Steve Greer's Pact Lands Campaign


Campaign Journals

Contributor

This campaign started this past Friday ( May 4, 2007). I’ll try to explain it a bit without giving anything away to the players.

Each of my players is role-playing themselves. They are simply 0-level humans that have 4 hit points (plus Con modifiers) and 6 skill points to spend on whatever skills most closely reflect them in real life. As the characters in this campaign they are unaware that they are even in a campaign. Each of their arrivals into the setting is different, but they have two things in common: a sublime song or a frightening encounter with a strange woman in a summer dress and big, flouncey hat.

The players have been asked to choose what D&D character class most closely reflects them and when the time comes, they will get their first level in that class. They’ve each taken several tests to determine ability scores as well as their alignments. I’ve sent all of them their player intros and we have already completed our first game session.

My players:
Robert Alford
Stanley Cramer
Dan and Crystal Dekker
April Greer (my wife)
Jon Hyunga

Perhaps some of them will post how they ended up in the Pact Lands. I’ll try to post some of it as well. Enjoy!

Contributor

September 4, 2007
After completing his field training with Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Deparmtment, Rob is taking a break in his patrol car under the shade of a large tree at the side of the road to finish a snack and call his wife, Andrea.
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Stanley has had a shaky start in the real estate business after getting his license, but he's finally landed a spot with a really awesome realtor and loves the people he works with. He's been helping Dan and Crystal find a house and is, in fact, on his way out to a new community out at the end of West Gowan to show Dan & Crystal a house they're interested in.
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Dan and Crystal have just got home from work and quickly grab something to eat and rush out the door to meet Stanley after printing out a map on Mapquest with directions to the house they're going to check out this evening.
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April is relaxing on her bed. Steve and Alyssa just left to run some errands and she's going to take advantage of their absence to get a nap in. The music playing on the stereo out in the living room is crooning her to sleep.
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After surfing the net for a while, Jon is headed to bed after a long day of work. He has to get up really early tomorrow, so he's going to hit the hay early. He clicks on his favorite playlist on his laptop and slips under the covers, the music soothing him in to sleep as he shifts this way and that until he finds a comfortable position.

Contributor

Flash forward a bit. (I'm starting to give up on my players actually posting the really cool player intros I sent them :( M-fers!)

Officer Alford

Rob receives a call to respond to a disturbance in a neighborhood a couple miles from his location. He gets there about the same time as another officer. A neighbor complains of strange noises coming from the house. They knock a couple times and announce themselves while hearing the same strange noises which starts giving them headaches and pain in their teeth. They hear something at the back of the house and Rob (Officer Alford) goes to the side gate while his partner stays at the front. Rob sees a suspicious person and when he announces himself the man runs.

Rob and his partner take off after this person and Rob ends up leaping over a gate at the back that leads into an alley. He can't find the guy anywhere though and when he tries to head back into the backyard everything looks a bit different-the walls flanking the alley are higher, the gates look a bit different, and there's a woman in a loose summer dress and large flouncy hat in the back yard. When he tries to talk to her, she starts approaching him and something tells Rob that he mustn't let this woman get close to him or worse, touch him.

She follows him out into the alley (Rob's partner is nowhere in sight) while Rob starts radioing for his partner or someone at dispatch to report what's going on. She reaches a hand out to him that looks mummified and begins croaking something that sounds horribly terrifying. He tells her to stop where she is and pulls his firearm on her. He ends up having to open fire on her, but the 4 rounds he puts into her do nothing but slow her for a moment.

Rob takes off and starts trying nearby gates - all locked! He finally finds one that he spies a key partially exposed under a rock that he kicked and uses it to open the gate near it to escape the horrible thing in a dress.

He finds himself at the back of a dying vineyard on the other side of a heavy iron door in a tall, aged wall. The path from the door leads through the vineyard up to a moldering mansion. This whole time he keeps trying his radio, but it seems to be dead.

He approaches the mansion and announces himself - nothing. He tries several doors and finally comes to a third one that is open. He tries his flashlight, but it won't work. He cautiously steps inside, again calling out, "Police!"

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Stanley Cramer

Stanley arrives at the property he’s going to show Dan and Crystal as Johnny Cash is singing, “I fell in to a burning ring of fire...” from the CD he has in his player. As he pulls up in front of the house in a new community well out at then end of West Gowan, Mr. Cash sings, “I went down, down, down–” and he turns the the engine off.

Stanley walks up to the front door and enters the combination on the key box dangling from the front door handle. He pops it open and grabs the key, letting himself in. He takes a look around and hears something toward the back of the house. He wonders if someone is in the house and calls out, “Hello! Is someone back there? It’s the realtor.” There’s a conspicuous clunking sound. Making his way down the hallway to the back of the house he sees that the vertical blinds over the sliding glass door are making the sound he heard. The door is slightly open and he starts to wonder if someone broke into the place. He goes out onto the patio and sees a tall gate in the back wall that opens out onto a narrow alley running along the back of the properties. He notices that the gate is open and walks over to close it.

Arriving at the gate, he sees a woman in a loose summer dress and a large flouncey hat across the alley going through a similar gate to the property on the opposite side. He goes through the gate and crosses the alley to ask her if she’s seen anyone come onto the property recently. Getting there he sees her sitting in the shade at the back of the house on the opposite side of a pool. He can’t make out her features, but gets the feeling that it’s not a young woman as he first thought, but actually an elderly woman. He calls out, “Excuse me, Ma’am!” She doesn’t seem to hear him, so he steps inside the gate and waves his hand, “Hi there! Sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if–” She turns her head to face him and though he can’t make out her features in the shade something causes his hair to stand on end and the words die in his mouth. She stands up and her joints seem to move all wrong. She lurches across the patio deck and around the pool toward him. He suddenly feel an overwhelming urge to run, to not let her near him!

He darts back out the gate and crosses the alley back to the first gate. Getting there, he finds that it is closed and locked! Looking behind him, the lurching figure has reached the opposite gate and is stepping out into the alley. He remembers that he has the key to the property and unlocks the gate. The woman is only a few feet away now. He can smell an odor of dusty herbs and rotting meat coming from her. She croaks something that sounds like a whine of anticipation as she reaches out what looks like a mummified hand to touch him. He lunges inside the gate and slams it shut!

...Only to find himself on the other side of a heavy iron door (not a gate) in a tall decrepit brick wall that looks hundreds of years old. He sees a sprawling vineyard spread out around him. Only, the plants are all dead or dying. He cannot remember ever being so terrified. “What the F is going on?!” he thinks out loud. He takes a look around and sees that the gravel path he’s on slopes up to the back of a mansion in pretty bad shape. He tries the iron door, but finds it locked. He’s half relieved and half worried.

