Wulf's Collected Story Hour -- FINAL UPDATE 12/25

[Wulf Ratbane]

Re: Definitely Dorn

[RANT/ God, I wish my party was as capable of plot-sustaining dialogue as Dink's/Wulf's. /RANT]

Plot-sustaining dialogue? I know what you're getting at, but this isn't exactly a stellar example of it.

I mean, yeah, that was "actual" dialogue from the table, but in execution it didn't sound like roleplaying, it sounded like a guy named Jeff yelling, "I'll draw you a F'in map, you can take your chances!"

What's my point? Hmmm... I guess it's just that RP is where you find it. And I think a lot of folks read these story hours and forget just how much embellishment goes into the telling: You folks see the action through a fantasy lens we hold up to the table. We're not sitting around the table in costume, immersed in our roles. I can't speak for every story hour here, but I would be very surprised if the stories you read here reflected the table verbatim. (There has been a thread to this effect, polling the authors, that surfaces from time to time...)

Wulf

 

[Dinkeldog]

No one in the group objects to how their characters are portrayed. Also, the really good quotes are generally lifted from the table. While it's not theater at its finest (that's saved for Wednesday night), the players are all conscious of their characters, their motivations, their likes and dislikes, etc.

All I really have to do is nudge one of the NPCs from time to time. Alliana is my conscience for the party. She gets most of the nudging.

We're comfortable with it.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Hello

You mean no more relics and ritual spells at all?

Perhaps for the best... if the DM doesn't feel confident with them, he shouldn't allow them.

Too bad though. The scared land material is very good, seting wise. Too bad a lot of it is broken-ish, rule wise.

I believe Tanil's Touch was spared the chopping block, simply on account of the fact that the extra saving-throw re-roll helps the players survive and lends continuity to the campaign.

But pretty much, yeah. It's gone-- a decision I have mirrored in my own game.

Setting-wise I could care less. There's already an ugly mish-mash of settings in this campaign anyway. I prefer the core Greyhawk setting; we converted to FR sometime after the Standing Stone, I think, but for the life of me I don't know why. The only change I can spot is that the paladin worships Tyr and Keldas' racial bonuses changed...

Wulf

 

[Plane Sailing]

Though Karak and the DM would disagree, I call this Best Use of Commune Evar.

I have to agree! I laughed out loud when I read that last commune question!

... also earlier on in that piece I read about Wulf shedding a tear and thought "Oh no, he's going soft!" Happily the next paragraph dispelled that notion quite thoroughly

Can you really imagine swapping taranak for black adamantine blades though? Taranak your trusty friend since the very earliest days?

Cheers

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

*blink*

Wulf, what happened to the rest of Queen of Lies? Did Dink skip it, or did you?

No, no, you didn't miss it.

After the big battle, dinkeldog folded up his module and said, "Well, that was Queen of Lies."

And we all said, "Huh?"

"I just threw every bad guy from the book at you at once and you wiped them out. They were supposed to just hit you once and get away. That was supposed to be the hook."

And then he opened up Lord of the Iron Fortress and we moved on.

Tee heeeeee.

Drow are my bitches.


Wulf

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

I was just thinking about Demon God's Fane myself the other day.

This self-bump serves another purpose:

I think that the days of pruning comments may be over. Can't tell you how it warms my heart to know that all of the great comments will be preserved for posterity.

Well, that plus all the petty bitchin' and whinin'. That's just gravy!

EDIT: Which reminds me, quite a few really good comments from the old boards, from the final days of Standing Stone, are preserved on my site:

http://www.batreps.com/images/3e/wulf.htm


Wulf

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

LORD OF THE IRON FORTRESS-- Part I (cont.)

Wulf turned to face the Moradin-thing for his last question. He shrugged. As long as he had access to Moradin and a hall full of onlookers, he might as well get his opinion on one last nagging question.

“Is Karak a big nancy-boy or what?”

There was a long pause. No, surely not a long pause as gods must measure time, but long enough for Wulf to notice it.

He’d stumped Moradin.

