This session happened Friday, April 8, 2011, and was the only session I ran this past weekend.
Adventuring Group:
Mog the Doomed (half-orc barbarian)
Xin (human wizard)
Sal Ty (elf wizard) [via Skype]
– Maenwen (Sal’s human wizard cohort)
Alys Kaah (gnome summoner/cavalier) [via Skype]
– Mr. Boodles (Alys’s owlbear-looking eidolon and mount)
Note: the list of player characters is in player sitting order, from my left and then clockwise around the table and then on my laptop via Skype.
In-game Starting Date: September 27, 23rd Year of King Nikola V
"Oh this isn't going to end well." ~Sal after hearing Alys had a plan.
Having more heroic exploits to pass on to her PR flak, Alys went to Iron Keep to look Thomin up. She found him passed out in Spider's Bar. After borrowing a ready bucket of water from Spider, Alys awoke Thomin by drenching him. Interrogating her bard, Alys discovered that Thomin had not been spreading the word of her good deeds, but had, instead, been spreading the legs of some local lasses and getting into trouble over it. Alys was not pleased and read Thomin the Riot Act. Afterwards, she gave him explicit instructions to arrange a coat of arms for her, come up a believable title for her, and to spread word about the "visiting dignitary from the Fae Court". Thomin was not enthused, but 100 gold coins changed that quickly.
Alys also picked up a message from the Baron for "The Adventurers of the Tower". The Baron apparently wants to meet to formalize the relationship between him and the adventurers. The word "fealty" was used. This was not well received at Drop-off Tower, but Sal sent a response indicating that a delegation would meet with him "in two full moons."
After the usual discussion about where to explore with those adventurers available, the group decided to scout further south in the Sea of Grass. They followed Old Road south from the Tower, across the Edge Hills to where the Old Road ended at the Sea of Grass. There was smoke everywhere and a huge grassfire could be seen moving towards the hills.
Not wanting to spend the magic to make the fire survivable, the group instead turned west and explored the southern edge of the Edge Hills. While exploring, the group observed a lone air elemental making its way along the ridgeline. Sal approached and greeted it in Auran. This intrigued the air elemental enough to fly down and converse. [Note: Air elementals have outrageous French accents.] Sal played up to its ego and the elemental offered to make a deal: an exchange of information that would likely save their lives for a major favor later. After some hemming and hawing, Sal took the deal.
The air elemental told the group about the air elemental at Old Stones. The adventurers already knew of it and said so. "Ah! But did you know it is trapped there and has gone insane because of it?" That they did not know and they agreed it was valuable information. The deal concluded, the air elemental left.
Later in the day, the group was attacked by a pair of hungry griffins. The adventurers killed the griffins and, after making camp, had griffin steaks. Alys harvested the wings of one of the griffins with an eye towards the creation of wings of flying. Or a really awesome hat. Camp was a more traditional rope trick surrounded by a campfire wall.
During the second watch, with Sal, Maenwen, and Alys on duty, a group of leucrottas attempted to sneak close to the camp. Sal noticed them and alerted the others. Before the leucrotta could get close enough to do anything, Sal lobbed a fireball at them, Maenwen summoned a fire elemental and sent it after them, and Alys charged into combat on Mr. Boodles, nearly killing one of the beasts outright. Being intelligent beasts, the leucrotta realized that this camp was much too powerful for them and they fled immediately.
The next morning, while exploring, the adventurers came across the tracks to the leucrotta and followed them. They followed the trail to the entrance of a canyon. Sal noticed some gnolls up on the canyon rim waiting in ambush. Sal and Maenwen granted flight to the entire party and they attacked. The gnolls had two ballistas and the crews to run them, plus some arches and some spearmen, but it was no avail – the adventurers were too strong for them and all the gnolls were killed. Deeper into the canyon the adventurers found a fortified cave entrance. It looked strong enough that they did not want to face it just then and so Sal teleported everyone back to Drop-off Tower.
*End of session*
[This session was most unusual because I had two players present and two attending via Skype. One of the players physically attending has moved out of town for work and wants to keep playing via Skype, so it is entirely possible I may have a game where there are more virtual players than living bodies at the table. The future is strange.]
