Earthdawn update

Going to start up Earthdawn again when we next game, so 'tis time to share what happened on the last session. I think I'm skipping a session here, so I will post again if I find that update.

We start out with Neryl heading outside into the rain to check on Naya after she attacked the ork high chief Grathis, thinking Grathis had killed her parents in an ork raid. The two of them had a conversation about revenge, and Neryl revealed he had seen his parents murder each other while under the influence of a Horror, along with the rest of his town. He gave a somewhat hypocritical speech about giving up taking revenge on someone it was not possible to take revenge on (in her case because the ork scorchers who killed her parents are probably long dead by now…orks only live like 40-50 years, and scorchers don't exactly have a retirement plan). She told him she was still confused about so much, and he said she needn't always separate herself from the group whenever we hit a city, and that she would never learn what she needed to know unless she started opening herself up. In a very unsure voice she asked him if he would help her. He considered it for a moment and said that while he wasn't the best choice for that, if she wished it he would do what he could.

Back in Grathis' meeting chambers where we were going over The Plan: after a few very tense words regarding Alia's plan, Tal stalked out of the room and went back to the inn room, dropped off a few things and headed back out into a common room, intending to head downstairs and outside for some air and time to fume. Alia was waiting for him and very nicely asked what his problem was. He was anything BUT nice. He all but accused her of lying in her "logical group choices" and knew it the way she looked dead at him as she said it. He said he was sick of her treating him like a damn lovesick child when he's done everything she's ever asked of him, including putting his feelings for her away. He said if she hated him and what he has become (a blood elf) so much, all she had to do was TELL HIM and he'd get out of her sight, but he wanted her to be HONEST with him. In the end he was all but yelling at her, weeks of frustration coming out all at once.

She took this….badly. She stood up and said "How dare you accuse me of being disgusted with you. How dare you accuse me of hating you because of my difficulty dealing with…with this...when my difficulty is with how damned familiar you are! How similar to…. How I keep looking out of the corner of my eye and seeing you and thinking for just a moment that you were…someone else."

He stared dead at her as he said "I didn't do this to become more like him in your eyes."

She straightened up, wiped a tear from her eye, said "Excuse me." and ran downstairs. He stared after her for a moment, and the chair his hand was on flew sideways across the room as he threw it into the wall. He took a moment to calm down and stalked downstairs, where Orun was writing in his journal. Alia had already gone outside. He stopped at the door, looking out into the rain. He couldn't see her.

Finally he turned around, looked back at Orun and said "I wasn't aware Obsidimen kept journals."
"Some of us do."
"I think that would be an interesting read."
"Probably not as interesting as you hope."
"Orun, I need you to promise me something."
"Of course."
"I need you…I need you to keep her safe. She means everything to me."
"You need not ask this. I will keep her safer than she would be with anybody."
"Thank you. Of course I will keep Cat.."
"You also need not make that promise. I know you will keep Cat safe."
"My life before hers."

Orun nodded and went back to writing. Tal left and headed into the rain. He couldn't say anything to make Alia feel better at that point, so he headed for the hills outside of town to be alone. Once there, Naya found him and the two began talking and Tal confided in her the conversation he and Alia had.

Tal paused and said, "Can I…ask you a question? You know what I am now right?"
With a confused look she said "You are….you."
"That's my problem. I'm not always sure I am. Alia…looks at me and I fear she sees something I don't. Even if she didn't hate me before, she doubtless does now."
Naya smiled. "She does not hate you. I have seen how she looks at you."
"You weren't there for what I said…." Tal said sullenly. Then he turned to her. "Naya, I need you need to know something. No blood elf has ever undergone the ritual of thorns without being willing. I...I asked for this."
At this she finally looked a bit taken aback. "W…why would you do this to yourself?"
Tal sighed. "A lot of reasons. Mainly because one of us had to. Alia and I cannot just traipse into the Wood and try and fix everything for people we have no concept of. If we are going to do this, one of us has to be linked to the Wood itself. Alachia knew that, and so asked me to undergo the ritual. If I didn't take this upon myself…Alia would have."
With a smile, a nod and a thump to his chest, she said "See? You are still you."

The smile faded suddenly and she pitched forward. Tal caught her and saw an arrow in her back. He dived backward into the gully they were sitting beside, pulling her on top of him to shield her from the impact. Her eyes were open, so he asked if she could move. She said she thought so, so he threw her arm around his neck and started running. Not for town though, for the nearest scrub tree. His movement didn't slow as he reached the tree. He used some of the abilities granted to him by having a Named wood spirit inside him to meld with the plant and use it to transport himself back to town, a few hundred feet from the inn. He got her inside and they took a look at the wound, waking Neryl, who had most of the healing supplies. Neryl took a look at the wound and saw her reactions. She wasn't hurt as bad as it looked…she was feverish. Neryl told Gronk to examine the arrow for poison and he did smell a drug on it. It was a knockout drug, which made us think that it was probably meant to capture instead of kill, and it was probably meant for Tal. Tal got a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach, turned very slowly towards Orun and asked if Alia had returned. Orun shook his head. Tal's eyes became very cold. "We're going over there."
Gronk looked incredulous "Or….we stay here and hole up. They WANT us to go out there!"
"I don't care. She's in danger."
"And we aren't?? Look…what do you even want to do?"
Tal looked evenly at Gronk "Gut them."

Quillian woke to a crashing sound coming from the girls' room. As his wings were still injured, he sighed, grabbed his bow and shortsword, and climbed to the window and up to the roof. He climbed to the top of the roof and was about to head over when he saw the outline of a figure standing on the front edge of the inn with arrow knocked and pointed towards the entrance. A slow evil grin spread across Quil's face and he lined up a shot of his own at certain nether-regions that had nothing to do with the astral plane. He let fly and hit the ork in the kiester with his arrow, the ork yelped, dropped the bow and started flailing, trying to keep on the ledge, and then fell off with a large grunt. Quil continued on to the girls' window, but saw as he went, another couple of orks on another neighboring building. When he reached the window he saw it was dark inside, but the sounds of struggling were coming from the room. Quil tossed in a light crystal and saw Zora standing in the corner looking scared out of her wits, and Cat kneeling on the now-unconscious ork with a blade at his back. Quil, whose head was hanging upside down in the window complimented Cat's work. She said "Please…the day anybody can sneak up on me…." then screamed as Gronk opened the door behind her and said everybody had to get downstairs. Quil couldn't quite hide his smile. He motioned for Gronk to come over to the window and pointed out the two orks, which Gronk took out with two arrows. The invading party must have had enough at that point, because three of them came out front and yelled for us to give ourselves up.

Once downstairs and everything was explained, Zora had an idea. Tal came back from checking the back door to see Zora striding out the front door. He looked at Orun and asked what she was doing. Orun shrugged and replied "I don't know.". Tall stopped….walked over to Orun and swung his hand through where Orun's shoulders were…which would also have been above Zora's head. His hand went through. 'Orun' said "Hey! What are you trying to do? Disprove my illusion?"

Tal said "No. Just testing a theory. Obsidimen don't talk in contractions."

'Zora' walked out and put her hands up. One ork told another to grab her and get her over to the side. He grabbed her arm and 'Zora' punched upward with the other arm, sending the ork flying. The other two didn't even have time to react….

Gronk looked at Tal. "Well…this is the best distraction we're gonna get…"
"We?"
Gronk grunted. "Can't let you get your fool head shot full of arrows."

Tal nodded slowly and the two took off…..and were immediately fired upon when they got through the door. Hiding behind porch posts, Tal and Gronk saw where the shots were coming from across the street, from an ork ducked into a doorway. Gronk asked what now and Tal replied "We take the direct approach." and spun around the post and started running towards him, his cloak billowing behind him and unsheathing both swords as he went. He dodged three shots and was upon the ork. With a rather vicious swipe, one sword cut the bow in half, and the other came up to a part of an ork male's anatomy that would make any guy uncomfortable. Tal got in very close, so the ork could see his face. "Your answers to two questions will determine the next few minutes of your life…. Where...is...she?"
"Who? The elf? Yeah the elf! We got her tied up in a tannery down the street! The boss said to hold her there until we could bring back another one of you for questioning."
"Has she been harmed?"
"N-no! Not at all! The boss says he wants a couple of you unharmed so's we can question you…"
"Congratulations. You answered correctly." His sword moved to the ork's side. "Now move."

The ork led us to the tannery the orks were holed up in. We saw a guard out front. Our ork told us there were two guards and the boss inside. Tal turned to him and said "Have you ever been sucker-punched by a troll?"
"No…" he turned slowly.
Gronk smiled "Now ya have…" and with one hit the ork slumped to the ground.
Tal looked down "He should appreciate the experience."

Gronk took out the guard in the front and Tal moved in. He looked in the window and saw another guard standing near Alia, who was tied up with a bag over her head. He motioned at Gronk and pointed at the guard. Gronk took aim, fired and the guard was stapled to the back wall as Tal charged in.

Tal expected the trap when he came through. His blade parried the ork boss's strike as his second blade came in with a vicious riposte, then both his blades came in from either side, one scoring a deep hit in the ork's side. The ork tried to attack again, but Tal was in a cold rage and was fighting with everything he had. He came in with another block and riposte and hit the ork again. Both Tal's blades came back for another strike and stopped a hair's breadth from either side of the ork's neck in a scissor-cut. "You can't beat me, so I'm going to give you one chance."
The ork gulped. "A...a chance for what?"
"Leave."
The ork stopped, unsure of what exactly he meant. "Why?"
Tal looked evenly at him. "She is unharmed?"
"Yeah, we didn't touch her. Didn't even rough her up."
"Good answer. She is very important to me, so I'm going to give you this one courtesy. Besides...I don't like killing."
The ork slowly nodded.
Tal lowered his blades. "We will need to know who hired you."
"If I tell you that they're gonna kill me."
"I think we know pretty well. I tell you what…you can just answer this. Was it the Broken Fang tribe's chief?"
"I can't say if it was or not."
"Thank you. I understand. If you come after us again…."
"I'm not comin' after you again. I'm not getting' paid either way after this."

Tal went over to Alia and pulled the bag off of her head. She was gagged and looking around wildly. He remembered her being similarly tied up when the two met. His rage drained from him immediately.

He smiled down at her and said "This seems familiar." She started glaring at him and muttering something under the gag. Tal said "Yes….I've definitely seen something like this before somehwere." and he cut away her gag with his knife. In a very unladylike manner, she spit out the tanner's rag they had shoved into her mouth and tried to get rid of the taste as Tal cut her arms and legs free. He stood and his face showed only concern as his gloved hand rested on the side of her face and he looked down at her. "Are you all right?"
She smiled slightly. "I am unharmed, thanks to you."
"Alia...I'm sorry. I should have come after you."
She looked up at him "But you did."
He smiled at her and said "I always will."
They locked eyes as she smiled back. It was the warmest thing Tal had felt in days.
He said "Let's get out of here."

They got back to the inn and everything seemed to be taken care of back there. Naya was still unconscious and Neryl was tending to her, though mysteriously her wound had already sealed. After some discussion on it and a warning for Tal from Alia, who knew Tal would be going directly into Broken Fang territory, the only pace the chief knew we were going, they decided to get some sleep. Neryl said he was going to stay downstairs with Naya. Alia smiled at him and raised an eyebrow. He snapped that if her fever returned she would need assistance. Alia said "Of course. I'll bring down a pillow and blanket for her." and went upstairs as Neryl pulled up a chair and a book beside the table on which Naya lay.

