OK, that's funny. When my PC elf joined, it was at Trobridge, when the party was heading towards Kaldor. Heh.

Oh, and my session is on Saturday too.

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The Melderyn Campaign

Are you serious!?! OK, that is funny... and weird. When I gave the player the option to pick his race I thought he would pick a Khuzan, which would of tied nice and neatly into the current adventure. When he decided to be a Sindar Ranger I thought it was an odd choice... but hey, go with the flow and run with it is my motto.

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Ok, let me get this straight. These guys come in, trash the place, slap Agrik & Larani around, and the most intelligible thing they said was "Zog!"?

The player who is the elf is a very long-term member of my campaign. He goes back to the very beginning in 1983. When he rolled up his current character (in 2002?) he decided to let the dice determine his new character completely at random. And the dice were capricious. He rolled up a young, svelte, beautiful, female, elf. I shall say no more than this is almost the diametrical opposite of my friend. Still, she has proved a great character, so perhaps his instincts were right.

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The Melderyn Campaign

It's been a week since the session so I'll just sum up since it was a short session.

-Xhost and Albanis make it to Trobridge, some minor talk with the ford guards (xhost was itching for a fight) but with successful rolls on intimidation and the fact the PC's paid the toll and look like a tough bunch, the guards kept their mouths shut and let them go by.

-Inn was full with caravan guards looking for info from grindin Dryak, only seat available was with a ranger out of shaval. (Totally set up so the party would meet the new player... the guys can be dicks with each other at times and I did not want to waste time with them yanking each other's chains.) For the life of me I can't remember the new PC's first name. But because I like epic's I made him the nephew of the Prince of Tarminas, Constable of Elshavel, Jori Arien. His sister had a love afair with a human from Melderyn and the PC is the product of the union.

-Party negotiates with the Dryaks, agree to terms. Grinden is impressed by the Troll head, hide, and claws that Albanis brought with him. Successfull roll on telling their tale (which was true) brought much respect from the Khuzdul. Grindin purchases the hide from them, in exchange he will make a Kurbul cuirass for each of them out of the hide. Party made plans to travel the next day.

Since the group has to go through kaldor i was planning on them to interact with some kaldorian nobility... plant some seeds for the KSC (you never know where they wil be). Decided that I'm going to use part of the Earl's Progress. Also decided that I did not want the group going through Tashel yet, if they did they would miss the Earl, so the khuzdul is taking them on another path tha crosses the Kald near Kiban (I decided that there is a half pasible ford there), they will meet the Earl around Qualdris.
Since the earl has hidden enemies looking for his head, I thought a bandit attack agaianst the carravan and having the PC's "close by" would be a way for them to gain a little glory and thanks... or look like a total cluster ^&*(. either way it would be interesting.

After Fana, if they survive they should hit kaldor during the RCT in Olokand... from there who knows, but events back home will be moving along and decisions will have to be made.

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Ok, let me get this straight. These guys come in, trash the place, slap Agrik & Larani around, and the most intelligible thing they said was "Zog!"?

Session 9 was run this past saturday - way to many distractions and other B.S. to my liking. Sometimes, being a GM is a pain in the ass (pardon the language).

To sum up, the party along with member of Clan Dryak and 20 odd unemployed LF. Leave Trobridge and head towards kaldor. No major encounters except for a cheni hunting party. The Dryaks paid some tribute to keep the peace and the PC's kept their mouths shut.

I decided to have the group leave the trail and take an little known route to Jedes. IMPH there is a dangerous ford that is not used often. The Khuzdul wanted to keep the group away from Tashal stating that a armed group such as theirs would cause unnessary problems. Also they were to meet up with a group coming from Chybisa. The real reason is that I wanted the party to encounter the Earl Caldeth on his progress.
What should of been an encounter that lasted a couple of sessions ended up being resolved quickly and very unsaticfying do to "player problems and attitude", not to mention a bunch of other distractions.

What happens next I'm not sure... the camapign will continue but maybe with fewer players. Since I'm about to head back to work, the game will be on hold for a month or more. My oldest player is going to have a few words with the one that is the problem, since his night was unenjoyable also.

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Ok, let me get this straight. These guys come in, trash the place, slap Agrik & Larani around, and the most intelligible thing they said was "Zog!"?

Sorry to hear that. Sometimes, new players fail to gel with the group, and sometimes it's Harn itself. It's over when it's both.

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The Melderyn Campaign

Well the one player had a few issues... tried to run a wh40K campaign a few weeks back and railroad people into a certain class and job. Nobody was interest and said so weeks & months ago, but he tried anyway and was very unflexable... people were bored, there was no detail in the campaign and when asked abut pre historie s and reasons for, he got upset and just "tossed something out". That's like blood in the water with the group I hang with and they feed off him pretty hard. I will admit to having a few chuckles also but we tried to get something done. He figured that being GM ment that you did what the GM said and that was that... wrong assumption.
Well he decided to be the ass in my game... he's not into the details of the game to begin with, just likes to roll the dice and kick ass. Somedays he's not to bad and tries, but not this time... did not help that we game at his place, I have to bite my tounge since he has a wife and young kid.

