Session #16

Ok, this session was slightly different.

But, we'll get to that later.
:)

Right now I've got to plug my favorite new game show. It's on Comedy Central it's called Distraction. Basically contestants have to answer easy questions while bad things are happening to them. My favorite one is where they break a bottle over your head before you get to answer the question. Then they've got the old lady armwrestling and so on. Yeah, I'm a sadistic bastage.

I did get a few more questions recently so I'll be getting to them:

- Why do you put new posts in stages and on different days?
Well I try to have it done by Sunday. But sometimes it just takes forever to get everything relevant into the blog (there's a lot that doesn't get put in - for your own good). Plus I'm distracted by a lot of things while I'm writing the blog (TV/wife/cats). Overall the time can get up to 6 hours.

- You're kind of mean to your players aren't you?
Your point being? I get just as good as I give. If I was truly that mean, do you think they'd show up every week? The running joke for the past 2 decades is that I have charisma of 6 (some consider that generous). My goal is not to be mean, it's to be challenging. I am not a cake walk kind of DM. I love to challenge the players with anything I can throw at them. And so long as they are sufficiently rewarded, they like the challenge.

- What are your house rules, because your combats don't mesh with the rules all the time?
Well first, the combats I relate on the blog come from memory, and I'm bound to lose or confuse things along the way. And yes, there are some rules that I have tweaked, but nothing heavy.

- How do you handle cheating?
Cheating? I doubt it in this group. Right now the only way they could cheat is if they were to buy their own copy of the WLD. That's some expensive cheating.
Even assuming that the someone were to have the WLD, this group isn't the kind that would cheat. Cheating means no challenge. No challenge means boredom.

- RPGMP3 has bios of their players. Why don't you?
Man, RPGMP3 gets all the love.
Ok here ya go (in no particular order)

Aaron (Krieg)
Age: 32
Marrital Status: married w/ baby daughter
Education: Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering
Played D&D since: 1988 w/ 1st Ed. AD&D
Other RPGs: Aeon, Vampire
Favorite D&D Class: Wizard
Least Favorite D&D Class: Druid
Favorite Movie: The Usual Suspects or Reservoir Dogs
Least Favorite: Crump
Favorite D&D Character Ever Played: Circe the wild mage
Favorite D&D Monster: Kerspa the intelligent squirrel
Most Liked Aspect of D&D: The people
Least liked: 3rd Ed. psionics

Jeff (Valden)
Age: 35
Marrital Status: Married w/ baby son
Education: Bachelor's in Computer Engineering
Played D&D since: 1999 on a PC later with 3.0
Other RPGs: n/a
Favorite D&D Class: Wizard
Least Favorite D&D Class: Bard
Favorite Movie: Pulp Fiction
Least Favorite: Highlander 2: The Sickening
Favorite D&D Character Ever Played: Valimir the wizard/rogue
Favorite D&D Monster: Gelatinous cube
Most Liked Aspect of D&D: Combat Strategy
Least liked: Low Rolls

Justin (Thunderclease)
Age: 20
Marrital Status: Single
Education: High w/ some college
Played D&D since: 2002 with 3.0
Other RPGs: n/a
Favorite D&D Class: Rogue
Least Favorite D&D Class: Cleric
Favorite Movie: Pulp Fiction
Least Favorite: Jeepers Creepers
Favorite D&D Character Ever Played: Lyle Highill halfling rogue
Favorite D&D Monster: Anything that is not a gorgon
Most Liked Aspect of D&D: Logic
Least liked: XP penalty for multiclassing.

Brian (Torin/Dugan)
Age: 27
Marrital Status: Married
Education: Bachelor's in Latin Education
Played D&D since: 1993 with 2nd Ed.
Other RPGs: Rifts, Harn, Earthdawn, Star Wars (d6)
Favorite D&D Class: Paladin
Least Favorite D&D Class: Monk
Favorite Movie: Empire Strikes Back
Least Favorite: About Schmidt (Kathy Bates scene)
Favorite D&D Character Ever Played: Aximander aasimar paladin/cleric
Favorite D&D Monster: Molydeus demon prince
Most Liked Aspect of D&D: Friends made through the game
Least liked: Too much math to deal with at times.

Dale (Dalron)
Age: 48
Marrital Status: Married w/ a teenage son & a daughter in college
Education: Bachelors in Business (Accounting)
Played D&D since: 1978 with blue book D&D
Other RPGs: Mage, Vampire
Favorite D&D Class: Wizard
Least Favorite D&D Class: Bard
Favorite Movie: Kelly's Heroes
Least Favorite: Love Story
Favorite D&D Character Ever Played: Air Shane
Favorite D&D Monster: Lich (Dale loves undead)
Most Liked Aspect of D&D: Interaction with other players
Least liked: Players who take the game too seriously

Joe (Zorak)
Age: 27
Marrital Status: Single
Education: Bachelor's in Urban Planning
Played D&D since: July 2004 w/ 3.5
Other RPGs: Vampire
Favorite D&D Class: Rogue
Least Favorite D&D Class: Paladin
Favorite Movie: Pulp Fiction
Least Favorite: Titanic
Favorite D&D Character Ever Played: Brak Stonebreaker dwarf fighter
Favorite D&D Monster: Goblin
Most Liked Aspect of D&D: Role-playing
Least liked: Munchkins (even though he is one)
Here's his personal blog.
Read it if you want to understand Joe. Or watch a couple of 5 year olds after giving them each a candy bar. That's Joe too.

Sean (Lord Ao)
Age: 32
Marrital Status: Married
Education: Associates in Electronic Engineering
Played D&D since: 1984 with basic red book D&D
Other RPGs: Star Wars (d6), Marvel Super-heroes, Dr. Who, Teenagers From Outer Space, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Dragon Storm, Middle Earth, and 4 billion more I've forgotten
Favorite D&D Class: Wizard
Least Favorite D&D Class: Bard
Favorite Movie: Dumb & Dumber
Least Favorite: Tie for Fargo and Left Behind (Tarantino movies suck too :) )
Favorite D&D Character Ever Played: Kri'Lahn human druid/ranger
Favorite D&D Monster: Rust monster
Most Liked Aspect of D&D: Problem solving (not puzzle solving)
Least liked: Psionics

Map

We last left our group after they snuck back to region E after the big fight in room I17. (Later on I was told it was reminiscent of the "game over man!" scene from Aliens.)
The party rested and Dalron and Valden leveled to 7th.

Room I17: The party returns to the scene of the slime. They resume searching the rooms. Eventually they find a key being grasped by a bony drow hand.

Room I19: Three dead drow are setup here back to back almost as if to show them off. The party finds a signet ring on 2 of the drow. One has a symbol on it, but the group has no clue what it means. The other has the symbol of Lolth.

Room I29: Thunderclease's poor Spot skill nailed him on this one. Each corner of the walls of this 4-way intersection had a trap. When the plate on the intersection was hit, the poor person in the middle gets hit by 4 Burning Hands spells for 3d4 each. Thunderclease took under 20 damage and barely noticed. The unfortunate Dalron was standing behind him. He got blasted by 2 of the traps. He easily made his saves and took 0 damage.
Dalron then took to disarming the traps. He removed 1, then another, then had 2 retry for the other 2. Then again. Then he was blasted by the now reset traps. Once again he saved and took no damage. Then he was able to remove them.
Torin seemed rather disappointed.

Room I34: This room was once a laboratory that looked as if it had been hit by a cataclysmic event. The slime in the room, although still there, was less than the more recent rooms. The party didn't like what they saw, so they left before anything bad may happen.

Room I22: This room made the group go "hmmmm". This room was clean and in fact had a dining table with a complete table setting. The setting was worth up to 250gp, but would have weighed 50 lbs., so they left it alone. Further investigation found them nothing.

Room I21: No slime in this room. It was still a mess though. Furniture lay broken and scattered about. In the corner hanging from the wall, were 10 cloaks. Torin investigated, hoping to find something of magic. Dalron followed closely. Zorak cast Detect Magic.
Well the cloakers didn't like that one bit.
Surprise Round: Torin takes a little damage. Dalron takes a lot. The other cloakers spread about the room trying to keep the party separate. All PCs in range saved versus one the cloaker's moan ability. By the end of the round, every PC has at least one cloaker on them except Krieg. It looked real bad for the party.
Round 1: Didn't go that well for the party either. Dalron got in a sneak attack, but missed and then got smacked hard by the cloakers and dropped. Zorak cast Invisibility on himself. Torin took a swing and jumped out of melee. Thunderclease did his usual damage, but these monsters had 40+ hp. The most Thunderclease has ever done was 48, and that was with a critical hit. Valden casts Divine Power on himself. Krieg casts Prayer. Everyone saves versus another cloaker moan attack.
Round 2: Zorak gets off his Haste spell. Thunderclease rips up a couple cloakers. Valden is now almost as potent as Thunderclease in melee, so he hurts a cloaker pretty bad. The party has turned the combat around.
Round 3-4: By the end of round 4, the combat is pretty much over. The last 4 cloakers know this and flee.

Room I28: This room appeared to have once been a prison, but can no longer serve that purpose. Dalron found an area that previously was magically trapped, but that was all he was able to determine.

Room I23: Two rooms in one. The outer room was the same as the rest of rooms, slimy and gross. The inner room had walls made of crystal. When the party investigated the room they found grafitti written in a language they could not understand & 6 broken shackles. They also swore they could hear a fell creature laughing.

Room I24: This room was so full flesh and slime it made the party nervous. It then made them more nervous when they had to make a DC 15 fortitude save. Later those who failed their save would get Cackle fever for about 2 minutes before it was cured. {yawn}.
The party, in a moment of munchkinism (next time they get a disease I'm making secret saves), turn around and choose another direction.

Room I27: Although this room still had some slime, it appeared as though someone had recently scraped away some of the flesh and slime. The party found a secret door to the north that they had to bash at for 5 minutes to get open. Luckily for them, nothing came to investigate.

Room I36: This room appeared to have had been superheated then cooled giving the walls, ceiling, and floors a volcanic/ropy look. When the party investigated the room a voice spoke:
"To pass beyond these doors, you must answer these questions two, the number of the cursed Twins. The first. Who is the Master of this place?"
Krieg went through the scrolls found in room I14, and gave the answer "Mahir".
The response was, "The second. How many of the Master's brood still live within these haunted corridors?"
The party had no clue on this answer. Valden & Krieg discussed what the answer might be. They agreed that 1 or 0 would probably be the correct answer. So Krieg said 0.
Click. Click. Both doors unlocked {sigh - this isn't the first time the party lucked on the right answer!}.

Room I35: Jackpot! Reagents (spell components) were neatly labels and organized on shelves. Zorak has the feat Eschew Material, so find meant nothing to him. The priests were able to find some incense that they intend to use on an Augury spell.

Room I37: This dark, large, and cube shaped room had a pillar in the center. Investigation by the party determined that the pillar in the center was basalt, the darkness came from the pillar via a Deeper Darkness spell, within 1' of the pillar it was very cold, and on the pillar were several icicles no longer than 3".

Over the north door was a riddle written in Undercommon. "I cannot be seen, cannot be felt, cannot be heard, cannot be smelt. I lie behind the stars and beneath the hills. I end life and kill laughter.

Over the south door was a riddle written in Elvish. "I pass before the despised sun, yet make no shadow. What am I?"

Over the east door was presumable another riddle, but the party could not determine the language or the script.

The party went between the north and south doors, rambling off answers in all languages they could speak. The DM could not roll a random encounter for his life during this time.

Eventually Krieg spoke "Darkness" in Undercommon. And the door opened.

Room I38: The door opened to reveal another door. This door had no handle, only a 1" hole where the handle should be.
This being Dalron's domain, he investigated the door, focusing on the hole. The door was a standard, reinforced iron door (read as not easy to break). The hole seemed almost flesh like (enter your predictable joke here - the party sure did).
Dalron could find no mechanisms the hole.
Thunderclease then bashed the door with his sword. The only effect was for the door to swing 1/2" open then close again & the holy damage from the sword was converted to evil damage and sent back to Thunderclease. He tried again with the same results.
Dalron took his {sigh} 10' pole and shoved it into the hole multiple times (you see what I'm dealing with here people?). The end of the pole had blood on it.
(It's not getting any better either.)
Thunderclease once again threw caution to the wind and stuck his finger in the hole. he found that it was (aw man) warm and sticky and only 4" deep.

The party was about to turn around when Valden had one last idea. He grabbed an icicle from the pillar in room I38 and put it into the hole. The icicle made his hand numb, but it also was they key to the door.

The icicle was a poison. The lock was a living lock. The poison knocked out the lock causing the door to open.

The party saw what the living lock was, at least once was. Currently it was a mutilated and deformed excuse for what was once a male drow. The hole was what was once his eye-socket. Thunderclease attempted to put it out of its misery. For 30 seconds the thing stopped breathing (they could tell because its lungs were easily visible), then it healed up and resumed breathing.

This region just keeps getting better and better don't it?

(To anyone who thinks the group's actions and jokes were juveniles, just remember, we're men without women around. If that's not a sufficient answer for you, then you need to lay off the cough syrup.)

The party then investigates the door to the north. When the door was opened nothing bust dust came flying out of the room. Several of the party members were covered in it, but that is all. Thunderclease investigated the room further alone, but found nothing.

Dalron was able to find a secret door.

Room I39: This room appeared to have some lava damage leaving no apparent exits. Dalron searched around and found another cleverly hidden secret door.

