<![CDATA[Pen & Paper Games - Blogs - The Curmudgeon's Lair by kirksmithicus]]> http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/blog.php/3855-The-Curmudgeon-s-Lair Pen and Paper Games hosts a very powerful, but easy to seach and join database of players and game masters in the United States and Canada. Our forums are also a great place to find the most recent news, product releases, tips, and rpg discussion. en Tue, 21 May 2013 01:41:29 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/pnpg_style/misc/rss.jpg <![CDATA[Pen & Paper Games - Blogs - The Curmudgeon's Lair by kirksmithicus]]> http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/blog.php/3855-The-Curmudgeon-s-Lair Sons of Tyranny: Political Aspirations http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1614-Sons-of-Tyranny-Political-Aspirations Mon, 09 May 2011 05:25:14 GMT The character learn that in their absence that the good king of Tyr, Tithian I, has decreed that all citizens of Tyr shall have one cup of water... The character learn that in their absence that the good king of Tyr, Tithian I, has decreed that all citizens of Tyr shall have one cup of water per day free from the public wells. In addition, the noble senate has been dissolved and is to be replaced by a council of advisers elected from each district.

The group, having nothing to do currently spends a few days relaxing in their flop-house in the artisan district, while they wait for Meliot to restore the scrolls they found in the temple. Abraxus has the gold coin he found appraised at 2500 shekels and decides to sell the coin. The group eats and drinks well for the night and then returns to their flop-house.

D’ander the halfling keeps watch while the rest of the group sleeps.
D’ander notices a man in a burnoose watching the building from the alleyway next to the charnal house down the street. The man watches the building for about twenty minutes then heads off down the street towards the Elven Market. D’ander slips from his observation post, climbs down to the street and follows the hooded-man into the Elven district. Despite D’anders great skills at tracking and hunting he soon looses the man and finds himself nearly lost in the Warrens. He decides to head back to the flop-house. When he returns he finds the Eladrin in the midst of a feverish nightmare.

The Eladrin’s dreams are filled with visions of battle and gore, green-skinned men fighting with vicious fury against elves, men and all manner of creatures. One green-skinned man stands out from the rest, massive with muscles like knotted rope and a keen mind, he is a great champion and wields a metal great spear that looks dimly familiar. In the vision the green-skinned champion turns toward him and roars “You are not worthy of Urrok the Brave!”.

A knock on the door awakens the group out of their slumber. Always wary they grab their weapons and make ready for combat as Geovanti throws open the door. The mid-morning sun pours in blinding them. A large man, a mul gives a them a greeting, “good day sons of Tyr!, I am Xalos the Stonecutter, and I have a proposition for you”.
Xalos enters and quickly explains that all of Tyr has heard about Tithian’s proclamations, and the formation of a council of advisers to the king. He, Xalos explains to them, is running for election and he needs some good strong men, who are handy with a weapon. There are those in Tyr who would assassinate rivals and rig the council elections. He tells them he will pay them of course, in addition to the sense righteousness that they will be helping to keep Tyr free from the the machinations of the nobles.

After a bit of discussion and negotiation, the group agrees to serve as Xalos body guards until the day after the election. Xalos the Stonecutter bids them to grab their belongings, their is no time to waste and he heads off down the street as the group scrambles to grab their gear.

They spend the day following Xalos around the Artisan District as he visits with it’s citizens and power brokers, making deals and promises in exchange for votes. He, it would seem was born to be a politician. That night Xalos and the his body guards head for the Caravan District where there is a meeting discussing the new electoral process and procedures. The warehouse is packed with people and Xalos tells the group that they can wait outside if they wish, since the meeting is under the protection of the Templar’s.

Outside the group is approached by a man who attempts to recruit them as miners for House Ianto's salt mining operation. “Pay is one scale a day” the man tells them. Having previously had poor relations with House Ianto, Red tells the man to “piss off!” The man heeds the warning a quickly heads down the empty lane, glancing backwards and keeping a wary eye on the group. The entire group quickly surmises that something is amiss (again) with the House Ianto's salt mining operation. As the cost of salt per pound is so low that they could not possibly pay laborers a Scale each per day and make a profit. They guess that Ianto has probably secretly gone back in the slave business and is just using the promise of a high paying job to lure the unwary and desperate into leaving Tyr and their freedom behind.

After the meeting finishes up Xalos meets the group in the street and they head back to the Artisan District. Xalos seems to be in a good mood and is optimistic of his chances of being elected. As the group nears Xalos home and workshop D’ander spots movement on the roof above. A Tarek armed with a bow fires from his position as does another Tarek. From behind them and from side allies come the sounds of men running. D’ander shouts “Ambush” and the group breaks into a run towards Xalos’ home, but they are cut off by another group of armed men. D’ander and Giovanti the feral halflings stay close to the mul, protecting him. While the others wade into battle and Kelm the Hunter takes care of the Tareks on the roof tops. An elven witch casts several spells on the group causing them great trouble and Abraxus shatters his bone axe when he misses club wielding Tarek who is attempting to kill the Eladrin. Without an extra weapon Abraxus is on the defensive against the Tarek until the Eladrin throws him the metal spear he found at the Temple in the salt flats. The group manages to rout the attackers and Abraxus manages to capture one them, whom they quickly drag back to Xalos’s house for interrogation. ]]> kirksmithicus http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1614-Sons-of-Tyranny-Political-Aspirations Sons of Tyranny: Back to the Salt Mines http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1613-Sons-of-Tyranny-Back-to-the-Salt-Mines Mon, 09 May 2011 05:23:21 GMT * Back to the Salt Mines * After looting the tomb and waiting until sunrise, the group emerges from the crypt. They find that the undead... Back to the Salt Mines


After looting the tomb and waiting until sunrise, the group emerges from the crypt. They find that the undead have returned to their graves, at least temporarily, and head out across the salt flat back toward the location of the salt mine. After a few hours they arrive back at the rock shelter that was being used as a base camp by the miners and find it deserted. After searching the shelter for signs of foul play, and then anything usable the group decides to head back to Tyr. They discover that the two Mekillot have left no tracks, indicating that they left before, or possibly during the sand storm that hit late yesterday evening as they were entering the tomb. It would seem that they were abandoned and left to die in the desert by House Ianto.
The group decides to spend the rest of the day in the area and foraging for enough food and water to make the three and half day return trip, and spend much of the rest of the day engaged in this task.
The next morning they set off early in the cool hours just before dawn and by mid-afternoon they have spotted several land marks indicating that they are near to the cut-off near the main road. Without much trouble the group finds the main road and head back towards Tyr. After three uneventful days they reach the gates of Tyr. After paying the King’s Levy of 2 bits each the group returns to their flop house in the Artisan district and as it is late in the evening the group gets some sleep.
The next day they decide to find a buyer for the scrolls they found in the tomb. After several hours of asking around they are directed to Melliot’s Scriptorium, an establishment not far from their quarters, and with a solid reputation for honesty. After meeting with Melliot the group decides to have the scrolls restored. Melliot tells the group that the scrolls are at least a thousand years old and in poor condition. It could take weeks to complete the restoration. ]]> kirksmithicus http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1613-Sons-of-Tyranny-Back-to-the-Salt-Mines Sons of Tyranny: The Temple of Wyan of Bodach http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1596-Sons-of-Tyranny-The-Temple-of-Wyan-of-Bodach Sat, 16 Apr 2011 05:44:12 GMT The group decides to climb down off the butte and head toward the ruined temple to the west. They set out across the salt flat expecting to arrive... The group decides to climb down off the butte and head toward the ruined temple to the west. They set out across the salt flat expecting to arrive at the temple in only a few hours. However, the simmering heat coming off of the salt flat made the ruin appear closer than it really was. After several extra hours of walking the group finally reaches the ancient crumbling temple. From a distance the group can see that a portion of the roof remains intact as do most of the edifices walls. They keep a sharp eye out for movement from within the temple as they approach closer, so intent on watching the dark shadows within in the glaring reflected light of the salt flat that only D’Ander, the Halfling notices that the ground surrounding the temple is greatly disturbed. At their present location, only small areas, a few feet across are disturbed but as one moves closer to the temple, the entirety of the ground surrounding it becomes disturbed. The group decides to approach from another direction, should the ground disturbance be caused by some burrowing creature, they decide it would be wise to outflank it in order to reach the temple. After a short distance the group can see that the ground all the way around the temple is disturbed. They also notice that off in the distance a sand storm, and figure that it will hit in less than two hours and will force them to remain at the temple over night, or either head back to the Ianto’s rock shelter. While they stop to discuss their options, Blu’chez (Thri-kreen warrior) decides that the best course of action is to simply run across the loose salt-sand to the temple. The rest of the group waits until he is halfway across the disturbance before they decide to join him and follow suit. Seeing how he has not been devoured they assume it is reasonably safe.

Having safely reached the temple after a four hour trek the group is tired and thirsty, but they decide to do a quick reconnaissance to insure that it is not occupied. After a some cautious exploration of the temple they discover that the walls of the temple are covered in bas-relief carving that were once painting in bright vibrant colors, though they are now cracked and faded. The scenes on the walls depict a human male (?), slaughtering strange looking green beast-men in a variety of horrific ways.


Near the far end of the temple, in a side chamber just off of the main alter room, Abraxus finds the desiccated corpse of a half-giant. The half-giant, clearly the mines overseer, is laying face down in a pile of rubble and lying across his right arm. After closer inspection Abraxus is able to tell that the corpse is clutching something tightly in his barely visible right hand. He decides to turn the corpse over and pry its hand open. As he does so, he sees a writhing mass of slug-like creatures underneath it, and in the dead half-giants hand, and ancient solid gold coin. After snatching the coin away he drops his hold on the corpse but is unable to move away quickly enough and the swarm of Rot Grubs begins to crawl up his exposed arm and legs. D’Ander rushes to his side and attempts to kill as many of the grubs as possible.


The rest of the group, hearing Abraxus’ squeals of alarm rush to see what is happening. When they do so, an adult Silk Wyrm and five hatchlings that had been awakened from their slumber by the commotion, drop from the ceiling catching the group unaware and attempt to make a quick meal of them. In the ensuing melee Keln is badly injured by the Silk Wyrm before the rest of the group forces it to flee out into the salt flats. Blu, chases it down and with some help from D’Ander they finish it off.
Retreating back to the shade of the temple the group decides to take a rest, bandage Abraxus’ wounds, drink some water, and let Keln recover from the Wyrm’s assault. The group after resting for a bit decides to go back to examining the bas-relief murals. Blu, using his magical lens is able to decipher a bit of the script they find on one of the walls. The explains the meaning of the glyphs to Thurnderhoof who then translates it into common for the rest of the group, as Blu will not speak such a crude and vulgar language as common or any other human language for that matter. The glyphs tell something about a man named Wyan of Bodach, but the writing is far too fragmentary to discern what the story is about. The group assumes that the Wyan of Bodach is the man pictured slaughtering the green beasties in the murals.


After having rested for a bit, Abraxus show the rest of the group the gold coin he found in the half-giants hand. They determine that it is pure gold, and probably worth nearly 2,500 shekels. They decide that he must have found it in a vault or crypt below the temple and so set off to look for entrances to a crypt. There are also still four missing human guards and workers yet to be found and a sleeping place out of the dust storm would be an added bonus.


The dust from a sand storm hits the temple and limits visibility to only 20-30 ft. The strong winds blowing through the structure creates a low ominous moaning sound. The group hastens their search for more suitable shelter out of the blowing, lung clogging sand. Behind the main alter they find a secret door, that when opened exposes a set of narrow stairs that lead steeply down into the darkness below. Some of the group is beginning to have second thoughts about sleeping in a crypt and express that perhaps they should wait until the following morning to explore the crypt. The moaning sound of the wind becomes louder, while at the same time the strength of the wind seems to be subsiding, at least momentarily. Visibility improves a bit and the characters now hear the shuffling of feat scrapping on hard stone floors. They look into the surrounding rooms of the temple and beyond into the salt flat and see that hordes of zombies are descending upon it from all directions. They realize that the ground disturbance surrounding the temple was from the undead whom it would seem, dig themselves out their graves each night and roam the temple and the salt flats in search of flesh.
Not wishing to be torn apart by hundreds of ravenous zombies the group enters the crypt and seal the door behind them.


Below in the crypts, the group finds the corpses of the four other men they came looking for. The men have no obvious physical wounds, and the doors on either side of the room are barred, from this side of the door. Clearly, whatever killed these men came down the stairs above, or more likely, was not hindered by physical barriers at all. As such, the group decides to open the door to see what horrors lay beyond. They enter the first room and find themselves staring at a statue of a large dragon. On either side of the statue is a sarcophagus, both still intact. Abraxus approaches the first sarcophagus and decides to pry off the lid, hoping to find more gold coins within. With some effort, and the help of Blu, (and despite the protest of some of the others) they are able to push it aside, but the bulk and the weight of the unbalanced lid sends it crashing to the floor where it shatters.


Awakened by the desecration of their tomb, vengeful ghosts awaken and assail the group. After repelling the spirits the groups find the sarcophagi empty of anything valuable, but in cubbyholes along both side walls, in plain sight, they find 16 sealed scroll tubes.



Thunderhoof opens several and determines that they are poor shape and likely to simply fall apart. They decide to take the scroll tubes hoping that they may be able to find someone who could restore them to readable, if not usable condition or someone who would be interested in buying them despite their poor condition.
Thunderhoof stops to repair his warhammer, which he broke fighting the spirits of this room. The rest of the group decides to spend the time searching for hidden doors and such. Much to their amazement, they actually find one. It opens when a small level hidden in the tail of the dragon statue is turned. The door opens directly behind where Thunderhoof is setting. He quickly jumps to his feet, determined to thrash anything that comes out of the gloom beyond. No threat materializes and the group begins to explore the chamber.


They find that it contains a single ornate sarcophagi covered with the bas-relief carving of a green beast-man warrior. Blu, with his magic lens reads the sarcophagi’ inscriptions and Thunderhoof translates. They learn that it belongs to a beast-man named Urrok the Brave a mighty warrior of the beast-men who slew hundred of men during his lifetime, and much to their disbelief, four dragons single-handed.


Of course, they decide that looting it is the only sensible course of action and open the sarcophagi. Inside they find that Urrok’s bones and most of his equipment have turned to dust. However, they find two spears tipped with metal blades in near perfect condition. ]]> kirksmithicus http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1596-Sons-of-Tyranny-The-Temple-of-Wyan-of-Bodach Sons of Tyranny http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1593-Sons-of-Tyranny Wed, 13 Apr 2011 06:38:56 GMT “No dictator, no invader, can hold an imprisoned population by force of arms forever. There is no greater power on Athas than the need for freedom.... “No dictator, no invader, can hold an imprisoned population by force of arms forever. There is no greater power on Athas than the need for freedom. Against that power, tyrants and armies cannot stand.”

--Unknown

"I too was born a slave, a son of tyranny... but If I die this day, I will die as a free man!"

--Malthius, Mule Gladiatior

we find our would be heroes, ex-slaves from the gladiator pits of Tyr, a mere week into their lives as free men.

Low on cash the group decides to head down to the Caravan district to look for work. They approached a mekillot trader to discuss work as caravan guards when they were cut off by a several half-giants and humans. These guys were veteran caravan guards who were resentful of the recent influx of cheap labor. They politely asked the group to take their Kank smelling butts back over to the warrens. A polite conversation followed, and ended with the lead half-giant grabbing Abraxus, throwing him on the ground and kicking sand in his face. Thunderhoof decides to be diplomatic, and head-butts the half-giant in the face. Things began to spiral out of control rather quickly, weapons being drawn and whatnot. Until a short thin human, with greasy black hair and three teeth interceded and calmed the two groups down.

