I'm not sure exactly what happened, but most of the new characters did not show up this time. Namely, that bard chick and the minotaur ranger. The other minotaur was there, the barbarian, but not for very long. Dravis didn't show up again, and has shown up infrequently enough that I no longer consider him "main cast". This means the group consisted of Bob, Jack, Titania, and Toryc. I don't think I've mentioned Jack's small companion "Stumbleduck", a gnomish artificer who took an interest in Jack after noticing that he's a machine.
Stumbleduck is a small time tinkerer who's more interested in figuring out how stuff works than pretty much anything else. He's a bit egotistical to the point that he either doesn't respond or insults people who shorten his nickname to get his attention, and he considers himself the smartest person he's ever met. He's reasonable otherwise, but the only member of the group he actually likes is Jack, the rest of the group he considers stupid or unrefined. Anyhow, he was around this time.
As this session began, the group was in another room with those weird mechanical doors they couldn't get through without bashing. There were two such doors, one in the middle of the South wall and another in the middle of the East wall. Bob realized Stumbleduck was still upstairs, checking out all the mechanisms and technology they had discovered on the first floor. Stumbleduck wasn't only arrogant, he's also pretty smart, so Bob decides to go upstairs to get him and see if he can figure out how to open the doors without breaking them. On his way up the stairs, Bob sees a tiefling at the door to the first basement. The tiefling quickly shuts the door, and Bob runs down to tell the rest of the group about the tiefling he saw and to determine if it's a threat and what to do about it.
The group decides to go investigate the first basement to see what the tieflings are up to and if they can be reasoned with. The whole group stands on the stairs as Bob investigates the door. He hears something strange about the door as he gently raps on it near the top. The sound is different. He doesn't know how to explain that difference, so the group assumes it's a trap of some kind. The group goes back down the stairs and Toryc kerplodes the door down with scorching bursts. As the door burns off the hinges and falls to the floor, a large mallet on a stick attached to the ceiling with a hing swings down into the doorway. This is an example of one of my favorite kinds of traps. I call them "Bricks on ropes", after the first version of this trap I ever used. Basically, something is tied to or near the top of a doorway and propped up with a stick. Once the door opens, the stick no longer holds up the weight and it swings down into the chest or face of the door opener. This is the first time I've included such a trap and it did not successfully loosen someone's teeth.
In that room were more tieflings waiting for them. Two of the tieflings seemed to be holy warriors of Altua, the goddess of honor. One of the tieflings was an arcane caster of some kind, and the fourth a sneaky roguish type who can, on occasion, turn invisible. The two tiefling paladins immediately engage Bob and Jack, indicating that while they may be honorable, they aren't very diplomatic. Of course, the group also killed three of their friends upstairs, and the roguish tiefling was the one who survived that combat and told his friends all about it. While the two paladins keep the group's tanks busy, the roguish one focuses on Titania, since he knows she's the healer. As this goes on, the caster takes pot-shots at whomever seems the best target in order to maximize effectiveness while staying out of the limelight.
Thanks to rolling low, Bob and Jack aren't very good during this combat except in taking up the attention of the tiefling paladins. Titania is surprised at the mobility of the teleporting, invisible turning roguish tiefling trying to kill her, rendering her movements basically irrelevant and her attacks wasted. Toryc is offended at the tiefling flinging fire around, as that's his shtick, so focuses on that guy for the first few rounds. The minotaur's player had to leave at that beginning of this combat, so after he takes a single swing the minotaur decides the group has this fight in hand and simply leaves.
After a while, the tanks squaring off lead Titania to lacking much more healing, while the sneaky guy whittles her dangerously close to death. Toryc decides to square off with the sneaky tiefling in order to rescue Titania, which was a particularly un-Toryc thing to do, and the whole group noticed. While Toryc does a good job at distracting the sneaky tiefling, the burny, caster tiefling takes up the "kill the shaman" role, and Titania winds up on the ground, bleeding to death. At the conclusion of the fight, both paladins are dead, as well as the caster, but the sneaky roguish one got away... again. Titania was saved by some field dressings Bob applied, and the group decided to take a short break and use a bunch of healing surges. I'm not sure Bob hit a single target the whole combat, and Jack rolled almost as bad. This fight was technically an easy one, but low rolling made it last a while longer than it should have, which made it more difficult than it should have been.
The group, demoralized and drained of most of their healing surges, go up the stairs to see if Stumbleduck is alright. When they find him in the room they left him in, playing with a control panel, they're excited he didn't get attacked. They take SD down to the mechanical doors, and he figures out how to use the control panel to open each door. The group finds, through the East door, a hallway with magical lamps on the wall. When they make it to a pressure plate, the lights fire radiant beams at Bob. He takes a bit of radiant damage, and he finds the pressure plates that set them off. The group jumps over the plated area and continue on to the super-door at the end of the large hallway. This door is exactly like the magical-mechanical doors they've seen before, each of which lead to the rooms the keystones are kept in.
Bob uses the same key the group has used to enter each of those rooms to enter this one, and they find the room they expected to. The room was all metal and octagonal, with a pedistal in the center of the room with a bowl shape at the top. Pipes led from the pedestal to the walls and up the ceiling. Floating in the bowled top of the pedestal is a familiar shape; A football sized crystal with bright energy being drained from it, the energy leaving it brighter than the darkening crystal itself. There are no controls in the room, and Stumbleduck determines that if the crystal is simply removed it will probably shatter.
The group goes through the other doors in that last room, going South. This looks like a primary control room. As they enter the room, they hear a deep, loud, intimidating voice boom from the stairs "Destroy the heretics, save the crystal!" From the stairs charges a huge tiefling, perhaps six-foot-five and incredibly broad and strong. He's equipped similarly to the tiefling paladins, except his gear is obviously superior quality and he has an air of authority about him. He'd be intimidating if he were calm, but he was obviously out to seek vengeance for the death of his friends, and he may have even been an insane zealot of some kind who couldn't be reasoned with but the group never got the chance to talk to him while he was calm. Behind him was another tiefling paladin, two of the fire-flingers, and that same sneaky bastard that got away twice before.
This fight went poorly for the group for multiple reasons. The first, and probably the least, reason was Jack having one of his memories from another life flash to him a few moments before. This memory was of him looking out of a glass tube he was trapped within, at the woman he loved whom it seemed trapped him. Something was being drained from him, as the energy from the crystal (the catalyst of the memory). The feelings that flooded back at the memory, the love, the betrayal, the helplessness, sent him into a berserk fury. He rolled a timely 20 and criticalled the large tiefling paladin with his arm-bolt that SD gave him, and then ran into melee with him.
Unfortunately, where the two groups met, tiefling paladin and warforged fighter, was one of the doorways between the rooms. Jack's rage meant he wasn't thinking very strategically, so he simply stayed there, as he and the large tiefling exchanged blows. Titania was basically out of it for this fight as well. She's still not quite over her pacifism (cowardice), and she mostly avoided involvement in the fight since she almost died in the last one and had very few healing surges remaining. SD was surprised at the viciousness of the tiefling and spent his healing powers in the first few rounds, healing Jack. To make matters worse, Bob was marked by the other tiefling paladin, behind his leader and out of reach. That tiefling threw spears at Bob, to very little effect, but Bob had a -2 on attacks against the bigger tiefling and took 7 damage every round on the first attack he made. Given the good defenses the bigger tiefling had, this meant Bob was spending another encounter missing more often than hitting, since he couldn't actually get to anyone except the guy with the best defenses. Toryc was fairly effective, except he was missing more than usual himself. However, he placed his blasts and bursts where they hit the largest number of enemies.
