Intresting Video: Civilization

Civilization by Marco Brambilla from CRUSH on Vimeo.

I don't know what the music is but it reminds me of the Star Trek "Fight Music".

Asmor's Instant Dungeon: 10th level Time of War, Part 2

The Encampment.

In this adventure the PC's need to Make their way through a very old arcane stronghold to the sanctum of the Cowled Figure.

Treasure:

1. [Level 14 Magic Item]: Battle Harness +3 (Dragon 368, page 64 [We Who Are About to Die...]) (DDI)
2. [Level 13 Magic Item]: Luckblade +3 (Adventurer's Vault, page 71 [Weapons]) (DDI)
3. [Level 12 Magic Item]: Staff of Expansion +3 (Dragon 365, page 58 [Bazaar of the Bizarre]) (DDI)
4. [Level 11 Magic Item]: Magic Wand +3 (Player's Handbook, page 242 [Wands]) (DDI)
5. [2800 gp]: 797 gp, 23 sp, 70 cp + 2 emerald gems (1000 gp each)
6. [2500 gp]: 1496 gp, 31 sp, 90 cp + 1 sapphire (1000 gp)
7. [1700 gp]: 1692 gp, 71 sp, 90 cp
8. [1700 gp]: 693 gp, 62 sp, 80 cp + 1 sapphire (1000 gp)
9. [800 gp]: 791 gp, 88 sp, 20 cp
10. [600 gp]: 91 gp, 85 sp, 50 cp + 1 black pearl (500 gp)

Encounter 1: 9th Level, 2100xp; A Flaw in the Defenses.

1	Flesh Golem (DDI)	Level 12 Elite Brute	1400	Monster Manual, page 142 (Golem)
1	Redspawn Firebelcher (DDI)	Level 12 Artillery	700	Monster Manual, page 88 (Dragonspawn)

Tips: The Golem is charged with "Walking" the Firebelcher.

These two creatures act independently though the Firebelcher will take steps to protect the Golem when it can. The Golem will double slam and rampage it's way through the mass of attackers while the Firebelcher stays at range Bleching and blasting Fire at groups of targets.

Treasure: None

Encounter 2: 10th Level, 2700xp; The Backdoor

3	Marching Hammer (DDI)	Level 10 Brute	500	Dungeon 161, page 76 (The Temple Between)
6	Horde Ghoul (DDI)	Level 13 Minion	200	Monster Manual, page 118 (Ghoul)

Tips: The Hammers are protecting A lesser entrance to the compound while the Ghouls feast upon the corpses of the fallen. The Two groups act independently and with out regard for each other. The Ghouls are fond of Scaling up the near by walls and leaping upon victims. While the Hammers will charge anyone coming within 10 squares of the entrance.
Treasure: Lot 10 is mixed amongst the near by stack of corpses.

Encounter 3: 10th Level, 2700xp Security Checkpoint

1	Skull Lord (DDI)	Level 10 Artillery (Leader)	500	Monster Manual, page 236 (Skull Lord)
1	Feygrove Choker (DDI)	Level 12 Lurker	700	Monster Manual, page 42 (Choker)
2	Foulspawn Berserker (DDI)	Level 9 Soldier	400	Monster Manual, page 112 (Foulspawn)
2	Mummy Guardian (DDI)	Level 8 Brute	350	Monster Manual, page 192 (Mummy)

Tips: The Lord, Berserkers and Guardians are on patrol of this area together, The Choker is acting as a spy for the Cloaked Figure. The Lord will remain at range while the Guardians and Berserkers close with the opposition. The Choker will attempt to grab and Choke or Fetter Targets that separate them selves from the larger group (specifically Artillery and Lurkers).
Treasure: Lot #2 is in a fine wooden case with the Lord.

Encounter 4: 10th Level, 2650xp Recrute Pre-Proccessing.

