Ormegrand - Catching the Reader Up

Before jumping into the activities of the last couple games I wanted to inform readers (whoever they may be) that my work and home schedules have been rather busy leading to little time for writing recaps. Thus this recap will be a condensed version of the last 3 sessions...

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Following the battle at the wagon the party continued on towards their next city on the road. Upon reaching it they visited a general goods store and attempted to sell the chests they had found, the chests containing what they would later find to be goods such as magical inks, spell components, and the like and each marked with a single white lily. The shopkeep however recognized the mark and sent his wife quietly out to find nearby guards.

After a quick discussion with the shopkeep the guards suggested they all speak at the local guard house. When they arrived they were each sepperated and the captain of the guard spoke with each of them, asking for their stories. When they all matched for the most part he then brought up how he had been informed by a woman that she was with the wagon when they were attacked by those matching their description and they were grilled further.

With no proof of any guilt or that their stories were not true, and only the word of another also implicated by the party to go on, the captain brought them all together again and in much the way of a "father figure" suggested what he thought was the right thing to do ... but alas they were free to do as they wished but his guard would be watching so they had best keep their noses clean.

When they left the guardhouse they returned to the merchant and while he was nervous and unsure they told him they just wished to return the goods to their owner if they could point the way. The merchant refused but told them he could reach out and have them met the next morning, again in front of the guard house.

When the morning came they saw an older gentleman in robes standing with two guards. While unsure of their story he was grateful for the return of what they had, and after they decided against trying to find the rest of his lost shipment, he rewarded them with some coin and went on his way.

After spending a bit of time to rest up they then continued up the coast to the Capital of Keford. Their first order of business was to seek out the Ogre's Arm Inn and deliver the ale they had been traveling with. The innkeep, sorry to hear of the merchant's death, told them he would send the payment along to the merchant's daughter but also pay them for their time and in addition gave them a room for the night.

The next morning as they decided to seek out the temples to inquire about the job exploring the new found ruins Aidan was approached by an urchin child who pressed a note in his hand. As they began to read, and with his payment in hand, the urchin ran off. The note seemed to be addressed to not Aidan but another, mentioning a double cross and how it was surprising he would show his face again and that two others mentioned would likely look to smash his face in if they saw him. It then went on to tell them to meet behind the Blue Ox at sunset.

Confused they decided to ignore the letter and continued to the temples where they met with a patron of Pelor and soon had agreed to seek out and explore the ruins, taking payment and potions up front to do the job. As they left they noticed what appeared to be a half-orc watching them from the alley, though he quickly disappeared and they headed north to leave the city for the area the ruins were said to be in.

Before they got out of the city however, while traveling through a seedier part of the town which was fairly empty during this part of the day, another small child not even a teen darted from one alley, grabbed a coin purse, and began for the other alley. As he ran however they caught his arm. As they discussed what they should do with him he wriggled free and went down the alley a ways and began taunting them. Finding it strange they began to look around, however what they looked for was well hidden and it wasn't until one of them began down the alley that the trap was sprung.

As the fight began the half-orc they had seen earlier came into the alley from the far end and told the child to flee while four other figures stood from their hiding spots behind and among the refuse in the alley. The half-orc proved to be a powerful fighter striking crippling blows against them until the bard used his magics to create a false sound of guards coming from up the street. With the guards seemingly approaching the half-orc told them he would see them again and the thugs ran.

Hurt and tired they decided to find an inn again and decided to head towards the docks once more though not to the inn they had stayed at the night before, somewhere closer instead. With no real familiarity with the town and no specific destination in mind they began walking and soon ahead they saw an inn. As they got closer, as luck would have it (or not), it would be the Blue Ox they stumbled upon. They stood discussing if they should see who was out back at sunset for a while and finally a pair of them went in to secure rooms while the others went to investigate ... though for a short while they had to deal with a drunken seaman, who would eventually enter the establishment, first.

Once out back a robed man spoke with Aidan, also mistaking him for "Madarius" and while he didn't believe him he told him that he could try to convince Gregor who was actually the one wishing to speak with him. After leading them to him he asked "what he had done with it", also not believing he wasn't the one they were looking for, but growing frustrated finally sent them off stating "she would kill them if their story was true or not" and that they should "deal with her before she found them", giving them an address and sending them away.

Returning to the inn they decided they would indeed check out this port warehouse in the morning to see what this woman wanted and see if they could clear things up, and the next morning they did in fact set off.

