Holy Crap an update! (12/21/08) Part 1

Forgive me player for I have sinned. It has been 168 days since my last post. Wow, have I totally dropped the ball on that one.

Well, here’s to picking the ball back up and hopefully keeping it aloft for another year.

Due to the LARGE amount of game time, I will be doing a lot of summing up and getting progressively more and more detailed as we approach present game sessions.

You may want to peruse the Tuesday July 8 Post to catch you up on where I am starting from…..

While training in Jenna you also bought a lot of items to help do some rituals for Alakast. Not to mention a lot of sending spells back and forth to Anna Taskerhill. You find out that the politics in Cauldron are bad. Maavu gave himself up in order to save the city of Redgorge. Skellerag accepts Maavu’s surrender and brings the attacking army back to Cauldron and promptly puts Maavu to death in a public execution.

The Churches are in disagreement. The Cathedral of WeeJas is being accused of blocking the suns rays for the temple to Pelor. St. Cuthbert has a huge recruitment session going on and Jennya is having less and less to do with the management of the church.

The party begins making their way towards Caulderon… a 500 mile journey. Making their way through the rough scrub into the mountains the party is attacked by a large group of Babau demons. The party barely makes it out alive but takes out the Babau.

The next day the party is attacked again.. this time by a larger group. Chasing after the Babau is a short cowled sorcerer. He immediately enters the fray reading a scroll that banishes 3 of the Babau from the plane. Then he flashes into combat rittling the enemy with magic missiles. With his help the Babau are easily disposed of.

The Sorcerer introduces himself as Kaurophon. He continues to say he was sent “by the power of smoking eye” to guide the party to the outer plane of Occipitus. If the party can pass the Test of the Smoking Eye. They can cleanse Occipitus of evil and win a great victory for the forces of good.

After a bunch of questions to Kaurophon, you find out the following:

What’s Occipitus? Occipitus is another plane, once part of Celestia but now corrupted and consumed by evil. I’ve traveled its lands for years, and I think I’ve uncovered the secret of controlling the plane and cleansing it.

Who lives there? Few creatures do. Even demons regard it as haunted, because the light of good still shines there. Yet the evil is so strong that the angels of Celestia count it as lost forever. Unfortunately, some demons and other creatures have moved there, trying to pass the Test of the Smoking Eye and expunge what good remains there.

What is the Test of the Smoking Eye? It’s a test created by the former ruler of the plane, who disappeared years ago. Whoever passes the Test of the Smoking Eye becomes the new rightful ruler of Occipitus. I know the test has three parts, each hidden somewhere on Occipitus. Passing the first part of the test reveals the location of the second part, and so on. I stumbled upon the location of the first test, but I’m not powerful enough to pass it. The prophet’s final words give me hope that you have sufficient power.


Who ruled Occipitus before? A demon lord named Adimarchus, I believe. He vanished fifty years ago, likely slain by one of his countless enemies.

Where did the Babaus come from? Your recent actions against the forces of evil got you noticed by someone, and that someone sent the babaus out to finish you off. In fact, I suspect the attack may have something to do with the true enemy you face.

There is a lot more but this is the guts of what you find out.

You also learn that Kaurophon is evil due to the fact that he is ½ demon half human. However he is trying to change this about himself.

So, Minding the dying wish of Tercival you follow the smoking eye to Occipitus.




You all plane shift to Occipitus, the 507 layer of the Abyss. While most of the Abyss is crawling with demons, Occipitus has areas where the power of good hasn’t been completely expunged, so many fiends give the layer a wide berth.

This isn’t to say that Occipitus is a hospitable place to visit. When the part of the celestial landscape fell into Occipitus, Adimarchus used the power of the layer itself to consume the wreckage. This had the side effect of twisting Occipitus into the vaguely organic layer it is today. And the consumption of the celestial landscape is neither complete nor a one-way process. Parts of Occipitus remain a testament to the enduring power of good.

Occipitus appears as a great basin surrounded by impossibly steep mountains that rise to the sky. Near the center of the basin is a low mountain that looks likea half-buried skull. Amoeba-like blobs, known as plasms, bathe the entire landscape in a reddish light.

Despite its unusual nature, Occipitus is still a part of the Abyss, and the layer is mildly evil-aligned and mildly chaos-aligned.

When you arrive:

The Sky seems to be made fo flame, bathing every thing in a reddish flow. Off in the distance looms a massive skull: a white monolith the size of a small mountain. Clouds of flame stream from the skull’s single exposed eye socket and up in the sky. About a half-mile ahead stands a cluster of gently curving white pillars, almost oas if giant rib bones had been stuck in the ground. In the distance looms a steep mountain ridge whose top seems to touch the fiery sky. It stretches around the entire horizon – as if you were standing inside a vast bowl with a fiery lid. The ground is spongy and wrinkled. It’s more like skin than dirt.

Kauraphon quickly gets his berrings and begins leading you away from the ridge of cliffs infested with Slaadi.

You have an entertaining combat with a grey Slaadi and come across some local fauna.

The most important encounter you come across is with a group of Vrock. Eventually you have a long and frightening agreement with the Vrock. The agreement is that they are to take out another group of Demons on the other side of Occipitus. By removing them, the Vrock become the “ruling” band on the plane.

After these negotiations you make your way to the Cathedral of Feathers, a ruined structure once part of Celestia. The cathedral is in terrible disrepair, and is sitting at a slight angle. There are holes in the ceiling and the floor is covered in areas of light to very heavy rubble.

Every once in a while the whole structure flickers back to its original grandeur. It only lasts for about 10 seconds or so, but when it does, healing and spells of good and light are automatically maximized. The cathedral is gorgeous and fills your souls with warmth and wonder. Then the images crash back to the reality of the cathedrals current state.

The party searches the cathedral finding books and ancient bits of religious artifacts. While looking around the main Sanctuary you are attacked by a Succubus and spell wielding Noble Salamander. After these two enemies are dealt with you have some more time. You realize that some one has built a statue of Orcus in place of the statue of some other god. The party dismantles the statue and finds a stairwell leading down.

Kaurophan finds out that he is unable to descend the stairs and enter the first test of the Smoking eye

More updates to come shortly.

4E must haves

Hello everyone.

I just got a heads up from a friend of mine about some pretty cool tools for 4E. Check them out HERE.

Also... there official erratta posted on June 11. They make some clarifications and some rule changes. Check em out.

Finding Alek and Losing him (7/6/08)

Dugobras (the very intelligent and talented firegiant) eagerly put his equipment away and is ready to help you with the upcoming battle. He explains the rest of the dungeon and makes some agreements with the party in regards to who can live in the compound and some other party members have some ideas for trade relations.

Being quite happy with the outcome of the talks, he hands over a two handed blade to Connell who looks at the +3 blade and covets it gleefully. Dugobras says that Connell can have it if they agree to the aforementioned discussions about who can live in the compound with Dugobras.

With that the party sets out to slay the rest of the inhabitants contained within. Dugobras is quite adamant that he will not enter the room with the mirrors.

Moving ahead the party enters a room that looks quite holy. Four pillars support the ceiling and inset into each pillar is transparent globe, half full of a purplish liquid. this liquid flows out of the globe and down a channel cut onto the inside of each pillar into a central pool. Here, there is a shallow pool of the liquid and a beautiful golden chalice. Barrett quickly swipes the chalice and Dugobras warns the party that the liquid is VERY powerful, but is also very, very addictive and ultimately leaves the imbiber much worse off.

The next room is a throne room with bas releaf carved at the base of the 7' tall dias. the throne is huge with three sets of arm rests (obviously for the spell weavers). Dugobras says there is some nasty undead that the hags have made. At this the party moves to the next room. In the room is the last remaining Hag and six, 6 armed, huge skellitons.

Pepper gives everyone a haste and Dugobras wades into the fray taking down two of these skeletons in 4 swings. Then the amazing undead basher Bolgrim has a turn and to everyones shock he evaporates only one. the combat ensues, but between Dugobras and Bolgrim, the skeletons pose very little threat and the Hag is no match for the five others.

After searching the room the party finds quite a bit of treasure, but most importantly they find Alkalast and 20,000 GP. It is decided that Churchkey will wield Alkalast. So in a private chamber Churchkey does a short ceremony, imbibes the potion given to the party by Nidrama and awakes the soul of Alkalast.

In the mean time the rest of the party is going through the loot and conversing with Dugobras.

After churchkey emerges the party heads into the "Throne" room. It is bizarre chamber....that.... that... oh, its too hard to explain. Let me find some pictures and post them.

Sitting on the throne is Alek. He looks withdrawn and slack jawed. The Mirror is black and perfectly reflective. The party moves into the room being careful not to cross the "thresh hold" of the colored tiles and lines on the floor. Others are searching the mirror and around the mirror and yet others are trying to talk with Alek.

Alek is morbid and sad. He stands and stumble steps his way over towards Pepper. He then drops the dagger that was in his hands and with that four creatures emerge from the mirror akin to Stargate special effects. The battle ensues. Most remarkably is that Alek brandishes from seemingly know where a crystal blade and slides the blade deep into Peppers back. It takes no time at all for the party to rip this crystalline creatures apart.

It becomes quite evident that "Alek" is not the real Alek but a disguised crystalline creature. However, the dagger he was holding is a dagger with the symbols of the Tercival family engraved on it.

