Shattered Star - Shards of Sin - Episode 6 - There's job security in murder hoboing

We work our way back to where we left off. In the room we see a large red statue of the woman holding the rascur. The room is caked with the mucusy slime. The party is attacked by a leech like creature. Grubs and leeches and such pour out of it's mouth. They quickly kill the critter. They note the statue's ransur is a magical weapon that is not actually part of the statue. They take the statue

They take the door to the left which leads to a bare stone room where weird tar-ish creatures attack. They quickly kill the creatures and continue on.

The next room they enter contains a large glowing circle of runes with a small bit of fire in the middle. The circle is a magic circle against law. Akela and Wil check out the next room, skirting the circle. The next room is an oddly angled room 20x30, with a curtain made out of chains. The room seems empty. He continues on while Morrigan and Jazeem wait. Two creatures appearing to be made out of clay come out at Wil - and so Jazeem and Morrigan rush to his aid. They smush the critters.

A booming voice calls out, "Excellent, you've done well. Perhaps you will be of more service to little Airubus". It tells the party to go slay "Lord Baz". The party reluctantly agrees and continues back to the room with the statue.

They enter a wide room with two pillars. There are runes all over. "Does true power lie within one or the many?" One statue is of Zalaznast and the pillar of the other runelords. Finding nothing of interest, they continue on.

Eventually they find a room with a door. Wil opens it an finds two more "weird tar" creatures attack. They splatter them and continue.

The next room has carvings of soldiers caked with salt. There is a stairwell leading into the ocean with a magic field. Morrigan concludes there is a magic field that holds back the water, but doesn't stop beings from walking through.  There is also a door. The party enters the door and finds a staircase going up into a domed chamber that shows areas below water (we are underwater). Morrigan notes that there is a shipwreck in the water. Morrigan finds 2 scrolls of water breathing.

Morrigan casts the water breathing. Wil ties a rope (so they can get back). They walk to the ship. The ship is the "Liza Jane". Wil recalls it is a ship that sank a few years back. As they get on the ship they are attacked by Eel Crustacean things.

Most of the ships contents are rotted away. The party finds a rapier, buckler (+1), and a brooch.

The party returns to dry land.

They continue looking. The next room they find a room with dry black sludge. There is a creature that sees us an immediately starts crying in fear. It says it's name is "Stink". It offers to "give the party stuff" for killing Baz.

The party continues. They find another room with a statue of Zalasnist. The rasur it's holding starts sparking and smoking. Morrigan detects magic and room explodes.  They avoid any serious damage and look through.

They see weird art (more detail coming). They continue (not been mapping the maze, so it's been vague where we are going beyond generally doing "left hand rule").

Eventually get to an iron door. They force it open and find a curving passageway. The walls/floor/ceiling are sheathed with iron. Morrigan reads the runes and determines the room is designed to weaken the fields between plains. This is likely to the plane of fire.

While exploring the maze, they realize they are being followed and are promptly attacked by a firey canine thing. Morrigan realizes she shouldn't have taken scorching ray as her 2nd level attack spell. The party drops it and continues through the maze.

Eventually they find a room with an iron floor. There is suit of armor that looks like it was previously worn by someone who has long since "rotted away". Morrigan uses dimensional slide to go through the portcullis and open it using the wench. They identify the armor as masterwork halfplate. And they continue.

(snip - unable to record this - they fought some things)

Party continues. Gets to a wide double doors. There are stairs leading into murky water.

Jazeem swims across but is attacked by 3 creatures (sinspawn?).  The party manages to defeat them and Jazeem continues on. The rest of the party follows.

Ghoulish Lockery Brast

They get to a room with a cistern full of dark water with troughs of water with soggy timbers over them. They hear singing in the passageway off the left. The party slowly proceeds. Suddenly the singing stops and they hear a splash.

In the next room there is a stone bridge in a room full of water. The walls have been painting in a mural depicting Sharn. The party crosses the bridge and hears, "Well, look what has come to visit me. A whole bunch of you too! What are you doing here?"


The party talks with the voice. He says he is/was Capt. Lockery Brast of the Liza Jane. He asks for the broach which they give him. A form comes out of the water. It examines the locket. He has become a ghoul.  In gratitude he provides information.

Ahead is another room full of water - but  don't go in - it will collapse. The way back eventually leads to a magic fountain. Be careful of the green slime growing there. Continue on, there is another watery room with 2 huge cysts. Cave Morays - don't mess with them.

He further asks that we go to his widow and tell her that we found the broach. Don't tell her he is now a ghoulish monster. Ask around in the docks for "Liza Jane Brast".

He also warns of Derro.

Shattered Star - Shards of Sin - Episode 5 - They had it comin.....

The party wanders down the non-aggressive stairs. They enter a large room with empty burial niches. Suddenly, they are attacked by giant ants. The party barely defeats them.

At this point, the party becomes fatigued and needs to find a place to rest. The night goes by without incident.

The next day the party continues on and passes through the room where the burial niches are. They dig in through the ant mounds and find a secret door. They enter a small room full of webs. They are greeted by a giant Black Widow spider which they defeat VERY quickly. There are two secret doors, but they bypass them for now.

The party continues on.

They hear a high pitched voice that beckons them forward. They meet a small creature that talks to them. It's blue with a large nose and big eyes. Wil identifies it as a mite. It is wearing a crown. It tells them that he has a quest for which he will give a diamond. He calls himself King Tsuga. They are to return his "Sleeping crown" to him from "Clicky-legs". The party assents and wanders back down the hall.

They return to the room where they fought the ants and continue the original passage. Eventually, they enter a room full of mites and spiders. They very quickly start taking out the mites, and the remaining mites flee.

The party continues and finds a cell lockup. Will starts to investigate when they are attacked by more spiders and mites. They quickly defeat them.

The party resumes looking and investigating. They eventually find an ancient torture chamber. Will continues looking into the disused cells. One of the cells contains a sinspawn. It is unable to break through. Morrigan kills it through the door with repeated acid splash.

The party encounters an iron door which they open and look inside. There is another room but with a passage extending to the left. The party follows that passage. They pass through a guard barracks, but it has long collapsed into ruin.

They eventually find themselves in a damp natural grotto. Will figures that with number of stairs they have gone down that they are well underground at this point. They find another statue of the woman with the ransur, Zelasnist.

They locate a secret door. They open it and suddenly Morrigan is sent flying through the air straight up. Above is a Cavefisher that is pulling her up. They manage to kill it. They find the satchel on it's leg that King Tsuga wanted. Inside is a bracer which they realise is King Tsugas "Night Crown". They return to Tsuga.

They suprise him and he sets his guards on them. They handily defeat the mites. They look through the room and find a small silver statue of Nyarlathotep.

Morrigan focuses on the shard and senses they are going the right way. They return to the grotto area. They find themselves being attacked by brown and yellow skeletons.  They quickly deal with the skeletons.

They continue exploring. They come across a room that looks like an ancient disused kitchen area. Inside one of the oven areas is a swarm of centipedes. They barely manage to deal with them.

As they finish a mite, sneezes and enters the room. It screams and runs away. They return to the Paradox room and rest.

Shattered Star - Shards of Sin - Episode 4 - Stupid NCSoft (I'm still bitter)

They enter the area and end at a ledge and see a platform held by 4 thick ropes. There is another arch that looks over the water. There are ropes that attach to the ceiling that let you swing to the platform. Jazeem swings over the platform and sees a hatch in the ceiling above him. He opens the hatch and a ladder slides down. He throws the rope back and climbs the ladder. At the top is a crawlway that leads to another hatch. He opens it and drops down to another hallway.

Morrigan also swings over and follows Jazeem. Wil manages to get across with Akeela and follows. The walls bear murals with strangely dressed priests. The party believes they are burial niches. They continue to an oblong room that appears to be empty. The passage continues to the right. They continue.

They hear a loud clanging and Wil notices he has tripped an alarm. He grabs the bell and rings it yelling, "I'M COMING FOR YOU!" Morrigan gives Wil an odd look at this point. In the next room there are two tower girls. The fight commences.

The party makes short work of the Tower Girls in the room, although one flees. On the wall is a stone demon face dribbling water. It radiates a magical aura which Morrigan identifies as a replenishing fountain.

