My D&D campaign

[Dark Alex]

So, after eight sessions and our first casualty how do things stand?

Well, the group still isn't sharing information. Indeed Cadmus dying means the rest of the group will get no advance warning that at some point in the future Father Morgan is going to be coming after them with a horde of the undead at his command. Kristi is liking playing a cleric and is going to roll a new one. She is looking at what god to follow this time. Perhaps she'll try an evil god.

Val has met a Shadow Dancer and has a couple of days to walk to the next city so she has a chance to ask about becoming one herself. Zolis is about to get a chance to learn about the prestige class he wants to follow. Since he didn't buy the book the Red Wizard tried to sell him that would have got him on the path to being an archmage. I figured he can pretty much sell his soul next time.

Need the party to decide what they are doing next though. I figure they will all be heading to Eversult and should meet up there and then after that we shall have to see.

[Dark Alex]

Oh no! Cadmus!!!!!

Exciting read!

Yup, your favourite neighbourhood healing machine is now out of order. Permanently.

[ER]

Oh no! Cadmus!!!!!

Exciting read!

Yup, your favourite neighbourhood healing machine is now out of order. Permanently.

It'd be a good time for his previously unknown identical twin brother Sumdac to make an appearance. You know, like Laura Palmer's cousin, or etc.

[Dark Alex]

Gave Zolis a short solo session tonight. After climbing out of the tunnel he was exhausted. A rude camp was set up and he collapsed into the arms of sleep and started to dream...

You lie down, your exhausted body demanding rest and sink into a dream. In that dream you see the world. Armies match, dragons and other monsters attack towns and cities. Nations rise and fall. And all through it innocents suffer and die needlessly. You see yourself standing in the middle of it, growing more and more powerful amidst the chaos and using your power to bring peace and stability to all. All manner of evil creatures flee your approach or are burned to cinders at a snap of your fingers. As you travel solving the world’s problems and disasters one by one people come to respect and love you and yes even come to worship you.

The more powerful you become the wider your influence grows. Kings and Emperors seek you out to ask your advice at first, but on meeting you and hearing your wisdom and intellect they grovel at your feet and beg you to take their crowns. Eventually you approach the power of the gods themselves, perhaps one day you can supass even them and challenge Lord Ao himself and put the universe to rights. With the power of magic at your control anything is possible.

A faint voice speaks to you as if from ages past, barely hearable “This is your future, your destiny. If you decide to take it. If you but have the strength of mind and will to take what is yours. I am but once piece of the broken god, seek out others and take their power. Become what you were born to be!"

Zolis started asking questions like who are you? And where am I?

I am part of you now, I am you and I am in your head, I know your innermost secrets and desires. I can put you on the path to what you seek most of all if you wish. No cost… no hidden soul to sell. My voice speaks to you, tells you to go north and seek other shards of my power, claim them for your own and become all powerful.

Although he had some doubts, Zolis's interest had definitely been pricked. He asked if his friends wouldn't object and perhaps try to stop him and was told that the last one to attempt to gain this power for himself had been betrayed by his friends who had ripped his soul into pieces to stop him. But Zolis could be more careful, he could succeed where others had failed.

He accepted the voices offer of power and slept the rest of the night peacefully. When he awoke he felt refreshed and the aches and pains of the night before had disappeared.

In his arms he was holding a large leather bound book. It did not appear to be bound in human flesh, inked in blood or any of the other things you would associate with evil tomes. He sent out his magical senses to probe the book and found while it had been handled by creatures with magical abilities, it was not inherantly magical itself. Studying the pages, he found it was all about the theory and practise of magic, although much more in depth than anything he had hitharo came across. Imagine Issac Newton finding a book on Quantum Physics. He decided to hide this from the rest of the party and study it in private.

[Dark Alex]

I have made a little bit of a mistake. Normally when I write an adventure it is only a week or so in advance, but I have the next few sessions in mind and where to go with them. Thing is when I wrote the group splitting I liked the idea of one group going over the roofs while another went through the sewer.

Trouble is that I never thought about how to get them back together. I could just have "Yeah, you walk along the road and see your friends", but that would be a bit dissatisfying for me and no doubt the group too.