Room I41: This room had not been used in awhile, but the party was able to determined that it was once a religious room meant for relaxation or cleansing of one's aura.
Dalron investigated the door to north. He found the door was locked with a very complicated and fragile lock.
Detect Evil found that the local area was not evil, but there was something faintly evil behind the door.
Zorak has a wand of Knock with 33 charges, but refused to use it. He claimed that the celestials placed the lock here for a reason.

After some arguing, the party returns to room I37 to try to solve the riddle to the southern door. They fail and return to rest in region E and ask the celestials some questions about the lock.
They know nothing of the lock.

What will the party do next week?

Session #15

-Picture linked for space reasons-

What you're looking at is the black pudding fight from room I5. I know it's not the best pic, but eh. Yeah, it's usually that messy. Putting even 4 people at a foldable 6'x3' table has its problems. Imagine it with 6 people. (The DM uses his own table.)
The miniatures we use are Brian's D&D minis and my lead & pewter minis (I worked at Ral Partha long ago and still have gobs of their figures plus some recent additions of Reaper minis).
The black mat is from Skeleton Key Games. It's basically a piece of ferrous metal coated with black plastic. Then you use some magnetic tiles (think refridgerator magnets) to create the rooms of a dungeon. I love them, but they stopped being made after I found out about them. So I bought some sticky paper and a roll of adhesive magnetic tile, scanned the tiles, cut out the tiles that came with the 3.5E DMG, and created some new tiles. Eventually I'll do more, but for now it's not needed.
The character sheets we use range from E-tools printouts, Mongoose's giant 12-page character sheet, WotC's online pdf character sheet, and the group's preferred sheet - Green Ronin's 12-page character sheet.
The glass beeds are just that. I picked them up long ago back when I thought that vampire CCG was fun. In this case, since there are no figures out there that are sufficient to represent a black pudding, the different colors of glass worked out perfectly when that pudding were to split.
As for dice, we're gamers. I think I may have the largest collection. That collection grows thanks to assistance of Adventure Cat and a dice eating couch.
The purple note cards are an idea of Aaron's. After spending way too much time looking up the same buff and bane spells over and over again, he wrote down all of an often-used spell info onto a card, so when that spell is cast, he just lays it on the table. It saves a lot of time. Right now those spells are Bull's Strength, Crushing Despair, Magic Weapon, Bless, Prayer, and Haste.
Oh, and that's Aaron's arm.

Ok, I figure that everyone needs just a little bit more information on the PCs.
So here you go in the order of where they are in my stack:

Thunderclease, chaotic good shield dwarf
Barbarian 5 / Fighter 2
Strength 17
Dexterity 14
Constitution 16
Intelligence 14
Wisdom 8
Charisma 6
hit points 79
Armor Class 17/17/12 + Dodge feat
Saves: Fort +10, Ref +3, Will +2
Notable feats & abilities: Power Attack, Great Cleave, Improved Initiative, Weapon Focus: Greatsword, Rage 2/day
Notable Equipment: Ring of Protection +1, masterwork breastplate, Holy Greatsword +2
Standard actions, duties, & tactics: To deal large amounts of melee damage and to take it. Standard combat involves Rage + maxed Power Attack with his greatsword.

Torin, true neutral human
Ranger 3 / Fighter 2 / Rogue 1
Strength 14
Dexterity 14
Constitution 12
Intelligence 14
Wisdom 14
Charisma 9
hit points 45
Armor Class 17/14/12 + Dodge feat
Saves: Fort +8, Ref +8, Will +4
Notable feats & abilities: Favored enemy: aberrations, sneak attack +1d6, Two-Weapon Fighting, Spring Attack suite, Blind-fighting
Notable Equipment: Masterwork Scimitar, Masterwork Kukri, Mithril Chainshirt, Bastard Sword +1, Ring of Climbing, Boots of Elvenkind.
Standard actions, duties, & tactics: Survival of the fittest attitude, has superior Listen skill to Dalron, uses Spring Attack whenever possible.

Zorak, chaotic good human
Sorcerer 7
Strength 10
Dexterity 12
Constitution 14
Intelligence 12
Wisdom 10
Charisma 19
hit points 40
Armor Class 11/10/11 +4 w/ Mage Armor
Saves: Fort +4, Ref +3, Will +7
Notable feats & abilities: Eschew Materials, Combat Casting, Improved Initiative, Skill Focus: Spellcraft
Notable Equipment: Wands of Knock, Detect Secret Doors, & Light, Cloak of Charisma +2
Standard actions, duties, & tactics: Crowd control & combat buff (Fireball, Haste, Mage Armor, Invisibility, Scorcing Ray)

Valden, neutral good gold dwarf
Cleric 6 (soon to be 7)
Strength 14
Dexterity 10
Constitution 14
Intelligence 10
Wisdom 17
Charisma 12
hit points 40
Armor Class 18/18/10 +1 w/ Magic Vestment
Saves: Fort +8, Ref +3, Will +11
Notable feats & abilities: Combat Casting, Improved Initiative, Power Attack
Notable Equipment: Cloak of Protection +1, greatsword, Amulet of Health +2
Standard actions, duties, & tactics: Standard combat cleric. Shares Detect Evil duty (with spells) with Krieg since Dugan's death.

Dalron, neutral good wood elf
Rogue 7
Strength 16
Dexterity 18
Constitution 13
Intelligence 12
Wisdom 8
Charisma 10
hit points 33
Armor Class 16/12/14 +1 w/ Dodge + Two Weapon Defense
Saves: Fort +8, Ref +3, Will +11
Notable feats & abilities: Two Weapon Fighting, Sneak Attack +4d6
Notable Equipment: Longsword +2, Shortsword +2
Standard actions, duties, & tactics: Standard rogue trapfinding, to get behind a creature for a backstab AT ALL COSTS!

Krieg, neutral good gold dwarf
Exalted Cleric 7
Strength 14
Dexterity 10
Constitution 10
Intelligence 12
Wisdom 16
Charisma 14
hit points 44
Armor Class 18/18/10
Saves: Fort +6, Ref +3, Will +10
Notable feats & abilities: Exalted Turning, Greater Turning, Improved Turning
Notable Equipment: Sheild of Light Fortification
Standard actions, duties, & tactics: Standard non-combat cleric duties (i.e. buffs & walking bandaid).

Brian was unable to make the game this week. Torin was played by Justin.
Also, Jeff made it, but had to leave early due to a family emergency. Valden was played by Aaron.

Map

The last session ended with the party returning to region E to rest after being attacked by some Gricks that appeared to move through walls in room I11.

Room I11: The party returned here to check out the secret door. No gricks returned this time.

Room I5: Prior to entering the room Detect Evil noted the standard interference of region I. Listen checks failed. When the party opened the door, they heard the cacophonous rambling of a lunatic and they saw nothing but a room that whose far side was covered in moving shapeless shadows and the floor appeared to be smooth and slightly uneven.
Not knowing what they were up against, the party had to make an immediate Will save. Failure to save meant that the PC was effectively mesmerized and listened to the ramblings for the duration of the combat. Dalron and Krieg failed their save.
Round 1: In this order; Zorak casts Haste, Valden casts Bull's Strength on Thunderclease, Thunderclease rages and enters melee. Now Thunderclease is a nightmare in melee - but he can't see his opponent. He received 2 Spot checks; 1 when he made it to within 30' of the thing and another when he was right on top of it. He failed both. This caused him to step right into the thing. 2d6 acid damage later Thunderclease was able to make out that he was up against a black shaped mass of goo that seemed to have an elf-shaped face in the middle of it. He swung his sword at it and hurt it. Then it split into 2 smaller versions, each with an elf face. So Thunderclease swung at it (one of them) again. Same result. Now there we three of them. The party now knows that it's a black pudding.
Quote from Aaron: "It's a good thing black puddings aren't intelligent."
Round 2: This particular black pudding is intelligent. It has tactics. It surrounds Thunderclease and each version hits him.
Round 3+ is a blur. The party eventually defeats it. But Thunderclease ends the combat with 8 hit points (he started with 79).

When the pudding finally dies the cacophony stops, then Krieg and Dalron both scream in terror and collapse. They recalled nothing.

Room I6: This room had a poor dead celestial that had been spiked to the wall. It had long ago rotted, but still seemed to have fresh blood on the spikes. The had no clue what to make of it, so they moved on.

Room I16: This room had a thick coating of gluey purple slime. Otherwise the room appeared to be empty. While the party was in a vulnerable position (Thunderclease and Dalron investigated the north-western hallway) 6 gricks jumped out through the slime. For 2 rounds the party took some a lot of pin-prick damage. Then this happened: Zorak casts Haste, Krieg cast Bull's Strength on Thunderclease, Thunderclease rages. By round 4 the last remaining Grick jumped back into the slime.

Searching the room found no special exits hidden for the gricks. It appeared as though they were able to travel through the slime.
But Thunderclease did find a cat. A mummified, slime covered cat. He gave it a name and placed it in his backpack next to his once-living bit of belt.
(At this point the DM tried to stop listening.)
The group came up with a contingency plan in the event that their Everburning Torch is dispelled. {sigh} They will take one of their 10' poles and tie the cat to it (at least I'm hoping they said "tie") then cast Continual Flame on the cat. This became the theme for the remainder of the evening.

Room I18: The party is now more cautious about the slime. As far as they know, every slimy looking wall, floor, or ceiling could be a haven for gricks. When they entered this room, they did not like it one bit. This room had all but collapsed. Rocks were everywhere and the ceiling looked like it could come down at any moment. They closed the door and moved on.

Room I17: At this point, the party is getting a little low on their resources. Thunderclease has used all of his rages for the day. Zorak is low on spells. And both Krieg and Valden have used a lot of their spells healing and buffing. Then they enter this room.
This room looked like it was once a prison. Now it was slime coated, stinking, and all the cell doors were open. Perfect for an ambush.
The party took it one step at a time. They began to work their way up the hallway, investigating one cell at a time. Dalron would enter it while Thunderclease waited just outside the door in case something happened. Then it began.
The combat rounds blend together:
Round 1: Dalron gets attacked by 3 gricks that jump out of the slime. He makes room for Thunderclease to get in their midst and clean house.
Round 2: Approximately one dozen more gricks jump out from the floor, the walls, and the ceiling right in the midst of the remainder of the party. Buff spells start to fly, including a Prayer spell.
Round 3: The party is in over their heads. The Prayer spell saves the party from being immediately overwhelmed by making several barely hits into misses. This saved Dalron and Zorak especially. The party started to head into the cell to try to get together instead of being spread out.
Then more gricks came. This time only 6 new gricks appeared. Two of them were much larger and tougher than the rest. Four of them had 8 arms instead of 4. Now the party was in even more trouble. Gricks were everywhere and the party could not move without clearing a path and Thunderclease was stuck inside a cell where he could only hurt a couple gricks at a time.
Round 4: Seeing little to no better option, Zorak dropped his last 3rd level spell, a Fireball. He dropped his nuke right in the midst of the combat.
Torin was safe in the room.
Krieg, Zorak, and Thunderclease made their saves.
Valden and Dalron failed their saves and both would have died had they not had a re-roll point (from now on I'll call them "fate points" {thanks twofalls}). Their 2nd roll was a success.
The standard gricks; several saved but it did not matter. Two of the standard gricks survived, but with exactly 0 hp.
The other gricks were either not in the blast area, or were severely wounded.
Another round of mopping up finished it. Four gricks fled and over a dozen lay dead about the room.

The party got the hell out of Dodge. They did not bother searching the room for fear of another sneak attack (and they were quite ready for a rest).
They went through another I1 returned to region E for a rest.

The 2 characters who had just used their fate point level!
Dalron adds a 7th level of rogue.
Valden also levels, but since Jeff was not around, Valden will level up then. I suspect it will be a 7th level of cleric. But who know? It wouldn't be the first time a player did something I didn't expect.

Links and such (again).

Update 2/15/05: A few people have e-mailed me, so I've added a couple people and their new links to blogs & sites.

I'm playing some online texas hold'em (doing so-so), and I figure it's time to update the links I've put on here previously. (Update: I did good for about an hour, then, as always, I played crazy and paid the price.)

Originally I predicted that every month the number of groups playing the WLD would be cut in half. It's been several months since the relase of the WLD, and the number of blogs being kept up to date is probably down to the lowest it's going to get for awhile. It's kind of at an equilibrium; every new blog created replaces one that has been ignored, aborted, or forgotten.

They die off for many of reasons. The biggest is that gamers are not exactly a focused lot. In high school, I remember starting a new game every month, if not more often. There's one blog out there that has only its first post.

Reason #2: Groups got slaughtered early on. There's a blog out there that got TPK'd (Total Party Killed) on their 2nd session.

Reason #3: Boredom. So far, every region needs some tailoring to your liking, and I've said before that region A needs some more adjustment than the rest.

Reason #4: A pure dungeon crawl of this size is draining. Although similar to the first reason, it's not the same. Roll-playing in the WLD is high, but role-playing is taking a hit. I'm trying to fit in as much as reasonably possible for my DM'ing style, but it is still much less than normal. (Hooray for the northern half of region E.)

Reason #5: People think that no one is reading the blog. That's a big one to me. Everyone who's read this baby from early on know that I almost stopped updating it because I thought only the people in the group & people I talk to were reading it.

On that note, I'd like to say thanks to everyone who has taken the time to say "Hey."
In order I received them:
- Mark B. - An old high school friend. He can attest to the lack of focus way back when.
- Orc Drew - Drew gamed in this group for a little over a year. He eventually moved to Toledo to go to law school. The blog helps him keep in touch.
- David S. - DMing his own group through the WLD
- Darryl S.
- Ethan E.
- Snowrider - Going through the WLD as well
- Kevin B. - A local gamer that was going through the WLD before that game fell apart
- Galahad67 - Should be starting thw WLD soon
- Marcel P. - A Canadian DM running the WLD
- Jeff D.
- Sean S. - Yet another WLD DM
- Chris F. - Going to be starting another WLD game soon.
- Andrew T.
- Anonymous
- Dennis D. - he also sent me a link to his website, The Lands of Kray
- Cliff S. - He gave me a link to a Forgotten Realms community site: http://www.masterao.com/
- David H. - He's also running the WLD, and he's made some revisions to the plot line.
- Matt L. - Another WLD blog writer at http://www.wldwinnipeg.blogspot.com/

Thanks to you all. Comments help keep me going on this baby. You can leave them on the blog itself or e-mail them to seannester@hotmail.com

Now for the links.
Some of them will be repeats from the first links entry. There will be a couple of new ones. But for now, all of the links to blogs are generally up to date.

First off my favorite of the role-playing blogs.
Spike's Journal
The author definitely has his jaded rogue shtick down pat.

Next, twofalls (a.k.a James B.) and his
The Sanguine Sentinels
This group has put their WLD game on hiatus, but twofalls still keeps his feet in the WLD world. He also will be playing a game of Federation & Empire. That's a game I haven't played in so long and probably won't be able to ever again. But I'd sure like to.

What Would Gary Do?
This blog is an incredibly active play-by-post WLD game. Since they're pretty much doing a room or so a day, they're pretty far along.

RPGMP3
Probably the largest of all the blogs to the WLD. If you have the internet speed, you can listen to every single session they've had. I've personally listened on the first 3 hours (time and such). But their website is pretty sweet. Eventually I'll catch up on their sessions.

San Diego's Role-Playing Resource
They don't play that often, but the blog/journal is active, and their website has quite a bit in it that is non-WLD.

Adventuring journal of yet another group traversing the World's Largest Dungeon
A group of young players (I think), who just started playing.

http://joe069.freestarthost.com/Dungeon.htm
Another new blog for the WLD.

And by personal request:
http://sites.rapidus.net/laurpaul/wld.htm
It appears to be a WLD site in french with some english bits. (I'm suspecting they're french-canadian).

If I've missed an actively updated blog, let me know. I'll put in here.

Here's a list of general links that I feel the need to show:

http://www.hoodyhoo.com/
Some animated early strips of Knights of the Dinner Table

Dark Dungeons
It is hard for me to hide my disdain of the psychofundamentalists. So I stopped trying. Jack Chick is totally out of his mind. He actually believes the crap he put in this "Chick Track". So many more things to say...but I must...control...myself. This a gaming blog, not a springboard for me and my soapbox.

The Gamers
You can watch a clip of the movie "The Gamers". Every gamer geek must watch this movie once.

ENWorld
An excellent forum for all things rpg. They have rules on their forums they actually enforce. In other words, the standard flamers and jerks aren't welcome.

Kenzer & Co.
The makers of Knights of the Dinner Table.

The Order of the Stick
An online web comic that is D&D based.

Dork Tower
An online webstrip that is gamer geek based.

PVP Online
An online webstrip that is PC gamer geek based (but not excluded to that alone).

Wil Wheaton dot Net
A blog written by Wil Wheaton (a.k.a. Wesley Crusher from Star Trek: TNG). For those who don't know, he has a column in Dungeon magazine (last page).

And finally, the story about the Head of Vecna

Session #14

Dale was too sick to attend this session.
Dalron was played by Justin. Sadly he played Dalron incorrectly but correctly. In other words, he did not play Dalron like Dale does.

There will be no session this coming Friday. It's too close to Valentine's Day, and most of us are married...



Day 17, 5pm

The group talked with Kelara more to find out what she knew about the region to the north. She knew very little of its recent activities except that recently something had cast a Circle of Protection from Good at every entrance to the region.

After securing a location to bunk up from Kelara, the group travelled north. They went past the ward, through a door, and down a flight of stairs to encounter another door.

Room I1 (left one): Everyone in the group except Torin felt a minor headache hit them the moment they stood near the locked door to this room. Listening at the door detected nothing other than a faint breathlike sound. Detect Evil detected a blanket of evil throughout the entire range of the spell.
Dalron attempted to pick the lock on the door. His attempt failed because the lock was jammed. On his lockpick was some blood and bits of flesh. Investigation showed that the door was not locked, but the jammed full of some fleshy substance. Dalron then cleaned out the lock and Thunderclease opened the door. It resisted but eventually opened.
On the other side of the door was a standard dungeon...that was coated in slime, goo, excrement, and similar bits of goo. It all seemed to pulse with a steady rhythm. Almost as if it were alive.
On the floor, in a small area clean of the glop, was a some powdered silver sprinkled in a circle. Knowing full well what it was, they broke the circle of silver and their headaches went away.
After everyone entered into the room, each had to make a saving throw vs. Fortitude (DC15). Sadly they all saved.

Room I2: The only thing interesting about this room was a 6" piece of a belt (including the buckle) that was trying to get away from the group. Thunderclease grabbed it and it stopped moving. He put it in his backpack. (This is one of those things where a DM has to decide how evil he really is.) As before, Detect Evil showed faint evil everywhere.

The party went through the passage to the north and came to a pair of doors that was partially blackened around the edges. Detect Evil still showed evil everywhere, but behind the door was a lingering overwhelming level of evil. The party moved on.

Room I13: This area was magically darkened, so visibility was limited. When the party investigated the the pedestal they triggered a trap that sent dust everywhere in the area. This blinded everyone totally. Confused and blinded the party attempted to get out of the area. But in their confusion another trap was triggered. A spark.
The dust was flammable. Everyone took 10-20 damage from the result. Nothing much, but enough to hurt.

Room I14: This room was decorated in rotting tapestries and other junk in an attempt to look like luxury. Some searching uncovered a scroll with some text written on it in Undercommon. It mentioned a traitor Mahir, something about venom of the slaves and a touch of frost, a leader, a secret cache.

Room I9: This appeared to be a store room (later on they would find out that it used to be a prison). Inside they found a box with a masterwork healer's kit and a bag that had some kind of poison on it. Dalron touched it and lost 4 Dex. Krieg cast Lesser Restoration and got the 4 Dex back.

Room I8: The only thing interesting about this room was that some of the stone panels were lit up magically.

Room I1 (right one): Read I1 above.

Room I15: In this room were 8 chokers that were half fighting amongst themselves until the party opened the door. 5 of the chokers attacked the party through melee and the other 3 used slings. Barely 3 rounds later, 7 chokers lay dead and 1 ran away to the north. Some investigation produced some minor trinkets including a scroll of Arcane Lock.

Room I10: When the party finished with I15 the moved to this room. Detect Evil noted a minor evil (and nothing else but faint all around). When they opened the door all they found was a ruined room with rubble everywhere. Then all at once the chokers, including a larger one, attacked. It didn't go well. For the chokers. Round 1, their leader was dead. Round 2, fireball. Game over.

Interlude: Level up!
Thunderclease added a level of barbarian (brb5/ftr2)
Zorak is now a 7th level sorcerer.
Torin added a level of rogue (rgr3/ftr2/rog1)
Krieg is now a 7th level priest.

Room I12: The party found this room at a dead-end that had some strange tiles with writing in Celestial on them. After a short period, touching the tiles in a special order opened the secret door to the room. Inside they found some mirrors that scryed upon room I9 and some plaques simply stating "Holding Cell".

Room I7: Torin and Dalron snuck into this room and found 6 chokers chanting over 3 piles of writhing flesh. Zorak, without warning the 2 rogues, snuck in while invisibile and nuked them. Quick and easy. Dalron was able to stay clear and Torin only took 5 points.
All the chokers were fried, but the piles of flesh were all but ok. Krieg investigated one of the piles and it investigated him. The flesh writhed underneath its slime and produced a face of sorts. Including a working mouth. And it spoke. It went something like "Aghlabruthliglopthnerlorgthnorblop". At which point its lower jaw fell apart and the face fell back. Thunderclease did not like that one bit (I don't think anyone did), so he took his +2 holy greatsword and stabbed the pile to death. All 3 piles gave screams and all died. Thirty seconds later they were back to life again. The party left.

Room I11: The flesh & slime on the floor and walls of this room was thicker than all of the previous rooms. And the floor moved as if something was beneath it.
As the party investigated this room, they separated a little. Then 6 gricks rose up through the slime on the floor and appeared out of the slime on the walls. They got a quick assault on the party but weren't too successful on their surprise round. Then the party returned fire. 4 gricks died that round, but 2 more could not be reached by the party's front line. Dalron took some minor damage, but Zorak took 4 of the 5 hits a grick could give. Then both of them returned to slime in the walls (which was smaller than the gricks themselves).
The party went back to investigating the room and found a secret door (while being on the lookout for more gricks). But since they were low on firepower now, they decided to head back to the celestial garrison.
They seemed to have the impression that there wasn't a safe place to rest in this region. Whiners.