Phobos Invasion

A week later than it would have been, but after much-needed improvements to the basement, we had a pretty good D&D game session yesterday (10/1/05). Last week, Joe and I hauled off a pickup truck load of old appliances and a dead lawn mower, which freed up some space and cleaned things up a bit; I was able to actually soap and bleach the basement floor afterward. Yesterday, Shane and Robby helped me put terrain materials into a big old locker and set up the tables (three 4'x4' tables, totalling 4'x 12' space) for our minis, terrain and stuff. I gave Roddy a 25th-level version of Fergus Dowrimple to use as an NPC in his campaign (he'll be a PC for any sessions I can make it to). Carson had a commitment that made him a bit late, but he drew some more character cartoons for us so we forgive him... We had plenty of chips and soda, and even Penny and Bella played for part of the session (and Penny bought me the new Unearthed Arcana yesterday, thanks!). One of the best things about yesterday was that I had a new batch of ideas that have been in the works for a while for a multi-part adventure to spring on the party. Thinking about it now, I might have rushed and deviated from what I originally had in mind in places, but that really doesn't matter.

Okay, here we go. So the party, now the proud owners of the spelljammer Impervious, set down on the beach of the Quooly desert, near a pyramid they spotted from the air, and sent out an expeditionary force as shooting stars fell in the distance. After fighting a group of elf-charmed thri-kreen insect-people outside one of their strange, tall rounded sandstone fortress/settlements, Lola, Geena, Aiko, Revan, Buddy Nagel (Flegol's kobold cleric friend), Flegol, Henderson, Nightsong Sharpfang, Telpin, Mick the Gangly, Fergus, Joseph Prex, Rivet, Taito and Black-Eyed Bill advanced to the steep-sided pyramid, a ziggarut in the distance. With great difficulty and a bit of luck, Rivet gained entry through a hidden stone panel in the side, after also figuring out the stone button-symbol combination lock (the symbols were in Draconic). For reasons unknown to the party, the pyramid was vacant, with a heavy layer of dust and a lot of bones in the dark interior. Rivet (mostly) and Henderson found and disabled a large number of magical traps as the party explored the chambers: teleportation circles, petrification zones, a hold person-mass, a powerful sonic burst alarm and a couple of disintigration traps. Fortunately, both of the party's rogues were reptilian (a kobold and a lizardman) or the entire pyramid would have filled with poison gas, and a couple of the traps simply gave magic mouth warnings/messages of mercy instead of going off. At one point, about half of the party were teleported to a distant island, but Fergus had a scroll of teleport, and used it to get them back to where they stood just before the stepped into that trap. Ancient hieroglyphs, interpreted by Joseph, Revan and Fergus, revealed that the ziggarut was a temple to Io, the ancient dragon god considered to be neither evil nor good. After a great deal of exploration, the party found a brass fountain on the top level of the pyramid interior. The NPC bards Telpin and Nightsong Sharpfang (a gnome and a kobold) helped identify that it was a Fountain of Youth, believed to be one of only seven parts of the original brass fountain of the gods in existance--the others being lost, hidden or owned secretly...

In the lowest level of the ziggarut was a tablet, protected by lizardman skeletons that were instantly turned to dust by Joseph. The ancient tablet, made of adamantium-impregnated stone, is older than the ancient pyramid and likely to have been transplanted from a much older structure. The combined skills and knowledge of the party translated the meaning: elves of the moon Soboff were the first drow, and though they enraged the gods into pushing their moon into Aarde, many escaped, and others actually survived the Great Havoc itself, inhabiting Aarde's underdark (dubbed the undermoon by the party). This information disturbed the characters as they tried to put a cascade of pieces to a large puzzle together...
* Knowing that more and more Drow have appeared in each encounter with the Elves of the Purple Order (invading from Aarde's remaining moon Sonaeed).
* Considering the shooting stars.
* Joseph Prex remembering an old St. Cuthbert seminary school prophecy taught by High Priest Miguel: "When the spots of the dark moon fall upon Aarde, the Halls of Prophecy must be revealed."
* And more memories: Revan recalled his paladin training, where he learned some of Khadgar's secrets, including the presence of the time lord Latham in the final great battle against the arch-villian iron golem, Lord Tenneous, over 500 years ago.
So, the party has a voyage to the nearly mythical city of Lhevix planned for the near future.

But first, the party returned to the Impervious and set out to explore the landing site of one of the shooting stars. As it turned out, the tapered egg shape in the large crater was steaming from the round front, and shooting snow from a 5' opening in the tapered end in back. The "shell" was adamantium. Joseph magically protected the party from cold damage, and Revan led the party single file into the nozzle's 100 mile per hour winds and spray of snow, into a widening tunnel of super high-pressure cold air and snow spotted with softball-sized, blackish brown, leathery rocks that turned out to be drider eggs. A couple party members ate some eggs, which contained weak poison, but survived. Within what turned out to be a colonizer pod, the party battled a large number of driders (probably 200 or more), beginning with eggs and small young near the nozzle and mature adult guards near the warm part in front. The tightly packed enemy attacked the party in a battle that would have been difficult if not impossible for the party if not for Joseph's flame strikes, fireballs from Fergus, and Telpin's wand of lightning bolts. These area-of-effect spells made room for the party's melee fighters and archers to kill off surviving driders, some of whom were armed with shortbows. Driders with melee weapons had difficulty attacking party members in great numbers, as even by climbing and attacking from the ceiling and from webs, no more than eight drider warriors could attack any one party member. With their whirlwind attacks, Taito and Mick the Gangly were in their element. Flegol and Geena again had opportunity to shine in this battle, picking off survivors and removing ranged threats.Revan, unable to charge with his pegasis in tight quarters, still fought amazingly, shrugging off scores of attacks and methodically smiting enemies before him. The final drider, older and better equipped than the others, was assumed to have been the leader. After defeating the driders, the party explored the colonizer pod and found it to be loaded with food, some tools and weapons and building materials, and a small pilot station with a glassteel window and wires leading back to a nozzle adjuster in the rear. Left unchecked, a single colonizer pod, with its many eggs would breed and train an army of over 1,000 driders loyal to the purple order. Are all the colonizer pods populated with driders? If the history of the Jaramonians is any indication, probably not.

Experience:3,000 xp. Treasure: Immortality and adamantium.

Skyship Impervious Captured

The following report was intercepted and translated by Capt. Fergus Dowrimple:

MOONMIST - 12th of Harvest, year 1011 since the Great Havoc. Purple Order authorities report that a small band of unknown outsiders has invaded this elvish city, located on the coast of Anciena, killing a great number of Jaramonian and elven defenders. Many human and other non-elvish servants were simply released by the mysterious band, believed to be part of the New Rotalian militia. At least three streets in the wealthy High Fashion district are now occupied by this force and the released servants, with about three dozen buildings under their control. The skyship Impervious, which had just arrived from Sonaeed with reinforcements, was captured by the group. Soon afterward, many buildings in Moonmist were in flames as fireballs, flaming arrows and other attacks rained down on the city from high beyond the range of most city defenses. Authorities were unable to explain how Moonmists' great army and magical forces were unable to mount an adaquate defense. Though the Impervious has now departed, many citizens are concerned about future attacks, sources say. High Elf Command is said to be taking "serious steps" to bring adaquate defenses to Moonmist, though large numbers of the best elvish troops are committed elsewhere.
-30-

Revan, Joseph, Taito, Flegal and Fergus played the most prominent roles in bringing about the preceding account, though the other characters (see previous entries) played critical roles as well. Revan, now using a pegasus as a mount, can make devastating diving lance charges against his enemies. Joseph's divine spells are getting more powerful than ever. Taito is both fearless and unstoppable in melee combat, capable of executing ferocious whirlwind attacks with random objects. Flegal's ability as an archer has reached new heights, as from elevated positions he snipes away at powerful enemy spellcasters, laying even the mighty low from a great distance. Fergus' seemingly unending supply of fireballs has drawn a lot of enemy fire to him, but they also eliminated great numbers of rank-and-file elven archers. The battle was not easy for the party, and several members spent an unconscious round or two, but with clerics on hand fortunately no party members perished (though it was very close for a few).

Experience totaled 5,000 as it was a long session and the conclusion of a multi-session battle. Treasure (sorry if you missed it) amounted to a whopping 36,000 gp per character as I recall. Best of all, the party took the Impervious (a spelljammer) to Moporia to buy magic items and learn more news about the rest of Aarde. Somehow, the regularly appearing characters mentioned above now feel like they are just beyond the mid-level classification and are now at the start of their high level careers, while most of the other PCs and NPCs are lagging a bit behind in comparison -- but that is as it should be.

Really Old Campaign Notes (continually updated)

I began playing D&D in 1982 as a player and began "DM-ing" within a year of that. I have enjoyed buying and reading a great number of gaming books, magazine articles, modules, campaign settings and other things. Friends have come and gone, and I have spent huge amounts of time and money on a hobby the average person does not understand, and some people don't even approve. Why do I play D&D? The short answer is "For fun." The longer answer has to do with friendship, creativity and escape. Before I started playing D&D, I suffered from horrible recurring nuclear nightmares (it was the cold war at that time), and I was very withdrawn and shy. Somehow, D&D helped me beat fears and make friends. I learned to cope with my real life by having a satisfying imaginary one. This unique hobby game has books upon books full of rules, but the two most important rules I use are: no evil player characters, and no drugs. Though I have used pre-prepared adventures and even settings on many occasions, it is fair to say that 98% of the games I run use my settings, my characters, my villians and plots. I also make up a lot of my own monsters, spells, magic items and vehicles (among other things).

Each time a set of player characters retires, I begin a new campaign plot and setting or timeline, but I kind of build each world right on top of the previous ones, so there's a kind or chronology and a deeper history. My campaign settings over the years have had the following names:
Kelnorn, Rotalia, Sonaeed, Aarde
Each of these settings has developed more fully than the one before it. I have also had some memorable recurring villians (in chronological order):
Latham (a time traveller who later turned to good, and had to battle himself. Still appears on rare occasions.)
Signatious (who was excluded from the fountain of youth and enslaved and preyed on the elves of Aarde's moon, Sonaeed for their blood, which he used to make elixirs of youth)
Tenneous (who was defeated to a man in war and turned to construct building for a new army; insane, he made himself into a construct to seek immortality and his constructs became sentient--and evil. His Cult of the Immortal Construct lived after him)
Hurkendorn (who tried to rule the world through magical charms and influence over the powerful)
Jaramon (who believed non-elves were inferior, but make good guinea pigs for magical transmutation. His followers built the Temple of Transformation for this purpose).
Lord Leofeldt (a 1,750 year old grey elf Mystic Theurge who claimed the victory over Signatious for himself and founded the Purple Order of Sonaeed. Now believed to have been influenced by Drow and possibly mind flayers).

