Quote from: MeatLips;327440Sorry. I already made other plans.

got a hot date or another show at the Ramrod?

Quote from: imurrx;327561got a hot date or another show at the Ramrod?

I'm betting he was at Ramrod

Not sure if you guys are working tomorrow or not, but if not why don't we try getting together earlier, and we can squeeze in a cookout.

Okay. Let's recap things a bit. Here's the current cast of characters....

* Reven Tyge (Mutt): Reven is a 9th-level Dragon Shaman. He appears as a large, hulking, human wielding a bastard sword. However, his true strength lies in the wide array of bizarre, magical powers at his disposal, such as breathing fire, healing, breathing under water, and more. If something is flammable, he likes to burn it, if it wears a skirt, he likes to bang it, and if something is valuable, he likes to take it. He'd make a great Dragon.

* Blumpy Boo (Blumpy): Blumpy has been away for a while, and is reuniting with the group again. He appears as a non-descript Human, and is classed as a 5th-level Cleric/2nd-level Radiant Servant of Pelor, with the "Saint" template. Part of his shtick is that he's taken a Vow of Poverty, and thus wanders aimlessly about with only the clothes on his back. Despite his vast clerical powers, he has a very fatalistic demeanor, rendering him ineffectual in most situations. Experience dictates that he must be incessantly nagged in order to compel him to do anything...

* Horatio Tortolla (imurrx): Horatio is a 9th-level Human Artificer, non-descript in appearance. He is calm, focused, and usually resorts to diplomacy when matters become stressed. Horatio continues to act as the party's magical engineer and primary source of non-magical artillery. He also remains our primary source of magical identification.

* Kratos (imurrx): Kratos is a Warforged, which is an artificial golem-like being transported from the Eberron campaign setting. He's classed as a 5th-level Fighter/4th-level Warforged Juggernaut, and could be classified as a walking, talking tank. Basically, he's renouncing his organic side, and becoming more truly a mechanical construct. It's kinda weird. I think that means he's immune to regular healing spells now, so that does make things more complicated...:hmm:

* Hrothgar (me): Hrothgar is a 9th-level Battle Sorceror, appearing as an athletic Human armed with multiple weapons, though his primary weapon is an enchanted maul (large hammer), which he uses to crush his enemies. He possesses a wide array of spells, such as artillery magic (Magic Missile, Flaming Sphere, Lightning Bolt), shaping spells (Wood Shape, Stone Shape), and healing magic (various Cure spells).

* Banjo (me): Banjo is an intelligent, wisecracking raven....acting as Hrothgar's familiar (companion familiar), and occasional comic relief. He still can't fight for shit, and is the constant recipient of verbal abuse from the rest of the group (they often threaten to eat him :rolleyes:), yet he remains a valuable member of the party. His speed, night vision, and flying ability all make him an excellent scout, and he's still an excellent conduit for many of Hrothgar's spells....

* Chinook (me): Chinook is the newest member of the group; an intelligent wolf, curious about everything, and constantly hungry....also acting as Hrothgar's animal companion (companion familiar). He acts as a passable tracker, and as Hrothgar's personal bodyguard. He follows the rest of his unusual human "pack mates", considering them to merely be "odd-looking wolves on two feet".

Information on what's happening in the campaign will be revealed later...

It's been a while since I've posted, so if I forget a few things, or post events out of order, please feel free to have a conniption fit. In any case, I'm going to compress things a bit. I'll describe two sessions, starting with the session from a couple weeks ago in this post. Our last gaming session will be described in my next post...


 
=Session 1=

We're in the city of Brindol, which is in danger of imminent attack by the forces of the Red Hand. Our goal is to defend it. At some point, we discern the presence of both a Manticore and a Red Dragon flying high above Brindol, spying on the city below. The DM unwisely believes that extreme distance renders them safe from our attacks, and is caught with his pants down....

