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 Recent Posts
Is anyone out there an expert on Colony Collapse Disorder. I have only recently heard of this, but apparently it's been going on for several years now. Essentially, bee colony populations are rapidly declining. The exact causes haven't yet been determined, but it seems to be a result of a number of factors including wide spread use of commercial pesticides. Why should we care? Because bees pollinate a large percentage of the food crops we eat, and without them there will be enormous food shortages and vastly increased food prices. If the bees go, we go.
Bella's journal Session 40: I’m just a Girl The tunnel shakes, collapsing around us as we run hand in hand for our lives. The cleric runs with easy strides that I am envious of him as he pulls me ahead and away from danger. The hand that grips mine is strong, and he does not look at me while he runs, always looking ahead with grim determination and never giving up. He is a far more noble soul then I could ever hope to be and looking at him now in this dire situation I find hope where I normally would see none. If I were alone, as I normally would be, I would just give up and die but with Bjorn at my side I feel that he will somehow find a way to save us, as he always has. The ground heaves suddenly beneath our feet and Bjorn falls to the ground as I am thrown forward. Looking back I see him sliding into the dark recess of the tunnel as if being pulled by some unseen force. His fingers dig into the dirt and he screams my name desperately. I can hear whispers in the dark, malicious and horrible, barely understood but clear in intent. They laugh gleefully and lament on the tortures they will visit upon their victim as he is dragged nearer and nearer. If the clerics body reaches the dark abyss he will suffer for all eternity and never return. I stand and take a step forward toward my friend when the ground yawns open at my feet and I am separated from Bjorn by a huge chasm. The smell of the grave rises up from the inky void and I am terrified knowing I am incapable of such a leap. I look out across the pit and see Bjorn’s legs being pulled into the shadow at the back of the tunnel and I hear the voices trill in triumph. His eyes are wide with terror and I hear the sound of claws rending clothing and then flesh. His scream of torment rings in my ears and reaches into my soul. His tear filled gaze meets mine, pleading with me to save him. Steeling myself and seeing no other choice I leap from the precipice with all my meager strength into the air…. And hit the wall. Ouch. I feel a cold floor underneath me and have a sharp pain along the length of my body that brings me quickly to my senses. I raise my sweat-covered head and look around. My memories are slow in arriving, but as my nightmare retreats from my conscious mind I can recall my surroundings and I pull myself up. I am in one of the guest quarters of an Eladrin noble family’s household. Unconsciously my armor had reverted to its true form instead of the nightgown I make it become when sleeping. Thankfully the leather had absorbed the brunt of the impact when I hit the wall. I look over my shoulder and find my bed several feet away. Now how did that happen? I step back to my bed across the room. I hear Melech and Ardyn come to my door to see if I’m all right. Apparently I had screamed upon waking. I frown and chastise myself for being careless. A changeling’s safety lies in…. I stop, realizing that I had just taken a single step to cross my room. Turning to the door I lift off the ground and glide gracefully to it, silver winds manifesting around me and lifting me into the air. Unlocking my chamber I walk into the hallway. “Sorry, Ardyn. Melech. I just had a bad dream, nothing to worry about.” Both my companions regard me with concern, not for my well being I realize, but for my sanity. They had heard my body strike the wall and knowing I was alone can only guess what I was up to. I can feel the Mark filling my head with the knowledge of how to use my new ability, the information settles in until it is indistinguishable from my own memories. I now know how to use my new ability as if I had always known. The power is one of my sorceress abilities and is not from the Mark like my command of languages and rituals. The Mark however contains much arcane knowledge and can teach me things in moments what most people take years to learn. As time passes and it becomes more powerful it is getting increasingly difficult to tell which knowledge is mine and which is the Marks. I clutch my head in a fleeting concern over the loss of my sense of self. Taking a deep breath I look into my friends eyes and am brought back to the present. “Actually, I could use your help Ardyn. It seems I have acquired a new ability and I think it can benefit more than just me. I would have preferred Turak’s help but you cannot wake up that cow until he’s ready to wake up. If you want to assist follow me outside.” The elf and teifling are suspicious but follow me outside anyway. I lead Ardyn to the center of a small courtyard under the stars while Melech leans against a wall and watches. I step back and focus my mind, I feel the silver wind surround me blowing at my hair and whispering in my ears like half forgotten demons. I send it forward and it surrounds the elf. He stands there, uncertain what to do. “Jump as high as you can”, I command. To his credit he does not hesitate and is carried by the wind about forty feet into the air. To be honest he could have guided his flight. When I share this ability it is the other persons will that commands the winds not mine. Perhaps it was the lateness of the hour or the elf trusted me so much that he did not think. The magic wears off and he falls. Being an elf, however, he gracefully lands on the ground. “That’s what you get for trusting her,” Corvin brazenly whispers and returns inside. “Sorry”, I apologize, “New ability. Thank-you.” The elf neither looks offended or impressed. We return to our rooms shortly after. Afterwards the heroes return to Grimsburg and Bella is able to work in her workshop on a couple of new magic items. Completing the enchantment over the gloves I watch with a smile of satisfaction as the arcane aura that surrounds them fades to nothing. My breath is quick not just with excitement but also from exertion. My arcane powers have never come easily to me but they have increased. I have decided that it was time to re-cast the aura mask on my equipment, but I can only do one piece of equipment a day. As such, a process that would have been a trifle for Melech and taken an afternoon, I have needed a week and exhausted myself after each casting. My work now complete I take my trusty Endless Quiver and my precious crossbow from my workbench and within seconds they disappear from my hands. I can still feel them at the tip of my fingers ready to be called back at my whim. I examine my hands critically, using my arcane sight. I fail to see a magical aura. It worked. I release a breath I didn’t realized I was holding. Standing I walk over to my full-length mirror willing my armor to change from normal clothes to a ball gown. The white gloves are made with a sturdy but luxurious material that matches the gown beautifully. With a deft hand I begin putting up my hair and look at myself critically in the mirror. Again I focus my arcane sight. The dress, though enchanting, does not appear enchanted. I focus on my neck. I had been able apply the magic for a cloak of distortion onto a lovely silver necklace that shimmers with precious stones. I am pleased to note that it also appears mundane. Raising my sleeve I subjected the decorative metal armband I find there to the same inspection and with the same result. I see myself looking smug in the mirror. I appear to be some rich tart ready to go to the ball and snag some handsome prince. Someone that anyone would look at, and if they didn’t know me, would think the most dangerous thing I could do is break hearts. Smiling to myself in the mirror I unleash the enchantment of my items and in seconds I am in my armor with my quiver over my shoulder and my bow ready. Belladonna Nightshade is my chosen name. It is a lovely and innocent looking flower that can be made into deadly poison. With every passing day it is becoming more appropriate.
Session #40 PCs Melek (level 16,Tiefling, hybrid warlock/wizard)
Melek's Journal: We arrive more or less where we expected, in a teleportation circle in Celduloin, the Eladrin city near to where we first entered the Fey Wild. It turns out the circle is in the garden of the Eladrin noble family that Malena belongs to. While the situation is slightly tense at first things quickly calm down as they realize that we are not responsible for Malena’s condition but in fact have rescued her from a foul fate. We are led to Lady Arethmere, the matriarch of the family. I'm quickly reminded how much I despise some of our aristocratic families for their boundless arrogance and their conviction that they are better than anybody else. Wait, what am I saying? I'm NOT an Eladrin. I don't even speak their language. I'm a tiefling. The oh so elegant Lady Arethmere almost chokes on the thanks that she, perforce, has to give us as she extends the poorest possible hospitality consistent with her honour. Or lack thereof. To add insult to injury she even explicitly orders us to remain in her house. As if we didn't already get the hint. Well, all of us except possibly Turak and Smar and maybe Ardyn. Ok, maybe the explicit statement was justified after all. At least she seems an equal opportunity bigot. She doesn't even take to Ardyn, and he’s an elf. She insists that I clean up despite the fact that my clothes and body is spotless due to my magics. And she has nothing but contempt for Turak and Smar. The hospitality so begrudgingly given was at least adequate. But they were definitely giving us their poor vintages at dinner, a dinner that we ate alone. Later in that evening, after she has recovered somewhat from her ordeal, we talk to Malena. She can give us only a little bit of information. The female leader of the Drow is called Xune, her second in command is a male called Elkantar. Apparently they work for a Lord and not the expected female leader. Furthermore, Malena overheard a comment to the effect of, "We have to remember to follow our instructions to inscribe the symbol of the King Who Crawls on their chests", referring to the symbols of Torog we found carved into the flesh of the eldarin captives, including Melana. While certainly not conclusive that would seem to imply that the inscription was intended as a ruse to misdirect us (or others). But other than that we have nothing to go on. We do not know where the drow are to be found. That night the dreams again come to me. In one of them, the Maiden appears to me. She promises to protect and to help me if I serve her above all others. I don't remember making any agreements but I do remember her kissing me on the forehead and my feeling a massive surge of fey power in me. I'm not sure what was going to happen because suddenly I am wakened by the sound of crashing coming from Bella’s room. Most of us go to investigate and find that Bella seems to be having some form of fit. She is crying out and saying something about a dream. Perhaps I'm not the only one who is being driven insane by the Feywild. If that is, indeed, what is happening to me. She insists that we go conduct an experiment our on the grounds even though it is the middle of the night. This is much to the displeasure of the household guards, but they don’t interfere. She asks Ardyn to leap as high as he can. Ardyn obliges her, and at the same time, Bella’s makes a motion with one hand and mutters a few arcane words. He soars far into the air; much farther than he could jump on his own. Being the athletic sort that he is he takes no damage from the sudden fall. As Ardyn lands, Corvin mutters, "That is what you get for trusting a thief". It would appear that Bella has a newfound power. Interesting. I wonder if she also had a visitation in the night. Or if it is something rather more mundane and she has just advanced in power in the usual way. In the morning, I cast Hand of Fate to try and determine where best to go next, but I get a very, very strange response. No information at all is revealed. I feel that I managed to contact Odin, but he just didn't want to respond. I wonder if that has anything to do with how quiet and peevish Corvin has been. He is obviously displeased with what we have managed to accomplish, but I get the impression that there is more to it than that. Exceedingly eager to get rid of us, Lady Arethmere has managed to obtain a Scroll of Planar Portal, and she "subtly" indicates that she thinks that we should leave. Now. Or spend a month in the swamp waiting for the moon gate to open. We decide that