Goblin Skulls & Shackles, Session 4 – Crabbin’ & Grapplin’

With the Wormwood secure after the storm, the ship sailed onward, toward the Slithering Coast. After a few more days of shipboard life and daily duties of drudgery, the waters became shallow as the ship approached a reef. Mister Plugg pulled the Licktoads from their duties, along with Rosie Cusswell. He explained that the Captain fancied crab for dinner. He gave them four crabpots and directed them to the reef ahead.

Unfortunately, Rosie could not swim, so she was stuck treading water and trying to spot crabs through the clear water of the reef. Spack Jarrow, Garagornne, Sean Dook Lasard, and Brodo Faggins easily filled two of the pots. As they prepared to embark upon their third dive to capture crabs, two odd creatures shot out of the reef toward them. The creatures looked like an aberrant cross between a lobster and an eel and aggressively snapped at the goblins with tooth-filled maws and cruelly barbed claws.

A reefclaw

With Ent Cleastwood’s help, they defeated the reefclaws. The claws from the crabby beasts filled the other two pots. Despite themselves, the officers were impressed and gifted the Licktoads with a Potion of Cure Moderate Wounds for their troubles, then ordered them back to work.

The next day, the Licktoads were relieved of their duties and assigned to boarding training with the Wormwood‘s Gunnery Master, Riaris Krine. She took the Licktoads out into the Wormwood‘s Jolly Boat with a couple of grappling hooks. The Licktoads were instructed to throw the hook to the Wormwood, then shimmy across the rope to the ship, as they would if they were engaged in combat with another vessel. To make things interesting, and in the interests of providing a realistic experience, four crewmembers would throw things to repel the boarders. Several crewmembers were all too eager to throw things at the Licktoad goblins without fear of reprisals.

Spack Jarrow and Garagornne quickly shimmied across the rope and back to the Wormwood, avoiding nearly all the debris thrown at them. Sean Dook Lasard took several hits, but made it back on his first try also. Brodo Faggins was not so lucky and lost his grip after being pelted several times, falling into the water. He failed again on his second try and gave up on climbing for his third try, simply using his skill at acrobatics to walk across the rope, dodging the objects thrown by the other sailors. Ent Cleastwood was not so lucky. Between being pelted and having an attack of the clumsies, he failed so frequently that Riaris Krine gave up on him and ordered him back into the Jolly Boat. She took him back to the Wormwood and brought Rosie Cusswell, Sandara Quinn and the rest of the new “recruits” back out for their practice.

The Wormwood sailed on. Scuttlebutt was with the new crew now trained, they were looking for prey upon the high seas of Golarion….

Sean Dook Lasard’s player asked for permission to re-build his character to better fit with the group & campaign, so he changed him from a Cleric of Asmodeus to a Storm Druid (I think). A sixth player will be joining the Licktoads soon, another one of the press-ganged goblins coming into his own.

This session was a little more action-packed than last session. I ended it a little early because things are starting to ramp up, and I thought if I continued on last night, it would be at least 2 more hours of play instead of another 30 minutes.

Goblin Skull & Shackles, Session 3 – Savin’ Friends, Framin’ Enemies

The Licktoads were awakened by the morning bells and, with the rest of the day crew, ordered to get to work. They went about their assigned duties until around mid-day when Mister Plugg called them together on the main deck. Near him, young Jack Scrimshaw was nursing a nasty leg wound. Mister Plugg ordered the goblins to go do the sort of thing they were brought on board for: go down into the bilge and kill the giant rats that attacked Jack Scrimshaw. Brodo Faggins was eager for the opportunity to acquire more free food and the rest followed. They were joined by another Licktoad Goblin, Sean Dook Lasard. The bilge was tight and partially flooded with foul, brackish water. Half-a-dozen dog-sized, vicious rats swam and moved in to attack once the goblins splashed down into the bilge. They made short work of the dire rats, though a few of them gave Ent Cleastwood some nasty bites. Once all the rats were dead, they scrounged through the filthy water and found several long-forgotten weapons. They were allowed to keep what they found and Mister Plugg was surprised by their success and told them to get back to work once they emerged from the bilge.

After the rest of their daily duties were discharged, Brodo Faggins took their bilge booty to bargain with Cut-Throat Grok. Brodo Faggins wished to procure Rosie’s fiddle. To Cut-Throat Grok’s surprise, the locker containing the fiddle (along with all the other items procured from the new deckhands) was empty! The Wormwood officers called all hands on deck while they searched the crews’ duffles. The stolen goods were discovered just where they were planted and the crewmember “responsible” for the theft was hauled before the Captain and thrown into the sweatbox, much to the disappointment of the Licktoad goblins, who hoped he would be keel hauled.

