So we have had about two real games of dnd so far. The 4th and the vacation killed a few Saturday games. This second game though has the beginnings of what I wanted in the first place. A good long campaign to keep me entertained. Man, I had fun.

The group is playing The Scales of War an adventure path from the Dungeon magazine. We just started the first part of this and it’s called  Rescue at Rivenroar. It starts out with the player characters relaxing and drinking at a tavern. Not too long after, monsters of course bust in and try to start some shit.

A recap on the players.

My Niece (age 9) playing a Cleric
My Nephew (age 8) playing a Fighter
The DM’s Kid (age 8) playing a Wizard
The Newb (age 35) playing a Paladin
Me (age 37) playing a Fighter

So once the first combat started till the end of the session a few things of note happened. Shows the different egos or attitudes at play.

First was the argument between me and the Pally about where the Wizard should plant his fire spell. The thing does 1 burst damage which means where it’s fired off it flows out in every direction around the place it was ignited. Basically I wanted the Wizard to fire it off in a spot that would hit three monsters. The Pally wanted one square back so it only hit the two monsters. The way I wanted it to go would make it hit me and the Pally as well as the three monsters. The Pally wanted it to just target the two monsters in the back and spare the good guys any friendly fire. Now I felt it was an acceptable risk to hit where I wanted. I would rather see three monsters hurt than two. Both the Pally and I have good hitpoints and armor class. We could have took it. There was a good chance the Wizard would miss us anyway. I backed down and let the Pally have it his way.

The next point that I enjoyed was after the combat was over and we got to do some talking to npc’s. Generally speaking this is the shit I hate. I’m the type that clicks through the quest text in mmo’s like WoW. I want to kill shit. This time it was different. We had a monster to interrogate. A monster who was held in a stockade. It couldn’t get to us. Man, I couldn’t wait for two reasons: First, I was going to see how far I could push the DM with my kind of bullshit. Second, I just couldn’t pass up the chance to fuck with a monster Jack Bauer style.

There were a few roadblocks to get through before I could mess with the monster. There were guards around that would not allow the monster to come to any harm that would cause it to not be able to stand trial for its bad deeds. So first I had to get rid of the pesky guards. I had the Wizard use Ghost Sound.

Ghost Sound Wizard Cantrips 1
With a wink, you create an illusory sound that emanates from somewhere close by.
At-Will, Arcane, Illusion
Standard Action Ranged 10
Target: One object or unoccupied square
Effect: You cause a sound as quiet as a whisper or as loud as a yelling or fighting creature to emanate from the target. You can produce nonvocal sounds such as the ringing of a sword blow, jingling armor, or scraping stone. If you whisper, you can whisper quietly enough that only creatures adjacent to the target can hear your words.

So with this I had him create the sounds of battle in the distance. Four of the six guards took off to check it out. The last two I managed to convince that I would not kill the monster. So there was no worry if it would miss hanging at the gallows after it was found guilty at a trial.

So I introduced myself to the monster and played the nice guy. I asked it about its base of operations and its leader. We even had the Pally speak goblin to it in hopes it would play ball and give us good info. After it was done I went up to it and leaned close to its face and told it if it was lying I would come back and kill it. To prove my threat I pulled one of my longswords out and pressed it up against the right side of its head and cut its ear off.

The kids were of course very amused that I was behaving this way. I just wanted to get a feel for how far one could go with this DM. Next time in addition to another ear (for my new necklace I’m making) I’m going see if the DM will let me cut off a monsters testicles. I want to build a name for myself in the game world. Plus it’s damn fun to abuse the poor monsters in this manner. But somehow I doubt I’m the first player to do so.

I can’t wait for next weeks game. Hopefully more monsters will learn to fear the name Turk Shakespeare.