We squeezed in a couple of hours playing tonight before leaving on our trip. Kids and family will make it nearly impossible to play this weekend. It was mainly roleplaying and some adventure hook setups:
- Merchant has signs in every tavern/corner offering a reward for his missing daughter Lemunda.
- Aeli finds out that the mage from the tower bore a ring from the Dark Mage school of Um-Loran, located in Mhaldor. This ring was also worn by her betrayer, Calypso.
More NPC/hireling lessons in battle tactics as they had Aeli buy them spears for the second row occupants. She also dropped quite a bit of gold on healing at the temple and shields for the hirelings. Although gold spent means XP earned, it also means she needs to find more loot. Oh darn. This leads her to her next adventure, going through the tunnels under the Keep to rid it of the strange monster killing guards and keeping them from their food stores.
She had just started entering the tunnels when time ran out on us. We "froze" in place for pickup next week. I know it's not exactly old school, but for the solo game, I'm more comfortable with the "freeze", especially since she's in an occupied Castle near the homebase. She quite understands the concept and "bad things" about staying in a dungeon proper. We're just brain dead and ready to get some rest before the "Family Vacation" this weekend.
(And this general overview will be how I do my reviews from now on - talk about lessons learned and highlights from the game.)
This shall be my last post till I return. Be well and play/fight on!
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
OD&D Solo Game with my wife - Day 5
We picked up our game with Aeli (my wife's fighter) back at the Inn after a particularly brutal trip into the dungeon beneath Zenopus's Tower. Some conflict had also erupted between Aeli and my (so-far) main NPC, Tironell the mage. She had committed to performing a task for the local priest in exchange for resurrecting a hireling. He didn't want to perform this task (yet) because of his worries that someone else would plunder the tower of it's treasures before him.
Aeli arose on Day 5 and met Tironell to discuss the treasure they'd found. Tironell was convinced that a scroll recovered was penned by Zenopus himself and would allow someone to float (levitate). Aeli agreed to keep the fine sword and armor.
They then brought out the golden bejeweled belt they had recovered from the fighter-slave, and a hush came over the entire Inn as everyone gaped at it. It was truly a thing of beauty and not something a simple fighter should have had! They asked the Berlbur the Innkeeper whom in Westport might be able to price it for them. He directed them to Ulmnys, the Mayor's assistant, who might be able to advise them with such a remarkable item.
At this point, Aeli and Tironell made their way back to the temple to see if the priest had resurrected the hireling. Unfortunately, the goddess was not willing to return his soul, so the attempt had failed. Turchao, the other man-at-arms, had been fully healed. Once again, Aeli agreed to fulfill her end of the bargain and investigate the issue at the Keep which prevent the poor from getting supplies.
Tironell pleaded with Aeli to return to Zenopus's Tower first. He persuaded her to go see what the job was about - she would be keeping her promise to begin the job. He agreed to go with her later. She reluctantly agreed and they parted ways - he to get the belt appraised, she to speak to the Captain of the Guard. (NB: I had really wondered if she was going to tell the NPC to take a flying leap. I was prepared for that, and half expecting it. This just gives me yet another hook for her backstory...)
So Aeli walked to the Keep and had an amusing encounter with a guard in which Aeli had forgotten who had sent her. She managed to persuade the guard to take her to the Captain and much the same thing happened. After some talk which had Aeli looking like a mad woman, she finally 'remembered' that the priest was Worlale and she was here to help. He looked at her askance - "You've come alone?" but took her to see what was going on.
The Captain took her deep into the Keep, explaining that it was built on the remains of something ancient. There was a series of tunnels below the Keep that were very old, and part of those tunnels were used for food storage. Something had come from the locked off part of the tunnels, killed two squads of guards and was preventing them from getting to their food. The remaining guards had barricaded the Keep from the tunnels, and whatever this was, it kept attacking the barricade. Nobody could really see it, but it didn't like fire or being poked by large polearms through the barricade. The Keep's Knights were off on maneuvers (*coughDesExMachinacough*) so the Captain was happy to have any assistance.
Aeli promised to return the next day with more men and walked back to Westport to wait for Tironell. After they met, and he gave her half of the 1000 gold he'd sold the belt for, they waited for more hirelings to go with them to the Tower. At this point, Aeli found herself mesmerized by the fine sword she'd recovered and she spent 3 hours cleaning and sharpening it, almost in a trance.