Turns out that the human in the red cassock is a Draqoman. Which is some kind of middleman between merchants and others. They negotiate on behalf of the merchants for guards and find work for caravan guards. An agent of sorts. Seems the group, being a bunch of ignorant slaves violated protocol. So the guys go to the Draqoman station, pony up some coinage, and hire a Draqoman. They come back the next day and they have a job all lined up. After some fierce negotiating by Abraxus the merchant agrees to pay 7gp each. Group discovers later that they are now working for House Ianto, the guys who used to be the largest slave trading house in Tyr (which doesn’t set all that well with everyone). They (Lanto) are now looking for new lines of work to get into, and recently started a salt mine. “The salt must flow”, so the group is to head out and take care of things at the mine, then take care of the lazy overseer of the mine.

On the way out the group doesn’t run into any trouble, but does discover that they are being followed and watched by a group of elves (caravan raiders).

After reaching the salt mine they discovered that the workers aren’t working, and that the half-giant overseer is missing. Seems some silt runners have been taking a new miner to/for lunch each day, and the miners have decided not to leave the protection of their rockshelter. The overseer set off with a few guards and miners about a week ago but never came back.

Group decides to visit the salt pits and pretend to be workers and set up an ambush. Silt runners show up and the group kills them all except one. They back track the runners to a small butte, figuring their might be more, climb up and discover their lair. At the same time they have a good view of the surrounding area and can clearly see the track of a half-giant and four others leading off to an ancient ruined temple off in the distance.

Delving into the silt runner lair the group discovers a half dozen females with a dozen young. Abraxus decides that the group should enslave them. Thunderhoof reminds him that up until two weeks ago everyone in the group was a slave. Thunderhoof also mentioned having a personal problem with enslaving others and that if Abraxus kept it up he might have to kill him and leave him for the carrion eaters.

They leave after picking through the bone pile and finding 140 bits (140 cp). When we finished for the night they were standing on the edge of the butte contemplating the temple and whether they should go investigate / look for the other miners, or just say screw it and head back to Tyr. ]]> kirksmithicus http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1593-Sons-of-Tyranny The Cure for the Common Stirge http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1324-The-Cure-for-the-Common-Stirge Fri, 27 Aug 2010 06:22:49 GMT So tonight we had an encounter with some Stirges. Brought about no doubt by the discussion around the table of our fond and not so fond remembrances... So tonight we had an encounter with some Stirges. Brought about no doubt by the discussion around the table of our fond and not so fond remembrances of 1e D&D. Some of the conversation centered around the ways that the 1st edition rules (or lack of) were abused by players, with plenty of humorous examples.

In the ensuing, and very not so deadly encounter with said Stirges from Sturgis. The Avenger character was hit. If a strige hits with an attack, at which point the character is grabbed (and the stirge is attached) and must escape in order to end this condition. So the Avenger character uses an ability that allows him to teleport as an immediate reaction after being hit. Thus, according to the rules, allowing him to escape being grabbed. Never mind that he's been impaled by a mosquito the size of a pigeon. *poof* "I'm no longer grabbed". So that's all fine and good, no problems.

If you follow this logic through though, it has some interesting consequences. Apparently teleportation doesn't consider other creatures as part of "you", even when attached or in you? This means that if carried out to extremes, but still logical conclusions, that germs, being foreign bodies, won't go with a character who teleports. So feel free to have your character teleport themselves to a disease free state the next time they are so affected.

It also brings up another interesting question. When a character teleports do they leave behind a pile of feces and stomach contents?

I can just picture the groups ranger describing the scene of a battle with two Eladrin present, Ala Lord of the Rings style. Lets just replace the two Hobbits with two Eladrin and see how things turn out.

[Aragorn looks to the side and tracks catch his attention.]

Aragorn: "An Eladrin lay here, and the other."

Aragorn: "They crawled."

[Aragorn starts to follow the tracks, with Legolas and Gimli behind him.]

Aragorn: "Their hands were bound."

Aragorn: "Their bonds were cut."

[Aragorn holds up a broken rope.]

Aragorn: "They teleported over there and then ran over here… and were followed."

Gimli: "What! how can you tell they teleported?"

Aragorn: "From the huge pile of, you know....they left in their wake. Eladrin will do that you know."

[Aragorn pointing at the huge pile of bowel and stomach contents at his feet]

[Legalos leans over and barfs at Gimli's feet, smiles sheepishly, then wipes his mouth on his sleeve]

Legalos: "yep, they're a disgusting bunch, I'm embarrassed to be even quasi related to those guys." ]]> kirksmithicus http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1324-The-Cure-for-the-Common-Stirge <![CDATA[Non-heroic 4e D&D, or a Viscious New World]]> http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1312-Non-heroic-4e-D-amp-amp-D-or-a-Viscious-New-World Wed, 18 Aug 2010 15:29:13 GMT Does the assumption that we all want to play "Heroic Fantasy" bother you about 4e? Well it does me, I've complained about this before so I won't go over it again. What I will do is talk about a possible way around the default Heroic Fantasy setting.

So the other day I was messing around with the character builder and I happened to leave the character's class empty. This had an interesting effect on the character.

Gone are the never ending escalation of HP, gone are the characters Encounter, Daily and At-Will powers (with some exceptions). Most characters start with no skills, no weapon proficiencies, and no armor proficiencies. In order to obtain any of these items the character must use a feat. So not surprisingly, feats become way more important. Characters can still use weapons and armor that they are not proficient in but receive no proficiency bonus or in the case of armor, a penalty to strike based on the type of armor, and a skill check penalty.

I would also limit starting funds to 10gp, as this plays into the gritty feel to any campaign so structured. Also limiting the weapon proficiency choices to simple melee weapons to start, then military, then superior melee weapons would be a must. Otherwise every character with a weapon proficiency would be wielding a superior weapon out of the box.

A characters starting HP, are equal to his Con. They would also have very few healing surges, and those being quite low in the HP they give back. Suddenly that lousy healing potion nobody ever wants as treasure in a regular game, just became a much sought after item.
Also HP do not increase as the characters level. So a 1st, 5th, and 9th level character all have the same amount of HP. Except for the attribute bonus increase at 4th and 8th level, if they take Con as the stat, but it's only a minor boost.

As a result of the HP loss, you can use the monster builder to dial all the monsters down to 1st level to even the playing field. Now I haven't done this with every monster. I've done a few, but I think the basic concept works, but you may have to play around with the fiddly bits some. A 1st level adult white dragon would have around 130ish HP, which would be a challenge for 5 or 6 characters with 8 - 20 HP.

Occasionally you have to use the "house rule" icon to get things to work, but other than that, I think this concept is totally workable, and very interesting. As it takes the game back to its roots and makes being a low level character extremely dangerous.

I still have a while before I finish my current campaign. When we finish with that I had planned to try out the Dark Sun setting and I think this would be great addition to that game. Making it uber gritty and dangerous. Now, if I could just talk my players into it. :lol: ]]> kirksmithicus http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1312-Non-heroic-4e-D-amp-amp-D-or-a-Viscious-New-World My first miniature sculpt http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1201-My-first-miniature-sculpt Sat, 22 May 2010 05:15:22 GMT I've taken a long break from annoying people on-line, one of my true passions btw, to do some more on miniatures. Much of that time has been slicing and dicing pink foam. I'm pretty good at it, if I do say so myself. I've figured out how to produce ruined walls with a quickness, then moved on to creating numerous Tudor style or inspired fantasy houses out of the stuff. Though I have yet to get around to painting them. The main problem with the houses is that I need to figure out a way to create them so that they come apart, with only about a 1" wall base. This way they could be used inside and out.

I've also been working on doing some mold making projects and casting simple items, such as some barrels, sleeping pallets, a camp fire, some crumbling stone pillars, rock outcroppings and general debris.

I've wanted to try sculpting with green stuff for a while but honestly I'm a little intimidated by sculpting human forms. I did some sculpting way back in high school and I kinda suck at doing people (I'm bad with proportions). Other things, like inanimate objects, I seem to have no problem with. So I decided maybe I would have better luck for my first attempt if I went with something non-human, like a monster. So after thinking about it for a while I decided to attempt.....a beholder. Just a little one, nothing huge. That green goo is $15.00 a stick after all, and I'm notoriously cheap.

My first attempt went okay. I made the head and it didn't look to bad so I then went on to the eye-stalks. This was before the head dried. I put those directly on the head. Turns out that they didn't stick so well, and about half of them fell off. Then I mucked up the head trying to fix up the eye-stalks, as the modeling clay was still soft.

So I learned some valuable lessons and started over. The second time I started by making the head then letting it dry and harden. Then I used some thin copper wire to create the eye-stalks on. After everything dried and hardened I used a very small drill bit and drilled the appropriate number of holes and attached the eye-stalks. Then I finished off the whole thing by giving it one of my notorious bad, 30 minute paint jobs (have I ever mentioned that I'm not so fond of painting miniatures) and calling it good enough.

So here you are, see attached photo (I'm also bad a photography). It looks much better in person, I swear!

]]> kirksmithicus http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1201-My-first-miniature-sculpt The Road to War: Session 7 http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1074-The-Road-to-War-Session-7 Mon, 22 Mar 2010 04:42:16 GMT The group arrives via teleportation back at the main tower of Castle Rivenroar. They are greeted by a most unexpected sight. Before them stands a... The group arrives via teleportation back at the main tower of Castle Rivenroar. They are greeted by a most unexpected sight. Before them stands a group of adventurers. A human woman, a dwarven male, a half-orc male, a halfling male and a second human female. The Dwarf of these adventurers quietly puts a finger to his mouth, a stern warning that the group should be quite. However, not all members of the group are facing the same direction and one does not see the dwarfs warning. Ruckus loudly remarks on the groups narrow escape from the Dragon’s Splinter. The rest of the group cringes, fearing the worst, the group turns to face a new threat.
Across the room, a group of hobgoblins led by their chieftain Sinruth were on their way out of the tower, having just returned from another location. They arrived facing the other direction and so the members of the second adventure group, the Farstriders, far outnumbered by the returning hobgoblins, had decided that discretion was the better part of valor and had remained quite while the hobs exited. Their hopes for avoiding detection now shattered the members of the group drew weapons and charged into battle. The hobgoblins, alerted to the presence of the group, turn and attack.
With the hobgoblin are two humanoids in strange armor and clothing. Erik the White, Thorfin and Jason the Raven all recognize the beings uniforms as being similar to those of the unidentified pyromancer they fought just the day before in the crypts of the castle.
The hobgoblin shaman moves in after the hob foot soldiers and uses a spell to knock combatants down and push them towards a teleportation circle. Only a hobgoblin soldier and Erik the White’s wolf companion is knocked into the teleportation circle. One of the unidentified sorcerers then activates the circle, transporting the hobgoblin and Erik’s wolf companion away. The shaman is killed shortly after this.
The group quickly takes down the hobgoblin grunts, leaving only Sinruth, surrounded on nearly all sides. Sinruth uses his flail to make sweeping attacks against his foes, but to little avail. The group quickly, and mercilessly cuts him down.
At the same time one of the enemy wizards is killed while the other takes the opportunity to flee. He does so through one of the teleportation circles. The group chooses not to follow. Instead they gather up the prisoners, collect the goblin ears for the bounty, and take the teleportation circle back to Brindol.
The group finds themselves standing in an apple orchard just to the north of the city of Brindol. From this position you have a decent view of the city, the Elsir river below, the old trade road and the two bridges that lead to the Brindol market. A light, cold rain is falling as they start toward the bridge. As soon as the group reaches the road several ox-carts and wagons rumble by. Once they reach the market square a man calls for the city guard, who arrive in short order. The two guards recognize the group and see that they have returned with citizens that had been taken captive. One guard stays with the group while the other hurries off to announce their return. The remaining city guardsman suggests that they all take refuge in the Marooned Schooner, a tavern located on the southeastern edge of the square and wait there.
The tavern is mostly empty at this time of day, but the barkeep and wench see the group enter and quickly move chairs near the fire for the beleaguered townsfolk accompanying them. Soon the bar wench brings hot sider and bread for everyone.
Shortly thereafter a group of men arrive at the tavern, they escorted by members of the city guard. In the group are several clerics and a man dressed in a blue and white uniform, he carrying an ornate dagger with a lions head pommel set with twin rubies, identifying the man as a member of the cities elite guard The Lions of Brindol. Thorfin, Ruckus, Erik and Jason all recognize the man as one of the city guards who accompanied them on their journey to Rivenroar, and who later returned with several of the rescued captives. He smiles wrylie and raises his arms, “forgive the ruse, we thought it best to send an experienced man with you, but we did not wish to step on you toes, as it were. I am Aldrich Blackstone, a captain in the Lions of Brindol, and I welcome you home. I will escort you to see councilman Troyas shortly, he is eager to see you, and hear your report, as am I. The Freeriders will also need to see the councilman and report. The healers and clerics of the church, he motions behind him, will tend to these poor souls. But before we go, lets have a drink…..on me”, and he motions to the bartender for a round of beer.
The group soon finds themselves back in councilman Troyas office. When they enter he stands up from behind his paper strewn wreck of a desk clasping his hands together “ah the Raiders of Rivenroar return”. The group enters and find a seat while Captain Blackstone closes the door behind them, after he instructing the Freeriders to remain in the hallway. The councilman seems genuinely happy to see that the group has returned alive. “Capt. Blackstone has had nothing but praise for you, your skills in combat and in you drive to rescue Brindol’s citizens as quickly as you could. I am of course elated that you managed to return so many, but sadden still by the loss of life the city has seen this last week and a half.” He rummages through a cabinet and pulls out a bottle of brandy and begins filling glasses that Capt. Blackstone passes out. Troyas continues rambles on for a bit saying that ” I was mad about you absconding with the goblin, but forget that now, in light of current events” then when all the glasses are full he makes a toast. “To those who did not return, may they find peace in the next world” and downs his brandy. After a lengthy discussion of the events of the last week, the councilman pays out the reward he promised for the prisoners and for the goblin ears. He then tells the group that he wants to have a public ceremony tomorrow afternoon in the market square. “Lord Kaal and the council will be awarding you each a heroes medal” he adds. “It will be a good way to let the people know that the crises has been averted, and put an end to rumors that the city is about to be overrun. It will also be a good public relations opportunity, and let the people know of your heroic effort and deeds”. Captain Blackstone speaks up this time. “we have arranged rooms for you upstairs at the Chatrenn and Sons (inn). I’ll take you there now”.
The weary group retires to the inn and each decides to rest for a short while. That short while turns into a few hours and the group awakens late in the evening and they each wander downstairs to the inn’s taproom. ]]> kirksmithicus http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1074-The-Road-to-War-Session-7 Session 7; DM Comments http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1038-Session-7-DM-Comments Sat, 27 Feb 2010 06:33:59 GMT Session seven was the big finish to the first part of the campaign. The characters have rescued all the prisoners from Brindol that they have deemed... Session seven was the big finish to the first part of the campaign. The characters have rescued all the prisoners from Brindol that they have deemed rescue-able and are on their way back to Brindol. In the process they confront the hobgoblin chieftain Sinruth and his last batch of soldiers. They also get some help from a few allies and run across some new and strange foes who are in partnership with the hobgoblins, foreshadowing things to come.

As a DM I wanted to make this encounter not just hard, but potentially a TPK. Something to truly test the mettle and skill of the characters. So I threw together an encounter that was 4 levels above the standard encounter. Instead of three consecutive second level encounters, it was one big sixth level encounter. Figuring that the group could probably handle this anyway, as they have done so once in the past. I wanted to push them even further if certain conditions were met. So I added four second level encounters that would be activated if the characters were teleported from the original location (the tower teleportation room) by the enemy controllers, to various outlying locations (the goblin war camp, the jungle temple and the goblin / orc city).

I also had three extra players for this session. The first extra player, was one of the regular player's wife who wanted to come and check out the game first hand and see what it was like and why her husband enjoys role-playing games so much. The second was the DM from the other game I play in. He usually plays Shadowrun during my game, but it got canceled and he wanted to jump in for a session if I was okay with that, and I was. The third player was a fellow D&D'er I met online who is trying to get his first 4e game going, and wanted to come by and observe a game in action. I instead told him to just make up a character and jump right in, no better way to learn.

I incorporated them into the game by making them part of a rival Adventuring group sent by the town councilman to ensure that the regular crew did their job. As councilman Troyas had tagged my group of adventurers as a bunch of greedy mercenaries at best, and most likely a bunch of opportunistic cut-throats.

