Brink Of War

[ghost-angel]

Re: Brink Of War

 

So, I was thinking about Solron's request for Potions for some of his magic. Which in my system is just a kind of Ritual for casting a Spell. It changes the How It's Done not What Is Done.

 

And I came up with this: Potion Limitation (-2)

It takes aspects of Extra Time: Only To Activate 1-5 Hours, Charges (defaults to 4), OAF Expendable Focus (ingredients).

 

The Extra Time: Only To Activate is the Brewing Time, even on Instant Spells as "Only To Activate" means "To Brew" - sort of a mix between Delayed and Extra Time. it takes from 1-5 Hours to brew a potion, there is a method to the madness in the time, but it's not a hard and fast rule as to how long a given spell takes to cook.

Charges - the default is 4 Charges; i.e. you can make 4 Potions. You can make less or more (up to 8 Potions in one batch), +1 to the Skill Roll for -1 Charges, -1 to the Skill Roll for +1 Charges. More or less requires more or less ingredients. . .

OAF Expendable Focus - this is the ingredients required to make the potion.

 

Given the way I've worked the magic system some Spells have a default Ritual of Potion (Healing for instance) and to turn a Healing Potion into a Spell incurs a -8 to your Skill Roll (removing the Potion Ritual). No small feat. The helps put the emphasis on preparation and remove the temptation to build DnD Healing Batteries (i.e. Cleric).

It is worth a note that it still costs Endurance to imbue the Potion with the Magic - all at once and all up front, each Charge you're brewing counts as "1 Casting" - so high Endurance Spells probably don't get large batches made. And, of course, you have to find the ingredients (availability limited to GM perogative )

 

Of course, this also means that if you have a Spell that isn't normally a potion you can get a +8 to your Skill Roll by making a Potion out of it. Assuming you know what the ingredients are, and have them.

 

In a few hours I'm going to upload more info to the wiki. And hopefully a map too!

[Old Man]

Re: Brink Of War

 

Potions can be hard to do right, since often you have to add Independent and Usable By Others. Typically that prices them out. Tweaking the special effects to take those advantages off can be just as hard--you might have an alchemist fiddling with his chemistry set in the middle of combat, for example.

[ghost-angel]

Re: Brink Of War

 

Since there's no way to make a Potion that takes less than an hour to brew - I'm not all that worried about mid-combat chemistry. You can't, for example, take only part of the Potion Limitation; it's all or none of it.

 

Also, since Magic is acting much like Equipment in this campaign, Independent is superfluous; UBO is not quite totally useless, as I'm sure there's a case out there I might want to utilize it. But Potions essentially become Equipment. Also - you don't buy spells in this game, it's completely Skill Based. So the cost of a Spell is meaningless.

 

Keeping it under control is simply a matter of the GM not making the ingredients readily available, and time to brew. Equipment considerations (vials of liquids get heavy fast). All kinds of In Game fun that will prevent anything from getting out of hand.

[ghost-angel]

Re: Brink Of War

 

The First Session

I was dog tired as this week kicked my butt. A round of lay-offs at work matched with sick coworkers and several on vacation created a rather over-worked environment. But, I wasn't laid off so I'll take tired. It was a short session, just to get everyone together.

 

I wasn't completely prepared either - and since this is an online game prepping is a little different. For instance - I ddnt have any NPC Tokens prepared and no NPC Dice Macros. Oddly enough, I did have the NPC Adversaries built - ORCS!

I did a lot of manual dice rolling if/when I wanted. But I drove the combat completely through narrative tonight.

 

We have:

Shania - An Elven Merchant, she is traveling in search of some lost property, part warrior, part Hedge Mage.

Qliian - A Priest-Magi from the southern cities, sent out into the world to gain knowledge and spread the word.

Chaz - A human raised in the Goblin Kingdoms, coming south. . .

 

The group finds themselves at a small inn in a small village near the borders of Moraine and Tellan, up to the North near Barbarian Country. In the Inn with them are a young couple, looking nervous, and the locals as this is also the local tavern.

