Greatest Hits #31 - Ye Olde Fumble Table

In honor of the kind of year 2018 has been for me, this is the most appropriate way to end the year:

In the interest of contributing something at least semi-useful to other people I present Ye Olde Fumble Table.

This is something I put together back around 2001-2002 when I was running a 3rd Edition campaign every two weeks with 6-8 players and we thought the game just cried out for something to balance out the spectrum with the Critical Hit rule. I'm not as big on things like this now as it can slow down the game but we did have quite a bit of fun with it. If I end up running Pathfinder or a 3.5 game again at some point I might break it back out and expose a new generation to the joys of damaging oneself. I believe v1.2 was the final version after we discovered some results needed more clarity or to be simplified.  If anyone is interested I can probably turn this into a PDF and put it up on Dropbox or Google Docs in a more printable format than this.

Looking over it again for the first time in a while, this really would not e difficult to translate into 4th Edition - all those wonderful conditions could fill out a fumble table quite nicely. Hmmmm.

Greatest Hits #11 - PHB's I Have Known

Of course there's another one to put in the picture now ...

Yep, that's all of them. Bottom right comes in about 1980-81 for me (and yes that's the same book I bought with my allowance back then) and that upper left showed up on my doorstep yesterday.

I've had a lot of fun with these over the years and I can tell stories that came from games played with all of the previous versions. Even though I am still running Pathfinder and 4th edition games I am sure we will get around to giving the new one a try and then I'll have some stories to go with it too.

There are memories around the time each of these came out too. The joy of discovery, when all of this was so new with the first; the college days playing in dorms and at night at the IHoP of second; the fun of putting a new group together with old and new faces and new versions of classic adventures with third; the annoyance and disappointment of fourth gradually turning into a rediscovery of the fun and putting together another mix of old and new - including a new wife and some new kids; with 5th, well, right now it's all kid milestones for the last month - a 12th birthday, a lot of summer band practice, driving to and from the first job, and moving into a college dorm. If 5th has a good enough run, they may ALL be in college by the time 6th comes out.

PDF's may be the future of a lot of smaller RPG's, but I hope the biggest games, or the kickstarters for smaller games, give us a chance to acquire them as books. I'm pretty comfortable using an iPad at the table but there's something about being able to pick up the same book I held way back when that helps refresh those memories too - it's more than visual, it's texture, smell, weight, and all of the little nicks and dings they pick up in use. I'd say the largest ingredient in some of my AD&D materials after paper, ink, and glue is probably Domino's Pizza and Dr. Pepper. I took pretty good care of my stuff but hey, accidents happen, and Domino's was new here back then. We spent a lot of summer time scraping up our dollars so we could order pizza and keep on playing, especially before we could drive.

Anyway, I suppose I've "completed the set" for the time being - now to read the thing, and start the next chapter of a 30+ year story.

The Old Scarred Lands Campaign - Year 3

For 2007 the party was largely the same crew:

• Aden Hornmantle, Human Cleric of Corean 
• Rukan, Human Paladin of Corean 
• Gotar, Half-Orc Fighter 
• Simone, Human Ranger/Rogue
• Cressa, "High Elf" Wizard 
• Caldon Greyleaf, Spellthief  - gone
• A new human Fighter/Rogue joins up later in the year
• A reformed Gnoll Barbarian with  a no-doubt complicated backstory joins during the big ocean expedition

Sessions 33-38
In Amalthea two of my characters get married on the 25th day of Vangalot! The Cleric and the Ranger, after much discussion and flirting for the last few months of game time end up married while Gotar the Half-Orc fighter has become devoted to the "Elf" Wizard. Fortunately the Paladin remains commitment-free and so has a clear perspective on things.

A short time later the party heads back into the dungeon and ends up in an even bigger brawl in the Temple of Orcus (level 4, room 15 mainly if you have the adventure). At one point there are 45 skeletons on the map plus zombies, ogres, ghouls, acolytes, and priests of Orcus - it's one of the biggest fights I have ever run and epically appropriate for wrecking a major temple of the demon lord of undeath!

A short time after that the cleric is getting raised from the dead at the temple. The wizard spends 3 days "identifying" all of the loot.

Heading back they end up in some flooded levels and finding their way through another section full of purple mist. Returning from this last investigation they find that a dragon has attacked the town, part of the city is wrecked or on fire, Karnov is hurt, and Rastan the Champion (another NPC they've encountered) has set off after the wounded draconic attacker.

DM's Notes: This was another "let's break up the big dungeon crawl" side trek which involved a short travel through the wilderness to a smaller dungeon with a different theme. It also helps to remind players every once in a while that there is other stuff going on in the world.

Sessions 39-40
These two sessions were spent going through Goodman games "Temple of the Dragon Cult" which is a cool little drop-in adventure featuring cultists, some half-dragon type people, and a wounded red dragon. Our heroes triumphed, eliminated the cult, rescued a wounded Rastan the Champion, and slew the evil red dragon.

Sessions 41- 42
These two sessions are spent in training, prepping, and then traveling to the city of Mithril, a 600+ mile journey. This is mainly driven by the Cleric and Paladin as this is the center of Coreanic worship on Ghelspad. Once in Mithril the Paladin joins the Mithril Order, becoming a Knight. The Cleric joins the Gold Order, the militant religious arm of the church. Gotar the Fighter visits his father's grave in the city. They also meet up with an old friend of theirs, a swashbuckler who is in town as well - this was an old player returning to the group.

While in the city taking care of business they end up learning of a quest in search of Bloody Jack's gold, a legendary pirate hoard. Someone has discovered an old map, and, well, you know how these things go. Soon enough they are sailing the Blood Sea on the Darkmaiden's Dance.

Sessions 44-48
A sailing voyage to a lost island full of nastiness followed by a delve into a trap and monster-filled dungeon ends with a sizable treasure found. It takes quite a while to loot the place and to load that much coinage but the party is very wealthy after this adventure.

Sessions 49-51
Returning to Mithril the party has a few days to expend some of their loot and ponder their next move. Then word comes in - Ordocar Abbey, a stronghold of the Mithril Order, is under attack! Our heroes can hardly refuse a call for aid from their own allies and so the group heads north to lift the siege. They teleport directly to the front gate only to find the undead attackers have already broken through the defenses and a fight rages throughout the castle! They manage to destroy the invaders and defeat the leader, an undead fallen Paladin looking for revenge.  Though victorious, they are concerned that this may have been a diversion to allow other forces to break into the Iron Crypt, a remote underground fortress where the most evil of artifacts, things that cannot be destroyed by mortal means, are kept hidden away from the rest of the world. They resolve to investigate ...

Sessions 52-54
...and this is where it all comes crashing down.

The entrance to the crypt is guarded by two stone golems who prove to be very effective guardians and the Cleric is killed during the fight. Teleportation magic makes things easier and he is soon raised at the High Temple in Mithril and the party is ready to crack open the vault. Fighting their way through traps and undead they sense a powerful and growing evil.

