Adventure Report - Tomb of the Greenskinned Prince

Date: Monday, April 4th
Time: 7:30 pm
Theme: None

"Think of this as your first test... to see if you have what it takes to be one of the guild."
          -Doralen Price, Adventurer Guild Leader

The town of Sancrist is an important port city, which allows the dwarven hold of Modan Pak to trade with human kingdoms across the sea. Recently, however, the roads into the City-State of Sancrist have become unsafe. The reason? Goblins.

The city guard, as well as the dwarves of Modan Pak, have increased the number of patrols, but the attacks don't seem random... they fit a pattern, and what's more, they only steal a few things from the caravans, and even leave survivors.

Little did anyone know the goblin's intent. Long ago, the Misty Glade was home to the Goblin Empire, it's capital build beneath the city of Sancrist. The goblins were attacking caravans holding precious spell resources, so that they could resurrect their great leader, the Greenskinned Prince. With his help, the goblin empire could again rise up and claim the lands once again!
Four guild associates answered the call: a team of psionic heroes; Gamal, the deva psion; Edward, the human psion; ISGWE, the gender-confused elf monk; Barakas, the tiefling battlemind.


Arrival at Sancrist
The party's trip at Sancrist was uneventful, strange considering how frequent the attacks had become. Regardless, our heroes immediately set out upon the town to learn more about the threat. Gamal learned from an elderly dwarf woman, who attempted to scam him, that the shipments from Modak Pak had almost ceased entirely, leaving many stores and booths bare. ISGWE headed to meet thair contact, Maran Battleheart, to learn more about their contract.

Edward, followed by the human-hating Barakas, proceeded to travel about the market place, hindered by Barakas's constant interference. Edward first found a very gody shawl, covered in glitter. The shop keep charged a large price, and in the middle of their haggling, Barakas offered almost double the original price, just to stop Edward in his tracks.

Edward didn't seem to mind, as he purchased a fine white tunic, despite Barakas's attempt to foil him again. He managed to decorate the tunic at a nearby booth, gifting him with a very strange, colorful garment.

Maran's Offer
ISGWE met with Maran, who seemed confused about the elfs... specifics. He informed her of a strange racket that he had heard overnight, something to the effect of pick axes and goblins chattering. He asked that the party stay overnight in the tavern to discover the source, and he would reward them 100 gold each to complete the task. They agreed, and took a rest at a nearby inn.

When night was beginning to fall, they headed to the tavern to prepare for the night.

The Plot Thickens...
After Maran locked them in the tavern, they sat for a short while before hearing what Battleheart had described to them: goblins chattering and pick axes. The party crept to the basement, and noticed a bare wall far in the back. Touching the wall revealed an ingraving, depicting three goblin lords, three slots, three miniature idols, and an engraving in goblin.

Irritated by the inscription, Barakas hastily placed the sword, axe and mace idols into three slots. The inscription disappeared, and they were left with a blank wall. Despite their best efforts, they were unable to open it. Gamal suggested that the inscriptions were of the Greenskinned Price's barons, who used to rule part of the Goblin Empire, long long ago. He also concluded that the door was on a timed mechanism, and that they should wait to try again, to which Edward agreed. About an hour later, the inscription appeared, this time in common:

Bloody Lord cares not for swords,
As the mace cares not for Green.
No axe shall cut the ocean shores,
But instead chop the trees.

A riddle. Edward quickly worked out his solution, and placed the axe idol beneth the green goblin's inscription, the mace in the red goblin's slot, and the sword in the blue goblin's. The door then grinded open, revealing a passageway down.

Into the Tomb's Heart
Our heroes pressed on, the stone doors griding shut behind them. They entered a dimly lit room, with two doors. The door to the left led to a small room to leave offerings, where Barakas and Edward helped themselves to some gold. Gamal took the offering cloth. ISGWE, in silent protest, left a few coins as an offering of respect and apology.

Barakas hastily entered the next room, filled with a magical darkness. Edward quickly shut the door behind him in jest, but when Barakas began to call for them, the door would not open.

ISGWE reacted fast, punching through the door, and making her way to the other side. She proceeded to attack the newly risen undead, while Barakas fought a small goblin-sized zombie that rose from a coffin in the room. The room was filled with an eerie purple light as the party made quick work of the undead, shattering their bones into dust.

Beyond that room lied a small room with a fire, where a bunch of goblin guards set up camp. The party made quick work of them as they pressed on. Gamal attempted to sneak back and claim a relic from the coffin of the felled zombie, but ISGWE would have none of it.

The Dead Rise


Beyond that room lied a beautiful room, decorated with white marble and black banners, dedicated to the goblin's dark god. A necromancer was finishing a wicked ritual when the party attacked. ISGWE rushed in to subdue the goblins, but as he had done before, Barakas stayed back. He did not enter the fray, and instead toyed with the goblins. Because of this, ISGWE fell, and nearly died on the floor of the tomb.

The goblins were dealt with, and ISGWE was able to recover, but just barely. The party proceeded into the next room, again filled with a magical darkness. Black ooze leaked down the walls, and not long after, the room filled with purple light as the coffin's lid slid off, and Grek'Nak, the Greenskinned Price, rose from the tomb. He quickly determined the party to be his foes, and he struck.

It was a long fight, but the party was able to finish the Prince, and hopefully send him off for good. Shortly after he fell, the walls began to drip with more goo, and walls looked as if they literally peeled away; the tombs true face, a dark, cold, and ugly stone prison, was revealed. Among the discarded equipment and items in the room, the party found three magic items; and amulet, feathered cloak, and magical staff.

Conclusion
With the goblin's plan found out and thwarted, the attacks on Sancrist would surly stop. Maran was pleased with the adventurers, and gave them their reward and then some. The four will be known throughout the city as the ones who stopped a wicked plot, that could have cost many, many lives.

Sorcerer 101 - Part 2 (Spell Sources: Melee)

Welcome back! Last week, I gave a brief overview of what the sorcerer does. This week, I'm going to talk about one of the biggest features of the class: the spell source.

I'm going to talk about the melee-focused sources this week, and the ranged sources next week.


What is a Spell Source?

Flavor-wise, it's where your powers come from. When you pick your Spell Source, it defines the rest of your class features, key attributes, and even gives certain powers special benefits. It is the most important choice to make when you start building a sorcerer.


Cosmic Magic


The first spell source I'm going to talk about is called Cosmic Magic. As you can probably guess, this means you draw your powers from the cosmos; the stars, moon, and sun. This is one of the most fun sorcerer options, as it gives you several ways to play your class, and you can change them practically on the fly.

Cosmic Persistance: When not wearing heavy armor, you use your strength modifier for your armor class, in place of int or dex. This works well with the next feature...

Cosmic Power: All arcane powers you use gain a damage bonus equal to your strength modifier. This even works for non-sorcerer arcane powers. Very neat.

Soul of the Cosmic Cycle: Choose a "phase", those being the Sun, Moon, and Stars (in that order). When you end a short or extended rest, you get to choose one. The first time you're bloodied in an encounter, you move to the next one. When you use a daily arcane attack power, you can change to the next phase immediately after the power is resolved.

Now, why should you care? Well, each phase gives you special benefits. When in the phase of the Sun, all enemies around you take damage. When in the Moon phase, your AC goes up depending on how many enemies are surrounding you. If you're attacked in the phase of the Stars and missed, you get to teleport. You also gain resistances depending on which phase you're in. I know that the phase of the Stars has saved me more then once, and the phase-swaping in combat was loads of fun.


Dragon Magic


I have to be honest, Dragon Magic to me is the most boring of the spell-sources. It's not underpowered,  but I still find it a little lacking in the fun factor. That being said, Dragon sorcerers tend to have the highest AC, and can hold their own the best in melee combat.

Draconic Power: Like the cosmic sorcerer, you add your strength modifier to your arcane damage rolls. Nifty.

Draconic Resilience: When not wearing heavy armor, you use strength in place of int or dex for AC. Again, very nifty.

Dragon Soul: You gain resistance to your choice of acid, cold, fire, lightning, poison, or thunder damage. This resistance scales with tier.

Scales of the Dragon: The first time you're bloodied in an encounter, you gain a small bonus to AC. Not game breaking, or not nearly as fun as the cosmic sorcerer, but nice.


Build Tips for Melee Sorcerers

As always with Sorcerers, charisma should be your highest stat. Your nest highest stat should be Str, and I would put some points in Dex. Why? Well, there's a feat called Dual-Implement Spellcaster you can get later on, which is a straight damage increase, and can get very nasty at later levels. All you need is a 13, which is very doable.

Aim for leather armor, or if you can swing it, hide. I see some builds go for a shield at low levels, but they always retrain it away later for that Dual-Implement magic I was telling you about. It's all up to you.

Also, it goes without saying, but look into a feat called Sorcerous Blade Channeling. It allows you to channel a few of your at-will spells into melee attacks, taking away the attack of opportunity, so long as you're using a dagger to attack. A must-have for the dagger-wielding sorcerer.



Next week, I'll talk about two of my favorite spell-sources: Storm and Wild sorcerers!

Sorcerer 101 - Part 1

Well, it's almost time for my new DnD campaign to launch, so I figured I'd kick it off by talking about my favorite class in 4th edition: the Sorcerer.

The Sorcerer is a striker, meaning that they focus on dealing damage as a top priority. They also have a few powers that are very good at controlling, but that isn't their main focus. If you just want to blow things up, preferably with fire, then a sorcerer is the class for you.

Let's start by talking about a few core elements to Sorcerer's in 4th Edition:

Your Place in Combat


Sorcerers have two places on the battlefield: either in the back, hurling lightning at bad things, or on the front lines in melee combat, stabbing things and channeling spells through their daggers. Your place depends heavily upon your build and other sorcerer class choice options.

Ranged sorcerers tend to favor the staff implement, though I have seen builds that use daggers. They tend to stick with either the Wild or Storm sorcerer power source, as they both have powers that help you keep enemies at bay.

While sorcerers can only wear cloth at first, it's very easy through feats to gain access to leather and even hide armor. Some sorcerers like to start off with a shield, and then later retrain it for Two-Weapon Defense, but I think that's a lot of hassle. The main build-goal with this type or sorcerer is to get your AC high, while still pumping up your damage.

Power Choices


Powers are very important, and there are always powers that are useful for everyone. For example, Chaos Bolt is a very useful spell for Chaos sorcerers, but targets Will, which is useful for all sorcerers. Here are some guidelines when it comes to choosing powers:

• If a power says "Can be used as a ranged basic attack", it has one main purpose: to be channeled in melee. With Sorcerous Blade Channeling, any of these attacks can become melee-ranged attacks, which takes away the attack of opporunity. However, it's a good idea to have at least one power like this, even if you're a ranged sorcerer, especially if you have a leader who can give you free ranged attacks.
• Many powers give you special perks for being of a certain spell-source, and sometimes these perks make the spell golden. I've had many laughs watching Chaos Bolt bounce around the battlefield.
• Don't be afraid to go for flavor. Focusing on acid spells, for example, can help you optimize later down the road. I once rolled a dragon sorcerer who multiclassed assassin focused on stealth and acid powers. The character was very cool, and could pump out the damage.

Next week, I'll talk about the next most important thing about sorcerers: Spell Source.