Procrastinating? Or dinging in real life?

It has been a fairly quiet past few weeks from the geek front. I have been doing final assignments and revision for exams that I have had last week, and this coming week.


WOW: Cataclysm was released a few days ago, I have spent a good few hours running about in game - but I dont have the expansion - simply checking out some of the changed low level zones, and tinkering with a couple of characters.


D&D will hopefully be on tonight - likely going to be unavailable after tonight to do a game until January unless people want to have random gaming sessions over the Christmas holidays.


Falalalalala go F*8k yourself.


\o/

D&D Campaign 2: Intro (part 2)

As the party entered the town, they approached the stables where they handed over a silver piece a head for stabling and accommodation at the inn next to it. After getting their steeds settled in, they move to the tailors shop to discuss what kind of work they want done. Amber gets a finely crafted suit of leather armour on order, and everyone else orders some basic clothing that is of better quality than what they were wearing. The tailor informs the party that he will get to work on some sketches and for everyone to come back in an hour or so.


The party head to the Barnhouse Inn to relax for a short while. Erebus tosses the bar keeper a coin and asks for ale for all. The barkeep responds by rolling up a keg and tapping it for him. Erebus invites everyone in the bar to help themselves, and fills his tankard. Everyone orders up some food and sits down to eat, and discuss their plans... they eventually come to the conclusion that they shall try to access the castle via the secret door, and at that, they finish up and head back to the Tailor to view the drawings.


The tailor show everyone what he has designed for them, and upon being asked for a quote informs the party that it should cost approximately 75Gold. The party agree and hire him to craft the items overnight. They then return to the inn, and ask the barkeep for their accommodation - and get allocated to the spacious loft, which is padded out with straw beds, and is fairly cosy - if a bit drafty. It is only about 8pm - but the party want some good rest, and they set up a 3-hour watch rotation and rest for the next 12 hours.


At daybreak the next morning, they get their gear together and head out to the tailors, and near enough barge the door down with their impatient knocking on his front door.


The grumpy tailor lets them in, and gets the gear together. Erebus asks if there is any warm water prepared so he can freshen up before trying on his new outfit. Everyone seems very happy with their outfits until it comes to payment... The tailor ups his price to 150Gold...


After a short while haggling he reduces the new price to 125G - and the group manage to persuade him to take a mere 115G worth of jewellery in trade.


Outfits on, the group makes its way out of town to the causeway on foot. Whilst trying to traverse the slippy narrow path beneath the causeway, both Aretheus and Amber fail to maintain their balance and get their new outfits dirty in the mud. At the end of the path Erebus points out a rock that Morgan used to open a secret passage into the castle. After a half hour of fumbling around, Edgar finds the latch to the door, and a winding stairway is revealed - lit with sporadic torches. The party slowly make their way up the stairwell, Edgar searching for traps until they find another doorway at the top... opening it allows the party to enter a bedroom that is clearly that of a child. Morgans.


The party spread out around the room to investigate, whilst Edgar scans the doorway for traps. Morgan then enters, commenting on how nice their new clothing is, and asks if they seen the tailor in town and comments "I bet he charged twice their value!" - and she appraises their value at about 50G - which infuriates certain party members, and they vow to deal with it after. 


Morgan is asked to show the group to her father, and she leads them down the corridor past armed guards who eye the group suspiciously but otherwise allow them to pass. At the entrance to her mothers room, Morgan leaves the party alone and returns to her room.


The party um and ah for a moment confused as to what is going on, then enter the room. Inside they find Igrain... and Uther in a large bed. Ambers reaction is to walk over and sit on the edge of the bed and say hello.


Whilst the party eye each other in confusion and spread out around the room to investigate, they hear the sound of someone charging up the corridor and screaming blue murder, and then Gorloise barges into the room, and straight into Amber, bowling her over Uther and onto Igrain.


Edgar, first to react to the attack, steps out from behind him and sinks a dagger into Gorloise's side, his reaction is to swing around and cut Edgar down in a single swing, but in doing so the rest of the group piles in, attacking innefectively, with the exception of Amber, who whilst swinging her sword at Gorloise falls off balance and manages to eviscerate him all over the floor as she falls back on Uther who is now hiding under the covers...


Uther thanks them for protecting him, and vanquishing the competition - and invites everyone to attend the wedding of him and Igrain tomorrow. He also asks them to do something with the body, indicating a secret passage in the corner of the room.


