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hamlet
2011-06-10, 05:47 AM
For your entertainment.:smallsmile:

It’s been a good long time since I ran a game, and I’ve been staring at the Kindgoms of Kalamar campaign setting book for a long while with the overwhelming urge to play it. So finally, last night, I managed to get my chance. Despite the weather and lack of air conditioning, I think everybody had a good time, even though we were converting half the group from third and fourth edition to AD&D again.

There were seven of us, with an eighth promised for the next session. I do not have the exact particulars of the party at the moment as the character sheets have all gone home with the players for final touchups, but in broad strokes, the party consists of Tam, a half-elf mage who makes excellent use of a charm person spell; a dwarven fighter; Bedowyr, a Brandobian Paladin of the Eternal Lantern; not one, but TWO priests of The Mule, one LE and one LN which made for some fascinating debates on opposing philosophies and tactics; a gnomish thief/”cleric” of Beer (not The Bear, but the divine Beer the beverage); and finally a human fighter of indeterminate background and skills yet.

Having heard that an alliance of the Halls of the Valiant and the Assembly of Light, with some support from other sympathetic churches/deities, have taken it upon themselves to build a new stronghold in the heartland of Kalamar, rife with banditry and on the brink of anarchy, has put out a call for help in the form of soldiers, priests, and “freelance explorers and mercenaries,” our group of heroes has decided to investigate the call and determine the nature of the work being offered. <DM’s note: I left it up to the players to decide how they knew each other and had decided to band together for the sake of expediency and to help give them the sense that they were contributing to the construction of the world rather than playing in a predetermined and hard wired setting in which they are little more than spectators to the grandiose designs of the DM and the authors.> The request for aid indicated that the temporary base of operations was the city of Bepido, so the group headed in that direction, passing through the Barony of Salanid on the way.
About an hour after midday, approaching the outskirts of a tiny village named Arun’Kid, the travelers discover three bodies on the ground, and the remnants of wagons that have suffered some fire damage. There are broken arrows littering the ground all around. Quick investigation revealed that two of the bodies, an older man and woman, were corpses, while a third, younger, body of a young woman had survived, barely. A bit of magical healing from the paladin stopped the bleeding and saved the girl’s life, but it seems the two clerics were hesitant to utilize their own divine powers to restore her to consciousness. <DM’s Note: The girls was at -8hp and bleeding fast, so the measly 2hp restored by a 1st level paladin just wasn’t going to cut it. I still don’t know what the two clerics were waiting for, though.> A quick search of the area revealed lots of tracks all over with a fairly obvious trail leading off to the north.
Deciding that the best thing for it was to toss the girl over a shoulder like a sack of rice and drag the other two bodies into town, the party did just that, tramping into town with three bodies in tow. They immediately took note of the temple of the Bear and how, despite the remaining winter seer of the surrounding countryside, it bloomed as if in high summer, but decided instead to take the girl to the local tavern. <DM’s Note: Perhaps they thought she was thirsty?> They met Pem’Ge, the girl tending bar and requested help from her. The girl, having more sense than a group of adventurers, immediately sent for help from Tuveri and the Temple of the Raiser. <DM’s Note: I ruled immediately that there were no druids in the village that day and ruled that any healing magic applied by the priest at the other temple would be insufficient to wake the surviving girl as a means of, perhaps, motivating the two clerics to brush the dust off their holy symbols. Didn’t work.>
Tuveri arrived and introduced himself as the de facto leader of the village until a new elder was to be decided upon and demanded to know what had happened. A long conversation sorted out the details and assured the townsfolk present that the group was not, in fact, bandits but genuinely interested in providing help to a misfortunate individual. After about ten minutes of this, a scream was heard from outside. After pausing for a minute or two to ponder the nature, gender, age, and possible comeliness of the scream, the party rushed to the door to investigate and saw a woman being dragged away by three small figures towards the edge of town. With a thunderous challenge, the paladin, LN cleric, and dwarf fighter charged in to stop the obvious abduction. Just before they reached the scene, though, a brilliant spray of color shot out of the high grass to their flank and washed over them, to no effect. <DM’s Note: Stupid lucky saving throws, jerk PC’s.>
Tam the half-elf mage made good use of a charm person spell that lured away one of the three kidnappers to him to make friends. In the next instant, four more of the figures, which the trailing thief was able to identify as gnomes, burst out of the grass and attacked the cleric and paladin with padded clubs in an attempt to take them hostage. Matters did not end well for them and they were swiftly slain by the combined forces of the party, who left them to bleed out in the dust. A moment later, all three of the melee combatants collapsed into the dust like limp rag dolls, but were swiftly kicked awake by an irate gnome thief. A quick census of the town revealed that there were a total of 5 missing persons, two children, two young wives, and an older woman, whom the party had witnessed being dragged away.
A quick search of the bodies revealed only leather armor, clubs, and short swords on the bodies. No coin or other belongings. It was apparent that wherever they had come from, it was close by for they could not have gotten far with no supplies. Though none of the party could track an elephant through a snow field if their lives depended upon it, a helpful hunter was able to point out that a few sets of tracks seemed to lead off to the north, and it looks as if they were dragging heavy things between them as they went. Before pursuing, though, the group decided that it would be a good idea to interrogate the newly friendly gnome who was, even now, enjoying drinks in the tavern while the LE cleric expounded upon the dangers of allowing too large a population of free gnomes at liberty within the village.
The young gnome, who had tagged along on this mission in the first place for a bit of excitement, was resistant to provide information to the paladin, who after all was not his friend like the mage was, was persuaded by intimation of imminent violence upon his person to reveal that the gnomes of clan Barleton had been chasing a villain named Ver’Kusi, previously known as Ovini, to this town for over 40 years after the man had stolen the entirety of the gnomish treasury and made off with it in the night. The leader of the group sent to extradite the thief and return him to justice, Barston, felt that it was important that, being short, the gnomes negotiate from a position of strength and so set about kidnapping a group of hostages to use as leverage against the village. Originally, the intent was to take 6 captives, but that had not worked out properly, and . . . oh, it’s too bad you let my friend bleed to death in the dirt . . .

A few more threats of horrific violence and a vow of non-violence except in self defense later and the party was led directly to the gnome camp which was north of the road a few miles east in order to conduct negotiations for the safe return of all the hostages. Tempers frayed, shouting matches were engaged in, and threats of violence were made, but in the end, the gnomes managed to delivery their demands (1. The return of Ver’Kusi to their custody for justice, 2. The return of the treasury) and vowed, in return, that the hostages would be kept safe and whole. <Dm’s Note: This process actually took a full hour, and lots of arguing and very good role playing going on, but it astonished me that nobody thought to ask the simple question of . . . “how many gnomes do I see?” . . .>

The party returned to the village to deliver the demands, and had decided, though they despised the gnomes’ methods, that this man should indeed be brought to justice. They were surprised to learn that Ver’Kusi had been dead for six full months now. <DM’s Note: Which I mentioned at least three or four times in passing, and apparently nobody picked up on.> In a bit of desperation, they searched the deceased’s house, but found it, despite being a nice home, having no secret compartments with hoards of valuables stashed in the walls, but did learn from somebody that Ver’Kusi had had a friend named Dak’Wi, who lived nearby . . .

hamlet
2011-06-16, 12:28 PM
Last night was the 2nd session, and it went well, though I was startled how, in practice, just how linear Ver'Kusi/Ovini's crypt really was. Yeah, I know, it's just a crypt, but it was the subject of a fair amount of ribbing and "chugga chugga" remarks last night. Fighting a shadow and 6 zombie dogs shut them up right quick though.

Learning that Dak'Wi lived nearby and was Ver'Kusi's closest friend in life, the party decided that the best course of action would be to go and speak with him. The half-elf mage, having cast his spell for the day and enjoying a few drinks with his charmed gnome friend, stayed behind in the inn, but a red headed traveling swordswoman tagged along with the party to make up for the loss.

Approaching Dak'Wi's farm, the party noticed that it looked to be a bit lusher and better maintained than some of the neighboring farms. It seemed that this old man was a superior farmer as both clerics of the Mule opined . . . at great length . . . while referring to statistical analyses and charts that they both had stashed, presumably, in the sleeves of their robes. The rest of the party had learned, by this point, to stuff cotton in their ears at such junctures and soldier on quietly.

As they crested a small rise, they found Dak'Wi himself waiting for them while mounted on an older looking horse, waiting to meet them before they got too close. Undeterred and determined to embark on a preliminary recon, one of the clerics broke off and began to circle the house, muttering to himself while everybody else treated with the old man. <DM's Note: The cleric in question is played by a determined and unabashed status quo breaker who delights in causing a bit of trouble. Often amusing, occasionally unfathomable, and frequently dangerous.>

Where the negotiations with the gnomes had been rife with intimidation (a six foot tall paladin with hand on the hilt of his long sword towering over you with overt exclamations of disapproval and readiness to slaughter you out of hand), negotiations with Dak'Wi were, in comparison, remarkably polite. When informed of the situation, that hostages had been taken and that, it seemed, his old friend was at the root cause of it, Dak'Wi was sympathetic and said that, indeed, the two had been adventuring companions many years ago. Ovini/Ver'Kusi, he said, was quite good at getting his hands on treasures and of doing so quietly and stealthily, and that from time to time, he would do so even if it meant taking it out of the hands of its rightful owners. Indeed, he does know that Ovini came away from their time with the gnomes quite a bit richer, but he had learned well before then not to ask about such mysterious windfalls. That it was stolen is not overly surprising.

However, what had this to do with him? Dak'Wi, as was clearly apparant by his plain dress and simple home, had none of the treasury himself and he had buried his friend with all his worldly posessions not 6 months ago. If it were not for the assiduous politeness of the Paladin and others, the situation would have devolved into a bloody conflict next. It was clear that the only thing for it was to enter the crypt and reclaim the treasury to return to the gnomes, loathe though they might be to disturb the rest of any man. In the end, Dak'Wi agreed to lead them to the crypt as long as they promised not to disturb his friend's rest any more than was neccessary in order to protect the lives of the innocents.

While this conversation went on, the fellow who had wandered around the house and been largely ignored since he was assumed to be sick or insane found himself behind the house and spotted a few shapes moving at the edges of his vision, seemingly observing the house. Unsure of their purpose, he scrawled a message in the dirt on the ground warning the figures away from the place, that the old man was insane and dangerous. He then proceeded to rejoin the group.

About this time, an older, grizzled outdoorsman approached and seemed more interested in speaking with the old man's horse than any of the humans. In the end, he learned from the horse that these were adequately ok folks and so he decided to join them on their little adventure. (Another new player)

The old man led them to the edge of a small thicket of trees and said that the crypt was straight ahead, no more than a few minutes' walk. He would not be going with them as he had long ago retired from adventuring life. After all, as he pointed out, he had left no traps and there were no monsters there when h e first buried his friend 6 months ago, so it should be perfectly safe. <DM's Note: Hey! It's not his fault if, over the course of half a year a giant spider moved in and his friend rose from death as an undead monstrosity!> Needless to say, their short walk was interrupted by a large, monstrous spider, which despite my best efforts, didn't even manage to bite a single one of the jerk PC's. The creature was dispatched handily by an angered paladin who seemed eager to be gone from this place. A quick scamper up the tree revealed the spider kept no treasure.

The crypt was easily found, and after several minutes of checking for stonework traps or hidden doors (the dwarf) or mechanical traps (the gnome thief er . . cleric, yeah that's the ticket!), the party bashed at the door to remove the lead and, with great glee, the two clerics of the Mule put their engineering skills to work and removed the doors from the hinges rather than letting the gnome attempt to unlock them. Inside, they discovered that the place was a little larger than they had anticipated. <DM's Note: They assumed the words "small crypt" meant single 10x10 room and the night was done. They did manage to get in lots of railroading comments based on the very linear nature of the "dungeon" though, so they felt better about it.> It was clear that this was obviously the burial of a person faithful to the Raiser, complete with the standard accoutrements as the first two rooms attested. The third room, though, gave them pause . . .

Realizing they had found the sarcophagus of Ver'Kusi and his 6 faithful hunting dogs, the party employed not just a little meta-gaming knowledge and prepared for a fight. The paladin, after glaring at the sarcophagus for a minute, declared that it was evil and dangerous. Nevertheless, he was the one to pry the lid off and look inside. There, indeed, was the gnomish treasury, along with a decaying corpse with the words "May the Gods forgive me." carved into the coffin, and two leatherbound books. Realizing there was nothing else for it, the paladin reached in and took the sword, and was immediately attacked by an evil undead Shadow. <DM's Note: I almost . . . ALMOST . . . replaced this guy with a ghast figuring at least they could hit the thing with normal weapons, but I left it in at the last moment since they had two clerics and access to a magic sword, plus a bunch of torches which, I ruled, would do minor damage to the creature as well.>

The group squared off against the shadow while one of the clerics of the Mule tried to flee, but his escape was cut off by six zombie dogs that had risen from their coffins to attack. In a feat of uncharacteristic heroics, or merely suicidal tendancies, the cowardly cleric threw himself bodily at the dogs in a bid to buy time for his companions. And was promptly devoured for his trouble.

The battle was long and hard fought, but in the end, the group emerged victorious without too many injuries. They removed the treasury as well as the two books and brought them back to town to discover that the gnomes had already brought the hostages back in anticipation of the trade. Despite the fact that a significant portion of the treasure was missing, the gnomes determined to leave without further pressing the claim as the paladin reminded them that they had been taking hostages and he was prepared to start shortening gnomes by a head if need be. It was decided that the missing portion be considered weregild in compensation for the inconvenience suffered by the families of this town and that the gnomes would leave in peace, never to return the next morning.

Afterward, the learned members of the party examined the two books. The first was a plain, leatherbound folio with a brief account of adventures that Ovini and his friends had near the Obakasek Jungle, hot on the trail of a rumored treasure cache, complete with map, but they were turned back by humanoid tribes and a druid who did not take kindly to their pilfering ways. The other was a higher quality book with a rune or pictograph of some sort on the cover. Much puzzeling over it revealed that it was an historical symbol, but of what nobody could say, and the half-elf magic user was able to chime in and say that it appeared to be High Elven pictographic writing. What it said he had no clue.

Matthew
2011-06-16, 01:10 PM
Great to see an AD&D Kingdoms of Kalamar campaign in full swing!

hamlet
2011-06-16, 01:31 PM
Great to see an AD&D Kingdoms of Kalamar campaign in full swing!

Still soon yet. Started with pre-pub module just to get feet wet. Next time, after they finish it up, they'll be in the driving seat, heading off into home made, custom adventures. We'll see how well things hold up.

"The center cannot hold . . ."

Matthew
2011-06-16, 07:51 PM
Well, off to a strong start at least! Best of luck with it and keep us updated, of course. :smallbiggrin:

hamlet
2011-06-17, 06:19 PM
Glad you're liking it. Means a bit actually.

Within the next couple days, hopefully, I'll post some of the details of the characters in the campaign. And hopefully, next time (two weeks), they'll start delving deeper into the mysteries of the area.

hamlet
2011-06-24, 12:57 PM
Since there is no game this week, I thought I'd take a moment to introduce the victims of this campaign, good sports that they are.

Fever Oxbar: A human ranger named such because of a childhood illness. Driven from his home for reasons he keeps to himself, the man is more comfortable with animals, whom he considers more honest and honorable. One can hardly blame him.

Harmony Mezzuzah: A swamp gnome thief . . . er . . . "cleric." Yeah, that's the ticket! A happy-go-lucky wanderer that passes herself off as a basic fighting cleric, most recently visited a temple (and left quite hastily). Comes from a large family of wanderers, bards, and entertainers, two brothers and six sisters. She still keeps in touch with Brother Noah every few years. A devout follower of Barlen, the god of beer.

Dagmar Silverbeard: A male dwarven fighter from out of the precincts of Karasta, the conquered city of the dwarves. He was caught out of the city during its fall and has since devoted himself to wandering the world in search of he knows not what.

Bedewyr: The de-facto leader of the party, a Paladin of the Eternal Lantern and partial to fruit pies. A Brandobian by birth, and now an expatriat wandering the countryside of Kalamar, he eventually found his way into religious and martial training, taking up the mantle of a paladin. He is imposing and intimidating, though good of heart and eager to see justice prevail. His history as a slave has assured that he has a keen eye for the suffering of others, and a true intolerance for permitting the strong and evil to pray upon the weak.

Hallamar and Shnrissa: Hallamar, a cleric of the Fraternal Order of Aptitude, and Shnrissa, a red haired and fiery tempered warrior woman.

Halanan grew up amid sheep and very little else on his parent's farm
just outside of Sobeteta. Bored by the thought of a life spent tending
livestock, Halanan spent every free minute he could asking questions
of everything and everyone else from the 'outside' world. Curiousity
and a thirst for understanding ultimately, through a turn of events
that Halanan has spoken of to absolutely nobody about, led the
then-teenage boy to seek position among the servants of The Mule in
the Fraternal Order of Aptitude. Halanan proved to have a strong mind
for grasping mathematics and logical theory. He grasped principles of
engineering and architecture with impressive speed despite his late
coming to his calling.

He spent almost nine years reading, learning, studying, researching
everything he could, until the call of attending a new
settlement-fortress near to Bepido came. Seeing a way to combine the
ability to sate the adventurous thirst for knowledge with a chance to
share the knowledge he had already attained in a union of effort that
could only be seen as blessed by The Enlightener, Halanan quickly
volunteered to travel to Bepido. It was along the road that he met
Shnrissa, a warrior by profession who was seeking enlightenment
and a way to better herself to be more than a mere swordswoman.
Stepping in to his defense outside of a tavern he had been staying
overnight in, Shnrissa added to the plea for teaching she had left
him with the night before. He was fortunate to have her near
association when some unpleasant-looking thugs tried to lighten the
holy man's backpack, and the incident did much to persuade Halanan to
change his previous refusal to a grateful acceptance, provided that
she accompany him on his mission to Bepido and, perhaps eventually,
beyond.

Tam: Tam is a half-elven wizard just beginning his career in the arcane arts. He is quiet, reserved, and very capable with a charm spell, quick to aid those in need.

hamlet
2011-06-30, 10:35 AM
Last night's session went off well for the most part, though there was a disagreement as to the procedure for treasure division amongst the players. All shook hands in the end and it seems that there's a working provision going forward for how these kind of things are to be handled. Hopefully.

Basking in the glow of the villagers' adulation at peacefully solving their problems, the party settled into the inn to drink, celebrate, and unsuccessfully proposition the barmaid (much chagrined to learn that she was a slave and had negative opinions about the current social order of things). The party met a young bard named Walter that evening as he gave a punji concert to anybody (nobody) who would listen and decided that he would make a fine addition to the party. A tentative agreement that "we should really investigate those other bandits . . ." was reached and everybody found their ways to bed and rest.

The morning arrived and the gnomes departed while the party made ready to track down the bandits. Various plans were discussed including "dressing down" and lying in ambush while posing as merchants or helpless travelers amongst others, but it was readily agreed that the best start would be to visit the site of the original ambush and look for any tracks that might remain after 24 hours, and speaking with the sole survivor of the attack that they had rescued. The girl was able to reveal that her parents were spice merchants and that the attack was sudden and violent. Early on she was shot with an arrow and collapsed, but she remembers seeing "a hideously ugly bandit with arms that hung nearly to his knees, perhaps some sort of half-orc" but otherwise they were unremarkable in any way.

A quick investigation of the ambush site revealed some interesting things <DM's Note: The ranger rolled a 1 on his tracking check. He got not just the basic info, but pretty much everything for that.> First, there was the obvious signs of the melee and combat that had happened there, including, still, some blood stains. Their own tracks, travelling west to east, were also present. Another set of tracks, a single individual, travelled at a run from east to west through here, perhaps hours after the party had gone through the first time. Much speculation about spies and unseen watchers was indulged in. <DM's Note: Hmmmmm . . . .>

Most interesting, though, was the obvious signs of the bandits. Fever was able to make out the initial hiding places of the attackers, how they had charged the field, slain the family, and then carted off the valuables and headed north towards hills somewhat visible in the distance. They were obviously burdened with something heavy (the loot?) as they went. The direction for the party was obvious.

Going quickly, the party happened upon a cleared area surrounded by a "palisade" (really more of a cow fence with delusions of granduer) surrounding several wagons, livestock, working folk, and a series of interconnected tree houses ten or more feet off the ground. At about 150 yards distant, the party was fairly certain they had not been spotted. Sending Harmony the gnome "priest" in for some scouting confirmed that the bandits had set no wary sentries and those with weapons were not paying a great deal of attention to what was going on outside the camp than to chatting with friends and family within.

Plans of battering rams were quickly dismissed and, instead, it was settled that the paladin and the bard would go forward for "negotiation" to provide a distraction while the rest of the party remained as hidden as possible and deployed for an ambush of their own, and so the paladin and the "swishy" bard approached openly calling for a parlay. Cautious, most of the unarmed folk ran immediatly for the shelter of the tree houses while a small squadron of bowmen and a large swordsman held a quick conversation. Sensing an opportunity for profit (seeing only a single paladin and his . . . pet . . . and knowing that the Order of the Eternal Lantern was in the area) in hostage ransoming, the bandits ordered the paladin to lay down his arms and surrender.

Things did not go at all as they had planned. <DM's Note: Nor as I had planned . . .>

The duo retreated slowly before the oncoming bandits, drawing them out further into the open. The attack was sudden and brutal. <DM's Note: The party is surprisingly capable of quick and effective violence.> Thrown daggers from the gnome and quick sword and ax work from the rest of the party along with a cleverly applied light spell made short work of most of the bowmen, leaving only the swordsman to retreat back towards the tree houses. <DM's Note: Three, freakin' rounds of combat to drop 7 bowman/bandits . . .> Just as the swordsman gained the ramp, already bleeding from half a dozen wounds, a last dagger lobbed by the dwarf, of all folks, ended his life in plain sight of another squad of bowmen that had taken up station in the entrance to the tree house complex. <DM's Note: And just one more freakin' round of combat. Jerks.>

Seeing the swift and violent death of their fellows, the remaining bandits quickly threw up their hands and surrendered, asking only that theuy and their children be spared. They declared that whatever bandits were left would have been gathered in the shrine by their leader, Hanari. Shouts for parlay went unheeded, so the castle was stormed and the party went in armed for bear.

Luckily, or unluckily, the first door the party walked through proved to be the shrine and, in a bit of turnabout being fair play, a light spell blinded Fever the ranger, forcing him to drop to the floor as a flight of arrows hurtled through the doorway, one of which found a mark in his back. The paladin threw himself over his comrade and into combat and, displaying a remarkable ability to slay any and all foes, set about dealing death throughout the room. The rest of the party swarmed in and, within a few minutes, the entire remaining force of bandits was destroyed. Over the next hour, the party searched the hideout, looted it of all valuables, and returned to the village to a hero's welcome.

One item of note they did find was a letter addressed to the leader Hanari informing him that his payment was overdue and that soon it would be neccessary for his superiors to rectify that mistake. It was speculated that this was only a small branch of bandits under the general managment of a higher, more organized group. This would, in fact, account for the startling lack of half-orc or otherwise hideous bandits as described.

<DM's Note: All in all, lots of combat this session, which was a slight changeup. Everybody's fairly close to leveling, or at least half way in the instance of the paladin. The party has picked up a few leads into the wider world that they can investigate, or not, as they choose. They've gotten some treasure, including a magic sword of unkown properties off of the bandits, and are riding high on themselves right about now.

As an aside, I was a little unprepared for the capabilities of a party with so many people in it. They are extremely capable at dismantling just about anything I send in their way, so I think I'm going to begin to pump up the encounters a bit to see about challenging them more. I don't think it would go amiss to see about some monsters that would otherwise destroy such a low level party, but since there's enough of them they should manage. We'll see next time.>

Matthew
2011-07-01, 07:28 PM
Heh, good stuff. Any chance of seeing the salient characteristics of the player characters? Should we assume weapon specialisation is in play, given their effectiveness in combat?

hamlet
2011-07-02, 05:37 AM
Heh, good stuff. Any chance of seeing the salient characteristics of the player characters? Should we assume weapon specialisation is in play, given their effectiveness in combat?

Weapon specializations are in play, and I've made shields somewhat more effective (giving a better boost to AC based on size). I'll see at some point about throwing up some abilities.

hamlet
2011-08-04, 10:36 AM
Session 4 finally happened last night, long delayed thanks to increasingly ridiculous 14 hour days in the office, plus 95+ degree weather (and me without an AC).

Anywho . . . Only four players and their hapless GM last night, so we did a bit of light combat to throw some happy XP in their direction, plus a few modest plot items, and a fair amount of very good role play.

Three of the intrepid band - Hallamar and Shnrissa and the Bard whose name escapes me at the moment - determined that they would remain in Arun'Kid for a short time to help provide for the common defense of the hamlet, train up a small mlitia, and otherwise rest on their laurels. Meanwhile, Fever, Harmony, Dagmar, and Bedewyr (sorry, Sir Bedewyr) determined to continue on their way to the city of Bepido where they had heard that the Church of the Eternal Lantern was paying adventurers to come to the area and help clear out humanoids, brigands and old castles and set up a new base of operations for the church to provide for the common defence and order that seemed to be beyond the current power of the Imperial troops in the area.

Setting out early in the morning, the four travel east along the trail through a number of equally small hamlets and villages. In a place where the trail bent through a thicket of trees, the group spied a human/humanoid body laying in the middle of the road about 100 yards distant, two arrows protruding from its back.

Ever cautions, Harmony and Fever took up opposite positions on the road, seeking cover and watching for ambush while their companions went forward to investigate the issue. Fever looked about himself and saw a set of tracks leading into the tree line and determined to follow it. He spied, just ahead, a humanoid figure with a bow, obviously taking aim at his friends. She did not seem to have noticed him yet.

Back on the road, Bedewyr and Dagmar bent to examine the "corpse" and were momentarily startled when it spun suddenly and launched itself at them, slashing with claws. Despite a minor injury to Dagmar, the two were able to put the creature down quite handily as Bedewyr cleaved it from collar bone to navel.

Meanwhile, back within the trees, Fever the Ranger and the other humanoid figure traded a few bowshots until Bedewyr and Dagmar burst through the underbrush and entered melee combat with the creature which, upon seeing its dead mate, fell into a frothing rage (rolled very well on its morale check) and tried to tear into the two with its claws, but with little success. The combat lasted only a few minutes and the other creature was slain and cut into little bits. A close examination of the corpse revealed that its wounds, before death, had seemingly begun to heal and appeared almost as if they were a day or two old. This prompted the party to immediately set about burning the bodies, only to discover that the first body was no longer in evidence. It seemed to have gotten up and walked away on its own! <DM's Note: The Paladin's attack, though exceptionaly vicious, brought the creature down to 1hp. It, realizing it was outmached, dropped like a rock and feigned death, hoping these two fell slayers would wander away. They happily obliged.>

Fever tracked it and was set upon by the creature that had waited in ambush, hoping to regenerate its wounds longer, but decided it could no longer wait and lunged at the ranger. A quick arrow dropped the beast finally, though, and the looting commenced. A sack contained the treasure of the two creatures <DM's Note: Thouls, indeed. Miscagenated brood of ghouls, trolls, and, I think, gnolls or gnomes, I forget which.> consisting of two giant centipede snacks, a fair bit of coin, and a nice looking antique dagger which was tossed in the general direction of Harmony, the gnomish "cleric." A quick search revealed no evidence of a lair or where these two Thouls had come from, so the bodies were burned amidst jokes of Thoul Jerky and the party travelled on.

That evening, having traveled a few hours south of the juncture between the trail and the main imperial road leading into Bepido and, eventually, Bet Kalamar, the party camped by the side of the great road, duly impressed by its construction and scale. During the darkest hours of the night, Fever - on watch at the time - heard a rustle in a nearby shrub. He sent an arrow into the shrub, prompting a pair of hands to go up and a meak shout of "I surrender! Don't kill me!" A bedgraggled, deathly thin Hill Dwarf stumbled out and begged forgiveness, but he was only searching for a bit of food so that he would not starve. The slave brand of a laborer and stone cutter was obvious upon his cheek.

