Hello all,
As I teased a few weeks ago, we are going to start a secondary series of Podcasts of our Actual Play game sessions. After several attempts with various recording set ups we finally found one that works well enough to use. Because of that delay, however, if we started posting the episodes it would be several sessions into an established campaign and I became concerned that it would be difficult for the audience to get invested. The problem was solved with the huge success of our DnD Next Playtest. I had decided to run that play test with an alternate group of PC’s but keep it within the same campaign world. The game was such a hit that the Players unanimously wanted to drop the original game and continue on with these new characters and the DnD Next play test. As the DM I was both elated (they LOVED the game I had ran for them) and saddened (they didn’t LOVE the old game as much) by this, but like any good DM I found a way to say “YES.”
The first session of Made Men, the new campaign will be posted within the next few days. We just need to record a new intro for these and convert to MP3. If all goes well I hope to have it posted before the end of October, 2012. At worst, the first week of November. For anyone that is interested here is a brief (well, as brief as possible) recap of the game I started and how it would/does intersect with the now current game. Don’t be surprised if the original PC’s find a way back into this story as NPC’s.
In the Beginning . . .
If you are interested in a failed campaign I had posted a couple entries under the heading of THE LOST CITY, which was supposed to be the new campaign I was starting. We also discussed it in some of the earlier Dungeon Talk episodes. It was one of two vastly differing ideas I had. In it, the PC’s had almost no control over their characters. We rolled randomly for their race and background. Even their stats were randomly generated using the MATRIX system.
Despite some of the success of that first game, it didn’t quite have the umph! I was looking for and I quickly found myself wondering about the other possibility I had been thinking about. In that version I would create a huge-sandbox game where I let the Players decision at the start of the game (which classes they wanted to play, the backgrounds those chose and the general direction of the game they wanted to play in ) to direct me as their DM to create their world. I found out quickly that giving the Players that much freedom and decision making created analysis paralysis. There were just too many options. I had heard, superhero version of D&D, pirates, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles version of D&D, post-apocalyptic world, a version where the Players were sucked into a strange world and became hero’s a la the Dungeon and Dragons cartoon. Eventually I had to step in and help move things along but at the same time I wanted to try and incorporate as much of what they said, just perhaps not in the way they thought.
All the PC’s meet in a Pub, er . . Slave camp.
I allowed the PC’s to create whatever background the wanted, but at some point in time the PC’s were captured by a group of Tiefling’s who were allied with Dragons. In this world, both of those things were legendary and most people had never seen or even believed in them.
Niko created a Dwarven Wizard named Rook who used to work in a Library and was well on his way to becoming a Sage when the city he had been living in was conquered by the Tieflings.
Evan created a Human Duskblade named Sampson. Sampson had scars, both physical and mental from a failed mission he led and no longer wished to be put into a leadership role again. He was born into slavery as both his parents were captured long ago. In this setting the Tieflings essentially brainwashed their slaves to fight for them and created shock troops, it was one of these groups that Samson was leading.
Rob created a Half-Elven Ranger named Marcus. He was raised in an area that looked down on half-breeds leading him to spend most of his time alone in the woods. While ranging far into the wilderness he came upon a force of Tieflings and was captured.
Jared created a Human Monk who had a long and detailed history of failed relationships with woman. He was also as good as a person could be, an typical heroic adventuring monk. “you know, like Caine from Kung-Fu,”
The City by the Sea . . .
The PC’s had all been part of the same Shock Troop, along with Adam, a human Cleric who was an NPC I was controlling. They were some of the first ones into a large city built into the side of a mountain by the sea (Think Isengard from LOTR ).
The Tieflings were an odd lot. They used militaristic force to conquer random cities and towns, segregated out all the arcane spell casters, moved them to someplace secret and then left only a small force behind to govern the new territory. The Pc’s were part of this small force and after a few months of lessened activity the brainwashing began to ware off and they decided to escape. Before this happened, Adam, who had been acting as a steward to some of the higher ranking Tiefling’s, came back from a meeting with his mind broken. He would have sporadic moments of clarity, but was mentally devastated by something but unable to communicate it. Mostly he would whisper to himself, “it’s coming. A thousand years of darkness.”
The pc’s feeling a kinship and responsibility for him, decided to take him with them anyway. They managed to escape the city with a minimal amount of blood-shed as only three Tieflings were guarding the small boat they had secretly stocked with provisions. (How the Tieflings knew to guard that particular boat had never been addressed and they took them out so quickly there was no time to ask).
Once out of the bay the Pc’s skirted the edge of the Island looking for civilization. On the third day of traveling a meteor shower of unequaled brilliance suddenly lit up the sky and at the same time a storm blew in tossing the small boat about and ripping it asunder. For three days the Pc’s were tossed about barely clinging to life and eventually washed up onto shore with no knowledge of where they were.
Home Sweet Home . . .
Upon awaking upon the shore they saw a small fishing village that appeared abandoned. No boats were docked, no people wandering about. More investigation showed that meals were left uneaten, and other chores half-done. It was as if the entire village left suddenly with no time to make any preparations.
The party was able to adequately equip themselves, and after a few days of rest they decided to head out along the shore to see if they could find anyone.
That’s Weird . . .
After a few days traveling north, the Pc’s found another abandoned village. Same condition as before, except this time, the entire village was covered in cobwebs. After restocking their supplies and upgrading a bit more they once again headed off (Marcus had found a map that showed another village and then further o a location called Bridge-Swain, a large community across the river called Ore-Mound and a large mountain labeled Throne Hold even further north).
They came upon this third village and from a distance could see that it too was abandoned and covered in cobwebs. As they got closer, they detected movement. Sneaking through the town they found a female priest of Pelor wandering the town. She didn’t look fat, but her belly was distended and she had a huge boil on the side of her neck. She was walking odd as if drunk. When they confronted her, she appeared to be as confused as they were about what had happened, but her behavior just didn’t seem right. Eventually she tried to lure some of the PC’s away, but they attacked her instead and jumped back in revulsion as a large spider burst from inside her. It had been wearing her skin like camouflage. It was a short battle, but the PC’s were equal parts confused and disgusted. The creature did not radiate any magical aura, but was able to mimic human speech. This was foe unlike anything they had ever seen.
Yes, My Prince! . . .
Now, more aware an on-guard ,the PC’s made their way further north and as they reached Bridge-Swain (which appeared to be an ancient keep by the river that had fallen into ruin) they saw two groups of humans in a heated argument. As the Pc’s approached one group dropped to their knee’s prostrating themselves and refused to look at Rook and kept referring to him as Prince. After some time they Pc’s figured out that one group of people were from Ore-Mound across the river and the other group were Men of the Forest that had brought wagons of food to trade. The men of Ore-Mound were not allowed, by order of the Princes’, to allow any one or any thing to cross the bridge into Ore-mound. Despite the fact that they were starving (they hadn’t had a shipment of food from Throne Hold in weeks) they would not let the men or wagons across. Rook, using the belief that he was Prince ordered the Ore-Mound folk to accept the wagons. The Men of the Forest refused to let their wagons cross unguarded. Something about their behavior again didn’t seem right so the Pc’s wanted to inspect the wagons before they crossed. The Men of the Forest set up an elaborate parade and drove the wagons to them one at a time to allow them to inspect, but Marcus noticed that one wagon did not join the parade and another went by twice.
The Pc’s forced the Men of the Forest to show them the wagon that they had tried to pass by. The leader of the Men ripped back the tarp to reveal a monstrous spider-like creature. The creature looked to be ill, with giant tumorous growths along its length and it’s body was bloated and mushy.
The Men of the Forest began to attack while the men from Ore-Mound dropped to the ground and covered their eyes. The monstrous spider had some sort of mind-altering attack and tried to daze the PC’s. Samson got into the wagon and drove off thinking to drive the spider into the river, but it slid from the back of the wagon. Realizing what had happened Samson turned the wagon around (which had caught fire thanks to a Grease Spell and thrown torch) and rammed it into the monster. It died in the flames. All Men of the Forest grabbed their ears as the monster let out its death wail and died as it died.
The leader of the Ore-Mound men, Markian, realized that Rook was not a Prince (because he did not have an Earth-Slave [Earth Elemental] fight for him). In addition, the fact that Rook used spells in the battle was also unusual.
Markian warned Rook that impersonating a Prince would be punished by Death, but he gave him a key to enter Throne Hold if they wished to go there and speak to the True Princes’ (they learned that all the Princes’ are Dwarves and that their are no other Dwarves around, thus they thought Rook was one).
Ok, stay with me here . . . now we introduce the Alien . . .
The PC’s decided to investigate the forest before heading to Throne Hold. They came across many more mutated and enlarged animals including 50′ long rattle snakes and wasp’s the size of elephants. They eventually found their way to a crash site which was near a cave. After some cautious exploration they decided to investigate the cave and found a lone alien which was severely wounded from the crash. Using Mind-speech the creature was able to communicate with the Pc’s and told them that he had been on a mission of grave importance. He was to deliver several Symbiotic entities to another star system to seal a treaty so that both systems would fight together against the Ghiss, a very violent and militaristic race. On the way there, his ship was attacked. He had attempted to open a Temporal portal to evade them, but was hit just as it was activated and the unit malfunctioned. Instead of a short temporal jump he moved many years and had no idea if he was past or present to his own timeline. (Remember that sudden Meteor shower and storm . . . good, it’ll be important again later). He explained that the monstrous creatures of the forest were mutations from some of the symbionts that had broken from their canisters during the crash. If the Pc’s could secure him several wagon loads of ore he could use nano-technology to repair his ship and leave. In exchange he would give each of the Pc’s one of the symbionts which would greatly enhance their own natural abilities (so, here I’ve tried to give the Pc’s both the TMNT and the Super-hero aspects of the game they wanted). They agreed and were given a significant Ability stat bump as well as the ability to alter their appearance and even conceal their weapons and armor (basically they got the Venom Symbiont).
The Pc’s then decided to go get the Ore from Ore-Mound. Adam, the crazy priest in a moment of clarity asked to stay behind and see if he could the Alien feel better. I played this with Adam acting a little odd, but the PC’s used some Meta-Gaming and assumed i was just keeping my NPC out of the action for a while. Never assume . . .
Okay, we got the Ore, now what? . . .
The Pc’s camped out near Bridge-Swain and waited for the next shipment of Ore to be taken to Throne Hold. When it had fully crossed the river they ambushed it and took all the Men hostage. These men didn’t know Rook wasn’t a Prince and they used that to control them. Taking the wagons through the forest proved difficult and a few days had passed before they returned.
When they did, the cave was silent. As they entered they found that someone had written, “A thousand Years of Darkness” on the wall in blood. They found the alien dead, his head crushed by a large stone near by and Adam with his eyes gouged out and his wrists cut by his own doing. Apparently he had believed this creature was the cause of the coming apocalypse and had tried to stop it. (The Pc’s didn’t figure this out right away but I’m trying to keep to the highlights here).
Since they had no use for the Ore now the Pc’s decided to let the Ore-mound men go and figured they could beat them to Throne Hold by going through the forest and not having to take the wagons back out.
Throne Hold and the Princes’ . . .
The Pc’s managed to gain entrance to the very fortified city of Throne Hold and found it looked amazingly like the city they had escaped from a few weeks ago, but could not be the same. They saw a number of ships being loaded with goods, one of the slaves was speaking to another about the Ore from Ore-Mound being late. A Dwarf riding an Earth Elemental that had taken the form of a jungle cat (okay, Battle-cat, you got me) rode up and declared that the men of Ore-Mound would be killed for being late. That didn’t sit well with the Pc’s so they decided to attack him. He actually died quite easily, but his Elemental fought on. They were able to defeat them both, but then another Dwarf showed up and he brought 10 Giant Sized Earth Elemental’s. The Dwarf seemed very surprised to see Rook and instead of just killing them, he took them prisoner.
Eventually the PC’s were separated. When Rook declared he was a Dwarf they didn’t believe him. They set up a test. All the Pc’s were brought back together to fight another Earth Elemental. Before any of the Pc’s died (and it was close) Rook realized he could command the Elemental. That decided it, Rook had to be a True Dwarf otherwise he couldn’t have done that.
The Pc’s were given rooms and told they would be meeting with the council tomorrow. That night two female Dwarves showed up to the Pc’s rooms and were flirting with Rook. He was able to get some info from them and eventually they agreed to take the PC’s to the Chronicler
The Prophecy of Darkness . . .
The Pc’s were taken to the lowest levels of the City and there they found the Chronicler, an ancient, emaciated Tiefling, so old and long from the sun he had turned grey. The Chronicler told the Pc’s that over a 1,000 years ago his people were granted a vision of a Great Race that would come from the Sky and destroy the world. The Tieflings had tried to rally the governments of the world, but were ignored and attacked. Many believed the prophecy to be a ruse for the Tieflings to gain control. The Tieflings managed to align themselves with the Dragons and then began to take over regions to gain control. They also segregated Arcane Magic-users as the Prophecy stated this would be their only true hope as this great race did not have their own Arcane abilities. It was also the most dangerous as if the Great Ones learned how to control the Arcane Energies of this world, all would be lost.
Eventually they came and despite their best effort the Tieflings and Dragons lost. In a last ditch effort to stop the Aliens from gaining Magic the Tieflings initiated an order where all the Magic-users were murdered.
The Ghiss quickly conquered the entire world and ruled it savagely for many hundreds of years. Part of the Prophecy spoke of a Dwarven Wizard that would become the lynchpin in the possible defeat of the Ghiss. Once the Ghiss learned of this, they began to attack the Dwarves without mercy.. Three Dwarven clans, the Pyrinn, Tardannon and Kundarak turned against their breather and assisted the Ghiss in wiping out all other Dwarves in the entire world. In exchange for their assistance they were granted the Island and city of Throne Hold and given dominion over all the Earth Elementals.
The Pc’s realized that they had somehow traveled into their future (so here I’ve given them a game where they traveled to another world, sorta, and give them a post-apocalyptic future world). The Ghiss left the world without explanation a few hundred years ago and the world has been rebuilding ever since. (This was when they put together what Adam had done vs. what he meant to do).
The Silent Sisters . . .
The Pc’s went back to their room and were met by 7 human slave women who had baskets of food and drink. They let the women inside and after the door was shut the women attacked them. They had some sort of device (Ghiss technology) that acted as a silent spell covering the entire room in silence, both Samson and Rook were unable to use their spells, hehe. The Silent Sisters also had hand guns and a shotgun.
The battle did not go well for the Pc’s but mercifully, Marcus was able to take the last sister out before he went down.
The Dwarves burst in after the Ghiss device was removed and were surprised to find the PC’s alive. The Silent Sisters very rarely failed. The Pc’s learned that the women had their tongues cut out, so being a Silent Sister was more than just using that device.
Execution . . . or Exile, what did he say? . . .
The next day the Pc’s meet with the three eldest of each of the Dwarven Clans. The Leader, Plynth Tardannon explained that there was nothing that could be done with the Pc’s and that they were to be Ex . . . but before he could finish he was interrupted by a page bearing a scroll sealed with a gold wax hand. Plynth read the scroll to himself and the Pc’s were able to hear and/or read his lips when he got to the phrase, “under my protection.” He then continued, “As I was saying you are to be Exiled. Tomorrow you will be taken to the City of Mahraphosa and left. If you return to this island for any reason you will be executed immediately.”
The Pc’s went along with this. Despite wanting to free all the slaves they realized they didn’t have the ability to fight all the Earth Elementals and might someday come back. They were put onto a massive boat (Using Ghiss Technology the Dwarves had the strongest naval fleet on the ocean) and were taken to Mahraphosa.
This is where the game ended. The Pc’s had started at level 1 and had progressed to level 3 by this time. The DnD Next Play Test started with the Players taking on the Role of some minor gangsters within the Crimson Claw Crime Syndicate which operates in the city of Mahraphosa. These Pc’s were started at level 4. As I said before, they liked that game so much they wanted to switch. If you’re interested you can listen to the podcasts about that play test (Dungeon Talk Episodes 8.0, 8.1 and 8.2) as well as the Actual Play Podcasts of that game which will be starting soon.
thanks for reading,
Michael – AKA Mumbles.
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