I could just leave it to the players. They will either do something thats total genius or absolutely idiotic. Players tend not to be capable of doing anything in between.

Hmm, reminds me of the time an ex sent an email to me calling me an idiot. Only she managed to spell it idot. Or maybe she meant to call me an idot, who knows? Assuming it was a spelling mistake though, if you are going to call someone an idiot you really should spell it correctly. Or at least use a spell checker. Had a conversation with a female friend. We ended up comparing who had, had the most partners from the most different countries.

Anyway, I am wandering off topic there. I have come up with a place for the group to meet up, but that relies on them doing more or less what I expect them to do. Any GM has to be able to think on his feet and adopt whatever situation he has created to fit in with what the party actually do.

Plus I need to write Kristi's new character in. Glad I am not doing an adventure set down in the underdark or something. Adding new people there is a bit more problematic.

[Dark Alex]

Ok, so tonights adventure is partially written. I know what the situation is going to be. How the party finds each other and how they interact with everything... well that I am a little more unsure of. Be interesting to see how it goes. Wish me luck.

[Dark Alex]

Part Nine Of The Tale Of The Band Of The Icky Hand

Seriously I thought the group would have came up with their own name by now.

So Zolis, Sillas and Zagan rested at the mouth of the cave they'd just escaped from. It was late afternoon and just setting up a rude camp seemed like a major task, but they managed it and fell into a deep sleep. Zolis had the dream mentioned above and made his pact with the strange voice in his head. The others rested and regained some much needed hit points. The next day they set off on the full days march required to bring them to the road between Teziir and Eversult. Leaving no guard, the group could have ended up as a random snack for any passing creature, but got lucky and everyone got to wake up alive (in this game you can actually wake up dead. Go TEAM NECROMANCER!).

Val and Aileen in the meanwhile trudged along the road on foot, wondering if Bran would be able to get out the city or not and hoping he'd pick them up in the wagon tomorrow. They decided to sleep some distance from the road where no passers by could see them. Not that many people ride in the dark, but you just never know. They too rested for the night.

In the morning the rogues continued walking along. A could of dust on the road behind them did indeed turn out to be Bran. The city had been unsealed and he'd gotten out.

Of course since no one asked him why the gates had been unlocked he didn't bother to tell them about the dispatch riders carrying wanted posters featuring descriptions of the group travelling in all directions. Or about the increased bounty on their heads.

The others could see a village in the distance, its white painted wooden pallisade shining brightly in the morning sun and decided to head for it. This would take them until some time in the afternoon. The circled around it from a distance and approached it from the main road (which was about a thirty minute walk from the outside of the village). The wall around the village was roughly circular and they saw gates on the southern and eastern sides (they didn't however go around the entire wall, just around half). About half a mile away they could see people working in a field, but they were too far away to make out any details. Zagan rapped on the door with the pomel of his greatsword, and a few seconds later a unshaven and rather dirty looking mans head popped over the top of the parapet and asked them what they wanted. After they said they just wanted to rest up for the night. The gate was dragged open and they found themselves being watched very closely by half a dozen men in armour all pointing an assortment of missile weapons in their vague direction. They were given directions to the inn, which was named "The Slaughtered Goat" (I was hoping someone would make a connection there and expect a werewolf, but no such luck. I oculd have called it The Slaughtered Lamb, but I thought that would be too obvious). The men all bore the same device on their armour and shields, a spear tip with a white circle and a scrawled 'Z'. Zolis recognised what this meant, but decided to wait before telling anyone else. The inn stood on the north side of a sideways T junction. The road they walked in went east - west and stopped at the junction, while the other road ran from the north to the south. The inn was at the corner on the north side and the group wandered in. It was a single story building. Inside 5 unkempt looking men sat drinking at a table. A harrassed looking woman in her fourties along with a young teenage girl which the group assumed to be her daughter stood behind the bar serving drinks.

Taking a table as far away from the men as possible, Zagan went up to ask about rooms for the night as well as food and drinks. Unfortunately there were no rooms at the inn, but for a couple of coppers she'd let them either sleep on the floor in the inn or they could sleep out in the barn. She would also throw in some hot food and cold drinks.

