Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad

I would have updated on Saturday, but absolutely nothing interesting happened. I was planning to do a D&D campaign with Chuck, but he rescheduled to Tuesday. So I woke up at 2:00 p.m., sat around, watched a movie on my laptop, played a lot of WoW, made some pasta, read some stuff online, went to sleep. That was my Saturday. I try not to have days like that too often, but every once in a while it's good for relaxing.

But today was good. D&D, my second campaign installment, went on for hours. Five hours, I believe. The party got into a pitched battle in the middle of a hallway, just outside the alchemist's room. (The alchemist and the wizard are constantly feuding. Their labs are right next to each other. This was not a coincidence of design - the king knew how they felt about each other and was playing a deliberate joke on them by sticking their rooms together.)

The battle involved a captain of the guard who was mysteriously and unbelievably lucky. I believe, in terms of saving throws and suchlike, he rolled five natural 20s. And not GM-cheating 20s, either - right out there in the open for everyone to see. He could not be ensnared, could not be slowed. He felt no pity or remorse or fear and could not be stopped unless killed. Well, I may be exaggerating in that last bit. But he was entirely great.

And the best part is, he gets to be a recurring villain without me having to fudge the dice to account for it. He was greatly wounded and near death due to a charge attack on the part of the party's barbarian/ranger, Matt, having received a vicious slash across the face. Just as he was leaving combat, Matt would have gotten one more shot at him, and one single hit would have killed him (he was at about 3 hp) - but the dice always have a good sense of the narrative, I've always found. He missed both times. The captain was allowed a chance to retreat, and he took it. Not that I'm glorying in the fact that a villain cheesed his way out of death, but now there gets to be drama and intrigue and character development. So this can't be a bad thing, all told. But now I have to think of a decent name for him, so whatever.

Kevin's character, the bard, showed us just how awesome the enthrall spell is. For four - no, five continuous rounds, he impressed us all with "A Tale of Cookies and Cakes," in which he described the mighty forces of cakes, pies, and cookies, squaring off in eternal combat, in the form of an epic poem. And by God he managed to make it epic. Every time he started on his new chapter, I would shush everyone else so we could all listen. He used the spell to enrapture some of the onrushing soldiers, and some of them were in tears due to his awesome performance. The captain, of course, rolled a natural 20 to resist him, but some people are just born critics, I suppose.

Meanwhile, Victoria's monk managed to meditate and receive flashes of the future, which is entirely convenient for me because now I don't have to wait for the PCs to bonk heads until they come up with how to thread together the various plot elements I've given them. I can reveal glimpses of the future. I just hope that circumstances don't prove me unbelievably wrong. That would be embarrassing.

Zack's dragon shaman did not distinguish himself in battle. The first time he attacked with his mighty breath weapon, a line of lightning which dealt 3d6 damage, he rolled, from a possible 3-18 damage...3. Three 1s. The captain rolled a natural 20 on his Reflex save and took only 1 point. I thought that his character was embarrassed by his pathetic spark-spitting performance and should feel ashamed of himself for not living up to his mighty draconic heritage.

Robert's beguiler, bless his soul, tried his best to stop the captain's onslaught, but was tripped up by the captain rolling natural 20s on all his saving throws. He was nearly Ginsued by the captain's whirling swords and beat a hasty retreat, making himself invisible. His illusions were later instrumental in rescuing the party from an unwinnable fight (he made an illusion of smoke and flames billowing out from the other end of the corridor, which the characters ran into). His retreat allowed him to have a private session with the powerful NPC monk bodyguard, which I had to have off to the side because nobody in my group can successfully separate in-character knowledge from out-of-character knowledge.

In an entirely separate situation, Chris and John (joined by Rachel, the girl I briefly dated, as a rogue) went up to the top floor and discovered an insane gardener in the conservatory. He showed them, unintentionally, how to get into the king's treasury, guarded by a magic mirror. (He had a plant that was basically a tiny Piranha Plant from the Mario games. It bit Chris for 1 point.) Chris produced some excellent illustrations of this session, which he said he would email to me but did not in time for this blog post. Oh well. Next time.

They got in, and successfully saw past the illusions of the treasure chests to find...treasure chests. This king is paranoid. They found some scrolls, various wondrous items, and a sword and a bow that I will maintain to my grave I did not make up right on the spot. The sword, in addition to being powerfully magical, is intelligent, and it is "awesome." That is, at least, its guiding principle. Everything it does must be judged as "awesome," and it shudders at the thought of performing a "not awesome" activity. Merely possessing it makes its wielder more awesome, and enables him to perform awesome feats...but at what cost? John took it. He's awesome now.

Rachel's character, along with the other two, managed to rescue the king's daughter, who was locked in a tower and very mistreated by her prison guards. She was acting sort of mother-hen like, especially since this girl is kind of mentally damaged by her time spent imprisoned. They'll have to try and figure out what to do with her next session.

That's...that's about it.

Today's Luke-Approved YouTube Link of the Day is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95xfXXwIul0 It's called "Coming of Galactus." A very well-edited fanmade that details Galactus's coming to Earth, and reaction shots from pretty much every other Marvel movie (except Ghost Rider, which the creator hates with a passion). The best part about the whole thing, in my opinion, is that with all the powerhouses detailed in the video put together, they can't even begin to slow down Galactus's advance. Futility is an emotion Galactus often evokes.

REPLIES.

Steve: Technically, since I'm running at a nearly perfect (within seconds) 6 miles/hour, and I plan to go three miles next time I run, three miles is thirty minutes. Everyone wins! You can't beat Meta-Knight's speed. Let me know when your punches can simultaneously strike in front of and behind you, and your fists move too fast to be seen. Oh, I didn't read your last two sentences. Right idea, there. Megacon was awesome.

Jake: Don't freak out on me, now. I'm still masticating my way through the Megacon pictures and will get around to emailing it to you probably never and will give it to you manually when I come down next weekend. That sound good?

Vic: Because I wanted to.

Vaughn: I like you. You think like I do, in terms of philosophy of life. I don't see that almost at all. Linking economic concepts to blog entries also runs very similar to my lines of thought, which I greatly approve of. We should exchange email addresses, get to know each other a bit better. Mine's gthunder@ufl.edu What's yours?

Peace.