The next couple of days were filled with mundane activities. The Wormwood sailed on. One night, Mister Plugg called everyone on deck. Standing there, was Owlbear Hartshorn. Mister Plugg offered 100 gp to the crew member who could beat the Owlbear in an unarmed fight. The crew seemed reluctant to engage, but Spack Jarrow was not deterred. He launched himself at the big human, fighting with tooth and nail. Though Owlbear got in a hit or two and Mister Plugg “helped” the human by tossing him a club, the fight was decidedly one-sided with Spack Jarrow emerging victorious and claiming the 100 gp for himself, along with a healthy dose of respect from most of the rest of the crew. Mister Plugg still hates you, though.

Especially YOU.

More time. More sailing. More ship board duties. The weather took a turn for the worse. Then, a storm.

The crew struggled to keep the ship together as the ship was tossed by gale-force winds and waves. One wave washed Sandara Quinn overboard, but she was quickly rescued by a well-aimed rope thrown by Brodo Faggins. When the storm passed, everyone was put back to work repairing the rigging and sails.

The Wormwood sailed on, her destination known only to the officers who weren’t talking to the Licktoad goblins.

The 3rd Pathfinder game went pretty well. I was surprised how easily a 1st-level monkey goblin cleric was able to beat a 2nd-level human fighting in unarmed combat, though the goblin’s bite attack probably helped a bit, not to mention Spack Jarrow’s player rolled really well and I rolled poorly. There wasn’t much going on in this session, plot-wise though. There’s a total of 21 days on the ship before something major happens. It might seem boring, but I understand why it is like that: the PCs have to have time to form alliances on the ship. Otherwise, they’ll stand alone when the climax of the adventure comes and that would make for a short adventure path.

Goblin Skull & Shackles, Session 2 – Press-Ganged!

During a night of drunken revelry in celebration of their recovery of the fireworks for the tribe, the goblins decided they needed more booze. Fortunately, a human was driving a cart through their swamp and was good enough to flee when they attacked. The booze flowed freely before they returned to their village.

When the Licktoad goblins awoke, their heads pounded and the room swayed. Cruel mans kicked them out of beds and the goblins finally realized they were not back in their village after all. They were brought up onto the deck of a ship far away from any land they could see. Several others joined them on deck amidst the working sailors; apparently, the goblins were not the only ones press-ganged onto this ship. A large brute of a man stood on the poop deck and addressed the crew. He was Captain Barnabas Harrigan of the Wormwood and they were all now part of his crew. He explained the only rule they needed to remember: Don’t talk to him, and instructed his First Mate Mr. Plugg and the bosun Mr. Scourge to put everybody to work.

Garagornne “volunteered” to be the Cook’s Mate by acknowledging that she could cook, while Spack Jarrow impressed them with his ability to navigate the rigging and was assigned to be a rigger. Ent Cleastwood and Brodo Faggins were assigned as deckswabs. Curiously, a  priestess of Besmara, Sandara Quinn, also “volunteered” to be part of the Wormwood’s crew and befriended fellow Bemaran Spack Jarrow.

The first day’s activities were capped with the keel hauling of Jakes Magpie, who was caught stealing from the Quartermaster, Cut-Throat Grok. When the keel hauling was finished, Jakes Magpie was dumped overboard for the sharks. The pirates had their dinner, their rum ration and retired for the evening.

Day two began with a group of four human pirates blocking the way out of the hold, claiming they needed to show the goblins who was in control. Before the fight could start, Ent Cleastwood threw a lantern at the men, shattered it and setting part of the hold on fire. The crew came together to fight the blaze, putting it out before it could cause serious damage. They captured Ent Cleastwood and brought him before Mr. Scourge and the Captain for punishment. It was the word of the goblins against six humans, so they sentenced Ent Cleastwood to a day in the sweatbox because he was new; the next time he would be keel hauled for doing something that stupid. (I actually feel a little guilty for not straight-off keel hauling Ent Cleastwood, after all, several warnings were given out-of-game that fire was the arch-enemy of ships at sea, reprisals for setting the ship on fire would be both swift and terrible, and it was generally a BAD idea. I relented because it was only the second session with these characters and the first on board the ship. The gloves are off on ship-board punishments, now, though).

