How to Make Friends and Influence Deities - 10/22 session recap

The party lashed the barrels of liquor together and used Tenser's Floating Disc to haul them back to town. They collected their reward and heard a tale about the priest of the temple and how he had gone mad many years ago and buried himself alive in a show of faith. This was also to protest his lack of congregation, who had abandoned him over the years due to the arduous trip into the mountains.

Business arrangements were made with the caravan leader, who agreed to sell the spare weapons and armor that they had looted from the dead kobolds. He was unwilling to take the portrait, however, and he had no idea who it depicted.

The party also spoke to the local sheriff and asked if there was a bounty on kobolds. The answer was no. They inquired about becoming paid deputies (or mercenaries) and the sheriff told them that there was no money for any more guardsmen.

After a night in town, the party returned and ventured deeper into the cave temple of Ul-Barat. Squeezing through tight spaces they emerged in a wide chamber. In the center was a ring of eleven rectangular pillars that was about forty feet in diameter. At the center of the ring was a low cairn of stones large enough to be the resting place of a human-sized creature. At the back of the chamber was an alcove with an altar.

After a search for traps, Ander and Boreas moved up to the altar to inspect it. Thoric walked up to the cairn and surmised that this was the priest who had gone mad and buried himself. He spoke to the priest, telling him that he was a failure, that Kobolds had desecrated his temple. This did not elicit any response from the stones.

Around the altar, Boreas found the remains of a magical lab. The pieces were not destroyed, merely the remnants of what must have been a more complete magical setup. There was also a portal circle on the ground behind the altar. With a quick incantation, Boreas discovered that there was a magical scroll hidden under the heavy capstone of the altar. Only a small corner of parchment stuck out. With Ander's help lifting the capstone, he was able to retrieve it. At that moment, the cairn of stones began to move.

Thoric immediately attacked it, and Xakoraki commanded Ander forward to assist in the fight. The creature rose up to a standing position, and it was clear that this was the mad priest. He had become one with the cairn that had buried him. No longer human, he was mostly elemental at this point. He raised his rocky fists and slammed them into the ground, sending out a shockwave that knocked all three of his attackers down. After a short fight, the priest was about to fall apart. Thoric had a perfect shot with his hammer, and he opted for a killing blow. It fell into chunks of inert stone, and a rumble resonated throughout the entire cave.

The rumbling did not subside, but became pronounced, a full earthquake. Rocks began to fall from the ceiling, and the party made a run for it. Thoric put on a burst of speed at the end and was the first to emerge from the temple before it collapsed. Fortunately, his companions also made it out, though there were several injuries from falling rocks.

Boreas examined the parchment with Thoric, and they determined that it was a ritual of Linked Portal, with a destination already inscribed. A clue to be sure, but what to do with it?

How to Spring Traps - 10/15 session recap

The players looted the bodies of the kobolds and found a magic shortsword and set of leather armor. There was also a chest against one wall that contained something magical. Boreas prodded the chest open with his staff, and found no traps. When he moved to stand over the chest and extract the loot, the unstable rock wall beside it collapsed on him. He jumped out of the way, and Xakoraki was able to pull the chest out before it was buried in the rubble. Inside the chest was a set of leather 'blooodcut' armor, which was often worn by dragonborn troops of the empire.

The party debated whether they should go ahead and take the casks or liquor back to town, and whether Boreas should use his Tenser's magic disc to carry them. In the end they decided to clear the "upper" levels more fully before doing anything else.

They returned to the entrance and followed the right-hand passage. It was a narrow, winding fissure with five small alcoves off on on side, each one about 20 to 30 feet from the next. Thoric seemed to think that the alcoves were predominantly natural, but a few of the alcove floors had been leveled to match the passage. Boreas found no secret doors in them. Then Thoric started hearing faint whispers from down the passage.

Carrying a sunrod made it difficult to explore the source of the whispers in a stealthy fashion, but Boreas did create a ghost sound about ten feet ahead of the actual party in the hopes of fooling any enemies. Down some carved stairs and around a curve, the passage opened up into a low room with wide natural columns scattered around that held up the ceiling. Everyone but Ander had to stoop over a little, and it was a little claustrophobic.

