Well we had an Excellent session yesterday with four players, all of whom I am very impressed with. The game was a lot of fun and I spent a great deal of time laughing - I hope the same is true of my players.
I would like to ask everyone who has not done so already to read over my examples on how to use Yum Yums during gameplay. The document is here: http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=ddfqpx6n_39fxgjmp&hl=en Alternatively, or in addition to this, you may read the section in the game manual on Yum Yums, chapter four, on page 30.
Even if you don’t have time to read the whole chapter, I would like everyone to look over the section on improving your character, if possible. It starts on page 31 and continues through the top of 34, and I’d like to start by doing this for anyone who wishes to at the beginning of the next session. Yes, I’m looking at you, Dumat.
As for the next session, which I hope will be soon, the times listed above all still work for me. Everyone else, what days and times work for you this week, or next weekend if need be?
Unfortunately, as I realized immediately after closing the OpenRPG program, I forgot to save the chat log as I had intended to so that I could review what had happened in detail. This isn't a huge deal, just disappointing, as there were a lot of great one-liners during the game that I would have liked to remember. I will recount here the basic sequence of events for the game, as well as I can remember. If I misremember who did what, one of my players please feel free to correct me! We played for nearly five hours, so it’s already quite a long story.
First off, a terrible Dragon has been ravaging the dwarven kingdom, raiding the poorly-defended outposts and slaughtering every dwarf in sight, making off with all of the treasure. Those living in the great fortress-cities have always been safe, though all are still terrified at the very mention of the horrible beast.
As our story begins, the dwarves in the King's fortress-city, the best defended in the land, are still asleep. Two of them, Oddom and Dumat, are awoken early by members of the Royal Guard and brought before the King in their pajamas. The King informs them that the Dragon has grown bolder and has attacked and destroyed and entire town - and their closest loved ones were living there. They have been killed in a brutal fashion which the King recounts in graphic detail. (The King is just and kind, but not very bright, and he seems to lack the wisdom to know when to spare listeners the details.) He then offers the two dwarves the chance to avenge their deaths, and save the kingdom all at once - and as a bonus, they are offered rewards in return for the jewel-encrusted left eye of the dragon as proof that they have slain it. The rewards play strongly at their greatest weaknesses, just in case revenge is not motivator enough. Oddom and Dumat, though lacking any combat skill whatsoever, equipped themselves with weapons and armor and set out in the direction of the Dragon's lair.
Halfway to the lair, after several hours of travel, they come upon what they were told is a safe haven – the home of a friendly human hermit named Morul. The hermit appears to be a crazy old man with a few whispy gray hairs and three half-rotted teeth. He feeds them and gives them a place to sleep, but spends the night calling them liars and uttering nonsensical claims about how they had failed to do what they claimed they would do, and the others must have been eaten. He seems to think he has met them before, though they have never seen him.
Meanwhile, two players showed up late and were brought into the game. Vallan and Edos are then awoken and brought before the King, who tells them that he has been informed that their loved ones were also living in the destroyed town, and recounts their brutal deaths in detail. He gives them the same offer to slay the dragon for revenge, save the kingdom, and earn tempting rewards. Edos equips himself with a weapon and armor, while Vallan loads a hand cart with food, ale, rope, spikes, poison, and other effects which slow his travel immensely. Edos is annoyed but cannot convince him to leave anything behind. The two set out for the hut to meet up with the others.
When they arrive, the others are already asleep. The old man lets them in, mutters about how impressed he is that they have not been eaten, and shows them where the food is before flopping down in bed. The dwarves introduce themselves to each other briefly and try to establish what the plan is. One of them seems certain that they are to catch up with the main army sent to slay the Dragon, while the others seem certain that there is no army and they are to act alone. Eventually they all go to sleep.
The next morning they try to get information from Morul regarding the dragon. He is insistent that he has already told them what they need to know and continues to call them liars. He does mutter something about following the sound of her munching. Eventually they give up and head out, trying to form a plan on the way there. As they near the cave, the landscape is charred and there is no cover. They stop for a moment and argue about their strategy. Some want to search for a back way in, others want to set a trap, and there is talk of simply running in there and killing the thing. They argue back in forth in a very entertaining manner for a while before one of them simply starts towards the entrance. It is determined that there is no back way in.
Vallan decides to climb up above the entrance to the cave and wait. Once he is safely perched above the opening and things finally quiet down, the others suddenly hear sounds coming from within the caves. It is not munching sounds as Morul had suggested, but yelling, coming from quite a distance away. Someone suggests that there is an army after all, and they need only rush in and join them. The three start to make their way into the maze of caves, stepping over piles of bones and stone trinkets and moving towards the sounds of the yelling. The closer they get, the more certain they are that a fight is going on, and they can hear the occasional clang of metal. Vallan, wondering what is going on, strains his ears and finally hears the fighting sounds, and so decides to jump down from his perch and follow them in.
Edos is the first to reach the Dragon’s lair, and as he rounds the corner he sees the Dragon, fierce and terrifying, standing tall and looking right at him – but between them is a group of four humans, three men and a woman, clad in shining armor and wielding fearsome weapons. The dwarves are just in time to see the humans deliver the final blow to the monster and go about the business of cutting out its left eye. The humans are clearly well-trained in fighting and have managed to take down the beast after a long battle.
