Campaign Notes: DL 1-2

Apologies for the quiet around here last week but I tend to go into a creative hibernation for module prep. :) We had our second module in my War of the Lance-era Dragonlance campaign yesterday and things turned out pretty much as I had hoped. If you checked here earlier and the entry ended abruptly, I now have it finished. Enjoy!

Title: Est Sularus oth Mithas
PC Level: 1st

Firstly, Brad couldn't make it due to health issues so the kender was off doing what kender do for this adventure. The other 3 PCs (Greg as Gundar, a cleric of Kiri-Jolith; Scot as Beam, a human wizard; Heather as Deedra, a minotaur fighter) were preparing to go to the local knights of Solamnia to tell them of the return of the gods. Gundar prepared his speech, complete with the medallion of faith to help prove his tale's validity. But before they left for the keep, the PCs encountered a group of refugees heading into Ironrock. These poor souls had been on the move for weeks from a city called Thelgaard (other side of the Vingaard mountains from Ironrock). Many citizens of Ironrock rushed out to meet and aid these refugees, as did the PCs once they knew what was happening.

Gundar decided to demonstrate his new divine powers by healing one of the injured with magic, prompting a swell of interest from nearby folk. The PCs learned that Thelgaard came under attack by...red dragons! The great beasts were thought to be little more than childish myths but that changed when those mythical beasts destroyed their city with fire. Following the dragons came an army of humans, ogres, goblins, and some kind of lizard-man. These latter creatures flew from the backs of the dragons to attack the people and, even when slain, wreaked havoc by either turning to stone (thus capturing their killer's weapons) or exploding with acidic gore (melting half the face of one of the refugees).

The knights soon emerged from their keep in the mountain to set up a triage area for the refugees. Gundar, again wanting to prove his talents especially to the knights, divinely healed another person in front of Sir Jiran, the knight commander. After securing things, Sir Jiran asked to speak with Gundar and his companions back at the keep. Only the knight commander and one servant were present then with the party, the other knights and servants attending to the refugees. Gundar and his friends explained what had happened with the fount of Kiri-Jolith last adventure. Sir Jiran could hardly argue against the evidence of the cleric's healing ability but was perplexed how his deity of choice could choose "children" as his emmissaries instead of the knights of Solamnia there. He studies the Measure daily (proper knightly conduct as laid out in 37 written volumes) and all of his men lived by the Code "Est Sularus oth Mithas" ("My Honor is My Life"). Conversation moved to what to do about the approaching evil army. The PCs want to get out there and do something and would very much appreciate knightly aid.

As the debate with Sir Jiran continued, a strangled cry of pain was heard down the hall. The old servant still in the keep was found dead, a round puncture wound through the chest. Deedra spotted a small shadow turning the corner at the far end of the hall. Sir Jiran immediately locked the front (and only) doors to the keep, saying that whatever evil committed this act could not be allowed to escape into the community. He then offered the PCs sanctuary in his quarters until he could hunt down the creature. The group refuses, pledging their aid and the hunt is on!

Room by room, the group searched the keep until they hit the library where 2 goblins were tearing apart the books there. One of the them possessed a bloodied spear, the likely murder weapon used against the poor servant. The group moved on to find two more small groups of goblins who are easily dispatched. Sir Jiran knew the goblins must have entered by a secret means so he takes the PCs to the catacombs. This short corridor has no obvious breach in its walls but all 6 corpses of the keep's founding family are missing. Sir Jiran is incensed and vows to kill every goblin they find for this desecration.

Beam discovers a secret door at the end of the hall and the group descends into the subterranean world. At a fork in the passage, Beam and Sir Jiran investigate one direction while Deedra and Gundar take the other. The latter pair fall victim to a goblin pit trap at the same time 2 monstrous centipedes attack the wizard and knight. Sir Jiran quickly slays one beast as Beam color sprays the other, knocking it out for the knight to finish off. The minotur and cleric try in vain to climb out of the pit as one goblin guard prepares to launch its javelin at them. Gundar summons a celestial dog to distract the goblin which does so in time for Beam and Sir Jiran to arrive to lend aid. Two more goblins arrive from a side tunnel on the other side of the pit and attack Deedra who climbs out of the pit just in time to meet them. Beam is able to balance his way around the pit's ledge but Sir Jiran is not so fortunate and falls in with Gundar. Wizard and minotaur fight bravely but when Beam withdraws after a few near-fatal blows things look bleak for the heroes.

