Timitius's page

I just blazed through Jim Butcher's "Cursor's Fury", book 3 in the "Codex Alera" series. Between the Dresden Files and this series, this man can do no wrong.

Interestingly, I attended a Jim Butcher appearance at the University Bookstore in Seattle, and found Jim to be a delight to listen to. Turns out that the "Codex Alera" series was actually based on a dare. Someone dared Jim to write a book using the following two elements: the lost Roman legion AND...Pokemon. Amazingly, he makes it WORK (although I actually think about The Last Avatar when I read it).

I also gritted my teeth and started the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series that my wife adores. I vowed to give it a try up until the series turns to soft porn. I've made it as far as "Blue Moon", but my wife grins when I talk about starting the next book...I think I'm in trouble.

Amai d’Cannith Status: Wik!
Everyone Else Status: Also wik.

With the departure of James Sutter, the group has found a new member, with WotC's Chris Tulach joining us. Chris played Keldrick for the absent Mr. Mike "Boba Fett" Mearls before, and he did so again this past week.

Enough! When we last left our intrepid band of adventurers, they had experienced all that was definitively the Great Crag: Roasted Halfling, goblin hookers, and a visit from their old friends, The Emerald Claw. All this, while waiting for the recovery of Ergan d’Cannith, creator of “THE DEVICE”. When the party finally got in to see Ergan, the visit was cut short by...yes, that’s right...the Emerald Claw. This group was a bit more able than the first group, being led by a high-level duskblade that could dish out the critical hits faster than the party could deal them! After a vicious exchange of critical hits, Syl (aka The Kid) lay dead, and the Grand Inquisitor promptly bled to death.

Of course, the looting of the bodies came next. However, Amai and Zulshyn both decided that the party should honor Syl’s sacrifice by interring his body to the earth WITH his valuables. Adso shrugged. Visoka attempted regular sleight of hand checks throughout the encounter (and failed against Amai’s superb eyesight), and even offered numerous times to “stay with the body”. His offers were ignored. Thus, the Kid took all his goodies with him.

The party sat down to discuss “THE DEVICE” with creator Ergan, who moaned to them “It still works! It still works!” and after some convincing, Adso was able to get Ergan to admit that it could be destroyed. Ergan then told the party that there were only two keys to the complex in the Mournlands, and became increasingly agitated about the safety of the key the party escaped with (but had stolen from them by…YES! The Emerald Claw!!!). Adso assured him that the key was “safe with a friend who was on vacation”, referring to Ursula who was indeed on a loooong, albeit permanent, vacation.

“So, could we get that 2nd key from you, then?” Adso asked. And thus, Ergan revealed that he had hidden the key. With a dragon. On Argonnessen. He had exchanged the key for a bauble from the dragon’s horde. If the party could, they only need to take the bauble back and convince the dragon to re-exchange it for the key.

“OK. Where’s the bauble?” “Oh, in the Demon Wastes, specifically in The Labyrinth.”
“OK. Where in the Labyrinth?” “Oh, there’s a map.”
“OK. Where’s the map?” “Oh, it’s on the underside of a bar top in a bar in Festering Holt.”

“Alright. Let’s see here. We need to go to Festering Holt to get the map, and then head to the Labyrinth to get the bauble, and then go to Argonnessen to barter with a dragon for the key? Say, there are a lot of dragons in Argonnessen. What’s the dragon’s name?”

“Oh, I forget. But I wrote down the name, and put it in a locked box, and cast it down into the Goradra Gap in the Mror Holds.”

“WAIT. You did what??”

The party soon realized that there would be no way to collect everything in time before the Emerald Claw reached the complex in the Mournlands. So, they did what any good company does when they are overextended...they subcontracted. Their old friend and former party member, Anvil, was now a big shot in the Mror Holds, so the Watcher sent off a message offering payment to retrieve the lockbox with the dragon’s name from depths of Goradra.

