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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Flynn" data-source="post: 4091253" data-attributes="member: 1836">Session Notes - 03/05/08Good Morning, All:Last night's session was a lot of fun, as I introduced some more Cool Factor into the world, and gave the group a larger combat experience against foes of mixed capacities (melee, ranged and magical). Aside from that, we had a lot of good RP fun, and they seem excited for next week's session. Yay!The Synopsis:The adventurers arrived in Greenfell a few hours before dawn. Speaking with Captain Volus, the Warlord Andrus presented him with news of Warlord Nigritsu's immenent arrival later that day, and of the horrible taxation that would be levied upon the locals. As Volus's men set about securing food to help Greenfell survive the winter, the party rested and then took to the road well before Nigritsu's vessel, the Vengeance, could arrive in port.The party had decided to head off towards Moonwell, for Yngvar the Wall held the exiled dwarves and brigands known as the Sundered Kings in contempt, and considered them his enemy. Out of respect for the dwarf's growing need to deal with this menace, the band, sated by news of Synovia, made their way southwest, away from the Great Lake Tempest. Captain Volus, knowing the way would be dangerous, as Moonwell was under siege by the Sundered Kings, insisted that some of his men go along. The Warlord Andrus compromised, and took along only five archers, locals skilled in the ways of hunting with bows.By noon, the party had found signs of large patrols moving in the area, searching farms and hills for food and other items of interest. Despite the vigilance of the two at point, Calyt the Shade and an archer/root junkie called Epilus, dwarven crossbowmen got the drop on the band, nearly downing the Pasalovakian rogue while leaving the intoxicated archer unharmed.Anzjin the Stave (with his newly crafted spear in hand) performed an act of faith that granted him the ability to move twice as quickly as normal, and made a beeline for the hillock upon which the Sundered crossbowmen stood. As he surged forward, he noted a large group of Sundered warriors hiding behind a large boulder, as well as a lone caster hiding on the other side of a nearby hill. All were dwarven, and all bore the shaved countenance of one exiled from their homelands. The elven priest warned the rest of his party, and the fight was on.The Magus Chrysander used his sonic blast several times during the combat, first felling many of the dwarven warriors that rushed the front line of the party and then demolishing half of the crossbowmen a few seconds later. Meanwhile, Calyt the Shade burrowed into the earth and made his way underground to deal with the dwarves on the hill on a more personal level. Yngvar held the front line, as well as the Warlord Andrus. The Greenfell archers basically kept the crossbowmen busy until Calyt could pop up and slay the last of them. Anzjin and the dwarven cabalist faced off against one another, but despite the wounds that the cabalist dealt with his hellfire bolts, Anzjin was quick to down him.In the end, the party dropped all thirteen of the Sundered patrol, and only lost one man themselves, a Greenfell archer named Calcanus. Those that suffered from combat were quickly healed by the magical ministrations of Anzjin, as well as the use of the Hand of Joven relic that Brother Claudius had gifted to Magus Chrysander before the band left Newport. The Warlord Andrus decided to send the four archers back to Greenfell with the body of Calcanus, feeling that they would be of better aid to the village than on this mission.Limping along, the party continued to head in the direction of Moonwell, trying to skirt the main trade roads as much as possible to avoid further conflict with the Sundered King patrols. About midway through the afternoon, the group spied signs of a mercenary band in the distance. The stealthier of the bunch moved up to investigate, only to discover that these were refugees from the end of the siege on Moonwell. Led by a large rhino-man (a Rhinan from the lands of Achea across the Great Lake Tempest) named Gerus the Big, they had fled when the raiders broke through the doors of the walled village of Moonwell. Apparently, the Tower of Agerion, a magical tower from the Age of Legends, began walking once again when the Sundered Kings broke into the village, and it walked straight through the wooden palisade, leaving an opening that the refugees could use.The party asked further about the Tower of Agerion, and learned from the locals that the Archmage Agerion built many such towers and tombs as death traps to hide ancient artifacts and relics within. The party surmised that the Grand Magus Tenebrus, the former occupant of the tower, had died recently, for the tower only seemed to walk when it had no master. Several of the refugees recited a story about the first magical blade of the Ancient Dwarven Kings, the sword Tiwazbrandr, which belonged to the first Dwarven Clan-King Sigurd. Upon Sigurd's death, his comrade the Archmagus Agerion took the blade at the king's last behest, and hid it away in preparation for some future giant war. Local rumor said that it might be within the tower itself. The party thought perhaps that was what the Sundered Emperor was truely after.Gerus the Big suggested that the party seek out an old hermit that lived along the edge of the fey-infested Skeinwood, a "cat man" named Ol' Nubius. The stories told to the party implied a crazy old man that loved cats, and knew things he should not know. The adventurers decided to look up the old hermit, and so set out once more to circle around Moonwell and approach the Skeinwood. They arrived late in the evening, and slept hard, although they