Praktas - The Rat Lord's Lair

Game Date: 6/27/09

Characters:
Drew Baker (Bryan) - Human Fighter (Tempest style)
Damakos Redhorn (Rick) - Tiefling Rogue (Brutal style)

Surprise session:
Matt2 wasn't available to DM this weekend, so I ran them through a Praktas game. Parts of this session were taken from "The Rat Lord's Lair" (a short adventure detailed in "Dungeon Master for Dummies" 3.5 version).

We only have about 10 Tantris sessions left before Matt2 moves away, so I've been fleshing out the setting for the games I DM. Who knows how long it will be before we find another group, so in the meantime I want to make sure I'm prepared to DM as often as needed.

Geography:
So, I've designed a city where most of the action will take place, and some of the nearby areas. Most of it is taken from my NeverWinter Nights module, Itropa. The main city is Trasa (I'm already sometimes saying "Tantris" when I mean "Trasa"). It's a coastal town who gets a lot of its income from sea trade. A river flows through the center of town, emptying into the sea to the south. There are slums on the west side of town, and posh neighborhoods on the east side. Trasa's law enforcement relies partially on their Bounty Hunter Guild, which the PCs will eventually be able to join.

North of town is the Koramil forest, so-called because it lies between the Elven city of Kora (Northwest) and a small Halfling community called Mil (Northeast). Far to the north are the towns of Alta (a rich, snooty town) and Valos (a town ruled by criminals). To the East of Trasa there is a mountain range, in which lies the Orc town of Fist.

House Rules:
Since this will end up being a permanent alternate campaign setting, I've set up a few house rules for the group as well. This is a difficult campaign because we've only got two players, and they only like to play melee characters. It's mostly going to be fighters and thieves, so I've got to plan sessions around the fact that they can't heal or do high-damage spells. So most of the house rules are set to make things a little easier for them, but I might be overdoing it, so I'm sure some tweaking will be needed further down the line. Also, some rules have nothing to do with difficulty, and are just for fun. The rules so far:

1. Buyable Potions: Some magic items will be sold in stores, including healing potions. Of course, the players could take advantage of this by stocking up and using canned magic to get through a dungeon, but I doubt it. With 4e, even if you buy 1000 healing potions, you're still restricted by your max number of healing surges. And they probably won't want to spend too much money when they're trying to save up for more important things, like joining the Bounty Hunter Guild.

2. Magic Items: Official 4e rules have you unable to wear more than one magic item per level. In my game you can wear as many magic items as you want. However, there will still be limits to what items they can find or buy, so I'll still keep them from getting decked out like gods at first level.

3. Pets and Henchmen: The town has pets for sale, and henchmen for hire. I'm going to allow each player one pet at a time. The more powerful the pet, the more it costs. The player will control the pet, giving that player two turns per round. However, when controlling the pet, the player must treat the animal as a dumb animal. No battle strategies, coordinating with the owner, etc. The animal will run towards the nearest or most threatening enemy and attack it. So far they've handled this pretty well, but if they start taking advantage of it, I'll declare the DM as universal animal handler.

The party may have one hired henchman at a time (not including plot-related companions), and they are always DM-controlled. XP will be divided among all party members, including pets, and pets/henchmen do not gain levels. So it is in the party's best interest to keep a smaller group if they want to level faster. Hired henchmen will also demand a share of the loot.

4. Micromanagement: I am not going to worry about things like eating and rent, unless specific situations demand it. It is assumed that between adventures, the characters do other odd jobs that make them enough money to break even on the costs of living. Of course there may be the occasional adventure where they run low on food and have to keep track of it, or hunt and forage to survive. I'm also not going to worry about basic ammunition, since that's so cheap it barely matters. Of course, I will still have them keep track of magic ammunition.

5. Death: If the characters die, depending on circumstances, I will sometimes allow them to choose whether they remain dead, or have me come up with an explanation for their survival (with XP/GP loss). Once they make the decision for the characters to be dead, it’s final. Sometimes their next characters will find the bodies of their old characters, allowing the transfer of loot, but not always.

Whenever the two current characters die, or Bryan and Rick just get tired of them, I'd like to try running an evil campaign with a more balanced pair of characters. They would probably enjoy the upcoming Assassin class, so I hope to keep the current characters alive until Assassin is available in September. Given how rarely we play the Praktas sessions, it shouldn't be a problem.

6. Critical Miss: Just for fun, I have drawn up a Fumble Chart. If they roll a 1 on an attack roll, they will then roll a d100 on the fumble chart. Some outcomes are good, but most are bad, and the higher the better. I'm not going to let my players see the chart, nor will I detail it here. There are no loss-of-limb or instant death outcomes on the chart, though some of the bottom 10 can leave a permanent scar. Overall, it's not nearly as harsh as most fumble charts I've seen.

Even so, during this session, they managed to harm themselves a few times with the chart, so I don't know how well it went over. The funniest bit: Rick rolled a 1 on an attack roll. He rolled very high on the fumble chart, so high that his character recovered from his miss and managed to get in a second attack. On the second attack he rolled a one again, this time rolling low on the chart and hitting himself with the weapon.

7. Divine Intervention: Starting at second level, once per level, and only if you are in good standing with your deity, you may make a prayer which will be answered. It might not be answered the way you were hoping, and it should probably be reserved for life-or-death emergencies. These wishes can not be saved up; it resets at 1 each level. I got this idea from someone on the WOTC forums.

The Session:

When we last left Drew and Damakos, they had looted the bodies of Daalan and Ghargoff, then went for drinks to celebrate. While at the bar they were attacked by assassins, and the tavern burned to the ground.

While the town didn't specifically blame Drew and Damakos for the bar burning down, it was enough to get them labeled as troublemakers. They also recognized Drew's Lifedrinker Longsword as the one that had previously been wielded by the hero Daalan. So the pair was banished from Fallcrest.

They walked down the road for a few hours, just seeing where the trail led. Eventually a merchant wagon pulled up beside them and offered them a ride. The merchant's pet cougar was resting inside. The merchant was travelling to Trasa, and the three took turns driving for the next few days. On the last day of the trip, the wagon was attacked by bandits, and the merchant was killed. The players had to deal with an out-of-control, flaming cart filled with explosive firebombs. Then Drew, Damakos, and the cougar had to fight the bandits themselves (a human ranger with a pet wolf, and a female Dragonborn). The PCs quickly defeated the would-be thieves.

After a charisma check, the cougar decided Drew was her new best friend, and the three continued to Trasa on foot. Upon arrival, they spent overnight in at The Blue Acorn Inn. The next morning they found a job opportunity posted on the Inn's bulletin board. They players gambled a little while waiting for the bartender's attention.

This is the part that was taken from Dungeon Master for Dummies. The bartender, a gruff dwarf named Bjorn Wallbanger, took them through the back room, down some stairs, and to a locked door. Bjorn was very proud of the door, believing it to be impenetrable. This was his vault, where people paid him to keep their valuables. And yet, for the past few nights, some things had been disappearing.

Bjorn proposed that the PCs hide in some crates overnight, to see if they could catch the thief in the act. At about 2 AM, the PCs heard someone wandering around the room. The trespasser could smell them, and tried to trick the PCs into surrendering. The PCs jumped out of their crates and attacked. It was a halfling, who yelled, "You'll never catch Needletooth, Lord of the Rats!" as he dove behind some crates and ordered a couple of large rat minions to attack the PCs.

It was a short battle, but it still gave the Rat Lord time to escape. The PCs found a freshly-burrowed hole in the wall (it looked as if the hole had been opened and resealed several times). The bartender Bjorn then entered the room and offered the PCs more money if they would go through the tunnel. He promised them an even greater reward if they managed to retrieve the stolen items, and he was particularly worried about a certain missing dagger. He handed them a checklist of the stolen items:

1 bag of gems
3 bags of gold
1 pair of sandals
1 pair of boots
1 pair of bracers
1 pair of gloves
2 vials of liquid
1 exquisite dagger

The PCs widened the tunnel entrance and followed it down, until they reached a wide open chamber. It was full of goblin miners, to whom the Rat Lord shouted, "100 gold pieces to the goblin who brings me the heads of those intruders!" before darting out the far exit.

It didn't take long to kill the goblins, and the PCs continued on toward the final chamber. The Rat Lord's chamber was swarming with rats, covering the entire floor (counting as rough terrain). The encounter consisted of Needletooth, who now morphed into his were-rat form, accompanied by a younger were-rat companion and two rat minions. There was also one specific swarm of rats that moved randomly around the room, the only normal rats who could actually cause damage.

The enemies managed to spot them before they entered the room, and they got the highest initiative, so most of this battle was spent in the entrance hallway. This actually worked out well for the PCs, because it meant melee was one-on-one, and the cougar was in front. None of the enemies had ranged attacks (in retrospect I probably should have at least given the Rat Lord a crossbow).

After the Rat Lord was killed, the rest of the room's rats fled the room through various grates. This is the end of the part that was covered in Dungeon Master for Dummies.

The PCs found everything on the list except for the dagger. A few of the items looked very well-crafted, so the PCs decided to get them appraised before returning them. After all, they could always claim they only found some of the items. They also found a small egg-shaped device, and another vial of liquid with it.

Before leaving Needletooth's lair, they found a crumpled-up note:

Needletooth,
Meet me at my grave at Midnight. Bring the dagger.
- Mistress Rubin

On the back of the note was a badly drawn map of the local cemetary, with an X drawn over one of the crypts.

The next stop was Shifty's, a 24-hour pawn shop primarily frequented by thieves. "Hmmm, that's interesting," remarked Shifty, "a bartender was just in here earlier asking about a very similar list of items." The three bags of gold from the list contained a total of 120 coins, which was exactly the amount it cost to appraise the rest of the magic items. The PCs decided to keep some of them, and give a really good lie when returning the rest. The items:

1 bag of gems - Was worth 435 gp. Shifty offered 200, PCs decided to return them to Bjorn.
3 bags of gold - Totalled 120 gp. PCs used to pay Shifty to identify the magic items.
1 pair of sandals - Feyleaf Sandals. Damakos kept.
1 pair of boots - Catstep Boots. Drew kept.
1 pair of bracers - Bracers of Respite. PCs returned to Bjorn.
1 pair of gloves - Gloves of Kitten Summoning, a gag item of my own design. PCs returned.
2 vials of liquid - Potions of Regeneration. PCs returned.
egg-shaped device - Holy Hand Grenade. Another gag item, but a very powerful one that the PCs should probably save for a true emergency. PCs kept; it wasn't on the list anyway. The grenade was accompanied by another vial of liquid, which turned out to be a Potion of Protection from Radiant, which is meant to be taken before using the grenade, in case the thrower is caught in the blast radius. I have drawn up a very complicated set of instructions for use of the HHG, and if the thrower rolls badly, he could very easily kill himself.

