Well I have to go to work soon, so I have to be quick. I have this week joined DDI, and so far I like all the bells and whistles. I find most articles awesome, and the playtest monk I just downloaded to read when I get home tonight. We came pretty close to leveling again. So here we go: Ok, so this game went much better. It started with us getting the freed slaves back to the 7 pillars where they would be safe…and before we could enact our plan, that little Kobold (name escapes me) came up to us to tell us there was someone with information that wanted to meet. It took us all of 3 seconds to figure the odds of it being a trap were 99+%. Of course the best way to fight a trap, is to spring it. When we got to the meeting, it wasn’t even a few seconds…there were Miniature golems, Carnage demons, and cultists… And I found Inflict Light Wounds in 4e (I don’t know if this home brew or official) but it was an attack Vs Ref, and damage equal to your healing surge value+ the cultists Wis mod. It was a hard fight, but unlike last week there was no grind, every round something cool was happening. Then came the kick in the pants, Tor got bloodied, and these little demons that were just hanging out in the room all teleported next to him and chowed down. From that point on, anytime anyone got bloodied this repeated. SO we had Lucen try to AOE them, since they were behind stone bars when not eating bloodied guys. After the fight, we realized that the Golem was the same one those wizards that rule here use to enforce there rules. So at this point we had to split up. Cap, tor, and Lucen finding out about the wizards, and Me Syl, and Renard go to the party. This lead to three skill challenges, My group had 1 that needed 12 successes before 3 fails, the others had one to find the wizards, so first 8 before 3, then 4 before 3 back to back. This lead to the players with less skill focused having an easier time. All in all I liked it. We started by getting into the party, it was easy enough to pretend that Syl owned me and Renard, and Syl was very upset, and renard forged a copy of an invite well she made a fuss. It was funny. The best part was every other skill the other group used was intimidate, well Syl, Renard, and I used just about every skill in the book. The most interesting one we used was to cause a distraction I dropped a glass I was bringing to my ‘master’ so she pulled out a whip and beat me half to death…I used Endurance to make the pain last long enough to pull everyone. We mostly did the ‘spy’ thing of searching the place during the party. We found not only did they not have the slaves, but they had bigger problems. There was a vampire thing, maybe an exarch of Orcus was attacking the underdark. Mean while, the others intimidated there way into finding a wizard, then intimidated him into giving up the info. It seams they also were over there heads with problems, one of there own turned trader. Paldamair (spelling?) was one of them, until it was reveled he was a demon worshiper, now he has taken some of there resources, and vanished. So when we meet back up we had a lot to put together, but the main mission had to take priority. So on to finding out about the Durger, the last group that could have our prisoners. Now this is the time we would normally wrap up, but Dave insisted we push on. So we asked around, and it turned out to be in a place called the Horned hall. It was much deeper into thunder spire then we had gone yet, and we went. We had two run ins with wandering undead, then got to the hall. We went to go in, and the door was open. Everyone inside was dead. Lots of blood, some durger, some jet black and acidic. Demons. We were about to give up when tor saw tuff of hair. He picked it up, and smelled it…heyna. We were going to switch gears, a gnoll hunt.
Game 11 sucked… Ok, so coming off of a fight that kicked my but I have about half my healing surges, so we go into a set o rooms, find prisoners locked up, and about a half dozen hobgoblins. The primary bad guy of this was a hobgoblin chain wielder, with threatening reach, and so many reaction/interrupt abilities I think DM dave had to have a whole page just for him. I would tell you about how cool the first hour of this fight went, but I am still pissed about the last 2 hours. Only Chain boy left, and he was bloodied, BUT he had a stance that let him regen in bloodied, and an at will attack power that gave temp hp, and he had dwarves armor on, and he had a recharge ability that tripped and dazed (takeing someone out of combat.), and on top of that he had a close burst 2 attack that recharged at bloodied, and since he spent like 6-10 rounds at bloodied, not bloodied, bloodied, not bloodied it might as well have been at will. The real kicker…he got away. He left through a secret passage, and when Tor and Cap followed him(only two still up at end of fight…I was not only down, but out of healing surges as well) it went to a room below us, then wrapped around and outside, since he was ahead of them, they would have to leave the slaves and us down. So they let him get away, to come stabilize us. Then Dave said the thing that made me throw a D20 at him “Sorry Mario your princess is in another castle…” after all this the girl we are trying to rescue was sold to one of two other groups, the durger, or the drow… So I felt the entire session was one big waste of a night. So we had some RP time then, and found that the durger control a fortress and the drow have an outpost. However there was some good news, the Drow were celebrating this week. The out post’s commanders daughter was turning there equivalent of sweet 16, and there was a masquerade ball being thrown in here honor. We decided that Syl, Me and Renard could easily infiltrate such an occasion, and find out some intel. (Of course this came with a threat to kill DM dave if he had us fight again to not find the girl…).
So we went back tot eh 7 pillars and recouped and planed. Dave wasn’t sure how to do this infiltration thing without the rest of the party, and my experience as DMing game day came up. “Extended skill challenge”.
So we ended early and he is working on a Complexity 5 skill challenge for us to begin next game. Hopefully next game will be better. I mean XP and treasure is nice, but really that type of thing isn’t what I play for. 3 hour fights (Broken up by dinner break s it took closer to 4 hours) defiantly are not my idea of fun…
Ok, so I get to game and get ambushed. My FLGS had asked Dave to run the game day adventure (It wasn’t the first time, when ever the kid that works there can’t they ask him). However he couldn’t so guess who he said would do it. ME!?!?!?!?!?!? So what was I suppose to say, I was signed up to play in the second game (They are running one at noon and one at 5pm). I guess they need someone to run both. I am free. However I have very little DM experience. I guess Dave figured I was doing well at picking all this stuff up, and I need more running time. What was I going to say, it’s not like I could say I couldn’t. So I guess I need to tell you guys how that goes too.
So back to tonight’s game, when last we left our heroes, we got to thunder spire. First thing we see is 2 giant statues of dire Minotaur 50 feet tall. As we went to pass them, they spoke a warning about violence within, and that merchants should head to the seven pillared hall, and that parents should keep there children close. I knew then it was a wizard, or a guild of wizards running this place. It had to be, that or Walt Disney. No one else make animatronics…I mean magic mouths…like that. So we enter this little hallway, and started walking. There were floating lanterns of ever burning hanging mid air ever 75-80ft, making the way pretty lit. Well we are walking we notice a side shaft that isn’t lit. Now we were just warned not to go off the path, so what do we do…
So down this new path is pitch black. We of course bring our own light. You ever wonder how smart it would be to hold lights in a pitch black room full of enemies…it makes you a target real quick. SOoo, it started with the 4 Kobold sly blades, then the like 500 minions (I swear Dave just took every kobold he owned including reaper minis and used them) then the 3 wyrm priests. We used an old, but underused tactic against overwhelming forces…RETREAT. Lucky for us, they didn’t pursue past the lights.
Then we walked into what The seven pillar Hall and it was a normal town, if you think Drow, and troglodyte and durger are in normal towns. Tracking the hobgobs might be a bit harder then we thought.
So we feel back on ye old streetwise check. Then we meet Rat. Rat is a small kobold, and I mean small for a kobold. It was pretty easy to see most people underestimate him, that meant he knew a lot about what was going on. He gave us our first real clue on where to look. However it meant going deeper into the spire, and outside of the safety of the hall. But heck you don’t become an adventurer to play it safe right…
So we follow Rats advice, and head down into the spire, we get to a place called the “Hall of eyes” it is pretty freaky. It was a couple chained up goblins, and I think it was meant to be a skill challenge, but a AOE attack from Renard killed both minions before they could talk. I guess they might have sounded an alarm, so we had (al be it begrudgingly) admit it might have been a good idea.
So we go to the main door, and it has a warning written on it. Tor goes to read it and it says “Warning explosive ruins” So much for sneaking in when the door blows up and does damage to two of three strikers and your defender. By the way some how this ‘blast three” was pretty powerful on the back end only, I got crit (in the last square) well no one else took any real damage. I thin they took like 11 pts, well I took max on 5d6 then +2d10 (40), Syl got missed and took half damage. By the way that lead to the surprise round, with a Hobgoblin Commander, a Bugbear Warrior, a Bugbear Headhunter, and 12 Hobgoblin Warriors. I was down before I even got to my initiative. Not just any down either, I was at -24 (2pts from dead). So first rounf Cap yells out “Hey, no laying down on the job, kick some but” putting me back in the fight. My first action is to stand, then attack a bugbear. Before I go again I am back on my back (-2 this time). So this time Cap yells “Lass what are you doing, it is war time not nap time” and I get back up, this time I make I use my round to second wind. That brought me to 31hp, not even bloodied, should be fine right. WRONG. The dumb bugbear grabs me, and uses me as a shield. Then I get hit by Syl’s rescue attempt (Leaving me at 3hp) So I yell at Lucen to blow up both of us with an AOE…end the damn fight. So he does, and what happens…Crit me (and max on the magic D6 so 19 damage…-16) and miss the stupid bug bear on a nat 1. DM dave decided that the bug bear would decide to hold or let the body go based on his recharge roll. He recharged the use me as a shield power, so he held it doing another 9 damage ( 1hp from dead) then asked if he could leave, or if they would risk killing me… It was like a movie, hostage taken, and the police have to let the guy go. Of course Syl dropped her dagger, and Cap said “You have my word, leave her and go”, Torr rorred then turned his back on the bugbear. It looked like Lucen might try something, but he too said “go”. And of course then came all too edgy renard. He held his pact blade up, and channeled hellfire and his will into it, then with tears in his eyes he…dropped the blade and said in a whisper “go…I can’t lose another one” So he dropped me and ran, I missed my death save (second of the encounter) but was stabilized with a potion.
and then the Dm got sick… No I am not kidding. DM Dave spent over an hour in the bathroom with explosive diarrhea. That put a kill on most of the night. I think it was the new pizza place that we tried, because we all had alteast mild runs, but Dave had pepperoni, onion, sausage, bacon, and hat peppers on his. I thought it was too greasy, but I guess it is a good thing we have multi bathrooms to use.