I would like to thank my original gaming group members for their friendship and a lot of great sessions, back in the 1st Edition days of the early 1980's: Todd Gentry, Rick Rutledge, Art Friese, Dave Hille and Shane Peterson. As the group began joining the military, going to college and geting married, the game was changing too. By 2nd Edition in the mid-80s I was still playing D&D, and though players from the original group still gamed when we could, new players were being added: Spencer Cole, Jason Gaston, Ivan Annis, Tim Ickler and Evan Thomsen. I have really great memories of those days and I want to thank each of you. At Mt. Hood Community College, I organized and ran a small (200 attendance) convention, where I met Paul Karczag, Timmer Dykes and his group, and others. Paul later asked me to help write part of Mayfair Games' "People, Places and Things" for their Role-Aids line, so David Pierik (that's me) is now a bona fide, published game designer (thank you Paul). In college, I played in and ran some great games with Art Hart and some guys from my fraternity, Theta Chi at the University of Idaho, my alma mater, and I thank all of you also. After college, I gamed in the Portland area for a while, then moved to Shelton, WA for my day job (I'm in advertising). For two years and two months, I was part-owner of a game store called Area 51 games, but business was not strong enough to justify keeping it going past the spring of 2001. Closing the store was a difficult, but necessary thing, filled with a lot of "what-ifs." Now, I have fewer regrets about the store because I made a lot of friends (many of whom I still game with now) and learned a lot about the gaming industry and about retail business in general, which is an asset for me in advertising. I think part of why I write this blog now is because I wrote a regular newsletter for the shop and wrote and ran a lot of games during that time.

My favorite game store now is a little shop in Shelton called Old Town Hobby, which I recommend for the basic stuff, especially if you're using miniatures and terrain. Richard Bidwell, the owner, has a great disposition and is very helpful. It's a family business that celebrated their 7th anniversary on 11/2/06. He carries a little bit of everything, and it was at my suggestion that he carry gaming stuff; about a year after Area 51 games closed he finally agreed to do it.

CHECK THIS HEADING ENTRY AGAIN, I'M GOING TO ADD MORE TO IT REGULARLY.

New Twists in a Continuing Battle

The Battle of Moonmist Continues
As noted in previous entries, the party has taken it upon themselves to invade Moonmist, the Sonaeed-Aarde waystation for the invading moon elves of the Purple Order who are in the process or conquoring Aarde while claiming to save it. Today's adventure picked right up where the last session left off, even all the miniatures and terrain were just where we left them.
The enemy units were familiar. While each member of the party has gotten much more powerful and battle-hardened, the moon elves have mainly responded with greater numbers and a few new tactics. As always, the Eldrich Moon Knights have proven versatile, though they could benefit from a more rounded approach with the kind of teamwork the party uses. These fighter-mages usually fight on horseback using magic and non-metal armor and weapons supplemented by magic, and use the specially-bred rust spitters to soften up enemy armor and weapons, and protection from arrows to defend against enemy archers. True Strike, combined with a lance charge makes groups of Eldrich Moon Knights a deadly adversary, but the party has adopted to their tactics by softening their close formations up with fireball and lightning bolt, by using magical bows, attacking them with monks, and most of all, eliminating any and all rust spitters immediately. Today a new harrier unit of elven horse archers made an appearance, shot their volleys of arrows, and quickly retreated unscathed... until Fergus, flying overhead, spotted them and dropped a couple of fireballs into their ranks. Having long since expended his full evoker's complement of offensive spells, he was drawing on the reserve of charges in the wands he had made, knowing it would take days or even weeks to recharge them later. He also greatly reduced the number of elves just arriving by spelljammer from Sonaeed, fireballing the great ship repeatedly before the elves could properly disembark and prepare for battle. A new type of Eldrich Moon Knight unit, flying pikemen, arrived invisibly by teleportation circle over the head of LeRoy Jenkins, and all 10 attacked him at once, nearly slaying him, but becoming visible in the process. It was Mick the Gangly who corrected this situation, striding in on his stilts and using his hard-earned whirlwind attack feat to drop the entire unit in a single melee round with a power attack using his magical ranseur. The party got to see a few more city blocks of Moonmist, which is loaded with as many trees as buildings and seems endless. Though I didn't spend game time on description, buildings that have been controlled by the party have included a water tower, a Purple Order temple, a music cathedral and an art museum. Most of the buildings have been tower homestead/workshops. As each is liberated, the number of freed nonelven "indentured servants" (charmed slaves) increases. The party is succeeding where entire armies have failed, because mere numbers are inadaquate for victory, and quality does beat quantity as battle after battle has proven.

The Characters
Revan called his special mount, a pegasus--and suddenly became even more deadly an evasive since the new mount has flyby attack, allowing a diving charge strike and retreat by air. He decimated an evil giant spider, enemy mounted units and spellcasters. Though his previous steed was a great and noble land-based mount, he sometimes had a hard time getting to a worthy opponent each round. Not anymore. LeRoy Jenkins had the misfortune of being attacked by the flying pikemen, as noted above. That he survived the whole session in positive hit points says a lot about how tough he really is. Joseph Prax was once again a bit of an unsung hero as he quietly buffed up the whole party with bless and prayer; he kept everyone healed up and fighting, and also softened up the enemy with the occasional flame strike. Rivet, the kobold rogue/expert played by Robby dropped loads of alchemical glue by crossbow bolt into unsuspecting groups of elven archers. He also has been instrumental as a "rear guard," checking each building for traps and treasure once it is secured. Though not technically part of the battle, these things are still very important and keeps him very busy. He also used his crossbow to deliver a potion of healing at one point. Taito kept right on fighting, even though at one point he was affected by a hold person. He is a drunken master who fights with a ladder, much like Jackie Chan in the movie of the same name. It seems nothing can withstand his relentlessness--at one point, he swept half a dozen elven archers off of a tower. Aar, it be that Black Eyed Bill is as much the swashbucker as 'e ever was, har. That feller 'll use a rope or climb a wall every time, even if there be a ladder there, to take a crazy elven cleric from 'is off-side, the scurvy dog. Flegol spent a few seconds baleful polymorphed into a black widow spider, but didn't stay that way for long. His mighty arrows flew strong and true, dealing loads of precise damage to anything or anyone who could threaten the party from a distance, mainly spellcasters and occasionally archers. Enemies have taken notice of him, but they never seem to live long enough or get close enough to really hurt him, and Buddy Nagel is always right there to patch him up whenever they even start to. Lola "Kick-Butt Girl" seems to appear out of nowhere on rare occasions, remove some great threat, and disappear just as suddenly. She's excellent at getting around, with great skills in climbing, swimming and jumping. It has been revealed that she recently stumbled by chance upon a pair of Boots of Teleportation, and that explains a lot of the mystery. The fashionable footwear were previously owned by an elven sorceress who was part of the invasion and found herself on the wrong end of Lola's longswords. By the way, did you know that Lola's left eye is yellow and her right eye is red? Geena continues to fill in the gaps whenever needed, mostly with her amazing focus on archery. Her power at a distance seems to keep the enemy at bay and it is rare for her to get seriously hurt in battle, though this is also the result of dwarven common sense, a bit of luck and a really good set of armor. Aiko does not often get noticed in battle, but having a second monk is helpful, especially when dealing with an enemy that breeds and makes regular use of chainmail and longsword-destroying rust monsters and rust spitters. Today she found herself fighting alongside Black Eyed Bill, dealing with the usual big numbers of skilled, though unfortunately evil elven archers. Captain Fergus Dowrimple was mentioned above. Since Gendar the Mighty didn't make an appearance today, Fergus was extra busy providing offensive spell support. Though he has been an NPC, I am working up a higher level version of him for Roddy to use, because I think he's skillful, well-rounded and interesting. A likeable rogue if you will, with a bit of a "renaisance man" thrown in. He has an amazing Appraise skill. Mick the Gangly, also mentioned earlier, has increased in power greatly since gaining magically-enhanced strength. Even though it's obvious, class stats help characters a great deal in 3.5 D&D. Whirlwind Attack is a feat that can take a character years to develop, but it's an incredible thing to see in action. Telpin used his wand of lightning bolt while singing his gnomish heart out to enhance the party's morale. The bard is much more versitile, but this battle has mostly forced him to zoom in on just two skills: Perform-Sing, and Use Magic Item. The other bard, Nightsong Sharpfang, has had a bit of difficulty keeping up with the party since she is lower level (an npc kobold who arrived with Fergus from Hydra Island). She was nearly slain by a group of charging Eldrich Moon Knights today. Unless she can find an important niche in the group, I have doubts about whether she would be missed should she fall; she has recently been basically an echo of Telpin. Henderson, the npc lizardman fighter is also struggling a little bit, having been eclipsed by Mick the Gangly in the hand to hand fighting department. Today, he failed to really shine. But he has great language skills and the capability of convincing entire tribes of hundreds of lizardmen to join the party's cause, so he is tolerated. He is also amazing at getting around physically, climbing, swimming and often ready with an unselfishly offered rope at a friend's time of need. Of course, he did devour a prisoner once...

The Skinny
Experience: 3,000 xp. Treasure: Boots of Teleport (women's); Staff of the Woodlands; and monetary treasure appraised at about 10,000 gp per player character (npcs get half-shares). Next sessions: two weeks, and see previous entry.

