For the Horde and other DMing tales: Session 4 is Up, Now Caught Up!!

[Babale]

Hey guys! I just finished the second session of a campaign I'm running, and I feel like it's a pretty awesome story. I know that I love reading campaign journals, especially SilverClawShift's journal (Which is what inspired me to do this in the first place).

So, enough with the foreplay. Er, awkward. But you know what I mean! Let us carry on!

For the Horde... It's a pretty great campaign. The players are all "monsters", trying to survive in a world that's very hostile to them. You could say that the good guys already won; most of the world is united in an empire called The Silver Lantern, followers of the Silver Flame. The other major nations are all their allies. Civilization won, which is great if you're a human commoner, but not so awesome if you're an orc, or a goblin. So lately, the Black Candle, an order of paladins, started a crusade against the monstrous races. The players were captured by them, and the campaign begins with them in jail.

The world is actually pretty detailed: You can read the whole description here. http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=11822361&postcount=48

It's a bit long, so I won't post it here. But if you are interested, I hope you'll enjoy it.

So, let's introduce the characters! (One of my players is very skilled with Inkscape, as you can tell by looking at my signature. He volunteered to make icons for each character and a bunch of NPCs, so that I have tiles to use as miniatures in battles).

First, we have Iskatrax.

http://i679.photobucket.com/albums/vv160/babale/for%20the%20horde/isk.png

He's a mean bastard, who hates humans and wants to kill them all in a burning ring of fire. Tiefling Wizard, who doesn't actually have wings quite yet; he'll be picking up some sort of feat to grab those next level.

Next, we have Zain.

http://i679.photobucket.com/albums/vv160/babale/for%20the%20horde/zain.png

Zain is an air goblin playing a variant fighter. He isn't particularly tough, but it's next to impossible to hit him, and he can hit pretty much anything. Unlike some of the others, Zain isn't actually evil. He is an advocate for leaving the human lands and building a separate nation. He was burned alive by humans, and has a fear of fire.

Third, we have Houkakil.

http://i679.photobucket.com/albums/vv160/babale/for%20the%20horde/houkakil.png

She's a Gnollish Druid, and one of the religious influences on the party. I won't go into much detail, but her two deities are pulling her and, consequently, the new monstrous empire, in opposite directions. Currently, she is Neutral, and another one who doesn't want to kill all humans.

Fourth is Gal'Din.

http://i679.photobucket.com/albums/vv160/babale/for%20the%20horde/galdin.png

Gal'Din is an intelligent Force Golem and Paladin of Slaughter, which is this setting is a metallic suit of armor filled with force, which he can use to do all sorts of neat tricks. He's a murderous guy, and so far has advocated only slaugher.

Fifth is Sanrak.

http://i679.photobucket.com/albums/vv160/babale/for%20the%20horde/sanrak.png

He's a Lizardfolk going for Unseen Seer. He, too, is much less evil then the rest. In fact, he gets along very well with the gnoll. He, too, is getting religious influences, being the Shaman of his tribe.

Last is Granshnak the Red.

http://i679.photobucket.com/albums/vv160/babale/for%20the%20horde/thered.png

He's an Orc. That's pretty much all you need to know about him... He is literally THE Orc. Orc Paragon/Barbarian/Fighter/Eye of Gruumsh. He's the most stereotypical orc possible. Currently, he's one for the slaughter of humans.


We've played two sessions so far, and I'll describe them soon!

[Calanon]

Whose the leader? :smallconfused:

Every party needs to have a leader >_>

[Babale]

No one so far, they just escaped from prison. The Tiefling resents everyone else, and in fact nearly got everyone killed already. It's going to depend on if they go for a peaceful solution or a murderous rampage... The party might even split for a while, since the warmongerers are having issues with the sane ones.

The players are doing a very good job of keeping their conflict in-character, though.


EDIT: Of course, one could say Iskatrax outranks the rest, since he does whatever he wants while the others check with each other. Then again, by that logic, Belkar is the leader of the Order of the Stick.

[Calanon]

No one so far, they just escaped from prison. The Tiefling resents everyone else, and in fact nearly got everyone killed already. It's going to depend on if they go for a peaceful solution or a murderous rampage... The party might even split for a while, since the warmongerers are having issues with the sane ones.

The players are doing a very good job of keeping their conflict in-character, though.

Well thats to be expected I suppose... its an Evil campaign I'm assuming theres going to be a lot of in fighting and power struggles... thats why i prefer an Undead Campaign over an Evil campaign (same thing just whom ever can organize them the quickest and maintain dominance is in charge)

However the lines between an Undead campaign and an Evil campain can blur almost instantly >_>

[Babale]

Well, I know that the Tiefling wants to go Lich eventually. The others aren't quite as evil, though; the party is split evenly between Evil and Neutral.

[Calanon]

Well, I know that the Tiefling wants to go Lich eventually. The others aren't quite as evil, though; the party is split evenly between Evil and Neutral.

oOo show him the Dicefreak one... it really does the Lich template justice ^_^
and I'm confident that eventually the lure for more power will lead them slowly and more dangerously towards the dark side... :smallamused:

[Kol Korran]

that sounds quite cool! i loved the tokens, wish my group has someone with that skill :smalltongue:

if you're doing a campaign log, that might be awesome to read!

is the Silver Flame you mention the one from Eberron?

which f SCS tales inspired you? i don't remember a "team evil" one... :smallconfused: perhaps i should go read again?:smallbiggrin: my own campaign (see sig) was influenced by her "hive mind" campaign

[WrathOfLife]

that sounds quite cool! i loved the tokens, wish my group has someone with that skill :smalltongue:

if you're doing a campaign log, that might be awesome to read!

is the Silver Flame you mention the one from Eberron?

which f SCS tales inspired you? i don't remember a "team evil" one... :smallconfused: perhaps i should go read again?:smallbiggrin: my own campaign (see sig) was influenced by her "hive mind" campaign

Hey Kol, I play Zain. The Silver Flame from Eberron was unknown about by the GM until we quizzed it ourselves.

The tokens were done by one of our players, he did a great job. We have a lot of fun trying to work out what we can do with this half evil party of ours.

[Babale]

So, allow me to tell you the epic tale that was the first session!

Not much actually happened, since the party members spent at least a quater of the time arguing over morality. I'll try my best to capture the feel of the disscussion in this journal.

It all started normally enough, with the characters being thrown in jail for their crimes. Namely, being non-humanoids. Understandably, they did not take very kindly to this, and decided to escape. It just so happened that the guard in their prison happened to be a complete idiot. The party was thrown in cells by paladins who left soon after, and they were left alone with the guard. The guard fell asleep, and the goblin fighter noticed that there was a key on the guard's desk. Lacking a rope, he stripped down and used his clothes as an improvised rope to drag the keys off the table. Once he brought the key over to his cell, he was able to unlock the door. He set everyone else free, and they proceeded to deal with the guard. At this point, a fierce debate ensued. The golem and the tiefling wanted to butcher him in his sleep, but the gnoll pointed out that this would make them much more likely to be killed if they were captured again. The lizardfolk and goblin agreed, and eventually convinced the golem that they should tie up the guard and take him with them. The tiefling, however, did not agree. Now, it just so happens that the tiefling is the party's Belkar. So while the grown-ups were talking, he sneaked up behind the guard, and tried to steal his halbred in order to coup-de-grace the guard. Sadly, he rolled a 1 on his Move Silently check, and kicked over the halbred. The guard almost woke up, but luckily for the party, rolled over and went back to sleep.

Finally, the party decided to knock out the guard and tie him up, to be used as a bargaining chip. The golem knocked out the guard with an unarmed attack, and they proceeded to tie him up. They found their equipment in a back room, along with a torture chamber, where they found a dead monster of some type, who was skinned and mutilated. They took their stuff and left the room, but were ambushed by guards on the way out of the dungeon. Iskatrax the Tiefling summoned a Hell Hound, while the lizardfolk cast Web and managed to entangle the enemy ranks. The Hell Hound set the web on fire, killing half of the guards but burning Zain the Goblin in the process. Having been burned earlier in life, Zain had a phobia of fear, and now was set on fire. He panicked and ran away, hiding behind the golem. One of the guards used his action to cut the paladin free of the webs, and the paladin proceeded to charge and Smite the golem, but he failed. The entire party then attacked the paladin, and he was easily killed. The other guards were dispatched soon after, and that's where we ended the session.

[Thormag]

Hey there everyone, I'm the Lizardfolk Sanrak. I've got to say that the first session of the game went really, really well. I must mention that I was the one who finally killed the Paladin. With an Acid Splash no less! A Craven Sneak Attacked, full dice damage, Acid Splash.

The tiefling really got on my nerves though. The player is great, but the character is really annoying and from day one we understood that he was going to be our Achilles Heel.

[Darklady2831]

Hello there! I am the player of Iskatrax Lifeblighter, the cruelest bastard this side of the material plane.

I have to agree that the first session went very well, and that my Character is truely our Achiles heel.

EDIT: And Thor, Isk threw a Darkbolt at that paladin too! XD

[Kol Korran]

nice session! it's interesting seeing the players participating in the log. i tried something like this with the group i'm DMing, but the players were too busy. :smallsigh: so i did my own campaign log thingy.

it seemed a tad short though, how long does a session of yours take?

about the acid splash: reminds me of a battle in my campaign, in an acnient giant's lab. the party got into a huge room, filled with cob webs high above. long story short, the cobwebs all supported a web Golem! (MM2? MM3? don't remember) who started "jumping around" (the cob webs acting like wires in action movies) and pummeling the group. they fought it, but due to it's Spell resistance (or was it immunity?) very little passed through, and it was healing every round. more and more alchemist fire was used, and it seemed nearly done already... nearly falling apart.

only that the flask were gone by now, and a single blow from the golem would have killed any of the characters. and it would heal to.

the wizard, out of options, cast an acid splash on it, and rolled 1 for damage. the party groaned, but then i told them the magic was broken, and the cobwes were now just cobwebs! it had only 1 hp left! that was fun!

About Achiles' heel: make sure this doesn't ruin the fun for everyone. there is being an ass, but a team player who works with it, and an ass that counters it, and ruins the fun. you should find the balance, but it might be a good idea to ask the other players how far one can go.

as to the "i'm just playing my character" argument, look in this article by The Giant (http://www.giantitp.com/articles/tll307KmEm4H9k6efFP.html), scroll down to the paladin part- a belkar can be just as obnoxious as a tight assed paladin. remember that.

nice read, looks interesting. will read on.

[Babale]

Our sessions go to about four hours. The first session was a bit slow, though, since we were getting ised to skype sessions. We also started the first half posting and rollibg on the forums, which slowed the big battle down.

[Thormag]

Okay, so I edited the IC log we had at Skype. This is the ENTIRE first sesion:

Deep within the twisted underground tunnels that lay beneath Graykeep, a bored guard leaned against his halberd. It was cold so deep underground, but he was new to his job and unaccustomed to wearing heavy armor for so long. For the hundredth time that day he tried to wipe sweat from his brow before realizing that his helmet got in the way. He sighed deeply and nodded off, leaning against his weapon.

Suddenly, the door slammed open. A group of Paladins walked in, dragging an assortment of figures, each of whom had a cloth bag over his head. Quickly, they stuffed the misshapen figures into separate jail cells and slammed the doors. The head Paladin remained as the rest walked out.

I need you to guard these bastard monsters until their execution tomorrow morning. Don't screw this up, Private.

The guard saluted his commander as the older man left. The guard looked through the cells. The creatures within were not humans, not by any stretch of the word. There was a hyena, along with a strange half-man, half-hyena beast. There was a strange, misshapen human with evil features. There was a creature that looked like it used to be a goblin, but horrible burns had made it nearly unrecognizable. There was a tall, reptilian humanoid. And last was a strange metallic construct, filled with some sort of glowing energy. The guard shuddered as he saw these horrible beasts.

All except the golem were unconscious, but within a few hours of their arrival they all came too. Once his initial curiosity wore off, the guard returned to his desk and dozed off once more.

Iskatrax comes to on the musty cell floor, tearing the cloth bag off of his head so that he could breathe better. "I swear these humans are getting dumber..." he mumbled, standing up and pacing around his cell. He walked up to the bars and peered out, calling out quietly so as not to wake the guard. "Hello? Is there anyone else out there?"

Moving over to his own cell bars Zain looks around before responding softly "I am also a prisoner here. Although I hope not for long."

Gal'Din stands in his cell, speaking quietly, at the sound of another voice he stops, "Hmm.. Others as well? Not a huge surprise, they plan to execute us in the morning. Sad humans, not being able to live amongst us, the people they so closely, they try to hide their tendencies yet they always show." Gal'Din is speaking purposely loud enough for the guard to hear him.

The golem's loud, mechanical voice wakes up the guard. He mumbles something about not wanting to go to school and, with a clang of armor, switches arms on the desk and goes back to sleep.

