Sunday, June 20, 2010

late blogs from Toby's game

Last Saturday (June 12), was the debut of my goliath barbarian, Irusk. For those who don't know what a goliath is, they are about 7'2"-7'8" (2.18m-2.34m) tall, and weigh between 280-340 lbs (127-154 kg). Their skin tends to be light brown to gray with markings of a darker color. Male goliaths are bald and female goliaths grow their hair long and braid it. Goliaths tend to live on top of the mountains (unlike dwarves who live inside mountains), and as a result they tend to be rather athletic, particularly when it comes to jumping.

The group as a whole hasn't changed; we still have Jam, the eladrin avenger, and Lynette's still playing a ranger (elf this time), and Scott's character is named Arbek, a dragonborn warlord (who grew up with dwarves).

We drove the cart we found in the previous session back to town, sold what we could and negotiated a deal with the mayor. He'd register the house as belonging to us, if we found out what was going on with a lighthouse nearby. After that we talked to Kate, who has been our primary employer, into keeping an eye on the cabin when we can't and to hire some people to take care of it for us.

On the way to the lighthouse we had a small encounter with an owlbear which we dispatched pretty easily. At the lighthouse we found a couple tents inhabited by orcs and ogres. Jam and the ranger stayed out of range while Arbek and Irusk walked up to the tents and opened up with some aggressive negotiations. The first battle went pretty well. The second, ehh, the dice gods temporarily left us. Irusk even came close to dieing, but the warlord used his martial skills to bring the barbarian back to fighting form.

Mostly we just found gold and a few gems. I think the only magic item we found was a Vicious Falchion (two-handed scimitar).

Next session: Into the lighthouse!

Tuesday, June 01, 2010

New Characters, Same Story

I apologize for the lateness of the post. I'd think about posting to the blog, and then something would catch my eye and I'd forget. :P

Toby's game this past saturday (May 29) was very fun. We finished off the adventure, raiding the base of a rival shipping company that had been sending bad guys after us. We cleared out the warehouse, including the two tigers they'd been keeping locked up, and made it our new base of operations.

The session began with exploring more the base, we cleared out the entry hall and what was probably a dining hall in the previous session. The hallways were pretty narrow, which gave our fighter, Arbek, and our avenger, Jam, good choke points for the ranger, Ariana, and the invoker|cleric, Marc (my character). Ariana stood at the junction of the two hallways and shot at the bad guys, rolling a natural 20 three rounds in a row. Marc kind of got tired of standing off to the side and doing nothing, so he went around through the dining hall and found some guys coming from another room. I got their attention and brought them around to where we entered the hallway, heroically interposing myself between them and Ariana. Once all the bad guys were dead we searched the rooms; finding a set of armor for Ariana, a couple gems and quite a bit of gold (120 gp).

The next room we checked out was a library, once we killed the bad guys (a couple of them had halberds), we checked out what was in there. In retrospect, the characters with knowledge skills (History, Arcana, Nature, Religion, and Dungeoneering) probably could've made use of the books we sold (after the building was cleared), but Marc did find two rituals: Knock (unlocks doors) and Enchant Item (makes magic items).

The next room held a pair of tigers, which we left alone for now aside from leaving some bodies for them to eat. While we were moving bodies around, another group of bad guys sneaked up on us. While Arbek and Jam were dispatching that group of bandits, Marc moved around to the door on the other side of the dining hall, hoping to catch the bandits on two fronts. The thing about Marc is that he doesn't have a very high AC, so its not terribly hard for the bad guys to hit him. This can have interesting consequences when he breaks off to do his own thing (read as: come close to dieing). Fortunately he didn't die, but he didn't do much after that, which almost got Jam killed. For those who are keeping track, yes, Marc is not so good at healing. :P

Eventually all the bad guys were killed, including the two tigers who'd gotten out of their cages and were about to attack us. We found more gold and armor (mithral this time, which went to Arbek) and a Feyswarm Staff for Marc. In another room we found a potion of healing, some supplies, and the deed to the building. In a building behind the bandits' hideout, we found some horses and a wagon. We now had something to haul the supplies and books with! So, not only did we make a nice profit off the supplies and books, we now have a base from which to operate. Sweetness! :D

Once the adventure was over, we talked things over and decided to adjust the party a bit. Ariana's being adjusted to suit the player more (Toby made the character since Lynnette didn't know how to play the game or create characters, but now she knows a bit more). I'm going to play a Goliath Barbarian named Irusk. I don't know about the other players, though.

Overall, last Saturday's game was fun. I think mainly because we weren't just mowing through the guys in front and then resting. We were mowing the guys in front and then having to take out the guys behind us. Hopefully this Saturday's game (June 5; Scott's the DM, he played Arbek, the dwarf fighter) is also fun.

See you in about a week! :)