Post/Author/DateTime	Post
yog_slogoth 03-13-08, 11:41 AM	On Monday we started a new Dark Sun campaign with the Freedom adventure. I have four players from whom two played a Dark Sun campaign with me 10 years ago. One player has never even heard about it, and one read the books but never played. I have to say that we heavily rely on home rules, and the so evening started with the mul gladiator *****ing around, that the preserver was overpowered. So after everybody was ****** off, we finally started. I had told the people the in their first adventure they were going to get enslaved, because in the past I have made the experience that the players fight like feral beasts not to get enslaved. The mul gladiator started as a slave, the human preserver was enslaved after he ran into the minthur boy. The dwarfen sun cleric ran into two elven bullies, and the human thief/psion was caught shortly after a preserver girl came to his table. Then they met their overseer, who told them how to build bricks. Soon they realized that they have to get more water and foot if they wanted to last longer than just a few days, and the mul started bullying some of the weaker looking slaves. The preserver wanted to make contact to some slaves who were willing to start a revolt, but found not so willingly slaves. After three days the sun cleric convinced the mul to start a revolt. But the mule could kill only three watchmen before he was struck down by a templar. The other players didn’t help him, only shouting at the other slaves to join the revolt. The guards took the mul and everything else went on. The thief/psion was contacted by the preserver girl, which was able to help them with more food and water. So in general everything went quite smooth, only the mul was a little bit annoying since he always *****ed at the preserver, whenever he wanted to do something and soon the preserver was very quiet.
yog_slogoth 03-26-08, 04:19 AM	Another session with my group. At the beginning of the second evening they remaining three characters were send into a tent of a templar where they got some exquisite food and even wine. The templar asked them a little about the mule but was not very interested, so everybody kept silent and eating. When they wanted to join the group around Granj everybody else soon left the place and soon they were sitting alone. They realized immediately that this was some effect of the meal in the tent. Anyway they said, that the slaves were just a bunch of cowards. Some new slaves were thrown in the slave pits and one of them was the halfgiant Urgoss, which befriended with the dwarfen cleric, after they helped him against some annoying elves. Later in the evening Urgoss insisted to help some nobles which were thrown into the pit by Kalak himself. A horde of slaves wanted to kill them, and Urgos alone was not able to save them. After this event Urgos turned to the human psion/thief because the dwarf did not want to intervene. The dwarf met again with the halfelf which he saved from the elves before he was thrown into the slave pits, but they did not talk that much. Later in one night they discovered the invisible preserver who was terrible injured from a fight with templars and guards. They pulled him out of the danger zone and hid him behind the half giant. The next day they pulled him to work where they hid him between some piles of bricks. In this situation they weren’t that intelligent, but I let them do. In the evening the preserver left them, and told them if they survive they should search for him. Two days later they found some extra food in the morning. Rumors started that the ziggurat was close to completion and some hope of survival for our heroes in bad shape came to being. They stopped their plans of escape and worked as pretty slaves barely alive when the ziggurat was finally finished. The mul gladiator was brought to the gladiators ground where he was cured of his most severe wounds and the had to fight against a tembo. He didn’t know anything about the tembo, therefore he was surprised about the death zone, but with two lucky hits he almost killed the beast before the overseer stopped the fight. He trained some days with other gladiators not very interested in rumors or something, so we made this short and he wanted to fight in the great games. He won all his three fights, with the last one being heavily injured. He was healed by a templar, and then sent to the other slaves in the upper echelons. I have to mention, that this time the people were less enthusiastic, and therefore I had to push a lot of things. This was a little bit disappointing, but I think it was due to the fact, that I stopped their attempts to escape in the last evening. I hope this will be better next week, when they can do a little bit more on their own. They busted me a little with the question how many slaves are in the slave pits, and after I found nothing mentioned in the adventure I said around one thousand… :confused: Since the preserver and the gladiator didn’t really see them during this evening, this was really smooth and I hope this will go on.:)
The PeaceBringer 03-27-08, 04:15 PM	Do the characters split up alot or do you manage to make them stick together? I had that problem with this adventure and Road to Urik. If I ever DMed these adventures again, I'd probably ask my players to have all their PCs from their character tree ready and I'd have them handy to come into play whenever splits did happen. For instance, my mul gladiator player made "friends" with the templars by becoming a zealous overseer and thus didn't follow his friends to plan an escape, my water cleric player was taken out of the pit when he and the half-giant became nobles and eventually, the gladiator found his way in the gladiator pits (and not the other PCs), etc. Hope it goes well on your next game. :)
yog_slogoth 03-28-08, 04:37 AM	We had a long talk about splitting a year ago, where everybody complained about the others doing too much solo. So we agreed that everybody tries to keep with the group. Most of the time this works. For Freedom I made the scenes where everybody is captured relatively short, about 20 Min., so noboby was complaining, especially since some were still working on their characters With the mul gladiator I had some luck.:D He wasnt there when the others were playing last evening, and we played the day after. We will see if this is going to work in the future.