Showing posts with label Edge_Hills. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Edge_Hills. Show all posts
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
SR41: The Crooked Tower
This session happened Friday, April 1, 2011, and was the only session I ran this past weekend.
Adventuring Group:
Su Bel (human cleric)
– Dame Yasha of Bereste (Su Bel’s human cavalier cohort)
Thorngrim (half-orc sorcerer)
– Kainen (Thorngrim’s human fighter cohort)
Alys Kaah (gnome summoner/cavalier) [via Skype]
– Mr. Boodles (Alys’s owlbear-looking eidolon and mount)
Note: the list of player characters is in player sitting order, from my left and then clockwise around the table and then on my laptop via Skype.
In-game Starting Date: September 17, 23rd Year of King Nikola V
Between sessions (prior to the in-game starting date), a few things happened. Alys went to Iron Keep looking for a bard. In one of the “townie” taverns, she found Thomin, an orange-haired gnome bard. After getting him over to Spider’s Bar, she hired him to spread good (positive) stories about her in town, paying him 20 gold coins.
Back at Drop-off Tower, Thorngrim was able to make a good showing on his lyre of building, converting all of the available stone supplies into the keep walls and completing one of the corner towers. This moved the keep well ahead of schedule, but left the workers without much to work with until more stone could arrive. This forced Agnes and Tycho to go to the quarries to place an emergency order for stone. Mog wandered off somewhere and the three wizards (Sal, Maenwen, and Xin) were performing arcane research.
Once the available adventurers assembled, the small group decided to go to Old Stones and attempt another breach into the Elemental Chaos. When Alys asked for explanations of what this entailed, they essentially talked themselves out of doing such a dangerous thing and instead decided to explore the Edge Hills north and west of the Old Road.
On the first day of explorations in the hills the group was attacked by a manticore, a fight that went quick, and found giant ant trails. Later in the day, they were attacked by three wyverns, during which Su Bel summoned a bishonen warrior, er, a Bralani azata to assist in the fight. Much later in the day the group located the wyvern nest and found quite a bit of loose loot, including a set of platemail +1. Sadly, the only one who could wear it was wearing better armor. With “waste not, want not” as their motto, the armor was packed away for later use.
Without several people who had become part of the groups camping SOP, a new plan was devised: Thorngrim would use wall of stone to build a stone tower for the group to camp in. While a fine idea, without a good set of plans and Sal’s engineering expertise, Thorngrim created what is now known as the Crooked Tower. Plus, it was relatively short – only 20 ft tall. Thorngrim would come to regret this.
During first watch, a dire tiger, the one creature whose lethality the adventurers truly respect, moved into the area, tracking the scent of wyvern steaks. Alys wanted to go out and charge it on Mr. Boodles and had to be physically restrained by Dame Yasha. Sulking, Alys returned to the roof of the Crooked Tower where Thorngrim watched the dire tiger’s approach. The tiger was attacked at range [I don’t remember by who, but the PCs definitely initiated the fight]. When the tiger attacked, it charged the tower and leapt up at the top, catching hold just enough to lash out with a claw and grab Thorngrim, pulling him down to the ground when it let go of the tower.
Thorngrim, rather than attempt to escape (which he knew he would fail at), cast scorching ray at the dire tiger, one of his two rays burning the skin and much of the flesh off the animals head [a critical hit for near maximum damage]. Hearing that Thorngrim was on the ground from Alys, Kainen bolted out the tower door and attacked the critically wounded dire tiger, putting it out of its misery.
After the fight, Alys was very contrite and apologized to Thorngrim for pushing to attack the dire tiger. Thorngrim accepted the apology and they were good friends again.
The next day, the small group explored further, reaching the northwest tip of the hills, following signs of a bulette. They eventually cornered the bulette. During the fight, Alys charged the beast and Su Bel summoned an earth elemental. Between Alys and the elemental, the bulette did not stand a chance.
The beast killed, the adventurers returned to the Crooked Tower to camp. In the morning, they made their way back to Drop-off Tower with their loot and trophies.
*End of session*
[This was a short-ish session as we did not get word that Agnes and Tycho would not be available until later than normal. That said, the group did get most of the hills north and west of Old Road explored and created a new landmark on the map – the Crooked Tower. I like it when players physically add to the world as it gives me things to work with that are tied in to the world in a way the players have a stake in.]
