How Minecraft Ruined My Marriage

I read Penny Arcade pseudo-religiously. It is on their lovely site that I learned of a game called Minecraft.

Rewind. A while back, years ago, Shawn got me into WoW, I think we started pretty close to the release date, maybe a month or two after it had been out. At the time I had no idea what an MMO was and how much time I was about to invest into this crack-like game. Perhaps it will surprise you, heh, but I am an awful WoW player.

Do you remember a post on 4th Edition from a few weeks (months?) ago? I went on about how if you want to craft stuff, set up shop in town and don't play a player class and stay the fuck away from all the orcs with the sharp objects in their mitts. There is a reason all the wizards and fighters go into dungeons and the artisans, commoners, and aristocrats don't. It is because they die.

I was that one foolhardy artisan that adventurers lured into wandering down into the dungeon. Heh.

Other people would get in on raids and group quest, or they'd farm for loot to buy ever phatter lewts from the auction house. They would go far and wide to accrue xps and purples and such. Meanwhile, I wandered the Barrens farming hides or herbs so that I could continue passing armor kits to Smitty and potions to Shawn. I didn't care about cash or gear, all I wanted to do was watch Akulna make skinning motions as I created leather armor that was further and further above my level. I even toyed with the idea of playing EverQuest 2 for a time because of the robust crafting system. Later on, after quitting and restarting a new toon on WoW, Tony and I formed a guild called The Explorers of Azeroth. We swam literally from The Swamp of Sorrows north to Dun Modr, because we were Dogdamn explorers. Of Azeroth. It was difficult and involved traversing some unfinished areas that we should not have tread in, true story.

Back to Penny Arcade, at the time of this writing, the comic is only a few weeks old, it is called Mine All Mine Part 1 and 2. It is about Minecraft and the comic is 100% accurate. I bought the game for like eleven dollars. I dug a hole, punched a tree, and began building wooden axes, swords, and picks. I burrowed into the earth like a fearful grub and I waited in the night as zombies groaned around me and skeletons clattered about plinking my fragile hut with arrows. In the night, I heard a giant spider devour a pig.

At daybreak I destroyed my hut of sand and dirt and built a stone fortress with a door and a glass window. I burrowed into the earth like a mighty umber hulk and took coal and iron from their place in the earthen womb I was making. I lit my hovel with torches and built a furnace to smelt the iron. Then I built a shaft that hit the bottom of the map, I mined what I could and journeyed to the surface by building ladders and shoveling my way up out of the mountain I had taken refuge in. Then I built a bonfire atop it and built another stone fort for another mine. When I had mined too deep and too greedily, I fled the lava and creepers beneath the earth and built another tower. I then linked my two towers with a stone bridge studded with torches to bring light to the darkness. Then I opened a new world to start it all over again because I died and couldn't find the fort I had been working on when I respawned.

Your map is randomly generated as you explore is, it is populated with pigs and ducks and about five types of enemies to encounter. The countryside of your island can be quite striking at times. I like this game a lot and I've probably put far more time than is healthy into it at the moment. My architectural endeavor is building a tower of glass that currently rises into the sky above the clouds of my map. I'm still working on it.

All you do is gather resources and craft stuff, from boats and books to tnt and traps. Minecraft gives me everything I loved about WoW (moderately robust crafting and a persistent world) without giving me all the crap I hated (asshats, constant hunger for phat lewts, monthly fees, etc). You can also play the game in multiplayer, you do need a server to host it though. I like to think that if Tony and I set up a map together we will build a walled kingdom studded with penis-shaped towers to guard against the zombies and skeletons that come for us in the night.

Edit After The Fact: Tower is done, ran out of sky. Now I've got an underwater tunnel and am planning on building a moat around my glass tower.

Further Editing: The lake was dug and filled with water, then I decided to build a mansion from my Pathfinder game. Built the whole first floor of the mansion, then it accidentally lit on fire. Minecraft has real good fire physics, had to start over from scratch but now I almost have it done.

South 101

The South will rise again, mon!

Imagine for a moment that there is a continent on Hekinoe to the south of The Known World. Dry heat has turned to damp humidity that hangs thick in the air. Imagine that, like Fresgulen, there are rumors of this place, but they trailed off out of sailor gossip about a hundred years ago when an expedition to investigate them left the shores of The New Empire.

There's this continent to the south of The Known World, still a bit north of the south pole of Hekinoe. It is a hot jungle full of jungle type stuff. About a hundred years ago, possibly more, perhaps even a lot more, some ships left The New Empire to explore south when they found that expansion into The Fallen Empire of man was going to be far more difficult than they expected.

When they found themselves near this southern continent, they sailed to a beach and set up camp. It was a tough land full of oversized flora and fauna, but resource rich. Lots of big trees and big animals to eat and take hide from. Unfortunately, as conquistador types often do, they ran into some natives. Things went quite well for the natives, the explorers had some guns and cannons, but the natives knew the forest and they knew the denizens of the forest. They also had the help of their gods.

They call/ed them The Gods of the Deep Earth, there were/are/? ten of them and the tribes of this southern continent worship them as, well, gods. Not as mighty beings of power that they serve, but as god gods, the creators of everything. Anyway, the gods were good to their worshippers and wiped the beaches free of these invaders. The explorers lost their ships and a lot of their supplies, but they survived.

Once the explorers could not steal everything not nailed down and flee, the natives left them alone to forge their own destiny. Their gods were benevolent, and they were happily willing to follow the example laid down by their creators. So the explorers got all factiony and some went native, others were determined to conquer the damn place in the name of their king. Others went against decades of propaganda calling cultists madmen and delusional and decided to start worshipping The Gods of the Deep Earth.

The natives are an old race of lizardfolk types from various clans all over the continent, they use obsidian weaponry and live in a fairly primitive tribal society. Obsidian is quite abundant in the area due to the volcanic activity of the place, which is a result of the god's activities within their mountain domain. The jungle is large and jungle-like with lots of poisonous critters and insects, and what might be called Hekinoeian dinosaurs. Sorcery is only really known in its druidic form on the continent, and it keeps the theme of unreliability we're all used to.

It's kind of an untamed place with only the lizardfolk and their gods. The explorers from over a hundred years ago have fallen on hard times for the most part. As I said, some went native and took to jungle life. Others became cultists. The largest chunk of explorers became a militaristic society obsessed with the idea of conquering the place in the name of The New Empire.

Those descended from those that have gone native so to speak are tolerated. They tried to start some shit and the god bitch slapped them, but they and their descendants have changed. They're not welcomed among the various clans of lizardfolk, but they don't hunt them.

The crazy cultist types are considered fools and madman, mainly because the lizardfolk believe that they were created as crude representations of their gods and no sane god would create something that looks like an Elduman or Elduman descended human. Seriously, they have no scales or talons and that is just plain gross.

Those that claim they want to conquer this land are hunted pretty extensively. They usually live in tree forts and keep lizardfolk captives as slave labor. They take as much as they can from the areas surrounding their encampments and from those they slay in battle. They are pretty straightforward examples of foreign conquerers that feel they're entitled to everything.

The god(s), they live in their mountains doing god type things.

I'm not sure if this jungle place matters, but it is there.

Short

So my other group, the one Shawn DM's, had some problems using MapTool. We are playing through Keep On The Shadowfell at the moment, and we got lucky and found a campaign file that someone had used to convert all the maps and enemies of The Keep on the Shadowfell into MapTool usable data. It is a really nice set up that works rather well. Unfortunately, we happened to game at my house one time. Shawn and I were in my living room, Lance and Kristina were in Seattle. Shawn forgot his laptop at home so he had to run the session off of my desktop and he did not have the data for the campaign. So, MapTool was not feasible.

