Thursday Knights

The party rested in their rather spartan chambers within the Silver Flame temple complex and awoke to a bland breakfast. They each had personal business to attend throughout the morning on into early afternoon.

Ennark left half of his breakfast uneaten and excused himself. He needed more palatable food and found his way to one of the higher class establishments in the city. Upon his return, satisfied by the taste of a better meal, he met with the high priest to begin preparations for the divinations.

The party gathered and determined the questions they would ask. While the questions were fairly well constructed to limit confusion, the answers were anything other than concise. They were able to determine that the missing wizard was, at least for now, on Sorrowdusk Isle. They also ascertained that it was likely the snake people that had him and they wanted his help figuring out how their magic box worked.

Revealing this to a House the wizard was associated with gained the party supplies and passage on a small ship. 

Approaching the island they encountered a slaver ship which caught up and the snake people crew attempted boarding. With effort they defeated the snake people and began looting. There was no way the party was going to get attacked and not get paid.

Below decks were two groups of people, all of them chained up. It's a good thing Ennark opted not to burn the slave ship to the waterline. Freeing the slaves, the party managed to keep the two groups from setting upon one another as the larger group intended to murder the smaller group for taking them as slaves. It turns out the snake people captured the ship and were also going to enslave the slavers. Eventually Ennark sorted things out and only the captain and first mate of the slaver crew proved to be offending persons, and were handed over to the larger group for justice.

Meanwhile Lord Anton had used his bag of holding to loot a significant amount of treasure from the captain's quarters leaving a bunch of empty chests, much to chagrin of the crew of the small vessel they had arrived on. The snake people had a small amount of coinage and some magic items.

Later, the party took a rowboat and made their way to shore. Hiding in the jungle they scouted nearby docks where more snake people were loading another ship and preparing to leave the island. There was no sign of the wizard.

The magical locator compass indicated that the ring the wizard had been wearing when kidnapped was somewhere deeper inland so they set out to close the distance before nightfall.

The Pile of Shame

Among the miniature painting community I have seen the phrase pile of shame referring to an accumulation of as yet unpainted miniature figures. It's a pile that grows as more unpainted figures are purchased despite not having completed painting the already owned figures. I now have a growing pile of shame.

I decided in the fall of 2021 that despite the physical ailments and obstacles I have, that I would throw myself into painting minis to use in my campaign. Sure, there are tons of pre-painted minis available and I have been buying a bunch to use as well, but sometimes what you want to represent isn't available pre-painted. So far I have completed zero.

I am afflicted by Essential Tremors which kicks in mostly when I try to do detailed work with my hands. As if that isn't enough of a problem when it comes to painting miniatures, I also have Tardive Dyskinesia brought on as a permanent side-effect of taking a certain anti-depressant. The shaking from one set of tremors gets highly amplified by the other. You should see me try to chop veggies up for stir-fry, it's terrifying waiting to see who'll get maimed.

As the process was getting started and some terrain was being completed, Dwarven Forge and stuff from 3d printers, a couple of minis started getting paint thrown on them. First I repainted a few of the pre-painted minis to help build some positive encouragement and then started on three Reaper minis to represent opposition for the characters in my game. That's when  disaster struck.

I also have Diabetic Retinopathy and it hit me hard. I had sudden severe hemorrhaging in the left eye and some small amount in the right eye. I couldn't see well enough to do anything detailed or to even trust myself driving a car. This was a major emergency since without taking immediate action I could easily have gone blind, and definitely would within three years.

Well, an invasive eye surgery and laser surgery on my retinas, as well as medicine delivered by needles into both eyes, and I can see again. Painting has resumed and is proceeding slowly as I build back the enthusiasm I had prior to the vision problem.

There is a to-do list of specific miniatures and terrain for an adventure I want to run sometime in the not too distant future. It includes three people, a dog, another creature, and a bunch of terrain. The terrain will come after the people and critters since even if not completely painted, the terrain will still be fine for my purposes. No expectation exists that the paint jobs will be anything special, but good enough for the table would make me happy.

Will the pile of shame be diminished? Not by much, but at least the effort is underway.

Damn Spam Scammers

I'm looking for a way to permanently ban spamming scam artists that put up their trash comments on blog posts. There doesn't appear to be a block list feature which is unfortunate. If anyone knows of a method for targeting specific abusers please let me know.

