A Swordsage's Journal: The Gladiator Arena

[Dralnu]

Just level up and go 'i'm a unarmed swordsage now'. And if the DM objects, wave the PHB II in his face and yell RETRAINING until he retreats behind his faithful screen muttering something about vengeance.

Nah, would rather not antagonize my DM. Yes, BobTheDM is the DM of this campaign.

[Girshtop]

Nah, would rather not antagonize my DM.

A wise decision. No one know what he's capable of.

[Hazzardevil]

A wise decision. No one know what he's capable of.

you must be Wise to be a swordsage, remember DM's get bonuses to int as a class feature.

[Bob the DM]

Well, while the end of this last game was epic, I'm sad to say I didn't kill anyone. :( Although, to be fair, it was done by an npc for reasons of his own and that npc is being punished severly for needing to/succeeding in keeping the pcs alive. Which in turn means he will take it out on them later. YAY!

[Dralnu]

Session 8

Preface:

Spoiler

Show

Everyone made it to this session. We’re level 4, but the DM has allowed me to refrain from leveling up until I can take my desired monk level and I get an hp raise as if I already took the monk level.

Visions:

Spoiler

Show

The group is reunited at Lax’s mines. The hobgoblins are happy with Grish’s resurrection and Sandal’s recovered body. Grish is willing to pay for us to deal with an extremely powerful, back-stabbing wizard with the Book of the Dead. All is good, sorta. Grish is too busy to speak with us so we bum around for a few days. We go on a shopping spree with our enormous wealth (50gp each?). We buy all sorts of mundane adventuring equipment. Extra grappling hooks never hurt, right? Sweet spends his wealth to drink like there’s no tomorrow. I suspect his drinking problem is resurfacing. Teddy offers to pledge his services to Lax for a year if the stone giant agrees to give his slaves wages (lolz), or at least better living conditions. Not sure how that’ll pan out. Me, I’m getting tired of being stripped naked every other day and having to fight weaponless. I decide that the best way of overcoming this is turn my fists into the only weapons I need; I’ll call ‘em Thunder and Lightning. Now I just need a kung-fu master. I ask around, but no one knows kung-fu at the mines.

Things are going fine until night comes and, one by one, we begin having strange dreams. Dan is the first to have a vision and, for the first time in the campaign, appears to be deep in thought and concerned about something. He tells us that in his dream he saw a hobgoblin army and elven vampire army fighting in a field. Next is Fylo: in his dream, all of us are dead, along with the hobgoblin wizard that we’re supposed to off, and a vampire is taking Sandal’s Heart (the artifact) from Fylo’s dying body. Finally is mine: We’re all with the hobgoblin wizard, who is thanking for reaching a “reasonable agreement” with him, and there’s a vampire bloodied and chained in a corner. We come to the conclusion that the dreams seem to be connected in a chronological order of events. If these dreams are a prophecy then we have to tell Grish about it. There may have been more visions of prophecy, but Sweet’s ridiculous amounts of alchohol consumption lead to sweet dream-free blackouts.

(Note that my memory is a little fuzzy on each dream’s details. I likely missed out stuff from each one, but I think I got the jist of it.)

We’re summoned by Grish to meet him and other high-ranking officials. We try to convince him of our recent visions, but the hobgoblin prince wants to deal with them another time. He explains that there is a more pressing matter; the goblin tribe that was in charge of the gladiator arena that we so lovingly remember? They’ve abruptly left and are on the move. We’re not sure why, but to venture a guess, the wizard who recently acquired the Book of the Dead and was last seen rummaging through the countless corpses under the arena pits may have encouraged their displacement. Grish wants… I think it was to recruit them or something… Anyway, point is that he wants us to go in there and capture their leaders. Yeah! And no, unfortunately none of the high-ranking officials know kung-fu.

An Obvious Choice:

Spoiler

Show

Grish wants the goblin tribe’s leaders captured. There are three of them. Grish and his council proposes two options: either send a small group (us and some hobgoblins) to infiltrate the tribe’s camp and kidnap them, or pay off the goblin tribe to betray their leaders, whom apparently they dislike anyway. We dig for more intel on our target, aka Sweet. Of course our bard knows all about this tribe. He even knows an estimate of their numbers: 400 warriors, 2 lieutenants of 4th or 5th level, a leader of 6th to 8th level, along with some worgs and dire wolves. Oh boy.