We got Skype working and were chatting with Lance and Kristina while Shawn was fiddling with something in Excel. I didn't quite see what he was doing, but it looked like he was basically converting the pdf maps of the adventure into an Excel spreadsheet. He then created and labelled little shapes to represent Erevan, Blinders, and Cerra and the hordes of Kobolds we were about to face. I believe we were outnumbered two to one in that fight.

Shawn then uploaded his little spreadsheet and sent it to us via Gmail. We then played what amounted to DnD Battleship. Blinders moves to J3 and Weight of Earth's the Kobold at K3. The Kobold at J7 bloodies Erevan as he moves into and out of J6, etc. It actually worked quite well. Shawn really rather liked the way it went so apparently we will be using that till further notice.

Which is fine, it works and we don't really need all the tool tip displays and dice rollers and chat features of MapTool. They're nice, and the macros are handy for using healing surges and rolling initiative, but I find myself nostalgic for "old school" gaming with reams of paper and pencils and dice clattering about like plastic thunder.

It was a neat little thing Shawn did and I like it. I am excited to play again.

That Went Well

It is currently September 26 as I write this, but it probably won't be published to post for like a week. That said, I gamed yesterday with the group I GM for (and I game with my other group tonight! So much gaming!). Once again, my players have amazed me with their forethought and planning. They did good. The mission was to kidnap a big bruiser of a dude that practiced sorcery. They very neatly and intelligently sidestepped the inherent dangers of such a task.

I had planned, and when I say planned I mean I had assumed, on them just storming the guy's house and beating him into unconsciousness. I tend to plan my scenarios based on the most straightforward route to completion. In the past, that is generally how the group has done things. Lately they've been surprising me though, and I really enjoy that.

Anyway, what they did was scout the tower (a little four story stone thing), once they determined it wasn't bustling with activity they tried to find and disable any sorcerous protections the guy had. They were very concerned about taking him alive and without any sort of bloodshed, good on them, the mission was to kidnap the guy but make it look like he just up and left and not like he was taken by a band of banditos in the night. They almost left his sword behind though, heh.

Anyway, they ended up using stealth and Gaseous Form to infiltrate the tower and ended up drugging the target with the most potent transcutaneous paralytic agent they could find. Eric even had Xein make a Heal check to see if he could use his Craft (Alchemy) to alter the chemical composition of the poison so it would have greater potency against their target's race. He ended up making it easier to resist by getting a 1 on his Craft (Alchemy) check, heh. Such are the vagaries of fate.

There were a few things I wish they would have done. They did figure out that it seems like reavers have been leaving the city they were in, which is important. But I don't know if they understood that Nakmander's operation was a one night only thing and he isn't responsible for all the other reavers that have been leaving the city for the past few weeks. They also didn't grill Nakmander too hard on why they were kidnapping reavers and why he was collecting them in his basement. Some missed opportunities there for getting a view of the wider picture.

That said, I really had a lot of fun watching them do their thing. They were on the ball last night. Everyone contributing and going about things as a team. I even stopped in the midst of everything to say that this is what I love about GMing. I really liked just watching them work, and it wasn't the counter-productive running in circles planning they ran into in previous scenarios. They came up with a few plans, settled on one that seemed promising, and got shit done. It was great. I loved hearing them reason and plan things out.

Eric got super frustrated about the money issue and everyone not caring, but the role-playing went well, although I don't think he would agree with that statement. Jeremy and Fred played their characters fairly true to the material though. The missing money will never be resolved at this point I think. Spineplate felt he was entitled to his full share, he never wastes group funds on food, drink, clothes, or booze, and he usually gets pretty beat up in fights. D'alton just doesn't care. Again, good on everyone for playing their characters right during the conversation.

The little Gonigi Montoya thing went well, I was hoping they would be more concerned about what he was up to, but I think Derf's actions were kind of distracting. It went well though.

Overall, I was pleased with everything that went down. Good job gentlemen.

I asked the players for a bit of info about Tesla's Boil and the staff there and a little bit about their (the players) personalities and how much they know about each other. Got some useful information for a later date. Heh. Xein will apparently be adding caffeinated beer to the Boil's stable of booze. I have ideas for that.

