One could be forgiven for thinking that this blog and my 13th Age game had died.
However, neither is true. The hiatus has lasted much longer that I would have liked, but it turns out teenagers are really busy, which makes me, as their father, also really busy.
Nonetheless, we will play again, and you will read about it here.
In the meantime, I wrote a little something and the kind people over at the Iconic Podcast recognized my entry about how the Wizard King (before he became the Lich King in 13th Age's Dragon Empire) came to kill and enthrall the lich of the White Dragon Icon as the First Place winner.
I have already spent the money, so they can't take it back.
I read the other entries that placed (and I look forward to making time to read the other entries as well), and I have to say that there are so many creative minds out there, and I would have just been glad to compete. But I am glad to have been selected this time around as the winner, and you can read my entry here.
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Friday, March 7, 2014
Heroes of the 13th Age: Part 10: Politics are hard; killing monsters less so . . .
Well, back on February 22,
2014, we managed to squeeze in a few hours of play.
Our cast continues as follows:
Cerise, the Spirit-Touched Cleric
Indigo the Gnome Cleric
Silent "Z" (as always, the name changes), the Half-Elf Rogue
Legolis, the High Elf Ranger
Hey Watchit, the Half-Orc Fighter
Lief, the Human Bard
Delthen Eversoar, the Human Paladin, and
Rolen Stillwind, the Wood Elf Sorcerer
Unfortunately, neither Indigo nor Z's players were available for the last game, so those characters stayed in the background and otherwise were checking out things around town which kept them out of the main action.
When we left the intrepid adventurers at the end of our previous game, there had been an unfortunate incident with a High Elven paladin who had become possessed by some demonic spirit. The party had been able to defeat him and free his squires from demonic influence, but he remained mostly in its thrall, with moments of lucidity. He asked to be taken to the Temple of Dawn in the town of Tampu Tinku to see if he could be freed of the demonic possession.
The group continued with the local teamster boss, a Hafling named Hull, and a Half-Elf named Quill who was returning to live with and take care of his "gran gran." They intended to meet at the Temple with Canoness Shar Patali, whose report to the Cathedral had helped spur their commission as auditors and whose request for help had reached the Order of the Great Gold Wyrm which had sent Sir Kalarai, the now possessed Elf, to the aid of the town.
They departed Stone Bridge Creek and not long thereafter arrived in the town of Tampu Tinku. They immediately headed to the rather grand Temple of the Dawn and met a Priestess named Mara at the temple gates.
There, she informed them that the Canoness had recently left on a mysterious pilgrimage to seek for aid for the town, she took with her two of the temple acolytes, Mari and Rob. Mara had been left in charge of the temple and the brother and sisters of the order who kept the holy shrines. Priestess Mara had no idea when Shar Patali would return.
The adventurers asked what her thoughts were on what was happening in town. She launched into a fairly detailed discussion of local politics, including the rivalries between the Baba brothers, Wari and Lenari. Wari and Lenari were once close (Lenari owns the dairy and Wari is a prominent farmer), but several years back, Wari had a religious conversion and began to heavily patronize the Temple of Dawn. His example helped many see the light of the way of the House of Dawn, and gradually many households began to turn from the druidic Old Faith to the Dawn Temple. Lenari is a staunch member of the Old Faith followers, and Wari is a zealous convert of the Temple. Their feuding has had the town in an uproar for some time.
Added to this, Wari is running for mayor, the first member of the Dawn congregation to do so, as the mayorship has, in the past, always been held by someone of the druidic faith. Also, to complicate things, the Old Faith candidate, Pitch, the Miller, recently dropped out of the electoral race. Rumors have circulated through town that members of the Dawn congregation intimidated Pitch into quitting.
Priestess Mara assured them that such rumors were nonsense. If anything, it was the Old Faith followers who were involved in their dark and emotional nature spirit practice who were scary and intimidating. If Pitch quit for any thought out reason, it was probably because he knew he was going to loose.
Also, the town is in turmoil because the old Druid who used to keep the Old Faith Grove decided to move on to a new territory (who knows why those people do anything?) and a new Druid of the Grove has yet to be appointed. Additionally, Lord Bari, the Emperor's representative and local military administrator (resident at the local fortress keep) recently also converted to the worship of the Dawn Gods, which drove a wedge between him and the local Archmage representative, Lady Kinara, who subsequently left on a mission of her own. Lord Bari's soldiers have been concerned with incursions that seem to coming in from the Red Wastes and have not been concerned with the local bandit problem, which is the concern of the local civil authorities, represented by Constable Kwan.
The bandits have been troubling, but in general, Priestess Mara opined that it was mostly just overblown town politics and family matters that really were not worth the Cathedral's time to investigate.
Delthen decided he would try to assess whether he thought she was lying, but he could not get a clear read on her. She seemed earnest enough.
Hull spoke up that he still thought the bandits were the worst of the town's problems.
Quill noted that he really needed to get to his Gran Gran's.
Priestess Mara promised that she and her brothers and sisters would confine Sir Kalari and take care of him until the return of the Canoness, when they would be able to perform an exorcism. The Squires Valerie, Rupert and Jock helped the Priestess move Sir Kalari into the Temple, but stated that they would go to seek aid from their Order for Sir Kalari.
Indigo decided to go a pray at the temple, and Z mysteriously disappeared to snoop around unencumbered by the other party members.
The adventurer's accompanied Hull as far as his depot, and then, they proceeded through town with Quill to his grandmother, Vamil's, home. While on their way through the town, they noticed that the largest and nicest building (after the Temple) a large inn complex, announced as the Serene Empress Inn, was shuttered and boarded up. Quill expressed surprise, as the Serene Empress had always been the heart of the town, at least it was when he was here 10 or 15 years ago.. He has no idea what happened to it.
