The Seattle Prime Time Players

 Chris (The DM formerly known as Jesus) and Dustin (green)

 Jeff and Chrisy, with cider

 Mr. Nick

How we roll

 

The team (Bonk, Aron, Nuckin, Robin, Ann)

 The team and a hand

 

Nuckin, unconscious in a hole

 

Incredibly detailed fight v. a dog and a rat in a hole in the ground

 

Aftermath of said combat

Ann's Story for Chris Campaign

New  PC for time off DM'ing campaign!

                Annalette, Ann for short, was raised in a loving, traditional dwarven home under the White Cap mountain range. Guided by her successful trading clan, she showed the metalworking capabilities held in such great esteem by her people at an early age. A prodigy with the hammer, her first century was spent learning and practicing her craft. While extremely strong and hardy due to long days working the forge, Ann never demonstrated the temperament of a warrior and excluded herself from all combat training. A fact she came to regret sorely when her mountain home was ravaged by a band of orcish irregulars under the command of the famed fire giant warleader, Bloodhands. Ann was horribly burned during her escape from the hold and only made it out at all due to a brilliant holding action on the part of her more martially inclined family members. Ann eventually collapsed a few hours outside of the town of Avgard and would surely have died of her injuries were it not for the fortunate intervention of a traveling merchant that happened upon her wasted form. Ann recovered swiftly after awakening in the village days later and was able to demonstrate her worth as a smith in time.

                Ann took up a partnership with the savvy, but less capable, owner of the “Drunken Flame” smithy, a human named Stordina. For the next 20 years, she maintained a brisk trade with the human merchant, a man named Topper, that saved her life all those years ago. Thanks to his trading acumen her armor, weapons, and tools have become an integral part in the life of many in the area. So reliable are her wares that Ann has become a well known figure in the community, a position she detests.

                While never outgoing, Ann's personality has changed significantly since her early years due to her disfiguring scars. While maintaining her feverish devotion to the forge, Ann has become distant and taciturn, shunning most contact and taking comfort only in her fires.

                Ann blames herself for not being capable of defending her family during  the war, a belief that occasionally manifests itself as unreasoning fear at the worst of times. To combat this, she has begun training  to be ready should she need to defend herself in the future. While oddly lacking in the ability to adequately wield a sword or axe, Ann has developed a combat style that suits her extraordinary strength and personal preference for putting large, often pointy, pieces of metal between herself and danger. This combat style, modeled on vaguely remembered clan histories of the dwarven berserkers, focuses on smashing (or smashing into) the vulnerable ankles and knees of  taller adversaries. Ann is no fool and knows her lack of maneuverability on the battlefield is a handicap that must be quickly remedied with suitably dwarvish practicality.

                Ann's relatively stable life was turned upside-down recently by a brief tryst with an itinerant dwarven priest of Hoar, god of vengeance. Drawn to his intensity and clear purpose, Ann has taken up worship of the harsh god herself with the intention of righting the perceived wrongs of her past. She has slowly been building up her resources and finding allies capable of supporting her long term mission of reclaiming her ancestral halls from Bloodhands with promises of the wealth hidden within.

Return to the Garlstone Mine Session 7/29 and New bonus Campaign Info!

The Next Generation:

After some summer vacation in Ohio and Houston business we're back on schedule for our next session on 9/3. We're taking a break on the Haranshire campaign and Chris will be taking over as DM so I can get some play time in. (Thanks Chris!) 

Our last campaign was created and DM'd by Chris and it was a blast. I ran an erudite up to 11th level before it started to get blatantly game warping with combat circumventing stuff like Teleport, Sensitivity to Psychic Impressions, Dominate, and the other divinations. Chrisy was a slight brew of a Were-Cat Monk/Warshaper with 8 attacks a round and some ridiculous AC that made meat of stuff we had crowd controlled. Nick was a bug spellthief slumlord. A shame we weren't able to continue, but things were getting out of control after the departure of our 4th party member and the obvious overpoweredness of an orb of white dragon control combined with a ridiculous toolbox of psionic powers. 

The campaign was a good example of the imbalances between pure casters (Tier 1 classes) and everyone else inherent in the 3.5 system. It is just something that needs to be taken into account when deciding on the level/type of campaign and worked out with the rest of the players beforehand. 

The new campaign is shaping up well and the record can be found at:

 Wherein we try to not slaughter a village

I decided to roll a random non caster character from our available splatbook material and come up with a plausible story/build for it. Ended up rolling female dwarf fighter with no weapon proficiencies and a fetish for shields. Oh boy.

