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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!

d13
2009-04-19, 09:17 PM
I think that if your players keep it like that, sooner or later it will become a PvP campaign...

Seriously. A ROGUE sending A WIZARD to open a chest? Without looking for traps before? Or even TRY to?

Skaroq
2009-04-19, 09:56 PM
I think that if your players keep it like that, sooner or later it will become a PvP campaign...

Seriously. A ROGUE sending A WIZARD to open a chest? Without looking for traps before? Or even TRY to?

Actually, the wizard pushed aside the rogue to get a grab at the treasure first, and to make sure that the rogue wouldn't steal all of the treasure for himself. But I did forget to mention that they actually DID search for traps. They just couldn't find it. My bad.

d13
2009-04-19, 11:31 PM
Actually, the wizard pushed aside the rogue to get a grab at the treasure first, and to make sure that the rogue wouldn't steal all of the treasure for himself. But I did forget to mention that they actually DID search for traps. They just couldn't find it. My bad.

If that's the case, then the wizard deserves it xD.

Let the rogue handle it, then take your share from his treasure... You don't have to be a rogue to be a thief =P. And keeping treasure away from your "teammates" is not playing your role, is beign a jerk xD

Skaroq
2009-04-20, 09:48 PM
If that's the case, then the wizard deserves it xD.

Let the rogue handle it, then take your share from his treasure... You don't have to be a rogue to be a thief =P. And keeping treasure away from your "teammates" is not playing your role, is being a jerk xD

Technically, P3 isn't a jerk, but his character is. P3 hates playing Good characters, and plans to turn Evil and become a lich much later on, if he survives that long. He even has trouble playing Neutral characters. I just can't convince P3 to play a character that isn't Evil or a jerk. I don't get it, really. I hope that P3 will reroll a character that isn't Evil. Seriously, I freaking hate that P3 refuses to broaden his horizons. I want this party composed of Good and Neutral characters that won't turn Evil right away. Is that too much to ask? I wonder what I should do, without trying to make him do exactly as I tell him, which I don't do. I'm the DM, not his mother. Any advice?

EDIT: I intended to have lots of non-players comment in this thread. When I said, "no spoilers," I meant when I utilize a pre-published encounter, in case someone read it or played it before. I've actually been working hard on future encounters, I just used the pre-published one to give me experience of how my players will react.

Speaking of my players, there was a P4 planning on joining the first session as the party's meat shield, but I forgot to give him directions to our meeting place.

Back to the topic, any advice on how to handle my problem with P3?

Skaroq
2009-04-24, 12:39 PM
Please, people! The next session starts tomorrow! I need P3-handling advice ASAP!

DownwardSpiral
2009-04-24, 04:35 PM
Geas/quest trap. OR just find a way to get it on him.

Actually, you know what? Just talk to him beforehand about it. Just talking it out is usually the best solution. I mean, it's not like he'll be stubborn about it and refuse to play nice....right?

Skaroq
2009-04-24, 05:16 PM
I mean, it's not like he'll be stubborn about it and refuse to play nice....right?

:[.........
.....Around a DC 30 Diplomacy check. With an initial starting attitude of Unfriendly. And I have....*checks character sheet*...5 ranks in Diplomacy. And I don't think I can Take 20. It'd provide a +2 Circumstance bonus for P1 and P2 each, if they do it correctly.
So yeah, not much chance of success. I'm going to need another stacking Circumstance bonus from your guys' advice if I'm going to likely convince him. And I only have 1 rank in Intimidate, and P3 is pretty hard to Intimidate. So, if I want to convince him to play as a Good character next time or not become Evil, I definitely need some helpful advice.
Quickly, roll for Knowledge(inter-party diplomacy) while I make my Gather Information check!
*begins rolling*

d13
2009-04-24, 05:30 PM
Technically, P3 isn't a jerk, but his character is. P3 hates playing Good characters, and plans to turn Evil and become a lich much later on, if he survives that long. He even has trouble playing Neutral characters. I just can't convince P3 to play a character that isn't Evil or a jerk. I don't get it, really. I hope that P3 will reroll a character that isn't Evil. Seriously, I freaking hate that P3 refuses to broaden his horizons. I want this party composed of Good and Neutral characters that won't turn Evil right away. Is that too much to ask? I wonder what I should do, without trying to make him do exactly as I tell him, which I don't do. I'm the DM, not his mother. Any advice?


Yeah, stop thinking that P3 is not a jerk xD. Constantly playing Evil I-can-do-it-by-myself-and-I-don't-need-you-*blast/hack/whatever* characters IS being a jerk.
Sounds like the kind of player that's better off playing MMORPG than D&D xD.

