GM Commentary: Session 2 wrap-up

Jenny was nice enough to let us invade BYOB again. It took us longer to get set up and started than I liked, but we were still able to plow through four encounters and still have time to play apples to apples before the night was over. There were a few newbies at BYOB that night that were a bit confused by what we were doing. One guy actually sat down with us and started coaching and giving advice. He'd never played before and seemed very interested because he kept asking questions. I thought it was cool to see someone totally random get excited about the game. It was a bit annoying, though, at the same time.

Sunny was not able to join the rest of the group that night so I had to run Jym as an NPC this time around. It was fun playing the warlord and supporting the group, even though I really didn't get a chance to put his unique combat abilities to good use. I offered Jared the chance to play in Sunny's place, but he didn't want to break his streak of no DnD during football season. Regardless, I gave Jym a full share of the party experience and tried to make sure he didn't get completely excluded from the treasure.

Austin was in town and filled out the party nicely with his artificer. I was excited to see this new playtest class in action. It strikes me as a cross between a cleric and a wizard, with a heavy focus on ranged combat abilities that grant allies bonuses while hampering enemies. We haven't yet seen some of the unique features of this class, like mobile artifices and recharging magic items. I meant to work more of Vismund's back-story into the game. Austin tried to prompt me at one point, but I had decided before-hand that his special hammer would magically appear mundane to the casual viewer so as to avoid awkward questions and distractions.

I had spent some time beforehand preparing copies from the Player's Handbook for each of the players' racial bonuses, class features and powers. I'd written in some pre-calculated bonuses and highlighted the powers that were available to each player. I'd hoped this would help clear up some confusion and speed up the game a bit. It had mixed results, since it meant more papers for everyone to flip through. People are getting the hang of it though. When everyone gains a level it will come in handy to have the available utility powers right there.

The otyugh encounter went better than planned. The grub minions served their purpose by temping the characters into violence and then got in plenty of hits before being obliterated. The old otyugh didn't get a chance to hit with it's bite, but it still got to infect the fighter with filth fever. I'll have to remember to have Chris roll an Endurance check when the party takes it's next extended rest.

I was surprised that people didn't want to spend more time searching the flea-market area. I had to replace some of the mundane items in the chest of drawers with important items they had missed, although it made the logbook entries make even less sense. At least the quest item in the trash pit was found. I'll have to remind Regnor that he needs to return that item for his reward at the end of the adventure.

I need to become better at taking advantage of situations where skill challenges could be introduced so that I can try them out. The whole chest of drawers encounter and flea-market search could have been more engaging and involved more character skills.

Irocar died much quicker than I expected. Afterwards I realized that he was not supposed to enter the combat until later when the characters would be focused on the mercenaries. I was surprised at how fast the damage stacked up with just two strikers blasting away at him. I'll have to play my leader-types much more conservatively next time.

Over all this session went better than the last. Drawing out the map by hand on the wet erase mat gave everyone the chance to spread out and take part in the fights, and gave me the chance to change the layout slightly. I packed much lighter this time around and only had one bag of minis preselected for the encounters I knew were coming up. I'll have to remember to remove the minis I've already used. Many of the characters have used up their daily powers and most of their healing surges so I will encourage the party to take an extended rest.

Sellswords of Punjar, Session 2: the black dog brotherhood

The narrow wooden stairs were stained with black spots of mold and the entire stair well smelled of mildew and rot. At the top of the stairs was a closed wooden door. Mina spotted a cord running under the door and weaving in and out of the treads of the stairs. Suspecting a trap or an alarm of some sort she attempted to delay the device and then led the party up the stairs. As they neared the door on the top someone made a misstep and a stair groaned loudly. Mina shushed the party and called a halt as she put her ear to the door. Voices on the other side confirmed what she feared, that they had been heard. Someone was giving orders to grab weapons and make ready for intruders.

The party decided that the best defense in this situation would be a good offense so they drew weapons and prepared to charge into the room. Regnor was the first through the door and into the smokey chamber beyond. Empty jacks of wine littered the floor, amid discarded crusts of bread and poorly tied bedrolls. The chamber was also occupied by a group of cruel, grim-faced brigands wearing leather armor and what appeared to be short cloaks fashioned from the pelts of black dogs. From that telling symbol Regnor gathered that these must be the black dog brotherhood, a notorious band of cold-hearted mercenaries. There were five of them here, three in formation with short swords drawn and two hanging back with throwing daggers in hand. Behind them a ladder rested on the far wall, leading up to a dark loft. At the edge of the loft stood a figure clad in dark-mail, wearing a fierce great-helm and wielding a blackened longbow. This figure could be none-other than Irocar the War Captain and master of the brotherhood. He called out a challenge to the dragonborn warrior and fired a shot at him.

