Up the river without a paddle wheel.

Well before I begin this post I have to correct an error I made in my last post. The party didnt bluff there way into the smuglers hideout. No the Gun mage botched that. Infact Scarlet there fighter Intimidates her way into the hideout with use of one of her many firearms. Which I have to add this Rpg Inspirational poster just to get the point across.

This correction was brought to you by my ever lovign girl friend who wasnt going to let me get away with not mentioning her awesomeness. Someone want to get her to remove the kitchen knife from my spleen now.

Ok so this week saw me and my group Begin Witchfire part 2 Shadow of the exile. It was a great laugh. The party got there quest and foudn the information they needed. Realising there wasnot much time to waist they Flew off to the port to aquire a boat. In the end they found the Fortune and off they sailed.

The 1st encounter was the swampie village which i enjoyed as the DM, I got to put on my best deep fenny accent which I thought did a swampies dialect justice. Specialy for the odl man they could barely understand him.

They found out about the graveyards in the swampy village being dug up. they also heard about the shamblers and payed out for the Taismen to ward them off. I love how al our Arcane Mechanik thinks any udnead are instantly Alexias fault.

The shamblers attacked during the night the partyy chose to sleep in different places (the fighter in the swampy tavern, the arcane mechanik in the engine room of the fortune and the Gun mage on the deck)

THeSwamp shamblers attacked the gun mage siounded the alarm with a blast of his pistol as hey ascended from the water onto the ship. The fither kicked open the door and opened fire with her repeating rifle (lots of criticals ensued) and finaly the Arcane mechanik almost died (again).

Next up they encountered the Gobber raid which they dispatched with ease and al got his hand cranking up ice stick.

After that the events at the gates over the water was hilarious. The ships slowing down and the gumage casts fare blindign squint and havign the ship career into the bank.

So they enter the 1st tower, normaly the razor bats should fly out and attack the party when they get close bt what I let happen was more fun.

The Gun mage goes in 1st pops on dancing lights to find himself surrounded by bats in which he makes a hasty retreat whilst bats chase him. Few moments later the bats all drop dead.

Then they had to open the 1st gate. The ydidnt realise the gates had been chained together so it took all 3 of them to open it.

Then to the next side where they found the thralls which at 1st Al didnt relaise one was a thrall. But hey they dispatched them easily enough.

Finaly we got the the Gatermen which suprised them on the home stretch boom log trap into ships paddle wheel ships in trouble gatermen attack party slays them.

So squint tells em there not far fro mthere destination they have 10 hours before he leaves and then tells them to deal with the gatermen or there nto goign to get back. The parties responce is screw the gaters on to the Temple of Cyriss and thats where we left it.

So Squint nad his crew will sucum to the gaters and Al will be busy reparing the sip before they can leave.

So thats it for thsi blog. No Irin Kingdoms RPG goodness next wee kas I am at Ayacon (I hope if things go as planned) so in 2 weeks we wil lbe gettign back on track with the 2nd act of the Shadow of the Exile.

ALso on another note Pathfindr fast levelign is fast leveling as the party went up from pretty much base level 3 xp to level 4 in one session (probaly cause 2 people was missing)

See you all at aya

- Fen

Pizza Hut menu just got classier and Players spouses should sometimes not com to your gamign table

So yeah its sunday and at 7 his mornign i grogly had food thrust in my face by the old man along with a pint of squash. Today no lie in I had to go to work also known as Pizza hut to learn the new menu. Every 3 months the menu gets a re-shuffle and being kitchen staff I hav been lucky that for the past 6 months I havent had to attend a meeting for a new menu as its all been stuff the waiters have to learn. Unfortunatly this new menuencommpased both groups.

I was absolutely dreaddign this. Last time we had a enw menu the amount of extra work we had to do on our open shifts was insane. Loads of new combonations to learn it was awful. Course 6 months in its all good now weve learned from our mistakes and improved 10 fold. The new menu isnt as awful as I thought. Were going european, along with all your favourite pizza topping and doughs we have added a lighter italian option. These pizzas resemble what you would get at Pizza Express. Heres a sneak peak of the new toppings (Starting tommorow eg Monday 15th).

