More Mayhem

We moved the usual Sunday session to Saturday (Sept. 23rd) this time. Our next session is at noon on Sunday October 8th.
The entire session was spent on D&D, using the same terrain setup as previously, in another large-scale battle against the forces of evil. Characters present included: Revan of Khadghar; Joseph Prax-High Inquisitor of Cuthbert; Taito-Drunken Master of the "How Dry I Am" Palm; Neptorium-Mage of the Eagle's Claw; Balthizar "Wendy" of the Great Gust; Capt. Fergus Dowrimple; Mick the Gangly; Telpin, Bard of the Stolen Wands; Nightsong Sharpfang, Songrider of the Giant Hamster; Aiko, Shirikin-Thrower of the Red Way; Geena of the Dwarven Arrow; and anybody I forgot. A few members of the Moporian Militia tried unsuccessfully to hold off the invaders as the party arrived.
Among the villians were: lots of Jaramonian (highly transmuted) lizardmen, shahaugin and merfolk; drow eldrich-knights, high-priestesses and arch-shaman; mind-flayers, kraken-folk, two huge blue dragons, a rat-ogre, two giants, at least one high-level wizard of unknown race from the depths of the ocean or perhaps another plane of existance; and a myriad of others.
All were defeated by the party in the 6-hour session. Thank you to Rob for running part of the session. Also, please accept my apologies for the lack of roleplaying lately, and for not fitting a Star Wars game into the session.
The party is now 12th to 16th level. Some of the characters (of players who have not missed sessions, especially Revan and Joseph) are getting very powerful from both experience and magic items. As it should be. Fergus is looking and acting more like the higher-level version I generated of him; and is appraising, buying, selling and creating magic items in a very serious way.
Experience: 5,000 XP. Treasure: 15,000 GP
--Dave

Seaside skirmish at Moporia

In my campaign world of Aarde, Moporia was once the only city occupied by humans. Though that is no longer the case, it is still a great and old city. In today's session, the Elves of the Purple Order invaded Moporia from the sea. Among their troops were a variety of transmuted reptilian humanoids that amounted to mongrelmen made from lizardmen. Drow spellcasters, mindflayers, dryders and creatures never before identified rose from the waves in the large-scale attack. The party repelled the attack, at least in the district they were responsible for.
I ran today's adventure as a set-piece miniatures battle (but with standard D&D 3.5 rules). With Revan and Joseph Prax leading the now-powerful 12th-15th level party, I can throw a heck of a lot at this group, without worrying too much. Besides Rod and Rob, Phil and Jon made it today, Bel played Lola quite a bit, and Aaron joined us by conference call to play his wizard. Captain Fergus Dowrimple, my NPC wizard, is now very interested in the business of the magic trade. Marshall even showed up toward the end of the session, and I handed him Mick the Gangly to play. Does Marshall roll "1" every time? Wow, some casino should hire him to be a "cooler." Anyway, the party really romped all over these bad guys, sometimes with a single character dealing over 300 hp in damage in one round. It's really amazing what players familiar with the finer points of the rules are capable of. It was a fun session, with the powerful surprise actually being not the enemy, but the surprising power of this group. 6,000 XP, 6,000 gp.

Titan Staves & A Double-Double Cross

WELCOME AARON
9/4/06
For today’s D&D and Star Wars sessions, it was me (Dave) running, plus Rod, Rob, Carson, Bella, Penny (for a bit) and Aaron E. (who came 3 hours up from Oregon just to play). I feel very flattered about this, thank you Aaron!

In D&D, Taito finally battled the drow and won the Key prize, an amulet that stores 21 levels of arcane or divine spells, and contains one true resurrection. But the main adventure dealt with the fact that transmuted “mongrel men” variants, many including golem parts, have become so common, the party felt certain Jaramon himself, founder of the Cult of Transformation, must have been brought back to life. As it now appears, this may--or may not--have been the case. The party rode Cap’n Fergus’ spelljammer to the pyramid site on the Isle of Ancients and fought a huge battle there, decimating a large number of a huge variety of mongrel men warriors, many of which were giant-sized. To cap it off, the pyramid itself was subjected to Rock to Mud, and Efreet variants were summoned (At Joseph Prax’s suggestion) to search the site for treasure (a type that could move through the mud and detect magic easily).
As it turned out, the pyramid itself was causing transmutations in the surrounding area, one of which caused Black Eyed Bill to take on the nose and other aspects of a snapping turtle. Four metal 20’ ancient epic titan-made custom staves of transmutation (probably actually worth about 850,000 gp each) turned out to be embedded in the pyramid itself. At Revan’s suggestion, the party ended up selling all four to the god Khadgar for 425,000 gp total, for safekeeping (and due to a lack of other well-heeled buyers). Aaron’s character is a wizard, Nephrim or something like that. The party is currently 13th-15th level, mostly. XP:5,000.

Star Wars was interesting. On Alzakak, an Imperial-controlled world, the party was sent to assist Blastsmoke, another of Dabbo the Hutt’s agents. Destro went under cover, using his forged identity as Imperial Captain Jarvis, to train cadets at Damachatron City. Garik Gracus, also with Imperial credentials, went looking for Blastsmoke at the encrypted distress signal coordinates, along with Jaina Brioli. Pieda Bowmon II (played by Aaron today) and Jackpot searched the officer’s mess hall/lounge. Garik found him, and on Blastsmoke’s urging, the party joined him and his assistants Duville and Horacio, in order to be certain to secure hard credits and data files from an administration building. As it turned out, Blastsmoke had already been caught, and had cut a deal with local authorities to lure additional Hutt agents here and trap them. An Imperial sleep gas grenade proved ineffective on the party, however, as did the 25 or so storm troopers arrayed to capture or kill the party, who wiped nearly all of them out. With 3 storm troopers remaining, Destro arrived to instruct one of his classes of 25 on procedure, and instructed them to stun everyone in the room. Destro, suddenly the ranking officer in the room, examined the warrant data pad and declared it faulty in procedure, since with special agents involved this would situation would require an inter-agency investigation (and other such matters). He then invited his class to join him on a field trip to follow the matter through. Once all 25 were on the ship, they were easily disarmed and sold into slavery to the Hutts for 1,000 credits each. The party was also able to sell holovids of Imperial training procedures to the Hutts for a hefty 20,000 credits. As Akbar’s Trap departed, Jaina’s typical parting gift went off, leaving several blocks in ruins. Current party level: 5-8th. XP:2,000

Mordheim and Star Wars sessions

Yesterday, in our Mordheim session, my Osterlanders (rating 165) chalked up a couple of wins. First, vs. Rod's fledgeling new Skaven warband (rating 60) in a straight Skirmish scenerio, not a single Osterlander was taken out of action, and three of the rat people were on the sidelines when they routed. Tactically, I bunched all my guys up into a building right before being charged, and then executed a counter-charge. You never know how it's going to go. It could easily have gone badly for my human mercenaries, but the dice went my way. Even though the Skaven were smaller in numbers and experience, having five heroes to start with is enviable at exploration time, and underdog bonuses will have their rating higher in short order. Also, those warplock pistols have a strength 5, so they really pack a punch, and Rod's a really good player, so I'm sure the Skaven will be beating the crap out of everybody else before long.

