Abelard helped dispatch the wolves in the first few rooms.
What do you mean by "sliding," btw? I'm not familiar with the term.
--Erik
Letting players escape death by divine powers or Dm pity; such as reducing damage a creature would deal.
Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
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I think my players would suggest that the campaign is exceptionally brutal. I have killed four characters, an animal cohort, and Nick Logue's guest-star quasi-PC, which is an awful lot of blood. A lot of my players have secondary and tertiary ideas for characters "on deck" should disaster occur.
Not a lot of fudging.
--Erik
I wonder why it's always Mike and Wes. The rest of us have pretty solid survival strategies built into our character concepts.
Dram skirmishes and makes the most of a 50' movement, Mobility, Shot on the Run and Spring Attack to get the hell out of there. He also has a bandolier of healing potions since he's often cut off from teh party.
Dai-Jin generally attacks from range, and doesn't care enough about the rest of the party to put herself in danger.
Demon Boy usually stays hidden, but has a knack for the perfect spell at the perfect time to save our butts.
Gar has a high AC, and doles out the most front line damage. He may soon bite off more than he can chew. I think he may be the next to die.
Taan is a great weasel, and talks his way out of a lot of trouble. He isn't particularly attached to the party either, so he doesn't take a lot of risks (with his own life.)
Tyralandi could go next. She usually spell casts, stays out of the fray, and has undead under her thumb, but gets in a lot of weird trouble. She's toying with potentially explosive magic.
I'll let Mike and Wes speculate on why they always get the short end of the stick.
Contributor
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I wonder why it's always Mike and Wes. The rest of us have pretty solid survival strategies built into our character concepts.
...
I'll let Mike and Wes speculate on why they always get the short end of the stick.
I go through a lot of characters in every campaign I play. Part of it comes from my tendency to play brave and foolhardy characters. Or, well, foolhardy anyway. It also comes, sometimes, from a short attention span, which makes me play characters I'm bored with even more foolish and "brave." I really miss Vyth and wish I was still playing him, but Kol I was bored with after the first combat (oh gee, look, my tiger is broken... wheee). Poor Frothelthimble also suffers from this: he's kinda fun but also kinda annoying, and I won't be terribly disappointed when he gets gacked. Maybe my fourth character will be as fun and cool as my first. :D
So there you go. That's why my characters die. I won't speak for Wes, though.
I'll let Mike and Wes speculate on why they always get the short end of the stick.
Wes's characters die because they're delicious.
Thanks for the input everyone! I can't wait to see who dies next! Any chance of getting a pool going?
Twenty silver on Gar. Dwarves and magic were never ment to mix, so I can't imagine this act of utter blasphome will continue much longer.
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Director of Games
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Twenty silver on Gar. Dwarves and magic were never ment to mix, so I can't imagine this act of utter blasphome will continue much longer.
Come now.. they go together like peanut butter and spam.. a dwarven delicacy. Gar is all about using his magic to enhance himself and now that he has levels of Runesmith.. he is a real danger (my AC is finally respectable). Oh.. that and I am tied for the most HPs in the group.
I will not be the next to die.. this I promise.. hopefully.
Jason Bulmahn
Managing Editor of Dragon
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Question for James. Did Tyralandi just get a level in Binder, or did you take take the Bind Vestige feat for her?
I would like to add a question to this. I was wondering if perhaps everyone playing in this campaign could post some updated basic info on their characters. Not a full character sheet, but just levels and classes. I would be really curious to see what sorts of multiclassing/prestige classes etc. that you guys have taken. I've been reading the Demon Boy and Tyralindi campaign journals and would really like to know what sorts of classes and stuff everyone has taken. I caught that Gar is a Runesmith now, and I suspect he has some levels in Wizard to go with fighter but would really be curious to see what everyone is. If not then no biggie, but if so thanks in advance for satiating the curiosity of a gamer geek.
Dram Cicaeda is now Scout 5/ Fighter 2 (I needed the bigger Hit Die and an extra feat.) He is also the only member of the party with ties to the militia. He'll soon be a Sergeant, and the medals he's acquired helped us bypass the bribes on our way into Greyhawk.
He's been hitting for about 15-20 points an arrow with Skirishing and Shot on the Run. Recently he had an old broken Dueragar great spear repaired Seems to be +2 with a 2/day +2D6 Negative Energy damage, and its probably evil. Though Dram is one of the more "good" members of the party, I'm sure things will get hairy enough that he'll start using it with Spring Attack. I love his 50' movement!
