Debut Session!

1st Weekend of July 2010

I think introductions are in order, for the confused few who will happen to stumble into this blog. Our gaming group has decided to play D&D, and this blog will serve as the journal of our gaming sessions.

After the players have spent a few hours making their characters, and after I've spent a week preparing the adventure, I, as the only experienced (but still young) D&D gamer explained the basics of the game and went on to elaborate on the more detailed mechanics as the game progressed.


Da Peeps and their characters:

• Aaron (Manyak) plays Juno, a Dragonborn Fighter with a huge sword and lightning-fresh breath.
• Arbeen (Super E) plays Crono, a Halfling Rogue who rolls a lot of damage dice.
• Billy (Busy) plays Jim Castillo from Ewan, a Human Cleric who's, surprisingly, competent.
• Daven (Hari ng Sablay) plays Jacebel, the mermaid. Oh I mean, Jace Beleren, an Eladrin Wizard with AoE spells that always misses the enemies but always burns/shocks/slams/etc. his allies.
• Derick (D) plays the magnanimous and benevolent Dungeon Master (a.k.a. the enemy) who delights in blessing the players with awesome magic items and hot chicks and slimy goo.

Background Story


The story so far:

The Defenders of the Alliance organize its members into Ranks. The Horsemen, a Company of 4 mildly competent friends, have recently finished their training, and graduated into the lowest Rank, Slug Rank. Slugs get the easiest missions, and would need to complete a few in order to advance their Rank and thereby be assigned more dangerous, and more importantly, more high-paying missions.


To Winterhaven

Their first mission is to find a certain scholar named Staul, an avid historian of old relics from the Scourge War. He has gone north to a small town called Winterhaven searching for a rumored artifact from a sealed portal near it. Yet even escorted by Defenders (also Slugs on their first mission), Staul has seemingly gone missing. The Defenders then sent the badly named Horsemen to protect its investment.

The group journeyed north and was beset by small green kobolds of the Akki tribe along the road near Winterhaven. Here they learn the mechanics of D&D combat, and they also find out how badly their wizard can miss his spells. While asking around the town for word about Staul, they learn that Winterhaven is ill-manned to protect its surrounding lands from kobolds ambushing travelers and sometimes even capturing them.

The innkeeper of the Silver Unicorn relates that Staul has been staying for weeks in a room upstairs while conversing with locals about his search. While Jace (the aforementioned wizard) was busy sleeping, the rest of the group manages to learn that Staul was last seen a few days ago to excavate a nearby dragon burial site where the relic was supposed to be. Wandering the town, Jim Castillo (the cleric) visits the Temple of Avandra and accepts the priestess' (Sister Linore) request for proof of a rumored death cult. Juno and Crono went shopping, and Crono even chatted up a sexy elven hunter named Ninaran who has been guiding Staul around the wilderness. The group later gets an audience with the town's ruler, Lord Pedro, who asks them for aid in removing the kobold brigands in exchange for 250 gp.

Typical day for young, enterprising adventurers.


Dragon Burial Site

They are ambushed again by kobolds on the road, this time led by a wyrmpriest who was wearing a necklace with a horned skull pendant. Upon arriving at the burial site, they later discover a similar one worn by a gnome trickster overseeing an excavation under the command of a spectral apparition calling itself Kalarel. After hounding the sometimes invisible gnome, and dispersing the apparition, they find Staul's notes and amulet on the gnome's person, partly explaining why the gnome was there and not the scholar. Jace detects the presence of strong magic underneath the ground where the apparition's minions were digging, and he plucks out a silver inlaid box depicting a ram's skull and horns after using a (what he believes to be) magical shovel.

The Horsemen were about to open the box and read the notes when one of them noticed something stirring nearby...