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

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

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!