The party set off to board the Shooting Star and start their Indiana Jones-esque adventure with a trip to the Demon Wastes. Unfortunately, it appeared that a frost giant and his motley band of ogres had tied up poor Pirant, and had decided that the Star was theirs. The party quickly disabused them of that notion.

The lone combat of the night!

Zulshyn rushed up on the deck and brandished her spike whip chain to impress upon the nearest ogre that a lot of pain was coming his way. Visoka closed to 30’ to sneak attack with his bow, neatly burying a bolt deep into another ogre’s back (dmg 24). Zulshyn then showed everyone how it was done...20-20 crit, and confirmed. The card? "Decapitation"! (Fort save DC 27...Failed).

Visoka followed with a tumble to flank an ogre, opening up a sneak attack with his holy longsword (dmg 37). Amai jumped in and scored a critical, delivering a “Staggering Blow” (dmg 10, non-lethal 23) to the frost giant. The frost giant gave it right back to Amai, with a critical hit of his own (dmg 33). Again, Zulshyn focuses on the giant with a 4 point power attack, crits again (!), with a “Broad Sweep” for 60 points of damage, plus 1d8 bleed. Keldrick finished the frost giant by casting Scorching Ray...ouch! Amai and Visoka picked the last ogre apart, and the party reclaimed the ship, and set off for the Demon Wastes.

But, oh-ho! While many of us were pleased that we had leveled up, now at 10th, we were told that we had a choice: continue to the Demon Wastes with our present characters OR create new party members for Anvil’s leg of the adventure into the Goradra Gap.

The group decided to play the new Goradra team, so consider this update the season finale of “The Amai and Friends Show.” Like Heroes. Or Lost. Well, OK, not really.

Stay tuned for QUOTES from Mike McArtor!

Timitius wrote:

Amai charged the soldiers, punching and kicking one with her 3 attacks.

Four.

Amai spent two action points to get an extra move action, which she used to rush forward and then perform a hasted flurry of blows. :D

Four Attacks. See? She was moving so fast, I didn't even SEE the fourth one!

I stand corrected, sir.

Part 2 of “The Great Crag. Ah, what a stink-hole”

This last session was pretty long...not that anyone complained at all. Hence, the longer than usual summary. This part is the good one, though!

So, the Watcher led the party off to a much older part of the Great Crag, up a hill, to an estate. After stopping to clear our approach with the sentries, we came to a courtyard, and entered the house where Ergan d’Cannith was staying. The Watcher adjusted his nifty Hat of Disguise (they’re House issue, don’t you know) and became Jeeves the Man Servant. Upon entering the house, the gallery of paintings lining the hallway amazed the party. The collection recounted the adventures of Adso and Visoka, with paintings of the original party members (and their deaths) as well. Even Anvil the dwarf was shown. And then, Adso and Visoka confronted the frail Ergan, who simply discounted them as phantoms. Unfortunately, the reunion was interrupted by a sudden whistle from the sentries, and a crackle of lightening. Intruders approaching.

The party left Ergan and the Watcher, who was going to gather reinforcements, and rushed to the courtyard. As they reached it, the outer courtyard door exploded from their hinges, and four Emerald Claw soldiers marched in. They were followed by a swordsman calling himself “The Grand Inquisitor”, a 13th level duskblade. He told the party that he had been hunting them down ever since they left Sharn. He sounded pretty pissed about it too.

“Surrender now, and you may only rot in prison for several years.” Geez, what is with these Emerald Claw guys? With that, all Hell broke loose. Bless. Haste. Go.

Amai charged the soldiers, punching and kicking one with her 3 attacks. Two rush her, and two rush the rest of the party. Visoka takes a hit, and then...Zulshyn dimension doors herself, Adso, the Kid, and Visoka to the Grand Poobah. This left poor Keldrick behind with two Claw soldiers. Don’t worry. He’s evil. He’ll be fine. He was. He had Fireball.