Once arriving at Vamil's ("Vamy's") cottage, the old woman hobbled out to greet her grandson and embrace him. Hey Watchit decided to get in on some group hug action and gave a gently crushing embrace to the two of them.
Quill explained who these strangers were and what they were doing, and how they had saved his life. Vamy dispensed tea, wine and ribbon candy to each of the visitors and offered to allow some to sleep in her loft free of charge (she does not have quite room enough for everyone, but Hull's wife would probably put up the rest if they don't mind not staying at an inn).
They asked Vamy what had happened to the Serene Empress Inn, and she allowed that it was a big mystery. About a month back, there was a huge commotion at the inn: fighting and screaming. When the Constable and his deputies finally came, they found the inside of the inn laid to waste and every living person, the owners, their family and employees, the townspeople and the travelers who were guests, all dead in some kind of huge melee. The fight apparently raged throughout the Inn, leaving no survivors. No one understands what kind of madness must have happened, and no one was able to figure it out. The bodies were taken out and the families buried their dead. The travelers were buried in the hallowed ground of the old Druid Grove, and people were afraid, but just did not know what to think.
The adventurers wanted to talk to Pitch Miller about pulling out of the mayor's race, but they thought they would just have a look at the Serene Empress first.
They began their investigation by forcing open the door into the kitchen. They carefully toured first the main floor and then the upstairs. They found every chair in the inn to have been broken, and much of the other furniture damaged or destroyed. There were areas of blood staining and spilled drink and food that was not cleaned.
Hey did notice that the kitchen, if cleaned up, would be a great place in which to cook.
As they looked through the main floor, Delthen in a careful search found a broken blade with strange script on it. The blade itself looked ornate, as if it had been forged for ritual use.
Lief examined the script and found that it seemed to be of the ancient Serpent Script, and that the characters probably translated as "[of]fering."
Upstairs was less disturbed, but still it looked like the fighting had happened up here as well, and everything was broken into. Nothing of real value seemed to remain.
They finally proceeded down into the cellar.
The cellar looked strangely cleared out, with only a few decrepit ale or sour wine barrels still left as far as provisions. Otherwise, there was just trash and debris left around.
Legolis missed with his axe.
Hey swung his trusty enchanted tree and struck with a critical hit, not only smashing the Kobold before him, but flinging it into the Kobold attacking Legolis, killing both shadow warriors. It seemed they had taken out the opposition.
Rolen did not manage his Elven Grace roll, but he summoned his Chaos Bolt of Thunder Energy and blasted one of the Savages.
Our cast continues as follows:
Cerise, the Spirit-Touched Cleric
Indigo the Gnome Cleric
Silent "Z" (as always, the name changes), the Half-Elf Rogue
Legolis, the High Elf Ranger
Hey Watchit, the Half-Orc Fighter
Lief, the Human Bard
Delthen Eversoar, the Human Paladin, and
Rolen Stillwind, the Wood Elf Sorcerer
Unfortunately, neither Indigo nor Z's players were available for the last game, so those characters stayed in the background and otherwise were checking out things around town which kept them out of the main action.
When we left the intrepid adventurers at the end of our previous game, there had been an unfortunate incident with a High Elven paladin who had become possessed by some demonic spirit. The party had been able to defeat him and free his squires from demonic influence, but he remained mostly in its thrall, with moments of lucidity. He asked to be taken to the Temple of Dawn in the town of Tampu Tinku to see if he could be freed of the demonic possession.
The group continued with the local teamster boss, a Hafling named Hull, and a Half-Elf named Quill who was returning to live with and take care of his "gran gran." They intended to meet at the Temple with Canoness Shar Patali, whose report to the Cathedral had helped spur their commission as auditors and whose request for help had reached the Order of the Great Gold Wyrm which had sent Sir Kalarai, the now possessed Elf, to the aid of the town.
They departed Stone Bridge Creek and not long thereafter arrived in the town of Tampu Tinku. They immediately headed to the rather grand Temple of the Dawn and met a Priestess named Mara at the temple gates.
There, she informed them that the Canoness had recently left on a mysterious pilgrimage to seek for aid for the town, she took with her two of the temple acolytes, Mari and Rob. Mara had been left in charge of the temple and the brother and sisters of the order who kept the holy shrines. Priestess Mara had no idea when Shar Patali would return.
The adventurers asked what her thoughts were on what was happening in town. She launched into a fairly detailed discussion of local politics, including the rivalries between the Baba brothers, Wari and Lenari. Wari and Lenari were once close (Lenari owns the dairy and Wari is a prominent farmer), but several years back, Wari had a religious conversion and began to heavily patronize the Temple of Dawn. His example helped many see the light of the way of the House of Dawn, and gradually many households began to turn from the druidic Old Faith to the Dawn Temple. Lenari is a staunch member of the Old Faith followers, and Wari is a zealous convert of the Temple. Their feuding has had the town in an uproar for some time.
Added to this, Wari is running for mayor, the first member of the Dawn congregation to do so, as the mayorship has, in the past, always been held by someone of the druidic faith. Also, to complicate things, the Old Faith candidate, Pitch, the Miller, recently dropped out of the electoral race. Rumors have circulated through town that members of the Dawn congregation intimidated Pitch into quitting.
Priestess Mara assured them that such rumors were nonsense. If anything, it was the Old Faith followers who were involved in their dark and emotional nature spirit practice who were scary and intimidating. If Pitch quit for any thought out reason, it was probably because he knew he was going to loose.
