The Aldelle Group - Book 2: The Gate Saga

Book 2 covers the further adventures of the Aldelle Group in what became The Gate Saga.  The write-up of Session 16 is where I started writing the notes as journal entries in my character's personal journal.  The devotionals to Ra quickly appeared and I finally found Harkaitz's "voice" as a character.

Part 1: False Starts in Terranor
Session 15 – Mystery at the Museum
Session 16 – Joining the Guild  [Start of Harkaitz's Journal]
Session 17 – Demons and Devils, Oh My!
Session 18 – Devils at the Gate
Session 19 – The Devil's Cave

Part 2: Against the Drow
Session 20 – The Forest of Angry Elves
Session 21 – Scouting the Barrow
Session 22 – First Steps
Session 23 – Sleeping Wednesday
Session 24 – "They trapped their own bedrooms."
Session 25 – Dragons and Goblins and Drow - oh my!
Session 26 – Shopping in Elftown
Session 27 - Descent into the Depths
Session 28 – Part 1: Storming the Gatehouse
Session 28 – Part 2: Sweeping the Barrow
Session 29 – Unexpected Allies
Session 30 – Entering the Vault
Sessions 31 and 32, Part 1 – Death of the Matriarch
Sessions 31 and 32, Part 2 – Return of the Vrock

Part 3: The Swamp Gate
Session 33 – Into the Uskar Desert
Session 34 – Into the Uskar Desert
Session 35 – Across the Waters and Into the Swamp
Session 36 – A Favor for a Favor
Session 37 – Tracking through the Swamp
Sessions 38 and 39 – The Swamp Gate
Session 40 – Swamp Revelations
Session 41 – R-and-R in the Forest of Angry Elves


Part 4: The Uskar and Mountain Gates
Session 42 – Into the Mountains and Split Session 43 – Across the Desert and a New Companion
Session 44 – Hiking to the Pyramid
Session 45 – The Pyramid, Top to Bottom
Session 46 – Bottom to Top Session 47 – Light and Darkness
Session 48 – The Thieves’ Bazaar
Session 49 – Temple to Throne
Session 50 – Wave of Undead
Session 51 – Mist, Fireballs, Statues, and Bone Heaps
Session 52 – Only the Penitent Man Shall Pass
Session 53 – The Unbeating Heart of Darkness Session 54 – The Vampire Side-Steps Us
Session 55 – Lucien, Meet Ra.

Part 5: Reclaiming the Terranor Gate
Sadly, I never typed up my session notes for the rest of the campaign.  I got deep into writing my first novel and posted chapters of that for the next year [2012].  The last blog posting was on July 24, 2012, after Session 82, which was the last session of the entire campaign.

We lead an army made up of contingents from all those Harkaitz contacted, including the Drow and the surface elves and a couple of dragons.  I vaguely remember the fight being hard won and we secured the last gate, saving the world.

Book 3 of the campaign was our characters establishing a colony for the kingdom on a major island far to the north.  It wasn't as satisfying a campaign because we were too powerful for regular adventuring and the GM had no experience or guidelines for running a campaign where we settled down, established strongholds, and started doing the political end-game things D&D builds to.  To quote myself, "We learned why a fresh sandbox setting isn't quite so challenging to characters with tons of money and magic to throw around."
Thank you for reading this.  It was a lot of fun to play through.  I hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed playing it.



Previous Parts of the Campaign
Book 1: Dyson's Delve
Intermezzo

The Aldelle Group - Intermezzo 1

This session was a bridge, handling the wrap-up of Chapter 1 and setting the stage for Chapter 2.

Intermezzo 1
Session 14 – Travel and Shopping



Back to Book 1

Forward to Book 2

The Aldelle Group - Book 1: Dyson's Delve

This is the first part of the Aldelle Group Campaign and was one of the earliest I documented on this blog.

I didn't have a lot of blog entries at the time, so using the sidebar for navigation was easy and I didn't bother putting links at the end of each post to connect to the next blog entry.  Nor had I worked out a consistent set of labels to tag the blog entries with, making it harder to find all of a campaign.  I might go back and fix that, but not anytime soon due to time constraints.  This archive will have to do for now.


This part of the campaign made use of the excellent Dyson's Delve and evolved after that.  I heartily recommend Dyson's Delve for new DMs and new players.

Please leave comments on this page.  Thank you.

Book 1: Dyson's Delve
A disparate group of adventurers team up and start exploring a nearby dungeon.
Session 1
Session 2, Part 1
Session 2, Part 2
Session 3 - In Which the Party Is Named
Session 4 – Super Rat Gets Creeped Out
Session 5 – Manticore!
Session 6, Part 1 - Super Rat Makes Friends
Session 6, Part 2
Session 7 – Deeper Delvings
Session 8 – A Marked Room
Session 9 – Completing Levels
Session 10 – Starting the Hunt for Tim
Session 11 – New Allies
Session 12 and 13 – Tim, A Wizard


Further Reading:
Intermezzo 1
Book 2: The Gate Saga

The Aldelle Group - Main Archive

This page is an archive, preserving links to the campaign my Monday Night Group [originally my Wednesday Night Group, but we switched day of the week at some point for ease of scheduling] played through in a Pathfinder 1.0 campaign.  The DM running the game and several of the players had never played RPGs before, so this was a sort of training campaign.  It made use of the excellent Dyson's Delve as the start of the campaign and evolved after that.  I heartily recommend Dyson's Delve for new DMs and new players.

