E-Dawn Volume 16: May 2005 Edition
Spoiler
Alert: This journal contains spoilers for the Legend of Earthdawn Volume
1 quest: The Heart of Heroes.
PC RECAP
Pugsli’s Spy Report #3
Teayu 28
Boss,
We left Karnol and turned south towards
Vors. Lions covered in woody skin
attacked us as we tried to leave the Heart Wood. We dispatched them easily.
After that, the trip to Vors was without incident. At Vors we managed to
convince an Ishkarat Fishing Vessel to take us near the mouth of the Mothingale
River where we would land and travel to Bartertown by foot. Well some of us
anyway…
-P
Borrum 1
Boss,
As we neared our destination, a Scavian barge
boarded us. The Scavians were armed to the teeth under the command of “Johnny
C.” He claimed to be a pirate, and then his mother, a troubadour, said he was
no pirate and to give us “the performance”.
The dance and musical number and mock battle was really good, and they
demanded a tribute. Hard to refuse a bunch of Scavians pointing medium
crossbows at you, especially when they demand a measly 20 Silver pieces for
good entertainment. Oviare was amazed. I guess as a former raider and scorcher,
the concept of a troubadour “robbing” people was pretty funny. It was a
traveling performance barge more than likely, although those weapons looked
awfully real… We got to Bartertown without further interruption.
-P
Borrum 18
Boss,
We left
Bartertown for Scytha of all places. The party apparently believes the Dwarven
Key is there in the Scythan ruins. So stop the search in Braza’s Kingdom and
send our group north.
-P
Borrum 26
Boss,
We
arrived at the point on the Serpent River where the Mothingale spills into the
river and were ferried across by “Johnny C.”
I’d really like some information on this guy boss. For one thing, there
is no reason for a Scathian to be this far up on the north reach of the Serpent
River for this long without an agenda.
-P
Borrum 26 response dated Doddul 2
P,
“Johnny
C.” is a notorious pirate in the south reach. He may be attempting to change
his image in the north reach, perhaps to lull the t’skrang up there into a
false sense of security. I would not worry about him. He tends to go after big
fish like warships instead of fishing vessels and adventuring groups.
-R
Borrum 28
Boss,
We left
the boat and a large black bird attacked us. It picked up Thunder and threw him
at Oviare during the battle. Still we
managed to defeat the creature despite of its superior strength.
-P
Doddul 1
Boss,
We
arrived at Crusader’s Rest and were forced to do some artisan tests to enter.
Thunder Jones got locked up for a terrible piece of leatherworking in some sort
of holding shack guarded by Grim Legionnaires. The rest of us checked out the
town. Crusader’s Rest seems to have three factions of power, the Grim Legion
under Joeth Drawne, the Hunters of Scytha under Grathus the Unyielding (the
Scythan branch of the Hunters of Throal), and the House of Ueraven under
Selenda. Since they all have the mutual
goal of clearing Scytha to destroy horrors, protect Throal, or colonize Scytha,
they seem to be working together well at the moment.
-P
Doddul 2
Boss,
They
let Thunder Jones out. Turns out that V’Dor was going to take off his head if
he didn’t successfully do an artisan test in the middle of the night. We know
that Purity of the Flame is up here at the Crusader’s Rest then. Should we try to deal with them?
-P
Doddul 2 response dated Doddul 10
Boss,
V’Dor
and the Purity of the Flame are a terrorist group that you don’t have the power
to handle at all, especially with the ragtag group you are with. Leave them to
us.
-R
Doddul 3
Boss,
We
signed up at the Hunter’s Guild to become Hunters of Scytha to see Grathus. We
set out from the Crusader’s Rest to hunt down a pack of Quickrazors as an
initiation.
-P
Doddul 4
Boss,
Pat O’
Reilly tracked the Quickrazors down in the plains. They were circling around
behind us to try and ambush us. We figured it out just in time. If they had
surprised us we might all be dead. The Quickrazors were like giant hairy cats
with sharp razors at the ends of four legs. They were extremely fast and agile
for horror constructs. None of us got out of the battle unscathed by the horror
constructs. Still we managed to survive and take our trophies back to the
Hunter’s Guild for initiation. No one knows why the cavalryman and obsidiman
took the whole quickrazor as the trophy.
-P
Doddul 5
Boss,
We
returned to the Crusader’s Rest and had to do an artisan test before entering.