When he was feeling better he gave us XP, and told us to update, (We leveled) and that we would pick up next week with the level up in the short rest.
So we started pretty RP heavy this week. With Lucen and Tor at point tracking, myself and cap at rear guard and renard and syl in the middle. Cap and I were talking about a bunch of non sense, old stories we had made up, and what we thought of what was going on, in front of us every time syl went to say something, and sometimes when she didn’t Renard would interrupt with “Just don’t” But the prize goes to Tor and Lucen. They did this whole mochu my god is better posturing like two alpha dogs, but they did it civil, and almost matter of fact. It wasy pretty cool when Tor asked Lucen why he was doing this, since he NEW it wasn’t out of the kindness of his heart, and lucen turned it around with the old I could ask you the same thing. It was much cooler in person. It ended with both admitting that something felt off, and that they were both warriors of there gods, so they were looking to ‘fight the good fight’ Then Dm Dave through us a fun little choice. The hobgoblins had left old kings rd to travel through the cloak woods. This was odd because there were trade roads the whole way to the thunderspire. So of course we investigated. As we started through the woods we had our first real encounter of the night, a sniper. It started with 2 shortbow arrows slamming into Lucen. It was pretty crazy, we had a large battle matt set up as Forrest, and were all in the center, but no bad guys on the board. Talk about fog of war. So we rolled initiative, and Syl went first. She moved to the bushes for cover. Tor and Renard tied for next, and had different ides. Tor charged into the area the shots came from (and fell into a pit full of spikes. Renard teleported up into a tree on a branch and started looking around with active perception. The snipper went next and fired a third arrow into lucen (bloodying him) and one into me. As a reaction to Lucen getting bloodied these vines started to attack him. We were in the middle of a killing field. Arrows from unseen targets, blood sucking vines, and pit traps. On Caps turn he moved to the pit and got out his rope. I on the other hand decied Tor had the right idea, I just went about it slower and more careful. Syl decided to stay hidden. Then Renard readied and action, and Tor held his. This time renard saw the shooter, so Dave put down his satyr archer mini and rolled two attack rolls on me. Crit and miss. Lucky for me I was still above bloodied. Then Renard reacts with an action point, and two eldritch blasts, both solid hits, bloodying our enemy and getting him attacked by his own vines. The vines where an immobilize (save ends) and the monster was a lurker, so that pretty much ended the fight right there. Well we were looting the body, we found the money was from winterhaven, so either the hobgobs paid him, or he took it from them. It didn’t take long to realize this was there way of losing parties following them, so we headed back to the road. As we were leaving the Forrest Dave made sure to mention that cap got stung by a bee. It was an odd thing to be told in a d&D game, I bet it will be important later. So back on the rd, we made it to the town of fellcrest before nightfall, and stopped to rest there. Cap talked to some contacts, and sure enough the hobgobs had come through only 3 days ahead of us, but they went right through without stopping. It had taken 2 days to get from winterhaven to here, and would be another day+ to get to the spire. We left bright and early, and started out. Around noon we came across our second encounter of the game. Highwaymen. A dragonborn, two humans, and a half elf stood in our way and tried to take our money. It was almost funny, they abviusly didn’t know who they were dealing with. The half elf was some kinda caster, not that it mattered since Syl and Tor flanked him in round 1. Both humans were minons, the dragon born might have been a threat, but lucen summoned his angel of fire and me and it whooped him good. He had this weird power where he attacked, then left himself open to counter attack, then granted an ally and attack. I have to admite having three attackers on his turn slowed down combat a little. The only really big problem was we blew all our encounters, then they all got back up as ghouls. It is not fun to have a second encounter less then a minute after another one. No short rest was a BITCH. It seams we may have pissed off some prince of undead, and his right hand man the king of ghouls, so this was not random. However the dragonborn (Who was some kinda NPC warlord) had a amulet that was perfect for cap. It adds +2 to all healing he does. Pretty hott if you ask me. We had just gotten to thunderspire when we had to call it a night, so next week we start by entering the spire after the hobgobs
So we started off with a skill challenge. We were all asleep (Except cap, witch lead to some funny lines) and we entered some sort of shared dream thing. It started in black with the whole party standing there. This lead Renard to make an Arcane roll to identify the lucid group dream, then lead Lucen to threaten Cap because he was on guard duty/ watch. So Cap quickly explained (With an untrained bluff) that he was a figment of our group Subconscious, and not really our dwarf ally, who he was sure was still on guard duty. So every time he said anything for the whole dream he started with “If I was the dwarf I would say…” It was a really dark dream of the world 1 year from now. It started in the ruins of Winterhaven, were renard pulled our first success with streetwise. We learned that it was winterhaven for sure, and he saw the place he was born ripped in half by tenicals of a shadow monster. The ruins of the city are being controlled by undead goblinoids. Up Next we say another set of ruins, and we were unsure were, so we tried some geography, and failed. The next scean was thousands of ghouls and zombies overtaking a city within a mesa known as Thunderspire. Lucen made a religion check and found they were lead by “Linus” the daughter of the ghoul king. Then not really cap* made a history check, and Syl made an insight check and the two of them saw this was the world that orcus would create. The world where we failed.
We woke up really more confused, but with a raven sitting in the middle of us, with an eye in it’s mouth. It flew off through a wall. We are divided as to weather it was a threat, or an aid. Weather this was good or ill we may never know.
So renewed and level uped, we went down into the next room. Here are our new sheets:
me
====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&DI Character Builder ====== Lylandra Del Morgan, level 4 Shadar-kai, Swordmage Swordmage Aegis: Aegis of Shielding
FINAL ABILITY SCORES Str 14, Con 15, Dex 10, Int 19, Wis 11, Cha 12.
STARTING ABILITY SCORES Str 13, Con 15, Dex 8, Int 16, Wis 11, Cha 12.
ITEMS Khopesh, Leather Armor, Adventurer's Kit, Wine, Bottle, Aecris Longsword +1 ====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&DI Character Builder ======
cap
====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&DI Character Builder ====== Capt. StoneBlood, level 4 Dwarf, Warlord Commanding Presence: Tactical Presence
FINAL ABILITY SCORES Str 17, Con 13, Dex 9, Int 16, Wis 14, Cha 12.
STARTING ABILITY SCORES Str 16, Con 11, Dex 9, Int 15, Wis 12, Cha 12.
ITEMS Craghammer, Light Shield, Chainmail, Razor Shield Light Shield (heroic tier), Dwarven Chainmail +1, Inspiring Craghammer +1 ====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&DI Character Builder ======
Renard
====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&DI Character Builder ====== Renard, level 4 Half-Elf, Warlock Eldritch Blast: Eldritch Blast Charisma Eldritch Pact: Fey Pact
FINAL ABILITY SCORES Str 8, Con 14, Dex 10, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 21.
STARTING ABILITY SCORES Str 8, Con 11, Dex 10, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 18.
ITEMS Dagger (5), Fine Clothing, Thieves' Tools, Wine, Bottle, Adventurer's Kit, Leather Armor, Parrying Dagger +1 ====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&DI Character Builder ======
lucan
====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&DI Character Builder ====== Lucan The Warrior, level 4 Deva, Invoker Divine Covenant: Covenant of Preservation
FINAL ABILITY SCORES Str 8, Con 12, Dex 13, Int 17, Wis 19, Cha 13.
STARTING ABILITY SCORES Str 8, Con 12, Dex 13, Int 14, Wis 16, Cha 13.
POWERS Invoker at-will 1: Avenging Light (retrained to Sun Strike at Level 3) Invoker at-will 1: Vanguard's Lightning Invoker encounter 1: Blades of Astral Fire Invoker daily 1: Summon Angel of Fire Spirit Talker: Spirit's Fangs Invoker utility 2: Shroud of Awe Invoker encounter 3: Chains of Carceri
ITEMS Nail of Sealing (heroic tier), Implement, Staff, Adventurer's Kit, Residuum (Any) (30), Sanctified Incense (Religion) (10), Magic Staff +1, Ritual Book, Medic's Crossbow +1 RITUALS Hand of Fate, Explorer's Fire ====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&DI Character Builder ======
Tor
====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&DI Character Builder ====== Tor, level 4 Shifter, Razorclaw, Avenger Build: Pursuing Avenger
FINAL ABILITY SCORES Str 14, Con 11, Dex 16, Int 11, Wis 20, Cha 8.
STARTING ABILITY SCORES Str 14, Con 11, Dex 13, Int 11, Wis 17, Cha 8.
FEATS Level 1: Initiate of the Old Faith Level 2: Wild Senses Level 4: Blurring Claws
POWERS Avenger at-will 1: Bond of Pursuit Avenger at-will 1: Overwhelming Strike Initiate of the Old Faith: Pounce Avenger encounter 1: Angelic Alacrity Avenger daily 1: Aspect of Might Avenger utility 2: Distracting Flare Avenger encounter 3: Sequestering Strike
ITEMS Cloth Armor (Basic Clothing), Adventurer's Kit, Vicious Greataxe +1, Robe of Contingency Cloth Armor (Basic Clothing) +1, Watchful Spirit Totem +1, Boots of Adept Charging (heroic tier) ====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&DI Character Builder ======
Ok, through the door is a large temple above the main temple. It is a sacrifice chamber full of dead bodies, and mostly dead bodies, with blood flowing through these channels into a grate and raining down on the subtemple.
