My Kingmaker Pathfinder campaign began on Saturday. Two players failed to show, so it was Jack, Josh and myself. We were initially thinking we’d just talk about the campaign, but I was begged into running “Something, anything!”

So here was the session.

Ransom, a dwarf rogue, was making his way down the road, traveling from Restov, where he was tasked with exploring the Greenbelt, a section of the Stolen Lands to the west of the city. He recieved the job through a contact in Brevoy, and was told he would be able to meet up with the rest of his group at Oleg’s Trading Post in the Northern Greenbelt.

Riding his great ram, Ransom found the day to be bright and clear. It was nearing midday, and he estimated he was within a half hour of the trading post, when he saw movement in the forest to his left.

Pausing, he noted that the two shapes were moving at his pace, keeping back within the trees. To his right, there was a large rock outcropping, so he decided to move that way, in order to see if the shapes would continue along. Before he even made it to the rocks, an arrow whizzed by his head.

He turned, leaping from his ram, as a bandit burst from the woods, sword drawn. More arrows shot past him, avoiding actually hitting him.

Ransom drew his hand-axes, and advanced toward the bandit.

Suddenly, the whole forest went dark.

Looking around, he realized the darkness appeared to be centered on him. Being a dwarf, he was able to see perfectly, though the bandits weren’t so lucky. They began to stumble about aimlessly, trying to find the dwarf in the darkness.

Not understanding the purpose of the deep shadows, but never one to give up an opportunity, Ransom charged, striking down the first of the bandits. The other, deep in the forest turned to run, only to find himself standing before a glowing form of a man. He panicked, and turned the other way, stumbling through the undergrowth.

Ransom rushed him, cutting him down almost as quickly. Has he moved forward to attack the bandit, however, he noticed a shadowy shape rush past him, then vanish again into the forest. As the last of the two bandits fell, the darkness evaporated. The sky was clear and sunny.

Ransom looked around. The shadowy figure was nowhere to be seen.

“Spirit of the forest!” he shouted into the woods, “Are you friend or foe?”

Along the ground, a glowing question mark appeared, then vanished. He tried to call out again, but recieved no answer.

He waited a while, then moved to the bandits. Leaning their bodies up against a tree facing the road, he carved “BANDIT” into the chestpieces of their leather armor, as a warning to any others who came down this way. He then mounted his ram, and continued toward the trading post.

It was a good first session, and taught my two players how MapTool worked. They enjoyed it, and look forward to this upcoming Saturday, where we’ll hopefully have the full group.

You can follow our adventures, as well as see the character sheets here at our Kingmaker site.

Tell the king; the fair wrought house has fallen. No shelter has the Harkenwold, nor sacred laurel leaves; The fountains are now silent; the voice is stilled.
It is finished.

Following that prophecy, the party set out for the Harkenwold. Bridget wasn’t able to play, and Kody didn’t show up, so we were without the Mage or the Rogue. Their characters scouted out ahead of the group.

It was a three-day journey from Hammerfast. The road was clear, and the travel easy. On the second day, they rounded a bend, and smelled a strong whiff of sulfur. With a flash, standing before them, were three large, muscled and winged devils. The leader of them stepped forward.

“Our dark Master, Asmodeus, bids you greetings,” he growled in a deep voice. The sound of crackling firewood could be heard in his voice.

Berend, the Dwarven Smith of Moradin moved forward. “What do you want, demonspawn?” he asked.

“The master of the Nine Hells wishes to warn you: Turn back from your quest now, or you will face his full wrath. This is your only warning.” With that, the devils disappeared.

Shaken, but unmoved, the players continued on.

They arrived at Harken Village, and found it almost abandoned. The only life came from the tavern. They decided to head in.

The place was crowded with soldiers, who were dressed in a mish-mash of armor, but all bearing the same symbol: A circle made of chain.

They tried to remain inconspicuous, but Berend decided to sidle up to the bar, between two soldiers, and ask the bartender if she’d seen a Deva and Dragonborn about. The soldiers began staring at him.

He turned to one of them, looking him up and down, telling him to keep his eyes to himself. That’s when the fight broke out.

The group found themselves surrounded, getting pummeled on all sides. Aelar’s wolf animal companion was outside, and to move to his side would have ended up with a ton of opportunity attacks, so the wolf moved around the outside of the building, and burst into the main room from the kitchen.

Regdar the Avenger went down, but was rejuvenated by the Cleric. He looked in bad shape again, as did the others, when the leader of the group stepped out. You can see him in the first picture, sitting back in the tower section of the tavern. He was studying over maps of the region, and was finally irritated enough to come over and get involved.

“Enough!” he shouted. The soldiers stopped fighting, but kept their weapons at the ready.

“Are we talking now?” Berend asked, keeping his hammer ready. He explained they were looking for a Deva and Dragonborn.

