In the Shadow of the Dragon

[Starwolf]

Here is where I will be posting campaign notes, character creation information, and eventually game logs of our new game.

[pinecone]

Cool! Lookin foward to it...

[Starwolf]

This is a Heroic level epic game with high powered magic. Characters are a max total of 150 points (100 base points and up to 50 points in disadvantages). Characteristic and Skill Maxima are in play. Once a characteristic or skill reaches the maxima purchase costs are doubled. Racial packages are custom made and will be both loaded to the HD vault, and made available as a zip package here.

Races available are:
Human:
Anzeti (Jaiman - Chilly Highlands): Warriors, Priests, Rangers, Mages, Rogues, Paladins, Druids
Duranaki (Jaiman - Subterranean): Warriors, Priests, Rangers, Mages, Rogues, Paladins, Druids
Haid (NW Jaiman - Blue Forest): Barbarian, Rangers, Shamans, Witches.
Jaaderi (Emer - Tai-Emer): Warriors, Priests, Rangers, Mages, Rogues, Bards, Paladins
Kuluku (Emer - Khum Kaan Rain Forest): Barbarians, Shamans, Rangers, Druids, Special Racial Abilities (Chameleon Skin, Retractable Nails, darkvision, flash defense, Enhanced Smell) GM APPOVAL Required.
Half K'Taa'Viiri (Folenn) Warriors, Priests, Rangers, Mages, Rogues, Bards, Loremasters, Navigators, Paladins, Druids Special Racial (Flash Defense, Enhanced DEX, Enhanced Smell, DarkVision, Enhanced Voice, Enhanced Hearing, Enhanced Comliness, Eidetic memory, Cramming, Rapid Healing, Damage Reduction, Telepathy) GM Approval Required
Laan (Emer) Warriors, Priests, Rangers, Mages, Rogues, Bards, Paladins, Loremasters, Special Racial (Enahnced INT, END, and STR)
Rhiani (Emer - Deserts of Uj) Barbarians, Rangers, Warrior-Mages, Shamans, Druids, Bards Special Racial (Flash Defense)
Shay (Emer - Tai Emer and Haestra) Warriors, Priests, Rangers, Mages, Rogues, Bards, Druids, Paladins,
Talath/Myri (Jaiman, Emer - Haestra) Warriors, Priests, Rangers, Mages, Rogues, Bards, Druids, Paladins, Special Racial (Enhanced STR)
Y'Kin (Jaiman) Warriors, Priests, Rangers, Mages, Rogues, Bards, Druids, Paladins,
Y'Nari (Emer) Warriors, Priests, Rangers, Mages, Rogues, Bards, Druids, Paladins,
Zori (Jaiman) Warriors, Priests, Rangers, Mages, Rogues, Bards, Druids, Paladins,
Dwarves (Underearth) Warriors Rangers, Rogues, Bards,
Elven
Linaeri (High Elves - Philosophers) Warriors, Priests, Rangers, Mages, Rogues, Bards, Druids, Paladins,
Loari (Warrior Elves) Warriors, Priests, Rangers, Mages, Rogues, Bards, Druids, Paladins,
Erlini (Wood Elves) Warriors, Rangers, Mages, Rogues, Bards, Druids
Dyari (Dark Elves) Warriors, Priests, Rangers, Mages, Rogues, Bards, Druids, Paladins,
Ta-Lairi (Half Elves) Warriors, Priests, Rangers, Mages, Rogues, Bards, Druids, Paladins,

[solron915]

All right I'm waiting to return to Kulthea.

[Starwolf]

Kulthean Magic:
Background: All magic flows from Essence. Essence is the mystic energy that permeates and surrounds everything in existence. There are two main types of people that can cast magic spells. The first type are mages which cast arcane spells. This type of caster taps into and manipulates Essence directly. The second type of casters are priests. This type of caster channels spell like abilities by tapping into a particular deities ability to control and manipulate Essence. The diety acts as a mystic power focus and the priest’s faith is the conduit. The stronger his faith, the more power that can flow through this conduit.

Game Mechanic: All casters must buy the ability to cast spells. For mages it is “Power Skill: Arcane Essence”. For priests it is “Power Skill: Faith”.