yog_slogoth 04-02-08, 03:10 AM	Ohhh, what a mess. Yesterday we played again with one player missing. And normally this player can take the lead if the others are holding back. How I missed him. But, first things first. It started with the mul gladiator coming 30 minutes to late. My mood wasn’t in good shape when we started and the preserver began to take his evening meal, which didn’t help. Do you know this:” Sommy mummpf mumpf, whap dip you say? Mummpf Mumpf”. All characters were in the ranks again, and watched the gladiator games. Because I was so ****** off already I made this very short and soon the great endgame with Rikus and Neeva started. The sun cleric used the time to heal the mul a little. And when Kalak was injured by Rikus spear I asked them, what they wanted to do. They started to discuss, what they could do, and after 2 minutes I told them that a group of slaves overwhelmed the halfgiant and the guard. When the drain of Kalaks magic began to work they decided to go through one passage were nobody was waiting only to find a pile of bodies. When they saw the bodies they retreated and changed for a passage where two halfgiants and a templar were standing. Nobody of them wanted to make it into the front row and finally I told them that the mob overwhelmed the half giants with terrible losses. They chased the fleeing templar, but lost him in a crowd in front of the exit gate. The best idea they came up with was: Wait and see. Tithian began to announce the death of Kalak and the beginning of a new age in Tyr and the adventure was done. This time my players gave me a hard time because they showed no heroic motivation, no motivation at all. When I confronted them with that the sun cleric said, that years of railroading trained him to wait for the DM to tell him to throw the dices. The preserver said that his actions in the pits didn’t make a difference and that he had not the feeling that they could make a difference this time. I am still not sure what I should learn from this experience. One thing I found hard to cope with was the draining effect of Kalaks magic since the preserver was almost dead already from the pits and strictly speaking it would have killed him after two minutes. So all I said repeatedly was that people around them dropped to the ground, but on them it actually had no effect. Playing it hard would have meant that no magician and thief would have lived to the end.
The PeaceBringer 04-02-08, 11:25 AM	One thing I found hard to cope with was the draining effect of Kalaks magic since the preserver was almost dead already from the pits and strictly speaking it would have killed him after two minutes. So all I said repeatedly was that people around them dropped to the ground, but on them it actually had no effect. Playing it hard would have meant that no magician and thief would have lived to the end. To make my players worry, they sustained 1 physical ability (Str, Dex and Con) about every 5 minutes. I figure the plan is not to kill them at that point, just make it harder for them to fight through the enemy lines. Anyways, I'm sure it'll get better for you, next game. ;)
pneumatik 04-03-08, 12:14 PM	I've never played Freedom, but when I read it I thought it was both great and horrible at the same time. It's great because I think it does a good job of showing how to run an adventure in which different people get to do things that relate specifically to their character, yet still keeps the party together. But it's horrible because it's the worst kind of metaplot adventure. Not only do the PCs not move the metaplot along themselves, they don't even really get to help the metaplot protaganists with their fight. You go through the whole adventure and in the end you're freed because some awesome heroes killed Kalak, who's so awesome you have no chance of killing him. Booorrrinnnng. Actually, it's worse than boring. It's wasted effort. If the PCs had never lived the game world would be pretty much the same. So that's what I think you should learn from running the adventure. Get the PCs involved in any overarching plot. Even if other NPCs do the heavy lifting, let the PCs influence events somehow - helping friendly powerful NPCs, disrupting the villians plans, etc. Unfortunately, there's not much you can do about this in Freedom.