Book 1: Dyson's Delve
A disparate group of adventurers team up and start exploring a nearby dungeon.

Intermezzo - a transition session between Book 1 and Book 2

Book 2: The Gate Saga
The adventurers are given a quest to save the world.  The session notes become journal entries written by a Harkaitz of the Red Soul, my PC.  This book consists of 5 Parts with session notes for Parts 1 through 4.


Character Backgrounds:
1: Harkaitz of the Red Soul
2: Aziz of the Light
3: Sarisvati The Suntouched

Microscope on: The History of the 4th Corporate War

My Monday night group is looking to put together a campaign to run when a player is missing from the regular game.  In the past we defaulted to board games when a player (or the GM) was missing and we could not progress the story.  After missing almost all of June and July this year to that, we decided to do something different and start up a second game for those emergencies.

After some discussion, we decided we wanted to run “something  cyberpunk-y”.  We looked at the several systems available and settled on Shadowrun 5th Edition as available and I’d heard good things about it from a friend actively running it.  I would have preferred Cyberpunk 2020, but it’s way out of print and I don’t recall hearing positive reviews of the 3rd edition release.

So having settled on a game system, we decided to use Microscope to generate a background story for us to run against.  The time scale we envision is technically too short for Microscope, but we decided to give it a spin and see what we get.  So far we’ve been enjoying the game.

The first session was me explaining the rules and going through the start-up, selecting the first Focus, and the Lens adding an Event and a nested Scene to show everyone how it works.  This past Monday we went through two complete rounds around the table and started the third Focus.  Next week we’ll finish that round and get through the last two players having a turn as the Lens.  That should give us enough background to run a short campaign in and add extra frisson when we perform runs that are events in the timeline we created.

In order to keep things straight in my head, I’m converting the notecards into a text-based timeline and I thought I’d share it here.  This isn’t an actual play as I’m just going to run down the timeline, not what was added each round (mostly because we didn’t make note of that).

Microscope has the players set up a Palette, a list of things that should be in the timeline and a list of things that are not allowed.  For this timeline, we selected the following:

Yes: Orbital action, Government intervention, and Class riots

No: Dragons do not get involved, no nukes, Organized Crime does not choose a side, No wanton environmental destruction

So without further ado: 


The History of the 4th Corporate War


Period 1: Two corporations vie for control of a third corporation (Dark).

Event: Freeman Health Manufacturing (FHM) decides with some effort that they must acquire Alvarez Integrated Power Equipment (AIPE) and dominate their industry (Light).

Scene: Why did FHM need to acquire AIPE?

AIPE manufactures a micronized power cell used in all FHM cyberware and it is a significant percentage of the cost of the cyberware.  Recently, AIPE introduced an upgraded version of this power cell, but eliminated a historical discount on sales to FHM.  Alexandria Crowe, CEO of FHM, called a meeting of FHM’s VP of Procurement, FHM’s majority stockholder, and a representative from AIPE to discuss the situation.  In this meeting, AIPE’s representative confirmed the discount had been eliminated and that next year prices were likely to rise again.  At this point, Ms. Crowe decided that in order to control costs and preserve FHM’s profit margin, FHM needed to stage a hostile takeover of AIPE, immediately. (Light)

Event: After the takeover of AIPE, FHM raises the costs of the entire AIPE product line to external customers in order to recoup the cost of the takeover.  Internal customers, like FHM’s cyberware division, get the power cells at cost instead of the pre-takeover wholesale prices.  This allows FHM to keep their own retail prices low while sticking it to their competitors. (Dark)

Event: Tom Riddle, CEO of Riddle Netics – a FHM competitor, is outraged at the major price hike for AIPE components, components which are vital to their own products. (Dark) [Note: In hindsight, this event was not so much of an event and should have been expanded on, but it worked at the time.]

Event: Riddle Netics hires shadowrunners to steal samples and schematics of critical AIPE products. (Light)

Event: FHM uses new AIPE profits to bid on Aquamatics, a water purification company in need of a cash infusion to update and expand its facilities.  Getting wind of this, Riddle Netics enters a competing bid. (Dark)

[Arguably, this action completes this Period, but I think there is still room for shadowrunning shenanigans to happen.  We’ll have to see if this period is returned to in the next session.]

Period 2: The initial corporations start calling in allies. (Light)

Event: FHM hires shadowrunners to plant evidence that Riddle Netics is using poor people as test subjects. (Dark)

Event: FHM spurs a class riot at the HQ of Riddle Netics. (Dark)  [This was probably a shadowrun of some sort.]

Event: Zenith AstroTech announces they are forming a joint venture with Riddle Netics to raise the bid for Aquamatics. (Light)  [This spikes the price of Aquamatics stock, increasing the cost to purchase the company.]

Scene: Why would Zenith AstroTech support Riddle Netics?

