# Ptolus: Midwood - "The Dark Waters of Moss Pond"



## Whizbang Dustyboots (Dec 9, 2006)

This is the discussion thread for the Ptolus: Midwood Story Hour. Please keep all discussion of the Story Hour in this thread. I'll be revealing a little information about creatures, spells, NPCs and adventures in here. But this is an ongoing campaign, so not _every_ secret can be revealed.

Although set in the "current day" of Ptolus, this play by post campaign (which has been played daily since January 2006) is set at the other end of the empire, on the Prustan Peninsula, south of Grail Keep, near the border to Kem.

But although the adventures start off in the Barony of Midwood and the surrounding Tulgey Wood, soon enough, some of the adventurers end up on the road, heading into some of the more exotic locations of the world of Praemal.

And although they're a world away from City by the Spire, many familiar elements and names from Ptolus crop up (or are uncovered) in Midwood as time goes on ...


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Dec 9, 2006)

*Into the Woods* uses two maps from the excellent PDF publisher 0one Games:

Maidensbridge -- its name will be explained at a later date -- is a modified Wodfield, while the cairn Fibber directs the party to is the Ruined Cairn from 0one's Cairns set of maps.

The holidays the adventurers mention are from Top Fashion Games' excellent Fantasy Holidays series. To avoid stepping on their Intellectual Property too hard (the PDFs are all of $1 each!), I won't be explaining most of the holidays in detail. Blood Feast I explained to the extent that I did, because otherwise it would be an essentially incomprehensible reference.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Dec 9, 2006)

All of the player characters are level 1. Emus Greymullet is a Grailwarden dwarf (see the Ptolus Big Book), so he's missing the anti-giant/goblinoid stuff that Stonelost dwarves get, and instead has a background with technological items. But he's a Grizzly Adams sort, so that's not likely to be obvious for a long time, if ever.

The Bergin gnomes are whisper gnomes and no one in the barony trusts them. Tosh's cousins show up in a later adventure and cause a lot of havoc just for the hell of it.

As you may have noticed, all of the player characters know each other. That was a conscious requirement on my part, as I thought it would promote harmony in the group. THAT didn't work out so well, but everyone's rich backgrounds have provided a lot of fodder for futher adventures, and some of their relatives get drawn into the fray as the campaign goes along, and more of them are in for it in the future.


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## Angel Tarragon (Dec 9, 2006)

I am absolutely loving your Storyhour Whizbang! I love it! This is the second storyhour thread I've subscribed to!


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## Trench (Dec 10, 2006)

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
			
		

> As you may have noticed, all of the player characters know each other. That was a conscious requirement on my part, as I thought it would promote harmony in the group.




*snort*

a-heh. ha-ha! HA! BWAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

ahem.


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## bissichan (Dec 10, 2006)

It's the thought that counts, boss.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Dec 28, 2006)

In point of fact, Tock robbed the bodies of the kobolds, taking a wand and other items. It's a wand of _Wikanby's dragon bolt_, which you can find in the Koboldnomicon from Bards & Sages Press. (Wikanby, his tribe, his spells and a few other spells are my contribution to that book.)

Is he going to use it later? Is he going to sell it? Is he going to "discover" it and give it to someone who can use it?

_No ..._

You will wince in horror when you see what happens to the first magical item encountered by the heroes of Midwood. (And it'll be the first time seeing it all happen for some of the players.)


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## Tock Chandler (Dec 29, 2006)

Heheheheheh.


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## Tock Chandler (Dec 29, 2006)

And, yes, folks, I'm Tock's player.  Whether you end up loving or hating the scamp, I hope you enjoy him.


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## Gnome Quixote (Dec 30, 2006)

I _so_ can't wait to see what the deal was with all that. I just _knew_ Tock had taken _something_. I kept waiting for it to surface, but it never did..._or so I thought!_


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## Gnome Quixote (Dec 31, 2006)

HA! I'd forgotten all about the butter. One of my favorite exchanges in the OOC thread came out of that:


			
				Renraw said:
			
		

> Ok, if you eat all of that butter, you're going to hell for ruining my grease trap.





			
				Bufer said:
			
		

> That's hilarious. It wasn't even intentional--I was just trying to be gross and weird--but eating the butter to ruin the grease trap after you guys have gone to all this trouble is exactly the kind of thing Bufer would do.





			
				Whizbang said:
			
		

> Who else thinks that Bufer is destined for a horrible accident?





			
				Emus said:
			
		

> We need to keep Gnomes and Halflings around so that Emus doesn't become the butt of the short jokes. This is very important.


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## Tock Chandler (Jan 1, 2007)

It will be quite an anti-climax, I think.


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## Trench (Jan 2, 2007)

Heh. Almost forgot just how much we were Team Bicker.


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## Trench (Jan 4, 2007)

And now for one of my favorite moments of the entire campaign so far.



			
				Whizbang Dustyboots said:
			
		

> "
> "S-so ... cold ..."




Yes, for those reading, that's Renraw. Shivering away and convulsing in pain as the other party members casually discuss the statues.

It never gets less funny every time I read it.


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## bissichan (Jan 4, 2007)

To his 4 hit points, the statue did what 1-2 of Con damage? 

I laugh every time I read "prithee".


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Jan 4, 2007)

It was a Chill Touch trap. It did several points of damage and a point of Strength damage.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Jan 4, 2007)

The beast was a giant owl with the shadow creature template from the Manual of Planes attached. If I had the book at the time, I would have used the dark creature template from the Tome of Magic instead.

This fight was one of two encounters that illustrated that an unusually large 3E group really makes a hash of standard CR numbers. I overcompensate a bit in the next adventure (along with the players surprising me by dividing their forces), with dramatic results.


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## bissichan (Jan 4, 2007)

Don't I know it.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Jan 6, 2007)

Renraw was a student at St. Feldin's College of Abjuration in Tarsis before he had to turn around and come home when his family's embezzlement was found out.

This was originally meant to be St. John's College of Abjuration, but I didn't pick it up since there was no pressing need for it, and I later substituted a Praemal saint once the Big Book was released. (St. Feldin is known as "The Faultless" and "The Rock of Faith.")

Over the course of the campaign, Renraw's player and I have fleshed out the college in dribs and drabs, with fellow students and professors being mentioned and alluded to. I've also tied a few Ptolus NPCs to the college, although the players haven't yet met them.


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## Tock Chandler (Jan 8, 2007)

Did Tock take part in that adventure?  I don't remember what he did.


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## Gnome Quixote (Jan 10, 2007)

Tock Chandler said:
			
		

> Did Tock take part in that adventure?  I don't remember what he did.



This was the second adventure, the one that was _supposed_ to be merely an epilogue to the first, and wound up surprising us (including Whiz, I suspect). Tock spent most of it back in town at the Cat & Fiddle, I believe.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Jan 10, 2007)

Gnome Quixote said:
			
		

> This was the second adventure, the one that was _supposed_ to be merely an epilogue to the first, and wound up surprising us (including Whiz, I suspect). Tock spent most of it back in town at the Cat & Fiddle, I believe.



Until the epilogue of the epilogue.


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## Emus Graymullet (Jan 10, 2007)

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
			
		

> I overcompensate a bit in the next adventure (along with the players surprising me by dividing their forces), with dramatic results.



I've gone back and reread those results numerous times. I'm looking forward to seeing them transcribed here!


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Jan 12, 2007)

And yes, we do eventually hear the hymn, "The Pantsing of Mithra," and it does indeed include a pie fight.

I want the ruined magocracy of Kem in my campaign to have a lot of the flavor of Stygia in Robert E. Howard's Conan stories, so I added REH-inspired versions of Mithra and Set in my version of Praemal.

Here are the versions of each god in my campaign:


> *Mithra*
> 
> Mithra, the god of soldiers, is often pictured as a tall man with wide-set, piercing eyes, curly hair and a patriarchal beard. He is most popular in Uraq and regions bordering the Southern Sea, but his worship has spread throughout the soldiers of the Tarsisian Empire, much to the annoyance of the Church of Lothian.
> 
> ...





> *Set*
> 
> One of the gods of ancient Uraq, Father Set is a dark and sinister deity associated with darkness, serpents, magic and death. Strange cults in the Sea Kingdoms, Uraq, Kem and the Distant South exist to this day.
> 
> ...



And no, neither of those is historically accurate nor attempts to be.


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## Gnome Quixote (Jan 13, 2007)

Heh. I knew it had been referenced a few times throughout the campaign, but I didn't realize how far back 'The Pantsing of Mithra' actually went. I love how little throwaway references like that keep coming to the fore later on.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Jan 19, 2007)

Some of these elements that baffled Bufer and company in their first adventure are only becoming clear a year later, with continuing revelations about the politics of the Green Mountain Kobolds and, soon, some more information about the culture that created Fibber's Cairn from another set of ruins originally created by the same ancients.


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## Gnome Quixote (Jan 20, 2007)

Emmerson's reference to "Onward, Onward, Brave Soldiers"--and his awful, off-key singing of it--is another throwaway line that gets picked up on and turned into a running joke throughout the campaign: 


> *Onward, Onward, Brave Soldiers*
> 
> A traditional Lothian hymn, with over 37 non-repeating verses, Onward, Onward Brave Soldiers is at least somewhat familiar to most residents of Midwood, even if they've never heard the entire composition, or if they hope they'll never have to.
> 
> Soldiers of the Baron's army are expected to know the entire song, though not through any edict: it's just a hazing tradition passed down from one generation of soldiers to the next. The song's steady, easy rythm makes it a standard on long marches and during the completion of other mind-numbing tasks. In some divisions, it is known colloquially as "The Peeling Song."



For a party that only includes one bard, we wind up being an extremely musical bunch.


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## Trench (Jan 21, 2007)

heh. We have a list of Tock's songs also, but many of them are.. shall we say... ribald.


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## Tock Chandler (Jan 24, 2007)

Trench said:
			
		

> heh. We have a list of Tock's songs also, but many of them are.. shall we say... ribald.




Well only if you're THINKING that way.  "Winking eye of brown" isn't dirty!


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Jan 24, 2007)

Let's just say Eric's grandma would object to some of them. There will be the subtlest of edits as needed to reflect ENWorld posting policies.

Oh, and as much as I know people enjoy such things, I will be skimming over most of the haggling with Therurt that follows the group's return to the village, leaving in only an incident that sets the adventurers on their next (complete surprise to the DM) adventure and, ultimately, turns the campaign pretty dramatically, with ramifications that are still going on a year later and are unlikely to ever stop echoing.

Simple (and arguably unnecessary, in this case) greed on the part of Renraw causes a pebble to roll down the mountainside and causes an avalanche.


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## Gnome Quixote (Jan 27, 2007)

Heh. Reading this last bit has reminded me just how different Bufer was _intended_ to be from how he turned out. As tricksier as he's gotten with age, it seems so wildly out of character now for him to be blindly following orders, and talking so casually about hoodwinking the rest of the party.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Jan 27, 2007)

And it reminds me of how much I need to set an adventure inside Wit's End!

A maze of twisty little passages, all alike ...


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## Trench (Jan 27, 2007)

Trust me, I feel the same way with Kat. Who is just about to be introduced I think...


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## Emus Graymullet (Jan 29, 2007)

I like the character that Emus is developing into, but rereading our adventures illustrates just how inconsistent I've been with his redneck speech patterns.

Sure 'nough! Yep! Boy howdy!


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Jan 31, 2007)

Midwood players may remember that Lars Kramer and his store went unnamed until recently (the currently played adventure, in fact). I've gone back and added his name and the appropriate details to the Story Hour, as well as making the Rando of then and the Rando of now match a little better.

The Kramers and Rando will be more important in adventures to come.


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## Tock Chandler (Feb 1, 2007)

Frukathka said:
			
		

> I am absolutely loving your Storyhour Whizbang! I love it! This is the second storyhour thread I've subscribed to!




Think this one got run off yet?


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Feb 1, 2007)

Tock Chandler said:
			
		

> Think this one got run off yet?



I think the next adventure, which should begin next week some time, will be the make/break point, as the campaign really finds its voice(s).


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Feb 3, 2007)

And that's the end of "Into the Woods." The next adventure, "A Meeting in the Woods," spins out of the adventurers following up on the note found in the scroll tube and trying to catch Tiberius and his fellow bandits at their rendezvous. Of course, there _is_ no Tiberius, which means that Tock's and Renraw's plan quickly spins out of control in ways that no one (certainly including me) could ever have predicted.


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## Tock Chandler (Feb 3, 2007)

Hee hee hee!  Did everyone know that there was no Tiberius?


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## Trench (Feb 3, 2007)

Kat actually suspected. But his reason for doing so isn't until the next adventure...


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## bissichan (Feb 3, 2007)

Tock Chandler said:
			
		

> Hee hee hee!  Did everyone know that there was no Tiberius?




Emmerson was completely blindsided.


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## Gnome Quixote (Feb 3, 2007)

As was Bufer. Sweet jeebus in a smoking birchbark canoe! You rat bastards!!

It really casts everything that follows in a whole different light, don't it?


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Feb 3, 2007)

Gnome Quixote said:
			
		

> It really casts everything that follows in a whole different light, don't it?



Given everything that follows, it really raises Renraw from a Baltar pastiche to a Shakespearean villain, especially since, if he knew how it all would turn out, he'd probably have done it anyway.


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## Gnome Quixote (Feb 4, 2007)

In keeping with gnomish tradition, and their general obsession with names, it's become a practice for Bufer to be assigned a new one by one of the other characters during the course of each adventure, either inadvertantly or otherwise.

This adventure's name was actually one I'd wanted to give Bufer from the outset, although it was Renraw who gave me the justification for it:



> Malpractice is a name Bufer adopted shortly after the adventure in Fibber's Cairn, inadvertantly given to him by Renraw Kem. Incensed by Bufer's refusal to heal him on the grounds that he was teaching Kem an object lesson, Kem insisted to anyone who would listen that he would have sued the cleric for malpractice, had be been a "real doctor". Though he'd never heard the word before (and wasn't quite sure what it meant), Bufer liked the sound of it, and added the name as a remembrance of his first true test as a servant of Garl Glittergold.



Henceforth he is known as Ebuferpaly Whitethatch Malpractice Potentloins...at least until the next adventure.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Feb 5, 2007)

The second Midwood adventure began on April 25, 2006. It's nothing I had planned on, but Renraw's scheme created an apparent plot hook for the group, and about half of them wanted to pursue it. So now, I had the prospect of people sitting around in the snow, waiting for a fictious bandit to show up and meet up with his cronies.

I waited longer than I probably should have for the conspirators to do anything to throw the rest of the group a bone before deciding to do _something_ to keep everyone entertained. Who else, I wondered, might show up at Fibber's Cairn?

