Star Trek--Into SPOILERS!!!!

SPOILERS-SPOILERS- SPOILERS-SPOILERS-SPOILERS-SPOILERS-SPOILERS-SPOILERS-SPOILERS-SPOILERS-SPOILERS-SPOILERS-SPOILERS-SPOILERS-SPOILERS-SPOILERS



Damn it Jim, I'm a SPOILER!




Okay, with that out of the way, I would like to discourse about Star Trek Into Darkness, Trek in general, and, of course, me (my blog and all).

Bottom line first: I liked the new movie.

It is clever and exciting.  I think they have a solid cast for the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise, and the supporting cast, particularly Peter Weller and (break out performer soon to be starring in everything) Benedict Cumberbatch, were outstanding.

Still, I have problems with the movie, and even moreso for what it says about the future of Star Trek as a franchise and cultural phenomenon. 

This history of Trek is well know and covered by pop cultural historians and science fiction gurus of much greater brain than me.  However, I have my own personal take.

Star Trek was first broadcast in 1966, the year before I was born.  Before I was two, the show was off the air.  But the phenomenon was just starting.

I don't remember when my father first introduced me to Star Trek, but I was probably fairly young.  Until I was in middle school, we only had a black and white TV, so my memories of Star Trek start without color, though I have mostly overwritten those memories with having seen all the episodes in color, and many of them remastered and enhanced.  Still, my father, who had worked in the aerospace industry and contributed to the development of the Saturn V rocket (one of thousands of engineers, but still, SATURN V!), introduced me to science fiction, first with Star Trek, and later with books like Ringworld.

As a little kid, I not only got to get acquainted with the Original Series, but I also saw quite a few episodes of the Animate Series, which, despite mediocre animation, actually holds up with pretty good writing for a lot of the episodes.  I absorbed a lot of Trek.

When I was in fourth grade, my dad spent a semester back as a visting professor at his alma mater, University of Utah, teaching in the math deparment.  This would have been 1977 and I was 10 years old.  I remember owning a Star Trek uniform shirt with the insignia patch (blue, though I think the patch had the "Command" insignia, because it was just some off the rack novelty shirt).  I also had bought the plastic model kit that let me build my own phaser, communicator and tricorder.  I was a firm fan.  And one magical night in Salt Lake City, my dad took me to a Star Trek presentation.  I wore my shirt.  It was not really a convention, as far as I can remember.  We went to an auditorium, and Gene Roddenberry was there, and gave a talk, and then showed "The Cage" and then a blooper reel, and it was really cool.  And my dad gave me the Star Trek Concordance, by Bjo Trimble, which I devoured.

So, I have to say I have a fundamentally emotional connection to Star Trek, which starts with my childhood and my dad, and continues to present.

Along the way, there have been other notable connections.  In 1979, when the Star Trek movies launched with Star Trek: The Motion Picture, I went on my first date with a girl to see the movie.

I'm not sure whether she thought the movie or me was more boring, but I mildly enjoyed the movie.  They had successfully got the crew back togeher.  The film is ponderous, a script and production that was neither in touch with the old series, nor with the cinematic zeitgeist that had seen the revolutionary change wrought by Star Wars.  Star Trek TMP harkens back to films like 2001 A Space Odyssey in its shots of space and space ships, and that was rendered a dead language by the fast flight of the Millenium Falcon and the run of Luke's X-Wing down the trench on the Death Star.  It did, however, manage some of the character work decently, especially the critical relationship between Kirk and Spock.  Still, the movie is hard to watch.

However, without The Motion Picture, and its modest box office success, you would not have had the next movie.

I saw Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, with my family in Monterey California in 1982.  Everything that had been wrong with the first movie got corrected.  The writers and the director understood the series, the characters, and understood the cinematic language needed to tell a story of the 23rd Century as envisioned in the Original Series.  I was on board for almost anything they would feed me.

I enjoyed Star Trek III: The Search For Spock, despite some flaws.  I loved Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.  It's focus on the characters, especially Kirk, Spock and McCoy, the humor, and the setting (some of which was filmed in my home town) all hooked me.  Also, it came out on my birthday in 1986, and I managed to make it home from college and to the theater just in time to join other high school friends to see it.

Also, by this time, I was not only watching Star Trek, but playing a role playing game, run by a friend, with my own captain and ship.  We were not content to just watch Star Trek, we were making our own memories and adventures with our imagination, using the tools Trek had given us.

The year Star Trek: The Next Generation came out, I was studying abroad and missed the first run of the season.  However, my friend and Trek RPG game master, sent me a huge care package for my birthday with included posters of some of the cast, the novelization of the first episode, and also hilarious "radio drama" he had made with friends at college, which was all about the crew of my starship in the game going in search of their lost captain.  In my friend's letters, I got an overview of how the series was developing, the positives and setbacks.

Then, when I got back, my mom had a friend who had video taped all the episodes, so I had my first experience with binge watching a series in 1988, as I caught up on the entire season.

My fandome was firmly renewed.

Then Star Trek V came out and my fandome was sorely tested.

Still, I stuck with it for seven seasons of TNG. 

I loved Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (actually, I think I cried a bit when they did the sign off at the end.

I stuck with Deep Space 9 for all seven seasons.

I enjoyed Star Trek Generations.

Star Trek Voyager lost me in season 4 or so.

Star Trek First Contact was a revelation, and I saw it on a day that was one of my best and then became a nightmare of one of the worst times in my whole life.  Through it all, the fictional heroism, sacrifice and friendship of the crew of the starship Enterprise shadowed me and help hold me together just a bit.

I terribly disappointed with Insurrection and Nemesis. 

I never watched Star Trek Enterprise (though riding a wave of nostalgia, I watched the pilot: Broken Bow, this past weekend, and it was actually pretty good).

So, in 2009, when they were leading up to the JJ Abrams reboot/What If? version of Trek, I had not been watching a regular show since 1999, and the last movie I had seen in the theater was First Contact in 1996.

I was skeptical.  Very skeptical.

It seemed to be taking one of the worst rejected ideas of rumored Trek development "Starfleet Academy," which would recast the main crew with new, young and more attractive actors, and running with it.  Also, by doing a kind of reboot, it put the creators in the position of taking the pieces of what made the Orignal Series great, and just cherry picking from them rather than doing much new.  I wasn't sure how it would work out.

However, the first movie in 2009 was a lot of fun.  They did play with the elements of canon and character to recombined them in new, but interesting, ways.  Sure, in some ways it was a revenge movie akin to Star Trek II, madman Nero and all.  Also, it rehashed some of Star Trek The Motion Picture and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home with giant space probes coming to destroy Earth.  It also had a dash of the time travel timeline change elements of Trek IV and Star Trek First Contact.  The changed a great deal about the technology and they rode roughshod over a lot of logic.  They left the timeline "polluted," but all in the name of a "fresh" start.  Yet it all worked.  It made me interested in what they would do next.

So fast foward four years.  In that time, many things had been tossed around as being what was "next."

The thing I was certain would be a terrible idea would be to bring in Khan Noonian Singh.  TOS episode Space Seed and Star Trek II are pretty sacred objects in the Trek pantheon.  It seemed like there would be so much room to screw it up, and, in a limitless universe, it seemed like you could find some other stories to tell.  Besides, the whole reason for the reboot was in order to escape the shackles of the canon.  Take the characters, with some twists, and do them afresh with new adventures and new developments.

So, what did Star Trek Into Darkness bring us?


