, who ran for the stagecoach in a fighting retreat. After Mouse got shot in the leg, he got mad and blew four of the mob up with a thrown stick of dynamite. The shooter turned out to be a werewolf, so the nun's silver daggers turned out to be more handy than Mouse's cold iron pickaxe. I missed the rest but it was good action and reminded me of a Quentin Tarrentino movie or something.
Next session in a couple of weeks. Let me know if you would like me to put together a Star Wars session.
---
9/25/10 Robby ran D&D. Ebocha & Garth, two shabbily dressed strangers, convinced Shamash to bring the Uprisers south from Freeport a couple days to Angel Reef to rescue them from their dragon. With Hadji, Willikers, Rholain, Elle Enchanted and Trusty Ol' Sticky Fingers, Shamash and the pleading admirers of the party set off. Upon arrival they found a cold, wet and rainy, sad and angry coastal village. When asked whether he was normal, one guy told Willikers, "Of course I'm normal, I'll even sit by a fire like any human would." or some such thing. A funny thing to say, but it did not rouse any suspicions. So that night the party visited the local watering hole, "The Mouth," a bit like the bar from "An American Werewolf in London," in that no one wanted to talk, and no one seemed to trust the party, even though we were there to help them. Apparently the mission was secret because through fear the green dragon had intimidated the villagers into loyalty, it was said. We were to meet with Cecilia the Sea-Witch the next morning. Meanwhile, that night Rholain met with her. Willikers and Shamash were attacked by a psychic black slime that very nearly killed us. It covers you, so when your friends come to help attack it, they have to damage you too. Hadji arrived and was able to help. The black ooze dealt acid damage, but also attacked psychically, asking each of us if our friends were true heroes, whatever that meant. Of course we all think each other are heroes. Maybe in a Robin Hood kind of way for a lot of us, but yes, true heroes nonetheless.
The next morning, we went below the village, into the seacliff caverns of Cecelia the Sea-Witch. She was a nasty old hag. She asked us to stand on circles so she could use her magic to see if we were true heroes. White light shone down on us and our feet came off the ground like we were being abducted by Martians or something, but nothing came of it and we were set back down. Cecelia screamed at us in anguish, "you are NOT true heroes! Even though you said you were, and you think each other are and my black ooze tells my you're not lying. Now who can I sacrifice to the great sea dragon?" The dragon itself had been trapped below the city of Angel Reef, and somehow the sacrifice of noble heroes would have given Cecelia power over it, and it would have been able to roam free, answering to her but able to reign terror on all with the disastrous storms under its control.
A fight ensued, as Cecelia revealed her true identity as a mind flayer. She and her entourage of Kua-Toas and other Mind Flayers were not easy to deal with, as they had powerful magic capable of turning us on ourselves and each other. After winning the tough battle we realized that Ebocha and Garth had lured us into a trap, and they themselves had been Koa-Toa in disguise.
Party Treasure: 28 Art Objects worth 300 gp each. +4 Robe Aquaeous Armor; Two Level 17 Items. 10 Level 1-5 Wondrous items and 10 level 5 poisons.
XP = not known, but we're not going to be leveling to 18 any time too soon I don't think since we just leveled.
---
So later that night Alma ran his new White Wolf wild west campaign at Rod's. My character is Paul "Mouse" McPherson, a Scotts-Irish prospector/miner. He's 7 feet tall, has a hair-trigger temper and knows his way around dynamite and pick-axes. He can even speak Chinese. Carson's character is a circus performer, Alma's is Raven, a Shaman/businessman. Rod plays an armored nun who is deadly with silver Kukri daggers, Rob plays a Reverend cowboy on horseback who performed an exorcism, Lance plays a freed slave convict, Marshal plays an East Coast businessman.
Our party was hired to perform an exorcism on the Governor's young daughter, which was successful. After that, he granted a pardon to Lance's character, who was about to be hung. An instant later, a hairy man in the angry mob shot the governor dead and a riot began, with the crowd attacking the party, who ran for the stagecoach in a fighting retreat. After Mouse got shot in the leg, he got mad and blew four of the mob up with a thrown stick of dynamite. The shooter turned out to be a werewolf, so the nun's silver daggers turned out to be more handy than Mouse's cold iron pickaxe. I missed the rest but it was good action and reminded me of a Quentin Tarrentino movie or something.
Next session in a couple of weeks. Let me know if you would like me to put together a Star Wars session.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Gremlins in the Lighthouse
Freeport, newly inundated with gnomish refugees arriving by submarine from Watergold, was developing some new problems. A sealed letter arrived at Aurora's small Pelor temple cave in the cliffside. The official seal was from the high priest of the larger Bahamut temple not far away, and the letter contained accusations that Aurora consorted with thieves and therefore her temple would no longer be recognized. Wikipedia Jones, meanwhile received a similar, sealed letter, addressed to "The Jones," which is the title carried by whoever the acting mayor of Freeport happens to be (while the party has been adventuring, Fy'Ev has filled the role, essentially as a city manager/administrator). Jones' letter was from the Ed's Hollow/Rackmonton halfling alliance and accused him of wrecking the profitable trade routes of stolen goods that had been originating from the Dragon Empire. The letter said that by signing the treaty (see previous entries), Jones was costing the halfings a lot of money so consequently they would impose quotas and sanctions on Freeport. A third letter, also sealed, arrived at the thieves/assassins/drow "guild" not officially headed by the Willikers family. This letter, from the Gnomes, accused the Drow of subverting the promise Jones had made to the citizens of Watergold that upon arrival at Freeport they would be welcomed there. The letter went on to say that if they chose, the gnomes could come as a force of spellcasting invaders instead of refugees and the drow above the 200' mark did not know how lucky they were.
Willikers, after discussing the letter with his cousin, Darktina, took a few Family members to the clifftop to attack a newly arrived gnome planeshifter, who had managed to magically transport his entire home there. The powerful wizard, the notorious Mephistodorpdor Nofrikipidok, was caught off guard and as he had not yet set up his normal array of defenses. Once he did, Freeport was to become a Magocracy, he was certain -- and Mephisto would run it. Willikers was able to slay him swiftly and loot the building. So swiftly, in fact that the true nature of his victim's intentions were not even discovered until much later.
Other letters doubtlessly arrived in other prominent places, pitting friends and allies against each other over their differences great and small. Not the least of these had to do with the goblins, who since helping in the war had always been welcomed before - and the dragonborn minority among the lizardmen trading insults of uncouthness and arrogance. Shamash was disturbed upon hearing of these. Shouting matches and fights broke out on the catwalks and piers. Discord approaching riots or civil war were taking hold in all of Freeport, from many "enemies" within - who it turned out were everybody, at least according to everybody else. Aurora and her followers were glared at or worse and when she attempted to make peace with the Bahamut high priest she was not allowed in to see him.
Jorel, as the High Judge of Freeport, glowed with anger atop the cliffside gnome's now empty brass manor, and loudly declared to all citizens that the Uprisers, as saviors and founders of the town were by law allowed into any building. Elle served as his executioner, and shot a goblin criminal with an arrow, and the goblin's body was hung from the High Arch of town with the other criminals, as an example. Followed everywhere by an entourage of 20 constables, Jorel's authority was never questioned, at least not by anyone within earshot. He took up residence within the Bahamut temple but though Aurora was finally allowed inside the high priest would not look at her or speak with her. He turned his back.
Rholain Carrack, making one of his rare appearances as a gothic-looking elf, was also attended by 20 or so followers hanging on his every word - it had been a while since anyone in Freeport had seen this member of the Uprisers in his true form and not that of a swarm of bees. Rholain, ever the Darwinist, set up a dueling arena and in two days time only one of his original 20 remained, Rholain's new lackey, a lizardman monk well suited to the many fights on the docks. For Rholain, riots were, well they were a riot.
Jones looked again at his letter in dismay, reflecting that maybe Rholain was right, maybe there was no point in people gathering in cities or building civilization at all. The letter was from Trusty Ol' Sticky Fingers. Sticky Fingers never wrote, and though he had an attitude from time to time this just didn't sound like him. Upon closer examination Jones determined the letter was a forgery. Aided by magic, he traced its origin to halfway between Ed's Hollow and Freeport. After speaking with a flustered Aurora he examined her letter. It was also a masterful forgery, from half again closer along the same route - not from the Bahamut temple. Later, Willikers snuck in to ask Jones to look at his letter and ask his advice. Also a forgery, from the Freeport lighthouse. Drawing a line on a map, it seemed the source of the letters was working its way to town.
So the Uprisers converged upon the lighthouse, which had recently stopped working. Although word on the street was that it was just some gremlins, everybody figured it was just a figure of speech but it turned out to be exactly that. Two gremlin cajolers with their many minions - and a Formian Giant had made the lighthouse their home. Collectively, they taunted the party throughout the battle. Willikers made a great leap from the cliff and somehow, impossibly landed on a balcony more than halfway up the lighthouse, with a gremlin body falling to the jagged rocks below. Rholain, in the form of an armada of water-spiders, charged the Giant, occupying him to beyond distraction and inflicting no small amount of pain. The Giant, who had rendered himself invisible to Shamash and Aurora, had to split his attention. Gremlin minions were dropping, but not always easily. They were small but tough, and Shamash took one out, only to find himself stumbling into the waves shortly thereafter. Jones began his usual snow of notes to slow the enemy and heal party members in the area, and began shooting away from the top of the cliff. Elle charged the Giant. Aurora provided magical support. Jorel appeared in four places at once and picked away at whichever gremlins were most convenient. Willikers broke down a balcony door and knocked the lead gremlin unconscious. Shamash, who still couldn't see the invisible Formian Giant, charged one of the gremlins on the ground. Rholain, Jones and Elle finished off the giant while Jorel, Willikers, Shamash and Aurora finished off the gremlins. The final gremlin had dominated Elle's mind to turn on Shamash and attack him, but just before she began to attack, that gremlin was slain and Elle's mind was released from its' grasp.
The entire fight took less than a minute, after which all the gremlins and the giant lie dead. Within the lighthouse were more inflammatory letters, along with many forged seals. A single gremlin writer with the help of his assistants, had nearly destroyed a city. In order to find out why the gremlins had done this, the lead gremlin was brought back to life and interrogated. He claimed he was hired by "A big dark dragon" to "do his thing" here. Havoc and mayhem being a gremlin's thing anyway he was more than happy to oblige. "Oh, and Tiamat sends his regards," the gremlin added before being slain a second time. His body was dangled from the arch with the other criminals as an example. It took some time and some doing, but peace was restored in Freeport once all parties became aware of the true nature of the letters.
The party are currently 17th level.
Treasure: One 21st-level magic item. XP: About 3,300 (I have it written down elsewhere)
Next session should be Sat, Sept. 11.
Willikers, after discussing the letter with his cousin, Darktina, took a few Family members to the clifftop to attack a newly arrived gnome planeshifter, who had managed to magically transport his entire home there. The powerful wizard, the notorious Mephistodorpdor Nofrikipidok, was caught off guard and as he had not yet set up his normal array of defenses. Once he did, Freeport was to become a Magocracy, he was certain -- and Mephisto would run it. Willikers was able to slay him swiftly and loot the building. So swiftly, in fact that the true nature of his victim's intentions were not even discovered until much later.
Other letters doubtlessly arrived in other prominent places, pitting friends and allies against each other over their differences great and small. Not the least of these had to do with the goblins, who since helping in the war had always been welcomed before - and the dragonborn minority among the lizardmen trading insults of uncouthness and arrogance. Shamash was disturbed upon hearing of these. Shouting matches and fights broke out on the catwalks and piers. Discord approaching riots or civil war were taking hold in all of Freeport, from many "enemies" within - who it turned out were everybody, at least according to everybody else. Aurora and her followers were glared at or worse and when she attempted to make peace with the Bahamut high priest she was not allowed in to see him.
Jorel, as the High Judge of Freeport, glowed with anger atop the cliffside gnome's now empty brass manor, and loudly declared to all citizens that the Uprisers, as saviors and founders of the town were by law allowed into any building. Elle served as his executioner, and shot a goblin criminal with an arrow, and the goblin's body was hung from the High Arch of town with the other criminals, as an example. Followed everywhere by an entourage of 20 constables, Jorel's authority was never questioned, at least not by anyone within earshot. He took up residence within the Bahamut temple but though Aurora was finally allowed inside the high priest would not look at her or speak with her. He turned his back.
Rholain Carrack, making one of his rare appearances as a gothic-looking elf, was also attended by 20 or so followers hanging on his every word - it had been a while since anyone in Freeport had seen this member of the Uprisers in his true form and not that of a swarm of bees. Rholain, ever the Darwinist, set up a dueling arena and in two days time only one of his original 20 remained, Rholain's new lackey, a lizardman monk well suited to the many fights on the docks. For Rholain, riots were, well they were a riot.
Jones looked again at his letter in dismay, reflecting that maybe Rholain was right, maybe there was no point in people gathering in cities or building civilization at all. The letter was from Trusty Ol' Sticky Fingers. Sticky Fingers never wrote, and though he had an attitude from time to time this just didn't sound like him. Upon closer examination Jones determined the letter was a forgery. Aided by magic, he traced its origin to halfway between Ed's Hollow and Freeport. After speaking with a flustered Aurora he examined her letter. It was also a masterful forgery, from half again closer along the same route - not from the Bahamut temple. Later, Willikers snuck in to ask Jones to look at his letter and ask his advice. Also a forgery, from the Freeport lighthouse. Drawing a line on a map, it seemed the source of the letters was working its way to town.
So the Uprisers converged upon the lighthouse, which had recently stopped working. Although word on the street was that it was just some gremlins, everybody figured it was just a figure of speech but it turned out to be exactly that. Two gremlin cajolers with their many minions - and a Formian Giant had made the lighthouse their home. Collectively, they taunted the party throughout the battle. Willikers made a great leap from the cliff and somehow, impossibly landed on a balcony more than halfway up the lighthouse, with a gremlin body falling to the jagged rocks below. Rholain, in the form of an armada of water-spiders, charged the Giant, occupying him to beyond distraction and inflicting no small amount of pain. The Giant, who had rendered himself invisible to Shamash and Aurora, had to split his attention. Gremlin minions were dropping, but not always easily. They were small but tough, and Shamash took one out, only to find himself stumbling into the waves shortly thereafter. Jones began his usual snow of notes to slow the enemy and heal party members in the area, and began shooting away from the top of the cliff. Elle charged the Giant. Aurora provided magical support. Jorel appeared in four places at once and picked away at whichever gremlins were most convenient. Willikers broke down a balcony door and knocked the lead gremlin unconscious. Shamash, who still couldn't see the invisible Formian Giant, charged one of the gremlins on the ground. Rholain, Jones and Elle finished off the giant while Jorel, Willikers, Shamash and Aurora finished off the gremlins. The final gremlin had dominated Elle's mind to turn on Shamash and attack him, but just before she began to attack, that gremlin was slain and Elle's mind was released from its' grasp.
The entire fight took less than a minute, after which all the gremlins and the giant lie dead. Within the lighthouse were more inflammatory letters, along with many forged seals. A single gremlin writer with the help of his assistants, had nearly destroyed a city. In order to find out why the gremlins had done this, the lead gremlin was brought back to life and interrogated. He claimed he was hired by "A big dark dragon" to "do his thing" here. Havoc and mayhem being a gremlin's thing anyway he was more than happy to oblige. "Oh, and Tiamat sends his regards," the gremlin added before being slain a second time. His body was dangled from the arch with the other criminals as an example. It took some time and some doing, but peace was restored in Freeport once all parties became aware of the true nature of the letters.
The party are currently 17th level.
Treasure: One 21st-level magic item. XP: About 3,300 (I have it written down elsewhere)
Next session should be Sat, Sept. 11.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Free Moonlove, battle for
MOONLOVE, FREE
A gathering place and trade center, mainly populated by tribal Firbolgs and their trading partners during gatherings only. Located in N. Ronia near the previous site of a blue dragon surface slavelord's ruined ziggarut. While technically not a city in the traditional sense, this place is marked on many maps as though it were. Their total population is estimated to be 1,500 to 4,000 but no outsider has ever performed a census and much of the Firbolg population lives in the outlying areas. Among the purposes of Free Moonlove are education, trade, common law, and social gatherings. Lead by the tribal chieftain, Garar Obish and his council, the Firbolgs are respected hunters known also for their great bonfire celebrations and traditional songs celebrating the Moon.
