Thoughts on 13th Age: Running My First Session

This is my second post regarding Pelgrane Press and FIre Opal Media's 13th Age based on the first sit down session my RPG group, and I played together.  The first session summary is here.

So this blog post is more about the impressions and ideas I had while running my first d20 session in a very, very long time.

Out of the gate, I have to say that the game ran really smoothly.  I had one moment of being at a loss when I could not remember the target number for my Wyvern to try to disengage, but my players forgave me looking one thing up.  Aside from that, it was really easy to run.  It did help that I had done a lot of prep with cheat sheets, etc. for everyone ahead of time.

We had previously spent a session creating characters and back story (you can read about it here), and between the time of that first session and the first session of play, I did try to do a lot of preparation.  13th Age does definitely lend itself to some very easy improvisational play, but I wanted to have some things at my fingertips and not have to have any pause or interruption of play while I looked things up.  I had options which allowed me to flow seemlessly into different possible scenarios (so, for example, I had created a number of options for encounters, at a couple of different levels of difficulty, just so I would have them in my back pocket). 

I also prepared some goodies for myself and the players in the form of visual aids and manipulables.  The game was starting out with the characters being given a mission based on their ties to the Priestess and the Elf Queen.  I came up with a thumbnail of information for the representatives of each Icon and illustrated each NPC with some cool art from the web.  I also prepared a batch of magic items in a format modeled on the sheet that is up at the 13th Age resources page that was made to go with their 2-hour demo.  I found the format to be easy to adapt.  Then I took it further!

On top of just the flavor text and description of each item, I also added some art in the background (and learned a new skill with Microsoft Word 2010).  I also added an Icon relationship for the items (which made sense for me, since I knew already what Icons were in play).  On top of that, I cut out each little card and laminated the whole bunch (thanks to the foresight of my beautiful and talented wife owning a laminator).  After reading about and listening to a number of actual play sessions with 13th Age, it was clear to me that a pretty common way to build ties between characters and their Icons, as well as to use positive Icon rolls was to award some magic item goodies to aid in quests and missions.  So, I was ready with fun items which doubled as little props when we did Icon rolls.

So, the first thing we did was to make Icon roles, and then I had to interpret them.  We had some feast and famen issues.  A couple people got a number of positive rolls, and others had none.  Still, everyone was cool with it.  Some characters got special items (and in some case complicating secret orders) in accordance with their rolls.  Others will have to wait.

There are still a number of unused Icon rolls waiting for the right moment later in the adventure.

Also, I rolled an additional Icon influence as a wild card (I did this with a d12 and a Fudge d6 (+, blank, and -) and I subtracted or added from the d12 roll thus getting pontential range of 0 to 13.  I decided 0 and 13 would both mean the Prince of Shadows, and otherwise assigned numbers to each of the other Icons.  I have no idea how that may have skewed the math, but in any case, I rolled the High Druid.  This gave me some pointers that I will be keeping in mind throughout the adventure.

One of the first things it did for me was to help me decide on what "random" encounter on the way to the adventure we would have to test drive the combat system.  Looking over my monsters, I decided the most primal and wild one that I had, that would potentailly be relatable to the High Druid was the Wyvern I had prepared.  This was at the outer limit of the kind of monster a first level party could take on.  On the other hand, there was only going to be one of them, and in fairly favorable terrain from the players point of view (since they could all attack with melee or missile weapons or spells without getting in each other's way).

I held Mr. Wyvern aside for an opportune moment, and have also been thinking about other ways to show the interest of the High Druid in the outcome of the adventure.

I should say again, I am running an old AD&D module from Dragon Magazine #78.  It provided a sturdy framework for me to reskin it as a 13th Age adventure.  So far it has been working very well because of how easy 13th Age is to put together monsters, traps and challenges that are both fun and challeging without going off the deep end on the player characters.

In preparing to start off on their adventure, the player characters definitely capitalized on their backgrounds tro gather information.  In fact, several characters just had outstanding moments in getting things to prepare for their trip and things that they might find.  If they can critical that much in combat, they may make short work of the opposition in this adventure.

Once they finally set forth, I moved things along until I brought out the Wyvern to attack.  The sentries did an exceptionally good job in alerting to the Wyvern, so I did not get any kind of real benefit for the poor beast trying to glide in silently.

The combat was fun and went well.  It concluded in round 4, so we got to see the escalation die climb and add in effect, and most everyone got a moment to shine in the fight.  I had a phenomenal evening as far as roilling monster initiative (I rolled a 20 for the Wyvern, and addint its bonus, it was at 28).  I had a terrible night for doing anything else with my monsters.  The Wyvern hit once, would have hit again, but got zaped with an illusion die from the Gnome Cleric, and once it was clear that the meal was fighting back too much, the Wyvern could not save to disengage, well, to save its life.  Although it would have been fun to put a little more fear into the players, all in all, the test of how combat ran went very well, very smoothly, and I think we pretty much had everyone at the table thinking about what different options they had and what their powers and talents could do.

Except the Bard.  Granted, his player is about 10, and although he picked a super complex class with lots of powers, he didn't use any of them, and instead just hit the Wyvern with his sword (scoring at least one critical hit).  I'll work with him next session to get him more used to the awesome stuff his character can do with songs, spells and war cries.  For this session, he was having fun, and that worked.

We had good roll playing moments and good tactical thoughts as the adventure unfolded, and I won't go blow by blow on that, since I already wrote up the session.  One thing that I did in managing the "failing forward" was that we had a missed roll when trying to come up with some important information.  There are a number of ways to handle this, but my "on the fly" was "I'll gladly give you this information now, in return for something bad cropping up later."  Now, I did not make this explicit, and I think we are still finding our table play style.  It would probably help buy in if I did make things more explicit, but we are still finding our way on that. 

As far as party actions, the great thing was that the group was totally able to avoid the linear appporach to problem solving, especially when they reached the "dungeon" site (a old ruined fortress with dungeons beneath).  Yes, there was a passageway in and an Ogre guarding the front, but they managed to get a map to the layout and they scaled the wall at a different point.  The only thing that tripped them up there was that I had the "bad thing" hit them as they were exploring the wall.  I did not hose them completely arbitrarily, but I gave their scout, Zara the Rogue, some very hard saves to make, and she did not make all of them, thus alerting the occupant of the room whose roof them were going to go over, as to what was happening.  On the whole, I am okay with the outcome because while it puts the party in danger, it also keeps the pace of the game and ramps up the tension and excitement without arbitrarily harming or killing any party members.  We'll see how it plays out.

So, now we are really going to have a run through with the combat system.  While the party can only see one Orc right now, they are about to find out just how many monsters there are waiting for them.

We closed the session just before the clash really got cooking because we were running up against our late limit because parents and kids gotta sleep.

As far as after action, I had a chance to think about how I had structured the encounters in the fortress, pretty much following the pattern of the original AD&D module.  Having played a first session allowed me to go back and fine tune things a bit to make things work in a way that I think will flow more smoothly and be more fun.  We'll see when we play in a little over a week.  The game, however, gives me a lot of confidence in how I am preparing things.

I have also prepared a few more fun handouts and developed some more fun things for the dungeon levels below.

I think one of the things I have leared with the flexibility of 13th Age is that keeping things static is neither necessary nor, often, desireable.  Tell a good story, let everyone have fun, challenge the player characters, but play (as they say in Dungeon World, which has also been influencing me)) to find out what happens.  Fine tuning along the way and on the fly feels very natural now.  And having the tools like the Icons, Backgrounds and One Unique Things are really helping me fit the individual adventure events into a much larger, and I think much cooler, framework for the future.

