Scarred Lands - Gnomes Are Brain Food

Game Date: 9/25/2010 

DM: Rusty 

The Party: 

Aria Thatcher (Matt) - Half-Elf Bard 

Blast Flashing, Jr. (Nick) - Gnome Warlock 

Shade (Jesse) - Drow Rogue 

Thorfin (Ted) - Goliath Fighter 

Recap: 

Last week ended with a bit of a cliffhanger. We had fought our way up to the third floor of a four-story church. After clearing the level, we found and solved a puzzle box. Soon a figure began to coalesce, and... 

The Session: 

...we found ourselves in a battle with a gasty Nast (make that a nasty Ghast) and a ghostly Shadow. Additionally, some disembodied heads we saw earlier grew bodies and became undead minions. This was a difficult battle. Cecil and Paige (whose players were not present) stopped moving, as if they were frozen in time. This left the four of us to battle the monsters. The worst of the bunch was the Shadow. It spent a lot of time floating over a pit in the middle of the floor, which made it difficult for us to use anything but ranged attacks. 

At one point, Thorfin tried jumping at the Shadow and grabbing it in mid-air, but he fell down to the second floor below. To be fair, Ted knew it wasn't the best idea, but he likes to try interesting things. Eventually the Shadow escaped up the stairs to the fourth floor, while our party retreated back to the second floor for an extended rest. We slept in the room where we'd fought a bunch of spiders in our previous session. We went ahead and left Cecil and Paige in the spider room, then proceeded to the fourth floor. 

On the fourth floor, we found a Wraith, the Shadow we'd fought earlier, six Skin Kites, and a Giant Brain. The Brain was hooked up to a lot of tubes and wires, giving us the impression that it was controlling things. This was an incredibly hard fight, and for some of us, it was our final battle. The Wraith had a natural aura that harmed anyone who stood adjacent to us. The Skin Kits could adhere themselves to our faces, simultaneously restraining us and blinding us. 

While Thorfin was up and down several times throughout the encounter, Blast was the first one to actually fail his third death save. Shade and Thorfin barely survived the encounter, but Aria wasn't so lucky. She put up a good fight, rolling some of her highest numbers in the session, but it was just one too many rounds. She failed her final save right after the last hostile was defeated, but before the encounter was officially over. Shade and Thorfin then teamed up on the Brain itself, smashing it to pulp.

As they beat up on it, the building shimmered, and they saw quick flashbacks of the creatures they'd defeated. When it was finally pulverized, the building started to collapse. Shade and Thorfin grabbed their teammates' corpses and started looking for a way out. 

From a hole in the third floor's ceiling they could see a bell on the fourth floor. But oddly enough, no such hole or bell existed on the fourth floor. It was an interesting mystery, but they didn't have time to solve it. They remembered seeing a grate on the bottom floor, and rushed to open it. But they couldn't get it open. Then they remembered that there was one room they never explored. Inside they found a chest full of gold (550 gp), and another grate. They opened this grate, and climbed down into a tunnel. 

After a bit of running, they found themselves in a room full of zombies. This is where we ended the session, and it might even be where we end the campaign. 

Next week we're going to give Nick a turn at DMing, in a Forgotten Realms campaign. We've got a couple of other possible campaign ideas in the works as well, so it might be a while before we get back to the Scarred Lands, if ever. 

Reminders: 

Next week we need to bring some Level 3 characters. So far we've picked our roles, but are still deciding on the actual classes/races. What we've decided so far: 

Rusty - Defender (probably Paladin) 

Ted - Controller (probably Wizard) 

Matt - Striker (probably Elf Avenger) 

Jesse - Leader (knowing Jesse, probably some sort of unholy monstrosity who can kill you by looking at you) 

On A More Personal Note: 

This is the first time I've had a character die in a pencil-and-paper campaign. I've been wondering for a while how I would handle it. As it turns out I'm not too upset - it's just ink and paper after all - but I do feel a little bit hollow. I mean, I had plans for this girl! I spent a long time working on her backstory, and fleshing out her personality. Just a few hours before the session I was perusing paragon paths on the Compedium. Heck, I even went as far as to memorize a bunch of dirty limericks just in case her comedy skills ever came up in session. 

I don't think the fact Aria died bothers me nearly as much as the senselessness of the death itself. It wasn't a very heroic end, and the girl who dreamed of fame very likely won't even get a public funeral, and instead might be left behind as zombie chow beneath a collapsed building. Her parents will never know what happened to her. But that's D&D for you. If things were always supposed to turn out the way we planned, we wouldn't even use dice.

Scarred Lands - Bats in the Belfry

Game Date: 9/4/2010
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Aria Thatcher (Matt) - Half-Elf Bard
Blast Flashing, Jr. (Nick) - Gnome Warlock
Cecil (Dane) - Githzerai Swordmage
Paige (Leigha) - Half-Elf Sorcerer
Shade (Jesse) - Drow Rogue
Thorfin (Ted) - Goliath Fighter

Recap:
Last session ended with the party fleeing hordes of zombies, finally taking refuge in a church. As soon as we entered, the door vanished behind us, becoming a blank wall. We turned around and...

The Session:
We found ourselves in a rather hospitable-looking room. There was a long table filled with food. There were various pieces of furniture to examine, and two very detailed statues. The room had five exits: four doors and a flight of stairs.