Among their celebrations are a bonfire at each full moon, honoring tribal leaders and remembering battles and events both recent and from long ago. Recently, Free Moonlove added Uprisers Day in celebration of their return to freedom as a society in the form of affiliated tribes. Incorporated into ancient freedom songs is the tale of how a dracolich slew the blue dragon, just prior to the arrival of a band of heroes, the Uprisers. For three days the dracolich and the Uprisers held (barely) civil discourse, allowing for the Firbolgs to participate (see previous entry for Day 1). The Eladrin Queen spoke, but though she spoke well for the dracolich her arguements were largely self-serving and self-defeating. Jones, Shamash and Aurora debated her points regarding the hipocracy of the party by pointing out that she brought ruin on her people largely on her own because of her love of slavery. After her speech she was shot by an arrow which the dracolich said was fired by Hadji, but Jones convinced the crowd the dracolich was responsible perhaps by using Rholain as his agent in order to win over the Firbolgs. Aurora healed the Eladrin Queen and the matter was largely forgotten. By the end of Day 2, the common folk were leaning toward choosing the Uprisers and freedom but the dracolich continued to present strong arguments, including his (her) stronger ability to provide protection - including from herself. Why the "her?" A doppleganger was captured in the night, after organizing a jailbreak of the worst Firbolg prisoners. Interrogation revealed her employer was none other than one of the five heads of Tiamat! Also during the night the son of the blue dragon quietly gave the party a sack of radiant weapons, a gift from his other dragon friends who wanted no part of the conflict for themselves. On Day 3, when Jones forcefully revealed the point that the dracolich was one of the five heads of Tiamat, it provoked (her) uncontrolled rage and a battle ensued. Tiamat produced a psychic wave that knocked the Firbolgs unconscious while (she) and (her) swordwraiths fought the party. Now a powerful, hard-hitting band of heroes-- newly armed with radiant weapons--the Uprisers fought the black head of Tiamat to the point of retreat, but her minions the swordwraiths proved opportunistic against the weakened party. At the end of the battle, Shamash and Hadji had each been slain by swordwraiths, the misty incarnation of the dracolich had been defeated along with most of the swordwraiths, and Xhamash, the evil swordwraith version of Shamash, had flown away. The dracolich doubled back to finish the party off but its physical form was destroyed by the remaining members of the party, and Jones grabbed the Amulet of the Cup from her neck. The cup works again, able to cure zombie rot. The last words of the dracolich, Tiamat's black head were in effect that next time there will be no games.
It was a victory, though a narrow one. The Firbolgs will no longer just be a dragon's ziggarut of slaves called "Firbolg City." Henceforth, they prefer to be known as Moonlove or Free Moonlove. As history is written by the victors, the first paragraph of this blog entry was written -- though some of it might be wishful thinking.
Aurora was able to raise Hadji and Shamash, though it cost each of them 5,000 GP for the ritual. A speed bump, now that the party is 17th level.
A gathering place and trade center, mainly populated by tribal Firbolgs and their trading partners during gatherings only. Located in N. Ronia near the previous site of a blue dragon surface slavelord's ruined ziggarut. While technically not a city in the traditional sense, this place is marked on many maps as though it were. Their total population is estimated to be 1,500 to 4,000 but no outsider has ever performed a census and much of the Firbolg population lives in the outlying areas. Among the purposes of Free Moonlove are education, trade, common law, and social gatherings. Lead by the tribal chieftain, Garar Obish and his council, the Firbolgs are respected hunters known also for their great bonfire celebrations and traditional songs celebrating the Moon.
Among their celebrations are a bonfire at each full moon, honoring tribal leaders and remembering battles and events both recent and from long ago. Recently, Free Moonlove added Uprisers Day in celebration of their return to freedom as a society in the form of affiliated tribes. Incorporated into ancient freedom songs is the tale of how a dracolich slew the blue dragon, just prior to the arrival of a band of heroes, the Uprisers. For three days the dracolich and the Uprisers held (barely) civil discourse, allowing for the Firbolgs to participate (see previous entry for Day 1). The Eladrin Queen spoke, but though she spoke well for the dracolich her arguements were largely self-serving and self-defeating. Jones, Shamash and Aurora debated her points regarding the hipocracy of the party by pointing out that she brought ruin on her people largely on her own because of her love of slavery. After her speech she was shot by an arrow which the dracolich said was fired by Hadji, but Jones convinced the crowd the dracolich was responsible perhaps by using Rholain as his agent in order to win over the Firbolgs. Aurora healed the Eladrin Queen and the matter was largely forgotten. By the end of Day 2, the common folk were leaning toward choosing the Uprisers and freedom but the dracolich continued to present strong arguments, including his (her) stronger ability to provide protection - including from herself. Why the "her?" A doppleganger was captured in the night, after organizing a jailbreak of the worst Firbolg prisoners. Interrogation revealed her employer was none other than one of the five heads of Tiamat! Also during the night the son of the blue dragon quietly gave the party a sack of radiant weapons, a gift from his other dragon friends who wanted no part of the conflict for themselves. On Day 3, when Jones forcefully revealed the point that the dracolich was one of the five heads of Tiamat, it provoked (her) uncontrolled rage and a battle ensued. Tiamat produced a psychic wave that knocked the Firbolgs unconscious while (she) and (her) swordwraiths fought the party. Now a powerful, hard-hitting band of heroes-- newly armed with radiant weapons--the Uprisers fought the black head of Tiamat to the point of retreat, but her minions the swordwraiths proved opportunistic against the weakened party. At the end of the battle, Shamash and Hadji had each been slain by swordwraiths, the misty incarnation of the dracolich had been defeated along with most of the swordwraiths, and Xhamash, the evil swordwraith version of Shamash, had flown away. The dracolich doubled back to finish the party off but its physical form was destroyed by the remaining members of the party, and Jones grabbed the Amulet of the Cup from her neck. The cup works again, able to cure zombie rot. The last words of the dracolich, Tiamat's black head were in effect that next time there will be no games.
It was a victory, though a narrow one. The Firbolgs will no longer just be a dragon's ziggarut of slaves called "Firbolg City." Henceforth, they prefer to be known as Moonlove or Free Moonlove. As history is written by the victors, the first paragraph of this blog entry was written -- though some of it might be wishful thinking.
Aurora was able to raise Hadji and Shamash, though it cost each of them 5,000 GP for the ritual. A speed bump, now that the party is 17th level.
Sunday, August 01, 2010
Dracolyptica- Ratification Year One
So the Uprisers slew the black dragon, drove back the Deep Empire's army and freed the remnants of the northern Human city from the shackles of slavery (see previous entry). The celebration that ensued was immediate and the exuberance was such that the party worried about the tactical situation should they come under attack. Dancing under the sway of the purple peyote-like goo that served as their food and intoxicant, an old man pointed out to Aurora Pelor's tiny symbol, carved on the ziggarut with hundreds of other gods and goddesses.
Ancient fireworks were shown to Jorel, "the one who wields fire." Shaped like great hollow staves with dragon heads, each one was masterful and when lit off, each flashed forgotten scenes of long-ago humans spearing dragons, whose blood in the the fireworks gushed out in great sparking geysers. The fireworks were contained in surprising numbers in protective but strange metal boxes from a forgotten age when humans ruled dragons and used their blood to power terrible magic. So this city, discovered by a chance long-range arial patrol had once been a mighty center of human power. To the party (except Jorel) such a concept seemed incredible.
But now the humans were living for sustenance, eking out a living with their meager hunting and farming skills. Their lands were not very fertile but then they had been plagued with zombie rot for a long time so the scene was only too common for Wikipedia Jones and the rest of the party. Now that they were themselves again they would pull themselves up. Talking to the intoxicated locals, Jones learned that the Firbolgs from the lands nearby raided regularly here, so the residents were happy to be free of the black dragon but they were a bit concerned about that. Jones wisely advised them that the Firbolgs could be trading partners and allies instead of enemies - with the help of the Uprisers.
Remembering that the Firbolgs had been on the short list of settlements the party intended to free from the Deep Empire of dragons, slavery and zombie rot, they prepared to set off to help the humans by helping the Firbolgs.
Meanwhile, Hadji and Foxy patrolled the woods, no further than a mile out of town. Five giant winged dragonborn guards in full Deep Empire regalia accompanied a Yuan-Ti snake man, even more deeply embellished. This time the elven ranger struck to subdue rather than kill, which made attacking the individual who it turned out was an Emissary of the Deep Empire slightly less bad manners. Hadji brought the Yuan-Ti Emissary into town and before long negotiations began between him and the Uprisers within the privacy of one of the building basements. It turns out the Deep Empire is facing a new unidentified threat and needed to save face against the Uprisers.
So the Deep Empire was offering a truce. For 20 years the Deep Empire would not come to the surface raiding for slaves, attacking settlements and supporting the dragon Surface Lords. In return, the Uprisers would not delve below to attack and sew rebellion below. The line of demarcation was 200' below ground. The deal was written in magical blood and goo by the Lord of the Flies, Asmodeus himself and if signed, breaking the treaty would result in "unthinkable suffering." Several details were argued and changed in regard to options for versions of the treaty that included provisions for the Deep Empire to offer 3,000 GP rewards for the return of escaped slaves, but this was rejected. The plain, 200' belowground line of demarcation version still lay on the table. All that was required were the signatures of the majority of the Uprisers present, four signatures. Jorel signed it immediately without reading it. Wikipedia, well versed in the written word, poured over it carefully for loopholes or anything fishy and finding none, signed it. Aurora, hungry for peace, signed it. Willikers refused to sign it, as did Hadji. Though it looked like success or victory, Shamash felt that it would be wrong for him to influence the vote of anyone else and though personally opposed, he diplomatically chose to abstain from voting (which is to say he didn't sign it; of course he couldn't, he spent his whole life fighting the Deep Empire). Elle Enchanted signed it with enthusiasm after speaking with Jorel. Four signatures. The Yuan-Ti emerged from the building with the Uprisers and saw the five giant dragonborn bodyguards release the human villagers they had taken hostage in case things went sideways. Then the Emissary and his contingent departed. The deal was done.
All of this still did not change the fact that Deep Empire or no, the party was still committed to helping the humans prosper by helping the Firbolgs overcome the three curses of their Dragon (a blue one), slavery and zombie rot. So off they went, it wasn't that far.
The Dracolich was waiting for them.
In terrible wisps of blackness and surreal dreamlike mist, the enormous undead dragon perched atop the broken ziggarut of the Firbolgs. In his hand he held a copy of the contract as he taunted the party from the comfort of his incorporeal state. At the foot of the ziggarut below him lay the body of the blue dragon. He wasn't here to fight the party, he said. Instead, let's play a game. Let the Firbolgs decide who they wanted to be in charge of things. The debate was to be three days.
Though the Uprisers had might and right on their side (or so they believed) the Dracolich was well prepared. Day one he brought forth strong arguments against the party. Jones has a little bottle, the cure for zombie rot? Who do you think made zombie rot in the first place? With a vile gesture, the dracolich pulled his disease's blackness out from those Firbolgs he chose to dis-infect. His argument regarding slavery was weaker and included mutterings along the lines of would you rather be my slave - or theirs? He even brought the Eladrin Queen (see earlier entries--that one ended up looking like we failed even though we did what we thought was the right thing at the time). Oh this was not going to be good for the party. Even the Moon Feast was ruined. Love that Moon, hate those maggots but the moon provided attacking werewolves so the Firbolgs killed and ate them instead, with help from the party. To deal with the situation by bringing her together with our diplomats against a common foe, during the night Hadji, Willikers and Rholain attempted to kill her, each in turn, but as a high level plainswalker with bodyguards she was tough and well defended, plus the other party members knew killing her would probably just prove the Dracolich's point so they helped to defend her. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, in the end it ended up appearing to split the party (even though this wasn't really the case) with everyone but Rholain defending the Eladrin Queen. It was learned during the night that this group of Firbolg counted the Eladrin among their allies, which changes everything really. Actually I think we knew that and had forgotten. Anyway, we ended up killing Rholain and saving the queen in the hope that when she speaks, she might not speak out as negatively against us on Day Two. At least the Eladrin Queen made friends with Aurora. Even though he despises her because she's a slavelord, Shamash never attacked her, and neither did Jones or Aurora (Jones and Aurora weren't there when the party ruined her life). Hadji initially was going to attack her, then defended her and Willikers did attack her earlier but not later on. As a band of warriors, violence is how the Uprisers resolve things. But as debaters and diplomats we have some skills also and we went two for two on not killing people we hate who just want to talk and not attack us. Come to think of it that's pretty remarkable.
From the Eladrin Queen's point of view, the Uprisers are not so great. But for her to join forces with the Dracolich, she must have either been influenced in some way, or have a crazy determination to return her people to the life of slavery she imposed on them before we stepped in. Letting her speak is a huge gamble but killing her would have been wrong, and diplomatically disastrous. Day 2 is going to be interesting. Shamash figures the Dracolich is doing all of this while sleeping, that his true form could be hundreds or even thousands of miles away. Though it's frustrating for the party, some of us would probably do the same thing to the Dracolich if we could. We're supposed to be the good guys but it seems like the harder we push to win at all costs, the more we risk paying with our own morality. From this point of view, by sparing the lives of both the Yuan-Ti diplomat and the Eladrin Queen, the Uprisers held their moral ground (though only barely, admittedly). So that's a good thing. One wonders if killing them both might also have been a good thing though... Probably not.
The real question is what are the ramifications of the treaty, and more importantly, what is scaring the millions of the Dragon Empire below, to the point that they would abandon their interests on the surface to focus on their own problems?
Experience: 1,100 (we did not level, we're still 16th). Treasure: 33,000 GP each party member who took a share of the 200,000 GP one time signing bonus from the Yuan-Ti negotiator.
Next Session: Saturday, August 14, 3 pm -- we will begin with "Day 2"
---
“The dracolich has set himself against us, but also against your community. As Firbolgs, you can have your own way of life and be free as you were long ago, long before you were enslaved by the blue dragon. The dracolich is one dragon replacing another because he wants you to be his slaves now – for different and deadlier purposes. He makes his arguments from the mists like a phantom, while his real self could be miles – even thousands of miles away. To win his arguments he has invaded the minds of the free looking for weakness and defeat, and found the Eladrin Queen. No doubt she will defend slavery, which from her perspective as a ruler must have been grand. Many of her subjects who didn’t work themselves to death under her rule died in the conflict between freedom and slavery. To live a life in forced drudgery is no life at all compared to living your own lives.
Once, long ago Firbolgs were free. You roamed the land, hunting and fishing for what you needed and wanted. You were free once under the moon, running among the trees to the sound of birds. You can be free again. Or, you could make a bad choice and enslave yourselves to an undead dragon and his proxies. You can decide to live free among the birds and trees, or die along with them when the dracolich drains the life out of you and your land. You can join with us and prosper in trade with your neighbors in the cities nearby as friends, helping each other build a better world. Or you can join the dracolich and follow his every whim, including the eternal conscription of your children into his army of death. If you choose the dragon, know that you will be seen as monsters and villains by those around you.
Are the Uprisers promising you the Moon? Yes, yes we are but only if you TAKE IT for yourselves. Reach for the sky and the future will be yours. Will we always be here for you? Yes, yes we will but only if you MAKE yourselves listen and learn what you like about us, and pass that on to your children. It is not us you need, but our ideas. We can help you remember how to live free, and when you are truly free you will not need any help from us or anyone. Can the Firbolgs be happy again? Yes,yes but not as slaves. Among the dracolich’s minions you would be again shackled in chains, whipped into obedience and intimidated into working yourselves to the edge of death for nothing more than the amusement of your torturer, the dracolich. Your potential new slavelord, the dracolich– is the same as your old slavelord, the blue dragon – only bigger, crueler, colder and more uncaring. Given the choice, wouldn’t you rather embrace your families than serve that black-hearted pile of bones?
Love and hope are stronger than hate and fear because death has no future in it for you. Light and truth have more power than blackness and lies because deceit has no future in it for you. Freedom and fun are more desirable than slavery and pain because death has no future in it for you. Will you be given what you want? No, you will have to work and fight for it. But do know what you want. Do work and fight for it, you are big and strong. You are brilliant and you can do it. Reach for the moon. Reach for life. Reach for freedom.“
--Shamash Kriv, excerpt from speech at Firbolg City, year 1 of the Dracolyptica Ratification
Ancient fireworks were shown to Jorel, "the one who wields fire." Shaped like great hollow staves with dragon heads, each one was masterful and when lit off, each flashed forgotten scenes of long-ago humans spearing dragons, whose blood in the the fireworks gushed out in great sparking geysers. The fireworks were contained in surprising numbers in protective but strange metal boxes from a forgotten age when humans ruled dragons and used their blood to power terrible magic. So this city, discovered by a chance long-range arial patrol had once been a mighty center of human power. To the party (except Jorel) such a concept seemed incredible.
But now the humans were living for sustenance, eking out a living with their meager hunting and farming skills. Their lands were not very fertile but then they had been plagued with zombie rot for a long time so the scene was only too common for Wikipedia Jones and the rest of the party. Now that they were themselves again they would pull themselves up. Talking to the intoxicated locals, Jones learned that the Firbolgs from the lands nearby raided regularly here, so the residents were happy to be free of the black dragon but they were a bit concerned about that. Jones wisely advised them that the Firbolgs could be trading partners and allies instead of enemies - with the help of the Uprisers.
Remembering that the Firbolgs had been on the short list of settlements the party intended to free from the Deep Empire of dragons, slavery and zombie rot, they prepared to set off to help the humans by helping the Firbolgs.
Meanwhile, Hadji and Foxy patrolled the woods, no further than a mile out of town. Five giant winged dragonborn guards in full Deep Empire regalia accompanied a Yuan-Ti snake man, even more deeply embellished. This time the elven ranger struck to subdue rather than kill, which made attacking the individual who it turned out was an Emissary of the Deep Empire slightly less bad manners. Hadji brought the Yuan-Ti Emissary into town and before long negotiations began between him and the Uprisers within the privacy of one of the building basements. It turns out the Deep Empire is facing a new unidentified threat and needed to save face against the Uprisers.
