Updated Rules

 

Don't get scared but we will be delving into the updated rules for our next session.  There are some very minor changes that make this "primeless" version even easier to play.

The new character sheet can be found under Useful Files & PDFS in the sidebar (over there ---->) so if you want to print it out and get a head start on it you can.  I'm talkin' to you Dan. Norb, your characters are here so I'll probably copy them to the new sheets myself just to save time (your character sheets right now look like someone let their retarded cousin play). Lisha will copy hers tonight.

The full rules can be downloaded at Chris Perkins AD&D3 site.  This is the revised primeless version making the game a little less like Castles & Crusades. He has done some amazing work putting this together.

Stealing Blog Posts

Check out this video at Lair of the Evil DM.

For better or worse The Hobbit has started production.

D&D, On the Morrow

The evil illusionist Illnath has been slain and his treasure has been plundered!  The Shadow Cylinder has been found!  The adventurers have escaped Castle Riveon and Margor the manticore is trapped in the observatory of the High Tower!  Chaos reigns in the citadel as news of the death of Illnath spreads among his orcish minions!

Things seem to be going well for our intrepid party but they still have to escape the city!

See you all at 12:30

Count Floyd

Lisher (I'm not sure about Dan) doesn't know who Count Floyd is. So here you go and now you know!


I think the Count trying to be all "scary" is similar to me trying to describe a scene when I'm DMing.

The Story So Far...

Goldengrass the 26^th to Redleaf the 4^th

 Note: I’m a little pressed for time so I’m just going to give a condensed overview of our last two sessions.