Because the group didn't do anything about the bottleneck, the group behind the large tiefling used ranged attacks to whittle away at the group, and the sneaky guy got behind that front line to focus on Titania again. Even though there was a squishier target behind the bottleneck, where the whole group might get at him, the only person who fought him off was Titania, though the others occasionally hit him with orbital effects of their attack powers that he happened to be within. His invisibility power was regained more frequently than it should have been, so he was invisible pretty often. He was the first of the "bad guys" who were killed, Titania finishing him off with a daily power that incidentally hit him while he was invisible. The big guy healed himself a few times, making him a long lasting, hard-hitting, truly difficult opponent in his own right, and he continued to operate as a wall between the party and the rest of the "bad guys". Though Jack fell down a few times, he got healed and finally finished off the tiefling in front of him. Two of the other tieflings were soon dispatched, and one of them got away.
After taking a while to search the corpses and take a rest, they discover some money and magical items, but most curious is a small, silver rod they discover on the large tiefling. It was about a foot and a half long, fully silver, with carving's of dragons along it's length. At one end was a female screw end, where something obviously screwed in. The other end had a male screw and a latch, where it screwed into something else. The item is magical, but it's power was a mystery.
Stumbleduck investigates the control room, but just can't roll high enough to figure out how to shut off the crystal room. If he even can from there. The rest of the group tries, except Jack since he realizes he's not exactly smart, and none of them can figure it out. Toryc gets the ides to disenchant the bowl part of the pedestal if they can, and he and SD work on that for the greater part of a day, doing it slowly to avoid a sudden stop which may shatter the crystal. They succeed at that, and they use a bunch of residuum to restore the crystal as far as they can, getting rid of the crack in it and making it less brittle.
While the keystone itself is restored, if dis-empowered, minor earthquakes start to occur shortly after this. The group is around playing with the technology and trying to restore the crystal for several days, the earthquakes consistent at about every two hours. When some of the group leave the building to investigate outside, they see a storm to the East. The storm is obviously unnatural, with purple and red lightning and an unnatural glow. When Bob and Jack walk to it to investigate, they figure out it was about ten miles off. There are high winds and the clouds travel in circles above them, constantly crackling with colorful lightning. The clouds block the sun and make everything dark aside the purplish glow and cracks of the lightning. They find the center of the storm, where the ground itself seems to be pushing past itself, out of cracks. When a crack can be seen without dirt spilling out, it glows a burning red.
This is where Bob sees the silhouette of a man and a large wolf on the other side of the storm. Bob and Jack approach, and Bob is delighted to see Steve, his long lost wolf companion. Steve is now an awakened animal, as intelligent or more than any typical man. Bob knew of this from earlier, however. He talks with Steve for a while, and the figure with him is Titania's brother, Jolthian. Jolthian, as before, seemed much colder than during his youth. He was never much for being social, but he was never really cold, either. He informs them that he thinks the storm is the physical location of the demon's prison, and the storm is a sign that he's attempting to escape it. This means either the demon is stronger than he was before, or the keystones not as powerful. Since several of the keystones have been broken, that makes sense. He goes to a tower in the city they've been in, the city now lacking the static jumps of the tesla coils as the keystone was powering them, and he uses the Portal engraving to teleport to Lys (a city the group frequently visits, with a branch of the Philosopher's Guild in it). The group finds a scroll of "linked Portal", and are in the tower awaiting Jolthian's return.
Their plan is currently to see what information and resources Jolthian brings back with him, as well as trying to get to the nearest city of they can. They were originally going to a recent city build in the desert, which was closer than Lys and Toryc knows where, but then they got Linked Portal. Next session, we find out where the group goes and what they plan on doing. Oh, by the way, the reason the storm began is that the location the keystone is at no longer powers the demon's prison, as the bowled pedestal it was in was the lock, and it was disenchanted. They must now figure out how to fully restore the crystal and replace it at another such pedestal if they want it to keep the demon from escaping instead of doing nothing, but they don't seem to have figured that out.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Preemptive Explaining
I've written a whole one post about the current matters of this campaign, and it made me realize just how much context a reader might be missing out on. Therefore, I want to fill in those readers (you) on what the group's goals are, exactly what they're adventuring for:
The single most important goal they're working towards currently is preventing the release of a demon from a magical prison. The story goes that about a thousand years ago, there was a horrible demon who was summoned from the netherworld. This demon went on a rampage and, by itself, destroyed several kingdoms and even changed the face of the continent. Granted, the changes to the continent were minor considering the size of the continent as a whole, but moving mountains around is still pretty impressive.
The demon's prison is empowered by five magical crystals, called "keystones". The first keystone they discovered was underneath Fort Siege, a small fortress I described when I told you of Dravis the illusionist. This keystone crumbled when they tried to remove it from the bowl topped stand it was found in. However, in this fort they found the key to the room. Upon entering the room and using the key, they realize they found a similar door before, and made plans to go back and see if this same key worked on it.
When they managed to get back to the ruins where they saw a similar door, they encountered a dragon sitting atop the building under which the mystery door lay. This dragon told them about the keystones, and that it was there to make sure nobody meddled with the one at that location. The dragon told them the legend of the mighty demon, and the purpose of the keystones. The dragon's presence also led to the imps who had been tricking the group to leaving on a semi-permanent basis. These imps led the group here under the impression the demon was a mutual enemy, and they told them that the keystones being whole and in place would lead to the demon's escape. For a while, the group did not know who to believe, but the dragon was the larger immediate threat, so it seemed wise to assume it was being honest. Also, imps are known for being tricky, while dragons are known primarily for being very powerful.
After this, they traveled north, to other locations they were told keystones were.One of those locations was another gnomish ruin called Denorgon. They had already been here once. This first time they were there, they found many of the robognomes deep underneath the city, in an underground base of sorts. They destroyed some, but a very small fraction of the total. Fortunately, most of them were not activated. Due to playing with the consoles and machines they found, they communicated with a colony of the robognomes somewhere they couldn't figure out, and those robognomes did something which resulted in Denorgon exploding. This was the fault of Titania, who claims the explosion was impending anyhow, though she has no reason to presume that's so.
Since Denorgon was nothing but a crater the second time around, they bypassed it. They followed a river to the next site claimed to have a keystone, Methogan, another gnomish ruin. Unlike the other gnomish ruins, this city still had a population. Of gnomes. They avoided the destruction of the rest of their kingdom not be designing and quickly implementing dangerous technologies. Instead, they simply abandoned the city and moved to an underground shelter. In the few hundred years since, the gnomes of Methogan developed an underground city, powered by "turbines run by natural underground rivers". The gnomish leaders were aware of the nature and purpose of the keystone they had with them, and told the group they will remain guarding it as they always have.