“They arrived in the city yesterday. They’re now our prisoners.”

The group was invited to go speak to them. Berend agreed. The guards approached them and quickly slapped manacles on them. Aelar rolled well, and wasn’t manacled. “Do you want to go with? You can let them put you in chains.”

“Hell no!” Emmanuel said. “I’m getting out of here!” I allowed him to make a break for it, slipping past a few guards with his wolf. They disappeared into the forest.

And that’s where we ended. The group will be in a dungeon next week, with Emmanuel off on his own. I’m talking to him this week about what his character is doing while they’re in jail. Good stuff.

Thursday night’s game was possibly the best game I’ve ever been a part of.

We normally don’t start playing until 9 or 9:30, based on when people show up. This time, Emmanuel and Larry didn’t show up till 9:45. Nevertheless, we sat down to play.

The heroes arrived at the gates of Hammerfast, having just left the tunnels below Skytop Monastery. When they arrived at the gates, two dwarven guards stepped forward and asked for the purpose of their entry. Right off the bat, some of the players wanted to just bull-rush the guards, while the others tried to talk them out of it, trying to figure out what skills to use to get past the guards. Finally, one of the players just said that they wanted entry to the market.

I’ve found some of the players really have an itch to attack anyone who gets in their way, though they luckily are willing to listen to reason from the other players.

They were told they would need to go to the customs office to report any items of value they had on them. At first, the players didn’t have any problem with this, until I pointed out to them that they were carrying some very valuable magical items. They got a little tense after that.

The heroes meet the customs officials. They're flanked by city guards. Note that this is the only time we used a map the whole session.

They initially were very hesitant to show the customs  agents, until one of the players pointed out that they didn’t want to take their items of value, just charge them a percentage of their value. The players handed them over.

Almost as soon as they began looking over the items, their eyes grew wide with surprise. “You’ll need to come with us,” they said. As the players followed them out onto the street, more town guards stepped up and surrounded the players, leading them through the streets.

They were led into the section of Hammerfast normally off-limits to visitors to a smallish building with a large book over the entryway. When they entered, they discovered it was the Temple of Ioun, god of knowledge. The priests looked over the magical items, then explained to them that there were ancient prophecies associated with the Heroes of the Godfell Stone. They were invited into the library to see if they could gather the pieces of the prophecy which would pertain to them.

This is the image I passed around to the players as what they saw when they entered the library.

As they stepped in through a set of double doors, they found a massive library, larger than anything they had seen before. It appeared to be a demiplane, accessible only through the doors they walked through.

I paused the game and decided to warn the players. “You can go into the library, where I’ll be using a random table to see what you each find within. I’m warning you, because there’s a Save vs. Death on this table. The risks are great, but so are the rewards. If you choose to enter the library and roll, you will be given a piece of the prophecy. You can choose not to venture into the stacks, however, if you so choose.

All of them chose to go.

I slightly modified a table I found here at the DMG Pg 42 blog. After a loop around the table, the players decided to keep going, until all the prophecies I had behind the DM screen were discovered. Here’s the kicker: If the players rolled a number previously rolled, they had to reroll. This meant that each time they rolled, there was a higher chance they could stumble upon #8, the Save vs. Death.

Unfortunately, no one rolled the 8. They did, however, find all the pieces of the prophecies. Here the prophecies are. Each one was printed on a strip of paper.

There are two roads, most distant from each other: the one leading to the honorable house of freedom, the other the house of slavery, which mortals must shun. It is possible to travel the one through lovely accord; so lead your people to this path. The other they reach through hateful strife and cowardly destruction; so shun it most of all.

The Moon shall climb the fence
Ere the Sun shall open her eye
The River shall flow to you
And all the Maids shall die. 

Seat yourself now amidships, for you are the pilot of Fallcrest. Grasp the helm fast in your hands; you have many allies in your city.

To touch the light is death; the shadow will light the true way.

Hear your fate, O dwellers in the Haven of Winter of the wide spaces;
Either your famed, great town must be sacked by the Prince’s sons,
Or, if that be not, the whole land of Nerath
Shall feel the death of a Queen of Ravens,
For not the strength of dragons or of chimeras shall hold him,
Strength against strength; for he has the power of Io,
And will not be checked until one of these two he has consumed

The Nexus binds the Vale in power. All power comes from it, all power is drawn to it.

Await not in quiet the coming of the horses, the marching feet, the armed host upon the land. Slip away. Turn your back. You will meet in battle anyway. O holy Paladin, you will be the death of many a woman’s son between the seedtime and the harvest of the grain.

The dragon, earthborn, in craftiness coming behind thee.

Sure though thy feet, proud Hammerfast, have a care,
A lame king’s reign may see thee trip — Beware!
Troubles unlooked for long shall vex thy walls,
And rolling Time his tide of carnage pour.