Upon entering the warehouse, a single structure at the end of a pier, the dwarf announced to the man and woman working inside "Madarius was here" and they excused themselves and entered a back room and almost immediately a well dressed woman came out, followed by a weasely looking man and the half-orc.  "I'm surprised you'd show your face here Madarius" she said. "Where is it?"

By this time Aidan had grown frustrated that no one believed him and gave quite a bit of attitude to the woman who then told him if he wouldn't cooperate he would die. The weasely looking one magically locked the doors behind them.

Slonnie asked her to wait, to explain what was going on, and she seemed surprised and asked "did he not tell you what he had done" and "what is he paying you". Slonnie, convinced Aidan wasn't the one she wanted, tried to convince her of such but she decided she wasn't taking chances and gave them a moment to discuss if they just wanted to hand him over or if they all wanted what would come.  As they discussed the dwarf said if Aidan didn't have what she wanted that proved it wasn't him, to which the woman questioned his intelligence as he could have it hidden anywhere. The dwarf, unhappy with that, then questioned her intelligence at which point she had enough and a battle began.

Things looked bleak for a while as the weasely man stepped forward and set some of them, and the shelves, on fire and the orc began to attack them viciously again. They also heard the movement of the other two and perhaps more in the back room still.  The fight went back and forth with the orc falling under the combined weight of the party's attacks only to be healed and then healed again by the woman who seemed to be in charge. At one point the wizard stepped forward and unleashed a rainbow like spell that caused two of them, plus one of his own, to collapse unconscious. The back and forth continued but suddenly battle could be heard from the back room as well.

At random points as the fire spread it appeared as if the battle could go either way and in fact things looked very bleak at one point with the dwarf nearly dying as well as the party's wizard while two others were still unconscious. Finally however, as the fire spread and different things started to pop, explode, or collapse, the unseen battle in the back room seemed to be catching up and taking the focus of the half-orc and woman. Soon with much of the building on fire and it spreading quickly, and the half-orc having fallen again, the woman looked up at 4 or 5 to 1 odds against here. Despite having not been wounded yet herself she found herself alone and decided to flee. As Slonnie gave chase he got to the door of the office area just in time to see her drop into a trap door.

The scene in the back room was one of the remnants of choas with nearly a dozen bodies laying about. As the fire continued to spread the warrior bent down inspecting the body of the half-orc, or more specifically his armor. He was determined to have it he first looked to take it off before deciding the fire wouldn't allow time for that so instead he would drag it. As he was inspecting it however the dwarf pushed him onto his face as he pushed through the blocked doorway so that he could go to try and start looting other bodies.  Seeing this, and having seen the dwarf stop to loot bodies while others were on the verge of death before, Slonnie decided it was time to teach a lesson and as he moved behind the dwarf and opened the trapdoor he snuck the dwarf's coinpurse off his belt.

With the fire engulfing the building the group began rushing to the door at the back with the wizard going to the trap door, all the while the warrior dragged the body of the fallen half-orc behind.  Slonnie and the bard were making their way up the pier towards onlookers as the wizard jumped into the water of the trap door. Pulling the orc's body was slow going so the dwarf moved to help but just at that time something within the building exploded. Aidan was blown out into the cold sea waters and while the warrior was able to grab part of the pier the half-orc and dwarf were also blown out to sea. However the warrior was almost blinded by the desire to have the armor the half-orc had worn and jumped in after it ... but as the dwarf struggle to stay above water he finally abandoned the armor and went to the dwarf's aid.

Before long guards and a nearby inkeeper from the onlookers had rushed onto the pier and had grabbed wooded rings at the end of ropes from spots along the pier and began helping to haul the struggling swimmers to safety ... all except for the wizard that is who stayed under the pier and swam to shore.

With everyone back on short the guards suggested they be taken to the temple district for care before they would be talked to by the city guards about what had happened here.

*****Director's commentary*****
I hadn't expected the group to basically go straight to the warehouse, something that would have been a much tougher fight if I hadn't have had help show up (which all fits within the story of what was going on but I won't say much here as there are a lot of unknowns by the party that still could come up and they may read this). As it was the fight was still very exciting and a couple rolls here or there could have been the difference between a TPK (total party kill) and everyone surviving as they did.