NEW Summer Game Schedule

Saturday games 12-6 will be held on the following days:

8/6/05

8/20

9/3

NO GAME 9/17

9/24

EXTRA GAME 10/1

NO GAME 10/8

10/15

NO GAME 10/29

11/5

Further games after 11/5 to be announced, should still be every other Saturday (mostly), subject to occasional rescheduling. I'll call everybody if I have to move a game. If I get Saturday cello gigs, I will generally move that session to the next day (Sunday). --D

Moonmist battle continues

Everybody showed up yesterday, a week off from my schedule but welcome anyway. I re-arranged my terrain, set up more minis and we resumed the battle. Revan charged the Eldritch Moon Knights; Dante threw his clubs; Joseph Prax gave the party a prayer and a blessing and banished an earth elemental, healing wherever needed; Rivet searched buildings and foiled traps; Gendar the Magic dropped fireballs into clusters of enemy archers on the tops of towers; Taito punched out rust monsters, climbed walls and defeated archers; Black Eyed Bill swashbuckled his way through the enemy on a balcony, climbed on a building to slay an archer, and fired a rope by crossbow to cross to a tower top and defeat an archer there as well. Timmy Darkwind snuck across the battlefield, attacking powerful enemies who were unaware of him. Thumbs used a little stealth and a lot of sheer thuggery to work his way through Eldritch Moon Knights. Flegol shot his rain of deadly arrows with ruthless power, accuracy and speed to bring down even the mighty among the enemy. Buddy Nagel filled in the gaps of the healing duties, as so many arrows and fireballs kept hitting the party that his services were needed every round. Lola fought along, kicking butt and enjoying it. Geena and Aiko, the mighty dwarven women, partnered up to blaze a trail through the enemy on the right flank, working well as a fighter and monk can together. Mick the Gangly, now something of a one-man army, worked his way up the left flank, his trademark ranseur laying the enemy low like a farmer reaping wheat. Telpin and Nightsong Sharpfang joined together in the same battle song but divided like stereo speakers so that all of their allies could hear and benefit from its encouragement; they also helped with minor fighting, healing and spellcasting duties. Henderson charged across the river like it wasn't there and engaged an evil elven spellcastress in melee; once she was no longer a threat, he went on to other, lesser enemies. Captain Fergus Dowrimple evaded enemy fireballs and fired off his own powerful ones, assisting Gendar in covering the party's safety across a large battlefield and flying up in order to be above melee threats and to lengthen his field of vision and pick targets.
And in this way, another couple of blocks worth of Moonmist has fallen to the party's relentless attack. I awarded a flat 3,000 experience points. Roddy, who has never missed a session, told me that Revan just leveled to 11th (or was it 10th?) and pretty much everybody else is just a level or two behind that. Treasure will be determined next session, in two weeks.

Battle at Moonmist Begins, Wed. & Sat. Merge

Following prior victories (see last two entries), two growing pro-human warbands joined forces at Moonmist, where the Elves of the Purple Order first landed on Aarde from Sonaeed, and established their base settlement. Though thinned of troops by visions of world conquest the elven city is still well-defended and presents a terrible risk for the party, but the rewards of success are too enticing not to make the attempt. Black-Eyed Bill, Devatof Can Bob, Rivet, Aiko, Captain Fergus Dowrimple and Nightsong Sharpfang arrived with their crews from Hydra Island, beyond the Western horizon aboard the Ugly Maiden, Golden Torch, and Fist of Hubris.
Fighting to Telpin's newest tune, The Battle Song of Shady Cliffs, Revan, Taito, Flegol, Joseph Prax, Timmy Darkwind, Socrates, Gendar the Magic, Lola, Geena, Thumbs, Buddy Nagel, Henderson and Mick the Gangley fought a huge number of elven archers and spellcasters at the northwestern tip of Moonmist, working their way east from the docks through the trees and hills, building to building. So far, the party is prevailing. But it hasn't been easy. Joseph Prax was trampled by eight Eldritch Moon Knights, who rendered him unconcious. Devatof Can Bob was slain by arrows just beyond the wall of wind. And Timmy Darkwind lost conciousness under a hail of arrows as well. Experience was better than average at 3,500 xp, and treasure was excellent (pillaging rich elven buildings) at 7,000 gp worth of valuables per surviving character.
Please note that at least for now, the Wednesday group is on hiatus and has merged with the Saturday group, which is now meeting twice a month (instead of once a month) until further notice. Everybody (including me) tells me they are happy with this arrangement. I will allow up to a maximum of two characters per player, but no more, no exceptions. To speed game play, I am going to reduce the amount of attention spent on NPCs a bit; I'm not going to kill them off (unless that just happens), but I really don't want to take too much PC time away with my NPCs. Story-wise, with everything that needs to be accomplished, they will each have important contributions to make in the future, enhancing the things the characters are best at, and representing the fanatical devotion generated by heroic good deeds.

Rust Spitter Saturday

The elves of the Order of the Purple Moon, headquartered at Moonmist on the western coast of Anciena have discovered a new weapon, to their delight. Followers of Jaramon's Temple of Transformation, using the plentiful rust monsters decended from Tenneous' Iron Golem War, have created a new generation of rust spitters.
A single rust spitter gave the party fits. As they explored the catacombs beneath an elven lighthouse, they heard a great wheezing sound and saw saw the giant, insectlike creature expelling a great quantity of a misty gas from its hose-like mouth. Almost instantly, nearly every character in the room watched in horror as prized magical weapons, armor and even simple items like the metals from flint and steel sets were reduced to orange dust which apparantly serves as food for the strange creatures. Among the adversely affected were Revan (Roddy's 8th level human paladin), Socrates (Phil's 8th level human fighter), Geena (Penny's/npc 8th level dwarven fighter/archer, played as an npc), Henderson (npc lizardman fighter/rogue, 4th/3rd level), Telpin (npc gnomish bard, 8th level), Mick the Gangley (npc human stilted polearm fighter/archer, 8th level), Lola "Kick-Butt Girl" (Bella's/npc human monk 1/fighter 7 swordswoman), Flegol (Shane's human ranger, 9th level) and Joseph Prax (Robby's human cleric/inquisitor 7th/2nd level). Completely unaffected were the monks, Taito (Carson's human monk/drunken master 5th/3rd) and Henko (Phil's Aardish elven monk, the 6th level cohort of Socrates). As a result of this encounter, the party decided to return to Rotalia to re-equip, though the trip was expensive in time and money.
Cavern explorations quickly resumed after the group returned to where it had left off, hoping to find replenishing treasure within the catacombs. An illusionary treasure over a 30' wooden-spiked pit was easily dealt with by Taito. Three glyphs of Mass Toad were dispelled by Joseph Prax. The party defeated a group of nasty giant stag beatles which were eating provisions intended to feed 500 elven soldiers for a month. A fountain filled with potion of polymorph self was appropriated by the party and filled a 10' x 10' bag of holding. A honeycomb of beatle caves led to an encounter with elf-modified, upright-standing 4-armed giant stag beatles. Soon after this encounter, Socrates turned the corner alone, only to be baleful polymorphed into a black widow spider by a spellcasting dryder, and his psyche became that of his new form as well. Henko, close at hand, was able to gingerly pick up his friend for safekeeping. Soon afterward, the party had defeated the dryder and a couple more rust spitters nearby. The party camped and afterwards Joseph Prax was able to return Socrates to his human form, and restore his original psyche as well. Now in a life debt of gratitude for this great service, Phil's fighter converted to the religion of the party cleric, and committed to ever after tithe 10% of his income to him and/or the church of St. Cuthbert. After thorough exploration of the caves revealed nowhere else to go, the party headed out, and on the way encountered an elven warband who tried, but failed, to charm, and mass charm the party into submission, cooperation or non-action. Many more elves awaited the party on the surface in and on the buildings near the lighthouse, but these were mere settlers and green troops, easily dispatched by the smaller, but battle-proven party.

Two Ships Left Lake City, Three Came Back

Wednesday 6/29/05 session. Black Eyed Bill and DeVat of Can Bob, along with Aiko, Nightsong Sharpfang, Captain Fergus and the crew of the Ugly Maiden put into port at Lake City on Gottsland Island, a town preparing for attack by an expected overwhelming force of ogres by sea. Having befriended the cowardly captain and crew of the merchant ship Golden Torch the two ships set out to the Northeast, and at twilight of the first day sighted two enemy ships. Each ship (friend and foe) was well armed, with fireball-casting wizards and at least a couple of heavy catapaults.

Spells and siege weapons flew, masts cracked and sails burned. While the ogres targeted crew, the Maiden and the Torch targetted rigging, as each ship faced one similarly armed and manned. The ogre captain of the larger ship drank a potion of enlarge and used his ring of water walking and crossed a short space to attack the Ugly Maiden at the stern, ripping out its rudder. Meanwhile, a druid from the Maiden had polymorphed into a crocodile and cast a Sculpt Wood on the keel of the Bloody Tusk, effectively damaging her beyond repair, and she began to sink. But the Ugly Maiden was in desparate need of repair to navigate in the brisk north-to-south wind. As the enlarged, enraged, water-walking enemy ogre captain charged the Maiden, Captain Fergus succeeded with a Charm Monster, ending the threat, and in turn asking his big new friend for a bit of help with the rudder. The druid changed into a form to recover the enemy rudder from beneath the waves.

The Golden Torch was in the middle of a slugfest with the Fist of Hubris, and even though a lot of the Torch crew were killed early, the Hubris had lost almost all of her sails and was burning from the early exchange of fireballs. With a great advantage of movement, the Torch was able to broadside the stern of the Hubris, and raked her with a stern-to-bow lightning bolt. DeVatofCan Bob boldly demanded the Hubris crew surrender and take to the away boats; they would be spared if they did not return. The ogres decided to take the offer, as they were greatly outpositioned and effectively dead in the water. Though they probably could have boarded the Torch, the heavy catapault and twin ballistae had been so effective in battle that the surviving ogres simply rowed away as fast as they could, as a single hit could easily sink an away boat. Once the last of the ogres had paddled away, the crews of the Torch and the Maiden claimed the Hubris as their prize. They put back into port at Lake City for repairs and to fill the crews back out. Many women, children and merchants wished passage out of Lake City before its expected fall, but Fergus and his men were looking for able bodied seamen to continue the nautical battle, because each ship sunk or captured meant another cargo of ogre warriors that would not ever arrive to fight in the land war. And "the puny humans and thier pathetic friends" (as the ogres had called them) were feeling emboldened by victory.

Takin' it to the Elves

Saturday's session began where the Battle of Shady Cliffs left off. The party journeyed to Rotalia, where they purchased a few magic items at Glorn & Maglenth's, in the restored old section of town. Victory had provided evidence of a connection between the Purple Order moon elves and the drow, as well as an entrance to the underdark. But the party decided to march south to Moonmist to fight the elves there, where they had first landed and settled from their moon, Sonaeed.

Just north of Moonmist, the party encountered an outpost with three towers (one of them the North Moonmist lighthouse) and a dock. Three purple-sailed ships approached, probably loaded with warriors, slaves and mongrelmen. No fewer than three dozen elven warriors defended the area: plenty of archers, several mounted "harrier" units, a few Eldrich Moon Knights, a powerful wizard with two of his associates, and a couple priestesses of Jaramon.