He has some loyalty to the party now, as they saved his unconscious body from being taken down into a Lizardfolk larder. He also, despite an 8 Charisma, brokered the peace with the Twisted Branch lizards in the Mist Marsh. With Taan of all people! I think Dram's the only one who gives a crap about the people of the region, and their general safety.
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Creative Director
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Tyralandi did indeed just take a level of binder, AND the improved binding feat so that when she binds the vestige of the Green Lady, she gets a +2 bump to her binder level. Currently, she's a cleric of Wee Jas 6/binder 1. Her domains are Domination and Mind, and apart from all that craziness, she's also got a few of the Tomb-born feats from Libris Mortis (resistance to critical hits, immune to death from massive damage, heals from negative energy, takes damage from positive energy). Next level, she'll be taking a level of the Green Lady Apostle prestige class (which is a variant of the Tenebrous Apostle prestige class in Tome of Magic).
She feels a responsible for the party's safety, since she was the one that set thigns in motion to explore the Whispering Cairn. Even if she doesn't show on the outside, she does her best to keep everyone else alive (hence most of her hero points being spent so far on saving characters from death or preventing their dead bodies from meeting terrible fates... such as fatting the hungry things that dwell in the Mistmarsh!).
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Director of Games
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Let see,
Gar is a Fighter 2/wizard 3 (transmuter)/runesmith 2 at this moment, allowing him to cast his spells in heavy armor without a spell failure chance. While he is still a bit behind in his BAB, his spells (which are pretty much all focused on enhancing him) more than make up for that deficiency. Gar is still using Kullen's +1 greataxe for the time being, but he has a masterwork dwaven waraxe from his family that he plans to enchant soon. Gar's got a bit of a sorted past, going all the way back to his parents, but this forum is no place to discuss it with prying eyes watching.
Jason Bulmahn
Managing Editor of Dragon
Is there a shackled city campaign journal with this crew of players?
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Creative Director
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Nope; the magazine staff did playtest the first few adventures of Shackled City (and some of their exploits are recounted in the editorials in and around issues 95-99 or thereabouts), but that playtest group pretty much broke up around issue 100, about the time I came on staff and just before Jesse Decker, Chris Thomasson, and eventually Matt Sernett moved on to work at Wizards of the Coast. All this was well before we had messageboards here.
I recently aquired several old dungeon mags based on the SCAP been hunting them down!
Erik what ever happen to Mestiphar albino human bard!
You guys are the coolest! I've really enjoyed your post!
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Tyralandi did indeed just take a level of binder, AND the improved binding feat so that when she binds the vestige of the Green Lady, she gets a +2 bump to her binder level. Currently, she's a cleric of Wee Jas 6/binder 1. Her domains are Domination and Mind, and apart from all that craziness, she's also got a few of the Tomb-born feats from Libris Mortis (resistance to critical hits, immune to death from massive damage, heals from negative energy, takes damage from positive energy). Next level, she'll be taking a level of the Green Lady Apostle prestige class (which is a variant of the Tenebrous Apostle prestige class in Tome of Magic).
She feels a responsible for the party's safety, since she was the one that set thigns in motion to explore the Whispering Cairn. Even if she doesn't show on the outside, she does her best to keep everyone else alive (hence most of her hero points being spent so far on saving characters from death or preventing their dead bodies from meeting terrible fates... such as fatting the hungry things that dwell in the Mistmarsh!).
I couldn't find the Green Lady in Tome of Magic, is she a custom vestige you guys just made for this campaign? What sorts of abilities does she give? It seems from Tyralindi's campaign journal that perhaps she grants arcane sight and maybe the ability to cast magic missile 1/day? You guys have the coolest character concepts. I'm looking forward to reading more in the campaign journals as you guys progress.
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Let see,
Gar is a Fighter 2/wizard 3 (transmuter)/runesmith 2 at this moment, allowing him to cast his spells in heavy armor without a spell failure chance. While he is still a bit behind in his BAB, his spells (which are pretty much all focused on enhancing him) more than make up for that deficiency. Gar is still using Kullen's +1 greataxe for the time being, but he has a masterwork dwaven waraxe from his family that he plans to enchant soon. Gar's got a bit of a sorted past, going all the way back to his parents, but this forum is no place to discuss it with prying eyes watching.
Jason Bulmahn
Managing Editor of Dragon
Very cool. I noticed in one of the campaign journals that he used the spell whirling blade from spell compendium. The idea of a spell enhanced dwarven tank is a really awesome one. I hope you guys occasionally continue to post updated on your character levels as the campaign progresses.
