North Carolina Game Day IV: May 8

[Clueless]

Of Scarlet Orbs And Treachery (I think - Shemeska's morning game anyway)
I poked my head into this session briefly while I ran upstairs for a drink. I asked them how it was going and they replied (more or less as a group): "We're kicking so much ass, there's no time to take names!"

*grinning* Yep! that would be us.
Especially considering we never bothered to actually introduce ourselves to each other. We didn't trust each other much.

You missed most of the good ones at the beginning when they got the description of the cranium rat hve I was playing - "Gosh, Brain - what're we going to do tonight?"

I just finally woke up from my gaming stupor from this weekend - I'll have to see if I can't find any other good quotes, we had some nice ones.

 

[Shemeska]

I just finally woke up from my gaming stupor from this weekend - I'll have to see if I can't find any other good quotes, we had some nice ones.

Gaming stupor is right, after lunch I passed out on the couch thing behind the window near the elevator on the 4th floor. I can only speculate how many people saw me flopped over on my back and curled up dead to the world for a few hours there. I can only praise my good luck that none of my normal players there had access to a sharpie marker...

I had a blast to be sure, though I did miss having dinner out with folks after gaming like at the past few game days. Would have liked to just chatter with folks afterwards, but as it was the pizza seemed to aid in folks just self segregating into their own normal circle of friends/players. Looking forwards to the next game day.

Ah, and it would be remiss of me to not mention the Fat Albert jokes that got tossed around after the encounter with the Shator Gehreleth.

 

[Jon Potter]

As usual, most everyone else has gotten around to replying here before I did. It's all been said, but I want to add my voice to the praises.

"Sky Galleons of Mars" was as much of a blast this time around as it was the last. Any time Rel want to run it, he's got at least one willing player. Of course, I might need a superior officer to boss me around; my brilliant idea to leave our ship anchored off in the distance when we assaulted the pyramid wasn't exactly inspired.

"A Tight Spot" was great as well. Despite my repeatedly failing to say the two simple words, "I rage!", and the fact that my poor barbarian had to endure being five feet from the epicenter of not one, but two friendly fire fireballs I enjoyed every minute of it. In fact it wasn't until I read it in someone else's post that I realized that we actually ran 2.5 hours OVER our scheduled stopping point. Time really flies when you're dodging endless clouds of arrows, I guess.

Anyway, I've already marked the date of September 25. Count on seeing me there again.

 

[Jon Potter]

And the bad guys didn't get away with the safron!!

What? Did I miss something? 'Cause last I heard those crates were northbound into Southern Pyladia with us still having no idea who took off with them! If there were answers that I didn't hear, I want the scoop.

Moreso than being slapped around by a fire elemental, I found Ole One's cryptic ending to be the most rat-bastardly part of the whole adventure!

And, Phil, I mean that in a good way.

 

[Old One]

Jon is correct...

What? Did I miss something? 'Cause last I heard those crates were northbound into Southern Pyladia with us still having no idea who took off with them! If there were answers that I didn't hear, I want the scoop.

Moreso than being slapped around by a fire elemental, I found Ole One's cryptic ending to be the most rat-bastardly part of the whole adventure!

And, Phil, I mean that in a good way.

Yep...

You caught a glimpse of a cloaked figure and several beasts of burden packed with familiar looking crates disappear from the north gate in the hubbub of the relief. By the time Bellicus arrived to fireball the miscreant, the shadowy figure had disappeared into the night.

One more little tidbit I forgot to mention...the stiffened body of Senior Centurn Cimber was no where to be found in the aftermath.

Hmmm...

~ Old One

 

[Rel]

Yep...

You caught a glimpse of a cloaked figure and several beasts of burden packed with familiar looking crates disappear from the north gate in the hubbub of the relief. By the time Bellicus arrived to fireball the miscreant, the shadowy figure had disappeared into the night.

One more little tidbit I forgot to mention...the stiffened body of Senior Centurn Cimber was no where to be found in the aftermath.

Hmmm...

~ Old One

Ah, my mistake. I thought Bellicus was in a position to see the crates headed northward.