And the snowball Renraw had rolled downhill thus turns into an avalanche even faster, especially when the idealistic Bufer and dangerously heroic Emmerson get swept up in events.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Feb 7, 2007)

Emus can read because, at second level, he multiclassed as a barbarian 1/druid 1. Other choices that will make a powergamer cringe are yet to come.


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## Emus Graymullet (Feb 8, 2007)

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
			
		

> Emus can read because, at second level, he multiclassed as a barbarian 1/druid 1. Other choices that will make a powergamer cringe are yet to come.



Totally! Emus eventually got an animal companion, and Handle Animal is both a Barbarian _and_ a Druid class skill!

Oh. You meant that other thing.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Feb 8, 2007)

The note in the cairn? _Also_ a fabrication by Tock and Renraw. Goblin Falls is the village at the base of the road leading down from the Anvil Plateau, and is the closest settlement to the borders of the barony in the Duchy of Southerly.


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## Trench (Feb 13, 2007)

Did you edit out the kobold rumors Whiz?

BLASPHEMY! Come now!


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Feb 13, 2007)

There's no way they could have been made to work under ENWorld's "Eric's grandma" standard.


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## Trench (Feb 14, 2007)

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
			
		

> There's no way they could have been made to work under ENWorld's "Eric's grandma" standard.




Well phooey.

For those reading, Tock told a rather ribald rumor that the Constable lost his leg indulging in unwholsome appetites with dragons and dragonkin. Renraw also spread it at the stake-out, which resulted in Emmerson yelling at him, which then resulted in Hazel telling them to can it.

The rumor is a lie, of course, and just Tock's way of being a bastard.

(And how exactly are you going to handle Flower when he comes up then, Whiz?)


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Feb 14, 2007)

Flower is about the least sexualized romantic interest ever. I don't imagine it'll be a problem. Anything anyone extrapolates on their side of the screen is strictly their own problem.


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## Gnome Quixote (Feb 14, 2007)

Trench said:
			
		

> Well phooey.
> 
> For those reading, Tock told a rather ribald rumor that the Constable lost his leg indulging in unwholsome appetites with dragons and dragonkin. Renraw also spread it at the stake-out, which resulted in Emmerson yelling at him, which then resulted in Hazel telling them to can it.
> 
> The rumor is a lie, of course, and just Tock's way of being a bastard.



Heh. I _thought_ the wait in the snow seemed a little truncated. It seemed to go on forever and a day at the time. Too bad, there was some great character exchanges in all that. 

Hopefully all that stuff gets reinserted in the eventual "extended edition" PDF version. It really _was_ pretty funny.


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## Emus Graymullet (Feb 14, 2007)

> "They die now or when the Queen arrives, either way ..." another interjects.



Ha! That actually makes sense, now!


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## bissichan (Feb 14, 2007)

Makes sense? What queen?


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Feb 14, 2007)

bissichan said:
			
		

> Makes sense? What queen?



No comment.


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## Gnome Quixote (Feb 15, 2007)

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
			
		

> The kobold leader looks at Renraw, baffled.
> 
> "You remember I speak Imperial, softskin?" She gestures with her pick. "Get on your knees and put hands on head. You try and cast a spell, we shoot you in face."



Still love this moment so much. It practically had me rolling on the floor when I first read it, and it still makes me chuckle even now. It's just such a perfect Renraw-as-Baltar moment.


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## bissichan (Feb 16, 2007)

Emmerson really wanted to throttle Renraw. He kept thinking "Lawful Good. Lawful Good. Lawful Good."


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## Tock Chandler (Feb 16, 2007)

That was some quality rumor-mongering.  

To be fair, Tock believes the rumor completely.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Feb 17, 2007)

Yes, Wormy's name is an homage to the great old Dragon comic strip and yes, his recruitment process was stolen from "Asterix the Legionary." They're both classics for a reason.


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## Gnome Quixote (Feb 20, 2007)

I genuinely believed that I had doomed poor Bufer when I had him volunteer to be Pick's hostage. Whizbang and the others didn't exactly reassure me in the OOC thread, either:


			
				Whizbang said:
			
		

> Bufer said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...





			
				Katadid said:
			
		

> Bufer said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...





			
				Hazel said:
			
		

> Bufer said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...





			
				Bufer said:
			
		

> Tucker said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Feb 27, 2007)

Pick's response to Bufer about the roots of kobold vs. gnome hatred draws both on the kobold material from Races of the Dragon and the most recent Ecology of the Kobold article from the Dragon. (Which I think is going to be reprinted in Dragon Ecologies this summer.) While the two don't always agree in their cultural details, their myths dovetail very nicely.

Green Mountain kobold culture, we'll see over time, lifts from both those sources, but is mostly its own thing, since Gax has spent centuries destroying the standard kobold power structures and creating a system that made them all as reliant on her as possible. Naturally, when she vanished, this threw the entire system into chaos, leading to the events of the Midwood campaign.


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## Renraw Kem (Feb 28, 2007)

I want it on record that it was I who started the Constable/Kobold story.  Tock backed me up on it.

And it's not just a rumor.


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## Gnome Quixote (Mar 1, 2007)

"The kobolds stop to gag Bufer" is probaby my favorite line in the campaign thus far.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Mar 1, 2007)

My father, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, likes to quote 19th century Prussian soldier Helmuth von Moltke's line, "no plan survives first contact with the enemy."

This has been very true for the Midwood campaign. This entire adventure was a result of two characters trying to screw the group out of loot that, realistically, they would have probably just handed over to Renraw anyway.

In an effort to have the entire adventure not be sitting in the snow, waiting for non-existent bandits to show up, I decided to have a group of kobold adventurers from Green Mountain come by and recover the dead the Maidensbridge group had discovered inside the cairn in their first adventure.

(The stuff the kobolds allude to were things I had planned for the background of the setting, but I had set things up as sort of a sandbox and intended to let the player characters set the course for the campaign. This adventure set that course, all right.)

I figured I'd show the group -- which included several folks new to D&D -- that kobolds are both kind of wussy in general, but that not all of them will be. So I created three classed kobolds, Pick (cleric of Tiamat 3), Blacktooth (ranger 2), Wormy (rogue 2) and three level 1 warrior mooks. The group could mow down the mooks but the others would be a fun challenge for the full group, but a beatable one -- this was just supposed to be a little side trek, after all.

So, naturally, the group fractures into multiple subgroups, one of the kobolds becomes a hostage, Bufer goes nuts and volunteers himself as a hostage, and then two characters take on a challenge meant for the whole group.

Pick has the Trickery domain, and I decided to play her as smart as possible, as for the past few years, my wife has played a well-respected cleric and priest in various MMORPGs, and I wanted to impart some of that to Pick, and make her a real threat. So she uses her 2nd level domain spell, _invisibility_, blesses her group and then lays in with the fire-and-forget _spiritual weapon_, which was nastier than I realized.

Even with me forgetting to remove Emus' summoned wolf after a single round, things ended up much bloodier than expected. Not everyone is alive by the time Renraw, Katadid and Tucker arrive.

So much for plans. The consequences of Katadid's negotiation with Wormy help snowball Renraw's trick into something that eventually sends the campaign off in yet another direction in the next adventure ...


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## Emus Graymullet (Mar 1, 2007)

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
			
		

> Even with me forgetting to remove Emus' summoned wolf after a single round, things ended up much bloodier than expected.



I'd always wondered if you forgot, or if you were just being nice. So, um, thanks for forgetting!

But yeah, the plan fell to pieces when they sliced Bufer's throat before Emmerson and Emus could even do anything other than show themselves. And then Emus' first target turned invisible. And then it turned out that the kobolds had class levels (Emus really should have targeted that crossbowman, first.)

Um, I'm not actually sure that Emmerson and I really had a plan now that I reread that last paragraph.

Anyway, something I missed the first time around because I was so invested in the combat was Katadid's transition from "One and One" referring to the questions to "One and One" referring to the constable and the deputy. I thought that was neat.


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## Trench (Mar 2, 2007)

Emus Graymullet said:
			
		

> Anyway, something I missed the first time around because I was so invested in the combat was Katadid's transition from "One and One" referring to the questions to "One and One" referring to the constable and the deputy. I thought that was neat.




heh. Glad you noticed. Kat's all about patterns within patterns. To his detriment.


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## bissichan (Mar 2, 2007)

Emus Graymullet said:
			
		

> I'd always wondered if you forgot, or if you were just being nice. So, um, thanks for forgetting!
> 
> But yeah, the plan fell to pieces when they sliced Bufer's throat before Emmerson and Emus could even do anything other than show themselves. And then Emus' first target turned invisible. And then it turned out that the kobolds had class levels (Emus really should have targeted that crossbowman, first.)
> 
> Um, I'm not actually sure that Emmerson and I really had a plan now that I reread that last paragraph.




We had a plan. Supposedly the noisy paladin was going to stay behind and issue a challenge while the sneaky druid/barbarian was going to flank them.

I think we blew the Move Silently roll.

And we had no idea they had class levels. That was a very, very tense fight. For the first two rounds I kept thinking "This is 1/4 CR? Yikes!"


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## Gnome Quixote (Mar 2, 2007)

The thing about pbp gaming is that you're frequently not around when big stuff happens that could potentially have a huge impact on the campaign. As a group, our schedules are all over place, partly due to work commitments, partly due to simple geography, so you never know when you're going to come home or wake up to an enormous info-dump of story that happened when you were foolishly off-line working or sleeping.

Such was the case for most of the group when Bufer gave himself up as the hostage, which developed in a flurry of late-night posts between Whiz, Trench and myself. Most of them went to bed thinking Hazel was the captive. I got quite a few private messages the next morning reading, essentially,  "WTF, dude?!!"

Heh. I totally understood the feeling when I came home late from work about a week later to find my poor lil' gnome lying face-down in the snow with his throat slashed, as a decidedly one-sided battle raged around him. It was simultaneously the most awful and most awesome thing that could have happened in my absence.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Mar 2, 2007)

That's something else I wanted to show with Pick and her buddies.

The Midwood crew will have non-evil antagonists, who might be ruthless (the first of whom will show up in the Story Hour next week), but they're not actually evil.

Pick, who is as lawful as they come, is also Evil with a capital E. When she's double-crossed, she has no qualms about slaughtering Bufer like a pig. The non-evil antagonists might make things uncomfortable for the group for their own reasons, but slitting the throat of a bound and helpless hostage? Not so much.


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## bissichan (Mar 3, 2007)

The main reason why Emmerson went along with the kobolds was because he thought a battalion of them was approaching (with the Queen in tow) and those six were the forerunners.

I don't know why I thought that. If I had known they were it, Emmerson would have refused the whole hostage exchange thing.


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## Gnome Quixote (Mar 3, 2007)

Heh, for a few tense moments there,  I thought Bufer's refusal to heal Renraw was going to come back and bite him in the ass. I would have been OK with it if Renraw'd decided not to save Bufer--it would have been completely in-character for Renraw to let Bufer die--but I still breathed a huge sigh of relief when Ren inexplicably decided to stabilize him.


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## Renraw Kem (Mar 3, 2007)

Heh.  I had to do some twisty rationalizations for that.  Renraw saved Emus first because he kind of liked Emus (as much as Renraw can like a person, anyway).  If Kat and Tucker weren't right behind, he likely would've left Bufer to Emmerson's fate.  He didn't think he could get away with it, though.  

If Adventure 3 didn't change the game so drastically, I'm not sure where the Renraw/Bufer thing would've gone, but he REALLY wasn't happy about having to save him.

And if he wasn't so freaked out about what he had to do next, he likely would've stuck around to take credit for the save.  Don't be surprised if he pops up to rub that one in again someday.


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## Emus Graymullet (Mar 7, 2007)

bissichan said:
			
		

> We had a plan. Supposedly the noisy paladin was going to stay behind and issue a challenge while the sneaky druid/barbarian was going to flank them.



Wha huh? I just went through all of the PMs we had before rushing in there, and while that was _your_ plan, I came up with an alternative, and you said, "Ooh! Good points."

Which to me means, "Okay, let's go with your plan of just rushing in there and kill them all."


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## bissichan (Mar 7, 2007)

*slaps his translator*

It got lost in tranlsation.


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## Gnome Quixote (Mar 10, 2007)

Everything that's been posted from Emmerson's resurrection onwards is kind of a revelation to most of the players. Most of us didn't see Hazel and Kat's expedition into Fibber's Cairn until months after the fact, and the stuff with Renraw, Tock, Ragglus and Tosh was news to the rest of us until only a few days ago.

To which I can only say: bravo! I've painted Bufer as being "tricksy", and some of the players have been very kind in going along with it, but it's clear that Tock, Renraw and company are operating on a whole other level that Bufer and I would need a stepladder to reach.


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## Trench (Mar 12, 2007)

Bufer, I think, can be called tricksy.

Renraw and Tock are just bastards.

I really very much dug this adventure, simply because it told me a lot about Kat. My first concept of him was sort of a weird combination of Indiana Jones and Monk. Completely paranoid and OCD, but still functional when exploring. As I wrote him, he surprised me by being positively autistic.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Mar 12, 2007)

The third Midwood adventure began on May 20, 2006. After the dungeon crawl the first time out, and the player-driven mischief (and disastrous combat) the second time out, I figured I'd let everyone get their roleplaying on in what was _supposed_ to just be a fun holiday in town.

We also added another player to the group for this adventure, but he only lasted this one adventure due to a difference in playing style. It's not the scoundrel stuff he gets up to -- Tock and Renraw have already blazed that trail -- he just was looking for a more battlegrid-and-strict-initiative way of playing than worked for me in this pbp format. Stotch isn't the last player character to be added to the mix for (so far) one adventure only; two more show up in the next adventure.


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## Gnome Quixote (Mar 14, 2007)

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
			
		

> "Oh, hello, Deputy Gottaway," Dalarn grins.




BWAH-HAHAHAHAHAHA!!

Man, I have been struggling to come up with a nickname for Bufer to give Tucker for _months._ How did I not tumble to that one?! How did I miss it the first time you posted it?!

That's brilliant. I am _so_ stealing that...


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Mar 15, 2007)

Readers of the Tome of Magic can guess at the exact identity of the Great Lost Crafts. This off-hand reference lets me introduce these magics later on in the game without them coming from nowhere, but to leave them off stage as long as I want in the interim.

Likewise, readers of the Fiend Folio can likely guess at the identity of the Invisible Kingdom's rebellious slaves.


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## Tock Chandler (Mar 20, 2007)

Lucy was going to be a long-running semi-antagonist for Tock as the one girl in town that didn't fawn all over him, even when/if they fooled around.  That is, before everything changed.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Mar 20, 2007)

Tock Chandler said:
			
		

> Lucy was going to be a long-running semi-antagonist for Tock as the one girl in town that didn't fawn all over him, even when/if they fooled around.  That is, before everything changed.



Hmmm, now that gives me some ideas.


