Skaroq
2009-04-19, 05:36 PM
This is the official session log for my first campaign, appropriately titled, A Tale of Two Elves. This log is intended to be player-safe, so please, DO NOT post spoilers. You are free to post your comments, as long as you do not post spoilers. I have also chosen to refer to the players as P1, P2, and P3, to protect their identities.
Players:
P1's character is Awan, a LG human cleric of Osiris from the sweltering deserts of the central continent. He was born and raised in Gyptes, the hub of the entire central continent. Awan was orphaned at a young age, when several skeletons slew his parents. The skeletons were in turn slain by the temple of Osiris, which took him in and trained him to become a faithful follower of the protector of the underworld. Shortly before he became a fully-fledged cleric, he fell in love with a benevolent young woman named Aisha. They are currently happily married, with a daughter, Merit, and a son that's on the way. Like all clerics of Osiris, Awan is a protector of the dead, and considers undead an insult to the spirits that once inhabited the animated corpses. His everlasting quest is to completely abolish the blight of the undead from the world and put their spirits at peace.
P2's character is Halas Aemar, a CG elf rogue hailing from the Elven Lands, a large archipelago of islands south of the western continent. He's the greediest member of the party, and will jump at the chance of stealing anything. Halas values magic items above all else, and will try to obtain as much gold as possible in order to build his own mansion or other residence to store all his magic items in. He was raised in a rather ordinary small Elven community, and his parents were middle class. He was fascinated by magic, but he did not wish to study it, and he was not born with magical powers, so he decided to find and use magic items. Halas also loves wealth, and is always saving his money to eventually retire early in the lap of luxury.
P3's character is Caranthir Ar-fienel, a TN high elf wizard also hailing from the Elven Lands. He has an older sister, Naneki, who always excelled in fighting and wizardry when they were young. Naneki turned evil, and one night, wounded Caranthir with a demonic longsword, leaving a horrible, x-shaped wound on his back. Naneki fled the Elven Lands and became a necromantic blackguard. Since then, Caranthir mastered basic wizardry and tracked down Naneki, as he still is doing. He recruited Awan and Halas in the lobby of the Mage's Guild in Bayport, a major city on the northern continent.
Caranthir is tracking down Naneki because he wants to enact his revenge and kill her. Awan is helping Caranthir because Naneki has amassed large swarms of undead minions, and he could destroy the undead and put the spirits at peace. Halas is helping Caranthir because he thinks that Naneki must have a lot of treasure, and he could use a lot of treasure.
Session One
The session started out with me exposing backstory: you know, what gods there are to worship, where the land is, etcetera. The campaign begins in the kingdom of Ataria, a large kingdom in the southern parts of the Northern Continent, ruled by King Colecos and his court of advisers, none of which plan to betray him. Then the players told their characters' backstories.
We begin actual play with Awan and Halas entering the capital city of Bayport from different locations. Eventually, they all meet up together with Caranthir in the Mage's Guild lobby, and they become a party. They stock up on supplies, and set off in the Southeast direction. They come to a small town, where they make several Gather Information checks in the town's inn.
Caranthir spots a strange-looking madman sitting not in the shadowy corner in the back, but NEAR the shadowy corner in the back. Awan recognizes the amulet hanging from a dirty rope necklace on the madman as a holy symbol of Kyuss. Awan decides to keep an eye on the madman. Meanwhile, Halas talks to several inn patrons, none of whom know anything about Naneki. Finally, he talks to the dwarf bartender, who says he glimpsed a menacing figure in black armor rushing out of the city, conveniently, in the Southeast direction. The figure looked bound for Korus, a major city in Ataria.
Now the cultist walks out through the back door. There is an eerie wail and a gruesome splortch sound as blood splatters across the back window. The heroes rush out to investigate. Sure enough, the cultist committed suicide with a rusty dagger. His body, equipment, and clothes are decaying rapidly, though, as if he had been dead for weeks. Suddenly, big, nasty, worms burst from inside the corpse and devour it! Awan makes a grab for one, but it squirms out of his grasp and burrows into the ground, along with all the other worms. Then this bit follows:
P2: I loot the cultist's remains. Do I find anything?
Me: Yes, you find filthy, rusted equipment and some rotting scraps of cloth.
P2: I keep it.
Me: Okay. Hold on while I roll your initial Fort save against the smallpox.
P2: Never mind.