We'll pick up the Haranshire campaign just as it moves into the next phase sometime soon.

Also gonna be shifting to a new play area and I might post some pictures of our setup and players.

Going to continue taking notes/recaps as well and I'll be making some extra stuff on this side while we're in the other campaign. Maybe some game commentary or board game/video game/Magic reviews, who knows.

And now, our last session notes from the end of July,

Chrisy (Felisin) 1372c Year of Wild Magic, Day 13-15, Session notes 7/29/2014

(ed. Dustin was out this session and Mautilis was played by Chris during combat.)

Day eleventy-billion and I am tired of all this Outside.

After the deliciously lucrative sacking of the keep, the party decides to go back to Thurmaster (ed. Milford). I’m not getting nearly enough credit for slaying that damned ship. (ed. Priest of Cyric, see last session)

At some point Alton gets un-blinded. (ed. town cleric got yo back)

I’m not entirely convinced about this Larry thing. He seems so…organized. And friendly. Although I hear he can break stuff, so I tentatively approve. Sparky has his reservations.

We decide to question Heydrus again and, despite a lamentable lack of fire, we managed to find out that:

          

        Most of the bandits that took over the keep came from the area

            

       They only kidnapped one dwarf

The party decides to actually finish something, and heads back to the cave. Shockingly, Mautilus hates this plan. (ed. well RP'd Chris)

There is very little discussion about the disappearance of Houra; maybe he’s back in the cave. Maybe he rejoined his schizo demon overlords. I’m pretty sure he’s just floating around doing his invisible thing.

 

Back at the cave, Alton and Larry go scouting and report back that they hear voices. After much discussion, we start banging on random shit to draw out god knows what. Like most of our plans, it doesn’t work. The group marches confidently in and discovers a zombie storage shed. We open up a can of firey zombie whoopass, incinerating the shed in the process.

Hearing approaching footsteps, we decide to use the cave tunnel as a bottleneck, and the group is descended upon by additional zombies (totaling 6), 6 orcs, and we catch sight of 3 spell casters with bows at the end of the tunnel. (ed. 1 fighter with a bow and 2 clerics)

Fog encompasses the group, and Hawkeye suggests drawing everyone into the fog to get massacred. Pretty much everyone decides this is a bad idea and that he’s probably been drinking.

Mautilus suddenly loses his shit and runs away squealing (possibly because of a spell, but hey, it’s not entirely out of character). I feel this behavior could be corrected with fire. Despite his obvious terror, he books it at the speed of smell because he is apparently carrying three full sets of armor.

He unknowingly comes within inches of the sea serpent (ed. in adjoining cave area previously encountered and skirted), suddenly remembers he’s awesome, turns around, and rejoins the fray. He then begins behaving like a tank and takes everyone completely by surprise.

Nick’s two guards flail at everyone’s ankles amidst flaming zombies. (ed. Tamer pays the iron price when the fighter finally wades in with a charging bastard sword crit to the face)

All the things are murdered in flames, the spellcasters flee and are chased down and blasted.

(ed. For the purposes of game flow I'm fastforwarding the exploration of the back end of the mine system where the priests stashed their stuff. Some cursory exploration uncovered a giant unmoveable bronze door with two keyholes that match the design of two keys found in the Thornwood Ruins and in the loot from the mine. The party brought the corpse of Tamer back to his family and rested/resolved loot sorting in town. We'll pick up there next session.)

 Session Loot Recap

 Still to be sorted:

+2 chainmail

+2 sickle

boots of levitation

Leomund's Desirable Residence (see below)

Silver choker 750gp

+1 chainmail

+1 heavy steel shield

+1 heavy mace

Robe of Useful Items (see below)

gold ring 1200gp

+2 splint mail

+2 bastard sword

+1 dagger

+1 longbow

boots of speed

platinum and gold medallion 125gp

scroll of web

2x scroll of remove paralysis

scroll of Cure Disease

scroll of Cure Serious Wounds

scroll of dispel magic

scroll of mirror image

scroll of minor globe of invulnerability

staff of frost with 5 charges left

2 silver flasks - same as ones from Thornwood

misc coinage totaling 2,200 gp and 1,200 pp

Robe of Useful Items 

The robe has these patches left:

Dagger

Bulls Eye Lantern

2ft by 4 ft mirror

10 ft pole

50 ft. of silk rope

a large sack

10x10x10 deep pit (std action to deploy in adj. space)

rowboat

24 ft ladder

100 gold in a bag

mule w/bags

a potion of Cure Serious Wounds 3d8+5

Leomund's Desireble Residence:

This small ceramic model of a rude cottage grows into a building conjured by a Secure Shelter spell twice per week for up to 16 hours and can hold up to 1,000 lbs. in its shrunken form. Anyone inside when the duration ends is instantly killed.