Uhm... Every jerk attitude has its consequences... You know... Like NPC attitudes going towards "unfriendly"... Accidentally forgetting to tell the guy that there's a trap there in that tile... Stuff like that.

Just let the other PCs react (in character) as their characters would... I fail to see a bright future for P3 xD



Stuff 'bout rolling skill checks

Never underestimate the power of Bluff checks and Charm Person-like spells (?).

SeraphRainy
2009-04-24, 06:01 PM
I dont know if your still having a problem with plr 3 but I am having a similar problem with one of my players in my first GMed game.

Hes one of my better Rpers and a long term guy. But his characters always have a distinct lack of morals or a compunction against playing an inherentlygood role. Most likely he finds it more intresting which I can certainly see why in many cases. And for the most part I merely steered him away from his more storyline/party chemistry inhibiting tendencies.

But with our last session he severely borked up my story and even killed two of the other PCs in his party both against direct orders from his char. supirior and against my very clear direction. I realize now that it is too late that the proper response was to just GM stomp him when he tried to pull his stunt. IE: "divine intervention" when he went all turncoat or blatantly killing his character. That is maybe a little extreem but I think that the player needs to know its not ok to either tick off the GM or the other characters.

That is separate from your concerns about an evil character but it is the same concept, you are driving a good cahr based game and he is intentionaly working against you. In the gaming section on GTiP you find an article devoted to how that is bad RPing. This is why a GM has power over the world.

My future response to this person is to A: not allow such further behavior by means of stonewalling any action in that remote direction.
B: making overt consequences for the actions that violate the direction im going. (because he knows better than to do what he did against the GM purpose.)
And C: Making direct threats against his Character if it gets bad. (This particular part may lead to the painful and spectacular death of his char. in part because Im ticked that the two Pcs he killed were the first characters of their players.)

Whatever you find apropriate to do it should be directly at that kind of behavior your discouraging and it should be impersonal so as not to cause to much emnity. Also make sure consequences come swiftly after warnings.

Skaroq
2009-04-24, 06:13 PM
Thanks for the advice, guys.:smallsmile:

SeraphRainy
2009-04-25, 02:59 AM
NP

Did any of it help?

Skaroq
2009-04-25, 11:05 AM
NP

Did any of it help?

Not sure yet, the session was delayed unexpectedly. :smallannoyed: It'll start tomorrow instead.

Skaroq
2009-05-01, 07:47 PM
Okay, second session is tomorrow! All players will make it. I settled the whole evil thing with P3 surprisingly easily. He was very calm, nice, and agreeable about the whole deal. I'm surprised. Maybe I don't know him as well as I thought I did...
P2 was mad that he didn't get to wield twin kukris and instead had to use a dagger, so I called him to talk to him later. He apparently already realized his mistake, and apologized in a most pleasingly mature fashion.
*sniff* My little players are all grown up! I'm so proud of them!

SeraphRainy
2009-05-01, 11:14 PM
yays im glad:smalltongue:

Id love to hear more about the sessions, by the way.

Skaroq
2009-05-01, 11:37 PM
Um, could you possibly specify which part? :smallconfused: There's only been one session so far. P2 and P3 were out of town last weekend, so the game was delayed for a week. The second session is tomorrow.

SeraphRainy
2009-05-02, 04:01 AM
yeah I mean Id like to get updates on how the future sessions go if its not to much trouble. (I love a good story.)

Skaroq
2009-05-02, 01:11 PM
Of course! The session will start in about an hour. All we need is for P3 to arrive.

Skaroq
2009-05-02, 11:55 PM
The session ended a few hours ago, and I think it went very nicely.

Session Two
The session began with Caranthir recovering from the lesser vargouille's paralyzing scream, and the party searched the room. They found some dust and a Translator's Ring, which was given to P2 by P3 in exchange for the Headband of the Stout Heart. This one Translator's Ring allowed Halas to speak, read, and write Celestial and Infernal. After that, the party set up camp in the middle of the first room and rested.

After the resting and preparation, they decided to go and explore the last remaining door. They found a long hallway, ending in a room with a drain in the middle and a hole in the ceiling with a rope dangling out of it. There were three small tables in the room, too. A large door stood adjacent to the archway leading into the room. The door was wide open, and two hobgoblins were standing in front of it! Initiative was rolled! Hobgoblins go last, it seems. Halas shot some arrows, Caranthir cast Ray of Frost and used his dagger, and Awan cast some Inflict spells and bashed some skulls in with his flail. In the end, minor wounds came to the heroes, and the hobgoblins were dead. Hooray! XP for all!