You'd think these ass-clowns would find someplace with a lot of traffic to ply their trade instead of some barely alive back-water blog like this one. This blog barely gets any traffic so where's the profit to be found by dumping spam links into comments of posts with very few lifetime views?

It's possible that the offending commenter is actually an automated bot spider randomly searching for places to lay its eggs, but you'd think the programmers would design them to find areas of high traffic. Nope, they chose to waste my time by requiring me to go in and delete their shit comments.

The Legend of Vox Machina

I just finished binge-watching The Legend of Vox Machina on Prime. This thing was very well done and managed to have me hanging in there for every detail. The story is engaging and the characters vibrant. 

For those who have not yet seen the program I will not be posting any spoilers here. 

This animated series was the result of an incredibly successful Kickstarter campaign with the fans of this amazingly popular streaming franchise putting up millions of dollars to make this a reality. 

Not for children. Depictions of adult situations and a plethora of curse words fill the episodes with the first episode kicking off quickly with some animated nudity.

While the combat doesn't match the rules and play of D&D strictly, that is fine since we're watching for the story and not to learn the rules of the game.

Fans of Critical Role will have likely been aware of this for quite some time, but newcomers and those not in-the-know may find this to be a welcome surprise. Knowledge of the Critical Role streaming (and on Youtube) series is not at all required for enjoyment of the Vox Machina animated show, but if you've watched the CR program long enough you can just about picture the actors as they played the situations out in real time.

The party members are the usual cast from Critical Role: Marisha Ray, Ashley Johnson, Laura Bailey, Liam O'Brien, Taliesin Jaffe, Sam Riegel, and Travis Willingham. Matt Mercer voices a villain and you'll have to watch since I won't be naming the character here. This thing was packed with additional famous names including the likes of Doctor Who's David Tennant and Firefly's Gina Torres (there are so many great actors involved, too many to list).

The cast must have been having an absolute blast reprising their in-game characters in this animated retelling of some of their adventures. Sam Riegel's portrayal of the scandalous gnome Scanlan had me laughing frequently.

Recommendation: Do yourself a favor and make sure you watch this, you won't regret the time spent.

Drive-thru RPG mis-print. UPDATE: Customer service has emailed me.

I just received my order of The Secret of Bone Hill, print version from Drive-thru RPG and it is an annoying mess. Also printed inside the cover are 62 pages of other products, something called Home is the Hangman for some Western RPG, and two identical copies of something called Occult Pack which appears to be for Mork Borg or similar games. 

I didn't order those and frankly do not want them taking up space, making it a pain in the ass to get to what I want if I was to run the scenario. Who needs 62 pages of unrelated shit to flip past? I also ordered the .pdf version and it didn't come with extraneous bullshit so this is an obvious mis-print.

Notification to DTRPG has been completed and now the wait for a correct copy begins.

Yes, I'm not in a great mood today, how'd you guess?

Customer service has submitted a new print order to correct for the problem. That was fast! Thanks DTRPG!

Campaign Diary - A Familiar Robber in the Night

 Location: The ruins of Thistleblack a long abandoned town with a strange nature. Below the ruins are a dungeon with crypts and a time twisted magical library.

Party in play: 

Rae - Elf. Fighter 1/ Wizard 4.  One of the original members of the party that originated in the town of Little Plains. She is somewhat of a strategist and creative tactician always looking for an edge when the situation gets dicey.

Wulfe - Elf. Fighter 1/ Wizard 4. Originally from a small town north of Ptolus near the Moonsilver Forest, he wandered westward to satisfy his curiosity about the frontier areas of the empire. Joining the group early in their adventuring career he has been a steadfast companion and effective in any dangerous situation. He wields Cheval, a Faery forged longsword known for occasional bursts of radiant energy.

Korved - Human. Cleric 4. An itinerant priest, he arrived in Little Plains hoping to come to grips with his recent experiences. He had joined the Gaen faith at a young age and over time found his thinking more in line with her masculine aspect Hannan. The non-violent and amicable split in the church was his signal to explore the world.

Sparky - Human. Fighter 4. She's a force to be reckoned with in a toe to toe fight. Recent life as a sword for hire had led to some less than respectable jobs and little in the way of pay. Joining an adventuring group seemed a wise choice.