Finally, while fighting in a cavern full of undead driders, Aden (the Cleric) falls. Though the party fights on, he rises again on his own but with a new look in his eyes and beckons to his wife (the Ranger). As he embraces her, she "turns" as well and now a new fight is on - an intra-party fight as those who die here rise quickly as evil undead versions of themselves. Sensing the danger, Cressa (the Wizard) dimension doors to a clear area, teleports Gotar to her side, and separates them from the battle with a wall of force. As they watch, the rest of the party falls, then rises with that new light in their eyes. Deciding that it's over she drops her disguise, revealing herself to be a dark elf, then teleports herself and her loyal follower to Dier Drendal, the city of the dark elves, to begin a new life.

DM notes
So after three years the campaign ends in while not a TPK, certainly a down moment, especially for my Paladin player. It's a nasty dungeon with traps and level-draining undead but I felt my players were up to it. I still think they were, but one part of the dungeon is basically radioactive with evil from one powerful artifact and dying in that part is a bad thing. Once the cleric was dead I took him aside and told him what was going on and he decided to have fun with it while he could - naturally his first target was his character's wife and she played it well - cautious but concerned and that led to her being drained and raised and then it got really hairy and once the wizard punched out and took her pet fighter with her it was over. 

There are still some sore spots when this ending comes up, even years later. I still feel like I handled it right. Not all stories have a happy ending, and it was not a TPK. People were playing their characters true and not in that "I'm a jerk" kind of way. Choices were made and consequences were suffered - that doesn't make it "fair" but it's how this tale turned out. I admit I was disappointed that it ended because I had a lot of plot threads hanging and more adventures to run, including a quest for the paladin to get his holy sword. 

Ah well. If at all possible I will be touching on some of the events of this campaign in my new one, which is one of the reasons I wanted to recount it. I also wanted to show how easy it is to drop in published adventures over the course of a campaign and how certain ones just seem to fit as a group develops. This was my next-to-last 3E campaign and hopefully the leftover material from it will find a new home in that new game. More to come - this time in 5th Edition!

The Old Scarred Lands Campaign - Year 2

Picking up where I left off here is what the party looked like during these sessions:

• Aden Hornmantle, Human Cleric of Corean 
• Rukan, Human Paladin of Corean 
• Gotar, Half-Orc Fighter 
• Simone, Human Ranger/Rogue
• Cressa, "High Elf" Wizard 
• Caldon Greyleaf, Spellthief (intermittent player)

By the middle of the year they were all levels 6-7.

Sessions 12-19

These were spent exploring the upper levels of the tomb and recovering in town. highlights here included:

• Paying the town's high-level wizard Karnov the Red to use a limited wish spell to free the paladin from a cursed sword. 
• Having the headless half-orc resurrected after one particularly tough battle
• Fighting skeletons, zombies, cave morays,basilisks, trolls, ankhegs, and su-monsters 
• First encounters with priests of Orcus!

After this I was concerned we might be getting into too much of a rut so while in town a new problem came to light and the party headed out to ...

Sessions 21-26

These were spent exploring the legendary White Plume Mountain. Only one of my players had been through it before and that had been some time back. The high point here was when Blackrazor took possession of the Ranger who was finally saved by the Paladin who managed to fail some saves and get possessed by the sword himself while back in town. This resulted in a a massive chase all over town by the whole party. He was eventually captured and freed from the sword which was then hurriedly deposited in the temple of Corean for safekeeping. They still  bring this up today so I must have done something right.

Sessions 28-32

After the Mountain experience - or the Blackrazor experience as they would no doubt call it - it was time to dig back into the Tomb of Abysthor. This is where they dug into level 4 and got into a big battle with ogre guards and cultists of Orcus. Afterwards they had the Half-Orc raised again and decided they might need some help. This led to the cleric getting more involved with the Temple of Corean, the wizard joining the Mages Guild, the Ranger finding a new pet, and the fighter & paladin buckling down and beefing up their gear. 

Further Thoughts on 2006

This whole year's worth of the campaign was spent based out of Amalthea and traveling to two different dungeons. There was a lot of action but there was also a lot of intra-party roleplaying and character development. There were certain NPC's that made regular appearances and were much liked (or dis-liked) but the bulk of the fun stuff really happened within the party. In-world holidays were celebrated, characters died and came back, NPCs were mocked, and we had a blast.

  

The Old Scarred Lands Campaign - Year 1

I ran a campaign in the Scarred Lands during 3rd Edition D&D and it was one of the best games I have run and had maybe the most memorable ending of all. Prior to this, in third edition, I had run:

• A Greyhawk campaign that ended up centered around Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil (this one ended in a TPK)
• A Kalamar-based game that was tied to Kenzer's "Coin Trilogy" which frankly was not that great (this ended because the players wanted to go back and finish the Temple adventure in Greyhawk)
• A second Greyhawk campaign that returned to the Return to the TOEE (this too eventually ended in another TPK - that temple was dangerous, OK?)

After this it was time for something different, so we played a few other games then after about 6 months we came back to D&D 3E. 

We started in May 2005 with six players - a Ranger, a Half-Orc Fighter, a Rogue, a Paladin, a Cleric, and a Dark Elf Wizard disguised as a High Elf.

Sessions 1-3
The first adventure was "The Serpent Amphora" which was a free intro to the 3-module series set in the Scarred Lands. It took 3 sessions to work through and while it was pretty railroady (there were some fights you were definitely not supposed to win) it did start with a set of athletic contests during some holiday games that was a nice change from happenstance tavern meetings or other traditional D&D campaign kickoffs. I also worked in "The Wizard's Amulet" the first Necromancer Games adventure and that was well-received too.

Session 4-6
The group decided to head north towards Vesh and along the way kicked off "The Dragonfiend Pact", a fun little Goodman games DCC adventure.

Session 7-8
Continuing northwards the party played through the Crucible of Freya set around east Onetenazu. This is another cool adventure and instead of starting in a keep on some borderlands you end up attacking a keep full of orcs ... on some borderlands. They had made it to 4th level by the time they finished this up.

Session 9
The party then travelled through the Canyon of Souls to Amalthea and began exploring the Tomb of Abysthor. Actually this session was just the journey and exploring the shrines to Thyr and Muir between Amalthea and the burial halls that are the core of the adventure.

Session 10-11
These were spent exploring the first level of the Tomb and the interesting features like the Font of Bones!

This wrapped up 2005. We stayed pretty closely to an every-two-weeks schedule though we did miss one here and there. With six regular players one or two person's schedule issues did not derail a session - unless it was mine!

As the game went on I wrote up more and more details on Amalthea - it's condition after the Druid War, various organizations, facilities, and characters who lived in the ruined city. I had forgotten how much info I had on this city until I started looking back through my notes in preparation for the new 5E campaign but it's pretty extensive - probably the most I have done to detail an area since first edition. A lot of this is because there isn't much detail on Amalthea in the Ghelspad book and I wanted to give my players an interesting home base. It was a lot of fun and maybe the new campaign will make its way there at some point.

Filling in Some Gaps - Bard's Gate

When we were playing 3rd edition I was not a huge fan of most of the published WOTC adventures but I did find some greatness in 3 places: Goodman Games' Dungeon Crawl Classics adventures, Sword and Sorcery's own Scarred Lands setting, and Necromancer Games' adventures. For coming from three different companies and lots of individual authors I found they fit together really well. For my Scarred Lands campaign the backbone was DCC's shorter adventures + Necromancer's longer adventures and material of my own. I doubt I was the only one, and I was very happy with the way it worked out.