And that is all for the moment, I'll write up the rest of the adventure tomorrow.

[Dark Alex]

The three in the inn talked quietly. Zolis explained that the device painted on their shields was an old sign used by a group called the Zhentarim who are a group seeking to spread the tyranny of the evil god Bane (pretty much the patron god of fascism), although some do follow the Cyric the god of lies. Over the past few years they have been expanding across the region as merchants, often using underhanded techniques to dominate the trade of an area, backed by their military might. The southern coast is not their usual territory so this could be part of an attempt to expand their influence or perhaps just a renegade band. The group definitely got the impression that something wasn't quite right in the village. The civilians seemed very uneasy and when they'd walked through the village they had saw only women. It was agreed that Zolis would go outside and send a note with his raven to find the others and warn them about the village.

Extra information was then passed on when Zagan said that he thought Val would be smarter than to bring the cart inside the town. This cost him a fine in XP's for metagaming, it also cost Tina some XPs for acting on that information, but her wasn't as large as Zagans. Bit of a shame as otherwise it was a night of good roleplaying.

About while this was going on the others travelling along the road at the only speed Bran understands had also arrived at the southern gate. They got about the same level of welcome as the others had at the eastern gate, but without the crowd of soldiers pointing bows and crossbows at them. They left Aileen and Bran with the wagon outside (which I figured would actually attract more attention than bringing it inside, and if the party spend a night in the village it would be sure to be investigated).



Val entered the room and saw her companions sitting in the corner. Stories were exchanged and the news of Cadmus and Merrick's deaths were shared, although no one thought to go and let Aileen know about that. Zolis's raven returned to him before he even got back to the inn having dropped off his message to Val while she was at the front gate.

Once Zolis rejoined the group talk soon very quietly turned to forming some sort of insurrection against the guards that seemed to be in control of the town. While they were talking a rather short young woman wearing very light armour and festooned with weapons. Looking around she could see the guards and the party. Deciding the party looked the more companionable types she decided to ask if she could join them (this is Kristi's new character).

Zagan decided to try and pump the barmaid for information and took a note asking her if the people in the village were in some kind of trouble or danger and slipped this to her unnoticed by the soldiers while he went up and asked about a bath. She took the note, tucked it in her apron and led her to the bath house. And when I say house, I mean a large tin bath out in the back courtyard which was then filled with hot water from a wood burning stove. Zagan stripped off and had the first bath of the campaign (I must go through this and work out how many days have passed in game time at some point. Its going to be important when the next big event kicks off in a later session).

The newcomer introduced herself as Colesta, who luckily happened to be a wandering follower of the goddess of magic Mystra. As the group were chatting, the men in the corner decided to make a move on the ladies in the group. Afterall the only man they had to protect them looked like he weighed maybe 60 pounds if he was soaking wet. The largest of the group sauntered cockily over and asked why such a little woman had so many big weapons. Colesta did not respond well to his advances, especially when he smiled and revealed the few teeth he had remains were broken and brown stained. He grabbed Colesta, attempting to force a kiss on her. Val threw a dagger at the mans head, but in such a way that the hilt would hit him rather than the blade.

Slightly stunned, the man staggered backwards, his friends though pulled him back and prevented a fight breaking out... for the moment. His forehead was bruised and bleeding where he'd been hit. He continued to stare daggers at them for the rest of the night though. Eventually another five guards joined them and a few farmers came in from the fields. The men seemed tired and half starved. Few had more than a drink or two before going home. During the night the barmaid managed to slip the note back to Zagan. Reading it back at the table it simply said "Come find me once everyone has left."

Once it got dark Val slipped out the door, but not unnoticed. The bruised man and two of his friends got up to follow her outside. Val unaware of this had slipped into the shadows and was heading off towards the southern gate. The men staggered outside, cursing when they couldn't see her around. Zolis and co had observed this however and were ready to run outside if a fight started.

I am not convinced they planned on helping out. I suspect they just wanted to watch.