Zardnaar 04-03-08, 02:19 PM	I've never played Freedom, but when I read it I thought it was both great and horrible at the same time. It's great because I think it does a good job of showing how to run an adventure in which different people get to do things that relate specifically to their character, yet still keeps the party together. But it's horrible because it's the worst kind of metaplot adventure. Not only do the PCs not move the metaplot along themselves, they don't even really get to help the metaplot protaganists with their fight. You go through the whole adventure and in the end you're freed because some awesome heroes killed Kalak, who's so awesome you have no chance of killing him. Booorrrinnnng. Actually, it's worse than boring. It's wasted effort. If the PCs had never lived the game world would be pretty much the same. So that's what I think you should learn from running the adventure. Get the PCs involved in any overarching plot. Even if other NPCs do the heavy lifting, let the PCs influence events somehow - helping friendly powerful NPCs, disrupting the villians plans, etc. Unfortunately, there's not much you can do about this in Freedom. Not a fan of metaplots. The Dragon should have been let alone for example for a PC to kill not kiled off after a couple of years in a cheesy way. With DS you can get the feeling your PCs are only alnog for the ride.
Pringles 04-08-08, 03:06 AM	Today, we took a break from our old campaign and played Freedom for the first time with new character. We had; - One Dwarf earth-cleric fighter who is also a blacksmith-slave of House Vordon. - One Half-giant Fighter who is a slave-soldier of House Vordon. - And one female Human Bard/Preserver who is a slave of House Minthur (played by a girl in my group). My first job was to introduce them to Tyr and capture them for the Ziggourat in making. So the Dwarf and the Half-giant were tasked by Taxos Vordon to go in Shadow Square to buy a saphir from an elf who have a shack there. That gem was to be used in the making of a magic metal weapon for the upcoming Gladiator game. The Bard was in Shadow Square to buy magical component and material for poison making. After hour of role-playing, buying crap and introducing them together in various way, I played the event "Press gang" in Shadow Square. They tried to fight there way trough the half-giant. The PC half-giant was captured and the dwarf and the bard barely escaped (with 1 or 2 hit point left). So now, the party is divided. The Half-giant is captured and the two other still free but wanted, since they managed to kill a Templar in th e escape. Also, they took the street that lead right in the elfe district near the bridge and the night is coming. The game finished when they arrived there, low on hit point and water, and with all the elf looking at them suspiciously, like vulture on a prey. Next game, I plan to capture them with the elf during the night and sell them to the Templar, so the party can be reunited. The only flaw of Freedom I see right now is that it's easy to break off the party and it's sometime hard to keep them together.
yog_slogoth 04-08-08, 03:23 AM	But it's horrible because it's the worst kind of metaplot adventure. Not only do the PCs not move the metaplot along themselves, they don't even really get to help the metaplot protaganists with their fight. You go through the whole adventure and in the end you're freed because some awesome heroes killed Kalak, who's so awesome you have no chance of killing him. Booorrrinnnng. I have to agree to pneumatik at this point, and actually I saw that one coming, but vast amount of good game material and some kind of strange nostalgia kept me to play it again. Now after this experience I would not do it again. I would start again in Tyr and again directly after the fall of Kalak (or even shortly before) but I would not force my players into slavery again.
yog_slogoth 04-08-08, 03:25 AM	The only flaw of Freedom I see right now is that it's easy to break off the party and it's sometime hard to keep them together. Actually my worries started when the players were thrown into the pits...:( I hope for you that it works better with your group and Im interrested to hear how it worked in the pits.
