Sat, 03 Nov 2007 03:53:27 -0500 webmistress@dndresources.com (Forums) IP.Blog 60 Player Experiences one character, Red, who is now 12th level. I have converted her from 2E to Skills & Powers to 3E to 3.5E. I have adjusted her class history to be more inline with new prestige classes while keeping true to the things that have occurred within the campaign. I have adjusted her known spells to keep in track with what spells were available at the time.

The biggest changes I've seen in working with theis character for so long are in her personality. It's a very difficult thing to roleplay a static personality, it tends to change along with yourself and the changing needs of the party and gaming group.

For some background, Red is a Wild Elf from a tribe based loosely off the Wolfriders from Elfquest, who had been framed for the murder of the master bladesinger who trained her. She started out as a growling, uncharasmatic, foul-mouthed, heavy-drinker, who seemed to get along much better with dwarves than with elves. Over the years she has mellowed a lot, a process that happened slowly but surely, and has been reflected in 3E by an increase in her charisma score from 7 to 9. In its place has grown a great sense of honor and duty, and a seriousness that is reflected in her decision to give up the life of a bladesinger (since she was betrayed by a group of elves) and become a member of the Blade Knights, a bladesinger-like religious order that fights for truth in all forms. She's still more at home with dwarves than with elves (she has actually just been adopted into a dwarven clan), and incredibly passionate in battle, but the growling witty banter has left. Considering that her best friend is leaving the party for family obligations, I'm wondering where this seriousness will lead. Especially since she is now required to avenge the death of her adopted father, Rocky. Her new wolf cub, I think, may play a part in coming out of her shell. While my swashbuckler Opal has a journal here, Red will probably not. She just isn't a journal-writing sort of a person.

The point of it all is that I have no idea where the character as a personality will go next. I can attempt to shape and mold her, but I've found that such things generally don't work in the long run and the character becomes what it will. A good Character Questionnaire helps keep me on track to what I was thinking the last time I played her, about a year ago.

Previous characters I have played, such as my all-to-optimistic-and-sweet fire priestess Rahne have said things that have made me (and the rest of my group) cringe with the sugary sweetness they offered, while other characters like my haughty and ambitious necromancer Lheeha have offered great sourness. But they were completely in-character and I generally had little control of what came out of my mouth. IMHO that's roleplaying at it's finest, and is the kind of thing that a gaming group will remember for years to come. The interaction between the group members, the interaction with NPCs, and the gradual evolution of a character's personality are things to cherish about this game, things that I think a lot of people who play RPGs never get to experience. There's life behind the roll of the dice. I look forward to what lies ahead for Red.]]> Wed, 01 Mar 2006 07:31:36 -0600
I'm wondering if perhaps I haven't made the wrong decision in following the group and trying to route the ickcheezy from the forest. It seems like nothing is going my way since we started down this road.

We travelled through the forest and got to the old wizard's school located here. While we were walking through the ruins of the outer buildings, we were attacked by dead people (well, undead people anyway. If they were dead, they wouldn't be attacking us). I couldn't hit squat. The heavy crossbow does some mighty damage, but it's so darn slow with the reload that it seems like I'm not even hitting anything before everyone else has finished killing things. When I dropped it and attacked with my rapier, I was doing little to no damage. Which makes sense since they're already dead and don't tend to bleed much when you poke them. During the fight we were joined by a woman and a man, who helped us to re-kill the dead things.

Apparently, they were part of a group hired to come here and do some exploring, and the guy who hired them gathered everyone up and slaughtered them. They managed to miss out on the invitation to death, and have joined up with us to look for the murderer. The woman, Frost, is a bit batty but nice. The man Garion is of few words. That reminds me of old Stormy, that cantankerous and grouchy bastard from the Lusty Lass, which of course reminds me of Father.

We entered one of the outbuildings and started wandering the halls, looking into rooms. Mostly classrooms I believe (of course I'll have to take that on Mordryth's word, I've never been in a classroom myself). Several rooms in we came to an auditorium filled with corpses. Ugh! The stench of death was overwhelming. I think I'll buy some chest-balm when I'm back in the city, that covers the odor of awful stuff like dead people and dead fish, at least a little. Some of the bodies were really old, and others were really fresh. I wonder how long whoever this killer is has been working on his…erm…project here.