it is time to return home so we use the scroll to portal back to Grimmsburg. Back in Grimmsburg things are more or less as we left them except for a massive rainstorm. It looks like Odin (or perhaps Thor) is rather upset. The news is fairly dire. Apparently Cannon Wulgrin has had a visitation from Odin and the fragment of the Divine Engine that was kept in Odin’s vault in Valhalla has also been stolen, hence the storm outside. I think it is safe to assume that our enemies are now in possession of three of the five pieces of the divine engine. We fill in the Jarl and his inner council on what has occurred. Although it isn't likely to lead anywhere in particular various scribes start searching for the names of the drow in the records. Perhaps we'll get lucky. There is also ongoing research being conducted by Dean Danzig of the Scarlet Stone Academy that may possibly be lead somewhere. Apparently he’s close to discovering the location of one of the fragments, the one said to be located in the Shadowfell. The hope is that there will be more information in the library at Hammerfest. We then all go our own ways for a couple of weeks. I head off to my village only to discover that the people in Grimmsburg refer to it as “Deviltown.” I admit that I kind of like that name. It has a certain ring to it. Unfortunately, I also get disturbing news there. My sister Kallista is very unhappy with her position in charge there. She doesn't want the responsibility. She is a bard and being stuck in one place administering a fledgling settlement does not suite her. Also, as a human in whom the curse has never revealed itself she is resented by many of the tieflings there. I'm honestly not sure how I'd have reacted even a few days ago, but now my response is immediate and crystal clear. I release her from her promise. I had no right to put her into that position. The other news is also somewhat disturbing, as is my incredibly strong reaction to it. My father Ammon and my brother Leucis have been over at the village and are trying to get the inhabitants to start following their foolish dream to raise the fallen empire of Bhal Turath. I can't allow that. The goal of the village is to transform the tieflings both spiritually and physically. Oh, that goal is as distant and difficult as is the rebirth of Bhal Turath. But, if it is to have any chance at all, they must distance themselves from the dreams of the glory of yesteryear. They must look forward and not backwards. I have to confront my father. I have to force him to leave my village alone. But how can I do that? Since my earliest days it has been drilled into me that I am of House Zolfura and that I must obey the head of the House (my father). To openly oppose my father is to give up my heritage, to disinherit myself. And it is a heritage that I have been proud of. Certainly my ancestors have done many awful things, but they have also done many things to be proud of, and they are my blood. Even as little as a fortnight ago I'm not sure that I'd have had the strength to turn my back on my heritage. But I find, to my considerable surprise, that the decision is now an easy one. I'm not really sure what has changed. Perhaps it is just my adventures. But I think that it is mostly the dreams. More and more of his life is coming through. I now have a name. Allain. And he was a half elf. Well, half eladrin I suppose. He was a commoner, an outcast from eladrin society. And he transcended that. He took up service with the Maiden of the Moon. He lived a full and happy life. And he also accomplished great things. He knew what was important, and it certainly wasn't social posturing. Perhaps it was Lady Arethmere that also helped to open my eyes. She is so like my father in so many ways. So like the way that I used to be. More concerned with power, reputation and family than anything else. I go and lay down the law to my father. He and Leucis are to stay away from Deviltown, they are to leave the inhabitants alone. If they do not, then I will inform the Jarl about their illicit business dealings. If they try and have me killed or assassinated I will take whatever measures I need to in order to protect myself. By these actions I have forfeited my right to be heir to House Zolfura. I am no longer of high birth. I am now a nobody, of no family and so much the better for it. As if one crisis of the soul was insufficient, I have two more. I go to Canon Wulgrim to discuss how my connection to Odin seems weaker than it was, how the Hand of Fate ritual is now difficult to cast and far less revealing. He explains to me that what I've been fearing is, in fact, true. Since my trip to the Feywild, the Maiden of the Moon has altered my very soul. She has put a claim upon my soul, and this is greatly interfering with the fragment of Odin that I somehow obtained during my days at Thunderholme Abbey. I cannot serve two masters. It is not clear whether I even have a choice in the matter. But, if I do have a choice, I realize that I'd choose the Maiden. The life that she has shown me (assuming that I'm not just going crazy) is better than the one that I had. I've never been completely happy with the Skanzi goal of going to Valhalla for an eternity of endless fornication and cheap mead. And the one thing that I desperately want to lose, that I need to lose, is the constant sense of anger, the constant bloodlust. Odin inspires one to anger and to bloodlust; he doesn't help one to counter that. I still worship and serve Odin, but I no longer possess a piece of his divine energy. Since I made that decision I've found that my anger is slowly decreasing. Not, at least yet, hugely. But it is diminishing. And since I've made my decision I've noticed my connection to the Feywild has been strengthening. I can almost shift through it, as does an eladrin. Not quite, but it’s close. I've chosen to fully adopt the way of the Skald. Between what I can gather from dreams and what I can learn from Kali, I've managed to pick up a whole smattering of knowledge, including a few new Rituals. I've been training constantly these last few weeks. I was always reasonably good with the flute but now I've learned how to sing at least a little and gained the basics of various other instruments. I've been practicing my physical skills as well. It’s amazing how quickly and easily I've been picking up things. It’s as if I'm remembering things as opposed to learning them for the first time. And so several weeks passed. I've managed to replace Kali with a new tiefling mayor, Kairon by name. He isn't the most charming of people but he is a hard worker and a good administrator and is more than capable of knocking some heads together when required since he has seen considerable service as a mercenary. At least as importantly, he is a man of no pretensions and he shares my dream of a community where tieflings can grow up amongst their own kind. Over the past several days, I've heard from Corvin that he is most unhappy with our lack of progress, and that he plans to pursue his own interests and no longer quest with us for the Divine Engine. Finally after about three weeks of much needed downtime, we were called to a meeting with the Jarl. Harbek, a dwarven emissary from Hammerfest had come to Grimmsburg with bad news, especially for Turak. Recently there have been many raids on caravans going to or from Hammerfest, and it would appear that the Golden Horn Clan is responsible for the attacks. Harbeck had been sent to ask the Jarl for help investigating what has transpired that would cause the formerly peaceful minotaurs to turn to evil and lawlessness. Turak is, of course, flabbergasted by this and wants to find out what is happening. The rest of us (well, except for Corvin) agree to accompany him. ________________________________________________________________ We head off by portal to Nimorzan’s Tower in Fallcrest where we have a rather amusing interlude with his apprentice Lazlo, a quite foolish Halfling wizard who has finally mastered the magic missile spell. He insists on demonstrating his skills, and takes us to the top of the tower. By this time night has fallen, and the little Halfling proceeds to shoot several magic missiles off into the darkness. I do the obvious, and I use my Ghost Sound cantrip to start having the darkness scream in agony as the missiles attack it. Yes, I'm certainly getting a lot more enjoyment out of life than I used to. The next day we ascend to the skies on the backs of Giant Eagles. As always, Turak thoroughly hates the entire process while I am still exhilarated by the whole thing. We are following the caravan route to Hammerfest when we spy below us what appears to be the ruins of a caravan with several minotaurs looting it. We land to investigate. There are only a handful of Minotaurs and Turak definitely recognizes them as embers of his clan. But accompanying the minotaurs are several demons. Some appear to be similar to orcs and I recognize them as Tanaruk, several are nasty little carnage demons, and their leader is a large demonic minotaur with blazing red eyes and steam blasting from his nostrils. It’s not a minotaur that Turak recognizes. Turak attempts to reason with the minotaurs but, judging from the fact that the demons all charge us, I think that we have to consider this attempt at diplomacy a failure. Harbek, a RunePriest of Odin, is quite a competent fighter. He uses Runes to create magical effects. The most interesting by far is an effect that stops enemies dead in their tracks as they get close to the source of the blazing rune. It only affects the enemies when they first enter into the zone. But when that is combined with a hypnotic pattern drawing the enemies back out of the zone the effect is considerable, and quite amusing to boot. At least partially because I couldn't resist showing off, I summoned a plague of carnivorous hopping frogs to great effect. Admittedly, given that most of the demons were unable to move, it was hardly sporting. But I can control the frogs and stop them from actually killing anybody that I didn't want dead. So, the net result was a fairly short and one-sided fight, that resulted in lots of dead demons and several unconscious but basically unharmed minotaurs. Well, unharmed until Turak got through with them, as the rest of us agreed with my suggestion to allow him to decide what to do with the prisoners. He first questioned his kin, determining the obvious. The Minotaurs have turned away from the spirits and are now worshipping Baphomet. We also find out that the instigator of this was the shaman of the clan, somebody who Turak knew and used to respect. After first humiliating the prisoners by showing that he is far stronger and more powerful than any of them, he then decides that a fitting punishment would be to remove one horn from each of them. Apparently for Minotaurs this is a massive disgrace, and I expect quite painful too. We then release the minotaurs and remount the eagles to head off to his clan’s labyrinth. While the Minotaurs will doubtless also head back to the clan, we'll be there long before them and so will be able to attack with the advantage of surprise.
I too was disappointed with it. I was hoping it would have some capabilities for customizing monsters. Sure you can level them up or down, but I can't take MM 1 monsters and easily adjust the powers or damage expressions. I'm pretty much better off doing what I used to do, which was looking it up on the compendium and then cutting and pasting into a Word document and adjusting from there. The compendium runs faster too.
Yes but such powers are far more limited in use, and generally can't be easily used in the midst of combat. Linked Portal won't get you out of a fight going badly, and it won't get you back to the dungeon, unless there is a teleportation circle there to make use of. You aren't going to have a sorcerer zipping around with fly, and improved invisibility hurling acid orbs down on the monsters.
In my experience the PCs have to work a little harder to get at the baddies in 4E because they don't have easy access to game breaking magic like teleportation and flight. Sure you can teleport and fly in 4E, but the distances are fairly short, and you usually can't move the entire party along with you until really high levels. In previous editions, you had access to spells like fly and dimension door at relatively low levels, which made it easy to bypass many encounters and challenges or get past the riff raff and go straight for the boss baddie. When the going got tough you could often teleport back to your home base, rest up, buff up and then teleport right back to the middle of the dungeon to trounce your enemies. Certainly, there are ways for a dm to work around these problems, but I find that those sorts of issues have a much bigger impact on the game and how dms are required to design adventures and build encounters than diagonal movement does.
