Campaign Ends

Due to general lack of enthusiasm, the 4th ED D&D campaign is ending.

We are switching to a Serenity campaign.

Blog here -

http://serenityrpg.blogspot.com/

Chronicle of the Champion of Avariel: Session Five - Goblins Galore

At the goblin camp, Raiern concocts a plan — rather than attempt to fight our way past mobs of goblins and almost assuredly get ourselves killed, a more ideal method would be to sneak through the camp, quickly heal the captive elves, sneak out, heal the elves more, and run like heck. Raiern, Ace, and Leucis are chosen to make their way through the camp, while Autumn, Maveith, and Kyrie stay behind.

The trio moves silently into the camp, avoiding a tripwire trap on the way. They find three badly wounded elves in a cage (two middle-aged men and one teenage girl) guarded by a goblin sentry. Raiern quickly knocks him dead. Leucis uses his healing magic to restore two of the elves, while Ace happens to know enough about healing to give a boost to the one remaining elf.

The group sneaks back out of the camp undetected, and Autumn uses her shaman magic to heal the elves. The party picks a direction and begins its travels, but as they leave, Kyrie, in a bout of misplaced dwarven pride, yells after the goblins for being too stupid to detect them.

A patrol quickly sets upon them near the river as goblin sharpshooters rain down bolts and drakes move in for the kill as. The party orders the elves to hide in the trees to protect them from the goblins. Raiern charges into battle as Autumn readies her longbow and Ace unleashes his trademark lightning. Battle is joined as the drakes move to cross the stream while the goblins hang back on the other side, content to pelt the party from afar.

Maveith intercepts the drakes as Leucis uses his bardic magic to keep Gus the falcon alive and back up Raiern, who has charged into the thick of the goblins and appears to be taking levels in Pincushion. Kyrie entraps one of the drakes in a treacherous wind prison while Autumn unleashes the power of her bow. The drakes are pushed back, and one of them falls into deeper water and begins to drown. The party is surprised to find the role of "kill-stealing butt clown" has been taken by Ace, not Leucis for once.

Raiern is beaten hard by the drakes, who have doubled back across the stream to protect their masters, but Autumn summons her spirit bear, who comes to his defense. Leucis, similarly, is having a difficult time holding back the drakes and collapses, though Autumn's timely magic saves him from being drake chow. Maveith helps dispatch the drakes and then charges across the river to help wipe up the rest of the sharpshooters. Soon, only one sharpshooter remains, and he tries to swim away, only to be cut down by the towering Maveith.

Sadly, there is no significant loot to be had, so the party quickly departs. Gus the falcon spots the tracks left by the other elves and points out the way to go. The elves tell the party their camp was suddenly attacked by goblins, and most of them scattered; the remainder probably went to a secondary location, the Selafien encampment, which is where the party heads now.

Autumn Mist's Visual Journal 1

And here is the first edition of Autumn Mist's Visual Journal - where the shaman pictorially tracks her journeys.

Chronicle of the Champion of Avariel: Session Four - Forget Destiny, Let's Go Party With The Elves

This session opened on the group picking up the pieces loot left by the (practically prenatal) dragon that almost handed them their keisters. Mavieth ended up with a shiny new sword and gave the amulet he had used to Kyrie.

The group then trudged back to the ever-cheerful Edenna to proclaim their victory. She was, needless to say, thrilled to see us alive and still traveling with Leucis. Her shining becon of happiness shone on us and gave us the gold we were due, while asking us if we had decided to help Leucis with his role in saving the world (or some such tripe.) When Leucis continued to evade our questions on what the task was by vaguely alluding to "destroying evil in the area," Raiern and Autumn had the fine idea to defeat some evil in their old digs in the woods. It should be mentioned here that Autumn had a "vision" of her tribe being in grave danger by some unknown evil. This seems to be the wrong answer for Edenna and she gets up and heads out, forever leaving us with out her cheery smile and bitch ass sass. She will be missed... Just not by us.