We also discussed some of my plans for the next campaign. Fred thought they (my plans) were stupid and that they (the group) should never sit down and make plans for what they want to do. Fred is dumb though and we forgive him. I kid. The way I think it will end up going is that we have scheduled planning sessions where there is a scenario going on, but the majority of it will be role-playing or jotting out goals. Then they assign levels of importance to said goals, and I do the GM thing and make their goals reality. We play a few scenarios, see where we are, then we have another planning session. I envision the planning sessions as relatively relaxed, we hang out and bullshit, jot down a couple ideas, bullshit some more, watch a Youtube video, plan more, call Eric a bitch, then call it a night.

Fred seemed slightly more open to that idea, but I sensed hesitation. We'll see how it goes. I'm just sick of having to have Bob Quest Giver on hand and trying to find ways to get the players to associated with him and do things for him in a reasonably believable fashion. I'd like it more if the players were working for themselves and making their own decisions about their own goals. My main goal is for us all to have fun, but I want them to get invested in the world and the characters they are playing.

Then, once they "care" about their characters and the world, I want to have Rhetkhan Kannunn burn everything to cinders and make my players cry. Heh

Edit After The Fact: Apparently I missed it when the players asked why they were going after this particular reaver. What I would have told the players if I had been paying attention would be that Cenn is taking his reavers out of Hell for his own reasons and he and Nakmander have made an agreement where Nakmander will remove those reavers unwilling to leave the city without killing them. Nakmander will then be allowed to capitalize on the weakened government of Hell.

Character Concept

So I have this somewhat goofy idea for a character. I was kind of thinking of something in the vein of an NPC that the players pick up in a situation where they have to bring this bystander along with them, or they (the NPC) almost assuredly just die. Or perhaps kind of a follower that won't get the fuck away from them. Just someone, a normal person, that ends up tagging along with the party. It would definitely be a bit of a change from the undying combat monstrosity that Kethranmeer is.

The concept behind the character is that he would be a commoner, just a person that the players run in to during their adventures. Maybe in a bar or something. He spends most of his time screaming or crying or just generally being terrified and whatnot. Eventually a point would come where everyone is occupied and there is stuff going on during the battle and he is forced to do something other than bystand. So he picks up a flagon or a bench or something and starts beating people with it to help out.

He would be centered around the Pathfinder feats for improvised weapons and he would kind of just run around going "Yikes!" and lobbing rocks at enemies or bashing them into people's heads while the players occupy their attention. I really like the feel of those improvised weapon feats and it is a fun idea for a character I think. Someone who is totally unprepared for combat and still manages to have some effect on his surroundings.

He wouldn't have a player class starting out, despite being the same level as the players. I have an idea that he would start out with levels in Commoner. As the campaign progressed the goal would be for the players to kind of help him out and teach him and form a bond of friendship or something with him to help keep him alive. They so rarely interact with NPCs on a regular basis (even Kethranmeer) that it would be a growing experience for all of us.

As the players helped him and interacted with him, he would upgrade. Perhaps something in the vein of converting his levels in Commoner to Warrior and then to Fighter. Perhaps he'd go down a different path if they just ignored him and let him survive on his own. I haven't decided on that yet. The gist of it is that he would maintain the improvised weapon/punches thing throughout his career, but as the players help him he would become more of an asset to the team.

I think it is kind of a neat idea and I think I'll try it for the next campaign arc. The difficult thing is that the players are not terribly caring individuals. Even their character backgrounds have most of them as self-centered individuals with only their goals and survival in mind. I have a difficult time coming up with a reason why they would bring such an individual along with them on their adventures, other than because I ask them to. Also, why won't this individual just pick up a sword or mace and start busting heads?

I have some ideas about how to go about this, and they work nicely with some events going on right now that are only tangentially related to the whole rebellion idea. I should be able to make it work, but we'll see. We're adding Sean into the mix for the next campaign arc, and Jeff may rejoin us after his three scenario absence, so we may have too many people as is. If the party is too big, an NPC might be unnecessary, and I'm not going to negatively impact game time just because I have a story in my head that needs to be tied up.