So, assuming we try the infiltrate + kidnap route, we have to all sneak in, find the leaders, knock them out, and sneak out with our hostages all without raising an alarm or be faced with overwhelming odds in combat. Only Fylo and I are at all sneaky in this group and the worgs would probably sniff us out anyway, so replace “sneak” in the previous sentence with “charge” and that’s our rough plan for this.

The other option involves us simply picking up the goblin leaders without the whole “overwhelming odds” thing.

As we debate with the council, Grish reveals one more tidbit of information: if we go for the kidnap route – and join his militia – we’d be given the magical equipment collected from the vampire prince that Teddy exploded and even get some higher grade mundane gear like fullplate armor. If we pay the goblins off instead, the vamp’s gear would be sold in order to pay for the bribe.

With all this in mind, we hold a vote to decide what to do. Realizing that infiltrating the camp is bound to screw up just like everything we do, except this time with a high likelihood of TPK, we unanimously agree to just pay the goblins off and keep our heads attached to our bodies.

Spoiler

Show

Ha! Just kidding. We're not about to ignore sweet loot or back down from overwhelming odds! Heck no! We took on umber hulks and 100 zombies at level 1, what’s a mere entire goblin tribe then at level 4?

The only person who voted for paying them off was me, vocally arguing for it multiple times to no avail. All the better, for lo, hilarity shall ensue!

The Goblin Job:

Spoiler

Show

We decide to take the vampire’s loot, enlist in the militia, and kidnap the goblin tribe’s leaders ourselves. We’re cocky, but above all we’re greedy bastards. This prince had some good stuff: a +1 nimble mithril chainmail, +1 cloak of resistance, ring of brute force, a dozen flaming and electric arrows, and I think a magical longsword as well. I take the chainmail. It counts as light armor and has no armor penalties, which means I may actually succeed on Tumble rolls for once! Woo! Fylo takes the ring, which can bulrush away opponents that will inevitably dogpile him in the near future. Sweet takes enchanted arrows for the pewpew. Either Fylo or Teddy took the cloak, I don’t remember. I think there was a sword, and if there was then Teddy took it. Finally, as official conscripts in Grish’s militia, Teddy and Dan are decked out in pricey fullplate. Lootgasm!

With the loot distributed, we sit down and discuss our plan to kidnap the goblin leaders. Sweet leads talks with council members and secures stealthy hobgoblin warriors to aid us in our mission. We also acquire horses and 22 gallons of oil (seriously) for explosion purposes and equip ourselves with saps for the whole "kidnap ALIVE" thing. Fun fact: a sap does as much damage as a shortsword!

After double checking our supplies and sharpening our grappling hooks, we’re off! Just before we ride, I get permission to send a letter to my old teacher of the sublime way, Master Fu, asking him if he can direct me to someone who can teach me kung fu.

After a day’s travel, we reach the goblin tribe’s camp at night. The settlement looks temporary. They’re still on the move for a more permanent location. Some scouting reveals that the worgs and dire wolves are not with the tribe currently and the leaders are likely to be found in the biggest looking tent at the center of the camp. We got our horses, 22 gallons of oil, and a bunch of disposable hobgoblins. It’s go time.

How We Roll

Spoiler

Show

The horses are tied up a safe distance away from the camp with a hobgoblin watching them and 2 gallons of oil. Two more hobgoblins are instructed to move the remaining 20 gallons of oil to the far end of the camp and set up a nice big explosion. We wait for the signal.

KABOOM!

A fiery inferno rocks the far end of the camp. It seems these hobgoblins are no slouches when it comes to lighting stuff up, and they do so with military precision. The air is filled with goblin screams. Now it's our turn. We charge in, along with the remaining 5 hobgoblins, bolting straight for the big tent in the middle.

We move in from the north* and spot a big goblin standing outside the eastern side of the tent, viewing the explosion. His stereotypical chieftan attire indicates he's one of the people we're here to nab. We immediately go for him, and with some luck, me, Fylo, and Dan manage to drop the sucker before he could do squat. Meanwhile, Sweet instructs three of the hobgoblins to rush into the tent while the remaining two go around it and guard the southern exit in case anyone tries to escape. The dashing bard pokes his head through the tent's entrance to see how things are going: it seems the three hobgoblins are completely surrounded and are locked in combat with a whole bunch of goblins! Excellent, they're being the disposable distractions that they were born to be!