Session #39 Party: Bella, changeling rogue 16
Melek's journal: After a brief rest and much divine healing from Corvin, we start to discuss our options. Clearly holing up here in the basement of this tavern isn’t much of a choice. Fleeing the city seems like the only practical alternative to me, but I'm having a little difficulty in convincing my companions of this. And even that alternative has issues with it. We more or less have to assume that pixies will be watching our every move when we leave. Damned invisible little pests! I'm going to have to learn a way to deal with that issue. As we are arguing, the door leading from the inn upstairs into the basement opens. Standing in the entrance is another gnome who immediately rushes over to the corpse of the bear and starts weeping into its fur, getting blood all over his face. His two hobgoblin guards watch on in bemusement, and are obviously fervently hoping that we don't decide to kill them all. I do feel sympathy for the poor little man, though. To lose a loved one always hurts. I remember that when I lost my pet cathshee I cried for days. Cathshee? When did I ever have any pet at all let alone something exotic like that? This new gnome turns out to be Waylan, the owner of the bar and the brother of Neblin. Not at all unreasonably, Waylan is extremely upset at Neblin for bringing all of this trouble to his doorstep. It is a case of one sibling taking the aid and help of the other for granted and abusing the situation, just like occurs in so many of the best romances. I admit that I have some misgivings that I've been doing something similar with my sister Kallista. I've pressured her into accepting a role as the leader of the tiefling enclave that she may well be uncomfortable with, a role that could easily lead her into conflict with the Jarl that she would otherwise have escaped. I can tell myself that I'm doing it for the greater good and not just for personal gain. But while that is definitely true is it sufficient justification? Perhaps Neblin is also acting in what he thinks is the correct way for the long term. As virtually a slave here perhaps his mercenary ways are all that is keeping his family alive and well. I think that I'll need to have a long talk with Kali when I get back. At any rate, I'll put aside the personal soul searching for now. Waylan turns to us and tells us that he'll be able to hide us from the guards who are to be expected at any moment. While this seems doubtful to us, it’s definitely at least as good an option as any other we have. If it fails then we can start killing Cyclops at that point. If nothing else, hopefully the guard will be split up and we'll be able to deal with them a few at a time while fleeing the city. Thus, we follow Waylan up into the tavern’s kitchen area, and we are introduced to his absolutely terrified family. Terrified of us, terrified of turning us in, terrified of not turning us in. You've got to feel for the poor things. It is then that we hear some Cyclopian guards coming into the common room demanding to see Waylan. Fortunately for us, the captain was either a complete moron or somebody who arrogantly believed that Waylan wouldn't dare to lie to him and conceal anybody. Maybe he got his position not for his merits but because he is somebody’s son. The captain was basically more or less believing Waylan as he professed total innocence and ignorance to any knowledge of the outlanders that had just slain Kregan in the alley beside his establishment. He stated that he knew nothing about the dead bodies in his basement (which the guards had presumably just discovered), and that he hadn't even been in the basement. The captain didn't even particularly mind all that much when Waylan changed his story given the bloody evidence on his face that he had actually been in the basement. With everything that happened later I admit that some of the details are now getting blurred. I'm finding it hard to differentiate between what I dreamed and what actually happened. I believe that the captain and his troops then left and Waylan sent a runner to contact his brother. I'm almost certain that the fairly clear memory that I have of Waylan mooning the captain on the way out didn't really occur. Before Neblin could return the captain came back and started to again interrogate Waylan. It seems he wasn’t fully satisfied with Waylan’s previous answers. This time the Cyclops used techniques that would surely quickly either cause Waylan to reveal our presence or to die (stepping on his head for example). Belladonna came to the rescue. She turned into a lowlife hobgoblin servant and left the inn under the noses of the guards placed outside the backdoor. She then went around to the front, disguising herself as a hobgoblin guard along the way. In the guise of a warrior, Bella then claimed that we'd been sighted at the far end of the festering cesspool that is this ward of the city and that he'd been sent to fetch reinforcements. This subterfuge was successful and the guards all hastened off to find us. I'm sure Belladonna later somewhat exaggerated her story of how brilliant an actor she was (who wouldn't?) but the basic details of her leading them away and then separating from them were doubtless true. Full marks to her for her ingenuity Meanwhile, back at the inn, we waited for Neblin. He arrived in short order and said that we should all go to another safe house that he has, the home of a former girl friend. I admit that Neblin doesn't strike one as the sort who would have ex amours who would think highly of him, but perhaps gnomes have different standards and attitudes in such things than do Tieflings. We all head off with the gnome, including Waylan and his family. I've advised them all to leave the city at once since not even the dumbest Cyclops is going to remain fooled forever and eventually they're going to bring them all in and torture and kill them on general principles if for no other reason. We hasten off to his ex’s house and, amazingly, she does indeed let us in, admittedly after Neblin wheedles her a little and bribes her a little with gold. We relax, hoping that we'll be able to spend some considerable time here. Meanwhile, Neblin leaves us again to go attempt to secure a means for us to leave this part of the city. While we try to rest, we learn that his ex is a pastry chef of some repute. Turak finds her blueberry pies the best thing that he has ever tasted. I admit that they're not at all bad, quite superior to the normal dreck that humans make, but they're still not a patch on the wonderful Mangosteen tortes that I had in Mithrendain. While we wait for Neblin’s return Belladonna shows up, having been directed here by an associate of Neblin’s. Neblin also returns soon after, informing us that he is making arrangements for us to go to the house of one Dregas, an ally of Sethrak who lives in the high class part of the city. However, our rest is interrupted by the sounding of a proclamation from out in the street. Everybody is to return to their homes as a house to house search is being instigated for Ours Truly. We clearly have to leave right away. Neblin tells us that if we go into the aquifer tunnels beneath the quarter we'll be able to make it to the house of Dregas. Of course, we'll have to face the hordes of undead down there since we don't have time to make it to the "safe route". Apparently the undead have been placed there by King Bronnor’s advisor Kaleestra, as a means of deterring smugglers from using the tunnels. We head down into the depths below the city. We are harassed by small clumps of ghouls and the like, but they're really not a significant threat. Well, not at first. Just before we make it out of the dangerous area of the tunnels we emerge into a huge cavern with some fascinating symbols enscribed on the floor. They are runes that act to keep Purple Worms at bay. We really should remember to destroy them on the way out. However, at this point a large force of ghouls attacks us. They'd been gradually amassing themselves in the darkness. What feels like hundreds of them but were more likely only dozens hurls themselves at us from the multitude of passages leading into the cavern. I retreat behind a swift flowing stream and barely manage to leap across the stream successfully. As has occurred so often recently, my tendency to avoid physical pursuits has nearly been my downfall. Unfortunately, before my companions can join me, they are beset by the ghouls, and several of our number are paralyzed. Once again I find myself acting as a hero, and I use my arcane prowess to switch places with Ardyn as he is being grappled by a Cyclopean ghoul and only inches from going unconscious. There seems something ironic about the lowly wizard stepping in to save the mighty ranger. While most of my companions are adept at taking out large number of enemies it is my spells that are largely responsible for sweeping the battlefield clear of the riff raff so that we can concentrate on the several Cyclopean undead. Strangely, some of the undead actually have a sense of self-preservation and flee into the tunnels rather then being completely destroyed by us. The hardest part of the fight is probably keeping Neblin alive. After the battle we conversed amongst ourselves in Giantish as to what to do. I'm sure that I'm misremembering that I was so incredibly stupid as to mention in the hearing of Neblin that we should wait for the morning before trying to cast a Hand of Fate ritual to see if Sethrak is intending to betray us. There was a barred iron gate that sealed the ghoul tunnels from the tunnels beneath the King’s Ward. Bella used her ability to alter her form to contort herself enough that she could slip through the bars of the gate Bella and then pick the massive padlock hanging off of it. Neblin led us through the safer tunnels beneath the King’s Ward, until we were beneath Drega’s villa. We thought about camping down below, but it was decided that even the safe areas had their dangers and it would be better to avail ourselves to the help of Dregas. Nobody seemed overwhelmingly surprised to see us emerging from the well in the middle of Drega’s villa, and we were soon in the hall of Dregas. Dregas turns out to be, even by Cyclopean standards, a fairly foul and odious piece of work. He is a mercenary slaver, a traitor to his king, and not above trying to wrest a few gold pieces from us despite the fact that we are working for an ally of his and presumably his position will increase greatly should Sethrak succeed in his plot. In exchange for some money, Dregas revealed that a group of Drow elves had recently arrived at the city and were negotiating with King Bronnor to purchase an item that we guess to be the part of the Divine Engine that we're seeking. My visceral reaction to the fact that Dregas had sold them some eladrin as playthings surprised me. While any decent person would not like this it felt more like my own kindred had been betrayed. Dregas also told us where the drow were staying within the city. Finally, we retired for the night and for what should have been a good night’s sleep. Unfortunately, my sleep was anything but calm. Quite honestly, I think that I may be going totally insane. In retrospect, I think that all of my dreams since we came to the Feywild have been disturbed and similar to last night’s. It is just that last night’s was the first one that I remember. Not completely nor vividly, but I've definitely got impressions. Impressions and memories as if seen through a fog. I was dreaming the life of somebody else. I am sure that I was an Eladrin or maybe a half eladrin. Do such things even exist here in the Feywild? It seems likely that they do. If elves and humans can breed true, I see little reason that Eladrin and humans cannot. Can Tieflings interbreed with Eladrin? Perhaps I'm accessing the memory of an ancestor. Or, if what the southerners believe is correct, perhaps one has been reincarnated as me. Or maybe it is some gift of the Maiden of the Moon. Or perhaps my travails have finally caught up with me and I'm just going mad. It’s exceedingly scary that the last alternative is almost the most attractive. At any rate, I was leading a very different life. I think that I was a bard. A sword wielding bard- a great hero, a great adventurer, but one with a certain joie de vivre that I admit that I've been lacking. I greatly envy that bard of my dreams. He was sure of his place in the world, happy in what he was doing. He knew that he was leading a very dangerous life, but he didn't care because he knew that he was making a difference in this life and would be rewarded in the next. And not rewarded by an eternal life of battle and the hollow joys of wenching and endless mead and beer. His life was so much richer than mine in so many ways. He was good at so many disparate things- mental, physical, and social. While perhaps not a master at all of them he was certainly well above journeyman in all. After I woke up I felt strangely different. I almost feel like I can access some of the memories and some of his skills. But my own memories have also become blurry. At the moment I can't always tell which are my real memories and which are the memories from my dreams. And there is another side to this. In the morning, as planned I cast a Hand of Fate ritual in order to determine what we should do. Although it succeeded it felt a lot harder to get an answer than it normally does. And I somehow sensed disappointment on the other side. One thing that is unequivocably true is that the Maiden of the Moon granted me a boon in my sleep. I remember her appearing to me in my dreams just before waking, and giving me a kiss on the forehead. I can still feel the power from her kiss, and I believe it may stay with me. Even more interesting is the fact that Odin did not grant me such a boon but instead chose to grant a boon to Bella of all people. I don't understand it at all but I'm absolutely certain that very soon I am going to have to make a major personal decision, one that will affect my very soul. After waking up, I cast a divination ritual, and I learned that the dragon is planning to betray us after we slay the King. More importantly, I discovered that the drow elves have the fragment of the Divine Engine. And they have already left the city. We take our leave of Dregas and descend back into the depths. There we put our sword to Neblin's throat and tell him that he has one chance to live. If he helps us and does not attempt to betray us in any way we will let him live. He can choose to accompany us when we leave the city or stay here. Since his desire to live outweighs his desire to serve Sethrak, he quickly agrees to our terms. He proceeds to again cast his disguising ritual on us and we then head into the city to where the Drow were staying. Perhaps there we can find some clue as to where they came from. It is both hilarious and disturbing to see Turak, in the illusionary guise of a teenage Cyclops girl, petting Neblin who appears to be a dog. Poor Neblin doesn't seem too impressed but he isn't complaining. We quickly and quietly arrive at the stone guest house that had been housing the drow entourage. We find it to be guarded by a couple of Cyclops guards. Heading around the back we see a Cyclops maid disposing of an eladrin body as if it were garbage. After she steps back inside, Smar sneaks up to retrieve the body and overhears a conversation through the partially open door. We learn that there is an eladrin inside that is still clinging to life. I voice the opinion that we have to save that Eladrin since she might have valuable information, and that rationale carries the day. In actuality my primary goal is merely to save her if she can indeed be saved. After all, she is my distant kin. Smar proceeds to brutally dispatch the maid. I can't say that I disapprove of the action in any way. As far as I'm concerned all the inhabitants of this city deserve to die. Well, all of those who more or less voluntarily live here anyway. We very quickly dispatch the two Cyclops guards inside, and then we rapidly bar the doors to keep any remaining Cyclops at bay. Inside we find the evidence of a linked portal ritual having been used in one room, presumably by the drow to leave the city, but Bella is not able to recreate the destination. Corvin heals the Eladrin survivor. She is a noble from the city of Celduloin, fortunately she knows enough to inform Bella how to scribe a portal to the teleportation gate there. Bella quickly scribes the portal with my assistance. Before we leave, we leave a couple of letters addressed to King Bronor informing him how Sethrak had plotted his demise with the aid of Dregas. We provide enough details to be moderately convincing. Hopefully the fact that we got as far as we could and knew as much about his defences as we did will lend credence to our story. I doubt that we'll actually manage to start a civil war but perhaps we'll be lucky. We managed to open the portal before enough guards arrived to give us difficulty, and we left Harrowthane behind. It seems that this mission has been a failure, for our enemies have claimed another piece of the divine engine. Hopefully, this eladrin maiden we have rescued will be able to tell us something useful about the drow.