3	Warped Ghoul (DDI)	Level 10 Brute	500	Dungeon 161, page 94 (Touch of Madness)
2	Trap Haunt (DDI)	Level 8 Lurker	350	Monster Manual, page 116 (Ghost)
3	Legion Devil Hellguard (DDI)	Level 11 Minion	150	Monster Manual, page 64 (Devil)

Tips: This vile smelling, nauseating chamber is filled with bodies of the fallen awaiting "Recruitment" in to the Cloaked Figure's Army. The Ghouls and Devils are sorting bodies into seemingly arbitrary piles. The Trap Haunts are seen drifting about looking for Living targets to Possess (Once successful one will assault the Devils until they are dead, the Other will start rummaging through the corpse piles looking for a lost possession).
Treasure: Lot #9

Encounter 5: 11th Level, 3250xp

1	Swarmtongue Hydra (DDI)	Level 13 Elite Skirmisher	1600	Draconomicon: Chromatic Dragons, page 213 (Draconic Parasite)
1	Troll (DDI)	Level 9 Brute	400	Monster Manual, page 254 (Troll)
10	Vampire Spawn Bloodhunter (DDI)	Level 10 Minion	125	Monster Manual, page 259 (Vampire)

Tips: The Troll is Preening the Hydra under the harsh eyes of the mob of Bloodhunters. When combat breaks out the Spawn will mob targets farthest from the Hydra while the troll attemps to heard the group tward the Hydra.
Treasure: Lots #7 & #8

Encounter 6: 11th Level, 3150xp; Outer Chamber of the Fiend

18

Snaketongue Zealot (DDI)

Level 12 Minion

175

Monster Manual, page 272 (Yuan-Ti)

Tips: The Zealots are guarding the dark shrine of the Master and will fight to the death for her.
Treasure: None

Encounter 7: 11th Level, 3150xp; Sanctum of the Fallen

4	Bugbear Bloodghost Hunter (DDI)	Level 8 Skirmisher	350	Dragon 366, page 69 (Bloodghost Syndicate)
10	Twisted One Minion (DDI)	Level 12 Minion	175	Dungeon 157, page 78 (In the Depths of Avarice)

Tips: The Hunters lurk in hiding amongst the elaborate and debased tapestries allowing the Twisted Ones to act as bait. Once attackers are engaged with the Twisted Ones the Hunters will Use Blur of Movement and Slayers Assault to ambush the party from the rear.
Treasure: Lots #1 & #6

Encounter 8: 13th Level, 4000xp; The Cloaked Figure

Fomorian Dark Initiate (DDI)

Level 13 Solo Controller

4000

P1: King of the Trollhaunt Warrens, page 16 (Fomorian)

Tips: She is ready for the Party and will Lead with Double Spell to blanket the attackers with pain and confusion. She will target Artillery with an Evil Eye. Blasing away with Black Flame or Mind Wrack until either she is hit by a melee attack OR her Double Spell recharges. While batting Away close attackers with her staff. Bloodied Inivisbilty and Shadow Gaze are used against close attackers.

Given the Choice she will Take a Dark Step to close with softer targets that have seperated from the melee group, preferably exchanging places with a martial defender so that she might have some time with a divine or archane artillery figure.
Treasure: #3, #4, #5 , #6

Major Quest 10th Level: 2,700 xp

Village of Potshearth: Overview

A tiny industrial village on the coast known for its pottery.

Population: 550 with another 230 in the country side. The people of Potshearth are humans, dwarves, dragonborn (in the highland desert), and a few halflings. A family of Eldran dwell in the castle.

Government: Mercantile Democracy, over seen by Lady Netha the regional representative for the government and leader of the towns guards. All matters of importance to the town are voted upon by those who are interested in the issue. Each person receives 1 vote. Those with a greater stake can purchase additional votes by paying 1 gp to the town for each additional vote desired. The revenue generated by purchased votes goes into the towns coffers with 10% being skimmed off to the lady and the land.

Defense: there are only 20 standing guards housed in the blue keep at any one time. Though the lady can call up to 200 militia in time of need as every able bodied person is trained in basic combat during the winter seasons.

Industry: The Kilnmasters Clan run a successful ceramics business, which is, along with some high grade olive oil from the Grovekin's orchards, are the major exports of the town. Internally the town is more than sufficient in food production with vegatables, saltrice and fish being the primary staples.Traders comming from the highland mines and further up the coast often pass through the town. Frequently small ships beach here during low tide to take on freight and an occasional passenger or two

Taverns: Blue Crock Inn; Bouncing Cup; The Blue Crock Inn Services road travelers, merchants and plays comunity center during voting times; It has a common sleeping room plus a small number of private rooms. The Bouncing cup is located on the shore and is only open when a ship has beached, and offers little more than cheep beer and a kind of warm spot to sleep it off.

