Come On Guys, It Can't be That bad!

[Author's Note: We are just getting back into the swing of things after a way-too-long summer break. Con and vacation season can mess things up group-wise. I did get to play at the GM Tournament at Origins]

We stopped off at a small berg named Nulb for the night and got rooms at an inn. In the middle of the night I was called away by an unknown force and found myself in a small town with a bunch of strangers. The gawds seemed to have gathered up a group to stop someone who was poisoning the locals. My details are fuzzy, but I really remember following a trail into the woods and coming up on a campsite. Before I knew it I took two arrows to the groin, one of which was quite severe [a level 8 crit!]. The rest of the group wades into battle while I'm writhing on the ground in pain, trying to protect "my boys" from further damage. I managed to draw up my shield to cover myself as much as I could. One of my party members managed to take out the archer, which was fortunate because a huge half-ogre came rushing at me. I was quicker than he was, and one well-timed Befriend spell later, and he wasn't so keen on attacking me. With the nearest threat overcome, I could tell there was some combat and spell-slinging going on around the campfire. I did what I could and once my compatriots finished the battle I healed everyone the best I could.

I recall talking to some dude and then proceding to an arena of some type. The battle we had there was the fierced I've seen. Some of our enemy was invisible and we came darned close to losing. If not for the Pixie Sprite in our group, and lots of healing from Lathander, we'd have been toast. It was very, very rough. In the end I managed to snag some extra Platinum Pieces....freely offerred by one of my party for healing him back up from near death for the fourth or fith time. I also got a nice dagger, an awesome shield [Actually a SNI from the online chapter when it was in full swing], and some magical armor.

Coming back to Nulb was a bit of a shock, but a relief. Getting back up in the morning Ellie, Ginsu, and I noticed Jorlan wasn't around. We left Samson in his room and went adventuring about the town. Lathander had blessed me with a Continual Light spell and I wanted to cast it into a locket so I'd always have a handy light source. Unfortunately it seemed like there were no metalsmiths in this place. We wandered over to a warehouse-looking place that was also a tavern of sorts. Jorlan was inside eating away.....as usual. While Ginsu and Ellie sat down I went to the bar and ordered drinks. I asked the bartender if she knew anyplace in town that sold lockets and she said they had no jewler, but she knew a guy who sold some jewelry. A bit later some traveling salesman dude (pretty fricken big guy) had three lockets for me to look at, and I purchased the best looking of the three.

After that was done and we drank out watered-down beer, Jorlan says he had a meeting with Mother Screng. I had no idea he was from Nulb and I asked how his mother was doing. He seemed reluctant to talk about her, and I had to practically force him to invite her to dinner with us that night. I inquired about the best eatery in the town and was told we were in it, so I told the barkeep I wanted a nice dinner for six at sundown. My top-end for the affair was 5 Platinum Pieces. With everything set, we went back to the inn to gather up Samson and head off to check on the evil temple. While he was gathering up his stuff I asked where Jorlan's mother lived and he finally admitted that the lady wasn't his mother, but her name was "Mother". The locals verified this, much to my chagrin......

Oh well, Mother Screng's house was just down the street...and I already made the arrangements, so I went over and introduced myself and invite her to dinner. That being taken care of, we set off for the temple. After four hours or so we don't find anything and we have to head back to make our dinner date. We get into town around sunset and head straight for the tavern. A table has been all made up and we all take our seat.......well almost all. Jorlan decides to sit at the bar next to some random guy. Samson is called away to help the guy who sold me the locket and soon most of the rest of the patrons belly up to the bar for a drink.

The guy next to Jorlan starts accusing him of trying to steal a necklace from the barkeep. The guys at the bar quickly surround Jorlan and brandish daggers. Ginsu tells the group to back away from Jorlan, who immediately turns invisible. The group moves towards Ginsu and I quickly cast a Command spell on the lead instigator, telling him to "Forgive". As the guy is being very, very apologetic to me, his henchmen surround Ginsu. He tries to disarm one, missing, and then fells the guy in a single blow. This makes everybody back off a bit. Since Jorlan isn't anywhere to be found, and Ginzu is more trouble than they expected, the mob decided caution is the better part of valor and they make for the door. As a show of good faith (pun intended) I was able to bring the downed thug from the brink of death. I told him he should think about Lathander's blessings and reflect on his thuggery ways. The idiot didn't know about Lathander....I might have to work on cleaning up this place some.