Celestia - Elf. Fighter 1/ Wizard 2. A bold and confident adventurer, she puts forward an unfearful countenance. A recent addition to the group Celestia is making herself at home as if she were there all along despite lacking the experience of the other members.

Jill - Human. Fighter 3. A sell sword by trade, she has recently been down on her luck and in need of work. Hired to deliver a bag of coins to this group she ended up joining as a means of escaping from the butt end of the empire. Capable with sword and bow Jill is a good fit for the team.

It was close to dusk when the party realized they were nearing the ancient ruins of Thistleblack. Having departed Slune in a hurry two weeks ago they neglected to restock their rations. Tired and hungry they debated camping on the plains or making for the ruins and risking the dangers therein. The decision was made. If need be they might be able to eat something they could hunt in the ruins. To Thistleblack.

Rae and Wulfe had been here twice before and on both occasions found reasons not to remain. Beneath one wrecked building was a passage leading down into an odd set of halls and rooms. Deeper in was a crypt with some active undead guardians that they had chosen to avoid. On their second trip they discovered a library far below, accessed from a crumbling tower, that was time-twisted and magically imbued. Both occasions were disconcerting and they anticipated this time would be no different.

Entering the ruins they noted the eerie quiet, no sounds, not even wind disturbed the scene. Rae pointed out that the expected creatures, giant ticks, giant beetles, giant lizards and even flying dinosaurs all seemed absent. 

They chose to use the roofless wrecked building as their defensible campsite. Bringing the horses inside with them they then parked the wagons to block one entrance and built their camp fire just beyond the other. They set watch and proceeded to get some rest.

Just past midnight, early into second watch Celestia's keen hearing alerted her to the nearby arrival of something large flying in and landing in the direction of the crumbling tower. Jill, also on watch seemed fully absorbed in staring at the crackling campfire and missed this happening completely. Celestia made Jill aware of the possible visitor, but opted not to trouble the others as so far there was no definite threat. 

After a time a voice broke the silence of her mind, but Celestia noted she could not hear it with her ears. "Isn't this interesting, I know one of you elves."

Speaking out loud she replied to the inner voice. "Who are you and who do you know?"

"She sleeps so soundly, do not disturb her. Elves do not normally sleep." Celestia knew the voice meant Rae.

The odd conversation continued without revealing the identity of the speaker. Jill hearing only one part of the discussion finally asked, "Who are you talking to?" Having Celestia explain it was a voice in her head did nothing to ease Jill's concern.

Eventually Celestia's own concern grew enough that she quietly roused all of her companions and whispered to Rae the generalities of the conversation. That is when the voice was heard by Rae. "I know you." This time it was only Rae hearing the internal voice to which she was replying out loud. 

"Since we last met my tastes have become more extravagant. You and your friends will give me all of your gold."

"Shit" Rae knew it was the dragon that had slain half of the party early in their adventuring career when some of them objected to paying 400 silver to be left unharmed. She quietly informed everyone of their predicament and they agreed to pay the dragon.

Korved now as puzzled as Jill, looked around for anyone or anything hidden nearby, spotting nothing in the dimness. The the voice spoke to him. "One of you will bring me all of the gold you possess. Just one of you. It will be brought to the back of the tower."

Korved objected, insisting they see who they were talking with and that they put the gold out beyond the campfire in exchange for the dragon ensuring their safety until morning. Rae also chimed in to reinforce the safety request.

They gathered their limited gold into a single bag. Whispered debate included the idea of maybe slipping the Crystal of Calling in with it hoping to plague the dragon with constant visits by undead. This was decided against and instead they only prepared the gold.

This time an audible throaty voice answered back with the request and instructions for where to deliver the gold. "And one of your horses."

A whispered debate began between the party about this new condition. While the others were distracted by their debate, Celestia took the bag of gold and led their older gray work horse out. She had come close to the tower before they realized what she was doing.

She returned unharmed. 

Following shortly was the sound of beating wings and the terrified death screams of the old gray horse. It was all they could do to keep the remaining horses from complete panic. The dragon didn't stop to eat, instead returning to its roost atop the tower, shrouded from view in the darkness. Satisfied for the moment the dragon agreed to their safety till morning. 

They had no idea how big their tormentor and robber might be aside from Rae's knowledge that on last meeting it was a wyrmling and inexperienced.

