Session 2

Our heroes continued on with the caravan, entering a massive desert. The journey was slow and arduous, with the desert conditions being some of the worst in the century. After many days pushing through the desert, Sorvel's occasional visions of people moving through the desert culminated with a witch with evil eyes on the side of the road. To make matter worse, a sandworm had appeared and nearly swallowed one of the caravan platforms. Looking threatening, Sorvel approached the witch, and made for a "preemptive" strike. The resulting fight nearly killed the adventurers, but after killing the sandworm, a summoned sand golem, and nearly the witch as well, a large arcane discharge caused a mass blackout, and our heroes awoke in a mysterious ancient sanctuary. After seeing a hooded figure who spoke in questions and riddles, our heroes went to meet back up with the caravan, now certain that their travels and encounter with the prince have even more significance than they originally thought. With a contact in Helios, they resume their travel with renewed purpose...

Bio: Sorvel Hormalan

In the small southern city-state of Barth, the merchants and sea-captains exercise control over the trades and industries of the city. The Hormalan family has controlled a fair portion of two industries within the city: the textile industry, and the caravan industry. Carnen Hormalan was the most recent heir to the family's two mills and underwriting business, and was, like most of the family before him, ruthless and motivated. Carnen paid the dowry for a nobleman's daughter named Tila, who was a kind and gentle woman. Carnen was as cruel to his wife as he was to his employees, but Tila was able to escape Carnen's wrath by staying home and raising their two children, Sorvel and Rei. Sorvel was taught by the best tutors his father could afford, and soon became the resourceful, cunning, and quick-witted man his father wanted him to be. However, Sorvel resented his father. Sorvel resented him for being cruel to his employees, for striking his wife, and for favoring him over Sorvel's sister, who he loved. At around 12, Sorvel began skipping lessons to wander around Barth. It was at that time that he met the bard Feyn. Feyn was a halfling who wandered with his "family" of travelling minstrels, thiefs, and other miscreants. Feyn also took pity on orphans wandering the streets, though he was surprised that Sorvel was a merchant's son who hadn't been robbed blind on his first trip to the docks. So, Feyn took him under his wing, teaching him how to cut purses, open locks, and use a knife. Around the age of 14, Sorvel stole a rapier and set of travelling cloaks from his father and disappeared into Barth to travel with Feyn. The journey was only to a neighboring state, but the young Sorvel honed his skills, and learned how to use the sword that he stole. After 6 months, Sorvel returned to the Hormalan estate to confront his father. His father was ashamed at what he had become, but offered him the chance to become a shewd businessman. "A thief and a merchant are only different in how much the law likes them," his father said. This infuriated Sorvel, who denounced his father, his father's business, and pretty much everything having to do with the Hormalan name and business. His father clearly had no verbal response to this. Instead, he dragged out Rei, Sorvel's sister, and beat her viciously, forcing Sorvel to watch the assault on his beloved sister. Sorvel could not control his anger, and stabbed his father in the chest with a foot-long hunting knife. He later learned his father had survived, but not until he had stolen his father's bullion from the house, as well as a fortune worth of spices from the Underwriter's warehouse his father had stock in. He then went and, as a final act of emancipation, burned down the warehouse and his father's newly acquired textile mill. That night, he snuck his sister out of the house, and went to Feyn. Feyn told him that he was already wanted by the watch. Not wanting to risk the lives of his sister or his greatest mentor, he left Rei in Feyn's care, then started up north. By the time he had gotten to Dirg, he had spent almost all of his money on bribes and safe passage, and was left with only three bars of bullion. After staying in the town nearly a week, he decided to leave with an ore caravan to Helios, the floating city presumed to have the most infamous thieve's guild in the northern continent...