Taito took a swig before clearing the path before him with combinations of kicks and jumps. Revan charged into battle and soon became a magnet for enemy knights, but ultimately prevailed over them all (with a bit of help). "I'm not afraid," his battle cry. Dante (renamed many times, but the same fighter/rogue Lance has been playing) snuck invisibly and did a couple of powerful sneak attacks on some elven archers. Gendar the Magic filled the battlefield with his usual assortment of fireballs and magic missiles, evening the numbers out a bit. Also helping in this respect was St. Joseph, who cast a couple of flame strikes over two of the towers. His healing spells helped quite a bit too. Socrates discovered during the fight that his new magic rings weren't all he thought they were. His archery helped pick off some of the enemy mages, though his monk follower was slowed early on and was mostly not a factor. The NPCs Geena, Telpin, Mick the Gangly and Henderson all fought well, each with their roles to play. Telpin sang his encouraging battle song, and used his new wand of lightning bolts (8d6) on a mage, a few knights and archers, and on the approaching ships. Mick the Gangly used his new whirlwind attack and magically enhanced strength to take out several enemies at a time, before being balelful polymorphed into a chicken (it took some doing, but the party was able to restore hime to normal later). Donkey Kong, the orc barbarian, showed up toward the end of the battle, killing 7 elves on the dock in one masterful round of attacks, saving the last one for the lizardman, Henderson.

Treasure in the basement of the lighthouse ultimately will translate to about 4,000 gold pieces per character. One interesting find was an underground training arena with illusionary jaramonians, dragons, earth elementals, giant undead, giant mind flayers and other foes somehow programmed in. Beyond it is an underground passage with all details completely unknown. Experience for the 6 hour session totaled 3,000. (Note that amounts to 500 xp per half-hour of actual gaming, the Star Wars experience formula I've been using for a base for a while now).

Takin' it to the Elves

Saturday's session began with the purchase of a few items from Glorn & Maglenth's in the old part of Rotalia. Although the battle at Shady Cliffs revealed a connection between the Moon Elves and the Drow, and an entrance to the underdark, the party decided that Moonmist would be a better destination. Moonmist is the wooded coastal city about halfway down the western border of Anciena, and is the central location for the Purple Order. And why not go after the evil elves themselves, at their source?

Before long, the party found themselves battling elves at a coastal settlement just north of Moonmist. In their immediate area were three towers and a dock. More than two dozen elves seemed ready for attack, among them several of the mounted "harrier" lancers, a few Elderitch Moon Knights, a couple mages, and plenty of archers. Three purple-sailed ships were approaching the docks, probably loaded with a lot more troops.

Taito took a preparatory swig before joining the battle, then began jumping and punching his way through the bad guys. Revan charged right in and soon became a magnet for enemies, outnumbered but prevailing as usual with his battle cry, "I'm not afraid." "The Clubmaster" (Lance's fighter/rogue) snuck up invisibly on a few of elven archers, taking them by surprise. Gendar the Magic dropped his usual supply of fireballs and magic missiles into the battle, really helping even the numbers. St. Joseph provided much needed healing, prayers, a couple of flame strikes that helped clear out two small towers of elven archers and mages. Socrates fought well, though with a dubious collection of new magic rings, some of which turned out not to be what he thought.

Wednesday 6/15

Phil had company although I called Chaun and Zach, neither could make it. But then again, it was the last week of school for most of the guys. So it was just Carson and me. It took us a full hour to put all the miniatures and terrain away from the Saturday game, and we spent another two hours leveling up Saturday and Wednesday NPCs. I have to say, I really appreciate the help. Even though we didn't actually game, it's still good. Thanks Carson!

I'm still considering the future of the Wednesday group. I don't think there's a big enough player pool for Wednesdays to be consistant all year. In the past, we've alternated Wednesdays from D&D to Star Wars to Magic, Mordheim and even Talisman and Axis & Allies, depending on who shows up. And we've alternated DMs too. I guess I'm going to need some feedback.

Checked out "30 Years of Adventure, a Celebration of Dungeons & Dragons (with forward by Vin Diesel)" from the library. It's pretty good.

There's no game Wednesday June 22nd, because we're playing Saturday the 25th. See you then!

Battle at Shady Cliffs, part II

Robby, Zach, Brett, Roddy, Lance, Carson, Phil, Shane and Marshall finished up the Battle at Shady Cliffs yesterday (Sat. 6/11, 12-6). I had left all the minis set up from last time, and the cards were all in order. Zach's new rogue, Timmy, is 7th level and deadly with throwing daggers. Marshall added a fearsome orc barbarian, "Donkey Kong," to the party. Brett played a new sorcerer, and those fireballs were helpful. The New Rotalia Militia needed all the help it could get in the push against the elves, because they were definitely in a tight spot.

The Purple Order Army of the Sonaeed elves had the upper hand at the start of the day, having just decimated the calvary and archery units. The lizardmen and orcs had the advantage in numbers, the undead were guarding the army's underground fort entrance, Jaramonians were intermingled into units, each armed with four longswords, and mongrelmen provided an unpredictability to the battle. A charmed adult green dragon, two giants and a good number of high-level elven and drow spellcasters and Eldritch Moon Knights threatened to quickly finish the battle through their decimating large-scale attacks. Other monsters commanded by the Elves of the Purple Order included a wide array of persons and creatures that had been charmed into duty. Orbalator, a hobgoblin colonal, was a 15th level fighter, and threatened the King himself. Arjona the Devout, a 16th level elven priestess of the Purple Order (and a general) was among the enemy caster corps. It seemed the bad guys had the fight sewn up, and would soon be enslaving all of Aarde, which they feel should rightfully belong to them. Blip the Forsaken, a 10th level goblin rogue, enjoyed the benefit of a couple good sneak attacks after being ignored, unseen and underestimated. Liko of the Dead (the vampire) had ordered his unit of undead to hold their ground and defend the rear flank, but felt confident their services would not even be required.

But the party and the New Rotalia Militia had a few surprises still in store, and a bit of luck. Though surrounded by lizardman warriors and with his calvalry unit decimated, Revan (Roddy's paladin) seemed untouchable, and steadily removed evil from the left flank of the field of battle, and a few clerics with him kept healing and melee bonuses coming for everybody. Taito (Carson's drunken master monk) along with the trolls Big Cap and Little Cap, and the half-ogre rogue Thumbs, had managed to keep the orcs on their side of the river, leading an advance on the right flank. These things do not happen without fire support. Flegol (Shane's ranger) was on dragon duty with his bow, and his units of spearmen, archers, and Buddy Nagel (the Kobold cleric) strategically picked off a few tough casters and other opponents. Geena (Penny's dwarf fighter/archer, played as an NPC) also picked away at the dragon, as well as at least one of the Eldritch Moon Knights. She was effective. Joseph Prax (Robby's 7th level cleric to St. Cuthbert), along with a few low-level cleric followers attended to the wounded and provided very helpful bonuses amounting to important tactical support. "El Diddy"/Dante Blackmorg (Lance's fighter/rogue) laid claim to "Lance Mountain," one of several cliffs and hills on the table. Socrates (Phil's fighter) and the dwarven heavy catapaultists directed a rain of death on the rank-and-file Gleen's Tribe lizardmen and orcs, opening up the field just behind enemy lines. Gendar the Magic (Brett's sorcerer) proved helpful in nailing bunches of bad guys with offensive fireballs and magic missiles. On this account, the gnomish battle mage Spontaneo proved useful also. Donkey Kong (Marshall's orc barbarian) proved to be an outstanding warrior, once cleaving through half a dozen or more lizardmen who had surrounded him. Last but not least among the player characters, Timmy Darkwood (Zach's rogue) confronted the dragon and uncovered the enemy general (the priestess), knocking her out with a sap at the very end so she could be questioned, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Mick the Gangly found himself stuck in the big fight with Orbalator, who with AC 28 and over 130 hp just wouldn't go down. Henderson led the Brach's Tribe Lizardmen across the Shady Cliffs River, and was among the first to penetrate enemy territory.

Two crucial events helped turn the tide, one by design and one by sheer luck. It was hoped that The Mandrake, a mysterious beholder mage, had been previously turned to the cause of the New Rotalia Militia by agents of the King, and that turned out to be the case. After surveying the field of battle and considering which side to fight for, the "eye tyrant" floated invisibly behind the enemy, with his anti-magic cone emanating from his main eye and preventing a large amount of enemy spellcasting from taking place. He turned one of the giants to stone, though one of the enemy casters managed to cast a Stone to Flesh soon after. With his telekinesis eyestalk, he redirected a couple of the giant's boulders. Besides wreaking havoc with his main eye and 10 eyestalks, the Mandrake finally succeeded with a Charm Monster on one of the giants. But why was the other giant running away? Oh yeah, Telpin, (npc) the lowly gnomish bard, had pulled off a near-miracle of luck with his Wand of Dominate Monster and took control of the adult green dragon to have it breath its acid gas on the undead unit, disolving them into a final oblivion, except for Lido the vampire, who was then slain by heavy catapault fire and followup troops.

I awarded 6,000 xp, and 6,000 gp. I think just about everybody levelled up. Remember, henchmen only get half xp, and I did not award experience last time, so that is included in the 6,000. There will be opportunities at New Rotalia and/or Moporia for the purchase of magic items. Due to a crippling civil war years ago, Gorchimata (which in the campaign set 500 years earlier had become known as Magic Island City) is no longer a center of magical item commerce. Depending on the item you are thinking of buying, availability should range between 30% - 70%, but we will roleplay all magical item purchases at the start of next session.

Thank you to everybody for being patient during this battle; I know the turns were long. I also know that without index cards and miniatures, a battle this big and complicated would be nearly impossible to play. I honestly did not have a predetermined outcome for this fight, and it could easily have gone the other way. If not for the party, it would have.

Sunday Battle

Last Sunday's(5/15/05) D&D game was brutal. I got out my nearly all of my minis, and soon the party was smack in the middle of a huge melee that had no chance of ending by 6pm. It's an epic battle between friends and allies made by the group and monsters and people charmed by the Elves of the Purple Order. Of special interest is The Mandrake, a mysterious figure that turned out to be a beholder bribed by the King of New Rotalia to infiltrate behind enemy lines.