He hears some kind of knocking from the house and slowly starts up the path looking around to see if there’s anyone around. The place appears totally abandoned. The sky overhead is a very rich blue and the clouds look more silver than white. The air smells crisp and clean, but at the same time very heavy. “This is really, really freaky,” he think to himself. As the back of the mansion comes in to view in greater detail, he gets the impression that it’s abandoned. A flicker of movement draws his attention off to the right and he suddenly sees the back of a figure step inside a shadowy doorway into the mansion and disappear inside...

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Dan and Crystal Dekker

Dan & Crystal arrive at the property Stanley is going to show them a short time after Stanley. They pull up behind his truck and take a look around the place. After a few minutes they head up to the front door to find it open. They go inside and look around the first couple of rooms talking to each other about what they could do with this room or that corner, etc. But Stanley isn’t around. They hear something at the back of the house and head back there. Finding the sliding glass door open, they assume he’s out back and head out on to the patio.

Dan calls out to Stanley, but there’s no answer. Dan and Crystal go over to the back gate to see if Stanley went out into the alley they can see on the other side. They go out into the alley, but they don’t see Stanley. Instead they see a woman on the other side of the alley wearing a long summer dress with full sleeves and a big wide-brimmed hat like some women wear when gardening. She starts walking toward them and Dan and Crystal feel the hairs on the back of their necks stand on end. She moves as if all of her joints are backwards. She croaks something at them and the sound is horrible. Dan and Crystal both know that they have to get far from this... woman... thing.

They lunge back through the gate and head toward the sliding glass doors to the house. Looking back from the other side of the covered pool, they see she has entered the gate and moves surprisingly fast. Dan and Crystal hustle inside the house and Crystal begins yanking on the door to close it, but it’s stuck on something. The woman gets nearer and nearer and finally she gives up on it and her and Dan flee up the hallway toward the front of the house. Only, they turn the wrong way and end up at one of the bedrooms. They quickly head back the other way and come within several feet of the outstretched mummified hand of the terrifying woman. They momentarily catch a glimpse of the face concealed in the shadows of the flouncey hat and what they see nearly unhinges; the image is deeply suppressed in an area of their minds that they thankfully won’t have to deal with. But that spurs them even faster toward the front door.

They dart through and slam it shut behind them, Crystal holding the handle to make sure it doesn’t get through.

...Only, she’s holding onto a rusty doorknob to a heavy iron door in a tall, crumbling brick wall at the back of what looks like a vineyard; a dead vineyard.

Dan and Crystal stand there panting, their hearts still racing. Crystal is nearly in tears. Dan is scared and confused. They see the mansion up the gravel path they stand on and wonder where the hell this place is and how they got here. Dan picks up a stick to use as a weapon if necessary and Crystal grabs a large rock. They head up to the mansion and Dan thinks he sees a figure disappearing into the mansion that looks just like Stanley...

Contributor

I'll have the rest of our group (April and Jon) posted up later today.

Contributor

April Greer

April fell asleep thinking that the song she was listening to was particularly lovely and she would have to ask about it when she gets up. When she awakens some time later, she finds that she is not in her own bed. Nor is she even in her own home. She is very concerned and wonders if maybe she is having a dream... a nightmare, actually, since there is a palpable feeling of dread.

She looks around the dusty room and out the dust-caked window. She is upstairs in what looks like a mansion. The front yard below is unkempt and a dirt road runs along the front adjacent to a low wall of stones.

She creeps across the wooden floor to the door and looks out onto a long hallway. There are several other doors along the hallway and a set of stairs descending to the ground floor a short distance down the hall. She tiptoes out and looks around. There doesn’t seem to be anyone around, but she stays quiet.

April descends the stairs and holds her breath every time the wood floor creaks under her weight. At the bottom of the stairs is another corridor and a foyer where the front doors exit to the yard she saw through the window. She hears noise deeper in the mansion and looks around in panic for a place to hide. She spots a niche nearby that looks like it must have been used for statuary or maybe a little table or something. It is empty now and full of deep shadows perfect for hiding in. As the sound of footsteps approaches she darts into the niche and tries to make herself as small as possible and wonders where she is and how she got there.

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Jon Hayunga

Jon is calling it an early night. It’s still light out, but he has to get up early in the morning and he’s had a long tiring day anyway. He falls asleep with his laptop playing some relaxing tunes and hears one that he doesn’t recognize as he is fading into sleep. It’s a nice song, he thinks to himself.

He wakes up confused. By the shadows in the room its either later that day or its morning. Looking around for his clock, he is disoriented to see a strange room and a strange bed he’s lying in. He gets up in his bed clothes and looks around the room in confusion. “Where the hell am I,” he thinks.

He looks out the dirty window to a large front yard and a low wall bordering the property with a dirt road running along nearby. He crosses to the bedroom door and finds himself at the end of a long hallway with other doors. The far end has a staircase down to the ground floor so he makes his way there. The hard wood floor creaks under his weight. He gets to the bottom of the stairs and makes his way up the corridor to where it enters what looks like the living room. It’s very big and the furniture is covered with sheets.

Jon looks around the place and suddenly hears voices at the back of the house. He panics and hides behind a nearby sheet-covered couch, wondering again, “Where the hell am I,” and wishing he had some clothes on.


How cool....will you have a visiting cop from El Paso in this campaign next month?

Contributor

farewell2kings wrote:
How cool....will you have a visiting cop from El Paso in this campaign next month?

I can arrange that, I think. :)

Liberty's Edge

This looks cool Steve ... very creepy!

Contributor

Thanks, Mothman. I'm trying very hard to pull out all the stops on this one. Keep peeking in. I believe the guys are going to be posting stuff about the first session in the next couple days.

Liberty's Edge

The scenario will the strange woman and the laneways gave me a strange sense of déjà vu. I know you won’t want to give too much away for your players’ sake, but is this idea based on anything, or is it a Steve Greer original? (It’s entirely possible its reminding me of a nightmare I’ve had or something!)


Its coming, its just taking a little longer than expected :]

Contributor

Mothman wrote:
The scenario will the strange woman and the laneways gave me a strange sense of déjà vu. I know you won’t want to give too much away for your players’ sake, but is this idea based on anything, or is it a Steve Greer original? (It’s entirely possible its reminding me of a nightmare I’ve had or something!)

The idea is based on a favorite book of mine. Sorry, I can't say more than that. Eventually I'll spill the beans.

Liberty's Edge

Steve Greer wrote:


The idea is based on a favorite book of mine. Sorry, I can't say more than that. Eventually I'll spill the beans.

Cool. Now you mention it, I think I may have read the book too, a long time ago, but I won't speculate at the risk of being right, and giving anything away.


Robert Alford, Police Officer, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department

It’s a Thursday afternoon, which means it’s my Friday. It’s my first week on Solo Beat, and in a few weeks I will graduate field training and probably end up graveyard. I had just stopped to get something to eat and found a spot of shade at the side of the road to call my wife on your cell and talk for a few minutes. It’s amusing to watch as motorists driving well over the posted speed limit on this road suddenly see my patrol car and hit their brake, pretending that they’ve been obeying the speed limit the whole time.

