C&C Midnight: Crown of Shadows

Within are to be writ the tales of daring and adventure of those who have placed themselves on the path of glory. Share your exploits with other Castlers & Crusaders!
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DangerDwarf
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C&C Midnight: Crown of Shadows

Post by DangerDwarf »

Well, I'll be beginning my C&C Midnight campaign tonight. To begin, I'm going to be doing a solo session, just a single player. This will give me an opportunity to kind of test out a few things and get a good idea of the "feel" of the campaign.

The first 2-3 sessions will lead in to the Crown of Shadows module with the remainder of the players being introduced in the 2nd session.

So, for the trial session tonight I plan on running a toned down version of The Well of Rebellion, found in the Midnight 2E book. The character involved will be:
Kaja: A female Dorn Defender with the Ironborn heroic path.

So far, it looks like a Hermetic Channeler and a Wildlander will be joining her in session 2.

Hopefully I'll have time to post how it went after the game.

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Tadhg
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Post by Tadhg »

Fantastic. Very ambitious, but I'm sure it will be very rewarding for you!

CKs rule (but have fun doing so)!!!
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Post by Omote »

Nice, DD. Nice.

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DangerDwarf
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Post by DangerDwarf »

Session 1: 23 FEB 07 - The Well of Rebellion

Ok, the "practice" session went on without a hitch. There was a change in character prior to beginning the game though. Kaja was switched from a Defender to an Assassin. This first session was simply a converted run of the Well of Rebellion mini adventure in the 2e book.
Kaja: A Female Dorn Assassin with the Shadow Walker Heroic Path.

Kaja's village was razed by a Sarcosan legate and she was left for dead. She has since been attempting to track the priest of Izrador and exact vengeance for her village. She has so far been unsuccessful, but has heard that the legate had been called to the Kaladrun mountains to assist in the war effort against the dwarves.

Her search for the murderous legate has lead her to Koln, a small town on the edge of the Kaladrun foothills. She is aware of rumors that a resistance cell operates in the area and desires to make contact with them in Koln with the hopes that they have seen or heard of the whereabouts of the Sarcosan legate named Jael.

Shortly after her arrival in Koln she witnesses another legate, Drugan Deem and his orcs viscously beat the mayor of the town. Kaja assisted the mayor to his residents after the brutal beating and he made a request of her.

The mayor stated that the legate was angry over a source of magic being detected near the town. The mayor wasn't aware of any magic but suspected that the nearby Tearfall caverns is what aroused the legates suspicion. The caverns are occasionally used by local smugglers and the mayor fears that they may have something there which has attracted the attention of the legate's astirax.

To get the beating to stop, the mayor gave the legate directions to the caverns. However, he fears that if the legate finds anything there he will implicate Koln with the insurgency and order the village razed.

The mayor asks Kaja to attempt to beat the legate and his orcs to the cave and hide any contraband. Kaja agreed to assist the and readys herself to set out after the legate and his orcs.

Kaja speaks with Tanner Hurly and, after negotiating with some tobacco, is told about a shortcut to the caverns called the High Road. She immediately sets out on a horse provided by the Mayor.

After a brief ride, Kaja arrive at her entrance point to the High Road. It's at the top of a 50 foot cliff. Succeeding at her climb check Kaja begins travelling the trail at a comfortable jog. Soon she finds the way blocked by a 15' chasm, the bottom of which is 70' below.

Kaja decides to attempt a jump across the chasm. As the CK I kind of winced, she does not possess STR as a prime and with the CL of the jump she'd need to roll a 20 to make it across.

Well, the dice clatter on the table and what do you know? A big 20 rolls up and she clears the chasm.

Proud of herself thus far, Kaja continues along her way. Along the journey she encounters a pair of undead dwarves. Only recently risen they still possess a semblance of their former selves. The female dwarf falls to the ground as she struggles to resist the urge to feed. The male dwarf charges and tackles Kaja to the ground taking a bite out of her shoulder as they fall.

The melee between Kaja and the fell dwarf continues for several rounds. Kaja lacking the melee expertise for a decisive victory and the dwarf driven to attack wildly by its gnawing hunger. (Alot of bad rolls by both sides here). The female dwarf finally succumbs to the urge to feed and moves to join the combat.

