GregoryMansfield's page

I've been trying to remember the name of a fantasy novel I read a long time ago. Unfortunately, I don't remember either the title or the author, just details of the story. It's been driving me to distraction, so I'm hoping someone else out there has read this book and knows what I'm talking about.
The plot focused on a kid from a rural village, whose best friend ends up joining an order of pseudo-ninja assassins. The kid ends up pursuing his friend to retrieve him from the killers in question, and things get messy. There's an artifact involved, a staff devoted to elder nature gods, that causes vines to grow on surfaces that don't allow plant life to grow (this includes people). It's in the hands of the apprentice/servant of an infamous wizard-king, who is slowly going crazy as he wreaks havoc with it, and the wizard-king is pursuing him to retrieve it.
The hero joins the assassins, gets trained by them, and manages to escape (barely). He ends up killing the trainer for the order, as well as most of his pet giant spiders, and the order sends his friend in pursuit. The apprentice shows up to recruit him to help (he declines), the wizard-king shows up to recruit him to help (he declines), and the apprentice kills the hero's friend. End of book.
Yeah, it sounds like it sucks, and it probably does. But I'd like to know the title and/or the author of it so I can find a copy. Does this fragmentary description sound familiar to anyone out there?

I haven't really gotten to playtest the new rules set here, though I like most of what I've seen. However, one portion that has me somewhat concerned is the Grapple rules. Even with the reduced grapple bonuses with the CMB system for size and the like, IMHO it's looking like the base DC 15 + CMB to escape a grapple with an opposed check is imbalanced. As an example, that would mean that two equally matched opponents (two sumo wrestlers who happen to be fighters) would only be able to escape from a grapple initiated by their opponent approximately 25% of the time (equal CMB and feats means you'd better get that natural 15 or better). The situation with Escape Artist is somewhat better, but it still looks like too much "giant scorpion likes to give hugs, and you can't say no" situations coming up. I'd like to get some thoughts from those who have worked with the system more at this point...might help put my mind at ease, or if there's a lot of agreement get it changed out somewhat.