The party accept the invite and drag the body outside through the passage onto a narrow ledge over a cliff beneath which the sea is lashing against the rocks. Whilst looting what they can from his body, it slips from their grasp and into the sea far below.


They shrug, and proceed around the side of the castle, and back out to the mainland along the path they came in on - and head straight to the tailor.


The party barge in and start demanding a full refund for the insult. Edgar is threatening to kill the tailor, and Aretheus is trying to negotiate to only have paid the original estimated amount. Crossbows speak louder than words and in the midst of the negotiations and tailor's panic Erebus unleashes a crossbow into his gut, and he promises to refund all the money and work at a discount if they will only heal him.


They agree, and Aretheus patches the tailor up with a curing orison to stop the bleeding and tells him to go get some rest...

D&D Campaign 2: Intro (part 1)

On Sunday night our Geekout group started a new first D&D campaign, run by my wife. As I was primary note taker I thought that perhaps I would provide a log and little storyline of our adventure aswell!

This game is a more RP-centric game, based in the times of King Arthur.

There are 5 party members - 4 of whom were there last night:

Aretheus - Favoured Soul

Erebus - Wizard

Amber - Duskblade

Edgar - Rogue

On a cold winters morning near Lindinis, Uther and, Ambrosius Aurelianus's forces, met in glorius battle... After a long and bloody battle, Uthers forces emerged Victorious, and Uther takes the Epitaph of "Pendragon" - and the title of High King of Briton.

His forces depart the battlefield and ride West, their purpose and destination unknown.

In the aftermath of the battle, the looters come out to pray on the fallen. Fingers are hewn to remove rings, jewellery is ripped off the corpses, armour, weaponry, clothing is collected, and everything that can be sold is taken for profit.

Amongst these looters is our band of adventurers, their destiny unknown to each other. Aretheus arrives following a good Omen, with visions of profit and victory... he goes about tending to the surviving wounded, and taking what he can find from the fallen on the battlefield. During his search he stumbles upon a female on the field, gravely wounded and barely conscious. He channels his divine powers to magically heal her, and sends her on her way. Amber is her name, and she is a Duskblade, and she proceeds to join in with the looting, as she seems to be without her equipment or posessions, just a sword and her wits.

Erebus who was nearby at this point introduces himself and continues looting. Edgar is also in the vacinity when the group make introductions, and they all start to discuss the prospect of "looting the looters" that had arrived before them... but after quiet contemplation decide that they have all had enough and head to a nearby tavern to refresh and perhaps sell some of their goods. Several rings, items of jewellery and basic equipment is salvaged by the group.

The party arrives at the Crossroads tavern, and saunter up to the barkeep, and as they go to order some refreshments. Erebus attempts to pawn off a ring on the barkeep as payment... The barkeep tut's, asks if they are looters - and if they are, to go see the trader that has set up across the other side of the room to sell their goods.

The party initiate haggling and trade some items for some bits of equipment, or just for plain coin to spend. After getting a helping of Mead each the party ask the barkeep if there happens to be any work in the area - he directs them to a recent addition to his notice board... King Uther himself is looking for people to perform some actions at the castle of Lord Goloise - Tintagel. Erebus tears the notice down and tells the barkeep they will do it, and the group gather their things and mount up for the long ride to Tintagel.

The road is long, and around midnight they pass a large encampment of soldiers, the campfires and smoke causing the sky to glow like it was Beltaine. The party consider going to get some rest and refreshments with the soldiers, but decide they should keep going and get as far as they can before the soldiers pack up camp and get moving again. The rest of the journey is uneventful but tiring as they force march their steeds to get good time. As day starts to break, and the group rounds a hill and find themselves looking down to the sea with a Castle on an Island, with a town visible beyond, they decide to stop for a rest and set camp on the side of the road.

The men start bounding about chasing after a bunny they spot to cook for dinner whilst Amber preps her horse for rest, removing its saddle, etc. Aretheus sits down with some damp twigs and starts trying to start a fire by rubbing them together... It takes over half an hour for the fire to be lit, by which time he pretty much passes out beside it.

Edgar takes first watch, then Erebus. As Erebus starts to drift he gives Aretheus a kick and tells him "talk, keep me awake!" - at which point a twig is heard snapping in the treeline to the side...

A young raven haired girl steps out and greets the party. Aretheus and Erebus greet her, and as Amber and Edgar wake up, they look about a bit confused.

The party quiz Morgan on the keep, and her father, and how well she knows the king, and inquire as to how she got out the castle, only to discover she has a secret entrance to the castle.

Aretheus extinguishes the fire with a conjure water spell, raining down 2gallons of water onto it. He smiles at the giel, and Morgan asks if it is magic. He states that the gods just like him and he can channel their divine powers.

The party also inquire as to why she approached. She said she was curious as to who they were, and why they were there.

The party pack up and she heads back to the castle. Edgar tries to stealthily follow her, but she spots him, so he returns to the group. Erebus whips out his Rat, Roland - and instructs him to follow the girl. The party start heading to Tintagel as they had decided it would be a good idea to try to acquire some better attire to address the lord. They are currently undecided on the action they should take - start a ruckass outside the keep to try to get Goloise out the keep - or to try to negotiate their way to a meeting with him to tell him what is going on.

Erebus gets the feeling Roland is in discomfort, and uses his empathic link to communicate with the Rat... it is on a boat, snuggled in a pocket... After a short while, it gets shown the entrance... confusing, but the Rat is then released and it makes its way back to Erebus via an under-causeway path.

The party continue to the village...

To Be continued. (Christ this ones long!)

Oil Painting by George Henry Jenkins, 1875: Tintagel Cornwall

Game creation. Part 2: Making & Displaying Sprites

Take 4 at this post... Firstly: Apologies for the posts not being enlargeable... hopefully they make sense!

Adding sprites to the game can be a lengthly process - especially if you are making your own. A number of free sprite libraries can be found on the internet, for this game I have been using: http://www.spriters-resource.com/ as the foundation for a number of my pre-made sprites.

This guide will hopefully serve as a reminder for me, and guide for anyone out there who has no experience in this activity on how to put a sprite into your game view.

Step 1: Grab a sprite sheet from the resource centre (if m aking your own, skip this step.)

Step 2: Cut the sprite you wish to use out and paste it into paint (or other editing software) and size your sprite to the number of pixels you wish for it to take up on the screen (for me this was 50x50 pixels.)

Step 3: For me - I used MS paint to cut and organise my sprite images - and Paint.Net to layer them into an image I wish to use. Opening Paint.Net, I created a new document with the area 50x50 pixels.

Step 4: A new layer is created, and the sprite is copied accross from MS paint onto this layer.

Step 5: If like me, you wish to have a background that the sprite will be sitting on - select and copy the background (Here is a "path" sprite I made earlier that is used for all passable floor tiles in the game.)

Step 6: Paste the background onto the background layer.

Step 7: Using the wand tool - I selected the plain backdrop that surrounded my sprite and hit delete. This removes the area covered by this colour and you can see the background beneath showing through.

Step 8: Save the image as a PNG file.

Step 9: Within Visual Studio - on solution explorer, right click on "content" and "add existing" - then select the file you just saved, and it will add it to the solution explorer window. It can now be used within Visual Studio.

Instantiate the sprite in the main class using the command "private Texture2D file;"

Step 10: In the LoadContent() method load the sprite into the game with the command "file = Content.Load("file");"

Step 11: You can now load the sprite onto the game screen using coordinates to identify the area it will be found on the screen.

Step 12: Test it worked with a debug. As you can see here - the mushroom appears where I selected. The sprite has no AI or methods - these can be added later. For the moment I am simply building up what I want the game to look like by setting up the sprites. I plan a much more efficient method of displaying content to screen than printing the coordinates of every single sprite to screen (there IS 100 of them... and this is just a 10x10 game board.)

My first game creation. Part 1: The background

I stole this idea from a friend, I intend to keep a few guides in this blog that I and others may find useful for future reference.

The Game:

As part of my Applied Computing degree at Dundee University, I am required to design and build a 2D game.

I have settled on doing a 2D dungeon crawl type of game. The avatar will be moved around the dungeon and will collect keys to open doors to eventually attain the treasure chest and win the level. In the way are monsters and the player can only defeat them with the use of a potion.

The game is being build in C# using Visual Studio and the XNA libraries to help make things a little easier.

More to come...

D&D Campaign: The Seal of Akatiel Part 4.

As the party rests in the Dungeon, they set up Watch... All seems clear, and no one notices the multitude of eyes watching from a hole in the cieling... Nothing happens until the party starts gathering their things to move on... when two more large spiders leap down from the roof, one grabbing the girls body, one Mannys. They try their damndest to crawl back up into the trap door but a combination of spells, alchemists fire and attacks that cause them to lose their grips on the walls results in the party cutting them down and retrieving the bodies.

