Tentagil's Realm » Gaming

Blood on the Sand: Ch 27 – The Nibenay Arena

tentagil — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:24:10 +0000

T’Chai the Thri’Kreen Monk played by Lars
Nikelos the Human Swordmage played by Chris H
Taith the Mul Barbarian played by Jessica
Brogan the Half-Elf Ardent played by Jason

This week our Tiefling was absent do to his wife wanting to go dancing. The rest of us however showed up for a session with no real plan, and things ended up working out in an interesting way. At the end of last session the party marched back to Silver Springs with the Heartwood Staff in hand and knowledge that yet another ally was likely dead, or at the very least out of their reach.

Brogan’s desperation for a cure for the Thrax took center stage as the party came to the conclusion that it was time to find a cure. Oddly enough they decided to heed the information given to them by the false Arisphistaneles rather then read Aravek’s tome themselves. A choice that led them to Nibenay, and through an interesting mix of RP discussions with various guards, right into the arena.

In honesty I was completely unprepared for this turn of events, this is why I keep a stack of index cards tucked into my Creature Catalogue tabbing pages. Also its one thing I love about 4e is that it is so easy to build an encounter. While I was doing this it occurred to Brogan to check the tome and he discovered that the water at the village of Thrax he sought would kill him and they should have headed to Raam instead. I had a note typed up with all the information and while he read it and passed on the info to the group I had the time to make up the encounter. I ended up throwing together an enemy force of four Crodlu’s and a Guj in less than a minute for my little group.

I continue to use the Nitro rules, and though i don’t know how they will play out at higher levels, here in the heroic tier they are proving to work really well. The higher damage per hit, plus the fact that I am keeping the parties hit points a secret from them has put some tension and fear back into the party and made them actually think more about the fights as well as removing the meta gaming that tends to result from them tracking their own hit points. I actually managed to knock two of them unconscious this session, something that hasn’t happened in awhile, and which again put some fear back into them.

One of those knock outs was Taith our erstwhile Barbarian who has still not given me a background. She continues however to be an excellent roleplayer, she even makes sure the tactics she uses in combat fit her characters personality, avoiding being overly tactical and sticking with rage induced frontal assaults. So since I want to encourage that RP and I want a background I’ve been dropping her notes, memories and dreams that I hope will inspire her to give me a more detailed history for the character. So far she seems to really enjoy the notes and I know that they are giving her ideas.

Three little changes to my DMing lately have had a dramatic effect on both my, and my players, enjoyment of the game. The notes that add a little mystery, the Nitro rules that have sped combat considerably and added some fear back in, and my tracking of the players hit points. Its more work granted, but I think its proving to be worth it so far. Next stop, who knows with this group.

Blood on the Sand: Ch 26 – The Ritual Storm

tentagil — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:47:44 +0000

T’Chai the Thri’Kreen Monk played by Lars
Nikelos the Human Swordmage played by Chris H
Taith the Mul Barbarian played by Jessica
Buerna Villatra the Teifling Warlord/Artificer played by Greg

This ended up being a shorter session, but for all that a very eventful one. Jason was absent so we had Brogan remain behind as Silver Springs as the party ventured into the mountains to perform the ritual of the spear.

The party set off into the mountains following the path that had led them to the Dragon’s Eye some months before. With Arisphistaneles, former Governor of Altaruk, in the lead they made their ways up into the mountains to the hidden plateau where the Veiled Alliance shrine and altar awaited. With the light fading they spent the night and the next day went to work preparing the items for the creation of the spear told of in Aravek’s Tome.

As the ritual began and hte magic swelled and brilliant flash of light filled the plateau, and there stood Arisphistaneles holding the completed spear, its power evident as the runes upon is glowed. However something was wrong, the Govenor’s stance had changed, and a cruel smile played upon his lips. With a taunting voice he thanked the party for their help, and then morphed into the smaller scarred form of Birk the Suntouched. With an evil laugh he raised the spear above his head and called upon the elements, wrapping the area in a storm of sand and dust blinding the party.

I placed the party on a blank battle map, all of them blind and half deaf within the storm. Birk I had fight as he has before, shape changing into a beast. With him were three whirlwinds that struck out at the party with flaying blasts of sand and hurled rocks.