With this the question is how to enter the mirror and what are the clues.

To make a long story short the mirror puzzles is quite complex. If you don't have both the order of the colors and the number pattern then you are totally hosed. However, even if you have both it took many minutes of contemplation and communication with one another to solve the puzzle. A couple of intelligence checks later and some ideas came forward to help solve the puzzle.

Upon completion of the puzzle the party shows up in some kind of burial chamber. there are 12 7 foot tall urns (6 on each side of the room) a huge iron door is on the other side of the room from which the party appeared and leaning against the door is a severely mentally unbalance Alek Tercival. He has been stuck in the mirrors for a few days before he figured out the puzzle and then has spent a few weeks stuck in this room.

He has come to the conclusion that despite his heart being true, he was blindsided and used by the hags to carry out their evil deeds. He thought he was conquering evil, when in fact he was helping evil carry out a larger plan. The destruction of Cauldron. Alek is mental broken as is his spirit.

It takes some work, but after a few hours they party is able to break down the Iron door. They opt, that when the door is about a 1/2 hour from coming down that they should sleep, memorize spells etc.

The door comes down and they enter a hall with steps that climb about 15' and enter into a large room that exits into a rough, rocky, scrub desert. It is morning and the heat is already in the 80's. The party gets ready to head out and see what they can find when telporting next to them is a huge 15' tall, 4 armed daemon. He spouts angerly at Alek and the party, "My work shall not be thwarted, Cauldron will fall and that means that Alek must die!". At this Alek charges into melee having regained his strength and spirit.

Battle ensues against this behemoth. The Demon seems to forgo his other abilities and seems to just focus on killing Alek. The rest of the party swings and finds that not only it this creature amazingly well armored, but has many damage resistances. However, Alkalast seems to cut through the daemons resistances like butter.

Alek screams, "You shall fall to the ground and lick the sand Nabthatoron! Just as I may do the same, you will come with me."

Unfortunately Alek is totally decimated the following round. His leg is severed and a good part of his intestines are spilling out onto the sandy soil. However, Nabthatoron his heavily wounded. Having become so single minded in his actions he let his defenses down and teleports away from the party.

At this... Alek begins to breath. Churchkey runs to his side where coming from Aleks mouth are the following words:

There is naught left for you in Cauldron, heroes! To return is to enter your own graves and to bring doom upon all you love! Trust the sign of the Smoking Eye if you wish to save them all."

Those words are spoken in the voice of Nidrama.

At this the party spends some time preparing the body of Alek and deciding what to do. There are some message spells sent back and forth to Anna Taskerhill and among those messages is the information that the Lord Mayor is missing and that Vhalantru has taken over the ruling of the city. Anna is doing some research on "the smoking eye" and will get back to the party ASAP.

By the end of the day the party finds a rough road cut into the desert scrub. It is not much, but it is something. Connell determines that the party is far south of their homeland (from the stars) but no idea how far east or west.

In another day they make their way to a community that is more like a watering hole for travelers and another 2 days from there they come to the city of Jennen. A large city of around 5,000 permanent residence about close to 300 visitors are in the city at any time. For this is the last major inhabitants before one is to cross the desert.

the party finds they are about 500 miles from Cauldron but spend the week in Jennen training, buying equipment and resting after the arduous last week.

4E character sheets

Although we have at least another year before we finish "The Shackled City" I thought it would be nice to share a bit about some upcoming 4E features.  Here is a bit of fun for everyone.  Heroforge has already been pumping out the 4E characters sheets.  It still takes a book to make a character, but it also help solidify what a character will look like.

Enjoy and happy character making.

Your happy little GM

Claude

Giants hurt like, like a lot.

Picking up where we left off before....

the party forms back up and charges down the corridor where there are three healthy hill giants and the terribly wounded one in the back.

Gulp.

The wounded hill giant goes down with a well place kai strike. The other three turns out of be a battle blood and well... lets just say if it wasn't for Pepper and that spell he casts that gives "emergency hit points" when a party member falls. We might be three party members lower than we are now.

The battle was tough and obviously quite bloody. Donner fell, Churchkey fell and Conell fell. Not to mention that Barrett and Pepper were both reduced to near 0 hit points at one point or another.

Long story short. The party was victorious when as they are cleaning up the mess and looting they hear some doors opening down a corridor. The party runs like the dickens. They are in no condition to fight.

The party runs except for Barrett who uses his invisibility potion and his boots of spider climbing. takes a twenty and hides in a perch near the ceiling. Playing reconnaissance, Barrette determines that there are 5 ettens, a fire giant and three strange women with bug like arms and a third eye in their forehead. These women are obviously in charge. Two Ettens go off with the fire giant and return moments later with bolts, lumber, nails etc.

Two other go and play watch up top and the last Etten heads off with the three women. The two with the building materials work for a good 1/2 hour and then return to help guard with the other two ettens and the last etten returns to help take shifts.

Barrett sneaks out invisible and finds the party that is resting in the giant mettle tube about 1/2 a mile away.

The next day the group makes a bit of a venture up to the two "smoke stacks" and realize that going in that way is not only nearly death but they have no idea what is below and is probably way too dangerous. They do venture further up and find that there is another possible entrance into the the caves but this one is blocked by giant tree trunks and braced on the back side with nails, bolts etc.

With this, a plot comes together. Two party members begin to set the wooden blockade on fire with 4 flasks of oil and notching the logs to help start the tinder.

Then, Churchkey... mounted calls out the Ettens on the ledge. As they show themselves throwing javelin's. Bolgrim casts a mass command spell on them. It works. Barrett...with a silent stone in hand, climbs the wall and will eventually throw the stone into the opening to block the sound from alerting the rest of the Ettens. As the Ettens climb down the wall the rest of the party jumps out to attack them.

One Etten makes a save their second round and begins climbing back into the balcony, the other Etten continues to move towards Bolgrim. Barrett, in an attempt to stop the other Etten charges into the room and does a CRAP load of damage. The Etten responds with A CRAP load of of damage. Fortunatly, Barrett is able to kill the Etten before it can respond again.

The party makes quick work of the Etten on the ground.

Gathering themselves back up on the balcony the begin to make their way down into the "Hill Giant Room". Here they encounter an Etten on watch and two others sleeping. The Etten on watch spots Barrett sneaking and screams. The others leap to life while the awake guard charges forward. A bloody battle ensues. At one point the party sees a Firegiant enter the room and leave.

When the party finally takes out the Ettens they can hear sounds coming from behind some huge doors at the end of a 50 foot hallway. The group is watching and searching the room when a three women show up out of know where as a magical cage appears around Connel.

Churchkey orders the group to attack the women and ignor the giant. Use the magical cage as a barrier for the giant. At that the party leaps into action. These women are a lot tougher than anticipated. They leap deftly out of the way of Pepper lighting bolt. One of them lashes out with her warty claw and drains the strength from Barrett. The others step back and cast some spells. Churchkey sloughs off one of the spells and Donner is able to resist another.

The group attacks as best they can doing damage but they are very good at resisting attacks. Pepper casts a wall of fire to segregate two of the women from the one in melee. The group then descends on the lone Hag. When unexpectedly the other two fly over the wall of fire and land ready for combat. When a number of good attacks take place and two of the woman fall. The last runs through the fire and Churchkey charges after.

Churchkey runs down a corridor and yells I'm chasing her when as he runs he comes to a dead end but sees a Fire Giant that also seems a bit shocked to see Churchkey. The rest of the party closes in with the Firegiant but as combat is about to begin the Giant yells in very good common, "Stop... lets talk"

In essense, Churchkey and the giant parle a 10 min time where the giant will gather his equipment and walk away with no combat. When the giant packs up a silver and platinum cage with runes carved into it. At this another discussion ensues. Combat looks almost inevitable. Basically what the party realizes is that the Giant really is a blacksmith and is here because of the magical forge. He doesn't care about the other creatures here other than they keep him protected from the dangers of the demonskar.

The giant offers to help destroy the Hag, give a map of the rest of the caves and will remove the force cage around Connel if they will let him stay.

The Giant puts his equipment down... draws a wand and lets Connel out of the cage. He then introduces himself as Dugobras. Sets his smithing equipment back up and offers to make the party equipment if they need it.

They later find out that this is probably the physically strongest FireGiant they will ever encounter and when they find out he has three attacks per round are quite happy they didn't combat this behemoth of an opponent. Especially after the previous combats. Party members would definitely hit the pavement and hard.

That is agreed upon that he can stay as long as he helps and it is here that we finished.

I'm such a slacker (5/30/08)

I am so terribly sorry for the late updates. End of the school year has kept from doing the hobbies in my life. Oh that and selling Sara's house and looking for a house and planning a wedding and... well you get the idea.

Jooj.... great posts. I enjoyed reading them and I have some responses for you.

But... on to the real guts... a relatively short and important update on our last two sessions. This will be brief, but at least everyone will know whats up.

After the riots in Cauldron there was a meeting with many of the nobles and the current leadership of Cauldron including the Lord Mayor, Vhalantru and Skellerang (as well as others). They agreement was to let all of the prisoners go free. Have a public day of morning for the 25 or so deaths (many of whom where city guards) not to mentions the hundreds of injuries. The 1/2 Orcs will move to an encampment outside the city walls and there will be a three month reprieve in the city taxes.

