Session 15 recap

Their continued explorations of the underdark have further demonstrated the complete destruction of the once proud duergar people. Another abandonded stronghold demonstated that all was not well as the deep dwarves made their retreat. Mysteries like the red amulet of "power" and the doors locked to all but those who bear certain artifacts have befuddled our adventurers. An air of new caution has also fallen over the group when it was demonstrated that even kobolds present a real threat in the underdark.

Entering the biggest cavern yet, with a throne antechamber, has led the adventurers to a palace of heretofore unknown grandeur and unknown danger. entrance into the great hall of this magnificent building has proven dicy. Xander Abaer awaits here, supposed drow ruler of what was once the Duergar city of Deephold.

Imagine the surprise of our heroes when he hailed them as heroes! "Silas the Destroyer" it seems has made a name for himself as an agent of chaos and destroyer of towns. Being suitably flattered the destroyer revealed his mission to Xander, forgetting, it seems, the allegiances that this drow may hold.

An offer has been made, go back on his employer and destroy the upstart house of Colborel of the Sun and the powers that be in Alberazole will shower the adventurers with the exorbitance usually reserved for noble houses of drow.

What will the decision be?

Loot so far: TB reported
Levels gained: 1 (Party ECL 10)

Session 13 recap

Needless to say I have not had a chance to update the site in a while. The pre gen was fun for me, I hope it was also for you, my players. That said, we are now two weeks into the new campaign. You may have noticed that the title of the site changed and the banner is less cool. I'm working on a better picture for that so bear with me there. Anyway those things are symptoms of the change.

Ever since the Patron of House Colborel of the Sun called our heroes into his home they have been crawling their way through the underdark on a quest to neutralize the Matron of the city whose zealotry has pushed out many of the cities weaker families. The descent has been a tale of woe. The Duergar of Deephold, once proud deep dwarves, are now little more than refugees with the fight gone from their blood. The trek below has taken our adventurers through two former cities, each greater than the last, both in ruins.

The underdark has not made it easy for our heroes. They have already become acquainted with some of the odder denizens of the upperdark. gelatinous cubes, fools water and fungus have proven hard to avoid without a guide.

The trip has not been without spoils.
Party is all at ECL: 9
Total loot so far this adventure: a torc, two amulets, a drow rapier and scimitar, a circlet of darkvision, a drow house medallion, a suit of battlerager armour, the dracolisk's hoarde, dragonhide armour and shield.

As we move forward

Alright, we are probably coming close to the end days on the pre-gen so I should probably take this opportunity to seed the Earth for the next campaign. Suffice it to say that you will be facing foes much more daunting than any you have seen so far. You will also be entering into another situation in which you will need to pay attention and keep track of some involved scenarios. So I'm going to have to ask that we devote some measure of attentiveness to the game please.

Up to now I have not minded a certain amount of fooling about and aimlessness but if this campaign is going to work I'm going to need you all to be functional and a part of the plot.

Also, There is now a jar for food money. I love cooking and will continue to cook for our get-togethers as long as there is money in the jar. This week I will ask you to bring cash for this week next week unless you plan on bringing something/ not eating.

We will also have a new player again this week. Faith will be joining us with a Human Spellcaster. This should be exciting. By the Way, no worries, she's all rolled up so no wait this week for character generation.

Game time is the same this week but I will be entertaining motions to move the date/ time based on you desires. There has been some discussion of moving game to a weekend.

New Story, New Location, New Player.

So, I realize this is kinda going at things backwards and late since there's been no session recap from last time but more important than a recap is to tell you all that yes, there will be game this week and it will be in the new Casa del Geek at 3124 Logan Ave. Apt. G.

Downside, we have no furniture as of now so we'll have to kick it old school and sit "Indian style" on the rug. Alternately you are welcome to bring chairs and pillows. I will have out the pillows I have and probably my air mattress as well.

Upside, I will be cooking once again. This time it is curried chicken. I don't want to brag but I cook a pretty mean curried chicken.

For soda I can only promise the Diet Coke left from before. I have iced tea and might be convinced to mix up some horchata but I will not be able to pick up any more soda. Ergo if there are other beverages you are desirous of you may consider the event BYOB.

We will also be gaining our Geek to Girl translator. Sarah-Jean has agreed to join us. Luckily this fills the gap left by the passing of Krunk, he shall be missed. If anyone wants to gen a new character now is a prime time. ECL is currently 8 if I do my math correctly. I am excited to see what Sarah-Jean is planning to bring to the table.

ADDENDUM In order to cook I will need someone to bring a little bit of milk and a pound of skinless boneless chicken (breasts do quite well).

Session Four Recap

And when we said Uurgoth's destruction what we actually meant was we'll go do something else.

The session began with character creation as we added Carrie, our new elf ranger.

The game began with more investigation of the local temples. As the group headed to a new temple they were surprised by an elf falling from a nearby window into the street. followed by three orcs. No extra points will be awarded for guessing the elf's identity. The orcs were chasing Sephora following a botched attempt to break into a local temple of Boccab. Further investigation revealed that the temple was home to a lost idol of Gruumsh. An ill advised request to the giants to have the idol removed ended up rocketing it into the mountains on the Northwest side of the valley. Having it safely out of the valley made the party feel a little better.

However, it came out that the orcs have been assembling a super weapon with the other two idols of Gruumsh. This revelation and the return of two battered drow with stories of the power of Uurgoth's weapon encouraged the party to look for yet more help. A trip to the Vale brought the party up against an undead hoard. Having come through the rigors of the journey the party met up with Yrgot the mighty, a half fiend of unspeakable power. His demeanor was friendly though Nameless told the party to that this was a fifty fifty chance. He gave the party tools to aid in the journey. The journey back out of the vale was uneventful.

Session Called-
No levels gained
Total Loot: Belt with arrow shaped buckle, Holy Symbol of Obad Hai, Double axe of Immobility, Rapier of Potentialities, 1 crossbow and bolts.

Session Three Recap

I realize this should have gone out a long tie ago especially since of those of you who actually read this thing one of you actually could have used the update. I'm sorry.

That being said when we last left our heroes they had just made an alliance with the giants of the fangs. Through bribary and dealing the adventurers convinced the giants to help out. The deal was, though, that in exchange for the Giant's assistance the heroes would have to kill the lone orc chieftan resisting the orc pact.

Upon returing to town from the Giants the party got wind of a meeting to take place on South Peak and, with intentions of reconnaissance decided to go using their lone orog representative as cover. On the way to the South Peak the party stopped in Boorbok and were caught in an orc invasion. The heroes managed to escape and continue on their way but the burning town over their shoulders reminded them of the importance of their mission.

Crunk played his part well ingratiating himself with the orc chieftain and challenging a out of place orc to a fight outside of town. The orc turned out to be the elf assassin from the towns, the one the party had originally intended to head off. It turns out he is a quite powerful ally by any estimation. They returned to the orc encampment with a more unified plan and made an agreement with the orc chieftan. He will stay out of the fight but only if his missionaries are allowed to do their work during the fighting. An accord was reached and the party departed to go back to the ruined town.

The town of Boorbok was almost a total loss. bodies and burned homes littered the streets. the few survivors remaining spoke of Uurgoth descending from the mountains and killing the leader of the war party. After Uurgoth barked orders in orc the assembled warriors fell in line and marched from the towns.

As they entered Boothearth after surveying the damage they witnessed the parade of the drow guard. The town's elite guards were leaving for Bear peak to exact revenge for the destruction of Boorbok. They refused to have any non drow join them and the heroes agreed only because they had more pressing matters to attend to. A message was sent to the giants and they should arrive soon. The drow were leaving too soon to allow the giants to join their strike force.

Soon after the Drow left an explosion rocked the city. investigation brought the party to the temple of Pelor where the assembled priests lamented the destruction of their holy symbol. What was once a great focus of Pelor's power and a tool used to restore Boorbok after the Goblin Kobold Wars was now an assortment of metal shards. Further investigation showed that the eye of Gruumsh had been painted onto the holy symbol which corrupted Pelor's conduit and caused the explosion.

Confused and distressed the heroes decided that the time had come to strike hard. The time for thought had passed. As soon as the Giants arrive in town the time will be ripe for Uurgoth's destruction.

Session called-
One level gained
Total Loot: 125 Gold, 1 orc double axe, six axes and one wonderous marble elephant figurine.

Thoughts as we move forward.

I will reiterate all of this at tonight's game but I would like to make it official here.

-As far as I know we will be losing Jake on the 22nd as he goes back to Beloit. The rest of us though are going to be here for a while so I will endeavor to bring the current story to a close on the week of the 20th. From there I would be happy to continue in a weekly game either in an episodic format, starting a new campaign or if one of you would like, under new management. Basically I'm setting that week as the week in which things change in whatever way.

For my part, I would love to have you guys remain as an itinerant party of adventurers.

-We will no longer be expecting the local priestess to join the party. Her duties in the temple have kept her from adventuring. Not to worry though, you will still run into her.

Session Two Recap

The people of the valley came together for the third time in our history for a moot. The Patrician of Boothearth, the Goblin King and The Kobold Overlord from Boorbok, and the Elven Chief Elder from Bangor came together to hear distressing news.

A skulk scout from the guard of Bangor was lucky enough to be present for the beginning of a meeting of the leaders of the local orc tribes. He told the people of the valley of the meeting crowded with orcs. The meeting was presided over by a large orc in black armour with a large black amulet on his chest and a glowing red sword. He called on the assembled orcs to band together in the name of Gruumish to claim the land in the valley as their own.

After the report the patrician called upon the assembled people of the valley to volunteer to help neutralize the threat. Only four stood forward from their fellows to fight. What the town could give was volunteered but nothing could be provided more than what the brave heroes possessed already.

After some searching the heroes planned to visit the local giants encampment to try to enlist the help of their king. It also came out that an assassin had been hired from the town By the orcs of Norpeak to kill the warlord of Southpeak. The rumour is that not all of the tribes have agreed to the unified orc crusade for Gruumish.

Each of the valley's leaders gave what they had to help persuade the giant king. Four great artifacts came out of hiding a magically cold spearhead, a magically warm lump of metal, a spear shaft and a rock with a button on it. The town also provided six of it's finest as an honour guard. With the exception of an encounter with an orc warband which killed half of the guard the trip was uneventful.

The giant king was impressed with the plan and the gifts and agreed to fight against the orcs provided the adveturers take care of the orcs of Southpeak who have been a thorn in the giant king's side. The artifacts came together into one large piece the metal going inside the stone, the shaft attaching to that and the spearhead attaching to the other end of the shaft. the artifact was then placed on a boulder where it wobbled. When it stopped wobbling the giants cried out with joy, "six more months of winter". They then gave the heroes a place to sleep the night.

Session called-
No levels gained.
Total loot: 11GP, ponies all around, assorted orc weapons, one large cloak and a barmaid.

Session one Recap

So we didn't get any game play done, which is to be expected but I think we all had a good time. Everyone now has a character with which to work. Everyone seems to have taken their sheets with them. You are hereby charged with keeping track of them. In future, if you wish, I can hold onto them.

I will update the cast section with what I can recall. Please send me a better description to throw up ASAP. This can be included with your 4 "3"s. Yes, I mean it. back stories would be super.

House Rules

Generation related.
-When you roll your stats you may roll seven dice and drop one.
-Any ranks in spot or listen count for both. If you have a racial modifier or other specific modifier for one or the other that does not carry over. The average of the two modifiers will be your "sense" or "awareness" modifier. This will take into account all five of your senses in one roll for noticing things. If you want to specifically look or listen for something you may do that with a higher modifier (if you have it) but otherwise I will expect you to be using more than one sense when trying to sense things.
-I do attempt to use all of the skills so if your character should be able to use rope you'd better take some ranks in it. Same for Ride, Swim and Handle Animal.

Other:
-If the die is not on the table the roll is invalid. Even if it crits.
-Unique magic items are not necessarily bound by standard mechanics.
-If the GM decrees it the book can be wrong.

This list may be amended.

How do you all feel about a sliding timeslot? Liz and Steve have complex schedules so we could discuss the time for the next week's meeting at each game. I can then record the decision here on the site for reference.

Also, Level five is where we're going to start (in 3.5 reckoning anyway) I'll keep you updated if we look like we might shift over. I'm still pricing the 4.0 books. This is so that we can get bigger monsters in the beginning, justify anyone choosing you to help them and to allow you to take a monster race/ class with a modest level adjustment.

1- What sort of character would you like to play?- weird characters are great. You are people who have come together under odd circumstances so I am going to place very few limitations on the types of characters available to you. Extraplanar? Sure. Monster class? Sure. Some sort of hybrid? Why the heck not. If you can justify the combination in chartacter I am more than happy to entertain Zombie Pirate Ninjas (though you may not be able to overcome the CR adjustment).

2- The threes, 3 desires, 3 fears, 3 allies, 3 enemies.

general stuff

I'd love to have the game in my apartment. An e-mail will go out containing the address. Alternately it is on my facebook profile. the place has plenty of space and, as far as I know, is fairly central for most of us. Also, it contains my resources which will, no doubt, be handy.

I'm cosidering running the campaign in 4.0 but will need to borrow the books until I find some of my own and you will have to bear with me while I learn the system along with you. I like that there are only three books to deal with most of all. Though be aware some stuff may show up which I will have cribbed from 3.5.

Settings

-Your vaguely Anglo-Scandinavian village, Boothearth, is in a valley surrounded by treacherous mountains on three sides. To the West there is open passage out of the valley through some foothills. Otherwise a crescent of mountains surrounds your home. Your village is one of three in the valley which are separated by two ice fed rivers which converge in the middle of the valley and flow as one out to the West.

The city is controlled by a patrician who is bound by a strong enchantment to act in the best interests of the city and the scepter of the city confers both a small amount of magical power and the compulsion to keep the best interests of the many in mind. In any situation he will make the decision which benefits the greater good. He also knows one week previous to his death that it is time to quietly give over the scepter.

The other two villages are Bangor and Boorbok.

Boorbok is interesting as it is mostly populated by goblins, kobolds and other monsters. The people of the towns made peace with the goblins and kobolds of the region as a way of stopping the warring between the two peoples. When the wars between the two stopped they slowly migrated into the towns and were marginalized into the less exciting and resource rich town on the southern side of the valley. It was once Leehaven but has since changed to Boorbok.

The two peoples are still led by their respective kings who keep them in line on the streets. The goblin king rules over (roughly) the northern side of the city and the Kobold overlord keeps track of the southern side through his underlings. The two together serve as representatives to the Moot.

Bangor is largely mad up of elves. The interesting thing about Bangor is that it is one of the few places in the world where exiled Drow tend to collect. Their area of the city is darker and slightly more violent than the rest but is still surprisingly nice. The drow of this valley are reformed and, compared to their kin, entirely benevolent. They get along well with the understanding and charitable elves of Bangor through serving a sort of penance by being the elite strike force of the city. Whenever the cities are threatened the squad of drow are sent first to break up the threat or serve as scouts.

They are led by a small council of elders with a Theurge at it's head. He serves as the city's sole representative to the Moot.

The surrounding mountains are full of evil monsters, orcs and giants most prevalently.