So the Deep Empire was offering a truce. For 20 years the Deep Empire would not come to the surface raiding for slaves, attacking settlements and supporting the dragon Surface Lords. In return, the Uprisers would not delve below to attack and sew rebellion below. The line of demarcation was 200' below ground. The deal was written in magical blood and goo by the Lord of the Flies, Asmodeus himself and if signed, breaking the treaty would result in "unthinkable suffering." Several details were argued and changed in regard to options for versions of the treaty that included provisions for the Deep Empire to offer 3,000 GP rewards for the return of escaped slaves, but this was rejected. The plain, 200' belowground line of demarcation version still lay on the table. All that was required were the signatures of the majority of the Uprisers present, four signatures. Jorel signed it immediately without reading it. Wikipedia, well versed in the written word, poured over it carefully for loopholes or anything fishy and finding none, signed it. Aurora, hungry for peace, signed it. Willikers refused to sign it, as did Hadji. Though it looked like success or victory, Shamash felt that it would be wrong for him to influence the vote of anyone else and though personally opposed, he diplomatically chose to abstain from voting (which is to say he didn't sign it; of course he couldn't, he spent his whole life fighting the Deep Empire). Elle Enchanted signed it with enthusiasm after speaking with Jorel. Four signatures. The Yuan-Ti emerged from the building with the Uprisers and saw the five giant dragonborn bodyguards release the human villagers they had taken hostage in case things went sideways. Then the Emissary and his contingent departed. The deal was done.
All of this still did not change the fact that Deep Empire or no, the party was still committed to helping the humans prosper by helping the Firbolgs overcome the three curses of their Dragon (a blue one), slavery and zombie rot. So off they went, it wasn't that far.
The Dracolich was waiting for them.
In terrible wisps of blackness and surreal dreamlike mist, the enormous undead dragon perched atop the broken ziggarut of the Firbolgs. In his hand he held a copy of the contract as he taunted the party from the comfort of his incorporeal state. At the foot of the ziggarut below him lay the body of the blue dragon. He wasn't here to fight the party, he said. Instead, let's play a game. Let the Firbolgs decide who they wanted to be in charge of things. The debate was to be three days.
Though the Uprisers had might and right on their side (or so they believed) the Dracolich was well prepared. Day one he brought forth strong arguments against the party. Jones has a little bottle, the cure for zombie rot? Who do you think made zombie rot in the first place? With a vile gesture, the dracolich pulled his disease's blackness out from those Firbolgs he chose to dis-infect. His argument regarding slavery was weaker and included mutterings along the lines of would you rather be my slave - or theirs? He even brought the Eladrin Queen (see earlier entries--that one ended up looking like we failed even though we did what we thought was the right thing at the time). Oh this was not going to be good for the party. Even the Moon Feast was ruined. Love that Moon, hate those maggots but the moon provided attacking werewolves so the Firbolgs killed and ate them instead, with help from the party. To deal with the situation by bringing her together with our diplomats against a common foe, during the night Hadji, Willikers and Rholain attempted to kill her, each in turn, but as a high level plainswalker with bodyguards she was tough and well defended, plus the other party members knew killing her would probably just prove the Dracolich's point so they helped to defend her. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, in the end it ended up appearing to split the party (even though this wasn't really the case) with everyone but Rholain defending the Eladrin Queen. It was learned during the night that this group of Firbolg counted the Eladrin among their allies, which changes everything really. Actually I think we knew that and had forgotten. Anyway, we ended up killing Rholain and saving the queen in the hope that when she speaks, she might not speak out as negatively against us on Day Two. At least the Eladrin Queen made friends with Aurora. Even though he despises her because she's a slavelord, Shamash never attacked her, and neither did Jones or Aurora (Jones and Aurora weren't there when the party ruined her life). Hadji initially was going to attack her, then defended her and Willikers did attack her earlier but not later on. As a band of warriors, violence is how the Uprisers resolve things. But as debaters and diplomats we have some skills also and we went two for two on not killing people we hate who just want to talk and not attack us. Come to think of it that's pretty remarkable.
From the Eladrin Queen's point of view, the Uprisers are not so great. But for her to join forces with the Dracolich, she must have either been influenced in some way, or have a crazy determination to return her people to the life of slavery she imposed on them before we stepped in. Letting her speak is a huge gamble but killing her would have been wrong, and diplomatically disastrous. Day 2 is going to be interesting. Shamash figures the Dracolich is doing all of this while sleeping, that his true form could be hundreds or even thousands of miles away. Though it's frustrating for the party, some of us would probably do the same thing to the Dracolich if we could. We're supposed to be the good guys but it seems like the harder we push to win at all costs, the more we risk paying with our own morality. From this point of view, by sparing the lives of both the Yuan-Ti diplomat and the Eladrin Queen, the Uprisers held their moral ground (though only barely, admittedly). So that's a good thing. One wonders if killing them both might also have been a good thing though... Probably not.
The real question is what are the ramifications of the treaty, and more importantly, what is scaring the millions of the Dragon Empire below, to the point that they would abandon their interests on the surface to focus on their own problems?
Experience: 1,100 (we did not level, we're still 16th). Treasure: 33,000 GP each party member who took a share of the 200,000 GP one time signing bonus from the Yuan-Ti negotiator.
Next Session: Saturday, August 14, 3 pm -- we will begin with "Day 2"
---
“The dracolich has set himself against us, but also against your community. As Firbolgs, you can have your own way of life and be free as you were long ago, long before you were enslaved by the blue dragon. The dracolich is one dragon replacing another because he wants you to be his slaves now – for different and deadlier purposes. He makes his arguments from the mists like a phantom, while his real self could be miles – even thousands of miles away. To win his arguments he has invaded the minds of the free looking for weakness and defeat, and found the Eladrin Queen. No doubt she will defend slavery, which from her perspective as a ruler must have been grand. Many of her subjects who didn’t work themselves to death under her rule died in the conflict between freedom and slavery. To live a life in forced drudgery is no life at all compared to living your own lives.
Once, long ago Firbolgs were free. You roamed the land, hunting and fishing for what you needed and wanted. You were free once under the moon, running among the trees to the sound of birds. You can be free again. Or, you could make a bad choice and enslave yourselves to an undead dragon and his proxies. You can decide to live free among the birds and trees, or die along with them when the dracolich drains the life out of you and your land. You can join with us and prosper in trade with your neighbors in the cities nearby as friends, helping each other build a better world. Or you can join the dracolich and follow his every whim, including the eternal conscription of your children into his army of death. If you choose the dragon, know that you will be seen as monsters and villains by those around you.
Are the Uprisers promising you the Moon? Yes, yes we are but only if you TAKE IT for yourselves. Reach for the sky and the future will be yours. Will we always be here for you? Yes, yes we will but only if you MAKE yourselves listen and learn what you like about us, and pass that on to your children. It is not us you need, but our ideas. We can help you remember how to live free, and when you are truly free you will not need any help from us or anyone. Can the Firbolgs be happy again? Yes,yes but not as slaves. Among the dracolich’s minions you would be again shackled in chains, whipped into obedience and intimidated into working yourselves to the edge of death for nothing more than the amusement of your torturer, the dracolich. Your potential new slavelord, the dracolich– is the same as your old slavelord, the blue dragon – only bigger, crueler, colder and more uncaring. Given the choice, wouldn’t you rather embrace your families than serve that black-hearted pile of bones?
Love and hope are stronger than hate and fear because death has no future in it for you. Light and truth have more power than blackness and lies because deceit has no future in it for you. Freedom and fun are more desirable than slavery and pain because death has no future in it for you. Will you be given what you want? No, you will have to work and fight for it. But do know what you want. Do work and fight for it, you are big and strong. You are brilliant and you can do it. Reach for the moon. Reach for life. Reach for freedom.“
--Shamash Kriv, excerpt from speech at Firbolg City, year 1 of the Dracolyptica Ratification
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Bushels of GPs
So Mat's fortune cookie from lunch before the game said something about "you will gain gold pieces by the bushel." In real life. Really. So he paper clipped it to Wikipedia Jones' character sheet.
Since arriving from the underdark, the party has put forth a continual effort to learn and map the features and settlements on the surface. Because of the great number of unknowns and the changing political landscape, there have been a lot of surprise discoveries and the unexpected seems to be the norm.
One assumption was that the dragons and their forces had subjugated the humans to the point of not having any standing cities centuries ago. A small settlement of about 1,500 was just discovered. "City" is pretty far from being the word for it though, and "human" is a term best used loosely.
Scouting from the air on one of Rholain's giant mosquitos, Hadji was the first to spot the humans below, scurrying in and out of shabby ruined buildings and mustering a militia to defend their city wall. By the time he brought the party over on more of their flying mounts, the Dragon Empire was pouring troops into the middle of the northern town from a fissure near the foothills of the snowmelt river, right next to the central footbridge.
Swooping down, the party caught the invaders by surprise and did not let up. No wall could have defended against the Dragon Empire's tactics, and this was a mismatch. With better numbers and position, an elder black dragon, an ice devil and lots of trained forces, the Dragon Empire was about to swat down what little the humans had built up. The humans had archers and some dwarven and half orc allies, but poor training and no hard units. Until the Uprisers literally swooped in.
Everybody just did their thing. Jorel was in four places at once, popping away when attacked and punishing foes from seemingly everywhere and nowhere. Rholain pretty much became a swarm of bees that created a no win situation for opponents whether they attacked him or not, inviting attacks of opportunity that in themselves were punishing trap attacks, and moving away unscathed beyond the pair of teleportation trees that proved quite helpful for party mobility on the city streets. Shamash focused on attacking slightly weaker opponents than usual in order that his abilities would consistently bolster his allies. Aurora set herself right down in the middle of the dragon empire's core troops and turned the power of Pelor on them, blotting them out with blinding light in a 30' radius that left her standing alone in the street. Willikers, in opposite fashion, stuck to the shadows and struck with showers of daggers, dishing out more damage than his enemies could handle - starting with the Elder Black Dragon himself (I used my Diablo action figure for him and it worked great). Paired with Hadji, the double team combo of strikers knocks enemies cold and just pulls their guts out faster than a dozen soldiers could. It's an amazing thing. Meanwhile, Wikipedia Jones shot up the bad guys from afar and shouted encouragement to the surviving local soldiers - largely archers behind boarded up windows.
After a time, the black dragon was defeated, then the ice devil. From there, it was not super easy but the party tipped the balance. Everybody just kept doing what they were best at, and in the end it was more than their enemies could handle. With their draconic commanders dead and the bulk of their minion guards as well, the remaining Dragon Empire troops had no choice but to surrender to Jones in the end. Though well trained in the Koa-Toa fighting arts, these Dragonborn were smart enough to know a good offer when they heard one. Their cruel masters lay dead and an offer to cure their zombie rot was on the table, if they would help the humans rebuild their city. Shamash threated to cut down any who double-crossed Jones on the terms of the truce, but there was not really any need for threats. The battle was over in any case.
Experience: 3,500 (I think we should be closing in on 80,000 xp each total now or so)
Treasure: one 17th level magic item (plus don't forget last session 18th level items went out). Plus 5,532 GP worth of monetary treasure, and one building per character within the city limits. To generate regular income with his building, Shamash set up a trading post downstairs with an apartment above.
The city is just on the edge of the northern range of the trade routes currently being established, and is near the base of mountains. Their main exports are lumber, leatherwork and beef. The humans call the town Cosmopolis because all races are welcome there so long as they obey basic town laws, enforced by the citizenry and defended by militia. It's basically a fantasy version of a cowboy town, and there are some smaller settlements in the outlying areas.
Next session: Saturday, July 31 at 3 pm.
Since arriving from the underdark, the party has put forth a continual effort to learn and map the features and settlements on the surface. Because of the great number of unknowns and the changing political landscape, there have been a lot of surprise discoveries and the unexpected seems to be the norm.
One assumption was that the dragons and their forces had subjugated the humans to the point of not having any standing cities centuries ago. A small settlement of about 1,500 was just discovered. "City" is pretty far from being the word for it though, and "human" is a term best used loosely.
Scouting from the air on one of Rholain's giant mosquitos, Hadji was the first to spot the humans below, scurrying in and out of shabby ruined buildings and mustering a militia to defend their city wall. By the time he brought the party over on more of their flying mounts, the Dragon Empire was pouring troops into the middle of the northern town from a fissure near the foothills of the snowmelt river, right next to the central footbridge.
Swooping down, the party caught the invaders by surprise and did not let up. No wall could have defended against the Dragon Empire's tactics, and this was a mismatch. With better numbers and position, an elder black dragon, an ice devil and lots of trained forces, the Dragon Empire was about to swat down what little the humans had built up. The humans had archers and some dwarven and half orc allies, but poor training and no hard units. Until the Uprisers literally swooped in.
Everybody just did their thing. Jorel was in four places at once, popping away when attacked and punishing foes from seemingly everywhere and nowhere. Rholain pretty much became a swarm of bees that created a no win situation for opponents whether they attacked him or not, inviting attacks of opportunity that in themselves were punishing trap attacks, and moving away unscathed beyond the pair of teleportation trees that proved quite helpful for party mobility on the city streets. Shamash focused on attacking slightly weaker opponents than usual in order that his abilities would consistently bolster his allies. Aurora set herself right down in the middle of the dragon empire's core troops and turned the power of Pelor on them, blotting them out with blinding light in a 30' radius that left her standing alone in the street. Willikers, in opposite fashion, stuck to the shadows and struck with showers of daggers, dishing out more damage than his enemies could handle - starting with the Elder Black Dragon himself (I used my Diablo action figure for him and it worked great). Paired with Hadji, the double team combo of strikers knocks enemies cold and just pulls their guts out faster than a dozen soldiers could. It's an amazing thing. Meanwhile, Wikipedia Jones shot up the bad guys from afar and shouted encouragement to the surviving local soldiers - largely archers behind boarded up windows.
After a time, the black dragon was defeated, then the ice devil. From there, it was not super easy but the party tipped the balance. Everybody just kept doing what they were best at, and in the end it was more than their enemies could handle. With their draconic commanders dead and the bulk of their minion guards as well, the remaining Dragon Empire troops had no choice but to surrender to Jones in the end. Though well trained in the Koa-Toa fighting arts, these Dragonborn were smart enough to know a good offer when they heard one. Their cruel masters lay dead and an offer to cure their zombie rot was on the table, if they would help the humans rebuild their city. Shamash threated to cut down any who double-crossed Jones on the terms of the truce, but there was not really any need for threats. The battle was over in any case.
Experience: 3,500 (I think we should be closing in on 80,000 xp each total now or so)
Treasure: one 17th level magic item (plus don't forget last session 18th level items went out). Plus 5,532 GP worth of monetary treasure, and one building per character within the city limits. To generate regular income with his building, Shamash set up a trading post downstairs with an apartment above.
The city is just on the edge of the northern range of the trade routes currently being established, and is near the base of mountains. Their main exports are lumber, leatherwork and beef. The humans call the town Cosmopolis because all races are welcome there so long as they obey basic town laws, enforced by the citizenry and defended by militia. It's basically a fantasy version of a cowboy town, and there are some smaller settlements in the outlying areas.
Next session: Saturday, July 31 at 3 pm.
Sunday, July 04, 2010
Shoppin' Trip
The party went to Aquatown (secret undersea Gnome city of wizards) to buy magic items and establish trade routes. By all accounts the expedition was routine and successful, if you can call anything involving gnomish submarines routine.
Trusty 'ol Sticky Fingers stumbled upon a gang of Starspawn in the run down part of town, while looking to expand his nefarious network of rogues. The party joined him.
After a long battle the evil Starspawn were defeated. Aurora, Wikipedia Jones, Shamash Kriv and Dreana made sure everyone was up on their hit points throughout the battle - in fact no one was even bloodied as a result. Hadji, Foxy and Fingers concentrated on dishing out damage. Jones then magically reduced the ruins of a large building from the stars, and put it in his pack.
Experience: 3,000
Treasure: 5,000 GP
Notes: Aquatown has full availability of magic items that are hard to find in other areas. Also, aquatic related items such as Hat of Water Breathing can be found if roleplaying in the city at half the prices in the books.
Trusty 'ol Sticky Fingers stumbled upon a gang of Starspawn in the run down part of town, while looking to expand his nefarious network of rogues. The party joined him.
After a long battle the evil Starspawn were defeated. Aurora, Wikipedia Jones, Shamash Kriv and Dreana made sure everyone was up on their hit points throughout the battle - in fact no one was even bloodied as a result. Hadji, Foxy and Fingers concentrated on dishing out damage. Jones then magically reduced the ruins of a large building from the stars, and put it in his pack.
Experience: 3,000
Treasure: 5,000 GP
Notes: Aquatown has full availability of magic items that are hard to find in other areas. Also, aquatic related items such as Hat of Water Breathing can be found if roleplaying in the city at half the prices in the books.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Defense
Fresh off their success with the halflings, the Uprisers returned to Port Liberty to check on things there. Upon their arrival, a pirated lizardman hammerhead fishing boat was coming in, loaded with ogre dreadnaughts. Rholain reached out his inhuman arms and magical tree doorways appeared, one on shore and one on the vessel. Willikers, Shamash, Aurora and Jorel went through and immediately began fighting the raiders, who were incredibly big and strong, armored in platemail and armed with huge greatswords. Providing fire support, Wikipedia Jones and Hadji remained on the shore, picking off targets of opportunity. A halfling wizardess jumped in the water and swam to her effective range to provide fire support also, raining bursts of magic on the deck of the attackers.