However Maavu is still responsible for his actions and is seen as the head raconteur and thus is still wanted. Due to the speech Maavu made which using the original law laid down Alek Tercival (one of the original founding families) is challenging Skellerang for his position (under charges that Skellerang is corrupt) but now Alex is missing. So the party starts looking for Alek

They find out that Alek has been living in poverty because he has been using all of his adventuring money to pay off ancient family debts and has been selling many of his goods to a Merchant named Tygot. He is the Antique and Archaeologist of the city. Many people who want info about old non-magical objects and/or buy old artifacts peruse his shop.

The party visits Tygot and find a lot of bizarre things on his ledger that Alek has sold to Tygot... but one catches the parties eye. An ancient silver tablet with a crude map carved on the back.

After much research and talking with a variety of people over time... the party discovers a lot of info about this Hegemonic tablet. I am incorporating many days research and chatting in one place even though the info was found out over time:

• The large figures are called Spell Weavers. Ancient being who used to dwell in the area.
• The figures that are being used as slave laborers are Ogres
• The figure held over the head of the Spell Weaver on the right is called a "Starry Mirror"
• the string of cyphers under mirror are numbers listed in the following order: 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3.
  
• On the left side are images that are read from bottom to top.
• The spell weavers are using ogre slaves to build the planar travel installation that malfunctioned and eventually created the "SCAR"
• The next scene are the same Ogres being given some magic elixir called "Amaranth" and shows the great improvement in how the Ogres work.
• The top scene shows the planar travel installation in its complete glory.
• On the back is some crude map carved with a knife or dagger.

Eventually the party makes their way to the town of Redgorge. After a brief encounter in the local tavern they are brought to a hidden underground shrine and headcorders for The Chisel. A group dedicated to protecting the region and support arts and craftsmen. Lately the largest threat to both is a group they have come to know as The Cagewrights. They are most anxious because many of their members have violated the Chisel's code and become selfish and neutral toward the governments actions.

What the party finds out with the Chisel is the following:

• the leader is named Oliron Masht
• Maavu is a senior member
• Mikimax is a Bard and senior member
• Alek was working with them and trying to help but he has gone missing.
• Fearful that the Chisel is becoming the scapegoat for the issues occurring in Calderon and more specifically Maavu.
• Information has it that Skellerang is going to march down to Redgorge in the next week or so with the 1/2 orcs and ransack the community
• the only thing to stop a second battle at Redgorge is to have Alek Tercival show back up thus bringing the issue back to law and to the noble families not on a battle field.
• Alek is the primary goal...

The party gets some Canoes and food and heads down stream where they have confirmed there is a headless statue about 4 or so hours from Redgorge.

As the party is approaching the statue they are ambushed by a bunch of Gnolls. It is a little dicey as first but after about 30 seconds of combat it is quite apparent who the victors will be. The two gnolls get away.

As the party searches the area the realize the statue is that of a daemon. They also find Alek's boat upside down and covered with branches and vines.

Later the party follows a game trial and eventually a small bluff forms to their north. After a bit longer they come across a cave. There is some kind of creature that has taken up residence in the cave and they quickly dispatch it. inside the cave they find a cot, hooks etc. But obviously for something quite large (8-10' in hight) but they also find a spent wand with the Church of St. Cuthbert stamped into the bottom of the wand.

The party continues to travel west, north west and as dusk approaches they make camp. Not long after dark a winged vulture/woman attacks and is vicious. She can make duplicates of her self at will and moves like the wind cutting and scratching. Eventually the party takes the beast down... but they are exhausted.

About 5 min after the beasts demise the jungle goes quite and then a pinpoint of pure white lite opens and out steps a beautiful winged Angle who introduces herself as Nidrama. (the same angle that helped Surabar Spellmason).

After casting a number of spells she begins to speak:

"Powerful forces of chaos and evil are afoot. I dare not remain here long lest my presence attract the attention of those forces. Yet I could not sit by and watch you march into danger without warning you. The Lord of the Demonskar knows of your approach, and even now his minions prepare for your arrival. They shall use deceit and treachery against you, just as they have done with Alek Tercival before you. You must remain resolute; Alek Tercival must be saved. I have no aid to offer you but knowledge and a few spells. In ages past, I provided to Surbar Spellmason a powerful weapon to assist him in his conflict with the Lord of the Demonskar. This was Alakast, a quarterstaff infused with an undying hatred of the fiends of the outer rifts. I know for my brother and I forged this weapon to aid Surbar. Alakast is not just a quarter staff, it is my brother... the staff contains the soul of the movanic deva Alakast an ardent warrior against demons and devils.

Unfortunately, Alakast was stolen centuries ago, ripped from Spellmason's tomb by a grave robber. Yet do not despair, for it is fated that Alakast would be wielded again against the lord of the Demonskar. It has found its way to your , and all that needs to be done is for you to claim it. Seek Alakast in the lair of my false sisters, behold the watchful eyes of the north. This is all I am at liberty to say... I wish you well in your travails, heroes, and never loose sight of your goals."

With this she closes her eyes and the ill effects of fighting the demon slough off of the party and wounds heal. At this Nidrama herself slips back into the glow of pure light and winks out of existence.

The adventurers sleep that night much better then expected. The next morning they continue down the hunting trial. It ends abruptly and the trees thin out considerably, granting a clear view of the sky. To the north, roiling yellow and brown clouds boil above the jagged baron horizon. The jagged line of the Demonskar's rim broods at the base of these clouds. The ground itself between here and the rim is strewn with razor-sharp ridges of volcanic glass and jagged stone. Ruined strips of what can only be the metal framework of ancient structures protrude from the ground. One particularly large structure juts from the ground only twenty feet from the end of the trail. The ruin appears like nothing more than a massive pipe protruding from the ground, its twenty foot wide, two foot thick frame sloping down into the tortured earth at a gentle slope.

At this point the vanguard enters the tube and follows the crude map on the back of the hegemonic plate. They ignore the mass of smaller tunnels and continue following the main tunnel. After what must be 5 or more miles of walking they begin to hear some strange inhuman screaming. It comes and goes at random times.

As the party moves forward the sound gets louder and louder. eventually the party exits the tube into the center of some craggy crevasse torn into the earth. Somewhere in the Demonskar.

Out of the dark passage sharp jagged rocks hang over a small ledge in the southeast part of a wide pit. The pit, roughly one hundred and fifty feet in diameter is set at the bottom of a large fisure among the arid, crystalline hills that boarder the Demonskar. Puffs of eye-watering smoke seep from a pool at the bottom of the chasm, about fifty feet below. On the other side of the chasm, a pair of gigantic metal tubes protrudes from the rock, extending nearly fifty feet and out of the fissure. The burning stink of sulfur and acid is everywhere and the ground and walls are wet with with foul smelling condensation. A ramp of roughly hewn stone steps winds down into the pit.
As the wind rises ans sweeps through the fissure, the two looming metal chimneys issue a thundering deep bellow that echoes across the landscape.

As they are moving down the ramp a few members spot a very small winged creature come out of the sulfur pool and move very quickly toward a hidden cave entrance. The few members that see the thing react. Donner dashes across the floor of the pit and a few spells are fired... namely a lightening bolt. It retaliates and disappears into the cave. Donner sees that it halts as it is opening a 2' tall door on the top of HUGE portcullis. He makes a swipe and misses. As the creature emerges on the other side of the portcullis Donner summons his internal energy and Ki strike brings down the winged beast.

To quickly sum up.. the party finds that there is a cave above the portcullis and there is a balcony overlooking the cavern floor. Inside is the larges Hill giant they have ever seen. Combat ensues and after a few rounds the giant runs. The party all enter the cave system from the balcony and note murder holes and a trail of blood. They are about to follow the trail of blood.

Riots are a fun and good time... 4/13/08

The party spends a few days at the Lucky Monkey. They heal up, and spend some time getting to know the Red Shields a bit more, who also happen to be at the Lucky Monkey. They were their protecting it while it was being rebuilt. The Necrocants proved to be too tough for them by a factor of ..... well lets just say it would be like a 2 year old and a Mack Truck playing chicken.

After spending a few days helping at rest the party decides that they really need to track down Maavu. Remembering that it was his warehouses that had the Umberhulk tear them to peaces. He was also a member of a secret order called "The Chisel" not to mention he is the merchant leading many of the current anger towards the government. Doing a bit of geographic analysis the group realizes it is faster to take the road back to Cauldron... skirt the city and make their way down to Redgorge.

Upon reaching the city gates Churchkey enters the city to check on Connel's armor. There he not only finds Connel's armor but a number of places where 1/2 orc guards have removed some broadsides and are being quite physical with the locals. Churchkey runs into this phenomena on a few occasions when he comes across a group of merchants who seem to becoming almost to blows with the 1/2 orcs. Anger is very high and weapons are drawn on both sides. luckily by the time Churchkey interveins only verbal barbs have been passed back and forth.

What the 1/2 orcs have been taking down are large broadsides that say this:



It is also quite important to note that Maavu is the one speaking at the meeting that night.

Churchkey quickly fetches the party and into the city they go. They take the day to clean-up and prepare. many people go about and do their own thing... Churchkey gathers his family, the Taskerhills, Aslanthans and some other noble families. They formulate a plan and head down to the city hall.