Sanrak opens his eyes slowly as he lies in the floor. Ugh... I can't believe the humans just threw me in here thinks to himself. As he slowly stands up he looks over the scene in front of his eyes. What did I do to upset the humans so? He tries to look outside his cell and sees a blueish goblin shuffling in his cell. "Hey little one, why were you sent here for?" He asks the question while looking for anything of use inside his cell.

Stripping off Zain answers "I killed a few people. It was self defense. I tried to stop them attacking, but they kept going. Turns out they were from some group that took power here. Have an issue with people of the non-human persuasion." Standing fully nude now, Zain gestures to himself "After they caught they thought it would be amusing to make me pay for defending myself, so they set me alight. To their disappointment I survived and so they plan to try to kill me again."

Houkakil wakes to a rough tongue on her face, but it's the rancid breath flowing over her face that actually summons her to consciousness. She pushes Jayshi off of her and then rubs his head affectionately, rising to her feet and stretching her long limbs. The bruises left from her capture scream back; they want her to return to unconsciousness, but instead, hearing a language she understands, the Gnoll moves to her door. "Who there?" comes a deep voice clearly not accustomed to the soft vowels of Common. She sees a human-like creature made of... something strange... in the cell opposite her. There are three others hanging on their doors, too. "Anyone can... smash out?" she asks. She rattles the bars of her cell door.

Iskatrax sighs, then switches to Infernal "Great, idiots..." Recomposing himself, Iskatrax speaks slowly and clearly "I wonder if locks like acid..." Iskatrax smirks, and casts an acid splash spell at the lock of the cell. The lock discolors a bit where the acid touches it and wraps a little, but the door does not open.

Zain throws his clothes at the key. The large key tumbles off the desk. With another toss of his improvised rope, he manages to pull it all the way over to your cell. He reaches through the bars and picks it up. Quickly redressing, Zain unlocks his door, and begins to stealth his way around the room unlocking doors as he goes. At each door he whispers "Remain still until I unlock the others, we do not want to alert anyone before we can all escape together."

"Ah, perfect! You have the keys!" says Iskatrax

"Ssh, stay where you are, until I have unlocked everyone’s doors. We shall escape together." says the goblin

"Great shot little one!" Sanrak quietly hisses. "I know where our equipment lies"

"Smart goblin" says the Gnoll "Quiet we should stay"

Iskatrax facepalms "You sound ridiculous talking like that..."

The key indeed unlocks all the doors, and soon you are all free. Your equipment, however, is still missing in action, and there is a snoring guard not ten feet away. Iskatrax looks about for anything nice and sharp.

"What should we do with the poor soul?" Sanrak asks

Ash says "Someone needs to knockout the guard." Zain looks around "Friend, where did you say our equipment was?"

The gnoll is quick out of the cell, but the hyena needs some coaxing

"Behind the door that lies behind the desk" Sanrak says

"I can drop my fist on his skull, he'll die, but that's life." the Golem says

"I don't think we should make the guards so determine to kill us." Zain looks around "We could just lock him in a cell."

"Sweet payback. Make sure you forget the keys in your belly" Sanrak says

Houkakil replies "and stuff something in his mouth"

Gal’Din observes "Hmm... Perhaps we could lock him in my barrels, carry him as a way out, then leave him in some small town?"

"Hold like hostage you mean?” Houkakil thinks for a moment and then asks "what barrels?"

Iskatrax slowly walks over to the halberd behind the guard, taking it and grinning maliciously. "Well, this should do it."

"I prefer bargaining chip." Replies Gal’Din

"Wait goblin" Houkakil exclaims

“We're not monsters." Zain states carefully. "I do not like the idea of a hostage, but its better than murder." Zain looks at Houkakil “Yes, Dogman?"

"Not goblin. You human? What your names?" Houkakil points at herself and then to the hyena “I Houkakil. This Jayshi"

As they talk, they notice the devilish-looking human heading for the halberd.
"wait human" says Houkakil "not kill"

"Fiend, stop" Sanrak exclaims "What are you doing?"

Iskatrax motions to the sharp halberd. "A living witness is a liability..." Iskatrax reaches the Halberd and picks it up.

Ash says "A witness to what? We're wanted men anyway."

Sanrak thoughtfully says "A man who has witnessed nothing is not a witness" Sanrak hisses "But the others make a good point, we can take him hostage"

"like he say” Houkakil points at the golem ”chip for bargaining"

Iskatrax nods, holding the halberd out towards the Golem. "You look like you know how to use this. He will die, but until then, he will be useful as a meat shield."

"I'm glad you see at least half of our point." Ash sighs

Iskatrax nods at Houkakil, bowing his head "I am Iskatrax Lifeblighter, descendant of Asmodeous himself."

Sanrak looks around and says "My name is unimportant right now, all I care for right now is to leave this place. You may call me "San" in the meantime"

Gal'Din nods at the halberd, "Yes I know how to use a lot of weapons, however I would greatly prefer my flail."

Houkakil looks oddly at the lizardfolk and the human. She did not know that names were so complicated.

"Quickly, we must act with haste" Sanrak points at Goblin "you know how to use a rope, let's incapacitate him and tie him up" Sanrak points towards the door on the far right "There, we will find our things"

"Use the halberd until we find your flail, friend." Iskatrax says

"Call me Ash. I am not the best. But I can tie him up." Ash notes

“He wake when we tie him" Houkakil says "knock out first?"

"Yes dogman." Ash moves slowly behind the guard and waves over some over people.

“Name is Houkakil. And I am WOMAN." Houkakil loudly yells "And am not dog."

"Keep your voice down" Sanrak hisses

Jayshi growls quietly

"I am sorry. Hou" Ash apologizes

Iskatrax chuckles to himself, commenting in Draconic "She has a poor grasp of common."

Sanrak responds in Draconic "She seems to have forgotten it"

Iskatrax continues in Draconic "Indeed, when we get out of here, I will have to tutor her... it's physically painful to listen to."

"You big man, knock him out first" Houkakil says to the unnatural creature

"Or... I could do it." Iskatrax suggests

Sanrak looks around impatiently "Whoever does it, better make it quick, we don't have much time" Sanrak looks over his shoulder nervously.

Gal'Din walks to the guard, raising his fist.

Iskatrax shrugs "Gal'Din, smack him."

The golem effortlessly grabs the human by the neck and chokes. The guard wakes up, but before he can fight back his eyes roll to the back of his head and he collapses to the table. He's still breathing, however.

Houkakil says "good. hurry tie him"

"Well done." Ash moves quickly to strip the guard of his armor, and uses his under clothes to tie him up.

Iskatrax grins. "Well done Gal'Din. Now, where are our things?"