Cham and Mordryth were attacked by a shadow creature while on the stage. I didn't manage to hit it. Frost told it to go away and it did. We searched a lot more of the building, all filled with classrooms. Most of the classrooms on the first floor were long since ransacked and empty of any valuable items. A couple of rooms had interesting stuff, like the body of a thief who long ago toppled a giant armoire on himself (dumbass!), and a room full of invisible items. In another room, there was an untouched chest against the far wall. Mordryth went right to it (I'm guessing he was expecting some magic), but it turned out to be a monster that just looked like a chest. Again I wasn't any use at hitting the [darned] thing. They ended up doing this push-me-pull-me thing at high speed, and Mordryth got his face smacked into the wall. Boy that was funny.

Let's see… On the upper floor there was a room with a golem and some dead wizard inside, he managed to toss anyone out of the room who tried to go in. Mordryth wanted to go back to his horse to grab his crossbow, and ended up getting attacked on the first floor. We ran to help, but the stairs caved in underneath me, I ended up hurting my ankle. Not that I would have done any good since he was fighting the shadow-thing again. This time I think they killed it. Frost laid some healing magic on me. She's ok looking, but definitely no damsel in distress. I can see that girls just don't float her boat.

The next day we looked in the other building, which was full of empty living quarters. Not much to speak of, except a couple of dead bodies and some sort of invisible guardian who told us he'd kill us if we went any further. We didn't, luckily. Apparently the poor thing's stuck there until his master releases him, which doesn't seem possible since apparently he's dead.

Then we went over to the middle building and started looking at this gateway that we couldn't get through. It shocks whoever's trying. So everyone was suggesting things for Cham to try, since it shocked his [CHAIR] every time he tried to go through, and that was funny. Kern found a teacher's badge in a corner, and it seems to be the way through the gate. We have to hold hands to go through. Hopefully we'll find more if we're going to need to go through here often.

On the other side was a huge library. Kern has these lenses that let him see invisible things, he saw a figure at the top of the stairs. When holding the badge, you can hear the invisible thing talk. Apparently he's the librarian, and knows where all the things in the library are. Mordryth asks about some spellbook and we follow the librarian up to a study with nice leather chairs. I take a seat while Mordryth is drooling over the book. After several more questions, we find out there's another group of people in the library, downstairs. Figuring these must be the group of ickcheezy people we're looking for, we go down ready to attack. Unfortunately I think they knew we were coming.

The battle was down a long tight hallway, only allowing two abreast. I used the crossbow to fire through to the obvious mage in the back while Frost set the mage into the center of an area of silence with a spell. Unfortunately with the fire rate so low I was practically useless. When there was a break in the middle I dropped the crossbow, pulled out my rapier and made a running leap for it over to where the casters were. Unfortunately this little gnome got in the way between me and the main caster, and the pain in the [CHAIR] kept dodging my pokes from the rapier. Again, I was almost completely useless and accomplished nothing but getting myself bludgeoned to near unconsciousness. After he was finally struck down we ran down the hall after the mage who had started to run away, and I tried to tumble in behind her to corner her before she got through the door. Unfortunately due to my recent bludgeoning I wasn't quite in full use of my depth perception, and slammed straight into the wall with my head. Again, most useless.

We're resting now, and Frost and the druid have healed me up a bit. I'm wondering if perhaps fate isn't trying to tell me something. Ever since I agreed to come along here I've had nothing but bad luck in combat. And luck has always been my greatest ally.]]> Tue, 10 Jan 2006 12:58:04 -0600
After our day of whoring, Nagmar and I made it back to the inn. Cham and Mordryth returned. Cham was wearing clothing fit for nobles. He looked like a fish out of water. I offered to find him something more suitable for travel the next day. I asked for a bath, and sat to drink a beer. When my bath was drawn, I went into the bath room with Nagmar, and Cham followed. I was trying to relax in the bath and he starts chattering on about someone he and Mordryth met. I was barely paying attention, and he wasn't making particular sense. Then he says "he said to say 'Your father wishes you well'". All at once, everything snapped into focus. I got up out of the tub and shook Cham by the shoulders, asking him what he meant. Where my father was. How he knew. He really didn't have any more info, and what he was saying didn't make much sense. Looking back, I'm not sure if it was his natural state of confusion, or he was too distracted by seeing me naked.