Supplies: Mith acts as a coordinator between buyers and sellers. She occupies a table at the Blue Crock, though is more often seen ridding about town on her painted horse. The Blue keep is home to the only smith in town who can craft weapons or armor to order but is allowed to sell older items from the armory.

Temples: The Allshine is home to a number of priests of the various, more popular gods.

Note: map created with Campaign Cartorgapher with City Designer. 

Released under the creative commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license. 

Social Rituals: River Master

Level: 8	Component Cost: 1350
Category: Social	Market Price: 6800 gp
Time: 20 minutes	Key Skill: Nature/Religion
Duration: 1 season

When begining this ritual any number of participants may assist in the casting by chanting along with the primary ritual caster: they do not need to know the ritual or be skilled in any way other than being able to speak and understand caster's instructions. For every 10 untrained participants there is a +1 accumulative modifier to the skill check.

By calling on ancient spirits/deities/primordial powers a mass of participants can ward a length of river bank against flooding. During the duration of this ritual a warded river will not cross the boundries that it had at the time of the ritual's casting, with the river's flow increasing speed to make for any extra volumn of water during times of flood.

This ritual has no effect upon Elemental water creatures. This ritual will not prevent storm surges and has no effect upon ocean water; Nor will the ritual prevent water from other sources (flash floods) from inundating the affected area, or affect water entering the area from an unwarded stretch father upstream; It must be cast upon running water in the form of a stream or river.

Check Result	River Area Protected
9 or lower	1 square
10-19	10 squares
20-29	100 squares
30-39	1000 squares
40 or higher	10,000 squares

Many Towns and City's make the ritual a part of spring time celebrations to prevent disastrous floods with in the comunities' confines.

It should be noted that by casting this ritual during the dry season it is possible to keep seasonal streams from flowing, though the water will go elsewhere.
(Edit: fixed typos pointed out by SpiralBound)

Social Rituals: Indulgence of the Fire God

Level: 1	Component Cost: 5 gp
Category: Social	Market Price: 25 gp
Time: 1 minute	Key Skill: Nature/Arcana
Duration: 1 year

This ritual only has an effect if cast in an area warded by the ritual "Blessing of the Fire God": It will create a 1 square area that is unaffected by the "Blessing" and fires can be started as normal in that area; Elemental Fire creatures take no damage from the blessing; Magic fires are unaffected. 

This ritual is normally cast upon wealthy town people's hearths and in their kitchens to allow for a more comfortable life style. 

Social Rituals: Blessing of the Fire God

Level: 6	Component Cost: 1400
Category: Social	Market Price: 3600 gp
Time: 20 minutes	Key Skill: Nature/Arcana
Duration: 1 year

When begining this ritual any number of participants may assist in the casting by chanting along with the primary ritual caster: they do not need to know the ritual or be skilled in any way other than being able to speak and understand caster's instructions. For every 10 untrained participants there is a +1 accumulative modifier to the skill check.

By calling on ancient spirits/deities/primordial powers a mass of participants can ward dwellings in the affected area against normal fires. During the duration of the ritual normal fires difficult to start within dwellings and are quickly extinguished if they are started. 1 square of normal fires will be extinguished every round by the affects of this ritual. Further more the ritual imposes a -5 ritual penalty to Nature skill checks for the purposes of starting a normal fire.

Magical fires suffer a -1 ritual penalty to damage. Elemental fire creatures will also take 1 point of cold damage at the end of their turn (no save) while in the area of effect.

Check Result	Radius Protected
9 or lower	1 square
10-19	10 squares
20-29	100 squares
30-39	1000 squares
40 or higher	10,000 squares

Many Towns and City's make the ritual a part of spring time celebrations to prevent disastrous fires with in the confines, though it can make day to day living a bit more difficult. (See tomorrow's Indulgence of the Fire God).

My Top 10 Favorite Monsers

Several other blogs that I read have been doing the their top ten favorite monsters (here, here, here, and here). Not being one to miss a meme I present to you mine. (Though most are OD&D).