Not seeing any immediate threat, we ate some of the food and explored some of the side rooms. We found an unmarked potion, and Blast dared Thorfin to drink it. It turned out to be some sort of ice potion, but Thorfin managed to overcome its effects. While exploring a small library, Blast found a ritual scroll of Transmute Stone To Flesh.

Soon, a large Basilisk came lumbering down the stairs. It wasn't a very long battle, and none of us ended up getting turned to stone (Aria came the closest). Our characters realized that the well-sculpted statues were actually people who had been stoned by the Basilisk's gaze. We used the ritual scroll, returning Paige and Cecil to normal.

Aria and Blast recognized Paige from our very first adventure. However, we seemed to be under the impression that she was dead. Also, she had no memory of attending the festival which kicked off our quest.

Further explorations yielded some notes written in a strange language, which none of us recognized. Aria used her Comprehend Languages ritual to read the documents, which turned out to be research notes. Apparently the entire island was actually part of some psychological experiment.

When we were bored with the first floor, we went up the stairs. The second floor had more shelves and crates to examine, and four doors to check out. Shade opened the first door, and we were attacked by two Poltergeists and two Animated Corpses. We weren't worried at first, until Cecil fumbled an attack, causing Dane to have to draw from our Critical Fumble Deck. It cause his power to backfire, summoning two additional Poltergeists. And to make things worse, our party kept rolling badly, while the DM rolled a few crits.

It was a very difficult battle. Jesse - who has a reputation in our group for being the untouchable badass - kept predicting a TPK. And it was close. We fought hard, we bled a lot, some death saves were rolled... but in the end we survived.

After the battle we checked out the room the monsters had come from, then we went downstairs and took an extended rest. Now refreshed, we returned to the second floor and tried more doors. We found one room full of Giant Spiders and Skeletons, but it wasn't a difficult battle. Once we'd cleared the floor, we found the next set of stairs to level 3.

On the third floor we found more furniture to search. Upon opening one cabinet, we were attacked by some bats and swarms of rats. We killed them off and continued our search. We found a few odd items, the strangest being a collection of heads. Thorfin found a puzzle box, but couldn't figure out how to open it.

He handed it off to Cecil, who tried to solve it using his superior intellect. But nope. Finally Shade managed to figure it out using her thievery skills. As the box opened, bright light began escaping from it. It became very hot and Shade dropped it to the floor. A ghostly figure began to take form, and... we ended the session.

Reminders:
We believe there's only one more floor to explore, which will be the bell room itself. Our next session is in three weeks, on September 25th.

Character - Aria Thatcher

This was my character in the Scarred Lands campaign.


Name:
Aria Thatcher

Class:
Bard

Race:
Half-Elf

Gender:
Female

Alignment:
Good




Background:
Aria is a Half-Elf, but she was raised by two human farmers. She was the product of an affair between her human mother and an Elf. Aria has never met her real father, and knows nothing about him. Aria's stepfather forgave his wife's infidelity, but he never really grew close to his stepdaughter.

One day when Aria was six, a traveling minstrel passed through the area, and spent a few hours entertaining local farmers. He sang a lot of songs and performed some magic tricks. This was the first time Aria realized that the world was bigger than just the farm, and she knew right away that she wanted to know more about everything.

Growing up, Aria spent her days doing farm chores, and her nights studying any subject she could learn. She would pick up any books she could get her hands on, even if it was just a handful of torn pages from a discarded tome. Therefore she ended up learning a small amount on a wide variety of subjects. She found farm life to be a bore, and these books opened the world to her, showing her that the world was full of interesting things.

Her biggest love was music. Mostly she sang, but she would learn to play any musical instrument she could find or make. She also had a bit of natural talent for Arcane magic, but couldn't get her hands on enough magic books to fully study the subject. But she did discover early on that she could mix Arcane magic with her singing to produce some interesting effects.

The other farmers in the community adored her, and she would always entertain them at gatherings. She enjoyed the attention, but it also made her long for bigger audiences and larger towns. At 16 she left home. She knew that if she stayed, she would grow up to be just another farmer. There weren't any opportunities in the area for entertainers, so she decided to travel until she could find someplace where she could make a living as a singer. And maybe even become a world-famous performer someday.

As of the first session of the Campaign, Aria is 18 years old, and has spent the last two years wandering from town to town, seeing the world.

Personality, Mannerisms, and Appearance:
Aria wears bright-colored clothing, and wears her red hair in outrageous styles. She is very outgoing, and loves meeting new people.

Aria is flighty, and has trouble thinking far enough ahead to have long-term life goals. She would like to be a famous singer, recognized and loved everywhere she goes. While she does have a great singing voice, she spreads herself a little thin when it comes to her other hobbies: Learning new musical instruments, comedy, dancing (badly), the healing arts, exploration, arcane research, and collecting things. She collects musical instruments, rare books, rituals, wands, sheet music, pretty objects, and random things she finds that she thinks she might need later (before forgetting about them). She also tries to keep a stock of clothing dye, so she can decorate any new clothing in bright colors.

She is a bit clumsy. Sometimes she dances as part of her routine, but she is not a good dancer. Often her audience thinks her silly movements and accidental pratfalls are intentional comedy. She doesn't always realize whether she's being laughed at or laughed with, but as long as they clap, Aria is happy. People don't take her seriously, which is usually okay with her, because she's rarely serious. However, when she really is serious, and people still dismiss her, she finds it frustrating.