However, they told the group of a lair of doppelgangers who had been giving the gnomes trouble. The group traveled to the north, the source of the doppelgangers, and discovered their lair. In one of the most hilarious examples of my group's hi-jinks yet, they all fell pray to the very first trap. The very first trap was a pit covered by an illusion of floor. Those who fell into the trap found themselves in a prison cell. Once every last member of the group either fell on accident or on purpose (to follow the rest of the group), they all went to work breaking out of their cells. Long story short, they once again discovered the dwarven mage who had something to prove, and defeated him in combat. He retreated via magic, and they haven't seen him since.
The mysterious woman they found at Fort Siege was also found there, with her tongue cut out. The doppelgangers didn't have any reason to torture her, they were simply malignant. This led to a side quest involving finding diamonds of the proper value to regenerate her tongue with and it not happening because she disappeared and "Iron Mike" lost an arm, so they used it for that. It also involved their first encounter with a reoccurring antagonist; a succubus. The succubus took the form of the mystery woman while she was still around in an attempt to get the group to go after the keystones again.
At this point, they decide to go after something else the dragon had told them about. In one of the largest mountains in the known world, Mt. Sierra, there laid a gem. This gem was similar to the keystones, except it had one major difference. It accumulated arcane energies constantly. It may even be getting to the point that it's getting so powerful that it could create a disaster. Along the way, they found one of their friends, a bard by the name of "Iron Mike". He was face down in the dirt and almost dead, having an arm missing again. They healed him, but they could not give him his arm back. When they made it to Mt. Sierra and discovered where the gem was, Iron Mike took it and ran. The group was confused, but then he turned into the succubus they encountered before, and she flew off. Boy did they feel dumb for not noticing the Bard never used his bard powers or acted like Mike or had a transmutation spell on him!
And after this, they traveled on to Pergon. I look forward to not condensing the story so much in the future! I will have to have a few posts about the campaign setting of course. The pantheon of gods is a mystery to you all at the moment, for example. Anyhow, if you keep reading, or if you don't, I'll keep updating after each session.
The single most important goal they're working towards currently is preventing the release of a demon from a magical prison. The story goes that about a thousand years ago, there was a horrible demon who was summoned from the netherworld. This demon went on a rampage and, by itself, destroyed several kingdoms and even changed the face of the continent. Granted, the changes to the continent were minor considering the size of the continent as a whole, but moving mountains around is still pretty impressive.
The demon's prison is empowered by five magical crystals, called "keystones". The first keystone they discovered was underneath Fort Siege, a small fortress I described when I told you of Dravis the illusionist. This keystone crumbled when they tried to remove it from the bowl topped stand it was found in. However, in this fort they found the key to the room. Upon entering the room and using the key, they realize they found a similar door before, and made plans to go back and see if this same key worked on it.
When they managed to get back to the ruins where they saw a similar door, they encountered a dragon sitting atop the building under which the mystery door lay. This dragon told them about the keystones, and that it was there to make sure nobody meddled with the one at that location. The dragon told them the legend of the mighty demon, and the purpose of the keystones. The dragon's presence also led to the imps who had been tricking the group to leaving on a semi-permanent basis. These imps led the group here under the impression the demon was a mutual enemy, and they told them that the keystones being whole and in place would lead to the demon's escape. For a while, the group did not know who to believe, but the dragon was the larger immediate threat, so it seemed wise to assume it was being honest. Also, imps are known for being tricky, while dragons are known primarily for being very powerful.
After this, they traveled north, to other locations they were told keystones were.One of those locations was another gnomish ruin called Denorgon. They had already been here once. This first time they were there, they found many of the robognomes deep underneath the city, in an underground base of sorts. They destroyed some, but a very small fraction of the total. Fortunately, most of them were not activated. Due to playing with the consoles and machines they found, they communicated with a colony of the robognomes somewhere they couldn't figure out, and those robognomes did something which resulted in Denorgon exploding. This was the fault of Titania, who claims the explosion was impending anyhow, though she has no reason to presume that's so.
Since Denorgon was nothing but a crater the second time around, they bypassed it. They followed a river to the next site claimed to have a keystone, Methogan, another gnomish ruin. Unlike the other gnomish ruins, this city still had a population. Of gnomes. They avoided the destruction of the rest of their kingdom not be designing and quickly implementing dangerous technologies. Instead, they simply abandoned the city and moved to an underground shelter. In the few hundred years since, the gnomes of Methogan developed an underground city, powered by "turbines run by natural underground rivers". The gnomish leaders were aware of the nature and purpose of the keystone they had with them, and told the group they will remain guarding it as they always have.
However, they told the group of a lair of doppelgangers who had been giving the gnomes trouble. The group traveled to the north, the source of the doppelgangers, and discovered their lair. In one of the most hilarious examples of my group's hi-jinks yet, they all fell pray to the very first trap. The very first trap was a pit covered by an illusion of floor. Those who fell into the trap found themselves in a prison cell. Once every last member of the group either fell on accident or on purpose (to follow the rest of the group), they all went to work breaking out of their cells. Long story short, they once again discovered the dwarven mage who had something to prove, and defeated him in combat. He retreated via magic, and they haven't seen him since.
The mysterious woman they found at Fort Siege was also found there, with her tongue cut out. The doppelgangers didn't have any reason to torture her, they were simply malignant. This led to a side quest involving finding diamonds of the proper value to regenerate her tongue with and it not happening because she disappeared and "Iron Mike" lost an arm, so they used it for that. It also involved their first encounter with a reoccurring antagonist; a succubus. The succubus took the form of the mystery woman while she was still around in an attempt to get the group to go after the keystones again.
At this point, they decide to go after something else the dragon had told them about. In one of the largest mountains in the known world, Mt. Sierra, there laid a gem. This gem was similar to the keystones, except it had one major difference. It accumulated arcane energies constantly. It may even be getting to the point that it's getting so powerful that it could create a disaster. Along the way, they found one of their friends, a bard by the name of "Iron Mike". He was face down in the dirt and almost dead, having an arm missing again. They healed him, but they could not give him his arm back. When they made it to Mt. Sierra and discovered where the gem was, Iron Mike took it and ran. The group was confused, but then he turned into the succubus they encountered before, and she flew off. Boy did they feel dumb for not noticing the Bard never used his bard powers or acted like Mike or had a transmutation spell on him!
And after this, they traveled on to Pergon. I look forward to not condensing the story so much in the future! I will have to have a few posts about the campaign setting of course. The pantheon of gods is a mystery to you all at the moment, for example. Anyhow, if you keep reading, or if you don't, I'll keep updating after each session.
Into Pergon
Northeast of the Thymasian empire was a prospering gnomish kingdom. It was one of the large kingdoms prevalent at the time, having not only more than a single city, but having many cities. It was larger and more prosperous than most other kingdoms. Gnomish intellect and curiosity led this kingdom to magical and technological advancement many other nations would never have even thought of. Vehicles which moved without being drawn, lamps which required no flame or wizardry, Magical teleportation rings which could take one to a different city in a matter of minutes, and far more were the result of gnomish philosophers and scholars. They're even credited with originating the Philosopher's Guild, a multi-national group dedicated to investigating the world and extracting knowledge.
When the Thymasian empire began it's attack, it started with this gnomish kingdom. It's magic and technology were the biggest threat to the emperor's plans. The gnomes never expected it. Many of the cities in this mighty kingdom were destroyed by it's own rushed defenses. Those cities which did not accidentally destroy themselves were quickly over-run by the Thymasian army, led by the emperor himself. The confusion caused by the self-destroyed cities caused the rest of the gnomish lands to be easily defeated, regardless their powerful magics and curious weapons.
Pergon was one of the gnomish kingdom's cities. Though the group does not know it's specific history, it appears to be mostly intact, though abandoned. They approached from the north, after visiting Mt. Sierra and losing a large, magical gem which, so they've been told, did nothing except accumulate arcane energies... to the succubus in disguise. They were following a river to Pergon, since they have a map showing the river led right to it. Upon camping by a large lake, they saw the lights of the city across the waters. Unlike normal city lights, they appeared for extremely short bursts individually. It looked as though large lights were being started and suddenly stopped all over the city, constantly.
In the morning they rounded the lake, and they saw large metal things jutting from various, seemingly random, places on the buildings. Electricity arched from these metal pieces to their near counterpart. Essentially, they were huge tesla coils all over the city's buildings. Their purpose was a mystery, but the fact that they'd need to be powered by something led the group to believe one of the "keystones" they've been looking for was there. Also, of course, someone had pointed out the keystones location on their map several months earlier.
As they wandered the city, they marveled at the tesla coils, curious as to their purpose. They discovered a large, squat building in the center of the city. In other gnomish cities they had been in, the large building in the center of town was the important one, being the government building. While they do not realize this was not the government building, it was still the important one, being the city's engineering headquarters. When they tried to enter, they discovered that the copper floor shocked them when they walked on it. As they examined the surrounding area for a solution, they found that the road was made of a bouncy, squishy, black material (rubber). They removed some bits of the road and affixed them to the bottom of whatever was on their feet after realizing it prevented the shock, and they entered the building normally.
In that first hallway they found nothing more than meeting rooms and storage closets. Until they got to the last room on the right. This room was full of computer consoles and screens and a whole of other stuff the group doesn't really understand (they've typically pushed buttons until something bad happened upon encountering computers, so far), yet would be recognizable to gnomes from a few hundred years ago. Against the right wall was a series of nooks, in which were small, metal gnomes. The group has encountered these metal gnomes before. They're some kind of gnomish creation, made as one of the hastily built defenses which caused the downfall of the kingdom. They're built upon primarily natural mechanics, but they aren't complete without some magic. They're effectively natural animates. They were not activated yet, however.
The real threat was the tieflings that were in the room. Upon opening the door, the tieflings flew into attack. While they were well trained and vicious, one of them fled and another one was taken captive, the third being killed. When they questioned the tiefling they captured, they figured out that the tieflings were under the impression the group was there to destroy the keystone, something they, too, were apparently trying to prevent. The tiefling said they presumed someone named Warick sent them. That was about all the information they could get from him, so they intimidated him into showing them where the keystone was.
Though they still didn't quite trust him, and he didn't quite trust them, he seemed to lead them the right way, instead of the wrong way. That is, he took them to the second basement, which is where they presumed it would be already. The three keystones they had found before were always in the lowest floor of where they were being kept. However, when they got to the very first full room of the bottom floor, they were assaulted by a group of six "robognomes". While the machines hurt much of the group and put up a good fight, they were defeated. Before they were defeated, however, they killed the tiefling who was leading the group.
Because I'm describing this campaign with a late start, I may segue off into descriptions or histories necessary to understand the immediate subject, or at least to elucidate for interest's sake. For example, the gnome-made and gnome-resembling natural animates are called "robognomes" by the group, but you probably figured that out and did not need an explanation.
Another segue you might find at this point is the new members of the group. I won't go into detail. The characters of this campaign is in a near constant state of flux. There's constantly new players who want in, or old players who can't play any more, or players who don't show up. I'm sure this isn't the only campaign to ever go this way. Anyhow, these players wanted in right at this point, so I spent several hours of the night helping them make their characters and bringing the characters into the game, and their players up to speed.
Two of these new characters may stick around, but the player of the other seems flaky. I won't bother going into detail about them until I determine their characters are going to stick around. Just so you understand the group's composition, though, there are two minotaurs, one ranger and one barbarian. The other character, and the player who shows the most promise I think, is a human bard. The minotaurs are both men, the bard is a lady. There was a fairly funny out-of-character conversation, about characters, where Titania admitted she did not like the new bard because she was prettier than herself.
And now to try to get back into the game; The new, larger group was fairly difficult to manage due to size and the lack of flow due to the players not knowing each other well and some of the players being fairly new to RPing and brand new to the game. However, I simply had the new characters originally be their own adventuring group who happened to be going the same place as the classic characters. For now, they're simply working together because they have no reason not to. So the new characters heard the fight down the stairs after they figured out how to not get shocked at walking in the building, discovering the rest of the group just after the fight.
At this point there were introductions and insight checks, followed by a lack of trust. Both of the minotaurs are evil, and don't act particularily trustworthy. I've never understood the appeal of playing an evil character, but I've never really been one to tell players they can't play a character they want to play, so long as they get along with the rest of the group. Either way, the group began wondering how to continue through the basement. The room they were in had two doors in it, with locks which were ancient gnomish mechanics throughout the door. Essentially, the doors were puzzles. There was mild effort put into figuring out the puzzles before one of the minotaurs simply set to hacking at the door until it broke. The breaking was a little cleverer at the other door, but each door led to what was basically a five foot hallway with another, similar door at the end.
The second southern door at the end of the hall was cleverly destroyed before the other second door, and they discovered what was essentially a small temple with an altar to Rao, the Goddess of peace. Rao was a goddess held in high esteem by the gnomes, so this made sense. However, the group felt a strange sadness upon entering the room. Behind the altar was a torn bag full of what was, at one point, an offering of gold. The group, understanding this, either gave their own offerings or ignored the room.
Bob the Ever-Patient decided the room was of no serious consequence, and continued to cleverly break the door which probably led further into the basement. In this room were several more robognomes. The group worked together to destroy the machines, though several characters were still in the altar room. Robognomes are actually quite potent and irritating as enemies, though, and the fight took some time to conclude. By the time the fight was over, Toryc had properly made an offering to Rao, leading him to have a vision, or perhaps a memory, of the gnomish kingdom at it's prime. He felt the goddess's sadness at it's destruction, and then the room no longer seemed to effect his emotions.
At this point we were pretty tired, so we called it a night. However, I was not done considering the game. A DM, or at least I, never really stop thinking about the game. I need to plan, and consider what kind of problems certain players or characters might pose to the fun of the game.Constantly adding to or subtracting from the party's number is a problem both in game and out. New characters take time to make, taking away from game time. Players not being around means their character either has to be run by someone else or they are not around. Nobody likes other people to run their character, and thinking up reasons they suddenly wander off gets difficult after a while. But I'm sure I'm not the only DM who's ever had that problem. Anyhow, next time I suppose I'll see who shows up, and we'll see how whomever that is handles the rest of this basement.
Hint; one of those tieflings got away alive, and the group skipped over the first basement entirely.
