Tenkar's Tavern Talk

So, on Wednesday nights, there is a nice talk about the OSR at http://www.tenkarstavern.com/. It starts at 8:30 and runs until about 10. Check it out if the OSR is in your wheelhouse.

CotMA: Session 9

The party this week:
Feran, Human Ranger 5: Me 
Chance, Cleric 4/Rogue 1
Clip-Clop, Centaur Fighter 4 (ECL penalty)
Inquisitor 5
Barbarian 2/Druid 3 (I think)
Drow Fighter/Rogue1/4
Magus 3/Rogue 2 (I think)

After dealing with the hobgoblins at the end of our last session, we jumped right back into the action.We finished clearing out their complex, finding keys to the portcullis and a few secret doors. We found a bunch of money, bracers +2 and a wardrobe with an animated suit of scale armor. Our grapple expert grabbed it, and never let go. It was quickly pummeled into submission. It was guarding a tuning fork, that radiated magic. We stowed this carefully in the cleric's bag of holding. After this, we rested, and headed back to find Brekk.

We looked at our maps and figured out about which way to get to him, and followed a plan. The druid had Know Direction memorized, which kept us from getting off track, and possibly lost. Going through several corridors that seemed to double back on themselves, we eventually found another complex.

First, we ran across a room with a leaky pipe and moss growing in it. We tentatively checked it out and were not molested by any shambling mounds or other planty doom.

Then we came across a bloodied room. It was apparently the scene of a bloody battle (we found out later it was between hobgobbos and orcs). Following our best guesses, we found two emptied barracks and a room with a stone arm from a statue in it. (We left the arm there.)

Finally we came to a place where we found something alive again. Behind a door we hear voices speaking in Orcish. We knocked on the door and negotiated directions to Brekk and passage through their territory.

Following the orcish directions we found our way to Brekk's complex. One arrow trap blasted the party. We were fortunate on our search rolls after that.

We muscled our way to Brekk's workshop, where we were immediately hit by a device that disoriented any movements we made. (Chance and Feran rolled nat 20's to be unaffected.) The battle was joined with Brekk, his 5 gnolls, and only Chance and Feran moving normally.

Our War Mage hit the machine with a projectile, proving it could be destroyed. Chance turned it on the gnolls, keeping them out of the fight.Turning it also allowed our heavy hitters into the combat. Brekk was forced to destroy his machine himself.

Brekk activated some crazy stupid armor: Displacement, Shield, and Mirror Image. Then he used a touch attack to deliver a 5d6 Vampiric Touch and a 5d6 Shocking Grasp to Clip-Clop! Ouch.

Then he turned it on the Ranger. Double-Ouch. The gnolls went down, and I had to head to work, but the rest of the party were able to finish off the gnome-o-mancer. That's where the session ended.

EDIT: Apparently, this was session 9. Updated in the title.

Mord Mar 2015

I have been working slowly on Mord Mar. The third part of Goblins is being penned, Sourcebook 0 is slowly growing, and we are delving into the Bazaar in a short-shot game. But, Saturday is CotMA. I have another week to plan.

So, the plan is the usual suspects want to play evil characters. We will see how they do starting by getting kicked out of Var Nae.

CotMA Campaign Reset

We reset the CotMA campaign the weekend before Christmas. That's why there wasn't a post about it. Now I have to relearn everyone's character names. We did it to rebalance the party. A few of the players felt there was a brighter spotlight on some people (myself included). We also felt that some roles (in combat) were being under served, that's another reason for the reset. We also procured a few new books that everyone wanted to use in the game.

Our old characters sold our new ones their maps, and many of the quests were open to the public, so no real loss of continuity. The only things that really happened in the 'remake session' was discussion of roles and some light RP (finding the quests and etcetera.)

Here's the new group:
Ranger 5 (me)
Cleric 4/Rogue 1 (Oldhimara?)
Centaur Fighter 4 (ECL penalty)
Inquisitor 5
Barbarian 2/Druid 3 (I think)
Warmage 3/Rogue 2 (I think)
Some wizard thing 5 (from Advanced Class Guide)

So, last week's session found us heading once again towards Brekk (with different people. heh.) We found hobgoblins instead.

Not a lot actually happened. We had an encounter with a Hobgoblin Shaman with an Ape pet of some sort. Other than Spike Growth in a dungeon, we breezed this encounter.

Next a Hobgoblin patrol found us searching the Shaman. There were about 12 of them, that we again handled with little problem.

We followed the passage they came from to find an oddly shaped "room." A portcullis blocked one passage out. Another passage led further than we could see, and there were 2 doors. The room had signs of the Hobgoblin clan living here, so we knew they were close. We found a secret door that led to a weapons cache for the Hobgoblins. Then we found the Hobgoblins.

About 25 of them.
And 2 more Apes

All at once.

And 3 leaders showed up after the fight began.

Our centaur dropped, but we did well. The cleric was able to move into position to heal quickly, and efficiently. The Ranger used his bolas and sickle to trip, and AoO prevailed. The wizard-thing used lightning balls to harass and damage.
The Inquisitor used his judgements to great effect. All in all, the reboot did what it was supposed to. We were much more combat effective, and able to work as a team. We won the day, and beat all the hobgoblins (and pets).


Let's hope it continues.