Anyway, my buddy who is in the game and likes to get involved with the politics and inter-personnal stuff is going to talk to him, he's closer to him than I so I'm hoping he'll set him straight... otherwise I'll just give him the boot and carry on. Hate to do it, he's a good friend, but I'm getting a little long in the tooth for the drama.

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Ok, let me get this straight. These guys come in, trash the place, slap Agrik & Larani around, and the most intelligible thing they said was "Zog!"?

Yeah, sounded something like that. The truth is, it doesn't always work.

I had a guy that I was gaming with in another campaign (Traveller). He was, shall we say, 'eccentric' in that game, but he seemed to be a guy I could see IMC. Accordingly, I invited him to roll up a character, and he joined. Sadly, he proved a munchkin, and didn't fit with me, the campaign, or the other players. At least he had the good grace to absent himself, and I sent his character on his merry way. There was some attempted sabotage on his part, but I prefer not to dwell on that. (He was the dwarf, BTW.)

As a GM, you have to be flexible in the early days. I've been lucky - that sort of bad fit hasn't happened to me too often. Twice that I can recall. But as GM, you can't let it get in the way of your vision or the fun for the other players. You keep going.

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The Melderyn Campaign

Well after a couple of weeks we managed to get to session 10 today... played until supper then shut it down to watch the UFC.
All 3 players were here and we pushed on from the meeting with Caldeth... pretty much winged it tonight, now that i'm getting a handle on the style of play the boys like (fast & dirty). I still pushed a little with the hopes of getting the players involved a little in politics, but have concluded it's going to be a slow work in progress.

The PC's along with members of Clan Dryak continue through Vemenshire.. it was a quick journey with very little distractions. I had decided to go with the flow as the players did not show a whole lot of interest in getting involved or checking out Kaldoric politics or anything else for that matter and just wanted to reach Fana ASAP. Cool. I can live with that. The group made their meeting with the contingent from Getha. I had decided that earlier that this was Clan Dryaks last kick at the can... they would get royal support from the King if they could get help from the Kaldorians... share the cost in blood so to speak. Since it affected the pocket books of Indama, Troda, LoP, and the King, the kaldorians supplies troops to the operation.
Once joined this army made it's way to a bace camp set up for the assault on Fana. At this point I have to thank David baldwin and his Nolomar rising Campaign, which gave me the inspiration for the attack on Fana.

Once at base camp it was decided that Xhost and Albanis would joind 6 Khuzan and sneek in to kill the queen, the king if there, and find the artifact. The reason they were allowed to go is because they survived and slew a troll.. Grindin figured if they could manage that, then this should be easy for them. Lathar Arien volunteered to assassinate the King while he was outside training with his troops. From where the shot would be, it was a slim chance that even an archer as skilled as Lathar would be able to kioll the orc king, and said so. The khuzdul gave him 3 arrows with a cylinder on the head and instructions not to drop them. they assured him that if he got a head shot, it would kill him.

The cave team was given a 12hr head start, then the assault would go ahead, wether the succeeded or not. The 6 dwarves an 2 humans snuck in and began their dungen crawl... they used most of the 12 hours trying to find their way in, bad rolls on navigating and stealth had them lost most of the time and they ran into a patrol that was swiftly defeated. I gave them a little help from Karzak the ghost when they were trying to get around a work gang by the smelters... showed them a back route through the catacombs once they promised to avanged him and his kin. Once in position they waited until the assault started before attempting the stair case going up to the royal chambers.

Out side, with all assets in place the attack wopuld begin with Lathars shot. His first went long a exploded with a loud bang amongst the training orcs... this caused a fair bit of confusion and excitment. His second shot missed and hit a sub-lieutenant... this had the effect of spinning around to see where the shot came from, giving lathar a full frontal... at this point the archers, khuzdul crossbow and ground troops moved up. missile fire started raining down on the orcs and the Khuzan heave seige weapons were brought up.
lathar fire his 3rd arrow, taking advantage of the surprised king and rolled a CS... then he rolled location and got a facial! Hell of a shot which did the job, blowing the orc king's head apart... everything went according to plan from that point. The Khuzan set up towers with clear lines of fire for their scorpions, they also had smaller rock throwers and catapults. The tower was brought under fire by rock and pots full of nasty dwarven fire.
Everything was looking good until Lathar noticed something lurking within the doorway of the main gate... in the player's own words "oh crap... they have a Troll". Lathar then sent a runner to grindin to warn him about the Troll.

