If you're like me, one of your initial reactions to that last sentence is "a race and a discipline isn't a character concept," and you'd be right.  However, for this post I want to specifically talk about some of the changes to Earthdawn from a character generation standpoint.  So while a character back-story and personality are crucial to a good character, they're going to be outside the scope of this discussion.

Attribute Generation

While the Derived Attribute table is mostly intact from previous editions of Earthdawn, racial mods are now done in a reverse Polish manner.  Instead of getting flat bonuses or penalties, each race has its own set of starting attributes.  Humans (being average) begin with 10's across the board.  Other races start with slightly higher or lower stats depending on their stereotypical characteristics.  You are then given 25 points to purchase modifiers to each ability (and get refunds by lowering abilities).  Again, like previous versions of Earthdawn, the purchase rate isn't 1:1 for higher attributes - going from a +5 to a +6 will cost you 2 points, for example.  Going up to +7 will cost 3 more.

Having the racial modifiers pre-calculated really doesn't gain you anything new, but it really doesn't cost you anything either.  Honestly, this 'new' system doesn't feel any different than the old one, the starting point is just now 10 instead of 0 and you have less points.  You can't lower abilities quite as far (8 is minimum now) but I don't know anyone who went much below that too often anyway.

Racial Abilities

Sight-based racial abilities were mostly unchanged.  The biggest difference is that the Windling's astral sight ability grants them access to that talent just like the human's Versatility talent.  This adds scalability that was badly needed to keep the ability useful throughout the character's career, as well as remove the need to distinguish between "windling sight astral sensing" and "Astral Sight talent astral sensing."  A balance and a streamline: good modification.

The biggest change was on the racial front and is the new karma rules.  Every race now has the same karma die (d6) and the same cost in LPs.  The difference between races comes in their karma multiplier.  An adept can have a maximum amount of karma point equal to their Karma Ritual rank multiplied by their racial karma multiplier.  I'm not sold on the variable karma pools yet - it's just something else that needs tracking on the character sheet - but I'm willing to give it a shot in game play to see how it works.

Discipline Flexibility

I mentioned this in a previous post, but disciplines have been loosened up to allow some choices in talent selection.  Some choices are a no-brainer.  I can't imagine many magicians not taking the second Spell Matrix at 1st circle or any adept not taking Durability as their option at 2nd circle (yes, it's optional... why I don't know) for instance.  But now a character does have options instead of being on a set path.

Skills & Skill Selection

Initial language, knowledge, and artisan skills are assigned just as in 1st Edition, but now you get 8 more ranks to apply to skills any way you see fit.  However, the talent versions of some skills have been toned down (or removed) to help balance things.  Avoid Blow, for instance, can be used a number of times per round equal to your rank if you know it as a talent.  As a skill it is limited to once per round but otherwise functions the same.

Equipment

The "Adventurer's Kit" is still around - a quick one-item purchase to give you starting gear.  For players that don't like to mess with too many equipment lists, it's a real quick and easy way to get started.  Now though, you start with that: a set of clothing, week of rations, artisan kit (if necessary for your skill), and a dagger plus 100sp to spend elsewhere.  Basically the items that were pretty much standard you don't have to worry about and you can spend your leftover starting funds on whatever other gear you want, which includes weapons and armor.

The characters we created this last weekend spent most of the starting cash on weapons and armor, but when the rest of your gear is already provided for you, there's not much else left.  There were a few odds and ends picked up, but  mostly by the magicians who didn't need fancy weapons.

One side note I'll make, and this isn't new but it's something I very much like about Earthdawn.  No wonky weapon/armor proficiencies or knowledge base.  It doesn't matter what discipline you follow (if any), you can wield/wear any weapon/armor you choose.  Want to be a wizard in plate armor?  Go ahead, the only penalty you'll suffer is the initiative penalty of the armor - same as any warrior who wore the same thing.

Aftermath

Even if there are some minor differences, both the process and the end result of character generation in Earthdawn 3e still feels the same as previous editions.  A warning though: character creation in Earthdawn can still be an involved process if you don't have an application available to help out.  The EDCG was fantastic for earlier editions, so I threw together a quick spreadsheet just to do attributes for ED3.  It wasn't pretty but it was functional.

As I mentioned earlier, I built my character ahead of time so I'd be more familiar with the process and could help answer questions for the other players.  Still, we took a few hours to get everyone finished (not counting time to do the character concept).  So there's a bit of a time sink, but I've found it to be acceptable for the level of enjoyment I get from the game and the settings.

By the end of the night we had an elven troubadour, a t'skrang illusionist, a dwarven beastmaster, and an obsidiman elementalist to go along with my human warrior.  Afterward, we started our first "adventure" and helped out a small town, despite them thinking we were someone else.  We're such nice people. 

A month or so ago my Earthdawn: Savaged campaign wound up to a close. The early summer/late fall months brought a rash of player absences and missed sessions which seemed to sap everyone's motivation. So although I very much enjoyed returning to the Earthdawn world our game ended rather anticlimactically.

At least I was able to do the experimentation with Savage Worlds that I wanted to. I learned a number of valuable lessons about the system from behind the GM's screen. I plan on going into more detail about what modifications I plan on making to Savage Worlds in a short series of articles but I wanted to take this opportunity to summarize our campaign and my thoughts on it.

Our small group consisted of a few adepts who had banded together in defense of a Rex, a small village in the hinterlands north of Bartertown, and forged their group in tribute to the dwarven weaponsmith who had brought them together and gave his life in defense of the innocent. Thus The Hounds of Askari were born.

Yurg Highheart, Troll Beastmaster
Former crystal raider who owes his survival when his air ship was destroyed by Therans to T'keela and now travels with him to repay his blood debt.

Silaa, T'skrang Swordmaster
Questing for a relic sacred to his village and pursuing the ork nethermancer named Leonin who had stolen it.

T'keela Soulwringer, T'skrang Nethermancer
An eccentric t'skrang who took up his former master's quest for the Words of Undoing, a ritual rumored banish the Horrors from Barsaive.

Kato, Human Nethermancer
Cast from an airship by the cult he was raised in because of his affinity for spirits, Kato literally fell into the conflict between Silaa and Leonin. T'keela has since taught him to control his 'weirdness,' though Kato seems suspicious of his teacher's quest.

Caelas Solque, Elf Archer
A noble from the Blood Wood smuggled out as an infant before undergoing the Ritual of the Thorns and ignorant of his heritage.

After the short intro that was described in a previous post, the group decided to head to Parlainth.  Silaa and Kato didn't have any leads on Leonin's current whereabouts but T'keela felt that there may be clues to the Words of Undoing amongst the Theran research still buried in the ruins.

Since one does not simply walk into Parlainth, the adepts started in Haven trying to make contacts and find employment that would familiarize them with the ruins and let them fund their own expeditions.  They wound up in the employ of a elven trading house out of Throal - the Circle Path Company.  Apparently tradition has passed leadership of the company to Yuriel, a young swordsman adept, from her parents but she wasn't interested in such a mundane job.  She had exercised a "establishing trade relations" clause in the company charter to join an adventuring group headed into Parlainth.  Yuriel's younger brother - in charge of the company in her absence - and a few other officers of the company needed someone to go into Parlainth and try and find her.

