MAGIC - Jon brought a booster box of the new Magic set, "Rise of the Eldrazi" and he, Mat & Ava, Penny & I played a booster draft from about 11-3 before D&D. Jon ran B/R, I ran U/G (mostly green), Penny W/R, Ava W/G and Mat U/G (mostly blue). I ended up winning, mostly from what I could tell because the current set has some great green creatures, including a 3 cost that gets bigger with each enchantment in play - and can't be blocked by anything with a smaller power than it has. It looked like nothing but turned out to work awesome with the enchantments and splash of counter I had, and I ended up winning every match. If I remember, it was Penny & I in the final and it went 3 games, she had some awesome white guys that level up and good red removal to clear a path for them. It was a lot of fun and I look forward to the next one of these. Since Old Town Hobby closed, we pick up a few packs at Gabby's (Olympic Cards & Comics) every now & then. Yesterday I pulled a merfolk champion that's pretty awesome, he plays as a 2/2 for UU, and levels up for 1 per level to be a 4/4 flyer and give other merfolk +1/+1.
D&D - In order to avoid another grim situation for the survivors of Liberty City, the party spent a little extra time (this time) before going off on more adventures to free more cities. Each party member put in a year of effort to help the 1,300 or so lizardfolk, kobolds and half elves rebuild their lives as part of one of the few free societies in a world enslaved by dragons. Oh, and they were cured of the zombie rot (I probably mentioned that earlier). After much discussion it was agreed that the greatest benefit for the least risk for these survivors would be to rebuild trade routes and alliances with the neighboring communities. Because the previous location of the city was destroyed and also inhospitable (partially due to the soil having been salted, but also general terrain conditions) the 1,300 were relocated, (aka Battlestar Galactica but on a shorter timeline) to the coast near the mouth of a river.
After the new site was selected for New Liberty City (the old one will basically become a historical/tourist attraction), Jones was nominated to put together a master site plan. The new location is along a rocky coast where the Jastel River meets the Zarto Sea (the place names look different in various languages). So the mental picture Mat painted for us was from Popeye the movie, of Shantytown. It's perfect because there's not really a city to invade at all, it's basically just one big long stripe of boat launches, with ropes going up into houses set against cliffs. So it's set up to be free and centered on each individual, and there are easy quick exits to sea or into caves depending on any threats that come along. Attacking now would have the same effect as punching Spongebob Squarepants - it just wouldn't do any real damage because the population are so mobile.
Aurora scoured the battlefield and healed survivors, and even rose the dead in several cases. Though reversing their terrible losses was obviously impossible, she was able to take some of the sting out of the tragedy by returning (from who she could find) loved ones and prominent citizens to join their new community on the shore.
Over the year, Shamash directed his hireling Fy'Ev to serve as city manager (not mayor), working hands-on with the Lizardmen in building and defending their new community as the party's permanent representative for New Liberty. Shamash also interviewed candidates for top leadership positions, giving titles, resources and encouragement to those who deserved it. Fortunately for New Liberty, it has a number of residents who are gifted at shipbuilding, which will be key. Also, after shaking off the zombie rot they're quite a bit brighter and there's no shortage of leaders and independent thinkers. Self-rule early on might look more like a commonwealth than a democracy. Because they abhor slavery (having been subjected to it), the more oppressive government forms will be avoided and if a kingdom arises it will be accompanied by a parliamentary representation system of some kind, even if informal.
Willikers established trade relations with the neighboring Drow from below and found his sister Driana entertaining the refugees in the small community of 200 there. Though small, this group, referred to as "The Nomads" by "topworlders," has excellent underdark connections and continues to strike at the Dragon Empire and other threats while carving out a situation better suited to their interests.
Jorel became somewhat fascinated with the lizardfolk's ability to reproduce, and in his contribution to their long term well being and growth as a community this led him to assisting with the establishment of long-term food supply solutions. His logic contributed to the new location for the city, with it's ample fishing.
Sticky Fingers started up a thieves' guild and made connections with his old halfling gang of buddies, including the giant lizard rider Johnny Kneebreaker and the wizard Fizzy Feet. The twin shires of Ed's Hollow and Racklamton have been at each other's throats for as long as anybody can remember and though slowed by zombie rot, the brutal rivalry has been ratcheted up by The Enchantress, a green dragon who annually chooses one or the other side to ally with based on competitive tributes.
So after putting things in order with New Liberty, the party ventured off to help their neighboring community of halflings free itself from the clutches of the dragons' influence. Gang warfare between the twin shires had escalated to near civil war. Tribute day was a week away and thuggery was rampant. The party learned the location of the dragon enchantress' lair and headed up the impossibly huge mountain. After crossing the tree line into the snowy peaks they encountered chillbane zombies. Within the first section of the cave above they discovered large gems in plain sight: Red, Green, Blue and Orange. The red and green ones exploded in flames and poison while the blue and orange ones had unknown properties. Halfings hidden deeper within the cave fired crossbows at the party and once a deep dragon's voice attempted to deter the Uprisers but they pressed on deeper into the cave.
Next: Zeria the Merciless, Dragon Enchantress
XP: 3500 and age your character 1 year. (Yes we're still 15th level)
Treasure: 8,000 GP in gems per character. Though there had been additional treasure much was spent building up New Liberty City and establishing trade relations, so this is the net after that. More to come, stay tuned.
Next session: Sat June 5th 3pm
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Homecoming S***storm
So the uprisers returned to Lizardtown, the city we liberated 9 months ago & renamed independence. Evil versions of ourselves were running the place. Malnourished brainwashed citizens were throwing bodies into the well. The grainery was being fertilized with dung. The sports arena had degenerated to thunderdome & the Pelor temple had been twisted to worship of a belor demon. Zombie rot was rampant. Deep sick rumblings of sporatic earthquakes shook the ground.
There were so many problems we didn't know where to begin but we didn't know the half of it. The eternal flames from our battle of liberation had turned sickly purple. In that field we again fought for the future freedom of the lizardmen. It turned out the zombie rot had infested the mind flayers who in their deranged state chose to impersonate us shortly after we left. Against the real, now more experienced and better equipped versions of Rholain, Hadji, Willikers, Jones, Aurora, Shamash & Elle they could not stand for long.
The encounter was tough & we no sooner caught our breath before we saw purple worms (like from Dune) devouring our city. Citizens running in terror were being cut down by an army of kobolds led by a red dragon. Jones convinced some of them to switch to our side but the dragon put a claw to his chest & their red hand symbols blew our new kobold allies up instantly. So much for that. Shamash gathered up weapons & organized 24 lizardmen to fight back. Each defeated kobold exploded, killing any lizardmen standing toe to toe with it.
The kobolds served another purpose for the dragon: we couldn't ignore them & they were softening us up and directing some of our attacks away. But Hadji managed to get on top of the dragon, stabbing it in the back of the neck until it shrugged him off like an insect & he fell 40' to where Shamash & Rholain stood below. Terrible fiery breath & even more punishing physical attacks, plus paralyzing fear attacks had us on the defensive, burning healing surges. Good thing we've got Aurora.
An upper echelon of kobold shamen and tougher exploding warriors kept coming in wave after wave over a hill until Hadji caved in their surface passage. Meanwhile the druid kept the dragon slowed enough that he couldn't attack Jones & take the Cup.
When the smoke cleared the kobolds & lizardmen rabble all lay dead. Shamash lay motionless until Rholain brought him back, coughing bugs & ash.
Oh and the red dragon surrendered, Jones cured his zombie rot & he works for us now. Right now he's helping rebuild the city.
Xp & treasure TBA. We are still 15th level.
We will play Magic next Sat (May 22nd) at 11 Am prior to D&D at 3.
Good game Rod.
There were so many problems we didn't know where to begin but we didn't know the half of it. The eternal flames from our battle of liberation had turned sickly purple. In that field we again fought for the future freedom of the lizardmen. It turned out the zombie rot had infested the mind flayers who in their deranged state chose to impersonate us shortly after we left. Against the real, now more experienced and better equipped versions of Rholain, Hadji, Willikers, Jones, Aurora, Shamash & Elle they could not stand for long.
The encounter was tough & we no sooner caught our breath before we saw purple worms (like from Dune) devouring our city. Citizens running in terror were being cut down by an army of kobolds led by a red dragon. Jones convinced some of them to switch to our side but the dragon put a claw to his chest & their red hand symbols blew our new kobold allies up instantly. So much for that. Shamash gathered up weapons & organized 24 lizardmen to fight back. Each defeated kobold exploded, killing any lizardmen standing toe to toe with it.
The kobolds served another purpose for the dragon: we couldn't ignore them & they were softening us up and directing some of our attacks away. But Hadji managed to get on top of the dragon, stabbing it in the back of the neck until it shrugged him off like an insect & he fell 40' to where Shamash & Rholain stood below. Terrible fiery breath & even more punishing physical attacks, plus paralyzing fear attacks had us on the defensive, burning healing surges. Good thing we've got Aurora.
An upper echelon of kobold shamen and tougher exploding warriors kept coming in wave after wave over a hill until Hadji caved in their surface passage. Meanwhile the druid kept the dragon slowed enough that he couldn't attack Jones & take the Cup.
When the smoke cleared the kobolds & lizardmen rabble all lay dead. Shamash lay motionless until Rholain brought him back, coughing bugs & ash.
Oh and the red dragon surrendered, Jones cured his zombie rot & he works for us now. Right now he's helping rebuild the city.
Xp & treasure TBA. We are still 15th level.
We will play Magic next Sat (May 22nd) at 11 Am prior to D&D at 3.
Good game Rod.
Saturday, May 01, 2010
Ding, Dong, Zombie Rot's Gone!
Coming off of some earlier setbacks, we were in need of hope. So last Saturday the party worked our way past several dragons over many, many miles of rugged terrain in order to reach our distant destination. We noted their positions but avoided the encounters for the time being. What we still sought was the good dragon who could help us and/or we could help her (see earlier entries).
One encounter we were unable to avoid was an ambush by Harpies, who spotted us from above. The Harpies were a pretty cool and tougher than expected encounter. We were outnumbered and their screech attacks kept immobilizing members of the party. Since they can fly and were perched up high when not flying, that presented another challenge. Wikipedia Jones, with his ability to strike from a distance, had no problems dishing out damage from a distance. Hadjii, the ranger with such incredible mobility, was able to attack the monsters pretty much every round, dishing out significant damage. Likewise for R. Willikers, who really punished those evil things. Shamash was able to climb up and get into melee with them, as was Fy'Ev, and each of them kept the enemy busy. Elle Enchanted was immobilized early and had to throw her javelin until she was able to charge up the hill late in the encounter and finish two of them off. Aurora provided much-needed support throughout the encounter. Additional encounters took place which I will not detail here. Suffice to say, the party has a long "to-do" list for later on...
After working our way through so many game sessions and so many wilderness encounters we finally reached an area of cavernous mountain caves, intricate and very well hidden. Within, the Uprisers (that's us) discovered those whom we had sought, or at least someone who told us they could take us there.
Upon arriving at our long-sought destination, we learned that apparently we had been expected. After a plane-shift, we learned that the emissaries who were to take us to those who we could help (and could help us) were not emissaries at all, but gods in disguise. They were no less than Bahamut and Pelor themselves! This is not an every-session kind of experience, it's more like a once-in-a-campaign experience in most cases. After much shaking of knees and "we're not worthy's," the heroes were summarily dipped in healing waters which cured us of our zombie rot and granted each our our characters an additional +1 on all of our armor. Jones filled his decanter of endless water with the healing waters, and we were given our assignment: go and cure the zombie rot wherever you find it.
Part of the reasoning for our assignment is that the draco lich has gotten a bit too powerful. His zombie rot is now also infecting dragons themselves, both good and evil, and his fingers of influence have spread everywhere. Needless to say, we have our work cut out for us.
Experience: We are now 15th level.
Treasure: (special) add one extra "+1" to the current magical bonus of your armor.
Next session: Saturday, May 8th at 3:00 pm.
Comments welcome - I probably forgot some stuff! -D
One encounter we were unable to avoid was an ambush by Harpies, who spotted us from above. The Harpies were a pretty cool and tougher than expected encounter. We were outnumbered and their screech attacks kept immobilizing members of the party. Since they can fly and were perched up high when not flying, that presented another challenge. Wikipedia Jones, with his ability to strike from a distance, had no problems dishing out damage from a distance. Hadjii, the ranger with such incredible mobility, was able to attack the monsters pretty much every round, dishing out significant damage. Likewise for R. Willikers, who really punished those evil things. Shamash was able to climb up and get into melee with them, as was Fy'Ev, and each of them kept the enemy busy. Elle Enchanted was immobilized early and had to throw her javelin until she was able to charge up the hill late in the encounter and finish two of them off. Aurora provided much-needed support throughout the encounter. Additional encounters took place which I will not detail here. Suffice to say, the party has a long "to-do" list for later on...
