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Quite a few people seemed interested in this blog post - Go to blog Teaching Changemakers using Kingmaker - where we were discussing the potential of Pathfinder for developing vision, creativity and leadership skills among youngsters in Uganda.
I am running a project known as the Butterfly Project and we have been training young social entrepreneurs since 2009. We are just a small project, which allows us to try innovative things and thus recently we decided to try out Pathfinder, to gauge interest and enthusiasm for roleplaying with our young beneficiaries.
Specifically, I am interested in training up those capable of making good leadership decisions and thus the Kingmaker Adventure Path seemed to be the most suitable for our needs. By the way, we don't tend to work with those who are 18+, instead those in the 9-19 age category. Currently, we are working mostly in slum areas, but the plan is to expand our work into rural villages very soon.
I chose seven young people to be part of the Kingmaker group, who we believe have the potential to be leaders, but are also very bright and able to speak and understand good English. For added colour, I decided to offer the new classes, so we have an alchemist, a summoner, a monk, a druid, a witch, an oracle and an inquisitor.
I am posting here really for ideas. My intention is to move through the campaign and, each week, post a summary of events. I'm not the greatest GM, but I will try to keep the story on track. I will also try to give you the flavour of some of the discussions we have had and demonstrate how the game has become a real teaching methodology. Our party will be making real decisions about their own kingdom, as it develops and often they will be forced into choosing from a list of complex and difficult options, where no solution is a brilliant solution.
We have been running the campaign now for about three months. The characters are moving towards Level 6 and they have a kingdom of just 10 hexes. There will be many spoilers in this post, so I apologise in advance, if you had wanted to play Kingmaker and I revealed too much. Also, I will ask some of the kids participating (they range from 12-14 years of age) also to post here with their comments. English is sometimes their third language, so please be forgiving of spellings etc...
My next post will be an introduction of the various characters, a quick summary of what has happened so far and then I will post weekly on the events of the campaign, as they happen.
Lastly, while Kingmaker is perhaps the most interesting part of what we are doing, Pathfinder roleplaying is being played very regularly these days and there are three regular DMs - Patrick, Brian and Joseph. Perhaps 30-40 kids have now participated. Gradually I expect numbers to increase and I want to see these young people spread the idea to a wider group of young people, eventually perhaps even to rural villages.
I observe carefully the impact on the participants and clearly we are avoiding any situations far outside cultural norms. The land I hope they develop will be uniquely theirs, formed from their own ideas and priorities. Maybe we can learn something from this.
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Some of our members are taking exams this year, so aren't at every session. Four are in Senior 1 (Year 8), one in Year 7 and two in Year 6.
The leader of the party and eldest is Joseph (14), who plays Balazar, the Summoner. Joseph is extremely clever and likes to solve problems and he has enjoyed the power and versatility of the Eidolon, which he has designed as a flying pig! As a leader Joseph is doing well, but sometimes ends up in confrontations with Brian, who also likes to be in charge.
Brian (13)is our youth computer trainer at our Centre. He has many talents, acts really well and, similar to Joseph, loves to solve problems. He plays the inquisitor and few can pass by his discerning gaze. He plays Imrijka as a very tough half orc and has her wielding a great axe.
Barbara is 14 and plays Lini, the druid, with her cat. Barbara isn't much interested in the fighting, which seems to fit with her character, but she has made several key decisions protecting animals and, most recently, created a Giant Spider reserve two hexes away from the City they founded, known as the City of Happiness. Barbara is a young changemaker and is running a project preventing child abuse in her local area.
By contrast, Maria loves the battles. She plays the violent Feiya, who slew several of her townsfolk with a lightning bolt and paid the price, by having to use city build points to resurrect them all. Maria is 12 and very feisty. We believe that she can be a great leader and is learning how her decisions can affect others!
Oswaldo (14) is playing Sajan, a monk. He is a national tae-kwondo champion and insisted! Despite this, Oswaldo is starting to realise that his jusgement in situations is often the most valued, as he has talked the group out of difficult situations, where there had been a deadlock. I feel that he is gaining confidence from this and definitely leadership abilities.
Patrick (13) is the energy of the group and he plays the alchemist. We made Patrick the roleplaying monitor, because of his enthusiasm and imagination. It is he that most frequently demonstrates that he has been thinking about the sessions in between and he also loves to use his intellect to solve problems. I credit Patrick with much of the development here, as he has been the one to recruit for and run many sessions.
Kenneth (14) is very thoughtful but has missed the most sessions. He has decided to switch from the Oracle and will play a sorceror in future sessions. He is the editor of the local youth newspaper and enjoys writing articles and designing puzzles. Of the group, he is the most sensible and will make a great leader, because of his passion to do good.
Well, to date they have had many adventures, from defeating the initial bandits to the Stag Lord. They set up the City of Happiness in the Stag Lord's fort. They brought the alchemist to set up the first shop in their city, but have subsequently built a castle, tavern, theatre, park, garrison, watchtower and more. They spared Kundal's life and drove out Grigori. They also eliminated the cult. However, in doing so, Feiya murdered 8 townspeople with her lightning bolt, because the cultists were insulting her aunt, Old Beldin. Beldin has agreed to come to the city, but only if they build for her an academy. The party have clashed with the loggers and made a bargain with the Sootscale. They have formed Tatzlford and despatched a few trolls and a small owlbear that came close to the city. Last week they also visited Candlemere and, with great difficulty, despatched a will o' the wisp. Lini also founded a small colony of spiders, that were spinning webs near the mud flats area.
There is more information in the blog about previous weeks. I will post again the latest developments after the next session on Thursday.
Posting here in order to follow this thread more easily.
Thanks for keeping us updated!
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Last night's session was, according to Barbara, about "finding new things out". Last week we left things with the crazed hermit having been captured and the group trying to interrogate him and expecting meaningful answers. "He still hasn't answered my question" Balazar said, as the hermit retreated into his madman's shell. He tried again, but the hermit seemed to get more and more withdrawn and sensitive as they probed him for answers.
Sajan snapped and tried to grab the locket from the man, but rogue's reflexes honed, Sajan's strike was blocked and the group seemed to give up on the idea that they could actually force him to give them the locket. I'm not sure why they didn't but perhaps it was because he was obviously suffering from the madness or perhaps they simply felt they didn't have any right to take his personal possessions....
The old hermit then took our group to the lizardfolk encampment saying that "maybe these know where to find your trolls..." It is in these situations that the group really need to think and unlike most veteran roleplayers, they don't have the benefit of experience, though they will and are gaining it.
Knocking on the door of the encampment, two lizardmen guards told them to get lost in no uncertain terms. Imrijka tried very hard to persuade them to open the gate, to no avail and the group felt frustrated. Why won't they open the gate? The keen ears of Damiel and Imrijka heard the sobbing of a child inside and the reasons for them to enter seemed to be growing. "Take us to your leader or you will be sorry" they pleaded. But still a resounding "no".
"Well they are not attacking us", Balazar said. "They want us to go away, but we're not going to go." I asked them all to roll initiative, stating that it was just so I could get them in order, not because I was expecting a fight. Feiya then decided to hex one of the lizardmen, who promptly fell asleep. Sajan scaled the walls deftly and saw a huge build-up of lizardmen and lizard women inside. Several spears were tossed in his direction and a few connected, but Sajan held his ground. The eidolon charged the gate and bounced, then Feiya shattered it with her lightning bolt.
Things were becoming clearer to the group that something was not right here. It seemed their king were leading the lizardfolk astray and Imrijka used powerful words to sway the crowd, which drew the attention of the spirit haunting the place, which proceeded to attack Sajan, the most damaged member but failed to kill him, leaving him on 1hp. This time Sajan beat a hasty retreat and Imrijka and Damiel (who both have True Strike) used these spells and attacked and severely damaged the skull spirit. Seeing this spirit's light waning, the main body of lizardfolk started to rebel and the king bolted, only to be sent to sleep by Feiya. One more firm strike on the spirit and it fled the scene back into the swamp.
Damiel asked the lizardfolk to be gathered together to be spoken to, while Lini raced over to see to the children in their ordeal and located a tunnel. Leaders as they are, the party spoke to the lizardfolk asking them where they saw their future, living in the city of Happiness or in this swamp, even though their leader has been banished (they forgot about him and he got up and left). "Do you mind us taking your treasure?" Balazar asked. The lizards responded saying it was treasure of their king and he was gone and also that the treasure given to the spirit was tainted and evil in their opinion. The lizardfolk expressed concern over their safety now that their king was gone and Balazar promised that the city would always protect them, if they were endangered.