The second scenerio, Treasure Hunt, was a three-way battle between my Osterlanders, Rod's Skaven and Rob's mighty Cult of the Posessed (rating 227). In Treasure Hunt, your guys are looking for a valuable chest, which shows up in the first building somebody explores where 12 shows up on 2d6, or the last building on the table if this does not occur. Then as a victory condition, you have to drag the chest off your table edge. We had about 16 buildings on the table, and when there were 3 left, I lucked out and two Osterlanders who had split off near Rob's table edge found the chest. I was very concerned, because they were pretty far from help, and outnumbered. Since we were both underdogs and Skaven have such great movement, I allied with Rod. From my perspective, it looked like the Osterlanders had just handed victory to the Posessed's horrifying cadre of Beastmen, tentacled mutants and other unspeakably frightening monsters. My henchmen group of two, each armed with two-handed swords, was immediately cut in half by three beastmen. The remaining guy, reduced to half movement by the heavy chest, was luckily not stuck in, so he moved just out of the way. Help began to arrive; the rest of the Ostlanders weren't quite as far away as I feared. My alliance with Rod's Skaven allowed them free movement closer to the big fight near the chest. The bulk of the Posessed were starting to arrive. Swampy, one of my heroes, held off being taken out of action by making an amazing three Step Aside skill rolls (a 5 or 6 on a d6 allows an unmodifyable extra armor save). I was able to get a more guys over to help with the chest, as my ogre and a couple other guys executed a fighting retreat. My captain was taken out of action by a terrifying tentacled thing. The Skaven ended their alliance and blasted all my guys around the chest with a powerful area-of effect fireball-like spell. Swampy succeeded in stepping into the role of captain and made the route check for the Osterlanders. Later that turn he himself was taken out of action. But through sheer luck and guts (yeah I know, a lot of luck), the Osterlanders, with two guys carrying the chest (and a lot of guys knocked down or stunned) dragged the chest off my table edge and achieved victory. With the spoils, the warband was able to buy three shiny new double pistols for its jaeger henchmen group.

Star Wars was crazy. Jon had arrived while we finished the second Mordheim scenario and built a Jedi Guardian character, the Trandoshan Drael Gracks. Through a long series of wheeling and dealing, the party has been smuggling Hutt weapons to rebel groups on several worlds, earning tidy profits in barter, which then had to be sold in order to cash in on the credits. Using forged Imperial agent and vendor identification and hacked computer codes, the party has been able to avoid problems for the most part. Accustomed to war zones, Akbar's Trap flew to Fivepoint, which is a highly populated Hutt/Rebel world under Imperial invasion. The group found themselves fighting to protect one of their customers, Governess Thora (at least until her credit could clear) from Imperial forces supplemented by the giant building demolition creatures genengineered on the Imperial research island of Dr. Balfir, as well as the Emperor's darkside droids, tanks, and stormtroopers. In the chaos of war and destruction could be seen gargantuan atomic monsters resembling a rancor, diablo, a giant spider, and a great slimy, shadowy creature that seemed to dissolve any building it touched. Destro S'Xauron disarmed two of the powerful darkside droids, causing them to go insane yet harmless. Jaina Brioli used her demolition skills to blow up some of the bigger threats, including the giant diablo, who easily picked up the power station building and crushed it. Meanwhile, Pieda Bowman II was directing a neighborhood militia while talking on the comlink to Garik Gracus in the ship, directing air strikes. The ship, maneuverable, yet heavily armored and armed to the teeth, contributed heavily to the battle, dropping powerful missiles and firing powerful energy weapons with deadly accuracy. Drael Gracks found himself dueling a darkside droid version of Darth Vader, then jumping on top of a rancor-like creature just before it would have crushed both duelists with one stomping foot. The Vader droid was crushed. Drael then started hacking away at the head and neck of the beast with his lightsaber, felling it just before it could destroy Governess Thora's transit center headquarters, and just as Destro grabbed Thora and tumbled her away to safety, and just as Jaina ran to a safe distance and detonated her charge on the giant diablo's feet. Meanwhile, allied forces had ignited the slimy shadow creature, and it burned away into harmlessness. Jaina salvaged the ruins of the Imperial tank, and the party clambored aboard Akbar's Trap and flew away.

I awarded 3,000 experience points for this adventure, even though we only actually played Star Wars for two hours. Technically the party earned no credits but everyone's reputation will go up by one.

Short Session--Star Wars & Mordheim

After a gig playing cello at the Mason County Fair, I ran Rob, Rod & Bel through a short Star Wars RPG session. We didn't use minis this time; there was a lot of roleplaying involving trade. After about 12 hyperspace jumps, the party's ship fund now stands at about a million credits after brokering a sale of Hutt weapons to one of the few remaining rebel-controlled worlds. Dabbo the Hutt even threw in a few extras, forseeing more long-run profit in weapons if the rebels are not wiped out. Just so long as nothing can be traced back to him, of course. I awarded 2,000 xp per character present.

We had hoped we might see Jon for D&D or Mordheim, but he volunteered late at the fair, and Carson didn't make it. So I played my human Ostlanders against Rob's Orcs, while Rod worked up a Skaven warband (you should have spoken up Rob, we could have easily included Skaven in the Defend the Find scenerio...sorry). I lost, but you wouldn't think so by the underdog bonuses and 6 shards of wyrdstone my scrappy warband raked in! Unfortunately, Sister Jess Ulricson will be out 3 games and Bubba Ulricson will be out for the next game.

I picked up some Magic: The Gathering cards recently and they look pretty good. Dissension has some pretty cool green cards, and Coldsnap has snow covered lands and picks up where the old Ice Age set left off; it's really cool. For example, the Rimescale Dragon is a 5/5 flyer for 5RR that taps target creatures for 2S (where "S" is any snow-covered land), and this ability does not require the dragon to tap. So... I'm considering asking around about a booster draft game soon.

