Thanee
First Post
We recently started a new campaign (since the DM of our regular campaign had other matters to attend), to have some fun on those evenings, where not everyone is present.
With the emerge of the new Silver Marches sourcebook, I (doing the DM thing for now, but we will be taking turns) decided to lead them there, starting out in medias res as caravan gaurds travelling through Anauroch heading westwards. The party protected said caravan well, even against the dangerous scorpions (where the paladin's warhorse came out on top, being the most capable fighter of the party) and their wicked master, a crazed out necromancer who happened to live there and rob caravans for a living. His imp advisor got away, tho, that hard-to-kill little bastard (they even dropped the invisible fiend with a well-aimed color spray and poured oil over its body and set it on fire, but that didn't really help (as the fact, that it was still invisible and so they wouldn't see, that the flesh didn't burn easily)). Anyways, after reaching the western edge of the desert, the party was approached by two elven travellers, who also were with the caravan and asked for their assistance and protection for a journey to the north (heading to Deadsnows, which seemed a good start for low level adventurers (I let them start at 2nd level (with 900gp of non-magical equipment and the usual FR regional stuff) or 1st level if using an ECL race, with ECL of up to +4 - but only one used this option for a drow fighter, the rest... human paladin of Tyr, sun elf wizard and a human bard, but the player decided that he wanted something different after one evening (he already played an elven bard for quite some time) and so the bard left the party and was replaced by a human psychic warrior, who happend to be among the caravan guards as well and was now looking for adventure, much like the others)). They couldn't give them much money, but they'd pay for anything necessary on the journey (supplies, lodging and such) and promised a nice reward, which would be at least more than the money they earned on the caravan (which was a nice 200gp including the sizeable bonus for ridding the region of the scorpion master).
The party accepted, of course, travelling with the elderly elven scholar (not really of the adventuring kind) and a younger moon elven cleric of Labelas Enoreth, who was serving as his personal guard for the journey. They moved north-west, heading for Turnstone Pass. A little wilderness encounters with a Dire Wolf, set the right tone for the dangers lying ahead.
A few days later, in the hills, they were tailed by some orc marauders (9 orcs + 2 level 1 orc barbarians). With their superior ranged firepower (almost everyone packed a mighty composite longbow, two - the drow and the moon elf cleric were even specialized in its use), they could even the odds, before the orcs came too close, but a mighty axe hit by one of the barbarians (not even a particulary strong specimen, Str 16, which is one above average), ended the drow's existance abruptly (31 damage... ouch!). Too bad, that it hit exactly the guy, who had lost a character in the other campaign as well, but the dice don't lie (and since we use the fairer FRCS XP system, it's not all that bad). The rest of the orcs was dispatched quickly, after this shocking incident (some solid hits by the Psychic Warrior certainly helped). The dark elf's body was buried and after some prayers the party continued their dangerous journey.
Later the elf spotted a human digging in the earth, way ahead, who happend to be a scout left without his group now (the bodies of which were scattered on the ground mostly), after returning from scouting ahead. The tracks told of a quick and ugly ambush, probably by some ogres. They helped burying the dead and joined forces (the human rogue/fighter happened to be the replacement character of the one, who lost the drow fighter earlier). Further down the way, when they overheard some giants talking - at least the psychic warrior identified their language as such - they were almost about to leave to find a more secure route, but then they realized, that this could be the ogres and through the persuasive force of Tyr, represented by his follower, they finally decided to exact revenge on them. The sun elf, who was the first to voice doubts about this plan even volunteered to lure them into a deadly archery trap set up by the rest of the party. The 4 ogres were almost too easy.
Some days passed and during a night watch they spotted a gigantic bat coming their direction, at least roughly. They didn't decide to hide and they attacked the monstrous creature and another combat had started. Too bad, that the dire bat had some friends, who arrived one round later in form of another 4 of these creatures. That was almost too much to handle for the party (I should have made it 4 total, but well, they were 5 capable level 2-3 (2 lvl 2 and 3 lvl 3 respectively) adventurers meanwhile and an elven scholar, who was not so able in combat). To make a long story short, the whole party was dropped one after the other, the sun elf first (he was stabilized by the other elf), followed by the cleric NPC, then the psychic warrior, the rogue/fighter and finally the paladin. They were able to kill almost all of the bats and only one last and heavily wounded (it was at 1 hp) was left. The elven scholar saved the day, picking up a scattered masterwork rapier (actually he did so a few rounds before the paladin dropped already) and after 5 or 6 rounds of really lousy dice rolls, he was the first one to hit (having sustained 12 damage already from earlier hits, one more hit by the bat would probably had wiped out this party). Still some of the PCs had to self-stabilize (the psychic warrior was quite happy about his skill to do so), but fortune smiled upon them and all succeeded after a few rounds (the paladin at -9 hps)! Wow, that was tough!
After this, I let them go easy for a while and soon they reached the end of the mountain pass and the large city of Sundabar, lying beyond. They stocked up on supplies there, traded the scroll of animate dead, which they claimed in the necromancers desert lair, against two more useful 2nd level scrolls and after three more days of travel reached their destination... Deadsnows!
The two elves, more than happy about their heroic protectors, led them to a house, which had a large library hidden in the cellar, where they where handed their promised reward, a magical item (of about 1000gp worth) for each. A +1 chain shirts, a cloak of resistance +1, a pearl of power and similar nice and useful little items cast a happy smile on the weary faces of the adventurers after their long and harsh journey.
Now they're in Deadsnows, pursuing some rumors about missing cattle, bloodthirsty wolves and a gathering orc warband... the moon elf cleric stayed with them, a welcome addition, as her own task was also concluded with their arrival in the small boom town.