After the "excitement" Mother Screng and her daughter join us for a lovely dinner. Jorlan does the right thing and apologizes for trying to steal the locket (he does a lousy job of apologizing) and the rest of the evening is spent eating and enjoying each other's company. Mother Screng tells us to stop by in the morning because she has some useful supplies for our trip.

After another night in the inn we stop by her place and she gives me some sort of healing salve containing 5 doses. She says its good for poison or disease and while she gave us one salve, she has more we could purchase if needed.

After about 6 hours on the trail South of Nulb we find the evil temple. The trail entrance leading up to the temple is marked with a couple of dead, beardless Dwarves. Jorlan scouts up ahead and we have not only the temple to contend with but a small tower too. Jorlan notices "something" is in the tower, so we'll probably need to tackle that first.

Map of Tharp

Notable locations:
2. Guyver (Guard Captain) and his son Elmo the Torch-Bearer live at this farm.
6. The Leatherworker
7. A large hole--all that remains of the Welcome Welch Inn, destroyed by Elmo.
8. The Smithy
9. Town meeting hall and temporary Inn. Followers of Lathander chose this as a new meeting place after Belinda left.
10. The Weaver
13. The Trading Post. The elven bowyer Renn works here. A wide variety of goods are available.
14. Carters--rent horses and wagons here.
15. Moneychanger's shop
16. Cabinetmaker's shop
17. Potter
18. Brew House--get your local beer!!!!
20. The Church. Once a temple to Lathander, it is now home to the House of Pangrus. Dijon, the chief cleric, is willing to share with Lathander's followers.
21. Dairy
23. Mill
24. Druid's grove
26. Wainwright
27. Rumbol, the village elder, lives in this walled manor.
28. Carpenter's shop
29. Stonemason
30. Castle foundation--this is the area under construction around Edward and Lexi's tower.
31. The Tower--your temporary home.
34. The town graveyard

*Remaining numbered locations are homes belonging to various townsfolk.

More Vacation Photos

OOC: We haven't been able to get together to game in a while, so I thought I'd tell more stories from Baladar's pre-adventuring days.

My parents were so happy when I graduated from the semiary that as a gift they sponsored my vacation before I'd have to settle down and lead a congregation. Through the judicious (and expensive) use of the Teleport Intercampaignia spell I was able to travel to some place called "Earth". I don't get what D20 Modern is, but these folks were wierd. They wore strange clothes and instead of horses they traveled in metal beasts through the land, sea, and air?! The food was wierd too, and the women....don't even get me started! I was glad to get back, and I did manage to bring back something called "souvenier photos". Kind of like honor tokens to show off stuff you did, but you need some magic item called a "camera" that makes little paintings.

Anyway, here are some of my paintings:
I stared out in some place called "America", but the locals called it a bunch of different names. I think some were for the village I was in and maybe the local province too. They did have this strong drink they made with smoked beans. I had a cup or three and before I knew it I felt like I had a potion of speed poured down my throat! After running around for a while someone pointed out to me that they had the wurld's largest ball of twine. I'm a sucker for these kind of things so away to the ball I went. Ok...been there, done that.

After the big ball I headed out west to the "Grand" Canyon. Actually it was pretty damned impressive. The thing went on and on and at the bottom was a river. I could've taken a donkey ride on some precarious trail down to the bottom, but they wouldn't convert my gold pieces into the local currency. The staff was pretty rude anyway, so I wasn't unhappy not giving them coins. I did want a closer look so I scaled down the side of the canyon at a spot that wasn't too grand. That's when I found out about the staff. The canyon had a bunch of care-takers in funny hats that yelled and yelled at me until I climbed back up. They were super pissed! A couple of the locals told me if I wanted a better look I could use some magic looking glasses they had just for that sort of thing. When you put in a coin they'd let you look through them for a small amount of time. That was the coolest thing about this part of my trip.