Sanrak point at the door "The door at the far right, hurry we don't have much time"

Houkakil barks at Jayshi, then goes to the door and tries it. The hyena follows quietly behind. Ash also heads through looking for his gear Iskatrax bows, following the Goblin into the room. "Spellbook...spellbook...spellbook..."

Beyond the door you see a truly horriffic scene. In the center of the room is a large table; on it is the disected corpse of some other unlucky humanoid. The stench is horrible, and blood seeps from the corpse all over the floor. On the walls hang many instruments of torture: pliers, knives, and drills. Your items are in a pile near the door.

“This is horrible... this..." Sanrak comments almost speechless

Iskatrax raises an eyebrow, forgetting about his things for a moment and walking up to the body. "What have we here?" Iskatrax picks up the nearest tool and prods the corpse, looking for anything interesting.

"... there was no need for such cruelity." Ash moves over to the body with Isk. "I hope they find peace."

Houkakil stops dead in her tracks when she enters the room. Jayshi whimpers. "Terrible..." she says quietly, and mutters something in her native tongue, a harsh storm of barking syllables. Gal'Din grabs his gear and turns around walking to the far door. Ash grabs his gear and rejoins Gal'Din.

"They have no right to treat our kind this way. If only we had a city to call our own."

The gnoll follows the others to the pile and retrieves her things, keeping her spear in her hand as she moves away. Before leaving the room, she moves to the butchered creature, holds a hand out over it, and prays fervently to the Gods that they be merciful on its soul.

"A city? Uh..." Sanrak closes his eyes for a second "I came here for the same reason" Sanrak moves towards his items. "It's a long story, one that can wait for when we get out of here"

Iskatrax continues to prod the body, chuckling softly to himself and peeling layers of muscle away. "Quite an operation you had, eh buddy...” Iskatrax laughs loudly, sticking the tool into the body and turning, grabbing his things. "A City would be a wonderful thing! I am sure my lord could help with that endeavor."

Zain looks over his shoulder at Iskatrax "You take joy in the suffering of others." He states this as if it’s purely fact. "We should take leave of here. Head away from these guards. Does anyone know the way out?"

“a city... or a country our own," Koukakil says, longing not for paved streets but open fields

Iskatrax grins, shrugging and chuckling. "What can I say, I'm a sadistic bastard."

"I agree." Ash responds to Iskatrax before leading the way towards the staircase.

As the group chatters, you hear the clanging of metallic boots on the stairs beyond the second door.

"His body is dead, but his sould may still care," Houkakil says to Iskatrax. She then raises her ears and hisses "They come! Be ready!"

"Prepare yourself people I believe we have wasted enough time"

"And his soul can rot in the Hells for all I care." Iskatrax stopped, scowling and grabbing a few small items from his component pouch. "How about I introduce them to father's hound."

Gal'Din slides an unrealistically large flail in to his hand, spinning it slowly. Muttering in celestial

“Does he hate all creatures?” Houkakil thinks to herself. But she says nothing, as actions must now take priority over words.

Ash pulls out his small blade and begins walking towards the door on the tops of his feet as if in a dance.

"Now you see me" Sanrak whispers backing out from the group disappearing "Now you don't"

Houkakil hefts her spear and moves into the hallway with the others. Jayshi trots beside her

A large group of guards thunders into the room. They did not expect resistance, however, and are caught by surprise. The gnoll's spear flies at one of the humans, but misses, clunking into the wall. Dodging forward lightly Zain suddenly throws himself into the air and gracefully stabs down at the nearest guard "You shall find nothing here but your deaths. Flee." The goblin strikes true, stabbing the guard.

Iskatrax laughs, shouting in Infernal and casting his Mage armor Spell. "LET US SEE HOW YOU LIKE THE FURY OF HELL!"

Using the energy that powers him, the golem releases a pulse of raw energy towards the archer. She falls off the stairs and flat on her face, but is mostly unharmed. The gnoll pulls another spear from her back and growls at the humans. "You cannot keep us. We'll fight through all if you step on our path!" Houkakil barks sharply at Jayshi, who crouches low.

Sanrak's eyes glow. He raises his hands and mutters some words in Draconic. From his hands a small white sphere is launched towards his enemies. When it hits the floor, a web-like substance is quickly released, entangling all of his foes in the sticky spider silk-like material The Hell Hound snarls, letting loose a torrent of flame at the humans, catching the four closest in the blast.

Zain watches the burning in horror "Isk... what have you done? You... you’re burning them!"

The web catches on fire, burning the humans even more. Zain, too, is singed, but only slightly.

Iskatrax mockingly replies "I'm not burning anything, the dog is."

The guard who was stabbed by Zain earlier goes down to the flames, but the others are still up. Trying desperately to brush the flames away from him Zain stumbles backwards screaming far in excess of the pain.

Sanrak yells "Little one!"

Houkakil exclaims "Ash!" she is confused however; the goblin doesn't seem dreadfully hurt

The nearest guard swings at the goblin as he stumbles back, but misses widely.

Houkakil looks at Zain "You are hurt?!"

Iskatrax wastes no time in worrying about the goblin, shouting and firing off a bolt of dark energy towards the Paladin. "DIE IN THE NAME OF ASMODEOUS!"

Ash pants heavily "I'm fine. It’s the fire. The fire everywhere..."

The paladin grunts as the spell burns him with dark energy. "The grace of the Flame protects me from such treachery, just as it shall guide my sword to your heart!" The paladin then looks at his archer companion. "Quick, friend, cut me free so I may strike these monsters down!" The archer uses his magical shortsword to cut through the webs binding the paladin.

The female guard who stood in front of the paladin moves to where the goblin is struggling with his flames and lifts her halberd. "Time to die, monster!"

With a roar of rage, the Paladin charges at the construct. "Your unholy life is about to come to an end, abomination!" The paladin's falchion strikes the golem, denting the metal armor. However, the golem is far tougher than a similar human, and withstands the blow easily. The two remaining guards strike at the hell hound, but they both miss the beast.

Pulling her shield from her back, Houkakil steps into the gap between her two new allies, striking with her spear at the halberd-wielding woman "Attack!" she barks at Jayshi in her mother tongue, and he scampers around the golem to bite at the paladin. With a mighty stab of her spear, the gnoll disembowels the guard. As she pulls out her spear, the guard falls to the floor, dead. Meanwhile, her hyena manages to latch on to the paladin's leg. The beast latches on and pulls. The paladin falls to his face.

