Redbadge's Campaign (there will be spoilers)

[Isklexi]

It's been a while since my last post, but scheduling can be a cruel mistress. I finished reading over "Revelations from the Mouth of a Madman" today, and I have a question for RangerWickett.

In the adventure, it mentions some stereotypes of the Ber races. Stereotypes in real life often have some tiny correlation to actual behavior (it takes more than gossip to make a stereotype stick). I'm wondering how much substance these Ber stereotypes have. The lazy minotaur stereotype certainly seems to apply to Shantus, but what about the other part? I've got those two minotaur characters I introduced in "Always on Time", and it could help to add some extra flavor to the characters.

edit: more questions
Do you have a specific backstory for the Godmind Urn? If not, I can think of a perfect background for it in my campaign.

I've also been thinking over the guns discussion from a while back (I forget which thread it was in now). I think I'll adapt the gun rules in my campaign as follows:

guns in Zeitgeist are breach loading (it's more in line with a standard action reload and they have giant steam powered golems, breach loading guns shouldn't be that much more difficult to make)

each gun will have a low caliber and high caliber version, low caliber guns will automatically have revolver chambers that hold six bullets (these guns are for people that want to use guns as a core part of their build)

heavy caliber guns will have twice the base weapon damage of the low caliber variant e.g. 2d8 instead of 1d8(the larger fire dust charge required for these bullets makes a revolver chamber impossible and they must be reloaded after every shot, these are for the "single-shot" opener)

Firearm Expertise will drop the reload time down to a move action instead of a minor action and speed loader will not work with firearms (this will prevent people from ignoring the slow reload of heavy caliber guns and I wasn't a fan of requiring two feats for a gun build to be viable anyway, the revolver chamber of low caliber guns will keep reloading from being to onerous for gun oriented players)

The ammunition clip ability of the gunsmith theme will allow them to modify a low caliber gun with a 12 bullet spring loaded clip similar to modern clips, but this modification can't be applied to heavy caliber guns (again I don't want them to circumvent the reload penalty of heavy caliber guns)

What do other folks think of these changes? I'd appreciate any feedback or criticisms if I missed something.

 

[Ajar]

Those are some interesting tweaks. I'm considering adopting some of them for my Gunsmith Warlock player who dual-wields pistols. I don't see any major issues with it, but I'm not dealing with something designed to explot it -- e.g. a Rogue|Ranger hybrid dual-wielding pistols and using Twin Strike all the time.

 

[Isklexi]

GM: Finally got another session in. I’m setting up maptools, so hopefully we can get more sessions in on weeknights when weekends aren’t open.

The constables boarded the train amidst a much-diminished crowd of passengers. Amidst the rumors of another murder, they noticed the minotaurs from the market overseeing the loading of crates into the freight cars before boarding the train themselves. The constables decided they could not stand idle as a serial killer lurked aboard the train and set out to identify the culprit. Kirk strongly suspected Boone, the philandering Tiefling. Kirk brought Boone into the first class lounge for drinks and conversation. Meanwhile, Irony sat nearby having used a discern lies ritual and eavesdropped on the conversation. Boone became suspicious as Kirk pressed him about the murders.

Partway through the interrogation, Luc Jierre purchased meals for everyone in first class. Kirk barely touched the meal believing something devious may be afoot from the suspected Obscurati agents. Boone left Kirk’s company after growing tired of his probing questions. Fortunately, he walked a table down to flirt with Irony. Irony’s greater skill for wordplay allowed her tease more lies from the Tiefling but still not enough to conclusively prove their suspicions. After Boone realized he wasn’t getting anywhere flirting with Irony, he got up to leave the car. Kirk attempted a gamble and bumped into Boone while feigning drunkenness to pickpocket Boone’s dagger. He succeeded, and they convened in their first class suite to use the object reading ritual on the weapon. The ritual proved beyond a doubt that Boone was the murderer.

While most of the constables were helping investigate Boone, Bellicose decided to explore the rest of the passenger cars for anything interesting. He passed the eccentric dwarf Verzubak. Verzubak was playing with some dice in a cup. He claimed to be performing an experiment on the probability of certain die values coming up based on the proximity of nearby individuals. Bellicose smiled and nodded at the unusual fellow before moving on to the second-class dining car.