I continued to use the Nitro rules with this fight, and it worked well to put some fear into the party. I added to this by tracking their hit points myself. This all added a sense of foreboding and fear to the entire scenario since the party could neither see nor hear the enemy or each other. This left the party relying on burst attacks for the most part, which three of them enjoyed greatly, Nikelos however was less then pleased. Not being able to see his opponents nor his party members shutdown most of his powers and left him a bit bored. Something I’ll have to keep in mind for future encounters.

Birk finally fell, dispersing the last of his elementals and the storm. With his last dying breath he mocked the party once more. Once again they discovered the Sorcerer King of Urik’s hands in the business, he being Birk’s master. More and more Urik has risen up as a major enemy in this campaign, which was never planned.

With Birk defeated, and the spear in their hands, the party returned to Silver Springs to rest and plan their next step. Should be interesting to see what they do since my original plan of Kalak being their primary enemy has shifted. Brogan still seeks the freedom of Tyr, but the rest of the party seems to be more interested in killing the master of Urik. Of course other events continue to happen behind the scenes that they don’t know about.

Things are coming to a head, and I’m very interested to see how things play out. Of course considering how this party’s path keeps winding round and round I’ll be working double time to keep ahead of them. Another few levels and we’ll see whose blood ends up on the sands.

Playing “Pulp”

tentagil — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:18:31 +0000

If it wasn’t already apparent I love my roleplaying games, and I love my pulp, as a result I often strive to combine the two. I am also an American History major and at heart an academic and teacher. As a result of these facts I find myself often wanting to jump in with some inputs anytime I see the topic of “pulp” gaming come up in conversation on the net.* As this is so consider the following as something of an academic take on playing “pulp”.

So first things first, what is Pulp?

Pulp, contrary to popular belief, is not a genre in and of itself. The term Pulp refers to magazines sold from the late 1890 through the end of the 1950s. These magazines were printed on cheap “pulp” paper, thus the moniker. They were the follow-up to the Dime Novels and Penny Dreadful magazines of the 1800s. They were cheap, mass produced magazines aimed at the lower middle class market, offering a hundred or so pages of novellas and short stories, all for about a quarter.

They were also the single biggest publishers of short stories in their time and covered every genre. Westerns, Sci-Fi, Crime, Historical Fiction, Teen Romance, Horror, you name it and you could find a pulp magazine or ten dedicated to your genre of choice. Some even tried pairing up multiple genres, sometimes with bizarre results, such as the entire line of “Spicy” books which paired lurid erotica with pretty much every other genre they could find. Even then sex sold.

These were the home of guys like Lovecraft, Burroughs, Howard, and McCulley, spawning respectively Cthulhu, John Carter, Conan, and Zorro. And along with those fellows pretty much any author of short stories during those decades probably published at least a few stories between the lurid covers of a pulp magazine.

Of course the pulps eventually faded, with the few publishers that survived transferring over to other things, Marvel and DC for instance both started life as pulp publishers before entering and essentially creating the modern comic book industry.

So done with the history lesson, what does any of this have to do with playing a pulp game?

Well my point is essentially that playing a pulp game has less to do with the genre of the game then it does the tone. The pulps were a haven for short stories and novellas. These were stories with thirty to a hundred pages that moved fast, pulling you through with thrills, chills, dramatic plot twists, and surprise reveals. They were short self-contained tales that often only hinted at the overreaching world or plotline that may have existed. You need a system that really captures that.

Call of Cthulhu for instance, with it Chaosium has done an amazing job getting the feel and tone of Lovecraft’s work into a workable table top experience. Most people simply call it horror, but it is very much a pulp game. Another good one is Savage Worlds, which though focusing more on the action adventure genres has the fast paced feel of the source material regardless of if you are doing a western or heading to Mars for some sci-fi thrills.
This isn’t to say that you can’t play pulp in whatever your system of choice is, but I think some rule setsw lend themselves better to it. You want a fairly fast paced system, and though crunch isn’t a bad thing, you want a system where it doesn’t slow things down. D&D for instance is probably not the best system for the pulp experience, it tends to be far to slow paced as a result of the focus on combat tactics. I really like FATE personally as it tends to be a fast paced system that gives the players and the DM plenty of freedom to throw curveballs and cliffhanger events into the mix. Though rules heavy GURPS and HERO are also decent choices assuming you have a good understanding of the rules.

Regardless of system though it’s the story that is key.

Each adventure should play like a pulp short story, dropping the players into the action or mystery as quickly as possible. One shot style adventures are best to get this vibe. Now I’m not saying things need to be as tightly scripted as you would a game for a con or the like, but you should be running short stand alone type adventures. Each session or two should be a single story, an adventure with all the plot twists, cliffhangers, and the climatic ending of a pulp novel.