The ogres swung their mighty swords with stunning brutality, rendering those they struck temporarily unable to move their legs. Willikers struck first from a cloud of darkness and unleashed a cloud of steel, but the enemy stood stubbornly and struck him immobile -- but unconcerned about his condition. In the case of Aurora, immobility would not effect her ability to cast spells, blasting enemies with the light of Pelor and on the lookout for allies in need of healing. Shamash was struck immobile, but his glaive was never out of reach of enemies, while his voice called out battle commands with every strike -- and having charged to the middle of the deck, he was right where he wanted to be like a chess piece dividing and conquoring the enemy. Jorel teleported to the back (where the raider captain was ducking arrows from Jones) and engaged him in melee. In the end, the raiders could not stand, and the last of the raiders lay under 200' of seawater.
The idea of sinking the ship had been considered and dismissed as Port Liberty needs every vessel it had for fishing and commerce. Jorel (who doesn't need to breathe) explored the ocean floor and discovered a few merfolk, whom he intimidated with use of one of the ogre dreadnaught heads. As the zombie-rot infested group of merfolk arrived with their tribute of tuna for Liberty City, Jones offered them the cure and improved diplomatic relations with them, to trade partners instead of slaves. Due to Jones' inability to breathe water, gnome submarines were required for the meeting. Jorel, being from the stars, did not understand the need for this but learned more about this whole "breathing" thing from the experience.
Later, the party was preparing a plan to liberate the Firbolgs from the three curses of slavery, dragons and zombie rot. Their meeting place was the Port Liberty cave temple to Pelor, with its stunning view of the sun over the ocean and decor in progress. To those who built it, this temple always felt like it was meant to be made into a holy place. It was after sunset, so the sconces were lit. The party noticed spiders, first smaller ones, then some of them that were man-sized. Webs appeared along with a drow bounty hunter hired by the dragons to slay the party. "The trap is sprung," he said. "Traps are meant to be shut, so shut yours," Shamash answered. Easier said than done, it turned out. But despite the webs and the slowing effect of thousands of little spiders all the way up to the big ones and the magic of the drow, the Uprisers eventually prevailed. But not before Aurora was rendered unconscious. In her near death experience, she saw a great lion who said something about when the answer is given the question will be revealed (or something like that).
Experience: 3000. GP: 12,000
Next session: Saturday, July 3, 3pm.
We might play Jon's magic draft that day also - I will send a text. If we do it will start at 10 or 11 am.
The ogres swung their mighty swords with stunning brutality, rendering those they struck temporarily unable to move their legs. Willikers struck first from a cloud of darkness and unleashed a cloud of steel, but the enemy stood stubbornly and struck him immobile -- but unconcerned about his condition. In the case of Aurora, immobility would not effect her ability to cast spells, blasting enemies with the light of Pelor and on the lookout for allies in need of healing. Shamash was struck immobile, but his glaive was never out of reach of enemies, while his voice called out battle commands with every strike -- and having charged to the middle of the deck, he was right where he wanted to be like a chess piece dividing and conquoring the enemy. Jorel teleported to the back (where the raider captain was ducking arrows from Jones) and engaged him in melee. In the end, the raiders could not stand, and the last of the raiders lay under 200' of seawater.
The idea of sinking the ship had been considered and dismissed as Port Liberty needs every vessel it had for fishing and commerce. Jorel (who doesn't need to breathe) explored the ocean floor and discovered a few merfolk, whom he intimidated with use of one of the ogre dreadnaught heads. As the zombie-rot infested group of merfolk arrived with their tribute of tuna for Liberty City, Jones offered them the cure and improved diplomatic relations with them, to trade partners instead of slaves. Due to Jones' inability to breathe water, gnome submarines were required for the meeting. Jorel, being from the stars, did not understand the need for this but learned more about this whole "breathing" thing from the experience.
Later, the party was preparing a plan to liberate the Firbolgs from the three curses of slavery, dragons and zombie rot. Their meeting place was the Port Liberty cave temple to Pelor, with its stunning view of the sun over the ocean and decor in progress. To those who built it, this temple always felt like it was meant to be made into a holy place. It was after sunset, so the sconces were lit. The party noticed spiders, first smaller ones, then some of them that were man-sized. Webs appeared along with a drow bounty hunter hired by the dragons to slay the party. "The trap is sprung," he said. "Traps are meant to be shut, so shut yours," Shamash answered. Easier said than done, it turned out. But despite the webs and the slowing effect of thousands of little spiders all the way up to the big ones and the magic of the drow, the Uprisers eventually prevailed. But not before Aurora was rendered unconscious. In her near death experience, she saw a great lion who said something about when the answer is given the question will be revealed (or something like that).
Experience: 3000. GP: 12,000
Next session: Saturday, July 3, 3pm.
We might play Jon's magic draft that day also - I will send a text. If we do it will start at 10 or 11 am.
Saturday, June 05, 2010
How Sticky Fingers became Mayor
This is a continuation of the previous blog entry.
... So the Uprisers continued deeper into the mountaintop cave, past the intimidated halflings. One holdout fired a poison crossbow bolt but was frightened off by the cave being closed off by Driana (who was slowed by the small opening and pulled out by Foxy) followed by an onslaught of flaming oil from Willikers.
More trapped treasure was discovered by Sticky Fingers, exploding in his face upon examination and doing a bit of damage plus "embarrassment, save ends." similar to what happens with exploding cigars in cartoons. Beyond this point the cave opened into a much larger interior cavern, possibly an ancient natural caldera or volcanic crater with the appearance of having been expanded by giant (dragon) claws. Jorel lowered himself on a Tensor's disk then, remembered he could just jump down and land safely, while Shamash used his magic rope to ensure safe passage down for himself and anyone else wanting to use it. Jones flew down on his ritual/magical force griffin. Everyone else made their way down the 100' or so to where water glittered below.
Down below, the party discovered an ancient Koa-Toa spawning pool, complete with floating dragon feces, deer heads and bones. Various types of Koa-Toa fish people wandered aimlessly, muttering nonsense in deep speech. Suddenly out of nowhere The Enchantress (Elder Green Dragon) swooped in, gave a leering glare to bring everyone closer, and breathed her poison gas on the party (which would have had no effect on the metalic Jorel, who was still exploring the spawning pool nearby). She followed this up with her normal flyby attack, a tried and true hit and run tactic to wear down the group and then wear them down with her Koa-Toa underlings.
It would have worked too, if not for the fact that the drow rogue she attacked (Willikers) was bloodied, which activated an encounter power (Knockout I think). So in concert with Hadgi and Jones, she was knocked out of the air, flat on her back and unconscious for a round, slowed and pretty beat up. From that moment on it was only a matter of time before the party was able to slay her, though not before a great deal of damage on both sides took place.
Wikipedia Jones was lucky enough not to be effected by her Frightful Presence, which stunned almost everybody and would have given her a chance to get to a safe distance and regroup for another, more powerful attack -- even using an army of Koa Toa if needed. But Jones was the one person she would have needed to stun in order to move anywhere, since he was maintaining an effect that slowed her to 1/7 of her regular flying speed. But she got lucky and the round after her bloodied breath went off, her breath weapon also recharged. Meanwhile her Koa Toa allies began attacking the party, though several of them were taking their sweet time getting close enough to get into melee (they only have a speed of 6 and were not only naturally insane but also pretty infected with zombie rot so pretty dumb too). Their "Whip" however was able to nail the party with a Slime Vortex, which certainly didn't make matters any easier for the party.
Hadgi struck again and again though he was still reeling from the poison, fear effects and slime. Robrick Willikers III, who was most responsible for the current pained situation the Enchantress found herself in, was targeted often and at one point brought to well under half his bloodied value. But Willikers dished out a heck of a lot more than he took, and with the help of Aurora he never went down. Drina, (Willikers' Drow sister, a bard) used her Darkfire power to dish out some damage, and filled in a utility role as the battle went along. The Koa Toa, in Deep Speech understood only by Willikers, were muttering about entrail asparagus and the 49 tones of jasper, Lasavix Icespring and the Forgotten Waters of Korgill. Crazy talk. Sticky Fingers found an old rusty dagger, and threw his usual one at the throat of the dragon before stopping again to examine his shiny new find. Jorel of the Stars responded to the Frightful Presence attack by teleporting next to the Enchantress, going immediately from ignored to impossible to ignore. Aurora healed all who needed it, always in the right place at the right time, and dished out a few "turn dragon" effects too that turned heads. Speaking of draconic blood, Shamash was propositioned by the Enchantress to join her, and responded "No. You don't know who you're dealing with." and proceeded to attack and give his comrades in arms additional tactical opportunities while inspiring them to greater deeds with every successful action. It was Jorel and Aurora who dealt the final blows and in the end the Enchantress lay dead, no more lies or guile to spill from her lips. She had been responsible for the Halflings' civil war, and now the party was responsible for undoing the havoc she had created. Jones opened the decanter and dropped a drop or two into the ancient, filthy spawning pool and it immediately glowed blue and became pristinely clean. Jorel investigated an opening that went straight down and returned with a report that 2.1 miles below, there is a city of Kua-Toa, and the water there was glowing blue as well. Shortly afterward the water stopped glowing but remained clear.
After Jones brought her head to the annual bidding contest, he made a great diplomatic speech uniting the two factions immediately. The party, true heroes of the halflings, found themselves in the position of being able to have half-price henchmen if they wanted. Sticky Fingers was hailed as the greatest hero of 3 generations and elected mayor. Aurora lent her aid to local agricultural efforts. Rholain stopped by later, accompanied by a lot of locusts that he then helped deal with for a fee. Renowned for their cooking - especially baked goods and candies, the halflings are also well known for their brewing skills with wines second only to the elves and beers second only to the dwarves. For hard alcohol it is an open secret that the half orcs' stuff is strongest but not very palatable. Anyway, there are 6,824 halflings who live in and around the two shires, mostly in large self-sufficient family burrows with farms above. Transportation is by giant lizard and trade takes place in weekly open air markets with tents as needed.
Drina set up a household for herself and guests, built and staffed by halflings (at half regular prices).
Fizzy Feet, a 16th level halfling war mage, offered his services to the party should they wish to hire him at half price.
The previous leaders of the Shires of Ed's Hollow and Rackmonton got together with Sticky Fingers to coordinate how things will be run. The new city is not yet named but an agreement is in progress, though records of a pre-dragon national halfling boundary were brought forth. The halfling nation is called Green Fields.
Experience: The party's current XP should be 69,000 each, just at 16th level.
Treasure: one 18th level magic item and 17,500 gold pieces in monetary treasure. Please note however that XP and treasure were basically not awarded for about 3 sessions, so these are not typical levels.
Next game: we should be on for 3 pm in a couple Saturdays. I'll let you know. -D
... So the Uprisers continued deeper into the mountaintop cave, past the intimidated halflings. One holdout fired a poison crossbow bolt but was frightened off by the cave being closed off by Driana (who was slowed by the small opening and pulled out by Foxy) followed by an onslaught of flaming oil from Willikers.
More trapped treasure was discovered by Sticky Fingers, exploding in his face upon examination and doing a bit of damage plus "embarrassment, save ends." similar to what happens with exploding cigars in cartoons. Beyond this point the cave opened into a much larger interior cavern, possibly an ancient natural caldera or volcanic crater with the appearance of having been expanded by giant (dragon) claws. Jorel lowered himself on a Tensor's disk then, remembered he could just jump down and land safely, while Shamash used his magic rope to ensure safe passage down for himself and anyone else wanting to use it. Jones flew down on his ritual/magical force griffin. Everyone else made their way down the 100' or so to where water glittered below.
Down below, the party discovered an ancient Koa-Toa spawning pool, complete with floating dragon feces, deer heads and bones. Various types of Koa-Toa fish people wandered aimlessly, muttering nonsense in deep speech. Suddenly out of nowhere The Enchantress (Elder Green Dragon) swooped in, gave a leering glare to bring everyone closer, and breathed her poison gas on the party (which would have had no effect on the metalic Jorel, who was still exploring the spawning pool nearby). She followed this up with her normal flyby attack, a tried and true hit and run tactic to wear down the group and then wear them down with her Koa-Toa underlings.
It would have worked too, if not for the fact that the drow rogue she attacked (Willikers) was bloodied, which activated an encounter power (Knockout I think). So in concert with Hadgi and Jones, she was knocked out of the air, flat on her back and unconscious for a round, slowed and pretty beat up. From that moment on it was only a matter of time before the party was able to slay her, though not before a great deal of damage on both sides took place.
Wikipedia Jones was lucky enough not to be effected by her Frightful Presence, which stunned almost everybody and would have given her a chance to get to a safe distance and regroup for another, more powerful attack -- even using an army of Koa Toa if needed. But Jones was the one person she would have needed to stun in order to move anywhere, since he was maintaining an effect that slowed her to 1/7 of her regular flying speed. But she got lucky and the round after her bloodied breath went off, her breath weapon also recharged. Meanwhile her Koa Toa allies began attacking the party, though several of them were taking their sweet time getting close enough to get into melee (they only have a speed of 6 and were not only naturally insane but also pretty infected with zombie rot so pretty dumb too). Their "Whip" however was able to nail the party with a Slime Vortex, which certainly didn't make matters any easier for the party.
Hadgi struck again and again though he was still reeling from the poison, fear effects and slime. Robrick Willikers III, who was most responsible for the current pained situation the Enchantress found herself in, was targeted often and at one point brought to well under half his bloodied value. But Willikers dished out a heck of a lot more than he took, and with the help of Aurora he never went down. Drina, (Willikers' Drow sister, a bard) used her Darkfire power to dish out some damage, and filled in a utility role as the battle went along. The Koa Toa, in Deep Speech understood only by Willikers, were muttering about entrail asparagus and the 49 tones of jasper, Lasavix Icespring and the Forgotten Waters of Korgill. Crazy talk. Sticky Fingers found an old rusty dagger, and threw his usual one at the throat of the dragon before stopping again to examine his shiny new find. Jorel of the Stars responded to the Frightful Presence attack by teleporting next to the Enchantress, going immediately from ignored to impossible to ignore. Aurora healed all who needed it, always in the right place at the right time, and dished out a few "turn dragon" effects too that turned heads. Speaking of draconic blood, Shamash was propositioned by the Enchantress to join her, and responded "No. You don't know who you're dealing with." and proceeded to attack and give his comrades in arms additional tactical opportunities while inspiring them to greater deeds with every successful action. It was Jorel and Aurora who dealt the final blows and in the end the Enchantress lay dead, no more lies or guile to spill from her lips. She had been responsible for the Halflings' civil war, and now the party was responsible for undoing the havoc she had created. Jones opened the decanter and dropped a drop or two into the ancient, filthy spawning pool and it immediately glowed blue and became pristinely clean. Jorel investigated an opening that went straight down and returned with a report that 2.1 miles below, there is a city of Kua-Toa, and the water there was glowing blue as well. Shortly afterward the water stopped glowing but remained clear.
After Jones brought her head to the annual bidding contest, he made a great diplomatic speech uniting the two factions immediately. The party, true heroes of the halflings, found themselves in the position of being able to have half-price henchmen if they wanted. Sticky Fingers was hailed as the greatest hero of 3 generations and elected mayor. Aurora lent her aid to local agricultural efforts. Rholain stopped by later, accompanied by a lot of locusts that he then helped deal with for a fee. Renowned for their cooking - especially baked goods and candies, the halflings are also well known for their brewing skills with wines second only to the elves and beers second only to the dwarves. For hard alcohol it is an open secret that the half orcs' stuff is strongest but not very palatable. Anyway, there are 6,824 halflings who live in and around the two shires, mostly in large self-sufficient family burrows with farms above. Transportation is by giant lizard and trade takes place in weekly open air markets with tents as needed.
Drina set up a household for herself and guests, built and staffed by halflings (at half regular prices).
Fizzy Feet, a 16th level halfling war mage, offered his services to the party should they wish to hire him at half price.
The previous leaders of the Shires of Ed's Hollow and Rackmonton got together with Sticky Fingers to coordinate how things will be run. The new city is not yet named but an agreement is in progress, though records of a pre-dragon national halfling boundary were brought forth. The halfling nation is called Green Fields.
Experience: The party's current XP should be 69,000 each, just at 16th level.
Treasure: one 18th level magic item and 17,500 gold pieces in monetary treasure. Please note however that XP and treasure were basically not awarded for about 3 sessions, so these are not typical levels.
Next game: we should be on for 3 pm in a couple Saturdays. I'll let you know. -D
How Sticky Fingers became Mayor
This is a continuation of the previous blog entry.
... So the Uprisers continued deeper into the mountaintop cave, past the intimidated halflings. One holdout fired a poison crossbow bolt but was frightened off by the cave being closed off by Driana (who was slowed by the small opening and pulled out by Foxy) followed by an onslaught of flaming oil from Willikers.
More trapped treasure was discovered by Sticky Fingers, exploding in his face upon examination and doing a bit of damage plus "embarrassment, save ends." similar to what happens with exploding cigars in cartoons. Beyond this point the cave opened into a much larger interior cavern, possibly an ancient natural caldera or volcanic crater with the appearance of having been expanded by giant (dragon) claws. Jorel lowered himself on a Tensor's disk then, remembered he could just jump down and land safely, while Shamash used his magic rope to ensure safe passage down for himself and anyone else wanting to use it. Jones flew down on his ritual/magical force griffin. Everyone else made their way down the 100' or so to where water glittered below.
Down below, the party discovered an ancient Koa-Toa spawning pool, complete with floating dragon feces, deer heads and bones. Various types of Koa-Toa fish people wandered aimlessly, muttering nonsense in deep speech. Suddenly out of nowhere The Enchantress (Elder Green Dragon) swooped in, gave a leering glare to bring everyone closer, and breathed her poison gas on the party (which would have had no effect on the metalic Jorel, who was still exploring the spawning pool nearby). She followed this up with her normal flyby attack, a tried and true hit and run tactic to wear down the group and then wear them down with her Koa-Toa underlings.