Regnor ignored the arrow stuck in his shoulder and continued his charge into the midst of the mercenaries, cleaving with his great-axe and burning them with acidic dragonborn breath. They retaliated with slashing blades, cutting an slicing him.

Jym took up his scimitar and shield next to Regnor, leading from the front and delivering vicious strikes to the mercenaries. Jym took many grievous wounds and came very close to death during the battle, but was able to recover afterwards.

Mina snuck into the room, ducked a dagger thrown by one of the sharp-eyed mercenaries. She launched her own dagger back at him, then drew her crossbow and with a sly flourish shot Irocar in the arm.

Aletha strode confidently into the chamber, singled out the war-captain for her warlock's curse and then struck him with witchfire and eldritch blasts using her new magic wand. Between Aletha's enhanced fey-powers and Mina's repeatedly well-placed bolts, Irocar did not last long.

Vismund sent forth his spike wire to entangle and soften up the line of mercenaries, then with a word and a flourish enchanted Regnor's armor which resonated and with thundering force blew one of the mercenaries backwards.

Jym and Regnor worked together to slay a pair of the mercenaries, but their ranks were filled again by the dagger wielding menaces. Vismund grew impatient and charged into the melee swinging his ensorcelled warhammer with a rage fueled battlecry, downing one with a critical blow. The remaining two guards were quickly dispatched by the group and the room was cleared.

Sellswords of Punjar, Session 2: Rats' treasure horde

After another short rest the party decided to move on. The next room appeared to be a study of some sort, lit by two greasy fat flickering candles set on a large table converted into a work desk. The desk was crowded with scrolls, spilled inkpots, a grimy scale, and stacks of copper coins. On the floor was an over-turned desk-chair and a sack half-filled with more copper coins. A set of rickety stairs led up to a closed wooden door and beyond the desk on the far wall was a ratty, moth-eaten blanket pinned to the wall, covering a door-shaped hole. Aletha searched the desk and found Arthuro the fence's logbook detailing the comings and goings on pilfered goods. The last few entries caught her eye, but they were largely indecipherable due to the personalized shorthand the fence used. She decided to hang onto the list in any case.

Vismund investigated beyond the blanket and found a cramped and dirty sleeping nook. Roaches scurried away from the candle-light and under a simple cot covered with a matted quilt. An unlit lantern sat near one side of the bed, atop a rotting wooden crate. The walls were made of cracked plaster, yet one wall looked suspiciously newer than the others and the sounds of furitive scratching and squeaking could be heard behind it. Vismund found a sack of coins and a silver cloak pin in the shape of a wyvern hidden inside the bed-side crate and then moved to take a closer look at the suspicious wall. With some skilled prodding of his hammer, Vismund was able to locate a sliding section of wall, which he pushed to the side revealing a hidden storage area almost completely taken up by a massive chest of drawers. Before he could inspect the chest further a mass of fur and teeth came pouring out of the secret closet as a swarm of angry rats surrounded his feet and began clawing and climbing up his boots and legs.

Regnor hurried into the room only to be swarmed by the rats. He swung his great-axe down at the swarm, but they only seemed to melt away from the narrow edge of the blade. Vismund jumped up onto the cot in an attempt to get out of the rats' range. As his weight came down on the cot a razor sharp spearhead ripped upward through the bedding and narrowly missed his foot. Apparently the paranoid Arthuro had even trapped his bed. Vismund recovered from his near skewering and hurled an artificed hammer at the rats, which trailed a line of barbed wire formed of arcane energy which wrapped about the swam. The swarm screamed as one entity and tried to escape the barbs, but everywhere it turned found only pain. Burst attacks seemed to be much more effective than other kinds of attacks. Regnor took a hint and summoned forth another great gout of acid from his stomach to sprayed the rat swarm with, and they hissed and scream in redoubled pain, biting and scratching at the dragonborn in self-defense.

Mina, Jym and Aletha rushed into the room. Aletha placed her curse on the swarm and shot a bolt of dark crackling energy at it, but most of the rats escaped her eldritch blast. Mina fired a blinding barrage of crossbow bolts at the swarm, killing many and sending the rest running to disappear in cracks in the floor and walls.