Game Mechanics

What the fuck is marking?

When a Paladin does it, it is a divine compulsion. With a Swordmage it is sorcerous link between you and the target, and with the Battlemind it is a psionic "Hey you, fucking look at me." The Warden has abilities that act on his marked targets when they do stuff, but like the Fighter, it is still just listed as "you mark X target(s)." The Fighter marks by attacking an enemy, and the Warden just goes and does it.

So a mark is -2 to the target's attack rolls if they don't attack you. Now, I get what it is about from the game mechanics standpoint. I understand that it is a mechanic for holding aggro and keeping your enemies looking at you as an attractive option to hit, rather than squishier targets.

But what does it mean? What happens in the game? It can't be that you're leaving yourself open for an attack, otherwise you'd get the -2 to your defense or whatever, rather than your mark getting it to attacks he makes against others. I just don't understand how it plays out in the game world. Are you yelling at your opponent or warning your allies about his attacks in some way? If so, does that mean in an area of magical silence you can't mark? Are you throwing sand in their eye or otherwise using some distracting technique? That doesn't make any sense, otherwise it would be a penalty to attacks rolls against everyone. Is it some repositioning attack technique that forces your opponent to shift their facing or some such? No, because there is no movement involved with the Fighter marking mechanic, unless it stems from the power itself.

With the Warden it is a little easier to brush under the rug. You can say that you call on primal spirits of the grass and trees and waylay your enemies and trip up their footing and strikes as they try to harm your allies. Even in the most barren of places, it is hard to get away from nature. There is wind to tangle robes, or pebbles that can shift underfoot in deep caves, and so on.

I know this Fighter marking shit is one little bitty thing, but it just sticks in my brain. Kethranmeer, my Soulless NPC is a fighter, but I never have him mark enemies. I just cannot find a way to justify in what I think of as role-playing terms. So my undead mini-golem dude doesn't mark. Luckily he was the only defender in the group while we were playing 4th Edition. Scratch that, Fred was a Swordmage, he just never used his Aegis to mark. Heh.

I suppose it is silly to expect realism out of a game where magic sword dudes can cast spells that allow them to teleport next to people when those people attack the magic sword dude's friends. I do though. I like it when things can make sense and game mechanics can duplicate reality within reason. I don't necessarily need to have my teleports displace air or my fireballs increase the ambient heat of an area, but I do like it when they do.

Now, this marking thing is a small thing, and I avoid it by not playing a Fighter. I've just been super pro 4th Edition of late and felt I should tone down the fanboy in me a bit. I recognize the system has its flaws and is not perfect.

Winterhaven Style

The following will be a collected and slightly cleaned up (not much though) recount of my group's adventures up to this point. Our first session amounts to Cerra (Kristina) and Blinders (Lance) walking down the road towards Winterhaven and Erevan (Me) stumbling out of the forest like a, well, like an Erevan. He is special. Anyway, they exchanged pleasantries and the DM (Shawn) explained that our characters would know the road is dangerous so we joined together and headed out to Winterhaven. On our way to Winterhaven we encountered some road troubles involving some Kobolds and Erevan failed at pretty much everything he did. It was pretty spectacular. Once we got to Winterhaven, we found a tavern and cooled our heels while drinking some ale. Then we started with the emails.

I guess I should say what everyone is. Erevan is an Eladrin Bard, Cerra is a Halfling Rogue, and Blinders is a Razorclaw Shifter Warden. We're all level 2.