The continue down the hallway, encounter a fork they go right. The find a few items along with an urn full of coins and a crate with a bronze statue in it. They collect the items. They backtrack.

The other path has stairs leading down. They continue. AND ARE ATTACKED! Three Tower Girls are in front of them with 2 donkey-rats (snicker). Wil is entangled in a tanglefoot bag. They eventually manage to defeat them.

However, they are attacked again with a similar group + 1 Wererat. They manage to defeat the Tower girls. They continue. In the next room, they see a statue. Morrigan thinks it's familiar but can't place it. They also find a Harrow Deck. They continue.

The continue on eventually finding another statue of the woman which Morrigan recognizes as Alaznist one of the Lords of Dust.

They continue looking. Morrigan tries to locate again using the shard. Although the signal is weak, they think they are going the right way.

They finally enter a large room with 2 large doors made out of some kind of metal with a motif of "eyes". There is a puzzle on the door that they quickly solve.

Before going through they look in the other doors. They are attacked by another were rat. The battle is joined by 2 donkey rats. They manage to defeat them. They recover a cache of loot. They look around and find a skeleton with armor and a rapier. It has a pendant on it that gives a +5 competence bonus to appraise checks, grows warm near illusion magic, and allows one identify a day which Morrigan takes.

Fantastic example of a giant amoeba (stupid f'ing NCSoft)

They go through the double doors and there is a passage heading off. They go through the passage. In one of the rooms is a pond of green scum. Jazeem investigates and a creature in the liquid attacks him.

Two weird amorphous creatures come out of the water with Jazeem and the battle commences. They quickly defeat the creatures and continue.

They get to another room. The room is littered with dessicated fish carcasses and bodies. There is webbing and there is a pool of water. The group is again attacked - this time by 2 giant spiders.

They quickly defeat the spiders and continue. Morrigan finds an id clasp on one of the carcasses. It is the body of "Veddy Paymer" who used to live in the Greywash district. The party backtracks.

Shattered Star - Shards of Sin - Episode 3 - Trumping the Tower Girls

Mórrígan and Talia were unconscious. Akela, Wil and Jazeem started chasing the snake through the pipe. Wil and Akela catch up to the serpent creature but he manages to outpace them. Jazeem falls behind. They close, but Akela sees a SQUIRREL and starts running faster. Wil also gets past the snake. Jazeem and Akela try to corner the snake. It attempts to slither away, but not before Jazeem manages to take a few swings at it. Wil waits at the far end of the tunnel waiting for the snake. The snake belches an odor at Jazeem and Akela. Jazeem manages to defeat the goblin snake. Wil returns. Wil throws the artifact in a bag, get the rest of them and stop at an inn to rest and clean up. The next morning, they return to the Pathway Society.

Sheila greets them and asks for an update. Wil starts becoming blatantly anti-social. She provides a scarlet blue stone and connects it to the artifact. They merge. Wil snaps out of it. Shiela explains that the artifact comes from the age of demons. It is a portion of what was called "The Shatter Star of Zin". This is the shard of pride. If you carry it, you can cast major image 1/day, get a +2 insight bonus vs illusions and +2 insight bonus to all skill checks. Furthermore, it gives a +2 bonus to intelligence and knowledge of history. They give it to Mórrígan. The Shattered Star is a device that was created during the age of demons by the leader of the Lords of Dust named Zin. At the time the item was known as the Sihedron - a 7 pointed star. Each point was made of a different magical material. Zin broke the item apart and each of the 7 Lords of Dust took one. Since that time, the Shards haven't been reassembled. Assembled, it is a powerful defensive artifact. This artifact would be of immeasurable benefit to whichever country owned it. Shiela suggests that the group acquire the parts. Because the group is unknown, they could pursue this quest undercover.

Mórrígan focuses and gets a vision. She sees Sharn as if she was flying above the city circling into the southern point of the city she sees the cranes loading goods into the ships and she sees some enormous stone pilings leaning into the water. She describes it and Wil thinks it sounds like the "irespan" - a portion of the city that long long pre-dates Sharn. She also notes it centered on a particular piling with a carved bird motif on it - vaguely like vultures in parts. Wil says this piling it called "The Crow".  Sheila provides the party with Cure Light Wounds potions.

Mórrígan indicates that the magic ring they have is a ring of feather fall. The party leaves and sells off items.

The next morning, the party sees Talia in the infirmary. She says that she found it when the Tower Girls moved into "The Crow" (we are wondering, because that is supposed to be where the next one is).  The Tower Girls used the passageways out in the pilings as a place to hold up. One day, Talia found a secret door with a skeleton holding the artifact. She took it and got corrupted. She got some local thugs to help her and start to set up a gang to try to "take over the world".  She warns us that the leader of the Tower Girls is a wererat. She also warns that there are "Donkey Rats" there.

The party leaves and goes out to "The Crow" via rowboat. The pilings tower over them. We find a place to dock where there are 3 other rowboats. They enter. There is evidence that people have set up camp here before. They bring the rowboats in and start exploring.

They stop at a landing with some stone boxes and yellow dust, but find nothing of interest. They continue up.

The next level is a hall with murals. Mórrígan notes that the murals depict the Irespan before it collapsed. Mórrígan studies the murals for later. However, Wil hears a noise. Wil looks over and sees something comes up the staircase. He calls out and draws an arrow. Nothing happens. He and Akela go and look at the staircase leading up, but nothing is there. However, there are marks indicating a large rat has recently passed.

The party continues up the stairs.   They enter a room with a large table where they see a wererat and two minions to attack. Battle commences. They quickly defeat the wererat and her minions.

They search the rooms. They find a camp with some meat cooking. They also find another room with more murals, but these are faded.  They continue searching and find themselves at the top of the arch where they entered (above where the rowboats were).

Shattered Star - Shards of Sin - Episode 2

(Sorry, no notes from first session where we fought some imps that came out of a Paradox Box in the City of Sharn)

Standard Disclaimer: These were written during the session and without any real spelling/grammar check. Sentence fragments, poor verb tense, and shifting POV are the rule and not the exception. Further, if I didn't hear it, it didn't get written down.

Bob - GM

Will  - Human Hunter - Eric
Jazeem - Suli Monk - Jim
Mórrígan - Teifling Arcanist - Russell

Shiela Heidemarch and Koriah Azmeren ask the party to go and look for Natalia Venkaskerskin. She is supposed to be an informant and recover an artifact for Sheila but has recently gone quiet. We have to find her and a demonic artifact. She had employed a Kobold named the amazing Zagratheen who works as a fortune teller down in the waterfront district of Greyflood.

Shiela gives us some information about Sharn. She says that Natalia could have been captured by cultists or working with a gang. Morrigan indicates that there are Cultists in the under city who worship demon princes that may have captured Natalia. Shiela offers the party 500 GP/person to recover the artifact and another 500 if they can return Natalia alive.

The party leaves and walks down to Greyflood to find Zagratheen.

We find the tent in the docks and enter. There is a Kobold (who has a terrible cough and discoloration). We immediately realize he is a "pesch" addict. Jazeem offers a garnet to pay him for information about Natalia. He says that she hasn't been heard from by Sharn's gangs. However, many people have been "vanishing" around the dock district. He suspects that she may be one of them. Zagratheen says that Natalia was a member of the Tower Girls and they may know something. However, she is not in good standing with them. Apparently, Natalia was being "erratic" before disappearance. She started being reckless (mouthing off - and even trying to "bite" members).

Other gangs are looking for her also, possibly for scoring points with the Tower Girls.

The party goes to the City Watch for more information "The Arbensore". We finally get to talk to "Kassidy" on the watch. She is obviously tired and has been very busy. They are aware of Natalia and that she runs with Tower Girls. However, Natalia has vanished.  She doesn't have information as to where the Tower Girls are currently based. However, she does know that they are at odds with the WreckWash boys and that they'd moved to a Warehouse owned by Fenster The Blight. He might know something.

Morrigan asks about the disappearances. Kassidy doesn't answer. Will indicates that we are "Freelance mercs" and would be willing to help.  She points out that the majority of those who vanished have been found. She also points out that the watch doesn't know much about what would have happened to Natalia.

We stay the night at a flophouse.

We arrive at the Warehouse which has a sign "Leev a gift and wate owtside".  Morrigan leaves a garnet.

A very emaciated man walks out and looks at the offering. He is pleased. He claims to know where Natalia is but demands more. We give him a whetstone and convince him it's valuable. Natalia is avoiding the tower girls. He also gives the location of a warehouse that she is hanging around at. He says he doesn't know where the Tower Girls are currently based. He says that "blue dwarvies" are making people disappear.  They capture people and lead them off. Will thinks those are "Derro".

We head to the other warehouse. It's a mildewed run down building. Will convinces Jazeem that "werehouses" were used to hold were creatures.

We try to enter the building when 2 people step out and talk to Jazeem and Morrigan. They threaten to beat the heroes up if they don't leave.  A fight ensues. Morrigan calls out to Will who then rushes into the battle. The party quickly defeats them.



We look in the building. The building's floor has rotted and there is a stinking pool in the room being fed by leaking sewer pipes. There is a door in the room along with a ladder that leads up. Jazeem starts climbing the ladder but realises that it will probably break apart. Jazeem crosses the wooden plank to the door.

At that moment, the party is attacked by 4 small creatures coming out of the sewer pipes. The party manages to defeat the horrible creatures.

Jazeem climbed up and opened the door to find another room with a pool of muck in it as well.

Will crosses and another of the small creatures appear in the other room and fires a crossbow. The bolt takes Will down immediately. Morrigan attempts to cross to assist but falls into the (first) pool. Jazeem engages.

Jazeem manages to defeat it.

They decide to take Will for help as neither can revive him. They go back to Sgt. Kassidy. She leads them to a barracks. She pours a potion down his throat and he is healed.

They return to the warehouse and explore. They find more rooms with muck. They are again attacked. During the battle a woman appears who uses a magic item to conjure a wall of flame. She yells for us to surrender and worship her.

Jazeem walks through the wall of fire towards Natalya. He is unaffected. The battle continues.

During the battle, Morrigan falls unconscious. Jazeem defeats her.

Aquila (Wil's wolf) starts barking madly. Jazeem sees a serpent crawl into the pipe with the item.

Rise of the Runelords - Xen'drik - Episode 3 - Journal of SOS

The Journal of the Warforged known as "SOS":

Day 4: Afternoon -

Notes on Events. Location: Sand Point
Interrogation/Conversation with primary searcher/reptile expert for Sandpoint: Female(? Has chest bumps) Human Ranger.

Discussion Points: No nearby regions known to harbor the recent attackers. Vegetation removal by fire is not considered a viable search option. Sleestack tribes tend to utilize might-makes-right leadership decisions and have limited cooperation without outside direction. Primary expertise is on 'Dark Elves',not Sleestack.

Decisions Made: Ranger will investigate likely sites in order of proximity and likelihood of harboring groups larger than 50. Pink leader is likely humanoid of significant stature or power. After searching for max 3 days, will reconnect with communications here in town.

Day 4: Evening -

Location: Inn / Feathered Serpent

Biological refueling was boring. Used time to investigate knowledge from local magic expert on
necromancy. Acquired useful first-person journal written by young woman who charmed a 'Sparkle'
vampire in the past. (First data on these vampires, but obvious in full daylight due to shimmer of sparkling dust in near vicinity. Must keep watch for unusual dandruff on all haired beings.) Sadly, no information on actual arcane empowerment or resuscitation data for this field of magic was found.

Location : Non-Defunct Temple (Hasn't sunk or burned yet!)
Companions found reason to re-examine past relationships of deceased. Surviving acquaintance
(Designate: High Priest Zandros) gave additional data on history in addition to re-appearance of
female(?) human ranger. Past history indicates activity as troubleshooter and auxiliary guardian against threats in region and acquisition of significant prestige and ability from the dead figure. Apparently nobody else is interested in trying to repair him for continued function in this regard. Some taboo of some sort seems to be involved.

Day 5: Morning -

Location: Inn

Feathers acquired new data source from local informant. Letter indicating possible traitor to town is male half-elf sibling to missing female located in missing female's room. Acquired task to search local glass manufactory for clues.

Location : Glassworks

Successfully located possible invasion point for Sleestack minions.

Sub-Leader: Suto (half elf) located and subdued after difficult fight. This unit was knocked out during battle, but later review of facts established expert in unarmed and deception skills using combat maneuvers. Uncommunicative, but had journal in foreign language with useful clues. (Note: Acquire expertise in this language soon. Appears to be quite common)

Sleestack Minions: No high-caliber opponents encountered

Resources Gained: Funding (platinum, gold/silver dust) , ornamentation, potion(??), MW procurement tools, and magic ring(+1 Prot) acquired. Split of loot left ring in this unit's possession.
Information Gained: Insane female human of mixed human/demonic ancestry took body and utilized it in ritual to remove undesirable human influences. Should be considered highly dangerous, but also likely to possess useful information on arcane topics. Sleestack numbers should be considered at least 1 order magnitude greater than previous enocunters would suggest. (100-500?) Coordinated plan of attack using bridges and underground smuggling route found in Suto journal. No time frame given, but local
constabulary will be making expedited trip to Storm Reach to pull in additional fighters and repair staff.

New Goals: Shut down invasion route 1 (Glasswork's tunnels). Prepare for invasion on Routes 2 and 3 (Bridges across river)

With luck, this synopsis will be useful to local combat planners if we fail to return from the Glasswork tunnels. Leaving this with innkeeper with instructions to share with returning fighters if we fail.

Rise of the Runelords - Xen'drik - Episode 3 - Journal of Hrana

From the Journal of Hrana:

            The tengu, SOS and I finished talking to the ranger about the various sleestak tribes in the area. After that it's about dinner time so we go back to the Rusty Dragon Inn to have dinner. The tengu eats quickly and then goes to talk to Amiko about the previous priest of the Sovereign Host. I stay at the inn and enjoy my meal while SOS goes to have a chat about necromancy with the owner of the Feathered Serpent. The shopkeeper gives him a book that is supposedly a journal written by a girl about her experiences with vampires.  When the tengu returns, he suggests we may want to speak with Father Zantos, seeking more information about the early life of Father Azakian, the previous priest (whose body was stolen from his tomb under the temple.) So we all go to the temple.

            Father Zantos is pretty forthcoming about the life of Father Azakian, as least as much as he knows of it. Aside from serving during the wars, the Father also was for a time an adventurer, and after retiring from that life he used his money and influence to help found the temple in Sandpoint and to give back to the community as much as possible. Father Azakian was killed when the temple mysteriously burned down, which was assumed to be some weird accident since no one could figure out how the fire started. The temple mostly used continual light spells not candles or lanterns for lighting. So we think his death is certainly suspicious. We also asked about his former adventuring group friends and discovered that the ranger was one of them. The ranger arrived at the temple about this time, having found out that Azakian's body was stolen during the raid on Sandpoint. She confirmed what Father Zantos said about Azakian's adventuring days. She also suggested a couple of places nearby where we could look for the missing sleestak tribesmen and the “pinkskin” who may be in charge.

            After this meeting was over, we all went back to the inn to rest for the night. SOS decided to study the book he got at the Feathered Serpent while the rest of us were sleeping. In the morning, while the tengu and I were eating, he discussed some of what he inferred from the book and suggested that maybe vampires would be attracted to the girls' school in town. The tengu and I have doubts as to the accuracy of the tome he received from the shopkeeper and suggest he may want to get a second source material for further study.

            While we are finishing up our meal, a member of the inn's staff comes over to the tengu and asks him for help. Amiko seems to have left rather suddenly in the night and left behind a note in her language. The tengu reads it, and he seems alarmed. We quickly go upstairs to Amiko's room and try to find out what happened. Her bed was not slept in and her pack is gone. The tengu says, according to the note she left, she went to meet her half-brother at her father's glassworks because he said their father was behind or involved in the sleestak attack and the theft of the priest's body. After assuring the halfling woman that we will find Amiko we take off to the glassworks.

            When we get to the glassworks, it is closed and the doors are locked. While we are trying to get in, a young local girl comes up and starts asking a lot of questions. I divert the girl and keep her occupied while the tengu climbs up to the roof and enters the showroom through one of the skylights. I get back about the time he unbars the door to let us in. We check the front room for snything suspicious but everything looks OK, so the tengu listens at the two doors. He doesn't hear anything unusual so he opens them to have a look. There are two hallways, one short and one long. We take the long one find evidence that things are not OK at the glassworks. There's blood on the wall and seems like some critters have been about because there's poop on the floor as well. And it doesn't smell very good either.