Well, maybe not stumped, exactly, but he certainly got his attention. Wulf certainly wasn’t the type to sit around debating theological points, but somewhere in midst of that interminable pause it occurred to him that stumping or even merely surprising the gods sort of put a kink in their whole “omniscience” schtick.

”HE’S TYR’S PROBLEM. ASK TYR.”

Another pause, and then:

”SEEK YOUR PATH IN RIGUS, IN THE OUTLANDS.”

**

Ahh, plane-hopping. The party scrambled to dig up some details on their impending journey. Shorty did most of the leg- and brain-work; he was enjoying it more than Wulf was comfortable with.

The Outlands, they discovered, were a huge, flat, featureless, grey, and absolutely neutral plane. On the edges of the Outlands, where they bordered the outer planes, the area started to pick up characteristics of the nearby outer planes.

Rigus was a small city on the border with Acheron.

“So all we have to do,” explained Shorty, “is plane shift into the Outlands and head to Rigus.”

“Aren’t the Outlands essentially infinite, though? There’s no telling where we will end up.”

“Well, once we get to the Outlands, we can teleport to Rigus-- or damn near, anyway.” Shorty shrugged. “If we get it wrong we just teleport again.”

“Nothin’ to worry about in the Outlands?”

“Oh, I don’t think so. Closer to Rigus, closer to Acheron, might be bad. We’d want to stay sharp there.”

“What’s Acheron like?”

“All my references describe it simply as ‘oppressive structure.’”

“I’m not good with structure,” Wulf growled.

**

Rigus, so near to Acheron, was itself a place of oppressive structure. The town was surrounded by a huge iron wall, and inside Wulf could see rows upon rows of featureless buildings, each perfectly square.

The gate was guarded by four humans and a near-human that Wulf guessed to be an aasimar. He dug an elbow into Karak’s side. “Assmar. Just like yer… ooh, sorry.”

The aasimar wasted no time showering the group with his disdain and laying down the ground rules, the first of which was that ignorance of the law was no defense. Second, “troublemakers” would be dealt with harshly. At this point Wulf only compounded his problem by tuning out the rest of the aasimar’s speech entirely.

Pointless drivel, he thought. If they’re gonna get me, they’re gonna get me. No sense walkin’ around on eggshells in the meantime.

Eventually the group was waved through, and they arrived at their inn, The Twin Stars, at precisely 4:00 in the afternoon. Shorty seemed oddly comfortable, arranging their rooms without hesitation.

“Rooms are 10 gold pieces a night…” said the innkeep.

“TEN GOLD!?” Wulf bellowed. His eyes bulged in genuine shock. “Yer get a hand job with that?”

Wulf reeled away to the common room to spend his coin on something that was actually worth the price: the local fare. He’d left most of his money behind at the forge, keeping only a small travelling sum of about 500 gold with him. Clearly, it wasn’t going to go far. What with the assmar at the gate and the crazy rip-off pricing he was starting to hate the outer planes.

Of course, he’d suspected he might.

 

[Old One]

Long time, No Stop In...

Wulf,

Your Wulf absolutely kills me! No wonder you drive DD to distraction...tuning out the guards stern warnings indeed!

Just wanted to drop by and say high...er, 'hi'!

~ Old One

PS - It is a PITA to start new threads when the old ones fill up, but keeping the commentary is so much fun!

PPS - If you want to pick up Faded Glory from the beginning, with limited commercial interupption, this is a great place to start:

Against the Shadows IV - A Faded Glory Story Hour

(cough, cough)

 

[Dawn]

“TEN GOLD!?” Wulf bellowed. His eyes bulged in genuine shock. “Yer get a hand job with that?”

LOL!!! I had people stopping by to look in my office door I was laughing so hard. Wulf - what a role player!

 

[Squire James]

My suspicions run along the lines of:

1. Moradin wasn't stumped. He was laughing!

2. After getting done with his laugh, he sent off a little message to Tyr...

3. Tyr being a Norse god and all, did what the Norse do best in response: he started a bar fight.

4. After demonstrating to Tyr that he had several Divine Ranks of advantage, and that bar fights wasn't something to go and do short- (or one-) handed, Moradin delivered his answer.

(I imagine it would have been even more lively if one of them weren't Lawful Good!)