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The Adventures of Baabby and Sam - a Skylanders Campaign
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 7030358" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 1: THE CHOMPY MINES</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Baabby, humanoid sheep barbarian/cleric (life) 1</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Sam Crow, humanoid crow ranger/rogue 1</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 18 February 2017</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>Baabby was a tall humanoid sheep, even taller than normal for those of his kind. And unlike the rest of the "baabarians" he had hung around with for most of his life in the flock, he was afflicted with both a deep-hearted sense of inherent goodness and an insatiable curiosity about what was out there in the wider world. When the opportunity came to strike out on his own, he did so - without a single look back.</p><p></p><p>Sam Crow was somewhat typical for his kind: short, with a deeply ingrained desire to keep himself from physical harm whenever possible. Once word had gotten out that the infamous villain Cross Crow - a respected figure among those with less-than-respectable natures themselves, and a celebrity to whom Sam had claimed on many occasions to everyone within earshot to be closely related - was coming to town, Sam realized it was time for him to skedaddle before his false claims caught up with him. He hastily left the Sons of Archery to go hang around somewhere he - and his lies - had never been heard of before.</p><p></p><p>When the two bumped into each other on the road they each sensed a kindred spirit and opted to travel together. This is the story of their adventures.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>"Help!" cried a voice from the nearby forest.</p><p></p><p>"Baabby -- someone needs help!" offered up Sam. "You know what that means: there's danger nearby! Come on -- let's head in the opposite direction!" Baabby's only response was to race toward the cries for assistance, hefty greataxe in hand. Cursing quietly to himself (and realizing if there was danger about, he was much safer near the hulking baabarian), Sam Crow reluctantly followed.</p><p></p><p>"Help! Somebody help us!" continued the cries. As the two mismatched adventurers approached, they saw it was a small group of Mabu miners. The Mabu were the predominant species in these parts of the Skylands: shorter than even Sam Crow, they had bearlike features and were generally so dang cuddly-looking you just wanted to snuggle up to one.</p><p></p><p>"Whaat's the problem?" asked Baabby.</p><p></p><p>"There are chompies in our mines!" explained the head Mabu. "They're attacking anybody who goes near!"</p><p></p><p>"Chompies?" repeated Sam Crow. "C'mon, Baabby: LET"S GET OUT OF HERE!"</p><p></p><p>"Hold on," advised Baabby, grabbing Sam by the shoulder before he could run off. "These people need our help."</p><p></p><p>Sam Crow let out a breath of exasperation. "Fine!" he griped. He hadn't known the baabarian for long, but he knew how stubborn Baabby could be once he set his mind to something. The miners pointed the way towards their mine, and Baabby headed there with a grumbling Sam in tow.</p><p></p><p>Just before the mine entrance, there was a clearing in the forest. Sure enough, roaming around the clearing were eight chompies: squat, mobile plant creatures with a wide mouth filled with thorn-teeth and two eyestalks jutting above their rotund head-bodies. Since the adventurers had made no attempt to move silently through the forest, the five nearest were aware of the duo as soon as they entered the grove. Turning to face them, they instinctively made the "chomping" gestures with their mouths as they approached, waddling on their stumpy legs.</p><p></p><p>Baabby stepped forward and held his greataxe at the ready. As soon as the first chompy stepped into range, he swung a mighty blow. Judging from the leafy material exploding outwards in all directions, it rather looked like someone had taken a weed-whacker to a head of lettuce.</p><p></p><p>"Pffft!" scoffed Sam, rolling his eyes at how easily these chompies could be taken down. He sighted an arrow at the next in line. "I got this one!" he called out confidently - before he sent the arrow whizzing right between the creature's eyestalks without even touching it. It would have been a spectacular shot had that been what the crow had been trying to do - instead of having tried to shoot it smack-dab in its squat little body. "Awwww!" he cried desolately.</p><p></p><p>Of the four chompies from the original group of five that had approached, three moved forward to attack the adventuring duo, neither of them quite managing to bite their targets. The fourth, however, did an about-face and waddled back away from Baabby and Sam as fast as its stumpy legs would take it. "Ha!" cried Sam. "Look at that, Baabby -- you've got it so scared it's running away!" But the crow's cocky smile turned sour when he saw the chompy hadn't been running away after all; rather, it was grabbing reinforcements. The three other chompies back by the mine entrance, alerted to enemies by its friend, spun back to the threat and all four raced back into battle.