DD 71606

D&D 7/16/06
Amalgaville Redeux: Dryders from drop-ships, who had landed under the city 6-9 months previously had grown in strength. Capable of powerful transmutation and trickery and large numbers in brute force, this situation required the party’s attention be taken away from the battle at Ponoblish Bimpitigora. Amalgaville, the once-abandoned city of self-aware non-evil golems built by Tenneous’ arch-rival Signatious ages ago, was being cherry-picked by the drow for items and weapons of value and power. Entire buildings were being sunk underground for piecemeal harvesting of golem components, which were in turn incorporated into a new breed of Arachanoid Mongrel Golems. Messenger 31, Amalgaville’s ages old golem Herald, assured the party the golems of the city would be grateful for any assistance. The Arachanoid/Golem Mongrels proved to be challenging in the skirmish that followed, but the party was victorious. XP:2,000. GP:2,000 (per each)

Star Wars 7/16/06
Tivilion was the port of call today. The group also visited Waltlion, Dayerlion and the Zarlion Plateau. Just before arriving, Garik, Pieda, Destro, Jaina, Archu, Mike Skayuyabutavich and Jarn Thro had defeated three pirate ships, destroying one and capturing two (one to keep, one for parts). While “dirtside” the group battled the elements, including a tide-sensitive geyser, giant midnight blue flying manta-ray bats, and saurian lions. XP as the D&D session as I recall…


Lost Entries from 6/24/06
Dave:
D&D Summary: Revan investigated a drow infiltration of the church of Khadgar. Taito dualed an ogre and a hobgoblin in a once per 20 year all race/all stakes martial arts tournament, winning each easily but the defending champion & key-holder drow was a no-show. Joseph Prax interrogated drow for tactical information (see previous & following entries). Gemberlain Miragonian used his flying bicycle to battle the drow in the clouds over Ponoblish Bimpitigora.
Star Wars Summary: the group fought “Emperor Droids” on a tip from Tilliduaynus, and blew up a building that was actually a droid firing at the party’s ship. We used miniatures in a Necromunda-style skirmish climaxing in a dual between the plant-based Tilliduaynus and a droid version of Darth Vader, controlled by the ghost of Palpatine. The group, however, did not see this amazing duel.

Player D&D log entries (also from 6/24/06):
Rod:

• Called to church of Khadgar cause infiltration suspected.


• Met up with a cool high priest guy who was really trustworthy.


• Went investigating—found named elf high priest swimming, talked to her, suspected something, both of us cast dispel, turned out to be dark elf.


• Her f*** buddies came to support her, she said Revan was trying to force himself on her and that he had turned her into a dark elf.


• We interrogated her, offered her a chance if she would help us but she just lied.


• Found 2 more drow agents, got info from 1 and got her to repent.


• Others thrown into a burning pit with a giant gold statue of Khadgar in the center.

Jon:
Gemberlion was on the base ship when an enemy ship had come upon port aft and began to let arrows fly and attempt to hit our ship. He activated his bicycle of flying, flew to the enemy vessel and began melee combat with his Morningstar as well as breathing his cone of cold in an attempt to become victorious.

Bel:
Drawing of a pink smiley-faced girl.

Carson:
Taito was approached by a representative from the world championship arena to fight in the name of all humans, and win the Silver Key trophy from the current champion (who is a drow). I fought an ogre who kept me at bay with his long reach, I managed to tumble through his defenses and start a grapple to stay close and bring him down. After that I took on a hobgoblin who hid behind a large fence-like obstacle and made range attacks, but by using my magical pants to make myself larger and stronger, I overcame the barrier quickly and crushed the hobgoblin. Now I’m off to find the AWOL champion to bring her back for a fair fight.

Robby:
Joseph Prax Inquisitor of St. Cuthbert. He was summoned (not magical) to the local temple of Cuthbert to interrogate a dark elf prisoner. In the temples dungeon the interrogation began simply. But the first few questions he asked only met with defiant backtalk and sexual propositions. Not wanting to take lip from a captured evil dark elf witch-whore, he punched her right across the face. This did not make her more cooperative so he held her foot down and smashed it with an iron mace.
   The interrogation went smoothly after that, until she made one more sexual proposition. As she was speaking, Joseph grabbed some big pliers and snipped her index finger clear off. The interrogation proceeded smoothly. It seems a shifty gnome general and an increasing number of elves and gnomes are simply Dark Elves in Disguise. The witch will be burned by weeks end.

More roleplaying today

Jon, Phil, Rob, Rod and I made an effort to increase our roleplaying today, and I think it improved the session. Also, with the holiday Monday we were able to have a longer game session, including a more relaxed time to just reminisce about old characters, players and situations, movies and whatever. As usual of late, we opened with D&D, then played Star Wars.

Jon built a gnomish dragon shaman, 10th level (including silver dragon bloodline) out of the new PH2, and Phil generated yet another new character, a dwarven fighter we helped him with. Rod & Rob's characters, Revan and Joseph Prax have been regular characters in this campaign since at least 2004; each of them found themselves in the position to be able to build churches at Ponoblish Bimpitigora (for Khadgar and St.Cuthbert), where the gnomes and their allies continue to successfully repel the continuing nightly raids of the drow invaders. The party has earned great respect from the gnomes for their role in these battles, and for taking the fight to the drow and returning alive. The roleplaying situations included Phil's character drinking at a whiskey bar, and Revan assisting in bringing a thief to justice. Character introductions were a primary element of the session, which climaxed with another (exciting but predictable) battle against the drow. Jon had to leave early, but the session was done about then anyway. XP: 2,500. GP: 0 -- but some post-battle items of value to be resolved later.

For Star Wars, I used my "Generic City Outlines" chart from March, and the simple notes resulted in a good starting place for an outstanding session. After finishing up "legal" details from the previous session with the attorney Milas in regard to the Wallathilla events, Pieda Bowmon II piloted Akbar's Trap to the Imperial-controlled world of Janthidor. The group donned their best "Special Imperial Service Operations Agent" personas as stormtroopers, officers and technicians at the Imperial slave city of Pholon on the world of Janthidor. At Janthidor's orbital station "Minuseight," Destro used an amazing elicit barter skill check to sell remaining cargo (scrap metal and electronics parts) along with bogus information Jarn Thro had, to earn over 100,000 credits for the ship fund over the true value of 13,000 credits worth of scrap metal. How? By bundling it together and naming it as "Sliced Credstik Parts" to the corrupt Imperial officer. This line of thinking worked so well, the group used the idea again (now as sliced credstik investigators) to infiltrate the Empire all the way to their rebel contact, Cap'n Verona at the duty station in the slave mines of Pholon. Having (as NPCs) a computer technician (Jarn Thro) and a mechanical/electronics technician (Mike Skaruyabutavich) helped things along in terms of credibility, especially when deep searches revealed punishable inproprieties in the monetary records of local Imperials.