There he found the minotaurs that had boarded in Trekhom. He sat down next to them and struck up a conversation using his cover as a weapons manufacturer. The pair introduced themselves as Asteron del Medine, a field commander in the Beran army, and Shakul Montoya, Asteron’s adjutant. Bellicose discovered that they had been in Trekhom paying for a shipment of weapons destined for Ber, and they planned to take a ship from Vendricce to Seobrigga. Their conversation continued over a complimentary lunch paid for by Luc Jierre. Bellicose claimed to be interested in expanding his company’s foreign sales and mentioned his real family’s custom gun shop. Over the course of the meal, Bellicose also discovered that the two men are a couple. After finishing the meal, Bellicose bade the pair farewell and returned to the other constables in first class.

GM: The writers for Zeitgeist have done a good job of making the cast of NPCs quite diverse. I’m pretty bad at doing that myself. My NPCs are invariably white men when they’re human (projecting and all that), so I thought I’d make these extra NPCs a different kind of diverse. I’d originally had more ideas planned for their first conversation with Asteron and Shakul, but I forgot about quite a bit of it after the long downtime between sessions. If the players ignore them for the rest of this adventure, I can still have them show up again when they go to Ber in a later adventure. I’ve got plenty of ideas on how to expand the culture unique to the various races of Ber.

Bellicose returned to the cabin in time to participate in the argument over how to deal with Boone. Kirk wanted to lure the murderer back to their suite where they could incapacitate or kill him. Irony was very concerned about the danger that would pose both to their true mission and to the other passengers. Before their debate could progress very far, someone knocked on the door to their suite.

Bree had arrived with a bottle of wine as thanks for saving the train from the malice beasts the day before. Irony had grown to like the Danoran veteran and revealed their discovery of Boone’s murderous nature. Irony claimed that she had learned to use the read object ritual as a kind of party trick to entertain wealthy peers. Shocked, Bree urged them not to risk confronting a dangerous murderer. Bree and Irony convinced Kirk to take the dagger and warn Malia, the head of the train’s guard in first class. Malia was aghast at the accusations being leveled. Malia was unwilling to risk the safety of the passengers, and she could not witness the evidence first hand as only Irony actually saw the visions from the ritual. Malia confiscated the dagger and assured the constables that the conductor could contact the guards at Nalaam to apprehend and question Boone.

GM: It’s getting very late here, so I’ll finish this post tomorrow evening.

 

[RangerWickett]

It is, likewise, late here. I'll try to belatedly reply to your question from September some time tomorrow. Glad to hear the game's still on, though.

 

[Isklexi]

The constables settled back in their suite to wait until Nalaam. They were disturbed by yet another knock on their door. This time it was one of the train staff delivering an invitation from Elanor Yanette. The invitation requested their presence at the Nalaam arena later that evening. The constables planned to attend, as this will likely be their last chance to rescue Elanor’s prisoner.

As the train approached Nalaam, Rai experienced a wave of pain as his affinity for elemental air was suppressed. The constables were unsure what exactly caused it. Could Luc be using his mysterious lantern again or could unforeseen troubles await them in Nalaam? The constables had scant time to worry as they got off the train. A dozen watchmages waited on the station platform. The mages immediately moved to take Olivert, Irony, and Kirk in for questioning. Olivert attempted to resist and was quickly subdued. They were taken to a secure building where the mages used rituals to confirm that Olivert was the murderer and released Irony and Kirk to go about their business in the city. The mages plan to ship Olivert back to Trekhom to face justice, as he hasn’t committed a crime in Nalaam.

GM: The players really latched on to catching the murderer. I didn’t make any combat encounter out of this. I figured that if the watchmages could pose a threat to the party, they could certainly handle Olivert. I’m not sure what I’ll do with his possessed gun yet. I may have it resurface later.

The constables regrouped and hurried to rendezvous with Damata for his confrontation with the Family. Damata gave them each special totems passed down by his tribe to grant them strength in the coming battle. The group then wended its way into a seedier side of Nalaam ending near a sleazy pub called Holes. Two enforcers escorted the group into a cave where a foul-mouthed thug named Sylvester waited. The thug demanded that the constables show him the magic items Damata was supposed to pay off the debt with. Kirk complied by promptly stabbing one of the enforcers near him. The cave rang with the sound of gunfire as the Family thugs closed in and the constables formed a protective wall in front of Damata. The Family thugs were quickly overpowered, and the group fled the scene before any city guards could arrive.