So, the PCs returned to the Blue Acorn, and gave some of the items back to Bjorn. Damakos explained that they had only found a few of the items, but he didn't roll very high on his bluff check. Fortunately, the bartender really didn't seem to care much about the missing items, as he was mostly concerned about the dagger. The PCs managed to get him to elaborate on the dagger's importance. It turned out that the dagger was designed to kill a vampire that had been terrorizing the town. The PCs mentioned Needletooth's note, and Bjorn offered them even more money if they would go to the crypt and retrieve the dagger. He also mentioned that the town itself was offering a reward for the vampire's death.

The PCs spent the night at the Inn, and set out the next day for the graveyard. They made a conscious effort to reach the crypt early, so that it would still be daytime when they encountered the vampire's lair. Damakos had to pick the lock to enter the mausoleum, where they found a trapdoor with a ladder leading down into the darkness.

Eventually they found themselves in a long, skinny room:

The PCs started on the far left side, at the first red L. Five feet in, the room started to slope downwards. I wasn't quite sure what this would do to movement, so I ruled that they could add 1 to their move when going downhill, and subtract 1 if moving uphill. At the bottom of the slope was a pit, and the ground on the other side of the pit was level again. The far right wall had a lever on it (the purple L), and another ladder going down yet again (the bottom right L).

In front of the pit there were four skeletons (the blues S's). Once Drew, Damakos, and the cougar had reached the room's halfway point, they heard a sickening gloopy sound, like that of jellied cranberries being shaken out of a can. A gelatanous cube slowly slid down from a hole in the ceiling, landing where the green C's are on the map. It went from wall to wall, blocking any possible retreat. Each round it went downhill (to the right on the map) one square. So the battle now had a time limit.

The PCs killed three of the skeletons (Drew using the "Bull Rush" move to push one into the pit), and the cougar died during the battle. Once he had a clear path, Drew jumped over the pit and pulled the lever. This caused the pit to close so Damakos could run across. Just in time, too, as the cube was almost to the "S" squares by this time.

They then pushed the lever back so the pit would re-open, keeping the final skeleton and the cube from reaching them. Deciding not to push their luck (the surviving skeleton had a crossbow Damakos was bleeding profusely) they went down the ladder.

Damakos was out of healing surges, and retreat was no longer possible. So I decided to be nice to them. They managed to find an out-of-the-way alcove where Damakos could take an extended rest while Drew stood guard.

They finally found the vampire's lair. It was a 6x8 room (that's 30 feet by 40 feet), with a coffin in the center and an altar at the far end. The dagger was resting on the altar, and there were two levers on the wall, one on each side of the altar. Drew went to the coffin and thrust his sword through the top (it was empty), while Damakos retrieved the dagger. Then they decided to pull the levers, simultaneously. The noise alerted the vampire, who burst through the door, accompanied by a large vampire bat.

Okay, this trap didn't work out very well. How this was supposed to work: If the PCs hadn't pulled the levers themselves, once the vampire finally entered the room, she would have pulled the right-hand lever. Each round for the duration of the battle, there would be a mechanical sound in the walls, and a spike would shoot up from one square on the floor. I would roll a d6 and a d8 to decide which square (I had numbered the sides of the map to correspond to the die rolls), and if the square happened to be the altar or the coffin, nothing would happen. Well... only once during the battle did the square turn out not to be the coffin or the altar. The odds have got to be astronomical (though admittedly I did forget to do the spike on a couple of rounds).

The other lever filled the room with sunlight. Light reached all the squares except for the outer edges. Both the vampire and the bat hated sunlight, and at first stayed at the edges of the map. However, neither enemy had a ranged attack, so they had to risk the sunlight in order to damage the PCs.

Okay, originally I had intended to give the vampire natural regeneration, and the only effect of sunlight was to halt her regen. The bat wasn't going to be harmed by sunlight at all. However, it became clear early on that the PCs were outmatched, so I did a little nerfing on-the-fly. No regen, and both baddies could be damaged by sunlight. So anyway, the battle was tough at first, but the PCs eventually figured out ways to draw the enemies into the light. Both PCs got bitten by Mistress Rubin at least once during the course of the fight, bites which healed her a little.

Damakos used the exquisite dagger on her a lot during the fight, and it was the most damaging weapon they could have used. In reality it was just a +1 dagger, but against that specific vampire it was +5. I didn't tell them that I was adding extra damage, but they did realize it was the best weapon they had against her.

Once she died, they took her head, the dagger, and the only loot in the room (an Amulet of Health), and returned to the Blue Acorn. Bjorn sent a runner to the town council, who sent a representative to present the reward for the vampire. Bjorn let them keep the dagger, since it was no longer of any use to him.

That's when Bjorn noticed their vampire bites. He suggested they visit a friend of his, a High Priest of Moradin named Darrow Lightbeard. The High Priest examined the wounds, and told the players they were going to die if they couldn't get some sort of counter-curse within a tenday. It turned out that Mistress Rubin was not a true vampire, but rather the victim of a vampiric curse placed upon her by the Predek the Necromancer.

Darrow could not remove the curse without knowing how Predek did it, so he sent the PCs to find Predek's tower. He sent a cleric with them, a dwarf named Hector Goldheart. Hector had burns all over half of his face, which prevented him from growing a full beard. So he would shave the other half of the beard to match, leaving him with a long, curly goatee.

While in town, the PCs decided to buy a couple of more pets. Drew bought a bear, and Damakos bought a wolf. So the party now had five members. The church let them borrow a couple of horses, and it was two day's journey to Predek's tower. On the way they passed through the town of Mil, a halfling town that was once a graveyard. For some reason, the founders of the town had converted ancient mausoleums into houses. Well, the people of Mil now complained that the dead had been rising lately, and they felt it might be Predek's fault. So they offered an additional reward for Predek's capture.

The PCs arrived at Predek's tower. It was a circular tower, three stories high. There were no windows on the first two floors, but the front door was unlocked. Damakos peeked into the front door. The ground floor was one large, square room. It appeared to be larger on the inside than the tower was on the outside. There was a door on the opposite wall, with four locks. Four skeletons stood around the door, as unmoving as statues. Each skeleton held a sword in its right hand, and a key in its left. They didn't attack even as the party entered the room.

The PCs figured that the skeletons would probably come to life once the keys were taken, so Damakos, Drew, and Hector each stood in front of a skeleton and prepared to grab a key. When the first key was taken, the entrance door slammed shut and an illusion of Predek appeared and spoke a pre-recorded message:

“Hello, you have reached the Tower of Predek the Necromancer. I do not wish to be disturbed right now, which means you are not welcome here. Please enjoy your death, followed by your eternal servitude as one of my undead minions.”

Then the skeletons came to life. Also, the side walls started to move inward, making this battle another one with a time limit. Each skeleton was a regenerating minion - it took one hit to kill, but would come back to life on the next turn. But each would drop its key the first time it was killed.

With five PCs it didn't take long to get all the keys and leave the room. They found stairs to the second floor, which turned out to be Predek's living quarters, occupied by non-threatening skeletal servants. The party proceeded to the third level, Predek's office. Predek was bald and dark-skinned, and wore black robes. He enjoyed hurling insults at the party almost as much as throwing spells.

Even with 5 PCs, it was a long battle. Predek had a lot of spells, a lot of hit points, a lot of snarky comments, and the ability to summon undead minions. When he was finally defeated, the party chose to let him live, and forced him to work with Hector to compose a counter-curse. Finally the pair produced a couple of potions for the PCs. They had two options - drink the white potion, which would completely cure the vampire bites; or the black potion, which would prevent their deaths but leave them with the mark of the vampire.

The mechanics - I knew they would have enough XP at this point to reach level 2, so what the black potion was basically offering was the "Vampiric Heritage" feat. From Dragon Magazine #371, this feat gives you a +2 bonus to Perception and Insight checks to sense and recognize dhampyrs and undead. More importantly, it grants the "Blood Drain" encounter power. Blood Drain is a touch attack whereby you can damage a grabbed enemy while spending a healing surge. It's not very powerful, but it's still pretty cool to know your character is part vampire.

But they didn't go for it. They both drank the white potion. Hector took Predek into custody, and the party left the power. This is where we ended it for the night. I forgot about the reward waiting for them in Mil, so we'll have to remember that next time.

XP Rewards:

Encounter 1: Bandits x2 + Wolf = 400 xp/3 PCs = 133 xp each.
Encounter 2: Rat Minons x2 = 50 xp/3 PCs = 16 xp each.
Encounter 3: Goblins x4 = 400 xp/3 PCs = 133 xp each.
Encounter 4: Rat Lord + Wererat + Minions x2 = 350 xp/4 PCs = 87 xp each.
Encounter 5: Skeletons x4 = 600 xp/3 PCs = 200 xp each.
Encounter 6: Vampire & Bat = 450 xp/2 PCs = 225 xp each.
Encounter 7: Skeletal Minions x4 = 100 xp/5 PCs = 20 xp each.
Encounter 8: Predek = 500 xp/5 PCs = 100 xp each.
Quest Reward for The Rat Lord's Lair: 200 Each
Quest Reward for Mistress Rubin's Crypt: 300 Each
Total Each: 1414

This brings Drew and Damakos up to 1664 total xp each, and took them both to level 2.

Note:
To some it might seem that I'm being a little free with the XP, treasure, and gold. However, I wasn't sure how many of these encounters we'd actually get through in one night, and I really thought this was going to be two sessions worth of battles.

I'm still working on the balance and making a lot of mistakes. Remember that this campaign is for practice, both for them as players and for me as a DM. I'm experimenting with a lot of fun types of encounters and weird little traps, and some of the stuff I'm planning will require them to be a higher level. I could just have them roll up a couple of level 5 characters, but I'd rather play them through the levels it at a higher-than-normal pace. They may well end up leveling once per session, at least for the first few levels.

Reminder to Self:
Start next Praktas session with trip to Mil, to turn in Predek for more possible rewards (and more possible plot twists).

Tantris - Session 5

Game Date 6/13/09

Characters:
Rolan Daan (Bryan) - Elf Rogue
Rhogar Burnscale (Rick) - Dragonborn Fighter
Nara Cavell (Matt) - Human Cleric of Pelor

Nara's Journal:

Glorious day! The sun shines once again, and I can feel the love of Pelor in the air.

Unfortunatlely this will have to be a quick journal entry, as I am gearing up for war. Nevertheless I must record our success, in case I am killed in the upcoming battle.