In the room is a Teifling death priest of Orcus, and 6 ghouls (each with ghoul king blessings to boot) and 2 half golem bezerkers, and 2 Dark Creepers.
Tor went first, and screamed out a primal yell, charging the priest. It was 21 squars ao we never thought he would make it. But he move action run 8, then move action run 8, then action point Agelic Alacrity shift 5 or 6 and attack. Oh and at some point in there calling minor Oath. First round first attack roll CRIT, and not just any crit, but both d20s came up as 20. Up next was Cap who moved into a ghoul, and one hit killed it. Minion, well sort of. It had a surprise. Then came those damn dark creepers. The burst into shadow, vanish, then reapper next to one of us and attack with surprise and sneak attack bonus dice. In this case it was Renard that got double teamed, oh, and 1d4+1d6+5 may not sound like much, but when your warlock gets hit by two it doesn’t look good. Renard gets to return the favor with his Otherworldstride, good damage to both and teleport 7, followed by a move of 6, minor curse, then an action point to witchfire one of the terminator like fellows. Syl got to go next and decided to use her first strike to slam that same terminator like bezerker with a sly flourish, and hits. This is two strikers hitting, and it had to be atleast 25 if not 30 damage between them, and it was not bloodied. Next came the ghouls, and DM dave called “Blessing of the ghoul king” if these guys are not killed by radiant, they get back up. How nuts is that respawning minions. It gets worse though. These guys slow until the end of your next turn on a hit. They got to slow cap, and renard and syl. Yea, big bad fight. Then came me. I was unsure of what to do, so I made the best of it. I hit two ghouls with green flam blade (knocking them down but not killing them) and marked One of the terminator like guys. Speaking of witch they were up now, and they tour us a new one. The one that was hurt moves (Provoking from syl) and hits me. It did 13 pts of damage, that is my surge value, it was very plane to see just standing and exchanging blows was a bad idea. Then came the death priest. We got real lucky, he was afraid to shift away, so he was stuck with his basic attack. Lucan goes next and drops Blades of Astral fire centered on me. I get +4 AC, the two downed ghouls take some radiant (Killing them) and the terminator takes a crit (Good), but is bloodied, and gets a free shot at me for it (Bad) he hit and did more then 13, more then enough to bloodie me. Then he moves, and action points to do his abjur undead and kill the rest of those minions. By the time my turn came up again we had a plan, I moved to the two creepers, foe snared one, and Action pointed to booming blade the other, with out CA, and unable to move they were easy targets, and the big guy was still marked by me (Well one of them) so I could negate damage. The only one of us not falling apart at the end of the fight was TOR, because he had the priest (I am sure he was bad ass at range) locked in melee. He had less damage on him then any two of the rest of us had hp left. With a short rest, and a religion check we figured out what was going on. This guy was bringing a shadow called “Tenebrous” into our world. It was once a piece of orcus, but now grew into it’s own shadow form and is an exarch of the big fat demon lord. I guess it was way weak, and could bearly survive out of the abyss though, so it needed to bound to some one (Que lots of venom/carnage jokes here) so this Kalarel was planning on taking it on, and getting a promotion out of it.
So we prepaird to lower ourselves down, and that was our mile stone. So well Dave set up the maps and mini’s I went for a smoke. Kelly asked if I minded company, I said no, but I didn’t think she smoked. I guess she use to and had just relapsed. I feel sorry for people starting or restarting now, these things are almost $10 a pack, and they might be in a month or 2, and she didn’t even do regs, she smoked cloves. I use to buy them sometimes, so I know that isn’t cheap. So after my shock wore off we talked a bit. I guess she is having some problems getting into the game though. She asked me if I ever felt there was too much combat. I guess coming off White wolf, this would seam like a lot. I think she made her character thinking we would spend more time in town, so it isn’t quite what she had in mind.
So we are back, and the battle map is a nightmare. We have Kalarel, 4 vampires, 2 skeletons, and 2 Wights. Then he shows us a picture of the thing coming out of the portal. (It realy did look kinda like venom). This fight took forever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Real time about 2 hours, maybe a little more. Kalarel had defenses between 20-24, and just shy of 200hp. Then the magic circle he spent ľ the fight in uped his defenses by 2 and gave him regen 5. Oh and he had weaken on an atwill. Oh, and everytime Tenebrous hit, it healed Kalarel. The vampires were just minions, but the wights could reanimate them every turn. And on top of that the skeletons could mark.
Oh, and Kalarel had a power that healed all the undead in a burst and gave them a free shift 3. Then just to make this perfect, syl almost (Dm dave gave a save) died because the stupid thing in the portal drags everyone that hit 0 into it. The next round it was Cap making the save (He did). The aftermath of this fight made me feel drained out of game. I think it was just too much. And on top of that we are higher level, and have an extra player, 5 3rd levels would never have survived this.
However when Kalarel died, Lucan got to say “Your evil plan, and your masters dreams end here monster” and Kalarel smiled, and with his last breath said “You think you stoped HIM…I was just running point on this” then the shadow thing pulled him in to the portal ending the ritual.
So we sealed the rift, and grabed some stuff of Kalarels. His spell/ritual book, his magic dagger, his magic tomb (The necronomicon of course), some scrolls, and a bunch of gold and headed out feeling pretty good. I mean even if we only delayed orcus, we still saved the world right. I mean this is a big win in the good side. We headed back to town, and when we got there, there were signs of battle, even town guards still lying dead.
Remember back a few games ago we let a group of hobgoblin leave just as we got to the keep. Guess where they came. As we got into town that good feeling wasn’t exactly there anymore. Somewhere deep down we all knew this was somewhat our fault, we let this happen. Then we saw the tavern, or should I say the remains of the tavern. Renard lost it. I mean totally lost it totally awesome role play that he though his lost love was dead. But the truth was worse. She was alive, but taken by the goblionids as a slave along with about 30 other people. They only took strong young men and attractive women. The men to work, the woman…well we don’t have to spell out what type of slaves they would be. He just started eldritch blasting random rocks and pieces of debris. Syl and I tried to say we would help him go after her. He just stared off and said “There are more of them, and we let them go because we weren’t sure we could take them” Then he stormed off, I was going to go after him but Tor stopped me “Let him get his head corrected”
Syl, Tor and I did what we could to help people, and fix building, meanwhile Cap and lucan went off to talk to the mayor. It turns out the hobgoblins are from thunderspire, and they hit hard and fast taking out most of the militia in the first assault. They then held the tavern overnight, and blew it up to cover there withdraw.
Then came the surprise of the night. Remember Renard is a fey pact warlock, he went to a sight under the town were devils were once worshiped, and summoned an imp. The imp and he made a deal years ago when he was a boy. He later made the deal with a fey lord to nullfy this one. This imp was now giving him the chance to ‘take it back’. They talk for a few moment, then the imp gives him a ring to slide onto his pactblade. He made a new deal of sorts, he gets the power to get Salvana Wrafton back alive. Mechanic his pactblade now also counts Master’s Wand of Hellish Rebuke. And rp wise he is building toward a double pact feat from DDI (I think it might be a paragon feat though.
Although now that I think about it, he wants the half elf versatility and this double pact thing, so he is going to have 4 at wills. That just sounds sick.
So now atracking we will go. I think this is mostly DM Dave now, but we may use some of the next mod (Being thunderspire), but I was also told that the shadow pyramided sucks, so this is where we most likely leave the story.
We still next week need to comeup with some reasons for us sticking togather, but i think fixing our own mess up/ saving Renards lost love is a good start.
Also 8 games for 1 mod, close to 40 hours of play I figure. I am impressed. In 3.5 most mods were 1 or 2 nights. Heck when we did sunless citadel it was 1 game about 6 hours.
OK, so we started with a bang… Coming off of the last weeks hobgoblin room we come into this dead end that I swear DM dave tricked us into going down. It lead to the Gelatinous cube, and two undead thingies that ripped pieces of themselves off and chucked them at us.
It started with a hallway, and us doing the dumest thing ever…splitting up. For the record there is an ad on the wizard web pages that even says “Never split the party” But we thought we were going to just look down both hall ways, when Renard got engulfed. Meanwhile in the same surprise roll me and cap got taped by exploded undead flesh for 10+ damage and weakens (save ends)…then we rolled for initiative. Just to recap the beginning of this battle 2 weakened PCs, and an engulfed/dazed ranged striker. Tor went first, and decided to oath and attack the cube. He planed to use his at will that drags the target. However it was the worst thing any avenger could expect, 2 1’s. Then came Cap, and he charged one of those undead things, and it got worse. These things have aura’s of negative to hit. So he missed. Then he just made his save, not that it helped. Then came Renard, and his fail to escape the grab. Then came Lucan, and he summons his spirit next to an undead thing, making it unable to shift out of threatening. The undead go next, and the one ingaged shifts so cap isn’t threatening, but the spirit is, then one tags him, the other tags Lucan. So now we have three weakened, and the cube is up. The damn cube moves into Tor, daze/engulfing two strikers. Up next is Syl and me. I went first, and I marked the cube, and threw my Incendiary Sword and got lucky, the only type of luck our group is known for at moments like this…BAD. I missed both. Yea, it gets worse, when we finally started hitting these things, they regen. This fight was a little more tough then I think it was ment to be. I think it was most likely only 1 of those undead things, but the fact that there were 6 of us made DM Dave put the second. I also wonder if they were elites since they blew up when they died, had a weaken effect, and regen. That pushed us into our next encounter, or lack there of. 4 traps in one room, three statues and the world pool thing. Syl being the only person with thievery, we mostly let her handle most of this. I will be honest, I went out for a smoke during this encounter. I was told later Renard figured out a skill to use to ‘aid’ but I don’t remember what it was.