At a public gala, representatives and CEOs of Riddle Netics, Zenith AstroTech, Rosa Digital, Diagnostic Radiomation, and the Bank of Burma fell to talking over drinks and hors d’oeuvres.  Riddle Netics and Diagnostic Radiomation were being directly hurt by FHM raising AIPE prices, as were friends and associates of Zenith AstroTech and Rosa Digital.  Discussion turned to the possibility of taking some sort of direct action against FHM.  The representative of the Bank of Burma excused herself at this point.  The CEO of Zenith AstroTech suggested raising the cost of the Aquamatics purchase.  The representative of Diagnostic Radiomation then suggested removal of Aquamatics critical equipment right after the purchase was finalized would also cost FHM.  The group agreed to put some off-budget resources together to make these things happen. (Light)  [Yes, this is the beginning of a shadow war.  Why do you ask?]

Event: In order to fund the escalating conflict with Riddle Netics, FHM borrows money and opens several lines of credit with Spanish Brokerage, a corporate bank headquartered in Hong Kong.

Period 3: The war heats up. (Dark)

[I’ve changed this as the original text was more appropriate for an event.  I’ll note where that text gets re-inserted.]

Event: Shadowrunners hired by Zenith AstroTech raid the Aquamatics manufacturing facility in Egypt and it gets out of hand. (Light)

Event: The Aquamatics manufacturing facility in Egypt is completely destroyed.  Prices of water purification tablets and filters immediately skyrocket in Egypt, leaving the poor masses without affordable potable water across most of the country. (Dark)

Event: Lack of affordable potable water among the poor causes class riots across Egypt. (Dark)

[The riots are the re-inserted text.]

Event: Spanish Brokerage, seeing FHM hemorrhaging money and not wanting to lose the large amounts of capital loaned to FHM, decides to call in all loans and credit made to FHM. (Dark)

Event: Zenith AstroTech buys the remains of Aquamatics in Egypt at a cut-rate price, allowing FHM to just barely pay off the loans. (Dark)

Event: To recoup costs, Zenith AstroTech shuts down all Aquamatics operations in Egypt, lays off all remaining employees, and ships out anything not nailed down to sell as scrap, causing an immediate recession in Egypt. (Dark)

[The last two events were put on one card as I allowed the player to dictate more than I should have, but it was late and I had to work the next day.]

Period 4: The conflict goes orbital. (Light)

Event: FHM offices in Burma targeted by shadowrunners – an entire city block is destroyed when the building collapses. (Light)

Event: FHM hires shadowrunner to get proof/evidence Riddle Netics and Zenith AstroTech were responsible for the attack on their Burma office. (Light)

Event: FHM releases evidence showing Riddle Netics and Zenith AstroTech were responsible for the attack on their Burma office. (Light)  [Whether or not it is true is a matter for some discussion…]

Event: Aztechnology sends shadowrunners to attack the Zenith AstroTech orbital facility. (Dark)  [Why this was done has yet to be determined.]

Event: Government(s) send in troops. (Dark)  [Again, the specifics are still to be determined.]

Period 5: One side wins the corporate war. (Dark)

[Nothing added here yet, but this should probably end with the Corporate Court handing down a ruling, ending the war.]

That’s where we are now.  I’ll provide updates after the next session.

The Aldelle Group – Session 40 – Swamp Revelations

[This posting is a day late as I spent most of Thursday traveling.  I'll explain later. ]

Session 40 happened Monday, August 8, 2011.

This campaign used the Dyson’s Delve dungeon pages on A Character for Every Game as a starting point, but has now moved on to new material from the DM-in-training.  I heartily recommend Dyson's Delve as a beginning adventure.

Adventuring Group:
Tre-ba Bel a sheer (female elf alchemist)
Frankie Hu, Master of the Distracting Fist (male dwarf monk)
Wednesday (female elf rogue)
Brek'nok (male dwarf druid)
Harkaitz of the Red Soul (male human cleric of Ra)

NPCs:
Aziz of the Light (male human paladin, cohort of Harkaitz)
Sarisvati the Suntouched (female Ifrit oracle, cohort of Aziz)
Midnight (female half-elf witch, cohort of Frankie Hu)
Short John Copper (male halfling expert, hireling)
Brand and Zephir (mated pair of pseudo-dragons tagging along for the fun of it)
The Red Keffiyehs (human warriors, followers of Harkaitz)


Evening, June 25, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, who lights our way, even when we must retreat.

We arrived at the corpse of the black dragon.  The smell has not improved.  At all.  We immediately picked up the trail of the zombies heading south and followed it.  Just as we were looking for a place to camp, we espied a tarn linnorm.  These are frightening creatures.  After a quick huddle to share what we knew about linnorms, we bolted until we were out of the immediate area and found a discrete place to camp (read: hide).

There will be NO campfire tonight.


Evening, June 26, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, his heat will burn away the unclean.

After taking some time to reacquire the zombie trail, we followed it to its end – a hillock with a tunnel entrance on the side.  Rather than confront unknown amounts of undead underground during the night, we have decided to make a hidden camp nearby and investigate in the morning.  Midnight has cast secure shelter and Brek'nok hid it with multiple castings of hide camp.  We will still keep our regular watches, but we will be comfortable.


Noon, June 27, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, He shows us things our enemies are blind to.

