DreamLyrics™ Play-by-Post Forums Hall of Fame - Latest Top 10 completed games HHE: The Haunted Helm OOC: Drizzle

OK, Neptune's asked about 13th Age history and how familiar his character is with it.

Well, Jex would be very familiar with it, but here's the twist, the 13th Age doesn't have a history per se.

We know there have been 13 ages.

We know the event that started the 1st Age was the hero defeating the Wizard King (using dragon riders) and founding the Dragon Empire. Centuries later, giants sacked the Dwarven Kingdoms and razed Axis, heralding the 2nd Age. Few other time scales are ever given in the material, that's for us to decide.

Also, some events are mentioned as possibly ended one age and started another, even if it doesn't mention which age.

To give us a head start, I've put together a "best fit" timeline.

• 13th Age - 100 ya to present day. The Diabolist unleashes a zombie plague on the Empire. More recently, the Priestess cured the plague and a new Orc Lord arose
• 12th Age - 300 ya. The Blue is subjugated by the Dragon Emperor and the Archmage. The City of New Port is founded by refugees from Drakkenhall
• 11th Age - 500 ya. The Midland Sea is tamed by the Blessed Emperor, all of its monsters driven into the East beyond the Koru Straits
• 10th Age - 600 ya
• 9th Age - 800 ya. The Abyss opens. The Great Gold Wyrm sacrifices itself to hold it closed
• 8th Age - 1000 ya. The Golden Age of the Dwarves is ended by the war with the Elves. Drow flood the Deep Underworld with poisonous gas and the Dwarves are driven back to the surface
• 7th Age - 1200 ya
• 6th Age - 1500 ya
• 5th Age - 1700 ya
• 4th Age - 1900 ya
• 3rd Age - 2100 ya. The Lich King rises from the grave on his former island capital, now known as Necropolis
• 2nd Age - 2400 ya. An army of giants sack the Dwarf Kingdoms and raze Axis†
• 1st Age - 3000 ya. Wizard King is defeated by an army of metallic dragon riders and "orcs" created by the elves. The Dragon Empire is founded, the first Orc Lord is slain in the battle†
• Pre-History - 3000+ ya. Wizard King slays the White in battle, creating the wild magic region known as the Moonwreck*

When the Wizard King battled the White, it was said to have caused the Moonwreck, a region of wild magic and devastation to the north-west of the Empire. (It's marked on the official map.)

The blanks are indeed blanks.

Dragons

The Primal Chromatic Dragons, White, Green, Blue, Black and Red, are all associated with evil and elements in evil form. The Blue is dark sorcerery and air, the Black is murder, betrayal, and earth. The Red is wanton destruction and fire. The White was associated with death magic, ghosts and the Moon (its own element). The Green's fate is lost to history, but it would have been disease, poison, and water.

The earliest white dragons, the Primevals, were said to have had power over the dead, and increase/decrease in potency by the phases of the Moon. They could summon blizzards with one malign thought. Since then, white dragons have fragmented into subtypes, each of which might possess one of these abilities but not all.

Well it was nice playing with you all. But I fear that you may have to continue on with out me very soon <g>

But sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do <wink>

Seyja is doing her dead level best to protect Weston.

Of course, it might get her killed, too.

Are we on initiative now? Considering Gathering Power which the dragon is occupied?

Generally speaking, you only need to gather power against a single foe. It doubles the damage of your spell, yes, but at the cost of a full round casting time.

So against a single foe, you might as well attack on your first round and on your second.

Against multiple foes, where you might want to use your area effect spell, gathering power makes more sense.

If your area effect spell is high damage (like Tindarien's Lightning Fork) it can also be useful to gather power vs a particularly nasty foe, even if it's alone (like this white wyrm).

Initiative is now being rolled, so you can state your intent for the first round of combat.

It was Lightning fork I was intending to cast and I figured the first round the dragon would be distracted, depends on initiative I guess

A really fascinating round ahead, guys. I've just rolled it. One of those full gore rounds, for both you and the dragon, and it leaves you both having done a load of damage and starting the next round in a precarious place, due to specials.

The dragon starts the round dazed (-4 to attack), due to Zoltan's Curse of Chaos, whilst everyone in the party except D, Nestaron and Tindarien, start in the dragon's Wreath of Snow and Cold and take 5 damage straight off the bat.

Gypsy, Tindarien gains a +1 to attack vs undead, but the dragon is not undead, even if it's a powerful necromancer. You the player do have a chit, that gives you +1 to attack and damage vs the Beast, when you cash it in. (You can do that whenever you want, it's meta-game.)

Neptune. I also discovered an anomaly with Jex. He doesn't have Song of Heroes!? He used it previously and failed the recharge roll. So what I've done is swap Charm (not used in HHE so far) for Song of Heroes, and to make up for the inconvenience, given you a free recharge, so you can use Song of Heroes in this battle as intended.