The streets are packed with easily 1ooo plus people... mostly merchant class who are angry and ready for action. Many are holding rocks, rotten fruit and some even have dirks in hand. To help matters (yea right) 1/2 orc guards in full armor and weapons have been stationed all over the streets, some are even on the roof of city hall with bows ready. At a balcony at an adjoining building are Churchkeys parents, and those of some of the other noble families. The balcony at City hall hold Vhalantru and the young Mayor himself with the protection of Terson Skellerang.

Anna, ready to speak when necessary stations herself on the streets near the city hall protected by Churchkey, Cora and Zachary. As the other party members are situating themselves the crowd is getting rowdy. They note a new, well made platform and podium that has been erected at a spot on the street to maximize both crowd and full view of the city hall balcony.

Tensions are high. 1/2 orcs two deep protect the city hall itself and they seem to be less than restrained in their dealings with the crowd. Meanwhile the crowd, packed tight, is screaming about the taxes, the guards, lack of government control and corruption.

At this time Sargent Krewis and a few 1/2 orcs station themselves about 30 feet from the podium with their backs against a building... they wait. This group seems to be the most well behaved of the guards. Krewis sees to this.

Moments later Maavu climbs the prominent dais and raises a hand the demonstrators calm down a bit. After a moment of silence, Maavu address the audience resolutely:

"Fellow citizens, hear me! Hear my voice, and repeat my words tenfold so that those who have turned their backs on us are forced to hear! Hear me, for I speak for all of us!

My name is Maavu Arlintal, and I am one of you! I call Cauldron my home! I live and I do business here, and have for many years! Many of you know me, and I know you… We are all hard-working, trustworhy people!

Hard times have fallen upon this land! The roads grow more dangerous, and threatens to cut us off from our neighbors and partners in trade! An inn full of people – one of them the high priest of one of our own temples – were all senselessly murdered not a days ride from here! In recent days, dragons – yes, dragons – have threatened the skies and the passes! Stories of creatures unthinkable lurk in the fringes of the wild.

But we are a tough people, and have weathered tough times before! Heroes (at this Maavu points to members of the Vanguard and the Stormblades) and brave citizens like yourself have answered the challenges of protecting us and our lands, though others have been charged with that duty…

But the troubles have also found us at home… We have suffered in recent months, as our sons and daughters were stolen away from us by evil lurking beneath our streets! We have suffered as the rains came and flooded our dear city, and threatened to erode the very foundations of our livelihoods! A vile umber hulk from the darkened tunnels of the Abyss itself have torn through our homes and businesses in broad daylight – I know, for I suffered a great loss that day, though I came away with my life, and consider myself fortunate, and mourn those who perished.

But again we have not lain down, for we know how to get through hard times. Again, we have been blessed by the actions of brave citizens who have put their lives on the line to defend the defenseless. And again, others who should have answered that call have done nothing!

Alas, I misspeak, for actions have been taken. The leaders of Cauldron have spoken through the voice of the tax collectors! They offer promises with each outstretched palm, with each cut they take! For the good of Cauldron, they say! To repair the damage, they claim! To help those in need, they promise.

But what have they done with your hard earned coin? Nothing! Where are the repairs to the buildings damaged by the flood? They haven’t done any! Warehouses stand abandoned, about to fall into the lake! Where are the repairs to the street and the structures attacked by the hulk? They have not been done! And I was not the only one to lose business and property that day… There are many who have received nothing but empty words for their suffering!

As I said, many of you know me, and you know me as a man of action. I am not one to complain without a plan of recourse! I am here to say that Cauldron needs new leadership, a new protector who is not corrupt on power or gold. I am here to tell you that a challenge has been issued for the removal of Terseon Skellerang as Captain of the Town Guard.

I have here in my hand the formal written challenge, which has been presented to Skellerang and the Lord Mayor. This challenge invokes one of Cauldron’s oldest laws, the Law of Peers. Under this law, the five founding families of Cauldron have the right to challenge the office of the Captain of the Town Guard if one of them should feel that he unworthy, immoral, or incapable of seeing to his duties, which is the protection of the people. This law, laid down with the founding stones of our city, has never been needed – until now.

By the Law of Peers, only one of the five founding noble families has the right to challenge the Captain of the Guard. This does not leave much hope that one with the interests of the common citizen – of you and I – will be represented. But I am here to tell you that the one who has issued the challenge is such a person. They herald from one of the founding lineages, but their life has not been one of pampered luxury. They know what it means to suffer, as you do, and to rise above it, as you have before. The challenger is indeed one of the brave, heroic citizens who I have spoken of, who is willing to risk death to protect and help our city.

I am speaking of Alek Tercival.

At this Anna is pulling on Churchkeys arm in alarm. She is completely mute. No sound utters from her body. Cora pulls out a blade and drops into a defensive stance... Churchkey does the same. As does pepper and Zachary casts a spell.

Sir Tercival, a paladin of St. Cuthbert, has issued this challenge in accordance with the old ways, and the Laws of our city. But so far no response has been made. By law, the issued challenge should be made public by the Lord Mayor, but Fatty Navalant hopes to protect his puppet Skellerang by keeping the challenge secret! No doubt that he hopes to send his new army of half-orc thugs – an army feeding off of your bread! – to deal with the upstart challenger with a crossbow bolt in the back! By the Law… But look, citizens! Another puppet of corruption, with his thugs to protect him! Sent, no doubt, to silence the will of the people!

At this you see Sargent Krewis wading in the crowd of people surrounded by six 1/2 orc guards. Krewis announces in a loud and booming voice, "In the name of Terseon Skellerang, Captain of the Town Guard, I must arrest you!"

At this a youth from somewhere in the crowd screams, "Let's kill these half-orc brigands!" At this the gurgling scream of half-a-dozen guards are drowned out by the surging voices of the mob as it erupts into a full fledged riot.

At this litteral chaos ensues. Maavu casts a spell on himself. Krewis and his band of 1/2 orcs are being attacked by the crowd. Bolgrim sees the bloodied Krewis and links their life lines together.

The other major noticeable feature of the mob is that the archers on the roof top begin to fire into the crowd showing deadly force. However a goodly number of them are aiming directly at Maavu.

About 30 seconds later the nobles are missing and total destruction and violence has broken out. Krewis plays dead after being struck by Donner. Bolgrim casts airwalk on Donner and some wicked air-like creature becomes visible in front of Maavu and begins to lay siege on the Merchant.

More and more arrows punction the skin of this leader of the Merchant class and overcoming attacks by half-orcs and arrows is able to quaff a potion and turn to gas. The Merchant "runs" but the air creature follows.

Donner and the creature have a marry chase and combat. Krewis is also saved from the nightmare and deposited on a roof a few blocks away. Maavu gives thanks and flees the city begging the party to meet him at Redgorge.

Merchants have broken into a local liquor distribution warehouse and molotov cocktails, and battering rams are being created and used liberally.

Not long after the riot begins, the entire town guard breaks up the primary mob and restores order around City Hall by arresting and beating many citizens. Isolated pockets of rioters and looters continue to plague the city for a few hours. At this time Vhalantru and the lord mayor appear on the City Hall's balcony where they make a very public promise:
1. taxes will not be levied for three full months
2. half-orc guards will be curtailed and put on a shorter leash.

Town criers quickly spread the word around town and by dawn piece has taken hold of the city. guards are more prominent then ever, but all the guards are human. NO half-orcs are present in the city.

Later it becomes quite obvious that most of this was the result of a very serious discussion by the noble families and the city government officials.

That next evening, a few hours after sunset, the City Hall bell begins to ring, warning the population of a fire. Quickly reacting there is a local inn that is fiercely on fire. a bucket brigade has formed but it is noted that a number of people have refused to help put out the fire because the Inn in question houses a number of half-orcs.

As the party approaches they see a number of burly half-orcs begin chopping down the outlying wooden structures near the inn with their double bladed axes. This is an obvious attempt to prevent the fire from spreading to other buildings. From the crowd that is watching the party can hear shouts from random citizens ("go back to the hell you come from mongrels!", "Lets burn away the rot from your human half... FREAKS!") Of course to counter this angery 1/2 of Caulderon another large group of people are busily bucket brigading.

In front of the flaming inn is Pilok Minuta and a mercenary sergeant Rokewko arguing. The innkeeper pulls at his hair, crying and yelling to the big half-orc, "Your thugs are demolishing my inn! Stop Them!" Rokewko ignores the innkeeper and turns away to tell his axemen in Orc to continue. Pilok grabs at Rokewko's arm in an attempt to get the sergeant's attention. Bewildered, sweaty, and visibly scorched by fire Rokewko loses his temper and throws the innkeeper to the ground. The half-orc grabs Pilok's neck with a single hand, puts his foaming mouth so close to the innkeepers face that they are sharing air and yells, "You tiny idiot! You don't get it! Flame-deamons inside kill us! Fire unstoppable! Blades Useless!" As Pilok whines incoherently, the half-orc puls out a twisted scimitar that is only semifunctional after being warped from the heat.

At this a few member of the party dart into the inn to rescue the trapped scullery boy (from the orphanage) while other hunt for the deamon. It doesn't take long because two massive hulking 25' tall giants of animated flam begin attacking those trying to put out the fires.

Bolgrim pulls out a randomly memorized spell from his spell list and POOF! one of the fire creatures disappears. The party assaults the other. After a deadly and scorching combat the fire creature is vanquished. It doesn't take much research for Bolgrim and Pepper to find evidence that these creatures where summoned.