While the DCC adventures were purposefully independent from one another the Necromancer material as produced as if it was all part of the same setting and there were notes in many of the individual adventures on how they fit into this shared world in relation to one another. This was a lot like the early D&D adventures with their notes on where they were set in Greyhawk. SOme of the major pieces were:

• The Wizard's Amulet + Crucible of Freya which was one of the early 3E starter adventures and is great. My players had a really good time with it and it was our starting adventure for the campaign.
• Vault of Larin Karr which was an area the campaign could have gone to but ended up not using in that game.
• Demons and Devils which is a collection of short adventures involving those creatures. I was going to use one of them as the end of the paladin's quest for a holy sword but we didn't quite get there. 
•  Hall of the Rainbow Mage was another adventure where I dropped some hints and connections and we ended up not using it. 
• Lost City of Barakus - also hinted and rumored in the game but never actually used. 
• Rappan Athuk which I did not use after playing through part of it. It could always have come up later if I needed to abuse my player characters.
• Tomb of Abysthor which we spent around a year playing and had a lot of fun in the dungeon and back in the city they used as a base for exploring the dungeon.

I think that's how a lot of campaigns go - there's a lot of material gathered/prepped/written that never gets used but you can't know that until your players wander somewhere else. This is just the Necromancer stuff too - there were 4 or 5 DCC adventures and a couple of the Scarred Lands adventures in there too. 

So how does Bard's Gate fit into all of this? Well it's the city that is mentioned in all of these things, a reference point, and a possible home base while playing through some of them. I didn't own the book so I used my own city ideas while we played through Abysthor but I always wanted to pick it up and find a place to add it in to the campaign. Once that game ended the priority dropped quite a bit but it's been in the back of my mind in the "one of these days" file for years. I finally picked it up and I am not disappointed. 

One of the best parts of a campaign I have run

The short version: It's a guide to a D&D style fantasy city. The signature 'thing" about the place is that it's home to a Bardic College so there are a lot of those types in the city and a player who wants to run one has a ton of hooks readily available. You could drop it into almost any campaign anywhere you need a city on a river and it would fit just fine. Each chapter in the book covers a district of the city in some, though not ridiculous, detail. You won't find stats for every bartender and patron or notes on every single structure in each area - it's mainly the high points and notable locations in each one with a general sense of the district. There's a sidebar for each that covers character, Businesses, prices, gold piece limits, building type, and note on the guards (number, timing, and size of patrols). It looks very usable for the DM - practical stuff like that goes a long way with me. There are roughly 15 chapters like this covering the city. It also comes with a roughly 3'x2' poster map of the city which is a nice touch.

Towards the back are some additional sections:

• One covers the area around the city and notes various adventure locations
• In the local area is a gnoll fortress and an abbey, boith of which receive their own chapters
• There's a chapter on new magic, one on NPCs, and one on new monsters - these are all fairly 3E-specific and so not super uiseful 
• There is also a chapter on the gods of the setting and they are somewhat different from the usual generic deities. It's a mix of Norse, Celtic, and some D&D demons along with some new - or renamed at least - non-human powers. This fleshes out some of the names mentioned in other adventures by Necromancer and is a nice touch. It would not be terribly hard to ignore this if you were dropping it into another setting. 

Downside? Well, there really are not many that I can see at this point. It's from 2006 and it's black and white so it's not as pretty as a lot of the books that we get today. Compared to something like Ptolus it's definitely a step down in presentation but that aside it's a completely usable fantasy city supplement. There was a Kickstarter last year to redo the book for 5E and Pathfinder in full color so there are updated and nicely presented versions out there but at $100 for a print copy I abstained from that one. I paid a tenth of that for my older version and I think it does what I want it to do just fine. There are PDFs of the original version available as well. 

When will I use it? I'm not sure. It's one of the major missing pieces of that Necromancer series so I would probably drop them in to a game as a whole set.  I liked the way they fit into the Scarred lands and wit hthat being redone for 5th Edition D&D I'd say there's some chance we go there again if we ever do a real 5E campaign. Pathfinder is an easy fit as well. Regardless of the system I will be happy when I finally do get to return to these adventures again.

PHB's I Have Known

Yep, that's all of them. Bottom right comes in about 1980-81 for me (and yes that's the same book I bought with my allowance back then) and that upper left showed up on my doorstep yesterday.

I've had a lot of fun with these over the years and I can tell stories that came from games played with all of the previous versions. Even though I am still running Pathfinder and 4th edition games I am sure we will get around to giving the new one a try and then I'll have some stories to go with it too.

There are memories around the time each of these came out too. The joy of discovery, when all of this was so new with the first; the college days playing in dorms and at night at the IHoP of second; the fun of putting a new group together with old and new faces and new versions of classic adventures with third; the annoyance and disappointment of fourth gradually turning into a rediscovery of the fun and putting together another mix of old and new - including a new wife and some new kids; with 5th, well, right now it's all kid milestones for the last month - a 12th birthday, a lot of summer band practice, driving to and from the first job, and moving into a college dorm. If 5th has a good enough run, they may ALL be in college by the time 6th comes out.

PDF's may be the future of a lot of smaller RPG's, but I hope the biggest games, or the kickstarters for smaller games, give us a chance to acquire them as books. I'm pretty comfortable using an iPad at the table but there's something about being able to pick up the same book I held way back when that helps refresh those memories too - it's more than visual, it's texture, smell, weight, and all of the little nicks and dings they pick up in use. I'd say the largest ingredient in some of my AD&D materials after paper, ink, and glue is probably Domino's Pizza and Dr. Pepper. I took pretty good care of my stuff but hey, accidents happen, and Domino's was new here back then. We spent a lot of summer time scraping up our dollars so we could order pizza and keep on playing, especially before we could drive.

Anyway, I suppose I've "completed the set" for the time being - now to read the thing, and start the next chapter of a 30+ year story.

The Local D&D Update for December

• With Apprentice Red getting his first job this week* and being remarkably busy with theater and other school activities, the ToEE campaign has slowed way down. This is somewhat frustrating for Apprentice Blaster - and for me too - but it's just how things work. If we're lucky we will get some time in during the holiday break but how much remains to be seen.

• In contrast the Impiltur campaign as been zooming onward with the speed of regular weekly sessions - yes "weekly", not "bi-weekly", or "monthly" or "hey when are we going to play again?" - This means we're up to around 16 sessions now and about halfway through the Red Hand of Doom. Everyone seems to be having a good time with it and hopefully that continues. Additionally, somewhat to my surprise, the players were wondering where their recaps had gone. I noted that they rarely read them, and were even less likely to comment on them, so I stopped doing them. Apparently at least some of them think it's a big deal, so look for some catch-up summaries on the Savage Swords of Impiltur campaign this month.

• Apprentice Who has inquired about playing more D&D, perhaps even wanting his own books, but that may be premature yet. I'm considering going back to Basic to keep the speed of play up, as Who hated 4E when he tried it but loved Basic when Apprentice Blaster ran it for him a while back. I'm hoping his renewed interest helps offset the loss of time with Red.

• I'm also considering giving Next another go as the alternative game for the Blaster-Who team when Red is not available. It seems like a reasonable compromise if I can convince Blaster to give it another try after rendering his verdict a few months ago.