Once they were sure the swarm was dispersed the group turned their attention to the chest of drawers. There were seven drawers in the chest. Each drawer had a symbol, code, or pictogram scratched or drawn on the front of them. A few of the codes matched those Aletha found in the logbook. Vismund looked more closely at these drawers and detected the presence of traps on them. Mina set to work with her new tools to disable the traps and unlock the drawers.

The first drawer was marked "O7" and was trapped with a poison needle. It contained a fine green cloth cloak folded into a neat bundle. Aletha used her knowledge of arcana to detect its magical aura and identified it as a cloak of resistance +1 which the group chose to give to the fighter.

The drawer marked "A3" was protected by a spear trap. It contained a wand fashioned of wood and iron and was carved into a dragon head on one end. Aletha detected magic, identified it as a +1 magic wand and claimed it for herself.

A drawer with the code "T11" was trapped with a scything blade. Curiously it did not contain the item listed on the logbook. Aletha lifted a dusty leather waterskin out of the compartment and sniffed at the half-drunk contents, which turned out to be the dregs of a potion of healing. She gave it to the fighter.

A drawer bearing a sword pictograph contained the broken haft of a ceremonial great-sword. Elvish runes could barely be made out on the remaining portion of the blade. Aletha examined them and determined it had come from the tomb of a forgotten fae-lord. Maybe she would be able to locate the tomb in the future and the restore the blade...

The next drawer was marked with the picture of a skull and contained a pair of sealed vials containing a smoky liquid. Vismund and Jym examined them and determined that they held the antitoxin to shadowstuff toxin, which was still plagued Mina. Vismund attempt to barter with Mina to trade one of the antitoxins for her cloak, but eventually softened and gave it to her.

The drawer marked with a dragon pictogram contained a sack of coins and four sheets of vellum bearing the Beggar-King's wax stamps used as bankers' notes for fencing particularly expensive goods. These items were shared amongst the whole group.

The last drawer bore the image of a crescent moon and contained a small wooden box containing seven needles, poisoned with stormclaw scorpion venom and sealed with wax. Mina took this and squirreled it away among her belongings.

After distributing their pilfered treasure and making sure the chest was emptied the party decided to continue their adventure and headed back into the study to examined the stairs...

Sellswords of Punjar, Session 2: Another day, another garbage monster

Aletha, Regnor, Jym, and Mina took a short rest in the beggars' flea-market area. While they were recovering a new figure arrived on the scene. A disgruntled dwarven blacksmith by the name of Vismund was on the rampage. Word on the street was that the Beggar-King had been bragging about getting a "steal of a deal" from this particular craftsman. Vismund had toiled over several suits of armor and weapons on a commission for the Beggar-King and then came home one evening after having one too many ales to find his shop ransacked and his goods stolen. He'd spent the better part of a week trying and failing to gather information on where the Beggar-King could have stashed the stolen items, when finally he got lucky. While having his usual evening ale at the "Horny Hippogriff" and eavesdropping on the locals he overheard a group of odd individuals discussing their own plan for assaulting the beggars' lair. This was the best lead he'd had yet, but experience had taught him patience and discretion so he decided to follow the group in secret rather than reveal himself right away.

His patience was rewarded as the pair of tieflings, the dragonborn, and eladrin led him to the Beggar-King's rotting demesne. He watched from a safe distance as they dealt with the gate and the guards before cautiously following them farther in. As he approached he caught sight of one of Mina watching from the crack of a doorway. Once Mina realized she'd been spotted she verbally accosted the dwarf in the alley. Vismund explained his situation to the party and after some initial skepticism they agreed to work together as long as it furthered the goals of all.

Some time was spent searching through the beggars' flea-market for anything of value. Vismund discovered a pair of worn leather boots who's heels appeared to be loose. Closer inspection revealed that the beggars had missed hidden compartments built into the hollowed heels, containing a set of masterwork thief's tools and an antique platinum coin which would fetch a decent price from the right collector. The artificer gave the tools to Mina in the hopes that later they would come in handy, but kept the coin for himself. Jym brushed the dust off of an old battered lantern and it proved to be of high quality with silver filigree, inside was the partially mummified corpse of a pixie that had become trapped. Mina spent the most time searching through the clutter and was rewarded by finding an gold tooth on an intact fleshless orc skull and an enormous white wolf hide. She removed the gold tooth from the skull and used the wolf fur as an effective cloak.