I was ready to depart for one of the other lands in this wurld when I heard about the Devils Tower in a land called Wyoming. I figured I could squeeze in a little work side-trip during my travels so I girded up my loins, grabbed my morning star and shield and ventured west to Wyoming to do battle. This would be my first test as a Cleric of Lathander! Of course when I get there not is all as it seems. Evidently this "Devil's Tower" is just some wierd shaped mountain. When I saw it I asked around some...just to make sure it wasn't really evil. Oh well.....time to move on anyway.

Before I left this land for the south I stopped by a mountain where the one wizard used Stone Shape spells to carve his leader's likeness into the hillside. Evidently these were great leaders in the past and the wizard dedicated his life to completing this work. I bet if you connect the gazes of these statues you would locate the entrance to his lair. Either that or maybe the whole mountain is actually a hidden dwarven dungeon. My efforts to get a party together to checkout these theroies didn't pan out. I was told that this land was very rich in gold though, so there might be some hope for a future foray.

I traveled south to a more tropical area of this land on the way to a place called, ironically enough, South America. I was getting a little tired of my travels and thought I'd take in some solo adventuring. I asked around a every inn I could find and got quite a few good tips. There weren't any old wizards offering me money to help find some items and I never did come across a village needing some adventurers to save them. In the end I needed to do some good old-fashioned dungeon crawls. Some explorers discovered some ruins in a place called Central America. These ruins were so old that the jungle has reclaimed the land until quite recently.

When I got there it was hot and humid and the place was crawling with people. I thought maybe this place had been pretty much picked over with all the traffic, but these pilgrims, called "tourists" didn't seem to care about the riches that might lie below the surface of the ground. They just climbed over everything and took some of their magic paintings. It took forever to find an entrance to the caverns below and when I did I found a group of people had in fact claimed this dungeon site. They called themselves Arkeeologists and they weren't interested in obtaining my services. I was postive they had a legitimate legal claim on this site because they weren't afraid to call in the authorities. I bid my farwell and went on to the next site as fast as I could.

At the southern portion of this land I found another set of ruins far up in the mountains. There were very few people, probably because it was such an arduous trek to get here. The air was thin and cold. This place was obviously an abandoned Dwarven settlement. The stonework was so fine your couldn't even try to slip a knife blade between the joints, even after centuries of neglect. I know there has to be some good loot in the dungeons below, but being by myself really posed some insurmountable problems. I really needed a party with at least two good thieves in it because you know there are going to be a lot of deadly traps. Oh well, yet another place to come back to when I am able....if I am able. With the great expense of getting here, the hual would have to be pretty darned good!

I heard of a rich kingdom across the sea that was simply rich in gold and treasure. Of course I did also hear that most of the good stuff had already been found, but the tombs themselves were still worth going to sea. These people also worshiped the sun, so they couldn't be too bad right? I was a great visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. Hot and dry, this land was a big desert. I got sand in places I never wanted it. Travel tip: don't wear metal armor in the desert. I think some of the links branded a nice design in the back of my next. Those Cure All spells aren't cheap!

My next stop was at the ruins of yet another ancient civiliation. This place was an old gladitoial arena. I'm told that this place was the biggest arena this wurld ever had to offer. The could flood it with water to have sea battles and they imported savage creatures from around the wurld to fight. I bet if I could come back I could convince Samson to come back with me if only to check out this place. This was my favorite place in this country, although they did have a lot of churches. Oh, get this...here they had a small country within this country that is totally owned by a church! An entire country named Vatican City, owned by a single church. Must have some very, very rich parishioners!

I did stop by another place in this country that had a famous leaning tower. You don't get a great view of it from this angle, but the tower does lean quite a bit. I think it's the headmaster's quarters from what appears to be a wizard's school. I really didn't have much time to hang out here, which is ok by me.

My next stop was a land called France which reminded me more of home. The people and food were a bit on the ripe side, rude to foriegners, and there were lots of old churches, and catacombs to discover. I was enticed to check out a place billed as the "Happiest place on earth". Bull! All this place wanted was my coin and I was a bit PO'd to find out that America had two of these places! How can there be more than one "happiest place"? I was in and out of this place in a hurry.