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## Tock Chandler (Mar 20, 2007)

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
			
		

> Hmmm, now that gives me some ideas.




Ha!  Watch out, Good Guy Gang!


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## Trench (Mar 22, 2007)

You know, I still giggle every time I read Tock going "Please, please don't die on me."


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Mar 23, 2007)

Renraw is many things -- a human supremacist, for one thing -- but possessed of nerves of steel, he is not.


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## Trench (Mar 23, 2007)

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
			
		

> Renraw is many things -- a human supremacist, for one thing -- but possessed of nerves of steel, he is not.




LOVED that moment.


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## notker biloba (Mar 27, 2007)

I've been enjoying reading this story hour, reading from beginning to end (up to this point, off and on), and I've just noticed that this discussion thread was here.  I was suspecting that there was a lot of out-of-session play, based on the dialog; now I find out it's _all_ out-of-session.  That must be incredibly difficult, what with seven or eight PCs and the pbem and all.  I mean, they're all PCs, right?  I was finding it hard to believe, considering all the in-fighting and such.

I don't suppose you have a rogue's gallery for this campaign?  It would be interesting to see their attributes, feats, skills, weapons, etc.  Also would be interesting to know in the story what classes the characters have and are working on.  E.g., Emus kinda came outta nowhere with the whole druid thing.

I didn't quite get Emmerson's resurrection.  Was that just straight-up _deus ex machina_, or what?  I mean, is it possible for characters to die in this campaign.  Just wondering.

I like that the narrative is descriptive without being overly fantasy-novelesque.  Did you get a lot of that from modules, or are you writing most of that?

Again, very enjoyable.  Keep up the good work!

NB


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Mar 27, 2007)

There was a Rogues Gallery thread that got eaten by the Great Board Crash of 2006. I can recreate it if you like.

But at this point in the campaign, here's the character classes and levels, as I remember them:

Tosh Bergin - Gnome Rogue 2
Tock Chandler - Human Bard Bard 2
Ragglus Chaplin - Human Fighter 2
Vonmora Farrin - Grailwarden Cleric 1
Tucker Gallaway - Human Fighter 2
Emmerson Grant - Human Paladin 1/Cleric 1
Emus Graymullet - Graildwarden Dwarf Barbarian 1/Druid 1
Renraw Kem - Human Wizard 2
Katadid Leach - Human Wizard 1
Ebuferpaly Potentloins - Gnome Cleric 1/Rogue 1
Hazel Sawyer - Human Ranger 2
Stotch - Human Rogue 1

Emus' druid thing was something he'd wanted to have be more part of his character from the beginning, but as he was thrust into a dungeoncrawl immediately, we didn't have any time to deal with his druid buddies before he leveled.

At this point, everyone but Bufer, I think, are third level. The only surprise class anyone's picked up is Tock Chandler taking a level of human paragon.

Emmerson's resurrection was sort of a tricky situation. He was brand new to playing D&D and as you may have noticed, these guys roleplay even when their metagame knowledge is screaming at them not to be idiots. And, as you saw in this discussion thread, he ended up in a fight that I had designed for, frankly, the more experienced folks to be involved in. So yeah, I was inclined to fudge a tiny bit in this situation.

But I didn't really need to: I had designed the Maidensbridge campaign to be a sandbox where folks would follow the threads they found interesting and others would just go by the wayside. (The mysterious mirrors aren't addressed again until a year later in the campaign, for instance.) I'd known since Day 1 what the bishop's ambitions were regarding Maidensbridge and that, at some point, there would be a new priest he'd be introducing to the town. When Emmerson went down, getting himself a new priest who would be beholden to him who was also a player character seemed like the best way to resolve the death while also advancing his agenda.

After that point, there haven't been any deaths, but most of the player characters end up unconscious repeatedly. I think we recently had the first fight where Emmerson didn't end up in negative hit points. Katadid also came one round from death the other day as well.

Everyone knows that, from here on out, death is a pretty serious matter and they come very, very close repeatedly. There's only two clerics in the setting capable of raising the dead, and both the bishop and Barennackle have their own agendas and won't just raise anyone. (Emus, for instance, is probably out of luck with both of them if he dies.)

And yes, it was a nightmare at the time juggling so many player characters. After the current adventure, it's not an issue, though, as you'll see.

The vast majority of the players have been participating in collaborative fiction together for more than a decade, so the writing style, the willingness to set up conflicting agendas, and the like, all springs from there. I'm doing a pass-through to clean up the grammar and spelling and do minor retcons (Kramer, who owns the general store, was only named recently, so Kramer's General Store replaces the references to the Maidensbridge General Store, for instance). I'm a professional newspaper writer, so my preference is less flowery language, and I wanted Midwood to feel more like Appalachia by way of the Swiss Alps than Ye Olde Generic Fantasy Lande, so the language is more naturalistic, with the addition of folks spitting tobacco, dwarves wearing overalls and a banjo-playing bard.

I'm glad you're enjoying it; from here on out, the action picks up quite a bit, as the campaign plot lines become clear to everyone (including me) and it becomes a runaway mining cart racing down the hill.


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## Trench (Mar 27, 2007)

notker biloba said:
			
		

> I've been enjoying reading this story hour, reading from beginning to end (up to this point, off and on), and I've just noticed that this discussion thread was here.  I was suspecting that there was a lot of out-of-session play, based on the dialog; now I find out it's _all_ out-of-session.  That must be incredibly difficult, what with seven or eight PCs and the pbem and all.  I mean, they're all PCs, right?  I was finding it hard to believe, considering all the in-fighting and such.
> 
> I don't suppose you have a rogue's gallery for this campaign?  It would be interesting to see their attributes, feats, skills, weapons, etc.  Also would be interesting to know in the story what classes the characters have and are working on.  E.g., Emus kinda came outta nowhere with the whole druid thing.
> 
> ...




Hey there. I'm Kat's player.

Yeah, believe it or not we do most of the conflict all via PbP. Some of us are professional to amateur writers, and we enjoy fostering that sort of thing. Renraw and Tock have been a delight to bounce off of, as they are absolute bastards.

Kat's a diviner specialist. I'm planning on mixing that up down the road. But can't really tell you since that's part of the surprise for fellow players.

A big part of this is the Private Message feature. Most of us were unaware of Tock and Renraw's trickery with the letter till now. That whole thing was done via PM's away from the boards. It makes for a much better Roleplay experience than the DM passing a note to the player. This way, no one has any clue what any player knows or not. If they make a spot check, they don't have to mention that to others...


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## notker biloba (Mar 27, 2007)

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
			
		

> There was a Rogues Gallery thread that got eaten by the Great Board Crash of 2006. I can recreate it if you like.
> 
> But at this point in the campaign, here's the character classes and levels, as I remember them:
> 
> ...



Holy smokes!  Twelve PCs?!  How did you ever get anything done?    

I would, in fact, like to see in-depth character sheets, and know if they were point-buy, rolled, etc. -- when and if you're willing.  It certainly doesn't hinder my enjoyment of the story to not know that stuff, but I find it enjoyable to see the numbers, and to see how they progress over time.  (Especially since I don't have my own game, and can only live vicariously -- hmmm... living vicariously through other people living vicariously ...   )


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Mar 27, 2007)

Everyone was 25 point buy, as I recall. Maximum hit points at first level, average (rounded up) every level after that.

I'll see if I can get some of the Midwood folks to post their character sheets in this thread. The campaign's almost a year past this point, so some of the stuff on the sheets will be sneak peeks into the future.


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## Emus Graymullet (Mar 27, 2007)

Hi, notker! Glad you're enjoying reading our game!



			
				notker biloba said:
			
		

> E.g., Emus kinda came outta nowhere with the whole druid thing.



Actually, I was going to make Emus solely a Druid because I was looking for something a little off the wall to play. That is, until I learned that Whizbang had specifically made room in his campaign for Dwarven Berserkers, and that sounded like a lot of fun. Then I thought about how I could really flesh out Emus' character with the whole balance aspect of a Druid multi-classed in Berserker. Emus is learning to balance the rages instilled in him by the Church of Hanseath with the serenity of the wilderness. He's trying to balance the chaos of his berserker tendencies with the ordered life of a Dwarf. It's a lot of fun to apply those thoughts to his actions even if it doesn't always show in-game.

Plus, I'm guilty of a little min-maxing. The armor requirements for the two classes come together with a nice set of Hide armor. Plus, Whizbang let the spell _Shillelagh_ apply to a greatclub. (Although now that he has a magic weapon, he doesn't use the club so much to free up a spell slot.) As for spells, I pick the fun ones, but I always have one or two Cure Minor wounds memorized so that I can help stabilize someone who's dying. As for Feats, I'm following the Power Attack tree, although there's a really cool Stoneshape Feat in _Races of Stone_ that I'm eyeing for when Emus' Druid level is high enough to get Wildshape.


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## Emus Graymullet (Mar 27, 2007)

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
			
		

> He was brand new to playing D&D and as you may have noticed, these guys roleplay even when their metagame knowledge is screaming at them not to be idiots.



...

It stings because it's true.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Mar 27, 2007)

Emus Graymullet said:
			
		

> Plus, Whizbang let the spell _Shillelagh_ apply to a greatclub. (Although now that he has a magic weapon, he doesn't use the club so much to free up a spell slot.)



Pure coincidence ...   

/whistles innocently


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## Emus Graymullet (Mar 27, 2007)

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
			
		

> I'll see if I can get some of the Midwood folks to post their character sheets in this thread.



Just saw this.

*Emus Graymullet*
Neutral Grailwarden Dwarf Barbarian (2)/Druid (1) 

STR: 14 (+2) (+4 to resist Bull Rush and Trip)
DEX: 14 (+2) (+4 to resist Trip)
CON: 15 (+2)
INT: 8 (-1)
WIS: 14 (+2)
CHA: 8 (-1) 

HP: 30/30
AC: 17 (12 touch, 17 flat-footed) 

Base Attack: +2
Greatclub: +4 melee (1d10+3, x2)
Dwarven waraxe (+1): +5 melee (1d10+3, x3)
Club: +4 melee/ranged (1d6+2, x2)
Dagger: +4 melee/ranged (1d4+2, 19-20/x2)
Sling: +4 ranged (1d4+2, 20/x2) 

Druid spells prepared: 0 (3+0): Cure Minor Wounds, Cure Minor Wounds, Detect Poison; 1 (1+1): Entangle, Faerie Fire 

Saving Throws: Fortitude +7, Reflex +2, Will +4 (+2 against poison, spells, and spell-like effects) 

Feats: Power Attack, Cleave
Skills: Appraise -1 (0+-1) (+2 if related to stone or metal), Craft: Alchemy 4 (2+-1+2), Handle Animal 0 (1+-1) (+4 if involving Animal Companion), Heal 2 (0+2), Jump 5 (3+2), Knowledge: Architecture 1 (0+-1+2), Knowledge: Engineering 1 (0+-1+2), Knowledge: Nature 4 (1+-1+2+2), Listen 5 (3+2), Profession: Engineer 1 (0+-1+2), Search -1 (0+-1) (+2 concerning unusual stonework), Spot 2 (0+2), Survival 9 (5+2+2), Swim 4 (2+2) 

Languages: Dwarven, Common, Druidic
Religion: Hanseath 

Class Abilities:
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Emus is proficient with all simple and martial weapons, and Dwarven Waraxes and Urgoshes. He is also proficient with all natural attacks (claw, bite, and so forth) of any form he assumes with wild shape. He is limited to wearing only padded, leather, or hide armor, and wooden shields (except tower shields).

Fast Movement: Emus' land speed is 30ft as long as he is wearing no armor, light armor, or medium armor.

Rage: Emus can enter a rage a certain number of times per day, once per encounter. He temporarily gains a +4 bonus to Strength, a +4 bonus to Constitution, and a +2 morale bonus on Will saves, but he takes a –2 penalty to Armor Class. A fit of rage lasts for a number of rounds equal to 3 + Emus’ (newly improved) Constitution modifier. At the end of the rage, Emus loses the rage modifiers and restrictions and becomes fatigued (–2 penalty to Strength, –2 penalty to Dexterity, can’t charge or run) for the duration of the current encounter.

Spells: To prepare or cast a spell, Emus must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. He cannot be in a rage. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a druid’s spell is 10 + the spell level + 2 (his Wisdom modifier). In addition to his daily alotment of Druidic spells, Emus gets bonus spells due to his Wisdom modifier. Also, he can "lose" a prepared spell in order to cast any Summon Nature's Ally spell of the same level or lower.

Animal Companion: Skeeter -- Link and Share Spells (See Skeeter's page for specifics.)

Nature Sense: Emus gains a +2 bonus on Knowledge (nature) and Survival checks.

Wild Empathy: Emus can improve the attitude of an animal. This ability functions just like a Diplomacy check made to improve the attitude of a person.

Uncanny Dodge: Emus retains his Dexterity bonus to AC even if he is caught flat-footed or struck by an invisible attacker. However, he still loses his Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized.
Race Abilities:
Darkvision: 60 ft. 

Base land speed not reduced by a heavy load

+2 on Craft checks that are related to stone or metal
Equipment: Backpack, Explorer's outfit, Flint and steel, Mug/tankard (clay), Pouch (belt) (2), Rope (hemp) (50 ft.), Sack, Sling, Torch (2), Waterskin 

Weapons and armor: Bullets (sling) (50), Club, Dagger, Greatclub, Magical Dwarven Waraxe (Urak, "the Skull-Cutter"), Hide armor, Heavy Shield (Wooden, Masterwork) 

Wealth: 0p, 173g, 55s, 8c 

XP: 3563


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## Emus Graymullet (Mar 27, 2007)

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
			
		

> Pure coincidence ...
> 
> /whistles innocently



Don't think I didn't see right away what you were doing!


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## bissichan (Mar 28, 2007)

Thanks for you interest.
When Emmerson died, Whizbang offered me a choice: he could be resurrected by the bishop-but he'd be heavily indebted to him- or he could meet his fate. I had in mind another character to replace him, but I liked the RP possibilities of the offer. Emmerson's view of Lothianism and Church is not the one the Church has, so there's some serious conflict down the line.

Emmerson was my first attempt at a D&D character, and as you can see in his character sheet, I had no freaking clue what went where. He started as Paladin, then took two levels of cleric.


Character name: Emmerson Grant  

Race: Human 

Class and Level: Paladin 1/Cleric 2. 

Alignment: Lawful good.

Attributes (Modifiers)

Strength: 11 (+0)
Dexterity: 9 (-1)
Constitution: 10 (+0)
Intelligence: 13 (+1)
Wisdom: 14 (+2) 
Charisma: 15 (+2)

Hit Points: 23/23 (20 + 3 toughness). 
Turn Undead Attempts: 5. Tied to the Sacred Boost feat. 
Benefit: ''You spend a turn attempt as a standard action to place an aura of positive energy upon each creature within a 60-ft. burst. Any cure spell cast on one of these creatures before the end of your next turn is automatically maximized, with no adjustment to the spell's level or casting time.''''


Armor Class: 13 = 10 +4 [chain shirt] -1 [dexterity] 
Touch AC= 9. 
Flatfooted= 14
Base Attack bonus: +2
Warhammer: +2 melee (Attack 1. Damage: 1d8. Critical: 20/x3) 
Judgment Greatsword: +3 melee (2d6+1, Critical 19–20/x2) +1 Ghost Touch.

Cleric spells prepared

For Pick: Level 0 (4): ''Read Magic, Guidance x2, Light''; Level 1 (3+1): ''Summon Monster, Lesser Vigor, Shield of Faith, '''Sanctuary'''''


Saving Throws: Fort 5 = (2+3)<br> Reflex -1 = (-1) <br> Will 5 = (+2+3) 

'''Feats''': Endurance, Toughness, '''Sacred Boost''', Armor Proficiency (heavy), Armor Proficiency (light), Armor Proficiency (medium), Martial Weapon Proficiency, Shield Proficiency, Simple Weapon Proficiency 
'''Bonus Feats''': Exalted Turning

=='''Skills'''==
Key: points spent, then attribute bonus, then any other bonuses. <br>

Concentration 5 (6 + 0)
Craft (Armorsmithing) 3 (2 + 1)
Diplomacy 5 (3 + 2) 
Heal 3 (1 + 2)
Knowledge (Nobility) 4 (3 + 1)
Knowledge (Religion) 2 (1 + 1) 
Listen 2 (0 + 2)
Profession (Apothercary) 3 (1 + 2)
Sense Motive 6 (4 + 2)
Spot 2 (0+2)
Search 1 (0+1)
Spellcraft 4 (1 + 3)

Languages: Common, Celestial

Abilities:


Equipment: Traveller's outfit, Backpack (on back), Waterskin, Bullseye Lamp, Oil. Blacksmith's tools. Silver Holy Symbol: Ankh of Lothian. Cleric's vestments. Healer's kit.rope


Weapons and armor: Large steel shield -45lbs weight., Chain shirt armor -25 lbs, Warhammer -5 lbs, Judgment Greatsword of +1 ''Ghost Touch''.



Languages:' Common. Celestial. 



=='''XP Total:''' 3,013.==


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## Trench (Mar 28, 2007)

Yeah, it's cool to know someone else is enjoying this as much as we are.

Kat's going straight diviner for now. If the campaign had gone one direction, he probably would have gone Loremaster. I still will eventually. But I'm going for another more out there prestige class first. I'm sure this is a powergamer's nightmare but hey...

Katadid Leach
Neutral Human Diviner 3

Strength: 8 (-1)
Dexterity: 13 (+1)
Constitution: 8 (-1)
Intelligence: 18 (+4)
Wisdom: 10 (+0)
Charisma: 10 (+0)

Hit Points (Current/MAX): 9/9 (9 with familliar)

Armor Class: 11 (10 flat-footed, 11 touch)

Base Attack:+1

Quarterstaff: - 1 melee (1d6-1, x2)ATK -7 DMG 1d6-1 CRIT 20/x2<br>
Sling: +1 ranged (1d4-1, x2, 50)

Spells Prepared: 0 (4+1) Daze, Mage Hand, Prestidigitation, Mending, Detect Magic   1: (3+1) Color Spray, Grease, Magic Missile, Comprehend Languages 2: (2+1) Bull's Strength, Summon Monster II, Locate Object

Saving Throws: Fortitude: +0, Reflex +2, Will +3

Feats: Summon Famillar, Scribe Scroll, Investigator, Diligent, Craft Wondrous Item

Familiar: [[Palatable]], toad familliar

Skills: Appraise 6 (0+4+2),Craft (Alchemy) +9 (5+4) (+2 to Identify Alchemy items),Concentration +2 (3-1),Decipher Script +12 (6+4+2),Gather Information +3 (1+0+2),Heal +1 (0+1),Knowledge (Arcana) +9 (5+4),Knowledge (Dungeoneering) +6 (2+4),Knowledge (Geography) 5 (1+4), Knowledge (History) +8 (4+4),Knowledge (Planes) +8 (4+4),Listen +0,Profession (Apothecary) +2 (0+2),Search +6 (0+4+2),Spellcraft +12 (6+4+2),Spot 0, Use Magic Devices (scroll) +4 (0+0 +4)

Languages: Common,Gnome,Dwarven,Draconic,Sylvan

'''Class Abilites:''' 

Spells: To learn, prepare, or cast a spell, Kat must have an Intelligence score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a wizard's spell is 10 + the spell level + the wizard's Intelligence modifier.<br>

Diviner: Katadid can prepare one additional spell of his specialty school per spell level each day. He also gains a +2 bonus on Spellcraft checks to learn the spells of his chosen school

Prohibited Schools: Necromancy

Equipment: Artisan's outfit,Bedroll,Bullets-sling (10),Silver Bullets- sling (6),Ink (1 oz. vial),Ink pen,2 x Parchment (sheet),Manacles,Rope, hemp- 50 ft, Sack (empty),Spell component pouch,Healer's Kit X2, Torches (4), Potion of "Healing", Potion (Transmutation, possibly Bull's Strength), Scroll of ''Bull's Strength'', Scroll of ''Improved Reduce Person''

'''Weapons and armor:''' Quarterstaff, Sling

'''Wealth:''' 29 gp

'''Spellbook:''' 

0- Acid Splash,Arcane Mark,Dancing Lights,Daze,Detect Magic,Detect Poison,Flare,Ghost Sound,Light,Mage Hand,Mending,Message,Open/Close,Prestidigitation,Ray of Frost,Read Magic,Resistance''

1- Color Spray,Comprehend Languages,Detect Undead,Identify,Grease,Sleep,Magic Missle,Summon Monster I, Unseen Servant

2- Bull's Strength, Summon Monster II, Locate Object

'''XP:''' 3580


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## Tock Chandler (Mar 28, 2007)

Tock is a bard whose great ambition is to become the king of liars.  He's got another great ambition, but it involves a certain actually-beloved woman elsewhere in the world.

Tock Chandler AKA Dargus Carter AKA Horatio Ommuns
Chaotic Neutral Male Human bard 2/Human Paragon 1 

Strength: 10
Dexterity: 13 (+1)
Constitution: 10)
Intelligence: 15 (+2)
Wisdom: 8 (-1)
Charisma: 15 (+2)


Hit Points: 13
Armor Class: 16 (11 flat-footed, 15 touch) 

Base Attack: +1
shortbow +1 ("Ella") ATK +3 (+4 w/in 30 ft) DMG 1d6+1 (+2 w/in 30 ft) CRIT 20/x3 40 arrows quarterstaff ATK +1 DMG 1d6 CRIT 20/x2 

Bard spells: 0 (3): daze, lullaby, light, summon banjo, message; 1 (2+1): summon monster 1, charm person 

Saving Throws: Fortitude +0, Reflex +4, Will +4 

Feats: Point Blank Shot, Precise shot, Skill Focus (Bluff)
Skills/Adaptive Learning Skills/Adaptive Learning Permanent Skill: Balance 5 (2+2+1), Bluff 11 (2 + 3 + 6) , Concentration 3 (0+3), Craft (Banjo) 4 (2 + 2) , Diplomacy 8 (2 + 2 + 4), Disguise 7 (5 when not acting in character) (2+2+3), Gather Information 8 (2 + 2 +4), Hide 2 (1 + 1), Intimidate 4 (2+2+0), Jump +2 (0 + 2), Knowledge (Local) 7 (2 + 5), Know (History) 4 (2 + 2), Perform (banjo) 6 (2 + 4), Perform (sing) 8 (2 + 6), Sleight of Hand 5 (1 + 2 + 2), Tumble 6 (1 + 5), Heal -1, Spot -1, Listen -1, Search +2, Disable Device 3 (2+1)
Languages: Gnomish, Common, Dwarven, 

Class abilities: 

Bardic knowledge, Bardic Music, Countersong, Fascinate, Inspire Courage +1 
Equipment: Banjo, back pack, bedroll, Bottle, wine, glass, Entertainer's Clothes, Wand of Cure Light Wounds -Charges: (unknown, six used), Bracers of Something, Pipes of Something 

Armor: Buckler (+1 to AC), Chain Shirt (+4) 


Wealth: 94 GP XP: 4580


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## Gnome Quixote (Mar 30, 2007)

Bufer is a cleric/rogue, a student of gnomish High Priest Boddynock Barennackle, who--along with Bufer's father and Lord Rubik of Wits End--was once part of a dissident religious order dedicated to bringing down the Church of Lothian, known as the Laughing Knives. Bufer has long been eager to carry on in their place, but the Church's waning influence on the Empire, and his growing friendship with Emmerson Grant have made this increasingly unlikely. 

As a child, he received several visions from Garl Glittergold himself, indicating that Bufer's destiny lay not in ministering to his own people, but in forging his own path among the other races of the world. He also suggested that Bufer would be responsible for bringing about a peace between bitter blood enemies. Due to a pivotal encounter with a kobold druid in his youth, Bufer has always assumed he was meant to make peace between the gnomes of Wit's End and the kobolds of Green Mountain. Recent events, however, have led him to believe that Garl may be expecting him to think even bigger.

Unfortunately, Bufer has proven to be a rather dismal diplomat so far, so we'll see what happens, I guess.


```
Ebuferpaly Potentloins
Chaotic Good male gnome cleric 1 / rogue 2

Strength: 8 (-1)
Dexterity: 10
Constitution: 16 (+3)
Intelligence: 10
Wisdom: 16 (+3)
Charisma: 10

Hit Points: 21/21
Armor Class: 11 (10+1) (11 flat-footed, 11 touch)

Base Attack: +1
Heavy Mace: +0 melee (1d6-1), x2
Magical Short Spear (Oth): 1d4 + 1d6 acid, x 2

Cleric spells prepared: 0 (3): light, mending, read magic; 1 (2+1): hide from undead, protection from evil, sanctuary

Saving Throws: Fortitude +5, Reflex +2, Will +5

Feats: Investigator, Nimble Fingers, Armor Proficiency (light, medium, heavy), Simple Weapon Proficiency, Shield Proficiency

Skills: Bluff 5, Craft (Alchemy) 2 (0 + 0 + 2), Diplomacy 4 (2 + 0 + 2), Disable Device 5 (3 + 2 + 0), Disguise 1 (+2 acting in character while observed), Gather Information 2 (0 + 0 + 2), Heal 7 (4 + 3), Hide 6 (1 + 0 + 5), Intimidate 2 (0 + 0 + 2), Knowledge (Religion) 2, Listen 5 (3 + 0 + 2), Open Lock 5 (3 + 2 + 0), Search 2 (0 + 0 + 2), Sleight of Hand 3 (1 + 0 + 2), Spot 3 (0 + 3 + 0), Survival 3 (0 + 3 + 0)

Languages: Gnomish, Common, Draconic

Cleric abilities:

    Aura: As a cleric of a Neutral Good deity (Garl Glittergold), Bufer emanates a particularly powerful aura corresponding to his deity’s alignment (Good, in this case).

    Spells: To prepare, or cast a spell, Bufer must have an Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a cleric's spell is 10 + the spell level + the cleric's Wisdom modifier.

    Domains: Bufer can prepare one additional spell per day from one of his two chosen religious domains (Protection and Trickery); if this spell is not on the cleric list, he may only prepare it in his domain spell slot. He also receives the granted powers of each domain selected. As a student of Protection, Bufer can generate a protective ward as a supernatural ability, granting someone he touches a resistance bonus equal to his cleric level, for a duration of 1 hour per day. As a student of Trickery, Bufer adds Bluff, Disguise and Hide to his list of class skills.

    Spontaneous Casting: As a good cleric, Bufer can channel stored spell energy into healing spells that he did not prepare ahead of time, losing any prepared spell that is not a domain spell in order to cast any cure spell of the same level or lower.

    Spells of Opposed Alignment: As a good cleric, Bufer is unable to cast evil spells.

    Turn or Rebuke Undead: As a good cleric, Bufer can attempt to turn undead creatures up to 3 times per day (3 + 0), with a turning check of 1d20 + 0. Total HD turned per attempt is 2d6 + 1. He is currently unable to destroy undead in this manner.

    Bonus Languages: As a cleric, Bufer’s bonus languages options include Celestial, Abyssal and Infernal, the languages of good, chaotic evil and lawful evil outsiders, respectively.

Rogue Abilities:

    Sneak Attack: If Bufer can catch an opponent when unable to defend itself effectively, he can strike a vital spot for extra damage of 1d6.

    Trapfinding: Bufer can use the Search skill to locate traps with a DC higher than 20.
    Evasion: Bufer can avoid even magical and unusual attacks with great agility. If he makes a Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, he instead takes no damage. Evasion can only be used if Bufer is wearing light or no armor, and does not gain benefit of evasion when helpless.

Race traits:

    Small size: As a Small creature, Bufer gains a +1 size bonus to Armor Class, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, and a +4 size bonus on Hide checks, but he uses smaller weapons than humans use, and his lifting and carrying limits are three-quarters of those of a Medium character.

    Land Speed: Bufer's base land speed is 20 feet.

    Low-Light Vision: Bufer can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. He retains the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.

    Gnome traits: +2 racial bonus on saving throws against illusions. Add +1 to the Difficulty Class for all saving throws against illusion spells cast by Baeril. (This adjustment stacks with those from similar effects.) +1 racial bonus on attack rolls against kobolds and goblinoids. +4 dodge bonus to Armor Class against monsters of the giant type. (Any time a creature loses its Dexterity bonus (if any) to Armor Class, such as when it’s caught flat-footed, it loses its dodge bonus, too.)

    Spell-Like Abilities: 1/day -- dancing lights, ghost sound, prestidigitation, speak with animals (burrowing mammal only, duration 1 minute). Caster level 1st; save DC 10 + Bufer's Charisma modifier + spell level.

Equipment: backpack, cleric’s vestments, healer’s kit, holy tome, holy symbol (Garl Glittergold) (wooden), spell component pouch, traveler’s outfit, altar case (spruce, small), aspergillum (iron, small)

Weapons and armor: heavy mace, magical short spear
```


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Apr 3, 2007)

Even at this point, I'm not really sure what was going on in the mind of Renraw's player.

As is obvious to pretty much everyone, both Renraw and Khenemet-Apep are lying their asses off. But Renraw is a level 2 abjurer and how, exactly, he intended to escape the hangman's noose, I've never really understood. And, of course, while Khenemet-Apep has other tricks up his sleeve, he doesn't really want to be in a _zone of truth_ cast by the bishop under the eyes of the baron either.

So The Wizard of Green Mountain will repeatedly toss openings for Renraw to worm out of this situation -- because killing Bufer really doesn't fit into his plans at the moment -- and Renraw ... refuses to take them.

Honestly, I suspect Renraw (and his player) was just pissed at Khenemet-Apep and was wanting to take him down with him. Renraw's stubborness -- as with all his other personal failings -- ends up being the engine for what follows.

And if you have a concern about that _geas_ spell, rules lawyers, just wait. I know.


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## Trench (Apr 3, 2007)

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
			
		

> Honestly, I suspect Renraw (and his player) was just pissed at Khenemet-Apep and was wanting to take him down with him. Renraw's stubborness -- as with all his other personal failings -- ends up being the engine for what follows.




You'd have to ask Renraw's player, but as I remember it- that's exactly it. Renraw is mind-numbingly willing to risk himself if it gets revenge on those who screwed him (or even those he think MIGHT have...)


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## Gnome Quixote (Apr 3, 2007)

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
			
		

> So The Wizard of Green Mountain will repeatedly toss openings for Renraw to worm out of this situation -- because killing Bufer really doesn't fit into his plans at the moment -- and Renraw ... refuses to take them.



It's probably worth mentioning that I thought Bufer was _dead_ the second Khenemet-Apep's mangy cat spotted him. Whiz had indicated that it was a strong possibility he'd be caught out if he followed, and I got the distinct impression he was trying to talk me out of it. The debate Bufer has with himself before following was almost exactly my thought process, minus the metagame thought of "if the DM is telling me it's a bad idea, it must _really_ be a bad idea". Likewise, the line about Bufer reviewing his options after the wizard spots him, and realizing he has none, definitely mirrored my reaction IRL. For the second time in the campaign, I thought I'd signed my own death warrant in the service of good roleplaying.

Frankly I was surprised when the wizard _didn't_ kill him outright...or at least try to put him under a geas to keep him from revealing what he'd seen and heard.


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## bissichan (Apr 3, 2007)

Gnome Quixote said:
			
		

> Frankly I was surprised when the wizard _didn't_ kill him outright...or at least try to put him under a geas to keep him from revealing what he'd seen and heard.




The real reason is that Bufer is now betrothed to the cat.


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## Gnome Quixote (Apr 5, 2007)

Had Renraw chosen to go along with Khenemet-Apep's ruse, I think I would have had Bufer fall for it, in spite of my own B.S. detector screaming bloody murder. Apep just offered Bufer practically everything he's ever wanted out of life--minus one thing that will come up later--on a silver platter. If Kem had played along, it would have been _awfully_ hard to justify turning it down in-character.


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## Renraw Kem (Apr 6, 2007)

Renraw's player, here...

Yes, he wanted to screw Apep, that's a huge part of it, but this is where the Gaius Baltar influence comes in pretty heavily...Renraw believes he is innocent.  

And, as in the case of Baltar, I think it's hard to say where to draw that line.  Yes, he's a horrible little weasily, lying scumbag, but that's also what might've saved him from the noose.  

He had no idea what he was doing meeting with the kobolds, but he's convinced himself he was only intending to gather information so he could save himself (and certain select others) from the inevitable attack.  And when he agreed to kill Tucker, it was only because agreeing was the easiest way out of that particular situation.  He had no idea what he would really do if the time came.  It's why he was terrified walking away from the meeting, and why he was terrified when Khenemet-Apep came for him.  He had dreamed of becoming a wheeler-dealer, but it turned out that he didn't have what it takes.

So, inside the Zone of Truth, he would've told...the truth.  He had intended to gather information on the attack...he agreed to kill Tucker, but he had no intention of doing so.  If the spell forced him, he might also have to say that he MIGHT have killed Tucker if circumstances forced him into it, but there's really no way of telling.

If just meeting with the kobolds (and lying to them) would have been enough to hang a man for treason, then Renraw would've walked to his death with his head held high, a proud martyr, only trying to save Maidensbridge from herself  (ie, _himself_ from the _kobolds_).


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Apr 6, 2007)

I'll discuss the _zone of truth_ stuff from Khenemet's point of view later on.


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## Trench (Apr 12, 2007)

Kat being shackled and taken away with the other lying wizards really did throw me for a loop. I had gotten so into Kat's mindset, that I honestly didn't see what he did wrong. Objectively, yeah, he gave information to the kobolds but he HAD TO, because otherwise the deal would have broken (and therefore uneven...). In his mind, that's perfectly rational and the thought that someone could arrest him when he was intending to do no harm utterly befuddles and infuriates him.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Apr 13, 2007)

One thing I liked about this story was getting to see the relationship between Tock and Katadid. It humanizes Tock and points out the character's fundemental loneliness.

Previously, frankly, Tock was just a dick, even if he was right that the forces of law and order in the town weren't particularly friendly to a free spirit like his. Even as Tock's scheme gets bigger and wilder and more dangerous, his love for his cousin shines through, making him more than just the criminal the constable, Tucker and Emmerson think him to be.

Kat is more of a work in progress at this point, and he becomes increasingly lucid after this (mis)adventure, although he still is willing to walk straight into the mouth of a dragon for something that draws his attention.


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## Tock Chandler (Apr 13, 2007)

I particularly enjoyed having Kat to play off of . . .as soon as I heard about the character I knew what he meant to Tock.  As Kat's player picked up when he wrote that Li'l Midwood story, a lot of Tock's issues with the authority figures in town stem from how he perceived the way they treated Kat.


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## Renraw Kem (Apr 13, 2007)

Tock must be a pretty lonely guy if he considers Renraw a friend.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Apr 13, 2007)

I'm still not sure where the Lil Midwood story will go in the Story Hour. Maybe in an interlude after this adventure, since it marks a real break in what's come before and what comes after.


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## Tock Chandler (Apr 13, 2007)

Renraw Kem said:
			
		

> Tock must be a pretty lonely guy if he considers Renraw a friend.




Tock's eagerness for a friend allows him to look past a lot of Renraw's flaws and see "Hey, he hates these turds, too!"  He also sees more of Kat in Ren than anyone would like to admit.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Apr 18, 2007)

Daily updates of this story hour will resume in a day or two. I'm a Virginia Tech alumni and having a hard time focusing on anything enough to clean up the logs and all that at the moment.

This would be a good time to go to the lobby and get a delicious refreshment.


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## Tock Chandler (Apr 20, 2007)

And here's where things start to get pretty interesting.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Apr 21, 2007)

Swifty is one of a long line of one-off references that eventually grow to be a bigger part of the campaign. You know those running feats that "no one" takes? He's taken them. All of them. Surprisingly useful in an NPC.


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## Renraw Kem (Apr 27, 2007)

The Ballad of Tiberius was a personal favorite of mine.


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## Tock Chandler (Apr 27, 2007)

Renraw Kem said:
			
		

> The Ballad of Tiberius was a personal favorite of mine.




Thanks.  I was proud of it.


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## Gnome Quixote (Apr 29, 2007)

Tock Chandler said:
			
		

> Thanks.  I was proud of it.



As you should be. It's brilliant. 

The fire sequence stands as one of my absolute favorite parts of the campaign so far. It was so unexpected and different, and it was a blast to play out. In fact, describing it to some of my friends here at home was what finally convinced them to give D&D a try, as it finally clicked for them how tabletop gaming could actually have more going for it than, say, World of Warcraft.

I still marvel at how much my mouthy lil' gnome was able to get away with. It doesn't last, of course--in the adventure we're currently playing, people finally seem to be getting tired of him and telling him to stuff it, which has been a long time coming--but it took a heckuva lot longer than I ever dreamed it could.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (May 3, 2007)

If you flip to the back few pages of the Players Guide to Ptolus, you'll see Monte's write-up of friendship bands. So, despite what it looks like, Bufer wasn't pinning Hazel or asking her to the gnomish prom.

Bufer references the lord of Wit's End, his mentor and his father being religious subversives against the Church of Lothian. Gnomes are long-lived, and Tarsis is the heart of the church's power, but it'll be a long time before it occurs to him that Lothianism isn't the enemy today in Midwood as it once was in Tarsis. Despite talking a good game with Emmerson, he's almost as suspicious of the church as Tock is.

This all comes to the fore in the next few adventures, when the bishop begins to call in the debt Emmerson owes him for raising the young paladin from the dead. It's a plot line that's not done yet, with various religious forces pulling at all the clerics in the campaign. This is complicated by the fact that none of the religious folks are evil and, technically, none of them is really in the wrong.


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## Trench (May 4, 2007)

Ah Kat Kat Kat...

At this point, was prety convinced he was held for no real reason. He was more than a little concerned about the town's saftey (although that... shifts later...). He knew that Renraw, Tock and Stotch wanted to get out, but he was fully intending to walk to Maidensbridge afterward and face the zone of turth with a clear conscience. A rather dramatic bluff of Tock's changes his mind...

When Kat says "We should go." He figured that Tock had a much better plan than "Let's stab Tucker," which he would have never allowed if he had known that was it.


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## Tock Chandler (May 4, 2007)

Tock has pity for Emmerson, but Tucker and Bridger he sees as evil forces of control that have tried to destroy everything good in the world.  He also holds a long grudge against Tucker for Tucker's treatment of Kat when they were children.


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## bissichan (May 4, 2007)

Being the D&D novice that I was, I thought our characters were sort-of off limits to tricks, ploys and shenannigans amongst ourselves.

Imagine my surprise with all the lying, cheating and deceiving. 

(that's why my next D&D character is completely devoid of morals. Clumsy around tridents, but an utter bastard.)


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (May 5, 2007)

Yes, that's a rewrite of a tune from "Springtime for Hitler" from "The Producers."

Yes, there's something wrong with me. The notion of Swiss gnomes (gnomes of Zurich, get it, GET IT?) makes me giggle like a slow-but-hopefully-loveable child.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (May 8, 2007)

So ... about this time (June 2006), I was going through some personal _stuff_ and it spilled over into short tempers in the rest of my life, including in this game. Stotch's player was much more rules/grid/AoO-oriented than I was, and the issues over playstyle got all mixed up with other freefloating issues I had, and led to Stotch's abrupt exit from the game (by his choice).

As for Tock ... you'll see.

Renraw's hasty plan for where the newly minted fugitives and what they'll do, surprisingly, turns out to be a plan they stick with, but life beyond the bucolic Barony of Midwood is a lot grimmer and stranger than they're used to, so their trip to Kem has some stops on the way.


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## Tock Chandler (May 8, 2007)

You left out the part where Stotch gets raped by the bears.


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## Trench (May 8, 2007)

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
			
		

> As for Tock ... you'll see.




Was wondering how you'd handle this. This moment is a pretty formative one for Kat.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (May 8, 2007)

Trench said:
			
		

> Was wondering how you'd handle this. This moment is a pretty formative one for Kat.



Pretty similarly to how it was handled before, just with elaboration to explain what happened.

Except, you know, for the whole bear rape thing. That can stay vague.


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## bissichan (May 8, 2007)

Ah, you could have put the "roar of bears" part, then "sounds of love" and ended it with "the sound of a cigarrette being lit is heard."

Y'know, the standard Hollywood fare.


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## Gnome Quixote (May 10, 2007)

I'm not sure it ever really comes across, but Bufer's insistence on going along with the constable doesn't reflect a desire to aid in the capture of the fugitives, but to actively confound it. Sure, he's worried for Tucker and wants to be there to heal him if he needs it...but at the end of the day, Bufer _wants_ Tock, Renraw and Katadid to escape. He's chaotic good, after all, and knows fellow tricksters when he sees them. It'd probably shock both Tock and his player to know that Bufer viewed Chandler as somewhat of a kindred spirit.


In fact, if the campaign hadn't taken the turn it did, I kind of envisioned Bufer as serving as a bridge between the Good Guy Gang and the group that would eventually form the fugitives, the first steps of which are hopefully evident in the early parts of this adventure, before Renraw dragged us all off the map.


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## Trench (May 11, 2007)

Actually I think Bufer is given the letters. (But that's later in the stories...)


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## Trench (May 11, 2007)

Tock's death. Or fake death.

Let's call this a really good bluff roll. See, Kat is blindly trusting and naive. If Tock appeared dead, he was. That blew Kat's mind.

I'd been playing Kat as partially autistic, but the thing that happens when you write is that your characters go places you weren't expecting. Kat ended up not being as far emotionally removed as I thought he'd be. Instead, his emotions (when he has them) are almost all surface. He's got no censor. Bluff roll? Never heard of it. And Sense Motive is not even an option for him.

So when the only person (besides his father) who had shown occasional affection for Kat "died". Kat's priorities shift very quickly. I had intended him to be a Monk meets Indiana Jones type. Now he has a very different focus.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (May 11, 2007)

I actually figure Tock was just knocked out in the retcon. D&D doesn't handle head injuries like that well, but DM fiat does.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (May 12, 2007)

Parents in town for baby shower. I hope to post Saturday morning.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (May 12, 2007)

Renraw's player pointed out that it would sort of suck for Katadid and Renraw to be on the road without their spellbooks. Since they're already on the run without a healer or anyone capable of wearing armor heavier than chainmail, I agreed that we could have his brother -- previously seen as part of the Tiberius scam -- be caught on the road with all their goods they hadn't brought to the festival.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (May 15, 2007)

Rivenoak is a riff on the Roanoke Colony: It was intended to be the second settlement in the new Barony of Midwood, north of Middleborough. The winter after it was founded, though, it was cut off from the first settlement by snow. When the spring thaw came, explorers heading to Rivenoak found it empty and the entire site overgrown with old growth trees.


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## Emus Graymullet (May 16, 2007)

I understand how important this adventure was for the direction that the two groups would take, and that the single, massive group we all were at level 1 was unwieldy, but I was kind of sad at the end of this adventure. I'm never fond of PCs killing other PCs, but it led to some drama between friends, which is never fun to see.

Plus, the fugitives don't have a healer! Suckers!


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## Renraw Kem (May 17, 2007)

Just to clarify, all the players thought Tock was really dead when he fell off that apple cart.  INCLUDING Tock.  We were all shocked when he woke up.

And, as funny as the exit line Stotch's player wrote was, I'm glad to see it gone.  It means to me that 'Stotch' could still out there somewhere.  (Unlikely to return to the game, yes, but out there!)

The thing that stands out the most to me is just how OVER THE TOP bad Renraw's dialogue was.  I don't feel like I write him quite as flamboyant anymore, but maybe I'm wrong.  It makes me groan in places...how did anybody put up with it?



			
				Emus Graymullet said:
			
		

> I understand how important this adventure was for the direction that the two groups would take, and that the single, massive group we all were at level 1 was unwieldy, but I was kind of sad at the end of this adventure. I'm never fond of PCs killing other PCs, but it led to some drama between friends, which is never fun to see.



Ah, quit bein' a sap!  We'll all get back together someday.  

And, oh, the fireworks on that day...


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (May 17, 2007)

Renraw Kem said:
			
		

> The thing that stands out the most to me is just how OVER THE TOP bad Renraw's dialogue was.  I don't feel like I write him quite as flamboyant anymore, but maybe I'm wrong.  It makes me groan in places...how did anybody put up with it?



They mostly redirect it at Khenemet-Apep, who is a higher level (and more successful -- so far) Renraw Kem.


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## Trench (May 18, 2007)

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
			
		

> They mostly redirect it at Khenemet-Apep, who is a higher level (and more successful -- so far) Renraw Kem.




See, I don't see it. Until I realized who Apep's influence was- I saw Apep as decidedly slick. And nowhere near as frantic and manic.

This changes with a damn funny scene with him later of course...


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (May 18, 2007)

You didn't see Apep at level 1. Renraw with access to 



Spoiler



-level spells would be a lot more cocksure and malevolent. Hell, he's pretty damn malevolent as-is.


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## Renraw Kem (May 18, 2007)

So malevolent there were concerns about his alignment.  I'm still happy with Chaotic Neutral, though.  He has moments where he's not quite as selfish as usual.  They're rare, but I think it's enough to keep him from being out and out evil.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (May 18, 2007)

I wasn't happy with where yesterday's chapter ended, so I just added several hundred more words.

The next chapter is coming later today.


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## Trench (May 19, 2007)

I have to say, seeing Tucker gut punch Apep was one of his more badass moments.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (May 25, 2007)

And yes, I've left in all the other "bear rapist" references, because they fit in with Renraw's inexplicable fear of all things rural, despite being a country boy, born and bred.

And, incidentally, Renraw's not wrong: Something _was_ stalking them in the woods that night. Who or what he was won't be seen for a long while. (It hasn't even been revealed in the ongoing campaign yet, although it will be soon.)


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## bissichan (May 25, 2007)

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
			
		

> And yes, I've left in all the other "bear rapist" references, because they fit in with Renraw's inexplicable fear of all things rural, despite being a country boy, born and bred.
> 
> And, incidentally, Renraw's not wrong: Something _was_ stalking them in the woods that night. Who or what he was won't be seen for a long while. (It hasn't even been revealed in the ongoing campaign yet, although it will be soon.)





After so many years passed betwee the last NEB stories and D&D starded, I forgot how far-ranging your stories were.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Jun 5, 2007)

Sorry for the delay in the updates. I've had a hellish flu (I've lost 9 pounds in a week -- I don't recommend it as a diet plan) and have only now regained upper cognitive functions. Expect posts to resume every weekday. We're actually quite close to the end of the chapter, including a big action movie style set piece, the Baron of Midwood, and we finally find out what was up Khenemet-Apep's sleeve. I expect this chapter to be wrapped up by June 15.

Now to resolve that delayed combat round for those poor folks in the Longcoat game ...


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Jun 5, 2007)

That's right, it's a Judy Blume shout-out. Everyone says they want old school flavor in their game, but how many really commit like that?


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Jun 9, 2007)

Writing the baron was a lot of fun for me. He's very consciously sort of a refugee from the world of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, although hopefully much less obnoxious than Norrell.

When coming up with Midwood Hall and the throne room, I used A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe but I also thought about the personality of Nicodemus Midwood and his predecessors. (I have a full list of all the barons and at least a sketchy bit of information about each of them, so I can layer their history into the barony.) The Oak Throne isn't the sort of throne that Nicodemus would create, but it's the sort he'd inherit.

The lion topiaries outside are, indeed, topiary guardians from MM3. It works out nicely that the lion is the symbol of the Tarsisian Empire, as having magical lion-shaped bushes guarding the castle (Skeeter of course recognized them as unnatural) is just the sort of cool thing I imagine a wizard-turned-baron would do.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Jun 9, 2007)

1. Baron Gideon Midwood - The first baron of Midwood. Named baron in IA 344.
   2. Baroness Lasea Midwood - Second baron of Midwood, Lasea the Wise.
   3. Baron Felix Midwood - Third baron of Midwood.
   4. Baron Harhaiah Midwood - Fourth baron of Midwood, wielder of the sword Headsman.
   5. Baron Elymas Midwood - Fifth baron of Midwood, also known as the Sorcerer of Midwood.
   6. Baron Laadan Midwood - Sixth baron of Midwood, Laadan the Lusty. Inherited the seat after his older brother, Philologus Midwood, vanished in a magical accident.
   7. Baron Abidah Midwood - Seventh baron of Midwood.
   8. Baroness Talitha Midwood - Eighth baron of Midwood, inherited the seat after the death of her older brother, Benoni Midwood.
   9. Baron Nicodemus Midwood - Ninth baron of Midwood, the current baron. Named baron in IA 698. 

The biblical names all followed me using Nicodemus for the baron's name. An earlier version of Nicodemus Midwood was a central Gandalf-like figure in a Mystara campaign I briefly ran during the transition between the 2E and 3E eras. I think I got the name "Nicodemus" from a Fighting Fantasy book, I don't recall. When I decided to bring him back, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell-style, I knew I wanted to make his name fit in with the others from his family. Biblical scholar types will pick up a lot of hints about his ancestors and relatives from their names, although sometimes a good name is mostly just a good name.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Jun 13, 2007)

You know the bit in Douglas Adams' Life, The Universe and Everything where the court witness swears to testify the _whole_ truth? Pretty sure Bufer's player knows that bit as well.


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## Gnome Quixote (Jun 13, 2007)

Heh. Guilty as charged.

I actually put a great deal of thought into how Bufer--a natural-born trickster with max ranks in Bluff--would act and speak within a zone of truth. That "strange sensation" he feels as he steps into it is several decades' worth of carefully-cultivated pretense dropping away and leaving him, essentially, naked. He's totally unaccustomed to being completely and absolutely honest.

No one but Whiz ever commented on the radical shift in Bufer's behavior--the loss of his country-bumpkin accent, his suddenly much-improved vocabulary, etc. I suspect it's because most assumed he'd just stepped it up for the Baron's sake, but that in itself would have been a duplicity. The idea was that this is who Bufer really _is_ deep down, even if he himself doesn't fully realize it.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Jun 13, 2007)

So, Khenemet-Apep was relying on being able to tell the truth in the _zone of truth_ -- and controlling his own testimony so he wouldn't have to disclose anything he didn't want to (he's much more of a rat bastard than he presents himself as being, as we'll see in future adventures), but he's also relying on the fact that a _geas_ spell works in a very specific way, as will be mentioned shortly.


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## Emus Graymullet (Jun 13, 2007)

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
			
		

> The lion topiaries outside are, indeed, topiary guardians from MM3. It works out nicely that the lion is the symbol of the Tarsisian Empire, as having magical lion-shaped bushes guarding the castle (Skeeter of course recognized them as unnatural) is just the sort of cool thing I imagine a wizard-turned-baron would do.



Huh. I never picked up on that. Neat.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Jun 14, 2007)

Jecture, of course, is the head of the school of divination at the Redhurst Academy of Magic, available through Human Head/Green Ronin. Anyone interested in running a Harry Potter-style game (or just a D&D fan who also digs Harry Potter) should definitely check it out.


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## Trench (Jun 16, 2007)

Jecture is also Kat's school, after he was suspended for breaking into professor's offices to read over their journals. School has obviously... taken a detour now...


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Jun 20, 2007)

I wanted to create a non-evil opponent for the player characters. Bishop Lehmann isn't evil -- he's a Lawful Neutral cleric of Lothian -- but he genuinely believes his faith is the only true faith and he strongly desires to be the Archbishop of Grail Keep.

From his perspective, the player characters are absolutely in the wrong: What hurts Maidensbridge is the residents turning away from the light of Lothian, to the Old Prustan Gods and to the gods of dwarves and gnomes. So his opposition doesn't come from malice, but from a passionately held religious conviction.

And, of course, he's a consummately skilled player in the church hierarchy, where the player characters barely know the rules. And, as you'll see, he plays hardball in a big way.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Jun 21, 2007)

And that's the end of that. Next up we have a brief interlude written by Katadid's player and then we start the campaign in two new directions: The heroes of Midwood attempting to stop the plan of the Tiamat-worshipping kobolds (whatever it is) along with navigating the political waters of the barony and church while the fugitives run for safety beyond the long reach of the Tarsisian Empire. (The latter being aided by still-existant technology like the Grailwardens' heliograph system.)

For the sake of speeding up the story hour, I cut the introduction of a very unusual kobold who will show up in the abbey adventure in a week or so. There will be more to say about the kobold named Flower at that point.


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## Renraw Kem (Jun 21, 2007)

Jerk!

Actually, Trench's piece will be a fine introduction.


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## Renraw Kem (Jun 21, 2007)

Actually, looking back at what we actually wrote, it looks like you skipped a bunch of those epilogues...Kat's notes to everyone, Hazel's bit, Tucker's girlfriend...the contents of Tock's and Renraw's notes, Emmerson's note...I don't know that any of them were essential to the story, but they did add a little more flavor and background, I thought.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Jun 21, 2007)

They do, but I'm planning on weaving the bits in as we go along later.


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## Tock Chandler (Jun 22, 2007)

This flashback was written by Katydid's and Renraw's players, and I think they really got to the early heart of each character.  I hope we do another of these.  There are some awful things in Tock's past that I'd like to drop more hints about.


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## bissichan (Jun 22, 2007)

Lots of unexplained bits, to. For instance, Tucker goes out of his way to protect Katadid and Tock accuses him of being Kat's bully.


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## Trench (Jun 22, 2007)

I'm fully aware of how geeky this is: writing fan-fic about our own characters.

Still, given the fact that all the PC's grew up together, it seemed obvious. And Renraw's player and I have put a great deal of thought into our PC's family backgrounds and history. In fact, Renraw's player has put thought into the Kems that put my thoughts on the Leaches to shame. We get to play around with that a lot in a later story.

This was fun to write. I have thought of doing more, for certain.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Jun 25, 2007)

If anyone has held off on reading the Midwood story hour because of its size or apparent complexity, the next chapter -- which starts tomorrow -- is a perfect time to jump on. The campaign is split in two, and the chapters will alternate between the heroes of Midwood and the fugitives.

Next up, the heroes attempt to win favor with Bishop Lehmann (and pay him back for raising Emmerson from the dead) by going into the incredibly haunted Maidensbridge Abbey and lifting the curse there.


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## Renraw Kem (Jun 25, 2007)

Tock Chandler said:
			
		

> This flashback was written by Katydid's and Renraw's players



I'm not sure how much I had to do with this one.  I think not much at all, but I definitely approve.  It was really well done, all of it.

I wouldn't say no to doing another one as a group.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Jun 25, 2007)

"The Abbey in the Woods" adventure began August 15, 2006 and marks the beginning of a new, two-part direction for the campaign.

The heroes of Maidensbridge, who are featured in this chapter, have a clear goal in mind: Find out what the Green Mountain kobolds are up to, and stop them. But before they can do that, they have to honor a deal made with the local bishop.


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## Renraw Kem (Jun 26, 2007)

bissichan said:
			
		

> Lots of unexplained bits, to. For instance, Tucker goes out of his way to protect Katadid and Tock accuses him of being Kat's bully.



I read that as Tock only seeing Tucker standing over a dripping, sputtering Kat and filling in the blanks for himself.

But the way it's written, it's kind of vague what actually happened...Tucker could have been the one who pushed Kat in in the first place, but felt guilty when Kat fell in.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Jun 27, 2007)

Ptolus fans will notice the campaign is taking on a tone much more similar to that of the Big Book. This adventure closely coincided with its release, so a lot of the themes from the book start showing up in the campaign, even though it's set half a world away.


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## Emus Graymullet (Jun 29, 2007)

> Evening brings no relief from the rain spattering Maidensbridge with mud. The Sawyer house is no exception.



Oh, damn. Did I write that? I did, didn't I? Sorry!


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Jun 29, 2007)

Emus Graymullet said:
			
		

> Oh, damn. Did I write that? I did, didn't I? Sorry!



Mostly. I shortened it up.

Wet and muddy is fine by me! Most D&D games seem to exist in weather-free zones, like the Golf Channel.


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## Gnome Quixote (Jul 1, 2007)

The scene between Emus and Hazel's family is actually one of my favorite "quiet moments" of the campaign thus far. Emus pointing out that Hazel is the one character that all the others will listen to was a stroke of brilliance.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Jul 1, 2007)

The technology of the Tarsisian Empire hasn't really shown up much before now, but Emus' desire to make things blow up will become something of a recurring character trait. Other technological innovations will also start showing up more and more as the campaign continues, thanks to the Big Book spelling out for me just how much of it is out there, especially in the hands of the Grailwarden dwarves, who live with the Prustan humans in this region of the world.

And a spell to turn rainwater into holy water seems pretty reasonable and fun. I might work that one out one of these days.


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## Emus Graymullet (Jul 3, 2007)

Gnome Quixote said:
			
		

> The scene between Emus and Hazel's family is actually one of my favorite "quiet moments" of the campaign thus far. Emus pointing out that Hazel is the one character that all the others will listen to was a stroke of brilliance.





			
				Whizbang Dustyboots said:
			
		

> And a spell to turn rainwater into holy water seems pretty reasonable and fun. I might work that one out one of these days.



I've always said that Emus is both sensitive and a tactical genius.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Jul 4, 2007)

To this day, I'm not sure what motivated the players to start in on the acolyte the way they did. I think sometimes, players just like to torture NPCs some.


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## Trench (Jul 4, 2007)

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
			
		

> To this day, I'm not sure what motivated the players to start in on the acolyte the way they did. I think sometimes, players just like to torture NPCs some.





This adventure is, so far in the campaign, my favorite for many reasons. The drafting of poor Oktav is one of them.

HORRIBLE DEATH!


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## bissichan (Jul 7, 2007)

The press-ganging of Redshirt and the All-Gods Prayer set up the stage for a great campaign.

...the stuff that is coming is priceless.


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## Emus Graymullet (Jul 11, 2007)

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that Flower's text isn't in pink text, but part of me was sort of hoping!


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Jul 12, 2007)

It was at this point that I reminded Bufer's player that the funny guys always die horribly in horror stories.

Unlike a lot of my adventures I run, where I accommodate lots of humor, I ran this adventure deadly serious, with a Blair Witch Project sort of tone. The group still made jokes for a while, but the horrors of the abbey took their toll over time.

The next adventure, featuring the fugitives, was run concurrently, and provides a lot of the levity missing from the adventure in the abbey.


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## Emus Graymullet (Jul 16, 2007)

The altered Lothianite symbols and murals and such were great visuals, but suddenly finding that the aspect of Lothian that was missing from the cross was the creepiest part of the adventure.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Jul 18, 2007)

As I recall, that dwarven book on the undead was a bit of fluff from the introduction of Libris Mortis. I love stuff like that, personally.

As you'll see in later adventures, I like to ground the game in classic (and pseudo-classic) D&D tropes. One of the NPCs from the back of the 1E Rogues Gallery just showed up recently in the current game, for instance.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Jul 18, 2007)

Tucker is, of course, referring to the skeletons in Fibber's Cairn. They were the very first monsters fought in the campaign, when the group assembled to discover (and hopefully plunder) one of the cairns of the Tulgey Barrow.


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## Trench (Jul 19, 2007)

And here begins my absolute favorite fight scene of the entire campaign so far.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Jul 24, 2007)

Flower makes the crack about how dumb it would be to get caught in the area of an _entangle_ spell because that very thing had just happened to all of us in another game.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Jul 27, 2007)

The swarm is a murder of crows from the Tome of Magic. The group got lucky with big damage from the bomb.


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## Emus Graymullet (Jul 27, 2007)

Luck? Psh.

That was solid Dwarven strategy, it was!


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Jul 29, 2007)

Trench said:
			
		

> And here begins my absolute favorite fight scene of the entire campaign so far.



I'm editing the next section right now and I think I may agree with you. Apparently I have an inner serial killer I'm able to tap into.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Jul 31, 2007)

The undead version of Artos Nachtmann was the first time I got to do straight-up from-the-depths-of-Hell evil in this campaign. Sure, Pick is Lawful Evil and Khenemet-Apep is nobody's friend, but both of them have rational motivations that are understandable to normal people.

Artos Nachtmann, on the other hand, is something else, and I didn't want him to be a mindless foe trading blows with Emmerson and that's all. So I made the choice to make him a form of intelligent undead (he's a former paladin-turned-blackguard now undead and using the Bone template from the Book of Vile Darkness). And I figured he'd be interested in psychologically destroying the group before doing the same to their souls.

And luckily, Bufer's never able to resist chatting with the enemy and he has a big Guilt button right in the middle of his forehead, which Artos was only too happy to begin poking.

Turning a level 3 (as I recall) paladin into a level 3 blackguard (with no fighter class levels) is non-standard, but I wanted to reflect that the abbey's taint was a special kind of evil, and capable of abnormally strong corruption.


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## Trench (Aug 1, 2007)

Yay Artos. 

What readers have to realize is that this is a PbP campaign. So combat can be stretched out over days. Actually, this doesn't make it tedious, but almost maddeningly exciting as we wait for the next round's actions to be posted.

With Artos, it all built slowly- starting from being chased into the skeleton room by the flock of ravens, the skeleton attack, and then the resultant seperation become battle with Artos. This battle is my favorite simply because it built and built and you really got the sense that the PC's were stuck and royally screwed as the situation kept getting worse and worse.

Plus, I LOVE Bufer's badass moment of dumping his healing spell into Artos.


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## Gnome Quixote (Aug 1, 2007)

The Bufer moment was one born of deperation--three of us (well, two of us and an NPC I'd helped strongarm into tagging along) were on the ground dying, most of the rest of us were in bad shape after the encounters with the skeletons and the ravens, and I couldn't get past him to heal without provoking an attack of opportunity from Artos, who was one-hitting people. Like Trench says, it just kept on getting _worse_. After Emmerson dropped, I began to get the sinking feeling that we might be facing a TPK, or damn near.

With only a couple rounds to spare before somebody died--I think Redshirt actually came within _one point_ of dying--it was all I could think to do was dump a Cure Lesser Wounds into Artos, hope I rolled high, and pray that we'd chipped away enough of his health for it to make a difference. It didn't kill him outright, as I'd hoped, but it was gratifying to see that it turned the tide. 

Definitely one of Bufer's prouder moments...although, at the time, I was thinking _"Man, if this doesn't work, they're going to be ticked that I wasted a heal on this."_


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## bissichan (Aug 2, 2007)

Gnome Quixote said:
			
		

> The Bufer moment was one born of deperation--three of us (well, two of us and an NPC I'd helped strongarm into tagging along) [/i]





Oktav "The Healsink" Grosskopf. 

I believe we're not eager to strongarm anymore NPC's.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Aug 10, 2007)

Sorry for the delay. Between Blizzcon, a new baby and filling in for my boss this week, sleep is hard to come by, much less time to write up a story hour chapter. I hope to return to a normal schedule next week.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Aug 24, 2007)

I don't recall if I linked this previously in the thread, but Maidensbridge Abbey is mostly based on this map of Kirkstall Abbey in England. Note that some structures are in ruins because endless empty rooms are even more tedious in pbp games, which are slow enough as-is.


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## bissichan (Aug 24, 2007)

We tried to build a map using the in-game references and I pointedly avoided using the Kirkstall abbey as a template.
I wasn't that far off...


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Aug 30, 2007)

Those of you waiting for more explicit ties between Midwood and Ptolus, here you go. Who actually sent the book will become clear shortly.

When I was working on Maidensbridge Abbey, I knew I wanted to make it a classic haunted house, so an Amityville Horror-style "hidden room" was a must. While a lot of the flavor of the room is taken from City by the Spire and Chaositech, the basic idea is pure 1970s horror film. (Although I imagine the hidden room trope goes back before that -- it feels like a gothic horror bit.)


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Sep 9, 2007)

Sorry for the delay. Work was cuh-razy this week. (City councilman got indicted, with all sorts of ensuing fallout.)

As for the revelation of who sent the Book of Ascendant Night to the doomed Sisters of the New Dawn, the name of the sender should be familiar to those of you who have read the Ptolus comic book series.

My theory is that, a century ago, he wasn't necessarily the head of House Vladaam (although he may have been), and saw an opportunity to chip away at the power of the good guys. For a Palastani nobleman, giving a book to a courier and sending it to the other end of the Tarsisian Empire isn't particularly difficult. By 721 IA, he's probably forgotten it ever happened. And besides, what could anyone do, if they found out?

At this point, the player characters haven't headed to Ptolus -- they have their hands full with the events in Midwood -- but if there's a sequel campaign, it will take them that direction, for various reasons, and I expect that Emmerson and company won't be quick to forget the name Vladaam.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Sep 11, 2007)

One of the major pleasures of this campaign for me has been to see how a really intense roleplayer like Gnome Quixote, Bufer's player, sinks his teeth into the world of the Wit's End gnomes and comes up with elements that flesh out what, historically, has been a fringe race in D&D. Especially fun are all the religious elements, like prayers, psalms and even just the mentions of holy books of Garl Glittergold, like the Pseudonomicon.

When I later got the chance to play a gnome illusionist/bard/paragon in a Ptolus campaign, I was inspired to try and step up the same way by his example. My contribution to Gnomish religious works, Garl's Letters to the Quickling, will show up in the Tenth Precinct story hour at some point. My big difference is that I focus on the all-the-world's-an-illusion aspect of Garl's faith, while Gnome Quixote focuses more on the humor aspects.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Sep 12, 2007)

The abbess is a modified allip, which I've never used before now. The art for the allip really turns me off -- I'm not sure what the heck it's supposed to be, so I came up with my own description of her. Honestly, if it were me, I'd stick allips, spectres, wraiths and other incorporeal undead under a single "ghost" category in the Monster Manual and just use whatever description is appropriate.

I also modified her stats, some, since I don't love how allips work out of the box: Instead of draining 1d4 points of Wisdom per hit, she does 1d6 points of Wisdom damage instead. It's a subtle change, but given that Emmerson is the highest level cleric in Maidensbridge, it feels out of whack to me to throw a CR 3 creature at a group that then requires much higher level help to recover from.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Sep 20, 2007)

Although the Book of Ascendant Night is not chaositech, it functions in a similar way if read, dealing Wisdom damage. The trick of using the hallow spell's tongues effect to read Westron aloud and have everyone understand it is not one I'm entirely comfortable with. When magic changes with 4E (and a corresponding world-changing event in Praemal, as spelled out in the Night of Dissolution adventure, occurs), I think I'll disallow it in future.

And if you own the Big Book, you see that the Book of Ascendant Night is a factual account of the creation of the world, albeit from a very particular point of view. Fortunately, it just sounds like the paranoid ravings of a madman, like all really accurate cosmological discussions tend to sound.


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## bissichan (Sep 20, 2007)

It was a nice trick.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Sep 21, 2007)

So, bad news and good news.

The bad news first: This is the end of "The Abbey in the Woods." Why Hazel (and Flower and Bufer) are going to see the constable won't be explained for two stories. (The next chapter, "Beneath Blackberry Ridge," shows us where the fugitives have been all this time, and what they're up to. Hint: They're beneath a place called Blackberry Ridge.) But we will get there.

The good news is for the players: That mysterious figure that has been shadowing Hazel since the very first adventure will be revealed in our current campaign in our _very next adventure_, Night's Dark Terrors. Of course, that means for Story Hour readers, it's probably nine or ten months off. Still, it should be a good read in the interim, with all sorts of good stuff heading your way.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Sep 21, 2007)

*Beneath Blackberry Ridge* is an adaptation of Goodman Games Dungeon Crawl Classics #11, The Dragonfiend Pact.

The adaptation went reasonably well, with all of the Known World fluff being easily swapped out in favor of Praemal fluff. I gave everyone more Germanic names, to represent the NPCs being from the Prustan Peninsula. The big secret of the plot, relating to religious faith, is one that works especially well with the Prustan Peninsula, which has the tension between the Old Gods of pre-Imperial Prust and Lothianism, itself a newer Prustan religion.

Unfortunately, there's also a problem: This is a party without a healer and with two wizards. As you'll see, they run into repeated difficulties because of it.

After this adventure -- which takes place at the same time as the Maidensbridge Abbey adventure -- we'll jump back to Maidensbridge to discover what's going on with Constable Ward Bridger and an unexpected visitor.


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## Tock Chandler (Sep 23, 2007)

Ah, Bailiff Schulteiss.  Good times.


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## Trench (Sep 26, 2007)

Whiz said we had difficulties, which is true I suppose (I think I know which difficulty Whiz is referring to). But honestly, the difficulties are mitigated with some brutally clever ideas on every player's part.

I really rather enjoyed this adventure. Clever plot, creative setting, and since our party consists of two wizards (mine being even more fragile than normal with a piss poor CON), a fighter, and a bard... we still rocked this adventure. 

Brains, not brawn fellas.

I also think that perhaps since this was a set dungeon... there was no way for Renraw or Tock to make things worse by interacting with many NPC's...


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## Renraw Kem (Sep 26, 2007)

I LURVED this adventure despite that.  Maybe my favorite one.

Heheheh...I love the bit with the...

...and that time we...

...oh! and when we...

...don't want to forget the...

ARGH, POST ALREADY, GEEWHIZ.


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## Renraw Kem (Sep 26, 2007)

And I love this Story Hour transition...stark horror to (what will be) slapstick comedy...


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Sep 27, 2007)

If the heroes of Midwood adventures feature a lot of Bufer making ironic remarks shortly before everyone attempts to heroically sacrifice themselves for the good of everyone else, the fugitives of Midwood adventures feature an awful lot of muttering under their breath and attempts to hoodwink any available NPCs and each other.

It's a very different tone.


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## Renraw Kem (Sep 27, 2007)

Just skimmed back in this thread and saw a couple of things to reply to...


			
				bissichan said:
			
		

> The main reason why Emmerson went along with the kobolds was because he thought a battalion of them was approaching (with the Queen in tow) and those six were the forerunners.
> 
> I don't know why I thought that. If I had known they were it, Emmerson would have refused the whole hostage exchange thing.



I think you thought that because of another lie Renraw told...when we first encountered the kobolds, Renraw repeatedly made reference to "more coming."  

Ah, it was fun having me and Kat be the only ones to speak Draconic in that bit...


			
				Whizbang Dustyboots said:
			
		

> And, incidentally, Renraw's not wrong: Something _was_ stalking them in the woods that night. Who or what he was won't be seen for a long while. (It hasn't even been revealed in the ongoing campaign yet, although it will be soon.)



I never put two and two together...this must be the same thing that's been following Hazel.

Weird.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Sep 27, 2007)

Renraw Kem said:
			
		

> I never put two and two together...this must be the same thing that's been following Hazel.
> 
> Weird.



Yes. By this time next week, I suspect you'll know what it was.


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## bissichan (Sep 27, 2007)

Renraw Kem said:
			
		

> Just skimmed back in this thread and saw a couple of things to reply to...
> 
> I think you thought that because of another lie Renraw told...when we first encountered the kobolds, Renraw repeatedly made reference to "more coming."





Oh, sure, make Renraw more likeable to Emmerson.


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## Renraw Kem (Sep 28, 2007)

bissichan said:
			
		

> Oh, sure, make Renraw more likeable to Emmerson.



I don't understand, but anything to bridge that gulf between our characters!  

I'm sure someday they will get along famously...


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## Trench (Sep 29, 2007)

This is the first of a string of incidents, where Renraw's greed and arrogance causes a creature that would normally have left us alone, attack.

And what's even more galling, the first of many incidents that Renraw is infuriatingly able to pull our fat out of the fire.


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## Renraw Kem (Sep 29, 2007)

Whiz said:
			
		

> "My mother would have been deathly afraid of giant spiders," Renraw whispers, pointing the light in the direction Kat scans. "And I imagine they don't much appreciate having their legs plucked off one by one. But more importantly ..."



Ok, this makes NO sense out of context.  Heheheheheh.


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## Renraw Kem (Sep 29, 2007)

Trench said:
			
		

> And what's even more galling, the first of many incidents that Renraw is infuriatingly able to pull our fat out of the fire.



I must be remembering this adventure differently from you.  Now I have to go reread it on our other board...


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Oct 2, 2007)

Wherever they go, whatever they do, one thing remains the same: Renraw will steal whatever's not nailed down.


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## bissichan (Oct 2, 2007)

So he found the healing potion and produced it as his own? I kept wondering about that one .


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Oct 3, 2007)

Those who know the Dragonfiend Pact know that there's a whole lot of trouble the fugitives just bypassed with a lucky Spot check.


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## Tock Chandler (Oct 3, 2007)

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
			
		

> Those who know the Dragonfiend Pact know that there's a whole lot of trouble the fugitives just bypassed with a lucky Spot check.




Luck, my ass!  It's SKILL.


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## Trench (Oct 4, 2007)

I... I really wanted to see the spider get cut in half...


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Oct 4, 2007)

Although some people decry 3E for setting RULES for doing everything, I still DM the way I DMed in 1E: If you're in a party without a rogue (or a cleric, in this case), and you want to disable a trap, obviously it's riskier than if you had a rogue (witness Ragglus' bang-up method of trap detection), but it's still got to be possible. Saying "nope, sorry, the RAW say you automatically fail to disarm the trap" is not just silly (although I'm not sure the RAW actually says that, so don't punch me in the neck), but it stops play for no good reason.