Also, the town is in turmoil because the old Druid who used to keep the Old Faith Grove decided to move on to a new territory (who knows why those people do anything?) and a new Druid of the Grove has yet to be appointed. Additionally, Lord Bari, the Emperor's representative and local military administrator (resident at the local fortress keep) recently also converted to the worship of the Dawn Gods, which drove a wedge between him and the local Archmage representative, Lady Kinara, who subsequently left on a mission of her own. Lord Bari's soldiers have been concerned with incursions that seem to coming in from the Red Wastes and have not been concerned with the local bandit problem, which is the concern of the local civil authorities, represented by Constable Kwan.
The bandits have been troubling, but in general, Priestess Mara opined that it was mostly just overblown town politics and family matters that really were not worth the Cathedral's time to investigate.
Delthen decided he would try to assess whether he thought she was lying, but he could not get a clear read on her. She seemed earnest enough.
Hull spoke up that he still thought the bandits were the worst of the town's problems.
Quill noted that he really needed to get to his Gran Gran's.
Priestess Mara promised that she and her brothers and sisters would confine Sir Kalari and take care of him until the return of the Canoness, when they would be able to perform an exorcism. The Squires Valerie, Rupert and Jock helped the Priestess move Sir Kalari into the Temple, but stated that they would go to seek aid from their Order for Sir Kalari.
Indigo decided to go a pray at the temple, and Z mysteriously disappeared to snoop around unencumbered by the other party members.
The adventurer's accompanied Hull as far as his depot, and then, they proceeded through town with Quill to his grandmother, Vamil's, home. While on their way through the town, they noticed that the largest and nicest building (after the Temple) a large inn complex, announced as the Serene Empress Inn, was shuttered and boarded up. Quill expressed surprise, as the Serene Empress had always been the heart of the town, at least it was when he was here 10 or 15 years ago.. He has no idea what happened to it.
Once arriving at Vamil's ("Vamy's") cottage, the old woman hobbled out to greet her grandson and embrace him. Hey Watchit decided to get in on some group hug action and gave a gently crushing embrace to the two of them.
Quill explained who these strangers were and what they were doing, and how they had saved his life. Vamy dispensed tea, wine and ribbon candy to each of the visitors and offered to allow some to sleep in her loft free of charge (she does not have quite room enough for everyone, but Hull's wife would probably put up the rest if they don't mind not staying at an inn).
They asked Vamy what had happened to the Serene Empress Inn, and she allowed that it was a big mystery. About a month back, there was a huge commotion at the inn: fighting and screaming. When the Constable and his deputies finally came, they found the inside of the inn laid to waste and every living person, the owners, their family and employees, the townspeople and the travelers who were guests, all dead in some kind of huge melee. The fight apparently raged throughout the Inn, leaving no survivors. No one understands what kind of madness must have happened, and no one was able to figure it out. The bodies were taken out and the families buried their dead. The travelers were buried in the hallowed ground of the old Druid Grove, and people were afraid, but just did not know what to think.
The adventurers wanted to talk to Pitch Miller about pulling out of the mayor's race, but they thought they would just have a look at the Serene Empress first.
They began their investigation by forcing open the door into the kitchen. They carefully toured first the main floor and then the upstairs. They found every chair in the inn to have been broken, and much of the other furniture damaged or destroyed. There were areas of blood staining and spilled drink and food that was not cleaned.
Hey did notice that the kitchen, if cleaned up, would be a great place in which to cook.
As they looked through the main floor, Delthen in a careful search found a broken blade with strange script on it. The blade itself looked ornate, as if it had been forged for ritual use.
Lief examined the script and found that it seemed to be of the ancient Serpent Script, and that the characters probably translated as "[of]fering."
Upstairs was less disturbed, but still it looked like the fighting had happened up here as well, and everything was broken into. Nothing of real value seemed to remain.
They finally proceeded down into the cellar.
The cellar looked strangely cleared out, with only a few decrepit ale or sour wine barrels still left as far as provisions. Otherwise, there was just trash and debris left around.
Something else
surprising they found was that the basement had been left trapped. Rolen managed to fall down into a relatively
freshly dug pit, though he avoided the spikes at the bottom.
Then, shadowy
and chameleon-like Kobolds struck, from surprise.
The “ninja”
Kobolds hit each of the characters not in the pit, and they hit the cleric
Cerise for critical damage.
Then we
rolled initiative.
Round 1 (no
escalation)
The Kobolds
handily won initiative (n.b. I was using the playtest Kobold Shadow-Warriors,
who turned out to be much more pumped up than the final published versions in
the Bestiary).
Three disappeared
into the shadows.
The other
three all attacked with eggshell bombs filled with stinging dust, damaging
Delthen and Lief (both in one shot) and Legolis. The last shadow warrior successfully
disengaged on Hey and three a metal star at Hey, but missed. Hey invoked his “reach tricks” and took a
surprise opportunity attack, but missed.
Legolis missed with his axe.
Delthen
invoked Smite Evil and missed for half damage [which maybe should have just
missed because of the Kobolds’ “evasive” ability, but I let it count].
Lief dealt
some damage with Battle Chant, dropping one shadow warrior.
Hey swung his trusty enchanted tree and struck with a critical hit, not only smashing the Kobold before him, but flinging it into the Kobold attacking Legolis, killing both shadow warriors. It seemed they had taken out the opposition.
Rolen was
unable to get out of the pit.
Cerise
stepped up and did some healing for herself and others.
Round 2
Escalation 1
The three
shadow warriors who had slipped to the shadows came back with a vengeance. Delthen, Hey and Legolis were all hit for 30
points of damage each. Delthen
staggered, but stayed up. Hey invoked “Heavy
Warrior” to take only 15 points of damage.
Legolis went down.
Legolis
rolled a death save on his initiative and failed.
Delthen attacked
with Smite Evil and killed one of the warriors.
Lief attacked
with his Battle Chant, damaging another of the Kobolds.
Hey invoked “Tough
as Iron” and rallied, and then struck with a “Power Attack.” Hey missed [n.b. I should have invoked “evasive”
but forgot again], doing 12 damage because of his Power Attack feat.