Several people told me I needed to check out this big tower they had in the capitol of this land. I'd seen enough towers but I figure what the heck....I'm glad I stopped. This thing was HUGE and made of metal. I couldn't tell if it was Dwarven or Gnomish manufacture, but it was magnificent. I asked this one guy resting in the tower's shadow if he'd take my painting. Please note the colorful footwear he was wearing. This kind of stuff was quite popular.

Across the channel from the main continent is a big island that I'm told pretty much ruled the wurld a couple hundred years ago. I'm not sure if these folks were responsible to all of the ruins I've been to or not, but I thought I sould make my visit short and respectful. Here is a building that the land's leaders meet in. They also have a tower, but this one has a big timepiece called a "clock". Eveidently clocks are so special that they are given names in this land. This one is called Big Ben. Ben is really loud an he actually calls out the time for all the land to hear. It was quite impressive.

My final stop before going home was a little place in the countryside where a large tent was set up for all the locals to come for entertainment. There were animals and performers on display in three seperate arenas and a side attraction called a "freak show". The freak show is a tale for another time.

I'd like to thank my loving parents for such a wonderful graduation gift. I got to learn a lot about new cultures and really got a chance to explore. I could get used to traveling......

Off to check on the neighbors....

The group decided to mosey about and check on our temporary new home. Eddie introduced us to one of the village elders, a nice Lathanderite named Rumble. He has a nice wife and three strapping boys who help him run his ranch. The sons are in the militia, so I'm bound to see them again.





Oh...get this. I found out that the village is largely made up of Lathanderites and they "lost" their cleric a couple/several weeks ago. The church of Pangrus here in Tharp isn't so much the only organized religious group here in town as they are the most oppourtunistic. Those ^%^! little bastards moved into the Temple of Lathander the moment the cleric skipped town. Screw having services at the tower, we're taking our Church back. I've informed Rumble to gather up the other Lathanderites next holy day for a service at the village well. Right after that we're heading over to our Temple. If the Pangrites are good about the whole thing and turn over our holy ground I'm willing to allow them continued use, otherwise we're taking it back by force. Lathander can tolerate sharing (and a religious community is a healthy community, as a general rule), but he'll be damned if he'll just give his home without a fight!





Sorry about the tangent there....religious fervor and all.





Anyway, we got a brief rundown of the town and everybody wanted to immediately head off to the school and see about this "reduced" training we were offered. I think I'm not the only one ready to increase my abilities/responsibilities. Eddie's wife (Snowball....Snowstorm....snow what, she really wears the pants in that relationship) tells him he can't go to the school with us because he has to finish packing or something (I wasn't really paying attention). Eddie writes us a letter of introduction and off we go to the "school", which we find out is some sort of gatehouse about 5 miles outside of Tharp.





Evidently several weeks ago some adventurers came through and cleaned out the gatehouse of some sort of monster infestation. A trio of elves came in and started re-building the place with the intent of building a school. So.....we have a handshake of a deal that gives us an alleged discount on a school that doesn't exists yet? Did I get that right?





As we approach the school we find an elven trio out in the middle of the road. One is on the ground, probably injured, and the other two are standing over him/her/it. I try my best greeting in elven, but I probably flubbed it. Luckily Ellie, my elven instructor, was with us and she started discussing things with the two who were standing. I clearly heard the word "cleric", so I proudly displayed my holy symbol and repeated the word "cleric". After some more translated discussion I was allowed access to the elf on the ground who had a broken arm and some terrible gashes. Fortunately Lathander saw fit to grant me access to the Mend Limb spell (without having to spellburn for it) and I was able to properly tend the wounded elf's wounds.





Evidently the gatehouse restoration is far from complete and there are several places where the walls are still in ruin. Something has been stirring up the local bugbears (uh...Eddie and his little "test" no doubt) and a group of them just walked right into the gatehouse. We know there are at least 6 because that's how many burst into the wounded elf's room and roughed him up.





I was 110% all in favor of routing the Bugbears, but Samson (and maybe Jorlan) wanted to negotiate for some schooling before hand (uh...where at guys?). Jorlan used a magic ring to become invisible and scampered off to check things out. When he got back he said he could see a couple of sleeping Bugbears in one room. I asked him to draw a map of what he saw and we got the elves to give it a once-over to check it for accuracy and give a few pointers. Our fighter-types devised a plan and off we went.....





