Kenneth Denk II's page

Of course!
The hex would have had to beat the 50% miss chance for the blink effect.
And since Invisibility sphere is an at will ability, Malfeshnekor could have attacked, and on his next turn gone invisibile and moved.

Crap. This is what happens when I forget my notes and play tired.

Except once he attacks, he's visible, right? Invisibility sphere functions as invisibility? Would the hex be affected by the blink effect... crap. It would, wouldn't it.

Damn it, I thought that went way too easy.

Four member party: half-orc monk, aasimar samurai, gnomish alchemist, gnomish witch. They had just opened the room where Malfeshnekor is trapped, and the monk had entered and I had Malfeshnekor (blink, mass bull's strength and invisibility sphere buffed) surprise attack for 28 damage, dropping the monk to 8 Hp from full. The greater barghest then maneuvered to attack the samurai for a minimal damage bite of 7.

The witch went next, casting her slumber hex, Malfeshnekor blew his Will save with a 2, and the samurai pulled her naginata to coupe de grace the sleeping barghest. Coupe de grace being an automatic crit, she did 80 damage, which, as I understand it, even accounting for the DR 10/ magic, meant that though Mal didn't take enough damage to instantly die, he faced a Fort save of 70...

I gave them full xp, and they have a barghest hide to take to the tanner, but did I miss something? Should they have been able to take him out?

Bill Lumberg wrote:

Kenneth Denk II wrote:

In good ol' "real life", we've had everything from the influenza epidemic of (approx.) 1911 to WWII (WWI, meh),

Ten million dead gets a "meh". Wow, I would can't imagine what you see as an appocolypse.

Probably 75-100% total population loss. (6 billion would be an apocalypse right now.)

I would bet though, that he was saying "meh" to the story potential (of introducing magic or science) and not to the reality of those events.

I was thinking that though WWI (according to Wikipedia, 20 million military and civilian casualties) was without doubt, at that time, the "War to End All Wars". In light of later conflicts and fears of conflicts (nuclear scare), it became not as bone-chillingly horrible as a nation which allowed a charismatic leader to make it complicit in attempted genocide. Or the reality of a world where one night of tension and two button pushes could result in the effects seen in movies like "The Day After" and "Threads" (though, really, wouldn't they be tame compared to what might have happened?).

Apocalypse, according to Merriam Webster is:
1 a: one of the Jewish and Christian writings of 200 b.c. to a.d. 150 marked by pseudonymity, symbolic imagery, and the expectation of an imminent cosmic cataclysm in which God destroys the ruling powers of evil and raises the righteous to life in a messianic kingdom bcapitalized : revelation 3
2 a: something viewed as a prophetic revelation b: armageddon
3: a great disaster <an environmental apocalypse>

uh.... that totally derailed my original line of thought, but this is what sprang up in it's place. Read entry #1. What if the Gods (or God, depends on your cosmology) decided the fantasy world you have was unworthy/ lost/ decadent/ a failed experiment? They wiped it clean, and not with some wussy "falling mountain" from space (unless it REALLY did the damage a falling mountain would do - tidal waves, earthquakes, mini-ice age, massive crop and animal population die-offs), but with something REALLY deadly. Like an invasion by extra-dimensional creatures who are immune to spells and who require seige-engine-level damage to even bother them, attacking en mass. Or the sudden massive malfunction of ALL magic items, culminating in each one exploding, doing 1d6 damage for every 50gp of value (bye-bye cities, dragons eviscerated, no more liches, basically it's hillbillies and goblins). Or the sun goes out (there is or isn't a circle of black in the star-filled sky where it was) and life exists only at the bottom of the oceans, in deep earthen tunnels and around areas of volcanic activity, kept alive by the heat and meager light of lava.

Hell, implement a DMs greatest ally in the quest to create adventures...
plagiarize!

Grab the bugs from Starship Troopers, or the xenomorphs from the Alien franchise. Steal the moon-shattering comet of Thundarr the Barbarian. Maybe the vampires really do run the world a la the Trinity anime. Or steal the rage virus from 28 Days Later (how horrible if the PC clerics step forward to turn undead and they look at the PCs with their blood-red eyes and LEAP 20' to tear out the priest's throat?)

Bloody hell, what am I saying, use what you've already got! your world have dragons? Well, what if they've finally had it with the obnoxious two-legged pink vermin and set aside issues of color and alignment and join in as DRAGONS to slaughter them. A return to the Time of the Scale. Can you imagine the utter Hell wreaked by a flight of 10 adult male reds? Now throw in Blacks, Blues, Greens and Whites. What nation in any fantasy world could withstand that? Now add the metallics, because though they despise slaughter, the damned mammals have had their time in the sun and look at how they're wrecking the world! After they scour the planet with fire, acid, poison, lightning and cold, they retreat, perhaps, to another world or demiplane where scalykind is more comfortable.

What the hell do the survivors do now?