I am really loving the game, and I can't wait to see where it takes all of us in the future.

Heroes of the 13th Age: Part 2-The Adventure Begins

We ran the first session of our 13th Age Campaign last Saturday with the characters we and back stories we created last month (note, the characters have been updated slightly since we made a few last minute adjustments in light of changes that happened since we created characters (e.g. this). 

We had a great session.  We definitely were getting used to sitting together and making the system work.  Some of us are long time role players, some have less experience, and we have kids from 10 to 15 sitting with adults.  All together we have nine players and me as DM.  So, given all that could go wrong, actually pretty much everything went right.

I have at least two posts about this, the first will be the campaign narrative, although given the public nature of the posting, I will have to leave a few things vague.  The adventure I am running is an AD&D module I am adapting from an old Dragon Magazine that I have, Issue #78. 

The group consists of

Cerise, the Spirit-Touched Cleric

Indigo the Gnome Cleric
Zara (at least that’s what she is calling herself right now), the Half-Elf Rogue
Legolis, the High Elf Ranger
Hey Watchit, the Half-Orc Fighter
Lief, the Human Bard
Delthen Eversoar, the Human Paladin
Rolen Stillwind, the Wood Elf Sorcerer, and
Yoshi Antien, the Samurai flavored Half-Elf Fighter

Before starting, we rolled Icon Relationship dice (for those not familiar with 13th Age, an Icon is a powerful mortal leader in the world who controls powerful secular, religious, spiritual or arcane forces (or a combination of all those); a result of a 5 on the d6 roll means a positive outcome with “complications”; a 6 is a clear positive outcome).  Rolen rolled a 6 on his relationship with the Archmage and with the Elf Queen.  Yoshi rolled a 5 on his relationship with the Emperor.  Zara rolled a 6 on her relationship with the High Druid and with her relationship with the Priestess.  Hey rolled a 6 on his negative relationship with the Orc Lord.  Cerise rolled 5 on her relationship with the Priestess.  Lief rolled a 6 on his relationship with the Priestess.

I then rolled to determine other Icon influence and interest, resulting in the High Druid.

We began the action in the Holy City of Santa Cora, in an Annex of the Cathedral.  Eight of the nine characters, through their ties to the Priestess or the Elf Queen (or both) had been summoned to perform a service.  Hey doesn’t like people to be left out, and so he brought Delthen, an Inquisitor of the Crusader, along without being invited.  When you are a big well-meaning Half-Orc, people let you get away with stuff like that.  Delthen tried to stay unobtrusive in the back in his commemorative First Triumph demon-skin coat and all black ensemble, embroidered with his badge of inquisitorial office, a crossed Mace and Severed Demon Claw across the Sigil of the Crusader.

Yeah, he stuck out like a sore thumb.

In the audience room, a representative of the Elf Queen and a representative of the Priestess met with them.  The Elf Queen’s envoy was Valandil Nenharma (he might look like someone here), a High Elf cleric, one of the representatives of the Elven Pantheon in the Court of Stars.  He is one of the key Diplomats from The Court at the Cathedral.  Though a priest, he dresses more like an imperial ambassador.  He does not care much for anyone who is not a High Elf, so his focus was mainly on Legolis, the ranger (who is a famed Strategist in past wars).  The Priestess’ envoy was Abebi Tasartir, a Half-Elf Paladin from the Order of the Cathedral, the Shining Templars (and she might look something like this).  Abebi was commanding but polite.  She paid special attention to those tied closely to the Priestess, Cerise, Indigo, Zara and Lief.

The party received a briefing on the old ruined costal fortress of Jawarl Avignon.  Long ago it was an imperial fortress that helped keep the caravan route between Santa Cora and Axis, on the southern edge of the Midland Sea and along the Demon Coast, safe.  However, as the Midland Sea was cleared of monsters and the Archmages perfected the control of the weather over the sea, the need for the caravan routes became less necessary.  However, at the time, some five to six centuries ago, the Court of Stars had interests in the region, and the Emperor gave it to the Elf Queen of that era (not the current Elf Queen).

About 500 years ago, however, an Orc uprising, led by a self-proclaimed descendent of the Orc Lord, Mondru the Fourth, took the area by storm.  After ravaging the countryside and ending the little caravan traffic that had remained on the old trail, the Orcs turned their fury on the fortress, taking it by storm and killing every elf in the garrison.  Mondru had a terrible artifact that aided him in his reign of terror, a spear forged as the bane of Elves.  With Mondru and his terrible spear heading the charge, the Orcs seemed unstoppable.

Abebi explained that what happened next was unclear, but it seemed that Mondru’s forces were suddenly devastated by a plague which ended their reign of terror.

Valandil spoke up to say that “The Court of Stars knows what happened, but that is not a need to know fact here.”  However, when asked respectfully by the Ranger, Strategist Legolis (who explained it was strategically relevant to their mission), Valandil reluctantly divulged what happened 500 years ago. 

The then Elf Queen demanded that an answer to the slaughter at Jawarl Avignon be devised.  Each of the three branches of elvenkind at The Court retired to determine the course of action.  The Dark Elves, however, determined simply to remedy the problem and provide the solution as a fait accompli.  They performed a dark ritual (non-demonic, as Rolen was able to verify) which summoned the illness that devastated the Orcs (and, a good deal of the other human and demi-human population that had been left in the region) and ended Mondru’s rampage.  It was known as the Green Death and it was usually fatal in 24 to 48 hours.  It is unclear if there were any lasting effects intended from the ritual, and as the Dark Elves who created it have, in subsequent years, been exiled from The Court, it is hard to say if any plague lingers after 500 years.  However, Valandil assured them it should be perfectly safe.

This declaration was met with some skepticism.

Nonetheless, the party listened to what the mission was to entail.  The Priestess and the Elf Queen had both been concerned by the resurgence in power of the Orcs, especially given the siege of Concord a few years ago.  Now they had been detecting an increase in Orc activity here to the south.  Further, there were rumors that Mondru’s spear was still out there, waiting to be found.  The Priestess dispatched a scholar, a monk (contemplative, not martial arts) named Crommard with an exploration team to test out his theory that the spear was still somewhere in the confines of Jawarl Avignon.  After many optimistic reports, communication from the monk ended.  Thus, the Priestess and the Elf Queen have decided to send a more robust expeditionary force to determine whether Jawarl Avignon is the resting place for the spear, and if it is, to retrieve it to be disposed of appropriately.

The old fortress is closest to a town known as Awad, a small outpost that survives still with the trickle of traffic along the old caravan road.  Yoshi and several others of the party have been to the miserable little place before.  It is not much, but it is where Crommard went to stage the exploration of the old fortress.  According to the information that Abebi had from the records of Monk Crommard’s expedition, he took with him another scholar “Seth,” and a gang of workers with several foremen, an apprentice, and several watchmen, all told about two dozen people.  Their fate is unknown.

The party accepted the mission and left to begin preparations to leave the next day.  The Priestess and Elf Queen's representatives gifted the party with consumable magic items to aid them, including a small collection of Runes, some magic oils and a good number of healing potions.