We followed the moat around on the inside (between it and the gatehouse) to a ruined corner. Jorlan went invisible again and slipped inside, but the sleeping Bugbears weren't there. Next thing we know, there are Bugbears coming out of the ruined corner and then there are Bugbears attacking from behind! Ginsu and Samson take care of the ones popping out from within and I cast Command at a Bugbear to "dive" into the moat. The spell doesn't work, so I think they don't know how to speak common. Together the rest of the party takes care of the Bugbears we know of and we know there are more coming. I cast the Curse spell Lathander gave me, but I don't know if I got anything out of it. Casting that spell and then working my way inside the gatehouse took some time and by the time I got there, a full-on fray was in progress. The group closest to me consisted of Samson & Ginsu against a couple of Bugbears. Jorlan was all over the place popping in and out of invisibility to backstab the Bugbears. Ellie was across the courtyard getting pounded by another Bugbear (or two....fog of war keeps me from getting the count perfectly accurate).





What happened next was amazing. Samson hurled his axe across the courtyard and simply obliterated one of the Bugbears attacking Ellie. Between Ginzu, Samson, and Jorlan they down one Bugbear and get another close enough to death that I can finish him off. While all of our attention is on our opponents, Ellie is cut down....





Ginzu and I rush over to her and another Bugbear steps out to do us harm. I yell at Ginzu to "plug up the hole" so I can try to bring Ellie back from the brink of death....she was mere seconds away from passing on. It took a couple of cures and a Mend Tendon to get her up and out of harm's way, but with Ginzu providing support, I had all the time I needed.





The battle was over for now and a few more cures spread out to the party took care of most all of our damage. At this point we have one room and the courtyard cleared...and the room could have been re-occupied already.





This will be interesting.....

Character Background

Christopher: Um.....Baladar isn't my first HackMaster PC and he won't be my last. I don't often have much of a background on my HackMaster PCs, unlike my D&D PCs, and Baladar isn't much different.

In my old D&D group it seems that most of the PCs (not all) were started out at levels higher than 1st, so having some sort of background is essential to explain the transition from 0 level to level X.

In HackMaster, unless your GM is unwilling or flat out disallows it's use, you have a set of background tables to roll representing your schooling days. Between those rolls, the ones for your family background (siblings, parents, honor, etc), and all of your quirks and flaws......I don't really feel a huge need to come up with a background. If your GM starts you out in a specified place that you have some history on, go for it.

Hmmmm...just had an idea for HackJournal-background story mad-libs! You remember mad-libs, right? Right down a bunch of words based on the adjectives they ask for and before you know it you have a crazy story. Imagine a whole series of mad-libs where you right down the words and then your roll a die and use a specific background story based on your class.

Anyway, I don't have a background for Baladar. Heck, I can't even locate my notes for his seminary days. He started out as a "regular" cleric and then became a Chosen One. I thought about dual-classing to Zealot, but I'd lose out on a lot of my mid-level bonus spells and the honor window is so freakin hard to get into anyway. Multi-class/dual-class PCs use their highest level + 1/2 of their other levels (rounded up) to determine their effective level for Honor. This isn't so bad for PCs with multiple classes as they usually have more class-based Honor awards they can earn from, but Baladar's two class are in the same base group so he doesn't have any extra oppourtunities to earn Honor.

What I can offer you three readers of this blog is some wonderful pictures of Baladar's activities during his "off" days.....back before he became a Chosen One. Clerics may get a vacation, but I doubt Chosen Ones ever do. The first pic is of Baladar at the amusment park. The second is Baladar trying to get converts in Amsterdam.....for some reason they don't really want to see the light of Lathander in the dark recesses of a porn store. The pic on the left is Baladar at a church retreat on the beach. He tried to follow the "casual dress" code posted in his travel guide, but the man could only do so much.