Hrothgar then launches a volley of Fireballs, which eventually slays the Manticore. The Red Dragon flies off, unharmed....

We devise a plan. It's our goal to create a 30-foot wide moat to surround the city, and then surround that moat with dense foliage through the application of multiple Plant Growth spells. Horatio is hard at work crafting these Plant Growth scrolls, while the rest of the group assists in the formation of the moat, and searches for other ways to help fortify the city. It's our hope that doing so will slow the enemy's advance.

We're in the heart of the city, when we suddenly hear the sound of a loud explosion. When we rush forward to investigate, we see that the dam separating the moat from the river has been destroyed, causing the moat to flood before it was fully prepared.

This...."incident" spurred a loud and rabid discussion about the speed of water. There was an argument. We became irate after the DM informed us that almost a mile of moat was instantly filled by water, and that this flood killed 800 men. Well...um...he eventually amended that to 200 men, or so. I think. :rolleyes:

In any case, we desperately scoured the area for evidence of some form of explosive, and we eventually recovered a fragment of something from the moat. At this point, we confront Captain Lars Ulverth. He's interrogating his men about what happened, but at that point I get irritated, and have Hrothgar strongly berate him and his men for their incompetence. The DM seems a bit surprised at my vehemence, but when I get pissed off enough, I wake the fuck up.

Anyway, we interrogate the soldiers, and they seem frightened, but only in a general way that we don't yet understand, so that session does not end with a smile...:mad:

To be continued...

I am working until 5 pm. So 6 pm would be good for me. I can try to convince my wife. someone call me at work tomorrow to finalize

=Session 2=

Okay, now we're on our previous gaming session....

We continue to investigate the source of the explosion, and discover a few things. After talking with a Gynosphinx (and making a million bad gynecologist jokes) named Alandri at the Red Magic & Sundries, we discover that the three guardsmen who were on duty have been imprisoned for criminal negligence of their duties, and also that the old wizard, Immerstal, had six casks (16 lbs each) of gunpowder stolen from him.

We come up with an idea, and have Horatio use an infusion to simulate a Scrying spell to find the person that caused the explosion. We discover that who we're seeking is some woman named Mya or Mia or something. She's someone we saw earlier on, but that we simply ignored. Reven then encourages Chinook to try to track her down. We eventually find the inn she supposedly was staying at.

When we reach the inn, we begin interrogating the barkeep, who nervously tells us where Mia's room is. Some of the town mercenaries don't like the way we're throwing our weight around, and start getting in our faces, but Kratos acts a barrier between them and Reven. Reven then marches the bartender up to Mia's room. When the door is opened....

....there's an explosion!

 The barkeep ain't feeling too great. We race upstairs to see what happened. Everyone's scopin' out the hallway and then the room, while I have Hrothgar heal the poor barkeep. We need to find her quickly, so I have Chinook attempt to track her down again. This time, we're lead on a wild goose chase outside the city walls. Chinook becomes confused, as the scent of his quarry changes in a subtle way. In any case, we keep going. Eventually, the trail ends at and up a large tree. I decide to have Banjo fly up there and check it out. So the Raven darts upward, and shouts,

"Hey, guys! I see webs up here!"

We see nothing, and hear nothing, so Reven decides to burn down the tree.

Eventually, the tree falls.....right down on Hrothgar and Banjo. That hurt. :mad:



Anyway, we return to town, and decide to speak with the town guardsmen that were jailed. I'm getting irritated, and we need answers. We're permitted to interrogate them.

We ask very precise questions, and discover that their description of her matches what we've seen. She gave them ale, and shortly thereafter, they passed out, but not before they witnessed an unusual sight. They told us that the very waters of the river rose up and crashed over the dam, and into the canal.

During all this, I came to a stunning conclusion. I considered that we're possibly facing a Druid. A Druid could have caused the explosion at the inn, using a Fire Trap spell, could have used a modified version of Wild Shape with the Vermin Shape feat, and transformed into a giant spider outside of the city walls, which could explain Chinook noticing the change in scent, and Banjo seeing the presence of the web in the tree. Then, what the town guardsmen described happening at the river could have at least been partially achieved via a Control Water spell, which is magic attainable by mid-level Druids. Plus, if she gave them drugged or poisoned ale, and drank it with them, she could conceivably be completely unaffected by it, as high-level Druids are immune to poison.

It all makes sense. :pundit:

So there you have it, folks. We have little time to find that treacherous she-bitch before the Red Hand marches on Brindol, so we'd best act fast....

Quote from: Mutt;327724I'm betting he was at Ramrod

Funny, isn't that where you went on Thursday night?

so how about Tuesday???

Quote from: imurrx;328413so how about Tuesday???

Sounds good to me.

Tonight is good with me

I got a doctors appointment at 6:30, but I should be back home by 7:15 or so.

so I should see you guys about 7:45?

Meatlips is driving. I drove last time.

EPIC FAIL

for all

:banghead:

Quote from: imurrx;328860EPIC FAIL

for all

:banghead:

Agreed. I really don't wanna describe last night's session.....because honestly, why lengthen the agony? But you know what? Just for the sake of clarity, I'll explain the basics. Last night, it took us over an hour to get started. Mutt was yapping about his girlfriend, but it didn't bug me, because I was tweaking the spell list for my character, and nobody else seemed to mind.....at first. Then the food delivery guy came, just as we were starting, so that slowed things down.

After this, MeatLips described what happened, but the way the scenario was set up, half the party couldn't contribute at all, and even those that could contribute, could only do so in a very limited capacity. Allow me to explain...:pundit:

My character, Hrothgar hears marching, so I send his Raven familiar, Banjo, to fly up and investigate. He can vaguely see a couple dragons and a mass of soldiers approaching, so we alert Jaarmath and the city guardsmen. Okay....then what? The armies of the Red Hand have begun to lay siege to the city of Brindol. We're defending it, right?

We go up onto the city walls. It's a waiting game right now, since we're not in charge of the city's defense. We built a moat and magically grew some foliage around the city to keep out the enemy, but it seems all we can do is wait. We're not in charge of the soldiers, or the siege artillery (if there is any), or any of that. So what can we do?

We hear "thuds" on the side of the western wall. Boulders are being thrown by giants. How do we know? Well, the DM told us, but he also said it was so dark that we couldn't see them. In fact, he said it was now pitch black, so we couldn't see anything. We couldn't hear anything either, apparently...

So how do we know giants that we cannot see are throwing boulders? Honestly, I have no fucking clue. So anyway, the gates are being relentlessly hammered. It's then, that one of the dragons swoops down and starts breathing fire on the city. Of course, it's happening so far away that we're unable to do anything about it. This bullshit went on for a while, with us getting increasingly frustrated, and if it seems I'm being unfair, think about this...

(A.) We can't stop the walls from being hammered. We're told that giants are doing it, but no NPC told us this. We just "know" it.

(B.) It's pitch black both inside the walls and out, and we can't see or hear shit. The only time this changes is when a boulder is almost in our faces, or when the impact of a stone is clanging against the walls. Oh, and we can also see fire illuminating a section of the other side of the city. Of course, the dragon flies off before we can do anything about it. :rolleyes:

(C.) Mutt starts snoring. He fell asleep while this went on, but honestly.....I just can't blame him. I was mildly frustrated, but mostly bored. imurrx was pissed when Mutt started snoring, but nothing was fucking happening. This session was going terribly.

(D.) Even when I used tactics, they seemed mostly ineffectual. Since we couldn't see or hear dick, I decided to cast Light on one of Horatio's crossbow bolts, and had him fire it at what we assumed was the source of the boulders. Guess what the lighted arrow revealed? Nothing. Oh, wait...it might have partially revealed one giant, but I don't really remember. Anyway, I had Hrothgar cast Fireball, but he inflicted piddling damage on a few giants, so it was basically a waste.

