(no subject)
So, we played Scott's new, oriental-theme D&D campaign on Sunday. It was pretty damn cool. We're using a ton of variant rules, and Scott's taken some cues from Andy Collins' "Umber" campaign (www.andycollins.net). Here are some of the variants: you can't have more than half your character levels (rounded down) in a single spellcasting class, we're using Sanity/Taint rules, and very low magic/money. This does two things. First off, we're seriously limited on magic, especially curative magic. We're using the reserve point varient from Unearthed Arcana, so we can slowly heal back some damage, however, it poses a really big problems in fights. Also, since we're first level, we have almost no money or equipment (in fact, my monk started with just the clothing on his back and opted to save his 2gp of starting cash for rooms at an inn or food. It isn't all tough, though. Scott's considerably beefed up all the races (They all have the equivalent of a +1 LA now, but for free). Better yet, we get a bonus feat every level! Every three levels we are required to take racial or clan feats, which make the clans a lot more distinct than just an alliance that your character joins.
There are six or seven of us in the party - only 5 were there this session, though.
I'm playing Stiff Ricky Chen, human monk of the crab clan, who specializes in the Longspear (using the Serpent Strike feat from Eberron, although due to the low starting GP, I was unable to afford one at the start of the campaign)
Eli is playing a Half-Orc Rogue of the Crab Clan. He hits harder than the fighters, so I actually thought he was playing a barbarian for the first half of the adventure.
Mike is playing a human monk of the crab clan. I think his plan is to take lots of Iaijitsu Focus and use a katana later on.
Ken is playing an elf spirit shaman from phoenix clan. Elves have the special ability that they can take half their levels as spirit shaman levels rounding up, rather than down (it also means they can start at first level as spirit shamans.) He's planning on multiclassing spirit shaman/shugenga and having lots of healing.
Tom is playing a human rogue of crab clan. I think he's a knife-throwing skill-monkey. He bought a lot of cheap miscellaneous equipment off the start, which really helped us later on.
The other two guys I don't know so well. They're playing a Gnoll Ranger and an Aasimar Samurai, and they weren't there this week.
Anyway, the plot of the campaign is as follows - the party was among a lot of people hired to guard this big diplomatic caravan - hundreds of diplomats, guards, etc. However, while we were out gathering food (apples) from a local orchard, the caravan was attacked. We returned just in time to see a samauri wearing blood red armor chaining the Crab Champion, Lady Hida, to his horse and dragging her off. We set off after them at once, but they were mounted, and we have began to fall behind when an ice storm blew in. We took refuge in an ancient tor built into a hill under a bridge. The tor was apparently a common rest stop for travellers, as we found the remains of campfires and here and there a piece of rubbish or half-eaten food. There were several stone doors leading out of the entryway, where we were camped, but we couldn't open them. The storm coninued to grow worse, and eventually, with a horrific slam that coincided exactly with a tremendous stroke of lightning, all the stone doors crashed off their hinges and into the room. Several starving rats, maddened by the noise burst from the darkness, but they were easily crushed by me, eli, and tom.
We decided that the rest of the tor needed to be checked out before we could rest safely. The first hallway led deep into the hill, to a small stone room with a treasure chest built into the floor and fading murals on the walls. We tried to decipher the murals, but to no avail. Eli opened the treasure chest, and threw himself to the floor as a dart trap was set off. Fortunately, he wasn't struck by any of the darts, and inside the chest we found a few hundred gold coins!
The second hallway contained a crypt, with a single sarcophogus standing at the far end. No sooner did we enter the room, however, but a hideous bat-winged monster flew from the top of the sarcophogus, biting Tom's rogue. It was quickly slain by the half-orc. A search of this room revealed no further threats. We headed down the last hallway, but before we could get very far, Tom and I stepped on an arrow trap and I was struck by an arrow! The trap also set off some kind of alarm, and I barreled down the hallway, hoping to catch any enemies before they could organize. Two burly humanoids of a type I'd never seen before came roaring out of the darkness, and in the brief skirmish that followed I was deeply wounded, but managed to survive with some healing from Ken.
Interestingly, I had to leave at this point to remove a squirrel from my wood stove. Sarah called, and she was freaking out about this squirrel, that I had to deal with it right away. Vanessa came with me and we found two squirrels in the wood stove. One flying squirrel and one grey squirrel. We got the flying squirrel out ok, but when Vanessa reached in to get the grey squirrel out, it bit her - right through the heavy leather gloves she was wearing. We decided we could leave it in the stove for another day, and went to clean out the wound. Vanessa works closely with animials, and is (fortunately) vaccinated against rabies, so no worries there. Then we went back to playing D&D!
When we returned, the party had just finished wiping out a giant spider that had been dwelling in the darkness of a lower room. We then pushed on into the last room of the dungeon, a lavish tomb! As we entered, however, the body of the ancient samurai lying on the bier rose up and attacked us. It was an incredibly difficult fight. It appeared that only slashing weapons did full damage against him, so I went with trip attacks, while a few of the others set into him with daggers. 6 rounds later, we were badly injured, and we had done little in the way of wounds. I was struck by a blow that should have felled me, but I used an action point to survive, and began a retreat with Mike and Tom. The undead samurai felled Eli and chased after us! Tom turned to face him, managing to open up another wound with a dagger, before the samurai clubbed him to unconsciousness. I realized that we couldn't escape with our injuries slowing us down, and turned to face the monstrosity. Mike cowered behind me. The samurai rushed in, felling me and mike in two attacks (we were both badly wounded from earlier in the fight.) I spent action points to stabilize, but Mike had none left and died. Eli was finally healed by Ken (who had been trying to recover from being stunned earlier on), and rushed up, killing the zombie with two big hits. A nasty fight had come to an end! We finished up there, but what a great night of D&D!
There are six or seven of us in the party - only 5 were there this session, though.
I'm playing Stiff Ricky Chen, human monk of the crab clan, who specializes in the Longspear (using the Serpent Strike feat from Eberron, although due to the low starting GP, I was unable to afford one at the start of the campaign)
Eli is playing a Half-Orc Rogue of the Crab Clan. He hits harder than the fighters, so I actually thought he was playing a barbarian for the first half of the adventure.
Mike is playing a human monk of the crab clan. I think his plan is to take lots of Iaijitsu Focus and use a katana later on.
Ken is playing an elf spirit shaman from phoenix clan. Elves have the special ability that they can take half their levels as spirit shaman levels rounding up, rather than down (it also means they can start at first level as spirit shamans.) He's planning on multiclassing spirit shaman/shugenga and having lots of healing.
Tom is playing a human rogue of crab clan. I think he's a knife-throwing skill-monkey. He bought a lot of cheap miscellaneous equipment off the start, which really helped us later on.
The other two guys I don't know so well. They're playing a Gnoll Ranger and an Aasimar Samurai, and they weren't there this week.
Anyway, the plot of the campaign is as follows - the party was among a lot of people hired to guard this big diplomatic caravan - hundreds of diplomats, guards, etc. However, while we were out gathering food (apples) from a local orchard, the caravan was attacked. We returned just in time to see a samauri wearing blood red armor chaining the Crab Champion, Lady Hida, to his horse and dragging her off. We set off after them at once, but they were mounted, and we have began to fall behind when an ice storm blew in. We took refuge in an ancient tor built into a hill under a bridge. The tor was apparently a common rest stop for travellers, as we found the remains of campfires and here and there a piece of rubbish or half-eaten food. There were several stone doors leading out of the entryway, where we were camped, but we couldn't open them. The storm coninued to grow worse, and eventually, with a horrific slam that coincided exactly with a tremendous stroke of lightning, all the stone doors crashed off their hinges and into the room. Several starving rats, maddened by the noise burst from the darkness, but they were easily crushed by me, eli, and tom.
We decided that the rest of the tor needed to be checked out before we could rest safely. The first hallway led deep into the hill, to a small stone room with a treasure chest built into the floor and fading murals on the walls. We tried to decipher the murals, but to no avail. Eli opened the treasure chest, and threw himself to the floor as a dart trap was set off. Fortunately, he wasn't struck by any of the darts, and inside the chest we found a few hundred gold coins!
The second hallway contained a crypt, with a single sarcophogus standing at the far end. No sooner did we enter the room, however, but a hideous bat-winged monster flew from the top of the sarcophogus, biting Tom's rogue. It was quickly slain by the half-orc. A search of this room revealed no further threats. We headed down the last hallway, but before we could get very far, Tom and I stepped on an arrow trap and I was struck by an arrow! The trap also set off some kind of alarm, and I barreled down the hallway, hoping to catch any enemies before they could organize. Two burly humanoids of a type I'd never seen before came roaring out of the darkness, and in the brief skirmish that followed I was deeply wounded, but managed to survive with some healing from Ken.
Interestingly, I had to leave at this point to remove a squirrel from my wood stove. Sarah called, and she was freaking out about this squirrel, that I had to deal with it right away. Vanessa came with me and we found two squirrels in the wood stove. One flying squirrel and one grey squirrel. We got the flying squirrel out ok, but when Vanessa reached in to get the grey squirrel out, it bit her - right through the heavy leather gloves she was wearing. We decided we could leave it in the stove for another day, and went to clean out the wound. Vanessa works closely with animials, and is (fortunately) vaccinated against rabies, so no worries there. Then we went back to playing D&D!
When we returned, the party had just finished wiping out a giant spider that had been dwelling in the darkness of a lower room. We then pushed on into the last room of the dungeon, a lavish tomb! As we entered, however, the body of the ancient samurai lying on the bier rose up and attacked us. It was an incredibly difficult fight. It appeared that only slashing weapons did full damage against him, so I went with trip attacks, while a few of the others set into him with daggers. 6 rounds later, we were badly injured, and we had done little in the way of wounds. I was struck by a blow that should have felled me, but I used an action point to survive, and began a retreat with Mike and Tom. The undead samurai felled Eli and chased after us! Tom turned to face him, managing to open up another wound with a dagger, before the samurai clubbed him to unconsciousness. I realized that we couldn't escape with our injuries slowing us down, and turned to face the monstrosity. Mike cowered behind me. The samurai rushed in, felling me and mike in two attacks (we were both badly wounded from earlier in the fight.) I spent action points to stabilize, but Mike had none left and died. Eli was finally healed by Ken (who had been trying to recover from being stunned earlier on), and rushed up, killing the zombie with two big hits. A nasty fight had come to an end! We finished up there, but what a great night of D&D!