The men were staggering around when a deep voice roared at them asking what the hell they were doing. They sheepishly muttered something and went back into the bar followed by whoever had been shouting. This turned out to be a giant of a man, he looked like a slap of muscle with extra muscles on top. A much thinner man accompanied him, he had a touch of the elvish around his ears. The pair stayed at the bar drinking separately from the men.

Val in the meantime reached the southern wall, avoiding the patrol wandering around the streets. Silently climbing over the wall and out of the village she could see the cart just outside the village. Bran had pulled a tarp over the back of it making a cover. Peaking underneath she could see Bran and Aileen sleeping under the cover. Knocking on the wooden side of the cart she woke them up.

Startled by the rapping Aileen jumped up with a start, her eyes flashed a mix of sickly green and black flames for a few seconds, she opened her mouth and hissed, revealing several rows of needle sharp teeth. Realising she wasn't in danger she quickly composed herself, covering her face once more with her face and turned away from Val.

Bran, not having seen this and being his usual pleasant self grunted at Val wanting to know what she wanted. Recovering from her shock Val asked Bran to move the wagon out of sight of the village and be careful. Something was up inside and there might be fighting.

Back in the inn it was getting late. Most of the men had either staggered off or collapsed drunkenly on the floor. The group went out to the stable to wait for a bit, make sure the inn was empty and they could talk to the barmaid. Val made it back to the group during this time, plans were made and she was sent to investigate the inn. She carefully checked the interior from the outside and then went silently into the inn. Some unconscious men lay about the inn, but most had staggered off to wherever they spent their nights. He made his way to the back where he guessed the innkeepers had their own rooms and softly knocked on the door. The barmaid opened it and asked him in. She explained that raiders had started attacking the farmers in the fields and they'd hired some mercenaries to help protect them. So far the raiders hadn't returned and their supposed protectors had taken over the village instead. All the men were forced to work in the fields except for the town mayor who was being kept a prisoner in his own house. She was sure the villagers would stand and fight against the men if someone could lead them, although they'd been given very little food and worked from dawn til dusk in the fields. Zagan promised to sort out something and help liberate them. She also got some supplies to feed the men and give them a bit more strength for the upcoming battle.

Hopefully the party won't decide to then just take the village for themselves and use it as the base to build an empire from.  I mean its normally what my characters do. I mean I've played characters who have cut someones throat rather than pay for a new pair of shoes and whose idea of testing for traps is to push someone else into a room (actually, that was pretty funny).

Anyway, Val dragged sacks of food back to the stable and the more plans were made. The group decided to drag the food out to the wagon, overpower the guards in the fields and then lead the villagers in an uprising.

I was a little surprised they didn't just decide to cut the throats of the drunk men in the inn, take out the security patrol and then go from house to house looking for where the rest were sleeping. Or is it just me that thinks that way?

Sneaking back down to the cart the group was surprised to see no sign of the night guards they'd been told about.

Actually it was a good job Val had told Bran to move further away from the village as the guards had abandoned their post to go see if it held treasure. Although Aileen might have given them a nasty shock. And well, Bran and his boom stick is also quite capable of making a bloody mess.

Eventually they got the food to the cart, then went back to the stable to get some sleep.

The next morning they made a show of leaving the village and heading along the road. Some of the fields ran parallel to the road, maybe fifty feet from the road itself. As they passed the closest guard they opened up with a hail of missile fire and left him dead in the dirt before he even knew he was under attack. There were five guards widely spread out and the party quickly overcame them in a ranged battle. Colesta showed her worth by frying one guy with Magic Missiles while Zolis called a giant bombadier beatle that sprayed enough acid at a guy to melt him and the rest died charging towards the group, or trying to return fire. The fields were too far away from the village for anyone to hear what was happening and no one patrolled the walls anyway, the occupiers not believing a bunch of half starved farmers would be any threat.

They did have plans of sneaking around and taking them out ninja style but the lack of anything other than flat terrain stymied them here, so it ended up a surprise attack and frontal assault.

Although many of the people they had rescued wanted to immediately storm the village, they were persuaded to wait until nightfall when they would all be expected to return anyway, the gates would be opened and they could all run in. The men were to look like they were working in the fields and their strongest men were to don the armour and weapons of the dead guards. Well except for the melted guy. No one wanted to dip into that gooey mess. In the meantime the party cooked up something for the group and took food around the men.