I had heard dispatch calling for Officers to respond to a disturbance call in a neighborhood I just happened to be about 2 miles from. I told Andrea I had to go and respond to the call the back up my partner Martinez. Little did I know that could possibly be my final conversation with my wife.

I arrived at the call the back up my partner. A neighbor came out of his house (he called in the disturbance) and explained the details. Apparently, he heard strange noises from within and a loud vibration that seemed to shake his house. He knocked several times on their door, but nobody answered and the strange high pitched noises and then low vibrations continued. He says that it has been giving him a headache and once he mentioned it, I noticed I began to have a dull ache in my head as well. The other Officer told the neighbor to return to his home and the two of us would take care of it.

Officer Martinez and I approached the front door and we could hear the high pitched cacophony the neighbor described and then a low thrum that caused my teeth to throb. Glancing over my shoulder, I could see that the neighbor was watching through his front window from across the street.

Officer Martinez nudged me and looked at the door. I noticed that it was open just a crack. The noise stopped so I knocked on the door. There was no answer. I knocked again and announced loudly, “Metro Police! We need to talk to you about the noise coming from your home!”

I remember hearing something from the back of the house which sounded a lot like a door opening and closing. I told my partner I was going to look around the side gate. He told me he would watch the front.

I walked across the lawn and over to the side of the house where a gate stood open. The narrow area between the house and the wall dividing the property from the next house was choked with weeds. Suddenly a Hispanic man came in to view at the rear of the house carrying something over to the back wall. I tried to stop him by calling out, “Metro Police!” The man saw me and after a brief moment of surprise and fear he took off. I called out for Martinez and took off after the suspicious man.

In the back yard I saw that the rear door was open and the man was climbing over a gate to an alley behind the house. I heard Martinez’s footsteps behind me and took off towards the gate calling for the man to stop, but he was over the gate by the time I reached it and found it padlocked. I leapt over the gate in pursuit.

Looking around, I saw that the alley led off in both directions with similar gates opening into the back yards of other homes. I could see no sign of the man, but I did notice a gate swing closed about 100 ft. away. I sprinted over to the gate and darted inside, but there was no sign of the man.

Breathing heavy, I stepped back out into the alley and waited for Martinez to catch up, but there was no sign of him. I jogged back to the first gate and peered over into the yard, but it didn’t look like the same one. Suddenly, it opened abruptly under my weight pushing against it.

I stepped into the yard and radioed for Martinez but there was only static.

The back door to the house I remembered being open remained open, but a figure stood at the threshold, a woman in a loose dress and a flouncy hat that concealed her features. I called out, “Ma’am, there’s been a report of a disturbance here.” The woman lurched from the shadows of the doorway and I noticed something that made my hair stand on end and I can’t remember feeling more terrified of anything ever before. The woman–if that is what she was–seemed like her joints were moving all in the wrong directions. The hand poking out from the loose, baggy sleeve of her dress looked dry and flakey.

I reflexively backed out of the gate back into the alley. She continued to follow me and I knew that I couldn’t let her reach me. My voice cracked as I tried to issue her a command, “Ma’am, stand where you are!” She ignored my command and continued toward me raising her hand as if to touch me.

I stumbled back from the gate and looked around the alley. Something was weird, different. The walls were much higher than before– nearly 20 ft. I took off down the way I had chased the Hispanic man and saw the woman had now entered the alley. I checked the next gate and found it to be locked and too high to climb over before the figure in the dress reached me. I checked the next, and the next, and the next with the same result.

Finally I stopped and pointed my Glock 17 at the woman and shouted, “Ma’am, stop where you are!” She continued toward me. She was 60 feet away. “Police Officer! Stop where you are or I’ll shoot!” She continued toward me. 30 feet. Every hair on my body stood on end as an unearthly croak came from the figure’s dry husk of a throat. It sounded like an eager whine as she anticipated contact with your flesh. All I could think is, “F*** this!!!” I fired. One, two, three, four shots. All hit center mass.

The sound of my bullets hitting the woman sounded like something hitting dry leaves. Her body jerked back and sideways. She stood motionless for a moment and then lurched toward me again.

I turned and ran. I crossed the alley and tried the gates on that side. Suddenly, I saw a key exposed where a rock was hiding it near the bottom of a nearby gate. I picked it up and slipped it in to the lock. It fit! I turned the key and unlocked the gate. The figure was only 10 feet away! I could hear her croak again and reach for you...

...just as I darted inside the gate and slammed it shut.

I found myself leaning against a solid iron door. What happened to the gate? There was no sign of it, just an iron door in a tall brick wall that looked hundreds of years old. Looking around I saw a dying vineyard all around and a path leading from the iron door up to a decrepit mansion.

My heart was hammering in my chest so I stopped to catch my breath and wipe the sweat from my brow. My hands were shaking. I tried my radio again and got nothing. Not even static.

I finally took a look around me; a really good look. The first thing I noticed is that the sky is much bluer than normal and the clouds look silvery and oddly shaped. The smell of the air was different, too. Clean and crisp, but at the same time kind of heavy.

The vineyard seemed to stretch well beyond sight, but the mansion is immediate and an obvious place to get my bearings. I started up the path towards the back of the mansion where I could see several doors. Looking around nervously, I saw no one. There was an uncomfortable silence.

Still, I reached the mansion and knocked on one of the doors. There was no answer. I moved to another door and knocked again, calling out, “Hello! Metro Police! I need to ask you some questions!”

From the decrepit conditions of the mansion and the vineyard I began to wonder if the place wasn’t abandoned. I tried the next door and as I knocked it swung open.

This opening post was based off of the original intro from Steve and modified to the first person perspective. I threw in some personal flavor here and there.


I'm Jon Hayunga. I live and work in Las Vegas, currently I’m a processor / runner (read: aspiring actor / playwright). Check back on Friday, May 11th and I will have my characters information posted on my profile.

I was crouched behind a sofa trying to figure out where I was and what to do when a heard a voice yelling, “Metro police come out with you hands up!” I put my hands on my head and walked forward and… it was Rob. I felt relived at first but he also did not know what was going on, suddenly Dan and Crystal showed up followed by April. I grabbed a sheet off the sofa to maintain a modicum of my modesty. (I was only wearing my under shorts.) While we all talked, trying to figure out where we were and what was going on, I realized we couldn’t be in Vegas anymore, as there are certainly no houses this big and this old in the city. The house was vaguely Victorian with an old grandfather clock in the living room, and extremely dusty.

That’s when a few people heard movement upstairs. Rob gave Dan his nightstick and drew his gun to investigate the noise, while April, Crystal and myself waited in the kitchen. While I quietly looked for a rolling pin for uses as a club I came across a jar of salt, taking a handful I realized I could throw the salt in the face of our kidnappers before clubbing them over the head with the rolling pin. The whole time April was asking Crystal if she has seen her husband and/or daughter.

