Finishing off the Lotus Dragon Guild

Well it took a little longer than I thought for the group to finally wipe out the rogues underground and to find the guild treasure. Some of it belonged to their patron so they returned it and kept the rest. The interesting part was when Humphrey the half-ogre acquired a follower when he found the cook of the guild and she was a kobold. She was intimidated by him and quickly agreed to follow him when she found that they people she cooked for were now gone. The rest of the group wasn't impressed at first until they sampled her cooking and realized that she was a good cook. So now they have a female kobold trailing around with them.

Dungeons & Dragons World Wide Game Day

We finally managed to play the adventure given to us by our local gaming store as part of the Game Day. I had just enough players show up at a session at the end of Nov to play it and I was impressed with the adventure. Even though it was only six rooms, it took the whole night in order to play it through. The group was impressed with the adventure and it was great that all of the minis were supplied.

Chapter Two of Savage Tide Begins

Now the group has sailed south-east to find the hidden harbor of the smugglers in order to investigate further for their patron. I have enjoyed the last few sessions as the gnomes in the group have finally decided to pick on Humphrey and have started casting spells on him at every opportunity. The player has been taking the pokes in good fun and is trying to get back at them but not too hard. He has just found a gnarly great club and is trying to figure out what it is. Time will tell.

Birthright Ends, The Savage Tide Rises Again

Well the last few birthright sessions were very enjoyable with our GM sending us across country to find some ancient ruins. This was very entertaining with the enemy in the one site ending up to be undead mind flayers. This was a brutal battle and we barely managed to survive with half the group drained of levels. Then we encountered the major leader of the area appearing and hiring us to investigate another ruins. We were headed there when we were ambushed by a pair of high level druids that proceeded to kick our butts. I managed to take out the boss druid by using up a high level lighting spell along with some fireballs and judicious use of a wand of lightning. It didn't help Lyle or his cohort Leon when they were both killed by the druid.
We were lucky to find a scroll with reincarnation which I then used on Lyle and Leon. Lyle returned as a Khinasi human while Leon's blood power returned him as a lion. So now we no longer have a halfling in the party and the enemy from the Shadow world is no longer after us. It will make for an interesting start up when we play again in Spring 08.

The Savage Tide Game started up with a twist as one of the rogues was trapped inside the Taxidermists shop while the others waited around for him to reappear. He finally did so and then the group was set upon by some rogues who led them into a courtyard with a well. Humphrey the Half-Ogre used one of the gnomes as a missile when he spotted one of the humans watching him with interesting results. He killed the human and almost killed the gnome in the process. Then they watched one of the others dive into the well to get away from them. the group checked out the well with one of the rogues climbing down to take a closer look.
He made the mistake of grabbing the rope while one of the gnomes was winching it up. Unfortunately he didn't realize that it was a gnome holding the handle and went for a splash into the underground pool to end the session realizing that a very large crocodile was also in the area and moving in to investigate. The next session looks promising.

Birthright Game Begins Again part 2

Well our GM has returned from his trip to Italy and we have started up the game again. We had a short game last night as everyone seemed to show up late. Thankfully we quickly got back into the game and started recovering from our last encounter with the Red Kings. There were four ships involved in the fight and all the ships were destroyed and we managed to wash up on the Isle of the Harpy all in one piece if not soaking wet. We then managed to get a ship to transport us back to the mainland and now had to wait to purchase passage on a ship to get us where we needed to go. We managed to arrive and have not met the Court in Exile for Aftane. The country was currently under the control of the Red Kings and we have to figure out how to remove them so the former consort of Amarinda can take back her country. We shall see what the next few sessions will bring but the way the Red Kings tried to take us out while at sea doesn't bode well.

Birthright Begins Again

We have now started the Birthright Game for the summer season and we will be taking a break for May while the gamemaster and his wife vacation in Italy. We will be playing a meeting engagement for Shako for one of the nights but otherwise nothing is planned. The game has taken an interesting twist as all of the group were knighted by the Queen for destroying the Temple of Evil. Now we are accompanying the former cohort of Amarinda back home to see her crowned as Queen of Aftane. The last session did not go well as the group got their butts handed to them by an attack of the Red Wizards, enemy of Aftane. We were on a schooner when we were attacked by three ships. By the end of the session, three of the four ships were seriously damaged and the group was fighting for their lives. We have one more session to go until we take the break and continue in June.

The Savage Tide Adventure Ends for the Season

The last two sessions dealt with the group finding clues and finally investigating the Taxidermists Guild in Sunrise District. While Adla and Cris'toff kept the merchant occupied, Sable managed to get past him into the living quarters and unlocked the back door and let in Wik the rogue. The merchant then caught Sable and kicked him out while Wik hid. The rest of the group then left the building and we ended Season One with Wik still inside the building.

Role Playing in the City

Sunday nights game was very entertaining from a role playing stand point as two casual players showed up and I used one of them to introduce lots of rumors and info to the group. When I started using a random urban encounter chart from Role Playing Tips.com. The group only walked a few hundred yards. Every time the group turned around they were running into people and things including an old peddler and a funeral procession. The real entertainment was later when Humphrey was interrupted by Sable the druid while he was doing his constitutional. The group almost fell out of their chairs when the fun started and everyone left the session laughing their heads off. Thanks to Murdock from the Arcadian Guild who helped immensely with rumors and loose talk. The group found out the stuff they needed to know and with the next session we will see what the group will do next. We are closing in on the last few sessions for this adventure for the spring as some of the players will be starting ball soon so I can take a break for the summer and start playing again. It all depends on how long they are showing up for.

