March 10th 2016

dooley's picture
by Marc Simonetti

So last session was excellent once again, although players always have something to complain about.

The easiest sessions to design on the fly are the travelling scenarios the players encounter and I do so love building these out door sets.

At current, the party is venturing back to Royals Peak, the capital of the Cloud Spires. During last session they retraced their foot steps towards 'base camp' and ultimately to the mine entrance.

As they first set out though, they of course, disposed of the paladin's body which sat five minutes from Daed Al Icarr's tower's doorway.

The party's halfling, Valen had ventured on his own, ignoring the battle behind him and reached the initial descent towards the mine entrance where he spotted a wandering priest named Lucien and his acolyte Thomas, training themselves against the elements. After watching the duo squash a wolf and chase off another, Valen approached and introduced himself. The priest, having business with Daed Al Icarr, specifically the trade of pelts and meats they had gathered, returned to the tower which sat ten minutes walk away. The party, in need of a holy man, waited patiently.

During this time, the party witnessed trade being conducted between Daed and a wandering front giant, also known as the white skinned beast men.

After Lucien had conducted his business, the party ventured towards the base camp and upon arriving at the base camp remains, a pair of Drow scouts attempted to attack them. A short skirmish later, they were put down and the party set to searching their bodies. Amidst rogues implements and some coin, they discovered each wore an amulet depicting the giants clan of FrostFire.

They continued, soon reaching the outskirts of the mine entrance where a single giant, too large to enter the mines, lay snoring while three of his underlings, Drow as the previous scouts, patrolled the area.

The party was safely scouting the territory from their vantage in the tree line and could see their destination, the mine entrance sitting opposite them and their opposition clearly.

However, the barbarian of the party, Torbin decided he needed a piece of that and sadly, nobody spoke any sense to the barbarian. Within seconds of their arrival, the barbarian strode down the hill heading towards the giant with murder on his mind. The giant snored peacefully, as the party filtered out of the trees marching under the bright sun towards an oblivious guard and a sleeping giant. The respite did not last though, as the other two scouts easily spotted the three party members that had now walked out into the open. The other three, sticking to the initial tree line, made their way forward under cover towards the guard that now prepared a sighted revolver and fired the first shot of the fight.

Naturally, the crack of gunfire awakened the giant with a start and as he groggily rose to his feet, the players bandied about, unsure of what to do with this sudden turn of events.

The ensuing few rounds were a harrowing fight for survival as the players managed to take down each of the giants underlings while the giant in turn was taking each of them down.

The party was not totally wiped out. Poor Torbin was cut down and died of cardiac arrest, while the freshly joined priest, Lucien was cut asunder and moments later his acolyte, young Thomas, was torn in half, mowed by the giant's axe.

The rest managed to avoid complete destruction while the last remaining party member revived them as best he could.

The adventure continued on into the mines, the party of three now mounted upon a strange mountain borne creature called a Wooliped. Hmm.. I should've looked it up before game. I seem to have misrepresented them in game somewhat in game.

When it comes to hard ware, I can't seem to win! I invested $200 into a wide angle Logitech c930e and it touts two omni directional microphones! At $200 for a 90 degree azimuth, I ask myself, what are the chances I can find a GoPro Hero3 at that price in a pawn shop? Realistically, I only need 1280x720 and I was attracted to this camera for the wider angle and the addition of an audio input behind me.

After listening to it in the stream though, the dual input is weird sounding and because it doesn't work properly, popping and crackling every time the audio spikes. Sadness.

So it's muted and I'm looking at other options.

It should be noted, it is a gorgeous picture coming off that little unit and it Does work well in OBS alongside my PS3 eyes.

The art piece is by Marc Simonetti.