At this point, we take a break, because the pizza guy arrived. We take our time to eat, then resume play. The PCs decide to stay at a good inn for the night. Caranthir finds two cp under his pillow, much to his delight. Next morning, our heroes feel rested, and set out to Korus, which is a week's travel from the small town. Now is when I decide to utilize the premade adventure A Dark and Stormy Knight.
A powerful storm starts up, and the PCs decide to seek shelter in a hollowed-out tor. They search the room, but the three decrepit doors in the rectangular room fall off their hinges at a loud thunderclap, and eight rats rush into the room. The PCs wisely step aside, and allow the panicked rodents to flee outside the tor. The PCs now agree to explore the right room. Inside lays a single dusty and unlocked chest. They search for traps, but find nothing of alarm. After some pleasingly in-character arguing, Caranthir decides to open the chest. This follows:
P3: I open the chest.
Me: *rolls* Can you hand me two of those d4s, please?
P3: Awww, crap! It's always the wizard, isn't it?
*P1 and P2 start laughing a bit.*
Me: *rolls* Suddenly, as you open the chest, eight darts aimed at the spaces around the chest fly out of the walls! Seven get stuck in the stone floor, but one strikes you hard in the neck for 5 damage!
P3: Great! That leaves me just two hit points left. Fan-freaking-tastic.
Me: Show me your Fort save modifier, I want to see if you survive the initial poison damage.
P3: Aw, what the crap?!
*P1 and P2 burst into laughter*
P3: Come on! Poison? Really?
Me: Just kidding.
Awan casts Cure Light Wounds on Caranthir, healing 3 hit points, and then the PCs proceed to loot the chest. They find a Headband of the Stout Heart, a bag filled with 100 gp, and two pearls estimated to be worth 100 gp each after an Appraise check. Awan gets the bag, Caranthir gets the pearls, and Halas gets the headband.
Now the PCs move into the left room. They see a sarcophagus with a strange-looking head. The head sprouts wings and flies forward! It's a lesser vargouille! It shrieks, and Caranthir is paralyzed with fear for 4 rounds. Next, it's Awan's turn. This was the best part of the session, because P1 critted with his flail for 17 damage. The way I described it happening was pretty dang cool, and then we got up and did the Critical Hit victory dance while I'm Bad emenated from the iPod nano player.
After that, I decided to stop there, because time had run out. So P2 and P3 packed up, said goodbye, and left. P1 is my roommate, so he didn't leave. I think we had a pretty good first session.
So, tell me what you think!
Players:
P1's character is Awan, a LG human cleric of Osiris from the sweltering deserts of the central continent. He was born and raised in Gyptes, the hub of the entire central continent. Awan was orphaned at a young age, when several skeletons slew his parents. The skeletons were in turn slain by the temple of Osiris, which took him in and trained him to become a faithful follower of the protector of the underworld. Shortly before he became a fully-fledged cleric, he fell in love with a benevolent young woman named Aisha. They are currently happily married, with a daughter, Merit, and a son that's on the way. Like all clerics of Osiris, Awan is a protector of the dead, and considers undead an insult to the spirits that once inhabited the animated corpses. His everlasting quest is to completely abolish the blight of the undead from the world and put their spirits at peace.
P2's character is Halas Aemar, a CG elf rogue hailing from the Elven Lands, a large archipelago of islands south of the western continent. He's the greediest member of the party, and will jump at the chance of stealing anything. Halas values magic items above all else, and will try to obtain as much gold as possible in order to build his own mansion or other residence to store all his magic items in. He was raised in a rather ordinary small Elven community, and his parents were middle class. He was fascinated by magic, but he did not wish to study it, and he was not born with magical powers, so he decided to find and use magic items. Halas also loves wealth, and is always saving his money to eventually retire early in the lap of luxury.
P3's character is Caranthir Ar-fienel, a TN high elf wizard also hailing from the Elven Lands. He has an older sister, Naneki, who always excelled in fighting and wizardry when they were young. Naneki turned evil, and one night, wounded Caranthir with a demonic longsword, leaving a horrible, x-shaped wound on his back. Naneki fled the Elven Lands and became a necromantic blackguard. Since then, Caranthir mastered basic wizardry and tracked down Naneki, as he still is doing. He recruited Awan and Halas in the lobby of the Mage's Guild in Bayport, a major city on the northern continent.
Caranthir is tracking down Naneki because he wants to enact his revenge and kill her. Awan is helping Caranthir because Naneki has amassed large swarms of undead minions, and he could destroy the undead and put the spirits at peace. Halas is helping Caranthir because he thinks that Naneki must have a lot of treasure, and he could use a lot of treasure.