So a few of the party decide to do a bit of shopping with their new found wealth. Mavieth buys a horse and cart to "carry all the treasure" they will indubitably find. Ace holds the silver key from Kobold Hall and realizing that he is in a prime position goes out to find a dupe to buy the whole place. He easily finds a noble with a full purse and no sharp wit, who seems interested in "Ace's property." Due to a lack of foresight when confronted about the deed to the property Ace quickly counters that he needs to go and get it. He returns a bit later with the deed to the land, ink still wet and his fingers smudged black. The noble seems to fail to notice this and agrees to buy the land. His condition was that he see the land first, at which Ace balked and tried to get money right away. The noble sensed some kind of scam and walked off. (The funny part is that since we were the ones to "clean out" the kobolds we really did have some claim to it and could therefore sell it. But I digress) Ace give up and goes out to find something a bit more... shall we say illicit.

When the group rejoins to head into the wilderness Mavieth is cheerfully leading Ed (the horse) while Ace is looking paroxysic. The group ignores Ace's dilated eyes and sallies forth. Autumn sings (poorly according to Leucis) and is replaced by Lecuis' traveling melody. The group reaches the wood line uneventfully, so (unspoken) Ed and the cart are left behind to make the travel faster. A few hours in and they reach the once home to half of the party only to find it in ruin. Goblin tracks criss cross the whole area, with blood and tools of destruction strewn about the area. Worried for their brethren (and sistren (EDIT - this ain't a word)) they decide to follow said tracks and track down the goblin menace.

After a rather easy path (let's hear it for 4 out of 6 having Nature checks above 10) leads the group to a fair sized goblin village the group pauses to discuss their plan of attack. The encampment has more goblins than the group is willing to face, at least all at once. It is decided that Raiern should sneak into the encampment to get a better assessment of the situation. So after (masterfully) slipping past a few of the goblin guards he comes to a cage that is guarded by the Great Ubequay! Master spy and watchman for the whole village. Or just some schlub who is practically dozing at his post. What Raiern does discover tho is that there is indeed a few of the elves of the tribe being held in a ramshackle cage. After spiriting back the way he had come Raiern returns to the party with his information. They begin to discuss their plans when they are stumbled upon by a returning goblin scouting party. Battle ensues.

Raiern and Mavieth dive headlong into the fray while the bear appears and lays waste to the goblin fools. The battle was short (being that in the entire encounter only 2 misses were rolled on the side of the heroes) and sweet. The only real problem was that Raiern kept softening up the goblins, Mavieth kept finishing them off. That is, up until the last goblin running away. Mavieth's blow was just not quite hard enough, and so Leucis once again darted forward and shouted in such a mocking fashion that the goblin was overcome with self-loathing that he died on the spot. Once again proving that Leucis is a kill stealing butt clown. In picking up the wreckage that was the scouting party a sword was found that was taken by Raiern.

Chronicle of the Champion of Avariel: Session Three -A dragon, a dragon, I swear I saw a dragon!

The party decides to take a full night's sleep in the catacombs, the better to be prepared against whatever horrors await in the depths. When they wake up, each person shares their various dreams: Autumn's spirit bear spoke to her of her clan in danger, Leucis saw a city in Hell and a skeleton-man, and Ace was told he needs to see Aurora — prompting Leucis to tell the party about Aurora, Edenna's eladrin benefactor. The party debates what to do — go see Aurora? Clear out Kobold Hall? Follow up on Autumn's dream? — and decides that since they are already in Kobold Hall, it should be cleared out first and foremost.

The party follows the stairs down into the next room — a raised platform sits on the far side of the room from the door (bearing a kobold priest and guards), while another platform sits in the middle of the room. Around the central platform is a well-worn groove in the floor. As we enter, the room shudders, and a boulder rolls onto the track to hit whatever unsuspecting person should be in its way.

Combat is joined — taking care to avoid the boulder, Autumn summons her bear amidst the far kobolds while Ace launches a scorching gout of flame on them. Raiern climbs atop the central platform and sees kobold slingers inside, diving into melee combat with his falcon, while Kyrie uses her fire powers to toast the cramped kobolds inside; burned and trapped with a battle-crazed elf, the kobolds climb atop the platform and begin lobbing rocks. A small drake enters the room, and Maveith and Leucis successfully engage it. The kobold slingers are successfully killed by Kyrie's magic and Raiern's sword, though not before Raiern is once again glued to the top of the platform.