Bye
Thanee
With the emerge of the new Silver Marches sourcebook, I (doing the DM thing for now, but we will be taking turns) decided to lead them there, starting out in medias res as caravan gaurds travelling through Anauroch heading westwards. The party protected said caravan well, even against the dangerous scorpions (where the paladin's warhorse came out on top, being the most capable fighter of the party) and their wicked master, a crazed out necromancer who happened to live there and rob caravans for a living. His imp advisor got away, tho, that hard-to-kill little bastard (they even dropped the invisible fiend with a well-aimed color spray and poured oil over its body and set it on fire, but that didn't really help (as the fact, that it was still invisible and so they wouldn't see, that the flesh didn't burn easily)). Anyways, after reaching the western edge of the desert, the party was approached by two elven travellers, who also were with the caravan and asked for their assistance and protection for a journey to the north (heading to Deadsnows, which seemed a good start for low level adventurers (I let them start at 2nd level (with 900gp of non-magical equipment and the usual FR regional stuff) or 1st level if using an ECL race, with ECL of up to +4 - but only one used this option for a drow fighter, the rest... human paladin of Tyr, sun elf wizard and a human bard, but the player decided that he wanted something different after one evening (he already played an elven bard for quite some time) and so the bard left the party and was replaced by a human psychic warrior, who happend to be among the caravan guards as well and was now looking for adventure, much like the others)). They couldn't give them much money, but they'd pay for anything necessary on the journey (supplies, lodging and such) and promised a nice reward, which would be at least more than the money they earned on the caravan (which was a nice 200gp including the sizeable bonus for ridding the region of the scorpion master).
The party accepted, of course, travelling with the elderly elven scholar (not really of the adventuring kind) and a younger moon elven cleric of Labelas Enoreth, who was serving as his personal guard for the journey. They moved north-west, heading for Turnstone Pass. A little wilderness encounters with a Dire Wolf, set the right tone for the dangers lying ahead.
A few days later, in the hills, they were tailed by some orc marauders (9 orcs + 2 level 1 orc barbarians). With their superior ranged firepower (almost everyone packed a mighty composite longbow, two - the drow and the moon elf cleric were even specialized in its use), they could even the odds, before the orcs came too close, but a mighty axe hit by one of the barbarians (not even a particulary strong specimen, Str 16, which is one above average), ended the drow's existance abruptly (31 damage... ouch!). Too bad, that it hit exactly the guy, who had lost a character in the other campaign as well, but the dice don't lie (and since we use the fairer FRCS XP system, it's not all that bad). The rest of the orcs was dispatched quickly, after this shocking incident (some solid hits by the Psychic Warrior certainly helped). The dark elf's body was buried and after some prayers the party continued their dangerous journey.
Later the elf spotted a human digging in the earth, way ahead, who happend to be a scout left without his group now (the bodies of which were scattered on the ground mostly), after returning from scouting ahead. The tracks told of a quick and ugly ambush, probably by some ogres. They helped burying the dead and joined forces (the human rogue/fighter happened to be the replacement character of the one, who lost the drow fighter earlier). Further down the way, when they overheard some giants talking - at least the psychic warrior identified their language as such - they were almost about to leave to find a more secure route, but then they realized, that this could be the ogres and through the persuasive force of Tyr, represented by his follower, they finally decided to exact revenge on them. The sun elf, who was the first to voice doubts about this plan even volunteered to lure them into a deadly archery trap set up by the rest of the party. The 4 ogres were almost too easy.
Some days passed and during a night watch they spotted a gigantic bat coming their direction, at least roughly. They didn't decide to hide and they attacked the monstrous creature and another combat had started. Too bad, that the dire bat had some friends, who arrived one round later in form of another 4 of these creatures. That was almost too much to handle for the party (I should have made it 4 total, but well, they were 5 capable level 2-3 (2 lvl 2 and 3 lvl 3 respectively) adventurers meanwhile and an elven scholar, who was not so able in combat). To make a long story short, the whole party was dropped one after the other, the sun elf first (he was stabilized by the other elf), followed by the cleric NPC, then the psychic warrior, the rogue/fighter and finally the paladin. They were able to kill almost all of the bats and only one last and heavily wounded (it was at 1 hp) was left. The elven scholar saved the day, picking up a scattered masterwork rapier (actually he did so a few rounds before the paladin dropped already) and after 5 or 6 rounds of really lousy dice rolls, he was the first one to hit (having sustained 12 damage already from earlier hits, one more hit by the bat would probably had wiped out this party). Still some of the PCs had to self-stabilize (the psychic warrior was quite happy about his skill to do so), but fortune smiled upon them and all succeeded after a few rounds (the paladin at -9 hps)! Wow, that was tough!
After this, I let them go easy for a while and soon they reached the end of the mountain pass and the large city of Sundabar, lying beyond. They stocked up on supplies there, traded the scroll of animate dead, which they claimed in the necromancers desert lair, against two more useful 2nd level scrolls and after three more days of travel reached their destination... Deadsnows!
The two elves, more than happy about their heroic protectors, led them to a house, which had a large library hidden in the cellar, where they where handed their promised reward, a magical item (of about 1000gp worth) for each. A +1 chain shirts, a cloak of resistance +1, a pearl of power and similar nice and useful little items cast a happy smile on the weary faces of the adventurers after their long and harsh journey.
Now they're in Deadsnows, pursuing some rumors about missing cattle, bloodthirsty wolves and a gathering orc warband... the moon elf cleric stayed with them, a welcome addition, as her own task was also concluded with their arrival in the small boom town.
Bye
Thanee
