Face the Fire (Dark Sun 4E)

Game Master FabesMinis

Just to let you know, I will be going on holiday from Thursday for just over a week or so. I won't have any internet access in this time.

Gack! Jinxed dice are jinxed and we're all going to die. In a ditch. In the desert. Like dogs.

It is to sigh.

We're doing spectacularly badly with this. It's hilarious.

I like this skill challenge system though. Hmm. Plotting ensues.

Not complete failures after all then. That's nice.

Fabes, since I haven't used any powers yet, would it be okay if I switched out my crane's wings for five storms? I was just looking at my character and thinking it doesn't make sense to take a power that lets me treat jumps as if I ran, when I get that as a Thri-Kreen anyways.

Also, I see my guy as a whirling dervish of claws and bites, so a burst 1 would fit him better as well.

Aardvark - that's fine, go for it.

Finally got my equipment done! Please take a look and make sure I've done it right. I'm still very unfamiliar with 4e character sheets and navigating the PHB... plus I can't do it at work (there's no 4E SRD) so that's why it has taken so long. I think I'm all set now, though!

It looks ok to me. When you get a chance, I suggest plugging the numbers into your powers. It makes it easier in the long run.

Also, don't forget to buy survival days, otherwise you could be in trouble.

Also, don't forget to buy survival days, otherwise you could be in trouble.

I did already. I have 3 of them.

Something that I'm not really clear on: Can the Shaman's spirit provoke OAs? It says it can be targeted, so I'm assuming that it does, but I wanted to make sure before I go doing risky stuff with it. If it CAN'T be subject to OAs, then the utility of the little critter just got a whole lot better! :D

Was looking at the Spirit FAQ's for the shaman I play in Rev's game. The answer is no. Since they are not creatures, it was stated that they do not provoke, just the same as they can't flank. They can just be targeted.

Was looking at the Spirit FAQ's for the shaman I play in Rev's game. The answer is no. Since they are not creatures, it was stated that they do not provoke, just the same as they can't flank. They can just be targeted.

Awesome, so that means when I move the spirit, I don't have to be overly concerned with moving through threatened areas and whatnot. Definitely adds a lot of utility to it, then. Excellent!

The Aardvark speaks sooth.

Many moons ago I ran an elf shaman of stupendous dullness. Her one redeeming feature was Marmelade, her combat bear spirit. He was extremely entertaining.

Okay, so, not having the Dark Sun book, I'm just going to go with the generic "Desert" background from the PHB2. It'll give me another +2 to Nature, which is never a bad thing. Near as I can tell there's no other real mechanical benefits.

So, um, these silt runners hurt. A lot. I'm not really seeing any way to keep up with this level of damage output unless we kill those darters in a hurry. Like... with the quickness. Start blowing dailies or we're going to die. I think Monoc might've gone a little overkill with his, though, as the target was already bloodied. :)

Yup. Bring out the bigger guns and hope we roll well.

Well, I threw out some damage, and put up a little concealment, and moved away from them. So hopefully if we can get some area stuff to kick in we can take down multiples.

With three people already bloodied (and Monoc is probably into the negatives now), I'm definitely spending my daily to get us a little regeneration going since I can only do Healing Spirit one more time this encounter. In a pinch, people can burn the regen benefit for an instant +10 HP heal. I'd suggest that the bloodied folk find some cover and lay low for a round or two to milk free healing out of it.

It's a good thing I got that 1d6 healing on T'klik last round, though! I saw you had 1 HP left after they speared you!

Yeah, they got me good, but I think it's just the fate of the dice. We are hit as hard as we have due to him getting good rolls. The luck has to end sometime.

The darter's poison is a recharge, so they wont have it every round.

He got a lot of good rolls off, now it's our turn. *fingers crossed*

On the up side, I suspect we'll only have to roll reasonably well to hit them. The raider went down fast, and artillery defenses are often pretty feeble. Nil desperandum.

Sorry folks. Athasian monsters are pretty nasty. I do feel bad that I forgot to remind you all about their swarm trait. I'm trying to think of a way for t'Klik not to have wasted all that typing. :(

Ignore it for this round and use it from now on? We've all been known to make mistakes.

Of course, that is the most fair thing to do. Have said as much in the game thread. Not sure why that was such a huge mental leap for me to make. Hate being tired.

I know and emphathise. Just about dead on my feet after marking mock A levels.

I really am enjoying planning and running the game a lot - you guys are an awesome group of rp'ers. Will be happier in 2 weeks when am-dram show Rosey and I are in is over.

Yeah it's horrible trying to push thoughts through a woolly brain on not-enough sleep.

I'm a little concerned that I should have made a leader rather than another striker, but hey-ho.