But what if you want to run a Pulp themed campaign?

Most pulp stories were self contained adventures, but they also tended to have a continuity between them . The Shadow for instance gained and lost agents as the stories went on. He developed new skills, lost friends, defeated mortal enemies, and lived to encounter new ones. Sometimes months passed between adventures, other times it was only a few days. But his campaign against evil went on for years.

Though I think pulp games should be played as a series of self contained adventures, think a string of one shots that just happen to link together, each dropping hints at the future without necessarily having a direct path to it. Instead of the constantly moving story that seems to be the norm when playing most campaigns think of things as more a timeline where you might have one adventure happen in early spring, while the next session jumps to say midsummer, the next early winter. On occasion you might even flashback to a smaller adventure that happened during one of those skipped periods of time.

Even if you aren’t going for a Pulp theme I find allot of advantages to gaming this way. For one you always have a ready end point should the group or the DM get burned out, for another the episodic nature of it makes it much easier to work new players in or explain away a missing player. How many times have you had to handwave a character because the player didn’t show up when the group was supposedly trapped in a dungeon or the like.

The Pulps make for excellent inspiration regardless of which of the multitude of genres you choose to pull from. Hopefully this will get some people thinking and may have acted as a slightly informative and entertaining read.

* As a result this little article was originally posted over on the Happy Jacks RPG Podcast forums. It’s been edited and cleaned up a bit, plus I’ve incorporated some of the ideas that were sparked by the discussions that followed it. I highly recommend anyone interested in the RPG hobby check out Happy Jacks.

Blood on the Sand: Ch 25 – Decption at Altaruk

tentagil — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:36:42 +0000

Our Cast:

T’Chai the Thri’Kreen Monk played by Lars
Nikelos the Human Swordmage played by Chris H
Brogan the Half-Elf Ardent played by Jason
Taith the Mul Barbarian played by Jessica
Buerna Villatra the Teifling Warlord/Artificer played by Greg

Our party has at this point officially shrunk to five. Solzak hasn’t made it to the last few sessions and has now let me know he’s officially burned out. I can’t really blame him, the lengthy combat sessions have left me a little dead as well. This session however actually acted revitalize me a bit. Two things happened, a ton of great RP, and thanks to some rules tweaks a surprisingly quick combat.

My group has two power gamers in it. One has never bothered to give me a backstory, and though the other gave me a very rich backstory he gets very hung up on the mechanics and his stats and can’t seem to get the whole idea of playing the character rather than simply playing the stats. Both are good guys, but the rest of hte group is much more narrative focused so the power gaming breaks things abit. This session however both of them actually got into the whole thing and it was very cool.

Brogan has started to really roleplay his affliction with the Thrax disease. Showing regret after every feeding frenzy, and playing as a more crazed character with alot more darkness coming out and twisting his lawful good alignment. He’s the stat guy mentioned above and I think the fact that there are no stats associated with the disease is actually making it easier for him to act it out. Buerna Villatra is the one who has yet to give me much of anything for his character, but this session he was chosen to use several potions of mimickery and do most of the talking as the group infiltrated the fallen Alturak. It was alot of fun playing the various NPC’s that he had to deal with as he led the party in their deceptive trek through the fortress.

Which gets us to the story. The group decided that deception rather than straight stealth was the order of the day as they made their way into Altaruk. Using disguises, the afore mentions potions, and the Chewbacca deception to get T’Chai through the gates and into the prison, they just walked through the doors. Though several guards did die, I played things more as a series of skill challenges to see if the party would set off alarms. Which they did, though on purpose as they initiated several distractions.

Once inside the Governor’s mansion they found the Governor being tortured and I gave them a combat. I finally used the full up Nitro rules on this one. The concept is that you half the monster HP and then have them do max damage with each attack. The idea being that the monsters will die in half the time, but should theoretically do the same amount of damage as if they were on the table the normal length of time. The net result was that my party was actually worried as the monsters were hitting them hard, but the fight only lasted forty-five minutes, which was a blink of the eye compared to most of our fights. I’ll have to see how it goes for the next few battles, but so far I like it.

