Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Rinna 12-16-04, 06:44 PM	Ok, enough sarcasm. I’ve always done write-ups on my weekly sessions for my other campaigns – to remember what came before, for the love of writing – and as I’m very excited about my new Eberron campaign and the fact I’m officially DMing, I thought I’d write up our current campaign for you all to read and enjoy. No, I did not get the idea for this from the forty million other people who wrote logs on the boards. :shifty: Anyway, I thought I’d experiment to see how well this does. First we have our adventuring ladies: Talia (human female, ranger/swanmay): She’s recently left a rather sheltered life with an elderly woman in the Eldeen Reaches. She’s still learning about how the world works. (More background for her has been discussed, though not finalized, on this thread (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=343199).) Neera (female tiger): Talia’s faithful animal companion that she’s raised since birth. Kitra Faedragon-Illythani (fae female, acrobat): Kitra’s a very curious girl, and has come to Eberron from another world. She’s anxious to explore and meet new people. Pig: A strange-looking lion with horns that’s one of Kitra’s animal friends. Izzy: Kitra’s other little pet that’s something of a cross between a raccoon and a flying squirrel. Derona Talashen (Elan female, kenetisist): A manipulator of men, Derona has been searching for answers about the strange powers she’s manifested ever since the suicide of her elder sister. She’s been living in Sharn with a small group of Elan for the past few months since her transformation. (More information on her has been discussed on this thread (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=348688).) Our story starts in early 998 YK, mid- to late-winter on the continent of Khorvaire. After arriving on Eberron via a gate somewhere in the Twilight Demense of the Eldeen Reaches, Kitra spends the next few weeks exploring this new land, making her way from the snowy Reaches, toward the milder climates of southern Breland. While leaving a small village, she encounters an elderly man driving a cart going the same direction as her. He cheerfully offers her a ride. She declines the ride, but asks for company instead. He introduces himself as Jessem Blacktree, saying he’s on his way to the market in Sharn. During their conversation, Jessem talking about his wife and granddaughter, Kitra displays her ignorance of anything indigenous, and Jessem learns that not only is his new companion not an elf (as her long, pointed ears might have suggested), she’s also from “the stars”, as he puts it. He just sort of shakes his head, but asks no more about it. As they continue on, the come upon another traveler on the road, wearing a cloak and walking beside a white tiger. Jessem asks where she’s going and if she’d like company. The girl introduces herself as Talia, and agrees to travel with them. Meanwhile, Derona is living in Sharn with five other Elan, two guys and three girls. She and the other Elan maintain a minor inquisitive agency in Underlook, Middle Dura, doing mostly small jobs, like picking up people from the docks and delivering them safely into the city. While three of their numbers are on various jobs, a halfling enters and asks to see who is in charge. Derona directs him to the head lady who brings him into her office. They speak for a while, and eventually the halfling leaves without a word to the other two. The head lady immediately gathers Derona and the other guy and explains to them what the halfling, whose name is Celyn, had wanted. He’d said he represented a very lucrative business and recently a small group has come into their area and he’s interested in having them checked on. He gave descriptions of three people he’s seen, a human and two half elves, and the area they’d been seen in, around a local tavern in a neighborhood in Callestan, Lower Dura. Derona volunteers to check into things. The head lady warns her that she doesn’t trust the halfling, and to use her best judgment to do what she feels she needs to. Derona heads down to the lower ward, and finds the tavern they’d been seen in. Few people are there at this time of day, and some give her suspicious looks. The bartender, a human woman, is talking to a customer and only briefly looks up when she comes in. Taking a quick look