4e combat can be slow depending on how your dm and players play. If the dm allows the plays to hum and hah about their moves each turn it slows down and starts to play more like a board game. If the players make an effort to be ready with their action when their turn comes up and the dm enforces quick, decisive action in combat it will move reasonably fast. 3E can be equally slow, particularly at high levels. The problem with 3E is that a lot of the slow down can happen before the fight even starts. For instance, before a big fight (at higher levels) the players will spend a half hour deciding what buffs to cast on their characters and adjusting their stats. You don't get any of that pre combat buffing syndrome happening in 4e even at high level, which is one of the things I really like about the game. As a dm there are four things that I do to make combat run at a reasonable speed (even with six players). Any of these tips can work equally well with pathfinder. - make the players use average damage. All the players have their average damage calculated for their attacks and written on their sheets with each power. The only die they need is the d20. I do the same thing with the monsters. This speeds up play enormously at paragon tier, but is probably not necessary in heroic. - Try to encourage fast action. I'll do a count down if a player is taking too long to decide on what to do, and they can lose their turn if they are too slow. This virtually never happens since my players make sure to know their characters well and pay attention, so that they are ready on their turn. - Use initiative cards and remind players who is coming up next so that they can get their move ready. I'll also start posting monster defenses on the cards as the fight goes and they get an idea of what they are. - Have an "out" for my monsters. Monsters will often retreat or surrender when it becomes clear that they are losing. This is both realistic from an rp perspective and speeds up the fight. The players at my table or also good about making sure they know their characters well, so they can run that character effectively without having to spend much time at the table dithering about their actions. One problem with 4E is that there can be a lot of little circumstance bonuses to track that can slow a turn down. For instance, a player might be getting a +3 to damage from a warlord and a another +2 because the target is bloodied and then a +5 because it is prone etc... factoring in all these extras can slow the game down, but it tends to get better as the players get used to it and become more experienced. There are also a lot of actions that take place outside a player's turn. The fighter might get to make an attack on the warlord's turn or when an enemy shifts. The ranger might take a swing when an enemy attacks him. This makes for interesting and dynamic combat, but sometimes you lose track of where you are in the initiative order.
How so? I would think that all the forced movement, marks, interrupt actions etc... would make combat a real slog in a pbp. Maybe I'll check out a couple of the games and see how they tried to get around that issue. Don't knock it, til you've tried it. I've been running very successful pbps in 4e and found it a quantum leap in ease of running in and playing from 3.x.
How much can you build with the digital tiles relative to a battle map? Can you make pretty much any map you want? My problem with tiles is that I've always found them limiting. I can pretty much sketch out anything on a battle map, but not so with tiles. However with computer generated tiles you could easily produce millions more combinations of maps than you could with physical tiles, so I could see this having the potential to work well, but I'm still concerned I'll be limited as to what maps I can throw together. I think a digital battlemap with a sketching type feature would be great. I hear that a there's been more progress made with their whole digital table top initiative. Hopefully we'll see it in action sometime this year. If that finally arrives then I might consider trying it via the internet.
Of course, the DDI gives you access to pretty much all the books via the compendium and the character builder. I'd highly recommend at least one member in the group getting a subscription if you are going to play a 4E campaign. You don't get much of the fluff with the DDI, but if you have played D&D for a long time then you are pretty familiar with most of the fluff anyhow, so you can almost avoid buying books with DDI access. Otherwise I'd consider picking up the essentials products, especially if you want the classes to seem to be built differently (as they were in 3E), though personally I tend to prefer the non essentials 4E classes. The essentials books are also a nicer read than the early core 4E books. That being said my favorite books are: phb, dmg, phb II, and the monster vault + DDI.
This is Smar's journal, also regarding game session #38 Spirits, is this truly what you sent me here to do? Last I spoke to you I spoke through writing. Now, I silently whisper to you as I rest after fighting against my own kind again. I whisper, and I pray for a response. Spirits, you sent me to Ardyn. You told me where to travel after slaying the Jarl of Nenlaslt. There I found my blood-brother. Together we found the horn. I heard your praise when my blood mixed with his. I felt your favour. When he called to me with the horn, when he told me that we must stop the primordials from walking the Winterbole woods again, from wrecking havoc on the land, I knew that this was what you wanted of me. But then I learned that one of my companions was a priest of Odin, and another a servant of the Lady of the Moon. Are these truly the companions you wish me to fight beside? But my blood-brother is here, so it must be so. We left the cavern with the spring and made our way through winding tunnels. We crossed giant caverns of poisonous mushroom spores, scaled steep cliffs, and found our way to the city of these one eyed giants. There, the woman with the sharp eye turned out to be a… a shapeshifting thing. I know not what to call it. It took my shape. It took the shape of hobgoblin. It shifted between man and woman. It is a strange creature indeed. Still, its ability to leap from disguise to disguise has proven useful in this underground city. Who am I to begrudge someone the ability to shift between shapes? And now I have seen my first city! I have tried not to let my awe shame me, but these are not the log longhouses of Nenlaslt. Here, the buildings are made of the same stone as the caverns. It is like nothing I have seen before. But however amazing the craftsmanship, this place is broken, dirty, and wrong. The buildings look like they are falling to pieces. Are all cities so broken down? The people who populate its streets seem little better. Their spirits are trampled. I have seen the look in their eyes before. I have seen that look when a collar yet rested around my neck, and I stared at my reflection in still pools of water. Shifters walk these streets branded like dogs. I bear such a brand. I know how it chafes the soul. I wish the person who put that brand upon their skin dead. We were going to try and sneak into another part of the city, but a creature that my companions called a “gnome” stopped us. It was short thing with pitch black eyes, pointed ears, and a long nose. It told us that it could help us, for a price. Ardyn seemed to think that accepting its offer was wise. It took us to the basement of an inn. There, three wolves rested with no collars about their necks. I spent some time getting to know them. They seemed quite happy. They seemed free. I think Ardyn made the right choice. In this den the gnome told us that it knew of “someone” that could help us, an “ally” of the king who dislikes its allegiance. This “someone” turned out to be a dragon. We met with it in a great cavern of shaped stone. I did not think stone could be so smooth. And the dragon, its head is almost as large as I am! It told us that it will give us the item we seek, if we kill the king of these lands. Now, if this king is the one responsible for the brands on the skin of my pack-brothers, surly he deserves to die. But, something weighed heavy on my heart; when the shapeshifter and I traveled through the city we heard rumors that the king had sent his war-wolves to hunt us. Were these wolves free? If so, why did they hunt for someone willing to allow the primordials to destroy the land? Were they slaves? If so, how could I survive them without harming them? How could I free them? I did not come here to kill my own kin. I had thought I left that behind me long ago. And then they attacked. They attacked us returning to the gnome’s den after speaking to the dragon. They were not just wolves, they were werewolves. They were like my father. They were direct blood-kin. I called to them. I told them we had no quarrel with them. But, they would not listen. They would not stop. They attacked us like we were prey. They called us their query. They were intent to kill me, and my blood brother. Indeed, my blood-brother nearly died. I wanted to make my way to him, to aid him, but I could not; I was trapped in melee with a werewolf unlike any I have seen before. He stood over ten feet tall. He seemed to be like a lord among my kin. Thankfully, the demon devotee of the Lady of the Moon managed to make his way to Ardyn and stop his bleeding. I know not what herbs he administered, but soon Ardyn was standing, on shaky legs, again. I do not know if these werewolves were slaves. I had no time to check if they had brands on their skin. I could find no way to survive them without harming them. At least two died under my axes. The lord may have fallen to the shapeshifters icy quarrel, but its flesh tasted deeply of my weapons before it fell. Is this what you sent me here to do? To kill my own kind? To become the Úlfrhundr again? Now we rest. We have been chased into the gnomes den by tiny winged archers capable of hiding in empty air. They have not followed us into the building. It seems the werewolves killed everyone in the den, before attacking us in the alley, including the three wolves that lived here. How could they respect life so little that they felt free to mutilate our wolf-kin? Perhaps they were beaten, broken, forced into the service of this land’s king until they knew no better, like I was once forced to kill for the Jarl of Nenlaslt? Spirits, take their souls, put those souls to rest. May they find peace from the rage that boils in all our blood. Spirits, tell me what to do next. Spirits, show me the way to this land’s king that I may do to him as I did to the Jarl of Nenlaslt. I will show him just how much I appreciate being forced to kill my own kind again. I will make him pay for the lives of the wolves in this den, and the lives of each werewolf we were forced to slay, with his own flesh.
These days 4E is my system of preference (when it comes to fantasy gaming). However, I think it would be a crappy system to try to run or play in a pbp game in. If I was going to do pbp, I'd take 3E over 4E any day. I hear that a there's been more progress made with their whole digital table top initiative. Hopefully we'll see it in action sometime this year. If that finally arrives then I might consider trying it via the internet. It's comforting to see that not everyone insists on using every single update. Maybe once I finish extracting myself from my current job, and find a new job, I will have energy and time to try a 4E pbp. Until then, thank you for the excellent discussion; I know I learned a lot, and I hope you did as well.
Of course Essentials changes that somewhat. A thief and a slayer fighter for instance are easier to run (mechanically) than a wizard or a cleric, which is similar to 3E. in fact if you look at the pregens for the new Encounters Season you will notice that the characters have ratings in terms of how difficult they are to run. I believe the thief has the lowest rating (as in it is the most simple to run), and I think the warpriest had the highest.