Session 1

Synopsis:
The characters are travelling with a large ore caravan from the mining city of Dirg. After roughly a day of travel, the caravan is attacked by an unknown assailant, who did little more than rifle through papers. Riled by the theatrics of the day, the five eclectic characters meet around a fire and share war stories. Sorvel is a human rogue with a history of dislike for the rich and a very slight streak of pyromania. Darvian is a talented bard with people skills and a knack for travelling. Galstaff is a gnomish wizard who takes advantage of his small stature to stay unnoticed. Enkanthu is a half-orc ranger who is out from his tribe, exploring the world with nothing but his wits and his axe to keep him alive. And Adul, at over 7 feet tall, is a benevolent cleric whose kind nature is hidden by his massive body.
After a few nights of anxiety, the attackers show themselves, trying to kill a man with the caravan. Adul desperately tries to keep the severely injured man alive, while Darvian and Galstaff prevent the invisible assailant from escaping. Meanwhile, Enkanthu, after being attacked from behind, enlists the help of Sorvel to track down his attacker. After finding two barely human forms, Sorvel manages to take one down with a well-planted rapier in the face (doesn't that sound painful?). The surviving figure, shot by Enkanthu, plants two poison daggers in Sorvel's chest. Before anyone knows what's going on, three strange humanoids are dead, and two men are severely injured and on the verge of death. Both recover, and find out what's going on. The man who was attacked explains that he is a prince of a southern region, travelling in cognito on the caravan. The assassins, all wearing the same crest, were presumably sent to kill him, to prevent a possible attempt of diplomatic unification of northern and southern human factions. He asks the five adventurers to protect him for the remainder of the journey, and pays them handsomely up front. No one quite knows what else is in store for this motley crew...

This session was a lot of fun. Dan is good at this...I can't wait to see what else he has in store.
Sorvel is my character, and I will probably post a bio sometime soon.

Campaign! Part...Deux

We met tonight to start planning for the campaign. All of the guys seem really into it, and even the one less experienced player has a good feel for roleplaying overall...Right now, it looks like we have a human bard and a human rogue (me), a half-orc ranger, and a goliath cleric, who is toned down to preserve play balance. There is also a wizard in the mix, though he hasn't finished enough character creation to be very fleshed out yet. We don't know how everything will start, but judging from the feel of everyone playing, I have very good expectations for this campaign. We may start playing as early as this weekend, and I will post synopses after every session. This should be sweet!

Campaign!

The one-shot was an awesome success...though a let-down when it was over.
Thusly, I'm joining a campaign starting...tomorrow.
Should be fun, and if it gets off the ground, I'll start posting synopses after sessions.
Wish us luck!

Dungeons and Dragons: A New Hope

I played D&D last night, and despite being only a one-shot, it was quite amazing. My gnomish bard was admittedly Glibdil toned down (Glibdil Stumbleduck Raenlig...ring a bell?) but I had fun and am now more dedicated to playing something cool, like a sorceror. I don't know. However it does indeed transpire, I now know very interesting and wonderful people to play D&D with. Several also played Cyberpunk, so that will also be a point of interest, to say the least. More info as it is available, I will try to get a group together in this coming week, to either play 3.5 again, or maybe even Cyberpunk. Should be fun.

Dice!

I bought some dice today! They're speckled green and gold. In other words, PRETTY.
I'm joining a meeting of the Camarilla club for D&D this Saturday. It should be awesome. I'm considering playing a bard (again) or a rogue...I really am not sure. Even a sorceror came to mind. Angsty and neurotic chaotic neutral sorceror...hmmm...I don't know.
Should be fun, either way. Will update after the session.

A little update

Well, I've found several gamers here, but I don't know if we'll start doing anything yet. Also, the Activities Fair is tomorrow, which means I finally get to find someone from the Gaming club.
The little hangout we did Sunday night was cool, both because I learned something new and found out I am not alone. We did spend fair amounts of time bitching about our high school gaming groups...these guys had different issues than I, but as severe in many instances. It also seems that 3 out of the 5 or so people I've talked to have GMed significantly. This is good.
One guy, Jonathan, suggested an interesting idea for creating a campaign world. He found pictures, assumedly fantasy pictures, and composed a story and more detailed timeline behind the pictures, until he had enough locations and ideas to create a cohesive campaign. He said it worked really well, and I'd love to try something like that.
Things are looking good. I may end up playing D&D, but it's just as well.