• Apprentice Blaster prefers 4E and wants to continue the Temple campaign, but failing that he might be up for Basic. He's also been asking about giving 3rd Edition a try since he's looked at my wall of stuff for it and concluded it might be worth a look. If I can get a decent character generator up and running then he and Apprentice Who may be giving that one a try as well. I figure a few one-off sessions of various editions of D&D  should help us find a sweet spot. I may even work in a D&D-flavored Savage Worlds game, just to mix things up.

*His first day of his first job ever is working at a movie theater the day The Hobbit opens. I told him that at least he will have a nice little story to tell down the road.

Ye Olde Fumble Table

In the interest of contributing something at least semi-useful to other people I present Ye Olde Fumble Table.

This is something I put together back around 2001-2002 when I was running a 3rd Edition campaign every two weeks with 6-8 players and we thought the game just cried out for something to balance out the spectrum with the Critical Hit rule. I'm not as big on things like this now as it can slow down the game but we did have quite a bit of fun with it. If I end up running Pathfinder or a 3.5 game again at some point I might break it back out and expose a new generation to the joys of damaging oneself. I believe v1.2 was the final version after we discovered some results needed more clarity or to be simplified.  If anyone is interested I can probably turn this into a PDF and put it up on Dropbox or Google Docs in a more printable format than this.

Looking over it again for the first time in a while, this really would not e difficult to translate into 4th Edition - all those wonderful conditions could fill out a fumble table quite nicely. Hmmmm.

Savage Tides of Kalamar - Epilogue

So that last session was dated January of 2009 and we played into October - I'm sure we hit at least 30 sessions in this campaign. Somewhere between March and October we had the greatest adventure finale I've ever been a part of with the climax of the original Freeport Trilogy which became a ferocious running fight up the giant lighthouse in Freeport's harbor and ended with all but one member of the party dead or dying, and that last member was unconscious and at zero hit points but they managed to slay all of the evil cultists and traitors behind the grand plan to summon the serpent god - it was Epic and one of the great confluences of roleplay, mechanics, and die rolls in my gaming history where everything seemed to work out in the most dramatic way possible.

Also during this time Lady Blacksteel and I got married and she joined the campaign (her first time to try this thing of ours) in time to be a part of that epic conclusion, which was cool. The married thing has worked well too. Hi honey, glad to see you're reading the blog.

After the Freeport Finale we moved into playing through the Savage Tide adventure path as the sole focus of the campaign and it seemed to decline for a variety of reasons. I liked that set of adventures but by the time we were making our way across the Isle of Dread I was burning out on 3rd Edition, Kalamar, and my then-current group. Running 3E for 7-8 players at a time was a pretty big load even with a published adventure. With that many players I think the published adventure has some downside as that level of options and resources completely destroys many basic assumptions about encounters and balance, requiring a fair amount of rework to present a reasonable challenge. It would probably have been better to take the concepts and the high points of the adventure and just rebuilt the whole thing from the ground up (kind of like I later did with my 4E Ruins of Adventure campaign) rather than trying to use some version of what was presented. Ah, well ...

So, while some lessons were learned in hindsight we never made it past the Isle of Dread, roughly halfway through the campaign. It would be six months before I ran anything again and that would be Necessary Evil, a completely different kind of game, and then eventually D&D 4th Edition.

I still like both sets of adventures and I think they work well together, intermingled into a single campaign. Maybe Pathfinder, maybe Next - my 4E plate is full for quite a while, thanks - or maybe a non-D&D system altogether will be the framework for the next attempt at them - we will see.

Flashback - Savage Tides of Kalamar - Session 20

 Session 20
Behind the Green Venom-ed Door
January 24, 2009

Players:

Sean – Dorian Windseeker, High Elf Ranger/Rogue

Gary – Katan, Half-Hobgoblin Paladin

Bec – Arianne, Grey Elf Cleric of The Lantern

Rebec – Quillathe, Grey Elf Paladin of The Lantern

Steve – Tylock, Human Fighter

Sherry – Michella, Human Wizard

Will – Solveliss, High Elf Sorcerer

[No Razik – wait a second, WHERE’S RAZIK?! Did anyone hear a splash a minute ago? Hey what are those bubbles in the water?]

We begin in the sea cave in front of a giant, ancient stone door with a serpent head in the middle. In attempting to open the thing, Arianne, Katan, Tylock, and Quillathe have all been poisoned and weakened badly.

Undeterred, Dorian attempts to diarm the venom spray, fails, is blasted by the fountain of green death and collapses like a marionette whose strings have been cut. Tylock, not totally helpless yet, decides to make another attempt and shoves his arm into the mouth of the stony reptile. He is blasted and keels over.

Unafraid but verging on depseration, Quillathe thrusts her arm into the fanged stony maw and releases the catch. The great stone door opens up.

Entering the open room behind the door (and dragging the paralyzed ranger with them) the group sees a large statue of what must be the serpent god Yig. Finding nothing of interest, they approach the stairway leading down and notice it is filled with water. After some experimentation the party swims (or is dragged) through this level and down to another stairway which remarkably is not filled with water.

Descending to the much dryer 3rd level of the place the band notices a shadowy form making passes in the air near an altar to Yig. Watching for a bit (and not being attacked), they decide to attempt to make contact with the being. This turns out to be fairly easy and the being turns out to be the shadow form of the last high priest of Yig, who has been trapped in this tower for millenia. Since he and his fellow priests failed to stop the collapse of the serpentmen civillization, they were cursed by Yig to stay locked in the tower until they could atone for their failure. He is very hopeful that the party represents the chance for release. He tells the party he needs 4 items recovered from the rest of the tower, and that if they can bring him these items then he can recover the Jade Serpent Of Yig, the artifact the party needs to stop Sea Lord Drac and the Unspeakable One. The group agres that they will try to do this, and heads down the next set of stairs…

DM Notes (2012) - This session and the next one were a nice back-to-some-dungeon-crawling sessions after all of the urban and social stuff of the previous few sessions. That poison door trap (just to get into the place!) was nasty, and in hindsight I should have reworked that one. There were several battles, mainly against undead, and at least one magic weapon was recovered in addition to the quest items.

Flashback - Savage Tides of Kalamar - Session 19

 Session 19
The Big Dance
January 10, 2009

Players:

Sean – Dorian Windseeker, High Elf Ranger/Rogue

Gary – Katan, Half-Hobgoblin Paladin

Bec – Arianne, Grey Elf Cleric of The Lantern

Rebec – Quillathe, Grey Elf Paladin of The Lantern

Steve – Tylock, Human Fighter

Sherry – Michella, Human Wizard

Will – Solveliss, High Elf Sorcerer

Dave – Razik, Human Fighter/Rogue

...and the dance begins! As the applause dies down music fills the chamber and couples take to the floor. Our heroes gradualy become aware of the main intrigues at the ball, namely the politicking going on to determine who will replace Lord Verlaine on the council and how this will affect the balance of power in the city.

This part of the session involved a lot of NPC and intra-party interaction, so we’ll hit the highlights here:

- Tylock and later Michela make friends with Lady Elise, Drac’s main opposition on the council. She introduces them to Petra Fricke, leader of the craftsmen’s guild and her candidate to take the opening on the council

- Arianne introduces herself to Gwendolyn, high preistess of the sea goddess.