Sanrak lifts his finger at points at the Paladin on the floor "Acid Splash". The moment Sanrak finishes his words, a green ray fires from his index hitting the paladin straight in the face. Immediately, the paladin starts to scream as his flesh starts to melt from his bones. With an angry snarl, the hell hound unleashes another torrent of flames at the two nearest guards. They are both instantly killed, being already wounded. As the webs continue burning, the archer too burns to a crisp. The final guards are slain as the web finally burns away. You don't hear any movement upstairs, but it can't be long until someone notices the missing patrol.

Houkakil looks around, a bit stunned at the fighting ability of the other prisoners. Sanrak walks to the paladin's corpse. "You called us monsters, yet you performed heinous acts on a defenseless creature". Sanrak looks at the others. "We are no monsters. Humans are"

"We mustn't turn to hate" Zain says recovering. "But you are right. We are not the monsters here."

"You all fight well," Houkakil remarks "I think it was not fortune merely that we were captured in one time"

"I agree." Ash looks around "Fate brought us together. We must work together to end our peoples suffering"
The gnoll druidess stares off into the distance for a moment, then returns to herself

"So, I guess I should introduce myself properly. My name is Sanrak Rav'Leysaz, Shaman of the Lizardfolk people. I was looking for a land for my people to live in and prosper, but humans ambushed my scouting group. I fell quickly to the blade of the soldiers, and captured. I fear my companions did not survive the encounter."

Houkakil's eyes refocus, and she reaches a hand out to the wall to steady herself. Jayshi trots over to her, and she crouches down, scratching him affectionately under the chin "Good job," she says, smiling. "But we have work to do."

Ash loots the bodies of the fallen. Then looking around turns to the others "We need to head up and escape this place."

"We must move. Up stairs. But see what things they have useful maybe to us." Houkakil says

Sanrak enters a sort of trance. His eyes staring blankly at the floor
"Sanrak, it is pleasure to know you. I too come from people who lost their land. Your idea to look for a new place a good." Houkakil says to the lizardfolk. However Sanrak does not respond. He doesn't seem to be listening anymore. Nevertheless Houkakil continues "I have lived for many years away from them. But now come time to find the place and bring the people. Like you say, it is wrong that cruel humans are pushing us about. Gnolls were on this world ages before humans and them."

While Houkakil talks, Jayshi has begun gnawing on the paladin's leg. Among the corpses Zain finds two items that seem more than mundane: The Paladin's falchion and the bowwoman's shortsword.

"I will" Sanrak quietly hisses before snapping out of his trance. He looks at his new companions. "We should move, there will be time to talk later. Right now, what matters the most is getting out of here alive." Sanrak looks at the goblin "Little one, did you find anything useful?" Sanrak looks at the hyena, then he expresses to Houkakil "I would recommend not chewing on that man's leg. Your pet might choke on it"

Suddenly aware of the contradiction to what she told the fiend, the druid barks at him and he sidles back to her, looking sheepingly despite the blood on his muzzle

"We just found Some swords." Ash shrugs "I think we should look through them later"

"Excellent, the more the better" Sanrak looks at the fiend and the Golem who seem to be talking to each other. "I can scout ahead"

Houkakil points at the tied man "the tied man. Should we take?"

"He did us no harm." Ash expresses "I would say maybe we leave, to show... i think 'good faith' the expression? But that will not change their minds, they will still hunt us, I know that too well” Ash disappointingly says "They will. But we have the moral high ground."

Iskatrax steps up. "The human may have done us no harm, but not for lack of trying. I say you let me have five minutes with him."

Ash says "5 minutes we cannot spare. We must keep moving."

Houkakil points out "ooh, if we wake him, maybe he tell us about upstairs. We know not how many soldier is above us still"

Sanrak suddenly asks "Does anybody know where we are?"

"Underground, beyond that, nothing." Ash says "I say we head get out and head west."

Houkakil asks "why west?"

Ash says "It’s a direction."

[Babale]

I apologize for taking so long to update the story; as usual, real life got in the way; the group is quite a few sessions past session 2, but I never got the chance to update this thread. So, with no further introduction: Session 2!!!

The week before, our heroes managed to escape their cells, incapacitate their guard, and ambush the paladins who came to check on the body. During the second session, they enacted a daring plan of escape...

Iskatrax the Tiefling wanted to kill the incapacitated guard outright, but the others convinced him that this would be a bad idea. Instead, Houkakil the Gnoll ties the guard onto Gal'Din the Golem's back. Meanwhile, Zain the Goblin and Sanrak the Lizardfolk climb the stairs leading out of the dungeon. They climb about eight stories, each with a small room containing crates and barrels. Finally, they reach the top floor. Instead of an exit, all they find is a medium-sized stone room, about 20 feet long by 20 feet wide. There are no doors, no windows; just solid bricks all around.

Sanrak figures out that there's a secret door there, but that it's only openable from the outside. They reason that there must be a way for the guards inside to signal the guards outside to open the door, so they decided to question the guard. Houkakil succeeds on a Heal check to wake up the guard, and Zain manages to intimidate him into agreeing to work with them. (Zain suffers from horrible scars that leave him with an abysmally low Charisma score; but when he tries to Intimidate someone, he gains a huge circumstance bonus and can use his Charisma penalty as a bonus). Zain manages to intimidate the guard by threatening his family, but then Iskatrax decides to "help". He mentions that he is descendant from Devils, which makes the guard hostile. Iskatrax happily decides to torture the guard, but Sanrak and Zain prevent him from doing so. Finally, after sending Iskatrax away, they convince the guard to help them. He tells them that they are being kept underneath Greykeep, the biggest and baddest fort in the empire.

The group climbs the stairs, and the guard orders whoever is meant to be keeping watch on the other side to open the door. He tells the players that they'll have a minute or so before the alarm is raised, which should be enough for them to escape. The party agrees to this deal, and they rushes out the door as soon as it opens. Most of them mean to escape, but Iskatrax has other plans. When the guard leaves, he tries to stab him in the back... literally. Unfortunately, Iskatrax is a Wizard; a simple stab with a dagger would never kill a guard in one hit. Realizing this, Houkakil the Gnoll knocks Iskatrax to the ground. The guard turns around, and rather than thanking the Gnoll for attempting to save his life, he runs away in horror and raises the alarm. Guards rush to the winch that will close the heavy gates, but the party members manage to slip through before it does... all except Iskatrax. Because he was knocked down, he falls a few precious seconds behind the rest of the party. Luckily for him, he manages to dive through the gate at the last second. Now the guards must reopen the gate, but as they set the winch backwards, the party manages to escape.

Most of the group gets out of range of the castle, but not Iskatrax. He falls behind, and takes heavy arrow fire to his back. Fortunately for him, he manages to duck behind a boulder, sparing him from the worst of the damage.

