Bad Case of Harpies, Part 3

Lord Pankiron’s keep, located about 6 hours away from the town of Ingleham, appears completely deserted. What will our party find as they explore?

Answer: A lot of nothing much, with some crazy mixed in. What do I mean by that? Read on!

Exploring the Keep
The keep is eerily deserted, no signs of life can be discerned. On entering the kitchen, the party is assaulted with the smell of rotting food, implying that things have been empty for some time. There are also signs that people left in a hurry, stalls and tables knocked over, everything of value taken away. Everything seems straightforward, until the party comes upon what a woman’s bedroom, dominated by a large vanity desk with mirror. Looking in the mirror, Sarin sees the reflection of Elika! He calls out in his surprise, but the other party members just see his reflection. Several other people look in the mirror, but for the most part, they only see themselves. Notable exceptions: Bimbi sees the reflection of a middle-aged blonde woman, and Israfel sees a reflection of a dark-haired woman wearing blue robes. Finding the mirror trick strange, but not odd enough to dally over, the party presses on upstairs into the keep.

The Throne Room
On entering the top of the stairs, the party sees a large room that was, at one time, quite grand. Vivid tapestries hang in tatters along the walls, the edges smeared with blood. The smell of blood and offal fills the room, the source being the dead harpies, throats and stomachs torn out, at least a half-dozen throughout the room. The end of the room is dominated by two large thrones made of dark polished wood, where a thin and pale man with dark hair sits, deep in concentration. He is cutting his arms and sticking harpy feathers into the wounds.

“What are you doing? Stop that,” says Rila, getting her weapons at the ready.
“I need wings so I can fly, so I can can finally meet the woman in the sky. She’s waiting for me, you know.” the man says, hardly looking up.
“The woman in the sky? Who is that? Who are you?” asks Sarin.
“I am the lord Pankiron. This is my keep. And the woman in the sky is the most wonderful of all. I do love her, you know,” The apparent Lord Pankiron says. He pauses, as if listening to something the party cannot hear. “Oh, you’re my enemy. You wish to stop me from meeting with my lady. Well, we won’t have any of that now, will we? Harpies! Arise and attack them!”
The (previously) dead Harpies in the corner slowly rise up, and shamble towards the party. They are very clearly undead, as seen by the one harpy that is happily chewing on its own entrails as it gets ready to attack. Seeing no other course of action, the party readies their weapons.

TO BE CONTINUED…

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Method Acting? Pssh.

I never really understood method acting. It seems so… contrived in my mind. After all, the audience doesn’t care about what you feel, they’re more interested in what image you present. To paraphrase Lord Olivier: “Try acting, dear boy.”

Given that, it seems paradoxical that I’m spending so much time in character heads while planning out my weekly D&D session. But I assure you, I have good reason. Well, I have a good justification, anyway. Because the thing is the adventures that I think have flowed the best are the ones where I plan “bullet points” and then use my knowledge of the characters (and players, too) to fill in the rest during the session.

Here’s a recent example:

1) Party arrives in Ingleham

2) Kurt isn’t there (local lord re: attacks)

3) Alanna asks party to go to shrine

4) MONSTERS IN THIS SHIT!!!

5) No sign of Alanna’s mother! ZOMG!

6) Footprints head east into swamp area

7) OH NO HARPIES

8 ) Clarice goes crazy again, attacks party.
a) win- [redacted]
b) lose- teleports away, goes to super-secret awesome lair

9) Rescue Tamara and Pankiron (the younger, and he of ever-changing first names).

10) Halfling entrails! ❤

And you know what? I think that was the best dungeon delve I’ve ever done. And even though the party kind of ignored everything saying “GO EAST! THAT’S WHERE THE STUFF IS!” for as long as possible, I didn’t care because, hey, it’s not like my plans were set in stone. And it’s not like bullet point nine HAD to happen as written… or any of them, really, when I think about it (except 10, I was getting antsy for some entrails). I liked having the flexibility, and I certainly plan on using this technique in the future.

But really, part of why I think I can plan sessions like this now is because I’ve spent so much time thinking about the PCs. So much time. A ridiculous amount of time. But it’s a good way for me to plan when I don’t have pen/paper/a computer/recording device handy. And so I spend a good chunk of my daydreaming time thinking about character motivations, responses, and quirks.

Thinking like that can be a bit disorienting sometimes.