Deedra is able to dispatch two of the goblins before Gundar finally climbs out of the pit to aid her. Beam sees a third monstrous centipede dragging off a part of its dead companion and then crosses the pit at the ledge again to join his friends. Beaten and now terribly low on spells, half the party wants to retreat to the keep but Sir Jiran wants to scout a bit more to see what they are up against (or if that was all of the goblins). The human bones from the catacombs are found after the fight being used as kitchen utensils by the goblins guards at a fire pit, which only pushes Sir Jiran to further explore for more foes. Deedra and Beam reluctantly agree to continue.

The group comes upon a dwarven "date stone" marking that they are nearing a dwarven mining settlement that only existed for 3 years some 40 years ago. After that comes a squat stone building of dwarven design that overlooks a large cave below. Two more goblins are slain before the group sees a larger goblin (the chieftain) in a "throne" inside the structure. The throne sits on some rubble from the collapsed ceiling but has a commanding view of the valley canyon below. Beam uses one of his last spells to disguise minself as a goblin. He then pretends to be a shaman (who the goblin refers to as Kriika) and claims he has brought humans to take over the tribe. During the conversation, the PCs learn that the tribe came from the east because they did not want to join the evil human army that tried to conscript them. The tribe's real shaman had a vision that no good would come to the goblins if they joined, so they ran and eventually settled in the cave there.

But when Beam-as-goblin again pronounced his takeover, the chieftain refused, prompting Deedra to throw the wretched thing down to the tribe the hard way. From out of the shadows then emerged the real tribe's shaman named Kriika. She was much more intelligent than the chieftain and negotiated for peace on her people's behalf. Sir Jiran whispiered to Gundar to keep the goblin busy as he returned to the surface to gather his knights for an assault against the tribe. Meanwhile, Beam dropped his disguise and negotiated in good faith that he and his friends would leave the goblins in peace as long as they did not attack the surface again (which Kriika claimed the chieftain and his guards did on their own). She only wants to be rid of the humans that want to control her tribe which now is mostly comprised of women and children.

Sir Jiran returns with his retinue of 15 young knights as Beam and Kriika trade spells. The knight commander orders his force to destroy the evil goblins but, upon seeing that the "enemy" is non-combatants, refuse their superior's order. Sir Jiran argues that knights are honor-bound to destroy evil wherever they find it. It is suggested by a knight named Sir Plaxus that perhaps Jiran is too closely following the letter of the Measure and not its spirit. The PCs argue for leniency for the goblins, with Beam even claiming that the knights will become his enemies if goblins are harmed. Deedra is none too happy about leaving the stinking things live but agrees with Beam. Gundar sides with Sir Jiran at first but soon realizes that slaughter of innocents does not aid Kiri-Jolith's cause and that these goblins are no different than the refugees on the surface. Eventually, Sir Jiran concedes and stands down, asking what the PCs propose.

Sir Plaxus suggests travelling to Thelgaard to see for themselves what has become of the area and the knightly estate near there with whom Ironrock's knights have had monthly communication. The PCs agree and Gundar takes Sir Plaxus under his tutelage as a cleric of Kiri-Jolith, even using his medallion of faith to make a duplicate one for the knight. The group then returns to the surface and begins preparations to head to the east--and to war!

Engage!