This is Melek's journal for session #38 I believe. Currently the party consists of: Bella (changeling rogue with a touch of sorcerer, level 15)
Most of us waited back at the entrance to the secluded cavern while Bella, Smar and Ardyn decided to scout out the Feydark city that sprawled out before us. They were all chosen for their linguistic abilities and not particularly for their diplomatic prowess. They fairly quickly determined that we were in one ward of a larger city called Harrowthane. The ward filled the massive cavern it was constructed in, and it seemed that there were other wards in their own caverns, connected by well guarded tunnels. The ward was clearly one of the low rent districts, many of the inhabltants being obvious slaves. There was a mix of races, mainly goblinoids and shifters but a smattering of eladrin and even a human or two (albeit unarmed and unarmoured). What there was not were minotaurs and tiefilngs. Or anybody except hobgoblins and cyclops who sported a 10th the weaponry and armour that we carry. It didn’t seem like many Cyclops lived in this ward, and the ones that were seen looked primarily like guards who were there to keep the masses in line. Our scouts managed to pick up a surprising amount by eavesdropping on the inhabitants. Not at all surprisingly, the news of the day was ourselves and our taking of the gatehouse. If nothing else, we have disturbed the peace and sleep of the fomorian King. Unfortunately, he has increased the guard around him and has put the city onto an alert status. While this is also not a surprise, it will make our mission harder. The city of Harrowthane has two very obvious and significant opponents. The Fomorian king is named Bronnor. He also has some kind of sorcerous ally who obviously inspires great fear and terror in the populace. Her name is Kaleestra. Who or what she really is isn't yet known but she apparently raised the captain of the guard of the gatehouse as an undead monstrostiy as a means of getting information about us and as a punishment for his failures. Unfortunately, they now seem to know a great deal about us. The King’s chief hunter Krevan and his warwolves have been dispatched to look for us. Everybody knows that they'll find us soon and tear us to bits since they never fail. Let’s hope that by the time they’ve gotten close to finding us we'll have managed to get out of here. I'm not an expert on these things but hopefully they'll also have trouble following our tracks through the city. Hmm. Sometimes I wish that Turak bathed more. The city has one obvious gate leading towards a richer part of the city, known as the King’s Ward. Clearly, what we are looking for is going to be in that district. The issue is going to be in how to get through that gate. It is my understanding that most Cyclops can see invisible, and that some of them can even see through illusions, which will make sneaking by the guards much tougher. Not to mention, that even getting to the gate is going to be rather problematic. After our usual amount of dithering and discourse we decided that the best plan was to head into the city in a couple of groups, disguised as well as possible. Turak would wear the hat of disguise pretending to be a hulking hobgoblin while I'd do what I could with a hood to hide my nature. Once we got close to the gate our cunning plan was to have Bella cause a distraction while I opened a Arcane gate between us and a distance down the tunnel. Hopefully they wouldn't notice us getting through and Bella would be able to follow later. However, events occurred to alter that plan. It’s certainly unusual when that happens. As we headed towards the gate, disguised to the extent possible, we were accosted by a gnome called Neblin. Apparently we had caught his attention, and he had managed to figure out who we were. He offered to help us for a price. Since none of us were particularly enamoured with our previous plan, and since we thought that we'd likely be able to kill him if he betrayed us, we decided to follow him. He took us into the basement below a bar. The basement was not empty, in addition to some hobgoblin thugs playing cards, there was a huge bear resting in a corner, some wolves gnawing on bones and even some tiny pixies flying about and giggling with sing song laughter. Neblin then informed us that he could get us into the inner city in exchange for a sufficient sum. Once we agreed he told us that he'd put us in touch with a friend of his, Sethrax by name, who could arrange for us to get into King Bronnor’s chambers. Sethrax is the apparently a member of the King’s inner circle of advisors. However, Sethrax really, really likes people to be polite, and in order for us to even discuss things with Sethrax we were advised to give him a great many gifts of great value. We pooled what little resources that we had and came up with a smattering of reasonably valuable items, including my Fey Leaf sandles, a gorgeously crafted, crossbow from Bella, 500 slightly blood stained local gold pieces and some other miscellany. While Neblin went off to arrange things we got a little bit of a rest in the tavern’s basement. Smar tried to befriend the wolves but didn't seem to have much success. They didn't eat him or anything, but they definitely didn't seem ready to adopt him into their pack. The rest of us ate and rested awhile. Some time later Neblin came back. After altering our appearances with the aid of some ritual magic that he knew he led us off through some alleyways into an underground passage that led us eventually to the home of Sethrax. There he pointed the way and told us to enter. We stepped into a huge audience hall. Many Cyclops guards were waiting for us. None of them seemed bothered by our presence. When we asked how we'd recognize Sethrax, Neblin just laughed and said that we would. He then left us, informing that he'd meet back up with us at the bar. Thus, we waited until Sethrak deigned to show up. Neblin was right, we recognized who Sethrak was when an elder green dragon descended to the balcony. We all decided that being polite was a good idea, although I think that Smar overdid things when he rolled over onto his back and exposed his belly (jest). Sethrax took our tribute and deemed it acceptable. He then proceeded to talk to us in Giant (a language that ironically his cyclops guards do not understand). He wants the King dead so that he can replace him, and he is quite willing to provide us with the means of getting to the King if we agree to kill him. In exchange, he'll allow us to have any item in the king’s treasury. And he'll arrange things so we can safely leave Harrowthane. The details of that last point are rather sketchy. He doesn’t give us more than a moment to discuss matters, but we know that turning the offer down at this point would seem to be rather foolish so we all agree to his plan. We then leave the presence and return back towards the bar. However, just as we are making our way through the alley towards the door that leads into the bar’s basement, we are ambushed by Krevan and his associates. Fortunately for all of us, we have some very perceptive party members, and our enemies fail to achieve surprise as they leap down from the rooftops into the alley. As is so often the case, battle ensues. I manage to use my new spell Plague of Frogs to some effect. To my considerable surprise the most effective opponents are not the werewolves, vicious and powerful though they are, but a set of 3 pixies that are intelligent enough to fight from a long distance and to constantly go invisible. I've never encountered them before but either the stories of them being quite fragile are false or they are much tougher here in the feywild than are their counterparts back in the real world. The little creatures use tiny bows and arrows, and they fire with deadly accuracy. Their arrows are laced with an equally deadly poison. Despite the concentrated efforts of Bella, all three of the pixies survive the fight. I spend a significant portion of the battle just trying to keep my comrades alive, probably saving both Ardyn and Bella at various points by pouring healing potions down their dying throats. I barely keep myself alive as the damned pixies frequently concentrate their fire upon me. Smar was conversing with one of the werewolves at one point but whatever diplomacy he was trying failed. Which seemed to irk him somewhat judging by the ferocity with which he proceeded to attack them. Turak was put in a particularly tough position, as he spent the entire battle engaged with Krevan himself. Krevan was a giant werewolf that stood well over ten feet tall and could have easily torn anyone of us to shreds, anyone of us but Turak. With the help of Ardyn and Smar, the mighty minotaur was able to bring him down. In the end, we manage to prevail over our enemies, although it is definitely close at a couple of points. All of our enemies, but the pixies are slain. Under cover of under cover of a primal mist summoned by Smar, we head to the entrance to the bar, intending to try and sneak inside. Alas, when we open the door to the bar we find that all the inhabitants, including the animals, had been slain. Unfortunately, our enemies clearly knew that we were here and our mist is unlikely to fool the pixies, who likely suspect we will take refuge here. They may be going to fetch help or are waiting to ambush us when we leave. Having little other choice and desperately requiring a little rest to lick our wounds, we head into the basement anyway and shut and bar the door.
I've run extensive 3E and 4E games at all levels. My preference is definitely 4E, though I'm sure I could have fun playing 3E again under the right circumstances. Usually I am the dm, and I fully agree with an earlier post by Jeremy regarding the effects of the 3E magic system on game play at higher levels. 3E magic provides PCs access to tactics that can make a dms job a real nightmare. For example a typical high level 3E tactic is to scry or use some other form of magic to scout out the situation. The PCs then buff up with the appropriate spells (which can take a long time at high level), next they teleport, wreak havoc and teleport out again. Obviously, this isn't always the way it goes down, but such tactics are very common. The only real way to counter such tactics is when the enemies have access to comparable magic, and as a dm you don't always want to deal with that. I remember when I still fairly new to running 3E, I spent a great deal of time creating a big frost giant lair for 11th level PCs. They pretty much did what I described above. Used magic to scout the place out, buffed up, teleported in to the main hall with improved invisibility etc.. then unloaded enough fire magic on their enemies in the first round to weaken them enough so that the invisible fighters could finish the rest off in the second and third round. I think as players they found it kind of fun, but it certainly wasn't fun for me as a dm. Magic is more limited in 4E, and you will not see that kind of thing happen. IMO this is a good thing that makes the game more fun for dm and player because at high level I can still run a fight with a band of giants and it can be a challenge to the players. I don't need my giants accompanied by a high level wizard with a disjunction scroll to make the game challenging. I'm also not going to have to wait around for 30 minutes before a fight while the PCs discuss which spells they are going to buff on which character and adjust their stats accordingly (This didn't happen with ever combat, but it was common in important ones, and at high level most of them are important. If they aren't the party just avoids them- again with magic). 4E still has buffs, but you usually have to make an attack to activate them, so they happen in combat, and for the most part they are fairly simple and easy to tract. The above is my first major beef with 3e. The second is the following. I found that in 3E there was a lot more difference in play balance between PCs. It was much easier to make a really broken build in 3E that would outshine other players. It was also easy to build a really gimpy character if you didn't know what you were doing. My experience with 4E is that this can still happen to some extent, but not in near as dramatic a way. A "normal" player can easily build an effective and fun character to run that won't be totally overshadowed by the group's power gamer players. 3E is a power gamers wet dream. 4E still gives such players a chance to tinker and have fun, but without making the game unfun for the non power gamers (usually). Between beef number #1 and #2, I was easily converted. Another thing to keep in mind about 3E and 4E that I think some people don't understand. Is that one of the big differences in design philosophy is relativity vrs objectivity. In 3E a stat block for a creature is basically that stat block for the creature. It defines the creature, and it is objective. In 4E a stat block really only defines the creature relative to the PCs at their current level in a combat situation. For example: a hobgoblin soldier might be a level 8 standard monster to 8th level heroes. However if that same hobgoblin were fighting 15th level heroes it might be rebuilt as a 12th level minion. Or if it were fighting 2nd level heroes it might be an 4th level elite monster. This differences takes a bit of getting used to, but in the end I find it gives me a lot of freedom when building encounters. I also like that monsters don't have the same design structure as characters. I can pretty much give them whatever power or ability I want within reason, and I don't have players crying foul about their abilities because it is accepted that monsters have a different design structure. I don't need to bother reading through metamagic feats and spell descriptions when I'm trying to throw together a villainous wizard. I know about what appropriate damage and effects are, so I just create something fun and flavorful for the character and go. I've found this to be a fairly fast process. This doesn't work near as well in 3E. Take a look at the Rise of the Runelords AP. At the end of the AP you have this big fight with the boss wizard (forget his name). The designers knew they wanted to have a "solo" fight, but because he is built like a PC it is hard to make him tough enough to stand up to 4 or 5 on 1 beating. They knew his lack of hp would allow a party to crush him in about a round, even though he is a 20th level wizard (which according to 3E encounter guidelines should be a tough fight for a group of 15th-16th level characters, but so isn't). As a result, they are forced to come up with some kind of gimmick (ioun stones that grant an extra 20 hp a piece-if I remember correctly) to justify why he has so many hp. They also need to create a huge stat block listing every spell and feat, as well as deck him out with a ton of magic items in order to make him effective. In 4E you could easily build him as a solo monster and give him whatever nasty powers you want to make him badass, without having to worry about conforming to the rules of how a 20th level PC wizard is built. When you are trying to justify his hp and how hard he is to kill, you can flavor it by describing various (purely fluff) magical effects absorbing damage or even by merely saying that he's a f!@$ing runelord, suck it. Alternatively, you can build him like a PC wizard and then just double or quadruple his hp. If you tried this in 3E you'd have the players down your throats about how this wizard was able to take so much damage. I remember when 4E was first being released that James Jacob posted a comment about paizo staying with 3E because 4E would allow them to tell the stories they wanted. He said something to the effect that it would have been hard for them to do Crimson Throne in 4E because at the time there was no barbarian class, and Crimson Throne featured an adventure that had a lot NPC barbarians. I was left thinking, he doesn't get it. You don't need a barbarian class to make NPC barbarians because the build structure of NPCs is separate from PCs. If you want to give them a barbarian feel, describe them that way, and then give them a power that allows for a bonus to hit and damage that simulates a rage. Because of this structure, in many ways you have more freedom to tell the stories you want to tell. If I want to tell a story about a really nasty evil villain that can mop the floor with an entire party, I can do that with 4E mechanics with much more ease than I can in a 3E game.