The party moves back to the previous room and heads through the southern passage, which leads to a small heavy door, that is open a crack, murmuring sounds clearly audible passing from beyond the doorway.

Karnezer steps forth and swings a hefty dwarven boot at the door... but fails to open it as seems the norm. Tsavong reaches forward and turns the handle, and effortlessly pushes the door open, much to the dwarves consternation.

In the room beyond there are more mouldy sacks and several very old barrels of Dwarven Ale, and a pool of water filling the Southern section of the room. Liana summons a Porpoise into the pool and sends it to investigate - they see it swim down and under the wall into what appears to be a passage, but it does not return. The party assume it either run out of summon time or was slain as it travelled.

Regardless, the party decide to take a swim. The passage travels south for about 20ft, and then turns east and proceeds for another 40 or 50 ft... The party starts swimming through the passage, and as they reach the turn can see there is light eminating from the far end of the tunnel. Everyone manages to eventually make their way through, some with more ease than others. As they exit the water at the other end, they climb a stairwell out of the water and find themselves in a large Tomb, about 30ft by 60ft. A large Sarcophagus is just off-centre in the room, just in front of them, and a half a dozen Coffins line the walls around the room.

The party ignores the Sarcophagus just now and focus on the Coffins that line the room, inspecting them for traps, every one seems trapped although not all are found. Joe fails to disarm one and pretends that he did, resulting in the Dwarf opening the coffin and getting a jet of flame in the face, singing his beard... All the coffins have a mummified body pinned inside, with a small bag of treasures at the feet of each. When the party takes all the treasure, they animate and start flailing at anyone they can reach.

Staying at a distance, they set fire to the feet of the flailing Mummies, and watch as the fire consumes the bindings, destroying them all in short order.

Inspecting the Sarcophagus does not reveal any traps, so the party gather around it to lift off the heavy lid... as soon as they get it to move, a trapdoor in the ceiling gives way to a passage above where a Carrion Crawler is minding its own business, which then promptly drops down onto the lid of the Sarcohpagus and attacks the party. It nauseats some of the party, but otherwise doesnt do much damage before it is cut asunder.

They finish removing the lid, and look down on an armour clad dwarven Skeleton who is clutching a well crafted Dwarven War Axe - which Karnezer promptly yoinks from his grasp and straps to his back.

The party takes a further rest and sets up watch before they prepare to make their way back to the surface.

D&D Campaign: The Seal of Akatiel Part 3.

The Shanty panty sails through the night, powered by the other passengers and remaining crew who are rowing below deck. During the night, the ship goes slightly off course – the alteration of the party taking the wheel after the navigator was killed in the crew uprising, results in it drifting off course. As sun rises, the course is corrected enough that the ship is travelling the right way, and eventually comes within sight of land. The party cannot tie up the landmarks with their map, but they decide to look for somewhere to dock the ship to take a look around.

A forest which has a tower emerging from it fills in the gap between the shore and a mountain range sitting in the background, further south across a small open plain a small town can be made out, along with a few fishing piers off a farm lined path that runs down from the town, about half a kilometre.

As the ship approaches the shore, to try to land it runs aground on a coral reef. As the front of the ship slowly goes down, the crew start to bail overboard, followed by some of the party. Ceinwen strips off before diving in. Joe sticks around, and sets the ship on fire hoping to draw some boats from the village for a rescue, but when no one seems to be coming, he also bails, and proceeds to sink... Tsavong assists him, and everyone manages to eventually flounder ashore.

Some of the crew also make it, and just lay strewn unconscious on the beach.

As the party recovers, they make out the figure of an armour plated dwarf... trying to hide behind a rock, using a twig with a few leaves on as camoflague. When confronted, he introduces himself as Manny. Manny is clearly insane and thinks he is a rogue, and he decides to attach himself to the party whilst they are there.

The group get their bearings, and Liana introduces Joe to some plants that can have its resin used as a mild poison.

The group opts to head to a keep that they can see poking out from behind some rocks on the hill, when they stumble upon a young girl by a rock formation outside the woods.

She approaches the group and begs for their help, indicating that her sister run off into a cave a while ago with her dolly, and she wants it back... The party finds an enscription on the cave entrance. “King Myrengrad’s Tomb.”

The party spots the opportunity to plunder the riches of a king, and heads on in. Karnezer recognises the name as Dwarven, as was the writing and is especially keen to see what he may have had that he can make use of.