This was the first time anyone in the campaign had hit a whole slew of traps (other than Renraw almost willfully getting hit by the _ray of frost_ trap in Fibber's Cairn), and it kind of pissed off the players a little bit, in large part because the traps were one right after another. While realistic, it's not terribly rewarding unless there's a rogue along.

There's another trap-laden module in the campaign's future -- they haven't hit it yet -- and I will probably remove the less interesting ones and replace them with either a wandering moster of the same CR as the trap or nothing.


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## Gnome Quixote (Oct 6, 2007)

That's a terrible, _terrible_ pseudonym that poor Renraw's  been saddled with. I wonder how he pronounces it?

He'd probably be amused to know his new surname means 'bumblebee' in Czech.


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## Renraw Kem (Oct 6, 2007)

How dare you!  I _loved_ that alias!  



			
				Beneath Blackberry Ridge said:
			
		

> Seeing the arrow was the only immediate danger, Renraw clears his throat and straightens out from where he'd crouched behind Ragglus.
> 
> "I thought I saw skeletons for a moment. Must've been some sort of illusion. Let's hurry up and finish this, shall we?"



I don't know if anyone besides our group is reading this, but I'm to blame for a number of groan-inducing metagame cracks...  

The above line was the result of an accidental cross-posting in our two PBP games...the skeletons from the Abbey adventure wound up appearing before the fugitive group in the dungeon before Whizbang realized and deleted the post and moving it to the correct spot.  It still works as pure cowardice on Renraw's part, but I figured if we're providing a bonus commentary I'd let everyone know where it came from.


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## Renraw Kem (Oct 6, 2007)

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
			
		

> and it kind of pissed off the players a little bit



Maybe Ragglus' player, since he was the one in front, but I think the frustration was mainly just kept in-character, which only makes sense.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Oct 8, 2007)

Last post retconned to include Katadid discovering an object that I forgot to address in his search earlier. Kat correctly jumps to the right conclusion as well.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Oct 10, 2007)

The werebadger in the original module isn't a dwarf, but I'm a big fan of the classic Ravenloft monsters, including their variant lycanthropes and vampires. And in Ravenloft, werebadgers are dwarves and are unable to infect non-dwarves, hence Tock's lyric.


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## Trench (Oct 10, 2007)

Aw, really?

I was really looking forward to the day when Ragglus turned into a werebadger on a full moon...


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Oct 10, 2007)

The 3E Ravenloft book is my favorite book of monsters. I assure you, horrible things await in your future.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Oct 16, 2007)

So, pressed for time, I really wasn't sure what the dwarf zombies would do. The options were three, as I saw them:

1) They'd stop at the edge of the pit and attempt to thrust their spears across. But that would require they'd know the pit was there and react to it.

2) They'd lose one to the pit, turn around and go back to their room, unable to complete their commands. That seemed to require an awfully sophisticated set of commands for that to work, or rudimentary reasoning on the part of the zombies, which seems counter to how they work in 3E.

3) They'd fall in the pit and reward the players for smart use of terrain.

So I chose #3. I'm still not sure it was the right choice, but it was fun, and that's what matters most.


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## Trench (Oct 16, 2007)

Having the Delvers play "Shoot the Zombie" was one of the best and funniest moments of the campaign for me.


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## Renraw Kem (Oct 16, 2007)

Oh, no doubt!  Muy fantastico.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Oct 16, 2007)

Oh, and Renraw wasn't actually pleasuring himself in that cave, he was busy stealing something from the rest of the group.

On second thought, I guess he was pleasuring himself.


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## Renraw Kem (Oct 16, 2007)

Heheheheh.  I thought about explaining that, but I couldn't remember if it became clear or not later on.


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## bissichan (Oct 17, 2007)

The Abbey adventure ran parallel to this one, so while they used the terrain to their advantage, our terrain worked against us. I think we were running from the crows and right into Artos Natchmann's den at that point.

It was damn fun to see them dispatch the zombies quite easily. It would have been funnier if they had a flask of alchemists' fire or a fireball spell, but arrows and stones did the trick.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Oct 17, 2007)

If Renraw lives to the end of the campaign, I will be extremely surprised.


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## Renraw Kem (Oct 19, 2007)

I've been trying to think up a way to keep him indispensible, but I haven't got anything yet.  

So, yeah, he's pretty much a dead man.  I am coming to terms with it.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Oct 20, 2007)

I'm not sure if Renraw intended to rob the rest of the Gentlemen Delvers, blackmail them or just abandon them. I'm not sure if Renraw even knew.

Just now, in the ongoing campaign, Ragglus finally gave Renraw a bit of what he has coming to him. It was really, really cool.


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## Trench (Oct 20, 2007)

Actually, having learned a whole disturbing amount about the Kem family in an upcoming collaboration with Renraw's player I can venture an even scarier guess.

He was going to "play" with them. Probably involving rides.


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## Renraw Kem (Oct 20, 2007)

Trench knows me too well.

Er...Renraw!  He knows _Renraw_ too well.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Oct 31, 2007)

You know, I don't have my Dragonfiend Pact PDF here. I think Katadid is just now having an epiphany about the contract they found with the zombie dwarves.

It's a _wrong_ epiphany, of course, but an epiphany nonetheless.


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## Trench (Oct 31, 2007)

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
			
		

> You know, I don't have my Dragonfiend Pact PDF here. I think Katadid is just now having an epiphany about the contract they found with the zombie dwarves.
> 
> It's a _wrong_ epiphany, of course, but an epiphany nonetheless.




Nope. It's an epiphany about the "cipher" that Bufer used to communicate with Kat after they went on their fugitive run. Kat uses one right back before they leave.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Oct 31, 2007)

OK, well, that makes more sense ... sort of!


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Nov 1, 2007)

The summoned octopus is the familiar of a character in another game, set in the Sea Kingdoms city of Gharon.


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## Trench (Nov 1, 2007)

Smashing that damn scroll tube was cathartic. We kept fiddling with that damn thing for days.

And once we found out our creatures summoned were still normal size, boy were we set sending nasty beasts after big creatures. And the imagery sets up some ideas I have for Kat if he lives long enough...


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Nov 4, 2007)

If I'd had the Big Book with me when I'd started designing the Midwood campaign, I would have made the conflict between the Old Gods of Prust and Lothianism a core element of the setting. Fortunately, The Dragonfiend Pact explicitly touches on a very similar issue and was easily adapted to cover this ground.

If/when we jump the campaign forward a bit with the coming of 4E, I'll likely retcon in the Old Gods into the barony as well.


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## Renraw Kem (Nov 7, 2007)

I'd forgotten how helpful I was in this fight.


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## bissichan (Nov 7, 2007)

Renraw was instrumental in the other fights. He had to let the team carry their own weight.


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## Trench (Nov 8, 2007)

Oh my god THANK YOU Whiz for keeping in the Renraw dream sequence. LOVED THIS SO MUCH.


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## Renraw Kem (Nov 8, 2007)

Heh-heh.  Had fun writing that.  Thought it would be a good way to show how Renraw sees himself and what he wishes his relationships were like.


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## bissichan (Nov 16, 2007)

Tock and Renraw discussing the flaws of the plan was brilliant.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Nov 22, 2007)

Sorry for the delay in posting: A family visit, pre-holiday work rush, holiday shopping, city council meeting and, of course, a four month old baby all conspired against me.


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## Trench (Nov 22, 2007)

You know, it may sound funny but I truly love we're the type of group where a wizard will try to outfight the fighter simply out of sheer ego.


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## Emus Graymullet (Nov 27, 2007)

That was the harriest encounter had had so far, I think.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Nov 27, 2007)

Emus Graymullet said:
			
		

> That was the harriest encounter had had so far, I think.



ONLY THE BEGINNING, BABY!

And lucky you, you guys all leveled up last adventure. Time for even harder ass-kickings.


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## Trench (Nov 28, 2007)

Yeah, that was probably the closest we had gotten to a TPK at that point. Rags getting critted by that goblin hurt.

And you know, we STILL don't know what Richter's dagger does. I wouldn't be surprised if Renraw's player knew, but he hasn't told us.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Nov 28, 2007)

The fugitives have suffered a bit owing to my fondness for the Marvel Conan comics of the 1970s, starting with the ending of this adventure.

Tomorrow, we jump back to Midwood and, eventually, explain who Heath Leach's mysterious visitor was.


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## OzBat! (Nov 29, 2007)

Fortunately, there's an infusion of class with new additions to the fugitives coming up soon.


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## Trench (Nov 30, 2007)

Heath Ledger?


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Nov 30, 2007)

Do you ever tell yourself "don't say X, don't say X, don't say X" and then find yourself blurting out "X?"

This is what I get for story houring during a phone call.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Dec 1, 2007)

Pretty much everyone in this adventure are supporting characters created as part of the player characters' backgrounds, specifically Renraw Kem and Katadid Leach, and the adventure was their players' ideas.

Given the Gothic madness of Kem House, it's ironic that Renraw's player has resisted me characterizing his character as evil, although that may predate his ideas about Kem House.

If I'd had this setting laid out in front of me from the beginning, I think I would have done a kind of Castle Amber-style adventure set there early on. With the fugitives on the run, it's not practical at this point, especially with the Green Mountain plot line galloping along full-out.

The next Midwood campaign will likely jump forward in time, either six or 12 months. Maybe an interlude with Kem House can be worked in, or maybe it'll just be source material for a future campaign with new characters. I like to think of the house like Stephen King and Peter Straub's Black House, as a malign site independent of its residents. Exploring why and what it means for those around it would be interesting, I think. There's a lot of interesting mythic things that can be done with "the house that everyone avoids," especially if it were to retreat somewhat from town, deeper into the wild portions of the Tulgey Wood.


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## OzBat! (Dec 3, 2007)

House on the move?  Or just re-establishing (not the dreaded retconn!  Nooooo!) it's "original" location?


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Dec 3, 2007)

Given the weird nature of Kem House, it could be either one.


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## Renraw Kem (Dec 3, 2007)

This chapter is really kind of confusing.  I'm not sure outside readers will understand, given that it threw the actual players for a loop.  

Heath Leach is the apothecary for the town of Maidensbridge and the father of PC Katydid Leach.  Kem House is the ancestral home of fugitive PC Renraw Kem.  I haven't detailed who most of the current residents are to anyone but Trench.  They are relatives of Renraw's, though.  I have a whole family tree with something like two dozen Kems on it.

Maybe it's better if I DON'T say who they all are if we're planning to go back there someday.  I'm glad it piqued some interest.


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## Trench (Dec 4, 2007)

And having got an inside peek at the Kem family, I can only say it's a miracle Renraw turned out as well as he did.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Dec 10, 2007)

I like the murky nature of the family and the goings-on. It's very Gothic fiction.

It'll all change gears in a moment, anyway.


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## Trench (Mar 18, 2008)

Ah yes... the moment where Renraw's player blindsided me and framed Heath for murder...

This is part of the cool thing with PM's. The whole thing got set up without my knowledge and then THAT happened. I was honestly thrown for a loop.


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## Renraw Kem (Mar 26, 2008)

Ha...I think that was some of the most fun I've had playing with you guys since this whole thing started.  The back and forth we got going there was really great.

Big thanks to Whizbang for indulging us on that one.


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## Emus Graymullet (May 20, 2008)

Bufer's rant makes a lot more sense the second time around.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (May 22, 2008)

The whole notion of the song, "The Town Where Heroes are Born," came to me after the campaign began, but it's a nice way -- in my opinion -- of making the events happening in Maidensbridge seem both more mythic and also unexceptional to the ordinary residents. _Of course_ there's danger facing Maidensbridge: They all know the song!

The only hitch is that I have yet to find a poet or a lyricist help me come up with a chorus and some verses. I have some ideas and samples kicking around, but I need to get cracking soon.

"The Song" becomes more important in a later adventure.

Oh, and this was the last piece of "The Shadows of Kem House." We're back to more traditional adventures next time.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (May 23, 2008)

"The Dark Waters of Moss Pond" is an adventure that I've wanted to run before the Midwood campaign even was a glimmer in my eye, although of course it mutated along the way. There's a bit of fairy tale, a bit of campaign lore, a bit of seeding in future sandbox stuff, and a bit of mythic ass-kicking.

It was one of my favorites so far.

And Pentagruel and Rutiger are my punishment for not naming the children straight off the bat. Tucker's player stuck me with them the first time someone asked for their names.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Jul 14, 2008)

Bufer's trip to Baraj Al-Aswad, the Black Tower, was my first chance to give more meaty details to where the kobolds live, what Glangirn is like (inspired by the description of 0one Games' dwarven fortress maps) and how Gax conquered the dwarves.

When I sketched out the idea for the campaign, I knew that one of my favorite fantasy stories of all time was The Hobbit (my first memory of my father is him reading me the opening of the book, in fact), and I liked the whole "dwarves in exile" thing. But I didn't want Midwood to be a Hobbit retread, so I've had to chart a parallel but separate course. A dragon swimming into an undefended dwarf fortress while the armies rage outside seems like a good variant and also highlights that Gax was, in many ways, way smarter than the dwarves who trusted that a glacier lake would be enough to protect them.

I also wanted to make it clear that the kobolds are a real threat. There's a tendency in old school gamers to treat them like a joke (a high level NPC later in the campaign embodies this attitude, much to Tucker's exasperation) and more recent gamers tend to think they're just adorable cuties. (I find myself in both camps, to be frank, thanks to the great picture of Ceatitle fireballing kobolds in the 1E Rogues Gallery.)

And yes, I've got a fetish about including classic D&D name references. Most of my players are newer, so I don't know if they catch all of them. Hopefully, even if they did, they would enjoy this sort of Ultimate D&D Universe approach to things instead of finding it lame.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Jul 14, 2008)

A _luritas_ is a bit of Praemal culture found in the Ptolus Players Guide and, I think, maybe nowhere else: It's a house spirit, and it's traditional to give gifts to them when visiting another person's home. There's typically a shelf inside the front door at most homes that serves as a shrine to the _luritas_.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Jul 19, 2008)

Kids in jeopardy are a staple of cop shows and movies (and television news sweeps programming) for a reason: They get us where we live. Despite that, I haven't seen it much in D&D, and wanted to leverage that motivation in the campaign. (It doesn't hurt that Emmerson is a family man.)

The whole bit with the Kramer twins and the young stepmother are taken from a college kiddie-lit class, where they explained the whole origin of the evil stepmother thing: So many women died during childbirth, or soon thereafter, that young stepmothers whose child stood to inherit nothing while the original wife's children lived, were not uncommon.

A parallel could be drawn between this adventure and the story of Hansel and Gretel, but as you'll see, it's mostly a tenuous link, although it does inform a little bit of what happens at the end.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Jul 24, 2008)

Bufer is, of course, entirely right about the chocolate. It's not enough that the fairies not resist the spell; it has to go PERFECTLY to turn them into gold.


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