He offered no name, but claimed to be on the run and heading for the Paliba Woods where he hoped to find aid and shelter from the elves and the other anti-Imperial forces (glorified brigands) there. He refused offers of weapons, saying that an escaped slave with a weapon in hand was slain automatically, while a valuable escaped slave without a weapon was merely recaptured and re-enslaved. He would rather face re-enslavement and the chance of future escape than death or worse because he carried a knife.

At some point in the discussion, he turned to Dagmar and said, in dwarven, "Free Karasta! Death to the Conqueror. Death to the Spider!" <DM's Note: A bit of setting history is neccessary to know the meaning of this. Karasta is the largest, last, and greatest of the dwarven kingdoms and was recently conquered by Emperor Kabori, ruler of the eponymous Kindgoms of Kalamar. The Spider is, in fact, a name I gave to his imperial diviner, the aged elf Shifan (over 1000 years old at this point, and so older than the empire he serves). This was, needless to say, a minor bit of introduction to some larger issues going around. I shamelessly stole "the Spider" from GRRM, but it certainly peaked their interests to say the least, and set the tone of the character and the situation.> A brief conversation, and eventually translated into the more common Kalamaran tongue, and the group seemed amenable to the idea of a free Karasta. The Paladin, especially, was interested in the idea of freeing those who lived under tyranny and slavery.

The party offered him what food they could spare, and before dawn, the dwarf was gone.

The next day, the group completed their march to Bepido, the largest city in the area. About 2000-2500 permanent souls packed within its walls, perhaps more with the recent influx of adventurers and men seeking employment as men-at-arms with the churches in town. Much of their day was consumed with shopping as new and better armor for the Dwarf was purchased, a silvered longsword for the Paladin, and Harmony the gnome, feeling that "a Paladin without a horse is "just wrong" contributed much of her own gold to purchase a medium warhorse for Bedewyr, for which he was duly grateful. <DM's Note: I still suspect some sort of plot to get the Paladin in her clutches, either for romantic or financial interests, I'm not sure yet.> Harmony was also able to learn that her new dagger was an antique from and supposed ancient Dejy empire that once ruled much of the continent. The antique appraiser was fascinated with the item and was ready to tell her all about its history, but she was a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing and decided not to sell, but would keep the man in mind if she changed her opinion. <DM's Note: She's hoping it was magical, and has to find a wizard to identify it, theirs having departed with his player. I may have to build an NPC wizard follower for one of them, if only to keep them in Identify and Detect Magic spells.>

Wanting to get a bit of combat experience under his belt, Bedewyr stood in the gladiatorial ring and received full 3-1 odds for a non-deadly match. His surprise opponent was a half ogre, a crowd favorite. The battle was swift, but rather brutal as both foes hammered on each other. In the end, Bedewyr was victorious, but only just. On the sidelines, Fever the ranger made a ridiculous profit after laying a hefty wager on the Paladin (to the tune of 400 GP as I recall).

And there the session ended.

Matthew
2011-08-12, 01:19 PM
Ah ha! Still going, then? I lost track of this thread. Nice to see another session logged.

hamlet
2011-08-12, 02:44 PM
Ah ha! Still going, then? I lost track of this thread. Nice to see another session logged.

Still going. Just having trouble as one of the players is working absurd hours, as is the DM. Nothing like 15 hour work days to really clear your sinuses.

hamlet
2011-09-13, 12:33 PM
Session 5: Wherin some actual dungeon crawling occurs!

After resting and recupperating from the gladitorial match, a messenger was sent to Sir Beddevyr, summoning the paladin and his companions to the temporary headquarters of the Assembly of Light in the City of Bepido: an inn near the center of town that stood on a wide, open plaza where drilling troops were seen. They all appeared to be rather rough around the edges recruits, just learning about which end of the spear to hold and how not to accidentally kill themselves.

<DM's Note: Please forgive me, I've forgotten the names of the NPC's as my notes are all at home. I'll refer to them by function/occupation instead, and anyway, only one appears in this session, so it's not so bad.>

The group was brought before a middle aged priest of the Eternal Lantern who, in his quiet way, explained that the Assembly of Light and the church of the Knight of the Gods (a god of chivalry) had teamed up in order to establish a new temple/stronghold/base of operations in the region both to re-establish their foothold in the area and to help suppress the rampant banditry and general lawlessness that plagued the area. Unfortunately, they were wary of imposing upon the power of the local barons and dukes. Eager to avoid unfortunate implications - like, say, implying that the local lords were incapable of maintaining the Emepror's peace - the two churches were making every effort to move out of the city as soon as possible.

To do that, they were asking local adventure seekers and others to join the effort both as new soldiery (as both religions employed men-at-arms) and as scouts to identify a good location in the region to set up the new temple complex. Since the area was just lousy with old castles, he explained, he held hopes that one of the older castles (left over from the original conquest of Fulakar and his brother) could be reclaimed at least in part and help to avoid the stratospheric costs of building a castle/temple new from scratch. Adventuring parties were encouraged in this task by promises that they could keep any treasure they found that wasn't obviously a holy icon or relic of either church (which they would be expected to return) and an offer of what healing could be had.

<DM's Note: In my world, "adventurer" is not a legitimate career. For the most part, it translates into armed ruffian with questionable intent who can likely be bought off with enough cash." So the call was not to adventurers so much as folks who are moderately handy with weapons, of general good will, and with nothing better to do at the moment. Unfortunately, it seemed to attract some questionable folks.>

The group in general thought this sounded like a good time. Really, who could best church sanctioned looting and plunder? And killing bandits was something they had been planning on doing anyway, so it was sort of win-win for them.

As the folks filed out, the priest stopped Sir Beddevyr for a private word. <DM's Note: And, again, I have to apologize for lacking my notes and the names I gave to things, but I'll try and fix that after tomorrow night's session.> The priest told the young paladin that the Assembly of Light had come to Bepido for another reason. They were following up on a prophcy that fortold that the return of one of the Assembly of Light's most holy relics, a lantern, lost many hundreds of years ago, would happen "within the dragon's eye whith the King's return." The area around Bepido was colloquially known as the Dragon's Eye because of the shape of the valleys vaguely resembling such. "The King's Return" was interpreted to mean the rise of Emperor Kabori, the first emperor of the Bakar line not to show the characteristic weakness and madness of his predecessors. So the Assembly set out on a side mission to see if it could locate the lantern once again and restore it to a place of pride and power. The local priest was leary of many of these listless adventurers and so was very careful about whom he let know about this particular aspect of the mission.

Feeling that he could trust the priest, the paladin revealed the existance of the book with the strange glyph that the party had discovered buried in a vault in the hamet of Arun'Kid several days ago. He made a crude sketch of the glyph, explaining that the contents of the book appeared to be in High Elven, a language that none of them spoke or could conceivably translate as the elves refused to teach it even to half-elves. It wasn't with them, but back with the party members left behind (absent players make plot devices go awry), but they were keeping track of it until they could find somebody to translate it entirely. Upon seeing the glyph, the priest became excited, though he tried to conceal his delight, and quickly excused himself, carrying the sketch off with him.

Not quite sure what had just occured, the young Paladin returned to his group and, on their way back to the inn, were attracted by the sound of a moan coming from a darkened alley. There, they found a man lying near dead in the street. Applying a bit of healing, they heard from him that he had just been robbed by shadowy figures that vanished into the night "that way" and that they had taken the three rather pricey gems that he was returning to a customer (he being a gem cutter by trade). These gems represented a significant, massive loss to him, so the party agreed to go in search of them.

At the end of the alley, Fever the ranger discovered tracks that led down into an open trench sewer near the city wall. They led down into the filth, and then into a cunningly disguised crevice that led into the rocky foundations of the city in a small, narrow tunnel which, after about 10 feet, opened onto a large, slightly curving tunnel that continued on in either direction. It was speculated that this might be the foundation of the city wall long sealed up after construction. The floor was layered in thick dust and, occasionally, debris from broken bits of wall and ceiling that appeared to have been damaged by tremors in some time past. The dwarf commented that, while it was passably fair construction, it certainly wasn't dwarf make. Why, it had been built right on a fault line and would obviously deteriorate in a mere millenia or two. Shoddy work indeed!

Fever is able to follow the tracks through a few intersections to a larger three way intersection where they seem to end. A bit of searching reveals a concealed entrance hidden behind a stretched lizard skin that looked identical to the surrounding stone. Within, they found the lair of the muggers, a thin, grey skinned group of humanoids that were exceptionally good at remaining hidden from sight. <DM's Note: Skulks. Supposed to present a bit of a challenge, but jerk PC's steamrolled them.> Within the second room, they found a youngish female skulk with two very young children, and nobody in the group except for the gnome (and possibly the seemingly amoral Elf that had joined the party) was willing to harm these non-combatants. She did, however, point out that there were greater riches further on, trying to bargain for her own life, and the lives of her children. They also discovered in this room a trap door that appeared to have been nailed shut, perhaps to seal something out.

The group continued on, and through the excellent application of a sleep spell, a bit of luck, and the constitution of a Paladin, were able to slay all the remaining skulks that they found and retrieve a fair bit of their treasure for themselves.

And there the session ended . . .

Matthew
2011-09-13, 08:14 PM
Sounds like a good set up for the next stage of the campaign, what with the wilderness exploration and reclamation! What is the composition of the party?

hamlet
2011-09-14, 07:24 AM
Sounds like a good set up for the next stage of the campaign, what with the wilderness exploration and reclamation! What is the composition of the party?

Currently, 1 human paladin, 1 dwarf fighter, 1 gnome "cleric" but actual thief but we're gonna fiddle with that tonight I think, 1 human ranger (Fever Oxbar with a great backstory that I must ask him to write down!).