Regnor wasn't interested in the random trinkets in the front room, but Mina's description of the glint of gold in the trash heap did intrigue him. He stepped behind the rotting curtain to investigate. The smell of decay and filth was almost overpowering. After only a few moments of digging through the top of the trash heap, a pair of large and fat grub-like creatures crawled out towards Regnor, gnashing their razor-sharp rings of teeth at him. He gave a cry of surprise before mightily cleaving through the pair of repulsive carrion beast larvae. Regnor's shout brought the rest of the party to investigate. Before they arrived a muscled and sharp spined tentacle shot out of the pile of garbage and wrapped itself around Regnor and dragged him bodily into the trash and towards the tooth filled maw of an old otyugh. More grubs surfaced and surrounded the fighter, trying to burrow into any exposed flesh.

The other party members rushed into the smelly room to find Regnor thrashing in the grasp of an abomination and set upon by six ravenous grubs. Vismund bolstered Regnor's armor with a wave of his rune inscribed hammer. Mina and Jym focused on killing the biting grubs, while Aletha cursed the otyugh and scortched it with witchfire in an attempt to keep it from devouring the dragonborn. Regnor, using his bloodied fury, slashed viciously around him, damaging the otyugh and killing more grubs. The otyugh was not able to bite the prey squirming in its grasp, but it was slowly squeezing the life out of him. Vismund blew an enchanted healing admixture onto Regnor and Jym gave him an inspiring burst of energy, bringing him back from the brink of death. Once the grubs were all destroyed the party focused its attacks on the mother-beast which died quickly under their combined force. Regnor survived the ambush, but came away feeling ill and feverish from the filthy wounds he received.

Holding their noses, the party searched through the heap of garbage for that promise of gold. Mina was able to locate the source of the glint and pulled out a finely wrought golden pendant with a large ruby set into it and bearing a family crest of some sort. Aletha recognized it as belonging to the wealthy Tianass family. Vismund recognized the craftsman's mark on the back of Tovias Hammerkien, a gnome jeweler of some note. Regnor informed the party that Lady Tianass had asked him to recover this particular heirloom in return for a reward and possible further employment, so he took it.

GM Commentary: Session 1 Wrap-up

I don't think we've quite seen the best 4th edition has to offer yet. The players had some difficulty with the module and I have some theories on this.

First of all it's designed for 5 players and we only had 4 on the first session. The module gave some hints on how to reduce the difficulty for a smaller group, but I didn't think they'd be taking on all of the enemies at once. I didn't foresee the party heading straight into the flea-market area without first scoping out the end of the alley-way or dealing with the sentries. Once they started the encounter with the street-toughs and Arthuro the fence I couldn't just leave the sentries standing dumbly around. It may have been better to have made the sentries come running and engage the party out in the street when they loudly broke the gates down. That would have spaced the encounter out a bit.

In addition, the difficulty classes for skill tests seemed a bit high and under further inspection it looks like the writers designed the module before the first set of errata and updates came out for the PHB. All the DCs should have been about 5 less than they were. I think the players were getting a little frustrated with failing their skill-checks at the very beginning of the game.

The full-color battle-map that came with the module first struck me as a neat aspect of the module, especially with the removable roof tiles to hide the unexplored areas. While playing the map proved to be small and cramped. There wasn't even enough room on the map to put all five sentries in the sentry post so I had to put two of them at the far end of the alley-way. The alley was only one miniature wide, which felt way too narrow given the grand depiction of the entry gate and the description of the fountain. The battle in the flea-market was packed tight. The toughs were supposed to try to bull-rush PCs into the trash pit, but there was no room to maneuver. The stairs are the only reasonable sized things on the map. I think next time I will resort to drawing the map myself and in the process I'll double the size of everything.

In the confusion of character generation I failed to inform Kat of a couple of additional features of the warlock. She managed to deal with her adversaries easily enough without these aspects, but it would have been nice for her to have access to them. First of all I didn't quite understand that the warlock's curse could be active on multiple enemies at the same time during the course of the encounter. I mistook it for having the same mechanic as the fighter's mark, the paladin's challenge, and the ranger's prey abilities which can only effect one enemy at a time. In addition warlocks are granted an ability called "prime shot" which gives them a +1 bonus to attack rolls when they are alone with an enemy, which would have given her an advantage in her situation. Oh well, next time I will try to make sure those features don't get overlooked.