Rolen
continued to be stuck down in the pit.
Cerise then
cast Spirits of the Righteous which blasted the last two warriors into
oblivion.
End of
Combat.
Delthen was
disappointed that he was not able to retrieve any of the stinging powder bombs
unbroken.
Cerise healed Rolen.
Everyone helped Rolen get out of the pit.
Otherwise, in
searching they Kobolds, they found that each bore the ritual tattoo of an
ancient Snake Cult, which generally was something at odds with the Kobolds’
draconic nature.
They
carefully searched the rest of the cellar floor and found two more recent
pits. Both of Kobold make.
They then
began to search for some secret way into the cellar. Neither Hey nor Delthen could discover
anything, but Cerise found a secret door into a hidden store room. In the room, Cerise, Legolis and Lief all
discovered an exit from the room, a trap door.
Beyond the
trap door was a passage, similar to a mine tunnel. They proceeded down the tunnel until they
came to an underground stream, which they would have to ford. There was a handy guide rope across the
stream. Delthen waded in first.
This drew
immediate attack from a group of Lizard Men.
Round 1
The leader
propelled himself out of the water with a stroke of his tail, and he charged
Hey, striking him.
Delthen took
out his mace and started Smiting at the two Lizardman Hunters attacking him.
Cerise hit
the leader with Spirits of the Righteous.
Lief then
lifted his voice and unleashed Soundburst, damaging two of the enemy and
killing one outright.
Legolis then killed
another firing his bow, using one of his last Twin Arrows, and hit the leader
with his magical second arrow.
Hey launched
his Power Attack, which missed, but still dealt 11 points of damage.
Round 2
Escalation 1
The leader launched his attack, but
missed. Delthen then stepped up and
brought his mace down in a crushing blow, killing the leader.
Cerise flung
her Javelin of Faith at one of the last two Lizardman Savages, but did only
miss damage.
Lief sang his
Battle Chant, which did little damage, but with his Stay Strong! Battle Cry he
aided Hey.
Legolis
launched another arrow, striking one of the Savages for 10 points.
One of the
Savages hit Hey.
Rolen did not manage his Elven Grace roll, but he summoned his Chaos Bolt of Thunder Energy and blasted one of the Savages.
Hey then
struck out with his tree, killing one of the Lizardman Savages, after using Heavy
Blows to reroll damage.
Round 3 Escalation
2
Delthen
whirled his mace and struck another crushing blow (16 points!) but could not
take down the last Lizardman.
Cerise
invoked her Halo and then threw her Javelin of Faith, striking down the
Lizardman.
The party
then decided to rest a moment by the underground stream and decide what to do
in exploring further.
One thing was sure, however, this was much easier than figuring out the Mayoral race in town.
Saturday, January 11, 2014
A whole lot of Tolkien!
This past holiday break has allowed me to delve deep into my love of Tolkien, and in particular to benefit from some terrific available resources in Tolkien scholarship.
Now, it may not sound like "studying" Tolkien would be as much fun as just reading (or going to the movies), but it is actually a lot of fun, as well as giving me a deeper appreciation of Tolkien's writings and imagination and teaching me a great deal about writing and scholarship.
Before I touch on my actual activities over my holiday break, I need to go back to how I started delving into this.
A few years ago, on a trip to South Carolina, my son picked as our audio entertainment Rings, Swords, and Monsters: Exploring Fantasy Literature by Professor Michael Drout. It was a brilliant set of lectures which first focused on Tolkien and his process and creations, and then explored the genre of modern fantasy literature which Tolkien somewhat unwittingly helped to create. This was really my first exposure to deep and thoughtful Tolkien scholarship, and it opened me to all sorts of new ideas and understanding about what Tolkien did, what he was interested in and how his academic life as a Medievalist and Philologist informed his imagination.
Hungry for more, I began to look into what else was available and found The Tolkien Professor. Professor Corey Olsen, like Professor Drout, is by profession a Medievalist (though he has far less focus on Philology than Drout does), but by avocation he is a lover of Tolkien and fantasy literature. He is also, even more than Drout, highly focused on making Tolkien and Tolkien scholarship accessible to the public. He has dozens of chats, lectures and seminar episodes available on his website and also available through iTunes. He writes, lectures and appears for the public in many venues, and has generally done a ton for promoting the understanding and enjoyment of Tolkien's works.
He also wrote the book on The Hobbit: Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit".
So, over break, I finished reading Professor Olsen's book, and I listened to a ton of stuff.
Particularly, I listened to about a dozen episodes of his Silmarillion Seminar through which I have learned a great deal.
I also listened to his discussion of the latest Hobbit movie, The Desolation of Smaug (here & here) which I found to be really interesting and helpful.
There are tons of other materials accessible through the Tolkien Professor site, and it is definitely a gateway to lots of wonderful and imaginative worlds and thoughts.
I really highly recommend it, and it helped me have a great vacation, even while I was busy and sick.
Now, it may not sound like "studying" Tolkien would be as much fun as just reading (or going to the movies), but it is actually a lot of fun, as well as giving me a deeper appreciation of Tolkien's writings and imagination and teaching me a great deal about writing and scholarship.
Before I touch on my actual activities over my holiday break, I need to go back to how I started delving into this.
A few years ago, on a trip to South Carolina, my son picked as our audio entertainment Rings, Swords, and Monsters: Exploring Fantasy Literature by Professor Michael Drout. It was a brilliant set of lectures which first focused on Tolkien and his process and creations, and then explored the genre of modern fantasy literature which Tolkien somewhat unwittingly helped to create. This was really my first exposure to deep and thoughtful Tolkien scholarship, and it opened me to all sorts of new ideas and understanding about what Tolkien did, what he was interested in and how his academic life as a Medievalist and Philologist informed his imagination.
