A slight delay but more Kalamar

Last week, the plan was to play Palladium Fantasy, GM'ed by John on Friday and then I'd DM the game of D&D 3.5e Kalamar for in-laws plus 1 on Sunday. Unfortunately, Beth was sick on Friday and I stayed home from work to help take care of her and watch the toddler. So we have indefinitely postponed that game.

But we did game on Sunday. Patrick and Daniel, my brothers-in-law, and Lindsay, Patrick's girlfriend, came over and we played for a couple of hours. Beth was busy baking pizza, brownies, and cookies and didn't join us, so Daniel ran her character.

Here's the rundown of the group:
Patrick plays Darwin, a level 5 grey elven sorcerer, with a rat familiar named Brisby.
Daniel plays Raizix, a level 5 human fighter.
Lindsay plays Jelena, a level 5 wood elf ranger, with a wolf companion named Amaterasu.
Beth plays Ember, a level 3 druid/level 2 rogue wood elf, with a dog companion named Fang.

During the last game, the group had just finished killing off one and driving off another giant octopus from Ejja-Vonan. The Senojy has given the group help in terms of free camels and 4 guides to assist them. They set out east, following their guides.

Four things happened during this part of the adventure:

• The group was attacked by a giant ant lion
• Their main adversary appears to them
  
• Some plants pose not a problem at all
• 2 dozen cultists impale themselves upon the blades and arrows of the group.

The group travels along, and the first thing they come across is a sand dune with a glint of gold at the bottom of it. Wary, Raizix approaches on camel back. He stand up in the saddle, and can make out some gold coins. Concerned about quicksand (prompted by an earlier discussion about character and equipment weights), he asks the others what they think. They try to bring the coins up using rope. While this does avoid approaching the pit, it really doesn't have much chance of working. After a few tosses, a giant ant lion emerges from the hole, and starts charging.

Jelena peppers it with a few arrows, and Darwin tries to hit it with a scorching ray before it rips into Ember and has grabbed her in its talons. Raizix runs up and drives his sword right through its exoskeleton and kills it outright.

Darwin, being the lightest, descends into the pit to see where the ant lion came from. He finds a tunnel, and he throws a rag doll down the rough corridor after casting a light spell upon it. He approaches slowly until he makes out a skeleton and some bones. Jelena and Raizix join him, followed by Ember.

Ember checks for traps and deadfalls, and them approaches the skeleton. She finds a few weapons and gold coins. Two of the weapons are magical, according to Darwin: a spear and a battleaxe. He takes the spear, and Raizix carries the battleaxe.

Later that evening, the party come across a black tent with a camel next to it. 'Fortunes' is written on a wooden sign that is situated above the tent flap. Curious about this tent, Raizix approaches, calling out the entire time. "Oi! Hello!" There is no response. He uses his sword to lift the tent flap, and sees little inside, as it is too dark.

He enters to find colorful silks hanging from the ceiling, and a siloutte farther back in the room. "Hello?" Still no response.

He pushes farther in and sees a figure with a hooded cloak sitting in a chair. There is a table, with a deck of cards, which the hooded figure picks up and then motions to an empty chair. "Hmm, a mute fortune teller. This should be interesting." As Darwin approaches from behind, Raizix sits down.

The fortune teller shuffles the deck of cards, and then places them face up, one at a time. First, a dark tower. Second, a ship. Third, a large coin. Lastly, a skull on a black background.

"Death!" Raizix immediately springs to his feet, bringing his sword accross his body, and into the figure before him. He recognizes Daresh before she begins to disppear, laughing.

The tent then begins to collapse, and Raizix and Darwin rush out of the tent. The tent smolders and disappears, and the camel shrinks and disappears inside itself. Darwin quickly determines that this is the result of a spell, and that Daresh or another wizard must be nearby. The group climbs to the top of a hill, but see nothing that would indicate her presence. Unperturbed, the group continues on.

The next day, the group comes accross some vampire cacti, which Ember and Darwin burn.

Later that evening, they see in the distance the hills of where the blue dragon is supposed to live. They also see smoke. They go as a group to investigate, but a guard comes upon them. Jelena shoots him before he can raise an alarm. The guides recognize him from his clothing. He belongs to a clan that worships the Emperor of Scorn. They believe that the Dejy are superior to all others, and that means the group is at risk of being attacked, especially considering they just killed one of the tribe.

Recognizing that eliminating this threat now may be better than having it attempt to follow, they quickly begin shooting into the nomad camp. They quickly kill the two dozen remaning members.


Here's character sheets after xp and treasure:

Darwin (Brisby, rat familiar)
Raizix
Jelena (Amaterasu, wolf companion)
Ember (Fang, dog companion)

I had a few problems with this part of the adventure. First, all the encounters were too easy. I'm not certain if this is because the PCs are too high of level or if the threats were just easily overcome. Plants for example, don't pose much threat if they can't move and if the PCs heed the warning of the guides. Also, 24 CR 1/2 warriors that don't wear armor is a little too weak. I assumed they were somewhat proficient with their quarterstaffs (value: 0), and wielded them as a double weapon as implied by their stat block. Due to the lack of equipment or good stats, I made them CR 1/4, because even a kobold is more of a threat than the tribesmen were. The only possible threat was the ant lion. Ember could have been more seriously injured if the initiative order had been different.

We also got a new table at IKEA earlier in the day which was a vast improvement over our previous arrangement.



Comments welcome!

Dire Wolf Cupcakes and more.

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Originally uploaded by MelkiorWhiteblade

We had people over for gaming on Sunday, and Beth made Dire Wolf cupcakes. They were excellent.

We played through another small part of the Forging Darkness module, which is the second part of the Kingdoms of Kalamar Coin Trilogy.

The adventurers had just returned from the jungle with Halaan, the alchemist who is to have knowledge on how to stop a coin of power. Daresh, an evil wizard, had another alchemist create her a coin of power. The adventurers had interrupted the process, but to ill effect. The coin is now grafted to Daresh, making it fused to her life essence. Normally, a coin of power destroys the weilder by drawing on their essence, but this link may circumvent that.

Trying to fight fire with fire, Raizix, Darwin, Ember and Jelena traveled to Zoa to seek the aid of Halaan the alchemist. They eventually tracked him down to the jungles south of Zoa, and rescued him. They have since returned to Zoa and are aiding him in creating a second coin of power.

Back in September 2008, when we started the adventure, everyone had reached level five. We got everyone's spells sorted out, their animal companions and familiars (I always forget level 5 familiars can speak!), and new equipment (character sheets available to view here. Then, the adventurers went to the manor house of the Hireeds. Rumors surrounding their strange activities and fall of the family were common. They were searching for the first of three ingredients for the coin: a diamond touched by death.

They found the estate shortly after entering the woods, and had little trouble finding a trap door leading downwards, presumably into a cellar or crypt. The only problems they encountered were an iron door with an old chain and a few dire rats. The iron door succumbs easily to a few blows from a sledge by Raizix and Jelena. The rats posed little problem and were quickly dispatched.

Once in the tomb, the group quickly found a suspicious trail leading from an open coffin to a sarcophagus. They open it to find a tentacled monster, which they killed surprising quickly. Having read through the adventure a few times, I thought a CR 8 monster that deals stat damage would be bad news. Jelena got a crit with her longbow (3d8+15), and it was pretty much over.

The monster had a diamond in its clutches, which they promptly took back to Halaan.

So thats what happened back in September. New jobs and schedules meant we didn't play again until January 18, 2009.

Halaan thanked them for their work so far, and was interested in hearing about the horror within the tomb. Taking the diamond, he gave them an iron baton in exchange. He explained it was to capture the lightning breath of a blue dragon. The blood of a devil spilled by a coward is the last rare ingredient. He says he doesn't know where a devil or dragon may be found, but the wizard Geolain might. The group has worked with Geolain in the past, so they went to on their way.

As the group leaves Halaan's Forge, they see some thugs across the street in front of a house, and apparantly the family in the house is leaving, loading their possession on a cart. This lead to some 'daring do' by Raizix, who thought the family might need some rescuing from some ner-do-wells. Eventually, Darwin gets on Raizix's case: "You want to rescue a family from selling their house? What? Really? Really?!" Jelena tries to help the situation, but gets her foot in her mouth, "Who are they, anyways?" indicating the rough looking men. Raizix isn't satisfied with leaving without doing anything, and tells the women his name and how to contact him, attempting to be discreet. This part of the module wasn't scripted, which made it kind of fun as a GM to fill in the holes, but someone difficult too.