When the Thymasian empire began it's attack, it started with this gnomish kingdom. It's magic and technology were the biggest threat to the emperor's plans. The gnomes never expected it. Many of the cities in this mighty kingdom were destroyed by it's own rushed defenses. Those cities which did not accidentally destroy themselves were quickly over-run by the Thymasian army, led by the emperor himself. The confusion caused by the self-destroyed cities caused the rest of the gnomish lands to be easily defeated, regardless their powerful magics and curious weapons.
Pergon was one of the gnomish kingdom's cities. Though the group does not know it's specific history, it appears to be mostly intact, though abandoned. They approached from the north, after visiting Mt. Sierra and losing a large, magical gem which, so they've been told, did nothing except accumulate arcane energies... to the succubus in disguise. They were following a river to Pergon, since they have a map showing the river led right to it. Upon camping by a large lake, they saw the lights of the city across the waters. Unlike normal city lights, they appeared for extremely short bursts individually. It looked as though large lights were being started and suddenly stopped all over the city, constantly.
In the morning they rounded the lake, and they saw large metal things jutting from various, seemingly random, places on the buildings. Electricity arched from these metal pieces to their near counterpart. Essentially, they were huge tesla coils all over the city's buildings. Their purpose was a mystery, but the fact that they'd need to be powered by something led the group to believe one of the "keystones" they've been looking for was there. Also, of course, someone had pointed out the keystones location on their map several months earlier.
As they wandered the city, they marveled at the tesla coils, curious as to their purpose. They discovered a large, squat building in the center of the city. In other gnomish cities they had been in, the large building in the center of town was the important one, being the government building. While they do not realize this was not the government building, it was still the important one, being the city's engineering headquarters. When they tried to enter, they discovered that the copper floor shocked them when they walked on it. As they examined the surrounding area for a solution, they found that the road was made of a bouncy, squishy, black material (rubber). They removed some bits of the road and affixed them to the bottom of whatever was on their feet after realizing it prevented the shock, and they entered the building normally.
In that first hallway they found nothing more than meeting rooms and storage closets. Until they got to the last room on the right. This room was full of computer consoles and screens and a whole of other stuff the group doesn't really understand (they've typically pushed buttons until something bad happened upon encountering computers, so far), yet would be recognizable to gnomes from a few hundred years ago. Against the right wall was a series of nooks, in which were small, metal gnomes. The group has encountered these metal gnomes before. They're some kind of gnomish creation, made as one of the hastily built defenses which caused the downfall of the kingdom. They're built upon primarily natural mechanics, but they aren't complete without some magic. They're effectively natural animates. They were not activated yet, however.
The real threat was the tieflings that were in the room. Upon opening the door, the tieflings flew into attack. While they were well trained and vicious, one of them fled and another one was taken captive, the third being killed. When they questioned the tiefling they captured, they figured out that the tieflings were under the impression the group was there to destroy the keystone, something they, too, were apparently trying to prevent. The tiefling said they presumed someone named Warick sent them. That was about all the information they could get from him, so they intimidated him into showing them where the keystone was.
Though they still didn't quite trust him, and he didn't quite trust them, he seemed to lead them the right way, instead of the wrong way. That is, he took them to the second basement, which is where they presumed it would be already. The three keystones they had found before were always in the lowest floor of where they were being kept. However, when they got to the very first full room of the bottom floor, they were assaulted by a group of six "robognomes". While the machines hurt much of the group and put up a good fight, they were defeated. Before they were defeated, however, they killed the tiefling who was leading the group.
Because I'm describing this campaign with a late start, I may segue off into descriptions or histories necessary to understand the immediate subject, or at least to elucidate for interest's sake. For example, the gnome-made and gnome-resembling natural animates are called "robognomes" by the group, but you probably figured that out and did not need an explanation.
Another segue you might find at this point is the new members of the group. I won't go into detail. The characters of this campaign is in a near constant state of flux. There's constantly new players who want in, or old players who can't play any more, or players who don't show up. I'm sure this isn't the only campaign to ever go this way. Anyhow, these players wanted in right at this point, so I spent several hours of the night helping them make their characters and bringing the characters into the game, and their players up to speed.
Two of these new characters may stick around, but the player of the other seems flaky. I won't bother going into detail about them until I determine their characters are going to stick around. Just so you understand the group's composition, though, there are two minotaurs, one ranger and one barbarian. The other character, and the player who shows the most promise I think, is a human bard. The minotaurs are both men, the bard is a lady. There was a fairly funny out-of-character conversation, about characters, where Titania admitted she did not like the new bard because she was prettier than herself.
And now to try to get back into the game; The new, larger group was fairly difficult to manage due to size and the lack of flow due to the players not knowing each other well and some of the players being fairly new to RPing and brand new to the game. However, I simply had the new characters originally be their own adventuring group who happened to be going the same place as the classic characters. For now, they're simply working together because they have no reason not to. So the new characters heard the fight down the stairs after they figured out how to not get shocked at walking in the building, discovering the rest of the group just after the fight.
At this point there were introductions and insight checks, followed by a lack of trust. Both of the minotaurs are evil, and don't act particularily trustworthy. I've never understood the appeal of playing an evil character, but I've never really been one to tell players they can't play a character they want to play, so long as they get along with the rest of the group. Either way, the group began wondering how to continue through the basement. The room they were in had two doors in it, with locks which were ancient gnomish mechanics throughout the door. Essentially, the doors were puzzles. There was mild effort put into figuring out the puzzles before one of the minotaurs simply set to hacking at the door until it broke. The breaking was a little cleverer at the other door, but each door led to what was basically a five foot hallway with another, similar door at the end.
The second southern door at the end of the hall was cleverly destroyed before the other second door, and they discovered what was essentially a small temple with an altar to Rao, the Goddess of peace. Rao was a goddess held in high esteem by the gnomes, so this made sense. However, the group felt a strange sadness upon entering the room. Behind the altar was a torn bag full of what was, at one point, an offering of gold. The group, understanding this, either gave their own offerings or ignored the room.
Bob the Ever-Patient decided the room was of no serious consequence, and continued to cleverly break the door which probably led further into the basement. In this room were several more robognomes. The group worked together to destroy the machines, though several characters were still in the altar room. Robognomes are actually quite potent and irritating as enemies, though, and the fight took some time to conclude. By the time the fight was over, Toryc had properly made an offering to Rao, leading him to have a vision, or perhaps a memory, of the gnomish kingdom at it's prime. He felt the goddess's sadness at it's destruction, and then the room no longer seemed to effect his emotions.
At this point we were pretty tired, so we called it a night. However, I was not done considering the game. A DM, or at least I, never really stop thinking about the game. I need to plan, and consider what kind of problems certain players or characters might pose to the fun of the game.Constantly adding to or subtracting from the party's number is a problem both in game and out. New characters take time to make, taking away from game time. Players not being around means their character either has to be run by someone else or they are not around. Nobody likes other people to run their character, and thinking up reasons they suddenly wander off gets difficult after a while. But I'm sure I'm not the only DM who's ever had that problem. Anyhow, next time I suppose I'll see who shows up, and we'll see how whomever that is handles the rest of this basement.