</p><p></p><p>Baabby swung his greataxe and practically exploded another chompy, while Sam once again managed to <em>almost</em> hit another chompy. This one returned the favor, but was much more successful with its attack. "Aaaagh--I'm being chewed!" complained Sam Crow as the chompy gnawed on the humanoid crow with its thorn-teeth. "Help me, Baabby!" Baabby, dealing with another chompy on his own, was unable to help. Forced to fight his own battle, Sam Crow pulled the short sword from the scabbard at his hip and stabbed at the chompy trying to eat him. He skewered it like a shish-ka-bob and cried out in glee. Then, seeing the second wave of chompies approaching, Sam Crow ran to a nearby rock and scampered up it, hoping to be able to shoot down at the little plant monsters from a higher point of safety.</p><p></p><p>Baabby finished off his third chompy and headed over toward the rock Sam was perched upon. The last four chompies split up, two heading for the baabarian and two veering off to Sam's rock. The two snapped at Baabby, but the nimble baabarian easily avoided their bites. Up on the rock, Sam Crow switched back to his shortbow, thinking this was going to be like shooting fish in a barrel -- before sending an arrow thunking down straight into the ground. The chompies, in turn, started leaping up as high as they could, their snapping jaws clamping down on the frazzled crow. "Hey, stop it!" cried Sam. "You're chompies, not jumpies! No fair!"</p><p></p><p>Baabby likewise took a few hits from the two chompies he was fighting, their thorn-teeth sinking deep into his flesh with each successful bite. But while their bites definitely hurt - even drawing blood - Baabby's greataxe could do a <em>lot</em> more damage than their thorny teeth could. Each time, it was a single blow from his greataxe that took out a chompy. After dealing with his two, he headed over to Sam's rock perch - the crow hadn't managed to hit either of the two chompies he'd been fighting, not even once - and helped his partner by slicing up the plant monsters with his blade. Once Baabby had taken care of those last two, Sam Crow climbed down from his perch. "Good job," he said to the baabarian.</p><p></p><p>Looking around, there were no other chompies about, so Baabby took the time to cast a few healing spells. Holding onto the Life Amulet he wore around his neck, he channeled healing energy into a massive hand and applied it to the wounds the two adventurers had sustained. In each case, the wounds healed over, until the pair was as good as new. "Sweet!" cried Sam Crow, heading to the mine entrance. "Let's go in! Uh, you first, though," he amended.</p><p></p><p>Baabby strode confidently through the mine entrance, Sam Crow just behind him. Turning a corner, they saw four more chompies approaching. "Aw, no, not more of them!" complained Sam, shooting at one and actually hitting him on the first try for once. Baabby didn't waste any time with words, merely stepping up to one, killing it with one blow, and then killing another with the return swing of his greataxe. Sam Crow's beak gaped open; here he had been so proud of downing a chompy with a single arrow, and then that hulking brute had to go show him up like that! It just wasn't fair! Sam sulked even harder when Baabby calmly stepped up to the last remaining chompy and took it out after it had had only one chance to snap its thorns at him.</p><p></p><p>There were a few crates just up ahead. Sam Crow gave them the once-over, eager to prove his usefulness by checking the containers for traps. Finding nothing in the way of traps, he announced they were safe and Baabby stared opening them. Most contained mining tools - picks, shovels, and the like - but they also found four <em>potions of cure light wounds</em>, which Sam quickly grabbed up. Then, with a look of much deliberation, he passed two of them over to the humanoid sheep. "Here," he said.</p><p></p><p>"These aren't ours," pointed out Baabby.</p><p></p><p>"True," admitted Sam. "But I'm sure the miners won't mind if we take them for now. We'll only use them if we need them. And if we don't need them, we can always give them back." Seeing the logic, Baabby shook his shaggy head and put his two potions in containers on his belt where he could get to them quickly as needed, while Sam Crow did likewise, silently pleading desperately with fate for the miners to let them keep them.</p><p></p><p>"Look: traacks!" said Baabby, pointing down at the floor of the mine. Sam was surprised the baabarian would be able to find any tracks in the stone floor of the mine - and he definitely didn't want to see whatever monster was big enough to leave discernable tracks in solid stone! - but then he saw what Baabby was talking about. A pair of railroad tracks led deeper into the mine, no doubt put there so the miners could use carts to haul away the rock they dug out. Following the tracks, the duo found they split off and went in two different directions: and that two more chompies were rapidly (for them) approaching from each direction!</p><p></p><p>"I'll take the two straight ahead!" said Sam Crow, lining up an arrow at one of the chompies coming from directly in front of him. It was a snap decision based on several factors, the main ones being that the two chompies straight ahead were much farther away than the pair off to the right, who could get to the crow much quicker. Better to let Baabby deal with them!