Friday Game

[Curbstomp]

As some of you are aware I run three weekly games at present in real life and I thought I would post session by session what has been happening in my Friday game. It is a game inspired by Joel Rosenberg's Guardians of the Flame series. My players are playing themselves as PC's in this game having begun in classes and with stats and skills that represent their actual capabilities as real humans from our world. They will upon level-up be learning new and exotic abilities as a result of adventuring in a world of high fantasy.

This first post will contain information on the PC's as well as our introduction and the remainder will be a session by session campaign journal of sorts.

The characters:
TR, starting as a 1st level Barbarian, he is planning to stay in Barbarian. He is over 6 feet tell and nearly 300 pounds. He has a shaved head with 1/8 inch of brown stubble and sports a long, brownish-red beard.
JS, starting as a 1st level Rogue, she is planning to enter Swashbuckler for 3 levels. She is 5 feet tall and maybe 130 pounds. She has a shaved head with 1/8 inch blonde stubble on top of her head.
JR, starting as a 1st level Ninja, he is planning to stay in Ninja. He is 5'6 and about 160 pounds. He has a shaved head and short beard. He has 1/8 inch of black stubble on top of his head.
AK, starting as a 1st level Bard, not sure on his build plans. He is 5'9 and about 180 pounds. He has shoulder-length brown hair and is missing the tip of one of his fingers.
AT, starting as a 1st level Paladin, he is planning to multiclass Paladin and Bard. He is 5'11 and about 170 pounds. He has brown hair around 3 inches long and a matching beard.
JN, starting as a 1st level Ranger, he is planning to stay Ranger with a 1 level dip into Cleric. He is over 6 feet tall and about 180 pounds. He has curly brown hair about 4 inches long.
JC, starting as a 1st level Monk, he is planning to stay in Monk with a 1 level dip into Cleric. He is 5'8 and about 180 pounds. He has a short black beard and black hair around 3 inches long.

The Introduction:
Session one began with our group meeting to start a new campaign, when a hooded man entered the room and paralyzed us all simultaneously with some kind of spell. Our FORT saves did not go well. He then explained that he had been banished from his home plane and that he would be sending us there to unlock the barrier keeping him out. He explained that the barrier was located in a dimension-hopping mountain known as Dragon Mountain. He continued with a description of three pieces of an amulet that we would need to find and assemble to locate Dragon Mountain. The hooded man said that we would not be allowed to return to Earth until we unlocked his home plane for him. He also explained that his familiar would be waiting for us when we arrived with further instructions and equipment. Then he cast a spell and we found ourselves standing in a rough circle around a small stone inscribed in English with the words, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."

The blood-red sun's light beating down from overhead made the stone easy to read. It also illuminated the forested terrain surrounded the field in every direction. A small cabin was just to our North and to the East we could hear the sounds of pitched battle past the tree line. JN and JS spotted a winged humanoid covered in black scales flying over the forest to our East and breathing cones of fire downward beyond the tree line. He was wearing a tear-drop shaped amulet on a silver chain. The screams of dying men and horses and the shriek of bagpipes and war drums permeated the air around us as we stood helplessly. Suddenly, a creature gestured to us from the cabin to our North and yelled at us in English, "Get over here before you get spotted you idiots!" It had an ungainly, devilish appearance and several of us recognized it as an Imp. Since our paralysis was wearing off and seeing the threat to our East, the party decided it would be best to do as the Imp suggested. We ran for the cabin, dragging those whose paralysis had not worn off yet. As soon as we were all inside, JN positioned himself at a window and JC slammed the door. TR quickly barred it. Then we turned to face the Imp and our uncertain future.

[Curbstomp]

Session 1 (Post Introduction):
The Imp addressed our party and explained that he had looted some equipment for us from the battlefield to the East. There were potions, a few weapons, and six black robes with a white buffalo head embroidered on each of them. Several of us had backpacks that we had been wearing or that had been adjacent to us during our session. We also had several knives, a hatchet, and a spearhead. There were three blankets and we found a fourth in the cabin. Since the battle did not appear to be getting closer according to JN, we headed outside briefly and cut quarterstaffs for the whole party. Once we were all back inside the Imp offered to travel with us in disguise and translate for us. He said that his master had called him from the netherworld to help us accomplish our task. Several of our party members began to ask the Imp questions about the area.