Under Parrot Island

Well the group managed to take care of the zombies and their undead master. They then continued exploring and the only place they could go was covered in water. So the gnomes hitched a ride on Humphrey the Half-Ogre with hilarious results. He slipped while wading through the water and the Gnome Diving Team went into action as he fell. Even one of the humans slipped and while he was underwater he found the exit tunnel. They managed to find the clue that was down there and also the only room with some treasure in it. Mostly coins and some potions but at least the group is starting to gain treasure.
They then managed to get out when the rogue swam through the tunnel and managed to swim around to the beach and climbed back up to open the trapdoor and let his companions climb out. Now I have the next part of the adventure to come and when they finish part five they will have finished off the first issue of the mega-adventure.

Trapped Underground

Well the last session was rather interesting with two players missing from the game. I got the players to finally start talking about their backgrounds after dinner in the tavern. Now the group has some idea about who they are adventuring with. The next day their Patron asked them to look for her brother who had been missing for more than a month. It took them two days to find out some information about him and the information was from a month ago. Finally they were contacted by a nervous half-elf who told them where he was located. The next day he led the group to Parrot Island just offshore where there was reputed to be a smugglers hangout. The group was shown the trap door and climbed down the rope to the bottom.

When they were all down there, their guide was killed and tossed down at their feet. Then the guy they had been looking for started taunting them before he slammed the door and then rolled some rocks on top of it just to be nasty. Now the group was forced to explore the ruins and quickly encountered some zombies that they had to deal with. Then another group of zombies appeared behind them and the fight was definitely on. We will see what the next session brings.

An Interesting Session

Well last nights session went fairly well with the group having to clean up after they had killed all the guards on board the ship and spending time looking for their patrons family signet ring. The rogue finally found it after some searching and they then left the ship to return to their patron with the news that the ship had been loaded with a hold full of animals. The nasty thing had escaped and killed most of the other animals before the group got down below.
Their patron was very happy to get her fathers ring back and asked the group if they wished to be employed by her for the next little while. The group agreed and accompanied her to the family vault where she used the ring to enter the vault. The group then had to do some serious puzzle solving in order to get past the lock that was hiding the family treasure.
It took the group almost an hour to figure it out and when they had, I awarded them enough experience points to get them all up a level other than Humphrey the half-Ogre. This ended the session and now their patron has hinted at other jobs to come.

First Sessions of the Savage Tide

Well I have now run two sessions introducing the group to each other. It's going to be a little weird as the group is now made up and the spell casters are all gnomes, a cleric, druid, and illusionist. the other PC's are human with the lone exception a half Ogre Barbarian. Since he is starting with more hit dice than the others he will have to get more experience points to compensate. I used the gnomes for the set up as they were hired to find and harvest some rare plants out in the swamp and this is where they met Humphrey the Barbarian in the swamp. He helped them defeat some bullywugs before returning to the city.
Next they met a local noble who hired the group to investigate a problem she had in dealing with the port authority. They had seized her ship for non payment of docking fees and she had paid someone to release the ship and he was refusing. The group managed to get on board the vessel and were attacked. They managed to kill the people on board and were now snooping through the ship.
We then have taken a break for our annual game convention Dak-kon 12, Badlands. The turnout for this con was slightly lower than last year but everyone had fun playing lots of different games. Now I can get back to running the Savage Tide for the next eight weeks or so before I lose half my players for the summer and we get back into playing Birthright again.

End of the Temple of Elemental Evil

Well the group kept exploring after finishing off the vampire and finally encountered the cleric who was in charge of the Outer Fane. He attacked them when they started destroying an unholy font. Galius managed to charge and attack him but not before he had cast confusion on the group making two of the party attack each other. As one of them was a rogue, he managed to knock out the Elf Paladin before falling himself. the spells were flying fast and furious for a few moments before the Elder earth elemental arrived to help his master. This turned the tide when the flame spells started flying back and forth. Galius and Mari used the sticks of recall to get away after Magnus and Justin were scorched by the flames.
Mari and Galius were escorted to the outside doors by they rogue cleric but they watched him get incinerated by flames as they fled. Thus the end of the Temple has come.

Next is the Savage Tide Adventure Path from Paizo Publishing, web, www.paizo.com The group is now deciding what characters they are going to create for the next adventure. I am allowing them to create just about any thing to start with. Now that we are switching to the newest version of 3.5. One of the players would like to play a half-ogre Monk. So it sounds intriguing. The new group will be posted on my web site as the game develops.

Dealing with the Outer Fane

Well it has been a while since I added anything. Mainly because we took a six week break over the holidays and played Republic of Rome once. The game has changed considerably since my last post as Tov Gruulander broke a game and house record by being killed and revived twice before his final death at the hands of the annis hag. She literally tore him apart with her claws. Boy do I like using creatures that can rend. This was the last straw for the player and he declared that Tov was gone for good. Luckily they rescued an NPC elven paladin and he has agreed to play her for a while.

The next encounter took out the newest edition to the group, Keb the gnome monk lasher. They encountered a vampire in his lair and he decimated the group before they finally killed him.Keb was drained of life while Galius and Justin were drained two levels each. I am sure that they will get the levels back but they have to wait a day. The group is now down to four players and an NPC. But on the good side they have removed about two thirds of the encounters here. The nice thing is the group is now looking favorably on the next game to start up as we will be switching to 3.5 and I want to run the latest Dungeon magazine Adventure Path from Paizo Publishing called the Savage Tide.I am happy to see the return of the Isle of Dread after all this time.