Now the constables must hurry across the city to reach the infamous Nalaam arena and possibly their last chance to rescue the slave Isobel Travers.

 

[Isklexi]

It is, likewise, late here. I'll try to belatedly reply to your question from September some time tomorrow. Glad to hear the game's still on, though.

Yep, I'm hoping that using maptools to open up weeknights will help get us back into regular sessions. The program and the token making program that goes with it are pretty nice. It may take me some time to get used to all the buttons and knobs though.

Um, you also appear to have a typo in your sig. You have "mouth" spelled with an extra "u" in the sixth adventure's title.

 

[Isklexi]

GM: We got in a session using Maptools. It worked out splendidly. Redbadge helped me set it up using additional macros for the character sheets. The session only consisted of about half an encounter as everyone got used to using Maptools, but I think it will work out great.

The constables had to rush across town to reach the Nalaam arena in time for Elanor's show. The party eyed Elanor's balcony and its occupants. Elanor had the slave, Isobel, with her, and her buyers were present. Elanor was joined by Nikola the Necromancer, a wizard who made his fortune as an assassin; Jaime the Weevil, a disgraced Risuri druid who extorts protection money to prevent pest infestations; Father Balthazar, a corrupt clergyman who siphons wealth from the local church coffers; and a robed man wearing a featureless black mask. Luc and Ottavia sat in a balcony further from the constables.

GM: The extra person in Elanor's booth was inserted for one of my extra plots. They'll learn more about him later.

The constables were surprised to see Mister Mapple enter the arena alongside convicts. A boisterous speech by Elanor revealed that she had Mapple arrested for stalking her and Isobel. Mapple revealed that his real name is Andrei von Recklinghausen, and Elanor then paid handsomely to request a fight for the warrior hobo. A huge fiery cat was loosed into the arena to hunt down Andrei.

The constables sprang into action. They decided to put a stop to Elanor's sale before it was too late and help the noble stowaway. Rai, Kirk, and Irony jumped the gap between the balconies to attack the slave traders. Rai used the Icon of Urim to conjure a wall separating Elanor and Isobel from the other foes and let loose a flurry of attacks that barreled Elanor over the balcony rail resulting in her untimely demise. Irony ran forward to shield Isobel, and Kirk moved to attack the masked man. The masked man conjured a silvery longsword and repelled Kirk's attacks with powerful magic. The man then pushed past Kirk and Irony to grab Isobel and jumped the gap back into the constable's balcony. Rai pursued the man leaving Irony and Kirk to deal with the other three angry slave traders.

Doran rappelled from the balcony on a rope and ran to join Andrei against the burning feline. The cat's flaming breath was taking a toll on Andrei. Backup arrived in the form of the two minotaurs from Trekhom. Asteron climbed down into the arena from audience stands while Shakul stayed on the high vantage point to use his sniper rifle.

Back on the balconies, Kirk and Irony were battling with three powerful spellcasters with ranged support from Bellicose. The masked man chided Rai for abandoning his friends while Rai refused to risk letting the man get away with Isobel.

Meanwhile, complications struck the arena team when Elanor's body was reanimated by Nikola's dark magic and struck from behind.

GM: We plan to finish this encounter next session. My plan for Cornell, the masked man, in this fight went up in smoke almost immediately. I had planned for him to grab Isobel and teleport behind the other buyers, but Irony's player archly pointed out that I had forgotten the gold jewelry that Elanor made Isobel wear. Rai's player also focused on Cornell to the exclusion of the rest of the encounter which I hadn't planned for. This effectively split the party three ways: arena and two balcony fights, so I had the minotaur NPCs jump in to lend a hand (one of them is a melee leader while the other is a ranged lurker). In hindsight, I should have mirrored the NPC layout on Elanor's balcony so that Elanor and Cornell were furthest from the PC balcony. That way they would have had to go through the other three NPCs before reaching Elanor, Cornell, or Isobel. Cornell is actually much higher level than the party, and I had planned for him to stand in the back for until the fight was mostly over. I'm still confident the party can pull this off, but I will have to plan encounters better in the future.