To shorten the events... the next day they party does some research on Alex Tercival and finds a local merchant that Alex has been doing a lot of business with lately. Apparently Alex has been tithing 10% of his earnings to the church and saving another 10%. But the other 80% has been going to paying off his debts and trying to buy back his ancestral land.

Amongst the items Alex brought back to sell for gold are varied and strange. The one with the most noteworth and worth purchasing from the store was a Hegemonic Plate.


The party makes their way to Redgorge to find out more about this plate and Alex Terceval.

Necrocant destruction 3/16/08

Sorry for the tardyness of this post a mere 12 hours before our next game session... DOH!

The party arrives back into Calderon after their two week sojourn only to met with a more and more critical merchant class. Taxes are steep. The light at the end of the tunnel is that the Church of St. Cuthbert has new leadership. Already his divine holiness, Shebeleth Regidin has seeded the rebuilding of the flooded lake district with 10,000 gp and hired 15 full time carpenters and masons to aid in the reconstruction.

Otherwise the party splits up and uses their time in Calderon to catch up with friends and family.

Churchkey looks for Anna but finds out that she is out on a quest on the request of Shebeleth Regidin

Pepper makes some inroads at the church of WeeJas and is asked to work on recruitment of new parishioners and perhaps acolytes.

Donner goes back to work at the blacksmith and spends some time with Shensen. They share some trade secrets. Mostly Donner trains and works.

Barrett goes back to work at his bar. The co-owners are totally peeved about the hit by the taxes. Otherwise Barrett goes around and does a lot of activities as a loner.

Bolgrim: Spends quite a bit of time at the church of Palor. He also reports back to work at the blacksmith.

Connell: works at the church of Kord. He also spends a bunch of time at the Orphanage.

During their time in town the party finds out that there is a new adventuring group in town... the Red Shields. They are just starting and Mery (the halfling rogue rescued from the Malechite fortress) is one of the members, as is the now “older teen” dwarf, Deakon Stormshield, from the orphanage.

The Red Shields are off on the roads hunting down some bandits since the number of troops has increased remarkably in Calderon, the number of guards in the greater scape is lacking.

The ½ orc mercenary presence is quite noteable. Skellerage has his hands full, but it seems as if the security solution of the ½ orcs is his idea and they are doing a very good job.... for the most part.

The party carries on their usual life for weeks.

As time passes. Not much changes except for a continued unrest by the merchants of Cauldron. Taxes, ½ orcs and governmental incompetence are on the tips of almost every citizens tongue.

Some rumors are passed about Alex Tercival... A Gnome peddler named Flismatt met Alex at the Lucky Monkey. The paladin was helping the carpenters to repair the inn. He was, “splitting logs with his bare hands and carry an elephants load on his back!”

When, one evening Churchkey receives one of his usual messages delivered by magic. This one is different. Anna is frantic, calling for help. A group called the Necrocants have been tearing up the Stormblades. Todd has disappeared. The Stormblades clerical abilities could not hold up to the “undead” powers of the Necrocants. The aid of a strange triad of elves have come to their aid... but they are only delaying the inevitable. Help.

Churchkey quickly gathers the party, but encounters some aid from a strange dwarf named Meerthan. This wizened old wizard has some insight into the Necrocants and the Striders. He is the “Charlie” of the Striders and knows that the Striders are currently on the run from the Necrocants. The Striders are running toward the Lucky Monkey.

The party finds out from Meerthan a few very important pieces of info.

There is a secret society called the CAGEWRIGHTS that was founded about 300 years ago. The people that are part of this secret society are lead by a Demodand (a daemon who has been cursed to the prime material planes) called Dyr’dyd.

They are here to reopen the rift that was originally closed 300 years ago by Sunbar. To do so they need a group of people called “Shackle Born”. These shackle born are known because they have a magically hidden tattoo across their face.

Meerthan has started a his own secret organization (the striders) to find out and research more about the cagewrights. He has had to train them from the ground up.

Meerthan has found out a lot about the Cagewrights but not where they live and who they with some exceptions. One of their members is a necromantic cleric named Khyron Bonesworn. He leads an evil adventuring party whose goal is to help the Cagewrights carry out their goals and concerns.

Meerthan knows that whoever is “commanding” Khyron must be a very powerful wizard or cleric for Meerthan has been unable to scry or do any successful divination.

So, Meerthan asks that when the party encounters the Necrocants, to let Khyron live so that Meerthan can scry him and follow him to where the Cagewrights live.

The party quickly horses up and begins riding at a full gallop towards the Lucky Monkey. About 1/2 of the way towards the Lucky Monkey the party meets three of remaining Stormblades, Cora is damaged. Gashes are scabbing over and oozing fluids. She is limping but holding an unconscious Anna Taskerhill. Zachary follows behind. Part of his arm has been severed and is only be held in place by a few tendons.

Churchkey immediately heals Anna from the inner might of Palor. Bolgrim adds a bit of healing to Cora and Zachary just to help them make it safely back to Cauldron.

The party finds out that the Necrocants have undead of all kinds, plus some strange members of their party. Most noteable was the frostgiant. Todd at one point was so mesmerized by the power of this group that he just stopped and although he didn’t help the Stormblades, he didn’t attack them either. They were on deaths door when a group of elves came out of nowhere and distracted the Necrocants long enough for the Stormblades to run.

The elves were leading the Necrocants on a chase towards the Lucky Monkey.

The Vanguard of Caldron jump back on their horses and ride them toward the inn.

approaching the inn they see a swarm of skeletons and zombies. Bolgrim does his first big act and destroys a bunch of them on his first attempt, but finds the zombies to be a bit tougher than first thought.

The Vangard is quickly divided into two attack groups. Bolgrim and Connell are back and are being joined by the now wounded and exhausted members of the Striders. Meanwhile the other partymembers are going after the remaining zombies, a very large undead frostgiant.

Hounding the striders is an insanely deadly sword wraith. Bolgrim is able to destroy this powerful foe with the more powerful divinity of Palor. This alone gives everyone a sigh of relief.

Rounding the corner are a wizard and the high cleric Khyron himself. Donner jumps in and amazingly keeps these two busy. Allowing the others to concentrait on the death dealing frost giant.

Bolgrim again makes a great turn by destroying a backstabbing ghost. Again the party sighs with relief.

As Barrett turns invisible to try and stop the death that is the spell duo and come to the aid of Donner. When Shensen dies at the feet of Bolgrim and Connell. Todd is standing over her. Very quickly Barrett turns his attention from the spell wielders to Todd.

The frost giant is totally destorying people, Bolgrim has been unable to turn this creature. At the death of Shensen, Bolgrim changes hats from undead turn machine to healing machine. Quickly he revives Shensen. At this the party goes to town on Todd, who proves to be more capable then expected. But with a deft wrestling move by Barrett and the vengeful wrath of Shensen Todd dies painfully.


At this time Donner can do no more to keep the spell caster busy and finally succumbs to there arcane powers. Fortunately the lance wielding Churchkey comes pounding over and painfully distracts the mage. Shortly there after the frost giant falls at the feet of Connell, Bolgrim, pepper and the striders.

Barrett has come to the aid of Churchkey and Donner. The wizard realizes the situation and before long is in the air and flying away at a fantastic speed.

At this Khyron casts a spell and disappears. Shortly there after Meerthan shows up and makes his scrying mirror visible to the party.

The reflection in the mirror shows a long ruined stone temple. A figure clad in spiked armor climbs the stair of the temple which is easily recognizable as Khyron. The dark cleric walks through the shadow filled hallway, his footsteps echoing off the ancient walls before approaching the dimly lit altar.

Stooped over the altar with his back to Khron is a man wearing a cloak made of human skin covering his shadowy full plate amour. Shaggy black hair protrudes from his scalp and a great bloodied sword sits at his side. A huge red badger sits atop the altar snarling at the clerics approach.

“I have failed Master” you hear Khyron say breaking the silence, “the Striders still live...”

The man spins around, anger blazing in his blackened eyes. In his blood covered hands he holds the torso of a man who he has carefully begun to tear the skin from. His face is covered in a pattern of blood-red tattoos and hanging around his neck is a necklace of fresh hearts.

Khyron quickly continues – “They called for help and we...”

“Silence!” the dark man raises his hand in fury, “and you came straight back here?! I said never to seek me out unless I summon you!” he screams in anger at his cowering apprentice.

The crazed looking Cagewright shifts his attention to the temple around him, silently scanning about the room until his gaze settles directly on the party.

“and now you have brought them to me!” he screams on the brink of losing complete control.

Suddenly a cold calm settles over the Cagewright and he speaks directly to the scry – “Meerthan, it is you isn’t it. I know where you are now. I will come to take your heart soon.” he cackles before casting a spell and ending the scry.

Meerthan looks stunned for a moment, his face awash in a mask of undisguised fear.

Pulling himself out of the introspection, Meerthan tells them the man is alurad Sorizon, crazed adventurer hunter and sadistic blackguard slaugher for the Cagewrights. When the Striders attacked the Cagewrights Alurad had cut sway through many of their strongest members before Meerthan’s leader finally slew the man with his final breath.

New Info on 4e

Hey Ho everyone.