Jaina was able to scrounge some really useful local information (over dumpster berry-cake) from Urchin, a homeless young Janthidorian; a bright colored and observant semi-warm blooded reptilian native. Ultimately, the party met with Cap'n Verona and along with the explosives expertise of Alpha Vega were able to detonate a large Imperial slave mining guard station, freeing hundreds of starving and mistreated slaves. Additionally, Cap'n Verona got a promotion in his Imperial rank to Colonel (thereby increasing his ability to help the rebels) and the party got over 100 tons of precious ores. Later, the party might want to investigate Urchin's description of high-level Imperial meetings involving "people in red armor" on this world. XP: 2,500 Credits: over 100,000, plus 100 tons of precious metal ores cargo for the ship fund.

Rob's Star Wars at Rod's

Rann Daak flew the Crimson Vulture to Dantooine, and the party flew in the Ebon Hawk to answer a distress call from a jedi colony there. After a huge space battle with Sith warships and tie fighters (the old, old Republic versions of these ships), the group was able to touch down, only to learn that everyone dirtside had been slain by the Sith just a few hours before the party arrived.
Rann took out nearly a dozen tie fighters, but had to do emergency hull repairs on the Vulture to fix battle damage. Now, he is in the process of transforming his ship into a "privateer" Republic ship of war, adding shields and a lot more weapons. His intention is to fly as an armed escort for larger, more vulnerable cargo ships. Having a couple of wookie soldiers to fill out his crew turned out to be useful in terms of keeping stations manned, and hauling 100 tons of useful hulk warship salvage into the cargo bay.
I updated my character sheet to reflect the Solo bloodline, which helps Rann to be better at what he does by virtue of genetics: it turns out he is one of Han Solo's ancesters.

Star Wars at Rod's

After holding out for a couple of years, thinking a 3rd edition would soon arrive, I finally got my new revised Star Wars RPG book yesterday, as a 13th anniversary gift from my wife. Thank you Penny! I encourage anyone in a relationship who is reading this to take our advice: support each other in your hobbies.

I made a level 10 Soldier/5 Starship Ace, and played last night in Rob's Old Republic campaign at Rod's. Rob has built his campaign from thousands of years before Episode 1, using a lot of ideas from a video game set in that era.

Cap'n Rann Daak is a pretty specialized character who happens to fit into the Han Solo mold; since he's a human from Corellia, he could be a distant relative. An experienced Republic soldier who happens to be force-sensitive but has no formal training in it, Daak uses two customized blasters much in the manner of an Old West gunfighter, and pilots the Ebon Hawk, the group's infamous light freighter that is actually painted red and silver, not black as the name suggests. At the start of the adventure, there was something about a delivery mission that would have gone sour, then didn't, then did; and there was a big explosion that the characters would prefer not to be associated with but probably will be. I'm still catching up on the storyline, but there was plenty of action that included Carson's Jedi character, Demetrius's force illusion of a black globe to hide us after we chased an evil warlord from the scene in an airspeeder, only to discover we were outnumbered 50 to 1 hours later, and the bad guy got away. Then, another Jedi mind trick (I can't remember if it was Rod's Jedi, Viesha Marr, or Demetrius) set the bad guys fighting against each other, so all we had to do was wait while they took each other out. Later, Daak flew the party to Kashyyyk, where Lance's wookie Rrolffllbacca would use a legendary weapon to battle an evil overlord who had sold his people into slavery to Zerka Corp. On the way there, Daak was swallowed whole by a collosal snake, something like 165 meters long, and had to cut his way out with his pair of vibro-daggers. Rann later helped deal with bodyguards during Rrolffllbacca's final confrontation with Jandar, the sleazy wookie traitor, and of course Jandar was defeated and the wookies were liberated. At some point, Daak met Candoris, head of a militant branch of Mandalorians, on Duxon, the moon of Ondoran. Also during this adventure, Daak met his new commanding officer, Shawn's recently promoted admiral, Zap Brannagan (yes, just like the guy from Futurama).

Back at Yavin Station (which is owned/managed by Shane's tech specialist, Garth Pancake), Rann Dack owns the Crimson Vulture, an old YT-13 (the 1300 is not made yet) Rann is in the process of customizing; it is painted mostly black and gold, not red, as the name suggests...

Thank you guys, and good adventure Rob. I really enjoyed playing this new character, because even though he has 15 levels, Cap'n Daak is full of new possibilities for later on. I will be running my next game in a couple of Sundays.

Invasion of Phobos

Weary after night after night of defending the gnome city Ponoblish Bimpitigora, the party took the battle to the Elves of the Purple Order on the moon Phobos. Captain Fergus Dowrimple's spelljammer stealthily chased the dark elves in their pre-dawn retreat, a simple task since the party's ship looks identical to the enemy's. From within one of the giant landing bays, the crew watched the drow, driders, mind flayers and umber hulks repairing and re-loading a good portion of fhe fleet. When the time was ripe, the party began the counterattack.

The characters Lola, Alice, Martin, Nightsong, Aiko, Fergus, Mick the Gangly, Henderson and Telpin all fought well, each finding ample opportunities to work in their areas of specialty. Geena, the great dwarven archeress, sniped targets of opportunity, including a drow priestess/sorceresses/general. Revan found enough room to maneuver for several deadly lance charges using his pegasis, while remaining nearly untouchable with his armor and magical protections. Brother Joseph Prax, Brand of Cuthbert summoned a couple of powerful Angels to assist in the battle, while also carrying on the fight personally. Though one angel was sent back to his plane of origin by an evil priestess, the other continued to succeed for the entire fight, and the priestess was defeated. Taito, with a combination of drunken master skills and magic, grew to giant size and went on a rampage, taking out every enemy in sight with whirlwind attacks and improvised weapons. Black Eyed Bill, with a swagger in his step, chose his opponents with more precision, taking out specific threats in a swashbuckling way. Sincony Thipern (Phil's new half-elf rogue) snuck through the shadows to attack a couple of targets of opportunity.

Among the drow were a number of sorceresses, but they were understandably reluctant to use fireballs around their prized fleet of spelljammers. Fergus was not reluctant, and Telpin was okay with using lightning bolts. The drow also had a few Rust Spitters to set upon the party, but these were dealt with before they had a chance to interfere with the party's metal weapons and armor. And thought Eldrich Moon Knights continue to present a challenge in battle, they were caught off guard, having just expended all of their spells attacking Ponoblish Bimpitogora during the night.

As we have been doing lately, we played D&D for about two hours, then Star Wars for about 4 hours (see other entry). Experience: 2,500. Next session: Sunday, April 23, noon.

Pop quiz: what is the name of the party's spelljammer?