Tell the king; the fair wrought house has fallen.
No shelter has the Harkenwold, nor sacred laurel leaves;
The fountains are now silent; the voice is stilled.
It is finished.

When the three have fallen, the one shall be reborn. 

Now your statues are standing and pouring sweat. They shiver with dread. The black blood drips from the highest rooftops. They have seen the necessity of evil. Get out, get out of my sanctum and drown your spirits in woe.

All that has happened before will happen again.

Yes, that last one was a Battlestar reference.

The players began wildly debating the meaning of the prophecies, but finally settled on this one to follow up on:

Tell the king; the fair wrought house has fallen.
No shelter has the Harkenwold, nor sacred laurel leaves;
The fountains are now silent; the voice is stilled.
It is finished.

They would head for Harkenwold, figure out what was going on there, and try to figure out the meaning of it all.

The first order of business? Horses. They’d need them to make any kind of time to Harkenwold. So while Sered the mage and Berend the warpriest went to the temple of Moradin to ask for resources for horses, Aelar the ranger, Regdar the avenger and Heskan the rogue decided to go steal some horses in the dead of night.

Rolling with it, I set up a quick skill challenge. They would need five successes before three failures.

First, the avenger decided to play lookout. He rolled well on his Perception, so I allowed the next player to roll at a +2. Then, the rogue screwed up his Thievery check to pick the lock on the barn. Once they finally got in, the Avenger decided to run in, grab a horse, and flee. Automatic failure of the skill challenge.

The other two players were left standing at the door, when the stablemaster appeared. They were able to convince him that they didn’t know the Avenger, and agreed to go after him. “I’ll come with you!” the stablemaster said. Not what they were expecting.

The table broke into laughter. It was the first time they truly realized that yes, they could do whatever they wanted, but yes, there would be consequences. They fled out of the city into the countryside, before finally catching up to Regdar. Aelar, the ranger, fired off a shot, knocking Regdar off the horse. Regdar fled into the forest, leaving the horse behind.

“The stablemaster is so greatful to us for rescuing the horse, he gives us the two we’re riding!” Emmanuel said triumphantly. I was encouraged that the players were actually trying to come up with storyline on their own, so I let him roll for it. A successful Diplomacy, and they had two horses. After the stablemaster headed back, Regdar stepped back out of the woods. Soon, Berend and Sered showed up, having successfully negotiated to get five horses for the party, all without trying to rob a poor stablemaster.

Now the players had seven horses, and are headed to Harkenwold.

The players had a blast during the session, and I think it finally bonded the group cohesively. They’re now really, really excited about the game, and can’t wait for the next session.

On Friday, I was down three players, so the other two players came over to smash each other up.

Both PCs are 1st level, so the battles didn’t take long. I used the Korriban map from the Star Wars miniatures game for the battlefield, as it looks like an ancient necropolis.

On one side, Regdar Loyalar, Half-Elf Avenger of the Raven Queen. On the other side, Aelar Sunseeker, Elf Ranger of the Harkenwold.

The first battle moved quickly, with Regdar trying to get in close, while Aelar sent his Wolf animal companion on ahead, preferring to stand back and use his arrows from a distance. It didn’t take Regdar long to get mowed down in a hail of arrows.

Battle Two: We played the short-ways on the table, so that they were a lot closer together, hoping it would help minimize Aelar’s ranged-attack advantages. No such luck. Again, Regdar was mowed down.

Finally, I made a decision: No ranged weapons. Aelar was just as good with a pair of swords as he was with a bow, so the two moved in on each other. Before Aelar could strike a blow, Regdar used his Wings of Light Daily power, and with one swing, killed Aelar outright.

The verdict? While Aelar may be the master of ranged combat, he’d better keep out of Regdar’s range if they end up in a fight.

I think it definitely got the “I want to kill the other players!” out of their system. And I’m glad it didn’t take them actually killing each other in-campaign for it to happen.

Last Friday’s game of The Godfell Stone went even better than the first. Emmanuel was going to show up late, so we decided to start without him, having his character following with the group.

It’s been a common joke now, even after only two weeks, that the wolf (dubbed “the dog”) should be sent ahead of everyone to its death. Since he wasn’t there, Emmanuel’s “dog” was sent ahead with a lantern hanging in his mouth to scout out the dark, dank catacombs.

They soon found themselves in a room covered in spider webs. Randomly, Larry, playing the Avenger, decided to throw his dagger into the webs, hoping to hit something. It stuck, suspended in the air.

While some of the characters hacked at the webbing to move forward, others used their torches to burn it away, and Bridget, playing the Mage, used Mage Hand to push it away.

The spiders attack!