The four party members rushed to attack the Big Boss. More critical hits! More drawing from the deck! Visoka tagged him nicely, but received a critical hit in return, reducing him to 2 hp, and stunning him for the rest of the fight. Zulshyn crit hit. Adso did some slay the living action. And the Kid scored a critical hit, doing plenty of damage and causing 1d4 bleeding damage per round. But, oh the cost. Two crits on the Kid.

The first critical dealt out over 50 points of damage, a first for the game. The Kid made his save, but lost half of his face. For the 2nd crit, Left reeling effect did the Kid in, ending in 42 points of damage! OUCH.

With that, the Grand Inquisitor 5-footed...and then promptly bled to death. The Kid’s critical hit effect had the last word.

Sil, a.k.a. The Kid, went out in true style.

Amai crushed her soldier boy, and Adso finished the melee with another critical hit, squishing the last soldier’s spleen.

So, the tally for this fight resulted in 7 crits in 3 rounds! Three by the Grand Inquisitor alone (damn your meteoric d20 Jason!)

Amai d’Cannith Status: Sad, but Alive!
Everyone Else Status: R.I.P. One party member.

The Great Crag. Ah, what a stink-hole ……

Before we began our longer than usual session, Jason flash-forwarded us ahead 1 week. The image given to us was that the party was standing around a grave. Everyone was there…save one member. Urk. Nice way to start, with a little announcement of premeditated character murder!

When we last left our intrepid band of adventurers, they managed to completely misinterpret the instructions of the Watcher to arrive at The Great Crag with a “low profile”. The giddy wisdom-drained Cap’n Pirant did indeed seem to take the instructions literally…by crashing into the docking tower! As the party watched the welcoming party of angry trolls ascending the tower – the outside, mind you – the Watcher popped onto the Shooting Star’s deck, and promptly set to work of pulling the party’s collective butt out of trouble.

After negotiating with the trolls, giving them the rest of the food on the ship, our party set out with the Watcher into the monster-ridden streets of the Great Crag. Upon hitting an open-air market, Zulshyn immediately decided that she required two platinum rings, and the party paused to check out the wares. Sadly, no rings, but the vendor with the strange spitted meat with two arms got everyone’s attention.

“Eat nothing,” warned the Watcher. Gee, as if roasted Halfling doesn’t say that all by itself.

The Watcher led the party through the streets, to the inn named “The Burning Rib”. Which, of course, prompted the Action Jackson quote (are there others?). Inside the inn was a clientele of trolls, orcs, half-orcs, goblins, and an occasional ugly human. The innkeeper was a fat, balding, scarred, milky-eyed orc. In the center of the common room, a fire pit with a huge giant ribcage in it, which met with Zulshyn’s approval. The Watcher, having delivered the party to the best (???) inn in town for “pinkys”, departed for the day to check on Ergan d’Cannith. The party retreated upstairs into their 2 rooms on the 3rd floor. Copious use of Prestidigitation ensued. Sleep followed.

The next day, after the party breakfasted on wholesome Silver Flame gruel, Zulshyn’s quest for 2 platinum rings continued. Which eventually led to a pawn shop aptly named “Stolen Stuff”, with 2 rings in the window. The party followed a goblin pursethief inside, and we all had the privilege, nay, the honor, to hear Jason chitter and squeak like a Goblin, since no one in the party spoke Goblin. A little hapzard bartering, and the party came away with the 2 rings and a magic ring from the severed hand of a Kundarak dwarf that the goblin had brought in.

The party made their way back to the inn, unfortunately realizing that the goblin in the pawn shop was also returning to the same inn, spending his booty for another kind of booty…goblin booty. Same floor. <Insert 5 minutes of crude comments here>. The Watcher returned that night to inform the party of the news that the Emerald Claw was making a move to enter the Mournlands with a large force. The fear was that the Emerald Claw now possessed the key to the d’Cannith secret lab in the center of the Mournlands (stolen earlier from the party) and were attempting to gain access to the Device. The word was that the Emerald Claw had also been stepping up their search for the party. The Watcher also regretted that Ergan was not any better, and the party would need to wait a few more days.

