Category: english

Inspired by http://chorenn.stormgazer.net/Chorenn – a wiki campaign journal (See the Choren blog reported earlier). I’ve started a short discussion or perhaps more of a proposal, that we could do very much the same for our campaign.
A short notice, since we’re a roleplaying group located in Austria, Central Europe and our native tongue is german, I’ve decided to start the wiki in our mother language – due to more or less obvious reasons. The primary purpose will of course be to enhance the details on various storylines, enable the GM and players to keep track of locations, vessels, past events and most importantly persons in the game. With our gaming group being very stable on terms of players that come and go, I expect that the wiki indeed is a great idea, and since I’ve yesterday best my weaker self, and started a partial index and several shorter articles in the wiki, maybe the idea really has a positive impact on our group.
I’ll try to report back here in case you’re interested in a few weeks, and tell how things have turned out. For all those who are interested in our wiki, it’s located here. (As said before in german)

Dear all, have a pleasant and relaxing weekend, I’ll report back after our sunday’s gaming here.

Or in other words,
we had a recent change (not extremly unexpected) in our roleplaying group. Thomas took the seat of a player for once again and Roman traded his for the DungeonMaster’s. Now this is a great thing, since Roman already has thrown a lot of motivation into it just by the action itself. Furthermore (as a meanwhile quite experienced dungeon master) I can only say, I love the aspect other Dungeon Masters bring into the game, especially new ones. For one thing I think it’s the best way to get a grip on rules regarding combat and for a player it’s the sheer aspect of what you usually tend to critisize and now have to endure yourself ;-). No actually I think it’s just a very pleasant experience – a common (pre-)judice Roman excels at all things dwarven, he has a strong favor for the stout people and for me this has already taken shape in the adventure-line. (Maybe by pure coincidence though…)

Well, last time we’ve been travelling by ship from Baldur’s Gate to an island in the far west. On our way we were attacked by an overwhelming force of undead on board of a ghost-ship. Continue reading The Change, Death and the Lich

Good morning,
it was a good afternoon & evening yesterday. Honestly we met around 13:30 / 14:00 for one of those nice gaming sessions, as we do so often (probably every two weeks). I started with short stories on our mission a few weeks ago and thought it appropriate to report back with more details now. Well, we did your way to Baldur’s Tor to find out, that Duke Eltan has a strange disease but we will probably not get any chance for an audience any time soon. Being “the good guys” here, we thought about something we could do to improve our standings with the city and the opportunity we’ve been waiting for might have been just here. We had several little happenings in the city, Sharyl escaping closely from a brawl when she first really botched it when trying to rob a drunk and Rei tried to help her with a real bad aim for the drunk’s leg. But they managed a close escape and got into a short talk with a shady figure in the city – they were kinda “hired” with the promise on some information to take out a lingering ghost from the sewers.
Well we didn’t as much as complain on our way, with Soinius noting that proper preparation would have been a good idea which went largely unnoticed. Not even having the gnome wizard with them, they finally got destroyed the ghost with the combined effords of summoned elementals noticing hardly how close they all were to dying there. A short inspection of the area brought (by the way) the insight that they were battling on the remains of a rather large temple of Bhaal. And it was spooky!

We did not have to wait very long for a real quest coming up and we had a few things that just pointed westwards (a missing relic of the Umberlee Temple, Eliath – the main reason for Sharyl and Rei to be around in Baldur’s Gate – the request of the flaming fist (local mercs that are very much the city guards)), well Eliath was somehow connected to the missing relic and we were hired of the Flaming Fist for some gold pieces to find out what really happened to an missing ship (~150 ppl + large battleship) on its way to a dungeon of trapped fiends.
Well, having enough adventure in immediate future – we started within days and did not question a lot – together with Helmfried, a local ass – ah I meant Helmite and Solvis one of the sea-bitch’s favored and roundabout 200 soldiers, mercenaries and shipcrew guys, we headed for the far west. Having a journey in front of us that would take several months. And it did not take long (around 2 weeks) until we met the first real encounter on ship – a ghostship from Luskan.
It was Selvis that tried to convince the captain to take the ship down to the depths of the ocean where it belonged when we found out that it was probably not our chosing – the damned vessel was coming for us – straight and that is where the fun for us players and probably the horror for our characters started.
We were very much determined to find the evil focus/foci on the ship and destroy it before the wraiths and undead would take down our whole crew. So Halfling and Gnome made for a good start and stepped through Dimensional Doors directly into the enemy’s ship-bow. Calling out to Brandobaris Soinius did his best to keep the vile ghosts at bay while his gnomish accomplice would take care of a protective circle. When finally Sharyl, Vadania and Rei arrived on the ghostship – a severe fighting of ghosts and men was ongoing on our own vessel. We had to hurry and find the unholy forces that kept this ship together…
Fighting dozens of ghosts ourselves with the unfailing backup of summoned celestial creatures to aid either men or direct combat on our side we managed to go below and were confronted by a powerful drowned undead wielding butcher’s axes, while the chains that were the focus were healing him and made him a tough challenge. It was then when the gnome had depleted all of his magic and dropped, Sharyl had taken severe hits and the party was working hardest to solve the puzzle, when Solvis send a message to the unnerved and deperate halfling – that the chains were the real focus of the enemy. Within moments Vadania and Soinius had channeled the undying’s doom, positive healing energy into several of them – it was then when Rei split chains with her bare hands and Sharyl cleaved at them with her blades. All happened faster than one can imagine this, the ship fell apart – indeed going back to unknown depths – Umberlee’s depths. While a quick prayer to the lucky one gave all, including the gnome that had regained his consciousness, the ability to breathe water, Vadania turned into a large bear and took off with the whole party attached to her fur, carrying the gnome in her mouth like a baby bear – flying back to our ship, where the exhausted and battered party picked the direct way back to their resting places. Forgetting to give a glance to what happened here – probably turning around when the crying and wailing of the wounded from above, make at least Soinius’s stomach once again turn upside-down.

It is not a real frustration – but recent events making things easier for me to shift my plans from Faerun to Ptolus. I’ve written two short (though german) reviews of Ptolus mid last year. But I never made it real to transfer to campaign to this world.
Why? Well, I’ve stuck with Forgotten Realms for (seems to me) endless years. I still know about Myrkul, remember the realms for the Beholders and Dragons in it. I remember Mist from the Curse of the Azure Bonds as well as the bladeback paladin and Alias. It was back then when I fell in love with this world – part of them were -my- realms.
I remember reading Ed Greenwood’s Elminster x-o-logie, I enjoyed Troy Dening as well as Elaine Cunningham in those realms – I instantly enjoyed so many novels, sourcebooks and more. Last but not least I was riding on the shadows with Paul S. Kemp’s Erevis Cale – and ended up against Shadovar, the Sojourner, several Creatures of Chaos and Evil – and it felt so thrilling – so pure – so fantasy – just fantastic.

Well, things will change. I finished screening the Great History of the Realms. [Spoiler ahead] and things are going to change.
No honestly I don’t care whether Mystra dies again, I have to admit the idea of two gods ruling over the portfolio of magic never was my idea of a great system and with Mystra dead and Shar bereft of her shadowweave things will probably turn a better way.
On the other hand, Helm slain by Tyr over a very “human” dispute, misunderstanding or simply “Tymora” – seems to me very far from a good idea.
Furthermore the cleanup of the Realms just feels wrong. There are that many changes – in so little time. You probably remember 2nd Edition settings when they started with (as stated earlier) special events – Time of Troubles – it was great back then.
But again?
I mean why in the hells are things happen now in a span of a dozen years – again and again and again?
Instead of focussing on the things at hand – fleshing out the political disputes, intrigues and stuff – everything is changed by a “higher force” – something intangible – something that just doesn’t feel right to me and reading the gleemax boards (wizards.com) – at least several others feel very much the same here.

Instead of continuing the ranting and complaining. I’ll pick the better of it for me. I’ll try to convert to Monte Cook’s Ptolus setting now. Well, not instantly as I’m a “mere” player at the moment. But looking forward to the days of my dungeonmaster(y) *evil grin*… I will be searching for a nice way to switch from Faerun/Toril to the Ptolus setting. Maybe I’ll pick and find a way using Sigil/Planescape to transfer the group here.
But honestly I would love to find some suggestions. Something to ensure the captivation of the players. Something to make this transfer right. It will take us to one of the most creative worlds I’ve read in a long while. It’s a great place but I’ll have to make sure all enjoy it – and doing this will only work if the transfer works.
So that’s my current challenge. Dear readers. (I know there might be at least a few of your here). If you feel like you’ve an idea and can help – I would dearly appreciate your input on this.

Our current status quo is to incorporate Ptolus into the Realms. Well – it might not be the best idea, since a lot of flavour will get lost, on the other hand it seems like a good middle-way. But we’ve still some time until we decide which path we take. I’m very thankful for every idea and opinion.