Then came the undead. 2 ghouls, and 15 zombies (some minions some not, but he used the same mini, we could not tell them apart pre attack.). You would think this fight would be worse then the other right, WRONG. Round 3 we were down to 1 ghoul, and 3 zombies. Now I will admit we also had an almost dead controller, and Cap was out of healing again. In the aftermath of the fight we had found a bag of holding, some ritual scrolls, and some more gold.
That fight alone put us up a level. For those keeping up at home is level 4. And now the feature creep starts. I went to start updating, and I was told I needed to look at Arcane Power. I was told I ‘had’ to swap out for this new vortex power for level 3, but I like my exploding sword spell. Then I had been thinking about Intelligent Blademaster, but now I was told I should improve my aura. I really hate being told what I ‘have’ to choose.
We could have kept going, it was not that late, but I guess with two encounters left we thought a full rest, and have the battle mats for next week. We also were told that I guess WotC put this whole mod out for free this week, and it has been changed. So DM dave is going to try to figure out if he wants to run his idea’s or if he should use there mods.
We also started putting something together. Tor and Lucan are both Divine empowered (being Invoker and Avenger), and My back story (mostly me but with some Dave add ons) seams to indicate the raven queen has taken some intrest in me. Renard has some sorta big thing about Asmodus directly in his background (Even though he is fey pact??!?) although Jim didn’t spill his whole back story. So I think that (and most of us agree) that we are moveing toward some big show down, and we think there is something about the divine war at the dawn of time. I think Orcus is a primordial (I think) so this whole adventure might be his way of starting this whole story.
So, after we skipped a week, we are now back with waking up, and having ourselves backed into a corner. It started with our daring plan to escape the barracks we blocked ourselves into. Me and Renard teleported through a hole we drilled and started the fight with three red orc demon thingies. Whatever they were I was told they use to be carnage demons. It was one of those quick OMG fights, they weren’t tough, but they were pretty bad for such small numbers. The real fun started when we went to check out the next set of barracks. We came in and saw a single soldier on watch, and we all got the drop on him. We totally got initiative, all of us before him. He got cursed, and sneak attacked, and my booming blade, and he still made it to yell for help. The real fight started when the next round 3 hobgoblin grunts came out of the other room. It was the perfect set up, I swung my sword and cut one and he burst into fire killing the other 3…a perfect Green flame Blade moment. We had a few seconds to rest then came the two archers and the war caster. This ‘warcaster’ seams to be a Swordmage like monster. It started with pushes, then it started slideing…it seamed he pretty much could throw people were ever he wanted. We were very glad there was nothing in the room.
As we dispatched them, we herd the howls. It was a supernatural wolf sound, and it was coming from the room the hobgoblins were coming out of. So we went to investigate. We found a dire wolf chained up and pulling at an enchanted chain. As he tried to pull he saw us, and with my insight, I realized there was a human intellect behind the eyes. Slowly the wolf twisted and switched to a human like beastman. This is when we meet our new PC, and I got a new respect for this kid. Tor is a werewolf who was redeemed by the goddess Melora. He serves her as a soldier of the hunt. This kid played him as 1 part wolverine and one part savage hulk. He was fury and claw held in check by a unique code of honor. He had followed the necromancer here, but was captured by the hobgoblins. They were planning on studding his mystic control of his form and try to make a spell to duplicate it. I really thought he was a werewolf until this morning when DM Dave sent me his character thing to post. To my surprise no rules were broken in the making of this character. Now I have spent almost 9 months talking about how 4e was not as versatile as the ones before, and then I see this…I am impressed. We now also had 3 strikers, and that makes u s a much deadlier group. The final fight of the night was the easiest yet, 6 hobgoblins, 2 of witch were minions, and 1 of witch was a war leader. They were coming out of 2 different rooms, so we were getting flanked (real world meaning not game mechanic) and we still slaughtered them. Now I had seen the Avenger on gameday, but at low level it is still pretty badass. Two attack rolls per attack I would say about 75% of the time. From the encounters we managed to pick up some gold, and a +1 medic’s Cross bow. At first we gave that to cap, but right before we ended for the night we read it was only for channel divinity, so Lucan has it now.
All in all I think tonight showed me the fact that 4e can do more then it looks like on the surface. (you can insert a book/cover remark here)
With all of the Xp we got from Rp and the fights tonight we are again close to leveling. Most of the others guess we will hit 4 before the last fight of the mod, and since DM Dave had to brag about his new mini, we have a preview of what is coming up…gelatinous cube.
Werewolf boy
Tor, level 3
Werewolf boy
Shifter, Razorclaw, Avenger Build: Pursuing Avenger Avenger's Censure: Censure of Pursuit Background: Former Barbarian
FINAL ABILITY SCORES Str 14, Con 11, Dex 15, Int 11, Wis 19, Cha 8.
Starting Ability Scores Str 14, Con 11, Dex 13, Int 11, Wis 17, Cha 8.
Ok, so I got there late (Work sucked and I was asked to stay when another server didn’t show up) and I missed some undead throw down. I was told I was down 1 healing surge, and 3hp. So I sat down and was told to roll for intuitive it was our second fight already. Not knowing what to expect, I rolled as I was pulling out my sheet, and by the time we got to my 14 I had to ask what we were fighting…about a dozen rats, and some type of jelly. So since Cap and Syl had moved into a flank on the jelly, I decided to go with my new tactic of marking and not fighting.
So I moved up marked the jelly, then used my new toy Incendiary Sword. I throw my sword at a group of 5 rats that were just asking for some AoE love. My sword exploded, and killed 4 of the 5 rats. I was very happy, until they went, and three of them came at me. Nine points of damage doesn’t seam like a lot, but when it is from rats it just feels wrong. But between me and lucen the rats didn’t last long, mean while the others were beating on that jelly. Everything looked great, up until the word bloodied, as in the jelly. It became two jellies. Dm Dave was being a meaney and told me I lost my mark when it split (yea I may not know all the rules to this new system but I can smell BS fiat a mile away). Then both halves shifted to flank Syl, then both halves spent there action point (wait there is that smell again,) and All 4 attacks landed, one of which was a crit. She went from fully healed (already got an inspiring word that encounter) shot past bloodied and right to deaths door. She took 37 damage, from one round with this thing (so much for the DM taking it easy on his girlfriend). She was up next, and took 5 ongoing acid, and her first failed death save. We were in a race with time.
Lucen used his sun blast power to push one away from her, then I ran in, marked one, then tried a heal check to stabilize…nat 1. (You ever get the feeling the god of luck was pissed at your group?) Next round, Cap was out of healing, so he went for killing the monster. Renard was up next (I almost want to be mad at him, he bloodied the damn thing) and lit it up with eldritch blast, and action point eldritch blast. Then the two monsters went, and both shifted to flank me, and cap pulled out his ACE, granting me an op attack against the one he hit thanks to his viper strike. One problem I am a fighter with almost no str, I use INt for everything, so my Str is low. I only have a +6 1d8+2 basic attack, which missed. Two slams, one a crit (Must steal red die of death, that is 3 20’s this encounter) the other hit. I was bloodied now. Syl up, and still down 2nd failed death save, and 5 more ongoing damage (-15 for those of you playing at home) but made the save Vs acid, so she still had a chance. Lucen finished off the one we all had been targeting, and that left 1 for me. I went with the best defense theory and booming bladed. Then it was back to cap, who used his heal skill, and also rolled a 1. Renard used his blast again, then the stupid thing slammed me with another crit (4 20’s on 1 die, and I took the die off the table and checked, there was a 1 on the other side.) That crit brought me down to single digest. It was Syl’s turn, and she rolls her save and gets (drum roll please) a 20. Her eyes shoot open and she is back in the game. Dm Dave felt a little sorry for her, and let her spend an action point then and take an attack. (normally we say action points need to be spent pre save, because saves end the turn, I am not sure if that is a house rule, or just our Dave’s interoperation of the rules). She got the killing blow in. After the fight we find the lamesest secret door ever. It leads to a room that has almost nothing in it. Up next was a water room, and a Blue slime from hell. Luckily we thought quickly, and seeing it was a dead end, and it was in the water, so we all opened up with range attacks. I think the thing was stuck in there because it only has a swim speed, so it was the easiest fight in the world. I have to wonder if Dave was miss reading something, or just felt sorry for us. We found a note with him, from the hobgoblins. It seamed that they were here looking for slaves. We also got a few gold pieces out of this, then I found out we were wasting time. I guess the first encounter (The one I missed) we found the stairs down, but decided to “Clear this level” instead of continuing toward our goals. So we reevaluated the situations. So we headed down stairs (me and Syl each had only 1 hs, but I had 2 action points to spend) so we figured we would handle 1 or two more encounters. So we moved to the stairs and found the lights were on down stairs. A hobgoblin yelled for a pass word, and Renard had just the right word…Crown of Stars (his daily). He bloodied it right off the bat, and we went to initiative. Renard won the initiative and sustained the power, then moved up to the two hobgoblins and used his otherworldly stride, damaging them then teleporting him to the other side of the room, then he action pointed and used his Burning spray killing two other hobgoblin minions. I got to go next, and I threw my sword at the two at the bottom of the stairs and did the Incendiary blade, and hit both. I killed one and bloodied the other, marked the bloodied one. Then I shadow Jaunted past them. Then came the SPIDER…it jumped Renard, and it did way too much damage…like on a non crit it did 17 damage, and slow and some ongoing. Then Syl held her action for cap. Then the hobgoblin grunt reinforcements came in on me and Renard. Then cap moved into the bloodied hob, then syl moved into a flank. That stopped that one. Then I thought we were ok, but then came 2 more full hobgoblins (read non minions) The fight was very fun. But that damn spider just kept jumping from target to target and averaged 13 or 14 pts of damage. When all was said and done, we went to the hobgoblin bed room, and Lucen pulled out his magic Nail. It arcane locks the door so we could then mange to take an extended rest.