After working our way through so many game sessions and so many wilderness encounters we finally reached an area of cavernous mountain caves, intricate and very well hidden. Within, the Uprisers (that's us) discovered those whom we had sought, or at least someone who told us they could take us there.
Upon arriving at our long-sought destination, we learned that apparently we had been expected. After a plane-shift, we learned that the emissaries who were to take us to those who we could help (and could help us) were not emissaries at all, but gods in disguise. They were no less than Bahamut and Pelor themselves! This is not an every-session kind of experience, it's more like a once-in-a-campaign experience in most cases. After much shaking of knees and "we're not worthy's," the heroes were summarily dipped in healing waters which cured us of our zombie rot and granted each our our characters an additional +1 on all of our armor. Jones filled his decanter of endless water with the healing waters, and we were given our assignment: go and cure the zombie rot wherever you find it.
Part of the reasoning for our assignment is that the draco lich has gotten a bit too powerful. His zombie rot is now also infecting dragons themselves, both good and evil, and his fingers of influence have spread everywhere. Needless to say, we have our work cut out for us.
Experience: We are now 15th level.
Treasure: (special) add one extra "+1" to the current magical bonus of your armor.
Next session: Saturday, May 8th at 3:00 pm.
Comments welcome - I probably forgot some stuff! -D
Friday, April 16, 2010
Sunday, April 11, 2010
The UPRISERS
"I know in my heart she's right," Shamash muttered to himself in Draconic just after ruining her world...
In a world of terrible things, one of the worst things that can happen is for a hero to realize that what he's doing might be almost as terrible as what he's fighting against. That being said I will try to write this entry in consideration of the wholecloth of our campaign history.
After Wikipedia Jones and Aurora left for a Pelor retreat, Robrick Willikers III, Shamash Kriv & Fy'Ev, Hadji, Rholain, Ella Enchanted and Jorel of the Stars continued to investigate the area where the 3 captive princesses had just been freed (see previous blog entry, Rod picked up where B left off). It turned out there were a lot more princesses and nearly all of them had been turned into zombies. Further investigating revealed the dracolich was using them as an example and as leverage against those who rose against draconic rule by sending them back to infest their populations at any time. The "Uprisers" (that's what they call the party, we hear) discovered maps and information about the various dragon ziggarut temples, each representing a city of a different race, all enslaved and pitted against each other when convenient.
So here laid before us on a golden platter was the evidence and information we needed to continue our mission to free the non-dragons of the world from slavery and oppression. We learned the nearest ziggarut was that of the fey Eladrin from examining the jewelry of one of the zombies, Qui-Ellen (I probably got that name wrong).
We flew there on Rholain's giant mosquitos and they were nowhere to be seen, though there were large teleportation sigils embedded in forest clearing. Upon investigating, we discovered some invisible entities hiding there and began fighting them until we realized they were the very Eladrin we had come to help. Shamash and Hadji were able to diffuse the situation before anyone was killed, fortunately for us (this group of Eladrin handled themselves pretty well). Our truce agreement involved getting the Qui-Ellen Eladrin zombie princess back to them to prove what we were talking about. (This is one of those things I reflect on now: they asked for it, but did they realize they were asking to be exposed to the zombie rot?)
Upon going to their city (more like ruins where they lived) we learned the Eladrin had been free from dragon rule for 600 years, and had enslaved lizardmen and dragonborn alike. Upon reflection, Shamash saw a problem and an opportunity here. The uprisers had succeeded in freeing a lizardman city from the dragons, and if the Eladrin would just abandon their slaving practices, trade between the two communities would be mutually beneficial - more so than just mere forced farm labor. After Jorel drew a crowd with a spectacular pyrotechnics display, Shamash worked them into a chant of "Freedom!" "Prosperity!" Shamash used his hat of disguise in MLK fashion, appearing as every race in turn and emphasizing the equality of all races and their true common enemies: slavery and dragons.
Meanwhile, the Eladrin queen wasn't buying it. She had seen our party in action in the woods, had seen that hypocrite Shamash bossing his henchman Fy'Ev around like a slave. She came up behind him right at the end of the speech and pulled his hat off. "See!" she screamed, "don't listen to him, he's a lying lizard!" (or something like that). She had lost the crowd by now though. Shamash turned to face her and called her a bigot slavemaster, no better than the dragons. She left to get her army, who she would soon turn loose on the crowd -- and on us. But though we might disagree with her the party didn't necessarily perceive her as an enemy. Ella had been reading a book about the teleportation sigils so the party left before things got too hot.
Us "uprisers" had after all just started a civil war.
The sigils took us into the mountain caves, a shortcut to our next destination. We were ambushed by a large group of Shadar-Ki, who were standing in positions surrounding us when we popped in. Outnumbered and desparate, we did what we do best: we attacked and killed as many as we could (which is pretty much what D&D heroes do). Here was something clear: good vs. evil, life vs. death.
Quick flashback: Hadji was killed in combat with the crazy killjoy Shadar-Kai a couple adventures ago, and Rholain somehow was able to revive him. These guys have de-buffing gloom attacks and stuff like that and use long chains as weapons - they're pretty tough, though our party is tougher than we used to be.
So we pulled out all the stops. We had good initiative rolls and we all used our action points to bring down their numbers before they could really hurt us again. The bad guys had a circle against fey that limited the movement for Robrick Willikers, Hadji and Rholain. But our quick-strike strategy worked and we won the encounter. Hadji had his revenge on their leader too, stripping him bare and cutting him off at the knees even though he had surrendered. Shamash thought maybe he should be interrogated and also that he shouldn't be given the chance to bring more Shadar-Ki down on us. But even Jorel, our cold metal friend, could see we had gone to far. Rholain thought we should just leave and he was probably right.
We learned two things from the Shadar-Ki leader though: First, the Eladrin queen had warned him we were coming (so maybe they're allies?). Second, there was a ziggarut for the Shadar-Ki too so probably we lost an opportunity to negotiate with them to join us in the fight against the dragons. If Shamash had followed the ideas from his own speech he could have prevented bloodshed and gained an ally instead of another enemy. Plus now we are a little worried that the infighting among the Eladrin will weaken them and whether or not they keep slaves, they could all become enslaved again by the dragons. So we may be responsible for ending their 600 year reign of self-rule.
---
Secret Diary of a Dracolich
Day 99827, the Third Age of Reclamation:
Ha!
Ha Ha!
Ah yes, part of me wishes that I could take credit for all that has happened, but no- the feeling is much sweeter knowing that I did nothing. This was free. As I slither and skulk through the subconscious of my infected harbingers I smile as their dreams reveal the dismal vicissitudes of my hero’s hard days work.
My heroes discovered the bourgeois dungeon. I’ll have to move the dignitaries within. They also killed Old Thiseranthis. My fellow Dracolich was ripped to shreds as he slept on the rocks by my heroes. My dear heroes were left without their hairpiece and mouthpiece. This left only the Drow, the Harbinger, my kind friend Rohlan, the Betrayer (and his betrayed), Hadjii, and some girl on a horse.
My cartographic heroes put their heads together and consolidated their resources to discover an Eladrin settlement that matched the princesses they found within the dungeon quite nicely. Queen Quelana the Second was not terribly thrilled to be reunited with her sisters. The sisters which she had handed over to the Shadar-Kai two years ago as reparations for her mother’s actions and to conveniently remove the sentiments from the popular discourse. Sentiments which would my heroes would unleash full throng on the gullible proles below in short order.
The Quelana have always been a pleasure to deal with. Her mother tripled the numbers of our servants in the region, at the price of a false and meaningless sense of freedom. Old Theiseranthis, often with great joy, recalled the day Quelana the First ripped the Shadar-Kai from whatever oblivion they dwelt in, and traded their freedom for a false sense of her own and a clutch of eggs that would bosom into a labor force- a labor force that will be much more sympathetic to our cause in the future, rather than any universal declaration of rights. A pointless gesture, but a hilarious one. Soon the rabble of farmers and freed slaves will draw dragon blood and break their covenant. I’ll make an even better deal this time.
Ideas are a dangerous thing, oh yes. The Harbinger assembled a crowd with a majestic clarion call. As Quelana the Second stood in contempt at the words echoing out from her balcony spewing from the lips of the Betrayer, my dear Hadjii tried to dissuade her. “How?” she asked. “How shall the six of you, who plan to leave within the hour, defend my people from the wrath of the deep empire?” she asked over the resounding roar of the crowd below as the peace she had defended for three hundred years crumbled around her. Little does she know that he was absolutely correct. Unchecked these few could stand against any number of enemies, undo any will set against them. As my heroes fled the riot they had created below Quelana the Second’s soldiers fertilized the barren ground with the bodies of her once content and well fed subjects. Freedom my kind friend Rohlan called it. I muse at what Quelana the Second shall promise us to change absolutely nothing about our current behavior in the region. Perhaps I shall set that forked tongue of hers towards my heroes future allies.
Now then, this is really the best part. Seeking a short cut across the mountains my good heroes utilized the Eladrin Carin Stones to appear deep within the mountain under the dominion of our most humble servants, the Shadar-Kai. Afflicting an entire population with a magically created zombie curse, and transforming ten into zombies for every one that even speaks of rebellion results in high levels of humility, oh yes.
HA!
The Shadar-Kai shall be left wondering when no one comes to collect what is owed this month, what with Old Thiseranthis indisposed and disemboweled as he is. The tragedy of this situation is almost sickening, as I consider all that could have been accomplished with a few sentences I shudder. Ah, but our dear heroes had no idea they had already wholly liberated them from their chief oppressor and would have immediate allies of the Kai as they cut them down and- this is the best part: loot, plunder, and burn the homes they had sacked! OH YES! WORD OF THIS SHALL BE SPREAD QUICKLY INDEED!
Mere minutes after espousing the equity and worth of all of the surface’s disparate peoples my heroes let their biases get the best of them and slaughtered their Shadar-Kai ambushers with the same fervor they had chosen to talk with their Eladrin ambushers not a day earlier- simply, one can only assume, because they were Eladrin. The Equality of all races indeed! Yes, we have always worked the set the myriad surface peoples against each other, consistently lowering median gains, but to see my heroes blunder. Hadjii cut off a surrendered mans leg for no reason other than to spite the Betrayer who wanted to force the creature into bondage and carry him off- minutes after delivering an equestrian eulogy to the society of our Eladrin allies. When the Drow curses the ethics of her comrades I can do nothing but smile.
Also, and this is good, truly: Quelana the Second was a planeshifter, which is of course the profession my dear heroes need to find a friendly practitioner of in order to go about clearing up that nasty infection. So that would have been helpful to my dear heroes. Which of them shall I turn first?
Nothing quite matches the savory smell of burning bridges. I almost feel like I am trying too hard.
Tick-tock, my dear heroes.
Tick, tock indeed.
-X
In a world of terrible things, one of the worst things that can happen is for a hero to realize that what he's doing might be almost as terrible as what he's fighting against. That being said I will try to write this entry in consideration of the wholecloth of our campaign history.
After Wikipedia Jones and Aurora left for a Pelor retreat, Robrick Willikers III, Shamash Kriv & Fy'Ev, Hadji, Rholain, Ella Enchanted and Jorel of the Stars continued to investigate the area where the 3 captive princesses had just been freed (see previous blog entry, Rod picked up where B left off). It turned out there were a lot more princesses and nearly all of them had been turned into zombies. Further investigating revealed the dracolich was using them as an example and as leverage against those who rose against draconic rule by sending them back to infest their populations at any time. The "Uprisers" (that's what they call the party, we hear) discovered maps and information about the various dragon ziggarut temples, each representing a city of a different race, all enslaved and pitted against each other when convenient.
So here laid before us on a golden platter was the evidence and information we needed to continue our mission to free the non-dragons of the world from slavery and oppression. We learned the nearest ziggarut was that of the fey Eladrin from examining the jewelry of one of the zombies, Qui-Ellen (I probably got that name wrong).
We flew there on Rholain's giant mosquitos and they were nowhere to be seen, though there were large teleportation sigils embedded in forest clearing. Upon investigating, we discovered some invisible entities hiding there and began fighting them until we realized they were the very Eladrin we had come to help. Shamash and Hadji were able to diffuse the situation before anyone was killed, fortunately for us (this group of Eladrin handled themselves pretty well). Our truce agreement involved getting the Qui-Ellen Eladrin zombie princess back to them to prove what we were talking about. (This is one of those things I reflect on now: they asked for it, but did they realize they were asking to be exposed to the zombie rot?)
Upon going to their city (more like ruins where they lived) we learned the Eladrin had been free from dragon rule for 600 years, and had enslaved lizardmen and dragonborn alike. Upon reflection, Shamash saw a problem and an opportunity here. The uprisers had succeeded in freeing a lizardman city from the dragons, and if the Eladrin would just abandon their slaving practices, trade between the two communities would be mutually beneficial - more so than just mere forced farm labor. After Jorel drew a crowd with a spectacular pyrotechnics display, Shamash worked them into a chant of "Freedom!" "Prosperity!" Shamash used his hat of disguise in MLK fashion, appearing as every race in turn and emphasizing the equality of all races and their true common enemies: slavery and dragons.
Meanwhile, the Eladrin queen wasn't buying it. She had seen our party in action in the woods, had seen that hypocrite Shamash bossing his henchman Fy'Ev around like a slave. She came up behind him right at the end of the speech and pulled his hat off. "See!" she screamed, "don't listen to him, he's a lying lizard!" (or something like that). She had lost the crowd by now though. Shamash turned to face her and called her a bigot slavemaster, no better than the dragons. She left to get her army, who she would soon turn loose on the crowd -- and on us. But though we might disagree with her the party didn't necessarily perceive her as an enemy. Ella had been reading a book about the teleportation sigils so the party left before things got too hot.
Us "uprisers" had after all just started a civil war.
The sigils took us into the mountain caves, a shortcut to our next destination. We were ambushed by a large group of Shadar-Ki, who were standing in positions surrounding us when we popped in. Outnumbered and desparate, we did what we do best: we attacked and killed as many as we could (which is pretty much what D&D heroes do). Here was something clear: good vs. evil, life vs. death.
Quick flashback: Hadji was killed in combat with the crazy killjoy Shadar-Kai a couple adventures ago, and Rholain somehow was able to revive him. These guys have de-buffing gloom attacks and stuff like that and use long chains as weapons - they're pretty tough, though our party is tougher than we used to be.
So we pulled out all the stops. We had good initiative rolls and we all used our action points to bring down their numbers before they could really hurt us again. The bad guys had a circle against fey that limited the movement for Robrick Willikers, Hadji and Rholain. But our quick-strike strategy worked and we won the encounter. Hadji had his revenge on their leader too, stripping him bare and cutting him off at the knees even though he had surrendered. Shamash thought maybe he should be interrogated and also that he shouldn't be given the chance to bring more Shadar-Ki down on us. But even Jorel, our cold metal friend, could see we had gone to far. Rholain thought we should just leave and he was probably right.
We learned two things from the Shadar-Ki leader though: First, the Eladrin queen had warned him we were coming (so maybe they're allies?). Second, there was a ziggarut for the Shadar-Ki too so probably we lost an opportunity to negotiate with them to join us in the fight against the dragons. If Shamash had followed the ideas from his own speech he could have prevented bloodshed and gained an ally instead of another enemy. Plus now we are a little worried that the infighting among the Eladrin will weaken them and whether or not they keep slaves, they could all become enslaved again by the dragons. So we may be responsible for ending their 600 year reign of self-rule.
---
Secret Diary of a Dracolich
Day 99827, the Third Age of Reclamation:
Ha!
Ha Ha!
Ah yes, part of me wishes that I could take credit for all that has happened, but no- the feeling is much sweeter knowing that I did nothing. This was free. As I slither and skulk through the subconscious of my infected harbingers I smile as their dreams reveal the dismal vicissitudes of my hero’s hard days work.
My heroes discovered the bourgeois dungeon. I’ll have to move the dignitaries within. They also killed Old Thiseranthis. My fellow Dracolich was ripped to shreds as he slept on the rocks by my heroes. My dear heroes were left without their hairpiece and mouthpiece. This left only the Drow, the Harbinger, my kind friend Rohlan, the Betrayer (and his betrayed), Hadjii, and some girl on a horse.
My cartographic heroes put their heads together and consolidated their resources to discover an Eladrin settlement that matched the princesses they found within the dungeon quite nicely. Queen Quelana the Second was not terribly thrilled to be reunited with her sisters. The sisters which she had handed over to the Shadar-Kai two years ago as reparations for her mother’s actions and to conveniently remove the sentiments from the popular discourse. Sentiments which would my heroes would unleash full throng on the gullible proles below in short order.
The Quelana have always been a pleasure to deal with. Her mother tripled the numbers of our servants in the region, at the price of a false and meaningless sense of freedom. Old Theiseranthis, often with great joy, recalled the day Quelana the First ripped the Shadar-Kai from whatever oblivion they dwelt in, and traded their freedom for a false sense of her own and a clutch of eggs that would bosom into a labor force- a labor force that will be much more sympathetic to our cause in the future, rather than any universal declaration of rights. A pointless gesture, but a hilarious one. Soon the rabble of farmers and freed slaves will draw dragon blood and break their covenant. I’ll make an even better deal this time.
Ideas are a dangerous thing, oh yes. The Harbinger assembled a crowd with a majestic clarion call. As Quelana the Second stood in contempt at the words echoing out from her balcony spewing from the lips of the Betrayer, my dear Hadjii tried to dissuade her. “How?” she asked. “How shall the six of you, who plan to leave within the hour, defend my people from the wrath of the deep empire?” she asked over the resounding roar of the crowd below as the peace she had defended for three hundred years crumbled around her. Little does she know that he was absolutely correct. Unchecked these few could stand against any number of enemies, undo any will set against them. As my heroes fled the riot they had created below Quelana the Second’s soldiers fertilized the barren ground with the bodies of her once content and well fed subjects. Freedom my kind friend Rohlan called it. I muse at what Quelana the Second shall promise us to change absolutely nothing about our current behavior in the region. Perhaps I shall set that forked tongue of hers towards my heroes future allies.
Now then, this is really the best part. Seeking a short cut across the mountains my good heroes utilized the Eladrin Carin Stones to appear deep within the mountain under the dominion of our most humble servants, the Shadar-Kai. Afflicting an entire population with a magically created zombie curse, and transforming ten into zombies for every one that even speaks of rebellion results in high levels of humility, oh yes.
HA!
The Shadar-Kai shall be left wondering when no one comes to collect what is owed this month, what with Old Thiseranthis indisposed and disemboweled as he is. The tragedy of this situation is almost sickening, as I consider all that could have been accomplished with a few sentences I shudder. Ah, but our dear heroes had no idea they had already wholly liberated them from their chief oppressor and would have immediate allies of the Kai as they cut them down and- this is the best part: loot, plunder, and burn the homes they had sacked! OH YES! WORD OF THIS SHALL BE SPREAD QUICKLY INDEED!
Mere minutes after espousing the equity and worth of all of the surface’s disparate peoples my heroes let their biases get the best of them and slaughtered their Shadar-Kai ambushers with the same fervor they had chosen to talk with their Eladrin ambushers not a day earlier- simply, one can only assume, because they were Eladrin. The Equality of all races indeed! Yes, we have always worked the set the myriad surface peoples against each other, consistently lowering median gains, but to see my heroes blunder. Hadjii cut off a surrendered mans leg for no reason other than to spite the Betrayer who wanted to force the creature into bondage and carry him off- minutes after delivering an equestrian eulogy to the society of our Eladrin allies. When the Drow curses the ethics of her comrades I can do nothing but smile.
Also, and this is good, truly: Quelana the Second was a planeshifter, which is of course the profession my dear heroes need to find a friendly practitioner of in order to go about clearing up that nasty infection. So that would have been helpful to my dear heroes. Which of them shall I turn first?
Nothing quite matches the savory smell of burning bridges. I almost feel like I am trying too hard.
Tick-tock, my dear heroes.
Tick, tock indeed.
-X
Saturday, March 27, 2010
From B's Dream
B***a had a great D&D dream 3/25/10 which she wrote down. Rod & I converted it to D&D game terms after she gave us the scenario and picked out all the minis and terrain. It really seemed to work great, and B has a terrific sense of the set-piece nature of 4th edition and I think today the entire group enjoyed playing a good game session starting with the considerable imaginative powers of an 8 year old.
Her notes read: "1st Dream: The three dragon sisters (Fala, Sila and Mackria) were nice sisters but a very powerful dragon kidnapped them and wanted their blood, however they refused to give their blood so they got put in the dungeon where all other dragons went who refused. The sisters wanted to free them but they could not, sadly. 2 years later the other dragons were killed except for the sisters because they are special princesses, very nice. Scene 2: To rescue them they will give us a great reward which is a mystery. So to rescue them you must go through the thorny bushes of thor at a great battle on a bridge, but the war will be very harsh. Then you must walk the mountains of cataral. There will be a big surprise but you will have to figure it out. Then you must walk a distance, then the lair will be revealed."
We were mostly able to follow this. Over the years I have crafted tons of terrain, and she put it where it worked, first using 5 giant green cactuses (carved from styrofoam and secured to cardboard bases and painted) with red (painted pointy toothpick) thorns. B arranged them in a straight line blocking our way across the battlemat, and put a "big fight" (star wars rancor mini, we used the Earth Titan rules from MM1, along with a Hill Giant) on the other side of them. It was a fairly tough encounter for Wikipedia Jones, Aurora, Robrick Willikers, Hadji, Rholain Carack, Shamash, Elle Enchanted, and Trusty Ol' Sticky Fingers. (Note: Robby was here but left his sheet for Jorel at home. I had intended to run some star wars also which he did bring but we never got to it. Sorry Robby! -D)
Not far beyond that, two shadowy Oni or some such things guarded a narrow passage surrounded by an invisible wall. One of them had the annoying ability to become insubstantial, and the other was able to change into some kind of bear form when he was near death and basically shake off all his previous injuries. Let's just say this was tougher than the first encounter. The phasing Oni was able to loop around the wall where we couldn't follow and flank Hadji and bring him down. After some disbelief and grieving, Rholain was able to restore the elven ranger to life somehow.
The next area was dominated by lava and a long narrow bridge. Our party fought our way across, Roberick dominating the shadow creatures who seemed so determined to stop us while Rholain made his way across as a swarm of flying filth of some kind, getting to the controls in the middle that spun the bridge to the other side -- several times. It was like an amusement ride, and a lot of bad guys fell in lava! (Ha Ha, B. says). After several rounds, the party dispatched the last of the shadow warriors. (I think they are in the MM2 which I don't have right here - I might edit this later and put them in. I think they were challenge rating 15 or so). One missed step and this part could have gone badly for one of our characters but we were all okay.
Finally, we made it to the hidden mountain pass, went over the top and found the evil dragon with the kidnapped sisters. (B. says Hallelujah!) Using our combined abilities and stealth to give the rogues and ranger one mighty strike, the party was able to quickly dispatch the powerful dragon (B says it seemed like 5 seconds flat - and that's about right!) Then the gate opened and the sisters were set free - already.
Experience: 3,000
Treasure: One Level 18 Magic Item each
Next session: Apr. 10
Her notes read: "1st Dream: The three dragon sisters (Fala, Sila and Mackria) were nice sisters but a very powerful dragon kidnapped them and wanted their blood, however they refused to give their blood so they got put in the dungeon where all other dragons went who refused. The sisters wanted to free them but they could not, sadly. 2 years later the other dragons were killed except for the sisters because they are special princesses, very nice. Scene 2: To rescue them they will give us a great reward which is a mystery. So to rescue them you must go through the thorny bushes of thor at a great battle on a bridge, but the war will be very harsh. Then you must walk the mountains of cataral. There will be a big surprise but you will have to figure it out. Then you must walk a distance, then the lair will be revealed."
We were mostly able to follow this. Over the years I have crafted tons of terrain, and she put it where it worked, first using 5 giant green cactuses (carved from styrofoam and secured to cardboard bases and painted) with red (painted pointy toothpick) thorns. B arranged them in a straight line blocking our way across the battlemat, and put a "big fight" (star wars rancor mini, we used the Earth Titan rules from MM1, along with a Hill Giant) on the other side of them. It was a fairly tough encounter for Wikipedia Jones, Aurora, Robrick Willikers, Hadji, Rholain Carack, Shamash, Elle Enchanted, and Trusty Ol' Sticky Fingers. (Note: Robby was here but left his sheet for Jorel at home. I had intended to run some star wars also which he did bring but we never got to it. Sorry Robby! -D)
Not far beyond that, two shadowy Oni or some such things guarded a narrow passage surrounded by an invisible wall. One of them had the annoying ability to become insubstantial, and the other was able to change into some kind of bear form when he was near death and basically shake off all his previous injuries. Let's just say this was tougher than the first encounter. The phasing Oni was able to loop around the wall where we couldn't follow and flank Hadji and bring him down. After some disbelief and grieving, Rholain was able to restore the elven ranger to life somehow.
The next area was dominated by lava and a long narrow bridge. Our party fought our way across, Roberick dominating the shadow creatures who seemed so determined to stop us while Rholain made his way across as a swarm of flying filth of some kind, getting to the controls in the middle that spun the bridge to the other side -- several times. It was like an amusement ride, and a lot of bad guys fell in lava! (Ha Ha, B. says). After several rounds, the party dispatched the last of the shadow warriors. (I think they are in the MM2 which I don't have right here - I might edit this later and put them in. I think they were challenge rating 15 or so). One missed step and this part could have gone badly for one of our characters but we were all okay.
Finally, we made it to the hidden mountain pass, went over the top and found the evil dragon with the kidnapped sisters. (B. says Hallelujah!) Using our combined abilities and stealth to give the rogues and ranger one mighty strike, the party was able to quickly dispatch the powerful dragon (B says it seemed like 5 seconds flat - and that's about right!) Then the gate opened and the sisters were set free - already.