I think Monoc might've gone a little overkill with his, though, as the target was already bloodied. :)

Heh yep. I wavered between using my daily and using Resurgent Strike (less damage, gain a few HP). I decided to use Bloodhunt Rage (the daily) because it still does damage on a miss, so there was a good chance of taking down the raider even on a crappy roll. As it was Resurgent Strike would probably have taken it down anyway. But not a waste, I think. Given how much these things dish out we've got to take them down asap...

So, um, these silt runners hurt. A lot. I'm not really seeing any way to keep up with this level of damage output unless we kill those darters in a hurry. Like... with the quickness. Start blowing dailies or we're going to die. I think Monoc might've gone a little overkill with his, though, as the target was already bloodied. :)

There are many more ways to get healing, though, in 4e - including the use of the Heal skill (which, unlike in 3e, actually does heal you). And remember, folks - concentrate the damage.

Yep, Heal is great. If your chum hasn't used his or her Second Wind, you can activate it for them.

Oh nice, I hadn't realized that. Still a bit stuck in a 3.x mindset. It's quite intriguing how differently things play out.

4e has a different set of constraints, as you'll be finding. A party's abilty to continue no longer depends on when somebody runs out of powers, but on when they run out of healing surges.

Guys, just to warn you (slightly) in advance, but my posting schedule is likely to be quite disrupted over the next month or so. I am in New York for business next week, then back in the UK for a week, then in Warsaw for a week, and then immediately after that I'm on holiday for two weeks. Hopefully the US and Poland trips won't be too disruptive to posting, but the holiday (or the first week and a half of it) definitely will be (in a cottage in Northumberland for a week, then a few days with the in-laws in Yorkshire, and then a few days at home).

Yorkshire is evidently where it's at. Although it is a big place (in UK terms). I'm in Catterick garrison. (not in the Army, I just live here!) :D

They are in Harden, a village just south of Bingley.

As T'klik and I have discussed, please find herewith house rules on light sources. The light sources listed on p67 of the DMG keep their radius of bright light but have a further radius of dim light. Thus:

Lemris' Light cantrip - 4 sq bright, 4 sq dim

Campfire - 10 sq bright, 10 sq dim

etc.

If you have low-light vision, you treat the dim squares as bright light. If you do not, all creatures have concealment in the dim squares.

I will implement this on the map of the tomb entrance combat.

Elegant and sensible. I concur.

Heads up, I will be unable to post from Fri afternoon to Sat evening (Eastern). I will back on Sat night to update all my posts.

Hi guys, do we need to have a quick OOC conversation about where we're going? If I'm right we currently have two options? We can either go deeper into the tomb complex and see what ancient treasures and perils we find. Or we can head back to the surface and look for the main camp of the stilt-runners.

Recalling our first fight with the stilt-runners, I'm not sure we can actually take a whole camp of them just yet. Equally, in a sandbox style game I don't know how well we'll fare in ancient tombs, at least without being very very careful.

So, what are we going to do?

Dead dudes are going nowhere I'm guessing, so it makes sense to see what we can do to negotiate with the silt-runners. Ojal thought he was going back the way we came in, but then he has no sense of direction.

Heh, OK then. Guess I was just being over-sensitive to signs of the party going in different directions :) And yeah, I'm happy to go have another crack at the silt runners. Just so long as we don't run into the whole village.

Yeah, I wasn't trying to split. T'klik just sees things one-sided, if it isn't prey or predator he doesn't understand the interest in it. His mentality was that they would of course see he is right and all follow him. It's his miscommunication with non-kreen. Since you all are not using your antennae and pheremones to communicate, to him you guys are not picking up his signals, nor are you giving him any of your own.

Ojal is fighting off the temptation to try and delve into T'Klik's mind. He recognises that it would be grossly impolite to a comrade, but he sure as hell would love to know how T'Klik sees the things he does.

While this campaign rests for the moment, would anyone here be interested in a 4e Darksun campaign by yours truly? I thought we had a good group here, and had an idea that might be fun (invite open to Fabes, too, obviously).

Well, yes, I would indeed. I have a leftover Sorcerer King pact warlock from Xabulba's campaign who'd love another outing.

OK - I'll ask the guys on my other games if they are interested in playing a Dark Sun campaign, and any shortfall we can recruit openly.

Excellent. I liked Irivis and it would be fun to put her back in play. Plus, never been in one of your games and that's been on my list to do for a while :)

I would also like to bring over my character from Xabulba's game, Arakan the Brave (Bard extraordinaire).

This thread wasn't showing me there were new posts for some reason.

I think when a thread falls into the archive it loses that tag. I'll leave it up for a bit longer, in case the others haven't seen it. I'll set up a separate discussion thread for our actual game.

My game discussion thread.