Ander moved into the room and up against a column, and Xak followed him. No kobolds were to be seen, and no one could hear whispering anymore. Thoric decided to walk into the center of the chamber, and sure enough, he found the kobolds lying in wait. They sprung forward to the attack, naturally.

After a lengthy fight in which Boreas was almost eviscerated and Xakoraki spent most of her time trying to bash a lone kobold minion, their foes were vanquished. Three were kept alive as prisoners and tied up. One of the kobolds had a magical shield, and the party found evidence that they had been digging a hiding spot for a fair amount of gold and silver.

The party fast-forwarded to the next fight, and vanquished five more kobolds who were guarding some magical treasure. There was an Orb of Sanquinary Repercussions and an Axe of Terror. Thoric found some slightly rusted Exalted chain main on a partially buried dwarf corpse. And there was also an amulet of protection (which wasn't mentioned during the session somehow). There was also a portrait of a dragonborn noble in repose on a divan, but Xakoraki did not recognize who she was.

We left the party tired and almost out of healing surges as they pondered how best to get back to town to rest before tackling the lower regions of the temple.

Close Encounters of the Kobold Kind - 10/8 session recap

The party headed into the temple of Ul-Barat. A swarm of needlefang drakes knocked Boreas down and started ripping him apart. A combination of attacks and several rounds finished the swarm, but not before several wounds were received. Thoric moved forward and was assaulted by the swarm's handlers and a larger guard drake. After an initial bottleneck, the party pushed forward and gave the kobolds what for. Xakoraki went down under the assault, but was brought back to consciousness by Thoric. The party regained it's composure and finished off the attackers. Ander knocked one unconscious, carved the symbol in his face, and interrogated him before setting him free.

There was a bed of silver and gold in the temple's offering basin that the party confiscated, as well as three gems on the three kobolds.

Three exits were available, but only one led downward immediately. The party decided to take it. Ander started to lead, but couldn't see anything. Boreas ended up taking the point with his elven vision. After several downward twistings, the stairs turned sharply into a large, low natural cavern with about a dozen kobolds.

One of the kobolds was a caster of some sort, and another seemed to be a better fighter than usual. Ander tossed a shuriken at the latter, but the fighter interposed one of his companions. Boreas threw two spells in quick succession at the caster, hurting him pretty badly. Thoric ran forward into the semi-circle of his enemies and immediately became the target of their javelins. The rest of the party moved up, and the kobolds closed in around them. The fighter gave his caster a potion, which healed him a bit, and then started looking for combat advantage. This never happened, however, as Xakoraki took the opportunity to breathe a massive cloud of acid over the grouped kobolds (and party). As nasty as it was for her companions, it finished off about a half-dozen kobolds. Boreas killed kobolds in pairs with blasts of thunder while the party finished off the caster and surrounded the remaining fighter. Ander was hoping to take him alive, but Xakoraki's axe took off his head in a final blow.

The stolen casks of liquor appear to be in this cave, and there are piles of equipment and bedding lying around in various places. The kobold fighter's leather armor seems much nicer than average, and there is some other treasure here too. We'll get to that next week.

Bridge Over the River Aiiieeee! - 10/1 session recap

Our heroes dithered over where to sleep for the evening in Tregynon, and settled on the comfort of an inn. In the morning they set out to track the alleged kobold thieves, but were unable to find any tracks. They did find the mountain path however, and started following it.

After two hours of hiking, they came across a fork in the path with a tumbled cairn that once pointed the way to the temple of Ul-Barat. The marker was lying on the ground pointing at neither path. One was less steep and headed roughly eastward. The other was steeper and more northward. The party chose the steeper path.

After about an hour, Boreas thought he heard faint singing of a woman. The singing receded, and none of the other party members heard it. An hour after that the party came to a rope bridge across a ravine. There was a sturdy bottom rope and two handrail ropes in a V formation. As they stood contemplating the challenge ahead of them, a pot of stinking goo smashed into the rock face beside Ander. They looked across and saw a kobold with a sling cursing his bad aim.