KHAN!!!!!!!!!!!

Now, I have to concede that they were extremely clever with the "What if?" scenario.  In the wake of the last movie, including the total destruction of the planet Vulcan and the majority of the Vulcan race, we are in a darker, more frightened Federation.

So, in a timeline that fractured off from the old timeline when the Narada (a Borg enhanced Romulan supership) crossed back into this period, destroyed the U.S.S. Kelvan and set Kirk on his divergent path, you get Khan, but a Khan who makes a different entrance into the Federation.

He is not encounted on the Botany Bay by the Enterprise, but instead by some other ship, and he and his crew are not revived, but instead, brought back to earth.  Admiral Marcus wakes Khan up and employs him as a special advisor on weapons and tactical developments because it is a darker and scarier universe out there.  Marcus is eying war with the Klingons, Khan is biding his time to free his fellow Botany Bay exiles to return to his dreams of conquest and rule.

Clever.  Well done.

But . . .

Like the last movie, there are more than a few holes.

Like:

Why is Khan paler than the paint on the Enterprise hull?

Look, I know Benedict Cumberbatch is a great actor, and his performance was terrific.  It was a great way to make a counterpoint to the way that Ricardo Montalban owned the role.  However, while you could almost believe that the Mexican Montalban could be a Punjabi Sikh, I can't for a minute see Cumberbatch in a beard and turban and being at all convincing.  Of course, the selection, beyond the intensity and capability of the acting, served another purpose.  It is hard to guess that Cumberbatch is Khan because it is so ludicrous that the Sikh Khan Noonian Singh could be played by the very English Cumberbatch.  Further, Cumberbatch is a decade younger in his portrayal of Khan than Montalban was for the filming of Space Seed.  So, it serves the deception.

JJ Abrams could have cast someone who knew and trusted as a much more believable Khan, Naveen Andrews, who is of Indian heritage, who played a Sikh in The English Patient, and who worked with Abrams on Lost.  He is also in his 40s, just a Montalban was.  Of course, if he had been cast, it would have ruined the surprise.  Everyone could have guessed that he would play Khan, because it is an obvious choice.

They had to preserve the gimmick.  As much as I loved Cumberbatch in the role, I think Andrews would have been better casting.

That aside, the other BIG THING, is the death scene for Kik.  Now, on the whole, I thought they handled things well.  They made the dialog between the dying Kirk and Spock a similar, but different conversation than the reversed situation in Star Trek II.  It was clever.

But it was not earned.

Between the Chris Pine Kirk and Zachary Quinto Spock we have hardly any relationship built.  The 2009 movie started it, but then we had a four year hiatus, and then this movie.  While we can accept that off screen they built the relationsip that brings Spock to tears as Kirk dies, all the work, all the heavy lifting is done by the work done by William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy in three seasons of The Orignal Series and five movies (okay, there were six, but I really want to forget one of them).  The emotional depth is there because we know not this Kirk and Spock, but because we know the REAL Kirk and Spock (or at least the original versions).

I mean no slight to Pine and Quinto.  They nail the scene, but they had to come to that scene with little groundwork for their portrayals of the characters, not to mentione them just being younger men and actors than Shatner and Nimoy were when they played their version of the scene.  They just don't have the mileage in the relationship on and off screen. 

For this accelerated, streamlined version of Trek, this has to happen, not after decades of service together, but after just a few years.  Further, it continues the trend of sidelining McCoy.  DeForest Kelley was at the center of the dynamic that made The Original Series work.  While Karl Urban is doing a fine job with what he's been given, this version of Trek has him sidelined.  While the Kirk-Spock relationship is key, where it is not leavened with McCoy, it just is not working as well as it could be.  It seems to have been replaced, in some ways, with the Three being Kirk, Spock and Uhura.  There is some interesting dynamics there, and I am not opposed to widening the roles of other characters, but McCoy either is a central part of balancing Kirk as a leader, or we are not balancing the characters in a way that I think is needed.

And finally, as we are moving at Warp speed through the highlights of the Trek universe in the new version, we already know from not one, but two BIG HINTS, that Kirk won't be dead for more than a few minutes of screen time.  For Spock, there was a funeral and a whole other movie.  For new Kirk, we know before he went into the warp core that he would be back on top before the movie was over.

Some other obsevations I had that nagged me from the movie.  The second half is choppy. 

We get the battle, Kirk's death, but then KHAN!!!! and we are having a huge mass casualty crash of the Dreadnought (another old Trek concept) into San Francisco, then a foot chase between Spock and Khan, then Uhura is beaming down and shooting Khan and calming Spock, then Kirk is waking up Alive! (what a surprise!) and then he is making a speech a year after the events.  Then they start the 5-year mission.

That was a bumpy road to the ending.  They tried to do a lot.  It was all exciting and all, but it did really give me a little mental whiplash.  Not a smooth conclusion.

Okay, and a year later and . . . why aren't we at war with the Klingons?  Kirk and Khan beat, kiled, and exploded a bunch of them and their ships.  How is it that there are absolutely no reprecussions?  Well, in our accelerated Treknoverse, either 1) the just didn't notice because it would be an inconvenient plot development, or 2) it all got resolved off screen before Kirk made his speech. 

Either way, a little cheap there.

Carol Marcus.  I have mixed feelings.  Clever introduction.  Good tie back and across to Star Trek II.  She gets added to the crew, so, maybe they will try to realize some really different ideas, but I knind of think they are going to blow it.  I did think it was interesting that in Star Trek II she was a total peacenik scientist, at odds with, but begrugingly cooperating with Starfleet (really a reflection of what was the zeitgeist of the early 1980s), but here she is a weapons expert who was only a few steps behind her crazy warmongering Admiral dad.  But they have to go somewhere with the character or it is just a "look how clever we are" moment which is all sound a fury, signifying nothing.

They continue to make the galaxy feel very small.  It takes seconds, seemingly, to travel to the Neutral Zone with the Klingons.  And seconds to get back from there too.  This is just like the seconds it took to get to Vulcan.  True, there are explosions and chases and huge starship crashes that need to get on screen, so spending time getting from point A to point B is kind of a waste for what they wanted to do, but it does kind of take the Trek out of Star Trek.  There is little sense of journey.

Finally, Old Spock.  Okay, glad to see Nimoy and Quinto on screen besides a car commerical.  It doesn't add much.  Hey young Spock, as you guessed, Khan can't be trusted, he's a dangerous, and it might cost a lot to stop him.  Of course, most of the cost is off screen.  Kirk is less than temporarily dead.  The thousands of people that would seem to be killed with a Dreadnought crashing into San Francisco, well, we don't even get to spare a thought for them.  This is, after all, a BIG MOVIE.

And my really big but . . .

While we have been shown two movies where the writers and production staff have cleverly reimagined the Federation and the Enterprise crew, they have not reached escape velocity from the gravity of Trek Canon, which was something they had intended to do.

We are still telling the same stories.  This movie, expertly made (with some issues), is a mash up of themes, events, ideas and characters from Star Trek II and Star Trek VI.  It is bright, shiny, exciting, but it is essentially a retread.  There is not much new here.

Now, maybe all the stories have been told.  But then, that might mean trouble for Trek.

I don't believe all the stories have been told, but I think it is going to take a great deal more brain and imagination and a willingness to leave the clever twists behind.

I think they need something new.

Ironically, I think they could get there by going old school.  JJ Abrams can't direct the next movie as he takes over the Star Wars franchise, though he will stay on as Executive Producer.  Who should direct?