Session One
The session started out with me exposing backstory: you know, what gods there are to worship, where the land is, etcetera. The campaign begins in the kingdom of Ataria, a large kingdom in the southern parts of the Northern Continent, ruled by King Colecos and his court of advisers, none of which plan to betray him. Then the players told their characters' backstories.
We begin actual play with Awan and Halas entering the capital city of Bayport from different locations. Eventually, they all meet up together with Caranthir in the Mage's Guild lobby, and they become a party. They stock up on supplies, and set off in the Southeast direction. They come to a small town, where they make several Gather Information checks in the town's inn.
Caranthir spots a strange-looking madman sitting not in the shadowy corner in the back, but NEAR the shadowy corner in the back. Awan recognizes the amulet hanging from a dirty rope necklace on the madman as a holy symbol of Kyuss. Awan decides to keep an eye on the madman. Meanwhile, Halas talks to several inn patrons, none of whom know anything about Naneki. Finally, he talks to the dwarf bartender, who says he glimpsed a menacing figure in black armor rushing out of the city, conveniently, in the Southeast direction. The figure looked bound for Korus, a major city in Ataria.
Now the cultist walks out through the back door. There is an eerie wail and a gruesome splortch sound as blood splatters across the back window. The heroes rush out to investigate. Sure enough, the cultist committed suicide with a rusty dagger. His body, equipment, and clothes are decaying rapidly, though, as if he had been dead for weeks. Suddenly, big, nasty, worms burst from inside the corpse and devour it! Awan makes a grab for one, but it squirms out of his grasp and burrows into the ground, along with all the other worms. Then this bit follows:
P2: I loot the cultist's remains. Do I find anything?
Me: Yes, you find filthy, rusted equipment and some rotting scraps of cloth.
P2: I keep it.
Me: Okay. Hold on while I roll your initial Fort save against the smallpox.
P2: Never mind.
At this point, we take a break, because the pizza guy arrived. We take our time to eat, then resume play. The PCs decide to stay at a good inn for the night. Caranthir finds two cp under his pillow, much to his delight. Next morning, our heroes feel rested, and set out to Korus, which is a week's travel from the small town. Now is when I decide to utilize the premade adventure A Dark and Stormy Knight.
A powerful storm starts up, and the PCs decide to seek shelter in a hollowed-out tor. They search the room, but the three decrepit doors in the rectangular room fall off their hinges at a loud thunderclap, and eight rats rush into the room. The PCs wisely step aside, and allow the panicked rodents to flee outside the tor. The PCs now agree to explore the right room. Inside lays a single dusty and unlocked chest. They search for traps, but find nothing of alarm. After some pleasingly in-character arguing, Caranthir decides to open the chest. This follows:
P3: I open the chest.
Me: *rolls* Can you hand me two of those d4s, please?
P3: Awww, crap! It's always the wizard, isn't it?
*P1 and P2 start laughing a bit.*
Me: *rolls* Suddenly, as you open the chest, eight darts aimed at the spaces around the chest fly out of the walls! Seven get stuck in the stone floor, but one strikes you hard in the neck for 5 damage!
P3: Great! That leaves me just two hit points left. Fan-freaking-tastic.
Me: Show me your Fort save modifier, I want to see if you survive the initial poison damage.
P3: Aw, what the crap?!
*P1 and P2 burst into laughter*
P3: Come on! Poison? Really?
Me: Just kidding.
Awan casts Cure Light Wounds on Caranthir, healing 3 hit points, and then the PCs proceed to loot the chest. They find a Headband of the Stout Heart, a bag filled with 100 gp, and two pearls estimated to be worth 100 gp each after an Appraise check. Awan gets the bag, Caranthir gets the pearls, and Halas gets the headband.
Now the PCs move into the left room. They see a sarcophagus with a strange-looking head. The head sprouts wings and flies forward! It's a lesser vargouille! It shrieks, and Caranthir is paralyzed with fear for 4 rounds. Next, it's Awan's turn. This was the best part of the session, because P1 critted with his flail for 17 damage. The way I described it happening was pretty dang cool, and then we got up and did the Critical Hit victory dance while I'm Bad emenated from the iPod nano player.
After that, I decided to stop there, because time had run out. So P2 and P3 packed up, said goodbye, and left. P1 is my roommate, so he didn't leave. I think we had a pretty good first session.
So, tell me what you think!