The kobold wyrmpriest invokes magical words of courage to inspire his allies, but it doesn't do much good as the party descends upon them. Not even the wyrmpriest's cold breath weapon can keep the party away, as Maveith and the bear tear through his guards while Ace, Leucis, and Kyrie provide artillery support. Despite managing to destroy Autumn's spirit bear twice, the wyrmpriest soon finds himself on the wrong end of Maveith's sword. Leucis reminds Ace not to step in front of the still-roaming boulder. The last kobold guard surrenders, but Leucis, in a battle frenzy, kills it anyway. The party receives an Amulet of Health +1, which goes to Maveith.

Following the hallway to the next room, the party is marching two-by-two down a hallway when it comes to a large, cold cave, complete with stalactites and a frozen pool of water. A large, young white dragon appears and blasts the in-formation party with his cold breath. A dragonborn warrior then attacks the party as well, apparently some sort of ally or thrall of the great beast. The party moves out of formation, some seeking cover while others moving into melee range. Maveith and Autumn engage the dragonborn warrior, with Autumn finally using the blessings of the seven winds to physically rip him apart and shift the entire party into formation to fight the dragon.

The dragon, unimpressed, breathes more cold onto the party, sending Leucis and Kyrie into sweet unconsciousness. The two weakly get up and continue to hammer the dragon with spells and swords. By this point, the party has learned to not stay in close formation so as to minimize the effect of the dragon's breath weapon; when it becomes bloodied, the party is spread out that only a few members are caught in the blast, and no one takes a direct hit. The dragon is badly beaten, and Leucis offers it a surrender, but it refuses, prompting Ace to destroy it with Sith lightning.

Delays on Chronicle

Jake stepped in and wrote out a nice entry for the chronicle for last session, but as Benton hasn't sent me one for the previous session I am kind of stuck.

I now have 2 sessions worth of encounter tracking and maps from Ashlee to post as well.

My apologies - they will appear soon.

Also - Episode Fun started up again on Tuesday. We should run, non stop, through Foo and hopefully all the way through Whee. Please check it out at www.wausaucomics.com/webcomics/ef

Thanks!

Coming Up - The Big Threat & Ch-ch-choices

The party cavorts carefully into the cavernous cellars of the crumbled and corrupted catacombs of Kobold Hall.
Alliteration aside, Leucis, Raiern, Autumn, Kyrie, Mavieth and Ace seek to eliminate a growing threat to Fallcrest and the Nentir Vale - if only to collect whatever loot may be lurking in the kobolds hoarde.
Will they succeed? What then? Will they go back to Edenna, the sardonic and callous provider of their quest, or decide that being a paranoid party of anti-heroes is right in their wheelhouse? What of Leucis's Formorian enslaved gnome clan? Autumn's elven bff lost somewhere in the Feywild? The confusion whether Bob is really Ace? Maveith's sudden exposure to the sun and stars and people he isn't related to?
Game on at 6:30 pm - location is Jim & Sarah's again!

Chronicle of the Champion of Avariel: Session Two - Kobolds Love Traps!

After a short rest in the previous room, the party followed the adjoining tunnel deep down into the catacombs. At the far right corner was a statue of Tiamat, while in the eight recesses in the walls were several suits of armor. Situated in the center of the room were coffins — visibly disturbed and already looted — and Raiern and Autumn were quick to notice that one of the suits of armor was trapped, firing darts at those who walked too close to the coffins. Perhaps the biggest threat, however, was the mob of kobolds that spotted the party! Three bigger spear-wielders drew closer as a swarm of weaker kobolds approached.

The groups were joined in melee, as the adventurers made quick work of the kobolds. A heroic shout of triumph from Leucis cleared a large group of minions, while Maveith, Kyrie and Raiern dove into melee with the larger kobolds. Raiern was badly hurt by the kobolds, but recovered with the help of the healers. One badly wounded kobold tried to make a break for it to warn the others, but was swiftly dispatched by Kyrie's claws. Autumn summoned terrifying spirits to haunt the larger kobolds, distracting them so Maveith could easily slice them with his longsword. With only one kobold left standing, Raiern's falcon made quick work of it. Ace swiftly disarmed the traps, while Leucis and Raiern defiled the Tiamat statue, painting on "Avandra was here." No divine repercussions, whoo!