            First door we get to, SOS decides to go through. Good thing it's really loud in here (the furnaces for the glass blowers are still running), because we find a group of sleestak and they don't notice us come in. There's also an elf or half-elf here, farther back in the room.

            First, SOS casts an illusion on the far wall to make the door look like it's in a place it isn't. Then the tengu creates water in one of the furnaces, causing a big cloud of steam to fill part of the room. I run up to the closest sleestak and attack it. The tengu comes up too and we manage to kill it. SOS casts a sleep spell into the cloud of steam to try to put some of the sleestak out of the fight.

            The rest of them now know there's something going on in the far end of the room and one of them steps out of the cloud to see whats going on. He yells before we can get to him. Then the cloud dissipates and we can see that SOS managed to put 2 of the sleestak to sleep but the rest are still up. The tengu runs toward the closest ones and starts attacking. SOS casts a magic missile at the elf and does a little damage, but also unfortunately gets his attention. I'm too slow to get there before he yells, then LEAPS across the room at SOS and starts attacking him. He stuns SOS before anyone can get over there to help. The tengu has his hands full with about 3 of the sleestak, so I kill the one closest to me and turn back around to help. 4 more lizards come through the door at the far end of the room. The elf hits SOS so fast and hard, he's unconscious before I can get there, but I do manage to do some damage on the guy when I can. The tengu casts some kind of weird stoneskin spell and comes over to help deal with the elf, since it's pretty obvious now he's the one in charge. He is really insulting to the tengu, but together we do enough damage to render him unconscious and then mop up the rest of the minions. Some of them get away, but it was funny watching them run into a wall where they thought the door was!

            After the fight, the tengu gets SOS healed up, and I search the bodies, and disarm the elf. Got a ring and a potion off of him, in addition to a flute, a book, a bow and arrows, a set of thieve's tools (MW) and some pouches of gold dust and silver dust and 10 platinum coins! After the prisoner was secured, in a humiliating posture (according to the tengu), we explored the glassworks further. There was a recently built wall at the far end of the furnace room, so we broke it down and went down the stairs that were revealed. There's a lot of tunnels down here, but we're looking for Amiko so we don't search the long hallways. Instead we find a place that used to be bricked up on both ends, and she's in one of the rooms in that section. She's pretty beat up, tied and gagged, and unconscious, but we get her healed and awake and after speaking with her for a short time about what happened, took her back to the inn so she could rest. She said her half-brother, Suto, lured her there to try to convince her to join him, and she doesn't know where her father is. She's horrified by the fact her brother is involved in the attack and is working with the sleestak.

            We took Suto to the sheriff's office and had him locked away, with a warning to the sheriff to be extra careful with guarding him because of his skill. Then we went to report to the priest. The book we got off Suto had some very interesting information in it, including plans of another upcoming attack, that there is a succubus involved (Suto's her lover) and she is also apparently the daughter of the former priest, Azakian. The sheriff is going to try to get to Stormreach quickly enough to bring in some reinforcements to protect the town. We're staying to try to make some plans to hinder the attack. 

Rachael Storm - She saved the world, a lot.

So I picked this up today

Is anyone remotely surprised?

I'll post my thoughts after I've read it.

Return of the Killer Shrews!

Thoughts:
1. Yes! The got James Best to reprise his role!
2. Good job on the set design; it LOOKS like the original set.
3. John Schnieder too? I wonder how many Dukes of Hazzard references there will be?
4. Notice how James Best REALLY looks like James Doohan?
5. Wow, that CG is bad. It's almost as bad as the original "dogs with bath-mats glued on".

I think this may JUST BE a bad enough movie for me to enjoy.

Farewell Paragon City

NCSoft just announced that City of Heroes will be shutting down. It's last day will be November 30th 2012.

If you go WAY back to the first few posts of this blog you will see it started out as a City of Heroes blog before I restyled it into a general expression of my nerdiness.

To be honest, it feels like a friend of mine just died.

I started playing City of Heroes a little over 8 years ago. One weekend I bought Doom III and the next weekend I bought City of Heroes. I played Doom III about a week. I played City of Heroes constantly from the time I bought it until July 2007. After that I played it on and off and was getting back into it shortly before Star Wars: The Old Republic launched. Even at that, I kept CoX fully patched and loaded on my system, just in case. I pre-ordered City of Villains and I bought Going Rogue when it released. I have several level 50 characters there including the "Big Bad Boulder Bitch" Rachael Storm - Stone Armor/Super Strength tank. Despite a couple accusations, no, she is not even remotely based on "Rachael Summers" of Marvel's Days of Future Past (I didn't even know that she'd married Johnny Storm in that timeline).

I made many friends over there. With Rachael, I saved Paragon City and it's virtual world hundreds of times over.

I remember when a friend of mine first showed me City of Heroes with his Fire blaster flying over Galaxy City, laying down hate on Skulls.

I remember Rachael (often) getting lost in Perez Park, only to be smacked down by the Vazhilok Eidelons there or the Lost Lieutenant who had a TV on his head (cuz, yeah, that makes you look tough).

I remember "Where are the Lost in Kings Row?"

I remember the first time I went to Boomtown, just north of Steel Canyon. I was on an eight man team and we were just "hunting mobs"  when suddenly Rachael took, what I thought, was a short leap - but instead fell about 2 stories down and got MAULED by a huge group of clockwork.

I remember when the "Shadow Shard" was introduced. I never cared for that zone, but the launch even was fun as the weird extra-dimensional creatures, the Rularuu, who were very poorly balanced even when there were level 5 versions of them, wandered Paragon laying smackdown on lowbies.

I remember when I first got to Talos Island. It was one the prettiest zones in game at the time, second only to Founders Falls. I was part of another street hunting group beating down Freakshow. I was "shocked" (pun intended) when a defeated boss proceeded to stand back up and start mauling us.

I remember taking my gimped specced version of Rachael to Independance Port for the "Respec Trial". We had to fight Sky Raiders trying to destroy the nuclear reactor in Paragon City. The entire party wiped on the last wave of bad guys except for a Broadsword/Invulnerability Scrapper named "Swordie". She managed to solo the last wave for us and get us the respec.

I remember being sad when many of my first few friends in game quit.

I remember taking my Katana/Regeneration Scrapper Kanpo to Brickstown. At that time, the regen powerset (and scrappers in general) were horrifically overpowered. I had fun soloing large groups of +5 Council and only dying when I didn't manage my end and "Instant Healing" toggled off. I looked at the Ziggeraut (supervillain prison) and wonder why we never had to go in and put down a prison break.

I remember the Hollows introduction - in all it's buggy glory. 

I remember the glory of Striga Isle. To this day, it is still one of my favorite gaming "experiences". As an aside, most of the stories there were written by Shane Lacey Hensley, the man who brought us the tabletop RPG Savage Worlds.

At that time, "Global Chat" was released, and I joined a HUGE supergroup called "The Conglomerate" which defined much of my time in City of Heroes. It was a guild I actually learned a great deal from, not just about gaming, but a number of things that applied to "Real Life."

I remember the JOY of logging on at 4:30 am and running the Statesman Task Force every day.

I remember getting very silly and creating my tribute to anime magical girls - "Knight Flyer", using the Epic AT - Peacebringer and the "shoulder kitty" costume option.

Good Bye Paragon City. Good Bye Rogue Isles.

Good Bye Rachael Storm, Kanpo, Knight Flyer, Demon Hunter Yurei, Cruft, Mary Sladen, 

Good Bye to the "in game friends (and enemies)" (but not their RL counterparts I hope) in no particular order: South Freedom, Cymraes, Maliss, Dr. Opie, Quantum Cat, Tri-Polar, Quantum Plumber, Captain Slap, Zyreos, Red Tomax, Mr. Shivers, GuiltTrip Girl, Lovely LaRose, Bleak Forecast, The Mayhemettes, Bolt Crank, House Call, Rei Kei, Slick Zero, Charisma, Red Vine, Allison, Status Crow, Rasta, and too many more to name.