Abebi asked Cerise, Zara and Lief to stay after the briefing for individual discussions.  She spoke to each of them individually.  To Cerise she presented a gift of magic armor, bequeathed by the Priestess to aid in the mission.  Abebi also gave her secret orders.  Zara had a private discussion about her future association with the Priestess, and received a magic ring to aid her in the mission.  Abebi conveyed to Lief the praise and thanks of the Priestess for his many devotional performances of song and music.  He was presented with a protective hood to aid in the success of the mission.

When Rolen returned to the magic quarter, he was summoned to the Archmage’s Chantry where he met with a representative of the Archmage.  Though the old wizard who met with Rolen could hardly stand to be in the same room as a mere sorcerer, he conveyed to Rolen that the Archmage’s organization was pleased with him and wished him success in the mission for the Elf Queen and the Priestess.  To this end, the Archmage had sent him a magic wand to aid him.

As Yoshi left the Cathedral, a messenger handed him an order commanding him to appear at the Governor’s Palace.  There he met with an Imperial Official who presented him with a magic sash to aid in the mission.  He was also given secret orders on behalf of the Empire.

Delthen left and went to the disreputable part of Santa Cora to leave a full report of the mission at a dead drop for agents of the Crusader stationed in the Holy City (he did this flawlessly, rolling a critical for what essentially was “tradecraft” and “contacts”)

Zara decided she needed more information about the area where they were going.  The town of Awad is many days journey from Santa Cora, and lies along the Coast, a few days journey from the ruins of the Golden Citadel.  She, accompanied by Yoshi, tried asking around at the map sellers of Santa Cora for a detailed map of the area where they were going, but all denied having anything.  She was suspicious, however, and went to the stall with the best reputation, while the seller was down the street at a noodle stand and snuck in the back.  Yoshi kept watch and made small talk on the street.  Zara scored particularly well on her thievery roll, and came up with a detailed map (I dutifully photocopied the relevant portions of my map and handed it over).

Lief too decided to use his contacts in Santa Cora to try to come up with information and background to help them with their mission.  He spoke with an old monk, Chai Lin Choy, who turned out to be a rival of Monk Crommard.  Monk Chai gleefully related to Lief the information that Crommard could have learned from him if he only had swallowed his pride to ask.  He related the contents of an old imperial report (A Warning ) which, during the last Age, sounded the alarm that a creature known as a Man-orc had come into existence under the power of the Orc Lord, after he was excluded from the spoils of the fallen Wizard Kingdom.  Monk Chai also related that there were legends tying the Elf killing spear to the rising up of the Man-orcs as well as the return of the Orc Lord.  When Lief reported the information from Monk Chai, the rest of the party immediately focused on the possibility that Crommard, Seth or both could be Man-orcs.

Finally, the night before they left, Hey Watchit had a dream from the High Druid.  He was told that the spear must not fall into the hands of the Orc Lord.  The High Druid blessed and enchanted the tree that Hey uses as his club.  Hey said “I had a good dream!”

The party gathered their pack animals, riding horses, camels, and whatnot, and set out down the old caravan trail.  Very little notable happened until the night of their seventh day.  Delthen and Zara were on watch at the oasis, Pashtadiin, where they were camped.  Lief was awake by the fire, despite having already stood his watch, but working on some songs and poetry.  Everyone else was asleep.

Posting watch had not been in vain.  Both Zara and Delthen detected suddenly a huge creature swooping in to land near their sleeping friends.  They raised the alarm and moved to attack.  The Wyvern which swooped down got detected far enough away that, while it handily won initiative, it had to use both its move and standard action to get in close enough for a meal.

Delthen charged forward on his turn to bash the Wyvern with his mace for a solid hit.  Lief loosed an arrow, but missed.  Zara threw one of her blades, but merely nicked the beast (miss damage).  Everyone else woke up and rolled initiative (except Hey, who was really soundly asleep).

Round 2 (we introduced the Escalation Die)

Yoshi and the Wyvern were tied for initiative (at 27).  Yoshi hit the Wyvern, the Wyvern hit Yoshi.  The Wyvern’s roll also qualified it to make a poison sting attack next round.  Neither monster nor samurai went down, but Yoshi was in pretty bad condition.  The two clerics both hit Yoshi with healing spells on their turns.  Delthen continued to bash with his mace.  Indigo, besides healing Yoshi, also used his Trickery/Illusion Domain to create a trick die of a very bad roll to use for later.  Rolen fired Scorching Ray.  Lief, the Bard, simply ran forward with his sword and rolled a critical hit.  Zara continued to miss her throws, but do miss damage.  Legolis cast his Acid Arrow, but only did miss damage.

Round 3

The Wyvern took acid damage from the ongoing from Acid Arrow.  Yoshi missed, but the Wyvern fumbled with its main attack.  When it rolled to hit Delthen, Indigo substituted his “trick” die for the roll, and the poison sting missed.  The Wyvern failed its save against the acid.  Delthen missed with his Smite Evil, but did miss damage.  Indigo failed to distract it with an illusion.  Cerise cast her Javelin of Faith.  Rolen stuck with his reliable Scorching Ray.  Lief eschewed any Bardic powers and just hit the thing with his sword again.  Legolis hit with an arrow.  Zara missed with her crossbow (one more point of miss damage).

Round 4

Hey woke up and grabbed his club.  He rolled a terrible initiative (4).

Yoshi missed and the Wyvern failed to disengage and then missed its attack on Yoshi.  Cerise missed with her Javelin of Faith, but did the miss damage.  Delthen rolled a critical hit and smashed the Wyvern to the ground where it expired after having been shot, cut, smashed, slashed and burned with fire and acid.

Delthen made much of the fact that he landed the first blow against the Wyvern and also struck the blow that slew the beast!

Hey Watchit gave everyone croissants.

[End of test drive of the combat system]

Since the Wyvern attack was a test drive for the DM as well as the players, I let everyone have the benefits of a “full rest” so they were able to try things out on the poor dragon-wanna be without jeopardizing their ability to complete their ability to bring powers to bear in the main adventure.

The party had several more days of travel.  On the day they were to arrive in Awad, but miles out from the town, they started to encounter a steady stream of refugees fleeing the town.

The fearful people declared that the legendary Green Death had returned because of the meddling of the foolish old monk and his workers.  The people of Awad warned them to stay away from the haunted fortress, but they kept meddling until they unleashed doom on everyone.  Several in the crowd noticed that Rolen and Legolis were elves and begged them to take off the Elvish Curse and to allow them to return to their homes.  Neither were able to give a satisfactory answer to the crowd, and they got pelted with garbage and other refuse by the unhappy and desperate crowd.

Lief tried to calm things down and to listen and record people’s stories.  He helped diffuse any chance of a riot.

In the meantime, Zara slipped into the crowd moving down the road and tried to question people about the details of what had happened.  After several times being rebuffed and facing increasingly steep odds of getting anyone to talk to her, she found the proprietress of Awad’s main tavern walking with a cart, animals and her children (and Zara scored a critical in her social roll).  Since Zara grew up in a tavern herself, she established an immediate rapport with Jin the Tavern Keeper.  Jin told Zara that Crommard had come into town that day to get some supplies.  Suddenly, people came to the center of town proclaiming that Crommard’s companion, Seth, had approached the edge of town, staggering and covered in green patches of skin.  He declared to the people that the Green Death had returned and killed everyone at the fortress of Jawarl Avignon.  He was the last survivor, and he was fleeing into the forest to die after warning the town to flee for their lives.