Back inside, the group heard the battle begin with the shouts of alarm from the gargun. They waited for 15 minutes as the gargun rushed to defend the outter gates then bolted for the stairway... xhost blew another stealth roll, I think his 10th at this point causing the guards at the top of the stairs to come down... they were cut down by the charging group in a quick and bloody manner. When the group got to the top they started searching for the queens chamber... it was easy to find as theydecided it would be were the guards were coming from. The battle was short again with the group rolling like crazy. By this time they could hear the insanity from outside and resumed their search finding the queens chamber. The fight with the queens guard was a gory, bloody afair with Albanis and 5 Khuzan. Xhost and 1 Khuzan had enterd the king's chamber, and realizing where they were began ransacking the place. Xhost found the chest and began hacking them open with his sword, when he attemped to bash open the chest with the artifact he triggered the defencive spell and got zapped. Unfortunately the GM's rolls had been and continuing to be vert bad and Xhost survived with bareky a scatch.
The battle next door was proceeding woith the princess barely able to hit the broad side of a barn if standing inside of it... I mean really? 00, 00, 98, 97, 96,, 85, 95.... and on and on. It was a cake walk for the boys. They killed the guard then butchered the queen...

and then the ribs were ready, so we ended there to fill our belly's before the UFC fight started. A good night all in all.

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Ok, let me get this straight. These guys come in, trash the place, slap Agrik & Larani around, and the most intelligible thing they said was "Zog!"?

Session 11 Saturday Aug 14th 2010:

To sum up... the inside team , after checking to see if they were about to be over run, ecided to use the oil the khuzan brought withthem and torch the egg nest... Xhost was unable to enter the chamber due to the overwhelming stench. While everyone else went in he held the enterance to the egg chamber. about this time, with the insuing chaos outside and group of gargun rushed the queens chamber (in hopes of getting the Queen), they took note of the slaughter and one of them poked his head into the egg room. This caused Xhost to hack it's head off and the battle was joined. With back up from Albanis and the returning khuuan, the fight was short and bloody. By this time all hell was breaking loose and the party decided that it was time to go - mission accomplished.

As they tried to exit the main access to the hall way a large group of Gargun hit them. The boys held the main door forcing the foulspawn to come at them 2 at a time. Both humans took many wounds, which eventually cought up to Xhost - he failed a shock rool an collapsed. he was quickly replaced by one of the dwarfs and protected. The party was both relieved and horrified by the action of some of the orc. most were vicious fighters that showed no fear, but a couple would stop and start feeding on fallen comrades in a bloody gorefest. The party had no illusions on what would happen to them if they fell.

The fight was long and brutal with the party winning with only one orc bolting to get help. Amazingly there was no serious injuries or deaths. The group took off at this point to find an bolt hole out... while running at a slowed pace (a number of small wounds and fatique) the group realized that they were being pursued by something large (remember the troll?). The party had no chance of getting to the access before the troll caught them... Xhost & Albanis volunteered to hold the Troll long enough for the khuzan to get out (very noble & brave). The Khuzan commander would have none of it and he 3 others stayed behind, ordering the humans and 2 wounded khuzan to get to the sally port, kill any guards and get it open. He would follow (if he could) and they would make there escape. he surmised that the door would be to small for the beast to follow.

The remaining party headed off and found the access point. It was at the top of a 20' shaft. The top was held by a couple of gargun and the resulting battle was short and bloody. By this point the troll had engaged the rear guard and it was a frightening thing to hear. With the door opened and the way out secured, the group waited to see if the commander and his khuzan would escape... their last sight of him was as he made the bottom of the latter, bloodied, one arm hanging limply, his eyes wide with horror. As they reached down to help him up a large beast slammed into him from behind and he was crushed again'st the wall. Fortunately the shaft was too small for the troll to climb, but this thought did not enter the survivors heads... they just wanted out.

more to come...

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Ok, let me get this straight. These guys come in, trash the place, slap Agrik & Larani around, and the most intelligible thing they said was "Zog!"?

Session 12 & 13 update - not mych detail just a general account of activites.

Played session 12 a couple of weeks ago... ran throught the RCTC. Not much in role play but the PC's and I enjoyed the combat. Both PC's lost, Xost getting the furthest and lossing in the 6th round. Albanis was taken out in the 2nd. The players decided that they did not want to hang out for the remainder of the tournament... the laranian theme was getting old to them. They left and made it to Tashal where xost got lippy with para, who them (to make a point) layed a little Drynia woop ass on him and crfushed his heart with her TK. He died... but came back 6 hours latter with a new found respect and hatred for her.

The morning of the 19th the PC's were headed out of town when the spotted someone trailibf them. They played hide and seek and lost them, or so they thought. The were being trailed by one of khamal's henchmen. khamal was desided at the begining of this campaign to be the reacuring scary bad guy. A powerful Immortal and a priest of morgath to boot. He and his ban of 12 ravers set an ambush for are 2 young Immoratls 4 days out of trobridge. Khamal being the evil bastard he is stayed out of spidy scense range and had his underling ambush them. The goal to capture, injure or kill with out beheading them. Then khamal would come in for the easy pickings.