Hungry for more, I began to look into what else was available and found The Tolkien Professor. Professor Corey Olsen, like Professor Drout, is by profession a Medievalist (though he has far less focus on Philology than Drout does), but by avocation he is a lover of Tolkien and fantasy literature. He is also, even more than Drout, highly focused on making Tolkien and Tolkien scholarship accessible to the public. He has dozens of chats, lectures and seminar episodes available on his website and also available through iTunes. He writes, lectures and appears for the public in many venues, and has generally done a ton for promoting the understanding and enjoyment of Tolkien's works.
He also wrote the book on The Hobbit: Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit".
So, over break, I finished reading Professor Olsen's book, and I listened to a ton of stuff.
Particularly, I listened to about a dozen episodes of his Silmarillion Seminar through which I have learned a great deal.
I also listened to his discussion of the latest Hobbit movie, The Desolation of Smaug (here & here) which I found to be really interesting and helpful.
There are tons of other materials accessible through the Tolkien Professor site, and it is definitely a gateway to lots of wonderful and imaginative worlds and thoughts.
I really highly recommend it, and it helped me have a great vacation, even while I was busy and sick.
Heroes of the 13th Age: Part 9: A venture into the hinterlands
After a short break, we were able to play our 13th Age game for a second time in November (November 30 to be precise).
Now, very, very long delay, I can write what happened after our previous game.
Our cast is now as follows:
Cerise, the Spirit-Touched Cleric
Indigo the Gnome Cleric
Zailey (as always, the name changes), the Half-Elf Rogue
Legolis, the High Elf Ranger
Hey Watchit, the Half-Orc Fighter
Lief, the Human Bard
Delthen Eversoar, the Human Paladin, and
Rolen Stillwind, the Wood Elf Sorcerer
We sadly note the absence of our Samurai Half-Elf Yoshi who has had to part ways with us for now.
We resolved the final actions of the spear quest. The party made its way to Santa Cora, and the carefully (if temporarily) neutralized spear made its way through inspection by Imperial and Archemage officials, and by representatives of the Elf Queen. It was then handed over for safe keeping, for the moment, within the Cathedral of the Priestess.
In the aftermath of the quest for the cursed spear Alkaarg, the adventurers were able to level up, each becoming second level. Several of the players took an opportunity to look at things they never used during the first mission and everyone was allowed to retool their characters to better fit how they ended up playing, given that this was everyone's first outing with the game.
The information on the retooled characters will be it's own post in the future.
After leveling up, the characters each engaged in some activities within and around the city of Santa Cora. Lief the bard sang and performed around the city, just casually, building his fame and earning some 70 gold. Zailey the rogue also tired to pick up some extra cash and information, but ended up with only a dented silver cup, perhaps worth 5 gold pieces.
Indigo, gnomish cleric took the cursed ring of fear found within the ancient Orc warrens and deposited for safekeeping in the Temple of Bastash, a god of the House of Light and one of the tutelary gods of the Gnomes.
Legolis the High Elf Ranger sold cheese from his (1UT) Cheese Trees, netting a whole 5 silver pieces.
Rolen, the Wood Elf Sorceror, sought to investigate current affairs among the magical circles of society, but came up snubbed at every turn.
We then moved towards assignment of a new mission, this time overtly on behalf of the High Druid and the Priestess (secretly, Dark Paladin Delthen also received word that the Crusader's forces had its own concerns that he should investigate).
The Priestess was represented by Sister Sanjana, while the High Druid sent the Druid Biturix as her representative. Jointly they expressed their concerns about the community of Tampu Tinku (also know as Tinku Tampu, because the residents' dialect does not distinguish). This town lies at an important crossroads of trade deep within the Wild Wood. Historically it was settled by members of the Druidic faith, led by a hero, Wamani Tinku. However, over time, and through centuries of hardship and disasters, the town has been resettled several times, and now the population is split between followers of the old Druidic faiths and the beliefs in the gods of Light, especially now the House of Light, led by the Canoness Shar Patali. Recently, the local Druid leader moved on, and in the interim time, things have been unbalanced within the town. While there has always been a peace (easy, uneasy or otherwise) between the religious communities, now there is growing conflict.
The auguries of both faith communities indicate dire danger if the conflicts do not get resolved, but the locals seem unable to resolve their differences. Thus, the Cathedral and the Wild Wood have agreed, after difficult negotiations, to send forth a set of auditors to investigate and seek to resolve (at best) or report back (at the very least) what is going on.
Given the strong ties to the High Druid and the Priestess held between the party members, and the general reputation for competence and bravery as well as a least some wisdom, the Cathedral and the Woods have agreed to send these eight adventurers forth as auditors. The Elf Queen (due to Icon Relationship Rolls) also gave her blessing for the journey, in the form of a cloak for Legolis, boots for Hey Watchit, and a protective dagger for Rolen. Also, the Priestess offered a magic orb to assist the cleric Cerise.
The first part of the journey proved to be long and boring river barge travel up The Grandfather until the river became to difficult to navigate and final approach had to be made over a trade road leading from the docks to the crossroads at Tampu Tinku.
They fell into traveling with a halfling teamster named Hullorn ("call me Hull"), who was allowing a half-elf named Quillern Nureddin ("call him Quill") to ride along in his wagon to Tampu Tinku. Hull lives in Tampu Tinku and is the proprietor of the local shipping company. Quill is moving to Tampu Tinku to help his grandmother ("gran gran"), Vamil Eddin, manage her affairs within the town.
Hull began to tell the party of all the varied problems currently plaguing Tampu Tinku, but he got sidetracked on his particular complaint. Bitterly he told them of the return of the scourge of bandits who have returned to the area. Once a terrible bandit camp was know to be centered at the Blackfort, and it is as if the bad old days have returned. He hoped that someone could deal with the bandits who have been robbing him blind, injuring and killing his employees, and taking bread from the mouths of his hungry children.