Once the hirelings had arrived (and Aeli roused from her "trance"), they made their way back to Zenopus's Tower and through the previously mapped areas to the door they believed led to the tower itself.
First, they faced a Giant Snake. The DM chose to make this a teaching moment and had one of the NPCs suggest they back up to the previous room to be able to surround the snake. Aeli agreed and they did so. A couple of rounds later, there was one dead snake.
They made their way back to the snake's room and found it to be part of the tower itself! They made their way up the stairs, through a trap door to a kitchen, then up more stairs to another trap door.
Aeli popped the trap door (without listening, *laugh*) and took the evil mage by surprise. He jumped to a table and pulled out what looked like a rock stick. It was at this point that my wife invoked her own Rule of Cool and scored a natural 20 on a bow/arrow shot at the mage. Result? He dropped the wand and went diving for it. The next round, Aeli moved out of the trap door, allowing two other of the party up. Tironell used up his wand that disintegrated in his hands but hit the mage with it's magic, then the NPC fighter finished the evil mage off.
THAT was cool. Tironell, the NPC mage, was in awe. Here was an untouched library of Zenopus himself! Tironell started loading up the porter and anyone else with books and notes.
Aeli: Where's the treasure?! You said there was a treasure room!
Tironell (the happy mage): Are you kidding? This IS the treasure room.
So the party left the dungeon, with everyone alive this time! Now on to the Keep to see what the creature is that has the Keep paralyzed.
-- notes --
I wanted to make a big deal of a 1000gp belt, which is why it had such an effect on the inn patrons. Someone carries in something that is worth roughly 10 -12 months of salary, it's going to attract attention. I wonder if rooms will start getting robbed?
My 22 year old stepdaughter jumped in midway through the session to take over one of the hirelings. I just handed her the sheet for that fighter and she had a lot of fun, helping to kill the snake and playing along with the party. She got to kill a wandering monster giant rat by herself and really enjoyed that.
This was a nice ending point to the Holmes intro adventure. There is still more to find there! My wife hasn't explored it all and that will fit nicely with a possible adventure hook.
We've also talked about my wife's storyline and I've reminded her that she hasn't asked or actively investigated it herself and that unless she does, the story will not come to her, she needs to go find it. I'm going to drop a few more clues.
My wife is really starting to get the hang of how this goes. We're starting to run a bit more complex combat sequences now, and she's getting the hang of thinking tactically. That's really neat and I'm looking forward to the next session.
And dang it, I forgot to take pictures for the TARGA site. Hopefully JeffR can still use this write up.
Aeli arose on Day 5 and met Tironell to discuss the treasure they'd found. Tironell was convinced that a scroll recovered was penned by Zenopus himself and would allow someone to float (levitate). Aeli agreed to keep the fine sword and armor.
They then brought out the golden bejeweled belt they had recovered from the fighter-slave, and a hush came over the entire Inn as everyone gaped at it. It was truly a thing of beauty and not something a simple fighter should have had! They asked the Berlbur the Innkeeper whom in Westport might be able to price it for them. He directed them to Ulmnys, the Mayor's assistant, who might be able to advise them with such a remarkable item.
At this point, Aeli and Tironell made their way back to the temple to see if the priest had resurrected the hireling. Unfortunately, the goddess was not willing to return his soul, so the attempt had failed. Turchao, the other man-at-arms, had been fully healed. Once again, Aeli agreed to fulfill her end of the bargain and investigate the issue at the Keep which prevent the poor from getting supplies.
Tironell pleaded with Aeli to return to Zenopus's Tower first. He persuaded her to go see what the job was about - she would be keeping her promise to begin the job. He agreed to go with her later. She reluctantly agreed and they parted ways - he to get the belt appraised, she to speak to the Captain of the Guard. (NB: I had really wondered if she was going to tell the NPC to take a flying leap. I was prepared for that, and half expecting it. This just gives me yet another hook for her backstory...)
So Aeli walked to the Keep and had an amusing encounter with a guard in which Aeli had forgotten who had sent her. She managed to persuade the guard to take her to the Captain and much the same thing happened. After some talk which had Aeli looking like a mad woman, she finally 'remembered' that the priest was Worlale and she was here to help. He looked at her askance - "You've come alone?" but took her to see what was going on.
The Captain took her deep into the Keep, explaining that it was built on the remains of something ancient. There was a series of tunnels below the Keep that were very old, and part of those tunnels were used for food storage. Something had come from the locked off part of the tunnels, killed two squads of guards and was preventing them from getting to their food. The remaining guards had barricaded the Keep from the tunnels, and whatever this was, it kept attacking the barricade. Nobody could really see it, but it didn't like fire or being poked by large polearms through the barricade. The Keep's Knights were off on maneuvers (*coughDesExMachinacough*) so the Captain was happy to have any assistance.
Aeli promised to return the next day with more men and walked back to Westport to wait for Tironell. After they met, and he gave her half of the 1000 gold he'd sold the belt for, they waited for more hirelings to go with them to the Tower. At this point, Aeli found herself mesmerized by the fine sword she'd recovered and she spent 3 hours cleaning and sharpening it, almost in a trance.
Once the hirelings had arrived (and Aeli roused from her "trance"), they made their way back to Zenopus's Tower and through the previously mapped areas to the door they believed led to the tower itself.
First, they faced a Giant Snake. The DM chose to make this a teaching moment and had one of the NPCs suggest they back up to the previous room to be able to surround the snake. Aeli agreed and they did so. A couple of rounds later, there was one dead snake.
They made their way back to the snake's room and found it to be part of the tower itself! They made their way up the stairs, through a trap door to a kitchen, then up more stairs to another trap door.
Aeli popped the trap door (without listening, *laugh*) and took the evil mage by surprise. He jumped to a table and pulled out what looked like a rock stick. It was at this point that my wife invoked her own Rule of Cool and scored a natural 20 on a bow/arrow shot at the mage. Result? He dropped the wand and went diving for it. The next round, Aeli moved out of the trap door, allowing two other of the party up. Tironell used up his wand that disintegrated in his hands but hit the mage with it's magic, then the NPC fighter finished the evil mage off.
THAT was cool. Tironell, the NPC mage, was in awe. Here was an untouched library of Zenopus himself! Tironell started loading up the porter and anyone else with books and notes.
Aeli: Where's the treasure?! You said there was a treasure room!
Tironell (the happy mage): Are you kidding? This IS the treasure room.
So the party left the dungeon, with everyone alive this time! Now on to the Keep to see what the creature is that has the Keep paralyzed.
-- notes --
I wanted to make a big deal of a 1000gp belt, which is why it had such an effect on the inn patrons. Someone carries in something that is worth roughly 10 -12 months of salary, it's going to attract attention. I wonder if rooms will start getting robbed?
My 22 year old stepdaughter jumped in midway through the session to take over one of the hirelings. I just handed her the sheet for that fighter and she had a lot of fun, helping to kill the snake and playing along with the party. She got to kill a wandering monster giant rat by herself and really enjoyed that.
This was a nice ending point to the Holmes intro adventure. There is still more to find there! My wife hasn't explored it all and that will fit nicely with a possible adventure hook.
We've also talked about my wife's storyline and I've reminded her that she hasn't asked or actively investigated it herself and that unless she does, the story will not come to her, she needs to go find it. I'm going to drop a few more clues.
My wife is really starting to get the hang of how this goes. We're starting to run a bit more complex combat sequences now, and she's getting the hang of thinking tactically. That's really neat and I'm looking forward to the next session.
And dang it, I forgot to take pictures for the TARGA site. Hopefully JeffR can still use this write up.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Many twisty wilderness templates, all alike...
I had some great comments last night on the Wilderness Templates, all of which seemed to boil down to wanting choices:
- Landscape and portrait pages
- Judges Guild-style hex maps (ability to "zoom in/out" and the map is hex shaped itself)
- Numbered and non-numbered hex maps
- A hex map that could be slotted next to another both horizontally and vertically.
So the new versions of the One Page Wilderness Map Templates are now available with all those options. You get a whole lotta templates for the particular style and page layout you want.
There should be enough room on the landscape for you to still print and do a 3 hole punch and not lose anything.
I think I'm done with the templates for now -- I don't know what else I could do with them. I know I'm going to be using them for my Dark Ages campaign, I've already got two dungeons already mapped on them, and I'm starting on a third.
Let me know what you think.
- Landscape and portrait pages
- Judges Guild-style hex maps (ability to "zoom in/out" and the map is hex shaped itself)
- Numbered and non-numbered hex maps
- A hex map that could be slotted next to another both horizontally and vertically.
So the new versions of the One Page Wilderness Map Templates are now available with all those options. You get a whole lotta templates for the particular style and page layout you want.
There should be enough room on the landscape for you to still print and do a 3 hole punch and not lose anything.
I think I'm done with the templates for now -- I don't know what else I could do with them. I know I'm going to be using them for my Dark Ages campaign, I've already got two dungeons already mapped on them, and I'm starting on a third.
Let me know what you think.
Wilderness Maps Revisited
Brain: Weee! Someone just said "hey wouldn't it be cool if..."
Me: Wait a sec brain.
Brain: Whaaaaat? :innocently:
Me: Brain. Look, we have to talk. Everytime one of these gamers says 'wouldn't it be cool..', we just can't go doing stuff. We have Important Things to do and if we keep on doing all these distracting things, we're not going to have a job, much less be able to game and do all these other things we like.
Brain: But you'll be able to play with Photoshop finally... and it'll be COOOOOOL!
Me: ...
Brain: Pleaaaaazzzzzeeee? It'll only a take a minute...
-- 2 hours later --
Me: ...
Brain: Yea, but look how cool it is! You made a Judges Guild Style Hex Template that will more or less fit into your One Page Wilderness Key Template! Now you can make two types of templates and give everyone what they want! Weeeee!
Me: I'm so going to fire you and blog about this.
So here you go. Click the image to get the full version. I'll plug this into the Key Template later and rejigger the whole layout... if I can shut my brain up. It's talking about some cool dungeon to draw for my OSRIC group, but some PHP code needs to be tested...
(Brain: Weeee!)
Me: Wait a sec brain.
Brain: Whaaaaat? :innocently:
Me: Brain. Look, we have to talk. Everytime one of these gamers says 'wouldn't it be cool..', we just can't go doing stuff. We have Important Things to do and if we keep on doing all these distracting things, we're not going to have a job, much less be able to game and do all these other things we like.
Brain: But you'll be able to play with Photoshop finally... and it'll be COOOOOOL!
Me: ...
Brain: Pleaaaaazzzzzeeee? It'll only a take a minute...
-- 2 hours later --
Me: ...
Brain: Yea, but look how cool it is! You made a Judges Guild Style Hex Template that will more or less fit into your One Page Wilderness Key Template! Now you can make two types of templates and give everyone what they want! Weeeee!
Me: I'm so going to fire you and blog about this.
So here you go. Click the image to get the full version. I'll plug this into the Key Template later and rejigger the whole layout... if I can shut my brain up. It's talking about some cool dungeon to draw for my OSRIC group, but some PHP code needs to be tested...(Brain: Weeee!)
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
One Page Wilderness Key Templates
Just as the One Page Dungeon Template was designed for quick and easy old school dungeon creation; the One Page Wilderness Key Template is designed for quick and easy old school outdoor hex map creation.
This was a bit more difficult to create in terms of information spaces. It was a balance between a lot of hexes and not much space, and a few hexes and more maps needed. I don't know if this will work, but if I'm doing hexmaps as ways of connecting many one page keys of dungeons, places and things, or other notes on towns, etc... then this works. Let me know what you think?
This was a bit more difficult to create in terms of information spaces. It was a balance between a lot of hexes and not much space, and a few hexes and more maps needed. I don't know if this will work, but if I'm doing hexmaps as ways of connecting many one page keys of dungeons, places and things, or other notes on towns, etc... then this works. Let me know what you think?
Saturday, January 3, 2009
One page Dungeon keys and GIMP
Sham/Dave, Amityville Mike and I have been working on our one page dungeon templates all week. Sham has done some amazing stuff, and you really should shamelessly steal his dungeons, give him credit and torture your players for weeks. I'm impressed. (and if you're in my 1E/OSRIC campaign... be afraid. >:D )
One of the things Sham and I differ in is the "how" we're doing the dungeon maps themselves. Sham prints out his grid, draws his maps (I'm not sure if that's pencil, or ink, but his maps are wonderful), scans them in and places the scanned map into the template.