Edos, enraged at losing his opportunity for revenge, rushes into the room with his weapon raised and starts hacking at the dragon’s corpse. The humans simply stand and stare as his weapon clangs off the dragon’s scales. He then proceeds to kick in the other eye and yells semicoherently about his revenge. The others try to calm him down and confront the humans. The two groups trade a few insults, and the humans claim to have done the dwarves a favor by ridding them of the terrible Dragon – they are safe now. The dwarves, though glad the Dragon is dead, still want to claim their rewards from the King and so need the jewel-encrusted left eye. The humans, of course, refuse to give it to them, pointing out that they need the eye in order to claim their reward as well. They go to leave, while Edos follows them trying to get them to show him the eye and Dumat following him nervously. Vallan goes back to the cave entrance and starts trying to set a trap, and Oddom stays behind to look over the room.
Oddom examines the Dragon’s corpse and finds that the scales are hard as steel and he cannot remove them. It is lying on a large pile of treasures of dwarven make. Suddenly, something yellow catches his eye and he moves to examine it – there are three large yellow dragon eggs which have gone unnoticed in the corner of the room. Images of being a legendary dragon tamer fill his mind. He eagerly empties his backpack to make room for one of them, though it is so large he is unable to fully close it. He then starts to make his way back to the entrance.
At the same time, Vallan is gathering large rocks and hauling them to his perch above the entrance of the caves. He gets several up there, along with a sack of smaller rocks for throwing, and waits.
Meanwhile, Edos and Dumat are following the humans, trying to reason with them. Eventually the stubborn humans stop listening and begin to walk faster. Their long human legs make it easy for them to get away from the dwarves, who are soon alone. The two decide to go back to the entrance to form a new plan.
As Oddom nears the entrance, he keeps to the shadows against the wall of the cave, attempting to keep the egg hidden. Vallan, however, hears his footsteps and assumes them to be human, and readies a small rock to throw at his head. As Oddom steps through the entryway, he hears the rock whiz past his ear, and looks up to see Vallan, who is angry that Oddom would walk into his trap and potentially give away his position to the humans. The two argue a bit while Oddom finds a secure-looking place to set down the backpack containing the egg. Though Vallan looks directly at it, he is too consumed by greed for his promised reward to pay much attention and fails to notice it.
After a few minutes, Edos and Dumat arrive looking hopeless. They stay inside the entrance of the cave so as not to completely lose their night vision, and see Oddom sitting outside. The two have assumed that the humans have already made off with the eye, but Oddom tells them they have not yet come out. They are confused as to how they made it out before the humans, and suddenly wonder where Vallan is. Oddom points up and says he’s waiting with a trap. Edos decides to go back in and look for the humans, and Dumat follows.
After a few minutes, they hear the humans muttering in low voices and arguing over something. As they get closer the conversation makes it obvious that the humans, not used to caves, are completely lost, and though they have a map, they are not smart enough to be able to read it properly. After a few more minutes the humans start to move again, but not in the direction of the exit.
Edos and Dumat return to the entrance again and share the news with the others. The four of them spend several minutes laughing about how pathetic it is for anyone to get lost in this small maze of caverns, and ripping on humans in general for being beardless, ugly, and stupid. After several minutes of this, they decide to go in after them and try to bargain with them – they can lead the humans out, but they want the eye. There is talk of laying a trap for them, but they don’t have all their tools with them. Vallan mostly sits quietly and focuses on his plan to drop rocks on their heads.
The three others find the humans looking over their map and arguing, and Oddom steps forward and gets their attention. He makes fun of them for being unable to find their way out, and hints that he and his comrades can lead them out for a price. The humans do not take kindly to being insulted, and proudly refuse to admit they are lost. They start to move off in a random direction and again quickly lose the dwarves, who return to the entrance again.
The four of them again start discussing possible plans, arguing and cracking jokes about the humans. Suddenly, their conversation is interrupted by a loud cracking noise and an irritating squeak. Oddom immediately recognizes that his egg has hatched and grabs some food to give to the newborn. The others quickly discover what has happened – the baby dragon is peeking out of the backpack, covered in slime, munching on the food it has been given, and peering at them with its tiny eyes – the left one encrusted with jewels. Oddom tells them that there are two more in the Dragon’s lair. The conversation suddenly turns to what to do with them.
Vallan immediately decides that they should be killed – Dragons are dangerous and this one will grow into a dwarf slaughterer just like its mother. Dumat at first thinks it is cute and should not be harmed, but when it snaps at his hand he immediately yells to kill it and runs off. Oddom thinks it should be brought to the king as a gift, so it can be trained to defend them, but the others do not think dragons are tameable. Edos suggests that they get the other two baby dragons, which must have hatched by now, and sick all three on the adventurers – maybe if they get taken by surprise, they won’t be able to defend themselves properly and the dwarves can make off with the eye. The others point out that they took the full-grown dragon down pretty easily, and these ones are miniscule in comparison. Vallan takes matters into his own hands and throws one of his rocks at the baby – his aim is perfect, but the dragon easily dodges the stone. Oddom gets angry and yells at him not to harm the dragon.
Suddenly, the argument is interrupted by the sound of human voices – the group has found their way out and is approaching the dwarves, though they don’t yet see them.
To be continued…
[ September 03, 2007: Message edited by: Sappho ]
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Topic: Multiplayer Adventure Mode! (Formerly Tabletop DF) (Read 15017 times)