Thron, Dwarf Invoker

I made it back late Friday night and had a good training session, but still glad to be back. Saturday was quite as The Other Half had to work in the morning. I did go see her for lunch and she cut me loose in the afternoon go play some D&D with the guys.

Rob was running his campaign that he re-booted, so since I am only a part timer in that adventure, I re-booted as well. They have another controller on their team, but like me his is a part-timer, and since he created the atypical wizard, I decided to try another route.

I like the Invoker class. It has quite a bit of power to it, even at lower level, but the trade off is self inflicted wounds. One power caused 5 points of damage when used, but my favorite caused damage, and pulls the enemies toward you, but then your dazed, limiting your ability to follow up. Kind of tricky to play and really requires teamwork, which is good.

In the morning The Other Half and I did the big lake at Zorinsky. We got caught in a light shower about half way around, but it cleared quickly. Luckily the heavy stuff waited until right now to come down so I won't be mowing today. :)

jp

Avoider of Lawn Work

The Adventure Continues...

On Saturday the remaining party members, Eldecar, intrepid Halfling recently returned from the dead, Zoltan the Reformed, Human Wizard with a panache for the creepy, Zarsthor, Dragonborn Warlord who's moral compass puts him in harms way, and Sliver, the elf ranger looking for revenge against those that murdered his family.


After a well deserved rest, leveling, and outfitting, the party followed up on some new job prospects. Seems the Lord Mayor of Winterhaven was interested in eliminating any threat from the 'Blood Reavers' as they would be bad for continued growth in both the local community and the Vale as a whole. Additionally, the local shop keep asked the party to transport a mysterious box to the seven pillar hall, deep in Thunderspire, the last hall of the Minators before their decent into madness.



The trip would take them to Fallcrest, and the Lord Mayor of Winterhaven requested a parcel be delivered to the Lord Mayor of Fallcrest that contained news of the Rift the party had secured as well as the situation with the slavers. To keep company, the party traveled the route with Barnaby, a bumbling old merchant that told tales of the destroyed city of Devonshire, the northern capital and trading city of the long disposed Allimar Empire.



On the trail and shortly after leaving, the players stumbled upon Splug. Still carrying Zoltan's lost rope, but with a few extra items, Splug was excited to be reunited with his old friends. The friends, less so. The party decide to try and pass poor Splug (now played by Mark) off as a scared Hafling.



Entering Fellcrest after a non-eventful trip, the party took up residence at the Ninter Inn, feed and bed and re-looked at the small town they had only briefly visited when they first met. Some exploring led Zarsthor and Eldecar to a smithy that promised to fashion a special weapon for the Dragonborn Warlord. Mean time the Lord Mayor's guards told Zoltan and Sliver that they would have to come again in the afternoon as he was busy. While leaving Sliver caught a shadowy figure following them and he doubled back while Zoltan earned a few copper doing magic tricks as a distraction. The shadow claimed to be looking for his lost cat, and swiftly returned to the Castle.



That afternoon, the party re-integrated, except for Splug left in the room, retuned to the Castle and this time were ushered into the Lord Mayor's council room. There the shadow figure sat at the Mayors side as a trusted aid. Sliver asked about his cat, which the aid simply reddened and glared. The Mayor read the letter and was astonished to see that the Blood Reavers had been heard of in Winterhaven as well. In fact a caraven had just been attacked on the trade road and taken captive. Only a handful escaped and were present. The Lord Mayor added an additional reward for the destruction of the Blood Reavers as well as a bonus for finding the lost caravan teams.



So off to Thunderspire the valiant team headed. The path was clear and entrance was uncontested. It was not the evil lair they had expected, instead an underground town controlled by a group of mages. The party rescued a young Halfing from the Halfmoon clan that had become entangled with the Blood Reavers. Using his family inn as a base of operations in the Seven Pillar Hall, the party set out for the non-secret hide out. They found the old temple with out issue and began to fight their way through.



The entrance of the hall was a large greeting room that had a double door headed into the main temple. After multiple stealth moves to get across, Splug found himself unable to climb the 15' wall to a balcony on the far side. After multiple attempts at scrambling up, both Sliver and Splug finally made it up to the upper level where they found an unlocked door. Both Sliver and Splug moved forward to investigate as the rest of the party tried to approach the double doors. Sliver and Splug spotted a Bugbear and two goblins in a sleeping quarters at the same time, the rest of the party could hear some conversation in an unknown language on behind their door. Splug used his sneak attack abilities and Sliver let loose arrows to get a surprise round started. Eldecar went to open the door to find they were locked! Time to get the tools out!

Zarsthor rushed the balcony and easily climbed up as Eldecar was working on the door. After taking serious damage, Splug ran for the rear and pulled out his trusty sling as the rest of the party engaged. The tight quarters paid off for the adventures as it kept the Bugbear and Goblins from getting combat advantage.