So, a total of nine PC's this go around. Such a high number of players makes the game a bit slow, but also having an extremely difficult encounter and two new players also slowed things down even more. Overall it was a good session though, even if it did take us 3 hours to get through this one encounter. We also started an hour late, but we all had fun, and gave the guy who brought his wife a hard time about bringing his own personal healer to the game. Turns out it was a good thing she did come, because she saved her husbands character 3 times and saved at least two, if not three more of the regular characters from potential demise.

I'll get to the actual campaign log narrative sometime later this week and post that for anyone interested in seeing how the battle went.

The difficulty of the encounter turned out to be perfect, just what I was looking for. In the end I think almost every character with the exception of the cleric was bloodied and near death.

The Rogue - Like I mentioned before, the rogue had to be healed multiple times, and at one point actually fled from combat and hid.

The Paladin - Bloodied and healed up two, possibly three times also.

The Fighter - Down to less than 10 hp, and he has the most hp to start with and gets temp hp.

The Ranger - Became rather ineffective when his wolf companion was teleported away. He was bloodied and about to die (rolled damage that would have put him at -18 hp), when the fighter PC remembered he had the enemy attacker combat challenged, thus saving the ranger from the killing blow.

The Wizard - bloodied.

The Shaman - bloodied.

The Invoker - Reduced to negative HP, but was saved by the cleric.

The Cleric - 1 point from bloodied.

The Ranger # 2 - almost bloodied also.



Writing this up, it also occurs to me that you could also break down the info in the following manner.

2 new players - not bloodied and not bloodied.
6 regular players - bloodied, bloodied, bloodied, bloodied, bloodied, and bloodied.
DM from the game I play in - almost killed.

I'm going to wager my character gets his butt kicked next week! :lol: ]]> kirksmithicus http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/1038-Session-7-DM-Comments <![CDATA[The Road to War: Session 6 "The Dragon's Splinter"]]> http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/954-The-Road-to-War-Session-6-quot-The-Dragon-s-Splinter-quot Sun, 24 Jan 2010 07:32:52 GMT After charging out of the wizards lair and back into the crypt filled with skeleton the group made easy work of the feeble skeletons. They then took... After charging out of the wizards lair and back into the crypt filled with skeleton the group made easy work of the feeble skeletons. They then took the time to search the body of the fallen wizard, but not being trained in the arcane arts they are unable to determine if any of his possessions were magical in nature and so decide to take them all to the halfling wizard for a thorough inspection.

As they exit the crypt and enter back into the destroyed church they notice movement in the outer bailey. They quickly take cover and then observe before making a move. They see a group of five humans moving cautiously about about. All of them are dressed in hides and carry rather primitive looking arms and armor. Their leader wears a wolf headdress, clearly he is no warrior but the tribes shaman or a druid. Thorfin sees that the group is nervous and out of place, clearly unfamiliar with their surroundings and figures they have no connection with the hobgoblins of Castle Rivenroar. So he decides to come out of hiding, he hails the group, then tells them "By Moradin's Hammer, we wish only to fight hobgoblins this day my friends". The shaman smiles, and replies "it is fine weather for killing hobgoblins longbeard", and after a brief pause he adds "we come for the same, and to find our people the hobgoblins took during a raid on our village a few days back".

Thorfin suggests that the two groups take shelter from the cold in one of the towers and discuss matters further. The group catches the Shaman and his warriors up on the events of the day, and the fact that many of the prisoners have been sent on to other locations to be sacrificed. After this, the group returns to the main tower where Reverre and "Ruckus" are still guarding the portal room.

The others learn that while they were in the crypt the Halfling wizard, Reverre, has been busy copying the circles into his book. He tells the group that he has a plan to capture Sinruth. To do so means that he will have to return to Brindol with the guards and the towns people. "Given that we do not know when Sinruth will return we must act quickly" he tells them. "For when you return from rescuing the other prisoners you must destroy the return portal. Meanwhile I will be in Brindol, in the local prison recreating the circle with the help of friends. Once you have returned we will activate this new circle, an exact replica of the original. This way, when Sinruth returns he will teleport into the prison cell, and If we act quickly enough, we might be able to destroy the circle and trap him, then capture him alive."

Everyone agrees that this plan sounds like a good one, but rescuing the prisoners from two different locations will take time and the group has been pushed to their limits, and besides no one know when Sinruth will return, it could be in two minutes or in two days. The plan is sound they all agree, but complications could arise.

Hellarr tells the rest of the group that while there is not enough time to go after all the prisoners as a single group, it might be possible if they split up. He suggests that it might be best if he went to the goblin camp alone. He could infiltrate easily enough and attempt to locate and rescue the prisoners and return with them to Brindol on foot. "It will not be an easy task, but it is one I feel I must do, to save both the people of Brindol and my own people from he lies and evil plans of Sinruth. If you do not trust me after all I have done this day, then I do not know what will convince you of my honorable intentions, and I will not set out on this task" he tells them.

The group asks Hellarr to step outside while they discuss his plan, as clearly not everyone present trusts the goblin. After he leaves the group discusses his proposal and their options. They then speak with the shaman Ulthgar. They ask him if he would be willing to send some or all of his warriors after Hellarr, they could watch from a distance, hiding in the woods while Hellarr attempts to rescue the prisoners. If he betrays the group or warns the goblins, the warriors could flee back to Castle Rivenroar and then send a messenger to Brindol for reinforcements and of his treachery. Meanwhile, the group will lose the services of Hellarr and Reverre, and could use someone skilled in the art of magic. Ulthgar reluctantly agrees, after all his men are all warriors of the tribe and capable of taking care of themselves. Also, he knows that some of his own people are likely to be at both locations, based on what the group has already told him about the hobgoblins.

Hellarr returns and the group tells him that they agree with his plan, and they send him through the portal alone. They wait nearly a half an hour after he leaves and then send the warriors of the Ulthgar's clan after him to wait and watch.

The rest of the group beaten and tired from the days fighting agree to take a rest as it is already late in the evening. They return back downstairs after posting a guard in the circle room and find food and drink before getting some sleep. The night is uneventful and they all wake early in the morning, ready their gear and eat. They watch the portal for the first signs of dawn, and when the first rays of the sun break over the horizon they make the jump through the portal to the ancient ruins in an unknown land.

As they step through the teleportation circle the group finds themselves in what remains of an ancient temple. A fierce, unseasonably warm wind whips wildly through their hair and clothes. The force of the wind forces them back a half step before they regain their balance. It is a good thing too, because as they recover, they take the chance to look around and can see that the temple is located on the edge of a sheer cliff that plummets over a 1000 ft. straight down. A quick scan of the horizon reveals that they are at the highest point for as far as anyone can see. There is nothing below them other than what appears to be piles of rubble and sparse areas of vegetation. They realize that they can only be in one place, the Stonehome Chasm. So they quickly move ahead and down the worn and broken steps that lead up to the temple into the grass below before another strong wind can knock them off the cliff. They still have the advantage of height in this facing as well, and judging from the view in this direction, the splinter they are on is probably about 3 to 5 miles in diameter. The hill slopes downward into thick jungle, beyone that lies a steep ridge, and beyond that another jungle covered hill with overgrown ruins.

The grass is thick and obscures the hobs passage but after of bit of searching the Shaman spots the trail. The group then makes its way through the dense jungle for about an half hour following the trail of the hobgoblins. Finally the thick jungle gives way to a small clearing at the base of the ridge they spotted when they arrived. The group stops and takes a short rest, as they sit on an old log they see that at the far end of the clearing there is a old tunnel, it is partially obscured by hanging vines, but clearly visible. The hobgoblin tracks lead toward the tunnel. As they approach the tunnel Ulthgar and Erik both spot a second set of tracks coming in from the right side of the clearing. These tracks head toward the tunnel as well. After a bit of further observation, Erik and Ulthgar determine that the tracks of the 5 humanoids are newer than the hobgoblin tracks, as they overlay the hob tracks in many spots. Ulthgar also spots a set of tracks of a four legged creature with claws, but he and Erik have never seen these type of tracks before and do not know what type of creature made them. These tracks follow the previous set of tracks into the tunnel, but the trail is more sparodic, as if the creature were alternating between walking and leaping, or possibly flying. It appears that this creature is stalking the second group of humanoids.

The group is now quite wary about entering the tunnel, but as they stand in front of the 10ft. wide tunnel they can see daylight on the other end, indicating that it is a straight shot through to the other side of the ridge. The tunnel looks to be several hundred feet long with no debris in the way. The group contemplates climbing over the ridge but after looking up and seeing again how steep it is they decide to go ahead and go through the tunnel, time constraints being what they are.

The group passes through to the tunnel with no problems until they reach the far end. About 50 ft. from the exit they find that a portion of the tunnel looks to have partially collapsed and was shored up at some point. Timbers criss-cross the passageway at awkward angles and in order to move any further down the tunnel the group must pick their way carefully through the timbers. To make matters worse these timbers are rotted and look to be structurally unsound, touching one of them could bring the whole tunnel collapsing down on top of them. Jason takes the lead as he is the smallest and most agile of the group. He attempts to find the easiest way through using his skills as a keen observer and a cat burgler. The dwarves follow behind, using their knowledge of construction to point out to him which beams are load bearing and those which can be moved without causing problems. As they come closer to the end of the tunnel the light of day and the dust on the floor allows them to simply follow the tracks of the two groups who came before them.

The jungle on this side of the tunnel proves to be slightly more hospitable and easier to traverse. The trail is easy to follow and visibility is much greater. After walking a short distance the ground ahead rises slightly and they see, perched on a rock outcropping, with his back to them a red dragon wyrmling. Everyone in the group stops immediately and scans the area to see if there is anything else here, or if the wyrmling is alone as they suspect. The group notices that the wyrmling is watching something or someone rather intently, presumably the group of humanoids it was stalking. With a set of quick hand motions the group communicates with each other that they need to attack before they lose the element of surprise. Thorfin, "Ruckus", and Jason all charge ahead while Erik covers their charge with several arrows from his bow. Ulthgar begins a chant to summon the spirits of his ancestors to help aid his allies. The group catches the wyrmling off guard and land several blows wounding him. The dragon manages to take flight but does not flee, instead he circles around and as he does, he envelopes the two dwarves and the halfling in a gout of flame. He then uses both of his claws to rake Jason, wounding the halfling badly. Thorfin and "Ruckus" are quick to recover and both land blows on the wyrm. "Ruckus" surprises the dragon by hitting it with his shield and knocking it out of the air. The wrym now desperate, again uses its breath in attempt to kill the group but does not succeed. It is then beaten down by several more blows and killed before it can take to the air again.

After slaying the wyrmling the group catch the sounds of combat off in the distance ahead. The ringing crash of steel on steel, the grunts, groans, curses and the screams of the dying fill the air. When they reach the edge of the cliff in front of them, they can clearly see the combatants below fighting on what appears to be the ruins of an ancient paved road or pathway. To there left is a trail and a barely discernable set of stairs that winds it way down to the far left portion of the old road. A large crack, no doubt caused by the great cataclysm that created the Stonehome chasm, splits the road in two. A rope bridge spans the divide providing access to the other side. To the right, a shorter section of road leads a crumbling set of stone stairs flanked by long destroyed statues. The group to the left is composed of four humans and a dwarf, opposite them are eight goblins and behind them are eight flying drakes. The drakes are tied to various bits stone rubble; saddles, packs, and gear indicate that they are the goblins mounts. Between the two groups lie four dead hobgoblins and six cowering prisoners. The two groups are conversing at sword point in a mix of common and goblin.

It appears that both groups seemed to have surprised the hobs and been surprised by their presence, as if they were unexpected. Each group is accusing the other of working with the hobs in order to ambush the other, but each group seems baffled by the presence of the wimpering crying prisoners. This is probably the only thing keeping them from attacking each other. Jason notices that the humans have a fair sized chest behind them, and that the strange looking goblins have several crude crates with them. He tells the rest of the group "this has all the hallmarks of a shady deal gone bad", and "I should know" he smiles wrily.

Erik suggestion the group wait and observe for a while, "maybe they'll kill each other off" he suggested. The others agree and the group finds better cover to observe the unfolding scene undetected.

After a short while the lead human swordsman grabs one of the prisoners and begins to interrogate her. The group is too far away to overhear the conversation, but after a minute the man smiles and puts his weapon away. His men and the goblins follow suit and they begin to conduct their business. The chest and the crates are brought forward, and each group, in turn, starts to inspects the goods the other brought.

Thorfin and "Ruckus" mutter profanities and tell the rest of the group to get ready to charge in.

Erik and Jason, both tell the others that they may still have a chance to get these two groups to do their work for them. The others listen to their plan and the group smiles as they move quickly but silently down the old stairs and across the cobble stone road to the jungle beyond. Once there the ranger Erik moves up closer to the edge of the cliff, followed by Jason. Erik checks the angle again and sees that when he fires his arrow at the goblins it should look as though it came from the human archer, who still holds his bow in his hand. Jason hands him one of the goblin arrows he took the day before, "irony" he tells the ranger. Erik lines up the shot again and releases the arrow. It sails across the chasm, past the human archers right shoulder, over the goblin leaders head and strikes the goblin on the stairs just behind him between the eyes. The shaft of the arrow penetrates through the back of his skull and the goblin falls forward hitting the goblin leader in the back as he dies. Confused and surprised the goblin leader draws his sword and gives the order to attack, his soldiers are on the humans in an instant. The dwarf with the group is hacked to pieces by three goblins before he can pull his weapon. His companions, being a little further back are able to defend themselves better and after the shock and surprise has worn off, payback the goblins by killing several of them.

As the two groups fight one another, Erik and Jason both shoot the human archer in the back. The man drops his bow as he flails about trying to pull the arrows from his back. Thorfin joins in and fires several shots from his crossbow as well. The leader of the humans covers his second, as the other man grabs the chest and drags it backwards. The goblins likewise retrieve their crates and begin to drag them up the stairs while the other cover them. Quite suddenly the din of combat is drowned out by a loud and ominous roar originating from up the hill directly behind the goblins. The sound gives everyone a moment of pause as they steal a look in that direction to evaluate a possible new threat. In the trees above hundred of birds take flight in a great flock adding to the noise and confusion. The source of the roar is easily spotted though, four red dragon wyrmling come screaming full speed down the hill. Followed by a swarm of winged kobolds flying clumsily in pursuit of their wards. In this moment everything changes, the goblins flee to their drakes and the airship crew across the bridge.

After crossing over the rope bridge the leader of the airship crew cuts the supporting ropes of the bridge. Hoping that the six screaming prisoners would provide an ample distraction to the dragons and delay their pursuit of his crew. Hayden Blackstone, smiled to himself as he turned his back on the helpless, screaming prisoners. So engrossed in congratulating himself on his own brilliant plan, that he was unable to do anything more than stare, as a wild looking man dressed in hide armor ran past him and jumped the span of the chasm. Nor in that instant of confusion, was he able to make sense of the fact that a strange dwarf was now standing over the dead body of his best swordsman, Flint Audeley, clutching a bloody petrified arm? Or that to his right charging out of the jungle was a second dwarf, axe swinging overhead, that was about to end his life.

Ulthgar jumped with all his might, but realized as soon as he was in the air that he would not make the distance. Instead of landing safely on the other side, he hit the edge of the far cliff, knocking the wind out of his lungs. He did manage to grab hold and pull himself up to safety. The pain in his ribs was excruciating though, probably broken, or at the very least cracked. He winced in pain as tried to stand straight.

Jason moved deftly past "Ruckus" who was working his axe back and forth trying to pull it out of the skull of the man who cut the rope bridge. Wasting no time he dropped his pack and pulled out his grappling hook and rope. He threw it down to the bridge below, which had come to rest on a tangle of vines and pulled it back up as far as he could. Soon Erik was beside him with his own rope and hook, using it to pull up the other side of the bridge.