As mentioned previously, Star Trek: The Exhibition is taking place at the Franklin Institute until late September. So after seeing G.I.Joe: The Rise of Cobra Sat. afternoon with Scot and Zlaty (surprisingly great action flick!) we wandered down to Philly to take in the exhibit. There was a long walkway during which you could read some quotes from the films/shows and from Rodenberry and then we arrived at the first room. There were a number of outfits present here, most of which were authentic (such as Khan's outfit and Kirk's uniform from Wrath of Khan). But the real highlight for me came in the next area which housed a replica of the Next Generation bridge...

Here's me doing me best "Engage" pose with Scot as my Riker. This picture doesn't take in the rest of the bridge but the ops and navigation console-chairs were also present. Several of the monitors behind us were running cool little graphics as they had going on the show. That green light above us was projecting a star field onto the viewscreen. I have to confess that I could have played around in that room for hours! Mostly the exhibit was comprised of original series, Next Gen, and ST: Nemesis props (I'd say 75% authentic and 25% replicas) with a smattering of DS9, Voyager, and even the uniforms from the newest movie. All in all, a really nice setup and worth the $12 post-5pm admission (although I didn't feed the meter long enough and walked outside to find a $36 parking ticket!). They also had another famous captain's chair which we had to try out. Scot looks much better in Kirk's chair than me.

Avatar

I know precious little about this flick but I must say that, from the trailer, it looks like James Cameron hasn't lost a step.

Star Trek: The Exhibition

I don't know how these things get past me but now that I know there's authentic ST artifacts only an hour away, I simply must make a pilgrimage HERE.

A Perfect Storm

So, I received a call Friday afternoon from my work scheduler and she says, "I hate to be the bearer of bad news but as of Monday you no longer have your routes." Bwa?! She went on to say that my morning route was being combined with a short pharmacy route so if I wanted to keep my normal day, "I suggest you get a mini-van by Monday."

Bwahahaha!

Right, like I'm going to go out and buy a frickin' van on the promises of this company. Well, that just pissed me the hell off for the whole weekend since I really had no idea what I was doing Monday (except that I'd be starting my day at Lititz instead of Reading and travel to York and back--twice!). I knew I was going to quit when, after stopping at the warehouse en route to Lititz to get a key and my manifests, the scheduler said, "You'd better get a gps since you're going to be a floater." Whoa. First of all, I didn't sign up to not know what the hell I was doing from one day to the next. And by the end of that Monday I had put more miles on my car than on my previous normal days and at (I suspect) much less pay. In effect, the scheduler had screwed me so bad so I would then buy a mini-van. Wrong move.

I returned to the warehouse and turned in my stuff saying, "I'm done." Outlining my grievances with the nice dispatcher in the afternoon, he didn't blame me one bit. I returned home, jobless but pleased at not being bullied into van work. It may not sound like a big deal to you, dear reader, but I know that once a van is in my possession the company would have worked me mercilessly. I did say on Friday to the scheduler, "I don't want to work from 7am to 6pm." Her response: "Why not? You're young and can handle it."

In any case, I don't think an hour went by before the dispatcher I gave my stuff to called me. Seems he contacted the head honcho to say what had happened and, apparently, my (very lucrative) afternoon run of Sovereign banks was never to be taken from me in the first place--more evidence of the scheduler's plot to just piss me off into purchasing a van (it didn't make sense that I'd lose a route with no pharmacy attachment). So the dispatcher said if I wanted the pm route back then it was mine. Since it's enough for me to survive on, I jumped back on the courier bandwagon.

Yesterday, I did the same arduous morning route around York but told the scheduler that it would be my last morning work. Surprisingly, it looks like my wish was granted and today was my first day of having only afternoon work. I plan on using my mornings to work on Tricky Owlbear products and activities (about time, right?).

To sum up, after a stormy weekend of uncertainty, the perfect schedule has emerged. Sometimes, you really can win.

Our First Pathfinder-compatible pdf!

Here's the scoop!

Campaign Notes: DL 1-1

I thought I might jot down some notes here from our new Dragonlance campaign which started up yesterday with character creation and a very quick adventure. The "DL 1-1" in the blog post title stands for "Dragonlance Season 1, Module 1" which is how I number modules for my campaigns (like TV seasons as I've mentioned previously).