Once the fight was over the party interrogated the captain of the guard they had defeated and learned a bit more about Urik’s plans, while Taith found a locket that brought up mysterious memories. As her player has still not given me any back story I dropped her a note that left her suitablely confused and I hope will prompt some interesting RP in the future has a tease a story out of her simply by seeing her reaction to this event and future ones. The party retrieved both the Governor and the items they had come for then set off for Silver Spring, causing a stampede of Crodlus on the way out to give them cover and slow any pursuit. They are taking a week of rest to resupply and get the Governor healed. Next they shall continue on to create the weapon they have been working towards for so long now. Plus they have a line on a possible cure for Brogan, though T’Chai has actually decided he likes the curse, it makes feeding much easier. Should be interesting to see what happens next.

Blood on the Sand: Ch 24 – Hunger on the Sands

tentagil — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 16:25:51 +0000

Our cast

T’Chai the Thri’Kreen Monk played by Lars
Nikelos the Human Swordmage played by Chris H
Brogan the Half-Elf Ardent played by Jason
Taith the Mul Barbarian played by Jessica

The sun beat down upon our party as they headed north from Wheelock’s lair, working their way towards Alturak. On the way the wasting sickness of the Thrax had begun to consume Brogan and T’Chai, and their stores of survival days had begun to run low. Halfway to their destination they saw a cloud of dust ahead, and soon enough a lone man being chased by four soldiers upon the backs of vicious Crodlus. They watched as he was struck down, then Brogan, in a fit of anger and hunger leapt forth to attack.

We were down two players for this session, which should have made the coming combat go much quicker, unfortunately things did not turn out as expected. The combat actually ended up taking over two hours. A mix of bad dice rolls and the fact that Brogan has built himself up as a pseudo tank with damage resistance abilities and a weakening aura. The party couldn’t hit a thing, and my soldiers simply couldn’t do enough damage to be effective.

Honestly it was a perfect storm of all the things I dislike about D&D combat. Usually there are enough cool things going on to keep things interesting, but I think this one left us all bored to death. Thankfully we did make it through the combat and got into some fun RP.

The slain man who had been attacked turned out to be a messenger from Alturak, sent out to alert other towns that the trade post had fallen. They were also attempting to organize a counter offensive to take it back from the forces of Urik. The party stripped the soldiers, hoping to use their armor later, and then continued north, waiting to see the state of the fortress before choosing their course of action.

As they made camp for the night Brogan once again lost control, this time attacking Taith. T’Chai had had been feeding on vermin he found, along with occasion drinks for Taith. Brogan however had been abstaining, trying to control the hunger the Thrax had been building inside him. Finally losing control he latched onto the barbarian, his uncontrollable feeding threatening to take her life. The party was forced to attack Brogan, knocking him unconscious and then binding him. In an attempt to sate his thirst they bound one of the Crodlus they had obtained from the soldiers and let Brogan rip it apart until he dropped again in to a sated coma.

It should be interesting to see how they deal with both the fall of Alturak and Brogan’s loss of control. They need both a staff and a magical tome last seen in the Fortress to complete their ultimate goal. Of course they also need to find a cure for their stricken comrades and simply try to survive in a world that is quickly running out of save havens.

Here There be Goblins

tentagil — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:04:49 +0000

And Ogres, Gnolls, Oh my!

Due to a bit of D&D burnout, and the fact that I wanted to show the two power gamers in my group another way, I decided to throw together another FATE one shot. I mentioned this system a few months back when I ran a pulp game, however as the aforementioned power gamers are both D&D and only D&D guys I went with the fantasy genre this time.

However I wanted a twist, so the players got to be not the valiant heroes, but the dirty Goblin hoards. Specifically our cast ended up being an Ork, a Gnoll, a Hobgoblin, and an Ogre. Character creation in FATE is a group affair, where each player starts writing their back story and then passes their sheet to another player to add another chapter to it. I gave them all the first bit of story to help give them a direction, and then let them roll.

At first the power gamer who showed for the session seemed a bit set back and confused, but soon enough he really got into it. In fact I think he had more fun with it then even the other players who had done it before.

The actual plot was a takeoff of the Dirty Dozen. The party members were all prisoners within the Dark Lords army who were given a choice, execution or a suicide mission to further their master’s plans on the surface. Enter a heavily guarded tower containing a magical crystal that was casting a protective force field over a Noble Lords castle holding back the evil army.

Our prisioners were as mentioned:

The Ork, a warrior born and bred with a vicious mean streak. His player did a great job roleplaying it and stayed in character almost the whole time. His Ork voice was hilarious with lots of grunts and butchered English.

The Gnoll, a mangy cur but incredible tracker with a penchant for pouncing on things. He proved the most bloodthirsty, but I expected that from his player, he also did a great job using his aspects which I think helped our newbie pick up how the whole thing worked alot faster.

The Hobgoblin, the brains of the bunch. The player for this one usually played either a tank or a support type character, she never really took the lead, just hit what she was told to hit. Here she ended up being in charge and it took her a bit to figure out how to do it. It was rather amusing watching her try to herd this motley bunch, eventually however she decided to run them like she does her dogs, lots of brow beating and treats.

And last but not least,

The Ogre, a rotund happy idiot with a smile on his face and a talent for throwing people. Both the enemy and his own comrades. This was my power gamer’s character and he really enjoyed making him and playing him.

As mentioned before I started the game off in a prison where the party was assembled and given the suicide mission they would be embarking on. Then I dropped them in a tunnel below the tower with no way out but up and a mission to destroy a protective crystal at the towers roof that was protecting the castle. The tower in question being based heavily on Orford Castle, which I visited during my trip to England last month.

They started out stealthy enough, climbing the well, then sneaking up the stairs and behind two guards. A classic stealth take down followed with one guard’s neck broke and another’s neck slit. They didn’t even bother exploring these lower levels, sneaking up the stairs in silence towards their goal. Halfway up the tower I had them hearing chanting from down a corridor off the stairs. The argument that followed almost led me to throw some points out to compel the curiosity of the Gnoll and the Hobgoblin, however as mentioned she quickly brow beat the group into exploring it on their own.

In a nearby chapel they discovered and quickly intimidated and interrogated a priest. I enjoyed playing the terrified clergyman, and having the rather stupid but cheerful Ogre choking me while the Ork asked questions made for an interesting scene. Then of course as soon as they got all their answers the Ogre, being the nice guy he was, told the priest to run along. The Ork however grabbed his rosary and garroted him with it with a critical strike of 4 pluses, he didn’t want him warning the guards. As I mentioned before, this group tends to get blood thirsty.

I especially loved the argument that followed. The Ogre yelled in shock that they had kill a man in a Temple, he being a rather religious Ogre. The Ork of course burst out in rage about how no one told him it was a temple, then asked the Hobgoblin how much like a temple a chapel was, and if he’d be cursed with bad luck. It was a great little interlude.

They ran up to the roof next and a longish fight scene occurred between the group and five guards. It went about five rounds and lasted roughly ten minutes. My power gamer didn’t even notice the length till the end when he commented on it with amazement. He was too busy trying to toss guards off the tower and being used as a pin cushion. He got a FATE point at one point when he through one guard at another sending them both off the roof with a nice roar. I tend to award creative and cool actions. Meanwhile the Gnoll was leaping from tower to tower pouncing on guards and tearing them apart with teeth and claws. My favorite moment though was when the Ork charged the Crystal and discovered its protective barrier, which through him across the roof into a wall. He then spent much of the rest of the fight having rocks thrown at him by a guard trapped on the last tower out of reach.

At this point the party charged downstairs towards the Wizards quarters, which was across a wooden walkway. Compelling the Ogre’s Mighty Girth aspect I sent him crashing through its center as he raced across, leaving the party stuck on the wizard’s side while the guards that had charged up at the sound were trapped near the stairs. With the door locked the party tried a little deception, and failed miserably, though hearing them knock on the door and then yell “Food” when asked who it was had me laughing. Medieval room service for the win. Failing the lie they went with brute force and knocked down the door.

Of course the poor wizard didn’t last long. I set this world up as high magic needing lots of ritual, and everything else being more alchemy. He attempted hitting the party with a few globes full of acid and the like but died quickly after revealing the pendant that controlled the protective field. The Gnoll then tired to go out a window and climb up, but failed miserably, tumbling down the wall where he barely managed to catch a break and held on tight for the remained of the session. Meanwhile the Hobgoblin decided to try a flying leap across to the guards, missed, was caught by the Ogre, was thrown back up, and intimidated the guards so much as she roared up that they stumbled backwards and fell off to their deaths as she landed and took off up the stairs.

With some swift calculations and a firm strike she shattered the now unprotected crystal and destroyed the energy field protecting the castle. As it fell the Dark Lords hordes swarmed it, thousands of Orks, Goblins, Ogres, and the like falling upon the hapless humans. So ended our session.

All my players seemed to enjoy it. It was combat heavy partly so I could show off the speed and versatility of the system to my power gamers, and the one who was their seemed amazed and definitely enjoyed it. My hope is that this glimpse might encourage him to roll play a bit more in our D&D game, and perhaps encourage him and eventually my other power gamer to be more receptive to other less combat heavy game systems.

Blood on the Sand: Ch 23 – The Poison Lair

tentagil — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 17:35:54 +0000

Having angered and made an enemy of Wheelock the Poisoner, the party was left debating if they were willing to assassinate an old ally or attack the one man they believed could cure T’Chai and Brogan of the curse laid upon them in the Thrax Tombs. Being the people they are I pretty much knew what they were going to do, and of course I had a nice epic session planned.

This was essentially designed as an old school dungeon crawl and acted as one long dangerous encounter as the party worked their way through Wheelocks’s lair and eventually fought him. Plenty of traps, lots of poison to fit the antagonists theme, and a few horrifying experiments and twisted creatures to add to the parties desire to slay stood between them and their quarry.

The first room they entered acted as the first trap as all the doors slammed shut and an hour glass, which I actual sat down on the table, flipped over and began running down. In the rooms center was a lever and four stone doors with visible locks awaited their choice. Of course they grabbed the lever first which poisoned T’Chai and reset the hour glass, giving them more time. They then went to work on one of the doors, again poisoning T’Chai, and kept resetting the lever. The trick to the room however was that the glass was just to goad them into panic, as soon as it ran out the doors unlocked without threat. It worked perfectly and they cursed me as they moved on.

A pair of battles with the twisted creations of the lab followed which helped whittle down some powers and healing surges. It also led them to a strange metal portal which they wouldn’t bother fully investigating till the end of the session. They ran into a few more poison traps as they made their way through the maze of lair and eventually encountered their prey. A short speech from Wheelock and one more offer to help them in exchange for killing Alturak’s governor followed and then the fight.

Wheelock is the first elite the party has faced, and along with his assistant as a debuff/healing support he was a dangerous foe. Also I added a little trick to him. Hidden in this final room were four brains in a jar that acted as his life counter. When his hitpoints hit zero I destroyed one and he stood back up at seventy five percent of his previous hitpoints to attack again. Once the party realized this they split their focus between him and the brains.

As they say in D&D, never split the party. Especially when the brains can dominate, resulting me using two of the party members against them. I bloodied three of them, knocked one unconscious, and for the first time in months actually scared the party. I was nice to actual see them taking a fight really serious as they felt the danger of making foolish mistakes.

They of course defeated their foe and I dropped another plot hook on them, or two if you count the metal portal, which is in fact a magic mirror they have only just barely looked at. I have alot of things planned from here, but its all going to depend on what they decide to do with the hooks I’m dangling in front of them. That will have to wait till next time though.

Blood on the Sand: Ch 22 – The Giant Beetle Swarm

tentagil — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 15:08:37 +0000

Chapter 22

T’Chai the Thri’Kreen Monk played by Lars
Nikelos the Human Swordmage played by Chris H
Brogan the Half-Elf Ardent played by Jason
Solzak the Half-Elf Warlock played by Chris W
Taith the Mul Barbarian played by Jessica
Buerna Villatra the Teifling Warlord/Artificer played by Greg

Traversing the desert in search of Wheelock’s lair once more the party was feeling nice a safe. The desert trips so far have been somewhat boring. About halfway through their trip I had them camping beneath a rocky outcropping in the middle of the wastes. As most of the party rested T’Chai and Taith stood guard and soon noticed that the moonlight was being focused through a strange crack in the rocks, creating an arrow of light that shown upon a spot in the sand that the soon realized was moving.

Several minutes of investigation and consulting between the two they finally decided to poke the sand and see what happens. Which of course resulted in the floor beginning to fall out from beneath them. The party began to scramble as they awoke to the ground dropping. Most of them made the leap to safety, Brogan and Taith however failed their rolls and plummeted down into the darkness.

This mini dungeon was loaded with bugs and designed in such a way that each party member that fell was thrown into a different section. Splitting the party is always fun, though a little hard to run. Having climbed down in search of their comrades the group soon found Taith, and deciding that she could handle they headed off in search of Brogan. This was pretty much exactly what I wanted them to do as I had some evil plans for out Mul Barbarian.

Brogan had landed in the middle of a beetle nesting ground. And of course as the party attempted to pull him out several egg sacks were broken and soon half a dozen bugs came crawling out of the walls. This fight however was really a decoy as in the other part of the dungeon Taith was exploring a tomb that she believed might hold treasure. However she soon discovered that I’m an evil bastard and any treasure that might have been their was guarded by two beetle swarms that soon overwhelmed her.

While the rest of the party was slipping and sliding in beetle guts and egg slime Taith was running for her life from the deadly swarm. And of course being who she was the doors had been destroyed on the way so she had no way to keep them out. The party however arrived just in time to rescue her, at which point she rolled a bluff to lie to them and convince them that there was a massive giant killer beetle below and that it would be better to leave. Watching our brave barbarian actually become afraid was nice.

They made the rest of the trip with very little incident as they were much more cautious. The arrival at Wheelock’s was uneventful and the party was soon given the antidote to the poison in their systems. They of course asked Wheelock for help with the disease that Brogan and T’Chai had developed and learned that they had been infected by the Thrax. Agreeing to find the cure Wheelock’s assistant went into the back and left the party with his master.

The party was left looking at the emancipated and apparently broken Wheelock and began to suspect something strange was going on. So they decided to inspect him. Brogan and Nikelos sensed magic upon him and Taith decided to check it out with her idiot savant arcane skills. (she literally has a skill level of 3, but has rolled a 20 on four separate occasions when looking for arcane energies.) As she touched Wheelock her mind was invaded by his voice, filled with anger he tossed her aside and demanded they leave for their insult. When the party begged his forgiveness and the cure they sought he offered them a way to regain his friendship. Kill the Governor of Alturak.

The party stepped aside to discuss it and decided that they’d rather beat the cure out of Wheelock. I had something setup just incase but since it was getting late we decided to instead end the session for the night. This made me very happy as it gave me two weeks to setup a more complex encounter. The next session shall be very fun, one long extended encounter loaded with various monsters, traps, and hopefully some real stress and fear on the part of my party.

Blood on the Sand: Ch 21 – The Boulder and the Thrax

tentagil — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 16:28:43 +0000

Having easily dispatched the craved rabble they found in the tunnels beneath the sunken city our party prepared to depart when a quake caused the ruined building above their exit to collapse. With the passage now blocked they set forth to search for an alternative means of escape and soon found a hidden door that led to a new series of passages. Moving through these passages they soon came to a large stone door that Taith and T’Chai were able to force open. The hall beyond was long, wide, and full of debri and rubble from a ceiling that seemed none to stable. With no other options apparent however they decided to venture forth.

As mentioned last time I went with an Indian Jones inspiration here. As soon as the party was all in the hall the door swung shut and a rumble from above drew their attention to a massive boulder (played here by a giant D20) perched precariously above them. Thus started an encounter with no monsters but a hall full of traps and death rolling up behind them. Of course they started off at a spring trying to double run to the halls end. The first person to move discovered the first trap and suddenly they were forced to temper speed with caution. By the end of the encounter only two people had taken a 15 point hit from the boulder, but everyone had some damage from the traps along the way. The party seemed to enjoy this little departure from normal combat, and I really enjoyed setting it up.

Following the boulder the party found themselves in a large room that appeared to be a crypt. As adventurers do, they started looting the sarcophagi they filled antechambers along the rooms edge. Having gathered a sizable amount of wealth from the first half they decided that the older ones in the second half were likely worth even more and went to work. Which is of course the point when I pulled out the Thrax and began to have some fun. Thrax, for those unaware, are a Darksun monster that is essentially a vampire that feeds on the moisture in the body of its victims. Its touch causes all the liquid to pull in a specific area and then it drinks it up. What’s rather sad is that I placed a level eleven Thrax and some level 5 super minions (my own design, they take three hits rather than one) and the party still butchered them, though I did managed to knock two unconscious. Of course they were still greedy so the next sarcophagus they opened I filled with a light powder, that they of course disturbed in their search for loot, and two of them breathed it in. Unfortunately for those two they will be learning next session just what prince they paid for their greed.

A second Thrax battle followed and then the party had to run as the room began to cave in from another quake. Moving through passages they eventually found their way to the surface and after another swift battle with more crazies they escaped the city and took a well deserved rest some miles from its walls in the relative safety of the desert.

Having come this far I’m thinking that what I really need to do is start really screwing with their resources if I want to challenge them. I’m going to start making the desert a place to dangerous for extended rests, not to mention the fact that survival days have already been sapping their cash flow. I think I’ve finally gotten the group to really appreciate how desperate a place Athas is over your traditional fantasy realm, but I know I can do more, and I’m going to have to if I don’t want them steam rolling every fight I put in front of them. On the other hand we are topping the hill for what I planned as the overall narrative of this tier of the campaign. Hopefully things continue to be interesting.

Blood on the Sand: Ch 20 – The Poisoner and the Sunken City

tentagil — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 16:27:48 +0000

Our Cast once again consists of:

The party stood before a pack of mutated human snake creatures with burning hate in their eyes. Rage at the parties defiling their masters altar in their search for Dragon Stone. Our last session a month ago had ended on a cliffhanger and so we jumped right into battle this session.

I essentially used Yuan-ti for the monsters, though with some higher mental resistances. And I once again was reminded that unless I seriously start using terrain to my advantage my party is going to steamroll everything. I did manage to bloody half the party and knock on out though, which is always fun. The party did some quick travel after the fight and moved south in search of the poisoner Wheelock.

Wheelock is a character pulled from the 2e boxset the Ivory Triangle (which I highly recommend if you are doing a Dark Sun campaign). As he’s a paranoid and crazy hermit I decided that finding him would require a bit of thought and puzzle solving. Unfortunately though I’d been thinking of this for weeks I spent most of my planning time on the menu and an amazing cheesecake for my players and none on coming up with actual puzzles for the game. Thankfully I have a love of puzzles, as one of my players commented on the moment I started describing the first step in their desert quest.

Essentially the path to Wheelock’s home was marked by stone pillars throughout the ivory planes, each with a simple puzzle upon it that pointed towards the next. The first was a simple sundial, which the party guessed almost immediately when I mentioned that the runes seemed to indicate a time. The second wasn’t very good as it was just thrown out of the top of my head and had to do with the wind and the formation of sand dunes. The third involved a group of movable blocks, each with an arrow on it. Then I came to the final one that involved a grid of letters. They spent a little time trying to figure out what to do with it when one finally tried just marking off the letters of Wheelock’s name which opened the door to his lair.

Once inside I referred back to the 2e books in which his lair has an initial room with a fountain and an inscription on the wall. The party wasn’t actually able to decipher the message, but eventually decided to drink from the fountain. Ingesting the poison unlocked the door which allowed them to speak with the poisoner, who of course answered their questions along with giving them another quest, and just enough antidote to get them their and back. I love throwing these things in since it reminds our one Lawful Good player that Athas is a dark world where the normal concepts of heroes don’t necessarily apply.

The scrolls given to them by Wheelock pointed them towards the sunken city. An ancient ruin of a city destroyed by the Sorcerer Kings and sunk beneath the Silt Sea. Enroute the more human members of the party began to experience headaches. They soon began to remember legends of the place, including something called the Voice in the Darkness. This is another 2e thing, a massive psychic monster that attacks humans in an effort to add their minds to its own power. It slowly drives humans and their close relatives (ie half-elves) insane. By the nature of their creation I decided that Muls were immune, as were the other two as they were nonhumans.

I rolled against the will of the three each day as they moved towards the city, and when they arrived at the gates Nikelos went nuts and charged into the city. The party chased him of course and soon found themselves lost. Thankfully the found Nikelos when he attacked them. I loved this part, I got to sit back a little as the party fought their tank. I was hoping it would last more than a round as I was planning on rolling against the roll of the other two and possibly adding them to his side. Unfortunately he go squished, but Brogan’s decision to try and touch his mind to help him gave me a chance to take out the healer as the madness entered him. At which point he promptly set himself on fire.

One of those great moments that you will never have in a video game. The player lit himself on fire to keep the others from tackling him as he tried to run away. Lucky for the party they had Villa, who as a Tiefling was resistant. They ended up knocking him unconscious and tying him up, then having Taith carry him as they continued exploring.

They collected most of the herbs and plants they needed quickly and then began searching the ruins more in depth in search of the final ingredient. They encountered signs of repairs which led them to a secret passage into the underground of the city and soon found the herb they sought, on the way out however they heard the sounds of other creatures. Their attempts to sneak out were foiled by the still insane Brogan and a quick battle versus maddened cannibalistic humans. Which T’Chai promptly converted into survival days at battles end.

So ended another excellent session. I’m already designing my next few combat encounters with terrain in mind, and as this city of death will be something of a gauntlet I should hopefully put some actual fear into the party with the next session. I’ve also got a very fun trap/skill challenge in the works using Indian Jones as inspiration. Need to borrow a buddies giant D20 for it. Till next time ladies and gents.