Experience: 3,000
Treasure: One Level 18 Magic Item each
Next session: Apr. 10
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Strawberry French Napoleons, A Dragon, A Treant & Ogres
A few of us couldn't make it, or were only able to be at part of the game session. While we waited, Mat, Garza & I played a few games of Magic and I got to try out my new deck. A few sets ago they came out with some cheap green creatures with deathtouch. Along with artifacts that allow creatures to tap to deal 1 to any creature or player this is kind of sick when it goes off. I added in some untapping effects such as "Freed from the Real," and wow, it's pretty good though it still needs some tuning.
Ava ran D&D (4th) again, the party is still progressing on our way to meet the dragon lady to cure our zombie rot. It sure is a long way. Shamash & Fyev, Elle, Wikipedia & Aurora, Hadji & Foxy, Jorel, Sticky Fingers, the Dwarven Warden and Roberick Willikers found themselves moving through the only passable area of swamps, thickets and water. In this area the party encountered an adult green dragon and a very large treant, who were fighting each other. After Hadji and Sticky Fingers (mostly) nearly turned the crazy battlers against the party we found our way through and discovered an area full of smashed up things from previous people who had come into the area and never made it out. Some of the things were not smashed up however so we picked up a few handy magic items (level 14). XP: 900
Later on, the party was ambushed by orcs and ogres who put up a pretty good fight but at this point the party was more than a match for even a small army of these monsters. That being said, you never know--the encounter you underestimate could be the one that takes you out! We got some more xp and some monetary treasure for that but I don't have the #s in front of me right now.
I was happy to have a good selection of terrain and pretty good minis for this one. A few years ago I found some plastic fish plants at the thrift store, and I based them up in styrofoam with cardboard underneath and after painting them up they look great - perfect swamp foliage. The dried up sticks from some Scotch Broom I took out a few years ago, after being based up the same way and with some Woodland Scenics clump foliage added make great trees similar to African ones in appearance, and one of the big ones worked pretty well for the Treant. Sadly, our local hobby store is closing so when my stash of Woodland Scenics runs out I will have to find them somewhere else or order them online.
Ava brought strawberry Napoleons and said they were the French type. I don't know that much about pastries and things but they sure were good in both the white chocolate and cream versions. She has a birthday coming up so a few of us pitched in with some goodies for her too. Thank you Ava!
Next session is planned for Saturday, March 27 at 3 pm
Ava ran D&D (4th) again, the party is still progressing on our way to meet the dragon lady to cure our zombie rot. It sure is a long way. Shamash & Fyev, Elle, Wikipedia & Aurora, Hadji & Foxy, Jorel, Sticky Fingers, the Dwarven Warden and Roberick Willikers found themselves moving through the only passable area of swamps, thickets and water. In this area the party encountered an adult green dragon and a very large treant, who were fighting each other. After Hadji and Sticky Fingers (mostly) nearly turned the crazy battlers against the party we found our way through and discovered an area full of smashed up things from previous people who had come into the area and never made it out. Some of the things were not smashed up however so we picked up a few handy magic items (level 14). XP: 900
Later on, the party was ambushed by orcs and ogres who put up a pretty good fight but at this point the party was more than a match for even a small army of these monsters. That being said, you never know--the encounter you underestimate could be the one that takes you out! We got some more xp and some monetary treasure for that but I don't have the #s in front of me right now.
I was happy to have a good selection of terrain and pretty good minis for this one. A few years ago I found some plastic fish plants at the thrift store, and I based them up in styrofoam with cardboard underneath and after painting them up they look great - perfect swamp foliage. The dried up sticks from some Scotch Broom I took out a few years ago, after being based up the same way and with some Woodland Scenics clump foliage added make great trees similar to African ones in appearance, and one of the big ones worked pretty well for the Treant. Sadly, our local hobby store is closing so when my stash of Woodland Scenics runs out I will have to find them somewhere else or order them online.
Ava brought strawberry Napoleons and said they were the French type. I don't know that much about pastries and things but they sure were good in both the white chocolate and cream versions. She has a birthday coming up so a few of us pitched in with some goodies for her too. Thank you Ava!
Next session is planned for Saturday, March 27 at 3 pm
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
Planet of the Dragonblood-drainers
Part 2 of Carson's prequel to "Our Year with the Dragon" aka Planet of the Dragons. This is a summary.
... So the previous portion led us up to the final encounter leading us to the Throne of Golden Ages, which the party intended to find and destroy, thus ending the horribly inhuman treatment the human emperor was giving to the dragon community. The true source of the empire's power was arcane magic, which was coming from dragons - directly from their blood.
Furthermore, upon meeting the Emperor and his entourage, the party learned they were undead - from banshees, etc. to the emperor himself, a vampire. After much pomp and circumstance, delay and distraction - one of the rogues discovered a secret wall behind the throne that opened large enough for a dragon to fit through. A big battle ensued with the Emperor fleeing and the party defeating his minions before following through the opening.
A corridor led to a strange chamber - to a room with no throne. Instead, a gigantic, strange beast held the Emperor, who proudly exclaimed that he was sitting upon the true throne, his true source of power. In the final encounter, Jorel of the Stars (unchanged except in his memories from his future self), Shamus (ancestor of Shamash), Atlas Jones (ancestor of Wikipedia), Stella (ancestor of Ella Enchanted), and the ancestors of Aurora, Robrick Willikers, Hadjii, and Sticky Fingers all worked together to defeat the emperor and his strange one-horned mount along with the ghosts of gored dragons and strange magical effects. When the weird creature was defeated, the world of the emperor imploded in an ominous way and the world changed in a giant shockwave as what had been done, became undone.
It was all very epic, like a fantasy version of the end of the first Ghostbusters movie.
Just as epic was what followed: the beginning of the reign of the dragons, who paraded a tainted sphere of Io, vowed wrath on the humans and burned the seas in a tremendous show of force. As most of the party flew away on the back of the dragon they had saved - Lady Visandra, each of them had similar thoughts: Oh GOD, what have we done?
By the way, we went DING to 14th level. And if you missed it, you missed out on Ava's Bananas Foster pastry things - mmm. delicious!
... So the previous portion led us up to the final encounter leading us to the Throne of Golden Ages, which the party intended to find and destroy, thus ending the horribly inhuman treatment the human emperor was giving to the dragon community. The true source of the empire's power was arcane magic, which was coming from dragons - directly from their blood.
Furthermore, upon meeting the Emperor and his entourage, the party learned they were undead - from banshees, etc. to the emperor himself, a vampire. After much pomp and circumstance, delay and distraction - one of the rogues discovered a secret wall behind the throne that opened large enough for a dragon to fit through. A big battle ensued with the Emperor fleeing and the party defeating his minions before following through the opening.
A corridor led to a strange chamber - to a room with no throne. Instead, a gigantic, strange beast held the Emperor, who proudly exclaimed that he was sitting upon the true throne, his true source of power. In the final encounter, Jorel of the Stars (unchanged except in his memories from his future self), Shamus (ancestor of Shamash), Atlas Jones (ancestor of Wikipedia), Stella (ancestor of Ella Enchanted), and the ancestors of Aurora, Robrick Willikers, Hadjii, and Sticky Fingers all worked together to defeat the emperor and his strange one-horned mount along with the ghosts of gored dragons and strange magical effects. When the weird creature was defeated, the world of the emperor imploded in an ominous way and the world changed in a giant shockwave as what had been done, became undone.
It was all very epic, like a fantasy version of the end of the first Ghostbusters movie.
Just as epic was what followed: the beginning of the reign of the dragons, who paraded a tainted sphere of Io, vowed wrath on the humans and burned the seas in a tremendous show of force. As most of the party flew away on the back of the dragon they had saved - Lady Visandra, each of them had similar thoughts: Oh GOD, what have we done?
By the way, we went DING to 14th level. And if you missed it, you missed out on Ava's Bananas Foster pastry things - mmm. delicious!
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Louf Origno, Col. Leif & Yogi
Clayton started a new Star Wars Character, Louf Origno. He is a Lepi Jedi with 3 ex-wives and about 150 children. Our session was more roleplay this time, very little combat. Drael (Jon's Jedi) has gone to the dark side and used force lightning on psionic worms, the Ee, who have used advanced mental powers to avoid detection. There were too many worms in the hivemind for it to be effective, though a splinter group of Ee seems to be more accessible. They demonstrated telepathy, telekinesis, teleportation, cell-disruption and healing, though any other powers the 6 cm worms might have are still unknown.
Another local nasty were energy-resistant giant flying beetles, according to the captain of the highly damaged Lucky Bantha they can really tear things up and even a few eggs among the salvage can result in a devastated cargo bay and even the loss of a ship (as was the case for Captain Thelonius).
Cap'n Gracus (Carson's noble) and a few others of the party spent some time salvaging through the Clone War ruins on the depopulated surface of the main world, and exploring the mines of the nearby moon, where the Ee live and purify the metals they consume. Pieda Bowman did some piloting, as did Ava's character. Mat's droid, Roger Roger, was unable to communicate with the Ee due to the nature of their telepathy until they spoke through a civilian miner.
An elderly couple were determined by Destro to be Rebellion loyalists being followed by an Imperial spy. After Garik shot a martini glass to save an Ee worm and paid the 15 credit fine, Destro followed the spy , incapacitated him and questioned him in the guise of Cap'n Jenkins, the notorious Imperial agent. After persuading the spy, Col. Leif, into calling in an attack on the world to destroy a Rebel base, Destro was able to con the Ee into giving thier mineral deposits to his true employer, Dabbo the Hutt, through intermediaries into the future.
XP 2,000. Ship fund: individual 10,000 credit bonuses plus newly salvaged parts, including rare Clone War droid components. Oh, and Cap'n Gracus has a new friend, Pedro, "The Great Gazoo," an Ee who might teleport in every now and then.
Yogi BeHir and the Werewolves - the Sequel
In D&D it was Mat, Ava, Carson, Me (Dave), Rod and Jon. The party made some good progress overland, though we still are being plagued by wandering encounters. We fought some kind of undead elf lich who kept the entire party occupied for a while. Our friend the BeHir (who we now call Yogi) is still following us, getting a bit of help again from Wikipedia Jones with how his magic picnic basket works. Roberick Willikers, Shamash, Fy'Ev, Elle, Aurora, Hadji, Rholain and Jones ended up fighting werewolves again - apparently they haven't learned their lesson yet.
When we get to where we are going, we should be able to help a good dragon faction, and also get our long awaited cure for zombie rot.
For anybody who missed today's session, you missed out on Ava's chocolate mint cheesecake cupcakes. Oh those were good.
Next session: Feb. 27 3:00 pm
Another local nasty were energy-resistant giant flying beetles, according to the captain of the highly damaged Lucky Bantha they can really tear things up and even a few eggs among the salvage can result in a devastated cargo bay and even the loss of a ship (as was the case for Captain Thelonius).
Cap'n Gracus (Carson's noble) and a few others of the party spent some time salvaging through the Clone War ruins on the depopulated surface of the main world, and exploring the mines of the nearby moon, where the Ee live and purify the metals they consume. Pieda Bowman did some piloting, as did Ava's character. Mat's droid, Roger Roger, was unable to communicate with the Ee due to the nature of their telepathy until they spoke through a civilian miner.
An elderly couple were determined by Destro to be Rebellion loyalists being followed by an Imperial spy. After Garik shot a martini glass to save an Ee worm and paid the 15 credit fine, Destro followed the spy , incapacitated him and questioned him in the guise of Cap'n Jenkins, the notorious Imperial agent. After persuading the spy, Col. Leif, into calling in an attack on the world to destroy a Rebel base, Destro was able to con the Ee into giving thier mineral deposits to his true employer, Dabbo the Hutt, through intermediaries into the future.
XP 2,000. Ship fund: individual 10,000 credit bonuses plus newly salvaged parts, including rare Clone War droid components. Oh, and Cap'n Gracus has a new friend, Pedro, "The Great Gazoo," an Ee who might teleport in every now and then.
Yogi BeHir and the Werewolves - the Sequel
In D&D it was Mat, Ava, Carson, Me (Dave), Rod and Jon. The party made some good progress overland, though we still are being plagued by wandering encounters. We fought some kind of undead elf lich who kept the entire party occupied for a while. Our friend the BeHir (who we now call Yogi) is still following us, getting a bit of help again from Wikipedia Jones with how his magic picnic basket works. Roberick Willikers, Shamash, Fy'Ev, Elle, Aurora, Hadji, Rholain and Jones ended up fighting werewolves again - apparently they haven't learned their lesson yet.
When we get to where we are going, we should be able to help a good dragon faction, and also get our long awaited cure for zombie rot.
For anybody who missed today's session, you missed out on Ava's chocolate mint cheesecake cupcakes. Oh those were good.