Adventuring Group:
Su Bel (human cleric)
– Dame Yasha of Bereste (Su Bel’s human cavalier cohort)
Thorngrim (half-orc sorcerer)
– Kainen (Thorngrim’s human fighter cohort)
Alys Kaah (gnome summoner/cavalier) [via Skype]
– Mr. Boodles (Alys’s owlbear-looking eidolon and mount)
Note: the list of player characters is in player sitting order, from my left and then clockwise around the table and then on my laptop via Skype.
In-game Starting Date: September 17, 23rd Year of King Nikola V
Between sessions (prior to the in-game starting date), a few things happened. Alys went to Iron Keep looking for a bard. In one of the “townie” taverns, she found Thomin, an orange-haired gnome bard. After getting him over to Spider’s Bar, she hired him to spread good (positive) stories about her in town, paying him 20 gold coins.
Back at Drop-off Tower, Thorngrim was able to make a good showing on his lyre of building, converting all of the available stone supplies into the keep walls and completing one of the corner towers. This moved the keep well ahead of schedule, but left the workers without much to work with until more stone could arrive. This forced Agnes and Tycho to go to the quarries to place an emergency order for stone. Mog wandered off somewhere and the three wizards (Sal, Maenwen, and Xin) were performing arcane research.
Once the available adventurers assembled, the small group decided to go to Old Stones and attempt another breach into the Elemental Chaos. When Alys asked for explanations of what this entailed, they essentially talked themselves out of doing such a dangerous thing and instead decided to explore the Edge Hills north and west of the Old Road.
On the first day of explorations in the hills the group was attacked by a manticore, a fight that went quick, and found giant ant trails. Later in the day, they were attacked by three wyverns, during which Su Bel summoned a bishonen warrior, er, a Bralani azata to assist in the fight. Much later in the day the group located the wyvern nest and found quite a bit of loose loot, including a set of platemail +1. Sadly, the only one who could wear it was wearing better armor. With “waste not, want not” as their motto, the armor was packed away for later use.
Without several people who had become part of the groups camping SOP, a new plan was devised: Thorngrim would use wall of stone to build a stone tower for the group to camp in. While a fine idea, without a good set of plans and Sal’s engineering expertise, Thorngrim created what is now known as the Crooked Tower. Plus, it was relatively short – only 20 ft tall. Thorngrim would come to regret this.
During first watch, a dire tiger, the one creature whose lethality the adventurers truly respect, moved into the area, tracking the scent of wyvern steaks. Alys wanted to go out and charge it on Mr. Boodles and had to be physically restrained by Dame Yasha. Sulking, Alys returned to the roof of the Crooked Tower where Thorngrim watched the dire tiger’s approach. The tiger was attacked at range [I don’t remember by who, but the PCs definitely initiated the fight]. When the tiger attacked, it charged the tower and leapt up at the top, catching hold just enough to lash out with a claw and grab Thorngrim, pulling him down to the ground when it let go of the tower.
Thorngrim, rather than attempt to escape (which he knew he would fail at), cast scorching ray at the dire tiger, one of his two rays burning the skin and much of the flesh off the animals head [a critical hit for near maximum damage]. Hearing that Thorngrim was on the ground from Alys, Kainen bolted out the tower door and attacked the critically wounded dire tiger, putting it out of its misery.
After the fight, Alys was very contrite and apologized to Thorngrim for pushing to attack the dire tiger. Thorngrim accepted the apology and they were good friends again.
The next day, the small group explored further, reaching the northwest tip of the hills, following signs of a bulette. They eventually cornered the bulette. During the fight, Alys charged the beast and Su Bel summoned an earth elemental. Between Alys and the elemental, the bulette did not stand a chance.
The beast killed, the adventurers returned to the Crooked Tower to camp. In the morning, they made their way back to Drop-off Tower with their loot and trophies.
*End of session*
[This was a short-ish session as we did not get word that Agnes and Tycho would not be available until later than normal. That said, the group did get most of the hills north and west of Old Road explored and created a new landmark on the map – the Crooked Tower. I like it when players physically add to the world as it gives me things to work with that are tied in to the world in a way the players have a stake in.]
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