Where to begin... I was walking by a house, and felt a strange compulsion to enter. It's not like me to enter random houses, but I felt that I had to. I was greeted by a man named Cyon. He had a... "presence" that I can not describe, only to say that I trusted him much more quickly than I should ever trust a stranger. Cyon requested a favor. He gave me a black coin which I was to deliver to the high priest of Coyn. He told me that the priest would know what it meant. The message would not be well received, but I would come to no harm. I could not have told you why at the time, but I accepted the task.

After the delivery, I found out what it meant - it was a combat challenge. I was to face Coyn's high priest at dawn. Rolan, Rhogar, and I returned to Rolan's dwelling to get some rest, where we once again encountered Cyon. Cyon - whom I believe to be an avatar of Coyn Himself - explained that the high priest was not in Coyn's favor, and that we would have Coyn's blessing in battle. He had already blessed Rolan with an enchanted bastard sword, and he had given Rhogar three magic coins... well, "given" in that Rhogar won them in an arm wrestling contest against someone who didn't even remember the event later... well, we didn't figure any of this out until it was over...

But I digress. The following morning we faced the high priest in battle. Per Cyon's advice, I taunted him until he allowed all three of us to face him. The priest's magic was surprisingly weak, and our attacks seemed enhanced by divine favor. In the end it was Rhogar who delivered the killing blow, cleaving the priest in twain.

As a reward, we were allowed to make one decree that the Temple of Coyn had to follow. And we were required to name the new High Priest of Coyn. We had until the end of the day to make our decision. After much deliberation, and seeking advice from the acting high priest Dupree, we chose Morok (who had announced us at the duel) as the new High Priest. For our decree, we had my temple's High Priest Astor Josel and one of our paladins released from Coyn's prison.

We have dealt a great blow to the corruption in the Temple of Coyn. I hope their new leadership remains virtuous.

I checked in with my own temple, and my companions walked the streets listening for rumors. They discovered that Lord De Rais was looking for us. He wasn't even subtle about it; he had posted reward offers all over the city. After checking in with my temple one more time, we decided to confront De Rais ourselves, in his own home.

De Rais was... repentant? No, I think it's better to say he was just "done". He had finished setting his evil plans in motion, and now he just wanted things to be over. He showed us a goblet made out of a child, which made me quite nauseous. He admitted his crimes, and gave us a signed confession for us to deliver to authorities. He explained some of his motivations, telling us a story of love lost or some such... but nothing in his past could excuse his actions of late. Nevertheless, we didn't attack him even when he drew his rapier.

...until he thrust the rapier into Rhogar. Then we fought back with a vengeance. It was a tough battle, and Rhogar especially took a lot of punishment. When we finally had him defeated, I finished him off with Sacred Flame.

Afterwards, the sun came out again, and all felt right with the world. Rolan's mysterious sword vanished, leaving only a coin in its place.

We took the evidence back to High Priest Josel, and he had me deliver it to the Temple of Coyn. They were very appreciative, and gave us a free round at their gaming tables. None of us won anything. I would have donated my winnings to Pelor anyway.

We decided to celebrate our victory, and I followed my companions to their favorite pub. But we found that the bars were empty. We soon found out that war has been declared, and all citizens are required to report for duty placement.

In other news, my language studies have been coming along nicely. I am now close to fluent in the Giant, Goblin, and Abyssal languages.

OOC:
Climax! And Level! The game had a late start, so we didn't get to play as long as usual. But that didn't matter, because we managed to cram in some important events, and wrap up a lot of the current storyline. The "war" hook for next session is going to be interesting.

XP Rewards:
200 each for general gameplay, and 50-ish each for our individual contributions. We each reached level 2.
Rhogar - 255 XP (200+55) - Total XP now 1014
Rolan - 250 XP (200+50) - Total XP now 1018
Nara - 255 XP (200+55) - Total XP now 1038

Tantris - Session 4

Game Date 5/30/09

Characters:
Rolan Daan (Bryan) - Elf Rogue
Rhogar Burnscale (Rick) - Dragonborn Fighter
Nara Cavell (Matt) - Human Cleric of Pelor

Nara's Journal:

It is literally a dark day for the Church of Pelor and all the goodly races.

When I last wrote, we were working for Lord De Rais, escorting a caravan. The mission could have gone better, but eventually we fulfilled our obligations. I am now working on an assignment to locate a missing child of the De Sillis family. Or I was, but we recently learned that the child has been killed. I have been working with Rolan and Rhogar again, who have been very helpful despite their unorthodox methods. I have reservations about putting this in writing, but we suspect that Lord De Rais is responsible for for the death of the De Sillis child, as well as several other troubling events of late.

I won't commit to paper how we discovered this information, but we now believe that De Rais may have hired Orcs to kill the De Sillis child. And when the Orcs failed their task, De Rais manufactured evidence that Gruumsh-followers were responsible for the child's death. We followed an Orc from the De Rais compound, in an effort to interrogate him. But of course the Orc wasn't in the mood to talk, and we had to kill him in self-defense.

Shortly afterwards, the Orc's house was burned down by riders from the De Rais compound. As soon as we confirmed the riders' origin, we returned to Tantris and informed High Priest Josel.

Afterwards, I wanted to continue to investigate this mystery, but we didn't know where to look. However, we did know of one possible ally, an Elf who had recently helped Rolan out of a crisis. We knew approximately where this Elf roamed, and we set out for that area. We set up camp, in the hopes we would be contacted.

Instead, we were found by an Imp. It was a tough fight, but we managed to defeat the foul creature. No longer wanting to stay in the area, we travelled to the De Winter estate. The De Winters are devout worshippers of Pelor, and I previously found their household to be very hospitable. Our mysterious Elf ally also has connections to that area, so it seemed like a safe destination. How wrong we were.

When we arrived, we found the De Winter house to be under seige by demonic attackers, led by what looked like De Rais himself... or at least an unholy, twisted version of the man. We were attacked by some sort of devil (an Evistro, I believe), and we were lucky to survive his onslaught. Rhogar in particular fought valiantly, ready to sacrifice everything to protect us from the damned monster. Once the abomination was defeated, a large number of Elves - who we believe to be of the same group as Rolan's rescuer - appeared and put out the fire using magical arrows and elemental summons.

After the fire, we saw a large symbol on the ground in front of the ruins. It was the symbol of Asmodeus, Ruler of the Nine Hells. We made haste to Tantris, where I once again informed High Priest Josel of the most recent developments.

While the De Winter home may have been destroyed, we learned that the De Winters themselves were staying in their other home within the city. We attempted to visit them, but were not allowed in. I left a message, requesting audience with them at their earliest convenience. But I found out later that they were very ill, and unable to see visitors. This was not an isolated incident; rumors of a spreading plague had many citizens afraid.

We had very few leads, so we decided to pay a visit to the De Sillis compound. Rolan showed considerable skill climbing over the wall, and once inside he witnessed something blood-chilling. Another demon - possibly a Glabrezu by his description - created a planar gate and disappeared through it. It left a symbol of Pelor behind. Rhogar and I discovered that the front gate was open and unguarded, so we entered and reunited with Rolan. We explored the house, and found many dead bodies. It appeared that a battle had been fought, between the De Sillis clan and followers of Pelor. We found no bodies of children, though we knew children had lived there. We eventually found the bodies of Lord and Lady De Sillis themselves, impaled upon the blades of their enemies, frozen in battle in a scene that told the whole story.

...Maybe. I still don't know if this was an actual attack by other followers of my deity, or if there is another layer to this puzzle.

Before we could ponder it for too long, however, we heard others coming into the building. We hid. From Rolan's view under the bed, he saw another Imp run by the door, and he swears it saw him. Shortly thereafter, some people entered the room, but they only stayed long enough to confirm the fate of the De Sillis family. As soon as they left, we decided to leave ourselves. I most definitely did not consider burning down the building, in order to destroy evidence that might put Pelor in a bad light. Such a thought would never occur to me.

Hoping for some answers, we once again returned to Tantris. We arrived in the morning, and I immediately sought out Josel despite my weariness. He confirmed that that this attack was not authorized by our church. So either another church of Pelor assaulted De Sillis estate, or someone else is trying to make it look that way. The types of demons we'd witnessed were not easily controlled, so either the summoner is very powerful, or very careless. When I mentioned the missing children, Josel reminded me that child sacrifices are sometimes needed to summon the kinds of horrors we had seen.

I tried once again to see the De Winters. I was informed that only authorized Clerics of Pelor were allowed to see them, and those were trying desperately to cure their illness. Looks like I found a way in. We went straight to my temple to get permission to join the healers. When we arrived at the church, I noticed an elegant carriage parked outside. I noted that it had the symbol of Coyn on it, but I was too preoccupied for that to sink in at the time.

As I entered the church, I found that High Priest Josel was being escorted out of the building by representatives of Coyn. I tried get Josel's attention, but another of Coyn's followers informed me that I was not allowed to speak to him. Naturally I found this to be a troubling development, but I wasn't about to be diverted from my plan. I knew someone had to be in charge, so I went to the acting High Priest and asked for his permission to assist the healers at the De Winter home. I think having someone else in charge may have actually improved my chances; Josel might have seen through my necessary deception. In any event, I soon found myself with permission to visit the De Winters.

Not that it helped. The De Winters were too feverish to remain conscious, and even if they'd been awake, I wouldn't have been able to speak to them freely with the other Clerics there. So I asked the other Clerics if there was any way I could help them, and they told me they could use some Mandrake root. This rare root is found in the Sleeping Wood. I decided I would use the temple library to learn how to find the root, and we would leave in the morning for the Sleeping Wood.

When we arrived at the temple, I found that the followers of Coyn had an even greater presence. I was starting to feel uncomfortable about their occupation of the temple. Nevertheless, I had a job to do. Rolan told me that he and Rhogar had something to do, so we parted with the intention of meeting up again in the morning. The acting High Priest was in the library, absorbed in his own studies. I soon found all I needed to know about Mandrake roots. I also overheard a conversation between the High Priest and someone else... I didn't catch all of it, but what I heard was somewhat scandalous. I believe he has been paid off by the church of Coyn. As soon as I could, I returned to my room and started getting ready for bed.

Fortunately I was still dressed when Rhogar and Rolan burst into my room. Rolan told me he'd had an encounter with a hooded figure, who had requested his help. The details are still vague, but Rolan expects to be contacted again soon. We no longer felt safe at the temple, so we decided to climb out my window and spend the night somewhere else. As we were about to leave, we noticed something odd. Rolan now had a new sword strapped to his back. It was a bastard sword, much larger than the type of weapon Rolan usually weilds. Rhogar tried to touch the hilt, but it became too hot for him to touch. Rolan, however, was able to touch it with no problem.