I could hear a strange voice speaking a language I didn’t know and Rob trying to communicate back. I peeked out and saw and extremely grotesque woman, (I think,) who looked like a human version of Jabba the Hut. As we tried to communicate the sound of horses approached and she told us to hide, so I quickly ran upstairs to the room I awoke in and hid in the closet. I could hear the woman whose name we later learned was Lamia speaking with a man who seemed angry, but he soon left.

Once we received the all clear, Lamia told us to walk to a near-by village named Euterpe for the night and to return the following morning. Before we left I went back to the closet I hid in to retrieve some leather clothes I felt when I was in there, to my horror, it was a full body human flesh suit straight of Silence of the Lambs. I fled for the front door, my head spinning, and we progressed to Euterpe.

Upon arriving to Euterpe we saw the village is nothing more than a group of small hovels. We were greeted by the citizens and discovered that they and we are trapped here. Furthermore all the people in the village are from Earth, from various points in history. After explaining their situation and giving us a small meal of odd vegetable they could till from the ground we told them our story. They seemed in awe that we were to return to Lamia’s house, none of them have ever been back. I tried to make friends and offered them the salt I had taken, but they refused to accept it and said I must return it, it’s almost is if they revere her as a god. They would only say that no one should take from Lamia.

After a very roughs nights sleep we prepared to make our way back to Lamia’s. Thankfully the people of Euterpe gave me some simple homespun clothing the wear. The walk seemed very long and no sooner had we entered the house then we heard horses again, but this time we could not hide and a man stepped in… No he was not a man, he was an elf, I swear, but not a kindly, beautiful elf of Tolkien, but rather a vicious elf as imagined by the brothers Grimm. Rob tried to hide his fear untill the elf laid a hand on his shoulder, Rob nearly collapsed form the elf’s strength. Rob drew his gun and tried to attack the elf but his gun wouldn’t work and the elf was unfazed by anything Rob did. Eventually he left us in Lamia’s care before taking his leave, at which point Lamia told us we were very special and that we were to venture past Euterpe to Halftown to be trained by the Crane Sisters. She gave us her word that we would not be attacked by the elf on our journey. Upon stopping at Euterpe to rest the villagers eagerly asked us what we were told, and were even more shocked once they learned we are to be trained. Trained to do what? Who are the Crane sisters? What manner of nightmare is this?

Contributor

Great to see these posts coming, guys.
Readers of this journal that like this kind of thing should check out the Adventure Earth! The Kilamanjaro Safari journal in the archives. I really loved reading that journal. Patrick Walsh is a really good story teller.


April Greer- the extremely patient wife of Steve Greer! Paralegal at the Juvenile Public Defender's Office.

I felt my mind drifting away to the sounds of a pleasant song that played in the next room. My last thoughts were of how this nap was much deserved after a long day of chasing Alyssa. I woke up sneezing and as I reached over for a tissue I realized it wasn’t where I put it, in fact my light stand was missing. I sat up to find that I was not even in my own house. I started looking around what appeared to be a mansion of sorts. It reminded me of a reoccurring nightmare of an old Victorian house filled with evil spirits, so I assumed that I was dreaming…it had to be a dream. I heard noises and quickly hid, my heart was racing…why couldn’t I just wake up? Never did I think that in the mist of my nightmare would appear Rob. It was comforting to see a familiar face. Dan stood behind him. We heard more noises coming our direction. I instantly went behind the guys. Dan convinced me to go to the kitchen where Crystal was waiting, that Rob would handle the blob woman that was coming our way. The thought of being somewhere else, anywhere else at that moment was like sunshine in Seattle. I joined Crystal but it was kind of difficult getting information from her since she was in more of a panic than I was. The thought occurred that perhaps this wasn’t a dream, but if it wasn’t a dream, then how did I appear here? And where were Steve and Alyssa?

Most of the events that took place next were a blur, just like a dream, I can only remember vaguely certain details. The sound of horses coming our direction which for some reason brought us fear. The great blob who called herself Lamia told us to hide and I can remember all of us except for Jon running into the same room. I specifically remember thinking how lame it was to all go in the same place for if they search we don’t all have equal chances of not being found. Yet being alone in a dark corner of this place was not reassuring. There was arguing between Lamia and what ever it was that came and left. Lamia sent us to a town where there were others like us, other humans. For some reason all humans in this world are sent to one little town. We were fed there and it seemed that no one here ages. Crystal and myself were extremely excited and came to our own conclusion that we could not gain any weight here either. There was much rejoicing and high 5’s going on! The oddest thing about this town is that it is prohibited to create any kind of music. I could see the despair in Crystal’s eyes as her love in life is singing. Dan too looked just as disappointed.

Throughout all this Rob was trying to show off his cop abilities which turned out to be more humorous than anything else. We found out his weapon does not work here. Even his flashlight was useless. Although it was nice to have someone who didn’t seem scared of this situation- his confidence became quite offensive when the townspeople were trying to be polite and invite us to eat and he wouldn’t even put his useless gun down.

Beyond that all I could remember was that we returned to Lamia’s house and finally meet the Sidhe (I swear these things look like Elves) who seemed to want to hurt us. Lamia sent us to go get training so that we could be strong enough to survive to serve some special purpose she hinted at.


My profile has been changed to match my “character,” check it out. Go on, it won’t hurt. Just click the little blue letters that say Dr. Skull.

Contributor

I was too sick to run my game this past weekend, but I want to try to keep this thread active. To summarize what has happened so far...

April, Dan & Crystal, Jon, Rob, and Stanley have each found themselves transported by strange means to an unfamiliar place. They have each ended up inside or on the grounds of a decrepit mansion in a hilly, grass-covered landscape. They are trying to make sense of everything after finding each other there when they meet a massive obese woman named Lamia, the sole occupant of the mansion.

During the course of questioning Lamia they are told to hide when visitors on horseback arrive. From hiding they can hear an argument between a male visitor and Lamia and the visitor eventually leaves. When they emerge from their hiding places, Lamia simply tells them to follow the road outside of the mansion grounds to a human village and to return in the morning.

The party does so and about 3-4 miles away enter a community called Euterpe. The place is a hodge podge collection of adobe huts and a couple of larger dwellings, one of which serves as the “hotel”. The men and women they meet there are dressed in homespun clothes and living in Medieval conditions. They meet Sevarin, a scholar who studies music and music history, who explains most of what they learn there. Basically, each of the citizens of Euterpe lived on Earth in various times in the past, one of them as long ago as the 1700s. They became trapped in this world after hearing or playing a certain song. The group meets others, of course, and are provided rooms for the night and told to do as Lamia has instructed.

The next day back at Lamia’s mansion, the group unavoidably encounters the visitors from the day before. The 3 riders are in fact elves. Or as they call themselves in this world, Sidhe. Rob has a physical encounter with the leader, a Sidhe named Alyons, which leaves Rob with a broken firearm and a very bruised shoulder. Lamia intervenes to keep Alyons from further aggression and sends them away.