After another short rest, the party proceeded deeper into the catacombs, coming upon another room. In the center of the room was another pit of green goop (such as Raiern landed in), surrounded by coffins. At the east side of the room was a 10-foot-tall parapet guarding a wooden door. Atop the parapet were plenty of kobolds, most of them armed with slings. One of them carried a sludgy rock attached to a string in the center of the room.

The party wastes no time moving into combat. Autumn summons her spirit bear right on the raised platform in the midst of the kobolds. Raiern, straight out of an action movie, runs and jumps up to the platform, holding on to the edge and waiting for his chance to climb up. Autumn, Leucis and Ace hang towards the back, launching spells from afar. The kobolds chant "Skull-skull!" and launch the sludgy rock, which hits fairly hard and is enchanted to return to its wielder when lobbed. A flame seed from Kyrie burns up one corner of the platform, and Maveith climbs up the other to engage the kobolds in melee, seeing that they've summoned some fierce guardian drakes.

A kobold takes the opportunity to hurl a glue jar at Raiern, sticking him to the wall. The kobolds try to stab at Autumn's spirit bear, to no avail; few of them can hit hard enough to damage it. Autumn and Leucis keep Maveith standing against the onslaught of drakes, while Raiern breaks free of the glue, but finds the ledge above him full of kobolds, leaving him unable to get up (and requiring his falcon to do most of the dirty work). As Leucis gets closer to the action, the kobolds launch the Skull-Skull at him, hurting him badly. A kobold finally destroys the bear, only for Autumn to re-summon it a few seconds later. With most of the healing reserves gone, the party kills most of the kobolds, leaving only one kobold and one drake alike. As they try to make a break for it, Maveith charges at them, but the surprisingly fierce drake slashes at him, knocking him unconscious as he bleeds out on the floor. Ace uses his fire spells to blast through the door, and some quick healing work by Raiern stabilizes Maveith. The kobold and drake have gotten away to warn whatever is deeper in the catacombs, but the party must rest for a few hours to recover its strength against whatever awaits further down...

Jobs Update

There are two new jobs awaiting players to choose them, if they so desire, as well as an addition to an existing job.

The new jobs are Quartermaster and Encounter Tracker.
Briefly -
Quartermaster keeps track of party gold and treasure.
Encounter Tracker keeps track of kills and saves (who heals whom) for each encounter.

The Initiative Tracker has a new responsibility as well. I will have a dry erase board ready for the Initiative Tracker to use where he will list the initiative order. On this board he will also track conditions that characters and monsters are under (such as burning until save ends, being marked, dying, etc.)

This is in addition to me dropping all the jobs down to being a Minion of Level XP. I will hopefully come up with a couple more job options soon, so there will be choices that can be made for those who want a little more XP and a little more to do in game.

Incoming Mini's

This is the female elf druid I'll be getting today. It may be a good new mini for Sarah's Autumn Mist, the female elf shaman.













Here's the male goliath barbarian mini. Given that Tim's warden has a sword and not an axe this might be a better fit.















As Benton thinks my "Neo" tiefling cleric is a female figure, he may well switch back to the default he wanted - this male tiefling warlock to be his tiefling bard.
















Ace is a male half-elf warlock. The best we may have in the new set is a male half-elf warlock/fighter. Er. It'll be better, I guess, than the halfling sneak he is using.






And ah, perfection. Well, if you discount that Jake isn't using a bow with his male elf ranger/beastmaster with a falcon companion. This male elf ranger with an eagle on his arm is about as close to perfection as we're likely to get.






Unfortunately for Ashlee and Kyrie, there are but two dwarves in this set. Both male, both very un-druidlike.

Coming Up - Deeper into Kobold Hall

The party delves deeper into the depths of the decrepit dank dungeons of the destroyed debris of Kobold Hall.
Alliteration aside, Leucis, Raiern, Autumn, Kyrie, Mavieth and Ace seek to eliminate a growing threat to Fallcrest and the Nentir Vale - if only to collect on the payment that Leucis was already given.
Will they succeed? What then? Will they go back to Edenna, the sullen and cynical supply of their quests, or decide that being a hero for the gods is not in their bailiwick? What of Leucis's foster family of gnomes? Autumn's elf friend captured by the Fomorians? The bounty on Ace's head? Maveith's sudden exposure to the world outside of a cave?
Tune in at Jake's on Wednesday, May 6th, at 6:30 pm to find out!