- Michela and Solveliss spend some time with Tarmon, head of the Freeport Mages’ Guild

- Razik and Michella dance for a while, checking out the crowd of retainers and hangers-on at the dance.

- Quillathe dances with Sea Lord Drac himself and has an interesting coversation

- Michella spends some time with Arias, leader of the elven pirate faction in the city, and quite a fine singer

- Dorian poses as a servant and sets Quillathe up for a dance with the arrogant human Torsten Roth. Later, when she is speaking to Captain Lydon, reformed pirate leader, Dorian points this out to Torsten, who proceeds to intervene and Captain Lydon finishes the ball sitting at a side table under discreet guard.

- A merchant leader, one Brock Wallace, attempts to convince Tylock and the rest of the party to strike at Drac after he is lured away from the ball. The party discusses for a while, then decides to pass.

- At midnight, as the ball is in full swing, a mad prophet appears and speaks a dire prophecy, then disappears. The ball breaks up soon after as the mood is just not the same.

- Thuron departs after telling the party that he recognizes some of what the prophet refrred to and wants to do some research back at the temple. Tylock fears for his life but the old man-serpent survives.

- The party depatrts soon after this and returns to the quill without incident.

Gathering the next day at the Temple of the Mule, the party decides to follow up on some clues. Thuron has found a fragment of a story related to the old pirate Black Dog that looks like it could lead to an ancient temple of the serpent kingdom where the party might be able to recover an item useful against the Brotherhood. Doing some legwork around the town they eventually talk to Old Gareth, who did some pirating with Black Dog in his youth. After a small payment, he tells the group how to find the entrance to the caves described in the log Thuron found. He also tells them where to buy a boat and about the timing of the local tides.

The band gathers their supplies, gets the boat, and heads out to sea.

They soon locate the landmarks described by Old Gareth and venture inside the cave. Handling is tricky inside the cave and a fair amount of bumps and bruises are collected getting through the initial portion of the tunnels. Quillathe and Michella fall out of the boat and are whisked away by the rushing water. Eventually the amphibous members and the boat emerge (albeit backwards) in a large sea cave. They notice something shining in the darkness but before they can investigate a different something bumps the swimmers legs. This rapidly progresses into clawing and biting the swimmers legs and combat ensues as the party faces off against a pair of turtle-crab-things that the group later identifies as Tojandas. The non-swimming members quickly beach the boat near the light they glimpsed earlier but one of the things crawls up into it anyway, as Katan battles the other one in waist deep water near the beach. Dorian, Razik, and Tylock pull the swimmers out of the water while Solveliss blasts away at the creatures from a distance. The creatures are eventually driven off and the group sits down to rest on the small rocky beach they have claimed.

Quillathe investigates the shine they saw earlier and notices that among the bones scattered on the beach there is a sheathed sword stuck into the ground. The golden hilt reflected the partiy’s lights when they entered the cave. The scabbard is battered black leather of some kind. The pommel is shaped like a clenched fist, while the quillions end in sockets that each hold milky white stones that are perfectly round, almost pearl-like. Unable to resist, she draws the blade…

As the sword bursts into flame, she realizes what she has found. As a shape rises from the sand behind her and an insane babbling fills the air, the rest of the party realizes what she has disturbed. The soul-draining unded creature is clearly tied to the sword somehow and attackes Quillathe immediately, draining bits of her soul with every strike. the ghost-like being is difficult to hurt, but the group is persistent and the wizards do their part, soon reducing the the thing to wisps of drifting smoke and an agonized moan as it disperses. Quillathe, satisfied, snaps the blade back into its sheath and fastens it around her waist.

The team presses on, piling back into the boat and moving towards one of the exits from this large cavern.

In the first, they come to another beach, this one sandy, and with several skeletons impaled on spikes decorating it. The group moves on.

Turning down one passage, the boat is caught in a fast current and pulled along until they come to a wooden barrier, waterlogged and decaying, painted with a warning to stay out. Katan smashes it down and the trip continues. They soon emerge on another beach.

This cave is dominated on one side by what is obviously the remains of some kind of building, fused into the rock. it looks like an outer wall, with a large door still accessible from the cave. In the center of the door is a serpent’s head sculpted out of stone. This matches the description found in Black Dog’s log entry describing how he first found his treasure cave. After some debate, Quillathe places her arm in the seprent’s mouth and attempts to open the door. The serpent begins to bite down on his arm and he yanks it back out whereupon a stream of horrible greenish venom sprays out in a massive stream, washing over serveal party members and weakening them to the point of collapse. Shocked, the group pauses to rethink their approach…

By the Numbers:

NPC’s Encountered: 17 Freeport movers and shakers! Plus Thuron the disguised serpent man, Old Gareth the retired pirate, and old Sammy the used boat salesman

Righteous Kills: 1 Allip returned to the dead, plus 2 Tojandas were at least wounded and driven off

Bodacious Loot: 1 Flame Tongue Sword

DM Notes (2012) - This was probably the most fun I have ever had in a pure roleplay type scene - there was enough going on to give every character something to do, every player was engaged, and I had a sizable roster of NPC's with intertwined agendas to keep the conversations interesting. Much was learned, the party's investment in Freeport was turned up a notch, and potential deals were set up. Then of course they got to go on a small nautical adventure and get in some combat before the evening was over. 

Working through these again has made me appreciate (even more than I did at the time) what an interesting spread of encounter types were included in these adventures. I really need to run these again - maybe in Pathfinder. 

Flashback - Savage Tides of Kalamar - Session 18

 Session 18
The Pursuit of Pete
December 27, 2008

Players:

Sean – Dorian Windseeker, High Elf Ranger/Rogue

Gary – Katan, Half-Hobgoblin Paladin

Bec – Arianne, Grey Elf Cleric of The Lantern

Rebec – Quillathe, Grey Elf Paladin of The Lantern

Steve – Tylock, Human Fighter

Sherry – Michella, Human Wizard

Will – Solveliss, High Elf Sorcerer

[No Razik – he was STILL busy skulking about the back streets]

We open in Freeport, at the inn called the Scholar’s Quill, where Quillathe has agreed to help Maggie smuggle Pete out of town. In the pre-dawn hours the group has rested and is eating breakfast. Maggie returns from setting things up and declares that the time is now – follow her to meet up with Pete. The adventuring band heads out into the streets.

Maggie takes a somewhat roundabout way to the docks, apparently attempting to avoid the city watch as much as possible. Approaching one particular dock, the party notices a struggle, and Maggie screams when she reconizes Pete, caught in a net near the end of a dock – a net held by Calybdus, the bounty hunter from the Rusty Hook!

The party springs into action as several thugs acompanying the bounty hunter move to refuse their assistance. A fierce melee ensues where the dock meets the shore as Quillathe, Tylock and Katan engage while Dorian tumbles over the guards and advances towards Pete. Arianne, Solveliss, and Michella assist with various spells. Calybdus turns to face his nemesis from the prior day and engages Dorian in a whirling swordfight. Quillathe manages to get past her opponent and moves in to free Pete from the net. As the guards fall, other party members also advance down the dock.

