Against the Shadows VII - A Faded Glory Story Hour (Re-Updated - 5/17)

[Rel]

I cried the entire hour-and-a-half drive home.

Tormenet
aka Corey aka Quintus

That's when you know you've reached the pinnacle of RBDMness. Yeah, being the DM takes a lot of time and effort and too often a nice juicy NPC Bad Guy gets killed before he kills more than one or two PC's. But when you see words like those above, it makes it all worthwhile, doesn't it, Old One.

 

[Old One]

Holy Cow!

Speaking as Quintus's player: I think more nervous, uncertain glances were shooting around the table than smiles. The one time I made a lot of coin in this campaign I immediately spent it rescuing my companions. Plus, we were forced to go from slogging in Oar’s sewers to slogging in a worse smelling political slime pit in only a few heartbeats.

One more piece of RBDMing Old One left out of his tale. Coming out of the sewers we were confronted by two or so ships full of Oar guards. Remembering Oar’s money-grubbing, Quintus told the commander that the party was coming from the Shadowblades’ lair, that the lair was practically undefended and probably full of loot since it was their last bastion. The sorcerer even gave directions.

Pleased with myself I sat back and smiled at my fellow players. They smiled back. We knew the guards would take that bait.

The commander turned to his second and essentially said: “Take your boat and check it out.”

That left us still facing a large boat bristling with armaments. We lost both any loot and our freedom. I cried the entire hour-and-a-half drive home.

Tormenet
aka Corey aka Quintus

STOP THE PRESSES!

One of my stealth players actually makes an appearence! Corey, good to see you!

This is what happens when you write SH episodes a year after they actually happen ! Of course, what could have happened is that the party that went into the sea cave was overcome by smoke when they reached the burning Shadowblade hideout, perished and never returned...

Hmmm...I wonder if "murder-by-ommission-of-fact" charges are being prepared against Quintus?

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you soon!

~ Old One

 

[Old One]

Hah!

That's when you know you've reached the pinnacle of RBDMness. Yeah, being the DM takes a lot of time and effort and too often a nice juicy NPC Bad Guy gets killed before he kills more than one or two PC's. But when you see words like those above, it makes it all worthwhile, doesn't it, Old One.

True...

The thought of Corey driving home half-blinded with tears is comforting to my black RBDM heart...I am just glad he got there safe.

Of course, if half of Quintus's schemes came to fruition, he would be Emperor of Emor by now !

~ Old One

 

[Lela]

Darklone and Lela must be slacking today !

Well, not exactly slacking. Finals Week. The good news is that I only have 175 (or so) quiz questions left to take today. Then I get to take the Final next week.

Oi.

 

[Old One]

Well, not exactly slacking. Finals Week. The good news is that I only have 175 (or so) quiz questions left to take today. Then I get to take the Final next week.

Oi.

Lela,

Thanks for stopping in! Good luck with your finals and don't study too hard. After all, all study and no gaming makes for a very boring Lela !

~ Old One

 

[Lela]

Not much chance of that happening. Game will proceed as scheduled. I'd go nuts without it. Well, more than I already am anyway. Which, I assure you, is a prospect many fear.

Especially my players.

 

[Tortoise]

Actually, the "smiles" Old One saw around the table were many forced grimaces with us all gritting our teeth in disgust at realizing our real quarry had managed to escape our grasp and sat on the riser before us. Now it would be impossible for us to touch him and even though we got away with a reward, he too was out of our reach. Can't just go hunt down an innocent old member of the council now that everyone thinks Maythrax was impersonating him. ggrrrr

Unfortunately for us, too many of our enemies get away or get done over/in by others besides us. We get a rat's whisker away from actually getting those we're after only to have victory snatched from us by enemy internecine fighting or some other string of events.

We Shovels of Glynden (and the players) need a real victory. Sadly we won't get one of those anytime within the next hefty batch of write-ups. We're still trying for one in game, and things only get bleaker from here.

Jim, aka Tortoise, aka Rowan Brightwood (Ranger 4/ Rogue 3)

 

[Darklone]

Howdy Rowan!

Guess it's time for the Shovels to dig some dudes graves, eh? Btw, did you guys convert to 3.5?

 

[Tortoise]

Regarding 3.5, no we're content to stick with 3.0 for the time being. Making the change now would kind of put some odd twists to the characters as they exist. We voted to remain 3.0 until such time as the changes wouldn't make as much difference.

Well, we played yesterday and man is this campaign taking strange turns. Since the write-ups are waaaayyyy behind I won't mention too much, but here's a little something to confuse the readers with ...

1. The color green is both bad and good, and there's no place like home.

2. Never rush off to Oar when what you seek is right in your own back yard, unless someone who can't speak might have something to say about it.

3. If you plan to pay for services in alcohol make sure the hireling works for ale.

4. Back in the beginning Rowan decided that he could really benefit from having a source for featherfall.

5. Jumping out of a 20' high tree while sober can draw stares. Fortunately it doesn't produce a second scar on one's forehead.

6. There's nothing like having a church official chronicle your party's adventures. Maybe we can retire from the publishing royalties.

7. By the hair of his chinny chin chin.

8. Great Tomes Of Evil Wisdom And Prophecy should include pocket calendars.

9. Easy come easy go, but carry the blood thirsty, greedy bastard with you.

10. They call him "Kicking Stone".

11. Taverns in small frontier towns are not open 24/7.

12. There's treasure there ... somewhere ... so I've been told ... when do we leave?

13. Rowan owes Rose 1,000 dinaari. For this he might have to give up his first born ... heck with his history the child will probably have been sired by Rose anyway!

14. Hungry Kobolds "those Emorian horses taste great, but an hour later you're hungry again."

15. A son looks up to his father for a change.

16. "Someone's been making bacon in this camp and it wasn't Quintus and Drusilla!" - quoth the bard.

17. If Quintus knew how easy it could be to remove Braithwaite from the picture ...

18. A bird in the hand ...

19. Wake them up? Ok, I'll kiss her, but one of you gets to kiss him.

20. Two weeks, two seasons, give or take a bad omen.

Remind yourselves to come back to this once in a while to see what this all meant.

Jim, aka Tortoise, aka Rowan (Ranger 4 / Rogue 3)

 

[Caliber]

I may not be as dedicated as the bumpers, but I sure came and read every bump they posted.

Glad to see you alive and kicking, and I like the Rat Bastardly twist. It warms the blackened twisted place where my own inner Rat Bastard sits.

PS - I totally understand the 3.5 thing. I like 3.5, but switching mid-campaign is a LOT of work. More than I'm willing to do in my own game at least. But then I guess I'm lazier than some.