The ambush took place with Xost making some good rolls... in fact he rolled like a madman all night and was able to defend him self against the fired arrows. albanis... well, his roll were not so good and infact the player threw a couple out the door and smashed one with a hammer 9just to scare the other back in line )
To make a long story short albanis spent most of the time TKO on the ground while Xost methodicly slaughtered everyone... it was most impressive. Albanis doi get up and make a few good kills helping them win. Both of them had some nasty wounds when khamal made his grand appearance. Now khamal is scarey. Born in 635 and taking heads ever since. Personnaly I did not think the boys had much of a chance... therfore I had para in the wood observing and ready to step in to lend a hand to her new recruits. i should mention that xost was screaming her name looking for help for the first cople of rounds.

After some taunting and insults from both side, the boys decide to break rule number 2 and take khamal on together and except that if the both survived, one of them would loose some quickening to the other. It was a wasted worry... I had been rolling CS all night but when the battle stared xost won Init, followed by khama, the Albanis. Xost rolled a CS in his attack with khamal rolling a MF, Xost followed up with a TA and another CS while Khamal got the stupids and rolled a 00... the result was a strike to the neck and almost detachment of his head. he then CF on his shock roll passing out and crashing to the ground. Albanis moved away top let Xost take his head and collect his reward.

Done. Major bad guy taken out in less than 5min game time. I have to admit it was damn entertaining.

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Ok, let me get this straight. These guys come in, trash the place, slap Agrik & Larani around, and the most intelligible thing they said was "Zog!"?

Session 14 - Update.

Interesting night. The two PC's make it to Trobridge, dodging a Cheni patrol and surviving a gargu-arki night ambush. They manage to make a deal with Terlin of Wesindan to off load the horses, armour, and weapons looted from khamal's men for a tidy sum. After enjoying the night they head out early the next morning only to get stopped by the resident peonian priest. The two PC's seem to have a rep now in town after bringing in a the Troll hide and skull from their first time through, and now on their return trip witht he news that the campaign to retake fana was sucessful. The priest, believing them to be the answer to his prayers, begged them to intervene and help the village. He explains that Terlin refuses to help and is only interested in his profits and Kurson is just a murder and thief.

The PC's have noted how the village "guard" act and treat the population and decide to get rid of Kurson. They head back to the inn and make a deal with Terlin. He and his troops will provide a distraction at dark while the players climb the back wall and take out Kurson. First though they decide to even up the odds a little in true agrikian fashion. They ride about town until they find a patrol. This patrol of 2 men are in the process of picking on an old man. Xost & Albanis decide to charge and engage. The combat is quick and bloody with the 2 guardsmen slaughtered quickly. Xost decides to make a nasty point and orders the gathered villagers to get wood and nails... he wants the bodys strung up and displayed in view of the manor. While the villiagers set to work, afriad to say no, 6 guards come out to see whats happening. The PC's mount and charge the foot patrol. The battle is short and very bloody... limbs and heads flying. There are a few arrows in support from the manor but in the end Kurson is down 8 men.

The plan goes as planned. terlin and his troops make a spirited attack at the front gate, trying to set it ablaze. They are supported by many of the villagers. Xost and Albanis climb the back wall, with albanis almost falling. Xost runs along the catwalk to engage the archers while Albanis jumps down and takes on Kurson. As usual, xost's player is rolling like the gods truely love him , while Albanis has a tough time but eventually wins.
For the record I also rolled 4, yes 4 00's that evening. Crazy.
Anyway, long story short, Kurson and his thugs are dead along with his family... the boys are agrikians and show no mercy. Nits make lice. They also loot the place and give Terlin the 3rd promised. they also find the Sword of Calsten hidden away. Albanis, after making 4 CS rolls in a row determins that this is the fabled sword. now this is where things start getting interesting as both players have copletely differnt idea's to what to do with it. As far as Albanis is concerned, since he killed Kurson it's his... he thinks its fair since Xost killed Khamal and recieved the quicking boost.
The argument started to get a little heated, much to my delight... there can only be one.

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Ok, let me get this straight. These guys come in, trash the place, slap Agrik & Larani around, and the most intelligible thing they said was "Zog!"?

Been along time since the last update. Played a session over the xmas break. As usual, no prep time and completely off the top of my head. No notes taken during the session, so once again it's up to my failing memory.

Will update as soon as I write it up... i find it easier to do that on note pad then copy/paste as to writing it all down here the first time.

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Ok, let me get this straight. These guys come in, trash the place, slap Agrik & Larani around, and the most intelligible thing they said was "Zog!"?

Off the top of the head GMing - ouch. Hates that, hates it we do. Still, you no doubt did fine. Looking forward to the next installment.

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The Melderyn Campaign

Yeah.. it's difficult to be sure, but then I'd been working pretty much straight since June down in PA. I think before the xmas break I had a total of 19 days from from mid june to the end of Nov. Xmas was much better since i had 2 weeks off after going back out for only a month. By that time it was almost 6 months since the last session and the boys were begging me for a game. wha's a GM to do?