At this point the party members who are Christians decided to attack the Imp. None of us are fans of cooperation with devils. Aside from which as D&D players we figured it would hurt the hooded mage who had kidnapped us and sent us to this new world. JN, TR, JC, and AT used hand signals to coordinate and began the attack. The non-Christians in the party joined in once they realized what was going down and AK got the final blow. Following this there was a hasty discussion about if killing the Imp had been in our best interests right then. We all agreed that it would have happened eventually, but JR, JS, and AK felt it would have been better to wait until we understood the local language. However, as that proverbial ship had sailed, we decided to make the most of our situation and looted the cabin of everything not tied down. JR was armed with six daggers, JN had a spearhead affixed to a newly cut shaft, TR had a dagger and a hand axe, the rest of the party had a quarterstaff and a dagger each.

Our lookout saw the flying black-scaled humanoid in the distance begin heading in our direction. At the same time we all heard the sound of fighting in the East getting closer. We quickly decided to head South because the Imp had told us during the round he died that the closest human settlement was 30 miles to the South. As we bolted from the cabin, we saw a human army fleeing toward us with blue-painted Elves on foot and on war-wagons chasing them. We ran as fast as we could to try to get out of the area of the battle.

Once we were about a half mile inside the forest to the South we slowed our run to a fast walk. Unfortunately we failed to spot the two elves blocking our path. One was an archer positioned ten feet up a tree, the other was a barbarian with a long sword. Both were covered in blue war paint and opened up the battle with a yell. The archer clipped two of us with arrows, but neither of us went down. The barbarian charged JC but missed him. JC initiated a grapple with the barbarian. TR ran up to the tree with the archer in it and began climbing. The rest of the party peppered the two elves with thrown daggers. The next round of combat the archer shot TR, but TR raged and killed him with a single axe blow. The barbarian failed to escape the grapple that JC had him in and JC moved to pin the barbarian. The rest of the party proceeded to beat the barbarian to death with quarterstaffs. We acquired a longbow with twenty arrows for JN and TR upgraded to a long sword and hung his hand axe on his belt.

After using up a few potions we were healthy again, but a few miles of travel later were incredibly tired. So the party set up a ramshackle camp that night. It consisted of 4 lean-to's facing a single fire at the bottom of a gully. We used the robes and our few blankets to keep warm. The party took turns keeping watch in pairs. Two Elf warriors stumbled upon our camp, but were easily spotted by those on watch. Torches can be a bit of a give-away. Those on watch quietly alerted the rest of the party and we prepared to defend ourselves. The Elves were dispatched within six seconds of realizing that they had stumbled into a human camp. They appeared to be alone. After searching the bodies, the party acquired a couple more long swords, an unidentified potion, and a light shield.

The following morning we began searching the woods for berries, edible plants, and woodland animals we could kill and cook. The entire party was hungry. While we scavenged we got a bit too close to a grizzly bear. It charged us while we were gathering berries along a stream. JC and TR held it off for a few seconds and managed to grapple it. They suffered severe damage in the process but were still conscious. JN shot the bear with his longbow. The rest of the party hit the bear with quarterstaffs, but the bear was still roaring. Then JS slit its throat with a maximum damage critical hit. She was very proud of her kill and yelled at the two grapplers for trying to wrestle a bear. Thus ended Session 1 with the needed food secured in the form of a bear carcass.
Edit: one of my players read the Session 1 entry and expressed an urgent desire that I correct a minor error. JS wanted it known that during the first fight with the elves she threw a club NOT A KNIFE at the archer but failed hilariously. She managed to hit herself instead, which nearly dropped her.

Session 2:
The party remained in the area we had killed the bear in for a couple of days. JN managed to build a smoking rack and the rest of us worked on the corpse for the first day, saving as much of the meat as possible. By day two we were pretty miserable because not one of our party members had clean clothing and we all smelled pretty rank. We wound up washing in a nearby stream as best as we could. Then we cleaned our clothing by scrubbing it in the stream and beating it on the rocks. While doing this the party members donned the robes we had taken from the cabin during the first session. It took a while for our clothing to dry, so most of that day was spent gathering berries and eating bear meat. JN and JC attended the smoking rack. On the third day we put on our newly dried and cleaned clothing, packed our meager belongings, and headed South.

We journeyed until nightfall unmolested by forest creatures or hostile humanoids. As the strangely red sun was setting JN located a decent campsite on a hill along a stream. The entire group carefully set up lean-to's and gathered firewood. We used lighters and tinder to get three small fires going. One in the center of our camp, the other two positioned thirty feet away. One of these was to the Northeast, the other to the Southwest. The idea was to increase the area the lookouts could see clearly in.