So far so good. We played till 3 am (since no one had work in the morning) and seam to have gotten most of the way through here.
It seams Dave’s Nephew has to wait another week because he has to pass some test to be allowed to play (School not D&D). SO I was a little over dressed (since I didn't want to distract the 14 year old), and Wednesday was my birthday (Yes April fools day, infact my mom always tells the story that my father wouldn’t come to the hospital because I was not due for almost a month). So we started with some cake. Then I was given presents. Dave and Kelly got me PHB2, witch is cool since I only looked at it for like a moment. Matt bought me Players’ guide to Forgotten realms witch is cool (Since it has my class in it). Jon broke the D&D mold by giving me a used laptop him and some of his friends put together for me, and a Cuban cigar (yea, you know the illegal ones). Then came Jim. See I call Jim a lot of bad names (most if not all earned) but he can be a charmer, he gave me a box wrapped in white paper that said 3d6 place them as you want them, when I opened it, it had a silver necklace in it with three little dice pendent’s on it, each one shaped like a D6, one was on a 6 the other two on 5. I was about to cry it was so beautiful. Times like that I remember why women flock to him. Then I took it out, and saw another note: “You obviously didn’t put your 16 in CHA…” then I wanted to kill him again.
Ok, so we left off with Syl taking point and scouting, and for once it didn’t bight us in the butt. Here is an interesting fact, if she roles a 1 she gets a 12 stealth, and the highest passive perception in the encounter was 13, talk about only failing on a 1. She snuck past a bunch of guards, and got into a cell block where she met a Goblin con man who had pissed off the wrong guy. She unlocked him, gave him a dagger and told him to wait for screams. Then she snuck back to us, told us her plan, and went back into the cell area. With the intel we had the perfect 1st round. Renard teleported into the room and used his burning breath power. He caught two goblins and the hobgoblin in it. Then for my trick, I move actioned up to near the hobgoblin and marked him as a minor, then my standard was charge the goblin swordsmen, and use Foesnare (It lets me do that on a charge.) How cool is that I totally engaged two targets. Capt went next and moved into the hobgoblin, then waited for a flank, witch syl moved into and they both attacked. Cap has a power that lets him give someone else an attack if the target trys to shift, pretty cool locking that hobgoblin down even more. Then came Astral Blades, hurting all the goblins, and upping our def. then splug went and he turned out to be very helpful with his crit when he threw the dagger, he did run the next round, but 1 good crit was nice. The dumb hobgoblin went first, tried to run at me (Since I marked him) and got crited by syl. The fight seamed mighty easy after that.
After the fight Renard picked up magic leather armor that gives him some resistances to energy and damage to someone that hits him (I think it is like my frost backlash). That is also when we meet Splug the cowardly goblin. We made a deal with him that if he gave us the lay of the land he could run away. He also warned us about Kingpin goblin (big fat, fast and strong).
DM Dave told us it would be a bit for him to set the next encounter, so I went to grab a smoke, when I came back I found the most awesome set up ever. (I wish we had thought to get a picture it was that awsome.) Dave had it set up like one of those three dimensional chess games from star trek. He had toilet paper holders holding up dungeon tiles over a battle mat. It was 5 rooms connected to a dig site within the keep. 18 goblins (only 8 of witch were minons, then 5swordmen and 5 of those picatours) and the big guy (Forget his name now but he was ___the fat) The big guy had Cap’s new fav toy too, an Inspiring Craig Hammer, and I am starting t think I will be the last one to get a magic weapon. This fight went well, and infact again no action points used, and only the cartwheel charge thingey of syl’s got used, so we had all of our action points, and our daily’s, we were on top of the world. The highlights of the fight though was the big guy ditching through a secret passage, and syl chased after him and bull rushed him off one of the ledges. You have to picture a little Gnome girl pushing a fat goblin over, we thought the fall should add like 3d6 embracement damage (How else does someone die of embracement). Then (again) syl used her new feat to pretend to pull a hamstring, then disembowel said goblin about 3 rounds later (ending the fight)
So we moved on to this room that looked ok, until all the sarcophaguses opened and thousands upon thousands of undead filled the room. Or atleast it felt that way. We had 10 sarcophaguses and every round the DM would roll 1d6+1 to see how many more minions would pour out. Meanwhile we had a riddle, and a puzzle box in 2 alters on the other end of death hallway. The only way through was to open the box then solve the riddle. It took us a good 3 or 4 rounds to get into the grove of this, but Lucan summoned his angel, The angel and Cap made a line, and Renard stood behind it blasting well Lucan called his new spirit toy to block a space, and alternated between blasting with lightening or using his summoned monster. I didn’t think about it until this fight, but I guess 4e is better for summoning stuff, lucan didn’t need any more time then the rest of us on our turns. I also learned a new rule. Only 1 action point per combat. I had two, so I used one early, and figured I would use the second if things got harry. I also figured out Swordmage mark is almost meaningless on a minion, because they die to quickly. So well they held the minions us women did the real heavy lifting and tackled the skill challenges…that is right two at once. We both managed 6 successes before 3 fails, and we opened the door to the shrine. I had to use perception and Insight well she was using perception and streetwise.
Killing the rest of the undead went easy once they stopped respawning. I don’t know how many minions they killed, but I do know for experience Dave said he rounded to 40 @25 xp each. That was 1,000 xp before the two skill challenges. I just knew we had to be close to a level, but Dave made us push on, he sets up the shrine, and guess what mini goes down, DEATHKNIGHT. Dun dun dun…
Ok so I almost need new underwear when I saw the mini. I mean level 2 (Should be 3 if we could rest to level) Vs a death knight. Even thinking it seamed dumb.
Lucky for us this is Sir Kegoan, the good deathless Knight (Are there deathless anymore or is he a good undead?) I think it was meant to be a skill challenge, but we kinda steam rolled Dave with real rp. Not a single die was rolled in that last encounter of the night, and we made a deal with him. We would free him from his curse (Destroy the gate thingey and seal the tear in space/time) if he would watch over us so we could rest.
Before we left we leveled (I have to get more AoE powers these minions are rough), and I finally got a magic weapon, a named artifact no less. Aecris
Renard
Renard, level 3 Half-Elf, Warlock Eldritch Blast: Eldritch Blast Charisma Eldritch Pact: Fey Pact Background: On the Run from the Devil
FINAL ABILITY SCORES Str 8, Con 13, Dex 10, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 20.
Starting Ability Scores Str 8, Con 11, Dex 10, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 18.
FEATS 1: Ritual Caster 1: Astral Fire 2: Spirit Talker
POWERS 1, At-Will: Avenging Light (retrained to Sun Strike at Level 3) 1, At-Will: Vanguard's Lightning 1, Encounter: Blades of Astral Fire 1, Daily: Summon Angel of Fire 2, Encounter: Spirit's Fangs 2, Utility: Shroud of Awe 3, Encounter: Chains of Carceri
ITEMS Nail of Sealing (heroic tier), Implement, Staff, Adventurer's Kit, Residuum (Any) (30), Sanctified Incense (Religion) (10), Magic Staff +1, Ritual Book
RITUALS Hand of Fate, Explorer's Fire ====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&DI Character Builder ======
Syl
Syl, level 3 Gnome, Rogue Rogue Tactics: Artful Dodger Background: Con Artist
FINAL ABILITY SCORES Str 8, Con 10, Dex 16, Int 14, Wis 12, Cha 18.
Starting Ability Scores Str 8, Con 10, Dex 16, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 16.
ITEMS Dagger (5), Fine Clothing, Thieves' Tools, Wine, Bottle, Adventurer's Kit, Leather Armor, Parrying Dagger +1 ====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&DI Character Builder ======
me
Lylandra Del Morgan, level 3 Shadar-kai, Swordmage Swordmage Aegis: Aegis of Shielding Background: Detective
FINAL ABILITY SCORES Str 13, Con 15, Dex 10, Int 18, Wis 11, Cha 12.
Starting Ability Scores Str 13, Con 15, Dex 8, Int 16, Wis 11, Cha 12.
ITEMS Khopesh, Leather Armor, Adventurer's Kit, Wine, Bottle, Aecris Longsword +1 ====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&DI Character Builder ======
So game 3…and we got a bit better. First it sucked that Dave’s Nephew came along. Not that I mind kids, but he is 14, and stares at me. So all night I had to fight the urge to yell “Hey my eyes are up here twerp”. He wants to learn to play, and so I am trying to be patient. If he keeps his grades up (is school even in session now?) his mom said he can play with his uncle.
First we went back to part story mode part B.S. session, were we decided we finally would beat the info we need out of Ironetooth, go back to town, rerest, then try to stop his boss.
We were given a hand out of the story of Sir keegan, and got some basic equipment changes, like syl finally has armor. The Sage that I made friends with did a ritual to swap Renards Shortsowrd into a dagger, witch I guess allows it to be a pactblade to both warlock and sorcerer.
Ok so then we get to real play and we are on our way to the actual keep, or so we thought. The local priestess had someone that matched ‘Poisoning sucker punching Bitch elf’* description causing a major problem at the local grave yard. Since Syl owed her a good turn, we decided to go after her. (It also made sense that she was the spy)
So we get there, and she has done some kinda ritual, and boom undead everywhere. 15 zombie swordsmen, 2 zombie doggies, and the elf set up on top of a mausoleum. So we went right to it. Me and Syl ran through the undead, and jumped up leaving the others to handle the dogs and swordsmen. It was a quick fight (She was the only non minion) and it turns out it was a good thing we went here first, she had a pass word to get lower in the keep.