I don't know if I've ever had so many of my minis on the table at the same time. They include old Ral Partha and Grenadier metals, lots of Games Workshop, and no small number of Mage Knight and the new pre-painted plastic D&D miniatures. Even so, I never feel like I have enough. For this battle, I would have liked to have more Elf minis. But I was pretty happy with the terrain I have, which depicted a sort of desert area with cliffs and a few palm trees. We filled up a 12' long by 4' wide table in the hour it took to set up the battle.

Fighting for the freedom of the Ancient Isle were one tribe of Lizard Men, members of the New Rotalian Militia (I used GW Brettonian archers and knights), a boatload of Moporian Spearmen (I used GW Empire), Dwarven siege engineers with heavy catapaults (Carson and Phil made three pretty decent catapaults and a trebuchet out of clothespins and rubberbands, which I spray-painted a darker brown), lots of unorganized "rabble" of special characters, two Trolls, the King of New Rotalia and his retinue (I used P's GW Dogs of War horsemen and pikemen), and of course the party.

The Moon Army, led by the Elves and their charmed minions, includes a couple of tribes of Lizard Men, an adult Green Dragon (I won't reveal how old), two Giants (who are effectively a boulder-throwing artillary force), a huge unit of Orcs and Goblins, a bunch of creepy crawlies like giant spiders, scorpions and rats, assorted Mongrel Men (effectively the bad guys' "rabble,"), a few Drow Elves, and a small unit of Undead, led by at least one Vampire.

The Mandrake did not make his appearance until the very end of the game, and we'll see him in action next time. This session will be continued June 11. If we don't finish then, we'll pick it up June 25. If the party and their allies win the battle, they will be able to continue on to re-capture the Temple of Transformation, which the elves and their army are defending in this battle.

SUNDAY, NOT SATURDAY GAME IN MAY

ATTENTION: Hey, I'm playing cello solos for a wedding gig on the second Saturday in May, so we need to move the game to Sunday the 15th at noon. Also, remember it is now MINIATURES SEASON so bring your minis and any terrain you would like to show off. We will be using minis heavily through the good weather so we'll be downstairs. It is possible some of our future dates could move to Sundays too, so I'll let you know. I am really looking forward to the switch to two weekend sessions a month for a while, and my scheming brain is busy cooking up new ideas to challenge the characters and provide some real opportunities for them.

Magic: The Gathering -- Tapdancer Rematch

Last Wednesday it was just Carson and me, so we played Magic. He just brought his proxy-heavy "Tapdancer" deck, which is an elf deck that takes advantage of their mana production and untapping abilities, then putting equipment on them to "Tim" (after the mage in Monty Python's Holy Grail, a term for a creature tapping to deal 1 damage to any target) over and over again. Or just make a HUGE Ivy elemental. His deck is so well-tuned, it goes off every time and beats the crap out of my decks, except for my Earthquake (red/white) deck and my Crypt Rats deck. Basically, it you need a way to take out a lot of elves in a hurry, because his deck is really fast, so unless you've taken out 3-5 of them by the time you put out your 4th or 5th land, it's probably all over for you. It was a lot of fun, I've been itching to play Magic for a while. Last time I played against Tapdancer, it was really good, but he re-tuned it so now it's even faster. In one game, he had two Ivy Elementals, one 29/29 and one 31/31 by the 7th or 8th turn I think. In another game, he had his life total to something like 140. My Hurricane deck, which has a lot of elves, but also COP: Green also lost to Tapdancer, because it just sped his deck up more. Though now he's thinking about putting in a certain X/X regenerator from Tempest...

Rescue

We got off to a late start Wednesday, the first game session of "Miniatures Season" now that the basement is a bit drier and warmer.

The seas were fairly calm. Carson's Black Eyed Bill captained survivors from the Slippery Scythe, while Phil's De Vat of Can Bob led four crewmen from the Merry Maiden. Together, they sailed on a merchant ship to the edge of ogre-controlled waters, then took a native fishing longboat/outrigger from there. Under cover of darkness, they were able to approach the giant ogre vessel Shih and begin boarding her, a difficult task with her high sides and thick hull. Rivet, with the help of Foxbet, Tzor and Tonwads, used a corkscrew-like tool to make a hole big enough to reach in with a small pryhammer and peel planks open just above the waterline, then work his way in. Meanwhile, the rest of the party climbed a couple ropes 20' up and fought the two ogres who were on night watch, with Black Eyed Bill and Aiko leading the way. It was a difficult battle, with Felix falling from the boarding rope and drowning, Tzor being impaled by a greatspear and barely surviving, and De Vat of Can fighting valliantly to within an inch of his life. As the winds picked up, Black Eyed Bill cut mainstays and other rigging and with skill and luck, sent the boom across the deck, sweeping three of the tall ogres into the sea but sparing the shorter party members. When the deck was cleared of ogres, two of whom had come from below decks, the party joined up and fought a couple more ogres on the stairs leading to Rivet, who picked the brig lock and freed the party, then picked the lock to the "booty" room with Fergus' wand of lightning bolts, treasure and other belongings. Fergus and Black Eyed Bill killed the ogre captain in the process, and one of the party rogues (Nightsong or Fergus or Rivet, maybe a couple of them) slit the throats of the remaining sleeping ogres for the safety of the party. The total complement of the party and crew now numbers 20, including survivors from both ships, freed captives, and freed humanoid slaves of the ogres.

Survivors

Surviving from the Merry Maiden are: de Vat of Can Bob, Aiko, Captain Fergus (captured by ogre mage on red ship to east), Gus (lookout-rigger), Lenny (swabby), Felix (steward/quartermaster/rigger) and Klive (rigger). Surviving from the Slippery Scythe are Captain Black Eyed Bill, Rivet (timekeeper/engineer/depthfinder), Tonwads (gnome lookout), Tzor and Zolb (swabbies), and Foxbet (quartermaster). Most of the cargo (150 tons from each ship) was taken by the ogres, though much was destroyed in the battle or lost at sea.

Shipwrecked!

As sea voyages go, things were looking good for Black Eyed Bill (Carson's sea ranger) and his crew on the Slippery Scythe. He had his own ship, fully staffed with a few salty dogs from Captain Fergus's Merry Maiden, filled out with greenhorn natives from Horseshoe Island. After a few months helping the natives recover after their battle with the ogre and hobgoblin armies, the ships were fully provisioned and had been underway on a northern heading for a couple of weeks, back on the old trade route favored by Fergus and other merchant seamen. Nightsong Sharpfang (the npc female kobold bard) was aboard the Slippery Scythe, while Sir Vatofcan (Phil's paladin) and Aiko (P.'s female dwarven monk) were on the Merry Maiden.
At dusk as visibility worsened, first the Scythe, then the Maiden hit reefs and began to take on water. Two additional problems presented themselves: a storm from the south, and a small armada of ogre navy ships from the east. In desparate haste, crews chipped away the reefs, went over the side and pushed the ships off from below, wedging themselves underneath while holding their breath. A few crewmen did not survive this dangerous procedure, as the storm winds blew the full weight of the ships on top of four men, pinching them between the reefs and the ship for too long to escape. But it finally worked, and the ships were free of the reefs.
Seamen worked the bilge pumps and repaired the hull damage as best possible, while other sailers prepared for a stormy battle above decks. While the ships had been stuck on the reefs, six ogre ships had closed in, each with at least three extra-heavy catapaults capable of firing each round. It turned out that the ogres also had at least one spellcaster as well. But though overpowered out outflanked, the Scythe and the Maiden made a pretty good showing, with Fergus casting fly, protection from arrows, and using his 6d6 wand of lightning bolt to pretty good effect, though in the storm he was in competition with the real thing. The valiant archers and artillery of the party's ships, in combination with Fergus, damaged two of the great ogre ships, and sunk two. But the massive stones raining on their ships took their toll, sinking them both.
Floating on the wreckage, the survivors were Black Eyed Bill, de Vat of Can Bob, Aiko (who was lost at sea, floating on a barrel for a day before being found by the others) and eight crewmen. Rivet (Robby's kobold engineer, played by Carson as an npc) directed efforts to tie the boxes, barrels and wreckage together. It turned out to be important, as the storm doubled back and hit again. This time, no more hands were lost. Black Eyed Bill's parrot made contact with a nearby human merchant vessel, and word arrived via Captain Fergus' crow that the mage had been captured and was on the big red ship, to the east. The whereabouts of Nightsong and the other crew were unknown. After a time, the floating wreckage, with a shirt as a sail, found land on an island populated by curious natives; the children had never seen a man with metal skin before, such as the chain shirt Bob was wearing. 1,500 xp were awarded. Next time: The Rescue!

More evil nasty elf mages invading from the moon

The party (Revan, Flegal, Joseph Prax, Socrates, Taito, Dante, Geena, Telpin, Mick the Gangly, Henderson, Buddy Nagel and Thumbs) began in Meatsville ("Pigtown"). After spending some time in town recovering hit points and spells and re-equipping arrows and supplies, the group learned of a town to the south, known as The Divide, where a recent drought was decimating the population. Armed with plenty of Create Water, Purify Water, and other spells, the party set off. Beany Knubbs (the gnomish ranger) was left behind with the refugees at a new church to Khadgar that is in the process of being established by a few former Temple of Transformation worshippers and their cleric.
On the road, the group encountered three carriages of Moonmist Harriers, elven archers seeking to fill their quota of "indentured servants." The adventurers refused to surrender to the imposing castle-topped carriages and a couple dozen trained archers with the advantages of cover, elevation, numbers and a wizard. After a long battle that included the defeat of a summoned efreet, the elves were defeated.
Upon reaching The Divide by the merchant caravan road, beggars immediately came to the wagon with parched, cracked lips and gaunt faces. Joseph was able to provide enough water for them. In the center of town, another clerical spell located a small amount of fresh water at the base of a cliff just at the edge of the range of the spell, which also magically created a 100' deep well. Soon, what little fresh water was found there ran out, and putrid water came up. Upon investigation, the party found that an underground wizard's lab had diverted an underground stream from the city's old well to a subterranian lake. Casks of fresh water were then sold to the city's inhabitants, in order to fund magical work and experiments that poisoned the lake. Random arcs of lightning were seen. Strange black and green snakes flew in circles. Glowing green clouds moved eerily. Footsteps were heard.
Invisible and protected by magic, Eldritch Moon Knights guarded the entrance to the lab of the high elven mage, Baron Livotogus. Four of them put up a pretty good fight, but were overpowered by the party. Within, a water trap slowed down the group, but not for long. In a short time, the evil Baron lay dead. Cleaning up the mess left by the villian took nearly a month, but in the end, The Divide's water supply was restored.
Treasure was pretty good (about 350 GP/character), but not nearly as good as the previous session. I awarded 3,000 XP once again. Next session will probably include another look at the Temple of Transformation. It's not too far from where the group is now, and the main force of the Moonmist army is unlikely to remain there after re-securing the location.
Upcoming Saturday sessions are May 14, June 11 and June 25. See you next time, be it Wednesday or on a Saturday.