Next session: Feb. 27 3:00 pm
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Dora meets Godzilla
So Saturday Ava continued running our adventure to find the friendly zombie-rot curing dragon, who might also need our help. We've joked that it's like an episode of Dora the Explorer, "You go OVER the river and THROUGH the swamp and then you get to the BIG, BIG LAKE!" Oh never mind, Lord of the Rings works the same way.
Shamash Kriv and Fy'Ev the Kensai (Dave's dragonborn battle captain warlord and kensai fighter henchman) found themselves digging for rabbits from the Handy Haversack when our friend the Behir showed up again (yes the same one). Diplomacy is great, but concern was arising about what would happen when we ran out of rabbits. "Do not feed the Behirs," would have been a good warning sign for us. Luckily for us, Wikipedia Jones (Mat's Bard) had his Everful Picnic Basket and the Behir (Int. 7) was just smart enough to learn how to use it and appreciate the gift. Roberick Willikers III (Rod's drow rogue) was pretty cheesed off about giving magic items to wandering encounters but we did get full XP and it saved game time to not fight it, plus you never know when you might need a friendly Behir on your side -- they are a force to be reckoned with! More bear puns ensued though, with the picnic basket triggering Yogi and Boo-Boo outtakes that were pretty darn funny. "Hey Boo Boo! Where you going with that pic-in-ic basket?" You get the idea.
We have been relying on the tracking skills of our dauntless ranger, Hadjii and his amazing dog companion Foxy (Garza's character, level 13). So it was a full moon on one of the early watches a bunch of werewolves tried to sneak up on the party. Upon awakening, Shamash proceeded to intimidate the beasties, causing them to hesitate in their attack. Elle Enchanted (B's Polearm master) charged on her horse ("Killer" Bloodhoof) right into three of them as the rest of the party also entered the fray. Good Ol' Sticky Fingers (Shawn R.'s halfling rogue, now played by Alma) and Roberick Willikers were able to sneak up on some of the bad guys and inflict serious damage while also blinding their foes. Aurora (Ava's shifter cleric) was ready for anything and found herself in melee with a couple of them. There was no negotiating with these guys. Meanwhile Hadjii, Foxy, Shamash and Fy'Ev flanked the leader eventually bringing him down too. By the end of the encounter several party members were scratched up but fortunately no one was bitten.
After making some more progress in our long overland journey (side note: most of the party are still getting used to the idea of stars in the sky) we discovered what looked to be a small abandoned gnome town. Just as we began to explore the town, we were attacked by goblin archers, who had been hiding among the buildings. Shamash ran into the central building and climbed to the top, placing himself 5' behind one of the archers, daring him to charge. Shamash also saw something sickeningly big and ugly hiding behind the building, and . The annoying bad guys were able to pick away at us for a couple rounds before we discovered their enforcer: a giant troll of some kind. From that point on most of the party pretty much focused on the troll. Meanwhile we did take out most of the goblins. The troll got up once or twice before Fy'Ev breathed acid on him, preventing any further regeneration. After closer examination of the town,the party discovered about a dozen of the original gnome inhabitants, who were grateful their home had been liberated by us. We got a little bit of treasure (about 350 GP each if I remember). More importantly, we are that much closer to our destination.
For those of you who missed the session, you missed out on Ava's giant Dragon Cookies (yum!). More for us! See you at 3:00 on Saturday February 13.
Shamash Kriv and Fy'Ev the Kensai (Dave's dragonborn battle captain warlord and kensai fighter henchman) found themselves digging for rabbits from the Handy Haversack when our friend the Behir showed up again (yes the same one). Diplomacy is great, but concern was arising about what would happen when we ran out of rabbits. "Do not feed the Behirs," would have been a good warning sign for us. Luckily for us, Wikipedia Jones (Mat's Bard) had his Everful Picnic Basket and the Behir (Int. 7) was just smart enough to learn how to use it and appreciate the gift. Roberick Willikers III (Rod's drow rogue) was pretty cheesed off about giving magic items to wandering encounters but we did get full XP and it saved game time to not fight it, plus you never know when you might need a friendly Behir on your side -- they are a force to be reckoned with! More bear puns ensued though, with the picnic basket triggering Yogi and Boo-Boo outtakes that were pretty darn funny. "Hey Boo Boo! Where you going with that pic-in-ic basket?" You get the idea.
We have been relying on the tracking skills of our dauntless ranger, Hadjii and his amazing dog companion Foxy (Garza's character, level 13). So it was a full moon on one of the early watches a bunch of werewolves tried to sneak up on the party. Upon awakening, Shamash proceeded to intimidate the beasties, causing them to hesitate in their attack. Elle Enchanted (B's Polearm master) charged on her horse ("Killer" Bloodhoof) right into three of them as the rest of the party also entered the fray. Good Ol' Sticky Fingers (Shawn R.'s halfling rogue, now played by Alma) and Roberick Willikers were able to sneak up on some of the bad guys and inflict serious damage while also blinding their foes. Aurora (Ava's shifter cleric) was ready for anything and found herself in melee with a couple of them. There was no negotiating with these guys. Meanwhile Hadjii, Foxy, Shamash and Fy'Ev flanked the leader eventually bringing him down too. By the end of the encounter several party members were scratched up but fortunately no one was bitten.
After making some more progress in our long overland journey (side note: most of the party are still getting used to the idea of stars in the sky) we discovered what looked to be a small abandoned gnome town. Just as we began to explore the town, we were attacked by goblin archers, who had been hiding among the buildings. Shamash ran into the central building and climbed to the top, placing himself 5' behind one of the archers, daring him to charge. Shamash also saw something sickeningly big and ugly hiding behind the building, and . The annoying bad guys were able to pick away at us for a couple rounds before we discovered their enforcer: a giant troll of some kind. From that point on most of the party pretty much focused on the troll. Meanwhile we did take out most of the goblins. The troll got up once or twice before Fy'Ev breathed acid on him, preventing any further regeneration. After closer examination of the town,the party discovered about a dozen of the original gnome inhabitants, who were grateful their home had been liberated by us. We got a little bit of treasure (about 350 GP each if I remember). More importantly, we are that much closer to our destination.
For those of you who missed the session, you missed out on Ava's giant Dragon Cookies (yum!). More for us! See you at 3:00 on Saturday February 13.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Ava's Session
Last Saturday, Ava ran our D&D game, still within our shared "Planet of the Dragons" world. It was a good session, the party is on an overland expedition to fix the zombie rot problem. After so much time in the underdark it is good to be on the surface, though the encounters are certainly just as tough. Among our encounters were a giant thorny carnivorous plant (don't laugh, it took the party a few rounds to take it out), a Behir (we were able to diplomatically sidestep that one) and a horrible undead thing that eats souls, I think it's called a Devourer. Since the party wasn't all there, we kept our distance from the Devourer and softened it up with ranged attacks for a while before closing in, and that was probably for the best - pretty scary, but we beat it.
It was a good session both for roleplay, outdoor description and combat. Although there was no treasure we did gain enough xp to level up.
So hey everybody -- DING to 13th!
By the way, if you weren't here you missed out on some excellent cheesecake.
Mmm... cheesecake!
---
So now Roddy, Phil, Garza, Ava, Carson and I have all run sessions in this shared campaign, though Carson's session was kind of a prequel. Rob hasn't run yet. I don't know if Marshall or Alma or anybody run games, but that's a pretty good amount of DMs already for 4th edition still being relatively new out.
I think it's fairly intuitive. One of the best things I think a DM can take advantage of is the tactical aspects of terrain - cover, rough terrain, hazards, elevated areas etc.
It was a good session both for roleplay, outdoor description and combat. Although there was no treasure we did gain enough xp to level up.
So hey everybody -- DING to 13th!
By the way, if you weren't here you missed out on some excellent cheesecake.
Mmm... cheesecake!
---
So now Roddy, Phil, Garza, Ava, Carson and I have all run sessions in this shared campaign, though Carson's session was kind of a prequel. Rob hasn't run yet. I don't know if Marshall or Alma or anybody run games, but that's a pretty good amount of DMs already for 4th edition still being relatively new out.
I think it's fairly intuitive. One of the best things I think a DM can take advantage of is the tactical aspects of terrain - cover, rough terrain, hazards, elevated areas etc.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Planet of the Dragons
...and Dragon Liches, and slavers of unimaginable alien grotesqueness, and vile zombie rot diseases...
Our Year With The Dragon (D&D 4e) continues. Now that we are Paragon (12th level) characters, our challenges have risen to meet our new powers and abilities. Due to zombie rot infecting the party and threatening the only city we have freed from it's zigarut dragon temple, we were forced to once again descend into the depths and find Lady Vizandra's tomb. In our hopes of finding a cure, even leads that brought us into a trap were welcome. Yes, we have fought Neogi and their slaves. Nasty umber hulks. Even a dragon lich. Some tough encounters.
But the biggest insult of all is that the party had to once again plunge the skyless depths of the vile underdark. After lifetimes of striving to escape tunnels, after finally walking the beach of the surface on a sunny day we had no choice but to once again descend to the realm of perilous lava tubes, acid pools and worst of all the home of the Dragon Empire. Worse than that is the knowledge that the Dragons rule the cities of the surface as well, naming each of their carefully divided communities of slaves only by the race that dwells there. Because it was the first city we found, we freed "Lizardtown." We don't even know the name of the world we are saving because the draconic name is unworthy of being revealed to non-dragons, but now to save it from undeath we delve the tunnels below it...
Among the heroes are:
Wikipedia Jones (Mat's human bard 12)
Aurora (Ava's shifter cleric)
Pit Fighter Kamal (Jimmy's 1/2 orc barbarian 12)
Shadow Sticky Fingers (Alma took over Shawn's halfling rogue last time)
Rolen (Carson's half-elf Shaman)
Azer (Phil's human wizard)
Robrik Willikers III (Rod's drow rogue)
Hadji & his dog (Jon's Elf ranger)
Jorel of the Stars (Rob's warforged paladin/sorcerer)
Terra (Chrissy's dwarf rogue)
Shamash Kriv & Fy'Ev (Dave's dragonborn warlord Battle Captain & his dragonborn fighter henchman)
Ella Enchanted (B's Human Fighter, a mounted Polearm Master)
I don't have all your paragon paths here, but I will add them later.
Our Year With The Dragon (D&D 4e) continues. Now that we are Paragon (12th level) characters, our challenges have risen to meet our new powers and abilities. Due to zombie rot infecting the party and threatening the only city we have freed from it's zigarut dragon temple, we were forced to once again descend into the depths and find Lady Vizandra's tomb. In our hopes of finding a cure, even leads that brought us into a trap were welcome. Yes, we have fought Neogi and their slaves. Nasty umber hulks. Even a dragon lich. Some tough encounters.
But the biggest insult of all is that the party had to once again plunge the skyless depths of the vile underdark. After lifetimes of striving to escape tunnels, after finally walking the beach of the surface on a sunny day we had no choice but to once again descend to the realm of perilous lava tubes, acid pools and worst of all the home of the Dragon Empire. Worse than that is the knowledge that the Dragons rule the cities of the surface as well, naming each of their carefully divided communities of slaves only by the race that dwells there. Because it was the first city we found, we freed "Lizardtown." We don't even know the name of the world we are saving because the draconic name is unworthy of being revealed to non-dragons, but now to save it from undeath we delve the tunnels below it...
Among the heroes are:
Wikipedia Jones (Mat's human bard 12)
Aurora (Ava's shifter cleric)
Pit Fighter Kamal (Jimmy's 1/2 orc barbarian 12)
Shadow Sticky Fingers (Alma took over Shawn's halfling rogue last time)
Rolen (Carson's half-elf Shaman)
Azer (Phil's human wizard)
Robrik Willikers III (Rod's drow rogue)
Hadji & his dog (Jon's Elf ranger)
Jorel of the Stars (Rob's warforged paladin/sorcerer)
Terra (Chrissy's dwarf rogue)
Shamash Kriv & Fy'Ev (Dave's dragonborn warlord Battle Captain & his dragonborn fighter henchman)
Ella Enchanted (B's Human Fighter, a mounted Polearm Master)
I don't have all your paragon paths here, but I will add them later.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Star Wars - 7/25/09 session
How could it be possible?
A small band of Hutt operatives on one light cargo ship arrive on a highly populated, previously ignored but now promising world.
When they depart, they are responsible for the defeat of 4 Imperial Star Destroyers and a garrison, and have a legally binding Hutt trade contract signed by the planet administrator as well as an Imperial Moff.
All in a few days' work.
Ho ho ho, says Dabbo the Hutt.
A small band of Hutt operatives on one light cargo ship arrive on a highly populated, previously ignored but now promising world.
When they depart, they are responsible for the defeat of 4 Imperial Star Destroyers and a garrison, and have a legally binding Hutt trade contract signed by the planet administrator as well as an Imperial Moff.
All in a few days' work.
Ho ho ho, says Dabbo the Hutt.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
"Your cities are forfeit...er..."
...or something.