</p><p></p><p>And deal with them is exactly what Baabby did. With two swings of his greataxe, he had two dead chompies at his feet. Sam managed to take out one of his own designated foes with one arrow shot, leaving only one chompy left alive of the four who had approached just seconds ago. Baabby stepped forward to go deal with it, making himself the chompy's primarily target - which suited Sam Crow just fine.</p><p></p><p>Baabby almost casually dispatched the chompy, then turned the corner and saw a new threat: it was a plant creature somewhat like an oversized chompy, only without the chompy's eyestalks, thorns, or stumpy feet. It had a ring of leaves around it and a maw that gaped open at the top. As Baabby - and Sam, who had moved up closer to his friend now that it was safe - watched in amazement, its maw opened up and disgorged another chompy, which immediately sprang into action, biting at Baabby. The hulking baabarian killed it with a single stroke of his axe, while Sam heard the sounds of another chompy approaching from behind them, around the corner in the other direction the tracks took.</p><p></p><p>"There's more chompies coming behind us!" warned the crow. "Do you want me to go take care of them, or should I help you with that thing?"</p><p></p><p>"You go take care of them," advised Baabby. "I got this one." Dutifully, Sam went back to the other track and saw a single chompy headed toward him. He lined up his shot, let fly with his arrow - and missed yet again. The crow snarled in frustration, grateful at least that his powerful friend hadn't seen him botch the shot. Baabby, however, was too busy to worry about such things. He was carving up the chompy pod, trying to cut it down before it could belch forth any more chompies. He didn't kill it until after it had disgorged one more chompy, but then he managed to slay them both, taking some damage from the chompy's bite before he killed it. Then, seeing the chompy pod had been placed at a dead end in the mine, he followed the way Sam Crow had gone, in case his crow companion needed any help.</p><p></p><p>Not surprisingly, Baabby's crow companion <em>did</em> need some help. Sam had shot at the chompy again, and missed, again, and now the chompy was busy trying to chew its way through the crow's body. Sam had been forced to forego his bow attacks and try to fight the thing off with his short sword. He finally managed to do so, just as Baabby stormed past him to see what other menaces might be present down this section of mine. As the sheep trudged down the mine, he saw a familiar shape: another chompy pod, this one currently in the process of spitting forth yet another chompy. Baabby cut the chompy in two on his way to the chompy pod, and as Sam Crow approached, he saw another figure even further down the mineshaft. This one was about the same size as a chompy, but it hovered just above the ground and was wearing a hooded robe. Fortunately, his back was turned and his attention was focused on something in front of him, so he didn't yet seem to know about the intruding adventurers.</p><p></p><p>Sam Crow made a quick assessment of the distances involved and opted to shoot at the chompy pod as he approached the figure further on. For a change, he hit on the first try, but then the chompy pod was easily four times as big as his hulking friend Baabby - and thus a lot harder to miss. Baabby stepped up to the chompy pod and swung down at the plant with his greataxe, chopping a whole section of it off.</p><p></p><p>And then, as the wounded chompy pod made shrieking cries of pain, the robed figure spun around. Sam saw two beady, glowing eyes shining from beneath the figure's hood, as its hands suddenly glowed with green energy. Thrusting its hands forward, it sent a green ball of energy blasting down the mineshaft - and striking the back of the chompy pod.</p><p></p><p>"What?" asked Sam Crow, confused at the enemy's seeming attack on what the crow had assumed was one of his allies. But then, as the chompy pod's body glowed with green energy and the chunk of its body that Baabby had just chopped off began growing back, Sam figured out what was going on. "Hey, no fair! He's healing the chompy pod!" he cried.</p><p></p><p>True enough, the chompy pod was now stronger than it had been just a few seconds ago, when Baabby had chopped a good chunk of it off. But no matter: what the baabarian had done once, he could do again! And Baabby continued to do just that, swinging his mighty axe and cutting the chompy pod to ribbons.</p><p></p><p>Sam Crow, meanwhile, focused all of his archery skills - for he was skilled, even if his success rate in combat thus far was less on the "impressive" end of the scale and more towards the "embarrassing" end - and sent an arrow flying at the floating mage, whose Life symbol on the front of his robe identified it as a Life spell punk. Sam's arrow hit the spell punk, and it once again caused two glowing orbs of green energy to form around its hands, then coalesce into a larger one. It sent this shooting down the mineshaft, but as by this time Baabby had already slain the second chompy pod, neither adventurer was sure of what it was meant to do. They'd never find out, for if it had been aimed at Baabby, it missed. Sam Crow shot another arrow at the spell punk, and this one brought him down.