While Ent Cleastwood was in the sweatbox, the rest of the crew went about their duties and the Lick Toad goblins worked on befriending some of the crew and tried to figure out how to get their possessions back. By the third day, Brodo Faggins learned where their possessions were and who held the key. Despite being impaled by a harpoon that he failed to detect while picking the lock to the armory, they pressed on. After healing from the impalement, Brodo stole the key from the drunken Quartermaster, Cut-Throat Grok, and the goblins took their items. They cleaned out the locker that held their gear and stashed all the other ill-gotten booty in the duffle of the ringleader of the humans who tried to start a fight with them the previous day. It was only a matter of time until the theft was discovered….

The first session of the Adventure Path went well. We didn’t get as far as I thought we would, but it’s difficult to judge how much RP a group can get through; the first 21 days on the ship are very RP-heavy. I mentioned earlier I felt guilty about not keel hauling Ent Cleastwood, but having a PC executed like that (and there was NO WAY a 1st level PC can survive that) just seems cheap, although the other players unanimously said they would have supported me had I executed Ent Cleastwood for setting fire to the ship.

Goblin Skulls & Shackles (Pathfinder), Session 1 – We Be Goblins

We be Licktoads! We make raid!
Put the longshanks to the blade!
Burn them up from feet to head,
Make them hurt, then make them dead!
Cut the parents into ham,
Smush the babies into jam,
All the rest in pot get stewed,
We be Licktoads – you be food!

This Pathfinder game will utilize the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path, with a twist–all Goblin PCs! To get players in the mood, we started with We Be Goblins, Paizo’s 2011 Free RPG Day adventure. The PCs are:
Garagornne – Monkey Goblin Ranger
Ent Cleastwood – Goblin Gunslinger
Brodo Faggins – Goblin Rogue
Captain Spack Jarrow – Monkey Goblin Cleric of Besmara

The Licktoad tribe just finished a rousing banishment of a goblin now known only as Scribbleface. He committed the heinous crime of writing things down, so the tribe ran him off, took his stuff, and burned down his house using fireworks they found within. As they embers cooled, the PCs were called to a private audience with Chief Gutwad. The Chief spoke to the PCs directly, proving to them that they were strong and powerful goblins for withstanding the awesome power of his voice (though not as powerful as himself, of course…and maybe not as powerful his major domo, Slorb, either). Because they’re so strong and powerful, he bade them to go into the swamp following a map they found in Scribbleface’s hut. Follow the map and retrieve the rest of Scribbleface’s fireworks stash. He also told them if they found any dogs, make them dead. Any humans, make them dead! Any horses, make them dead. And if they find Lotslegs Eat Goblin Babies Many, maybe they should run. Before they left, though, there was the feast!

The feast was held to help burn off any remaining bad luck caused by Scribbleface’s heresies. A great bonfire was built out of the remains of Scribbleface’s hut. Food, fermented cider apples, and challenging dares were the order of the evening. Members of the Licktoad tribe heckled the PCs, daring them to very acts of foolishness, and while no one was able to dance with Squealy Nord, Spack Jarrow was able to eat a whole bag of bull slugs really quick (and didn’t even get sick doing so!), Brodo survived the Rusty Earbiter without losing any bits, and Garagornne successfully Hid so she wouldn’t Get Clubbed. For these impressive feats of derring-do, Chief Gutwad granted them the use of several items from his personal stash: Gorge of Gluttons (a Dogslicer +1, Horse Bane), the Chief’s Personal Very Useful Robe That Is Useful (Robe of Useful Items w/a three-legged turtle, a ladder, & a bullhorn), and a Ring That Lets You Climb Real Good (ring of climbing). He told them they could use them, but better return them, or else!

In the morning, they headed off into Brinestump Marsh. Fortunately, they were suffering no ill effects from neither the fermented cider apples nor the bull slugs. Otherwise, they might have walked right into the Lotslegs Eat Goblin Babies Many’s webs! They noticed the webs and managed to get the drop on the spider, despite Brodo’s feelings that they should NOT engage the spider. Fortunately, Lotslegs’s reputation was somewhat inflated and they were able to easily dispatch the nasty beast. They followed tracks back to her lair and looted goblin and human bodies within, gaining many new shiny objects, some old candy, and a few potions, as well!

They continued following the map until they found an old shipwreck surrounded by a rickety fence. According to the map (which Garagornne noted was NOT to scale; they had walked way more than the length of her first knuckle). Brodo climbed up a tree while Garagornne and Ent snuck around the fence to the far side, and Spack Jarrow climbed the fence near the tree Brodo was climbing. Garagornne and Ent found the entrance to the makeshift compound, where a nasty horse awaited them! The horse was no match for Ent’s musket and Garagornne’s bow and fell quickly. They climbed the gangplank, dislodging a wasp’s nest. Two dogs chained to a mast started barking.