Chronicle of the Champion of Avariel: Session One - An Untested Champion

We opened with some exposition about the Nentir Vale, the Harken Forest, and the elves. Every 16 months, near the elf encampment, is a planar bleed where the lines between the Feywild and the normal world are blurred and travel is possible from one to the other; thus, it's become a tradition for the elves on one side to meet with the gnomes on the other. Recently, on the day of the planar bleed, fomorians attacked the gnome colony, leading the elves to aid with their defense, but in the end Leucis, a tiefling bard who was the ward of the gnomes, was thrown into the normal world while many gnomes and elves were trapped on the other side, as well as an elf woman who both Leucis and Autumn had befriended. The elf leaders convinced a grief-stricken Leucis to help the elves travel away from the planar bleed (for their own safety) and help tend to the wounded.

Later, fast-forwarding to the present time, Raiern saw Leucis follow a tiefling woman into Fallcrest. While returning from town, he met up with Maveith the really, really tall goliath and Ace, a half-elf warlock ("Ace" being short for a longer elvish name). As they had no other ambition but to explore, Leucis convinced both of them to join him in forming an adventuring party, although Ace did bluff Leucis into thinking that his name was Bob and that there is in fact a bounty on Ace's head, so look out for that guy. Upon returning to the elf encampment, Leucis meets up with Kyrie, Raiern and Autumn, telling that he has found a patron who wishes to enlist their services and that they can do good deeds and earn gold and magic items. As Raiern knows that Autumn is prophesied to travel with him, they both agree, as does Kyrie, the exiled dwarven druid.

They travel to Fallcrest to seek out Edenna, a tiefling woman who acts as a go-between between the party and her patron, an eladrin named Aurora, who claims to work for an angel, Avariel, who works for Pelor. Edenna identifies Leucis as the "champion" — prompting some guffaws from the party — and then is frustratingly vague about their objectives: either retrieve an artifact to bring Pelor's light to the world, or fight a menace that threatens to deal serious damage to the area. Edenna is less than impressed with the party, and spills that Leucis has already been paid in advance — prompting the party to seriously consider shaking him down for gold pieces. Suffice to say Leucis looks pretty bad for assembling an adventuring company to pursue a mission that isn't specific, and he's already been paid for it.

Seeing as how no one in the party worships Pelor — Ace goes for Ioun, Autumn, Raiern and Maveith pick Melora, Kyrie is content with just nature and Leucis represents for Avandra — the choice is to fighting the unknown menace. Edenna offers a magic item for Autumn and some gold (as well as the spoils) for going to Kobold Hall, east of Fallcrest down the King's Road in the Cloak Wood, a keep which used to be owned by human nobles from the now-defunct kingdom of Nerath which is overrun by kobolds and possibly led by a greater threat. Leucis sings a jaunty Traveler's Chant to get the party there faster.

At Kobold Hall, the keep itself is mostly empty, but Autumn and Raiern spot a trapdoor leading underground. Following the stairs, the party spots a large room with a pit of ooze in the center and a kobold who quickly yells out and readies his sling. Raiern tries to jump over the pit to get to the kobold, but falls short, landing gracefully in sticky sludge. The party makes quick work of the kobolds that attack: Kyrie uses her flame seed spell to great effect; Raiern and his falcon successfully tag-team several kobolds; Maveith, though consistently wounded by kobold spears, takes a few of them down and awesomely teams up with Raiern and his falcon to bring down one of the stragglers; Autumn uses her bear spirit to ward the party; Leucis makes a magical insult that makes a kobold's head explode; Ace curses many kobolds, blasting them with lightning and drawing precious life force from their deaths. Sadly, the kobolds do not carry much impressive gear, and the party presses on further.

Concerns on XP

It has been brought to my attention via more than one source that there is some concern about the distribution of XP - namely that those with jobs will gain a growing permanent lead on those without jobs.

I have a few things to say in response:
1 - I am watching the XP difference, and won't let things get out of hand. A character being a level or even two ahead of the party shouldn't be an issue, but a 3-4 level range difference in the party would be. I won't let that happen.
2 - Doing extra work during the game needs to have some benefit.
3 - It is my intention to have enough optional extra jobs possible that everyone who wants extra XP can gain it. I will unveil new jobs as soon as they are ready.
4 - If you don't care that much about XP and only want to enjoy the role-playing you shouldn't have to take on an extra responsibility, hence why no person is mandated to have an extra job.
5 - The jobs themselves help alleviate some of the work from me, the DM, but also helps keep players involved in the game even when their characters are not directly active in a given scene.