Realizing she was in dire straits, Kaja bull rushes the male and manages to knock him prone. She then begins to run.

The Dorn woman easily outpaces the undead dwarves, but failed to consider the fact that they do not tire. As the chase continues, she begins to stumble and falter, exhausted. Realizing she could not continue on she attempts to find a suitable spot to make a stand against the fell pair of dwarves.

It is then that she hears the clatter of horse hooves in the hills below. She scrambles for cover and makes a succesful hide check. Below she observes the legate and his orc band. It appears the legate and the orc commander are having an argument though her understanding of the orcish language only allows her to make out snippets of the conversation.

Then the dwarves arrive on the scene. The sight of the orcs makes them forget their previous prey and as they descend the hills towards the orcs, Kaja slips away unnoticed.

Thankful for this fortunate turn of events, Kaja hurriedly continues towards the Tearfall Caverns, encountering a patch of mire as she does. Luckily there is a rope bridge leading across the mire and she dashes across it, fearful that the legate and his orcs might already be heading this way. Once across she uses her knife to cut the bridge and continues on.

Kaja eventually reaches the caverns and enters. Once inside she finds the stash of contraband items which the smugglers were depositing here. Soon after however, she can hear the pounding of horse hooves outside, echoing into the caves.

Cursing, she heads to the main passage of the cavern and hides herself. To her suprise, only the legate has entered the caverns. Steeling herself, she picks a hiding place where the passage is narrow and begins to study the legate for her death attack ability.

At the optimal moment, she draws her blade, launches herself at the legate from behind and....

misses.

Battle now begins in earnest with the legate being at a slight disadvantage due to the cramped quarters and his inability to make best use of his longsword.

The battle is hard fought but Kaja wins the day. Fearful that the orcs heard the sound of the battle (they didn't) she scrambles to hide the body of the legate.

After hiding the body she still doesn't hear any sign of the orcs in the caverns.

She hurriedly begins to search the caverns for a possible second entrance to no avail. She does however, discover a chamber with a magically glimmering pool. A nexus. The elemental guardian of the pool rises up and questions her, she quickly fills the elemental in on what has transpired thus far and the elemental requests her to aid it in keeping the pool hidden.

Knowing that she could not best the orcish band, even utilizing sneak attacks in the tunnels, she decides to attempt to negotiate with them.

Taking some of the items from the smugglers stash, she exits the cavern, straight into the center of the orcs. After some good Rp, some successful CHA rolls and a bribe she convinces the orcs to leave. The fact that the orc commander and the legate have been arguing over their course of actions greatly influenced the orc's decision.

With the contraband and nexus left undiscovered, Kaja returned to Koln. The local resistance has since become aware of her actions and is considering approaching her.

[/b]

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DangerDwarf
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Post by DangerDwarf »

This first session was highly enjoyable. There wasn't anything different from a mechanics standpoint this session but I wanted to use it to get accustomed to the different feel of the Midnight setting.

Next session will see the introduction of a PC who is of the channeler class, so I'll get a chance to see how it plays in C&C.

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Post by Maliki »

Sounds like a great first session, keep the updates coming.
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Post by DangerDwarf »

Ok, PC #2 was e-mailed to me. Looks like next session we will be seeing this fellow joining the party:
Liam: Male Erenlander, Hermetic Channeler. Heroic path: Seer.

Liam is a recent addition to the resistance cell located in Koln. He is the village apothecary and has been secretly teaching a small few of the townsfolk to read and write. It was his work in literacy which initially brought him to the attention of the resistance movement. While primarily a scholar, Liam is a hearty man unafraid of physical confrontation.

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Post by DangerDwarf »

Well. My gaming group is falling apart.
One of my players was transferred to a unit in south texas and another got switched to a card opposite of mine so we have no days off with eachother.

That leaves me with 2 players and it appears my C&C Midnight campaign is on hiatus.

The 2 remaining players are wanting to do a bit more with their Dragonlance characters so we'll pick up our DL campaign here soon.

Bleah. Time to start trying to recruit.

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