The adventurers get to Geolains tower after that, and are told about the Sentinels of the True Way by Foa, Geolain's assistant, and how they have been harassing him and Geolain. This is probably in connection with the books that the adventureres resuced for Geolain from the Sentinels earlier, according to Foa.

Geolain tells them that a Blue Dragon is supposed to have lived, and probably still does live, in the Khydoban desert, which is across Reanaaria Bay and the Sea of the Dead. Raizix is concerned about what dangers they may be in the Sea of the Dead. "Oh, nothing much. There's rumors that the dead live there, but I'd be more concered about pirates. Considering it's not shipping season, there isn't much to worry about."


They follow Geolains directions, and take their ship, the Hyperion, with Captain Wein and a new crew out of Zoa accross the sea. It's uneventful, and the group plans on how to cross the desert, discussing what supplies they will need.

They sail into Dynaj and travel by camel to the village of Ejja-Vonan. They didn't plan on staying at Ejja-Vonan at all, thinking that they had an accurate map and good trackers in their group and wouldn't need much help. However, as they were passing through, an attack by two gaint octopi on the fishing boats out in the water got their attention. They rushed to everyone's aid, and through the use of bow and spell killed one and drove off another.

The village elder, or Senojy, thanked them, and told them what he knew of the dragon to the east. He also sent four guides with the group to assist them.

That's as far as we got on Sunday. The other group will be playing Palladium this Friday, and this group will be playing again on Sunday the 25th.

Dragons of Autumn Twilight Book and DVD Review

On Monday, I finished reading the first part of the Dragonlance Chronicles, which is the Dragons of Autumn Twilight. The following night, I watched the animated DVD of the same name which I had gotten for Christmas. I thought I would review them here since they are somewhat roleplaying related.

Warning: I tried to avoid spoilers as much as possible. There really aren't any in terms of the book, but the movie review may discourage some people.

Dragons of Autumn Twilight, by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, first published in 1984, was an excellent book. I actually read the annotated version that combines this book with the next two in the series, Dragons of Winter Night, and Dragons of Spring Dawning.

I felt that the book was quite excellent, and not what I had expected. Having read quite a bit of other fantasy books both recently and in the past (in no particular order, J.R.R. Toklien, R.A. Salvatore, Elizabeth Haydon, Terry Goodkind, Robert Jordan, Joel Rosenberg, Brandon Sanderson, David Farland, and Goerge R.R. Martin), I enjoyed some of the choices that were made with this book.

While Salvatore describes combat in detail, especially with regards to balance and position, this book used more description of external events. Actual combat is described more in terms of feelings than actions.

The protagonists didn't trust each other much in this book, which I found to be a strong element. Not everyone gets along, and that creates conflict and moves the story along.

D&D staples such as the elves and dwarves are here, and we are also introduce to kender in the form of Tasselhoff, which takes the tried and true halfling/hobbit concept and makes them a little more unique.

The annotations were at times sparse, but did give some insight into the design process, especially with how the book tied in with the TSR D&D modules. Tracy Hickman especially commented on how game elements were followed strictly in the first book, and relaxed as they continued on in the series.

I'd recommend the book to any fan of the genre.

The movie, while good in parts, failed in some major areas. Some of my favorite scenes in the book were not present in the movie at all. Unfortunately, characters and lines from the removed scenes were added back to the script, at times forcing the dialog or events. Some of the events were changed, probably to preserve pacing in the movie, but it ended up stripping away motivations from characters. It made the whole movie seem rushed.

Some of the animation was quite good. However, I didn't care for the combination of 2d and 3d animation. Whiled it made the bad guys look otherworldly, it didn't mesh well. Unfortunately, most of the animation was quite poor. I found myself comparing this movie to the anime Record of the Lodoss War, which I find would earn the subtitle 'A Dungeons and Dragons Adventure Tale' better than Dragons of Autumn Twilight. Especially considering that both 'dungeons' in the book were removed from the movie!

The book ended on a good note, and could be read separately from the others. The movie, however, foreshadowed some events and not enough of others. It seems optimistic on the part of the producers that finishing the trilogy is guaranteed.

I wouldn't say the movie is worthless. The voice acting is good, and they follow the story in the book for the most part. However, I'll say that the book is far better than the movie, but I say that about all movie adaptations of books, but in this case it is very apt.

Feel free to leave you own comments!

Rifts Redux - Part II

...

So in Part I the helicopter the protagonists were in was forced to land due to D-Bee's attacking.

The helicopter has landed in an expansive, flat plain with grass reaching up to five feet high. It's been a dry winter up till now, and nothing has come by to tram down the grass. A small area surround the helicopter has been flattened by the force of the blades and civilians wanting to put distance between themselves and the carnage inside.

Veras, Carter, and Maxwell take in their surroundings. Carter, in his SAMAS suit flies up 50 feet to get a better vantage point of the land. He begins using his infrared and night vision bionic eye to check for any life forms or movement in the immediate area. Maxwell has his coalition armor on, and has his rifle shouldered, but remains alert.

Carter sees something in the distance, but can't make it out right away. He switches from infrared to night vision, and then seems something poking up out of the grass, about a quarter of a mile away. He zooms in, and sees a grotesque sight. Paralyzed with horror, he continues to hover, transfixed. What he sees is a group of about 10 humanoid sized creatures, with stubby hand appendages, loping along slowly but determinedly for the helicopter.

The creatures have the appearance of an armadillo walking upright, moving much faster than their size and girth would suggest. Carter takes aim with his pulse rifle and fires a few shots, while communiting with the crew on the helicopter by radio to get prepared to leave. After running out of energy in the pulse rifle, he switches to the rail gun which is permanently attached to the SAMAS.

"What is it? How many of them?" asks Maxwell on the radio.

"Hell if I know! Some armadillo skunk ape for all I know! I got one, but there's at least ten more."

"Can you see them on infrared?"

Carter switches to infrared. Click. "No." He switches back to nightvision. Click. Maxwell raises his rifle and prepares to take shots as soon as they clear the grass line. Veras, trying to get to higher ground, runs over to the helicopter and begins climbing a ladder to the top.

Carter shouts over his loudspeaker built into the SAMAS, "Get to the chopper!" He then gets on the radio. "There's too many. I don't think they can fly. Get up to 30 feet or so, and then gun 'em. Maxwell and Veras get on board, and shortly afterwards, Carter lands and runs in as well.

Just after the helicopter takes off a few feet, everyone looking north can see the creatures in the plain below. The creatures stop, apparently stymied, as several members of the crew and passengers as well slump down, looking pale and weakened. Veras looks weak as well, and has to grab onto the doorway handles to keep her balance.

====

We stopped there for the night. I asked what people thought about it so far. They said it was going well, and were getting acquainted or reaquainted with the combat and skill system of RIFTS. We'll probably play again after the new year, unless we play New Year's Eve.

On Christmas Day, we often play board games, so I expect to play Apples to Apples, Ticket to Ride, Cribbage, and Dominoes.

Rifts Redux - Part I

Okay, we finally got around to playing! Real life seemed to get in the way, but after planning to run a game for three months, we finally got around to it.

My wife who normally games with us has had some difficulties, since our toddler seems to stay up later and she doesn't have much time. So, she isn't playing in this game which has me a little saddened, but life goes on.

So, I had a few ideas when we got started, and I had a wrong assumption, which made me have to reevaluate things. But first, and overview of the characters:

Maxwell is a CS Scout, which is essentially a Coalition version of the wilderness scout. Considering that this is the first time we've actually planned a campaign instead of a one shot, it's not fair to say he always plays Coalition, but I'll say it anyways. In a way, the game and setting kind of assumes Coalition involvement. So, it's okay.

Carter is a headhunter, which is essentially a mercenary. One of the things we found interesting after we started was that he starts with several e-clips, which is a great advantage in-game. He has some additional equipment which I’ll get into later.

Veras, aka Striker, is a city rat. This is where we get in an assumption on my part. I could have sworn she was a hacker, because she was talking about hackers starting with a laptop and desktop computer. However, she was only talking about what hackers start with, not that she was a hacker. Anyways, she’s more a thief/thug type.
So, we started with the three protagonists on their way to Saint Didacus. I decided in my world that North Americans had a great animosity towards Mexico and foreign countries. The only languages they tend to use are English and Latin. Therefore, more cities and landmarks have been translated into English or Latin. Therefore, San Diego, translates into the original Latin as Saint Didacus from Chi-town.

Maxwell is on a mission to locate General Anthony Gerald who is performing covert operations and has been out of radio communication for almost a week. It’s suspected that he has been attacked. Maxwell is supposed to provide support for General Gerald is required. Maxwell is to do this mission covertly and is to use an alias and was given about half a years wages in black market credits to establish a false persona.

Carter has heard that there are lucrative mercenary opportunities in the area. His mercenary company has loaned him a SAMAS suit and told him to go look for them. They have gotten him passage on a civilian transport to the area as an additional guard. Reduced travel fee and if they see combat he’ll get free travel and a hazard bonus.

Veras was recruited by an unknown agent for an infiltration and sabotage mission in the Saint Didacus area, and she has booked transport as well.

On the transport, which is a modified Westland Merlin HM 1 MK IV helicopter, are a variety of people including the PCs. Most are successful businessmen, who probably work either directly or indirectly with the Black Market. It’s been changed into a civilian transport with ample room. Only a few people are obviously armed.

One oddity is that there are several cats, perhaps a dozen on board, which seem to all belong to a tall, slender women sitting cross-legged in the corner of the main cabin.

Veras, the only one not being on active, or inactive, guard duty decided to watch the cats. As she was watching, one of the cats moved into a darker corner, and seemed to disappear. Looking closely, however, she could see a rough outline of where it was. As she watched, it changed shape from a small house cat to a larger cat, about the size of an ocelot. Then it prowled forward to a sleeping man, and leapt at his neck.

Before anyone could react, it had bitten into his neck and clawed at his chest. Just after that, one of the other cats suddenly changed into a 5’ tall, winged creature with a large prehensile tail and hideous face ran at another man and used it’s claws in a backhand manner to slice his chest open.

Maxwell and Carter opened fire on the larger creature, while trying to keep their eyes on the other creature. It seemed to relish the screams and terror of the man it had attacked, and was beginning to bite his face.

A few well placed shots by Carter with his pulse rifle took down the gargoyle type creature, and then the ocelot creature changed into a similar gargoyle type form. It began attacking Maxwell, who parried the blows with his gun. Veras made a few shots, but the pulse rifle seemed to have the best effect.

During the fight, the pilot began emergency landing procedures, as the firefight inside the helicopter could have caused a severe problem while in flight. Before landing however, the other creature had been killed.

Carter then points his gun at the cat lady and says, “How many more of them are there?”
She is obviously terrified, and is holding one of the cats to her chest and sobbing. “I don’t know what your talking about! How would I know!”

Veras began examining one, and declared it to be an Infiltrator, a creature common to the chi-town burbs. They take on the form of a common household animal, and then attack, trying to cause as much terror as possible, and that is what they feed on. Usually, it’s a suicide attempt because they can’t keep their urges under control long enough to attack and get away unscathed. However, they still cause several problems as they are quite prolific. “How many cats did you bring with you?”

“Eight…Fluffy? Mr. Wiskers?” As she begins calling out names, meows are heard from across the cabin, and cats begin to approach her and surround her.
By this time, the helicopter has landed, and the crew is checking for damage on both the interior and exterior.

Part II to follow!

Rifts

Okay, so we didn't actually game Rifts on Halloween like I thought we might. Here is what we did do:

• Got the two tables set up. We have two tables. One is a very small breakfast nook type table with two leaves on the ends which can fold up and down. The other is a long and narrow folding table from Target. If you put them togeather, we have just about enough room for 5 people, and the gaming mat, books, or game board, depending on the game.
• Decided that KFC would be better than pizza tonight. I went and got it, and it turned out to be slightly more expensive, and they forgot chicken strips as my wife really loathes chicken with bones.
• Finished or mostly finished creating characters. As the GM, I was trying to help people make characters and fill out their character sheets. This was compounded by the fact that the rules do indeed contradict each other, even on the same page, same column, even same paragraph.

I'll try to look at the characters and see if there is anything really out of whack. I also created an excel spreadsheet that uses random formulas and lookup tables to create a random non-intelligent supernatural monster based on the tables in the back of the main rulebook.

I think we'll be playing again on the 21st. My wife and I decided that gaming every other week wasn't working out well, as we didn't have much time togeather. We'll see if we actually start Rifts or back to Palladium Fantasy then.

A lake and an axe

So, about a week ago I sat down with my gaming group and we played some Palladium Fantasy. My blog is named after my character in that campaign. Due to some unfortunate accidents and political maneuvering by his NPC rival and main antagonist of the story, he is infamous for the deaths of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of peasants and common folk.

Anyways, he's tried to put that behind him as there are more pressing concerns. Having found a strange magical door in an underground cavern, he's more concerned about confronting demon hordes or angelic beings.

So, with a wizard and thief by his side, Melkior the Palladin opens the door to the unknown. He sees the doorframe, and through the doorframe is blue sky. The wizard tries to walk through the doorway, but meets resistance. After looking around and seeing the edges of the doorframe surrounded completely by soil, Melkior lays on the ground and pulls himself through the doorway, suddenly confronting gravity perpendicually.

He pulls himself out and finds himself on a hill. He pulls the wizard and thief through after him, and they survey the surroundings. The wizard tries to idenfity the plants in the area to determine if the group is still on the same continent, or even on Palladia. Unable to confirm a specific area but recognizing the plants, it's assumed that the group isn't on another plane of existance.

There is a forest nearby, with a small sign in the ground near an narrow pathway leading into it. Melkior reads the sign, and it says "Pool this way." Not knowing if the doorway represents the only way back the way they came, they decide to test the doorway. The thief goes back through, and the door is closed. Melkior, in the new land, opens the door again easily and Jade the thief is still there. So, they close the door and memorize the surroundings to return if they need to.

They then follow the forest path for a short distance. Chamele tries to find some tracks, and goes up the path a ways. When she returns, she says that she can't identify the tracks, but senses that something is watching in the forest. The group continues on and don't encounter anything for a short while.

Finding some ripe raspberries growing out of season, they decide to survey their surroundings. Continuing on, they reach the edge of the forest, and find a large depression. Inside is a large body of water, several hundred yards in diamater. Surrounding the water closer to the forest are large slabs of stone arranged in concentric rings, with pathways leading directly toward the water. People are seated, but seem to unmoving. They are all facing the water.

Some of the people are wrapped in what appears to be strips of cloth, or burial shrouds. However, they are definately seated, and not laying down or propped up. Having fought hordes of undead, Melkior is at first worried and concered, but then gathers his courage and walks towards the body of water. When he is close to the water, he realizes that one person is actively following him by turning his head. Approaching him, while no walking in front of anybody, he introduces himself. "I am Melkior, of the Whiteblade Clan, and Paladin of Isis," while extending his guantlet clad hand.

"Hello Melkior. I am Atlas, a...warlock. At least, I think I still am a warlock."

After some discussion, Melkior finds out that Atlas thought he had died a year prior, and 'woke up' watching the pool. He finds watching the water to be pleasant, though he can't recall exactly why. He assumes this is the afterlife. The only thing he recalls between his death and the pool is a group of people carrying a large covered object toward a nearby cemetary.

Melkior, Jade, and Atlas decide to go look at the cemetary, while the wizard remains behind and inspects the water. The graveyard is small, but headstones of various quality and age. One of the more ancient looking and more ornate headstones has dwarven writing upon it, and scratched in elven on the top is "Belkram's Fall". Melkior recalls that Belkram was a dwarf from the times if the elf-dwarf who had reknowned skill with axes. Behind the headstone, they find the earth looks recently distrirbed, as if something had been recently intered there.

Melkior uses a dagger like a spade, and unearths a 3 foot long but shallow item. Too small to be a body, he leans in and grabs it out. He unwraps it, and inside is an ornate axe, with numerous runes upon it. It seems that the group has discovered an ancient rune weapon, possibly belonging to Belkram himself. Who put it here and for what purpose are yet to be discovered.