It would have worked too, if not for the fact that the drow rogue she attacked (Willikers) was bloodied, which activated an encounter power (Knockout I think). So in concert with Hadgi and Jones, she was knocked out of the air, flat on her back and unconscious for a round, slowed and pretty beat up. From that moment on it was only a matter of time before the party was able to slay her, though not before a great deal of damage on both sides took place.
Wikipedia Jones was lucky enough not to be effected by her Frightful Presence, which stunned almost everybody and would have given her a chance to get to a safe distance and regroup for another, more powerful attack -- even using an army of Koa Toa if needed. But Jones was the one person she would have needed to stun in order to move anywhere, since he was maintaining an effect that slowed her to 1/7 of her regular flying speed. But she got lucky and the round after her bloodied breath went off, her breath weapon also recharged. Meanwhile her Koa Toa allies began attacking the party, though several of them were taking their sweet time getting close enough to get into melee (they only have a speed of 6 and were not only naturally insane but also pretty infected with zombie rot so pretty dumb too). Their "Whip" however was able to nail the party with a Slime Vortex, which certainly didn't make matters any easier for the party.
Hadgi struck again and again though he was still reeling from the poison, fear effects and slime. Robrick Willikers III, who was most responsible for the current pained situation the Enchantress found herself in, was targeted often and at one point brought to well under half his bloodied value. But Willikers dished out a heck of a lot more than he took, and with the help of Aurora he never went down. Drina, (Willikers' Drow sister, a bard) used her Darkfire power to dish out some damage, and filled in a utility role as the battle went along. The Koa Toa, in Deep Speech understood only by Willikers, were muttering about entrail asparagus and the 49 tones of jasper, Lasavix Icespring and the Forgotten Waters of Korgill. Crazy talk. Sticky Fingers found an old rusty dagger, and threw his usual one at the throat of the dragon before stopping again to examine his shiny new find. Jorel of the Stars responded to the Frightful Presence attack by teleporting next to the Enchantress, going immediately from ignored to impossible to ignore. Aurora healed all who needed it, always in the right place at the right time, and dished out a few "turn dragon" effects too that turned heads. Speaking of draconic blood, Shamash was propositioned by the Enchantress to join her, and responded "No. You don't know who you're dealing with." and proceeded to attack and give his comrades in arms additional tactical opportunities while inspiring them to greater deeds with every successful action. It was Jorel and Aurora who dealt the final blows and in the end the Enchantress lay dead, no more lies or guile to spill from her lips. She had been responsible for the Halflings' civil war, and now the party was responsible for undoing the havoc she had created.
After Jones brought her head to the annual bidding contest, he made a great diplomatic speech uniting the two factions immediately. The party, true heroes of the halflings, found themselves in the position of being able to have half-price henchmen if they wanted. Sticky Fingers was hailed as the greatest hero of 3 generations and elected mayor.
The
Experience: The party's current XP should be 69,000 each, just at 16th level.
Treasure: one 18th level magic item and 17,500 gold pieces in monetary treasure. Please note however that XP and treasure were basically not awarded for about 3 sessions, so these are not typical levels.
Next game: we should be on for 3 pm in a couple Saturdays. I'll let you know. -D
... So the Uprisers continued deeper into the mountaintop cave, past the intimidated halflings. One holdout fired a poison crossbow bolt but was frightened off by the cave being closed off by Driana (who was slowed by the small opening and pulled out by Foxy) followed by an onslaught of flaming oil from Willikers.
More trapped treasure was discovered by Sticky Fingers, exploding in his face upon examination and doing a bit of damage plus "embarrassment, save ends." similar to what happens with exploding cigars in cartoons. Beyond this point the cave opened into a much larger interior cavern, possibly an ancient natural caldera or volcanic crater with the appearance of having been expanded by giant (dragon) claws. Jorel lowered himself on a Tensor's disk then, remembered he could just jump down and land safely, while Shamash used his magic rope to ensure safe passage down for himself and anyone else wanting to use it. Jones flew down on his ritual/magical force griffin. Everyone else made their way down the 100' or so to where water glittered below.
Down below, the party discovered an ancient Koa-Toa spawning pool, complete with floating dragon feces, deer heads and bones. Various types of Koa-Toa fish people wandered aimlessly, muttering nonsense in deep speech. Suddenly out of nowhere The Enchantress (Elder Green Dragon) swooped in, gave a leering glare to bring everyone closer, and breathed her poison gas on the party (which would have had no effect on the metalic Jorel, who was still exploring the spawning pool nearby). She followed this up with her normal flyby attack, a tried and true hit and run tactic to wear down the group and then wear them down with her Koa-Toa underlings.
It would have worked too, if not for the fact that the drow rogue she attacked (Willikers) was bloodied, which activated an encounter power (Knockout I think). So in concert with Hadgi and Jones, she was knocked out of the air, flat on her back and unconscious for a round, slowed and pretty beat up. From that moment on it was only a matter of time before the party was able to slay her, though not before a great deal of damage on both sides took place.
Wikipedia Jones was lucky enough not to be effected by her Frightful Presence, which stunned almost everybody and would have given her a chance to get to a safe distance and regroup for another, more powerful attack -- even using an army of Koa Toa if needed. But Jones was the one person she would have needed to stun in order to move anywhere, since he was maintaining an effect that slowed her to 1/7 of her regular flying speed. But she got lucky and the round after her bloodied breath went off, her breath weapon also recharged. Meanwhile her Koa Toa allies began attacking the party, though several of them were taking their sweet time getting close enough to get into melee (they only have a speed of 6 and were not only naturally insane but also pretty infected with zombie rot so pretty dumb too). Their "Whip" however was able to nail the party with a Slime Vortex, which certainly didn't make matters any easier for the party.
Hadgi struck again and again though he was still reeling from the poison, fear effects and slime. Robrick Willikers III, who was most responsible for the current pained situation the Enchantress found herself in, was targeted often and at one point brought to well under half his bloodied value. But Willikers dished out a heck of a lot more than he took, and with the help of Aurora he never went down. Drina, (Willikers' Drow sister, a bard) used her Darkfire power to dish out some damage, and filled in a utility role as the battle went along. The Koa Toa, in Deep Speech understood only by Willikers, were muttering about entrail asparagus and the 49 tones of jasper, Lasavix Icespring and the Forgotten Waters of Korgill. Crazy talk. Sticky Fingers found an old rusty dagger, and threw his usual one at the throat of the dragon before stopping again to examine his shiny new find. Jorel of the Stars responded to the Frightful Presence attack by teleporting next to the Enchantress, going immediately from ignored to impossible to ignore. Aurora healed all who needed it, always in the right place at the right time, and dished out a few "turn dragon" effects too that turned heads. Speaking of draconic blood, Shamash was propositioned by the Enchantress to join her, and responded "No. You don't know who you're dealing with." and proceeded to attack and give his comrades in arms additional tactical opportunities while inspiring them to greater deeds with every successful action. It was Jorel and Aurora who dealt the final blows and in the end the Enchantress lay dead, no more lies or guile to spill from her lips. She had been responsible for the Halflings' civil war, and now the party was responsible for undoing the havoc she had created.
After Jones brought her head to the annual bidding contest, he made a great diplomatic speech uniting the two factions immediately. The party, true heroes of the halflings, found themselves in the position of being able to have half-price henchmen if they wanted. Sticky Fingers was hailed as the greatest hero of 3 generations and elected mayor.
The
Experience: The party's current XP should be 69,000 each, just at 16th level.
Treasure: one 18th level magic item and 17,500 gold pieces in monetary treasure. Please note however that XP and treasure were basically not awarded for about 3 sessions, so these are not typical levels.
Next game: we should be on for 3 pm in a couple Saturdays. I'll let you know. -D
Sunday, May 23, 2010
MTG, Shantytown & Halfling City
MAGIC - Jon brought a booster box of the new Magic set, "Rise of the Eldrazi" and he, Mat & Ava, Penny & I played a booster draft from about 11-3 before D&D. Jon ran B/R, I ran U/G (mostly green), Penny W/R, Ava W/G and Mat U/G (mostly blue). I ended up winning, mostly from what I could tell because the current set has some great green creatures, including a 3 cost that gets bigger with each enchantment in play - and can't be blocked by anything with a smaller power than it has. It looked like nothing but turned out to work awesome with the enchantments and splash of counter I had, and I ended up winning every match. If I remember, it was Penny & I in the final and it went 3 games, she had some awesome white guys that level up and good red removal to clear a path for them. It was a lot of fun and I look forward to the next one of these. Since Old Town Hobby closed, we pick up a few packs at Gabby's (Olympic Cards & Comics) every now & then. Yesterday I pulled a merfolk champion that's pretty awesome, he plays as a 2/2 for UU, and levels up for 1 per level to be a 4/4 flyer and give other merfolk +1/+1.
D&D - In order to avoid another grim situation for the survivors of Liberty City, the party spent a little extra time (this time) before going off on more adventures to free more cities. Each party member put in a year of effort to help the 1,300 or so lizardfolk, kobolds and half elves rebuild their lives as part of one of the few free societies in a world enslaved by dragons. Oh, and they were cured of the zombie rot (I probably mentioned that earlier). After much discussion it was agreed that the greatest benefit for the least risk for these survivors would be to rebuild trade routes and alliances with the neighboring communities. Because the previous location of the city was destroyed and also inhospitable (partially due to the soil having been salted, but also general terrain conditions) the 1,300 were relocated, (aka Battlestar Galactica but on a shorter timeline) to the coast near the mouth of a river.
After the new site was selected for New Liberty City (the old one will basically become a historical/tourist attraction), Jones was nominated to put together a master site plan. The new location is along a rocky coast where the Jastel River meets the Zarto Sea (the place names look different in various languages). So the mental picture Mat painted for us was from Popeye the movie, of Shantytown. It's perfect because there's not really a city to invade at all, it's basically just one big long stripe of boat launches, with ropes going up into houses set against cliffs. So it's set up to be free and centered on each individual, and there are easy quick exits to sea or into caves depending on any threats that come along. Attacking now would have the same effect as punching Spongebob Squarepants - it just wouldn't do any real damage because the population are so mobile.
Aurora scoured the battlefield and healed survivors, and even rose the dead in several cases. Though reversing their terrible losses was obviously impossible, she was able to take some of the sting out of the tragedy by returning (from who she could find) loved ones and prominent citizens to join their new community on the shore.
Over the year, Shamash directed his hireling Fy'Ev to serve as city manager (not mayor), working hands-on with the Lizardmen in building and defending their new community as the party's permanent representative for New Liberty. Shamash also interviewed candidates for top leadership positions, giving titles, resources and encouragement to those who deserved it. Fortunately for New Liberty, it has a number of residents who are gifted at shipbuilding, which will be key. Also, after shaking off the zombie rot they're quite a bit brighter and there's no shortage of leaders and independent thinkers. Self-rule early on might look more like a commonwealth than a democracy. Because they abhor slavery (having been subjected to it), the more oppressive government forms will be avoided and if a kingdom arises it will be accompanied by a parliamentary representation system of some kind, even if informal.
Willikers established trade relations with the neighboring Drow from below and found his sister Driana entertaining the refugees in the small community of 200 there. Though small, this group, referred to as "The Nomads" by "topworlders," has excellent underdark connections and continues to strike at the Dragon Empire and other threats while carving out a situation better suited to their interests.
Jorel became somewhat fascinated with the lizardfolk's ability to reproduce, and in his contribution to their long term well being and growth as a community this led him to assisting with the establishment of long-term food supply solutions. His logic contributed to the new location for the city, with it's ample fishing.
Sticky Fingers started up a thieves' guild and made connections with his old halfling gang of buddies, including the giant lizard rider Johnny Kneebreaker and the wizard Fizzy Feet. The twin shires of Ed's Hollow and Racklamton have been at each other's throats for as long as anybody can remember and though slowed by zombie rot, the brutal rivalry has been ratcheted up by The Enchantress, a green dragon who annually chooses one or the other side to ally with based on competitive tributes.
So after putting things in order with New Liberty, the party ventured off to help their neighboring community of halflings free itself from the clutches of the dragons' influence. Gang warfare between the twin shires had escalated to near civil war. Tribute day was a week away and thuggery was rampant. The party learned the location of the dragon enchantress' lair and headed up the impossibly huge mountain. After crossing the tree line into the snowy peaks they encountered chillbane zombies. Within the first section of the cave above they discovered large gems in plain sight: Red, Green, Blue and Orange. The red and green ones exploded in flames and poison while the blue and orange ones had unknown properties. Halfings hidden deeper within the cave fired crossbows at the party and once a deep dragon's voice attempted to deter the Uprisers but they pressed on deeper into the cave.
Next: Zeria the Merciless, Dragon Enchantress
XP: 3500 and age your character 1 year. (Yes we're still 15th level)
Treasure: 8,000 GP in gems per character. Though there had been additional treasure much was spent building up New Liberty City and establishing trade relations, so this is the net after that. More to come, stay tuned.
Next session: Sat June 5th 3pm
D&D - In order to avoid another grim situation for the survivors of Liberty City, the party spent a little extra time (this time) before going off on more adventures to free more cities. Each party member put in a year of effort to help the 1,300 or so lizardfolk, kobolds and half elves rebuild their lives as part of one of the few free societies in a world enslaved by dragons. Oh, and they were cured of the zombie rot (I probably mentioned that earlier). After much discussion it was agreed that the greatest benefit for the least risk for these survivors would be to rebuild trade routes and alliances with the neighboring communities. Because the previous location of the city was destroyed and also inhospitable (partially due to the soil having been salted, but also general terrain conditions) the 1,300 were relocated, (aka Battlestar Galactica but on a shorter timeline) to the coast near the mouth of a river.
After the new site was selected for New Liberty City (the old one will basically become a historical/tourist attraction), Jones was nominated to put together a master site plan. The new location is along a rocky coast where the Jastel River meets the Zarto Sea (the place names look different in various languages). So the mental picture Mat painted for us was from Popeye the movie, of Shantytown. It's perfect because there's not really a city to invade at all, it's basically just one big long stripe of boat launches, with ropes going up into houses set against cliffs. So it's set up to be free and centered on each individual, and there are easy quick exits to sea or into caves depending on any threats that come along. Attacking now would have the same effect as punching Spongebob Squarepants - it just wouldn't do any real damage because the population are so mobile.
Aurora scoured the battlefield and healed survivors, and even rose the dead in several cases. Though reversing their terrible losses was obviously impossible, she was able to take some of the sting out of the tragedy by returning (from who she could find) loved ones and prominent citizens to join their new community on the shore.
Over the year, Shamash directed his hireling Fy'Ev to serve as city manager (not mayor), working hands-on with the Lizardmen in building and defending their new community as the party's permanent representative for New Liberty. Shamash also interviewed candidates for top leadership positions, giving titles, resources and encouragement to those who deserved it. Fortunately for New Liberty, it has a number of residents who are gifted at shipbuilding, which will be key. Also, after shaking off the zombie rot they're quite a bit brighter and there's no shortage of leaders and independent thinkers. Self-rule early on might look more like a commonwealth than a democracy. Because they abhor slavery (having been subjected to it), the more oppressive government forms will be avoided and if a kingdom arises it will be accompanied by a parliamentary representation system of some kind, even if informal.
Willikers established trade relations with the neighboring Drow from below and found his sister Driana entertaining the refugees in the small community of 200 there. Though small, this group, referred to as "The Nomads" by "topworlders," has excellent underdark connections and continues to strike at the Dragon Empire and other threats while carving out a situation better suited to their interests.
Jorel became somewhat fascinated with the lizardfolk's ability to reproduce, and in his contribution to their long term well being and growth as a community this led him to assisting with the establishment of long-term food supply solutions. His logic contributed to the new location for the city, with it's ample fishing.
Sticky Fingers started up a thieves' guild and made connections with his old halfling gang of buddies, including the giant lizard rider Johnny Kneebreaker and the wizard Fizzy Feet. The twin shires of Ed's Hollow and Racklamton have been at each other's throats for as long as anybody can remember and though slowed by zombie rot, the brutal rivalry has been ratcheted up by The Enchantress, a green dragon who annually chooses one or the other side to ally with based on competitive tributes.
So after putting things in order with New Liberty, the party ventured off to help their neighboring community of halflings free itself from the clutches of the dragons' influence. Gang warfare between the twin shires had escalated to near civil war. Tribute day was a week away and thuggery was rampant. The party learned the location of the dragon enchantress' lair and headed up the impossibly huge mountain. After crossing the tree line into the snowy peaks they encountered chillbane zombies. Within the first section of the cave above they discovered large gems in plain sight: Red, Green, Blue and Orange. The red and green ones exploded in flames and poison while the blue and orange ones had unknown properties. Halfings hidden deeper within the cave fired crossbows at the party and once a deep dragon's voice attempted to deter the Uprisers but they pressed on deeper into the cave.
Next: Zeria the Merciless, Dragon Enchantress
XP: 3500 and age your character 1 year. (Yes we're still 15th level)
Treasure: 8,000 GP in gems per character. Though there had been additional treasure much was spent building up New Liberty City and establishing trade relations, so this is the net after that. More to come, stay tuned.
