10/18/2014

After a day spent in training on the 28th day of Summer's Breadth, the 29th dawned bright. Franc went shopping, perhaps to celebrate his newly acquired skills, and purchased a mostly blue peacock feather with touches of green on the edges for his hat, and also a new blue cape with green fringe. The gossip going through the tournament included (Sir) Loresson Trinella's denied entry. He is an Orinsard elf, and he claimed his right to enter the Knight's Tournament (White Rose) by right of nobility. Apparently it was decided that the right to enter based on nobility is reserved for human nations.

Also of note was that Bindo Carotto, a young man put forth by the local blacksmith's guild, won the Squire's melee tournament. He was quickly eliminated from the Warrior's tournament, but he is still a local hero.

On the evening of the 29th, Livid was approached a man who had clearly been beaten. He said he chose Livid because, though she was strange to him, he could sense that she was somewhat in tune with nature. His name was Rento, and he claims that some people stole Rutherford. Since this was not enough information for immediate action, Livid brought him to the tent and pressed for more. Rutherford was a camel, and a dear companion of Rento. Rento is a druid who hailed from the Sands of Igana, a region far to the southwest. He and his master had started traveling to the tournament to meet another druid named Garek. Unfortunately, his master, Condestron, was killed en route. Rento knew nothing but the name, but he came anyway and asked around. He finally met a man who claimed to know Garek, and the man arranged a meeting... except it was more of a trap. Rento was beaten into unconsciousness, and Rutherford was taken. During the battle, Rento the druid attempted to cast the best offensive spell available to low level druids, and some would argue this information should have been explicitly stated.

The party left Brother Eisen and Leopold at the tent and headed out to ask about camels. They eventually began tracking from the site of the battle. It was not too difficult because, once the camel tracks were identified, it was easy to see the human prints that went with it. They journeyed through most of the night and arrived at a camp just before dawn. With little risk of being seen, Livid determined at least two men were upright (and presumably therefore awake) near a fire. She also determined that there were cages of other animals and people, including two slave eagles.

The party boldly attacked. Surprise was on their side. Sleeping enemies do not wear armor, afterall, and many of them scurried about in surprise picking up weapons and shields. Plans, however, can do nothing to overcome the tide of destiny. The slavers just willed themselves to victory, and it became apparent to the party that their only choices were surrender or death. They chose to surrender, and the convenient thing for them is that slavers are known for taking slaves, not killing potential profits.

They were ushered into cages with about a dozen other slaves, including Irvet, a farmer from outside Geddington. The cage wagons rolled slowly through the countryside as the party began making suicidal escape plans. The casters were prevented from casting via copper needles inserted in their skin and then kept isolated, as was the exotic beauty. Marson, the leader, was very clear that escape attempts would be met with death, but still they plotted. They did not consider that they left a honorable priest with a great deal of information about their location in a place with the best fighters in the world. In early afternoon on the 32nd day of Summer's Breadth, Brother Eisen, Sir Hilton, five paladins, and a ranger came riding to surround the wagons. The slavers quickly realized that they were well outmatched and surrendered. Sir Hilton was very pleased to see them alive, and it seemed the paladins were very pleased to take care of slavers.

The party, on foot, arrived very late that night. Travel is much faster when not being sure to avoid detection and instead traveling by road. The next day, they helped the thankful Rento meet Garek by finding Narlish Hews, a competitor in the tournament, who knew Garek. Narlish was happy to bring the party to Garek, and only afterwards considered he might have made sure they didn't mean him any harm. Garek was camping to the south of the city. Garek is a former apprentice to Condestron, and wanted to speak to his master for help. In his lands in Lorris, he has been seeing a great many dead birds. They have bloody eyes, and he cannot determine why this is happening. It is no natural disease he has seen, and the druids he knew in the region did not know either. Rento, though he had not met Garek before, was happy to meet someone who knew his master and camp with him away from the city. The party suggested that, perhaps in a few weeks, they might come by the south side of the Bath of Scobis to meet Garek and determine whether they could be of help.