We still left through the window, spent the night at Rolan's place (mental note: show Rolan how a broom works), and left the following morning for the Sleeping Wood. It was a day-and-a-half ride, but we didn't run into any trouble. We explored the woods until we found enough of the mandrake root. While there, Rolan had yet another odd encounter with another Elf.

We rode back to town, and I went straight to the De Winter house to drop off the mandrake root. I hope it helps; I will be sure to check up on their progress. We then returned to Rolan's dwelling, where we are as I write this. We have not settled on our next course of action. We will most likely send Rolan out to listen for rumors.

The effects of the spreading evils have even touched the sky. There is no longer a moon at night, though it should be quite visible this time of the month. The daytime skies have turned an ominous gray, as if the impending doom is preventing Pelor's love from reaching the world. Soon I fear we will no longer be able to distinguish day from night, and the grace of Pelor will be unable to find my heart. I strongly suspect that it is Lord De Rais who has been summoning the devils responsible for the plague and the darkness. But at the moment I have no way to prove it, and no way to stop him.

With all my love and all my spirit, I pray to Pelor for inspiration and guidance. For thine is the light and the way.

- Nara Cavell


OOC:
This was a very exciting session, with a lot of content to absorb. I definitely don't remember everything that happened, but hopefully that was all the most relevant information. At the very least I think I have a few events out of order, but with all that's happened, it's quite possible Nara's memory is as fuzzy as mine. It's funny, in retrospect you notice a lot of foreshadowing that flew right over your head the first time, not to mention the occasional missed plot hook.

Note:
When the trio first encountered the acting high priest, Rolan noticed something gold in his pocket. Later, when Nara visited the temple library to research mandrake root, Rolan broke into the priest's quarters to look around (with Rhogar acting as lookout). He didn't find anything, and he made sure not to mention his break-in to Nara later. He was on the way out of the Priest's quarters when he saw the mysterious hooded character, and followed him. After speaking to him, Rolan returned to Rhogar and they tried to walk out the front doors, but were spooked by Coyn's guards, which is why they sought Nara's room instead.

XP Rewards:
100 each for general gameplay, 50 each for the Imp, 84/83/83 for the Evistro (the XP didn't divide 3 ways, so Rhogar got the extra point for being a badass), and some change (50/55/60) for individual acts of bravery, skill, and/or roleplaying.
Rhogar - 284 XP (100+50+84+50) - Total XP now 759
Rolan - 288 XP (100+50+83+55) - Total XP now 768
Nara - 293 XP (100+50+83+60) - Total XP now 783

Also, an earworm:

LFR - Darkness in Delzimmer

5/23/09 - The Game Keep
Module EAST1-4: East Rift: Darkness in Delzimmer

Characters:
Krusk (Rick) - Level 1 Half-Orc Rogue (Brutal)
Voranna (Matt 1) - Level 2 Eladrin Ranger (Archer)
Also in the group were a Dwarf Avenger, an Eladrin Paladin of Pelor, a Half-Elf Bard, and a Half-Elf Wizard.

This session had the most roleplay of any LFR game I've played so far. In fact, the session was half over before we had a combat encounter. We were starting to wonder if we'd even see any action.

It was a very lively group; Rick and I were the quietest ones there (as usual). This session was particularly entertaining due to the excellent roleplaying of the party's Dwarf Avenger, who was obsessed with money and drew out long contracts for every mission we accepted.

The rest of the group had such a rapport, that there were times when I felt like Rick and I were just along for the ride, sitting in on the rest of the group's good time. It's going to take a while to get over my natural shyness, to the point where I feel comfortable staying in character around people I don't know very well.

Rick got to use his thievery and stealth skills. He kept rolling low when trying to open locks, then succeeding on the STR checks to smash the locks. This may well become a running gag for his character.

We had two combat encounters total, though it's possible that some of the earlier encounters might have had the potential for violence. I think Rick and I pulled our own weight in these fights. We didn't technically have a Defender in the party, and some of us took a good beating as a result. Rick was nearly pulverized by the final boss, and finished the session at -2 hit points.

Krusk and Voranna each received 560 XP, 125 gp, and a Potion of Healing.

Tantris - Session 3

Game Date 5/2/09

Characters:
Rolan Daan (Bryan) - Elf Rogue
Rhogar Burnscale (Rick) - Dragonborn Fighter
Nara Cavell (Matt) - Human Cleric of Pelor

Our last session had left us with the MacGuffin in our hands, ready to turn it in for reward.

Fast forward one month, and we've received our rewards. Rhogar and Rolan each received some platinum pieces (Nara's was donated to the church.) The three of us separated and went back to our normal lives. Rhogar and Rolan quickly found that much had changed in their absence. Rolan could no longer receive jobs from his normal contacts. Rhogar's favorite fighting pits had been shut down. Guards patrolled the streets, and it was clear that the city was in a state of near panic.

Meanwhile, Nara was informed of a kidnapping, and she undertook the task to find the missing child. She knew she would need help on this mission, and the church gave her two Platinum Pieces to hire some help (as well as 40 gold for her own use). So of course, she sought out Rolan and Rhogar.

Finding them wasn't difficult. Coming up with a plan was. The name of the victim had not been released, so we didn't actually know who we were searching for. All we knew is that it was a child from one of the three following families: Duwenter,De Sillis, or De Rais. All three families lived north of Tantris, a bit too far away for walking. Also, we knew approximately where the kidnapping took place, which was also north of town. There was also evidence that the kidnappers were followers of Gruumsh.

We needed some horses. We went to a horse dealer, but his prices were too high. We got him to drop his prices a few times, but they were still too high. Finally we ran into a Paladin from Nara's church, and he talked the dealer into giving us the horses for free. We still promised to return the horses when we were done, if possible.

We went to the spot of the kidnapping first. The ground was too trampled to find any useful tracks. We did, however, nearly get shot by a not-too-friendly elf (or elflike being). The elf didn't tell us much, and considered it a human affair. But at least he didn't shoot us. We did find out that the kidnappers were probably not Orcs (something we had previously assumed because they were Gruumsh-worshippers).

We travelled to House Duwenter first. Nara knocked on the door, asked if they'd seen anything, and was given the brush-off. Nara knocked again, this time introducing herself as a representative of the Church of Pelor, and was given the royal treatment. Turns out House Duwenter is devoted to Pelor, and the party was given an exquisite dinner and oppulent rooms for the night.

In the morning, we left for House De Sillis. It turns out the De Sillis's were the ones whose son had been kidnapped. They weren't able to give us much info, though. They had already been putting all their considerable resources to the task, and we really didn't know anything that would help them. And since they were greiving, they weren't in a very friendly mood.

House De Rais and House De Sillis are kin to each other, and we'd learned that De Rais had lent some considerable help to De Sillis to search for the young boy. So we headed for House De Rais next. The guards wouldn't let us in, but they explained that the master wasn't seeing visitors, as he was in mourning for the death of his nephew.

Death? Oops. The guard explained that the child's body had been found by a merchant caravan, near the entrance to the Sleeping Wood. We also saw a mysterious rider enter the De Rais home (guess he wasn't against all vistors), and Rolan noticed that the rider had a peculiar smell.

So, we headed back to Tantris, rested, then went to the Sleeping Wood. There we found some guards (also there due to the same crime.) They gave us a slightly different story about the discovery of the body, and we found that the merchant caravan story was false. In fact, merchants never travel into that Wood. So... why had the De Rais guard lied to us? We decided to find out.

We stayed another night in Tantris, and Rolan bought a climber's kit. While there, a shifty character offered to sell Rolan some high-quality thieves tools. But when Rolan tried to pay, it turned out his platinum pieces (the ones rewarded to him by De Rais) were phony.

The next day we rode out to the De Rais compound and waited for dark. Rolan scaled the wall and hopped down to the other side, snuck around and listened.

He heard an argument between Lord De Rais and an Orc. Something about how De Rais had hired the Orc for a job, he had failed, so De Rais had had to hire someone else. The Orc rode off, De Rais turned around, and spotted Rolan. Rolan attempted to escape using his grappling hook, but the rope got cut by a spell. De Rais was probably about to do something evil to Rolan, when he heard someone screaming from the front gates. De Rais told Rolan to stay right there, and ran off. Then a mysterious elf appeared and helped Rolan escape. (Possibly the same elf we met earlier, but we didn't ask.)

Rolan met up with Rhogar and Nara, and the trio fled the compound. Lacking any other clues, we followed the Orc rider's trail, until we reached a cabin. The Orc's horse was tied up, so we sent Rhogar into the house to look around.

While Rhogar was in the house, Nara and Rolan were attacked by the Orc -and hard. Rhogar heard the scuffle, and burst out of the house, bravely intercepting the Orc's blows. He was a tough opponent, but the three of us managed to defeat him. The orc was missing an eye, and had an eye painted on his forehead, a sign of certain Gruumsh-worshippers.

We decided to camp for the night, but wanted to move away from the house in case any more Orcs came along. As soon as we got some distance away, more riders approached, which we believed to be De Rais's men. They burned down the house.

This is where we stopped. We haven't even decided for sure whether we want to rest for the night, or immediately follow the riders. We need to know why De Rais arranged the killing of his own nephew. We could go encounter De Rais, but that's probably suicide. We could go back to De Sillis and tell him what we've found out, but would he believe us over his own kin? We could also go back to Tantris and tell the high priest, since he's the one who gave Nara the mission in the first place, but that doesn't really accomplish anything. In any event, we have a couple of weeks to think about it.

XP Rewards:
175 each (75 for previous session, 100 for this session)
Rhogar - For bravery (protecting his teammates from the orc): 50 xp
Rolan - For bravery (sneaking into De Rais compound alone): 55 xp
Nara - For roleplay (roleplay as party leader): 65 xp

LFR - These Hallowed Halls

4/11/09 - The Game Keep
Module EAST1-1: East Rift: These Hallowed Halls (Low Difficulty)

Characters:
Krusk (Rick) - Level 1 Half-Orc Rogue (Brutal)
Voranna (Matt 1) - Level 1 Eladrin Ranger (Archer)
Also in the group were a Cleric and a Warden, played by a couple from Huntsville.

A couple of people canceled (including Bryan), so we ended up with only four people. At first we were without a tank or a healer, but the other two players had brought extra characters, and they very graciously offered to swap them out in order to balance the party. And thank goodness they did, or we would have been sunk.

I don't want to give any plot spoilers in case anyone reads this who hasn't played the module. But I will say that it was a bit shorter than the other two I played, by about an hour. There were only three combat encounters, none of which would have been very difficult if more players had shown up. As it was, Krusk and Voranna both lost a lot of blood (Voranna got down to -3 hit points at one point), but we survived. The other two players were very experienced and helpful.