Eberron: End of Chapter 1 (part 3)

On the way back to Sharn, Antonius convinced Tosh to accompany him to give his report to the council of twelve. The two parted for an hour while Tosh tracked down Zhen. Upon contacting her, Zhen said she was with Tosh's "LOVELY sister in law" at the inn. Tosh headed down there and walked right into the room where his wife's sister sat meditating and Zhen was pacing. He walked right up to Zhen and threw his arms around her. He held her close for a long moment until a pointed clearing of a throat behind him brought him back. Tosh told his sister in law that they wouldn't be leaving until later today when the docks opened and that he had business to take care of in the meantime. She huffed that she would head down and try to hurry things up as much as possible and headed out. Zhen took Tosh aside and told him two suspicious people were watching his sister in law. Zhen took them out from behind and they fell like puppets with their strings cut. They were in the alleyway across the street. Tosh and Zhen headed out and found two catatonic forms sitting in the street. He sensed a great psionic signature coming from them. These two bodies once held Inspired...he was sure of it. Which meant the Inspired knew why she was here, and that could spell doom for the kalashtars' plans.

Tosh told Zhen of what happened with Tess, and Zhen said she did some looking into a group who was hunting her, and noted that they left. In fact all of the various groups hunting Tess had either left or disbanded. It seemed the world knew she was dead.

Zhen said she'd watch Tosh's sister in law, and he made his report to the twelve. He told them she was dead, but survived by one son. They said the reason they wanted to see her was to settle Harm Akari's estate. He had sent a messenger while we were in Talenta, and named Tess as sole heir to his vast fortune, his estate, and a number of artifacts he had made or aquired in his travels. With Antonius assigned to assist him, Tosh had 90 days to get a legal heir before them or Harm's estate passed to them. Tosh pressed a matter....Antonius had been after Tess for months, and Harm had changed his will only weeks ago. They admitted they wanted her for other reasons. They wanted to offer her the chance to reestablish the thirteenth house. They extended that offer to her son. They would take him and protect him and provide him the finest education and chances in life. They would even sweeten the pot.... One of the artifacts Harm found in Xen'drik would store a Quori spirit inside it and protect it....even beyond the turning of the wheel of ages.

Both alarmed at what the council knew as well as angered at their assumptions, Tosh's eyes narrowed. He said good day to them and walked out of the meeting hall. Antonius followed and offered his help on Tosh's current mission. Tosh asked why and Antonius admitted he was a bit tired of being a glorified messenger boy and wanted to do some good in the world. Besides...he could be a very good means of extraction if things went badly in Sarlona.

Tosh paused and looked at Antonius. "That....that damned changeling means a great deal to me."

Antonius smiled good-naturedly "I can see that much."

"I don't want her to die in there. If things went wrong and you were able to save her..... I would be forever grateful."

"I will make her extraction my top priority."

Antonius offered a hand and Tosh shook it. He was silently amused at the irony of it all. Antonius was about to find out how similar he was to who Tosh used to be once. A very very long time ago.



Tess awoke to a white mist over a featureless white plane. She got up and looked around. She called out and noone answered, so she began to wander. For what seemed like forever she walked and got nowhere...it was still the same empty mist, with nobody around.

She sat down on the ground(?), complaining to the mist. "You know....I think the afterlife pretty much sucks."

"There you go thinking again."

She looked back to see the mist part and reveal the slightly hunched form of an old man. Harm stepped into view and smiled at her.

In a very un-Tess-like moment, she was up on her feet and bowling him over with a hug in no time. Tears were in her eyes as she looked up at him and smiled herself. "I was hoping I'd get a chance to see you. I mean so much has happened....I got married, but I didn't want to...I got pregnant and had a baby, and he was supposed to be evil, but I got him cleansed and I think he might be okay...he looks normal...I mean he looks beautiful...but I'm not sure what's going to happen, and.....I didn't get to say goodbye before you left."

Harm looked at her with his patient look that said he was waiting for her to stop not making sense before he continued on. "Listen kiddo...we need to talk. See this isn't quite the afterlife yet. It's more of a....waiting room."

"A waiting room? Why are we waiting?"

"Well because you're not technically dead yet."

"There's a spectrum of dead?"

Harm rolled his eyes. "You'd be surprised. Anyhow...listen up as I don't have a lot of time here. As I didn't have a lot else going on, I kept studying the prophecies, and...well...I think I figured something out. A sort of...loophole if you will. You'll need to take this back with you so pay attention!"

"Back with me.... So I'm not going to die?"

"Not yet. At least I don't think so."

Tess smiled to herself for a second. "You know...I actually don't want to die. Do you know how long it's been since I've felt that way?"

"Of course you don't want to die!"

"But I did. I just wanted you to all go home and leave me alone so I could either go evil or die in peace!"

Harm's tone softened. "Well...you've got something more to live for now, don't you?"

She nodded. "I really do."

"Listen, this prophecy....there might be a loophole."

After a confused look and a moment of thought, she said "Loophole. You know, that little silver flame kid used the exact same word. She told me I might be able to find a way out of all this."

"She might be right. But it's not you. It's....okay I have to be cryptic about this, and you KNOW how much I HATE cryptic, but those are the rules. I can tell you that it's not the first that holds the key...but the second."

She blinked and stared blankly at him "I assume this is something I'll figure out in time? Or am I screwed here?"

Harm looked frustrated. "It's all I can say. I'm sorry kid. Unfortunately I gotta go now. And so do you."

"I...Harm....Thank you."

"Thank ME? What on earth for?"

"For being the only one who was stupid and stubborn enough to....believe in me."

"Yeah well....I have a soft spot for little girls with hard luck cases."

"Harm?"

"Yeah kid?"

"Your daughter....wherever she is now...she was a damned lucky girl."

She leaned up and kissed him on his cheek. She smiled and hugged her, and seemed to pass back into the mist. "I'll see ya again eventually. Good luck kid."



Back on a ship...gods know where...a warforged lay motionless on the ground outside the cargo hold, with other figures lying motionless within, an empty blanket that once held a baby nowhere to be found.



And in Sharn, down in a ruined landscape, a dilapidated old church stood amongst the rubble. Within, as an acolyte took out sheets that had only a few hours previous held a woman who had just died in childbirth, an elven priestess sat on the bed, holding a small bundle. She looked down fondly at a small elven face and brushed back blonde hair from the baby's large blue eyes.

"Yes....that's good.... Your mother would be so proud of you. Yes she would! You are such a beautiful little girl...."

Eberron: End of Chapter 1 (part 2)

The last thing Tess heard as blackness overcame her was the priestess exclaiming "That's impossible!"

Ten minutes later Raza came out of the church and told us the baby had been born and that he was healthy and normal-looking (and acting). Tosh asked about Tess and Raza sadly shook her head. He nodded and started giving orders to gather the baby and her up. He and ANtonius would be teleporting up to talk to them, while baby would be going on the airship with Drace & Co, Melendra, the half giant, Raza and Guage.

Guage came out of the church with Tess, wrapped in a blanket. He slowly walked her over to Tosh and held her body out to him. He took her and we teleported up.

The dragon was suspicious. She wanted verification that this was indeed Tess, so Tosh unwrapped her and tore open the back of her robe to reveal her mark. The dragon then commanded Tosh to step away from the body so she could destroy it, and commanded the baby be brought to her as well. Tosh argued that the baby was not human and could not therefore bear the mark of death. He knew it was shaky ground to start this conversation on, but he mentioned the prophecy. He told he was aware they had seen the END of the prophecy, but most of it was unseen by dragon eyes. He said he had access to all of the prophecy they did not, and wanted to make a deal. She asked what he wanted and he said he wanted her to translate the entire prophecy for him, so they could ALL know what it said in its entirety. The dragon laughed and said she expected him to use it to leverage his own life, but Tosh smiled and said "If you think I see my life as that important, you do not know the Kalashtar."

Behind him, another voice chimed in. "Dear boy...you don't have to go to all that trouble to learn the prophecy. I can tell you exactly what it says."

Lord Tegarius stepped onto the roof, looking like he'd been there all along, unnoticed. Tosh sighed....this kept getting better and better. Tegarius continued "However...I won't bore you with all the details. I'm just here for my lovely wife and new son. Where is he now?"

Tosh looked past the demon to the dragon. "I'm having trouble figuring out why you aren't destroying everything on this rooftop right now."

The demon responded. "Well you see that's the rub. She can't. Tess here is mine, and she knows it. Going against that would be....well going against the rules, wouldn't it? Besides...she can't kill me anyway. I may not be at my full power, but this avatar is, well...let me show you."

He gestured at Antonius and asked him to run him through. Antonius looked reluctant, but as it was a demon, he saluted and stabbed him through the chest with his sword. The bloodless blade hung halfway through him as he smiled and walked closer to her "What's wrong....cat got your tongue?"

The dragon snarled at him, but made no move to respond in any way. Tegarius gestured towards the sword. "You can pull it out now.". He looked down towards Tess's body. "You see...at the heart of it all I'm a family man. Sure the girl leaves something to be desired right NOW...but soon enough she will be...perfect." He rounded on Tosh. "Now....where..is..my..son?"

At that moment, Antonius grabbed Tosh and threw a leg out to touch Tess's body as well, and teleported down into the market. The dragon's roar echoed througout Sharn. Tosh recovered for a moment and grabbed Tess, looking at Antonius. "If she wasn't ticked off before....she sure as hell is NOW." and we ran.

Tegarius appeared in front of us. "You know it doesn't have to be this difficult."

Tosh's soulblade flashed into being as he infused it with the holy energy of Il Yannah...something he hadn't done in a long time. He didn't even stop running by as he growled "I wonder...are you so immune to everything?" and stabbed him. The demon's form gave out a howl of pain and blew into a smoke cloud.

But the dragon had found us.

Tosh looked back at Antonius and said "Take her and run." and advanced towards the dragon, almost feeling foolish in doing so. The airship came level with the market shelf we were on and Pai Mei and the elven twins jumped out. Tosh made mental contact with Drace and told him to get himself and his airship out of here. He had to get the baby as far away as possible. Drace nodded and moved the airship away.

The elven woman flung a blast of dark energy at the dragon, who summarily ignored it.

The demon appeared behind her and said "Why don't you try tapping into your true potential?". She looked back almost as if she knew him and nodded. Her hands glowed with hellfire and she blasted again. This time the blast left a glowing sear across the dragon's face. She smiled and said "Thanks. Now go away." and blasted towards him. He appeared agian behind her, tsking. Tosh stabbed at him with the holy soulknife again, and he disappeared and appeared again behind Tosh.

"Now now...stab me once, shame on you...."

Tosh swung around again and the blade passed through him. Tegarius smiled and said "Let's end this."

Tosh scowled as a cold rage took him. "I agree. GO...HOME."

Tosh's eyes glowed a bright white as he used a technique perfected against banishing Quori...but a demon was just as extraplanar as Tosh's sworn enemies. The demon's smile faded somewhat as the outer edges of his form began to swirl and dissipate.

Tegarius' look changed to outright rage as he grabbed for Tosh's neck, but there were no more fingers to grab with. He snarled "This isn't over! The girl is mine and there is nothing you can do to stop it!!"

Tosh brought his face even with, and very close to, the demon's, and very softly said "We'll see about that." as the demon dissipated in a cloud of ash.

Meanwhile the half giant grew to 20 feet tall and grabbed the dragon's tail, and Pai Mei also grew and engaged her. Blasts of eldritch fire and psionic energy slammed into her, a wrestling match between the dragon and two giant-sized combatants, even Antonius returned. But the dragon was still winning. It flung Pai Mei back into a building and Tosh threw up his Quori "disguise" and advanced towards her. She batted him back into a wall and, now having thought he was a worthy kill, reared up to strike.

The strike never came....a blue-white light came from above and hit her hard, blowing her over the edge and into the depths below. With a frustrated roar she realized there was no room to right herself as she fell.

The captain had returned. At the bow of his ship, wreathed in a bluish white light, sat a small frog, staring blankly down at us.

We piled on the ship and started out of Sharn. Tosh contacted Zhen and told her to stay safe and stay hidden and he would be back for her, and we left Sharn at full speed. But in the night, the lights of Sharn were eclipsed as the dragon once again took flight in pursuit.

Discussing our options, we first wrapped pillows the sheet Tess was wrapped in and dropped it over the side. The dragon dove, which bought us a couple more minutes. We discussed abandoning the ship, when Tosh felt a tug on his pant leg. The frog had gotten up on two feet and walked over to him. Tosh sat in front of the frog and made a mental connection.

"There is another way."

Tosh raised an eyebrow. "I'm willing to listen to alternatives."

"The captain has a method of moving the ship very quickly out of the way. He will be reluctant to use it, but if you presented it as the only alternative....well I can distract the dragon until he is able to activate it."

"I see. I'll need a moment to get off the ship. My path lies elsewhere and I have someone I need to retrieve still in Sharn."

"Hurry then. I will be ready."

Drace's voice cut into the mental conversation. "Um...what are you doing with my frog?"

Tosh stood up and asked the captain about the frog's claims. The captain very hesitantly said he had a device capable of teleporting the ship away, but had no way of knowing where they'd end up. Tosh made it clear the alternative was losing his ship and he sighed and said to give him the signal.

Tosh ran down into the hold and found Guage standing guard outside the cargo room, where Raza and Melendra were watching over the baby. He stared at Guage for a moment and told him they would be trying to go to Xen'drik. He asked Guage to make sure Melendra and Tess's baby were safe. Guage looked back evenly and nodded. "I will protect them. Nothing will happen to either the baby or the girl."

Not having much of a choice but to trust him, Tosh said he'd be back eventually and had Antonius dimension door them up on deck. The frog had zoomed back towads the dragon and was shooting bolts of light at her as she tried to swat him. Tosh gave the signal, the frog came back to the ship, Antonius dimension doored them down to the ground, a glow surrounded the ship and it seemed to be pulled into a vortex in front of it for a moment. The two took refuge in some rocks as the dragon roared in frustration and flew off towards the ocean.

Eberron: End of Chapter 1 (part 1)

As Tosh watched Zhen go, he made the decision that he couldn't give up Melendra (Tess's little elf sister) to the dragons, but that meant he had a bigger problem. He had less than three hours to find Tess herself, and bring her before the dragons.

Thirty minutes later the group marched up to a Finder's Guild office and bribed their way in. Tosh had Tess's double-bladed scimitar and the mirror the halfling chieftan gave her. Tosh gave the items over to the House Thrashik halforc and he used a crystal ball to scry on her.

He said she was in horrific pain...that she was laying on a bed, with a snake-man hovering over her....that she was in a church of the silver flame....and with a satisfied look he stepped back from the crystal and said "She's down in the old temple district.". Tosh didn't need to know any more than that.

We hurried down to the church and reached it with less about an hour to spare. On the way Tosh signaled Zhen and Antonius d'Orien, our new ally looking for Tess. Antonius immediately teleported to our location.

As we went in, we saw the snake-man and an elven brother and sister standing over Tess's bedside. Tosh immediately rushed towards the bed, but was brought up by the elves. The woman's hands started to glow with a dark purple light, and a white light erupted from Tosh's hand as his Soulblade manifested. Guage stepped forward as did the snake-man, but Tosh realized something....all of them were not moving to attack...but were standing between Tess and us. Then he caught the symbol of the Silver Flame on the snake-man's armor and had to act quickly. He stopped Guage and started talking. A VERY tense peace ensued, as Tosh was finally allowed past to see her. Tess was in so much pain she was unaware of her surroundings, and did indeed look like she was about to have the baby, but she was very very pale.

The snake-man reverted to human form and came up to Tosh. He leaned in and whispered "The baby's growth rate is not possible...so it is pulling her life force into itself to sustain it.

Tosh looked back at the elven girl and motioned for her to come up. She hurried to the bedside and sobbed as she finally laid eyes upon her sister. Raza came up on the other side and incanted a spell that for a moment or two, took enough of Tess's pain away that she could focus. She looked up to see her sister's face and smiled. Tess was convinced she was still hallucinating as she saw an elf that looked so much like her, but out of the shadows of memories, a name came to her.

"M...Melendra?"

Tears streaked down Melendra's face as she smiled "Yes Tessandria, I'm here."

"B-but...I don't have a...sister.... And w-why are you an elf?" Tess's almost-calm tone was because she still doubted her perceptions.

"You DO have a sister. And a mother and father who love you and miss you very much. So rest...and get through this."

A contraction hit Tess, and the priestess, who had protected her for the last eight years, started shooing people out of the room. Pai Mei, Raza and Melendra were allowed to stay and help, and the rest of us were manhandled out of the room to the front of the church. Guage was the last to go before Tosh. He looked at Tess steadily. It almost seemed like he was...sad. He glanced at the priestess and said "I will not allow anyone inside." and turned to leave. Tosh followed him quietly out.

With nothing to do but wait, discussions were awkward....even when Captain Drace came down from the ship to see how she was doing. A story was told of an amulet in Xen'drik that was once owned by the dragons that would make it impossible for others to see its wearer...and Tosh and the half giant made a resolution to look into it for Melendra. Tosh told the captain of his intentions to take Tess to see the dragons no matter what happened, and shared that she was fated to become the queen of the demon lord Tegarius after she had died. He wanted the dragons to make sure she couldn't be taken and brought back as an undead.

Tosh knew the demon would be coming for his wife and son.

Inside, Tess grabbed Raza's arm and begged her not to let Zethys (the snake man) kill her son. She begged Raza to give him a chance. Raza, who had been making the decision whether or not to kill Tess since the two had met...slowly....RELUCTANTLY...

.nodded once.

Tess felt the baby drop, and the pain returned in full. Refusing to pass out or die until she'd seen him...until she knew he was safe...Tess screamed and Pai Mei hurried Melendra out of the room to get some warm wet towels. Once the girl was gone, she leaned over Tess and whispered. "Things don't have to go this way.... If you want, I can take him away from all this. I can keep him safe. His father won't be able to touch him."

Tess stopped. Her world stopped. "How...? W-where?"

"I can't say that right now...but I can't do it unless you ask it of me. Do you want me to take him?"

"Will he...will he be safe from everybody who wants to hurt him?"

"Very safe."

"Will he be able to make his own decisions in life...and grow up the way he wants to?"

"I swear it."

With tears in her eyes, she nodded almost imperceptibly.

"Then it is done."

Pai Mei's voice sounded a bit ominous, but another contraction hit and Tess was lost in the pain.

Minutes passed, each one an eternity for her. She was drowning in pain, and beyond it couldn't feel anything on her body. She couldn't move her arms and legs, as a cold numbness set in. Then she heard it. A high pitched scream echoed through the room. A baby's cry.

Raza was smiling as she carried up a bundle wrapped in a sheet. She looked at Tess and said "He's beautiful."

"B-but...is he.... Can I see him?"

Raza tipped him towards Tess and she looked upon her son. A normal, human-looking baby boy. Relief flooded through her and she felt no more pain. Tears streamed down her face as she smiled at Raza and whispered "Thank you...".

And then she let go.

Eberron: End of Chapter 1 (intro)

We recently ended chapter 1 of our Eberron story (the original Eberron story) and I wrote up a decent amount on it. First some background....

Tess had been taken prisoner by Kaius, lord of Karrnath, and he coldly informed Tess she was pregnant with her demon-lord "husband's" child, and had mere months to live. He was going to lock her away until she had her baby, which would doubtless kill her (the baby had the soul of a dracolich ally of the demon lord) and use her baby as a tool for conquest. While in prison, Tess befriended a pirate captain who had some knowledge of a girl that looked extraordinarily like Tess....albeit an elf. This girl was looking for her sister in Sharn, and bore the mark of death herself....and was probably going to run into every baddie that was after Tess in the process.

The two escaped Karrnath and hooked up with his airship crew. We headed for Sharn but were stopped by paladins of the silver flame who flew up looking for Ghost, one of Tess's old companions. Tess explained she was gone (Ghost had betrayed Tess to the demon and was currently responsible for her pregnancy) and they admitted that their high priestess was poisoned and lay dying. Tess knew who had done it, as she had been held and tortured by a high cardinal of the church who secretly worshiped the demon lord, but to tell them would be treasonous, so she and the captain decided to head for Flamekeep and break in to talk to the high priestess. We did, with no small amount of difficulty, and convinced her that the cardinal was a traitor. We managed to save her and as a reward, Tess told the high priestess about her child and the guarantee that it would be evil. She offered to help, but could guarantee nothing, but Tess had to agree.

A long painful exorcism followed, that almost killed everyone involved, but at the end a dark dragon shaped cloud came from her belly and roared as it dissipated. Tess passed out and woke up a day later. The priestess still couldn't guarantee what had happened, but one unfortunate thing was clear. Her pregnancy had been accelerated. She now looked as if she was 8 months along, and there was no clear way to tell how soon she would have the baby.

The captain stuck with her and said he'd help her get to Sharn and find her sister, and the group took off.

Her former companions hit Karnnath as she escaped, and they divided up the party. Tosh was going to lead almost everyone towards Sharn, while Ghost had to follow her own pilgrimage to regain her memories. Moloch agreed to accompany her. His faith in Vol had been shaken, and he sought truth himself, and he had developed an attraction to Ghost, so when she offered for him to join her, he agreed.

Tosh and his party hit Sharn slightly after Tess, and sought out the help of the one entity who had spoken with Tess before she left, the sphinx professor at Morgrave University. Waiting to see her, we met, to our amazement, an elven girl who looked almost exactly like Tess. Confronting her, we learned she was an elven princess of Aerenal here looking for her lost sister. We went up to see the professor, and she already knew of Tess's prophecy, and had a second part of it for us. The third part had been stolen by dragons as it was dragged out of the sea (it was etched in coral) and only the dragons knew what it would say. The second part spoke of Tess's son and how he would bring great strife to Khorvaire, leading armies and destroying much. As we finished our conversation, a great disturbance echoed throughout Sharn.

The great dragons of Argonessen had come.

Tosh got up to the top tower with the help of one of our party members, a captain of House Orien, and psionically contacted one of the dragons. She confirmed what he'd feared...the dragons wanted the girl bearing the mark of death. They gave him three hours to find her.

Everyone went back down to Tosh's old bar to regroup, and learned that someone had been waiting for him for three weeks. a kalashtar woman had taken up residence in Tosh's old room until he returned. Tosh went back and found himself face to face with his dead wife's sister. A woman who blamed him for her death, and was a large part of his exile from Adar. A woman who hated him more than anything in this world.

She was not happy to be there and not happy to see him, but had a message. The council of Adar needed him. He threatened to ignore the summons, but she knew he was still loyal to his people. He was somehow able to tap into his Quori nature and use the power of nightmare, and they needed his expertise. They needed him to infiltrate Riedra.

After the meeting, Tosh and Zhen finally had a talk of their own. It was their first since a major falling out at Karrnath, when he had finally broken through the psionic bonds that held back his power and his emotions, and finally told her he had feelings for her. Zhen had pulled away then, making Tosh doubt their relationship. Tosh told her he was leaving for Reidra after this, and she told him she'd come. He asked her why. That's when she, in her own unique way, made her peace (she told him he talked too much and kissed him). Then she flipped over the rail and landed on a bridge below, gave him a smile and a wink and headed off into the city.

Quick updates

In MMO news, Tal (my elf druid) just hit level 60. God bless patch 2.3 and the xp bonus! Thanks to Aaron's very kind wife, he is now riding his epic mount and looks sexay. And I am LOVING Outland.

In RPG news, we have been playing Scion lately, which is White Wolf's new game where you play the sons and daughters of gods. It's quickly turned into one of my more favorite games.

Oh and the Eberron game I described below? We have decided to uproot it and move it to the Forgotten Realms. Kaelan is now a Drow elf prince instead of a Valinar, and Draven and the girl are no more. In their place I am playing a human binder and a Shade assassin who has been blessed and watched by Shar. I kinda miss Draven's angst, but the Shade more than makes up for it.

In a few weeks Aaron will be getting the Warhammer 40k RPG main book. This....this could be a big one for us. We've been waiting to be able to play in the WH40k world for a loooooong time. He's also preordered the First Age book for Exalted, and we'll be picking up the companion book for Hollow Earth Expedition (HEX) as soon as it comes out. But that isn't my big RPG news....

I don't often salivate over games that aren't out yet. In fact, I usually assume it will suck until proven otherwise. This being said, it appears someone has gone out and created a game in a genre I cannot believe hasn't been tapped yet.

Fantasy Flight Games will be releasing the Anima RPG sometime between now and armageddon (they're a few years late with the english release), and its very very interesting world seems cut from the very same cloth as the Final Fantasy, Xenosaga and similar games/manga/anime. A Final Fantasy RPG!! Rapture! With calling magic and magitech and cities named with ancient pretentious biblical terms and secret societies that have taken over the world and....and....well if they name some minor NPC Cid I'm going to keel over from sheer joy. I've been waiting for a game like this to come along for over a decade.

Now the game could still blow chunks, and I am cognizant of that, but for some stupid reason my optimism won't let me kill my hopes and dreams of what this game could mean. This could be my ubergame, and if it's out by Gencon this year, I'm going to do whatever I can to have the damned thing in my hands. I don't have a release date (the ones they gave got so ludicrously overhsot that eventually they just stopped bothering to tell us when they thought it was going to release), but if it isn't out this year I have to say I'm considering learning Spanish just to be able to read the damned original edition. :-P

Oh and the art for this game is freaking phenomenal. I weep at the prospect of the game being as good as its packaging. Have a looksee: www.animarpg.com

New Eberron story (Part 2)

The girl nervously said that she couldn’t stay and excused herself. She was halfway to the door when four men with cloaks and wide brimmed hats came into the bar. She saw them and almost collapsed with fright. They called her a witch said she needed to come with them. Kaelan really should have stayed in his seat this time…..

He was at her shoulder in a moment, asking what was going on. The man repeated that she was a witch and was required to come with them to stand trial. The elf took exception to this and, once again, politely suggested the party threatening this girl leave. The humans took it no better than the hill giant and drew swords that immediately sprang into a silvery flame. His blade was in his hand too when the minotaur got there. The man told the minotaur that she was required to come with them and the minotaur had the nerve to AGREE. Kaelan once again politely but firmly said that wasn’t going to happen. The minotaur took a step toward her and found the reverse edge of the scimitar at his thick neck.

Rork sighed. Here came that headache….

The elf looked very evenly at the minotaur. “No…HERE is what is going to happen. We’re going to leave and go out into the street to fight this out like civilized people…and the kid goes with ME. Do we have a problem with that”

The wild grin on the elf’s face spoke of apparent mental issues.

The minotaur bellowed “Fine. BOTH of you get the hell out of here! AND DON’T COME BACK!!”

Ouch. This was the only place to get halfway reliable information in Stormreach. This was going to be expensive….

Kaelan looked apologetically at Rork as he came up. The dwarf sighed again and looked up at the elf. “Lad….ya think you might want to put the damned blade down yet?”

The elf looked back at his blade, still at the minotaur’s throat. “Oh yeah. Heh. Sorry…”

Not wanting to kill the witch hunters in the street, Rork went up to negotiate with them. He exhaled and a green cloud enveloped them. Tianna looked at Kaelan. “What the hell was that?”

Kaelan grabbed the girl’s wrist and looked at Tianna. “We’re gonna want to move now. I’d hold your breath too.”

She looked at him quizzically “Why would we……OH GODS!”. She clutched at her nose and ran.

We needed somewhere to run they would follow us, and the jungle at night wasn’t an option. Kaelan calmed himself and tried to remember….and, as always, the answer came to him with a weird tingle and familiar feeling, even though he’d never been there. There was one place to run to their pursuers would NEVER think they’d be stupid enough to go to….the giant graveyard in the center of town.

Stormreach was built on top of giant ruins, and there was a graveyard there. People didn’t go into it. Too many stories came out of there. So the elf wisely decided not to tell the girls where he was headed until they got there.

Two minutes later, after a shove and much complaining from Tianna about how giant wraiths were going to drain their souls (Kaelan assured her giant wriaths were never seen in groups of more than two), we hunkered down behind a grave. The witch hunters came to the gates and turned away down another street.

We were just figuring out how to regroup with Onyx and Draven (who had decided to check in with the local Host temple) and decided to send Tianna to get them. The girl, named Harmony, mentioned that most people from organized churches considered her a heretic at best, a witch at worst. Tianna mentioned there may be difficulty with Draven, should he find out, but the dwarf waved her away. “That boy is the single last person that is going to judge her. He’d be throwing a very large rock at a VERY large glass house.” Even Tianna was forced to agree with that.

She had just teleported away when a shadowy figure very suddenly appeared before Kaelan and a skeletal hand picked him up. A cold came over him that he barely fought off as it attempted to energy drain him. The dwarf came to his aid, breathing fire onto the wraith and it dropped the elf. Kaelan was just commenting about how ironic it was it showed up JUST AS TIANNA LEFT when another ragged black cloaked figure moved off to their right as another giant wraith appeared. Kaelan shoulded “OH COME ON….I WAS –KIDDING-!!” as the three of them ran for the gates.

The human and elf easily outdistanced the short legged dwarf and he was breathing fire left and right to keep the wraiths from him. The elf knew when he reached the gates that Rork didn’t have a chance. He shoved the girl through the gate and chanted a quick protection spell and dove at the dwarf, driving the wraiths back. They began to circle the boundaries of the spell, hissing at them in rage. The dwarf looked up at Kaelan. “Well NOW what do we do?”

That’s when they heard the girl scream and saw four slivers of silvery flame in front of her.

The elf said “Get ready” and intoned another spell, teleporting the dwarf and himself behind the four hunters, who had knocked the girl back and were getting ready to strike. The girl closed her eyes and armor formed around her, making her grow a good two feet in height. She gestured and the lead hunter flew backwards as a blast of wind hit him. The dwarf breathed flame at the feet of the other three and they howled as they tried to put themselves out. The elf began to walk towards the lead hunter, once again unsheathing his sword.

“Know what? I’m going to be more forgiving than usual today. Go. Away. Or I’m going to kill you.”

The human stood up and raised his flaming sword. “I think not….”

“You want to die? Fine. Let me introduce you to how –I-- do fire.” Kaelan charged and an explosion of fire rocked the hunter back again.

“So…you’re a witch too. Then die with her!”

“No witch. I’m just a LOT better than you are….”

The comment wasn’t entirely true. The knight got a few wicked hits on him, but his abilities were very potent these days and fire ringed his sword with every hit. After a heavy cut to the hunter that sent him reeling he stopped again.

“You’re not doing so well and neither are your men. Go away and leave her alone. NOW.”

The hunter gasped and glared at him. “This isn’t over” he spat.

“Friend, the next time we meet….one of us isn’t walking away from it."

The hunter’s sword raised toward him. “COUNT on that.” And he staggered away.

Before Kaelan could react, Harmony’s armor had retracted and she threw her arms around him. “Um. You’re welcome?”

She blushed and said “Sorry. It’s just…nobody has ever…helped me before.”

“Yeah well…I REALLY hate bullies.”

Tianna found Draven praying at the altar with Onyx patiently watching him, and told them there was trouble.

“Did the elf cause it?”

“Yes.”

“At a tavern.”

“Well…yes.”

“A girl?”

“Isn’t it always?”

Draven finished his prayer and stood.“ Then we’d better go quickly.

As they left, they could see four figures coming up the hill towards the religious quarter. Tianna hissed that those were the four causing the trouble and filled them in quickly on who they were. Draven tensed up immediately. If a silver flame witch hunter ever found out what he was….

Tianna teleported to avoid them and Draven pulled up his hood and walked very slowly past them with Onyx at his side. He was past them when he heard it. “Hey…you!”

He sighed as he tensed again and turned back. The lead hunter was looking back at him. “Be careful. There are dangerous types about down there tonight.”

“Thank you for the warning brother.”

A few minutes later, Draven healed the elf and we were heading behind an alley, where Kaelan made an extradimensional room for everybody to sleep securely in that night. There were some stressful words between Draven and Harmony upon his finding out what she was, but mainly it was directed towards Kaelan as he rolled his eyes and said “You and your choice of mates…”, to which both Harmony and Kaelan stammered there was nothing like that going on. The dwarf signaled Kaelan to head outside to talk.

“You know we’re gonna have to keep her with us.”

“What? NO we won’t. I’ve been thinking about how they’re always finding her and all we need is to give her an amulet of nondetection.”

“Lad…she’s not gonna survive that long. Where does she have to go? They’ll be watching the ships, she can’t afford a teleport….the only way out is the jungle. She either comes with us or goes into it alone.”

At the elf’s uncomfortable look, he wagged a finger at him and continued. “Listen. YOU made the choice to get involved here, for better or worse, and YOU are gonna have to live with the responsibilities of your decisions!”

“I… I know that. But….you KNOW I don’t always have options in this type of stuff…”

“Then by the gods you are going to follow through with your choice!”

“…fine. I get it. She comes with us.”

Harmony was just cleaning up the dinner she had cooked for them as they came back in. Kaelan told her she was going to have to stick with them a bit longer, and once they got back to Sharn he would get her an item he believed would make it harder for them to find her. It wouldn’t be perfect but it’d give her a fighting chance if it worked. She smiled broadly and thanked them both, and everyone got some shuteye. They’d have to be up early the next day. They had a bar owner to bribe. HEAVILY. They had information to get, a ship to charter, sahaugin to pay off and a map to find. It was going to be a busy day….

New Eberron story (Part 1)

Just back from a long trip, we had hung up our gear and were getting ready to test the limits of blood alcohol content when a page showed up with a summons. We were about to tell him to go away when we saw the name Merrix d’Cainnith signed on the bottom of the summons. To our credit, we still briefly discussed blowing him off. No job given to us by him was going to go well and both Rork and Kaelan knew it. But in the end we took the transport to the Cainnith tower in the Dragon Towers district of Sharn. We were taken to a very private room where the master artificer showed up. He told us one of his airships had crashed in Xen’drik and it had an item of utmost importance to him on board. It was a darkwood and adamantine black box about 8 feet by 4 feet that was sealed and locked. He said that he was hiring us because discretion was absolutely necessary with this retrieval, and because of that he couldn’t use his house’s resources or any official means to search for the downed airship. He gave us a magical wand (presumably of Locate Object and keyed to the box) and a general location. Our price was simple….no contracts, no official documents whatsoever….but we wanted an airship.