Prosciutto and rocket: Marghareita base with fresh motzerella.. We then add rocket, prosciutto ham and sliced tommato once its out of the oven.

Pollo Portobello: Chicken and Portobello mushrooms, The sauce for the base is a mix of pessto and cream (my #1 fave of the new range I highly recomend)

Caprino: Goats cheese, Mixed Olives, Cherry tomatoes, caramelised onions and Fresh Rocket.

Verde: This one is amazing. Asparagus, Peas, Spinach and peppers with a cream base. I highly Recommend this for all you vegetarians and makes #2 on my overall list of the new pizzas.

I recomend you try them from tommorow onwards. and dont forget to try the new starter Large mushrooms with mixed cheese and garlic butter yum.

Ok so thats the sales pitch done onto the usual gaming rant.

Your gamign groups other halves should be left at home never at the table is probaly my new slogan. I found this out Thursday night when I hosted my 2nd session of my Iron Kingdoms campaign. Were still doing it online as one of my players isnt back yet and I cant get a weekend off yet (I will you hear me boss). So anyway 3 more of my group were supposed to start that night Kaiketsu my good bud at uni we run the Games club together. and two of my long time friends who are a couple. Mr X had doen a bit of roleplay before and was excited to go again. Miss Y never tried but was apparently willign to give it a go. Main reason she was with us I belive is Mr X isnt really allwoed to be let out of site (how it seems). So we get down to it we were havign some set up troubles with gametable and audio (TS2 servers suck) which we solved by switching to Skype.

Now I think miss Y one cant be bothered to sought out her headset and we got lots of feedback from her set what was giving us all a headache. Next up I think she couldnt be bothered to go through with it aeven after we got her set up. GAH so she ims me and says sorry and that she wasnt goign to do it online as it seemed boring this way but wil ldo it in person. Ok fair enough but I knew what was gonna happen next. Mr X obviopusly is on the leash and now must appolagise and depart with her (he gave the reason that at the time as we were havign audio problems and were gonna used text hed find that boring). So ok two gone what made me mad though is I had set the game back till 8 PM because Miss Y wasnt available till that time and it was the only day we could get a game going so by half 8 the game is finnaly off.

So we flew straight into Act 2 of the Witch Fire Trilogy Kaiketsu was picke up very easily as the poor waith and stray sorceress who needed shelter and protection. SO thewy too kher in are arcane mechanik and fighter then set out lookign through the Libary for information on the Witch trial. A NPC usualy gives this info but Are Arcane Mechanik forgot to ask her anymore info, so I introduced the idea of the Library, surely they would have soem kidn of Records on the witch trial of the Centuary. I also managed to introduce the NPC I forgot earlier on as they went back to the Church of Morrow. THey met with Father Dumas once more and introduced the young 14 year old Sorceress (kai has a penchent for makign odd and humorus characters I enjoy it) as a member of there party who wasnt wit hthem at the time father dumas belived them and allwoed her to stay at the Church with them. He also recounted the story fo the Corvis Witch Trial and explained where the witches were entombed. the party then journeyed off to the tomb.

And this is where Poop hit the fan. On the way random encounter. They fought a group of Devil Rats and even though they won the Sorcreress and the Fighter hav got Devil fever. They got to the tomb waltzed in fught the cave squid failed to find soem shinny treasure however found the magical dagger and some ancient coins. then they fought the squid what almost killed the sorceress as she was dragged under by the squid.
So they decided a they were exhaughsted, out of spells and the sorceress was well almost dead to camp the night. Then Gobbers found them i nthe cave (whoot random encounters) Fortunatly the hole was tiny they couldnt get through easily so the fighter blocked the entrance and was almsot butchered (good old 5' square held em). So the fighter and the Arcane Mechanik Took it in turns to plug the hole and fight the beasties whilst the sorceress threw her infinite level 0 spells and her bloodline power at the poor gobbers who in the end none were spared.

Next day they awake and the fighter feels like crap the fever has finished incubating and she lost 3 strength and 1 constitution ouch. This was not good as she was out of pistol rounds and had to rely on her longsword. and 1 less point of constitution meant she lost a point of HP. Fortunatly there in the employ of a cleric theyll be fine when they get back well she will be the sorceress hasnt scumb yet.