A voice whispered to them, echoing through the room, “Our Dark Mistress sends her regards…” And the Campaign Book came into play! Kody quickly searched through the book, and announced “It’s Lolth! She’s the Dark Mistress!” He read the entry on her, speaking of her as the Queen of the Demonweb Pits, and mistress of spiders. He then asked if they were in the Demonweb Pits now. I chuckled. “No. The Demonweb Pits are far, far more dangerous.”

The continued to hack forward, until they saw ahead a large platform with a well on top. The platform was free of webs, and as they approached it, spiders began spilling out. All around them, enormous spiders dropped from the ceiling, surrounding them.

Quickly, the players tried to dispatch the smaller ones, discovering for the first time, what Minions are. They rejoiced when the four of them were killed, but dispaired when more poured from the well. They fought back at the two larger ones, desperately trying to keep them at bay.

The spiders had an at-will bite attack that does ongoing poison damage, which caused some panic in the players.

The rogue tries to close the well.

They finally dispatched the larger beasts, and the Rogue asked to make an Insight check as to how to stop the smaller spiders from the well. I lifted up one of the wood planks next to the well, and he got an idea.

The Rogue leapt and tumbled, getting to the well, and surrounded by spiders biting at him. He grabbed hold of one of the planks and covered the well. Bridget counted squares, and discovered her Mage Hand had the range, so she deployed that and covered the other side of the well. The threat was over.

They picked their way through the webbing, until they found themselves in front of a large wooden door. As the Rogue was about to open it, Daniel and Bridget, both experienced players, shouted “STOP!” They then made the Rogue check for traps. He found one, apparently set up from the other side of the door, recently installed and crudely made. The Rogue easily disabled it, and they moved in.

Within, they found a room bathed in a soothing light. In front of them were to dishes on pedastals. One contained a glowing red liquid, while the other contained a blue liquid. Between the two pedastals was a stairway up about five feet, to a large platform ringed with six statues, and a large sarcophagus. They felt a calm come over them.

“Come, drink,” a voice said, “be free of your worries.”

I told them that the two liquids were a healing potion and a draught of luck. They could empty their waterskins and fill them with either one or the other, their choice. The waterskin could hold two doses. The healing potion grants them use of a healing surge, while the draught of luck will allow for a reroll.

The room, as each steps in front of a statue.

They made their choices, then stepped up onto the platform. They each found themselves drawn to a different statue. The forms were worn with age, barely distinguishable. On one side appeared to be identical statues of an old man, while on the other side were statues that appeared to be a dragon. Each one, however, had a distinct accessory that stood out. The Avenger was drawn to the statue with a cloak, the Ranger a bow, the Rogue bracers, the Cleric a holy symbol, and the Mage a staff.

When they reached for the stone items, they changed from stone to their natural form. “A gift,” the voice in the room said, “from the old Heroes of the Godfell Stone to the new.” I still haven’t revealed to the players what the items do.

They then were trying to figure out where to go from there, when the voice whispered, “The way will be clear when Sun follows Sire.”

They once again dug through their books, and were able to discover that Pelor was the god of the sun, but couldn’t figure out the “sire” reference. With a successful Insight, I revealed that Bahamut was the god of good dragons. They realized the statue of the old man was Pelor, and the statue of the dragon was Bahamut, and decided to push the statues around, so they were in a patern of Bahamut-Pelor-Bahamut-Pelor-Bahamut-Pelor, and a staircase appeared behind the pedastal.

They moved down the staircase, and found themselves in a cave. Ahead, a waterfall roared. when they stepped through it, they found themselves in the mountains, the Skytop Monastery behind and above them in the distance, a dark shadow having fallen over it.

Remembering they planned on going to the temple of Ioun in Hammerfast to seek out more information, they set out on their way.

And that ended it! The session was fantastic, with everyone much more relaxed and enjoying themselves now that they know the rules. It was a good time.

Last night we began the Godfell Stone campaign. I think it went fantastically. We had three brand new players, who had never touched a polyhedral before, and Bridget and Daniel, who are veterans. I placed them at the table so that the new players had access to the veterans easily.

We got started a little late (9:30), since one of the guys had to wait for his wife to get off work, so we only had an hour and a half to play.

I did a lot of prep for this session. A lot. But I think it payed off, in the end. The players all looked forward to reading their campaign guides, and they loved seeing their painted miniatures on the battlefield. I had everyone’s cards cut up, placed in sleeves, and separated by type.

I began by reading the campaign introduction, which the players listened to carefully, making mention back to it throughout the session.  I explained they were a band of adventurers, brought to the monastery to investigate the disappearance of the stone. Daniel, one of the vets, playing Berend, Dwarven Warpriest, suggested they all roll skills. Starting to the left, they all individually looked at their lists, and discovered that the magical barriers in the building had not been breached, suggesting that it was an inside job, the room was immaculately clean, and the abbot of the monastery told them that they recieve new priests every ten years from the priests of Ioun in Hammerfast.

The party meets Father Tycho, abbot of the Skytop Monastery.