When pressed about the trolls, the lizardfolk encouraged the party to eliminate them, saying that they often came from the forest to the West and they should look for them there. Damiel also located a map to some treasure that spoke of a fabulous magic weapon.
In the chaos, they discovered that the old hermit had scarpered.
So, what next? Do they follow the treasure map or head off into the forest to seek out the trolls? The population were boosted by the return of Tig and so the group just made their loyalty roll....
All in all it was quite a good session. Everyone contributed something to the session (Alhazra didn't make it again) and the group are performing like leaders and heroes, though they do squabble, when one wants to do something the other does not. There is a lot of enthusiasm for finding the trolls, though i sense that they are not certain whether they are strong enough for them yet. They are nearing Level 6 now, so there is little time like the present, though a powerful magic weapon might sway the group to delay a little further. We shall see!
Dude this is really cool! Out of curiosity, who is the leader of the kingdom? Are any of them assigned jobs of government in the city? If so, who does what there? Keep this up it's very awesome!
This is a great idea. Dotting for future reference.
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For Domestichauscat, Joseph (or Balazar) is the perhaps unlikely Baron of the City of Happiness. They've not appointed themselves into other jobs, rather found people to do them. I will ask them next week, whether they feel they would like to take responsibility for one of the jobs, now they are a bit more settled in their characters.
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Last night we started well thinking about jobs in the city. Lini wanted the Magister job, but ended up with the warden, Feiya taking Magister, on the strength that her aunt, Old Beldin, will be moving into it shortly. Imrijka chose Royal Assassin and Damiel, the alchemist, has taken Spymaster. Sajan is now the marshal. I've asked them to consider their roles carefully and decide on what they might do this month....
We talked a bit about democracy and leadership, as Joseph (Balazar), is, like me, a bit impatient for progress, and quite often takes unilateral decisions, just to move the game forward. Others started to realise that they too had a voice in the decision-making and sided with Joseph with most of the decisions.
The group spend a lot of time in the city and seem less keen on exploring. They had found a tree feather token in the Lizard's huts and decided that they wanted to invest in more, so they could satisfy the nixie and get their wand back. Spending money is risky with this novice group, but they ordered the tokens from Restov and decided to investigate the tomb on the treasure map, until they arrived.
They found the tomb easily enough and were immediately swarmed by bats, once again discovering the difficulties that swarms present, with many wasted melee attacks. Next, steps forward reckless Feira and unleashes a lightning bolt - it's now become her trademark - and the bolt bounces around the octagonal room. If this is a learning experience, then maths comes into it, when you see a lightning bolt bounce and work out the angles. Needless to say four of the group, including Feiya became part of the path, but the bats were despatched!
Our group loves to chat, like many D&D groups I have been part of. Here in Uganda, the chat is not in English and becomes very distracting. We don't have too much peace and quiet either, when people come in and out or we have to go and collect food etc. So yesterday it seemed hard to settle and as time ticked forward, a trap and an ambush from skeletons seemed to drag out very slowly and we also found that the group members were progressing with new spells they knew little about. Kenneth (Alhazra) arrived very late and wanted to play his new sorceress, leading to more delays.
When the old warrior appeared and started to make mincemeat of the group, with strategy falling apart and levels diminishing, we put our heads down and managed to get through the session with a successful result, though it was a little less fun than usual. Nevertheless, we completed the session with Kenneth's new sorceress, Seoni (?), and discovered that Alhazra had left the city to scout out reports of a troll hideout deep in the forest and had not been heard from since. Seoni was Alhazra's sister and was worried that her sister was in danger and she wanted to tag along with the party and give help, if needed.
The group made it to Level 6 last night and this caused a lot of interest, as, despite the late hour, Joseph wanted to work on the enhancements to his eidolon...
So, I think we made some progress tonight and I warned them that they need to work on knowing their character capabilities and decide on a plan to stand any chance against the trolls next week. Preparation and Planning Prevent Poor Performance!
If I may suggest, have you asked them about a "practice game"?
In other words, spend a little time outside of actual adventure to use their abilities once or twice in non-lethal combat?
It might potentially be boring,... but it could instead lead to potential interesting role-play moments: if a mentor is guiding them, or a sage is working with them, he or she could point out how each of them could improve in minor ways, or use their abilities more solidly.
This might be an opportunity to provide one (or two) additional named NPCs (either that already exist or that are made up by you, the GM) and have more of a role-play and story session than combat. Or perhaps each character uses their abilities and has the other characters comment (in character) how they might be able to use them better.
Instead of specifically the next play session, another idea might be to save this until a day you all expect more interruptions than usual... if you can plan those! I've found that (though rare), there are sometimes days you know are going to be more difficult to get together all at once, which provides an opportunity for these in-character (and out-of-character) learning about their abilities.
Examples include:
1) Provide an obstacle course... one that includes some different walls and a few waterways. Have them attempt to climb it. This will show them how difficult (or easy) it is to climb walls.
2) Provide a set of twig targets in various positions. Have the mages carefully assault them, learning how to handle their abilities. Have the warriors learn their moves on these or maybe some sort of stuffed, but jointed, scare-crow-like statues.
Another alternate take on this idea is to suggest that they come up with this sort of in-character training: it gives them the chance to create their own sort of pseudo-dungeon, run themselves through it, and learn their abilities at the same time.
Please feel free to disregard this idea! It might not be fun for them or you! ... but if you think it could help and it could be fun, maybe you could use it!
Regardless, I really respect what you're trying to do with them here and am praying for you greatly! Peace!
~ Tac
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Tacticslion - I think that is a very good idea, where perhaps Akiros, who is their General in the city, might step forward and offer some support on group tactics. The team don't have a fighter and, normally, Imrijka steps forward to take that role but he wasn't feeling so good on Thursday. Also, Old Beldin, might have some time with Feiya to help her choose her spells and also Lini, quite reasonably. Our heroes might have the talent to be adventurers, but they still lack the "experience"!
Quite a few people seemed interested in this blog post - Go to blog Teaching Changemakers using Kingmaker - where we were discussing the potential of Pathfinder for developing vision, creativity and leadership skills among youngsters in Uganda.
It occurs to me that the main challenge your youngsters are likely to face in future life leadership positions is the balancing of kinship network/extended family demands with their other responsibilities; whereas this is something completely absent in default Golarion - everyone seems to be an American-style individualist with a nuclear family or no family at all. Is it worth including 'family' in Kingmaker as an issue, or would that make things too complicated?
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This is an interesting idea where, as you say, family plays an extraordinary impact in the lives of Ugandans. Let me ask them on Thursday what their family status is and we can try to flesh out their background a bit more.
Realistically, though, adventurers would have a very stressed family, not knowing whether their spouse, father or mother would be turned to stone, lost levels or limbs.
Let's see what they say and we will discuss the issue of family. I know well enough not to presume what answers these kids will give me.
Posting for tracking purposes. Well done, Ben!
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Sorry, I didn't get a chance to discuss the family issues this week. We were a bit pressured to level up all of the characters to Level 6 - quite a power increase - and so we started a bit later than usual. I promise to post on this next week and we will see what their response is.
One of the things one has to be careful with generally in roleplaying games is "railroading" and that is for two reasons - it isn't really roleplaying to only offer one course of action, but secondly, with this group, you can't predict what it is they are going to do, especially as they love killing the monsters, perhaps more than anything.
I'll come to this a bit later. Last Monday was a public holiday in Uganda, known as Heroes Day. I'm afraid I know little about it but suffice to say that heroism is the order of the day. We at the Chrysalis Centre are always incredibly busy on this day, as there is no school and no other youth organisations are open for business either. Despite a five hour downpour of rain, which meant our little Centre was stacked to the gunwales, we were still able to run activities for the multitude of children that visited.
I had decided that a short Pathfinder session of one small battle might instil a feeling of heroism and also encourage a number of new players to play the game, through the enjoymeent of rolling a few dice, plus Patrick, the roleplaying monitor, would get a chance to do some more DMing. It turned out that he was busy all day, with group after group going through his scenario. Time will tell which of these come back for more...
I mention this because I feel the issue of heroism is really very important in the overall strategy for roleplaying here. Heroes are important in any society, yet poverty drains away the ability for many to act heroically. I notice very clearly from our group that the killing of monsters is an act of heroism, which represents something much more within each character.