So if you have low level characters being killed early in the session (when the party has no access to raise dead magic), do you just have them bring in a replacement PC right away (ie. does the replacement PC just sort of randomly show up) or do they have to wait until a suitable time in the story when a new character can be introduced?
Just curious, how long are your game sessions generally? Glad as always to have you along for the ride Yasha. It's very moving, to know that others are there 'in spirit' with me on Saturdays, as I waste my player's characters wholesale, again and again:)
This is my first journal from Smar, the shifter ranger. It is also regarding game session 37. I remember when Ardyn first taught me letters. I wouldn’t be able to write this without those lessons. I had not seen Ardyn in many a moon, until earlier today. Finally, Ardyn has called upon his turn to blow the Bloodbrother’s Horn. I was eating fish, freshly caught from a brook in the Winterbole, one moment; the next I was standing in a small cave looking out over the edge of a mountain. From deeper in the cave I heard a booming voice call out demanding surrender. Ardyn stood next to me, horn in hand. He and his companions were covered in bruises, cuts, and gashes. They looked tired, and desperate. It felt just like the good old days! The fight was quick, but brutal. Ardyn’s companions are an impressive bunch: a human woman with a keen eye and a crossbow with which to use it—I saw her fell more than one of the brutes with a quarrel in the eye, magical frost spreading away from the wound. There is a large bull-headed man who seems to be able to speak with the spirits of the land much as I do—indeed, I saw him call upon a great swarm of spirits to hold two of the one eyed brutes in place. Then there is a man-demon capable of calling up flame—at one point in time he called upon a great wall of it in order to stop our foes from falling upon us in numbers. Finally, there is skanzi priest of Odin—he certainly bears the favour of his god, at least enough to close freshly opened wounds within minutes of suffering injury. I allowed the wolf in my veins to feast. Whoever the giant one eyed men my friend was fighting with were, they died quickly. I fell upon their leader, and Ardyn finished him off. Just like old times! But two of Ardyn’s companions worry me. Odin’s people have not been kind to me in the past, nor I to them. It was not for nothing that the men of Nenlaslt called me Nenlasltagandr or Nenlasltahræzla. To them, I was the monster and the terror; they earned my brutality with this mistreatment of my people, of me. Meanwhile, I heard the man-demon say that he worships The Lady of the Moon. I have heard many of my people call her our enemy in the past. But Ardyn assures me that this Odin worshiper saved his life twice, and the man-demon tells me that they seek pieces of something called the “God Engine” to stop primordials from walking the Nentir Vally again. The spirits bear no love for the primordials. So, stuck in the Feywild as I now am, it seems me and my blood-brother will travel side by side again.
In the caverns we eventually came upon an underground waterfall created by a river that poured out of a smaller cave whose mouth was located on a ledge above us. Just as we did a massive patrol of reinforcements were heard rounding the bend. They were lead by a pack of wolves tracking for them. Me, Ardyn, and his companions, managed to scramble up ledge before the giants or goblins saw us. I saw many one eyed giants and hobgoblins entering the cavern bellow the ledge. However, the massive wolves that tracked for them caught our scent. They did something I have never seen another wolf do; they teleported up to the top of the ledge! I wanted to try and convince them that we were not their enemy, should not be their prey, but the woman shot quarrels at them. It is hard to convince a wolf that you are not its enemy when those you travel with attack it. At least we did not kill any of them. We left them at the mouth of the cave as we ran up the river. This passage was too small, too tight of a fit, for the wolves or giants to follow. Currently we rest in a cave by the side of an underground spring. Soon we will rise, and then we will try and find a way through these winding caves towards this underground city. I wonder if a “city” will be anything like the town of Nenlaslt. If these strange giants and goblins are Ardyn’s enemies, I imagine that it might…
Session #37, Melek’s journal: After managing to defeat about half the Cyclops we decided that it was time to retreat from the remaining half and regroup a little, so we headed back upstairs and holed up in the small cave above the main entrance where the Cyclops would find it difficult to come and get us After we'd gathered our breath a little, Ardyn revealed that he could bring us some help. Apparently he has a magical horn that can be used to summon an ally, even across the planar barrier. I wonder where he got something that interesting and powerful. I wonder if he realizes quite how powerful such an item could be. I expressed some concerns about grabbing somebody from his nice safe location and dropping him into an unknown place in the Feywild to fight a large number of giants for no better reason than that they were in our way and we were told to kill the enemies of my patron. But apparently the ally won't mind being summoned and also will have no trouble killing random strangers because Ardyn wants him to. I'm not sure if I should be reassured or panicked by that. Probably both. Still, we're hardly in a position to refuse any aid at this point and Ardyn seems determined so I decline to press the matter. Ardyn blows a horn and pretty much instantaneously a wild apparition appears. He reminds me greatly of that character called Gollum that I saw in the Noh plays in the south, complete with the fish in his mouth. That partly facetious remark aside, this new companion of ours is called S’mar and would appear to be a shifter, which, I admit, is a step up from being a full blooded werewolf. He's savage and, even by our standards, quite peculiar. All he wants to know is who to kill. He doesn't really care one whit for why. Fortunately, he doesn't seem to know of the Lady of The Moon. I'm not entirely certain, but I strongly suspect that she would hate him only marginally less than she hates the werewolves in the valley. To give him credit, he seems to have no difficulties allying with a Minotaur and a Tiefling. At about this point, one of the Cyclops calls out to us. They've come upstairs and want to negotiate. All of the following is done through Ardyn (he speaks Elven), so I might be missing some nuances, but the gist of it is that they want us to surrender (no doubt so that they can instantly kill us), and we want them to surrender (doubtless so that we can instantly kill them). Not surprisingly, both sides decline the opportunity to commit suicide. They bluster a little about having sent for help and that if we flee they'll track us down with their werewolf allies. Nice to know that they ARE allies of the werewolves. I admit that I'd been a touch concerned that they were actually enemies and that the gate was primarily to keep them out. We at least gain a little information in the exchange. The gatehouse guards the entrance to Harrowthane, a city ruled by a fomorian. That little fact also means that we pretty much don't have to worry about where we need to go next. Doubtless the piece of the Engine is either held in the vault of the fomorian or he holds the next piece of the puzzle leading us to it. Given the unfortunately quite plausible threat of reinforcements we decide that we should attack now. While that was doubtless their objective in sharing the information we really have little choice. S’mar has access to some useful primal magic and manages to conceal our exit from the alcove with at little bit of mist. Not that the cyclops are unaware of our presence or anything but it does make it harder to hit us. A large combat then ensues between the remaining cyclops with their hobgoblin support and ourselves. My Wall of Fire spell is quite efficacious in allowing us to deal with the giants in a somewhat piecemeal fashion as opposed to all at once. Not to mention considerably singeing several of them in the process. S’mar fights about the way one would expect, brutally but effectively with a pair of battleaxes. The rest of us conform to our usual tactics. The giants seem to take it personally when Ardyn kills their leader while (I presume) taunting them, and they concentrate a lot of their efforts on him. We manage to keep him alive, but it’s a fairly close contest since he is almost completely exhausted and on his last legs [Out of healing surges in game terms]. I'm also reeling and am almost knocked unconscious at one point but manage to keep going. It is a hard fought fight, especially when the Cyclops try to pour burning oil on us, but we manage to prevail without taking any casualties. We then quite quickly ransack the place. We obtain 1,000 gold which at least means that we'll have some of the local currency if we make it to the city. No maps or information is to be found, unfortunately. We head down the major tunnel towards the city, which we believe is located in the Feydark. We hope to find a side passage before meeting the promised reinforcements. We succeed, albeit barely. As we come to a narrow stream coming out of a wall we meet up with a large force of reinforcements, far too many for us to currently fight. We flee into the passage cut by the stream. S’mar was attempting to talk with the Dire Wolf hounds of the giants (it’s hardly the animals fault that we want to kill their masters), but his attempts went for naught when Belladonna decided to shoot them. I'm not at all sure why she did this as we were all fleeing anyway and even she wasn't going to be able to kill them quickly enough to do any good. At any rate, we fled up the passage unpursued. It was too narrow for the cyclops and the wolves, and the hobgoblins were hardly going to come on their own. After not too long a while, we came out into a cave where we could get some well deserved sleep. I admit to wondering if S’mar understood more than I thought abut my connections to the Maiden of the Moon and if I'd wake up dead. I suppose that I could have tried to stay awake but the truth of the matter is that I was exhausted and, if he and Ardwyn want me dead then one way or the other I'm sure that they'll succeed. To my pleasant relief I instead woke up quite refreshed and rearing to continue on. I cast a ritual and we talked to some rats. They weren't a huge amount of help but basically told us that one of the 2 other passages out of this cave would lead us to the large worms and the other wouldn't. Both would eventually end up at the city (all passageways seemingly lead to Harrowthane) We then spent the best part of day wandering through caverns both wonderous and magnificent and deadly and exhausting. I'd like to come back here some time when I have a lot more time and leisure to really experience their true beauty. Of note was a cavern filled with mushrooms, mushrooms that send deadly spores if disturbed. Using our various means we all managed to get through more or less unscathed. We eventually came to a large cliff face that we had to climb. Once again my wonderful physical abilities came to the front as, just inches from the top, I managed to lose my grip and plummet to the bottom. Fortunately I was able to Fey Step at the last second and so avoid a nearly certain death. The second time I climbed I managed to succeed in making the climb. From the cliff top we can see an incredible large cavern with a small village nearby and a city in the distance. In the city are various people wandering about including eladrin, shifters, hobgoblins and cyclops. We start to consider the possibility of disguising ourselves. One Hat of Disguise will only go so far, especially since I don't speak elven. At this point Belladonna speaks up and reveals a secret. She is actually not human but is really a Changeling. Well, that certainly has the potential of helping us. And it explains some things about her. It’s interesting that Corvin seems completely unsurprised by this new development. It’s nice to know now that as a tiefling I'm actually one of the more respectable races in this party. We then start to discuss tactics. If we are to have any chance of sneaking into the city we're going to have to disguise Turak. It’s not at all clear if we can convince him to use the Hat of Disguise. Even if we can, at best we'll not be obvious from a distance. Close up the fact that few of us speak elven is likely to become obvious.