• The party had fled Riveon. They fought and outwitted the goblins and worgs that pursued them through the Broken Lands. They made straight for the tower of the sorceress Aness seeking aid as they planned to return to the citadel.
• They found Aness greatly weakened due to her possession of two of the Shadow Cylinders.  She could hardly walk and was unable to retain any spells as she was experiencing terrible nightmares that did not allow her to get any real rest. Aness still was able to assist the party by giving them a powerful teleport scroll.  The scroll would be able to teleport the whole party almost wherever they wished (some locations with considerable risk).  Many plans were discussed and many arguments ensued on what to do.
•  Aness and her apprentice Vanen (along with the guardian stone golem) then left the tower for the safety of the Wizard’s Isle. They hoped that Aness could find a way to shield herself from the dark influence of the Shadow Cylinders.  They also knew that the minions of Zorvoath were still watching the tower.  Aness loaded all her valuables into a Leomund’s secret chest and they vanished away. Before leaving the sorceress gave the adventurers the key to the tower so they could use it as a safe house once they returned from their quest.
• The heroes restocked their supplies in Berengel and checked on their horses before setting out for Riveon again.  They saw a rider upon the road to Berengel but they were unsure if it was an enemy.
• They traveled back through the Broken Lands guided by the ranger Eldan.  Riveon was reached mid-day on Redleaf the 4^th.  Their travels were interrupted briefly by a sojourn into a troglodyte cave that they saw before when fleeing Riveon.  The party battled the disgusting creatures but it turned out to be a fruitless venture.
• The party waited until the darkness of night to reenter the citadel.  Jarvis the cat familiar was used as a scout and it was discovered that the rents in the northern wall were too well guarded by contingents of orcs and ogres. Lono suggested that they scale the wall in a less guarded area using his grappling hook.  This was done with the help of Svarnos’ levitation wand.  Two patrolling orcs had to be dispatched as they discovered the infiltrating adventurers.  The orcish bodies were flung outside the wall.  Scaling the wall proved to not be difficult but descending caused some falls and rough landings.
• The adventurers were in luck. Once inside the citadel they could see a large coliseum type structure that was full of firelight and activity. It seemed that Illnath and his evil minions were enjoying another night of arena battles.  The eyes of the orcs in a nearby guard tower were pulled towards the action within the arena thus allowing the adventures to steal away into the citadel.
• The party reached the cemetery and the Curthor crypt. They descended into it but discovered to their dismay that Illnath had discovered how they entered the castle before.  There was a group of orcs guarding the entrance to the secret tunnel into the castle.  The party wasted no time in kicking down the door and slaughtering the surprised orcs.  Their bodies were hidden in an adjacent tomb full of sarcophagi and rotting dead zombies (really dead!).
• The adventurers carefully reentered the castle and after some scouting by Lono bee lined straight for the mysterious High Tower of Cyndara via the throne room.  The castle seemed almost deserted as it seemed Illnath and many of the orcs were still at the arena.
•  The first obstacle the party encountered was the great iron bound wood doors of the tower itself. They were carved with strange mystical symbols and as they were approached the doors cast a confusion spell upon the party.  This resulted in many of the party members temporarily loosing their minds (screaming, running, attacking friends, babbling, and doing nothing).  Eventually, Gjord was left in the door hallway alone to try to batter it down despite the insidious spell.  After a couple tries (and getting magically confused in the process) the stout dwarf was successful.
• The walls within the tower were covered with phantasmal sigils and runes with walls made of solid granite blocks.  A dim light emanated from the ceiling but no light source could be seen to cause it.
• The second obstacle was a sleeping red dragon!  It scales glistened, heat could be felt emanating from its body, the smell of smoke was in the air, and the sound of its breath rumbled through the room. However, it turned out to be a stunningly real illusion but the party was ready to bravely do battle with the creature even though they thought it was really a dragon. Svarnos did have his suspicions from the beginning though.
• The heroes made for the top of the tower immediately so they ascended the enclosed spiral staircase bypassing all the other levels of the tower. They reached the top level and entered by an iron bound door.  They were in a great overgrown green house with a domed green-glass roof reinforced by an ornate copper latticework.  The dome was half open to the cloudy night sky as the sectioned dome could be closed and opened by a lever connected to a gearbox upon one side of the room.  The room was filled with stunted dead trees, moss, and weeds.  Here the party also found a great trove of treasure! There was a large chest covered with moss on the opposite side of the room.  Lono easily picked the lock and within the party found a hoard of gold and platinum and what were obviously items of a magical nature. Two swords (one thin dull gray shortsword, and one golden handled longsword with a hilt that looked like entwined flames), a large steel shield with the heraldic crossed lances of Riveon embossed upon the front, a suit of mithral elven chainmail (sized for a human or half-elf), a warhammer with a metal haft and a head that shimmered slightly, a gold ring set with a ruby (Svarnos donned this and discovered it was a ring of spell storing with a fireball spell within), a purple colored potion, and a black hooded cloak with a silver web-like pattern stitched into it (Lono donned the robe and found that he was able to scale the walls and the dome as if under the influence of a spider climb spell).  The party quickly took all the items and pocketed some coins as well.  The heroes knew that the adventure was far from over for they had found no Shadow Cylinder and the evil illusionist Illnath still lived!

Let me know in the comments if I left anything out!

D&D Tomorrow 1/8/11

I might be a little insane when we play tomorrow as I know I'm going to have a really rough day.  Who knows, maybe a little insanity will be good for my Dungeon Mastering.

Since everyone is putting up pictures of their characters here's how I picture myself as your DM.

This session is going to  be really scary! For real this time, forget about what happened last time! AWOOOOOOO!

The Story so Far

It has been a long time coming.  Please let me know if you remember anything I left out.

The Story So Far…

Goldengrass the 25^th, 1845

 Flight from Riveon

The party was trying to devise a plan.  They considered using the slave girl Shianna as bait to catch Illnath off guard.  Svarnos considered his spells and thought that if they used rope trick the majority of the party would be able to hide in the bedroom itself (albeit in a dimensional pocket).  Two could conceal themselves under the bed and the illusionist and his guards could be ambushed. Immediately, the group began to see holes in this plan. First, Shianna was bound to Illnath by a charm person spell and thus was still loyal to him. Second, nervous as she was, it did not seem she was up to the task of pretending that there wasn’t a throng of adventurers hiding in the room with her.

It was now that Svarnos remembered something that shattered the plan completely.  When looking through the eyes of his familiar he had seen Illnath and recalled how the illusionist’s eyes had glowed with faint blue light.  Svarnos, having learned the magical arts on the Wizard’s Isle, remembered how some of the more powerful mages would permanently affix a spell called arcane sight to their vision causing their eyes to shimmer with a bluish glow. The spell would allow them to see the radiating aura that magic spells gave off.  If Illnath had this spell upon him would he be able to see the aura of the rope trick spell? The party thought it was likely and did not want to risk finding out the hard way.