We headed back, and then set off for the keep. It is almost 16 hours to the keep, so it is night when we get there, and we are all ready to camp. We see a group of hobgoblins setting out. Some Know checks reval them to be a group of slavers from some place called the thunderspire (I was told that name is important, and since I got home I found out it was because it is the name of the second mod, I wonder if we will be going through that too??) since they were leaving, and we were not in fighting shape, we hid, and let them go. We were all sure we would get another chance to see them again, especially when we got a very detailed description of the leader that was equipped with a spiked chain (Yea NPC for the win)
The first area of the keep was pretty cool. It was dark and shadowey, and there were 2 goblin picador’s and 8 goblin minons. The best part, both picado’s tried to spear and pull Cap into a pit with a rat swarm, and both failed, then Cap pulled them into it…ok that was an awesome fight. Lots of things all happening at once. SO then we set up camp in the first room, and readied for a quick 2 hour rand r break before delving in. (Technically we still were at full it was just rp tired, so we could get away with this quick long rest)
We ended game talking about sending syl out to do some scouting so we could decide what to do.
Then I got to feel like a grade A Jerk… as we were all leaving dave’s Nephew says to me “Sorry, I guess I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable I just don’t get to talk to a lot of girls” I wanted to cry. I mean I have all these problems fitting in, and I know one of the guys had to have said something to him when I went to the bathroom, and I know these guys are not subtle. So I told him it was Ok, and gave him a hug. I guess I just need to see things form a different point of view. Here I was thinking of him learing at me, and he was unsure how to act with me. So now that has me thinking. Maybe I need to change my perspective on 4e too. Approach it from a different angle. I am not sure how, but I have a week to think about it. However for my sanity and the twerps nerves, I think I will were something baggy next week…
*Her name was Ninaran
PS: those level 2 character sheets:
ME
Lylandra Del Morgan, level 2 Shadar-kai, Swordmage Swordmage Aegis: Aegis of Shielding Background: Detective
FINAL ABILITY SCORES Str 13, Con 15, Dex 10, Int 18, Wis 11, Cha 12.
Starting Ability Scores Str 13, Con 15, Dex 8, Int 16, Wis 11, Cha 12.
ITEMS Craghammer, Light Shield, Chainmail, Razor Shield Light Shield (heroic tier), Dwarven Chainmail +1 ====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&DI Character Builder ======
Renard
Renard, level 2 Half-Elf, Warlock Eldritch Blast: Eldritch Blast Charisma Eldritch Pact: Fey Pact Background: On the Run from the Devil
FINAL ABILITY SCORES Str 8, Con 13, Dex 10, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 20.
Starting Ability Scores Str 8, Con 11, Dex 10, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 18.
ITEMS Leather Armor, Dagger, Implement, Rod, Pouch, Belt (empty), Adventurer's Kit, Alchemist's Fire (level 1), Scroll of Amanuensis, Alchemical Reagents (Arcana) (20), Pact Blade Dagger +1 ====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&DI Character Builder ======
Syl
Syl, level 2 Gnome, Rogue Rogue Tactics: Artful Dodger Background: Con Artist
FINAL ABILITY SCORES Str 8, Con 10, Dex 16, Int 14, Wis 12, Cha 18.
Starting Ability Scores Str 8, Con 10, Dex 16, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 16.
ITEMS Dagger (5), Fine Clothing, Thieves' Tools, Wine, Bottle, Adventurer's Kit, Leather Armor, Parrying Dagger +1 ====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&DI Character Builder ======
lucan
Lucan The Warrior, level 2 Deva, Invoker Divine Covenant: Covenant of Preservation Background: Traveling Missionary
FINAL ABILITY SCORES Str 8, Con 12, Dex 13, Int 16, Wis 18, Cha 13.
Starting Ability Scores Str 8, Con 12, Dex 13, Int 14, Wis 16, Cha 13.
So game two started about as well as all our rpgs do, late, and with someone still eating. But we picked up after about 2 hours of travel, and approaching a burial sight of a dragon(for some reason I kept thinking it was a tomb).
We got there, and there was a strange group moving around, and our very insightful group new they were trouble almost from the start, and so initiative was rolled, and I got to sit and watch as because of my nat 2, I was going dead last.
Our enemies were, a gnome wizard, a bunch of human thugs, some dragon/dogs, and a hafling on the other side of the battle field. The fight started with a bang, literally as Lucan used his lightning burst at will and fried all of the human thugs, yes all of them.
Renard went next and moved up near the gnome, cursed him, and used his daily, and crit. He did over 30 pts of damage to the gnome killing him out right. I swear I saw the vein in Dave’s neck twich at that. Round 1 the bad guys haven’t acted yet and we killed 4 or 5 of them already.
The rest of the round went much worse for us, both Capt Stoneblood, and syl missed the dragon/dogs, and I my luck went from bad to worse, with a nat 1 for my attack, lucky the dogs were just as bad. The hafling on the other hand had three attacks, and peppered Renard with sling bullets, and bloodied him.
The next few rounds shot by like a bolt, with Renard and Lucan having a rapid fire laser battle with the hafling, and Cap and Syl fighting those dogs. You may ask what I was doing during this, but since my d20 wouldn’t roll above a 4, it might as well have been nothing.
Then we ended the mod, ok not really, but it felt like it. We found my mentor Douven. He was being held here to identify things. This gnome was part of an underhanded cult of orcus, and they are trying to find a ‘shadow gate’. He was captured and was being forced to help them. He explained tht the kobolds were under the thumb of some hobgoblin who was working them up. He also put a true dark spin on this story, they were going to use this ‘shadow gate’ to bring a tenebrous form into the world, a small piece of orcus.
We all decided we had to stop this, but we had a problem, no one knew where this cult leader was. We did though know where the next link in the chain of command was, the kobold caves.
We also got our first magic items in this encounter. My mentor gave me a magic locket of health, and the gnome had a dagger +1 of parrying. Taking full advantage of the old saying, us ladies had the first magic items. We also all got some xp and gold. With the cool rp xp, and the ‘quest’ xp for freeing my mentor we were pretty close to 2nd level.
So we took Douven back to town and decided to ask around before heading back out in the morning. Good thing we did too, because we got quite some eye opening info. First Lucan and Cap spoke to the lord mayor. A lot of it was about some dark force moveing in the shadows, and an Ancient enemy rebuilding its forces. I think that will be important later. Renard again got some great RP in, as we found out that this bartender is ‘the one that got away’. However through all that me and Syl got the good intel. I spoke to Valthrun the sage, and got quite a story. Finally the name of this mod made sense, as we heard the story of ‘The keep on the Shadowfel’ . He only knew the basics about a shadow rift, and some guardian Knight going nuts, but he promised me he would find the books on it by the next night.
Meanwhile Syl met up with the elf she almost started the fight with, and boy is she important. Her whole adventuring party got slaughtered by the Orcus cult. She was in such a piss pour mood because she was about to give up all hope. She even gave Syl her last healing potion and told her we would need it.
So we all meet up and compared notes, slept, then in the morning headed out to the kobolds. We got some more rp xp, but were still just shy the level (I swear dave did that on purpose)
Then dave put out the 2nd battle map, and I think poor Jon had a heart attack.
Atleast a dozen kobolds, 1 was a knight, and 1 was a slinger, the rest were spearmen, and with them was an undead Orc in a magic circle.
And so we did what any person would do against overwhelming odds, we weighed our options, decided on the best course of action, and attacked anyway. Luckily all but the undead buy, the knight and the slinger were minions, but the undead thing was a Wight. They don’t drain levels anymore, now they take healing surges. That barely feels like a loss. The whole fight felt more annoying then hard. Infact it was almost a joke. By 10 mins in, around the top of round 3 we new we had this fight won, but there was all this moping up to do. None of us used action points, and none of us used daily’s, and the fight just would not end. It took over an hour real time, but in the end it felt like it was just one big grind.
Cap got a magic shield off the kobold knight, it is called a Razor shield, and all I can say is “Why didn’t he use it?” I mean here is a monster who uses a shield, and who had a magic one, but ‘monsters don’t use items’.
So Dave flips the map, and starts re ligning up the minis. Again a shitload of kobolds, but not a hobgoblin, a plain goblin was there in charge. I was about to meet the famus Iron Tooth.
I wrote it down this time, so I had the correct numbers to write here, Iron tooth, a Kobold Sorcerer, 2 Kobold Skirmishers, 2 Kobold Knights, 10 kobold minons, and 4 goblin minons. 20 monsters on the map at once. Yea 20 Vs 5 that seams fair.
Now where the fight before this seamed off, this just made me sick.
It was just shy of 2 hours of fighting out of game, when we called it for time. We were all down to just at wills, Iron tooth was hovering at bloodied and not bloodied, there were still minions on the field, and the sorcerer. Syl only survived by me giving her my amulet because she couldn’t make her save vs ongoing 5 poison the round before it would have killed her (no save or die’s right?). It seams that potion of healing was poisoned, so when she drank it with 1 hp left it droped her, and almost killed her. She also failed 2 death saves before I could stabilize her.(yes our defender took 2 rounds out of combat to save one of our strikers) Cap was down too (you know things are FUBAR when your healer is down).
It was an unwinnable fight, and we couldn’t run because with two members down and 1 at single digit hp we wouldn’t make it past the op attacks.
Dave said “hand wave you win” (something he has never before done) and awarded xp and treasure. We found out that there was a spy in winterhaven and they were ready for us (Gee I wonder if the lef bitch that spiked the potions might be the bad guy).
Cap got some dwarven armor, Renard found a Short sword pact blade, and Lucan got a magic staff +1. We also all leveled, some time next week I will post shots of the characters at level 2.
tonight defantly rubbed me the wrong way, infact I think tonight did more for turning me off to 4 e then anything before.
Ok, so game 1, and not too good of a start. I can’t believe the first mod starts game 1 with a fight, what happened to the story??? Ok at least it was a classic encounter…or so I thought. So we are all jokeing around, and getting ourselves some drinks (We play in Jon’s game room witch is in his basement next to a wet bar, but poopey-head Dave says “No alchoal at his D&D game.” So most of us have coke.), when he starts to pull out a poster map and put it down. We set up our mini’s and make the OotS joke about a grid forming, then I see the kobolds. So Dm for power gamers warned me a few weeks ago to ‘beware the kobolds’ but I looked and said to myself ‘gonna be a bunch of traps’ after all that is kobold tactic 101 right, wrong. First they had us outnumbered, there were about 10 of them: 1 with a sling, 2 in full armor and shields like knights, and the rest with pickaxes. Ok, so the pick Axe guys surprise us and charge, and that is bad news for us. They almost all hit. So I alone took 12 pts of damage. That’s right 3 kobolds brought me to just shy of ˝ hp in the surprise round, so much for longer combats. So then goes the slinger, and he hits our warlord, and sticks him inplace, witch is a save ends. Now he stayed stuck, and mostly out of the fight, for the whole thing, only his 2 healing inspirations and rolling under 5 on saves, that was his big first 4 e fight. Then comes the knights, and boy do they suck, they moved in and flanked me, giving them such a plus to hit that they hit me on a 7, it might have been a lower number needed, but Dave rolled a 7 and a someteen and hit. So another 12 damage later I found a new word “Bloodied”, I am also marked, so I have to attack the knight not a pickman (later I found out it is only a negative if I attack the other guy, but I misunderstood that at first) then these knights shift away, I am all like W.T.F. So I failed as a defender, here I was round 1, surrounded by a swarm of kobolds, and the two knights have shifted almost into my clothies, one next to the rouge, and one one away from the invoker. Then DM Dave calls for Initiative. The fight took almost an hour in real time. Those knights were mobile stabbing machines, everytime I moved into one it moved away. Finally I got wise though and readied an action for booming blade…it shifted in, attacked, I hit back, then it shifted away and BOOM…boy did that stop them. Meanwhile Our Invoker Summoned an Angle of Fire to hold off the pick kobolds, and out warlock roasted the slinger. What was our rogue doing you ask, well she could not line up Combat advantage, and she only hit once for d4+x, x being really low. So luckily the kobolds ignored her for the most part. I got healed twice, and was still hurt after the fight.
I would love to tell you how I kick those kobold knight buts, but truth be told had Renard not come over with his Burning spray, I don’t think I would have won this one.
On other highlight of the fight was my 8 one’s in a row for damage (my weapon reroll’s ones) so that was funny, the best part, it’s 9th roll (and 4th die) was an 8, MAX DAMAGE. So for this hour long kobold battle what do we get, less then 100xp, and less then 1gp each.
Then I was told to just spend healing surges to heal. So with no magic help I got hit by like a dozen picks, a flameing sling bolt, that lit me on fire, and stabed by kobold knights more times then I care to count, and I walk away at full hp. I tried not to complain, but it feels weird.
So Dave said that the short rest was us taking bandages, and some herbs and stuff and cleaning wounds. That being ‘full hp’ was still being beat to piss, but I was going to keep pushing like Bruce Willis in die hard.
So then we walked (limped in my case) into town. The I have to admit it got real fun.
First we went to the local bar/inn, and met Salvana Wrafton, or atleast some of us did, It appears Renard knows her, because he grewup around here. He thought her father still ran the place, and it was funny seeing Jim and Dave play the scean, I had to ask if they wanted to be alone at least twice. We found out my old mentor still had a room rented, but had not been back to town in sometime. So we rented rooms, and decided to ‘investigate’ We walked up to our rooms, and past his, when Syl says she can get past the lock in a few seconds, I step through the shadowfel, and into the room unlocking and opening it and ask “What lock?”
Investigating the room leads to very little, maybe there was more there, but we totally failed our first skill challenge. For some reason our group full of perception and insight just saw nothing. Dm Dave joke with the 3 rolls of 1 on perception checks we might have stepped over his dead body and not noticed.
So plan B, ok plan C, since Plan B is BEAT STUFF, and we decided asking around might get us somewhere first. We split up, Renard went down to talk to his girlfriend, Lucan and Capt Stone blood went to talk to the Mayor, and me and Sly went to the bar. After all two decent Cha females in a Bar, we should have them eating out of our hands in no time.
I spoke to the old guy, well sly made friends with the Sage, an elf flower child, and almost made an enemy of an Elvin archer. All in all we put together quite a story. It seams Douven found an old dragon tomb, and went to look into it, and never returned. It also seamed there was more and more kobold activity lately, and now problems with crops. Our going theory is that those kobolds are part of a tirbe that worshiped the dead dragon, and somehow they brought it back as undead, now it demands they become more violent, and Douven found this out. We know where the dragon site is, and renard knows were the kobolds use to hang out, so we have to avenues to explore. However there is more. Syl herd from flower girl that there are hobgoblins around here. So we have to be careful, afterall kobolds almost droped us.
So we sleep the night then heading out at morning to find the dragon tomb. As we head out guess who we run into. More Kobolds. This time 3 Knights, a Sorcerer, and 2 Rouges with spears. This time though no surprise, it is a fair fight.
I go first, and I shadow step to attack one of the knights, since he has his back to a rock, his free move doesn’t help him, so I use Green Flame Blade, and make up for all those bad rolls, nat 20. 12 damage to the knight, and 1 fire damage to the sorcerer and rouge adjacent to him. Then I pop and action point (Since last fight we all forgot) and Booming blade the sorcerer, no munchkin moonwalk for him. Then I mark the rouge with my Aegis, now that is more like it. Then Capt Stoneblood moves up to the rouge, and calls Concentrated Attack. He hits for a bunch of damage, then Renard gets to lance out with his eldritch blast. Then those knights got to go, and that one infront of me started shifting, and attacking, and hit, but for only a few hp this time. I smile and call my daily ice power that is a reaction, and bring him to bloodied. He marked me though, but not for long. Syl went next and used Fox's Gambit from hideing, and did SA, and removed his mark abilities. The other two knights were on our warlock though, but Lucan summoned up his angle of fire, I can tell that is gong to be his fav power. Needless to say this fight went better. This time we get over 100xp and a couple gold each, but the sorcerer had something else. A talisman of Orcus, The idea of a Undead dragon became much more real at that moment. On our way to this tomb, I realize something, only Renard has a daily left. We may be in trouble. But that was it for game 1.
Ok, so we made characters tonight, and it felt weird. Not bad, but weird.
Normally we take a whole night for characters, it only took like an hour to make 3. Now the fact that two characters were premade helped, and the character builder is very sexy (I understand the DDI lure). So that is good, 4e was suppose to stream line so mission accomplished. Ok, so we sat down and made the sheets, and I see a problem here. See everyone seams to have pretty much the same sheet. The rogue has ‘daily spells’ just by another name ‘exploits’. I know that rp is diff, but I fear the dungeon zone.
Every game gets there sooner or later, mega dungeons just get there first…that part of the game when you are in the dungeon, and your rp falls away and you just fight monsters. In a good game this doesn’t happen often, or last too long, but even great games have the kill feast sooner or later (YMMV).
When we get there everyone will basically be rolling best stat + ˝ level vs set Def. Everything will play the same…or at least that is my fear. In 2e and 3e when you got there everyone (well most) played different. Yea rangers were two weapon fighters and sorceress were wizards with a slight twist, but a fighter or a rouge (Thief) or a Cleric or a Wizard played different, they felt unique. I also wonder why rouges and rangers fire and forget…I just don’t get it. Dave tried to tell me some BS about just being the writer deciding when to shine, but I don’t buy it. I also noticed something else odd. Dave can glance at the sheet and know how many hp you are suppose to have (class+con). I have to wonder if someone at WotC had a cheater in there game for years (we all know the type, always has an 18, always is within 5 or 6 of max hp) and took the randomness away to stop said cheaters.
I always saw the randomness (stats, hp) as adding to the game. Sometimes I would role my stats before comeing up with a concept, then let it grow from there. Other times I had a concept in mind, but changed it when I say what I had. That won’t happen anymore, it is all static and cold. Well I guess I have to get use to it.
So now we have our characters and started to get the party together, we got our stories lined up pretty sweet if I do say so myself.
Character time…I got Dave to e-mail me the characters so I can post them. First off we are a very perceptive party, we all have insight or perception trained (Or both in my case) Edit: Wait not the dwarf…
Wait: Spoiler Warning, I don't know how much of this stuff is from the mod, and how much is Dave's homebrew, you have been warned
Me: Shadar Kai Swordmage I am too young to have been in the war, but not by much. My father fought and saw action, and I always wanted to follow in his foot steps. He however had other plans. He always said I was the smart one. He had me apprentice to an archeologist named Douven Staul. I however had other plans, and ran off to look for adventure first chance I got. I fell in with a bad crowd, a small group of grifters and conmen. I stayed with them until I found a place that was just right for me, a school of blade magic. I found school life too confining, and ran away from that too. Then one night I had a nightmare, and awoke to find a raven the size of a hafling staring at me. It flew, and I followed. It lead me back to Douven Staul’s house. I found out there from his wife (Like a second mother to me) that he was missing. He went to the city of Winter haven, but no one has herd from him in over 2 months. She fears the worst. She knew he had sent me a letter at the school asking me to go with him, so she hoped I had news. If I hadn’t run away again, I might have been with him. I might have known.
My father is no longer alive, but he once told me if I ever have trouble, if I am in over my head, to go to find his old friends…they would help me no matter what.
Lylandra
Lylandra Del Morgan, level 1 Shadar-kai, Swordmage Swordmage Aegis: Aegis of Shielding Background: Detective
FINAL ABILITY SCORES Str 13, Con 15, Dex 10, Int 18, Wis 11, Cha 12.