(*I arbitrarily assigned a direction as north for descriptive purposes.)

Just as we knock out the chieftan, another goblin exits the eastern side of a tent. This schmuck is in stereotypical shaman gear -- leader #2! CHARGE! Dan and I rush over to him and begin the beatdown, but the little bugger just stands there and heals the damage! As this is going on, Fylo, Teddy, and Sweet enter the tent to tango with the goblins that are just finishing up murdering our hobgoblin minions. So Dan and I are fighting a healing shaman, while everyone else went into the tent to fight. Sound familiar?

Things start going downhill from here. Way, way downhill. The goblins inside the tent aren't the vanilla losers found in the monster manual. They've got class levels. Some of them even have names! The biggest threat of them all is this crazy dude who is flipping around while disappearing and reappearing behind people to stab them in the kidneys. During the chaos, the ninja ended up stabbing both Sweet and Teddy. The wounds didn't just hurt though -- they both feel ill and terribly weak as a potent poison begins coursing through their veins. The poor old bard's immune system was already battered from years of alcoholism, and this poison makes him so weak that he falls under the weight of his equipment! Sweet is down, only one hobgoblin remains, Fylo has been knocked out, revived, and knocked out again, and revived again. All is not well inside the tent.

But at least Dan and I are kicking ass against this healer outside the tent! He's too busy keeping himself alive to do anything else! Bwahaha! Look, he's casting another spell, what a lose -- whoa, what happened to the lights?

...

Crap. The ******* blinded me.

The healer starts running eastward. Dan and I give chase. I can't manage to land a hit, but with Hatchling's Flame, I don't need to! I let loose a cone of fire from my shortsword and smugly await more screams of agony from this annoying gobbo. Unfortunately, I instead hear the screams of goblin women and children. Oopsie.. I guess I took a wrong turn somewhere. At this point I start screaming for help.

RUUUUUUUN!

Spoiler

Show

Sweet's strength is almost entirely drained. Teddy and Fylo are injured. I'm blind and lost. Dan is chasing a healer who keeps outhealing his damage. We think it's time to leave.

Dan gives up chasing the healer and starts running back to the big tent, picking me up along the way by bashing his way through goblin warriors that were surrounding me. Sweet is carried by the remaining hobgoblin and they flee from the tent. Teddy picks up the unconscious chieftan and our group is reunited as we start making a mad dash for our horses. Unfortunately though, our "mad dash" is more like a "panting jog" as our heavy loads prevent us from moving quickly. All the while, the goblin tribe has been adequately mobilized and are cautiously converging, completely surrounding us.

Our path eventually is blocked by more armed goblins than we can count. Okay, whatever, they're still goblins. We try to smash our way through all of them. It... doesn't work out. The goblins are officially pissed and look like they're about to swarm us, when Sweet, still semi-paralyzed and being carried by a hobgoblin, tries diplomacy against the angry and very hostile goblin tribe.

Sweet: We have your chieftan! Let us pass or we will kill him! We have defeated your greatest warriors, attacking us would be foolish!

With some pretty sweet rolls, our Stephen Hawking-strength stat bard has caused a standstill. There's a pause. They don't attack us. Maybe they're formulating an answer. Maybe we can get out of this ali --

Fylo: SCREW THIS! I shoot Scorching Ray at the toughest looking goblin.
DM: Your ray horribly burns a very muscular goblin, who screams in pain and shouts for you all to be killed. The dozens of goblins begin throwing spears at you.

Yeah, or that.

TPK

Spoiler

Show

We're showered by spears. We all take heavy hits. Fylo drops, again, and Sweet is almost down too. Teddy wants to valiantly sacrifice himself as a distraction to escape and dives into a mob of goblins, reviving the sorcerer in the process with his crusader powers, but we're fully surrounded by hundreds of goblins so there's no "escape."

We're boned, but I'm stubborn and don't want to die. There's about 30 or so goblins blocking our path to our horses. I begin to carry Sweet on my back, which doubles both as a kind gesture to my ally and a convenient method of drastically lowering the surface area where sharp spears can strike me from behind. This frees up our remaining hobgoblin lackey, whom I instruct to act as my "seeing eye" hobgoblin, guiding me in the proper direction. Then Fylo and I unleash some double whammy cones of fire, Hatchling's Flame and Burning Hands, literally BURNING a path through the goblins. We're still taking hits while doing this, but eventually we break through the containment!

We rush to our horses with angry goblins at our backs, still hucking spears, but now the three hobgoblins that didn't enter the camp come to our aid and give us some covering fire. We send the remaining two barrels of oil rolling down towards our pursuers, Sweet manages to find the strength to shoot a fire arrow to light them up as they roll, and we ride off with an explosion* at our backs! Woo!

TPK? No. But very close. We end here, half-dead, riding back to Lax's mines with the unconscious chieftan as our hostage.

(*Okay, not an explosion, just lots of fire.)

Closing Thoughts:

Spoiler

Show

Sometimes a DM has to try hard not to TPK a stupid group. This was one of those times.

When wrapping up, he said, "When choosing between loot or avoiding a crazy mission, most groups would go for the loot. So I was hoping that maybe if I make the mission so absurdly suicidal, you'd actually want to avoid it." Nay, good sir! Not even balors will keep us away from the shinies!

While my character was opposed to the mission, I as the player am happy we went for it. Avoiding danger is boring. Overwhelming odds = fun!

[El Dorado]

That was awesome. You even kinda succeeded!

[Machinekng]

Nice.

When I saw the heading, TPK, I was sure you guys were done for.

I guess you get to keep your loot, even though I don't think you made Grish happy (or found a kung-fu master) .

[Palanan]

I've read through this installment twice tonight and loved it. I was laughing so loudly people heard me outside the house.

Also, you developed some good tension in the narrative there. When things started going south, and the halfling went down for the second or third time, I was genuinely starting to get worried--until I remembered your DM's post from a couple of nights ago. Even so, I'm amazed that anyone survived all the mighty chucking of spears.

This is classic, and plain great fun. I commend your DM for everything about this setup, and even more so for resisting what must have been some mighty temptation with the TPK. I can't wait to see how the questioning goes.

[Bob the DM]

This just goes to show that no one is always right when dice are involved. I spent about 5 minutes trying to convice Teddy and Dan not to take full plate for a smash and grab. Now, while I may have eased up a little at the end with the amount of javlins thrown at them or letting them break through the encirclement, but it was Teddy drawing the goblins off by provoking AoO that let the group find a weak spot and burn their way through and Dan coming in and saving Teddy so he could escape too, despite the staggering amount of dice I was rolling trying bring one of the groups tanks. And a 15 foot cone of fire dealing 10ish damage followed up by a 30 foot cone of fire doing 2d6 damage just scares the crap out of 5hp goblin warriors. As they were running back to the horses, I let the dice decide who lived and died. But, alas, despite 25 javlins each, the magic armour/full plate/large sheilds (ie. the stuff I thought would get them killed) was just too much ac for the regular MM goblins to hit. Good on the pc's for staying true to themselves and taking the most expensive equipment possible instead of the best suited for the mission. It definately payed off.

[Hazzardevil]

This just goes to show that no one is always right when dice are involved. I spent about 5 minutes trying to convice Teddy and Dan not to take full plate for a smash and grab. Now, while I may have eased up a little at the end with the amount of javlins thrown at them or letting them break through the encirclement, but it was Teddy drawing the goblins off by provoking AoO that let the group find a weak spot and burn their way through and Dan coming in and saving Teddy so he could escape too, despite the staggering amount of dice I was rolling trying bring one of the groups tanks. And a 15 foot cone of fire dealing 10ish damage followed up by a 30 foot cone of fire doing 2d6 damage just scares the crap out of 5hp goblin warriors. As they were running back to the horses, I let the dice decide who lived and died. But, alas, despite 25 javlins each, the magic armour/full plate/large sheilds (ie. the stuff I thought would get them killed) was just too much ac for the regular MM goblins to hit. Good on the pc's for staying true to themselves and taking the most expensive equipment possible instead of the best suited for the mission. It definately payed off.

Bob, you run awesome campaigns.

I also have a few questions.

1. How did you run the 100 men free-for-all and the 100 zombie fights?

2. How did you decide on how to stat out the goblin leaders.

[Bob the DM]

Bob, you run awesome campaigns.

I also have a few questions.