Let’s talk about the abbot for a second. On one side of  the table, we had Daniel and Emmanuel, the Warpriest an the Elf Ranger, respectively, who took the game fairly seriously (as we’ll see later), as did Bridget (Deva Mage) who sat at the opposite end of the table. On the other side of the table sat Kody and Larry, the Dragonborn Rogue and half-Elf Avenger. Oh, Kody and Larry.

They were certain that the abbot was in on it, and wanted to kill the 90-year-old man, trying to convince the others to kill him. They are the two wise-crackers of the group, and had a blast, I think. Larry also decided he didn’t like Emmanuel’s Wolf animal companion, an devised ways to kill it. I imagine the two characters are going to find themselves in conflict quite a bit.

As they began their investigation, two specters rose from the ground. “Give us the Stone!” they shrieked. The abbot dropped to his knees, in horror. The ghosts moved in on the abbot, spectral swords raised. The heroes moved to react.

The heroes battle the monastery spirits.

At this point, Initiative was explained, they rolled, and began. After a round of explaining their powers, and them making a few attacks, the abbot ran to one side of  the room, and crouched down. Suspicious, the Half-Elf Avenger ran to his side to see what he was doing. Had he not double-moved, he would have killed the abbot, I think. As the heroes battled the ghosts, the abbot pried up a slab in the floor, revealing a staircase. “Quickly!” he shouted, “This way!”

Seeing that their weapons were having little effect, the Mage, Rogue and Avenger decided to run for it. The Warpriest and Ranger decided to stick it out and take down the spirits. Utilizing surprising tactics, they actually managed to destroy the ghosts, leaving only their armor behind. They breathed a sigh of relief, before more spectres appeared.

While the others fled for the stairs, the Warpriest and Ranger (with his wolf), fought on, bloodying the ghosts. The green token near the Ranger is his Hunter's Quarry.

Deciding to cut their losses and run, the Ranger and Warpriest fled to the stairs. The abbot told the Warpriest, “You are descending into the catacombs. perhaps there is something down there you can use.” With that, he pulled the slab back over the stairs, leaving them in darkness. The heroes could hear the scrams of the abbot above them as the ghosts moved in on him.

That marked the end of the session. i thought it went very well. There was a lot of RP, some great combat, and we had some good laughs. I had two encounters planned, but only got through one, so it looks like I won’t have to plan anything for the next session!

Below, I have more photos of the heroes, and the setup I did. Most of the heroes were painted by me. Bridget painted her Deva Mage. Next session, there are even more minis, so look out for those.

Heskan Pentos, Dragonborn Rogue

Berend Tethras, Dwarf Warpriest

Aelar Sunseeker, Elf Ranger

Regdar Loyalar, Half-Elf Avenger

Sered, Deva Mage

The table setup, with the campaign books, card holders, and the first encounter.

On Sunday, I got the chance to play in a one shot with two of the players in my Warhammer Fantasy Game, as well as Patrick Benson from Gnome Stew (though I didn’t know his “credentials” until after the session).

I went over to Ed’s house, about a half-hour drive, and settled down at his table. We’d be playing CthulhuTech.

Now, I own the rulebooks for the game, due to reviewing one of the books in the past, though I haven’t looked over them extensively, so I didn’t know all of the ins and outs of the rules. He had a set of four characters for me to choose from (since I arrived first).

Pendy, with her Tager form, Whisper

I ended up playing a female character named Pendy, codename Angel, who was able to transform into a Tager, a supernatural creature by the name of Whisper. Each of the other characters was playing a Tager as well. The adventure we played was from the CthulhuTech Quick-Start, Head Case. Ed encouraged us to look at the adventure after we had played in it, and he really added a lot more depth to it than the rules themselves state.

We were told of a shipment coming in by boat, a Tager known as Glass, who would be carrying the Orthanich Stone, an item only recently uncovered in Ireland. It was to arrive in the Port of Chicago, and we were to escort the Tager with the stone to Northwestern University where it would be studied by a sorcerer who worked there.

Instead of just arriving at the docks that evening, we did a little recon earlier in the day. My character went to the Port Authority during business hours, and was able to glean the name of the ship, so that we could use that to determine where the crate carrying our cargo would be. After that, we arrived at 9, a whole hour before our rendezvous. The ship had already arrived.

Moving quickly, my character changed into her Tager form, the Whisper, being able to fly, and dropped one of the other Tagers, Lee, off on the ground, before using her thermal vision and x-ray vision to try to see our target inside the crates. Nothing.

She did, however, see movement in the water, before it disappeared.

Diving under the water, and able to use sonar, she found an enormous beastie of a creature, an Elid I believe it was called. A creature whose natural element is the water, she chose to flee, erupting from the water just moments ahead of its snapping jaws.

After some research by the others, we discovered that not only was our contact nowhere to be found, the Chrysalis Corporation, a front for the Children of Chaos, had been tipped off that we’d be here. There was a mole in our midst.

We headed to find our Handler, suspecting she may have been in on it. She owned a nightclub, but when we went there, there was an assassination attempt on her, and as we apprehended the would-be assassin, he was killed by poisoning himself. We knew we needed to immediately find our Lorekeeper, and the sorcerer who would be studying the stone.

At the Lorekeeper’s, we found him dead. We immediately headed over to the sorcerer’s house, where he was being dragged away by members of the Chrysalis Corporation. Running them down, we discovered they were Dhohanoids, similar to Tagers. They changed into their monstrous forms, and we had to take them down, rescuing the sorcerer. We still didn’t have the stone or our contact, however…

That’s where we ended it after 5 hours. The session went really well, with us getting into our characters fairly easily. It was the first time I’ve ever played a female character, which was interesting, though I spent more time in Whisper form than as a female.

Though we didn’t finish the session, according to Ed, there’s only a big final fight. He encouraged us to read the adventure, because, as he told me, next time we’ll run something he comes up with himself.

I really enjoy the system, with the way the d10′s work. You can check out the quick-start guide for more details on the system.

The Altdorf Region, where they've spent the majority of their time. Click to enbiggen. Used without permission from Gitzman's Gallery.

Saturday night, the group finally gathered again. Lots of real life got in the way of actually assembling, and this time, Ed brought along a friend, Alan.

Alan arrived a few minutes before 8:30, and so we sat down and began making his character. He ended up with a Human Thug, armed with a cudgel, and some fairly good stats. Ed was a little late, but it worked out great because Alan wrapped up his character just as Ed arrived. Ed quickly spent his advancement points to change careers from Coachman to Hunter, which seemed to him to fit more into his style.

After the events of last session, Gorni (Dwarf Thief) was really badly injured after the battle with the Orc. They decided they needed to find someplace to hole up and heal, so they set out for Blutroch, a nearby town on the edge of the Reikwald Forest.

Gorni decided to help Kutcher relax a little, and loaded him up on some Bugman’s XXXXXX Ale. Kutcher became highly intoxicated, and took two days to recover, while Gorni simply laughed, unaffected by the strong alcohol.

Gorni, Dwarf Thief (This will be the figure I'll be painting up).

After two night’s rest, and with Gorni still out of sorts, they find the town littered with wanted posters. For both of them. Kutsher, the former coachman, was supposed to deliver Gorni to Altdorf, as you recall. Since he hadn’t checked in, he was assumed to have helped the prisoner escape (which he had).

They quickly packed up, and left town. Gorni told Kutsher that he had a friend in Rechtlich who would be able to help them, a fellow by the name of Johan.

They approached the walled town at midday, but decided to scout around the city to find another way in. There didn’t appear to be any other way in, so they decided to wait for nightfall and enter then, when the shadows were deepest.

The evening brought with it heavy rains. They approached the gate, where a small window opened. The night watch peeked out, and demanded to know why they came to the gate so late. Kutsher began fumbling his way through an answer, until Gorni stepped in. The short thief was not only nimble, he was a fantastic liar. Some good dice rolls got them past the guard and into the town, heading down at the local tavern. They walked in, and Gorni instantly recognized Johan nursing his cup against the bar.

Johan was surprisingly soft spoken, for such a brutish man.

Kutsher, Human Hunter (this is the figure I'll be painting up).

Johan had seen the wanted posters before they arrived unexpectedly, and seemed unsurprised that Gorni sought him out. After a brief moment where Johan mentioned that he could make some good money off the two, he offered to help.

Setting the two up in the attic of the inn, he decided that the next morning, he’d go to the magistrate to set things right.

It was at this point, things went downhill.

Arriving at the magistrate’s, he tried to make the case that the two were innocent, and the postings should be revoked. This, of course, made the magistrate question why it was he was concerned about them, and whether they were already in town. A series of failed Guile checks led the town guard to begin a sweep through the city, looking for the two criminals.

Johan made his way back to the two, where they tried to figure out what to do. Just as they were about to flee the inn, the town guard arrived. Escaping through a window to the roof, Kutsher and Gorni raced across the rooftops, while Johan, being unsuccessful in his rolls, decided to head back inside. He successfully bluffed past the guards, and stepped into the street in order to keep up with the others above.

Johan, Human Thug (this figure is already painted up by Bridget).

Gorni descended into the marketplace in the center of town, disappearing into the crowd, while Kutsher continued on the rooftops. One of the guards saw him, and began firing his crossbow at him, but he avoided the shots, and leapt through the air into the town’s clocktower. From there, he was able to see the city gate, and his only chance for survival.

Gorni worked his way through the crowd, avoiding any guards, while Johan had trouble catching sight of him. Once Gorni exited the main bustle of the marketplace, Johan spotted him right away.

Kutsher jumped out of the window of the clocktower, and landed on another rooftop, to find himself face to face with a large, burly guard. Without thinking, Kutsher raised his crossbow, and fired an Immobilizing Shot (an action card Ed is fond of). The bolt struck true, burying itself into the guard’s leg. Kutsher leapt from the roof into the street, where he encountered Gorni and Johan. The city gate was ahead, and the guard behind, they ran towards the gate, where a guard stood watch. Gorni swept his leg out, knocking the guard down, and the fled into the Reikwald Forest.

After a few hours of pursuit, they finally found a cave to hide in, and plan their next move. They were now all wanted men…

And that’s where we ended it. They were really eager to continue on, but I had been up very, very early to go up to Wisconsin to take photos of the Wisconsin Marathon, so we wrapped it up there.

I think they all had a really good time, and I like where they’re taking their characters. I was also happy to incorporate another player into the group without the standard “Suddenly, another character is with you on the road.”

From what the players are saying, Greg is looking to send Gorni into a life of a Troll Slayer, while Ed is interested in Kutcher becoming a Witch Hunter, so I’ll have to figure out how they can transition into those careers soon.

There’s a guy at work, Emmanuel, who came up to my desk one day and asked about my Captain America statue. He’s got a thick Puerto Rican accent, that, after you spend a few minutes talking to him, you are able to fully ignore and understand him. He hadn’t spoken to me much before this, but he was wondering if I was into comics.

Before I knew it, I was loaning him the Wolverine Origin graphic novel, as well as the Marvel Civil War.

Finally, I decided to broach the subject of gaming.

I told him about Heroclix, and he seemed genuinely interested. We talked about him coming over (he only lives a couple of minutes from me), and finally, after three weeks of talking, he came over on Wednesday night.

I gave him a tour, including showing him my shelf of RPGs. He was very interested in giving it a try.

We sat down for the game. I had pulled out my Streets of Mayhem board from World Works Games, which I glued pieced of it onto a piece of foamcore board. I actually have two pieces which go side-by-side, but with a small game, we just played with the one board.

He chose to go with an X-Men team consisting of Weapon X (Wolverine just after escaping from the experiment), Beast, Dazzler and two Shadowcats.

I went with the Young Avengers, so chose Hawkeye, Patriot, Stature, Iron Lad, and a cop to fill out the ranks.

The game progressed pretty quickly. He picked up the rules really quick, and we both fell into a very specific pattern of rolling. Nearly every time I rolled to hit, I’d roll doubles, causing knockback, but every time he had a roll that could save him from damage, he’d make it! There were a few rounds, back-to-back where I’d hit with doubles, knocking him back, only to have him roll a 6 on a needed roll of 5 or 6.

Stature, the giant you see in the image, picked up a lamppost, and began marching around swinging it. He didn’t like seeing the huge model with a big piece of metal, so he spent a lot of time trying to knock her down, but she took very little damage in the fight.

It was a close match, but in the end, I won.

He had a great time, and wants to build a Brotherhood of Mutants team. I think we’ll be getting together again soon.

Okay, let’s get back on the blogging horse…

On Saturday night, I was able to gather the group together for our first session of Warhammer Fantasy. A couple of weeks ago, they sat down and made characters: a Human Coachman, a Dwarf Thief, and a Dwarf Watchman.

Yes, only three players. We’ve had some serious attrition, leaving only myself, Bridget, and two others. Bridget will be playing the male Dwarf Watchman.

Saturday morning, Bridget and I headed over to the FLGS, Unique Gifts & Games, and picked up three miniatures. I’m sad to say they weren’t Warhammer minis, as the price on those is… well, let’s say limiting. Also, no Dwarf Thief figures. So we picked up some Reaper Figures, two from their Warlord line, and another from their Dark Heaven.

Ed showed up a little early and we talked about Eclipse Phase and other things until Greg arrived. Bridget came down with a brutal headache in the afternoon, so she sat out. So we had two characters, the coachman and the thief. I read the following flavor text to the players to kick off the game:

The great Twin-Tailed Comet, a portent tied to both Sigmar and the Empire, has been seen in the sky. To some, it is a sign of hope. To others, the harbinger of doom. Tensions rise, as the effects of a ruthless winter and poor harvests are felt across the Empire. Villages and farms find it harder than ever to scrape by, and supplies for the Empire’s constant war efforts dwindle ever lower.

Can these brave few fulfill their destinies as Fate’s champions in this, the Empire’s time of greatest need?

The session began as I placed the Old Dirt Road and Forest Glade cards on the table, placing the two of them on the Old Dirt Road.

I said “You are travelling along the road towards Altdorf, capital of the Empire. Kutsher (the coachman) has been paid a silver shilling to take Gorni (the thief) to the capital to face the Emperor’s justice. Gorni, you are tied up, behind bars in the back of the coach.”