Also, understand that I personally have a concern that the party will level too fast with all the XP I am giving, but I am trying to balance that with a sense from some players of "I don't want to be level one again!"

To conclude, I am aware of the concern and I am monitoring it. More job options will be available soon. And I have my own concerns about extra XP.

Introducing: Leucis

Meet Leucis!

He's a Tiefling who's parents sold his soul to an Archfey and left him to be raised by Gnomes in the Feywild!

Leucis, happy-go-lucky youngster raised amongst the warrens of the middle fae and sometimes cavorting with the Woodsinger Clan of Elves from the Mortal Realm.

A bard trapped in the Mortal Realm after his adoptive clan was assaulted by evil beings, forced to converse with beings who distrusted him solely for his heritage.

One lone man, caught in the sight of greater powers than himself, being thrust into battles he wants no part of just so he can try to return to his home and save his family!

Or, as the DM likes to call him, one paranoid bastard.

Draft One - Merin's D&D Handbook

Here it is for the perusal of all who care - https://treasuremillantiques.sslpowered.com/wausaucomics.com/images/Merin%27s%20D&D%20Handbook.pdf

Merin's D&D Handbook

I should have this ready by Wednesday, a nice printed-out copy at the table, and a PDF available for download on the site.
Basically it'll be a compilation of articles I wrote here or emailed to everyone that regards my DMing style, the style of the campaign, the jobs players can have, XP rewards, etc.
Look for it! I know you are all tingling with lack of anticipation!

Raiern's Backstory

Raiern 'ul Na Shadrys

Raiern was born in the Skydancer Clan in the distant Vijorni Forest to Groeden and Jaien. His childhood was filled with the usual playfulness that only youth can muster. He spent his days amongst the tree trunks and in their loving branches. His freinds were the other children of the clan, but more so the birds that flew among the branches he so loved to play on. While the tribe would follow the herds of deer that lived among the forrests he learned the skills needed in life, hunting, fishing, crafting. His life was not what many would call easy, but it was never hard. His nomadic tribe would go where the food led them and they seldom met with the outside world. The chief firmly believed that if Melora wanted them to meet the world then she would show them a sign.

On his tenth birthday there came a visitor to their little clan. This stranger stepped out of the fey wounded, and in need of help. Never ones to turn away those in need the tribe took him in and helped him in his recovery. The man's name was Paelias, an Eladrin who had just had a run in with some of the less friendly residents of the feywild. When he had recovered he told the clan that he was a prophet, and the reason he had been traveling the feywild was his destiny, and meeting this traveling group was also his fate. When he emerged from the shaman's tent his eyes set upon Raiern. The sky grew dark and the forest silent. Paelias' eyes lost their color and shone bright with silver and with a voice that was not his own Paelias spake.

"Oh child of the trees and boughs!
Yours is a life of wandering!
Through you shall your tribe live!
Go forth and they shall flourish!
Pay no heed and they shall wither.

Go out and seek the tribe Woodsinger.
There amongst them lies a rift,
From the rift comes a daemon.
But nay! A daemon is not the foe.
Your path, his path, their path, all as one.

The journey will lead you away.
Away from that which you hold dear.
Far across the land shall you venture.
Many the ob-stacles and harrowing shall be the path.
Tho some may fall, you must not waiver!

When you reach the mountains
There shall your quest be fulfiled.
There shall you meet the blight of your tribe.
There shall you save your family.
There shall your songs be sung for generations!"


When Paelias finished his eyes regained their normal hue and the forest returned to its normal state. The tribe was stunned to say the least. Paelias looked around him and realized what had happened. He said that he had been sent to find this child and lead the boy to his destiny. Many were the skeptic of this "seeming coincidential stranger". Raiern, however knew right away it was true, he could feel it in his heart. His parents let him make the decision that he thought was right, and would help him in any way they could. Many questions were asked of Paelias, who seemed to have only vague memories of his prophecies. The chief personally met with Raiern to discuss what his thoughts were. When in the privacy of the woods the Chief told Raiern that he too had been having dreams of the boy and his travels, but that he was hoping it was nothing more than his own wanderlust. Raiern's path was clear.