In fact at one point with two unconscious, the dwarf had fallen and stabilized rather than died (I have implemented a system where if you fall you begin making death saves each round and damage is an automatic failure ... 3 failures you die, 3 success you stabilize), Even after stabilizing he had part of a burning shelf fall on him forcing saves again and he had two failure before they could get a potion in him. The wizard also fell at one point and had two failures, one success, when he was finally force fed a potion. Slonnie was also under 5 hit points at this time but his opponent rolled 4-5 straight attacks under 7 and couldn't drop him before he was finally finished off.  Another failed death save here, a successful attack there, and it would have been very close to a TPK if it wasn't.

As is I need to remember these are all fairly new players so the RP side of things aren't as familiar to the players as a combat system would be. I spoke to them after the battle about being able to talk to others and try to seek out information. It may or may not have changed anything here but perhaps they could have asked around about the names in the note and maybe found out a thing or two before running into the warehouse.  I also had to remind the dwarf's player that he can't "retaliate" for the theft of his coinpurse as he didn't notice and noone else saw Slonnie sneak it from him. His character wouldn't know and it could have been lost in the fight or the water.

Overall the game is going very well and players are really starting to get more used to the game. It's only been a few sessions and they are still learning but it has been a lot of fun for all so far.  Admittedly I'd still rather be playing than running, trying to figure out the story and all that ... but it has been fun to run it as well and should only get better as DM and players alike get more and more used to things.

Ormegrand - The Future Holds What?!?

With a stranger resting in the wagon as they headed East through the forest the party moved on in silence. As they did noise of movement reached their ears and soon they saw a figure dart across the road behind them moving north. Stopping they watched as a second figure, an orc it appeared, moved north. Readying themselves they watched as a third moved across and just after Quinnzly heard them speak in their tongue "they see us ... just keep moving". As he relayed this they saw another trio of orcs rush north across the road at which point they decided it was past time to be moving on.

Later that evening they exited the forest and entered the small village that would be their next stop in the trip. The found room and board at "The Scholar", the only inn in the village ... the stranger tagging along as if he were one of them. During the mostly uneventful evening a group of six dwarves entered and began drinking.

Garek, the group's lone dwarf, approached and pulled a chair up asking if he could join them. In reply to the question of "who are you" he stated "just another dwarf" ... and the seeming leader of the dwarves yelled to the barkeep "next round is on him" pointing to Garek. Rather than joining he returned to his table with the dwarves left laughing about the exchange behind him. After over hearing just a bit from the dwarves it was pretty obvious they were transporting something themselves. Approaching the dwarves again Garek mentioned they were on a quest and asked if they cared to join. Laughter about "such a strange dwarf" sent Garek back to his table again.

The next morning, after finding the strange man had disappeared, Laurien found a note among his things stating that if they were ever in Beabury to look him up and it was signed by Aros. They then went down, ate in a mostly empty room aside from a pair of dwarves passed out at one of the table, then went out to get their wagon. They marveled at the large wagon with a handful of large chests, all locked, and the two massive work horses that also sat in the stables, but soon were moving on out of town.

They traveled for some time through grasslands before entering the forest again and with another evening nearing and a couple small trails of smoke barely visible in the distance they decided to camp with the trees just south of them. Half way through the night Slonnie began to feel as if he were being watched and awoke Blazer, though neither found anything out of place looking about the camp. With the second watch ending they awoke Laurien and informed him of the strange feelings. With careful eyes watching he was just able to catch a glimpse of what looked like a cloaked figure moving off through the trees nearly half an hour later. The rest of the night passed and they quickly packed up to move on deciding to leave without taking a chance with whatever may have been in the nearby woods.

After just a short hour's travel they came to the small town of Pora, the likely source of the smoke trails the night before. Jeff continued on towards a shrine in the town however but the rest decided to stop in for a chance at work or something that would add a bit of coin to their pocket they stopped at an inn called the Pigeon's Sword. As they entered they found it mostly empty with a single, older woman sitting by herself. The woman's eyes seemed milky, her dress colorful but ragged complete with silk scarf. As she watched them enter she asked them to come sit with her and see what the future would hold, rubbing hands with wrinkled skin and knotted fingers ... a deck of cards seemingly appearing from nowhere as she did.  Also as she did the barkeep came from the back room and yelled at her to leave his customers alone.

Skeptical of the woman Aidan and Quinnzly approached as the others went to the bar or stayed back and watched. When asked what her cost was she told them they could pay what they felt the reading was worth and handed the cards to Aidan, who shuffled and handed them back as he sat.

"The future has been decided, and you have decided it here." she said as she began to flip over the first card. "The Emperor ... someone of great power has set events in motion, events you may not even know about yet but will affect you greatly."  Another card is flipped over. "The Wheel of Fortune ... seemingly random events will pull you into these events."  Two more flipped over... "Justice and Judgement ... you will be tested in the eyes of the law and man, justly or not, for actions you have yet to take. Which side of things you land on is uncertain." Another card "The Magician, a great power will present itself with a choice you must make" and another "The Tower ... you will have to travel to a place of great strength and danger." As she took the next card off the deck the rest she sat on the table. She flipped the card showing Death. "Death will be waiting at the end, perhaps for you, perhaps for the other."

Shock and worry sat in those sitting at the table as she gathered the cards and they seemingly disappeared again. Aidan grabbed four gold from his pouch and started to place them before her. She grabbed his arm with surprising strength and strangely clear eyes. She stared for a moment, tension in the air, before telling him "his path was set" and pushing the coins back to him before rising and gingerly leaving the inn.

 It took a moment for those that could hear to recover but even as they did those at the bar were asking the barkeep about work. He mentioned that of course farmers would be willing to hire able bodies to work their fields at this time of year, or they could wait and see if there would be merchants passing through looking for more guards. As they discussed he spoke up again ... speaking of rumors that passing dwarves had talked about. Rumor was there was a temple or tomb found in the mountains to the north and the followers of Pelor were looking to have it investigated.

Deciding to move on, without Jeff, they stopped and spoke with a farmer who would indeed accept their help in the fields but what he could and would pay was less than they were looking to make. They continued on and that night, as they camped, a cloaked figure began towards their camp walking with a purpose. Slonnie woke another quickly and the figure kept coming. They could tell it was not tall, and it was slender and appeared to have a bow on its back and something at its side. As it got closer Slonnie yelled for all to get up and as he did the figure turned and began moving quickly away to the south.

Blazer, just having woken and seeing the figure, was the quickest and first to begin rushing towards it but not the only one. As he did however the figure whirled and had bow out, arrow knocked, at the warrior with unnatural quickness. He and the others that were moving that way stopped and after a few short moments the figure asked in a feminine voice "who leads you?". Blazer thumbed back in the direction of his father and she instructed Blazer to return to the camp and for Slonnie to approach.  As he did she eased the tension on her bow, still watching not the man approaching but the rest of the large group. As he neared he could tell even with the little light from the fire that reached this far he was approaching an elven woman. "You will tell the towns, the orcs, goblins, and other what you would call monstrous races all move north. Something gathers them." After getting his word that he would do so she turned and moved off south, disappearing into the night.

After another couple days travel the party crested a large hill and could see the ocean to the East some distance.  Later that day a large black plume of smoke could be seen in the distance. They moved forward and came across a pair of wagons on fire, a handful of bodies on the ground, and a half dozen others either trying to save the wagon's goods or taking them. As the moved forward Garek yelled out "Did you kill these people?" and the six below were put on guard, one of them being heard to speak arcane words of a protection spell.

Soon a battle began with both sides fighting hard, taking severe wounds. After several minutes things appeared to be turning a bit in favor of the party and the caster below was heard to call out "how about we call this a draw", bringing much of the fighting to a standstill until Aidan fired another arrow at the group. Battle continued again with both sides taking wounds, two of the people below having fallen already. Two of their warriors combined to drop Blazer bleeding to the ground before one of them was killed.  Seeing the odds against the woman who seemed to lead this group she looked at Quinnzly as she rubbed a ring, saying "I'll see you again" as she vanished from site. The last opponent left standing, also a woman, dropped her weapon and gave herself up. Laurien grabbed her arms and held her but even as he did Slonnie stepped forward and struck her with his dagger again. She fell to her knees bleeding badly and clinging to life. "My son lay bleeding, be thankful I did not just kill you" Slonnie said as he turned his attention to his son bleeding before him. As this went on Aidan and Garek began looking over the fallen bodies, even as Blazer lay bleeding to death.

He appeared pale, barely breathing, and Quinnzly's attempts to help him were not doing much. "I can save him if you let me go ... but you have to let me help now or it will be too late," the captive woman stated. She was immediately released from Laurien's grasp and after catching herself she lunged to her right at her former party member. Despite not knowing what she was after the group only watched as she reached for and pulled away a pouch from the body, pulling out a vial and forcing it down the throat of Blazer. As she did he began coughing some of it up, liquid flying, but even then some of his bleeding began to slow and stop and shortly after his eyes began to flutter open.

Falling back and leaning away from the group the woman looked at them ... "So I can go then? That was the deal..." and as they agreed she grabbed her things quickly and took off at a run to the south. The rest were left with Blazer tired, sore, and bloody but alive before them as Aidan and Garek came around a wagon carrying part of what they'd found already...


*******Director's Commentary********
Things went a bit smoother in tonight's session and should only continue to do so as those new to the game continue to get used to it and I get back into the swing of things myself. I still need to do a lot of creation in this homebrew world ... a downside to having something all done yourself ... but it's coming along slowly.

Throwing in a bit of suspense with what the future holds with the tarot cards (how the cards came out as they did with a player having shuffled them is a DM secret ;) ) as well as the figure that approached them I think will add to the story moving forward and is the first steps in a "bigger picture" story that is down the road a ways.

Also having a character nearly die tonight was a great thing as far as I'm concerned. They didn't die but were very close (I adopted a "death saving throw system from 5E/Critical Role and he had failed 2 of 3 saves when he finally go the healing potion), and as such a real sense of danger and "oh no, I can die if things go bad" was introduced.  I liked the striking of the captive prisoner given the situation, his son lying there dying, but isn't something that "good" characters will likely do often. I am curious to see if the rest of the party reacts to the two members who decided to start looting bodies even as one of their own lay bleeding.

We did lose one player, the Paladin, whose schedule just doesn't work ... thus his leaving while in a city. He may or may not come back into play later...

Ormegrand ... From the Fire

It was a normal evening, early in the spring, at the Half-Cask Inn. The inn, a way station of sorts a couple days from Bertill in the West and a couple days from Scawic in the East, was slow much as it was during the winter and early spring months though as the weather improved the location became a reliably busy stop for travelers through the area.

Inside the inn's owner, Slonnie, tended bar while his sons Quinnzly and Blazer went about chores. The barmaid served the few patrons that were there that evening, a merchant travelling towards Keford with 4 large casks of his special apple ale and those he had hired to protect the shipment. Among those hired were a half elf who found himself rather at home in the wilds named Aidan, a dwarf named Garek, a worshipper of Heironeous named Jeff, and a elven bard who tagged along on the journey named Laurien.

The evening was another forgettable one and the night was beginning to wind down when suddenly the door burst in, broken from its hinges. A large orc, missing his left ear and with a heavily scarred face, rushed in followed by a number of others. Sitting near the doors the travelers had nearly no time to react to the vicious and violent attack. Chaos ensued...

As the sun rose on the next morning those within the inn began to stir. The crackling sounds of a fire and the heat were immediately noticable, even before they began to open their eyes. When they did however they could see that the inn had been set on fire and was quickly becoming engulfed in flames. Knowing they only had moments to get out they checked on others, waking those still alive but finding the merchant and the barmaid dead. They then grabbed what belongings they could quickly and rushed outside.

For what seemed like an eternity but was actually only moments the seven of them stood looking at the inn burning to the ground, the fire leaping about the building. Soon however one of them noticed the good they were protecting had fallen from the broken wagon parked within the open stables next to the inn, an area where the fire was just now approaching. The horses that had pulled the wagon were either taken or had ran off, however a bit further in Aidan's wagon still sat with mules ready to go.  Moving quickly they rushed over and began moving the still working wagon and mules out while getting the three casks that were still intact away from the fire. While doing so Jeff noticed a small book laying on the ground partially under the broken merchant's wagon.

After grabbing it and moving off a distance, and with what else could be saved from the fire moved away, he looked inside to find that it appeared to a journal of the business transactions. As he thumbed through the pages a leaf sheet of paper fell out. It appeared to be a letter to "Dear Sara", but having other things to deal with at the time it was folded up again and placed back in the book.

Looking back at the burning inn sorrow and anger definitely set in for the father and sons who had worked and lived there for so many years, meeting a number of travelers and in some cases learning much from them, especially for Quinnzly who had befriended a mage that passed through from time to time and gotten him to begin teaching him the magical arts. With nothing left to do but leave it behind and move on the merchant's guards decided to continue on their way even without the merchant who had hired them still living. Slonnie looked about and quickly found the tracks of the orcs that had attacked the night before clearly heading north and stood pondering them a moment before being asked if they wished to travel with them by Laurien. With a last longing look at their home for the past fifteen plus years he agreed and they set off to the East.

It was the evening of the second night when they first saw Scawic ahead and with night falling upon them they set about finding an inn.  The first they came to was called the Ten Hawks where they stopped ... all but Quinnzly who continued on looking for another inn.  He would eventually find another, the Princess's Sack, and found that it was almost more of a brothel than an inn but he got himself a room anyway and went to bed.  Back at the Ten Hawks the rest of them ate and got rooms, many of them heading to bed, while Slonnie and his other son sat at the bar and had a couple drinks. While sitting there they heard a pair of older gentlemen talking about a farmer who was having trouble with some wolves lately.

Deciding to talk to the men as a group Slonnie set off to find his other son, quickly doing so and getting him to return to the "nicer" inn with him. When they return they find the rest of the group speaking with one of the older gentlemen who turns out to be the farmer in question. The wolves have apparently been grabbing his sheep with some regularity of late and while he can't offer them much he does offer the small sum of five gold he has to his name. With an agreement in place, and a bit too much ale in the man, he tells them that the next morning he will lead them to his farm.

As the sun arose on the next day, and after a bit of quick supply gathering, they are off on the road with the farmer. When they arrive at his small farm he tells them that the wolves come from the forest to the south and they set off, Slonnie leading the way as he moved quietly through the trees.  He soon finds a trail but finds that it is mixed with small humanoid footprints as well.

Following it he soon sees what appears to be a rock mound with an entrance, perhaps a wolves' den, but it is guarded by two lizardlike humanoid creatures. He stops and motions at the others but as they begin to advance the noise of their armors mixed with the crunching on the forest floor alerts the kobold's to the presence of others and one yells into the cave.  With surprise lost the party begins to rush forward towards the cave, Slonnie getting near but hiding by a log. As they do a number of kobolds and wolves rush from the cave with two kobolds riding wolves.

Slonnie, taking initiative joins one of his sons in the rush ahead and plants his dagger square in the throat of one of the kobold riders, taking it clean from the back of the beast and leaving it dead on the ground.  A lengthy and bloody battle ensued with many of the party suffering bites and bruises from wolf and kobold alike, while also slowly picking off the small kobold clan and their "pets". While some in the party began to grow weak from wounds they sustained they were winning and the kobolds knew it and those few that were left turned and ran. The wolves pressed the attack however, driven to a frenzy from the battle, but soon they were dropped as well.

After wrapping their own wounds and a quick search of the wolves' den they gathered the wolves' tails and ears and skinned the beasts as they rested. They even spoke of taking the ears of the kobolds but in the end left them. Upon returning to the farm they were thanked by the farmer who offered to have them join for lunch and paid them, and upon being asked agreed they could sleep in his barn that night.

The next morning they set off again. As morning neared the next day Laurien, on the final watch, heard a muffled noise coming from the nearby forest. Not able to make out much and with dawn near he waited for the others to wake ignoring the noise, even after hearing it again. When they awoke a few of the party decided to enter the woods to check it out while the others remained with the wagon. After some searching they found a man tied to a tree. He appeared near death. After checking him over and being unable to wake the man they carried him back to the others and placed him in the wagon. After a short time of trying to wake him they decided they should continue on.

Near the end of their rest that night the man began to wake though he obviously remained in very bad, and weak, shape. He told them that he became tied there by another group who had slaughtered those he traveled with, though he wasn't sure where those bodies were, He said the two groups had a difference of opinions that led to a fight and that the other group which consisted of a handful of humanoids including one very large he thought must certainly be an ogre, a tattooed mage, and a holy man, argued over what to do with him ... with the mage suggesting they just get rid of him and the holy man insisting they take him prisoner. In the end with the group not wishing to take a prisoner the holy man agreed he would allow them to tie the man to a tree but not to kill him...


****Director's commentary****
This was the first game I have ran in a long time and I definitely feel I could have done a lot better ... getting into character more, being more descriptive, and so on ... but overall everyone had fun and that's the important part. With time I'll get better at running things just as all the new members, who were unsure of what to do slowly began to get more comfortable jumping into things. Even the most experienced player at the table is playing a class he's never played (and one that was very rare in our games) so he has some growing pains as well as he learns his character.

As for the story itself I think with a newer group they are more comfortable with the combat side of things than the story side so for a bit things may be a bit more combat heavy than they will be later on. Eventually I want this to develop into a long lasting story with important and memorable places and NPCs ... and have a very ambitious and massive story arc(s) planned.

The beginning of the story, to put everyone together, was a bit forced I'll admit but with so many new people at the table I wanted a way to push them all together and form some sort of bond right away. The orc attack will be the only time I set the outcome of such a conflict as anytime the PCs are involved I want them to be able to act and react ... and perhaps I should have in this case as well but in the end it was a way to push them all together and worked. It could also come back to be a story point should they ever wish to try to rebuild the inn ... for retirement or base of operation or whatever reason they many have.

Some readers may get the Easter egg thrown in with the man tied to the tree and the group that did it ... something from one of my very early days of playing that my first group did. Don't worry though readers, I have no intent (at least for now) of bringing those characters that we played all those years ago into this world and story.

An Adventure for the future of Ormegrand

Soon I will be starting a campaign that I will chronicle here. I will be running a game in my own home brewed world that is still evolving. The campaign will be ran for a friend and his two sons, as well as my two oldest step sons ... all of whom are relatively new to D&D. I will also be joined by one of the people who I had originally started playing with all those years ago.

I don't wish to give away too much about the story ahead of time, nor wish to bog anyone down with details about house rules or the like, so instead I invite you to read up a bit about the world as it currently is and join in future writings to watch the story unfold.

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The world of Ormegrand is like our own Earth in many ways. It rotates around a sun once every 361 days, with a tilt similar to Earth resulting in four seasons in most areas, polar caps and those near the equator of course seeing less change in climate from the change in seasons. 

Nearly every climate can be found somewhere on the planet, from desert to jungle to polar ice caps on thehalf a dozen or so continents, some larger and some smaller, that make up the planet. A handful of island chains are also scattered through the seas. 

Vinyamar is one continent (and is where players will begin) and is made up of many smaller nations. A continent of decent size it varies a good deal in landscape, having mountain ranges, forests, a large swamp area, and even a sandhills type area. There is also a fairly barren, large island, to the NorthEast. The people of the land also vary a fair amount not only in race but also in belief and outlook on life, and the kingdoms vary a good deal as well, but more will be divulged about the story and people as the story plays out.

While a common tongue is found through Vinyamar there are a number of dialects and a handful of other languages as well.

Around the planet rotates a singular moon names Selest. It is slightly larger than the earth’s moon and often shows a blue crystal like glow on and about the heavenly body. Some say that the moon is made of crystals and gases, others claim it holds true magical source about it. The glow itself does provide even a little light unless there is cloud cover, resulting in what appears a ghostly look upon parts or all of the moon depending on position in the sky compared to the sun. A great number of constalations can be found in the sky as well, ranging from dragons to ships to warriors among many others.

The Calendar is made up of 12 month, each consisting of 30 days. There are no weeks and time is kept in days of the month. The months also do not have names (for now ... again I'm working on this world even as we play) and are just referred to by which month it is … so you may hear the 5^th day of the 3^rd month referred to as just that. The one day that doesn’t fall within a month is the “Resetting Day”. The Resetting Day is the day when the old year ends and the new begins and is a time of celebration. In many ways it is like our New Years and Christmas combined, but compared to our calendar it would occur between March and April. Thus a new year begins with Spring and ends with Winter (or April through March compared to our calendar). There are a handful of other celebrations through the year as well but again, those will come up more through play (and as I develop the world more).

A letter to the NHL

Dear NHL and Players,

Today the players have been locked out, and by extension so have the fans of the game and those that work the arenas. I like many others find this unacceptable. Just eight years ago I understood … the game had problems and needed to be fixed. We lost an entire year of hockey to “fix” the game and the league got all they wanted. A hard salary cap and a major reduction in all players’ salaries were the highlights of this.  Well here we are less than a decade later with another lockout because what you wanted fixed nothing. The cap has sky-rocketed as have salaries and while the rich get richer the poor are poor.

However the league continues to have record revenues and be “stronger than ever”. Not a season has gone by where we haven’t heard that. The game did come back stronger than ever and fan bases have grown, however by failing to fix things the first time and choosing to lockout players again instead of working on things while games were played you are going to forever damage this game. Yes, hardcore fans such as myself will be back but the damage will be felt and fans will be lost forever. You can’t have two lockouts in a decade and not get that.

You the owners are choosing to lockout the players while they would be willing to play while a deal was worked out. The fans certainly would have attended and watched games and the employees of the arenas and broadcast teams certainly wouldn’t have voted to not work. That is completely on the owners.

I also blame the owners for the current CBA which “doesn’t work”. You locked out the players last time and got what you wanted. However you failed by not addressing things as you should have, revenue sharing and allowing players share to grow as it has leading to where we are today. That too is on you. It appears that is what you want to do again, instead of addressing the issues as a whole you want to make minor changes and “fix” things by again forcing a major rollback in salaries and player’s shares. How about working with the players to find a number in the middle while ALSO having those rich teams help the poor teams more?

The owners are also to blame for contracts getting to where they are. Yes, I understand that you have to field a competitive team and part of that is getting in the players to make your team competitive and the market requires you to put forth your best offer to get those players, however I don’t get how you can say the system is broke when you’re handing out these contracts. You complain about contracts circumventing the cap with low money years on the ends of deals in which players may not play. You complain about the outrageous length of many contracts. You complain about the huge dollars being paid out. Again, YOU THE OWNERS gave out these contracts under a CBA you cost the fans and players a year in getting. $1.5 Billion, yes billion, in contracts given out since July 1^st this year knowing that the CBA was “broke” and expiring? Over $200 million just since last Saturday, over $160m on that in the last two days, on contracts knowing you’re a week from the expiration and no deal was apparent? How can you look at the fans or the players and say “the system is broke” and “we can’t give these contracts”. Even after you make a proposal you come out as owners the next day and give contracts that would break even that proposal. So we have a broken system that owners still rush to sign players under. Can’t be that broken, huh?

But I don’t blame just the owners. Players aren’t hurting for money either and can budge some. They’ll still make more than most of us will see in our lifetimes by doing something many of us pay to do. I don’t expect them to move as much as the league thinks they should and the owners should be responsible for the contracts they have handed out in full … but they could budge on their share and contracts moving forward while the league owners HELP EACH OTHER, something they seem reluctant to do. I also blame both sides because it was many, many months ago that we knew the CBA would expire. Did the two sides meet though? NO! Instead we sit around hearing how there is “plenty of time to get a deal done” all the while neither side knowing what the other side would be asking for. Instead of at least having initial talks to determine where the sides sat you didn’t even speak for months. Now we see the sides are miles apart much too late and the fans and employees are going to lose out once again. Instead of starting talks early and gauging where sides stood and having a shot at getting things worked out in time for a season instead you wait, realize that you’re far apart, and lose at least part of the season. This to me is the worst part. It shows neither side cared enough about the coming season to start talks early enough to try to bridge gaps. Unacceptable!

Now us fans don’t have a lot of pull in this even though we are where the money comes from. We don’t have a voice in the talks and no amount of emails, letters, and petitions will influence the owners or players in this. We fans and employees are the true losers but the ones without a voice. I will speak up though. I am very passionate about hockey so I’ll be the first to admit I’ll return to watching and cheering my team when the sport returns, however even with a hardcore fan like me you are going to lose out. First I am going to un-follow the NHL on Twitter and un-like on Facebook. That is just the beginning though. If we lose any time this season I will not attend a single game the rest of the season or next season if the lockout lasts this entire year. Instead I will attend other leagues and support them. I also will not be subscribing to Center Ice or the sort. I’ll watch on my regular cable, but I’m not paying the NHL to watch games. I also will not be visiting the team stores, NHL Shop, or any of the like. I will not be spending a dime on NHL merchandise. That will extend to all sponsors of the NHL as well. Anywhere I can I will choose another vendor to get what I need.

We may not have much of a voice but I for one am mad as hell and am going to voice it. It is completely unacceptable to be where we are AGAIN. I’m as passionate about the sport and my team as it gets and you have driven me away. This lockout was avoidable and unnecessary and it will do serious harm to the NHL and I won’t stand for it and I encourage other mad but passionate fans to follow this lead!

Signed a very mad and passionate fan,

Steve Ballard

Siding with the Players

Less than two weeks from today on September 15th the current NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement ends. Where are the NHL and NHLPA right now with this date looming? “Far apart” and with “no current plans to resume talks” is where. Hope that the NHL season will start on time is all but gone for most and frustration for fans mounts.

Most fans don’t care who is to blame and just want hockey. I count myself among those but at the same time I side with the players. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t feel sorry for players making millions while many just struggle to get by in their normal lives and many, many others will be out of work should a lockout occur and games not be played … but I do feel that this potential lockout is completely on the owners.

Suter and Parise to Minnesota - What it Means in the West

The biggest news of the off-season thus far for the NHL just happened to occur on the Fourth of July with the Minnesota Wild making a huge splash getting not only one of Ryan Suter or Zach Parise, considered by many to be some of the best free agents to hit the markets in years, but by landing both of the coveted players.