You do not know how to swim–just like in real life!
He encounters a party of strange foreigners, clearly from another planet. He aids them in finding their friend, a fellow named Chauncy. In the process he looses a friend, but gains an Alien tank.
He returns to his village, riding an Alien tank, accompanied by some fellow from a place called Wampus County.
Adventuring in the high seas of Zak’s campaign, The Speaker of All Graces ends up fleeing pirates, ending up on an island peopled by goblins. The party pays them to protect them for 6 hours, which they do. There is a pitch battle with the pirates and another war band of goblins. It’s a near TPK, but The Speaker of All Graces manages to save the day with the help of a couple goblins, Grintruck and Pustie. Sadly, Pustie didn’t make it. The fight continues, but I need to sleep. Also, Josie showed up and healed me with his crazy chaos knight cleric.
Has an irrational hatred of dwarves (result 529 from the Metamorphica).
Adventuring in the deserts to the South in Zak’s campaign, the party searches for a temple and / or a castle full of treasure. Also goblins. A locust directs the party towards the temple. Fiddlin’ Joe reads a book about Engorath he clearly wasn’t meant to, and is cursed to be a radicalized insect person. (He was already an insect.) At the template, lots of shenanigans as the party tries to convince the goblin cultists that they must start a holy jihad against the scorpion men, and that their fellow Jackalmen cultists might be heretics. Fiddling’ Joe stabs the leader, but we manage to convince her maybe that is OK. The goblins leave for their jihad, and the party tries to steal some treasure from the Jackals. There are lots of explosions, and the Speaker of All Graces is nearly killed. A demon was summoned. And finally Man Rider shows up, and presumably started Man Riding stuff. Then I fell asleep, but the party pressed on. Somehow I ended up with a ton of XP (2555 XP) and gold (1666 GP). Maybe I can finally buy a shield.
In Vornheim, the party is accosted by a baker turned assassin. There is a bounty out for the head of some of the more notable members of the group. The party subdues the baker, and has him lead them to the person who is in charge of getting the word out about the bounty in Vornheim. The fellow seems nefarious, but his employer is apparently legit. They can’t get any good info out of the go-between, so they decide The Speaker of all Graces will get the information from the Wyvern. The party travels to his well, and the Speaker climbs down. (There are some giant spiders in the well, which freaks him out. He also drops a torch on the Wyvern’s head: embarrassing.) The party learns from the Wyvern that the women who has put a bounty on their head is Etheldredd Orlath of House of Rath Orlath. They had torched her families castle many sessions ago.
This is a blog about D&D. I didn’t want to drown my other blog in posts about THAC0 and Megadungeons, and so here we are.
I started playing D&D when I was 12 or 13. A family friend ran a campaign for myself, my brother, and my cousin using his copy of the Rules Cyclopedia. We played a Cleric, a Fighter, and a Rogue, respectively. I can’t recall how long our campaign ran for. I can’t really recall much of anything we did. I do remember fighting a dragon. It was great.
I wrote what follows and originally shared it to G+ after reading Mandy Morbid’s acccount of her abusive relationship with Zak. I may revisit this post at some point and write up more of my thoughts. I have a lot. As more time passes I can’t be bothered to spend anymore time on Zak.
I have updated any posts that previously mentioned Zak’s books–there are a lot–so people are aware of my current thoughts about Zak.
I feel bad and stupid. I had seen all her posts on Twitter post breakup where she allude to a lot of the stuff she writes about on her Facebook post. I had assumed it was just your regular messy break up. But honestly that was just the easier assumption to make.
A lot of people I like and respect have tried to convince me to cut ties with Zak over the years. I could see why people disliked him, but I thought he was genuinely good and decent. He cultivated a community of people I liked around him. Everyone was smart and engaging. People produced amazing things collectively. He was fiercely defensive of the people around him. So I in turn would defend him and my friendship with him. It felt like I was being principled.
But sometimes you’re a fucking idiot. That’s just how it goes.
Zak blocked me here on G+ and elsewhere a month ago, to the day. Even then I still felt this camaraderie with him. We might not agree about how to behave online, or who is or isn’t a good person, but we still were part of this whole thing together. But that was stupid too. This scene is bigger than him.
My standing up for Zak likely helped let him get away with a lot of stuff and for that I’m sorry.
Drona is deeply saddened to learn his fool hardy master Satyavati was killed in the pursuit of treasure.