yog_slogoth 04-09-08, 02:32 AM	We started directly after the end of the Freedom adventure, with the players still staying in the ranks of the arena. All players were present again, and they began to obtain some cloth from the dead. The mul was able to obtain a steel shortsword from the hands of a dead templar (whose robe they also took), for which he he had to scare a half elf. The dwarf healed some of the wounded till he was oom, and then they left the stadium, to witness some pillage and plundering in the streets. The participated in a raid against the house Ianto, were they stealed a lot of money, and some goods.(Actually the had the choice to help the people from Ianto or the freed slaves and they decided to join the slaves, which had a B'rogh with them). They tried to make contact with Faldar, the preserver, but failed only to witness a horde of elves who had succesfully plundered some goods, to leave the city. They found an abandoned house, and made it their starting HQ. What was quite nice was, that one of the players hold a little speech about theor situation. They agreed that they all were new to Tyr, and that the current situation holds a lot of possibillties, and that if the stick together, they can come much further, then alone. This was really nice. The next day they heard of a general meeting annoucend by Tithian and joined only to be bored soon by bureaucracy and politics. We stopped here with them being a little bit clueless of what doing next. In general we had a quite good session, stumbling only whenever they had to make their own plans.:)
yog_slogoth 04-15-08, 10:22 AM	Another evening with the boyz. This time they freed a public well from a horde of marauding slave led by a B’rogh. The B’rogh was exact the same B’rogh which led the assault against the Ianto emporium. When the mul finished the B’rogh and the dwarf a half elf slave, the other slaves flew and again the well was free. They had a little misunderstanding with a group of templars about not being the slaves which occupy the well, but they were able to solve this without violence. In the Golden Inix they searched for Ktandeo, because the preserver has some problems with tapping energy for his spells from time to time and his master told him to ask Ktandeo, a magician for which he had great respect, to ask about this. They only met the half elven owner and her half giant bouncer, but for the very first time in their life they had really good Inix steak. When they went home, they heard some screams and fighting, coming from the stadium. There they had to fight some Undead, which was a really good time for the cleric. After finishing of the first round of undead, an undead war beetle breached the door to the templar district, with Dote Mal Payne riding on it. Assuming him as the source of the undead they climbed onto the rampaging beetle fighting a horde of undead templars. Before Mal Payne started his involvement they were on the winnig road, but soon the mul dropped and the cleric fell from the beetle. The preserver rescued the mul gladiator, and they led DMP escape, but DMP gave them a present with the words: ”You have fought brave new heroes of Free Tyr!” When they opened the bag they discovered a obsidian skull with ruby eyes, and the cleric had a bad feeling about it, but they took the skull and went home. Next evening in the Golden Inix, the preserver met with Sadira, which told him, that Ktandeo was killed by Kalaks templars before the ziggurat was finished, and that she could not help him. When the preserver mentioned the they were in the passion of the obsidian skull, Sadira insisted on speaking with Tithian. They couldn’t find Tithian but gained access to the royal library. After some research they were informed that the skull was some kind of phylactery of a defiler who 400 years ago annoyed Kalak to much with his ambitions. In Kalaks notes it was mentioned that the defiler possibly could take the dead body of people who have touched the skull to rise again. Since all heroes have touched the skull, this would mean, that the next PC which gets killed will rise again as the evil defiler Malachit. We ended the evening with the decision that they will try to destroy the skull by throwing it into a volcano near Makla. The evening went quite smooth with them following the plot line and making almost all the decisions which I had anticipated. So I was quite good prepared, and they some fun fighting undead, so everybody was happy.
Pringles 04-22-08, 02:47 AM	Another game in Freedom tonight. I failed again to capture all the PC. The last game ended with the PC fleeing the Press-gang in Shadow Square and entering the Elf district as the sun was setting behind the Rigging Mountain. As you know, the party was break off since the Half-giant player was captured in Shadow Square. So, the Dwarf (really low on hp) and the Human bard (played by a girl) arrive near the Elven bridge at night. There, I introduced the new player, a guy playing an halfling Illusionist/Trader. There, I tried to trap them with elf thief Prithen and Nandlex, but the halfling got ride of them by making an illusion of a gold coin he throwed in the canal below the bridge. They then runned off while the elves were searching for the golden coin. So I could'nt capture them there. They then arrived in my home-made Artisan quarter "Dwarven Town" (just north of the Slave pit, south of the Noble quarter on the Tyr map). That place was composed of small dwarven house and shop who were dedicated to construct the tool for the Ziggourat in exchange of limited freedom. The PC tryed to hide there, wrongly thinking to be safe there. They learned about Kled in the desert, a legend of a free dwarven village. With the Inn keeper Timroll, I tried to do the poisoning scene, but all PC succeeded there saving throw :( . The morning after, I made another Press-gang scene in the Dwarven Quarter, involving Torban and the PC half-giant, forced to work for Torban in exchange of water ( a way to get the PC reunited. ) Well, they won the fight ( I rolled bad dice the whole fight) and they even managed to turn the PC half-giant on there side against Torban. Then, when the reinforcment arrived, they escaped trough the city wall near by, using Dimension door. The game ended there, with all the PC still free, now running in Tyr field with no water in direction of Kled. Well, they are getting far away from the Ziggourat and slave pit. Next game, I will send Torban (riding a plated Inix) and more templar and half-giant and cavalry to capture them before they leave the Verdant Belt. If I fail again, well, I dont think I will continu Freedom. If anyone have good idea to share on how to capture the PC outside of Tyr without using too much obvious high level force against low level PC, I would like to hear your suggestion.