The party stayed in their rooms mostly. Visoka, using his hat of disguise, hung out in the common room, pretending to drink his chunky beer as a grizzled, ugly human (hey, ugly is the thing in the Great Crag). Visoka spotted a human perhaps dirtier and uglier than his own disguise approach the innkeeper. With a Listen check, he was able to catch that this human was looking for someone, and had offered enough money to the innkeeper to rat them out. Visoka returned to the rooms to alert the rest of the party, and later, the Watcher. It was discovered that the human was Emerald Claw, and had alerted his superior that the party was in the Great Crag. At this, the party decided to vacate their rooms, taking a room across the hall (complete with dead bugbear, thanks to the Watcher!). That night, the Emerald Claw returned. It turned out these were just Emerald Claw flunkies. After the party heard them break into their old rooms, Visoka exited the room disguised as a…goblin prostitute (see? See how this got out of control?) in order to scout out the number of them. The thugs ordered Visoka, goblin mistress of the night, back into her room. Visoka returned to the “borrowed” room, informed the party what they were up against and the first melee of the evening began.

Bloodbath. Two critical hits, even, prompting some drawing from the critical hit deck! In less than 20 seconds, the Claw flunkies were down. One flunkie was stabilized, and the human “leader” was minor healed, so that “information extraction” could begin.

One thing about Emerald Claw hostages: they laugh a lot. Not your, “Ho, ho, ha! Boy, you sure got me good!” or the nervous, “Hee-hee-hee. Please don’t kill me!” No, no. Instead we get, “Heh. Heh. Heh. It doesn’t matter. Your all corpses!” Our last Claw hostage did this too. Must be in the Emerald Claw manual… Last time, Adso was so frustrated with Mr. Cocky Laughing Claw-boy he lost control of his mace. However, Father Adso, serving as an example to Amai, a new paladin of the Silver Flame, showed much restraint for the sake of his young paladin's morality. Visoka, however, did not, choosing to channel his inner evil assassin past and strategically stab the hostage in the leg to show him how funny he was. The hostage went below zero again. This did not make Visoka very popular at that moment.

The re-revived Emerald Claw-ee was patiently threatened and interrogated to reveal that his superiors were on their way. Oh, and the party was "dead, dead, dead." Adso then released the hostage (giving Visoka the signal to follow him), telling him to tell his superior to “Do better next time.” The hostage left, still doing that cocky laugh. Visoka tailed him, first as an orc, and then shifting to a kobold. As the Emerald Claw lackey approached House Sivis to deliver his message, Visoka the Kobold Avenger decided to sneak up, and stabbed him in the back with his holy longsword. “Fellow” kobold bystanders cheered loudly, and then promptly ate him.

The following morning, the Watcher took the party to finally meet Ergan d’Cannith. Thus ends the reading for Part 1 of “The Great Crag. Ah, what a stink-hole”. Stay tuned for Part 2, when there’s a whole lotta crit’n going on! And then....QUOTES!

Timitius wrote:

Comes from suddenly remembering that he used to be an evil assassin, I guess.

Used to be? Seemed pretty evil assassiny to me last night. (As I player I salute your clearing-up-loose-threads actions. In character, Amai would be horrified if she found out.)

Geez, we're dropping a LOT of teasers here today...folks are going to get testy, soon.

I've been thinking about it lately...how likely is it that some of the "old Visoka" will start to leak through? I mean, he's 137 yrs old, and used to be an assassin. Then he gets "killed", put into stasis for 5 yrs, and wakes up, unable to remember who he was. After roughly a year of adventuring as a good rogue, he regains ALL memory of who he was. Does 1 year of being "good" trump 100+ years of his past? This is an interesting angle in character development!