(E.) The other characters had nothing to do. Seriously. What can we have Kratos or Reven do? The only two characters with ranged attacks are Horatio and Hrothgar, and we have limited resources. The attack barely started, and yet Hrothgar already used up a shitload of magic.

So I finally got frustrated, and said...

"Let's just run out and attack."

Yes, it's tactically and almost suicidally stupid, but I was getting fed up. We all were. Honestly, for the first time, Mike's plaintive wail:

"I can't do anything!" :idunno:

...actually made sense.

This adventure module is a bad fit for us, and last night's session blew goats. It just wasn't working. Honestly, we should be focusing more on dungeon environments, because they'll be less of a pain-in-the-ass for Kramer-san to DM.

Oh, and Kramer (MeatLips)....if you decide to continue with this, then I hope you took our conversation with you on the drive home to heart. Now I will tell you guys what our precious DM should do.

(1.) Make an exciting event happen right away in our vicinity, at the beginning of the gaming session, and provide us with an immediate chance to respond to it. What do I mean? Here are examples...

(1a.) A meteorite streaks out of the sky, and falls in our general vicinity. It potentially has religious significance to both sides in the conflict, and is enough to temporarily frighten the dragons. Something strange is inside of it...
(1b.) A small band of Hobgoblins discovers a secret route into the city, and attacks our characters out of fear that our characters have seen them. Maybe someone we know let them in....
(1c.) A small band of assassins hired by the woman we were tracking attempts to kill us. They might be disguised as midwives or as guardsmen or as anyone else.
(1d.) Some courtesans are looking for a little action before the city burns down, and make a pass at a couple of the characters.
(1e.) A small Pseudodragon hides in the bushes, following us around, possibly looking for help. It's carrying an artifact of some sort that it wishes to hide from the Red Hand, and considers only our group to be strong enough and trustworthy enough to hold it. Maybe it stole something from the Lich, and knows about our encounter with it...
(1f.) A few secret Red Hand loyalists attempt to incite a riot within the city walls. People are injured, and property is damaged. If something isn't done about it, it could hinder defense of the city.
(1g.) A group of bards start playing music in the middle of the city. Nero played a fiddle while Rome burned; why can't they?

There's more that could be done, but these are just examples. Feel free, Captain DM, to come up with your own ideas...

(2.) Describe everything. What's the style of architecture for the buildings? Are there people in the streets? How are they dressed? How do they react to us and to each other?  Every city has a feel. We should be hearing the "clang-on-clang" of metal as people begin forging weapons. We should smell the cooking fires, hear the buzz of insects, and people laughing and screaming. What about children? Where are they? Or animals? Draft horses, cats, barking dogs, pigeons, rats, you name it.

(3.) Make us care. Yes, the city is under siege, but we're not emotionally invested in it. None of the NPCs matter. They're mostly forgettable. Some NPCs should be goofy, some hostile, and some helpful. Give them simple names and memorable personality quirks. And anyway, what's so special about this city that we should bother to defend it? I'll be damned if I know, as our DM hasn't really described it.

(4.) Give us an enemy to hate. Yeah, that's right. We need a douchebag with a name. Give him flunkies. He should have plans that oppose our own. And remember, not every enemy has to be an uber-powerful wizard or like fucking "Doctor Evil" from the Austin Powers movies. Maybe we'll just be harassed by the local sleazeball tax collector and his Half-Ogre sidekick for "failure to pay a transportation tax" or a "weapons tax" or a "livestock tax" or other such bullshit. There are always options.

Right now, there's a limit to what can be done, because we're in the middle of a pitched battle, in which we impotently cannot do anything. So, MeatLips, my boy....you're gonna have to be more creative if you wanna turn this lemon into lemonade....:cool: