Birthright Game for the Summer

Well we have now been playing the Birthright game for the last month or so and the game is building to a climax where the Stellar Four Adventuring Co is trying to take out the group of usurpers that have taken over the country that the former cohort of the group is the rightful ruler of. We have encountered a few of the enemy and they have proven tougher than we first thought. Our casualties have been higher than the enemy and now we have been given an ultimatum by the undead leader and we are now pondering what to do next.

It has helped that my shift has been changed again and I now have my Sundays off and it makes for a better routine as I am not trying to figure out what our game schedule is week to week.

Into the Abyss

Well the group has managed to sail their ship onto the Abyssal Ocean using an item called a wakeportal to gate from the Azure Sea to the Abyss. Now they have to find their way to the Gaping Maw, currently the location of their patron Lavinia. Their main problem is no way to tell were they are. There are no land masses and the brownish purple water seems to blend with the reddish overcast sky, and there appears to be no sun. Now the group has to decide which way to sail.

Now the fun begins for me, they are now in the Abyss, home to so many demons that if all of them were aware of the group they wouldn't stand a chance. Thankfully no one knows they are there yet, and they do not want to attract the attention of the Prince of Demons.

Heading to the Abyss

Well the group has finally finished off Chapter 8 of 12 with just a little mopping up of the pirates lair and now they have to load up the treasure and prepare to find and rescue their patron Lavinia. Unfortunately they hare going to have to travel to the Gaping Maw, the 82nd layer of the Abyss to find her. They will have their work cut out for them as this is prime demon territory and any they come across will attack them on site. The group is now mostly 15th level and is a little lower than recommended but there is also more PC's in the group. So I think it balances out in the end.

I have liked that the group is taking the time to cast lots of spells before they get into combat but they will have difficulty once they are off the Prime Material Plane. I will be curious to see what they do to prepare for their journey to come.

Fighting the Crimson Fleet

Well the group has spent the last six sessions attacking the lair of the Crimson Fleet that was a stack of ships stuck on a massive dead tree. The fighting was brutal and some of the group came close to death but timely spell casting from the healers managed to keep the group alive. The final encounter was the demonic leader of the fleet who decimated the group before they finally ganged up on him and killed him off. Now they have to continue on without resting as they don't know when another pirate ship will return. The next few sessions will be interesting as they quickly explore the remains of the ships.

The Candle Dragon Inn

Well I see it has been awhile since I have posted anything here so I thought I would write something before the year is out. Our Sunday night game has been forced to change a little bit seeing as my new shift with my new employers has made me work alternating Sundays.
Thankfully the group has agreed to play on Wednesdays on the week I can't play Sundays. This has worked out nicely as we play four days apart and I found it makes it a little easier on me to keep the flow going with two sessions in a week.

The group has managed to find the clues needed to find the lair of the Crimson Fleet, the largest pirate gang on the Azure Sea. The group is now trying to infiltrate the lair but they didn't knock off the guards in one of the first areas and now the pirates have been alerted and are preparing for the group to attack. Things will get ugly in the next few sessions as the big bosses get ready for them. It doesn't help that the strongest warrior in the group has been grabbed by a Bar Igura Demon and it teleported him over a thousand miles away and now the group has to try and find and retrieve him but that may have to wait.

Dak-Kon 16Bit

Well another Kon has come and gone and for the first time we have gone to a three day event starting on Friday night. I was surprised at how many people were there to start the con and the Warhammer miniature game that went first thing was awesome. They had taped off a major section of one room in order to play and it took them an hour just to set up the minis.
It was great that players showing up had their choice of games to play as there were RPG's every session along with a variety of board and card games. The RPG tournament was OK as it was Savage Worlds and had 20 players throughout the day Saturday with three GM's to handle the action. The storyline was a little different and darn right confusing at times and I managed to sit in with each GM during the tournament.

I was a little put out that no one wanted to play in the D&D 4th Edition session that I had prepared but I got to play in a Death Watch Sci-Fi session and then played in a 4th Edition session to close out the con. I think that the players there for the whole weekend got very good value for their money and I am curious to see what the committee is planning for next year.
Rumor has it that there may be a venue change as the building we were in has just undergone major renovations and the rental is being raised for next year. I guess I will see when the after con meeting goes ahead and the planning will begin again.