Next session: Sat June 5th 3pm
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Homecoming S***storm
So the uprisers returned to Lizardtown, the city we liberated 9 months ago & renamed independence. Evil versions of ourselves were running the place. Malnourished brainwashed citizens were throwing bodies into the well. The grainery was being fertilized with dung. The sports arena had degenerated to thunderdome & the Pelor temple had been twisted to worship of a belor demon. Zombie rot was rampant. Deep sick rumblings of sporatic earthquakes shook the ground.
There were so many problems we didn't know where to begin but we didn't know the half of it. The eternal flames from our battle of liberation had turned sickly purple. In that field we again fought for the future freedom of the lizardmen. It turned out the zombie rot had infested the mind flayers who in their deranged state chose to impersonate us shortly after we left. Against the real, now more experienced and better equipped versions of Rholain, Hadji, Willikers, Jones, Aurora, Shamash & Elle they could not stand for long.
The encounter was tough & we no sooner caught our breath before we saw purple worms (like from Dune) devouring our city. Citizens running in terror were being cut down by an army of kobolds led by a red dragon. Jones convinced some of them to switch to our side but the dragon put a claw to his chest & their red hand symbols blew our new kobold allies up instantly. So much for that. Shamash gathered up weapons & organized 24 lizardmen to fight back. Each defeated kobold exploded, killing any lizardmen standing toe to toe with it.
The kobolds served another purpose for the dragon: we couldn't ignore them & they were softening us up and directing some of our attacks away. But Hadji managed to get on top of the dragon, stabbing it in the back of the neck until it shrugged him off like an insect & he fell 40' to where Shamash & Rholain stood below. Terrible fiery breath & even more punishing physical attacks, plus paralyzing fear attacks had us on the defensive, burning healing surges. Good thing we've got Aurora.
An upper echelon of kobold shamen and tougher exploding warriors kept coming in wave after wave over a hill until Hadji caved in their surface passage. Meanwhile the druid kept the dragon slowed enough that he couldn't attack Jones & take the Cup.
When the smoke cleared the kobolds & lizardmen rabble all lay dead. Shamash lay motionless until Rholain brought him back, coughing bugs & ash.
Oh and the red dragon surrendered, Jones cured his zombie rot & he works for us now. Right now he's helping rebuild the city.
Xp & treasure TBA. We are still 15th level.
We will play Magic next Sat (May 22nd) at 11 Am prior to D&D at 3.
Good game Rod.
There were so many problems we didn't know where to begin but we didn't know the half of it. The eternal flames from our battle of liberation had turned sickly purple. In that field we again fought for the future freedom of the lizardmen. It turned out the zombie rot had infested the mind flayers who in their deranged state chose to impersonate us shortly after we left. Against the real, now more experienced and better equipped versions of Rholain, Hadji, Willikers, Jones, Aurora, Shamash & Elle they could not stand for long.
The encounter was tough & we no sooner caught our breath before we saw purple worms (like from Dune) devouring our city. Citizens running in terror were being cut down by an army of kobolds led by a red dragon. Jones convinced some of them to switch to our side but the dragon put a claw to his chest & their red hand symbols blew our new kobold allies up instantly. So much for that. Shamash gathered up weapons & organized 24 lizardmen to fight back. Each defeated kobold exploded, killing any lizardmen standing toe to toe with it.
The kobolds served another purpose for the dragon: we couldn't ignore them & they were softening us up and directing some of our attacks away. But Hadji managed to get on top of the dragon, stabbing it in the back of the neck until it shrugged him off like an insect & he fell 40' to where Shamash & Rholain stood below. Terrible fiery breath & even more punishing physical attacks, plus paralyzing fear attacks had us on the defensive, burning healing surges. Good thing we've got Aurora.
An upper echelon of kobold shamen and tougher exploding warriors kept coming in wave after wave over a hill until Hadji caved in their surface passage. Meanwhile the druid kept the dragon slowed enough that he couldn't attack Jones & take the Cup.
When the smoke cleared the kobolds & lizardmen rabble all lay dead. Shamash lay motionless until Rholain brought him back, coughing bugs & ash.
Oh and the red dragon surrendered, Jones cured his zombie rot & he works for us now. Right now he's helping rebuild the city.
Xp & treasure TBA. We are still 15th level.
We will play Magic next Sat (May 22nd) at 11 Am prior to D&D at 3.
Good game Rod.
Saturday, May 01, 2010
Ding, Dong, Zombie Rot's Gone!
Coming off of some earlier setbacks, we were in need of hope. So last Saturday the party worked our way past several dragons over many, many miles of rugged terrain in order to reach our distant destination. We noted their positions but avoided the encounters for the time being. What we still sought was the good dragon who could help us and/or we could help her (see earlier entries).
One encounter we were unable to avoid was an ambush by Harpies, who spotted us from above. The Harpies were a pretty cool and tougher than expected encounter. We were outnumbered and their screech attacks kept immobilizing members of the party. Since they can fly and were perched up high when not flying, that presented another challenge. Wikipedia Jones, with his ability to strike from a distance, had no problems dishing out damage from a distance. Hadjii, the ranger with such incredible mobility, was able to attack the monsters pretty much every round, dishing out significant damage. Likewise for R. Willikers, who really punished those evil things. Shamash was able to climb up and get into melee with them, as was Fy'Ev, and each of them kept the enemy busy. Elle Enchanted was immobilized early and had to throw her javelin until she was able to charge up the hill late in the encounter and finish two of them off. Aurora provided much-needed support throughout the encounter. Additional encounters took place which I will not detail here. Suffice to say, the party has a long "to-do" list for later on...
After working our way through so many game sessions and so many wilderness encounters we finally reached an area of cavernous mountain caves, intricate and very well hidden. Within, the Uprisers (that's us) discovered those whom we had sought, or at least someone who told us they could take us there.
Upon arriving at our long-sought destination, we learned that apparently we had been expected. After a plane-shift, we learned that the emissaries who were to take us to those who we could help (and could help us) were not emissaries at all, but gods in disguise. They were no less than Bahamut and Pelor themselves! This is not an every-session kind of experience, it's more like a once-in-a-campaign experience in most cases. After much shaking of knees and "we're not worthy's," the heroes were summarily dipped in healing waters which cured us of our zombie rot and granted each our our characters an additional +1 on all of our armor. Jones filled his decanter of endless water with the healing waters, and we were given our assignment: go and cure the zombie rot wherever you find it.
Part of the reasoning for our assignment is that the draco lich has gotten a bit too powerful. His zombie rot is now also infecting dragons themselves, both good and evil, and his fingers of influence have spread everywhere. Needless to say, we have our work cut out for us.
Experience: We are now 15th level.
Treasure: (special) add one extra "+1" to the current magical bonus of your armor.
Next session: Saturday, May 8th at 3:00 pm.
Comments welcome - I probably forgot some stuff! -D
One encounter we were unable to avoid was an ambush by Harpies, who spotted us from above. The Harpies were a pretty cool and tougher than expected encounter. We were outnumbered and their screech attacks kept immobilizing members of the party. Since they can fly and were perched up high when not flying, that presented another challenge. Wikipedia Jones, with his ability to strike from a distance, had no problems dishing out damage from a distance. Hadjii, the ranger with such incredible mobility, was able to attack the monsters pretty much every round, dishing out significant damage. Likewise for R. Willikers, who really punished those evil things. Shamash was able to climb up and get into melee with them, as was Fy'Ev, and each of them kept the enemy busy. Elle Enchanted was immobilized early and had to throw her javelin until she was able to charge up the hill late in the encounter and finish two of them off. Aurora provided much-needed support throughout the encounter. Additional encounters took place which I will not detail here. Suffice to say, the party has a long "to-do" list for later on...
After working our way through so many game sessions and so many wilderness encounters we finally reached an area of cavernous mountain caves, intricate and very well hidden. Within, the Uprisers (that's us) discovered those whom we had sought, or at least someone who told us they could take us there.
Upon arriving at our long-sought destination, we learned that apparently we had been expected. After a plane-shift, we learned that the emissaries who were to take us to those who we could help (and could help us) were not emissaries at all, but gods in disguise. They were no less than Bahamut and Pelor themselves! This is not an every-session kind of experience, it's more like a once-in-a-campaign experience in most cases. After much shaking of knees and "we're not worthy's," the heroes were summarily dipped in healing waters which cured us of our zombie rot and granted each our our characters an additional +1 on all of our armor. Jones filled his decanter of endless water with the healing waters, and we were given our assignment: go and cure the zombie rot wherever you find it.
Part of the reasoning for our assignment is that the draco lich has gotten a bit too powerful. His zombie rot is now also infecting dragons themselves, both good and evil, and his fingers of influence have spread everywhere. Needless to say, we have our work cut out for us.
Experience: We are now 15th level.
Treasure: (special) add one extra "+1" to the current magical bonus of your armor.
Next session: Saturday, May 8th at 3:00 pm.
Comments welcome - I probably forgot some stuff! -D
Friday, April 16, 2010
Sunday, April 11, 2010
The UPRISERS
"I know in my heart she's right," Shamash muttered to himself in Draconic just after ruining her world...
In a world of terrible things, one of the worst things that can happen is for a hero to realize that what he's doing might be almost as terrible as what he's fighting against. That being said I will try to write this entry in consideration of the wholecloth of our campaign history.
After Wikipedia Jones and Aurora left for a Pelor retreat, Robrick Willikers III, Shamash Kriv & Fy'Ev, Hadji, Rholain, Ella Enchanted and Jorel of the Stars continued to investigate the area where the 3 captive princesses had just been freed (see previous blog entry, Rod picked up where B left off). It turned out there were a lot more princesses and nearly all of them had been turned into zombies. Further investigating revealed the dracolich was using them as an example and as leverage against those who rose against draconic rule by sending them back to infest their populations at any time. The "Uprisers" (that's what they call the party, we hear) discovered maps and information about the various dragon ziggarut temples, each representing a city of a different race, all enslaved and pitted against each other when convenient.
So here laid before us on a golden platter was the evidence and information we needed to continue our mission to free the non-dragons of the world from slavery and oppression. We learned the nearest ziggarut was that of the fey Eladrin from examining the jewelry of one of the zombies, Qui-Ellen (I probably got that name wrong).
We flew there on Rholain's giant mosquitos and they were nowhere to be seen, though there were large teleportation sigils embedded in forest clearing. Upon investigating, we discovered some invisible entities hiding there and began fighting them until we realized they were the very Eladrin we had come to help. Shamash and Hadji were able to diffuse the situation before anyone was killed, fortunately for us (this group of Eladrin handled themselves pretty well). Our truce agreement involved getting the Qui-Ellen Eladrin zombie princess back to them to prove what we were talking about. (This is one of those things I reflect on now: they asked for it, but did they realize they were asking to be exposed to the zombie rot?)
Upon going to their city (more like ruins where they lived) we learned the Eladrin had been free from dragon rule for 600 years, and had enslaved lizardmen and dragonborn alike. Upon reflection, Shamash saw a problem and an opportunity here. The uprisers had succeeded in freeing a lizardman city from the dragons, and if the Eladrin would just abandon their slaving practices, trade between the two communities would be mutually beneficial - more so than just mere forced farm labor. After Jorel drew a crowd with a spectacular pyrotechnics display, Shamash worked them into a chant of "Freedom!" "Prosperity!" Shamash used his hat of disguise in MLK fashion, appearing as every race in turn and emphasizing the equality of all races and their true common enemies: slavery and dragons.
Meanwhile, the Eladrin queen wasn't buying it. She had seen our party in action in the woods, had seen that hypocrite Shamash bossing his henchman Fy'Ev around like a slave. She came up behind him right at the end of the speech and pulled his hat off. "See!" she screamed, "don't listen to him, he's a lying lizard!" (or something like that). She had lost the crowd by now though. Shamash turned to face her and called her a bigot slavemaster, no better than the dragons. She left to get her army, who she would soon turn loose on the crowd -- and on us. But though we might disagree with her the party didn't necessarily perceive her as an enemy. Ella had been reading a book about the teleportation sigils so the party left before things got too hot.
Us "uprisers" had after all just started a civil war.
The sigils took us into the mountain caves, a shortcut to our next destination. We were ambushed by a large group of Shadar-Ki, who were standing in positions surrounding us when we popped in. Outnumbered and desparate, we did what we do best: we attacked and killed as many as we could (which is pretty much what D&D heroes do). Here was something clear: good vs. evil, life vs. death.
Quick flashback: Hadji was killed in combat with the crazy killjoy Shadar-Kai a couple adventures ago, and Rholain somehow was able to revive him. These guys have de-buffing gloom attacks and stuff like that and use long chains as weapons - they're pretty tough, though our party is tougher than we used to be.
So we pulled out all the stops. We had good initiative rolls and we all used our action points to bring down their numbers before they could really hurt us again. The bad guys had a circle against fey that limited the movement for Robrick Willikers, Hadji and Rholain. But our quick-strike strategy worked and we won the encounter. Hadji had his revenge on their leader too, stripping him bare and cutting him off at the knees even though he had surrendered. Shamash thought maybe he should be interrogated and also that he shouldn't be given the chance to bring more Shadar-Ki down on us. But even Jorel, our cold metal friend, could see we had gone to far. Rholain thought we should just leave and he was probably right.
We learned two things from the Shadar-Ki leader though: First, the Eladrin queen had warned him we were coming (so maybe they're allies?). Second, there was a ziggarut for the Shadar-Ki too so probably we lost an opportunity to negotiate with them to join us in the fight against the dragons. If Shamash had followed the ideas from his own speech he could have prevented bloodshed and gained an ally instead of another enemy. Plus now we are a little worried that the infighting among the Eladrin will weaken them and whether or not they keep slaves, they could all become enslaved again by the dragons. So we may be responsible for ending their 600 year reign of self-rule.
---
Secret Diary of a Dracolich
Day 99827, the Third Age of Reclamation:
Ha!
Ha Ha!
Ah yes, part of me wishes that I could take credit for all that has happened, but no- the feeling is much sweeter knowing that I did nothing. This was free. As I slither and skulk through the subconscious of my infected harbingers I smile as their dreams reveal the dismal vicissitudes of my hero’s hard days work.
My heroes discovered the bourgeois dungeon. I’ll have to move the dignitaries within. They also killed Old Thiseranthis. My fellow Dracolich was ripped to shreds as he slept on the rocks by my heroes. My dear heroes were left without their hairpiece and mouthpiece. This left only the Drow, the Harbinger, my kind friend Rohlan, the Betrayer (and his betrayed), Hadjii, and some girl on a horse.
My cartographic heroes put their heads together and consolidated their resources to discover an Eladrin settlement that matched the princesses they found within the dungeon quite nicely. Queen Quelana the Second was not terribly thrilled to be reunited with her sisters. The sisters which she had handed over to the Shadar-Kai two years ago as reparations for her mother’s actions and to conveniently remove the sentiments from the popular discourse. Sentiments which would my heroes would unleash full throng on the gullible proles below in short order.
The Quelana have always been a pleasure to deal with. Her mother tripled the numbers of our servants in the region, at the price of a false and meaningless sense of freedom. Old Theiseranthis, often with great joy, recalled the day Quelana the First ripped the Shadar-Kai from whatever oblivion they dwelt in, and traded their freedom for a false sense of her own and a clutch of eggs that would bosom into a labor force- a labor force that will be much more sympathetic to our cause in the future, rather than any universal declaration of rights. A pointless gesture, but a hilarious one. Soon the rabble of farmers and freed slaves will draw dragon blood and break their covenant. I’ll make an even better deal this time.
Ideas are a dangerous thing, oh yes. The Harbinger assembled a crowd with a majestic clarion call. As Quelana the Second stood in contempt at the words echoing out from her balcony spewing from the lips of the Betrayer, my dear Hadjii tried to dissuade her. “How?” she asked. “How shall the six of you, who plan to leave within the hour, defend my people from the wrath of the deep empire?” she asked over the resounding roar of the crowd below as the peace she had defended for three hundred years crumbled around her. Little does she know that he was absolutely correct. Unchecked these few could stand against any number of enemies, undo any will set against them. As my heroes fled the riot they had created below Quelana the Second’s soldiers fertilized the barren ground with the bodies of her once content and well fed subjects. Freedom my kind friend Rohlan called it. I muse at what Quelana the Second shall promise us to change absolutely nothing about our current behavior in the region. Perhaps I shall set that forked tongue of hers towards my heroes future allies.
Now then, this is really the best part. Seeking a short cut across the mountains my good heroes utilized the Eladrin Carin Stones to appear deep within the mountain under the dominion of our most humble servants, the Shadar-Kai. Afflicting an entire population with a magically created zombie curse, and transforming ten into zombies for every one that even speaks of rebellion results in high levels of humility, oh yes.
HA!
The Shadar-Kai shall be left wondering when no one comes to collect what is owed this month, what with Old Thiseranthis indisposed and disemboweled as he is. The tragedy of this situation is almost sickening, as I consider all that could have been accomplished with a few sentences I shudder. Ah, but our dear heroes had no idea they had already wholly liberated them from their chief oppressor and would have immediate allies of the Kai as they cut them down and- this is the best part: loot, plunder, and burn the homes they had sacked! OH YES! WORD OF THIS SHALL BE SPREAD QUICKLY INDEED!
Mere minutes after espousing the equity and worth of all of the surface’s disparate peoples my heroes let their biases get the best of them and slaughtered their Shadar-Kai ambushers with the same fervor they had chosen to talk with their Eladrin ambushers not a day earlier- simply, one can only assume, because they were Eladrin. The Equality of all races indeed! Yes, we have always worked the set the myriad surface peoples against each other, consistently lowering median gains, but to see my heroes blunder. Hadjii cut off a surrendered mans leg for no reason other than to spite the Betrayer who wanted to force the creature into bondage and carry him off- minutes after delivering an equestrian eulogy to the society of our Eladrin allies. When the Drow curses the ethics of her comrades I can do nothing but smile.
Also, and this is good, truly: Quelana the Second was a planeshifter, which is of course the profession my dear heroes need to find a friendly practitioner of in order to go about clearing up that nasty infection. So that would have been helpful to my dear heroes. Which of them shall I turn first?
Nothing quite matches the savory smell of burning bridges. I almost feel like I am trying too hard.
Tick-tock, my dear heroes.
Tick, tock indeed.
-X
In a world of terrible things, one of the worst things that can happen is for a hero to realize that what he's doing might be almost as terrible as what he's fighting against. That being said I will try to write this entry in consideration of the wholecloth of our campaign history.
After Wikipedia Jones and Aurora left for a Pelor retreat, Robrick Willikers III, Shamash Kriv & Fy'Ev, Hadji, Rholain, Ella Enchanted and Jorel of the Stars continued to investigate the area where the 3 captive princesses had just been freed (see previous blog entry, Rod picked up where B left off). It turned out there were a lot more princesses and nearly all of them had been turned into zombies. Further investigating revealed the dracolich was using them as an example and as leverage against those who rose against draconic rule by sending them back to infest their populations at any time. The "Uprisers" (that's what they call the party, we hear) discovered maps and information about the various dragon ziggarut temples, each representing a city of a different race, all enslaved and pitted against each other when convenient.
So here laid before us on a golden platter was the evidence and information we needed to continue our mission to free the non-dragons of the world from slavery and oppression. We learned the nearest ziggarut was that of the fey Eladrin from examining the jewelry of one of the zombies, Qui-Ellen (I probably got that name wrong).
We flew there on Rholain's giant mosquitos and they were nowhere to be seen, though there were large teleportation sigils embedded in forest clearing. Upon investigating, we discovered some invisible entities hiding there and began fighting them until we realized they were the very Eladrin we had come to help. Shamash and Hadji were able to diffuse the situation before anyone was killed, fortunately for us (this group of Eladrin handled themselves pretty well). Our truce agreement involved getting the Qui-Ellen Eladrin zombie princess back to them to prove what we were talking about. (This is one of those things I reflect on now: they asked for it, but did they realize they were asking to be exposed to the zombie rot?)
Upon going to their city (more like ruins where they lived) we learned the Eladrin had been free from dragon rule for 600 years, and had enslaved lizardmen and dragonborn alike. Upon reflection, Shamash saw a problem and an opportunity here. The uprisers had succeeded in freeing a lizardman city from the dragons, and if the Eladrin would just abandon their slaving practices, trade between the two communities would be mutually beneficial - more so than just mere forced farm labor. After Jorel drew a crowd with a spectacular pyrotechnics display, Shamash worked them into a chant of "Freedom!" "Prosperity!" Shamash used his hat of disguise in MLK fashion, appearing as every race in turn and emphasizing the equality of all races and their true common enemies: slavery and dragons.
Meanwhile, the Eladrin queen wasn't buying it. She had seen our party in action in the woods, had seen that hypocrite Shamash bossing his henchman Fy'Ev around like a slave. She came up behind him right at the end of the speech and pulled his hat off. "See!" she screamed, "don't listen to him, he's a lying lizard!" (or something like that). She had lost the crowd by now though. Shamash turned to face her and called her a bigot slavemaster, no better than the dragons. She left to get her army, who she would soon turn loose on the crowd -- and on us. But though we might disagree with her the party didn't necessarily perceive her as an enemy. Ella had been reading a book about the teleportation sigils so the party left before things got too hot.
Us "uprisers" had after all just started a civil war.
The sigils took us into the mountain caves, a shortcut to our next destination. We were ambushed by a large group of Shadar-Ki, who were standing in positions surrounding us when we popped in. Outnumbered and desparate, we did what we do best: we attacked and killed as many as we could (which is pretty much what D&D heroes do). Here was something clear: good vs. evil, life vs. death.
Quick flashback: Hadji was killed in combat with the crazy killjoy Shadar-Kai a couple adventures ago, and Rholain somehow was able to revive him. These guys have de-buffing gloom attacks and stuff like that and use long chains as weapons - they're pretty tough, though our party is tougher than we used to be.
So we pulled out all the stops. We had good initiative rolls and we all used our action points to bring down their numbers before they could really hurt us again. The bad guys had a circle against fey that limited the movement for Robrick Willikers, Hadji and Rholain. But our quick-strike strategy worked and we won the encounter. Hadji had his revenge on their leader too, stripping him bare and cutting him off at the knees even though he had surrendered. Shamash thought maybe he should be interrogated and also that he shouldn't be given the chance to bring more Shadar-Ki down on us. But even Jorel, our cold metal friend, could see we had gone to far. Rholain thought we should just leave and he was probably right.
We learned two things from the Shadar-Ki leader though: First, the Eladrin queen had warned him we were coming (so maybe they're allies?). Second, there was a ziggarut for the Shadar-Ki too so probably we lost an opportunity to negotiate with them to join us in the fight against the dragons. If Shamash had followed the ideas from his own speech he could have prevented bloodshed and gained an ally instead of another enemy. Plus now we are a little worried that the infighting among the Eladrin will weaken them and whether or not they keep slaves, they could all become enslaved again by the dragons. So we may be responsible for ending their 600 year reign of self-rule.
---
Secret Diary of a Dracolich
Day 99827, the Third Age of Reclamation:
Ha!
Ha Ha!
Ah yes, part of me wishes that I could take credit for all that has happened, but no- the feeling is much sweeter knowing that I did nothing. This was free. As I slither and skulk through the subconscious of my infected harbingers I smile as their dreams reveal the dismal vicissitudes of my hero’s hard days work.
My heroes discovered the bourgeois dungeon. I’ll have to move the dignitaries within. They also killed Old Thiseranthis. My fellow Dracolich was ripped to shreds as he slept on the rocks by my heroes. My dear heroes were left without their hairpiece and mouthpiece. This left only the Drow, the Harbinger, my kind friend Rohlan, the Betrayer (and his betrayed), Hadjii, and some girl on a horse.
My cartographic heroes put their heads together and consolidated their resources to discover an Eladrin settlement that matched the princesses they found within the dungeon quite nicely. Queen Quelana the Second was not terribly thrilled to be reunited with her sisters. The sisters which she had handed over to the Shadar-Kai two years ago as reparations for her mother’s actions and to conveniently remove the sentiments from the popular discourse. Sentiments which would my heroes would unleash full throng on the gullible proles below in short order.
The Quelana have always been a pleasure to deal with. Her mother tripled the numbers of our servants in the region, at the price of a false and meaningless sense of freedom. Old Theiseranthis, often with great joy, recalled the day Quelana the First ripped the Shadar-Kai from whatever oblivion they dwelt in, and traded their freedom for a false sense of her own and a clutch of eggs that would bosom into a labor force- a labor force that will be much more sympathetic to our cause in the future, rather than any universal declaration of rights. A pointless gesture, but a hilarious one. Soon the rabble of farmers and freed slaves will draw dragon blood and break their covenant. I’ll make an even better deal this time.
Ideas are a dangerous thing, oh yes. The Harbinger assembled a crowd with a majestic clarion call. As Quelana the Second stood in contempt at the words echoing out from her balcony spewing from the lips of the Betrayer, my dear Hadjii tried to dissuade her. “How?” she asked. “How shall the six of you, who plan to leave within the hour, defend my people from the wrath of the deep empire?” she asked over the resounding roar of the crowd below as the peace she had defended for three hundred years crumbled around her. Little does she know that he was absolutely correct. Unchecked these few could stand against any number of enemies, undo any will set against them. As my heroes fled the riot they had created below Quelana the Second’s soldiers fertilized the barren ground with the bodies of her once content and well fed subjects. Freedom my kind friend Rohlan called it. I muse at what Quelana the Second shall promise us to change absolutely nothing about our current behavior in the region. Perhaps I shall set that forked tongue of hers towards my heroes future allies.
Now then, this is really the best part. Seeking a short cut across the mountains my good heroes utilized the Eladrin Carin Stones to appear deep within the mountain under the dominion of our most humble servants, the Shadar-Kai. Afflicting an entire population with a magically created zombie curse, and transforming ten into zombies for every one that even speaks of rebellion results in high levels of humility, oh yes.
HA!
The Shadar-Kai shall be left wondering when no one comes to collect what is owed this month, what with Old Thiseranthis indisposed and disemboweled as he is. The tragedy of this situation is almost sickening, as I consider all that could have been accomplished with a few sentences I shudder. Ah, but our dear heroes had no idea they had already wholly liberated them from their chief oppressor and would have immediate allies of the Kai as they cut them down and- this is the best part: loot, plunder, and burn the homes they had sacked! OH YES! WORD OF THIS SHALL BE SPREAD QUICKLY INDEED!
Mere minutes after espousing the equity and worth of all of the surface’s disparate peoples my heroes let their biases get the best of them and slaughtered their Shadar-Kai ambushers with the same fervor they had chosen to talk with their Eladrin ambushers not a day earlier- simply, one can only assume, because they were Eladrin. The Equality of all races indeed! Yes, we have always worked the set the myriad surface peoples against each other, consistently lowering median gains, but to see my heroes blunder. Hadjii cut off a surrendered mans leg for no reason other than to spite the Betrayer who wanted to force the creature into bondage and carry him off- minutes after delivering an equestrian eulogy to the society of our Eladrin allies. When the Drow curses the ethics of her comrades I can do nothing but smile.
Also, and this is good, truly: Quelana the Second was a planeshifter, which is of course the profession my dear heroes need to find a friendly practitioner of in order to go about clearing up that nasty infection. So that would have been helpful to my dear heroes. Which of them shall I turn first?
Nothing quite matches the savory smell of burning bridges. I almost feel like I am trying too hard.
Tick-tock, my dear heroes.
Tick, tock indeed.
-X
Saturday, March 27, 2010
From B's Dream
B***a had a great D&D dream 3/25/10 which she wrote down. Rod & I converted it to D&D game terms after she gave us the scenario and picked out all the minis and terrain. It really seemed to work great, and B has a terrific sense of the set-piece nature of 4th edition and I think today the entire group enjoyed playing a good game session starting with the considerable imaginative powers of an 8 year old.
Her notes read: "1st Dream: The three dragon sisters (Fala, Sila and Mackria) were nice sisters but a very powerful dragon kidnapped them and wanted their blood, however they refused to give their blood so they got put in the dungeon where all other dragons went who refused. The sisters wanted to free them but they could not, sadly. 2 years later the other dragons were killed except for the sisters because they are special princesses, very nice. Scene 2: To rescue them they will give us a great reward which is a mystery. So to rescue them you must go through the thorny bushes of thor at a great battle on a bridge, but the war will be very harsh. Then you must walk the mountains of cataral. There will be a big surprise but you will have to figure it out. Then you must walk a distance, then the lair will be revealed."
We were mostly able to follow this. Over the years I have crafted tons of terrain, and she put it where it worked, first using 5 giant green cactuses (carved from styrofoam and secured to cardboard bases and painted) with red (painted pointy toothpick) thorns. B arranged them in a straight line blocking our way across the battlemat, and put a "big fight" (star wars rancor mini, we used the Earth Titan rules from MM1, along with a Hill Giant) on the other side of them. It was a fairly tough encounter for Wikipedia Jones, Aurora, Robrick Willikers, Hadji, Rholain Carack, Shamash, Elle Enchanted, and Trusty Ol' Sticky Fingers. (Note: Robby was here but left his sheet for Jorel at home. I had intended to run some star wars also which he did bring but we never got to it. Sorry Robby! -D)
Not far beyond that, two shadowy Oni or some such things guarded a narrow passage surrounded by an invisible wall. One of them had the annoying ability to become insubstantial, and the other was able to change into some kind of bear form when he was near death and basically shake off all his previous injuries. Let's just say this was tougher than the first encounter. The phasing Oni was able to loop around the wall where we couldn't follow and flank Hadji and bring him down. After some disbelief and grieving, Rholain was able to restore the elven ranger to life somehow.
The next area was dominated by lava and a long narrow bridge. Our party fought our way across, Roberick dominating the shadow creatures who seemed so determined to stop us while Rholain made his way across as a swarm of flying filth of some kind, getting to the controls in the middle that spun the bridge to the other side -- several times. It was like an amusement ride, and a lot of bad guys fell in lava! (Ha Ha, B. says). After several rounds, the party dispatched the last of the shadow warriors. (I think they are in the MM2 which I don't have right here - I might edit this later and put them in. I think they were challenge rating 15 or so). One missed step and this part could have gone badly for one of our characters but we were all okay.
Finally, we made it to the hidden mountain pass, went over the top and found the evil dragon with the kidnapped sisters. (B. says Hallelujah!) Using our combined abilities and stealth to give the rogues and ranger one mighty strike, the party was able to quickly dispatch the powerful dragon (B says it seemed like 5 seconds flat - and that's about right!) Then the gate opened and the sisters were set free - already.
Experience: 3,000
Treasure: One Level 18 Magic Item each
Next session: Apr. 10
Her notes read: "1st Dream: The three dragon sisters (Fala, Sila and Mackria) were nice sisters but a very powerful dragon kidnapped them and wanted their blood, however they refused to give their blood so they got put in the dungeon where all other dragons went who refused. The sisters wanted to free them but they could not, sadly. 2 years later the other dragons were killed except for the sisters because they are special princesses, very nice. Scene 2: To rescue them they will give us a great reward which is a mystery. So to rescue them you must go through the thorny bushes of thor at a great battle on a bridge, but the war will be very harsh. Then you must walk the mountains of cataral. There will be a big surprise but you will have to figure it out. Then you must walk a distance, then the lair will be revealed."
We were mostly able to follow this. Over the years I have crafted tons of terrain, and she put it where it worked, first using 5 giant green cactuses (carved from styrofoam and secured to cardboard bases and painted) with red (painted pointy toothpick) thorns. B arranged them in a straight line blocking our way across the battlemat, and put a "big fight" (star wars rancor mini, we used the Earth Titan rules from MM1, along with a Hill Giant) on the other side of them. It was a fairly tough encounter for Wikipedia Jones, Aurora, Robrick Willikers, Hadji, Rholain Carack, Shamash, Elle Enchanted, and Trusty Ol' Sticky Fingers. (Note: Robby was here but left his sheet for Jorel at home. I had intended to run some star wars also which he did bring but we never got to it. Sorry Robby! -D)
Not far beyond that, two shadowy Oni or some such things guarded a narrow passage surrounded by an invisible wall. One of them had the annoying ability to become insubstantial, and the other was able to change into some kind of bear form when he was near death and basically shake off all his previous injuries. Let's just say this was tougher than the first encounter. The phasing Oni was able to loop around the wall where we couldn't follow and flank Hadji and bring him down. After some disbelief and grieving, Rholain was able to restore the elven ranger to life somehow.
The next area was dominated by lava and a long narrow bridge. Our party fought our way across, Roberick dominating the shadow creatures who seemed so determined to stop us while Rholain made his way across as a swarm of flying filth of some kind, getting to the controls in the middle that spun the bridge to the other side -- several times. It was like an amusement ride, and a lot of bad guys fell in lava! (Ha Ha, B. says). After several rounds, the party dispatched the last of the shadow warriors. (I think they are in the MM2 which I don't have right here - I might edit this later and put them in. I think they were challenge rating 15 or so). One missed step and this part could have gone badly for one of our characters but we were all okay.
Finally, we made it to the hidden mountain pass, went over the top and found the evil dragon with the kidnapped sisters. (B. says Hallelujah!) Using our combined abilities and stealth to give the rogues and ranger one mighty strike, the party was able to quickly dispatch the powerful dragon (B says it seemed like 5 seconds flat - and that's about right!) Then the gate opened and the sisters were set free - already.
Experience: 3,000
Treasure: One Level 18 Magic Item each
Next session: Apr. 10
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Strawberry French Napoleons, A Dragon, A Treant & Ogres
A few of us couldn't make it, or were only able to be at part of the game session. While we waited, Mat, Garza & I played a few games of Magic and I got to try out my new deck. A few sets ago they came out with some cheap green creatures with deathtouch. Along with artifacts that allow creatures to tap to deal 1 to any creature or player this is kind of sick when it goes off. I added in some untapping effects such as "Freed from the Real," and wow, it's pretty good though it still needs some tuning.
Ava ran D&D (4th) again, the party is still progressing on our way to meet the dragon lady to cure our zombie rot. It sure is a long way. Shamash & Fyev, Elle, Wikipedia & Aurora, Hadji & Foxy, Jorel, Sticky Fingers, the Dwarven Warden and Roberick Willikers found themselves moving through the only passable area of swamps, thickets and water. In this area the party encountered an adult green dragon and a very large treant, who were fighting each other. After Hadji and Sticky Fingers (mostly) nearly turned the crazy battlers against the party we found our way through and discovered an area full of smashed up things from previous people who had come into the area and never made it out. Some of the things were not smashed up however so we picked up a few handy magic items (level 14). XP: 900
Later on, the party was ambushed by orcs and ogres who put up a pretty good fight but at this point the party was more than a match for even a small army of these monsters. That being said, you never know--the encounter you underestimate could be the one that takes you out! We got some more xp and some monetary treasure for that but I don't have the #s in front of me right now.