</p><p></p><p>The mineshaft behind where the spell punk had fallen was another dead end, and as this covered the entirety of the mine thus far, the two adventurers congratulated themselves on a job well done. But while Sam Crow was taking time to literally pat himself on the back, Baabby walked up to the dead end tunnel and peered inquisitively at the far wall.</p><p></p><p>"What's up?" asked Sam Crow.</p><p></p><p>"Look at this," Baabby replied. Sticking out of the wall was the hilt of a sword - a rather large sword, judging by the size of the hilt. "Let me see," advised Sam stepping on tippy-toes to get a better look at the sword hilt projecting from the wall. "It doesn't look like it's trapped," he commented. "I wonder how it got stuck in here?"</p><p></p><p>Baabby strapped his greataxe back in place on his broad back and stepped up to the back wall. Then, grabbing the imbedded sword by its hilt, he gave a mighty tug - and the sword came effortlessly gliding out of the stone wall.</p><p></p><p>"Whoa, look at it!" said Sam Crow in admiration. It was a massive greatsword, obviously well-forged, with ancient-looking carvings cut entirely through the center of the sword's blade: eight in all. The crow easily identified one of the "negative space" carvings as an older version of the Life symbol that Baabby wore on the amulet around his neck. With a little squinting and some imagination, he could make out older versions of the symbols of the other seven elements: air, earth, fire, magic, tech, undead, and water.</p><p></p><p>"This is a very powerful weapon!" declared Sam Crow. "It's going to need somebody with a lot of strength to wield it. Therefore, it should obviously go to me!"</p><p></p><p>Baabby just looked down at his companion with an "are you crazy?" expression on his face.</p><p></p><p>"Ah, I'm only kidding!" admitted Sam Crow. "The silly thing probably weighs more than I do! C'mon, let's go tell those Mabu miners we took care of their chompy problem for them!"</p><p></p><p>The Mabu were as grateful for the adventurers' help as the humanoid crow could have hoped for - and then some. Not only did they let the duo keep the healing potions they'd found among the crates, they also handed over a bag of 500 gold coins apiece to them.</p><p></p><p>"Whoa, thanks!" said Sam Crow wholeheartedly. Maybe there was something to this hero business after all! But if he was going to continue to be successful at it, it would probably be a good idea to stick close to his new hulking baabarian friend.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>Best news first: this was fun for all involved! Logan had a blast coming up with the adventure and really enjoyed his first DMing session. (He's proven over the years he has an even better grasp of the 3.5 rules than I do, so I knew he'd do a good job on that front.) He opted to use some of my Paizo game maps for the battlemats for this adventure: one side of the "Giant Lairs" flip-maps for the area just outside the mine, and five of the smaller map sections from the <em>GameMastery</em> "Mines" map pack for the mine's interior.</p><p></p><p>For my part, this was the first time I got to be a player instead of the DM in literally years. Not that I'm complaining, mind you - I love DMing, but it was nice getting to be on the other side for a change.</p><p></p><p>And Harry, as Logan and I had hoped, had a blast! It probably didn't hurt that his very first attack roll with his very first set of dice was a natural "20" confirmed as a critical hit with a greataxe, dealing a combined total of 40 points of damage. (Logan, quite wisely I thought, decreed that chompies are "crittable" despite being creatures of the plant type; after all, we weren't shooting for an accurate-to-the-nth-degree 3.5 rules set, but a fun time for a 10-year-old.) As Logan had designed the chompies - which can only take one hit in the Skylanders videogames - as creatures with 2 hp each, it's no wonder the chompy practically exploded. Harry thought that was hilarious, yet found my own complete miss with my own first attack to be even funnier. But he's already gotten a pretty good grasp of the rules, knowing the difference between the different polyhedral dice and when you use which. We had him do all the math for the damage, so it's reinforcing his math skills, and he already figured out that there's no point in using Power Attack against the chompies, whereas with the chompy pods (and their extremely low AC, due to their immobility) it's a definite boon. And boy, was Cleave ever a good choice for his second feat! (We're using the "human" racial bonuses for our humanoid animal PCs, so we each started with two feats.) He managed to kill two chompies in one round at least twice in this adventure.</p><p></p><p>And talk about role-playing! Harry created a "Baabby" voice for his character, and continued to use that voice for the whole session, whether he was actually being in character or simply asking questions of the DM. "Whaaat do I see around the corner?" he'd ask Logan, even though in-game Baabby wasn't actually saying a word. I guess he's an immersion actor!