A long passage leads ever deeper underground, and after several hundred yards, the tunnel opens up into a cubical antechamber. It is littered with detritus, and the party moves to check the two passages East and South out of the room, and the long concrete block that lines the Northern wall...

Several members spot something in the chandelier, and try to assail it with objects to dislodge it... Ceinwen casts dancing lights to light the area up and it reveals a gigantic spider, clinging to the chandelier... It screeches and leaps off onto Karn, bundling the dwarf up in its spindly legs, and sinking its teeth deep into his shoulder, weakening him greatly.

The party lays into the spider, except for Joe who blatantly ignores the combat to peek into the next chamber. He soon decides to take a shot or two into the fray. Manny decides to leap onto the back of the spider as Karn breaks free, but is promptly yoinked off its back and bundled up in its arms in Karnezers place.

Two smaller spiders sneak up behind Joe and attack, the large one is finished off and the group moves to despatch of them, and kill them both easily enough.

The group moves out the East passage to the next room, which is like the previous one but with no exits. A cacoon sits in one corner, and some more detritus litters the floor... and two creatures are watching from the ceiling... Dancing lights illuminate the room, and two more spiders jump out of a trap door in the roof – this time onto Manny. As combat commences, Manny throws his shield at the badger to enrage it... hitting it critically and almost killing it... Karn ceases combat with the spiders and moves on to attack him after commiting such a dishonourable act. The spiders soon die and the badger and Karn take out Manny.

Tsavong rips open the cacoon, and finds the girls sister dead inside, clutching the doll. He takes the doll and the girls corpse, and the group settles down to recover from their fights.

D&D Campaign: The Seal of Akatiel Part 2.

That evening – the group proceeds to quiz the remaining crew and passengers to find someone who is an able navigator. One person pipes up and they enrol him into the duty of guiding the ship to the regions capital.

Kernezer also finds the Dread Necromanc

er named Dreinell who is willing to help the groups cause. He was sat at the dinner table and seen all the commotions that happened in the previous day, and would rather work with them, than against.

The party performs a more thorough search of the ship, Ceinwen finds the an artefact she believes she has looking for all this time... An unusual ornate crystal orb. Rumoured to be quite valuable and of unusual craftsmanship, she slips it in her pack. The crew also find some useful resources resources, between the medical bay and the food and equipment storage. Joe makes sure to collect the captains tri-star hat, and decides he is now a captain.

Before too long, another ship is spotted on the horizon. This one looking more like a warship than a transport galley... the party decide its best to proceed on course, rather than arise suspicion from the clearly faster and more powerful military frigate. As the ships get closer, the figure at the helm signals for them to drop anchor, and they do so. Joe standing forth with the tri star hat on strikes a pose and pretends to be in charge as at the helm of the approaching ship the military captain becomes clear... tall, busty, blonde haired very attractive female... Jow immediately starts hitting on her, with a good amount of success, Her and Joe hit it off – and she is about to let them go as Karn starts signalling the captain, and she misconstrues it that the dwarf is perhaps a threat, (Possibly a hijacker trying to overthrow poor Joe?) and invited Joe on board to parley, and more...

Before Jow she manages to seduce the busty captain, the party on the shanty panty rifle up some commotion and indicate they want their captain back so they can get a move on as they are in a rush. The woman lets Joe leave the ship, and sails back off on her patrol.

Later that evening, as Storm clouds gather, the party are below deck enjoying some food and more drink. Some of the crew attend, clearly against some of their more base survival instincts... Karnezer and Joe go up top, and are ambushed by archers hiding in the shadows, and hiding on the mast. Ceinwent is in her bedchamber, and hears the commotion and the fight spreads though the ship, with party members split over numerous areas, it could have been much worse... but the majority were fighting top deck, and were easily taken down with the exception of one archer up in the crows nest - but with one very powerful swipe of his axe - Karnezer severs the mast and he falls to his death... This action also cripples the ship as all the rigging falls apart.

A thick fog rolls in as the party gathers on the deck - they see some eerie looking lights out in fog... it approaches at a fair rate... Ceinwen sends out a pair of summoned lights that reveal it is another ship, and its approaching at high speed on a collision course with the side of the Shanty Panty.

To the groups confusion - the ship passes straight through, and is clearly now a ghostly visage of a vessel... the Shanty Panty. A couple of the party members now remember that this area is known as "the sea of vengeful spirits"... it is said that anyone that is killed will return each and every

night as a sort of zombie of themselves and attempt to take revenge on their attackers...