As Rick is new to rogues (and I've never played one in 4e), there was some fuzziness about how to set up a Sneak Attack. He didn't get them in very often. And while I'd rolled up his character with his shortsword in mind, he actually found himself using his crossbow more than his melee weapons.

Krusk and Voranna each received 400 XP, and 75 gp. Krusk took a +1 Frost Weapon and Voranna took a bag of holding. Voranna reached level 2.

Tantris - Session 2

Game Date 4/4/09

This is a quick-and-dirty summary of the session's major events. I might mention some details in greater detail in a future entry of Nara's Journal, but the session didn't leave us in a position where she would have time to write anything down. Plus I'm having a busy work week, and just want to get this information posted before I forget any details.

To recap: We failed to protect a caravan from bandits, and Rolan was accused of stealing some gems, but he was released.

We had seen another caravan camped on the way to town, so we decided to see if it was still there. Due to a shortage of drivers, we volunteered to drive the next wagon out of town. While the wagon was being loaded, we went to the local tavern to ask some questions. Nara then went to the sherrif's office to see if there was information to be had there, while Rolan and Rhogar stayed at the bar.

Nara asked the officer-on-duty about the bandit attacks, but learned very little of value. The bandits were about human-sized, definitely not goblins. Back at the bar, Rolan met a mysterious elf. They had a private conversation in Elvish, in which the stranger mentioned his "business of the people."

When the wagon was finally ready to go, we headed for the camped caravan. It was still there. Everyone was dead, and the wagons had been looted. We decided to to set up camp ourselves, in hopes of getting attacked. We didn't want to be too obvious, so we drove a couple of miles down the road first. Our wagon made a funny noise, and it turned out to be an issue with part of the axle. Simple wear-and-tear, or sabotage? We fixed it as best as we could with what materials we could find, failing to notice there was a box of wagon parts in the wagon for just such an occurrence.

So anyway, we wanted to get attacked, so we acted like decoys. Nara took the first watch, pretending to read while the other two pretended to sleep. We were soon attacked by small reptilian humanoids (presumably kobolds), who threw javelins at us from the cover of tall grass. It was a tough fight, but we finally won. However, we were soon exhausted, and we didn't want to stay in such a dangerous area, so we drove a few more miles and camped.

Rolan was on watch duty when he was robbed by a masked bandit. The robber carried a red-bladed sword, which due to previous clues, meant that he was most likely the bandit we'd been seeking. Unfortunately Rolan was in no position to fight back, so the bandit took what he wanted and left. Rolan woke up Nara and Rhogar, and we soon discovered that the wagon's wheels were now partially submerged in the ground. This turned out to be an anti-theft charm - if a certain item was removed from the wagon, the wagon was rendered incapable of moving.

Lord Derai soon showed up, and once again scolded our ineptitude. He gave us an enchanted piece of paper, which displayed a magic arrow that always pointed towards Derai's stolen loot. Per his orders, we immediately set out to follow the arrow. Of course the enemy had a good head start, and we had to stop and rest again before we got too far.

Later we found an old campsite, which we believed to be a decoy. At this point the arrow started acting strange, changing direction at certain places. At first we thought we might be standing over an underground hideout containing the loot, but soon we noticed a person up in the trees high above us.

We argued a little about what to do - Nara's crossbow had the farthest range of the party's weapons, but Nara doesn't like to shoot at people who don't attack her first. We didn't want to call out to him - if there was any chance he hadn't seen us yet, we didn't want to alert him to our presence. Before we settled on a plan, we noticed that he'd disappeared. We heard him land on the ground beside us, but we couldn't see him.

So, Rolan (being the fastest of us) used the piece of paper to chase the invisible enemy. Unfortunately the villain managed to get behind him and stab him in the back, nearly killing him. When the others caught up to Rolan, Nara healed his wounds. While we still couldn't see our enemy, Rhogar managed to hit him with his acid breath.

Nara recognized the bandit's cloak as a Cloak of Elvenkind, but it was too badly damaged by Rhogar's breath to ever be worn again. The bandit was badly injured, and we gave him just enough medical attention to keep him alive. In his possession was the red blade, and a scroll with the stamps of both Derai and Everesk. We decided - for now - not to open the scroll, and let Derai's business be Derai's business. But we do wonder if we're being set up.

We decided to tie the bandit up and carry him back to the wagon with us. We made it back to the wagon safely. It was once again in drivable condition, so we plan to take it back to Lord Derai as soon as possible, to present him with our prisoner and his loot.

This is where we had to end the session, due to the time.

D&D Player's Handbook II

Note: This post has been moved here from my other blog.

The PHB2 was released a couple of weeks ago. It has 8 new classes and 5 new races, as well as some new feats, paragon paths, equipment, rule updates, etc.

I feel it's the perfect companion to the first PHB. To be honest, I was buying it mostly for the Bard, which was one of my favorite classes in previous editions. But looking through it, I'm finding all sorts of things I want to try. I think my next character might end up being a Razorclaw Shifter Druid who favors cat forms. I see at least three feats my existing characters might take later, and the new racial paragon paths are pretty cool.

There's a section on Backgrounds, which was probably added for those people who thought the PHB1 didn't have enough roleplay rules. I applaud their efforts, but I don't think this will satisfy the detractors. Basically, it lists a lot of suggestions for various races and character types, giving you a jumping-off point to write your character's backstory. To encourage a fleshed-out background, you get a bonus to a skill associated with that background (with your DM's approval). Other bonuses (like an extra language) might also be allowed. I like the idea, but it's not what I was expecting, and it's definitely not what some of the complainers were hoping for. Most of the roleplay griping I've heard was about the lack of occupation-specific skills like sailing or crafting. The PHB2 doesn't add any new skills into the mix; it only gives bonuses to the existing skills.

Personally I'd have preferred if they'd listed a lot of possible former occupations and hobbies - blacksmithing, jousting, basket-weaving, etc - and allowed you to add a bonus to skill rolls associated with that action, if that specific action came up in the story. You could only pick a certain number, and they would have to be listed in the "background" section of your character sheet before the first time you play the character. Plus there could be rules about related skills... if you were once a bootmaker, the DM might give you +5 if you're specifically trying to make or repair boots, but he also might rule +2 if you're trying to repair some leather armor.

I would have liked something like that, but even that's not really needed. Any DM worth his salt will already give a player some advantage in a jousting tournament, if it's been previously established that the character did a lot of jousting growing up. And any decent player who claims his character was once a professional informant in the seedy parts of town, already took "Streetwise" as one of his skills when rolling up his character. So yeah, it's not what I would have come up with, but at least they're trying to reward well-written characters.

Wizards of the Coast is owned by Hasbro, which may be why they've been trying to promote a more family-friendly image lately. Half-Orcs were not included in the first PHB, because it was difficult to discuss their parentage without including some unsavory elements. While some Orc/Human romances have probably happened now and then, it was generally understood that many Half-Orcs were the result of rape, and Hasbro didn't like that. Well, the Half-Orcs are finally back in, but their backgrounds have changed a little. Half-Orcs are now a full-blood race. So now if you're a Half-Orc, most of the time it's going to be because both of your parents were Half-Orcs. At first I hated the idea, but it's grown on me.

For one thing, I've never liked half-anything being called a race. I would rather they had just listed full-blood races, then added a chapter on possible pairings and the stat changes they would entail. Secondly, the PHB2 still gives "First Generation Half-Orc" as an option, so players who specifically want mixed parentage are still allowed to do so. So everybody wins.

The Half-Orcs also are also more marketable this time around. They are no longer automatically ugly and stupid. They're just taller humanoids with greyish skin and tusks. Going by the book's art, they're actually fairly attractive. You can still make yours a dumb brute if you want (and in previous editions, you could design your Half-Orc smart and attractive, it was just harder), but the "brainless tank" stereotype is no longer assumed. Besides, if you really want to play a big brute, Goliaths are the new Half-Orcs.

Gnomes are back as well, and also a bit changed. I've never played a Gnome in previous editions, so I could be way off here, but they've always struck me as silly-looking eccentric tinkerers. Going by the art in the PHB2, they're a lot more attractive now, looking like half-sized elves. They still work best as magic users, but fast-talking rogues would probably work well too.

The new race I'm most interested in is the Shifter. They're basically werewolves/weretigers without the lycanthropy. Your facial features are a bit doglike or catlike, and you are very in tune with your base instincts - perfect for the new primal classes. My only problem is that I'd really love a Shifter who uses only her claws and teeth, but there aren't any unarmed melee classes. There's rumors of Monks in next year's PHB3, but Monk's carry a lot of excess baggage that I wouldn't wish on an animalistic character. But like I said above, I'm thinking of making a Shifter Druid, and staying in my beast form a lot. That should be fun.

The only race I really don't get is the Deva. These are basically earthbound angels who are driven to glorify the gods. Okay, leave it to me to miss the point of something religion-related, but I'm just not sure how these fit in. I'm sure they added them to complement the new Divine classes, but I just can't imagine these characters being common enough to make it into a PHB. IMO, they should have done like the Genasi and included them in one of the other splat books.

Now the classes... Barbarians aren't much changed from 3rd (well, as much as anything from 3x to 4e can be considered unchanged). They're still just a more brutal version of the fighter. High damage, low armor - because sometimes the best defense is to slaughter your foe before he gets a hit in.

The Bard is very different, and I don't know if I'll like playing them, but I will try. They do make sense for the 4e system. One of the most noticeable elements of 4e is the "roles" system, and a party works best when it has at least one character filling each role. Granted, this was the case long before 4e, and for most other RPGs as well, but 4e is especially difficult if you don't have a well-rounded party. Fourth Edition is hard to play solo, and Bards will have the hardest time fighting by themselves. Bards have always been support characters, and now more than ever, every move a Bard makes benefits one of his party members. Which means that every party will be glad to welcome a Bard into it. Just don't let him wander off alone.

The Druid is a bit different; they really concentrated on the Wildshape ability. You can build your Druid with an emphasis on your humanoid form or your animal form, and it probably feels like a completely different class depending on which one you favor. You can either play your Druid like a nature-based Wizard, casting spells from a distance. Or you can use your animal form to claw your opponent's face off. Changing shape is a minor action, so you can shift, move, and attack in the same turn. That's going to be fun.

Sorcerer is kind of neat. I never liked how Wizards and Sorcerers felt in 3x, because they were basically the same class, but with a different philosophy towards spell memorization. But 4e Sorcerers really look unique. I love the spells with random elements (mostly dailies) - when calculating your damage, you roll an additional d6 that determines whether the spell also paralyzes, shocks, burns, blinds, etc. It's almost like gambling. I've never really been into the pure magic classes, but I may give this one a try. A Dragonborn sorcerer sounds like fun.