Ander threw a shuriken, and Boreas fired a ray of frost at the attacker, and both hit. The kobold, bloodied, took cover. Two more kobolds peeked over the rim of the far wall and hurled missiles at Ander. One hit, smearing him with foul-smelling stuff, and the other bonked him in the head pretty soundly with a rock.

Xakoraki headed across the rope bridge, and got almost halfway across. Thoric wasn't as lucky, however, Dwarves are not known for their acrobatic prowess, and he promptly fell and became entangled in the thin netting connecting the handrails to the main rope.

Ander dropped out of sight when he took too much damage, and Thoric continued to fumble on the bridge. Boreas fired off some more frost magic, but missed, and Xak made it across into an ambush. Four kobolds surrounded her, each with a candle strapped to the end of a javelin. They each took a large mouthful from their flasks and spit it out past the candle flame, creating minor fireballs which scorched Xakoraki pretty well. Boreas was pelted with rocks, and failed to move gracefully across the bridge. Ander, realizing that he would not receive any healing or sympathy from Thoric, somersaulted onto the bridge and started across it. The bridge swayed with the weight, making it more difficult for them to keep their balance.

Xakoraki cut one of the kobolds in half with her greataxe, but one dodged between her and the bridge and started sawing at the handrail with a dagger. Before he could sever it, however, Boreas turned him into an ice sculpture. Ander leaped over Thoric and joined Xakoraki in melee combat against the remaining kobolds. Thoric finally found his feet, and started attackhing his foes with the burning beauty of Linitheriva. He also managed to heal up both Ander and Xak. Boreas stepped back to catch his breath a moment, then continued with his magical assault. Xak proved to be an inspiring warrior, and she and Ander teamed up to finish off the remaining kobolds. Ander seemed to favor merely beating them unconscious, but Xakoraki was having none of that, and buried the blade of her axe in the last unconscious kobold.

The party rested for a moment and then continued up the path with Ander scouting ahead this time. After about 30 minutes, he found a widening of the path and a stone archway carved into the rock face. The path continued past the tunnel off to the east, and Ander climbed down below the lip of the path to edge unseen past it. There was nothing on the other path waiting for him, and he saw nothing in the entrance of the tunnel from his perspective. He moved up closer to the archway along the rock face, and beckoned for his companions to join him on the other side of it...

The party went up to level 2!

Culture Guide, part 1

I took the advice of the DMG, and it hasn't served me as well as I would have liked. It suggests coming up with the general theme of the campaign first, then immediately focus on the local details of where the party starts. The argument is that players are impatient and ignore the broader world until they get a lot deeper into the campaign, so it's best not to waste time making detailed maps of the world until later, when you need them.

The problem is, of course, that you guys are better than average players, with more refined tastes. Almost all of you responded that you liked the fact that my campaigns seemed to have integrated and believable settings and characters. This requires a lot of work up front, and has been my standard operating procedure for most of my other campaigns.

But not this one. And I'm regretting it. I'm playing catch-up. Which is a bad thing while trying to run two separate campaigns. But I digress.

I have the broad map of the world, and the general theme of the campaign mapped out through the mid-20's (character level). I have a lot of history laid out, and background information, and racial concepts. And I have broad generalizations of the cultures in various regions.

To the north of the Whiteback range, the religion of Dravatadatman dominates all others. Their style of dress is generally middle-ages European, and their foods are mostly the same. Their naming conventions, however, are Indian. Their primary social structure is either theocratic, tribal, or both.

To the south of the Whiteback range, there is a diversity of religion. Both elemental gods and humanistic gods are worshipped. Their dress is Indian or middle-eastern for the most part (light linens, cotton, or silk). Their food is spicy and diverse. But their naming conventions are Celtic, Germanic, or British. There are many, many kingdoms in the south. The rulers are Rajas, Dukes, Barons, Kings, Regents, Shieks, Sherrifs, and any other form of dictatorship you could probably think of.

In the power vacuum left by the absence of the Empire, wizards have been popping up in a lot of places as a civil authority. They call themselves Magisters. Many were prominent in the rebellion.

We'll go with that for now.