Lamia warns the group that they must be trained if they have any hopes of surviving their stay in this world which she names the Realm and Faerie Dark. They are here for a special purpose which they will learn in time. Until then, they are to go meet a group of women called the Crane Sisters who live in Halftown, a community a few miles past Euterpe.

The group returns to Euterpe and Savarin and others eagerly question them about their meeting with Lamia. When they find out that the newcomers are to be trained by the Crane Sisters, they are equal parts awed, envious, and suspicious. Training for what? And why are they so special?

They find out that Halftown is a community peopled by half breed offspring of Sidhe female and human male unions. Humans are not ordinarily allowed into Halftown, though they trade goods with each other. The party was just about to leave to Halftown at the conclusion of our last game.


I haven't read very much yet, Steve...should I stop and wait until after June 15th?

Contributor

Read on, Stefan!

Contributor

Game notes for Friday, May 18.

The Crane Women

The group was approached by Sevarin from Euterpe with a request to tag along to Halftown. He had never been allowed to enter the community of half-breed Sidhe and hoped he could get in with them. In fact, nobody from Euterpe had ever been allowed into Halftown before though they traded goods with the “Breeds” regularly. The fact that the newcomers were being allowed into the town and going to "train" with the mysterious Crane Women was no small source of irritation and jealousy among the people of Euterpe.

Rob was first to agree to allow Sevarin along and the others had no problem with it. Rob seemed to be forming a connection with the middle aged historian.

The trek to Halftown took all of about 30 minutes. It was located about 2-3 miles further north (assuming a compass point) of Euterpe. As they approached, Sevarin asked, "See anything unusual?" The friends looked around the town of shacks spread out before them along the banks of what qualified as a small river nestled between the rocky hills (the landscape looked reminiscent of the Scottish highlands). The group identified the fact that the homes of Halftown were made of wood. Sevarin pointed out that there were no suitable trees to get that kind of lumbar from in the Pact Lands and explained that the Sidhe parents of the half-breeds supplied them with wood from the vast forests surrounding the Blasted Lands that the humans and half-breeds were consigned to.

At the edge of the village, a man with Sidhe features softened by his human side greeted them. He obviously knew the group was on their way, but told Sevarin he could not enter their community. Sevarin was disappointed, but not surprised. He led Rob a short distance away and they had a private conversation. Rob seemed to agree with whatever Sevarin said to him and they parted ways. Sevarin waved to the rest of the group and began walking back to Euterpe.

Their escort led them through Halftown and they could see that the people there led simple lives, crafting what they needed, growing crops, tending livestock, and bartering with each other in a market square at the middle of the town. They seemed unimpressed with the humans and went about their business after glancing up to note their presence.

Rob, Dan, Crystal, Stanley, April, and Jon were led to the opposite end of Halftown to the banks of the river. Some 60 feet across the water, a small island rose up from the middle of the river. At its center stood a simple shack with small round windows and a single door. The roof angled upward with thatch covering it and a chimney rising from the straw.

The Breed escort gestured toward the island and told them, "The Crane Women await you." He was about to leave when one of them asked if they were supposed to swim across. The escort walked to the water's edge and pointed to a round flat-faced stone barely visible just under the surface. He said, "Walk or swim... whichever you prefer." He then turned and walked back into Halftown.

One by one, the group of friends crossed the river on stepping stones intended for that purpose, each spaced about a foot or two from each other. Everyone did pretty well except for April. About halfway across she lost her balanced and plunged into the cold water. She swam the rest of the distance and climbed up on to dry ground shivering and embarrassed.

There were 3 women, half-breeds, waiting for them. Each looked very old. The first they saw stepped out from the hut and sized them up. She had hair that looked like down. She was incredibly thin and had legs so long and disproportionate to the rest of her body that it was easy to think of her as a crane. She said, “Antros… just humans.” This was Coom. The next to appear, peering out from one of the hut’s windows, had a face that was a maze of wrinkles and red and purple tattoos. This was Spart. She had a beautiful voice and commented, “You don’t look important.” Last to appear was a woman with long red hair tied in a thick braid and a very round face with small narrow eyes. Standing behind the group, she held one leg up to her chest while she balanced on the other. This was Nare.

The Crane Women asked them, “You want us train?” The group all hesitantly nodded or told them yes. The half-breed crones asked, “You want survive in Sidhedark?” To this, they all answered in the affirmative. The Crane Women said this was good and instructed them to find a spot on the island and sit there and wait for wood to build their own huts. They then went back inside their own hut.

There was some confusion about what to do next. Rob found a large boulder covered in lichen that he claimed as his spot and sat down with his back against the rock. The others walked around the island looking for their own spots. Dan surveyed the island with a critical eye, having had experience in surveying. Jon simply chose a nice spot near the bank of the river. Stanley found a spot on the far side of the island behind the hut. April and Crystal didn’t seem too picky and quickly found places for themselves. Finally, Dan chose his own spot of ground.

The group waited and waited. As the sun went down turning into a strange purplish-orange ribbon on the horizon and the air was filled with the fluttering sound that heralded dusk, the Crane Women emerged from their hut and served the group a meal of gruel in simple wooden bowls. The then went back to their hut without comment.

During the night a strange thing happened. Those that had a hard time sleeping heard an odd sound, a whistling breeze. The sound was there, but there was no wind. Soon the source of the noise came into view – things of air carrying bundles of wood. They wafted over to the island and gently laid their burdens down next to each of the humans. Stanley and Dan were both awake and got a good look at the air creatures and saw that they looked human. It was like looking at a human being made of glass, only they weren’t, they were made of air. The one delivering wood to Dan smiled at him and floated away.

The next day, the Crane Women served their pupils more bowls of gruel and left them alone to build their shelters. Jon and Stanley discovered that the various lengths of wood had very cleverly concealed tabs that could be pushed out to create fitted slots with which the pieces could be joined. The showed the rest of the group how to do it and soon everyone was working at building their shelters with varying degrees of difficulty. Stanley compared it to building a prefabricated home entertainment unit without any instructions.

Once Jon and Stanley had finished with their own shelters they helped Crystal and April with theirs. Rob had done a good job on his own and had extra wood to put down wood flooring since he had built his up against the boulder. Dan had a terrible time with his, which was ironic since he had the most experience in architecture and engineering in the group. Without instructions, he made a big mess of it so Jon and Stanley went over and helped him. The huts were little more than large dog houses, but they were theirs now.

Over the next couple of weeks, the Crane Women had the group run from morning to evening carrying a length of stick over their heads. At first, it nearly killed most of them. Rob’s police academy training made it a bit easier for him while April had the worst time. Back problems and the fact that she was still carrying some baby weight made the first few days a living hell for her, but she kept at it and soon was doing much better at keeping up with the others.