Hint; one of those tieflings got away alive, and the group skipped over the first basement entirely.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Meet the group
Bob
Bob is a surprisingly common name for Fighters from this game of epic, fantastic role-play and adventure known as D&D. I've been in two separate groups with a Bob who was a Fighter, and have know of two others. In this campaign, Bob might be seen as the leader of the group, unofficially assigned the position due to being the only remaining original character and the character with the most knowledge of the campaign thus far. In addition, this has allotted him more interactions with NPCs, making him the most recognizable face to most NPCs they encounter more than once.
Bob is a human fighter, focusing on the spear. He has a magical fire spear which he inherited from his father before passing away. This fire spear is his legacy item. A common component of my campaigns are that I like to give characters a legacy item, which levels up with them and is at least slightly better than a generic magical item of it's type. Bob started out uncertain of his goals and direction, knowing only that he didn't want to remain in the small town of his birth forever. It was obvious to him and everyone else that his competence as a warrior weas far greater than his small town could utilize, so he left. His plan was not to become a hero, but after saving several people and recovering some artifacts, that's what he began to be known as. A wolf he raised since childhood as his own (Steve) was awakened by a druid, and has become important in at least several plot points, even though the wolf no longer travels with the party. A mysterious woman who they found wondering through the wood, with goals but unshared motivation and no name, was named by Bob and has grown to be effectively his girlfriend.
Bob has also grown to be known as a dumb, clumsy, brute of a man, even though his statistics indicate he's almost as coordinated and balanced as he is strong, and even though his intelligence is average his wisdom and charisma are both a tad above average. Regardless his actual strengths, he has earned this reputation through a simple lack of forethought or investigation. As the group was exiting some ruins, they began getting shot at by some hobgoblins in a guard tower which was mostly still erect. Between them and the tower, slightly to the side, was an old stable which they might go around to avoid getting shot as they approached the tower. Instead of doing that, however, the group simply charged, led by Bob. Bob found the rope tied from the stables to a rock that used to be part of the town wall the hard way. Bob tripped over the rope and gave the hobgoblins a prime target, which the very reason the rope was placed there. If the group had gone around or even simply approached slowly, they may have noticed the rope. After this, Bob became the one who always tripped the trap due to having the tendency to charge in or simply miss details, hence the reputation.
Dravis
Next on the list is the next earliest created character who's still around, Dravis the gnomish illusionist. Dravis is a reasonable, knowledgeable gnome, but he tends to keep his knowledge to himself. Given the makeup of his group, that's not necessarily a bad thing, but it has lead to some unnecessary problems. However, there's at least one member of the group who would probably not listen anyway, which makes his plans safer being unknown to them anyhow. Dravis is known for using his powers only when it appears the rest of the group does not have the combat in hand, otherwise staying in the background and aiding his companions minimally. This tactic has lead to his continued survival, so it must have merit.
Dravis was with the group when they discovered "Fort Siege", which is a keep from the days of ancient Thymasia (the evil empire). Several strange things about this keep were obvious from the get-go. It was in surprisingly good shape for being an almost 300 year old building which has been abandoned for most of it's existence. Further, it was still guarded by it's original guardians. Those guardians were not undead or something like that, they were animated weapons. The group could not enter the keep the normal way, due to the circle of animated swords around it, so they went underground, through the natural cavern leading to the basement. They dispatched most of the kobalds and discovered several important plot points. Firstly, they discovered their first "keystone", which is a magical gem of unknown origin or purpose at this point, but was being used to power the magical defenses. When they tried to remove it, it crumbled into residuum. The other important plot point they discovered was another of the character's brother; a dwarf who has studied magic against his clan's wishes and seems to have something to prove. At this point, his wickedness was ambiguous, and this antagonist's brother soon left the campaign. Oh well, his loss.
Dravis dealt with the situation with some quick diplomacy and intimidation, then continued on to acquire an unofficial deed to Fort Siege. Of course, Fort Siege was abandoned, and no nation had authority over the land. If the nation he got the deed from did have that authority, it would have been an official deed. This deed would lead to a formal direction for the nation to expand into, as well as provide Dravis some power as it happened. Of course, that may take generations.
Dravis's legacy item is a jesters hat he discovered blowing in the wind, one day. He grabbed it and put it on before he was aware it was magical at all. As he travelled and got into fights, the more he realized he sometimes got lucky. It took him a while, but he eventually realized that his hat was a powerful defensive item.
Titania
Titania joined the group in an attempt to find her lost brother, Ellowin. She is an Elven shaman, and she was originally a pacifist. Her pacifism was a point of contention in the group, but the more she adventured with them the less opposed to violence she would become since the group showed her that sometimes it really was necessary. Titania's legacy item is her "Flutterfly", which is a spirit that takes the form of a butterfly which constantly orbits her. It can be used to give her bonuses to her defenses and helps her notice things she otherwise may not.
Even though Titania is unambiguously the most perceptive member of the group, she seems to have ADHD and cannot concentrate on anything long enough to remember what their goals are or what information they need to acquire. She was once in an ancient, abandoned, gnomish city with the legendary technology the ancient gnomish kingdom was known for, and it was still functional. They found a control room deep underground, where they played with several buttons and discovered a bunch of robo-gnomes, or gnome-golems... something they didn't quite understand. It was apparently a hastily constructed defense against the ancient Thymasian empire, as they attacked the gnomes first. The gnomes had the most powerful and advanced kingdom, so they were the most capable of retaliation if given the chance. Due to being rushed, the defenses failed and backfired, wiping out the gnomes before the Thymasians even arrived. After some un-methodical toying with every button she found, she eventually caused the explosion of the entire city, which she claimed was inevitable anyhow... though she has no reason to suspect that. They fortunately had enough time to escape the explosion.
Toryc
Toryc is a gnoll fire-wizard. He grew up in the desert, where most of his kind come from. He was gifted with an intelligence unnaturally high for his kind, which has lead him to survive for long enough to get out of the desert and meet up with the rest of our group. Toryc has the unusual philosophy that good and evil don't really exist, it's all just how you view things. He actively attempts to create chaos, to show that good and evil are essentially irrelevant, or outdated ideas, rather. Unlike Dravis, he uses his powers as frequently as he can, relishing in the destruction and confusion they create. Toryc borders on evil, making no secret of his cannibalism or willingness to deface or mutilate anything or anyone, taking parts of them as trinkets, trophies, food, or whatever else he can think of.
Toryc has shown that he cares at least slightly about how the world is, however, as he willingly helps the group in their goals, one of which is preventing the escape of a giant, horribly evil and powerful demon. The release of this demon essentially promises the destruction of most of the continent at least. While he doesn't specifically care for or against the group he travels with as a whole, he has a respect for Bob which makes him willingly follow and help the unofficial group leader. Toryc's legacy item is his magical book, which he uses as an arcane focus. It empowers his fire spells as well as his summons.
"Gun"-Jack
A Warforged fighter who seemed to have randomly animated several hundred years after creation, Jack is introspective and rarely gives his two cents to the group. However, when he does, he tends to be the voice of reason and calmness. He has recently begun having flashes of memories from a lost past. The memories are short and confusing for now, when they flash into his mind. They're a major source of his introspection, and lead him to continue adventuring to see if he can uncover what they mean and why he gets them.