The first watch of the night passed uneventfully. JN and TR took over for the second part of the night. About 1 hour into their watch they both noticed an Elven woman in red robes with brown leather boots walking toward the center of the camp. She was accompanied by two large dogs. JN approached her with the idea of trying to communicate peacefully. She turned to face him and began speaking in an incomprehensible language filled with rhythmic tones. TR heard her begin "chanting" as he later explained it and charged her, shield in hand. Things happened pretty quickly after that. The Elf drew a dagger and stabbed TR then shouted something at her dogs. Then rest of the party woke up to pitched battle as the pair of large dogs barreled into the camp and began biting and tripping them. JN alternated firing arrows at the dogs and at the Elf while TR kept bashing her with his shield. Even though the Elf had stabbed him, TR was trying to take her alive dealing non-lethal damage. The dogs took JC down and AT threw a healing potion at him which brought him back to consciousness. JS moved into a flanking position with JC on one of the dogs while AK and JR flanked the other. AT stood by with healing potions in hand. Moments later TR got stabbed two more times, but his rage kept him conscious long enough to shield bash the Elf with one last hit which knocked her out. As soon as his rage ended TR collapsed. JS and JC alternated getting tripped and bitten by the dog they were fighting, but with healing assistance from AT managed to take their target out. AK and JR had an easier time killing the dog attacking them. While they each got bitten, neither was brought to negative hit points and a couple shots from JN landed for significant damage on their dog. JR got the killing blow with a critical hit from his dagger.

As soon as the fight ended, JN tied up the Elf woman while AT revived TR and healed JC, JS, and AK. This used up the last of the party's stock of healing potions. JR remained unhurt. After healing had been accomplished and the prisoner had been secured, TR remained on watch and JN built a smoking rack. The rest of the party worked on the bodies of the dogs, removing as much edible meat as possible. Once their work had been accomplished, the meat was placed on the smoking rack. JC and AK took over watch and the rest of the party got some sleep. The next morning TR and JR were still fatigued, but the rest of the party passed their FORT saves to avoid fatigue or exhaustion. Most of us were covered in dried blood and dirt and smelled of offal. As soon as the sun rose the entire party headed down to the nearby stream to wash ourselves off and clean our clothing and bedding. After washing off herself and donning a robe JS headed back to our camp to guard the prisoner. The rest of us also put on robes except for TR who simply wore his boxers until his clothing could dry. Unfortunately we only had six robes and there are seven party members.:smalltongue: Once the party had washed, we hung our clothing out to dry near the fires we had been maintaining and gathered some more firewood. Then we settled down for a day of rest. JC began speaking with our prisoner but could get little out of her other than her name. After a while he switched to teaching her Tic-Tac-Toe which she quickly grasped.

Unfortunately for us it appeared that the Elven woman we had taken prisoner was missed by her people. Two Elven warriors in blue war paint found our camp while most of our clothing and bedding was drying and proceeded to attack. Since not one of our party members had any armor at this point in the campaign and were woefully under-equipped for weapons, their confidence appeared justified. They dropped several of us in the first 12 seconds of combat. Thankfully no one was killed. JC and TR managed to knock one of the warriors out in the third round of combat and the second was killed by a critical hit from JN's bow.

Once the battle had ended, we tied the unconscious Elf warrior to a tree using several of our belts. In their place, TR, AT, and JN donned captured sword belts. The unconscious party members revived during this time due to their Healing Devotion kicking in. We searched the dead the and the unconscious Elves and acquired a composite longbow with a +2 STR rating, a normal longbow, a set of studded leather armor, sixty-eight arrows, two more long swords, and six healing potions. JS took the studded leather, a longbow, and twenty arrows. TR took the composite longbow because he was the only one strong enough to draw it along with eight arrows. JN took forty arrows to replenish those he had lost as well as a long sword. AK took the other long sword. AT took all six healing potions as he had somehow become party medic.

As swiftly as possible we packed up our few belongings, put on our still-wet clothing and began traveling South through the forest. Our party was almost entirely out of healing, half of us were at 3-4 hit points, and the remainder were not in good shape either. None of us wanted another fight, so we made every effort to put as much distance between us and any more Elves as possible. We brought the Elf female, whose name was Irva, with us on the march. The warrior was left tied to the tree on the theory that his people would find him. Our panicked flight through the forest continued through the night. Most of the us were fatigued in addition to the injuries we were suffering from. Thus ended Session 2.