Ancillary (i.e., not frequently present, but part of the group as a whole). A human bard that was left back in Arun'Kid to help "arm the natives" in his words. A human cleric of the Mule (god of knowledge and "mad science") back in Arun'Kid, with the Book. Human female fighter, also left behind. An elf mage in Bepido (a secondary character of player of the Cleric until his other character rejoins the party) of interesting morals who, conceivably, can read The Book if the two ever concide spatially.

hamlet
2011-09-21, 10:20 AM
Session 6

Having discovered the gems they were looking for in a wheel of cheese, <DM's Note: No, really . . .> the party regrouped and decided that, all in all, having taken only a few token wounds from the skulks, that there was no reason that they should not continue their explorations rather than return to the surface. In that light, they returned to the room where they had bound the skulk woman and her children and which concealed a trap door sealed shut.



A brief discussion about what to do with the skulk non-combatants ensued, and the Paladin decided unilaterally <DM's Note: Thankfully as other ideas floating up to the surface involved blood.> that he would send them all three to the surface with his own holy symbol as a vouchsafe to the Assembly of Light to serve as servants and possible future squires of his own. <DM's Note: The irony is thick.> Before she went, the woman was able to tell the group that her mate (now most thoroughly slain) had sent some of his men into that pit to explore it, but only a very few came back telling tales of horrible dead things that consumed the flesh of the fallen. It was decided that cutting losses was the best bet and the area was sealed off.



The trap door, despite being spiked shut with half a dozen iron stakes, was relatively easy to open. The darkness within was rank with a sepalchral odor and the thick silence of a tomb. So of course the party plunged in head first and came upon an old, disused guard room with some overturned furniture. From behind a table, a pair of ghouls sprang out and attacked as the party searched, and were swiftly dispatched.



Further exploration revealed an open room with another pair of ghouls that were easily slain, and several doors leading further on. While the remainder of the party searched the area, the bard <DM's Note: Who had magically appeared when his player returned to the game and I was too sleepy to bother working him in more creatively.> wandered down a hallway and turned a corner, and knocked on a door and entered. The dwarf fighter, shaking his head incredulously, followed to keep him out of trouble. Within, they found a large chapel of some sort inhabited by two horribly foul smelling creatures that resembled ghouls, but were of greater stature.



And then all hell broke loose. One of the creatures proved to be an adept spell caster and swiftly shrouded them in inky darkness. The other proved immediately afterward that it was quite adept at the thiefly arts and proceeded to savage the dwarf (believing that the foppish bard was of little threat), paralyzing the fellow for a full 10 minutes. Meanwhile, the bard was knocked unconsious before help was able to reach him, and when the gnome (with newly minted clerical powers) <Dm's Note: The player misunderstood the nature of AD&D rules, and so in a quick effort to make her idea work, I let her retroactively take a single level of cleric, sans turning ability, all for a 10% XP penalty until she hits the next level.> moved in to help the bard, she, too, was paralyzed by the ghast.



Outside the darkness, the paladin and ranger poured out a flask of oil onto the floor in the general direction of where they thought they heard one of the ghasts and ignited it, miraculously burning only the ghast and leaving the bard unharmed, though a bit warm. Realizing that they were more than 50% disabled and desparate, facing an enemy that was proving brutally effective, the pair nearly dispaired . . .



. . . And suddenly realized that hte mage they had met earlier that day was still with the party and had just been hanging quietly at the back of the party, observing. They asked him if he was able to do something, and he allowed as he might be able to fix the darkness, and promptly did so. <DM's Note: I laugh even now about this one . . .>.



Without the debilitating darkness, the ranger and paladin were able to make swift work of the ghasts, being spurred on by the sight of the dwarf with his throat nearly completely torn away. <DM's Note: I allow each player in the campaign a "save" which permits them to escape one otherwise lethal event. However, it is not a consequence free save.>



With none of the party dead, although very close in some cases, the party was able to loot the remainder of the defunct thieve's guild and return to the surface to lick their wounds. The most galling injury of the lot, the dwarf's beard had been completely torn away!



<DM's Note: The violence in this session was . . . astonishing. I thought for a moment that I had gotten myself a TPK with only a pair of ghasts, albeit with a few character levels between them. (level 5 cleric and level 4 thief actually) It was . . . satisfying . . . to push them right to the edge like that, and watch them start to sweat for the first time this campaign.>

Session 7 is tonight!

Matthew
2011-09-21, 03:42 PM
Poor adventurers. Just lucky it was not a spell caster accompanied by ghouls, I suppose. :smallbiggrin:

hamlet
2011-09-21, 04:51 PM
Poor adventurers. Just lucky it was not a spell caster accompanied by ghouls, I suppose. :smallbiggrin:

Have you been reading my campaign notes?:smallbiggrin:

FriendoftheDork
2011-10-14, 05:01 AM
Hello Hamlet, nice to see another DM braving the Kalamar setting. I have my own campaign using the Pathfinder system (D&D 3.5++), but I noticed we used the same module for starting our campaigns, although I can tell my group is very different: MY players stay out! Since the village of Arun'Kid has only 1% non-humans (out of ca. 150 people) the party were only allowed 1.5 nonhuman members, which they have ;)

Gat'loch, LN Krangi Hobgoblin lvl 1 Ranger/ lvl 3 Fighter - The party's "tank." Gat'loch hates everyone, but has a special dislike against humans (favored enemy). Despite this he takes his duty seriously and considered himself still part of the Arun'Kid militia, and likes his status as a citizen of the Kalamaran Empire.

Leaf, NG half-elf lvl 4 Magus (essentially a fighter/mage) - Light fighter who can also cast spells through his Scimitar. Leaf is an "elf fanboy", and has serious issues with his human part as being inferior. He is a good guy, but with low wisdom and is very easily fooled (most of his gear has been marked as "elf made" by various unscrupulous merchants). Supports the Kalamaran nobility and royalty based on his assumption that they can do no wrong.

LE human lvl 4 Rogue (who's name escapes me atm) - A backstabbing bastard that truly believes in order. Insist on not being called a thief, and is equally happy in killing and torturing wicked bandits as well as the "robin hoods." So far he's done well in the otherwise neutral/goodish group, but people have noticed lately his willingness to use extreme methods to achieve objectives.

Pavroti, CG (NG?) human lvl 4 Bard - A newer member of the group, he ran left home earlier than the others and traveled abroad all the way to Pekal and has seen the "world." Very charismatic entertainer, but also fairly useless in combat. He is probably the most good-natured member of the party, and unlike Elan has the Int and Wis to back it up. He mostly supports the legitimiate rulers, but never unquestioningly.

That's the main group. In addition there is a guest player that only makes it occasionally, he has already played a Drow Paladin (dont ask) who died after fighting a Dire Boar, and his newest character is a Brandobian "Ronin" Chevalier lvl 4. Essentially a Paladin/fighter with the ability to challenge a single enemy and gain bonuses.

He is recently at odds with the party because of his Code of Honor that demands that he does not allow women to be hurt - and the party recently captured a cell of Blackfoot society which included women, and has brought them to King Adoku's court in Tokis, a province of Kalamar - as rebels it is fairly certain they will be executed.


So if you are interested to hear more about my game tell me so - I'd like to discuss various issues with the setting in general really - it's good but it lacks some important information and I can't really make sense of the gods.

Cheers,
FotD.

hamlet
2011-10-16, 08:52 AM
Interesting stuff!

My campaign still is together, but it's been on semi-hiatus because the DM has been ill and insanely busy at work.

We did play another session, so I'll have to see if I can get the time together on Monday to put together a recap before we ostensibly play again on Wednesday.

FriendoftheDork
2011-10-16, 01:55 PM
Interesting stuff!

My campaign still is together, but it's been on semi-hiatus because the DM has been ill and insanely busy at work.

We did play another session, so I'll have to see if I can get the time together on Monday to put together a recap before we ostensibly play again on Wednesday.

Are you referring to yourself in the third person?

Anyway, assuming you are the DM, do you use the Kalamar books made for 3.0 D&D or is there something else available? I know at least the module was meant for 3.0, so I guess you had to convert things. Still, fairly easy as the module writer used alot of AD&D stuff and ad-hoc rules and ignoring many 3rd edition rules. For example, random roll to convince gnomes instead of a Diplomacy skill check? Why?

hamlet
2011-10-16, 04:22 PM
Are you referring to yourself in the third person?

Anyway, assuming you are the DM, do you use the Kalamar books made for 3.0 D&D or is there something else available? I know at least the module was meant for 3.0, so I guess you had to convert things. Still, fairly easy as the module writer used alot of AD&D stuff and ad-hoc rules and ignoring many 3rd edition rules. For example, random roll to convince gnomes instead of a Diplomacy skill check? Why?

I'm using the 3.0 material because that's what I'm using. There is an AD&D version of the campaign setting, but the differences between them are minute being as it's mostly systemless. There's also a 4th edition version of the setting, and a HMB version of the setting.

As for why the author of the mod used a random roll instead of a Diplomacy check, you got me. You'd have to ask him. I'm almost positive he posts over on the Kenzer forums.

FriendoftheDork
2011-10-19, 05:51 PM
I'm using the 3.0 material because that's what I'm using. There is an AD&D version of the campaign setting, but the differences between them are minute being as it's mostly systemless. There's also a 4th edition version of the setting, and a HMB version of the setting.

As for why the author of the mod used a random roll instead of a Diplomacy check, you got me. You'd have to ask him. I'm almost positive he posts over on the Kenzer forums.

Oooh, nice I didnt know about these forums and my search-fu failed. They don't seem very active, but the chance to actually ask the designers questions is great!

Thanks alot!

FriendoftheDork
2011-10-23, 07:49 AM
BTW, if you're interested in reading about my campaign, here's the link to one of my threads at Kenzer forums :)
http://www.kenzerco.com/forums/showthread.php?t=54433

hamlet
2011-11-03, 12:46 PM
Sessions 7 and 8 - I'm combining them into one post since I was severely negligent in not posting one for the last session here.



Believing that it was their duty to destroy whatever evil lurked beneath the city of Bepido, the Paladin, much to the chagrin of everybody, convinced the party to return to the under city and continue their explorations. And so, after recovering from their wounds, and virtually stitching their dwarf friend back together again after his mishap with a particularly nasty ghast, the group returned to the undercity with the map that they had discovered in the nest of skulks.



Once there, they, through the madness of their bard, discovered a set of stairs leading down into a room with four exits. While exploring the room, the poor gnome was yet again attacked by a giant spider. <DM's Note: The player of the gnome has threatened me about this and insists that any more spiders on my part will result in bad things happening. Fine. Next up . . . scorpians.>



A bit of further exploration revealed a room through which an underground stream of some sort flowed. A limed over skeleton was found, and the party was able to recover a scroll tube from the water. They also discovered a room full of leather products <DM's Note: Amidst much laughing about fetishes and the like.> and a room full of wine barrels where they fought a pair of ghouls that managed to paralyze much of the party before finally being slain. It is here that the party sat down for a long while to discuss the Bard's . . . infirmity. It was becomming quite clear that the man was mad and a danger to most everything around him as he wandered off aimlessly seeking interesting things. The bard was tied up and even the Paladin briefly pondered putting him out of their misery, but in the end, attempted to lay hands upon the man to cure his "disease of the mind." It didnt' work. They let him loose and he ran off to who knows where, and they chose not to pursue and rescue him.



The party continued their explorations finding a long corridor with a few ghouls in it and, eventually, a man strapped to a table and layed out like a side of beef ready to be butchered. He introduced himself as "ElMagnifico" with a tremendously florid accent and an impossibly fine bearing, a devotee of goodness and law that immediately endeered himself to the group as slightly less mad, or at least more workably mad, than the bard. He was released and immediately joined the party with many thanks.



Continuing on, they discovered a series of cells in the last of which was a small boy who, upon being woken, claimed that he and his sister came down here to explore, and that the girl had gone off on her own and vanished in a scream. The boy was knocked over the head and placed here. ElMagnifico, the new swashbuckler, swore on the Paladin's honor that the group would recover the boy's sister, which caught the entire group by surprise.



However, they were able, after yet more exploration, to find a large, evil chapel filled with a dozen skeletons armed with spears standing in formation, stock still. At the front of the room, half on the dais, the body of a young woman. They were able to retrieve the girl after a battle with a pair of ghast lieutenants, but the skeletons never moved, which possibly frightened them more. <DM's Note: I probably messed up just a bit here asking the offending party member just precisely where he put his feet when he picked up the body. It tipped them off enough that they were able to avoid a bit of last minute nastiness at the end of the session, a battle that would have taken far too long.>

Matthew
2011-11-03, 08:54 PM
Sounds like there is a lot going on. Lucky to avoid being wiped out fighting those ghouls.

hamlet
2011-11-04, 07:14 AM
Actually, there's a reason why all the ghouls. The party has managed to put in a lot of very good AC people, which makes hitting them very tough. And they consistently make mincemeat of some of what I would consider "fair" fights. The ghouls at least give me a good shot of paralyzing somebody and making things more interesting.

Monsters in the wild, when they finally bestir themselves from the city, will be fighting smart, not suicidal.

hamlet
2011-12-02, 11:12 AM
Session 9 two nights ago. I should preface this entry by admitting that I neglected to mention in my last update that the ranger, Fever Oxbar, has picked up his first follower, Thular, a tremendously large and be-bearded warrior who is interested in helping as, he says, Fever and his group are the only people in the area who seem interested in actually doing good deeds. They found out last time that Thular is exceptionally strong and deadly with his battle-axe and wondered what somebody so powerful would have to do with them.

And now, on with the story . . .

Having just discovered the body of a young girl they presumed was Cymric's (the young boy they found back in the cells) sister, Sir Bedivire stared up at the evil altar and effigy of a be-robed and scythe wielding, skeletal figure, and relalized that it was his duty as a holy and righteous man to pull down the effigy and cleanse this chapel of evil. Before he did so, the group prevailed upon him to let them at least inspect the skeletons standing guard in the chapel before-hand. They found that all but a dozen of the things were held together with wire like macabre marionets. The last dozen were held together by no means that they could readily discern: undead they speculated, kept in check until something triggered them. <DM's Note: Yeah, the room isn't at all subtle. Or dangerous to a party of appropriate level to go through this dungeon. Or, you know, a 0-level commoner.>

Tired of looking and not acting, the Paladin strode confidently up the dais and, before he could begin the ritual of purifying the altar, a dozen skeletons animated and attacked. The party made swift work of the abominations and escaped largely unharmed except for a few scrapes and a particularly nasty wound to Dagmar the dwarf. <DM's Note: Critical hits are horrifying sometimes. A skeleton with a spear lands a critical hit for double max damage. A full 12 points worth, which is not a huge number, but significant to a 2nd level fighter.>

When all was said and done, the skeletons were all dispatched and the room was purified and everybody felt that they had accomplished something good here. They decided that there were just a few more rooms to explore, a couple moree things to look through, and so they set about searching a couple of rooms off the side of the chapel which presumably belonged to whatever priest occupied this temple. What they discovered was truly horrifying. A room that, whatever had been its original function, was converted into a befouled and nauseating charnal house of a dining room in which a horrifyingly bloated and foul smelling creature was in the process of gorging itself on humanoid flesh along with two ghasts guarding its meal.

The battle was quick, but particularly brutal. The two ghast leuitennants charged immediately into combat and swiftly paralyzed Dagmar leaving only El Magnifico to hold the front line in the narrow doorway they found themselves clustered in. Some oil was lobbed over the heads of the front line fighters to smash at the feet of the ghasts, followed by a torch that went wide. The little gnome, quick and light on her feet, managed a bit of acrobatics to spring past the furball in the door and into the room, hoping for a backstab, but managed to attract the attention of the nearest ghast in the process which turned to pursue her.

Eventually, they were able to light the oil, which helped, but still they faced an uphill battle as they swapped out paralyzed party members for fresh ones and fought long and hard. They were terribly dismayed to discover that the leader was immune to non-magical weapons, and took only some damage from a silvered longsword that the Paladin carried, and he was swiftly paralyzed and rendered inert. However, Fever was able to save the day as he bulled his way into the room and to a corner where he shot a couple of magical arrows they had discovered into the creature, wounding it greivously. Another batch of oil and a lucky shot with a torch finished the creature, but it was a close thing as the party was fairly well battered. The master of this place was tentatively identified as a "ghoul lord," a powerful and dangerous creature that is to ghasts what a ghast is to a ghoul. <DM's Note: I was slightly hesitant to throw this at them, but in the end it turned out OK as they managed to avoid some of the worst of things.>

They returned to find Cymric where they left him, holed up in a cell with a knife to defend himself against whatever creature might come his way. He was very unhappy to see that his sister was dead, but pleased that her body had been recovered and that the adventurers would fund her funeral out of their own pockets. He was intrigued by the offer to become a member of the party, if only as a torch or standard bearer, and tentatively accepted their offer. Especially seeing as it would provide him with coin, which he felt was a marvelous idea.

Deciding that, being as roughed up as they were, the party needed to rest for the evening before continuing, they climbed back out via their trench sewer entrance. There, the gnome found a hastily hidden body that had had its left ring finger severed. They duly report this to the guards, who questioned them briefly about the matter, but seemed mostly satisfied that these weren't the murderers they were looking for. Or, at the very least, an incompetant bunch of murderers if they brought the evidence of their malfeasance directly to the guards in person. They were permitted to go, but advised to stay in the city at least for the time being.

While much of the group was shpping to replace supplies, El Magnifico to sate his own lust, and Sir Bedivire went to the temple, Thular spoke to Fever and told him that he had ulterior motives for approaching the ranger in the first place. He had come because his village in the north east, Manidu, had recently lost its priest of the Bear, and when a mysterious, masked stranger appeared to take his place, they didn't ask too many questions. However, this newcomer, who never removed his mask, seemed quite febrile about his beliefs and quite extreme. He forced the entire village to leave behind their homes and harrangued them that civilization itself was a destabalizing, unbalancing force and that only by returning to Nature could they restore Balance. When he led ceremonies, in his more fervid moments, he would mutter about a "shadow circle" and had begun preparations for some unknown ritual to take place soon. Realizing that something was not quite right, Thular left the town under cover of darkness to seek help, if only to allay his fears. Fever agreed to help as soon as he could, and seemed disturbed that somebody from his own religion would do such a thing for, as much as Fever was an advocate of returning to nature and balanced ways, he would not advocate abandoning homes and forcing people to live as animals in the fields.

Matthew
2011-12-06, 06:47 AM
Good stuff, mate! :smallbiggrin:

hamlet
2011-12-06, 08:51 AM
Good stuff, mate! :smallbiggrin:

Thanks. Now, if only I can keep things going. And keep them from rebelling when I introduce the Shadow Circle for real . . .

There will be blood.

hamlet
2012-01-04, 04:00 PM
Session 10: Wherin there's no fighting, a lot of paranoia, lots of treasure, and an interesting discovery beneath the city of Bepido . . .

After resting and sewing their wounds closed (and realizing that what they fought may have transmitted, against all odds, some sort of disease to the Paladin Sir Bedevere), the group returned to the crypts and ghoul warrens to explore the last section that they had not, till this point, been in. They found, due south of the main entry stair, a square room covered in murals depicting prominantly images of the overlord and of symbolism of a peculiar tree always depicted in a specific way. It seemed to tell a story of some sort, but what that story was they could not discern at this time. A bit of exploration and knocking about on walls <DM's Note: And a healthy knowledge of the original D&D DM's Guide . . .> revealed a secret passage in the south wall leading into darkness. A bit of light and a brave soul <DM's Note: I'm sure they suspected more ghouls here and it made them just a little edgy to encounter precisely nothing . . .> and they discovered that the passageway opened up into a very large, seemingly contiguous chamber at least 50+ feet wide and more than 100 feet long filled with rank upon rank of "shelves" filled with reverently laid to rest bodies, each with minor burial goods. <DM's Note: I'm sure there's a word that I'm missing for "shelves" here, but that brain cell seems to have died and I cannot complete my mortuary vocabulary. Ah, dignity . . .> They estimated that all in all, there must be thousands if not tens of thousands of bodies quietly laid to rest in this quiet and massive place.

At the far southern end of the room, they discovered another passageway leading out, where they found themselves in a round room containing <DM"s Note: And I'm sure they'll correct me on the numbers here since my memory is completely fuzzy here.> nine corpses sitting in meditative lotus positions around the perimeter, all facing the center of the room and an ivory and wooden chest in the center of the room. A fair healthy amount of debate went on about whether or not to open the box as the gnome declared it "perfectly safe," and eventually caution was thrown to the wind and the lid opened. Inside, they discovered yet another desicated/mummified body, this time curled into a fetal position, resting upon a stack of treasure of significant proportions including an hourglass filled with a silvery dust and a long crystaline looking longsword.

Not knowing quite what to do with themselves at having discovered such a treasure seemingly without any hitches to it, the party returned to the surface and sought out their hedge wizard friend to identify the items that they had determined were magical. Along with a few minor, negligable items, the dust was deteremined to be dust of dissapearance and reappearance (about 10 total doses they estimate). The sword, the wizard said, was very interesting and he exacted a promise from Sir Bedavere that he would not incautiously use the weapon within the bounds of a populated area. It was, he claimed, not a crystal or, in fact, a sword at all, but an extrusion of the plane of positive energy and radiance itself, congealed into the shape of a sword. When fighting the undead, the weapon was able to, at times, open a crack/conduit leading back to that plane which would flood the enemy and all those within the area with that energy. It was, though, quite capable of causing a chain reaction that could lead to an overload and death to even otherwise healthy individuals within radius of a blast. Within the walls of a densly populated city, it could, conceivably, destroy the entire population in a flash of blinding light.

Matthew
2012-01-05, 10:37 AM
Heh, heh. Crypts are always a good source of adventure. As to shelves, perhaps alcoves or niches?

hamlet
2012-01-23, 12:19 PM
Session 11: The Dwarf Caper

<DM's Note: I'm a fan of a gentleman known as the Greyhawk Grognard over on Blogspot. In fact, I game with him every other week. Recently, he subjected our group to an over the top, improvised adventure in which the seemingly simple goal was to sneak a small number of crates into a city without anybody seeing it and thus avoiding taxes or undue notice. Sound's simple, eh? Hilariously, though, we proved at the table that not a single one of us has a criminal mind and thus the single most astonishingly funny session ensued which involved the phrase "she likes high places" being uttered. The big joke on us, though, was that it was virtually entirely improvised by the DM. It turned out that remarkably.

Well, in an effort to stretch, or sharpen, or I don't know what, my own DM skills, I set up a similar situation. A brief concept (in this case, a dwarf that had been arrested and thrown in the stocks for poisoning the young daughter of the local baron) with a little bit of details set up on the side (names mostly), and then set the players to it. I figured, in the end, that it would take them, perhaps, 15-30 minutes to get through it. Boy, was I wrong. Three hours later . . .>

After emerging from the catacombs beneath the city for, perhaps, the final time, the party decided to take a brief rest, spending a few days shopping and recovering from their various ordeals. Sir Bedevere spent a bit of his hard earned coin to outfit the young lad Cymric, the boy they had rescued from the ghoul infested crypts earlier. After being cleaned up and put into some respectable clothes, the boy was seen to be quite handsome.

In the meantime, Dagmar (the party's dwarf fighter) was contacted by Othor Guntern, the oldest dwarf in the city and seeming community leader. He invited the young warrior to tea for a conversation. Upon arriving, Dagmar, initially excited to be meeting a community leader of at least 300 years, was distressed to find that Othor was a little . . . ditzy. Or perhaps senile. The moment his attendants had left and the doors were closed, however, Othor proved to be intelligent, perceptive, and savvy enough to know that feigning senility kept the focus off of himself and protected the otherwise vulnerable dwarf contingent within the city.

Othor got directly to business, letting Dagmar know that there was another dwarf, Agate Talek, that had been arrested, thrown into the stocks, tortured, and sentenced to be crucified within a few days for the crime of poisoning the youngest daughter of the local baron. Agate had worked as a governess/nanny/tutor for the young girl and, when she was found near death from poison and he was the only person near the scene, was immediately arrested and tortured into confession. Othor and many others, though, suspected that Agate had been arrested wrongly and was the target of the general anti-demihuman sentiment of this region of the emprie and requested that Dagmar and, if he chose to involve them, his party attempt to remove Agate from the city to safety. Dagmar agreed that he would look into it and do what he could.

Back at the inn they had been staying in, Dagmar explained the situation to all and sundry and it was agreed that they would look into the matter. However, a quick question was brought up that threw a wrench into the plans of everything. Were they actually sure that Agate was wrongfully imprisoned? Was he actually innocent, or guilty? It hit them like a hammer when they realized that they might undertake this endeavor, only to discover that they were helping to free a child murderer. This, understandably, made them uncomfortable for even the most morally lax of them were good at heart.

It was immediately decided that they would speak directly with the condemned and endeavor to learn the truth of the matter from his own lips. They arrived at the square where the stocks were set up and asked the guards to let them approach claiming that Dagmar wanted to give the prisoner his final condolences, dwarf to dwarf so to speak. The guards rolled their eyes and permitted it.

They immediately asked Agate what had happened, and were stunned when the dwarf admitted freely that he was guilty of poisoning the girl and that no, he didn't know why, precisely, he had done it, just that the offer of freedom and enough money to live off of by the person who had asked him to do it was just too much to ignore after so many years in servitude. <DM's Note: The dwarf was a slave.> He claimed that he truly felt remorse for his actions as he had true affection for the young girl. However, he was certainly guilty of the crime and his execution was lawful in his own eyes, if just a little disheartening.

For a moment, it seemed as if the party would leave him to his fate, but then a few new questions cropped up. What if the dwarf had been tortured into lying and giving a false confession? For it was plain to any that he had been whipped and beaten. What if he had been magically compelled? Would his guilt be as firmly established? How in the world could they tell? Who was this mysterious, unknown and becloaked figure with a strange ring that had asked Agate to go through with murdering the child he had taken care of as if a member of his own clan?

They went from comfortable in the moral forthrightness of their actions to uneasy in a matter of moments. Especially when they realized they had no sure way of determining the truth of the situation. A "Detect Lies" spell is well beyond them at this point and they know of nobody within the city that was able to cast it. <DM's Note: They didn't ask around, either, but that's another story . . .> They could not cast ESP spells or any other type of spell that would reveal the truth of the matter. But, the elf enchanter spoke up, if he had been magically compelled, and only magically compelled, then there may still be a faint residue of magic upon him revealing the possibility that he was not wholly guilty. <DM's Note: The elf enchanter is a PC belonging to a player who wasn't there that night, so I took control of him and used him to offer a bit of direction to the party.> A detect magic spell was cast, and revealed a very faint aura of enchantment magic upon Agate. The elf opined that it was possible that the dwarf had been magically forced or "pushed" into the poisoning, but that if that was so, it was done very subtlely as the magic residue was not strong enough to indicate a charm person type of spell or a domination spell. It was more likely something along the lines of a suggestion and a removal of inhibitions such as the eponymous spell or an item of human control.

Thus informed, the party was shuffled away from the stocks since they had spent a goodly length of time there whispering and not seemingly doing honest things. It was determined by the Paladin, eager to do "the right thing," that more information was required. There had to be more evidence against the dwarf than "he was in the right place at the right time" and perhaps some that would lead to whomever this mysterious figure was. Dagmar said that he would report his findings back to Othor and let him know that the situation was more complicated than originally thought. Othor seemd non-plussed that what he thought was a relatively simple matter was not being pursued as vigerously as he wished, but agreed to have his contacts look into the matter.

