The Nest of Candles

House rules: Magic item and intrinsic creation

2009-09-19T21:55:00.000-07:00

Magic item and intrinsic creation

Player characters wishing to create permanent magic items or enhance themselves with new intrinsic abilities will follow this procedure for preparing and then creating a magic item.

These rules apply to creating any kind of magic item or supernatural ability, with the exception of magic scrolls and magic potions. The standard rules for the creation of potions and scrolls still apply, including costs, time, and prerequisite feats.

Overview

Prerequisites:
- you must have one of the new feats, either Craft Magic Item or Imbue Supernatural Ability.
- When using craft Magic Item, you must be able to use the item you are trying to create.
Spend money preparing a raw, non-magical item. If you have the appropriate crafting feat, you may make a crafting check to reduce the overall cost. The amount you spend determines bonuses to the final check.
- If you wish to prepare an item for a particular purpose or ability, you must include some aspect of the final product as a specific raw material.
Attempt to perform a binding act to imbue the object or individual with magical power. Announce what kind of magic item is being bound.
If the binding act is successful, determine the total bonus to the item creation roll. Bonuses are determined by amount spent in the initial creation and appropriateness of the binding act, and may be modified by whether a specific item is being attempted, whether an item which is already magical is being enhanced, and whether the enhancement is an improvement to the existing ability or is an unrelated new power.
Determine the value of the item created; GM and player discuss and agree on the exact stats of the item created using the value as a guideline.

Prerequisites In Depth

To create a magic item other than a scroll or a potion, the process is detailed here.

New Feats

Craft Magic Item

This feat replaces Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Craft Rod, Craft Staff, Craft Wand, Craft Wondrous Item, and Forge Ring. (The Brew Potion and Scribe Scroll feats remain unchanged.)

Prerequisite

Total Class Levels 6.

Benefit

This feat allows you to perform a binding act which creates a magic item from a prepared item.

The prepared item must be an item that the character can use without penalties or making a special check such as Use Magic Device. Armor or weapons for which the character does not have the requisite feat may not be created with this feat. The character does not need to have prepared the item himself.

Details about the use of this feat are discussed below.

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Imbue Supernatural Ability

Prerequisite

Craft Magic Item, total Class Levels 10.

Benefit

This feat allows you to perform a binding act which imbues the character himself with an intrinsic power. It requires that the character has prepared himself as if preparing a magic item to use Craft Magic Item.

Details about the use of this feat are discussed below.

Encounter Challenge Rating

To create a magical item or imbue oneself with a special ability, the character needs an encounter with a CR at least equal to the character's total character level. Thus a binding act to create a magic item always requires at least a CR6 encounter; a binding act to imbue oneself with a supernatural ability always requires at least a CR 10 encounter. More details about the nature of the encounter may be found below.

Preparation in Depth

Most of the following is meant to apply to both magical item creation, and the use of Imbue Supernatural Ability to give oneself an intrinsic ability.

In order to create a magic item, the character must prepare the item in advance. The first, required, step is that the character must spend a certain amount of money on materials, ceremonies and craftsmanship making the item. The amounts to spend are given below, broken down by category. There is a minimum cost, and an additional amount which may be spent to get a bonus to the final roll. See table below. On the left is the character's total character level. On the right are the amounts to spend to get a bonus to the binding roll. No amount of additional money will grant a preparation bonus greater than +5, regardless of level.

This cost in GP represents time and effort spent making the item as appropriate as possible a vessel for magical energy. For weapons and armor, it usually represents crafting a masterwork blade or suit of plate mail, out of rare and arcane materials.

When the character is attempting a binding act which will grant an intrinsic ability, this represents time and money spent preparing oneself for the binding. It may literally involve personal adornments (artificial teeth to get a magical bite attack, tattoos to bind spell-like abilities, and so on) or it may represent the time spent physically preparing oneself, visiting remote masters for guidance, and so on.

Total CL [*]	+0	+1	+2	+3	+4	+5
6	1000	1900	3000	4400	6200	7500
7	1250	2350	3750	5550	7850	10850
8	1500	2900	4700	7000	10000	14000
9	1750	3550	5850	8850	12850	17350
10	2000	4300	7300	11300	15800	21800
11	2500	5500	9500	14000	21000	30000
12	3000	7000	10500	18500	27500	37500
13	3500	8000	15000	24000	34000	48000
14	4000	11000	20000	30000	44000	61000
15	5000	14000	24000	38000	55000	76000
16	6000	16000	30000	47000	58000	83000
17	8000	22000	39000	50000	75000	105000
18	10000	27000	36000	63000	93000	128000
19	12000	33000	58000	88000	123000	163000
20	15000	40000	60000	105000	145000	190000

[*]

Note that the actual bonus may not be the same as what the character expected when doing the preparation. For example, if a level 6 character spends 7500gp on preparation, then gains 2 levels before attempting the binding act, the bonus is only +3 in accordance with the table for a level 8 character, not +5 (as it would have been at level 6).

The second, optional step gives the character the ability to prepare the item for a particular purpose. This gives a separate bonus on the final roll, but only if the encounter is thematically related to the purpose for which the character prepared (see guidelines below for binding act themes).

Preparing an item for a particular purpose grants you a +1 bonus to the binding roll, if the encounter is themed similarly to the purpose. For example, if you prepared an item by adding a rare metallic poison to its construction to get magical poison damage added to the attack, you will only receive the bonus if you fight something poisonous. If you end up binding the weapon with a non-poison-related theme, you do not receive the +1 binding roll bonus.

Binding Acts in Depth

A binding act occurs when a player announces her intent to create a magic item, and the character has already prepared an item in advance and has it on her person. Only one binding act may be attempted at a time.

Upon announcing that she is going to perform a binding act:

She asks to create an item with a particular theme. For example, "I want to add additional critical hit damage to my longsword", or "I want to turn this wand into a wand of lightning bolt."
The GM announces a trial that must be met. The trial will be in some way related to the power requested by the player. For example, must successfully score a critical hit during the next encounter, or the character must kill one creature in the encounter with a lightning bolt. The difficulty of the challenge may also depend on how difficult the encounter is.

Challenges usually involve only a single encounter, but not necessarily. For example, to create a sword vs. orckind, the GM may create a challenge that involves slaying 50 orcs. However, if a binding act requires more than one encounter, the character must not rest between encounters. Stopping to do anything else during a binding act is an automatic failure.

Challenges should involve the direct action of the player, but if the challenge is to defeat an enemy, with your party, the character performing the challenge only needs to be involved.

The encounter and challenge need not be combat-related.
The encounter or encounters run as usual. The GM determines whether the challenge has been met.
If the challenge is met, the binding act is complete and a magic item is created (pending the binding roll, see below). If the challenge is not met, the item is always either destroyed or cursed. Binding acts to imbue with a supernatural ability which fail result in the character being cursed; see [1].

Themes

Encounters, and magic items, have particular themes. They may have many, in fact. For example, a fight with a huge earth elemental is earth themed. It may also be brawn-themed. Depending on the actions of the characters, other themes may come into play; for example, if the party kills it primarily with fire-based attacks, the encounter may be fire-themed. The actual themes are at the GM's discretion.

The challenge should be related to the theme of the encounter, and the encounter theme should be related to the theme of the power. Non-combat encounter themes will tend to create items that are not destructive in nature. Conversely, it is usually not possible to create a non-combat item in a combat encounter.

The equipment being created is also themed. The player decides what kind of item they are attempting to create, and is free to interpret the theme of the encounter as they do so. For example, in an encounter with a greater basilisk, they may decide to create a helm of stoneskin. They do not have to, though. If the item requested is not obviously tied to the encounter's theme, it is up to the GM to come up with a challenge that suits it.

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Challenges

Examples:

with your party, defeat the gorgon
in the next battle, fight the kraken, and land a hit on it that does at least 25 damage
kill at least 20 orcs without rest
succesfully negotiate a treaty with the warlord
assist your party through the swinging blades trap without anyone getting injured

Drawbacks

One final way the character can enhance the item or ability is by requesting that the GM attach a drawback to it. This is some flaw, penalty, or restriction on the item which makes it either somewhat dangerous or somewhat harder to use.

If the player elects to give the item a drawback, the character will receive up to +4 on the binding roll, depending on how severe the drawback is.

For the GM, when selecting a drawback, consider that drawbacks should be fun to roleplay, but must represent a genuine challenge to the player using the item. The drawback should be suited to the theme of the item. For example, a ring of diplomacy with a drawback might, on a roll of 1 in 1d20, cause the user to speak in the wrong language when the item is being used.

Also consider that drawbacks should not render the item so dangerous or hard to use that it is effectively useless.

Binding Roll in Depth

Once the challenge is completed, the final step of binding a magic item is the binding roll. Determine bonuses to the roll according to the following chart:

Bonus to Binding Roll	Reason
Up to +5	Additional money spent in preparation
+1	Prepared for a purpose and appropriately-themed encounter
+2	Item has a moderate drawback
+4	Item has a severe drawback
Up to +2	Theme of the encounter matches theme of the item extremely well (GM's discretion)
+1	Item is already magical, and power being added aligns with theme
-5	Item is already magical, and power being added is not thematically aligned

Then roll 1d20 on the following chart. Down the left column is CR of the encounter which occurred during the binding act (GM's discretion, if the binding act actually involved several encounters in series). For example, if the party fought a huge earth elemental, that creature is CR7, so find the CR 7 row and read across.

CR	1 or less [†]	2-17	18-19	20-21	22-23	24-25	26-27	28-29	30+
6	Item destroyed	6000	7800	10000	12800	16400	21000	27000	35000
7	Item destroyed	7800	10000	12800	16400	21000	27000	35000	44000
8	Item destroyed	10000	12800	16400	21000	27000	35000	44000	58000
9	Item destroyed	12800	16400	21000	27000	35000	44000	58000	76000
10	Item cursed [1]	16400	21000	27000	35000	44000	58000	76000	96000
11	Item cursed [1]	21000	27000	35000	44000	58000	76000	96000	124000
12	Item cursed [1]	27000	35000	44000	58000	76000	96000	124000	158000
13	Item cursed [1]	35000	44000	58000	76000	96000	124000	158000	200000
14	Item cursed [1]	44000	58000	76000	96000	124000	158000	200000	250000
15	Item cursed [1]	58000	76000	96000	124000	158000	200000	250000	300000
16	Item cursed [1]	76000	96000	124000	158000	200000	250000	300000	350000
17	Item cursed [1]	96000	124000	158000	200000	250000	300000	350000	400000
18	Item cursed [1]	124000	158000	200000	250000	300000	350000	400000	450000
19	Item cursed [1]	158000	200000	250000	300000	350000	400000	450000	500000
20	Item cursed [1]	200000	250000	300000	350000	400000	450000	500000	550000

[†]	On a roll of natural 1, the binding is always a failure, regardless of modifiers. Nothing special happens on a natural 20.

[1]

(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)

Nature of the cursed item is at the GM's discretion. When an item which already had abilities is cursed, there may be additional consequences.

When the character is using Imbue Supernatural Ability, the curse is on the character herself, and is permanent. It can only be removed by a limited wish, wish, or miracle.

Now the GM and the player should decide on what the actual powers the item will have, or on the nature of the intrinsic ability. Use, as a guideline, the market prices for magic items given in the magic item tables you are using for your campaign.

If the character succeeds in their binding roll but the value of the ability or item they desire is more than the value they rolled, the GM should substitute a similar but less-powerful ability or item near the value rolled.

Spell-Like Abilities

When determining the market price of a supernatural spell-like ability, use the following formula (similar to the market price for wands):

level of the spell x uses per day x total CL x 750gp

So, to get an innate fireball ability that can be used once per day, the market price of an equivalent magic item for a level 10 character would be 3 x 1 x 10 x 750 = 22500gp.

The caster level for innate spell-like ability is equal to one-half the character's CL, or the lowest level caster necessary to cast the spell, whichever is greater. For the fireball example above, the caster level for the ability will be 5 since that is the lowest level of any class that can cast fireball.

House rules: alignment change

2009-07-04T09:39:00.001-07:00

Alignments should not be chosen lightly; they determine the effects of lots of game mechanics while simultaneously dictating a certain style of play. Character is everything in role-playing, and sticking to your character makes the game more fun, so to the extent that alignment determines character, it should be stable.

Still, sometimes people decide that they want to play a differently aligned character (or that they have been, all along). They should be able to do so, but not lightly. There are two ways to change alignment in the world of the Nest of Candles: By Quest, or By Ability Drain.

By Quest

Changing your alignment By Quest means you arrange with the GM in advance for a solo adventure, the primary outcome of which will be to change your alignment. If you change your alignment By Quest, the GM will design a quest which has trivial or no benefits whatsoever, other than the alignment change. It should fall in line with the existing story and make sense in the context of both the character you have been playing and the one you want to change.

By Ability Drain

A character can change alignment at any time by agreeing to an alignment drain. The penalty is: -2 wisdom, and -2 to ability score of the player's choice, per notch on each axis. For example, Ferdinand the level 7 Berserker wishes to change from Chaotic Good to Chaotic Evil. This involves no change in the Ethics axis (Chaotic->Chaotic) but two notches shifted on the Morals axis (Good->Neutral->Evil). Ferdinand chooses to penalize Charisma, and therefore takes a -4 wisdom penalty and -4 charisma penalty.

The ability drain may not be restored by any spell; it goes away on its own the next time the character gains a level, and prior to applying any other level increase benefits. At level 8, Ferdinand gains back his charisma and wisdom, and then gains his permanent ability score increase, as usual.

It should be noted that the guaranteed wisdom drain means that clerics will be penalized more heavily for alignment changes than other classes. This is intentional, as clerics' dieties do not take lightly to alignment changes. In most cases a cleric will not need to choose a new diety (as gods of Gabbent are not explicitly aligned), but may choose to do so at the same time as they make the alignment change.

In addition the ability drain, any other penalties related to class or race or special circumstances (such as a paladin losing all class abilities) that accrue due to the alignment change still apply. Any penalties that accrue due to changing a worshipped diety also apply.

Selt Lat

2009-07-03T10:19:00.001-07:00

The characters reach the underground town of Selt Lat. Here's a synopsis of some things that happened:

The characters first enter the impoverished shantytown where the bugbears live, but find nothing of interest there.
They next visit the orcs. A large group of box zombies passes by them, and the rest of the inhabitants give it a wide berth. The zombies pay no attention to the party.
There they also meet a female orc apothecarist (who helps them identify potions), and a grotesquely rotund orc weapon dealer.
The orc apothecarist tells them of Mohjgan, a beneficent individual who wishes to lift the orcs up above all other races by destroying them.
They purchase a non-magical shield and a ton of arrows from the weapon dealer, who also shows them a few magical items he has for sale, including a very valuable shapeshifter's sorrow (longsword). Tiffy vows to steal it.
They pass through a checkpoint separating the largest orc area from the largest lizard area. Orcs guard it on the west side, lizard men on the east. One of the lizard guards reaches out to stop the party and question them, but another lizard man stops him and lets them go by.
The visit the jeweler's in lizard territory and sell gems.
They visit the tavern in lizard territory. There they encounter a gargoyle named Cul-de-Gil and his two gargoyle friends. Cul-de-Gil asks the party to destroy some boats, in exchange for a large ruby he owns. He will not say why he wants the boats destroyed, or why he won't do it himself. He does show the party where they can be found. The party hears an accompanying rumor that the boats were left there by a Valkyrie, who failed to bring a number of viking ships to Valhalla.
In the tavern they also hear these rumors:
- Mohjgan is conducting a violent campaign against the "scum" races to elevate lizard mankind above all other races;
- Don't eat the fish from the fishmonger;
- A vampire, in the form of a flock of birds, was seen flying through Selt Lat recently, but nobody can agree on which way he went;
- The bugbear chieftain was murdered by a medusa named Carcatta.
On the subject of Carcatta, Dev recalls that she assisted the party when they were fighting the grimlocks; she was their shaman, until she determined that the party could help her, at which point she briefly fought with them against the grimlocks.
The party stays the night in a lizard inn. When they wake up, Meraud is hysterical; it seems that Jago has disappeared in the night, and she claims that it is "impossible" that he left on his own.
- She explains that vampires exist because of their "contract", which somehow makes them possessed by a single mortal master. They must obey the master.
- Jago had his contract transferred to Meraud long ago.
- Since Jago was ordered not to leave her side he could not have left on his own, and he must have been physically stolen.
The party decides to go find Carcatta in bugbear-town. There they meet Carcatta, who has once again set herself up as the shaman of a tribe. The bugbear chieftain is still around and alive, although they do not meet him.
- Carcatta asks the party to go find her sisters and shows them where her sisters can be found.
- She asks them to bring her sisters back; she promises that if they bring a message to her sisters, she will use her network of contacts in Selt Lat to find Jago.
- Everyone in the party (except Ellira) allows Carcatta to inject them (by snake) with a special poison. She says it will have no ill effects, but will allow her sisters to smell them and identify them as her friends.

Side Quest #2: Maurice vs. the Vampire

2009-06-21T16:32:00.001-07:00

An episode from Maurice's past.

Maurice Fitzcecil is travelling west out of Catam, away from unspecified troubles he has had in the empire, away from Catamrab, the capital city. He is down on his luck and almost out of cash, but he moves on, hoping for a better payoff in a future adventure.

He stops in a small town named Dagger Rock in western Catam, where he eats a meal with a strange, lonely merchant who drinks too much and talks too loudly. The merchant, himself feeling the sting of recent poverty, tells a rum-doused tale about a treasure hidden in the nearby graveyard. An ancient exporter, powerful and wealthy when alive, is buried there, he says, entombed with his favorite weapon. That weapon is a sword forged of Abyssal ice, and he says it will still be there and its powerful magic still active. He wants to steal that sword, and any other treasures they may find, and sell it all for enough money to put him back on his feet financially and re-establish his trade caravan. Maurice agrees to go help him.

In the deep night they stumble drunkenly through the outskirts of town and arrive at the crypt. There, Veikko (the merchant) tries the door to the crypt and finds a way in - the door is inexplicably unlocked, and the merchant stumbles in first. They set about searching the crypts, looking for an ancient merchant's sepulcher. Maurice finds one that indeed might fit the bill, but when he goes to bring Veikko to see, he hears the merchant fighting with someone else, and they are talking to each other as if they knew each other already! Maurice senses trouble and decides to flee, but something flies out after him in the night, catches him, and orders him to walk straight back to the crypt. Maurice is helpless to resist.

When they get there, Veikko and Riikka, the vampire, tussle with each other as Riikka reveals his true purpose: to kill Veikko and avenge a bad debt on behalf of an employer in Catamrab. Maurice manages to shake his domination, and when Riikka kills the hapless merchant, Maurice finds the sword he came to find in the first place; but it turns out to have been Riikka's sword all along. He brandishes it, and Riikka explains his true purpose and the reason Maurice is there in the first place. The vampire was magically ordered to have a witness present when he murdered Veikko, and he tricked Veikko into bringing along his own witness. Part of the ruse was to have been the hidden sword (to match the story Veikko would tell), but Riikka in a lapse of judgement forgets to reclaim the sword. Now that Maurice has it, the balance of power has shifted.

Threatened with the sword, Riikka explains that he cannot kill Maurice anyway; he must bring him back to Catamrab alive to be his witness, or the magical geas will destroy him. Maurice agrees to do so in exchange for the sword, and its lore. They set off together the next day.

After a hard ride back toward Catamrab, Maurice insists on a rest, and Riikka agrees to stand guard at night. But a short time later, Maurice is woken up by a dire wolverine sniffing at his backpack. Soon he finds himself attacked in the middle of the night by two of the insane beasts, driven there by Riikka. On the point of death, he hears Riikka explain: "I control them. Give up the sword and I won't allow them to knock you unconscious." Maurice agrees to toss the sword back to the vampire, but in the meantime he has wounded both animals with the evil, greedy blade.

This turns out to save his life. The wolverines, confused by the power of the blade, no longer obey the vampire; in fact, they turn on him and attack! Maurice manages to pick the sword back up, and he and Riikka take turns for a while fighting the animals off as they seem to have no idea whom they wish to kill. Riikka manages to ignore most of the injuries, his vampiric powers keeping him safe, but he is unable to gain a clear advantage. Maurice attempts to turn the vampire, but this action has no effect. The vampire in turn attempts to dominate Maurice, but cannot command him to do anything before the wolverines tear him down again, and Maurice protects himself from the domination with a protection from evil spell.

Maurice finally manages to break the standoff by attacking the vampire directly with the blade. This destroys the Abyssal weapon and its black shards melt into the ground as the vampire, his magic broken somehow by the evil weapon, collases and expires. The last remaining wolverine is finally driven off by Maurice.

The cleric is victorious over the vampire, and travels off into the sunset, with but one token of the events: a black shard of ice, still permanently frozen, left over from the Abyssal weapon.

The Road to Selt Lat

2009-06-16T23:53:00.001-07:00

The party begins to explore an extensive and intricate cave system underneath Grimcatch, looking for a way down to Dol Gemen Lom.

They find the place mostly barren and deserted. They track bare footprints through the dust for a while that seem to go nowhere, and in the empty echoing halls find the skulls of grimlocks, spiked to the walls with sharp iron stakes, and another skeleton spiked to the ground (and a potion and a gem nearby). There are wide, maddeningly deep chasms crossed by rope bridges (which are at least in good repair), and a lot of twists and turns and dead ends in the rock.

They come upon a place where a tribe of primitive humanoids has made a home, but find that it is quite recently scoured by fire, and all the humanoids are dead, their paleolithic artifacts left where they lay and a pile of burned bodies off to one side of the cave. (Mixed among those bodies, there are also the bodies of zombies, the less-recently dead.) Near that, they find a very strange zombie with a wooden crate instead of a head. This creature has had its arms and legs destroyed by the fire, and it strikes itself in the head repeatedly with its remaining arm stump. Tiffy stabs it to death, and then pries the lid off the box but finds nothing but an infestation of spiders and some kind of recently-living internal organ on top of its neck.
After a bit of investigation, they discover that the box is some kind of spell container. Written on its front, in infernal, is the word "Purge". On the inside they find the spell summon swarm (spiders).

Deeper still into the caves, the party finds another chasm and another bridge. This time they spot a bunch of the zombies standing near a lit torch. They start to move toward the heroes, but Maurice cows them with a powerful rebuke, and only a few are left to attack. Tiffy and Ellira begin to spray them with lightning, but this has an odd effect; spells seem to go off randomly every time one of the zombies loses its head. When the party finally manages to immobilize all the zombies with webs and rebukes, one ill-timed lightning bolt splits open a crate that causes a powerful fireball, which consumes several more zombies, causing lightning bolts to fire back at the party, a magic mouth to start screaming, and other strange effects. Ellira ends the threat of the remaining zombies by magically warping the bridge to drop them into the void, and the party continues on.

Finally, they arrive at Selt Lat. This appears to be some kind of underground haven for monstrous humanoids.

Down and Dirty

2009-05-26T23:05:00.001-07:00

The heroes make a decision: they are going to accompany Jago and Meraud, and try to find out whether anything bad has happened to Dol Gemen Lom.

They climb down the chain to the cage where they entered the Soft World through a lacuna. There, Meraud drops a little bombshell: by virtue of having spent time in the green air of the Soft World, they are all infected with something called "ice ash", which has two cures: remove disease, and waiting out the infection. (The latter option results in painful death within 6-8 hours, she duly informs everyone.) Since they do not have enough spells to cure the ice ash for everyone at once, they decide to rest again inside the cage and fix that.

Fortunately nothing happens to them while they're in there and everyone manages to get remove disease prepped. When they advance through the lacuna, they quickly cure themselves of the ice ash infections and shortly decide that the best way to reach Dol Gemen Lom is by going back to Jeraslan and transitting Grimcatch one more time. On the way there they are blocked by a camp of Catamese army soldiers, but they use invisibility and bluff their way through with a story about trying to find truffles at the behest of Xabier Lubo and his fickle taste buds.

They find Grimcatch still burned, the way they left it. Everyone ties handkerchiefs around their noses and proceeds. A series of barely-glimpsed movements and phantom sounds dogs at them as they proceed through the tomb-like lost home of the grimlock tribe. A mysterious voice taunts Jago at one point, laughing and saying his name, and Jago responds by unleashing a torrent of small black birds which seek out the meddler. In response, another swarm of birds mingles with his swarms, but nobody is revealed in the area.

Finally the party finds the locked iron door that they never explored, and unlocks it.

Make Like a Shepherd

2009-05-26T17:03:00.001-07:00

Jago and Meraud bicker, then everyone decides to put their cards on the table. Meraud explains what the war of keyholes is, omitting only what she doesn't know, which is why the herons are fighting. Meraud explicitly explains that the Truss being broken means that Dol Gemen Lom might be missing, and if that's the case, all of Blue Gabbent might be at risk.

They proceed back to the broken bridge in an orderly fashion. There, they kill a few vultures and while fighting the vultures notice the black shadow of a tar orphan flying overhead.

Jago and Ellira fly across, Jago in blueling form and Ellira in white owl form. Maurice summons a hippogriff and carries first himself, and then Tiffy and Meraud across. Dev is last, and does not manage to cross before the tar orphan claws its way through and attacks.

Tiffy and Ellira rake it with lightning while Dev, finally rescued by the hippogriff, fires arrows into its back. It manages to injure the entire party with its wings, claw the hell out of Tiffy and Ellira and finally expire.

Meanwhile, however, two similar tar orphans have appeared, stealing what appears to be the entrance to a cave. The party observes Occulke's tentacles tearing apart these thieves, off in the distance.

Secrets of the Blue Agents

2009-05-26T16:51:00.001-07:00

[This summary was created by Nate. Thanks Nate!]

Dev and Jago talk while Meraud and the others sleep. The highlights:

Jago confirms off-handedly that he is a vampire.
They struggle to establish trust without disclosing any potentially damaging information.
Dev says outright that he doesn't trust Jago or Meraud.
Jago is aware that Dev is Iluvien's brother, but since he didn't trust Iluvien either, this doesn't help.
In a gesture of goodwill, Jago tells Dev more of Occulke and the War of Keyholes. Apparently Clattermouth directed the tar orphans (the headless flyers) and the ghasts that were attacking us. Occulke sent/controlled the tentacle thing. "Occulke protects his own". But because his argument does not build upon anything Dev already knows, it doesn't give Dev a reason to trust. Jago could be lying, and the entire episode with the ghasts, the flyers, and the tentacles could be a ruse to drive us to Jago and Meraud.
Jago begs Dev to give him a reason to trust him. Dev takes a risk and tells him about finding the heron-marked coins in the caverns below the roots. Jago says this confirms something he had already suspected - something about "Jester" - but does not elaborate. Apparently this is not sufficient.
Still searching for a path to common ground, Dev asks Jago what he needs to trust him. Jago asks "what have you done for us recently?". Dev mentions killing ghasts, fighting harpies and gnolls, killing grimlocks. He mentions fighting the blue dragon, which elicits surprise and skepticism from Jago. When Jago realizes that the fight with the dragon occurred in Olemheiden - far from the blue dragon's natural habitat - he becomes alarmed. He asks where the dragon came from. Dev replies that he doesn't know, but that he suspects that the dragon may have come from beneath the orulins, which further agitates Jago.
Finally, Jago asks what else has happened in Olemheiden recently. When Dev mentions the earthquake, Jago starts using ALL CAPS. HE WAKES MERAUD AND YELLS THAT THE TRUSS IS BROKEN.

Game Session, 2009.04.27

2009-05-26T16:48:00.001-07:00

Posted to Google Docs.

Hunted & Saved

2009-05-26T16:46:00.001-07:00

The party, depleted of its magic, attempts to rest in the maze. This does not go as planned, however. To give Dev a chance to rest, Crom takes a spell at the watch. Maurice appoints the fallen babau, newly risen as a zombie, to assist with the watch at another corridor. Almost immediately, ghasts start appearing, tearing at the zombie demon and the berserking human with no apparent care for their existence. But soon it becomes clear that this is not an isolated series of attacks, but an assault, as more and more undead keep arriving, climbing over the walls and at the same time pushing the babau zombie back with a mass of bodies. Crom cannot hold back the tide on his own and he wakes the rest of the party up, but it's already too late.. there are too many enemies and not enough swords, and then Crom himself falls, paralyzed by an early attack.

The party is already depleted, and there seems to be no recourse except immediate retreat, but without Crom. As they slowly come to this realization, two dark, non-ghast-shaped figures arrive and exhort the party with loud screams to follow them. The characters do so quickly after it becomes apparent that Crom is going to get torn apart anyway, and the babau is probably beyond saving as well. More and more ghasts and hunting the team, and coming from every direction. Soon, however, a keening wail from above announces more, and more deadly trouble: two tar orphans, the headless fliers of the Soft World, are flapping around overhead, apparently looking for a gap in the flood of undead to make their attack.

The characters chase headlong after the two mysterious arrivals, who lead the party to a trapdoor in the glass ground, and start pushing the heroes through it to safety. Even as this happens, the tar orphans decide to make their move, and smash through the glass walls of the maze, sending deadly fragments flying everywhere. But their attack is halted as two great lashing tentacles grab and crush them, sending their bodies off into oblivion. The tentacles then begin pummeling and tossing ghasts, giving the saviors and the heroes time to get to safety.

Just before she ducks through, Tiffy tries one last-ditch effort to save Crom, and with her final magic summons a great beetle to push back the hordes and try to pull the body out of the fray. Then they all scramble into the bolthole and latch the trapdoor behind them.

Once inside they are introduced to their saviors, a woman named Meraud and a man named Jago. It is clear immediately that the plan to save the heroes from the ghasts was not unanimously approved, as the woman holds out a holy symbol, a disk bearing the heron symbol they have seen before, and attempts to turn the party members. Nobody flinches, and she agrees to let them stay.

The party rests, but Dev agrees, once again, to stand watch, this time to discuss the immediate future with Jago.

Welcome Page, updated

2009-04-14T09:24:00.001-07:00

This entry should help new players to the game get acquainted with how things work.

If you do nothing else, join the Google Group linked below so you can ask questions about the rest.

Important links for players:

Google Group: link: We have an email component. Apply to join this group if you are interested. This is a great place to seek help, ask questions, meet the players and play by email. I also make announcements on here.
IRC: #vellum on freenode: Games are conducted on IRC. Use an IRC client such as mIRC, Pidgin, Xchat, etc. to join us in #vellum on freenode - our server and channel.

If you are having any trouble with any of the software or character creation, please join us on IRC in this channel where it will be easiest for us to help you.
RPTools Maptool: download link: Make sure to download Version 1.3 of Maptool. Maptool is the "virtual game table" - how I help players visualize the map they're in.
Halfrest: link: This is an online character pastebin. You may create your character directly in here by using the Template button or create it elsewhere and paste it here, but your character will be available online from here. Our character pages are editable plain text (actually a format known as RestructuredText which is easy to read and write and formats nicely).

The DM recommends using Its All Text, a Firefox extension, for editing the character sheet in Halfrest.
Intro Story: link: Condensed version of events to this point, for catching up and figuring out your character's background story.
Game Sessions Calendar:: We play approximately 2 sessions a month, usually on Tuesday evenings (PST).

And, if you're curious about my maps and want to make your own: I use Dundjinni.

From the Lower Planes

2009-04-12T11:06:00.001-07:00

A thing from the Abyss has attacked the party. In a whirlwind of action, Ellira illuminates the scene with daylight while the rest of the party desperately tries to hit the monster, to no avail. Crom, seeing Tiffy's mortal danger, rushes the monster but it simply knocks him back, snarling and laughing in its gory language.

But Maurice manages to strike first, inflicting wounds on it with a spell and drawing its wrath. It lashes back at him when he tries to make a move across the battlefield, and as the other party members strike, it seems to heal from all injuries and deal back twice as much damage as they would have caused.

Soon Crom is bleeding, but still protecting Tiffy as her spells whittle away at the demon's hit points with missile after missile. Dev flails in vain, unable to do much worse than scratches to this thing which simply ignores steel weapons. But Maurice has a solution: he casts align weapon on Crom and Dev's weapons while Tiffy continues to plug away with the magic missiles.

Between Dev's bow, Crom's Ungarik, Tiffy's missiles and the babau's claws and teeth, the battlefield becomes a shower of blood but when it clears, the party stands over the underworlder's vacant corpse.

Maurice celebrates the occasion by animating it as a zombie.

Game Session, 2009.04.07

2009-04-07T21:40:00.001-07:00

Posted to Google Docs.

Side Quest #1: Ellira Investigates a Ghost

2009-03-22T12:33:00.001-07:00

An episode from Ellira's past.

As a younger adventurer, Ellira worked for the Olemcorro arborist, Brais Lino. As the most experienced arborist anywhere in Olemheiden, he often gets called on to investigate mysterious tree-related phenomena. When he gets a report of a mysterious, ethereal stone statue that has suddenly appeared in the bark of Tamangawn, he sends Ellira to check it out.

At the site of the statue, Ellira uses her sensory concert ability and learns that unnatural, undead-seeming creatures are nearby, but the statue is not actually a ghost as everyone has thought. Above a neighborhood restaurant, in a musty storeroom, Ellira is attacked by invisible creatures which she can see only in flashes. (These later turn out to be ethereal marauders.) Their attacks injure her, but not badly, and she manages to kill one and drive the other away with lightning. Left in the storeroom is the mostly eaten corpse of an elf, apparently killed by the creatures.

She talks to Joris, the local bookstore owner next, and turns on her charm to the maximum, convincing him to let her look around his store. He is taken with her, and agrees to let her snoop, but is ultimately no help with the statue.

Ellira takes a closer peek at the tree where the statue has appeared and decides to cut a hole in the tree with wood shape and climb through. She finds an empty shelf-lined storeroom and a passage leading away. She also finds the statue inside. It seems that some kind of glamer has made the statue blur around its true location, which is how the Tamangawn elves were able to see it outside of the tree. Exploring further, she trips over a symbol of pain, and when the constables find her later, they agree to help her talk to the bookstore owner over the mysterious rooms that aren't supposed to be above his shop. He stymies the investigation, but she is able to convince the constabulary that the statue is a real object and not a ghost by showing it to them. Ellira explores the hidden passages, finding more traps but nothing that convincingly implicates the bookstore owner until she steals the statue and devotes several days to trying to dispel the obvious transmutation that has been cast on it. She finally succeeds, freeing a dryad!

The dryad tells of using tree walk to travel to Tamangawn to speak to Tjaard, the local arborist and give him a message. When she came through, she stepped on a glyph of warding and inadvertantly freed the ethereal marauders. She promises a boon to Ellira for freeing her.

Now having a solid witness to an actual crime, Ellira recruits the local constables and then, late in the evening, she and the officers enter the closed shop and find a secret door into the back rooms.

Ellira, in a rare lapse of judgement, decides to investigate Joris herself while the constables go off to collect weapons to capture the store owner. Behind another hidden door, she finds his hidden apartment, but he is ready for her. They exchange words; he refuses to give himself up. A brief magical battle ensues; he tries to hold person on her, unsuccessfully, and she tries to call lightning on him, but it is deflected by his lesser globe of invulnerability. Finally, realizing that his crime spree is over, Joris casts teleport and carries his carefully hoarded knowledge away with him.

In return for her rescue, the dryad teaches Ellira how to cast displacement as a third-level spell.

Maze of Sharps

2009-03-17T22:59:00.001-07:00

Having been worn down by the monsters, the party decides to rest. But they're not back in the woods yet; this is still the Glass Arcade, and danger is lurking. As the spellcasters rest to recover their spells, Dev keeps watch, and is soon attacked by the everpresent vultures. With a flurry of arrows he dispatches them, and except for occasionally noticing the turned ghasts watching them from afar, the remainder of the rest period passes uneventfully.

The party is then faced with crossing a worn-smooth glass tube that connects their platform to the next one. Though the ghasts have disappeared, their threat seems ever-present. They begin to cross to the other side, finding their a maze of some kind, its 9' tall walls made of spines of sharp glass. Despite the danger of falling, all of the party manages to reach the other side safely . . . but one. Tiffy still remains on the tube when the ghasts finally reappear. One of them bounds over the wall and makes a beeline for her, taking blows along the way but pursuing her with a single-minded desire to knock her off to her doom.

As more ghasts jump over the wall and attack the party, Tiffy is forced to defend herself from the creature's attacks, surviving and managing to remain un-paralyzed until Maurice, thinking quickly, destroys it with positive healing energy, scattering its ashes over Tiffy. Dev and Ellira take out the other two with arrows and spells, leaving the world once again in silence.

But they are not alone. The sounds of movement and wailing and growling echo through the maze. They begin to pursue, finding the passageways mostly empty, the only evidence of occupation a devoured vulture. (The vultures continue to circle overhead.) They cautiously round corner after corner, staying together for safety, and get nothing but the echoes of running feet coming from who-knows-how-far away.

Suddenly, as they round a corner, the green world goes black, the first time they have encountered darkness in this place. A magical darkness spell has been cast and everyone is enveloped within. As the party braces for battle, a mysterious foe attacks Tiffy, nearly killing her with a single surprise attack, and we stop here.

Game Session, 2009.03.17

2009-03-17T21:33:00.001-07:00

Posted to Google Docs.

Glass Arcade, cont'd

2009-03-04T21:11:00.001-08:00

After turning away a bunch of ghasts, the party collects the treasure of the creatures, having to retch only a few times at the corrupt odor hanging over it. Once they sack away their loot, they pursue, and discover the ghasts have climbed up a series of glassy vines to the other side.

Crom, feeling bored, pursues the monsters up the vine, expecting to chase them onto another platform. He is surprised, however, when he reaches the midpoint between the platforms and suddenly finds himself falling towards the undead monsters! He slips and crashes to the ground. Dev, also in hot pursuit makes the same blunder, and soon the ghasts have paralyzed both of the prone party members. The rest of the party manages to keep disaster at bay though, for, before the killing strike lands, Maurice once again turns the creatures, and Ellira finishes the last remaining one off with a spell that renders its flesh into earthy moss.

Game Session, 2009.03.03

2009-03-03T21:21:00.001-08:00

Posted to Google Docs.

Penny Arcade D&D Podcast - this one has Wil Wheaton

2009-02-21T22:22:00.001-08:00

The newest series of PA D&D Podcasts has started out at the maximum level for funny. I was literally - not figuratively, not "LOL" but literally by which I mean with my literal lungs - walking around laughing out loud at this in a supermarket.

(First series starts here, but get a podcatcher and subscribe to the feed you technophobe.)

The Glass is Half Cracked

2009-02-20T00:11:00.001-08:00

The adventurers come out on a glass platform that seems to alter in response to their presence. They use a grappling hook to move from the chain to the platform, then notice that glass trees are growing from the platform, and undulating glass blobs are moving toward them in the sky.

While investigating the blobs, Crom is surprised by some kind of gray undead humanoid, which moves very fast down the chain. Crom flees back onto the platform, but the humanoids leap down onto the heroes as a flock of vultures moves in. Maurice turns the undead and the party quickly slaughters the vultures and undead, with Tiffy supplying the final killing fire.

The characters move north, where they find a glass gangway separating two glass platforms. The glass on either side of the gangway is thin, while the middle section is massively thick and heavy. As they cross one by one, the thin sections become progressively more cracked, until Crom manages to break the platform completely! The party's forethought at tying a rope at either end saves Crom from a fall to his doom, but Crom is still left hanging on for dear life when a bunch of the humanoid undead attack from the northern platform.

Once again Maurice turns the undead, and Dev picks off another vulture, while Tiffy hauls Crom back to safety.

Game Session, 2009.02.19

2009-02-19T23:31:00.001-08:00

Posted to Google docs.

Revisiting the Soft World

2009-02-06T12:40:00.001-08:00

The party decides to return to the hole where Iluvien disappeared from Olemheiden. They leave Olemcorro in the middle of the night and trek through the forest, encountering one Catamese encampment. They successfully convince this camp that they are incompetent skirmishers searching the forest and pass on by. Toward morning, as they near Iluvien's point of departure, a crashing noise alerts them to animals.

Soon they are jumped by a pair of massive dire boars who surround them and strike from either side! Tiffy and Ellira are badly gored, and Tiffy feels death's cold breath down her neck. In a pitched battle involving entanglement, a summoned centipede, and Dev's precise arrows, they manage to slow down the boars enough to destroy them. After everyone is healed again, they slaughter one of the boars, and Maurice the cleric animates one of them into a shambling boar zombie.

The next morning they reach the point where Iluvien disappeared, and Dev is able to recognize it by a cairn he had left there the previous time. Inside the portal they find another cage, this one newer-looking than the last. They leave the zombie boar on the other side and explore the cage, finding yet another scratched heron mark on the cage bars.

There is also a locked door. Dev proceeds to pick the lock, getting blasted by a trap in the process. This trap is a wave of blue light that engulfs him, but he feels no pain and it quickly dissipates. It is at this point that the party first hears a mysterious, loud sound from very far away. Becoming concerned, Maurice casts an augury spell to ask the question, "Should we leave the cage through the door?" and hears his god telling him emphatically yes. Another quick augury and Ellira's god suggests that yes, they should climb up the cage's chain.

A quick scramble out of the cage, and then the sound gets louder and they look over to see another rusty cage falling through space, one even more massive than the one they are in. It's going to hit them. Thinking fast, Tiffy covers the party in web, binding them fast to the chain, just seconds before the falling cage smashes into bits against theirs, sending them rocketing through space. When it settles down again, they find that they are safe, although the zombie boar, not completely outside of the portal, lost a leg in the concussion.

The danger clear, the party carefully climbs the chain through the hazy green world. At the top of it they find a strange platform of smoky glass, topped by another one, upside-down. The session ended here.

Game Session, 2009.02.05

2009-02-06T10:18:00.001-08:00

The heroes try to follow Iluvien Ir'Wyran footsteps and travel through the portal.

Posted to Google Docs.

New Players' Guide added

2009-02-05T08:56:00.001-08:00

I have posted a new players' guide to the website. It covers all the story elements so far.

New Players' Guide¤

In which the story finally advances

2009-01-18T00:29:00.001-08:00

Party: Tiffy, Dvethen, Ellira, Crom, Jaleese

Olemcorro and the Borehole

Characters return to town, and seduce a priest of The Daghda into providing them with a free divination on how best to fight and damage shadows. The reply is "Neither flame nor my pure influence - alone - will destroy them." The characters respond by creating and acquiring some holy water.
Using the holy water and magical attacks, the character manage to dispatch two shadows and an allip, and reach the top of the borehole.
There, they find a cabinet. After disarming a mysterious trap (which unleashes a staggeringly loud bird-of-prey shriek) and picking the lock on the cabinet open, they find only a few scraps of paper . . . and a blue shield of energy, floating fixed in the center of the cabinet. After examining it for a bit, Crom reaches into it. As he does so, a strangely accented voice says, "Companion, the Map of the Truss is yours." He withdraws a crystalline sphere of cloudy black.
The sphere turns out to be a literal map. But it requires a blue light to see. When they realize this, they manage to draw a map of bright blue lights that correspond to the locations of the orulins, and little color-changing ones around them.
When they turn the map at an angle, they see that there is a huge red wound, apparently in the ground underneath Olemheiden. It is wrapped in bands of blue light in the map, and these bands connect all the orulins except Jeraslan.
When the party leaves the secret blue archives, the elves are in an excited state. PCs investigate and see, in the distance, a battle of white lights flickering from the sky to the ground, and purple lights from the ground to the sky. The lights eventually cease, and a reptilian scream echoes through the air.
The characters learn that a human army is present in Olemheiden.
Panicked harpies blunder into the orulin, and the characters kill them, but Jaleese dies in the battle, killed in stirge form by a harpy.
After some dithering, the characters decide to rest again, and hear that the human army has encamped and is not leaving.

Olemheiden and the World of Moss

They descend to the forest floor, despite the guards warning them that elves are being captured. Then they cross it quickly, and uneventfully. They notice a human skirmisher patrol crossing their path from south to north, but the group does not stop them.
They reach the place where the Map of the Truss shows some kind of color-shifting dot near Olemcorro.
Investigating, they discover that bringing the Map near a certain place causes it to become visible as a flickering red-purple-blue globe, suspended in the air 8 feet up. The closer they bring the Map to it, the more constant it becomes.
They decide to try to climb through it. They manage this by tying a rope to the tree and descending into it. First Crom, then the rest of the party. Once inside they see a mossy cage 60 feet in diameter suspended from a chain in a nearly infinite expanse of green in all directions. There are other mossy green globes suspended around them off in the distance. They notice an (apparently huge) black flying creature that has reptilian rear claws, wings and tail, but no forward torso or head, nothing forward of the wings at all. The creature disappears, then a cry of something gigantic and angry is heard. Then the flying thing returns, grabs one of the globes, and begins flying into the air with it, straight up.
Crom attempts to summon the flying creature by making imitating the noise it made with ghost sound. In response, another cry off in the distance, and then the globe they saw being carried away suddenly drops to the end of its chain, jerking and bouncing off its momentum. A moment later, a dismembered body of the black creature falls and hits the globe, then bounces off into the green void.
Their final observation in the green world was another cry, this one much louder, followed by something black and ropelike snaking down the chain and toward them in the globe. They escape by dangling a rope from the top of the cage into the portal, and climbing down through it, just as the tentacle pulls the rope right through their hands and into the other world.
Their rapid escape draws a patrol of humans from the army, who attempt to detain them, but the characters defeat them and capture the sergeant. They bring the sergeant back to Olemcorro, to be interrogated by the elven leaders.

Camp of the Catamese Army

They go out again and attempt to encounter another patrol so they can follow them back to the human camp. The first time this happens, the patrol demands they drop their weapons, and meets a swift end. The second time, the party convinces the patrol that they are mercenaries looking for work, and are taken back to the camp.
On their way through the forest they discover the humans are rapidly deforesting a large circular area, where they are encamped. A pavilion tent is surrounded by many smaller tents.
The characters sign up for officer wages in Xabier Lubo's army after observing a line of elite guards guarding one exit to the administrative area of the tent.
Leading up to, and then at the banquet (at which they are served authentic blue dragon meat, cut from the massive corpse of the blue dragon), the characters talk to the other soldiers and learn several things:

Facts:

The western towns of Catam must rebuild the damage Egar Geza caused
The general leading the army is named Xabier Lubo
Zuchar is the name of a powerful wizard who stays near Xabier Lubo
Many weapons were left in the body of the dragon, unclaimed by the now-dead soldiers

Rumors:

Zuchar launched the attack because he wanted to acquire the dragon's skin
Xabier Lubo launched the attack because he hates these elves
The elves are angry because the dragon was their pet, and now it's dead

Crom and Tiffy cull the pile of weapons that were pulled from the dragon's body, finding a flail +1 and Ungarik Greatbleeder.
Dev searches the outside of the tent by secretly making slits in the fabric and peeking through. He gets caught on only one occasion, and Tiffy bluffs they they were looking for a place to tryst.
Dev steals a map from a table in the tent. They return to Olemcorro to provide the maps to the conclave.

Another game session

2009-01-13T22:31:00.001-08:00

Just want to get down some notes about what happened the last game session:

- Ellira was near death. The party waited for her to rest up enough to heal herself.
- Crom climbed down to the main branches and got taken into custody by elven officers of the law.
- They interrogated him. Eventually they let him go.
- Crom apparently failed in his goal of convincing the elves that a paladin had fallen fighting the blue dragon, and of warning them that monsters were inside their tree.

Secrets of Olemcorro

2008-10-15T15:30:00.001-07:00

Olemcorro L2 (and the hidden crevice)

In between sessions, clues from the temple of Oghma led the party to a mad carpenter, whose ravings suggested that there are places in between the levels of the orulin, on the vertical face of the tree, where secret things are hidden. The library, he suggested, would be found between level 2 and level 3.

The party investigated and found a place where the bark of the orulin was cracked. With a hundred feet of rope and a great deal of effort, the party managed to climb up to the opening and inside to a 60' diameter hole in the tree. Some elves of Olemcorro observed them climbing up, but did nothing.

Olemcorro Interior

In the rapidly narrowing crevice, they delved upward and toward the corewood of the tree. Soon they found themselves fighting strange, shrill dark shapes: shadows, whose very touch drained Ellira the elven cleric of all but her last vestiges of strength. With that very strength, she struck out with the power of her god, raising her holy symbol and driving the undead monstrosities away. As the shadows fled, an unexpected surprise made an appearance: Crom the barbarian was in the crevice! The shadows fled from the enraged barbarians ineffective blows.

Crom told this story:

The dragon dragged him through the air, as his mighty blows with Ungarik persuaded it to finally take the better part of valor and fly underground. The blue dragon found a hidden crevice, descended it, and then rammed Crom's body against a wall.

When he came to, he found himself deep in a dark place, separated from Halbren and the rest of the party, and lacking Ungarik, still (he presumes) stuck between the scales of the foul dragon Egar.