Paging Nicholas Meyer! 

Really, I think it could work.



So, to bottom line it, again, I liked the movie. 

But I fear for the future of Trek.  I mean, it will never die.  Fans proved that after it was cancelled.  But, as a living franchise that can add ideas that appeal to people going forward.  We are on the point of losing it, it seems to me.

First, with no episodic series, there is no journey, no long development of characters and relationships.  The movie cast won't be coming to our small screen, and it is unclear if any other story vehicle for the new or old Trek universes ever will again.  So, what we can look forward to is perhaps a few more New Trek movies, spaced out over many years.  And, while they have achieved great success as spectacle and action, they are coasting on character.  I don't mean to downplay the performances of the actors.  I admire them, but much of the ensemble gets little to do, and so these alternate versions of the beloved characters are either coasting on the groundwork laid by other actors, or reduced to mere characatures.  While there are fine moments for Kirk, Spock and Uhura, and a good portion for Scotty, McCoy, Sulu and Chekov don't do much.  I've already commented about how we really don't have enough screen time with these characters to have had the new journey with them.  So instead, we are forced to rely on what came before.

I think we need a movie that is less explody and chase filled, and one that explores some ideas, and most especially this crew and their relationships.  If they can do that, they can trascend just cleverly reconstructing plots and reassembling characters from old Trek movies, and move really into a new universe.

If not, well, its been fun, and it probably will be fun.  But it won't be the kind of Trek that Gene Roddenberry bequeathed us. 

Maybe they will bring us the next Voyage Home or Undiscovered Country, in that they bring us original elements of character, humor, zeitgeist and an ineffable feeling of Trek, or maybe they are going to jump the shark and give us Insurrection or, gods forbid, Final Frontier.

Or maybe they will just bring us a big loud Transformers like Sci Fi movie, or some other pleasant enough actioner with Star Trek trappings, but the fact that it is Trek won't matter at all.

I am hoping that Nicholas Meyers or the next generational heir of his approach is coming to set a strong course for us.

But I just don't know.

Live long and prosper.

Heroes of the 13th Age: Part 6-Dungeon Ecology 101--Everything IS trying to kill you

Our last 13th Age play session happened last month, and we found a few hours this last weekend to get in a play session for May.  With one combat after another, I thought we might settle down into more exploration and role playing for this session.  I even mentioned this to my son.  He laughed.  He was right.  Read on to find out what else they decided to fight in this session.

The adventuring party still consists of

Cerise, the Spirit-Touched Cleric

Indigo the Gnome Cleric
Zazz (and once again 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
Rolen Stillwind, the Wood Elf Sorcerer, and
Yoshi Antien, the Samurai flavored Half-Elf Fighter

All players were present and accounted for, and we had a fun, if shorter, session.

Initially, there was a firm conviction on the part of the party as a whole to continue down the main passage forthwith, and to find the way down to the crypt level, where they hoped to find the Elf-slaying spear Alkarg and keep it out of the hands of suspected Man-Orc Seth. 

Ominously, they heard the cry of the Owlbear echo down the main passage.  Again, they went over the fact that, though the Owlbear was in the courtyard cistern (upon which they had placed the old partially broken stone cover, it was possible that there was some access to the cistern from this lower level, as that would be a convenience that would fit the design of an early Imperial fortress (according to researcher Monk Crommard, one of the two essentially helpless civilians that they were having to drag along since the party had rescued them).  Listening carefully and creeping forward, they determined that the Owlbear had not yet broken its way into this level, but, it seemed possible that it could.  They noted that the main 20' wide passage continued after taking a sharp left turn off into the darkness (towards the sounds of the hungry Owlbear).  They noted several side passages, and, after the turn, several old tapestries covering possible openings on both sides of the main passage.

Then they go distracted by the side passages.  Retreating back up the main passage, they first proceeded twenty feet down a side passage where they found a door, which had been jammed by the settling over the years of the stone lintel.  However, they also noted that some animal or animals had, over the years, chewed open a significantly large opening at the base of the door.  After some examination and discussion, they concluded that probably giant rats were the culprits.  They also decided that someone needed to check the room.

There was a lot of joking about how it was a low entry and that the Gnome, Indigo, ought to fit right in.  Indigo was having none of it.  Every dutiful to the party, Samurai Yoshi set aside his pack and larger weapons, drew his wakizashi and crawled through the hole.  Unfortunately, despite years of training, Yoshi's characteristics are no great shakes for alertness, and he was easily surprised by the giant spider dropping onto his back as it crossed the threshold.

Unfortunately for the spider, it totally failed to make an effective attack. 

Round 1

Everyone rolled initiative.  Yoshi (with Improved Initiative and a high DEX) scored a 27, to easily win ahead of the spider and everyone else.  That was the good news.  He planed to stand and fight the spider in the room.  However, the superior initiative allowed him to wisely scan this "battlefield" before standing, and he spotted the five additional spiders rushing down the webs that lined the ceiling and walls of the room.

New plan.

He quickly backed out, shaking off the Spider and grabbing his larger weapons while shouting "burn them!!"

Now, among the party is one spider expert, Indigo.  He was very interested in the spiders and was ready to use his background (+5 Raised Spiders) to assist in the battle.

The rest of the partly simply let loose, initially on the spider they could see at the base of the door.

Legolis the Ranger, however, missed his bowshot.  1 point miss damage.

Leif the Bard shouted thunder with his Battle Chant.  This was, unfortunately, a fumble.  Borrowing from Dungeon World, I asked "What happens?"  The players quickly decided that the blast of thunder blew the door open, so that their plan to pour flammable liquid under the door and ignite it was spoiled, and also permitting the six spiders all to boil out of the doorway more easily to attack the party.  Oops.

Hey Watchit, the Hal-Orc Fighter swinging his mighty tree. . . missed, doing miss damage.

Zazz the Rogue dashed forward, still hoping to used lamp oil to some effect.  However, her attempt to parkour her way forward and throw the oil flask forward in a cool action-movie like slo-mo coating spiders and then igniting was interrupted by her fumbling her roll.  In order not to land among the spiders coated in oil herself, she invoked a maneuver using a combination of DEX and her Raised in a Tavern background (which is perhaps the most broadly useful background ever perpetrated in the game; it is also highly amusing, and thus the player gets to push it a lot).  I let her roll.  She rolled a 20.

Okay, we had a fumble followed by a critical.  Both had to be honored.  So, the oil flask skittered harlessly into the web strewn room without breaking.  The Rogue remained uninjured.  However, she was now front a center and made the main target for the spiders, and slightly tangled up in the doorjamb such that she could not easily retreat.

Dark Paladin and Inquisitor Delthen Eversoar then charged forward shield first to hold the door.  Normally, he could have placed himself alone between the monsters and the rest of his companions, but Zazz was all tangled up beside him, so that put both him and the Half-Elf Rogue at the top of the target list for the spiders.

I ruled that three spiders could make their attacks that round.

I rolled three attacks (1 for Delthen and 2 for Zazz).  I rolled 3 consecutive 3s.  Stupid d20!

Shimmering with holy light, Cerise, the Spirit-Touched Cleric loosed her Javelin of Faith.  Miss.

Finally the spider expert Indigo had his turn.  He rolled a phenomenally good roll using his background to find out what odor would attract the spiders away back into the room (a helpless fear drenched halfling was the suggestion of one of the players).  Using his Illusion Domain, Indigo created the smell in the room, forcing all six spiders to make standard saving throws (11+).  All of the spiders except the first one failed the save (yes, that's five failures in a row--stupid d20) and turned to charge back into the room to retrieve the mysteriously appearing yummy snack.

