The first adventure I ran was "In the Service of the Sorcerer-King," which I crafted for a local gaming convention Andy Collins runs out of his house. In that adventure, the heroes were recruited in Nibenay by one of the city's templars, a shadow bride named Fyrelle. They were led out into the desert where they were supposed to help her find the ruins of a long-lost city-state called Alakesh (one I just made up for the adventure), inside which rests an artifact from a past age, a single piece of a powerful seven-segmented staff (wink wink nudge nudge). Here's the History lore I wrote up for the city:
Alakesh was a third city-state in the Ivory Triangle, but it was destroyed hundreds of years ago by the Shadow King and his armies. The name of Alakesh’s ruler has been stricken from recorded history, but it has been said that she was once one of Nibenay’s templars who raised Alakesh from the desert with arcane magic.
Can we hope to see that adventure in Dungeon magazine at some point?
The characters I used in the adventure were a half-giant fighter (ex-gladiator), a human warlock (a templar of Gulg, undercover in the city), a human psion (a nobleman being blackmailed by Fyrelle who bought the half-giant's freedom), a half-elf wizard (a member of the Veiled Alliance), a dwarf warlord (a former dune trader and caravan guard leader), and an elf rogue (a minstrel who deals in assassinations as much as in petty theft and grifting).
I am interested in why you call it a half-giant? Shouldnt it be a goliath or you really created an half-giant race for the setting?
Thanks.
I am interested in why you call it a half-giant? Shouldnt it be a goliath or you really created an half-giant race for the setting?
Because I like half-giant better than goliath? Because it's more in-setting? No mechanical reason, I just like half-giant better than goliath, and we use them interchangeably for the most part.
...just curious.
Did anyone defile? Did you try out the defiling rules previewed recently by Bill, and did either of your two arcane users give in to temptation (despite one being from the Veiled Alliance)?
...just curious.
There was some defiling, and yes I used an early version of the defiling rules (not *quite* the same, but pretty close). The templar of Gulg, of course, didn't care once they were outside of Nibenay and away from the elf tribe, so he didn't feel bad about defiling at all. Lucky for him, no one was playing the Veiled Alliance character in that game, so there was no one to really stop him.
In the other game, the Veiled Alliance character had one of those soul-testing moments during the fight against the sorcerer-king's vestige. After the wizard completely whiffed on her daily power with the ghoul about to coup de grace the unconscious noble, the half-giant fighter was trying to goad the wizard into defiling so that they could get out of there alive. Of course, the sorcerer-king's vestige pulled an Emperor Palpatine, saying stuff like "Give in to your greed! Take a taste of the power of defiling magic, and become my new head templar!"
The best defiling story I have comes from the convention game I ran at GameStorm in Portland back in March. I'll post that one later...
Now if I could actually play D&D and Dark Sun... /sigh
There was some defiling, and yes I used an early version of the defiling rules (not *quite* the same, but pretty close). The templar of Gulg, of course, didn't care once they were outside of Nibenay and away from the elf tribe, so he didn't feel bad about defiling at all. Lucky for him, no one was playing the Veiled Alliance character in that game, so there was no one to really stop him.
In the other game, the Veiled Alliance character had one of those soul-testing moments during the fight against the sorcerer-king's vestige. After the wizard completely whiffed on her daily power with the ghoul about to coup de grace the unconscious noble, the half-giant fighter was trying to goad the wizard into defiling so that they could get out of there alive. Of course, the sorcerer-king's vestige pulled an Emperor Palpatine, saying stuff like "Give in to your greed! Take a taste of the power of defiling magic, and become my new head templar!"
Excellent.
You can already see which direction each of these games are heading. Was the first group the one that "almost" accepted the ghoul lord's offer? I'm guessing that the Veiled Alliance or some Druidic hippy-cults will be fast on their trail.
Edit: Also may I suggest you submit this adventure you wrote to dungeon? It sounds like an incredible amount of fun. Dungeon could really use adventures like this as well.