After a short rest, the party ventured further into the temple and found a group of humans, hobgoblins and goblins eating and gambling. The narrow entrance into the room caused a bit of panic as the party tried to fight its way in, Eldecar tumbled and positioned himself on the back side of the ranks, but that led to being the primary target of the goblin sharpshooters. Zoltan used his Flaming Sphere to help clear a path and the party finally prevailed.During the short rest the party discussed if they should move forward or take an extended rest.

Low on Surges and some daily powers spent it was a close decision, but they decided to press on to help get that second milestone to help Eldecar recover from his grievous wounds. Entering the next room, the Chamber of Eyes and heart of the temple, the party encountered the holding pin for the prisoners, but they were already gone. The chamber only held a Dire Wolf and three Hobgoblin archers, one which ran away to sound the alarm. The Dire Wolf didn't stand a chance and quickly fell, but the warcaster, two Druegers and Krand, the war chief made it difficult and the party began to back peddle as they thought they were in over their head. A few tricks and lucky rolls soon changed the flow of the battle. The last remaining Drueger tried to flee the deaths and Krand rushed into battle, only to be hacked at by Eldecar and Sliver. Zoltan used his 'Might Fist of Zoltan' to squeeze the Warcaster out of existence. The last remaining Hob could be seen fleeing the temple.

After a short rest, the party scouted Krand's offices to find the note of sale from the Drueger for the 12 prisoners as well as the cash for said sale.And that is where we ended up for the evening. A good clip of action and a bit of plot and story to boot. I was pleased, but am looking forward to getting Paul's new Dragonborn Paladin into the mix.Might be a week or two before we can hit it again. Rob is wanting to run his game next week. Not sure I can escape, but I'm going to try.

Have a great New Year (the gang is meeting to play games, but I have other plans… Stupid gang playing games without me! :) and I'll post about the New Years Eve Dinner next week!

jp
I
Play
Games
!

PS: I might have messed up a few NPC names. I'll correct later if I did.

jp
Error of names

Huh... Wrong notebook.

Date line: Saturday
Action: Rousing game of D&D headed out by myself as the Game Master... Pushing for the long conclusion of the Keep on the Shadowfell
Players: The gang
Check List:

• Books... Check!
• DM Screen... Check!
• Miniatures... Check!
• Maps... Check!
• Adventure... Check!
• White Notebook that looks like a dozen other white notebooks that contains the 'oh so important characters'... Che... Che... Che.... Shit!

Shit!
Double Shit!

Stupid white notebooks playing trick the stupid GM... I'll have to torture them all for the insubordination!

So, here I was all set up to run what could have been the closing scenes to Keep on the Shadowfell and I packed the wrong note book. It contained the Dark Heresy characters, not the D&D characters. I was, as you can expect, less then happy with myself.

Luckily, Rob stepped up like a trooper and ran home to get his adventures since he was about 10 mins closer (both ways) then I. I took the opportunity to roll up a Dwarf Cleric, Rillic Oakenstout, to assist in Rob's Forgotten Realms campaign. It was nice to play, but I couldn't get over the nagging feeling that I was letting folks down. Rillic turned out pretty good, his highlight of the day was jumping the 10' ft pit trap to hit the Warg with his Craigshammer two handed!



I hope to hit it again on the 15th. Maybe start a tad early since I had to bail at 10ish to get the Kiddo from work.

That is about it. Go out and vote tomorrow. No vote is a wasted vote, even if the person has not chance.

jp
Stupid White Notebooks!

Splug! All Adventuring Hero!

With a since of purpose the mighty band of adventures set forth to determine if the historical ramblings of the sage were accurate? Was a Cult of Orcus trying to re-open an ancient rift to the Shadow Fell?

Persona Dramatica
(We have had some minor changes since the first post on this subject)

Zoltan the Reformed - A middle aged human wizard that has distant nightmares of a past life
Zarzthor - Dragonbord Warlord who finds himself in the thick of each battle
Extel - Human Ranger - Strong, brash, & young, wielding two blades
Sliver Elmwalker - Elf ranger on a quest to find those that killed his kin
Eldcar Elddarion - Halfling rouge - cocky, self-assured, and self proclaimed antagonist of Extel
Uhlk - Human Fighter - UHLK SMASH!
Elladen Phaers Halladen - Softspoken Eladrin Swordmage that uses the power of the life drinker to keep the battle moving. An a healer of others extraordinaire.

The party had no problem finding the remains of the keep. Only the odd looking wooden shack in the middle looked to be from the current century. Behind its doors they find a path leading into the damp dungeon of the keep. Entering the first room the party sees a goblin yelling and waving at them from across the way. Eager to engage in combat, the party moves forward to engage. Several warriors and a few sharpshooters begin ranged assault. Extel made an ill advised move across the floor and fell into the 10' pit trap and was attacked by a rat swarm.

The few goblins were quick work and off the party went to the east. They found a secret door to the North along the hallway and another group of goblins digging for treasure. These however had a few guard drakes to keep them company. The battle fought on multiple levels was a bit tougher, but the party continued to press after only finding a small holy symbol of the Dragon god Bahamut.

Back to the secret door, the party encountered a large sleeping goblin. However, Extel, again, tripped on his feet ('1' on his stealth check) and Balgron the Fat was able to sound the alarm. The fight was made tougher as a Goblin Hexer entered the fray and the alarm was sounded bringing in the goblins and hobgoblin torture from a near by prison cell. The party was fighting on two sides of the large connected rooms. Extel, Zarzthor, and Elladen fought the hexer and his goons while the others contended with the hobgoblin and his posse coming in behind them. Characters fell, blood was shed, much pain was given. An extended rest was in order.

The evening passed with out incidence and the party continued looking for a way down deeper into the keep to find the evil. Their next room was the tourture chamber and prison cells that the hobgoblin controlled. In one cell, weak with hunger a goblin prisoner cried for help. "Help Splug!" "Splug very, very nice" "Splug your friend". And here we see the unbridled hostility between El and Extel. El was in the mood to slay the pathetic goblin while Extel was looking for a porter to carry his stuff. In the end Splug joined the group as porter and guide.

A decision needed to be made. Should the party explore the last remaining door, or explore the caverns near the excavation site. The party made towards the last closed door and found a maze with pictures on the floor blocking access across them. Splug warned them that the scary dead live here. Not good to go that way, but forward the party went anyways.

Unable to determine how to cross the pictures, the party went to the east again and encountered a patch of zombies and rotters. They were able to dispatch them with create ease and had no issues with the second batch that came from behind. Moving forward, the party entered into what appeared to be a chapel to Bahamut, but as the Rouge passed the threshold to the larger chamber, a large "BONG" was heard and a skeleton legion appeared from the sarcophagi along he edges of the leading hallway. The team leap into action, taking the minion Skeletons to task quite easily, but having some fight with the warriors that had combat advantage on the a few members. Five minutes searching the room, a the "BONG" went off again. Thinking quickly Zarzthor knelt in front of the alter and gave a prayer to Bahamut, which dispelled the second wave of skeletons. In the battle, the might Splug slayed two minions, earning the respect of his 'peers' "Splug no hero, Splug just carry stuff"

And with that the game was adjourned. Double doors leading out of the room to explore, undead around every corner, and Splug gots your back!

jp
Winterhaven Evil Guild Local #1001

Point of light in the dark of night

The party has ventured forth in a 4e adventure for the first time. Our players are:

• Uhlk - Human Great Weapon Fighter that likes to smash.
  
• Extel - Human Blade Ranger who's haunted memories of his past lives fill his waking days
• Elladen Paeris Halladan - Eladrin Swordmage who's family fought the Bloodspear Orcs to the end of their line.
• Valgar Talean - Dragonborn Swordmage on a quest far from his homelands to better learn the skills of his trade
• Zoltan the Reformed - Human Wizard that is a bitter and corse man, often thinking of his own gain over those in the party, that is until the chips are on the table.
• Eldacar - Halfling Rouge who is light on his feet and quick with a blade, walking the path of his own choice and not afraid of those that he may cross.
  
• Sliver Elmwalker - Elf Bowmaster Ranger that is looking for revenge against the enemy that destroyed his family and clan. His only clue a dropped medallion.
  

The party meet in Fallcrest and quickly found work supporting Lord Warden Markelhay in ridding a particularly nasty clan of Kolbolds that had taken residence near by.

After traveling for 1/2 a day the party hound the Kobold Hall under the remains of an old manor house. The first encounter proved to be a easy, by and large, for seven adventures as they quickly dispatched several Skirmishers and Slingers. However the second room, the crypt seemed to be tougher. The Slinger's glue pots seemed to be more effective and the hidden traps added to the damage, causing the players to slow down. We began to see the 'healing' nature of Elladen come into play as he used his healing skill since the Cleric took a drastic direction to fighterdom.

After finding a bit of gold, the players moved into the second crypt and found slingers and minions tossing a giant sticky ball on a rope that would push the players back. The device made it hard to move forward, given the glue pots as well. The players seemed to have things mostly in hand when two guard drakes appeared, and they were tougher then any Kobolds. Uhlk went down and need several turns of repair.

The next room provided a greater challenge. The boulder trap chased the players around the room, that with the glue pots left Extel to be crushed, if not for his timely save and use of an action point to move out of the way. Eldcar and Uhlk both went down as Elladen and company continued their armature hospital routines. :) Finally finishing off the baddies, the party found a Magic Staff and some coin as well as the secret door to the...

Dragon's Room! A young white dragon was being taken care of by the Kobolds and he attacks. I bothced his surprise move and flame. So the party spread out making it hard for him to hit. He did drop Elladen and put the hurt on several others. Five encounters on no rest the party took the loot and headed back to town.

Some rewards and gold are exchanged, the party meets some interesting characters, and gets a charter by Lord Warden to carry word to the Lord of Winterhaven. On the road, they are waylaid by another band of Kobolds. A bit more aggressive, these guys had some fire pots as well. Zoltan and Eldacar get a bit too ahead of the party and are ambushed by the Dragonshields. Valgar gets stuck in combat with a Dragonshield and two slingers that use the mob tactics to ensure powerful hits. In the end the party dispatches the evil Kobolds and makes it to Winterhaven, where most of the party levels up.

Good session. Got to spend a lot of time playing, even if I had to raise my voice from time to time to get hold of the table. Might be a two week gap as we have a WARMACHINE tournament and a Flames of War tournament back to back.

jp
Keeper of the Bad Guys

It is about Character...

On Wednesday I raced home after work, got the lawn mowed, and took a quick shower. Not becuase I had a hot date, but Steve and Paul were coming over to work on their characters.

They arrived about 630ish and stayed for about 2 1/2 hours to roll up Steve's Wizard (Zoltan the Reformed) while Paul re-vamped his Warlord (Still no name).

I know I am pretty new to the gang, don't have the 10 year history of gaming that they have, but some sort of multi-class fetish was kicking in. :) We will see how it plays out in the long term. My copy Keep on the Shadow Fells should be in this weekend, which should give me a chance to start reading the adventure.

On other fronts, I'll be running the DH game on Saturday. My last go as the GM for DH before I turn it over to Rob. I hope to create my Psyker on Saturday while we are playing.

jp
Hi my name is John and I'm a gaming addict...

Flames of War & Character Gen

Ok, not really related, but they both happened on Saturday.

I got a chance to play in the Flames of War (FoW) tournament on Saturday. It was a fun time, despite the massive headache I had running form about half way through my second game. Rob ran an interesting format of only 750 points, which in the FoW world is pretty darn small. The Game Shoppe hosted the event and we had about ten folks show. Four rounds ensured plenty of time to get your FoW itch out of the way.

I ran a Brit Infantry Company with a HQ, under strength Inf. Platoon, 3 Churchill III (Cheddary Bastard!), a HMG platoon, and a 20mm AA section. Not a lot of toys on the table. I went D-W-W-D which really surprised me since I haven’t played the game all that much. Took fourth place and got a nice little gift card, which promptly got spent on some D&D minis. Which takes us to the Character Gen…

So with blazing headache, I offered up the opportunity to go and role up some characters! It went pretty well, a bit slower then I would have liked, but not too bad. Bonus: Eric and Paul who missed the tournament were able to come and play too. The only missing in action was Steve, who was paying off his debt to society by helping a buddy that helped him move, move. Steve you are a righteous man!

So here is what we got so far:

• Extell: Human Fighter who is stronger then anyone ought to be. (Mic will be joining us on a part time basis...)
• Eldacar: Halfing Rouge with a pair of Katar Punching Daggers (Rob)
• No Name Joe: Dragonborn Paladin of the Raven Queen (Eric)
• No Name Joe II: Half-Elf Warlord who is a work in progress :-) (Paul)
• Frak: A Dwarf Cleric that wants to be in the front rank (Mark)
• Sliver Elmwalker: Elf Ranger, Master Archer. (Kyle - Winner of coolest name too!)

In game terms we have two Defenders, two Leaders, & two Strikers. Not a bad mix. With Steve still to role up a character, we might get a controller, but if not I think that we should be OK.

We took a quick encounter, level one. Bad guys were similar to what I ran the last test. 1 – 3rd level Goblin Hexer, 3 – 1st level Goblin Warriors, and 6 - 1st level Goblin Cutters (minions). The party burned three of their daily powers on the encounter, and several of the players took some hits. They should have been OK to go to another encounter with out any issues.

With a successful test run, I think this is what may happen in the near future. I’ll finish up the current Dark Heresy adventure and turn over the “Purge the Unclean” to Rob who can take over DH GM duties. I’ll step in to run D&D adventure and pick up a player in the DH campaign. I’m looking at a Psyker! I would like Rob and I to swap adventures. So Rob would run a story line to completion, then I would run a D&D dungeon to an end… flopping back and forth about every three to four weeks. That should give both of us plenty of time to generate new material and a chance to both play and run a game.

For the D&D players, I’m going to force the guys to do a bit of homework. I want them to write up a short character background. Nothing hard core, just a paragraph or so that I can use as adventure threads. Bonus XP to the players that provide me more then two lines of flavor text! :-p

Let me know what the gang thinks, if that is doable.

jp
Gaming Whore