Kingbeast's Lair

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Archive for December, 2009

Spirit Storm Session Log: Epic Tale #4 – Blackfly Kin In My Chardonnay – Session #7

December 18, 2009 By: John Taber Category: Games, Spirit Storm News

Date At Start Of Game: 06/26/206

[Author’s Note: This is the log for the 7th session. Note that the order of the events in this record may not be in the exact order that they occurred during play.]

The Village Of Longwinter

As the savage White Owl Kin press their attack on the besieged fort the few defenders prepare to fire their bows. Po heals the defenders while the rest of the PC decide to wait and watch. As the ghoulish attackers start scaling the walls Po starts cursing them and Kanga opens fire from long range. The attackers fall quickly after landing only a couple of hits on the fort defenders.

After the combat the fort commander, Will Fraiser, describes the situation. For the last 2 weeks the fort and Wolf Kin clan has been attacked by the White Owl Kin. It started around a month ago when the White Owl Kin claimed that the Wolf Kin stole their fertility idol which is causing several of their clan to fall ill. The Wolf Kin tried to explain that they had not taken the idol and went to the fort for protection and to try and enlist some aid. Soon White Owl Kin, Wolf Kin, and some of the fort defenders all started to become sick. The sickness starts with a terrible thirst. After about 7 to 10 days severe fatigue set it. Finally blood appears around the eyes then blindness follows. After death the victim rise as an animated corpse! The young male Wolf Kin in the fort, Silvermaw, beg Po to help his clan. Po first uses the stick. It points well past Longwinter towards the mountains and not towards either clan. Weighing their options the PC and remaining fort soldiers decide to head to the Wolf Kin clan.

What Remains Of The Wolf Kin Clan

After a trek through the woods the PC enter the Wolf Clan village and meet with their shaman, Silverback. Luckily she is able to speak Ape Man and addresses the party. While healing some of the clan Po senses a spirit in the eyes of one of the blind Wolf Kin warriors. He decides to try putting the black rocks the party found earlier on the eyes of the warrior. This tends to stabilize the man so he leaves them with the clan.

The Glacial Lair

The next morning the PC follow the stick to an area that Silverback described as “holy”. At the site they find three streams, an idol made of stacked stones, and the start of a large iceberg. When Cillian looks at the stacked stone idol he senses very stong earth spirits. In his vision the inside of the idol seems to almost glow with an inner light. When the PC investigate the iceberg they find a pool at the start of the one of the streams. Under the water in the pool is a tunnel that leads into the iceberg. Cillian goes to investigate as he is the only PC present who can actually swim. When he gets to the end of the roughly 20 foot long tunnel he finds a pool with two small beings. Using wind Cillian knocks down a stone from the wall and peaks up. He sees two small figures who appear to be flies (i.e. Blackfly Kin). They have wings and multifaceted eyes.

As the pool entrance looks tricky for the PC they decide to look for other entrances. After lots of ariel recon Po and Bilby find an opening in the rocks that leads into a massive cavity in the iceberg. The portal into the cavity is on the roof of the chamber. While watching Bilby spies several Blackfly Kin and two fish creatures (aka Whitefish Kin) with crude looking spears. This entrance is even worse than the underwater tunnel.

Now what?!?

Date At End Of Game: 06/27/206

Review Of Profane Miracles By Pelgrane Press

December 10, 2009 By: John Taber Category: Games, Product Reviews

Profane Miracles Cover-== What is it? ==-

Profane Miracles is an adventure for The Esoterrorists roleplaying game from Pelgrane Press. It is written by Leonard Balsera. The back cover calls Profane Miracles an action-packed fast-play adventure. There are 8 major scenes plus support material.

The book has a color cover and an entirely black and white interior. The book is 8 1/2? x 11? and is 32 pages in length. It includes a simple table of contents and no index. I reviewed a printed copy from November 2006. I have only read the book; I have not yet played the adventure.

-== What I Like ==-

I really enjoyed reading this adventure. I thought there were several very memorable scenes and characters. There was a lot of Esoterrorist flavor to the scenes as well. Thus I really think this would be a fine adventure for getting people familiar with the setting. Each scene also flows very well into the next. When scenes can be skipped there is supporting text as well.

One of my favorite scenes is the last one. I won’t spoil the ending but I will say that it is definitely a “tough choice” finale. Really awesome stuff.

The adventure also includes a new fiendish monster. The Dimentia Larva is a really cool new ODE (Outer Dark Entity).

The cover art is nice and not too dark. It conveys a real sense of action that is key to this adventure. The interior art is easy to read and the layout is nice and not too dark. With some of the other Esoterrorists products this can be an issue.

-== What I Don’t Like ==-

The interior art is very dark and just mediocre. I am not fond of art that is so dark that it cannot be easily copied out and shown to players.

-== Summary ==-

I thought this was a fantastic adventure especially at the $9.95 price tag. I highly recommend it and plan to use it as the first adventure when starting my own Esoterrorists campaign. Highly recommended.

I give Profane Miracle 9 out of 10 paws.

Spirit Storm Campaign Documents Updated To Revision 1.5

December 07, 2009 By: John Taber Category: Games, Spirit Storm News

The Spirit Storm Campaign Document has been updated to version 1.5. There are over 10 pages of new material since the last release (i.e. version 1.1). Here is a summary of the changes:

1.2 – 4/10/09
+ Fixed calculation problem in HKA for Rat Kin.
+ Clarified Characteristic Maximums and racial packages.
+ Many other smaller cleanups and clarifications.
1.3 – 5/15/09
+ Changed the minimum real point spell expenditure limit from 20 pts to 15 pts.
+ Added the EP Load concept to the character creation section.
+ Added section on Reincarnation. This has several meta-game mechanics associated with it as well.
1.4 – 11/8/09
+ Updated section on spirit magic to include information about the effect of the four elements and spirit magic tracing.
+ Added section to the Campaign Rules on Healing.
1.5 – 12/7/09
+ Updated the intro to add the rules system that will be used for the campaign.
+ Changed references from Epic Words to the Checkered Demon Yahoo Group.
+ Added Armadillo Kin (Jim Schaff), Bat Kin (Jeff Brickman), Dolphin Kin (Brian Fernandez), Kangaroo Kin (Geoff Barrall), Raven Kin (Steve Brickman), and Sheep Kin (Brian Fernandez). I want to thank the players for coming up with these wonderful races.