As night started to fall everyone marched back to the village, with a determined purpose that had not been present previously. As they were going through the gates however the guards realised the people in armour were not their companions and battle was quickly joined. As the sounds of battle roused the other mercanaries who ran into battle, one group attacking the villagers in close combat on the main street, and the second group firing a mixture of bows and crossbows at long range. The rebels quickly overran those in melee by sheer weight of numbers killing the minions, however when their leader (Fial) came charging out of the mayors house and started laying into the rebels, cutting down half a dozen with a single wide stroke of his two handed battleaxe, then charging further into them to kill even more. The party had deliberately decided to hang back and let the villagers run into battle. This was going to cost the lifes of a lot of them.

Engaging in another ranged battle with the second group Zagan & Zolis were wearing them down slowly, while the return fire was pretty ineffective. Neither group wanted to charge over the dead group between them though to get to close quarters while being peppered by the other side. Val and Colesta headed down the street to help out the villagers belately. Colesta summoned a mighty giant eagle and sent it to attack the raging barbarian while Val tried to work her way around behind him. Some of the villagers tried to fight back against this whirlwind of razor edged death and even managed some wounds, but he cut them down in return. The townsfolk while certainly not cowards were also not trained for this sort of fight and started to waver and then run.

Kristi at this point told me that if her character died she would burst into tears. She is a cross classed Cleric / Wizard. Clerics can wear heavy armour and have a decent amount of hit points to survive combat. Wizards can't wear heavy armour and have all the hit points of a squished cricket. She has a lot of spells available to her from those two classes but can't wear armour or her Wizard spells have a chance of not working. All this is relevant to what happens next.

Colesta ends up in melee combat going toe to toe with the barbarian along with her giant eagle and Val running up behind him to stab him in the kidneys. He was strong enough to kill Colesta with a single blow. He raised his axe up and brought it down cutting deep into Colesta's side. Blood stained her tunic, and she was near death.

But as any viewer of The Princess Bride knows there is a difference between mostly dead and all dead and Colesta was only mostly dead. The villagers and the Giant Eagle actually took quite a toll from Fial, although his enraged brain did not realise just how close to dying he was, or maybe he just didn't care. The final blow came when Colesta with her last ounce of strength caught him on the side of his head with her mace. His skull caved in and as his brain dribbled out the hole where the side of his head used to be he finally collapsed to the ground dead.

Zagan managed to work his way around behind the remaining defenders dispatching them with a mixture of bow fire and hand to hand combat. One of them fled, getting an arrow in the back as he ran out the gates, but not a fatal blow.

No one could see any sign of Fial's elven eared friend however, but it looked as the village was free!

And at that point since it was pretty late on we decided to call it a night.

[Dark Alex]

I swear these things take longer to write every week.

[Dark Alex]

Trying to write up the next weeks adventure. Biggest issue I currently have is that I really have no idea what the party is going to do next. They could stay in the village and start a bit of empire building from here (I rate this as the unlikeliest option though as they are a days travel away from a city that has a HUGE bounty posted on the group. This is going to lead to regular visits from bounty hunters and perhaps even some sort of large scale military attack).

They might try and find the Masks that either are back in Karlston or were found by Kano and are whereever he left them, or equally Zolis might persuade everyone to go north and follow the voice in his head telling him to go north. This actually kicks off a major event in the game world and would be good.

This is the options I hope are the ones the party are going to go with.

Of course there are lots of wildcard options. They are near the coast and might decide to take a ship somewhere new where its not quite as hot for them (I do have plans for them spending some time on a boat, but I've not written that up yet). They have made an enemy of one criminal organisation and have interfered with the plans of a much larger group as well as who ever else is after the Mask's.

[ER]

Alex, you might like this guy's site. (Shame he hasn't updated it in five years----hints of a Go Fund Me scandal shutting him down---but the posts he put up for several years before then make great reading.)

http://grognardia.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2012-07-19T11:18:00-04:00&max-results=10&start=90&by-date=false