The group were told to run from Halftown to Euterpe, back and forth. They were never told they couldn’t stop and rest and were never supervised by the Crane Women, but they carried out their running assignments dutifully. This was broken up by working at various tasks for the people of Halftown. Rob used the runs to Euterpe as an opportunity to visit with Sevarin, but the appearance of the newcomers carrying good sticks for little more than exercise angered man of the folk of Euterpe who got nothing more than twigs to build with. Little by little, the group stopped visiting Euterpe, there was a hostility building between them and the people of the human community.

The group began to trim down and feel stronger the more they ran. It became somewhat liberating after a time to lose themselves in pure physical activity.

One day, Stanley, Jon, and Rob decided to go off the beaten path out into the surrounding hills. They estimated that if they took a route perpendicular to the roads they had been following that it would lead them quickly to the edge of the Pact Lands. They were curious to see the border and the orange haze close up.

About 2 miles into their trek they could see that the border was only another mile away. Rob and Stanley decided to continue, though they were now at the estimated time to get back before nightfall so no one would notice their break from routine. They figured if they double timed it back they would arrive just on time. Jon chose not to risk something bad happening so he turned back.

At the edge of the green island of healthy land within the Blasted Plain, Rob and Stanley peered out into the haze. They could see tall sand dunes and spires of rock in shades of brown, yellow, and orange. A wind seemed to stir up the dust to create the haze. A voice seemed to speak from the haze. It said, “Come out here to us. We want to talk to you.” Rob shook off the momentary compulsion to walk out onto the Blasted Plain, but Stanley began walking out toward the voice. Rob shouted at him to stop and tried to grab him, but despite Rob’s physical conditioning, Stanley was a whole lot bigger than Rob and his attempts were unsuccessful.

Suddenly, the dust swirled into the shape of a man and settled into what looked like a real flesh and blood human being with dark hair and eyes and heavy eyebrows. Stanley continued to walk toward him as the dust man explained that there had been many lies told about them in the green lands and he would tell them the truth. Rob swung his stick at Stanley hoping to knock some sense into him. There was a loud crack as he struck him and Stanley turned and angrily swung back at Rob, but missed. Rob hit Stanley a second time and this time Stanley dropped to the ground unconscious. The two of them, however, were now about a dozen feet into the Blasted Plain and several more of the dust men had formed around them. The one that had been doing the talking took on a gruesome change. His jaw unhinged and opened grotesquely to reveal rows of jagged teeth. The others began taking on the same appearance and began making mewling sounds as if in anticipation of tasting flesh and blood – Rob’s and Stanley’s.

Something slashed over Rob’s head and sliced the two closest monstrosities in half. Rob turned and saw the Sidhe Alyons sitting astride his golden horse holding his pike. The other creatures seemed to shy from him and melted back into dust. Alyons said coldly, “Antros, you are not to leave the Pact Lands.” He looked at them a moment. There was no compassion in those alien eyes. Rob got the feeling that the Wickmaster had only interfered so that he could have the pleasure of killing them himself. Alyons and his horse suddenly turned into a blur and were gone in the blink of an eye.

Rob spent the next several hours dragging Stanley’s unconscious body back to Halftown. The rest of the group was extremely worried about the two. After Rob and Stanley didn’t return by nightfall, the Crane Women mentioned it, but seemed unconcerned. Jon finally told the others about the afternoon excursion out in to the hills and they worried about for long, agonizing hours until they noticed a commotion at the edge of Halftown sometime around midnight. The crossed the river and saw Rob and Stanley. One of the Breed women was applying a poultice to the large lumps on the Stanley’s scalp. He was unconscious. The poultice caused the ugly lumps to shrink in size and the bruises to fade. Stanley opened his eyes and looked around in confusion. His head hurt and his body was covered in scrapes and bruises from being dragged for what seemed to Rob like a hundred miles. Rob was completely exhausted, but explained as best he could what had happened. The group all agreed that from then on it was best to simply follow their instructions, nothing more, until they know more about this place.

The following morning, the Crane Women announced that there would be a change in their training. Their pupils could continue to run as they wished and they would still perform their duties in Halftown, but their training would consist mainly of mental exercises. In a way, the exercises were more exhausting and frustrating than the physical training. So much so that everyone but Crystal used their daily runs to Euterpe and back as a welcome break from focusing on mental images and clearing their minds of all thoughts for hours at a time. Crystal had decided she had had her fill of running.

More to come for this session. Next up, “The Kaeli.

Contributor

May 18 session continued.

The Kaeli

After about a week of the group’s next stage of training, the Crane Women announced one morning that there would be no training that day. There was to be something called a Kaeli. They didn’t explain what it was, but it entailed traveling out into the hills later that day with all of the folk of Halftown. The trek commenced around mid-afternoon. They reached their destination a bit before dusk. The Breeds carried lanterns & poles and were dressed in their finest clothing and robes.

The destination was a large ring of standing stones on a grassy hilltop several miles northwest (?) of Halftown. It was a bit surreal, like Stonehenge or something. The Breeds set the poles up around the perimeter of the circle of stones and hung the lanterns from them. When night finally came, they lanterns were lit and the Breeds commenced one by one to recount the genealogy of their Sidhe ancestors. The Crane Women sat near the group and translated for them. The Breeds told of a time when the Sidhe traveled the stars in search of their paradise until they found and settled on Earth. The Sidhe and humans fought against each other for possession of the Earth. They mentioned a revered Sidhe named Adonna and a despised human Mage.

After several Breeds had stood at the center of the circle and recounted only part of this unfolding tale, a howling wind suddenly flattened the hilltop and biting cold raindrops began to fall. The lanterns were extinguished and screams rang out from among the Breeds. The Crane Women announced that it was a raid and told the group of human friends to flee.

Translucent figures dipped down from the darkened sky, which was lit by occasional strokes of lightning. A Breed was suddenly grabbed by two of the air creatures and carried away into the sky, kicking and struggling.

The earth near the group suddenly erupted as a creature made of muddy dirt, rocks, and clumps of grass rose up and grabbed hold of another one of the Breeds. The grappled Halftown citizen struggled and screamed for help. Rob ran up and hit the thing with the stick he carried all the time now. Jon and Stanley rushed to help. The creature seemed to turn and regard Rob and swatted him with a massive arm of earth. The impact sent Rob sailing through the air and colliding with one of the huge stone monoliths. He struck and dropped to ground unmoving.

Stanley hit the thing as well, but with no affect. When the creature began to stride away with its struggling captive, Stanley tried to grab hold of thing and wrestle the Breed from it. The earth elemental struck out at Stanley and sent him tumbling across the hilltop. He finally came to a stop and did not move. Jon quickly reconsidered and simply ran. Dan had held back and now ran with Crystal over to Rob. April kept far from the earth elemental’s reach and went over to Stanley. The creature seemed unconcerned with the humans and continued striding away with its prize. The sounds of screams and the pelting of rain and wind seemed to move off the hilltop as if following the mass of Breeds fleeing back towards Halftown.

Stanley and Rob were both alive, but they were badly injured. Rob was banged up and had a nasty gash on his head, which Dan and Crystal wrapped with cloth. Stanley had no visible wounds, but his breath was ragged and he lay on the muddy ground unconscious. April probed Stanley's extremities to see if there was anything broken. Something felt kind of different on one side of his ribs. When she pressed against them, it elicited an unconscious moan from him.

Jon fled all the way back to the Crane Women’s hut avoiding the Breed and their attackers. As he crossed the stones something reached up from the water and grabbed his ankle. Losing his balance he plunged into the cold water. He was pummeled under the water as if caught under a massive wave crashing. That was the last he remembered.

************************************************************************

Morning found Rob, Stanley, April, Dan and Crystal grouped together by the standing stones. Rob and Stanley regained consciousness some time into the morning, first Rob and later Stanley. Rob thought he had probably suffered a concussion aside from the nasty gash he got from striking the standing stone with his head and he had a few painful bruises. Stanley winced in pain with every breath and every movement. He was sure that he had broken several ribs.

Together the group limped back to Halftown and by midday were back at the Crane Women’s hut.

Jon woke up face down on the bank of the river, his mouth full of mud and grass and his lungs burning. He was confused for a time and then slowly made his was along the river following it back to Halftown. He arrived on the Crane Women’s island about an hour or so after the others.


Im still not sure what is going on, or where we are. One thing I do know is I must be vigilant, for my friends that are with me seem to be letting their guard down. They’ve pulled a hood over their eyes and are willing to accept everything they are told without question. So I will take it upon myself to ask the questions. But there are so many to ask, Im not sure where to start.

The situation with the humans of Euterpe is something of a mystery. The town is peopled by humans from all periods of time on the earth that we are from. Honestly, at this point, Im not even sure if its correct to refer to where Im from as earth, but until I have a better reference point, its all I can come up with. Anyway, to say they are oppressed by the Sidhe seems to be a bit of a stretch. They are not free, however, and they lack the basic necessities required to advance their situation. They are surrounded by the blasted lands (whatever those are) and unable to leave, explore, hunt, gather, or even fish.

I remember playing D&D with the friends I am here with and I never remember seeing elves such as these. Im not sure I can label them as evil…yet. One thing is certain, Im human and Im from earth, and so are the people in Euterpe. I swear that whatever my destiny here in Sidhedark is, I will do whatever is in my power to help the humans.

Speaking of the blasted lands, Stanley and I have had our first encounter with the denizens of that place. I think we were nearly killed, but saved by someone whom I think would rather kill me than let a ghost/ghoul kill me. The unfortunate part is I had to beat my friend over the head with a stick and drag him for hours to get us back to Halftown. I was exhausted when we arrived, and some breed-women tended to Stanley’s wounds. It was amazing! It was like seeing a cure light wounds spell from D&D. One of the Crane Women asked me if I had learned anything. I was sure I had, but Im not yet certain what it was.

Contributor

I told my players that they will have to sustain this journal on their own. I really need to use my time on my Pathfinder assignment. But I just can't stay away from it...

Stanley had his last "regular" game with us this last Friday. He's moving to Idaho. He will still visit from time to time since he has family here in Las Vegas and he's been told that he's welcome to drop in and join the game. We'll miss him a lot. He's been a good player and friend.

As far as what has been going on in the campaign, the wounded members of the party received magical healing from the Crane Women. There were Sidhe visitors to their hut a few days later and the sisters told the group that a young Sidhe was coming to train with them. They would all be going out beyond the Blasted Lands to meet the new pupil and bring him back, so the following day they were met by one of the Sidhe riders that had been there the day before and he escorted them out into the inhospitable no man's land.

At night, the Crane Women circled their campsite with some kind of golden sand, which would protect them from the creatures lurking in the dusty waste. It didn't quite protect Stanley from responding to the siren call of one of the Children of the Wasteland him and Rob had previously had a run-in with.

This time, the others were able to pull him back into the protective ring before becoming a dust monster's meal.


As we prepared to leave Euterpe on our way to Halftown Sevarin asked if he could join us. I had my doubt as to whether he would be welcomed, but saw no harm in allowing him to join us. Once we could see Halftown the first thing we noticed were the homes, which were made of wood, and the lack of trees in the area. Obviously that quantity of lumber would have to have been brought in from somewhere else.

As we approached the village we greeted by a man, and my suspicions also proved to be true, Sevarin was not allowed to enter Halftown. The man led us through town and took us to the Crane sister Island. He told us to cross the river and wait, upon prodding as to how we were to cross he pointed out a series of stones just below the surface. We all crossed the river by jumping from stone to stone, however April slipped once and fell with a splash into the water, she opted to merely swim across.

Once we had crossed three women came out of the lone hut to greet us, their names were Coom, Spart, and Nare. They sized us up and asked if we truly wanted to be trained, we all confirmed that we did. The sisters told us to find a spot on the Island were we would build our new houses and wait for further instruction. Rob immediately selected an area near a rock for his home, I just wanted and place near the water. I can’t really explain why, it just seemed like the proper place for my house. We waited all day to no avail, nothing happened. I gathered a few boulders and made myself a chair while waiting. I still didn’t know how I was going to build my house. Sure I built sets for plays in college, but a house is something else entirely.

That night as I was trying to sleep an odd noise caught my attention, I look for what is was and noticed bundles of wood surrounded by shimmering air, like the air wavering over hot pavement, was coming towards us. As my bundle was dropped I noticed a female face in the air, quite upsetting and odd. There were no more disturbances that night.

That morning we were awakened to another bowl of gruel and told to build our houses. As I examined the wood I noticed tabs that could be pushed out, thereby making the shake easily constructed, even the pushed out pieces were used to make shingles. Upon completing my home I helped the rest of the group with theirs. I even used the rest of the time that day to find some more boulders to fashion a makeshift table to go with my chair/seat. I also gathered some tall grass to use as a mattress, along with my “borrowed” sheet my primitive shack was comfortable.

The next day we were given a stick and told to hold it over our head and run to Euterpe and back all day. It was horrible, I didn’t realized just how out of shape I was, but I did manage to complete the task as asked. This was what we were to do for a few weeks, it became easier to do as the days went on, and we even got the occasional respite when we were told to assist the towns’ people in their daily activities, such as fetching water and other menial jobs. After a week or so I dreaded going to Euterpe, as I could feel strong resentment towards us over, of all things, our sticks. That also led me to the realization that we were unsupervised during our runs. That’s why I decided it might be time to do some exploring.

One day during a run I went off the beaten path to see if I could spot any other villages, Rob and Stanley saw me run off the path and followed. About a mile or so in I saw what looked like a wall of heat emanating from the ground. That was all I needed to see, so I turned back as I didn’t want to make the crane sisters suspicious. I didn’t look back to see if Rob or Stanley followed.

That night, when Rob and Stanley still hadn’t returned I decided I had to confess to my friends about what had happened… they were not amused. We decided it was too dangerous to look for them at night so we would do it first thing in the morning. Shortly after, they retuned, well, Rob returned dragging Stanley. It looked like he had been hit; Rob rested and told us what had happened while the crane sisters administered aid to Stanley. Obviously I’m glad I turned around.

The next day we were told to start mental exercises. Never had I been so frustrated and exhausted. Lucky we were given permission to keep up with our physical exercises as well, so that made for a great break. Imagine, running for an hour was almost relaxing, ha! This training continued for nearly a week.

One day we were told to relax for that day due to a Kaeli, which we learned was a type of festival / ceremony about the Sidhe. We left that afternoon and did not get to the proper ceremony ground until nightfall. The area was magnificent, almost like Stonehenge, it reminded me of my days in Order of the Arrow. As the ceremony proceeded it began to rain when suddenly the cry, “raid!” rang through the air. The Crane Sister began to run and told us to flee. Suddenly, what I could only describe as a “stone” creature came up out of the ground, that was all I needed to see and I began to run.

I got no more than 90 feet away when I heard my friend yelling for me, the “stone” creature was gone, but Stanley and Rob were hurt on the ground. Well I volunteered to get the crane sisters for help as that would give me an excuse to get the hell out of there. I ran all the way back to Halftown and across the river to their hut, but there was no answer. I decided to look for anyone else and cross the river, when I felt something come up out of the water and pull me into it. Then my whole world went black. I woke up the next morning on the river bank, my stick was gone. Once I hiked back to Halftown it became apparent I was a few miles away. My friends were already there when I arrived; the crane sisters were even healing Rob and Stanley. It was like they could use magic.

Over the next few days we could feel the hostility becoming greater in Euterpe, we decided that the safest thing to do would be running as a group, luckily we did. One afternoon we were ambushed by a group of citizens from Euterpe. We were able to fend them off, and we discovered we had developed special abilities. It was amazing, April could use magic! During the battle it seemed right to for me to recite some lines of Shakespeare from Henry the V; it seemed as if it inspired my comrades to become more courageous and competent during the battle. After we fended them off, I told one of the men to return to Euterpe and tell any other potential attackers what had happened there.

On the next day a Sidhe came to the crane sisters’ hut and had a long conversation with them. Later that day we were informed a Sidhe would be training with us. However we would need to venture into new lands (for us) to pick him or her up, I’m still not sure why they wanted us to come along. As we set out the next morning, we were escorted by a pair of Sidhe; I could feel that they were not pleased to venture out with us. After a long day the crane sisters prepared our campsite with some sort of protective circle, they warned us to not leave it under and circumstances. Though the day was unsettling and strange, to say the least, I managed to fall into a deep slumber that lasted the whole night.


Stanley is no longer with us and Rob was unable to make the game, therefore we did some play testing for Steve…good times.

Contributor

This campaign is still going, but we've had a lot of breaks from it lately to playtest stuff. Sins of the Saviors is quite big and has a lot to be worked out before I turn it in on August 1, so I'm actually running material from it in two separate gaming groups to make sure it all gets the proper treatment.

The next part of this campaign has a lot to do with coming to grips with their new skills in the chosen character classes and learning more about the world of Sidhedark.


Thanks for letting me join you guys last Friday. I really enjoyed it. The whole 'monkey business' with the ogre, the troll and the ape is something I won't soon forget. I haven't laughed that hard at the gaming table in quite some time.....

Hopefully I'll get a chance to drop by again next year!

Contributor

::sigh::

The worst party ever to enter the Tomb of Horrors is what I'll remember that session as. It was definitely fun, though :) Loved having you, F2K. As always.


Steve Greer wrote:

::sigh::

The worst party ever to enter the Tomb of Horrors is what I'll remember that session as. It was definitely fun, though :) Loved having you, F2K. As always.

It was like the beginning of a classic GH joke: "An ogre, a troll, an ape, a pixie and two githyanki enter the Tomb of Horrors......and not one of them is a rogue!"

There was no way it could NOT have ended badly!! It was great!!!!!


Hi Steve - I hope you read your logs regularly. I'm interested in setting up a sim in Second Life (http://www.secondlife.com/) based on the Pact Lands area. It's not going to be a game - just an area that people can visit, and even live in.

To that end, I've formed a group called 'The Pact Lands' in Second Life and designated the Wickmaster. It should be interesting. I haven't been universally hated in a long time.

The reason I'm posting to you is that I'm going to need a _lot_ of help with this project and I'm some of the people who read this would be interested in helping build the place. This project is very much in the planning stage, and anyone who joins will have a voice in what the sim looks like.

Contributor

Howard, that's pretty cool that you want to use this stuff. Drop me a line at sgreer@lvcoxmail.com and I'll give you more information.

Contributor

To readers that were checking this one out as we went, it's officially done. Fork in it.
Rob and Stanley have had to leave the group and the whole thing just wasn't the same without them a part of it. We're under way on a new campaign in Greyhawk right now using the GameMastery modules D0 and D1 based in the Kron Hills (I think...) and plans to run Expedition to the Ruins of Castle Greyhawk when the party is appropriately leveled.
For anyone interested in actually reading the novels I based this off, it was two books by Greg Bear called "The Infiniti Concerto" and the "The Serpent Mage". It has been since collected into a single book called "Songs of Earth and Power".
Thanks for reading. Sorry I couldn't keep it going longer.
I have no plans to keep up any journals for a while. They're too time consuming for me right now with so many other things I need to be working on. So, I'll enjoy reading the other journals here for a while until I have time to keep one of my own again.


How come Rob had to leave?


Steve Greer wrote:

To readers that were checking this one out as we went, it's officially done. Fork in it.

For anyone interested in actually reading the novels I based this off, it was two books by Greg Bear called "The Infiniti Concerto" and the "The Serpent Mage".

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Steve,
I don't get to post at this site much, but when I am here I always like to check out the "Campaign Journals." This was a really neat story and you wrote about the game with great talent. I liked it so much that I discovered the name of the book, Songs of Earth and Power, and started to read it. I just got past the part where he kills the bad boyfriend. A good read so far. Sorry this game had to end for you, but I will definately read any future journals that you post about your games.

Meerkat

Contributor

Thanks, Meerkat. I had high hopes for this one, but a lot of things combined to grind it to a permanent halt.

F2K, Rob got a shift change with Metro that now has him working on Fridays. And Stanley moved to Idaho.
Rob has promised to come back when his schedule allows it once more and Stanley visits from time-to-time here in Vegas so he'll probably drop in as well, but there you go.


I`m also very sorry to hear your news Steve. The death of a campaign is always a sad thing, especially when its throuhg no fault of the Dm or players.

Good luck with the next one.


Yeah, shift work made my gaming schedule turn to crap too...and will again, soon!

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