[ooc: Thanks. That works better.]

I'll bear that in mind, thanks!

Wow. Didn't get much done last night with Storm Barney wreaking havoc. Look for the GM post today!

Love the idea of the Jex song book!!!

It took me an hour to write that verse!

I've added what I could find to Jex's Playbook.

The idea of 13th Age is that you create the canon as you go along, so we should record it as best as possible.

I think we're all enjoying and admiring your bardic contributions, Nep. Don't feel that you have to keep us entertained with every post though, I wouldn't want posting to become laborious for you.

Next up I should probably make a glossary, of all the things we've determined about the setting for ourselves.

Healing

OK, you are fighting a dragon. It's a very old, decrepit and greviously wounded dragon, but you are 1st level characters. You almost certainly will need healing.

Since you heal using the same system (recoveries) whether you're in or out of combat, healing is never wasted and there's never a bad time to heal, as such. Nestaron and Zoltan can heal others, Jex can also, though it's more random.

What other healing do you have?

D, Jex, Tindarien, and Weston have healing potions. You can consume a potion as a standard action, which still leaves you a quick action and a move action in that turn. So you generally can't consume a potion and attack with melee or ranged, but you might have other powers that only use a quick or move action.

All of your powers will state whether they use a quick, move or standard action.

Seyja has a player chit. A meta-game chit that Exeter can cash in for a free recovery at any time. The only caveat is that he has to describe what it is that gives Seyja this sudden revitalisation. Memories, emotions, etc.

Also keep in mind that Zoltan can "absorb" half the damage someone else takes from an attack 1x/battle.

Aye. He's already done that actually, saved Jex's bacon in the first round.

I've resolved the second round, and it plays like the polar opposite of the first round. No-one hit, not even the dragon, except Nestaron who did an amazing 3 damage with his sling so doesn't really count--- frankly, most of the PCs do more damage than that, even when they miss!

Almador hit and triggered his Next Attack Heavy power, for the first time in HHE, and did 10 damage, which was still less damage than Tindarien missing with his Empowered Lightning Fork, which did 14 damage!!

However, the ongoing damage from the dragon's Blizzard Breath and its Wreath of Snow and Cold is having a devastating effect on the front-line combatants. At least D dished out some ongoing damage of his own, triggering his Cruel racial power in the previous round.

Ok ... Weston has 'Tough as Iron' ... which says he can Rally as a quick action. It seems like a good time for him to 'suck it up' and renew his commitment to killing this abomination.

Weston does not appear to have Tough As Iron, but he does have a potion of healing.

Hmmmm ... it is on my copy of the char sheet ...

Huh. Well, here's the sheet I've been running from.

I'll have a quick flick through the previous threads. If Weston hasn't used Heavy Warrior before, I don't see the harm in swapping it out for Tough As Iron.

Neal - what does "Staggered" mean (in stat terms)?

"Staggered" is short-hand for being at half hit points. It has no further effect itself, but you might notice that various powers only trigger against staggered targets or when you yourself are staggered.

For example, D's Deadly Thrust can only be used against a staggered enemy.

There's no stat effect, unlike Dazed, =4 to attack, suffered by the dragon in the first round, after triggering Zoltan's Curse of Chaos racial power by rolling a natural 3 to hit.

D also managed to trigger his racial power, Cruel, in the first round, inflicting 5 ongoing damage (save on natural 11+) by hitting with a natural even.

Having said that, Almador also triggered the dragon's Whipping Tail, by rolling a natural 2 to hit, and the dragon's Wreathed in Snow and Cold power more than makes up any bad luck its had so far.

This power inflicts 5 damage on a PC if they're engaged with the dragon at the start of their turn. It's a very compelling reason not to go toe-to-toe with it, but alas, someone has to.

MikeD. I couldn't find any use of Heavy Warrior, so it's entirely your call. Heavy Warrior or Tough As Iron. I'd say in normal circumstances, Heavy Warrior would be more useful for Weston, as he might want to use his quick action to reload his bow. Fighting this dragon, Tough As Iron is almost certainly better.

Not sure how we got out of sync <sigh> But, yeah, that would be great. Thanks. Tough As Iron was more in keeping with what I had in mind for Weston <g>

Yeah, these PDF character sheets have proven a bit fickle. Firstly, the PDF file is written and read differently, depending on the PDF reader used. (So much for standards!)

Secondly, the reader doesn't allow you to save over an open file, so once you've edited it, you have to save as a copy, then manually delete the original and rename the copy before uploading.

Still, we don't update them very often so I think they'll do. Changed that for you, MikeD. Recommend opening the char sheet and hitting F5 to refresh, lemme know if anything's incorrect.

Thanks Neil. Looks good now <g>

I presume I got my chaos benefit from gathering power last round?

Also, as I failed, don't think I can cast lightning fork again this battle?