The last spider continued to hang at the top of the door frame, attempting to bite Delthen's head.

Rolen the Wood Elf Sorcerer focused his Scorching Ray at the last remaining spider.  Fizzle.  Nothing.

Round 2

Yoshi, with the initiative, lunged forward over Delthen's shoulder with his katana, and he missed . . . no wait, hit!  Thank you Escalation Die!  Max damage!

Legolis also rolled a miss, and invoked his Archery feat to reroll, which was unfortunately a miss.

Lief determined to try to charm the spider, using his Linguist feat and enormous CHA.  The spider was not impressed.

Zazz then pulled herself away from the door and made a quick crossbow shot at the spider, making a hit!

Delthen then swung his mace, powered by his Smite Evil, and landed a 14 point damage blow.  However, he then went on to try to flick the spider off the doorjamb with a maneuver, but failed.

Cerise sent blazing forth another Javelin of Faith, this time landing a critical hit.

Indigo also fired off his Javelin, but missed.

Rolen then cast his Scorching Ray to minor effect. 

The spider was mostly done for, but not yet dead.

Round 3

Before the spider could make a move to retreat, the swift moving Samurai Yoshi thrust into it again with his katana, slaying the arachnid.

With the immediate combat ended and the other spiders still looking for a helpless hafling that they could smell, but could not find, the party backed into the main corridor to regrroup and continue to explore.

A couple of things became apparent.  First, as Lief looked down to the left turn in the main corridor, off of which was another side passage, he began to feel a distinct foreboding.  Second, Rolen, the Sorcerer, realized that the cursed mark on his left hand reacted with what seemed like hungry interest every time it could "see" Legolis (whom Rolen nearly incinerated last time with a critical fumble).  If the curse were a being, it would be saying something like the Wild Things in Maurice Sendak's book "I'll burn you up I love you so."

Both revelations got the appropriate "well, that's not good" reactions.

Moving down the corridor, they noticed that the next side passage was filled with bones.  Indigo suddenly sensed a powerful emanation of undeath from the passage.  Lief suddenly realized what was bothering him, as he had the same feeling he had experienced when he was ensorcelled by the Tribe of Necromancers (his One Unique Thing).  From the dark, some THING started to call his name and to call him to the service of the Lich King.  The voice told Lief that they could glorify the Lich King and leave his living companions behind (by killing them).

That was enough for the party, who all prepared for a fight.

Round 1

Zazz was first, tied with the suddenly rampaging giant rat skeletons (mooks).  The Rogue easily slipped into the shadows with a Shadow Walk.  There were ten skeleton rat attacks, with more coming out of the piles of bones.  Most missed, one fumbled on Rolen, preventing another's attack, but Cerise, Indigo and Lief were hit, with Lief being hit critically.  The hit on Cerise caused her Halo power to do down, much to her chagrin.  However, the little rat skeletons did not pack much of a punch otherwise.

Delthen and Hey then counterattacked, quickly destroying three skeletons.  These, however, were just as quickly replaced from a total pool of 20.  Yoshi had a swing and a miss.  Cerise's Javelin of Faith missed.  Lief began his Song of Spilt Blood and then hit with his Battle Chant and Rolen made a successful Elven Grace roll, allowing him to make an empowered Scorching Ray attack.  Legolis also scored an arrow hit.

At this point, out of the bones sprang a rag clad, tattooed Ghoul Necromancer.

Gnome Cleric Indigo then called on the gods of his people and blasted out with his Turn Undead spell.  This had an immediate effect on the rat skeletons, two more of which disintegrated, and the rest became dazed (-4 to hit, as if they were not rolling badly enough already).

Round 2

Zazz stepped out of the shadows behind the Ghoul Necromancer, but only nicked him with her dagger, rolling a miss.

All the rat skeletons attacking missed.

The Necromancer turned on Zazz.  Madness burned in his dead eyes.  Dark power shimmered across the foul tattoos etched on his corpse body.  The temperature dropped around Zazz, as the cold of the grave seeped into the space between her and the Necromancer.  Her breath frosted in front of her.  With a cackle of glee, the unclean spellcaster unleashed his blast of necromantic energy.

Zazz carefully stepped aside as he missed, leaving his lethal attack nothing more than a cold spot on the wall (stupid d20!)

Delthen, Paladin of Darkness, charged forward swinging his mace at the Ghoul's head.  The Ghoul neatly side stepped and it was Delthen's turn to miss. 

Hey mashed some rats with his tree.

Lief unleashed the thunder of his voice, smashing more rat skeletons.  The magic of his voice also allowed Zazz to freely disengage from the Ghoul.

Yoshi drew a bead on the Ghoul, and his fumble almost put the arrow into Delthen's back.  Fortunately, the arrow pinged harmlessly off his armored shoulder.

Cerise, suffused again with holy light, cast forth the Spirits of the Righteous, dealing a serious, but far from lethal blow to the Necromancer.

Rolen's Elven Grace failed him in this round, yet his Scorching Ray was effective, not only frying another skeleton, but also setting the rat mooks alight for ongoing damage.

Legolis fired his bow at the rat skeletons, rolling a critical hit.  The table suggested that he had made a double shot, loading two arrows onto his string and hitting two separate rat skeletons, destroying both!

Indigo hurled his Javelin of Faith and did damage AND befuddled the Ghoul.

Round 3

Zazz, having taken a few steps back, let loose with her Flying Blade attack, arcing her throwing glaive at the Ghoul.  Once again, the capering spell caster stepped aside, only getting nicked by the miss. 

The Ghoul again called upon the cold of the grave to attack Delthen and Zazz.

And . . . nothing.  Swish.  He did save and end the effects of being Befuddled.

The few remaining burning rat skeletons tried to attack, but failed.  One fell apart. 

Hey missed his main swing, but the slight impact of his tree on a miss was enough to shatter the last charred rat skeleton.

Delthen had a swing and a miss.

Cerise called upon the powers of light and cast forth her Javelin of Faith once again, this time landing a solid hit on the foul undead Necromancer.

Yoshi's arrow missed its mark.

Lief's Battle Chant only rattled some old bones.

Rolen's Elven Grace once again failed him, but his Scorching Ray sizzled the tattooed skin of the Ghoul.

Legoli's arrow found its mark.

Indigo's holy Javelin of Faith also struck.

Suddenly, the fearsom Ghoul Necromancer was down to very few hit points (13).

Round 4

Zazz loosed another Flying Blade attack, with another glaive and hit . . . for 12 points.

The Ghoul, now with one hit point, sought to disengage with Delthen and dive back into its river of bones.  However, that (stupid!) d20 roll failed.  So it instead launched itself in a frustrated physical attack against Delthen.  It bit and slashed and battered the Paladin, finding every chink and weakness in his defenses, doing 21 points of damage after scoring a special attack with its rolll.

The Paladin, battered and bleeding swung his mace . . . miss.

However, the one point of miss damage, the slight glancing blow, easily shaken off usually, felled the dread Ghoul.

End of combat.

Once again the, the adventurer's triumphed!  Everyone celebrated by digging through piles of bones and trash in the Ghoul's lair to find coins, gems, jewelry and other sundries!

Treasure!

Delthen sucked down a healing potion, because he was about, literally, dead on his feet.

In the distance, they heard again the wild cry of the Owlbear seeking some way to enter the level.

They decided they needed to find a place to rest, and indeed, after suffering so much punishment, with their recoveries nearly all exhausted, they had earned a full rest.

But where . . . ?

Find out next time as we continue Heroes of the 13th Age!!!

Heroes of the 13th Age: Part 5-Fire and Dark for Dark Business

Several weeks ago we concluded our 13th Age play session having completed one huge combat, and then almost immediately jumping into another one.  So, this latest play session started with Round 2 of combat. 

The adventuring party still consists of

Cerise, the Spirit-Touched Cleric

Indigo the Gnome Cleric
Zillo (once again 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
Rolen Stillwind, the Wood Elf Sorcerer, and
Yoshi Antien, the Samurai flavored Half-Elf Fighter (due to a communications break down, which really was unfortunate, Yoshi’s player could not make it to the session, so the group determined his actions)

There were several notable things about this play session.  First, I was able to use my flashing Critical Hit D20, produced by Think Geek and generously donated to Labyrinth Games & Puzzles for their Table Top Game Day raffle a few weeks ago.  That die did some serious damage to the player characters.  Thanks Think Geek and Labyrinth!  You helped keep things tense for the players.

Second, the players had some really terrible rolls during this combat.  It was sad and amusing and wonderful in ways that only RPGs can be. 

Also, at the start of the game, Lief's player informed me that his Bard had chosen his second Feat: Linguist.  Suddenly, anything language wise that would be interesting or difficult was going to be his shtick.  More fun!

So, without further ado, let me plunge back  into the narrative:

The adventuring party had entered the dungeons underneath an ancient fortress called Jawarl Avignon.  They entered the dungeons to seek an ancient Orc weapon forged long ago and used by an Orcish Chieftain, Mondru Fourth of His Name, to ravage the countryside and take the fortress some 500 years ago.  However, the spear seemingly never left Jawarl Avignon because the Orc invaders were struck down by a plague after they executed the last Elf defenders.  The Priestess and the Elf Queen both fear the spear can be used to strengthen the power of the resurgent Orc Lord.

After a small bit of exploration, the party had charged into combat against a strong force of Orcs in a large pillared chamber.  The initial attack was not as surprising as they had hoped and at the end of the round Delthen, their paladin, was unconscious on the ground.  Leading to . . .

Round 2

Lief the Bard shouted his Battle Chant, striking one of the Orcish Soldier/Sentries for thunder damage and also activating one of his Battle Cries (Move It!) which allowed the Cleric Cerise to freely disengage from her attacker so she could rush to the aid of the downed Paladin.

Legolis unlimbered his axe and struck another of the Soldier Orcs.  Yoshi also attacked with his katana, but failed to connect.

Indigo, engaged with one of the berserkers, set aside a Trick Die roll of 17 for later use and then made a mighty swing with his hammer.  It swung wide however, and only nicked the berserker for "miss damage."

Sorceror Rolen succeeded with an Elven Grace roll.  He took his two actions to gather power and then unleash his Burning Hands of fury with which he flailed about uselessly hitting nothing.

Cerise quickly moved to Delthen's side and cast a quick heal on him.  She then cast her Javelin of Faith at the Orc Chief, who, due to Indigo's Trick Die, essentially stepped right into the holy bolt.

The Orc Soldier/Sentries made coordinated attacks against Lief and Legolis.  Lief was hit and Legolis took some significant "miss damage."  These Orcs were not mook pushovers.

Zillo then stepped around a pillar and stabbed the Orc attacking Lief with a sneak attack.  The Orc fell dead.

The Orc Bodyguard/Berserkers went next.  The first attack was a critical hit on Gnomish Cleric Indigo, which definitely hurt, but he kept on fighting.

The other Berserkers missed Rolen and Zillo respectively.

Delthen, having been raised up by the healing power of the House of Light, notwithstanding his devotion to the House of Shadows, pulled a quick manever that allowed him to go for the Orc Chief's knee with his mace.  He barely landed the blow, but managed to inflict another 17 points of damage to the Orc leader.  In response, the Orc Chief . . . missed :-(

Half-Orc Fighter Hey Watchitt concluded the round with a maneuver of his own.  Using his Reach Tricks feat and his handy Tree, he fended off the three Orcs nearest him (who were also attacking Legolis and Zillo) and he managed to knock each Orc back with some token damage such that they became unengaged, leaving Hey's companions the freedom to move and maneuver in the next round.

Round 3

Human Bard Lief let loose with his Battle Chant againt on the Orc Bodyguard/Berserker who was continuing to attack Rolen the Sorcerer.    His voice struck like thunder, this time with a critical.  He also used a Battle Cry to improve Rolen's armor class.  Yoshi then stepped forward and struck the same Orc using Deadly Assault and his Katana.

Legolis, having been freed from being engaged by Orc Sentries charged forward and unleashed his Acid Arrow spell at the Orc Chief.  This, however, was a miss, though it inflicted ongoing acid damage to the huge Orc.

Gnomish Cleric Indigo quickly healed himself, allowing some recovery from last round's critical hit and then he swung his mighty hammer . . . for another round of doing "miss damage."

Wood Elf Sorcere Rolen succeeded in his Elven Grace roll.  He fired off a quick burning hands, with which he fumbled and, forced to roll a second attack, he lit up his companion Half-Elf Samurai Yoshi.  With his second action he simply missed with his burning hands.He was, at least, keeping his part of the chamber illuminated.

Cerise summoned her Javelin of Faith and cast it at the Orc Chief, but missed.

The Orc Soldier/Sentries attacked Hey Watchitt, landing one blow.  Meanwhile, Zillo attempted to walk into the shadows, but, failing that, simply launched a new sneak attack on one of the Orcs fighting Hey.

The Berserker/Bodyguards then launched their counter attacks.  One hit Indigo, one critically hit Yoshi and the last charged up on Zillo, but his axe swung wide, missing her.

Delthen then stepped up against the Orc Chief again and took a mighty swing, which completely missed.

He took aim with his tree on one of his opponents, but missed, though he was able to boost his miss damage to cause a bit of extra discomfort with his glancing blow.

Round 4
Lief continued the rolling thunder of his Battle Chant, again damaging the Berserk Orc attacking Rolen.  His Battle Cry this round increased Yoshi' armor class. 

Legolis unlimbered his bow and smoothly shot an arrow into the chest of the Orc Chief, who promptly died.

Lief, observing this, attempted to dampen the moral of the Orcs by shouting in perfectly inflected Orcish (hey "Linguist"!) "The Chief is dead!"  This had no appreciable effect on the battle enraged Orcs.

Yoshi lunged with his Katana on the Berserker still attacking Rolen, but failed to make a solid hit.

Indigo once again healed himself, and invoked Trickery to make odd rolls misses for the Orc on him.  He then struck the Orc with his hammer, landing a Befuddling blow!

Rolen's Elven Grace failed him this round, but he was able to hit with Burning Hands finally, continuing to wear down the Orc who had been blasted with thunder and slashed with steel since the beginning of combat.  The Orc was still after him though.

Cerise stepped around a pillar and cast her Javelin of Faith at Indigo's opponent, but missed. 

The two Orcs fighting Hey suddenly surged forward with a furious attack.  One landed a solid blow, and the second hit him critically (I was seeing a battle axe cleaving into his helmet--ouch!).  Hey went down.

Zillo, however, quickly ducked passed the attackers and had a healing potion into Hey in a trice!

The dazed, tricked and befuddled Orc fighting Indigo missed.  Yep, just missed. 

The Berserker who had been trying to kill Rolen decided that Yoshi was actually more of a threat and pivoted to strike with his axe.  He swung, however, where Yoshi wasn't.  Miss.

Delthen charged around a pillar and Cerise to land a solid blow to the chest of the Berserker fighting Indigo.

Hey then stood up, refreshed from his short bout of unconsciousness, and killed on the the three Orcs in front of him with a tremedous blow from his tree.

Round 5.
Legolis shot first, trying to aid Zillo and Hey, but that went badly.  In the end, his arrow clattered to the floor and his bowstring broke (attack against Orc, rolls a 1; I ask "what happens" he says, "my arrow might hit Hey," I say "roll for it," he rolls another 1; okay, the bow is out of commission).

Lief sings out with his Battle Chant again, and his Battle Cry allows Legolis to draw his axe and to close on the knot of Orcs fighting Hey and Zillo to be able to attack next round.

Yoshi, is able to draw his bow and shoot Rolen's Orc at short range, leaving a lifeless Orc on the floor.  He pivots to take a second shot at the remaining Orcs, at hits one of the Berserkers.

Indigo lightly grazed (with "miss damage") his attacker.

Rolen attacks the Berserker attacking Zillow and Hey with Scorching Ray and sets him aflame.  The Berserk Orc continues his bellowing attack.

Cerise then strikes Indigo's attacking Orc with her Javelin of Faith.

The last remaining Orc Sentry/Soldier misses Hey, but has a significant "miss damage power" which puts Hey close to going down again.

Zillo disappears into the shadows using Shadow Walk.

The Berserker set alight by Rolen swings his axe at Legolis, but misses.

Indigo's Berserk Orc swings and would have landed a critical (from expanded crit range), but as the roll is an odd roll, Indigo's invocation causes the swing to go wide and completely miss.

Delthen then hits the Berserk Orc upside thehead with his mace, but the Orc keeps on going.

Hey whips his tree around with trememdous force, rolling a critical hit and dropping the last remaining Sentry/Soldier Orc to being close to death.  Hey then rallies as a quick action to keep from getting nicked and going unconscious.

Round 6
Legolis chops at the flaming Berserker before him, but only scratches him (with "miss damage").

Lief marches forward singing a song of victory and unleashes his Battle Chant at the Sentry/Soldier in front of Hey. 

Yoshi then shoots the sentry through the eye, killing him.  He takes a second shot and lightly grazes the flaming Berserker.

Indigo strikes again with his hammer, but does minimal damage with another miss.

Rolen succeeds again with Elven Grace.  He gathers power for a massive strike, and the Chaos Magic does incidental damage to the two remaining Orcs.  He then unleashes the awesome power of his Scorching Ray!

And he rolls a 1.

Fumble.

In the line of fire is Legolis.

Rolen makes a second roll, hoping against hope to avoid massive collateral damage.

Ooops.

20.

32 points of hot flaming death rain down upon the High Elf Ranger.  His long beautiful golden hair is turned into a military buzz cut.  His armor and weapons take on a blackened cast.  It happens so fast, he does not know what hit him. 

Legolis falls.

Two words occur to Rolen.

"Epic Fail"

He says "Sorry!  I'm really sorry!"

[note, the damage probably should have "only" been 24, as the double damage should have only gone to triple with the critical on top of the empowered spell, but we played it as doubled double damage, and it was funnier that way; really folks, Legolis will be okay!]

Cerise immediately steps forward to heal Legolis, the magic of the Lords of Light soothing his burns, and bringing cool air back into his lungs (his hair, however, is still short).

Zillo then appeared out of the shadows to strike the last remaining Orc.  Sadly, only with "miss damage."

Delthen then bashes the Berserker in front of Indigo, and the Orc that had seemed too mean to die, died.

As Legolis stands up, the last reamaining Orc, berserk and on fire, tries to take off his head.  Legolis fortunately ducked and the Orc misses.  The flames, however, went out on him.

Hey then stepped up to try to give a love tap to the Orc so they could interrogate him later, but he missed.

Round 7
Yoshi steps forward and it broken Orcish demands that the Orc surrenders.

The Orc screams a battle cry of defiance.

Lief then speaking in perfectly inflected Orcish again tries to persuade the crazed Orc to give up.

No go.

Legolis then bashes the Orc with the flat of his axe and the Orc goes down, out, but not dead.

"There, he surrenders," Legolis might have muttered.

End of Combat

[End of Battle Score:
Cerise: 1 (Shaman)
Zillo: 1 (Sentry/Soldier)
Legolis: 1 (Orc Chief) + 0.5 (knocked Berserker unconscious)
Hey: 1 (Orc Sentry/Soldier)
Yoshi: 2 (Orc Bodyguard/Berserker; Orc Sentry/Soldier)
Delthen: 1 (Orc Bodyguard/Berserker)]

Delthen quickly bound the unconscious Orc.

The non-combatants travelling with the party, Monk Commard and Nuri the Apprentice Builder entered the room.  The party took a short rest to recover and explore the room.

The main chamber was originally part of the ancient human fortress that the elves took over many hudreds of years ago.  However, after the Orcish conquest about 500 years ago, the chamber, and this level in general, were remade by the Orcs.  They converted this room to a sleeping hall for Orcish warriors, and very old remains show evidence of sleeping areas, racks of old ruined armor and weapons of orcish make.

Monk Crommard explained that old Imperial Records show that only one dungeon level existed during the time of the Imperial occupation of Jawarl Avignon.  However, little is know about the briefer Elvish tenure at the fort.  However, reports gathered by Imperial Intelligence during the Orcish invaision 500 years ago indicate that the Orcs build another level, further below.  Rumors included that the lowest level held the resting place of Mondru, Fourth of His Name, and his mighty spear, Alkarg.  Mondru's tomb became the final resting place for much of the Orc military leadership as the plague struck and crippled the Orcish army.

After hearing this historical discourse from the old researcher, the party continued to explore.

Off to one side of the chamber was a smaller room.  Inside that room was mainly layers of dirt and old bones.  However, inscribed on one wall were Runes of Orcish character and a crude petroglyph (did I forget to mention that at the table? Well next game there will be a handout!).

While Monk Crommard was excited by the find and wanted to discourse on it, Lief, the expert in all things linguistic, quickly translated from the ancient Orcish to the common imperial tongue of the Dragon Empire:

Down to the Pit - Take the Right Hand Path
At the Point of the Speak Alkarg Waits
For the Hand of Mondru's Heir, Mighty Servant of the Orc Lord

At this point they decided to interrogate the prisoner.

Lief began by trying to win the Orc over.  Though his diction was pleasing, the Orc could see that this human speaking his language consorted with Elves, so all Lief got were statements like:

"I Garshakl!"
"Garshak see you die screaming"
"Garshak hate Elf lovers!"
"Garshak tell you nothing!"
"Garshak eat your heart!"

Delthen asked to try a different tactic.

Delthen, clearly a dark scary guy, tried to build rapport of a different kind with Garshak.  His Orcish was much poorer than Lief's, but he had the basic course in "scary Dark Paladin Inquisitor school," so he tried to convice the Orc that it was clear that he was not like the other light loving members of the group.  He was just using them.  "Help me find the spear.  You can live.  I will leave these light-lovers behind and take the speear to the Crusader."

At that, Garshak shook his head violently and shouted (his usual mode of communication), "No!  Crusader is bad!  Fire Lady help us!  You will all die!"

Delthen replied, "Thank you, that was all I needed to know."

He then took out his Crossbow and was about to execute Garshak, but Yoshi and others stepped up and pulled him away.  He tried to explain to them that the Orcs were clearly working with the Diabolist and all had to die.

Lief and Yoshi tried again to coax something out of the prisoner, but he just shouted death threats and obscenities at them. 

Delthen again unlimbered his crossbow to squeeze off a shot, but he did not notice Indigo walk under his line of sight and gently tip up the crossbow as he pulled the trigger, causing the shot to go high into the ceiling.

"We are not executing the prisoner," state Indigo flatly.

They left Garshak tied up in the inscription room.  The party returned to the main passageway and began to examine and explore the aread.  nearby they located a room lined with crude statues of Orcish warriors, all wearing helmets marked with the icon of the Orc Lord.  Ahead, down the main passage, they could see many piles of bones and rusted armor and weapons.  Also, they could see slight movement and hear the clacking of small claws against the flagstones of the passageway.  Signs in the dust indicated that rats, maybe very big rats, tread through the dust.  Also, they could see that suspected Man0Orc, Seth, seemed to have proceeded down the main corridor.

While this exploration was happening, Delthen, playing rear guard, slipped away to have a last chat with Garshak.

He let his dagger do the talking.

[Revised End of Battle Score:
Cerise: 1 (Shaman)
Zillo: 1 (Sentry/Soldier)
Legolis: 1 (Orc Chief) + 0.5 (knocked Berserker, Garshak, unconscious)
Hey: 1 (Orc Sentry/Soldier)
Yoshi: 2 (Orc Bodyguard/Berserker; Orc Sentry/Soldier)
Delthen: 1 (Orc Bodyguard/Berserker) + 0.5 (executed helpless Garshak under the authority of the Inquisition)]

Delthen quickly returned as the party arrayed itself in loose formation to move down the main corridor to pursue Seth and find the way down to the lowest level beneath Jawarl Avignon.

What dangers still await them?

Stay tuned!!

Heroes of the 13th Age: Part 4-Out of the Fire and into the Dungeon

Just a week ago we spent the whole 13th Age play session on a huge combat.  Last Sunday we continued where we left off, with combat between the adventuring party and a band of brutal Orcs raging.

The adventuring party again consists of

Cerise, the Spirit-Touched Cleric

Indigo the Gnome Cleric
Zephyr (note again the name change), the Half-Elf Rogue (this game Z’s player had to leave early, but the group carefully ran her character for the rest of the session)
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 (Yoshi’s player could not make it to the session, so the group determined his actions)

At the start of the seventh round of combat a good portion of the ruined fortress was on fire.  Socerer Rolen Stillwind had started the fire with a fumbled roll with his Scorching Ray spell.  The beams and supports that had held up much of the inner fortress, still retaining some of the magic of the Elves, were being rapidly consumed by the wildfire of Rolen’s infernally infused flame.  While the flames rose unnaturally higher and higher, the bold adventurers battled the last of the Orcish invaders.

Lief the Bard called out his Battle Chant, striking with the thunderous power of his voice the Orc Berserker who acted as rear guard for a retreating Orc Shaman. 

Down at the bottom of the dry well, the Owlbear continued to stir, but not yet emerge.  Indigo, intrepid Gnome Cleric, climbed down off the roof of the old stables and determined that the broken stone well cover could be jammed over the top to discourage the Owlbear from coming up to eat them, but he did not yet have time to invoke his strength and place it over the opening.

The Orc Shaman and his other Orc bodyguard fled into the back tower of the fortress and opened a secret door to flee down into the dungeon chambers deep beneath the fortress.  Further covering their escape, and Orc Overseer and his six Kobold slaves (driven forward by his whip) steped out of the tower entrance.

Spirit-touched Cleric Cerise once again summoned the power of light and cast her Javelin of Faith, further staggering, but not yet killing the Orc Berserker who seemed determined to sacrifice himself to buy time for the Shaman’s escape. 

Around the corner, Delthen, the Dark Paladin of the Crusader’s Inquisition took a moment to vow that no demon loving Orcs would vanquish him and he rallied, taking a recovery.

Yoshi, stranded at the edge of the burning roof shifted from the inspiration of Akira Kurosawa to that of John Woo and leapt off the roof in an amazing acrobatic flip, in the middle of which he fired his bow in mid-air, transfixing and killing the wounded Orc Berserker and then landing safely.

Not to be outdone, Legolis the Ranger took a similar leap off of his roof, firing his bow sideways (Gangsta style) into the mass of Kobolds and the Orc Overseer.  His leap was perfect, but his aim was off, and his fumbled roll meant the arrow careened off the stone door frame to rebound over to nearly strike Lief the Bard in the head (fortunately his second attack roll was not much better than the first) [the target of the “friendly fire” fumble had the added advantage to be played by the younger brother of Legolis’ player].  Legolis landed with body intact, but pride injured.

Oh his turn, Rolen Stillwind the Sorcerer noticed that the cursed mark on his hand (his One Unique Thing) was pulsing and possibly even feeding (somehow) the fire that was growing at an alarming pace around the perimeter of the fortress courtyard.  Unable to do anything other than note it, however, he turned and cast Scorching Ray on the band of Kobolds.  The Kobolds were, on the one hand, screaming out in the common trade speech “don’t kill us!!!” but also wildly swinging their digging tools, picks, shovels and sharp sticks, at anything that moved and was not the Orc whipping them from behind.  Rolen’s ray set the group of Kobold mooks aflame.

Zephyr (a name taken this session since Z’s player had to come and go like the wind) stepped out of the shadows in the room with the secret door in time to see how the mechanism worked as the Shaman and his bodyguard closed it behind them.  She then took aim with her crossbow and shot the Orc Overseer in the back (‘cause, ya know, Rogue . . .):  20 points of damage.  The Orc is not dead, but not feeling well.  Zephyr also attempted to lob a loose brick to block the close of the secret door, but failed to wedge it in with a toss that fell short.

The Overseer, more than distracted by the crossbow bolt, hefted his axe and charged Zephyr, who easily dodged his attack.  This left the Kobolds unsupervised (and on fire) and they broke and ran wildly into the courtyard seeking to escape, and to hit anything that got in their way.  One succumbed to the fire.  Sidebar: lessons about Kobolds; Kobolds do not understand the concept of “stop, drop, and roll” End Sidebar.

Hey Watchit the Half-Orc fighter takes a moment to check the room behind him, unfortunately disturbing a big Hunting Spider that had made it’s lair there.  He is able to step back and throw a rock at it.  The last of the human workers, Nuri, an apprentice who had hidden under debris and excavated pottery, etc. comes out in time for him to recognize non-combatant Monk Crommard and for Nuri and Crommard to be potential victims of the honkin’ big Spider that Hey bothered.

Round 8

Lief the Bard moves in to assist Zephyr and casts the thunderous voice of his Battle Chant against the Orc Overseer. 

Meanwhile, outside in the courtyard, the Spider pounces and hits Hey, poisoning him.  Indigo, the Gnome Spider Specialist and Cleric identifies the breed of spider and shoots it with his crossbow.  He then advances with his warhammer.  Cerise launches her Javelin of Faith for a solid 10 point hit on the Spider.

Delthen the Paladin, with renewed strength, charges in and strikes the Orc Overseer with his mace. 

Yoshi draws back his bowstring and lets go with the killing shot on the Spider.

Legolis, concerned about the Kobold infestation, particularly that they are spreading small fires around the courtyard, succeeds in activating his borrowed Elven Grace and takes two shots with his longbow, killing three Kobold mooks.

Zephyr, bobbing and weaving against the murderous axe-wielding Orc Overseer slashes him with her dagger.  Rolen follows up with a blast of flame using his Scorching Ray, but only does miss damage.

The singed Orc takes a big swing at Zephyr with his axe and once again misses.

Hey pulls Monk Crommard and Nuri away from being too close to the well that contains the Owlbear and then quickly caps the well with the broken stone lid.  He then saves against the poison harming him and ends its ongoing damage.

Round 9

Short and sweet: Lief shouts his Battle Chant once again and the Orc Overseer falls down dead.

End of combat.

Despite the growing conflagration beginning to engulf much of the structure of the fort, the party was able to do a Quick Rest, and they then interrogated Nuri as to what happened.  He narrated that after Crommard left to go to town, his research partner, Seth, continued to keep work crews cleaning out around the suspected secret door and sorting through debris to find artifacts for Crommard’s examination.

When the crews were deeply involved in their work, Seth suddenly bellowed something out in a harsh foreign language and the courtyard suddenly filled with dozens of Orcs who put everyone to the sword.  They had with them an Owlbear and an Ogre with them as well.  Nuri had been sorting in a storage room when he heard the commotion.  He saw the attack begin and hid himself in a panic.  He heard the screams and conflict, and then it was more quiet.  The Orcs did a cursory search of the rooms (missing him) and then set up their own camp.  He could hear Seth’s voice from time to time.  He was gone for a long stretch and then returned and seemed to take a large group in the direction of the ruined tower where Monk Crommard claimed there should be a secret door.  Nuri continued to cower under piles of debris in the store room until he heard the renewed fighting and the roof of his room caught fire.

Nuri asked if he and Crommard might wait with the horses away from the fort, but the adventurers insisted that both men accompany them into the dungeon.

Zephyr easily opened the secret door, having observed the working of its mechanism.

The party proceeded into the dark, with small lamps lit for the aid of the two for humans with them (Lief, Delthen, Crommard and Nuri).  The quickly came to a very steep set of stairs (one of the players joked that they were probably like descending into the Washington, DC metro stations, which suggestion I immediately adopted.  Part way down these steep steps, they came upon a trap sensed by the Ranger and the Rogue.  Zephyr determined that the trap collapses part of the stairs down into a slippery ramp lined with poisoned blades.  She attempted to jam it, but only managed to jam it open, so that now there was a long part of the passage they would have to traverse that was slippery and lined with sharp blades.

The party decided the best way to “safely” cross was to quickly recover some of the Orc bodies from above and toss them down to line the trapped section.  Delthen also tried rolling a barrel down to see if it would catch on the trapped area, but it (and the next one he tried) just continued down the stairs to crash at the bottom in the darkness below.

After setting up their “Orc balance beam” Legolis tried to dash forward with a rope.  He made it across, but slashed his foot on a blade and was poisoned.  To steady himself, he drank a healing potion and then held the guide rope on his side while Hey Watchit held it above.  The rest of the party, save Hey, easily crossed the trapped area on the squishy Orcs.  Hey then tried to freestyle down, and also was slashed by a poisoned blade, but saved after minor damage.

At the bottom of the stairs, the party found three directions to go.  The underground passages were dusty, but also had been recently disturbed.  Here and there ancient remains of Orcs were slumped against walls or sprawled in the midst of passageways, where they had fallen 500 years before, presumably succumbing to the Green Death.

Reading the signs, Legolis determined that the most recent footprints came from the stairway and went to the left from the stairs.  However, the group that came down the stairs was not just the two Orcs they had seen flee into the passage, but also included at least two or three more.  Two other passageways led off, one to the right and one directly ahead.  The party determined to scout the room where the footprints lead.  Legolis was sure that earlier prints also pointed to another group of likely Orcs were in the room already, meaning that potentially a large group could be waiting for them.

Zephyr handled the recon and very stealthily determined the layout of the room and the fact that there were two high status Orcs, the Shaman and what looked like a Chieftain, as well as several Orc Berserkers and Soldiers guarding the leaders.

Of course the party decided to make a frontal assault.

The room was a very large space, approximately 80 by 60 feet, with huge columns down the center of the room.  The party set a time to simultaneously attack, and the more stealthy characters, Zephyr, Legolis, Indigo, Yoshi (and loudly protesting that he WAS stealthy), Delthen.

Unfortunately, stealth rolls were largely a bust, so, when the fight started, people were not quite in the positions they hoped to be.

Nonetheless, the party did very well in their initiative rolls and largely beat the different sets of Orcs.

Round 1 began with the party letting loose on a group of three Orc Berserkers, three Orc Soldiers/Sentries, a Chieftain and a Shaman. 

Lief, Yoshi and Legolis all attacked first (Initiative 23)

Yoshi did miss damage on the Chief.  Lief did maximum Battle Chant damage to the Shaman.  This also allowed him to use a Battle Cry to give +2 to Zephyr’s armor class.  Legolis fired his longbow.  His first roll was a miss and he used Archery to reroll and unfortunately miss again.

Rolen stepped into the room, raised his wand, and fired his Lightning Fork doing 17 points to the Chief.

Indigo cast his Javelin of Faith at the Shaman and not only did damage, but also used his Gnomish ability to Befuddle the Shaman.

Cerise then cast Spirits of the Righteous against the Shaman.  This did a massive strike of damage (over 20 points) and the Shaman fell slain by Holy light and fire.  The spell also gave Legolis +4 temporarily to his Armor Class (this became important).

The three Orcish Soldier/Sentries charged forward, with two attacking Legolis, but both missing.  The other handily hit Lief.

Zephyr stepped up to the Orc attacking Lief the Bard and did a 22 point sneak attack to the monster.

The Berserkers then charged forward and one each attacked Indigo (miss), Rolen (hit) and Cerise (critical hit).

Delthen, seeing the last Orc, the Chief, unengaged, charged forward recklessly and did a 17 point Smite Evil strike to the Chief.  In response, the Chief thrust with his spear, doing a 36 point critical hit to Delthen.  The Orc screamed as he struck, looking to the fallen Shaman, “You killed my father!!”  As he reached behind Delthen to pull his spear out Delthen’s back, the Chief whispered, “You die Elf-lover*” and as Delthen slumped to the floor, the Orc spat upon him.

*an Orcish insult

And we had to break play there. 

This is the second big fight against Orcs, the second time Delthen has recklessly charged into battle, and the second time his has kissed the pavement having gone below 0 hit points.  He is strong, brave, and a damage magnet.

Surely someone is going to rescue him.

Also, one Kobold did escape and manage to put his fire out.  What will become of him and his newfound freedom.  I suggested to my son (who happens to play Delthen), that perhaps he would go an try to eat the party’s mounts.  He assured me that his Destrier would lethally discourage anything of the sort.  I responded that the Kobold would probably just eat everyone else’s horses and leave a note next to the Destrier that said something like “I dood it.  Kilt them.  Signed Big Horse”, you know, to cast suspicion on someone other than the poor innocent Kobold.  That got me a laugh, but probably that's not going to happen.

Actually, I’m still not sure if we shall hear from the Kobold again or not.

Our next game is next month, so everyone enjoy Spring Break.