Another block of sessions done

Well we have just finished off another four sessions of the Savage Tide and now we have to wait four weeks as I start working Sundays again, I left the group in the bowels of the abandoned temple looking for the bad guy to finish off this part of the adventure. They have only the boss and his few loyal minions to kill before having to turn their attentions else where as the plot thickens. The next few sessions will be a challenge for them as Khala is nasty and prepared for the group. Oh Well I will see at the end of February how things go,

Dealing With Demons

Well we finally finished a major encounter with 15 demons inside the ruins that the group has entered and the fight took three game sessions to run and lasted about 30 rounds before the group finally managed to overcome them. They killed off all but one, but that one is a spell caster and it will return to engage them again. I managed to kill off one of the party cohorts but if I had really wanted to, I could have taken out most of the party. The fun thing is that I managed to feeblemind two of the party members including Humphrey the half-ogre and one of the spell casters in the group.
The thing I liked is that I forced the group to cast off most of their high level spells in the encounter and I have a tough demon waiting for them if they try to retreat. So their only safe option is to head deeper into the ruins but that will bring them closer to the head demon and they will have to have most of their spells in order to survive.
The next few sessions before the new year will tell the tale. I wait to see how bold the group will be in pushing further into the ruins.

Dealing with Argumentative Players

Well last nights game session was rather interesting as a couple of them spent most of the session arguing with me about the actions that happened during the game. It is starting to frustrate me when my bad guys attack the group with a plan of action and the group seems to have to argue about it. They don't seem to realize that when they are attacking an enemy that is just as smart as they are and are able to plan an attack on the group that is coordinated for the most effectiveness in doing damage to the group that I as a GM is obligated to try and do as much as I can to hamper them. That and trying to say that a dinosaur animal companion is supposed to be as smart as the group and able to do things that a dumb animal wouldn't do. I am tempted to just kill off the animals that are with the group to cut down on the bitching and whining.
I guess I will have to see what happens over the next few sessions before I do something drastic. Oh well! More to come with this adventure and it promises to get very interesting over the next few sessions.

The Savage Tide Season Five begins

Well the first session for the year was played last night and I started off the game with a rather short and nasty encounter when a massive crocodile came up from under the group and attacked. The group got away relatively unscathed as it was a hit and run attack. It wasn't able to grab a snack and the group hurt it enough for it to retreat back to the depths of the lake.
But I did want I wanted to do by forcing the characters to react in different ways and spread them out over the lake and on the shore.

Then they encountered the aquatic demon guardian that was waiting for them at the entrance to the ruins. What made it interesting is that it was an illusion of the demon that the group attacked and I made them cast off some fairly potent spells to no affect. Next weeks session should get interesting as the demon has a lot of at will powers that can hurt the group if they don't roll well against it. Then they have to deal with what is inside the building and I can hardly wait.

Birthright done for the year, Savage Tide begins again

Well it has been awhile since I have posted anything and I thought I would leave a few thoughts about the Birthright Game. Our GM pulled out Tale of the Comet, a 2nd Edition adventure that we have played over the last season for Birthright. The last session lasted almost 4 hours and we managed to finish off the adventure in the last few minutes but the fight during the night was rather nasty. We were only in the craft for about 3 minutes but those three minutes took two full sessions to run. We managed to destroy the Overseer just as he was activating the transporter to start bringing in constructs from another dimension. The group had been forced to used the weapons that they found called blasters to hurt them as our medieval weapons we had didn't seem to hurt them at all.
The party dwarf had gleefully used a cannon that was usually mounted on a hard point to attack with and the damage was rather extreme when he managed to hit. We lost count of how many constructs that we killed during the adventure and now we have to wait until April before we take up the game again.
I am looking forward to the next session as I get to start GMing again with the start up of season five of Savage Tide. I can't wait for the first round as the group is walking across the lake to the island and they haven't spotted the immense crocodile that it coming up from below them to attack the group.

Birthright Meets War of the Worlds

Well last nights session was definitely interesting as we ended up being scavengers for the day as we had to snoop through the debris field looking for anything usable. It's a good thing we seemed to roll good as we ended up finding some good stuff including a blaster cannon still in its case. Our rock solid dwarf in the party just laughed as he picked it up and told us to point him in the right direction. We managed to equip ourselves with blaster pistols, a pair of rifles and a suit of foreign made armor that looked kinda like pottery. We have also rescued an elf that had been captured by the bad guys and he was forced to teleport himself away but he had to leave his pack behind.
Now we have also found some people allied with the woman. We now have to somehow eliminate the Overlord before he can build up too much power.
The next few sessions should prove to be interesting.

Birthright Begins Again

Well we played our first Birthright session for the season and we are now fighting something that is not of our world. We found the massive crater and blast zone of the meteor that struck the ground and when we tried to explore the hole we were chased off by some sort of metallic monsters that seemed immune to our attacks. We were forced to retreat back into the woods to lick our wounds. Then we had a strange woman appeared outside our camp and told us that these things were under the service of someone called the Overlord and if he was successful he would wipe out everything on Cerillia. She showed us a weapon that would work against them and it was a long tube with some sort of apparatus on one end. She told us that we would have to scavenge some more parts to make another one and she would show us how.