Caranthir and Halas wanted to loot the bodies of the hobgoblins, but Awan was strongly against it. After all, he's a cleric of the protector of the dead. Looting bodies is a major no-no. Fortunately, P1 rolled high on his Diplomacy check, and managed to convince Halas and Caranthir to only take magic items.

The only item Halas and Caranthir deemed worth keeping was a Belt of Lifting. It gives the wearer +1 Strength for the purposes of carrying capacity. Halas was given the Belt, and the party decided to go through the hallway.

They found a long, wide hallway that ended in a large wooden door. Branching off to the right was a narrower, longer passageway. With Halas at the front and Caranthir at the back, they went down the narrow right hallway. At the end was a 4x4 square room. There were countless large lumps wrapped in silvery thread, much like a mummified corpse. One such humanoid-sized lump was struggling slightly. Halas entered the room, but he was caught in an almost invisible web covering the entrance! He started to struggle, but then...

A very, very big hairy arm reached down and touched Halas. Another appendage reached down and grabbed him! Halas cried out in mind-numbing fear as he was pulled up quickly onto the ceiling! How frightening for him!

Halas: Waaaaaaaugh!
Awan: I...I didn't know spiders could get that big.
Caranthir: I did.

His screams were stifled as a monstrous spider violently thrusted its gigantic venomous fangs into his neck, dealing 5 points of damage and draining 2 Strength! The spider, acting hastily in the surprise round, quickly stuck Halas to the web-covered ceiling and covered him with a few strands of silk.

NOTE: Halas is mildly arachnophobic, or at least was. I think he'll be traumatized by the encounter with the spider and forevermore take a -2 attack penalty to spiders instead of just a -1. Awan, however, is not bothered by bugs of any sorts, and in fact has a collection of pet beetles back at home. Awan is afraid of snakes, though.

Me: Roll Initiative!

The order of Initiative goes as follows: Caranthir, Awan, Spider, Halas. Caranthir rushes into the room, his dagger drawn, and throws it at the spider! It misses, hits the ceiling, sticks to the web for a few seconds, then falls down to the floor. Awan swoops in, grabs the dagger, and hurls it at the spider, hitting it in the abdomen for 4 damage! Darkish blue blood spurts out of the wound and splatters on Caranthir's face, which does not blind him, but does make him swear obscenely in Elven. The spider hisses in pain, and it drops down and lands on Awan's face.

Spider: Sssssss!
Awan: GAH! Get off, you damned arachnid!

The spider's move provoked an attack of opportunity, and Awan threw it to the ground and bashed it's head in for 8 points of damage, showering Caranthir's robes in blue blood.

Awan: Yes! Victory is ours!
Caranthir: Oh, ick! My robes!

Awan gave Caranthir a boost, and the wizard carefully cut the threads binding Halas. Caranthir got down, Halas fell down, and Awan caught him, took out a bedroll, and laid him in it. P1 then made a successful Heal check, and Halas made his secondary Fort save. Noticing the wrapped-up victim still struggling in the corner, Awan took Caranthir's dagger and carefully slit open the webs. After cutting away the silk, the creature inside the cocoon was revealed to be a beautiful elf sorceress.

Awan, having the utmost mastery in proper etiquette, was very polite to the maiden and cast Cure Light Wounds upon her. Her name was Alisae Lareis, a charismatic, somewhat sarcastic feminist that hated to be treated like a weak, helpless damsel in distress. Fortunately, Awan did not offend her. In fact, Awan, being strong and charismatic, has caused Alisae to take a small liking to him. It's not the, "oh wow he's so handsome and charming I should write him a poem or something" kind of liking. It's more like the, "wow this guy is pretty hot I think I'll stare at his abs when he's not looking" kind of liking.

Caranthir found a 0th-level Pearl of Power on the floor, but Alisae swiped it from him, claiming that it was hers and she had dropped it when the spider attacked her. Caranthir and Alisae then began fighting. It was inevitable, really, considering their conflicting natures. Caranthir started yelling that since Halas and Awan had backed her up, they had betrayed him. (Did I mention that Caranthir is really paranoid?) Caranthir then said that he might as well blast her to bits right there and then on the spot. Alisae and Caranthir were this close to breaking out the magic missiles, when P1 rolled a natural 20 on his Diplomacy check.

I'm glad that P1 and I managed to convince P3 to stop misbehaving. Who knows what would have happened if we didn't? At that point, time ran out, so we ended the session there. I think this session went very well.

Skaroq
2009-05-08, 07:00 PM
*charges up defibrillator*
TZZZZAAAAAAAAAAAPP!
The thread lives again! And it hungers for comments!

Coidzor
2009-05-08, 09:55 PM
Hmm. I think your first mistake was to let P3 become the lynchpin of a longer arch in the campaign by having him have the sister connection, since you knew he might be a source of discord or problems for the campaign's running. The question you're asking here is one of the reasons why I'm rather annoyed at the intro guide to DMing here, since it's left out a fair bit of guidelines (or rather, they haven't had their section added yet/ever) to adopt for adjudication of the decorum and running of the table.

But at least it looks like he's not just going out to be a **** on purpose...hopefully, so that's a bit better.

Almost getting in a fight with someone ya'll rescued over an extra cantrip per day... though... *facepalm*

Perhaps get together for a bit before next session or after this adventure is over and take the opportunity for them to better work out their Party Contract since he has the impetus of their "betrayal" and they have the impetus of him acting like a baby and threatening to kill someone they just rescued over a pittance.

Basically, work out between yourselves what sort of view everyone has of their characters and in-game work out how they're going to act as a general rule. That way they're more clear themselves on what they should be remembering before they do anything too aberrant and you can try to better anticipate and either limit the ability to do something or prepare to deal with the repercussions from such an act.

And hey, give you a chance to have them roleplay some as they hash out a charter. Maybe one favors drawing lots for magic items and just doing equal shares for the coinage and profits from the loot sold, and maybe another prefers that magic items be appraised and have their value added to the "pot" so that if someone gets a valuable magical item they'll get less of the other coinage. Maybe work out beforehand that if a magical item changes hands within the party that no price-gouging will occur. Perhaps the rogue wants them to run it by the party first before selling any magical loot, since maybe one of them will want it and be willing to trade for it.

Maybe it's going to be damned inconvenient not to be able to loot the corpses of fallen foes to take legitimate spoils of war if the cleric isn't willing to compromise and understand that it isn't desecrating a body if they'll stop to give appropriate measures when possible (after all, some undead come from bodies not being properly seen to, so that'd be a a reason he'd be willing to concede there)

Might even add in a bit about proper chest/searching procedure for going through ruins that have been cleared out or those that haven't been yet.

If you're running a good campaign though, they need to be clear on that and that becoming a baby-eating lich sorcerer is probably not going to be a possibility.

evisiron
2009-05-09, 11:10 AM
Sounds like a good game, even through the player disagreements.

One thing I would say is that if the cleric is stopping people from looting bodies, you should tell others (out of character) that you will provide equivalent loot elsewhere (added to chests etc). This way the characters can respect the clerics intentions without players getting annoyed at lost loot and starting a fight.

I also ran a Dark and Stormy Knight for a pair new players a while back. The finest moment was after the dart trapped chest was opponent, and they got hit with some darts. A small scuffle broke out over loot (light hearted IC fight) until I chimed in with "You hear a click as the trap finishes reloading and fires another round". The look on their faces was priceless, and it gave them a great IC incentive to stay focused on working together. :smallbiggrin:

Skaroq
2009-05-09, 04:47 PM
Good advice, guys! It'll help next weekend. I'm beginning to think that the sessions will be biweekly instead of weekly. It might be irregular sometimes, though.

I guess I should fill you guys in on some bonus trivia, seeing as I have plenty of time until next session. Like for example, Caranthir is pronounced kuh-RON-thee-ur, instead of kuh-RON-thur.

If you recall, the PCs are sheltering inside a large, hollowed-out tor, or free-standing hill. The locals call the tor Hightower, but nobody really mentions it because the commoners have much more important things to talk about than local landmarks that do nothing but just stand where they are. Villagers would rather talk about important things, like the upcoming spring picnic, or what old man Jenston is working on inside his windmill, or when the tax collectors will stop by.

The PCs are currently in the kingdom of Ataria, the fifth-largest country on the Northern Continent. The fourth and current king is Odisus Colecos, successor to Ellix Colecos, who is currently elderly and suffering from a mental disease. The heir to the throne is Prince Sagel Colecos, although many people will object to his authority, should he take the position of King.

I'm done writing for now. Maybe I'll come back and post some more later. You can ask me stuff about the world, if you want to know. Oh yeah, the world's name is Tarrus.

SeraphRainy
2009-05-18, 02:59 AM
Nice backstory on the world. Im duly impressed.