yog_slogoth 04-23-08, 04:07 AM	Fun and Fantasy with my boys. After 45 Min discussion which way they should take, they agreed to go to Urik via caravan route and there search for a scout. 30 Min later they decided that they want to ride Kanks and not Inix. I was so bored that I pushed them really fast now to a templar named Girias, who was not really cooperative, but a little Psi solved the problem and soon Girias helped them to obtain some gear and arms. He sent them to a little farm outside of Tyr which was held by some templars which thought of them as just another plundering slave band, but they were able to solve this misinterpretation. When they had their Kanks they realized that nobody had the riding skill and we had half an hour of fun, describing how they tried to ride their Kanks. Finally the Gladiator decided just to load his stuff onto the beast and walk. Shortly after that they had an encounter with a giant centipede, which they won. I was not really sure, but if they knew they did not act like they knew that if one of them gets killed, the evil defiler will rise again… They made their way through the farmlands when they met a group of slave hunters returning to Tyr with a group of slaves. When they told the slave hunters, that in Tyr now all slaves are free the slave hunters were quite skeptical, and they did not agree to let the slaves free. A short battle engaged, in which the leader of the slave hunters a half elf lost his right hand in the first round. The remaining slave hunters fled leaving only the captain and his sergeant at the hands of our heros. The sent the slaves to Tyr und discussed what to do with their 2 slave hunters. I really enjoyed the discussion if they could plunder the slave hunters or not. The dwarf said: Yes of course they are evil. But rest of the group agreed that in an evil society one has to work for his living and doing an evil deed doesn’t make him evil at all. So they gave the slave hunters some healing (but the hand was gone) and sent them to Tyr, too. I think the half elf will make some trouble for them when they return to Tyr. All in all it was a quite good evening, with a slow beginning, two short fights and some nice roleplaying. I think everybody enjoyed it. That’s the way it should be. :)
yog_slogoth 04-30-08, 10:54 AM	The last evening the boys left the green belt around Tyr and started their desert journey. After a short encounter with a sand cactus they arrived Fort Skonz where the met the fort-captain and his dwarven assistant psi master. They told him about the troubles in Tyr, and he in return said that they are waiting for a caravan with supplies from Tyr. Our Psi Thief had a short wrestle with the dwarf, but immediately drew back when he realized, that she was a Psi Master. The captain asked them if they can deliver a little package to their emporium in Urik. They agreed and left the next morning with some good advice for desert travel. Two days later they found a female elf lying in the desert, unconscious and bound. They were very conspicuous but finally they drew them into some shadows and unbound her. She did not wake up and so they found some other traces, which they followed. At the end of the traces they found the home of a stone turtle which was eating an elf. They defeated the turtle and found a bottle of poison and some antidote. With the antidote they healed the female elf which introduced herself as Torima. (One of the players asked immediately if she is the daughter of Toramund, so I would change the name, if would do this stunt again). She told them that she was captured by the elf , whom was a Clearwater elf named Obaha , because he wanted to marry her, but she did not want it. She told them to be careful if they come to Silver Spring, and then left the boys. In the next night some Jozhal tried to rob the group, while the Psithief was sleeping during his watch. The dwarf woke up, and they were able to capture one Jozhal, but the rest escape with the obsidian skull.