Good Bye City of Heroes. You were my first MMO and one of my favorite computer games of all time.

P.S. Death Mages, be thankful the game is ending, I *still* hate you and your underground caves in Paragon.

TOROCAST!

Torocast is Star Wars: The Old Republic's longest running fan podcast. I mention this because I've recently been chosen to become one of the new hosts for the show. Give it a listen if you want to hear me!

This site is not affiliated with Torocast nor the Twonkhammer network beyond me being a host on Torocast.

Pathfinder REBOOTED! - Episode 1 - Silent Tide

Because of excessive issues trying to maintain continuity in the Eberron campaign, I've restarted my game (again) as a super episodic Pathfinder campaign. I'm going to be leaning heavily on old Pathfinder Society Modules. Each story will be self contained. This also means that if someone can't show up, I can still run. This also means, because I can write from the summary, that game notes will have far better grammar and be much clearer and complete (and not huge walls of text)!

Instead of being in Sharn, the characters are now in Absalom in the Pathfinder world of Golarian.

Talen is now a Gun-Mage
Kal-Torak is still (and will always be) Risen Demon Magus

With that in mind, here is the most recent episode!

Kal and Talen are dispatched by the Pathfinder Society to find Yargos Gill in hopes of securing an ancient tome he recently uncovered. To cover his tracks, the crime lord Nessian has sent a group of goons to kill Yargos, as well anyone else who might know about it.


They intercept Nessian’s minions, the War Hounders, just as they are about to shove Yargos and the rest of their chain gang of captives off a sea cliff. Kal and Talen intimidate the War Hounders and make short work of them and rescue Yargos and his friends. Yargos reveals that the codebook represents the remnants of a failed attempt to invade Absolam hundreds of years earlier. However, the invaders, known as the Black Echelon, have returned from the dead due to his work on the codebook in an attempt to complete their ancient plan.

Yargos tells them about the codebook and the need to stop Nessian. As they head out to try to find Nessian, deep in the distance, they witness a flickering red signal light. Yargos realizes that the light signals the undead Black Echelon to launch a team of operatives to poison Absalom’s central granary, and our heroes take a diversion to stop Black Echelon from tainting one of the city’s most important food stocks.

After surviving their first encounter with the silent skeletal killers, Kal and Talen, using judicious gathering of information,  discover the location of Nessian’s new base of operations hidden among a ruin of siege towers on the beach just outside of Absalom.

The heroes find Nessian's base of operations and defeat him! Furthermore, they recover the code book and return it to the Pathfinder Society.

Ivarkian Campaign Episode 5 - I'm Mister Hatemonger! I'm Mister Mad!

Eighteen Months later.

Indra is now Swordmaster for Jalen Whitecloud.
Moscato has become chief curator of the official library.
Chet is now a Lord Chet MourningManSavageWood, steward.
Baretta Walther is still swordmaster for Jala Whitecloud.

Inception has grown to be the shining jewel, eastern doorway to the west.

Innermost ring is called "The Dawning Spawn", and where the whiteclouds share power as co-rulers. The outer layer is the "academic center" - The Dawning ring. It has it's own Mage college.  There is a trade sector as well.

Indra has been on a mission and returns with a man from the "Coast of Eternal Starlight". He is known as The Hitman Jangleman - aka  Ambassador Nixus.

Moscato, Chet, and Baretta are waiting for the "emissary from the elves" to arrive. The Whiteclouds are nervous about the reception.

Nixus' hair is tied back and is dressed flamboyantly in mismatched dark colours. Moscato and Chet recognize him as a "Dark Elf" or "Death Elf" - one of the commandos of the original Elven army.

Baretta makes conversation and asks about the Coast. Nixus describes it and it's history.During the meal, Baretta is told that someone wishes to meat the ambassador. Baretta excuses herself and is brought out. Two guards with griffon symbols flank "Katyana Thorvold". She indicates she is the newly appointed sword mistress of Jeness Thorvald (enemies of the Walther family), Jarl of Westspire.

Katyana barges in and sits at the table next to Nixus. After some verbal parrying, Nixus excuses himself and talks with Moscato. Katyana excuses herself as well.

The party notes a man who seems familiar in the hall witnessing. Baretta steps aside to talk to him. He introduces himself as "Lord Thaddeus Truevillain". He says he came here on behalf of his order to monitor the situation. Specifically, that the Thorvalds have a history with the Whiteclouds and Baretta. He is cagey about who he is and who his order is.

Nixus comes to visit Baretta before the evening is over. He says we have impressed the sorcerer Uguri. and he gives Baretta a case and leaves. Baretta opens the case carefully. The case has elven writing on it (Starpiercer) and contains a long blade. It has the imagery of a Quetzalcoatl. It's a thin Masterwork rapier style blade. She finds out it is an Elven Thinblade.

Chet is given a package from "Blackfang", the gnoll who Chet resurrected the child of. The package contains a perl - a "Perl of recalling."

Indra is given a box with two blades.

Next evening there is another banquet with Jarls from other cities to celebrate the anniversary of the founding of Inception. While Chet makes a speech a mist rolls in and forms into a being which attacks Moscato. It very quickly becomes apparently, only Moscato saw this. Baretta escorts Moscato out of the hall to "Show him something" and as soon as the door closes, she lightly smacks the back of his head.

Nexus asks to "Play something" and pulls out his musical instrument. He plays a haunting melody and a few other songs.

After this Chet calls Indra and Baretta over and notes that Nixus and Truevillain have been chatty. Baretta assigns a couple of house guards to keep an eye on Nixus and Truevillain.

The week continues somewhat uneventfully. Nixus meets and entertains and sees the sights of the town. At one point he meets with Timeran. Many people are in town.

Moscato does research on the sword "Burning hatred" that Nixus sang about in one of this songs. It was probably one of the first artifact weapons. It is thought to be so dangerous as to kill it's wielder.

A couple days later, while watching a performance, Moscato, Chet, Baretta and Indra note guards reacting. They follow. They hear and crazed gutteral voice. They look and people are starting to transform in beings with yellow eyes and claws. The party is separated and makes their way to the podium where the Jarls are. Nixus, the Jarls, Moscato, and Chet run through the tunnel through a trapdoor on the podium.

Upon arriving a wolf-like being appears and starts attacking.

The swordmasters jump down and follow. The party makes their way to the central spire. They manage to get in. They look out the top of the tower and see fire and chaos. On a nearby building a mysterious figure looks on.....

Ivarkian Campaign Episode 4 - The goddess "Snooty-kins".

Moscato suggests that we leave Taraza behind, but the Ogre disagrees.

The party asks Taraza where the monument is. Taraza asks the Ogre something and he points north.

Baretta asks for a description. The Ogre says that no one has seen it in several hundred years. But we will know it as things there both die and live simultaneously. Taraza indicates thats we must amuse the guardian. The party asks for more information. Uguri leaves without answering.

The party departs. They travel for the better part of a day. The party follows the path the Gnolls would take. The path appears to be heavily travelled. Eventually, the party comes to the first major signs of water - a lake that feeds the river going east. They see a large fairey.

They use it to cross the lake without incident.

They continue on, and find a large field where they camp. First night passes uneventfully.

Two days later, they come to a valley where there is a large wall surrounded by huts. It is very quiet. There is no evidence of working hearths. They soak a shirt in fabric which Baretta uses to cover her mouth before scouting. Moscato looks through his spyglass and sees a few small gnollish figures but mainly women and children.

Baretta heads down and the smell of death is overwhelming. She sees 4 long rows of bodies covered with sheets and skins and anything else. The town is very quiet and the few gnolls she encounters are laconic and dazed, but do not seem to have noticed her.

She attempts to inspect the bodies. She witnesses a gnoll bringing a small body out and leave it amongst the dead. She returns to the group.

She reports that the plague appears to have killed most of the town. They decide to bypass the town and continue on.

A couple days later, they run across villages in similar states. While travelling the party speculates that Ogres may be immune to the plague as various areas around the villages are sharpshooters.

The party makes camp and sets watches: Moscato, then Baretta and Taraza, then Chet. Taraza and Barretta talk. Taraza indicates the mural is dangerous as it is a window from another times of  things "better left forgotten". There was a time before the human empire when "They" were watching. Baretta suspects that "They" were something of an apocalyptic nature such as a dragon or dragons. Baretta notes that during the conversation, Taraza refers to Timeran as "The Mindbender". During the war with the elves there was a "weapon" the elves used called "the Mindbenders" who were spellcasters. Baretta notes that Timeran is human. Taraza suspects that Timeran's mentor was an elf. Baretta suspects Taraza can read her thoughts, but Taraza indicates that she is very good at reading people. The rest of the night passes uneventfully.

The next day they travel. Moscato spies something off in the distance. It appears to be ruins of some type. They head to the ruins and scout the area. The ruins seem to be granite. Baretta asks Taraza if these ruins are what they are looking for. Taraza indicates that it isn't, but is nonetheless important.

There is creation text upon the ruins. Taraza and the party read the ruins. She tells the party the information they have learned could cause gods to mark them for death.

Taraza and Beretta hear a sound. A LARGE group Gnolls attack. While at first the battle seems difficult, 3 heavily armored Gnolls appear to assist, scaring off the gnolls. Baretta turns and see the gnolls who assisted.

The gnolls tell them that while they are not friends, they are not enemies. Baretta notes her wounds are healing and the forest is especially lush. They approach the shrine.The soil oddly seems dry and dead and littered with bones and corpses. Upon stepping on the soil, they start taking damage. They back up and heal immediately.

The gnolls give them healing potions. They RUN. Once they reach the inside of the shrine, they stop taking damage. Party quaffs healing potions. The party searches and finds the staff - a long staff with scales, on one side a skeleton and the other side overgrown plants. A large stag walks up behind the party. The stag talks to them. Taraza notes the stag is the guardian of life and plagues. They ask if they can have the staff. The stag suggests a proposal.

The stag takes human form, but one hand is a skeleton. "I think if you can take it then take it."

The Staff turns into a dire owlbear and jumps upon the deadly soil. It starts flying when Chet "commands" it to "Stop". Baretta runs and tries to grab it and misses. The party attempts to attack but fails. The owlbear hits Baretta and combat begins.

The battle is very difficult, but the party barely defeats the fiendish owlbear. The stag being is about to congratulate the party when suddenly a ring comes off of his finger and he falls into the negative energy zone and dies. Taraza has his ring.

Taraza tells them to let the Jarl know that expansion to the west will be unchecked for now.

The party returns to one of the plagued villages. They arrive at the home of one of the gnolls who'd saved them. His family is dead. Chet attempts to use the staff of healing on one of the dead gnolls. He brings an infant gnoll back to life. Chet heals every gnoll village on the way back. They note that Zora are in each city they pass through.

They return to Ugiri and the goblin warrior. Chet returns the staff to Ugiri and hands them the missing sealed box. The goblin with Ugiri says, "There was a time before the empire, an old time. A time of the paladin city and the paladin king. The mural that you discovered is the only known picture found in 6 millenia of the paladin king. Ugiri doesn't know much of him, but that Zora fear his name because of the power he wielded across the world."

Ivarkan Campaign Episode 3 - Do you remember that Ogre who threw a house at us?

Three months later.

First group of guards have been deployed, possible names of guard captains are being considered.

Chet has been promoted to senior clerk.He is now the steward under Jalen Whitecloud.

Wealthy families are coming in, first wall has been built. Stone masons guild have come in. Inception has been growing, many new people are arriving. The burrows are being demolished and higher end buildings are coming in.

Moscato has continued investigating history, areas before the fall of the human empire.

Chet suggests that Baretta would be a good choice for captain of the guards. He approaches her. She asks about money but has also been approached about being Whitecloud's House Swordmaster.

Baretta wants to talk to Whitecloud about his offer. Along with general security work, there is the occasional find out information for damage control. She decides to accept the position.

Chet goes on to talk to Moscato to see if his research has uncovered anything important. Moscato notes that the mural (last adventure) predates the last human empire. Moscato points to evidence that elves are apparently very long lived.

Chet meets with Baretta and asks her to gather a team of people because Moscato and he are doing an expedition to check out a wall that has been discovered (previously mentioned). Baretta picks 3 people (Bleys, Brand, and Corwin) to go with them.

Chet, Moscato, Baretta, and the three head out.

Three days later, they stop at an inn. A man walks in and picks up a package with the imperial seal from the barkeep and walks out. They get rooms for the night.

Baretta finds out that the package was delivered by official courier. (Symbol of hawk under the sun)

Night passes uneventfully.

At the mine.

As the party continues their journey they encounter a party with the emperor's seal on a standard. They encounter one of the headmasters of the sword school. He greets them (and is pissed at the emporer's group) and leads them in to the mine.

As they head in, there is a woman who they encouter wearing a simple outfit. A Zora (think Bene Gesserit).The Headmaster informs her that she and Zora have no authority here. She turns and walks back in. Two of Timeran's come in who have been researching. One of them indicates to Moscato that she knows what has been going on.

Moscato and Chet examine the mural. Baretta notes the Zora isn't looking directly at the mural. The Zora asks, "And what are your impressions." Baretta says, "It's a nice mural". The Zora turns and walks out.

Moscato starts studying the rest of the room looking for clues.Moscato notes that spells do not function in the room.

Timeran says he will post guards. He asks to speak to Baretta aside. Timeran psychically tells her that there is a situation. A package was being sent from Prince Havisham Sunlighter. On it's way to them, it was stolen by Gnolls. Lady Taraza is going to tell them she is going to accompany them. We need to make every effort to recover the package.   Taraza  needs to witness that we've made every effort to recover it. The Zora is very good at manipulating circumstance to get what she wants. We cannot leave any recourse to allow her to  manipulate the situation.

Meanwhile, Moscato is overcome by a feeling of dread while looking at the mural and he runs out.

Baretta witnesses the Zora talking to another woman. Baretta hears that the younger woman "hasn't finished her task for the Zora". Furthermore, the "southern amazon tribe are unwilling to give them an embassy because of risk of reprisal from the Silver Talon". Zora notes that Baretta has been overhearing them.

Zora tells Baretta that she (Baretta) is "Angela Bell's Granddaughter".

Timeran updates everyone.

The townsfolk show the party some Gnolls who'd been killed.

Baretta tries to follow up with the couriers about the package. The couriers indicate that they never recieved the package. Baretta asks the barkeep who handed an imperial package off. He doesn't remember anything.

Moscato investigates the stables. They notice a saddle with the seal of an imperial courier. Chet rummages through the bags. He finds rations, and water but no horses. They attempt to track where the horse that would have had the saddle went.

They do find the horse and the courier that was stomped. The Zora follows them. They follow the trail and find a settlement that appears to be made by gnolls.

The gnolls are afraid of the party and they hide. Taraza notes them to back away from the water and 4 ogres move out of the water.

The Ogre says that Uguri wants to speak with them. Taraza speaks to them in another language (Moscato has cast comprehend languages and understands what was said and that they have passage into the "singing circle"). The Ogres leave (apparently they breath underwater). The party leaves the settlment and goes to talk to Uguri. Moscato asks about the sickness the gnolls had. Apparently Chet knows about this illness because this is what the the secret item the caravan had. Moscato observes that the gnolls have it and that it will spread. Chet advises that the cure/disease is secret.

After several hours of walking, they hear a sound. Baretta shudders due to the haunting quality of the sound. The party makes camp near the area that Taraza describes as "Sacred". The party sets watches. During first watch (Moscato's) there is an unusual wind that comes up. Moscato is hit with something. Moscato cries out.

The party wakes. Baretta and Chet are hit. Taraza appears to cast something. Moments later a huge winged lion pads up to the camp and walks around. Taraza indicates that it cannot see them and they have a round to attack

The party attacks. After a few rounds the manticore flees.

The next morning, after the party wakes up, there is a loud thud. Four ogres materialize.

The Ogres lead the party up to a stone circle with a Ogre sitting in the center. After discussion, the Ogres believe that the humans have brought the wasting disease to destroy the Gnolls. Chet offers healing medicine for the gnolls. The Ogre leader tells them that if they do what he wants, they will get the "item they want".

Uguri tells them to go to an old monument. The old god of plague and healing has a guardian in the area. Inside is a staff. If they bring it back, past the guardian, he will give them what they seek.

Ivarken Campaign - Episode 2 - You mean you just wear your hair long and no one notices you are an elf?

Four Months later!

Indra - A half-elf fighter
Baretta - A swashbuckler
Chet - A Clerical Cleric
Moscato - A Half-Elf Oracle

(halflings weren't halfings they were goblins)

The party has become local legends because of having faced the Imperial Orcs and survived.

Party gets 150 (Chet extra 200, Moscato exta 100)

Inception has grown and is building a wall. Construction is beginning and clear cutting is occurring. Various skilled laborers and shopowners have arrived. Rangers and settlers for other areas.

Morning baretta heads down for breakfast. She gets a couple steaks and sits down with Niah and Galen. Talking about training the Rangers and City Guard and who is going to do it.

Chet is having his morning meeting with the Jarl and others who is showing a map of the area layout and how expansion is occurring. Lydia is there too (she is the main smith of the city). Planning to establish city guard.

Galen wants more information on the Orcs. Chet says that he thinks the orcs weren't being aggressive, more defensive. HOWEVER, they do have very large ships and have the ability to deploy orcs on our side of the river.

For Moscato, things have been "annoying". He has decided to research Orcs. He discovers the Orc empire dates back to the collapse to the old empire when humans discovered orcs. Five thousand years earlier was the last contact. They beat the human empire rather hard. That was after the human emporer died and hiswife took over then his son. They encountered Elves who were much more bloodthirsty and vicious than the orcs that contributed tot hecollapse of the human empire. He finds also about the enigma of the half0rcs and halflelves. Half Elves dont come from inside the human empire. The first was discovered among the elves. The theory is that there may be another human civilization since the Elves knew human language upon contact. similar to the half orcs.

Indra takes some of the students on a run for conditioning. They head out toward the forest making a big loop. Trainees are coming along well, others need help. She breaks the group down and picks two as "squad leaders" to help build up those falling behind.

First layer - sleep and mess
second layer - ranged practice and apprentice
third - practice
fourth - meeting.

Galen informs Indra and Baretta that his sister will be coming with a group a rangers and talens "She is a Silver Talen". (Silver Talon are a legendary order of female mercenary scouts - in the old empire they were an important ally to many).

Galen asks about the Gnolls, they were bandits and the broke easily.

At the end of his meeting, Chet gathers his notes and takes them back to his office, and grabs a bite to eat. then heads off to see the trainers.

Finishing up breakfast finishing and head into kata class.Baretta is teaching bodyguards in training and Indra is teaching about armor.

That evening, Indra, Baretta and a couple other teachers head to the "Queens Unicorn". Chet arrives and the group chats.

Indra notices an individual sitting off to the side with a beautiful masterwork sword. He is just sitting there looking around. His armor is dark silver with intricate designs. He stands and leaves. Indra points him out to Baretta. Baretta notes that he meets a woman with dark skin and robes. They walk out.
Chet observes that the guy was a half-elf.

Moscato gets up from his reserarch and starts walking home. While he is walking back, something catches his eye - a pin leaps off the lapel of a man part of a couple which he grabs. Moscato follows them and tries to catch up. He asks the couple for assistance in researching the elves and orcs since he'd heard them speaking elven. The female grabs Moscato by the throat. They realize he is a half-elf. They are suprized that no one has realized Moscato is a half elf. They let him go.

Evening winds down. (Baretta gets action).

There is a crowd outside the school the next morning.

Galen is talking to his sister.He introduces Kara to Baretta and Indra.

They see a person standing around looking confused. He tells Baretta and Indra that he is looking for rangers. Indra suggests that he speak to Galen and to the Jarl.

Indra takes her trainees on another run.

That afternoon the Talons demonstrates combat prowess.

Later that day, they witness a number of the students gathered around the Ranger with a wolf. He is discussing animal training and interaction. He relates this to interacting with environment.

Moscato goes to meets up with Chet.

Chet cannot find any information about the people from the previous evening.

Moscato finds Chet. Moscato asks about where the "Elven Ambassadors" are staying. Chet is unaware of any Elves in town.Chet takes Moscato to his office for a chat. He explains that there aren't ANY elves in town because they are bad news.Chet sends Moscato back to his place and will contact him this evening.

Chet seeks out Baretta and Indra to tell them about this. They discover Indra is a half elf too. Chet wants to hire them to figure out why the Elf and Orc are here.

Moscato is looking at the docs that Chet handed him (random docs from his desk) the "elf" appears and tells him that he is leaving him.

Chet flags the city guard and tells him to collect Moscato so they can all meet at the mayor's office.Moscato brings them up to date that the elf was leaving after doing recon in the city and were going on. There was a warning about an expedition which is bringing something "bad" back.

They go to visit the Jarl. They update the Jarl.

They decide to head out to check on the expedition. They follow the trails out.

A week later the trail is getting weaker but continue to head up to the mountaiin. They see a column of black smoke and head towards it. It leads to the smoking ruins of a small town. Looking through a spyglass, she sees knocked down tents, and burned buildings.

Baretta sneaks down there. She finds a dead body with a speak in the back. She takes the spear and keeps looking. She is attacked by a miner but easily blocks the attack. The miner is in shock. The miner reports that there were Gnolls who attacked at night. Eight ofthe miners hid in the mines.

Baretta signals the rest of the group to come up.He informs them where the Gnolls are.

The party finds a group of Gnolls with human slaves. Baretta sneaks up to see what's going on and discovers a Gnoll village. While trying to leave, the Gnolls hear her and a fight ensues. The party rushes in to help.

After a desparate battle with the Gnolls and an Ogre, the party manages to defeat the bad guys and free the captured humans. They find various precious metals, uncut diamonds, a bull strength scroll, a masterwork  spear, 300 gold coins.

The party dings 4th level.

They take the prisoners back to the village. The Foreman of the village is shocked that the party killed the ogre and defeated the gnolls. He announces they found not only silver but gold as well along with something else.

He takes the party back to the mountain, to the mine. He tells them the Gnolls wouldn't go past a certain point. He shows them a door in the mine, in the mountain. There is a room with a mural of an individual wearing black and gold trimmed plate armor with a black cloak. The eyes are brightly glowing sapphires. Below that, is written in Elven, "The Emporer made in man but not man".

Moscato thinks on the history, but doesn't know anything.

The party stays overnight but then heals and heads back.

Ivarken Campaign - Part 1

Disclaimer: As always, these notes are taken from notes taken in game and so they are poorly edited.

The story opens in the region of Ivarken.

Baretta is an ex-soldier who came here under the leadership General Denazec Clashhammer, retired. The city of Inception  She teaches one of the classes on swordsmanship at the Dawning Academic Hall.  Denazec is a co-headmaster there. Inception is the newest frontier city against the wilds forests area. Inception is run by 3 major factions : jarl (yarl) Jayleh Whitecloud "coinlord" (she controls the banks) . Her twin brother Jarl Jaygen white cloud tradelord (he controls commerce and major landowner) - Timarna arcanocon the OTHER headmaster - legendary tagteam - veteran heroes of Ivarken expansion. The Dawning academic hall is the onlybuilding the whiteclouds don't own.


Chet Mansavage (yes really), junior advisor under jarl jaygen whiteccloud . intermediary between workers and jaygen.

We are all expecting a caravan to arrive with the first years goods.


Indra works on this caravan and is working as a guard and decided to head on in hopes of joining the academy.

Moscato keeps hearing "Visit me on the way back".


Baretta has heard  that the caravan is going to be bringing people to teach at the academy.. Getting revenue for the first years work. She is waiting by the city gates.

Caravan arrives. Baretta and Chet head out to meet them. Chet arranges for items on the caravan to go where needed.

Indra heads to the inn called "Howlers" to get a room and rest.

Baretta heads back to the academy and greets the initiates and routes them appropriately.

Chet reports to Jarl who sends him to the Academy to meet.

Chet tells Baretta that the caravans have arrived. She notes that the special one has arrived  Indra and Baretta meet.

Lord jjarl asks if Chet has seen the "Special carriage" (he has).

The senior instructors return and they have 3 individuals with them, who they force to the ground. Baretta and Indra walk up. Niah orders them to check out the warehouse where the individuals worked


Warehouse worker said that 4 halfings came in, sent by Chet, to check out  the caravan. They left with it.

Until Moscato found them dead.

The party crashed the door down and moscato was arrested. At this point, the party got caught up in trying to figure out the murder mystery.

At that point, Chet found out that the shipment is missing. The party headed east looking for the caravan. As they moved east it was pretty much a single route to follow but Moscato kept looking off into the distance and suggesting that they head off into the path. The party was unaware that he was seeing a "light" because he was specifically told not to mention any "crazy sh!t".

The party was attacked by Gnoll, which they quickly dealt with while Moscato ran off chasing a gem off into the woods.

When they caught up with him, he'd found a shrine of some type run by a boy. Moscato and Chet helped him with some rituals. In return, the boy gave them a place to stay at the time and some extra equipment.

They caught to the Imperial orcs who took the carriage at the side of the river and fought them and took the carriage back and return to Ivarken.

Farewell Etta James, Rest in Peace

Save the Internet - Say no to SOPA

An Open Letter From Internet Engineers to the U.S. Congress

 

Another SWTOR Chat

Rachael: Oh, I figured out why the team limit is 4 people
Zyreos: ?
Rachael: Luke, Leia, Han, Lando (Chewie was Han's companion, the Droids were luke's) Then Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, Anakin, Padme (yeah, not quite, but still)
Zyreos: that one doesn't REALLY count
Rachael: And the reason we only see Jar Jar in the first movie, he was Qui-Gon's companion
Zyreos: because by the time Padem/Anakin counted for anything, Qui-Gon was dead
Rachael: I'm still sticking to it
Zyreos: BUT.... Luke had R2/C3-PO... and Han had Chewie. so... Luke + R2 + 3PO + Han + Chewie + Lando + Leia = 7
Rachael: I told you R2, 3PO where Luke's companions Chewie was Han's
Zyreos: but.. Luke and Han didn't make Chewie/R2/3PO wait in the Millennium Falcon while they went off to fight the Empire
Rachael: That's why Chewbacca didn't get a medal didn't need to - Luke sent R2 and 3PO on slicing missions so Han took Chewie out to help complete the team
Zyreos: I can't argue with that logic actually I reject the Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan/Anakin/Padme' but... I agree with Luke + Han + Leia + Chewie (+ R2 and 3PO doing side-quests)
Rachael: I'm posting this on my blog
Zyreos: I think Lando is extraneous for the purpose of this argument honestly... he really only becomes important and a "part of the team" in EP6 because in 5... he is self-serving, and causes Han to be suspended in carbonite... but in 6, he becomes part of the team... helps to free Han/Luke and then helps with the assault on the second death star if you base it purely on Episodes 4 and 5 though... i buy it

A SWTOR chat.

A chat that occurred yesterday via IM about SWTOR.

Rachael: Dammit! They have a server called "Kaiburr Crystal – PvE", why couldn't we get on THAT one?

Malachite: does it REALLY matter?

Rachael: YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTH!

Malachite: The significance is lost on me.

Rachael: oh, you don't know the Kaiburr Crystal. It was introduced in the horrid novel "Splinter of the Minds Eye", but the Expanded Universe really helped
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Kaiburr_crystal

Rachael: The only semi-redeeming quality of Splinter of the Minds Eye, is if it WAS considered Canon, then Luke and Leia kissing in Empire was a MINOR 'eww'. There is a STRONGLY implied "love-scene".

Malachite:  o_O?

Rachael: Remember the book came out before Empire, and was based on Lucas' notes if Star Wars was a flop. Luke kills Vader after nailing Leia.

Malachite: but, but, but all nine episodes were all completed and written out back before he filmed Star Wars

Rachael: you keep telling yourself that

Malachite: the final 3 episodes are going to begin filming any time now! I just know it to be true. Search your feelings!

My various #SWTOR tips and tricks!

In honor of Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ early release, here are a few online resources to make playing easier!

First up, is this video from Beta. Really, you only need to watch about the first 10-15 minutes to get the meat of the tips that make this valuable, IMNSHO.

Now that you've watched that, check out this series by "TOR Hangout". The "Quick Tips" series is VERY helpful.

There are about 18 videos so far. I'm not going to link them all, but I trust you, dear reader, to be able to search Youtube.

On to links!

Here are some pages that help you get around and find the other basic info you need.

• Darth Hater Database
• R2-DB
• Torhead 

Each of these websites are great resources for help in playing Star Wars.

Finally, For build information, check out

• SithWarrior.com

If you are familiar with the site Elitist Jerks for WoW, you get the idea.

Hope this helps, see you in game!

I'm on the Canderous Ordo server!

MY #SWTOR EARLY ACCESS HAS BEGUN!

I am on the Canderous Ordo server!

STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC - OFFICIAL SITE!

Link to The Foundation of Jhantor

Just so you understand the significance....



I mean, uhm.....splendid.

Here are my chars!

Jedi Knight - Rachael
Jedi Consular - Shard
Sith Warrior - Kurn
Sith Inquisitor - Mor-Rioghain (Morrigan was taken)
Smuggler - Myra
Bounty Hunter - Pynkerton

I didn't create my Trooper nor Imperial Agent yet, as I'm parking names for a friend.

Building Character Part 8

My LAST Star Wars: The Old Republic character.

I didn't have a strong look in mind for this character, I just played with the designer a bit.

Personality is no-nonsense, interested in money, and maintaining her reputation.If you pay her to do a job, she will do it.

*EDIT*
This isn't remotely how the character, Pynkerton, looks. I liked the random look that came up for her better.

Server: Canderous Ordo

Our Server has been selected for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™.

Server: Canderous Ordo

Foundation of Jhantor was successfully imported into Star Wars™: The Old Republic™. Web support for this guild will be removed on January 03, 2012.

Building Character Part 7

This character is my Sith Warrior. He is based on an NPC I had in Star Wars RPGs I ran. He is a complete and total monster who enjoys causing pain and misery. If he lived on modern day earth, he'd be a west Texas high school football player.

His name is Kurn!

Building Character Part 6

This is my Trooper character. I don't have a strong personality in mind for this character. My main goal was to make him look like Vin Diesel. I think I got pretty close.

Building Character Part 5

This my OTHER Jedi character. She is based on the char I played in Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2 and Neverwinter Nights. I was originally going to make this character based on the character I played in my first Star Wars RPG, but I realized that with the upcoming release of "John Carter of Mars", that "Tars Tarkas" would probably get banned. I could change the name, but I figured I'd go ahead and make a female char. I may change this back to a male character at launch, but this is my current planned Consular.

Her name is Shard!

Building Character Part 4

A few years ago, after watching the movie "Unforgiven", I wanted to try running a character inspired by Clint Eastwood's character. She would be a former bankrobber/highwayman. The character evolved a bit, but I never got to play her extensively.

This character is based on that concept as well, but this is her in her prime. I also decided to take advantage of the fact that SWTOR has non-human characters, so I made her a Twi'lek.

Her name is Myra!

Building Character Part 3

Now a male character! I've planned out 3 male characters. For the most part, gender fits for for the type of character I foresee playing.

The Chiss Imperial Agent: Bond, James Bond!. 

I don't know what I'm going to name him yet, but he is the super-spy in the stable of characters.

Imperial Navy Commander, CMG, RNVR, code number 265, residing on Dromund Kaas, but currently active on Nar Shadda. He has an enjoyment of speeders, a love of food and fine wine.

Building Character Part 2

Up next, in my Star Wars: The Old Republic Character-cavalcade, we present my Sith Inquisitor!

She is a pureblood Sith who had an anscestor that was sold into slavery. When she exhibited Force sensitivity, the Empire sent her to Korriban to train. However, she had been treated so cruelly in life due to her station, she has no room for compassion in her heart. She is cruel and wants to make the world pay for the way she was treated.

Her name is Mor-Rioghain!

Building Character Part 1

Soon, my new addiction, Star Wars: The Old Republic, will be in my hands after YEARS of anticipation.

During the beta session I got in on, I decided to design the characters I'll have when the game launches. Unlike other MMOs, you will have ample opportunity to see more than "Your character's butt". Because of this, I spent a lot of time designing the look of my chars. 

For the next few days, I'll be sharing my creations! Being a fan of the female form, most of my characters will be women. Yeah, I'm "that guy".

Up first, my Jedi Knight "main" character:

Her name is, quite simply, Rachael!