Another Lake Set Photo, It's going to rock!

I am really looking forward to the cavernous river and lake sets. We are looking at mid June for the rivers and mid August for the lakes. There is also a mystery set comming out in August.

Dragon Con

All of the good GENCON games are full. Therefore, we are going to DragonCon. You can find info for DragonCon at www.dragoncon.org This Con looks like it is just as big and is only a five hour drive to Atlanta. It takes place in three major hotels and all of the gaming is located in the Hilton. Rooms are only $150 a night (which is very good for the Hilton) and admission is $60 if you register prior to 5/15. It is September 1-4 (Friday-Monday) and anyone who is interested needs to get online and book a room right away. I will have room for one other person in my car if Tamar is not going to go. I have a room with two double beds. It would be nice if we could get one other person and we could book a second room. Right now its Chris, Jon and myself going. Post a reply if you want to go.

No Game On Mothers day

We are taking a break for Mothers Day. I suggest you tell her that there is a game and that you are skipping it to spend time with her. :) We are playing the good party the following Sunday at the usual time.

Game on Sunday 5/7

We are playing this Sunday 5/7 @5:50pm. I got in a new set of cavernous passages and some carniverous plants. As I write this I get a mental image of boots poking out of a big scary plant and smile.

Gregor's Journal

It was a cool spring day. The sun was shining. Birds were singing. Merchants and travelers dotted the ancient cobblestone road leading to the south gate of Silverymoon. We made our way to the city and after a brief encounter with the city guard; peace bound our weapons and entered the city by way of South Gate Road. An unusual sign post stood out amidst the myriad of shops, inns and taverns. The sign was animated and enticed us to enter the Magic Mushroom magic shop. We soon realized that that we were duped by the sign and couldn’t afford the wondrous wares that were for sale. On the verge of leaving, Falford, the person working at the Mushroom, offered us a job investigating a secret staircase that was uncovered during some recent renovation work.
Following the ancient stairwell down we discovered an ancient temple dedicated to some lost or forgotten god. It was disused and abandoned by all but some ancient and long dead skeletal warriors and a horrible monster comprised solely of clear jelly. Moving deeper into the lost temple we came to some ancient burial sepulchers and fought more undead temple guardians. In the next room was a magical pool that promised riches and bestowed only death in the form of a water monster. Two statues in the room provided us with a key to gain the riches in the form of a riddle. We eventually guessed the riddle and gained a wish from an entity in the pool. We wished for our next slain party member to be brought back to life and the wait proved to be brief. Continuing on through the dusty halls of the ancient temple we came to another room of earthenware pots containing ashes and in one case a gleaming golden medallion on a gold chain. This vile device dominated the will of one of our own, promptly strangling the life from the poor man. Through the next door we discovered a demonic fountain spewing forth clear blue water that will surely spell our doom. After running afoul of many things thus far we decided to give the evil looking fountain a wide berth. A door in this chamber lead to another spiral staircase with hints of what lies below from the cool damp air that rushes into the room as the door is opened. We are preparing to descend the second staircase just now, so, I must go. May the Gods be with us.

The Orb Lords

The Orb Lords, as they have come to be remembered, were a cadre of wizards that ruled the lands north of present day Waterdeep from what is now known as the city of glass. The Orb Lords ruled from a palace created entirely of glass and there were many tall towers rumored to be purely constructed from glass blocks. The city was called Haelabelee (Hay Lay ‘Bee Lee) and is one of the seventeen wonders of the ancient world. Rumors impossible to substantiate abound about the ancient city but it must have surely been a breathtaking sight. The lords created a great many magical orbs and thus earned their place in history. It is said that every single magical orb in existence today was created during the three hundred year reign of the Cadre of Nine, as they were known at that time. One thing is known for certain and that is that Humathax, the betrayer created the Dragon Orbs including the Orb of the Eternal Dragon. It is said that Tiamat sent a great flock of elder dragons to lay waste to Haelabelee and destroy the dragon orbs. Another account places Humathax in league with Tiamat and attributes what came to be know as The Flight of Dragons to the abominable union. The Orb of Storms, the Black Orb of Untog and the Spheres of Annihilation are also attributed to the Nine. One thing is certain and that is that a great many orbs were created and a great many survive to this day. Their powers are myriad, in some cases many copies of the same orb were created and in other cases the orbs powers are unique.

Obscure Items of the Art, Vol.1

Articles and statistics on obscure and unique items of the magical arts by none other than the enigmatic Magic Mouth Man.