As the party was trying to come up with another plan they heard some one calling out and opening doors in the hallway outside the bedroom.  The door to bedroom was opened but the heroes were ready and they tackled the man that entered.  It was a young pale skinned man with long black hair and red-brown robes.  Shianna cried out for them not to hurt him, as he was Illnath’s apprentice Ovgen (and she had seen what had happened to the goblin servant earlier).  The grim bunch of soot-covered adventurers terrified the apprentice.  He nervously explained how Illnath brought him to Riveon so that he could have an assistant and someone to pass his knowledge on to. He did not realize how evil Illnath was and saw it as a great opportunity to learn more phantasmal magic.  When he was brought to the citadel however he found it over run with orcs and other foul creatures all under the influence of Illnath.  Ovgen became more of slave and prisoner than an apprentice although the illusionist did instruct him in some magic.

From Ovgen, the party learned that the flying beast called “Margor” that was housed in the top dome of the High Tower was in fact a terrifying manticore.  This creature was Illnath’s pet and the illusionist used him to strike terror into the hearts of the orcs and keep them under control.  Many orcs had been fed to the beast over the years.  The beast was also used in the Arena that was located on the east side of the city.  Illnath entertained himself by watching captured prisoners futilely fight for their lives against the powerful manticore and his elite half-orc guards in the Arena.

Ovgen was only in the High Tower once before and he said that it housed strange protective magic. The apprentice said he would be willing to help the party if they promised to take him with them when they left as he felt it was the only way he would ever escape the citadel.

The party decided to trust the apprentice and try to use him as bait to ambush the illusionist.  Ovgen told them that he was soon to be meeting Illnath in the library and that they could launch their ambush there.  Ovgen would safely lead them to the library past the guards of the castle.  So they set off after telling after hiding the body of the goblin under the bed and telling Shianna that she was to stay in the room where they could return for her.

They approached the door to the guardhouse and Ovgen told them to wait while he distracted the guards so that the party could pass unseen.  The apprentice entered the room and began to speak to the guards in orcish. It was then that the party was betrayed.  Eldan the ranger, who understands orcish, drew his sword and told the others that Ovgen was telling the guards to attack the intruders out in the hallway.

The orcs rushed out and fell upon the heroes.  The party returned the offensive and was able to kill the orcs quickly.  Svarnos ran past the fray to try to get to Ovgen.  He saw the apprentice escaping down a stairwell and tried to cast a sleep spell upon him but it was resisted.  Ovgen escaped screaming for Illnath and making for the throne room.

The adventurers knew they were in dire straits and decided to flee back to the ruined chapel and down the long tunnel to the Curthor Crypt.  Before the doors to the chapel Eldan laid down some pepper to disrupt their scent trail if the orcs tried to track them down with wargs.  As they closed the trap door leading to the tunnel a great inhuman bellow could be heard echoing throughout the castle.

It was a nightmare race to flee the citadel. In the graveyard outside the tomb Fionnula turned a bunch of ravening ghouls.  Once out of the graveyard the city streets were no safer.  Patrols of orcs, ogres, goblins, and wargs had to be avoided.  Thrice the party had to battle a group of monsters as the horns and howling reverberated through the city.  Reaching the rent in the north wall of the city flights of arrows clattered about them with some almost finding their mark.

The party fled westward between the rocks of the Broken Lands with the sounds of pursuit behind them.  They ran until they were exhausted and night had fallen.  They knew that it was unlikely that they had escaped pursuit but they had to rest.  Svarnos used rope trick to hide whom he could but two would have to stay outside.  Lono and Fionnula remained outside and hid atop a pillar of rock hopefully out of reach and sight of any creature that should wander by.

However, soon three-spear bearing goblin warg rider discovered them.  A desperate battle ensued. Lono used his sling from atop the rock and some of the warriors tried to slide down the rope to engage the monsters.  Gjord, Martijn, and Galifynakus all were injured because they hit the ground hard.  Eventually the monsters were defeated but many in the party were wounded almost unto death. And the night was not yet over.