Pronunciation Guide, part 1

Linitheriva (lin-ith-er-EE-va)
Start with the name Lilith, you know, like from Cheers. Then make it Linith instead. Add the -er on the end to get Linither, with the same cadence as sinister. Then add the Eva on the end, like Eva Longoria. Or more accurately, like the -iva at the end of Shiva, the destroyer. Linither-Eva, except spelled Linitheriva.

Caelebhan (ky-leh-vhon)
This is a tough one, since I used a combination of Irish gaelic and Welsh pronunciations. The ae in Welsh is an 'eye' sound, and the bh in Irish is a 'v' sound. And the final vowel sound is a short 'ah' sound. The celtic letter C is always a hard consonant, so the end result sounds like ky-leh-vhon.

Allynwy (al-uh-noo-ee)
Mostly Welsh, the letter Y is pronounced 'uh' in a lot of places when it's in the middle of words, and 'ee' when at the end, and especially when paired with the W. The W in Welsh is most often pronounced 'oo'. So wy sounds like 'oo-ee'. I'm sure Welsh speakers are shaking their heads right now and calling me an arse.

Shandrapur (shon-dra-purr)
This is from Indian pronunciation, as in the subcontinent of India, not Native Americans.

The Taxman Cometh - 9/24 session recap

Lars Allynwy hired the PCs for fourteen days of caravan duty, at 2gp per day, per person. His caravan consisted of two wagons drawn by two mules each. Lars drove one wagon, and his partner Willhelm drove the other. The wagons were laden with corn meal, furs, and a few crates of spices.

For about a week and a half, nothing much happened. Ander talked so much to Willhelm that Willhelm started ignoring him. This allowed Ander to nap on the wagon during the morning without being asked to keep a lookout.

On the 11th day, as they were driving into the setting sun, they were accosted by a man in the road who claimed to be collecting taxes. He asked the party to please step away from the wagons so that their goods could be appraised. They noticed men armed with maces to the side of the road, and decided it was highway banditry. Thoric and Ander approached the men on one side while Xacoraki approached the ones on the other side. Boreas just sat in the cart.

Ander was the first to attack with a thrown shuriken. At this provocation, the highwaymen charged forward. They used a well-practiced head strike to daze Thoric, Ander, and Xac, then danced just out of range. The leader loosed an arrow that dazed Boreas with the force of its impact. This didn't keep him from unleashing multiple rays of frost, which started turning the bandits into fragile ice sculptures.

Another bowman popped up from hiding and sunk an arrow into Ander. Ander responded with a crippling shuriken of his own, plus one for good measure. That bandit dropped down behind a boulder to get out of the line of fire. Xacoraki and Boreas slew the four that were attacking her, and Xac started moving toward the bowman in the road. After failing twice with a lance of faith, Thoric resorted to his warhammer. This didn't help much either, but eventually all of his foes were down as well. He closed with the bowman that Ander was engaging. As Ander stepped in close to stab the bandit, he jumped back and unleashed a quick arrow. Ander fell, unconscious and dying. Thoric struck him the bowman a great blow, and Boreas finished him off with a ray of frost.

Xacoraki faced off against the leader, and they traded cuts briefly before the man surrendered. Seeing that he was completely outnumbered and wounded, he dropped his weapons and said that all he possessed was theirs. When questioned, he said that his name was Brian O'Connor, and that he was a taxman for Baron Oslic.

Thoric revived Ander with a whispered prayer to Linitheriva, and the three living bandits were tied up with pieces of their own silk rope. Ander cut marks into each one's cheek, and they were strung up behind the wagon for the three day march into town.

Once in town, Thoric escorted the bandits to the local sheriff, who threw them into a dungeon. Thoric then asked whether he could do a public carving somewhere in town. The Sheriff said that anything left in the middle of town was prone to being stolen, and that Thoric might want to take his sculpting outside of town just a little bit if he wanted it to remain public.