There were a couple of problems with new 4th edition rules. Action points were a little confusing I think. I handed out poker chips to represent action points, but I still had to remind the players what it was and when they could use it. To complicate things, many warlord abilities only accessible when action points are spent. On the other hand, all action points were spent and granted the PCs a slight advantage in the fight. Things could have gone much worse without those extra attacks and second winds. I did forget to give the players a +2 bonus to all their defenses when they used their second winds, which may have made the difference on a few hits.

Halfway through the combat I realized that tumbling is completely different in 4th edition. Heidi wanted to tumble past one of the street-toughs and I made the ruling that she could use the acrobatics skill to do this. She ended up missing the roll and getting swatted for it, but what I didn't realize was that Tumble is now a rogue-only 2nd level utility encounter power. Acrobatics doesn't have any rules regarding tumbling past enemies. Tumbling used to be a stand-by in 3.5, almost all characters wanted to train in it to basically move freely around the battlefield without fear of opportunity attacks. I get the feeling that tumble will be sorely missed by the PCs, but as a GM it means I can threaten the PCs more with enemy formation tactics and they won't be able to just move past the front line of soldiers to target the squishy back-fielders.

Related to that, I thought shifting 1 square was a minor action, but I reread the rules and discovered that shifting 1 square is a movement action. This means catching fleeing enemies will be a bit easier next time.

Another staple of our 3.5 game was the use of the intimidate skill. My players would use it relentlessly to put fear into their opponents hearts and weaken their resolve (-2 penalty on rolls). Now it seems this skill has been "nerfed" and only grants advantage outside of combat or only if the opponent is bloodied. The way I read the skill description it has no use on an unbloodied hostile opponent. This caused me some consternation when the players had killed all but the last sentry who was relatively safe in his hiding place. I eventually let the players coax him down, but this seemed improbable to me. I should have had him attempt to flee by climbing onto the roof and running away yet be graphically slain by the "black fog" to serve as an additional warning to the PCs. As it played out I used the last sentry to divulge a few more useful rumors that the PCs hadn't picked up back at the tavern.

Austin promises to join the party next time, so the game balance should be better. I hope the next session goes well and we get more accomplished.

Sellswords of Punjar, Session 1: Beggars' Fleamarket

Mina led the group down the alley and around a rain-filled stream of filth and debris as red-eyed rats squealed and ran underfoot. She spotted a group of bedraggled sentries on a second story platform further along the alley, neglecting their duties. Nearby was a warped wooden door leading into one of the tenements. Mina pointed out the sentries to the rest of the group and then decided to try the door. It was not locked.

Inside was a shadowy chamber crowded with a crazed menagerie of items. Broken barrels topped with rotted wood served as a table in the center of the floor while boxes and crates lined the walls and stacks of junk filled every other available space. Strings of silverware, cloth, chains, ropes and lanterns hung from the cracked and sagging rafters. A doorway on the left was covered by a stained and moth-eaten curtain. On the right was an open doorway leading into another shadowy chamber. A pair of street toughs were rifling through the junk, apparently taking inventory and calling out any important finds to someone in the next room who would shout back in acknowledgement. Mina quietly closed the door and headed back down the alley.

Mina conferred with the group and they chose to get the drop on the street toughs instead of trying to sneak past the sentries. Regnor burst through the door and charged the tough on the left, smashing him into a pile of rusty and broken weapons in the corner. Jym engaged the surprised tough on the right, while Mina attempted to vault over table to gain combat advantage on him. The weakened piece of make-shift furniture cracked under her weight and dumped her on the ground amid a pile of useless trinkets. A call of alarm went up and the voice from the other chamber queried angrily "What's going on in there you oafs? If you damage the goods I'll take it out of your hides!"

Aletha was left to deal with a pair of guards that came around the corner of the alley. They spotted her and alerted the sentries lounging above before attacking. She proceeded to lead them on a running fight, using her warlock curse, eyebite, witchfire, and misty-step powers to good use. Aletha took a few cuts from the guards' short sword and longspear before one was cursed, blinded, blasted and burned to death.

One of sentries came down from the perch and joined the fight running into the flea market area to support the street-toughs. The street-toughs recovered from their surprise enough to grab shields and maces and brought the fight back to the party. Jym was struck prone by a heavy blow, Regnor took a glancing blow while Mina moved into position for a backstab. A slovenly thief called Arthuro the Fence joined the fight from the side-chamber. Mina made for a convenient target so he slashed her with his magical dagger. Jym got back to his feet and finished off his opponent and called encouragement to his allies, granting Mina a much needed surge.