This discussion segued then to a discussion of the history of Tampu Tinku. Wamani Tinku founded it in the 12th Age, but he disappeared and shortly thereafter, the population who was present in the town completely disappeared. Survivors who happened to be away and others who moved into the area eventually resettled. Some one hundred years later, the bandits built up the Blackfort and terrorized the area, and then there was a huge battle with bandits and evil monsters who had attacked the town. Fortunately, adventurers and Imperial forces beat back the attacks and scattered the bandits, burning the Blackfort.
Everyone observed that after the first disaster happened to Tampu Tinku, a second disaster followed about 100 years later, and the present day was again about 100 years after that. Hmmmmmm.
The Half-Elf Quill mentioned that his "gran gran" knew a lot of the old stories.
At this point, the wagon was hailed by a set of riders. Though the party thought they might be getting to meet some bandits, it turned out to be a High Elf paladin of the Great Gold Wyrm, Sir Kalari Sunstorm, and his three human squires, Valerie, Rupert and Jock. They revealed that they too had been summoned to Tampu Tinku. They were traveling at the behest of Canoness Shar Patali, the leader of the worshipers of the House of Light in Tampu Tinku. She had asked for aid from the Paladin's of the Great Gold Wyrm to deal with "troubles," but she was not otherwise specific. Nonetheless, the Golden Order sent forth Sir Kalari to help.
Upon their meeting, Hey Watchit brought forth his croissants, and everyone had a snack as they traveled along. During the afternoon's travel, it became clear that Quill had become smitten with Squire Valerie, and he was embarrassingly love sick, much to people's amusement (except for Squire Valerie). Finally they came to a bridge over a tributary to the River Grandfather. Sir Kalari and his squires were in the van, and on the other side dismounted at a lazy pool that was fed by the river, to get water for themselves and their horses.
As Sir Kalari approached the pool, and suddenly a rush of shadow burst from the pool and engulfed him, and then possessed his body. From him then shot lances of darkness, taking his horse and transforming it into a hellish monster, as well as possessing his three squires.
The now demon-possessed companions turned to attack the wagon, which was just rolling across the bridge. Quill and Hull, two non-combatants, we up front and began to panic and scream as the demonic Squires approached them, blades drawn.
COMBAT!
Round (R) 1 Escalation (E) 0
Cleric Ceris reacted first and unleashed her Spirits of the Righteous on the demonic force that now animated Sir Kalari. She stuck with a critical, blasting it with holy fire.
Lief the Bard unleashed a soundburst upon the Squires as he stepped forward to defend Hull and Quill, and incidentally weaving magic from his song to protect the Dark Paladin Delthen.
Delthen struck, using his Smite Evil, but did just half damage with a near miss.
Legolis, the High Elven Ranger stepped forward to engage the Squires and defend Hull and Qull with his axe. He missed, but presented himself at least as a target.
Possessed Kalari then struck back, hitting Delthen.
One of the Squires hit lief.
Rolan, Wood Elf Sorcerer, unleashed a Chaos Bolt, but to no effect.
Zailey stepped forward to make an attack, but ended up falling off the bridge and dazed from a fumble.
The now demonic steed leaped the river entirely and attacked Hey Watchit, but missed.
Indigo, the Gnomish Cleric, also unleashed his Spirits of the Righteous, but misdirected his holy fire and missed.
Half-Orc Fighter Hey also missed his swing against the demon steed.
R2 E1
Cerise invoked her Halo as a Spirit Touched and then stepped forward and cast a quick Heal on Lief, then cast Cure Wounds on Delthen.
Lief drew his sword and struck one of the Squires.
Legolis struck Squire Valerie with his axe and his snake pet poisoned her.
Delthen then smashed his mace into Kalari, taking him down, but simultaneously, one of the Squires slashed Delthen, putting him on the ground.
The other Squires each hit Legolis and Lief, but then, as the demonic power receded into the unconscious Kalari, it's control fell away from the Squires.
Rolen fired his scorching ray at the hellish horse, but missed.
Zailey, staggering up from the base of the bridge pulled out some rope and tied up Kalari.
The hell horse tried to take a bite out of Hey, but missed.
Indigo stepped forward and quickly healed Delthen, then pulled out his crossbow and critically hit the hell horse as he invoked his Strength Domain, leaving the hellish monster dazed.
Hey unleashed a power attack on the monster, but did lesser damage with a miss.
R3 E2
Cerise invoked her Leadership Domain and advanced the Escalation Die to 3 (which robbed the demonic steed of a chance to use a special "odd escalation die" power)
She then missed with her Javelin of Faith.
Delthen charged back over the bridge and struck the steed with his Smite.
Legolis then struck the monster mightily (15 points) with his arrow.
Lief moved into position, but took a moment to rally and recover damage.
Rolen, with a moment of Elven Grace, gather power and blasted off as sadly ineffective Chaos Bolt.
Zailey let loose with her Flying Blade skill and hit.
Once again the demonic monster missed.
Indigo summoned the holy power of his Javelin of Faith, fumbled, and hit Delthen (the other target of darkness)
Hey then hit the steed with a critical.
R4 E4
Cerise summoned her Javelin of Faith, striking the monster.
Delthen missed, as did Lief with his Battle Chant.
Legolis then fired his bow, doing a mighty 14 points (which was more than enough as the monster had but one hit point left).
The hellish force left the steed, leaving the sadly broken body of Sir Kalari's once splendid steed in it's place.
The characters then turned to the bound Sir Kalari. His wounds were healing, and a darkness still lurked behind his eyes.
