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NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.
Welcome to the Halmae (updated 2/27/07)
- Thread starter spyscribe
- Start date
Hell's bells. I've been reading bits and pieces since the wedding, thinking I had at least a month more of casual reading before I caught up. Then a deadlne came due this week, and I could not think of a better way to avoid getting it done until the last minute. Now I have to wait with everyone else.
How far behind the actual game is this most excellent storyhour? A year? More?
Update, please. Kettenek's procrastination demands it.
--Jason
P.S.-- Having read this thread over the last month, and loving every bit, my favorite line has got to be BMJ's "We suspect it was Amelia. Has she been studying evil things?"
Oh, yeah. Them's the good stuff.
How far behind the actual game is this most excellent storyhour? A year? More?
Update, please. Kettenek's procrastination demands it.
--JasonP.S.-- Having read this thread over the last month, and loving every bit, my favorite line has got to be BMJ's "We suspect it was Amelia. Has she been studying evil things?"
Oh, yeah. Them's the good stuff.
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spyscribe
First Post
Zog said:
Well, if you had introduced yourself as Zog, I probably would have thought to mention it.
(I told Fajitas and WLS there needed to be a space for known aliases on the nametags at the rehearsal dinner...) Glad you found us though.Darmatage said:
Well, the next two updates bring the story hour to the end of our last session of 2002, played December 8th. As folks might have noticed from the pace of updates over the last two weeks, I'm trying to make up some ground. (While Fajitas was writing up the section on the Miyen Kai this summer, it let me get a little bit ahead.) My goal is to have posted two years' worth of sessions by the time the story hour is two years old. That's ten months of gaming by the end of February.
In short, you picked the right time to get caught up with this story.
spyscribe
First Post
Part the Sixty-Fifth
In which: things get bad.
As a rain of goblin arrows begins pouring in from all sides, Reyu realizes that she has made a critical misjudgment of the situation. The bear is acting contrary to its nature not in reaction to provocation by the humans, but because it is being dominated by someone else who wishes the humans ill.
However, willing or not, the bear is doing considerable damage to Lord Agasha’s horse, and more than a little to the rider. Clearly, the it will have to be dealt with, but in one last hope for the already abused animal, Reyu calls out to her companions, “Try to knock the bear out! Don’t kill him!”
If anyone has any witty rejoinders to make to that entreaty, they are soon cut off by the sound of a huge hunting horn, bellowing in the near distance.
“What was that?” Lira yells over the noise.
Benedic jumps off his horse, draws his sword and prepares to face down whatever comes next. He shoots a look to the sorcerer, indicating for her to stay back towards the center of the path. “Nothing good, I’ll wager.”
Reyu gives the bear a sound rap on the head with the butt of her spear, but the animal is not even fazed. He does turn from Lord Agasha however, and—clearly struggling—lifts his paw above his head. You… must flee… he tells her through gritted teeth, pointed and razor sharp.
Reyu draws back for another blow. I cannot allow you to attack these humans.
The bear look at her with mournful eyes, I am… sorry… and his claws swipe down, catching Reyu full in the chest, and knocking her to the ground, unconscious and bleeding.
It’s right about then, as Anvil and Lord Agasha battle the bear (Anvil attempting to strike with the flat of his blade, in deference to Reyu’s wishes, Lord Agasha having no such compunctions), that three dire badgers come bursting out of the woods to the right of the party’s flank.
Eva and Benedic are in the best position to act. With the lead badger closing in quickly, Eva strikes forward suddenly, sticking it in the shoulder and drawing blood. Almost immediately, the badges flies into a frothing rage, snapping its jaws and bearing down full speed on the thing that caused it pain. Eva does her best to fend it off, but the badger causes quite a bit of pain of its own. Eva strikes back, aided by two magic missles that go streaking by her to strike the badger right in the face.
Meanwhile, Thatch, in the midst of readying Bob for a charge, realizes that his armor is growing uncomfortably hot. Unnaturally hot, given the ambient temperature. Still, he has ways of dealing with both the armor and the badgers. Taking out Professor Alexandra’s magic pitcher, he points it straight up and says, “Fresh geyser.”
A stream of water bursts forth from the pitcher, and Thatch in the middle of his own rainstorm, which does provide a bit of relief from his heated armor. He tips the pitcher forward towards the badgers in front of him, hitting one right in the face as it’s about to take a chunk out of Eva’s leg.
Lord Agasha wheels his horse around for another charge at the bear. But the bear strikes back, and the old man’s horse falls from under him. Anvil, meanwhile, quickly casts cure light wounds on Reyu, but although that get Reyu back on her feet, the bear takes down Anvil for his trouble. Eva slays one badger, but she is bleeding profusely, and she and Benedic have barely managed to wound the other two.
Dennis has been trying to dispatch the goblin arches in the woods, but he has also been keeping his eyes peeled who whoever, or whatever has been orchestrating this attack. Because, he thinks as he manages to take out a goblin with a well-place arrow to the eye, something tells him that is isn’t one of these flunkies. He keeps scanning the woods.
And then, maybe 50’ off, he spots it. Goblin-like my ass he thinks, as he finds himself looking up at some kind of huge ogre. A hunting horn hangs at its side, and in its right hand, the creature wields a club thicker than a man’s head. Probably harder too, Dennis thinks grimly. With a quick prayer to Alirria to keep him above the grasses for just a bit longer, he draws his sword, yells for Thatch to follow, and charges ahead.
Eva is starting to feel the loss of blood. Benedic is beside her and Lira keeps throwing magic missles but these last two badgers are two more than she can handle. In a distant way she notices the hollow >clunk< of a spear butt cracking against the bear’s skull, followed by the muffled >thud< of its collapse. Oh good she thinks, another one down. Looks like the tide is turning in our fav--.
And in that split second, the badger attacks. This time it leaps straight for her, and its claws strike deep, opening the twin arteries in her neck.
Eva just has time to realize that she can’t even scream. Her soul has gone to join her goddess before her body hits the ground.
In which: things get bad.
As a rain of goblin arrows begins pouring in from all sides, Reyu realizes that she has made a critical misjudgment of the situation. The bear is acting contrary to its nature not in reaction to provocation by the humans, but because it is being dominated by someone else who wishes the humans ill.
However, willing or not, the bear is doing considerable damage to Lord Agasha’s horse, and more than a little to the rider. Clearly, the it will have to be dealt with, but in one last hope for the already abused animal, Reyu calls out to her companions, “Try to knock the bear out! Don’t kill him!”
If anyone has any witty rejoinders to make to that entreaty, they are soon cut off by the sound of a huge hunting horn, bellowing in the near distance.
“What was that?” Lira yells over the noise.
Benedic jumps off his horse, draws his sword and prepares to face down whatever comes next. He shoots a look to the sorcerer, indicating for her to stay back towards the center of the path. “Nothing good, I’ll wager.”
Reyu gives the bear a sound rap on the head with the butt of her spear, but the animal is not even fazed. He does turn from Lord Agasha however, and—clearly struggling—lifts his paw above his head. You… must flee… he tells her through gritted teeth, pointed and razor sharp.
Reyu draws back for another blow. I cannot allow you to attack these humans.
The bear look at her with mournful eyes, I am… sorry… and his claws swipe down, catching Reyu full in the chest, and knocking her to the ground, unconscious and bleeding.
It’s right about then, as Anvil and Lord Agasha battle the bear (Anvil attempting to strike with the flat of his blade, in deference to Reyu’s wishes, Lord Agasha having no such compunctions), that three dire badgers come bursting out of the woods to the right of the party’s flank.
Eva and Benedic are in the best position to act. With the lead badger closing in quickly, Eva strikes forward suddenly, sticking it in the shoulder and drawing blood. Almost immediately, the badges flies into a frothing rage, snapping its jaws and bearing down full speed on the thing that caused it pain. Eva does her best to fend it off, but the badger causes quite a bit of pain of its own. Eva strikes back, aided by two magic missles that go streaking by her to strike the badger right in the face.
Meanwhile, Thatch, in the midst of readying Bob for a charge, realizes that his armor is growing uncomfortably hot. Unnaturally hot, given the ambient temperature. Still, he has ways of dealing with both the armor and the badgers. Taking out Professor Alexandra’s magic pitcher, he points it straight up and says, “Fresh geyser.”
A stream of water bursts forth from the pitcher, and Thatch in the middle of his own rainstorm, which does provide a bit of relief from his heated armor. He tips the pitcher forward towards the badgers in front of him, hitting one right in the face as it’s about to take a chunk out of Eva’s leg.
Lord Agasha wheels his horse around for another charge at the bear. But the bear strikes back, and the old man’s horse falls from under him. Anvil, meanwhile, quickly casts cure light wounds on Reyu, but although that get Reyu back on her feet, the bear takes down Anvil for his trouble. Eva slays one badger, but she is bleeding profusely, and she and Benedic have barely managed to wound the other two.
Dennis has been trying to dispatch the goblin arches in the woods, but he has also been keeping his eyes peeled who whoever, or whatever has been orchestrating this attack. Because, he thinks as he manages to take out a goblin with a well-place arrow to the eye, something tells him that is isn’t one of these flunkies. He keeps scanning the woods.
And then, maybe 50’ off, he spots it. Goblin-like my ass he thinks, as he finds himself looking up at some kind of huge ogre. A hunting horn hangs at its side, and in its right hand, the creature wields a club thicker than a man’s head. Probably harder too, Dennis thinks grimly. With a quick prayer to Alirria to keep him above the grasses for just a bit longer, he draws his sword, yells for Thatch to follow, and charges ahead.
Eva is starting to feel the loss of blood. Benedic is beside her and Lira keeps throwing magic missles but these last two badgers are two more than she can handle. In a distant way she notices the hollow >clunk< of a spear butt cracking against the bear’s skull, followed by the muffled >thud< of its collapse. Oh good she thinks, another one down. Looks like the tide is turning in our fav--.
And in that split second, the badger attacks. This time it leaps straight for her, and its claws strike deep, opening the twin arteries in her neck.
Eva just has time to realize that she can’t even scream. Her soul has gone to join her goddess before her body hits the ground.
Fajitas
Hold the Peppers
Unlike the rest of us...Capellan said:
The party was third level at this point. There are seven party members (Reyu, Thatch, Eva, Anvil, and Lira as PCs, plus Dennis and Benedic as NPCs), and Lord Agasha (who is something like Ftr 3/Aristocrat 4).
The adventure was written for four 4th level PCs. I adjusted the balance slightly because of the numbers, with very interesting results, as you'll see shortly.
So here's me showing my general ignorance of D&D minutiae.
Are all animals in the Halmae sentient, or do elves, in communicating with them, tap into primal urges that they interpret as communications with the appearance of full sentience?
If a person were attacking the party and saying things like "Please, I can't control myself, run away so I can't hurt you" and someone killed that person, I have to imagine a Justicar would find that troubling. Hearing this coming from a bear, the normal animal-rights argument of "ok, it can't reason, and it can't talk, but it can suffer, and therefore it is sentient" appears to be moot. This bear appears to be able to distinguish between its actions and its desires, thus exhibiting an ability to reason, and is quite clearly able to express this in speech, at least to elves.
How do animals fit into D&D worlds, rights-wise?
--Jason
Are all animals in the Halmae sentient, or do elves, in communicating with them, tap into primal urges that they interpret as communications with the appearance of full sentience?
If a person were attacking the party and saying things like "Please, I can't control myself, run away so I can't hurt you" and someone killed that person, I have to imagine a Justicar would find that troubling. Hearing this coming from a bear, the normal animal-rights argument of "ok, it can't reason, and it can't talk, but it can suffer, and therefore it is sentient" appears to be moot. This bear appears to be able to distinguish between its actions and its desires, thus exhibiting an ability to reason, and is quite clearly able to express this in speech, at least to elves.
How do animals fit into D&D worlds, rights-wise?
--Jason
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Fajitas
Hold the Peppers
Well, that pretty much depends on whether you ask a Justicar or a Druid...Darmatage said:
Reyu was able to understand the bear because she cast a spell, speak with animals, which... well it, pretty much does what it says. This doesn't have any effect on an animal's intelligence, it just lets you understand them and vice versa.
So, it's basically like imagining that your dog could talk. He's probably going to say "Food? Food? Scratches? Scratches? Ooooh, I know! Stick! Stick! Can I? Can I?" Is that actually sentience? I leave that question to the philosophers among us. Sufficed to say, in the Halmae, it isn't.
Tho' I am reminded of something a wise man once said: "I wonder, if the trees could scream, would we still be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might be, if they screamed all the time. And for no good reason."
Stay tuned, gentle readers. Stay tuned...dpdx said:
Oh, and for anyone keeping score, it's actually an ogre druid. Heat metal (which Thatch got hit with and very cleverly mitigated) isn't an ogre mage spell. Or, indeed, a wizard spell at all.
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