I was happy to have a good selection of terrain and pretty good minis for this one. A few years ago I found some plastic fish plants at the thrift store, and I based them up in styrofoam with cardboard underneath and after painting them up they look great - perfect swamp foliage. The dried up sticks from some Scotch Broom I took out a few years ago, after being based up the same way and with some Woodland Scenics clump foliage added make great trees similar to African ones in appearance, and one of the big ones worked pretty well for the Treant. Sadly, our local hobby store is closing so when my stash of Woodland Scenics runs out I will have to find them somewhere else or order them online.
Ava brought strawberry Napoleons and said they were the French type. I don't know that much about pastries and things but they sure were good in both the white chocolate and cream versions. She has a birthday coming up so a few of us pitched in with some goodies for her too. Thank you Ava!
Next session is planned for Saturday, March 27 at 3 pm
Ava ran D&D (4th) again, the party is still progressing on our way to meet the dragon lady to cure our zombie rot. It sure is a long way. Shamash & Fyev, Elle, Wikipedia & Aurora, Hadji & Foxy, Jorel, Sticky Fingers, the Dwarven Warden and Roberick Willikers found themselves moving through the only passable area of swamps, thickets and water. In this area the party encountered an adult green dragon and a very large treant, who were fighting each other. After Hadji and Sticky Fingers (mostly) nearly turned the crazy battlers against the party we found our way through and discovered an area full of smashed up things from previous people who had come into the area and never made it out. Some of the things were not smashed up however so we picked up a few handy magic items (level 14). XP: 900
Later on, the party was ambushed by orcs and ogres who put up a pretty good fight but at this point the party was more than a match for even a small army of these monsters. That being said, you never know--the encounter you underestimate could be the one that takes you out! We got some more xp and some monetary treasure for that but I don't have the #s in front of me right now.
I was happy to have a good selection of terrain and pretty good minis for this one. A few years ago I found some plastic fish plants at the thrift store, and I based them up in styrofoam with cardboard underneath and after painting them up they look great - perfect swamp foliage. The dried up sticks from some Scotch Broom I took out a few years ago, after being based up the same way and with some Woodland Scenics clump foliage added make great trees similar to African ones in appearance, and one of the big ones worked pretty well for the Treant. Sadly, our local hobby store is closing so when my stash of Woodland Scenics runs out I will have to find them somewhere else or order them online.
Ava brought strawberry Napoleons and said they were the French type. I don't know that much about pastries and things but they sure were good in both the white chocolate and cream versions. She has a birthday coming up so a few of us pitched in with some goodies for her too. Thank you Ava!
Next session is planned for Saturday, March 27 at 3 pm
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
Planet of the Dragonblood-drainers
Part 2 of Carson's prequel to "Our Year with the Dragon" aka Planet of the Dragons. This is a summary.
... So the previous portion led us up to the final encounter leading us to the Throne of Golden Ages, which the party intended to find and destroy, thus ending the horribly inhuman treatment the human emperor was giving to the dragon community. The true source of the empire's power was arcane magic, which was coming from dragons - directly from their blood.
Furthermore, upon meeting the Emperor and his entourage, the party learned they were undead - from banshees, etc. to the emperor himself, a vampire. After much pomp and circumstance, delay and distraction - one of the rogues discovered a secret wall behind the throne that opened large enough for a dragon to fit through. A big battle ensued with the Emperor fleeing and the party defeating his minions before following through the opening.
A corridor led to a strange chamber - to a room with no throne. Instead, a gigantic, strange beast held the Emperor, who proudly exclaimed that he was sitting upon the true throne, his true source of power. In the final encounter, Jorel of the Stars (unchanged except in his memories from his future self), Shamus (ancestor of Shamash), Atlas Jones (ancestor of Wikipedia), Stella (ancestor of Ella Enchanted), and the ancestors of Aurora, Robrick Willikers, Hadjii, and Sticky Fingers all worked together to defeat the emperor and his strange one-horned mount along with the ghosts of gored dragons and strange magical effects. When the weird creature was defeated, the world of the emperor imploded in an ominous way and the world changed in a giant shockwave as what had been done, became undone.
It was all very epic, like a fantasy version of the end of the first Ghostbusters movie.
Just as epic was what followed: the beginning of the reign of the dragons, who paraded a tainted sphere of Io, vowed wrath on the humans and burned the seas in a tremendous show of force. As most of the party flew away on the back of the dragon they had saved - Lady Visandra, each of them had similar thoughts: Oh GOD, what have we done?
By the way, we went DING to 14th level. And if you missed it, you missed out on Ava's Bananas Foster pastry things - mmm. delicious!
... So the previous portion led us up to the final encounter leading us to the Throne of Golden Ages, which the party intended to find and destroy, thus ending the horribly inhuman treatment the human emperor was giving to the dragon community. The true source of the empire's power was arcane magic, which was coming from dragons - directly from their blood.
Furthermore, upon meeting the Emperor and his entourage, the party learned they were undead - from banshees, etc. to the emperor himself, a vampire. After much pomp and circumstance, delay and distraction - one of the rogues discovered a secret wall behind the throne that opened large enough for a dragon to fit through. A big battle ensued with the Emperor fleeing and the party defeating his minions before following through the opening.
A corridor led to a strange chamber - to a room with no throne. Instead, a gigantic, strange beast held the Emperor, who proudly exclaimed that he was sitting upon the true throne, his true source of power. In the final encounter, Jorel of the Stars (unchanged except in his memories from his future self), Shamus (ancestor of Shamash), Atlas Jones (ancestor of Wikipedia), Stella (ancestor of Ella Enchanted), and the ancestors of Aurora, Robrick Willikers, Hadjii, and Sticky Fingers all worked together to defeat the emperor and his strange one-horned mount along with the ghosts of gored dragons and strange magical effects. When the weird creature was defeated, the world of the emperor imploded in an ominous way and the world changed in a giant shockwave as what had been done, became undone.
It was all very epic, like a fantasy version of the end of the first Ghostbusters movie.
Just as epic was what followed: the beginning of the reign of the dragons, who paraded a tainted sphere of Io, vowed wrath on the humans and burned the seas in a tremendous show of force. As most of the party flew away on the back of the dragon they had saved - Lady Visandra, each of them had similar thoughts: Oh GOD, what have we done?
By the way, we went DING to 14th level. And if you missed it, you missed out on Ava's Bananas Foster pastry things - mmm. delicious!
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Louf Origno, Col. Leif & Yogi
Clayton started a new Star Wars Character, Louf Origno. He is a Lepi Jedi with 3 ex-wives and about 150 children. Our session was more roleplay this time, very little combat. Drael (Jon's Jedi) has gone to the dark side and used force lightning on psionic worms, the Ee, who have used advanced mental powers to avoid detection. There were too many worms in the hivemind for it to be effective, though a splinter group of Ee seems to be more accessible. They demonstrated telepathy, telekinesis, teleportation, cell-disruption and healing, though any other powers the 6 cm worms might have are still unknown.
Another local nasty were energy-resistant giant flying beetles, according to the captain of the highly damaged Lucky Bantha they can really tear things up and even a few eggs among the salvage can result in a devastated cargo bay and even the loss of a ship (as was the case for Captain Thelonius).
Cap'n Gracus (Carson's noble) and a few others of the party spent some time salvaging through the Clone War ruins on the depopulated surface of the main world, and exploring the mines of the nearby moon, where the Ee live and purify the metals they consume. Pieda Bowman did some piloting, as did Ava's character. Mat's droid, Roger Roger, was unable to communicate with the Ee due to the nature of their telepathy until they spoke through a civilian miner.
An elderly couple were determined by Destro to be Rebellion loyalists being followed by an Imperial spy. After Garik shot a martini glass to save an Ee worm and paid the 15 credit fine, Destro followed the spy , incapacitated him and questioned him in the guise of Cap'n Jenkins, the notorious Imperial agent. After persuading the spy, Col. Leif, into calling in an attack on the world to destroy a Rebel base, Destro was able to con the Ee into giving thier mineral deposits to his true employer, Dabbo the Hutt, through intermediaries into the future.
XP 2,000. Ship fund: individual 10,000 credit bonuses plus newly salvaged parts, including rare Clone War droid components. Oh, and Cap'n Gracus has a new friend, Pedro, "The Great Gazoo," an Ee who might teleport in every now and then.
Yogi BeHir and the Werewolves - the Sequel
In D&D it was Mat, Ava, Carson, Me (Dave), Rod and Jon. The party made some good progress overland, though we still are being plagued by wandering encounters. We fought some kind of undead elf lich who kept the entire party occupied for a while. Our friend the BeHir (who we now call Yogi) is still following us, getting a bit of help again from Wikipedia Jones with how his magic picnic basket works. Roberick Willikers, Shamash, Fy'Ev, Elle, Aurora, Hadji, Rholain and Jones ended up fighting werewolves again - apparently they haven't learned their lesson yet.
When we get to where we are going, we should be able to help a good dragon faction, and also get our long awaited cure for zombie rot.
For anybody who missed today's session, you missed out on Ava's chocolate mint cheesecake cupcakes. Oh those were good.
Next session: Feb. 27 3:00 pm
Another local nasty were energy-resistant giant flying beetles, according to the captain of the highly damaged Lucky Bantha they can really tear things up and even a few eggs among the salvage can result in a devastated cargo bay and even the loss of a ship (as was the case for Captain Thelonius).
Cap'n Gracus (Carson's noble) and a few others of the party spent some time salvaging through the Clone War ruins on the depopulated surface of the main world, and exploring the mines of the nearby moon, where the Ee live and purify the metals they consume. Pieda Bowman did some piloting, as did Ava's character. Mat's droid, Roger Roger, was unable to communicate with the Ee due to the nature of their telepathy until they spoke through a civilian miner.
An elderly couple were determined by Destro to be Rebellion loyalists being followed by an Imperial spy. After Garik shot a martini glass to save an Ee worm and paid the 15 credit fine, Destro followed the spy , incapacitated him and questioned him in the guise of Cap'n Jenkins, the notorious Imperial agent. After persuading the spy, Col. Leif, into calling in an attack on the world to destroy a Rebel base, Destro was able to con the Ee into giving thier mineral deposits to his true employer, Dabbo the Hutt, through intermediaries into the future.
XP 2,000. Ship fund: individual 10,000 credit bonuses plus newly salvaged parts, including rare Clone War droid components. Oh, and Cap'n Gracus has a new friend, Pedro, "The Great Gazoo," an Ee who might teleport in every now and then.
Yogi BeHir and the Werewolves - the Sequel
In D&D it was Mat, Ava, Carson, Me (Dave), Rod and Jon. The party made some good progress overland, though we still are being plagued by wandering encounters. We fought some kind of undead elf lich who kept the entire party occupied for a while. Our friend the BeHir (who we now call Yogi) is still following us, getting a bit of help again from Wikipedia Jones with how his magic picnic basket works. Roberick Willikers, Shamash, Fy'Ev, Elle, Aurora, Hadji, Rholain and Jones ended up fighting werewolves again - apparently they haven't learned their lesson yet.
When we get to where we are going, we should be able to help a good dragon faction, and also get our long awaited cure for zombie rot.
For anybody who missed today's session, you missed out on Ava's chocolate mint cheesecake cupcakes. Oh those were good.
Next session: Feb. 27 3:00 pm
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Dora meets Godzilla
So Saturday Ava continued running our adventure to find the friendly zombie-rot curing dragon, who might also need our help. We've joked that it's like an episode of Dora the Explorer, "You go OVER the river and THROUGH the swamp and then you get to the BIG, BIG LAKE!" Oh never mind, Lord of the Rings works the same way.
Shamash Kriv and Fy'Ev the Kensai (Dave's dragonborn battle captain warlord and kensai fighter henchman) found themselves digging for rabbits from the Handy Haversack when our friend the Behir showed up again (yes the same one). Diplomacy is great, but concern was arising about what would happen when we ran out of rabbits. "Do not feed the Behirs," would have been a good warning sign for us. Luckily for us, Wikipedia Jones (Mat's Bard) had his Everful Picnic Basket and the Behir (Int. 7) was just smart enough to learn how to use it and appreciate the gift. Roberick Willikers III (Rod's drow rogue) was pretty cheesed off about giving magic items to wandering encounters but we did get full XP and it saved game time to not fight it, plus you never know when you might need a friendly Behir on your side -- they are a force to be reckoned with! More bear puns ensued though, with the picnic basket triggering Yogi and Boo-Boo outtakes that were pretty darn funny. "Hey Boo Boo! Where you going with that pic-in-ic basket?" You get the idea.
We have been relying on the tracking skills of our dauntless ranger, Hadjii and his amazing dog companion Foxy (Garza's character, level 13). So it was a full moon on one of the early watches a bunch of werewolves tried to sneak up on the party. Upon awakening, Shamash proceeded to intimidate the beasties, causing them to hesitate in their attack. Elle Enchanted (B's Polearm master) charged on her horse ("Killer" Bloodhoof) right into three of them as the rest of the party also entered the fray. Good Ol' Sticky Fingers (Shawn R.'s halfling rogue, now played by Alma) and Roberick Willikers were able to sneak up on some of the bad guys and inflict serious damage while also blinding their foes. Aurora (Ava's shifter cleric) was ready for anything and found herself in melee with a couple of them. There was no negotiating with these guys. Meanwhile Hadjii, Foxy, Shamash and Fy'Ev flanked the leader eventually bringing him down too. By the end of the encounter several party members were scratched up but fortunately no one was bitten.
After making some more progress in our long overland journey (side note: most of the party are still getting used to the idea of stars in the sky) we discovered what looked to be a small abandoned gnome town. Just as we began to explore the town, we were attacked by goblin archers, who had been hiding among the buildings. Shamash ran into the central building and climbed to the top, placing himself 5' behind one of the archers, daring him to charge. Shamash also saw something sickeningly big and ugly hiding behind the building, and . The annoying bad guys were able to pick away at us for a couple rounds before we discovered their enforcer: a giant troll of some kind. From that point on most of the party pretty much focused on the troll. Meanwhile we did take out most of the goblins. The troll got up once or twice before Fy'Ev breathed acid on him, preventing any further regeneration. After closer examination of the town,the party discovered about a dozen of the original gnome inhabitants, who were grateful their home had been liberated by us. We got a little bit of treasure (about 350 GP each if I remember). More importantly, we are that much closer to our destination.
For those of you who missed the session, you missed out on Ava's giant Dragon Cookies (yum!). More for us! See you at 3:00 on Saturday February 13.
Shamash Kriv and Fy'Ev the Kensai (Dave's dragonborn battle captain warlord and kensai fighter henchman) found themselves digging for rabbits from the Handy Haversack when our friend the Behir showed up again (yes the same one). Diplomacy is great, but concern was arising about what would happen when we ran out of rabbits. "Do not feed the Behirs," would have been a good warning sign for us. Luckily for us, Wikipedia Jones (Mat's Bard) had his Everful Picnic Basket and the Behir (Int. 7) was just smart enough to learn how to use it and appreciate the gift. Roberick Willikers III (Rod's drow rogue) was pretty cheesed off about giving magic items to wandering encounters but we did get full XP and it saved game time to not fight it, plus you never know when you might need a friendly Behir on your side -- they are a force to be reckoned with! More bear puns ensued though, with the picnic basket triggering Yogi and Boo-Boo outtakes that were pretty darn funny. "Hey Boo Boo! Where you going with that pic-in-ic basket?" You get the idea.
We have been relying on the tracking skills of our dauntless ranger, Hadjii and his amazing dog companion Foxy (Garza's character, level 13). So it was a full moon on one of the early watches a bunch of werewolves tried to sneak up on the party. Upon awakening, Shamash proceeded to intimidate the beasties, causing them to hesitate in their attack. Elle Enchanted (B's Polearm master) charged on her horse ("Killer" Bloodhoof) right into three of them as the rest of the party also entered the fray. Good Ol' Sticky Fingers (Shawn R.'s halfling rogue, now played by Alma) and Roberick Willikers were able to sneak up on some of the bad guys and inflict serious damage while also blinding their foes. Aurora (Ava's shifter cleric) was ready for anything and found herself in melee with a couple of them. There was no negotiating with these guys. Meanwhile Hadjii, Foxy, Shamash and Fy'Ev flanked the leader eventually bringing him down too. By the end of the encounter several party members were scratched up but fortunately no one was bitten.
After making some more progress in our long overland journey (side note: most of the party are still getting used to the idea of stars in the sky) we discovered what looked to be a small abandoned gnome town. Just as we began to explore the town, we were attacked by goblin archers, who had been hiding among the buildings. Shamash ran into the central building and climbed to the top, placing himself 5' behind one of the archers, daring him to charge. Shamash also saw something sickeningly big and ugly hiding behind the building, and . The annoying bad guys were able to pick away at us for a couple rounds before we discovered their enforcer: a giant troll of some kind. From that point on most of the party pretty much focused on the troll. Meanwhile we did take out most of the goblins. The troll got up once or twice before Fy'Ev breathed acid on him, preventing any further regeneration. After closer examination of the town,the party discovered about a dozen of the original gnome inhabitants, who were grateful their home had been liberated by us. We got a little bit of treasure (about 350 GP each if I remember). More importantly, we are that much closer to our destination.
For those of you who missed the session, you missed out on Ava's giant Dragon Cookies (yum!). More for us! See you at 3:00 on Saturday February 13.
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