We entered the tunnel this morning after a quiet night (or at least as quiet as a swamp ever gets).  The tunnel descended at a shallow angle into the hillock and branched fairly quickly.  Following our standard procedure, we took the left-hand path, a narrow passage that circled back towards the entrance.  This ended in a small chamber with about an inch of water on the floor.  Having seen one monster too many that could hide in such a thing, we reversed course and followed the right-hand path almost immediately.  Plus, the tracks went to the right, something Brek'nok did not mention until later.  Much later.

The right-hand path was ten feet wide and smooth from use.  As Wednesday and Frankie scouted ahead, they heard a voice holding a conversation, but could not hear the other person.  The person seemed to be searching for something but not finding it.  Wednesday was able to sneak far enough forward to get a look into the next chamber and see the person talking.

Aziz told Wednesday and Frankie to hold position using hand gestures and then walked forward, knowing that the person would hear him.  The person stated that he heard someone approaching and then turned to mist.  Aziz arrived in the chamber just in time to see the vampire (for that is what it was) escape through deep cracks in the ceiling.

With the vampire gone, Wednesday searched the entire chamber for traps and hidden passages.  She found one in the wall, about fifteen feet away from where the vampire was searching, and one on the floor, across the room.  Checking the wall compartment, she found a hidden compartment hidden inside the hidden compartment.  (This is starting to become commonplace amongst our enemies and so we regularly check for such things now.)  Inside the hidden, hidden compartment we found the second lich key.  It fits into the second key hole in the coffer AND combines with the original key we found to create a third key.

I will admit this success got the better of me a bit.  After taking the key, I scrawled some taunting graffiti in goblin glyphs.  I may have written "Super Rat is best!" inside the hidden, hidden compartment and, after completely closing the compartment, I may have written on the wall "Maybe you should look here" with a large arrow pointing out where the hidden compartment is located.  Goblin is particularly suited for taunting.

That taken care of, we next investigated the trap door in the floor.  After Wednesday cleared it for traps, Frankie opened it and found destroyed zombie lizardfolk.  It appears that the vampire was the one who destroyed them while fighting them, but we are not certain of this.  I sprinkled them with holy water and said a blessing upon them to keep them from being animated again.

Brek'nok took this moment to test out a new spell, eagle's eye.  He created a sensor 50 ft above himself, which put it well above ground level.  Peering around, he spotted the mist form of the vampire moving away in great haste.  We immediately moved to give chase, but lost him after two hours of pursuit.  We are now taking a short rest as chasing a patch of mist through the swamp is quite tiring.  We have decided to discontinue this pursuit and head to Ttaeladra.  We need to resupply and have a few items created.  Right now, Ra indicates we have time to do this, so we are taking the opportunity.

Time to get out of this swamp for a while.  Thank Ra.


Evening, June 27, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, in whose name we serve.

We made it out of the swamp after several hours and are camped on the western shore of the Iscarath River that borders the swamp.  This is much better.  It is possible to tell the difference between the land and the water here.


Morning, June 28, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, whose light is constant.

Early during last night's watch, Wednesday and Brek'nok observed lights in the sky.  After Aziz and I were awoken, my companions and I left the camp to Short John and the Red Keffiyehs and went to investigate the lights.  A couple miles north, we hid and observed the light approaching.  It was a thunderbird and not a problem we need to deal with.  We returned to the camp and went back to sleep.

I may be grouchy today.

Later.

After communing with Ra, I was able to verify the vampire is Lucien, whose library we raided.  He is working with the lich and the flashing lights are still an issue.  I feel more centered again.  Still tired, but not as grouchy.  Mostly.

Brek'nok was able to successfully scry on the lich and found him posing as a blue-eyed priest of Ra in the city of Uru!  The lich is actively moving against us through our home cities.  This is most distressing.  On the plus side, he has shown he is not all-knowing.  All priests of Ra have green eyes.  If they were not born with green eyes, during the ceremony of initiation their eyes change to match the color of the emerald eyes in the sacred statues of Ra.  We do not talk about this, but it is not something we hide either.  The lich missed this.

I cast sending and informed the High Priest of Uru of the situation and requested they lie to the lich to mis-direct it.  Mahdy, the High Priest, is a friend of mine and agreed to lead the lich astray without letting it know it had been found out.  This is good as the lich is exceedingly powerful and would destroy much of the city if provoked to fighting.

It is time to press on towards the Forest of Angry Elves and Ttaeladra.


Evening, June 28, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, whose light guides us.

We should reach the Forest tomorrow.  During our march, we spied a erinyes flying north.  Suspecting she is a courier, we attempted to stop her.  After a running fight (literally), we failed to stop her, but she was forced to teleport to escape us.  We need to find a way to stop that from happening.


Evening, June 29, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, who guides our steps.

After morning prayers, I sent Ashias a warning to be on alert around any blue-eyed "priests of Ra" and updated him on our plans.  [Note: the sending spell is now the magical equivalent of Twitter in our eyes.]

We are now camping in the shadow of the forest.  It will take nearly another three days before we make it to Ttaeladra.  We are going to try and reduce that by pushing through as hard as we can.


Noon, July 2, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, whose light guides us.

Spotted Ttaeladra ahead while resting.  Should be there in an hour or so.  Looking forward to sleeping in a real bed and getting a proper bath.  I may have to burn my boots and get new ones, they smell of our travels through the swamp.