1. How did you run the 100 men free-for-all and the 100 zombie fights?

2. How did you decide on how to stat out the goblin leaders.

1. I use dice to represent all my pcs and npcs. The PC's pick a die and place it on the battlemap and I do the same with npcs (generic white d6s are the best for the "standard npcs"), and I use the numbers on the top to show everyone who's armed similarly. ie: the 3 d6s with 1 showing are hobgoblins with longbows, 2's are shortswords, 3's are longswords and shields and the single red die is the one barking orders. I also have many varied coloured die, so the 3 big boys in the last battle (shaman, chieftain, ninja), all had different colours plus the white dice arranged with the appropriate numbers showing told everyone where the bad npcs were as well as which ones had 2 handaxes/sword and board and the red ones were the pc's allies. The way you don't get the distraction of miniatures who don't nessissarily have the correct armour/robes or weapons and still can get the entire combat picture at a glance. I also have oversized dice for large creatures and larger ones for huge creatures as well.
b) the zombie fight was the easiest. I have about 50-70 dice that I've accumulated over the years and I just laid them out over the large battlemap provided in the DMG. As the front zombies died I moved their dice back. With the zombies it was easiest to assume, since they started far away and their generic, slow zombies, that the pc's go first (even to just assume that they all delayed until they acted as a group), and them moved the horde. Since the zombies are mindless they simply advanced until they reached the group and attacked.
1. a) The initial 100 man fight was really just to see which 4 npcs would survived to aid the pc's in their 3 matches and let the players "get to know their characters" in a life/death crisis. It was all done without any battlemap and just via description. That was easiest, since at level 1 and with so many different groups of npcs who were all working against each other, just being able to describe the general flow of the situation was much easier and didn't interfere with the pcs (ie: not take up a disproportionate amount of time). I wanted to actually have what the pcs did to have a real effect on who would survive so I picked one of the preset npc groups and placed them near each of the pcs. I rolled first a d100 for a rough guess at the first round casualties, then d20s until they were down to about 20 left standing. As the pc's fought a few named npcs who could have survived, died with last words like "my name... was bob" and then with 10-15 left, the pc's had to pick who they attacked and thus were left with 1 ogre fighter, 1 dwarf barbarian, 1 hobgoblin fighter and someone else who escapes my memory right now. That way not only was it useful to me, but no one felt like it was a waste of time. Right from the get go, their choices had the largest possible impact on them.

2. For the goblin leaders I just looked under "goblin" in the Monster Manuel and under "orgnization". That gave me the numbers of the size of the tribe and the level range of the leaders. I decided that since this used to be the wealthiest tribe I didn't have to worry about the leaders affording gear, so I just gave them gear appropriate to their level. I have a fantastic encounter planned for next session (which was planned many weeks ago), but I needed to see if the creatures I'm planning on using will TPK the group so fast it will be anti-climactic, so I made sure to "test" the group by giving the Goblins the low end of the level range, yet still higher than the pcs. I also "geared up" the 3 level 3 sergents to get a good idea on how tough it will be to hit the pcs and how tough it will be for the pcs to make contact. With the levels picked, I turned to the DMG sample npc class charts and just took those statlines are rearanged the numbers (with the goblin +/-) to suit the npcs (ninja high dex/wis, cleric high wis/str, etc...), and added 1 to a single score as they were all level 4+. I took the hp numbers from there +/- for con changes, and then just gave all of them gear. Since the tribe has been recently displaced and order sketchy, the cleric took spells that would insure compliance like blindness/deafness, and debuffs, as well as cures and buffs incase the tribe turned one their leaders, which they would have if they were paid to do so. I was also able to play around with feats like shield specialization/shield ward for the sgts, weapon focus, finess and the like to get their numbers and then I went all out on the 3 'named' npcs. The cheiftain had the coolest feats with things like weapon focus glaive, sickening blow and short haft, etc..., but on his first AoO, as Dan hansomely charged in, I rolled a 1 and a swore really loudly, so I couldn't even cheat the roll just to have my fun!!! The Cheiftain went down after moving once and calling for 'Grob' which was the name of the ninja, but all the pc's somehow though he was calling for a hill giant. I guess they just know my style. :). I didn't want to make the group feel like I tailored the encounter to them, so I made sure to go straight out of the Monster Manuel for the level ranges, but I also didn't want this fight to feel like the climax, so I let the leader just be level 6, with a level 5 cleric and a level 4 ninja.
The big climax will be really cool, especially since the bad guys will be up at the "level 1's vs Umber Hulk" level and for that one I'll have some npcs (like the hobgoblins the pcs had last time), made out on character sheets in case some pc's die early on so they will still be able to participate and affect the all important outcome dispite/inspite of sudden, catastrophic, permanent health failure.