Accepting their predicament the party decided to return to the watch schedule so some of them could attempt to rest. This time the elves chose to go into a trance state instead of a full sleep. The humans would have to take their rest as they could manage.

Dawn arrived and the party began preparing to travel, but not without some trepidation. They could now catch a glimpse of the wyrmling and it was about twice the size Rae remembered. 

Seeing that they were awake and active the yellow dragon decided to show itself in full glory so they would appreciate its benevolence. Flying to above their campfire it hovered, fanning the flames higher with the beat of its wings. There in full view was a yellow dragon wyrmling the size of a large man with wings even wider that its main body was tall.

"I am Vitrixis."

The party had planned for this in whispered conversation as they were bedding down and now proposed another deal with Vitrixis.

Korved spoke up. "We have another deal to offer you. We are travelling first to our town of Little Plains and then onward to Ptolus in the east. If you will protect us on our journey we will pay you 1,000 gold pieces when we arrive."

"Have you withheld gold?! Pay it now!"

It is in our vault in Ptolus. We don't have the gold on us only the key. Consider what we have already paid you a down payment."

"Your journey will take six of your weeks or more. My time is more valuable than your small offer and what you have already paid is but a drop. Give me the key, I will claim your vault as mine."

Korved again spoke up. "You would have trouble in a city the size of Ptolus being an animal."

Vitrixis cut him off, "An ANIMAL?! It is YOU  that are animals to be eaten or spared as dragons see fit."

Rae knew she needed to speak up and attempt to defuse the growing tension. "A dragon would encounter resistance in the city. How would you get to and from the vault safely? We could help you."

"YOU KNOW NOTHING OF DRAGONS! YOU ARE FOOLS! (I got to raise my voice for this part of the role-playing. It was fun booming this out.)

Vitrixis grew angrier seeing that these lesser, unworthy beings did not appear to be cowed by his display. He breathed a gout of blazing hot sand onto the two closest below him. Korved took the worst of it collapsing into unconsciousness with burns to his exposed flesh. Jill was also burned, but had avoided the severity that took Korved down.

Wulfe didn't hesitate, firing off a heightened burst of Magic Missiles. Sparky, Jill and Celestia pelted the dragon with arrows, some of them striking home. 

This was not the plan. Vitrixis now gambled that they had been lucky. "GIVE ME THE KEY!"

The answer was not to his liking. More spells and arrows were loosed and the wyrmling was gravely hurt. Rae thought he might hear her thoughts and without voicing it told the dragon to back off. Deciding his life was presently worth more than his pride Vitrixis darted away at speed as the party behind him readied to send a coordinated volley should he return.

After the dragon was out of sight Wulfe tended to the stricken Korved. He stabilized his companion who soon awakened and was able to cast curative magics on himself and Jill.

Still starving, discussion ensued as to what could be done about food. Hunting would take time, but Korved had another idea. "Cut a bunch of meat off of the dead horse. I can purify it and we can cook it. We can then take it with us and get out of here."

Their cooking done the party split the two remaining horses to pull both wagons and they began to put some distance between them, the dragon, and Thistleblack.

Meanwhile deep below the dead had been stirring. At first it was the active guardians. Now the ancient dead were emerging from their long rest. The processional through the crypts, hallways and rooms of the dungeon below the ruins made its way upward. The calling had been heard and they would follow.

Thursday Knights

 I'm part of a D&D game played over Roll20 on occasional Thursday evenings. We're currently adventuring in the Eberron: Rising From the Last War setting. The Eberron setting is not really that appealing to me, but the group and DM are great fun. I know half of the other participants personally and have gamed with them for a long time. I'm having fun trying to figure out where the story is heading. As I type this it is an hour before start time of another session.

Let me tell you about my character (insert eye roll emoji here).

Ennark is a level 4 cleric of the Silver Flame, Light Domain. He is the party's primary healer, although a couple of other characters contribute to the magical healing routine. 

The Light Domain gives the cleric access to various fire and light spells as the character advances including eventually accessing FIREBALL! Unlike an Evocation wizard the cleric cannot sculpt the spell to avoid torching party members in the area of effect. 

Ennark was a bit spoiled before getting sent off to an adventuring career. He was used to the finer things that come with being around the central church environs and attending to some ranking officials. Someone higher up decided that Ennark should go off in search of relics and artifacts that could be of relevance to the church. 

The adventuring life so far has been filthy and all-to-violent.

His arrival on the continent was frightening. He was immediately set upon by four members of a criminal gang intent on throwing him off the docks to drown in the harbor. Fortunately 5 other fairly new arrivals stepped in to defend him.

Two of the thugs were slain by the party in an act of self defense. This did not solve the problem. Later the party discovered there was a hefty price on their heads offered by the gang known as the Bilge Rats. 

After some communication a meeting was arranged with a neutral adjudicator so negotiations could allow both groups to avoid violence and for the Bilge Rats to get paid off and save face.

I really enjoyed the role play of the negotiation and some verbal sparring that session. I rarely get to do that as a player and it was nice for that side of the character to be involved.

Other adventures have been had. A magical box was recovered from lizardmen, kobolds etc. Snake people ambushed the party trying to get the box. We got paid for that recovery and it was from that money that we paid off the Bilge Rats.

We also owed the Rats a favor as part of buying them off. They called it in quickly and down into the sewers we went. 

Some of their members had been butchered and all they knew was one word - claws - spoken by a dying man. Zombies were encountered, we rescued a missing party member from some Bilge Rat members that apparently had not received the hands off memo, we met more zombies including an undead ogre, and we also got chopped up pretty bad by a War Forged assailant with razor sharp claws on its hands. 

The war forged and his companions had more urgent business and because of that we survived. We discovered more dead victims of Razor as we discovered he was called. There was a portal device down in the adjacent cave system that they had sabotaged and it eventually exploded. We got away from that as well.

We followed the war forged whose group had grown to nearly 20 members and along the way got ambushed by a wyvern that tried to fly off with a party member. It figured out it needed to hunt easier prey and flew off.

At the shoreline we discovered that it wasn't just war forged we were dealing with, but an equally large group of snake people. We observed from hiding as they swapped another magical box for a book of some importance and both groups went their own ways. We then returned to the city to report some of what happened.

The Rats put on a demonstration of what they do to members that break agreements by having one of the goons that kidnapped our fellow adventurer eaten alive by giant rats. Then they heard our report and actually paid us handsomely while trying to get us to work for them. We politely left our options open after that demonstration.

A powerful wizard went missing and we got tasked with finding him. We're about to have some divinations done to give us better clues. 

And now for a salad and some role playing. Game on!

Campaign Diary - The Streets of Slune, Two odd Encounters

 Location: Slune

Time: Early morning.

Party in play: 

Rae - Elf. Fighter 1/ Wizard 4.  One of the original members of the party that originated in the town of Little Plains. She is somewhat of a strategist and creative tactician always looking for an edge when the situation gets dicey.

Wulfe - Elf. Fighter 1/ Wizard 4. Originally from a small town north of Ptolus near the Moonsilver Forest, he wandered westward to satisfy his curiosity about the frontier areas of the empire. Joining the group early in their adventuring career he has been a steadfast companion and effective in any dangerous situation. He wields Cheval, a Faery forged longsword known for occasional bursts of radiant energy.

Korved - Human. Cleric 4. An itinerant priest, he arrived in Little Plains hoping to come to grips with his recent experiences. He had joined the Gaen faith at a young age and over time found his thinking more in line with her masculine aspect Hannan. The non-violent and amicable split in the church was his signal to explore the world.

Sparky - Human. Fighter 4. She's a force to be reckoned with in a toe to toe fight. Recent life as a sword for hire had led to some less than respectable jobs and little in the way of pay. Joining an adventuring group seemed a wise choice.

Celestia - Elf. Fighter 1/ Wizard 2. A bold and confident adventurer, she puts forward an unfearful countenance. A recent addition to the group Celestia is making herself at home as if she were there all along despite lacking the experience of the other members.

Jill - Human. Fighter 3. A sell sword by trade, she has recently been down on her luck and in need of work. Hired to deliver a bag of coins to this group she ended up joining as a means of escaping from the butt end of the empire. Capable with sword and bow Jill is a good fit for the team.

The bright light streaming through the shutters brought them to full wakefulness. There was no hesitation in their actions and no notice of hunger or inclination to have breakfast. Possessions were gathered, armor donned, gear stowed and off to the stables they went.

Elsewhere in the lower reaches of Slune, Jill had been hired by a man claiming to represent the gnolls that live in the caves southwest of the city. Her task was to find a group of adventurers comprised of elves and humans, and to give them a bag of gold coins. She would be paid by the group according to him. 