around, she doesn’t see anyone matching the descriptions given to her and heads back out to take a walk around the neighborhood. Anyone on the streets in conversation with someone, stops talking as she approaches and starts up once she’s passed. She comes to a blacksmith’s shop and sees whom she assumes is the proprietor talking with a stern-looking blond woman with a tight bun and wearing a heavy cloak. She can’t hear what they are saying, but she thinks she sees the woman’s hand leaning against something that looks like the pummel of a sword. Their conversation doesn’t last long, the woman handing the blacksmith a small sack, and heads for the nearest walkway to the next level. Derona’s next move is to wait outside one of the shops for a male customer to enter. For this, it happens to be a glassmaker. The bowls and goblets are made decently enough, nothing to brag about, but it seems the maker has tried to spiff up his wares by adding etchings to the sides. Unfortunately, he obviously isn’t much of an artist, as Derona assumes the one sporting odd blobs is a picture of some fruit. Eventually, a man enters the shop and Derona follows in soon after. Derona commences with flirting shamelessly with the man, being all cute and coy and using some of her seductive powers, pointing out the most expensive piece in the store and indicating that she wants it. They guy, feeling a bit flustered by her attentions, happily helps her take down the piece, a bowl whose squiggles seem to just be squiggles, off the top shelf. Derona coos over it, but exclaims how she hadn’t enough. Ultimately, the guy buys the bowl for her, then, still, flustered, leaves the store. Turning to the owner, whose looks of annoyance have turned to amazement, Derona smiles triumphantly. She explains how it was her doing that the guy bought the piece, and now she has a few questions for him. Still scratching his head, he answers her questions gladly. He says he’s seen the three men who matched her descriptions in the tavern, along with three others – a human woman, another human male, and a male half-orc. The descriptions he gives of their female companion matches that of the woman she’d seen with the blacksmith earlier. As he has little other information to offer her, she takes her leave of him and chucks the bowl in the nearest trash upon leaving sight of the building. She tries to see about finding the woman, but she realizes she must be long gone. She decides to visit the tavern again that night, in hopes of finding one or the entire group. Kitra, Talia, and Jessem arrive at First Tower. The guard at the gate asks for their ID papers. Jessem hands him his, while the girls look on in confusion. The guard directs them to see the House Sivis representative to make up their papers. After learning that House Sivis are gnomes, Kitra eagerly goes to visit. Talia going with her. The gnome, by the name of Gaving d’Sivis, welcomes them as the enter his office. Kitra exclaims her enthusiasm at meeting the gnome, which amuses Gavin. They decide to get ID papers with their portraits (Kitra asking to include her wings and both girls wanting their animals included) along with traveling papers, should they ever need them. Kitra buys for both of them, as Talia has no money. Gavin writes down their information, amazed to discover that not only does Kitra have bat wings, but a prehensile tail as well, and she comes from a world beyond Eberron. He watches as the girls joke and giggle. Once he finishes, Gavin informs them their papers will be ready in the morning. Still in a good mood, the girls wave good-bye and head to the tavern to meet with Jessem. They tell him how their meeting went and have dinner. Jessem turns in early while the girls hang out in the tavern. Kitra jumps from table to table, meeting and talking with most of those in the tavern. A group of young guys watch as she moves about the room, whispering to each other. When she finally comes to their table, they let out a cheer. It’s obvious they’re a little sloshed. They offer to buy her a drink. She orders an apple cider, and they boys follow her lead. Talia sits at her table and in looking around the room, she notices a woman in a hooded cloak, a badger on her lap. The woman looks up and stares at her, then nods. Kitra talks to the boys until the one passes out. She helps them take him up to their room, despite their insistence