I will admit trying to do my best to kill them though... I'd been fairly gentle and generous with them of late and decided to make things a little more dangerous for them... the White Hand finally showed up.

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Ok, let me get this straight. These guys come in, trash the place, slap Agrik & Larani around, and the most intelligible thing they said was "Zog!"?

Wait, off the top of the head GMing is bad? You mean there's another way to do it?!?

I'd never say "bad", but it tends to have an adverse affect to players sometimes.

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Ok, let me get this straight. These guys come in, trash the place, slap Agrik & Larani around, and the most intelligible thing they said was "Zog!"?

I've discovered that "off the cuff" GMing is how my games got better. I have an idea of what's happening, or perhaps it's better to say I know the one or two events that I want the players to experience, and I have a few names ready, but the rest of it really depends on what the players do.

After all, players aren't using a script; they wing it all the time. So for the GM to wing it as well seems only natural.

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Cheers

Leitchy
List & Forum Admin
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Hello good and worthy!

I need some inspiratation and ideas and ask the membership for their collective wisdom. After a very long hiatus and discussions, I have bowed to player pressure to continue this campaign. I must admit that their energy and enthusiasm for this game has energized me.
I have also decided to give them the game they want, which means high fantasy and magic. Thought about switching systems for this (GURPS or Savage Worlds) but i don't want to bother with a new system and the players love HarnMaster.
I was going to start another game or re-start my bastard son of torastra campaign, but we've lost players to life and other commitments. My remaining two players had no interest in starting new and wanted to continue with this one. I have relented, but have decided to incorporate... at sometime the other campaign, which I really liked. only this time "Galen" will be a npc and he will be a key figure in the issues to consume the east... That's not for sometime.

Back in the west, to sum up... it's 23rd of Agrazhar. Xost & Albanis have bent knee formally to King Arren of Rethem. They were taken to him by one of his agents via Drynia teleport. They had the day before convinced their respective clans and allies to side with Arren when the time came. This came at a price as Xost's cousin, Marius who held the interm position of Commander of the Red Guard and a mage of some note, had a change of heart. He could not let the Cosele clan go down as traitors to the republic. He attacked his father, a senator and took the letter that was sent by Arren confirming their place in the new kingdom as proof of treachery. Xost and Albanis found out and caught him before he could inform the senate... in the battle Marius was killed and his body hidden.

That's where I sit at the moment. The last session was in the spring of 2011 and as I was getting bored of the game, my note taking was poor to say the least.
I should also remind the forum that I have a "highlander" element to the game in which both PC's are immortals. They have previously killed one of the bigger/nastier immortals running around and at the moment in little danger from that end.

Here are some of the idea's I've been floating:
-Arren betrays them, not trusting them, sending them on a suicide mission
-The white hand wants them as they and all immortals pose a threat to them
-I also plan to reintroduce some of my more scary NPC's from campaigns past, just to shake things up.

But what I really could use some thoughts on is "what would Arren do" with these 2 immortals? What about the White Hand?
In this game, which as stated is based on Rothesay's Melderyn camapign, Chunnel is dead and his eldest son Jevas (Darebor II), Arrens brother sits on the throne. Would he take an interest?

Thanks for any thoughts or suggestions, Remember, think big!

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Ok, let me get this straight. These guys come in, trash the place, slap Agrik & Larani around, and the most intelligible thing they said was "Zog!"?

Session 16 Saturday Sept 1 2012

Late evening, Agrazhar 22 720 - a few leagues south of Coranan on the Eidru road. Xost & Albanus stand over the bloody remains of Marius Cosele, Commander of the Red Guard, Shek-pvar, and cousin to Marius, brother to Senator Sinazar Cosele, and son to Senator Quintos Cosele.

What brought the PC's here was the sudden change in heart of Marius and his attack on his father. It seems that Marius had a change of heart concerning the deal that King Arren of Rethem offered Clan Cosele. The PC's found Quintos injured in his townhouse, apparently Marius change his mind about becoming a traitor and tried to change his father’s mind, he was emotional and violent. After striking down his father he fled, and left the city heading straight for General Kronos's headquarters in Eridu. Xost & Albanis just missed the confrontation and shortly gave chase, catching up with Marius near a wooded area. The battle was one sided after Marius failed with a spell and refused to stand down, forcing Xosts hand.

Realizing what could happen if discovered; the PC's hide the body in the wood, stripping it of value to make it look like a robbery. They pulled the tack from Marius's horse and let it go, hiding the gear in the woods. It would take longer to identify the horse and who it belonged to without the gear.

Re-entering Coranan without Marius or getting questioned was solved by the players putting on their legion cloaks and helms... they had their legion gear wrapped up and stored in their bags and was wearing non-descript items. When passing the gates, a couple successful rolls on rhetoric and being correctly identified by the guard got them through. Marius was even brought up as the guard asked if they saw him, the players stated that they came by the Moleryn road and did not.
Xost even managed to put the fear into them when he questioned them about it and found out the Marius left without escort.