We're starting in a small community called Ironrock (as found in the new DL books from Margaret Weis/Sov Stone) in Solamnia, on the west side of the Vingaard Mtns. My brief ideas for the intro adventure were for the PCs to get masterwork weapons from the deity that chooses to use them in the upcoming War of the Lance (we're about a month out or so from meeting the Dragonarmy) and to start out slow so we can get a good sense of the setting. DL at this time (Age of Despair) is rather sparse on magical items which is a change from our planar campaign. I also wanted the players to get the same sense of awe and wonder I had when introduced to DL 25+ years ago. To that end, I read some passages from the original DL 1 and DL 5 supplements. I think the players appreciated getting some world info that their PCs would already know from the original source material.

Gotta run for now but I'll add how the adventure went later on.

Okay, I'm back. So, why did I choose Ironrock? Well, I wanted to have the PCs in an area that will be exposed to the war before the Chronicles events. I guess to me it feels best to not start in medias res. We'll have a few more modules to set the mood and get the players up to speed who are not as familiar with the setting before the poop hits the fan. Ironrock also, according to the War of the Lance sourcebook, hides a secret that none have yet discovered.

As for the adventure itself, we have Heather playing a minotaur fighter, Greg playing a Plainsman cleric (of Kiri-Jolith but no spells or clerical abilities yet as the gods have "not yet returned"), Brad as a kender "rogue", and Scot as a wizard. I decided to have everyone know each other as they have been part of the same orphanage for some time. The woman who ran the place decided to move on since the 4 PCs are now the only people there and they are young adults. Now they have possession of a two-room shack with a partially collapsed roof. The game began with the Plainsman and minotaur sparring outside against the backdrop of the mighty Vingaard Mtns. The kender is cheering on the warriors while the wizard observes on the far side.

The kender is then approached by two men--one in bright clothing and one in armor and armed with a longsword. The first is some sort of entertainer who is interested in magical goings-on in the area. His bodyguard is, well, a mean-looking guy. The bard-type figure also has a pet weasel which the kender immediately recognizes as a "long rat." Sensing danger, the sparring duo and the wizard prepare for combat. However, the only offensive maneuver from the bard is a juggling act for the kender. The PCs speak briefly to the bard and direct him to the Ironrock Inn for more information (as they have none).

Being the inquisitive characters that they are, the PCs decide to head the Inn soon after to find the two visitors questioning the innkeeper about the old crone who lives in one of the caves in the mountain. Scot's wizard nearly causes an incident when his detect magic is noted by the bodyguard. The spell picks up magical bracers on the bard before the man calls his bodyguard away from the cleric and minotaur who jump to defend the wizard from the aggressive guard. As it's clear the party won't leave them alone, the bard offers the kender (who sat at the bar with him and his weasel) a business opportunity to lead him and his guard to the old crone's cave. The kender, in true kender fashion, denies an offer of payment in leiu of simply having fun leading them.

The group hikes 15 minutes west to the crone's cave, a place which the PCs have only seen the outside of as the woman has consistently run them off every time they've drawn near. Today, no one emerges. The PCs are increasingly concerned that the duo means no good for the old woman so the cleric tell the kender to distract the two while he goes inside to ostensibly prepare the woman for her visitors. The kender juggles while the two strangers move away from the cave entrance. The cleric moves inside and is stopped at the first turn by none other than the crone herself. She quietly warns the young man that the two strangers are evil and they must be killed because desire the secret of Ironrock and she is its guardian.

As the cleric, minotaur, and wizard begin to plan their next move, the kender intentionally whacks the bodyguard in the head with his juggling ball. The guard draws his blade and tells the bard to "end this charade!" A battle ensues during which the guard nearly slays the minotaur (-8 hp before she stabilizes!). The bard color sprays the poor kender who is knocked out for the duration but is in turn color sprayed by the wizard. The cleric slays the guard before then dispatching the bard in a show of righteous finality. The "bard's" disguise self spell dissipates to reveal an older black-robed wizard.

After stabilizing the minotaur, the crone reveals that the secret of Ironrock has been protected so that the PCs can take possession of it when they're ready--this moment! Deep inside the cave, the crone leads the group to a blank wall. The wizard dusts off the wall to reveal a carving of a bison's horn--the cleric recognizes this as Kiri-Jolith's symbol. A search of the wall reveals two fist-sized apertures on the wall's bottom corners. After the LN-aligned cleric gets zapped by a magical trap, the good-aligned kender and wizard put their fists in the nooks and the wall opens upward like a door. Inside, a fountain of pure water is active. A half-submerged dagger is rusty above the water line but below is in mint condition. The PCs dip their weapons and armor into the sacred waters of Kiri-Jolith (war god) and find their arms and armor repaired and made masterwork quality!

The wizard takes a vial of black liquid he found on the evil wizard's body and places it inside a scroll case he fills with sacred water. The black ichor fights with the pure water but soon evaporates, prompting Scot's wizard to theorize the pair meant to poison the fountain. Once their equipment is dipped, the fountain suddenly dries up, leaving behind a medallion of faith at the fount's center. The cleric takes possession of the item and hears the words of Kiri-Jolith to go out and preach the faith and that this medallion will make others for those of like minds. Already a war-minded cleric, Greg's PC experiences an epiphany and changes alignment from LN and LG to better serve Kiri-Jolith.

Thus ends the first adventure of the new campaign!

A Mileage Milestone

Hard to believe I bought my Fusion in Feb '06 and it now has....

My first vehicle was a 1998 (I think) Ford Taurus. Nice car but I decided I needed something new when it hit 70k+ miles or so after 5 years. After that was a Jeep Grand Cherokee. I absolutely loved that thing but then gas decided to take its hike (and not return from the heights to which it soared) so I just couldn't justify the expense. Then came my Fusion. Guess I'll drive this until it dies while I'm doing the courier thing. Should be able to get 200k miles out of it, no?

In other news, I see ENWorld is finally loading up to snuff. 'Bout time!

A Monument in Gaming

So, we've got statues of the greats--Washington, Lincoln, etc.--but soon we'll have...Gygax?

Don't get me wrong. I'm deeply indebted to the man for what he created and it has been and forever will be a shaping force in my life. But a statue? Hey, whatever makes people happy.

Saturday Outings

I keep forgetting to mention that Scot, Zlaty, and I visited a new (new to us anyway) game store last Saturday. It is called The Games Keep, LLC and is located at: Parkway Center 929, South High Street, West Chester, PA 19382. I can't seem to find the web page for them but they do have an Amazon storefront. They had a surprising number of 3rd party products, most notable of which was some Expeditious Retreat OSRIC adventures. I asked the guy at the register how those sold and he said they were sporadic. I introduced myself and my company and he seemed genuinely interested in stocking books of ours once they were in print/distribution. Heh, he might be waiting awhile. The pic below is obviously the outside of the store. Scot is prominently displayed while I am mostly hiding off to the right.

Before this stop last week, our trio also spent some time at Delaware Park (where we walked out with delicious ice cream and a couple extra bucks each!), Kohl's and Best Buy for some tax free shopping (Scot and Zlaty picked up a new 42" screen tv which we just about fit into my car), and then a surprisingly tasty meal at the Arby's where Rts. 1 and 322 meet. A good day!

Not as many outings yesterday. I was working my normal bi-weekly route from Kutztown to Robesonia and the final drop-off at West Deptford, NJ. I then rushed home so Heather and I could catch a showing of Harry Potter. Haven't read the books yet so I had no idea what to expect. Fortunately, these flicks are normally good (if a bit confusing at times like the previous one where just too much was squeezed in) and The Half-Blood Prince was no exception.

Today, Heather and I are off again to aid my mom in packing up from her quilt show out at the Hershey Lodge. Before that, we'll be taking in some money (I hope!) from Hollywood Casino.