Ander, Xac, and Boreas found the tavern with the most activity for travelers - The Lichen Top Tavern. While ordering a drink, Ander found that the hard liquor had been stolen about a week ago, and that someone claimed that kobolds were to blame. The barkeep said he'd be willing to pay 20gp for each of the two barrels of rice liquor, and 30gp for the barrel of imported whiskey from up north. Ander then circulated through the crowd casting disparaging remarks about dragonkin in an attempt to either start a bar fight with his party, or else get a lead on Orvalion. Meanwhile, Xac and Boreas just sat and watched the crowd together.

Help Wanted - 9/17/08 Session Recap

We started with our four heroes in the river port of Shandrapur, nestled deep in the Genga river valley that cuts between the western and eastern Whiteback mountain ranges. Our intrepid adventurers are:

Boreas Aquilo, a high-elven wizard with well-developed storm magics and a sense of justice.

Ander, a halfling rogue who was rescued on the road by the rest of the party when he was attacked by bandits.

Thoric Gravenstone, an unusually well-spoken and well-trimmed dwarven cleric of Linitheriva.

Xakoraki, a dragonborn warlord in search of ancient heirlooms that were plundered by the dragonlords during their reign.

The party was heading north from provinces in the south, and stopped in Shandrapur to look for opportunities. Even though they were moderately wealthy, they knew their money would run out sooner or later and they needed something lucrative to keep them occupied. They looked in the town square, and saw many employment opportunities as caravan guards or porters. But the largest parchment read, "WANTED ALIVE! Orvalion 5000gp" and contained a small sketch of a dragonborn male.

Xak recalled that Orvalion was of the Parthanak line, the first and oldest line of nobility among the dragonlords. Orvalion was also known for the razing of an entire village, women and children included, during the rebellion. This intrigued and worried the party, so they sought the best purveyor of fine alcoholic beverages to help them mull things over. They found Johan's Spirit House, a respectable establishment with a wide variety of drinks and a lot of serious-looking bouncers. Johan opined that business was good, but that it was dangerous outside of protected cities. Trade was booming, which only made banditry more lucrative.

After fortifying themselves with some quality mead and date wine (and river water), the party ventured up the hill to the nicer part of town where Caelebhan's (pron. ky-le-von) keep stood. Guards stepped up to ask their business, and allowed them up to the keep.

Xak and Ander peeled away to explore the upper city, but were approached by guards again and told that these were private residences. They went back to the keep where Ander asked the guards to tell his friends that he and Xak had gone down to the docks. The guard resented being taken for a messenger, but Ander walked away without even tipping him.

Inside the keep, Thoric and Boreas were granted an audience with Magister Caelebhan, a middle-aged man who looked like he was prematurely aging or sickly. He asked if they knew of Orvalion, and when he found they did not, he explained that he was willing to pay 200gp each for confirmation on rumors that he had been in Tregynon at some point. He offered a further 300gp on top of that for proof of where Orvalion had gone next. And of course, he offered the standard reward of 5000gp for bringing him in alive. Thoric said that they were not bounty hunters, and wanted to know why Caelebhan wanted Orvalion. Caelebhan said that he merely wanted to speak to him about a matter that was his own private business. When asked about Orvalion's war crimes, the Magister said that he wished to speak to him about those as well, but that they were not his primary concern. They parted cordially and left the keep.

The guard mentioned that their halfling friend had gone down into the town, but it was only after Thoric asked very nicely that he vaguely remembered he had said something about going to the docks. The party was reunited, and they discussed options. Very quickly they decided to hire on with a caravan, and spent the afternoon finding a good-paying contact that was headed towards Tregynon. They were offered 2gp per person per day for a 14-day trip.

Ander/Sean wanted to know if they would have some time to explore the town before the caravan left, but when the GM told him sure, it would be a couple of days, he immediately got bored and wanted to know how soon they could leave. Whereupon the GM wanted to smack him, and said that it could leave the next day.

Campaign Starts on September 17th

Place : Jen's apartment in Chapel Hill
Time : 6:30pm arrival, 7pm game start, 10pm game stop, 10:30 departure.

Here's the party composition so far :
Matt - High Elf Wizard
Sean - Halfling Rogue
Charlie - Dwarven Cleric
Jen - Dragonborn Warlord

I'm planning on double XP for the first 10 levels, then a slowdown to the regular pace.