A dozen figures jump off of this ethereal boat as it passes through, and stand ready at the far end of the deck, and another fight ensues... it is brief, and the party are unharmed - but they decide they should get out of that area ASAP - to this end, all remaining crew are sent below deck and forced to Row. Ceinwen also convinces Joe to go assist, although after a short while he loses interest and returns to the position any captain getting a portrait done would be. Foot up on the barrier at the front of the ship, tri corner hat on, spyglass out and pointing into the night.

Star Trek: TNG - Encounter at Farpoint...

Sat down to my first viewing through www.watchtrek.com - and I chose to watch the premier episode of Star Trek: TNG - Encounter at Farpoint.

Wow.

Its been at LEAST 15 years since I seen this episode...

Technically - I didnt realise just how close to TOS of ST it is... hehe, but I must admit I am enjoying it and all the cheesy bits it brings from The Original.
Some observations though...

Camera work... Why so dramatic? I keep expecting a Dun dun DUUUN!!! every time the camera zooms in! (Ala **Linky** )

Secondly... Riker... he needs the beard - but aside from that, his eyebrow and mouth movement mirrors Morena Baccarin when he speaks... its freaky

FYI: Morena Baccarin:

I was also stuck by how much he comes across as Kirk from TOS - his looks, his hair, how he moves... I suspect he was picked for this role exactly for that purpose! I also noted that within a minute of appearing on screen he was wielding an apple ala kobayashi maru references...

Next up: McCoy camio... Deforest Kelly popped his clogs a few years ago, which is unfortunate... but he brought up one reference in this camio that is huge... (I.E - to me anyway - its something I never thought of :p) Every genre of Star Trek has a vulcan on the bridge... but not TNG - You will notice that the main cast ensemble is very similar across all genres - but TNG stands out on the vulcanless point... (TOS = Spock, Voyager = Tuvok, Enterprise = Tapal... although I have admittedly not seen enough DS9 to comment on this from that perspective...)

I digress... Yes, He says to Data after data responds to his query as to how he remembers all this information and Data states he remembers every fact he is exposed to by stating he doesnt have pointy ears - but he sure sounds like a Vulcan... ergo - we have out TNG vulcan, albheit a bit shinier. :D Awesome.

Thirdly... Baby Wil Wheaton... Aww!! that certainly dates the last time I watched this though... he is 14/15 there? and he was older than me last time I watched it, and I am 27... Oh my.

Squeeee. Happy links.

So today I have two super happy links I want to put up.

Firstly, is an entertaining blog post by Hyperbole and a half. It has Cake. You must read. You want the cake. You need the cake... get the cake...

**Linky**

This is my son, pure and simple. *grin*

Secondly, thanks to a certain someone in class (@JaneWilson on Twitter - tankoo!) I was furnished with a link to a site where you can stream the backlog of Star Trek episodes - any episode, any series, and genre. Weee! This makes me happy :p

**Linky**

P.S... is it sad that I got all excited cos I found it easier to make edits to this post in HTML? *Inserts Geekgrin*

D&D Campaign: The Seal of Akatiel.

First post of many - I have a backlog of story from a 3.5ed D&D game that I have been running for the last year... Here is part 1.

The party: (All level 1)

Tsavong Lah Human Monk

Karn Ezer Dwarven Barbarian

Ceinwen Elven Beguiler

Liana Elven Druid

Joe Kerr Human Rogue

Dreinell Human Dread Necromancer

The boat departs the harbour of Findersmead in the icy kingom of Icewind. It was a chilly early spring morning, with a biting wind, that served but one purpose – to fuel the departure of the Shanty Panty for a swift and eventless journey to the vast city of Amn...

Alas... that was not to be.

Our tale starts mid afternoon of the day of departure.

Liana awakens in her hammock in the empty sleeping chamber, populated at this point in time solely by her and her companion... Squishy. Her Badger animal companion. She hears muffled voices floating through the door... She heads out the room and up to the deck to listen in to the Captains welcoming speech. Propped up against the door, she feels fairly queezy. Perhaps sea sickness, perhaps a hangover, or even poison from the night before – but likely just Badger bribery, telling by the scratch marks on her arms.

Joe, Karn, Tsavong and Ceinwen are already above deck.

As Captain Karrodar does his introductory speech, Joe is appraising Karn to see if he has anything of value, Karn is harranging the captain for info on the Ales on board, Tsavong is standing guard over Ceinwen, who is in turn, assessing the rest of the crew.

The captain informs Karn that the galley is always open for drinks, and that the cost is already covered by travelling fee for boarding the ship, and without a pause for further information Karn heads below deck to get stuck in. (Dwarves!)

Joe having finished his appraisal of Karn and deciding he isn’t a worthwhile mark decides to proceed to do a bit of juggling, but unfortunately, due to the pitch and bow of the ship, manages to lose his balance and drop his balls overboard, exclaiming “My balls just dropped!”.

While he is doing this Ceinwen and Tsavong decide that the Barbarian may be a useful ally in their plans to get their hands on a precious cargo that they have been informed about... They head down to the galley via the other entrance and join him at the bar, where he has already tapped a keg and filled a tankard in good old Dwarven fashion.

Joe decides to follow Karn down after a few moments trying to decide how to retrieve his balls.

Liana decides to sit through the remainder of the captains speech before following him into his cabin.

In the galley, Tsavong, Karn and Ceinwen are conversing in secret – as Joe walks in, and completely bypasses them after spotting a padlocked hatch to the cargo hold beside the table... His attempts to get out of sight appear to go un-noticed, although unbeknownst to him, Ceinwen has noticed, but keeps quiet.

Joe expertly fails to pick a lock a blade of grass could probably open, but nobody hears. On his second attempt, he opens the doors, and slides inside – finding a beam of wood to wedge the doors shut with.

Liana enters the captains cabin and takes it upon herself to request a refund as she has no idea how she got on the ship... and for that matter, if she even paid in the first place. The Captain is unmoved by her attempts at persuasion and simply asks her to take it up with the administrative clerk once the boat docks in Amn.

Meanwhile, in the Galley Tsavong Ceinwen and Karn come to an agreement that Karn would see many fights and tankards of Ale whilst working with them, and he agrees to join them, shortly before Tsavong and Karn hear something come from behind the table. They inform Ceinwen who lets them know someone ducked behind the table... They go over to investigate, and notice a hatch with an abandoned padlock at the side of it... Karn gives the doors a gentle shake, and finds there is resistance... Joe hearing the commotion ducks down behind some crates, but feeling that this is a rather insufficient hiding place for anyone that can see in the low light of the cargo hold, starts trying to pry open a crate... presumably to climb inside, but if caught, planning on claiming to be searching for more juggling balls...

Karn grins manically at the other two, pulls out his axe and an a show of ineptitude, swings at the metaphorical barn, and misses... Splinters of wood fly everywhere... The sounds spur Joe into a more frenzied attempt at opening the crate, but is still fumbling trying to get a good grip with his tool.

Liana decides to sleep off whatever is wrong with her, and heads back to her bed, stopping briefly to acknowledge Ceinwen, Tsavong and Karn (still wielding axe...) as she slides past and into her bunk.

Karn tries again to smash the hatch with his Axe, this time connecting solidly, but only damaging the door. The door is damaged enough that the three of them can see it is barred on the other side by a plank of wood... Karn reaches down and instead of trying to smash the door apart, attempts to pull the doors open... and with almost zero resistance, rips both doors off the hinges... They might make good makeshift shields, but its a wonder no-one fell through the doors into the cargo hold...

Joe exclaims “Im trying to find new balls!” up through the hatch at the party that just forced their way through.

Karn leads the charge... plodding down the stairs ahead to check out the cargo hold.

The party see Joe in plain sight, stuffing some rather tatty looking china into his backpack.

Ceinwen and Tsavong discuss their plans with Joe - to seize control of the ship and hijack it, and he seems keen on the idea of producing a good bit of chaos and the chance to do some pilfering.

After a brief tet e tet about it, they hear the sounds of chains chinking away deeper into the cargo hold, Ceinwen, Tsavong and Joe decide it might be a good idea to vacate the cargo hold, what with the smashed in door, and the sounds being heard... Karn decides to wander off on his own to investigate the sounds.

Ceinwen, Tsavong and Joe head back over to the kegs, just in time for two crewmen to come down – although they simply walk over to the barrels, greeting them and pouring out a drink. Karn proceeds to follow the sounds around the room at the back of the hold, but cant pin point the sounds, or see anything that could even be making the noise. He decides to head back. Joe exclaims to the two crewmen that “a Dwarf just broke into the cargo hold and is down there now” – they disappear upstairs, and come back down with two more-armoured crewmen who arrive just as Karn pops his head up out of the cargo hold.

“Theres some weird noises coming from down here” Karn says, Joe yells “He’s drunk!” and the two guards shrug in confusion, and follow Karn down...

Karn follows the two crewmen down to the back of the cargo hold, but the three of them don’t find anything interesting, and come back up.

Joe fails to pick a pocket where Ceinwen succeeds and everyone else heads back up top to kill some time until dinner doing their own thing. Ceinwen and Tsavong check about inspecting everyone, and Joe attempts to busk rather poorly, in an attempt to gather information from the other crew and passengers.

Karn spends the rest of the time until tea up chatting with two crewmen at the barrels. One called Eldrick, who seems to be able to take his drink better than this Dwarf, and another who ends up unconscious over one of the barrels pretty quickly. Probably thrown over by Karn.

8Pm arrives, and a gong is sounded above-deck. Dinner is served, and everyone except for Liana takes a seat. Joe managed to slip something out the belt of one of the passengers heading down to take a seat. Some idle banter ensues. Ceinwen attempts to poison Eldrick for fun... with ink, which Eldrick sees her put in, but is convinced shes just “adding some spice”. He spends the rest of the time with blackened teeth.

Karn gets bored, and smacks Eldrick in the face with a tankard. Everyone at the table laughs, except one or two people who slink off rather disturbed.

After dinner, Karn carries on drinking with Eldrick, Ceinwen goes to speak to the captain and Joe heads up to the front of the deck to scope out if theres any way to climb down to get into the captains room...

A candle-lit glow emerges from the captains room in the low light of the setting sun, and the sounds of violin playing float through the cabin door, as Ceinwen stands outside in the chill, knocking and waiting for an answer.

Joe decides against the climb to the two portholes that could be used to enter the captains room due to the lack of hand-holds, and the risk of plummeting into the icy sea. Tsavong follows relatively closely. Joe decides it might be fun to try to get a nearby crewman who is gazing off the port side into the sunset to attack Tsavong and get himself killed. Joe very nearly succeeds in this endeavour, but the man slinks off, rather disturbed by the intimidating appearance of Tsavong.

In the captains quarters, Ceinwen finally gets a response, as a flustered young musician slips out the room past her, violin in hands. She walks in to find the captain throwing something fluffy behind a changing screen, and wiping his sleeve on his mouth, she gives the room a brief once-over. It is rather... tastefully decorated, good woods, heads mounted on the walls, and a rather well stocked liquor cabinet. She convinces the captain to spare some time to sit and chat, and he pours them out some Absynth, which quite quickly goes to his head, but to which Ceinwen doesn’t seem phased by, as shes sipping and he is downing it.

It is at this point Joe decides to go join them... He opens the door to the captains room, and is spotted by the guard in the crows nest, Tsavong follows at distance, but doesn’t join him immediately.

Joe sneaks up behind the captain, receiving a magical message from Ceinwen as he enters the room stating to “make it quick”. The captain doesn’t notice in his distracted state, and is met with a dagger to the throat, missing anything vital, but doing a hefty amount of damage. He rolls backwards off his seat onto his feet, pulling out his short sword. His screams for help and Tsavong, Karn, Eldrick and a number of crew members move to investigate.

Tsavong lets three crewmembers passed him into the captains room.

The captain and Joe are duking it out as 3 guards enter the room. Andy starts taking some damage, and Ceinwen releases a surprise blast of colour spray at the guards, knocking one of them unconscious. The captain knows now that her and Joe are on the same side now.

Karn notices the guards go into the captains room and the blast of colour spray, and as Tsavong goes to follow the guards into the room, he pulls out his Axe and beheads his latest drinking buddy, Eldrick.

The captain knocks Joe into unconsciousness. Tsavong downs the guards, and moves onto the captain. Ceinwen tries to daze the captain but is taken out with an attack of opportunity from him.

Karn berserks on the stairs after being struck by one of the other crew members, and cleaves him in half at the waist, gurgling in blood lust at the rest of the Galley “Come get some!” or something silly, which successfully intimidates anyone else off joining in.

Tsavong skilfully boxes the captains head off with a critical critical hit, and revives Ceinwen and Joe with some quick heals. The unconscious guard wakes up but is blinded, and as he slowly comes to realises the aftermath of the battle, and seeing the captains headless body, decides it might be best to just stay down.

More to come :)

First post- an Introduction!

Hello, I am me.

I had an urge to start a blog to keep my ravings regarding many things I am involved in, including university work, Dungeons & Dragons games and stories (Which may monopolise it ;) ) and any other Geekly rantings that I feel inclined to do.

I doubt anyone will ever read this, and thats just fine with me :p