But I have to admit, it can be a lot of fun. 🙂

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Musical Inspiration

There must be some kinda way out of here”
Said the joker to the thief
There’s too much confusion
I can’t get no relief
–All Along the Watchtower, Bob Dylan

All Along the Watchtower has become one of my favorite songs to listen to while planning my D&D sessions. The craft and care that went into that song is awe-inspiring. The lyrics work in a circle, one can simply keep repeating the song over and over, but even more interesting for me and my love of non-linear time is that it can be read in reverse. No, really, look!

Two riders were approaching,
the wind began to howl.
Outside in the distance
a wildcat did growl
While all the women came and went,
barefoot servants, too.
All along the watchtower,
princes kept the view
So let us not talk falsely now,
the hour is getting late.
But you and I, we’ve been through that, and this is not our fate
There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke
No reason to get excited, the thief he kindly spoke
None of them along the line
know what any of it is worth.
Businessmen, they drink my wine,
plowmen dig my earth
There’s too much confusion, I can’t get no relief
There must be some way out of here said the joker to the thief

Holy crap, Bob Dylan is a freakin’ genius.

But even beyond that, there’s a certain feeling this song that I want to capture in my campaign. A certain sense of frantic despair is the closest description I can come up with. Results up to this point: failure, but I keep pursuing it with dogged determination.

Of course, that’s not the only song that I listen to while planning. Songs rotate in and out as appropriate, but right now my playlist includes Moody Blues “I Know You’re Out There Somewhere;” From Autumn to Ashes “Short Stories with Tragic Endings;” Heather Alexander “March of Cambreadth.”  Here are some links. It’s cool, I’ll wait while you listen.

You done? Awesome. Anyway, perhaps this is why I sometimes feel the general mood of the story  is somewhat disjointed at times. From 80s love ballads to angry angsty songs of lost to a song with lots of killing… well, I always said I had a varied taste in music. Also, once I start throwing in what I perceive as character theme songs, well, it’s a very interesting play list, at least.

Here’s a freebie, since this our resident bard deemed this Cedrick’s theme song. Well, he goes with the original version, but this is what I have on my iGadget.

I don’t really go for lyrics as a direct source of inspiration (well… sometimes *cough*). But I find it helpful for getting myself into a proper mindset.

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New D&D products

GenCon is going on this weekend, and unfortunately, I am not there. This is very sad, but on the other hand, I get to read all about the keen things WotC is releasing later this year. While we’re not playing 4e anymore, I’m still intrigued by some of the sets coming out.

The Red Box – I’m actually okay with the idea of an essentials line. I am in favor of anything that streamlines the roleplaying process. AND. AND. AND I really like that they used the same design as the original red box– including art by Larry Elmore. That alone makes my girlish heart go pit-a-pat. (Totally off topic, but I love Larry Elmore. Whenever I think of how a dragon should look, I think of Mr. Elmore. Also, because of him, whenever I think of halflings, I actually think of Kender. Aaaargh.)

Box-o-DM – This box set could either be a load of junk, or a lot of really good tidbits. Need more information either way. I hope it’s good.

Gamma World – YEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSS. Easy, streamlined, lighthearted take on the apocalypse. What is not to like? I’m intrigued by the random deck mutation mechanic that is in place. This looks like a lot of fun, and I can’t wait until this comes out in October.

The 2011 releases intrigue me less, although the Fortune Decks sound like they’re building on the mutation mechanic found in Gamma World. WotC implied in Q&A that they want to make the books more ‘readable.’ I’m hoping that will mean there will be more ‘fluff‘ in the rule books, since that’s what’s been most useful to my campaign crafting as a whole. Another interesting thing is that Mike Mearls is working to bring down the amount of errata. I think this is a very good thing.

For more information on the new D&D products seminar, I find the best source to be Critical Hits.