DM: As you all are gathering yourselves and Blinders is sucking down his ale, you look around and take account of all the people in the common room:

1. Bartender
2. Old farmer
3. A sage-ish looking old man with a long beard (think ZZ-top)
4. A tough-looking man appearance commands respect, sitting at a corner table sipping ale
5. A female elf looking bitter sitting alone

Erevan: Erevan looks forlornly at his coin purse and resolves to prove he is moderately competent at something and puts a carny grin full of his clean white elfy teeth on his face. He gets up from his lonely table and meanders over to the bartender and says, "Would you be interested in adding some entertainment to this humdrum establishment? On the cheap? I assure you, I am a competent smith of songs and tomfoolery and can brighten the day for all your drab and sorry customers, and perhaps by word of mouth I can draw further attention to this nearly unnoticeable establishment." He makes a Diplomacy check to get gainful employment singing songs and gets an 18. Erevan is not being snarky, he genuinely assumes that non-Eladrin are depressed about not being Eladrin.

Blinders: Blinders is about finished with his first ale by the time Erevan is digging through his purse. He then check his own purse and orders 3 more rounds. Before leaving the bar to sit at the table Erevan has chosen, he asked the bartender about the strange encounter they had earlier today. I wonder if this sort of thing was common, or if roving bands of Kobolds were new to the landscape. I make a streetwise check to see what kind of information I get from the bartender before sitting down and get an 18.

Cerra: Cerra nods a small thanks to the bar tender and joins Erevan and Blinders at the table. "How long do we plan on staying in this town?" she asks, her boredom of Winterhaven present on her voice. She glances at the Eldarin as he is looking wildly around the bar with a massive grin on his face and gives an amused smile. The shifter seems totally oblivious to everything except his drink. With a sigh she resigns herself to these travel companions, sits back and enjoys her ale.

DM: The bartender looks at Erevan and considers his offer. She then takes a second glance at Blinders and a cursory glance back at the Halfling whom she didn’t notice before.

Looking back at Erevan she says “My name is Salvana Wrafton, in case you were ever going to ask.” She offers a quick smile then adds “I will take you up on your offer to entertain, however with this stingy crowd here tonight I won’t have much of a profit to send your way. I propose that, since I have a few open rooms, that I will provide you with one at no charge to you tonight in exchange for your entertainment. If you accept, please go have a seat with your group and eat some food first, then you may feel free to start.” (Diplomacy pass)

As Salvana is stating this, she notices that Blinders is beckoning for more ales and absent-mindedly starts filling up 3 more mugs. As she is delivering those mugs and after the makes her offer to Erevan, Blinders asks her about the Kobolds.

“Why, yes, those pesky Kobolds are everywhere it seems lately and braver all the time! Lord Padraig would probably be interested in hearing your story though; he’s been trying to get the militia to clear out those vermin for the last few months with no success. If you would like to talk to Lord Padraig, he arrived shortly before you did and is over sitting in the corner sipping his ale. However, he likes to sit and relax a while before being bothered. Please, all of you sit and eat!” (Streetwise pass – she seems very open to divulge any information she may know)

You all are at a table in the middle of the dining room. You hear noise in the kitchen, reminiscent of pots and pans clanking and the smell of food is wafting out towards you.

Erevan: Erevan says, "Offer accepted!" and performs a rather foppish bow to the human at the bar, then returns to the table he was seated at. He immediately pulls out a [writing utensil] and [appropriate medium for the tech level] and begins composing a ballad of bloodshed and mayhem to fire the souls of the drab humans in the bar. He uses some vague memories of a snippet of information he read about a battle between the Eladrin and Drow of the Feywild as his inspiration, not realizing that the Eladrin lost the particular battle he is writing about and that they were in fact fighting Fomorians. Nonetheless, it is a song of honor and glory and the horribly outnumbered Eladrin do stomp the icky Drow pretty forcibly and send them running back into the Feydark.

Blinders: Blinders grabs the three mugs and before he heads to the table asks more about Lord Padraig and where to find him. I'm sure Salvana has a response. After hearing the response, I would like to go sit at the table with Erevan and Cerra, and proceed to eat and drink. Blinders is thinking he may bring this up with Lord Padraig if there is a opportune time to meet with him. But right now he is focused on resting his aching body, and consuming, what he thinks was the dwarven greatest contribution to society was, ale.