*End of Session*

The Aldelle Group – Session 36 – A Favor for a Favor

Sessions 36 happened Tuesday, July 13, 2011.


This campaign used the Dyson’s Delve dungeon pages on A Character for Every Game as a starting point, but has now moved on to new material from the DM-in-training. I heartily recommend Dyson's Delve as a beginning adventure.

Adventuring Group:
Harkaitz of the Red Soul (male human cleric of Ra)
Wednesday (female elf rogue)
Tre-ba Bel a sheer (female elf alchemist)
Frankie Hu, Master of the Distracting Fist (male dwarf monk)
[Brek'nok's player was absent]

NPCs:
Aziz of the Light (male human paladin, cohort of Harkaitz)
Sarisvati the Suntouched (female Ifrit oracle, cohort of Aziz)
Midnight (female half-elf witch, cohort of Frankie Hu)
Short John Copper (male halfling expert, hireling)
The Red Keffiyehs (human warriors, followers of Harkaitz)


Morning, June 17, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, who grants life to all equally.

Last night we arrived at the village of the lizardfolk. We approached openly and when their guards approached us, I held forth the amulet of friendship we were granted for assisting their brethren back in the delve. While I did not show it, I was very greatly pleased when they accepted it. We were escorted into the village, where we drew curious stares. The guardsman leading us brought us to the largest hut in the village. We were escorted in, where we found a single lizardman reading a scroll. He turned to face us and we recognized the one who gave us the amulet of friendship!

Now that we knew Draconic, the conversation was much easier and did not require us to draw in chalk on his walls. His name is Ashias and he is the warchief of these people. We spent several hours talking and catching up. We explained our errand to save the world and he quickly agreed to help us. He told us the grippli (a frog-like race of humanoids) from the west have been encroaching on the lands of the lizardfolk, but not in any dangerous way. Strange lights had been seen in the sky to the east and he had sent a scouting party to see what they could see; they would return in a day or so. Finally, he told us that there were indeed caves under portions of the swamp and it was quite likely that the gate would be in one of those and be accessible with some swimming – depending upon how long we could hold our breath.

We accepted his hospitality to spend the night in his home. We kept watches, hoping to see the lights in the sky, and we were rewarded. During the second watch, Wednesday, Tre-ba, and Frankie all spotted a strange light flash in the sky, far to the east. They woke me up and in time to see a second flash of light. It is possible that it is from some sort of spell effect, but there was not enough to see for any of us to even hazard a guess.

While waiting to see if a third light appeared, the remains of the scout party returned. They first talked with Ashias (as is proper), but after that we were called in to hear what they had discovered. They had travelled east and found nothing until they arrived at an old abandoned manor house. They found the grounds of the manor house swarming with zombies of various races, being led by a vampire. They had been discovered and had to fight to get free of the area. Only 4 of the 12 scouts made it back alive.

At dawn, I cast commune to ask Ra for enlightenment. I learned that the flashes of light were something we need to investigate and they are related to undead in the area. I received confirmation that we should be able to reach the swamp gate without teleporting, that there are underwater tunnels we can follow. Ra told me the grippli are not involved and that the 4 lizardfolk scouts were not under vampiric control. The last thing we learned was the most disturbing – the lich was now tracking our movements.

I shared this with Ashias (along with the answers to questions I asked on his behalf) and we made a deal: he would send scouts to look for the cave entrance to the gate area and we would go investigate the zombie infestation at the manor house and possibly solve the riddle of the lights in the sky, which seems to be connected. We are spending the day in town preparing before setting out. Wednesday, Sarisvati, and I have contributed resources to have Midnight brew three potions of silversheen, which Tre-ba said would would help against the vampire. They will be done this evening and we will set out tomorrow.

I plan on spending the day assisting the lizardfolk however I can. Ashias and they are helping us greatly and I would help them back in return.


Evening, June 18, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, who guides us where we are needed.

It is dawn and I am tired.

We spent all of yesterday hiking through the swamp to the manor house. Ashias accompanied us to show us the way. Rather than wait in the area at night, we used one of the wands of darkvision on those who cannot see in the darkness and approached the manor house with no light. Wednesday scouted the way and we entered the back entrance, across an attached gazebo [we did not attack the gazebo]. The structure of the manor house is heavily magiced to be resistant to the effects of the swamp and flame. This was disconcerting as it indicated the owner had access to significant magics.

The inside was sparsely furnished, but what furniture was there was high quality. The first floor was empty of people, so we made our way upstairs. The upstairs was also empty of people, but contained a sizeable library of books. Suspecting a trap, we had Wednesday check the entire library. She discovered multiple triggers to a massive fireball trap. I cast detect magic and identified several books that registered as magic, all of which were triggers to the trap. Wednesday spent some time disarming all the triggers. She has a strong nerve and nimble fingers – the rest of us waited in another room until she finished.