So they continue they find the poor little gobber huddling in the corner f a room begging to be spared poor bork never did anythign to them. However the party so far has had a rough experience with gobbers. They agreed that theyd let the poor little gobber go free if he told them so information which he did in which they found out a young lady came in and animated som dead bones fro mthe mass grave pit and then went to the room with the "smelly boxes" also known as caskets.
Then fun happens kai decides evn though theyv let the goblin go free hes gonna zap it thinking "hey my bloodline power does d6 points of damage it wil lkill him. Gobbers have 8 HP whoops. So Gobber goes to walk out the door and is zapped by lightning by crazy girl and bolts. So kai ive given a few points towards evil (he odnt know that yet) and i think the poor gobber is goign to become a recouring enemy MUAHAHA.

SO yeah they go towards where the poor gobber said the smelly boxes were and the party found a suprise wiating for them. 3 thralls. which essentialy ripped the fighter to shreds and the poor mechanik and Sorceress would have been next but hey they REALLY lucked out.
Mr X came back online and joined us on Skype free from Miss Y for the night haha excelent and asked even thoug hwe gonan be wrappign up soonish. in my mind I though SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAFE!!! I really did not want the party to die to these damn Thralls. So I set it up that the Paladin arrives to see Dumas and Dumas asks if he can go find the party as the tombs only 2 hours from town and they had nt been heard of for a day. SO the Paladin comes in walks roudn the corner and the eye begins to twitch as he sees EVIL!!!. Paladin flys in and hits the 1st with his Hammer Critical, Confirmed max damage there be just bone. Next one Critical Confirmed bone. End session. Fun times.

Onc that Paladi nturns Warcaster he will be a force to be reckoned with Nto as powerful as a spell caster as they have plentiful spells to burn into focus but jsut because with what focus he will have can make him a melee god.

So thats my rant and game recap hopefulyl tuesday I will get another game in whoot once we get through Act 2 the fun starts, especialy as are arcane mechanik has put 2 and 2 together to make a Arc node. yues his theory on zombies is confirmed:
A- thralls in the tomb.
B- The covens bodies are missing

and he thinks he knows whos doen it. Cant wait to see what happens next.

1DVD volume of Slayers = 1 session of D&D

So its been a 2 weeks give or take since I got back from London Expo YAAAAY. Much fun was had and i me Scary go Rounds John Alison WHOOOOT. Among other things I brought some more shineys (mm shineys). But not much for myself this year as previous expos why you ask. I had to buy the missus her shinnys for the celebration of the day of her birth. So was kinda happy shes into all thigns geeky made buying her shinnys easy whilst there. Have to say grr to Ryan for buying the only 2 copies of night school that we could find at the expo, havign your sister ready to slaughter you is one thing but slaughter me over manga is something entirely new.

Then therse the freebie goddie bag. This year at 1st I wasnt impressed with the goodie bag a DVD a Hell Boy figure and wwe stickers and albume plus the usual extr gubbins of a poster and flyers.
But then We get Sundays goodie bag 2 Hellyboy figures 3 yes 3 DVD's and the wwe stickers i shall thourghyl burn those later.
SO I now have 2 copies of slayers volume 1, Escaflowne volume 5 (to go with my 1st 4 volumes of the series) and gundam wing volume 8.

Now Slayers is somethign ive been meaning to watch but hadnt got round to then volume 1 lands in my lap I think hey lets see hwat its liek then.
So im sitting there watching the 1st 6 episodes and by the end of it although im not a adict it has however made me chuckle.
Why? simple answer its a anime about a D&D campaign in my eyes. Ok not just D&D (for those who have been brain dead since the 1970s or who just dont care that means Dungeons and Dragons) it's a session of any pen and paper Fantasy RPG. Your main character a sorceres who makes thigns go boom and loves treasure. She is accompnied by a dim wit fighter. So far the bases are covered. Sorcerer hordes the lovely precious loot and then sells it off yada yada. Oh and then they find in the loot a powerful magic item. There then attacked by unknown assailants for this said item what a evil mastermind wants.

