Adam Miller's Shadowlords

[TheExcimer-500]

A place to discuss our new adventures...

Anyone recall the name of the tavern?

Although we have different classes, they are all rogue-ish and portraying our characters as such put a rather nice spin on our adventures.
Thanks again for the session.

[Prophet]

Anyone recall the name of the tavern?

SD and I want to say it was something like, "Thirsty Thunderbeast Tavern."

Well, I suggested we do something different for a party. That sure was different. We've had snarky characters before, but not a whole party. They seemed like such a band of misfits. Which I thought was great. Funny as hell.

I think I'll tone down the sissy-ness of my bard. I didn't mean to take it that far. Though in terms of the party, he will still be the least "manly" character.

I envision him more like a bad-boy singer (or more accurately, wannabe singer). He excels in non-combat interactions (most of the skills I took are CHA-based, like Persuade and Bluff). The party members may be able to see through his bullshit, but the NPC AIs just cannot get enough of him. He just knows how to talk to them (which is all the more hilarious now that we are openly insulting them).

As far as the singing, I want to establish a pair of captions to denote it. Last night I tried using ** to mark when he was singing lyrics. That might be too close to the * emote captions. Does anyone know if there is something players tend to use for this? I don't want to pick captions that might be misconstrued as something else. ^What about This?^ <<Or use this?>> ~Or sing like this?~

[TheExcimer-500]

I think Britney Spears uses ~'s
~Or sing like this?~

[GrendelsBathMat]

Tildes will work well. When I transcribe the logs it should be easy to replace them with music notes like this: ?twinkle twinkle little star...? I don't think it's so easy to do that in game I think when I sang as Madrikal I just used quotes. These show up in dialogues trees as well, so there'd be some overlap.

Can't wait to hear some of the stylings of our singing elf-friend 

[GrendelsBathMat]

Speaking of logs...

I have our first session's transcripted with a few screenshots inside. I'm sorry I didn't get anything very interesting, although I did capture everyone looking at the "blinking house." Our elfweed hallucinations didn't show up on camera 

[Prophet]

Can't wait to hear some of the stylings of our singing elf-friend

I'm actually working on an opening piece, introducing the characters. But I need a bit more to work with. Anyone care to share some tidbits about their character? You don't have to reveal alot. Just what I would have gleaned from adventuring together a few times. Personality, habits, etc.

Speaking of logs...

Yes, speaking of which. I had this idea of writing lyrics for each session. They would be about what happened, though wildly exaggerated and inaccurate (like they weren't just fire beetles, but also the advance guard of an army or something). I would post the lyrics at the same time as the accompanying log is posted. Sort of as a companion piece.

I have no idea if I will be able to keep up. But I like the concept.

[GrendelsBathMat]

Sounds nifty, DP.

I was thinking about doing a little character backstory. I've haven't worked out much yet - just looked up the location of the Shadowlords campaign: What is FAERUN, Alex! Probably won't have it done by tomorrow, but we can talk about our gang's formation a bit pre-game. It's also fun to just do backstory bits as we play along - always have fun doing that with Hraira.

btw - the music notes should actually show up in the transcripts  Fonts, grrr.

[GrendelsBathMat]

Session Two: A Boy, a Dress, and a Roomful of Zombies!

Now playing off-Broadway (very off...)

[TheExcimer-500]

Next session I vote we level up to 2nd and see how it goes. We're quite underpowered for the encounters in this module (heck, I think we should really be 3rd level given the # of orcs and they were only coming out two at a time... what if they actually all came at us at once?!? Even level 3 might be too low for that one).

[GrendelsBathMat]

It is a bit tough in a straight out fight.

Last night we had a total party kill, if I'm not mistaken. I tried out the respawn option (seemed like an appropriate moment) and it seems like it sent me back to the entry point of the area. Did everyone else use that too?

Given that we're fairly weak as a party in a fight (except against turnable undead where my char's clerical ability helps quite a bit) I'd say a level up might be an acceptable compromise. Perhaps we can agree to dock ourselves xp at the end of the mod to keep at level 2, which seems like an appropriate level to conclude the module at given the description (up to 4 chars, level 1-3).

Also, it'd be good to get a level of rogue in for my character who's playing a roguish cleric - especially considering the total fail I experience anytime he attempts any roguish activity (like sneaking). I'm really enjoying the "band of thieves" roleplay we have going on, so it'd be nice to have at least a decent chance of success attempting it...

[Prophet]

I too vote for a level-up. More skills, more abilities. Yippie! Though I don't want to make this a habit. I want to get out of the low levels, but I want to work for it.

I do wonder how much Nooble throws off the scale. I mean, we got clobbered but the second he charged in the orcs were toast. He was taking them down left and right. Scary.

Last night we had a total party kill, if I'm not mistaken. I tried out the respawn option (seemed like an appropriate moment) and it seems like it sent me back to the entry point of the area. Did everyone else use that too?

Yes. Which brings me to a question SD and I have. What should I do if I die? I know normally we say "wait to be resurrected" but then normally we don't have a respawn option. We are also without a DM, which I think you both have more than enough experience as in raising dead characters (sometimes on a regular basis).

If we want to restrict the use of respawning somehow, I'm okay with that. But I think it is kinda silly for Tom to switch to DM mode if somebody dies and we are out of Raise Dead scrolls. And given our recent performance, we WILL run out someday.

[TheExcimer-500]

"and we are out of Raise Dead scrolls. And given our recent performance, we WILL run out someday."

I'll sneak some photocopies in at work tomorrow so we'll be good for a while longer.

[GrendelsBathMat]

On dying...

Since we don't have a DM, I'd say having a rez scroll per person for emergencies is acceptable. Last week, my cleric did have a scroll but manage to die first (or near first) so it didn't do much good. I wound up using the respawn option which sent me back to the level entrance. Really, that's a last resort in case of a total party kill where there's no other option. Normally, I've been playing a "wait for help" and then "pretend dead isn't really quite dead" for roleplay purposes.

On game balance (i.e. free level up)...

Playing a gang of thieves is going to be a bit tricky when it comes to straight up combat. If we do get a "free" level up, we should be in good shape and I'd vote for dropping Noobles as a henchman fairly quickly. He's good for a bit of roleplay, perhaps until the end of this module (if that's not too far off)? If we do get a free level up I'd suggest we all concentrate our skill points on stealth (hide in shadows/move silently) so we can do some group sneaking. We haven't tried much "group sneak" before last week and I think it'll be a fun alternative. Last week's attempt was nice and tense, if unsuccessful - sorry about that. Perhaps if we do decide on the freebie level up we can discuss what our characters will concentrate on before hand so we can each get a specialty skill.

Been a blast so far, even with last week's orc-massacre...

[GrendelsBathMat]

And last week's transcript ... Don't Pay The Ferryman, Even at Half-price!

[GrendelsBathMat]

A bit late and a bit lacking in screenies (gah, must remember to grab more), this week's transcript:

Session #4 - Those aren't the family jewels, they're the party's!

[GrendelsBathMat]

I thought I'd forgotten something! The transcript to our last Shadowlords session...

Session #5 - How to make a killing in the real estate market!