Wednesday, July 26, 2006, 02:12 p.m.

We are on hiatus from Forgotten Realms D&D for a while. Instead we are playing Dead Lands. This is the system that I just to DM, and now Chad is running it. He has been a bit obsessed with it ever since he got back from Origins. The original Dead Lands had a kick ass system. Then they converted (like everyone else and their dogs) to D20. Very Stupid. But now they've done another revision, which kind of goes back to the old system, but kind of doesn't. I don't like the new system. I especially don't like the advancement system and the combat. In the original, you could have multiple actions per round, based on your initiative roll. Now, you are always limited to one. That makes combat run very slow. In the original advancement system, you got to get better both at the die type of a skill, and also at the number of those dice you could roll to choose the best result. Now, you can only better the die type, and you only EVER get to roll a single die. That makes me really crabby since I always roll like hell. Just awful. I'm playing a re-vamped version of Lorna Dune, the character I originally played in Garrett's group when I was learning the system prior to becoming the Marshall myself. She's mean and vengeful. In last night's session, the stagecoach we were on was attacked by a terrorantula. We had managed to make our escape, but Lorna just couldn't leave it. She hopped off the coach, and chucked 5 sticks of dynamite into the spider's hole. This ended up causing the coach to tumble down hill, killing 3 innocent people, and deeply wounding one of the posse. I felt bad, but Lorna really wouldn't. No, she really wouldn't. The spider died, that's it. Dave was gone, so it was just Steve, Troy and I playing. Steve has decided to play a womanizer, which is just pissing me off. Lorna will definitely be finding a way to make him pay. Afterall, she was the person who organized the prostitute's union and the Chicken Ranch commune.

Saturday, May 20, 2006, 12:08 a.m.

Well, I'm going to try this once again. Typically I'm not patient enough, and don't have enough time anyway. But it's summer, and I do enjoy gaming. We have a new group here in Iowa. I'll call it "Chad's Monday" since we meet on Monday in the summer, and Chad is the GM. Players are Troy (Harthan - Human Cleric of Shandokar), Me (Livienne - Drow Paladin of Eliestrea), Steve (Fenn - Wood Elf Ranger or Eliestrea), David (Krau - Illumian Jack of All Trades), and sometimes Aaron (Deor - Human Sorcerer). We are playing Forgotten Realms, 3.5.

Monday, January 24, 2005, 06:21 p.m.

Character: DeThea
Game System: Kingdoms of Kalamaar D&D 3.5
Group: Chad's Monday

Remari and Dethea are in Pekal seeking to find the source of the knight that teleported into Geanavue. They are tracking him to a Ar'taban, a city with an interesting legend. Supposedly, 300 years ago the city was ruled by a queen interested ony in study and not in creating an heir. But the people insisted, so she set up a series of puzzles. Only if a man was able to solve it would she marry him, because she wished to marry her intellectual equal. A bard came to Ar'taban, and managed to solve the puzzle. The queen expected only a marriage of convenience, but actually feel deeply in love with her husband. However, after returning from a trip abroad, he fell dead, and she dropped into despair. For months nothing could raise her spirits. Eventually a priest of the Harvesters came to Ar'taban and the Queen seems to fallen under his dire influence, eventually building a huge crypt beneath the castle, turned into a lych and started raising undead to keep her company. The order of knight to which the teleporting visitor belonged eventually sealed her in, and then set up a post to watch her, lo these many years.

Oh, and the Harvesters are the same guys the set up the demon and his granddaughter when we met the inevitable order of time. I hate both those groups.

Tonight we begin our adventure on the road to Ar'taban. First we encounter the 1/2 Orc bandit Quinn, and his 14 henchmen. We killed Quinn and 9 bandits. We kept one alive to question, and 4 ran off. While burning the bodies, we heard a scream in the woods. We search it out, and the 4 guys are getting eaten by ghouls in the forest. We kill the ghouls, and dispose of all the bodies.

We arrive in Ar'taban, and are greeted by child twins, Till and Gill, who seem to have a psychic link. We inquire about the missing children, and interrogate their parents, investigating the sites where they were taken. We also visit a church and see the story of the queen in the stained glass windows. Oddly, the remains of the queen's huband that are housed in the church are missing. We also attend the local fair going on, and a performing bard bears a striking resemblance to Galinos. We warn him of possible danger since he resembles the fallen king, and he hires us as body guards.

After staying the night at the Black Bear Inn, we awaken to a commotion in the tap room. Two more children have been taken. DeThea manages to track a set of ghoul tracks out of the city and into the swamp. We follow for 3 hours, and end up losing the tracks, but they seem to suggest a path to the citidel of the Kalenal. When we get there we are greeted by what seems to be the head of the order. We decide to check the ruins before dinner, and end up discovering bones in an herb garden, and more bones in a debris pile next to the citadel. Something isn't right. We additionally find the remains of a meal containing horse meat, which teh Kalenal would never ingest, because they consider the horse sacred. We know that the people inside are bad, but it gets worse. We defeat the head man, but leave him alive to face justice in the village. We discover a basement room with grisly remains of torture and experiments on the children. Out of 10, only 2 are left alive. We also find a female necromancer that claims not to have been involved with the Harvesters (who had defeated the Kalenal, and masqueraded in their place). She convinces us that her knowledge is valuable enough to keep her alive. We take the 2 surviving children, the necromancer, and the head of the Harvesters back to the village. We break the news to the grieving parents, who quickly enact justice on the Harvester. We will go back the next day to take care of the remaining Harvesters who had been in the ruins checking on the seal that keeps in the queen.

Saturday, January 22, 2005, 11:53 p.m.

Character: Livienne T'oussaint
Game System: D&D 3.5 Forgotten Realms
Group: Various Thursday (Chad as DM)

Only Mike, Neil and I played on Thursday. Livienne, Adric, and Avalon (with the 3 others in tow as NPC's for the night) returned to Silverymoon to restock before setting out to find the sword in Menzoborranzan. Livienne checked in at the in she and Seraph own, and performed there in the evening with Avalon. He's the bard, and only got a 26 on his perform check. Hee Hee...Livienne is a paladin...and I got a 36 on my perform check! It seemed like we spent the majority of the night doing housekeeping - like identifying and selling treasure, splitting up gold, and purchasing items for the trip. Livienne is from Ched Nassad, and frankly knows little about Menzoborranzan. We took a chance and left a message for Drizzt D'Ordun, who occaisionally visits the palace in Silverymoon. Luckily, he happend to be in the area, and even more shockingly, decided to visit the inn during our performance. We got some good advice and strategy about going in. Livienne hates the idea of going back under, and frankly she's sort of cut her mind off from the ways to get along and hide as a good drow in a horrendous society. She remembers it as this black and oppressing time, and tries to think of it as little as possible. Our group will go down in 3 groups. Livienne will masquerade as the owner of Adric as a slave. Seraph will take his demonic form, and pretend to take Aziza in as a "novelty" freak show, with Rookwood as masquerading as his lackey (to push the cart). Avalon will go in alone, posing as a mercenary for hire, and trying to get hired on to one of the noble houses. Livienne is worried that she may be recognized as a follower of Eilestree. (Any character of 11th level or better is starting to become know by reputation.) We decided against disguises, because we couldn't find any that were not easily penetrated by scrying, and we expect to be watched every moment. Livienne is able to conjure a metal picture of what surround the sword, and it appears to be a run down crypt, but she can't tell if it's within the city of in some cave on the outskirts. Livienne is especially sickened by the prospect of the spiders again.

Monday, December 27, 2004, 06:43 p.m.

Wow...haven't posted anything new here for a very long time. I always have good intentions of documenting gaming sessions, but I don't ever get it accomplished. It's Monday, and we're playing Kalamar. I'm pretty pissed at the party cleric at the moment. He had us play "lackey" to local evil wizard (because he was "soooo powerful"), but now keeps saying he's small potatoes in the grand scheme. ARRRGGHH! We are trying to escape from a room in a pyramid with only 1/2 hour of air left, and a large evil artifact that will summon all the followers of the Prince of Nightmares to us when the magic circle gives out pretty soon. Duh Duh Duh! What will become from our heroes?

Monday, July 12, 2004, 11:24 p.m.

Character: Thes'sa R'ahl
Game System: Star Wars d20
Group: Chad's Monday

Josh wasn't at game tonight so Katarr (alias Cortez) wasn't in play. Story: the female Wookie bounty hunter that had targeted him found him. Surprise...he ended up where everyone seems to end up in the SW universie (althought everybody in the galaxy agrees that nobody ever goes there) - Tatooine.

Tess, Tom, and Vinci spend the day on Metallos, after aquiring the next light sabre component (a blade length adjuster). Tess and Tom eat "meat-allos" (meat and lard mushed together and shaped like a fruit!) in the tough part of the city, then nearly get in trouble as they try to find a way onto the floating city. Never accidentally agree that the big cat man is a gladiator. Word of advice.

I think that Keith might be playing Tom as romatically interested in Tess. Hmmm...kinda hope not.

After managing to leave the floating city, Tom and Tess walk by the "slurry" sea - basically a toxic waste pit that is an example of the open water left on the planet. Supposedly know as a good place to get rid of dead bodies. Also where the losing gladiators land when they are dropped out the bottom of the floating city. See? Told ya we didn't want any part of that.

Tess found the whole day rather gross and disturbing, and ended her afternoon/evening with a very very very large fruity alcoholic beverage, and ended up being carried back to the Xerxes (alias Masquerade) by Tom, and falling asleep snuggled up with R6.

Next morning we managed to find out that no, Katarr hadn't just spent another night out with a Twilek, but had been taken off planet by the Wookie bounty hunter. Her launch trajectory suggested one of several planets, which Vinci narrowed to Geonosis. Needed to go there anyway for next light sabre part, so hey, why not?

On Geonosis, I missed Tess's jedi lore roll, so managed to "not realize" that the Geonosians had bad history with Jedi. When they ask me what sort of lens assembly I need, not having any knowledge technology to be able to explain, I had Tess take out her light sabre. BIG MISTAKE! News travels fast between the insectoids, and not only could I not find one from that factory, but practially the rest of the planet was closed to us. And even worse, it seems the Wookie didn't come here afterall.

Finally we managed to find a couple rhodians on planet that said they had the contact to help us. Turned out to be Zorba the Hutt, who said he'd give us both the lens assembly and the location of Katarr if we retrieved his "precious jewel." Ok, we'll bit.

Tess, Tom and Vinci head out into the desert toward the location Zorba claims the ship carrying the jewel crashed. We proceed there through the tail end of a sandstorm, and arrive to find the a blaster battle in progress. Some thug bandits had intercepted transmissions, and had shot down the craft to get the jewel. They figured it was a huge diamond, but in actually was Zorba's favorite dancer, Jewel.

Fought thugs, fought more thugs in a MT-ST, cut a hole in the back of the ship, blew up the ship (and the MT-ST with it), finally convinced the girl to ride a speeder bike...and finally avoided a huge stange red sand something to get the assembly and our traveling instructions to Tatooine.

Did I mention that Tess had to haul R6 on a speeder bike across the desert to track the transponder signal?!?

Sigh. Tired now.