Once the bookshelves (and several of the books) were de-trapped, Tre-ba and I went over them to see what we had. The critical books (which we carefully packed away) were a manual of stone golems, a manual of bodily health [+1], and two books containing detailed notes on research into becoming a lich. These last two were also coated in poison (each a different poison), which Tre-ba was able to identify: terinav root and black lotus extract. She carefully scraped the poison off and then treated the books with nullifying agents she keeps handy. Alchemists carry the strangest things, but they are very handy to have around. Even conceited ones. (I am curious if this is an alchemist attitude or just specific to Tre-ba. It does not seem to be an elven general attitude as Wednesday and Luna do not seem so full of themselves. Maybe it is something that happens to elves when they get over 200 years of age? There may be no way for me to tell in my lifetime and it seems too trivial to ask as part of a commune with Ra. Sigh.)

Many of the books indicated that they belonged to an individual named Lucien. Is the lich’s name Lucien? The notes seem to be his, although the name does not appear in them at all. What is the vampires part in all this? Too many questions and not enough answers.

With a definite connection between the lich and this manor house, I wanted to torch the place, reducing the number of his safe locations. That said, most of our spells that could do the job are fire-based and the building is fireproof.

But not the furniture.

We packed away all the critical books and as many others as we could fit into one of the bags of holding. I then started applying oil to the shelves and remaining books (mostly blank trap-triggers), plus beds in nearby rooms. While I was doing this, Frankie was scouting the outside of the house and realized there should be an attic, but we found no way to it from inside the house. Perhaps this was where the vampire was laired?

Using ropes, we all climbed onto the roof and proceeded to smash through the roof tiles to gain entry. (Frankie’s fists are extraordinarily hard and well suited to this.) Under the roof was an attic, but it was empty, with no doors. Searching carefully, Wednesday found no traps, but Frankie worked out that there was a two foot gap between the ceiling of the rooms below and the floor of the attic. Wednesday detached her shadow and sent it to go look (it is incorporeal). It found a locked coffer and a concealed door providing access to it from the attic.

(As a note, her detached shadow is a result of shadow dancing magics Wednesday has been studying and not any form of necromancy. This is something Aziz and I quietly verified on our own before asking Wednesday about it. She is a good and true companion and it would be sad to see her fall to dark arts.)

The coffer requires two locks to open and the lich key from the tower fits one of the locks. Wednesday was able to pick the other lock while we opened the first with the key. The coffer remained sealed. There is a magical seal holding it shut in addition to the locks – most intriguing.

We packed it away and the group prepared to leave. I went back inside and opened all the shutters. Once the interior was burned, swamp creatures will be able to take up residence here. As a final touch, I poured oil on the floor upstairs to form the words “Your move. SuperRat” in goblin. When the oil burns, it will leave the message in the form of scorch marks. I then used produce flames to ignite the materials inside the manor house and we fled the area.

I could still see the flames when we made camp, but they are mostly out now. It is late now and I am tired from the day’s efforts (and the early evening’s efforts as well). Tomorrow we head south, following the trail of the zombies to see what we can learn.

*End of Session*

Dyson’s Delve – Session 14 – Travel and Shopping

This session happened Tuesday, February 15, 2011.  This campaign used the Dyson’s Delve dungeon pages on A Character for Every Game as a starting point, but has now moved on to new material from the DM-in-training.

Adventuring Group:
Harkaitz of the Red Soul (male human cleric of Ra)
Wednesday (female elf rogue)
Sahar (female human fighter)
Tre-ba Bel a sheer (female elf alchemist)
Luna (female elf sorcerer)
Frankie Hu, Master of the Distracting Fist (male dwarf monk)

After the defeat of Tim Questgiver, the adventurers retrieved the two Gate Amulets they had hidden to meet with the Earth Priest and learn how to control the gate.  The next morning they hiked to the Delve.  At the Delve, Tre-ba handed out some elixirs in case there was a fight.  Making their way to the Gate Room, the adventurers found the Earth Priest and Scar, his harpy cohort.

After a short explanation of how the gate works, the Earth Priest set it for a destination in the ocean south approximately 100 miles to the south and activated it.  He invited the adventurers to go with him, but the invitation was declined.  Just as he was stepping through, Harkaitz asked his name and learned it was Thrasimedes.  After Thrasimedes and Scar had transversed the gate, Harkaitz removed the Gate Amulets, closing the gate.  The group then returned to Aldelle for some serious rest and relaxation.

Somewhat at ends, now that the threat of Tim was over, the adventurers consulted a map and discussed where they might travel next.  Ultimately, they decided they wanted to go to Terranor, the capital of the Kingdom of Abaloft, where they hoped to sell the gold sarcophagus lid they had for a good price.  In order to do that, they needed a way to transport the lid without attracting inordinate attention, as solid gold sarcophagi lids are want to do.  As the lid was too large to fit in Harkaitz’s handy haversack, a trip to the nearby town of Bosco was arranged to look for a bag of holding.

The adventurers hired a carriage for the half-day trip to Bosco.  Bosco turned out to be a small town surrounded by a wooden stockade.  It is a port town and the landing for the ferry between the island the adventurers were on and the mainland.  Rooms were secured at The Broken Mug, an inn with an attached tavern whose mugs have a decorative chip out of the lip.  Harkaitz then handed out 100 gold marks to each adventurer as mad money to have a good time however they wanted.  The consumption of ale and the hiring of individuals of negotiable virtue by some of the party members happened and everyone had a good time celebrating the end of their recent adventure.