Plus, I think Mearls is feeling lonely being the only evil character. ;)

Rhothaerill wrote:

Did you all die in-game last night or something?

No. No TPK.

I think Timitius said he would write this session's recap as a favor to me (since I'm still super busy). So expect that... umm... when he gets a chance?

Righty-O. I will work on getting that up on the board tonight.

Oh, and don't mind Visoka. He gets a bit abrupt from time to time. Comes from suddenly remembering that he used to be an evil assassin, I guess.

Amai d’Cannith Status: A bit less wise, but alive!
Everyone Else Status: We’re OK. Not that you care.

What with all the changes for the Paizo folks, I guess Mike is a wee-bit busier than usual to post the update for our last game session nearly two weeks ago. So, I thought I’d give it a spin...

When we last left our intrepid band of adventurers, they had managed to fight the crew of the Cannith submarine that was chasing them down. Trat, that damned coughing dwarf that apparently won the entire party’s hatred, went down to the briny depths after a spectacular aerial battle. Unfortunately, so did all the nice magical stuff he had on. So the bad guys retreated in their submarine, and the party flew back to the Shooting Star. Which is where we picked up TWO Wednesdays ago.

As the party leaned back for a breather, clever Capt’n Pirant was keeping an eye on this nasty storm/maelstrom headed towards the ship. It seemed that the closer it got, the more unlikely the ship would be able to avoid the churning black clouds. After Amai, the Kid, and Visoka suggested that Pirant take the Star “higher!”, several times actually, the Capt’n managed to barely squeak the ship over the storm. Good, right? Um. No. Not a natural storm. VERY unnatural, in fact. As the Star skimmed the top of the greenish-black bubbling storm clouds, an eerie silence pervaded. While most of the party was happy enough to stay quiet if this meant no troubles from the clouds, the Kid apparently was too uncomfortable with the quiet, shouting, “BRING IT ON!”, you know, just for fun.

The storm obliged. Yippee. The greenish clouds gathered and reached up to the ship, rising up the sides. It was at this point that Visoka pointed out that the party should stand together, recalling the NUMEROUS times that the “spreading out” strategy had not worked out too well. The Kid also decided at this time to “take a peek” over the side of the ship. A number of protests (and a few threats) convinced the Kid that staying put was a better idea. Good thing, too. The clouds reached the deck, spilling out a host of baddies worthy of an 8th-9th level party. Two air elementals, 6-7 blackish undead ghouls, and a swirling column of tortured souls encircled the party. JOY.

Enter Adso and his clerical awesomeness (protection from evil, bless), along with Keldrick and a bit of haste to add. A couple storm ghouls scored some early hits on Amai, Adso…thus stripping away a bit o’ Wisdom, which sucks quite badly for monks and clerics in the midst of battle. Zulshyn was taken out of action for a round or two. And even poor Pirant got tagged (a capt’n without wisdom...remember that for later).

Oh, did I forget to mention that everything was incorporeal, too? Undead suck. Or at least Jason’s undead do.

Luckily, the Kid, Visoka, and Keldrick kept busy, slashing and magic missiling. Visoka’s Holy Long Sword seemed to actually hit more often than usual, and Visoka started dishing out fairly consistent damage (for once!). The Kid took down a few, and Zulshyn joined in to deal the mega-damage she usually does. Adso continued to rock with his holiness, closing wounds and healing undead, and making quick work of the tortured souls. Adso probably had the most impressive round of action ever seen, but the loss in wisdom soured it a bit. Amai? Amai punched the undead. Losing wisdom does that. Ah, who am I kidding? She’d punch ‘em anyway!

With the battle over, and the storm past, the Shooting Star continued on towards Droaam, with a very unwise little gnome at the wheel. The shortage of wisdom on the ship made everyone a bit nervous, mostly because the cleric was down so much that he lost the ability to cast a restoration spell. After much debate, the party decided to continue on to the Great Crag to meet the Watcher.

As the Shooting Star arrived in the Great Crag, the party was very busy being not impressed by the city. So busy that no one really paid attention to the wisdom-short daredevil gnome flying the ship...right into the docking tower. Showering mortar, blocks, and timber down onto a street full of trolls, ogres, and the like. The party had arrived, and here came the welcoming party. Lovely.

Mike’s in charge of quotes, so you’ll need to wait for ‘em!

Another priceless gem from April Fools:

At least ve didn't do terrible Britisch akcents all night. :-D

Ja! Ve vere..how you say?...lucky.

Ah, April Fools! BTW, Loved this little gem:

On hygiene
Jason: What dost thou paunchy whoreson blind-worm looketh like right now?
Tim: A dirty vagrant.
Stephen: I thought thou errant lily-livered giglet hath been disguised.

Amazingly, this is more true to what is ACTUALLY said during our games than the family-friendly version Mike posts....

But better yet: Trat is not. Thanks to Zulshyn, Adso, and Visoka, Trat the Ever-Coughing is dead, dead, dead. Ha ha ha! Serves you right, you evil little beard-wearing barrel!

...

Um....I realize that Trat rhymes with prat (and splat!), but I believe that his name was TRASK?

Other than that, good synopsis!

This weeks' session was AWESOME. It had been TOO long since we played with Mearls and Stephen. Attacking an armored submarine? Totally a normal thing when playing with this group full-up.

I know bumping doesn't quite work in this setting, but I figured that it's worth a try for this thread...

Have no fear....we finally played again last night! WHOO HOO!

Airships! Honkers! Betrayal! Fugitives! Tasty monkeys!

Stay tuned.....Mr. McArtor will impart the details soonish. I think. Maybe. If he's not too busy. Um. Yeah.

In our Eberron campaign, I whipped up a selection from the soundtracks of various Dungeonsiege games. We were in the jungles of Xendrick, complete with Yuan-ti and temple dungeons, so I selected a lot of jungle themes. I was able to fit something like 39 tracks to the audio CD. It worked pretty well. Jeremy Soule does some great music for gaming.

I also think the music for Fable is pretty good. The opening theme is composed by Danny Elfman, and is excellent, but the rest of the soundtrack is nice as well. It would be well suited for times the party spends in villages and towns.

Visoka: Tim. Male elf rogue 5/nightsong infiltrator 3, CG, only recently restored his memory. (Last name withheld for privacy.)

I am undecided about Nightsong Infiltrator...I guess I question whether Visoka would be picking up levels in this in a jungle. It's really a city-type prestige class. I was thinking of trading over to Scout, actually. Move by Tumbling to Sneak Attack, adding a Skirmish attack on as well...sweetness. However, the next level of NI gives Teamwork Sneak Attack, and that ain't half bad, either.

Sutter, you beat me to it! Yes, Mike, that was Visoka slighting the old man and his pokey pets. Out of courtesy, of course ;-)

For everyone who hasn't followed the campaign (indeed, this journal doesn't pick up from the beginning), last night was the culmination of a plot started right from the beginning of the game, over 2 years ago. I thought it would be good to sort of summarize the significance of last night's game.

Jason started us all out each awakening in a glass cylinder of green goo. None of us retained our memories, save for 3 words (which we picked as we were rolling up characters) and the brief recollection of our final moments. I'm not sure what everyone else's 3 words and last memory were, but Visoka's words were: prince, mission, and dragonmark. His final memory was being backstabbed in a dark alley, with towers overhead. Sharn.

As it turned out, our characters were kept in suspended animation in a House Cannith underground research facility, deep in the heart of the Mournlands. So, with no memories of who they were, they set out to escape the Mournlands and figure out who they were.

Luckily, there are still two of the original party members in the party, Adso and Visoka. And last night, after playing for TWO YEARS, we finally set off on the dreamquest to get the answers of exactly who Adso and Visoka really were, and WHY they were put in suspended animation in Cyre.