kept watch.In the early light of the false dawn, the Magus Chrysander was surprised when a black panther started growling from the shadows. As Chrysander tensed, the cat leapt upon a nearby boulder and flashed its sharp teeth at the man, shaking him. Before he could recover, another human voice spoke out, asking in rhyming speech why these brave adventurers had come to the woods of the fey. When Chrysander responded, the man did not appear to hear. The Warlord Andrus, awakened by the commotion, was greeted again by the old man's rhyming speech. Remembering from his childhood that the fey only spoke in rhyme, he and the others began a halting dialog with the hermit, who bore a winged cat upon his shoulder.In due course, and with well-composed questions, the band determined that they were speaking with Ol' Nubius himself and learned that the Sundered Emperor was indeed looking for the tower as well. Instead of finding that which the Emperor seeks within the tower however, Ol' Nubius informed them that the blade of Tiwazbrandr lay in the depths of the fey wood, buried in a tree, and it could only be released by those pure of sin and with the blood of kings in their veins.However, to recover the sword, the band would have to overcome three challenges: the Blood Wolves of the Skeinwood, the Great Black Mother serpents and a warden by the name of Gordan. With that said, the old man turned and, accompanied by the black panther and his winged dragoncat, stepped into the Skeinwood to fade into the leaves and early morning mist.And that's where the session ended...The Commentary:The big fight near the beginning of the session actually took less than an hour, with 10 good guys (the five PCs and their five Extras, the Greenfell Archers) against the 13 bad guys (four crossbowmen, eight warriors and a cabalist). I did not make any of the bad guys into Wild Cards, and in retrospect, I think I should have done so with at least one of the warriors and/or the cabalist. However, I wanted to see how the party and the system could be able to handle the large numbers, as well as how viable casters were as Extras instead of Wild Cards.All in all, the fight went very well, and ended very quickly considering the numbers involved. I used a few hills and a big boulder I'd picked up on eBay in an effort to start adding terrain to the game. It helped a lot, and added that "fog of war" feeling to the conflict as the elven priest ran along the road and revealed the additional enemies beyond the crossbowmen on the hill.I had given the Warlord Andrus a few troops to use, since he had a number of leadership edges, but while he controlled the Greenfell Archers, he did not stay in range so that they could benefit from his Edges. Oh, well, he'll learn as he gets more chances in the future.Casters can work as Extras, but they go down pretty quick. If you want a caster with staying power, I'd suggest you make them a Wild Card. However, I do think it creates a certain feeling that not all the casters of your setting are these "Unstoppable Forces of Might and Magic" if the party runs into some that are just Extras, at least every once in a while. This one used Bolt and Deflection, but went down to a well-Aced combat roll by Anzjin, so the Deflection didn't help the guy much.After the conflict, I got the chance to introduce a place of wonder with a tower that walks. There are surprisingly several adventures I have that involve a walking tower, and this gives me a chance to use them later, if I so choose. Also, the Archmagus Agerion provides me with reasons for having secret deathtrap tombs with treasure in the future, so I liked adding that bit of detail, too.As a quick aside, I picked up a number of rhek minis that look a lot like rhino-men, so I decided to introduce them as a far-away race. They'll never meet another unless they head to Achea, but I wanted to plant some seeds now for that eventual adventure.A few years ago, I was watching "Who's Line Is It Anyway?" and listening to one of their skits, the Irish Drinking song, when I came upon the realization that speaking in rhyme worked really well for setting the fey apart from other encounters. Since then, I've used it several times in several campaigns, and those have always been memorable for the players. It's a challenge to speak entirely in rhyme, but you'll find that it becomes a lot easier once you get going. I hadn't done it in this campaign as yet, so the crazy old hermit being so closely tied with the fey-infested Skeinwood provided me a great excuse to do so. More than half of my players hadn't experienced it before, and Warlord Andrus (who had been through it before) was caught without prepared rhymes, so he had to wing it. They did a good job, and several of them got in on the act. I had a great time roleplaying that scene.The story of Tiwazbrandr was inspired by the real Norse legend of the Sword of Sigurd, in which Odin placed a sword in a tree and said that only the greatest of warriors could pull it loose and would be kind. The imagery lent itself centuries later to the tale of King Arther and the Sword in the Stone, and so I felt it would appeal to the players. Sticking with the Norse theme, the Blood Wolves were inspired by Fenris, and the Great Black Mother snakes came from Fenris's sibling, the World Serpent Jormungand. The warden is actually inspired by the old Sentinels boxed set from the Role-Aids product line back in the early 90s by Mayfair Games, but is colored to draw inference from the last Knight Templar that guards the Holy Grail in the third Indiana Jones movie. This adventure will be quite fun to run next week. That is, unless they are afraid to enter the Skeinwood for fear of talking in rhymes again. Hehehe, we shall see.Wish Them Luck,Flynn</blockquote>

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