1. Medusa: A nicely proportion gal with looks that can kill.
   
2. Beholder: It's smart, it's evil, and it can Nerf casters with a glance.
   
3. Gas spore: a worthless monster other than psyching out those players who memorized the Monster Manual.
   
4. Crypt Thing: It' looks like a lich, but more chatty. Once you honk it off it will "disintegrates" a party member by teleporting them a thousand miles away (or paralyzing them and making them invisible).
5. Rust Monster: I love seeing the Fighter types scream and move to the back of the party when this cute little beast shows up.
   
6. Lich:Undead arch mages or high priests, great behind the scenes villains, and hard core combatants when prepared.
   
7. Shuggoth/Gibbering Mouther: I was privileged to have the First Edition Deities and Demigods that contained the Cthulthu Mythos. The Gibbering Mouther is an obvious nod to the truly frightening Shuggoth: 10 tons of Jello sprinkled with eyes, mouths and limbs that just want to give you a full body hug.
   
8. Drow: A late addition to the OD&D school, but very capable opponents with no real weaknesses. I also enjoyed the "take back" effect that their equipment had. The DM could hand out tons of +5 magic items only to have them become worthless in the surface world.
   
9. Xorn: Treasure eating, trilateral symmetric, intelligent rock. Aside from the Gibbering Mouther it's the most alien of the OD&D creatures.
   
10. Flesh Golem: Frankenstein's Monster in D&D form. Strong, largely invulnerable, but can get a little crazy every now and then.
    

My Game Prep

I am blessed to be a part of a consistent gaming group that has a bounty of GM's (no less than 4), so we frequently alternated between two different games: Currently we are going between a GURPS adaptation of Mass Effect and my 4E intro; Previously it was 3.5 D&D using classic modules ; Everquest; A home brewed 3.5 setting (soon to be published) ; Starwars and so on. 

Regardless, this alternation allows me some luxury in terms of prep time: On the odd weeks when I don't run, I get to explore, experiment, and play with ideas. On the weeks that I do run, I knuckle down and generate content.  All the while I turn ideas over in my head. 

When prepping I try to keep 3 rules in mind: 

1. Keep it fun
   
2. Don't over prep
   
3. If the players don't see it (or it's effects), it might as well not have happened. 
   

So learning CC3, Dungjinni and The Gimp are fun. But I am only creating what I need to run and only what the players will "See". 

When I set up encounters I only create 3-4 of them (that is about all the group will get through in the 2-3 hours of productive play that we have).  Though I do keep in mind what might be coming. 

For "Grand Plots" I will make notes, but no plot is set in stone until I bring them to the table. 

I do this because I am a firm believer in the dual edged quantum nature of plots: If players don't observe a plot it doesn't exist. However, until the players observe the plot it can be anything I want it to be, thus I can change it as I see fit.  This allows me the luxury of not having to figure out everything in advance and the adaptability to match step with the players interest. 

I have learned the joys of "Filing off the serial numbers" on creatures, especially in 4E where no-one has memorized the Monster Manual. So an Orc, goblin or Hobgoblin becomes a "Wig", Or a Kobold becomes a "Claw Foot". I have grabbed stat blocks off of DDI and renamed as I see fit. So what was a Thuggish Cultist now be came a Wig Devote. 

On the previous off week:

I produced some Photo Comps of the Temple and a near by village

Gave thought to the social implications of a Glyph based language, and Mechanically affected Immortality on a small, elite, yet diverse population.

Worked on local maps in CC3 (still trying to get good at that).   

During the on week I:

Generated some encounters with Asmor, only 4 of them. 

threw together some battle maps in Dunginni.

Made scant notes about how I though things may play out. 

Printed chits and maps. 

Enough rambling, I need to find a Magic item suitable for a bard...

Playing with Campaign Cartographer

Here is what I've done while following this set of video tutorials for the second time.

They were instructive and reasonably easy, it helps that I had done 

some playing on my own.

Quick Memorable Names

As a good GM I try to have list of NPC names handy when I run. I've used imdb, looking up genera relevant movies and mixing Actor and Character names (Though Mark Skywalker didn't work so well, but Luke Hamel did); I've used census data and name generators to modest success; I jumbled sounds/letters together with less success. 

I recently hit upon a naming scheme that seems to work so far:

Take the name of anyone you know (co-workers, classmates, relatives) and remove the first letter so that Smith becomes Mith; Carter becomes Arter; Tim becomes Im and so on. 

The nice part is that I can remember them latter when I write up my notes. 

Snork