After a bit of research due to an uncontrolable curiosity I had to find out what was coming down the pike (since 4e is released this month).

So here is what I have found for your 4e pleasures.

Here are some scans of character sheets and other relevant data:

Additionally, here are the release dates for 4e material... they pushed back some of the books so June looks like the start of the whole trend.


And, although a lengthy read... a very good insite into 4e from a man who has been playtesting since October 2007... take the stage Massawyrm:

Hola all. Massawyrm here.

I’ve waited a long time to write this review. And let it be known now that what you’re about to read isn’t from someone who has gotten a hold of a bootleg playtest copy and gave it a quick once over. No. This is a long time coming. I’ve been playtesting 4th edition since late October. Long under an NDA, my excitement for this new edition has been bubbling over into something of a churning froth for the better part of four months now. Every Saturday of those four months (holidays be damned) our group (comprised of three married couples and a single friend) has gotten together to nosh some potato chips, guzzle some coffee and roll some god damned dice. One of our members, a freelancer for WotC, needed to learn the rules for an upcoming 4E book he got hired to work on. But as he apparently learns the rules better playing than he does running, he turned to me over a cup of coffee, narrowed his eyes and told me point blank that I was about to jump in head first. That’s right. Dungeon Massawyrm. There. Now the joke is out of everyone’s system.

Let me just say this upfront. I. Love. 4E. And I didn’t want to. Much like many of you out there, the 3.5 partial reboot just five years ago pissed me off. But we’ve spent 8 years now with the better part of this system. And hell, even 5 years is a long time. But Massawyrm, you’re thinking you don’t know how much I’ve spent on 3.5. No? Here at the Casa de la Wyrm we don’t have a D&D bookshelf. We have a D&D closet. It’s where I keep my boxes of Dwarven Forge Master Maze, my big plastic bins of D&D Minis, and two long shelves of over $1000 in 3.5 books. But just 2 weeks into playing 4E, I boxed up every non-fluff heavy book I owned, drove down to Half Price Books and sold them for as much cash as I could get. I knew I would never, ever, touch them again. Yes. 4E really is that good. It is the XBOX 360 to your XBOX. And it is time to upgrade my friends.

One other thing to note is that the playtest DID NOT INCLUDE the use of the DI (Digital Initiative.) There have been a lot of rumors that you need this new online service to play. These rumors are horseshit. We have played for four months with only a Players Handbook, a Dungeon Masters Guide and a Monster Manual. And Nothing else. 4E does not require a computer. Although if everything I hear about it is true, I just might want to keep my laptop with me once it is up and running.

What’s about to follow is a three part story. But it’s not about the details. What they changed here or what isn’t there. After this weekend every gaming forum out there will be flooded with details. This is going to be about the experience. What it is like playing Dungeons & Dragons 4E. This isn’t an article meant just for you junkies who, like myself, can quote the 3.5 rules - chapter and verse. It’s also for those of you who haven’t played in 15 years and secretly, though you might never admit it, wish you could go back and play it again. Or for those out there who haven’t played, but always wanted to. This June, 4th Edition will be unleashed upon the world and it is the perfect time to pick up the hobby or give it a second shot.

Every decade or so Dungeons & Dragons gets a make over. Not just a facelift, but a complete rebooting of the system. What I’ve always loved about these reboots is that each time the designers make sure to integrate, rather than move away from, the innovations of the previous decade. When 2E came out in ’89, it took all of the math, the charts and the diversity that had emerged in gaming throughout the 80’s and created one of the most complicated systems to date. When 3E hit the shelves in 2000, it took the revolution of the Vampire White Wolf Storyteller system - the notion of complete character individuality and modular options – and gave it a strong, but much more complicated system to work with. Now, with the revolutions in online gaming, Dungeons & Dragons once again finds itself evolving. From Everquest to the World of Warcraft (and the many other imitators in between and after) comes the notion of perfect balance – the idea that every class, every character, every role in the party, has something to do and never, ever, has to sit on the sidelines.

That is the single most important change to this system. I don’t care what you’re playing, whether the party’s wizard, its cleric, the fighter or its rogue, you will always have the option of doing something useful. You will never be forced (as long as you’re conscious) to simply sit and watch everyone else play because you’ve run out of spells or don’t have a high enough Spell Penetration or lack a weapon property to get through DR. Those days are done. Clerics don’t just hide behind the fighter waiting to stand them up any more. And you can actually successfully run a party without one now. Oh, and the retarded notion of having to rest for the day because the wizard blew through his spells too quickly (even when the rest of the party is full up)? Over and done with. In redesigning the way the character classes work, they’ve managed to eradicate most of the stupid tropes that we ’ve all just kind of sighed at and tried to ignore in the context of role playing.

Now, there’s a notion floating around out there that since the goal of 4E was to make the rules simple it means that they’re making them stupid – as to be easier for younger or dumber players to understand. The problem with that, aside from the fact that its probably one of the more arrogant stances out there, is that it belies a complete misunderstand of what 4E is all about. Is it simpler thatn 3.x? Oh hell yes. But it is elegantly simple. Intuitive. It’s like complaining that switching from DOS to Windows was stupid because now anyone could use a computer. When really all it meant was that now you didn’t have to type all that code. Your computer wasn’t dumbed down any. Neither is D&D. It still has all the complication that was in 3.5 – lots of character options, a focus on role playing and tactical combats that are even far more elaborate than before (more on that later.) But all the rules work just like every other rule does. They all make sense.

You pretty much know how a rule works before you look it up because it works just like the rule for this other situation.

The problem with Dungeons & Dragons has always been that everything is a special case. Every spell interacts with the universe differently and has to encounter a thousand different monsters. The soul of 4E is that now all those rules spin in the same direction (if you will) rather than flying off in a hundred different ones. At first glance there are a couple rule changes that will seem silly. The one that crawled up my craw the first session was the fact that diagonal movement counts as just one square. The idea that you could move faster diagonally than you could straight or side to side is retarded. But by the second session I didn’t care. Why? No one EVER had to recount a movement. You could eyeball distances without surprises popping up because you forgot to double count the second diagonal.

Everyone moves and counts and there’s never a hint of second guessing. And when it came down to it, any optimization a player could get out of it was balanced by the monsters having the same thing. Life is just easier this way.

EVERY RULE CHANGE IS LIKE THIS. It all just works. Fluid, intuitive and fun.

And man is it fun. The new tactics are incredible. Anyone who thinks simple rules mean simple combats is in for a shock. Every class has a slate of weird abilities and powers that set them apart from every other class – and when a party learns each other’s tactics and begins to work in concert, watch the fuck out. Because things get crazy. Tomorrow’s piece will be about what it’s like to exist as a DM in this new tactical environment, because a DM really has to be on his toes. Simple minded DMs are going to get walked all over by a competent group of players.

The new combat system is glorious. There are so many options, so many opportunities to do really fun and incredible things, that the game becomes more about what you want to do in the moment rather than just sitting around waiting for your turn to come up. Combats still take about as long as they did before, you just get to do more during them. While iterative attacks are gone, it never feels like they’re missing. The Fighter is still a sword whirling death machine that gets a lot of chances to drop beasts. Rather than hour and a half 3 round combats, you end up with 10-20 round epic combats that allow everyone to do a variety of things. It no longer seems like a waste of a turn to move, it’ll get back to you momentarily. Sometimes moving two or three rounds in a row really pays off. You no longer have to worry about missing out on any action just because you want to get into position. Which leads to crazier maneuvers and more fun at the table.

And the rule simplicity allows players to really attempt craziness without fear of bizarre rules. My wife, who has played 3.5 with us for years, never felt comfortable with it. She was always concerned that she didn’t know the rules as well as everyone else. While she enjoyed the game (and having friends over to play once a week) she isn’t the type to sit down with the rulebooks and memorize them. She’s geeky enough to live with and love me, but she draws the line in the dirt there. 4E on the other hand has made her a different woman. She’s confident. She loves her character and the rules and tries out all sorts of strange things. She no longer looks at me and asks “Is this right?” Instead, she plows forward, kicking ass and suggesting tactics to the more senior members of the party (like the game designer.) And she asks me repeatedly about whether or not I’ve planned next weeks game. She looks forward to it.

And amid the rule changes comes the racial and class changes. While there’s been much ado about these concepts, the new focus of the game places a lot on the role playing and direct play aspect of race and class. There is a difference between a 6th level Eladrin ranger and an Elf ranger. One gets to reroll one attack every combat and ignore difficult terrain while shifting (making a 5 foot adjust) and the other can teleport 5 squares once a combat.

Let me tell you, there’s a big difference. Dwarves are more than just short guys with low Move rates and a +2 to CON. They make great fighters for a reason, not just because the fluff says so. But at the same time there aren’

t any disadvantages to playing against type. No one will roll their eyes at a Dwarf Rogue or (once they’re out) Half Orc Sorcerers. There are benefits to playing WITH type, but never penalties for against. And that makes a WORLD of difference. Race in 3.X was all about what it did for you at 1st level and what it did to your stats. After that, it rarely mattered. Now it’s also about what it does for you at 6th or 17th or whatever.

