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Lycan 01
2009-12-25, 04:24 PM
So I started a DnD group at my college. Not the old one with the Paladin of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, mind you. That group fell apart. But now I've got a new group of friends, all of whom decided to give 4e DnD a shot. I just didn't expect them to like to so much, and for them to start all texting me at random asking if I had the time to DM a DnD session for them. :smalleek:

Its been a few weeks now, and we've gotten about 4 session in, not counting meet-ups to discuss leveling up, loot, equipment, and backstories. I'm shocked and amazed that a bunch of complete RPG newbies could take to a game so quickly, and have so much fun with it. I've never had a group get so into it that they actually pretended to throw rocks and fireballs at each other while strongly arguing about the logic of playing catch during a zombie outbreak. :smallbiggrin:

But first, a bit of background, and character introductions.

THE WORLD

The setting is just a standard fantasy setting. There's a large mainland continent, with varried geography. Most major races have their own empires, or at least did at one point. The Dwarves have an empire in the mountaints, the humans have a crumbling empire with scattered cities and kingdoms across the land, the elves have an isolationist island empire, the dragonborn empire collapsed centuries ago and has mostly faded from memory, and most races have their own small pocket kingdoms or homelands scattered around the mainland, while some areas are heavily contested and are constantly seeing the birth and death of small countries and lands. For the most part, races like humans, dwarves, elves, half-elves, tieflings, and halflings are fairly common. Shifters, half-orcs, and other races aren't as numerous as the others, but they're still common. Dragonborn are somewhat rare, and are a mostly nomadic people now.

THE DARK GODS
In a nutshell: I replaced all the evil dieties, except Tiamet, with the Warhammer Chaos Gods. :smallbiggrin:

I hate the evil gods in DnD. There are too many of them, a lot of them contradict or overlap, and I just have trouble working with them. But I love Warhammer, especially the Ruinous Powers. So, I ran the idea of switching them out by my players, and they LOVED it. So, here are the evil deities in my DnD setting.

Tiamet: No major change, just made her a bit more influential. She's still the godess of evil dragons, greed, power, and revenge. Her power is widespread, and her followers common.

Vecna: I kept the name, but basically replaced him with Tzeentch, the god of change and sorcery. So Vecna is now the evil god of sorcery, necromancy, forbidden magic, lies, mutation, and chaotic forces of change. His influence is strong, but mostly only amongst mages, sorcerers, and other magic users.

Lolth: I kept the spiders and poisons, but mixed her with Slaneesh, the godess of lust and excess. So Lolth is now the godess of spiders, poisons, secret plots, lust, pride, pleasure, debauchery, and emotional excess. Her followers are very secretive, and their numbers are unknowable.

Mardok: Mardok is basically our version of Nurgle, the god of sickness and corruption. In this setting, Mardok is the god of plagues, illness, corruption, sorrow, filth, and other vile things. His followers are few, but capable of widespread chaos through the use of plagues and pandemics.

Korin: Korin is our version of Khorne, the Warhammer god of war and slaughter. In our setting, he's basically the same thing, being in charge of war, slaughter, murder, genocide, brutality, bloodshed, and of course, skulls. His followers are legion, and range from simple gladiators to powerful warlords, all going to war in the name of the Skull Lord.

And of course...

THE PLAYERS

Half-Orc Paladin - Lawful Good follower of Bahamut, he's one of the leaders of the party, and also the son of a Prophet of Bahamut. This fellow actually started out Neutral Good... until a near-death experience and a chat with Bahamut convinced him otherwise. He's very honorable, tries to keep the party from getting into too much trouble, and he also likes a good fight. He's sworn to destroy all followers of Korin, and aspires to one day take his fight to the Blood God himself, for the glory of Bahamut!

Tiefling Bard - Chaotic Good and very charismatic, this guy is basically the Face of the party. He does all the talking and diplomacy, and is always a hoot at the table with his theatrical roleplaying and comedic prowess. He even speaks in rhymes! Originally he was an Eladrin, but he decided he'd have more fun as a Tiefling. So I let him switch after the first quest, and we said he'd been using Bardic Magic to hide his true appearance.

Razorclaw Shifter Ranger - Neutral follower of the Raven Queen, there's really not much too him. He hasn't written much backstory, nor done much character developement. Apparently, he's just a casual and aloof hunter who likes to make money and not get killed. He converted to the Raven Queen shortly before the end of the first quest, having lost faith in his previous deity which I don't even remember.

Longtooth Shifter Druid - Chaotic good anthropromorphic wolf-man, this character is played by my girlfriend, who was in the previous group, and thus is a level and a half higher than everyone else. He's a very laid-back and mischevious druid, who's only chief concerns are food, shelter, and sex. There's a running gag that he wants to rape anything that he kills to assert his dominance, or anything that just happens to piss him off or catch his eye, though the party usually convinces him not to. Thank goodness...

Half-Elf Sorcerer - Chaotic neutral Chaos Sorcerer, he's a bit of a troublemaker. He's a very jaded and untrusting character, and bears a strong hatred for Bahamut and his followers, since he was almost molested by a Bmut Monk in his background. (You can bet the Paladin was happy to hear this... :smallannoyed:) But, he still believes in doing the right thing, and the greater good. He never actually tries to hurt anyone, only cause trouble. And he's willing to risk his life for his friends - even the Paladin. He can also detect Chaos energy, and it sends him into fits of terror and paranoia, since he's a Chaos Sorcerer and risks drawing the attention of the Ruinous Powers.

