Each player starts the game with 10 tokens numbered 1-10. When the characters find a treasure the GM merely indicates which parcels are in the treasure and what level the treasure is. The players then decide which of them is going to spend the tokens to obtain that treasure. The tokens remain spent until all the players tokens have been spent, at which point they refresh. If the treasure parcel includes a choice then the player who spent that token gets to decide what the treasure is.

The GM then only needs to keep a record of which tokens have been spent so he can plan which parcels of treasure to include in his adventures.

I ran the adventure twice and things went quite well. The adventure consted of the party coming to a seemingly abandoned town and trying to figure out what happened. (The Town was called weeping briar, which is DnD for LV-426). The first encounter has the characters come upon a band of monsters looking for a little girl who should have been named Newt.

A fight ensues and we go directly to the second encounter a skill challenge that was way too easy. it had the players chasing down the little girl, cornering her and calming her down so she could tell them the story of what happened. She then asks the party to save her parents from the monsters. T

he party proceeds through two more combat encounters and frees the villagers.

Since this was supposed to be an introductory adventure I cut the hit points of the monsters in half. This was a good call as it allowed me to run the adventure in a shorter time and encounters ended while they were still fun and before tedium set in.

The pregenerated characters were weird. 4 of the 5 used classes from the new players hand book 2, yet only one used a new race from that book. The character sheets were also riddled with errors. Why didn’t WotC use their own character creator program to make the characters T

he maps were generated using the Streets of Shadow dungeon tiles and could have been done better. the map for the third encounter was really bad. it was hard to tell where things like the entrance was.

Overall I think the adventure could have been a lot better, and it felt like it was just thrown together by a WotC intern. If you are going to send out materials to promote your game shouldn’t those materials be top-notch?

The first group was not as mechanically inclined, one of them had never played 4e before, but they were still fun. The paladin got pinned down by the mezzodaemon and couldn’t do much for the whole last encounter, and curly the barbarian couldn’t hit anything to save his life. the gloomfell trap also got the avenger pretty good in the first group.

the second group was much more knowledgeable about the game mechanics and quickly figured out how the characters worked. they punked the main bad guy hard with the two strikers. One of the guys from the second group was also at game day last year.

Here are some of the awesome things that happened. Just like last years game day, another group playing an older version of DnD made some disparaging remarks about how 4e isn’t real DnD. I didn’t point out to him that the two tables hosting 4e games had a number of attractive women sitting at them (later in the day we had as many as 5 tables of people playing the game day adventure)

In my first group one player, one of the aforementioned women, pointed out to her boyfriend who was playing the bard that his power was to hurt peoples feelings. He kept using vicious mockery on the bad guys.

So, what have I been up to?

Working mostly.

My DnD game is still going well. we are just over 2/3rds of the way through the Rise of the Runelords. We still have all the same problems with scheduling and such but those are pretty normal and we are dealing with it. Our gaming group added a new player and he is working out well, although I haven’t heard much from him in the last couple of weeks.

I still have lots of ideas for role-playing campaigns and no time to actually play them.

Five Guys Burgers and Fries opened a couple of new stores in my neck of the woods and I am an addict. THey have a few problems with decor, but the food is good enough to keep me coming back. I am a big fan of restaraunts with a small well focused menu and Five Guys does that. The price is a bit high, but quality costs.

We spent the winter continuing to clean out the fort, and Devron used his new teleporting skills to acquire equipment and supplies for the group.

As winter began to fade, one day we found a bird arrived with a not attached to it. It was from Shalaylu, and it stated that giants were begining to mass apparently for attacks, Devron also had heard rumors of this on his trips to the cities.

We teleported to Sandpoint, and talked to the Mayor about the rumors and Shalaylu’s note. He stated that he had heard the rumors, but had no concrete information, and Shalaylu was not in town currently.

The next morning we were awakened by the sound of stone smashing into stone, and quickly moved outside to investigate. We headed out toward the north part of town where the commotion was. We found that standing outside of the north gate were 3 giants wearing think pelts. They were shouting out taunts in broken common, and throwing rocks attempting to break the gate.

We moved onto the battlements, and Alana started shooting arrows, while Devron cast several spells. We continued the ranged fight, when suddenly we heard cries from the other side of town. Splitting the group Alana and Devron continued the ranged fight, while the others went to investigate. However the giants at the gate quickly turned and fled once Alana downed one of them.

At Tanners bridge the saw 2 giants, and 3 dire bears marauding into town, and Brock and DT moved to engage them, while Devron and Alana came over.

The fight between the party and the bears and giants was tough, and Inara was knocked unconscious, but we were able to overcome them, however 2 new threats appeared, 3 giants on the hill began to pelt the town with boulders, and a red dragon began strafing the town with its breath weapon.

The dragon finally landed on the cathedral and began shouting out taunts, as we began attacking it with our ranged attacks. We continued making ranged attacks until Devron lured him to the ground with a well placed cone of cold, although he was knocked unconscious by the dragons counter attack, however DT charged into the fray damaging the dragon heavily, and he fled. Upon seeing the dragon flee, the giants also turned tail and fled.

Everything that goes through my phone is data, yet I have to have separate plans for voice, data, text…..etc. yet they don’t give you a tube of vaseline with the phone. A text message should actually be less taxing on the network then a voice message yet the phone carriers convinced everyone that paying 20 cents a text message is acceptable.

My friend wants to use his phone as a sort of cellular modem when he is in areas with no wireless access. he has a data plan for his phone and can get the internet on his phone but moving that data over to his computer requires yet more money on top of his cellular plan. Why? the data is already at the phone, why can’t I just move the bits over to a computer through their overpriced proprietary connector cable.