Should be fun, I can't wait to read about it. :D

[Hazzardevil]

1. I use dice to represent all my pcs and npcs.

Thanks, I wasn't expecting such large answers, I';; probably try to run something like this at some point.

[Bob the DM]

Thanks, I wasn't expecting such large answers, I';; probably try to run something like this at some point.

If you're going to use my style of the obove ideas, I should tell you a bit more about it. Your plot needs to be flexible, fluid and generally undefined, yet rock hard and look like you planned it all along. I'm very heavy into adlibing and plotting as the game goes, even sometimes as the session goes. The initial letter back in session 1 was in goblin because I hadn't thought past the Gladiator pit. The campaign became undead heavy because the crusader wanted to take cleric levels and I needed a reason for his vision. The town full of ghouls was added as the pcs travelled across the land because the inital mood of dread after the pit was waning and the cleric and his barn full of refugees appeared after the pcs started exploring the town because there needed to be a reason for the pcs to stick around and "fix" the town. The evil book of undead poped in because there needed to be an in game reason for the cleric and ghouls to be there. While the wizard's tower was passed by on their way to the southern city state it was just a future place holder. The wizard and his devil servant were were added in the morning before the session to show that there were evil people with power and the group needed to be releived of the book and added to the plot to restore the, until then, a much less remarkable hobgoblin. Once that was added, everything else to get them back to the arena fell into place and I had to step back and figure out why would all this be happening. Only then did the architects of plot get their motives and desires. Now the table is set for the big revalations as to what's really going on. That's also why the pcs never had the opportunity to travel north so they wouln't see/hear anything fixed about the region until I had figured out what was important about it. So everything was able to grow very organicaly and now the pcs are comming into the endgame and just last night I finally thought of the details about the finale and the details about how the pcs could win/lose. When I'm going for an "epic" campaing (ie: something that will reach into epic from low levels), I find I have to start with just session to session ideas and the players really become, unknowingly, the true means of developing when the world goes in the future, based on how exciting/tense/enjoyable the initial sessions are. Then an appropriate story for the group can be written and a full fleshed world can develope for future use as well.

Good luck, and make sure to post a DM journal (possibly with a link here), so we can see what happens when you use some of those ideas you liked.

[Bob the DM]

I don't think I've said this yet, but as I just reread the entire journal, wow. Forget how much fun playing the games were, I think I got just as much entertainment reading about it. It reminds me of a movie: The Arena: A Swordsage's journal. (Based on a true story). No, I picture this as a HBO TV show done in the syle of Sparticus. Only the second one, Gods of the Arena. I can't believe I forgot about the epic of Dave.
Kudos, Garth. Truely you have done us all honour. You have great potential as a dm.

[Dralnu]

Thanks Bob. I love writing up the recaps because the campaigns are so fun and the sessions are crazy. I've tried my hand at DM'ing, and I've been keeping a journal of my evil campaign (in sig) but unfortunately it's on hold indefinitely because we can't get everyone together for a session.

[Bob the DM]

I think it's amazing tht we're up to 9000+ views. I can't wait to see it hit 10.

Anywho, REPLY TO MY EMAIL and get those other bums to do it too. I want to try for a game on the 6th.

[Palanan]

...and remind them their loyal audience is waiting for more.

[marcielle]

Yeah. And nice to see Fylo is still going for 'the record'.

[Hiro Protagonest]

I think it's amazing tht we're up to 9000+ views.

It's over 9000!!!

[TheSweetTongue]

Can't wait for the next game, I've only managed to get myself punched in the nose five times so far...and stabbed through the chest once...for all my drinking and smarmy banter

[Sith_Happens]

Not sure if this came up during the suicide capture mission, but if you use Burning Blade with a sap, is the fire damage nonlethal?

Hope you find that kung-fu master soon. Nothing quite like a DM who thinks the RP aspects of base classes actually matter; next thing you know he's going to be enforcing multiclass penalties.

[Dralnu]

Not sure if this came up during the suicide capture mission, but if you use Burning Blade with a sap, is the fire damage nonlethal?

I would think it would be lethal.