All casters use a focus for their castings. For mages it is a specially carved rune staff with an embedded Arinyark stone. For priests it is a Holy Talisman (usually an amulet) carved and embedded with a Moonstone (attuned to either Orhan or Charon) on the symbol of their chosen diety. These foci are actually a 50 point END Reserve with a REC of 5 END per hour of non-use. Casters may use XP to increase the END pool, and/or the REC amount/rate. If a caster loses their focus or chooses not to use it, they can still cast but all spells then use their personal END, and END costs are doubled. All personal END expended to power spells is considered to be Long Term END. Most spells also require other material components to be cast. Some of the components are durable and can be reused, but most are consumed in the casting.

All casters must select at least one school to study, but may select up INT/5 schools during character creation. All spells must come from either the Fantasy Hero Grimoire (FHG) or Fantasy Hero Grimoire II (FHG II). All spells must be purchased with character points or XP. The actual cost of a spell is the real cost divided by 3. Each school selected during character creation must have at least one spell purchased at the apprentice level. An apprentice level spell is the basic spell with the addition of the “side effects” limitation. Players may chose to buy their initial spells at the base level instead of at the apprentice level.

A caster is considered to be an apprentice (mage) or initiate (priest) until he has purchased at least 20 points overall in spells and has at least 2 spells at the basic level in a given school, at which time he is considered to be an adept (mage) or brother (priest). A caster may NOT buy easy, stilled, silent, or master level spells until he has at least 40 points in a given school. Once eligible he may begin to buy these enhanced spells. When a caster had 50 points in a given school and at least 4 master level spells, he is considered a master (mage) or priest of that school, and may begin to teach an apprentice if he has the instructor skill. Once a caster has become Master of at least 2 schools he is considered an Arch- Mage or High Priest. After character creation a player may not learn spells outside of his chosen schools until he has reached at least the adept or brother level, at which time he may seek out a teacher, college, or other source to become an apprentice or initiate in a new school.

There are some restrictions on available schools. Only Druids may study the priestly school of Druidry and they are limited to that school. Only Bards may study Song Magic and are limited to that school. Only Priests are allowed to study Divine Magic and are limited to that school. Only Barbarian Shamans may study the Shamanism school and are limited to that school. Only Dragons and the K’Taa Viir are allowed to Study Dragon Magic, though they are not limited to it. Those that choose to study the Sorcery school are called sorcerers not mages, and those that choose to study the Witchcraft school are called witches or warlocks. Paladins may only choose powers (spells) from the list of powers in Turakian Age pages 190 & 191. Finally only mages that are aligned with evil (the Unlife) may study the Black Magic (evil witchcraft) or Necromancy schools. For those that choose to study the evil schools, there are some benefits in power, but some hefty prices to pay physically and morally.

A caster can never have more than INT/5 schools he is able to study. A caster may abandon a school to study another after reaching this ceiling of allowed schools, but once a school is abandoned no further spells or enhancement of that schools spells are allowed.

The only modification allowed to spells without doing research (making a Spell Research (Inventor) skill roll) is to remove the apprentice option raising the spell to a basic spell. All other modifications require the skill roll. All modifications will require an expenditure of time, money, and XP, after which the spell research roll can be attempted. If the roll succeeds, the caster may record the new spell, allowing him to caster either variation. If the spell research roll, fails the caster must then expand half again the base amount of time, and money for further research before making another roll. As a general rule of thumb it takes 1 week of research and 50 gold in money and materials per active point increase in the spell.

Finally casters must be aware that there are hot spots where spells may be more powerful, suppressed spots where spells are weakened, and dead spots where spells will not function. Many mystic colleges and deities temples are built on hot spots. Usually an area consecrated to one diety will be a suppressed or dead spot to another deities priests. There are also natural hot spots and suppressed or dead spots. In addition Essence is a flowing field of energy and the flows can act as physical barriers. Sometimes the flows surge into a Essence storm. Essence storms can have unpredictable affects on spells, so a fireball that would normally burst in a 20 foot radius, might burst in a 2000 foot radius during the storm storm. On the other hand a healing spell cast during such a storm may be able to actually raise the dead (of course once the spirit has left the body, the spirit that returns may not necessarily be the same one that left in an uncontrolled resurrection). A caster might try to summon a horse , but instead get flowers or butterflys. Essence storms are a thing to be feared. They usually accompanied by severe natural weather as well like blizzards, tornadoes, hail, and lightning.

[solron915]

k I have a basic idea of my new character. He'll be a Rhiani Warrior-Mage with a full set of twists for you to look at. But I need to know which packages you want me to use to set up the character. I'll send you a background write -up to look over.