Regnor used his dragonborn breath to belch forth a spray of acid, spattering one of the toughs and Arthuro the Fence, and then followed up with a reaping strike of his great-axe, killing the tough. The sentry joining the fight made an ineffective slash at the fighter. Arthuro the Fence moved in to slash at Jym while Mina moved to cut off his escape. Arthuro noticed that the odds were against him and decided to run. Using his tumbling ability he rolled past Jym, through the alley door and tried to escape.

The sentry in the flea market was quickly dispatched by Jym, Regnor, and Mina who then ran out into the alley to catch the fleeing thief. Aletha used her daily power to destroy the guard chasing her before misty-stepping back up the alley to rejoin the rest of the party. Arthuro turned and ran around the corner. The last pair of sentries stationed up above the alley tossed weighted nets down towards Arthuro's pursuers. Regnor dodged the nets and continued after the fence who was currently trying to reach a door at the far end of the alley. Nearby a vile looking and filth-covered fountain leaked rust-colored fluid onto the alley floor.

Jym moved under the sentry post and waited for them to peek out over. They grabbed longspears and poked at him from above. Jym grabbed one of the spears and hauled the attached sentry off of the platform and brought him crashing down onto the wet cobblestones. Mina took advantage of his helplessness and sliced his throat. The remaining sentry backed into a dark corner of the post. Aletha hurried past the melee and attempted to catch up with Regnor and the fence. Regnor made a passing swipe at Arthuro before he flung the door open and rushed up a rickety set of stairs. Regnor charged up after and caught him at the top in a large room crowded with greasy and flea-ridden cots, and lit by melting candles crammed into every nook and cranny. None of the cots were occupied at the moment, but there wasn't more time to investigate. Regnor struck Arthuro with a vicious blow bringing him to the brink of death but before the fence could retaliate he was struck by an eldritch blast from Aletha at the base of the stairs. The blast was enough to kill the fence, and Aletha used her fey-pact boon to misty-step to the top of the stairs with Regnor.

Jym and Mina harried the last sentry with crossbow bolts and intimidated him into coming down from his perch. Jym questioned and threatened him in to revealing what little he knew about the inhabitants of the complex before stripping him and chasing him off down Rat Catchers' Row away from the Beggar-King's lair. Regnor looted Arthuro's corpse before heading back to the alley with Aletha. The party took a moment to examine the creepy looking fountain, and when some of the filth was scraped away it was revealed to be a kind of shrine to Orcus, an evil demon-prince of the underworld and lord of the undead, decorated with precious gems. The fact that the stones had not already been stolen by beggars was sign enough that it was ill advised to tamper with it.

Back inside the flea market area Mina peeked behind the grimy curtain and was assaulted by the stench of rotting garbage. A sink-hole in the dirt floor occupied the small room and was filled with trash and cast-offs. Before Mina closed the curtain and retreated from the stench she thought she spied the glint of gold amid the trash, and also got the distinct impression that something else moved down there...

Sellswords of Punjar, Session 1: Smashing the Gates

The adventure takes place in a crime-ridden city Punjar, specifically in a slum district alternately known as Old Punjar or Smoke. It is a densely populated and poorly patrolled area of Punjar where many nefarious deeds take place away from the watchful eyes of the masters of the great city. Two factions that vie over control of the district, the Thieves' Guild and the Beggar-King, are in all but open war with each other. Rumors abound that the ridiculously arrogant and self-styled Beggar-King has begun hiring mercenaries in the hopes of bolstering is poorly equipped and untrained vassals of beggars and finally defeating the Master of Smoke (the leader of the Thieves' Guild). So far all of his attempts have failed and he grows ever more desperate. Who knows to what depths he may go in search of allies.

Aletha, Jym, Mina, and Regnor all found themselves at a disreputable watering hole called the "Horny Hippogriff" seeking drink and information. They overheard many tall-tales and rumors listening to the other patrons and the ever-present owner and bartender, Six-fingered Sam.

"The Beggar-King makes his lair in the slums surrounding an ancient charnel tower on Rat Catchers' Row. Once the tower was sacred to the Thieves, who used it to cremate their most honored thief lords. Truth is, the spirits of the old Canting Crew still haunt the tower. Foolish is the soul that would dare disturb their resting place..."

"I hear tell the Beggar-King is looking to hire a few good swords to his cause. Must have a king's ransom, for the purses he's offering to mercenaries. 'Course, what good is gold if you don't live long enough to spend it?"

