3/16 Actual Play: Werewolves, Ooozes, and . . .chessboards?

One less this session, and Phedre had a change of heart about her name. Her new name has some kind of D&D reference.

Berend - Jesse's Fighter/Cleric, our only melee character.
Blackleaf - Formerly Phedre, Jessica's Elven Ranger who likes killing.
Bennethost - Jay's Fey Warlock, the glass cannon of the group.
Nim - Dan's Bard, proving that 4e Bards are like 3.5 Bards in name only.

We began right were we left off last week, with Team B rescuing Team A from the dungeon. We put them on our mounts and took them to Hammerfast. We were ambushed by followers of The Hunter during our trip, and managed to get a couple of our A team killed (PC's that would not be returning, giving Colin a convenient way to remove them from the campaign).

In Hammerfast the Dwarf went to talk to his leader about the werewolves. Nim, Bennethost, and Blackleaf went to the local Inn to unwind. At this point Benn remembered the enchanted chessboard from the dungeon and challenged Nim to a chess game.

He set it up, and immediately a skeleton appeared across the table and challenged him to a game. Benn went first. The skeleton made a move and then disappeared. Shrugging, Benn asked Nim to take his place. What followed was one of the more entertaining roleplaying experiences I have had. Dan and I took turns playing "chess", and I set a precedent by using cantrips (hedge wizard's gloves ftw!) to double my number of queens. Dan fought back, and soon we were using every devious illusory and underhanded trick to get the edge. Bluff checks, Insight checks, Intimidation checks, and straight Intelligence checks were thrown around, and all told an hour or so of real time was taken up. I always feel a little bad when my character is in the spotlight that long, but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, and it didn't seem to matter that this bit of action did little to further the story.

In the end Benn managed to squeak out a victory, and we put up the board. Berend had learned that the answers we sought about The Hunter were possibly hidden in the catacombs under the city. We set out exploring. A couple days of hand waved searching later, we finally stumbled upon something.

We climbed down a ladder and into a large room. Berend sets out and runs smack into a gelatinous cube. Combat was long and tough, we were matched against some Azure Oozes, and the Elite cube. Benn proved his utility by teleporting Nim out of the corner, and then proved his ineptitude by dazing Blackleaf. Berend spent the first half of the encounter in and out of the cube, finally escaping long enough to get away. Nim put the final nail in the coffin with a curse that dazed the cube if it moved closer to him, and the combat ended. Session over after that.

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I'm kind of burned out on the longer, more detailed write ups. I did take some pictures, I might put some up later if I can. This campaign is looking dead in the water. No progress in awhile, we will not be playing this week and I am out the following week, putting me at a month with no D&D. Sad. We played some Shadowrun a week or so ago, but we are stopped in the middle of a job.

Bennethost has been, in his short experience, my favorite 4e character to play. Not really much of a striker (the least damage potential in the group, behind the Bard and Fighter), he falls somewhere in the controller/leader range.

I'm not sure where this blog is going. . . .with the game sort of falling down, I'm not sure what to do with it. I started it solely as a way to put up these play sessions. First because I find them useful when trying to remember what happened to tie in old events. I don't DM much, but hopefully the other DM's in our group use it. Second, because I enjoy reading the playthroughs of others, and I thought I could contribute my own.

I read a post on a different roleplaying blog a few weeks ago that has kind of kept me from posting. It was basically a rant against just the type of blog that I have. If I do not have anything groundbreaking to contribute, I should not be blogging. I guess breaking out of that required me to remember that I do this primarily for *me*. I like writing. I don't devote enough time to it. If the best I can do right now is to elaborate on a gaming session, so be it.

That guy can bite me.

Jay