Ulthgar's spirit helper, if he could be really called a "helper", chided him for being a weakling. "Shut up you lying old bastard, you said I could easily make that jump with your help" he said to Golgor, before remembering that openly speaking to the spirit of his former mentor and friend tended to make the uninitiated uncomfortable. His priority was to get these people to safety. So he stood up as straight as possible and shouted sternly "come with me, if you want to live". It wasn't often that he got to play the role of hero being a tribal shaman he thought to himself. The six, panicked prisoners fled past him and onto the rope bridge.

Jason and Erik were just searching for somewhere to tie off their ropes when the six panicked people fled across it with no thought of anything but reaching the other side. The two braced themselves as best they could but six people was to much weight on the bridge at once, and far more than they could hold. The rope burned as it slipped through their fingers but the two dug deep, ignoring the pain as best they could. They were both drug across the old cobble stone road to the edge of the cliff as the bridge and the people on it fell. "Ruckus" and Thorfin each grabbed hold of the ropes and helped stop the momentum of the falling bridge. Then the four heaved up the bridge and its six occupants, bidding them to exit quickly. The shaman, Ulthgar ran across the bridge quickly after the others had made it across.

The group seeing that the wyrmlings were almost on them, dropped the ropes and fled into the jungle with the six rescued prisoners. Erik took point to make sure that the group followed the correct trail back, time was of the essence and any mistake could cost them all their lives. Behind him came Jason who kept Erik in sight, but stayed just off the main trail and under cover, and bid those behind him to do the same. "Ruckus" came behind him, followed by the six prisoners. Thorfin, who had stopped only long enough to pick up the airship crews chest and throw it up on one shoulder, was behind them. Ulthgar followed behind them all, using a tree branch to obscure their tracks.

The wyrmlings crisscrossed over the trail looking for what only moments ago had been easy prey. Their shadows giving the group cause for alarm, but the groups measures prevented them from being spotted to easily and they were able to get close to the old tunnel before the wyrms spotted and zeroed in on them.

As they neared the tunnel "Ruckus" remembered that this end of the tunnel was supported by rotted beams and on the verge of collapse. There was no way they could make it through without collapsing the tunnel, not with the dragons on their tails at any rate. In that instant he had an idea, it was crazy he thought to himself, but it just might save them all. He slowed his pace, letting the others pass him by until his was running next to Thorfin. Soon the two dwarves were running with the chest between them. "Slow your pace Erik", he yelled out. "Let us run through the tunnel first. Then rest of you laggards come in right behind us. Don't look up...don't look behind you, just run like the Nine Hells just opened up behind you!" he shouted.

The two dwarves entered the tunnel, chest between them and their shields on the opposite arm. Heads turned to the side, they put the full weight of their shoulders behind their shields and began battering their way through the supporting beams of the tunnel. Suddenly the cieling began to rumble and shake,dust and small bits of debris began to fall. This was followed shortly by a low rumble that built up to a deafening roar as large peices of stone and debris began to fill the passage under were the support beams had just been. As the lead dragon flew into the opening of the tunnel a thousand tons of stone began to rain down. Not being able to change his course quickly enough he was buried and smashed below the weight of the falling rubble. The other wyrms turned up in time and exploded out of the dust cloud created by the collapsing tunnel. Spotting the goblins just as they were about to clear the ridge, the dragons sped after them in search of easier, less cunning prey.

Covered inside and out with fine gray dust the group exited the tunnel, and alternated between gasping for breath and hacking to get the dust out. When they finished the two dwarves fell to the ground and rolled over onto their backs and both let out a whoop. They lay on ground laughing like insane idiots until Erik and Jason spotted the dragons overhead tearing into the flock of fleeing goblins and their drakes, ripping one then another asunder. While it was a breath taking spectacle aerial prowess to behold, they decided their time would be better spent running to the temple at the top of the hill, instead of watching dragons make sport of goblins. ]]> kirksmithicus http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/954-The-Road-to-War-Session-6-quot-The-Dragon-s-Splinter-quot <![CDATA[The Road to War: Session 5 "The "Thing" Below"]]> http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/933-The-Road-to-War-Session-5-quot-The-quot-Thing-quot-Below-quot Sat, 16 Jan 2010 07:06:57 GMT After finding the four teleportation circles in the upper floor of the tower the group takes a rest and discusses their options. A consensus is... After finding the four teleportation circles in the upper floor of the tower the group takes a rest and discusses their options.

A consensus is finally reached and the party decides to split into two groups. The first will go into the crypt and after the prisoners and the "thing" the hobgoblins mentioned. The crypt is located somewhere near or below the ruined church in the outer bailey but its exact location is unknown. The rescued prisoners, the city guards, Ruckus and the wizard will remain in the tower. The citizens will rest on the third floor while Ruckus and the wizard guard the portal room in case Sinruth should return.

The group heads off to the old church led by Thorfin Hammerfist. The enter the ruins of the church and find that most of the roof has collapsed, but the back 1/3 remains intact. Narrow window along the back wall overlook the valley below. The alter, several sarcophagi, and statues (of all the major deities) survive mostly intact. The alter and sarcophagi are covered with an ancient script and symbols of the Gods, and look to have been broken open and looted long ago. The hobgoblins have added insult to injury by defacing what remains of the statues; knocking off arms, and noses and gouging out eyes. Everything else is scrawled with crude etching in the goblin script, done by bored and spiteful goblins with nothing else to do.

The group approaches the first sarcophagi slowly and carefully. Thorfin reads the runes inscribed on the stone sarcophagi but it bears only the name, date and a brief history of the hero's life who was once interred in this sarcophagi. Jason "the Raven" Helldelver, searches for any signs of traps or secret switches, levers and such but finds none. They decide to open the sarcophagi and after some effort they do so. They find it empty and uninteresting. They follow the same procedure on the second sarcophagi and find it empty as well. "The Raven" however, finds a secret switch with his at the base of the sarcophagi and activates it. The group hears the sound of stone scraping on stone as the statue of Pelor (to their left) slides backwards, pedestal and all, to reveal a steep narrow set of stairs. The stairs descend into the darkness beyond sight.

Jason quietly follows the stairs down to the landing at the bottom, but without a light source he can see no further than the base of the stairs. The group digs through their packs until "Farmer Bob" comes up with a torch and a flint and steel. They light the torch and descend warily into the crypt.

Now at the bottom of the stairs, and with sufficient light, they can all see that at the base of the stairs is a small landing, a cramped narrow tunnel leads off to the north. Jason makes a quick check for traps but finds none. So the group moves ahead with Jason and Thorfin in the lead. Halfway down the tunnel they can see a set of doors ahead. Thorfin suddenly feels the floor shift below his right foot. The sound of stone scraping on stone fills the tunnel and the group turns in time to see a large stone seal the tunnel behind them. In the now quite tunnel they can hear the sound of hundreds of tiny claws on stone and shrill squeaking of ravenous rats. The rats fill the tunnel swarming over everyone in the group. Their gnashing teeth and razor sharp claws cause little damage on an individual basis but as a group the rats are causing the group serious problems. Luckily Hellarr manages to kill a large number of the rats by freezing them with a spell or two, while the others pick them off one at a time. A few minutes later, covered with bites and scratches, but alive and vermin free, the group reaches the set of doors at the end of the tunnel.

The large set of metal covered doors, with intricate detail work depict numerous grizzly scenes of torture, and motifs of death and destruction.

Jason checks the doors and finds them to be locked but untrapped. He gets his tools out of his pack and sets to work picking the lock. Engrossed in this task, he barely has time to react when the doors are suddenly unlocked from the other side and yanked open. A goblin blade lashes out at his head and he ducks under the slashing blow just in the nick of time.

Thorfin surges forward and breaks up the goblins formation, while Jason slips to the side and the rest of the group moves in. The four goblins find themselves no match for the group. Two are quickly cut down and the other two flee towards the back of the room into the darkness. The first goblin runs by an alter located in the center of the room. He shrieks in pain, the flesh on his hands and face wither and his dessicated body falls to the floor. On the other side of the room, the second goblin get closer to the door, avoiding the alter, but is run down and killed by the group.

After combat is finished the group takes a look around the room their light reveals a large, long room with a high arched ceiling approximately 40 ft. high. Along both walls are niches every 5 ft. from floor to ceiling, they filled with the bones of Rivenroar family members from countless generations. In the center of the room is the family alter, it is covered with blood and the lifeless corpse of a young man. At the far end of the room is a second set of intricately detailed metal doors.

It is now plain to Thorfin that the Rivenroar family was secretly worshipers of Vecna, and that the alter is tainted by his evil stench. Wary that the dead might rise the group moves quickly to the second set of doors.

The doors are unlocked and and open easily and with little noise. The room is dimly lit by sever braziers. At the far end of this room at a dining table sits what appears to be a man with blackened skin. His white hair is mostly gone and the skin on his face is waxy and leathery, with spots of white and bright red and is covered with pockmarks caused by severe blisters. He stops eating as they enter the room, puts his knife and fork down and wipes his mouth with a silk napkin. They notice on the plate in front of him is the severed and uncooked arm of a dwarf, who just happens to be laying in the far corner, bleeding and unconscious. Next to him an older woman rocks herself hugging her knees to her chest and singing a soft eerie lullaby. The man takes a sip of wine then dons a helmet that hides his hideous face behind a metal faceplate and eye lenses of smoked glass. "Excuse me" he says, "I was not expecting dinner guests...but there is plenty to eat if you care to dine with me."

Without a word the group moves slowly and cautiously down the entryway and into the room. The distance between them and the man is to far to cover without exposing themselves to attack before reaching him. The man suddenly disappears, the area around him becomes unnaturally dark. Jason and Erik both fire arrows into the adversaries last known position, but no cries of pain or dull thud of the arrow finding its mark can be heard. In fact, their arrows make no sound at all once they enter the cloud of darkness. If they missed they should have shattered against the back wall (both arrows hit the bookcase behind the target). The group creep cautiously ahead, even more unnerved than before.

Out of the darkness erupts a ball of flame that lands in the middle of the group and explodes. Everyone in the group except Jason is badly burned in the blast, who quickly reacts and moves out of the narrow entryway but runs into a goblin who was hiding around the corner. The two combatants exchange a furious series of vicious blows. A second goblin rushes from hiding on the right and attacks "Farmer Bob". The rest of the group moves forward and Thorfin charges across the room. A gout of flame suddenly engulfs him. As the flames dissipate his clothes and hair are smoldering, his face and hands blistered, but the angry dwarf runs headlong into the cloud of darkness.

A second sphere of flame erupts from the darkness, but it moves about the room slower, and more purposefully than the first. The sphere zigzags across the room burning "Farmer Bob", Hellarr and Jason all in turn. Erik and his wolf take down the goblin who had ambushed Tem ("Farmer Bob"). Then turn their attention toward the goblin locked in combat with Jason. Tem now free to maneuver around to help Jason, he catches the goblin off guard and runs him through with his longspear.

Thorfin's gambit works and the pyromancer is flushed out of the dark cloud he was hiding in. He moves toward the door but is quickly intercepted and surrounded. Several well placed blows and slashing cuts drop the pryomancer to one knee. Just when Throfin is about to deliver the final blow, the pyromancer releases a burst of arcane force, fire and rage. The assault burn everyone in the group and the force of the rage and energy pushes them all just out of reach of the mage.

Except for Thorfin that is. Thorfin yells "you can burn a dwarf but you can't push him out of a fight you ugly bastard"! Then from Thorfin's Hammer, The Stone Hand of Brother Tiderious the Rightious, a bright light pulses, sending a wave of healing energy across the room. This helps soothe the burns of his comrades and steadies their nerves.

The fiery assault passed almost harmlessly through Jason "The Raven". His Spectral Kurkri saved him from the burning flames by turning him into a ghostly visage of his normal self.

Suddenly the mage is gone, simply popping out of existence. He just as suddenly reappears next to the door, laughing he shuts it. The sound of the pyomancer locking the door prompts Jason into action. In his ghostly form he runs across the room and the entry way
passing through and beyond the door before returning to his normal form. The room beyond is completely dark and so Jason lashes out with his Kukri in the last place he knew the pyromancer to be. His Kukri connects, slicing deep into flesh. He is sprayed with blood as the mage falls lifeless to the floor. Unable to see, Jason drops to the floor and pats the mages corpse in an attempt to find the key. As he is doing so, he hears the sound of bone and leather scraping on stone and low, unnatural moans from further down the crypt. The hairs on his neck stand up as he desperately searches the floor for the key, then suddenly realizes that the key might still be in the door. It is, and he unlocks the door and throws himself through it in one quick motion. The light of the pyromancers chamber floods into the crypt and reveals dozens of undead skeletons shuffling their way toward the door. Several mere feet away, arms out stretched, grasping for the halfling. Who just as quickly as he had opened the door, slams it shuts and locks it behind him.

Now safe in the pyromancers chamber the group heals the one armed dwarf and tries to comfort the woman. The dwarf gives his thanks to Thorfin through gritted teeth. He then tells them, he is Adronsius an alchemist from Brindol.

The rest of the group searches the room thoroughly for another exit. It is now apparent to all present that the room was formerly the Rivenroar family's temple / church dedicated to Vecna, their true God. After half an hour of searching the group realizes that there is no other exit. They are sealed in a church dedicated to Vecna and behind the door, the only exit, are at least two dozen undead skeletons. So after a short discussion the come up with a plan, not a very good one by all accounts, but a plan none the less. So they sharpen their weapons, get into formation, steel their nerves and throw open the doors. ]]> kirksmithicus http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/933-The-Road-to-War-Session-5-quot-The-quot-Thing-quot-Below-quot Races of the Stonehome Chasm: Drow http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/920-Races-of-the-Stonehome-Chasm-Drow Mon, 11 Jan 2010 06:19:50 GMT I wanted to give the Drow a unique feel as they will be one of the main protagonists later in the campaign (replacing the Gith). So I've split the Drow into a couple of factions and added a bit of techno-magic to make them seem cooler and more mysterious. Also I'm planning on using miniatures from the Scorpion faction of the the Confrontation, Age of Ragnarok game, to make them stand out visually (check out the at the bottom of the page).


Drow
The Drow lost untold numbers in the great cataclysm. Today the Drow can be split into three distinct groups, each of which was affected differently by the great cataclysm and the events that followed.

Most groups of Drow who were not killed outright either survived unscathed or moved deeper underground, finding new caverns in the underdark and establishing new cities and outposts. They maintained their cultural identities and customs unchanged and today give the great cataclysm, their stranded kin and surface dwellers little or no thought.

Other groups were not as fortunate, they became stranded by the collapse of vast sections of the underdark. They adapted as best they could and attempted to maintain their lives and traditions in the face of these new hardships thrust upon them. Most of these isolated enclaves fell into civil strife, anarchy, famine, cannibalism, and slave revolts. Five hundred years after the great cataclysm the groups, and very few at that, that survive, have been radically transformed. Two main groups survive. The first group maintains its traditional worship of Lolth, but now maintains the reason that they have become cut off from the underdark and their kin is some great sin that they have committed against Lolth. So when they are found outside of their underground enclaves they expose portions of their flesh to the sun, the burning pain it causes purifies them and helps atones for their sins. The second group has abandoned the worship of Lolth altogether and Tiamat has been adopted as their new deity. Some Drow have even argued that Pelor should be worshiped as the new face of evil and rumors circulate that cults of Pelor not only exist, but are responsible for the great cataclysm. In order to bring the burning rays of Pelor to the Drow. While both groups still prefer to live underground they now have the equipment designed to allow them to move comfortably around on the surface. Armored visors with lenses of smoked glass, lightweight and flexible metal armor, and heavy cloth prevent the painful rays of the sun from touching their being. They have gathered untold numbers of artifacts of dwarven creation and hoard these treasures and the knowledge derived from them. Further experimentation and innovation has resulted in highly sophisticated machines, weapons and armor.

Arcane Engines - used to power Arcane Airships.

Arcane Flyer - personal transportation device that allows an individual to hover or fly at 3 + Dex modifier (?).

Arcane Bracers and Gloves - grants user encounter powers similar to wands but are built into the armor and gloves so that the item need not be carried and cannot be dropped during flight.