The dark power possessing the Paladin had not much helpful to say. They learned that:
1. "you know not with what you deal, ha ha ha ha"
2. "I am the substance of nightmares!"
3. "You will all bow down before me and do my bidding. You will pave my way to conquer this pathetic realm!"
Finally, Sir Kalari was able to have a moment of lucidity. He asked them to keep him bound (no problem) and to get him to the Temple of Light. He said he could only maintain control for short periods.
Then the darkness started babbling again, threatening them all, so the gagged the poor Paladin.
What dangers lie ahead in Tampu Tinku remain unknown, and what the roots are of the conflict or conflicts in the village are yet mysteries. However, the strange fate of Sir Kalari points to there being much mreo than meets the eye.
Now, very, very long delay, I can write what happened after our previous game.
Our cast is now as follows:
Cerise, the Spirit-Touched Cleric
Indigo the Gnome Cleric
Zailey (as always, the name changes), the Half-Elf Rogue
Legolis, the High Elf Ranger
Hey Watchit, the Half-Orc Fighter
Lief, the Human Bard
Delthen Eversoar, the Human Paladin, and
Rolen Stillwind, the Wood Elf Sorcerer
We sadly note the absence of our Samurai Half-Elf Yoshi who has had to part ways with us for now.
We resolved the final actions of the spear quest. The party made its way to Santa Cora, and the carefully (if temporarily) neutralized spear made its way through inspection by Imperial and Archemage officials, and by representatives of the Elf Queen. It was then handed over for safe keeping, for the moment, within the Cathedral of the Priestess.
In the aftermath of the quest for the cursed spear Alkaarg, the adventurers were able to level up, each becoming second level. Several of the players took an opportunity to look at things they never used during the first mission and everyone was allowed to retool their characters to better fit how they ended up playing, given that this was everyone's first outing with the game.
The information on the retooled characters will be it's own post in the future.
After leveling up, the characters each engaged in some activities within and around the city of Santa Cora. Lief the bard sang and performed around the city, just casually, building his fame and earning some 70 gold. Zailey the rogue also tired to pick up some extra cash and information, but ended up with only a dented silver cup, perhaps worth 5 gold pieces.
Indigo, gnomish cleric took the cursed ring of fear found within the ancient Orc warrens and deposited for safekeeping in the Temple of Bastash, a god of the House of Light and one of the tutelary gods of the Gnomes.
Legolis the High Elf Ranger sold cheese from his (1UT) Cheese Trees, netting a whole 5 silver pieces.
Rolen, the Wood Elf Sorceror, sought to investigate current affairs among the magical circles of society, but came up snubbed at every turn.
We then moved towards assignment of a new mission, this time overtly on behalf of the High Druid and the Priestess (secretly, Dark Paladin Delthen also received word that the Crusader's forces had its own concerns that he should investigate).
The Priestess was represented by Sister Sanjana, while the High Druid sent the Druid Biturix as her representative. Jointly they expressed their concerns about the community of Tampu Tinku (also know as Tinku Tampu, because the residents' dialect does not distinguish). This town lies at an important crossroads of trade deep within the Wild Wood. Historically it was settled by members of the Druidic faith, led by a hero, Wamani Tinku. However, over time, and through centuries of hardship and disasters, the town has been resettled several times, and now the population is split between followers of the old Druidic faiths and the beliefs in the gods of Light, especially now the House of Light, led by the Canoness Shar Patali. Recently, the local Druid leader moved on, and in the interim time, things have been unbalanced within the town. While there has always been a peace (easy, uneasy or otherwise) between the religious communities, now there is growing conflict.
The auguries of both faith communities indicate dire danger if the conflicts do not get resolved, but the locals seem unable to resolve their differences. Thus, the Cathedral and the Wild Wood have agreed, after difficult negotiations, to send forth a set of auditors to investigate and seek to resolve (at best) or report back (at the very least) what is going on.
Given the strong ties to the High Druid and the Priestess held between the party members, and the general reputation for competence and bravery as well as a least some wisdom, the Cathedral and the Woods have agreed to send these eight adventurers forth as auditors. The Elf Queen (due to Icon Relationship Rolls) also gave her blessing for the journey, in the form of a cloak for Legolis, boots for Hey Watchit, and a protective dagger for Rolen. Also, the Priestess offered a magic orb to assist the cleric Cerise.
The first part of the journey proved to be long and boring river barge travel up The Grandfather until the river became to difficult to navigate and final approach had to be made over a trade road leading from the docks to the crossroads at Tampu Tinku.
They fell into traveling with a halfling teamster named Hullorn ("call me Hull"), who was allowing a half-elf named Quillern Nureddin ("call him Quill") to ride along in his wagon to Tampu Tinku. Hull lives in Tampu Tinku and is the proprietor of the local shipping company. Quill is moving to Tampu Tinku to help his grandmother ("gran gran"), Vamil Eddin, manage her affairs within the town.
Hull began to tell the party of all the varied problems currently plaguing Tampu Tinku, but he got sidetracked on his particular complaint. Bitterly he told them of the return of the scourge of bandits who have returned to the area. Once a terrible bandit camp was know to be centered at the Blackfort, and it is as if the bad old days have returned. He hoped that someone could deal with the bandits who have been robbing him blind, injuring and killing his employees, and taking bread from the mouths of his hungry children.
This discussion segued then to a discussion of the history of Tampu Tinku. Wamani Tinku founded it in the 12th Age, but he disappeared and shortly thereafter, the population who was present in the town completely disappeared. Survivors who happened to be away and others who moved into the area eventually resettled. Some one hundred years later, the bandits built up the Blackfort and terrorized the area, and then there was a huge battle with bandits and evil monsters who had attacked the town. Fortunately, adventurers and Imperial forces beat back the attacks and scattered the bandits, burning the Blackfort.