Weapon of the Gargoyle
The weapon is called thus because when not in use it takes the form of a gargoyle six inches in height. The gargoyle will perch upon the shoulder of its chosen warrior. The gargoyle will sometimes fly about and perform tasks whose designs are known only to the gargoyle. It will never perform any tasks for the wielder other than those written below. The gargoyle is carved from alabaster and is a work of the utmost craftsmanship. Once the gargoyle chooses its weilder it will form a permanent bond and through telepathy determine its weapon type.

Special Powers
Telepathy, Know Alignment, When placed in alert mode the sword will glow blue when enemies come within one hundred feet of the wielder.

LEVEL OF POWER
The level of the weilder determins the positive charge of the weapon. As the weilder increases in power, so does the weapon.

Level of Weilder 1-4 = +1, 5-7= +2, 8-10= +3, 11-13= +4, 14-16= +5, 17+ = +6.

LEVEL +1: No Additional powers.
LEVEL +2: The weapon automatically criticals on a roll indicating a critical hit threat. No additional hit confirmation roll is required.
LEVEL +3: The weapon becomes virtually indestructable (only fails on a roll of 1) and will teleport itself away from magic dead zones. There is a 50% chance that it will bring the weilder along.
LEVEL +4: One fourth of all damage dealt with the weapon is applied to the weilder in the form of healing up to a maximum of twenty points per round.
LEVEL +5: The weapon generates a five foot radius field of power that has a 20% chance of reflecting all magic back to the caster. Area effect spells are not reflected but cause no harm within the radius if the 20% roll is made.
LEVEL +6: Beings struck by the sword must make a fortitude save DC 25 or be afflicted with a Harm spell at castor level 20. Beings with spell resistance will have it reduced by five points with regards to checks made against the magic of the sword.

The Moon Doors of Silverymoon

As humans measure such things, Silverymoon is a surprisingly old city. In its oldest parts (those Northbank streets just west of the Market, and closest to the river), some of the more humble buildings have stood more or less unchanged for almost six centuries -- whereas grander structures are either newer or much added to or rebuilt from their original forms.Most of "old Silverymoon" contained stout log buildings, chinked with mud and banked earth, that had grassed-over roofs. Later, permanent structures of stone replaced the log buildings, and they shared some common features: no windows or only shuttered tall-and-narrow "arrowslit" windows on the windward sides (north and northwest), plus elevated (against snowdrifts in winter) entry doors on south walls as much as possible. One entered up outside stairs that climbed those south walls from the east, into a "snow shield" shoulder-wall on the west that jutted out from the building like a buttress to give some protection against the steps icing, or bitter winds blowing in when the door was being used. Walls were thick, sometimes with an inner and an outer wall with the space between filled with rubble, and roofs were of slate-shingle or tile, steeply pitched to shed snow. Vertical ribs or fins jutting up from the plane of the roof often adorned them (as they do today) so that snow and ice were broken into narrow "chutes" when they fell, rather than huge roof-width masses that can stun or slay beings caught beneath.More modern buildings in Silverymoon often have smooth, undulating roofs that form drain channels and try to sculpt the passing winds, but among the three-story and smaller surviving buildings of old Silverymoon (usually rectangular structures that house shops at street level, with goods cellars below, and one or two floors of living apartments above) are many that share an architectural feature once very popular in the city of Silverymoon: "moon doors."Who bestowed their local name on these miniature doors is anyone's guess, but it's obviously derived from the moon which features so prominently in the city's name and legends. Moon doors have nothing directly to do with moonlight, but they could see quite a lot of use by night; they are hatches or "cat doors" set inside larger, regular (human-sized) doors -- in other words, "a door within a door."Moon doors are obviously a risk to the security of occupants and foods within a house, particularly if they lack the latches or locks common to larger doors -- and in older, more lawless times, this risk might well have been larger than it is today. Yet almost all noncivic or nonreligious buildings in the Gem of the North once boasted moon doors -- and these often possessed ornate rather than discreet features.Moon doors were used for what are still called "drops" in Silverymoon today (deliveries of packages, written messages [including payments, bills, and civic notices], and even fresh milk) as well as pet traffic. Inevitably, as time passed, such "pets" included unwelcome intruding creatures trained and sent by spies and thieves.With the prevalence of both magic and large, beautiful glass windows in the Gem of the North today, forcible entries of small creatures are both possible and more likely than in the smaller, more wary Silverymoon of old. However, the moon door has fallen out of fashion with modern builders, who are more apt to hide a completely separate hatch or mini-door behind entrance-flanking sculpted beasts or pillars, or between columns that protrude from (but aren't separate from) a wall, rather than cutting a small door right through the material of a larger door.Often, illusion spells or clever relief carvings hide moon doors that do exist in recently built structures of Silverymoon, and the doors also likely permit entrance not right into the interior, but into a stone-lined storage cavity that has a second (stoutly locked and bolted or barred) interior door, plus a glass- or mica-covered spyhole, connecting to the inside of the building. Thus, things that come through the door can be examined before admitting them wholly. Also, at the very least, someone can't use a moon door to fire an arrow or crossbow bolt right into the body of someone just inside the door (the old "knock and fire" attack).

By Ed Greenwood

The Cavernous Lake Set Sneak Peek

A first look at the up coming (August, I think) cavernous lake set from DF. I am stoked about the cavernous rivers but this looks incredible. Guess I will have to get a couple of these sets as well. www.dwarvenforge.com/catalogpages/cavernous-water-dragon.gif

The Good Party Begins 4/30

Due to numerous requests we will start the new party earlier than I had planned. The new party begins on Sunday 4/30. As previously stated the party’s base of operations will be Silverymoon which lies north east of Waterdeep near the Spine of the World Mountains. Please design your character history to accommodate this fact. The following is a list of the players and their character choices that I remember.

Billy- Monk
Chris- Cleric
Jon- Fighter or Paladin
Sean- Rogue or Ranger
Dewey- Rogue or Sorcerer
James- ?
John- ?

Ideally Sean and James would pick either Ranger or Rogue and Dewey would be a Sorcerer or Wizard. This would give us no doubled up classes and a really good mix. John if you decide to play why not try a Druid? Dewey as the lone Arcane caster you would really need to spend some time reading the Arcane spells as you would have the ability to solve a lot of problems with your spells. These are just suggestions. I want everyone to play a character that makes them happy.

Please have your characters generated with etools. If you do not have etools then get with me prior to the 30th. Those of you who do not want to use etools are free to copy the etools generated character onto any other medium but I want the initial character generation to be in etools. When you print your character there is an option called dm.xls that I want you to print and bring with you. The character generation method is as follows. Click the “Stats” button on the top left. This brings up a new menu. Choose “Non Standard Point buy" from the “Method” drop down menu. Choose “Tougher” from the “Campaign” drop down menu. Spend your points wherever you like. You will start with Maximum hit points at first level. etools will automatically generate your gold and purchase equipment. Feel free to sell off any or all of the computer purchases and buy whatever you need from the mundane equipment lists though you cannot spend more than the computer generated amount of starting gold. If anyone needs help with etools just give me a call.

Game Sunday 4/23

We are playing this Sunday 4/23 @ 5:30pm. I hope to see everyone here. If your bringing a friend please generate their character prior to game time.

Apocalypse and Oblivion Wants You!

If you are interested in a third edition Dungeons and Dragons game drop me an Email. We are a group of adult gamers that play every Sunday evening from 5:30pm until around midnight. I have been DM'ing Dungeons and Dragons since the early eighties. We use miniatures and I have a large collection of www.dwarvenforge.com terrain so all dungeon settings are 3D. Interested parties should be able to attend most game days. I am not looking for any particular experience level of gamer and would be happy to teach you how to play. Join us!

Easter Game

We are playing Easter Sunday 4/16 @5:30 if we can get enough players. We need at least 4 players. Please post a comment if you can come.

We need another player or two. If you know someone who is interested feel free to bring them. Generate their character prior to game time.

Game on April 9th, Sunday.

Game on April 9th, Sunday at 5:30. We are closer to getting started at 5:30 with three actual players showing up on time. Perhaps one day…

At several players request I am asking nicely that anyone tempted to argue with myself or another player to refrain. I received three complaints about a player or players being disruptive. I agreed with them and as I consider all of the players my friends I would like for there to be harmony. Please be considerate of the feelings of others. It is not fun listening to pointless arguments and bickering while you could be playing.

At the request of others I ask that you reconsider your method for distributing treasure. People have lives and some people are not able to attend every day. Everyone should get a fair share of the treasure for which they adventured. If we could start playing at 5:30 we could actually stop at 11:00 and distribute prior to everyone’s departure. Alternately we could phone players unable to attend the following game.  Or you guys can come up with another solution. The bottom line is that the current method is unfair.

True Dungeon 2006 Trailer

This looks like a lot of fun. http://youtube.com/watch?v=_BPc4He2Jx8 This is what you will be missing, among other things…