Once freed, Pete leaps for a small boat tied up at the dock. Calybdus leaps free of Dorian to land in the boat himself, as does Quillathe. Surrounded, Pete disappears from view. Confused briefly, the party focuses on disatching the most dangerous antagonist - clubbed, shot, and hit by several scorching rays from Solveliss, Calybdus is hard pressed and falls, toppling into the water from the small boat. Catching their breath, the team realizes that Pete is nowhere to be found, one last thug is swimming away, Maggie is in tears, and Calybdus needs to be looted before all of his gear drops away.

The party never sees Pete again. Consoling Maggie, Quillathe and Arianne help her board a ship for Sasserine where she plans to start a new life. She does give them a large emerald for the trouble they went through, and promises to use better judgement when it comes to men. the team splits up for a day to purchase weapons and supplies, heal wounds, and Michella investigates the Freeport Mages Guild.

Meanwhile, back at the Quill, a messenger is delivering invitations. Invitations to the Sea Lord’s Ball, where the party will be given medals for their efforts at rooting out the cult hidden beneath the city and exposing the treachery of Lord Verlaine. Surprised but excited at this opportunity, much of the team goes shopping for finer clothing. Dorian wins the prize for most exotic dress when he searches hi and lo for a real griffon feather, not some mock feather or false feather, with which to decorate his hat. He eventually procures one, and makes certain that all within earshot know of his accessory’s authenticity.

The night of the ball arrives and the group is escorted in by the High Chamberlain himself, who is pleased to see that the group has chosen to follow local custom in only bringing bladed weapons to the ball, preferably only in a fine sheath. Speeches are made, drinks are consumed, and Sea Lord Drac personally congratulates and hangs the medal around each members neck. After rousing applause, the real party begins…

DM Notes (2012) - This was another good session - the groups was really on a roll in this part of the campaign - and though they felt somewhat like they had failed on the whole Pete thing they finally felt properly appreciated with the invitations to the Ball and the medals.

Flashback - Savage Tides of Kalamar - Session 17

Session 17
Barfight Tonight!
December 13, 2008

Players:

Sean – Dorian Windseeker, High Elf Ranger/Rogue

Gary – Katan, Half-Hobgoblin Paladin

Bec – Arianne, Grey Elf Cleric of The Lantern

Rebec – Quillathe, Grey Elf Paladin of The Lantern

Steve – Tylock, Human Fighter

Sherry – Michella, Human Wizard

Will – Solveliss, High Elf Sorcerer

[No Razik – he was busy skulking about the back streets]

We open in the Temple of The Mule in Freeport. The party has just assisted in the defense of the temple against an attack by the evil Brotherhood of Yig. As the wounded are tended to and the dead are blessed, the High Priest of The Mule, Thuron, beckons the party to follow him…

Heading down below the temple and into the catacombs where generations of loyal priests lie entombed, Thuron stops at one tomb. Opening it, he reveals the embalmbed and peaceful body of…THURON! He then reveals to the party that he too is a serpent man, but he is not a follower of the evil Yig. He is a priest of a good serpent folk deity who opposes Yig, and he decided to take Thuron’s place when he died to have a better view of the cult’s activities in this city. He pleads with the group not to reveal his secret, and they agree for now. Since more of the cult’s activities are known, he needs a few days to do some research and suggests that the group amuse themselves in the city and prepare for the final push by the cult. Given some downtime the band decides to pursue cash.

One rumor that comes around is that the Captain of the Sea Lord’s Guard is offereng a 2,000 gp reward for a certain human named Pete, who was rumored to be involved with the Captain’s mistriss. Pete disappeared as soon as the reward was offered and hasn’t been seen since. Working the streets, the party decides to investiage the Rusty Hook, where a new bard has been getting good reviews, and Pete was known to be a player.

At the Hook, a near-windowless converted warehouse, the heroes mix with the crowd. Their suspected target is performing onstage and the place is packed. Searching the crowd, Quillathe notices one man near the stage watching the performer intently. When Pete’s false mustache falls off in his lap, the watcher stands and shouts “AH-HA!” and a massive bar fight begins.

This is an old tactical boardgame that I played a lot and has a board and counters perfect for D&D bar fights

Amidst tables, chairs, punches, and thrown mugs, Dorian leaps after their quarry, trying to block the rival bounty hunter. The rest of the group spreads out, trying to block escape routes. Quillathe and Arianne make their way to Pete and ask him to accompany them through the brawl. Being a player and facing two very attractive and heavily armed elven women, and having failed in a charm attempt, he agrees. Katan secures the only door in or out of the place while Dorian duels the bounty hunter and Tylock attempts to clear a path through the center of the room.

Our map was significantly more crowded than this but you get the idea. Having counters for mugs and chairs and  tables opens up the door to a lot of creative action beyond "I hit him with my sword".

As the Elven Ranger and the Bounty Hunter duel, one of the other brawlers gets stabbed. A cry of “They’ve drawn steel!” rings through the dive followed by the sound of bottles breaking and knives being drawn, along with not a few spiked clubs. The brawl gets serious now as the blood starts to flow. Solveliss fires off a few scorching rays to help clear a path as Elven Extraction Team works its way towards the door. Michella Color Sprays several tables wrth of combatants. Katan fights off several attackers who object to his standing near the door.

At one point during the escape Quillathe has Pete turned invisible, and leads him by the hand thinking this will make him less of a target. It does, but the downside becomes apparent once they finally reach the door (Thank you hobgoblin Paladin) and step outside whereupon Invisible Pete promptly snaps his arm free and escapes.

Dejected and bounty-less, the party returns to the Scholar’s Quill and drinks heavily. Later they are contacted by Maggie, Pete’s girlfriend, who wants their help in smuggling Pete out of the city since they treated him fairly even as they attempted to apprehend him. She offers to match the 2,000 gp reward if they will do this. Intrigued, the party begins to plan…

DM Notes (2012): Despite only having one combat this session it was a lot of fun as there was a LOT of RP before, during, and after the bar fight. It was a lot of fun and the players had a blast with it too. I need to dust off the old Swashbuckler set sometime soon too.

Flashback - Savage Tides of Kalamar - Session 16

 Session 16
The Big Brawl
November 29, 2008

Players:

Sean – Dorian Windseeker, High Elf Ranger/Rogue

Gary – Katan, Half-Hobgoblin Paladin

Bec – Arianne, Grey Elf Cleric of The Lantern

Rebec – Quillathe, Grey Elf Paladin of The Lantern

Steve – Tylock, Human Fighter

Sherry – Michella, Human Wizard

Will – Solveliss, High Elf Sorcerer

Dave – Razik, Human Fighter/Rogue

We pick up with the party in a hidden temple somewhere under Freeport…

As Brother Egil finishes his story sounds of movement emanate from the hall. The heroes draw weapons and prepare spells as at least a dozen serpent men rush the temple, enraged. The battle is surprisingly brief as the degenerate fiends are cut down and blasted apart by the now veteran adventurers. None of the creatures survive and they inflict only minor wounds.

Razik notices a secret door behind the idol atop the temple dais. Investigating, the band finds another steep shaft leading upwards. Dorian secures a rope and makes the ascent. he emerges in what appears to be a wine cellar (an unfortunatley poorly-stocked wine cellar, he notes) and drops the rope down to the rest of the party. Moving uptairs, they quickly determine that they are in a house – a rather nice, large house.