Elves were very rare in Slune and Jill had the name of one of them to help locating the correct group. "Find Wulfe and you've found the right group."

It had to be legit, why else would someone just hand you a bag of money and expect you to deliver it to someone else. You could just take off with it yourself. What might the catch be and why was he too lazy to deliver it himself?

Sparky and Wulfe waited below while Rae and Korved rolled the headless corpses off the roof into the waiting wagon below. The loud thumps would surely draw attention so they covered the bodies quickly. 

As they pulled away into the main street Korved tossed the bag containing the two severed heads into the back of the wagon. "Lets get to the gnolls quickly. Maybe for half of what they owe us they'll dispose of these two where they won't be recovered."

They were halfway to the edge of town when Jill spotted them coming. "Hi, are you Wulfe?'

"Who's asking?"

"I'm Jill and I have something for you."

Rae reacted, knocking an arrow to her bow. "What do you want?"

The paranoid and confused exchange continued until they were interrupted by the arrival of a little girl and her three fully armored companions. Little Maru couldn't have been more than 6 or 7 years old. She wore a frilly pink dress, a big red bow in her pigtailed blonde hair, and shiny black shoes with silver buckles. 

"I'm Maru. Master Ayumu sent me to buy your pink crystal. He offers 300 gold for it."

Wulfe split his attention between a confused Jill and this puzzling new arrival. "What pink crystal?"

"Master Ayumu said you have a pink crystal that causes trouble. He says bad things follow you."

Korved took a step forward. "We don't have a pink crystal." He looked back and then again at Maru. "Nothing's following us so you can go home."

Maru looked annoyed. "You're mean. I WANT THAT CRYSTAL!"

With that Little Maru knelt down, slamming her palm to the cobblestone street. A line of fire tore along the road toward Korved, erupting upward at his feet narrowly missing him. She spoke in a language none of them understood and her three metal guardians started toward the group.

Jill rushed toward the rear of the wagons seeking to avoid this confrontation, one she hadn't planned on or expected. Rae watched her closely as Sparky drew her bow unsure of who to target. It was Korved and Wulfe that would meet the oncoming metal men head on.

Two of the metal men engaged Korved with one dealing him a heavy blow with its armored fist. The third made a grab for Wulfe missing by a wide margin. Their horses chuffed nervously as the battle commenced and the metal onslaught continued.

Korved led his assailants around while carefully defending himself, giving Rae and Sparky time to realize Jill was not the threat. Rae took the opportunity to create a fog cloud fully engulfing the steel clad enemies and their tiny commander making it hard for them to target the party and vis versa.

The battle dragged on with Korved being burned by Maru and beaten upon by steel gauntlets. Sparky moved around to join Wulfe against his opponent alternating who would enter the fog to engage with it. Meanwhile Jill joined the fight firing her bow, narrowly missing the wall of living steel confronting Korved. 

Little Maru poked her head and arm out of the side of the fog shrouded area blasting at Korved again, but this gave Rae a chance to launch an arrow her way. Maru, wounded and crying ducked back into the fog.

Eventually through martial might and use of spells the metal assault was defeated. As each one fell the animated armor tumbled apart spilling gold coins from their chest compartments. Onlookers rushed to scoop up what money they could from the scattered coinage.

Their immediate threats dispatched and no sign or sound of the little girl that started the attack, they took advantage of the chaos and fog to ditch the bodies from their wagon. 

Jill realizing it would be good to get out of Slune and still possessing the party's payment said as much and asked if she could join them on their way. They consented to having a new companion for the time being and again headed for the edge of town on their way to Ptolus.

Reaching the city gate they encountered their friend Celestia returning from some undeclared business of her own. Introductions with Jill were quickly made and away from Slune they travelled. 

Back in the city a pair of eyes watched them fade off into the distance as Maru clutched a single gold piece in her small hand. Master Ayumu would be unhappy with her. And she wept.

Bob's Your NPC aka Name Stealing

I, like many Dungeon Masters have a hard time naming non-player characters. The struggle is real when your players decide to talk to someone that you had not expected them to pay attention to. Naming an NPC Bob when caught unprepared is its own trope in RPG history.

That's a reality, but what can be done about it?

About 20 years ago I became increasingly frustrated by my seeming inability to come up with names, not just on the spot, but during preparation for the game and creation of adventure scenarios. My solution came not from RPGs, but during a space combat board game. Desperate for ship names I stumbled on some horse racing forms while randomly browsing the web. Conveniently the list had a dozen or more appropriate sounding military and noble titles with the names. That was the revelation I needed. Existing resources are everywhere and mine has most often come from my junk email folder.

Don't limit yourself to racing forms or junk email. Use NPC names from adventures you're not going to work into your campaign. There are thousands of free or inexpensive adventures on the internet. Fan sites often host a catalog of resources to borrow from. 

One friend of mine used to name members of ship crews or combat squads in computer games after people he knew. I don't know how many times characters with my name got slaughtered during his game play, but at least he had his resource for NPC names.

If you're watching streaming shows keep a notepad handy. You can write down actor and character names to smash together later to form new names to use in your game. Keep that notepad handy at the table and cross off the names you use as it comes into play. Make a new note to remind yourself of just who and what that NPC is because player characters will return to people they've met for more information or other needs. That notepad will be a great time saver.

It's also perfectly fine if two NPCs share a name. There might be two people named Alexander or with the same last name. Real life is full of instances like that and we muddle through mostly ok.

So the basic advice here is to steal names. Steal them from anywhere and everywhere. At least the NPCs won't all be named Bob.

Bob the Limner

Campaign Diary - The Last Night in Slune

Location: Slune, a small city at the far western edge of the crumbling Empire of Tarsis. 

Party in play: 

Rae - Elf. Fighter 1/ Wizard 4.  One of the original members of the party that originated in the town of Little Plains. She is somewhat of a strategist and creative tactician always looking for an edge when the situation gets dicey.

Wulfe - Elf. Fighter 1/ Wizard 4. Originally from a small town north of Ptolus near the Moonsilver Forest, he wandered westward to satisfy his curiosity about the frontier areas of the empire. Joining the group early in their adventuring career he has been a steadfast companion and effective in any dangerous situation. He wields Cheval, a Faery forged longsword known for occasional bursts of radiant energy.

Korved - Human. Cleric 4. An itinerant priest, he arrived in Little Plains hoping to come to grips with his recent experiences. He had joined the Gaen faith at a young age and over time found his thinking more in line with her masculine aspect Hannan. The non-violent and amicable split in the church was his signal to explore the world.

Sparky - Human. Fighter 4. She's a force to be reckoned with in a toe to toe fight. Recent life as a sword for hire had led to some less than respectable jobs and little in the way of pay. Joining an adventuring group seemed a wise choice.

Sometime in the darkest hours of the night loud thumping, banging and frantic voices from the rooftop awakened the party from their sleep.

"Take the money, just let me live!"

"You know we can't do that, it would make us common thieves. And dead men."

The tussle continued as Wulfe climbed the short ladder to the trap door in the ceiling. Pushing it open and peering out revealed a man jumping from the roof to hang by his fingertips from the adjacent building. His pursuers fired crossbows striking the man once in the back, yet he hung on. Wulfe climbed out onto the roof to confront the assassins.

In their room beneath the fray the others began donning armor and weapons. 

Realizing that himself and Sparky would need to see in order to fight, Korved cast light on a coin and tossed it up through the trapdoor onto the roof illuminating the scene. 

Magic missiles lanced outward from Wulfe's extended hand, striking the killer to the left eliciting a scream of pain. 

"This is not your concern wizard. Leave while you still live." Undeterred the assassins again shoot their targeted victim who falls to his death in the street below.

Korved, Sparky and Rae soon joined their companion on the roof as the assailants turned to face the group.

The remainder of the battle was over quickly as Wulfe cast web restraining the assassins. 

During the brief interrogation the pair refused to say anything beyond having done their job. After threats from Korved it was explained that their deaths would be short and their superiors could bring them back allowing them to take revenge. 

Korved decided enough was enough and used his deity's power to unleash a fan of searing flames, igniting the web and slaying both opponents. Rae used a frost spell to quickly extinguish the burning web preventing it from setting the building on fire.

While the rest of the group descended to street level, 

Korved took the opportunity to decapitate the corpses, concerned that they might rise as undead due to the influence of the Crystal of Calling*. The pink crystal tethered to a platinum chain calls out to undead drawing them near and on one known occasion animated the body of their former companion Gregor.