Playing Magic the Gathering

Well the last two sessions at the Candle Dragon Inn were spent playing Magic. There were six of us playing and the game took a combined five hours to finish. It was winner take all and the next time I think we will just play one on one.

Next to come is a one-shot session of Savage Worlds Pride Prejudice and Zombies hosted by the GM that plays Savage Worlds. This session looks like it might be fun and I am looking forward to it.

Savage Tide done for the Season

Well the last game session for the Savage Tide Adventure Path was finished Sunday Night with the group using magic to walk across Broken Lake towards Taboo Island, home of the demons. The group managed to accomplish more this season than I first thought and I stopped the game just as the group managed to spot the humongous crocodile about to attack them from underneath them as they walked across the water. The first session in Sept is going to be very interesting to see if anyone in the group gets swallowed by the twenty-foot maw of the beast.
Now we will be playing some one off games over the next five weeks until our Birthright GM returns from a vacation. The way the game was left in Sept, I don't look forwards to fighting metal machines ala World of the Worlds. I guess we will see in June.

Getting Over the River Canyon

Well the group finally got to the canyon containing a river about 2000 feet below the group. Looking across the 300 yards or so the group could see the central plateau. The party druid changed into a falcon and flew around the plateau and he could not find anyway across until he flew over the causeway to the south. The only problem was that the bridge over the river was broken and the gap was 150 feet across. The group managed to use the spells that the gnomes had for the day to get everyone across the causeway into the jungle. As the group headed inland, they were attacked by a very big demon and barely managed to kill it before it killed some of the party. If this is one of the guardians, the group could be in serious trouble before they even find the ruins.
More to come as we play the last few sessions for the season before we switch back to Birthright for the summer.

Nearing the Central Plateau

Well we spent this latest session with the group splitting up after one of the rangers decided to take a specialized prestige class called a Totemic Demon Slayer. He had to spend the session trying to track down an Olman Holy Woman who was the only one that could initiate him into the brotherhood of slayers. The fun part was when the ritual started he was offered a herbal drink that was highly hallucinogenic and he failed his saving throw and ended up passing out after seeing some very strange and bizarre visions. He woke up hours later to find his body now covered in Olman tribal tattoos as part of the ritual. Now he just has to learn the secret of unlocking them for him to advance further. Since they will soon be fighting more demons than they really want, I think it was a good idea for the class to be learned. Now they are only a days walk from the edge of the plateau with a nasty dungeon still to come. The sessions leading up to the end of the season are going to get interesting if not down right nasty.
Stay tuned for more from the Candle Dragon Inn.

Halfway through the Savage Tide

Well I finally managed to get the group through the end of Chapter Six and now get to prepare for the next Chapter but not before I managed to pound the Half-Ogre Barbarian into submission when I got the chance to jump him with a fairly tough demon when he was by himself in the tunnels. I shredded his enchanted armor and left him unconscious as the group accompanying him was in gaseous form and by the time they became solid he had managed to drive off the demon but not before he almost died from the poison that was in his system from the bites he received. I had to relent at the end or he would have been left as a puddle in the tunnel before he was healed.
They have returned to Farshore and next week I will start them on their next quest in the adventure. This time to explore the taboo central plateau of the Isle of Dread inhabited by a major demon and his followers. This could get interesting in the next few sessions until we finish in late April and switch to the Birthright game.

Finishing Off the Chapter is taking longer than I figured

Well last nights session dealt with the group still fleeing the rising waters. The gnome wizard has finally got teleport so he took three of the group with him to the ship while the others forced marched upwards. The gnome cleric them changed some of the group to vapor and sped to the ship and stopped there for the night. The next day she returned to the group with the wizard and the group continued walking upwards. Humphrey and the trog scout were the only ones still walking when the bebelith demon appeared again looking for Adla. This is going to be an interesting fight when we play again after Dak-Kon next week.

Finishing Off Chapter Six

Well the group finally got to the ziggurat and realized that it was alive. With trepidation the group entered and moved down to the bowels of it. They finally came to the last room and it was filled with pools of Black Bile of the World and swimming through it was a Bile Wretch that was a bizarre cross between an octopus and squid so weird that the party didn't know what to do. It showed how nasty it was when it spat something black at the group and the acid then ignited with the air. I managed to kill off one of the cohorts mainly because he was Lawful in nature and the bile reacted more because of it. They were forced to kill it while the aquatic master managed to dominate Humphrey and told him to leave. While they were engaged with it, the bebelith appeared in the room and attacked the group again. It was forced to flee when they attacked it. The session ended with the aquatic creature hiding in one of the pools. Once they deal with it they have to flee, the waters are coming.....