Much of my software is moving towards a yearly subscription model, and it is set up such that is you don’t renew the subscription every year you lose the use of your existing version as well since the liscence expires.

I live in a fairly dry area where we are encouraged to conserve water, so I try to conserve. However then the local water company doesn’t generate the revenue since I am not using as much water and they raise my rates.

This kind of stuff really annoys me and most people just allow it to happen making it the norm therefore telling all the companies that this sort of structure is acceptable.

“We returned to the town and found that they were doing well with the rebuilding and while the river was still running high, it was back to a manageable level.

We returned to the castle and continued to clean it up while identifying many of the magic items we had.

At the castle we began seeing something out of the corner of our eyes, and on day a small Fey like creature about 2 feet tall with gossamer wings stepped out from behind a pile of books Devron was working with. He had puffy eyes as if he had been crying. He talked of his mistress being sick, and that we were friends with her human. We found that he was the lord of this castle (now deceased, we found the love letters to Miriana) He said that she weeped in Whitewillow, mourning him.

We immediately prepared to go, and set out. While the rains had let up, the chill of the approaching winter was in the air. As we moved into Whitewillow, we saw what the Fey was talking about, as we found twisted black gnarled trees rising from black pools, and they seemed to shift and move when not looking at them. We found large spiders, and dying birds, and strange creatures slithering in the foulness.

As we continued forward we came to a pool of what appeared to be clean water, but without any algae or life in it. Examining it, it appeared to be poisoned. Moving ahead with caution we continued in.

As we moved deeper we were suddenly surrounded by a parade of Fey and animal spirits cavorting around us, moving to embrace us, and passing through us. While most of us were unaffected, DT was unable to resist their magic, and it burned him.

Next we came across a ship covered in moss, hundreds of miles from any shore. Entering we found what appered to be the captian an opal encrusted goblet in his hand, sheets of unheard music on a harpsichord, and charts alien to any of us. Turning around we saw a white dog with milky white eyes watching us… He watched us for a minute, then disappeared back into the swamp. Devron took the charts and the music, leaving the goblet for the captain.

Continuing on we came to a clearing where the wind blew, but no trees moved, as if they were dead. The Pixie Yap told us that Miriana waited within, but he dared not enter.

Stepping into the clearing we immediately saw a ghostly form of a Nymph and Devron immediately struck blind by her beauty even though it was marred as her arms were separated from her torso with bands of tendon still keeping them. Her eyes were wells of torment that would drive anyone meeting their stare to gibbering children.

She immediately started blaming us for failing Lamatar, and failing Fort Rannick. Devron challenged he back stating that we were did what we could for Fort Rannick, and were trying to avenge what was done. She seemed to get some composure, and then told us that she wanted some part of her lover, and for him to be avenged.

Leaving to do just that she called after us again to avenge her, and brink her lover back.

We returned to the fort rested up, recovering Devron’s blindness, and set out for Hook Mountain, the home of the Ogres. Alana was able to find some trails used by large humanoids. Climbing up as we crested the top we found it snowing and found a large cave entrance with smoke pouring forth from it, instantly dispersed by the wind.

With the howling wind, and blowing we were able to get reasonably close before seeing, and being seen by 2 ogre sentries. We moved into combat, and while DT took a few hits, he hit back for more, and we were able to dispatch them.

Moving into the cave we immediately saw an enormous statue of a huge giant with a glaive, and elaborate armor, as well as an amulet of a familiar 7 pointed star.

There was a stair leading down and a cave from which the smoke we saw from outside was coming out. Moving into the cave from which the smoke was coming we saw a large pit from which the smoke was coming out, and the stench of decay.

Finding nothing we headed down the stairs. At the base of the stairs it opened up into a larger cavern, and 3 ogres immediately called out an alarm as they saw us. DT, and Brock moved into intercept 2 of them, and Devron shot 3 scorching rays at the 3^rd, killing him. The last 2 were quickly dispatched, but we heard several ogres coming from one of the next rooms. We braced for their attack, and Devron threw a fireball into the group of the, taking out several of them.

The remaining ones moved in to attack us, but we had them at a bottleneck in the cave. With the bottleneck we were able to overcome them although Brock took several hard hits.

Checking the room that the ogres came from turned out to be a forge that was the source of the smoke. Searching the room provided nothing.

Taking another of the passages lead us down some stairs into a large cavern. It was rather foul smelling and full of rotting body parts, although the worst smell came from a large pot around which 3 hags were working. As they spotted us they immediately ordered their “pet” to attack us.

We entered combat, and they immediately cursed DT, and their “pet” turned out to be a reanimated Black Arrow covered in frost and with one of his hands being a large icicle claw. Inara was able to destroy the undead, and Devron dispatched one of the hags with a set of scorching rays.

The remaining hags moved in to attack, but DT and Brock inflicted major damage, but the final hag knocked out Brock before being dispatched.

Moving into the next cavern we found a shrine to Lamashtu with a large statue of her.

Taking the last passage we found a huge passage that opened up to the outside on the ceiling and it was lined with statues. At the far end was a huge throne of stone upon which sat a huge stone giant, flanked by a stone giant and the Lamia from Fort Rannick that escaped.

We were quite a distance from them so Devron hasted the party and we began to move in. The giants threw rocks, but Brock moved in doing major damage to the Lamia, and Alana continuously pelted them with arrows. We took heavy damage from the giants, and the Lamia was draining wisdom, but after a long fight, we finally overcame them.”