The next morning, Harkaitz, Luna, and Tre-ba (who was slightly suffering from the excesses of the previous night) tracked down a shop dealing in unusual items and reagents.  Some of the items in the shop were magical and the trio looked around for anything useful.  Several things were purchased, including not one but three bags of holding.  The trio spent virtually all of the group's coins and many of the gems and jewelry secured as loot from the Delve to secure a total of seven items, including the speculative purchase of a tome that none could identify, including the shopkeeper.  [It turned out to be a tome of leadership and influence, which went to Luna.]  The group returned to Aldelle to secure the sarcophagus lid in the largest bag of holding [Type 2] and then return to Bosco.

In Bosco, the group purchased supplied for a week's trip and hired a cook (Short John Copper, a red-headed halfling with a sailing background) and a mule for him to ride, as none of the adventurers had strong culinary skills.  Tickets were purchased for the day-long ferry trip to the mainland and the trip made.  In Kudos (the other landing for the ferry), Harkaitz bought a map of the kingdom’s roads and the group set off to Terranor.  A day and a half later, the group arrived in sight of the walls of the city.

*End of Session*

[Not a lot happened in this session as most of it was a shopping trip and discussions as to where to go next.  Plus a party to celebrate.  The session wrapped up rapidly at the end as it was getting late, hence the abrupt ending to the adventure log.  Short John Copper was hired by my character  (Harkaitz) to insert the idea of hirelings into the consciousness of the players, most of whom are participating in their first D&D campaign (technically Pathfinder, but you know what I mean).  If we end up adventuring out of town, I will also suggest hiring some guards for the camp to keep our cook safe while we enter any dungeon or ruins that might be found.]

Dyson’s Delve – Session 12 and 13 – Tim, A Wizard

This entry covers two sessions.  The first happened Tuesday, February 1, 2010, and the second Tuesday, February 8, 2010.  This campaign uses the Dyson’s Delve dungeon pages on A Character for Every Game.  We are using the Pathfinder RPG, so some adjustments were made (or so I’ve been told).

In the first session, we were down two player characters (Sahar and Frankie Hu) due to illness (one natural and the other beer induced) and so did a side adventure that was mostly an XP farm.  The February 8^th session found us still down a player character (Sahar), but the story was stalled if we did not run the conclusion, so we chanced it.

Adventuring Group:

Harkaitz of the Red Soul (male human cleric of Ra)

Wednesday (female elf rogue)

Tre-ba Bel a sheer (female elf alchemist)

Luna (female elf sorcerer)

Frankie Hu, Master of the Distracting Fist (male dwarf monk)

SPOILER ALERT: If You Might Play Through Dyson's Delve, Stop Reading

After clearing out a small underground cave network exposed by a sinkhole, the adventurers received a sending from the Earth Priest that the meeting with Tim had been arranged and told the adventurers when to be there.  Hoping for the best and planning for the worst, the adventurers divided into two groups and separately hid two of the three gate amulets.  Wednesday, Tre-ba, and Luna (the elves) buried one amulet and set a trapped decoy location with an insanity gas trap.  Harkaitz and Frankie embedded one in a boulder with stone shape and trapped a decoy location with a fireball glyph of warding.  The group also questioned Peter (the wizard they had captured) about what kind of magic Tim uses, learning that Peter had seen Tim cast lightning bolt a couple of times, but not in the same combat.

On the appointed day, the adventurers arrived at the Delve and cast some preparatory spells.  Harkaitz cast resist energy (electricity) on Luna, Frankie, and himself.  He then cast resist energy (fire) on Wednesday, as she was expected to get close and might get caught in a fireball or burning hands area of effect.  He also cast shield other on Luna to keep her up and fighting longer, although this was nearly his downfall.  Tre-ba passed around barkskin extracts she concocted (and a few others) and the group entered the Delve.  On the upper level, they found both sets of double doors open and can see Scar (the harpy), the Earth priest, and Tim in the other room.  Wednesday used the scroll of invisibility on herself and the group entered the room.

Tim was up on the gate platform, flanked by two hellhounds.  Scar and the Earth Priest were standing before him when the adventurers arrived, but casually stepped out of the way.  Tim seemed momentarily surprised to see the adventurers alive, but quickly recovered.  He and Harkaitz exchanged a few terse words and the fight was on.

Wednesday and Tre-ba were able to quickly deploy, moving to the sides of the room, but Harkaitz, Frankie, and Luna were still lined up when Tim threw a lightning bolt, catching all three.  Due to the resist energy spells, most of the effects rolled off the adventurers and Harkaitz and Luna responded to the lighting bolt with a pair of fireballs, catching Tim and his two hellhounds in the blasts.  Two xill then appeared, flanking the spellcasters and a mad melee started.  Frankie charged, acrobatically flipping past multiple enemy combatants until he was standing next to Tim, delivering a flurry of blows.  Wednesday nimbly leaped to flank Tim and started wickedly attacking him with her +1 keen rapier.  The Earth Priest and Scar took this moment to join the fight…on the adventurers’ side!

Tim ignored his flanking attackers and cast an ice storm, blanketing half the chamber, knocking Harkaitz into unconsciousness, but also killing one of the hellhounds and a xill ally.  While this eliminated the adventurers healing capability, it was a fleeting tactical advantage as Wednesday and Frankie attacked Tim with renewed vigor, Frankie pummeling Tim to death with his lightning-charged fists.  [Frankie was using his lightning-based elemental fist ki power.]