EXP- Party Rewards

 Battle of Garlstone Mine Finale: EL8 975xp for party+Jahn

EXP- RP and Individual Goals

Nada, all fighting all the time.

 Ongoing Points of Interest Log

• Discover the purpose of the bandit/Cyricist/Orc presences in Haranshire.
• What is behind that big ominous door in the Garlstone Mine?
• Parlfray Keep/Howlers Moor- Dwarf congregation missing. (Count Parlfray)
• Shar's evil priest slaying Parlfray's men in Hardlow woods long ago(TOG)
• Demihumans in The Great Rock Dale (TOG)
• Shiraz in the Eelhold (from Garyld)
• Determining the cause of the New Mire spread (Carman)
• Issues with remains of goblin tribe
• Shrieken Mire? (TOG)
• Exploring Garlstone Mine
• What happened to Houra?

Double Trouble Rumble in the Keep Update Chris (Larien) and Dustin (Mautilis) Sessions 7/15 and 7/22

Chris (Larien) 1372c Year of Wild Magic, Day 10-11, Marpenoth

DAY BEFORE: How I got here

It’s not that I regret being a mercenary. It’s good times. I get to travel, meet interesting people, and there’s always someone that deserves to get blasted into oblivion. It’s good money too…
But lately? The quality of my, shall we say “compatriots” has been lacking.

This week, for instance, Parlfray says that he had some work for me. Something about his ancestral home and bandits. The old man always pays well though, so I wasn’t really worried about the details. I arrived to discover that I had been teamed up with tweedle dee and tweedle fucking moron. Again… These two guys almost got me killed on the last job I went on with them. Their version of checking for traps on artifacts is “Oh, I’ll just stick my hand in it!” Almost got their damn hand cut off, and still triggered the trap in the room. Here’s hoping this time is different.

DAY ONE: Meeting my new best friends

Luckily, it turned out that we were only part of a larger group of hired help. Parlfray has apparently worked with these guys before and they’ve gotten results. From the looks of them, they can probably handle themselves. They even have a healer with them! Looks like these guys are in it for the long haul, which is good. Get rich quick types usually just end up getting dead quicker.
We met up with a local Ranger named Cooper too. This must be fairly important if there is so much man power being put into this. I should get some more details on what we’re actually doing here.

DAY TWO: Assault on fortress where nothing could go wrong

Well. I was right. The other two fucked up the plan almost immediately. Though, I’ll be honest, it wasn’t a great plan. It took five tries to get the core concept down, and even then SOMEONE failed to mention that my job was physically impossible…I can cut chains and make gates fall open. I cannot levitate gates that are designed to be lifted! Somebody dropped the ball. I’m inclined to blame that Halfling. Seems like things that should be mentioned.

Anyway. We sent a small contingent around the back to take out the guard tower. The rest of the party waited across the field for our signal. Unfortunately, (Guys name) triggered a trap almost immediately and alerted the guys in the keep to their presence. Totally shocked! Man, I hate those guys. Apparently he almost died, because he set off ANOTHER trap almost immediately afterwards. Got shot into the air and impaled on a spear. Lucky that healer was around. He seems alright.

 Felisin, who is batshit insane btw, made it around to the back with Alton, the Halfling. We manage to scale the wall with Altons rope, and begin sneaking across the roofs to take out the tower and open the gate. We quickly realized, well “I” quickly realized, that the plan wasn’t going to work, since the gate mechanics were not adequately researched. But we made do.

Using the ropes, we managed to get Cooper and then, slowly, the rest of the party, up onto the roofs. I provided covering fire with Felisin from the rooftops while our healer jumped into the fray (yes, you read that right) leaving our professional warrior watching from the rooftops grumbling about strategy or something. Apparently, though, being healed had inspired an insane amount of loyalty in (guys names), but no extra intelligence, because the two dumbasses leaped to the defense of Hawkeye with zero forethought. They took on several guys, as well as guard dogs, and quite frankly if it hadn’t been for Cooper they would have gotten slaughtered. Felisin and I rained down death and destruction from above the whole time. 

