Tonight I'll be running The Dalish Curse...

[Neras]

Ok, here I go for my little group of three PCs. We played over New Year's Eve and it was very funny =D

Here are the characters:


Name: Trike
Gender: male
Race: Elf
Class: Mage
Background: Circle-Mage
Story: Trike was born in a little village in the north, his parents are poor, but they worked hard. The Circle of Magi learned, that he can use magic at a young age and took him apart from his familiy. Therefore, he was raised there for about 20 years, learning the power of magic, before the First Enchanter called him. He sent him on a mission to find those responsible for organized lyrium smuggling between Orzammar and Denerim. With nothing more than his wand and the knowlegde, that his first destination was the city of the dwarfs, he left the circle. But his mission was to be ill-fated: those responsible were always one step ahead, but he traced there route south in the direction of Ostagar. On his way, he meet the young Dalishelfwoman Lyriel who was on a journey to convert the city elfs to the ancient gods of the elfs. Not very happy about this new companion, and leaving his true intention in the dark, Trike followed the lyrium smugglers now in the direction of Denerim on the route near the Brecilian Forest.

Name: Lyriel
Gender: female
Race: Dalish-Elf
Class: Rouge
Background: Dalish-Elf
Story: Lyriel was raised with Dalish-Elfs near the Brecilian Forest and served the acient gods of the elfs. But as she grows, in her raised a conflict between the way of the Dalish and the way the chantry spread the will of the maker. She decided in an age of 24 that she would go out in the world and spread herself the faith of the acient gods and convert the city elfs from there false god, known as the maker. Here first destination was Denerim as an city with many elfs that doesn't belief in the old gods. On her way, she meet the young mage Trike, who was on a journey to improve his magic abilitys. As her first "victim" she did her best to convert him, but Trike don't have an open mind for something like that at this moment. But Lyriel stand fast in her believing that Trike would be the first elf converted by her. So she decided to follow him whatever Trike would say.

Name: Skaiss
Gender: female
Race: Human
Class: Warrior
Background: Avvar
Story: The youth of Skaiss is everything but easy. Her mother lived in a small town near Frostback Mountain and on one day, the Avvar raided it. Mens are slayed, children killed and womens raped. Also Skaiss mother was one of them, but she survived that horrible day and gave birth to a little girl, half commoner of Ferelden, half Avvar. Lovley raised by her mother, Skaiss was always seen as an Avvar from the rest of the town people and so, she locked herself to the outside and became innerly an Avvar with the faith in the maker, her only refuge. In an age of 12, the chantry became aware of her as an strong women with Avvar blood in her but with the faith in the maker, that some believers don't have. So she was taken from her old home to be raised as an templar, what she greatly accepted.
Now at the age of 29 the secound blow of fate hit her: she felt in love with an female mage, while she was stationed in the circle of magi. There love hidden in the dark, no one noticed there relationship before the female mage was accused of using blood magic. Skaiss was assigned to escort her to a higher chantrymember but she help her to escape on the way. There goal was a harbour on the east side of Ferelden, from which they want to escape to another country. Haunted by the chantry and the circle of magi, they fled in an dark wood and got seperated. Now Skaiss is on her way to find her love and traveled further east, before on a dark and rainy night she meet two adventurers on a bloody farm with a bunch of Blight Wolves...

[Neras]

Fuldor Farm

The little elf-duo of Trike and Lyriel are on there way to Denerim, as out of the blue a thunderstorm raised on the skyline. They must find shelter, thats for sure, but where? Trike is looking for a cave or a big tree (although he should now as a mage that thunderstorms and trees don't work together...) but at the point the rain drops very hard on there heads, nothing is in sight. After some discussion, Lyriel notes that the town Vintiver is near there current location and so they headed east. On there way, the two passed a little farm and Trike suggested, that they could ask for shelter. But the crows over the fields and the silence makes them suspicious. With her sword drawn and his wand in both hands, Trike and Lyriel approached the first field and shooed the first crows away. Horrifyed, they found the dead body, approached it slowly. But at the moment they arrived, five blight wolves surrounded them. Fortunately Lyriel heard one of them and the two attacked them. With three wolves on her tail, Lyriel got some nice damage from them but managed to hit just as well back. Unlike Trike he had a hard time with only two wolves. His first spell, winter gasp rolled very badly and missed his wolf. But the wolves makes an easy prey of him. Half death he's laying in the bloody mud with his wand raised up. But then, a third person appeared right in the battle, hit one of Trikes wolves with his giant two-handed axt. With new hope but uncertain who this new person is Trike and Lyriel grabed there spirit and fought back. This time, the winter gasp from Trike hits his target and with the mighty axt of that unknown person, the first wolf died. The wolf who attacked Trike in the fisrt turns now attacked the unknown person and Trike had the time to aid Lyriel which makes a very good fight agains three wolves. One wolf after another fell and the remaining grabed all there guts and fight to the very end (wolves missed at flee-roll).
Wetted with rain and blood, Trike asked the unknown person for his name and he introduced himself as Skaiss. Funny about this is that the characters think about Skaiss as an male mercenary, but of course she is female. With big wounds and no mana Trike rushed to get out of the rain in the house, but the other two were suspicious about the dead body and the farm. With caution, they approuched the mainhouse and find the door bashed in. Only the light of the thunder makes the inner of the house visible and as they find only a raided ground floor with a bloodtrace to the secound floor, they slowly go up. The doors to every room are covered with blood with one exception. Skaiss opened the first door and found little bodys fouled up beyond all recognition. She struggles with her breath as the other two enter the room. Fast Trike and Lyriel left the room, but what they found in the other two rooms with bloodtraces on the floor are no less than horrible. One room is the room of the maid, where she lies bloodcovered next to her bed. The other room belongs to the owners of the farm but only the wife lies in her bed. Blood drops from the blanket and it looks like she was surprised there while sleeping. With uneasy feelings in there stomaches the three meet for the only room with no blood on the door. Carefuly, they opened the door and found surprisingly nothing strange. The room of the servants looks like nothing had happend. Slowly the three think, that this must be the work of an good planned bloody crime. On the way back downstairs, Skaiss discovered the bloody sign on the wall while the light of a lightning lit up the room. Lyriel translated it says, that this is the name of the old elven god of rage. On the search for other victims the three enter the stable with two working horses and cows. Wondering that the animals still living, the three came up with the plan to gather the dead bodys in the main house and set it on fire (I don't know why they want to do that, but I think they would prevent the blood of the darkspawn to spread from the fallen bodies). With no mana Trike wanted a little bit time to focus his mind and gain some mana back while Skaiss and Lyriel go out to gather the dead bodys from the field. Near the warehouse the two hear a silent moan and so, they approuched it with swords drawn. The warehouse had two levels: on the ground is standing a cart with a few tools. A ascend steeply woodstair leads up to the secound floor where the moan come from. Slowly the two climbed up to find many bales of straw but the moan was gone. With her feet, Skaiss kicked light in the straw and suddenly a person came from one of the bales of straw fleeing to the woodstairs. While schocked, Skaiss failed to grab the person but Lyriel bumped into her and both feld to the floor. Angrily that the person sliped threw her fingers, Skaiss grabed the person on her neck and noticed, that she is an elvenwoman and on top unconscious. After a view quick looks, Skaiss realized the wounds on her and quickly took her downstairs. Meanwhile Lyriel noticed a little pouch that the elven woman has droped. She found a few silver and a twisted ring in it. Without hesitation she put the pouch in her backpack and followed Skaiss back to Trike. With a loud voice Skaiss pull Trike out of his meditation and no mana was gained back. Angry about that but the wounded woman seeing, Trike offers his healing skill to treat her. With a very relieved look on her face, the elven woman remains still unconscious. Under that circumstances the three decided to take the cart from the warehouse and the working horses to get to Vintiver. The rain still falls down but with this wounds, the woman wouldn't survive in the cold...


So far from the Fuldor Farm part. We played the Curse to the end and when I got time, I post the rest for you

[Tolly7249]

My memories of the confrontation with the villagers and mob diplomacy are unfortunately hazed by alcohol (we played on New Year's Eve and I got suckered into trying something called a Jedi Mind-F***, how appropriately named...) but I'll see what I can drag out for you.

We brought Eshara into town and set up in the Chantry, as that was where Izzy treated most of her patients anyway. Sister Arda wasn't overly impressed by the presence of the elf, and was utterly horrified by the news of the attack and Sen's fears that the farmers were attacked by something worse than Blight Wolves. Arda ran off to fetch Tarl, and the news had spread across the village by nightfall.

The villagers, led by Coalan, were met by Fenrir, Sen and Izzy, who blocked the only entry to the Chantry. Although Coalan did his best to make his case, Fenrir used his position as a deputy and his crazy Communication luck to defuse the situation nicely, backed up by Sen's insistance that no elf would have caused the disaster at the farm (famous last words) and Izzy's repeated use of Arcane Lore to convince people that there was no curse on the town.

Tarl and Arda were both pleased by the peaceful resolution, and when Eshara came to, they were able to get a somewhat panicked but otherwise accurate description of events from her. Tarl was with the group at the time, and gave Fenrir permission to deal with the threat to the town and the Dalish. Sister Arda took a little more convincing to let Izzy out of the Chantry again, but a crazy high roll for Arcane Lore (the Lore Talent is FUN) convinced her that it would be better to send Izzy into the wilds with Fenrir and Sen to counteract whatever evil was there far away from the village. Fenrir took possession of the Silver Link.

They left just before dawn as light slowly filtered through the sky, and were ambushed by Coalan and co.. Luckily Sen detected them, and the ambush failed. None of the characters were willing to outright kill any of their fellow villagers, but Sen stole Coalan's pants. (I think the booze was getting to her player at that point.)

I called the game there, as we were too punchy and giggly to continue.

General Notes: We seem to get stunts about 40-50% of the time in combat, and already the stunt system is getting settled in our minds. Characters working together is a lot of fun, especially when they back each other up as well as they did in this session.

I'm thinking of making a short campaign based around Vintaver, because my players seem really fond of the village and their characters.

[PaintOnASign]

So, after waiting for my GM to start playing, I decided to take the reigns and give GM'ing a shot. As I'm reading over the Dalish Curse adventure, I found myself puzzled.

During the mob scene, it suggests you make handling the situation an Advanced Test. My problem is, with it being an Advance Test, is there any way the players would fail to persuade them? It seems to me that making it an Advanced Test simply tells you how long it took you to accomplish something, rather than how long it took you to attempt something.

Granted, you want them to succeed. Especially the point of the mob scene is for the players to deflate the situation. I'm just wondering if Advanced Test have, or should have, some sort of failure feature to them? Did I just miss something? I know you can fail normal Ability Test, so should you be able to fail Advanced Test? How would you handle this?

[psychodrive]

My problem is, with it being an Advance Test, is there any way the players would fail to persuade them? It seems to me that making it an Advanced Test simply tells you how long it took you to accomplish something, rather than how long it took you to attempt something.

Granted, you want them to succeed. Especially the point of the mob scene is for the players to deflate the situation. I'm just wondering if Advanced Test have, or should have, some sort of failure feature to them? Did I just miss something? I know you can fail normal Ability Test, so should you be able to fail Advanced Test? How would you handle this?

I couldn't see anything that specifically mentioned this either.

The example in the GM guide does mention that each component ability test takes a certain amount of time.

As such, if you wanted to introduce failure (such as for a speech), then set a limit on the number of basic tests (how long the player has to convince the crowd). If the player doesn't exceed the success threshold in that time, then they are considered to have failed.

[discuit]

The extended test issue was raised elsewhere by myself i think. Basically i made it so if they took more than 5 minutes (5 tests) a few of the mob turned hostile, (1 villager for each pc) with the rest egging them on. The idea isn't to have them kill the villagers but to just force an issue and give the test a consequence.

Hope that helps.

Ps - I made it 5 tests as i had 2 players with very high comms, if you dont then make it a little longer...maybe even 10 minutes.

[caul]

You know that even if the PCs fail that they don't have to kill the villagers, they can just knock them unconscious? When dropping an Adversary to 0, the attacker (yes, this includes NPCs and Adversarys) can simply announce that they are pulling the hit and knock the target unconscious...very useful.

[discuit]

You know that even if the PCs fail that they don't have to kill the villagers, they can just knock them unconscious? When dropping an Adversary to 0, the attacker (yes, this includes NPCs and Adversarys) can simply announce that they are pulling the hit and knock the target unconscious...very useful.

Yes we as a group are well aware of this and it has been used extensively in all but one of our 7 sessions, which is why i expressly stated that the idea of giving the extended test a consequence didn't mean it needed to end in bloodshed.

As a matter of fact that particular rule has become one of our favourites in the system.

[caul]

cool

[Sathayorn]

You know that even if the PCs fail that they don't have to kill the villagers, they can just knock them unconscious? When dropping an Adversary to 0, the attacker (yes, this includes NPCs and Adversarys) can simply announce that they are pulling the hit and knock the target unconscious...very useful.

This is true - but what's the fun in that?

[caul]

This is true - but what's the fun in that?

The fun is in the darkspawn capturing the PCs...and having them wake up stripped of armor and weapons in a makeshift prison somewhere...

[Sathayorn]

This is true - but what's the fun in that?

The fun is in the darkspawn capturing the PCs...and having them wake up stripped of armor and weapons in a makeshift prison somewhere...

Very good point.

[Saisei]

So we finished off the Dalish Curse last night and it was excellent. We had a very dramatic final battle with Mythallen and (to my surprise) the town of Vintiver was saved.

I'll hopefully put up a more in depth report but to any GMs out there I would strongly strongly recommend that you take the advice given in the adventure that suggests adding in extra scenes occuring around the PC's during the fight. It was fantastic.

[Maliki]

Getting close to kicking of my DA experience, Sunday my players are coming over and they will be rolling up characters, 5 players plus me. Then as soon as the box set gets here it will be full speed ahead.

This will be the first gaming we've done in over 6 months (DM burnout), so I'm really getting psyched for this.

[Amon]

Tonight I'm running the Dalish Curse! Woo hoo! Wish me luck I'm expect multiple deaths due to chronic stupidity that some of us seem to suffer from

[Illiani]

Tonight I'm going to be running Dalish Curse (character creation last weekend doesn't count). I suppose I should probably go read the adventure & players' handbook...

[lordmalachdrim]

When will we see it posted for listening?

[Maliki]

Tonight I'm going to be running Dalish Curse (character creation last weekend doesn't count). I suppose I should probably go read the adventure & players' handbook...

That might make things run a little smoother.

Tomorrow my group is getting together (for the first time in over 6 months) to roll characters. Then as soon as I get set 1 in my hands, we will be ready to roll.

[Illiani]

When will we see it posted for listening?

It should be up mid-next week. It'll be recorded tomorrow morning (we start at 5am ) and the post-production stuff is done on the same day. From there it goes off to Hal at rpgmp3.com and he does the rest.

Keep an eye on GreyWardens.com as it'll be announced there first. Alternatively, take a look around RPGMP3.com as there is a wealth of other audio to listen to--I personally recommend the Whartson Hall gang. RPGMP3.com is a very old website so, like anything old, it takes some getting used to. All the recent (post-'04ish) audio is stored on the forums in each group's little area.

To return to the topic--and to veer away from shameless plugging --if you have any more questions feel free to post Here, or Here, or even Here.

All my vocations require me to be on the internet most of the day, so you can rest assured that I'll answer any questions post-haste.

Sometimes having no life is such a boon.

That might make things run a little smoother.

Naw, that's what File Cabinet, our group's walking & talking, rulebook is for.

[lordmalachdrim]

I've been listening to the RoleMaster and the WFRP campaign

[Illiani]

I've been listening to the RoleMaster and the WFRP campaign

Hal's group are very, very funny.

[Balgin Stondraeg]

Tonight I'm going to be running Dalish Curse (character creation last weekend doesn't count). I suppose I should probably go read the adventure & players' handbook...

Absolutely mullered by blight wolves......

We nearly suffered a total party whipeout because those things couldn't stop rolling stunts (with high ammounts of stunt points too).

[Saisei]

Stuff like that seems to happen to my party too.

Any fight I roll really well for the enemies getting a heap of SP and my PCs miss. Just when the fight looks like it's going to be the death of them they pull it out of the bag with their own SPs.

(I had a Hurlock attack a PC yesterday. 6SP on his first attack. Mighty blow, Knock Prone and Pierce armour. PC takes 24 damage, leaving them with 7HP)

[Illiani]

(I had a Hurlock attack a PC yesterday. 6SP on his first attack. Mighty blow, Knock Prone and Pierce armour. PC takes 24 damage, leaving them with 7HP)

The Templar in Training took something like 24 damage in the surprise round.

[psychodrive]

(I had a Hurlock attack a PC yesterday. 6SP on his first attack. Mighty blow, Knock Prone and Pierce armour. PC takes 24 damage, leaving them with 7HP)

The Templar in Training took something like 24 damage in the surprise round.

Dang.

I only rolled SP three or four times for the wolves. I think the party took about 20 damage between the four of them.

That said, one of my guys (bless his heart) is pooing his pants about wolves that can break doors in. They all know they got lucky.