Ok, back to last night's game. We started with some tactics from the group from Akiros (me) and I asked them to share their new powers and spells, so they could think about working together and this went well - thanks for the idea. The kids had decided to buy some tree feather tokens to support the nixie up in the North West and, in the way I sometimes do, I skirted through this very quickly, awarded quest experience and brought everyone back to the city. By this time Seoni, which Kenneth promptly renamed "Jayna" from Hearthstone, which the kids at the Centre love to play and I feel is very educational for them, had arrived, back late home from school, at around 9.00pm.
They set off towards the troll encampment, but during the trip, they felt eyes on them and Lini spotted the old rogue (see previous posting) in the far distance. Sajan and Lini's cat set off in hot pursuit through the thick undergrowth and soon found themselves alone and face to face with the rogue and a forest drake. The others were limping along at a slower speed. Sajan shone, hitting for 39 points in one round and the cat added a bit more, though they were both burnt from the acid breath. It seemed likely that these two were going to despatch the dragon on their own and the sneaky rogue saw this early and ran again into his forest.
Dragon despatched and Sajan's confidence in his abilities raised, the group set off to pursue the rogue, but in vain. Balazar, the Summoner, also decided that he was going to send his eidolon the 40 miles back to the city, with the head of the forest drake, to claim their reward. I'm not sure why they do this, but it does seem that quests with money attached to them have additional meaning here in the slum?
Imrijka doggedly chased the rogue and they soon realised that they were lost in the forest, with no means to find the troll encampment they had set out to find. With eidolon away, Balazar seemed a little vulnerable. He could not even summon other monsters, which his unfettered eidolon was handling the freight. The group chose then to return back to the dragon and sit and wait for the eidolon.
However, the smell of food brought in a pack of nearby rock trolls, travelling in the small hours of the morning. Ok, rock trolls are not on the monster encounter list, but I thought they might enjoy fighting a different type of troll and I wanted it to be challenging. My railroad was that the group would either see it as too tough for them or would find a way to expose the trolls to direct sunlight, using Imrijka's knowledge of monster lore.
It turned out that the party took neither option and saw the chance to triumph over some more trolls, which had become their arch enemies...
Jayna stepped forward in the way Akiros had trained them to work as a team and keep the trolls on fire. She used her burning hands and caught four trolls in the spell. However, next the tables were turned on her and one of the trolls tore her apart for 59 points in one round. Oops...
But now, Feiya showed her how to do it, having already cast mirror image, she shot a bolt right through the centre of the trolls hitting all bar one for 30 points with her 6d6 lightning bolt. Sajjan was also caught in the blast, but deftly stepped aside to avoid any damage at all. Seeing the trolls starting to be heavily damaged, but startled that the fire was not stopping them regenerate, the party pressed on. Damiel sent a volley of bombs, Sajjan continued to pummel them, Imrijka used his bane to cause extra damage, Balazar used Corrosive touch and soon the trolls were starting to look damaged. However, Sajjan was down and up with healing, Lini was hurt, Damiel was down to 2hp and even Balazar was low, cursing that the trolls weren't giants and could hit him without penalty (?I think that's right).
Step forward Imrijka diplomacy check. "Trolls, you have not found your food here and morning is fast approaching. You will soon be dust on the ground and I suggest you leave us in peace." (Roll 13 on check)
Lead troll responds "You leave us food [holds up Jayna] and we go." Imrijka: "Then you die at our hands," brandishing axe.
Next round the trolls ran and the party claimed victory, though the trolls still have the lifeless body of Jayna and the party are choosing whether to pursue.
So, how do I handle the death of this character, Jayna? Kenneth was upset about it, but he said he would make a new character. Or is there a way I can plausibly raise him back?
Also, there are seven characters in the group. How can I make the troll encampment balanced and challenging for them, which they seem to like! The troll leader has some tricks up his sleeve, so I am looking forward to that one...
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Wow! Interesting story!
Re: death of a character...
There are several way you can handle it, depending on your style and the kids', and what works best, both as a teaching tool (your purpose here), as a story-making tool (the nature of an RPG), and as a fun game (the reason people play!).
I'm going to mention several options to you, and you can choose, can take several parts of the ideas and mix them together, or gain inspiration for something else! Or choose none of them! :)
Regardless, I recommend that you decide which of these is true by seeing how the kids are/react next week. Base what happens in the story on the group dynamics, general attitude about the death (and new character), and what's interesting for the story.
1) you can leave it that the character died; this is the easiest solution, though not necessecarily the most satisfying one, either narratively ("the mighty hero was slain... by a random group of trolls?") or personally ("ugh, a minor random encounter killed me?"), both of which are even harder to swallow when it turns out the encounter wasn't one "likely" to happen in the first place (potentially leading to general faulting of the GM for coming up with an encounter they couldn't win).
That said, it could be utilized to reinforce important lessons ("life is not always easy, and, no matter how talented, you're not destined for success: you have to be careful"), and could make for an interesting story if spun properly. It could also be really fun: learning a new character often can be!
Plus, if there was a "piece" of the newly-dead character left (due to the rather terrible way the character died!), that piece could easily be taken to the nearest eighth level Druid (who didn't exist before you made him up just now - like the trolls!) to be subject to a reincarnate spell. Normally this would be very expensive, but I suggest that the price could be waived (the Druid would pay it - though just this once!) on exchange of a task: killing the troll leader (the boss of the AP), because said trolls are ruining the local environment. You could have the nixie actually come into play here by recommending the Druid and they meet; either talking to the characters (since you rushed through that part, you can actually mention now that they remember that she said something about a Druid in these parts) or by talking to the Druid (who came by to check on his or her friend, said nixie, on his way to research things down south with the trolls) who then seeks out the characters... and finds them in time to help raise Jayna.
You could have a new character show up. Perhaps this new character was a prisoner of the rock trolls, who just happens to get free as the other player characters assault the rock troll cave (as the rock trolls sleep, naturally, since they're tired and it's daytime now)? Perhaps have the new character hunting these very trolls for revenge? There are lots of ways to introduce a new character! Find one that feels right for the group. :)
If Jayna gets reincarnated, you could actually take the opportunity to make a "new character": Jayna! When she gests better with reincarnate, she's an entirely different race and class! (That's not normally how reincarnate works, but it could be a fun story-thing).
2) you can have the character be "mostly dead... but not really."; this is ripe for RP potential and has many differing ways it could suss out, but it could also weaken the fear of death/failure or weaken their faith in the rules, if mishandled
Do you want someone to be an ally, but worried about how to introduce them? Instant ally hook! (The ally saves them from the trolls, temporarily joins with the heroes, tells the heroes the location of the rock-troll lair, or otherwise gives some sort of assistance; as a few possible examples.) this could even be the afore-mentioned Druid.
Do these trolls have ties to the main troll force? Perhaps the "dead" character was traded to the troll leader or that castle. From there, several things could happen:
- the body could be stacked in the larder; if the character was only mostly dead they come-to later and find themselves in a troll larder filled with people... creepy! (If the character was all-dead, the heroes might find the character's old body here later: extra creepy!)
- the "mostly-dead" Jayna could wake up in the rock troll cave later, just in time to help her friends in combat again... though at only 1 hit point! It's very dangerous!
- the "mostly dead" Jayna could wake up to the face of the troll-leader... or perhaps (if she was totally dead), the troll leader the raises her (who did he hire?! And where did that cleric-or-Druid go?! It's a mystery... for heroes!) and attempts to get information out of the prisoner. If Jayna resists, despite how scary and mean the troll is, that's... really heroic!
Anyway, those are a couple of ways you might handle it! Either way, God bless you and Good gaming!
Some very interesting ideas. I very much like the reincarnate idea and the link with the tree feather tokens, as a boon for the efforts the players made. Whispering Wind could also be used, as it is likely to be a nixie spell.
I guess one idea might also be that she is raised as a dhampyr sorceress (if this is possible as there just happens to be a nasty Undead type in the Forgotten Keep.
I will have some thoughts this week and will post what happens after next session!
Awesome! :D
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Pizza Lord - the kids around here are well-versed with death - the majority in the gaming group have lost one or both parents and they know the impact it has had on their lives. Many live in fear that a parent will die or that they themselves will catch a fatal illness, due to the unsanitary conditions at home. Burials in Uganda are frequent and generally hugely attended.