The rest of the classes don't interest me, but I haven't looked at them that closely yet. The Avenger strikes me as being another type of Paladin. The Shaman reminds me of the Beast Master version of the Ranger, except with a Native American "spirit animal" theme. The Warden also reminds me of Rangers, except dealing with mountains instead of trees. And I'm not sure what to make of the Invoker yet.

The new feats are nice. A lot of them are made to go along with the new classes, but there's some good ones for the original classes as well. Of course each new class has a selection of Paragon Paths, but the book also contains some race-related Paragon Paths as well. My favorite is the Dragonborn one - it makes your breath weapon more useful and lets you grow wings. There's also sections on new equipment and rituals, some of which is specifically designed for the new classes.

In short, it's not just another splat book, IMO. It's not indispensible, but it is a lot more useful than most of the other supplemental books.

Praktas - The Necromancer's Apprentice

Game Date: 3/28/2009
Characters:
Daalan Raan (Bryan) - Elf Ranger (2-weapon style)
Ghargoff Bloodmaster (Rick) - Dragonborn Barbarian
Drew Baker (Bryan) - Human Fighter (Tempest style)
Damakos Redhorn (Rick) - Tiefling Rogue (Brutal style)

We were hoping to get into an LFR game that week, but it fell through. So instead, we managed to get together at Bryan's place that morning, and I DMed them through "The Necromancer's Apprentice", a quest detailed in "Dungeon Master 4e for Dummies". They didn't do quite as well as last time.

Daalan and Ghargoff were given a quest to investigate Roburn's house, the source of some orc activity. While talking to the questgiver, they didn't ask enough questions, IMO. They were so interested in getting to the action, didn't even ask about the reward. I could have really screwed them later if I'd wanted to. (Well, if they'd returned alive.)

Lesson 1: Iron out the details when the NPC is still in front of you.

They fought a bear on the way to the house, which was boss-level, so they camped for the night afterwards. When they approached the house the next morning, they didn't waste much time investigating. While they could have walked around, looked through some windows, checked out the river that runs by the house, etc, instead they opted to just knock down the door. At which they failed, alerting the orcs inside. To their credit, they killed the orcs without too much problem. Still, they could have had a much easier battle if they'd gone in through the side window, or skipped the encounter entirely by checking the river grate, or one of several other alternate solutions.

Lesson 2: Fools rush in.

They explored the house, and went down the stairs into the hideout below. The next room was full of skeletons. I nerfed this one a bit, and the new encounter consisted of one flaming skeleton, and three skeletal minions. I also gave the flaming skeleton the ability to resurrect the minions, so they had to kill the flamer to win. They did well in this encounter.

I completely changed the next room. The book had it as a lair of kruthiks, but I changed it into more orcs. Four orcs, one of which was tending the fire under a large cooking pot. The other three were standing around a cage, which contained a captured wolf. The three orcs were taunting the wolf and poking it with sticks. The hope was that the players would burst into the room, and during the course of the battle, release the wolf. The wolf would then help them kill the remaining orcs, and if things went well, the wolf would stick around for a while. Possibly even become their pet.

Instead we got one of the most constricted battles I've seen. While still in one-square-wide hallway just outside the room, Daalan fired a couple of arrows which started the battle. The orcs crowded in, and the players were stuck in the doorway for the rest of the battle. They switched places a couple of times, keeping the healthiest in front. But since neither had any ranged powers, they couldn't both use their best moves in the same round. Daalan did manage to free the wolf with a very well-placed arrow, and the wolf did attack the orcs. Unfortunately, the wolf kept rolling low numbers, and the orcs kept rolling high ones, so the wolf was dead shortly thereafter. And soon, both players were also at 0 hit points.

Lesson 3: Position yourselves before battle begins.

I didn't want to kill them, so I had them wake up in a cell, with just a few hit points. Nathar, the evil wizard who was supposed to be the final boss, interrogated them. When Nathar finally left, a single orc guard paced the room. Getting out of the cell was a bit complicated, but a couple of lucky die rolls later, the two were out the door and slipping through a sewer grate. They went back to town and healed up.

They went back to the house, fought their way through some more undead, and found Nathar's lab. Daalan peeked in and saw Nathar talking to the Orc Captain. He tried to sneak into the room unnoticed, but rolled a low number on his stealth check. But to be honest, he probably wouldn't have succeeded anyway, because his plan was a bit absurd. He was trying to open the door, sneak into the room, and hide behind one of the other pieces of furniture. The problem was that Nathar and the Orc, though facing each other, could both see the door from their point of view. And Nathar was expecting them to show up again, so he was on alert. I would've had to set the DC at 50 to make it remotely believable. In any event, he rolled a 4, and the door creaked loudly at his touch, alerting the villains to their presence.

Lesson 4: Make sure your plan makes sense.

I changed this encounter as well; instead of fighting Nathar, I had the wizard introduce his Frankenstein-esque creation, a large flesh golem. Nathar escaped through a teleportation circle, while the players were left to fight the golem and the orc captain.

...And they both died again. They managed to off the golem, and get the captain bloodied, but they just couldn't finish him off. I wasn't looking forward to writing them out of another death, but I didn't have to. Bryan and Rick decided to use new characters. Luckily we already had some rolled up, so that's where Drew and Damakos enter the picture. They had seen Daalan and Ghargoff enter the house, and they followed. Everything was dead except for the Orc Captain, who was close. They finished off the orc and looted everything they could find, including Daalan and Ghargoff. Then they headed off to town to sell what they'd found.

A few hours later, they were drinking at a tavern. Two drunks approached them and started a fight. It turned out that the drunks were faking their drunkenness, and two assassins joined them to attack the players. The players won, but the bar burned down in the process. The assassins' bodies carried the emblem of the "Temple of the Yellow Skull", a plot point also alluded to in a note found in Nathar's lab.

This is where we ended the session, as it had been a pretty full day, and I had nothing further prepared.

Rewards:
Drew - 250 xp, 320 gp, +1 Lifedrinker Longsword, 2 Potions of Healing
Damakos - 250 xp, 320 gp, - Belt of Vigor, 2 Potions of Healing, 1 Alchemist's Acid, 1 Alchemist's Fire

My D&D History

Note: This post has been moved here from my other blog.

This subject came up in a thread on the Gleemax forums, but I thought I would go ahead and copy it here. It'll probably be boring to most of you, so only read this if you're bored.

I still consider myself a D&D newbie. I'm 35 years old, and while I have a history of skirting the waters on the periphery of D&D, only recently have I managed to get myself into an actual D&D campaign.

When I was a kid, I always wanted to try D&D, but none of my friends could play it. I remember seeing a D&D video game come out for an early console, and asking my friend "J" if he was going to get it. "My family isn't allowed to play Dungeons and Dragons," he said. "It's evil. One kid played it and went crazy, then jumped out a window." Luckily J's parents didn't mind him watching the 80s cartoon series, and we did so religiously.

Around that time, they released a D&D toy line. I really liked the castle/dungeon playset they released for it - "The Fortress of Fangs". It was shaped like a snake's head, with teeth for stalagmites/stalagtites, and there was a lava pit, and a gold-filled chest, and a moving spiked wall, and some other really nifty features. It was much cooler than any of the He-Man castles, and probably still gets my vote for best playset of any toy line, ever.


The D&D toy line also included a female cleric, and I really wanted that figure. I always liked playing as female characters, and at the time there was a shortage of female action figures in male-oriented toy lines. I always felt weird asking my parents for female figures, though. I didn't yet have enough understanding of gender/sexuality to know why it made me uncomfortable (or even why I preferred playing with girl toys), but I was afraid my parents might think I was odd. So, just as I did with GI Joe's Scarlett, I included her in a list of several D&D toys I wanted.

My parents were having a good financial year, and that Christmas I received the entire D&D toy line. Heroes, monsters, and of course the Fortress playset. My parents did that sort of thing several years in a row - getting me an entire toy line when I had only asked for one or two figures. I must have sounded like a real braggart when I called my friends on Christmas day.

My older brother was generally the one to buy video games in our house, but he only liked action games. When I finally started getting games of my own - the 8-bit NES days - I mostly stuck with action games as well. It was what I was used to. But action games with RPG elements started creeping into my collection. I decided I really liked exploration games where you collected things and became more powerful as the game went on (Metroid, Zelda), but I still wanted the battles themselves to be based on finger skill rather than math. Sure, I enjoyed a few adventure games on my old Commodore 64, but I never owned any that involved hit points and such.

Then one day I was at an arcade with J, and we discovered Gauntlet, which instantly became our favorite game. Four player simultaneous! And we have to work together! And you have "health" instead of one-hit deaths! And I can play a female character! I remember J's father picking us up from the arcade, and us telling him about the new game. "Um... this game isn't like Dungeons and Dragons, is it?" Luckily we convinced him it was wasn't. Which of course it really wasn't (aside from the setting), but even so we probably came pretty close to J being banned from playing it.

In 5th grade, I sort of DMed a friend of mine through several games. The friend, "K", was into D&D, but for some reason I couldn't get into his group. I can't remember why... I might have been afraid that D&D really was evil, or maybe the subject just never came up. But I really liked mythical monsters, so I bought a used Monster Manual from The Great Escape. It was that AD&D one with the really crappily-drawn cover. I enjoyed drawing up mazes and populating them with monsters, and talking K through them over the phone. Now, I didn't understand anything about levels or difficulty or balance. I would put whatever creatures I wanted anywhere I wanted. I believe K was using his actual D&D character that he used in other games, and using our sessions to level up so he would be more powerful in his other campaign. When he'd get to a monster, I didn't know what the stats meant, so it would go like this:

Me: "You enter the room and see a hydra."
K: "What's it say on his stat block, under 'AC'?"
(I read it off to him.)
K: "Okay, just a minute..." (Dice rolling) "Okay, now what's it say under his attacks?"
(I read it off to him.)
K: (More dice rolling) "Okay, he dies."

Of course, K had to be cheating. I've since found the old mazes, and they look really silly. Monsters of different types are scattered about randomly with no respect for plot or ecology. Secret passages are more common than ordinary doors. I see one room that has multiple dragons in it. I don't care what level he was, K would have been slaughtered halfway through any one of my mazes, especially playing solo. But then, a real DM would have been throwing a saner mix of monsters at him, so hopefully he was adjusting his XP accordingly.