Yeah this has all the makigns of a D&D game. Coem on from a Games masters perspective at one tiem or another hav you had players whove had those kind of sterotypes?

Answer YES

Do they horde there treasure likme anything?

YES

From the players point of view arent you always finding strange magical items you have no use for what your then attacked for later on thus leading you into one hell of a plot

YUP.

Oh and the 1st ep yeah fighting a dragon is that tough ie good luck makign a dent on it.
and vilalgers beging for your help. Hey i got a big sward i wear armour sure i can help ... for a price.

Anyways DMed my 1st session of Iron Kingdoms using pathfinder. Was good ony 2 could make it 1 being the ever lusious missus. So the arcane Mechanik and the fighter (pirate yaar) aka the missus defended the caravan from th Swamp Gobbers I had the caravan leader and his driver get into action and tossed otu a freep otion considering it WAS 2 against 12. bur rhey came out on top. Havent calculated EXP yet as havent decided yet if im using the standered experience progression or the slow or quick one. I fell this decision must be made before next session.(next week I hope). SO yeah they made it to Corvis made it to the temople and to see father Dumas and off they go checking on grave robbign sites. It made me laugh when the arcane mechanik said in person to the Father about walkign dead and zombies oh hoho I had the dear fathers eyes light up. I dont think zombies is a normal occurence in Corvis now is it.
Down Side I forgot to introduce one very delightful young lady to the party bu they did spot her i nthe upstairs of the temple. So when they head back il lbe sure to introduce them.

Now I roughyl know what all my players are now going to be.

As ive stated so far I have a:

• Arcane Mechanik
• Fighter (she be a pirate YAAAR)
• Paladin who wants to go Warcaster
  
• Nyss Barbarian
• Sorceress
• Nyss IK ranger going towards rifleman

with possibly one more on the way who I dont know what hell be.
The Nyss barbarian and Paladin are lovers (out of game and in (couple players tsch)). As I asaid the paladi nis goign towards Warcaster (which he can meet the 1st pre-requisite at level 10). So i helped him out by advising him to put some of his skille points into and most of those skills are corss class ouch.
THe Barbarian as shes Nyss I made her a deal she can have a Nyss claymore but she gets very little starting gold (everyone got 300 shes got alot less). She agreed as she got the shinny big katana lookign blade.

Dont know the rangers motivations part from he wants to go rifleman.

The Fighter I designed to the girlfriends specs (she dosent like doing all the stating so i get lumbered with it). She wanted to be a pirate so I made a fighter based around her pistol and sword. Hope it will work out. She is a pathfinder fighter however so it may just (yay awesome pathfinder classes ftw).

Are arcane mechanik I think has are mad inventer poitn of the Iron Kingdoms universe covered.

The sorcerer. Kaiketsu always has to be a more comic relif character. I love it and hate it. When he said to me he wants to make a magical girl type of character I knew this was gonan be one of those times i mutilated a young puppy. To be honest after workign it out it wasnt so bad. A sorcerer with a air elimental blood power pool not oo shabby to be honest, oh and a scythe and her spells focus around buffing people.
After talkign with Kai about his religion and human sub species we worked round the idea of why a 14 year old gil was wandering though the Cygnaran countryside. being of sulese heritage Situated her birthplace in the protecterate of menoth. As Menites dont like spell casters she would probaly have been burnt at the stake not good. So instead she ran away from her family and escaped into Cygnar.
I think my players all wih little or no experience of the average D&D session outside of my table will find Kai a scary individual.

Well thats all for no I must be gttign rerady for work. Accursed Luna for gettign me adicted to Vocaloid. Accursed Girlfriend for showing me very sexy outfits she was thinking of buying. Accursed internet distracting me.

They just keep commig!!!!!!!

SO I went to RPG night today unfortunatly no Roleplaying was had. Oh well we now have all our Call of cuthulu charactwers soughted out for after the bank holiday.
Were looking at 1890's Steam punk setting, and i get to play the part of the megalomaniac Inventor from Prussia with his badly burnt sidekick Igor (MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA).
Yes shall be fun as our D&D 4th Ed group may be comming to a end. Main reason for this is that when playing everythign feels too automated (ie press this button poof power activateS). I mean Wizards its a ok product if your trying to hit on the new genration of gamers whos idea of a roleplayign game is say WoW. For the group im with (the oldies/Vets) not all of us enjoy sitting down having to manage the combat down to the smallest point (eg whos standign where exactly). Some of us are personnaly down the act of doing abstract combat ok if your standing near these guys or near the entrance you get hit. SO yeah DD 4h ed good for micro managing combat and if you like the MMO feel in the real world.