Now it is his turn to venture into the depths of Pahvelorn and avenge man he raised from childhood! What will we learn of Drona’s dark and mysterious past? Where did he learn to fight? How did he end up a simple servant?
Gains: +250 GP selling magic-user’s cape, +300 GP from Ogam (more or less for selling Satyavati’s scrolls)
Spending: 500 GP contributed to the funeral of Satyavati, that he may be buried in an ostentatious and lavish ceremony befitting a man of his stature and taste. (+525XP)
The party meet with Lortherian, who wants the party to investigate the wizard tower of Calcidius. He hopes to find a fancy magical spy glass located within the tower. Much investigation is done, with traps avoided and loot secured. The party also meets Calcidius, who is trapped in a circle and seems agitated. Feeling they have done their due diligence with respect to exploring the tower, the party heads back to Zorfath.
Gains: +1794 GP in loot.
Spending: 50 GP on Plate Mail, 5 GP in pay and 100 GP in training for Sander; 1360 GP on a giant party for Satyavati (double XP from carousing, with a successful save vs. poison to avoid the ill effects). (+3019 XP.)
The party meanders through Pahvelorn, intent on revenging Satyavati. They detour en route to harass Al Menevar, Lord of the Dead, an overly confident necromancer they like to harass for reasons beyond them. Al Menevar ends up admitting his fealty to Orcus and the party decides he must be killed before he can summon the demon lord. As before, there is a lot of skeleton destruction. Beni is almost killed by super-skeletons, which might be karma for some less than lawful good behaviour thus far in the adventure. The party leaves 4 super-skeletons and a creepy summoning circle along, deciding to get back to their revenging.
They re-enter the ziggurat with the grey ooze, but attempts to dispatch it are for naught. Deciding they need more gear to destroy this thing, they move on. The party investigates the next two tombs: Adaggin the Dark is to the West, and Zaoratec’s Rest to the East. Entering Adaggin the Dark’s tomb, they make their way around, discovering frescos and destroying enchanted statues. At the far end of the tomb they discover a person in the midst of a sorcerous ritual!
The party battles a crazed undead wizard in an attempt to save what appear to be ragged group of villagers. Unfortunately, the ‘villagers’ are in fact undead as well. A fight ensues and the party is victorious. Examining the room the party learns everything within it is fake: the books, lectern, everything. The party destroys everything and makes their way to leave, when a group of ceramic ants wanders into the Southern room, blocking their exit. Trapped, the party must push open the doors the ants attempt to close and jump the pit trap they had previously avoided. Ogam and Sander are dead, now rotting at the bottom of a pit! The party defeats the robot ants and explores the remainder of the Ziggurat, before returning to Pahvelorn.
Gains: 275 GP in loot.
Spending: 100 GP training two new retainers, 100 GP on Plate Mail for both, 45 GP on equipment for my retainer; 100 GP donation to the orphanage in Zorfath in honour of Sanders. Some of that will pay for a little plaque with his name and the date of Sanders death / donation. One of the ratainers is trained for the magic-user Eraria (+362 XP)
The party ventures off to Ilum Zugot. On the way they meet some Pegasus, one of whom has had his wings clipped. They manage to capture and keep them for a night. The injured one agrees to stay with the party, while the others fly off.
The party arrives in Ilum Zugot, and takes up a commission to cleanse some barrows. They investigate a strange barrow carved into a cliff face. They find the tomb of St. Retlu, an important clecic.
Gains: 355.75 GP
Spending: 500 GP on Beni’s Elf Sabre, 5 GP for retainer, 5 GP for upkeep, 100 GP on training Gillim, 20 GP on Retcon’d servant in charge of our houses. (+655 XP)
The party returns to the barrow, which looks to have been fortified since their last visit. Tarvis and Darulin foolishly step into a snare trap, and the party are ambushed in the entry way. They make quick work of the savages that attack them, and charm their leader. The party makes their way into the barrow, led by the charmed man. Entering the second level, the party is ambushed once more. They make short work of the fellows and continue South. Beyond that path leads to a room full of more savages. A sleep spell gets rid of most of the group, and Fitzwalter gets rid of their leader. Drona and Gillum run the rest of the sleeping fellows through. Beyond the final door is a short corridor leading into a small room. At a desk sits a demon, similar to tangle. He shoots the party with a crazy magical crossbow.