 

[Isklexi]

GM: Maptools has been very helpful in making our sessions more regular. Now I just have to post about them in a timely fashion. This post actually consists of two sessions. The first one finished up the arena encounter, and the second starts the “three milestones” encounter.

Asteron rescued Doran from zombie Elanor’s control by pulling out one of his .50 caliber pistols and dispatching her in the time honored tradition of zombie movies everywhere: a bullet to the head. The arena team was then free to bring down the enormous flaming feline.

The balcony team was feeling some pressure from the combined might of the three spellcasters. Just when Kirk was about to finish Jaime, Balthazar shored up his defense with some timely healing. Bellicose knocked Nikola from the balcony as Kirk finally managed to overcome Balthazar’s healing and strike a killing blow to Jaime. Kirk slid down the arena wall to pursue Nikola leaving Irony and Bellicose to deal with Balthazar.

Rai decided that facing Cornell in a head on duel was a losing proposition and opted to take an unusual tactic. Rai teleported behind Cornell and then grabbed Isobel to use her as a human shield. Rai reasoned that one of the buyers wouldn’t risk hurting the slave girl or leave without her.

GM: This is the second time this party has come up with a non-standard response to a hostage situation. I’m beginning to wonder if they understand what a hostage is.

Meanwhile, Kirk had bitten off more than he could chew in the arena below. He reached the ground just in time for Nikola to catch him off guard with a withering blast of necromantic magic. Fortunately, the others in the arena had finished off the pyrecat and rushed to his aid.

Irony and Bellicose were able to finish off Balthazar with the aid of Bellicose’s twin badger pistols. Irony had given up on using her bardic magic against the willful cleric and resorted to slashing at him with her sword while badgers bedeviled him.

Once Balthazar had fallen, lord Kulp called an end to the battle for the safety of the remaining audience and guards rushed onto the balconies to apprehend everyone. The party along with Isobel, Andrei, Asteron, Shakul, and Cornell were taken to Kulp’s private chambers. Kulp asked to know who they were and to commend them on removing some of Nalaam’s least respectable citizens.

Kulp expressed surprise at Irony’s cover name, Grace vos Nachtwald (a surname she had copied from Calaphax). At this point Cornell stepped forward and introduced himself properly as Cornell vos Nachtwald. Cornell removed his mask and hood to reveal he was an old Eladrin with extensive scars on the left side of his face. He revealed that Kulp and he had arranged for Cornell to attend the auction in the hopes of purchasing the Eladrin slaves as an alternative to dangerous raids on the fortified strongholds where the slaves are normally kept. Cornell was unable to help them when they attacked the auction because he had sworn an oath not to harm Elanor or any of the other buyers as a condition of attending.

Cornell assured Kulp that Grace (Irony) had no knowledge of the auction and was simply there by coincidence on unrelated business for Lord Caliphray (Calaphax). Kulp assured the constables that he had ties with Vekeshi Mystics and, with Cornell’s aid, secure safe passage to Elfaivar and the Dreaming for Isobel. Andrei insisted on accompanying Isobel to ensure her safety. Cornell requested to speak to the constables in private before they left. The constables bid farewell to Asteron and Shakul after inviting them to dinner later as thanks for the help.

Cornell shed some light on Cal’s influence in the world. Cornell is a member of a druidic order called the Endless Vigil. Though a druidic order in origin, the order evolved over time and includes many members that are not druids such as Cornell who is an archmage. Cornell told the constables that the order was founded by Cal thousands of years ago to help the races of Lanjyr reach their potential. The order is based out of a remote place called the Nachtwald in the dreaming (hence the surname). He mentioned that the orders resources had been stretched thin over the last 500 years trying to avert the extinction of the Eladrins. He also mentioned that Calaphax always selects a mortal champion when he visits Lanjyr. When Kirk asked who Cal’s current champion was, Cornell told him that the five of them were Cal’s current champions. Though Cornell did mention he was Cal’s champion over 600 years ago.

Cornell declined to elaborate on what Cal’s motivations are behind his actions. He deflected the questions saying that Cal reveals secrets to his champions when he believes they are ready to know the truth. The cryptic meeting gave the constables some new information on their infernal “friend” but raised more questions than it answered. Irony certainly plans on asking Cal some questions when they return to Flint.