I quick finished washing, toweled off, got dressed, and ran up to see Mordryth. Apparently, they had been with a seer, and he had seen something, and told them only to tell me the message, that my father wished me well. I thanked him and went off to my room, to think this over.

My father wishes me well. Is he dead, wishing me well from beyond? Is he alive, wishing me well from somewhere? I have gotten away from my search for him and the Lusty Lass. I feel guilty for that.

The next morning Mordryth held a meeting at breakfast, and told everyone of all the information from the seer. Apparently, we have some important part to play in the grand scheme of things. The people who gave Zorin the box we were searching for are now calling the shots, and we were no longer to search for it, because it was currently safe. Not sure how that works, but ok. Mordryth spun a rousing tale of glory and honor and fame, saying that if we undertook the mission to route these ickcheezy people (like the illusionist and the rest who took the box), we would go down in history. I wasn't sure if maybe then was the time to leave the group and continue my search for my father. Mordryth had gotten the idea from the seer that it was important for me to stay, and that by staying with the group, on the way I would find my father. I can't argue with that, since I am no further in my search in 3 years, perhaps this is the plan of the gods, for me to remain here. We also discussed having a base of operations. The idea was brought up to use the woods we had come through, and I seconded the motion. If we can route the ickcheezy base from there, then we can use their base as our own.

After the meeting I took Cham shopping for some nice soft leather pants and jacket, and some new linen shirts and underpants. He has horrible taste in boots, but I finally got him to go with a nice matching pair. These clothes are much better for adventuring. I also got myself some new travel clothes. The ones I have are not in too bad shape, but it does do good to have a change. We went searching for some other equipment, and I found my hammock I wanted. I also was led to an elven smith who agreed to make me a chain shirt fitted to me, one that would fit underneath my doublet. I gave him a deposit, he said it would take a week. He also had a gorgeous elven travel cloak for sale, which I snapped up immediately. I'm almost completely out of funds, I have enough left for some horse feed and dried rations, but that's about it.]]> Sun, 11 Sep 2005 12:26:06 -0500
Partway through the forest we are beset by a group of Ogres. One bad hit from a javelin took out the Bard, and the rest of us were badly hit. One larger ogre stood by the side, mocking us. We dispatched him, and looted the bodies. The druid insisted that he had to build a pyre and burn the body of the bard, so we helped him build the pyre and said a few words, then left the burning body behind. I tried to talk him out of it, but he was adamant. I'm not sure what to think about the druid. To leave a fire burning in a forest? That's like leaving a fire burning on a ship. well, if it's unintentional. Eventually nobody could figure out where north was under the canopy of leaves, so Cham and I climbed trees and I used the stars to locate south, towards our destination. Cham had a little trouble with his descent. I liked it up in the tree. The swaying reminded me of the hammocks on a ship. I think I'll try to find a hammock in the city. tying it up between a couple trees I could get a good night's sleep, much better than rocky ground.]]> Sun, 11 Sep 2005 11:19:20 -0500
At dawn we followed the creature's tracks back to it's nest. There was no sign of any other owlbears, but there were signs of someone on horseback coming to the nest and leaving back towards town. The town had dubbed us as heroes due to our valient fight against the creature, and was showering us with adoration. I struck up a conversation with a couple young maids, and made enough of an impression on the one named Shola to have her accompany me upstairs. We were well and truly immersed in eachother's company when I hear a knock on the door. It's Jarin, and I told him to go away. He says I'm wanted outside, and I tell him I'm busy and to go away. Next thing I know the barbarian breaks down the door with an axe. Talk about a mood-killer! I slowly extracated myself from Shola's arms and got dressed. By the time I got downstairs to the common room there was a big ruckus, apparently Mordryth had gone all winged in the middle of the street and scared all the patrons. I paid the innkeeper for another night and for the broken door, and went to get my horse. I swear I had murder on my mind riding down the road with Jarin, chasing after the rest of the group.

By the time I got to the fight, it was over. The barbarian (completely naked except for his helmet) had killed the blonde mage we had been chasing for the past week. Didn't even get good information out of him before killing him. Now all we know is that the "claws of aaaaggghh..." have the box. I was so mad. I went up to Jarin and told him to never, never ever interrupt me like that again for something so trivial. Not unless the inn is burning down around me. He gets affronted and says "like you didn't wake me up for the owlbear?" and I says "Yeah!" My gods, the man has no priorities. While I consider my skills useful to the group, I don't think I'm needed at every single fight. Neither is he. Perhaps that's what got him so mad, the thought that we could do fine without him. Me, I prefer the company of a fine maid over the slash of a sword any day. What good is doing all this dangerous stuff without the reward?

Anyway, we had to move to another inn, but at least it has much better food. We're trying to figure out what direction to go now, to find out about the claws of whatever.]]> Mon, 25 Jul 2005 12:15:33 -0500
Anyway, long story short we lost the girl. We thought she and her honey slipped out in the night and rode away, and we went to follow them only to find they had tricked us and hadn't left until after we were far away. Mordryth was pissed!. He hates when people outsmart him. We rode south after that, and were ambushed by a party telling us that they were after the price on our head for stealing the horses we were riding, which was rediculous. Apparently they were misinformed. We 'educated' them, and left them tied up next to the road.

At that point we decided to travel onward, following a note left by one of Jarin's cohorts from Zorin's caravan. Mordryth tried on this new spell that gave him giant lizard wings, and flew on ahead. I hatched a plan to distract whatever lay ahead so's they wouldn't notice him flying in. It sort of worked, except I hadn't distracted the crossbowman in the treeline. We swooped in and killed off these big burley men in the Farm as they attacked us. Apparently they had been holding a farmer and his wife and their farmhands captive, we freed them. One managed to escape, and another we caught alive. Mordryth hung him from his ankles and chained him to four oxen and threatened him to give us information. Since he had according to the captives been the nicest of the bunch, just someone's apprentice, we let him go with his life. Carlin and his ranger friend went ahead and brought the farmer and his wife back. The three farmhands turned out to be adventurers, who asked if they could join our travels. There's two elves and a huge man.

We travelled to the nearby town and I went to check on carlin and the farmers. Carlin was rather upset at Mordryth's questioning techniques. (Personally I think perhaps he's a bit soft, but I guess city life will do that to you). The two said that it was time for them to return home and part company. I gave them their gold, bid them good journeys, and went back to the inn to meet up with the rest of the group. It will be sad to see them go but I think they'll be happier back home.]]> Wed, 25 May 2005 19:33:15 -0500
Oh what a fine mess I've gotten myself into - 2002-08-30
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I was walking through the town, on my way from one wench hall to another, combing for information about my Captain when I hear a lady scream down a dark alley. Of course, thinking the lass in trouble I rushed headlong to help her as quickly as possible, seeing two women, one crumpled on the ground, surrounded by several large thugs.

Several other passers-by joined in the fray, and we were getting close to routing the bastards when one of them got a good shot in on me with his sap, rendering me unconscious. When I awoke I was in the town's law-hall, with the other people who had answered the woman's cry. The one woman who had been at the center of the attack was there, minus her unconscious friend. It seems the unconscious friend was the governor's daughter, and she had been kidnapped during the fight, and that this lady here was her companion and bodyguard, a cleric of the law-god and a nice looker to boot. I immediately volunteered my services to help recover the young maid, and several of the other people were enticed to help her too, through more monetary means. But I need no money as a draw to help this innocent girl, the thrill of the chase gives me what I need. I got to know a bit about some of the others in the group, a rather dry-witted wizard, a quiet locksmith who looks like he needs a few pints to get going, a silent woodsy-type guy, and this freakish young kid who acts like he needs a few pints to calm down.

It seems some of the thugs had been captured by the town guard, and we went to question them. The captain of the guard, betrothed of the kidnapped girl, was in the room with them. Several of the group began to suggest to the thugs what might happen to them if they didn't give us information. The freakish one, Cham, scared one so bad that he pissed hisself. I encouraged the captain of the guard to take a walk with me, leaving the others to question in such a way as to extract the most information. The pissy one talked, and was so scared of being killed by his companions that we arranged his release into our custody so's he could lead us to their hideout and help us find the girl. After that the cleric offered to buy us some dinner while we talked over our possible paths to find the girl.

Dinner and a Sewer - 2002-09-14
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We were finishing up the evening with a nice supper in a posh eating establishment, getting to know eachother a bit. Mordrydd, he's the surly wizard, seems ok. The quiet locksmith, Carlin, doesn't seem particularly happy about his current circumstances. Or maybe he just thinks we're all wierd. The ranger, think his name is Gwailen or such, seems a nice sort, smart and logical and all that. If Cham had hired on as a mate on my Captain's boat, he would have been hung by his toes from the yardarm until he finally shut up.

Dinner went rather smoothly except for Cham's insulting the serving wench so much that she gave him pepper-loaded gravy for his food. After it was over, me and the ranger wandered back to the alley to see if there were any clues left behind. Didn't find anything, but thought about combing the nearby docks for information once light broke. The city gave us rooms in the inn for the night, with big fluffy beds. I laid myself down and had a nice, restful sleep. Not often I get to sleep in such comfort, but I think I'll find me some companionship if I'm going to stay another night. Cleric-lady would be good, but the wind don't blow her sails in that direction. Ah, tis a shame.

The next morning I woke early, and wandered the docks looking for friendly-types who might have seen the man and girl, but such a sight is so common there they didn't seem to have noticed anything. I returned to the inn, and after a good breakfast we set off for the sewer, being led by 'puddles', the thug who agreed to lead us to his cohorts. He led us down the alley and uncovered a grate to the sewer, and we dropped down inside to begin our search. The search did not go well, in all. We were shot at, puddles tried to escape (I shot him, and the cleric healed him after he went down), and in all we didn't get very far. We retreated to the surface to formulate a better plan.

Anything that can go wrong... - 2002-09-27
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After our exciting but smelly trip through the local sewers, we retired back at the inn, and ordered nice hot baths. I tell ya, I'm beginning to like this deputy stuff. Nice beds, nice baths, nice food. Haven't lived this rich in a long time, since Captain hauled in that bounty from that rogue pirate ship (ah, a thief to catch a thief. gotta love it), and took me to the biggest local port to buy me a nice fine coat and treat me to dinner, while the men caroused at the dock area pubs. But I digress.

After a good nights sleep we mounted horses to go see this old cleric, hoping he could give us some information since his name had been spilled as a possible accomplice. The old guy was quite nice, even though cham took advantage of his hospitality and used up all his sugar. (Old Gearney back on The Lusty Lass wouldn't have let him get away with that, would have hung him from his ankles from the yard-arm for a day or two to teach him humility). Seems the old cleric used to watch over the young kidnapee, and she had come to see him the previous week. When he and our lady-cleric were talking about what a handful she is, an idea sparked in my brain so I asked if she might have kidnapped herself. The old cleric started at that, and I knew I'd uncovered the real truth. Down the stairs comes the wizard who was a part of the kidnapping fight, and he says that he and the girl were in love, and she staged the kidnapping in order to get away from her betrothed. Unfortunately, the thieves that kidnapped her took the opportunity to actually kidnap her, and he's having trouble coming up with the ransome. So, we say we'll take a look at it, and ride back to the city.</o>

We go to this bar where the thief is supposed to be holed up, and find the door to his room locked, and the key missing from the inkeeper's person. The locksmith opens the lock, and inside we find two dead men, one with the girl's dagger in his back, and the other the thief who kidnapped her. The man with the dagger in his back has signs on him from the god of death, looks to be a cleric or follower of some sort. There's some other guys down there in the hall, but they escape down the privvy into the sewers. So, we take the dead thief back to the old cleric, and he does his magic and makes the dead guy talk. Seems the girl, originally "fake" kidnapped, kidnapped again by the thief, had been kidnapped again by this group of evil clerics. She has probably been taken to an old disused monestary, we have to go there and rescue her before she's sacrificed to the god of death.

Ah, a damsel in distress. Does life get any sweeter?

The road to recovery - 2002-10-11
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Ah, the open road. Not near as nice as the open sea, but it'll do. We rode off toward the abandoned monestary to find the girl. Cham was blessedly quiet since his bum hurt so bad from the constant riding. We stopped for the night at an inn on the road, and got some information about the monestary from the locals. There was another group of travellers at the inn as well, others in the group thought there was something fishy about them, though I didn't get any such feeling myself.

Next morning we rode on toward the monestary, and the ranger saw some tracks off the road headed in roughly the same direction as us, which was odd considering how overgrown the area had become. We got to the monestary, and found that the gate had been barred from the inside, and there seemed to be no way in. After some looking about, the ranger found some footprints leading to a crypt in the graveyard. We opened the door and this big loud bell sounded. Oh well, so much for surprise. A big hole in the floor lead down some 40', I climbed down the rope and found myself in a hallway. The others followed us down, and we walked down the hallway toward the monestary. Was a right maze it was, but there were some fresh footprints in the dust. We followed them and ended up getting attacked by some skeletons, but I made quick work of several of them with my rapier. Nasty things, skeletons. Once saw a shipwreck full of 'em off the north coast, but was lucky enough not to have to fight any back then.

A bone to pick - 2002-10-25
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So there we were in the catacombs beneath the monestary, killing...er...re-killing some skeletons. Up the stairs we went to the monestary's chapel, battling a few more of the nasty boney things. I wonder who woke them? or do they just spontaneously awake? I mean, when I'm dead maybe I should have them grind up my bones so's I don't come back, I'd hate that.

Anyway, we wandered around and found some doors, opened 'em up and looked inside. Personally I would have preferred a little more speedyness since we were on a time limit, didn't want the girl getting sacrificed before we found her. One stuck door ended up having the body of some long-dead woman in a pretty gown and veil, looked like it was her wedding day and she'd barricaded herself in. I wonder if that was because of the orc attack or if she'd just been jilted.

Down some of the other halls were mostly rooms of ruined stuff, though this one robe room had a bunch of nasty spiders in it the size of my hand! darn things bit me twice, I lost all feeling in my body and couldn't move. Now, personally I would have figured the group would drag me out but instead they just let me lay there and get crawled on while they tried to kill them. Uck! I never did hate spiders before, but I think I've definitely got a bias against them now.

After the chapel we went outside into the courtyard. big place, filled with hip-high weed grass. Had the oddest feeling of being watched. But across we marched, to the archive building that was still intact. Carlin (the locksmith) had found a key in the chapel that thankfully fit the lock, and we entered the darkened building. Down the hall and into the main library, as I'm walking up the stairs I feel an arrow fly through my hair. Close call, that! Several more nasty skeletons in this place, one even got a good hit in on me. At the end I've got out my heavy crossbow, and I'm reloading from a distance and I bring up to fire and Cham's in my way. he's lucky I manage to pull to the side and hit the wall before skewering him. We decide to rest in the library here since it's cleared for the moment.

Freed at last! - 2002-12-06
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Ah journal, I have neglected you these past days. While resting the library, I heard a noise upstairs and rushed to investigate, thinking perhaps the damsel's captors were upstairs hiding. When we reached the top a cleric set some zombies on me and the rest of the group who had followed, it took us a bit to chop down the rotting corpses and beat down the cleric. I myself got some mighty bruises. It seems the girl recently left, so there was a good chance we could catch up with her captors.

After resting a short time to recover from our injuries and finish our lunch, we left the library and opened the great doors in the courtyard to get back to our horses (rather than going back through the skeleton-infested catacombs). The ranger was able to track the recent departures, and several miles into our trip we caught up with the group, an orc on a warhorse towing two horses with unconscious figures draped across them. Took us a bit but we finally got the orc to the ground, especially after one of the unconscious captives woke up and gave us a hand. His name is Jarin I believe, seems the nice upstanding sort. Cham instantly disliked him, so he must be a good egg.

The other two captives -- the girl and a really rotund merchant, were unconscious still after the fight. Wondering if it might not be some sort of spell, I kissed the girl to see if she would awake, but alas the spell was too powerful. We settled down for the evening and discussed our next steps.

It is a thorny predicament we are in. On the one hand, we have been hired to return the girl. On the other hand, she is running away to be with her true love. Personally, I am on the side of love, and think we should just go back and tell her father we haven't found her, and let her patch up her differences with him in her own time and her own way. But I do see Carlin's point, I do not have to live in the city and so my actions hold no repercussions for myself. Maybe we can talk to the girl, get her to patch up her differences with her father and have him accept her choice of loves. (then again, I don't know the man. it might be easier to make whales float in the air, sans-magic.)