Raiern spent the next few days prepairing to head out into the wild with the stranger. When the time came for him to head out, the tribe came with him to the edge of the woods that met with the feywild and all saw him off on the beginings of his travels. Paelias traveled with his charge across the great reaches of the feywild. Days rolled into weeks, and weeks into months. Durring this time Paelias would tell Raiern about traveling, and about the mysteries of the fey. He taught him to use a sword and what to do when around others that were not like him. A year later, when finally they came to a small band of gnomes Paelias knew they had come to their destination. Raiern walked through the rift and looked back, but his mentor was still at the edge.

"This is as far as I can go, from here on out the journey shall be yours. Mind what I have told you and bear with you your one true friend." With the last comment a hawk flew out of the trees and alighted on Raiern's shoulder.

Raiern turned and went on, once again not alone, to find his destiny. His next stop brought him to the Woodsinger Clan that lived near the rift that he had just come from. The clan was wary of him and his new companion for some time, but as Raiern had no real timeline he didn't really know what he needed to do next. So he spent the next four years waiting for a sign. Living amongst the tribe with his falcon, learning from him and teaching him at the same time. Soon it was a second home to Gus (Raiern had no idea why, but he instinctivly knew that was his name) and himself. He soon met Autumn Mist and knew she too was to be among the wanderers. Her ability to call upon the spirits of the wild intrigued him and he saw that she too sought to better the world. The forest called to her and she could hear its song much the same bond that Raiern shared with Gus. Autumn Mist, it seemed, had a forutitous birth herself. A comet was seen in the sky at the time of her birth and stayed visible for one whole year. Raiern didn't tell her, but he saw that as a sign too, one that she would walk the world, stoping at nothing, not even the heavens, to reach her goal.

The sign that Raiern was waiting for soon apeared out of the very same rift that he himself had come out of four years earlier. Leucis came to the small tribe in the spiring of the year, and his arrival caused quite a stir. The moment that Raiern saw the "demon" he knew that this was the traveler spoken of in the prophecy. The time to set out was at hand. The trio decided to spend some time together, getting to know their abilities and personalities.

It was durring this aquaintence period that fate delt yet another card into the hands of the growing troupe. Kyrie stumbled into the village on a dim and overcast afternoon. She too was a woodland soul, cast out from her dwarven home for her belief that her home was among the animals of the forest. She had traveled for months among the trees until she came upon a sect of druids who saw her for what she was, a kindred soul. Her training began and in a few short years she had learned to link her spirit to the wilderness and even briefly change her form to match that of the wild animals she so loved. One night she awoke to the archdruid gently shaking her. He told her it was time to go. He had a dream, and in that dream Kyrie was fighting the Great Bear in a swamp. She had three other "nature spirits" beside her, helping her. So once again she left into the forest to wander, but this time she was more prepared. She met Raiern and Autumn Mist and felt their connection to nature was much like her own.

Now the trio was a quartet. So begins the story...

First Session - April 22nd

With the player load-out and party build more or less ready, we will look for our first session to start on Wednesday April 22nd.

Ideally I would like us to try and meet at 5:30 pm, but I don't know how that works for anyone else nor if that's even easy for me to make. So until I hear otherwise we'll stick with our 6:30 meeting time for now.

Also - I have my basement rec room all moved about and remodeled. I should have the finishing touches (another table, everything lain out properly, etc.) by the 22nd.

Once everyone arrives and is settled downstairs I'd expect about 15 minutes to settle in and then about 15 minutes for pre-game ritual (DM presenting game info, eventual "Previously on..." and character changes, etc.) and then the game will be underway (ideally by 7, but hey, it'll get going when it does.)

I hope to see us get at least 2 encounters in per night (encounters need not be combat - a good acted-out RP session or a prolonged skill challenge count as well) and will be planning on stopping points so we can get people heading home by 11 pm at the latest.

Start getting me backstory for your characters, if you want it created and to be woven into the campaign story. If you don't want to create one I'll provide something for your character.

As Things Stand

To run my 4th ED campaign I would like to have 4-6 players who want to play, want to play with each other, and want to play by the rules in the campaign I put forth.