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Stitch in Time, Part 15

Whatever killed William defeated, the party managed to escape the tower, managing not to mess up the timeline any further. But they passed out as soon as they exited the tower…

The Bakery
The party awakens in what appears to be the storeroom of a bakery. The one-armed man is sitting at a table, sipping a mug full of tea.
“Ah, you’re awake. I’ll go get Alba,” the bearded man says, leaving the storeroom. The party scarcely has time to scramble to their feet when Alba breezes in, the front of her blue dress dusted with flour. Giving Alba a level stare, Indirianna takes the lead.
“You’re not just a baker, are you? We saw what you did back at the tower– the fireballs, and how you ‘just happened’ to know which talisman to grab to get us out of there. I think it’s time you came clean with us, Alba.” Indirianna says. Alba for her part, flushes and looks at the ground.
“I… used to be a wizard. But I left that behind a long time ago. William and I had a mentor-student relationship. A long time ago…” Alba says. Israfel rolls for insight.
“THAT’S why your bread is so delicious!” Israfel exclaims. There’s an awkward pause. Alba hands over a small leather-bound book.
“I found this on… on William’s workbench. I think it’s his journal. It should be of help to you,” Alba says. Rila takes the journal, and flips through it. Not knowing what else to do, the party retires to the decoy inn, and settle in for the evening

Journal Contents
The journal provides a record of the events following Mystra’s death. It talks about the devastation that the weave left in its wake. A world that was built on magic having its very foundation ripped away. And how there were few that hoped that Mystra would return and set things right. A friend of William’s, Kurt, mentioned a prophecy he had found, predicting the rebirth of the god of magic through the scattered remains of Mystra’s power. But he had no way of knowing when these aspects would surface, and knew that the forces working against Mystra would be looking for the aspects, hoping to absorb their power. Five of them, William, Kurt, Clarice, a cleric of Mystra, Raul, Kurt’s brother, and a woman only referred to as “T.” worked to craft a ward that would protect those blessed with Mystra’s power, and keep them hidden from enemy eyes. Creating the ward, which they bound to a talisman of Mystra, they decided to hide it away, and have Clarice keep guard. They found a suitable hiding spot, and William created a slowed timeline. While one hundred years have passed in our world, only two would have gone by in hidden temple. It’s at this point that the journal ends. Rila finishes reading the journal around dawn, and goes out to find out some more information.

The Next Morning
In the wee hours of the morning, Rila slips away from the decoy inn, making her way to Alba’s bakery. Rila again knocks on the door, and waits for an answer. The one-armed man answers the door, and seeing Rila, opens the door to let her in. He leads Rila upstairs to a simply decorated living room, where Alba is sitting. She smiles and gesture for Rila to sit down.
“Do you know anything about this Kurt guy?” Rila asks, with typical bluntness. Alba pauses for a moment, thinking.
“Y-es… he was friends with William. He lives to a town south of here — Ingleham, I think. Roughly two weeks away, if I remember correctly. Does he know something about…?” Alba says.
“I think so. If nothing else, he knows more than any of us do.” Rila replies. A sound catches the attention of both women. It sounds suspiciously like babies crying. Rila gives Alba a quizzical look. Alba smiles.
“That would be my children. They just started sleeping through the night.” Alba explains. She walks into the next room, where there are two infants. One is dressed in blue, the other in pink.
“Do they have names?” Rila asks.
“Charles and Jessica,” Alba replies. Rila nods, and having run out of things to say, slips back out the door. She heads back to the decoy inn, and prepares, along with the rest of the party, for the journey to Ingleham.

STITCH IN TIME: COMPLETE

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Tuesday Crunch: Blatant Rip-Off Edition

So I’m trying my hand at posting more crunch! Everybody loves crunch, right?

Here’s a recent puzzle I put my party through. If I had to do it over again… well I would have made it about half the size. And used flip tokens, instead of just writing it on the white board. And maybe planned it more than a few hours before D&D.

I give you the most challenging puzzle of them all… MINESWEEPER

I will never be able to top this puzzle, ever.

This puzzle actually took longer than I thought, but largely because of my inability to not transpose numbers. Yeah, I should have planned this out more. And at one point, I somehow skipped two entire lines, but used SUPERIOR LOGIC to make up an entirely new section. But it worked out, somehow.

Puzzle Rules:
1) step on a blank square, it lights up green.
2) step on a numbered square, it flashes x times in orange
3) step on a mine, flames from ground to ceiling, with some sort of containment field. Save ends containment and being on fire.

Reactions to this puzzle were split evenly: half were gung-ho about the whole thing, the other content to sit back and let the other half do the work. Not sure if that’s a failing of puzzle, or if those people just don’t like minesweeper. Need to make a note and ask said party members about this. But it’s  a quick and dirty puzzle that certainly engenders a sense of accomplishment.

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A Large Number Divisible By Ten!

Hey, I made it to one hundred posts! How exciting! It only took about 10 months to get here. By my very quick and off the cuff math, that’s about one post every three days. Falling a bit short of my goal of five posts a week, but not bad, overall. I suppose there’s nothing for it, except to post more.

You see, my writing can all be explained by this image. My drive to write is Pac-man, my inspiration is power pellets, and the ghosts symbolize procrastination, writer's block, distraction, and self-doubt. Pac-man is such a deep game.

As large round numbers seem to signal a time for reflection, I’ve been pondering the direction I want to take with the blog. To tell the truth, I’m a bit unsure of what to do. Don’t worry, I’m not going to stop writing! I’m just less sure of what I want to write about. Should I move more towards crunch in my posts, and move out of my relative comfort zone? Or should I continue writing whatever fluff comes to mind? I hate the idea of stagnating just because I’m comfortable, but even so, I can’t shake the feeling that I would somehow be “selling out.” Either way, there will be some changes in the future, even if I’m not entirely sure what they are yet.

I rest my case.

When describing myself or my role in the group, I usually classify myself as ‘comedic support’ or ‘weird animaly-type sidekick thing.’ I’m usually pretty laid back. I’ll support my friends as much as possible, but being in charge…? It goes against my very nature to act as leader. And yet I’ve somehow I’m… content to be in charge of the weekly D&D game. My newly found confidence also seems to have extended to getting Sword Club off the ground. One of my worst habits is my tendency to self-depreciate, so I think it’s good for me to take a look back and realize how much awesome stuff I’ve actually done. Somehow, I managed to work a create change in-game mechanics and game lore into my campaign, at fairly seamlessly. I still haven’t caused a party wipe! I have yet to grow tired and complacent with the game, which means I’m still not afraid to try new things, even if I end up failing all over the place. Sword club keeps expanding, and I’m still thinking of ways to teach fighting techniques to my little swordlings (although I do defer to two of my friends since they both have black belts in Tae Kwan Do). I taught people how to fight with rondels all by myself! I wrote over 100 posts (some were just too awful to see the light of day). I also learned about the best sport ever.

Life may not be exactly where I thought it would be right now, but that doesn’t mean that it’s bad. It’s just different, and that can be good. It’s been a fun trip, and I’m looking forward to the next 100 posts.

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Superstitions in a fantasy setting

Personally, I’ve never been one for superstitions. Black cats are sweet. The only bad luck I gather from a broken mirror is the possibility of getting cut on a shard. As for stepping under ladders…

Artist's rendition of me carrying a ladder. We call this the Schwarzengrubber maneuver. It's a little something I picked up in the navy. Also the easier and safer way to transport a ladder short distances when alone.

It wasn’t until I said “MacBeth” aloud in front of an actor that I realized how important superstitions are. The actor flipped out, convinced that the show was going to end in disaster. Thinking quickly, I spit on the ground and ran around in a circle three times. That was enough to calm the actor down, and he went out and gave a great performance.

Rituals and rites, especially in a typical fantasy setting, work by belief made manifest. The gods are real because we believe in them, and we believe in them because they are real. It’s a neat cycle, really, thinking about it. And the development of local superstitions can convey information to the players in a  more interesting fashion than straight-up telling them. If, for example, the townsfolk of GenericMcNPCville kill any spider on sight, the players might infer that there have been issues with spiders in GenericMcNPCville in the past, be it the standard giant spider variety or the slightly more divine side of things. Another example: the rival town, Plotdevice City, believes that making direct eye contact will lead to calamitous events. This leads up nicely to some kind of mind control/zombie/possession type scenario.

I’ve done a basic scan of my go-to Forgotten Realms sources, but I haven’t found anything that is really matching up with what I’m looking for. Mixed feelings– it allows for more flexibility on my part, but then again it means more work for me. Boo on work.

Still, even though I know that it’s going to add a stupid amount of work to my planning, but I can’t help but look forward to it. It’s the not-so-suppressed literature nerd in me: I get all giggly over new ways to tell stories. Well, at least new to me. But the point is, I’m curious to see what happens next. And I know whatever I do, my players will throw me a curve ball, and it will be great.

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Stitch in Time, Part 13

When we last left the party, we had finally finished with everyone swapping bodies! Having gotten all foreshadowing out of the way forever, the plot finally lurches forward.

The Ritual
In roughly the same instant, the party and Alba reappear in a smallish room. The room itself is about 50′ x 50 ‘. The walls are lined with shelves filled with books, magical apparatuses, and preserving jars, filled with jams. In the center of the room is a dome, about 25’ in diameter. Along the outside of it, there are runes. Passing a successful arcana check, Indiriana notices they are runes associated with protection. The dome is silvery, but they can still make out the vague outline of a man inside.

Cedrick attempts to enter the circle, only to run into a solid wall. After pondering the situation for a few minutes, Sylph (who has the symbol of Mystra, as Rila was absent this session), held the symbol against the dome. After some slight resistance, she passed through the dome. Curious to see if it worked both ways, she stepped back through. After several moments of testing how things worked, Sylph discovered that she could bring one person with her at a time while holding the symbol.

The party, now inside the dome, see an old bearded man wearing red robes. He seems deep in concentration, casting some sort of spell over a wooden symbol of Mystra.

I'm pretty sure I've seen this guy somewhere before...

Sylph, continuing to take the lead in this matter, approaches the old man.
“Hey, Old Dude. What’s going on?” Sylph says (I’m paraphrasing here ,but the point still stands).
“And… Finished,” the old man says with a flourish. He turns to the party. “I’m sorry, have we met before? Sometimes I muddle up my timelines in my old age. I’m William, William Pelegrim. Chronomancer.”
After a round of introductions, the party gets down to brass tacks.
“Sir, what date is it?” asks Cedrick.
William gives the date as being five years earlier than the present date. The party exchanges worried looks.
“Hey, isn’t that around the time you die?” Cedrick exclaims. The party facepalms.
“It’s certainly possible, I can never really keep this sort of thing straight.” William says, shrugging.
“You’re taking this remarkably well,” Sylph says.
“Well, we all have to die sometime, and I’ve already seen how it—” William says, stopping abruptly. A pair of claws materializes out of a void-like opening, and into William’s delicate internal organs. As entrails spray everywhere, a woman steps through the portal. She has a collar around her neck.
“Oh good, more playthings.” The woman says, licking the blood from her fingers.

TO BE CONTINUED

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Character Development: Fear

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

“What do you despise? By this you are truly known.”

Frank Herbert, Dune

I include the above quotes for two reasons. First, Dune is one of my favorite books of all time. Second, these quotes, when taken together, show how fear is a central component of a character. However, I’m not just referring to the character’s fears itself, but also the origins behind those fears as well as how a character chooses to live with them. It is obvious that people are afraid of things that could hurt or kill them. But that alone is not enough to create a deep-seated fear in a character. After all, merely interacting with the world is fraught with dangers: even simple things like driving, flying, or eating sushi can be deadly. In order for a fear to really take root, a negative emotional component (usually caused by extremely traumatic events) needs to exist.

When building a character, I start out by charting three things. First, I think about what the character’s favorite thing, above all else, could be. Once I have that settled, I think about what that character is afraid of, and how they cope with that fear. I think from a role-playing perspective, how they cope with their fear is an important way to subtly show . The other players won’t know your character’s phobias unless they are flat-out told. That’s never any fun (at least for me), and opportunities for dramatic reveals are rare. No, how the character reacts to their fears can be one of the greatest tools a player can have in  role-playing toolkit. Does your character suppress their fear, doing their best to pretend it doesn’t exist? Does he seek out things they are afraid of so he can overcome those fears? How about she goes to an opposite extreme of her fears so she can avoid them? What if he develops some sort of Stockholm syndrome, ingratiating himself to prevent being hurt again? The possibilities are endless here, and can show much about a character’s inner life.

I want to leave you with a story of one of my characters before I end this rather lengthy article. In one dungeon delve, the DM split up the party, making it so everyone vanished from each other. This played perfectly into Bimbi’s fear of being alone. So what did I have her do? She sat down, and waited for Pentaros to come back for a full turn. She may have also cried a little, not that anybody needs to know shutupdon’tjudgeme. Realizing he wasn’t coming back, she got up, determined to do anything in her power to find Pentaros. She made it through the dungeon-maze-puzzle thing in record time. The other players thought it was funny, and got some important insight into Bimbi’s character. That insight may only have been ‘Bimbi has a disturbing attachment to Pentaros,’ but it was a new facet, nonetheless.

Happy character development, everybody!

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