Aria is book smart, but lacks common sense. She's can memorize a book overnight, but still makes bad decisions. She puts her emotions above her better judgment, especially when it involves helping people. She is easily swayed by con artists with sad stories. She is impulsive, and makes snap decisions without thinking it through. She might be a handful at times, but people generally like her anyway.

As a general rule, Aria thinks the best of people until proven otherwise (and sometimes even afterward). She trusts every member of the party, and would probably continue to do so even if she were to find one stealing her coin purse.

Aria thinks of Blast as the little brother she never had. She thinks of Gorn as the big brother who protects you from bullies. For a while she had a small crush on Alek Corman, but he died before it could grow into anything more. She doesn't know what to think yet of her newest companions, Shade and Thorfin, but as usual, she trusts them more than she really should this early into the relationship.

On first impression, most people who meet Aria think she's angelic and pure of heart. And to some extent, they're right. Other people's double entendres often go right over her head, due to her naiveté. Under normal circumstances, the harshest curse she uses is, "Oh, gooseberries!" But there are two exceptions to this virginesque demeanor. When she is very angry, she has been known to let out a string of magically-enhanced curses and insults that are so strong they actually cause pain. Also, when she performs her comedy routines (if it is appropriate for the venue), she has been known to delve into the raunchy side of humor. She is especially proud of her collection of dirty limericks, which she has collected from many sources during her travels.

She also writes limericks of her own, but hers are a bit more family-friendly... and not very good. Here are some of her more memorable verses.  (Let's see how many recognize the reference to the movie "The Court Jester".)

There once was a red-haired Half-Elf;
Who put her life's dreams on a shelf
With no one to test her
skills as a jester
She just made a fool of herself.

There once was a man from Calasta
Who learned how to win at Canasta
His wife was his teacher
And when he finally beat her
He said, "The student has become the Masta!"

There once was a drunkard from Mansk
Who got caught in the park without pantsk
As he got arrested,
He loudly protested,
"I was just going to water the plantsk!"

There once was a Half-Orc named Gorn
Who met with the Minotaur Dorrn.
There was confusion with names
Until Gorn, now insane,
Had steak dinner... but spit out the horns.

A right motley group from Calasta
A Half-Orc, a Gnome, and two casters
With an item of renown
Took a cart and fled town
While the Half-Orc kept yelling "Drive faster!"

Scarred Lands - Island of the Dead

Game Date: 8/21/2010
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Aria Thatcher (Matt) - Half-Elf Bard
Blast Flashing, Jr. (Nick) - Gnome Warlock
Shade (Jesse) - Drow Rogue
Thorfin (Ted) - Goliath Fighter

Notes:
This session introduced two new characters. Ted is playing Thorfin, the Goliath Fighter, while Jesse has started a Drow Rogue known as Shade.

Recap:
Last session we saw the death of Alek Corman. The party was very broken up about it.

According to Ted, Alek's last words were, "I must be going. No guest shall stay in one place for ever. Love will be lost if you sit too long at a friend's fire. Farwell my friends." (Which he ripped from a Norse poem called Hávamál.) Just for the heck of it, Jesse has decided to roll up a new character as well.

The Session:
When we first met Alek Corman, he had been on a pilgrimage to Hedrad. His last wish was to be buried there. Since we were on our way there anyway, we were more than happy to oblige.

Our boat trip ended at a small town called Barel, where we bought some mules and continued our journey. After a while, we encountered a Taurosphinx, like the one in Aria's dream (last session). This one seemed friendly, but it could be a bad omen that it ate the entire party in the dream.

The Sphinx claimed to be the Herald of Hedrad. He told us that the answers we seek would not be found in Hadrad, and that we should instead seek the ruins at Skykeep. He mentioned that he'd been trying to find us, but for something had been blocking his ability to locate us.

That something turned out to be the brooch Alek had "stolen" from that merchant in Lave. It was a magical device that prevented the Sphinx's scrying... but most likely enabled scrying for certain parties. So, we attached the brooch to one of the mules, and sent it running away.

Skykeep was not close, but the Sphinx offered to fly us part of the way there. This is where we parted company with Gorn, who elected to continue the journey to Hedrad in order to give Alek an honorable burial. Aria and Blast climbed onto the Sphinx's back, and they were off.

The Sphinx dropped them off at a small fishing village called Mansk. There was some sort ruckus in town, so we decided to investigate. We found that a lynch mob was preparing to hang a couple of prisoners. Thorfin was being executed for being a Titan-spawn. Meanwhile Shade was accused of committing some murders in town, but it was their distrust of Drow rather than actual evidence that convicted her.

Though they were scary-looking and possibly evil, Aria felt bad about these two getting executed simply for their race. So she sweet-talked the leader of the mob, and ended up paying 100 gold to have the two released. The four of us continued on together.

Beyond the town, we found we had a lake to cross. We managed to get free passage on a ship, due to a letter of credit we had from the Vigil of Vesh. Even that turned out to be overpriced, as the trip proved to be a disaster. Partway through the voyage, we encountered a bad storm. The weather turned out to be the product of a Storm Hag, who delighted in throwing lightning bolts at the ship.