The battle was joined! The dogs proved tougher than the horse and during the fight, another goblin with a giant frog animal companion and dog emerged. Spack Jarrow recognized her as the vile and wicked Vorka! She screamed obscenities at them, threatening to suck their eyes out through their noses (and other obscene things with their skulls after gouging out their eyes). She walked up the second mast and summoned a swarm of spiders to hinder Garagornne. Brodo charged across the rigging, knocking Vorka off the mast (bull rush, FTW!). The other goblins fell upon her and cut her to pieces. They killed her little (not so little, they were goblin-sized) dogs, too! The frog tried to flee, it’s master dead, but was cut down, mid hop.

Naturally, they looted the ship, found the fireworks, and set fire to the wreckage (just in case). They returned to the village, hailed as heroes! Chief Gutwad offered the hand of his daughter, fearsomely corpulent and ferociously lusty Gupy Wartbits, to Brodo Faggins, made Ent Cleastwood the Head Village Watcher, made Spack Jarrow the Overseer of Village Stabbings, and made Garagornne the Boss of Big Fire.

And there was much rejoicing.

Too much rejoicing…a booze cart ridden by a human was raided and things got fuzzy after that. The PCs have vague recollections of being caged and carted away…but to where? Why was the world rocking? And did they remember to give the chief his magical items back?

We Be Goblins turned out to be a pretty good adventure with which to kick off this campaign. It started off with some role-playing and skill checks, and moved to combats which were increasingly complex. It was also relatively short. Everyone seemed to have a good time with their goblin characters once they got into the right mindset (it always takes a while with a new character).

The next session will be a Savage Worlds one-shot, run by Brodo’s player. After that, we kick off the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path proper, with The Wormwood Mutiny!

D&D 4E Wrap-Up Thoughts

There’s been a lot written about D&D 4E and why is it superior/inferior to all other editions. I really don’t care about those arguments. This is my blog and I’m going to write MY thoughts. :p
(In other word, the following post is my OPINION and does not reflect a judgement upon anyone. If you find a game to be fun, then play what you like!)

I love playing D&D, regardless of edition. That doesn’t mean I like all editions equally. The title of this blog is How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love all D&D, and even though I tried (I think the dozen or so sessions of D&D 4E with a mix of adventures from Dungeons and adventure I wrote myself counts as having given it a fair shake), I just can’t love 4E. I’m going to stop short of saying I’ll never run/play it again, but it is not my edition of choice.

Why?

First of all, I don’t want a debate with 4E-lovers. Let’s just say it doesn’t fit my GMing style and leave it at that. The real answer is more complicated than that, but as long as you can accept that personal preferences do not have to be the same for every person who plays the game, then we’re good. There’s just something about it that rubs me the wrong way as a GM and I just don’t enjoy running the game like I have with other editions. I think part of it is the tactical combat. The more tactical combat is in a game, the less I seem to like it. At first, when D&D 3rd edition came out, I was totally on-board, but the more I played it, and through the transition to 4E, I just found combat tedious.

4E has it good points, to be sure. The online tools work pretty well as much as I used them and certainly made my game prep easier. Far easier than it had been since 2E and the Core Rules CD-Rom. The tools made it dead easy to convert classic adventures (Basic D&D and AD&D) as long as you know how to build 4E encounters. I learned that you can’t rely on the Encounter Builder’s estimation too much, because it makes assumptions that my group didn’t always meet (it was rare for us to play with more than 4 player-characters, for one, and we did not have a perfectly balanced party of Defender-Striker-Controller-Leader all the time).

My background in D&D starts in 1982 with the Moldvay/Mentzer basic sets (my friend had one and I had the other). I moved on from there to AD&D and spent much of my gaming “life” playing AD&D 2nd edition. I played a lot of 3rd edition and really liked it, but always felt 4E moved too far away from what I was used to. To me, and I stress this is MY opinion and not meant to infer that everyone should share my opinion, it feels like Fantasy Superheroes, far more so than D&D 3.X ever did. My last session with the system really cemented that with character making vertical leaps from standing that really, probably, should’ve been physically impossible, though I will admit I didn’t stop the game to look up jumping rules, so maybe I just screwed it up.

We’re moving on (some might say backwards) to Pathfinder. Time will tell how I feel about it. I spent a lot of time running D&D 3.X, but I’ve only run one Pathfinder game. Maybe it’ll be too complicated for me (I suspect I’m going to find combat too tedious and complicated since it’s just an evolution from 3.x). I’ve said before (in this blog or elsewhere) that the older I get, the more I prefer rules-light systems and I think we can all agree that D&D 3.X, Pathfinder, and D&D 4E are anything but rules-light. I’m curious to see how much game prep is involved in running an adventure path. We’re going to start with Skull & Shackles. I’m hoping the chance to be pirates will allow my players to indulge in some of their more anarchic tendencies and by the time we’re finished with it, they’ll be ready to play the heroes they’ll need to be for adventures like Rise of the Runelords. To further add to the anarchy, the PCs will be goblins (at least until/if they die; I won’t restrict races for replacement characters).