So I get to try Pathfinder out Thursday as I shall be dming from 2Am onwards. Yay i am ding a Iron Kingdoms Campaign with pathfinder rules. It will give the base classes a little bit more of a edge (espescialy fighteR). Ive been lookign through pathfinderand I can say that therse not alot of changes to 3.5 there but wjhere they change things it works (ie getting rid of gather information and making it part of diplomacy for example). All the base classes have had a ugrade. Sorceror and Fighter are my favourite upgrades.

Fighters got Bravery what im proves there will saves against fear which is bloody helpful for fighters cas they are likely to have nothing in the way of a will save for many levels (fighter with points in Wisdom hahaha).
The armour training is great, as you go up in levels +1 to Ac and you get +1 to the max dex you can use in the armour. By level 20 you can have a +4 dex bonus in Fulle plate (enter the combat god), and then at 19th/20th level yo uget armour mastery what gives you damage reduction.
Weapon training just makes you more than the guy with bonus combat feats but into a pure weapon master. Choose a weapon group you now get a +1 bonus to your attack and damage rolls. Now every 4 levels choose another weapon group also increase your other weapon group bonus by +1 every 4 levels Gah PAIN. WIth this abbility I now DONT have to run round with my fighter buying into prestige classes/other classes for extra damage now, or buy these amazing feats. Just so i can keep up with the damage everyone else is throwing around. Although i dont usualy care i do get tired of beign out damaged by a rouge and a ranger specialy when im takign te brunt of the hits. And now the stupid amazing powewr you get at 20 weapon mastery. Choose one weapon of your choice. All your criticals auto confirm, you cnanot be disarmed whilst wielding that weapon AND when you score a critical the damage multiplier is INCREAESED by 1.

Ok Now Sorcerors there truly Amazing now. Previously I viewed them as Wizards who didnt learn spells jsut blew stuff up and couldnt really swich round spells like a wizard could. So effectivly a spontanius wizard. Now they have bloodlines. These give sorcerors new and unique abbiliteis based on the bloodlien they choose.
these bloodlines are:-

• Aberrant
• Abyssal
• Arcane
• Celestial
• Destined
• Draconic
• Elemental
• Fey
• Infernal
• Undead

All of these give some great bonus abbilities for sorcerors some which work great as a backup when there runnign low on spells (dragons breath). What I also forget to mention so will do quickly therse no spell per limit on 0 level spells now but cure and inflict minor wounds were removed.
For my campaign im limiting th bloodlines because soem really dotn fit in the iron Kingdoms universe. These are:-

• Draconic
• Abyssal
• Abberant

Dragons a obvious oen. All dragons are warped twisted corrupt creatures wh are A sexual and create more spawn by spillign there blood.
Abyssal dosent really fit within in IK
and Abberant as therse no thingsl ike the planes or well any strange "alien" racers i nthe Ik i figured nah.

Infernal and Celestial I have no problem with. I see as Infernal as you family made a pact with infernals soemwhere along the lin and its just seepedinto you. although is your soul truely yours and celestial hey your blessed by Morrow/Dhunia/nyssor/whoever. I still havent decided on Fey but that will probaly go but elemental can stay.

So Iron Kingdoms im goign to enjoy a group hwat never has experienced Warmachine or Hordes so they dont know much about the universe so it will be a suprise them im sure. We also get to start 2 years before any of the major events of Warmachine so plenty of time for them to get used to the world at large.

At the moment everyones scattered across the country at uni and the like so were going to be using gametable for the 1st sessio nor 2 but when everyones back myp lace for D&D haha. In lue of everyone commign to my place and as were going through the witchfire trilogy ive gone and grabbed the Witchfire Trilogy minatures JOY I have all the major players (another Alexia whoop).

SO yeah much fun to come thursday