These two groups have been in contact and at odds with each other for hundreds of years. Skirmishes, raids, infiltration , spying and subterfuge are common.

(No names for these groups yet)
Attached Thumbnails
]]> kirksmithicus http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/920-Races-of-the-Stonehome-Chasm-Drow The Road to War: Session 4 http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/896-The-Road-to-War-Session-4 Fri, 18 Dec 2009 07:32:23 GMT After crossing the bridge the PC's find the remains of small fire in the left tower and a few blankets that the hobgoblins had been using to keep warm while on watch. After a quick search they conclude that the hobs had no loot except what they took with them to the chasm below (and the keys to the door).

Between the two square towers they find the entrance, a stout oak door. The door is locked but the halfling Jason the Raven easily picks the lock. Erik and his wolf enter the tower. They find themselves in a small foyer with a staircase on the right that winds its way up to the second floor. They then hear the screams of coming from the room ahead. The PC's all in the foyer now can see the grisly sights ahead of them. To the right, three hobgoblins and a gnome, all covered with blood, are torturing a victim, while a second lays on a rack moaning, and a third dead victim lies in a set of stocks with his face badly disfigured and his throat slit. In the exact center of the room there is a 10 ft. x 10 ft. hole into which the blood from the dead man in the stocks, and from three dismembered corpses laying next to the hole, flows. Several rats gorge themselves on the piles of entrails that lay in heaps near the hole. On the left a goblin stands holding back two wolves who are snarling at two women and a young child who are chained to the wall.

Having the upper hand, the PC's rush in and surprise the occupants of the torture chamber. Combat is quick and deadly. After killing all the hobgoblins and their allies the PC's heal the men in the torture devices and free the woman and child from their chains. Brother Thorfin Hammerfist and Erik the White tend to their wounds. The rest of the group searches the room. They find that at the bottom of the well is another corpse being gnawed by more rats. At the rear of the room they find a trap door that leads to the cellar below. They search the bodies of the dead, they find no gold or other useful items, but they do find a tattoo on the gnomes neck. The wizard recognizes the mark as belonging to an evil cult of fey creature (gnomes and elves) that worships Melora, and believes that all civilization must be destroyed in order to restore Melora's true power. So the PC's decide to cut the ears of the hobs and the goblin for the 2 gp bounty, and from the gnome since he was an ally of the hobgoblins. They then throw the corpses into the hole for the mother loving rats to feast on.

After taking a short break, two of the city guards the group brought with them arrive. They have just finished setting up camp and came looking for the PC's as instructed. The guards escort the freed townsfolk back to camp while the group presses on.

The group moves as quietly as they can up the stairs to the second floor. They stop at the door and listen but hear nothing on the other side. Jason the Raven checks the door and finds it to be unlocked and so opens it and slips into the room. The room is filled with supplies looted by the hobs during raids on merchant caravans. Taking only food and drink and apparently leaving all else behind. Ruckus finds a small keg and helps himself to some fine ale while the rest of the group searches the room.

At the back of the room the PC's find a second door that leads to the 3rd floor of the tower. At the top of the stairs they find another door, this one locked. Jason gets to work picking the lock on the door, and hears voices on the other side. He and Helarr press their heads against the door and strain to hear the ongoing conversation.

Human (?): Sinruth, the raid has gone well. You now have enough captives to sacrifice in order to satisfy the thing in the crypt, secure Abrianathix's services and to unite the other tribes of the Giantshields to your banner.

Sinruth: Yes, I hope to soon have nearly a thousand soldiers under my command, and when I do, we will march on Brindol and raze it to the ground.

Human: Remember, the attack on Brindol must be precisely timed. You must march on Brindol in three weeks time..... no matter how many soldiers you have.

Sinruth: We will be ready. Human sacrifices, free weapons and the chance for pillaging will bring the goblins out in great numbers. They will be assembled, armed and drilled in short order.......just be sure that your men do their job when the time comes.

Human: *snorts* My men infiltrating the city as we speak. When you and your horde of mongrols arrive, we will be in place, and attack from within as planned.

Sinruth: let us hope that your men are as good as you claim....and perhaps when my mongrols are done with the city defenders I'll let them overrun and kill your men.

Human: Enough!, you know the plan, and don't forget who got you where you are now!.........as for the adventurers that councilmen Troyas sent, kill the first group that comes, but let the second group rescue a few of the prisoners. Troyas must not lose the complete trust of the people of Brindol, not yet anyway.

Sinruth: My soldiers will kill them easily enough, and I could use a few dwarf heads to hang on my banner.

Hobgoblins guards: *laughing*

Human: I must be on my way, remember..... you have three weeks.

a door shuts in the background, followed by a short silence.

Sinruth: (Switching to the goblin tongue) I will kill that bastard, and all of his men after we have taken Brindol.

Hobgoblin Guards: *Laughing*

Sinruth: Cidrak, I must go to Umberforge and secure the weapons from the emissaries arms dealer. You and Murgrin make sure that those adventurers that the human sent....meet an untimely death.

Cidrak: What of the second group sir?

Sinruth: Kill them too, and send the remaining prisoners to our camp in the west. We will need more sacrifices to keep the tribes hunger for blood satisfied.

Cidrak: Yes sir! as you command.

Sinruth leaves through the other door.

The characters then decide to enter the room. The find Sub-commander Cidrak, Murgrin Corpse-face (hobgoblin shaman) along with two hobgoblin guards and two bugbear soldiers in the room. The battle ends with all the goblins dead. "Farmer Bob" and Brother Thorfin Hammerfist are badly wounded and nearly killed. Brother Hammerfist manages to save "Farmer Bob" before going down himself at the end of the fight. Erik the White heals Brother Hammerfist and the group takes a rest and searches the room.

They find Sinruth's hoard of 1200 gold coins, several rituals on the dead shaman, an ancient dwarven blunderbuss and a set of dwarven chainmail. In among the gold coins of the chest they also find a locked ornate wooden box inlaid with silver scrollwork. Jason the Raven picks the lock. He opens the now unlocked box and finds a small green hobgoblin head inside. The shrunkin heads eyes roll around to the front and stare at the halfling for a moment, before its mouth creaks open and it screams "Get your filthy little hands off me you damned son of a halfling gutter whore!". Jason's head explodes in pain and he falls to the floor dropping the box, blood trickles from his ears, his head throbbing in pain. The lid to the box shuts and locks itself. The PC's decide to leave the box closed and throw it into a bag and head up the stairs to the fourth floor.

On the fourth floor the character find a large round room, like the other three floors below. Its only distinct feature is the presence of four teleportation circles. The first leads to an orchard outside of the city of Brindol. The second, to a dark foreboding city set on a rugged jagged landscape and located near a volcano. The third leads to a ruined temple in an unknown forest. The fourth leads to a hobgoblins camp, presumably in the west somewhere. ]]> kirksmithicus http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/896-The-Road-to-War-Session-4 Savage Encounters Ratings http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/893-Savage-Encounters-Ratings Wed, 16 Dec 2009 23:07:44 GMT Having nothing better to do for the last hour I thought I would rate the Savage Encounters Miniatures. *Utility/Coolness/Overall *rating Both... Having nothing better to do for the last hour I thought I would rate the Savage Encounters Miniatures.


Utility/Coolness/Overall rating

Both rating range from 0 to 5. So a miniature with a 10 rating would be something that you are likely to use all the time, and something that'll blow you away the first time you see it. In other words, a 10 isn't likely to ever happen. It seems that miniatures are either really cool or really useful, not both. Even still, some come pretty close. I would say that a rating of a 7-9 is something you are going to want and use, even if it is primarily because of the cool factor, you'll find a way to work it in. 5-6 are pretty solid ratings and is stuff that you would likely want because it looks okay and gets used a lot. 2-4 are just okay miniatures, they are either not that useful, i.e. very campaign / setting specific, and/ or just not great quality artwork. 0-1 well, they just suck, and would be about as rare as a 10.



  • 2/4/6 Adult Gray Dragon
  • 1/3/4 Adult Purple Dragon
  • 2/5/7 Angel of Valor Legionnaire
  • 2/5/7 Black Slaad
  • 1/2/3 Bloodspike Behemoth
  • 2/2/4 Bodak Skulk
  • 3/2/5 Bullywug Guard
  • 2/4/6 Bullywug Mud Lord
  • 1/2/3 Death Giant
  • 2/2/4 Death Knight (Dragonborn Palladin)
  • 3/2/5 Deathrattle Viper
  • 2/3/5 Drider Fanglord
  • 2/3/5 Foulspawn Berserker
  • 2/2/4 Githyanki Gish
  • 2/2/4 Githyanki Mindslicer
  • 3/2/5 Goblin Skullcleaver
  • 4/3/7 Goblin Wolf Rider (I want to give this a higher rating in both, but I can't)
  • 2/1/3 Gray Slaad
  • 1/4/5 Graz'zt
  • 1/2/3 Greenvise Vine
  • 4/3/7 Hobgoblin Hand of Bane
  • 4/3/7 Human Outrider
  • 5/1/6 Inhabited Corpse / Fallen Villagers (damn villagers are always getting killed)
  • 2/2/4 Legion Devil Legionaire
  • 1/3/4 Marilith
  • 2/5/7 Nightwalker
  • 3/2/5 Norker (It's utility is so high because they also look like were-rats)
  • 4/2/6 Rat Swarm (as compared to the old one which would have been a 4/4/8)
  • 2/3/5 Rockfire Dreadnought
  • 2/2/4 Salamander Archer
  • 3/4/7 Savage Minotaur
  • 1/2/3 Shardstorm Vortex
  • 2/4/6 Skeletal Cyclops (A very cool mini, but a skeletal cyclops isn't something you run into in every campaign)
  • 3/2/5 Skeletal Tiefling (Skeletons tend to get a lot of use, but this is not one of the better ones out there)
  • 1/4/5 Sorrowsworn Reaper
  • 3/3/6 Specter
  • 3/2/5 Tiefling Necromancer
  • 2/2/4 Vampire Guilmaster
  • 2/2/4 Windfiend Fury
  • 1/3/4 Zombie Hulk


Anyway these are my ratings, based only on my skewed opinion of things. I would like to see what other people think, using the same scale. So feel free to copy the master list, then take a few minutes to rate things how you see fit. If there are enough posts I'll do an average rating after a while.

Also, on the top of my wish list for future miniature sets:

Wagon / Mimic (large miniature) ]]> kirksmithicus http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/893-Savage-Encounters-Ratings The Stonehome Chasm http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/889-The-Stonehome-Chasm Mon, 14 Dec 2009 06:24:18 GMT I think the introduction of gunpowder weapons, airships, dungeon delving and wild west type frontier towns, has some kick-ass potential. The... I think the introduction of gunpowder weapons, airships, dungeon delving and wild west type frontier towns, has some kick-ass potential.

The following is an amalgamation of various sources including The Scales of War adventure path, Forgotten Realms and Eberron. This is just the rough draft so far. The campaign I was running was already getting a bit stale, and I didn't really like the direction the SoW adventure path was heading, I'm not much on planer travel. So I'm hoping to recast the whole thing into this mold.

Intro to the Stonehome Chasm

For nearly 10,000 years after the Age of Chains the dwarves delved below the Stonehome mountains, spreading out for hundreds of miles in all directions and nearly a mile down. The tunnels became so numerous that no one could map, or make sense of them all. Hundreds of dwarven cities rose, thrived and fell to the vagaries of time. At it's peak, the population under the Stonehome mountains numbered a staggering two million dwarves. Above, the populations of humans and halflings numbered nearly a quarter of a million, drawn to the mountains numerous above ground trade centers and cities created by the dwarves. The dwarves fought endless wars among themselves, and against other darker more sinister forces they encountered below the stone home mountains. With the drow, and the drow minions, the dwarves fought countless wars. Then, one day nearly 500 years ago came the great cataclysm. No one knows for sure what caused the great cataclysm, but it's results are clearly wrought upon the land today.

In an instant the Stonehome mountians began to shake, then collapsed inward, killing millions. The tunnels, great halls and cities of the greatest dwarven civilization the world has ever known came crashing down. For thousands of miles in all directions, the earth shuddered, building collapsed and the dust thrown up into the air obscured the sun for three years. Famines, plague and the three year winter followed. Many thought that this heralded the end of the world, but in time, things began to return to normal and life went on almost as it had before. Except where the Stonehome mountains had been. Nothing lived in the great gaping chasm that had once been a mighty mountain range. For hundreds of miles in all directions the ground had collapsed. Now a giant rubble chocked chasm surrounded by 2000 ft. cliffs was all that remained.

All that remained of the once great dwarven civilization under the Stonehome mountains were scattered above ground outposts. The largest of these was the city of Overlook. The city survived by sheer luck alone, the edge of the great chasm lay only two miles to the west of the city. The dwarves of Overlook attempted rescue missions but no one was ever found alive, and so after the first year they gave up hope and set about insuring their own security and long term survival.

In the decades that followed the great chasm remained a barren wasteland devoid of life. Then slowly, nature began to take it's course. Windblown seeds began to take root, first grasses, then bushes and trees. Soon the parts of the chasm floor that received enough sunlight became covered with vegetation. This in turn attracted insects and birds. Ground dwelling creatures were absent because of the difficulty getting into the chasm. And so in the decades to come the floor of the great chasm became a verdant lush wilderness, though eerily devoid of the animal life common outside the great chasm.

The dwarves eventually began to take advantage of the resources within the great chasm. A great ramp was built down into the great chasm. Soon the dwarves were exporting thousand on tons of lumber to other nations, while others went delving after long lost artifacts and ancient cities. Soon the dwarves discovered that they were not the only ones who now inhabited the great chasm.

In the decades after the cataclysm, survivors began to emerge in small numbers. These survivors were orcs, goblins, bugbears, hobgoblins and other former slave races of the drow. Once above ground their numbers began to multiply. They went from scattered bands, to tribes, to clans, to nations in a short amount of time. Their populations swelled and they mostly fought among themselves and against the remaining enclaves of the drow, their former masters. Eventually, they sought a way out of the chasm, and they found it at the city of Overlook.

The first battles between the dwarves and the denizens of the great chasm were vicious and bloody, and the city almost fell numerous times but the onslaughts were turned back. After these attacks the dwarves sought a way to keep the hordes in the chasm, they had not forgotten bondage to the giants and did not wish to become the slaves of orcs or any other race. So they built the might fortress of Bordin's Watch to guard the only known passage out of the great chasm. So when next the hordes of orcs and goblins sought to destroy the city of Overlook, they came in headlong against the mighty towers of Bordin's Watch and her stalwart defenders.

Since this time the orcs and goblins of the great chasm have tested the walls and defenders of Bordin's Watch and each time they have failed to breech it's walls. Each attempt has been different from the last, at times, nothing more than disorganized barbarians charging the walls, at other times, great armies; organized, drilled, disciplined and cunning.

Since people outside the chasm rarely venture in, or even more rarely, return from the chasm little is known of the history and societal developments of those races who live in the chasm. What is known is that, there have been in the past numerous cities and nations composed entirely of goblins and orcs, but none, nor have the dwarves, ever pursued peace, negotiations, or even a diplomatic mission.

In more recent times, with the advent of the airship, exploration of the chasm has began in earnest. Much of the knowledge of the chasm is still kept secret and tightly guarded by those who posses it. As most of the accumulated knowledge has been gathered by rival Salvage Companies, who compete against each other to recover the lost dwarven treasures buried beneath the Stonehome Chasm. Several of the salvage companies have been able to establish pioneer basis far into the interior of the chasm on what are known as Splinters; small sections of land (or splinters) that rise up above the chasm floor thousands of feet below. These splinters vary in size from a few hundred feet in diameter, up to several miles, some have even reported seeing some that are tens of miles in diameter, and could possibly harbor the descendants of stranded survivors of the great cataclysm.

Rumors also circulate that the orcs and goblins brought with them various drake species into the great chasm and that the drakes have thrived and now stalk the chasm hunting whatever they can find to eat (generally each other or the orcs and goblins). The splinters and spires of the chasm have also attracted untold numbers of wyverns and dragons. Another curious rumor asserts that the after the great cataclysm, the surviving drow, who were cut off from greater drow society, abandoned the worship of Lolth. What's more, the rumor purports that some of the drow have bred with orc creating a race of gray to black skinned orcs, who are to be feared above all other inhabitants of the Stonehome Chasm.





 ]]> kirksmithicus http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/889-The-Stonehome-Chasm The Road to War: Session 3 http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/864-The-Road-to-War-Session-3 Sun, 06 Dec 2009 05:05:23 GMT After the unfortunate bridge incident the PC's decide to push on despite the damage the trap inflicted.

They enter the outer bailey of the ruined castle. Before them lies the ruins of an ancient town that once thrived within the castle walls. All that survives now though are a few ruined buildings, piles of rubble and the back half of the old church. The entire scene is covered by several inches of snow and the cold north wind drives snow into the faces of the PC's. Numerous sets of track are evident in the soft snow. Three sets of tracks lead off toward the old church, while the others, perhaps as many as six or seven lead through the old guard towers (on the PC's right) and into the inner bailey. In hushed voices the group discusses their next move, when Erik the White sees movement in one of the arrow slits of the right tower, on the upper level.

The figure bolts and commands in goblin can be heard. Luckily for the group, Helarr (the goblin druid) just happens to be fluent in goblin. He informs the party that the commands they hear are for the other goblins to lower the portcullis. Shortly after this the portcullis, an old ad hoc thing built by the hobgoblins, begins descending. The PC's run forward and into the inner bailey before it can be fully lowered.

Once inside the goblins lower the portcullis into position, blocking the PC's escape. The group takes a quick look around and notices that the hobgoblins have repaired sections of the tower and the walls of the inner bailey and replaces the long missing doors of the towers with new, stout wooden doors made of oak. The inner bailey itself consists of a large single courtyard, that has been cleared of all debris. In the center lies a woman chained to a large stake. From the two towers on the far side of the inner bailey comes a loud and ominous roar, followed by the creaking sound of the second portcullis on the far towers being raised. From which pours dozens of small drakes (2 swarms), and a Rage Drake. The PC's discern that they have been tricked again.

The battle with the drakes is short but vicious. Helarr is nearly killed, saved only because Brother Hammerhand's timely aid. The rest of the group is badly battered and they take a short rest, while Brother Hammerhand checks out the unconscious woman in the center of the courtyard. She is still alive, but barely and he administers first aid as best he can. From the far towers of the inner bailey comes a great host of hobgoblins (okay, only 20). The emerge from the towers and with the discipline of well trained soldiers the form up into a phalanx and begin their grim march across the courtyard towards the group. While the goblins in the towers behind the group begin firing arrows down upon them.

Helarr, quickly launches two vials of alchemist fire into the ranks of hobgoblins. In an instant, over a dozen of the hobgoblins are ablaze, their ranks and discipline disintegrate. The confusion allows Tem Stoneboiler, Ruckus Ironheart and Brother Hammerhand to close in and engage the hobgoblins left flank, instead of meeting them head on. At the same time Erik the White and Jason the Raven engage the goblins in the opposite tower with ranged attacks. The few remaining goblins and hobgoblins are brought down in short order.

The group set about the grisly task of removing ears and searching bodies for loot. They discover 120 gp, a Spiked Helm and a Hobgoblin Warblade.

A quick check beyond the second set of towers reveals yet another bridge (this one stone and in good shape), and a pair of guards on the far end. Behind them a pair of small square towers and adjoining that, a large round tower.

Erik the White decides to rush forward and fire off an arrow across the windswept bridge. Amazingly enough it hits, it does little damage but does alert the guards, who in turn alert their comrades. They are soon joined by two more guards and a shaman who were in the left hand tower. The hobgoblins rush across the bridge and but can not cover the distance in one turn. Erik and Jason both fire arrows at the oncoming hobgoblins but both miss. Ruckus and Tem charge into the hobgoblins front ranks stopping the advance. Helarr, with the wave of his hand increases the velocity and bitter cold of the wind. The two front most hobgoblins are blown off the bridge by the force of the wind. Only one manages to grab hold but is quickly killed by a blow to the head by Ruckus. The hobgoblin shaman retaliates in kind and attempts to push Ruckus and Tem over the edge of the bridge with a force spell. Tem is knocked down and slides backward several feet before catching himself. Ruckus, a stalwart dwarf does not budge. With a second wave of his hand, Helarr sends the shaman plummeting over the edge of the bridge and to the rocks below. Ruckus and Brother Hammerhand cut down the third hobgoblin while the last one turns and runs. He too, is cast over the edge by the druid Helarr. ]]> kirksmithicus http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/864-The-Road-to-War-Session-3 The Road to War: Session Two http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/855-The-Road-to-War-Session-Two Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:27:32 GMT Session two of the campaign finds our heroes journeying through the wilderness to track down the hobgoblins of the Red Hand of Doom and rescue the 17... Session two of the campaign finds our heroes journeying through the wilderness to track down the hobgoblins of the Red Hand of Doom and rescue the 17 persons taken during the raid on Brindol.


The character spent the night helping to put out the more than 2 dozens burning buildings in Brindol. In the early morning hours finished with this task and exhausted from the effort each finally finds a nice out of the way place for a short rest and end up falling asleep. Just before noon they are awakened by a passing wagon, loaded with a families worldly goods and heading out of town. A local woman takes pity on them and brings them a hot meal and informs them that a town hall meeting is about to get underway. The purpose of the meeting is to calm peoples fears about a rumor that the raid was only a scouting party and that an army of a thousand hobgoblins is on its way, mere days away.

The characters arrive at the packed Church. Hundreds have arrived to hear the council members speak. The characters push their way further into the crowd so that they can hear what is taking place. Councilman Eofram Troyas is trying to calm the angry mob who blames him for the ease of which the hobgoblins overran any resistance because of the recent reduction of armed men in Brindol's city guard, a cost cutting measure he introduced. Thus reducing the city guard from 200 members to only 100. The councilmen quickly and deftly switches the subject, pointing out the PC's and introducing them as the heroes of Brosby square, who killed a dozen raiders by themselves and an ogre included. The crowd gives a collective cheer for the characters and their actions the night before. A man in the crowd shouts out "how do we know there are not more a comin'?" The councilman replies that scouts were sent out in all directions this morning and have reported that no army is in the immediate vicinity, further more, more scouts are ranging further afield but the council still awaits their reports. The crowd is uneasy. Ruckus Ironheart shouts out to the crowd "those cowards from last night weren't of the Red Hand and there ain't no army of hobgoblins. I know a lot of you were born after the war, but I wasn't. I fought the Hand at Bloody Gap! and at the Siege of Brindol. Those morons from last night were flying the Red Hand banner upside down. Probably found it buried somewhere and just using it to make y'all wet yer pants!" The crowd quits down until a voice far in the crowd shouts out. "you sure you weren't just lying upside down, drunk in the gutter as usual?" The crowd laughs.
The councilman speaks again, telling Ruckus that he is probably right, but the city cannot take that chance. All of the city guards will remain in town, bolstered by the militia, in the event that it is needed. His plan is to find a group of volunteers that will track down the raiders and ascertain if they are indeed more organized and stronger in numbers than the 100 or so raiders. If so this group will return to Brindol and help defend it. If the hobgoblins are mere raiders, then this group will attempt to overpower the hobgoblins and rescue the citizens taken prisoner. He then puts out a call for volunteers. Ruckus asks "what's the pay?" A now angry crowd boos the dwarf. Councilman Troyas tells him, "compensation is probably best discussed in private". Further back in the crowd Tem Stoneboiler, a local peasant who was present at the Battle of Brosby Square, and killed a hobgoblin with his billhook, is first to volunteer. He is soon joined by the rest of the PC's, and a halfling warrior. A group of city guards pushes it's way into the crowd and escorts the volunteers away.

A lone priest approaches the group and tells Brother Hammerhand that the Archbishop wishes to speak with him, and the two head off to Archbishop Skern's office. The Archbishop informs him that the church is going to officially sanction his participation in this endeavor. The Archbishop discloses to Brother Hammerhand that he has reason to believe that the hobgoblin raiders may be allied with more sinister masters, though he can not disclose the source of this information. In order to aid Brother Hammerhand in this quest the church grants him the use of a relic, The Stone Hand of Brother Tiderious the Rightious. A holy weapon of no small fame, formerly used to battle the Red Hand during the war by Sister Agnes Hammersmith. The weapon is a mace consisting of the petrified arm and spiked gauntlet of Brother Tiderious. The Archbishop bids him to take good care of the relic and himself, and that he eagerly awaits his report.

After settling on a price for the return of the kidnap victims and a bounty on goblin ears. Councilman Troyas, more than mildly disgusted by their greed, arranges for horses and supplies for the group. Four city guards will also accompany them on the mission. As they are about to leave he also informs them, that the guards captured one of the goblin raiders, and that if they wish to question the goblin before he is hung or torn apart by an angry mob they may do so.

The character interrogate the goblin who claims not to be a member of the raiders. Well, not until a week ago, when they attacked his village and enslaved his people. He claims he had no choice, he would have been killed by the hobgoblins if he didn't go along. He is also willing to take the PC's to the hobgoblins lair, Castle Rivenroar, if they save him. The characters talk it over and reluctantly agree. The halfling new comer turns to the guards and hands them a rolled up piece of parchment, "we have orders from councilman Troyas to take the goblin with us". The guards, being illiterate and unaware of what is written on the parchment, agree.

The group quickly sets off out of town before their ruse is discovered. By now it is mid-day and the group travels four hours until the sunsets. They stop and make camp for the night. In the morning the continue on. Tracking nearly 70 humanoids is an easy task. They soon find a small copse of trees near the road to Red Rock where the raiders stayed the night. The group then follows the trail northwest along the road for a short while, where they come upon an old abandoned farmhouse. A wagon sits in the middle of the road burning several bodies are strewn about it. In a field just to the west of the wagon they find two more bodies, on lets out a moan. The Brother Hammerhand rushes to help the man. When he comes around a long low stone fence he scares two goblin archers out of hiding. They each fire an arrow and flee north up the road. The PC's give pursuit and when the are just north of the wagon a group of hobgoblins hiding on the other side of the eastern wall attack. Up the road two riders on horseback and one mounted on a wolf break cover in the trees ahead and charge down the road. After a long and bitter fight the PC's prevail, but only after being trampled numerous times.

The halfling they saved, who was shot in the back trying to warn the passing wagon of the hobs ambush, is sent back to town with one of the city guards. They bury the others, 3 of them are unknown to them, but the last is a dwarf from Brindol named Danik Stonecutter.


They soon find themselves back on the trail after the raiders. The ambush to discourage anyone from following the main force was a failure. After two more days of traveling the characters are now deep within the Giantshield Mountains. As if the altitude were not enough, snow and extreme cold dog the PC's but they were prepared and brought winter clothing.

Finally they reach the high alpine valley in which Castle Rivenroar sets. Once used to guard this mountain pass it is little more than a ruin. The PC's find a suitable camp site and set the city guards to making camp while they scout out the castle.

They discover that it sits at the end of long steep ridge. The northern, southern and western approaches are 300 ft. sheer cliffs, covered with ice. The eastern approach is through the old moat house. A 50' deep ravine to it is traversed by a narrow stone bridge. Part of which has collapsed and been replaced by a wooden log bridge constructed by the Red Hand. In the left tower the corpse of Garrick Sanburne hangs by the neck, from a rope thrown over the remains of the wall, several ravens peck the flesh from his corpse. In the right tower, two hob guards huddle around a small fire.

Jason the "Raven", attempts to sneak across the bridge. At halfway across to goblin archers hidden in the shadows of the upper portion of the tower attack, peppering him with arrows. The halfling flees back across to safety, while the rest of the party charges across the bridge. The wizard Reverre and the goblin, Helarr take out one of the goblin archers with a flurry of ranged attacks. The hobgoblins then jump up and place themselves at the end of the bridge and wait. They taunt the charging characters and hold their ground. When the characters are on the wooden portion of the bridge the hob on the left swings his hammer, hitting the ground, or rather the lynch pin holding the dead-fall log under the bridge, free. The dead-fall log falls and pulls out the pin holding the bridge together and it swings out from under the PC's (4 plus a wolf companion). Brother Hammerfist catches himself and then grabs Ruckus as he tumbles by, saving the other Dwarfs life. Robert Stoneboiler holds tight and attempts to catch Erik the White's wolf but to no avail. Both Erik and the wolf fall into the ravine below and land with a sickening thud. The wolf is unconscious and Erik nearly so, both being nearly killed by the fall. Reverre casts a Force Orb on the two, now laughing, hob guards. They are pulled over the edge of the bridge but both manage to catch on and save themselves. Erik manages to stand up, dazed in excruciating pain he still manages to shoot one of the hobgoblin sentries from below. The hob looses his grip and falls to his death, landing only feet from Erik. Reverre then magic missiles the other guard and he fall to his death as well. The second goblin archer escapes down the back of the tower, and runs to warn his comrades. Jason uses a grappling hook to grab the end of the swinging bridge and the party pulls it up while he climbs underneath the bridge and secures it with a pin that can not be pulled or knocked free from above. The ranger stabilizes his wolf and he climbs out of the ravine while his wolf is pulled back up by rope. ]]> kirksmithicus http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/855-The-Road-to-War-Session-Two When salads go bad http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/853-When-salads-go-bad Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:10:20 GMT Generally I don't point out or harp on other peoples spelling mistakes. This is because I'm not the best speller or writer myself so I tend to go easy on such things. Except for when it inadvertently produces something funny. :D

Such as....the Flux Salad.

If you happen to own the 4e D&D MM2 this monster is on page 184. Sure, they spelled it correctly every other time, but once was enough to make me giggle and imagine a group of PC's encountering such a creature deep in the underdark.

DM: You enter a new natural chamber, it is roughly 80 x 80 ft. In the center of the chamber is an ordinary white plate with a salad on it.

PC's: uhhh, okay. What kind of salad is it?

DM: you are not sure, make an Arcana check.

PC's: Magic salad? *rolling*

DM: Okay you've determined that it is a Flux Salad. Upon closer inspection you can tell that it the two grape tomatoes are really eyes, the croutons form a toothy maw and the stench of blue cheese dressing is overpowering. You know from your Arcana check that; "Many Flux salads lord over what creatures they may, often showing surprising restraint in their violent and unpredictable rages."

PC 1: Okay that makes more sense, an angry... evil... magic salad. Sure, why not, anyone have a +5 Flux Salad Shooter?

PC 2: I have a vulenerability 10 to vegetables, so I stay as far away as I can.

PC 3: Hey, I love blue cheese.

PC 4: Clearly he has been dominated by the Flux Salad. I attempt to restrain PC 3 so he doesn't hurt any of us or himself.

PC 5: I'm going to play video games, this game is just getting to wierd for me. ]]> kirksmithicus http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/853-When-salads-go-bad The Road to War http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/835-The-Road-to-War Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:59:12 GMT So we finally kicked off the Scales of War Campaign after a month delay and numerous player changes do to people having other commitments. Four... So we finally kicked off the Scales of War Campaign after a month delay and numerous player changes do to people having other commitments. Four players showed for the first game, a fifth stopped by after work to tell us he had the flu and was going home. So not to bad of a turnout.

First off, this is the 3rd or fourth game I've DM'd in about 10 years, so I suck, and I know it. Hopefully I will get better with the narration and other aspects of DM'ing soon. The game got off to a bit of a rough start, but I think everyone had some fun.

Other than that though, the biggest problem was that two players are unfamiliar with 4e. The two other players and I kept forgetting this, and so the new guys may not have been aware of all of their options etc, until well into the second encounter.


As for the game

The character all started at the local inn, the Antler and Thistle. They were all sharing a warm meal and drinks with friends, family and associates, on a chilly fall night (Nov. 15th) in the city of Brindol after having spent the day participating in the activities of the Harvest Home festival.

The characters were

Erik the White. A Human Ranger who was accompanied by his half-brother and his loyal wolf companion.

Ruckus Ironheart. A Dwarven Fighter, formerly of some renown for bravery and courage during the Red Hand war, but now primarily a bar fly and known drunkard. Accompanied by three drinking companions of low repute, and a local strumpet.

Thorfin Hammerfist. A Dwarven Cleric. Who was sharing a meal with the four other members of his adventuring band.

Reverre. A local halfling wizard who was meeting a fellow arcane associate concerning some unfinished business.

When quite suddenly the door burst open and in rushes four hobgoblins. The first hobgoblin stabs The Secretive Wizards associate in the neck sending blood spraying across the table. The second and third each attack members of Hammerhand's adventuring band at the table on the right. Shortly thereafter, more hobgoblins and goblins enter, from both the front and back entrances, attacking patrons and setting fire to the inn. Chaos ensues as fighting breaks out and people flee for their lives. Most of the hobgoblins are killed in short order but many of the bar patrons lay dead (approximately 12 or so) and the fires burn uncontrollably by this time.

One serving wench was abducted by the hobgoblin commander. Ruckus Ironheart gave pursuit while the rest of the group finished off the remaining hobgoblins.

After the combat encounter ends the characters decide to organize a bucket brigade to douse the flames. It is an inn and tavern after all, and it would be a terrible waste if the city had only four drinking establishments. They are however pressed into service by the city militia to help quell further hobgoblin attacks, and so they quickly race off in the direction of the nearest market square and the sounds of combat.

Ruckus Ironheart, because he pursued the fleeing hobgoblin with the tavern wench, did not get to take a short rest between encounters so he received no healing between encounters. He came on the scene below first. Then decide that discretion was the better part of valor, then turned around and ran back towards the inn. He was met here by the rest of the party and the two members of the city militia.

When they reach the square they find an overturned wagon near the central fountain and statue and at the road at the northern end of the square a large catapult, a museum relic of the Red Hand War being pulled down the street. Well, at least the Ogre attached to it was trying to pull it down the street, but it had become lodged between two houses. The Ogre launched a flaming cask at the group but his shot went long and hit the wall of the house next to them. All of the group escaped damage except for one of the city militia who was doused in flames and died a fiery death. So the group charged headlong into battle, their only real path of retreat cut off by flames. They killed the hobgoblins and the ogre, but not before they took some serious damage, with both Dwarves nearly getting killed.

After the encounter ends the PC's are met by a second group of city militia coming from another direction. They are on their way to the bridge to help with the fighting there. The characters take a short break and then head for the fighting on the bridge. They reach the bridge only to find that the fighting is over and that the resurgent Red Hand has fled into the night.

The rest of the night is spent; tending to the wounded, put out fires, recovering the dead, determining who else is missing and assessing the damage. What day break will bring, only the Gods know. Rumors abound that this was just a raid and that the rest of the resurgent Red Hand Army will arrive shortly. The citizens of Brindol are in a near panic. It may have been 40 years since the Red Hand War, but enough people remember the terrible Siege of Brindol.

The personal toll was a heavy one for the PC's.

Ruckus lost two companions, but the strumpet made it out the door to safety. First, if I recall correctly. The other, a local farmer, made it out alive also. Good drinking buddies are hard to find after all.

Eric the White's half-brother was killed in the tavern.

All of the Cleric Hammerhand's adventuring associates were cut down by the Red Hand.

The wizard, lost his associate and nearly his own life at the tavern.

[End of session one]

On the up side for the PC's, they took and on and survived two 2nd level encounters designed for six characters. But just barely. I upped the XP totals a bit and got rid of all the minions.



The wizard was made just prior to game play and so doesn't yet have a name. The Dwarven character Hammerfist, is rlutke's character, and I have forgotten the characters first name. A situation I will rectify at the next session.

As for the character themselves, I am allowing for some customization beyond the normal rules. Ruckus, has a custom feat called Faded Glory. This feat is more of a flaw than a feat really. It allows the character to start at third level and has all of the normal attacks and feats a third level character would have. However, the kicker is that, he losses 2 points from each primary stat, for each level under 3rd level. So his STR, CON and WIS are all 4 points lower than they should be. When he reaches second level, the character gains back 2 points in each stat and at 3rd level the last two points for each, and trades in this feat for a regular feat. Ruckus is a fat, old, out of shape, alcoholic dwarf. For now.

I also allow for a bit of idiotic humor as well. Ruckus has a second feat, Dwarven Tavern Brawler, that allows him to use a tankard as an off-hand weapon or a light shield. So his Shield Bash power would be more appropriately called Tankard Bash. ]]> kirksmithicus http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/835-The-Road-to-War <![CDATA[Feinting in 4e D&D]]> http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/832-Feinting-in-4e-D-amp-D Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:06:23 GMT I just noticed this today.

excerpt from the D&D PHB

Bluff vs. Insight
Gain combat advantage: once per combat encounter, you try to gain combat advantage against an adjacent enemy by feinting. As a standard action, make a Bluff check opposed by the enemy's passive Insight Check. If you succeed, you gain combat advantage against the enemy until the end of you next turn.

Give up an entire attack to get a lousy +2 bonus to hit? Not likely, especially in any game using a d20 to hit. It's just to much of gamble. The safer bet would be to attack twice and hope you hit at least once, maybe even twice. I bet this almost never gets used, ever!. Combat is all about choices, and they made this really easy.

If I were to house rule this, and I might, I would make the feint a move action. A minor action just not pricey enough but a move action would make you agonize a bit over the tactical choice. "should I move and try outflank him, while at the same time getting myself flanked, or try the feint and then sucker punch him".

Also, why is this an encounter power, you should be able to feint all freakin' day long.... I mean it should be an At-Will power. ]]> kirksmithicus http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/832-Feinting-in-4e-D-amp-D Scales of War Players Guide http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/787-Scales-of-War-Players-Guide Mon, 12 Oct 2009 04:54:05 GMT Just thought I would post up my basic players guide to the modified Scales of War campaign that I'm running. We were going to start last Thursday, but we were rained out by over 3 inches of rain in the area. So week after next will be the first session.

Character Origins
Most, if not all PC’s will be locals. It is not absolutely necessary that all PC’s should be local, but it is encouraged as this gives the character a reason to care about the events of the campaign. If a PC has a hometown within the vale, they gain a +5 (except Brindol because of its size, only a +3) bonus to all social interaction skill rolls within that town, village or city. They also gain a +2 bonus to social interaction skills within the region as a whole. If you would rather play the mysterious stranger from a far off land, that is fine, trade caravans are common enough. However, foreigners are mistrusted as a general rule, so your PC will not gain any bonus to social skills and may encounter discrimination.

Character Races
Second, take a look at the demographics of the city of Brindol in the players guide. You will see that it is comprised of primarily three races; Humans, Dwarfs, and Halflings. You can play any race you so desire, but extras will be given to PC’s of the three aforementioned races. All other races will be stock from the book, no house ruled extra’s, and they will most certainly find themselves discriminated against at every turn, despite the fact that they are heroes. There will be a -1 penalty to social interaction skills for Gnomes, Elves and Eladrin. For Dragonborn, Teifling, Half-orcs, Goliath, and Deva, there will be a -3 penalty. For monster races there will be a -5 penalty.

Character Attributes
To further reflect the theme of "local boys saves the day" I also want to cap starting attributes at 18. This included all racial, class and house ruled bonuses (let the grumbling begin :p).

Character Names
Okay, so now I’m just going to nit pick. All character, except the mysterious strangers, must have a common and a surname, as is custom among the inhabitants of the region. If you need help coming up with a last name, I have a list of probably close to a thousand Old English surnames. At the very least, you can give the character the surname of the town from which they hail. Bob of Brindol is better than just plain old Bob.

Magic
Magic is much more rare than your typical setting, but at the same time more powerful. There are no shops selling magic weapons and armor by the crate load. Alchemist shops do exist and alchemical items comprise the bulk of magic items, along with potions and other consumables. After this, the most common magical items will be wondrous items. Sets of magic armor and weapons do exist; they just are not commonly traded because of their rarity. What I want to try and do is to create unique items that scale with the campaign and which may develop (or awake long dormant) new powers as the campaign builds in level.




Character Creation Options
Should you decide to go with a Human, Dwarf or Halfling character, you may choose one of the following options.

Option A – Wealth and Power
Your character starts with an additional 260gp, which you may spend on starting equipment, including magic items.

Option B – Split Stat Bonus
Your character starts with a +1 bonus to two different attributes.

Option C – Heroic Stat
Your character starts with a +2 bonus to one attribute.

Option D – Unique or Storied Magic Item
Your character starts with a magic item. Weapon, armor, implement, fetish or whatever, but the item must have a background. Even if it is something as simple as I inherited it from x who procured it in y back in the days of z. A name and more detail would be cool. I will work with you to create a unique, not out of the book power for the item, and the item may develop new powers as your PC goes up in level.

Option E – The Feat Master
Choose an extra feat.

Option F – Rank and Status
Your character is known across the Elsir Vale for some reason. The character gains an additional +2 to all social skills while in the region.

Option G – The Veteran (kinda)
Your character has a little bit of experience under his belt. Start at level 2.

Option H - The observer / opportunist.
Your character has learned through observation and practice a feat from a similar class (Arcane, Martial, or Divine).

Option I - Mixed blood
Your character has a great great grandfather on the maternal side (I think?) was a/an ________. Your family has passed down from one generation to the next the skills taught to them by this venerable old warrior. So, even though you don't look anything like a/an ______, you still know some of their tricks. Choose a second race and one feat specific to that race.






Relgion
Anyone interested in playing a good aligned religious character should consider the following. All good aligned characters will be members of the church, subject to the authority of the clergy who outrank them.

Good Aligned Deities

All of the good aligned deities work together for the betterment and welfare of all. They are worshiped collectively, and represented by a single religious organization called The Church of Light. While the Church is a single entity, and all the Gods of Light are worshiped equally, the church still has sects and orders of monks, paladins, and priests. Likewise, specific cathedrals and monasteries may be dedicated to a single deity.

Avandra
Bahamut
Moradin
Pelor



Unaligned Deities

All deities that are unaligned are considered to be pagan / primal / tribal gods. They are not considered evil per se, but worship of such gods is frowned upon by the church, though not expressly forbidden. These deities do not often have organized religious services, organizations or churches. They are most often only represented by small shrines or the lone priest, druid or paladin.

Corellon
Erathis
Ioun
Kord
Melora
The Raven Queen
Sehanine



Evil Deities

The worship of all evil deities is forbidden and confessed followers are executed after a trial by the church. Evil deities do not cooperate with each other on a regular basis and often compete or war with one another.

Asmodeus
Bane
Gruumsh
Lolth
Tiamat
Torog
Vecna
Zehir ]]> kirksmithicus http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/787-Scales-of-War-Players-Guide The Scales of War http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/746-The-Scales-of-War Fri, 25 Sep 2009 05:48:10 GMT I've been reading what I can of this adventure path. So far, it seems really cool. I am also a big fan of the 3 edition Red Hand of Doom adventure, of which the Scales of War is a continuation of. So enamored of it have I become, that I will be running, or at the least, attempting to run the entire adventure path, starting two weeks from now. Hopefully, as the DM, I shall leave a swath of destruction and dead PC's in my wake :eek:. That's just how I roll. I kid, I kid!

One thing I wanted to do, was try and cut down on the more exotic races. The game setting is populated by a Human, Dwarf and Halfling majority. I would like to the see the adventuring group mirror this demographic, with maybe a single odd-ball. Instead of just telling the players that they can only play x, y, or z (the club method). I wanted to take a subtler approach (the carrot method) and offer character bonuses, or "cash and prizes". Something like, an extra +1 to any attribute. Perhaps, extra starting money, a low level storied magic item, with a unique Daily power (provided they provide some background on the item). In additon, any "native" characters would get a +2 bonus on social skills in the region and a +5 bonus in their home town / city / village / hamlet.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. ]]> kirksmithicus http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/746-The-Scales-of-War <![CDATA[Why D&D minis still suck!]]> http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/685-Why-D-amp-D-minis-still-suck! Thu, 03 Sep 2009 05:41:15 GMT Tonight, in a moment of sheer idiocy, I bought another pack of D&D minis. Got what I deserved too. That being, 8 random miniatures, of which, 8 I already own :doh:and don't need duplicates of.


The only redeeming thing about my frack-tarded addiction to cheap miniatures, is that I don't mind cutting them up and repainting them. So I chopped up all of those extra Warcasters I was complaining about (and a few others), re-arranged the bits and pieces and came up with some decent franken-minis. When I get done making the custom Thomas the Train cars that I'm working on for my son (his addiction, along with ELMO! "ha ha ha, Elmo is red"), I'll post up some pictures of my creations. ]]> kirksmithicus http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/685-Why-D-amp-D-minis-still-suck! How to deal with back wagon drivers http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/619-How-to-deal-with-back-wagon-drivers Sat, 08 Aug 2009 04:47:00 GMT or How to to piss your friends off in three turns. Recently I switched my character from the snotty overbearing Warlord to a mischievous Halfling... or How to to piss your friends off in three turns.

Recently I switched my character from the snotty overbearing Warlord to a mischievous Halfling Ranger named Ander Strifeweaver. In the first game with this character he accidentally shot and killed the beholder the Swordmage was riding, plunging them both down a 90 ft. pit (oops!). In the game after this, our characters ended up at a local tavern. Having been drugged, ambushed and beaten in a previous tavern, you can understand why the Dragonborn fighter is now leary of all taverns. So this character now stays with the wagon whenever our motley group of misfits stops to get a frosty malt brew to slake our thrist. So in the intervening two weeks between this game and the one last night, I built a wagon out of some balsa wood. I was also able to find a couple of cheap plastic horses (and a pig) to add some flavor to our grand transport. So the adventure begins...and we find our heroes traversing the roads of Faerun in their sturdy and trusty wagon, when suddenly they hear the sounds for battle just ahead. So we move the wagon ahead on the battle mat, and I dropped it and knocked everyone off. This was followed by some jokes about my poor driving abilities from the Cleric, end of turn one. We round the bend in the road and clear the clump of trees obscuring our view of the battle. It appears that an airship has crashed and band of Orcs (twenty) and Trolls (two) are attacking the crew. The Dragonborn PC, tells me, "just keep driving, this isn't any of our business". It seems that in one of the games I missed that his character got his butt handed to him by a Troll. I move the wagon down the road again, end of turn two. Beginning of turn three, Brian the guy playing the wizard tells me he's going out to have a smoke. I told him to wait until the end of my turn, because this is going to be funny. When my turn rolls around I move the wagon, the wagon turns left, leaving the road and heading toward the airship and comes to suddent stop 10 ft. away. When the dust settles (and all the wheels fall off), the Dragon born and the Cleric (who made fun of my driving) just happen to be on the right side of the wagon and are now parked in front of the Troll, end of turn three.

There was uproarious laughter from everyone in the group at the end of turn three, with the exception of the Cleric and the Dragonborn. :biggrin: I have to say, I've never been threatened with bodily harm at a game session before. It's quite funny.

BTW, the pig got killed because it provoked an attack of opportunity from one of the Orcs. R.I.P. Bubba-Q. ]]> kirksmithicus http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/619-How-to-deal-with-back-wagon-drivers <![CDATA[Why D&D minis suck!]]> http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/557-Why-D-amp-D-minis-suck! Wed, 15 Jul 2009 06:46:39 GMT Random packaging. Common, Uncommon, and Rare. Face it, the D&D minis game is dead. Get over it, move on, stop the bullshit. Even if it weren't true, nobody, including the people who play the D&D minis game, wants a random pack of minis. Who wants the experience of spending 15.00 - 20.00 plus tax, and getting a bunch of minis that you already have. I don't know about you, but one Hobgoblin Warcaster is enough for me, I don't need 12 of them. How about those Galeb Dur? I think 4 would have been enough, okay, maybe 6, just because I painted two to look like magma creatures. But the point remains, why should anyone pay money and have no way of knowing what you are purchasing. It's like having a vending machine with only one button that randomly selects what you get to drink, "WTF, Tab again!". Seriously, what we need is a good class action lawsuit. Okay maybe WotC just needs a new marketing strategy, perhaps one that does not leave its customers scratching their heads and feeling like they should rub their butt every time they buy a pack of minis. New Strategy = "Choice", what a concept. But "hold on!" you say "the new line of minis has a visible, non-random figure". BFD, so you get to see one, you still get the random prison rape on the others. Sure the new "Heroes" line of minis has 3 visible figures, but a pack of 3 visible figures now costs only slightly less than a pack of 8 non-visible figures. So why should you have to pay so much more to know what you are getting? At the most the new "Heroes" minis should have a MSRP of 5.99 (2 bucks each is a generous offer my friends) anything higher is just ridiculous. How about this instead, packs of low level minion type creatures with a controller. Lets say one controller and four or five minions for 10.00. That way you get a Goblin boss maybe two Goblin archers and three grunts. Sounds good to me, I'd buy two or three. Maybe another pack with a Goblin Hexer and some more goblin minions, I'd buy that too. Same with Orcs, Gnolls, Humans (I love peasants), Hobgoblins, Bugbears, Kuthrik. Shit, I already spent over a 100.00 bucks. As it is, I look at a pack of minis and think " 8 random minis for 15.00, 1/2 to 3/4 I probably already have, meh whatever". Then how about selling rare creatures, you know, things like Mind Flayers, Liches, etc in single packs for 2.99 or 3.99. Hey, I'd pay 3.99 for a good Lich :biggrin:. Same for large creature and huge creatures. That way; I, you and every one else, can design their collection of minis to reflect what they want and think is cool. (This way when the 5e comes out, the MM will only have creatures that sell minis. Marketing genius.) BTW, this non random thing was pioneered by pretty much every other company that makes fantasy miniatures. Why not just go through one of the many online stores that sells D&D singles? I do, but why should I have too? when I would rather support my LFGS and buy from them, but I don't because it doesn't make financial sense. The thing is, I don't often have 15.00 is my pocket because I'm poor. But I do often have 5.00 in my pocket. A slightly lower price means that I would be buying them, and more often too. Not to mention, what gamer alive won't spend 5.00 on fast food but at the same time won't spend 15.00 on a game related accessory? Damn near everyone I know (we're a cheap lot by nature it would seem). Some day soon I want to be in my FLGS saying to myself "hmmmmm, Beholder or Big Mac???, Damn you WotC! damn you all to hell for making me skinny again!" :der: ]]> kirksmithicus http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/557-Why-D-amp-D-minis-suck! Grabbing the beholder by the eye stalks http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/541-Grabbing-the-beholder-by-the-eye-stalks Mon, 13 Jul 2009 05:18:05 GMT ....and screaming all the way down. So I have missed a few game sessions recently but I did manage to make it to the game this last week. Since... ....and screaming all the way down.

So I have missed a few game sessions recently but I did manage to make it to the game this last week. Since the game had progressed on without my previous character, I thought it might be nice to try out a new character. So I played a halfling ranger or the two-blade variety, with a decent amount of skill in the bow just in case. Yep, that's right, I'm playing an ankle-biting-leg-humping Halfling. Normally, I don't like the little bastards. All due to the fact that I had a friend who always played a halfling and always made them annoying. So for twenty five years or so I have avoided them.

After one night of gaming, I have to say that I certainly enjoyed playing this character much more than I did the old one. So I think I may stick with him for a while.

As for the Beholder quote. It comes from the finale of the night. A desperate fight between our band of inept morons and a beholder and his gnoll minions. First off, anyone who says it is impossible to get killed in 4e D&D should have seen the massive ass stomping the Dwarf got by the gnolls. Four hits in one round, I believe the "to hit" rolls were 19, 19, 19, and 17. 85 points of damage in one turn (and the first one to boot), dead as dead can be, no stupid saving throws or nothing. D-E-A-D, dead! We finally managed to kill enough of the gnolls so that we could concentrate on the Beholder. The main problem was that he was hovering in the air, since they don't have any legs or whatnot, and only the halfling character had the sense to bring a ranged weapon. So the swordmage guy decided to climb up a statue and jump on the beholder. Which, was a very cool move. Well, except that the beholder was hovering 30 ft. over a 60 ft. pit, but the swordmage made the landing and started giving the beholder and good ass whoopin'. Anyway, on my turn, my character attacked and then used an action point to attack again. Managed to hit all four times, and did a sweet amount of damage....and kill it.

We all rejoiced!

DM: "okay the Beholder plummets down the pit..........with the swordmage in tow"

Everyone: "ahh crap" We all laugh for a good minute or two.

DM: "only one minor detail to take care of before the end of the encounter" rolls 9d10 points of damage for the swordmage.

DM: 56 points of damage.

Swordmage: "yep, I'm dead"

Me: "I'll climb down and take his stuff" ]]> kirksmithicus http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/541-Grabbing-the-beholder-by-the-eye-stalks <![CDATA[D&D Game Day May 24th]]> http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/382-D-amp-D-Game-Day-May-24th Mon, 25 May 2009 06:39:05 GMT So on Saturday WotC sponsored the D&D game day. I went again, after attending the last game day, where I had a pretty good time. So this time I was a little more prepared with what to expect. So, overall the adventure was pretty good and the characters were easier to run, being that they were lower level. They used figs from the new Heroes line of miniatures. The use of old figs being a complaint of mine last time. So that was cool. This time I played an Eladrin Wizard, neither the race or class is new, but I have not had the opportunity to play such a character as of yet. Normally I'm not a big fan of arcane characters and tend to stick to the martial types. I have to say, I loved playing this character. The Fey Step power is really cool, and the spells are nice too. It did strike me as odd that the character has no weapons at all, just two wands, left me feeling a bit naked. Now I'm a big fan of improvising, so I made liberal use of little used rules. The DM rubbed his face in disbelief more than a few times at my characters actions. Why? because this is a one time game, with a character that I don't care about. So I push the limits and do things I would not ordinarily do. Like what? you ask. For starters, not having a weapon and being unable to move away in order to cast a spell, I did the only sensible thing I could think off. I grappled the enemy wizard and then tossed him down the well...on round two. After a Harpy shows up and uses it's ability to pull my character into the well as an act of revenge. It seems the DM was a little irked and wanted some pay back. Luckily I had a Montelbaunk (sp?) cloak. So instead of falling down the well, I teleported to the other side. Then on my turn, bullrushed an Orc, and pushed him into the well too. A few rounds later I killed the other Orc with my Magic Missile. So three kills for the wizard, two for the rest of the party. Second and third encounter I didn't do to much. In the final showdown the kobold wizard is reincarnated as a silver kobold mageish thingy. Anyway, he got the drop on me and pounded the snot out of me. Killed me actually, but I stabalized and the Paladin healed me. So I got back in the fight, only to be killed again by a burst attack. Paladin, brought me back a second time. I move to attack the kobold but get killed by an Orc. By this time, we're all having a good laugh about my character being some kind of indestructable movie villian. So after I get up again (thank you Paladin), I move across this rickity old bridge toward the kobold, the Orc having been killed already. Now I have to climb down to get to the kobold so I figure I'll do it in style. I jump off the bridge, grab the edge and swing down and knock the Kobold on his ass. DM gives me a raised eyebrow look. "Ummmmmmm yeah, give me a DC 25 Acrobatics check". I rolled a 19 + a 6 skill bonus = 25 :D. Okay Kobold is prone. So I ask an innocent question. "Can I grab the Kobolds staff away from it?". The DM says, "no, the Kobold is laying on the staff with it chest and upper shoulders". Just what I wanted to hear, so I spend an action point to take another attack. I grab the staff with both hand and used it to strangle the Kobold, it's at shoulder level right. DM rubs both temples. So I chocked the Kobold and restrained it while the other party members poked it at-will. Very fun game. If your going to fight, fight dirty.

There were many problems with the game, but mostly other players, who refused to read their character sheet and only used a basic melee attacks. This really put the hurt on us, because it left us without our main striker. The player mostly spent the whole game *****ing about how 4e is an MMO. Well, I've never seen anyone stangle a Kobold with his own staff in a MMO.

I also played the same game on Sunday, It went a lot differently. The two DM's have very different styles. I'll detail the second game later so that you can compare them. ]]> kirksmithicus http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/382-D-amp-D-Game-Day-May-24th For King and Country: Session 6, part 2 http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/373-For-King-and-Country-Session-6-part-2 Sat, 16 May 2009 05:22:25 GMT _25th day of Kythorn_ After a traveling for nearly a tenday and half we have arrived at the ruined temple dedicated to Zehir. We have made camp a... 25th day of Kythorn
After a traveling for nearly a tenday and half we have arrived at the ruined temple dedicated to Zehir. We have made camp a few miles away on a small hill over looking the ruins. Tomorrow we will venture forth and find the missing scholar.

26th day of Kythorn
We searched the ruins for the better part of the morning. We encountered several areas in which the scholars had been excavating and found a few of their tools, but did not find any evidence of their fate. After a short lunch we found a secret entrance into one of the collapsed buildings and followed the stairs downward. It led to a small room with large iron doors at either end. Below the handle of each door was a sigil surrounded by a snake. The doors were locked by magic and it took the mage some time but he eventually figured out how to open the doors. No sooner was the door open, than a large snake entered the room from above. It was easily killed but spread panic among some of my less stalwart companions that the snake god Zehir might still be actively worshiped by cultists at this ancient temple. We entered the next room and found the missing scholars dead on the floor. The room itself contained several sarcophigi and a large statue of Zehir. The bodies were in an advanced state of decay and were rather putrid. We did manage to recover what proof we needed and then left the tomb, sealing it back up.

27th day of Kythorn
We packed our gear and set off back for Candlekeep, our mission easily accomplished.

11th day of Flamerule
We have finally reached Candlekeep once more. Though we arrived late in the evening to conduct business, it is just as well. We are all tired from the long journey and in need of refreshment and entertainment at the local tavern. ]]> kirksmithicus http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/373-For-King-and-Country-Session-6-part-2 Disposable Heroes I http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/354-Disposable-Heroes-I Fri, 08 May 2009 05:14:05 GMT So tonight was the night for my Disposable Heroes game. A one shot game consisting of one overpowered encounter. Things did not go according to plan,... So tonight was the night for my Disposable Heroes game. A one shot game consisting of one overpowered encounter. Things did not go according to plan, and we ended up playing three encounters. The problem was that we had a total of seven player and the encounters were designed for five characters. Silly me, I forgot to adjust the encounters to reflect the over-abundance of players. So when the dust settled, none of the PC's had been killed and all the monsters had been vanquished. I will say that it was by no means a cake walk for the group. The groups ranger now has an Owl Bear phobia as he was nearly torn apart by one in the first encounter and survived with less than 3 HP. I think that everyone took at least some damage in each encounter and half or more finished with about 5 HP or less in each encounter too. So while everyone lived, it was by a hairs breadth for most.


I had a really good time and I hope everyone else did as well. There were a number of new faces at the table, including one player from this site (rlutke), and another (Mattiyaho) who showed up at the end of the game to talk about the HARP game that he trying to get started. Two other new guys, who are brothers, Peter and Paul. Who came from the local meetup / yahoo group site and David, a friend of Ken's. From the regular group we had Ken, Brian and Kyle. I'd just like to say thanks to everyone who came, and I hope we can do it again soon.

I must say, I preferr DM'ing to playing, even though it is a little more work. ]]> kirksmithicus http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/354-Disposable-Heroes-I For King and Country: Session 6, part 1 http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/309-For-King-and-Country-Session-6-part-1 Sun, 19 Apr 2009 02:00:40 GMT _3rd day of Kythorn_ We claimed our money today for our work clearing out the bandits on the road south of Baldurs Gate and now have a enough money... 3rd day of Kythorn
We claimed our money today for our work clearing out the bandits on the road south of Baldurs Gate and now have a enough money to head for Candlekeep. We have decided that we will leave on the 5th of Kythorn for Candlekeep on the pretense of looking for further work in a new city. Diawin has agreed to go to the temple of Sune to try and find Miriam and speak with her about our imminent departure. The rest of us went our separate ways to make preparations for our journey.

4th day of Kythorn
I met Vorgrim and Diawin in a deserted ally near the Vulgar Cockatrice so that would could discuss matters away from prying ears and our new compatriot Miirik. Diawin first demanded that Vorgrim produce the sword hilt from its hiding place, to insure that he had not pawned it. Satisfied with that matter we then discussed Miriam. Diawin told us that she is hesitant to continue the quest and has been in prayer and contemplation about the matter since we arrived in Baldurs Gate. It appears she is unable to make a decision without divine guidance. We agreed to leave without her, hoping that she may rejoin us later after our journey to Candlekeep. We then concluded our clandestine meeting and left to enjoy our last day in the city.

5th day of Kythorn
We left the city early in the morning and traveled south at a leisurely pace and spent the day conversing of inconsequential matters. It was nice to once again be out of the bustling city of Baldurs Gate.

6th day of Kythorn
The majority of the day was uneventful, we passed several caravans and stopped briefly to speak with guards of each about news from the south. They had little news of interest and so we quickly moved on. Near late afternoon we spotted smoke rising above the road just over the next rise. We quickly made our way to the source of the smoke, a burning wagon still being plundered. A lone caravan guard was still fighting off several attackers while the rest pillaged the wagons and corpses. A few of the bandits fled when we arrived but the others, emboldened by their successful attack on the caravan decided to fight us as well. I must say it was an unprofitable endeavor and seven of their number lay dead before the rest fled into the forest with little but their own life. The caravan guard survived the day and has agreed to join us for his own protection. We buried his friends in shallow graves near the road then took what supplies we could use and carry then burned the rest, so as not to give the bandits any plunder after we left.

7th day of Kythorn
We arrived at Candlekeep late in the evening but managed to get rooms at a local inn and have a fine meal before bed. For a city dedicated to scholarly pursuits there seems to be a goodly number of mercenaries and adventurers about.

8th day of Kythorn
Diawin greased the proper wheels and by noon Diawin and I were escorted deep into the library where we met with a Mr. Everhill, one of the libraries head scholars. We discussed the subject of our quest. Mr. Everhill had indeed heard of the sword, but was unable or unwilling, to recall any more specific details. He did know of several books on the subject and would have his staff retrieve them once we had paid all of the proper fees and dues. This was a sum currently beyond our means and so Mr. Everhill proposed a trade. We would head to the east to investigate the disappearance of one his employees. In return he would waive the fees and have the books ready for us when we returned. We grudgingly agreed to the the deal as we really had no other alternative.

We have agreed to travel fourteen to the east, to an ancient temple dedicated to the Snake God Zehir. We are to find Mr. Everhill's friend or at the least bring back his chain of office as proof of our effort and the mans untimely death. Mr. Everhill provided us with a map to the temples location and a few ancient texts that the researchers had copied and taken with them. He has also agreed to provide us with provisions, horses and a wagon for our journey.

I spoke with Mr. Everhill alone for a brief moment and indicated my interest in any journals, correspondences or historical texts relating to Cormyr noble house during the reign of Azoun IV. I am an avid historian and admirer of the great Azuoun IV. Mr. Everhill assured me that he could help me and would have something when I returned in a month or so.

9th day of Kythorn
While eating lunch this afternoon Vorgrim, Diawin, and I decided that we might need some help with this particular job. So we agreed to formally declare ourselves an adventuring company and take on a few more adventurers, who will work for a share of the spoils. Being in Candlekeep it was not hard to find a scribe who drew up a contract for the company that outlines the partnership, duties, and division of spoils. So was born the adventuring company of Harcourt's Hellrazors. By that evening our ranks had grown to seven, having taken on a Dwarven fighter, a swordmage and the former caravan guard we had met two days prior.

11th day of Kythorn
We set out from Candlekeep today with a small caravan of two wagons and and nine people in our newly formed company. We hired a cook and a camp hand, whose job is to take care of the animals and other menial tasks. ]]> kirksmithicus http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/entry.php/309-For-King-and-Country-Session-6-part-1