Bella's journal Session 36: The Easy Way We bypassed the stronghold with all of our usual diplomacy. Melech’s fey patron, the Maiden of the Moon, had guided us to this fortress, telling us to eliminate her enemies. We attacked immediately and started a siege. It has been difficult and only now cowering in a narrow passage with the stench of minotaur burning my nose do I think about how easy it could have been. Once again I remind myself that Stark is dead and there is nothing threatening me anymore. Keeping my true nature as a changeling a secret is starting to hurt me. How much easier would this siege have been if I had been able to approach this fortress as one of their own? If we could have worked together to invent some story and just walked in? Of course that is not what happened. Instead we opened with a warning shot, and had the door slammed in our face. We overcame the fortress the hard way, the six of us against an army. Outnumbered but fortunately not out classed. After we cleared out the first room we needed a new plan. I used a speak with dead ritual to interrogate one of our fallen enemies. He directed us to a narrow passage built into the walls, perhaps used to look down at enemies. Climbing up we discovered that it was just big enough for a goblin but not the giant Cyclops. Quietly skulking forward we found our enemy waiting for us to try another frontal assault. Quickly and quietly both the elf and I eliminated them. Carefully exploring I discover we had taken this entire level and not alerted any of those waiting for us to try coming through the front door again. Overconfident, we decide to try and take one side of the first level, and that is when the inevitable happened. In the first level were the archers, lined up along a hallway at murder holes. When we started our attack the rest of the fortress was alerted. Suddenly we were facing the entire garrison. Cyclops and goblins poured from every direction and for every one that dropped two more would take their place. As the battle dragged on we started using the bodies of our fallen enemies as cover. Finally, after a long battle, things quieted down. We looked at each other. Everyone else but me was broken, bleeding and spent. There was only one thing we could do, we retreated to the small passage to catch our breath. All of us knew that this siege was far from over.
DMs Note: My player’s journal missed one key event that I will fill in here. After being attacked by moon-frenzied werewolves in the valley, they continued on to the far side of the valley. They made their way up a steep mountain trail, and at the end of the trail, half way up the mountainside, they discovered the entrance to a stone fortress, which was carved into the mountainside. A pair of giant stone doors stood open. Beyond the doors was a large entry room guarded by hulking, armored Cyclops and a pair of fey dire wolves. On the opposite side of the room was another set of stone doors that provided the only visible means of entrance to whatever was deeper in the mountain. The heroes quickly assessed the situation and decided to approach with violence. Without any attempts at diplomacy, they attacked the Cyclops. I believe this was done primarily because the Lady of the Moon had said to them, “Kill my enemies and find what you seek.” Clearly they had taken these words to heart. They fared well against the Cyclops, but were also fired upon by hobgoblin archers who had taken up positions behind arrow slits that were carved into the walls of the entry room. The hobgoblins fired into the room with the benefit of full cover, which made them difficult to remove and a dangerous threat to the heroes. As usual the heroes prevailed, but they had sustained a beating and retreated back out to the ledge for a short rest. By the end of the session, they had not yet made it into the fortress. Melek’s journal: After killing the immediate door guards and failing to win entry into the rest of the fortress, we decided to retreat a little to regroup, bringing one of the cyclops’ bodies with us for further interrogation using a Speak with Dead ritual. After resting a little, we discussed what questions we should ask of the dead Cyclops. We eventually decided that we should ask only questions that would affect our actions. The first (and by far the most important) question was "Where is an alternative entrance?" It revealed to us that there is another, smaller, hidden and less guarded door a few dozen feet above out heads. Perhaps we should have looked further before asking the question? No, not really. It is night and we're in terra incognita. Better to use a little magic than to needlessly risk scouting. The second question was "What are the defences that we face?" The answer was that 50 hobgoblin archers and 20 Cyclops are stationed in the gatehouse- gatehouse to what? We don't know. Nor do we know how far it is to the next set of defenders. At any rate, somewhat restored we decided to foray into the smaller passage. We got up to the passage with no difficulty at all. Turak seems to have decided to take on the role of clown, racing a rope of climbing up the cliff side for no apparent reason. I'm starting to think that he has become quite unbalanced- still, he more than admirably fulfills his part in combat. If he is touched in the head that is probably of little import right now. Bella scouted ahead. The passageway led into the area above the entrance chamber, the area from which archers could fire down on us through murder holes or drop rocks and the like on our heads. There were a handful of hobgoblins up here but between Bella, Arden and myself we managed to quickly and quietly slay them. We then peered down through the murder holes, and we were able to get a feel for where we were. The entire place is essentially a gatehouse, guarding a portcullis to a passageway leading deeper into the mountain. There is a side portcullis as well. The devices are worked from the second floor (the floor where we currently are). How far it is from here to the next location is very unclear- hopefully far enough that we can deal with the remaining guards in the gatehouse before reinforcements arrive. We decided to continue our assault and headed down a flight of stairs to a series of hallways that were located behind the arrow slits that accessed the entry gauntlet. We were within their fortress! We almost managed to take out another handful of hobgoblins quietly before raising the alarm. Suddenly horns were blowing and more hobgoblins and cyclops warriors were pouring into the halls to confront us. Luckily, the halls were fairly narrow. At that point, a fairly long drawn out and chaotic battle ensued. We put down another squad of hobgoblin archers with little difficulty but quickly ran into some cyclops. A battle between Arden and Turak on the one side and some cyclops on the other side started at one end of the corridor while we heard reinforcements coming at us from behind. No sooner had we dealt with the Hobgoblin reinforcements coming at our rear than the door in the middle of the corridor burst open and a couple of Cyclops attempted to split our party in twain. Turak once again showed his mettle in this combat, essentially single handedly taking on two Cyclops. Admittedly, only one at a time was able to get at him but it was still an impressive accomplishment. His actions definitely make me question his sanity, though. He seems convinced that Arden is his imaginary friend. I suppose it makes sense from one point of view. Arden is very abnormal in size and stature for an elf. Unlike the normal frail and willowy sort he is a big hulking elf. Exactly as a Minotaur WOULD imagine an elf to be. At one point in the fight Arden was in quite significant danger, bellowing that nobody was allowed to hurt his imaginary friend, Turak charged in to save him. The fight was hard but all of us pulled our weight. I managed to slay most of the hobgoblins in short order, their puny minds no match for the fiery little pixies I summoned to assault them. I was of some use against the cyclops as well, although the lion’s share of killing them was performed by Arden, Bella and Turak. Corvin meanwhile wielded the divine power of Odin with grace and efficiency, managing to keep us all on our feet despite the best efforts of the Cyclops. He is also a valiant and worthy fighter, holding the line against the Cyclops as a true warrior. All of us except, of course, Bella took significant
Eventually, we managed to clear the area of our enemies and threw up a makeshift barrier to keep out the Cyclops reinforcements who were advancing on our position. If my count is accurate we have now slain 11 Cyclops and well over 40 Hobgoblins. If we make the quite questionable assumptions that the Cyclops was speaking the truth AND that no reinforcements have yet arrived from another location that means that we still face about 9 Cyclops and perhaps a dozen or so hobgoblins to deal with. We have retreated back upstairs for the moment. At the very least we need a short rest to recover some of our abilities. Ideally we'll have sufficient time to take a much longer rest. But whether or not we seek that luxury and whether or not we are granted it are matters to be discussed soon. We're all (well, except for Bella) coming fairly near to the end of our rope. Certainly both Arden and I are quite wounded right now , although we're still in fighting fettle. Some of our powers have been expended but we still retain many more of them. I'm sure that we can still succeed IF all that we face are the original inhabitants of this guardhouse. The alternative of trying to rest for long carries the huge risk that reinforcements will arrive. But it might still be the wiser plan.
This thread reminds me why I switched to 4E (I'm not trying to be an ass, just remember the pain of trying to run a high level 3E game). Anyhow, the most important thing to keep in mind is that the game is now all about magic. Unless your enemies also have access to powerful magic your heroes will probably crush them. Demons, devils and the like can be good opponents at this level because of their access to decent spell like abilities. However, you do need to use them in numbers, and you can probably throw the CR system out the window at this point in the game. Ambushes can be effective, especially ones that debuff the heroes in the opening round and then surround them or hit them hard with things like poisoned arrows and nasty spells. If the heroes have time to prep for a fight by buffing up with magic, you will be hard pressed to challenge them unless you can hit them with spells like dispel magic and disjunction. You also need to make liberal use of enemies that can get off the ground or at least get their attacks into the air. Using high level NPCs can be effective, but can backfire because the end result is that it tends to load the heroes up with tons of magical loot, as having NPCs need to be decked out in magic items to keep up with the heroes.
I think Bill Maher is pretty funny as well. Or maybe they are not saying what you think they are saying. Maybe you are getting a skewed view from the news sources you frequent.That would be equal parts Fox News, Reuters, and the NY Times, which between the three of them largely cover the range from far right to largely indifferent to ultraleft -- and from TV to written media. Sometimes I get Walton & Johnson ("Obama is the Antichrist!") on the radio, too -- they make all the others seem totally sane. I agree that anyone frequenting only news that slants one way or the other is definitely receiving a totally one-sided view of the situation. I'll also freely admit that, watching Beck on Fox, I have to concentrate extra-hard to actually listen to what he's saying, because his constant blubbering, crying, and other assorted buffoonery makes it hard to pay attention to the rest of it. Then again, I can't force myself at all to watch any of the horrid liberal TV "news" shows (except Colbert of course, who's hilarious).
That is the downside of the CB. Apparently, one of things they are working to implement in the near future is a math sheet that shows how the CB has come up with its numbers. I look forward to that feature. If you use the character builder it will generally factor all that stuff in correctly and display the correct damage bonus for a given power. Generally.Yes, but if I use the character builder, then I won't ever learn how to do it. Also, I have to pay that monthly fee. Blech!
One other question. What is the Tea Party stance on the military? The military is a huge government service that costs tax payers tons of money and essentially gives the government its power. As a result, according to Tea Party logic, Tea Party members should be completely in favor of vastly reducing the size of the US army, but I'm not sure if that is the case.
I don't really understand the Tea Party movement. I've read their basic manifesto, but I just don't see how it could work in practice. If you have no government control, the rich/big business ends up with all the power and the remaining 90+% of the population is hung out to dry. One of the reasons why Canada didn't have a banking crisis the way the US did is because of government regulations. If the US government hadn't deregulated their financial sector, America's middle class (the very people the movement is founded by) wouldn't have been f!&%ed over by the banks the way they were. This is a perfect example of why government (government working for the people) is important and what happens when businesses are free to do what they want, and yet the Tea Party seems to want more deregulation. In Canada we don't just let our banks and corporations do whatever they want (well they still get away with too much, but less so than in the states) it is a recipe for disaster because a corporation's sole purpose is to make money for it's shareholders. If the government doesn't enforce laws to keep how corporations do business in check they will do whatever they want. They aren't going to show "personal responsibility" (a tea party tenant) unless there is an overseeing body to enforce "personal responsibility" . Having a strong government can work well, as long as the people make sure that government is working for them. Of course, I don't think the American government has been working for the people in the last several administrations. It has been working for big business at the expense of the people, and this is the real problem. Americans seem to have trouble seeing that corporate greed is their real enemy because the country was founded on the idea that every citizen has the right to be free to try to get rich, so if you criticize big business you are essentially criticizing the entire foundation of the country, and no patriotic american wants to do that. When you cut out government services (as the Tea party wishes to do), you increase the divide between the haves and the have nots. The rich can afford things like health care, education, day care and other services that a more socialist government would provide for all the people for free, while those with less means end up on the curb. The other issue is that the whole idea of "personal freedom" connotes an every man for himself mentality (you are basically trying to run a country with a Chaotic Neutral Alignment). A social democratic government is built more on the notion of community and helping each other out. The rich kick in a far bigger share of tax income to help support programs that benefit those with less than them because they have more than they need already, and it is showing "personal responsibility" for them to look out for their fellow countrymen. Government run most of the programs because the government is there to work for the people not to make money. The key is to make sure that government runs these programs efficiently, and doesn't let people milk them. Obviously this has been an issue with things like welfare where some individuals have abused the system and been able to live off the government and the charity of hard working tax payers without giving anything back. I can understand why American's are angry and feel the need to" take back their country", so I can see why the Tea Party rhetoric might sound appealing, but when you actually stop and think about the ideas and the consequences of putting them into practice, I just don't see them benefiting the people the way they think they will. In the end they will end up with an even bigger divide between rich/poor and the people that this movement is founded by will be worse off than they are now.
