It seems my desktop computer, which has been lurching determinedly along, has finally given up the ghost. It won’t even turn on… probably a problem with the power supply or the motherboard, something that’s beyond the powers of mere jiggery-pokery. I’m sorry for not noticing until less than an hour before game time, but it’s been working so poorly lately that I don’t leave it on.

I’ll keep everybody posted about my progress in getting it repaired/replaced.

After a three week absence, the Sunday game is ready to resume tonight at 8 o’clock Central. Screen Monkey server is online for anyone who wants to test their connection out early… your characters are still saved, though, so there’s no need.

If you happen to be online reading this, please give a shout to let me know you’ll be there. I already know one person who is not going to be able to make it, so I’d like to get an idea of the crowd.

Unfortunately I’m having some problems with my desktop (I think it’s time to find out if Screen Monkey can run in Ubuntu) that I might have time to fix, except I’ve just been reminded of a family event I can’t miss.

So, I’m afraid there’s no Sunday game this week. And as I’m going to be away from my computer the next two Sundays, that means the next game will be on September 1920th. I should have a working computer solution by then.

I was asked to do a post on tactics for the benefit of the Sunday group, like I did for the Wednesday group before their first session.

There are three reasons I didn’t give the Sunday group a similar write-up in advance. One was that a lot of the advice from the Wednesday post could be carried over generically. The other was that there were a lot of computer problems to be sorted out last weekend. The final one is that I thought I might be able to give more useful advice after seeing the group in action.

So, here it is. As with my previous tactical advice posts, please don’t take this as the DM telling you what to do with your character… it’s just advice and suggestions.

First of all, advice to myself: do a better job of describing the varying capabilities of the opponents. The Ironshirts are homogeneous-looking by design, but there were three distinct classes of them in the square with distinct abilities.

In game terms, the ones with swords were Soldiers and the ones with maces were Skirmishers. What does this mean to the PCs? The mace ones were easier to hit. For those characters who have abilities that trigger benefits when they hit, the mace ones would have been better targets. I didn’t give anybody any cue or indication that this was the case.

I think I did a better job of doing that stuff with the Wednesday group, where I had my notes in front of me. I expect to do a better job tomorrow, since I’ll actually have my laptop in front of me.

Of course, the flip side is that since I didn’t have my notes, I kept forgetting about the actual powers that the Ironshirts had and just applied their basic attack damage most of the time. Future fights will be a little more challenging, but also hopefully more interesting.

Okay, so, for everybody else:

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Same as on Wednesday, it seemed like combat offered everybody a chance to shine… even if the combat was a bit smaller in scale and scope. What was everybody’s favorite moments, either personal or from someone else?

I’ll throw one out myself: Elauria overcoming her missing streak to take out both runners threw me for a bit of a loop, as I’d been planning on having some thugs get away so the alarm would go up faster. You all got more time to play in the square because of that.

I’m in the process of sending the Sunday players personalized bits of information their characters know, and in consulting my notes I realized I made a mistake in the previous setting post: I mixed up the name of the southern kingdom with the name of Kes’s home town, Fairhope. The kingdom to the south is, in fact, Brecken. Fairhope is a small and isolated community up in the eastern mountains of Asfenar.

General Information

Geopolitics

Asfenar is a mountain kingdom, or it was a kingdom, though “Duchy” perhaps does better justice to its size. It’s nestled snugly in an armpit of the Ironfang Mountains. Its neighbor to the south is Brecken, a feudal kingdom that lacks its mineral resources but which holds a sizable advantage in terms of arable land and in having seaports.

Over the mountains to the west are the Wildlands, where Hobgoblin lords strive to cut out their own little empires and Orcs work to tear them down. There are Humans in the Wildlands, or at least there was one: Dumarath the Mad Mage, who led a horde of Hobgoblins over the mountains and deposed the royal family.

The east is not well-explored, but it is said there is a land of giants there. Far to the north, on the other side of the Ironfangs, lies the Glorious Republic of Keshir, a fortified city-state whose spices, linens, and dyes flow through the mountains via secret routes. Few in Asfenar can afford their custom, but the ports to the south are a lucrative destination.

The royal family permitted the traffic in exchange for rich purple robes that few other monarchs could boast and loftily worded and impressive sounding pronouncements of imperial friendship… Dumarath allowed it to continue because the spices and incense appealed to his sense of decadence. If the grumblings of the merchants are any indication, Duke Valkanon has not been quite so accommodating… his talk of Asfenar being given her fair share and all Asfenarians reaping the benefits of their convenient trade routes is apparently not so good for business.

Magic

Magic is not a part of the everyday folks’ lives. There are few enough Asfenarian people who could explain the differences between a Warlock, Wizard, or Sorcerer, much less recognize one if they saw one. Dumarath’s depredations mean that magic-users were not well-trusted nor well-liked even before Valkanon came to power. His pushes for arcanists to come forward and make themselves known to the mayors and local stewards so that their powers can be used for the good of all was put forth as a way of restoring the public trust, but if anything, it’s codified and ratified the suspicion.

Religion

Dumarath’s forces razed temples and slaughtered the priests, leaving Asfenar a kingdom of broken faith for over three decades. Valkanon opened the public coffers and his personal fortune to help sects rebuild, taking the opportunity to make sure they did so in what he calls an orderly and productive way.

The progress has been slower than might have been expected. To speed things up, the Duke established a new foundation called the Church of Order and Might, which combines the worship of his own god, Erathis, with Moradin, Kord, and Bahamut… though individual gods are rarely mentioned in temple services so that all will feel welcome.

The Order, as it’s often called as something of a misnomer, has been notable for having created a number of Paladins for having only existed for five years.

Races

Cosmopolitan Folks:

Towns and cities attract members of all races, but especially Elves, Dwarves, and Halflings… called along with Humans “the Common Races”, and indeed, the language known as Common came about from the Human tendency to absorb bits of the others’ languages that they deemed useful. Just as the languages have blended together, so too has there been some melding of cultures.

A city-dweller might have encountered many Elves and Dwarves and a few even stranger folks, but these will generally have been fellow city dwellers or traveling merchants whose cultural outlook is not necessarily all that different. Dealing with “City Dwarves” is not necessarily an effective primer for dealing with Dwarf Lords in their halls

Elves and Eladrin:

The common, uneducated folk of the world are not terribly aware of the fine distinctions among pointy-eared fey folk. If they’ve heard term “Eladrin”, they likely think of it as another word for Elf… or at best, a sub-group of them.

All sorts of further confusion grows out of this basic misconception, with some “learned” types chuckling at the superstitious who believe that Elves live in fabulous cities and citadels of magic that exist in another world and can vanish right in front of your eyes when the simple truth is that Elves live deep in the forest and are just good at keeping their homes and themselves hidden.

There are Elven villages in the wilder forests of Asfenar, as well as a few unpredictable Fey Crossings. So far the Duke’s investment in timber harvesting and his clearing of land for farming has not directly encroached on the Fey folk, but surveying parties have been pushing deeper and deeper into the dark woods.

Dwarves:

Independent Dwarven “kingdoms” (other folks would call them clans) exist within the mountains that bound Asfenar on three sides. Some of them have maintained peaceable relations with villages near the entrances to their underground strongholds, trading partnerships that may have suffered a brief interruption during the thirty-some years that Asfenar suffered under the heel of the Mad Mage.

The Dwarves do not permit outsiders to enter their halls, but they have always been good natured about friendly travelers passing over their lands. Their patrols keep the mountain passes clear and safe. Just lately, Duke Valkanon has been adding to their strength by sending his own patrols and establishing garrisons and watchtowers. The Dwarves aren’t prone to share their feelings with outsiders, but it seems doubtful that they appreciate this aid.

Halflings:

The Asfen River and its many tributaries flowing down out of the water have served as natural highways to the Halflings, independent survivors who hardly fared better under the royal family than they did under the Mad Mage. Now that Duke Valkanon has increased the output of Asfenar’s mines and mills and lumberyards, there is more official traffic on the river and more scrutiny on the rafts and barges of the riverfolk.

Some cities have also posted bans, curfews, or other restrictions for Halflings, who are believed to be prone to crime and spreading seditious rumors.

Other Races

Some races (Devas, Tieflings, Genasi, Shadar-Kai, Warforged, etc.) are viewed as anomalies when they show up at all.

Goliaths are well-known… in a local legend sort of way… on the western slopes of the eastern mountains, where one might climb down from the peaks once in a human lifetime to secure needed magic or medicine, fulfill the terms of a wager, or simply visit with new people.

Dragonborn have been a not uncommon sight escorting caravans along the road that runs along the River Asfen, and in the cities it passes through. There’s supposed to be a whole valley of them, somewhere to the north, past the Dwarves. The local story is that the valley’s the home of a great silver dragon and the Dragonborn are its children.

The Town of The Virtues

All player characters begin the game in the town of The Virtues, a large town or a small city. The Virtues is on the west side Asfenar, roughly halfway between the river and accepted boundaries of the kingdom, though at a point where a rocky mountain spur intrudes inward.

The main trade road passes by The Virtues, this being the main point at which it diverges from the river to avoid some unpleasant terrain. the town is about eight miles north of the southern border.

The Virtues is named for an event in Asfenarian history wherein a band of Dwarves gave their lives to hold off an invading army of Hobgoblins at the mouth of a nearby narrow valley or draw, which once concealed a passage from the Wildlands. The town was much smaller and had a different name back then, but a monument called “The Virtues of the Martyrs” was erected in its square in honor of the Dwarves, and this monument… much more famous than the town itself… became known as a landmark and destination in itself.

The monument is over two hundred years old and has been concealed behind panels for several weeks for restorations under the Duke’s orders. None of the Player Characters have seen it, but the description is well-known: it has a three-sided base a bit taller than a man, and that’s capped with a statue of a dwarf with shield and axe. On each of the sides is a word in Dwarven script: Death, Defeat, and Honor.

The restoration is controversial in the town, as even the loyalest Valkonite to be found in The Virtues is protective of the statue. Sure, it’s a bit crumbly about the edges and sure there are cracks and sure the martyr on top used to have more of a nose, but some of what might strike an outsider as a flaw is part of what gives the statue its character, to the locals.

“It’s nothing to me if the Duke wants to fix his nose or trim up the edges,” it’s not unusual to hear in the taverns, “so long as he leaves the sides alone. They’ve been that way forever.”

What are the PCs doing in The Virtues? It’s become one of the four major administrative centers of Asfenar, the bureaucratic center of the southwest. Anyone entering the duchy from the south would naturally stop there. Anyone attempting to pass through the duchy to the south might be stopped there. Anyone who has been caught up with the bureaucracy might have been sent there and told not to leave. Anyone investigating Valkanon’s regime might have decided to go there. I think most peoples’ existing backgrounds can be plugged in here.

There is an inn just off the town square called the Martyr’s Shield where any travelers would be staying… it’s the only inn that’s kept its license. The cheaper ones have been closed down as hotbeds of iniquity, as have the ones nearer to the town gates (on either side) that used to cater more to travelers.

Any questions about the setting or requests for additional details or clarifications (including “Is there a…?” or “Would I know…?” or “What if I’m…?” type questions that may cross your mind.) may be put into the comments. I’ll be giving some more specific tidbits of information to individual players in the confirmation emails, tomorrow night.