On the top floor the group encounters a gang of assassins who appear to have already been at work – but who are not finished yet! Ambushed, the party is pressed at first but then numbers and toughness begin to tell and only one memeber of the gang, the toughest, nastiest one, escapes through a window, slides down the roof, and bounds off into the city streets.

Searching the upper rooms, the heroes find the mangled body of Lord Verlaine, hacked up in his own bed. The party finds some evidence that they are to be blamed for this incident and begin discussing how to deal with that.

Meanwhile, Quillathe has been trying to get Tylock raised from the dead, which is turning out to be a little more difficult than expected. She eventually does find the donations neccessary and a temple that is willing to do it, and 5,000 gp later Tylock is back among the living. Quillathe and the still – recovering Tylock head for the temple of the Mule.

Coincidentally, the rest of the party has also decided to head for the temple and our heroes finally reunite there. Comparing notes, the group is convinced that the serpent cultists of the Brotherhood of Yig will attack the temple soon. Sure enough, bands of priests and acolytes begin showing up bloodied and bruised, saying they were attacked while in the city streets by hooded strangers. As more and more of them show up, the party gets a funny feeling and at this moment the new arrivals throw off their robes and are revealed as bloodthisty cultists!

The real clerics and acolytes attempt to protect their elderly high priest but are taking a serious beating at the hands of the brotherhood. Our heroes target certain leaders of the brotherhood, including one familiar looking fellow from earlier in the day – the assassin! Much magic is used in this vcious fight – blesses, heals, magic missles, even web spells are thrown and ensnare many opponents. Finally though, the superior skill of the party turns the tide and the invaders are defeated. Several followers of the Mule have fallen, but the high priest still stands…for now. Leaning on swords and staves, the party catches its breath.

DM Notes (2012) - Three  big battles in one session! Serpent Men revealed! The safety of the Temple of Knowledge compromised! This session was a lot of fun and while it was close at times and the players felt they were right on the edge, no one died - it was a razor sharp session and everyone was into it the entire time which was hard to do sometimes with a group this size. One of the high points of the campaign.

Flashback - Savage Tides of Kalamar - Session 15

Session 15
Grinding is Such a Chore
November 15, 2008

Players:

Sean – Dorian Windseeker, High Elf Ranger/Rogue

Gary – Katan, Half-Hobgoblin Paladin

Bec – Arianne, Grey Elf Cleric of The Lantern

Rebec – Quillathe, Grey Elf Paladin of The Lantern

Steve – Tylock, Human Fighter

Sherry – Michella, Human Wizard

Will – Solveliss, High Elf Sorcerer

Dave – Razik, Human Fighter/Rogue

This episode begins in the sewers of Freeport as our intrepid band descends into the darkness to help Brother Egil find Brother Lucius. COming to a major intersection of sewer tunnels, Dorian finds a scrap of grey cloth – perhaps a piece of Lucius’ robes.

Continuing to the next major intersection, the way is blocked by a barrier of metal bars put in place to keep the riffraff out of the sewers in the nicer part of town. A quick examination determines that the bars are cut in certain places and can be removed fairly easily. The group slips through though Solveliss only manages to replace the bars after a great deal of noise is made.

Locating fresh tracks on the other side of the grating, the ranger continues to lead the way. While moving along the elves in the party get a funny feeling as they pass a particular section of wall. The group identifies a secret door, determines a way to open it, and sees a small, dark room beyond it. Half of the party moves to investigate while the other half keeps watch in the tunnel.

While waiting, Quillathe notices Brother Egil begins murmuring to himself, making passes in the air, then he looks down the hallway. “Everyone needs to get into the room” he says. Quillathe offers to stay with him but he tells her that he must prepare something alone. She steps inside. Then the door closes behind her and one solid minute of pure hell is unleashed.

A grinding noise penetrates the room as the floor begins to tilt to the east. The only door in the room is locked – there is no way out. The party members begin to search desperately for an exit or at least something to grab on to. Some notice a seam in the roof and begin looking for a way out there. Others spot the eastern wall separating from the floor and seek aid there. Unfortunately for them the eastern wall is the most dangerous part of the room as it opens up and reveals a large set of machinery built to crush rocks, in perfect working order. Half of the party loses their grip and slides towards certain doom, but all manage to grab on to something – all but Tylock that is, who tumbles out of the room and into the nightmare beyond. The heroes are battered and bloodied and all looks lost.

Desperation leads to salvation – Katan finally forces the roof open along the seam and grabs on, as does the ranger. Solveliss uses the final charge from his wand of dimension door to teleport himself, Quillathe (holding onto his leg) and Arianne (holding onto Quillathe) out into the main sewer tunnel. Michella, headed for a painful end, has a moment of insight and manages to get off a web spell just in time, freezing everyone else in place as the noise reaches an indescribable climax…then it begins to subside, the room settles back into place, and soon the remaining team members are in a quiet, dark room trapped in their own web, but safe for now.

Outside, the passage is deserted. Regaining their bearings, Solvelis, Quillathe, and Arianne penetrate the secret door. The sorceror sets the webs alight, freeing the others with only minor damage. Looking around they realize that they have no idea of Tylocks fate. Katan climbs down the machinery and recovers the pulped body of Tylock, who is clearly extremely dead, though he didn’t go without a fight, as several empty potion bottles attest.

Quillathe seizes Tylock’s body and heads for the temple. The others decide to press on, both to avenge themselves on Brother Egil and to recover Lucius, if he is still alive.

In the sewers another secret door is soon discovered and opened, and this one reveals an almost vertical tunnel down into darkness. Dropping down roughly 100’, the party regroups and begins a search, as this is clearly part of some complex. Halls are checked and storerooms explored until the group emerges into a very large underground room, dominated by a large statue of a horrific being and an altar. Behind the altar is a human in robes. Strapped to the altar is…Brother Egil.

The human is no match for the adventuring band and is quickly dispatched and Brother Egil is freed shortly thereafter. He is afraid of them at first, but does calm down long enough to relate his tale – the group learns he was kidnapped, tortured, and anointed as a sacrifice leaving them uncertain of his role in the earlier debacle.

As the wayward cleric finishes his story, the sound of movement is heard from the main tunnel into the room – a LOT of movement.

DM Notes (2012): This was a fun session as the party had complete trust in Brother Egil - until the rock crusher started up. Fortunately it wasn't really him. The pacing was pretty good on this adventure and the way it played out leading from one interesting situation into another. Tylock's player wasn't super happy about being killed by a trap but he did make a go of it - and who is happy about that kind of death, really?

Flashback - Savage Tides of Kalamar - Session 14

Session 14
Terror Comes to Freeport
November 11, 2008

Players:

Sean – Dorian Windseeker, High Elf Ranger/Rogue

Gary – Katan, Half-Hobgoblin Paladin

Bec – Arianne, Grey Elf Cleric of The Lantern

Rebec – Quillathe, Grey Elf Paladin of The Lantern (Previously dead but raised last session)

Steve – Tylock, Human Fighter

Sherry – Michella, Human Wizard

Will – Solveliss, High Elf Sorcerer

Dave – Razik, Human Fighter/Rogue

Our story begins at The Scholar’s Quill, a tavern in the temple district of Freeport, across from the Temple Library of The Mule, god of knowledge. The party is meeting Brother Egil to discuss the new troubles he mentioned in his letter. He tells them that something was in the room he was sharing with his fellow temple worker and that he sees strange things happening all over the city. he is concerned that since Milos was using magic to hide his true form, how much damage did he really do, and how many others like him are in the city right now? he offers 150gp each, plus expenses, plus free room and board and drinks at the Scholar’s Quill, plus one free healing potion from the temple, if the group will loook into these things. The offer is quickly accepted.