Henderson

After the party got to the outskirts of Puquuay, Revan sent "the clubmaster," the party's rogue, to go back and get Henderson (the npc lizardman fighter). As a result of this solo mission the clubmaster was given bonus experience for the session. Henderson also ended up gaining a level. The next session will begin with Henderson back in the party, along with news about the elves of Moonmist (where the party first landed on the Isle of Ancients). Yes, the moon elves sent an army to reclaim the Temple of Transformation. Yes, Henderson ate Barkfire (the mage he was supposed to guard). Yes, Henderson is very sorry, but he got hungry, and there was an army on the way that he had to get away from. The return trip overland with The Clubmaster to Puquuay was relatively uneventful, the two rogues only had to hide a few times.

Choices and consequences

So, Jaramon was defeated last session, captured alive. Joseph (Robby's 6th level cleric) was determined to bring this horrible villian to justice through retribution by the authority of the church of St. Cuthbert. Taito (Carson's monk) had put Jaramon unconcious with a sleeper hold. Gradually, the transmuter's spell effects wore off: protection from arrows, invisibility, protection from good, fly, spider climb, silence (which Joseph had targetted on him earlier in the encounter) were the main ones. After a poison acid needle in Jaramon's cloak of resistance did 18 points of damage to Joseph, Lance's rogue "clubmaster" was called in to deal with the rest of his articles of clothing and equipment, which included a circlet (metal headband) with a spring-loaded gem that activated teleport to any of 10 random rooms within Jaramon's chambers, a +2 longsword, a +2 composite longbow, an amulet of armor +1, bracers of armor +2, a ring of protection +1, and a wand of baleful polymorph. Monetary treasure equalled about 10,000 gp for each player and npc. The freed captives from the Temple of Transformation numbered about 150 or so, and were still numb from a long period of charm related effects from their captors, and horrendous, cramped conditions. In game terms, they had 5 or 10 hit points each, even those who may have had higher maximums at one time. Some of the women latched on to the paladin and the cleric, seeking meaning and direction. As a group, they expressed great gratitude to the party for their freedom, offering their unwavering allegiance. The party put them to work hauling sculptures, tapestries and any other items of value out of the plush living quarters below the Temple, and armed those capable of fighting with what weapons were available.
A choice presented itself: a secret cavern below Jaramon's quarters led to a network of natural passageways. The party could go back out the top of the temple and fight off the giant lobster-men and the army of moon elves that would likely be arriving soon, or take their chances (along with the freed prisoners) in the caverns. After discussion, the party chose the caverns.
The group worked their way through the caverns for a time, discovering regions of magical side effects and toxins dumped beneath Jaramon's laboratories. Purple magical fogs, strange lights resembling magic missiles going around in circles, acrid sulfury vapors that caused unexplained hair growth and finally an area so black it seemed to devour light itself. Joseph cast a light to cancel out the darkness the drow trading party had cast, triggering a massive encounter. Flegal (Shane's ranger) changed into a vulture (see entry from previous session) and flew over to the far side of the cavern, where he began sniping at drow spellcasters. Also among the enemy were moon elves and mongrelmen, but mostly drow, and a couple of umber hulks. The battle took about two and a half hours of game time. When it was over, the party had slain 47 of the enemy, the enemy had killed about 100 of the low hit point freed prisoners. Enemy area-of effect spells (such as lightning ball) had also killed 20 or so of their own numbers. The party picked up a few unusual new henchmen/followers, a defeated party known as the Ironics, including a sprite fighter, a kobold cleric, a half-ogre rogue, a half-orc wizard and a gnomish ranger. These six (along with the party and 50 refugees bringing up the rear) were among the few survivors of most of the battle, though the half-orc wizard was slain toward the end of it. Six drow surrendered and were the sole survivors on their side. Interrogation revealed that passages to the lower levels of a dwarven mine some miles away could eventually lead out of the caverns. Geena's (Penny's dwarven fighter) stonecunning revealed that the party was about three miles below the surface.
Flegal's tracking ability was called upon a couple of times to guide the party through a capillary network of caves, eventually leading to an enormous underground canyon visible below. An army of drow workers could be seen hauling a 60' iron golem on wheeled planks along the floor of the canyon. By the time their scout/herald arrived to meet the party, each party member had activated their hats of disguise to appear as drow and moon elves, claiming all the others as their slaves and prisoners in order to get past the encounter, as the group was still recovering from the earlier fight. Revan negotiated with the emissary in elvish, offering (as the weaker clan) a gift in exchange for passage. Such trades are common in the underdark, though mutual mistrust comes with the territory. The emmisary asked what clan Revan's group belonged to, where they had come from, and what they had to trade. Since the party had learned that the drow group encountered earlier had been regular traders with Jaramon, Revan told the emmisary that they were with that group, and could offer a sword capable of transmuting its target into a frog as a gift. Phil did not want his half-orc fighter character (Zen) to give up the sword, so he attacked the emmisary. Revan immediately made an excellent diplomacy check to inform the other side that the party was not associated with the attacker. The half-orc scored a critical hit on the emmisary, who failed his saving throw and turned into a frog. Immediately afterward, poison arrows rained on the half orc, slaying him. The drow were given the sword, and the party went on its way.
Later on, the party encountered a group of three hags, and later also killed a couple of bullettes (land sharks). The dwarven mine was located, and the party worked their way to the surface. Meatsville ("Pigtown") was the nearest civilization the party found, a community of about 12,000 (pretty big!) 30 miles southwest of Puquuay ("Trolltown"). It turns out that Pigtown has a lot of hog farming and related industries disliked by the haughty moon elves, who invaded once, then left the area with a truce about a year and a half ago. Also, it is ruled by the royal family of King Biffy XIII, a half-elf who has a castle, a palace and a cathedral. Who is the cathedral to? None other than St. Cuthbert, as it turns out! Jaramon was left there in the care of the local high priest, who plans to keep him in the cruel dungeons for five miserable years as payment for his crime. After that time, Jaramon is to be burned. Pigtown, though a bit stinky, is a relatively safe place for the party to recover for the time being. Local watering holes include the Swine's Heart, the Pig's Eye, and the Sow's Ear, among others.
Next session: April 9th.

Ogres & Elves

The small Wednesday session was a continuation from two weeks ago, the completion of the Battle of Horseshoe Island to liberate the human villagers from their ogre and hobgoblin occupiers. Black Eyed Bill ("Pirate" ranger), having won the sea battle, fired catapaults and ballistae at the ogre's fortress, while Vat-of-Can Bob (the Paladin) and the NPCs led the villagers in their land attack, including heavy catapaults fired by Aiko and Nightsong Sharpfang, who also sang her bard song. A few bugbears and goblins fought on the side of the ogres. Fergus continued to fly overhead, picking off targets with magic missiles, low on spells and saving the last charges of his wand to protect himself when his fly spell would inevitably run out. The villagers defended their five heavy catapaults with low walls, hidden pits and long pikes, skewering many an angry charging hobgoblin.

Black Eyed Bill and his crew finally landed their ship and disembarked, flanking some of the ogres and hobgoblins, and joining the assault on the fortress. Within, Bill climbed the porticullus chain to the crenelated wall, where he defeated the ogre general (a wizard, not an "ogre mage," per se). Bob interrogated the only common-speaking ogre upon their surrender, and learned that the ogres ultimately answered to "the Duke," who happens to be an elf that has united all the ogres and their kin in the eastern hemisphere to form an empire to stand against the elves on the other side of Aarde. Unfortunately, humans seem to be caught in the middle, with no empire to call their own, being defeated by both ogres and elves.

Dr. Morrow/AVP/Jaramon bites it...

Determined to defeat Jaramon, the (Saturday) party delved deeper into the depraved wizard's lower levels within the pyramid. After finding a secret ladder down, 18 mongrelmen guards fought the party to the death, defending jailed subjects, human and otherwise, who were packed tightly behind iron bars. It was a long and difficult battle, but with a bit of help from prisoners freed and armed earlier, none of the party members or npcs were seriously hurt, though some of the liberators who joined in the battle were killed. The newly freed prisoners were armed with the weapons of the fallen, and given a few duties, mainly to help carry treasure from Jaramon's minions quarters. A transmuter (one of the minions) in the form of a vulture attempted to polymorph one of the party members into a frog, but failed to do so, and was slain.

In the level below, the treasure of the minions included that of the enchantress enlisted by the party as guide, a couple of wizards, and the high-priest, who had been hired to set up the pyramid as the "Temple of Transformation." The wizards had all already been beaten by the party. The high priest was easily defeated, though he surrendered and was allowed to live. His quarters were luxurious, with carvings and sculptures of a procession of reptiles, avians, mammals and aquatic creatures. Many servants were tied up, to be questioned later.

After a long search, a teleportal led to the next level down. Here, in a level containing a giant underground colloseum even the enchantress had not had access to, was a dead titan on a wooden frame, with various parts of other large creatures being grafted to it, including Roc wings, giant squid tentacles, extra eyes (including a few beholder eyestalks). In short, the beginnings of a nightmare being made, thankfully not yet completed.

A secret panel led to a narrow hallway. After evading a couple of traps, the party came to Jaramon's personal chambers, protected by teleportals. They found him reading a book, tried to attack, and dissappeared to other rooms, as did Jaramon. Jaramon took the opportunity to cast a few defensive spells, but after a long series of cat-and mouse, the monk in the party was able to grapple with an invisible, protection from missiles, protection from good, spider-climbing protected foe, who also had some powerful contingency magic items to teleport to his various rooms at random when in trouble. Unfortunately for Jaramon, his "random" room diced out to be the same room he was already in. The teleport defense was mainly designed for times when he was outside of his personal chambers, to bring him back there. It turned out to be the one weakness that would cost Jaramon his life. Once Taito grapped with Jaramon, all the teleporting in the world couldn't protect him, because Taito was along for the ride. Eventually, Jaramon just blacked out. Technically, he's still alive, but the party has plans to burn him or otherwise execute him next session.