GM: I worked more of my own plot into the story here. This meeting revealed that Cal has been working to influence Lanjyr for a very long time and that he has a shadowy organization of his own that operates out of the Dreaming. I don’t plan on the Vigil having any real information about the Ob thanks to their preoccupation with preserving the Eladrin species following the Great Malice. This post ended up being longer than I anticipated, so I’ll do the entry for the next session later.

 

[Isklexi]

The constables boarded the train the following morning without incident. The passengers were abuzz with talk of an arrested serial killer and a spectacular fight at the arena. The group settled in for the long train ride out of the mountains and into Crissilyir.

Irony decided to attempt further information gathering. Using a ritual to help her pierce disguises, she set out to see if Luc and Ottavia were really who they claimed to be and check for any other suspicious activity on the train. She attempted to invite Luc and Ottavia to lunch in the first class lounge, but they declined claiming to have some work that needed attending to and remained in their suite. Irony didn’t find anything else out of the ordinary.

The rest of the constables played host to an unexpected visitor. Bree stopped by their suite to congratulate them on an impressive fight and to share some of the money she won betting on them. They enjoyed some small talk and shared lunch before Bree left.

Soon enough, Malia made her rounds asking everyone to return to their seats as the train approached Sid Minos. Things took an unexpected turn when the lamps on the train flared with strange light, and the skies darkened suddenly. The constables quickly realized something strange had happened. The arcane inclined party members, Rai and Irony, realized somehow their spirits had been transported to the plane of death and ruin, Nem. After searching their suite, the constables found arcane marks etched onto the inside of the gas lamps in the suite as well as on the edges of the coins that Bree had given them. They also spotted a strange glow coming from the front of the train.

Rai and Irony determined that whatever ritual was used to banish them to Nem would likely last less than a half an hour. Unfortunately, they didn’t have that much time. The train would soon move three miles from where their bodies had been separated from their spirits cutting them off from their corporeal bodies and trapping their spirits on Nem. Their best chance was to destroy the rituals primary focus: the only part of the spirit train still coterminous with the physical train on Lanjyr. Their best guess is that the source of the strange light at the front of the train must be the ritual focus.

GM: The players brainstormed several ways to counter the ritual including destroying the lamps or coins. I pointed out that they weren’t physically on Lanjyr anymore and destroying objects on the spirit train wouldn’t affect the actual objects back on Lanjyr. They were a little confused at how they could possibly overcome the ritual if they couldn’t affect anything physically, so I came up with the explanation that the ritual’s primary focus acted like a bridge and would exist coterminous in both worlds.

The constables began making their way across the roof of the train with the fleet footed Doran out front. Shadowy wraiths swooped out of the darkness to accost Doran and Irony. The scuffle had barely begun when Bellicose pulled out his Icon of Nem and commanded the wraiths to leave them alone. The bewildered wraiths fled back into the night. The constables continued confidant that anything threatening could be subdued by the Icon’s influence. That’s when they encountered the next obstacle: spectral visages of the passengers slain in the malice beast attack. The spectral ghouls leapt up through the ceiling of the train cars to lash and claw at the constables’ legs as they ran across the rooftops.

Bellicose used the golden icon to command a second wave of wraiths to help subdue the ghostly assailants. As the visages fell, they left behind small glowing wisps that the wraiths were all too happy carry off into the darkness. The constables are steadily making their way to the cargo cars through the spectral visages.

GM: I was a little disappointed that the players remembered the esoteric powers of the golden icons right away. I’d hoped that they would fight through the first wave of wraiths before figuring it out. I ruled that the visages wouldn’t respond to the icon because they were the souls of dead people not actual denizens of Nem. I may rule the miniboss at the end is too strong for the icon to command it. If I don’t, this encounter would be pretty anticlimactic.

 

[RangerWickett]

I may rule the miniboss at the end is too strong for the icon to command it. If I don’t, this encounter would be pretty anticlimactic.[/gm]

Oh, hell, I'd forgotten the icon could even do that. Yeah, it wasn't meant to give you carte blanch with creatures of that plane. Just provide some flavor for why Nicolas Dupiers could have allies in the mine. Maybe I can clarify that in the compilation.