Wild Geese Never Had It So Good - 2003-01-10
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It's been an interesting couple of days, journal. We arrived at the inn with Zorin the Merchant, Jarin the fighter, Bengrad, and the girl (who was still unconscious). Zorin offered us some money to find his wagons, which I'll definitely take him up on now. After a nice relaxing meal we went to bed, and I slept quite nicely until I got woken up by this loud pounding. Mordryth and Cham were in the hall trying to break down the door to Bengrad's room where he and the girl were. I helped bash the door in, and the room was empty. Mordryth explained that his bird had seen bengrad go out the window and away on a horse. We ran down to the stables and started after him. A short distance along I realized nobody had woken Shara, and offered to go back and wake her. I got back and realized why it was that the noise hadn't woken her: she wasn't there. I thought maybe she'd helped them escape.

I caught up to everyone down the road, and we continued to follow the horse & rider till they eventually came to a halt. The rider went off into the woods. We started to follow, but the ranger had us stay back while he tracked. We went back to the road, and Mordryth explained that he finally figured it out: it wasn't Bengrad who'd come that way at all, but a clever ruse. I have to admit I'm impressed with the ruse, I'll have to remember that one.

We travelled back to the inn, where Zorin was waiting, and explained that we needed to run back to the town and chase Bengrad & the girl, and perhaps Shara. He didn't seem particularly pleased, but he agreed to wait at the inn. We rode back to the old priest's house, but there was no sign of anyone being there for days. Then we ride on to town and start asking questions.

Mordryth suggests the bar, though I doubt that's where they'd hide since they know we know where it is. We're searching around and Cham picks a fight with the bartender, of all things. Jarin jumps in to stop it, but Cham looses a spell at the barkeep making him very angry. The barkeep then starts to pummel Cham to a pulp. Now, I have nothing wrong with the thought of Cham getting pummelled to a pulp, it'll hopefully build some humility and character. But it wouldn't be good to have him killed on our watch, so I helped break it up and pushed Cham forcefully out the door. Jarin tells him to stay while we finish up with the barkeep, and we go back inside. Cham then proceeds to come back inside with his writ of deputyship. Jarin manages to push him back before he's pummeled again, and burns his writ. Hah! that was a good one.

Now back on track, we go to the gates and ask around, finding that Shara had entered town, and that the ranger had entered town and asked about her, and had headed off towards the manor house. So, we go to the manor house (which was where i wanted to go all along). Shara's there, in jail. Seems she turned herself in when she got tricked by Bengrad. The old priest was there too, for his part in the deal. We get the money for our search (not that I think we deserved anything beyond the food & lodging we'd had, but I'm never one to toss gold into the sea!). Mordryth invites us all back to his family home to spend the night. Another night in a cushy bed sounds just grand to me, then we can start back toward the Inn and find Zorin's caravan.

I wonder if we get to keep the horses?]]> Tue, 10 May 2005 15:13:33 -0500 DM Notes
In general I found combat to be... difficult. Keeping up with rules, length of time, feats, spells, etc. in D20 is much harder than I remember it being in 2E. Figuring out attack bonuses and damage bonuses for creatures was almost even moreso. It's a lot to remember, a lot to figure. And I can't just fudge, because I have players who are rules lawyers, so they do notice.

My answer was to turn to a DM's in-game software tool to help manage these specifics. Because honestly, that's not what I want to worry about when DMing. I'd rather spend more time describing the battle and having fun.

I've tried all the various character creators and in-game tools, and a while back I had settled on DMGenie as being the best of breed. DMGenie does a lot of things well, and now covers most contingencies. All in all, not a bad product. The problem is that IMHO it's got too much to it. Even though I downloaded the adventure (I ran the Wotc module Sunless Citadel), and all the battles were pre-populated for me and I just had to press start, I was lost in keeping track of various things. I had difficulties figuring out the number of attacks, the combat list often resorted itself or somehow ended up in the wrong order, I ended up applying damage to the wrong creature. On top of that, the screens are very cluttered, and some things are even cut off because I'm viewing it at a smaller screen resolution. Now don't get me wrong, I like DMGenie. Out of all the tools I've tried so far, it's the one I like best. My players weren't very happy though, because my battle ran slowly, and often took too long to set up if I needed to make changes to the enemies on-the-fly.

I guess it comes down to this: I feel I need a tool to help me run my games. There's just too many variables nowadays for me to keep track of mid-battle. Keeping track is good. But a tool shouldn't give a ton of functionality at the cost of speed. Just track initiative well, give me attack #s and bonuses that are understandable, and make subtraction of HP and useage of feats as simple and low-click-count as possible.]]> Mon, 02 May 2005 14:03:34 -0500