Sir Bedever and Fever Oxbar, in the meantime, went to the Baron's estate in the city and sought an audience with him, banking on the Paladin's fame to get them into the door at least. They were successfull in getting in and managed to convince the baron to let them in to see the girl. Sir Bedevere said that he wanted to try and utilize his own Paladin abilities to aleviate the girl's pain and discomfort if not outright heal her. He knew that he was not capable of explicitly curing the poison, but perhaps laying on hands and attempting to cure disease might at least slow the course of the encroaching death. The baron agreed to let him try and, surprisingly, the attempt seemed to work. The lines of pain on the unconcious girl's face seemed to smooth and she relaxed a little, though she did not wake. <DM's Note: I know that this is not the way the ability works, but I rolled a percentile and it came up 02 and, since the act was honestly altruistic, I let it slide a little.>

At this point, they asked the baron permission to do a bit of physical investigation of their own. Since there were no other witnesses, they would not be disturbing the household at all, they reasoned, but only wanted to examine the scene of the crime. Perhaps they would be able to discover something that the guards had not. <DM's Note: I had not actually considered this in my prep, but it was a good idea and, as it let me introduce a bit more of the complex things going on in the background, I decided that it was a good idea.> They found, hidden under a large table leg where it would be easy to miss, a small shard of glass that seemed, upon close inspection, to be consistent with a small vial. This they picked up very carefully and turned over to the baron who said that he had a member of his staff who would be able to investigate the object on a level that basic physical examination would not be suitable. He would, he said, meet them at their inn the following morning to let them know what was discovered.

The following morning, the baron arrived to reveal that he had had his subordinate, a "mind mage" investigate the bit of glass via an ability to discern the history of an object and discovered that, in addition to the known persons who had touched the glass - namely, Agate the dwarf, the baron himself, Sir Bedevere, and the guards - that another person had touched the vial, but was completely undiscernable to the divination. This alarmed most anybody in the know as the ability to cloud divinations of that particular sort so completely was quite poweful. Further, the baron had had his . . . master of the surreptitious arts . . . examine the glass as well and analyzed the residue of the poison. It was, he determined, a very expensive poison and so whomever purchased it was quite wealthy. It was speculated that perhaps one of the noble enemies of the baron's family, or his wife's, might have attempted to kill the girl in a petty attempt at revenge, or perhaps there was a deeper, more nefarious plot afoot. There just was not enough evidence either way to suggest anything with assuredness.

Nevertheless, the baron agreed that Agate was, if not innocent, then at least not wholly guilty due to the extenuating circumstances, but could not be freed on such tenuous evidence. However, if the dwarf were to somehow escape, he would not hold it against any such duplicitous parties as long as he were left completely out of it and they acted circumspectly and left few if any bodies upon the ground.

And so, the party plotted out a quick escape that evening which involved a wagon full of hay, the corpse of one of their slain opponents that had been left to rot beneath the city, some carefully applied bludgeoning, and quick thinking arson. They managed to get Agate out of the stocks, replace the dwarf with a carefully mutilated body that was then set afire to futher disguise it, and escaped via an underground tunnell outside the walls.

Thus endeth the Dwarven Caper . . .

Matthew
2012-01-23, 09:17 PM
Sounds like a successful session; did you enjoy the change of pace?

hamlet
2012-01-24, 12:16 PM
I, personally, found it enlightening, though I'm sure at least one or two of my players were itching to draw swords and start killing things.

For the most part, it was extremely entertaining to sit back and watch them write new plot hooks for me over the course of the session. New adventure ideas and all.

hamlet
2012-03-12, 11:54 AM
Sessions 12 and 13: The Beauty of Nature . . .

After a bit of discussion, the party decided as a whole that they needed to get out of the city for a short time, if not to avoid any potential fall-out from their actions in freeing the dwarven slave, then at least because some of them were beginning to feel a little stir crazy. Fever Oxbar, the party's ranger, and Thular, his companion, did not feel that major cities meshed well with their personalities for long. A trip north to the small village of Manidu to deal with this unsettlingly extreme druid was, they reasoned, just what they needed.

The party headed out overland, eschewing main roads as they had two people in the group who could direct them and they felt that a swifter journey via hunting trails and cart paths was preferrable to schlepping an extra day or two out of the way. They were unlikely to get lost and more likely to avoid any bandits that might try to cause trouble for them, so off they went.

Approaching afternoon of the first day of their expected two day journey, the party was attacked by a small group of kobolds who immediately fled into the underbrush. Giving chase brought a hill or barrow of some sort into view, crowned with what they supposed were earthen ramparts topped by two wooden buildings flanking either side of a breach in the wall, presumably leading into a crude little fortress. The half dozen kobolds, who had been run down and slaughtered, seemed to have been heading directly for the hill, so it was decided that they would investigate.

El Magnifico the swashbuckler went out in front, determined to display his own courage and capabilities, and was promptly shot through several times when a rain of 40 arrows rained down upon him. He turned to flee, but a second volley put him on the ground, bleeding. Sir Bedivere was able to move forward with his large shield and sturdy armor to rescue his comrade while Fever provided what covering fire he could and some of the others tried to circle around to approach from a different angle.

Fever struck upon an idea and created and fired several flaming arrows into the sides of thatched roofs of the to archery blinds, successfully setting them ablaze, which drove out the kobold archers in fairly short order to retreat further into the fortress.

Moving up, Sir Bedevere, Fever, Thular, and Dagmar entered the fortress and proceeded to clear out what they realized was over 50 kobolds that had prepared themselves for any invasion, albeit they had made some tactical errors that were quickly exploited by the fighters. In the meantime, El Magnifico, restored to conciousness, crept around the side of the hill fort and over the wall to try and enter from the rear. There, he discovered another building that he believed to be a stable of some sort judging by the smell and the presence of fodder. He moved around and saw a quartet of kobol "knights" mounted on huge wild boars getting ready to charge into the fray. Hoping to at least reduce the threat to the others, he swung his sword at the back of a boar, but only managed to enrage it and find that he was, himself, no match for a boar, ending up on the ground once again.

The melee at either side of the entrance proved to be bloody and ferocious, especially once the boar riders joined the combat. Dagmar was sorely wounded but managed to stay standing, but the entire group as a whole made steady progress in carving their way through masses of the little humanoids.

During the combat, Thular was injured and, presumably through an act of rage, transformed into a tremendous brown bear that quite handily tore through a large number of kobolds, though the ferocity of the beast was quite terrible to behold.

After losing so many of their number, the kobolds retreated through a small tunnel near the back of the hill fort, and the party decided not to give chase this time. It was, they reasoned, a bolt hole and the creatures had been driven off and would not be harmful to anybody else in the future.

That evening, the party made camp amidst the remnants of the battle and spoke, for the first time, directly to Thular about the druid and this newly discovered ursine ability. The man told them about how the previous priest of The Bear (Kalamaran deity of nature, agriculture, etc., very common deity to worship within the small villages and hamlets) died, this man in a raven mask appeared and offered to take his place and tend to the spiritual needs of the village. At first, the villagers were happy to have this issue resolved and welcomed the man into their community, but as time wore on, the druid became more and more extreme in his teachings, preaching about the objective evils of civilization and its whiles. He forced the entire community out of their homes and into the fields to live "as nature intended" and compelled them to rid themselves of all manmade goods and all that even resembled technology.

At some point, the druid <DM's Note: Forgive me, the sheet with his name on it is at home so he will remain "The Druid" until I can go fetch that scrap of paper> came to Thular, already a large and sturdy man, and offered to help him become a protector of his people, to be powerful and strong and keep them from harm. This was before the man's suspicions were truly aroused, and so Thular agreed. It was, he said, a great mistake on his part. The druid did something to him and, afterward, he was, during times of great stress or anger, transform himself into a tremendous bear and be extremely resistant to harm, but during such states, he had little control and was as like to attack friend as foe. As well, the druid seemed to have a significant measure of control over him in such a state, and so Thular feared that he had been had and that was when he sought out help from others.

The next day, the group set out and arrived at the outskirts of the village. Fever was sent in, trailed quietly by the gnome, to make contact with the druid while the others waited behind. The signal for them to come charging to the rescue, according to El Magnifico, was the smoke from burning buildings.

Fever was able to meet with the druid in fairly short order and discovered something fairly quickly: this guy was "bat-guano nuts!" and he was dangerous to boot. The masked man continually preached about the evils of civilization, how he had transcended them entirely and how he relied not at all upon such artificial trappings and was going to remake the world in that image. At some point, it was decided that Fever would remain in the village lending what assistance he could to the people while enduring the druid's preachings while the others went to a nearby town to find assistance. <DM's Note: Forgive me, I'm fuzzy on details here as, at the time, I was deleriously tired and if a crazed pink goblin crashed through my front door at the time it'd be only even odds that I'd have noticed.> Such help was not forthcoming, though, as the local lord had most of his troops tasked with trying to route out banditry on the roads. He was able to spare only four green men-at-arms, and with these soldiers the group returned to challenge the druid.

The fight was quite furious as a band of ten or so thugs had supported the druid from the beginning and revelled in their newfound permission to bully anybody the felt like. A pack wolves joined the melee and began savaging the party, nearly killing the wizard and his warrior companion. In the meantime, Fever and the gnome attempted to engage the druid himself and met with limited success. They were able to prevent him from casting his most powerful magics for a few moments, but he was able to hold them off and they suspected that he had been pulling his punches for the last few minutes.

<DM's Note: And there the session ended because the DM nearly collapsed and went immediately to bed. Wednesday will be the thrilling conclusion to that battle and the aftermath.>

Matthew
2012-03-14, 01:38 AM
Ha! Kobold knights, ehy? A sight to behold. :smallbiggrin:

hamlet
2012-03-14, 07:24 AM
Ha! Kobold knights, ehy? A sight to behold. :smallbiggrin:

Unfortunately, they didn't work out quite as well as I'd have liked since the players used some of the terrain (a couple of seige fences) to their own advantage rather better than I gave them credit for.

Jerks. They're far too clever sometimes.

hamlet
2012-03-14, 07:26 AM
This is not a doulbe post. You are mistaken.

Move along, citizen.

Matthew
2012-03-16, 09:42 PM
Ha, ha. You can delete your own double posts, I believe. :smallwink: