My brother's campaign is going quite well. The second session (which I forgot to post about) was about 30 hours of stopping only for food and sleep. Our first attempt at patrolling the area as a member of the guard involved stumbling over the home of a Nymph. However the ranger is uncomfortable around fey, so we didn't stick around to meet the resident. We escorted a small caravan that had been raided back to town, and picked up a npc paladin as a companion.

This is when things got interesting. We went back out to patrol the next day. Our first encounter was a woman trying to fix a broken wagon. The closer we got the more it seemed like a trap. The ranger and wizard stopped approaching to watch as me and the Paladin continued forward (failing at hiding our suspicion). Then the Green Crows struck.

The ambush was well set, but this group hadn't dealt with prepared fighters before, we took on six thugs, four went down, two got away. After a little investigating we found a camp just off the road. The ambush point was obviously an outpost, but not the main location of the crows.

Another trip back to town with bodies and evidence provided us with more answers (the priestess in town isn't quite as squeamish about using necromancy to interrogate the dead) and rumours of a missing caravan that should have come from the south.

Off we went the next morning, after a days travel we ran up against a second ambush site, this time a centaur camp. This almost got us, but everyone survived long enough for the final centaur to run. A day of healing (magical and mundane) allowed us to continue.

Two more days travel brought us to what should have been an abandoned hamlet. Instead we found a well guarded camp in the remaining ruins of a temple and tavern. After some scouting we came up with a plan and attacked that night.

Under the cover of thick overgrowth and night, we made it back into site of the camp. My character prayed for a blanket of silence on what we expected to be the tent of the gang leader, blessing for battle, and various protective spells. The tent was up against the overgrowth, so we were able to sneak up to it and cut in the back.

Unfortunately what we found was a large carriage with markings for the school of our wizard, an inspection showed a lack of occupants, and left us with the trouble of covering open ground to the temple.

The ranger went first, unfortunately, said ranger tripped on and squeaked. This stirred the only guard that was looking about inside the camp (the other four were in lookout towers but looking away from camp). A quick casting of hold person and a well placed arrow allowed us to continue without alarming anyone.

We were at the temple door, there was light spilling out of a window and the hushed notes of conversation, and a very recently dead man in a cage hanging next to the door. If this wasn't the place, it was still bad enough to investigate. It was time for stealthiness to end. We opened the doors.

Where one would expect an alter there was instead a desk, where one would expect pews for worshippers there were piles of boxes and loot, most notably, where one would expect a priest speaking, there was a man in all green, and a cap with died crows feathers. Snarky comments were made, and then combat started.

A Paladin, Cleric, Evoker, and Ranger are sort of outnumbered against 6 rogues and a fighter on their won turf, spells and arrows went back and forth, and it wasn't long before I was out of channel energy uses, but we were down to just the leader and his senior minion. Then it hit.

Dad's Evoker was having spell issues all night. He was down to his last two spells, a true strike and a scorching ray. He cast true strike and then waited for his round to come again. A few arrows and a mace dispatched the minion, but the boss was still standing, and had dug a potion out of his belt pouch at the end of his turn. Dad then rolled for scorching ray.

20 on the die, 18 on the die. 18 + 5 + 20 is a confirmed crit on a ranged touch spell.
3d6 + 2 (dad's a level 3 evoker at this point, yay for intense spells). 6+6+3+2 x2 = 30 points. The dm described it as the spell burning a whole clean through the chest of the boss.

On the same initiative as dad, a few of the guard from outside finally heard the commotion and came in to check. They saw their boss roasted alive, and decided to run. Some exploring of the area found a basement to the temple, and two captives. Turns out they were from the school dad's wizard studied at, and were supposed to deliver magically enhanced farm equipment to the town to help grow food to ship north for the war effort.

We returned to town, heroes. It looked like the Green Crows were beaten beyond retaliation, and now the roads were safe.


Now for the session from last weekend.

This time I went to Lubbock, so we were joined by one of my high school buddies and a member of the star trek club my parents are still in. The party added a ninja, and a druid.

The squire asked us to take on a personal quest, not for the town, but for him.

I won't tell the whole story in detail, but this was mom and dad's exposure to a basic dungeon delve. We were after a diamond needed for a resurrection spell, not much role play, lots of combat, and at the end of it all, a CHIMERA! Whats worse, the chimera dropped my cleric in turn 1 of combat. (-1, but stabilized)

Our advantages:

First, the passage to the nest was low and narrow (but not so much as to squeeze the chimera) and had a sharp bend.

Second: The chimera had 3 eggs very near hatching. Chasing someone out of the nest wasn't enough, she had to come down from the air and fight us on the ground in the passage.

So the ninja and ranger continued to fight while the evoker tried to get at things, when the ninja getting low he yanked me out from under the chimera and shoved a potion down my throat. I woke up channelled, and buffed the ninja.

Now that I was awake, the evoker was having trouble getting spells off again. A second channel and I was back in the chimera's face with the mace, dad rolls a 1 on his last scorching ray... well crap. Then he's reminded about the re-use of a spell from his bonded item. So final true strike, reuse slot, and max damage (no crit).

We returned with the diamond, it was used, and next up we head out with the wizard from dads school on a archaeology expedition.

We had lots of fun. The party is complete, and now starts the story the sibling wants to tell. I'm looking forward to the next session.