Dragonborn Cleric - Chaotic Good, she's very honorable and is always looking for a good fight. She loves to help people, especially her friends. Her main focus, though, is the revival of Dragonborn civilization and culture. She's also driven by a desire for revenge against her older brother, who murdered their whole family to swear allegiance to Korin. Even though she's a nice and honorable person, other people don't know this, so she enjoys using threats and intimidation to get her way. She's also a nasty drunk...

Lycan 01
2009-12-25, 04:25 PM
Session 1: Lets go hunt a dragon! :smallbiggrin:


The players, all level 1 (except the Druid - lvl 2), start in the tavern of a sea-side village. I describe to them that several buildings around town seem to have been damaged or destroyed, as though by a very powerful force or impact. So, they decided to start asking around. It should be noted that the Cleric and Sorcerer had not yet joined the party - for now, it was just the Paladin, Bard, Ranger, and Druid. The Paladin went to the temple, the bard went to the mayor, and the other two just asked around town. The Bard managed to lie his way into the mayor's office, and then spoke with him about what was going on with the town. The mayor said it was a dragon, which attacked by night, and that it lived in a dormant volcano off the coast. With an reward offered for its destruction, the Bard went off to find the rest of the party and go kill the dragon.

The party heads to the dock, where they meet with the man the mayor suggested - Captain Ahab. This grizzled old fisherman promptly gets into an arguement with the Bard, who won't stop making rhymes. The party finally convinces him to take them out to the dragon's island. He sails them out into the ocean, and tells them its been awhile since he'd have to sail anyone out to kill a dragon. Used to, red dragons thrived near the volcano, and the he made a lot of good business with the adventurers. But the volcano had gone dormant a few years ago, and it was strange for a dragon to be living there again. He also notes that the last time he brought a party out to the island, only one person returned to the boat - a shadowy rogue with a twisted smile and the dragon's heart.

The party arrives at the island around mid-day, and Captain Ahab warns that if they aren't back by sunset, he's leaving them behind. They then disembark, and head ashore. The island is mostly forest, with an old volcano rising from the center of it. So, they head into the forest, and about half way to the volcano, they reach a clearing. The Druid passes a Perception test, and tells the party they're being hunted. The Ranger scrambles up a tree, the Druid shape-changes into a giant white wolf, and the Bard and Paladin take up a defensive position in the center of the clearing. Seconds later, two brown wolves and a large black wolf emerge from three different sides.

The battle went smoothly, and they had a lot of fun. The Druid faced-off with the pack leader, the Paladin kept one wolf at bay before shoving his sword down its throat when it lunged at him, and the Bard took on the other wolf while the Ranger used height and flanking mods to snipe it with his bow. The fight finally ended with the Paladin distracting the alpha male, allowing the Druid to flank it and tears its throat out. The Druid then raped it to assert his dominance. (My girlfriend is a soft-spoken and shy little emo girl. The fact that she so gleefully proclaimed that her character did this left the whole party laughing hysterically...) The party skinned the wolves, took some of their teeth and claws, and then continued on their way towards the mountain.

It turns out there was a bit of a path carved into the side of the volcano, so the party began their journey up its slopes. Eventually, they came across a sudden drop-off, which was crossed by a rickety old rope bridge. The Party instantly began to worry, and debate how they'd tackle this. They basically forced the Ranger across first, since he was a Razorclaw Shifter, and thus must have had cat-like reflexes. Oddly enough, he zips across fine, although the Druid tied a rope around his waist just before he left. Nobody else but me heard her say this. The next person to go was the Bard. Halfway across, he rolls badly, and falls through. He fails his Reflex Save, and begins to drop. The Druid mentions the rope, and I okay the Bard grabbing it. So now he's falling to his doom holding a rope. The Ranger rolls to hold the rope - fail. The Druid rolls to hold the rope - fail. The end of the rope races towards the end of the bridge, and the Paladin dives for it - Nat 20. He grabs the rope, and begins to haul the Bard back up. Once he gets back onto the bridge, the Bard scrambles to safety. The Druid goes next, and gets across without any trouble. Finally comes the Paladin, in full scale armor. He ties the rope around himself, and everyone else grabs onto their end tightly. Sure enough, he falls through near the end, but they drag him back up without much trouble.

The last part of the trail has two paths - the smooth trail which winds up, or a craggy cliff wall which seems to lead up to the same destination. The Ranger takes the cliff, everyone else takes the path. They converge on opposite sides of a cave entrance, which is guarded by two Kobold Skirmishers and a Kobold Slinger. The Ranger gets suprise, and manages to drop one Skirmisher with Twin Shot. The rest of the party tears into the other skirmisher, and the Druid and Ranger trade ranged attacks with the slinger. Finally, the Ranger runs up, impales the Slinger on his swords, and throws him off the cliff. The party catches their breath, steels their nerves, and then head into the cave.

End of session 1...