Pringles 05-06-08, 03:32 AM	Another good game. This one was specially cool cause of my new random encounter table that work pretty well (I will post an english translated version pretty soon). The only drawback is that it's not Freedom anymore, since the PC are now escaping in the desert. So, the last game they escaped Tyr using Dimension Door trough the city wall. They were now running in the Verdant belt, direction east where they heard there a dwarven village (it's in fact, Kled -North east-, but they dont know that , so they are going wrong direction :D ) I described the field of Tyr dryed and without crop cause there no more slave in the field (the city is at the edge of starving). They made a first stop 4 hour latter in an abandonned erdlu farm. They found a big pile of food there, but it was a loot made by Z'tal. I played them afraid first, and looking not dangerous, the PC did'nt care. But when they began to hord the food in the barn, 12 z'tal surrounded them, looking at them like crazed lizard. They used there scream (see mounstrous) and the PC had hard time dealing with them. I **** you not, I almost made a total party killing with 12 z'tal (I had good morale roll). They are indeed, nasty little beast. Staying 3 hour in this farm was there biggest mistake, cause while they were there, Torban (The half-giant press gang from Freedom book who I made a Templar/Fighter in my game) and his henchmen grabbed there mount and gave the chase of the PC, using a Jhakar (Torban is mounted on a big war inix, with complete chitin barding). The Pc psionic saw that using his clairevoyance. So the PC grabbed there stock and ran away to the east. They dodged two habited farm (fearing of getting captured) and they used a couple of trick to get ride of there smell (for the tracking Jhakar), so I gave them another chance. They finnaly got to the stonny barrens east of Tyr during the night. Without break, they continued there forced march trough the stonny barrens, and I made them veary dangerous with all sort of poisoning cactus, brambleweed, bloody treemiss etc (see A Little Knowledge). The next day, while they were running trough a kind of forest elf cactus (see Little Knowledge), they were chased by a pack of 4 Liirs. The Liirs were stalking them the whole time, making hit and run tactic to bring there Hp lower and lower and run there spell out. They managed to get ride of the Liirs ( I nearly made another Total Party Killing and they lost all there water during the battle). Now they see Fort Skonz on the horizon and the Sand dune behind, but Torban and his men are closing from the West and his advancing fast. They advanced to lvl 4. Next game is a big battle they have little chance to win against Torban. If they succeed (I doubt), I will capture them in Fort Skonz with poison. I plan to bring them in the Ziggourat once and for all and finally play Freedom.
yog_slogoth 05-16-08, 05:01 AM	Last week, we did not have enough players, and this week our mul gladiator could not join us. Not so much happening this time. The Psi-thief went into the mind of the captured Jozhal and extracted the needed information about their hideout. After killing the Jozhal (actually they had no problem with this, I was a little surprised) they went to hide out, which was a half buried ancient temple, with only a weathered statue looking out of the sand. With the info from the Jozhal they easily found the secret entrance and made their way through temple. They encountered one guard, who conjured some Tentacles, but soon the finished them off. The entered the place of the chief with the preserver in Jozhal disguise (actually the first spell he has thrown the whole campaign), and soon the skull was again in their hands. They found a helmet and a ring, and the chief had a staff (which he could not use). The could leave the place with the rest of the Jozhal on their heels. But they were able to close the entrance to the temple and left for Silver Spring.
yog_slogoth 05-20-08, 03:07 AM	Yesterday we had a nice evening. The boys entered Silver Spring and tried to avoid the elves which were desparetly trying to sell some stuff. They did not fell for the old trick with the invisibility ring, but in the end I got them to buy something written in Kurnan. The elf from whom they bought it could not read it, and since the Psi-thief is a natural Kurn, he easily found out that it was a report from a Kurnan spy about the Silver Hand elves. He asked the elf where he got that from, but the elf insisted on buying it from a caravan. I was a little disappointed since they did not try to find out what really happened, but they left Silver Spring and made their way to Urik. They had an encounter with a Weezer fighting against two Aaracockra, but they only watched the Aaracockra killing the Weezer and leaving with the water. The later encountered the Timris, but they found out real fast that there was nothing to gain. Both encounters were taken from ‘A little knowledge’ in the DS campaign box. In the next night the watched a Tsalaxa caravan passing by. The only avoided their scouts and remained silent until the caravan was gone. They had a short look to the Dragons Bowl and then came to Urik where directly went to emporium of House Stel and delivered the box . End of the Evening. It was interesting to see that they were very eager to reach Urik not allowing any subquests I had for them to come into their way. Right now I’m thinking of a short adventure in Urik before they leave for Makla, but I have no concrete idea.