If you use the character builder it will generally factor all that stuff in correctly and display the correct damage bonus for a given power. Generally.
I'm sure it will be ignored for as long as possible, but the thing about reality is that if it is ignored too long it eventually kicks your ass, and the longer you've ignored it, the harder a whooping you get. It's like cancer. If you get it diagnosed early and take steps to deal with it right away, you might make it. If you don't you're f&@@ed.
Sooner or later something's going to give. I just recently heard a stat that claimed that the state of Michigan was spending $3 for every $2 of tax revenue it brought in, and from what I hear that is fairly typical of many other states. A country can't sustain itself on credit forever. It seems like the US is in denial. They know there is a problem, but the politicians don't want to make extreme changes because they know it will piss off the public. However, extreme changes are what is needed. I think that problems that the US economy has been going through in the past couple of years are just the tip of the iceberg, and that out of control federal and state debts are going to lead to much more extreme consequences in the not too distant future. I don't know exactly how this has come to get as bad as it has, but I feel like the big corporate lobby groups are much to blame. They have pressured/bullied the policy makers into making bad spending decisions that have made their companies rich at the government's expense, and in the end it's Joe public who is going to pay the price for it.
The other thing about these stats is that this is reported incidents not actual incidents. Canada is pretty high on the list, but that isn't necessarily because there are more, it may just be more an instance of us having more a tendency to report them. That site has all that information as well. However linking to it is a problem as changing the checklist at the top doesn't change the url.#5 Canada
Yes, by my logic in an ideal world we would all give up cars and rely on walking, bicycles and public transit to get around. Not because they kill more people than guns, but because they are very harmful to our environment. The reason I have a car, and haven't given it up is because I'm a hypocrite and have gotten too comfortable with the luxuries our modern lifestyle provides to just make all those changes on my own, but at least I'm willing to recognize that (and I'm not saying that you aren't). If the government were to put forward a proposition that said that we could only drive electric cars or something of that nature, I'd probably support it. It would be like having your wife make you become a vegetarian- you don't really want to or like the idea, but you know deep down that it's for the best. The difference between a car and a gun is that although a car can easily kill you, and more people die from car accidents than gun violence, a car's sole purpose isn't too kill people. They don't put crash test dummies out to see how effectively a car can run people down. I drive on a few different highways to get to my current job. I'm aware that I'm far more likely to be killed by a car than by a gun, which is another reason why I don't understand why having a gun makes people feel safe. You and your loved ones are far more likely to die in a car accident or from cancer than being shot. How's carrying or owning a gun really going to make you more safe? I should concede that banning guns won't solve the problem of gun violence. Clearly it won't. It would be like the prohibition, which didn't work. Gun violence won't stop unless people actually don't want to have guns, in which case you don't really need a law to tell them not have them. I'm suggesting that instead of banning guns people should just refuse to support gun culture by having anything to do with them, and I realize that once again I'm being a bit of hypocrite saying these things since I happen to enjoy some video games, movies, and rpgs that glamorize gun violence, though I don't own, possess or wish to possess a real gun. Just because you are responsible with your guns doesn't mean that other people will be. There are numerous instances where some guy who keeps guns in the house with no real intent to use them on someone has come home drunk and done something stupid with a firearm.
So now that you have a gun you aren't scared? That's a bunch of BS. You are still scared. Having a gun doesn't make you safe.
That is true, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't discuss it or try to come to some agreement of what "greater good" means or how we could go about achieving it. I mean, can't we concede that taking measures to reduce that amount of people that die from other people killing them is for the greater good. Can't we concede that taking measures to reduce the harm we do to our environment is for the greater good. I think most of us can actually understand quite easily what the greater good is. We just are weak, and don't really have the will or inclination necessary to make the sacrifices necessary achieve it. I feel like I am one of those people. I know it would be better for the planet if I didn't eat meat. I should probably move closer to where I work, so I don't need to drive a car as often. There are numerous things that I do in my life that if I thought about it don't benefit the greater good. We are all flawed. That doesn't mean we shouldn't do anything. I carpool on a regular basis. I use public transit when I can. I bring my own bags to the grocery. I try not eat fast food. I obey the law etc... That is not near enough, but I figure have to start somewhere. I think getting rid of personal fire arms would be a show of good will that wouldn't really impede people's lifestyles. I mean you don't drive your gun to work. You don't eat your gun. Mostly it just sits in a cabinet.
The problem with threads like this is that most people that post on them have an opinion or belief, and it doesn't matter what anyone says they won't change there mind. They just want to try and make you know that they are right and you are wrong. I may sound like one of those people to some of you, but I'm not. I have an opinion, but I'm not entirely married to it. If someone shows me enough logic and evidence to suggest that what I believe doesn't make sense, I am willingly to look at it closely and potentially change my beliefs. If you don't share that mentality than there is no point in you being involved in any kind of discourse because you have already closed your mind and aren't listening to anything anyone else is saying.
My last post was intended as a light hearted quip, my apologies if I offended you, but I have made what I feel are several reasonable contributions to this discussion. What have you offered? Nothing that I have seen.
America today is considered an armed society. The most armed society in the world in fact, but I don't feel that Americans today have a reputation for being overly polite.
Yes I definitely need help understanding. For instance, take Sarah Palin. She's pretty pro gun, but she is also supposably a Christian. I'm not a Christian, and find it very confusing due to people like her, but I want someone to explain to me how someone can claim to be a true Christian, but still support firearms. It is my understanding that Christianity is supposed to be about peace and love, and helping your fellow man. From what I've heard about Jesus, he isn't the sort of guy who would carry a gun or have them around. Isn't Jesus supposed to be the role model for Christians? I contend that you can't truly embrace the tenants of Christianity and still own firearms. It is one of the deadly sins to kill another man; therefore owning a gun is just putting you that much closer to committing such a sin. Therefore you should not own a gun.
For the greater good. For the same reason we should give up on most of the crap we have, but don't want to give up. For the same reason you should not smoke. For the same reasons we shouldn't drive cars. For the same reasons we should all be vegetarians. For the same reason we should give all our extra income to charity. The problem is that most of us (myself included), don't want to make all those sacrifices to our lifestyles because we are inherently greedy. That greediness, is part of our natural survival instincts- we need to acquire and consume resources to live, so it is natural for us to want things, but until we learn to temper it, things will get worse for us. [ QUOTE="Wolfthulhu"] I'm a mature, responsible adult who has never harmed nor threatened anyone with a gun. Why should I give up my right to own them.Molon labe.
Good. Your kids deserve it. There are way too many kids out there not getting the love they deserve/need. That love goes a long way to preventing the kinds of atrocities we saw yesterday. Let's hope this discourse continues like it is, but for now I'm out. I really have this need to go hug my kids and tell them how much I love them right now.
Just because you are responsible with your guns doesn't mean that other people will be. There are numerous instances where some guy who keeps guns in the house with no real intent to use them on someone has come home drunk and done something stupid with a firearm. It is my belief that sometimes you need to give up certain liberties for the betterment of society as a whole. I believe this is one of those cases. Now, I realize that americans in particular value their "freedoms", and so do I, but I also value the greater public good and well being, and I realize that sometimes we all need help being responsible, and that there are times when we should sacrifice freedoms for the greater good. For example, I would support laws that would ban the use of gas powered cars. I realize that by doing so I would be giving up a certain amount of freedom of choice, but this sacrifice would in the long run make our world a better place and offer a brighter future to our children, so in my view it would be worth it. However, we live in strange times, where people are willing to sacrifice all sorts of liberties in the name of Homeland security, but still want to be free to have their guns, smoke, drink, eat terrible food and drive cars that poison the air, which are all far more likely to kill them than a terrorist.
What I don't understand is why in country where so many people claim to be religious is "everyone for themself attitude so prevelant?" Actually, I do understand somewhat. It is that the media is more powerful than religion. The media has convinced people that in order for us to maintain our way of life we must engage in constant consumption, even if it means stepping on the toes of others or wracking up a credit card debt that we can't possibly pay off. Actions like this are just symptoms of the deeper social problems. I work in the education system in a low income area. I see first hand what happens to kids when they are dealing with poverty and growing up in families plagued with problems. How much funding is there for helping these people- little to none. How much funding does the government put towards things like children's mental health- little to none. Until some of these underlying problems are properly addressed incidents like this will likely only become more frequent. Unfortunately, there seems to be little interest from the public or most governments in dealing with such problems. Most people just don't care, but then are shocked when events like today's happen. There is a reason why there seem to be so many wackos around.
Yeah but why f!#+ing guns? If you want to go have target practice with your dad, why not take up throwing knives or darts? Why not shoot a big bow and arrow that you can't conceal under a sweater? Why not use a pellet gun? I know the reason. The reason is that deep down inside you feel like a tough guy when you have a gun, and you like that feeling of empowerment. I get it, but it's time people realized that you can still be a man without needing a gun. You have dick afterall. There are any number of ways to have bonding experiences with your children or go out and have target practice without needing guns. Unfortunately, people that believe in their guns are so obsessed with that idea that no matter what sort of logic or reason you give them, it is useless. You might as well be having a debate with a tree stump. I still feel the need to try though, even though I know my words fall on deaf ears.
Well you won't likely do as much damage with a sword as a glock with an extended clip. Do you have a lot of orcs or goblins in your area? If you do, keep it.Do you have kids? If you do, I'd definitely get rid of it. Even if you don't have kids, as show of good faith, I'd say get rid of the sword and find something less symbolic of humans killing each other to decorate your wall- perhaps a nice painting or relief sculpture, maybe even a tapestry of some kind. Of course, this is rather hypocritical of me to say since I enjoy a rpg that involves lot of violence and killing, but that is how I let my natural male violent inclinations to manifest in a way that I know won't hurt anyone. If I had weapons in my house, I wouldn't be able to guarantee that someone couldn't accidently be hurt by them. That being said, I can't guarantee someone won't be accidently hurt by a kitchen knife either, but at least if someone were accidently hurt by a kitchen knife, I could say it wasn't that I was being irresponsible by having dangerous weapons in my home. I have a sword that hangs in my basement, I have never used that to kill anything. It was designed to kill other people. Do I have to get rid of that too?
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