Of course, I wanted a starting game that provided:
1. a reason to bring together all the disparate PCs that players make, 2. incorporated why these strangers would act together or even
associate,
3. provided an outlet for that one player who couldn't make it every so
often or the fade-out or -in of players throughout the campaign,
4. still came up with new stuff to awe and inspire the players.

I liked the idea of merging M:TG and D&D in this way:

The PCs are going about their lives, none of them have to know each other, or be from the same city, race or world. One day, they disappear from their usual routine and find themselves standing in an ENORMOUS oval arena bounded by grayish purple rock. The vast seating of the arena is built to holds tens of thousands, yet is totally empty. In a loose bunch around the various PCs are all manner of creatures, some fantastic, some horrid. Across a vast expanse of hard-packed earth is another group of creatures, some similar, some wildly different (is that a DRAGON??!?!?!) from the group they are in.

They feel an urge to turn and see behind them a humanoid figure composed of glowing yellow light positioned behind a bank of crystals, stone plaques and moving lights which all seem to hover in the air before it. The figure lifts a limb and touches a crystal, then strokes a plaque of stone; a deep, resonant voice erupts within their minds.

"I am Nal Karesh. You or your line is known to me. A pact forged by you or an ancestor has come due. My will is your will. Defeat the avatar of my enemy, Boliphous. Destroy his creations. Prevent them from inflicting harm upon my avatar. These are your tasks. Go."

You are filled with a terrible urge to charge to the other end of the arena. You see the creatures from the other side running, hopping, slithering, flying and burrowing towards you and are filled with a terrible burning hate. With a cry you hurl yourself forward, as those around you do the same, their shouted cries legible to your ears despite the underlying gibberish you hear spouting form their mouths. It must be the magic of Nal Karesh but this is inconsequential as you and a few of those around you move to intercept a two-headed giant who seems intent on moving around you and attacking your leige.

The fun part (after about 10 rounds of combat, with any sorely wounded or killed creatures returning to Nal Karesh's side of the arena to be healed by elves or alchemists, etc.) is when Boliphous casts a major-league spell and a bolt of coruscating green energy strikes Nal Karesh directly and his form explodes. Every PC suddenly feels themselves freed of the grip upon their will as all of the creatures from Boliphous' side are wreathed in shimmering white lights and vanish along with the other avatar. The PCs look around and start to speak and it's a mish-mash of tongues because no one is magically translating their speech. And some of them aren't remotely human. And they are all stranded in a massive arena... somewhere.

Where they go from there is up to them, but the sun is setting (both of them?!?) and it's starting to cool off and the PCs realize that they're hungry. All they have are their clothes (armor) and weapons.

Well, post-apocalyptic sort of begs the question... what happened?
In good ol' "real life", we've had everything from the influenza epidemic of (approx.) 1911 to WWII (WWI, meh), to the Cold War (50 years, waiting for nuclear annihilation), to some superbug wiping us out to zombie/vampire-creating plagues.

So you have a fertile field to pick from, or to adapt to a fantasy setting. The default western european fantasy setting seesm to suppose that once the world was wilder, dragons elves and dwarves had their time in the sun, now it's man's turn. In some settings magic is inherent to an earlier time and fading, in some, it is a variant technology and able to be used by men just as by all those who came before him. But what if the destruction of civilization came not from without, but from within?

Here's an idea I have for my homebrew multiverse (can you say biting off more than you can chew?):

Mankind carries within himself the seeds of his own destruction. Long ago there was a continent with many nations, but after years of war, these nations polarized into two nations: side A and side B. They tried to exist peacefully, but the one consistent thing about mankind is that they screw up everything they touch. Either side A coveted side B's mines, or side B felt side A was a bunch of snobby bastards, whatever, eventually it devolves to war. It can be big and open and flashy, or subtle and strained with the mask of diplomacy to cover things up. But eventually side A and side B unleash massively powerful (create 10th level spells, say) magic on each other and the results are drastic. The once bounteous agricultural nation is reduced to arid desert and savannah covered in scrubby grasses and lichen, but that is where the remnants of humanity eke out a living, because within the remaining verdant forests to the northwest live... things. Things which hunt men like animals and live on blood. It is only the intense heat and dryness of the deserts and the unremitting sunlight which keeps these beasts at bay. Though the deserts hold dangers from poisoned springs to giant sandworms to razorwinged drakes, it is still better than to be the meal of something that was once human. These humans live nomadic lives, occasionally stumbling upon the ruins of their past; sometimes children are born who can move things with a thought or tell the future, or speak to beasts (sorcerors, psions, whatever), and brave souls venture into the wilderness to hunt game. The faithful of the fallen gods, the only remaining faith left to man, minister to the bruised souls and wounded flesh. These hearty ones sometimes band together to explore an ancient city revealed by the shifting, windblown desert sands. Or collect to explore the strip of lush vegetation that buffers the deep deserts from the seas.

Meh, I've created better, but it might serve.

Interesting item, I really enjoyed it.

As a possible name, how about Bullseye Vest?

Also, how does one get in on wondrous item creation contests? I am arrogant enough to think my personal creations could hang for a round (maybe).