Having said all that, I think that children think about these things differently - I don't know how they feel about the issues you mention. It was Kenneth's first session with this character, so he hadn't had time to get attached to it (nor to realise that the sorceror doesn't face up to the troll in cloth armour.) He wants to play a sorceror, so a reincarnation is a nice idea that maybe impacts on his character long-term, but not enough to make the character not worth playing.
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All preparations in place, even read up on the reincarnate spell, we moved onto the session.
Actually no one was really in the mood for the session, except Patrick, who had been looking forward all week to killing some more trolls, but my experience is that on these types of days, a bit of roleplaying can turn things around.
The kids had all had a long day at school and they didn't get back until 7.15pm. Barbara came a bit earlier and I told her we would be starting later than usual, but she went home and didn't come back. Also, Kenneth - who had got killed the week before and whom we had great plans for - didn't make it either!
But we were still five and we managed to start on the dot of eight.
Joseph and Brian looked very tired and Maria was a bit rudderless without Barbara, so we launched into the game. Under the circumstances, I didn't feel it right to talk about the family issues we discussed here, so I have decided to delay this until the end of Kingmaker 2, which I predict will be 2 more weeks. I don't have a copy of Kingmaker 3, so we shall have to see how that pans out....
We left everyone last week, as the rock trolls were turning tail and running. Morning was almost upon them and they needed to find somewhere out of the sunlight. The party were very battered and didn't feel too keen to engage much further with the trolls, though Sajjan immediately followed them, with just 2hp left, though keeping a distance. Damiel. eager to utilise his newly-grown wings, set off in pursuit from the air above the trees and out of the range of the claws.
To add to the story, one of the trolls had one half of Seoni and the other had the other half, so the kids were appalled at what had happened to their friend, determined that these trolls would pay for what they had done! A cave was spotted in the distance and the rock trolls seemed to be heading towards it. Quick-thinking Damiel, fired off a bomb (he has that discovery), made a great fly check, and set off a small avalanche of rocks, which half blocked the cave.
The sun peeked across the horizon and in their panic, the trolls grabbed at handfuls of rocks, to try to get to safety in time, but delayed by the small avalanche, they didn't make it, turning to stone a matter of feet from their protective cave.
All bar Feiya pitched up with Sajjan and they determined to turn the rock trolls into rubble, suspicious that they might somehow regenerate back....
Meanwhile, cue another wandering monster. Feiya hears a loud buzzing sound approaching, ignores it and feels a stabbing of a stirge in her back. Never having met one before she runs screaming for help, but the others are a few minutes away and cannot hear her cries. CON ebbing away, she spots a cloud of more stirges yards away, poised to remove the rest of her blood. Then, presence of mind and, in the forest, she used her web spell to catch the swarm of stirges, leaving just the one, now sated and flying away. A bit the worse for wear, she links up again with the group.
By now they were exploring the cave, discovering it was a food store for the rock trolls, though there were only bones there. Sajjan discovered an old belt (giant strength +2) which had obviously belonged to an adventurer that had become food for the trolls. Sajjan had a nice boost to his character, asking me whether he was free to keep it, while Damiel suggested they sell it to resurrect Seoni.
The eidolon was still days away from returning, so the group decided to sit and wait by the dead dragon again. Impatient Sajjan, said he wanted to scout the area for more trolls and perhaps find the camp. He found a pair and spotted what might be the encampment far in the distance. Discretion the better part of valour, he returned to report to the group.
Now, a further time of waiting. They can hear wolves, but nothing disturbs them in the night and the eidolon was due to return the next day.
Later in the day, a voice could be heard on the wind. Imrijka, by now a bit more alert, identified the sound of the voice (using monster lore) as a nixie, maybe the one they assisted. "Thaaaank you.....thaaaank you..." the voice whistled. "Look for the druid Esme....she will reward you....she will appear as a crow...." and the voice faded.
A short while later, an exhausted eidolon returned from the City of Happiness and next morning the party set out to the troll encampment. The troll duo were no longer to be found, but still they continued on.
They were interrupted by the chirpy voice of a passing bird. "Hello, I am Esme", as she landed on Imrijka's shoulder. "I am here to grant you a boon and have flown many miles to reach you here. How can I be of assistance?"
A bit bemused by this, the party Didn't quite know what to ask for. "Can you heal cure Feiya's illness (CON loss)?" The bird transformed into a very old human woman with long and flowing grey hair. "That is but a minor boon. I will help Feiya but perhaps a time will come when you may need me more?" She hands Sajjan a small bamboo flute saying "Play this flute and I will come".
"How soon will you come?" Sajjan asks. Transforming back into a bird, the druid chirps "Soon, my dear, soon". She flies away and leaves the party to approach the encampment, which Damiel remembers was a dwarven fort to protect old trade routes.
Always quick to spot trails, Imrijka leads the group up a hidden pathway up the mountain. They tread stealthily, as they pad up the path. "Ow" Feiya exclaims, as she treads on a sharp stone, just outside entry hall. They can hear two trolls inside shouting at each other and somehow (a 1 and a 2 on perception check) the trolls inside don't hear Feiya's cry of pain. Eager to get his spiders into the fray, Damiel forgets that casting spells causes noise and they unfortunately lose the element of surprise (17 and 18 on perception).
An exciting battle ensued, as these two guard trolls bring in two more trolls and two trollhounds to the fray, yet the party prevail, Sajjan down but valiant, all dishing out lots of damage
Next week, they continue through their exploration through the troll encampment and the more dangerous troll leaders. Maybe Seoni and Lini will be there next week. And what of Esme?...
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I spoke to Kenneth yesterday and he said he was happy for the randomness of a die roll for reincarnation. So, he rolled up and Jayna (not Seoni, as in the previous post) ended up a(nother) gnome, which makes three gnomes in the group, including Lini and Balazar.
We'll roleplay it on Thursday, but, for now, at least I can say we utilised the druid reincarnation idea and it has worked quite nicely. The boon is, however,now spent and Esme can get back to tending her cabbages.
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Well, the climax to Kingmaker 2 was not quite what we expected. Maria (Feiya) dropped out through illness, as did Barbara (Lini). Kenneth failed to make it again despite best preparations, so for the most challenging encounters of the module, we were down to four players.
Last week was quite a trial and we are still learning the spell system together. The idea of having sorceror-type and wizard-type character might seem good, but what if your alchemist wants to act as a sorceror or your inquisitor seems to forget that he has a spell limit? I feel I have to play things by ear, but tonight, I wanted to show them that unlimited spells was not on the cards and how that can lead to much tougher battles.
And my goodness the battles were tough. The two-headed troll can do enormous damage and literally wipe out most characters in one round. Thank goodness the first round it wasted trying to scare the team, with an intimidate fo +6, which seemed a bit measly for such a tough creature.
A 4 on the dice more or less saved the depleted party and they scraped home using the dregs of the spells they had left. A more experienced party might have taken a break here and rested outside the area, but our fearless adventurers were ready for more, the inquisitor's generous healing and potions now all used up. Two more trolls were quite easily despatched, though more damage was incurred. Without pausing for breath, they ploughed even further and somehow managed to surprise the rock troll languishing in the larder and again quickly despatched it.
Mean GM, however, rolled a perception check for the troll leader in a nearby room and I left the session with a cliffhanger, as the troll leader welcomed them "for dinner in the larder". So with few or no spells, no healing and next to no hit points and the toughest troll blocking their exit, we need to have a fulfilling end to the adventure.
Lini has offered her character for someone else to play next week, as she is off on a netball camp with the school. Fingers crossed Fieya and maybe even Jayna will be back, but does anyone have any creative ideas, that we might utilise to give something more the kids to think about?
I think they really enjoyed the session, though the pressure was very great at times. I am also keen to get them back on track with kingdom-building and a bit less monster-slaying, though I know they love this!
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I just heard about this and I could not be more supportive.
I come from a poor background in a racially divided town, and D&D helped me to temporarily escape from that, work towards some other skills and view all people as having real potential and agency.
This is good work you are doing Ben.
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Thanks for your support, DM Under the Bridge.
We decided to take a week off this week, as Barbara and Maria were not available and Kenneth came late again. So we decided to play Descent instead and level a few characters this way, as well as teach something a bit more focused.
Brian (Imrijka) doesn't much like this game and Joseph (Balazar) is very impatient with the others that don't grasp the rules, but we pressed on and introduced the game to Kenneth, Oswaldo and Patrick. Brian played Grisban the Berserker, Oswaldo the Necromancer, Kenneth the ranger and Patrick the disciple. Joseph was the Overlord and I was there to assist with the rules.