No complications this time. We went to the Hunter’s Guild and shown are
trophies to the guildmaster and he let us in to see Grathus. He was in bad
shape. A horror had buried a spine of some sort in him, which was causing him
terrible pain. The only way to save him was to enter the Scythan ruins and slay
the horror that had implanted the spine. We promised to save him if he would
find the dwarven key in Scytha for us. He agreed and sent a scout with us to
guide us to the horror.
-P
Doddul 6
Boss,
We
entered the Scythan ruins and were immediately attacked by red zombies. We
defeated them easily with our spells. We continued to track the spine horror
through the maze. Suddenly a flying red cape seized our guide. The red cape bit
him and he fell asleep and then the thing ran off with him into a narrow hallway. We
could hear the rep cape munching on him. The party ran into the corridor to
help him. They managed to kill the horror and we removed the poison to awaken
our guide. After that we continued
further and further into the ruins. We heard a laughing sound and a milky white
creature with black wings and covered with spikes came out and laughed even
harder and tried to run away. We attacked it with missile fire and it returned
to attacked Oviare, who had wounded the horror. The horror hit him with its
spine attack and the spine burrowed into him. From that point on, the horror
kept shifting damage it had taken to Oviare. Para used Counterspell to make it
hard for the damage shift to affect us and then we physically attacked the
horror with everything we had. The horror tried to run away after hitting
Oviare, but we wouldn’t let it. A fire arrow fired by Pat O’ Reilly ripped
through the horror and it seemed to weaken after that. Thunder finished it off
with a Tiger Strike. We had managed to beat the spine horror. We headed out of
the Scythan ruins and back to the Crusader’s Rest.
-P
RUMORS
Crusader’s Rest
The
Purity of the Flame is planning something big up here in the north.
There
is a rumor that the Hunters of Scytha are really here to act as spies for King
Neden on Selenda and the House of Ueraven.
Supposedly
Selenda has some interesting tastes in men if you catch my drift.
The
Grim Legion’s leaders at the Crusader’s Rest remain a mystery. Ever since V’Dor
left they seem to be carrying on despite a lack of a well-defined leadership
structure. This Joeth Drawne is a complete mystery to us, but he seems to be
the one most of the Grim Legionnaires are calling their leader these days.
“Johnny
C.” seems to be looking for something here in the north reach of the Serpent
River. I saw him and his men leave the barge and pick through some ruins to the
south. They came out of their empty-handed though.
Bartertown
There
have been some rumors of an adventuring group that Drudge put together called
the “Revivers of the Passions.” Not much
is known about them, but their goal is obvious. The real question is how the
Passions could be revived? And what would be the cost?
Cara Fahd
The
people of Cara Fahd are acting strangely. The orks seem subdued as if an unseen
force is snuffing out their hearts. Could Betrayer still be alive?
There
are rumors of an Iron Legacy group within Cara Fahd itself. They seem to be
dedicated to wiping out all Questors and believers in Lochost.
I
entered the Cara Fahd jungles looking for treasure and I seen all these orks
still as statues. I couldn’t bring myself to go on any further. No treasure is
worth eternal paralysis.
STATUS OF THE 7 SANDS
Currently
I am still doing the NPC Description Updates as well as a style change to the
website. In addition there have been
several deletions. Some of the deletions are sections that are no longer
necessary since the information will show up in the impending Earthdawn
Classic Player’s Compendium or Earthdawn Classic Gamemaster’s Compendium
in some form or another. Other sections have been deleted since they are
not of any use to me and seemed to have little use to E-Dawn Discussion Group
and 7 Sands users. This category included BattleDAWN 2.0.
After
the current website style change and NPC Descriptions are done, I currently
have plans to create a new Discipline, add at least one new creature, an
optional rules section, and work on a mass-combat system for Earthdawn. The new
mass-combat system will be somewhere in-between the LRG system, which I view as
far too simplistic and unrealistic, and the original and modified versions of
BattleDAWN, which I viewed as too complex even after several rounds of
attempted simplification. And I believe that a new mass-combat system built
from these two ideas and the notes I have accumulated on BattleDAWN for five
years can be created. As demand for this at the time of BattleDAWN deletion was
fairly limited, I considered it a low priority. If you want this to be a higher
priority for me vote in the poll open in the E-Dawn Discussion Group currently
and voice your opinion.
TALENT RULES CHANGES
Down Strike
The talent requires Karma Points to
use now. The talent is rank + Strength +3 and the skill is rank + Strength.
Dive Attack
This talent is no longer an Attack
talent IMB. From now on it will act as a Damage talent replacing strength on
swoop attacks. Thus rather than a set +4 Damage step boost the damage will
increase by talent rank + Strength.
Consider certain creatures such as Griffins and Espagra that have
increased swoop attack Damage step bonuses to have this skill. For example, the
Griffin has this skill at rank 3, and the Espagra at rank 7. The talent and skill actually have the
capacity to grow in damage now.
Haggle
I removed Fence IMB a long time ago
since it seemed superfluous. From now on IMB, the Haggle talent or skill can
also be used to do any function that the Fence talent or skill once had. This
is why the Haggle talent has been included into the sky raider and thief
Disciplines.
Surprise Strike
This talent is no longer an attack
talent IMB. From now on it will act as a Damage talent replacing strength on
surprise and blindside attacks useable against any one opponent once per
encounter. Thus rather than a set +7 Damage step boost the damage will increase
by rank + Strength +3. The skill will
increases by rank + Strength. The talent or talent as skill has a 1 Strain
Point cost per use now. The talent and skill actually have the capacity to grow
in damage now.
SKILL RULES CHANGES
After examining the talent step
bonuses versus skills, I decided to remove step bonuses from all skills. Thus
talents as skills such as Riposte and Wound Balance won’t be so exceedingly
popular. I really don’t believe a talent as skill such as Weapon Breaker or
Trample deserves a +10 step bonus. Most of the talents that lost step bonuses
had reduced Strain Point costs since I considered Require Karma to be the
reason for a +3 step on those talents.
Not all such talents follow this rule, but it is readily apparent in low
Circle talents like Claw Shape, Flame Arrow, and Riposte. Removing the Require
Karma cost reduces the Strain Point cost by 2. So instead of Riposte talent as
skill being rank + Dexterity + 3 and 4 Strain Points, its rank + Dexterity and
only 2 Strain Points. Seems like a fair trade off since most skilled characters
don’t have very good Death Ratings.
GEAR RULES CHANGES
I
decided to make Best Quality weapons add +1 to the Damage Test step rather than
Damage Test result, as my player’s just kept forgetting the +1 to Damage Test
result.
Half Magic And Background Skills
Essentially
I changed the text on all the Disciplines to Half-Magic, but we are still
playing the Half-Magic is a Skill type of rank IMB for certain skills that vary
by Discipline. What this allows is for people who want to use 7 Sands
Disciplines but don’t like the Background Skills concept to still use the
Disciplines. You’ll note that the 7 Sands NPCs have a Half-Magic listing now
with ranks, which represents the Background Skill system. The change really
improved the way the NPCs and especially the skill section looked.
The Weaponmaster Discipline
The
Weaponmaster Discipline is the Swordmaster Discipline given a different name
and slightly different mechanics. For one thing, Karma on melee weapons Damage
Tests allows them to pick up any melee weapon and attempt to master it, without
the Karma-only on a particular weapon type rules that we were previously using
that were very vague. The shift also allows a person to play a new type of a
character, one dedicated to learning and understanding not just one melee
weapon, but all of them. None of the other Disciplines in the game were
restricted to merely one weapon type. Even the archer had Karma on any missile
weapons Damage Test. Some may not like the higher Circle of this Damage Test
type now, but it has equivalent Circle to most of the other Disciplines getting
this ability at Seventh Circle. This also avoids the need to House Rule what
weapons can be used for a character to apply Karma on Damage Tests. Questions
that cropped up IMB included topics like can a Windling Swordmaster use Karma
on a Windling Broadsword even though it is equivalent to a Dagger? If yes, does
that mean Swordmasters get Karma on Dagger Damage Tests? And other questions.
These are the kind of questions that are just unnecessary by changing one
Discipline ability.
The Acrobatic Strike and Wound Balance Shift
From
now on IMB, the Warrior has the Wound Balance talent at First Circle and the
Weaponmaster has the Acrobatic Strike talent at First Circle. The warrior is
getting Avoid Blow back at Third Circle. The warrior should be the one who is hard
to Knockdown and the Weaponmaster should be the master of flashy combat and
leaping up from the Knocked Down position. The Weaponmaster having the
Acrobatic Strike talent also allows them to do some flashy attacks using
Unarmed Combat in a strictly First Edition game, something that some players
believe should be available to Weaponmasters. The warrior still have Melee
Weapons and Unarmed Combat as Discipline talents and can always use the Giving
Ground combat option to gain a talent rank Physical Defense bonus. Since the
Weaponmaster is unable to use Maneuver and Acrobatic Strike in the same round,
there is also no stacking problem like in the warrior Discipline until they get
Anticipate Blow relatively late. All in
all, my playing group really likes the switch.
UNUSUAL RACE/DISCIPLINE COMBINATIONS #13
The Weaponsmith is actually fairly common IMB. I’ve seen
human, dwarf, obsidiman, ork, troll, t’skrang, and windling Weaponsmith a lot.
The races with good Karma steps like the Windling, Human, and Ork make great
Weaponsmiths since their Karma step vastly improves their Craftsman abilities
as well as Forge Blade and Weapon History, which is why they are so popular.
Races with good strength like the dwarf, obsidiman, and troll also are popular
due to carry capacity and Damage Tests being a priority for a Discipline with
no Karma on Attack Tests. The low Karma step and maximum Karma is non-issue
because of the few times a Weaponsmith need to spend Karma is limited to town
scenes. The t’skrang Weaponsmith is seen because of the tail attack, giving the
Weaponsmith another attack is important to some since it has no multi-attack
capacity. I’d say its very strange, but I’ve yet to see too many elf Weaponsmiths
IMB, despite their obvious advantages. Thus elf Weaponsmith is this month’s
Unusual Race/Discipline combination.
Elf Weaponsmith
Advantages: The +2 Dexterity Attribute bonus can be a
huge advantage for a Weaponsmith character allowing for a higher Physical
Defense, and most critically important higher Melee Weapons and Avoid Blow
steps. The +1 to Perception, Willpower, and Charisma Attributes is a huge boon,
increasing just about every talent in the Discipline, especially critical ones
like Forge Blade, Steel Thought, and Haggle.
Disadvantages: The –2 Toughness Attribute penalty is
an obvious disadvantage to an average Durability (6/5) Discipline. But talents
like Temper Self tend to lessen this disadvantage. No Strength Attribute bonus is a disadvantage
due to carry capacity being a critical necessity for the Weaponsmith. An elf
Weaponsmith will more than likely need a mount and cart.
Attributes (66 purchase points):
DEX: 13+2=(15): 6/D10
STR: 11=(11): 5/D8
TOU: 13-2=(11): 5/D8
PER: 15+1=(16): 7/D12
WIL: 15+1=(16): 7/D12
CHA: 12+1=(13): 6/D10
Commentary: An elf Weaponsmith could provide some
excellent role-playing opportunities. An elf Weaponsmith could be an
interesting blend of the race’s mysticism with the Discipline’s pragmatism. An
elf Weaponsmith determined to find the weapons and armor of the Blood Wood or
Heart Wood and return them to the forge elders who taught him for study could
see his quest as a personal spiritual journey to uncover the total military
history of the elven people. Perhaps he also wishes to journey far beyond
Barsaive to Shosara and Thera as well all in an unrelenting quest of the truth
behind the Elven Schism and events beforehand.
Statistically,
increasing the character’s Dexterity Attribute by 1 point increases Dexterity
to step 7 and Physical Defense by 1. Increasing the character’s Charisma
Attribute by 1 point increases his Social Defense by 1. Increasing the character’s Toughness
Attribute by 3 points will add a critical Third Recovery Test/day and toughen
the character up in combination with Temper Self. Increasing the character’s Perception or
Willpower Attribute by 3 points will increase the character’s step to 8 (As
well as Spell Defense +1 or Mystic Armor +1). Perception is most recommended.
Following this makes the character’s Attributes look like this at Ninth Circle:
Attributes (Ninth Circle):
DEX: 13+2 [+1]=(16): 7/D12
STR: 11=(11): 5/D8
TOU: 13-2 [+3]=(14): 6/D10
PER: 15+1 [+3]=(19): 8/2D6
WIL: 15+1=(16): 7/D12
CHA: 12+1 [+1]=(14): 6/D10
For skills, you obviously need the
Military History; Elven and Elf Lore knowledge skills for the character
concept. Legends and Heroes may also be of use. The character will also need
Animal Bond and Animal Handling skills to properly control his mount. The character may also find social skills of
huge importance when dealing with the elves of Shosara, Thera, or the Blood
Wood/Heart Wood.
For multi-Discipline, this
character concept has a natural link to the troubadour Discipline and warrior
Disciplines. The troubadour Discipline’s focus on the importance of history and
the warrior Discipline’s focus on the importance of military history melds well
into this Weaponsmith’s personal vision of using weapons and armor to explore
the military history of his race.
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