Well, that's how it goes. It was a good session, and the group accomplished a lot, finishing the mini-story line for several sessions, demonstrating intelligence, compassion and mercy. The players, especially the party leader (Revan, Roddy's character) continue to surpass my expectations. I awarded 3,750 experience points to everyone. The NPCs (Geena, Mick, Telpin and Henderson) will all level to 6th. I'm going to be able to begin a new storyline for the next session, which will be Saturday, Feb. 26. Players were Shane, Phil, Roddy, (new guy--Shawn?), Lance, Robby and Carson. Lance and the new guy were not there for the whole session.

Me plus three

Wednesday 1/26 D&D session... Black-Eyed Bill (Carson's "nautical ranger," human, 5th level) and Bob (Phil's human paladin) joined Miss Princess (B's halfling barbarian), Aiko (P's npc dwarven monk), Nightsong Sharpfang (npc female kobold bard) and Captain Fergus Dowrimple (human evoker 6 rogue 2) to continue working with the natives of Horseshoe Island to liberate it from the army of hobgoblins and ogres.
Last week, Black-Eyed Bill was part of a small group that sabotaged the purple ogre navy's three sailing ships, removing planking from the two docked near the fortress and stealing a rudder from the one anchored in the bay. Hobgoblin halberdier formations attacked the natives in 4 square formations of 64 each. Though they were severely hurt by Fergus' fireballs and lightning bolts, they kept on coming, eventually driving the natives back. After the battle, 300 or so native warriors, poorly skilled, beaten and poorly equipped, retreated (along with the party, who served as officers in the operation) back to their small villages on the other side of the island. Knowing that captured villagers would eventually be eaten by the hobgoblins and ogres, a second attack on the fortress would have to happen soon. In the meantime, forces on both sides had a chance to recover and prepare. An early raid by the Merry Maiden gave the hobgoblins something to think about and some wounds to lick - two enemy ships were sunk, though the maiden was heavily damaged. After capturing a few of the enemy crew, a semi-successful prisoner exchange was made, with limited success and a lot of distrust on both sides, netting the party 400 gold pieces and 5 freed natives from the fortress.
Rivet (Robby's kobold alchemist/engineer, mentioned briefly as an npc for this weeks session), Nightsong and Aiko were helpful in directing the natives to dig traps and defensible pits with stakes for at least some cover and protection in the event of a hobgoblin attack, while longspears, heavy catapaults and other weapons were built and prepared. All told, five heavy catapaults were built for the land attack, along with one battering ram, a lot of shovels, and enough weapons to arm about 600 natives.
The attack was two-pronged, using the Merry Maiden along with a land advance to overwhelm the highly disciplined hobgoblins and their ogre overseers. The fortress was a typical stone walled structure, built on a rocky hill and featuring numerous crenelations for archers and catapaults on top, one large, strong square gate/door, and large enough to accomodate an army of 1,200 (though the exact number there was unknown). Signallers on the point would keep the Merry Maiden from again being caught by surprise by the enemy ships (as it had once before, nearly sinking it, and requiring a new mast and lengthy repairs). As it turned out, the Scythe made a poor showing, especially after Fergus cast Fly on himself, flew over and dropped a Fireball right on top of the enemy ship, burning much of the sails and rigging. One deadly tactic it had used in the past was to catapault a rain of caltrops, but this time the crew of the Maiden was ready. Fergus then continued to fly over to the fortress with his notorious wand of lightning bolts to make life miserable for the hobgoblins.
Seeing a block of 64 drop to 8 after a fireball, the hobgoblins opted for a looser formation. Fortunately for the villagers, this robbed the hobgoblins of the multiple attacks their reach weapons provided, as well as the tactic of a front line with tower shields to provide cover. But the hobgoblins had no choice, as they saw it. It appeared that Fergus too high up for any of their weapons to reach him effectively, and the villagers were also hammering the fortress and units with catapaults firing at perfect range from the cover of trenches they had built during the night. So far, the villagers are prevailing, ganging up on the scattering hobgoblins to face each one down two or three to one at a time, even though in total numbers, the villagers are outnumbered.
But the battle is not over yet. While the hobgoblin units appear to be broken, the officers at the core of each still stand and fight, often joining or leading other units. And what will be in the fortress? How will the ogres fight when cornered? That remains to be seen.

Temple of Transformation, Part 1

Today was pretty straightforward, a good game session. I had spent a bit of time preparing, and I was glad I did, though I may be under-estimating what the party is capable of taking on. Carson, Phil, Shane, Lance, Robby and Roddy all made it. Phil brought lots of pretzels, Roddy brought Coke-a-Cola and Doritos, Lance brought Bahls (an energy/caffeine drink that came in blue bottles and tasted like cream soda), and Penny brought Mountain Dew. Carson drew funny cartoons on the backs of most of the character name cards. So we had plenty of sugar, snacks, caffeine and salt. And bad jokes. Phil now has plenty of dice and a better attitude, which is good. His new character is a half-orc barbarian, which he says he's going to stick with.

So last session, the party captured two of Jaramon's minions, an elven sorcerer battle-mage and sorceress enchantress. Revan was able to persuade the enchantress to reveal the location of Jaramon's headquarters, the Temple of Transformation. After scouting a route out of the sewers below Moonmist, Flegal found a cave route through the Purple Moon Mountains, where the party fought rat-roaches and young flail-snails, dropped 200' down a saltwater geyser and to the edge of Jaramon's Valley. Upon further persuasion, the captured elf enchantress was convinced to cooperate with the party by using a wand of domination (party treasure from earlier) to get 12 elf guards to disregard the party (in hats of disguise as elves), so the party could stow away on a wagonload of 29 indentured servants bound for the pyramid temple, beyond the 20', mile-long crenalated wall with 4' rolling stone spheres on each side, through the zoolike valley/park/bestiary, past the giant Cube of Force, beyond the 20' lobster-men construction worker-guards, into the pyramid. Everything was done very carefully, every detail attended to. Forethought corrected a number of potentially bad situations. Even so, it would be tough. Henderson was left behind at the cave to guard the battle-sorcerer, who could not be persuaded to cooperate and had suffered some broken fingers as a result. Once the guards were secured and disarmed (they were armed with longswords, longbows and wands of Charm Person), the indentured servants were persuaded to help if they wished to, though a Dispel Magic was required to remove any remaining charms to guard against squeelers.

The stone sphere led the wagon in, opening the way before it and closing the way behind it, with 20' lobster-men guards close at hand at the temple entry, where shark-bats flew above. Through the valley, a dog wearing spectacles (dog-wiz) ran, and "crabbits" (bunny-crabs) bounded. But the weekly wagon shipment was proof against these things, and the party was unharmed. Unseen and unused were a few other of Jaramon's creations, including a wizard-squid and a number of assorted mongrelmen and mongrel-elves, willing and unwilling subjects.

Within the temple, the indentured servants were unloaded, and instruction began regarding their appointed tasks, starting with cleaning up after the strange horses, working in the temple kitchen, etc. The great cathedral-like entry was brightly lit by Continual Light, with a spiral stair visible up high, opening to an observatory on the top of the pyramid. The wagon was then loaded with one of the temple's exports, a special unit of ant-ogres (as a ogre, with better armor class from exoskeleton, and mandibles on head as natural weapons), and the wagon left, magical stone sphere rolling before it, opening and closing the way. The dark king of the Purple Moon elves would be well pleased, and his generous patronage of Jaramon's square mile of strange projects would continue. Enemies of the Purple Order would tremble.

Once the wagon had left, the depth of betrayal of his former minoin began to be felt as the party attacked the 12 elf "harrier" guards. Thinking the party were all elves (due to thier hats of disguise), the Harriers (also armed with swords, bows and wands of Charm Person) did not attempt to use the wands to charm the party, as elves are immune to such charms. The indentured servants, who had been armed by the party, also fought the elves, led by Taito, Zen, Flegal, Dante, Joseph, Revan, Geena, Mick, Telpin, and the recently converted elf sorceress. Henderson would have enjoyed the battle too, but he was back at the cave, on guard duty. Casualties were pretty low, just a couple of the indentured servants, due to the timing, planning and execution of the plan.

But this is just the main level, the point of entry. Wagons have been arriving on a regular basis for many weeks. There are several levels below, each with new encounters and surprises. Things are just getting going. The players and their characters HATE Jaramon, and would like to kill him more than anything, preferably as soon as possible. But he has a lot of tricks up his sleeve. Even though the party advanced further than I expected them to today, there was a lot of stuff I didn't use, and can throw at them later if I want to. I was happy with this adventure. There are plenty more levels, rooms, minions, and strange monsters for the party to face in the future.

I awarded 3,000 experience points, which might be a bit high, considering how easy all the encounters ended up being. But I have to give the guys credit for avoiding the tough encounters in the valley, especially those lobster-men. Note that a couple of 100 xp bonuses were awarded today: 100 each to Revan and Joseph for converting characters to their religions, 100 to Taito for Carson's wonderful cartoons. Treasure is being withheld until the end of next session.

I am considering writing up the sorceress as an NPC, because Roddy has conversion rules in the Exhaulted Deeds book, changing her from NE to N, and soon to NG. She could be a good fit for the party, though at this moment I can't remember what name I wrote down for her. She made her first Will save vs. insanity that I use in "alignment drift" situations.

Next month I am moving the session to Sunday, Feb. 13, 12-6, because I have a cello gig on Saturday, Feb. 12. Carson and Phil should be here for this week's Wed. group, though I need to give Carson a ride. Additional Wednesday players may be here in the future. We will also play Sat. Feb. 26, so that month is full of sessions. I'm also thinking about Magic, as well as Mordheim, either here or at the local hobby shop sometime soon.