While the others finished taking out Tim’s remaining allies (the second hell hound and xill), Luna moved to Harkaitz’s side and poured a healing potion down his throat, returning him to consciousness.  Harkaitz immediately channeled the healing power of Ra, healing himself and all of his allies.  Wednesday relieved Tim’s body of the fourth Gate Amulet (the one showing the viper).  Harkaitz asked the Earth Priest if he had honored the bargain and secured the fifth Gate Amulet.  The Earth Priest showed the fifth amulet (the toucan).  Harkaitz put his hand out and waited for the Earth Priest to hand the amulet over.  After a short pause, the Earth Priest did so.

Harkaitz stated that their original agreement was now fulfilled.  The next logical one was for the Earth Priest to show the adventurers how to control the gate in exchange for the adventurers opening the gate to whatever location the Earth priest needed it open to “retrieve something” as discussed earlier.  The Earth Priest agreed to this.  At this point, Harkaitz informed the Earth Priest that the adventurers had hidden two of the amulets prior to facing Tim and needed to go retrieve them.  He suggested that everyone meet back here at the Gate Room the next day to conclude this second agreement.  The Earth Priest was not thrilled, but could see the wisdom in hiding some of the amulets before facing Tim.  He agreed to meet the adventurers here the next day.

*End of Session*

[The actual play part of this session was short due to the planning session prior to the fight and the hiding of the amulets, plus Luna had not been leveled since gaining enough experience point the previous session.  All told, this was a good and tense session where the outcome was unknown until the end.  We were really in a pickle when initiative determined that everyone but Harkaitz and Luna went first, leaving the player artillery vulnerable, especially when the xill phased in right next to them.  There was palpable relief when Scar and the Earth Priest joined the fight by attacking Tim’s minions.]

Dyson’s Delve – Session 6, Part 2

Getting back from Lone Star and getting back into the rhythm of the DayJob (7:00 am to 3:30 pm with no ability to post to the blog) after an extended holiday vacation really did a number on me.  Add prepping for my Southern Reaches game (Friday) and my wife’s Interfaith Tea (Saturday) on top and that leaves me very behind on my blog writing.  I will do my best to start catching up on Sunday.  I have two more sessions of Dyson’s Delve in notes and four pages of notes on my Traveller-style game banked up that I want to get out before I have a month backlog.

This is the second part of the session that happened Wednesday, December 22, 2010.  This campaign uses the Dyson’s Delve dungeon pages on A Character for Every Game.  We are using the Pathfinder RPG, so some adjustments were made (or so I’ve been told).

Adventuring Group:
Harkaitz of the Red Soul, Cleric of Ra (male human cleric of Ra)
Wednesday (female elf rogue)
Sahar (female human fighter)
Frankie Hu, Master of the Distracting Fist (male dwarf monk)

SPOILER ALERT: If You Might Play Through Dyson's Delve, Stop Reading

The morning after escorting the lizardmen past Aldelle, Super Rat returned to the Delve.  Returning once more to the manticore level, the group of adventurers checked the final room on the level, finding four dead and savaged goblins, the second manticore’s last meal.  How things might have gone differently if the adventurers had checked this room first!

With the manticore level cleared out, the adventurers returned to the stairs and descended deeper into the earth to the next level.  The first room here contained a statue of a four armed creature none of the adventurers recognized and two large air vents in the floor, giving forth more of the charnel smell.  Sitting on the head of the statue was an iron crown, well worn, that Frankie took a liking to.  After having Harkaitz verify the crown was not magical, Frankie removed it from the statue and put it on his head.  For a monk he seems to be very attracted to the bling.

Following the only passage out, the adventurers bypass a side passage to investigate a room with tapestries and a moaning breeze.  While creepy, there is no other effect from the sound.  The tapestry room has two passages out on the far end and the adventurers chose to go left.  At the end of this passage were two carrion crawlers in a room barely big enough for them, which sped up the fight for the adventurers.  Searching the room afterward, the adventurers found four human corpses the crawlers had been feeding upon and some loot, including a great deal of coin and a magic shield [+1].  Sahar was given the magic shield as the group’s primary protector.

Returning to the tapestry room, the adventurers followed the other passage east.  Frankie, scouting a little ahead, spotted a group of four humans wearing plate mail, standing guard.  After a failed attempt to bluff the guards into identifying themselves to him, a fight broke out and the rest of Super Rat moved forward.  This pitched fight lasted a bit, ending with two of the guards dead, one unconscious and captured, and one fleeing to raise the alarm.  Not knowing how many reinforcements they might face, the Adventurers scrawled some graffiti on the wall (“Super rat was here.  Super Rat was victorious!”), looted the bodies of their armor, grabbed the captive, and retreated back to town.

Back in Aldelle, the captive was turned over to the sheriff for questioning.  One of the three sets of plate mail was cleaned up and adjusted to fit Sahar, greatly improving her defense.  The other two sets (plus the rest of the looted weaponry and armor) was sold to the village trader for coin, netting a nice bundle.

*End of Session*

A Seal for Super Rat

Fiddling around at Official Seal Generator and came up with this:

Thoughts? Critiques?