 

The night is uneventaful, though the Inn Keep charges the rich Priest-Magi (he's from the city and a Church man, he has to be rich!) twice the rent he charges the Elf. A little tension is caused, but the Inn Keep alleviates Qliian's worries by stating he charges what a person can afford, and perhaps overcharging one means he can afford to let a poorer soul stay for free.

 

Which is exactly what happens when Chaz attemps to room in the stables. . .

 

The night passes quietly and eventually everyone retires to their rooms. (It should be noted I was tired and running low on brain juice so I moved things along a bit).

 

In the middle of the night the group is woken by a crashing noise and the smell of smoke! An Orc Raider had kicked in one of the Inn's doors! Chaz comes runnig out to the rescue as he's next door. Shania is one room down and also comes out. Qliian is down the hall a bit, on the other side of the open balcony looking down onto the Tavern below. The three see a large Orc standing in the doorway of a room. Chaz immediately attacks (he has a personal vendetta against Barbarians Raiders) and wounds the Orc. As the Orc is about to cut him down the mage Qliian casts a Fiery Missle, hitting the Orc square in the chest, staggered but not out the Orc has time to blink before Shania finishes him off - sending him crashing to the floor below.

 

Where four more Orc Raiders bellow up in rage! Two charge up the stairs at the end of the hallway. Chaz attempts to convince the young couple who occupied the room to jump out the second floor window - neither of them like this idea. Two Orc come barreling up the steps, one goes right and charges Qliian, the other charges Shania.

 

Qliian has a close call with his foe, both of them just barely miss each other, the Orc seems to be driving the mage back as he retreats to the dead end of the hallway. Shania casts a spell that blinds he opponent. Qliian manages to get a solid hit on his foe as Shania stabs hers. Chaz, in a daring move to buy time - or possibly just to look cool) jumps onto the Chandalier and lands in the fire started in the first floor to take on both remaining Orcs. The young couple come out of their room, the boy brandishing a sword. Shania finishes off her Orc as Qliian also fries his stone dead.

 

The group head downstairs into the raging inferno below. Chaz is holding his own against both opponents when the Elf casts some of her wierd Elven Magic - Shania has caused one of the Orcs to glow brightly, swords are also magically attracted to this foe for a short time. Qliian casts an Arcana Armor spells and uses himself as a wall to allow the girl to run out the front door of the inn. Chaz is injured by one of the Orcs as the boy comes up and stabs another. Qliian, now free to act, fires off more Fiery Missiles into the fray. The increasing flames and smoke make it hard to aim. One of the Orcs falls as the other drives Chaz deeper into the inferno! Finally Qliian, Chaz and Shania manage to fell their foe and they all flee outside.

 

Where the innkeep and a single bucket are attempting to salvage his home! The group tries to help, but to no avail. Once again Barbarian Raiders have made life on the frontiers harsh.

 

The boy, Jak, in convinced by the girl, Evalyn, to request help in getting them to his Uncles place in one of the western Duchies. Chaz immediately volunteers and turns down offers of reward. The others agree to this small quest as well.

 

And that's where I ended things for the night before going to take a short nap, only to wake up hungry! So here I am eating Corn Flakes and typing out the synopsis.

 

Next Time - Dice!

Attached to the post is a the extremely rough "I had 20 minutes in Illustrator" Map of The North.

[Old Man]

Re: Brink Of War

 

Papyrus, the ultimate fantasy font! Not bad for 20 minutes.

[Markdoc]

Re: Brink Of War

 

Potions can be hard to do right' date=' since often you have to add Independent and Usable By Others. Typically that prices them out. Tweaking the special effects to take those advantages off can be just as hard--you might have an alchemist fiddling with his chemistry set in the middle of combat, for example.[/quote']

 

I just prefer Usable by others and trigger. The alchemist sets the trigger, while he's making the potion and when it's drunk, the power is set off (on whoever drank it). Since it's a single continuous charge, the fact that he's not around doesn't matter. The power was placed - and the single charge fired off - when he was around and the trigger was set.

 

cheers, Mark

[ghost-angel]

Re: Brink Of War

 

I'm essentially using Universal Focus, END is paid at Potion Brewing by feat of a custom Limitation. It avoids all the mess of Triggers, Delayed, UBO, and all that malarky.

[ghost-angel]

Re: Brink Of War

 

Papyrus' date=' the ultimate fantasy font! Not bad for 20 minutes.[/quote']

 

Yes indeedy! Actually, there was a font I had in mind that I cldnt locate quickly and have forgotten the name to

[Old Man]

Re: Brink Of War

 

Exocet is the other overused fantasy font that springs to mind.

[solron915]

Re: Brink Of War

 

I had a excellant time even if there were no dice rolling . The game had a nice flow to it. Looking forward to next week.

[ghost-angel]

Re: Brink Of War

 

Server up, feel free to log-in, add tokens, mess around, chat.

 

I gotta step out for a minute and get some stuff done though, so I won't be around until a little after 1800 Mountain.

[ghost-angel]

Re: Brink Of War

 

Session 2

 

Prep: I needed a small encounter I wanted to end the night with. Since I was planning on putting this at the end of the evening it needed to be short and sweet. So I whipped out Monsters, Minions, And Marauders picked the Spirit Elemental and made a tweak or two. Basically 20 STR, slow moving, Earth Elementals. One tree shaped one mound-of-dirt shaped.

 

The part started the night right where we left off - standing in front of a burnt down in around dawn, with four dead Orc Barbarians on the inside.

 

Evelyn and Jak - the apparent targets of said Orcs, hired the part to get them across country to the Duchy Of Shriam (and at some point I'll do something truly amazing and make a decent map). It's about 7-8 days on foot to their destination.

 

The NPCs:

Evelyn - a young girl who apparently has secrets she doesn't want to share

Jak - a squire, looking to inherit his fathers lands and titles (or better yet earn his own Knighthood)

 

Evelyn is tight lipped about their reasons for travelling, but Qliian - the Magi-Priest - recognizes her as the Duke's niece from a comment that Jak let slip out. She's not only from further south, but west of their current location. Why she's out near the Barbarian Borders is anyone's guess.

 

Jak hails from a Border March with Tellan, where is father is a knight of small renown. . . He regails the group with inflated tales of bravery as they trudge westwards.

 

Shania notices it first, on the eastern horizon over the lake a storm is gathering, and magically. This is no ordinary storm. . .

 

Qliian and Shania take a moment to study the gathering clouds. They are slow to form, and will likely takes at least a day to reach them, if it even gets that far (The GM - for his part - had 4 Shamans summoning a massive storm and rolling badly at that).

 

They trek onwards into the night, evil forces gathered behind them intent on catching the young charges. When they make camp Jak and Chaz go out to catch dinner, after several hours Jak manages to bag them a rabbit [no one took Survival]

 

When they wake the next day they find grey skies from horizon to horizon. (The GM rolled several more times for his cabal of Evil Shamans - one of them rolled an 18. Scratch one Evil Shaman off the list, a lightning bolt turned him into ash and disrupted the spell... consequences - will follow )

 

As the party gathers their things to head onwards for the day (Qliian and Shania have noticed the badly disrupted magic that blankets the odd cloud cover) they group is attacked!

 

An Earth Elemental is summoned out of one of the smaller trees near the campsite, it lunges forward and grabs Evelyn. Shania casts an Elven Faerie Fire on it, giving it an blue-white glow that screams "HIT ME" rather nicely. The tree, with a screaming Evelyn in its branches, attempts to flee.

 

Qliian makes an attempt to Unsummon the thing - his first attempt fails to overcome the magic that brought it in the first place. Chaz and Jak attempt to hack the Elemental down with their blades, soon joined by Shania who proves to be a capable swordmistress as well. Qliian's second attempt to Unsummon the beast is a failed spell, the Karma of missed Skill Rolls will visit him in the fuutre. . .

 

As the group attempts to cut down the fleeing Elemental (with Evelyn both screaming continuously and futilely trying to break free) another Earth Elemental bursts from the ground and lumbers after Qliian. . .

 

It hits him several times - though the tough magi-priest takes no lasting damage from the Elemental's rocky fists. As the others finally fell the first Earth Elemental Qliian lets loose with a Fire Spell that blasts the one beating on him back into bits of dirt and rubble.

 

And so we ended the night... the party victorious over the ambush. . .

 

But who sent the Elementals? Who was summoning the storm? Why did the Elemental go straight for Evelyn and attempt to run away with her? And really, why don't Orcs wear bow ties?

[Starwolf]

Re: Brink Of War

 

And really' date=' why don't Orcs wear bow ties?[/quote']

 

Because they are uncivilized... unlike us goblin folk

[ghost-angel]

Re: Brink Of War

 

Session Three

 

I lost my notes.. which really sucks. I had the encounter for the evening planned out, mapped out, and lost 'em. poof. Last time I plan anything on paper.

 

Starting right off where we ended - defeating a pair of small summoned Earth Elementals.

 

Question Evelyn leads her to reveal she is carrying an amulet that's called a Null. Magic doesn't work on it - and supposedly there's a way to make it affect the wearer, or an area, Evelyn wasn't very clear on that and the party didn't push it.

 

Jak and Evelyn don't talk the entire rest of the session either. They group heads off for the morning, early to mid morning they encounter a hamlet, mostly a small farming community with a Church, Tavern and Inn as the center buildings. It's obvious the Inn serve those few who travel the road or guest to the hamlet, it's got enough farmland that it must serve to provide food for a larger town in the area - likely no more than a days travel or so by ox-cart.

 

The group heads to the tavern (or common house) and find breakfast - the magi-priest pays for their meal as the warrior still only has Copper (not used outside the Goblin Lands) and must trade it. Luckily the local priest travels north and converts money so he has tender to use in the Goblins homeland.

 

During the meal a huge barbarian warrior traveling alone comes in. Chaz, the Goblin-Raised warrior who hates barbarians almost starts a fight. Luckily he remembers the markings of the faded war-paint this one wears, they're a more "friendly" tribe that comes through the Goblin borderlands every now and then to trade crafts for weapons. During the meal Qliian asks to examine the amulet, Evelyn has told them no one's been able to tell her anything about it, Qliian wants a crack at it. As soon as he handles it he feels his Arcane Energies stripped away. He puts it down and Evelyn takes it back with a "told you" statement.

 

They leave on OK terms, the barbarian just stopping for food as they were.

 

The groups heads to the church, Qliian the Magi-Priest to pay his respects, Chaz to convert is string of copper, and Jak to pray and fulfill his Knight-In-Traning Duties. Shania (the Elf) and Evelyn stay behind.

 

Qliian has a discussion regarding resistance to The Faith (Gods are neither proven nor not proven to exist, much like the real world and unlike standard Fantasy worlds) - those who believe Know the Gods Watch, those who don't ask for "proof" of this. He is given some comforting words by the older priest who has spent much of his life in the less populated areas.

Chaz tithes some of his coins to the priest in thanks and gets the rest converted to the Silver coins used in the Human Kingdoms.

Jak prays.

 

The group regroups in the Tavern and then head back out onto the road traveling west again. By night fall they make camp.

 

The session was cut short due to my lost notes - between that frustration and work burning me out (yay layoffs making my job 3x harder!) I had nothing to go on, and two of the group had an early flight in the AM. Good time to break.

 

I am deliberately making the road West a slow paced journey, taking a session to cover a day or so. Things are building behind them and I want to use this opening "quest" to entrench them into the underlying plot of the world.

 

So far they have encountered some resistance from the main villains; met both a potential ally and enemy; and are getting entwined with one of the stories main NPCs.

 

Next time, notes on computer not paper. stupid paper.

[Starwolf]

Re: Brink Of War

 

Solron has finished selecting spells for Qliian. As youj approve them and write them up, I will tweak his MT Token macros.

[ghost-angel]

Re: Brink Of War

 

Should have some done tomorrow.

 

Some of them aren't going to be allowed - Rune Reading for example is Precognition, which is Divination, and not allowed as Magic.

 

I'll have a full list and hopefully most or all built tomorrow evening.

[ghost-angel]

Re: Brink Of War

 

I'm a punk - I decided to watch Taxi Driver with the wife, she'd never seen it before so, I had to really.

 

I have gone through the request list, and some of them will be denied, the majority are in the process of being built and having descriptions added (which is the fun part really).

 

Will definitely be done well before game time tomorrow. . . assuming I can sneak in some stuff at work

[solron915]

Re: Brink Of War

 

Well good luck then on sneaking it in. That was just a partial list of what I found apealing. There was magesight potion (E. I. pg111) Elixer of Levitation (E. I. pg109), Philtre of Fire resistance (E. I. pg 108) , Malagaw's spell of impuissance (fhg2 pg 11), potion of transformation (fhg 1 pg 212), wizard steed (fhg 1 pg 234) obscurying smoke (fgh 1 pg 100), banishment (fhg 1 pd 27), detect life (fhg 1 pg 162), Tarv. Images of delight (fhg 1 pg 179) and archer's bane (fhg 1 pg 199). Ohnyes there were 2 more items Qliian would like to find , ring of mystic darts (pg 122) and bracelet of spell storage (pg 45) . They are in the enchanted items book. I really think that is all for now . Unless you can come up with other thing that will fit into the campagin. Talk with you tommorrow

[Starwolf]

Re: Brink Of War

 

Heh... He doesn't want much does he

 

We will be there for game time, but we may have to retire early. Terrie has a cataract in her right eye. We are going into the eye clinic tomorrow morning to start treatment, which will most likely require surgery. She wants to play, but if her eye starts hurting her to much we may have to "make camp" early. Knowing her though she will try and tough it out so as not to spoil the game for anyone else... that's part of why I married her

 

See ya's all tonight!

[ghost-angel]

Re: Brink Of War

 

Out of frustration of losing a bunch of material this morning while doing an edit (always edit offline, I should know this) and generally not finding what I'm looking for...

 

I rewrote the Campaign Wiki from the ground up. It now resembles an actual sourcebook more closely.

 

Server is up too.

[Starwolf]

Re: Brink Of War

 

Hmm...

 

I can see the server, but we are unable to connect. Are we still running version 1.3b48?

[ghost-angel]

Re: Brink Of War

 

Yes - try again, it took an oddly long time to think it was up, perhaps it was merely teasing us.

[ghost-angel]

Re: Brink Of War

 

Session Four

 

Starting where we left off ... the part is camping for the night. They're hoping for a night without incident.

 

First Watch is Qliian, and it's uneventful, though a light wind is rising.

Second Watch is Jak, the young warrior.

 

It is during this that Qliian has disturbing dreams, and the wind picks up force. It snaps the Mage-Priest awake just in time for him to see forms at the edge of the campfire approach. The others are awoken just in time to be attacked!

 

An veritable Army of skeletons marches out of the night, Evelyn is screaming off somewhere in the dark - the girl has lungs, it's a continuous scream of epic proportions, Jak is also out of the campfire light, fighting by the sounds.

 

The start of the fight does not go well. Shania's first spell is foiled by a pair of slashing skeletons, Qliian can't focus his own Elemental Fire and is also hurt by two approaching skeletons. Chaz fairs better, causing damage to one the undead and not getting hit in return. Dozens of them advance....

 

Chaz explodes into a whirlwind of violence as he cuts through the bony undead with his swords, performing sweeping maneuvers with the two blades he wields expertly he starts to cut a swath through the undead. Shania gets a spell off - a Faerie Fire spell to great effect, hitting two instead of the normal one target. Qliian still can't get his magic to work, though he deftly dodges several skeletons - one armless one trying to headbutt him. The magical backlash is building.

 

Chaz continues to cut down skeleton after skeleton, though for every one he cuts down, two seem to take its place. He is getting rather badly hurt and at this rate will fall before the battle is over. Shania moves to attacking with her sword and starts to hack at the skeletons in front of her. Qliian tries one more time to focus his magics, and again fails - only this time the Blacklash has built to a critical level. . .

 

Elemental Fire takes a hold of the campfire and explodes in a whirlwind of flame and heat, caught on the windy night it burns it's way through just about everything in fifty feet. Obliterating several skeletons, the party isn't spared the wrath of the fire either. Qliian takes the brunt of the spell as it focuses a little closer on the caster, but his allies aren't left unharmed either.

 

Chaz conitnues to fight the good fight against a half dozen of the undead, Qliian once again musters his energies to try for another spell, Shania continues to take on the closing army....

 

When all goes quiet. The skeletons disappear in the blink of any eye, even the few fallen are gone. Evelyn's constant scream that served as a backdrop is gone, Jak is gone.

 

Dawn breaks on a trampled field, a quenched campfire and an injured party. Qliian has a few Healing Potions left on him and gives one to Chaz, the Necromatic Energies are so strong that the life force of the Healing Magics is doubled. . . Qliian notes that not only was the spell that summoned the skeletons of great power but it tapped an unseen reserve of Arcane Power (the GM Rolled a 3 on the Evil Mages skill roll).

 

The party searches for Jak and Evelyn, but all traces seem to be gone. The Elf notices it though, a tiny trace of Shadow Magic lies under the pervasive Necromancy. . . She can pin point where the Shadow Spell was cast, and that it was a Shadow Step - normally a short range spell. But nothing more. If she spends some time, maybe a full day, she might be able to track the spells desitnation.

 

The party searches the area and finds Evelyn's partially charred pack, inside is a scroll case, with a single parchment - a map of a lake, forest and river with two black marks and no writing on it. Chaz thinks it might be a map of the Eastern end of the Goblin Alliances, his home, but isn't sure. Neither of the mages recognize it at all.

 

It's decided they have two choices - press on to Evelyn's Uncle for help - which is still a six day march away - or Shania can investigate the Shadow Step spell. The decide to let her investigate the Spell.

 

After a day of gathering her energies and feeling for the spells trace, with the powerful Necromancy fading being a plus, she is finally able to get an idea by sundown. The Shadow Step was augmented to travel leagues instead of yards, and it took the caster North by North-East. Towards the Barbarian Lands.

 

Needing some rest, the party settled back down to fitful sleep, resolving to head out with first light to track down Evelyn and Jak. . .

 

Notes on the session: Magic is a little too difficult to cast, need to fix that. CV4 SPD2 4DEF Mooks are a good match for the party, though a tough one if there are enough of them.

 

It's about time the group got some XP too - four sessions, 9 XP around the table!

 

So that'll end the first mini-arc: Introductions All Around.

Next Up: The Rescue!

 

so far they've met several key NPCs, though their paths have yet to do more than casually meet. The coming sessions will start to reveal whose behind it all, what they want with Evelyn and her amulet, and maybe where they get all these cool spells!

[Nolgroth]

Re: Brink Of War

 

Sounds like a fun game. I will be eagerly reading all these campaign logs as they are posted.

[ghost-angel]

Re: Brink Of War

 

It was a fun session. I threw just a buttload of mooks at 'em. They were more overwhelmed by numbers than skill, I'm glad I was able to get that in there like that.

 

I got the Book Of Dragons this past week, been reading it... hope to be using it

 

Oh, for anyone who needs Skeletons, here's the statblock I used:

 

Skeleton

STR: 10

DEX: 10

BOD: 5

SPD: 2

Skills: +1 with HtH; +1 with DCV (OCV/DCV 4)

Attacks: 1/2 D6 HKA or 2D6 HA (w/ STR 1D6 HKA, 4D6 HA)

DEF: 4PD/4ED; Damage Reduction (4PD/4ED) [total of 4 Resistant and Non-Resistant Defenses]

Automaton Stuff (No Bleeding, No Stunning, Full Life Support)

 

Every third Skeleton had no HKA (no limbs!), every fourth Skeleton had no Skill Levels (incomplete or partially broken!)

At 0 BODY they collapsed.