</p><p></p><p>In any case, we had a good time with this, and Harry's informed us he's ready for more adventures. Next Saturday we have a Kordovian game session scheduled so we told him we might have to wait two weeks, but Harry reminded us that just because we'll be playing a Kordovian adventure on Saturday doesn't mean we can't have a Skylanders adventure on Sunday. So we're leaving it up to how soon Logan can have another adventure ready to go.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 7030358, member: 508"] [b]ADVENTURE 1: THE CHOMPY MINES[/b] PC Roster: [INDENT]Baabby, humanoid sheep barbarian/cleric (life) 1 Sam Crow, humanoid crow ranger/rogue 1[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 18 February 2017 - - - Baabby was a tall humanoid sheep, even taller than normal for those of his kind. And unlike the rest of the "baabarians" he had hung around with for most of his life in the flock, he was afflicted with both a deep-hearted sense of inherent goodness and an insatiable curiosity about what was out there in the wider world. When the opportunity came to strike out on his own, he did so - without a single look back. Sam Crow was somewhat typical for his kind: short, with a deeply ingrained desire to keep himself from physical harm whenever possible. Once word had gotten out that the infamous villain Cross Crow - a respected figure among those with less-than-respectable natures themselves, and a celebrity to whom Sam had claimed on many occasions to everyone within earshot to be closely related - was coming to town, Sam realized it was time for him to skedaddle before his false claims caught up with him. He hastily left the Sons of Archery to go hang around somewhere he - and his lies - had never been heard of before. When the two bumped into each other on the road they each sensed a kindred spirit and opted to travel together. This is the story of their adventures. - - - "Help!" cried a voice from the nearby forest. "Baabby -- someone needs help!" offered up Sam. "You know what that means: there's danger nearby! Come on -- let's head in the opposite direction!" Baabby's only response was to race toward the cries for assistance, hefty greataxe in hand. Cursing quietly to himself (and realizing if there was danger about, he was much safer near the hulking baabarian), Sam Crow reluctantly followed. "Help! Somebody help us!" continued the cries. As the two mismatched adventurers approached, they saw it was a small group of Mabu miners. The Mabu were the predominant species in these parts of the Skylands: shorter than even Sam Crow, they had bearlike features and were generally so dang cuddly-looking you just wanted to snuggle up to one. "Whaat's the problem?" asked Baabby. "There are chompies in our mines!" explained the head Mabu. "They're attacking anybody who goes near!" "Chompies?" repeated Sam Crow. "C'mon, Baabby: LET"S GET OUT OF HERE!" "Hold on," advised Baabby, grabbing Sam by the shoulder before he could run off. "These people need our help." Sam Crow let out a breath of exasperation. "Fine!" he griped. He hadn't known the baabarian for long, but he knew how stubborn Baabby could be once he set his mind to something. The miners pointed the way towards their mine, and Baabby headed there with a grumbling Sam in tow. Just before the mine entrance, there was a clearing in the forest. Sure enough, roaming around the clearing were eight chompies: squat, mobile plant creatures with a wide mouth filled with thorn-teeth and two eyestalks jutting above their rotund head-bodies. Since the adventurers had made no attempt to move silently through the forest, the five nearest were aware of the duo as soon as they entered the grove. Turning to face them, they instinctively made the "chomping" gestures with their mouths as they approached, waddling on their stumpy legs. Baabby stepped forward and held his greataxe at the ready. As soon as the first chompy stepped into range, he swung a mighty blow. Judging from the leafy material exploding outwards in all directions, it rather looked like someone had taken a weed-whacker to a head of lettuce. "Pffft!" scoffed Sam, rolling his eyes at how easily these chompies could be taken down. He sighted an arrow at the next in line. "I got this one!" he called out confidently - before he sent the arrow whizzing right between the creature's eyestalks without even touching it. It would have been a spectacular shot had that been what the crow had been trying to do - instead of having tried to shoot it smack-dab in its squat little body. "Awwww!" he cried desolately. Of the four chompies from the original group of five that had approached, three moved forward to attack the adventuring duo, neither of them quite managing to bite their targets. The fourth, however, did an about-face and waddled back away from Baabby and Sam as fast as its stumpy legs would take it. "Ha!" cried Sam. "Look at that, Baabby -- you've got it so scared it's running away!" But the crow's cocky smile turned sour when he saw the chompy hadn't been running away after all; rather, it was grabbing reinforcements. The three other chompies back by the mine entrance, alerted to enemies by its friend, spun back to the threat and all four raced back into battle. Baabby swung his greataxe and practically exploded another chompy, while Sam once again managed to [i]almost[/i] hit another chompy. This one returned the favor, but was much more successful with its attack. "Aaaagh--I'm being chewed!" complained Sam Crow as the chompy gnawed on the humanoid crow with its thorn-teeth. "Help me, Baabby!" Baabby, dealing with another chompy on his own, was unable to help. Forced to fight his own battle, Sam Crow pulled the short sword from the scabbard at his hip and stabbed at the chompy trying to eat him. He skewered it like a shish-ka-bob and cried out in glee. Then, seeing the second wave of chompies approaching, Sam Crow ran to a nearby rock and scampered up it, hoping to be able to shoot down at the little plant monsters from a higher point of safety. Baabby finished off his third chompy and headed over toward the rock Sam was perched upon. The last four chompies split up, two heading for the baabarian and two veering off to Sam's rock. The two snapped at Baabby, but the nimble baabarian easily avoided their bites. Up on the rock, Sam Crow switched back to his shortbow, thinking this was going to be like shooting fish in a barrel -- before sending an arrow thunking down straight into the ground. The chompies, in turn, started leaping up as high as they could, their snapping jaws clamping down on the frazzled crow. "Hey, stop it!" cried Sam. "You're chompies, not jumpies! No fair!" Baabby likewise took a few hits from the two chompies he was fighting, their thorn-teeth sinking deep into his flesh with each successful bite. But while their bites definitely hurt - even drawing blood - Baabby's greataxe could do a [i]lot[/i] more damage than their thorny teeth could. Each time, it was a single blow from his greataxe that took out a chompy. After dealing with his two, he headed over to Sam's rock perch - the crow hadn't managed to hit either of the two chompies he'd been fighting, not even once - and helped his partner by slicing up the plant monsters with his blade. Once Baabby had taken care of those last two, Sam Crow climbed down from his perch. "Good job," he said to the baabarian. Looking around, there were no other chompies about, so Baabby took the time to cast a few healing spells. Holding onto the Life Amulet he wore around his neck, he channeled healing energy into a massive hand and applied it to the wounds the two adventurers had sustained. In each case, the wounds healed over, until the pair was as good as new. "Sweet!" cried Sam Crow, heading to the mine entrance. "Let's go in! Uh, you first, though," he amended. Baabby strode confidently through the mine entrance, Sam Crow just behind him. Turning a corner, they saw four more chompies approaching. "Aw, no, not more of them!" complained Sam, shooting at one and actually hitting him on the first try for once. Baabby didn't waste any time with words, merely stepping up to one, killing it with one blow, and then killing another with the return swing of his greataxe. Sam Crow's beak gaped open; here he had been so proud of downing a chompy with a single arrow, and then that hulking brute had to go show him up like that! It just wasn't fair! Sam sulked even harder when Baabby calmly stepped up to the last remaining chompy and took it out after it had had only one chance to snap its thorns at him. There were a few crates just up ahead. Sam Crow gave them the once-over, eager to prove his usefulness by checking the containers for traps. Finding nothing in the way of traps, he announced they were safe and Baabby stared opening them. Most contained mining tools - picks, shovels, and the like - but they also found four [i]potions of cure light wounds[/i], which Sam quickly grabbed up. Then, with a look of much deliberation, he passed two of them over to the humanoid sheep. "Here," he said. "These aren't ours," pointed out Baabby. "True," admitted Sam. "But I'm sure the miners won't mind if we take them for now. We'll only use them if we need them. And if we don't need them, we can always give them back." Seeing the logic, Baabby shook his shaggy head and put his two potions in containers on his belt where he could get to them quickly as needed, while Sam Crow did likewise, silently pleading desperately with fate for the miners to let them keep them. "Look: traacks!" said Baabby, pointing down at the floor of the mine. Sam was surprised the baabarian would be able to find any tracks in the stone floor of the mine - and he definitely didn't want to see whatever monster was big enough to leave discernable tracks in solid stone! - but then he saw what Baabby was talking about. A pair of railroad tracks led deeper into the mine, no doubt put there so the miners could use carts to haul away the rock they dug out. Following the tracks, the duo found they split off and went in two different directions: and that two more chompies were rapidly (for them) approaching from each direction! "I'll take the two straight ahead!" said Sam Crow, lining up an arrow at one of the chompies coming from directly in front of him. It was a snap decision based on several factors, the main ones being that the two chompies straight ahead were much farther away than the pair off to the right, who could get to the crow much quicker. Better to let Baabby deal with them! And deal with them is exactly what Baabby did. With two swings of his greataxe, he had two dead chompies at