As has been written about, there are three stages of play now. Heroic (lvls 1-10), Paragon (lvls 11-20) and Epic (21-30.) Each stage really is its own beast. Heroic is just that. It’s what most would think of as lvls 1-6 in 3.x. Flight doesn’t exist for the players yet and neither do prestige classes (now called Paragon Paths.) You’re tough but not ungodly so. Paragon really is the middle range where you get to do all sorts of crazy stuff without ever getting too silly. It’s also where you really get to step away from your class and become something new and different. And Epic is just plain silly. I honestly see a lot of folks stopping at paragon – but for those that want to get into truly EPIC level, mythologically powerful gaming, epic will do the trick. With class abilities that begin with phrases like Once per day, when you die… it allows for a whole, bizarre new type of play that actually manages to maintain its consistency. But more about all this in later.

Is there anything I don’t like? Not in the rules. It’s all nitpicky stuff about what gets released when. I miss my Half-Orcs, my sorcerers and kinda wish Druids were around for the initial release. Then there’re a few complaints about the monsters that aren’t out versus those that are (but more of that on day 3.) The rules? They’re damned near perfect. I have zero complaints. I’m pretty confident most folks will feel the same way once they dive in.

4E completely reinvigorated our group. It’s weird, but in creating a new edition, they found the magic that made Dungeons & Dragons what it always was. They’ve taken shovels and dug out the core of what makes the game tick and built a system that focuses on THAT. This feels like 1st edition all over again. It has everyone excited. No one skips or misses games. And when we have to cancel, it becomes a big production of attempting to reschedule before canceling. Seven people in our group and every one of us, no matter how resistant, no matter how angry about a new edition we might have been, have discovered a brand new passion for the game. There’s a lot of negativity out there right now, a lot of anger over this rule change or that rule change or the thought of all those now nigh useless books. But come June that’s going to change. People are going to see first hand how those changes work together to make a superior experience. The game is more fun and less work. And I, for one, am never going back. I am a 4E player. And I can’t wait until you guys are too.

Check in tomorrow for part 2, detailing what it’s like to run a 4E game (the new challenges and pleasures), and Saturday for part 3 going into the Monsters.

Massawyrm Reviews D&D 4E Part 2!!

Hola all. Massawyrm here.

So, now that I’ve got all the basics and the impressions out of the way. Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. What was it like to run a game in 4E? Pretty freaking awesome. All this talk of simplicity goes out the window once you begin to talk about RUNNING a game. Sure, the rules are simple, but the combat tactics become a whole new ballgame for us DM’s.

But those simple rule changes do make life a hell of a lot easier. During our first game, my intrepid game designer buddy decided to throw a monkey wrench into the works by having his character dive under a table and kick it out from under two guys fighting on top of it. He smiled devilishly, looked at me and asked “How are you gonna rule that…DM?” I glanced at the book for a moment and realized “Strength check against their reflexes.” Huh. He shook his head. Made sense. He made the attack, hit the numbers and all of a sudden he had two opponents prone on the floor. The rules are so straight forward now, on the fly decisions are total cake.

And when slightly more complicated rule calls come into play, don’t worry. The way they’ve set up the rule chapters are simple, clear and pure genius. Everything in the combat chapter is alphabetized. You need the grappling rules? Turn to the G’s. How about Charging? C. And once you’re there, you’ll find that all the major rules are listed as bullet points. Any and every instance for a rule is listed separately in its own bullet point and there aren’t any more of those infamous important rules buried at the end of a paragraph somewhere in the middle of chapter 9.

The biggest change you’re going to notice is that combats are RADICALLY different than they ever have been. The idea of the single, lone monster fight is almost entirely gone. 4E is about mobs. It’s about the Gnoll hunter traveling with two Gnoll warriors and 3 hyenas. It’s about Goblins on Worg-back with a spellcaster bringing up the rear. It’s about ambushes and strange locations. It’s as much about how you’re fighting as it is what you’re fighting. Setting up the fights mechanically is a breeze. Every monster level has an XP total and there’s a simple chart that tells you what XP an encounter of a party size of X level equals. For example a 7th level party of four characters is 1200 experience points. A standard 7th level monster is 300 XP. 4 monsters of the same level equal a standard challenge for the party.

But the biggest revolution is game design for 4E is the fact that the monsters scale PERFECTLY. And so do the PCs. The amount of damage they deal and can take moves up appropriately so multiple monsters of a lower level is EQUAL in damage output and the amount it can take as a single monster of a higher level. A level 1 monster is 100XP. So 12 level 1 monsters would make a suitable encounter for a 7th level party. And yes, for those of you thinking ahead of me, this means it is very simple to mix monsters of different levels. That same party would be equally matched by a level 9 monster (400XP) and 4 level 5 monsters (200XP each.) Doing the MATH of each encounter takes seconds. The challenging part becomes being creative. How exactly will you mix and match your monsters, how will they interact together and where will you place the encounter to make it easier or tougher than the straight numbers would intimate. That right there is where things get really fun for the 4E Dungeon Master. The new rule set allows you to be positively devious without risking the dreaded TPK (total party kill.) 4E rewards the inventive DM by giving him a wide range creatures with a large range of abilities and combat roles, then turns him loose to try and find the nastiest, most dastardly ways to harass his players.

But don’t get too cocky there, Jeeves. The players have all sorts of new tools and tactics to dismantle even the cleverest of traps. Rangers SUCK. Not in the 3.x way in which they’re silly and underpowered. As a DM, you will learn to hate them because with a well placed shot they can drop your back field controller before he gets a chance to really harass your players. The days of taking it easy on the caster or ranged fighter are done and gone. You need to learn quickly how to put pressure on the party’s back field fighters or else you will watch encounter after encounter go down the same way as the tank draws fire while the healer stands him up (while doing damage herself) and the ranger/wizard blasts key opponents out of the picture. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. No. Simple, straight forward encounters comprised of four of the same monster are the way to ruin. The system may encourage complicated tactics and encounters…but clever players will simply require them.

And at the same time, character death isn’t as easy as it used to be. Level 1 characters are front loaded with hit points and abilities, so the old accidental crit by the goblin archer won’t actually kill a player. It’s a slight bit tougher than that now. And it becomes even tougher if there’s a cleric in the group. A strong, smart healer can stand up near death characters several times before they actually risk permanent death. This is going to be a big change for some folks, as the weekly “Who do we have to pay to get raised this week” becomes much less frequent (until Epic, when pretty much everyone can Res for free, on a daily basis. You get abilities that let you do cool things when you die. Swear to Pelor. Epic is weird.)

XP works a lot differently now too. EVERYTHING you do can pretty much get you XP. The big change is that Social Encounters will net you xp. Traps and puzzles are XP based rather than just CRs. And taking a tip from WoW, there are even QUEST REWARDS now. The DMG even includes suggestions on how PC’s can instigate their own quests. These are no longer vague rule suggestions – but are instead hard and fast rules that allow you to really control the rate of level progression without feeling like you’re just lumping XP on the PC’s. At the same time, the new system allows you to take the players from one level to the next without ever having to swing a sword. Not that you’d necessarily want to, but all of a sudden courtly intrigue and puzzle quest heavy campaigns are just as viable XP wise as straight hack and slash. And it’s all based on the same simple mechanics.

And nothing, I repeat, NOTHING, takes away XP anymore. No more level loss. No more XP to fuel abilities or make magic items. Nothing. In fact the book encourages you to award XP to absent players, just so everyone always has the same amount and is playing at the same level. I’ve been doing this, and the players love it. That lame idea of reward for attendance gets outweighed by the reward of everyone being equally useful. Besides, loot for attendance works just as well.

Another great aspect of 4E is the new abilities versus feats delineation. Abilities are something that the player can do ACTIVELY. This includes casting a fireball, using a tricky bow shot or healing another character. Feats on the other hand tend to modify your stats or affect what you can do PASSIVELY. The abilities are all very carefully set up with level dependant damage and scaling. You no longer have the ability to pick and choose from a number of prestige classes (thus no stacking weird combinations of class abilities), and since bonus stacking is very simple and easy these days, the chances of nasty, disgusting, broken combos is going to take a LOT of future bonehead game design and a lot of work on the part of the players. There are plenty of ways to optimize your characters – but straight up broken combos are going to become a thing of the past.

One of the things the rules stress in the DMG is to get used to saying “YES” to players. Let them try weird things and how you should try to find ways to allow it. And the ruleset seems to allow it while remaining incredibly stable. Stable really is the best way to describe it. We’ve spent four months trying to break it and we can’t. There have been a few iterations of rule interpretations that have created oddities, but the playtesting did an incredible job of tweaking those down to make sense. Hell, there was an interpretation of Stealth early on that allowed you to use another player to hide, then jump out and gain COMBAT ADVANTAGE (the 4E version of catching a character flat footed.) This led to a series of comments (and jokes) about a Halfling Rogue in the fighters backpack and ultimately led to a note from the lead developer that read “It shouldn’t work like that. We’ll fix it.” They did.

Remember all that simplicity stuff from part 1 of the review. As a DM you’re about to see why they had to make the rules so simple. It’s because your toolbox just got a lot bigger. And any more complicated and it just wouldn’t work. The great thing is that most of your preparation doesn’t involve books and math. It involves brainstorming and figuring out how to make encounters unique, fun and, yes, devilishly effective.

Then of course you have to figure out loot. Who doesn’t love loot? Well, in 4E there’s a hell of a lot less of it. It also doesn’t affect a lot of the things it used to. But it is still as important as ever. The loot rules pretty much give players a new magic item every level. And the gear gives you new abilities, protection from abilities or simply modifies your attacks or defenses. There are no more stat bump items, nor are you expected to have magic loot at certain levels. The result is a system that allows low or no magic campaigns without a lot of heartache or rule tweaking. Magic items all do COOL things. Armor doesn’t just protect you, it also gives you things to do in combat. Items you wear give you options, not bumps. And the abilities things grant make them useful for levels beyond what loot used to. There are items I can imagine being just as useful at level 20 as it was at level 4. The overall result of all of these loot changes is a system more about fantasy, character and story than it is about Min/Maxing. There’s a lot more “This is the cloak given to me by Queen Soandso and a lot less “Dude, why are you still wearing that +2 Periapt of Wisdom. You’re level 12 now.”

Oh yeah. And there’s no such thing as a magic item shop anymore. Which is fine, because they’ve finally made Crafting rules that actually make sense and don’t require calculus or the loss of XP. If you want a certain magic item, learn how to make it, and spend the gold to make it. Crafting magic items is what the gold cost is for now a days.

All in all, the game plays and runs very differently than before. It still has that classic D&D feel, but your focus as a game runner really is going in new and exciting directions. You’ll send most of your time dreaming things up rather than tallying things up. And it makes all the difference.

Tune in tomorrow for the third and final installment of this review in which I talk about the new monster manual, how monster work and my few (nit picky) gripes about the new system.

Until next time friends, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em.

Massawyrm Reviews D&D 4E Part 3!!

Hola all. Massawyrm here.

With the rebalancing of all the classes, WotC has given a static, steady progression to leveling up. No longer are there any plateau levels like level 5 (when you get Flight and Fireball) in which players get access to something radically more powerful than what they possessed just a single level before – and no longer hamstringing DM’s by what monsters are effective at one level and not the next. Monsters are now also scaled the same way. There are no more monsters that while being a specific level, possess abilities that make them completely inaccessible as opponents to lower levels. Sure, a 10th level monster will still decimate a first level party – but not because they lack the spells or abilities to so much as touch it. They’ll get their ass kicked because it is simply far more badass than they are. But there are no more monsters that a DM cannot throw against his players because they don’t have the right spell or equipment to fight it.

This opens up a whole world of opportunities and possible combinations. But more importantly, it also allows the quick and easy creation of your own monster stat blocks. Every monster is built with a simple series of equations in which you plug in their level and modify them by their role in combat and get exact, solid scores for their Hit points, damage output and defenses. Of course that doesn’t mean that every 2 nd level monster will have the same amount of hit points and do the same damage with an attack. It takes various factors into account, but if creature of a certain level should be doing five points of damage on average he could do one attack that does 5 straight damage, have an attack that does 1d8+1 or two attacks that do 1d4 a piece. You won’t notice that average of 5 damage, but it will be there hidden in the mechanics.

It takes roughly 5 minutes to stat out a new critter. Is there something missing from the MM that you love? Odds are the answer is a BIG YES (more on that in a bit.) Well, stat it out.

The first thing you’ll notice about the monsters is that they broken down into roles and toughness. The roles are pretty self explanatory and WtC has been all about talking about them. These are things like Lurkers (monsters that hide and attack from shadows or while invisible), artillery (ranged attackers), brutes (big damage dealers), soldiers (tanks), and controllers (spellcasters and creatures with abilities that allow them to move players around or hinder their movement.) A good monster mob has a healthy mix of two or three of these types. This isn’t so much of a game altering change as much as it is just a great system for eyeballing what a given encounter needs or what a creatures stats look like.

The big change is really the new classifications of monster power level. You’ve got Minions, Elite and Solo types as extra modifiers. Elites are just pretty much twice as tough as your average monster. There’s both listings for Elite monsters and rules for beefing one up to Elite (for example having a group of 3 Ogres led by a super tough Ogre Chief.) Solos are pretty self explanatory – they’re meant to be fought alone or only with a little help. These are your dragons, your aspects of deities, or super tough large monsters. Solo’s have proven to be the trickiest to work with as you have to choose just the right point in the adventuring day to unleash them on your party. Too late in the day and they don’t have enough powerful daily abilities left to take it out – too early and they have too man, stacking status effect after status effect on it to the point of silliness. You haven’t encountered 4E frustration until you’ve put a Red Dragon as an early encounter and watched him hobbled, slowed, dazed and covered in ongoing damage before he gets to round 2.

But my favorite addition so far is minions. These are super weak monsters that amount to an average of 4 monsters to a character of equal level. But this by no means is to say that they don’t pose any kind of threat. Quite often they can do much more damage when attacking en masse. These are your zombie hordes or your weak demon spawn and the like. Our very first game began in a tavern, with a brawl (yes, the cliché) but was interrupted by a woman bursting through the door screaming. Two zombies rushed in after her and tore her apart. Our brave fighter rushed forward, hacked them to pieces and threw open the door ready for 2 or 3 more. Only to discover 2 dozen zombies shambling toward her.

Overkill? Not in 4E. 24 Zombie Rotters are a standard encounter for 6 level 1 PCs. You don’t HAVE to run minion fights that large, but man are they a good time. They make your PCs feel highly effective as they drop zombie after zombie beneath their feet, but also prove tactically challenging as they have to fight off swarms with completely different tactics. It also lets you have a little fun by replacing several of the minions with a regular fighter type of the same monster. Why are there only 13 zombies this time? Because one of them is a level 3 nasty. Guess which one it is before it eats your cleric.

Most of your time as Dungeon master will be spent on two things: planning the story of your game and planning the monster and tactic selection. It really is challenging. 4E fights really have a different feel. It’s not about running across some random fight anymore. It’s about planning, it’s about strategy, it’s about the fun or frustration of the big beat down. You are encouraged to get exotic – and that equals fun for all.

So I’ve been incredibly positive up until now. I know there’s many of you out there who have got to be wondering if there’s anything about 4E that I don’t like. Yes. There is, but it’s almost all entirely nit picky stuff about what they chose to release. Personally, I’m just a wee bit annoyed that certain monsters were held back for other monster manuals – especially in lieu of the fact that there are quite a few new editions to the core monsters.

Dungeon & Dragon Miniatures fans (like myself) will be happy to know that several of your favorite minis have been added to the core book. The awesome Boneclaw is core, the Kruthik has worked its way in, and Flameskulls have two different incarnations (one Heroic and one Epic.) But there are no metallic dragons in the core MM. And while Metallics have for the longest time been GOOD creatures, the new 4E lack of standard alignment allows you to be pitted against ANYTHING as long as there’s a good reason for it. No more ALWAYS LG means a crazed, deluded or simply ornery Silver dragon could actually be an opponent for the party. But not on release it can’t. The lack of certain classic giants like the Frost Giants is a bit lame – they include Death Giants, but not Frost? But don’t worry, Fire, Hill and Storm all make appearances. It’s not that there are bad choices and aditions – it’s just that you have to ask why a whole section on Kruthiks but not one on the metallics. I’ll trade you know. It’s not called Dungeons and Kruthiks.

Then there are dragons. First of all, dragons ROCK. Every chromatic dragon fights and plays much differently than each and every other type now and they are ALL nasty. Every last one of them. AND, just to sweeten the deal, there are now real, honest to god dragon encounters set as low as level 3. Yes, you can actually fight a white dragon in a tough fight at level 1. That’s pretty damned awesome, once again deserving its title Dungeons & Dragons. So what’s wrong with dragons? Well, for starters, there is longer any dragons smaller than LARGE size. To many of you that won’t mean anything. But to those of us who have collected Dungeons and dragon Minis from way back in harbinger – we’ve just gotten screwed. I have a whole drawer of small and medium dragons that no longer serve any use. I mean, I guess I can paint them and use them as drakes. But not as dragons. Especially since many of them weren’t exactly easy to come by. That got me a little pissy.

Which leads to the one glaring problem some folks will have with 4E. It is very dependant upon maps, terrain and miniatures. That’s great for guys like me with a closet full of toys. But for others, especially those who like to play much more esoteric games all through discussion rather than using maps and positioning – they’re going to find it a lot harder to covert over to that style of play than 3.5. Most abilities and classes are built around their existence on a map grid. And a lot of the abilities just don’t translate to the abstract. I’m not certain why percentage of players out there still play this way – but they’re going to have the strongest argument against converting to 4E.

But for me these really are some minor gripes compared to the sheer number of mechanics that 4E has fixed. There are no more wallflowers in combats. No more totaling up each players loot to make sure they are equally matched to the monsters they’ll be facing. No more resting before the party needs to. No more “Why can’t I buy this magic item anywhere”. No more broken min/maxing. No more all human parties because the free feat and skill point are worth more. There are a thousand little things that are streamlined, that are better. And once people have had the chance to sit down with it, all the prerelease gripes will go away. It really is like digging into 1st Ed all over again.

This weekend WotC is taking the muzzle off of us playtesters, so over the next few days and weeks, sites will be flooded with all the details. I’m dying to see how closely other groups experiences match my own – but I’m also confident that we’re about to see a lot of positivity out there. This is a great game. Whether you’re a long time player or an online gamer looking for a little more face time with your friends, 4E has a lot to offer the table top community. It’s a revelation and a revolution. And it’s gong to change the way you play forever.

Man I can’t wait to have these in hardback.