Coreward at Wallathilla

The "Akbar's Trap" arrived at the orbital starport of Wallathilla after making a number of unremarkable cake runs delivering goods and passengers. While taking care of the basics of selling off unremarkable cargo and refueling the ship, the group learned more about what was going on dirtside. Wallathilla is a coreward world with an above average law level and tech level and a moderate climate. It is nearly unliveable and hugely overpopulated, but well connected. It is 60% nonhuman, with an insectoid race dominating the census. While self-governed, Wallathilla does have a small Imperial presence, with a slightly larger Hutt and Rebel influence. The Empire, along with wealthy local business families, have stripped Wallathilla of every resource of value, while dumping industrial wastes at will. With nothing left of value and no strong Rebel threats nearby, the Empire removed its forces about 5 years ago, leaving only a "diplomatic" presence. Following this power vacuum, due to the great differences of opinion on culture and government, this world is currently in a civil war.

On the plus side, the group found a great new mechanic, Mike Skaruyabutivich, who is like a doctor with any Repair task, though the Balosar does not have a very good engine side manner. So far, the one-armed JP-12 "Jackpot" gambling/protocol droid has been upgraded with more games, and can now accept both credsticks and hard credits. The GT-8 Grav-Toaster, which can burn spy-grade floorplans on toast, can now do the same with "pop-tarts," including raised surfaces such as mountains or walls. Frank, the party's rabbit-eared medical droid, is still waiting for his upgrades. Archu King has developed her four arms into an intimidating martial arts or blaster force. The Codru-Ji is such an asset to the party, that to replace her would require at least three soldiers. Speaking of soldiers, Alpha Vega is one, and he has proven to be alert and stay in line with the orders of... whoever is paying him the most (pretty much the theme of this group).

Speaking of the group, captain Garik Gracus negotiated an excellent trade of whatever crap was in the cargo bay (I think it was booze) for better crap, at a nice profit. I'm a bit out of sequence here, but as a result of one adventure, the party now has about 75 tons of "junkyard" scrap, which actually contains a lot of valuable machine and electronics parts. Along with the talented but grumpy new tech specialist, this could really lead to some items of value. Also, 40 passengers at about 2,000 credits per head, with berths sold at auction at the city of Zendril as Imperial star destroyer turbolasers levelled nearby areas. In the captain's stash are many casks of Zendril rum, also. About 50 additional tons in the cargo bay are occupied by highly valuable luxury goods (see the following for a short account of what lead to that.

Jaina Brioli did what she always does, and that is make a whole lot of trouble, and somehow skate away. She and the Falleen, Destro S'Xauron, with some help from the computer expert Jarn Thro, managed to thieve and ninja their way onto the Palpatine's Boot, an Imperial shuttle. Wearing vac-suits, and after a lot of amazing sneaking, they managed to catch the shuttle's occupants on their lunch break, and opened the airlock, spacing them. They then flew the shuttle to the surface, just as the Imperial garrison they had previously arranged for arrived and began blasting away at "rebel" targets. The rebels, had paid Destro for information on Imperial military operations, and the Empire had also paid Destro for information on the planned Rebel ambush. Additionally, Milus Doritterny, the lawyer for the Rapshadi family (the family that sold off Wallathilla's resources and brought in insectoid workers and industrial waste) bought passage for himself and his clients and their prized belongings on the Palpatine's Boot. After an ugly incident, the end result is that the 50 tons of belongings and Milus are now under the party's control, along with a lot of credits. Call it Hutt justice, if you will.

The pilot/doctor and Jedi counselor Pieda Bowman II, while disturbed by many of the group's methods, held his tongue for many of them. In the end, it all worked out because the greater good was served, and wrongs were righted in their own way. And for once, he didn't really have to patch anybody together.

D&D & Star Wars

We ran two hours of D&D, continuing the battle at Ponoblish Bimpitigora. The naval based ogre army has taken some ground on the gnomish island, but the drow are have been driven into retreat on each of their large-scale attacks, thanks in large part to the party. Phil and Patrick joined our regular group today. Experience: 1,500

The Star Wars session which followed for the next four hours or so focused mainly on the group's ship, Akbar's Trap, which in many ways has similar qualities to a B-25 of the WWII era. Since the refit by the Hutts, the ship has five twin laser cannon bubble-turret stations, a missile launcher, an Ion cannon, and twin gravity bomb iris bays. Everything was needed against the Empire's ground-launched proximity energy cannons and manta-wing atmospheric fighters, three of which were downed by the party's refitted Mon Calimari light freighter on its way to a successful delivery of supplies to freedom fighters on the agricultural world. Later, Pieda Bowman was able to meet the treefolk jedi Tillidwainus, who was trained by Yoda and survived the Sith purge, only to witness the extermination of his homeworld by the Emperor. Experience: 2,250

Next session: Saturday, March 3.

Ghost In The Machine

I ran Star Wars instead of D&D today, with Rod, Rob and Carson. Although I don't quite feel caught up with the current rule books, I normally don't have a problem putting together a Star Wars story. The main thing the group accomplished was to gather some juicy information. So it's Episode 6.2 and the Emperor's body is dead, but his spirit has possessed the computer/data world of Byte II. He still has direct contact with his moffs and admirals, and can take over any computer system anywhere. Through pure force of will, Palpatine's computer ghost made an example of a disobedient Star Destroyer by shutting everything off, killing most of the crew just to make his point and continue his domination over the Imperial fleet. For being dead, he's more powerful than at the start of episode 6, except that he is once again looking for an apprentice. Though it's still a work in progress, it has become obvious no clone body can contain his giant psyche. He also has a god complex, and his fleet has started chipping away at Hutt space. The party are now posing as agents for the Empire, electronically at least.

Dobbo the Hutt beefed up the party's ship with extra laser turrets, shields, electrified plating (vs. zero-g troopers) and fuel scoops (useful when you come out of hyperspace near a gas giant). The group picked up a powerful computer wizard at Byte II when they saved him from a compulsory mindwipe. Also, they ran cargo and passengers, did some asteroid mining, and rescued 50 people (by auction) from a world at the fringe of Hutt space from the Empire. Mostly, the characters are using skills instead of guns to accomplish their goals right now, but it's unlikely to stay that way. The Emperor popped up on the viewscreen after the ship was infected with an Imperial virus, and demanded that Pieda locate an appropriate apprentice and bring him back to Byte II, or come himself. Though initially stunned into likely compliance, the party was able to locate the virus and purge/reboot the ship's computer systems with backups, and pretend to disregard the demands.

Upcoming game sessions will be two Sundays from now, then the first Saturday in March, and then the first Saturday in April. I might update this entry again later.