She may have taken it a BIT too far with the lighting of every flammable surface on fire, but you can’t argue with her results. It all, sort of, worked out, but I’m really worried about Mautilis, the Warblade. Pretty sure this guys has seen some shit, and he kind of froze up. Might have to relegate him to carrying the supplies and watching the horses until he gets his shit together. Everyone kept saying that “Susan” was doing that, but they kept just letting the horses wander around with this pony alone. Really bad idea.

Anyway, after we cleared out the fort, we managed to capture one of the bandits and discovered that the real power behind the group was holed up in the basement. Looks like the fun is just getting started!

If we make it through this, I’m going to see about getting away from (Those guys names) and joining up with these guys. Pretty sure Hawkeye and Alton would be interested. Felisin probably wouldn’t notice beyond the average amount of combustible material in her vicinity rising slightly. Mautilis may not be aware of what’s actually going on right now. Still not quite sure what happened back there.




Dustin (Mautilis) Day 11-12 - the next session
(ed. After a flammable fake hostage situation, the party gets some info from Heydrus, the bitch boy for the bandits in charge of the keep. He scrawls them a map of the basement where the priest of Cyric is holed up. The party ties him up despite his pleas to flee. Kuiper keeps an eye on both Heydrus and the courtyard from a rooftop while the party descends.)

“Should we leave?”

“Yes.”

“K.”

One week later.

“Fires are still burning?”

“We really fucked them up. The doors I mean."

“Yeah… Hey. Map indicates stairs. We totally forgot about this one room or two. I bet that’s where the stairs are.”

“K. Let’s check it out.”

Alton pushes everyone aside. “I’ll lead the way, guys!”

“To the ancient evil? Sure fine."

Two minutes later.

“GUYS I AM ALMOST DEAD FROM AN UNEXPECTED GARROTING.”

“Fuckin shit balls.” Mautilis jumps down.

“A WOMAN LAUGHS AT ME.”

Felisin and others follow. “I’ll burn a dog!” she says. Dog is burnt, and allows us to see what would appear to be a zombie conga line.

“Ai yi yi yi yi yi yi!”

“Wait, what was that?”

“Kuiper’s battle cry.”

“He has a battle cry?”

“Maybe he’s actually crying.”

“Plausible."

“You guys handle the zombies and all that."

Alton, Larry, and Felisin (ALF) go back up to check on Kuiper, who was keeping watch on the surface, near the gate. Larry sees two orcs run towards the front gate; turning the corner, Kuiper is in trouble, prone, spread eagle, and at the mercy of the orcs and their battle axes.

“Don’t worry Kuiper, we’ll sa—…no? Let him die? You got it.”

“I didn’t say that.”

Kuiper FUCKING DIES.

Someone mutters a word sharply in a strange language, causing the area to be filled with a black fog.

“The hell is going on!” Alton goes blind.

“OMG.” Felisin’s jaw drops. “Guys. You’re not going to believe this.”

“You’re like Red Herring in a Pup Named Scooby Doo except with even less supporting evidence?”

“No, can you not hear it? It’s the flapping!”

“Flapping! Well call the fucking coast guard.”

“No, yes, they can help with the ship.”

“You…you’re like Don Quixote, except there’s not even a windmill to imagine into a monster. It’s like you’re seeing windmills instead of the actual enemies that are real. You’re a reverse Don Quixote. That’s the worst kind of Don Quixote.”

Alton nods fervantly. “Yes, it’s the ship, I can see it! It’s there!” Alton is pointing at bloated body lying next to the well. He laughs like a child, full of wonderment. “I totally see it! Flap flap! Flap flap flap! HAHAHAA!” Blind, guys. He's blind.

“Smoothing sailing from here on out, guys!"

Naw but seriously, Felisin fucked that floating guy up, the zombie conga line vanished, and we gots some serious loot. Also some keys.

“Give me wings and I’ll fly down the poop hole.” — Alton

Session Loot Recap

(ed. After leaving the keep with heaps of loot Jeff and Chris put up a shared excel doc with all the items. The party kinda sorta voted on who got what by vote then random rolls and debate determined in case of ties, full loot list and char sheets below.)