Jack's initial reason for adventuring were that he had no home upon animating, and he finds the rush of a fight both exhilarating and purposeful. He desires to become a great warrior, even though he has yet to understand his own motivations and existence. He is the typical sword and board fighter, who's best fighting occurs when he's trying to get the attention of enemies off of his friends, attempting to reduce overall injury during combat. Of course, he's also decent at offense as well, making him a well rounded fighter. His legacy item is his sword, the history of which he's ignorant of. He simply awoke with it. It sometimes freezes his enemies.
This is the group as it currently exists, in order from oldest member to newest. If I mention something involving a character no longer in the group, I'll describe that character upon their being mentioned, and not in as much detail as the "main cast", here.
Next time on Gnome Skulls, The Plundering of the Ancient Gnomish City of Pergon
Bob is a surprisingly common name for Fighters from this game of epic, fantastic role-play and adventure known as D&D. I've been in two separate groups with a Bob who was a Fighter, and have know of two others. In this campaign, Bob might be seen as the leader of the group, unofficially assigned the position due to being the only remaining original character and the character with the most knowledge of the campaign thus far. In addition, this has allotted him more interactions with NPCs, making him the most recognizable face to most NPCs they encounter more than once.
Bob is a human fighter, focusing on the spear. He has a magical fire spear which he inherited from his father before passing away. This fire spear is his legacy item. A common component of my campaigns are that I like to give characters a legacy item, which levels up with them and is at least slightly better than a generic magical item of it's type. Bob started out uncertain of his goals and direction, knowing only that he didn't want to remain in the small town of his birth forever. It was obvious to him and everyone else that his competence as a warrior weas far greater than his small town could utilize, so he left. His plan was not to become a hero, but after saving several people and recovering some artifacts, that's what he began to be known as. A wolf he raised since childhood as his own (Steve) was awakened by a druid, and has become important in at least several plot points, even though the wolf no longer travels with the party. A mysterious woman who they found wondering through the wood, with goals but unshared motivation and no name, was named by Bob and has grown to be effectively his girlfriend.
Bob has also grown to be known as a dumb, clumsy, brute of a man, even though his statistics indicate he's almost as coordinated and balanced as he is strong, and even though his intelligence is average his wisdom and charisma are both a tad above average. Regardless his actual strengths, he has earned this reputation through a simple lack of forethought or investigation. As the group was exiting some ruins, they began getting shot at by some hobgoblins in a guard tower which was mostly still erect. Between them and the tower, slightly to the side, was an old stable which they might go around to avoid getting shot as they approached the tower. Instead of doing that, however, the group simply charged, led by Bob. Bob found the rope tied from the stables to a rock that used to be part of the town wall the hard way. Bob tripped over the rope and gave the hobgoblins a prime target, which the very reason the rope was placed there. If the group had gone around or even simply approached slowly, they may have noticed the rope. After this, Bob became the one who always tripped the trap due to having the tendency to charge in or simply miss details, hence the reputation.
Dravis
Next on the list is the next earliest created character who's still around, Dravis the gnomish illusionist. Dravis is a reasonable, knowledgeable gnome, but he tends to keep his knowledge to himself. Given the makeup of his group, that's not necessarily a bad thing, but it has lead to some unnecessary problems. However, there's at least one member of the group who would probably not listen anyway, which makes his plans safer being unknown to them anyhow. Dravis is known for using his powers only when it appears the rest of the group does not have the combat in hand, otherwise staying in the background and aiding his companions minimally. This tactic has lead to his continued survival, so it must have merit.
Dravis was with the group when they discovered "Fort Siege", which is a keep from the days of ancient Thymasia (the evil empire). Several strange things about this keep were obvious from the get-go. It was in surprisingly good shape for being an almost 300 year old building which has been abandoned for most of it's existence. Further, it was still guarded by it's original guardians. Those guardians were not undead or something like that, they were animated weapons. The group could not enter the keep the normal way, due to the circle of animated swords around it, so they went underground, through the natural cavern leading to the basement. They dispatched most of the kobalds and discovered several important plot points. Firstly, they discovered their first "keystone", which is a magical gem of unknown origin or purpose at this point, but was being used to power the magical defenses. When they tried to remove it, it crumbled into residuum. The other important plot point they discovered was another of the character's brother; a dwarf who has studied magic against his clan's wishes and seems to have something to prove. At this point, his wickedness was ambiguous, and this antagonist's brother soon left the campaign. Oh well, his loss.
Dravis dealt with the situation with some quick diplomacy and intimidation, then continued on to acquire an unofficial deed to Fort Siege. Of course, Fort Siege was abandoned, and no nation had authority over the land. If the nation he got the deed from did have that authority, it would have been an official deed. This deed would lead to a formal direction for the nation to expand into, as well as provide Dravis some power as it happened. Of course, that may take generations.
Dravis's legacy item is a jesters hat he discovered blowing in the wind, one day. He grabbed it and put it on before he was aware it was magical at all. As he travelled and got into fights, the more he realized he sometimes got lucky. It took him a while, but he eventually realized that his hat was a powerful defensive item.
Titania
Titania joined the group in an attempt to find her lost brother, Ellowin. She is an Elven shaman, and she was originally a pacifist. Her pacifism was a point of contention in the group, but the more she adventured with them the less opposed to violence she would become since the group showed her that sometimes it really was necessary. Titania's legacy item is her "Flutterfly", which is a spirit that takes the form of a butterfly which constantly orbits her. It can be used to give her bonuses to her defenses and helps her notice things she otherwise may not.
Even though Titania is unambiguously the most perceptive member of the group, she seems to have ADHD and cannot concentrate on anything long enough to remember what their goals are or what information they need to acquire. She was once in an ancient, abandoned, gnomish city with the legendary technology the ancient gnomish kingdom was known for, and it was still functional. They found a control room deep underground, where they played with several buttons and discovered a bunch of robo-gnomes, or gnome-golems... something they didn't quite understand. It was apparently a hastily constructed defense against the ancient Thymasian empire, as they attacked the gnomes first. The gnomes had the most powerful and advanced kingdom, so they were the most capable of retaliation if given the chance. Due to being rushed, the defenses failed and backfired, wiping out the gnomes before the Thymasians even arrived. After some un-methodical toying with every button she found, she eventually caused the explosion of the entire city, which she claimed was inevitable anyhow... though she has no reason to suspect that. They fortunately had enough time to escape the explosion.
Toryc
Toryc is a gnoll fire-wizard. He grew up in the desert, where most of his kind come from. He was gifted with an intelligence unnaturally high for his kind, which has lead him to survive for long enough to get out of the desert and meet up with the rest of our group. Toryc has the unusual philosophy that good and evil don't really exist, it's all just how you view things. He actively attempts to create chaos, to show that good and evil are essentially irrelevant, or outdated ideas, rather. Unlike Dravis, he uses his powers as frequently as he can, relishing in the destruction and confusion they create. Toryc borders on evil, making no secret of his cannibalism or willingness to deface or mutilate anything or anyone, taking parts of them as trinkets, trophies, food, or whatever else he can think of.