Later back at the townhouse, Xost told his uncle what happened and that he tried not to hurt Marius but he was using his magic and it was "us or him". Quintos was upset and shaken but for gave Xost (Xost is his favorite having a loyalty of 87%). The following discussion revolved around on why Marius did what he did. The conclusion was it must be an outside force, as Marius was not acting like himself.

The next day, the PC's arrange to meet with Rahel, their new contact. Rahel is a beautiful and wealthy woman with a thriving mercantile business. This is just a cover for her other activities as an agent for the King.
While waiting for the meeting and staying out of sight (there is still that group that may be members of the White hand in town), they had an unexpected visitor. Kirill of Vetus (FFF#11), a Grey mage and leader of the team from the White hand sent to investigate the Immortal activity in Western Harn. Kirill has been watching for some time and decided to coerce some cooperation from the PC's. The boys are under the impression that the White Hand wants to capture and examine Immortals as they deem them a threat... the reality is they just keep tabs on them and watch, sometime even using them.

In this case Kirill wants to use Xost & Albanis as a source of information to keep tabs on Arrens activities (King Darabor and the council of Eleven are interested and concerned). Kirill basically tells them if they agree to pass on information that they would be "left alone" and would be kept appraised of any Immortal activity in their area. Its total BS but the boys went for it. They did decide to come clean and inform Rahel of the development, fearing King Arren more than the White Hand. Rahel told them to play along as any info they may pass on has been or will be known by other operatives. She would consult with the King on it and told the boys to come back tomorrow as she should have a tasking for them.

On the way back they ran into an old comrade of Albanis. Aerondir, a Sindar from Shaval (who is the PC of new player - and an agent of the council of Eleven). Aerondir is over 400 years old and travelled widely. Albanis and he met over 20 years ago when he acted as a scout for the Ramala Legion during a battle to stop a Gargun swarm. They have a few drinks and get reacquainted.

The next day they have their meeting with Rahel. The mission given is to head for Tormal, gather Intel on the earl’s activities and strength of his forces. They are also tasked to eliminate the earl’s younger brother, Vavryse and his 2 children, Saval & Hesela. If they have a chance to kill Lynnaeus as well, so much the better... they are told that if they succeed they will be handsomely rewarded.

End of session.

Now... I've decided that Arren, the ruthless bastard that he is will use the PC’s as he sees fit and discard them once they are of no use. If they succeed and continue to do so, he may up their status, but until then they are expendable. Since the Earl of Tormau is a Deryni, the usual means of assassination would be of little use, but 2 Immortals who will not fall prey to various mind control spells or psionic because of the quickening may have a better chance... either way they cannot be linked to him and if they are "killed", they may still get away before their nature is known.
It should be interesting...

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Ok, let me get this straight. These guys come in, trash the place, slap Agrik & Larani around, and the most intelligible thing they said was "Zog!"?

I think you're on track with the AoM reactions. Nice to see Rahel make an appearance. With her as a handler, Arren would clearly be considering them for more important ops. Going after the heirs is perfect. In Arren's world, the only people who aren't expendable are his children. IMC, the WH only has authority over Shek Pvar, but that's just me.

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The Melderyn Campaign

Session 17 Sept 15 2012 - Quick update.

Agrazhar 26th to Azura 1st

After reciveing their orders from Rahel, which are to assassinate Saval & Hesela Lynnaeus and Earl Denyl if possible, then travel to Bedenes and kill Horab Gerund, Akarata of the Warriors of Mameka and as much of the leadership of the warriors as possible. Then return with the Mameken, the warriors weaponsmith... alive preferably, his head at the minimum.

Xost, Albanus, and Aerondir get ready to leave. They make short work of getting to the border, which has seen a bit of military build up. The Gerium Legion has been staging excercises and called up reserves for "advanced training". Crossing the border with a caravan, they soon learn first hand that all has not gone well with the local Agrikians. Giblets and empailment poles line the roads with the remains of knights and men at arms from the Cohorts of Gashang & priestess of the Eight Demons.

Themson Keep is in the hands of the Rethemi 3rd Legion and showing signs of massive damage. At this time our legionaires get their first look at massive siege weapons, far bigger than they have ever seen.
They keep to themselfs, breaking of from the caravan. They have documents with the royal seal giveing them permission to travel. It's not questioned by the troops they meet.

Eventually the leave civilization and enter the wilds. The trip for the first 2 days is quiet. Normal animal activity but no human contact. Once they enter the Scarlett Ribon, they notice no resent human activity at all. That night they hear the call of what they assume are wolves, but Aerondir, who had gone hunting spots one of them and discovers they are not wolves, but Vulgs (Wargs /Direwolves). he gets back to came without getting spotted.
On the 3rd night, the group is awakened by the sounds of seismic tapping or hammering. They mistake it for the tread of something heavy walking... and remain awake the rest of the night fear. (GM Note: The sound was Stone Giant tapping or hammering- a means of communications. They rarely appear above ground and have little or nothing to do with ground dwellers. The Khuzdul have some lore concerning them.)
The 4th night, during a nasty storm their worst fears come true when a Greater Troll comes near hunting prey. Good rolls on controlling their mounts and hidden by the rain, the hungry troll passes them by, but not without them getting a look at the beast in a flash of light from lightning... Players were freaking pretty good by then.

Mid morning of the 5th day, the group is attacked by the pack of Vulgs... the battle is swift and bloody with Xost killing 5 out 9 of the beasts. The other 4 are killed by the other 2 PC's, with no one recieving any major injuries.
(Xost's player is believing he is invincible... and with his dice rolls of late, I can't disbute it. it does make it easy for them to except insane missons though...

We halted the sesson there as it was 2:30AM and my contacts had dried to my eyballs. The next game will be awhile as Xost's player has taken a new job up north working in Ft Mac. I figure around xmas or so...

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Ok, let me get this straight. These guys come in, trash the place, slap Agrik & Larani around, and the most intelligible thing they said was "Zog!"?

I'd agree. Too many "adventure modules" require the PC's too be led around by the nose.

I've had some of my best games starting with random enounters, the HM rules are great for this.

You just need to put in more work, much of that being a host of pre-rolled characters, or use something like Patrick's NPC's for many of the non-personality types.

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Hmm Gurthang. What a nice name for a sword....

Session 18 Azura 1st to 4 (February 9 2013)

Wow. It's been a bit. Home for a quick 5 day time off and the lads decided that we had to play Harn. I should be getting use to these sessions without any prep or thought.

Well the following morning after the Vulg attack and Troll sighting, Xost, Albanis, and Aerondir continue east along the Scarlett ribbon.
GM note: I was in an odd mood this evening. I had finally accepted that the "Chybisa Burning" was finished and decided if the boys wanted "high fantasy" they would get it. Sometimes getting what you ask for is not always a good thing.
During the course of the day, the weather turned poor. Heavy fog and mist, extremely damp conditions made for poor travel.
It felt very closed in and oppressive, like the grave. One thing the PC's start to pick up on that there is no life around them. No bird calls. No squirrels or other small animals. No insects. Nothing. They had believed that they would have encountered at least a few Kurbora patrols during the trip and would had to pay a bribe or run from arrows thick as rain... but as of yet. nothing.

For 3 days they travel, getting more paranoid the entire time. During those 3 days, the weather has not changed, they not seen any wild life, and the encounters they have had are starting to mess with their minds.

-On the night of the second, during Xost's watch. 2 lesser Gulmorvin walk into the camp. Xost had warning after a snapped branch gave the undead away. It was a quick fight, with Xost destroying both in short order. They wonder how they were found in the dark not realizing that their Quickening Aura is as bright to those that can see such things as a roaring campfire is to those who do not. A thing to note is that the two looked like kubora hunters.

- The third night, once again Xost is on watch. He is miserable and cold and does not notice the “thing” that passes over head, Aerondir on the other hand is more in tune to his surroundings, even in an elfish half sleep. He jumps up, startling Xost… he does not know what it was, but he had the impression that it was large. The party sleeps the rest of the night , in full armour and weapons in hand. No body is rested the following morning to say the least.

- The following day, the party starts coming across the remains of dead troops and peasants. A couple of good tracking rolls gives them the idea that these people were fleeing and cut down by something large. Bodies torn and tossed about. In all they count over 30 scattered east along the trail for kilometers. They also think they have been dead for more than a week. A successful heraldry roll reveles that these men belonged to baron Quiso.
By the end of the day they reach the out skirts of Quiso lands. The fog has started to move off, letting them get a good view of the crops and fields. In the distance they can see columns of smoke in several areas. They also see dead villagers and oxen in the fields.
By this time the PC's are totally freaked out, they look for cover at the nearest village, which has been burnt down. They decide to search for the bodies, when they notice that there are none lying around and end up finding them behind the destroyed manor. They have been thrown into and tossed around a tree in a massive pile. After that they barricade themselves in a partial standing building to wait for morning.

End of session.

Not sure how I'm going to run it or what is going on. I have a few thoughts, but I'll have to check some things out. The main reason for the "big" mystery is that one of my players has almost as much Harn material as I do. He's read it all and questioned me on "canon" a few times. I've told him more that once that in my game "canon" means squat. I'll make what ever changes i feel like to keep the story going. In this instance, he "knew" far to much about Tormau and kept bring up points when ever i contridicted info I was feeding them. Yup... time to throw in a massive wrench into the works and see what happens. oops... this is not "canon"! what to do now?

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Ok, let me get this straight. These guys come in, trash the place, slap Agrik & Larani around, and the most intelligible thing they said was "Zog!"?

Good and worthy,
I call upon you for thoughts and wisdom. The last session of my “Tharda Rising” campaign found the party closing on Quiso. Their journey on the scarlet ribbon was one of fear and dread, with encounters with Troll, Vulg, and the undead. The northern forests of Peran of taken a deadly turn in its nature. Now the reason was to scare the party somewhat, to change things up from the canon they have read. I don’t like getting shoehorned into something “just because” a player read it somewhere in canon.

The other reason was to get the newest member of the party involved in more than just a side kick role for the 2 immortals. Aeronor is a 1400 year old Elf who fought in the battle of sorrows as a stripling archer in his clan. He is also 1st cousin, once removed from the sorcerous herself, Gywdriel. They are of the same clan IMC, as was the late King Daelda. Now most of clan Sina is either dead or in exile with Gwydriel, with the exception of Aeronor and her cousin that founded the Nithra-Dante (can’t recall the name at this time).

I should sum up what is going on political wise… for those of you who have been following, you will recall that I have shamelessly borrowed from Rothesay’s Meldryni Campaign and taken Arren, second son of the late King Chunnel of Meldryn, and had him as in Roythesay’s game take Rethem as his own. I will not go into any detail on him at this time but Machiavelli would be proud to shake his hand.
Anyway… his conquest of Harn proceeds at pass, with his co-op of the 2 young Thardans to his cause. Now they at this point totally expendable as they have fulfilled their main use… which was to get the Clans Cosel & Nordacka on board with Arren. They have done so and at the appropriate time those to clans will change sides as it becomes clear that Arren will win.

As for the 2 Immortals, he will use them until they die or prove to him that they are more that simple tools. Now their current mission is to assassinate the Earl of Tormaus’s brother and his 2 children, if they can kill Tormau also, all the better. After that they are to go to Bedenes and slaughter the grandmaster and his council, and capture the “Mamakian”. No easy task, but they are game.
While heading north I decided to change stuff up a bit and bring back a baddie from previous games that I never fully got to use. That was Gwydriel and her hatred of humans. I figured why should have an easy run of it… also the players wanted a high fantasy end of world type of game. So, while traipsing through the wood, they have encounter a Greater mountain troll, 2 lesser morvin from a local tribe, survived a daylight attack from a pack of Vulgs (direwolf).

The end of the session found them passing the torn up carcasses of the Baron of Quiso’s troops along the road… they had the look of fleeing, mixed in was some peasants and freeman. When the hit the edge of his lands they could see in the distance smoke columns of a few fires. They travelled until dark passing a couple of burnt out villages and manors, dead scattered or nailed to trees. Quite horrific and it had the desired effect on the party. Now they are not sure of anything, and any player knowledge is useless. The problem. I’m not sure where to go with this so it makes sense, not necessary to the players, but to me.

I should note that IMPH the Earthmasters were the Elves. I don’t totally go with a Tolkin view of the Eldar folk, as it’s been done to death. IMPH the elves battle with them self’s and others during the Succession wars or the elven time of madness, depending on who you talk to. Most people have no clue, not even the wise in Meldryn and it’s something the elves don’t bring up themselves. The end results of these wars are still to be determined, but most of the different branches of elvdom have moved on or were killed off. The Sindar of Harn are a pale shadow of what they once were. There are still those with a spark of that old power though… Gwydriel being one of them
Now in a few of the fanon article it’s been mentioned that the Mordsindar have given themselves over to Morgath. I’ve kept that and worked that in. INMPH Gwydriel was Balshala’s teacher and helped his followers start the blood bath. It was a start, but did not go as far as she would have liked. The Morgathian church today are just pawns for her to use against the rest of humanity. The church of course has no knowledge of this and would scarcely believe it.

Another though was I’d like to use Lotheream. Maybe he had some devise or knowledge she could use. I was planning on her using the Gargun as a weapon, maybe a hybrid of some kind. I don’t like the “changeling storey” at all and have tossed it aside… maybe stealing children to blend them with the orcs is a better idea. Don’t know. I also plan to use the grey mage out of N, S, & B… she would be a wonderful pawn for the Elf priestess to use. Lots of ideas long term, but in the here and now I’m stuck.
Question: What’s with Quiso? Maybe a raid to test out a mind control formula? What if Tormau is looking for a way to control the tribes to use them as fodder against Arren? Maybe a little show and tell to demonstrate the product… that it’s used against one of his own retainers is minor; the Baron is mad and expendable, and easily replaced. Besides, he does not want to alert Arren too soon. Maybe it’s something else altogether…. Point is, what do the players find when they reach Quiso or Tormau? I'd like to dribble the threat of Qwydriel in slowly... maybe if the players can bring a warning, it may promote them further in the Kings eyes.

Thoughts?

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Ok, let me get this straight. These guys come in, trash the place, slap Agrik & Larani around, and the most intelligible thing they said was "Zog!"?