A Sample of 13th Age: The Lich King's Crown

The Lich King has a crown, hidden away in his vault, within his skull fortress, at the centre of his city of the undead, upon his island necropolis, in the middle of the Midland Sea.  If it weren't such an important crown, if there were not so many great reasons to want to steal (or retrieve) it, the wise would simply let it be.

But the crown is not just a crown, not just a symbol of power. It is also the phylactery of one Baron Voth, and with the item in hand, Urquilla may well have some leverage over the Baron, and be able to track down where the legendary White Dragon is.  The barbarian, raised by the Takamak tribe since birth, longs to be able to enact revenge upon the three great dragons who decimated his village.

Of course, Stump wanted the crown, too.  He knew a priestess of the Priestess who would perform a much-needed resurrection, should he obtain the crown.  The cleric didn't want to work alongside the Priestesses underlings, but some times, such things were necessary.  Murdak would probably agree - after all, he had chosen to serve the empire and work against the Lich King instead of the other jobs he would be forced into - many no place for a scholarly wizard of his upbringing.  And Kelly? Well, the elven ranger simply jumped at an opportunity to work against the hated Lich King.

So, together, the four of them set out for Roachdale.  Murdak's research had shown only one individual who might know how to find their way through the maze-like necropolis; a half-orc treasure-seeker by the name of Jont Urner.  Roachdale was the location of his last sighting.

Kelly had been to Roachdale a number of times before, selling furs gained from hunting expeditions.  The village's economy was cattle-based, and they had little opportunity for the warm fur coats Kelly traded with them.  However, when last he visited, Urquilla noted that there was a deep sense of fear in the locals - something in nature was upset.

That something, it turned out, was a living dungeon.  It had erupted through the hillside, and had drawn a swarm of insects around it, blackening out the village with a cloud heavy enough to be easily spotted from a distance.  Stump took Kelly's hastily-crafted torch, and created a reasonable smoke-filled bubble of protection from the creatures, allowing the group to pass through.

The horrid spine of the living dungeon jutted out of the centre of the village, displacing and destroying a few houses and other buildings along the way.  As they stood before it, aware of the horrendous carved skulls, a section of the wall opened, and five demons walked out.  Murdak was about to try diplomacy, but Kelly had no patience for such clearly evil creatures, and quickly brought battle forward; though the ranger stayed at a distance, Kelly's arrows joined the others as they fought back the demons, slaying each and every one of them - and acquiring a silver key.

Finding their way through the maze of tunnels, whilst dodging the few remaining patrols, was no easy task.  Only together did they make it - Kelly used a fine shot and some sturdy rope to allow everyone safe passage across a deep chasm, and Urquilla saved them all from a long, cold swim by smashing through an unstable wall when they thought the only way ahead was into the pool.  As their passage ended in mid-air, Stump's faith revealed an invisible walkway across a giant cavern, and Murdak's magic kept the threatening storm at bay. 

Eventually, they made it to a room in which stood a solitary chest, its lock matching the key Urquilla wore around his foot. The key opened this chest, and within were an array of items - an elven cloak to hide Kelly's presence; an orb of power to replenish Murdak's magic; a potion to ward off the cold for Urquilla, and a vial of healing, straight from the Crusader's own stock for Stump.  Stump and Urquilla also picked up some magical oil, before continuing on their way.

The heart of the living dungeon was a large, circular room, with cages containing prisoners of varying levels of decomposition hanging from the roof.  The group thought they saw one that looked half-orc-ish, but had little time to check it out before Kelly notices spiders and other crawling creatures currying away from one of the doors.  Surely enough, the sound of footsteps followed, as the room grew colder, and the stench of sulphur filled their noses.  A large demon burst into view, and not even Murdak felt it possible to talk this one down!

With a well-placed blast of acid, he caused the demon such pain that handfuls of tick-demons leapt from its body like rats fleeing a sinking ship, and flowed over to those standing a little too close.  Gnawing and sucking, the parasites caused Urquilla enough injury that the vrock took him down - momentarily - the situation all the worse when Stump momentarily lost his ability to heal.

But eventually, the parasites were squashed, the vrock was defeated, and the prisoner rescued.  The only downside was that Jont was dead.  All was not lost - the adventurer had his map on him - literally.  The map to the necropolis was tattooed across the half-orc's back, and with Stump standing guard, no one was going to take a blade to obtain the instructions.  But - that wasn't all; they also needed a compass...made from dragon's teeth.  Fortunately, Murdak knew someone...

There was an adventurer, a demon-touched dragon hunter (semi-retired) by the name of Shez-a-kah.  She was said to know of a brood of white dragons living up on Gorogan's Maw, but she wasn't about to hand out their location to just anyone.  So, whilst Stump stood outside, disapprovingly glaring at anyone who dared to enter the Shadow Port tavern, the others challenged Shez to a game - should they win, she would tell them of the dragons' location; should she win, Murdak would cover her tab. 

Kelly and Urquilla tried to support Murdak's game, with distractions, insights, and stories of old (Shez was most impressed when Urquilla revealed that he was the baby found in the devastated village, ten years post destruction!).  He even tried his own hand at the match, hoping that his time with the Takamak tribe would help him - but it looked like it was a different game altogether, or there were some strange rules added to it since.  Despite their best efforts, Shez proved victorious, and grinned menacingly as Murdak struggled with the obscenely large bill she had racked up.  The only way he could afford to cover his end of the deal was to hand over the precious stone he had found within the dungeon...and so he did.

Moved both by Urquilla's tale of origin, and by Murdak's honesty and loyalty to his bargain, Shez ultimately was convinced to share the position of the dragons, and the party headed up the snow-covered, treacherous climb. 

True to her word, Shez's location proved to be the resting cave of not just a few, but seven white dragon hatchlings.  Fortunately, an older sibling showed up to defend them (poorly, as it turned out), for the hatchling's teeth would not have been enough for the compass.  After rising from the snow (for he had been knocked down again), Urquilla grabbed the large flying beast by the jaw, and, with a tremendous blow, sheared its head right off.  Letting the body fall down into the ravine below, the barbarian held aloft the gory trophy, knowing he was one step closer to finding those that destroyed his village so many years ago.

Dark Sun Marauders (Season 3, Appendix 2)

Now that we have finished our DnD group's latest game (a Dark Sun adventure revolving around the heroes defending the city of Tyr from an oncoming Urik army, setting up to make a siege; look back to read them all!), I thought I'd spend some time looking at some of the alternate mechanics I used in the game.  

The final night of our monthly Dark Sun game came after I had been reading a lot about 13th Age.  I'd grabbed the book, kicked myself multiple times after finding out that I'd missed an awesome Kickstarter for the second book, and thoroughly immersed myself into working out how these new ideas could come and change my games for the better.

The party had returned from Raam, three dray heroes alongside them, ready to break the siege on Tyr.  Even if it weren't the final session in the campaign arc, this was the time for a climactic battle.  Players wanted to see threads resolved (such as what had happened to the Orb of Dust, stolen from them many sessions ago); players wanted to wade through the Urik army, scattering the lower-level, inferior forces before their trained and honed might; and players wanted to take down the leaders of the force, focus on the top-dogs of the invading army, and fight against someone of their own skill.  In all, not too much to ask, right?


The Soldiers
I wanted an effective way for the players to feel like they were cutting through multitudes of enemy soldiers who were ill-equipped to stand up against their heroic might.  Well, 4e has minions, so I used them!  And, for what they are, they work...most of the time.  Minions are great for easily killing, but some classes clearly are more effective at minion-pruning than others.  The warlock (who had taken more of a controller role, had focused on having a few area / blast attacks) could easily wade through ranks of the enemies, but the barbarian took down one or two a round.

Expecting this to be the case, I utilised 13th Age's "mooks" for the second battle.  Liet might have been spectacular in part 1, but part 2 was all for Kuoroar!!  Even without criticalling, it felt much more like a goliath champion cutting through waves of inferior troops with his fullblade swinging wildly.

To change things up for the third encounter, I used a version of Pathfinder's Troops rules, modified for 4e.  Essentially, they are a swarm of large creatures (soldiers, in this case!), and moved as a mass.  They were sturdy as a group, no longer as easily dismissed as the first two waves were, but they still went down reasonably well (as they were meant to).

The general idea of the different soldier types was to experience different aspects of being "great big heroes" against waves of enemies.  Blasting through them, slicing five guys with one sword-sweep, and then one mul fighter standing toe-to-toe with twenty soldiers.  The heroes took a beating (which is only fair, considering how many they were fighting against), but they were always pressing onwards, always slogging through the enemy.  During the third act, I even stated that they had many more of the 'minion-like' troops running around, but they no longer even posed a threat.  The soldiers acknowledged the heroes' superiority, and moved about them to fight troops more their level, and the heroes didn't worry about the soldiers, looking instead to the movers and shakers of the opposing side.


Small Icons
Another idea I have taken from 13th Age is the Icon Relationships. However, as I was using the idea for one might only, and didn't feel like reinventing the setting, I linked them to the NPCs they had been rescuing.  And then changed the mechanics quite a bit.  Really, the only things I kept were the d6 roll and that they were about another NPC!

For the second encounter, each player would roll a d6 to see how the three dray champions were doing.  On a 6, they'd do something really great, which would help out the battle they were having (such as a fly-by lightning attack, or raising some of the dead into undead servants).  On a 5, they may do something helpful, but at a cost (eg the NPC would be 'out' for a while, or one of the NPC followers would be lost).  With a few rolls each, these added excitement and interesting story telling opportunities, especially as I continued to use the d6 rolls for each player to report on how another unit was doing elsewhere in the combat.  A few nasty rolls seemed to call for a couple of their allies to be left behind, too wounded to go onwards.

When we return to Dark Sun (and even before then, in our next campaigns!), I'll be sure to invest in the icon idea again.  I'm not sure I will create the icons for the players, but rather ask them who they think are the big important characters in the setting, and how their characters relate to them.


Movers and Shakers
Of course, the other big event they wanted was to deal with this "Orb of Dust" thing.  So clearly, I had it return...along with two other Orbs they knew nothing of.  The biggest surprise for me in this part of the game was how willing the PCs were to go along with the dray's commands.  After months (in game, and in real life) of hunting and wondering about the Orb, they finally had it in their grasp...and then handed it over to someone else.

Now, knowing your ally is a dray is one thing; knowing that they are an undead dray is surely more concerning.  But Liet had lost his Sorcerer King, and was still struggling for someone with whom to make a pact.  Beren was moments away from being killed (and reanimated) when the first orb was exchanged; by the time they handed over the second, he was working on the dray's side.  And Kuoroar!? Well, he was also pretty beat-up, and wasn't about to go against everyone else.

So even though I had the option of fighting the dray, it didn't come up, for they elected instead to go along with their demands.  Instead, they fought off the others, planning to survive long enough for the enemy army to be broken by the death of its commander - which they (and it) did.

The three Orb-holders (Thakok-An, Maetan Lubar, and the dray champion, Rhyleighi) each came with their personal elemental beast (Sandstorm Vortex for the Orb of Dust, and an Earth and Fire elemental for the Orbs of Flame and Stone).  It is only too apparent what happens to solitary enemies in DnD, and I didn't want an anti-climatic stun or dominate to end the night.

The elementals were huge, imposing creatures that kept the party distracted whilst not actually being the main threat. On the other hand, once Thakok-An's was relieved of her orb, her Vortex vanished, and she was pretty much out of the battle, which proved to be an added bonus for the PCs vanquishing her!  And as can be read about here, the Earth Elemental had a most interesting time whilst being dominated and stabilising a dying PC...moments before it came back to its senses, and pulverised the squishy mul.


Conclusions
In the end, I enjoyed taking some outside ideas and merging them with the system as written.  I look forward to using elements of 13th Age in future games, especially for the simpler things such as Mooks and Icons.  (Indeed, I will eventually get around to writing up another post just about those ideas!)  Importantly, the players also enjoyed the varied elements, and they all worked together to create a better story.

Dark Sun Marauders (Season 3, Appendix 1)

Now that we have finished our DnD group's latest game (a Dark Sun adventure revolving around the heroes defending the city of Tyr from an oncoming Urik army, setting up to make a siege; look back to read them all!), I thought I'd spend some time looking at some of the alternate mechanics I used in the game.  

Back when the party had to defend the front gate of Tyr against the approaching Urik army, I wanted them to feel a sense of urgency about the operation.  I had toyed with the idea of increasing waves of minions, of minions being replaced with more able troops, or other clear mechanical threats, but had decided against it.  Depending on who was present at the game that night, the numbers and types of enemies needed would vary greatly.  Plus, most players have a tendency to not want to withdraw, no matter what the threat, and instead carve through every one of the soldiers before them.  That way could lead to much unwanted bloodshed.

There was an option to have some NPCs included, whom they would need to recover, protect, and defend whilst guiding them back inside the city walls.  I still think that could work, but there's a fine line between spending actions to rescue / guide NPCs, and being bored / grumpy because you couldn't use your latest powers.  I didn't want to go there, either.

The third option felt a lot better.

I have recently been getting heavily into collecting the LotR Lego sets - because Lord of the Rings is awesome, and Lego is awesome, why else?  I started out getting just the Helm's Deep set, trying to convince myself that that was enough.  Then, went about collecting them all.  At the time of my game preparation, I had just put together (with the help of my daughter, who actually builds most of each set!) my latest set: the Battle at the Black Gate.  I wasn't going to draw any analogies between Mordor and Tyr, but both the Lego set and my adventure had a shared focal point: a set of gates!

As I told the group about the situation (the broken gate, the enemy scouts outside, the folk working hard on repairs), I cleared out the map, dumped most of the Lego set at one side, and set up the miniatures.  I left pieces together, but broke apart most of the rest of it, so it had both the feel of destruction, and vague hints at what it once was.  Then I handed over the instructions, and told them that the enemy would stop (and they could retreat) once the wall was reconstructed.

The enemies they faced were simple enough: halfling forest runners with a headhunter, and a silt shark thrown in to stir things up.  Naturally, to go along with the theme, the forest runners were the hobbits (Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin), and the headhunter was a dwarf (Fili, I think).  I even found one of my old "Pirate" theme sharks, and enough Lego flat boards to base them all, and the group had the threat of Lego on either side!

Before the game, I had thought of having restrictions on how many players could help with the construction at any one time, but once we were in it, I realised that that would have slowed things down, and largely been unnecessary. There was one player who is (like me) a keen and avid Lego enthusiast, and happily (for him and the other players) took care of the majority of the work.  Each round, players felt the tension between wanting to kill the enemy, but also wanting to play it safe and defend themselves long enough for the wall to be repaired.  There were enough calls of "Ooh, quickly!" that I felt the building exercise served to heighten the experience, and the feedback was all positive.

In all, the added excitement from a secondary challenge during the encounter worked well.  Rather than taking away from PC's actions, it worked by giving players who were not currently participating something else to focus on and work at, which could easily be put down when their turn rolled around.  The challenge was different enough that the 'new shiny' worked well, and though fun, is not something I would use every encounter, every session, or even every campaign.  But, will I use Lego in my games again?  (Have you not read about what my daughter chose for her character's representation?) Well, it just so happens that I have this nice ship... and our next campaign is going to be an Eberron based...pirate game.  Stay tuned for more!

Dark Sun Marauders (Season 3, Chapter 10)

These posts are from our DnD group's latest game.  The current adventure is a return to the world of Dark Sun.  In the previous seasons (the first run by me, the second run by Richard), the party were involved with hunting through Kalak's pyramid, confirming if the Sorcerer-King was truly dead, and retrieving the Orb of Dust.  The group has now returned to Tyr to find it fully under siege - but they have an advantage against the invading Urik army: three Dray champions of old!

With the rising sun, the plans for their attack were made.  The ever-unsleeping Valentin had broken the petrification enchantment upon Rhyleighi, releasing the quite-alive dray from his two and a half centuries of stony sleep.  Kulo, explained what he knew of the situation within Tyr - mainly, that though the city army were ready to attack, they could not open the gates and get outside without being slaughtered, letting the Urik army in, or (most likely) both.  They needed the army to be focused elsewhere.  And that's where the team came in.

With the Urik army spread out between them and Tyr, they were in prime position to attack its unprotected back, close by the command tents.  Alyshialynn was to move along, killing those she could, and raising them as undead soldiers under her command.  Sadhbh would take to the air, delivering strafing runs, and press towards the siege weaponry being built to harass the city.  Kuoriar!, Liet, Beren and Paelias were to attack more directly, whilst Rhyleighi would join the other adventurers - Kulo, Pieter, Kal-kin and Tak-tha - and cause a similar distraction.  With multiple attacks close, but not on top of each other, the Urik army would have little time to collect reinforcements.  After adequate harassment, they could all fall back, and discuss their plans further.

Before departing, the dray handed across small items to each of the heroes.  They would grant them extra energy in battle, but they came with a warning: do not use them too much, lest they wipe them out in the long term.  Interestingly, Rhyleighi (the only non-undead Dray of the four) was the one who gave the warning, and also confided that the other three used their items too often.


That first skirmish worked well - the Urik guards were unprepared and under trained, and all the teams moved through their forces with ease.  One command tent was destroyed - unfortunately, there were no high-ranking officials, but the destruction left only three more tents waiting.  Sadhbh made it far enough across to set one group of siege engines alight, and the undead presence was felt far after Alyshialynn returned to the others.  There were losses, though, with Tak-tha being grievously injured, and contact to Garidias being lost (though Valentin ensured them that the eladrin had merely taken the long way around the enemy army).

By the time they had regrouped, recovered, and discussed their next assault, the Urik army was ready.  More seasoned troops had moved into position, and their training showed, in how they could turn the blows, and in how they approached their enemy.  This fight was looking dire, but thankfully, a few well-timed fly-by attacks from Sadhb, along with two squads of Alyshialynn's undead, turned the battle in their favour.  Indeed, the harassment had caused a decidedly large hole in the Urik army, and they were failing to get reinforcements there quickly enough.  The gates of Tyr opened, their soldiers pouring out to meet many troops who had turned around to face the surprise thread, and now fell in the confusion.

Whilst striking out towards the third command tent, another target came across them.  A solitary figure, walking through the masses of troops, with a whirling sandstorm clearing the path before her.  It looked as if she, too, was headed for the command tent, but Liet only knew that she must have the Orb of Dust...and thus, he must take her down.


Pushing their way through the otherwise-engaged spearmen, Kuoroar! and Beren took on two heavy squads of troops, whilst Liet squeezed his way past, focusing on the figure.  Paelias, as always, supported them from a safe distance.

The figure - who, once she was close enough, was revealed to be Thakok-An, the very same Templar who had stolen the Orb of Dust from before their faces only a few months ago -  seemed uninterested in them, and continued working her way towards the command tent.  Liet was not about to have her get away, not with his Orb, and so raced after her.  Invisible, he walked up behind her, and said "You have my orb."  Sadly, Thakok-An did not agree, instead dominating the lesser Templar, and sending him running wildly back to the others.

But his actions served to catch her attention, and now she, as well as her elemental whirlwind, focused on the group.  This allowed Liet another chance; if simply asking did not work, he now reverted to commanding.  Dominating the Templar in return was a hard task, but he only needed the upper hand for a moment, long enough to get Thakok-An to throw the orb to her.  From that moment, without her artefact, Thakok-An was defeated.  And she would have died, too, were it not for the arrival of two others, each with their own Orbs, and their own bound elementals.

The first to arrive was Rhyleigh, though his possession of an Orb was not apparent until after Liet had obediently handed her newly claimed orb to the dray.  Holding the Orb of Dust in one hand, and the Orb of Flame in the other, the dray touched them together, causing them to merge together and form one swirling, sandy, hot orb.

But the Urik army was not about to let the orbs go without a fight.  Maetan Lubar, along with his high command and a heavy earth elemental, arrived on the scene as Thakok-An was making a hurried retreat.  "You fools!", she cried, "I was fighting the Urik army with you!"  Whilst the titans raged, and the dray and army general battled, those in the middle tried hard to stay on their feet.  Beren went down, as the earth elemental crashed into him on one side, and a momentarily-dominated Kouroar! hit him on the other.  Liet, already weakened from his mental battle against Thakok-An, collapsed from the collateral damage, but not before once more asserting his will upon an opponent - this time, on the earth elemental itself.  For a moment, the creature's control was ripped from the Orb of Stone, and it bent down to stabilise Beren's bleeding form, but with Liet unconscious, the command didn't last. Moments later, ten tons of rock in the rough shape of a foot came crushing down onto the mul's body, and the last drops of life were squashed out of him.


Paelias had managed to rouse Liet, but Maetan had wrestled control of Rhyleigh's fire elemental, and seemed to have gained the upper hand.  Kuoroar was trying to upset the general's advantage, but he had little energy left.  Managing to slip away from the earth elemental, Liet put his all into one final attack, barely managing to throw out the burst of psychic energy before he felt like collapsing from the effort.  But that final blast was all that was needed: Maetan fell screaming, hands clutching at his head.  The orb rolled along the battlefield, stopping at Kuoroar!'s feet, and as the general's cries dropped away to a brainless blubbering, the half-giant picked up the heavy stone sphere.  Behind him, Beren raised himself off the ground, though it was clear to all that he had not miraculously recovered.  The same grizzly wounds were apparent on his body as were on the undead dray, and the same dead eyes now looked out of his head.

"Give it to me," Rhyleigh said softly.  "Give it to me, and let us end this siege here, now."  Not seeing any other option, Kuoroar! handed the orb across, and watched as Rhyleigh melded it with the other.  With the combined powers of the Orbs of Dust, Flame and Stone now at his control, none on the battlefield could stand against him.  Though skirmishes continued on for the better part of the day, the battle had been won.  With their commanded dead, those Urik soldiers that could turned and fled back to their city.  Some made it, others were cut down before the could get far enough from Tyr.  Many more were lost in the desert, left to die without food or water, or picked up by travelling bands of slavers.  Some became food for the various creatures of the desert - a few, food for small tribes of halflings.  Whatever their fate, the siege of Tyr was over, and the Urik army had effectively been decimated; it would be many years before the Sorcerer King Hamanu would be able to gather such a large force - if not centuries.


The dray did not stay long after the battle had been won.  Nor did they leave the three-in-one Orb.  The news of their pressing urgency took it's time to reach Tyr, but as with all news, it eventually found its way there, passed from refugee to merchant to soldier to traveler... the city of Raam had fallen.  Absalom, the so-called "first of the Dray", had torn through it within hours of the hero's adventure there.  He had raised up an army from those he had slain, much like Alyshialyn, and along with ranks of other dray, had set the city ablaze, not intending to allow a single survivor to escape.  The other dray champions had returned to him, to work under him, and root out every last survivor.  Some tales spoke of Abalach-Re escaping the destruction, but just as many claimed she fell when the four champions and their powerful Orb cornered her in her garden palace.

Liet and Kuoroar! slowly recovered from the use of the dray's stones, though it took days.  The dray left the magical devices with them, perhaps because they didn't care, perhaps because they were now attuned to the heroes, or perhaps to serve as a continual temptation.  Liet especially found his thoughts drifting back to it, wondering just how it linked him to his new pact-masters.  Indeed, working out how he drew strength from the dray at all, with them so far removed, was something he would have to think about carefully.

Kuoroar! had an easier time distancing himself from the stone, though he couldn't bring himself to throw it away or destroy it.  Though, every time he looked into Beren's dead eyes, he was reminded of the danger of power.  For the dray had left Beren behind - undead, like them, but slowly acting more like his old self as time went by.  That was, apart from the whole "living" bit.  He had his own free will, and his body even looked normal once he had rested.  But his eyes...to any that had known him previously, the pale grey eyes now staring out at them were unnerving at best, and down-right freaky at other times.  Unlike the others, Beren had no choice when it came to the dray's stone - it was attached to him, and couldn't be removed.  Liet assumed that if it were removed, he would revert to the "plain old dead" state, so experiments along that line were stopped.

But for now, Tyr was calm, safe, and slowly rebuilding itself.  The outer sand-flats were scattered with dead, too many even for the local inix to feed off. In time, the sand would bury them, or the sand storms would erode them.  They had been quickly picked clean of valuables, and now just lay as a reminder to the other city-states of the folly of attacking Tyr, the free city.

Grandolf's first foray: Protect Those Flowers!

I have read other blogs about parents playing roleplaying games with their kids - and particularly, with their daughters.  I recall one where the adventure seemed to be focused mostly around riding ponies and shopping, which, whilst I can accept that some might find that fun, I am thoroughly glad I don't have to partake in.  Indeed, when Ali and I sat down to take her character "Grandold the Hobbit Wizard" on his first adventure, her first two questions were right to the point: "Are we going to fight something?", and "What can we fight?"

Effort was made to tie in the oncoming desired battle with some form of story, but all Ali was interested in was hitting something - and, in short time, that 'something' became a green dragon.  With a little convincing, I scaled it down to a few green drakes, used the stats for the kobold mooks, and told her that she was after them because they kept eating her flowers.  Ali was on board with that, with an encouraging "yeah!", and so Grandolf and Denver (the dwarven ranger I built to accompany her character) set out to deal with these pests.

The first roll of the session was a natural 20 for Grandolf's initiative, to which she cheered and demanded a high five.  Strangely, from then on, it was the hopes that we would each roll the same number (not necessarily a high number) that excited her.  I am still playing around with how to balance 13th Age combats, so this first battle was decidedly easy; the three mooks did not stand long against two characters and their friendly wolf.  That in itself wasn't a surprise - I didn't want poor Grandolf to go down on his first outing.  And it was most likely a good choice, too, as Ali's grasp of tactics didn't really match up to her eagerness for battle. It's not every day you see a wizard leap into melee, zap the enemy once, and then turn to bludgeoning them over the head with his staff...

Ali was keen to heal up again once the combat was over, even though Grandolf had barely been scratched. Again, she called for battle, and her desire for the green dragons had not been quenched, so I grabbed a large mini, and looked up the stats for a real green dragon.  Level 4...it could be dangerous?

The second skirmish started with us both rolling natural 4's for initiative...so of course, Ali had to run around the house, telling everyone how wonderful it was that we both rolled the same number.  She had no care that it meant the dragon was able to bite us before we could react - we had rolled the same number, so more high fives were called for!

As it turned out, low rolling was the flavour of the encounter, and I was beginning to wonder if the green dragon had any bite, when it finally started triggering all of its special abilities.  It's definitely an interesting mechanic - instead of being able to choose between a number of actions, the dragon had one attack, and three triggered follow-ups.  The way it played out for us is that it did minimal damage for the first three rounds, where it missed or barely hit, then on round 4, it almost ate poor Denver alive!

Having no experience of fighting green dragons, Grandolf's first attack was his Acid Arrow.  The aim was botched, but there was a slight hissing as the splashback dissolved a few scales.  The rest of the battle was back to thumps with his staff, whilst Denver and his wolf focused on keeping the dragon off the wizard.  I did get the benefit of the "reroll-on-a-2" Two-weapon-fighting rule, which I enjoyed, but also brought up an interesting rules question I will have to research: is it the initial natural 2, or the new, rerolled score, that triggers the ranger's second attack?

With the dragon's saliva burning our skin (Ali then quizzed me as to what effect her mucus would have on the dragon...eww...), it was looking dire indeed, when a marvellous series of deft strikes (including one staggering critical) from Denver weakened the dragon enough that Grandolf's next clobbering knocked all the fight out of it.  " 'I surrender!' ", I had the dragon say, and described to Ali how it now cowered before her, respecting her power.  "What do you do now?" I asked her.

"I beat him up!" came her reply.  Hrmm... it would seem I need to teach her about accepting a surrender.

"No," I tried to clarify, "He is giving up - he is saying sorry, and that you win.  What do you want him to do?"

"Fight us!!"  Even after all her previous calls to battle, the violent call was still a surprise.  I guessed I just had to make the dragon seem even more weak and grovelling!

" 'No, please, I won't bother your garden any more - just let me go...' " The dragon made a final plea for mercy before the all-powerful and enraged wizard.

Something must have finally made it through, because her next response was a simple "OK, we go home."  And with that, the adventure was complete.

Ali enjoyed her time, and I managed to learn something about the system from the two minor encounters. Hopefully, next time will not be so focused on dragon-slaying; but for now, the good thing is that there will be a next time.  Already, she has been asking me "Daddy, when can we play that game with Grandolf and the dragons again?"  It's definitely a hit for her, and it's a fun thing we can share together.

On 13th Age (My Initial Thoughts, and My Daughter's Character)

There have been many things said on 13th Age so far, and many in-depth and useful reviews about it, so I am not delving into areas that have already been poured over many times.  In short: if you have not yet done so, take some time to read about what others have said, and if you can, try it out through their Organised Play events.

The best one-line summary I have read was that 13th Age was what DnD Next / 5th Edition should have been; without the hate for 4e players, and without the teary apology letter to Pathfinder fans. That is, where many 4e fans have felt 5e has ignored what they enjoyed, 13th Age has kept similar options.  It has been made from the houserules and home sessions of Rob Heinsoo (lead designer, 4e DnD) and  Jonathan Tweet (lead designer, 3e DnD), but has moved onwards, taking elements from each edition and forming something new (instead of simply rolling back to past editions, ala 'Next').

They have some great tricks, some of which can be found in other 'indie' games, but which would work well and be easily implemented in a 3rd or 4th edition game.  The Escalation Die is one I see the most talk about, but after backgrounds, I'm not sure I ever want to return to using skill lists!  4e simplified the skill lists of 3e, but Backgrounds makes them a whole new, easy to use, creature!

There are parts that I am still not too sure about - the "simple" classes (Barbarian, Paladin, Ranger) seem too simple on paper.  I am withholding judgement until I have seen more of them in action, but the latter two in particular have the feel of 'not enough choice' mixed with 'choosing from the same pool again'.  4e ran aground of this with their 'essential' fighters.  You have a pool of powers, and choose some from them.  Then, as you level up, you choose another, from the same pool.  Then another.  Ultimately, despite you gaining levels, the items you choose are getting worse, for all the best (be that mechanical, flavour, or however you chose them) were taken earlier.

But for every element of doubt (Constitution modifier to HP again? +1 to your constitution has huge differences at higher levels) is outweighted by many elements that are great (choosing middle modifiers for defences, more even scores, class and race getting stat bonus options).  Even the whole 'Vancian magic' problem has a simple, if not complete, solution, in that instead of 4e's at-will / encounter / daily slots, each spell slot can be filled with a spell of any kind, thus allowing a purely 3e wizard to be created alongside a wizard matching one from 4e.

When I received my 13th Age book, my daughter (currently 4, at least until the end of the year!) was eager to play this 'new game' with me.  So we sat down with the book, and talked about what she wanted her character to be.  There were times when her attention wavered ("How To Train Your Dragon" was playing in the background), but by dinner time, we had arrived with this:

Clearly, she was heavily influenced by "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" (she's only seen the first bit of The Hobbit, until they leave the Shire, and none of the LOTR movies...but she's played through the LEGO game, and I have a ...reasonable... collection of the LEGO figures).

Her character was "Grandolf, the Hobbit Wizard" (I wasn't going to go into the hobbit / halfling distinction), and it was played by a Sauraman figurine, because she liked his cloak.  Through some questions, she allocated her stats (10 / 8 / 16 / 18 / 14 / 12) and noted down her defences and hit points.

Ali decided eagerly that one of her backgrounds was going to be that Grandolf liked to breed spiders from eggs (watching the eggs with a telescope (!) to see when they cracked open, and the babies came out). He even carried a spider familiar! 

Strangely, the second background was a lot harder to pry out.  Every question as to what else Grandolf had done or likes to do kept coming back to those spiders...but eventually, we worked out that he also is an avid gardener, having the most colourful garden in the village.  These things turned out to be equally important, and so both gained a +4 bonus.

She then told me that Grandolf grew up on the clouds, which I quickly tied to the Overworld.  It seemed to fit that he should start with 2 points (positive) with the Archmage, and one point (positive) with the high Druid, because of his gardening.

By the time we reached spell choices, I think Ali was wishing she had chosen a simpler character (she did keep eyeing off my Fíli-the-Dwarf-Ranger and his Warg companion. I was making this character alongside her, so that she didn't have to adventure totally alone.).  But with some simple drawings, I described the spell options to her, and she chose them - but the only ability she wanted to write down was "Evasive".  The rest of the numbers were causing her to get a little distracted.

So now Ali has her character sheet, she has a card with her spells written onto it (made by me this time), and she has some dice - this weekend, I foresee some adventuring happening.  And I'm looking forward to it!

Dark Sun Marauders (Season 3, Chapter 9)

These posts are from our DnD group's latest game.  The current adventure is a return to the world of Dark Sun.  In the previous seasons (the first run by me, the second run by Richard), the party were involved with hunting through Kalak's pyramid, confirming if the Sorcerer-King was truly dead, and retrieving the Orb of Dust.  This month, the group takes a brief journey to Raam, in a final ditch effort to gain an edge over the invading Urik army.

No one made any movement to head back to Tyr.  They may not have liked working with the dray - and undead dray at that - but the hopelessness of Tyr's defences was only so apparent.  If they retreated within the city walls, death was a matter of when, not if. 

The group huddled together in the cave, with the Braxats watching over the entrance.  Once Alyshialynn and Valentin were reacquainted, the pair set to determine their next step.  Their work was noisy, but still allowed everyone to get at least a token rest in, and around midday, the group was once again all awake, and ready to hear out Valentin's plans.

"We know where the second hero is," he started out, confident and hopeful of his as-yet-unrevealed plan.  "Sadhbh, the Storm's Wrath, was lost nearly two and a half centuries ago, fighting the armies of Abalach-Re." None of the party had visited Raam, but they all knew enough about the distant city-state. Its population was over 40,000 strong, with almost as many living in the surrounding warlord-dominated estates within a day's walk from the city.  Instead of being a boon, the huge populace actually made the city-state weak, for Abalach-Re, the Sorcerer Queen residing over the city, took little interest in its upkeep, allowing the city to fall into chaos and almost open rebellion.  Their mines and quarries are exhausted, and only the large, deep water reservoirs below the city allow it to continue on; without them, the city would be forgotten within a generation. 

Eagerly, Valentin continued. "Though we lost track of her, we are confident that she still is out there, and that she, just like Alyshialynn, can be revived and brought to your cause."   As it is, even if there was some chance they could find the champion's remains in Raam, the trip would take roughly two weeks - and countless supplies they did not have - each way!  How many in the city would die before their return?

The news didn't bring anyone the same hope and excitement that Valentin showed; that is, apart from Alyshialynn herself.  "No - don't worry!" she comments, sensing the group's general mood shift.  "I have recovered further whilst you have rested.  I can get us there quickly, though it will weaken me somewhat.  But I can get you there, and whilst you find Sadhbh, I will prepare to take us back, as soon as you have recovered her." Leading the group to the rear of the cave, Alyshialynn showed them a large arcane circle drawn on the rough ground in inks, waxes, and paints.  A multitude of symbols criss-crossed over the circle, with strange runes that none had seen before.  "Using this, we can all travel to Raam instantaneously, and I can make another one there to get us back.  If you are ready, we can go now?"

"Absolutely, great one. I and my companions stand ready to recover your comrade, that together we may save Tyr from its impending doom." Liet, for one, eagerly welcomes this opportunity.

Alyshialynn stepped into the centre of the arcane circle.  The pair of dray had been up all night preparnig it - another advantage to not being alive, it would seem - but only Alyshialynn was coming with the group to Raam.  Valentin was to stay behind, and Kulo, was chosen to remain with the dray and 'watch over' him.  The rest were travelling into the distant city, and helping fuel the travel.  Liet was only too happy to allow himself to be used, but the others had varying reactions to the defiling magic.  Sure, it was the only way to get themselves to Raam in time, but the drain it took on each individual, and the arcane stench it left behind, was almost too great. 

Staggered and momentarily sick from the trip, it took them a few moments to notice the destruction their arrival had caused.  Two buildings had been torn in half, a rough hemispherical hole stretched up and around them.  Fires burned towards the edges, where pieces of the building not fully consumed had been thrown and scattered.  There were signs that a few bodies may have been there, too, but the layer of soot and ash was confusing, and everyone felt it better not to investigate the disturbing scene further.  Especially when the guards arrived.

A scene this damaging, this noisy, was sure to bring attention.  Four squads of mansabdars, the local guards / marauders for hire, quickly came to deal with the interlopers.  They didn't last long, being more used to dealing with small riots or the occasional pick-pocket.  Once their position was no longer under attack, Kuoroar!, Beren, Liet and Paelias moved off to find information on the missing dray; the rest of the party, weakened from their trip and further injured in battle, had to be left behind.   Alyshialynn also stayed, making preparations for their return trip.

The most likely place for a prisoner was a prison, so that was the first thing the team looked for.  The lower ring of Raam held no such place - they had landed in the low quarter, but as they scouted northwards, they only found markets and poor housing.  Their first obstacle - guards at the gate to the second ring - gave them pause for a while, but after luring a few foolish troops into a darkened and abandoned ally, they had the (almost) perfect disguise!  Trailing a large group of locals through a checkpoint, they were able to bluff their way through, and head towards the actual prison complex.

Trekking their way through the lower two rings of Raam had taken quite a lot of time, so when faced with another few guards - and, in particular, overweight and inattentive guards - Liet suggested brute force was necessary.  Boren quickly dispatched the two guards, and together, they dragged the bodies inside, removed their keys, and set about searching for any imprisoned undead dray. 

Fortunately, there was little opposition, as no one seemed to remember locking away the dray 250 years ago.  The final cell had simply been locked and left alone - whilst, inside, Sadhbh sat, chained to the wall, her powers negated by an intricate enchantment.  Intricate or not, Liet was more than a match to disperse the energies, freeing the champion from her bonds, and now, with her weapon calling to her, they charged forth from the prison, and into the final circle - the palace garden.  Within that haven, within the forest of trees, the rolling plains of grassland that would have taken more water to keep alive than most towns had for their population, stood a small stone structure.  Within that structure stood a statue.  And lying before that statue was Sadhbh's spear.

The dray took on the gate guards, urging the others to run ahead and secure the area.  They managed, but paid for it dearly, as two of Abalach-Re's High Huotagha lay in waiting, each backed up by a squad of crossbow-wielding archers.  When the last of them fell, the group approached the statue, seeing it for the first time for what it really was - not a work of art, but a prize taken in battle. The statue, another dray, was far too realistic to have been carved: what they had found was the petrified form of Rhyleighi, the third missing champion.

There were more guards flooding towards and into the garden, and Sadhbh feared that Abalach-Re herself could be called in, since they were now taking not one but two of her captives.  "Run now, make for Alyshialyn." she instructed, "I will keep them busy here, then take to the air with Rhyleighi and meet you there."  They didn't need to wait for Sadhbh to repeat herself.

The race was then on, the group fleeing through streets, into sewers (a bad decision), and even across a rooftop to leap from the second ring's wall.  At one stage, the guards had almost caught onto them, but a quick ploy by Kuoroar! saw them thrown off their track, and allowed the group to make one final sprint towards the awaiting portal.  By the time they were closing in to the area where Alyshialynn waited for them, they could see the bright form of Sadhbh streaking through the darkening sky; she landed moments after they arrived, weary and breathless.  The magic this time threatened to tear years from their lives, but in a moment, it was over; Raam was thousands of miles away, and Urik's army was now the immediate threat.  The sun had set, their bodies were exhausted and drained, and they had a statue to un-petrify. But tomorrow, when they were joined by the three dray champions, they would win back their city.