A refreshing change of pace

Wednesday (yesterday) I picked Carson up and brought him over for gaming group. With Phil on vacation, instead of playing D&D we played Magic and Mordheim. I always have fun gaming (even a bad day gaming beats a good day at most other things), but after a few months without Magic or Mordheim, it was a refreshing change of pace. First, we played best two out of three at Magic, and stuck with the decks we each brought out first. His deck was classic, called "Tapdancer," with Instill Energy and related effects that allowed Llanowar Elves to provide extra mana, lands to untap and retap for extra mana, and big fatties to get bigger and fatter. One turn, he put three Rancors on a big fattie and took a swing. My standard deck, which I named "Not Again," takes advantage of the return of Terror and Fireball to the standard environment, along with Raise Dead, Gravedigger, Necrataal, Shock Troopers and similar creature destruction/damage effects of my creatures coming into play or leaving play. Theoretically, it's a good Sligh-type deck with a ridiculous amount of creature destruction, much of it recursive. But if it stalls for too long before getting to four mana (as it did in game three vs. Tapdancer), it has some real problems, because without Gravedigger and some of the other four-cost creatures and spells, it just doesn't go off very well. Also, I really miss Animate Dead and Dark Ritual , because when they were Standard legal I could bring out big enforcers quickly and dominate the board (unless the other guy had Disenchant handy). Game 1, Tapdancer looked like it was going to lose. I had such a big lead, I thought it was in the bag and then his deck went off and I lost. Game 2, I drew up 6 after having 1 mana in my first hand. I had 5 mana in my second hand, and kept it anyway. Then towards the end I drew a second Fireball, and it was all over; what seemed like a mana flush problem was no problem at all. Game 3 was close and a bit long, but I just couldn't draw that 3rd mana and got stuck with 5 or 6 cards in my hand that I couldn't play. Carson mana shorted too, but he was able to get 5 mana out of 2 lands pretty easily, and brought out his fatty. I chump blocked and stalled as long as I could, but that 4th land still just wouldn't come up, and in the end, it would have been to late anyway. So I lost in three. But it was fun. Carson's deck was really cool, and when I saw how many cards he had that worked into his combo/theme, I felt like "Not Again" was not up to my old level of deck design. But then my deck is Standard, which limits it a bit. Maybe I'll try a Classic version for friendly play. Or not. I don't know but it might be fun to build and modify some more decks.

So we still had time for a quick game of Mordheim. Carson had worked up a new group of Witch Hunters. There were three heavily armored, mounted heroes with 5 war dogs (the Witch Hunter version, with 4 Strength) for a total rating of 89. His models looked great. I used my Lizardman warband (I had built it a months ago from Town Crier rules). I dug through my big Lizardman Warhammer army and picked out the 8 figures that best matched my roster sheet, which included 5 heroes (4 Skinks and a Saurus, with the Skink leader being a Shaman) and 3 henchmen (a Skink, a Saurus and a Kroxigor the warband recently purchased) for a total rating of 129. Carson rolled for the scenario, and it came up Wyrdstone Hunt (or was it Treasure Hunt?) with 4 shards up for grabs. We set up the terrain fairly heavy, put the wyrdstone markers out, placed our minis, and Carson started play. He kept his band together, went for the closest stone (horses have good movement) and cursed about having to dismount to explore/pick up wyrdstone. On my turn, I scattered my guys a bit, sending about half of them to the base of a long building right in front of me with a shard on the second level, and about half the guys off to my right toward the other two shards. Skinks and Kroxigors have a 6" movement, while humans (unmounted, not a factor in this game) and my Saurus move 4" when not running. My Skink henchman was kind of exposed, but oh well. On Carson's turn, he shot a crossbow and missed, picked up his first wyrdstone shard, and sent one of his armored horsemen after my vulnerable, lone Skink henchman, but he came up about 1" short. On my next turn, 3 of my Skinks scrambled up to claim the second shard, my Skink Henchman scrambled away and up a ladder to escape the horseman, and my two Saurus warriors who had joined up next to my Kroxigor toward the middle of the board could see that they were too far away to reach his horseman. But the Kroxigor, with his 6" movement, charged and took him out of action. The next turn, 2 or 3 of the Witch Hunter wardogs charged the Kroxigor (I forgot about his Fear effect, so they ended up not needing to take their required Leadership checks) inflicting 1 wound on the big guy before being taken yelping out of action (Krox has 3 wounds, 3 attacks and a 7 strength (-4 to armor saves!), but he attacks last and only has a 3 weapon skill). Soon after, my pair of Saurus warriors found themselves taking out 1 or 2 of the remaining war dogs (a lightning bolt from my Skink Shaman had taken one war dog out earlier). After making their Leadership check to avoid routing after losing 4 of thier original 8 warband members, the Witch Hunters voluntarily routed after seeing my Shaman was about to loose another lightning bolt (Automatic Strength 5 hit, Strength 6 vs. armored foes). So my rating went up by about 14 points, I rolled The Lad's Got Talent for that lone skink henchman and I now have 6 heroes. The warband is sitting on about 5 shards of wyrdstone and something like 70 gold crowns, and has a rating of 143, I think. When I get a chance, I should really spend some time with the minis to get their equipment looking as WYSIWYG as it should (What You See Is What You Get) by gluing swords, shields and bows to those little guys. Anyway, even though this was a very one-sided victory for the Lizard Men, I know that on the whole they are as balanced as any warband, with a bunch of guys with 2 Toughness. I have seen them get their butts kicked a bunch of times. One thing for sure, that Kroxigor was expensive, a big sacrifice to save up over many games for a guy who counts as an animal and never gains experience. Another sure thing: he was worth it!

Jaramon, Transmuter and Escapist...

Robby, Roddy, Carson, Shane, Penny and Lance all played today in the monthly Saturday Aarde (+500) campaign. We picked up the session where things left off last month, in Moporia. Everybody did some individual stuff in the city, including reports by the Joseph and Revan to their respective churches. Revan, determined to rid the world of the threat of Jaramon, learned from sailors and traders in town that Jaramon could be on the Isle of Ancients, perhaps in Moonmist (one of the first and most highly populated Purple Order settlements). The theory went that Jaramon, like the party, would go to where he could lick his wounds and re-arm himself after battle, and that Moonmist would be the most likely place, since more high elves from the moon Sonaeed were there than anywhere (or so it was thought by a couple of sources). More importantly, a high elf ship by the name of Moonmist was in port. Though the odds were against success, Telpin arranged for a gnome illusionist friend to create and sell the party a hat of disguise each, and the party bought passage to Moonmist on the elven vessel. Telpin (gnome bard) and Henderson (lizardman fighter/rogue) are the only nonhumans in the party. Only Flegal and Telpin speak elven, but everyone wore the hats disguised as elves for the voyage at 10 gp per head one way.
Unfortunately, waiting for them at Moonmist on the Isle of Ancients was an elven horse-mace captain with a monocle of True Seeing who could see through the disguise of illusion and had his unit attack the party the minute they set foot on the beautifully ornate docks. The party fought their way through the encounter, and the captain was forced to retreat with only a couple of surviving soldiers from his unit. Along the seabank were great tree castles built into ancient knarled sea birches. Fearing the monocled horse-mace captain would return soon with greater numbers, the party hid in a sea-cave nearby and reset their hats to a new set of purple order high elves. Upon investigation within the cave, a sculpted archway was found exuding lilac perfume along with sewage from Moonmist. With nowhere else to go, the party followed the sewer deeper, to about the center of the elven (formerly dwarven) town. They waited quietly until nightfall.
Listening at the ornate eight-sided manhole cover, the party determined they were near an inn or tavern of some sort, as a couple were heard nearby talking. Everyone emerged unnoticed and went into the great ballroom of the dance hall smelling of lilacs. Dante Blackmorg (Lance played him) tried to dance with one of the elven maidens, and ended up embarassing himself, but the party was still not exposed. Nearly 100 elves were there at the peak hour of business, and the party kept mostly to themselves at their table, sending their only elf-speaking members to gather information. Telpin and Flegal learned indirectly from a group of wizards playing darts that Jaramon was expected to be dropping by to play later on. Eventually, an opportunity presented itself for the party to confront Jaramon for his earlier crimes, when he departed to the privy to relieve himself. Attacking him on his own, under cover of Joseph's Silence spell, Jaramon would not have had a chance, except for his ring of teleportatation, which he was able to activate without a sound and escape with a few hit points left.
Knowing Jaramon has many wizarding friends, the party unscrewed the privy, moved it aside, slipped back into the sewers and replaced it where it was on their way down. Within a couple of hours, Jaramon and three companions were in the sewers, launching 10d6 fireballs at the party from a distance. The party charged their enemy, running hard and launching spells and arrows to the best of their ability. Telpin went to -9 hp (cauterized by the flames, though, he remained stable). Dante was slain. Pressing the attack, the rest of the group forced Jaramon to teleport away again and abandon his entourage. The party defeated a small dragon-like creation of his, and captured his enchanting sorceress and war-sorcerer. I awarded the party 3,500 xp. We will resume next month, in the sewers below Moonmist. Later, I leveled up Henderson, Mick the Gangly and Telpin. For each of them, reaching 5th level was a pretty uneventful plateau.
Until next time, keep gaming... but don't obsess. Remember there's a real world out there too.

Blogs, links and more blogs

I have been reading some other blogs, and want to improve this one by adding links to other blogs, and possibly creating a new one also.

The (D&D) "Matrix" episode 11/13/04

Well, today was a great game. Phil, Carson and Robby, Roddy and Shane made it. P. had a bazaar so I had B. too (she's 3, but she behaved herself). It was about 4 already when I learned Robby and Carson would have to go at 4:45, so that was a bummer, since I wanted to wrap the "Matrix" plotline into the game today. First, the party was running a routine errand, picking up yeast from the Cliff Village lizardmen for a nice dwarf town baker lady. They met a lizardman who was the sole survivor of a patrol ambush, where the rest of his group was captured. Then, the party was attacked by 10 flying 4-armed "Violet Vultures," formerly lizard men, armed with +3 longswords (3 each), +3 shields, and +3 breastplate armor. It was a very tough encounter that k/0'd or killed all 4 npcs and all the pcs except for the paladin and the ranger. But the reward was very great. On their way to get the Taito (Carson's Monk), resurrected at Moporia, the day watch (they were in the black desert, travelling by night) spotted another group of Violet Vultures that turned back on seeing the party. Later, when just two party members were on watch, there was a white flash, blacking out the party members. When they came to, their captive bad guy was gone, but they resumed the trip (or so they thought). As it turned out, a lizard went behind a rock, then an identical lizard went behind the same rock... (yeah, I know, a dead giveaway from The Matrix). Eventually, Revan was able to make some amazing saving throws and woke up in a glass "coffin" crysallis, in a room with the ten of them arranged in a circle of crysalli. He broke out, attacked the elf mage (of the purple order) attendant, and eventually everybody was able to escape (there were thousands). But Jaramon popped away again at the first sign of trouble... Finally, everybody was able to recover their equipment, and Taito's body was found. A presentation is being made to St. Cuthbert's church in Moporia regarding the incident. I awarded 3750 XP, and once items were sold, each character racked in about 275,000 GP in treasure (Yeah, higher than usual, much higher...) But they earned it, they probably saved the world this day.

The (D&D) "Matrix" episode 11/13/04