Toryc has shown that he cares at least slightly about how the world is, however, as he willingly helps the group in their goals, one of which is preventing the escape of a giant, horribly evil and powerful demon. The release of this demon essentially promises the destruction of most of the continent at least. While he doesn't specifically care for or against the group he travels with as a whole, he has a respect for Bob which makes him willingly follow and help the unofficial group leader. Toryc's legacy item is his magical book, which he uses as an arcane focus. It empowers his fire spells as well as his summons.
"Gun"-Jack
A Warforged fighter who seemed to have randomly animated several hundred years after creation, Jack is introspective and rarely gives his two cents to the group. However, when he does, he tends to be the voice of reason and calmness. He has recently begun having flashes of memories from a lost past. The memories are short and confusing for now, when they flash into his mind. They're a major source of his introspection, and lead him to continue adventuring to see if he can uncover what they mean and why he gets them.
Jack's initial reason for adventuring were that he had no home upon animating, and he finds the rush of a fight both exhilarating and purposeful. He desires to become a great warrior, even though he has yet to understand his own motivations and existence. He is the typical sword and board fighter, who's best fighting occurs when he's trying to get the attention of enemies off of his friends, attempting to reduce overall injury during combat. Of course, he's also decent at offense as well, making him a well rounded fighter. His legacy item is his sword, the history of which he's ignorant of. He simply awoke with it. It sometimes freezes his enemies.
This is the group as it currently exists, in order from oldest member to newest. If I mention something involving a character no longer in the group, I'll describe that character upon their being mentioned, and not in as much detail as the "main cast", here.
Next time on Gnome Skulls, The Plundering of the Ancient Gnomish City of Pergon
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Beginning in the Middle
This campaign, as many of my others, begins amidst hi-jinks and uncertain character configuration. It features aspects similar to most of my other campaigns in general style, too. That's not too odd, seeing as how I DMed them all. For example, while there is economic and political tensions, most of the story is completely separated from it. Instead, a lot of the adventure takes place in a frontier of sorts.
You see, several hundred years ago there was a fairly stereotypical evil empire waging war against most of it's neighbors. The Emperor's tactical knowledge, vast resources, and outright magical power gave him an inarguable advantage. The Empire's borders stretched, nations were enslaved, enemies dispatched, and more power and land were claimed for the Emperor. This lasted for a large chunk of a century, until the Emperor died. He had a good run of things, but age catches up even to powerful mages.
When the Emperor died, the remaining nations which stood in opposition had formed an alliance and had learned how to work together well. In addition, the Emperor's children took in their father's footsteps and sought their own political and literal power, which lead inexorably to infighting and the collapse of the Empire. At this time, the magical machinations of the Emperor's daughter lead to massive deaths and plague within the boundaries of the former empire. It was part of her plan to seize the throne. Since she was killed by her brother before they could be used strategically, she used the last of her power to unleash them generally, in hopes her wrath would see her brother dead as well.
After a while the only people remaining within the borders of the former empire were those who lived in small villages in the wild, most of which the rest of the world were ignorant of. The civilized world had to rebuild fallen cities and kingdoms, find quarters and work for those who had been ravaged and abandoned due the war. There suddenly being no war to fight made these "Good" nations realize how much their alliance relied on a common threat. The alliance faded into the past as each individual nation struggled to restore it's borders and serve it's people while staving off a revolt by the displaced masses.
Few of those nations survived that aftermath, but those which did saw two hundred years of relative peace. There were small wars and large skirmishes, but nothing that even remotely compared to the scale of that last great war. Several nations arose and spread in the West, into the borders of the fallen empire. This expansion is slow, of course, and it causes it's own international tensions. As always, adventurers lead the advancement Westward. The ruins of the once mighty empire are full of riches and artifacts, not to mention the thrill of the adventure as well as powerful magics.
My players compose one of those groups. They go further into the frontier than the other groups, delve deeper into the dungeons, and fight tougher monsters.
In theory. They're actually a goof troop. They get the job done, but they stumble, fall, then get back up so that they can stumble some more. Why, there was a while there where they walked in a circle in the woods, unsure what they should be doing and where. It was a big circle, too. They'd walk towards a goal, then decide they needed to learn more about something and head towards civilization to talk to scholars, just to change their mind and go to a different place, etc. They believed a pair of imps were being totally honest concerning the nature of magical gems they needed to find. More recently, a succubus managed to travel with them for three weeks in the disguise of a bardic friend of the group, and they managed not to pick up on the fact that "he" failed to use any bardic powers they witnessed before or to even simply detect magic and accidentally see that "he" had a spell on him.
Stay tuned for a retelling of these hi-jinks in more detail.
You see, several hundred years ago there was a fairly stereotypical evil empire waging war against most of it's neighbors. The Emperor's tactical knowledge, vast resources, and outright magical power gave him an inarguable advantage. The Empire's borders stretched, nations were enslaved, enemies dispatched, and more power and land were claimed for the Emperor. This lasted for a large chunk of a century, until the Emperor died. He had a good run of things, but age catches up even to powerful mages.
When the Emperor died, the remaining nations which stood in opposition had formed an alliance and had learned how to work together well. In addition, the Emperor's children took in their father's footsteps and sought their own political and literal power, which lead inexorably to infighting and the collapse of the Empire. At this time, the magical machinations of the Emperor's daughter lead to massive deaths and plague within the boundaries of the former empire. It was part of her plan to seize the throne. Since she was killed by her brother before they could be used strategically, she used the last of her power to unleash them generally, in hopes her wrath would see her brother dead as well.
After a while the only people remaining within the borders of the former empire were those who lived in small villages in the wild, most of which the rest of the world were ignorant of. The civilized world had to rebuild fallen cities and kingdoms, find quarters and work for those who had been ravaged and abandoned due the war. There suddenly being no war to fight made these "Good" nations realize how much their alliance relied on a common threat. The alliance faded into the past as each individual nation struggled to restore it's borders and serve it's people while staving off a revolt by the displaced masses.
Few of those nations survived that aftermath, but those which did saw two hundred years of relative peace. There were small wars and large skirmishes, but nothing that even remotely compared to the scale of that last great war. Several nations arose and spread in the West, into the borders of the fallen empire. This expansion is slow, of course, and it causes it's own international tensions. As always, adventurers lead the advancement Westward. The ruins of the once mighty empire are full of riches and artifacts, not to mention the thrill of the adventure as well as powerful magics.
My players compose one of those groups. They go further into the frontier than the other groups, delve deeper into the dungeons, and fight tougher monsters.
In theory. They're actually a goof troop. They get the job done, but they stumble, fall, then get back up so that they can stumble some more. Why, there was a while there where they walked in a circle in the woods, unsure what they should be doing and where. It was a big circle, too. They'd walk towards a goal, then decide they needed to learn more about something and head towards civilization to talk to scholars, just to change their mind and go to a different place, etc. They believed a pair of imps were being totally honest concerning the nature of magical gems they needed to find. More recently, a succubus managed to travel with them for three weeks in the disguise of a bardic friend of the group, and they managed not to pick up on the fact that "he" failed to use any bardic powers they witnessed before or to even simply detect magic and accidentally see that "he" had a spell on him.
Stay tuned for a retelling of these hi-jinks in more detail.
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