The group manages to escape the prison building, and they now find themselves on top of a plateau. The prison building is smaller than the main keep, and set apart from it. The only road leading down the cliffs runs right past the keep, past some stables. From their position, the group can already see Paladins getting their mounts ready for the chase. Houkakil, being a Druid, manages to succeed on a Knowledge (Nature) check that tells her that this type of plateau is often dotted by caves on its side. The group runs towards the edge of the plateau, where they spot a cave. Houkakil tries to climb down and fails, falling past the cave and towards the ground, fifty feet down. Luckily for her, as she passes the level of the cave, a pair of powerful Orcish arms grab her and pull her into the cave. The rest of the party climbs down a rope moments later and enters the cave. Here they meet Granshnak, another one of the players. He explains that he was captured by the Paladins and escaped, but has been forced to hide in the caves because he knew that in the open plains that surrounded the plateau, mounted Paladins could recapture him in no time.

Granshnak leads the party through a tunnel that runs inside the plateau. Finally, they come out of the opposite than the Paladins were expecting them to leave from, and the now larger group makes a break for it across the plains. As the session ends, they spot three strange figures approaching from far away.

[DemonRoach]

This sounds awesome!

Please keep updating this thread :smallsmile:

[KingOfLaughter]

Sup yall! I'm the Golem! Been away for a few sessions. But I'll be back!

[Kol Korran]

nice read. did Iskatrax manage to joint the group from his position by the boulder, or was he left there? :smallconfused:

[Babale]

He did. Some of the players wanted to leave him behind, but eventually they decided not to kick him out.

[Darklady2831]

Yes, I made it out with the rest of the party, though I've missed the last couple sessions. Don't worry though, soon you'll get good ol' Iskatrax back ;)

[Babale]

Session 3!!!!

Last time, our heroes finally escaped from prison, only to be set upon... something... out in the open plains. This time, they shall do battle!

So the group is out of prison, pretty much at full health, with only a few spells cast. They're trying to get away from Greykeep before the paladins can catch them and Smite them. So of course, I decided to throw an encounter at them. I used three bugs: Two giant ants and a giant bee. All of them were advanced to Large size and advanced in HD until they were supposed to be around CR5, which I thought was a fair encounter. I actually think most monsters in D&D aren't nearly as hard to kill as their CR would indicate, but this was only the third session, so I wanted to go easy.

The party and the vermin spot each other at the same time, so there's no surprise round. During the first round there's a lot of ranged attacks and charges, but only Zain the Goblin actually scores a hit.

The fighting goes on for a few more rounds. One of the ants and the bee manage to hit Houkakil the Gnoll, but the fight goes flawlessly other than that. Zain still has hid huge AC and To Hit bonuses, but even though he hits more often, the Orc ends up doing more damage with his power attacks.

After the fight, Zain and Sanrak the Lizardfolk move off to the side and converse in whispers. Then they come back and threaten Iskatrax. They tell him that if he continues to put the group at risk through his careless actions, they'll kill him, plain and simple.

The party now turns to debate their next step. Now, you must know that I am running this game over Skype. All the players have added each other on Skype, and during the days when we don't have sessions many of us have Skype running in the background while we do other things. Since two weeks before the session started, the players have been discussing where they will go once they escape. And yet, when I asked them where they wanted to go, I got eight different answers (Which is impressive, since only five players made that session).

Needless to say, I spent the next fifteen minutes listening to my players argue over where to go, both in character and out. Finally, they reached a consensus: They'll head towards the Northern forests by going through the Western mountains. Thanks to Houkakil's survival skill, they are able to survive in the plains and hill uneventfully, and obliterate their tracks behind them. And so, the party heads for the hills.

When they are a day's travel from the actual mountains themselves and a week south of the forest, I stopped fast-forwarding once again. Immediately, the party began arguing once more. Half of them suggested that they should keep going towards the forest, while the other half demanded a detour to the Dwarven Mountainhomes, to try and convince the dwarves that the future Monstrous nation deserves a homeland, and that the Paladins are huge a**holes. After half an hour of In Character arguing (Excuse me, "creative discussion"), the party decides to keep going towards the forest.

They head out once more, but that day at dawn they come upon a battlefield. Eight dead paladins and twelve dead hobgoblins are lying on the ground. The sole survivor, a huge, muscular, and heavily wounded hobgoblin, is sitting by a campfire. The party approaches.

Granshnak wants to eat the hobgoblin. Zain wants to talk to him. Sanrak wants to have Houkakil heal him. Houkakil wants to approach stealthily. The end result is that each member of the party ignores the other. The hobgoblin is friendly at first, until Granshnak insults his hobgoblin honor. Angry, the hobgoblin (whose name turns out to be Rusk) challenges Ganshnak to a duel. Granshnak charges with his Orcish double axe drawn, but Rusk uses his weapon, a double-sided halberd, to trip the Orc before he can reach him. Rusk puts a boot on the Orc's neck and laughs.

The party finds out that Rusk and his dead allies came from the other side of the mountain range to the West, called The Edge. This mountain range is supposed to be uncrossable, so they are surprised to find out that hobgoblins live in a huge stone city in the middle of the jungle on the other side. According to Rusk, these hobgoblins use orcs as slave labor.

Rusk tells them that along with the his dead allies, he had an Ogre named Willand along, but Willand ran away when the fighting started. He asks the party to retrieve him, and tells them that if they answer the questions he was sent to answer, they can keep the ogre. (The party is very excited about this, since Willand was Houkakil's player's character, before he realized the party has no divine casters). The party agrees, and goes off to search for Willand.

Following an Ogre's trail doesn't exactly take an Epic-level ranger, and they manage to find him very fast. Turns out Willand fell into a pit trap made by whatever natives these hills have, and the party quickly chops down a few small trees and puts them in the hole. Soon, Willand manages to climb out and catch Houkakil in a bone-crushing hug of thanks. He begs them not to return him to his master, as he says that the hobgoblins abuse him. He reveals that the hobgoblin city has a multitude of slaves in addition to the orcs, including ogres, giants, and even dragons. The party notices that Willand's nose carries a ring, of the same type as those that bulls wear.

The party promises Willand that he's in good hands now, and they return to Rusk. Rusk produced a large iron pot, where he's been cooking some of the paladins' mounts. The party sits around the campfire with Rusk, and they begin eating. Zain notices that Willand only got a normal-sized pot of stew, and so he gives the ogre his own food too. Rusk notices and disapproves, but doesn't comment. As they eat, the hobgoblin asks them to hold up their side of the deal. He asks if its true that the humanoid races have united into one single empire and have been crusading against the monstrous races. The players confirm the rumors, and Rusk is troubled by this.

Upon hearing that the party is the only force resisting the "weakling empire", Rusk decides to return to his homeland to convince the king that the resistance needs help. He tells them that he will meet them in the mountain pass in seven month, whereupon he will make arrangements to unite his nation's army with whatever forces the players muster by then. He asks the party to help him get past the dangerous pass, and they agree. At this point, we thought that the golem's player would be unable to continue making the sessions, so Gal'Din decided to go with the hobgoblin to help convince the hobgoblins to send an army. The idea was to let the player have a few solo adventures until he could rejoin the regular group. So the party headed up into the mountain, heading for the pass.

They climb for most of the day, most of it uneventful. Finally, they nearly reach the peak; but when they are a few hundred feet from the pass, they reach a long, narrow path. The path is only a foot or so wide, and Rusk takes out a long rope. He ties all of them together so that if one falls, the other can catch him; but he neglects to add Willand to the rope chain. The more compassionate members of the party are upset by this, but they avoid a confrontation by letting Sanrak walk next to Willand ready to cast Feather Fall if he falls.

Finally, the party makes it to the pass. Just as they start thinking that the hobgoblin was just being paranoid when he asked for help, they hear a high-pitched screen from somewhere above the pass... And the session ends!

Dun dun DUN!!!!

[WrathOfLife]

We really must argue less IC. Takes far to much time.

[Babale]

I still say the smart money is on someone trying to kill Iskatrax, or Iskatrax killing someone else, before session 10 is over.

[Darklady2831]

I still say the smart money is on someone trying to kill Iskatrax, or Iskatrax killing someone else, before session 10 is over.

That's insulting :smallmad:

I can do it before session 8!

[Babale]

Which might be a good time to bring up a houserule about resurrection. In D&D, it's as simple as pooling some gold and waiting ten minutes... I don't like that. So, all the Raise Dead-type spells are stricken off the record. Instead, if you want to Raise someone, it's gonna be a quest in its own right, just like in Greek mythology. You gotta find a way to hell (or wherever the dead guy ended up), you gotta find him in hell, and you gotta bust him out.

[Darklady2831]

Thats... good to know. :smallamused:

[HempRope]

Very good to know. Though maybe we should take this to our OOC thread.

I play Houkakil the Gnoll, by the way!

And I was actually coming to this thread to suggest that you change the thread title to reflect that our verbose session 3 is now up, too.

[Babale]

Do'h! Good point! I'll change the thread's name now.

[Babale]

I'd just like to make it clear that I did, in fact, tell the Players about the change to Raise spells. It's not my fault that they weren't listening! :amused:

Anyways, Session 5 is tonight, so I'm gonna try to post Session 4 now.

So, our six heroes, their hyena, Rusk the Hobgoblin, and Willand the Ogre are standing in a snowy, rocky mountain pass. On either side, towering, jagged, and sheer thirty foot walls of ice block them into a narrow valley. And from ahead comes an ear-piercing shriek. The party assumes combat positions, Sanrak the Rogue/Wizard hiding and the others rushing around, getting ready to fight. Only Granshnak seems unconcerned, drawing his axe. And then they feel a powerful rush of air... followed by another... and another. The heavy wind kicks up snow in a blizzard that blocks their sight; Just before it does, they see a huge bird coming right for them.

Houkakil rolls high enough on her Knowledge (Nature) check to recognize a Roc when she sees it, along with learning a bunch of ecological information about Rocs (Some of it useful, some of it not so much). She tells the rest of the party that they're fighting a huge bird, and that they need to take cover. (When a player succeeds on a Knowledge or Spot check, I usually give them information in a private chat channel. That way they can share only what they want the others to know).

Most of the party members rush towards the icy walls, pushing into crevices. Rusk, whose value as a diplomat is far greater than his value as a meatshield, also hides. The Roc passes overhead, and the players all debate what to do next... Except for Granshnak. He makes a charging jump at the Roc.

Me: "You do realize that you can't see the Roc because of the fog, it's flying twenty feet in the air, and its big enough to kill and eat elephants?"
Granshnak: "Yep. Now, what kind of check do I need to roll?"
Other Players: *Facepalm*
Me: "Roll a Jump check."

Granshnak's player proceeds to roll a natural twenty on his jump check, way more than he needed too on his To Hit roll, and great damage.

Granshnak soars through the air and uses his huge axe to slice into the Roc. He hits with enough force to cleave a bear, and the Roc is badly wounded, but now Granshnak is falling through the air.

The Roc gets an Attack of Opportunity on the Orc, which, combined with his Snatch ability, lets him grab poor Granshnak out of the air, inflicting heavy talon damage. The Roc soars back over the left wall of the pass, drops Granshnak on the ice, and lands with a loud screech. Granshnak is nearly dead, and stays down long enough for the Roc to assume it beat him. The Roc decides to jump down into the canyon to beat on the rest of the party in melee range. (Suboptimal choice, I know. But at this point it was looking like the Roc (CR 8, after all) was going to be dangerous enough, and he was only half of the encounter!)

Zain tumbles over and at the Roc, provoking an AoO but dodging. He stabs the Roc in the brain, using a special move of his variant Fighter class to deliver Intelligence damage. (I think you see where this is going...) Rocs might have 200+ hit points, but they only have 2 Intelligence. The Roc was out for the count, though not dead. The party, sans orc, gathered around the disabled Roc and, as all great adventurers should, started poking it while debating what to do with the giant bird carcass they just acquired.

Meanwhile, thirty feet up, the Orc was in for a surprise. Two white dragons, both still young but much bigger than a man, came out of the Roc's nest. A quick spot check revealed smashed Roc eggs, along with the bones of an adult white dragon, sitting near the nest. Apparently the Roc killed the dragon after the latter smashed the former's eggs, and then raised the dragon hatchlings as its own young.

One of the dragons heads for the Orc while the other spiderclimbs down the icy wall to the pass. He's spotted by Sanrak the Unseen Seer, who warns the others. They assume battle positions, but the dragon doesn't appear threatened by them. He prepares to use his breath weapon, which would catch the entire party. They prepare to kill him. It's a classic Mexican Standoff.

The dragon asks them why they killed his mother. Thanking whoever decided that being reduced to 0 intelligence makes you comatose rather than dead, the party turned to their impromptu cleric, Houkakil. Of course, she didn't prepare Lesser Restoration or a similar spell that morning, but I allowed her to make a Heal check to try and revive the Roc. It works, and the Roc gets one point of intelligence back. Confused but awake, the Roc stands up. At the dragon's prompting, she doesn't attack.

Meanwhile, Granshnak faces off against the second dragon. Low on hitpoints, he nevertheless decides to charge. Luckily for him, he fails his save against the dragon's fear aura and panics as soon as the dragon flies overhead. Rather than killing him, the dragon decides to carry him back down to show his brother.

Finally, the dragons start leaving. Zain tells them to stop, which scares the hell out of the other players. Zain tells the dragons about the Silver Lantern, and their crusade of eradication, begging them for help. The dragon's head nearly touches Zain; with each breath, he's freezing the moisture on Zain's face. Finally, after a long silence, the dragon says, “Perhaps we shall meet again, goblin. Perhaps we shall. For now, go in peace. I promise you this: This pass shall remain safe for this group." As he leaves, he adds “But don't come back too soon!”

Goodbyes are said, and Rusk and Gal'Din leave. The party makes its way back to the camp where they first met Rusk, only to find numerous new human tracks. Clearly, a group of paladins came looking for their slain friends!

At this point, the party spent a long time arguing, both in character and out, over their next action. Some wanted to sneak after the paladins and ambush them, while others just wanted to run away. Eventually, they spent so long talking that I made the decision for them: They heard loud hoofbeats as the paladins returned. The group half ran, half hid. They could have gone undetected if it wasn't for Willand the Ogre. The paladins saw him, and prepared to attack. Quickly, Zain tumbled into their midst and used an ability called Deadly Distraction, which forces his enemies to focus on him for one round. Sanrak helped Zain out by casting Grease on Zain and the three mounted paladins surrounding him. Sadly, Zain only has two feet while horses have four; Zain was the only one to fail his reflex save. Combat ensued, with Zain eventually being knocked down to negatives. The others managed to drop two of the paladins (Including a nice trip attack dismount by Houkakil's hyena companion) and heavily injure the third. Two more paladins were in the back, buffing and healing the injured one, who was clearly their leader. Sanrak cast Web on the leader and one of the other paladins.

At this point, the paladins realized that the battle was lost, and that they needed to retreat. Their leader pulled out a narrow tube which, when broken, released a thick yellow vapor. When the vapor was gone, so were the paladin's mounts and the web. The two lackey paladins mounted the horse who wasn't in range of the vapor attack and retreated, while the leader (Who by this point had taken attacks from Zain, the Ogre, the Orc, and a lightning bolt from Houkakil) stayed behind. She dropped her shield and drew her falcion instead of her longsword, easily deflected an attack by the hyena, took a second lightning bolt, and delivered the following badass lines:

"You have bested me this time, monsters. But soon you will learn to fear the Black Candle, and the name of Miranda!" She steps back out of the hyena's range and casts Dimension Door, effectively disappearing into the forest.

During the fighting, the Orc took a black ball of sludge to the face from one of the paladins. At this point, the sludge has molded into his skin, leaving a black pattern. The party hasn't figured out what that did, yet.

The party quickly looted the bodies, along with a bag of holding that contained five magical items: A Ring of Wizardry, Boots of Elvenkind, a Necklace of Natural Armor, a pair of mirrors that allow their users to talk freely with each other, and a magical map that shows the land 100 feet around its user, with members of the Black Candle showing up as bright dots.

Bitter fighting developed over the loot. Sanrak quickly claimed the ring, Granshnak claimed the necklace, and Zain took the map. Iskatrax demanded the ring (Gullom quotes were, in fact, used) but Sanrak would not relent. Finally, Zain took the mirrors, leaving Houkakil with the boots. Houkakil didn't particularly mind getting the boots, but Iskatrax is still bitter over the “theft” of his ring.

Regardless of loot distribution, a rivalry has developed between the party's two wizards. Neither trusts the other, and on multiple occasions Sanrak has made it clear to Iskatrax that he will kill him where he stands if Iskatrax endangers the party again. It's pretty clear which side Houkakil and Zain would take, but Granshnak is a wild card.

Half an hour after Gal'Din was written out of the story, his player returned to tell us that he would, in fact, be able to make sessions. He'll be rolling up a new character.

While the rest of the party leveled to 6 during this session, he'll be starting at level 5.

[Kol Korran]

so i see the roc and two white dragons idea was used... i personally think it came way too early in the campaign. not enough build up, but perhaps it was best. you went quite easy on the party, but that is understood as with the non importance of the battle.

as to your earlier remark about monsters not fitted for D&D characters: the first MM was built when only core options were available, and with the assumption of the tank-healer-skill monkey-blaster in mind, and even then not that good. MM@ tried to compensate, and did a terrible job, with badly badly CRed monsters. MM3 is quite good actually, and very fitting and i heard MM5 is good too (though i haven't read it). also- remember that a monster of the same CR as the party should prove fairly easy- taking only 20% resources. challenging but not deadly should be about CR+2, and CR+4 is seriously dangerous.

the map i think is quite the thing! quite... handy, but would block any further non- teleport attempts of pursuit. or are there members of the blackcandle who are NOT shown there? how much detail does it go into?

about arguing, a simple method we used: we choose "situational leaders" (combat, social interaction, natural exploration, resource allocation and so on) then when a situation comes, each person says his opinion, and then there is a second round when people respond or phrase their opinions better. again- one say for each (not one sentence, but reasonable). after these two rounds, the leader of the situation decides, and THAT'S IT!

saved us lots of time.

i'll be looking forward to reading more.
Kol.

[DemonRoach]

about arguing, a simple method we used: we choose "situational leaders" (combat, social interaction, natural exploration, resource allocation and so on) then when a situation comes, each person says his opinion, and then there is a second round when people respond or phrase their opinions better. again- one say for each (not one sentence, but reasonable). after these two rounds, the leader of the situation decides, and THAT'S IT!


Bah! The arguing is the best bit :smallwink:

[Babale]

The map is nice, but it only has a range of 100 feet. Nice if you are sneaking around in paladin city, but generally paladins arent known for their stealth.

And as for arguing, maybe eventually they'll work something out. Until then, they'll keep getting caught off guard by paladins!

[Kol Korran]

The map is nice, but it only has a range of 100 feet.

oh... for some reason i read that as 100 mile... oh well :smalltongue:

[Babale]

Haha, nope. No way I'd give these guys an item of such high tactical value, especially since they'll eventually go into mass warfare.

[Grytorm]

I read that to, and though about how powerful that is. Then I realized, it would make a lot of since if the maps didn't track Paladins, but other maps.

[Babale]

As of now, the players have no idea how the map works. Or even if it was used by the paladins, or confiscated from a cultist who used it against them or something.