raging_swan

I’ve been thinking about starting the session summary write up for this week’s session. While I was gathering my notes, I realised that at one point Krorz was poisoned ([twice] by imps), infected with a disease (from a ghoul [six times]), paralysed (by a ghoul [four times]), down to under 1/4 hit points and cut off from the rest of the party. Amazingly, he still survived!

How? You’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out!

Blimey! Where to start?

This week is going to be a busy one, but hopefully I’ll be clearing several major projects off my desk.

Big jobs this week include creating the final version of Scions of Evil which has finally come in at 198 page of evil villain goodness! It’s been an epic slog to get it all finished, but I’m delighted with the result. I’m quite confident that a GM could run an entire campaign using only the stat blocks in this book (there are 135 after all!) On the plus side, finishing off Scions of Evil has led me to create some additional material for Fellowship of the Blackened Oak, Brethren of the Crimson Altar and Bandits of the Rampant Horror. Once the PDFing is complete, I’ll be releasing the additional material as free web enhancements for the various supplements and post download links on their product pages.

My other big job is to finish up my first draft of Villainous Pirates; I’ve got about six pages left to lay out and then a final 12 or so to edit. That’s harder than it sounds because the pirates I’m now checking are all now CR 9+ and they’ve been designed by Glenn, Bennett and Posener, which means there is some weird, inventive stuff in there!

In other news, Raging Swan Press is releasing So What’s The Demi-Human Called, Anyway? this week which presents hundreds of handy names for your dwarf, elf, halfling, gnome,half-elf and half-orc characters and NPCs. Its a really handy little file to have if, like me, you are terrible at naming NPCs.

Beyond that, I’ve got the same normal jobs, including starting to edit Ron Lundeen’s Dark Waters Rising, to do as I have every week, so I’d best get cracking!

Red Hodges has once again posted a session summary of our game this week. We had a bloodbath – two of us died and another was badly injured. We can only hope that his insane lust for blood has been sated for the foreseeable future! You can read about our disaster, here!

At the end of last session, we left the PCs standing over the slashed corpse of a female tiefling who through her magic had almost destroyed the party. However, they were victorious and after healing their wounds and taking stock, they decided to continue.

Krorz, scouting ahead, heard soft babbling speech coming from around a corner and so the party went to investigate. Around the corner stood a small room in which a creature of shadow and bone knelt in front of a small statue. As the party’s lights filled the room, the creature turned and its babbling rose in volume!

As it surged toward the party, its babbling fascinated several of them. Identified quickly as an allip, the creature attacked the party, but the heroes’ steadfast determination and willpower enabled them to resist the worst of its attacks. Eventually, after enchanting their weapons, the party managed to slay the beast. The room within contained nothing of value.

Now the party were perilously low on resources and so they decided to retreat from the dungeon to rest in the ruins above overnight. This they did, choosing an out of the way sheltered spot to set up camp. Luckily, the night passed without incident but Maban (Klara’s henchman) woke feeling very ill – it transpired that he was infected with ghoul fever. Luckily, the party had a scroll of remove disease and this Adoven duly cast on the young bard. They then returned to the dungeon.

Pushing south, they discovered a large corridor and a small interconnected group of chambers that seemed to be a workshop of sorts. Here Krorz was surprised by two tiny winged creatures – later identified as devilish imps. They both struck him with their poisoned stingers and the rogue staggered back, badly affected by their venom.

Immediately, the imps started a tactic of going invisible, moving and then attacking from an unexpected direction. This tactic was moderately effective, but sadly for them everyone else managed to resist their poison. Eventually, Klara managed to grab one of the creatures and shortly thereafter it was beaten unconscious and stuffed into a sack. Krorz then slew it with a mighty strike of his axe. Seeing this, the other one disappeared, but not before issuing a series of dire threats in a language no one could speak.

Searching the chambers, the party discovered almost two score collection boxes – seemingly stolen from a number of churches – and the two objects – a mirror and a statue stolen from the temple-shrine of Fharlanghn.

Yet keen to find the legendary fire opal rumoured to lie within the ruins, the party pressed on discovering a number of empty chambers, all decorated with lurid bas-reliefs of monks and devils.

In one corridor carpeted in a great mass of bones, they discovered what they took to be a series of monks’ cells. At the end stood another room at the very extent of the party’s light. Belivar, using his magic, detected several magical emanations coming from the chamber. Excited, the party were nevertheless cautious and checked each cell as they moved forward. In the fourth such cell, Krorz was attacked by a gigantic skeleton seemingly formed from the skeletal remains of a bone devil. As the rogue desperately dodged the initial attacks, two more such beasts emerged from other cells and attacked!

Hemgor shouted for the party to retreat and form a shield wall, but he was widely ignored as battle lust and desire to save Krorz burned bright in many of his companions' hearts. Both Klara and Adoven repeatedly filled the corridor with positive energy and Belivar’s eidolon was particularly effective against the skeletons. With their enemies defeated, the party advanced and found a magic potion and a clerical scroll hidden in the end chamber…

One of the books I’m occasionally reading at the moment is the classic Treasure Island. On the very first page the author (Robert Louis Stevenson) does a terrific job of describing one of the characters. This is how he described the pirate:

“I remember him as if it were yesterday, as he came plodding to the inn door, his sea-chest following him in a hand-barrow – a tall, strong, heavy, nut-brown man, his tarry pigtail falling over the shoulder of his soiled blue coat, his hands ragged and scarred, with black, broken nails, and the sabre cut across one check, a dirty, livid white.”

I really wish, I could describe every NPC I write in the same incredible detail. To me, Stevenson’s description make the pirate leap off the page and stalk fully formed into my house, It’s amazing that he packs so much detail into just 38 words!

This week, Raging Swan releases So What’s The Hoard Like, Anyway? II Like its predecessor, this supplement presents loads of pre-generated treasure hoards ready for the busy GM to insert into his campaign. However, unlike the last instalment, this supplement presents treasure hoards suitable for characters level 8 – 14. It’s a jolly useful supplement to have around and I’ll be using it in my campaign when the PCs reach the appropriate levels.

This week, I’m making some final additions and edits to Scions of Evil – all the NPCs are now complete but I’ve still got last minute edits and touch ups to sort. Hopefully, by the end of the week it will be good to go!

I’ll also be continuing work on Villainous Pirates – I’ve started to get the various pirates into layout now and its shaping up to be a cracking resource for aquatic adventures. Needless to say, with Glenn, Bennett and Posener involved some of the pirates are rather…unique.

Finally, I’ve recently received some adventure turnovers from Marc Radle (The Sunken Pyramid) and Ron Lundeen (Dark Waters Rising). I really want to carve out some time out this week to start reading them as I’m really looking forward to seeing what they came up with!

In other news, I’ve recently redesigned Raging Swan’s Release Schedule webpage and have set up a new Product Directory page to make it easier to find a specific product on the site. Hopefully, they’ll make navigating the site easier in the future. This week, if I get time, I might continue my reorganisation of other key pages. That’s if I get the time, of course!

That’s it! Have a great week all!

As you  may remember, Red Hodges has taken a break from slaughtering us in Fate of Istus to slaughter us in Ruins of Nol-Daer instead. It’s a refreshing change and if you want to see how things went, take a look on the Hodgenomicon.

At the end of last session we left the heroes in Ratikhill recovering from their recent exploits. While the group spent some much deserved downtime, Klara discovered more of the mysteries of her patron (Fharlanghn) and also engaged a henchman – Maban Annear, a human bard of grandiose ego and boundless ambition. Belivar also secured the services of a henchman – Jory Menadue – a human fighter and an incorrigible gambler.

Klara also engaged the services of the reputed local sage (and famed wearer of expensive gowns) Tregereth Faull to discover the location of the lost Monastery of the Fire Opal. This she managed to do with little trouble and provided the party with a rough map showing its location. It seemed that monastery stood just five days travel away or so hard among the wooded foothills of the Rakers. It seemed an easy journey along well-established roads and with many villages and towns along the route in which to rest overnight. Klara took the precaution of gifting the talented sage with extra gold and asked her to perhaps be a little less forthcoming with the monastery's location if a certain band of Hextorites came seeking Belivar.

With their business taken care of, the party set out to find the monastery in the first week of Reaping as summer caressed the land.Their journey was pleasant, but uneventful,and five days later they stayed for the night in a village close by to the monastery’s location. It turned out that the peasants knew of the ruined monastery, but never went there as they believed it to be haunted. After questioning, however, they did say that a hooded woman had recently been using the track that lead to and from the place and that they didn’t like her – she smelled funny! Rumours of devil worship in the monastery also still swirled among the peasants.

Undeterred, the party set out the next day, and shortly after midday found the ruins hidden deep in the woods at the end of a perilously overgrown track. Ominously the signs and sounds of woodland animals was strangely absent from the area. After exploring the above ground ruins vigorously, the party descended a set of steps they discovered leading deep underground.

The steps emerged into a damp chamber. To the west could be heard the sounds of running water emanating from behind a swollen door while three other passageways led deeper into the complex. Rotting rubbish and bones covered the floor and as Krorz explored the area he cut open a rotten sack. Before he could react, yellow mould exploded into his face and got into his lungs. However, the redoubtable half-orc was made of stern stuff and although he coughed up yellow gunk for several minutes, he was essentially unhurt.

Deciding to explore the  northern passage, the party discovered two doors. It was quiet beyond and so they randomly picked the western door. Beyond grew a large purple fungus that started screaming as soon as the door opened. The plant – identified as a shrieker – was quickly destroyed and nothing else seemed to lurk within the chamber (which in turn led to another). As the party started to search for lost treasures, Krorz spotted a secret door high up on one wall. Belivar had a collapsing ladder and so Krorz was quickly able to open the passage. Sadly, lurking within was a grey, skinless humanoid that immediately bit and gouged him. Surprised, Krorz could not defend himself and was quickly paralyzed. In the ensuing melee, which saw another creature emerge from another secret door, both Maban and Hemgor were also bitten by the creatures but eventually the party destroyed what they identified as ghouls. The creatures’ lair contained some small treasures – a pile of gold, some rope and a few magical scrolls – and thus heartened the party investigated and searched a large room to the east. Retracing their steps, they discovered more corridors and several doors. Behind one they fought and slew a gigantic centipede and beyond another they found the remains of what was obviously the monks’ training equipment.

Within this room, they discovered a secret door. After briefly discussing their next plan, Krorz searched the door and then opened it, Beyond lay an obvious bedroom and within the bedroom stood a female human. Horns grew from her head and given her garments she seemed to be an arcane spellcaster of some sort. Sadly, she had heard the party coming and was ready for them. Before the party could attack, she encased them in a web. As they struggled to break free, she followed this up by first blinding Hemgor and then dropping a fireball into the room (which incinerated the web and badly damaged many of the party).

As some of the party struggled forward, while others retreated, Hemgor struck out with his spear narrowly missing Krorz. Another fireball dropped into the mass of the struggling party killed Belivar’s unfortunate henchman, Jory Menadue, and almost destroyed his eidolon (which slumped to the ground and took no more part in the fight). With disaster hovering about the party Klara and Krorz struggled to get to grips with the woman. She badly damaged Klara with a magic missile attack, but she in turn cut her badly. Now retreating, the woman brought Klara to the brink of death with a shocking grasp spell, but now badly injured and surrounded by two very angry adventurers she was quickly and brutally cut down.

Stunned by the savage magic that had almost cut short their adventuring career, the party healed their wounds as best they could, mourned their dead and gathered the woman’s loot which included gold, a wand, a magic cloak and a spellbook. Then with their treasure secured, the party prepared to retreat to rest and recuperate…

…

Last session, we hit a milestone – we’ve got through an entire year of game time! That’s pretty cool (although at times I marvel that the group is still alive). In that time we’ve had 22 sessions and one character death (Kemmo). The neophyte adventurers started out at 1st-level and the surviving original characters are now approaching 4th-level. Both non-original characters have reached 3rd-level but are some way behind the originals in terms of XP. (As you may have guessed, I use the slow advancement track). I’m personally happy with the speed of advancement – I hate campaigns in which the characters start out at 1st-level and in a few short weeks have reached 10th (or even higher). I think about three or four levels a year is about right when you take into consideration training times, times spent resting and relaxing, item crafting, periods of the year when you can’t go adventuring (winter), travel times and so on.

Over the last year, they have slowly started to build a reputation for themselves in southern Ratik:

• Saved the town of Falcon’s Hallow from a terrible plague (Hollows Last Hope) and cleansed an ancient dwarven monastery of the evil lurking within.
• Explored the Sunless Citadel (The Sunless Citadel) and retrieved the remains of several adventurers slain within while destroying a tribes of goblins and kobolds and slaying a very small dragon and its master (a member of a mysterious dragon-worshipping cult). It was during this adventure that Klara joined the group.
• Explored the Shadowed Keep on the Borderlands (Shadowed Keep on the Borderlands) and defeated the bandits and goblins dwelling therein as well as defeating various other challenges.   
• Attempted to explore and clear the lost dwarven hold of Khundrukar (Forge of Fury) home to the legendary smith Durgeddin the Black. It was during this adventure that Kemmo gave his life so that his companions might live. I suspect that the PCs will return to this site in the future once they have gained more power.  
• Were present in the isolated monastery of Montelegron (Unhallowed Ground [Dungeon 54]) during the rampage of the undead monk Abel. They subsequently uncovered the location of a holy spring sacred to the god Delleb. 
• Destroyed the foul creature responsible for the deaths of several people in Ratikhill (Afraid of the Dark [Dungeon 57]) earning the gratitude of the mayor and the populace.

Now as the summer of 580 begins to spread across the land, our heroes are preparing to locate and explore the fallen monastery of the Order of the Fire Opal in search of several stolen relics of the god Fharlanghn thought to lie within. Of course, the rumours of a fabulous fire opal with magical powers hidden somewhere in the ruins in no way interests them...

During their adventures they’ve also encountered a number of noteworthy people, but sadly ignored the Sword Lords of Ratik which has lead to Sir Valjo Ilmonen seizing the opportunity to claim lordship over and re-settle the Recovered March (a small border realm nestled in the extreme northern part of the Bone March). They’ve also saved a number of folk from death, imprisonment or worse. These include:

• Sampo Masterson: A tailor attacked by bandits near the Shadowed Keep who now lives in Ratikhill with his surviving family.
• Reithic Yurgirn: A dwarf warrior and fledgling merchant, the PC rescued Reithic from the clutches of the bandits lurking in the Shadowed Keep. He now lives in Ratikhill.
• Raine Eronen: A human wizard skilled at crafting magic items who dwells in the Oakhurst. The party rescued him after a heavy rainstorm collapsed the road he was travelling on, dumping him halfway down a cliff with a broken leg.

Overall, I’m very  happy with how the campaign has progressed thus far and I’m interested to see how things play out in the future. while I have some general plots and schemes (particularly playing on some of the characters’ backgrounds) I’m leaving the specific course of the campaign up to the players (and what interests their characters). Of course, sadly, we are now entering the danger zone of adventure for my group; historically we’ve had a lot of character deaths – and even TPKs – around this level. However, hopefully we’ll dodge the death and maiming that has so beset other groups at this level!

As some of you may know, I’m an incorrigible tinkerer and at the moment I’m thinking about modifying some of the pages on Raging Swan’s website. I’ve already changed the layout of my front page and I’m quite happy with the result.

I’m also pondering a new product page layout and my first example is up – Dungeon Dressing: Statues. I’d be very keen to get your opinion on the change and if you like or dislike it as I’m considering slowly changing much of the site to this format. I’ve recently been thinking that my standard page layout is quite cluttered and that a more open layout might be more pleasing to the eye.

In any event, if you get a chance to look at it, I much appreciate any comments you might have.