I've been drawing my maps using GIMP (open source Photoshop) and my trusty old school serial Wacom tablet. I started doing this last year. Alot of this is thanks to the ZombieNirvana set of RPG mapping videos and the fine RPG mappers at Cartographer's Forum.
Now I've been working on my 1E/OSRIC campaign materials, so I can't unfortunately share them yet (sidenote: Do you hold your stuff in reserve until it's been played?) but I did want to share the things I've been doing in GIMP and the resources I've used to create my dungeon maps in GIMP.
I was inspired by these three forum threads and highly recommend them as starting points:
How to create simple dungeon plans (thread has specific GIMP instructions, see post #12)
RobA's Using GIMP to create artistic regional maps
Creating an old school map in GIMP
These, as well as the aforementioned ZombieNirvana videos have really helped me to learn alot about mapping and using a program like GIMP. Although the ZN techniques are done in Photoshop, you can easily translate to GIMP (or see my posts on Cartographer's Forum where I fumbled my way through...)
To use the One Page Dungeon Key with GIMP, I do the following:
1. Draw my map in GIMP, using this template of the 30x30 squares grid map. This GIMP native file (XCF) is set to 5"x5", 300dpi, the grid is roughly 6 squares/inch (about the same as what we use on regular graph paper).
2. "Compress" the map by setting the colors to indexed. Menus: Image > Mode > Indexed - select/leave it on the "Generate Optimum Palette" option. This reduces the number of colors your image will "save", making your file smaller.
3. Export it as a PNG. Import the PNG into the One Page Key template in Open Office (or Word) and move it to fit the space for the grid. (You will need to remove the existing blank grid if it's still there.)
4. Key and go!
----
One of my goals in 2009 is to become a better artist. To that end, doing these maps is really motivating me to learn more drawing techniques. Using a tablet is hard, but I've been practicing and I've picked up some really cheap drawing supplies to learn it on paper. As well, I've picked up simple kids "how to draw" books. This sounds funny, but I have such a mental roadblock to drawing - I believe that I suck! Having these kids books is a safe way for me to feel like I can do it. The one I picked up yesterday is Draw 50 Monsters - there's a whole series of these wonderful books and I'm going to get a few more.
One of the things Sham and I differ in is the "how" we're doing the dungeon maps themselves. Sham prints out his grid, draws his maps (I'm not sure if that's pencil, or ink, but his maps are wonderful), scans them in and places the scanned map into the template.
I've been drawing my maps using GIMP (open source Photoshop) and my trusty old school serial Wacom tablet. I started doing this last year. Alot of this is thanks to the ZombieNirvana set of RPG mapping videos and the fine RPG mappers at Cartographer's Forum.Now I've been working on my 1E/OSRIC campaign materials, so I can't unfortunately share them yet (sidenote: Do you hold your stuff in reserve until it's been played?) but I did want to share the things I've been doing in GIMP and the resources I've used to create my dungeon maps in GIMP.
I was inspired by these three forum threads and highly recommend them as starting points:How to create simple dungeon plans (thread has specific GIMP instructions, see post #12)
RobA's Using GIMP to create artistic regional maps
Creating an old school map in GIMP
These, as well as the aforementioned ZombieNirvana videos have really helped me to learn alot about mapping and using a program like GIMP. Although the ZN techniques are done in Photoshop, you can easily translate to GIMP (or see my posts on Cartographer's Forum where I fumbled my way through...)
To use the One Page Dungeon Key with GIMP, I do the following:
1. Draw my map in GIMP, using this template of the 30x30 squares grid map. This GIMP native file (XCF) is set to 5"x5", 300dpi, the grid is roughly 6 squares/inch (about the same as what we use on regular graph paper).
2. "Compress" the map by setting the colors to indexed. Menus: Image > Mode > Indexed - select/leave it on the "Generate Optimum Palette" option. This reduces the number of colors your image will "save", making your file smaller.
3. Export it as a PNG. Import the PNG into the One Page Key template in Open Office (or Word) and move it to fit the space for the grid. (You will need to remove the existing blank grid if it's still there.)
4. Key and go!
----
One of my goals in 2009 is to become a better artist. To that end, doing these maps is really motivating me to learn more drawing techniques. Using a tablet is hard, but I've been practicing and I've picked up some really cheap drawing supplies to learn it on paper. As well, I've picked up simple kids "how to draw" books. This sounds funny, but I have such a mental roadblock to drawing - I believe that I suck! Having these kids books is a safe way for me to feel like I can do it. The one I picked up yesterday is Draw 50 Monsters - there's a whole series of these wonderful books and I'm going to get a few more.
Friday, January 2, 2009
OD&D Solo Game with my wife - 4th and a half session
So when I left off the recap, Aeli (my wife) and the party had just walked in on a muttering man and well-armed hefty fighter. The robed man pointed to the group "Get them, slave" and turned towards the door behind him.
Aeli and the party formed a line, and the bearer/torch holder decided to hide outside the room. The fighter centered on Aeli and traded misses with her. Tironell (NPC) "recognized" that the man was a mage and started yelling about "get him!". Aeli sent one of the men-at-arms after him. He was injured severely for his attempt at running past the fighter, so Tironell pursued.
The fighter was dropped, but the mage had shut the door and was chanting on the other side. I decided that this was a perfect opportunity to test counterspelling (My wife was having fun with her combat, so I figured this would add in a little spice...) Tironell failed and was rewarded with a splitting headache for awhile. (This has prompted a slight rule change...)
The mage had done something to the door, making it impossible to open, so after looting the dead fighter of his treasure (chain mail armor, a very shiny sword and a bejeweled belt) the party decided to head back to the room of the statue puzzle to find another way towards the tower.
The party found a room with a deep/wide rushing river through the middle of it and decided to not try to get across. They headed down another corridor and found themselves facing a wandering monster party of 7 goblins. Ouch. A quick parley "Go away." "No." and Aeli decided to act aggressive. Well, the goblins felt the odds were with them so combat ensued. One of the goblins scored a 20 on Aeli and knocked her off her feet. Down a few HP, she got back up and killed it in return. Then Tironell used his sleep spell and dropped the remaining 6. (-- Note, I completely forgot to have the goblins do saves - my forgetfulness. Oops. Oh well, it made for a nice effect)
They crept past and spiked the door that they went through to prevent chase. (-- At this point, I 'suggested' through Tironell that perhaps they spike the door to prevent the goblins from following. I'm still worried about how much to suggest vs. let her learn the hard way, but she hasn't complained, so I get the sense she's OK with it. I put her in charge of where they go, when they fight, and more 'suggest' or just have the NPCs do something as examples.)
The party ended up back in the burnt spider room, and at this point, my wife voiced her frustrations with mapping, so we paused while I helped her with player mapping.
We picked back up with the party heading around the dungeon again back to the statue room to go in a different direction. The party twisted the statue and headed into a corridor, and that's when I got my first warning that the dice were not going to be kind - wandering monster - dead corpse eater (ghoul) - probably the one that got away from the first session.
Aeli saw a pair of shining eyes in the corridor darkness ahead and nobody wanted to go find out what it was. So she made an arrow torch and shot it down the hallway to see what it was. (-- I was so happy to see her think out of the box, I gave her an XP reward later for that.) Aeli severely wounded the ghoul with a shot to the head and the party mopped up.
So the door that the ghoul had been trying to open was locked. About 2 turns of kicking and bashing the door, it opened... except with all the noise, I was doing turn by turn wandering monster checks... and I rolled a 1. *sigh* 4 goblins - part of the party they'd run into earlier.
At this point, the dice became cruel. Aeli was injured down to 3 HP and backed off after a hireling told her to fall back. Two hirelings went down, one with a brutal wound to the head, the other with a wicked slash - he was barely alive. It was at this point I was starting to worry about a possible TPK. Tironell used a charge from his acid arrow wand and injured one of the goblins and the dice became more fair again. Two goblins fled after two died, and Aeli shot one of them as he did a pell-mell retreat.
So after that, the party decided to leave. Aeli was upset that Turchao (the man at arms that was barely alive) was down and that Torim (the green man at arms) was dead. They made their way out of the dungeon (I hand-waved the journey as she'd been going through this stretch 4 times now, and the dice were kind with no more wandering monsters) and to the Sea Goddess's temple.
Worlale, the high priest, grimly observed that Aeli was starting to constantly bring bodies on her visits. After learning that the ritual for attempting to bring Torim back to live was 700 gold, and that the healing of Turchao was 100 gold, Aeli offered to exchange the bejeweled belt that they had picked up from the fighter. At this point, Tironell pulled Aeli aside and objected. "It's just a hireling..." but Aeli was adamant about doing the right thing (which was interesting considering she'd left hirelings to rot in the dungeon earlier and had wanted to kill goblins in their sleep...). Tironell suggested that she talk to Worlale to find another way (-- Yes, obvious opening for another adventure hook) and indeed, Worlale needs someone to do some good for the poor of Westport.
It seems that the Lord of the Keep near Westport stores food supplies for the poor and less-fortunate for disasters and hard times. There is something keeping them from those stores and the Lord doesn't have enough men to take care of it. *cough* I know - lame hook - it worked! *cough* Aeli agreed to take up the job, and the priest agreed to heal her as part of the bargain, as long as it was immediately prior to her going to the Keep.
Aeli agreed and at this point, Tironell objected. He wants to be first to get into Zenopus's Tower, that's why he asked Aeli to go along. With the rival party sniffing around, he doesn't want to lose time "going on some other quest", especially since it seems they are close. Eyebrows were raised at that and the two are going to come back to that. We ended on that note, as the priest needs a few hours to attempt the rituals.
-- notes --
I was really pleased with these last two sessions. Things flowed well, combat was quickly adjudicated and although it was harsh, I didn't fudge anything. My wife had become extremely serious when the almost-TPK-combat went down and although it was going badly for her, I manned up and allowed the chips to fall where they may.
However, I saw an opportunity for RP'ing, so I made one of the hirelings at death's door, not quite dead yet - which led to the adventure hook for her to do something after Zenopus's Tower.
I may turn these guys from hirelings into NPCs, as she's developed a fondness for their quirks and characters. The only thing I probably did that saved her was to remind her that she was at low HP when she wanted to stay toe to toe with the death dealing goblins. Was that me being too soft? I don't know, but as you'll see, her low HP and the aftermath led to some interesting situations.
She's also reaching some sort of decision on Tironell as part of her story - he wants to continue going after the treasures of Zenopus's Tower, she wants to fulfill her part of the bargain. She might not finish the tower - or she might. Tironell will try to talk her into it, he's already said he would help her with her quest if she helps him first. We'll see.
My daughters are coming over tonight, so we might have a full house to play.
Aeli and the party formed a line, and the bearer/torch holder decided to hide outside the room. The fighter centered on Aeli and traded misses with her. Tironell (NPC) "recognized" that the man was a mage and started yelling about "get him!". Aeli sent one of the men-at-arms after him. He was injured severely for his attempt at running past the fighter, so Tironell pursued.
The fighter was dropped, but the mage had shut the door and was chanting on the other side. I decided that this was a perfect opportunity to test counterspelling (My wife was having fun with her combat, so I figured this would add in a little spice...) Tironell failed and was rewarded with a splitting headache for awhile. (This has prompted a slight rule change...)
The mage had done something to the door, making it impossible to open, so after looting the dead fighter of his treasure (chain mail armor, a very shiny sword and a bejeweled belt) the party decided to head back to the room of the statue puzzle to find another way towards the tower.
The party found a room with a deep/wide rushing river through the middle of it and decided to not try to get across. They headed down another corridor and found themselves facing a wandering monster party of 7 goblins. Ouch. A quick parley "Go away." "No." and Aeli decided to act aggressive. Well, the goblins felt the odds were with them so combat ensued. One of the goblins scored a 20 on Aeli and knocked her off her feet. Down a few HP, she got back up and killed it in return. Then Tironell used his sleep spell and dropped the remaining 6. (-- Note, I completely forgot to have the goblins do saves - my forgetfulness. Oops. Oh well, it made for a nice effect)
They crept past and spiked the door that they went through to prevent chase. (-- At this point, I 'suggested' through Tironell that perhaps they spike the door to prevent the goblins from following. I'm still worried about how much to suggest vs. let her learn the hard way, but she hasn't complained, so I get the sense she's OK with it. I put her in charge of where they go, when they fight, and more 'suggest' or just have the NPCs do something as examples.)
The party ended up back in the burnt spider room, and at this point, my wife voiced her frustrations with mapping, so we paused while I helped her with player mapping.
We picked back up with the party heading around the dungeon again back to the statue room to go in a different direction. The party twisted the statue and headed into a corridor, and that's when I got my first warning that the dice were not going to be kind - wandering monster - dead corpse eater (ghoul) - probably the one that got away from the first session.
Aeli saw a pair of shining eyes in the corridor darkness ahead and nobody wanted to go find out what it was. So she made an arrow torch and shot it down the hallway to see what it was. (-- I was so happy to see her think out of the box, I gave her an XP reward later for that.) Aeli severely wounded the ghoul with a shot to the head and the party mopped up.
So the door that the ghoul had been trying to open was locked. About 2 turns of kicking and bashing the door, it opened... except with all the noise, I was doing turn by turn wandering monster checks... and I rolled a 1. *sigh* 4 goblins - part of the party they'd run into earlier.
At this point, the dice became cruel. Aeli was injured down to 3 HP and backed off after a hireling told her to fall back. Two hirelings went down, one with a brutal wound to the head, the other with a wicked slash - he was barely alive. It was at this point I was starting to worry about a possible TPK. Tironell used a charge from his acid arrow wand and injured one of the goblins and the dice became more fair again. Two goblins fled after two died, and Aeli shot one of them as he did a pell-mell retreat.
So after that, the party decided to leave. Aeli was upset that Turchao (the man at arms that was barely alive) was down and that Torim (the green man at arms) was dead. They made their way out of the dungeon (I hand-waved the journey as she'd been going through this stretch 4 times now, and the dice were kind with no more wandering monsters) and to the Sea Goddess's temple.
Worlale, the high priest, grimly observed that Aeli was starting to constantly bring bodies on her visits. After learning that the ritual for attempting to bring Torim back to live was 700 gold, and that the healing of Turchao was 100 gold, Aeli offered to exchange the bejeweled belt that they had picked up from the fighter. At this point, Tironell pulled Aeli aside and objected. "It's just a hireling..." but Aeli was adamant about doing the right thing (which was interesting considering she'd left hirelings to rot in the dungeon earlier and had wanted to kill goblins in their sleep...). Tironell suggested that she talk to Worlale to find another way (-- Yes, obvious opening for another adventure hook) and indeed, Worlale needs someone to do some good for the poor of Westport.
It seems that the Lord of the Keep near Westport stores food supplies for the poor and less-fortunate for disasters and hard times. There is something keeping them from those stores and the Lord doesn't have enough men to take care of it. *cough* I know - lame hook - it worked! *cough* Aeli agreed to take up the job, and the priest agreed to heal her as part of the bargain, as long as it was immediately prior to her going to the Keep.
Aeli agreed and at this point, Tironell objected. He wants to be first to get into Zenopus's Tower, that's why he asked Aeli to go along. With the rival party sniffing around, he doesn't want to lose time "going on some other quest", especially since it seems they are close. Eyebrows were raised at that and the two are going to come back to that. We ended on that note, as the priest needs a few hours to attempt the rituals.
-- notes --
I was really pleased with these last two sessions. Things flowed well, combat was quickly adjudicated and although it was harsh, I didn't fudge anything. My wife had become extremely serious when the almost-TPK-combat went down and although it was going badly for her, I manned up and allowed the chips to fall where they may.
However, I saw an opportunity for RP'ing, so I made one of the hirelings at death's door, not quite dead yet - which led to the adventure hook for her to do something after Zenopus's Tower.
I may turn these guys from hirelings into NPCs, as she's developed a fondness for their quirks and characters. The only thing I probably did that saved her was to remind her that she was at low HP when she wanted to stay toe to toe with the death dealing goblins. Was that me being too soft? I don't know, but as you'll see, her low HP and the aftermath led to some interesting situations.
She's also reaching some sort of decision on Tironell as part of her story - he wants to continue going after the treasures of Zenopus's Tower, she wants to fulfill her part of the bargain. She might not finish the tower - or she might. Tironell will try to talk her into it, he's already said he would help her with her quest if she helps him first. We'll see.
My daughters are coming over tonight, so we might have a full house to play.
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