Erevan: Erevan puts his [tech level appropriate writing device] away into one of his various pockets and produces his lute from another. His gaze is focused and quite nearly steely as he takes to the stage and prepares to sing. He fiddles with his lute for a moment, tuning it and also unhooking a clamp device that holds his hastily scribbled notes in such a position that he can look at them while holding and playing his lute. He clears his throat and calls for the attention of the room, and without waiting for a response, he begins.

What follows is a ballad that speaks of bravery, excitement, war, love, the ever present disease of ennui that threatens the immortal Eladrin, and also possesses the lute equivalent of power chords. Erevan will forever remember it as one of his best performances ever. The people of the tavern will remember it as a bunch of high pitched gibberish, because Erevan tells his noble tale in the Eladrin variant of Elven that is spoken in the Feywild.

Following his performance, a single tear falling from his eye, he bows and returns to the table he shares with Blinders and Cerra. After putting away his lute and notes he extends his hands across the table and rests one on one of Blinders and the other on one of Cerra's and says, "Thank you for being part of that." Erevan makes an Insight check and gets an 8, he assumes that Blinders and Cerra are as touched and affected as he is by his epic ballad.

Erevan reclaims his hands and clears his throat, choking back his deep heartfelt pride for his race, and says, "So, this Lord Padraig gentleman, he sounds like he has money and holdings and perhaps could be divested of part of said money and/or holdings if canny adventurers, such as ourselves, were to wreak mayhem on his behalf. I think this is something we should investigate."

Cerra: Cerra looks at Erevan after his performance with bewildered amusement. She turns to Blinders and says "At least he is entertaining!", trying to stifle a giggle.

She looks back at Ereven to address the matter of Lord Padraig saying "I agree that we should speak to him on this matter, if anything it will give us a chance to become more familiar with the area." With a warm smile she takes another swig of her drink and leans back in her chair.

DM: As Erevan is leaning back in his chair and Cerra has taken a sip of her ale, a tall dark tough-looking man lays his hand on Erevan's shoulder. None of you heard or saw him coming, and as you look up at him, you see a glitter of moisture in his eyes. He looks down at Erevan and says:

That was beautiful son. I have never before heard such a powerful ballad. Even though I don't know what in the Abyss you were saying, it touched me. ::Slight sniffle:: I would like to buy you all a round of whatever you are drinking.

With that, he motions to Salvana and makes a circular gesture over his head with his index finger pointing up. He then moves towards the empty chair and, as he is sitting down he continues.

My name is Lord Padraig, I am this measly town's lord. What brings such a motley crew such as yourselves to a run-down humdug place as this? Looks like you have had some hard travels as well.

Erevan: Erevan smiles at the human and yells, "THAT IS UNDERSTANDABLE MILORD. I HAVE HEARD THAT HUMANS OF ADVANCED AGE, SUCH AS YOURSELF, HAVE DECREASED HEARING ABILITIES."

He takes a moment to gesture at the elegant curves and points of his own ears and says, "MY PEOPLE HAVE NO SUCH PROBLEM, AGE BRINGS ONLY WISDOM FOR US, NEVER DEATH OR DIMINISHED FACULTIES. ALSO, THE POINTS CHANNEL SOUND, MAKING IT MUCH EASIER TO PERCEIVE THE FINE DETAILS OF OUR TONGUE THAT ALL HUMANS TEND TO MISS."

Erevan gestures at the table now and says, "PLEASE JOIN US LORD PADRAIG SO THAT WE MAY DISCUSS THE INTERESTING EVENTS OF OUR TRAVELS WITH YOU, SHORT THOUGH THEY MAY HAVE BEEN."

Blinders: Blinders gives Erevan a sideways glance, pondering how much time outside of his own race he's spent. He looks back at Lord Padraig and gives a terse recollection of their travels to Winterhaven … figuring Erevan would fill in any details that he left out.

Blinders then asks Lord Padraig if this sort of Kobold activity is common … realizing while he tries to get out of the cities as much as he can … he never in his travels had seen such a large group on a road as developed as the one to Winterhaven. He also asks the Lord if he is charged with the protection of the roads they came in on, or if that was too far out of his dominion. Blinders makes a Diplomacy check and gets a 14.

Cerra: Sensing Blinder's urgency to pull the Lord's attention off their Eldarin companion, Cerra says lightly "We'd be willing to help you out with your Kobolod problem....for a price of course. Such endeavors are not risk free and we'd expect to be fairly compensated." Cerra then scoots closer to Lord Padraig and says softly "I do apologize if our friend has offended you in any way. Blinders and I happened upon him on our journey here and he was quite out of his element battling several Kobold's so we felt we should help the poor lad out. I am fairly certain he bumped his head a bit during battle which has resulted in his...behavior." With that, she smiles sweetly at the Lord and asks what he recommends from the bar. Cerra makes a Diplomacy check and gets a 22.

DM: Lord Padraig looks quite taken aback by the way Erevan is speaking to him. So much so that he seems like he is about to throw his drink at Erevan. Luckily, Blinders and Cerra jump in to the conversation to correct what Erevan has started.

After listening to Blinders, Lord Padraig gives him a sigh and a nod, showing his understanding and disdain towards the Kobold activities. Before Lord Padraig can start speaking, Cerra continues the conversation. Lord Padraig listens intently to Cerra, taking a sip of his ale as she concludes.

Well, Cerra, what I recommend is the ale that I have already ordered us all, it is the best in Winterhaven, as well as the only. As for your friend here, he must be fresh from the Fey Wild as he seems to not know much about the human race. Lord Padraig makes an Insight check and gets an 8.

However, you have survived one encounter with those pesky Kobolds. Those beasts vex me sorely. Yet the villagers refuse to recognize the seriousness of the problem. Attacks along the road have grown more frequent over the last few months. Something’s stirring the kobolds up. I'll take you up on your offer. Here is a map showing the area where the kobolds are believed to be brooding. If you can manage to eradicate their lair, you can keep whatever loot you find as well as I'll throw in 100 gold. How does this sound to you?

Erevan: Erevan raises of flagon of what he can only assume is mop water from the bar floor and takes a long pull off of it, attempting to conceal a grimace as he does so. (Bluff check of 13)

After wiping his face with the back of his hand and thumping his mug down he says, "They task us as well Lord Padraig, they task us, and we shall have them!"

He leaps from the table (Acrobatics check of 24) and performs a salute with his sword to Lord Padraig, saying grimly, "We shall have them Lord Padraig, we shall find them and take them in their holes and bring down your wrath upon their scaly heads. In your name we shall bring fire and fear to the kobolds terrorizing Winterhaven."

Erevan gestures wildly with his unsheathed blade and says, "We sally forth now my boon companions and know that we ride out for war, for Winterhaven, and for a red dawn on the morrow!" (Diplomacy check of 23 to inspire his companions, Lord Padraig, and all the weary souls of the tavern)

He then charges out of the tavern, nearly skewering a townsperson passing by the door with his sword as he does so.

Blinders: Blinders is obviously struck by the spectacle. He covers his face with his hand and slowly shakes his head. He has never seen a creature with such zeal, and yet seemingly clueless.

At this point Blinders can see what's unfolding infront of him. He finishes his flagon, looks up to Lord Padraig, and reiterates what Erevan says.

He then looks over to Cerra and asks "I hope he did't get us in over our heads ... I suppose we ought to help our enthusiastic friend before he hurts himself."

Cerra: Cerra gives Blinders a small smile before rising and heading out the door. She only hopes she can catch up to the bard before he causes more trouble....

The next session involves the group restraining Erevan and brining him up to their room in the inn because it is fairly late in the evening and they don't want to wander off into the forest without resting after the fight they just finished. On the following morning, Erevan's enthusiasm is undimmed and he barrels off into the woods with sword outstretched and his cape billowing out behind him. The three of them then get jumped by Kobolds and what follows is an encounter that the three survive just barely. Erevan's first two rolls are critical successes, much better than last battle. Heh.