The scenario begins in a smaller sun-arena in Tyr just before Kalak's death. The party is actually split into two groups, and are thrown into the arena not knowing each other. Over the course of the first fight, they ally with one another against the other teams in the arena. One team is composed of a couple of normal gladiators and a few slave gladiators (who are minions). They take down all of the gladiators except for one of the minions, who just will. Not. Die. Literally 10 attacks in a row miss this minion, and the fight evolves to the point where the only ones left standing are the party, and this one minion. In a moment of awesomeness, one of the party members (secretly a wizard, but pretending to be psionic) moves adjacent to the minion, grabs the minion's hand, and holds it up in the air in triumph. He turns to face the templar overseeing the match from a balcony and says something to the tone of, "This slave has fought valiantly, and stands against impossible odds. Spare his life, so that he may join us as a member of our team!" The crowd goes wild, the templar allows it, and so the players picked up a minion slave gladiator companion.
During the next match, which was against an id fiend with some cactus hazards thrown into the arena, somehow the id fiend and hazards managed to miss the slave gladiator with every single attack (and, to be clear, I was not playing him cautious like a minion, I let all of the party's encouragement convince the slave that he really WAS a badass gladiator). So, this minion gladiator survives two bouts in the arena without taking a scratch, and the players are treating him like a hero on their team.
About this time, the players learn that Kalak has been killed in the main arena, and get caught up in the pandemonium that grips Tyr in the immediate aftermath. The templar overseeing the games had something the party wanted, so they chased him down and confronted him in the marketplace. As it turns out, the marketplace was actually an ambush, and the heroes found themselves being overwhelmed by mercenaries the templar had hired to protect him. A critical moment came when the wizard (remember, this is the guy who had decided to spare the minion gladiator's life in the first match) missed the templar with his phantom chasm and really, really needed to knock him prone and immobilize him to keep him from getting away. At that point, he decides to use defiling, and the necrotic damage he dealt with defiling ended up killing the minion gladiator (and, of course, the rerolled attack hit the templar).
Of course, the story the player of the wizard concocted was that, as a defiler, he saw a chance to have a source of life energy for his defiling magic in the gladiator, and had his life spared as an "ace in the hole" in case he needed a quick arcane boost in a pinch. I couldn't help cackle with glee at how very appropriate it was to the setting, and it certainly made for a memorable game.
The characters used in this game were a half-giant fighter (gladiator), a mul barbarian (gladiator), a thri-kreen shaman (an elemental worshiper), a human wizard (member of the Veiled Alliance...at least he WAS), an elf battlemind (a captured wilder put to work in the arena), and a human warlock (templar of Nibenay, undercover).
Where the "Gladiators" using a specific Gladiator build or such?
Will we ever get to see the player's character sheets?
The characters used in this game were a half-giant fighter (gladiator), a mul barbarian (gladiator), a thri-kreen shaman (an elemental worshiper), a human wizard (member of the Veiled Alliance...at least he WAS), an elf battlemind (a captured wilder put to work in the arena), and a human warlock (templar of Nibenay, undercover).
Those sound like the Dark Sun pregens used in the earlier DS adventure, Death in the Arena.
Those sound like the Dark Sun pregens used in the earlier DS adventure, Death in the Arena.
That's because I was running a modified version of Death in the Arena.
I am interested in why you call it a half-giant? Shouldnt it be a goliath or you really created an half-giant race for the setting?
Because I like half-giant better than goliath? Because it's more in-setting? No mechanical reason, I just like half-giant better than goliath, and we use them interchangeably for the most part.
Since you want it to be more in-setting, was your half-giant "goliath" large and how did you handle it?
Thanks you for your fast answer!
No, just standard goliath mechanics. Making Large-sized PC races has too many cascading design implications and radically alters the way certain classes perform. I just emphasized their "bigness" with flavorful descriptions--ducking to fit under a doorframe, towering over the other party members, barely lifting their eyes to look at someone on a second story balcony, etc.
Much as the purist in me hates to admit it, this is the right decision. Making large half-giants, as we did with DS3, is troublesome in the extreme, for all of the reasons Rodney lists. I never really felt like they worked well. Brokenly overpowered for some classes, and uterlly useless for others. And that was with 3e's Monster race and ECL mechanics, which (thankfully) it seems that 4e is forgoing.
Large half giants are more trouble than their worth -- and that's from someone who spent years determined to make the things work. As long as we're retconning in Tieflings and Eladrin, and rewinding the timeline by years, I'm afraid to say that I'm alright with dropping a few feet off the half-giants.
As long as we're retconning in Tieflings and Elan, and rewinding the timeline by years, I'm afraid to say that I'm alright with dropping a few feet off the half-giants.
Not to derail the thread, but, what exactly are they doing with Elan?
I ask this because Elan are very important in a campaign world of mine, and I've re-skinned the Deva as Elan in order to make it work for 4e. If Wizards is doing something officially with them somewhere, I'd like to know
Much as the purist in me hates to admit it, this is the right decision. Making large half-giants, as we did with DS3, is troublesome in the extreme, for all of the reasons Rodney lists. I never really felt like they worked well. Brokenly overpowered for some classes, and uterlly useless for others. And that was with 3e's Monster race and ECL mechanics, which (thankfully) it seems that 4e is forgoing.
Large half giants are more trouble than their worth -- and that's from someone who spent years determined to make the things work. As long as we're retconning in Tieflings and Elan, and rewinding the timeline by years, I'm afraid to say that I'm alright with dropping a few feet off the half-giants.
Wouldn't that be Tiefling and Eladrin?
What about Large size "monster" half-giants? Soldiers, city guards, etc
Much as the purist in me hates to admit it, this is the right decision. Making large half-giants, as we did with DS3, is troublesome in the extreme, for all of the reasons Rodney lists. I never really felt like they worked well. Brokenly overpowered for some classes, and uterlly useless for others. And that was with 3e's Monster race and ECL mechanics, which (thankfully) it seems that 4e is forgoing.
Large half giants are more trouble than their worth -- and that's from someone who spent years determined to make the things work. As long as we're retconning in Tieflings and Elan, and rewinding the timeline by years, I'm afraid to say that I'm alright with dropping a few feet off the half-giants.
Wouldn't that be Tiefling and Eladrin?
What about Large size "monster" half-giants? Soldiers, city guards, etc
In 4E 'normal' giants are large so I doubt we'll see large half-giants. Though Titans are huge so maybe a half-titan could be large. Or would a half-titan just be a giant?
Wouldn't that be Tiefling and Eladrin?
What about Large size "monster" half-giants? Soldiers, city guards, etc
Umm ... yeah. Brainfart. What I get for taking a break from cooking my brain at work.
I think large monsters and medium player characters is probably just going to really confuse the issue, and just lead to trouble..
Was the Mul a Mul?
Where the "Gladiators" using a specific Gladiator build or such?
Gladiator is a theme that anyone can take and themes give you a level 1 encounter power. Additionally you can take powers from your "theme" into your glass to further differentiate yourself and there are gladiator paragon paths and such as well.
They were led out into the desert where they were supposed to help her find the ruins of a long-lost city-state called Alakesh....::snipped awesome adventure idea ::
Were we drinking the same Kool-Aid, Rodney?
www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discus...
forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=519906
(I'm referring specifically to my first post in both links.)
Do tell...
I am interested in why you call it a half-giant? Shouldnt it be a goliath or you really created an half-giant race for the setting?
Because I like half-giant better than goliath? Because it's more in-setting? No mechanical reason, I just like half-giant better than goliath, and we use them interchangeably for the most part.
The inclement rules police that haunt these boards will have your head for one of Wizards' own to be so flippant towards the printed rules!
I jest.
Outstanding story and thank you for sharing.
I just read the Sun Warped flats article, and I must say there are some striking resemblances between your game and the article. I loves me some aberrations mutated by defiling/red sun combo radiation. I'm tooling my Gith after the same warp (consider it stolen).
Good article. Might I inquired whether Alakesh = "Among the slave tribes of the desert, a legend tells of a city-state now completely absorbed by sunwarped flats"? Magic powered by the red sun? I'm crossing my fingers, hoping that there are some examples of "red sun-powered" bad guys in the Creature Catalog.