Recent & Upcoming Game Sessions

New Year's Eve was on a Saturday, and I had a cello gig, but we still played D&D, and had a long session starting about 9:30. The party discovered that the Drow plan to attack Ponoblish Bimpitigora, the gnome island-city. As such, they were able to get there early and give warning, saving thousands of lives and fighting the toughest aerial parts of the battle, which involved a lot of wizards, illusionists, dragons (real and illusionary), drow spelljammers, dryders, the ogre navy/army, the gnome fishing fleet, gnomish balloonists & steamwork "cannoneers," angels, vampires, and a bewildering array of special units, summoned monsters and great heroics. Needless to say, this game session ended sometime Sunday morning when we started to drop as the sun came up.

In each of the following D&D sessions, this battle has continued. Although the action and variety is exciting, I think I'm ready to move on; I seem to have an internal gaming cycle that vacillates from fantasy to science fiction to keep me from getting into a creative rut.

So a couple Saturdays ago, Robby ran most of the session. We used the DMG to spontaneously come up with stats for a typical adventuring party for a one-shot adventure. I got to name all the characters, and have unfortunately forgotten most of the names, except that my ninth-level elven mage was known by Fromage (cheesy, huh). Oh, and Carson's halfling rogue was from Slippery Cliffs, which turns out to be a small village in Roddy's campaign world. Shane played a vengeful dwarven paladin based loosely on Dolph Lovgren, and Roddy played a crazy cleric with a rod of wonder, somebody..."the good." Our quest was to take a horrible gray ring/roll back to its cursed creator, the silver-faced wizard, and somehow destroy it. Though we succeeded in our quest, each of the characters was captured or slain in the process. But some guy has a gummed-up mess in his clockwork tower, a smear that was one the uccursed gray roll. And the cement and utilities in his basement became a hot muddy gooey mess from rock to mud spells; his staff are mostly dead or in the hospital from lightning bolts, magic missiles and physical attacks, and the constables who arrived in clashing-light topped horseless chariots are scratching their heads, asking questions. And laughing.

Yesterday, I continued my Ponoblish Bimpitigora battle until we had a break; I really do plan to come back to it later on. We filled out the rest of an extended session with a new group of Star Wars characters. It's an unlikely group who met by chance on the starliner Goldenjoy, which was interdicted by the Empire (circa episode 6.1) and the captain ordered everyone to abandon ship. Their small four-person escape pod touched down in a dense jungle. After surviving hostile plantlife on Talisman, the group (a soldier, a force-sensitive scoundrel, a fringer, and another scoundrel; three women and one man of various races) was able to escape the bureocratic trap of the mine/strip mall town of Tevvik and eventually work their way off the interdicted world. They were rescued in part by the temporary good fortune of the opportunist Dabbo the Hutt, who recently orchestrated a hostile takeover of Bowman Shipping, and needed a representative to captain a light freighter in the system, and Carson's Noble character was somehow located and called upon for the task. The ship is of Mon Calamari design, equipped with a licenced "mining laser," accomodations for up to 50 (including a crew of 5-8) and a cargo capacity of 50 tons, and capable of underwater operations. It was piloted to the Perrin III system, to Talisman orbital Mainport, by Pieda Bowman II, a clone with an old braintape, who happens to have one level in Jedi Counseler (and one each in noble and soldier). Dabbo Corp. owns the ship now, along with 15 tons of metals & minerals in the hold.

Next session: Sat. Feb. 11.

Rod's Game, last Sat.

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

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

Dorville, Underdark City of Drow

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

Divided, but not conquored

After running mundane errands and purchasing various items after their last adventure, the group resumed attacking the underdark strongholds of the drow elf invaders of Aarde. Two weeks of hiking well below the surface through a deep, wide chasm was rewarded with the discovery of a large drow city in the distance. Unfortunately, as the group advanced to examine the area, they entered a region of teleportals, which divided the party into many smaller groups, each of whom immediately faced different challenges.

Revan and Telpin found themselves facing a giantess drider, an enormous spider measuring over 20' in height, with the upper torso of a giant drow sorceress. She stood in a large chamber, surrounded by "normal" drow attendants and a couple of umber hulks, performing some unspeakably evil ritual. Telpin began his usual gnome battle song and charged the attendants, longsword in one hand, wand of lightning bolts in the other. Revan, wary of the many giant webs, elected not charge with his pegasus, but did run and attack the "black widow" head-on. Soon after, his flaming sword had burned away most of the webs around him, and first blood had been drawn on the giant drow. As an eerie green fog filled the room, the gargantuan drider attacked the paladin with her many legs, easily lifting him and biting him repeatedly with her poison fangs. But each time she wounded him, she found herself wounded as well--by her own attacks (due to a crazily expensive and powerful new magical armor Revan recently purchased). Though many of the paladin's attacks wounded the great beast, it was her own attacks that caused a great deal of her damage to herself. Telpin, meanwhile, focused his attacks on the many attendants, several of whom fell somewhat easily to his wand's lightning bolts, but most managed to heal their mistress before paying the ultimate price for their evil folly. In the end, after a protracted battle that left the heroes badly wounded, Revan defeated the giant drow, Telpin located the teleportal, and the pair returned victorious to the spot where they had begun: overlooking a great drow city perhaps two miles below the surface.

Taito, Black Eyed Bill and Aiko popped into a somewhat open area with a small stone hut in front of them and a stalactite far above in the distance. A shaft of light from the stalactite revealed that it had been hollowed out, and illuminated a drow witch flying toward what she hoped were unsuspecting victims. When her javelin of lightning bolt was dodged by all three with no seeming ill effects, the witch took cover behind a wall of force, and began lobbing her attacks at them from there, still airborne. After having taken cover in the hut, Taito hefted a great empty metal cauldron onto the roof and lept up there himself, then lobbed it (unsuccessfully) at the drow witch. Meanwhile, Black Eyed Bill was having a bit of an archery contest with a number of drow who were trying to pick off the good guys from the distance. Aiko climbed on the roof. Before she knew it, the witch, an eldrich drow knight by the name of Elaine Ereklav, found herself carrying Taito as a passenger. Though she was still flying, her difficulties soon became compounded by Aiko and Black Eyed Bill, who had both been heavily wounded but were out for revenge; each in turn had climbed Black Eyed Bill's rope to scale the wall of force, and Taito had simply jumped onto Elaine from its invisible top. Though at one point Aiko had needed to pour a potion of healing down the sea-ranger's throat, the three were able to return to the teleportal with no further difficulties.

The Clubmaster known as LeRoy Jenkins found himself with the lizardman rogue/warrior Henderson. They were in a crypt, somewhere below a temple to a spider god greater than Lolth's. Two rows of stone coffins with ornate, gem-encrusted lids stood before them. On a dias, working on a wall drawer-coffins of less elaborate departed drow were two figures. LeRoy took cover upon seeing the two, who were clothed in tattered, once-elaborate robes, and persuaded Henderson to see if he could procure some of the shiny gems. As Henderson made an unsuccessful attempt to be sneaky while using a chisel and mallet to remove some gems, the two figures silently floated closer, and a powerful lightning bolt was evaded by the two rogues and obliterated much of the stone coffin behind them. One of the figures sent a strange beam of energy from his eyes into the stone coffins, creating a temporary invisibility on the inanimate stone in the beams' path. This revealed LeRoy's position, and the other leathery-faced figure shot a beam from his finger that LeRoy narrowly dodged. LeRoy had narrowly escaped petrification. So narrowly, that the bottoms of his boots were turned to stone. Round after round of attacks and parrys followed. It seemed the two figures were amused, and mostly unaffected by the normally crippling club, crossbow and sword attacks of Henderson and LeRoy Jenkins. Perhaps the ghoulish spellcasters were toying with them. Ultimately, the heroes were able to smash the tops of a couple of the ruby and onyx-encrusted coffin lids and make off with portions of the spider designs, and escape through the same teleportal they came in from... In retrospect, uneasy feelings about the floating leather-faced robed figures could occur in the future...

Joseph and Rivet, with Mick the Gangly, instantly arrived in the entry hall of one of the great drow clans. Elaborate to a fault, the large entry featured coats of arms on every wall, as well as the tiled floor, to the family of Schmeager Friedly. Twin stairs led to a balcony above, where Schmeager herself cast invisibilty on herself before the unexpected visitors could easily notice her. Twin hallways, to the left and right, were soon occupied by pairs of drow rogue/mages, who were in the process of duplicating their relative's tactics. Joseph's own dispel magic and invisibility purge disrupted what could have been deadly surprise attacks. Schmeager cast a web spell, but Rivet dove into a stone cane stand while Mick powered through and Joseph magically transformed himself into a larger, stronger version of himself to beat the webs. Mick was able to attack Schmeager on the balcony above, since he wears stilts and uses a reach weapon. Also, using combat reflexes, he gained attacks of opportunity on several opponents, some of whom thought they were invisible and were not, thanks to Joseph. A flame strike unleashed by Joseph finished of any remaining attackers as Rivet found the teleportal and the three joined with the others.

Flegol, Buddy Nagel and Nightsong Sharpfang found themselves in a seedy part of the drow city, a dark alley behind a dark alley surrounded by ancient but run-down buildings. Movement in the shadows turned out to be nearly half a dozen skillful drow rogues, sneaking up easily on the new arrivals. Much stranger and more frightening was whiptongue dirtwalker, once known as the drow named Meaner Digs, but now transformed into a giant mole-like monster with a magical whip/tongue capable of moving at nearly normal speed through solid earth and stone. The drow rogues struck hard as the monster tunneled from below Flegol and attacked with its tongue. Flegol found himself constricted and dragged below ground into the soft earth to choke and suffocate. His great skills with the bow were rendered powerless by this attack, though he had managed to take out a couple of the rogues just prior to being dragged down. Nightsong, on her giant rodent mount Lomax, and Buddy Nagel, holy symbol in hand, dove into the soft ground after Flegol. Choking on the dirt, the two kobolds were successful in rescuing their human companion, ripping the tongue of the monster in the process. Though Meaner Digs and the surviving drow rogues fled, once Nightsong located the teleportal, they headed back, where they found they had joined the others.

Gendar the Magic, with Lola were certain they had stepped not into a teleportal, but into a great pit. They were falling down a large, round natural shaft with no end in sight. Lola grabbed Gendar and used her boots of teleport to bring them both safely to a rocky outcropping to one side. A strange, brightly multi-colored cloudlike spell or creature soon appeared just above them, and seemed to shine a spotlight on Gendar and Lola that attracted large numbers of driders to them. The driders, of course, could walk sideways or even nearly upside down with sure footing, and were exhibiting no trouble scaling down the sheer rock faces of the shaft toward the unfortunate humans, as the glowing apparation launched strange missiles of magic into the heroes with unerring accuracy. Gendar made the most of the situation by launching a pair of fireballs up into the onrushing enemy, effectively removing a score of them or more. Lola had climbed above the apparation, and launched herself from the cliff face directly into its center, falling right through it, magical swords slashing all the way. Lola then grabbed onto handholds on the opposite cliff face and looked back. The combination of these attacks resulted in the apparation ceasing to glow, with no remaining signs of its ever having existed. Meanwhile, it was raining driders, and one of the burning drider bodies knocked Gendar off of his perch. As he was falling, Lola spotted him and teleported over, using her magic boots once more. Using her gloves of shortspears as a climbing tool, she was able to grab onto a rock face while keeping a grip on Gendar. They were just feet from the bottom of the shaft. Though they were a long way from the teleportal, Lola activated her boots for the last time that day to bring the two of them back to where they had started from, and found all of the others were there.

I awarded 3,000 xp for each character that was present for the entire session (Flegol should probably really get 2,400 since Shane had to be late, but that's debateable). Everybody seemed able to keep their cool and handle tough situations pretty well. For this session, individual treasure was awarded, but it has not been divided, as the party was separated and we ran out of time, so treasure will have to be discussed again at our next game which will be in two weeks, as usual.

Drow War Rages

Drow War Rages!
Yesterday’s D&D game (Oct. 29, 2005) picked right up where the last session left off, with the regular characters battling the drow elves deep in the underdark of Aarde. Flegol picked off evil spellcasters from among their stalactite and stalagmite perches, using his bow against his favored enemy. Geena did the same. Phil’s new halfling rogue, Secro, did some climbing and sneaking, and helped Rivet take out a couple of threats from within their cave. Joseph healed the wounded in battle and fought off four drow rogues who tried to sneak up behind him. Similarly, Revan found himself at a bit of a tactical disadvantage, as his Pegasus would not fit within the close quarters. But few of the enemy were able to land blows on any party member. Though a few sleep-poisoned arrows knocked Black-Eyed Bill and Flegol out for a few rounds, most of the drow were simply no match for the heroes. One large drow monk picked his way through the growing pile of drow bodies around Taito and gave him a bit of a challenge, but ultimately fell to join his brothers on the rocky cavern floor. Lola couldn’t resist putting out an oil fire set by Rivet one round, but on every other round of the combat, her twin longswords were putting the enemy down. Mick the Gangly, striding near Taito on his stilts, “reached out and touched” drow, just outside of the range of their melee weapons like a whirlwind. Telpin sang and used his wand of lightning bolts, as usual. Nightsong Sharpfang sang with the other bard for a stereo effect with greater range, and used her spear from the back of her giant rat mount (until she was hit by a sleep arrow, anyway). Captain Fergus Dowrimple flew over the battle, launching fireballs into drow hidey-holes, somewhat protected by a few defensive spells (and thankful for evasion against the steady tide of incoming fireballs and lightning bolts early in the battle). Yes, the party won the battle. And no, Henderson was not present for this fight; he has been made busy recruiting more lizardman tribes to the cause. Though the drow settlement was fairly poor, the multiple drow weapons and armor fetched a decent price from the bluefeather lizardman tribe outside of Moporia. Party members were also able to purchase items in the city. Secro had a humbling experience with one of Moporia’s royal wizards, but was released from the city-states dungeons for a 2,000 gold piece fine for trespassing, as no items were stolen from the wizard’s manor.
Experience: 4,500 x.p. Gold (each P.C.’s share after selling items found): 7,500 g.p.

P.S. I built some new terrain, but the base coat wasn’t dry yet for this session so we didn’t use miniatures. Also, it wasn’t raining, but compared to the previous session it was really cold in the basement, so we’ll be upstairs for sessions until it gets warmer. Another thing--it was good to see Morgan yesterday, and I’m waaay overdue for some games of Magic. Have a Happy Halloween everybody! Next session: November 12.

Old Heroes, New Villians

Revan, Joseph Prex, Flegol, Taito and the NPCs began this session at a turning point requiring discussion. What use is it to have the Fountain of Youth if death, slavery and world destruction of Aarde are soon to follow? Read the previous entry for the current situation. Collectively the party now had a lot of important information to consider, much of which is known to no one else. Here are some of the things that were discussed:
* Elven transmuters and the large quantity of enchantment school wands in use by the Purple Order elves, the drow and their followers are being used together in the following way: a skilled elf polymorphs into the form of say, an ogre to gain easy access to an area, and then uses charm monster on tribal leaders to persuade as many ogres as possible to join the Purple Order, or at least cooperate with it. This process is known by the party to have been used on lizard men as well as thri-kreen and many individuals of various races. It is possible this method was originally used by the drow on the elves of Sonaeed (even Leofeldt himself?) to create the Purple Order. By now, many people from every major city of Aarde and every evil or neutral-aligned race in the outlying areas could be working for the Purple Order in one way or another, as even one elf, drow or converted agent of any race can persuade more than 100 people in a month or less. And there are a lot of agents. Evil divided can be kept in check. Evil united is worrysome. Now even many well-meaning people are unwittingly (sometimes through magic) working for the elves.
* Humans and their good-aligned allies of Aarde currently have no collective strategy, and have not worked together in 500 years.
* Potential allies the party could begin recruiting include the goblin sorcerers of Pqukquilibo (if they can be separated from their fire giant protectors), the gnome illusionists of Ponoblish Bimpitigora (who are thought to control or possibly create dragons), the halflings of the Warmsea and Iceberg Ocean islands (most of whom are proven seamen, many of whom are psionic), and the retired heros of Lhevix and those who have settled there.
* From what the characters knew, Lhevix was initially considered a gamble (especially by the NPCs) because the ruler there, Khadgar, is not only an elf, but lawful neutral in alignment--so his loyalties might be questionable. And of the other Heroes of the Tenneous War, Cedric (also an elf) had disappeared into hermetic obscurity, Killian had made himself indispensible entertaining and motivating the citizenry of Pavalos, and Pel had become insane from secret interplanar knowledge from his travels that had twisted him toward evil and a strange solitude. But all the Old Heroes were historical figures, well-known for their great deeds. Many were thought dead. Khadgar was considered a god by some. Donavan was said to be training dwarven fighters, undefeated in single combat spars by all comers to her village at Donavan's Reef for 500 years.
-----So after the discussion, a decision was made and the party went to Lhevix. Taito met with some lizardmen to attempt to persuade them over some bloodfire wine as stories were exchanged around the campfire of the Blue Feather tribe. One lizardman disagreed with Taito, and said the lizardmen should join the elves. The two battled and the dissenter's attempt to charm monster on Taito failed, as did his attempt to baleful polymorph him into a frog; Taito, a drunken master, beat the "lizardman" into submission. Flegol, uninterested in the city, stumbled into a cave in some nearby cliffs and ended up meeting Cedric. Before long, a construct/probe of Pel's arrived to gather information. Joseph and Revan, in combination with the other characters, were able eventually to get all the heroes, Old and New, together at one of Khadgar's huge ornate palaces. The Old Heroes agreed to help.

...What follows is a summary of the events that followed:
The Old Heroes teleported to the frozen surface of Phobos, entered a crater and infiltrated the drow tunnels to the core, where Pel used his planeshifting magic to trade places between this area and its leaders and an equal area from the elemental plane of hot liquid magma. These type of attacks continued until enough drow were able to connect their lightning bolts with them to force them to leave. Next, Killian located Silvereyes, one of the elven heroes of Sonaeed who defeated Signatious over 1,000 years ago. Silvereyes, now the owner of the Vulgar Paladin Inn, knew Lord Leofeldt personally (he had long ago convinced him he was a friend), and was able to arrange a projected image discussion with "Leo." and make introductions. Disagreements quickly broke into open magical warfare, with Pel's horrible spells destroying the Sonaeed cities of Lynchtooth, Lomee, Grand Turim, and Aggaquon. In retalliation, Leofeldt unleashed similar magic, wiping out the Aarde cities of Hootineye, Lhevix, Upslone, and New Durnick. Shortly afterward, both Pel and Leofeldt successfully wished away these events, so it was as if they never happened. Leofeldt then made a verbal attempt to persuade Khadgar to join his cause, showering him with compliments and offering him troops, money and power. At one point, Leofeldt magically caused a hurricane on his own world to prove a point. But Khadgar wouldn't be persuaded. Ultimately, negotiations began. In return for human non-use of the Fountain(s) of Youth, Leofeldt would order his elves to return to Sonaeed, and Aarde elves to return to pre-invasion borders. In addition, Leofeldt would break the elven alliance with the drow, which he personally had made and kept together. Both parties agreed to work together against their new mutual enemy: the drow. Soon afterward, drow were being attacked on Phobos, Sonaeed and Aarde; each with its own Underdark dominated by drow.
* * *
Revan, Taito, Joseph and Flegol and the NPCs entered a cave opening in the Gottsland Island mountains, not far from Lhevix. In a matter of about a week, they had decended through the caverns and found their way to a medium-sized drow family stronghold, with living, working and fighting areas carved into the stalagtites and stalagmites. The battle has begun, and will continue for some time now.
Experience for the Old Heroes was simply a reminder that 20th+ level versions of these characters might make occasional appearances (Pel, for example, is 28th level). Regular party experience was 1,500. Treasure is as follows: each Old Hero may give one gift of no greater than 10,000 gp value to one Young Hero of his or her choice (DM's approval required). Next session: Sat., Oct. 29th.

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.