Current PC Sheets and Loot Matrix

EXP- Party Rewards

Battle for the Keep: EL9 900EXP for all party members and Jahn/Tamer

4 dogs and 10 bandits

Dungeon Battle: EL9 936EXP for all party members and Jahn/Tamer

1 crazy lady, 2 dogs, 1 Cyricist Flyingdutchman, 2 orcs, zombie conga line

EXP- RP and Individual Goals

Alton managing to get through a field full of traps 5 times in a row with some lucky rolls- 25EXP

Mautilis RP steadfastly refusing to participate in a plan he didn't like- 50EXP

Felisin surviving- 50EXP

Ongoing Points of Interest Log

• Discover the purpose of the bandit/Cyricist/Orc presences in Haranshire.
• Parlfray Keep/Howlers Moor- Dwarf congregation missing. (Count Parlfray)
• Shar's evil priest slaying Parlfray's men in Hardlow woods long ago(TOG)
• Demihumans in The Great Rock Dale (TOG)
• Shiraz in the Eelhold (from Garyld)
• Determining the cause of the New Mire spread (Carman)
• Issues with remains of goblin tribe
• Shrieken Mire? (TOG)
• Exploring Garlstone Mine
• What happened to Houra?

Jeff (Alton) Session Notes 7/7/2014

1372c Year of Wild Magic, Day 8-10, Month of Marpenoth (October)

The party started the session by brutally murdering a poor, defenseless stalactite (ed. Piercer) after it tried to kill Alton. After their glorious victory, the party split up - Hawkeye and Mautilus went off to interrogate the bound prisoner in the Flitch while Alton, Houra, and Felisin descended into the lower levels of the cave.

Scouting ahead, Alton caught a glimpse of something shiny and tried to skirt the edge of a pool to retrieve it. Unfortunately, the pool was home to a giant goddamn sea snake, which grabbed him in its jaws but was no match for his superior halfling strength. Felisin wasn’t quite as lucky, and was dragged into the water while rushing to Alton’s aid. While Alton and Felisin heroically retreated, with Houra doing his invisibility thing, Hawkeye heard the commotion and hurried to assist (Mautilus stood around upstairs). While Hawkeye escorted the badly wounded Alton and Felisin to the cave’s mouth in order to heal, Houra took over scouting duties and investigated. He was never seen again.

(ed. Lacking the party resources for a rez, Chris will return next session with a new PC)

(Although the party doesn’t know, Houra found the zombie overseers, and considered engaging them, but thought better of it and continued his investigation. He eventually wandered into the Crab Petals, a chamber with sticky strands across it, and got caught by a spider-crab-lobster on the wall. After an epic struggle, including some quality axe-swinging, he managed to escape its grasp; unfortunately, he walked into another strand and was devoured by another one of the creatures. Spider-crab-lobsters: 1, our heroes: 0).

The surviving members of the party quickly realized that the sea-snake was poisonous. Felisin and Alton agreed that, lacking a competent doctor nearby, they must return to town (Hawkeye’s suggestion, cutting off all of Felisin and Alton’s limbs, was met with reluctance). The travelling cleric is happy to assist, for a fee, and the wounded party members are completely healed.

Deciding that the cave is too big a threat to handle immediately, the party shifted their focus to the keep in the Thornwood.

After setting up camp in the woods near the keep, the party surveilled the entrance to the fortress for two days. Eventually, Alton volunteered to go in for a closer look; despite some bad luck with a grappling hook, he eventually scaled the wall and was able to get some info, including size, layout, and building materials.

The party arranged to meet Kuiper at the keep in two days’ time, although Kuiper doesn’t know anyone except Alton is involved, and will attack the keep then.

Session Loot Recap

Parlfray's 2x Men at Arms

EXP- Party Rewards

Poked/Bashed a rock to death- 15EXP

Reaching a decision on where to go next without a party member attacking another party member- 25EXP 

Attempts at ally gathering around town(s) to sack the keep- 50EXP 

EXP- RP and Individual Goals

 Houra's Lone Wolf exploration- 250,000EXP

Hawkeye's attempt to recover his alignment with the last guard- 15EXP

Ongoing Points of Interest Log

• Parlfray Keep/Howlers Moor- Dwarf congregation missing. (Count Parlfray)
• Shar's evil priest slaying Parlfray's men in Hardlow woods long ago(TOG)
• Demihumans in The Great Rock Dale (TOG)
• Shiraz in the Eelhold (from Garyld)
• Scouting / determining the cause of the New Mire spread (Carman)
• Issues with remains of goblin tribe
• Orc's with skull/crossbow bolt shield motif (encountered)
• Shrieken Mire? (TOG)
• Exploring Garlstone Mine
• What happened to Houra?