Her first conscious feeling was an irregular pounding on her skin. She was almost unaware of it at first, but it was pulling her out of the blackness and becoming more and more pronounced. Then a roaring sound that catapulted her the rest of the way into consciousness. She opened her eyes to a raging storm overhead, pouring rain and thunder and lightning from the sky. She was cold.

She looked around slowly to take stock of the situation and saw the burning wreckage of something laying all around her. It was…an airship. Yes she knew that much. But not much else came to her…no memories of who she was or even a name. She was laying in a splintered crate and it looked very odd. Gauze and fabric were molded to her exact frame, and her unclothed body was covered in a gel of some form. Together they had probably saved her from the crash.

She saw bodies around her in the wreckage and slowly stood up. She walked over to the nearest one, cutting her bare feet on the sharp rocks, and it didn’t take much to realize whoever this was did not survive. Further investigation confirmed….she was the only survivor.

Knowing she had to get warm, she gave a small apology to one of the men and dragged him towards the shore and the treeline beyond it. There she stripped the body and put on his clothes. The pants were too big, as were the boots, and the shirt was torn beyond the bounds of modesty, but she was able to use the belt and tie the shirt and get the clothes to cover her enough to function. She was about to search for some half dried wood and go back to the ship to light a fire from the still burning wreckage to get warm when she saw reptilian forms stalking from the trees further down the shore towards the bodies. Once their they began their meal. Sickened and realizing she had one of the bodies very close to her now, she snuck further into the jungle behind her. Warmth would have to wait.

Stormreach was a simple teleport from Sharn. They even set up platforms for the purpose. We appeared on one and followed Rork to an inn known for good food, soft beds and even better information. We had to find out if anybody had seen the ship crash. The bar was very full, and we found out it was because of a very special guest that evening….a dancer known far and wide in xendrik for her talents. We ordered drinks and pulled up chairs to a table. Two hill giants sat across the room, which piqued Kaelan’s interest (like any good Valenar elf, Kaelan’s hatred of giants breached the bounds of sanity), but he was reminded very firmly of the importance of our mission. Kaelan also noticed someone more interesting to watch….a human from the look of her, she was sitting alone with her hood up and nervously looking around her and drinking from a small cup like a frightened deer. But then the show began.

The dancer was exotic, and not in a dirty way (well maybe). A naga slithered out onto the stage and began to dance with a serpentine grace that was astounding and distracting to even the elf. That is until the human girl waved away another drink and the barmaid went back to the hill giants to give it to them….

The giant who ordered it for her got up with an angry look on his face as a smile came to the elf’s. He veeeeery carefully reached back and unclasped the double bladed scimitar in its cradle and got a soft whisper of a dwarven voice in his ear.

“If you get out of that chair we’re gonna be lookin’ at each other eye to eye from here on out.”

He turned back, scandalized. “Hey…the girl could be in trouble!”

“Right. Keep it in yer pants lad and keep yer sword in its sheath. Remember…we’re a bit busy to be helpin’ out every pretty girl you come across.”

The giant appeared to be getting angry with the girl’s hasty explanations of why she wouldn’t join them.

“This isn’t going to go well…”

“And that’s why this place has a bouncer. See now? He’s headin’ back to his table.”

The hill giant’s fist whirled back and smashed through the table the girl was sitting in front of. Kaelan raised an eyebrow at the dwarf, who sighed. The elf’s grin was one he’d seen too many times, and it always meant the beginnings of a headache for him.

Shadow enveloped Tianna as she stepped out from behind the girl and pulled her to safety, as Kaelan walked in front of the giant and told him very evenly that he was giving him one chance to leave. The giant looked confused at the elf, half his size if that, and reached forward to grab his head. In a moment the scimitar was out and the elf was in a fighting stance, saying “That hand comes any closer and I’ll be wearing a giant-finger necklace tonight.”

The giant pitched forward, his arm pinned by the minotaur bouncer. He told the giant to get out and it did. The minotaur glared down at the elf. “NO DRAWN WEAPONS!” then looked at the naga and apologized and asked her to continue. The elf quietly invited the girl to accompany them to their table for a bit, ordered her a drink of whatever she had, and walked back to the table, smiling and giving a polite salute to the naga. She looked at him and he stopped. For a moment the entire room faded, and she was all he could see. His jaw dropped slack as he stared…and then she looked away and went back to her dance. He shook his head and sat down.

(continued in part 2)

New Eberron story (The Cast)

Kaelan (last name TBD):

Kaelan was born and raised in Northern Aerinal. He accompanied his mother and her warclan to Khorvaire, where he fought in the war with them as mercenary forces. When the war was over and Valenar declared its sovereignty from both Cyre and Aerinal, he left the warclan and took command of a group of bandits operating around the deserts. Pickings were ripe for bandits in the chaos after the war, and he made a very good living as a predator.

As time passed he became more violent and uncaring about his victims, stripping them of everything they owned and leaving them with a skin of water and a couple days food to get out of the desert with (he’d have sold them into slavery….but I’m pretty sure I read that elves are not big on slavery in general….). One day he raided a passing caravan and took everything of theirs, only to have the elder return to his camp that night. They shook their head sadly and lamented at how far he’d fallen. They called him by another name and said that it was high time he woke up. Kaelan walked up and made to grab the old one’s collar and drag them back to their caravan personally, but they had a blade at his throat before he could blink. They told him to remain calm, considered it for a moment and said, almost to themselves, that it’d probably go easier if he was unconscious for the ritual. One apologetic look later and a comment that he would doubtless take some form of amusing revenge next time the tables were turned, Kaelan was blasted back by an explosion of flames. He tried to get up but he was instantly kicked again and lifted off of the ground with the force. Before darkness took him he saw the old man’s fist descending towards his face.

Then he woke up. He was back in his bedroll and unharmed with one exception….a very stylized and beautiful green phoenix was now tattooed across his shoulderblades and back. He resolved to chalk this up to something he’d never tell anyone about, and continued on his way. But something was…different. He started gaining abilities in both spellcasting and martial pursuits. He started having dreams of other time periods, other lives. In these dreams he’d live and die, love and kill, he was a father, a mother, he was every race on Eberron he had ever heard of. A thousand lifetimes assailed him every night in his sleep, but they all had two things in common….that tattoo, and the path of morality he walked.

He left the desert soon after and came to Sharn. He made his living there selling his services to the highest bidder. It still wasn’t MORAL work, but it was better than being a bandit. Most of the time he denied the tendencies and dreams by sinking into hedonist tendencies, drinking and womanizing, but all of it…even the adventuring….seems like he’s just biding his time. He knows something will have to give eventually, but he’s not sure what he can do to make it all stop, or try to find some way to live with it before it all drives him insane.

Physical appearance is a lithe but muscular elf with long, unkempt dark blonde hair and the green eyes of his race. He wears more modern attire than most of his people, with a double-buttoned blue shirt, red sash-like belt and sand-colored tan leggings, cape and head covering and a set of goggles and a bandanna hanging around his neck. At his back is a cradle with a double-scimitar in it and he has smaller throwing blades shaped much like the double scimitar at his belt.

Rork:

Once a rival treasure hunter, he and Kaelan have been inseparable since the two of them escaped from the trap in UnderSharn. Rork is a bit unusual looking for a dwarf, hairless beyond a fire-red goatee that comes to a point under his chin and looks like an inverted candle flame. Rork, like most of us, will not share too much of his past…just that he has a rather defensive nature when dragons are mentioned in a bad light. Rork has the stubbornness and plain spoken manner of most dwarves, but he is easygoing and sociable. He and Kaelan make frequent trips to Sharn’s red light district in order to drink and take in the other entertainments. Rork is the more level headed of their partnership, and is a good counterpoint to Kaelan’s daring but occasionally foolhardy nature.

Tianna:

Three years ago, rumors hit Kaelan and Rork of a woman fighting in gladiatorial arenas in Droam. This was of interest, but not enough to make the trip…until some of the moves she used were described to Kaelan and hit a memory. She seemed to use the same type of blade magic he used. So he and Rork talked it over and decided it was time to bring on additional talent. They took the trip and talked to her. She seemed very closed off about any information about her abilities or herself in general, but seemed VERY interested in the money promise. The three of them had to battle their way out past the gladiator arena owner who wasn’t happy about her departure, but they got out and back to Sharn and she joined the Four Winds.

Tianna doesn’t share much about her personal history (none of us do), but she will talk at length about her family, most notably her brother, who is going to school (and probably being put through it by her earnings). Beyond that she acts like the big sister of the group (even though she’s by FAR the youngest), reigning in the boys when it’s needed. She and Kaelan fight almost constantly….mainly because they adore taking each other down a notch so much.

Onyx:

Onyx is a psiforged the Winds discovered while investigating a string of thefts in lower Dura. He was living in a hovel made of tarps and junk and had all the stolen pieces arrayed out and was examining them. Onyx is a Psiforged and a psion of some power, so we took him with us and he joined up. He’s too curious and too willing to talk to strangers (especially ones we are trying to pull one over on), but his insights are amusing and occasionally surprisingly valuable.

Draven:

Draven is a Sovereign Speaker…a priest of the entire Host. He is a thin young man with unkempt black hair who perpetually wears robes that cover his entire body. He’d be decent looking if he ever bothered to look up, but the robes hide his “friends” from view, and any admirer who sees THEM is surely to reconsider. Draven possesses three Daelkyr symbiotes, who hide inside his robes. Thus far the group hasn’t asked him why he has them….as people with secrets respect others’ as well. The secret Draven hasn’t told them is that he is a Daelkry halfblood. He is as much an aberration as the symbiotes he wears. Abandoned by his mother at a Host temple, he was raised by a kindly priest, who never let him too far from his sight. His surrogate father was overprotective enough that Draven was save his entire childhood, but never got to meet anyone. But his father taught him the ways of the Host, and to his surprise they seemed to accept him. With a mind constantly at war with itself, the rotes and repetitions of worship were like a balm to him…allowing him to focus on something and come to some sort of peace.

Two years ago his father died and he was forced to reveal himself to the temple. He was not outright attacked, but he could see the distrust on their faces and he quickly gathered his things and left. He has since been traveling Khorvaire, trying to live up to the memory of his father. He traveled from town to town helping people, but his presence always brought mistrust and eventually hostility whether they knew what he was or not. He met the Winds when he happened upon them. One of their number was grievously hurt and he healed them and helped them finish their quest. A discussion was had and the fact that we lacked a priest was evident, so the offer was extended for membership. Draven said no initially, but reconsidered after a time. He can travel a wider distance with their help, and can go to lands that barely know of the Daelkyrs’ presence. He takes any prejudice with a sad shaking of his head. It obviously bothers him a great deal and can cause him to go into a brooding phase for days after, but he never strikes out at an oppressor unless in defense of someone else who is being persecuted. The one time that happened and escalated was the one person Draven has killed while with the Winds.

He has taken some comfort in the presence of Onyx, who knows nothing of what his symbiotes are. He and Onyx have become something approaching friends and Draven will discuss philosophy and religion at length with him. As for the others, he knows they will either find out his secret or sour to his presence soon enough…the human woman is already very tense around him…but until then he finds it both fascinating and enjoyable to watch their interactions and not be glared at constantly. He’ll often sit and read in the same room as they are all interacting just to be present and watch them. So he’s taking advantage of the time he has.

New blood (Harmony):

In Xen’drik we found a Binder named Harmony…a dark skinned human girl being hunted by witch hunters of the Silver Flame. In a bid to save the damsel, Kaelin ruined a perfectly good evening for the Winds and ended up with her in tow in an ancient giant graveyard. One hour, two giant wraiths, and one more confrontation with the witch hunters later, the decision was made to keep her with us until we can get her to the anonymity of Sharn.

New Eberron story (lead-in)

It was funny…we sent email after email about the numerical advantages of these characters, entering a state where there was some pressure to take advantage of the carde blanche attitude of the game, along with all the new classes that became available with this latest book purchase.

Then…the evening before we started…it all of a sudden became about the GAME instead of the min/maxing. We started talking about the characters’ stories and the backdrop of the game (beyond “exploration and treasure acquisition”) and the beginnings of a potentially VERY fun group came into being.

The campaign follows the story of the Four Winds Adventuring Company, a very famous and successful adventuring group operating out of upper Sharn. The foundation of Four Winds came when two rival treasure hunters were in a race to get an ancient goblin idol from UnderSharn. They got to the idol at the same time and each laid a hand on one side of it and looked across at each other…..just in time for the trap to spring. In the end, another rival got the idol and the two of them were stuck in UnderSharn and had to rely upon each other to get out of the trap and UnderSharn itself. From that point the two decided they could be infinitely more successful if they pooled their resources and have been best friends since. As the years passed they brought in other talent, first a human woman they found in Droam fighting in gladiatorial arenas for money, then some new type of psionic warforged they found lurking around lower Dura in Sharn, then a quiet priest of the Host who, for reasons he has not seen fit to share, has attached multiple daelkyr symbiotes to himself.

Noone can really say they know anyone else in the group and everybody has their own secrets and reasons for being there…but together this group is one of the most successful adventuring companies in Sharn. They will go anywhere, acquire (almost) anything (treasure, damsel or otherwise), and their success ratio makes them in demand by nobles, dragonmarked houses and affluent men and women in Sharn and beyond.

We begin with the story of the single stupidest job the group has ever taken…

New Eberron story

We started up a new Eberron campaign this weekend, and in it we decided to notch up the power level a bit. We uppped the level to 12 and decided to allow some of the "questionable power level" classes from the new Book of Nine Swords for D&D. In this game I get to try out my Fleshforged concept (Warforged with human skin who doesn't know they are human) as well as a Daelkyr Halfblood (mmmmm...angsty....).

Aaaanyhow...I wrote up a report on the game and the background for Ryan and figured I'd also post it here. As usual it's both long and in seperate parts.

Enjoy. :-)

Web Comics

I'll admit, I love these things. I have a huge list I check almost daily and have been for quite some time. I reccommend every single one of these comics to any gaming/fantasy/computer geek.

WTF Comics - WTF is a serial comic set in pre-cataclysm Norrath (the world of EQ1), it chronicles the adventures of Annashi, a young wood elf, and her unlikely Iksar companion Straha. The comic is funny, occasionally sexy and has an interesting storyline. Jeremy Waller has a nice cartoony style to his work. His female drawings look very nice, and his gnomes look very....gnomish. The storyline is a bit slow in going anywhere, but it's BIG and has a lot of seperate plotlines going.

Penny Arcade - One of my very favorite web comics, and one of the most famous of them all,.I check PA's news and comic every day. Tycho, who writes the comic and most of the front page posts, is a bit wordy to read pre-caffiene, but his opinions are usually spot on. Gabe, the comic's artist, isn't afraid of making himself look like a freak and playing clown to Tycho's straight man. One word of warning in that it has graphic language, but somehow....that just makes it funnier.

PvP - Another really famous web (and print) comic, authored and drawn by Scott Kurtz. PvP follows the staff of a small gaming mag, their troll mascot Skull and his evil cat. Scott has actually started a horde guild on the same World of Warcraft PvP server as the PA guys, and it's fun as hell to see their shots back and forth at each other, often accompanied by screenshots. Scott is a mature enough writer to do story arcs with his characters, and I would place him in the same level of quality as many comics I read in the paper.

VG Cats - Okay, this comic is WEIRD. Scott Ramsoomair obviously plays a lot of games I don't, but even those comics are damn funny. I like this one. I don't place it on the same enjoyment level I get from reading some of the comics above, but I'll admit it's probably because my game preferences mean I "get" those comics more. Scott goes a LOT further into nastiness, not only swearing, but various bodily fluids and organs and extremely lewd connotations are commonplace...and VERY funny. Just make sure you can minimize the window fast if you're looking at it at work.

8-bit Theatre - Another one of my favorites, and the webcomic that got me into the craze. 8-bit Theatre is to Final Fantasy what Twisted Mego (and Toyfare) Theatre was to superhero action figures. It takes four members of Final Fantasy I's famed Light Warriors, Fighter, Thief, Black Mage and Red Mage, very loosely through the events of Final Fantasy I. I say very loosely because Fighter is a total idiot, Thief is an elf supremacist who would steal the underwear off of his mother, Red Mage is the ultimate min/max powergamer (complete with character sheets he fudges his own skill rolls on), and Black Mage is a loveable psychopath who wantonly murders for fun and profit (loveable psychopath? read the comic.). Other warriors who make appearances include Black Belt (recently deceased) and White Mage (the Hawt Chick of the group). If you have ever played FFI or even HEARD of FFI, Read. This. Comic.

GU Comics - Woody writes very funny one-panels on various games and the life of him and his imaginary roommate Ted. I honestly like PA, PvP and 8bit's jokes a bit more than GU, but Woody does a great job with only one panel to work with, and his artwork is AWESOME. Another really nice feature to the site is that every comic is a link to a board post about the comic's subject, along with reviews and responses by his readers. All in all, it's a good, REALLY pretty, light and fluffy comic, perfect for people who are somewhat on the periphery of gaming.

Foxtrot - Okay this isn't technically a WEB comic, but they DO post it online. I ADORE Foxtrot. This guy is a real geek at heart, inserting C programming code, D&D references as well as computer game references into his work. When Watterson stopped doing Calvin and Hobbes, this became my favorite comic of any medium. Period.

Dilbert - No comic collection would be complete without Dilbert. I'd explain it more, but it's freakin' DILBERT. Go read it! Now!

Nodwick - Less about computer gaming and more about D&D, Nodwick goes WAY back with the official D&D mag Dragon Magazine, and the author draws a lot of his plotlines right from old D&D adventures, and then makes them go horribly wrong, usually for poor Nodwick, the hired henchman of your archtypical D&D stereotyped group of a Fighter (big meathead), Mage (skinny old nerd), and Priest (goody two shoes). Wondering where the Thief is? They really didn't need one, as they throw their henchman through most of the traps (and locked doors).

Bottom line is, you should be reading every single one of these right now. Go on....grab yourself some funny and enjoy.

Buffy Site

I said the hell with it and decided to make a Buffy fansite. I needed an excuse to mess with CSSs and Dreamweaver anyways, and I'm experimenting with a more open style of webpage than my uusal jpeg boxes. I have based it off of the Minima Black style of blog theme. That way I could copy everything across for the CSSs and make sure I understood what all of them did. Okay understand what MOST of them did.

I put a crapload of text about our game into the site and character sheets for my two characters (which I'm damn glad I had for our session this weekend). So far I have one page left, and the rest can be done with periodic updates and blog entries. The site can be found here.

Next week we start Exalted back up. Given where we stopped was BIG, I expect much hilarity to ensue. Aaron and I have come across one problem with the dramatic building of the storyline....we've been talking so much about what's coming up that we really want to get past this big event and on wtih the game. Unfortunately we have two groups to update to where the Solars are in present day and then a big ass battle to fight before we can get there.

Buffy - Part 3 (you heard correctly!!)

Buffy! Three weekends in a row! I'm not sure whether to enjoy it all or be suspicious of Ragnarok...

Sometime after sunrise, Sascha came home and discovered Arthur had fallen asleep at the kitchen table waiting up for her. She thought it was kinda sweet but weird (Sascha isn’t exactly used to parental types that act parental). She explained what happened and Arthur said that Broom and the rest of his cronies came by and told him what had happened, so he knew she was all right, but probably needed some time to process everything. Sascha, feeling horribly guilty over what happened, admitted to Arthur that she got so angry so quickly with the memories of the other Slayers being slaughtered by this vampire, that (especially as it was preparing to kill Bastion), she couldn’t GUARANTEE she wouldn’t have killed it anyways, even if she KNEW killing it would usher the vampire god into this world. Arthur looked very concerned (Sascha knows her temper is an issue), but gave her a speech about anger being able to be used as a powerful tool….if it is tempered. But then a few more internal thoughts came out when he mentioned with a sigh that with her incomplete physical and emotional training and odd situation, he wasn’t sure she was ready to take on this burden.

Meanwhile the scoobies came back to Pleasant Hills with a plan of sorts. We all split up so the dorks could research what the bull on Ember’s killer’s ring meant, and Cameron went home for his planned meet with Snow.

Further conversation on the topic of Sascha’s readiness to be Pleasant Hills’ Slayer was interrupted by Oscar (the heavy black hacker kid), who came up and started pitching a new training regimen for her (Sascha has been having a definite problem with not being fast or strong enough to take on some of her adversaries. She has the general stats of Kendra, but Faith and Buffy and quite a few of the other Slayers who lived past 15 have better stats). Despite the irony of the fat kid advising her on exercise, his plan sounded pretty good. Sascha still hates being a Slayer, but still wants to become able to do more than survive being thrown through walls and ceilings. Besides….deep down….the memories of the three Slayers who died fighting Kurzan kind of….affected her a bit. They all died bravely, knowing they were probably dead already, but accepting it in order to have a chance to help the world. The vampire Kurzan was a blight on the world, and they knew they had to do everything they could to stop him. She….envied them a bit. At least their calm and lack of fear.

Opal came in and started talking with us about the ring, which Arthur recognized as being a symbol of the Cult of Apis, an ancient Egyptian doomsday cult. If they were sacrificing Ember, and Ember is gaining power from the adoration and virtual worship she gets from being an up-and-coming music legend, then it couldn’t be good. Sascha theorized that Anzo himself may not know what he has and the time bomb Ember is going to be (set to go off that night at her internationally televised concert right there in Pleasant Hills), and said she was going to go talk to him about it and see if he could call off the concert. She left the three of them there to discuss it while she went upstairs to change.

Halfway through changing, she realized someone was on her bed. As she screamed and covered up, Bastion’s large form startled awake. After a very weird conversation (Sascha and Bastion’s thing is that whenever one of them gets open to flirting (which he was in this case), the other one gets all smartarsed and they start fighting like an old married couple again. Ryan think sorta like Straha and Maguna in WTF Comics with more teenaged angst.) Sascha realized that, as Bastion was hurt and couldn’t go to the hospital, that he was going to have to stay with them for awhile. And Arthur just gave him her bed for the duration.

Opal came up to get Sascha and she tried to hide Bastion’s being there, but shouts of “Hey…leave the door open!” kind of revealed his presence. After a very hurredly stammered excuse which Opal didn’t believe, Sascha proved Bastion was hurt….by tossing a small object onto his shins. After his cries of “What’s WRONG with you?? That’s SICK!” faded as the girls walked away, Opal was surprised that Sascha wasn’t happier to see him. “You have a tall dark handsome guy laying in your bed, and the only thing you can think to do is throw things at him?” Sascha admitted she wasn’t COMPLETELY annoyed at his being there, but was unsure enough that she hastily changed the subject, and left in Arthur’s Mini to head to the concert venue to talk to Anzo. For the time being, they made the uneasy decision NOT to tell Cameron about their belief that Anzo may be a patsy in all of this. If it was their father who was behind it, they believed that Snow would be working for him, and Snow can’t discover what Cameron doesn’t know.

Snow showed up and, for the third time in three days, asked him to sign her contract. Then….he took the risk of spilling the beans. He said that what she was offering him (Ember’s contract) wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on. Ember’s BODY was her link to this world, and he had no intention of being tricked into this deal. Snow was sitting on the table in front of the chair he was sitting in, fully close enough to reach him. She tensed up and he was convinced she was about to severely injure areas of his anatomy he’d rather like to keep when he realized as he spoke that she wasn’t angry at HIM. His arguments trailed off and very quietly he said “You didn’t know……..did you?”.

In the end his offer was this. He wasn’t going to sign her contract. BUT…..if she REALLY wanted to screw with Anzo and if she felt like helping him recover Ember’s body, he’d still consider employment by her at some point in the future. It’s not like he was going anywhere. And, with a very curt “Let’s go.”, the two of them slipped into her limo and headed towards the Tanaka building.

Once there, they walked straight past the façade into the basement and the Vault. She had the door opened by a very nervous guard and walked in. Thousands of shelves and metal doors lined all the walls, with one crystal ball in the center on a pedestal. Snow walked over to it and used it to find the right door, walked over to it and pulled……and it wouldn’t open. She looked at Cam and said “Nothing in this room is supposed to be locked.” Taking it in stride, Cameron said “Well if it’s mechanical I can try a few things, but if it’s magical….” To which she, without taking her eyes off of him, punched clean through the metal door and pulled it off of its hinges. Inside the door was the body of Ember, wrapped in a translucent blue shroud. She ordered him to pick up the body and follow her. The guard was standing in her way. He said that on Anzo’s orders she was to put the body back and come with him…..

Sascha got in to see Anzo. She began in her usual way…..saying exactly the wrong thing. She said she knew he had been placing her in areas where she’d see the right thing or find the right information to uncover various Tanaka plots lately, but she was confused as to why he was still trying to be nice to her, given how much she had inconvenienced him. His reply was frustrated and a little sad. He said that he had no intentions of manipulating her OR had she inconvenienced him in any way. He wanted to see if a relationship was possible, but she didn’t seem to be able to trust that he was trying to be NICE to her, rather than trying to manipulate her. She refused to trust him and that really frustrated him.

Sascha was taken aback. Here were the exact words she had wanted to hear…..one week ago. Unlike Bastion, Anzo appeared to WANT to be with her….and she was screwing it all up.

She apologized and said it wasn’t fair and that she wasn’t leveling accusations at him, but even if she was wrong about things before she wanted to help him now. She told him about Ember and what they had found, and begged him to call off the concert. He said he couldn’t do that, and seemed to think it was somehow hard to believe, but did say he’d look into it and if he had to, would be able to pull the feed to the TV stations, thereby cutting off most of Ember’s “power” if things got out of hand.

He had to take a phone call then. His brow furrowed for a moment, he said “I see. Shut it down.” And then turned back to her and said he had an issue with a power plant up north that he had to take care of. Sascha said “Thank you for listening to me and trusting me. I’m sorry about earlier. We’ll….talk about the rest after tonight.”. She kissed him on the check (a rare thing for her), and hurried out.

Snow and Cameron were going through quite a bit of trouble getting out of the Tanaka building. It appeared Anzo had called most of the building’s attention to their leaving. Cameron was just thankful Snow seemed angry enough at her brother to not seem to care about the consequences….but Cameron himself realized there were a LOT of cameras on him at that moment. A fact which he knew he’d pay for later, but wasn’t sure of what to do now, so he followed along. 9 guards, one demon chief of security and one barred wall later, Snow and Cam were heading back to her limo and on their way to his house.

Which had Cameron’s parents’ cars in the driveway….. Cursing and thinking quickly, he pulled out his cell and called Opal, who was on her way there and was more than a bit surprised that he actually had the body (remember…Cam was the DISRTACTION so they could work with Anzo to STOP Snow and their father’s schemes). He said she had to grab the body and move it downstairs, and looked at Snow and said “You’re gonna have to stall them for a sec.”. Seeing confusion (thankfully), he pulled her out after him saying “Just play along!”. He headed in and talked to them, introducing Snow as his new girlfriend. They seemed interested enough to talk to her for a bit while he “got her coat downstairs” (after he whispered into Snow’s ear that he knew he was dead but it was almost worth it) and let Opal (now joined by Sascha) into the basement. He heard two heavy thuds, which sent him running back up the stairs.

Cam’s parents were standing back admiring a wall, while Snow stood there with a hammer, and an unnoticed very stressed look in her eyes as Cam’s dad mentioned she seemed to be quite the carpenter with how she got a nail into a tough stud in the wall. Cam smiled and took the hammer from her, saying her coat was in her car. He walked her outside and didn’t get a chance to apologize, as she had his shoulder in a very painful lock, whispering in HIS ear that whatever hell he was going to be in because of this would be nothing compared to what she had planned for him, and not to overestimate his worth to her. He agreed with every word she said until she let go and departed, knowing that Cameron would have no choice once Anzo reviewed those tapes but to seek out Snow’s protection.

Cam headed back downstairs and explained to the two surprised girls what had happened, and who was at fault.

If it had been possible, Sascha actually got paler, as her stomach knotted up….

Laz and Oscar showed up with the power source Cam needed to bring Ember back to life before Sascha could deny and accuse too much, and she just sat down at the back of the room as they worked to hook things up. Less than one hour before the concert, Anzo knew who they were and where they were, and they had a lot of adjustments to make to bring Ember back before she soaked up enough power to become a demigoddess….

Buffy Part 2

Buffy recap. Yes it’s long but I think worth the skim. A big event happened.

Whilst the scoobies were in Frisco researching Ember’s untimely demise, Sascha was feeling the effects of the Harry Potter Bone Knitting potion she took, having her bones snap and knit back into place. Once that 3 hour fun period was over, she headed upstairs to join the search for the harbinger of this vampire god, who was supposed to be hitting town any minute. When she got upstairs her watcher did something rather odd…he asked her to sit this investigation out. She was a bit taken aback at this, being a vampire problem and all, and eventually the old man from the government agency (Arthur Broom from Hellboy) came in to pick her up. Broom mentioned they had done initial investigation and had determined who the harbinger was…and that he was here. The harbinger was a nasty ancient vamp by the name of Kurzan, who was well known to her watcher. He once again asked her to sit this one out, saying that the vampire who broke her arm and almost killed her the previous night was nothing compared to Kurzan and mentioning that he carried three braided scalps on his belt of the three slayers he had killed previously. She thanked him for brightening her day, but in the end took off with Broom to meet Liz, Bastion and Broom’s two operatives, codenamed Red and Blue, and plan the attack.

Well obviously we know who Red and Blue are (Hellboy himself and Abe Sapien). Sascha’s meeting with Hellboy didn’t go extremely well (he mentioned he wasn’t on babysitting duty). Meeting Abe went a bit better, other than that he shook her hand and seemed to see something he didn’t like (insert ominous future foreshadowing sound here). The only hint Sascha got about it was that it might involve her feelings on the subject of death (either the fear of it or the assumption that she was doing to die soon).

Kurzan was at the mall, so we started heading over there. On the way there Sascha broke the ice with the biggest question she didn’t want to ask, and found out Liz and Bastion had previously dated for a bit (though she was now with Hellboy). Later in the conversation Liz mentioned that she was the backup plan in case we failed, and her sad look at that made Sascha blurt out that Bastion had mentioned she reminded him of Liz in a lot of ways. She seemed to take a lot of interest in that and then got very introspective. A conversation hole which Abe filled.

He mentioned with some interest as he pointed to the old book he was holding, that he was fairly certain Sascha was supposed to be present at this event and would be instrumental in some aspect of it. She mentioned something to the effect of becoming another scalp on his belt, which got Abe to thinking. He hypothesized that all slayers shared a sort of supernatural memory, which gives them their visions and some of their fighting ability before they are trained. He said he can probably tap into that and give her some of the memories of the three slayers who fought him before. That way she might just go into it with some knowledge of how to fight him. Knowing she was dead unless she got SOMETHING to help her, she reluctantly agreed.

Flashbacks started. The first one was a remote mountain village in the far east in ancient times, where he killed a young girl defending the village. The second was a much faster and better trained slayer in what looked like medieval France, the third a gunslinging slayer in 1800s Dodge City. All three had definite similarities. In all three he took a hit and went down. In all three the slayers moved in for the kill and he struck. In all three, he promised them as they died that he would turn their families and friends into his minions and torture them for a very long time. The last one he mentioned that he would keep killing slayers and their families until one finally put him down, and on that day something extraordinary would happen.

Sascha woke from the vision with tears in her eyes and a look of pure rage on her face. She knew what she had to do. She had to outsucker the bastard. In order to do that she had to play this all out like it was before, and she had to survive his final hit. And in order to do that she needed help.

The car pulled up in front of Laz’s house, and after a brief conversation with his mom and aunt, they produced a set of amulets. When one person is hit while wearing one, it transfers the pain and damage of the hit to whoever is wearing the other amulet…as long as they are willing to take it. The amulets cannot be put onto someone who isn’t willing, and they only work for one hit. So all she needed was someone very large and tough who could survive the hit……*evil grin*

Bastion and Hellboy met us at the mall and Broom gave Bastion a gift he really didn’t want…..his sword from back when he was an angel. Also after a brief and tense conversation with both Sascha and Abe, Hellboy ended up with the second amulet in his pocket and instructions to put it on as soon as Kurzan appeared to be taken down by Sascha. Oh yeah, and he was hers. Given the memories she just regained…this was personal.

Not that the two boys didn’t have their own problems however, in the form of the 50-odd vamps he had with him at the mall who attacked us all. Sascha was quick to break away and engage Kurzan, who smiled and mentioned he wasn’t a big fan of dye jobs in his scalps, but he would be sure and wash it out before braiding it into his belt. Then he hit her so hard he sent her flying into the Baskin Robins sign.

She couldn’t hit him. No matter what she tried she just wasn’t fast enough. He played with her like she was nothing to him. She was close to believing he might just kill her outright instead of playing out the drama of the previous slayers when Bastion got involved and his attention shifted. Knowing Bastion was fated to die and usher in the third sign of this vampire god’s arrival, Sascha rushed Kurzan desperately and was deposited on her arse once again. Bastion was disarmed and Kurzan grabbed his sword from the air and looked at it. Then his hand began to smoke.

Sascha took advantage of the opening and swept his legs out from under him. He his the floor and the drama started. He begged for a moment and she a bunch of crap lines like every other slayer had told him. That vampires deserved no mercy and she straddled him, ready to strike.

Of course it never hit. He caught her wrist and with a motion so fast she couldn’t even see it, he hit her so hard she flew up with enough force to break THROUGH the concrete ceiling to the second floor of the mall. And she didn’t feel a thing.

Flopping back to the stage in front of Kurzan, she tried to get up and collapsed. He prepared to stake HER through the heart like he had done with the slayer in Dodge City, and as he brought it up to hit her, a large stone hand wrapped around his. The opening she was looking for had arrived. She did a desperately fast kippup, leading with the second stake she had hidden in her belt.

The bastard’s look of shock was priceless. Right up until the point where he started laughing.

He motioned towards Bastion and asked why she was concerned about Kurzan killing HIM when Kurzan HIMSELF was the real sacrifice that was required. Apparently “angel” wasn’t the correct translation. Perhaps “servant of a higher power” was closer to what was the truth. And Sascha just did him the favor.

She sat back hard and watched him crumble, and he was laughing the entire time.

In the end, the cleanup crew mopped up the rest of the vamps and we were left laying on the floor of the mall stage, Sascha’s head on Bastion’s chest. In the end they had won, but had brought about the third sign that was required for the vamp god to become free. Sascha said her goodbyes to Broom, Hellboy and Abe. Liz watched Sascha looking worriedly after Bastion as he was wheeled out to an ambulance, hugged her goodbye and whispered into her ear “he’s worth it.”.

Being the least hurt of the three, Sascha decided to walk home. It’d been three days since she’d last patrolled, and she had a job to do.

Intermission

You know, the Unisystem rules that Buffy uses aren’t my absolute favorite, but I will say this. It does a bang up job of running a fast paced Buffy-like game. It’s simple, it’s easy to pick back up, there aren’t a ton of skills and it’s difficult enough o make rolls, while allowing you to spend points to make those REALLY IMPORTANT rolls. Using this system I have successfully thrown an axe through a demon’s head at 100 paces, survived being literally used to demolish a few stone walls, bloodied a vampire that I REALLY had no business even coming CLOSE to hitting (which resulted in the aforementioned demolishing) and many other stunts, while still making sure it isn’t EASY to do these things. The system is really cool if you keep the Buffy world constantly in mind. Thinking of this, I don’t even hate the division of PCs into Heroes and White Hats, which White Hats being the normal Scooby types who are pretty much less powerful than Heroes in EVERY WAY. Aaron and I each play a hero (me the Slayer, him a fallen angel) and the rest are White Hats. Balanced? Nope, but still cool enough that I’m okay with it.

Thoughts on the future of our little game? Well, I’d like to think we can save Ember (one way or another). Sadly even if we can return her to life Cameron’s little half-crush on her is bound for failure, as she’s older and I’m sure she doesn’t want to live anywhere CLOSE to anyone named Tanaka for quite some time. Besides, I like having him free to pursue other fem….i mean interests in the future. Take Snow for instance. ;-)

He should at least get a goodbye kiss out of the deal….and more importantly, even if it was for a girl, he realized that he’s a bit less okay with just letting complicated things go and going back to the party than he used to be. Whether it’s because of the light in his head or the fact that he might actually now be capable of DOING something good is anyone’s guess. He’s going with the light in his head explanation. Still, keeping this schedule and some semblance of a social life isn’t going to be easy.

We seem to be doing the teenage comedy/drama half of a Buffy game as nicely as the action half. Awkward stares and not-quite love triangles abound in this game, where people may or may not LIKE each other, but are too chicken to actually do anything about it. We had the Opal/Anzo/Sascha triangle rear it’s ugly head, and we have Bastion/Sascha/Anzo, the Dawson/Joey/Pacey (wait wrong game…), and of course the Opal/Cameron/Any-interesting-pretty-girl triangle.

And the best part is that other than a few idle discussions about who finds who attractive, there really hasn’t been a single feeling openly admitted as of yet, as they are all teenagers and too damned nervous about it all to admit anything. Sascha really likes Bastion, but is actively trying for Anzo because Anzo has paid more attention to her. Bastion acts unsure of himself enough around her that he might just like her back, but is far too repressed to say anything even if he did. If Anzo is paying attention to Sascha it’s to use her for some scheme, which could be fun. Sascha’s anger at Anzo will know no bounds if and when that all comes out, even though she knows he’s using her RIGHT NOW. Opal and Cameron also actually like each other (them a little more obviously), but they are both a bit too deep into their completely opposite world views to do anything but argue constantly around each other.

It all makes for an interesting backdrop to the action, and makes it all a little more Buffy-like.

I read a bit into the Slayer section of the Slayer’s Handbook and remembered something. Sascha’s bad attitude and dim world views are actually darn near WORD FOR WORD out of the handbook’s description of how Slayers often deal with being what they are. The ones who aren’t trained from birth pretty much all have the bitterness over never being able to have a normal life, they all are ticked that they have such a short “expiration date” (their words, not mine), and while they are all more than human, most of them feel like they are a lot LESS than human. For her, a lot of these feelings got mixed into the general bad attitude and only now that she came so close to dying is she actually looking at it all. Also, unlike some other similar characters (like Drac), Sascha does NOT have a deathwish. I’ve built in a pretty decent fear of death as a GM plot hook later, should he wish to exploit it.

Singing may help her develop a bit more of a connection to humanity and normalcy. It’ll give her another outlet for her aggression and emotions, and it’ll give her something she likes to do that doesn’t involve an axe and a vampire’s head. It will help her get out of the funk she’s in now.

What else is coming? Well we have a harbinger to stop, a vampire god to seal away again, aliens who are a little too interested in me...oh yeah…and fall formal.

Buffy Update part 1

Played a decent bit lately and advanced the Buffy storyline somewhat. The brief recap (can’t type forever like I used to thanks to time constraints) will follow. Note: This will require a basic working knowledge of the Hellboy universe to understand it all. If you've seen the movie that should be enough.

Aaron has decided to bring the Hellboy universe (or at least elements and characters from it) into our little version of the Buffyverse. Turns out Bastion and my watcher both have ties to the old dude from the comic.

The Hellboy characters and universe won’t have a LOT to do with our game (more east-cost versus west-coast), but if (okay when) we do a Hellboy game, he thought it might be fun to have the option of adding in elements of both games.


Sascha was pretty busted up at the beginning from the previous night’s vampire fight. A colleague of her watcher showed up to discuss the vampire god she may or may not have released. It turns out the good news is that it isn’t out yet. Bad news is that a harbinger is on his way into town and will gather a vampire army (gather….create…..all the same) and use it to find the last thing that is needed to bring the god into this world. The blood of an angel.

Apparently the old guy had already sent a fallen angel into the area many years ago, when he had been part of a religious order. Sascha thought that sounded eerily familiar to Bastion’s story….so she raced out of there and to where he holed up and asked him about the old man and his story. He confirmed that he was indeed an angel, but he had no intention of going back to talk with the old guy, and seemed to have a serious beef with him in general, saying they had “gone down different paths” some time in the 40s. Needless to say this kind of took Sascha aback, as she had always assumed he was HER age. In the end Liz showed up and talked to him and the two girls convinced Bastion to come back. When Sascha asked who she was, Bastion’s only reply was “You remind me a lot of her.”

She realized Bastion had no intention of letting her help in finding and destroying the vampire god's harbinger. As she was technically a frickin’ VAMPIRE SLAYER, she got pushy about it and he mentioned he would be willing to let her in on things if she was able to get back into fighting shape, which unfortunately meant a trip to talk to the resident medical superscientist.

Unfortunately, she didn’t have Cameron’s number or address, and knew only one person who did. In order to get to him, she had to talk to her ex-“friend” Opal.

Sascha and Opal had it out, and they drug everything out. From thier competition and jealousy with each other over Anzo's attentions to Opal's being jealous of Sascha being a Slayer and hating that Sascha didn't want to be chosen to Opal's walking out of a mission to Sascha's attempts to hedge them out of the monster hunting business in order to keep them safe. It all got covered in one huge screaming match....and then they actually started talking about it. In the end, despite Anzo's warnings about the dangers of anyone Sascha chooses to involve herself with, she and Opal made up and the Scoobies were back on the team. And they headed towards Cameron's house to get Sascha healed up.

Cameron had his own problems. He had a huge machine built in his parents' basement out of household parts that was capable of bringing Ember back to life, but he was becoming very frustrated by lack of a power source. It would take nothing less than a nuclear reation to power this sucker, and he had no access to the materials his new and improved brain told him he would need. Anzo's psycho sister Snow had made him an offer to bring Ember's contract to him and to bring her back to life if he signed over to work for her (she was in direct competition with Anzo in their father's company) and had illustrated all the perks of working for her to him. He had the crumpled paper sitting on his desk and was thinking over whether to sign it when Snow showed up to pick up the contract, signed or not.

Cam was about to put pen to paper when Opal and Sascha showed up at the front door. After a quick conversation Opal convinced Cam to hold off on signing the contract until we could at least check out our own options and verify if the contract had any magical additions to it. After a few snide words between Opal, Sascha and Snow, Snow agreed to come back the next day at noon.

Getting power turned out to not be a problem. Laz's mom was more than capable of magically powering the machine. Trouble was she said she wouldn't help unless we could prove Ember died by magical means. If she was just shot, the price for bringing her back would be too high. She also gave Sascha a Harry-Potter-esque bone knitting potion to get her up and running (after which Sascha took her leave to deal with the harbinger stuff).

So the scoobies assembled and we all drove down to Frisco, where a disheveled, homeless Ember was murdered. Laz was able to do a rewind spell and see that she was definitely not shot. She was grabbed by two people in robes and stabbed by a third, who had a ring with a blue bull on it. What this meant we're not sure (and we're not sure if her cause of death is actually a supernatural one), but they dragged her body off, which Laz was pretty sure meant her body was what was binding her to this world. Her "contract" with Anzo wasn't worth the paper it was printed on. Her body was what we'd need to bring her back to life.

With a vague plan to confront Snow on this (eithe she's trying to screw us over or Anzo is trying to screw HER over) and very little time to get back and talk to her, they headed back to Pleasant Hills, desperate for options.

City of Heroes calls once again.

I should be doing my taxes right about now. I promised my wife I'd be doing taxes right about now. Buuuuut For some odd reason I'm in a really good mood today. I think it might have something to do with the fact that I am finally coming out of a full 2 weeks of dizzy spells, I just found out I have enough money to buy the game book I have been pining for lately. With any luck it'll get here before Aaron's Exalted 2.0 book gets in, because it's going to be Exalted for a solid month after that point....

Which I suppose is cool too. At this point any game we play for more than two weekends is a rare and beautiful thing that demands appreciation, and Exalted does rule. It's just for some odd reason our Buffy game has restored some of my gaming mojo.

Before I get into Buffy session recap (I should really make various blogs for various games. In fact I think I will....stay tuned.), I want to also say that with the advent of spring, I have decided to go on a brief hiatus from WoW and get back into City of Heroes and City of Villains for awhile. It's not nearly as pretty as WoW, and there isn't as much to explore, and it actually runs a lot WORSE on my computer than WoW does, but you know what....none of that matters to me right now. The very idea of making cheesy heroes and villains and heading around pummeling bad guys is fun enough, but to add to that, CoH/V is just easier to play and have a good time with for someone with as little free time as I have lately. Groups are easy as all get out to find, and most missions last a matter of about 20-30 minutes...less for an experienced group that works well together. This allows me to actually group, which I do not do as often with WoW. Admittedly Aaron is much of the reason I group in CoH. By the time I get on he usually has a group he invites me into and I catch up.

Anyhow, looks like I'll be in Paragon City and the Rogue Isles for the next month or two, most of it playing my energy brute Demonblight and putting the smack down on the forces of goodness.

Buffy updates coming next.

Just a quick note to say...

I'm back. :-)

Will post what I can very soon. If nothing else I've been messing quite a bit with RSS feeds and Digg.com, and I will pimp those to you as much as I can.

Note: I have turned on word verification for comments. Sorry for that, but the amount of spam comments was just getting out of hand. Laters!