"The smog lurking over the slums? A magical plague says I, sent by the gods to punish those over-reaching beggars. Only ill can come from dabbling in black magic, but them beggars was never the wise sort. If they were, wouldn't be beggars now would they?"

"Stories hold that somewhere in the rat's nest of tenements is a fountain dedicated to the Old Gods. Dark, forbidding thing, where warlocks used to meet to work their wicked rites in days of yore. Solve the mystery of the fountain, and you'll solve the mystery of the Thing that haunts the slums, if the stories are to be believed."

"'Ware the smoke lurking over the Beggar-King's lair. I've seen it take a man and reduce him to nothing but bones and gristle in the time it took me to tell you as much! Stay low and stick to cobbles and you should be safe, but avoid the slate-road at all costs!"

"I've heard tell that Old Mother Zeb'oltha herself answered the Beggar-King's call for allies. If you're wondering why the Thieves haven't moved on the beggars, don't look any further. Mother Zeb'oltha is a nasty one, a demon-blooded black sorceress, who ain't above using folks for spell components, if you get my drift. You'll know her by the eunuch bodyguards she keeps, but by then it's usually too late."

"Truth of the matter is, the beggars are all dead. Their boss sacrificed his kin weeks ago; all to earn the patronage of some fell power. Don't know if it worked, but it seems a beggar's soul ought to be worth as much as any other."

"Many people of varying importance have gone missing. Word on the street says the the Beggar-King has been paying for his mercenaries by selling slaves to a third party. It may be that slavers are once again working out of a hidden underground network of caves and tunnels. Wasn't so long ago when the slavers preyed on us common folks, was it?"

After gathering information and pooling their knowledge the party decided to investigate the Beggar-King's lair together, each for their own ends. It was not hard to find his rotting demesne on Rat Catchers' Row. The only accessible entrance appeared to be a narrow alley blocked by a tall iron gate topped by sharp spikes and leering gargoyles. The heavy lock securing the gate was cast into the face of a snarling devil. Over and above the patchy slate tiled roofs of the complex of dilapidated tenements hung a black swirling cloud concentrated around the top of an old charnel tower. Heeding the warning against taking the "slate-road" the party opted to not try and climb over the walls and roofs. and inspection of the spikes revealed them to be trapped cautioning against trying to scale the gate either.

The rogue inspected the lock in the mouth of the devil's face and not seeing any obvious traps attempted to pick it. The first attempt failed which set off a well hidden trap and the jaws of the mouth slammed shut around Mina's hand and arm. One of the sharp canines pierced her skin and she felt a toxin course through her blood. The rest of the party watched in horror as Mina's skin and eyes turned gray from the poison. Aletha and Jym helped Regnor pry apart the metal jaws of the trap far enough for Mina to withdraw her damaged arm. Jym examined the wound and determined that the symptoms matched those of "shadowstuff toxin" a rare and magical poison that slowly change the infected into mere shadow and they cease to exist. Jym gave her his expert opinion that she had only a few hours to live unless they could find an antidote.

Aletha, tired of watching her companions be stymied by the locked gate, used her Eladrin fey-step ability to teleport onto the other side of the gate. From the inside she was able to target the vulnerable gate hinges with eldritch blasts, causing the whole thing to come crashing down into the rain-slicked cobblestones. After the echoes of their violent entry died away the party attempted to salvage what remained of their stealth and headed deeper into the complex down the alley.

Sellswords of Punjar, Session 1: Character Creation

Saturday rolled around and I woke up early to cook up some crock-pot chili. I set up the table and started getting prepared. At the last minute I decided to make up extra handouts for the initial quests, story hooks, and rumors that the module suggested I just read out loud. I thought writing them down and handing them out would make it feel more personal and let the players choose what to reveal. Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to get all of them done before people started showing up.

Sunny came on time, but Heidi and Chris were late due to a long running football game. Despite wanting to do all characters creation at the same time, rather than let Sunny and Kat just sit around waiting for the others I decided to let them get first pick of class options. Kat wanted to try to break out of the meat-shield mold and try a more brainy class. She made an Eladrin fey-pact deceptive warlock named Tantric... I mean Aletha. We needed a leader-type class so Sunny was willing to give the warlord a try. He came up with a Tiefling tactical warlord wielding a scimitar and a shield named Jym. For this adventure I knew we'd still need a defender and rogue, so when Chris and Heidi showed up I steered them towards these choices. Chris didn't want to play a goody-two-shoes character like a paladin again so I let him be a straight-up fighter. He ended up with a Dragonborn great-weapon fighter named Regnor. Heidi went for another Tiefling, this time a trickster rogue named Mina.