Hope you find that kung-fu master soon. Nothing quite like a DM who thinks the RP aspects of base classes actually matter; next thing you know he's going to be enforcing multiclass penalties.

But I like the RP aspects of classes. It might not be your preference but it adds to my fun.

[Bob the DM]

Well the game is back on for sunday. Make sure to bug Dralnu for an update. I just finished re-stating the named npc's. And since the party always, always, always askes for everyone's name, the're all named npcs.

[Dralnu]

Well the game is back on for sunday. Make sure to bug Dralnu for an update. I just finished re-stating the named npc's. And since the party always, always, always askes for everyone's name, the're all named npcs.

You mean Dave, jerkface #1-20, vampire dude, giant guy, and Dave Jr.?

[Hazzardevil]

You mean Dave, jerkface #1-20, vampire dude, giant guy, and Dave Jr.?

I laughed at that, all DM's should have such truly inspired names.

[Airanath]

I laughed at that, all DM's should have such truly inspired names.

That seems like player naming for me =p
"What? You mean that guy name is Xyalarmak? Too hard to remember, we will just call him douchebag, because he is acting like one"

[Bob the DM]

That seems like player naming for me =p
"What? You mean that guy name is Xyalarmak? Too hard to remember, we will just call him douchebag, because he is acting like one"

We'll see how many of the npc's names get into the post game post. I'll bet the combat will be between our intrepid heroes and their allies, wizard that we hate, devil we think is trying to get us killed, the big goliath, and that jerk who killed us with rocks in the arena, facing off against Vampire jerk 1, vampire jerk 2, stupid cleric who almost killed someone, stupid cleric who killed someone, shirtless barbarians who can't die, and their allies, useless fighters and rampaging monsters.

Fortunately with the tendancy to forget names/rename npcs with derogatory terms, I can just add anyone's name who died back into the pool. :)

Edit: oh and Dralnu, please don't forget to include the classic statement by Garth from the "last dinner". I think that was one of the funniest things I've heard yet in this campaign. Teddy was priceless as well, although he did well not to cry.. Not forgetting Dan and his handsome obession with potions and the always... intoxicated William sweet.
Not to spoil anything, but all of you cheering Fylo on to his record setting run at most attempted near deaths, he was sadly absent this sesson and couldn't be killed by the flesh golems. Not to worry thoug, the role of "disregarding plans", "drawing way too much attention", "getting the snot kicked out of him" and "accidentally saving the day early on without knowing it" was played by one of Fylo's understudies.

[Airanath]

Fortunately with the tendancy to forget names/rename npcs with derogatory terms, I can just add anyone's name who died back into the pool. :)

Aye, the wonders of DMing, can't say I don't do that myself ^^

[Sith_Happens]

We'll see how many of the npc's names get into the post game post. I'll bet the combat will be between our intrepid heroes and their allies, wizard that we hate, devil we think is trying to get us killed, the big goliath, and that jerk who killed us with rocks in the arena, facing off against Vampire jerk 1, vampire jerk 2, stupid cleric who almost killed someone, stupid cleric who killed someone, shirtless barbarians who can't die, and their allies, useless fighters and rampaging monsters.

Fortunately with the tendancy to forget names/rename npcs with derogatory terms, I can just add anyone's name who died back into the pool. :)

Edit: oh and Dralnu, please don't forget to include the classic statement by Garth from the "last dinner". I think that was one of the funniest things I've heard yet in this campaign. Teddy was priceless as well, although he did well not to cry.. Not forgetting Dan and his handsome obession with potions and the always... intoxicated William sweet.
Not to spoil anything, but all of you cheering Fylo on to his record setting run at most attempted near deaths, he was sadly absent this sesson and couldn't be killed by the flesh golems. Not to worry thoug, the role of "disregarding plans", "drawing way too much attention", "getting the snot kicked out of him" and "accidentally saving the day early on without knowing it" was played by one of Fylo's understudies.

Darn it, now I want to know who died. My guess is the kung-fu master that finally arrives to help Garth get his Monk level. You know, Mentor Occupational Hazard and all.

[Dralnu]

I unfortunately left my notes at Teddy's house so I haven't been able to write up the next entry yet. It should be up some time later this week.

I ended up forgetting temporary combat modifiers last sessions so I've decided to put my character sheet up electronically. It's easier to keep track of modifications that way. For those interested, here is how Garth Bolstrum is looking at the end of last session.