In the street the party examined the victim trying to determine who he was and why he was targeted for murder. They found no answers to those questions, but did discover a note upon which was fastened by wax, a brass key bearing the number 62.

The note read "You've completed your task. Here is the remainder of your payment. Five thousand gold pieces reside at Hammersong Vaults on Whipstone Street in Ptolus. This should be enough to keep your mouth shut."

Realizing the implications they decided leaving Slune first thing in the morning was advisable, and that they were about to come into a tidy sum of money when they reached Ptolus.

Before returning to bed they made plans for what to do in morning. They would bring their wagons into the side street below the position of the two dead enemies and drop them down into the larger wagon. Afterward they would immediately exit the city. As for what to do with the bodies, they would take them to the gnolls who owed them payment for the goblin tree the party had delivered a few days prior, and negotiate  reduction of pay in exchange for the gnolls doing away with the corpses.

Their sleep was restless as their nervousness about possible reprisal for killing the assassins wore on their minds. They need not have worried as the night passed peacefully.

* Crystal of Calling - Undead are drawn to the crystal. Sometimes it can animate recently deceased bodies. Undead heading the call may be subject to command. The party has been followed and approached by skeletons and zombies for over two months since acquiring the artifact.

Players Guide to Ptolus

For those unfamiliar with the setting the campaign is moving to, here is a link to the Players Guide to Ptolus. 

You can buy the dead tree version or you can download the free .pdf

https://www.montecookgames.com/store/product/a-players-guide-to-ptolus/  <---- Link. You may need to copy and paste because Blogger is being difficult as I write this post.

This 32 page guide will give you a solid understanding of the setting without spoiling the secrets and true depth of detail within the setting.

The setting was originally released in 2006 for the D&D 3.5 edition. It had been used by Monte Cook as a playtest bed for D&D 3.0 and was part of his campaign world prior to that time. Recently updated to D&D 5e it retained all of the detail of the original, just converted stats to match the later system.

TM and © 2021 Monte Cook Games, LLC

Stories to be Told

I will start posting campaign diary episodes on Fridays. We are currently playing every other Saturday so at some point soon there will be a delay of journal entries until play catches up. Hopefully at some point we can begin to play most weeks and that will provide plenty of material for the blog. I'm sure I'll have other subjects to fill in when there's a gap.

The first two episodes were actually from the same play session, but it seemed right to split them. The third episode is from session 2 and is presented in full.

The Blog Store Link

It has been quite a while since I posted the blog's Zazzle store link into the main reading area. If you are viewing this on a mobile device you normally won't see the store link because it is off in a right-hand column that just doesn't appear in mobile views.

I just went in and pruned back the available merchandise to make it viewer friendly and to clear out a bunch of non-sellers. Remaining items for sale include bundles of cards you can mail to friends, coffee mugs, a magnet, a button, a bumper sticker because I might order one to put on a binder cover for a laugh. 

So give this link a try and see if there is anything there you might be interested in purchasing.

http://www.zazzle.com/tdaalmerch*   <--- Link 

A Change of Systems and Settings

During the down time of the last two plus years (thanks effing Covid) the decision was made to convert from using the Lamentations system to D&D 5e. Part of the reasoning involved the vast pile of 5e resources I own and that are readily available.

The campaign is headed in the direction of transitioning settings from a West Marches style environment to playing in Monte Cook's Ptolus which has been converted for use with fifth edition d&d. I am greatly enamored with Ptolus. Having run a campaign when it originally released in 2006 for 3.5 edition, I have wanted to run it again, but find 3.5 too ponderous and full of exploits. So onward to Ptolus we go.

We still have the same core group of players minus one that sadly passed away just after Thanksgiving unexpectedly. Her husband is one of the core and has decided that her character should remain available as a spare character for any of the rotating cast of extra players that drop in from time to time or for any new player to use while getting familiar with the game. Just yesterday he asked to have the miniature she used so he could place it and some of her dice next to her urn. 

So far the players have been adjusting to the different system very comfortably. They are a creative bunch and are finding new ways to address situations in game using their new found capabilities. Two sessions in and all is well with 5e.

Upcoming posts will discuss sessions 1 & 2.

Awakening in 2022

 I have been away from this blog for so long it is taking a lot of time to clean out a bunch of spam comments.

The good news though is I have returned and will be making new posts about my campaign.