We played the two scenario session leading to the first meeting with Splig. These are fun adventures and good ones to get them used to the rules (more fun than the Ettin adventure). I was feeling very crotchety last night and impatient too, but managed to impart the rules well enough and in the end a good time had by all, with questions like when can we do the next adventure at the end, so was a success. Here in Uganda, though, we suffer from there being too few adults prepared to give these games a go and none that know them to teach them to the kids. Time is naturally limited on this aspect of what we are doing, so we can't meet the demand!
The comparison of the value of the board game over the roleplaying game
is an interesting one. The more clearly defined rules of the board game can also be satisfying and perhaps encourage more detailed or strategic thinking, within a framework. For leadership skills, though I am preferring the rpg...
Next week back to Kingmaker and probably the climax to the campaign Part 2!
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Well the troll leader is dead and the group are battered but relieved. We started very late last night, as someone had mislaid the keys to the roleplaying cupboard, so we spent significant time looking for it, only to decide that my colleague several miles away must have it. We will find out today.
Unfortunately Barbara didn't show up today again, so I am guessing that she is wanting to drop or there is some other reason. Barbara is our librarian and thus takes responsibility for looking after all of the reading books we have here. Pathfinder has been very helpful at encouraging the boys with their reading and I can see the fruits of this, especially when they are GMing and reading aloud from the Pathfinder Organised Play modules that we are now doing every week. The Pathfinder books aren't looked after by Barbara, as they are locked in another cupboard. Anyway, enough of reality - will keep you posted with feedback from Barbara.
Because we started so late, both Patrick and Kenneth were already here - they tend to come late because of school - so we resumed exactly where we were. To remind you, the party had just surprised and despatched a single stone troll but were themselves surprised by being blocked by the troll leader in the larder. Balazar's eidolon was also on borrowed time, as he had had to summon it fast, which meant it wasn't likely to stay many more rounds. I was surprised at the thought that they had put into the battle. Damiel spent Round 1 quaffing a potion of shield. Imrijka took a round to drink a potion of healing and retreat out of harms way. Balazar cast Greater Magic Fang and Sajjan attacked, ending up on 2hp, with the threatening reach of the monster.
Yesterday, I had asked one of the other roleplayers, Hassan, what he felt he had learnt from roleplaying and his response was quite interesting - "I have learnt to plan and 'be careful'". So our leadership group were doing exactly that and it paid dividends. Other than imrijka, who was caught by an unlucky critical hit and levelled with -8 hit points. Sajjan took a bit of a risk, but it paid off and he ended up jumping over the 15 foot troll - I hope I am allowed to let the monk do this! The eidolon charged and then Damiel, the alchemist quaffed his mutagen potion (for the first time) and dashed into combat with his +2 feybane rapier. With a healthy armour class and 109hp, the troll leader fought hard but was gradually being chipped down, especially by the dangerous eidolon. "If you use fire against me, you will be sorry" threatened the troll and they didn't, scared of what the magical necklace he was wearing might do. Hearing sounds of battle, Feiya and the new gnome Jayna appeared sending a volley of spells, but not before Hargulka unleashed his most dangerous fireball at the newcomers. Both failed their saves, taking 32hp each, but they were both still up and Feiya launched her sleep hex and the troll was down, snoring.
The group were panicking about the necklace - "Get it off him" Balazar ordered and Jayna wrestled to remove it, though she failed. "Let me cast Burning hands and finish him"..."No - the necklace", Balazar replied "You may damage it". The eidolon then grabbed the necklace in its mouth and tugged like an elephant, somehow removing the necklace but wakening the troll again who immediately grabbed back, a battle the eidolon won, with a "1" rolled by the troll leader. Wickedly, I then regenerated the stone troll behind them but the party had the battle won by then and enjoyed looting the cave!
Time was almost up by now, so I asked them what next. They elected to return to the city of Happiness with their prize only to find that it had been decimated and a hue creature had been terrorising the place in their absence. No chance to party, they looked as to how to track the creature and.....
Well that will be next time!
I have recently entered the project in a competition offered by Lego - http://www.changemakers.com/project/training-leaders-through-roleplay - if anyone would like to comment on the project, please feel free to do so, as it might gain more traction.
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<NOTE LOTS OF SPOILERS THIS WEEK>
With the trolls under the belts, I was a little less eager to press into another procession of battles, though this was the culmination of the whole Part 2 of the adventure path. However, my group was ready for more monster-bashing, though this time with a bit of caution.
We run roleplaying with many children here in Kampala, from age 10 upwards, so long as they can read a bit and roll a dice. A few weeks ago, I was asked to write a piece for a book, so I have been interviewing the kids to see what they had to say about the roleplaying. There were some interesting comments:
12 year old Hassan Opio says “It teaches me how to plan, how to use your knowledge of counting, how to move when your careful – take precautions. If you don’t know how to plan, you don’t know how to plan for anything, a business, an orphanage, your future.”
“In roleplaying there are many things – like when they are not careful, they fall into traps and get eaten by monsters. I gain knowledge, but the main thing is about planning ahead. For instance, you plan how you are going to kill a monster, which route you are going to take, because some will be very dangerous. If you don’t plan how to kill a monster, then it may kill you. Sometimes we don’t work as a team, and this can cause some of us to die, which is a bad thing, so we are learning teamwork too.”
Lastly, Samuel (18) says “it encourages children to become leaders and brave, as they fight the monsters. Roleplaying opens many options and gives leaders the chance to make the right decision.”
I noticed very much that roleplaying was making them think bigger, more heroically and even bravely, so we must be on the right path.
Caution, though was also important, and this meant our group refusing to follow the giant creature until each had 4 potions of cure moderate wounds ready and waiting, cheaply and speedily produced by their alchemist. I decided that I would test their time management this week, with a view to completing the whole adventure path and that an extra reward would become available, if they managed to finish.
Sajjan is the least cautious one and his player is really playing himself, a Ugandan taekwondo champion. So, his lack of caution sent him into the path of 12 violet fungus attacks. Some of them managed to get through and Sajjan was severely weakened. Bravely though he fought on and the remainder of the fungi were despatched easily.
I had hoped, perhaps that they might become distracted from their path but focusing on their time management, they pressed on the most likely path to find the giant creature (all the other paths were narrow) and edged forward into the room they thought it might be, this time cautiously using stealth.
An owlbear's ear's are very sharp and despite being in the neighbouring room, it heard them entering its lair, charging at the eidolon and slaughtering it in one round. Only Imrijka's keen darkvision spotted the creature but by then the eidolon was no more. Cautiously preparing for the assault, Imrijka moved back to a safer position and cast bane on his sword, waiting for the creature to come to him.
By now Jayna (Kenneth) had arrived - he normally comes late - and we couldn't find his character sheet, so we had to remember roughly what spells he had - was it fireball? Damiel, the alchemist, threw a bomb at the creature, but found itself in the threatening reach, as he moved back, and was hooked with a huge claw. Now Jayna, their new sorceror, unleashed a huge fireball, engulfing both the owlbear (who saved) and Damiel (who didn't), sending him unconscious with bad burns. Feiya failed with a spell and then Imrijka hit a huge critical with his axe, now that the creature no longer had attacks of opportunity, as Sajjan had managed to get a stunning fist on it.
A whole round of attacks chipped away at the creature and Damiel was slightly healed up only to be whacked back down, as he tried to get up. By now Balazar had resummoned his eidolon (with the swift summoning spell) and it was once more into the fray, stamping and biting.
Feiya delivered the killer action, as she sent the creature into sleep oblivion and it wasn't long before a battered party had the measure of the monster. There was a cheer, as it died and the mystery of its existence started to unfold. A pitiful hoot and they saw a tiny owlbear cub barely alive amongst its dead kindred. Sajjan, put on the ring of animal friendship to make the cub its friend, but was dismayed when the mood of the creature turned to hate after a few minutes. Forced to tie the creature up, injured and ill, a few minutes later the tiny owlbear died in Jayna's arms and the party looked at each other dismayed. Destroy the ring, Balazar had said, but others were shouting about its monetary value and so, they kept it, though Jayna carefully removed a golden strand of hair from inside its band....
Returning to the city, they were hailed as the heroes they deserved to be and a statue of the giant owlbear was erected in the town. I've managed to see a copy of Kingmaker 3, so I was able to show the kids an artist's view of their city and they were enthusiastic to see this. Was also great to have the owlbear and violet fungus pawns, courtesy of Paizo for yesterday's session.
Next week, I think we will try something new for a week - maybe some science fiction rpg - before we resume the campaign, so i may not post for a couple of weeks. We shall see...
This is great! Sorry I've been silent - I was out of town and somehow missed this thread's updates. Is there any way to get a donation drive for the rest of Kingmaker for you guys? Actually...
How much would it cost to ship 3 through 6 to Mr. Parkinson?
Exactly my question. The problem, though, as I understand it, is that Kingmaker might no be readily available: I think it's one of the top-selling APs period, and I'm unsure if they might have run out. I asked James Jacobs about the idea in his thread...
I'm thinking about buying some of them here on the site (I checked and it looks like there are some non-mint copies available) and having Paizo mail them. Of course, I'd need the address to send them to and the shipping cost would determine how many I could afford to buy.
I made this! I can't afford to actually ship things over seas right now (new child being born in December, and we're on a single income: a high-school teacher's!), hence a lack of direct offer on my part.
But I can mention and ask!
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Everyone here is very kind and I will pass on your good wishes to all of the kids here. At the moment we are running this in a slum area in Kampala and thus we have good internet access and actually we are using PDFs right now, so it would be not necessary to have the hard copies. I can print out key pages, like the city building parts.
Mike Brock has been really helpful and has made some of the PFS modules available for us, so we are trying to do these, though some are very complex for the kids here and also they are generally too long for one evening. I mention this, as Mike might be prepared to make access available for Kingmaker modules, if they are purchased on someone else's account. mike.brock@paizo.com
Alternatively, the money for the PDFs could be donated at http://www.justgiving.com/cyen and they can then be acquired directly by me.
In time, we intend to take the Kingmaker campaign into the village areas and this will bring more difficulties, as net will not likely be available, at least in my experience on our rural site to date, but we can still take charged laptops there and run sessions. Our young kingmakers are also being trained as GMs and it will not be longbefore they can go out into these places and run the games using local language for children.
Shipping is possible and the address to send anything would be Ben Parkinson/Alex Obeni, Chrysalis Centre, c/o Life in Africa, P O Box 28825, Kireka, Kampala, UGANDA.
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Many thanks to those who supported us with copies of the rest of the series! We will be continuing with Part 3 on Thursday!
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We did a bonus session last night for Free RPG Day 2014 - Risen from the Sands. I warned them that everyone had said it was extremely hard and they would likely die, but it has been a breeze so far, with every class coming into its own.
I don't want to put in any spoilers on this post, but will say that the most difficult early opponent was despatched easily with critical hits from the earthbreaker and the heavy flail. Also, the panache from the swashbuckler has also been put to good use.
The flavour of the new classes has been ok, with the warpriest making sense and investigator taking on a more logical approach. Why would you not let your investigator lead? Swashbuckler was flashy and fun. The bloodrager perhaps a bit harder to reconcile, but Oswaldo enjoyed playing it.
They are learning. I said "Shall we move onto the next room or is there anything else you want to do in this room?" A chorus of "we want to search it" means I will have to be more subtle next time....
All in all thumbs up for this module so far. A little bit left to do for next time.
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We are in the midst of school exams at this time, but the group were determined to play, as we were starting the new Varnhold Vanishing, thanks to support from friends of the project. The kids always look surprised when I tell them that people outside are interested in their roleplaying, in some dark corner of Uganda.
I encouraged Barbara to return and was able to print out the character sheet for Lini at Level 7. Also I found an optimised character for Feiya on-line and gave it to Maria, who seemed very excited that she now had a fox to play and "Black Tentacles!"
It seemed very difficult to get started last night. I had banned Oswaldo (Sajjan) for a week so we were six, but the boys were determined to say that their character had the best powers. Seriously these new characters are definitely very powerful, so it will be interesting to see how they stack up to the denizens in the adventure. I've very rarely run these higher level adventures, so we shall see how it works out...
In the spirit of moving things forward, I decided to move the campaign on about 6-9 months, with their fledgling kingdom expanded to 40 hexes and I gave them the Academy, which was an essential for Old Beldin to take over the Magical instruction in the City, plus 100 BPs, to spend how they saw fit - I tasked them with having a meeting before next week to decide on their options.
Finally we started at around 9 and we set off for Varnhold, not knowing where it was at all. A traveller had told them basically to follow the Shrike river, but basically keep to the East and the sharp eyes of Imrijka spotted a watchtower on the top of a hill. SPider climbing up the side of the mountain, they reached the deserted post and saw the small town below them. Grr... dinner arrived to disrupt our timings again - it's part of what is offered to the kids to participate in the roleplaying, but we managed to move onto the explore the town.
I was concerned a little about the complexity of the story here and the module sort of reveals it in bits, but I was impressed by most of the kids' rapt attention when they discovered a giant spriggan, complex books, money in tills and other destroyed areas. Around every corner they were expecting a battle but.....
...we didn't have one, though I feel the scene is set. They know that a very powerful bracelet was found and is linked into the story of Varhold and they know the names of the people that were researching into the bracelet and also they know the name "Vordakai" and were even able to decipher a rune of protection in the notebook of the researcher.
The session finished as the reached the defensive palissade and they could detect the thoughts of creatures inside. Damiel's rapier also began to vibrate with the thought of fey nearby...
No game this Thursday due to illness.
Thanks for the update!
I wanted to mention that if one of your characters has some divination spells, you might want to "hijack" one that they cast in order to show them a "scene" from the vanishing itself.
If none of them have anything like that, you could always RP something where a spiritually-focused or weird-magic character (Sajan and Freya come to mind, as does Imrijka, though you could fluff anything; if you wanted, it could even be a special ritual Freya intuits by her training, to out someone into a state of suspended animation with Imrijka's power, allowing them a kind of Vulcan mind-meld as the third person actually views the scene.
This would be beyond the actual rules, but my own GM did something like this in our game to show scenes that would otherwise be unknown to us, the players.
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I am debating running this tonight, but we are on the brink of the quite lengthy fey battle. I like the idea of dream-seeing the event. Maybe a crystal was left, which absorbed some of the events which led up to the vanishing. We shall see...
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My illness, a bit less problematic, I reorganised last Thursday’s session for Monday, last night. In the meantime, the kids had been asking about when we were going to do the session, so we did it. Again Barbara did not come, which was disappointing, even though the party works better with six and the druid is effectively two extra people to organise. One of the things with the rpg is that not everyone enjoys it and we live with and embrace that fact!
So, we left the session last week with the group poised to storm the palisade. It soon became clear that there were going to be six separate stormings of the palisade, so I said I wanted them to work on a concerted plan, where all were involved. Over the last few months, the groups have diversified their abilities and this has proved interesting for them, highlighting clearly the need for teamwork. However, this had been the first time, where some of them could fly and others really struggled in climbing, so the palisade walls were going to need some teamwork.
Damiel had taken the Wings mutation at Level 6, so they decided that he would be the communicator and hover above the doorway. As they saw him, the spriggans giggled saying “Eh, look who we have here!” Now we came to a common situation in roleplay, where a character does not really want to do the dialogue, as they feel a bit embarrassed about it. Patrick says “I tell them that we want to meet their leader.” Innocently, I respond “Off you go, then, we are all ears.” Eventually, Patrick (Damiel) plucks up the courage and uses the real dialogue and the conversation goes badly. “Hey, what’s that he’s wearing? I don’t like the look of it. (Feybane rapier). I think we should kill him, what do you think.” Four daggers speed across at the hovering Damiel. Three of the daggers connect 1d3-1 damage PLUS 2d6 sneak attack. “The tiny daggers barely pierce your flesh, but they strike you in the most painful place you can think of, the fey giggling as they strike.” “We ain’t here to let visitors in, “ they chime, “ we’re here to prevent them." Balazar curses that their carefully woven plan was now not going to work. By the time Sajjan leapt to the top of the palisade, one had transformed into a giant fey, hurling a giant anvil at the monk, trying to topple him off the fence, but missed. The others woke up a few more fey in the area.
Sajjan pulled up Imrijka, with the aid of the ant haul spell, Balazar landed on the ground with his eidolon and was immediately set upon by four wolves. Patiently, Balazar activated his Ring of Bestial Ferocity and turned the wolves back on their masters. Opportunistically Feiya climbed the wall with a high roll and decided to cast Black tentacles into the melee pinning the remaining small fey, before they could take any further actions. On their action they transformed and tried to break the grapple, 3 of 5 succeeding. The eidolon charged and despatched the early transformer and Jayna failed to scale the wall, Imrijka then pulling her up. The three remaining few escape the tentacles and then enter the blockhouse, heavily bolting it, so none can enter from outside.
Next Sajjan leaps the black tentacles and lands in a spiked pit, miracuolously avoiding any of the spikes. But can’t open the door. Feiya cancels the spell and the others follow to the blockhouse all barring Imrijka looking for another way to get in. Imrijka launches herslf at the gate and splinters it into several pieces (with a 20) and then does the same (with another 20) on the next door. So they were in and made their way through the fortification. Imrijka found a page from a spellbook, when he noticed that the floor was becoming greasy – something was pouring in oil from above………….FIRE, FIRE, as the whole floor went up in flames. Sajjan noticed a hatchway to the roof and found him squeezed on the roof with a giant-sized angry fey, the others are making their way through the fire. Will they go up or down?....
Unfortunately, at this point, the lights went out with a power cut and we had to cut things short. Even now, as I write, the power has not come back, so not sure when this will be posted! Next session on Thursday, though….
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We resumed the session mid-battle, with each party member with a dilemma to consider. Do they head downwards and try to escape the house? Do they head upwards onto the roof, where a giant fey awaits them.
What came next was a mixture of nightmare and brilliance and once again I needed a bit of creativity to resolve things...
Damiel headed into the fire, looking for Imrijka, who had been confused by the smoke and was shouting for help. He located him smartish and dragged him back out of the fire. Feiya seemed undecided and had the brilliant idea of putting the fire out with ice storm, but then decided not to, for some reason. Feiya is very feisty and the boys don't like to see her shine, though I've noticed they have given her a lot more credibility recently, but she does worry about making a mistake since the first lightning bolt incident, where she killed so many civilians. She delayed her entire turn thinking about it...
In the meantime Sajjan, who was the only one who spotted the opening in the ceiling where the oil was poured down. He deftly leaped through the opening and found himself squeezed on a four square roof occupied by a large creature. Realising he was also heavily wounded he gulped down a cure moderate wounds, but it was not enough. The creature had vital strike and two attacks which gave him 6d8+22 damage and he kicked Sajjan off the roof.
Jayna had found her way through the fire and was ambling down the stairs, as Imrijka hurtled past her, only to find herself lost in the blockhouse. In contrast, Jayna easily found her way to the door and was levelled by a posse of fey in one round (She was AC13. By now Feiya had decided to follow with Mirror Image and ice stormed the outside area. Imrijka healed Jayna up and she almost wiped out 5 fey with a giant fireball, which Damiel then mopped up with his firebomb.
Meanwhile, Balazar was trying to fly through the gap onto the roof and his eidolon rolled a 20 on the strength check and managed to push his way past only to be flattened by the giant club of the fey and sent back down. Balazar grabbed the edge of the trapdoor and slid himself off the roof to the ground below, using his glide spell and proceeded to try to summon the eidolon again...
The fey was sniping effectively but with only three few left it seemed the battle was tipping the party's way. Jayna planned to finish it off with a lightning bolt and and WHAM, it bounced back through the entire party, killing the remaining fey, but also Sajjan, Jayna herself and sending Damiel unconscious. The sniper then killed Balazar with crossbow bolts and pointed his crossbow at Feiya with one image left and
Imrijka on single figures health.
Brian (Imrijka) had had to leave at this point and couldn't therefore participate. He was travelling at 5.00am the next day to the North of Uganda, so....
....a portal opened and a rotting hand pulled the fey leader through it to who knows where and that ended the session.
The aftermath is that Sajjan is down once again. Oswaldo and Sajjan are one, so we would not like to see him lose this character. Enough loot has been found to raise him again. No one is keen to raise Jayna, so I helped him make a new character, a transmuter wizard with high con and a decent armour class AND Cape of the Mountebank, to get him out of scrapes.
One of the things the kids do like about the RPG is that it is not risk free and that their decisions are real ones, which really affect their character. It's far more real and significant to them and so the decisions they take are more considered.
Ok, the bouncing lightning bolt - we have played Baldur's Gate and so we decide that most solid materials bounce the lightning bolt. It's not a new rule and it can be beneficial as well as detrimental, as in this combat.
Next week, a visit to Restov, to raise Sajjan, where they will meet new mage Kukula! Now, what can I think up for Restov? Any ideas?
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Well I didn't have to think too much up for Restov. It became an adventure in itself, though required some quick-thinking.
The party arrived in the town, which was a hive of "Bohemian" activity, and practice duellists skirting the roadsides. The group were eager to make some money from selling items they didn't need for the capital to raise Sajjan. Lini was also there visiting a relative.
Damiel took a +2 defending longsword belonging to Maeghar Varn into the local magic item shop, asking for some cash for it. The shopkeeper examined it carefully. "Where did you get this?" he asked. "We found it in a kitchen somewhere," Damiel mis-remembered. "You realise this is the sword of Maeghar Varn, the highly esteemed member of the <made something up> family? You, sir, are a thief, as Maegar Varn has recently gone missing and perhaps you are even the reason for his disappearance!" He calls over a city guard to explain about the sword....
"No, no. This is my sword. Or it is now. We didn't kill Maegar Varn." The shopkeeper's face darkens "well you'll find no buyer for that sword here. We do not buy stolen property! Begone with you."
Meanwhile, a little bird (literally) spoke to Lini, saying that her friends had entered the city and she set about the task of locating where they were. By now the group were at the Temple of Sarenrae, discussing how much it might cost to raise Jayna and Sajjan. "Times are hard, the priest said. I should think that our High Priest would need 25,000 gold for a service like that." Paling, Damiel recalculated what money was available. "Maybe we can sell our folding boat?"
Balazar looked pensive. "This seems steep. Maybe we can negotiate a little on the price. How much for one body raised?" "I should think we could do that for 15,000 gold," the priest replied. "Too expensive, too expensive, " Damiel chimed. the group then described how the people had died and what their ultimate purpose was, which prompted the priest to contact the leader of their order.
Lini found the group in the temple, just as the High priest arrived. "Good evening adventurers," he said, "I have overheard what you have been discussing and I may have a solution for you. I have a relative, my cousin, who I would rather like to send with you on your quest. He is a little "out of place" in this temple and really needs something to occupy his mind. Perhaps I can introduce Kukula to you...." A guard left and brought back an enormous tiefling, with horns and a tail, dressed in spacious robes to hide his bulk.
The group looked at each other "A tiefling in our group?" "Should we allow him?" "Do we have a choice?"
The High Priest suggests that he can reduce the revival cost to 8,000 gold (each), should the party agree to take Kukula and the decision was made.
Jayna was chosen first for raising and the ritual was performed, the young woman looking like death, as her eyes blinked open. She seemed shell-shocked and told the group that she could no longer travel with them. Next Sajjan.....but the money for his raising was still not available and despite a lingthy argument, in which Kukula became involved, no one could decide what to sell to bring Sajjan back.
They left the temple and started wandering the streets again. Balazar had a bright idea that the group might be able to win some money in an Aldori duelling competition and volunteered his eidolon to take on all comers. The duellists looked at him strangely. "We will not fight a creature that has no sword!" So, then Damiel stepped forward bradishing the +2 defender. "I will challenge you", he said.
By chance the guard captain was passing by, looked at Damiel and shouted: "That elf is a thief. the sword he carries is that of the missing maegar Varn. Apprehend him!" Damiel flew into the air, with his mutated wings to escape them, but was peppered with bolts for the guards' crossbows.
A long conversation continued, with Balazar trying to gain an audience with the Town Mayor, but the problems were escalating. Feiya sent the Guard Captain to sleep and Kukula then turned the group invisible with invisibility Sphere. The other guards panicked and rushed the group and took them to prison cells, including Damiel, who gave himself up. As they left, the Sarenrae High Priest tried to dissuade the Guard Captain, now awake, to reconsider, but to no avail.
the scene switched to the Temple of Sarenrae, as the high priest pondered the situation. He gathered the materials for the raise dead ritual and brought Sajjan back to life, easily restoring him to full health, so that he could be questioned about what happened in Varnhold. Curiosity was getting the better of the High Priest, until it became clear that Sajjan had missed most of the fight unconscious.
Bringing sajjan with him, the high priest insisted on visiting the prisoners and interviewed them in their cell. "I believe I may be able to help, but you must leave me this sword until you have proved your integrity by discovering the cause of Maegar's disappearance. But first tell me more of what happened and where this sword came from?"