his feet. Sam managed to take out one of his own designated foes with one arrow shot, leaving only one chompy left alive of the four who had approached just seconds ago. Baabby stepped forward to go deal with it, making himself the chompy's primarily target - which suited Sam Crow just fine. Baabby almost casually dispatched the chompy, then turned the corner and saw a new threat: it was a plant creature somewhat like an oversized chompy, only without the chompy's eyestalks, thorns, or stumpy feet. It had a ring of leaves around it and a maw that gaped open at the top. As Baabby - and Sam, who had moved up closer to his friend now that it was safe - watched in amazement, its maw opened up and disgorged another chompy, which immediately sprang into action, biting at Baabby. The hulking baabarian killed it with a single stroke of his axe, while Sam heard the sounds of another chompy approaching from behind them, around the corner in the other direction the tracks took. "There's more chompies coming behind us!" warned the crow. "Do you want me to go take care of them, or should I help you with that thing?" "You go take care of them," advised Baabby. "I got this one." Dutifully, Sam went back to the other track and saw a single chompy headed toward him. He lined up his shot, let fly with his arrow - and missed yet again. The crow snarled in frustration, grateful at least that his powerful friend hadn't seen him botch the shot. Baabby, however, was too busy to worry about such things. He was carving up the chompy pod, trying to cut it down before it could belch forth any more chompies. He didn't kill it until after it had disgorged one more chompy, but then he managed to slay them both, taking some damage from the chompy's bite before he killed it. Then, seeing the chompy pod had been placed at a dead end in the mine, he followed the way Sam Crow had gone, in case his crow companion needed any help. Not surprisingly, Baabby's crow companion [i]did[/i] need some help. Sam had shot at the chompy again, and missed, again, and now the chompy was busy trying to chew its way through the crow's body. Sam had been forced to forego his bow attacks and try to fight the thing off with his short sword. He finally managed to do so, just as Baabby stormed past him to see what other menaces might be present down this section of mine. As the sheep trudged down the mine, he saw a familiar shape: another chompy pod, this one currently in the process of spitting forth yet another chompy. Baabby cut the chompy in two on his way to the chompy pod, and as Sam Crow approached, he saw another figure even further down the mineshaft. This one was about the same size as a chompy, but it hovered just above the ground and was wearing a hooded robe. Fortunately, his back was turned and his attention was focused on something in front of him, so he didn't yet seem to know about the intruding adventurers. Sam Crow made a quick assessment of the distances involved and opted to shoot at the chompy pod as he approached the figure further on. For a change, he hit on the first try, but then the chompy pod was easily four times as big as his hulking friend Baabby - and thus a lot harder to miss. Baabby stepped up to the chompy pod and swung down at the plant with his greataxe, chopping a whole section of it off. And then, as the wounded chompy pod made shrieking cries of pain, the robed figure spun around. Sam saw two beady, glowing eyes shining from beneath the figure's hood, as its hands suddenly glowed with green energy. Thrusting its hands forward, it sent a green ball of energy blasting down the mineshaft - and striking the back of the chompy pod. "What?" asked Sam Crow, confused at the enemy's seeming attack on what the crow had assumed was one of his allies. But then, as the chompy pod's body glowed with green energy and the chunk of its body that Baabby had just chopped off began growing back, Sam figured out what was going on. "Hey, no fair! He's healing the chompy pod!" he cried. True enough, the chompy pod was now stronger than it had been just a few seconds ago, when Baabby had chopped a good chunk of it off. But no matter: what the baabarian had done once, he could do again! And Baabby continued to do just that, swinging his mighty axe and cutting the chompy pod to ribbons. Sam Crow, meanwhile, focused all of his archery skills - for he was skilled, even if his success rate in combat thus far was less on the "impressive" end of the scale and more towards the "embarrassing" end - and sent an arrow flying at the floating mage, whose Life symbol on the front of his robe identified it as a Life spell punk. Sam's arrow hit the spell punk, and it once again caused two glowing orbs of green energy to form around its hands, then coalesce into a larger one. It sent this shooting down the mineshaft, but as by this time Baabby had already slain the second chompy pod, neither adventurer was sure of what it was meant to do. They'd never find out, for if it had been aimed at Baabby, it missed. Sam Crow shot another arrow at the spell punk, and this one brought him down. The mineshaft behind where the spell punk had fallen was another dead end, and as this covered the entirety of the mine thus far, the two adventurers congratulated themselves on a job well done. But while Sam Crow