The investigation was slow at first as the party really didn't know anyone in Haven.  Eventually they discovered the group Yuriel had joined had in turn joined up with another group on an excursion into The Smalls, returned to Haven, then headed to The Twists on their own.  The Hounds of Askari retraced her steps to and were eventually able to track her down and escort her (and other captives they freed) back to Haven.

Afterwords the party was granted an audience with a wizard named Heirmon who lived in Haven.  T'keela had already tried to meet him before the group had gone into the ruins, having heard Heirmon was quite knowledgeable of Parlainth and may know if there were any hints of a part of the Words of Undoing in the ruins.  However T'keela was rebuffed, told to tell his boss Herimon wants nothing to do with him. T'keela had no idea what Heirmon was talking about but the eccentric old magician wouldn't listen.

Fortunately one of the captives held with Yuriel, a t'skrang troubadour named Sekra, was a friend of Heirmon's and smoothed out the misunderstanding.  The Hounds met him to talk, and they learned that Heirmon had been harassed lately by a number of rather powerful adepts who were looking for the Words of Undoing themselves, apparently in the employ of an ork named Leonin...

* * * * *

And that's where we closed down the first season of the campaign.  With the scheduling conflicts we were having and one of the players taking a break from the group we decided to move to a fresh game to try and get everyone excited and motivated again.

If you're familiar with the adventure Path of Deception published by Living Room Games then you've probably already recognized it above.  A few other NPC names might be recognizable from other sourcebooks as well.  I decided to use PoD as a jumping point for my Earthdawn game - to introduce Parlainth and Haven and their denizens to the players.  Once the groundwork was laid I would use a surprise reveal to turn things personal quickly.

PoD wouldn't work for my needs as written - published adventures rarely do - so I made a few changes (Pardon the ambiguity, but I'm trying to avoid too many spoilers). I wanted the focus of the characters' investigation to be on Parlainth and Haven and not on the interpersonal relationships of the members of the Circle Path Company.  To that end I removed Gangrene from the adventure and modified the set-up so that Yuriel discovered the trade opportunity-clause in the Circle Path charter on her own.  Finally I didn't have Yuriel in the location she was being held in the book.  It seemed completely unnecessary so I placed her with the slaves in the final location.

Although I took a few of the twists out of the story it did down-play the Circle Path Company and let the players focus on learning the setting.  In my opinion it worked marvelously.

As for the downsides of the campaign... well as I mentioned scheduling conflicts and missed sessions really killed motivation for the game.  On top of that Silaa's player wound up missing all of the roleplaying-heavy sessions and was present for the exploration and/or combat ones, which I think was frustrating for him (he much perfers the former to the latter).

I also think the reveal came too late in the campaign.  Basically the game was four sessions of an impersonal quest before they learned Leonin was after the same rituals T'keela was, and may even be ahead of the group.  Letting the players in on that was fun, but knowing it was right before a break from the campaign means the payoff may never come.

You see, our group has a habbit of going from game to game instead of revisiting past ones.  So there's a chance that we might not come back to Earthdawn.  Only time will tell but there's one thing for certain - it still remains my all-time favorite game.

Session 1 - March 30th, 2008

GM: Dave
Players: Luke, Chad, Dan, Josh, Pat

The scene opened on the town or Rex, a battered and broken village in the hinterlands of Barsaive. The townspeople had fought a daily struggle to eek a meager living out of the dried and broken land, and just as their efforts began to pay off they became the target of a band of ork scorchers. Frequent raids kept the town on the brink of collapse but the orks were smart enough to always leave the town in good enough shape that it could recover... and be raided all over again.

Rex's headwoman, an elf by the name of Emberica, was finally fed up with the cycle of destruction and called in some old favors which led Askari, a dwarven weaponsmith, to bring his small band of adepts to aid the town. The orks were not expecting any resistance, let alone a band of adepts, and a cunning trap sealed their doom. However they were not go quietly. Many good townsfolk lost their lives in the orks' death rage, as did Askari himself.

The adepts, lost without their leader, spent some time helping repair the village and recover lost livestock. After a period of mourning they discussed their next destination. T'killa suggested that they seek the Words of Undoing, a set of rituals his master told him would rid Barsaive of Horrors. It was likely that at least a portion of the Words were among the treasures lost in Parlainth. With a new goal at hand, the group took the name The Hounds of Askari to honor their fallen leader.

It wasn't long into their journey that they encountered trouble. While on watch one night, Silaa heard rustling in the nearby woods. Bardolf, Yurg's dire wolf companion, also sensed something amiss. As Silaa investigated the entire party was ambushed by short, gray humanoids with large black eyes. The group rose quickly to find themselves outnumbered. The creatures fiercely attacked Katto and managed to steal his peg-leg. As they tried to flee into the night they came under the assault of swords, arrows, claws, and fangs as the Hounds charged into battle.

The creatures may have escaped too, had Silaa not grabbed and thrown one of them into the peg-bearer. As the dying monsters dissolved into pools of foam, more continued to poor out of the woods. It did not take long for the group to find that one of the creatures was splitting copies of himself from his own body - a trick that told Yurg that the Hounds were dealing with a triplicant. With the source creature dispatched peace returned to the night.

Caelas had been injured during the battle, as was Bardolf, but both were quickly attended to by the group's Nethermancers. As the party settled back down, there was one question on everyone's mind: Why steal the peg leg? Was someone after a pattern item of Katto's?

The next morning, the group rose and continued on their journey to Parlainth.

* * * * *

Big thanks to Luke for writing up the first session. He's apparently making good progress on the second as well - looks like he's more efficient at this than I am. But I will be following Luke's AP posts up with my own commentary on the campaign meta in the next couple weeks.

Although I've turned to the familiar setting of Barsiave for this game I've decided to try a few new things as well, the first of which was converting this fantastic game to a system more suitable to my players.

I'll be honest - I've been an Earthdawn fan since it's initial release a decade and a half ago. I'm not such a rabid fanboy to defend every aspect of the system but I do think it works despite it's few flaws. That said when thinking about running this campaign I came to the conclusion that the Earthdawn's Step System wasn't going to be the best choice for my current group. I myself like the complexities of the system and how the mechanics are tied in to the world but I recognize that it's not for everyone.

After looking over a few options I decided to try to convert Earthdawn over to the Savage Worlds setting. I'm fortunate enough to game with a couple of the hosts of Fear the Boot, and anyone who listens to that podcast can tell you that Luke has earned himself the unofficial title of Savage Worlds Acolyte. However as he talked about in Episode 92, after he and I discussed the possibilities of conversion he recommended against it, arguing that he didn't think that a Savage Worlds version of Earthdawn would run the same as the Earthdawn I've always been a fan of. While Luke had a valid point, it's also one of the reasons I wanted to try the conversion. In fact one of the things I wanted to see was how well I could preserve the feel of Earthdawn during a conversion as well as in play.

I did some research online and found a conversion over at Savage Heroes that looked promising. There were a number of concepts I thought could work but after looking at Discipline Edges (edges you have to be a member of an adept discipline to learn) I realized it wasn't exactly balanced. A Legendary Warrior could, for instance, bring himself back from the dead but a Legendary Beastmaster could gain the equivalent of the Deadlands Rebel Yell edge. As far as races go most were ok but the Obsidiman was all but unplayable as converted.

After a little tweaking and rebalancing (with Luke's help) I got the document to the point where I could uses it as a starting point for the game. Unfortunately my version isn't anywhere near ready for publishing. I didn't bother fixing the disciplines I discouraged for this campaign (Air Sailor, Sky Raider, and Cavalryman) as well as the couple that the players weren't interested in that needed major work (Troubadour, Weaponsmith). I also need to balance and pad out the discipline-specific edge lists so there's more variety and less power differential between disciplines.

To help character generation for the game I re-used a technique that our group first tried for our Manaburst game: Magic cards. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail here; I briefly describe the method in the initial Manaburst post and a couple of the players discussed it in even more detail on Fear the Boot Episode 95. Suffice it to say that the players were able to take the base concepts they had in mind and immediately add plot hooks for me to build on as well as connections to each other and a reason for them to have created a Group Pattern together.

Silaa, T'skrang Swordmaster played by Dan. Silaa is a k'stulaami - a t'skrang with a membrane similar to that of a flying squirrel that allows them to glide short distances. This former village wise man is searching for an artifact stolen from his village that had protected it for generations.

Caelas Solque, Elf Archer played by Pat. Unbeknownst to him, Caelas was born in the Blood Wood to one of the ranelles (noble houses) and was smuggled from the wood for some unknown reason before the Ritual of Thorns could be performed on him. Caelas has grown up with a longing to return to the Blood Wood that he doesn't understand and is being searched for by a family he doesn't know he has.

Katto, Human Nethermancer played by Chad. Katto grew up a member of an airship-borne cult who's charismatic leader had him tossed overboard as a sacrifice to "appease the sky spirits." He now studies under T'killa in an attempt to learn control over his "weird spirit powers."

T'killa Soulwringer, T'skrang Nethermancer played by Josh. After spending many years studying under his master, the aged T'killa has adopted his late mentor's quest for the Words of Undoing, magical rituals said to be able to exorcise the Horrors from Barsaive.

Yurg Highheart, Troll Beastmaster played by Luke. Yurg was once a member of a small but proud clan of Crystal Raiders until most of his clan was captured by Theran Slavers. The trolls rebelled but the Theran airship was damaged in the process, sending it crashing into the lowlands. As the only survivor, Yurg was able to make is way back to civilization only due to his spontaneous initiation into the Beastmaster Discipline.

Together these five adepts make up the Hounds of Askari, named after the dwarven weaponsmith who gathered them together to defend a small village in the hinterlands from repeated scortcher attacks. Although Askari lost his life in the conflict, the surviving adepts have banded together in honor of his heroic sacrifice.

After helping repair the damages done to the small village of Rex the Hounds have left for the nearby Parlainth, hoping the ruins will hold their next opportunity to build their legend. And given the vast amounts of magical knowledge said to have been lost in the city during the Scourge they may even be able to find more information on the Words of Undoing.

I intend to post some commentary on my running this campaign so won't be doing an actual play write-up. However Luke has promised to try and do them this time around and I will repost them here as they are complete.

We had last left the posse down one Ranger and up one mad scientist and one Harrowed guide after it was revealed a former companion was actually a skinwalker in disguise. With their new guide in tow the Rangers set off from Redrock investigate the manor where Sen. Grissom was last seen.

Located half a day's ride from Redrock, the mansion was secluded from the main cattle trails by a smaller nearly overgrown path. The trip was uneventful other than the weather turning south as the posse approached the manor. They hoped to take shelter within from the storm while they looked around but unfortunately would find the dilapidated residence less uninhabited - and far less safe - than they had expected.

Session 3 - February 3rd

Before we got started with the game properly Pat introduced his character to us.

Rudolf Mordheim, played by Pat. Rudolf is a German mad scientists, emphasis on 'mad' over 'scientist.' Although a brilliant man, Rudolf's obsession with mechanics and electricity distracts him from his mission from time to time.

The weather continues to pick up as the posse arrives at the run-down two-story manor. From that they can tell the building is in rough shape - most of the windows are boarded up, and the one that seems to still have a few panes of glass left has been broken out. Jonas cringes slightly as he recognizes it as where he was shot from. When their mounts balk as they're brought near the run down two-story manor the posse leaves them tied up at the edge of the woods while they go inside to investigate and get out of the rain.

The first floor of the mansion is found to lack any furnishings, though there are a few small oddities. First is a bloodstain leading from the broken window back to the parlor. There's also a small burnt area in the parlor surrounded by more bloodstains. The charred area still smells faintly. In addition although most of the house is very dusty, most of the floors have been cleaned by recent traffic. In general the house feels very very empty.

While most of the posse explores the first floor, Aristotle heads upstairs to look around. As he gets about halfway up the stairs the temperature suddenly drops. Within a few steps the temperature had dropped nearly twenty degrees, and Aristotle decides he should head back downstairs. Just before he turns around he hears some very light footsteps but doesn't see anyone around.

It doesn't take an occult specialist to figure out that there's something supernatural going on in the mansion. Jonas heads upstairs to have a look around while the others try to light a fire in the first floor fireplace. The upstairs is very dark, lit by just a few beams of light through cracks in the roof. In the shadows at the end of the hallway the Harrowed catches a glimpse of a familiar shape - Chuck, one of the Senator's bodyguards - but the figure quickly fades.

Sen. Grissom's bodyguards - Chuck and Daniel - were created and named before I had created Chuck Walker before the first session. It was just a coincidence but for obvious reasons we weren't going to change the bodyguards' names.

Meanwhile the rangers downstairs had gathered enough scrap temper they had scavenged to get a fire going. Unfortunately they get very little flame and even less heat. The only thing generated in the fireplace is a greasy black smoke that quickly fills the entire chamber. Suddenly the cloud coalesces into a vaguely humanoid form which lashes out at a nearby Barry.

While Aristotle is paralyzed with fear and nausea, Barry and Mordheim struggle with their ghostly attacker until Barry manages to impale it with an old bellows. The huckster is able to draw the ghost into them and toss towards Dr. Mordheim for vaporization via electro-gun, with the resulting explosion showing the room (and its inhabitants) with soot and dust.

Mordheim: Herr Doyle, that vas inspired tinking.
Barry: But it ruined my suit!

At the same time that the rangers on the first floor are attacked, Jonas is suddenly assaulted by his own ghostly attacker. It's as if the harrowed gunslinger has had an icicle thrust through him, chilling his dead body to the core. As his extremities start to numb he can make out a feint accusatory whisper, "you got away!?" Jonas calls out to Chuck, trying to find his old compatriot but the attacks continue, unaffected as the gunslinger empties his guns into the darkness until he is finally driven back downstairs.

He rejoins the others to find them gathered in a soot-filled room that smelled strongly of vomit.

Jonas: What the hell happened down here?
Mordheim: It vaz a zmoke monzter. I zapped it to deat. Again.

Jonas relates what happened upstairs and says that he thinks Chuck s still around somehow. The Posse decides the first floor seems secure and decide to head upstairs to see if they can find any answers to why the Senator's bodyguards seemed to be hanging around past their expiration date.

The upstairs is still cold - even more so than the first floor. When Barry and Mordheim examine the upper rooms the entire house starts to groan and shake. Fear washes over the posse in waves, though they stand their ground. Suddenly some sort of misty force strikes Jonas, knocking him off his feat and dragging him toward the stairs.

Once upstairs the posse was subjected to some sort of supernatural dread, which they overcame to start investigating. While the others searched the rooms Jonas was attacked by second spirit. It felt as if it was trying to pull something out of Jonas, tearing his soul from his body. Eventually Jonas figured out he could pull back and after a short struggle, wound up drawing the spirit into himself.

IE Acquisition of the Harrowed Edge "Ghostly" I had bought with a previous advance. I asked Luke to do it in-game (and to have Jonas not have complete control over it) instead of just using it freely it since he was new to the whole undead thing. It was a fun encounter in-game that unfortunately doesn't translate to this quick write-up quite as well.

After seeing Jonas thrash about Doc Mordheim shoots Jonas with his entangle ray, thinking the Harrowed was losing control of his manitou and going crazy. Jonas rolled out of the beam and threw a nearby newel post at the doc in frustration.

Barry approached one of the closed rooms, drew some glyphs on the door in chalk, threw some dirt at the door, and walked in, sure he had purged the room of its evil. He calls to the others saying he found something they needed to see. Everyone rushed in but when Jonas went to get up, he suddenly passed through the floor and fell to the first floor.

Inside the room the posse (sans Jonas) finds a young boy huddling in the corner. He looks up as the posse enters, whispering "they're finally gone." Aristotle checks to make sure the boy is ok as he and Barry try and find out what he's doing in the mansion with a pair of tormented spirits. During the encounter they learn that the boy is Nicolas, Baxtor Grissom's son, and that his father apparently did something to him in some sort of ritual. During the conversation the boy occasionally locks gazes with each of the members of the posse (including Jonas when he finally can force himself corporeal enough to climb the stairs) before delivering a vague prophecy.

To Aristotle: "The butchery is not finished. Your work is not done."

To Barry: "You are a house divided, but you cannot remain that way. Your faith will lead you astray."

To Jonas: "The man in white is following. He's who did this to you and he's gong to want your thanks. He's also going to want something else you don't know you have."

To Mordheim: "Boom!"

After he finishes Nicolas tells the posse that they've freed him from the angry ones, and now that he's passed along his messages he wants to be left in peace. Jonas asks about where Sen. Grissom went and Nicolas replies that "he's doing it again." We're linked after what happened here - after what he put me through. But he got what he wanted." As he talks to the posse, Nicolas slowly fades from view. Once the young ghost had completely dissipated the temperature in the house returned to normal and the oppressive feeling lifted.

Despite Jonas' protests the posse decided to stay on the first floor for the night and head out for Denver in the morning. They spend the rest of the evening searching the house but don't find any additional clues. Next morning the posse saddled up and headed north.

It took half a day or so to reach the cattle trail that lead north to Denver, and a few more days before the posse starts to see the Rockies on the horizon. They started small groups of travelers on the road and asked a few for news from up north. Turned out the Arapaho were on the rampage up in the Denver area. It wasn't completely unexpected but it did make the trip up and the return back (hopefully escorting the Senator) more dangerous.

Sure enough a few days later the posse comes across the scene of an Indian attack. They find a wagon stuck in the mud at the side of the road with five arrow-riddled and scalped corpses laying around. Aristotle was able to determine that the family had been dead for a few days. All of the goods and supplies seemed to have been taken but the posse does a newspaper from the Denver Post dated about a week ago. Though it was mostly damaged they were able to make out a few headlines.

Most of the paper seemed to be local news about trade or the Denver Pacific but there were a few items of interest: The Palace (which Jonas informed the posse was the premiere gambling place in town) was celebrating opening a new game room, which Sen. Grissom would definitely want to attend. There was also a note about a mysterious illness wiping out the old and frail over the last few weeks. Apparently several bodies had turned up, all in their late 60's-early 70's with no identification, all appearing to have died of natural causes.

The last leg of the journey to Denver is rainy and cold. The posse continues to pass various travelers along the way until arriving in Denver one evening. Without much in the way of funds and being in a Northern city (thus not being able to draw on Ranger favors) Jonas and Aristotle head out to find lodgings they can afford while Barry and Mordheim decided to find a nicer hotel.

After securing lodgings Barry makes it his mission to try to win the group a small bankroll through gambling. When he fails at cards initially (almost getting shot at for cheating) he moves on to betting people can't out drink Jonas, who seemed to be unable to get drunk since becoming Harrowed. Barry's marks prove unhappy with their loss and eventually start a brawl to get their money back.

The shotgun blast that the bartender fires into the air ends the fight quickly and everyone is thrown out, but not before Barry is able to get the cash he won. He splits it among the party and they return to their lodgings, planning on starting their investigation in the morning.

* * * * *

I'm waaay behind with these and it's nobody's fault by my own. I completely underestimated how long they'd take to do and because of that it's almost two months since this session actually took place. The Deadlands campaign as actually ended recently and we've moved on to our next game, but I'm going to finish these up regardless. And since I'm running the current campaign (details to follow in a later post) Luke has volunteered to do the write-ups for my game.

The first session took place January 20th and started out with three young Texas Rangers being called in from their field work assignments to meet with a ranger that had trained each of them at some point in the past, Elijah Peterson, in Redrock, Arizona, a small town just off the rail line. With the recent escalation of the Great Rail Wars the posse-to-be had expected to be assigned to assist the Dixie Rails but they soon found they were in for something completely different.

When the three newcomers arrive, they find the small inn where they were to meet Elijah packed with rangers. The small posse-to-be finds a table to wait for Elijah to join them.

Aristotle Gentry, played by Josh. Aristotle is a quiet man from Atlanta in his early 30's. Aristotle looked like a fellow who kept himself clean - short near hair, plan circular spectacles, and a nice suit. A few faint blood splotches hinted at his job as a doctor.

Barry Doyle, played by Chad. Barry is actually a northerner who has somehow managed to earn his way into the rangers. In contrast to his fine clothing, Barry's skin is covered in splotches of black from a ghost rock accident years ago. Summoned for his knowledge as an occultist (though he thinks he knows more than he actually does) Barry is also a Huckster, though he hides it from the other rangers in the posse.

Chuck Walker, played by myself. Chuck is a young man, fresh into the rangers and eager to prove himself. He dresses in a way he thinks is symbolic of the rangers - big wide-rimmed hat and a long duster - and tries to act the southern gentleman despite his relatively modest upbringing.

Soon Elijah finished talking to some of the Ranger higher ups. Most of the other rangers in the building cleared out as Elijah comes over to talk to the posse. Apparently something big was happening and he needed the posse to track down a man named Jonas Pride. Jonas was a local and was hired on as a bodyguard when the Virginian Senator Baxtor Grissom came out west to satisfy his ungentlemanly desires. A few weeks ago Baxtor and his bodyguard went to an isolated just north of Redrock and something happened. A number of men were found dead and Baxtor himself was missing.

Jonas was the only known survivor and witness the rangers knew of. Apparently he returned to town and murdered a few people before hopping a train and heading west to Sweatwater. Dixie Rails, the Union Blue Line, and Bayou Vermilion were all engaged in some pretty intense fighting out there and it's likely the gunslinger would look for work in one of the rail gangs. Elijah gave the posse two more important pieces of information - that he had reason to believe Jonas was harrowed and that they absolutely needed him 'alive' to find out what happened to the Senator.

Aristotle: "Can a Harrowed survive without legs? [...] If I amputate [them], will that be a problem hauling him back?"

The rangers board the next Dixie Rail train (which is nearly empty) for Sweetwater. About an hour outside of town the train is attacked by a small group of Union soldiers who derail the train with a small cannon they had concealed near the tracks. The posse managed to fight their way to the cattle car - which had remained on the tracks - with the one survivor they found and rode off for Sweatwater.

Once in Sweatwater the posse took the wounded man to the church which had been set up as a temporary hospice that was caring for wounded from both the northern and southern sides. After leaving the wounded train passenger there Aristotle and Barry went to the tavern while Chuck headed to the Dixie Rail office to speak to whomever was in charge.

Chuck: I need to speak with the person in charge here.
Confederate Soldier: Who's asking?
Chuck: Walker, Texas Ranger.
Everyone Else: groan

Chuck let them know what happened to the train and that gave them Jonas' description. The southern captain recognized Jonas' description, having seen the gunslinger come get off the train. He hadn't been seen in town for a while but he definitely didn't leave by train.

While the southern soldiers group and head out to the train wreck and to see if the can catch the union troops the posse does some investigation around town to see if Jonas is still around. Aristotle and Chuck check the brothels while Barry checks the inns. The huckster lucks out, finding the one Jonas had stayed at. Although the innkeeper said Jonas hadn't been there in two days, Barry still bribes him to get access to the room he stayed in. The room has apparently been cleaned lately but still smells of dead meat, especially the mattress.

With their suspicions that Jonas was in fact harrowed and had left town appearing more and more likely the posse decide to head out to the camp the northern soldiers

Session 2 - January 27th

On their way to the northerners' encampment the posse stopped by a southern fort. There they met up with a sergeant who had received orders to supply the rangers with a handful of men if they were planning on raiding the northerners' encampment. Night fell as the small contingent rode towards their target, helping their approach go unnoticed. After a small bit of reconnaissance by Chuck and one of the Confederate scouts, the southerners launched their attack.

We had a new player, Pat, join us. He was playing the southern sergeant temporarily until his character could be introduced at the end of the adventure.

The northern soldiers are nearly overwhelmed immediately although their sergeant keeps them in the fight. Barry has a couple soldiers to flank the camp and use a bugle call to fake a second cavalry charge to give Chuck the chance to deal with the northern sergeant. Barry even discretely hexes the ranger, improving his aim, but Chuck has other plans.

The young ranger quickly rode away from most of the northern troops and barreled down on Jonas, guns blazing, ignoring the fact that he was told to bring the man in alive. Chuck and Jonas trade lead, each one taking more than a few hits but neither of them showing much effect.

Meanwhile the remaining rangers deal with the northern sergeant, and between that and the casualties they were taking the northern troops surrendered. The hired guns fought a little longer as they tried to escape but eventually they - including Jonas - surrender. The rangers ordered the southern soldiers to disarm and restrain the northern survivors.

At which point Chuck unloaded the final round in his pistols into Jonas, dropping him. Chuck tried to continue shooting but the only thing the hammer struck was spent rounds. As Chuck reached for his rifle, the southern sergeant got a good look at him in the light of the fire. Where Chuck had been shot, his skin hung loosely from his body like strips of cloth, showing something that looked like musculature underneath but he wasn't bleeding at all. His skull seemed to be shifting under his face as if his skin had become loose.

Luke: It's like he's wearing a skin suit.
Pat: Is it an Edgar suit?

Barry was able to club Chuck down from his horse with his shotgun before he went to secure Jonas. The southern sergeant tried to restrain Chuck but the ranger got to his feet and his hands grew into vicious claws. The southern sergeant reacted quickly and put a bullet between Chuck's eyes, and he fell over with a gurgling sound.

The rangers quickly organize the southern troops to take the prisoners back to their fort before trying to figure out what happened to Chuck. Once he examined Chuck's body, Barry concluded he was a skinwalker - a horrific creature known to skin a person, wear their skin, torture them, then kill them. Usually in that order. He thought they could only maintain their guise for about a month or so though. And combined with the train ticket stub from New Orleans they found in his things, there was a good chance that the real Chuck was killed in the Big Easy. Fearing he might come back to life like a harrowed, the rangers disposed of the Chuckwalker's corpse as best they could, smashing his skull and chucking him into a bonfire, before heading back to Redrock.

* * * * *

Back at Redrock Barry and Aristotle meet with Elijah to report on their mission. When questioned about what happened to Chuck Barry just tells Elijah that he was killed in the attack on the northern troops. Elijah seems worried - he says Chuck was a good ranger - but seems to buy the story. Elijah also introduces the posse to Rudolf Mordheim, a mad scientist who was being assigned to work with them going forward.

At this point we knew Pat would be playing a mad scientist but he would be creating him after the session so we didn't have many details on his character. He'll be detailed in my next write-up.

Once everyone's ready Elijah uses an elixir of some sort to wake a restrained Jonas up. The rangers start questioning him but quickly realize he doesn't remember much and what he does remember is a little scattered. Apparently the last thing he remembered was being at the mansion where Sen. Grissom disappeared. Elijah leaves the other rangers alone with the harrowed gunslinger for a while to try to loosen his tongue, and they oblige.

An hour or so later Elijah returns and they question Jonas about the missing senator. Jonas' story is disjointed - he remembers traveling to the manor with a sickly Sen Grissom (whom Jonas identifies by his alias), Grissom's bodyguards Chuck and Daniel, and a young boy (who Elijah identifies as the Senator's son, also missing, by his description). Jonas was to wait outside as "insurance" while the others went inside. Eventually more people showed up but Jonas' descriptions were hazy. He remembered a young Mexican woman, an older man with a large hat and an exotic (Hatian, though Jonas doesn't know that) accent, and an ancient old woman who he only heard her voice.

After some strange shouts, sounds, and flashes of light, Jonas saw the Senator leap out one of the upper windows, full of vigor, and bound down the road. Jonas overheard some talking from inside before the Mexican woman shot him dead, and that was the last he remembered.

When asked Jonas confirmed that had escorted the senator to Denver a couple times and that he knew his usual haunts, so Elijah laid out the rangers' next assignment - take Jonas to Denver and see if they could track down the Senator. If he's on the run, he may have run to somewhere familiar and it's as good a lead as they had at the moment. Elijah said he had to head out to follow some of his own leads but for the posse to keep him informed if they uncover anything.

Jonas Pride, played by myself. Jonas is rough and tumble gunslinger who previously made himself a living as a bodyguard or hired gun whenever he could get the work. He's not the nicest or cleanest gunslinger in the west but he'd kill a man in a fair fight... or if he thinks they're gonna start a fair fight, or if they bothers him, or if there's a woman, or if he's gettin' paid - mostly only when he's gettin' paid. Jonas has been reluctant to accept his status as one of the walking dead but whatever the Rangers think he is, in his mind they've decided to hire him indefinitely and their coin spends as well as anyone else's.

The posse figured that a side trip to the manor where everything went down was in order, but since that was on the way towards Denver it wouldn't be a problem. They decided to leave the next day at dawn.

* * * * *

We had out third session this last Sunday and I'll be writing that up in the next batch that I write up. I also want to do some commentary on how the game was set up (yes, Jonas was my real character all along) and is playing out, but that'll have to wait until later this month. I'm already testing my readers' attention spans as is.

A more thorough investigation followed and turned up some minor clues but nothing definitive. However we did eventually find the throne room and the king- and queen-bots located there. After talking to them (they were the first constructs to actually speak to us other than Failure) Failure tried to machine meld with the king and found what appeared to be a prison for the king's consciousness, soul, or something of the like. He tried to break down the prison to free the king but that only succeeded in destroying the construct and suddenly all of the constructs turned aggressive.

We made a fighting retreat through a hidden passage in the throne room and escaped through the sewers, eventually making it out of the palace grounds. The game was called with the intent to pick back up heading to one of the nearby towns we found out about while investigating, though that won't happen now.

It was an unsatisfying conclusion to the campaign, but moving on was probably a good idea. The system didn't gel right for most of the players and some of them felt the setting was a little to over the top. But Manaburst was meant as an experiment to see how well the Everway-style worked for us and we found out it didn't. It was just too ambiguous for us and strayed a bit too far from traditional task resolution systems. But now we know and can tailor future games around that.

First, a few notes. My fiancee wound up coming down with a migraine on game night so we did a minor ret-con. Instead of NPCing her character, we just decided that she hadn't appeared on the weird sphere with the rest of us. Also Luke, who directed the rock opera known as Renegade Horizon, was able to sit in for a session so he and Chad came up with a character concept real quick ahead of time. Presto change-o, start session 2.

* * * * *

After the initial shock passes the players all head in different directions and when they meet on the far side of the sphere a few minutes later confirm that it was in fact as small as they had initially though. However on the far side they do find an odd mechanical device, completely out of place in this hand-drawn world.

The device looked to be composed of a cylinder with a smaller sphere floating about a foot above the top of the cylinder. The outer shell of both the cylinder and sphere had numerous holes in it, through which the players could see innumerable gears and other mechanics hard at work within both objects. At the top of the column is a small depression, around which are scattered the three pieces of was once a large green gem that had apparently been shattered some time in the past.

As everyone pokes at the orb, a booming voice suddenly emanates from everywhere at once, welcoming the travelers to "my world." Feral looks up and sees the sun overhead, looking down and talking to them.

Feral's discussion with the sun is relatively quick. It introduces itself as Lagatto and says that the travelers are there because he summoned them. Apparently he wanted a piece of their souls or he wouldn't let them leave. The sun refused to aswer questions as to why or where they were, and when the travelers refused he laughed, asked how much water and food they had, and said he would return in a few weeks as the sun descended down past the horizon. Lore speculates he means sphere-time, which he estimates at half an hour judging at how fast the hand drawn horizon moves around them.

Lore is able to detect that the broken gem carried an enchantment, but it was currently inert and not functional. The travelers eventually decide to go ahead and assemble the gem and place it in the depression in the top of the column.

* * * * *

For the entity, there is nothing but darkness. Then it's as if three pricks of light come together and it can see once more. The last thing it recalls is a large man in fancy robes examining it. The man, visibly aggravated, grabs a nearby chair and begins striking the entity, shouting "Failure! Failure!" over and over again.

* * * * *

Failure

As the travelers watch the column begins to rumble and shakes. It begins to expand and unfold outwards as appendages start to come out. Legs, arms... soon the column has become a rather large humanoid construct of some sort, regarding the travelers with a pair of glowing eyes beneath the green gem now in his forehead. The travelers ask what the construct is and it replies the last thing it remembers was a robbed man standing over him, saying "Failure! Failure" over and over again.

After a little bit once the construct proves it's not an agent of the sun or this sphere, they describe the situation and how they found him. He says the sphere isn't part of him and begins examining it, eventually grasping it firmly and trying to compact it. After a great deal of effort Failure (as the travelers have taken to calling him) managed to dent the sphere in his hands. Suddenly a loud wrenching sound echoes in the sphere and two large dents appear on opposite sides, corresponding to where Failure was clutching the smaller spherical device.

The travelers then decide to wait, figuring they now have a bargaining chip, but after the half an hour Lore initially estimated it would take the sun doesn't show. The travelers begins to suspect that it might mean real-time, which would imply some sort of perception outside the sphere, which would imply someone was watching them from outside the sphere.

Failure decides to try to talk to the sphere using what he calls his "machine voice." His consciousness slowly seeps into the sphere, and he can detect the simple driving force powering the device. Failure tries to communicate with it, but it seems content to "spin for the master." Failure begins yelling, telling the device that he wants it to stop; that the master wants it to stop. The sphere's 'consciousness' seems to reset but Failure persists.

Suddenly everyone is deafened by a loud screaming sound coming from the small sphere device and the sphere around them. Gears begin popping out of the small device. They look up and see clouds spinning in place, the moon stopped in mid air. Things start moving in the wrong direction, everything shaking chaoticlly. More gears and spokes pop out of the smaller sphere... and everything stops.

Failure toss the sphere away in disgust, but Lore picks it up and tries opening it by unscrewing the two halves that can now be seen. As he removes one half, half of the sky above him spirals away into nothing leaving only blackness where it was. Inside the spheres they see small metal etched clouds and such stuck to the interior surface, a small glowing stone floating in the middle, and small metal miniature people laying on the inside of the remaining half.

The people seem to be representative of the travelers, and Lore decides to removes Feral's to experiment. As he does, she disappears. While he tries to figure out of that was a good thing or a bad thing, Failure removes himself and also disappears. Lore shrugs and upends the sphere (dumping Slate and himself out), and everything goes black.

Lore finds himself surrounded in darkness, but calling out he hears the others nearby. He conjures an illusory light and sees Failure, Feral, and Slate all in a small stone room with him. In the middle is a wooden table and on top of the table are all of the parts of a spherical device identical to the one they manipulated, scattered as if it had been broken.

The travelers leave the room, Failure in tow. They find themselves in a basement of sorts and eventually locate stairs going up. From the bottom of the stairs they hear loud clicking and clacking from upstairs. They ascend and one story up the stairway ends in a door.

Through the door they find a large white palace looking hall. White marble walls and columns, gold trim, the works. There is a great deal of fancy furniture and decorations, but they get the impression there's not quite enough there to fill the room. The source of the clicking and gear turning sounds turns out to be dozens and dozens of automatons - each the same brass color as Failure but smaller and more slender - milling about the hall like many servants.

Failure grabs the nearest one and uses his "machine voice" to find out that it is fetching wine for the master. He manages to convince it to return to the master and sets it down for the travelers to follow. The servant machine leads the travelers to a side hall that ends in a small plain door. At the end of the hall there are two more machines similar to the servant, but each one carries a large metal sphere. The guards allow the servant to pass, but as the travelers approach they lower their lances and order them to stop.

* * * * *

And we called it there for the night, stopping at another cliffhanger. Out of one prison, into another. All of the characters are looking for some answers, and hopefully next session we'll finally reveal exactly where we are and why we aren't on Moor.

Again I went into a little more detail than necessary. I guess I get to wordy sometimes. We'll see if I can condense the next one of these a bit more so it doesn't take quite as long to do.

On Sunday, November 18th, we had our second session of Manaburst. I've decided to split up the commentary and actual play content into separate posts. This will be the first Actual Play post of the campaign.

The game opened with Feral arriving in the city of Frostmourn - the sphere's namesake - on a wagon she had hitched a ride on. Unlike the other settlements in the sphere which barely qualified as villages Frostmourn itself was a large walled city far larger than any other she had been to. After being dropped off a the gate Feral began exploring the city in search of the caravan heading off-world she was supposed to join.

As Feral wandered through the city, the world froze around her. The crowded streets were suddenly still and even the birds above had paused mid-flight. Although she recognized the onset of one of her prophetic visions, Feral was surprised with the speed at which this one had come on. As the color quickly drained from the world she unconsciously held her breath as she waited to see what her vision would show her.

Peering into the nearest store, a meat market, Feral caught sight of an item that seemed to stand out. Not only was the crank that the butcher had been using to grind meat still in full color, it was still moving. As it continued to turn, more gears and cogs slowly faded into view around it until her vision was full of the mosaic of machinery. She got the impression that the gears represented the people of Frostmourn. Each person interacted with countless others, exchanging services and goods in a manner that maintained the entire city's existence. Feral simply watches, entranced by the complexity of interaction within the city.

Eventually the vision fades and Feral finds the wagon train in the process of being loaded. Instead of an organized process she's met with chaos as people rush from wagon to wagon trying to fit more in place. Eventually Feral is able to locate the person who appears to be in charge - a younger woman trying to direct the chaos while referencing a clipboard. As Feral approaches the woman sends one of the workers off after a man named Path who is supposedly in charge and supposed to be making sure the wagons are loaded properly.

Feral attempts to check in with the woman with the clipboard - who says her name is Stalk - but it seemed that she wasn't on the list. The seer confirms that her chieftain had spoken to a man named Path, eliciting a heavy sigh from the overseer. As they wait for Path's arrival Feral produces a muddy, badly damaged scroll she said was a letter from her chieftain. Stalk is unable to read the scrawlings on the scroll and ponders what to do with Feral as Path finally arrives...

...or more appropriately stumbles forward, already drunk before noon. Stalk tries to get answers from the inebriated caravaner but can only get nearly incoherent lecherous responses from him. The two try to get answers from him but are unable until a loud bellow draws their attention to a rather large woman stomping down the street toward them.

Path turns pale as he spots the woman, who turns out is his wife. After being browbeaten and dunked in the blacksmith's trough the caravaneer whimper an apology to Feral and Stalk and, under the watchful guidance of his wife - gets to work organizing the caravan.

* * * * *

Meanwhile we shift to the royal family's chambers within the keep in the center of Frostmourn. Lore sits with Slate and Lord Pennywise, listening to the monarch drone about the current state of affairs. After catching Lore's loss of interest, Lord Pennywise turns the topic of discussion to his son and his desire to go out for a hunting expedition. The young prince apparently wanted to experience some adventure, but the King thought it might be too dangerous for the young lad and asked for Lore's advice.

Trying to balance the current King's wishes with the desires of his future lord, Lore suggest appeasing the young prince's sense of adventure on a smaller prey, something closer to the castle where an escort would keep him safe. Lord Pennywise seems inclined to accept the suggestion but remains very protective of his son and starts lecturing Slate on how one day the kingdom will be his responsibility as the scene is cut.

* * * * *

Back at the caravan with Path (or more appropriately his wife) getting the caravan organized, Feral and Stalk are left without anything else they need to do so they decide to head to one of the local taverns for lunch. They chit chat for a bit and the conversation eventually turns towards Feral's earlier claims of being a seer. Skeptical, Stalk asks for a demonstration.

Feral surprises the young waitress with a request for a pint of pigs blood. She began a reading on the blood splatters and the marrow from the leftover bones from her meal. Eventually she falls into a clairvoyant trance, her surroundings fading from her view except a single thread laying in front of her on her plate.

Curious, she grasps the thread and pulls, and as she does Stalk slowly fades into view with the thread attached to her chest. Even though Stalk didn't seem to realize she had been pulled into Stalk's vision no one had ever seemed to be a part of her visions before. Feral pulled the thread again and it snapped free.

Before Feral could ponder what that meant, the thread began writhing in the air, unraveling into four separate threads before lengthening and darting off. One jumped back into Feral's chest, two quickly flew out of the front door, and one spun back and connected itself with Feral.

From Stalk's perspective Feral quickly tranced out while performing her reading and after a few odd hand gestures as if playing out a line, Feral got up and still with the absent look on her face walked out of the tavern. Stalk quickly followed, intrigued and entertained even if not buying into the seer's performance yet.

The seer's path leads her through the city on a seemingly direct path. As Stalk follows, she watches as the city seems to open a path for Feral. Horses step aside at the last moment. People pass through doors and forget to close them, allowing Feral to follow. Feral even walks right through a home, surprising the family that had just sat down from lunch.

Finally Stalk can see where Feral's path seems to be leading - the castle in the center of town. At the gate Feral simply walks past the two guards apparently unnoticed but when Stalk approaches she is stopped but let past when the guards recognized her. The two wind through the castle, Feral continuing her ballet through the hustle and bustle of the castle and Stalk continuing to follow and apologize to bewildered onlookers.

After wandering through the castle halls, Feral and Stalk suddenly burst in on Lore, Slate, and Lord Pennywise's meeting. The only person not confused by this is the King, who, being a very polite and hospitable man immediately assumes Stalk is there on business and orders refreshments brought.

Lore casts a small incantation to see if Feral - who was acting strange as she entered - had tried to enscroll either of the Pennywise's. He doesn't detect any sort of enchantments, but does detect a strong aura of power around Slate, which is weird considering no member of the Pennywise line has ever had any magical aptitude before. Contemplating the ramifications, Lore files this information away for later use.

What follows is a fair bit of uncomfortable silence - Stalk expecting Feral to explain why she came here, Feral not knowing what's going on, Lore wondering how the newcomers got so far into the castle unhindered, Slate glad his father wasn't lecturing him. Lord Pennywise decides to excuse himself, declaring he will "let the young folks to it" as he gets up and leaves.

* * * * *

Later that night the King hosts a large dinner and party for everyone involved in the Caravan to Verdant. He gives a speech, telling all of the colonists how deeply he loves them and every one of his subjects and that it pains him to send them away, but what they are doing is necessary for Frostmourn's survival. There is much celebration, but many of the travelers are nervous with anticipation.

Long after the celebration Lore - not needing sleep - began going over his notes and research regarding his soulcage and how he might be able to guide Slate's apparent arcane aptitude towards freeing himself. His efforts are interrupted by a frantic knocking at his door. It was Slate, pale with fear.

Slate begins stammering that his father is dead, which Lore first dismisses as a dream. After being rebuffed enough, Slate eventually confesses that he has the ability to enter a person's dreams, and that he was in his father's dream trying to convince him to let Slate go hunting and something happens.

The young prince led Lore to his fathers chamber which, surprisingly enough, was missing the guards usually stationed outside. They found the balcony door open Slate showed Lore where Lord Pennywise had fallen, his broken body suspended in one of the trees far below.

Slate panics, not knowing what to do. Lore seems to take everything in stride - it wouldn't have been the first time one Pennywise had killed another to assume the throne if that is what happened. But Slate says he doesn't want to rule, he just wants to leave and asks Lore for help. Lore decides to seize the situation and start a plan in motion that may lead to his eventual freedom. Lore instructs Slate to forge a letter introducing Lore and Slate to whomever was in charge of the caravan to Verdant.

At this point Prorpger and I stated that our characters were going to use aliases to leave Frostmourn, but we still wanted to go by Slate and Lore through the campaign. So we retconned and said that up until this point, we had been using our given names instead and Slate and Lore were the aliases we decided on. Poof; the magic of meta-gaming at work.

Lore also instructs Slate to retrieve a small locked box his father kept behind his nightstand, pack and prepare for a long trip, go to the vault and retrieve a larger metal bound locked wooden box (which contained his soulcage), then meet Lore at his chamber in half an hour. That would give him enough time to prepare an illusion to obscure Slate's features so that he could get out of the castle and to the caravan unmolested.

* * * * *

Early the next morning the caravan gathers near a series of standing stones that were originally used to force the gate open. The path to Verdant would cross a couple of spheres but the first gateway was the only one so tenuous as to require such a complex ritual to open.

As a handful of priests prepare the area, Feral notices that one of the standing stones appeared to be crooked. When she tries to point that out to the head priest she is unceremoniously shooed away.

Slate and Lore manage to blend in with the back of the caravan as the priests finally force open the gateway. As people begin to move through the gate, the sound of alarm is raised from the castle. However with the gate only able to open for a period of less than half an hour every six months, there is no pausing to investigate.

* * * * *

Stalk - the first person through the gateway - halts in surprise as she exits the gate's far end. This wasn't Moor. There was no expanse of swampland, no overcast sky, no gurgling of stagnant swamp water. Instead she found herself standing on a large piece of sandstone roughly the size of a house. All around she could see the sky, it wasn't the sky she was used to.

It was as if a large shell had been formed around the chunk of rock where the sky should be. The sun was a hand drawn yellow swirl that looked to be attached to the sky. Indeed so did the many clouds in the sky. On the far side, she could see a darker half of the sphere, festooned with what look like hastily drawn stars and a crescent moon. None of the bodies seemed to move in the sky. Instead the sky - the shell - seemed to slowly rotate around her.

In the time required for Stalk to take in the surroundings, she finds Feral has joined her from behind. While the two look at each other in stunned surprise, the two men who they met when Feral's vision took them to Castle Frostmourn appeared behind them. There was no sign of the caravan that had entered the gate between when Feral and Slate and Lore entered. No sign of the rest of the people. No sign of the gate they arrive through. And no sign of a way off their rock.

* * * * *

Ok, that took way too long to do. Almost two weeks to complete, and another session is scheduled for Sunday. I'm going to have to cut back on details in the future - there's no way I can keep this up, especially when I am trying to prep sessions myself. But hopefully this will provide a good introduction to the game.

After giving the group the rundown of life in the Kaer and the different races and disciplines that they might have to choose from, everyone came up with their general character concepts. From there we began fleshing out backgrounds and motivations, tying the characters together while at the same time developing the Kaer where the game would start. Before the character generation session I had known what sort of overarching plot I wanted for the campaign, but I hadn't imagined that the players would hand me the perfect vehicle to make it personal for them during character generation.

As it turns out, the racial tension is thick within Kaer Southhome. Of the five seats in the council of elders, two are occupied by dwarves, two by elves, and one by a human. The elves of Southhome live luxuriously with their small private community. Although pompous and condescending to much of the kaer's population, they controlled enough of the Kaer's resources to force the residents to deal with them for survival.

Meanwhile the dwarves were attempting to run an efficient, well-organized settlement. Unfortunately that meant allowing the general populous a more direct access to certain resources than the elves were willing to allow, leading to a conflict of interests.

Balance was maintained in the kaer by the single seat on the Council of Elders occupied by neither elf nor dwarf. While the dwarves accepted this arrangement and begrudgingly worked with it, the elves resented the situation and conspired to change it. The elves planned to frame Torvis, the human councilman, of Horror taint in such a way to imply that the dwarves were aware of the matter. They'd then use the support of the residents of the kaer to immediately replace the human and as many dwarves as they could.

The plot elements are pretty basic - a bid for power by one demographic in a culturally segregated setting - but the way the plot was created piece by piece based solely on information provided by each player when they answered questions about their characters' backgrounds and personalities really drew it all together and made it personal to each character even more than I had initially expected. For example the elven elitism came from the the elf character's player deciding he was going to play up his arrogance, then the rest of the group working together to determine why the elves of the kaer were so arrogant to begin with. Each question led into more exposition on the kaer until suddenly we had a plot. In addition by generating the character stats myself I was able to give each character strengths and flaws that I would be able to emphasize during the adventure.

These are the characters that we wound up with for this campaign:

Eltherin, elven archer. Eltherin is the son of one of the elven members of the Council of Elders and has lived with all the comforts his linage would imply. He's only recently met the other members of the group, but his arrogance has already been noted by his traveling companions. Eltherin was assigned to the group by his father as a way to insure his interests were represented in the group.

Glenna, dwarven swordmaster. Glenna is more devoted toward the blade mastery side of the discipline than the social gallantry. Her master, Garas, found her at a young age and offered to teach her the discipline as a way to get her out of trouble and off the streets. Both Holthan and Thok were part of the trouble-causing element she was lured away from, which angered them as children. Now a competent swordmaster, Glenna volunteered for the expedition to the surface as a means to prove herself.

Thok, ork nethermancer. Thok is one of two nethermancers in Kaer Southhome, which is two more than any other residents would like for there to be. The ork's lack of social graces does nothing to overcome this resentment, a fact he is aware of but doesn't care to address. Only days before the expedition, Thok "accidentally" killed an Illusionist and joined the expedition to get out of the kaer before it's discovered he was the murderer. Only Holthan, his childhood friend, is aware of his motivation for joining the group.

Holthan, human journeyman. Holthan is the group leader by default - the dwarves on the Council of Elders refused to allow an elf to lead the expedition, the elves on the council refused to allow a dwarf to lead the expedition, and no one wanted a nethermancer in charge. Holthan has assumed leadership reluctantly, although his protective nature lends itself to the role.

I'd love to comment on just how everything the players created fit into the campaign's plot, but I don't want to spoil any of the surprises for the players yet. Suffice it to say that I was very happy with how character generation worked out for the group.

Our first actual play session was this past Sunday, but unfortunately Ravious came down with bronchitis at the last minute. By the time I found out one of our players was already half way into his hour drive so the decision was made to go on without him. I don't want to recount the entire session here - that's what the campaign wiki is for - but I can offer up my comments on how the game ran.

I wasn't 100% thrilled with my gamemastering this time around. I really wanted to improve my descriptions and in a couple particular instances evoke specific emotions, but I don't think I was as successful at either as I wanted. I still concentrated too hard on what I wanted to be happening and less on the overall look and feel of each particular scene. The players seemed to express that they had a good time once the game got rolling but I'm just not satisfied with how I ran the game.

It never seems to fail - I plan out what I want to do and have some descriptions in mind, but once I sit down at the table I choke. It's like I rush through the descriptions so that we can get to the next part of the game, whatever that may be. And that's really a flaw in my opinion. The GM's descriptions can really go a long way towards setting the stage and mood of a scene that if I wind up not fully expressing something, the players miss out on whatever I skimp on.

I hope that next session will be better. The characters are out of the kaer now, and I'm going to try and use collaborative scene building some more to try to help flesh each scene out more than I seem to be capable of doing on my own. We'll see come Sunday.