This caused a panic as people grabbed what they could and headed out of town.  Some few people stayed behind threatening to cobble together a scaffold and punish Crommard for bringing down the Elvish Curse on Awad.  Jin thought the mayor, the constable and several of the young men had stayed arguing over what to do with Crommard.

Zara thanked Jin and told her what her best prospects were should she travel all the way to the Santa Cora area.  She then returned and rejoined the party to relate what she had discovered.

The party then split, with about half (Yoshi, Delthen, Hey and Lief) heading into town, and the other half (Cerise, Zara, Indigo (and especially the two elves) Legolis and Rolen) heading to the area where Jin had related Seth had made his last appearance.

In town Lief calmed the crowd and the party negotiated Crommard’s release and started questioning him.  He was very confused.  He was distressed to hear of the possible death of his fellows, and he was worried about the state of his work.  Out of town, Zara and Legolis had difficulty finding the tracks, but finally determined that after Seth staggered into the woods, he started running back to Jawarl Avignon.  [They “failed forward” by gathering a little bad karma that would come back to bite the party].  The party reunited at the crossroads where the road to Jawarl Avignon split off from the caravan trail.  Crommard explained that besides Seth, his crew had consisted of 16 workers, 4 watchmen, 2 foremen and an apprentice.  He feared for all their lives.

He told them that they had made an important discovery just in the last week.  He believed they had uncovered the area where they would find a secret door which would admit them to the subterranean part of the fortress.  He had been grumpy when Seth informed him that they needed some new supplies before proceeding to locate the door.

They brought him along as they approached the ruined fortress.

Suddenly, it occurred to Cerise to ask if Crommard could draw them a map of the parts of the fortress that remained standing.  He immediately obliged, particularly extoling the “hall of death” which defended the entrance, where a few men could hold off an army raining arrows down on them as they tried to get into the still standing inner courtyard of the fortress.

As the party crept up, their scouts noted that a rather large Ogre had now taken up a post in front of the passageway that led into the fortress.

They pulled back and moved up to the walls around the corner from the entrance.  The walls were up to 20 feet high, but the tops were crumbled, and any structure which had allowed patrols to walk atop them were long gone.  However, the roofs of the interior buildings still existed for many of the inner rooms, though they were in poor shape.

Zara went up the wall and surveyed the courtyard.  The sun was rising, and no living thing was out in the courtyard.  However, there was a pile of dead bodies, some hacked up, by the old abandoned well.  Making a critical perception check, Zara determined that somehow, an Owlbear had taken up residence at the bottom of the dry well/cistern.  Someone may have been slowly feeding parts of the dead workers to the Owlbear.

She spotted the area of the fortress across the courtyard where the door to the lower level was supposed to be. 

She came back down and explained what she had seen.  There was an extensive discussion and voting as to whether to try to make their way around the fortress and go over the wall and try to take the area with the secret door by storm, or whether they should try to lure off the Ogre, dispatch him, and try to make it in the front way.

Eventually, they decided to make their way around the fortress, with Zara moving along the top of the wall to keep an eye on things.  Unfortunately, the walls were very challenging to navigate, and just besides a roof covering a seemingly disused room, bad karma came along and required some tough rolls to avoid a partial collapse of the roof.  Zara came close, but did not succeed, and an Orc Sergeant spotted her silhouetted against the sky through the new hole in the roof of the room he was in.

Everyone rolled initiative.  The Orc rolled a phenomenal 28.  He took out and blew a warhorn.  The party sprang into action.

Round 1

Lief climbed up the wall, Indigo failed to distract the Orc with an illusion.  Cerise blessed Zara, Yoshi and Legolis.  Delthen had trouble getting up the wall.  Legolis teleported to the top of the wall and took a shot, but missed (doing miss damage).  He also borrowed Rolen’s Elven Grace with his pet snake’s “mimic” ability, but failed his first roll with it.  Yoshi made it partway up the wall, as did Rolen.  Zara missed the Orc with her crossbow (doing miss damage).  Hey then rolled a 20 and used it to propel Yoshi and Rolen to the top of the wall creatively using his “reach trick” feat and his magic tree club.  Monk Crommard cowered and muttered something about being an academic, not a warrior.

The Orc turned and ran out into the courtyard, apparently running to get help.

And that is where we left it.  The party is storming over the walls into Jawarl Avignon.  They can see but a sole fleeing Orc.

What else awaits them remains to be seen.

13th Age--So this happened

A couple of months ago, I jumped on the 13th Age bandwagon by backing the kickstarted of the first 13th Age supplement, 13 True Ways.  I have since laid the foundation for a 13th Age campaign which will be starting in late February as far as play sessions (though the description of our character creation session results is here).  In the mean time, I have been awaiting the full publication of the 13th Age book and working with the pre-publication editions they have released so far to backers of 13 True Ways and those who pre-ordered 13th Age directly from the publisher.

One of the fun things about 13 True Ways is that, having hit a number of stretch goals, they have really involved the community in what the final expanded content of the book is going to be.  One of the "contests" that they held was the opportunity to shape the art work in the book through submitting a 130 word essay, story, or polemic on your favorite 13th Age or D20 SRD monster, which then, if selected, would inspire one of 13 new illustrations in the supplement.

Yesterday, the announced the authors of the selected submissions, and my name was among the chosen.  This is very fun and very exciting for me.  Right after they announced this part of the ongoing involvement of backers in the book, I had my monster picked out, and I sat down and wrote my 130 words.  My son never doubted that I could get picked, but, really, in a community of incredibly talented and imaginative people, I figured it was a long shot.

I am happy that it worked out for me.  I don't know how many essays were sent, but I would be a lot.  They let people do up to two submissions (different monsters) and it took them some time to decide on the "winners", though I am sure they were doing many things besides reading 130 word essays in the time between the due date and yesterday's announcement. 

So, what happens next is that the artists are going to come up with initial sketches to capture their plan for the art, and those will get posted one at a time to reveal the monsters and the essayist behind them.  The have opened with the first winner, with the nom de plume of "The Dormouse", who wrote about a truly Giant, giant praying mantis.  There are 12 more sketches to go, including one of my chosen monster, and I can't wait to see each of them.

So, what's my monster?

Well, that would be telling.

Suffice it to say, Rob Heinsoo and the rest of the 13th Age masterminds have decided they want to draw out the suspense and reveal the monsters one at a time to surprise us all.  Who am I to spoil the fun.  Some people, after all, picked two monsters, and they don't know yet which one got picked.

So, despite it being a small thing, and the real achievement going to be from the artists of 13th Age (who are phenomenal!), I am inordinately proud of making my small contribution.

Good fun, and my son got to say "I told you so, Dad."

Heroes of the 13th Age: Part 1-Character Creation

So, last Saturday, my time finally came.  I gathered together a brilliant group of people at my house to launch a campaign of Pelgrane Press and Fire Opal Media's 13th Age.  We had four kids (pre-teen and teens), and five adults (I'll call them two Moms and three Dads) and me (another Dad).  It turned out to be a really good mix.  We took up a lot of time with the mechanics.  Lots of people rolled dice for their characteristics and some did the point buy.  People poured over my home-brew character creation work flow sheets and reference sheets.  This was a new game to everyone, including me.

Eventually, we ended up with assigning stats, choosing race and character class, which resulted in the following breakdown:

Spirit-Touched (my version of Aasimar) Cleric (Mom)
Gnome Cleric (Dad)
Half-Elf Rogue (Mom)
High Elf Ranger (Kid)
Half-Orc Fighter (Dad)
Human Bard (Kid)
Human Paladin (Kid)
Wood Elf Sorcerer (Kid)
Half-Elf Fighter (flovored Samurai) (Dad)

This was an interesting and diverse group, and looks like it will provide versitility for meeting challenges.