was taking time to literally pat himself on the back, Baabby walked up to the dead end tunnel and peered inquisitively at the far wall. "What's up?" asked Sam Crow. "Look at this," Baabby replied. Sticking out of the wall was the hilt of a sword - a rather large sword, judging by the size of the hilt. "Let me see," advised Sam stepping on tippy-toes to get a better look at the sword hilt projecting from the wall. "It doesn't look like it's trapped," he commented. "I wonder how it got stuck in here?" Baabby strapped his greataxe back in place on his broad back and stepped up to the back wall. Then, grabbing the imbedded sword by its hilt, he gave a mighty tug - and the sword came effortlessly gliding out of the stone wall. "Whoa, look at it!" said Sam Crow in admiration. It was a massive greatsword, obviously well-forged, with ancient-looking carvings cut entirely through the center of the sword's blade: eight in all. The crow easily identified one of the "negative space" carvings as an older version of the Life symbol that Baabby wore on the amulet around his neck. With a little squinting and some imagination, he could make out older versions of the symbols of the other seven elements: air, earth, fire, magic, tech, undead, and water. "This is a very powerful weapon!" declared Sam Crow. "It's going to need somebody with a lot of strength to wield it. Therefore, it should obviously go to me!" Baabby just looked down at his companion with an "are you crazy?" expression on his face. "Ah, I'm only kidding!" admitted Sam Crow. "The silly thing probably weighs more than I do! C'mon, let's go tell those Mabu miners we took care of their chompy problem for them!" The Mabu were as grateful for the adventurers' help as the humanoid crow could have hoped for - and then some. Not only did they let the duo keep the healing potions they'd found among the crates, they also handed over a bag of 500 gold coins apiece to them. "Whoa, thanks!" said Sam Crow wholeheartedly. Maybe there was something to this hero business after all! But if he was going to continue to be successful at it, it would probably be a good idea to stick close to his new hulking baabarian friend. - - - Best news first: this was fun for all involved! Logan had a blast coming up with the adventure and really enjoyed his first DMing session. (He's proven over the years he has an even better grasp of the 3.5 rules than I do, so I knew he'd do a good job on that front.) He opted to use some of my Paizo game maps for the battlemats for this adventure: one side of the "Giant Lairs" flip-maps for the area just outside the mine, and five of the smaller map sections from the [i]GameMastery[/i] "Mines" map pack for the mine's interior. For my part, this was the first time I got to be a player instead of the DM in literally years. Not that I'm complaining, mind you - I love DMing, but it was nice getting to be on the other side for a change. And Harry, as Logan and I had hoped, had a blast! It probably didn't hurt that his very first attack roll with his very first set of dice was a natural "20" confirmed as a critical hit with a greataxe, dealing a combined total of 40 points of damage. (Logan, quite wisely I thought, decreed that chompies are "crittable" despite being creatures of the plant type; after all, we weren't shooting for an accurate-to-the-nth-degree 3.5 rules set, but a fun time for a 10-year-old.) As Logan had designed the chompies - which can only take one hit in the Skylanders videogames - as creatures with 2 hp each, it's no wonder the chompy practically exploded. Harry thought that was hilarious, yet found my own complete miss with my own first attack to be even funnier. But he's already gotten a pretty good grasp of the rules, knowing the difference between the different polyhedral dice and when you use which. We had him do all the math for the damage, so it's reinforcing his math skills, and he already figured out that there's no point in using Power Attack against the chompies, whereas with the chompy pods (and their extremely low AC, due to their immobility) it's a definite boon. And boy, was Cleave ever a good choice for his second feat! (We're using the "human" racial bonuses for our humanoid animal PCs, so we each started with two feats.) He managed to kill two chompies in one round at least twice in this adventure. And talk about role-playing! Harry created a "Baabby" voice for his character, and continued to use that voice for the whole session, whether he was actually being in character or simply asking questions of the DM. "Whaaat do I see around the corner?" he'd ask Logan, even though in-game Baabby wasn't actually saying a word. I guess he's an immersion actor! In any case, we had a good time with this, and Harry's informed us he's ready for more adventures. Next Saturday we have a Kordovian game session scheduled so we told him we might have to wait two weeks, but Harry reminded us that just because we'll be playing a Kordovian adventure on Saturday doesn't mean we can't have a Skylanders adventure on Sunday. So we're leaving it up to how soon Logan can have another adventure ready to go. [/QUOTE]
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The Adventures of Baabby and Sam - a Skylanders Campaign
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