Balazar recounted finding the sword inside a bag of holding with many other items and told the man of the spriggans and how deadly they were, leaving them to die in a flaming building. Balazar explained how the fey leader was pulled through the portal, by a huge rotting arm and the high preist became even more curious. "I will help you," he said. Damiel agreed to relinquish the sword and the high priest managed to secure their release for two weeks, to locate the missing villagers. he gave the group some equipment and sent them on their way...
Approaching Varnhold again, they saw a large bat-winged creature circling above the town. Damiel also caught a glimpse of something watching them, but when turned around, he could see nothing....
That is where we left things....not much of a battle, but an interesting night, all the same...
This week, just a short session on Monday and no game tonight, as we went out to see a film. Will post again next week.
Sorry, it's been fiendishly busy this week, but we have been having sessions to report on and we will be having another on Thursday - will report on all soon.
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Well I will try to bring everything up to date. It's been a challenging time, as we build up to our main promotional event in the year, the Slum Run and we have to try to raise funds for up to 50 children and their school fees. More info at http://www.justgiving.com/slumrun2014.
However, sessions have continued....
Sajjan once again raced to tackle the foes but was stopped in his tracks by a volley of spikes from the manticore. Trying to spice things up for the party, I added a hidden chimera to the mix, crossing my fingers that I wasn't overcooking it for the 7-person party.
The chimera fried a large portion of the party for 6d8, as they had gathered into a neat clump. Feiya slept it and it clumped to the ground immediately waking itself up again. The mantinore focusing fire on Sajjan, but never quite nailing him. Sajjan asked whether his jump skill would allow him to attack flying creatures and I really wasn;t sure? Seemed a shame to say no...
Gradually the party managed to wear down both fliers and emerged wounded but victorious. The chimera crashed down into the church, breaking the roof. So the group decided to start the continuing search for what to do next in the church, discovering some very useful scrolls there, including Raise Dead.
They catch sight of someone or something hiding behind a large rock, only to discover a crossbow expert dwarf (Harsk - an 8th player just for one night)- who said he was hunting a weird raven, that he soon spotted for them. "A familiar", said Damiel, "but I don't know whose?" At those words, a portal opens and two sets of clawed hands stretch through them. 2 soul eaters (8 players) appeared, one racing to Feiya, the other to Kukula, trying to drain them of their souls. Feiya, tries bestowing a curse on it and it sticks, giving the creature only a 50% chance of acting in a turn. The other one wastes little time in turning Kukula into a gibbering wreck, though at the last possible moment, Kukula clutches onto his soul, avoiding permadeath.
The souleaters finally dispatched, the group return to Restov to raise Kukula, only to find the High Priest somewhat flabbergasted at what has occurred and insisting on using the Raise Dead Scroll to do his work and sending the group tout de suite out to regroup.
Further exploration of the village left Balazar and Damiel blinded by crows and only quick-thinking by Damiel in producing potions of cure blindness, put them both back in the game.
Session 3 I was unwell, but the party discovered a pointer as to where the Nomen centaurs were located and headed East, directly into the path of a bulette. They had a great time fighting it, but easily dispatched the creature using fire spells and a group of galloping centaurs led the group South East....
Will update a bit more about the group dynamic in the next write up....
Dot
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I am back in the UK for a stint now, though hoping to continue the campaign, minus one (in boarding), via Fantasy Grounds. The idea is to use FG to keep track of the battles and do many of the visuals through the screen. If feasible, then I would like to get a lot of lite licences and put them onto the various computers we have there or maybe even acquire an Ultimate licence. If not, then we can try to continue via Skype, at least as a trial.
This is the last session, then, that I ran last Thursday evening and started with the party in sight of the Centaur village. I didn't mention on the last hasty post that a few members of the party had spotted some scraps of paper being blown about Varnhold town and had managed to piece some together to make posters. Some of these were quests from the Restov Swordlords given to the people at Varnhold and one, in particular, was encouraging maeghar Varn's townspeople to establish diplomatic ties or eliminate the Nomen Centaurs.
Our party knew this, as they viewed the centaur settlement below them, but were almost surprised by a war party speeding towards them. Imrijka's eagle eyes saw them able to react and, in Kukula's new group invisibility spell's absence, the whole group turned each other invisible, though not before they had been spotted by the centaur group and they did not have enough spells to cast on the eidolon. Knowing they had only 7 minutes of invisibility, they started to move quickly in different directions, but not before the centaur group had encircled the whole party.
A less experienced group would have just tried to bash themselves (easily) out of this situation, but Balazar saw an opportunity for a way to enter the town on their own terms. They cast ghost sounds to confuse the war party, Sajjan leapt over the centaurs and the other party members tried to squeeze out of the ring of attackers. The alchemist also flew out of the circle. But they didn't do anything to break the invisibility, allowed the eidolon to be captured with a net and eventually chose to let the war party take them into the town on their own terms, the centaurs fearful of what the party might do next.
Now one thing the party is very poor at is "diplomacy" skill and they don't have anyone much good at this, so persuading the centaurs was always going to be tough. They also are generally less than keen to part with any treasure they had found and Damiel's new Skybolt longbow was also one of his proudest possessions.
Despite the village being full of 100 centaurs, the villagers saw themselves as significantly outmatched and somewhat intimidated by the array of powers displayed by our party. The usually feisty centaur leader seemed subdued, as she discussed the issues and capitulated when she heard of the quest the group had, explaining that her daughter Xamanthe had gone to the Valley of the Dead, despite her express orders.
As an aside here, it was interesting to roleplay this group as a matriarchal society, with the female centaurs cracking whips and forcing their male counterparts to labour in the fields. Our boys saw this as being very unjust and even challenged the female leaders about it. They tried to influence the male centaurs to rise up against the women. The boys in our group still tend to bully the girls, to my chagrin, and the girls tend to be less confident about sharing their ideas, but I hope that we are making progress in this area.
Heading South now to the Valley of the Dead, the party encounters a large silver dragon circling overhead (later I realise this thing is supposed to be dead) but the party hide and so there is no engagement. Once they enter the valley, then I try to describe the place as picturesquely as I can.
They pass and eliminate a dangerous-looking zombie cyclops and then travel eight miles through a winding path through the mountains. Balazar says it seems like Skyrim, so I say Skyrim without the snow!
Eventually the path leads into an enclosed area, with a sllow-running river running through it. In the middle of the wide river is an island with a smoking chimney in the middle of it. Afar is a cliff and "small" creatures can be seen perched on the top.
Balazar starts to fly across, as does Damiel, though the distances are long. About halfway across, the small birds (wyverns) leap off the cliff and start flying towards our group. Immediately the half that were swimming the river reverse their course and only Balazar, astride his eidolon have the guts to continue.
I was actually surprised by this and aware now how important each's character is to them and also how concerned they are for their own safety. I encouraged them a little - three wyverns should have been no match for a concerted group - but I realised that Kukula, their sorceror, had not been able to make it and so their long range ammunition was unavailable.
So, the group really had to engage in melee and Feiya, the witch, found herself swimming across, making it difficult to cast spells and her far behind the rest.
The ensuing battle was close and Damiel once more stung by the wyvern (he and I forgot his +4 resistance to poison) and was one save away from death through CON loss. Balazar used the necklace of fireballs found on the troll leader and Damiel was able to use his longbow to send bombs from a distance. Sajjan and Imrijka were struggling to use their powers again in the flying battle.
So the party eventually were able to land on the island and, as I leave Uganda for a time, they are at the entrance to Vordakai's tomb, though they don't know it. I levelled them to Level 8, knowing what was inside and we said our goodbyes!
Very cool!
In our game, our characters ran into a living dragon: the son of the dead silver, who'd grown up on his own, with little to no guidance.
If you want, you could say that the silver they saw was that same son. :)
Ok, little bit of update. I have managed to locate a second licence for Fantasy Grounds and I am talking to Patrick today to find out whether he can install it for next Thursday's game.
Re- Silver Dragon - ok, I can work with this, though have never quite understood the values of these "good" dragons and what their motivations are. Would welcome ideas on this - what was your silver dragon doing and how might that be integrated into the campaign, without distraction?
Note that we are heading towards the end of the Varnhold campaign, as we have only this largish dungeon left. The party are so far away from their home city, that they feel detached from it. They have also developed a decent relationship with Restov, so this ought to be part of the overall thinking...