Despite being in the middle of an armed encampment several regiments in size, Lea’s nightly routine didn’t change much from the usual. After setting up her tent and taking care of her nightly ablutions, she made one last mental check on her familiar. Still out chasing spine lizards?
No, came Lily’s reply, I found a mole! Now if I can just get to it…
Lea left the tiny sphinx to it’s hunting and prepared for her deep meditation, her people’s form of sleep. Zandak and Jaeger were already snoring deeply in their own tent a few feet away, and Bairn was probably either asleep or on one of his usual late night rambles. Settling down comfortably, Lea eased herself into her trance, breathing deeply and unfocusing her eyes.
Suddenly, the world came back into clarity. Something was wrong. Lea noticed a thin tendril of purple fog curling in through the flap on her tent. Instantly alert and ready for trouble, she snatched her battle scarred wand from beside her and headed out to see what was going on. Outside, the fog was thicker and piled high. Even with her race’s extraordinary vision it was impossible to see more than a dozen yards. Well this can’t be good. “Z! Get your ass up! Jaeger, come on!” she yelled, trying to rouse her companions. The sound warped and twisted in the fog, a wispy echo coming back to her. She strained to remember where they had pitched their tent, but looking around Lea quickly realized she couldn’t tell one direction from any other. Hmm, probably a Fog of Confusion then. I’ll just have to see if I can find them. Though more yelling can’t really hurt. “Z, get up! We’re under attack!” She shouted, “probably anyway” she said under her breath. Wait, what was that?
Zandack lifted one scaled eyelid and peered bleaily around his tent. “Lea?” he mumbled grogily. His eyes widened and he was instantly awake when he saw the creeping mist entering his tent. “Lea!” He shouted as he leaped off of his bedroll and rushed outside. He shortly realized he wasn’t going to find her by sight in the fog. “Lea, where are you?” he shouted into the fog, only to hear his words roll back to him from every side, altered by the mist. He heard several thumps and the heavy clank and jangle of armor settling into place from inside the tent.
“What is it?” asked Jaeger, still struggling with his heavy boots.
“Bad”, replied Zandak “when you’re ready take watch so I can grab my gear.” The two switched places, Jaeger looking out for trouble or any sign of the others while Zandak hurridly donned his extensive managerie of armor and battle items. Less than two minutes later he picked up his greatsword and felt the familiar tingle of electricity running up and down it’s blade. “Come on, we’ve got to find the others.”
Whatever it is I don’t think it’s friendly, Lea thought to herself as the figure, barely a shadow amongst the fog, let forth another stream of violet light from it’s hand to strike at a blurry sihouette. The hazy image seemed to shrink in on itself a bit before hitting the ground. Yeah, I doubt it’s the paymaster here with my wages. Her wand began to warm in her hand as she mentally prepared herself for combat. “Hey ugly,” she called, thinking it was peoably true, “Over here!” As she stalked forward, the figure became clearer. A fleshless face turned towards her. Pinpoints of light set deep in it’s sockets glared it’s hatred as it swung it’s arm towards her, bones clicking as they moved. Black, crackling energy shot forth, sizzling through the air where Lea had been moments before, her quick reflexes saving her from whatever damage it may have caused. Dammit, I’m not supposed to take this kind of abuse. Where’s my fighter when I need him?
“Let’s try this way” Jaeger said, pointing slightly off to their right, “I think Lea’s tent was over there.” Zandak was about to reply when a body, crumpled over it’s own mid section from a massive blow, came sailing out of the fog across their path. Niether bothered to check on the man, as a crunching pop came from his neck as he landed. Instead, both warriors looked towards the source of the devastating hit. Coming into view from the fog, armor scaping against bone, a hulking skeletal knight trudged by along the edge of their sight until it seemed to take notice, turning to square off against them.
“Or we could fight this guy, because I don’t think he’s going to help us search for the others.” Zandak said, hefting up on his greatsword to get a better grip.
“Or that.”
Zandak lept forward towards the knight, hoping to make a telling first strike. His sword swung down, ringing off of the knight’s shield, grinding away until the Draconian fighter was forced to step back or lose his balance. Meanwhile, uttering a short prayer to his goddess, Jaeger tore at the knight’s being with a burst of light, hurting it and shifting it’s attention to himself. Faster than either would have thought possible, the undead knight rushed up to Jaeger, slamming him with it’s shield and then coming across the other way with it’s longsword, leaving blood dribbling out of a rent in his armor. Jaeger found himself hemmed in by sword and shield, little able to move. Undeterred he tried to shift back to bring his thundering hammer into play, managing only to leave himself open after his swing failed to connect. The lack of muscle on it’s bones didn’t appear to bother the knight at all as it’s devastating lunge sheared a sliver of steel from the paladin’s armor and plunged into his side. While Jaeger stumbled back from the attack, the knight pulled it’s sword free and swung again at the human, crushing a pauldron and inflicting even more damage. Zandak stared in shock at the power the Death Knight displayed. “Oh, crap.” he said.
Oh, crap thought Lea, as another black bolt sailed her way. Unable to get out of the way in time, she hissed in pain as the bolt struck her arm, turning the skin black and opening wounds that oozed dark, unhealthy looking blood. In response she sent a curl of lightning towards the undead sorcerer, slamming into it and sending electricity skittering along it’s bony frame. As it readied it’s next attack, seemingly unfazed by the powerful strike, Lea growled to herself. That’s the problem with the undead, they never let you know if you’ve hurt them. With more hostile magic on it’s way, she fervently hoped backup would arrive soon. As if in answer, a figure streaked from the fog. How dare you try to keep me from mother, she’s mine! The words echoed in Lea’s head. It was Lily. Having borrowed her “mother’s” fey step ability, she had appeared right in the middle of the battle. Still flying at top speed she employed the gift bestowed upon her by the spirit of a dragon, and shimmering blue monstrous forelegs smashed the necromancer into the ground. As Lily wheeled in triumph, she fogot the lesson Lea had just learned. Still on its back, the necromancer unleashed one of the purple pulses of light Lea had seen earlier. “Lily, look out!” Lea screamed, but the violet energy swatted Lily from the sky. Earlier, Lea had witnessed this spell wither its targets as they fell dead. Now she feared for her familiar as Lily lay upon the ground, and her form too began to change. But instead of wilting, she began to grow. Her tawny legs grew longer, her delicate feet now massive paws. Her wings lengthened to an enormous span. She added hundreds of pounds of muscle in seconds. All the while her cry altered from a kitten’s pain into the battle roar of a lion. Transformation complete, Lily stood up and faced the necromancer, “You, soulless puppet, have just made a very big mistake.” said Lily.
Wrenching his sword from the Death Knight’s shattered collar bone, Zandak spun to take advantage of the inertia of the huge blade coming free. The mighty backswing drove deep into the hip of his adversary, warping armor and crushing more bone. Not content with the damage he had already done, Zandak pushed himself to strike again before the knight could recover. Lightning crackling along it’s edge, the huge blade swung down, around and up into the knight’s armpit, or where such a thing would be on a living creature. It struck through the upper arm, nearly severing it completely. Zandak settled back into more defensive stance, unable to maintain such ferocity for long. “How do you like that, bonehead?” He asked. The knight replied by swiveling its skull towards the fighter, and smiling. Skulls being what they are, this was no mean feat, but Zandak was certain he saw the jaw itself bend upwards at the edges, giving new meaning to the term ‘rictus grin’. “Because that’s not creepy or anything” he told the skeleton sarcastically. The Death Knight opened his jaw and vomitted hellfire at the dragonborn’s feet, causing the ground to erupt, pummelling Zandak with fire, dirt and flying rock. Striding forward to capitalize on the damage it had inflicted, the knight was abruptly knocked sideways from a hammer blow to the head fom Jaeger. He had taken the respite during Zandak’s offensive charge to heal himself somewhat, and now waded in to help his friend. He was still hurt enough that his blows were more distracting than damaging, but if he could get the enemy’s attention on him, then Zandak, with his incredible strength, could hopefully finish the damned thing off. Jaeger just hoped they were up to it after the punishment they had been taking.
Warring thoughts knocked around in Lea’s head, trying to recieve too much input at once. Her psychic link with her familiar was pouring through every sensation that Lily was experiencing. Sight, sound, and smells fought with thoughts, strategy, and formulae as the sphinx processed the world as a puzzle spread out before her. Disparate facts and feelings formed points of data that interconnected, assembling into a logical whole that laid itself out before them both. As the chaos subsided into ordered thought, Lea was stunned. As a Spellstorm Mage, she was used to the feeling of magic swirling about her in tempest rage at all times, waiting to be harnessed to her will and flung at ther enemies. But now the arcane energies surrounding her came in all the subtle variations of the weather; some tendrils of magic cooler, slower, and heavy, while others raced by carrying light or heat as they swept around and through their surroundings. As she realized that she could sense the variations in the magic flowing around her, Lea reached out gathering a patch of slow, hot, and heavy energy that easily conformed to what she wanted. ”You need to consider your target when casting a spell. A curse that ages it’s victim a hundred years works great on a human, but a sphinx is nearly immortal.” she said, raising her wand at the slowly standing necromancer, “Now for the undead, the best magic is radient of course, but I don’t have any of that, so I’ll just have to make do with Acid Splash!“ The wave of acid was easily half again as large as she was used to, and cascaded over the skeleton’s form with devastating results. The tattered robes it wore were dissolved instantly, and half of the ribs beneath sloughed away under the corrosive torrent. The rest of the necromancers body was pitted and scored as the spell dripped away back into the aether.
Lily glared at the fiend, “You might also consider that bones contain hollows and pockets of fluid, making them likely to explode under intense heat, like that of a Fireball!“ A conflageration of energies detonated around the still reeling necromancer, setting it ablaze and cracking and rupturing it’s bones. Finally, the magic that held it together in undeath failed, leaving a collapsing pile of burnt and dissolved shards to fall to the earth.
” I guess you can borrow my spells now too?” Lea asked, looking over Lily’s new form. It was a little unsettling to see that her eight month old sphinx was now as tall as she was at the head and and outwieghed her by three or four hundred pounds. “Mooooom” Lily whined, “I’m just a little bigger now, I don’t wiegh that much more.” she said self conciously, having picked up on Lea’s thoughts. Lea laughed, “I’t's okay Lily, It will just take a bit of getting used to is all. Now let’s see if we can find the others in this soup before they get in trouble without us.”
Zandak shook his head, that last blow having rung his bell pretty good. Come on, get it together. This thing can’t have much more in it. It’s got more bones broken than whole. He waited for Jaeger to taunt it again with another weak strike, too wounded at this point to do much more than keep it flanked and it’s attention split between them. As the knight turned to ward off the blow with it’s shield, Zandak put everything he had into one last swing. Muscles straining to put every last bit of speed and power into the strike, the teeth of his blade sizzled as it swept through the air. Zandak’s furious roar alerted the Deathknight to the attack, but it only managed to turn it’s head, it’s fleshless face looking up into the descending weapon. Splinters of bone exploded away from it’s nasal ridge as the attack connected, the force of the blow caving the skull inward and tearing it from the spine. The rest of the body soon followed the head to the ground in a sower of bone fragments, armor, and dust. “Ha” He panted, still trying to catch his breath, “take that you ass”.
He was wrestling the breastplate off of the Deathknight’s ribcage when he heard a faint shout. “Lea? Hey, We’re over here!” he called.
“Finally” Lea said as her companions came into sight, “I was hoping I could find you before trying to dispell this fog. It’ll take me twenty minutes or so and I’d rather have you guarding my back while I do.” A rumbling noise came from the fog behind her. “Not that you couldn’t handle it Lily, but the more the merrier, right?” she called over her shoulder.
Zandak looked up from his work, “What was that noise?” he said just as Lily stepped out of the fog towards him. “Gah! Uh, Lily? Is that you?” he asked the sphinx that was suddenly somehow larger that he was. “Wow, you grew up.”
“Um, Yeah…” Lily said shyly, still unsure of her instant growth spurt.
” And you can talk!” Zandak said, surprized
“I could always talk” Lily informed him, “You just didn’t know how to listen.”
“Huh” Looking for a change in topic to get him back on more familiar ground, Zandak said “Um, Lea? I think this breastplate is magical. Can you tell what is is?”
“Let’s have a look.” As she quested out with her senses, ‘reading’ the aura given off by the armor, Zandak noticed a sieries of symbols that looked a lot like the ones on his helmet, gauntlet, and boots. Looking up at each other the fighter and the mage both exclaimed “It’s the Plate of War!”
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Although I took some liberty with dialogue, timing, and what attacks were used when during the episode, this is basically what happened during the second half of our game session last week. Jesse plays Zandak, a Dragonborn Fighter, and Brenna plays Lea, an Eladrin Wizard with her sphinx familiar Lily, who she saved from being sacrificed by some lizardmen earlier in the campaign. Jaeger is a human Paladin NPC who I use to drop infomation and quests onto the players, as well as hang around as the party healer. I don’t consider myself a terribly good GM, but my players seem to be having a good time, so I’m satisfied. This is just a small example of some of the troubles that befall the group on their quest to save the world, or at least it’s largest continent. If you are familier with the Monty Hall theory of gaming, we’ve been running The Full Monty the whole time. It’s been fun, and I’ve even enjoyed being the GM which is normally a huge chore for me. This is our first foray into 4th Edition D&D, and I have to say I’m impressed. While I do not wish to get into an argument with those that espouse 3.5 and think 4th ed was terrible, I would like to point out the main difference I have found between them. In 3.5 you can choose from innumerable options outside the game to create your character, and then in game you use what you have chosen to best effect. This is desirable becuase you can specialize into niches and no two characters ever have to be the same. In 4th edition there are far fewer options (classes, feats, etc) with which to build a character, meaning there are only a half dozen ways to make a fighter, a half dozen to make a cleric, whatever. But what it excells at is choices in game. While a 3.5 fighter might specialize in great cleave and position himself to use that ability every chance he can, a 4th edition fighter can look at the situation and choose from his exhaustive list of attacks and pick the best one for the situation. The difference in characters usually comes down to how they’re played, not the numbers on their sheet. It is a style that suits me and I like it quite a bit, though I understand those who prefer the 3.5 system and why it appeals to them more. The argument between them shouldn’t be about which one is better or worse objectively, it should be about personal preference and style. It just so happens that more people have a preference for 3.5 and I am in a minority of the gaming community. Cool with me, I’m having fun listening to the sphinx try to convince the dragonborn to buy her a clutch of eggs for breakfast at the market as the eladrin lectures her on the virtues of eating her vegetables.