Once in 8th grade, I was in a non-supervised study hall, and another bored student DMed me through a quick game. We didn't have any dice, so he took a pencil and numbered the flat sides, and we rolled that. All I remember is that at one point, two boars were charging at me from opposite sides. I jumped up and grabbed a tree branch, and the boars collided with each other.


In high school, my friend "C" and I designed a wrestling RPG. Mostly it was just picking from a list of moves and rolling a die to see if the move succeeded. The more powerful the move, the more difficult the die roll. We only played it a couple of times, but I later used that basic system for an mini-game I programmed on my Commodore 64 (which was really showing it's age by then).

In college I got into MUDs. Well, one specific MUD. It was called JediMUD, and while it was a mostly medieval setting, it had a lot of pop culture and sci-fi references. I found it absolutely amazing that I could talk (and fight with) players who were on the other side of the world. It was my first time I spent a lot of hours on a dice-based game, and I was hooked. As a result, my grades suffered.

I always played a female character in JediMUD. Not to mess with other players, not for any "funny" reasons; it was just how I was comfortable. When other players would ask me if I was female in real life, I would always tell them I was female. Again, it wasn't so they would give me stuff or any other dishonorable reason; it just helped me feel more like myself. This led to some problems, like guys wanting to be my pen pal offline, and me trying to find polite ways to reject advances, etc. I can't say I handled it all perfectly, but it was a learning experience.


A couple of years after college, I played D&D one time, using someone else's character. (We knew it was a one-off, and didn't want to waste time rolling up a new character.) I learned a valuable lesson - no matter how thirsty you are, if you find a beautiful fountain out of the blue in the middle of the desert... DON'T DRINK FROM IT!!!


And then came Final Fantasy III (aka VI) on the SNES. I had previously tried a few RPGs for the NES, like Ultima and Dragon Quest, but I didn't like them. I just couldn't figure them out... granted, I had rented them from video stores that didn't provide the instruction booklets, so that might have had something to do with it. Still, I always thought console RPGs were dull, and never really gave them a chance. But FFIII's reviews were so spectacular. One of the reviews even plainly said, "If you're new to RPGs, this is the perfect one to start on." So I rented it, and loved it. Then there was Chrono Trigger, and later Final Fantasy VII for the PS.

In 1999, we had a really bad year. We had a lot of financial problems, my wife had a miscarriage, and our car got repossessed. I threw myself into JediMUD once again, partly to keep the phone lines busy so I wouldn't have to talk to creditors, but mostly so I could fantasize about living a different life. But things got better, and we moved on.

A few years later, I bought NeverWinter Nights. I only played a little of the main storyline, before I got hooked on the online servers. Especially the roleplay servers. Once again I was playing female characters, and letting other players believe I was female IRL. I didn't feel good about lying, but it was the only way I could truly feel like myself. After a while, I realized that it wasn't the lying that was bothering me, it was that I really wanted it to be true. It was around that time that I realized I was transgendered.


Anyway, my favorite server died off, and I couldn't find another one I really liked. So I built my own mod and hosted it for several years. Itropa was set in a universe of my own creation, and was a mixture of sci-fi and fantasy, with an odd sense of humor. It never had a huge following, but we had our share of players, and overall I'd consider the server a success.

A couple of years ago I started collecting minis, more because I like them than for actual gaming. Then I bought the core rulebooks (3e) because I saw them on sale, but that was mostly for research purposes. I attended GenCon 2007, followed by DragonCon 2008, mostly because I like being around dorks.

And then, just a few months ago, I really got the bug to play in a regular game. I bought the 4e rulebook, and I played in a couple of LFR games. Since then I've been looking for a group. And now I've finally found one! We had our first session last weekend, and it was great. We're playing 4e, mostly - there's some 3.5 elements and a smattering of homebrew. We have a wonderful DM, and I hope the game continues for a long time.

My Thoughts on D&D Fourth Edition

Note: I wrote half of this right after reading the PHB and playing my first LFR game, and I've adding to it ever since. See the update at the bottom for the biggest changes in my opinion. Also, some of this is stuff I've already posted in threads here.

Also Note: This post has been moved here from my other blog.

Those of you who don't like D&D have no reason to read this, and those of you who do like D&D are probably already tired of hearing other people's opinions on this controversial edition of the game. But everyone deserves a chance to throw out their opinion, so I might as well.

I'm pretty sure I've approached it with more of an open mind than most people. Since I haven't played a lot of any version, I have less stake in this - the changes just don't mean as much to me. D&D players tend to get attached to certain rulesets, and are highly resistant to change. Each time D&D gets a new overhaul, I see the same panic that I see whenever Microsoft comes out with a new version of Windows. But in both cases, the new version eventually spreads until everyone gets used to it, the last few naysayers finally settling in just in time for them to announce the next version.

I do like that they attempted to simplify things. For an outsider, that's the biggest barrier to the hobby - the daunting mountain of rulebooks. Heck, I had a hard enough time learning Monopoly, and I still don't really understand Clue.

The most significant change is the new "powers" (and I hate that term being used in D&D). Overall, I don't care for the concept.

Before, playing a different class made the whole game seem like a different game. The core three - fighter, wizard, and rogue - had entirely different rules and stategies. A fighter didn't do much more than stay in front and swing his sword. A rogue took a bit more thinking, and wizards were the most strategic of all. And that was the beauty of the game! That's what made the game appealing to so many different players. If one of your guests wants to play Yahtzee, and the other wants to play Scrabble, you have to take turns. But with D&D, you get Yahtzee and Scrabble and even Hungry Hungry Hippos in a group together, working together, complementing each other's skills, and all having fun despite the fact that they didn't all want to play the same thing. No, not despite the fact... because of it.

So that's my biggest gripe (so far) with 4e. The new powers make all the classes feel too much like each other. A fighter using a daily attack power doesn't play much different than a Wizard using a daily touch attack spell. Take out the flavor text, and you're pretty much just saying "I deal 1d6+3 damage to the orc in the square next to me." Other class differences - AC, strength, etc - are just stats, but it's the strategy that's supposed to define a class. Instead of the checkers champions playing fighters, and the chess champions playing wizards, we all have to be chess champions.

I've always thought of fighter as a good class for a beginner, or someone who isn't into strategy, both of which describe me. But now, I don't know how easily I'm going to learn this game. I thought this version was supposed to be simpler. In 3.x, I already had trouble with the concepts of "full round actions" vs "move actions", but now I also have to deal with whether my new ability is once a day, once an encounter, or once a round. And don't get me started on Action Points and Healing Surges.

I like the selection of races presented in PHB1. Dragonborn are way cooler than Half-Orcs, but probably appeal to the same players. And the Eladrin are a lot more interesting than Gnomes. The class selection, however, is a bit more problematic... I like Bards, darn it! And now I have to wait until the "Player's Handbook 2", just to see if I still like them.

I don't like the skills system. It's a personal choice, but I prefer being able to put points into a skill every level, than to be able to just get a 5 point bonus one time. With the old system, I could spread skill points around and be a "jack-of-all-trades" type of character, or I could really excel at a couple of skills to go along with my character's obsessions. With 4e it's more pass/fail. Everyone adds 1/2 their level to every skill, so even characters who would never think of lying gradually get better at Bluff over time. That said, I do like the way the skills are represented. They're a bit more generic now, so instead of having to put points into listen, search and spot, now you can just train in "Perception".

I'm more on the fence about alignment. It's now more of a scale than a grid: LG/G/N/E/CE. Meh. Personally, I'd rather either have the full grid, or have the even simpler scale of just Good/Neutral/Evil. Or even eliminate alignment completely. It's not a particularly useful game mechanic, and some people think it does more harm than good. At least the classes themselves have fewer alignment restrictions this time around.

I don't like healing surges, but not for the same reasons as most people. Some people have complained that healing surges give a character too much healing ability, but those people don't really understand the system. Healing surges are basically a way of giving you a maximum number of times a day you can be healed. Some complainers are confusing healing surges with the Second Wind ability, which allows someone to spend a healing surge once per battle. However, seeing as how it's a once-per encounter ability that everyone has, and the number of HP healed is 1/4 your total HP, then all the DM needs to do is plan encounters with this in mind - just assume that all the PCs have 25% more hit points than they really do. And yes, you can freely spend surges while resting between battles, but you only have so many per day, so it's not always a good idea.

So while other people complain that the healing surges give everyone unlimited healing, my beef is that the surges are too restrictive. Almost every way you can heal, spends a surge. Once you're out of surges, you can't be healed any more that day. In 3.5, you could theoretically pack 100 healing potions in your bag of holding, and drink them all day long. In 4e, a 1st level fighter with 15 CON can only be healed 11 times a day. That may seem like a lot, but each surge only heals 25% of his hit points, so he may have to use two or three at a time. For example, our theoretical fighter would have 30 HP, and heal 7 HP per surge. He should be able to get through the day's first couple of battles pretty easily, but what if the DM puts the party through more than that in a day? Once he's out of surges, even healing potions don't work.

A lot of people are comparing 4e to World of Warcraft. I felt that too when I first started reading the Player's Handbook, but that went away when I actually played the game. On a logical level I can still see the similarities, but the feel is totally different. Actually playing the game feels NOTHING like WoW. So my potential inflammatory statment would be thus: If someone says it feels like WoW, then they're lying about having played it. They came to that conclusion after reading the PHB, but they haven't actually tried the game. And putting down the system without trying it first is absolutely shameful. So feel free to make all the WoW comparisons you want, but don't even try to tell me that it FEELS like WoW. Don't. I will immediately categorize you as either a liar or a stubborn grognard, which will immediately cheapen the value of anything further you could possibly have to say.

However, it does feel like a board game. Some people don't see it, especially people used to playing wargames. But then, I would also classify wargames as a sub-category of board game, so the comparison still works. The two sessions I've played so far felt like chess matches with a bit of roleplay here and there. Of course, these were both LFR games, which tend to be combat-heavy and RP-lite due to time constraints. But even the most roleplay-centric campaign will probably have combat in it somewhere, and the combat feels very chess-like to me.

Overall, I think the biggest problem I have with 4e is that it's 4e. If it had been introduced as a spin-off, it would be a pretty neat game. Just as the Star Wars prequels might have gotten better press if they'd been spin-off movies like the "Ewok Adventure" or the "Droids" cartoon. With 4e's simplicity, they could have marketed it for younger players, and called it "D&D Adventures." With 4e's powers system, they could have marketed it towards comic book geeks and called it "D&D Heroes". With it's board game like battles, they could have marketed it towards the wargame crowd and called it "D&D Tactics". Call me a grognard, but for me, 3.5 will always be what I consider "D&D". The editions before it were just practice, and the editions after it are just spin-offs.

-Update-

All that said, I really have enjoyed the sessions I've played so far. Since I wrote the above, I've gotten to play it a few more times, and in a few more ways. I've played it RAW in LFR games, where it's mostly combat and feels the most like a board game. I've played under a more roleplay-centric DM, using no minis, less combat, and some homebrew elements. And I've even DMed a game myself. Every game has been a blast.

Also, I've started using WOTC's official Character Builder, which makes character creation a breeze. Not only is it a time saver, but I can use content from books I don't own, and it makes figuring out the math a lot easier. It has its flaws (the price, for example), but overall it makes character creation a more enjoyable experience.

The PHB2 comes out in a week. I can't wait to play around with the new races and classes.

Bottom line: I still consider 3.5 the iconic D&D. I still think of 4e as a spin-off, or at least "D&D Lite". But that doesn't keep it from being a fun game, worthy of many campaigns.

D&D Character Builder

Note: This post has been moved here from my other blog.

I love the Character Builder.

IMO, the most tedious part of starting a campaign is filling out the character sheets. In the campaign I'm currently playing, our entire first session was spent filling out the character sheets. But the WOTC's Character Builder lets you do it in no time. It does all the math for you, and prints all your powers on little cards for easy reference. Admittedly, the cards only add to the board game feel, but they do make the game flow faster. Use up an encounter power, turn over the card. Simple. Heck, the math aspect alone is worth it. No longer do I have to figure out all the factors that make up my attack and damage rolls. Fourth edition has so many ways to add to your attack and damage, I really prefer having the program figure it up for me. Now that I've used the Builder, I can't imagine building a character without it.

The Builder is expensive. You get it by subscribing to D&D's website, which is $60 a year. For your $60, there are a few other nice resources on the website, but nothing that tops the Builder (so far - they've made some lofty promises for the future). Well, it sounds expensive, but it is updated with content from every new book they release. With the builder, you can stop buying a lot of future splat books. If you're the type who buys a lot of D&D books looking for new build options, then the program might actually save you some money. Especially since those books can run about $35 each. Note that there are some installation issues on some computers (it doesn't work on one of mine), and Mac users are out of luck.

There are some free home-made builders out there, as there are for most editions of D&D (and other RPGs), but the ones I've tried haven't nearly been as good as the official program. And some home-made builders have been shut down by WOTC for using copyrighted text in their builder's power cards, so future prospects for high-quality free alternatives don't look good.

Anyway, if you can get past the price (which might be more worth it in the future), then the Character Builder makes a good thing even better. And you really only need one copy of it per group, so maybe the group can chip in and have one player put it on their laptop. Then you can just pass the laptop around whenever it's time to create or level up your characters.

Tantris - Session 1

Game Date 3/7/09

Characters:
Rolan Daan (Bryan) - Elf Rogue
Rhogar Burnscale (Rick) - Dragonborn Fighter
Nara Cavell (Matt) - Human Cleric of Pelor

OOC Intro:
The game began with Rolan picking up his nightly job from his contact at the Bleeting Goat in Tantris. He receives instructions to visit the House of Derai, where he is hired to take care of a bandit problem. He is allowed to hire an additional bit of muscle, and he is given aid by the church.

Meanwhile, Rhogar wins 500 gold in a pit fighting tournament against a Half-Orc named Krusk. Rolan hires Rhogar due to his prowess in the ring. He then visits the Church of Pelor, where Nara is added to the party.


Nara's Journal:

This has been a most trying time to say the least. I have been assigned to aid an unusual pair of fellows, on a mission from the House of Derai to relieve a caravan from a bandit problem. Our band is led by Rolan, an Elf with a charming smile and the stench of ale on his breath. His companion is Rhogar, a seemingly fearless Dragonborn with a scar for every day of his life. I'm not quite sure if I trust either of them, but I am more concerned with the greater good at the moment.

We had to take a small boat to the caravan's origin point, where we were assigned a wagon to protect. We were given the middle of the three wagons, and were ordered not to leave it for any reason. The trip was rather uneventful until the caravan was attacked by goblins. The three of us managed to fight off our attackers, but not before the other wagons were set ablaze, and all the other travelers were killed. During the battle we discovered an odd property our wagon possessed - some sort of force field thwarted the goblins' attempts to enter it.

The goblins seemed terribly excited about something, and I longed to understand their exclamations, but of course none of us could comprehend their language. I am tempted to study it when I have the time. I picked up Draconic relatively easily, and I do enjoy learning new things.

Once the goblins had been driven away, we continued our trek, with Rolan now at the reigns. The rest of the trip was thankfully less exciting. We passed another caravan on the side of the road, apparently camping for the night. We started to greet them - Rolan and I even left the wagon to approach the other caravan - but as we got close we thought better of it. We were afraid that they might think us to be bandits ourselves, and didn't want to rouse them. In retrospect I have second thoughts... we could have warned them about the goblin threat.

A bit farther down the road, we had to stop for the night ourselves. Like any smart band of travelers, we slept in shifts, one of us keeping watch at all times. Which makes me that much more curious about the other caravan... why did no one see us approach? Either they had no one keeping watch, or someone was sleeping on the job. Curious. I hope they weren't needing our help. I trust Pelor to guide me in these decisions, but sometimes the right path is hard to see.

Once we were back on the road, we were nearly attacked by goblins again, but we managed to outrun them. When we reached our destination, we weren't exactly given a hero's welcome. We stayed the night in the local inn, Rolan and Rhogar sharing one room, and I in another. The following morning we were presented with a most atrocious breakfast, and were shortly thereafter arrested. Though we failed to notice our wagon's cargo at the time, apparently we were protecting a cache of precious gems. Gems that were now missing, leaving us as the only suspects. We were detained and searched, and questioned separately. I answered all questions with complete honesty, though I'm afraid I didn't know enough to help their investigation. The gems were found in Rolan's room, though I'm not convinced of his guilt.

I was the first to be released. Apparently my church's name precedes me, as I was given a formal apology by a very well-dressed man, and given the royal treatment for the rest of my stay. I'm not much for luxury, so instead of enjoying my lavish new room, I stayed in the inn lobby and questioned the Dragonborn innkeeper if he'd seen anything suspicious while we slept. Unfortunately he had little information to offer.

Rolan and Rhogar were released shortly thereafter, which surprised all of us. As I write this, we are planning our next step. According to our interrogators, the goblin attackers were not the bandits we had been assigned to locate. If we want to be redeemed in everyone's eyes, we should still locate those bandits and bring them to justice. But beyond that, we have several other questions to answer. Was Rolan framed? If so, why? And why was he let go? Did the goblins know of our cargo? Why were we not attacked by the real bandits? And what of the sleeping caravan?

Whatever our next step is to be, I humbly pray for the light of Pelor to illuminate our path, and dissipate the shadows of evil.

- Nara Cavell, Loyal servant of Pelor

XP Rewards:
250 xp each.

Praktas - Kobold Hall

Sometimes Rick, Bryan, and I manage to get together without our regular DM present, so I've started DMing an alternate campaign just for practice. These games are roleplay-light, and combat heavy. I try to throw in a few puzzles here and there, but for the most part they're just smashing their way through everything. While these games don't really help us in our other (Tantris) campaign, learning the battle strategies will hopefully help us in future LFR games. Plus, learning to DM is a valuable skill.

I have decided to call this campaign "Praktas" (pronounced "prock-tahs") since it's mostly just for practice. But "Praktas" will probably also be the name of a city or character within the campaign. I know it's corny, but so is my storytelling.

Kobold Hall
Game Date: 2/21/09
Characters:
Daalan Raan (Bryan) - Elf Ranger (2-weapon style)
Ghargoff Bloodmaster (Rick) - Dragonborn Barbarian

Our regular DM couldn't make the game, so I DMed a practice game. Bryan played Daalan Raan, an Elf Ranger (2-weapon style). Rick played a Dragonborn Barbarian named Ghargoff Bloodmaster. I played them through "Kobold Hall", the adventure given in the 4e DM Guide, and also covered in "Dungeon Master 4e for Dummies". The adventure is designed for at least four players, and while I intended to tone it down for two players, I didn't. Well, I was going to use the first couple of rooms to determine if I needed to nerf the rest of them, and I didn't need to. Ghargoff in particular was a real powerhouse, and I'm not very good at combat strategy yet, so they plowed through the first few rooms like they were fighting kittens.

I had a bit of trouble with the "Skull-Skull" room; it was difficult to figure out how the skull-skull ball figured into everything. It's too bad; when the game was over, I thought of some interesting things I could have done with that encounter.

Anyway, they managed to get to the Kobold boss and slaughter him quite easily. Then they found a secret passage, which led to the den of a young white dragon. Again, the "For Dummies" book had tips on altering the quest for fewer than four players, including changing the dragon into a lesser monster. But apparently I missed that. So I knew the dragon was a bit beyond them, but I wasn't sure what to do about it.

They started to go through the passage without even resting first, so I tried to scare them off. As they walked down the stairs, the air got colder and they heard a scary voice growl, "Who dares to enter the lair of Szartharrax?" Then, as an out-of-character aside, I mentioned that running away was an option. They opted to head back to town, heal up, and come back the next day. Since all the kobolds were dead, I ruled that the upper levels were still empty when they returned, and the dragon was still in its den.

When they finally saw it was a dragon, I still gave them the option of running. But it was just a practice game, so they figured it was worth dying if it meant the chance to fight a dragon. And, they beat it. I'd like to say it was entirely their own strategy and luck, but I did go easy on them here and there. For example, I used some basic attacks on some turns, when I could have used more powerful moves. Also, I misunderstood a rule or two, which worked in their favor.

On the other hand, I also forgot to mention a few rules that would have helped them out, so it almost evens out. I estimate that if all of us had known all the rules, and we were all playing at the top of our game, they still would have gotten that dragon down to 25% before getting devoured. But oh yes, they would have been dragon food.

As it was, they managed to kill the dragon by the skin of their teeth. When the dragon died, one of the players was unconscious and bleeding to death, and the other was down to just a couple of hit points.

I did the math (badly) and they ended up just making a total of 1055 xp each, just making it to level 2. I know that seems like a lot for one quest, but the difficulty was set for at least 4 players, so the XP divided up higher between two. Besides, the campaign isn't that serious anyway.

Rewards:
Daalan (Kobold Hall) - 680 XP, 150 gp, Potion of Healing
Daalan (Szartharrax) - 375 XP, 100 gp, +1 Lifedrinker Longsword, Potion of Healing
Ghargoff (Kobold Hall) - 680 XP, 150 gp, Magic Armor +1, Potion of Healing
Ghargoff (Szartharrax) - 375 XP, 120 gp, Potion of Healing