Starting Ability Scores Str 13, Con 15, Dex 8, Int 16, Wis 11, Cha 12.
ITEMS Khopesh, Leather Armor, Adventurer's Kit, Wine, Bottle ====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&DI Character Builder ======
Matt: Aasamar Invoker A friend of my father, he is an Invoker of Bane, and he did see action in the great war. He has felt something stirring in the last 3 years, but he is unsure of what. He has traveled the country side searching for clues, always one step behind. He fears another great evil is preparing to move. Everywhere he goes he can feel the wardrums beating. He served under Captain Padraig (now mayor of Winter haven) during the war.
Lucan
Lucan The hand of Bane, level 1 Deva, Invoker Divine Covenant: Covenant of Preservation Background: Traveling Missionary
FINAL ABILITY SCORES Str 8, Con 13, Dex 12, Int 16, Wis 18, Cha 13.
Starting Ability Scores Str 8, Con 13, Dex 12, Int 14, Wis 16, Cha 13.
POWERS 1, At-Will: Avenging Light 1, At-Will: Vanguard's Lightning 1, Encounter: Blades of Astral Fire 1, Daily: Summon Angel of Fire
ITEMS Nail of Sealing (heroic tier), Arcane Implement, Staff, Adventurer's Kit, Residuum (Any) (30), Sanctified Incense (Religion) (10)
RITUALS Hand of Fate, Explorer's Fire ====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&DI Character Builder ======
Kelly: Gnome Rouge Syl is a thief, a con woman, a grifter, and a pain in the ass. She also was my best friend for two long years on the road. She is currently working with a new partner, a person of many skills.
Syl
Syl, level 1 Gnome, Rogue Rogue Tactics: Artful Dodger Background: Con Artist
FINAL ABILITY SCORES Str 8, Con 10, Dex 16, Int 14, Wis 12, Cha 18.
Starting Ability Scores Str 8, Con 10, Dex 16, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 16.
ITEMS Dagger (5), Fine Clothing, Thieves' Tools, Wine, Bottle, Adventurer's Kit ====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&DI Character Builder ======
Jon: Dwarf Warlord Capt. Stone blood was my father’s commanding officer in the great war. He was also a friend. He and Captain Padraig (now mayor of Winter haven) had a bit of a rivalry during the war, all be it a friendly one. He is retired and owns a small bar in the town of __________. He has no intention of comeing out of retirement either.
Capt Stoneblood
Capt. StoneBlood, level 1 Dwarf, Warlord Commanding Presence: Tactical Presence Background: Officer Who Came Out of Retirement
FINAL ABILITY SCORES Str 16, Con 13, Dex 9, Int 15, Wis 14, Cha 12.
Starting Ability Scores Str 16, Con 11, Dex 9, Int 15, Wis 12, Cha 12.
ITEMS Craghammer, Light Shield, Chainmail ====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&DI Character Builder ======
Jim: Half elf Warlock No one really knows Renard. He has a quick tongue and a short fuse, but he also always seams to come out on top. He has had some questionable dealings, and hasn’t always been such a nice guy. He currently is working with Syl to fleece Money lenders.
Renard
Renard, level 1 Half-Elf, Warlock Eldritch Blast: Eldritch Blast Charisma Eldritch Pact: Fey Pact Background: On the Run from the Devil
FINAL ABILITY SCORES Str 8, Con 13, Dex 10, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 20.
Starting Ability Scores Str 8, Con 11, Dex 10, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 18.
ITEMS Leather Armor, Dagger, Arcane Implement, Rod, Pouch, Belt (empty), Adventurer's Kit, Alchemist's Fire (level 1), Scroll of Amanuensis, Alchemical Reagents (Arcana) (20) ====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&DI Character Builder ======
Ok, so I don't know all the backgrounds of everybody, but I do know that Jim let it slip that Renard lived in winterhaven for a while, this could be fun... Also before people ask, yes some party members have no armor, it wont last, but it was a choice to start that way.
DM: Dave: Has been playing 4e alot in another group and DMed my fav 2e game of all time...he owns everything including an Insider sub. He is a few year older then I am, and has been playing about the same amount of time, but he has been playing almost non stop.
Matt: He has been running LFR, and plays with the DM in another 4e game, so he is our Vet. He is odd, I am never sure what to make of him. Sometimes he is the worst power gamer, sometimes he is a method actor, and we never know witch one will show up on any given game. He also has all the books, and an Insider sub.
Matt and Dave both are on this site, although I am not sure if they only lurk or if they have screen names, so I have to be careful what I say (Feel free to jump in anytime guys)
Kelly: Is the Dm's new girlfriend (yea that never ends badly) and has only played Minds Eye Theater Vampire games. It seams odd to me that there are role-players that have played for any length of time, and not played D&D. This is her first D&D game ever, and one of her first Paper games at all. I don’t know what to make of her, hopefully a new friend.
Jon: Is an old time gamer (since he played chain mail in the 70's) but has only had 1 or two shots at 3e and has never played 4 e before. He is old enough to be my father, infact he has a son older then me, however he is the only guy that seams to ‘get me’. He realizes that I am a woman, ok sometimes he see’s me as a little girl, but he still treats me like one of the guys. He also is by far one of the smartest people I know. He always seams to know something about everything. He is a lot more excited then I am about trying 4e, in his mind it is just another change, since he has been through a lot so far he is pretty cool about it.
Jim: He was in our most recent 3.5 game, and has played a handful of LFR under player 2. I really hate him sometimes, ok maybe that is the envy talking. He has the life I want. He is a successful salesman, he is always having fun at the bar, at game, at work, or at any other place he wants to be. He always has money to spend, and he goes through it like it was water. He always has a SO, sometimes more then one (that makes him a jerk). I have never seen a girl think of him as a geek, or one of the gamers see him as ‘different’. I have to wonder how he does it, he can fit in anywhere. Maybe when I ‘grow up’ I will figure it out too, or maybe actually being ‘one of the boys’ changes things.
So counting me 5 players. 3 of us new to the edition, one of us new to D&D entirely. 2 players that are familiar with the game, one of witch knows it forward and back, maybe even better then the DM.
So what world are we in, well Dave calls it: Broken Shards: a points of light setting.
The world was at it’s height of society about 50 years ago. Large metropolises and kingdoms dotted the land, interplanar trade was not uncommon. Then came the Great War. This Cambion Arcmage somehow unleashed this ubber weapon. Undead Primordial’s. Super soldiers, that could raise people they killed as ghouls and wraiths (Yes both, ripp your soul out to become a wraith and animate your body as a ghoul). He used the dozen of these he had to supplement an undead and demon army. All the good people rose up to fight him, but they did so separately. As such they were losing badly. Then one day this dude comes out of nowhere and brings all of the armies together. This great general defeats and locks away this cambion, and destroys his army. He talks about building a new society, were good will rule and everyone can be happy, but he warns the worst is far from over, and the good people of the world need to be ever vigilant, because this Arcmage did not build these super soldiers, no they were waiting to be used by another. The problem is that this great general gets assassinated, and the whole thing falls apart. Without his force of personality everyone goes back to squabbling and separating.
Fast forward 15 years. The world is rebuilding, most kingdoms are no bigger then 1 or 2 cities, and no place is truly safe. Undead, Orcs, and shadowey monster have become more and more prevalent. It is a dark time, a time that many people have forgotten just how much worse it can be.
Again dave jump in any time if I mess up your story
So who am I and why am i writing this. Well I am Tabitha and I have been playing D&D for years...just about 14 years to be exact. Most of that time has been playing 2e.
I first found out about D&D when my first boyfriend (ok well maybe not but I called him that) took me to his house were his dad was running a basic D&D game. It was Basic D&D with some 2e and 1e rules thrown in. I was hooked right away.
In the beginning I enjoyed playing, but I found out that it was a little odd as I grew up. I hit puberty at 12 and was one of the first girls in the school to develop. Some of my friends and co players just could not deal with it.
I spent the years between 1999 and 2005 in a very odd place. I was odd girl out everywhere. I had guys break up with me for being a geek, and most gamers i knew acted like I was made of kryptonite. I bounced from game to game, mostly larping.
Senior year of high school I finally meet a group that I could join and not feel weird in. The problem was that being 2005 they were playing 3e. I had never played 3e before, but I learned quick. Heck Dave (My new fav DM) ran some 2e games too.
then came the announcement, 4e was announced at gen con, and as fate would have it, we had just finished a 2e/3e cross over game (Great time travel story). So I figured how bad could it be...we could do it through 2-4e now right.
Well I didn't follow the news about 4e at all, I just kept playing 3.5. Then came game day. I was floored. It was nothing like D&D, the fighter had spells, the wizard and fighter had the same number of powers. I just could not get it. It just didn't feel right. So I took the PHB and put it on the shelf and tried to forget it.
It didn't work. Everyone was talking about converting. It seamed like 3.5 games are dropping left and right. I got invited to a Pathfinder game and went once. It seamed like a great game, but one player wouldn't stop staring at me, and the DM must of thought I was brain dead...he kept asking if I got it...I have been rping for years.
so over the years I have had problems finding games, and now here I am. What do I do? Well I am giving 4e another shot.
Dave (My fav DM) is running a game, and he said that the players and the DM make the feel not the system. SO here I am giving it a shot.
so I asked here and at the wizards site what to play. We have a rather odd group. I will tell more after game night tomorrow when we make the characters.
We are running Keep on the Shadowfell, but a house campaign setting that it is being fit into...
so here I go...I am making a Swordmage. I played a ˝ drow ˝ high elf bladesinger back a few years ago, so I am starting with that concept. I think she will be one of these new races Shadar Kai.
(Feel free to jump in anytime guys)
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