Character creation took a lot longer than I expected. I guess just having one Player's Handbook and passing it around the table while trying to explain all the new rules was not an efficient way to go about things. I think after a solid two and a half hours of character generation everyone was a bit antsy to get started. I let people pick a random quest card, which turned out to work great. Conveniently everyone got an appropriate quest for their class. These cards gave everyone a reason to be in the same place at the same time. I encouraged the players to come up with reasons why their characters might know each other.

I had previously laid out the battlemap with the covering roof tiles and an overview map of the city of Punjar. Then we began the adventure in earnest...

GM Commentary: Introducing DnD 4th Edition

D&D 4th Edition came out this year. I started getting excited about it after listening to the D&D Insiders podcast from Wizards of the Coast, it sounded like they were going for a much more cinematic style of game play with less cumbersome rules and more streamlined combat. Kat picked up on my excitement and sneakily bought me the three-book set which somehow I had in my hands before the official release date. Just one more reason on the long list of why Kat is so wonderful.

After reading through all the books I was still excited, but I needed a chance to play it first before planning a game. Then PAX came around, and as a spur of the moment kind of thing I decided to go and invited Sunny to come with me. I knew there would be some D&Ders up there and relished the chance to roll some dice with random strangers. I packed up my PHB and headed up the Seattle. It turned out to be a really great time and I didn't expect the huge presence of WotC there. They practically had a whole building devoted to 4th edition tournaments and dungeon crawls. Luckily I convinced Sunny to try out an impromptu dungeon crawl, and after a couple of encounters I was convinced that I wanted to bring it to the rest of the group.

Next I needed a prefab module. I wasn't going to try to write my own this time around. I was still running a 3.5 edition game that was my own design and it was already more work than I expected. The question was, what module to run? The DMG had a very short series of encounters ready to go, but I kind of wanted something meatier so I'd have to flesh it out with my own stuff, and again I wanted something pure. Next I considered WotC's premier module "Keep on the Shadowfell", but it seemed too meaty and promised to lead into a full campaign, and didn't seem different enough from the campaign I was already running. Dungeon magazine had a few short modules, but not enough of them were 1st level, and I definitely wanted to start fresh since the last game I let people start with prerolled 3rd level PCs. Then I saw that Goodman Games had already published some 4E compliant modules in their Dungeon Crawl Classics line. This seemed to fit nicely, a short and sweet prefab dungeon adventure would be a great way to try out 4E. All I had to do was pick one.

I had three choices it turned out: one set in a city which promised roof-top to sewer combat, one set in a mountain labyrinth, and another focused on sea exploration. I happened to be re-reading the Thieves World series of books by Robert Lynn Asprin et. al. so the corrupt city setting immediately appealed to me. I took a chance and bought the "Sellswords of Punjar", a dungeon crawl classic for 1st-3rd level PCs.

After reading through the module I was confident that this would work as a small scale trial game, I just needed to recruit some players. I schmoozed at parties, sent out emails, had power-lunches and I built a smaller party out of the 3.5 group. All I had to do now was pick a date most people could make. I wasn't able to get everyone there. This time it would be Sunny, Kat, Chris, and Heidi. Austin was very interested but not able to make it to the first session. The game was designed for five players, but I felt like I could make it work with four if we made sure to get the right character balance.

I had just listened to a podcast on the Gamemaster Show that recommended group character creation over individual character generation. Since I was the only one who had the books and had read the rules I figured it would make sense to do everyone at the same time. I got people initial feedback on the kind of race/class combo they wanted to try, but I held off setting roles until the first session. In hindsight I should have had people do more preparation but I'll get into this later.

I had about a week to get prepared for the first game. I read the module a couple of times, downloaded rule updates from WotC (they'd put out two erratas since the initial release) and marked up my books, purchased a new DM-screen, made blank character sheets, looked at example characters and even rolled up a couple of my own to get the hang of it. The module required special handouts and roof tiles so I ran to the copy store, made copies of the handouts and roof tiles, cut them out, and taped the tiles to the battle map. I even separated the module pages and put them in a binder for easy flipping and organizing. I felt the most prepared for this game session than any of my own design. All I had to do was wait for Saturday to roll around.