Any justification of a dwarfs strangeness that involves spam I have to go for.
If you don't mind, what book is Runesmith out of? Not familiar with that class.
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Creative Director
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The Green Lady vestige is indeed one I made up for the campaign. She grants:
Ability to turn or rebuke undead (similar to how Tenebrous's vestige works).
+2 Charisma
Can use spell trigger items (wands, staffs, etc.) as a wizard of your effective binder level
You can use one 1st-level wizard spell as a spell-like abiity; pick the spell when you bind the vestige, and then you can use that ability at will, once every 5 rounds.
You can make Spellcraft checks to identify magic items (DC 20 + item's Caster Level).
I recently aquired several old dungeon mags based on the SCAP been hunting them down!
Erik what ever happen to Mestiphar albino human bard!
You guys are the coolest! I've really enjoyed your post!
Bump!
The Green Lady vestige is indeed one I made up for the campaign. She grants:
Ability to turn or rebuke undead (similar to how Tenebrous's vestige works).
+2 Charisma
Can use spell trigger items (wands, staffs, etc.) as a wizard of your effective binder level
You can use one 1st-level wizard spell as a spell-like abiity; pick the spell when you bind the vestige, and then you can use that ability at will, once every 5 rounds.
You can make Spellcraft checks to identify magic items (DC 20 + item's Caster Level).
I may have missed the majority of this thread, but doe the Green Lady not show up in the Doomgrinder adventure, which is located awfully close to Diamond Lake?
I may have missed the majority of this thread, but doe the Green Lady not show up in the Doomgrinder adventure, which is located awfully close to Diamond Lake?
Doomgrinder was the only other place the Green Lady has been mentioned, but the cult wasn't detailed in any way. Diamond Lake got little more description that the name of the mayor and the fact that it was a mining town.
Given that, what Dungeon did with AoW in GH was beautiful -- they took a little, undeveloped sliver of the world and turned it into a rich, engaging setting.
Silly question. Where on earth is the Runesmith from? I tried the PRC database on the Wizards site but it did not advise.
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Director of Games
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Silly question. Where on earth is the Runesmith from? I tried the PRC database on the Wizards site but it did not advise.
It is from races of stone, and its prime ability is that it removes somatic components from spells that you scribe as runes. Suffice to say.. this makes it very good for Gar.
Jason Bulmahn
Managing Editor of Dragon
Thank you very much Sir :)
Guess Erik's been busy workin that secret project!
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When you go to the fanciest, most expensive restaurant and hotel in the largest city in the world and your friend says, "Bring us the most expensive wine you have," well...
You have nightmare fuel...
I would assume having a gnome who wants to be a redcap in the party in the most expensive restaurant in the largest city in the world would be ther first step along the road to a nightmare...
Or Taan, depending on how he was behaving that night.|
Contributor
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I would assume having a gnome who wants to be a redcap in the party in the most expensive restaurant in the largest city in the world would be ther first step along the road to a nightmare...
Or Taan, depending on how he was behaving that night.
Well... Father Frothelthimble filled his murder quota for the night long before we went to the Golden Phoenix. He's still upset about the one that got away, and of having to make a promise not to murder every thief in Greyhawk, but that meal certainly helped to calm him. :)
And that delver steak... to kill—er... I mean die—for! Yum!
Oh my goodness, yes! It was like drinking Heaven. :)
And all it cost was your soul.
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Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
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Erik what ever happen to Mestiphar albino human bard!
He fiddled with the revolving door to Triel's spa in "Flood Season," and was the only party member stuck in the room with the final encounter. He managed to survive, but the campaign petered out shortly thereafter.
--Erik
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Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
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I talked with each of the players to get a sense of what they wanted from the campaign and the types of characters they were planning to play. I then put together short personalized handouts for all of the players telling them about Diamond Lake and summarizing how they found out about the Whispering Cairn. I decided that James's character, Tyralandi, was the one who got the ball rolling, and other characters found out about it through second-hand sources (such as one of the characters getting drunk and talking about it openly at the bar). The set up was that Tyralandi knew of a cairn that could contain treasure that would allow the party members to leave Diamond Lake, and was going to conduct a meeting about it at the abandoned mine office.
I built the office using Dwarven Forge resin pieces, and introduced the characters one-by-one, playing out their initial encounters with one another as they arrived. After a brief bit of roleplay, I started them out at the front door of the Whispering Cairn, and the rest is history.
--Erik