Everyone observed that after the first disaster happened to Tampu Tinku, a second disaster followed about 100 years later, and the present day was again about 100 years after that. Hmmmmmm.
The Half-Elf Quill mentioned that his "gran gran" knew a lot of the old stories.
At this point, the wagon was hailed by a set of riders. Though the party thought they might be getting to meet some bandits, it turned out to be a High Elf paladin of the Great Gold Wyrm, Sir Kalari Sunstorm, and his three human squires, Valerie, Rupert and Jock. They revealed that they too had been summoned to Tampu Tinku. They were traveling at the behest of Canoness Shar Patali, the leader of the worshipers of the House of Light in Tampu Tinku. She had asked for aid from the Paladin's of the Great Gold Wyrm to deal with "troubles," but she was not otherwise specific. Nonetheless, the Golden Order sent forth Sir Kalari to help.
Upon their meeting, Hey Watchit brought forth his croissants, and everyone had a snack as they traveled along. During the afternoon's travel, it became clear that Quill had become smitten with Squire Valerie, and he was embarrassingly love sick, much to people's amusement (except for Squire Valerie). Finally they came to a bridge over a tributary to the River Grandfather. Sir Kalari and his squires were in the van, and on the other side dismounted at a lazy pool that was fed by the river, to get water for themselves and their horses.
As Sir Kalari approached the pool, and suddenly a rush of shadow burst from the pool and engulfed him, and then possessed his body. From him then shot lances of darkness, taking his horse and transforming it into a hellish monster, as well as possessing his three squires.
The now demon-possessed companions turned to attack the wagon, which was just rolling across the bridge. Quill and Hull, two non-combatants, we up front and began to panic and scream as the demonic Squires approached them, blades drawn.
COMBAT!
Round (R) 1 Escalation (E) 0
Cleric Ceris reacted first and unleashed her Spirits of the Righteous on the demonic force that now animated Sir Kalari. She stuck with a critical, blasting it with holy fire.
Lief the Bard unleashed a soundburst upon the Squires as he stepped forward to defend Hull and Quill, and incidentally weaving magic from his song to protect the Dark Paladin Delthen.
Delthen struck, using his Smite Evil, but did just half damage with a near miss.
Legolis, the High Elven Ranger stepped forward to engage the Squires and defend Hull and Qull with his axe. He missed, but presented himself at least as a target.
Possessed Kalari then struck back, hitting Delthen.
One of the Squires hit lief.
Rolan, Wood Elf Sorcerer, unleashed a Chaos Bolt, but to no effect.
Zailey stepped forward to make an attack, but ended up falling off the bridge and dazed from a fumble.
The now demonic steed leaped the river entirely and attacked Hey Watchit, but missed.
Indigo, the Gnomish Cleric, also unleashed his Spirits of the Righteous, but misdirected his holy fire and missed.
Half-Orc Fighter Hey also missed his swing against the demon steed.
R2 E1
Cerise invoked her Halo as a Spirit Touched and then stepped forward and cast a quick Heal on Lief, then cast Cure Wounds on Delthen.
Lief drew his sword and struck one of the Squires.
Legolis struck Squire Valerie with his axe and his snake pet poisoned her.
Delthen then smashed his mace into Kalari, taking him down, but simultaneously, one of the Squires slashed Delthen, putting him on the ground.
The other Squires each hit Legolis and Lief, but then, as the demonic power receded into the unconscious Kalari, it's control fell away from the Squires.
Rolen fired his scorching ray at the hellish horse, but missed.
Zailey, staggering up from the base of the bridge pulled out some rope and tied up Kalari.
The hell horse tried to take a bite out of Hey, but missed.
Indigo stepped forward and quickly healed Delthen, then pulled out his crossbow and critically hit the hell horse as he invoked his Strength Domain, leaving the hellish monster dazed.
Hey unleashed a power attack on the monster, but did lesser damage with a miss.
R3 E2
Cerise invoked her Leadership Domain and advanced the Escalation Die to 3 (which robbed the demonic steed of a chance to use a special "odd escalation die" power)
She then missed with her Javelin of Faith.
Delthen charged back over the bridge and struck the steed with his Smite.
Legolis then struck the monster mightily (15 points) with his arrow.
Lief moved into position, but took a moment to rally and recover damage.
Rolen, with a moment of Elven Grace, gather power and blasted off as sadly ineffective Chaos Bolt.
Zailey let loose with her Flying Blade skill and hit.
Once again the demonic monster missed.
Indigo summoned the holy power of his Javelin of Faith, fumbled, and hit Delthen (the other target of darkness)
Hey then hit the steed with a critical.
R4 E4
Cerise summoned her Javelin of Faith, striking the monster.
Delthen missed, as did Lief with his Battle Chant.
Legolis then fired his bow, doing a mighty 14 points (which was more than enough as the monster had but one hit point left).
The hellish force left the steed, leaving the sadly broken body of Sir Kalari's once splendid steed in it's place.
The characters then turned to the bound Sir Kalari. His wounds were healing, and a darkness still lurked behind his eyes.
The dark power possessing the Paladin had not much helpful to say. They learned that:
1. "you know not with what you deal, ha ha ha ha"
2. "I am the substance of nightmares!"
3. "You will all bow down before me and do my bidding. You will pave my way to conquer this pathetic realm!"
Finally, Sir Kalari was able to have a moment of lucidity. He asked them to keep him bound (no problem) and to get him to the Temple of Light. He said he could only maintain control for short periods.
Then the darkness started babbling again, threatening them all, so the gagged the poor Paladin.
What dangers lie ahead in Tampu Tinku remain unknown, and what the roots are of the conflict or conflicts in the village are yet mysteries. However, the strange fate of Sir Kalari points to there being much mreo than meets the eye.
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