Next we went into backgrounds, Icon relationships, and One Unique Things.

This was definitely the highlight of the evening.  Everyone got to introduce their character and talk about their backgrounds.  One dad did steal the show.  Our Half-Orc Fighter gathered his two kids who were at the table close to him as he prepared to tell us about his character.  I wondered if he had some touching or serious story to tell, with his kids close.  Nope.

He introduced himself, in character, as HEY WATCHIT!  He gestured wildly with his hands, making sure to gently buffet each of his kids multiple times as he described how his orphaned Half-Orc Character, who talks with his hands, was "raised by whole village" and "it take a whole village to raise HEY."  While no one had us laughing or as enthralled as much as Hey's player, everyone had really interesting, sometimes goofy, definitely some off the wall ideas.  However, when we finished going around the table and I had finished taking notes, we had changed the world.

Literally, the Dragon Empire of the 13th Age was different before and after we discussed player backgrounds, Icon relationships and One Unique Things.  I had already been customizing "My Dragon Empire" (which you can read about on prior entries to my blog [Chaos Shaman and Man-Orcs; Paladin Orders; and my cosmology:  first post here, the second here, the third here and the fourth here, fifth here]).  However, my vision was narrow compared to the wild and crazy ideas that arose out of character creation.

Here are some things we know about Our Dragon Empire after character creation.

1. The First Crusader appeared in the Third Age, and his direct descendent is one of the player characters.
2. The High Elves have invented a magical toy which allows people to share thoughts and sketches by carrying around a magical scroll in a scoll tube and "posting" things.  Because of the Fey Magic, it doesn't usually do anything very useful.  It is only for amusement.  It is called ELF SCROLL.
3.  The Dragon Empire has suffered a lot of turmoil.  Since the start of the Age, there have been at least seven conflicts large enough to be called wars.
 4. The Diabolist and the Orc Lord have been working together in this Age.  Who is using who?
5. You can get croissants in the Dragon Empire, and apparently the best ones made in the Santa Cora region are baked by Hey Watchit.
6. The Frost Giants of this era are not so bad.  They are kindly enough to take in a raise orphan Gnomes.
7. There is something called "Cheese Trees" and apparently one of the characters is the only one of his kind who can grow them.
8. There are apparently whole tribes of Necromancers out there (come on 13 True Ways!)
9. There is an Imperial Music College
10. There are Samurai in the Dragon Empire.
11. The High Elves have developed a Zen-like archery discipline/philosophy
12. The Court of Stars has its own military Special Forces
13. The Emperor has an organization called the Emperor's Rangers who are not "Rangers" in the character class sense necessarily but instead are made up of different units of homogeneous ethnic groups (Mongol like horse raiders in one, Frankish style knights in another, Samurai, etc.).  Also, the Emperor's Rangers builds "Forged" Units of diverse people to deliberately foster closer ties between disparate groups in the Empire.

That was a lot to learn.

But wait, there was more.

This was where I stole a page from Evil Hat and their Spirit of the Century game (based on the FATE system).  In that pulp hero themed game, they suggest a mechanic of party building by each character writing down the title of an adventure story where they were the "star" and then passing it around so that a couple of other characters sign on as "Guest Stars" so that everyone is chained together through past adventure stories which happened before the game began.

So, the last thing we did was that I pulled out the index cards and explained what I thought I wanted.  I had made a list of prompts to help like a what "I survived . . ." what/where "the battel of  . . ." why "in the service of [x]."  After a bit of discussion, I thought I had communicated the concept, and people wrote down their past adventure.  Then, everyone read what they had written.  My plan was that each story would have something like two or three "guest stars" for each story.  I could not actually remember what the Spirit of the Century process was at that moment.  Instead, as each person read their little back story prompt, many people at the table said, "oh, I was there" or "oh, I saw that" and cards got furiously passed and people wrote things on them.  The constant refrain was "Hey thinks he was there TOO!"  In the end, I think Hey did end up in most of the stories.  It was not quite the clean and ordered process envisioned in Evil Hat's book, but it really worked to give the cast of characters a complex and interesting back story that wove them all together.

So, below are the stats for the characters, my interpretation of their individual stories.  This is followed by the epic history of how they all came togehter over time (which I created by arranging the index card stories until they made an intelligible chronology and then I wrote it out), and the teaser for the first adventure (which is sadly some weeks off still; the difficult of grown up lives and schedules).

Enjoy, comment, create and go play!

CHARACTERS

Cerise

Female Spirit-Touched Cleric

Str 11 Con 14 Dex 14 Int 10 Wis 18 Cha 12

One Unique Thing: Found on doorstep of Abbey of the Priestess.  I don't know who my parents/family are.  I left to find out who I am.  I have a birthmark that looks like a comet on my shoulder and I was wrapped in a silk blanker with the symbol of the Great Gold Wyrm.

Backgrounds:
Raised in The Abbey (of the Priestess) +5

Sailed on the Midland Sea +3

Icon Relationships: 1 (pos) Priestess, 1 (pos) Great Gold Wyrm, 1 (neg) Diabolist

Talents: Cleric Domains: Sun, Leadership, Life

Spells:
Bless, Cure Wounds, Javelin of Faith, Spirits of the Righteous

Feat: Toughness

Cerise is a Spirit-Touched Cleric, a follower of the Priestess.  She is tall and has an other-worldly appearance.  The Spirit-Touched are sometimes called “Holy Ones.”  The Spirit-Touched are a near-human race touched by the bright gods and their spirits.  Some say that, with the appearance of the Priestess and her Cathedral, the Priestess has brought the Spirit-Touched to the Dragon Empire for some special purpose through the Cathedral’s power.  Cerise was raised as an orphan as a ward of the Priestess’ Order in an Abbey outside of Santa Cora (the holy city that holds the Priestess’ Cathedral).  She has already travelled across the Midland Sea many times for her Order, but is now going out into the world to spread the Word of the Priestess and to search for her origin.  She wears the distinctive plate and mail armor of the defenders of her Order and looks like she knows how to use the sword at her side and the brace of throwing daggers in her sash.

Indigo

Male Gnome Cleric

Str 16 Con 10 Dex 14 Int 10 Wis 17 Cha 10

One Unique Thing: Was raised in a traveling circus.  Parents were a magic act and 3 siblings (1 bro, 1 sis & me (the youngest)).  Attacked on raid by band of Gnolls.  Circus destroyed, saved and raised by a Frost Giant.

Backgrounds:
Raised spiders +5

Makes cheese +1

Is a tattoo artist +2

Icon Relationships: 3 (pos) Priestess

Talents: Cleric Domains: Healing, Trickery/Illusion, Strength

Spells:
Cure Wounds, Turn Undead, Hammer of Faith, Javelin of Faith

Feat: Rapid reload

Indigo is a Gnome Cleric.  He too is a follower of the Priestess.  He, like all Gnomes, is really short and slight.  Gnomes are a Fey race, distantly related to the Elves, but also taking on some of the characteristics of the Dwarves, and some say they are related to Haflings, but you can’t believe anything anyone says about Haflings.  He can’t be any more than four feet tall at the most, but he has the strength of a grown warrior half again his size.  For some reason, he seems to know everything there is to know about spiders, which is a little strange.  Also, even though he’s usually the shortest person in the room, he acts like everyone else is just another “short person” because he was raised by Giants.  At least that’s what he says.  He also has all sorts of tattoos, and he can give you one himself if you want.  I think I saw one on his arm that said “Gnoll Killer”, but I’m not sure.  Usually he is wearing his armor from the Warrior Order of the Gnomish Gods, emblazoned with their symbols.  He is fierce wielding his two handed war hammer, but even more important is his great power to heal the injuries and illnesses that may befall his friends.

Z
Female Half-Elf Rogue

Str 8 Con 18 Dex 18 Int 14 Wis 16 Cha 14

One Unique Thing: Has an elaborate chain necklace with many colorful gems.  Periodically a new gemstone appears.

Backgrounds:
Grew up in a tavern +5

Travelled with a menagerie +3

Got lost in the Wild Wood +2

Icon Relationships: 2 (pos) Priestess, 1 (pos) High Druid

Talents: Shadow Walk, Swashbuckle, Thievery

Powers: Evasive Strike, Flying Blade, Roll With It, Sure Cut

Feat: Roll with it (enhancement)

Zelda or Zatana or Zephyr or something starting with Z (it changes, like all the time), she is a Half-Elf of many talents.  That’s what she likes to say, though quietly, your friends nod and wink and whisper the word “Rogue.”  She grew up in a tavern and has travelled all over with the most interesting people and dangerous animals, putting on shows.  She is usually dressed in non-descript travelling leathers and a plain looking cloak.  She seems to want to appear non-descript all the time, but she definitely gives off a bit of an “elfin” vibe.  But then, when you blink she could just disappear and then suddenly, she is right next to you coming out of the shadows.  That’s pretty cool.  She has one rich piece of jewelry and the gems on it seem to always be changing.  Her weapons are like her, discrete.  Until something is going wrong, you don’t usually see the long bladed dagger or the crossbow she has with her (seemingly at all times).  Who knows what she has up her sleeves?

Legolis (absolutely no intellectual property problem here whatsoever; move along)

Male High Elf Ranger
Str 11 Con 13 Dex 17 Int 11 Wis 14 Cha 13

One Unique Thing: I grow cheese trees.

Backgrounds:
Champion athlete +3

Fought in seven wars +3

Sleeps for 15 hours a day +2

Posts pictures of ugly monsters on the Dragon Empire’s version of Facebook, ELF SCROLL +1

Lives with a Hobbit (okay Tolkien Estate, Halfling . . .) on the weekends +2

Icon Relationships: 3 (pos) Elf Queen

Talents: Archery, Ranger’s Pet (Serpent); Fey Queen’s Enchantment (Acid Arrow)

Feat: Archery (enhancement)

Legolis is a proud High Elf Ranger and devoted servant of the Elf Queen.  He is both a champion athlete and a renowned strategist who has led the defense of the Elven people and the Empire many times.  He has the classic look of the High Elves, all tall and blond and athletic build.  Like any good soldier, he knows that getting sleep where you can is important, so he always seems to be able to nod off.  Like many a famous elf, he dresses in greens and browns (the better to blend into the landscape) and he carries a big bow.  However, he may have dwarven friends, because he also carries a big axe.  He has a big pet snake that is always with him.  For some reason, he usually smells faintly of cheese.  When he isn’t fighting, competing, sleeping or advising the Elf Queen’s army on strategy, he spends time on the new Elf Scroll network.  That thing can’t communicate anything important, but it sure has funny pictures, especially the ugly monster ones that Legolis posts.  Legolis also has a Hobbit (Halfling) roommate on the weekends.

Hey Watchit

Male Half-Orc Fighter

Str 16 Con 15 Dex 13 Int 9 Wis 11 Cha 8

One Unique Thing: Has a bag given by old one-eyed Maude, the hedge witch from his village.  Only opens in case of DIRE EMERGENCY.  So far it has never opened.

Backgrounds:
Pastry chef/cook in a tavern (try the Croissants!) +1

Caring for small animals (shepherd) +1

Knowledge of plants/helped Druid +1

Modern interpretive dance (entertaining the village) +3
Cousins everywhere +1
Has wandered around everywhere (looking for the DIRE EMERGENCY) +1

Icon Relationships: 1 (neg) Orc Lord (he’s mean), 1 (pos) Elf Queen (she’s pretty), 1 (pos) High Druid (I don’t know her, but she seems nice)

Talents: Heavy Warrior, Skilled Intercept, Tough as Iron

Powers: Brace For It, Heavy Blows, Deadly Assault

Feat: Reach tricks

Hey Watchit is a Half-Orc Fighter.  He is always very excited and he talks with his hands a lot.  He is big and brawny, and a little scary looking, until he starts to smile and talk in endless run-on sentences.  He was raised as an orphan in a village outside of Santa Cora (the Holy City that holds the Priestess’ Cathedral).  No one family was able to handle him for any length of time, but he was passed from hand to hand and eventually grew up, showing it truly does take a village, especially if you are trying to raise Hey.  Hey has learned to fight, but also to care for things.  He has been a cook and baker (remember to try his Croissants!), a shepherd, an herb gatherer and a dancer/entertainer.  He has traveled some, but always comes back to his village to do some more baking.  He wears bits and pieces of plate, chainmail, other old metal pieces, and whatnot that make him very well armored.  Unlike most proud fighters, he carries no sword.  He has what looks like a small tree and a bag of rocks.  Don’t stand too close, he likes to talk with his hands, and sometimes he forgets to put down the tree.

Lief

Male Human Bard

Str 13 Con 12 Dex 16 Int 13 Wis 11 Cha 19

One Unique Thing:  Spell placed on me by a necromancer tribe for an unknown reason.  It works sometimes to create random magic effects.

Backgrounds:
Survived alone in the woods +2
Agile and fast from running for my life +2

Hired for a circus and later ran away +1

Thieved to live +2

Studied music at the Imperial Music College +3

Icon Relationships: 1 (pos) Priestess, 2 (pos) High Druid

Talents: Songmaster, Storyteller, Balladeer (Air of the Elf Queen)

Battle Cries: Move It!, Stay Strong!

Songs: Song of Spilt Blood

Spells: Battle Chant

Feat:  Battle Chant (enhancement); [still needs to choose a second Feat]

Lief is the most dreamy, nicest, best singing, best looking, and most interesting guy ever.  Yeah, he’s a Human Bard, and he knows all these songs and riddles and stories and he’s so nice.  Everyone just thinks he’s the best.  He has colorful clothes and a flashy cloak.  He’s travelled in the woods and met the High Druid and he’s played concerts at the Cathedral.  I bet his voice sounded even more amazing there!  He has all sorts of instruments that he can play, and his voice is just like being in heaven.  He has all sorts of weapons, but why would he ever need to fight with them?  Everyone just wants to hear him sing and tell stories.  He uses his weapons to do juggling and to tell his stories.  Have you ever seen the puppet show he did with a dagger, a long sword and three arrows?  It was amazing!  Yeah, that guy’s great!  Only . . . sometimes really creepy weird magical things happen around him, and that’s spooky.

Delthen Eversoar

Male Human Paladin

Str 19 Con 15 Dex 13 Int 9 Wis 10 Cha 14

One Unique Thing: Descended from the original Crusader who appeared in the 3rd Age

Backgrounds:
Privileged House of Eversoar +3

Inquisitor of The Crusader +5

Icon Relationships: 2 (pos) Crusader, 1 (neg) Diabolist

Talents: Way of Evil Bastards, Fearless, Implacable

Feat: Smite Evil (enhancement), Implacable (enhancement)

Delthen Eversoar is kind of scary.  He is a Human Paladin, but not the warm fuzzy kind.  He is a dark and serious Paladin, one of the Crusader’s demon hunters from the Inquisition.  He is from an important noble house from the Empire, but he gave up all his titles and lands to join the Crusader.  They say he helped take one of the demon fortresses in the Hellhole of Drosh.  They say he is one of the strongest men alive, and he walks around all in dark plate armor, with his big shield with the symbol of the Crusader’s Inquisitors blazoned on it.  Nobody wants to mess with him, and certainly they don’t want to see how well he handles the mace or heavy crossbow he always has with him.

Rolen Stillwind

Male Wood Elf Sorcerer

Str 10 Con 14 Dex 10 Int 12 Wis 16 Cha 17

One Unique Thing:  Has a cursed mark on his left hand.

Backgrounds:
Student of the Archmage +3

Experience with Diabolit Magic +3

Old friends within Concord +2

Icon Relationships: 1 (pos) Elf Queen, 1 (pos) Archmage, 1 (conf) Diabolist

Talents: Sorcerer’s Familiar (Raven), Fey Heritage, Infernal Heritage

Spells: Burning Hands, Lightning Fork, Resist Energy, Scorching Ray

Feat: Infernal Heritage (enhancement)

Rolen Stillwind is a Wood Elf Sorcerer.  His magic comes from his emotions and force of personality.  You could say that he is fiery.  Certainly things that threaten him end up on fire, incinerated or struck by lightning.  Despite being a sorcerer, he carries himself pretty seriously, almost like one of the Archmage’s wizards.  He sometimes talks about being under a curse and he has a curious mark on his left hand.  You know he has performed some important tasks for the Court of Stars (The Court of the Elf Queen), and he seems to have offended the Diabolist in some way.  Perhaps he has stolen some of her secrets.  He looks very graceful in his flowing sorcerer’s robes, but don’t let him try to stab anything because he might hurt himself.  Just let him stand back and unleash elemental fury on your enemies.

Yoshi Antien

Male Half-Elf Fighter (Samurai flavored)

Str 17 Con 16 Dex 17 Int 9 Wis 8 Cha 8

One Unique Thing: Split childhood between the Imperial Court and the Court of Stars (court of the Elf Queen)

Backgrounds:
Elven taught archery-zen +2

Groomed to be a Castellan +1

Seaman +1
Horseman +1

Emperor’s Rangers +2

Likes to cook on campaign +1

Icon Relationships: 1 (conf) Elf Queen, 2 (pos) Emperor

Talents: Deadeye Archer, Power Attack, Skilled Intercept

Powers: Deadly Assault, Second Shot, Precision Attack

Feat: Improved Initiative

Yoshi Antien is a Half-Elf fighter.  He grew up in the Imperial Court and the Court of Stars (the Elf Queen’s Court).  He is from an honorable order of Samurai who are the first sent in for all the hot spots of the Empire.  He has sworn allegiance to the Empire, but also has the favor of The Court of the Elf Queen.  He’s done a lot of travelling and has some hidden skills.  If you have never had a meal prepared in the field by Yoshi, you should.  He is amazing with his bow.  I wouldn’t get to close to him when he is swinging his sword either, but when he is picking off the enemy with his arrows it is like he has become one with his bow.

EPIC BACKSTORY (in which we learn even more interesting things about Our Dragon Empire)

Some years ago, Indigo was invited from his gnomish settlement near the Northern Colossus at the end of the Frost Range (where he had helped forge friendship between the Frost Giants and the Gnomes) to Santa Cora to “exterminate” a nearby colony of Giant Spiders that was attacking pilgrims visiting the Priestess.  During his work, he met Hey Watchit in his village, because it was on the pilgrimage route.  Z was also visiting Santa Cora with a menagerie with which she was then employed.  She and Indigo met.  Indigo provided a “small” Giant Spider to the menagerie, and taught Z how to care for it.  Indigo also met Cerise while on assignment around Santa Cora because the Abbey where she was raised was on the pilgrimage route.  Indigo decided to stay in the vicinity of Santa Cora to further his religious studies and he and Cerise became colleagues in their religious life.

Not long afterwards, the samurai Yoshi Antien was sailing on a ship from the imperial capital, Axis, to the city of Concord.  Disaster struck the ship upon the Midland Sea as it passed between the haunted and deadly island of Omen and the lighthouse at Vigil.  Although there are no monsters in the Midland Sea, by the power and authority of the Emperor, and the weather conditions are almost always favorable, due to the magic of the Archmage, a terrible monster storm, or possibly a terrible storm monster, or perhaps both, struck the ship.  The ship tried to run before the power of whatever was menacing it for miles, until it ran aground in Fullcatch Bay.  Yoshi was the only survivor of the wreck.  Hey Watchit was on the beach watching the monster storm (or storm monster) when the ship crashed into the rocks.  He pulled Yoshi from the sea and fed him some croissants.  Rolen Stillwind was also present on the beach investigating various phenomena for the Archmage and he witnessed the storm, the wreck and the rescue.  He joined Hey and Yoshi around Hey’s fire and ate croissants and talked with them for a while (in a mysterious and sorcerous way).  As the monster storm abated, Yoshi thought he saw something flow into the edge of the Wild Wood from the monster storm.  Hey had to go home, but Yoshi, revived by Hey’s care, investigated as one of the Imperial Rangers.  Rolen accompanied him into the Wild Wood to gather facts for the Archmage.  In the Wild Wood they came across Indigo the Gnome Cleric, who was studying the spiders of the Wild Wood and seeking counsel from the High Druid’s followers to try to understand why Giant Spiders had been attacking pilgrims.  Indigo gave Yoshi and Rolen advice about the local area in the woods to try to figure out what flew out of the monster storm.  Even following his advice, however, their investigation was inconclusive and after several days in the woods, they returned to the road between New Port and Santa Cora to go to Santa Cora.  On the road, they met a travelling menagerie and saw the wondrous monstrosities, including a smallish Giant Spider under the care of Z.  Yoshi and Z spoke a bit about the road where the menagerie was travelling.  Rolen did not pay much attention to Z.  Yoshi and Rolen continued to Santa Cora and there parted ways.  Outside of Santa Cora, Yoshi rested for a few days at the Priestess’ Abbey, where Cerise was a novice.  Yoshi recounted to Cerise his experiences during his voyage, shipwreck, and journey to Santa Cora, and Cerise recorded them in the Abbey’s book of traveller’s stories.  Yoshi continued on foot, braving the dangers of The Demon Coast and skirting Gorogan’s Maw to finally reach Pocket Bay.  On the shores of the bay, he met Legolis who was leading a small scouting party out from Horizon.  Legolis escorted Yoshi around the bay to Horizon where he was preparing a military unit for a strike against a Hellfort in support of the forces of the Crusader.  Yoshi and Legolis traded archery tips during their time together.  Legolis posted a sketch of them shooting arrows at monsters on Elf Scroll.  They parted in Horizon and Yoshi took the Imperial Road back to the Capital, Axis, to report his adventures.

After Z left Yoshi and Rolen with the travelling menagerie on the road to New Port, she was thinking about the mysterious “something” that Yoshi had claimed he saw pass from the monster storm into the Wild Wood.  Z never made it to New Port, however, and has never learned the fate of the menagerie.  Her next memories are of being lost in the Wild Wood, the stronghold of the High Druid.  Z cannot really remember how long she wandered in the woods, remembering herself and learning to survive.  Eventually she came upon a gathering of the followers of the High Druid performing a ritual.  This was a sacred tree spirit ceremony, and the spirits of the forest danced through the woods spreading strength and vitality.  Leading the followers of the High Druid in dance was Hey Watchit, who was always ready to dance, and Lief the Bard, who was playing beautiful music and singing haunting songs.  Z also became aware that she was not the only spectator.  Indigo the Gnome had become a frequent visitor to the Wild Wood since his previous investigations into Giant Spiders.  This was the first person Z recognized after she became lost in the woods, and she was very glad to see the face of an old friend.  Indigo informed her that he often came to the rituals of the High Druid’s followers to give them tattoos.  Indigo, Hey and Z all returned to the area around Santa Cora together, and Z stayed for a time at the tavern in Hey’s home village.

Cerise later travelled around the Midland Sea seeking clues to her origin and her family, while spreading the words of the Priestess.  On one trip, she went to pray at the ruins of the Golden Citadel, the old stronghold of the Paladins of the Great Gold Wyrm.  However, after departing the Citadel,  the demonic forces of the Diabolist captured her.  The Diabolist’s lieutenant tried to convince Cerise that she must come to the Abyss to meet with the Diabolist because the Diabolist knew the truth about her family.  The lieutenant hinted that the truth was that Cerise and the Diabolist were related!  Though tempted, Cerise divined that the lieutenant meant to sacrifice her, and she sought to escape.  She was aided in this by Hey Watchit, who is always happy to help nice people, and by Delthen Eversoar, who is always happy to kill demons.

After meeting Cerise, Delthen Eversoar and Hey Watchit travelled together and participated in the taking of the Hellfort Dosh, a demonic outpost near the KneeDeep in the foothills of the Giantwalk Mountains, by the Crusader’s forces.  Because of the threat of this Hellfort to Axis, the capital of the Empire, the Emperor and the Elf Queen sent a top strategist, Legolis, with a group of Elven Special Forces to help in the elimination of the Hellfort.  Delthin, Hey and Legolis all became comrades in arms and trusted one another with their lives.  Legolis posted sketches of them killing demonspawn on Elf Scroll. 

Meanwhile, Lief the Bard travelled the long journey from the Wild Wood on a trip to the Abyss, doing research for an epic story and song cycle that was an extension of his work studying at the Imperial College of Music.  As he travelled out of the Wild Wood, he met Z, who had been lost in the Wild Wood.  Z had been with a travelling menagerie, but could not remember how she went from travelling in its company to being lost in the middle of the forest.  However, when Lief met her, she had learned many of the ways of the forest and was a good travelling companion.  Z left him as he passed through Santa Cora.  After he left the Holy City to travel the Demon Coast on his way to the Abyss he met Cerise who was on her way back to Santa Cora after escaping the Abyss.  Lief and Cerise exchanged stories and became friends.  Though Cerise warned Lief about the dangers of the Abyss, he continued his journey.  He stopped at the ruins of the Golden Citadel to seek a sign from the Great Gold Wyrm that he was permitted to visit the Abyss.  He then continued into the Red Wastes.  There he met Hey Watchit and Delthen Eversoar who were on their way back to Hey’s village after the Battle of Hellfort Dosh.  Hey and Delthen travelled with Lief to the edge of the Abyss to protect him while he sought inspiration for his poems and songs.

Rolen, after completing his investigations around Santa Cora and the Wild Wood, voyaged to Concord and conducted research and studies among the Fey of the city.  Without warning, an army of Orcs appeared around The Fangs and marched across Throne Point to lay siege to Concord.  The terrible army laid waste to the areas around the city and summoned demons to terrorize the population.  Rolen was prominent in the defense of the city, and he put his knowledge of the infernal powers to use in countering demonic attacks.  During the siege, he came to the attention of Ranger and strategist Legolis who was helping to organize the defense of the city.  At a critical juncture in the siege, the Crusader’s forces arrived at the gate where Rolen and Legolis led the defense.  The gate was saved by a mad charge led by Delthen Eversoar.  There was a joyous reunion between Delthen and Legolis, and Legolis introduced Delthen to Rolen.  Legolis posted sketches of them fighting Orcs and Demons on Elf Scroll.  As the siege was lifting, a support fleet arrived from Santa Cora.  On board were Cerise and Hey Watchit.  Cerise came to minister and heal, Hey came to fight the mean people (Orcs).  Hey found his old friends Delthen, Legolis, and Rolen and brought Cerise to the inn where they all were staying.  Cerise was introduced to Rolen, but she already knew Delthen and Legolis.  Hey made up a new “dance of friends meeting” and they all danced it.  Legolis posted a sketch of them dancing on Elf Scroll and then went to sleep.  Some Dwarves saw the posting on Elf Scroll and came to see the dance. 

After the Siege of Concord, the Elf Queen ordered a strike against those behind the attack.  The Court of Stars declared that the Diabolist and a pretender to the title of the Orc Lord had launched the attack from The Fangs.  Legolis was commanded to help with the planning of the campaign against the Hellhole of The Fangs and to lead the scouts at the vanguard of the army.  Delthen Eversoar and the forces of the Crusader rode with the armies of Concord.  Rolen Stillwind went along with the army as an advisor on diabolic matters (and to set things on fire).  Yoshi Antien was with a contingent of Imperial Rangers dispatched to aid in the attack.  Hey Watchit thinks he went too.  Indigo arrived from Santa Cora to join the healers for the campaign.  In the end, the Imperial Forces pushed the demons back into the Hellhole and obliterated the army of Orcs, but the forces were not strong enough to occupy and hold the Hellhole in The Fangs, so the victory was not decisive.

At the end of this war, Hey Watchit received an invitation from Forge to participate in an important birthday celebration for one of the hundreds of Dwarven princes.  Hey enjoyed teaching iron-toed tap dancing in the Dwarf King’s Hall in Forge at the Dwarf prince’s 14th Birthday Party.  Those guys knew how to have a good time.  As one of the heroes in the war against the Demons and Orcs (and also for helping the Dwarves find Hey to be the dance instructor through Elf Scroll) the Dwarves invited Legolis to come to the party, where he ate a lot of cake (and posted sketches on Elf Scroll).  Because of his prominent role in the war, and the close kinship between Dwarves and Gnomes, Indigo was also invited to the party.  He gave a tattoo to one of the Dwarven princesses.  The renowned bard Lief provided much of the music and other entertainment at the party.  After feasting and dancing for a week, Hey was ready to go home, and he and his friends Indigo, Legolis and Lief all travelled from Forge to Anvil by means of The Undermarch.  From there, they followed a caravan to Glitterhaegen, and in that city of merchants princes and commerce they obtained passage to Santa Cora.

In the Holy City, they received words that other friends had been summoned, including Cerise, Z, Yoshi, and Rolen for a mission of importance to the Elf Queen and the Priestess.  Hey didn’t want anyone left out, so he brought Delthen to meet with the representatives of the Cathedral and The Court, even though Delthen was very uncomfortable walking into a bastion of light.  There, the assembled nine heroes were told of a mission to find a lost artifact of the Orc Lord which was made to kill Elves.  Only time will tell what will happen next.