The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed. If not for the courage of fearless crew... well, the ship was pretty much lost anyway. Our party managed to escape in a rowboat. Thorfin even made a hero of himself by jumping back onto the sinking ship and helping some of the NPC crew to escape. We rowed on until morning.

Eventually we saw a small island in the distance. The first thing we noticed was a church steeple. Obviously a sign of civilization, but this island wasn't marked on our map. Thorfin rowed the boat ashore (hallelujah). We hid the boat and investigated the island.

The island was home to a small town. The people on the island acted oddly. They didn't seem surprised by our unusual mix of races, and they wouldn't give us any helpful answers, sometimes completely ignoring us. However, one guy - who seemed a bit drunk - called out to us. He said, "You shouldn't be here. I've seen things you can't unsee." He then offered to let us stay at his house for the night.

...And then, he was shot twice in the face by a crossbow. (We still haven't ruled out Shade as the killer.) We decided to stay in his house anyway. We hadn't been there too long when the church bell started ringing. Then the temperature dropped, the sky grew dark, and the whole world seemed to change. In a transformation reminiscent of Silent Hill, everything - walls, floors, etc - started to look old and weathered. We looked around the town, and all the townspeople were lying on the ground. Then they started getting back up, but now they were undead.

The next battle was incredibly long, but to be honest that's probably our own fault. We were mobbed by hordes of infinitely-spawning zombie minions (and a few non-minions), and we should have taken the hint earlier that this battle could not be won through fighting. Instead we just fought and fought, killing zombie after zombie.

We went through all our healing powers, and some of us were picking off zombies from the roof, when it occurred to us to use that vantage point to look around town. We saw that the zombie crowd was all over the city, except around the church. So we fled the encounter and made for the church.

Unfortunately the church door was locked, and was protected by some sort of Rune of Warding. It had a very specific-shaped keyhole, and so Shade started sneaking around town hoping to find the key. Meanwhile, the rest of us tried to find other ways into the church. Thorfin thought about climbing to the bell tower, but the walls shocked him at the touch.

Blast managed to dispel the Warding with an Arcana check. With the ward gone, the door was now pickable, but of course our lockpicker was exploring the town. And worse - it turns out the Rune of Warding was the only thing keeping the zombies away.

The bell tolled again, and all the town's zombies started walking our way. Shade took the hint and sneaked past them, while Thorfin kicked the door open and shoved Blast and Aria through. Once Shade arrived and we were all inside, we slammed the door shut.

The door then vanished, turning into a blank wall. And that's all we know for now; we haven't even looked around our current room yet.

Reminders:
Aria paid for Blast's mule, and the 100 gold to free Thorfin and Shade. She does not actually expect to get paid back, but she wouldn't object to it.

We haven't had a chance to take an extended rest, so we might be going into the next encounter with fewer healing surges and Daily powers.

Rewards:
All characters are now Level 5.

Scarred Lands - Rolling on the River

Game Date: 8/14/2010
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Alek Corman (Ted) - Human Paladin
Aria Thatcher (Matt) - Half-Elf Bard
Blast Flashing, Jr. (Nick) - Gnome Warlock
Gorn (Jesse) - Half-Orc Ranger

Notes:
Ted will be playing a new character next week.

Recap:
Last session we were sent to find a magic bell. We explored some ancient dungeon tunnels, and saw a historic vision involving a Titan.


Um, yes. That's... that's exactly how it went down. The story climaxed with an epic battle against a colossal demon. We were granted the title of "Kelder" (clanless Dwarf), and each of us was given a runic tattoo.

The Session:
As the new heroes of Burok-Torn, we took a much-needed rest. As we prepared to leave town and resume our travel to Vesh, we had a big decision to make. Leave from Burok-Torn, and take a path through the swamps? Or go back through the mirror to the other town, and leave from there? We finally settled on the latter, which was a much easier route. Other than a long rope bridge and a 10 gp toll (plus tip, for the nicer party members), it was an uneventful trip.

We arrived at Vesh, where a Vigil escorted us to the capital city of Lave. Lave turned out to be a cosmopolitan town, bustling with activity. As we prepared to meet the commander, we found that a few other adventuring parties were sitting in the waiting room as well. Gorn tried desperately to flirt with a female Half-Orc in another party, but he kept getting interrupted.

We met with the commander. We read "The Tale of the Serpent Amphora" which tells of the defeat of Mormo by Madriel. This helped us understand the origins of our Amphora, but the commander still wanted to know more. He asked us to travel to Hedrad, which is apparently has second greatest Library in the world. He is paying us 300 gold each (half now, half when we get back).

He also planned to send out those other adventuring parties with fake Amphoras, in order to throw off our enemies. He even gave us the option to give them our Amphora and carry a fake one ourselves, but for some reason we decided to hang onto the real one (it seemed like a good idea at the time).

While in town, we also finally dropped off the dead Ranger we'd been dragging around since our first session. I don't know if they plan to raise him or just give him a proper burial, but at least it's out of our hands.

Hedrad was best reached by river, so we started for the docks. We were passing through the merchant district, when we caught a pickpocket trying to steal Alek's coin pouch. We thoroughly searched him and let him go. As we were heading out the town gates, a merchant started running after us. He was calling for the guards, and accused us of stealing a brooch from his stand.