There has been some question about this guy I'm using as Baladar. No it isn't me and no, I have no clue who he is. I did a web search for Lathander and this one photo of some dude in his get-up called out to me. I prefer glasses that are a bit smaller and more square....and I've done my absolute best to ensure that any incriminating photos of me are either destroyed or bad enough that I'm unidentifable. Those "nekkid" pics of me..........all form behind and my visible tattoos are not identifiable in the pics. I'm not sure if the folks have any photos of me in my buckskinning get-up, and I'm almost sure that the pics of me getting stripped out of my buckskinning gear have been lost to time (not cool to play "capture the flag" with a guy's loincloth......especially if he is wear it at the time.)

There will be more photos of Baladar because, quite frankly, I find it fun to do. Enjoy.......

Baladar is wrong

I did not just stand and hide behind Samson.... I fought and contributed to the fight. but i will have to agree the Jorlan is a little weird. Eating in his Bath what is that all about. The tharponian's seem ok but who knows they could be nuts.

Off to Tharp!

Our illustrious group sat around on our collective butts waiting for Samson to finish his schooling. It wasn't even a "real" school, just some gladiatorial arena with a few classrooms attached. He learned some sort of fighting style involving axes.

Once he was done I think everybody was ready to go. We had met an Elven lass by the name of Ellie who convinced us to head off to some place called Tharp. The Tharponians (I honestly don't know what the call themselves....sounds good enough to me!) have a need for adventurers and we were adventurers in need of coinage. I have a feeling I'm the richest of the group right now, even though I tithe regularly. I think the others have been spending all of their cash since I've noticed they have shiny new "stuff". I'm not jealous as I was able to pick up a new suit of much-needed armor.

We get underway and after quite a bit of traveling (how long is a league again?) we notice an explosion coming from over the next hill. Thinking someone might be in trouble, we rush over the hill to find some guy in a white robe being attacked by 6 large brutish creatures. Samson throws his new axe, nearly felling one of the foul beasts. The man in white looks bad off so I start casting a Heal spell. Several beasties take notice of us and break off from the group. Ginsu, our resident Samurai, keeps me company on my right, firing his weird bow from his mount while Samson has my left flank. Jorlan simply disappears and Ellie cowers behind Samson.

Before my spell can get off I'm attacked by a brute, who misses, and my target is knocked out by another enemy combatant. Jorlan appears out of nowhere to try to stab one in the back. Samson has his axe back some how and just gets medieval on these things. Ginsu races back and forth some to combat which ever set of enemy "things" looks to be doing the most damage. It takes me far to long to ready my morning star, but I get in a good blow to finish the last one off.

Our rescued friend seems to be a magic-user of sorts named Edward who is glad that we managed to save him. He offers us a job back in Tharp and is quite surprised when we so quickly accept his offer.....or at least the offer to accompany him back to the Tharponians. He asks why we willing to go to Tharp and I honestly answer, "We can always leave if we don't like it!"

Edwards home is a Keep being built on the West end of Tharp, so we don't get to see the place quite yet. He has a wife by the name of Starfire waiting for him and boy is she pissed! It's obvious she wears the pants in that family. Evidently Eddie thought a good test for potential adventurer hires was to let them "rescue" him from the Bugbears. The creatures are called Bugbears. I always thought those magic-user types were supposed to be smart?

The couple invites us to dinner and promises that we can discuss the business offer after dinner. We get a couple of rooms.....which takes some effort to figure out bunking arrangements since I didn't want to sleep alone in a strange place, and some of us clean up for dinner. Jorlan takes a bath (Is it Pin'Mar already?), which is surprising since he pretty much pigs-out at dinner. I got pie.

Right now the whole job seems to be to look after the keep and back-up the Tharponian Militia while doofus and Moonbeam take off on some mission for their lord. The pay seems good enough and we might get some discounts at the local kobar. I asked about the local religion and was told that most of the Tharponians follow St Cuthbert, Lathander, and Pangrus (a Gnome Gawd). There's only one physical church in town (to Pangrus) and the local inn had been burned down to the ground by some militiaman's kid (may have been the Captain of the Guard's son...). Evidently the tower has a small chapel and they said I could use it to run services for Tharponian Lathanderites.......SOLD!

We are getting set to check out the town before we have to give them our formal agreement in the morning.