Our Year With The Dragon: Session 7/12/09 D&D 4e lvl 8
(This campaign is based on "Planet of the Apes" only underground and with reptiles)
We drank Coca-Cola from the 2 liter bottle. We ate Doritos out of the red bag. Our characters killed an army of lizardmen and an adult green dragon, some of us while flying on giant mosquitos. I know, you've heard this before... but that doesn't make it any less fun!
Shamash (dragonborn warlord 8) and his henchmen Fy'Ev (dragonborn fighter 5) had a bad feeling about this battle, because they have seen it before, and they are concerned about their warmblooded friends. When the dragons bring their army of lizardmen, the townspeople surrender without a fight and are enslaved within hours. The second rank of reinforcements stopped bothering with weapons centuries ago because the need for leg chains, mancatchers, whips and nets always comes shortly after the appearance of an actual dragon with its army.
But as it turned out, the dragons were wrong this time. In their arrogance (and also from being cheap) they brought a smaller show of force than usual. Also, in a major miscalculation they split their forces and attacked the two cities simultaneously, hoping to crush the humans and their allies before they could unite. Even so, under normal circumstances victory would have been easy for them.
What the dragons (Verpa the Green and her brother Sizzum) did not anticipate was that a rising band of heroes (including lowly elves, a drow, a couple dragonborn traitors and even a halfling) could have any chance to foil their directive from High Mage-Priest Quigtagzigak (known by other names as well...) to crush the free cities.
New Anthrotaria was attacked slightly ahead of Mysan City. In a stellar show of power, dragon magic turned the city wall into a cottage cheese of molten lava, then froze it solid. The lizardman army followed, well armed, armored and equipped with weapons and armor built by but a small fraction of the human slaves. Verpa the Green urged them on, leading from the rear. Once she could work her way into sight of everyone in the city she would roar, breathe her poison if neccessary, and accept surrender from the twin of the mayor, the weaker willed of the brothers, she was sure. She was already counting her treasure, and wondering what worthless trinkets the artisans here might create for her to sneer at.
Somehow though, a handful of the New Anthrotarians didn't seem to understand the order of things, of how events must be. Impossibly, and before her army was completely mustered and in position, her forces were attacked.
Eachann (Phil's elf invoker 8) set up his symbol, which would aid the party throughout the battle, and began attacking the enemy with magic - almost before it arrived, putting several down. Shadow (Shawn's halfling rogue/Artful Dodger/Alchemist 8) attacked one of the forward lizardmen scouts, downing his foe as well. Rholian Carack (Carson's elf shaman) attacked lizardmen using a powerful spirit he brought forth, with much success - and also supported the other members of the ramshackle band. Robrick Willakers III (Rod's drow rogue) brought down lots of minions with one sudden burst of daggers, seemingly emanating from a cloud of darkness. Karl (Marshall's human wizard) let loose some kind of fireball, followed by a larger fireball, again all at once. Shamash and Fy'Ev double-teamed an enemy warlord, forcing him onto the defensive.
Stunned to lose so many forces so quickly, Verpa the Green was able only to save herself, and possibly save face by assuring her retreating forces that they were only a scouting party and now they knew where the enemy was and what they were capable of. Her quick thinking saved her life. Her brother Sizzum was slain in the other city - by that very same band of upstarts mere hours later.
Our Year With The Dragon: Session 7/12/09 D&D 4e lvl 8
(This campaign is based on "Planet of the Apes" only underground and with reptiles)
We drank Coca-Cola from the 2 liter bottle. We ate Doritos out of the red bag. Our characters killed an army of lizardmen and an adult green dragon, some of us while flying on giant mosquitos. I know, you've heard this before... but that doesn't make it any less fun!
Shamash (dragonborn warlord 8) and his henchmen Fy'Ev (dragonborn fighter 5) had a bad feeling about this battle, because they have seen it before, and they are concerned about their warmblooded friends. When the dragons bring their army of lizardmen, the townspeople surrender without a fight and are enslaved within hours. The second rank of reinforcements stopped bothering with weapons centuries ago because the need for leg chains, mancatchers, whips and nets always comes shortly after the appearance of an actual dragon with its army.
But as it turned out, the dragons were wrong this time. In their arrogance (and also from being cheap) they brought a smaller show of force than usual. Also, in a major miscalculation they split their forces and attacked the two cities simultaneously, hoping to crush the humans and their allies before they could unite. Even so, under normal circumstances victory would have been easy for them.
What the dragons (Verpa the Green and her brother Sizzum) did not anticipate was that a rising band of heroes (including lowly elves, a drow, a couple dragonborn traitors and even a halfling) could have any chance to foil their directive from High Mage-Priest Quigtagzigak (known by other names as well...) to crush the free cities.
New Anthrotaria was attacked slightly ahead of Mysan City. In a stellar show of power, dragon magic turned the city wall into a cottage cheese of molten lava, then froze it solid. The lizardman army followed, well armed, armored and equipped with weapons and armor built by but a small fraction of the human slaves. Verpa the Green urged them on, leading from the rear. Once she could work her way into sight of everyone in the city she would roar, breathe her poison if neccessary, and accept surrender from the twin of the mayor, the weaker willed of the brothers, she was sure. She was already counting her treasure, and wondering what worthless trinkets the artisans here might create for her to sneer at.
Somehow though, a handful of the New Anthrotarians didn't seem to understand the order of things, of how events must be. Impossibly, and before her army was completely mustered and in position, her forces were attacked.
Eachann (Phil's elf invoker 8) set up his symbol, which would aid the party throughout the battle, and began attacking the enemy with magic - almost before it arrived, putting several down. Shadow (Shawn's halfling rogue/Artful Dodger/Alchemist 8) attacked one of the forward lizardmen scouts, downing his foe as well. Rholian Carack (Carson's elf shaman) attacked lizardmen using a powerful spirit he brought forth, with much success - and also supported the other members of the ramshackle band. Robrick Willakers III (Rod's drow rogue) brought down lots of minions with one sudden burst of daggers, seemingly emanating from a cloud of darkness. Karl (Marshall's human wizard) let loose some kind of fireball, followed by a larger fireball, again all at once. Shamash and Fy'Ev double-teamed an enemy warlord, forcing him onto the defensive.
Stunned to lose so many forces so quickly, Verpa the Green was able only to save herself, and possibly save face by assuring her retreating forces that they were only a scouting party and now they knew where the enemy was and what they were capable of. Her quick thinking saved her life. Her brother Sizzum was slain in the other city - by that very same band of upstarts mere hours later.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Our Year With The Dragon
A BIT OF BACKGROUND FIRST
If you have ever seen "Planet of the Apes," you have the starting point for the setting and basic premise of my tacky new shared world 4th Edition D&D campaign, except replace "Apes" with "Reptiles," and replace "Planet" with "Endless Dungeon." It's a shameless hack 'n slash, but that's kind of the point. It's really fun, and kind of liberating. At the start, kobolds and lizardmen have enslaved all of the mammal races to mine, build weapons and ships, and to enlarge their already enormous underground empire. The humans, elves, halflings etc. are completely deprived of any freedom or education and have never seen the light of day and in fact this campaign has yet to set foot on the surface. Is it a big cliche? Yes it is.
As the party has ventured deeper, both the slaves and their masters have become bigger and more powerful. Further down the group have encountered cold blooded shahaugin, evil dragonborn, and giant lizardmen--and the heroes have freed warm blooded ogres, giants etc. from slavery. Greater amounts of magic continue to appear in the dungeons themselves (yes, even in the walls and floors), as a more impressive level of affluence reigns with the powerful who reside in the deep levels -- and there is no end in sight to this dungeon. In fact, it may BE the entire world for all the party knows.
So it was inevitable that in this campaign the party would encounter dragons, and sooner than would be usual. Now don't get me wrong here. In the past, (and I have been DMing since 1980) I have been very sparing with my use of dragons because I always felt they were over-used in other campaigns. In fact I have deliberately gone in other directions (golems, conspiracies of elves, etc.) whenever possible, and most adventuring groups in my campaigns haven't even seen a dragon until at least 15th level, or more likely higher. Why? Because when I run a dragon, I want to run a DRAGON! Dragons should be city-destroying forces of supernature that strike fear and respect from those poor souls unfortunate enough to encounter them. Dragons should regularly end the lives of entire parties of adventuring heroes, or even cause the end of a campaign with "Oh well, too bad, the dragon got you. Okay, I already have plans for my next campaign. What are you thinking about for your new characters?"
Not that mine is the only campaign going on within our group. Rod's new 4th Edition D&D campaign (actually I think he has more than one) so far seems to center around an undead villian, Skull Lord Kromdor, a guy with three skulls who seems to continually manipulate the party, march armies of undead on us and then laugh at us with his three skeletal jawbones. It's awesome. Robby's new 4th Edition campaign is more military in scope, and our characters in it are very young (my dragonborn cleric is 15, but really about 315 because he and his city were turned to stone 300 years ago). Some part of me gets a sense of Mordheim/Warhammer from the style of Robby's setting, which is something different that I really like, touches like a city pointer sign made out of a skeleton. My characters (yeah, I've actually been playing more instead of running lately) in all three of the above campaigns have so far been Dragonborn, which I initially thought I was going to hate but I actually really enjoy playing because it's something new, fresh and well-written.
Anyway, I was saying dragons can really be a terrible cliche. But they also happen to make really cool encounters, even for low level characters in 4th Edition D&D, as Rod proved last night, when he ran the session in my endless dungeon crawl setting that I described above. (Phil had his turn running in this shared world a couple weeks ago and did a terrific job, by the way). Phil picked up where I left off, and Rod picked up where Phil left off. Here's a recap that's bound to be off a bit...
THE SESSION
So it was me, Shawn R., Carson, Phil, and Rod (Shane came later). Shawn, who is new to our group, played an awesome halfling rogue named Shadow. Carson played an elf Shaman "To Darwin," Rolen. Phil, who played well last time but had a character die anyway from bad luck, had another new character, Krug Nument, a really tough half orc barbarian (from the PH2). The party's other rogue, Robrik Willikers, is a super nasty drow Rod built and Carson played, then Shane took over when he arrived. I played my same old Dragonborn Warlord, Shamash Kriv, who specializes in inspiring his allies to be even more powerful than they already are, and killing enemies up close and personal. Currently (but not for long) the party are all at 5th level.
At the end of Phil's session, we had seen an old green dragon (if I recall, we had thought it was a statue earlier...) with glowing red eyes, right at the end of a big encounter with dragonborn and drakes, if I remember. Anyway, Rod started the new session it from that point. The dragon turned out to also be a vampire. Her name was Lady Viza(something). She had a young green dragon son (who was not undead). She dominated my character to throw my Shield Guardian amulet into the Aboleth tank. Then, she taunted the party and left. Knowing we were likely to be heading for an ambush, we followed her anyway once Shamash could clear his head, because we heard people screaming in that direction. Besides, none of us felt much like going after the amulet anyway.
We came to a hallway that opened up into a large rectangular chamber with an area coming off one side filled with coffins and a strange purple glow. A couple of us noticed that the wall on the left looked a bit unsteady. Two pools of boiling blood occupied positions in the middle of the hallway, their purpose unknown. Undead, possibly zombies or worse, seemed to be everywhere here. Leading from the rear was a humanoid vampire with scaly skin. Glowing red eyes stared at us from every direction.
Krug slammed his weapon into the wall on the left, collapsing an area onto some of the undead but also himself. Robrick snuck around, and ended up getting some good dagger attacks in on the enemy. Shadow also snuck around, and seemed to have excellent timing and luck, continually downing opponents in the most amazing ways. Rolen at one point ended up admiring Shadow from a vantage point upside down, within a gelatinus cube, saying "who is that amazing little man?" or some such thing. Shamash wound up fighting a swarm of rat-sized dinosaur looking things who turned out to be really tough. The vampire commanded a minion to activate the dragon statue at the end of the hallway/chamber, which then spewed slippery poison all over most of the party. He then retreated to his zone of power, which glowed purple, in the center of the room with coffins. Krug defeated him but he came back. Shadow took him out the second time and then Krug wrecked the coffin and whatever else was bringing the vampire back.
After a brief reprieve, the party continued past the statue. Here we encountered the vampire dragon, Lady V. The large cavern almost gave the feel of being outside. It featured swampy areas that occasionally flared up in gaseous explosions as well as briar brush, spore molds, and a giant red crystal atop a building in the distance, among other features. The main thing were the curious blue crystals which one could reach through, and poke a hand (or a weapon) out of another blue crystal of your choice. They weren't big enough to teleport you, but you could use them to attack anywhere next to any of the other crystals - and there were a lot of them. After Lady V. charged the party and breathed her acid on us (ouch), Shamash was able to give himself combat advantage by attacking her rear flank with his Glaive, as it reached nearly 10' poking into one crystal and out another to strike. Zombies appeared in the swamp, menacing, and Rolen dispatched some of them with his magical bear of winter's wrath or whatever it was, that kept re-appearing. A yellow crystal teleported party members back and forth across the cavern. Robrik managed to get to the red crystal, which turned out to be an effective weapon once mastered, focusing a red beam of agony on Lady V., who had herself inflicted her poisonous breath, mind-warping glares, and flesh tearing claw and vampiric bites upon the party. Yet somehow, supporting each other, attacking, moving, retreating, attacking again... the group were ultmately able to somehow, eventually defeat Lady V. in an epic battle of wills, wits and weapons...
The building contained the shield guardian, as well as its amulet which was in the process of being altered in some way. Our group also found treasure there.
Good session Rod, you were really on. Thank you for coming everybody, see you in a couple of weeks.
-Dave
If you have ever seen "Planet of the Apes," you have the starting point for the setting and basic premise of my tacky new shared world 4th Edition D&D campaign, except replace "Apes" with "Reptiles," and replace "Planet" with "Endless Dungeon." It's a shameless hack 'n slash, but that's kind of the point. It's really fun, and kind of liberating. At the start, kobolds and lizardmen have enslaved all of the mammal races to mine, build weapons and ships, and to enlarge their already enormous underground empire. The humans, elves, halflings etc. are completely deprived of any freedom or education and have never seen the light of day and in fact this campaign has yet to set foot on the surface. Is it a big cliche? Yes it is.
As the party has ventured deeper, both the slaves and their masters have become bigger and more powerful. Further down the group have encountered cold blooded shahaugin, evil dragonborn, and giant lizardmen--and the heroes have freed warm blooded ogres, giants etc. from slavery. Greater amounts of magic continue to appear in the dungeons themselves (yes, even in the walls and floors), as a more impressive level of affluence reigns with the powerful who reside in the deep levels -- and there is no end in sight to this dungeon. In fact, it may BE the entire world for all the party knows.
So it was inevitable that in this campaign the party would encounter dragons, and sooner than would be usual. Now don't get me wrong here. In the past, (and I have been DMing since 1980) I have been very sparing with my use of dragons because I always felt they were over-used in other campaigns. In fact I have deliberately gone in other directions (golems, conspiracies of elves, etc.) whenever possible, and most adventuring groups in my campaigns haven't even seen a dragon until at least 15th level, or more likely higher. Why? Because when I run a dragon, I want to run a DRAGON! Dragons should be city-destroying forces of supernature that strike fear and respect from those poor souls unfortunate enough to encounter them. Dragons should regularly end the lives of entire parties of adventuring heroes, or even cause the end of a campaign with "Oh well, too bad, the dragon got you. Okay, I already have plans for my next campaign. What are you thinking about for your new characters?"
Not that mine is the only campaign going on within our group. Rod's new 4th Edition D&D campaign (actually I think he has more than one) so far seems to center around an undead villian, Skull Lord Kromdor, a guy with three skulls who seems to continually manipulate the party, march armies of undead on us and then laugh at us with his three skeletal jawbones. It's awesome. Robby's new 4th Edition campaign is more military in scope, and our characters in it are very young (my dragonborn cleric is 15, but really about 315 because he and his city were turned to stone 300 years ago). Some part of me gets a sense of Mordheim/Warhammer from the style of Robby's setting, which is something different that I really like, touches like a city pointer sign made out of a skeleton. My characters (yeah, I've actually been playing more instead of running lately) in all three of the above campaigns have so far been Dragonborn, which I initially thought I was going to hate but I actually really enjoy playing because it's something new, fresh and well-written.
Anyway, I was saying dragons can really be a terrible cliche. But they also happen to make really cool encounters, even for low level characters in 4th Edition D&D, as Rod proved last night, when he ran the session in my endless dungeon crawl setting that I described above. (Phil had his turn running in this shared world a couple weeks ago and did a terrific job, by the way). Phil picked up where I left off, and Rod picked up where Phil left off. Here's a recap that's bound to be off a bit...
THE SESSION
So it was me, Shawn R., Carson, Phil, and Rod (Shane came later). Shawn, who is new to our group, played an awesome halfling rogue named Shadow. Carson played an elf Shaman "To Darwin," Rolen. Phil, who played well last time but had a character die anyway from bad luck, had another new character, Krug Nument, a really tough half orc barbarian (from the PH2). The party's other rogue, Robrik Willikers, is a super nasty drow Rod built and Carson played, then Shane took over when he arrived. I played my same old Dragonborn Warlord, Shamash Kriv, who specializes in inspiring his allies to be even more powerful than they already are, and killing enemies up close and personal. Currently (but not for long) the party are all at 5th level.
At the end of Phil's session, we had seen an old green dragon (if I recall, we had thought it was a statue earlier...) with glowing red eyes, right at the end of a big encounter with dragonborn and drakes, if I remember. Anyway, Rod started the new session it from that point. The dragon turned out to also be a vampire. Her name was Lady Viza(something). She had a young green dragon son (who was not undead). She dominated my character to throw my Shield Guardian amulet into the Aboleth tank. Then, she taunted the party and left. Knowing we were likely to be heading for an ambush, we followed her anyway once Shamash could clear his head, because we heard people screaming in that direction. Besides, none of us felt much like going after the amulet anyway.
We came to a hallway that opened up into a large rectangular chamber with an area coming off one side filled with coffins and a strange purple glow. A couple of us noticed that the wall on the left looked a bit unsteady. Two pools of boiling blood occupied positions in the middle of the hallway, their purpose unknown. Undead, possibly zombies or worse, seemed to be everywhere here. Leading from the rear was a humanoid vampire with scaly skin. Glowing red eyes stared at us from every direction.
Krug slammed his weapon into the wall on the left, collapsing an area onto some of the undead but also himself. Robrick snuck around, and ended up getting some good dagger attacks in on the enemy. Shadow also snuck around, and seemed to have excellent timing and luck, continually downing opponents in the most amazing ways. Rolen at one point ended up admiring Shadow from a vantage point upside down, within a gelatinus cube, saying "who is that amazing little man?" or some such thing. Shamash wound up fighting a swarm of rat-sized dinosaur looking things who turned out to be really tough. The vampire commanded a minion to activate the dragon statue at the end of the hallway/chamber, which then spewed slippery poison all over most of the party. He then retreated to his zone of power, which glowed purple, in the center of the room with coffins. Krug defeated him but he came back. Shadow took him out the second time and then Krug wrecked the coffin and whatever else was bringing the vampire back.
After a brief reprieve, the party continued past the statue. Here we encountered the vampire dragon, Lady V. The large cavern almost gave the feel of being outside. It featured swampy areas that occasionally flared up in gaseous explosions as well as briar brush, spore molds, and a giant red crystal atop a building in the distance, among other features. The main thing were the curious blue crystals which one could reach through, and poke a hand (or a weapon) out of another blue crystal of your choice. They weren't big enough to teleport you, but you could use them to attack anywhere next to any of the other crystals - and there were a lot of them. After Lady V. charged the party and breathed her acid on us (ouch), Shamash was able to give himself combat advantage by attacking her rear flank with his Glaive, as it reached nearly 10' poking into one crystal and out another to strike. Zombies appeared in the swamp, menacing, and Rolen dispatched some of them with his magical bear of winter's wrath or whatever it was, that kept re-appearing. A yellow crystal teleported party members back and forth across the cavern. Robrik managed to get to the red crystal, which turned out to be an effective weapon once mastered, focusing a red beam of agony on Lady V., who had herself inflicted her poisonous breath, mind-warping glares, and flesh tearing claw and vampiric bites upon the party. Yet somehow, supporting each other, attacking, moving, retreating, attacking again... the group were ultmately able to somehow, eventually defeat Lady V. in an epic battle of wills, wits and weapons...
The building contained the shield guardian, as well as its amulet which was in the process of being altered in some way. Our group also found treasure there.
Good session Rod, you were really on. Thank you for coming everybody, see you in a couple of weeks.
-Dave
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Hi Guys, Hi!
Hey, I know it's been a while since I wrote anything on this blog. For anybody reading this for D&D (and Star Wars RPG) game/story ideas, I recommend taking a look at some of my early entries on this blog if you haven't already.
For the past couple years or more, I haven't really been gaming every week - it's been every other Saturday, but we play 6 hour sessions instead of 3. I think I posted earlier that I really do enjoy 4th Edition (mostly thanks to Rod). I think it's the minis aspect - It's like playing a D&D version of Mordheim, which I really like a lot. So it's the best of both worlds, only different from either one. I do still like the Pathfinder story line and plan to run it (D&D 3.5) in a couple of weeks.
MAGIC
Today I played in a Shards of Alara/Conflux Magic booster draft tournament at Old Town Hobby. I would like to thank everyone who came for playing - there were 9 of us and we had a great time. Ray (K) won (4 packs instead of 5). Luke took second (3 packs instead of 2), and it was a 3-way tie for 3rd between me, Shawn (R., who won the booster rolloff with a 10) and Nate (last initial unknown at this time). It was great to meet Nate and Shawn, thank you also to Jon (G), John, Phil (who got the Ultimate Loser pack) and Stuart. Ray ran black-red-blue with heavy removal, and when he showed me his deck I saw why - he grabbed pretty good cards, he kept most of his mana costs at 4 or lower, and he has been playing a lot lately.
I ran Green-Red-White with some removal. My deck had okay early speed and a wonderful late-game (5-6 mana) punch, but could have benefitted from a stronger middle game (3-4 mana cards). More evasion and utility (card drawing and all-creature effects) would have helped it too. When it went off, it did great but I could have done better in drafting, deck building and game play - as well as luck of the draw. Originally I had intended to contain my deck to just green-red based on strength of the cards I saw early but both Alara (the 1st 2 packs) and the draft format really favor 3 color, so I splashed the white. I saw some nice rares, but I wasn't rare drafting (in fact, I think I only ended up with 2 or 3 rares). I'm always just trying to put together a deck that will work. In retrospect, I probably should have splashed black or blue instead of white, but oh well - it was really fun. I wonder how my deck would have matched up against Ray's. I played Nate and Shawn (and drew one of the byes).
These sets have some great 5-cost creatures, some of the best special lands I have seen in 10 years, and several "interesting" cards that will probably need to be banned someday...
For the past couple years or more, I haven't really been gaming every week - it's been every other Saturday, but we play 6 hour sessions instead of 3. I think I posted earlier that I really do enjoy 4th Edition (mostly thanks to Rod). I think it's the minis aspect - It's like playing a D&D version of Mordheim, which I really like a lot. So it's the best of both worlds, only different from either one. I do still like the Pathfinder story line and plan to run it (D&D 3.5) in a couple of weeks.
MAGIC
Today I played in a Shards of Alara/Conflux Magic booster draft tournament at Old Town Hobby. I would like to thank everyone who came for playing - there were 9 of us and we had a great time. Ray (K) won (4 packs instead of 5). Luke took second (3 packs instead of 2), and it was a 3-way tie for 3rd between me, Shawn (R., who won the booster rolloff with a 10) and Nate (last initial unknown at this time). It was great to meet Nate and Shawn, thank you also to Jon (G), John, Phil (who got the Ultimate Loser pack) and Stuart. Ray ran black-red-blue with heavy removal, and when he showed me his deck I saw why - he grabbed pretty good cards, he kept most of his mana costs at 4 or lower, and he has been playing a lot lately.
I ran Green-Red-White with some removal. My deck had okay early speed and a wonderful late-game (5-6 mana) punch, but could have benefitted from a stronger middle game (3-4 mana cards). More evasion and utility (card drawing and all-creature effects) would have helped it too. When it went off, it did great but I could have done better in drafting, deck building and game play - as well as luck of the draw. Originally I had intended to contain my deck to just green-red based on strength of the cards I saw early but both Alara (the 1st 2 packs) and the draft format really favor 3 color, so I splashed the white. I saw some nice rares, but I wasn't rare drafting (in fact, I think I only ended up with 2 or 3 rares). I'm always just trying to put together a deck that will work. In retrospect, I probably should have splashed black or blue instead of white, but oh well - it was really fun. I wonder how my deck would have matched up against Ray's. I played Nate and Shawn (and drew one of the byes).
These sets have some great 5-cost creatures, some of the best special lands I have seen in 10 years, and several "interesting" cards that will probably need to be banned someday...
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
4th Edition & Pathfinder
Sorry I haven't been posting, I've been one busy guy.
Recently, Rod has been running D&D 4th Edition. Although when I first looked at it, the changes seemed drastic and startling, after actually playing it the way it's designed to be I love it and so does the whole group. We find 4th Edition to be faster paced and more exciting than before because it doesn't bog itself down. Each 4th Edition character is better at what they do, and would beat a 3.5 character in a head-to-head Aleax duel. As a player and DM who has seen and played D&D (Basic Set), AD&D (1st Ed), 2nd, 3rd, 3.5 and now 4th Ed. I have long since learned that the best possible thing you can do is buy whatever new rules set comes out right away and learn your way around it early, because it's always better.
All that being said, I'm still running Pathfinder. The writing is so good, and my time is so crunched that I wouldn't have it any other way. For me, the story and adventure are more important than the rules. Since it was designed for 3.5, that's how I run it. We talked about a conversion and dismissed the idea. But when I play, I play 4th Edition.