So, Visoka turned out to be a thug/assassin for the Clan Boromir (aka the Mob), doing a "job" for one of the Breland princes who wanted a merchant "taken care of". And, thus, we got to see one past-Visoka skewer a gnome in the alley, all professional-like. Quite the departure from the Chaotic Good, unsure, hesistant rogue that Visoka is now. (Of course, how hard is it to kill a gnomish merchant?) Even more surprising is the fact that his old friend, Tablo Boromir, was the same halfling crime-boss that our party took down later.

And Adso, is an orphan taken in by the very people, the Silver Flame, who caused him to be one. Yet, there he is...a cleric of the Silver Flame himself. One with an intense dislike of the church he is supposedly serving...and he didn't even know why.

Last night = simply awesome to play. I have been in campaigns that have gone on for 2-3 years, sure. But, I have not been in a campaign that has been able to return, full-circle, to the beginning to complete a plot/quest set down during the first session. Quite the story arc, eh?

I'm not going to go all fanboy on these Paizo guys, but this is what D&D is all about, folks.

Good synopsis, as usual!

We should also add that Mearls/Keldrick's infamous "glitterdust" casting ACTUALLY WORKED, making a battle with 3 dreamserpents much easier. Visoka finally got to make use of sneak attack damage again...I was very happy.

Also, I'm not sure it's quotable, but the discussion of Elvis, KISS, and the Village People was perhaps the funniest moment of the night for me....

I particularly enjoyed this exchange as Visoka tried to figure the best way to attack the dreamserpent while avoiding taking damage:

Adso: Come on! Just fight like an elf!
Visoka: Oh. Just run away then?

But *did* Visoka remember to draw a skull on Ursula's face? I don't expect Adso to do it...

-UrsuImeanAmber

Hmmmm. I seem to remember some nice things said, and the obligatory looting of the body that typically follows the death of a party member.

After that, we put her remains in Visoka's bag of holding, where she stayed until we arrived at the lost drow village. Honestly, though, I don't think there was enough left to draw on....There MAY have been a funeral event, with a pyre and stuff.

I also remember Visoka filling the bag of holding with several 100 gallons of water to "rinse it out".

Wow. You actually made that all sound so heroic. Not that sneaking around the perimeter and avoiding confrontation isn't important in a good battle....for a rogue. With 33 HP. Which coincidently was a popular amount of damage last night. Hmmmm.

I especially liked the Kaxat's proclamation, "The Guardian is dead. The valley is yours."

Oh, joy. A valley full of super mutated giants...all ours! Whee!

Part of me is really bummed that I missed this past Wednesday....and the other part is happy that you really got nothing done but discuss Boba Fett!

"very nearly made off with Visoka's sleeping self" ?????

Waitaminute. Visoka is an elf...doesn't that make him immune to sleeping spell-like effects?

......?????? OK, I'm stunned! Wow. I mean...wow. Jason must've had a hey-day with his meteoric d20!

Frankly, I'm surprised that Visoka lasted. I figure Visoka either tripped over his own feet and spent the fight failing his attempts to get up, or got hit once which took him down to 2 HP, and he spent the rest of the fight drinking healing potions. ;-)

Well, I will miss Sim's chaotic shenanigans, and Chuko's....Chuko's....Hell, I'll just miss Chuko! Yet, he is immortalized in billboards across Sharn!

James, I cannot wait to see what you turn up with next.
Mike, have you petitioned for your ninja yet? ;-)

Yeah... looks like everyone else just polymorphed into a ninja...

Cool! But I want to be an Undying ninja.

Yes, it was a great role-playing session last night. I'd like to thank Jeff Simpson for joining us again and playing Ursula in Amber's place...he is a GREAT stand-in.