The final day of the tournament came, and Sir Hilton faced off against the paladin Sir Alden Cairns. The party was gathered to watch, as was pretty much everyone else. It was a broken lance each when they began the final pass, and that's when things got weird. Just head of the lancers appeared phantom lancers. There was a gasp of terror from the crowd, and it clearly unnerved the contestants. Sir Alden seemed more distracted, perhaps, even glancing towards the king, and he was awkwardly unhorsed just as one of the phantom jousters was unhorsed. For the phantoms, it appeared a broken lance tip may have gone into the throat of one. The winner turned back, saw the bloody, and shouted in dismay. The phantoms dissipated with the fading shout.

Leopold spoke softly to the group. "We just witnessed the jousts of Sir Galen and Mendow Velspar, brothers. It happened 34 years ago, and it was terrible. I was here with the Troubador, and I helped him write the Salted Rains to recount the tale. Sir Galen, the younger brother, was killed. Mendow took his own life in grief a few weeks later."

No one, expect perhaps Livid, honestly believes that Leopold helped write the Salted Rains. Sure, he might have witnessed the event, but this guy is a bit of a tool.

After speaking with a bard and some priests, King Rexton finally speaks to the two knights before him and the audience.

“The Tournament in Concluded. Yesterday we named Goodman Klassif Voynal the Champion of the Yellow Rose and Sir Brandon Hind the Champion of the White Rose, and now it is my honor to name Sir Hilton Granges the Champion of the Red Rose.”

There is little cheering given the shock, but still people throw the red roses they carried onto the to run. Sir Alden Cairns kneels to acknowledge the champion. The king steps down to present Hilton with a golden rose that is somehow colored green and red. He then speak again.

“We all saw something strange, and the priests tell me that though it is disconcerting, they assure me that we are safe. They tell me that this was foretold, and so was our protector. I asked to be brought a champion, Sir Hilton, and here you are. The priests told me the champion of the red rose is destined to defeat this new evil. So long as your heart is strong, we will be unharmed. Your courage will protect us, and bards will sing of you for all ages. Come, we have much to discuss.”

Sir Hilton waves to the fans, eliciting a wild cheer, before walking to the keep with the king, surrounded by his guards and the three priests.


There is some celebration. It starts slowly, but once the alcohol kicks in, it really picks up regardless of the previous events. Sir Hilton finds the party. He said the priests told him there is some weakening of the veil between this world and the realm of the dead. They don't know how or why. They said he needs to find a Godstone, and they have been researching this since the phantoms started showing up. They even told him to gather his men. He said he didn't have any men... and... well, he was hoping...

Surprisingly, Livid was the first to say that she would happily follow him. Leopold laughed and wished him the best of luck. Edward Stopling indicated he would love to adventure, but he already sworn to serve another knight. Brother Eisen, Brenaed, Brian Hawk, and Sir Alestair are all willing to join in.

Sir Hilton is clearly troubled, as he really just excels at tournament jousting. He is no great legendary hero. He is not a great noble looking for a quest. Nonetheless, he feels obligated to meet this supposed destiny. He arranges for horses for his "men," and they leave town the next morning, the first day of Summer's Reach.


The journey is a long one as this world is pretty large and a horse is the fastest way to travel. They passed through Steyning, where Captain Michael Fabian seduces, through use of a 5gp tip, a lovely brunette tavern wench named Akira. After listening to a bard named Framer Welans recount much of the tale they just witnessed (and experienced in the case of Sir Hector), the rest of the band camped because the inn, the Flaming Onion, was full. They passed through Cramond without stopping at the Jousting Kitten or the Scorched Flagon and instead pressed on.

They stayed at Wellow's Drunk Dog, where Captain Michael Fabian needed only 3gp to seduce the slender yet buxom redhead Leana. While there, they learned that the farmers of the area had experienced owlbear attacks, but when the soldiers come by they never seem to see them. The party bravely decided to save these poor farmers and track down the owlbear. It took a few hours, but eventually they discovered two of them. That was a relief because everyone knows owlbears can be solitary, in pairs, in packs, or in warhives. The extremely brave Captain Michael Fabian charged right into between the two of them, striking a telling blow to one just before the other owlbear clawed and bit him into unconsciousness. The remaining combatants fought well, perhaps in some attempt to forget the disaster that befell them with the slavers. Sir Hector slew one owlbear, while the other was sent into a stupor by Livid such that it fell when it attacked her. They removed the beaks because that's not gross and returned to the village.

The villagers were ecstatic. This menace had been removed, and they were happy to offer all they had, which was 150gp. The brave members of the party, doing this for the sake of the villagers, were suddenly very happy to have this money before they were reminded why having a paladin can be a pain in the ass. The paladin gets the credit of returning 50gp, but everyone loses out on a share. Captain Michael Fabian protested this change of pay, breaking the heart of dear Leana.

The journey then took them through Barnwell, where the Champion of the Red Rose and his men were invited to stay in the small barracks where Captain Michael Fabian was not seen, before turning south on a smaller road to the mining village of Rothley. There, they hired a guide to take them to Jover Hill Keep. On the 17th day of Summer's Reach, they finally spotted the keep through the trees. It becomes apparent to all that this world will involve a whole lot of time passing between events. The party should expect years on the road.

Jover Hill Keep is a bit of an unknown. Perhaps the priests knew more and chose not to disclose it, and perhaps not. It sits on a hill that rises only 200ft, but the keep occupies the entire top of it. It is not a large keep, but it appears secure. It also does not appear well maintained. The hill was presumably kept clear of trees and shrubs in time past, but nature has slowly begun to reclaim it. None of this is pressing on the party, though, so much as the indescribable sense they have of this place. It is a dark chill coming from it. This is not a place for the living.

An overgrown road appears to lead up to the front gate, but for now the party is in the forest.



Have fun storming the castle.

Either we have a new member of our party, or Sir Hilton has gone in....cog....nito.

Goddamn, we REALLY forgot how to D&D the past few sessions. I hope our luck changes soon.

I've identified a few things, but I wouldn't recommend they be changed. I really like the way this campaign is going- it is goddamned legit.


Our first encounter was a very optimized party that we fought against, all things considered. It had support casters, etc. That was a very surprising first level encounter.
Our second encounter was very position dependent, and rather overtuned. The rules do not model that situation very well.
Our third encounter had very high damage opponents (one of them was able to one-shot PCs about a third of his hits), AND we did not bring the retinue we were expected to. That barbarian would PROBABLY have charged Sir Hilton, but untanked he just started shitting on us.


In all encounters, we have seen really wild die results. Designing an encounter that can threaten the PCs (and not just a few of their resources) is very hard. The threat needs to be real, after all, and that DOES put the fight result very much within reach of the dice. As you guys saw with the trivial CR 4 Owlbear (and two of them), there's a resource threat with those kinds of encounters- if we had to go through four fights that day, we'd be very concerned with efficiently dispatching the Owlbears without losing too many hit points and spells. A dungeon crawl or small "campaign style" encounter series can provide this, but it is also very hard to set that up. I think we had encounters that Zem set up for some reasonable set of player actions and die results, and we mildly disappointed on the first and bombed all to fuck on the second.


The only thing that bugs me is honestly the half elves. For a race that is, by Zem's lore pretty uncommon, we sure have fought a lot of them (two is a lot), and they are NOT called out to our sorcerer, who pelts sleeps into them thinking that they are human. We find out they are half elves when the spell gets immuned. Even pointing out that we can't be sure of the race because so-and-so is wearing a helmet would be a solid reminder. This isn't something that Zem is doing on purpose, but it has vastly reduced our effectiveness, and is especially brutal on a first time caster with only one offensive spell. I would actually argue that even with all of our misplays, this one detail would have swung the third encounter.


I would say not asking the two allies who would have loved to join us along on the third encounter was 90% our mistake, but I'll also point out that it wasn't really signaled to us that they were our full party- they didn't pop up and say "I want glory!". Sir Hilton was, until the results of the Red Rose, someone who outranked us and we were indebted to, and I didn't want to increase that debt. Instead, we had a druid who literally did nothing, but did not hint to us that he was entirely worthless in combat without a rest. It would not have been unreasonable for him to have exclaimed that the group was too large for us, or that he needed his magic back, without us having to think that far ahead.


The final thing is, and I'll be totally straight here: I did NOT run the more optimized character, and Zem might have expected more out of any character I brought to the table, and built around a level of party that we aren't quite, due in part to me. When I was coming up with these frost elves, I had a druid and a ranger, brother and sister. The brother would have been the more helpful character, but primarily I wanted to play a cool ranger. Secondarily, I was also not a fan of all the chatter I had heard about the druid being so optimal in E6- without having any experience and not having the inclination to run tests, I was concerned I would make some high-op monster and swing my dick around. "The internet says druids are the most powerful core class in E6, so I ran that!". That's not to say that Livid is a weak character, but she's no Eron.





If I was Zem, I would hope that the third encounter taught the PCs to actually bring all of their resources to every fight, because training time is fucking over. We won't, for instance, leave our friendly NPCs to chill while we do work- if it has a character sheet and is willing to fight with us, we take it. I think that's a realistic and logical conclusion to draw. Also, if I was Zem, I would stick a fucking no2 pencil up my pee-hole for tricking the sorcerer into casting sleep at elves.

There actually is a Sir Hector. That's Edward Stopling's knight... but thanks. Fixed.



As for the concerns...
-I did not assume that you would bring two other characters. Honestly, Leopold would probably have volunteered to remain behind to let anyone know where you had gone and ensure the wine was not unattended. The priest would not have had all of his spells at that point either.

-Your level 1 druid nearly took out a level 3 Swashbuckler. They were each down to 2 hit points. Granted that swashbuckler spent some time of that time attacking your swashbuckler because I must have something against Sweetcheeks. Still, I thought it was apparent that he had been in a fight in a natural setting and that he wasn't the brightest fellow.

-I never knew they said druids were best for E6. I have mentioned druids because they are suitable for the flavor of the world.

-Elves are not super rare. They are uncommon. I said there was one noble elf trying to enter the Knight's Tournament... but other elves were in the tournament. There was even some frost elf chick in the archery competition. We don't want a world where there aren't enough elves in the city for it to be a complete novelty or else it will be impossible for a player character. So instead, they are uncommon and generally distrusted. Then we have half-elves. There is a reason you are fighting half elves. The best real world comparison would be the probability that a random bandit doesn't know who his father was in the middle ages. He's a bastard, and therefore has no real place in polite society. If he is not accepted into the polite society, then his next choice is to join up with a gang in impolite society. So in other words, this is not a response to Sleep... half-elves will often be your enemy because neither humans nor elves readily accept them. Even elves living in human lands will tend to be more dickish. It's not that being an elf is a crime, but imagine if an elf opens a deli... enough humans would be repulsed that an elf would touch their food that they wouldn't go there. The members of the Nightcrawlers were generated before the first gaming session, and it should appear to all that the "immoral" are somehow more willing to judge based on ability than race.

-You attacked in the dim hours before dawn, and a 150 feet away a rogue that doesn't like being a half-elf (there's no Tanis here... no half-elf wants to be a half-elf) scampered from the low branches of one tree where he had been hiding to hide behind another tree. I called him simply "this guy" and showed him appear from behind a tree and move to another. Had anyone asked about him in any way, I would have given a free spot check to see if you could identify race or class. No one said anything. He was deliberately trying to stay out of view, and neither of us use the weird looking 3rd ed elves. From that distance, he would have looked very much like a human. Your enemies are not always stupid. Anyone could have gone to wake up the barbarian, but it stood to reason that after a Sleep spell has come out, then the guy who is immune to such effects should do the waking and the others should not clump.

-In the thieves hideout, I identified the half-elf and the elf immediately, and there was no attempt to deceive. As I recall, you knew it was hitting an elf or half-elf, but the problem became one of hit dice. The nearest enemy was affected first, and I believe we determined that the elves were still targets, absorbing hit dice. Everyone was aware they were elves.

-Barbarians are kind of assholes at low level.

-I am pleased you think a trelliman running across a field and falling asleep is sound battle strategy. I put a lot of work into generating that little fucker.

Oh, by the way, giving back part of the money reminded me of the Three Amigos. You might recall in their movies, they give back all the money, but as actors they want to be paid.

But then I suddenly remembered this, and I think it's unbelievably funny. Real bullets!