Who knows? By the end of the year, I might swear off modern D&D/Pathfinder altogether and go back to my beloved AD&D 2nd edition and play other games like Savage Worlds and various FATE-based games. Or, I might finally grok the rules-heavy games (I haven’t felt I had a system mastery of an RPG since I left AD&D 2nd edition and the West End Games Star Wars d6 behind). Time will tell.

I asked my long-term players (of varying levels of experience) to write up some of their thoughts about D&D 4E (as I did with Basic D&D). Here is what they had to say (names have been altered to protect the innocent):

Theirastra’s Player: “[4E] is too complex and takes the fun out of the role playing aspect of the game. And in an effort to please everyone, there are zillions of races [and classes], which are not really necessary. I liked Basic better. Haven’t played enough Pathfinder to compare to it.”

Mercutio’s Player: “After running a campaign and playing in this short one, I think that 4E reads better than it plays.  In practice, while our powers all have different names, they all come off on the gameboard like pretty much the same stuff.  The numbers are a little too sterile for my taste, if that makes sense.  There’s no “swing” on rolls.  Little sense of risk/reward, in that you don’t feel in danger with all those hit points and surges and heals and stuff, and you don’t get the satisfaction of smashing your enemies into tiny bits, since most of them take 3 or 4 hits to fall down.  Even a crit isn’t terribly satisfying in this system, and that seems kind of wrong.”

I won’t go so far as to say that I think D&D 4E is a bad game. It’s OK. It does what it’s trying to do well, but it’s not what I am looking for when I play D&D. It’s not what I think the game should have evolved into. If my opinion on that offends you, then you really need to take a closer look at your life, your passions, and your priorities. To those who love 4E and think it’s the best edition yet: more power to you. I’m glad you’ve found an edition you love. It’s just not the edition I love.

Session 10 – Stopping the Clockwork

When we last left our valorous PCs, they were speeding across the sky in a House Lyrandar airship, hastening to intercept the Lighting Rail presumably carrying Clockwork and his army of mechanized men toward Sharn.

As they approached the Lightning Rail, they devised a cunning plan. The plan was to overtake the train, and use the power of the airship to lift away some of the conductor stones. The captain of the airship was amenable to the plan and put it into motion. Night fell and the train reached the gap in the conductor stones, running off the rails and crashing, sending dirt, trees, and shrubberies flying (poor Roger). While they had hoped removing the conductor stones would cause the Lightning Rail to stop, they didn’t take into account that the conductors running the train wouldn’t be able to see the gap in the night. Still, with the train stopped, they rappelled down from the airship to deal with the warforged. At this point, they didn’t actually know if there were any innocents on the train, but proceeded anyway because the needs of the many, etc. etc.

A large number of warforged were picking themselves up off the ground. There were more on top of the train, presumably guards. The lighting elemental that was bound to the train broke free and started going on a rampage. The captain of the airship dropped our heroes off while they went to deal with the elemental. With the element of surprise, the heroes took out several of the warforged as they recovered from the crash. Master Yorel rushed inside the Lightning Rail in an attempt to deal with Clockwork himself.

The battle raged on the ground around the crash Lightning Rail and on top of it. The House Lyrandar airship kept the lightning elemental occupied whilst our heroes dealt with the warforged. Occasionally, they’d hear explosions and breaking glass from inside the coaches. Wave after wave of warforged poured out, and finally Master Yorel, thrown from a window. Clockwork and his lieutenants followed on his heels. Though Master Yorel was set on fire at one point, our heroes eventually proved triumphant, defeating Clockwork and his army of mechanized men.

Master Yorel commented that while they stopped Clockwork from reaching the old Creation Forge, they used up all their hard-earned Xendrik Expedition money to do so. After some much-needed healing, rest, and relaxation, it would be back to the grindstone: chasing down rumors of lost artifacts to sell; more treasure hunting for profit and glory….

When I developed the climactic battle of the campaign, I envisioned a battle where the PCs helped maneuver an airship to intercept a Lightning Rail and leapt between the two to duel Clockwork atop a moving train. The derailment worked pretty well, too, though it wasn’t as dynamic (or, frankly, as dangerous for the PCs). One of the players commented that this battle was the most coordinated and tactically-sound the group has ever been since he started playing with us. Just as we wrapped the 4E campaign, everyone clicked.

I could’ve made the battle harder, but as it was it took the entire session and the PCs did expend almost ALL of their resources, so it appears that I also, finally created a perfectly balanced encounter. Judicious use of minions helped a lot. I’ll have more thoughts about 4E and what’s next for the group in my next blog entry.

Eberron Session 9 – The Everflame

After resting and refreshing themselves in the room with the silver fountain, the party was ready to move on. Seraphina had gone off to scout ahead while the rest prepared themselves. When they were ready, they followed after her. They moved through the catacomb in which they found the plague zombies into a room with a long muck-covered reflecting pool. When they cleared the muck away, they saw their reflections in the pool rotting away before their eyes.

Putting the disturbing images behind them, they moved into another catacomb. Fortunately, none of the dead assaulted them this time and they were able to move through unhindered. The next corridor backtracked a bit, and led them to a large room with a massive bridge spanning a chasm. Two statues with spears and shields guarded a pair of brass doors. Moving forward cautiously, Vistra sprang a trap on the bridge, causing one of the statues to charge him! It’s momentum was no match for his dwarven steadiness and it ground to a halt. Mercutio blasted the statue with lighting until it fell into the chasm and did the same to its twin on the far side of the bridge. The statues dealt with, they moved forward and opened the double doors.

At the far side of the massive chamber was a dais shrouded in shadow. Statues lined the hall and they spied the body of a woman at the base of an opened sarcophagus. When they entered, they saw it was Seraphina. Dry, mocking laughter echoed through the hall and an armored marched forth from the darkness, welcoming them for facing him again. More skeletons crawled out of other sarcophagi in the room. The battle was joined.

Though it was a hard-fought victory, the party was victorious nonetheless. The skeleton’s lightning-fast blows and explodey minions were no match for the combine might of the treasure hunters. When the last enemy fell, Seraphina regained consciousness and the shadows burned away. There, at the back of the crypt, the Everflame burned bright. Once the artifact was in their possession, the party decided no further exploration was warranted and left the crypt behind.

Upon reaching the surface, they discovered their warforged companion, Wycliffe did not survive after all (Ya rush a miracle sonny, ya get rotten miracles). They decided they did not trust Clockwork, so returned directly to the Lightning Rail station and returned to Sharn. The return trip was thankfully uneventful. Master Yorel was dismayed to hear that Clockwork destroyed his package without even looking at it, but was even more disturbed that he had sent the party out to retrieve the Everflame. He rushed out of his office, grabbing a strongbox, urging the group to follow him. Master Yorel led them to a House Lyrandar airship dock where he purchased a charter voyage for all of them.

Once they were underway, he explained himself: “Clockwork has toiled ever since the end of the Last War to improve his kind. According to the Treaty of Thronehold, the creation of new warforged is forbidden. He thought he could find some way to bring true life to his people: the ability to reproduce as any man and woman could. He developed this theory that if he could somehow link a Creation Forge to Xoriat, the raw chaos might infuse a subject with that ability. It was madness! But, he did not listen to me and so we had a falling out. We served together during the war and we found something near Vathirond about which he swore me to secrecy. I have never spoken of it until now: an abandoned Creation Forge in working order. I helped him seal the chamber in which it lay and we hid the entrance. He must be heading there. The Everflame would have provided him with a power source sufficient enough to power the Forge and link it to Xoriat during the upcoming conjunction. Time is of the essence: the conjunction is near. The item I had you deliver to him was a schema to modify warforged in a way that would appear to be in line with his plan, but would have destroyed the Forge if he had tried to use it. Unfortunately, his suspicion of me was too great, I fear. By now, he has is no doubt tracking you to determined why you have not yet returned. We must intercept him and stop him at all costs.”

Over the next few days, Master Yorel concentrated on his divinations, coming out of his cabin only when the airship was approaching an oncoming Lightning Rail. “Clockwork is on that train. He comes for the Everflame, and you.” The airship dove to intercept the Lighting Rail….

And, it turns out that this is the penultimate session of the D&D 4E Eberron campaign. Next session will be the climactic climax. The ultimate showdown of ultimate awesomeness. An airship with PCs vs. a Lightning Rail with NPCs. Who will prevail? Who will win?

Well, probably the PCs., but one never knows.

Preparations have already begun for the next campaign: Pathfinder Goblins Skulls & Shackles. If you’re not familiar with the Skulls & Shackles Adventure Path, it is the one wherein the PCs are pirates. I’m twisting it a bit by making a requirement that the PCs be goblins. When the idea of goblin pirates entered my brain, it was too good to let it pass by. This group can already be a little anarchic with no small amount of pyromania, so this should be right up their alley. Detailed information will appear on Obsidian Portal, but campaign logs will appear here as well.

Next week is Gary Con and the next game is the following weekend. We won’t be playing D&D at that session though, due to some planned absences. If there is just the one I know about, then one of my players is going to run a Space 1889 Savage Worlds game for us. If there is more than one absence, it will be a board game night. The next D&D game, the conclusion of the Treasure Hunting for Profit & Glory D&D 4E Eberron campaign, will be Friday, April 5th, 2013.

Eberron Session 8 – Bunches of Bloody Bones!

After defeating the shadows, our four heroes headed back to the crypt entrance so they could rest a bit and check on Seraphina and Wycliffe. Wycliffe was recovered enough that he encouraged Seraphina to return to the crypt with the rest of the group while he watched the horses and cart. After refreshing themselves, they went underground once more.

From the entrance, they went the other way this time, traversing a large room filled with columns and pit traps only to discover a one-way stone door through which they could not pass and an alternate route to the room in which they killed the beetles. They returned to the room with the fountain and pool and proceeded to search their keys for the one that would take them through the second locked door. It turned out the key they found with the shadows was the correct one for that door.

The door led to a large, circular room with an arrow-studded pillar rising out of a pit. Just as the trap was sprung, they retreated back through the door and shut it. They waited until the sound of arrows hitting the door abated then went back in. The pillar was set up to rotate and fire arrows in every direction at once. Hundreds of them now littered the floor. Proceeding with caution, they followed a door out of the room into another large chamber with stairs leading down at the far end.

Skeletons attacked when they entered the room. Most were easily dealt with, but one was much stronger than the others. It too, fell to their might. The heroes went down, deeper into the crypt. Much to their surprise, the first room they encountered contained a fountain with healing properties. They moved on, refreshed, into a catacomb. Plague-ridden zombies crawled out of the nooks and attacked!

Expecting an easy fight, our heroes were dismayed to see the zombies hurling filth at them. A foul stench filled the air, hindering their attacks. Though they outnumbered the zombies, the close quarters made the fight difficult until, at last, they prevailed. On one of the non-animated bodies, they found a suit of magical hide armor and wasted no time taking it for themselves.

They prepared to move on, wondering if they would ever find the Everflame…

It’s funny how going a different direction from the beginning can totally change the adventure. Not much happened in this session, relative to last session because they went to a puzzle-heavy section this time instead of the fight-heavy section.

I had a plan for the rest of the campaign. Then, as I did research and made preparations, I discovered what I was going to do was going to take at least 6 months of game sessions. Since I’m already to the point where I don’t want to run 4E anymore, I decided to change my game plan again, because another six months of running a game I don’t particularly enjoy would be stupid, stupid, stupid. I have a new plan now, one that will wrap things up 1-2 sessions after they find the Everflame. Strangely, it came to me while I was playing Fallout: New Vegas and ties everything up pretty well. Strangely, it has absolutely nothing to do with Fallout: New Vegas. Isn’t it funny how ideas happen?

Reapermas

So, back in August, I backed the Reaper Bones Kickstarter at the Vampire (or the Holy Shit Do I Get A Lot of Miniatures) Level.

(There are some REALLY long .jpgs after the jump, along with the bulk of the text of this post; I just didn’t want to have these huge images on the main page. Hopefully, I formatted it correctly.)

Eberron Session 7 – Crypt of the Everflame

When we last left our heroes, they were marshaling their resolve outside of a set of doors set into a hillside in a valley to which they were led by a map they received from a warforged they didn’t trust.

The doors were not locked, but seemed to be stuck, whether by age or design, no one knew. The strength of our heroes prevailed and they pulled the doors open to reveal a two-tiered entry hall. Skeletons covered the floor, along with a couple of fresher bodies. In the distance, a wailing could be heard echoing in the halls. A faded painting of a man was hung on the far wall.

As they entered the hall, the skeletons came to life and swarmed them! Making short work of the bony abominations, they searched the two bodies. They found only supplies and pressed onward, choosing the nearest of the two doors leading deeper into the crypt.

The next room was dominated by a large pool of water fed by a fountain. The fountain was in the shape of a maiden holding the headless body of an armored man. A voice boomed from the darkness “Magic is the key.” Upon closer inspection, they saw the statue was not headless, rather the head had been broken off. Our heroes explored the room thoroughly, discovering hundreds of keys at the bottom of the pool. Mercutio determined that one of these keys was magical, and Rurin retrieved that key from the water.

It was here that I uttered the phrase “Piranha keys” giving rise to the speculation of what an insidious trap it would be to have a pool full of keys that, upon some trigger, all turned into piranhas that would eat the meddling PC. I’ll have to remember that for the future.

Two doors led out from the chamber, leading deeper into the dungeon. Both doors were locked and the magic key opened neither. They began to test all the others keys they found so far and found one that fit the rightmost of the two doors.

The hallway beyond the fountain room were lined with statues of the man depicted in the painting in the entry hall. Each statue was holding a longsword aloft, and the heroes quickly determined they were actual swords and not part of the statuary. After searching the first pair of statues and removing one of the swords, they could find no obvious mechanism, despite being convinced there was a trap they were missing. Vistra proceeded down the corridor ahead of the rest of the party and when he reached the third pair, the swords swung down. No one was seriously injured and they picked their way through the swords now blocking the corridor to the door at the far end of the hallway. It was unlocked.

Another two-tiered room lay before them, albeit different in layout from the entry hall. Another statue stood at the far end of the lower level of this room. The statue was that of the same man, but he held two wooden tower shields. The statue was near a door and stairs led up and out of the room to their left. When Vistra reached the lower level of the room, the statue came to life and attacked! In addition to bashing with its shields, it was able to use some sort of psychic attack to daze our heroes. Rurin noticed a keyhole on its back and they maneuvered to attempt to insert the magic key. Ultimately, it was not needed as they destroyed the statue before being able to insert the key.

Our heroes, being the thorough-minded people they are, inserted the key anyway.

Nothing happened.

The key did fit the door, however, and revealed a small storage room with a table. Upon the table were four magical items. None of them appeared to be an Everflame, so they stashed the items for future study and moved on.

Mercutio, Vistra, Rurin, and Theirastra followed the stairs which seemed to lead up and over an undiscovered area of the crypt before going back down into a squarish room where several fire beetles were swarming over a corpse. Mercutio made short work of the beetles with his magic and finding nothing of interest in the room, they followed a corridor south out of the room. That corridor led to another room with pillars surrounding a small fire pit. Noxious black smoke created a haze in the small, double-diamond-shaped room which they carefully explored.

Shadows came alive and attacked as they searched the room. The shadows assault them with dazing and weakening attacks. Our heroes faced their greatest challenge yet, but were not to be deterred and beat back the undead, destroying them. In the fire, they found a couple of charred bodies, one of which had a dagger untouched by the flames, a magic dagger. They also found another key.

What did the key open? And what secrets were yet to be revealed?

So much happened since I started converting this Pathfinder adventure to 4E that I totally forgot that I still needed to deal with the treasure. Of course, I can’t just drop in a wand of cure light wounds and a wand of magic missile in the appropriate place because of how they changed the way things work in 4E. I also keep forgetting about the passive perception checks to notices traps and the like. The more I run 4E, the less I like running it. I’m finding it too difficult to keep track of everything and some of the paradigm shifts in the way the game works are just frustrating because it’s not the way I’ve been doing it for decades. Game prep is easy as hell, thank to the electronic tools, but I just don’t like the feel of the game when it runs. At this point, I think I’ve given it a fair enough shake to determine it is my least favorite of the D&D editions (I’m a 2nd ed. guy, through and through, warts and all).

This makes this game my 7th in this 4E Eberron campaign and my 10th or 11th D&D 4E game I’ve run overall. I think that’s probably enough sessions to know. I will, however, stick with it until this campaign is finished. It does make me glad that I did not blindly buy everything for 4E as it came out. Of all my D&D stuff, 4E is the least represented in my collection. That being said, I can see how it appeals to some people and while I’ve found some landmines, I don’t feel it’s a badly designed system; it’s just not fitting in with my personal tastes. I will admit, however, it’s difficult to resist the urge to just figure a way to end the campaign early so I can switch to a different system that might fit my DMing style better.

And yes, I know that Pathfinder is not an easier game, per se, but I have often said that if I ever run Pathfinder, I will do so using Adventure Paths pretty much as written, so my game prep will mostly be limited to making sure I’m familiar with the material I’m going to use that evening (in theory). Whether or not that’s going to be easier for me, time will tell. I’ve also made no secret of the fact that I’m really interested in exploring both FATE and Savage Worlds as systems, and maybe even dabbling with the new HackMaster. In fact, I can see the Kingmaker Adventure Path to be a very good fit for HackMaster. I wonder how modular the revised Kingdom-Building rules will be in the forthcoming Ultimate Campaign from Paizo?