Dragonhelm's Campaign Journal - 9/9

[Dragonhelm]

I typically just post this on the DL boards, but since this deals with my experiences with the C&C rules, I thought I'd share it here as well.

Tonights game was a bit combat-intensive. We rolled up the stats for my new players character, since she joined in without stats halfway through last time. Shes playing a bard. Whats cool is that were using a variant of Monte Cooks variant bard. The way I addressed this was to say that shes tapping into the power of the magic of the Song of Life, spiritual music that comes from Branchala himself. In a sense, its a variant take of divine magic.

As a bit of background info, the bard had heard a melody since the War of Souls in her dreams, and it has been haunting her lately.

The players prepared to leave to Micah in search of the dragon eggs. Just before they left, they encountered Jacques du Paul, a Goodfellow of Branchala (sorta kinda ) dressed in green-and-yellow. He talked to our bard real quick, but she shood him away. After that, the party traveled to Micah.

They entered town, and left Shroud and Scar (the Legion Mystic) to guard the wagon with the dragonlance. Cat (the swashbuckler), Storm (the ranger), and Jo (the bard) split up as they scouted ahead. Cat encountered the ghostly treant, and as it animated the woods around her, she ran.

She met up with the others, and they entered the ruined temple of Branchala. Jo rolled really well, and was able to identify the temple, that it was elvish, etc. We figured she probably knew who the architect of the building was. As the group went in, they discovered the disir and the tyin. (Just a note, the last time we faced a tyin was in Flints Axe). The party was hurting, so Jo was sent to get reinforcements. Scar came just as the others finished off the bad guys. They looked around and discovered a strange amulet with leaf designs, strange writing, and a pearl. Scar was sent back to guard the wagon.

Meanwhile, Shroud had returned from wandering off, as he had set the treant free. Jo was playing her harp at the wagon, the melody from her dreams, which brought tears to Shrouds eyes. Eventually, Shroud fell asleep to the soothing music. Pretty soon, Jo heard clapping. She turned around to see Jacques. He asked if he could accompany her, and he pulled out his flute. The two sounded great together. She asked him how he knew the song from her dreams, and he said he had learned it somewhere in his travels. What he revealed was that it was the Song of Life, the music of Branchala, and that music gave magical power.

Scar eventually came back, and looked at the amulet. Jo asked if she could see it, and when she touched it, it began to glow. Scar asked aloud what that was all about, and Jacques responded, It knows its own. Jacques soon left, and Scar gave the amulet to Jo. Branchalas Amulet not a medallion of faith, but it is a minor magical item of Branchalas (+1 AC, and +2 to two Perform skills).

Storm and Cat eventually went up against the disir queen after circumventing most of the disir warriors. It was a ferocious battle that left the players drained, three disir warriors dead, and the other three warriors feasting on their queens dead carcass. The players went back to the wagon again, got patched up, grabbed Scar, and went back into the action. Jo stayed behind with Shroud to guard the dragonlance.

Long story short, the players beat up the other three disir, and fought against the disir shaman and the half-dragon/half-disir freak. Scars player, Kenneth, looked at me in shock as I did 20 points of damage to him in a single attack with that breath weapon. Teach him to fail his save! The damage was 6d8. I made it worse by rolling one die over and over. Hee hee!

The players got the eggs, headed back to Lord Toede, and got the info they needed about the Fountain of Renewal. Overall, good time, though combat-intensive.

As Ive mentioned before, Im using a hybrid of D&D and C&C for my game. Overall, it went well, though my players are still getting used to adding character level in for certain rolls. I do like how much better combat went. The swashbuckler fumbled at one point and fell prone with a big disir above her, ready to impale her. I allowed her a Dex check (adding level in), and she pulled off a nifty maneuver to get back on her feet.

Saving throws were real nifty tonight. I got the best of both 1e/2e and 3e. I was able to say, Make a save vs. poison as well as Make a Constitution save. That is some real nice flexibility, and allows for old-time flavor yet the ease of tying a save to an ability score.

The only thing I need to work on better is spells, as a lot of 3e spells are not in C&C. I think they translate fairly easily, though.

Anyway, this is the last game until mid-November. I enjoyed it a lot, and Im having a blast.
_________________
Trampas Whiteman
---DragonHelm--->
Dragonlance Nexus

[DangerDwarf]

I always enjoy reading another group's session in the Age of Mortals adventures. SoS has to be one of my all time favorites, just so much gaming goodness there.

Definately like the idea you used of rolling a single d6 8 times for the breath weapon. Good drama factor there.
I'm seriously considering converting the characters over to C&C to finish this campaign when PoC is finally released.