We told them about the pickpocket, and told them we weren't thieves. Aria managed to roll a whopping 38 on her Diplomacy check (using Words of Friendship and with Blast assisting). They let us go and said they'd do further investigating on their own.

We hired a boat. We spent each day traveling down the river, our speed slightly increased by Aria's "Traveler's Chant" ritual. Each night we camped on the riverbank.

On the first night, Blast was keeping watch when we were attacked by some Acid Shamblers, led by an Ice Ghoul. You know, Aria should write a ballad about this someday...



...or maybe not. The boat captain helped us fight, mostly protecting Aria throughout the battle. His crew high-tailed it back to the ship. Blast kept getting grabbed by the Acid Shamblers, who delighted in chewing on him (Nom nom nom Gnome gnome gnome...). As usual, our heroic Alek kept most of the enemies busy while the rest of us offered support.

Aria rolled a rather entertaining fumble this encounter (using our Fumble Deck). She used Scorching Burst on a group of enemies. Not only did she miss every single one, but one of her attacks was a 1, which summoned a hostile Fire Beetle. Not really helping!

After the battle, we searched some nearby ruins, and found a little treasure.

That night, Gorn had a dream about a maze of doors. Aria had a dream where a bull-headed Sphinx ate all of her friends and chased her.

At our next campsite, we heard some music in the distance. The captain said he knew of no towns in that direction. We decided to check it out. The source of the melody was a beautiful Dryad, who requested that we keep her company. Gorn and Blast were very eager to make her acquaintance. Aria tried to play some music with her, but the Dryad didn't seem as interested in Aria as she was in the men. Alek decided to stay back and watch.

The Dryad entranced Blast and Gorn, and the rest of us were attacked. Alek and Aria were stuck fighting the Dryad, two dogs, two birds, and our teammates. Luckily Blast and Gorn were able to shake off their enchantments in a few rounds, but it still wasn't easy. Early in the battle Aria was dive-bombed by a bird and lost a huge amount of hit points. We eventually defeated the animals, but the Dryad escaped.

After the battle, we found that merchant's brooch was pinned to Alek's cloak. We debated a little, but we've decided to sell it. (Though we probably do have time to change our minds. Personally I think we should wait until our next trip to Lave, and pin it to the outfit of someone we don't like.)

Another day of river travel, another night of camping. This time we were attacked by 3 swarms of Needlefang Drakes and one large Mockdragon. The swarms were able to knock us prone, then did extra damage to prone targets. The Mockdragon was no picnic either.

Alek bravely took enough damage for three Paladins, using every power in his disposal to keep all attacks on him. Aria buffed his defenses, and we all did everything we could to keep him on his feet. But it wasn't enough. With just two bloodied enemies left on the board, Alek failed his final death save and went to the Great Beyond.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

The rest of us managed to finish off the enemies. Ted has asked us not to raise him, as he wants to try a new character. Aria is using the Gentle Repose ritual on the corpse, but only to preserve it for our journey so we can give him a proper burial later. We have decided not to loot his magic items.

GP:
-10 each (toll/guide on way to Vesh)
+150 each (half of reward for trip to Hedrad)
-5 each (boat ride)
+45 each (180 gp found in ruins)
Total +180 each for the session

XP:
+220 (Ice Ghoul encounter)
+175 (Dryad encounter)
+194 (Drake encounter)
Total 589 each for the session.
Aria, Gorn, and Blast are at 5083 (Level 4)

Scarred Lands - For Whom the Bell Tolls

Game Date: 8/7/2010
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Alek Corman (Ted) - Human Paladin
Aria Thatcher (Matt) - Half-Elf Bard
Blast Flashing, Jr. (Bryan) - Gnome Warlock
Gorn (Jesse) - Half-Orc Ranger

Notes:
Nick could not make it, so Bryan played his character. Despite previous posts to the contrary, Alek is a Human, not a Half-Elf (apparently his parentage was questionable until recently). We're not quite sure what happened to the Changeling that joined our party last session, but then, Changelings are unpredictable.

Also, we tried something new this time: a Critical Hit Deck and a Critical Fumble Deck. Although we rolled a lot more fumbles than crits during the session, it still made the game very entertaining. And the monsters used it too, to make things fair. The cards weren't designed for 4e, so we had to reinterpret some of the outcomes.

Recap:
Last session we left off just after a battle with some undead, in the failed Dwarven Kingdom of Bareth-Marn.

The Session:
We fought one more battle in the Bareth-Marn dungeon, during which we discovered the stand for a missing bell. (In the previous session, we heard a ringing bell just before the appearance of some undead.) After the battle, our Dwarven allies arrived and requested we return with them. King Thane the Redundant wanted to talk to us about the bell. (Thane's name has become a running joke with us, since "Thane" means "king".)

The bell is known as Goran's Rebirth, and it has the ability to raise the dead. When the bell tolled in our previous session, they had heard it in the Burok-Torn as well. He wanted us to stay nearby in case it went off again, so we stayed the night.

In the middle of the night, Gorn was awakened by the sound of the bell. He woke us up and we went down to the courtyard, where spirits were rising. The King soon joined us, and sent us on another mission. We were to travel to Gamble's Bridge, the site of a decisive battle, where history claims the Dark Elves betrayed the Dwarves.

They gave us climbing gear and a Dwarven escort, and sent us through an underground pass. In one tunnel we came across some Dwarf warriors fighting a metal skeleton and some carnage demons, and their fight soon became ours. After the battle we continued our explorations.