The instant celebrity status was pretty cool, actually. Adso and Visoka have been trying to keep from being noticed for most of the adventure, due to their potentially shady pasts that they don't remember. However, the news story has made that difficult, but it is sort of liberating to finally get thrown out into the open and take on whatever danger is coming.

The ball was nice and everything, but our new "flavor of the month" status also got us a visit from a representative of the prince of Cyre, who was extremely intrigued (hey, it's Eberron, she couldn't just be "intrigued"...everything's EXTREME) about Adso's and Visoka's origins from the stasis vats beneath the Plateau of Glass. Where Sim is consumed with Lady D'Cannith, Visoka is obsessed with finding out who he is and what exactly happened to him and the others. What a plot hook! I can't wait to see where this leads!

And too many funny lines to clearly remember. Mike, did you write any down?

Last night's session could be entitled, "Shifter & Changeling Advertising."

The Manticore's Cup, it turns out, suddenly has more traffic. That's good for the inn's owner (a generous man named Faldon) but less good for the lecherous Sim's chances at wooing the barmaids, Tira and Mira.

We assumed that the Manticore's Cup recent upswing in its number of clients came from a non-existent ad campaign we didn't run on its behalf. (How esoteric is that? A non-existent ad campaign created in the imaginations of characters who exist only the shared imaginations of six people sitting around a table telling stories together.) However, I like the idea of the ad campaign, so I think I'll have Sim start looking into the possibility of putting it into reality.

Now if I could just get the pictures I drew to post on the web... Hmm...

Have no fear Mike! I have been mulling these ads around in my mind for the past 2 weeks. Tonight, I couldn't take it anymore...so I sat down with Powerpoint and some serious web browsing to look for images, and cranked these out. (Thanks to Amber for: 1) Converting the images to something smaller, and 2) hosting my EXTREME advertising on her website).

EXTREME Billboard1.jpg
EXTREME Billboard2.jpg

I had a lot of fun messing with a kenku image, getting it juuuust riiiiight. When I was finished, it made me laugh, it was so Chuko!

Anyways, I think Visoka is going to take a few skill points in "Profession: Advertising" next level!

Medesha wrote:

No, the pit master ("Hoss") would only allow 3 of us in the pit. So Ursula, Adso, and Chuko are taking it on. :-D

Yeah, Sim tried to get in as well, but Chuko told him he's too frail. ;D

Visoka wanted NOTHING to do with a pit fight. He'd last one round, what with his amazing 13 HP. Whoo HOO! Now, pickpocketing the crowd....

I was amused by the whole Manticore Cup fiasco, particularly with Chuko. For those not in our EXTREME Eberron game, the Manticore Cup is like the present-day fishbowl drink in bars, but with EXTREME booze. The challenge is to drink the whole thing in less than 2 min. and stay conscious. Ursula the Shifter, actually shifts to help down it (heh, heh, I'm still chuckling at that one). And FAILS.

Chuko....well, the last time Chuko touched alcohol, he didn't do so well. Visoka attempts to reason with Chuko:

"Drink it? You couldn't even lick the rim without passing out!"

Chuko drinks. Chuko OUT. However, for the next 5 minutes, James makes groaning drunk miserable bird sounds. Classic.

OH, but how I wish Chuko would have been awake to mimic the twins voices in his room...Sim would have freaked!

Wow. Here you were discussing the game and not telling me I could too? (We'll fix THAT!)

Actually, yes, I AM trying to play the straight man. A rogue is a huge departure from what I usually play...a loud, brash swashbuckler. To me, rogues are trying to play it down, & keep themselves from standing out. Playing a character that doesn't remember who he is/was, or what sort of enemies he had, being noticed isn't high on the list. It's hard sometimes NOT to regress into the swashbuckling braggart, but I am having fun trying to play something less...well, less.

Tim I think we kind of overwhelm sometimes with our eagerness to roleplay, but he does a great job - sometimes I think he's like our "straight man", rolling his eyes and giving passers-by desperate looks as if to say, "I don't really know them." His character does, too.