[Curbstomp]

Session 3 Part 1:
After a brutal and fairly panicked march through the night the entire party was exhausted. As we stumbled forward, JN spotted a clearing ahead in the dawn's light. The party crept up to the edge of the clearing. We could see that in the center of it was a small town. The clearing itself appeared to be tilled fields with various sorts of plants in them. A couple of us recognized the closest plants as onions. JS and AT went ahead as scouts while the rest of us watched from the tree line. JC kept an eye on Irva.

The scouts encountered a human farmer driving a wagonload of onions toward the town. They waved him down and attempted to communicate with him. He was an older man perhaps in his fifties whose generous nature quickly became apparent. With a mixture of hand signals and pictures drawn hastily in a sketch book by JS, our scouts managed to communicate how many party members there were and that we were survivors of a battle with Elves. They also got the farmer's name, Theseus. He took pity on our scouts and offered them a ride into town by gesturing to the back of his cart. They gratefully accepted. The rest of the party watched this from the distance.

Once they arrived at the edge of town, Theseus drove his cart to a barn adjacent to a small farmhouse. He stopped there and began gesturing at the back of the cart and to the root cellar under the barn, then at the drawings that JS had done of the party and then at the hayloft. AT and JS eventually inferred that the farmer was offering us a place to stay for the night in his barn in exchange for unloading his cartload of onions. They agreed on behalf of the party, then went to fetch the rest of us. Theseus took out some writing utensils and parchment and sat down on his porch.

JS and AT quickly convinced the rest of the party that staying in the hayloft for a little work was in our best interest. Having decided to take Theseus up on his offer, we decided to gag Irva and roll her up in our blankets before entering town. This was done because we were unsure if the townsfolk got along with the Elves or not. We also had no idea how they would react to us having a prisoner. JC and TR carried the rolled up bundle as we all headed to Theseus's farm. Once we arrived, they placed Irva in the hayloft and then the entire party put the onions in the root cellar as Theseus had asked. Meanwhile he sat on his porch watching us and writing on the parchment. The work was done fairly quickly split among seven people and the farmer stopped his writing long enough to bring us some cold bread and cheese to eat. He also provided each of us with a glass of cold water and showed us how to get more from the well. After that Theseus indicated that we could rest and continued with his writing on the porch until evening.

Once the party was alone in the hayloft, we let Irva out of the rolled blankets and shared food and water with her. JC began to teach her checkers using stones and a board scratched into a plank with a knife. JS started to learn a few of the words to one of the languages that Irva knew. (The language is called Vor.) This was accomplished mostly by pointing at an object and speaking the English word for it. Then seeing what our prisoner said. That night we stayed in the hayloft getting the first good sleep most of us had gotten since arriving in this world. TR slept on top of some boards placed over the hole that the access ladder went through so that we would not be taken by surprise. JN secured the large upper-story doors by barring them from the inside. His decision proved to be wise as we saw and successfully identified fire-bats flying through the night sky. Had they gotten into the hayloft that would have been disastrous.

The next morning, the party woke up early to the noise of Theseus milking his cows in the barn below us. Once he heard us moving around, he called out to us. We climbed down the ladder one by one and Theseus began attempting to communicate with us. By this point several members of the party had picked up a few words of the local language. (The local human language is called Milton.) Between that, hand gestures, and drawing on a sketch pad, we eventually understood that he was offering us employment for the next several days helping with the harvest. We quickly agreed and he provided us with hand-scythes and brought us out to a hay field. Irva was left tied up in the loft. We worked a twelve-hour day and Theseus brought us morning, midday, and evening meals. JS set some aside to share with Irva upon returning to the hayloft. After the evening meal Theseus paid each PC two silver pieces.

At the end of the workday four party members went to the inn by the town square which seemed to double as the town meeting hall. JC went to find a stiff drink. JN went to evangelize. TR and AK went armed with the pictures that JS had drawn to attempt to explain to the locals that there was a trail of Elven bodies leading to their town. Meanwhile the rest of the party returned to the hayloft. JS fed Irva and continued learning Vor words while the other two rested.

When the four party members who headed to the inn walked across town, they all noticed a lack of young men. There were plenty of old people, middle-aged people, young women, and children, but not one young man. Once they arrived at the inn, AK and TR did their best to warn the townspeople about the Elves. It was slow going. After several hours TR and AK learned that the town we were in (named Eastbrook) as well as the surrounding human villages were at war with the Elves. This explained where all the young men and a few of the middle-aged ones had gone. We had probably witnessed their defeat in battle several days previously. JC found his stiff drink and foolishly flashed some money around the bar. He had taken the money off fallen opponents. JC got knocked around by some local thugs while off on his own, but managed to escape back to the barn. Where he quickly fell asleep. JN's evangelizing went poorly, so he assisted AK and TR for a while before the three of them headed back to the hayloft for a good night's sleep.

The next morning we awoke to the sound of war drums and the wail of bagpipes. The party recognized the sounds from the battle we had seen the day we arrived. The Elves had were here.

Session 3 Part 2:
The party quickly dressed and decided to free Irva. She had seen little of the town and we thought that our mercy toward her might go a long way in the event the Elves captured any of us. Irva ran away as fast as she could from the farm toward the tree line. The sound of war drums and bagpipes seemed to be coming from every direction as she entered the forest and vanished from our line of sight. As we watched Irva leave JS quickly donned her studded leather armor.

When the rest of the party turned away from the woods JS stated, "We're going to run, right?" A hasty argument ensued. JS, AK, and JR really wanted to flee the area. While TR, AT, JN, and JC wanted to stay and try to protect the townspeople. They managed to convince AK after some discussion. Since everyone really wanted to stay together in this terrifying world we had found ourselves in JS and JR also wound up agreeing to try to fight off the Elves. Though they did so under protest.

Having agreed on a course of action, we headed to the town square where we found Theseus. He and the other middle-aged and elderly men were directing the women and children of Eastbrook into the inn. It was a mostly stone structure and by far the largest in town. There were two entrances to the inn on the main level. One door faced the town square on the South side of the building, while the other faced toward the North. The second floor of the inn had several windows with heavy wooden shutters. The only building adjacent to the inn was the smithy to the Southeast, also largely constructed of stone. The next closest structure was a stone gazebo in a small grassy area thirty feet to the West of the inn. The women, children, and the elderly who were too frail to fight were directed to hide in the basement of the inn and in the common room on the first floor with no exterior access points. The few fighting-capable men of the town took positions on the second floor with short bows and a pair of long bows. They had a fairly clear field of fire. Theseus asked the party to hold the two doors that led into the inn. After we agreed to do so, he was able to persuade the blacksmith to give us some leather armor and long spears.

AK took a position on the stairs in the center of the inn so that he could effect as many people as possible with his bardic music. He also took overall command of the defenses. Theseus joined the other men from the town in the second story of the inn where they prepared to fire volleys of arrows when the Elves attacked. JR hid himself on the roof of the inn. As a knife-thrower he believed that to be the most effective placing. AT and JS positioned themselves behind a barricade at the North door. JC and TR held the South door while JN positioned himself at the bar so that he could fire arrows to support his allies at either door.

Sixteen Elven infantry wielding longbows and long swords and covered in blue paint charged into town and attempted to force their way into the inn to slaughter the townsfolk. We frantically fought for our lives. Volleys of arrows were exchanged between the townsfolk upstairs and the attackers while bodies piled up at the North and South Doors. JR kept popping up on the uneven rooftop of the inn and tossing knives at the attacking Elves. He managed to kill several with single strikes. At one point two Elf warriors forced their way into the inn past JC and TR. One of them hit JN with a sword and nearly killed him. AT and JS turned around to help since their entrance was not threatened at that moment. Together all five PC's managed to kill the two Elves, but not before sustaining several more wounds. At the same time as all of this was going on, a single Elf warrior on horseback had been lighting the more vulnerable buildings on the edge of town on fire. These included Theseus's house and barn as well as those of his immediate neighbors. After we killed the last of the sixteen Elves from the first wave AK directed the townsfolk upstairs to take him out with their bows. It took two volleys to knock the Elf warrior off his horse, after which he was presumed dead.

Then there was a brief lull in the fighting. AT took advantage of it to Lay on Hands TR and pass out healing potions to the rest of the wounded party members. Those were our last six. Immediately after healing TR and JC spotted four more Elven infantry with two robed elves behind them heading toward the in from the South end of Eastbrook. One of the robed Elves was Irva. Irva and her fellow robed Elf began chanting and two Firebolts blazed from their hands at TR and JC scorching them both. TR charged out of the inn and cut through one of the warriors between him and Irva. Six second later JS, AK, JN, and AT joined the charge while JR secured the inn entrances. JS fumbled with her bow and shot AK in the back. AK screamed in agony and she quickly apologized. Then the robed Elf tried to blast AK with fire and missed him hitting JS. Justice had been served.:smalltongue: AT and JC joined TR at the front line and cut down one Elf warrior. They fended the other two off TR while he moved adjacent to Irva and gutted her with a single swing of his sword. The next round JN and JR shot arrows and threw a knife respectively damaging the two Elf warriors who were still upright. JS and AK shot the warriors as well. One of them dropped. The other warrior cut JC open pretty badly before getting dropped by AK. The surviving Elf tried to cast a spell when TR and JC killed her with attacks of opportunity. We had survived the first attack. Barely.

As the party stood there panting in triumph we heard the war drums and the bagpipes pick up tempo. We could hear faint rumbling as though something was trampling the fields outside of town. JR and JN spotted the source of the noise at the same time. There were four war wagons circling in the fields. Each had two grim-faced Elven archers, two Elven warriors with long spears and bucklers, and a driver hidden by the walls of the wagon. The war wagons were tearing up the crops that remained in the fields. Each was drawn by a pair of massive war horses. The party quickly snatched arrows and weapons off the dead and fled back into the inn. It looked like we were in for a long fight. End of Session 3.

[Curbstomp]

Reserved for Further Updates pt3

[Curbstomp]

Reserved for Further Updates pt4

[Curbstomp]

Reserved for Further Updates pt5

[Curbstomp]

Reserved for Further Updates pt6

[Curbstomp]

Okay, I've completed the introduction to the first session as well as a brief character description for each PC.

[Red Rubber Band]

Coolies. Looking forward to it :smallsmile:
I've been toying with the idea of running a game like this for a while. It will be good to see how this one pans out.

[Curbstomp]

Red Rubber Band-

I've run one of these before about 6-7 years ago, but it has been a long time and is pretty tricky to balance. I am posting this campaign log in the hope of some feedback/commentary and to inspire other gamers to keep playing.

[Yahzi]

I have to admit Joel's series was one of the things that inspired me to write Sword of the Bright Lady.

Your party, though, frightens me. Within an hour of going to a new world, they agreed to ambush and murder a sentient being without even discussing it? I wonder what the hand signal for "let's murder this guy" is. How did they know the imp wasn't enslaved, or ensorcelled, or cursed? Weren't they worried about what the wizard would send next when they killed his flunky? Didn't they need the imp for basic information?

I could see them being worried about being caught in the company of a demon; that might make them look bad to the locals. That might cause me to put distance between myself and the creature. But straight out beating him to death? Even the guys in Walking Dead talked about executing that wounded enemy they caught, and in the end they didn't.

I do not see how your Paladin is going to continue his career as a Paladin. Surely savage murder-ambush of a creature that has been ordered to serve you is against the Code. Unless his class rank gives him divine knowledge that demons must be killed on sight. In which case, didn't the wizard know that? Shouldn't he have picked a different guide, or at the very least left the Paladin behind?

Then your party woke up and murderized two professional soldiers in less time than it takes me to get out of bed.

And finally... they wrassled a Grizzly? :smalleek: That's t not actually humanly possible. I mean, I know they're 1st level, which in my book makes them already superhuman, but Grizzlies are actually really, really, mean. Even if I had just been leveled up to superhuman I don't think my first instinct would be to tackle a bear.

I have to say, I am glad these people were sent to another world (and out of ours!). A darker, brutal, feudal world, where they can indulge their homicidal tendencies without being marked out as horrifying psychopaths. I guess that explains why they burned their bridges with the wizard: they're never going back. Why would they? Solving your problems with murder in our world is considered wrong, or at least inelegant. They can't go home; they're already there. :smallbiggrin:

Wait till your players discover that in the middle ages, people didn't make left and right shoes; they just made shoes. Nothing was as comfortable then as it is now, even if you were king. :smallyuk:

[Curbstomp]

Yahzi-

Yeah, the Imp kill surprised me, but it is within the Paladin's code to kill an evil outsider. If it were a mortal race, whole different story. That would have been an alignment issue. No question. It should be noted that they had been explicitly informed that it was their kidnapper's familiar by the Imp itself. Plus, who really wants to help their own kidnapper given a choice? As the more cautious members of the party (and you) pointed out, it was needed for basic information and the party wound up dealing with the consequences for several sessions.