We eventually came across some massive gates, which had been bashed open by giant fists. We then found the remains of the Gamble's Bridge. The bridge was no longer there, but a ghostly flashback played for us, showing us the true events of that fateful day. In the ethereal rerun, it was the Titan Chern who betrayed both the Elves and the Dwarves.

After the history lesson, a giant demon appeared with the bell, which he rang. Wraiths and ghouls soon swarmed us, causing us a lot of grief. The demon kept pelting us with his own powerful blasts, and he would occasionally ring the bell again to call more minions.

It was a difficult battle, and nearly wiped us out. The bell was across the chasm the bridge once spanned, and jumping across would have been very risky. Blast heroically teleported across the gap and braved several undead to reach the bell. Unfortunately the demon picked him up and threw him back across the chasm, hitting Aria. Ouch.

We finally started firing at the bell from our side, and its peal had immediate positive effects. It wiped out nearby minions, then summoned Goran (the Dwarven god), as well as avatars of our patron gods to our sides. Soon the demon fell, and the remaining undead re-died.

After the battle, we argued a little with Goran, since the Dwarven version of history didn't seem to line up with the vision we'd witnessed. But we decided it wasn't an issue worth pressing, and we returned to Burok-Torm as heroes.

We have been given "Clanless Dwarf Status", which gives us permission to enter the city at will, and the right to use "Kelder" as a last name.

Reminders & Rewards:
We are currently back at the Dwarven kingdom, taking an extended rest. We should have plenty of time to do more buying/selling/trading before we're given the next plot hook.

GP: 452 gp, 8 sp each
XP: 200+385+425= 1010 each
Items:
5 Potions of Healing (1 each, 2 Alek)
4 Fire Beetle Potions (1 each)
3 Belts of Resilience (1 each except Alek)
1 Floating Shield (Alek)
4 weeks worth of Stonemeal Biscuits (1 week each)
1 Lifeshroud
1 Nail of Sealing
1 +1 Skybound Leather Armor
1 Lens of Reading
1 Magic Whetstone

Scarred Lands - Hi, Ho, Hi, Ho, It's Off To War We Go!

Game Date: 7/24/2010
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Alek Corman (Ted) - Half-Elf Paladin
Aria Thatcher (Matt) - Half-Elf Bard
Blast Flashing, Jr. (Nick) - Gnome Warlock
Gorn (Jesse) - Half-Orc Ranger
Pyro (Daniel) - Changeling Sorcerer

Notes:
New to the group is Pyro, and fire-obsessed shapechanger.

Recap:
Last session left off with us just about to clear out the final room of the Ratman dungeon.

The Session:
Once the final ratmen were exterminated, we found the corpses of two children, which we respectfully wrapped up and took with us. We returned to the Burok Torn and told them of our success. The Dwarves set up an appointment for us to meet with King Thane the following day. While taking advantage of their hospitality, we spent some money at their shops. It was there that we met our newest party member, Pyro, who had stowed away in a merchant's box of fireworks. Later, Pyro and Aria met a mysterious Dwarf with a scarred face.

The next day we met the King, and we found out that the scarred Dwarf was actually Goran, the Dwarven God. We also learned some new details about our amphora. It holds the essence of Mormo, a Titan who created many serpentine races.

We offered to introduce the Dwarves to the townsfolk who lived above the ratfolk, but they decided they would handle that themselves. Instead, King Thane asked another favor of us. We were to investigate a failed Dwarven Kingdom called Bareth-Marn. Apparently some Dwarves had gone missing there, and we were to find out why. The kingdom was guarded by many undead Dwarves, so we were escorted by a small Dwarven army.

We fought in a large battle between Dwarves and undead, after which we left the army behind. We crossed a chasm and entered the dungeon. Inside, we fought some spider-like goblins. Then we met three dead Dwarven Guardians, who initially fought us because of a miscommunication. Once we convinced them that we were on the same side, we took them outside to meet the Dwarven army.

Our final battle of the day was against several undead creatures, but we didn't have much trouble wiping them out. We are now resting in a room with multiple exits.

Reminders:
In addition to the other exits in this room, there is a portcullis-blocked passage upstairs we haven't investigated.

Rewards:
GP: 15 each.
XP: 325 (all but Pyro); +180+180+150 = 835 total
Misc: Everlasting Provisions for Aria, Amulet of Health +1 for everyone else.

Scarred Lands - To The Ratcave!

Game Date: 6/26/2010
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Alek Corman (Ted) - Half-Elf Paladin
Aria Thatcher (Matt) - Half-Elf Bard
Blast (Nick) - Gnome Warlock
Gorn (Jesse) - Half-Orc Ranger

Notes:
Dornn has left the group. Gorn - who had changed his name Kobaka to prevent confusion - is now known as Gorn again. So no more Kielbasa jokes. We're handling things okay, but we are looking for a fifth player. If the new player names his character anything that ends with "-orn", we'll lynch him.

Previously, on the Scarred Lands:
Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na Ratman!
A suspicious well? A secret passage? A dungeon full of Ratmen? A temple to the Titans? A Ratman guide? Some unexplored hallways? An annoying recap? Our adventure continues!