[Starwolf]

The server is up... Maptools 1.3b53

Server name: ShadowDragon
Password: the same as our other games :D

[Starwolf]

Thursday night was semi-productive, mostly due to my being semi-prepared due to work issues (I am a civlian employee of the US Air Force and we were working long hours due to a suprise IG inspection). And two of our players creeped in about an hour late due to suprise visitors. A prospective new player did not appear, but that may be due to my being late in sending him the Maptools server name and password.

However we did get three characters roughed out. We will kick off the campaign next week. I am still open to one or two more players.

We currently have in the group:
A Half Rhiani/K'Ta'Viir Warrior-mage
A Loari Elf Mage and
A Loari Elf Ranger/Priest

I cannibalized the Ulronai from TA for thr Rhiani, and the Elven Package from TA for the Loari, Erlini, and Laerni Elves. I applied some slight modifications to the packages. I lifted the TA magic system almost whole hog. The only change I made is, instead of requireing Power Skill: School for each school, mages buy Power Skill: Essence only once, and Priests buy Power Skill: Faith.

[solron915]

Are we going to upgrade maptools before the next game on friday

[Starwolf]

Yes, we need Maptools 1.3b56 before Friday. Brad finished his upgraded macros and video tutorials which I am using to build the campaign. And he used b56 to build the targeting functionality. Now that it is done, RPMiller has mentioned woring on an HD export template to automatically build the token with macros already attached. That will be cool, and by upgrading now we will be ready if or when he has it done.

Also I have built a new HD campaign file, a half K'Ta'Viir racial template, and the Rhiani Warrior Mage package files for you. I also built the Loari Elven racial template for Patti. I will send them tomorrow.

[solron915]

Ok cool I'll change mine and Patti's to 1.3b56. I have also sent you an email with a question (or maybe a request) about Talon's skills.

[Starwolf]

Just a note for everyone, we will be moving the game to Friday nights from 7:00 pm MST to 11:00-ish MST.

[Savinien]

Ouch. I don't think I will be available on Fridays. Sorry.

[Starwolf]

I am sorry to hear that. We had to move the game time due to work conflicts.

[Starwolf]

We have finished up the first three characters. They are

Ssam (not a typo thats the way the player really wanted to spell it). An Elven Mage with a broad array of spells.

Talon: A half-K'Ta'Viir Warrior Mage

and Crystyna: An Elven Ranger/Priest.

[solron915]

Starwolf I have an email enroute to you with Ssam's spell list, enjoy

[Starwolf]

OK we have a fourth character in the Group..

Andris Human Zori Warrior - Chosen Weapon, Battlestaff :D

[solron915]

Starwolf , I have sent you character sheets for Talon and Ssam. Check out the Equipment section .

[Starwolf]

Bad News...

I am going to have to cancel tonights game... We WILL start next Friday.

My birth mother was just admitted to the Hospital, she had a stroke. We are going to the hospital as quick as I can get ready.

[Ragdoll]

Bad News...

I am going to have to cancel tonights game... We WILL start next Friday.

My birth mother was just admitted to the Hospital, she had a stroke. We are going to the hospital as quick as I can get ready.

Ouch! :( I'm really sorry to hear that. I hope things work out okay for all involved in such terrible misfortune. =/

[ghost-angel]

I hope your mom is alright Starwolf

[Starwolf]

Thanks for the sentiments.

She had a massive stroke caused by blood clots putting pressure on her brain. They had to drill her skull and operate to relieve the pressure. She is partially paralyzed, and they have moved her to ICU. I guess the rest is in God's hands.

[ghost-angel]

hey kids...

If you want to see Samantha drawn by a real honest artist, hop on over to this thread

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=72901

and vote for her...

[Nolgroth]

Ack! Best wishes to you and yours Phelix. Dang.

[solron915]

Awesome start to the new campaign. Little slow on the start but once into the plot I could see the other players getting into the game . Next week should be alot better for all.

[Starwolf]

The slow part Solron made reference to was due to me spending about an hour answering questions and explaining, rolepaying, the Hero system, and maptools to our newest player. Jims better half has joined us. She is a novice player, but has a great imagination.

We also have been joined by Ragdoll from these boards. He too is an excellent rolepayer. As you will see once I get around to posting the game logs.

Just a quick summary of the actual game...

Our heroes had not met previous to this. They were all in the free city of Norek to attend a grand festival. As part of the festivities, they were in the audience watching a stage magician do tricks. When the magician asked for a volunteer from the audience Talon was quick to raise his hand. Talon played a trick of his own and cast invisibility on himself once he was inside the magicians closet. When the magicians assistant went to get him out of the closet through the hidden trap door, Talon slipped aside, causing her some confusion. Matilda was distracted by his stunt and did not see the man in black approach from behind. The man grabbed the girl who let out a scream. Talon rushed forward but was unable to reach him before he vanished in a swirls of mist.

Hearing the scream the magician rushes backstage to find Talon explaining about the girls disappearance. The magician exclaims that Talon must get the girl back quickly. Talon wants to know why he should get involved. The magician explains that since Talon was the last to see her it might go better if he were to recover the girl, before he had to explain how the daughter of the leader of the city council was missing, Talon did not like the veiled threat.

Mean while the other players hearing the commotion backstage come running to investigate, and find the entertainer arguing with the warrior/mage. The entire group and the magician decide it might be best to go and see the councilman and explain out his daughter, before decding what to do.

After explainations are made to Musmoy the city council leader, he exhorts the players to please find his daughter. They discover that she is only the most recent in a string of kidnappings. Ssam, the elven mage reveals that earlier she had seen a couple of cloaked individuals acting suspicious heading towards the woods and thre river to the west of the city.

The group gathers their equipment and heads out attempting to track the suspiscious men. In a small clearing near the river surrounded by a circle of boulders, they hear chanting. Andris, climbs to the top of a boulder and sees two men and two women standing in the center of the clearing holding hands. The men are chanting and the women are swaying in time to the chant, they seem to be in a trance of some sort. The whole scene is surrounded by a swirling wall of crackling energy, that is slowly increasing in intensity.

The group rushes forward and with a couple of arrows, and a few sword swings cut down the men. The energy however does not dissipate and the scene begins to flicker and fade. As talon tries to grab one of th women, his hand passes through her. The he notices that his hand is kind of transparent too.

Caught up in the swirling energy, Andris tries to jump backwards out of the affected area, and he stumbles backwards over a log and into a pond that wasn't there moments before.... The group begins to look around at their strange surroundings... as I ended the session.

:D

My thanks to Nolgroth for his great tutelage on the art of the cliffhanger.

[solron915]

I missed the last part about the pond in the game last time. Thanks Starwolf for that peice of information. Now we'll have to see if the whole group was transported or just the 2 of us. Nice cliffhanger.

[Starwolf]

Gang, I need to postpone tonights game till next week. This week is my Mom's 70th birthday and Terrie and I have a chance to fly to Phoenix for the event, but I have to leave tonight. I'll see you all next Friday.

[mavsfan77]

Hey there, guys.

How's everything is?

[solron915]

Hey there, guys.

How's everything is?

Hi yourself, I thought you had fallen off the end of the earth. So you have your computer up and running I see. We're running a new game (fanasty hero) on kulthea. You remember Solron Darkhealer's world. We sure could use one more player if you're interested. We normally play on Friday nights 7-11 mst. That'd be 6 - 10 your time. We have 4 players total at the moment and only started our first session last friday.:D

[mavsfan77]

I'd love too. I would need help with character creation.. the druid/healer idea is still my top. Also we are moving into a house and changing ISPs. If it's hooked up by this Friday I will be available.

Oh, some other news.. I will be getting a phone call this week to schedule my surgery. It will probably still be a month away.. but after I have it is what I'm worried about. Either I will have to devise a way to set the computer near the bed. (Which is not probable) or get a laptop (which is impossible).

Tell Aunt Patti I said hi and love you. Sorry.. we just haven't really made an effort to tell anyone yet. Just got my surgery news yesterday.

[Nolgroth]

My thanks to Nolgroth for his great tutelage on the art of the cliffhanger.The least I can do for a friend. ;)

[solron915]

I'd love too. I would need help with character creation.. the druid/healer idea is still my top.

Ok I can help with the character creation. First go to entry #3 pick a race (humanor elf), Second pick a tribe. Then I can put together a basic package for you. Then between Starwolf, you and myself we can fine tune it for you. Glad to hear you are finally getting your back fixed. Oh yeah we ar using Maptools 1.3b.56 the nexest and greatest version yet.

[solron915]

Hey Starwolf , If the Mavsfan wants to still play I have one of his druid character still in my files. I send it to you . Then you can survey it and make any adjustments to it . Then send it to Mavsfan and he'll have a pre -made character. What do you think and maybe he'll see this message and respond to it with his thoughts.

[solron915]

Just talked to Starwolf, he is having internet connection problems. So right at the moment we are waiting for him to come online. I'd just keep checking every few minutes and I'll update the you as aoon as I know anything.

[solron915]

Well I just talked to Starwolf and he thinks his server is shoot. So no game this week, may we have better luck next week. He says he tried every troubleshooting idea he knew and no luck.

[Nolgroth]

Darnit. I wish I would have seen this earlier. The MapTool server went down, so trying to connect through it has been a problem. Directly connecting to the IP Address/Port has been the only way I know of to fix the problem. Even "Test Connection" hangs and then ultimately fails.

[Starwolf]

Sheesh!!! My wireless router but the big one. I finally got my setup going again but I had to hardwire all of computers. No wireless for a few weeks. But I got everything working again. I will be prepared for this next week

As Nol mentioned the Maptools main server that we all link through has had hosting problems. Everything is working again, but be aware that if you want to launch a server, DO NOT click the test connection button. It causes the server to hang anf you have to shutdown and restart Maptools to re-start the server. If you are hosting just start your server and test by having someone connect to it. They are working on getting this resolved. For players, if you can see the server in the connect to server list, it is working.

[solron915]

cool deal, so we'll be up next week. Hate to see that your wireless router is fubar.

[ghost-angel]

This Thread (http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=69740) has a picture of Samantha that Poison decided he really wanted to do.

Skip towards the end to see the pencils and such. He did an awesome job with her, and got the attitude across quite nicely. Rep the man too.

[Nolgroth]

This Thread (http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=69740) has a picture of Samantha that Poison decided he really wanted to do.That is pretty nice. Is that the finished copy?
Rep the man too.Your wish is my command.

[solron915]

That is a nice picture of Sam and I repped the man too.

[ghost-angel]

Poison colored in the pencils he showed off yesterday

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1856682#post1856682

[solron915]

That is awesome, G-A .

[Nolgroth]

Sweet. I sort of pictured Sam a little less "butch," but very nicely done.

[ghost-angel]

So do I for the most part, but every artist has their own interpretation. Poison was working off a very brief description of the character to begin with. I kinda of like this version of Sam a little bit.

[solron915]

Question, Are we going to finish this Campagin someday?

[Nolgroth]

Question, Are we going to finish this Campagin someday?Well that's up to Starwolf really. I have nothing to do with the Shadow of the Dragon campaign. Much to my own sadness I might add.

In regards to Gemini, I want to. I really do. It's just that whenever I think my schedule is going to stabilize, something else pops up. Last week I worked day shift watching over an office with labor disputes. The week before I was working swing shift as a field supervisor. The week before that, graveyard shift at another labor dispute. This week alone I already have three different roles on three different shifts. Makes for a bumpy ride when scheduling game stuff. Worse, I honestly don't see my schedule becoming less turbulent in the days to come. My new boss suddenly realized what a decade of experience in the job is worth to his agenda and now I am his "poster boy" (his words - I shuddered when they passed his teeth). Still, it is a job and that is better than unemployment. The labor disputes tend to pay particularly well.

As always, if and when my schedule allows, I will plot out the remainder of the campaign. If anybody still remembers it, maybe we can pick up and move on. God only knows when that is going to be. Maybe even sometime this year. :)

[solron915]

Well Nol , myself and Starwolf do want to complete Gemini campaign. I will welcome the chance to see where it ends and I hope the others will want to complete the saga.

[Starwolf]

Ok, the good news is I have my hardware/router and software/server issues fixed. The bad news... My parents are here from out of state. I am going to have to postpone the game for a couple of weeks. Life seems to keep getting in the way. Tonight it's my parents and next week we have been invited to a 4th of July celebration/fireworks show the evening of the 3rd. I hope nothing else comes up to derail ourt game after that for at least a couple of sessions :D

[solron915]

Well we might as well make it 3 weeks then cause Ssam or I will be playing . That's the weekend of my daughters wedding and we'll be in Florernce , Mt. for most of that week.
So hopefully the 17th we maybe able to play a 3rd time together out of 7 weeks. Here's wishing us luck. See you'll on the 17th.
Ah actually we may not be there on the 17th, my wife reminded me that our oldest son will be up visiting from the 15th thru the 21st. So it won't be until 24th before we can play again. Sorry about this ,depending on what happens on the 17th we may be able to make then.

[Starwolf]

Well crap, I am sorry I missed the sessions we had planned, but it looks like between life happening, July is a busy month for al of us. Terrie and I will be lokking forward to the 24th.

In other news take a look at Nol's GA thread, he has some interesting questions concerning the GA game.