The waking up and killing two soldiers was unsurprising. Their first fight with Elves was semi-tough. Seven level 1 PC's against two level 2 Elves. One was a ranger the other was a barbarian. The second fight though, the one you referred to, that was seven level 1 PC's against two level 1 warriors. The warriors were in trouble the moment they got spotted given the disparity in numbers and abilities. :smalltongue:

LMAO, yes the wresting of a bear was a bit of a shock. The grizzly was using the standard brown bear stats from Monster Manual. I was not terribly surprised that those two PC's moved between the bear and their allies. One is an MMA fighter in real life, the other is his sparring partner. What DID surprise me was that they actually managed to slow it down and not die horribly in the process. TR was at 1 hit point at the end of that fight and dropped unconscious once the rage ended. JC was at 3 hit points at the end of the fight. :smalleek:

And your analysis is correct about not wanting to go home. They deliberately burned that bridge b/c they did want to stay in the new world. Scary though their new world is, magical healing is pretty amazing when you think about it. Several of them have partially healed injuries and chronic pain in real life, so a chance to live in a world with the ability to fix those things is immensely appealing.

Things played out similarly to Joel Rosenberg's first few chapters except that a third of the PC's are not dead and they did not blow up their starting equipment. The fact that every single one of them picked Healing Devotion once they had a free feat probably helped with that a bit. Overall I am happy with how the campaign has progressed. We are on session five or six now, I am just playing catch up on the message board for a few weeks. I have my own notes and one of the players is keeping a campaign log as well.

And yes, the lack of comfort set in particularly in Session 2 on where fatigue began to become a relevant factor and clean clothes were nowhere to be found. :smallyuk:

[Curbstomp]

Also, I should mention that I am avoiding spoilers for the main plotline as much as possible, but as the DM I am really looking forward to the wizard's next move. That will probably occur around Session 8 or 9.

I will attempt to answer each poster's comments and questions whenever I have the time. The exceptions are if you are one of my players or if you are off topic.

[Yahzi]

One is an MMA fighter in real life, the other is his sparring partner.
I've actually done a lot of martial arts, and my first instinct is still not to tackle a bear. :smallbiggrin:

I guess it's just a weakness of the D&D rules that you can go from sleep to combat-effective in a round. Not sure how they stood up, put on armor, and readied a weapon that fast.

But I agree: the D&D world offers certain things (specifically healing) that ours does not. Even immortality is possible there. On the other hand the relentless danger, unmitigated brutality, and sheer insignificance of anyone who is not a finely-tuned killing machine would eventually wear on a normal person's sensibilities. Even though it's a game, as DM I would assume it was my job to subtly, over the course of the campaign, convince them they were better off at home.

[wookietek]

I've tried this idea before, but I'm not as good a GM as this needs. Kudos for the Joel Rosenberg inspiration! His writing shaped a lot of my world.

[Curbstomp]

Session 2 is up along with an editing note on Session 1. :smallbiggrin:

[Curbstomp]

Don't read this if you are one of my players. I hope the rest of you enjoy it though.

I have a villain in the setting detailed above inspired directly by Rich Burlew's sample villain the Fire King. Instead of a half-fiend/half-elf mine is a half-pyroclastic-dragon/half-elf. Otherwise he has similar goals and motivations to the Fire King. In honor of Rich's naming choice my version of this villain is known as the Ash King. The PC's have seen this villain already but I doubt that they realized the significance.

[wookietek]

I just heard from Joel Rosenberg's widow, and in reference to this idea for a game she said- "Please let him know I approve."

[Yahzi]

You left a fairly significant point out of your write-up: what did they do with their two elf prisoners?

Why are they taking prisoners now, given their murderous intent?

And if they are down to 3-4 hit points, they must be suffering actual wounds now. Real pain, and risk of infection. They've burned through more gold (in the form of healing potions) than an average peasant sees in a decade. And they still resolve every encounter with violence.

These guys do not seem long for this world. :smallbiggrin:

[Curbstomp]

I added a couple of lines to the end of Session 2 to address Yahzi's question. I have also begun posting Session 3.

wookietek- Thank you for passing that along. It means a lot to me.

[Curbstomp]

Session 3 is completed. It will probably be a couple days until I get Session 4 up. I'm still trying to catch up with where my Friday group is with the story and we just finished Session 6 on the 12th.