Briefed on the situation, the team spreads out. Dorian heads for Milos’ old house, now under guard as the city dismantles the temple underneath it. The rest head for the Black Gull, asking after Milos under his other false identity, but has no luck. Later,after splitting up again, Katan, Razik, Michella, and Solveliss head to the Old City district and track Milos to The Marquis Moon, a somewhat run-down inn. Bribing the innkeeper (his son, really) they gain access to Milos’ old room and thouroughly search it. Discovering a small book, they decide to head back to the Quill and discuss their findings with the rest of the party.

Stepping out of the inn, they see 3 orc pirates accosting a young human carrying a satchel. Seeing some friendlier faces, he turns asks for help. The orcs are not interested in discussing things rationally and a fight breaks out on the darkened street. Once the adventurers gain the upper hand on the thugs, the messenger thanks Michella for the help and leaves. Some minutes later, she realize that she no longer has the book – apparently the messenger in trouble picked her pocket while the fight was going on. Somewhat dejected, they return to the quill.

Dorian has also returned to the quill. He followed a recovery team from Milos’s old house through the city streets until it reached the house of Verlaine, head of the Captain’s Council, the governing body of Freeport, and the Sea Lord Drac’s right hand man. The convoy passed through the gates of the compound and he was not going to try and follow them solo.

Quillathe leads a small team to Verlaine’s to try and get some answers. They are stonewalled by the guards though they do meet the captain of his guards and leave a message requesting an audience.

Another team heads to the city records department and, after establishing a bond with the clerk, manages to get a look at some maps of the city’s streets and sewer systems and determines that the sewers might be involved in how some things are happening.

The next day Verlaine’s guards show up at the quill and ask the party to come with them. The group complies although Dorian, who is not known to the guards, drops back and follows them in the shadows. The troop heads for the justice building, is taken inside, and the company is asked to remove their weapons. Begrudgingly they comply.

A short while later, Verlaine himself walks in. he berates the group for interfering in city business and insulting him by implying that he doesn’t know what he’s doing. He is clearly unhappy with their activities, though he thanks them for their previous service in busting up the serpent cult.

Irritated and insulted, Quillathe is preparing to lead the group out when Brother Egil bursts in and stops the meeting, leading the group out of the building. He has used the power of his temple to intervene, declaring them agents of the Mule and thus free from interrogation. He informs them that someone broke into his quarters and carried off his fellow cleric.

Believing they can follow the thugs, the party drops down into the sewer near the abduction point and prepares to take action.

DM Notes (2012) - There is a certain balance between roleplay and combat that my players want, and this session had a lot of walking and talking and not nearly so much hitting things as had been typical. On top of it the city officials were being very high handed with them and that was guaranteed to annoy Bec and Rebec at least. I was somewhat surprised to get them out of the justice building without violence.

Flashback - Savage Tides of Kalamar - Session 13

 Session 13
Who's going to clean up this mess?
October 25, 2008

Players:

Sean – Dorian Windseeker, High Elf Ranger/Rogue

Gary – Katan, Half-Hobgoblin Paladin

Bec – Arianne, Grey Elf Cleric of The Lantern

Rebec – Quillathe, Grey Elf Paladin of The Lantern (deceased) Liamae, Human Sorceress

Steve – Tylock, Human Fighter

Sherry – Michella, Human Wizard

Will – Solveliss, High Elf Sorcerer

(Party levelled up, most are 4th now)

Our Heroes begin in the basement of the Vanderboren mansion, catching their breath after a hard fight. Searching the area they discover that Liamae, the prisoner, had not managed to kill herself but was instead attempting to fake her own death and had succeeded a little too well, putting herlself into unconsciousness. The party revivied her, Tylock, and Arianne with some spells and healing potions, but nothing could be done for Quillathe. After a few moments of silence, they headed upstairs, leaving the body of their companion behind.

Moving quickly, the warriors moved up to he ground floor, then up additional flights of stairs. Encountering no one, they continued a rapid search of the house.

On the 3rd floor, the group discovered what appeared to be Lavinia’s room, where a fight had taken place, as indicated by the dead bullyug still in the room. Next door they discovered an undisturbed room they suspected might belong to Vanthus. Finally, investigating the last room, they heard noises inside. Readying weapons, Dorian kicked in the door.

Inside was a disturbing scene – Lavinia, the housekeeper halfling, and 2 more members of the “A-team” were tied to chairs in the middle of the room. All of them appeared unconscious and at least one them was injured. A large, heavily muscled and tatooed half-orc was rolling off the large bed in one corner, scimitar at the ready. A huge, bloated frog-man was seated in a chair opposite the door and was already casting a spell of some kind.

Dorian moved to free the hostages, Katan charged the frog-man while the wizards began shooting at the same target. Katan was briefly double-teamed by the half-orc and the frog priest, while a Fiendish Wolverine materialized among the group at the entrance and scattered the magic-users.

Dorian discovered that the housekeeper was dead, throat cut. he moved to free Lavinia who appeared to be awake but pulled back when he realized her chair was trapped. The Half-Orc pulled out of the fight with Katan and ordered the group to hold as he held his blade to Lavinia’s throat.

Aggressive negotiations ensued when the party tried to convince Drevoraz that His captain, Harliss Javell, had sent the party to stop him. Eventually (Need to know who made that last roll) he was convinced and made a deal with the party – let him leave unharmed and the group could do what they wanted. The Bullywug shaman in the room lost it at this point and began attacking the party. Drevoraz held out of this fight while the band quickly dispatched the crazed frog-man. After this, the half orc left to find his captain and the party began freeing hostages.

Lavinia was alive and mostly unhurt, though she was now clearly done with her brother, Vanthus. She thanked the party for rescuing her, put them on a bigger retainer, then asked for some time to consider her options as she was planning to have them hunt down her brother for justice and not a little revenge.

During this aftermath, the group took the opportunity to recover and refit. Wounds were healed, diseases were cured, salvaged equipment was sold and new equipment was purchased. Some special items were even comissioned.

In the middle of these operations, amessage arrived from Brother Egil in Freeport. He requested the party’s aid in solving another problem, as it appeared the evil they encountered previously had returned and was plaging his temple and the city once again. Our heroes finished outfitting and hopped aboard a ship to Freeport on Pelsday, the 2nd of Sowing, Year of the King 1044, almost a month after thay had left that city. Trading stories with the crew along the way, they were unaware of the danger they were about to face…

DM Comments 2012:

The adventure has a sort of rival team of adventurers working for the Vanderborens in the early chapters and the running joke had been that they were the "A" team while the PC's were the "B" team - this clearly changed as of this session. Also there were some "negotiations" between the elf cleric and a member of the A team that might have led somewhere eventually but I don't believe that they ever did.