they’d be fine. At their room, the two conscious boys bow to her unsteadily and wish her a good night. Derona returns to the tavern later than night. The place is much fuller than it had been earlier. Looking around, she notices the glassmaker and in the corner is Celyn, the halfling who commissioned the job, talking with two other Halflings, a human, and a half elf. She finds herself a table full of men and asks if she could sit down. She says she’s looking for her friends, as they’ve been teaching her to play a card game, but she can’t seem to find them and would they be willing to play with her? They agree to play for drinks and she proceeds in making them get drunk. She gets them to order a huge amount of food, which she only picks at. Things start to wind down in the tavern as the customers start thinning out. Celyn and his party get up to leave, but not before he talks with the bartender briefly. She nods grimly and watches as he goes out the door. At Derona’s table, the men look ready to leave, the food’s all been eaten and they’re all a little tipsy. As there’s only one other barmaid working, the bartender comes to clean off their table. She talks with the one guy, who calls her Gladys. The men leave and Gladys goes back to talking with one of her customers. Derona sits at the bar, orders something, and like the glassblower, convinces the bartender it was her doing that the men bought more than usual. In asking about the six, she learns they showed up a few weeks ago and come in about every other day or so. Although Gladys had spoken with what seemed to be their leader, she hadn’t learned much. She did know the woman had gotten a job cleaning house in an upscale neighborhood on the Menthis Plateau. When Derona asks about the halfling, however, Gladys is very evasive, so she abandons that line of questioning. She then asks about the blacksmith, and Gladys tells her he’s a rather talented person who never seemed to be discovered by the right people. He mainly fixes things around the neighborhood or is commissioned for something, only a few of his things sold in local shops. Learning all she could, Derona leaves the tavern. The next morning, Kitra and Talia go to get their papers from Gavin. He hands them each a metal case that held their information and their portraits. Kitra is so excited about it that she hugs the gnome, who’s taken very much by surprise. They meet Jessem in the stables where he’s saddling up Trixie (his horse) and they head for the gate. The guards have been told about them and wave them by upon seeing them, but Kitra and Talia insist they see their IDs. Upon reaching Sharn, they make sure someone sees them before they enter. Jessem says he’s going to stable Trixie and that he’ll meet them in one of the inns he frequents if they wanted. The two take in the sights of the city, as guides and merchants try to get the attention of those entering. Kitra buys an unimpressive-looking map to get a general idea of the city. A handsome half elf male comes over, showing off some very colorful hair ribbons and clips. He flirts with Talia, all the while showing them more hair things they might like. Kitra buys a few and they continue on. They find a discarded Korranberg Chronicle and, interested in finding out more about the world, Kitra keeps it and seeks out a newspaper stand to buy other papers. From the seller, she learns where to find some bookstores, where she plans on checking out the next day. On their way to the tavern, they see some interesting people – and some metal men. Kitra manages to accost a warforged and strike up a short conversation. It’s a bit confused by her, even more so when she hugs him. She and Talia continue on to the tavern.
THE_VESPER 12-17-04, 09:36 AM	the_vesper: Finally, a story about an all female adventuring group (except for Pig i think)! I like the way you incorporated non-standard races on your Eberron campaign. I couldn't wait to read about them on further posts. So please keep 'em coming! LEAD: "I'm all for warforged hugging, just don't do it in public." :D
Rinna 12-17-04, 10:23 AM	Talia, going to see the House Sivis gnome: "What kind of drink is a houssivis?" Kitra, upon meeting Gavin: "Gnomes are so cool!" Gavin's reply: "We tend to think so." Talia, realizing she hadn't enough money for papers: "I shouldn't have bought all those love potions." Gavin: "I am married, you know."
Rinna 12-22-04, 03:29 PM	Session 2 Before we plunge into Session 2, there are two things the reader must keep in mind. One, Kitra is not only from another world, she's originally from another campaign. She was an orphaned child who was adopted by one of our PC couples, an elf female rogue/sorcerer and a half elf/half kender male sorcerer. Now she's all grown up and off adventuring, so when she talks about her family, she's talking about our other group. Another thing of note about Kitra, she often talks to the animals and to a potted plant she carries around with her, as she has to ability to speak with both. Two, the time frame between Derona and Kitra/Talia/Jessem doesn't coincide. Until they're together, what Derona does on one day is not the same day as what the others are doig. I hope this doesn't confuse anyone. Now onto this week's episode. Derona, having come up with a plan, returns to Callestan with her psicrystal, Layette. She finds the blacksmith Vindlin's shop and knocks on the door. Derona explains how her boyfriend gave her this pretty gem (the psicrystal) and she wants it to be set into something. She says she'd like it to be a silver dagger, and althought he says he's not the most experienced weaponsmith, he takes the job. While talking, Derona takes a quick look about the shop. She notices nothing unusual, though she does notice one wall with an inadiquate repair job from being cracked. She hads him a platnium as a down payment and wanders off, making sure to stay within a mile of the place, keeping an eye out for any of the six or the halfling. Layette reports back whenever anyone enters the shop. Mostly it seems to be neighbors asking for help fixing things. A friend of his comes in, talking about someone named Daask, hoping 'they' don't come to their neighborhood. Later on, Celyn the halfling comes in with another halfling. He says Vindlin is late on his payments. Vindlin says he'll have it soon. Celyn and his friend leave, but not before making their point by breaking something. Just before dark, Vindlin leaves. Derona tells Layette to follow him, tracking behind them. He winds up in an even seedier neighborhood and enters an establishment. Layette manages to squeeze in before the door closes. The place appears to be some kind of club, with the walls and furnature changing every so often, illusions seeping in every corner. An unusual one-person act is being performed on the stage, as the actor plays all the part, changing into each character as he/she/it does so. The clientel is mixed, with numberous halflings. Layette follows Vindlin into the back, where he flashes his platnium piece and is shown a cushiony seat and a strange flask. As he partakes, his eyes glaze over, the dreamlily taking effect. Derona calls Layette back and has her crystal return to the shop while she heads home. Kitra and Talia head back to the tavern. Jessem has alread ordered drinks for them. During dinner, Kitra wanders around again while Jessem talks to Talia. Talia says she figures she should find a job as she could use some money. She feels bad that Kitra has been paying for her. The clientel of the tavern is mostly middle-aged and older merchants, but in the corner is a young, frail-looking half elf male. Kitra finds a seat next to him. The half elf looks at her in surprise as she goes on to introduce herself and strike up a conversation. He's reluctant at first, but as the conversation continues, he opens up a bit more, introducing himself as Cardel. He says he's a sorcerer, doing odds and ends in the city. Kitra's excited about this, saying her parents are sorcerers, too, her father interested in fire spells. "Daddy's a bit destructive." She shows him a locket with their portraits in it and he realizes she looks nothing like them. She explains she's adopted, her mother's an elf and her father's half elf/half kender. Kitra moans in disappointment when she learns he's never heard of a kender. Feeling more talkative, Cardel suggests some places in the city she might visit. He tells her where she could find some books that she wants to purchase, and also suggests checking out the entertainment in Menthis Plateau. Kitra takes this as Cardel asking her out, and asks when he'd like to go. Realizing what he'd said, Cardel blushes and gets flustered, but says he's free tonight. They invite Talia and Jessem and, with all their animals in tow, they catch a skycoach to Den'iyas, Kitra excited at going to a gnome neighborhood. She greets the gnomes and amuses the children as they head to Khavish Theater. This night is a comedy with a human troupe, so while many of the audience is gnomish, there are other races as well. The tables hold small groups, but one table has just one single gnome, her dark hair, streaked with blong, put up with pens and paint brushes. They enjoy the show, Cardel still quiet, but he laughs as well. Kitra finds the players afterward and tells they what a great job they did. It's pretty late by the time they get back. Kitra hugs Cardel good-night and they head straight to sleep. Derona returns to the shop after a short sleep, taking position nearby. Layette has nothing to report, only to say Vindlin had already returned. During this second day, all that happens is that Vindlin works on his projects, including sketches for Derona's dagger. On the third day, Vindlin leaves early. Derona has Layette inspect the shop and his appartment above. She finds the usual tools of the trade, personal effects, and a pile of crumpled paper. The papers seem to be old designs for other projects. One is a drawing of a circular piece with an irregularly cut hole in the center and odd rune-like drawings around it. Although it seems like they could have been a runice language, it didn't mean anything to Derona. Vindlin arrives around lunch time with a block of silver and begins trying to figure out how to convert his sketch to the metal. While Layette remains to watch, Derona has continued around the neighborhood. Early afternoon, as she heads toward the tavern, two men exit and head to the nearest walkway up. Torn as to what to do, Derona calls Layette away and starts following the two. Fortunately Vindlin is intent on his project and doesn't notice the gem grow legs and scuttle away. She follows the two up through the ward. The human stops once and looks around, but doesn't see her. Eventually they lead her to a dilapadated house in Overlook. They knock on the door, and the woman from before answers it. Instead of the warrior outfit she was wearing the other day, she has her hair down and is wearing a skirt and blouse. She talks to the men a minute before leaving. Deciding to stay here, Derona makes sure Layette gets inside before they close the door. The half elf has gone into another room, but the human is talking to a half orc named Vraznal. The human asks where 'Red' is, Vraznal replying he's meeting with 'Khala'. Then he asks whether 'he' has reported in yet. Vraznal responds, "No, Brother." This seems to irritate the human, especially as 'he' came home late the night before. The half elf returns and informs the human, who he calls Allar, that everything is ready. He says there's a watch detail nearby, but he bribed one of them, so it shouldn't be a problem. But he asks Allar what they should do about the halfling. Allar is unconcerned and says not to worry about it. "Elthorn," he says, "when your brother comes in, tell him to see me." Then he shakes his head, deciding instead that Elthorn should talk to him, while he goes out "shopping". When Allar leaves, Derona tells Layette to stay behind as she follows after. Allar catches a skycoach and takes off. Derona catches the next one. She tells the driver she can't remember exactly where she's supposed to go, but she can give him directions and hands him some extra money. He grumbles, but follows Derona's directions as she watches where Allar's coach goes. He lands in Upper Tavick's Landing and Derona lands nearby. He wanders into a House Sivis message station. Derona pretends she wants to send a message to her mother but watches Allar, mostly doodling on her page. Allar writes a short message, hands it to one of the gnomes, and heads back out. Derona watches the gnome, but he puts the note in his pocket and heads to the back room. Quickly, she runs back out after him. She catches sight of him through the crowd and chases after. He catches another skycoach, Derona in pursuit, directing this driver like she did the last. They land in Highest Towers, Upper Central. He leads Derona to the Lyrandar air dock. He speaks to a half elf. He pays him and the half elf hands him a slip of paper that he folds and places in his pocket. As soon as he's out of sight, Derona approaches the half elf. She starts her sad tale about how her boyfriend, who he'd just been talking to, may be cheating on her. She begs him to tell her where he's going. This time, however, the half elf gives her a look, disbelieving her sob story. Derona realizes she's not getting anything out of him, but keeps up her facade until she's out of sight. By this point, Allar is gone. In the morning, Kitra and Talia head down for breakfast. Jessem has already left for the market. The inn keeper comes up tp them and Kitra appologizes if she'd been a pest to her patrons the night before. The inn keeper says that her customers enjoyed themselves. Then she says she has a note for Talia that a messenger sent. She hands it to Talia and leaves. Kitra had learned while getting their ID papers that Talia couldn't read and takes the letter for her. The letter is from a wealthy man who says he's heard of her fine tracking abilities and is in need of them to locate something for him. He wants to meet with her the next evening, as he's on business today. Talia is excited about the prospect of a job interview but asks Kitra if she'd accompany her. In the meantime, the two take in the sights of the city, Talia insisting on covering her white hair (which she's embarrassed of) with her cloak hood. They stop by Jessem's booth where Kitra buys one of the blankets his wife made. They go to bookstores, and visit Skysedge Park where Kitra takes flight. A family of shifters watches her. Kitra lands and entertains the little girl by playing with Izzy's wing flaps, making her do a silly dance. Later, as the have lunch at a tavern, Kitra has her cloak off, wings out and is playing with Izzy. One of the patrons, a dark haired elf woman in a cloak, stares at them. Kitra notices and the woman looks away. So she starts playing with Izzy's wing flaps. Eventually she sees a small smile on the woman's face. Satisfied, she goes back to eating. The day winds down, and the girls head back to the tavern.
Kitra 12-23-04, 10:59 AM	My poor Izzy, I torture her so. And yes Pig is a boy. :) I need to give Kitra more depth before she falls into the sickeningly cute. Poor little girl is gonna start to resemble a GSIV halfling (aka gigglely, baby talkin, tart eater) if I'm not careful.
Rinna 12-23-04, 11:31 AM	I have just decreed there are no tarts in Eberron. You're safe.
Kitra 12-23-04, 11:40 AM	YAY!! Kitra shall be tart free. :D Well except for Izzy, but she's different.
Rinna 12-23-04, 11:59 AM	Well, we'll just have to do what we can to steer her in the right direction.
Soloran 12-23-04, 06:20 PM	Wow this is some pretty incredible stuff. I really like how you switch back and forth from Talia and Kitra to Derona - it's masterfully done IMO. (Can't wait until they meet.) Some questions though: Talia's animal companion is a tiger and as such, wouldn't he cause a commotion? Do you write particular encounters/plots beforehand or do you 'wing it?' Either way, I can tell that the overall story will end up being really good. Where did you get players like this? This is some pretty incredible roleplaying you got going here and I would love to DM for players who actually INTERACT with the world. Anyways, keep it up - this was really fun to read!
Rinna 12-24-04, 10:11 AM	Thanks, Soloran. I appreciate the compliments. This is really my first time undertaking DMing an entire campaign, as I'm always worried I'm going to get myself into a corner or something. I do have some things planned out before hand, yes, but as always my players surprise me. ("You want to go over and talk to who?" "You want to hug him?!") Kitra also has a large animal companion, Pig the uh...whatever it was my friend decided to call her creation. Both Pig and Neera may be big felines, but I haven't done anything with them as I hadn't really thought of it, and I figured that things like hobgoblins and half orcs would be more frightening, especially since they were in the company of these two girls. But maybe I should do something with it. Hmm.... As for my players, they're one of a kind. You should see us in our other campaign. We're a totally random group. :D (Tossing longswords, a sarcastic awakened wolf, a fireloving half kender.) Most of us have been playing together for years. But we're always looking for new players. Especially guys. Most of us are female players (our one guy likes to call us his harem :rolleyes: ). So if you're ever in NJ, come on down. We've got plenty of couch space. Rinna
Kitra 12-28-04, 02:27 PM	Oooo, I'm impressive! :D ~struts~ Thank ye very much for the compliment. I just figured no one had reacted in an odd way to our big kitties because this city was so huge, and was used to odd travelers. I would figure in a smaller place that someone might be worried by our big cats, though watching my lil Kitra interact with Pig would put anyone at ease, she lounges on him, snuggles him, braids his hair, talks to him all the time. The have a cute relationship. Yes our other group are a bit odd, I hope I don't disappoint with my DMing there. I should post stuff for it on the appropriate board. If I ever have time.
Kitra 12-28-04, 02:28 PM	Oh and yes we need more men in our group. ~shakes fist~ William can not keep collecting us like this. :D
Rinna 12-28-04, 04:23 PM	I hope I don't disappoint with my DMing there. Of course not, Kitra. We all enjoy your unique way of DMing. As long as my boy gets to use plenty of flaming spells and my girl gets to support kender, I'm happy. :cloud9: I should post stuff for it on the appropriate board. Yes you should. Or I should. After all, I've got everything written down in my journals. Or at least put the summaries on my web page. *head explodes from all the things Rinna wants to do* :ghosted: Rinna
Kitra 12-28-04, 04:48 PM	~pokes Rinna's brain remnants~ squishy
Rinna 12-28-04, 04:57 PM	Had to sig that. Too amusing. Why? I don't know. I like abuse? Rinna
Kitra 12-28-04, 05:03 PM	:cheer: