I'm Doomed! ...again

Red Hand of Doom(ed,) that is.
That's what Paul has been running the past few weeks at that there flgs, and I have jumped in whole-heartedly, making a character and playing my first session of D&D in months last Sunday.
I've been through the Red Hand of Doom before, with Chris as DM, but this time around it's a bit trickier as no character in the game is as powerful as the party we had last time (in which Paul actually played, too.)

The story thus far, as I understand it, is that the original party running under Paul two weeks ago stumbled into a massive orgy of "We don't know what the heck we're doing here!" and found themselves 2 shy of a TPK...out of 8 characters. This is where the story starts for me.

Norro Wiston, speaker of Drellin's Ferry and a lady by the name of Captain Saronna had put an open call out to "brave souls" who would be willing to aid the area in light of the growing threat from some hobgoblins. Those brave adventurers consisted of everyone whose character died's new character and my guy. (See below for cast of characters.)

During the rally, the NPC Ranger, Jorr Natherson, came into the area with a scaled man bearing the face of a dragon and the vestments of a priest of Bahamut. The dragon-man (whom I recognized as Dragonborn) interrupted Speaker Wiston and began explaining that he would need strong hands and that he was taking the fight against the baddies. Wiston apparently knew the guy and expressed that he felt it would be wise for us to all go together under the leadership of this faithful of Bahamut named Kelmvor.


We're led to an abandoned keep where Kelmvor claimed a great battle had occurred and where his comrades had fallen. Though we found plenty of blood, nothing else remained of the combatants to give creedence to the priest's story. This made Mouse distraught, as his daughter (Matt's original character) was among the missing dead PCs. Since it was well into the night, we decided to camp there and head out in the morning...probably not the smartest thing we could have done.

The smell of blood attracted two digesters who quickly pounced upon the buckler of swashes Torin and Kelmvor, who had been the watch for that time of night. The fight was tough for those two an as they were a distance from us, we had to make listen checks to rouse to our comrades aide. Only the warlock Morthos heard, and rushed out of the room without waking the rest of us. Shortly thereafter, with the arcane aid of Morthos, the PCs prevailed and all went well and quiet for the rest of the night, though our time camping was extended so that Kelmvor's spells could thoroughly be replenished.

When we finally continue on toward a known encampment, we are beset after several hours on the road by a small warband of hobgoblin archers backed up by a powerful leader wearing insignias of a bloodied hand and an invisible spellcaster of some sort.

As soon as combat starts, our largest, most powerful warrior...a man with ogre blood named Grunk is blinded and left pretty much useless during the encounter. Our ranged combatants and spellcasters engaged the archers while I took the fight to the guy with the bloody hand stamps all over him. We exchanged blows for a couple of round then he stepped back to quaff a potion. As I moved to close the gap, a hell hound appeared between us and I dispatched it with two blows only to look up and see my chosen mark further from me now and suddenly disappear.

Acting quickly, I chukked my spear at the place where I last saw him and it embedded so solidly that his invisibility effect covered the whole of the shaft. Kelmvor then stepped beside me and breathed a gout of frosty breath that outlined not only our known foe, but another invisible assailant (who we surmised summoned the hound.)

Giving chase, we were unable to find any trace of those enemies left alive other than a short blood trail and my spear discarded in the woods a short distance in.

This was where we ended. A short, but very cool game. I loved being back in a game, and my dice seemed to enjoy themselves, too...they were VERY good to me.

Cast of Characters
Mouse (Human Samurai 7) - Matt
Morthos (Human Warlock 7) - Paul's son Paul
?? (Human Scout 6/Fighter 1) - Dusty
Grunk (Feral ½ Ogre Barbarian 5) - Josh
Nuhelia (Half-Elf Rogue 7) - Heather
Torin (Human Fighter 4/Swashbuckler 3) - Jeremy (along with Paul, one o the first guys I ever gamed with)
Arbor Leave (Human Druid 7) - Kenny
Kelmvor (Dragonborn Cleric 7 of Bahamut) - Ricky Joe
?? (??) - Kevin (He wasn't able to play last week, but he was the other survivor)
Jaden Ambrosius, Knight Errant of the Order of the Wing (Knight 5/Dragonslayer 2) - me

Yep...10 characters/players. There's actually one more guy who also didn't show...so 11.

Sunday: The Drow War begins!

It's not quite May, but damnit!

Ok, so I totally lied last post when I said I wouldn't be ready to game til then.
But see...Kenny reopened the flgs, now aptly named The Game Shop, and I couldn't resist popping in. As soon as I mention wanting to play, what happens? He suggests I jump into the Sunday game and invites me to play THEN hands me book one of Mongoose's The Drow War (the store's copy to sell, I might add) and suggests I peruse it and think seriously about running it.

Now, my first instinct was to tuck tail and run, but I walked out of the shop that day with that book and read it in 3 days. It's everything I pinpointed I wanted from D&D. It's massively epic and has the potential for deep character development and strong interaction within the game world...and best of all? I don't have to start from scratch. Building a campaign on my own at this point would quickly lead to burn-out, so something "out of the box" is nice for me now, but I've already modified the first few encounters. I never run something straight from the book, as the combat NPCs would be at a huge disadvantage running with PHB/DMG junk only.

I played in my pal Paul's game last Sunday (it will get its own post) and I'm set to run session one of The Drow War this Sunday, so that gives you, my reader...(s)?, a real reason to come about and see how things go. Stay tuned for that!

By the by, I learned today that there's another game shop open in town now, run by a fella named Tony. I don't know the details of his place, as I've never been, but I will likely swing by there time to time, as well. My "allegiance" currently lies with Kenny and The Game Shop, but if I begin to make more purchases and the products I want aren't to be had, I definitely will go where my dollar can be used. (Though likely not to game...Tony's pals are all those odd 2nd Edition die hard guys who refuse to even crack open 3.x books)

I still have those game ideas coming...they've been slow to churn out, but getting into the swing of things again will likely jumpstart that. I will also be commenting more on 4E, but at the moment, I've only seen the one book and read rants on message boards...which I rarely put much stock into.