Thunderspire Session 2 part 2

This session was played on 7/23.

Cory ran:
Dietrich the Human Knight (formerly the Dragonborn Paladin)
Ander the Halfling Rogue

Alex ran:
Barakas the Tiefling Warlord
Chan Lee the Human Monk

Opting to avoid crossing the chasm for the moment, the runemarked adventurers continued deeper into the gatehouse complex. After following a long hallway they found themselves in what seemed to be a new area. They avoided the big set of double doors, and opted to check out the side rooms first. First they quickly scoped out a store room, and then moved onto a poorly appointed barracks. They then moved into an almost overwhelmingly hot kitchen, nearly scaring to death a slave servant. From him they found out what was in the next room, namely the Duerger lord Rundarr and a few of his lackeys.

The party decided to split up, sending the knight and warlord to the main door, while the monk and rogue would come in through the kitchen door.

Ander and Chan Lee charged in first, charging straight for the dueger sitting behind the head table. Chan Lee made it through the door first, performing a bounding leap over the table, and slamming hard into Rundarr trying to slide him. Rundarr, in spite of barely having stood up from his soup, didn’t even stagger from the blow, grabbed Lee’s foot and slammed it into the floor, embedding it hard. Bounding over the table Ander stuck the distracted Rundarr, but failed to land a telling blow.

Hearing the commotion Barakas and the knight charge in. Barakas ignored the guard standing dumbly by the side of the room and charged Rundarr whiile the knight charged the guard.

Rundarr swung his warhammer with some precision, connecting more often than not with Ander and Lee. The arrival of another guard, and two scouts added some distraction to the party, but Ander and Lee continued to pound on Rundarr, each hit causing his beard to smolder, glow, ficker, and finally burst into flame, pushing back the adventurers as Rundarr suddenly tripled in size. With a roar he swung at Ander with his giant warhammer again and again and again and again (action point) yet managed to connect with the halfling only once.

As the rest of the duerger fell, a lone scout who had been harassing the party with his crossbow turned tail and ran. The monk circled around, cutting off his escape, before a flurry of blows laid the scout out. A pair of magical greaves that Rundarr wore went to Dietrich.

The party then consulted with the slaves, arming them with spears gathered from some of their previous opponents and told them to go hide in the gatehouse. The slaves told them of a large group of slaves across the chasm that they had seen while delivering food. Unfortunately the main bridge across was heavily fortified, and the slaves didn’t know anything about the smaller bridge.

Spending a mere moment to discuss their options they returned to the smaller bridge, and sent Ander across alone to check the far gate. Sneaking across, he pulled out a sunrod only after he was concealed in the doorway. He listened at the door, and examined it for any traps before focusing his attention on the large elaborate lock. A few moments later he flashed the sunrod’s light across the chasm, and the rest of the party joined him. Beyond they found a disused corridor littered with rubble and trash and 3 doors. They decided to try the door that they believed lead to the gate room. It did, and they quickly engaged the duerger and the animated arbalests that guarded the room.

The duergar thurge blasted the party with a wave of despair that only the rogue suffered the effects of. He then followed it up with a brimstone hail upon the knight and the monk, unconcerned with his allies in the blast. Feeling a little overwhelmed both the warlord and the monk used their daily powers - the monk dishing out 6 solid hits all doing between 15-20 points of damage and felling 2 of their opponents!

Moving deeper into the complex the party next encountered another gate room guarded by orcs. Upon entering they discovered the 4 orcs had backup in the form of an ogre! The ogre was fast for a creature of his bulk, and hit fairly frequently, but not with much more force than the orcs. The knight really shined in this fight, landing 2 criticals on the orcs.

Just off the guard room was an antichamber that had 2 doorways. The main one was a giant bronze double door emblazoned with the image of a great minotaur’s head. The other door was also large, but its reinforced wood construction didn’t draw the eye like the bronze doors did. Once again the party opted to go for the less flashy door...

To be continued...

Super Secret Side Project! part 1

If you follow me on Google+, you've already seen this sneak preview of my Super Secret Side Project. For those who don't, here it is!

I didn't get to spend any time on the Bell Tower this weekend, but I have made some progress on this project.

---

I also see that I've picked up a few new followers! Welcome to the Tower Mortellan, new Big Dragon, Niccodaemus, and Purestrainhuman!

Sunday Inspirational Image - Pasini Courtyard

Circassian Cavalry Awaiting Their Commanding Officer at the Door of a Byzantine Monument; Memory of the Orient by Alberto Pasini

TRPBTNTWAs

Noisms from Monsters and Manuals posted a list of Things Role Playing Bloggers Tend Not To Write About, and he’s right, or at least he was until he posted this list. And since I have a hard time passing up things like this...

Book binding.
I love books! I like the feel, the smell, the look of a well loved and well put together book. I’m always impressed at how well the d6 Star Wars stuff from WEG has held together, even the soft covers. The binding, the paper, it’s all great!

"Doing a voice".
I do more speech patterns, rather than voices, though I guess that’s a pretty fine distinction. As a DM it helps me get more into the game.

Breaks. How often do you have breaks within sessions?
My 4e game tends to be a once every 4-6 weeks, and we tend to play for about 8-10 hours. We take very short breaks as needed.

Description. Exactly how florid are your descriptions?
Mostly pretty minimal, but every once in a while I’ll have at it.

Where do you strike the balance between "doing what your character would do" and "acting like a dickhead"?
Wheaton’s Law is in full effect.

PC-on-PC violence. Do your players tend to avoid it, or do you ban it? Or does anything go?
I generally discourage it as a DM. As a player I’d rather be killing monsters.

How do you explain what a role playing game is to a stranger who is also a non-player?
Cops and Robbers, or Cowboys and Aliens - with dice.

Alchohol at the table?
Not recently, but it never bothered me.

What's acceptable to do to a PC whose player is absent from the session? Is whatever happens their fault for not being there, or are there some limits?
This is generally a non-issue. If the player isn’t there, the character usually isn’t either.

Building the Tower (part 2)

While working on the walls I also started working on the corners. Yes, I know in the instructions it says to do the corners after, but while I’m sitting there waiting for the glue to dry, I can put them together.

With a little luck and free time I should be able to get this assembled to the point where I can start painting by the end of the weekend.

Building the Tower (part 1)

You’ve already seen the blocks laid out for one wall.

When I started the actual construction of the first wall of the tower, I began at the bottom, and worked my way up, from the bottom windows, to the alcoves, up to the top windows. All the while I kept double checking this picture as I went.

With the first one was assembled and the glue dried enough, I slid it up out of the frame and across the table. Then I started on the second wall. As I was finishing the second up, I slid the first one down next to it, and realized that the second was half an inch shorter!! It turned out that when I was making the first section, I had used 2 rows of 1/2 inch blocks when I had planned on 1/4 inch blocks. Not a major problem, but frustrating. Luckily, the glue from the second wall section was still very wet, so I pulled it apart in the appropriate sections, and added in that extra half inch.

I then slid the wall out of the frame and began working on the third section, adding in the extra height from the start. While I was doing that I noticed that the extra height made the area above the alcoves seem... lacking. One thought I had was to put up some sort of symbol, a crest or shield or something. While I think that might actually look good, I don’t have anything suitable kicking around, and I certainly don’t have 4 of them! However a simple line of .25” bricks seems to do the job.

You can see where I made the error above, and how I'm addressing it.

Casting - Done!

Due to the magic of me casting before many of these posts went live (or were even written), I’m now done casting, and have all the bricks I need to make my bell tower. In order to save myself from an unhealthy level of insanity while building, I have sorted the bricks into bins.

The next step is making the frame for building the walls. I’m using the most expensive of supplies - free paint stir sticks from the local big box home improvement place. Per the instructions they’re taped down to the paper. I used the 2” long bricks to ensure that the spacing is even from top to bottom. In the picture you can see the beginning of the wall with the doorway, which is actually the last wall to be built.

Then lay out one of the walls... this picture is from before building the frame, but it shows the basic layout of the wall. Each wall will be slightly different in which blocks go where, but the major features (windows and alcoves) will all be the same.

And before we start gluing, we check the instructions one more time!