And I don't think there's a single doubt as to what his response would have been if he HAD seen them.

I also wanted to mention, for the benefit of Jeph and Corlon who missed it, a notable and humorous event toward the end of the session (i.e. 9:35 PM):

We had forced the Sythians back into the breach and cleared them from the walls, at least for the moment. Antonius Bellicus lay unconscious and near death up in the tower where he had self-stabilized after being reduced to -6 HP or so and was somewhere around -8 when Brandis climbed up to check on him. About that time, Old One describes a distant "hissing" that seems to be approaching.

Somebody foolishly thought that something good might be happening for a change and said, "Maybe it's the sound of our reinforcements!"

I loudly scoffed at this idea and declared, "Trust me: Nothing Good Ever Hisses!" (I think this may be one of the great truisms in all of roleplaying).

It turned out that the "hissing" was the sound of 2,700 arrows arcing down toward us at a high rate of speed and blanketing the entire compound with "death from above" (to the tune of each and every exposed combatant being hit by 1d4 arrows each round with no save, regardless of AC). Knowing that even one hit spelled certain death for Bellicus, I had brandis leap off the battlement where he was standing and throw himself on top of Bellicus to protect him. Unfortunately, Brandis being a halfling and Bellicus being a Human, I didn't provide complete cover. But it turned out to be enough. I took the two arrows that would have hit Bellicus and stuffed him down a trap door as the next wave of arrows thunked into the tower roof.

It isn't often that the Halfling Rogue (at least when I play em') pulls off a selfless and heroic feat like that.

I think I'll put that in my report!

 

[Rel]

"Sky Galleons of Mars" was as much of a blast this time around as it was the last. Any time Rel want to run it, he's got at least one willing player. Of course, I might need a superior officer to boss me around; my brilliant idea to leave our ship anchored off in the distance when we assaulted the pyramid wasn't exactly inspired.

I am really glad you liked it, Jon and I'd like to express my thanks for you having been such an outstanding player in all three of the games I've run for NCGDII-IV. Rest assured that a ton more adventure awaits in the harsh deserts of Mars and I'm pretty hooked on the setting. I'll be trotting it out on a regular basis in upcoming Game Days. I may even add another ship or two to the "fleet" before next time and try to work some of the kinks out of the D20 version of my aerial combat rules.

 

[Henry]

Two things I learned about that game:

1. Power Attack is highly underrated.
2. There's nothing sweeter than being on the hot side of a wall of fire when your duty COMPELS you to be there, guarding the gates.

Oh, and while I've got Old One's and Rel's attention: Is there by chance a more concise document that spills a little info on the world of Faded Glory? I had some questions about things like the gods, and the landscape, and some of the more common threats. I plan to read the story hours at some point, but I look at their beginning page count, and always find a reason not to.

 

[Old One]

Yep...

Two things I learned about that game:

1. Power Attack is highly underrated.
2. There's nothing sweeter than being on the hot side of a wall of fire when your duty COMPELS you to be there, guarding the gates.

Oh, and while I've got Old One's and Rel's attention: Is there by chance a more concise document that spills a little info on the world of Faded Glory? I had some questions about things like the gods, and the landscape, and some of the more common threats. I plan to read the story hours at some point, but I look at their beginning page count, and always find a reason not to.

Henry,

I can e-mail you the Faded Glory Player's Guide, which gives a lot of this info or I can send you the more abbreviated 11-page backgrounder all the PCs for "A Tight Spot" received.

Just let me know if you would like it.

~ Old One

 

[Rel]

There's nothing sweeter than being on the hot side of a wall of fire when your duty COMPELS you to be there, guarding the gates.

I think you meant: "There's nothing sweatier..."

Henry, best that you get the Faded Glory info from Old One himself. In a great many ways, I've bastardized it beyond recognition. In my version, Sythia is a verdant land of thick, tropical forests and the home of the largest group of elves in the world. They also have a nice navy.

I do however have a long line of defensive posts that guards the Sythian border to discourage intrusions. So I got that much right at least.