With no bearing, no map, no light, and no memory of how he had arrived there, he simply started to climb. This took many tenebrous days, during which he had to eat whatever crawling things he encountered in that place, drink whatever sour runoff his groping hands squelched into, his thoughts on reunion with his friends and survival.

Still bleeding, and never far from death, the intense pain of his wounds a constant ghoul feeding on his entrails, he found himself in a place of roots and knew he was near the surface. The floor sloped to the near-vertical, and he found himself climbing a passage of wood. Still, no light penetrated, but he was wise enough to continue to climb upward.

He continued his blind, vertical crawl, at times squeezing himself through jagged cracks, at other times having nothing whatsoever to eat, and with no idea whether his supposed escape route even led to freedom. He finally rested one (evening? morning?), and when he awoke, he felt the presence of evil around him.

He waited, and soon, with great effort he was able to find in the intense darkness several sets of gray blobs of lesser darkness: eyes, he quickly realized, the eyes of evil creatures in the dark. But as he considered his next move, the evil ones moved away rapidly, in a direction he was not able to follow in the dark; perhaps through the very orulin itself. When the screams and shouts of battle followed, he found his way around, and there met the party.

Game Session, 2008.10.11

2008-10-15T12:08:00.001-07:00

Posted to Google Docs.

The Briar Spade, part I

2008-01-10T00:12:00.000-08:00

During a lull in the main action, some of the characters (Dev and Shara and Ellira) are asked to help rebuild the Cataract, the power source of Jeraslan.

To do this, they must focus on a way to protect the workers. While investigating the ruined wheelhouse of the cataract, they are apparently attacked by a wall of thorns that completely encases them.

They meet a strange rat, who talks to them, and an elf dressed as a lowlander appears to speak to them, then passes into the thorn wall when they agree to help by visiting the swamp to get him an ingredient he needs. Fill in details from Nate.

Game Session, 2007.04.xx?

2008-01-10T00:09:00.000-08:00

This is the one where they reach Olemcorro and begin looking for the library of the Blue Companions. They interview a temple priest of Oghma, who suggests they look for the keeper. Also, they meet Jaleese, a strange woman.

Session log apparently lost to the mists of time.

Running for Their Lives

2007-04-02T09:49:00.000-07:00

The characters are pursued through the forest and run across Yoster, a human druid who has found himself in the same mess. They rescue him but not before he takes near-fatal wounds. They engage in a furious battle with a flock of harpies, but one harpy escapes, cursing them at the top of its lungs and promising to bring "Egar" down on their heads.

As the last dead harpy slides down Shara's sword, thunder and lightning overhead announce the arrival of something far more frightening. Lucas, sensing the nearing danger, climbs atop a rock and prepares to draw the enemy's attention away from the rest of the party, who have wisely decided to make themselves scarce and look for an angle of surprise.

A blinding blast temporarily stuns everyone and sets some trees alight, and then Egar Geza, a huge blue dragon, crashes through the tree canopy in the pre-dawn gray and confronts Lucas. Lucas' taunts pay off as he is able to get the drop on the creature and leap onto its neck. It is so startled, it takes off again immediately, the paladin wailing away at it.

In a blind barbarian rage, Crom Grumdalsen pursues and makes the leap onto the dragon himself. Thunderfoot makes his own, magically enhanced leap, and the dragon begins to drag them on the ride of their lives, banking and trying to throw them off. Thunderfoot, clinging to the Egar's tail, is whipped away into the treetops. He turns out to be the lucky one. Crom and Lucas disappear, still riding the monster. Screams and lightning are heard not long afterward.

The party faces a crisis of will, but Shara prays for guidance from her god, and they decide to continue the quest to retrieve the archives in Olemcorro. As dawn breaks, they reach the base of the tree, and then witness an explosive battle between the eagle guardians of Olemcorro and the harpy invaders. The eagles prevail, and the party begins the climb up into the orulin.

Game Session, 2007.03.31

2007-04-01T19:05:00.001-07:00

Posted to Google Docs.

New Class: Voudin (draft)

2007-03-30T21:16:00.000-07:00

Vaudin are a divine caster class, based loosely on voodou practitioners. A male vaudin is called a houngan, and a female one a mambo. Vaudin gain spells from the same list as druids, but not in the same manner. Instead of praying for spells, and casting them as they need them, vaudin must either prepare potions or bind a task spirits. Both of these things are focused on the loa.

A mambo's loa is a powerful spirit that stands as an intermediary between men and God. The mambo serves the loa by bringing it offerings it likes and allowing it to ride her. The loa, in return grants some measure of power to the mambo by imbuing power into her potions and granting her some authority over its children and underlings as task spirits.

In preparing a potion, the mambo prepares a mixture of things that she feels her loa will like. This rocess takes no less than caster level time spell level, in hours. This process can only be sped up with the help of another vaudin, so creation of high level potions necesitates vaudin work together. She then must add something that contains the essence of the person for whom the potion is made. This is easiest with blood, but can also be accomplished with hair, if it is freshly pulled. The potion must then be consumed by the person for whom it was intended before the next moonphase, or it will spoil. For the purposes of this rule, a given phase takes three days to complete. Because of the greater preparation involved, a mambo's potions always have maximum effect. Potions are used for spells that will affect things with souls, such as people, many extraplanar creatures, and the higher order undead. Not that certain mage spells can seperate a person's soul from their body. In these cases, it is much more difficult for the mambo to work magic upon them.

A mambo can also bind task spirits to her. These spirits are capable of perfoming the necesary intercession with the physical and spirit world to bring about spells much faster and with less preparation than the mambo can through potions. They also can be used to hold a spell for duration that is only bounded by the casters endurance and charm. Whenever a mambo gains access to a new spell level, she has the option to seek out a new task spirit. If she finds one and makes an accomodation with him, she can task him to cast any spell of that level or below in a given day. That is the only spell he will cast that day, but he will cast it as often as the caster makes a Diplomacy check DC Spell Level + task spirit HD + number of times he has cast the spell previously today, where the task spirit is considered to have the same number of hit dice as the caster did at the time she bound him. Unlike potions, variable effects listed for spells cast via task spirits are variable, not maximized. Task spirits are for spells that affect plants, animals, and nature. They can also be useful for their knowledge of the planes.

A mambo advances in hit dice, skill points, saves, and feats like a druid. She does not receive an animal companion. She may wear any armor and weild any weapon she chooses, though she does not receive proficiencies beyond those alloted to a druid.

A vaudin receives the following powers:

4th Aspect of Loa 1/day
8th Aspect of Loa 2/day
12th Aspect of Loa 3/day
16th Aspect of Loa 4/day
20th Aspect of Loa 5/day

Aspect of Loa -- When a mambo is being ridden, she takes on the aspect of her loa, while her spirit is being occupied. Since she is not present, she cannot command her tasked spirits, and since her loa is occupied with riding her, he cannot respond to her potions. However, the loa's aspect will grant the powers of its creatures, and some of these are great indeed.

While being ridden, a mambo has one of following:
1) Attack forms, Special attacks, BAB, and Strength of the creature
2) Movement modes and Dexterity of the creature
3) Size, hit dice, and Constitution of the creature
4) Any one category of special quality of the creature

If viewed from the astral plane, the mambo appears to be an axiomatic version of the creature. However, physically her form does not change. If the powers confered upon her would require a physical form change, the mambo behaves as though her form has changed, and the effects are the same as if it has, but without magical vision, the mambo simply appears to be behaving erratically at first blush.

The mambo does not have access to any creature that might be associated with her loa. She instead selects, at the levels she gains this ability or it improves, from the two creatures available to her at that level, or to advance a creature chosen in a previous level. The list of acceptable creatures is specific to the loa. Creatures chosen for a particular power level should have a CR less than or equal to the level at which it becomes available minus 2, although creatures should be advanced to match. Note that different creature types advance at different rates.

Should the mambo elect to a assume the Size, hit dice, and Constitution of the creatre, it is entirely possible that when the loa leaves her, she will have taken more damage than she can survive. In this case, scale the damage so that the mambo has a like proportion of hit points remaining.

Should the mambo elect to assume the attack forms of multiple creatures, she also gains the ability to make the cumulative number of attacks those creatures would get, as a full attack.

Sample Loa -- Brother Jallum

Brother Jallum is a swamp loa, associated in particular with insects, fungus, moss, and other things that grow in profusion. His people strive to make the most use out of any situation, and to have many simple plans so that the loss of any one is no great loss. He is pictured as Mannannan mac Lir, and also as a corpulent man with pale skin and many bulging pockets. Brother Jallum is called upon for healing and self-improvement, as both of these are seen as signs of adaptability, and also in trickery and crime, as he is known to turn any situation to his benifit.

Aspects of Brother Jallum
-------------------------
4th - 2 Stirges (1.5 CR), Giant Ant (2 CR) - fix this
8th - Shambling Mound (6 CR), 2 Phase Spiders (6 CR) - fix this
12th - Treant 15HD (10 CR), Hellwasp Swarm - fix this
16th - Colossal Monstrous Spider (32 HD) (11 CR)
20th - Formians (Special) (CR 18) - fix this

If the mambo assumes the aspect of Formians, she picks an uneven group of Formians that add up to CR 18. She assumes the aspect of the most powerful one, and and assigns the others to willing creatures within range of her Formian hive mind (no matter what benefits of the Formians she takes, the mambo always gains hive mind). These creatures can use their aspects just as if they were vaudin, and had taken that aspec themselves. They also gain the benefit of the hive mind, and at her discression, the mambo can elect to take her turn from the body of one of her vassals, casting spells, moving, or taking attack actions using her own modifiers, but with the body of her vassal. This happens on her initiative, and does not cost the vassal his turn.

House Rules updated

2007-03-17T17:55:00.000-07:00

The House Rules have been updated with a new rule regarding unbalanced multi-class characters.

Harpy Attacks

2007-03-11T21:08:00.000-07:00

Olemheiden, near Olemcorro

The players, camped near Olemcorro during the night, are awakened by the shattering of the earth a mere half-mile from their rest. The opening in the ground spits out a leviathan of a blue dragon and then a cloud of harpies fills the air. The harpies spread out across Olemheiden while the party loses track of the dragon. The characters are forced to leave the safety of the lowlander burrow so they can try to reach Olemcorro and the archives, but hunting harpies find them and attack.

Game Session, 2007.03.10

2007-03-11T16:18:00.000-07:00

Posted to Google Docs.

Ecology of the Lowlanders

2007-03-08T11:31:00.000-08:00

Legend and History

Pre-Orulin Elves

In ancient times, it is said that there were no lowlander elves and orulin elves. All elves made their homes on the ground. It was these early elves, who predate humankind by millenia of millenia, who altered the trees, changing them from within to grow.

In these early times, elves were as simple and barbaric as human tribes are known to be today. In the forest, survival through the cold winter was chancy at best. Little else is known about the primeval forest as it existed then, but it is thought to have been even more dangerous than Olemheiden is today. The elves did not yet control it unconditionally, and it is nearly certain that there were other kindreds than elf, also vying for supremacy of this land.

Taming the Orulins

But the elves developed horticultural skills, taming the forest and making it yield fruit and raw materials to their tending. They also made trees that grew larger and larger, yielding more of the raw materials they needed to survive, building their culture from the cloth of arboreal agriculture and, when the trees became large enough, living out their lives within the branches. It was only after thousands of years of such husbandry that the familiar orulin came to exist in its present form.

During the millenia that it took elfkind to change trees into orulins, the elves themselves changed. Taming the forest gave them the tools they needed to control Olemheiden itself, until there were no other significant humanoid presences within its boundaries; a reign that has continued almost unbroken to this day. The elves, more confident in their domain, now a unified political force, began to crave political and trade power to better the status of their nation within the world.

The War of Faeriekind

A war was fought between the elves and faeriekind. It is said that the dryads attacked the elves when elves tried to make orulins produce metal, gems and gold. This War of Faeriekind lasted many years.

Elfkind itself split politically at this time. One faction supported the alterations to the trees and fought in the war against the dryads; another wanted from the trees only what they could produce naturally and sought to protect them. When the blood finally finished soaking into the forest earth, the dryads and protectors prevailed against the alterers. The alterers had lost so many of their men, women and children that but a trickle of them moved from the orulins to the forest floor.

The banished elves, left with no knowledge and no culture by the dryads, became the lowlanders, determined never to enter the orulins again.

In victory, faeriekind welcomed back the elves, but stripped all of them of the arcane knowledge they used to create the orulins. What elves know today of the tending of orulins has been hard-won knowledge developed from scratch by recent generations.

Culture and Family Structure

After the War of Faeriekind, orulin elves relinquished the idea of a "nation of Olemheiden" and became tribal, with each orulin governing itself. At the same time, the lowlander elves spread themselves even more thinly, living few and far apart on the forest floor.

As the history would suggest, the number of lowlanders is far less than the number of orulin elves. The numbers are actually dwindling, ever-so-slowly, to just a few hundred today in a few dozen scattered clans. There are many factors contributing to their slow decline, including: migration to the orulins, danger from wild animals and monsters, the limited number of safe granite outcrops for dwelling places on the ground in Olemheiden, and the fact that a clan's enclave cannot be expanded easily to accommodate more family members.

Lowlanders keep tight-knit, extended families, who all live together inside a burrow or enclave. The elves inside the burrow usually number around 10-20, from several generations. There are a few dozen of these enclaves within Olemheiden, widely spaced from one another. Lowlander families like to keep to themselves, interacting only to trade, only rarely making social visits even to other lowlander families. Lowlanders born inside a burrow will usually live out their lives there.

Lowland elves also fiercely value their independence from the orulin elves, and rarely trade with them. However, there is no animosity between these two races, and lowland elves will sometimes offer help to orulin elves when the situation calls for it. Because of the limited relations and trade, lowland elves are considered primitive by orulin standards, keeping few manufactured comforts in their dwellings, and building the tools of their lives out of the things they can make or gather themselves from the forest. Even their dress tends to be simple and down-to-earth. They wear no textiles, making clothing from animal skins. They augment this clothing with camouflage makeup and leafy headdresses when they are outside.

Lowlander Dwellings

Lowlander burrows, or "enclaves", are carved into the base of granite outcrops which are a common feature of Olemheiden. They are built for defensibility and seclusion, camouflaged from their surroundings to the point that even other elves cannot find them.

An enclave starts with a large granite outcrop in the forest floor. It is considered advantageous if there are other natural defenses around the outcrop such as a water barrier, thick tree growth on one side, a steep slope, etc. but these are not prerequisites. The enclave is carved out of the raw stone, descending below ground level at first, where there is generally a utility room and entrance chamber. Then the rest of the dwelling is carved up into the rock, so all the living space and storage is above ground level. This prevents most problems with flooding. The granite and the angle of the carving protects against forest fires and enclaves usually have two sets of reinforced doors to keep out hostiles monsters and animals.

Lowlanders are able to carve and maintain their enclaves through a combination of metal tools and magic. Druidic magic is common among lowlanders. As for the metal tools, lowlanders typically trade for these.

Enclaves have the aforementioned vestibule, a workroom, three large sleeping rooms, and a community room (usually the largest of all the rooms), arranged vertically from lowest to highest in that order. These rooms will be separated by doors for maximum defensibility. Naturally, with space this cramped, lowland elves tend to do a lot of their daily activities outdoors where they have room.

The enclaves protect lowlanders through a combination of factors. First, lowland elves protect themselves through a low-profile existence. They don't keep herds of animals or large crop boundaries outside their dwellings, but they might have one or two family animals, to keep from drawing attention. They disguise their territories with camouflage, especially at the entrance to the dwelling, so they cannot be seen even if the general vicinity of their home is known. The small outdoor area a lowlander family defines as its own is usually marked by the growth of natural-appearing hedges, undergrowth and briars. The style of this boundary growth is one aspect of lowland elf culture that is shared by all the families, and it is recognizable to other lowland elves; they regard it as a warning to stay away unless invited when they come upon the boundary of some other family's domain. Outsiders such as orulin elves might not recognize these boundaries unless they are familiar with lowlander culture, so the growth usually contains some thorny plants to keep such outsiders from blundering through.

Economy

As already discussed, lowlanders do not grow large crops or keep herds of animals. They eat by hunting and gathering in the forest, although they might maintain a special deer herd which, though free, is considered part of their territory; other lowlanders will not hunt outside of their own section of forest. Lowlanders often have a family garden for fresh produce, small in size; they do not trade from this garden, only growing enough to feed themselves. If they have family animals, they will probably be quiet, low-profile animals such as goats that they can let out to feed in the forest and bring back in at night.

Though their dwellings are too small to contain forges or manufacturing devices of any kind, lowlanders nevertheless can make a few things for trade: art created from wood and stone, finely-made fur clothing, and things fashioned with magic. If they can, they will make their own tools, but most families have at least a few tools they traded for and kept. Compared to orulin elves, lowlanders have easier access to some things, such as stone and root vegetables, so they sometimes trade these things to orulin elves.

On the whole, lowlanders are as economically isolated from the rest of the world as orulin elves and perhaps moreso.

Summary of 2007.02.27 Game Session

2007-03-05T11:38:00.000-08:00

On the night before the characters left for Olemcorro, Dev ir'Wyren decided to do some investigating of his own into the mysteries surrounding his sister. The session log details everything that happened that night. This post is a summary of those events for the benefit of the players who weren't there.

Dev Pays Emil ir'Wyren a Visit

Dev decides to visit his father, Emil, in connection with the writing he found on Spyridon's notepad. Having previously found his father's new address in Tulerohk through the grapevine, he travels upstairs until he finds the place where his father has been living with another conclave member, an elf who shares his political views by the name of Jecob. Dev investigates the area and finally decides to knock on the door.

Jecob, who is cooking himself dinner, lets Dev in and chats with him briefly in the kitchen. They talk politics, with Jecob bringing up the new Cataract proposed to be built underneath Tulerohk, modeled after the Cataract that was destroyed under Jeraslan. He says, "We both agree, the faster the cataract is built for Tulerohk, the faster Jeraslan can recover economically from its disaster." He also probes Dev to find out whether he has a hostile relationship with his father, to which Dev says, "No, far from it. We've had our disagreements, but I think that is due to a common temperament." Jecob admits that work on the new Cataract has been slow due to recalcitrance from the lowlander elves in lending assistance. The primary difficulty in procuring their help (whatever "help" might mean--he does not elaborate) is that the lowlanders do not need anything from the orulin elves. "When someone builds their life around not wanting what you have, how can you possibly offer them something of value?"

Dev, listening intently for the sounds of his father in the back room, starts to suspect that his father is listening in on this conversation. Dev lets Emil know that he's aware of his presence, and when Emil comes out, the two visit a local restaurant and sit in the back to talk.

The Thugs

Dev brings up Spyridon, testing Emil. Referring to the session in the Conclave that day (in which Dev accused Spyridon of kidnapping), the father says: "For once you had my full approval today. Whatever may have happened to your sister, it is certain Dara was involved somehow. Are you seeking my help in breaking him down? You may have it." They talk about Dara, whom Emil refers to as "unscrupulous and dangerous". Then Dev shows him the notepad with the impression on it and Emil's address. Emil is shocked to see this. He says, "20 gold! And this is my .. was my address! Dara had this! It proves Dara had my home trashed."

He proceeds to tell Dev that he and Dara had a political conflict at Jeraslan, trying to block one anothers' votes, and Spyridon retaliated by having his home trashed. The thugs who did it got away, but not before Emil put an arrow in one of their arms and forced him to drop the payment for the vandalism: 20 gold. Dev suggests that they go pay a visit to the kidnappers in their holding cells at this point.

That night they descend to the guard level, where Emil asks one of the guards to let Dev in to see the prisoners. There, Dev discovers that one of the two kidnappers has a suspicious wound through his left arm, the same place Emil claims to have injured one of the thugs. When questioned, the kidnapper claims his arm was punctured by a rusty gnoll pike while he was in the camp.

On the way out, Dev tricks the thugs by telling them that he knows they dropped their gold, causing one of them to blurt out that they "want it back".

Game Session, 2007.02.27

2007-02-27T00:19:00.000-08:00

Published to Google Docs.

Game Session, 2007.02.24 (manual transcript)

2007-02-25T16:18:00.000-08:00

(Unfortunately, the game transcript was lost after the game session of 2007.02.24. This recap will be from memory.)

(Play begins around 7:30 PM.)

We are joined by our cast, currently consisting of: Dev the Rogue, Shara the Paladin, and Elrymbor the Arcanist. Crom the Barbarian appears later on.

The characters return to Tulerohk the morning following the successful destruction of the gnoll huddle. With the smoke of the gnoll bodies still lingering in the air, the conclave calls the characters in immediately and they account for the attack. This immediately clears Dvethan ir'Wyren of charges of murder, as there were many witnesses to the fact that his sister, Illuvien, is still alive. Unfortunately, his hearsay testimony that Spyridon was responsible for her kidnapping is not accepted as evidence; her kidnappers are placed in holding cells on the guard level of the orulin, but no charges are brought against Spyridon Dara for his alleged part in the conspiracy.

After the conclave, Lucas leaves the characters, saying he has business of his own to attend to. The characters return to Shara's rooms, where they lay out their next plan of action. Spyridon Dara has ired Dev, and the characters suspect Lucas is already there interrogating him. They go visit his apartments, and send Elrymbor to knock on his door with a ruse. Lucas spots them out, and invites them in; he has indeed been there.

They interrogate Dara while Dev searches the apartments. There are some revelations. Dara reveals some interesting tidbits. He claims not to know how Illuvien got kidnapped, but he suggests that Emil ir'Wyren, father of Dev and Illuvien, is the culprit. He reveals that Illuvien was looking for a "red agent". But he doesn't know what that is. While Spyridon is giving his testimony, Dev is searching his apartments, and finds a notepad with pen impressions on it.

Here, Lucas threatens to have Spyridon hanged if he turns out to be a red agent, but Dara continues to protest that he doesn't even know what that is. Lucas immediately leaves the room, saying he's going to get Perletinius.

It is at this point that Crom returns.

When Lucas and Perletinius return, they bicker over whether to reveal something of great import to the characters; Lucas wants to tell them, Perletinius protests. Lucas finally prevails, saying, "It is time for new Blue Companions."

Lucas and Dev tie up Spyridon and throw him into the bedroom with the door closed.

Lucas then asks the party to swear, each individually, to keep the information secret "for the rest of their lives". When each of them does, starting with Crom, then Shara, then Dev, and finally Elrymbor, he reveals to them the true purpose of the Blue Companions.

Perletinius and Lucas reveal the following:

There are two Gabbents, Blue and Red. These are connected by something called the Soft World.
The Blue Companions exist to protect the forest Olemheiden in this eternal war against Red Gabbent. But their numbers have dwindled almost down to nothing.
There is something called "tincture" which differentiates the inhabitants of Red Gabbent from the inhabitants of Blue Gabbent. It is not visible to the eye and the Blue Companions do not know of a way to see it. (But Illuvien might.) Tincture is innate at birth; a person born on Red Gabbent has red tincture, a person born on Blue Gabbent has blue tincture.
If Illuvien can be believed, there is a Red agent somewhere in Olemheiden, maybe even in Tulerohk. A method to detect tincture is needed so this person can be found.
The Red agent may have been the one who caused the earthquake.

The DM breaks here to give a tutorial on using MapTool, specifically how to roll dice (/roll, /rollme and /rollgm), use aliases (/alias command..), and use the macro buttons (right-click on the button to change it). See this reference to chat commands.

Now the party commits to a course of action: the (new and old) Blue Companions will travel to Olemcorro, location of their informational archives, and research a way to detect red tincture. With a way to detect red tincture, the Companions might have a better chance of protecting the orulins from some new catastrophe, by fighting the red agent who is causing all the trouble (if that is indeed the cause of the trouble).

Dev investigates the contents of the notepad at this point, and is able to see a partial address, enough to know that the address that was written was the address of Emil ir'Wyren where he lived in Jeraslan!

The next day the part travels to Olemcorro through Olemheiden. Along the way, Lucas makes brief stops at the homes of lowlander elves just to reassure them that the gnolls have been taken care of. The lowlanders are extremely grateful for the assistance of the Jeraslan elves in killing the gnolls and freeing the kidnapped elves.

At sunset, the party reaches the base of the Olemcorro staircase. With night coming, it would be impossible to reach the lowest branch level before midnight, so the party makes a decision to return to the nearest lowlander burrow, and ask for shelter for the night. There, they are given a room to sleep in, safe from the nighttime forest, within the walls of the burrow.