Recently, Rod has been running D&D 4th Edition. Although when I first looked at it, the changes seemed drastic and startling, after actually playing it the way it's designed to be I love it and so does the whole group. We find 4th Edition to be faster paced and more exciting than before because it doesn't bog itself down. Each 4th Edition character is better at what they do, and would beat a 3.5 character in a head-to-head Aleax duel. As a player and DM who has seen and played D&D (Basic Set), AD&D (1st Ed), 2nd, 3rd, 3.5 and now 4th Ed. I have long since learned that the best possible thing you can do is buy whatever new rules set comes out right away and learn your way around it early, because it's always better.
All that being said, I'm still running Pathfinder. The writing is so good, and my time is so crunched that I wouldn't have it any other way. For me, the story and adventure are more important than the rules. Since it was designed for 3.5, that's how I run it. We talked about a conversion and dismissed the idea. But when I play, I play 4th Edition.
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Recent Gaming
Sorry I haven't been posting much, but that doesn't mean I haven't been gaming. Lets see... Since I last entered on this web log, I've finished the second D&D Pathfinder book with the group, won and lost about 4 games of Mordheim and won a Magic booster draft. Yeah, you know me, always gaming with real people, pretty much no video games (except for Scrabble on my phone). My time is just getting so crunched that if I'm going to game, I'd much rather game with real people, books, dice, mini's and/or cards.
I would like to thank John, Sam, Andy, Phil, Joey, Chaun and Morgan for joining me for the Lorwyn/Morningtide draft at Old Town Hobby in Shelton yesterday. I went 1-2 against Morgan in the first round, and I'm pretty sure he would have beaten all of us with his green elf/treefolk and black goblin/removal deck if he hadn't had to leave early; what I saw was really good. And Chaun ended up having to go to work; I didn't see his deck but he's a good player too. But even with those two gone, the competition was still strong. Phil is getting better at draft, and so are Sam, Andy and Joey. Sam ended up taking third. John is not only an experienced player, he really knows the cards. His black/red deck was really good, but I did see a lot of other black and red. I ran blue/white and in my 4 rounds of Swiss, I didn't see any other blue. My cards weren't great, but what I had seemed to come up for me pretty well. If not for the one game I won against Morgan, John and I would have tied for first. Again, I had a great time and thank you all for coming; I look forward to next time.
I would like to thank John, Sam, Andy, Phil, Joey, Chaun and Morgan for joining me for the Lorwyn/Morningtide draft at Old Town Hobby in Shelton yesterday. I went 1-2 against Morgan in the first round, and I'm pretty sure he would have beaten all of us with his green elf/treefolk and black goblin/removal deck if he hadn't had to leave early; what I saw was really good. And Chaun ended up having to go to work; I didn't see his deck but he's a good player too. But even with those two gone, the competition was still strong. Phil is getting better at draft, and so are Sam, Andy and Joey. Sam ended up taking third. John is not only an experienced player, he really knows the cards. His black/red deck was really good, but I did see a lot of other black and red. I ran blue/white and in my 4 rounds of Swiss, I didn't see any other blue. My cards weren't great, but what I had seemed to come up for me pretty well. If not for the one game I won against Morgan, John and I would have tied for first. Again, I had a great time and thank you all for coming; I look forward to next time.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Zthempust Fujitt update
The City of Mordheim, being brutal, has tempered and grizzled the Lizardmen who have found themselves there, so far from the warm jungles of Lustria. Many have died, lost an eye, suffered chest wounds, or have gone mad from strange encounters with mutated rat-men and worse. So when caverns beneath the city were found, the great and troubled Saurus Totem Warrior, Bok screamed his horrible plea for help into the bowels of the world. Auk, the original Skink priest of the warband had gone mad and had to be dismissed. His replacement, Chellahak had been slain by the dreaded Skaven. A warmblooded "Kroxigor" called "Ogre bodyguard" helped in a single battle, but realizing times had become so grim a warmblood had been brought in, the reptiles knew they were in need of a new, strong leader. Wyrdstone and gold were rationed for future recruitment of new warband members.
In further battles, the Lizardmen faced the dreaded Witch Hunters as well as Human Pirates. A group of Maidenheimers fought side-by-side with the Lizardmen against their age-old enemy, the Skaven, and though four of their number (counting giant rats) were beated, the fight again ended in defeat.
On the other side of the world, Auldonhelm, a young and promising Skink Priest, heard Bok's plea, and felt compelled by the Old Ones to answer it. Bringing just three Saurus Braves (the Xanthic Red-Eyes) and three Skink Braves (the Lustrian Skirmishers), he commanded the Sea Serpent Misolandving to transport them across the great waters in order to reinforce their bretheren.
Upon Auldonhelm and his escort's arrival in Mordheim, the humans looked upon the scaly ones with indifference. Stranger things by far may be found in this place than lizardmen. Upon settling their business arrangements, the group now numbers 12. Criit, Dulu, Ekka and Fyyk are pleased to note that their new leader bears the mark of the old ones. Using what they had saved between them (including selling some gear for half-price), they were able to purchase equipment for their new leader and henchmen as well. In spite of this great outlay of resources, Zthempust Fujitt has still managed to save four shards of the precious Wyrdstone for future needs.
In further battles, the Lizardmen faced the dreaded Witch Hunters as well as Human Pirates. A group of Maidenheimers fought side-by-side with the Lizardmen against their age-old enemy, the Skaven, and though four of their number (counting giant rats) were beated, the fight again ended in defeat.
On the other side of the world, Auldonhelm, a young and promising Skink Priest, heard Bok's plea, and felt compelled by the Old Ones to answer it. Bringing just three Saurus Braves (the Xanthic Red-Eyes) and three Skink Braves (the Lustrian Skirmishers), he commanded the Sea Serpent Misolandving to transport them across the great waters in order to reinforce their bretheren.
Upon Auldonhelm and his escort's arrival in Mordheim, the humans looked upon the scaly ones with indifference. Stranger things by far may be found in this place than lizardmen. Upon settling their business arrangements, the group now numbers 12. Criit, Dulu, Ekka and Fyyk are pleased to note that their new leader bears the mark of the old ones. Using what they had saved between them (including selling some gear for half-price), they were able to purchase equipment for their new leader and henchmen as well. In spite of this great outlay of resources, Zthempust Fujitt has still managed to save four shards of the precious Wyrdstone for future needs.
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Jan. 5, 2008: New Year, New Warbands
For Mordheim yesterday, Roddy was the champ as usual. Not just for his winning Skaven (who have a rating in the 300's now) but for showing Marshall and Shawn S. and Bella how to play Mordheim. Yes, Shane and I helped too, but I really think Rod did the heavy lifting.
Bella's Human Mercenary Middenheimer warband, "The 15 Knights of the Most Amazing Colors" who I have been calling the Maidenheimers, got off to a pretty good start. One of her heroines, Heart Hunter and a member of The Tigers henchmen group were each taken out of action, and the Tiger did not survive. But in the skirmish her warband accomplished the rare feat of taking one of the Skaven out of action as well. This is getting to be a bit like taking out a Vampire, as anyone who has played against Rod knows only too well. And yes, Lady Luck had a lot to do with it... But anyway, from exploration the ladies found a Straggler who replaced the lost Tiger, and through experience, one of the other Tigers got promoted to Hero/Heroine. Storywise, as I've chosen to have it turn out, the Tiger in question was actually "she" all along, who had joined the henchmen group disguised as a man to seek her fortune. You know, like in "Mulan." So Bel's warband now has six heroines and three henchmen, all fairly well equipped. Yeah, the underdog bonus helped too.
Strangly, Shawn and Marshall each built their first warbands at different times and in different places yet have nearly identical Possessed groups. Each has three guys, each with one crazily powerful Possessed guy. This will be something interesting to follow, just to see how each develops because they are arch-rivals. My advice is always to try to shoot anything that's a threat, especially if it has more than two arms, acidic black blood, a scorpion tail or giant claws.
Shane brought a brand-new Pirate warband that I thought was pretty cool. He had the sheet, and I rustled up some minis that worked okay. Rod, me (Dave) and Carson (who didn't make it yesterday) know Mordheim really well but Shane is a very experienced Mordheim player who knows a lot of the rules better than any of us, and because he has skirmished against other players, Shane has a different interpretation than we might of some rules. More often than not, he's right, but different groups have different house rules so I try to pay attention because I still end up learning new things but I try to look things up whenever possible. One of my favorite rules is the Games Workshop suggestion that if you can't find a rule that satisfactorally resoves a question, roll a d6 for it; 4-6, it goes your way. My suggestion to any player new to Mordheim is this: whenever someone like Shane makes it to a game of Mordheim, try to ally with him because he definitely knows what he's doing.
My Lizardmen had huge gains and losses alike, but in the end came out pretty well. They are getting so beat up by Skaven they are becoming the most grizzled warband I've ever run. I keep rolling weird things on the Survival table like: "Blinded in one eye," "Chest wound," "Stupidity," "Stupidity," "Survives against the odds," "Hatred," "Hatred," "Old wound," "Captured," etc., etc. You get the idea. One of my Saurus warriors got "The lad's got talent," but I had six heroes already and chose not to dismiss any of them. Later, the Saurus henchmen group were all taken out of action and all failed their survival checks. But my heroes (five of the six are Skinks) did well on exploration and I ended up with the Ogre Bodyguard joining the warband for free, though I'm not sure whether I'll want to pay his upkeep later. Just for fun, I'm using the Kroxigor mini for him. The underdog bonuses helped my guys quite a bit and my rating is currently 270 or something, 25 of which is from the Ogre.
Our next session is this coming Saturday, Jan. 12. at 3:00. And yes, we'll probably play whatever everybody wants to play the most, be it D&D, Star Wars, Mordheim or whatever.
Bella's Human Mercenary Middenheimer warband, "The 15 Knights of the Most Amazing Colors" who I have been calling the Maidenheimers, got off to a pretty good start. One of her heroines, Heart Hunter and a member of The Tigers henchmen group were each taken out of action, and the Tiger did not survive. But in the skirmish her warband accomplished the rare feat of taking one of the Skaven out of action as well. This is getting to be a bit like taking out a Vampire, as anyone who has played against Rod knows only too well. And yes, Lady Luck had a lot to do with it... But anyway, from exploration the ladies found a Straggler who replaced the lost Tiger, and through experience, one of the other Tigers got promoted to Hero/Heroine. Storywise, as I've chosen to have it turn out, the Tiger in question was actually "she" all along, who had joined the henchmen group disguised as a man to seek her fortune. You know, like in "Mulan." So Bel's warband now has six heroines and three henchmen, all fairly well equipped. Yeah, the underdog bonus helped too.
Strangly, Shawn and Marshall each built their first warbands at different times and in different places yet have nearly identical Possessed groups. Each has three guys, each with one crazily powerful Possessed guy. This will be something interesting to follow, just to see how each develops because they are arch-rivals. My advice is always to try to shoot anything that's a threat, especially if it has more than two arms, acidic black blood, a scorpion tail or giant claws.
Shane brought a brand-new Pirate warband that I thought was pretty cool. He had the sheet, and I rustled up some minis that worked okay. Rod, me (Dave) and Carson (who didn't make it yesterday) know Mordheim really well but Shane is a very experienced Mordheim player who knows a lot of the rules better than any of us, and because he has skirmished against other players, Shane has a different interpretation than we might of some rules. More often than not, he's right, but different groups have different house rules so I try to pay attention because I still end up learning new things but I try to look things up whenever possible. One of my favorite rules is the Games Workshop suggestion that if you can't find a rule that satisfactorally resoves a question, roll a d6 for it; 4-6, it goes your way. My suggestion to any player new to Mordheim is this: whenever someone like Shane makes it to a game of Mordheim, try to ally with him because he definitely knows what he's doing.
My Lizardmen had huge gains and losses alike, but in the end came out pretty well. They are getting so beat up by Skaven they are becoming the most grizzled warband I've ever run. I keep rolling weird things on the Survival table like: "Blinded in one eye," "Chest wound," "Stupidity," "Stupidity," "Survives against the odds," "Hatred," "Hatred," "Old wound," "Captured," etc., etc. You get the idea. One of my Saurus warriors got "The lad's got talent," but I had six heroes already and chose not to dismiss any of them. Later, the Saurus henchmen group were all taken out of action and all failed their survival checks. But my heroes (five of the six are Skinks) did well on exploration and I ended up with the Ogre Bodyguard joining the warband for free, though I'm not sure whether I'll want to pay his upkeep later. Just for fun, I'm using the Kroxigor mini for him. The underdog bonuses helped my guys quite a bit and my rating is currently 270 or something, 25 of which is from the Ogre.
Our next session is this coming Saturday, Jan. 12. at 3:00. And yes, we'll probably play whatever everybody wants to play the most, be it D&D, Star Wars, Mordheim or whatever.
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