Pringles 05-27-08, 01:45 PM	We continued Freedom. I finally captured them in the desert with Torban and his Press gang riding plated Inix :eek: The game was really brutal. The slave pit and working on the ziggoruat work pretty well. the two mage hidden there spell book. One used Illusion to make his spellbook (a cloak) appear as a blanket and the other used charm person on the templar to keep her spellbook (a music book, since she a bard/preserver). The PC dwarf used his weapons smithing skill to build a stone axe he hide in the pen. I used the PC half-giant instead of the NPC Urgoss, and he had to fight annoying Gith during the night that wanted to eat him. The PC mage/bard went friend with Malhanda (who is a defiler instead of preserver). I plan to eventually use her to steal the PC spell book. The work was fun and brutal. I had them push giant stone block on top of the ziggourat with the Cruel overseer (encounter) to whip for whaterver reasons. The PC got ride of him by dropping a brickload on the Overseer and made it appear as an accident (Oops). The PC half-giant became overseer instead. He was pleased at the beginning, but he quickly changed idea, when he realised he had to be ruthless with his team to reach the quota. The PC bard also accepted to spy for Tithian in exchange of extra water and food.She plan to give false information to Tithian (she dont know he use Zone of Truth spell, so she will regret it). The PC also made friend with Cruevax (the traitor in the slave pit) and had problem with Ramachil and his elfe, who blackmailed the PC to give them more water for there protection. The PC dwarf encountered Hivash and Granj and he begin to plan an escape. He want to unite all the dwarf slave to slowly dig a tunnel in the slavepit during the night that lead directly in UnderTyr. He also want to negotiate with the captive elfe who know a tunnel in UnderTyr that lead outside the city (see City state of Tyr book.) This game is going pretty well. Freedom is really a blast when you manage to keep the PC together. I think its the best DS published adventure. I can't wait for the next game.
Pringles 06-03-08, 01:10 AM	The game continued. For most of the game, the dwarf PC was tortured and hanged in the sun by the templar cause he was betrayed by an unknown informer(the NPC Liurgand who he talked about his plan of digging a tunnel). The PC dwarf resisted to talk about his plan. Meanwhile, the other PC tried there best to survive and meet there quotas. They could'nt since the stronght dwarf was out, so they got deprived of water quickly. I used the mul thug to steal all remaining water the PC had. I also runned the part where Kalak throw two noble in the pit, but the PC did'nt move, so the two noble were butchered. They tried to have information from the elfe about the UnderTyr to start digging. The bard made a bargan with the elfe Ramachil to steal a mysterious locked chest in the templar tent on top of the Ziggourat. She succeeded using her thieve skill and lot of luck. She tried to pick lock the chest but failed. She then bargained the chest with additionnal water and the information about UnderTyr. Ramachil accepted, took the chest, give them false information and all the water and food of the elfe. They hidden the water in a hole. The next day, they were no more elfe in the Slave pen (the chest contained a ring of teleport). The templar, angry to lose so many slave, doubled the quotas and warned all the slave to report any further escape plan. I also introduced the NPC thri-kreen Ch'kraran who worked with the PC and they had to restrain him everytime so he dont hunt other slave. They succeeded at that. I also played the Veilled alliance attack on the pen during the night and the halfling PC (Psionicist/Trader/Illusionist) saved the wounded preserver Faldar (see Part Two) and his now a member of the Veiled Alliance who want to steal the Ziggourat plan to know what it's about. Next game is in two week. They will have to stole the plan of the Ziggourat from Tithian hand, try to keep the team coworker alive to meet the quotas during the day (the half-giant PC talk about stealing water to other slave) and finally, form a band of slave to dig tunnel and prevent any spy or traitor to report them to the templar.