Recently I've had one player tell me they aren't sure they want to play anymore, and I was also told another player will be otherwise occupied in a couple months AND that player is going to play whatever they want as a result.

This causes me concern. Hopefully on Wednesday, on the last session of Benton's campaign, I can get at least some of these concerns addressed.

PHB2 and More Info!

So much has changed since last I talked about the campaign -

1 - I'm almost certainly not using the modules at this point. Enough players have read them now that it would be pointless, plus I'd like more control over story.
2 - I'm probably morphing things so the world isn't the generic world from the campaign setting for 4th Edition but instead my own creation that will grow as we play.
3 - I have a definite main story-arc, several minor story-arcs, and a growing number of "random encounters" ready to go already.
4 - PHB 2 has come out, and with it 5 more races (gnome, shifter, goliath, half-orc and deva) and 8 more classes (Strikers: Avenger, Barbarian, Sorcerer; Defender: Warden; Controllers: Druid, Invoker; Leaders: Bard, Shaman) so there's plenty of options, even for Controllers, now.

Much of the story needs to be shaped a bit by what characters the players will choose, so, again, I implore people to get back to me with their concepts. You don't have to have a full character made, and you can certainly change your mind (unless your name is Benton) but I would love to have a handle on what people are planning on playing.

Some guidelines though:
- I'm going to assume that you all want to be part of an adventuring party that works together ... reasons for this can be established or just taken for granted, and intraparty RP can definitely strain things sure, but from build of characters to starting of game, plan on this character wanting (for some reason) to join a group of adventures
- I'm going to assume that you all are going to be some level of "decent" people, i.e. your characters may choose unaligned but you aren't going to be RPing backstabbing, murdering psychopaths. You don't have to be donating your time to orphanages, but burning down orphanages is right out
- no Forgotten Realms or Eberron stuff - just corebook, with Dragon and Dungeon stuff as appropriate - books like Martial Power would be okay as well


Some "if you wants" to provide me with:
- background of character up to a certain point
- motivations and goals of your character
- backstory tied to other players (with their permission, of course)
- a list of 5 magic items you'd like to see your character acquire at some point, any items of level 1-5

We'll have 1-3 more Benton adventures before we switch.

Meetup

Looks like this Saturday, around 1 pm, in the Wausau Mall.
I'll update people if that changes.
I'm going to meeting others sometime Saturday for Heroclix, so this meetup will probably be short (like a half-hour or so.)

Merin's Wausau D&D + RPG Gaming Group February Meetup

I bit the bullet and paid for a new meet-up group.
I'd like to see several games going on a month, enough to build a nice little community of role-players in the area.
Website is at http://www.meetup.com/The-Wausau-Dungeons-Dragons-Meetup-Group/
Joining is free (it only cost me to start it - grr.)

Flexible Scheduling!

As was discussed at this past Star Wars game on January 11th, trying to have a set day to meet is just not working out. Events come up, and most importantly job schedules are so flexible for many people.

In view of wanting a weekly schedule for the game, I propose we move to scheduling the game up to 2 weeks in advance and keep things flexible. On that front we need people to give schedules of when they are available regularly, and for those who do not have regular schedules they need to provide weekly / bi-weekly schedules.

I also put forth that having a "Primary" and a "Backup" date for gaming is a good idea to consider. We each try to find two times that work for our schedule and everyone else's. An attempt to let someone managing the game schedule (most likely me) to shift things around so no one player is shafted or inconvenienced the most.

I put forth the following for me as to when I can game most weeks (my schedule is pretty regular and largely controllable by me) -

Monday - Thursday nights, 6 pm until probably about 11 pm. Saturdays from about 6 pm on. Sundays all day. Friday (and to a lesser extent Wednesday) night is not the best for me. In the not too distant future (a couple months or so) Saturdays all day will be free.

Let's try and get working on everyone submitting schedules so we can start planning games!

Some More Thoughts

Listening to much D&D Podcasts, it really has sunk in for me that we should be looking at knocking out a combat encounter in under an hour, easily.

I'd like to get more gaming groups going, if only because of the two I'm in I'm lucky if the Star Wars one meets, an average, once ever month, and the D&D game is barely over once a month at this point.

I'm toying with the idea of running a Living campaign via the RPGA. Like a Living Forgotten Realms game, for example. Any interest from anyone?