And that’s how it began. I let Greg decide what it was his character was wanted for, and the two had a bit of dialogue as the dwarf demanded he be let free.

Coming around a bend in the road, they came upon a merchant coach stopped in the road. On top of it, a goblin was throwing the trunks and boxes to the ground as a large, armored Orc attacked the coach’s driver. Other goblins milled about, picking through the trunks and throwing clothing about looking for valuables.

There was a bit of a discussion on whether they could go around or not, but it was a narrow road, and it would delay them by at least three days to find another route to the city.

The dwarf convinced the coachman to let him free so he could help, and they moved in. The dwarf hopped out and moved into the forest to sneak in, while Kutsher road the coach up, and fired his crossbow at the goblin on top of the other vehicle. A perfect hit, and the goblin toppled off, in between the orc and the beset human he was attacking. The orc turned and saw the other coach, bellowing “Get ‘im, boyz!” The goblins sprung into action.

I tried to fix the abstraction rules a little in the fight, by adding in a tic-tac-toe style board. I Google Searched “tic-tac-toe”, and came up with a suitable image, then printed it off at full-size on a piece of paper. The location cards for Warhammer fit perfectly within. To one side of the road was the forest, and to the other, a cliff side. I was hoping there would be some fighting on the cliff, as getting near it and performing actions can actually cause a player to fall to their death. Sadly, this side of the battlefield was mostly ignored.

Kutsher hid behind the coach, firing off his crossbow (which he had both trained and specialized in, giving him two extra dice) at the goblins moving in on him, while the orc continued to attack the man he was fighting. I set up a tracker and moved it every round to represent how badly the orc was beating the man. Within five turns, the NPC coachman would be dead.

It turns out, my players are kind of ruthless, and didn’t really care about the man, and used the tracker to let them know how long they had before they were going to need to deal with the orc.

The dwarf began fighting the goblins in the forest, where he attempted to climb a tree, and discovered why it is that dwarves aren’t forest-dwelling folk. His failure drew their attention, and he actually ended up taking on four of the buggers, taking some heavy wounds.

Kutsher moved into the forest, coming at the goblins from behind. Between the two of them, they were taken down quickly. Then, they heard the bellow of the orc. He had finished off the coachman, and was on his way to them…

Lumbering through the forest, the two prepared for his assault. The dwarf hid behind a tree, while the coachman prepared his blunderbuss.

The orc emerged, eight feet tall, and carrying an enormous choppa; not so much a sword, as a very large slab of metal. Rain began to fall hard, obscuring all of their vision. What followed was a long-winded fight. Using his sword, blunderbuss and crossbow, Kutsher attempted to keep his distance, while Gorni would move in, attack, and fall back. The orc got some heavy swings in, nickingKutsher and wounding Gorni even worse. Wearing the orc down, they decided to run.Kutsher loaded his crossbow and fired an immobilizing shot, hoping to pin the orc to a tree so they could run. There was no need. The orc had only one wound left, and the arrow sank into his eye, dropping him.

The last few goblins who were trying to break open the coach panicked and fled. Moving towards the coach, they heard whimpering within. They knocked on the door, and were greeted by a pig-faced man peeking out of the curtains. He was irate, and certain the two had killed his coachman. He told them he was a very important merchant from Marienburg, and very soon, a search would begin for him. While Kutsher spoke to him, trying to convince him they weren’t the ones who attacked him, Gorni found a locked chest dumped from the wagon, and picked the lock. Within, he found an elaborate dwarven horn. The merchant saw him with the chest, and began demanding the thief give it back, saying they’d both be prosecuted if he had anything to say about it.

Ed didn’t much like the idea of this merchant, having seen them, deciding they were criminals. “There’s a cliff off to one side of the road, right?” he asked me.

“Yeah,” I said.

“I smack the horses’ rumps, hard. I want to send the merchant over the cliff.”

I was speechless…

“Okay…” I finally said. “You can hear his screams all the way down to the bottom of the cliff.”

I honestly was not expecting that at all…

And that’s where we ended the session. I gave two XP to them for their first session. Ed decided that coachman may not be the job for him, and has actually found a couple of careers he can get for only two advances, including gambler, bounty hunter and hunter. He knows he’ll be in trouble with the law now that he’s not delivering a wanted criminal to them.

Greg is looking at the Slayer, but it’ll be a couple more sessions before he’s allowed to make the switch.

I’m really looking forward to seeing what these guys end up doing with their characters and where they’ll go.

On Friday or Saturday, we’ll be getting together again, when Bridget’s character will be introduced, the Dwarf Watchman. We’ll see how she fits into the story.

It was a great first session that really got everyone’s juices flowing and taught them the basics of the system, as well as how tough and brutal the world is.