That night, the travellers are awakened by great stentorian thuds reverberating through the forest, coming from below. This continues for several minutes before Elrymbor goes outside to investigate. No sooner does he do so than the forest is lit up by a beam of light, seemingly flashing up from the ground and crackling among the treetops like reverse lightning. In this flash, he sees something leviathan and blue, and in the afterglow sees shapes, small and clawed, exploding into the air from a rift in the ground.

(Play ends at 11PM.)

Plot Recap as of Saturday, February 24, 2007

2007-02-25T16:16:00.000-08:00

A brief recollection of the events that have transpired so far during the Nest of Candles campaign, "The Precarious Earth".

Background

The Nest of Candles is the name of the campaign set on the world of Gabbent. The campaign so far centers around a forest region named Olemheiden. You will want to read this background material to start with, which describes the chapter known as "The Breaking of Jeraslan".

The story continues in Grimcatch, where the players fought and defeated a grimlock army that could have killed Jeraslan outright.

Returning from Grimcatch, the characters are forced into political intrigue in their new home, the orulin named Tulerohk, at the Conclave of Servants. There, one of the characters, a rogue named Dev, is accused of murder--the murder of his own sister. This accusation occurs at a time when the party is needed to destroy an infestation of gnolls which has kidnapped many of the "lowlander" elves, the elves which live on the forest floor in burrows and do not climb the orulin trees.

The captain of the Blue Companions, a paladin named Lucas, is put in charge of Dev during the raid on the Gnoll Huddle. (Follow the link for a description of the events in the Gnoll Huddle as well as the confrontation in the Conclave of Servants.)

Against a storm of gnolls, the party holds the prison where the lowlander elves were being kept successfully, keeping the prisoners safe long enough for Lucas to storm the village by surprise. They slay every last gnoll, and make a pyre of their bodies.

Among the prisoners they discover Iluvien ir'Wyren, sister of Dev, the very person he was accused of murdering. She is still alive, and she tells a story of being kidnapped by thugs sent by Spyridon Dara--the very council member who accused Dev of murder! This discovery clears Dev's name, but no sooner are brother and sister reunited than Iluvien flees rather than be taken back to Tulerohk. Dev chases her, with Shara close on his heels. She runs into the forest near the village and, with a twist of her arm, summons some sort of globe that squirms around her and then vanishes, with her still inside.

Game Calendar

2007-02-21T12:18:00.000-08:00

—Nest of Candles Calendar

Cross-Branding

2005-06-13T09:35:00.000-07:00

I have updated the front page of the Vellum website. In addition to adding actual content, I've linked a new screenshot there. Have a look.

Gnoll Chieftain's Hut

2005-06-12T14:01:00.000-07:00

Gnoll Chieftain's Hut

Dvethen ir'Wyran visited the Gnoll Chieftain's hut when he went back to the Gnoll Huddle to search for clues to his sister's disappearance.

Game Session, 2005.06.12

2005-06-12T13:52:00.000-07:00

Published to Google Docs.

Game Session, 2005.06.03

2005-06-05T18:12:00.000-07:00

Published to Google Docs.

In addition, this took place.

Gods of Gabbent

2005-06-03T09:04:00.000-07:00

Morrigan

Morrigan is the goddess of inevitable strife. In this role she has aspects of fate, war, victory, and the honor of meeting one's doom with head held high. She often appears, in mourning, to combatants as they go to meet their final destinies. Morrigan's statues and idols depict a naked woman with a fan of long spears in each hand and symbolic tattoos of power covering her breasts.

Morrigan's domains include: Chaos, Death, Destruction, Evil, Good, Strength, and War.

Her followers bear a disk with an engraved fan of spears as their symbol.

Oghma

Oghma is the champion of knowledge and mastery of one's arts. He champions technology, useful deception, literacy, arcana, and rhetoric. He is most often depicted in painting or tapestries, as it is thought to be blasphemy to sculpt an image of Oghma. In these he is depicted as a hulking, disfigured giant with intelligent eyes. Oghma is sometimes called Silent Oghma because spells of divination, which are his specialty, are not always answered.

Oghma's domains include: Evil, Fire, Good, Knowledge, Luck, Magic, Mind, and Trickery.

A neckband, embroidered with words in the secret tongue of Oghma, is worn by Oghma's priests. The words vary from neckband to neckband, but all are passages taken from his holy books.

The Daghda

The Daghda is the god of ascendence of civilization over nature. He has aspects of protecting crop growth, ensuring fertility, and the building of roads and cities. Daghda is often depicted as a very tall rotund man, sometimes with a large protruding penis.

The Daghda's domains include: Earth, Evil, Good, Healing, Law, Protection, and Travel.

The Daghda's worshippers carry a shallow woven basket with a ewered edge as their symbol.

Mannannan Lir

Mannannan Lir is in many ways the antithesis of The Daghda. His dominion is over the natural realm, beginning from the sea and spreading outward. He personifies the ascendence of natural environs over civilization. He is thought to be responsible for the weather and natural disasters, as well as the growth of the forest, the movements of rivers and the abundance of fauna in the world.

Mannannan's domains include: Air, Animal, Evil, Good, Plant, Sun, and Water.

For a holy symbol, Mannannan's priests wear a 6'-long necklace of shells and lightning bolts carved from wood, wrapped around their necks several times.

These gods appear in many different aspects throughout Gabbent, usually with variant names and appearances. None of these gods is aligned; beings of all different alignments may worship the one with which they are philosophically compatible. Neither is there any restriction on race to worship one of these gods. Though they are known by different names, the same gods are constant throughout Gabbent.

Understanding Your Player Character's Role

2005-05-24T13:45:00.000-07:00

Crom's player pointed this out to me so I thought I'd link to it in case anyone else finds it useful. It's a tool for figuring out what kind of character you're playing, by asking questions for the player to answer about her character.

The Gnoll Huddle

2005-05-22T21:52:00.000-07:00

The Gnoll Huddle

The party enters the Conclave of Servants in Tulerohk to give an abstract of their adventure in Grimcatch. In the middle of their description, a council member by the name of Spyridon Dara publicly accuses Dev of committing the murder of his own sister. The heroes narrowly avoid a bloody fight in the middle of the meeting when Lucas, acting on a suggestion by Crom, invokes his right to accept Dev's surrender, and Spyridon backs down when he is magically charmed by Rade's surreptitious spell.

Having gotten away from the law, at least for now, the heroes are sent on a dangerous mission: free a large group of lowlander elves from the clutches of the gnolls, so the gnoll huddle can be destroyed without risking their hostages.

This is the plan they execute. First, they have Lucas' forces create a distraction by attacking the gnolls' hunting party. As soon as the hunting party is stopped, Lucas' troops move into position to the north of the camp and the gnoll huddle erupts in frenzied action. Then the PCs, invisible, sneak into the camp, deftly avoid the gnolls, dispatch the guards outside the prison, set the chief gnoll's hut alight, and end by locking themselves inside as a swarming mass of gnolls constrict on them.

Game Session, 2005.05.21

2005-05-22T10:38:00.000-07:00

Published to Google Docs.

House Rules Updated

2005-05-11T09:31:00.000-07:00

The house rules have been updated to note some changes to available PC races and classes.

New Sorceror-Arcanist (Draft)

2005-05-10T08:53:00.000-07:00

Must carry spellbook(s) (one page per spell level, like a wizard). Other surfaces can be substituted for literal books of spells, as long as they can contain writing symbols. It is up to the DM's judgement how much of a surface is necessary to contain one spell level.
Arcanists prepare for spellcasting by studying spellbooks for 30 minutes after each rest period. This study prepares the arcanist to cast any of the spells he knows, according to the usual spells per day table, in the usual fashion of a sorcerer.
The details of each arcanist's spellbook are particular to that arcanist alone. Thus, finding another arcanist's spellbook is almost useless.
When an arcanist is studying, he must choose a mood. In order to cast any spells that day, he must remain in or regain the mood he was in during the study period, or the symbols he memorized will not work. (This means he cannot attempt to cast a spell, not that the spell fails.) At his option, the mood might be different for different spells. For example, an arcanist might study in a placid mood, and he must be able to calm himself to placidity again in the heat of combat in order to cast spells. Or he might require an angry mood to cast magic missile, and a happy mood to cast charm person.
The arcanist learns new "known" spells according to the following schedule.
- At Arcanist level 1 the arcanist knows 6 L0 spells, and 3 L1 spells.
- No new known spells are gained at Arcanist L2.
- Each level thereafter, the arcanist learns new spells at a rate of one spell level per arcanist level, plus the arcanist's charisma bonus. These may be used to purchase spells at whatever level the arcanist desires. L0 spells may be purchased at a rate of 0.5 spell levels each.
For example, an arcanist with 15 CHA (+2) will gain 3+2=5 spell levels of known spells at Arcanist L3, and 4+2=6 spell levels at L4.
The new known spells acquired by an arcanist are limited by the same spell level progression as the sorcerer. At class level 4, the arcanist may take his first 2nd-level spell; at class level 6 the arcanist may take his first 3rd-level spell, and so on.
Unlike the standard sorcerer, the arcanist may not swap spells.
Arcanists can research new, undiscovered spells just like wizards, but to do so they must reserve some of the spell levels they gain upon reaching a new level, an amount equal to the spell level of the spell to be researched. These will be used when the spell research completes successfully.
Arcanists who are ability damaged may find that some of the pages in their spellbooks no longer function, according to how many CHA points were lost. For example, a L5 arcanist with 14 CHA who is ability damaged to 11 CHA goes from +2 to +0, and so loses the use of 2*5=10 spell levels worth of spells. If the damage is temporary, the pages will work again when the effect ends.
Arcanists who gain CHA points get additional pages according to their new bonus, but these new pages can only be written when an arcanist gains a level. For example, a L4 Arcanist who goes from 13 CHA to 16 CHA (+1 to +3) gains 2*4=8 new pages when he gains his next level, but only if the CHA bonus is still in effect. Temporary CHA bonuses can also increase known spells if they are in effect when the arcanist gains a level. But if the temporary bonus ends, the spells gained from it will no longer function.

Impact

The arcanist gets more spells known than the sorcerer, which makes him more flexible in the field. The new class also has two new drawbacks over the sorcerer. First, they must carry and protect spellbooks, but don't get the associated advantages of spellbooks (the ability to copy another caster's spells). Second, the character must be able to maintain control over their moods, which provides the player with some roleplaying challenges.

History/Background

Sorcery is accomplished through befriending and collaborating with ethereal entities known as arcane crafters. Nobody knows what the arcane crafters are. Many think they are agents of divine or diabolic power. Another theory is that they are spirits of the dead, come to assist their descendents. Some whisper that the crafters are a part of the arcanist's own madness (for, do they not pursue the arcanist everywhere he goes?).

Whatever they are, arcane crafters are beings that respond to the spellcasting of arcanists. They seem to be intelligent and aware. They respond to blandishment, friendly overtures and personalities of a compatible nature. And each and every one of them has a name, which must be learned before they will obey the arcanist.

The arcanist succeeds in casting a spell by knowing the right name of the crafter. The entity he will bring out will be different each time he casts a spell, so the names must be learned and memorized each time the arcanist wishes to prepare his spells for the day. This requires 30 minutes after each rest period to prepare, but the arcanist need not choose particular spells to cast in advance, just figure out the names of the arcane crafters that will help him each time he needs one. When casting, the arcanist need not speak any names, merely recall the right one clearly, in addition to executing the other components (somatic, verbal, material) that the spell normally requires.

When the arcanist begins casting a spell, he will become aware of personalities approaching him. They seem to float toward him from the void of other, and when they arrive they whisper and coax and encourage, but they are not visible or audible to anyone else but the arcanist. They come in great masses. Any single spellcasting will bring at least a dozen of them, capering and gibbering in the arcanist's ears and in his mind. Most spells will bring even more of them, hundreds or even thousands, washing over the arcanist's awareness as if every one of the ocean's creatures had a voice that was trapped in a bubble of foam on a wave. Only by concentration can an arcanist stay focused on the task at hand in the face of this benign riot.

Finally, with the summoned entity's name held in his mind, the arcanist cajoles and befriends the entity with his high charisma, and through their collaboration the spell is cast. In game terms, this works exactly like the
usual method of spellcasting for standard sorcerers.

When an arcanist gains a level, he gains new pages of names in his spellbooks. He seeks the council of the arcane crafters, who will automatically come to him and dictate new pages. Arcanists with greater charisma attract more crafters or crafters who are more forthcoming, and more spells will be added. The arcanist listens to the murmur of the arcane crafters and, in a trance-like state, copies their words onto the pages of the spellbook. Arcane crafters are loyal to a particular arcanist alone, so the names cannot be read from another arcanist's spellbook and used.

It is rumored that there are other ways for an arcanist to harness and use more arcane crafters than his Charisma permits, by gaining their allegiance in dark, coercive rites.

More on Spellbooks

Spellbooks are typically leather-bound paper or parchment books, what one traditionally thinks of as a book. However, this need not be the case. Any surface that can contain writing symbols can be a page in a spellbook. Use your imagination. Bangles worn by the character, stone tablets, even tattoos on the visible areas of the character's body might be spell pages. Some of these will be able to contain more spells than others. For the purposes of this discussion, we will think of spellbooks as literal books, and call pages pages.

Spellbooks are not merely lists of names, one to a page. Every page is covered with symbols arranged in arcane patterns and read according to rules that the arcanist memorizes during training. The symbols combine to form the names of arcane crafters. Reading them usually means years of scholarly training, but other cultures might devise different ways of reading the symbols that don't require as much rote learning. For example, the character might carry a mnemonic device such as a piece of jewelery or necklace, and the marks on this device help the arcanist determine what symbols combine to represent useful crafter names.

The form taken by the symbols on page therefore may differ greatly depending on the teaching method used to train the fledgling arcanist. Still there will be many, sometimes dozens and dozens of rules for how to read each page. Some rules pertain to the time of day, to the weather, to astrology, to recent important events. Some pertain to the arcanist himself, his actions, his gender, his height and weight, the garments he's wearing, and his attitude toward law and morality (alignment). His mood also affects which symbols will be effective.

Tulerohk - Conclave of Servants

2005-05-09T09:21:00.000-07:00

Tulerohk - Conclave of Servants

After returning from Grimcatch, the characters find themselves embroiled in political drama. The High Council has called another joint meeting between the Jeraslan and Tulerohk councils, and wants the warriors there to testify.

Game Session log 2005-05-07

2005-05-09T08:48:00.000-07:00

Published to Google Docs.

Grimcatch (map)

2005-04-27T16:52:00.000-07:00

Grimcatch (map)

The home of the grimlocks. When an earthquake cracked Jeraslan in half, the heroes descended into Grimcatch to heal its roots. There, they found a large tribe of grimlocks preparing to make war on the surface! With daring and determination, they killed the grimlocks and burned their home out to keep the orulin and the elven lands safe.

Game session, 2005.04.23

2005-04-26T21:18:00.000-07:00

Published to Google Docs.

Smileworm

2005-04-08T20:20:00.000-07:00

Smileworm

Hit Dice: 1d4 (3hp)
Size: Tiny
Type: Aberration
Initiative: +1
Speed: 30 ft.
AC: 19 (+2 size, +1 Dex, +6 natural armor; 13 touch; 18 flat-footed)
Attack: Bite +1 melee (1d4-1)
Grapple: -7
Full attack: Bite +1 melee (1d4-1)
Space: 2 1/2 ft.
Reach: none
Special Attacks: Spell Regurgitation (Su)
Special Qualities: Spell Storing (Su)
Saves: Fort -1, Ref +1, Will +1
Abilities: Str 8, Dex 12, Con 8, Int 13, Wis 8, Cha 4
Skills: Hide +4, Move silently +5
Feats: Stealthy
Environment: Underground
Organization: Solitary
CR: 2
Treasure: no coins
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Advancement: 1 HD (Small), 2 HD (Medium)

Synopsis: The smileworm is a 1' to 2' long, black or brown slug-like lifeform. It is covered in tough scales and its body is nearly pure tough muscle. On the back of a smileworm is a humanoid face, with closed eyes, lips, a chin, and so on. The face is made of the same dark scales that the smileworm is covered in.

A smileworm feeds on magical spellcasting and seeks out spellcasting situations such as battles, so it can stay on the fringes and absorb sustenance.

Combat: A smileworm's primary attack is a bite. It can use this when it crawls into range, and it can crawl startlingly fast given its size and anatomy. A smileworm generally attacks with its special attacks.

Special Attacks:
Spell Regurgitation (Su)
With this ability, a smileworm can cast captured spells (see Special Qualities, Spell Capturing). This works exactly like invoking spells stored in a Ring of Spell Storing.

Special Qualities:
Spell Capturing (su)
A standard tiny smileworm can absorb up to 7 spell levels of spells. It only has to be within 20' of the caster of a spell. This works whether the casting is from a spellcaster, a Ring of Spell Storing, a staff, a scroll, etc. The smileworm must prepare to absorb a spell; absorbing is (at least) a full-round action and the smileworm must begin the action of capturing spells before the spellcasting actually begins. To capture a spell, the smileworm must not take any actions, and must continue to concentrate on capturing from the beginning until the final moment of casting. Spells with an instantaneous casting time cannot be captured. Captured spells have no effect, and become stored in the smileworm, available for regurgitation later.

Larger versions of a smileworm may be able to handle more spell levels of energy.

Game Session, 2005.03.18

2005-04-06T22:34:00.001-07:00

Published to Google Docs.

House Rules

2005-03-29T23:00:00.000-08:00

Official SRD rules say that each round a character is Dying, they get a 10% chance to stabilize. This rule is amended: to stabilize, a character must make a DC 19 Fort save.

Justification: Makes characters with stronger constitutions more likely to survive grievous wounds; at high levels it makes stabilizing easier to do, but then, at high levels it's far more likely that a powerful attack will kill the character outright anyway.
Leveling up requires 2 days spent "in town", reviewing the skills of their new class level with another skilled adventurer's assistance. This person does not need to be a member of the class, they are merely helping the character concentrate. The buddy can also be training at the same time, it is not a fulltime job; therefore, both buddies can level up simultaneously if they both have enough XP. If a "mentor" can be found to act as buddy, the time is reduced to 1 day. A mentor is a character at least 2 class levels greater than the character leveling up in the same class.

Justification: Makes a more realistic transition for the PC, and puts a higher premium on keeping an escape route open to town. It's short because the PC has really been training for the next level the entire time they've been adventuring, and the training session merely represents an effort to concentrate on what was learned.
Alternate unbalanced multi-class penalty. There is no 20% XP penalty for class levels that are not within 2 levels of the primary class. Instead, the penalty is that the "leveling up" period, described above, is doubled to 4 days for classes 2 or more levels apart from the primary class. Even with a mentor, an unbalanced class takes 4 days to level up, not 2.

Justification: Simpler rule. The 20% XP penalty means it is impossible to "work backwards" and figure out a character's class levels from his XP, which is one of the best things about the new XP system. The amended rule means it will always be possible to work backwards.
Official SRD rules say that drawing or sheathing a weapon is a move action, unless you have a BAB of +1, in which case it is a free action when done simultaneously with a regular move. This rule is amended: Drawing or sheathing is still a move action, but it may be done as a free action during a regular move, by anyone. This also applies to readying or loosing a shield.

Also, a clarification: this rule also applies to swapping one weapon or shield for another. It does not take two move actions to swap a bow for a sword, for example, only one. Swapping a bow for a sword and a shield is still two move actions.

Justification: This is much easier to adjudicate by the DM. There's no reason why BAB would affect this.
The following PC races and classes are not found in the Nest of Candles world: Gnome, Halfling, Wizard (and specialists), Sorceror. An adapted version of the sorceror called Arcanist is available. Gnomes and Halflings simply do not exist in the world of Gabbent. Wizard becomes an NPC-only class, and is simply a scholar with some of the abilities of the arcanist. New variants of PC races and a new prestige class will be available to play further into the campaign. (More details on this to come.)

Map of Olemheiden

2005-03-24T19:09:00.000-08:00

Olemheiden

The forest home of most of the PCs, this is where the Nest of Candles campaign begins. Olemheiden is unique for its orulins, mile-high trees where half a dozen elven tribes spend their entire lives.

Campaign: The Precarious Earth

2005-03-22T09:07:00.000-08:00

The Precarious Earth: From the Forest

Who leaves the pine-tree, leaves his friend,
Unnerves his strength, invites his end.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Woodnotes"

This is a tale of a world called Gabbent. It begins in a forest named Olemheiden. This forest is unlike almost all of the other forests on Gabbent. In Olemheiden grow the orulins. Imagine a misty-topped mountain made of oak, with bark so thick elves carve homes in it without reaching the hard wood, and branches so wide pigs and poultry are ranched there and gardens are grown there. Imagine a tree which, if you climbed to the very top, the highest redwoods in the forest below would be no more than blades of grass, and mountains a hundred miles away are clearly visible. Imagine a tree that is unreachable from the ground without climbing a staircase a thousand feet high that wraps round the trunk 5 times. Before you've even reached the lowest living area of the orulin, you are far, far above the treetops. Once you do reach them, you are protected by unassailable defenses manned by the tribe's defenders at all hours of the day and night.

And for five of the six tribal trees of Olemheiden, this still holds true. For the sixth, tragedy has struck. A massive earthquake of unprecendented force ripped Jeraslan in half. In this home of the most influential tribe, the strength of nature overwhelmed the tightest defense and tore these people from their home by tearing their home apart at the roots. For most of the trees of the forest, their roots only reach into the soft earth. The singular earthquake shook them, tilted some, displaced others, killed but few. Jeraslan, on the other hand, has roots that reach down to the very bedrock. And when that bedrock split, Jeraslan tried to go with it in two different directions.

The aftermath was swift and violent. Branches a quarter mile long fell from the tree, destroying elven homes and tossing elven bodies like leaves dropping onto the distant forest floor. The trunk, splitting up the middle, sliced elven homes in half as if cut with a razor. The Jeraslan tribe panicked. Those who could flee with magic did, perhaps taking the older and infirm with them. Others had to build rope bridges just to climb down the stairs. Jeraslan's fabled Cataract was washed out by the shifting earth which meant that the pulleys the elves normally used were useless. The entire tribe evacuated in two directions. Some went south to the smaller orulin named Kellingeth. Most went north, to Tulerohk.

Lucas, a battle-worn Paladin from Jeraslan, took his granddaughter with him to watch the last of the refugees. Their task was to escort these stragglers from Jeraslan to Tulerohk, through a forest filled with enemies. As if this weren't hard enough, the breaking of the Cataract flooded most of northern Olemheiden. The weary travellers had to fight hard through gnoll-infested swampland to reach their destination.

In Tulerohk, the statesmen called a joint council of the two orulins to discuss what to do about the Jeraslanders. Tulerohk, now badly overcrowded, needed many new dwellings built for the Jeraslanders; and who was going to pay for this? Who would provide the labor? The council of Jeraslan agreed that in exchange for the concession of room to live in Tulerohk, Jeraslan's engineers would reroute the Showerhair canal and build a new Cataract for Tulerohk, giving them the economic advantages Jeraslan had before the earthquake.

At this same council meeting, an expert in the caretaking of orulins revealed a surprise: that Jeraslan was alive, but dying. Steps would have to be taken to rescue the tree. This arborist by the name of Haft made a motion to bring a party of warriors with him back to Jeraslan and try to heal the breath roots, the vital stems which regulate the growth and are necessary for the survival of an orulin. When it was agreed that this would be done, one more proposal was made: send forces to stamp out the gnolls, once and for all. It was Lucas who proposed this, and his proposal to lead these forces was enthusiastically accepted.

The characters chose to accompany Haft and heal the breath roots, despite the rumors of an infestation of creatures living in the caverns underneath Jeraslan.

Welcome

2005-03-22T09:02:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Nest of Candles blog. I am creating this so I can use the Internet for the duty of explaining my world to new players.

Important links for players:

Game Sessions Calendar (updated link):: We play approximately 3 sessions a month, usually on Saturday evenings (PST).
RPTools Maptool: http://rptools.net/doku.php?id=downloads

Make sure to download Version 1.2 of Maptool. Our game sessions are conducted using Maptool.
PCGen: http://pcgen.sourceforge.net/: A character creator. This is the preferred way to make a PC, as it interoperates well with Vellum (the name of the bot), it has a lot of features, and it's free.
Vellum: http://vellum.berlios.de/: A Paper & Pencil RPG client/server. The implementation will allow GMs to use maps and miniatures, coupled with an IRC bot for role-playing and tracking the combat actions with our rich character model. Emphasis is on ease-of-use, fun and robustness. Eventually you will need to download the client to play with us. For now, you only need Maptool.

And, if you're curious about my maps and want to make your own:

Dundjinni: http://dundjinni.com/