Dark Sun, Won't you come?
Sep. 3rd, 2004 12:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothToday, Jeff sent mail out saying that he was kind of getting sick of Dragonlance, especially since the campaign had turned into Munchkin Central instead of anything resembling, you know, Dragonlance. And given how munchy DL proper is, that's saying something.
So we decided to play Dark Sun. Morgan's player didn't show up today (Stacy expected him to, and even brought food for him, that the rest of us were forced to eat in his stead) but the rest of us made some Dark Sun characters and got a little game in.
I made an Aracosta (vulture-man) archer, because I thought to myself, "What would make it worth a +1 ECL just for 90ft (average) flight, and +4 dex?" The answer was obvious. I went psi-warrior, because no one else was, and because Greater Psionic Weapon is almost as twinky as Order of the Bow's Ranged Precision, and doesn't require you to be within 30 feet. Thus was Laika conceived. I played Laika as being bubbly and bird-brained, prone to fly off without explaining why on a whim (although usually to help the party).
Stacey (who played Sonnet in the last campaign) made a Pterran Shaper named 'Saurian Mindweaver'. We pointed out that she'd just described her race and class in SAT-ese, but she felt it was a perfect name for a lizard psion. Saurian is incredibly generous and naive for even a normal D+D character, let alone a Dark-Sun one.
Together, Stacey and I are the cute mascots of the party. Human supervision is supplied by Ed's April, a cleric of air, who's basically a fan-girl of vulture-folk (because they can fly, and so must be the blessed ones of air!) and is otherwise kind of grudgingly good. In the "Fine, since I'm good I guess I won't coup-de-grace these people in the middle of a street full of witnesses, but I don't like it," sense. Ed also doesn't really know how to play a cleric at low levels. Which is understandable, clerics are kind of hard to do well.
The last member (for now, Morgan's player will probably be back next week, since the explanation behind today's absence seemed one-time) was Patrick playing Zehera, an elven fighter who claims to be neutral. So far we've seen her kill helpless opponents and argue for more money relentlessly from out single set of employers, so... well, that could be neutral. Her avowed reason for joining the party was that Saurian and Laika didn't know how untrustworthy elves were, so we'd be easy marks.
We're supposed to be making a 'character tree' so that we have replacement characters if one of ours dies, but we only had time to make one each tonight. Luckily, no one died. We need to have the others ready by next week, though.
Saurian came to Tyr, the only Free City in Athas, by accident after her trade delegation, in which she was a minor assistant, was ambushed by cannibal halflings and split up crossing the mountains. Harassed as a savage and threated by random passers-by, she glommed on to the first person to walk by looking as out of place as herself, which happened to be Laika.
Laika was in Tyr on a quest, to find out what was really behind the massive earthquake that had razed his village. Speaking with a nearby druid, he'd heard about Tyr, and how they'd released a great evil, and defeated a great evil, and one of those had caused the earthquakes... the druid wasn't sure whether the evil released was the same as the one destroyed, however. Coming to Tyr, Laika discovered that the rumors going around made no mention of any evil being released -- they'd spoken of a previously rampant evil being defeated, only. And the High Council wasn't going to answer his questions while he was still a nobody.
So he and Saurian decided to try to get work with the government, in the hopes of worming their way into the city's heart. April, a young journeyman cleric of air, insisted on following along, because she was obsessed with the air and with Laika, especially with Laika's wings.
Zehera was recently released from prison after ratting out several members of her clan as thieves, resulting in life sentences hard labor in the iron mines for them. She was released destitute, but other elves made the requisite bribes to get her stuff back. However, they had no love of her after what she'd done to her comrades, and insisted that she pay them back for their service.
"So I am left with no option but to sell my sword."
"Well, that would certainly be the *fastest* way to get the money. But you could just hire out as a mercenery instead."
"..."
At any rate, the four of them went looking for work, and instead found a shyster, who offered to sell them various 'magical' weapons and knick-knacks, including a generous supply of anti-earthquake charms. Eventually, Saurian bought one of his rip-offs, and he informed them of a job posted in the main square -- the high council wanted to hire a group to escort a Pterran trader in his attempts to open up a trade route back to his village in the west. Saurian was sure that that was one of her friends, and insisted they go accept this offer immediately.
So they did, or tried to. Tyr was full of beggars and refugees, and while passing through the slums, they were rushed by a group of ten thugs. Zehera, Saurian, and April were quickly surrounded -- Laika was flying overhead, not liking being anywhere near large crowds of people. Laika flew around overhead shooting arrows at various thugs, April color-sprayed a large group of them, and Zehera slashed about with her vicious sword... Saurian didn't seem to do anything, but in reality the psychic powers she was manifesting were responsible for the leader being so wracked with pain that he couldn't put up any kind of fight against Zehera and Laika.
Half the thugs fled after a few seconds of fighting, and Laika chased after them, but lost them in a crowd. Saurian and April tried to tend to the thugs wounds, but most were already dead... in part at least due to Zehera's going around and coup-de-gracing them. Eventually, after the party was satisfied there was nothing of value on the thugs' corpses, a wandering Thri-Kreen came by and took the bodies off their hands.
At any rate, they soon found the job posting. Two of them could even read it! While they were reading it, an elf tried to pick Saurian's pocket, but April and Laika spotted her and swatted her hand before she could actually get hold of anything, and suggested she leave. "Let's get out of this crowd. Everyone in this city is a thief!"
So they went to interview for the job. They were made to wait almost an hour in total, before and after the brief interview, but were given water and food while they waited, so it wasn't so bad. Eventually, because of their special skills -- Saurian *was* a Pterran, and Laika could fly, at least -- their group was one of the two finalists, and competed in three tests against the seven members of the other group.
First, April and Zehera engaged in a tug of war against three opponents, one of whom was a Mul. To everyone's surprise, they won! Next, Saurian was set in a contest of power points against two enemies, and to no one's surprise lost badly.
The third and final test was the test of skill, with Laika set against two opponents, each of the three given a set of puzzle-blocks to figure out and set up in a precariously balanced stack. Laika wasn't *stupid*, and was very nimble-fingered, and hoped that he might have a chance at the contest... and for a while, he was even ahead. But at the very last second, when he was about to set up the third and final stack that the other group hadn't even figured out, he totally fumbled the blocks and sent the whole stack tumbling, and couldn't recover before the enemy finished.
So the party lost. Saurian and April took this very badly, trying to coerce (in Saurian's case) or bargain (in April's case) with the high council to nullify the results -- but the council wouldn't listen.
High Wizardess: "You are the runners up, though. If something should happen to the other party, you will be sent in their stead."
Saurian: "Let's go kill them."
Everyone else: "NO!"
Saurian begged to at least be allowed to meet the other Pterran, but he valued his secrecy, and had instructed them not to reveal his location to anyone but his escorts. Laika went 'bing!' and excused himself (by leaving without a word) to follow the other group, hoping it would lead him to the other Pterran, who he could then lead his new friend Saurian to.
But the other party never made it to whereever they were going -- by the time Laika found them, they were already half dead from a half-dozen thugs attacking them with swords, with support from rooftop archers. He couldn't stand for such underhandedness, so after taking the time to manifest his protective powers... the rest of the other party was dead, and the assassins were dispersing. Damnit.
So instead, he tried to ambush one of the archers on the roof, only to discover two more who'd been hiding on the same roof... and that the OTHER thugs on the ground were also archers, and could also somehow hit him on the rooftop. None of the arrows actually *hit* him -- they all pinged off his force screen, or bounced off his biofeedback -- but ten archers against him meant he was way overmatched, so he decided to flee in terror.
Back at the high council's tower, he met up again with the rest of the group. "Ah, there you are. We've decided to go talk with the other party." "They're all dead! Twenty archers cut them down, and almost got me too!"
Ed, out of character: "So you're saying you can't count."
Me: "No, people with bows count double."
The party headed quickly back to the scene of the massacre, but no one was left except for the dead -- the seven of the other party, and four attackers, who had nothing of value on them except for their bows. The Mul from the other party still clung to life, however, and April healed him. In thanks, he let them keep the bows to sell, although he insisted on taking the cash from his kills, and his own party's equipment.
He also went back with them to the high council and vouched that they hadn't been the ones to attack and kill his friends, because otherwise it would have looked mighty suspicious, especially considering Saurian's outburst. With his testimony, however, the Council gave the party the job, and told them to meet up with the Pterran trader at the Golden Ibix inn. Zehera haggled over some details of the contract (eg, is food and water included? What about arrows for Laika?), then they headed in the opposite direction from the Golden Ibix inn, left the city, entered through a completely different gate, and went to meet the Pterran.
The Pterran wasn't from Saurian's village -- he was from Lost Scale instead of Pterran Vale -- but was happy to see another of his kind. They decided to leave just before dawn the next day -- April wanted to travel at night to conserve water, but Laika objected on the grounds that they wouldn't be able to see where they were going through the treacherous mountainous terrain -- and went to sleep in the luxurious inn, on the council's dime.
next week
So we decided to play Dark Sun. Morgan's player didn't show up today (Stacy expected him to, and even brought food for him, that the rest of us were forced to eat in his stead) but the rest of us made some Dark Sun characters and got a little game in.
I made an Aracosta (vulture-man) archer, because I thought to myself, "What would make it worth a +1 ECL just for 90ft (average) flight, and +4 dex?" The answer was obvious. I went psi-warrior, because no one else was, and because Greater Psionic Weapon is almost as twinky as Order of the Bow's Ranged Precision, and doesn't require you to be within 30 feet. Thus was Laika conceived. I played Laika as being bubbly and bird-brained, prone to fly off without explaining why on a whim (although usually to help the party).
Stacey (who played Sonnet in the last campaign) made a Pterran Shaper named 'Saurian Mindweaver'. We pointed out that she'd just described her race and class in SAT-ese, but she felt it was a perfect name for a lizard psion. Saurian is incredibly generous and naive for even a normal D+D character, let alone a Dark-Sun one.
Together, Stacey and I are the cute mascots of the party. Human supervision is supplied by Ed's April, a cleric of air, who's basically a fan-girl of vulture-folk (because they can fly, and so must be the blessed ones of air!) and is otherwise kind of grudgingly good. In the "Fine, since I'm good I guess I won't coup-de-grace these people in the middle of a street full of witnesses, but I don't like it," sense. Ed also doesn't really know how to play a cleric at low levels. Which is understandable, clerics are kind of hard to do well.
The last member (for now, Morgan's player will probably be back next week, since the explanation behind today's absence seemed one-time) was Patrick playing Zehera, an elven fighter who claims to be neutral. So far we've seen her kill helpless opponents and argue for more money relentlessly from out single set of employers, so... well, that could be neutral. Her avowed reason for joining the party was that Saurian and Laika didn't know how untrustworthy elves were, so we'd be easy marks.
We're supposed to be making a 'character tree' so that we have replacement characters if one of ours dies, but we only had time to make one each tonight. Luckily, no one died. We need to have the others ready by next week, though.
Saurian came to Tyr, the only Free City in Athas, by accident after her trade delegation, in which she was a minor assistant, was ambushed by cannibal halflings and split up crossing the mountains. Harassed as a savage and threated by random passers-by, she glommed on to the first person to walk by looking as out of place as herself, which happened to be Laika.
Laika was in Tyr on a quest, to find out what was really behind the massive earthquake that had razed his village. Speaking with a nearby druid, he'd heard about Tyr, and how they'd released a great evil, and defeated a great evil, and one of those had caused the earthquakes... the druid wasn't sure whether the evil released was the same as the one destroyed, however. Coming to Tyr, Laika discovered that the rumors going around made no mention of any evil being released -- they'd spoken of a previously rampant evil being defeated, only. And the High Council wasn't going to answer his questions while he was still a nobody.
So he and Saurian decided to try to get work with the government, in the hopes of worming their way into the city's heart. April, a young journeyman cleric of air, insisted on following along, because she was obsessed with the air and with Laika, especially with Laika's wings.
Zehera was recently released from prison after ratting out several members of her clan as thieves, resulting in life sentences hard labor in the iron mines for them. She was released destitute, but other elves made the requisite bribes to get her stuff back. However, they had no love of her after what she'd done to her comrades, and insisted that she pay them back for their service.
"So I am left with no option but to sell my sword."
"Well, that would certainly be the *fastest* way to get the money. But you could just hire out as a mercenery instead."
"..."
At any rate, the four of them went looking for work, and instead found a shyster, who offered to sell them various 'magical' weapons and knick-knacks, including a generous supply of anti-earthquake charms. Eventually, Saurian bought one of his rip-offs, and he informed them of a job posted in the main square -- the high council wanted to hire a group to escort a Pterran trader in his attempts to open up a trade route back to his village in the west. Saurian was sure that that was one of her friends, and insisted they go accept this offer immediately.
So they did, or tried to. Tyr was full of beggars and refugees, and while passing through the slums, they were rushed by a group of ten thugs. Zehera, Saurian, and April were quickly surrounded -- Laika was flying overhead, not liking being anywhere near large crowds of people. Laika flew around overhead shooting arrows at various thugs, April color-sprayed a large group of them, and Zehera slashed about with her vicious sword... Saurian didn't seem to do anything, but in reality the psychic powers she was manifesting were responsible for the leader being so wracked with pain that he couldn't put up any kind of fight against Zehera and Laika.
Half the thugs fled after a few seconds of fighting, and Laika chased after them, but lost them in a crowd. Saurian and April tried to tend to the thugs wounds, but most were already dead... in part at least due to Zehera's going around and coup-de-gracing them. Eventually, after the party was satisfied there was nothing of value on the thugs' corpses, a wandering Thri-Kreen came by and took the bodies off their hands.
At any rate, they soon found the job posting. Two of them could even read it! While they were reading it, an elf tried to pick Saurian's pocket, but April and Laika spotted her and swatted her hand before she could actually get hold of anything, and suggested she leave. "Let's get out of this crowd. Everyone in this city is a thief!"
So they went to interview for the job. They were made to wait almost an hour in total, before and after the brief interview, but were given water and food while they waited, so it wasn't so bad. Eventually, because of their special skills -- Saurian *was* a Pterran, and Laika could fly, at least -- their group was one of the two finalists, and competed in three tests against the seven members of the other group.
First, April and Zehera engaged in a tug of war against three opponents, one of whom was a Mul. To everyone's surprise, they won! Next, Saurian was set in a contest of power points against two enemies, and to no one's surprise lost badly.
The third and final test was the test of skill, with Laika set against two opponents, each of the three given a set of puzzle-blocks to figure out and set up in a precariously balanced stack. Laika wasn't *stupid*, and was very nimble-fingered, and hoped that he might have a chance at the contest... and for a while, he was even ahead. But at the very last second, when he was about to set up the third and final stack that the other group hadn't even figured out, he totally fumbled the blocks and sent the whole stack tumbling, and couldn't recover before the enemy finished.
So the party lost. Saurian and April took this very badly, trying to coerce (in Saurian's case) or bargain (in April's case) with the high council to nullify the results -- but the council wouldn't listen.
High Wizardess: "You are the runners up, though. If something should happen to the other party, you will be sent in their stead."
Saurian: "Let's go kill them."
Everyone else: "NO!"
Saurian begged to at least be allowed to meet the other Pterran, but he valued his secrecy, and had instructed them not to reveal his location to anyone but his escorts. Laika went 'bing!' and excused himself (by leaving without a word) to follow the other group, hoping it would lead him to the other Pterran, who he could then lead his new friend Saurian to.
But the other party never made it to whereever they were going -- by the time Laika found them, they were already half dead from a half-dozen thugs attacking them with swords, with support from rooftop archers. He couldn't stand for such underhandedness, so after taking the time to manifest his protective powers... the rest of the other party was dead, and the assassins were dispersing. Damnit.
So instead, he tried to ambush one of the archers on the roof, only to discover two more who'd been hiding on the same roof... and that the OTHER thugs on the ground were also archers, and could also somehow hit him on the rooftop. None of the arrows actually *hit* him -- they all pinged off his force screen, or bounced off his biofeedback -- but ten archers against him meant he was way overmatched, so he decided to flee in terror.
Back at the high council's tower, he met up again with the rest of the group. "Ah, there you are. We've decided to go talk with the other party." "They're all dead! Twenty archers cut them down, and almost got me too!"
Ed, out of character: "So you're saying you can't count."
Me: "No, people with bows count double."
The party headed quickly back to the scene of the massacre, but no one was left except for the dead -- the seven of the other party, and four attackers, who had nothing of value on them except for their bows. The Mul from the other party still clung to life, however, and April healed him. In thanks, he let them keep the bows to sell, although he insisted on taking the cash from his kills, and his own party's equipment.
He also went back with them to the high council and vouched that they hadn't been the ones to attack and kill his friends, because otherwise it would have looked mighty suspicious, especially considering Saurian's outburst. With his testimony, however, the Council gave the party the job, and told them to meet up with the Pterran trader at the Golden Ibix inn. Zehera haggled over some details of the contract (eg, is food and water included? What about arrows for Laika?), then they headed in the opposite direction from the Golden Ibix inn, left the city, entered through a completely different gate, and went to meet the Pterran.
The Pterran wasn't from Saurian's village -- he was from Lost Scale instead of Pterran Vale -- but was happy to see another of his kind. They decided to leave just before dawn the next day -- April wanted to travel at night to conserve water, but Laika objected on the grounds that they wouldn't be able to see where they were going through the treacherous mountainous terrain -- and went to sleep in the luxurious inn, on the council's dime.
next week