Tonight's Episode:
We continued our rat-ridden dungeon crawl. The next room we found was a sleeping room, where we satisfyingly slaughtered several sleeping scumbags.

We took an extended rest back at the previously-explored temple room, and upon waking we found that some traps had been set up in the halls. Next we found a tiny room containing only a snakelike metal guardian. It was here we found our perfect single-file marching order. Alek in front, since he can take the most melee damage. Then Gorn, because he can do melee from one square away. Then Blast and Aria, who are completely ranged. After killing the guardian we discovered a secret door leading to a room with a magic mirror in it.

Upon gazing into the mirror, I saw my long-dead parents, and my reflection was holding the Quiddich cup. No, wait, wrong campaign. Actually, this mirror turned out to be a portal leading to a Dwarven kingdom. We went through and met some dwarves, who were surprised by our sudden appearance.

We had dinner with a Dwarven Runepriest named Duvall. They allowed us to rest and sell our loot, and they asked us to be their liaison to the impoverished town above the rat dungeon. We agreed, but we decided to finish clearing out the dungeon first. Back through the looking glass.

A couple of dwarves came with us, but only to guard the mirror. We fought through one difficult encounter, made either harder or easier by the fact we were stuck single file in a tunnel the entire time. Our perfect marching order wasn't quite as effective, especially since one of the baddies had a ranged At-Will that could stun. But the melee enemies were bad off because only one of them could reach us at a time. Two enemies fled, but we caught up to them later.

Our next encounter was a large cavern with only four ratties (two were from the previous encounter), but we went into it low on health. There was a river cutting through the middle of the room, and in the process of trying to cross it, our paladin fell down into the river. Much like the guy in Unbreakable, our Alek seems to have a supernatural weakness for water. He tried climbing back up, but fell back in, and was swept further down the river. It was there he discovered the secret fifth baddie, a giant glowing Cave Squid.


Aria, who couldn't roll a high number all session, also fell into the river while trying to jump across. It was a DC 10 and she has an Athletics of 5... seriously, who can't do that? Apparently, Aria can't. But at least she managed to crawl back out. The rest of us finished off the ratguys, then went about trying to save the now-dying Paladin. We couldn't quite get a rope out there to reach him, and we were about to write of his character as seafood. Luckily (and by "luckily" I mean the DM felt sorry for us), the squid only took a bite and swam off. We retrieved Alek and took a much-needed rest.

Later we found a room full of drakes, who we killed rather effectively. They were guarding a trapped treasure room, where we finally got our hands on a little bit of phat lewt. There appears to be only one more room in the dungeon. At the end of a trap-filled hallway (now disarmed by Gorn), there is a door. From within, we heard someone whispering about how this is their last stand. We broke session there, standing outside the door, ready to kick it in and waste some ratdudes.

Reminders:
Some of us are still diseased.
We need to tell the townsfolk about the dwarves.
We now have some spending cash, and a place to spend it, which is good because we all need some upgrades.
After we've exterminated the dungeon, we need to search for any missing children. If we can't find any alive, we may just have to dress up the gnome as a child again. I mean, we have to give those townspeople something.

Rewards:
XP: 120+60+345+150+150=825 each.
Gold: 258+50+185=493
Misc: Ironskin Belt (Alek), Amulet of Health (Aria), a rod (Blast), and a few healing potions.

Scarred Lands - Rats!

Game Date: 6/12/2010
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Alek Corman (Ted) - Half-Elf Paladin
Aria Thatcher (Matt) - Half-Elf Bard
Blast (Nick) - Gnome Warlock
Dornn (Adam) - Minotaur Cleric
Kobaka (Jesse) - Half-Orc Ranger

Notes:
Due to the addition of a Paladin and a Cleric, I rebuilt Aria so that she isn't so focused on healing. She is now more of a versatile dabbler type.

In order to prevent confusion with Dornn, Gorn has been renamed Kobaka. I think he was actually called "Kobaka" correctly maybe once during the session. Popular nicknames included Kabbalah, Kielbasa, Kasaba, Baklava, Baraka, Chewbacca, Carrabba, and "The Half-Orc."

Recap:
When we last left our heroes, they were on a ledge in a well, having defeated a group of Ratmen.

The Session:
After a short rest, we rest found a secret passage that led into a series of tunnels. Kobaka disabled a trap or two, and then we found a door. We managed to surprise a room full of Ratmen, and made short work of them.

We continued to explore, passing up one door in favor of a larger set of doors. In the main hall, we fought a huge group of Ratmen. It was a long battle, which left us in a very bad state. We took an extended rest in this room. There were three additional exits from this room, two of which were hidden. We took the non-hidden one, a hallway which led us into a fight with four rat swarms. The hallway was a dead end, with no treasure or other points of interest.

We left that hallway and did some more exploring, and eventually found ourselves in a room with a collapsing ceiling. At first we exited the trap in two different directions. Kobaka and Aria found a passage that looped around to one of the areas we'd already explored. Once we regrouped, we continued deeper into the dungeon until we reached a trident-shaped set of hallways. The left and middle passages led to doors, while the right passage stretched on much farther, with a few visible doors in the distance.

We took the left passage and found a worship room, complete with statues of the Titans. We fought another group of Ratmen, leaving the final minion alive so he could lead us to treasure. We took a short rest in the worship room, and ended the session.


Reminders:
From the trident-shaped hallways, we haven't yet explored the middle or right passages. There was also at least one door we haven't explored in the earlier areas. Some of us are still suffering from diseases contracted from our enemies.

XP Rewards:
500+100+175=775 each. Dornn and Corman reached level 2.

Scarred Lands - Well, Well, Well...

Game Date: 6/5/2010
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Alek Corman (Ted) - Half-Elf Paladin
Aria Thatcher (Matt) - Half-Elf Bard
Blast (Nick) - Gnome Warlock
Dornn (Adam) - Minotaur Battle Cleric
Gorn (Jesse) - Half-Orc Ranger

We lost one party member (Paige), and gained two new ones (Alek and Dornn).

Recap: Last session, we were given the quest to carry the Amphora to Vesh. After traveling for a while, we fought some kobolds at the bottom of a gorge, then sought shelter.

As the party explored the area, Aria failed a spot check and fell into a pit. (Holes: 1, for those keeping score.) In the pit was a large Minotaur, chained to the wall. Aria befriended him and he joined the party.

Soon we found ourselves in a battle involving crazed cultists, some giant ants, and some sort of Fell Taint chaos beast thing. It was in this encounter that we first met Alek, who was tied up in a burlap sack. During the fight he failed many times to extract himself from the bag, and got himself pulled into an ant pit. (Holes: 2)

We spent a couple of days building a cart, a process which involved many skill checks. Once it was up and running, we continued our course to Vesh. We were then attacked by bandits. We left the final one alive. If we ever see him again, Elmore the bandit owes us a favor.

We rode into a tiny settlement, hoping to sell our loot. Unfortunately this town had very little money and no interest in our items. They did, however, need help. Recently there had been a lot of livestock disappearances, and now even children were starting to go missing. One child had been abducted from his own bed, while sleeping between his parents.

We explored the settlement, asked lots of questions, and became suspicious of a well in the center of town. Blast and Alek lowered themselves into the well to look around. They found a ledge, but nothing else of interest. Alek went the extra mile - he tied a rope around his waist and had us lower him deep into the water, in hopes of finding an underwater passage. When we ran out of rope, he cut the line and swam even further downwards. Eventually he saw a magical portal, which was linked to the Elemental Plane of Water. At this point he decided he'd seen all he could safely see, and started swimming back up.

It was a long swim, taking many Endurance and Athletics checks. When he finally surfaced, he had used up all his healing surges and was in dire need of an extended rest. (Holes: 3)

Next we decided to disguise Blast as a child, and see if he could get kidnapped. While Alek and Aria slept, Blast tried playing out in the middle of town for a while, but nothing took the bait. Then Gorn, Dornn, and Blast went to bed, while Aria and Alek took the next watch. Walking around outside, Aria was the first to notice some movement over by the well. She tried to get Alek's attention, but he didn't see her. She tried to sneak over to him, but failed her stealth check and was attacked.

Alek and Aria soon found themselves in battle against some Ratmen from the well. Aria started her turn by making some noise, and in a few rounds the rest of the party was awake and present. These Ratmen had some nasty poison attacks.

The final Ratman tried to escape back into the well, but the party followed him. (Holes: 4) We finally defeated him on the ledge deep within the well, but kept him alive in the hopes that he can lead us to their lair. We then decided to rest there, on the ledge in the well, and ended the session.

XP Rewards: 120+75+121=316 for the session. Aria, Gorn, and Blast reached level 2.

The Scarred Lands - First Session

Game Date: 5/22/2010
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Gorn (Jesse) - Half-Orc Tempest Fighter
Paige (Leigha) - Half-Elf Sorcerer
Blast (Nick) - Gnome Warlock
Aria (Matt) - Half-Elf Bard

This was our first session of a new campaign. It takes place in the "Scarred Lands" setting, but we're using D&D 4e rules. It is a world recovering from a relatively recent war between gods and titans. Our adventure began in the little village of Trela, where they were holding the Carnival of Flowers.

Slightly reminiscent of the opening of Chrono Trigger, we got to visit the festival and participate in the activities. Gorn fought in a mock duel, Paige ran in a foot race, Blast rode as a jockey in a horse race, and Aria performed in a bardic competition.

Late in the day, a plot hook came riding into town, in the form an injured man who handed Aria a mysterious artifact before passing out. He pleaded with her to deliver the Amphora to Vesh. However, other parties preferred that we deliver the item to the local ruler, a course of action we did not feel was in our best interests.

We soon found ourselves under attack by kobolds (or this setting's equivalent), and shortly thereafter we fled town on a stolen wagon. During our travel we defeated another band of the kobold creatures that we met on the road, and eventually came to a large chasm.

Unnatural storm clouds threatened to follow our wagon, so we sought shelter in the chasm. We took the wagon around a dangerous path to the bottom of the chasm, where rested a small kobold village. Luckily only a few inhabitants were present, but unluckily one of them was a troll. A few rounds later found our cart smashed, our horses slaughtered, our party's blood painting the ground, the party healer stuck in a river, and dark clouds converging overhead. We might not have made it if not for divine intervention.

As things looked their bleakest, a pair of spine devils - servants of the god Chardun - came to our aid, and we soon finished off the rest of our enemies. Badly needing rest and suddenly finding ourselves in a deserted village, we located a safe spot and ended the session for the day.

XP Rewards: 245+200+288= 733 xp each