GoCorral

This session was done using Google Hangouts for all the participants. Will, Trajan, and Jamie attended. Ave’s character faded into the background for this session (The old, he’s there, but the monsters ignore him and he takes no actions).

This was the first time we had players attend the game with no primary location. In the past it has just been Trajan or Will skyping into the session. This time we ALL did. I used a handheld web-camera that I connected to my laptop and pointed at the battle-mat on my bed. I swiveled on my chair between my desk and my bed to move the miniatures and interact with the players. When we weren’t using the battle-mat I used the camera on my laptop for normal video chat. It worked really well for the initial steps in going virtual.

A Training Accident

A few days previously Wu Lang Li and Gregor were practicing unarmed fighting in the yard when eight Rebel recruits came over to them. A big human from the group threw two swords on the ground in front of the characters. A dwarf among the soldiers said, “Pick ’em up.”
Wu and Gregor ignored the recruits and continued working on punching some dummies.
The big human came forward and grabbed Wu’s shirt, turning him around. The human got up in Wu’s face and sneered, “Didn’t you hear him? He said, ‘Pick it up.’”

Wu shoved the recruit away. The recruit roared and drew his own sword. Wu grabbed one of the swords from the ground to defend himself. Gregor decided to only use his fists and prove the gap between his strength and the Rebel recruits. Gregor knocked out one of the recruits. As his target folded, Gregor flew into a rage and jumped on the downed foe. He used both elbows to deal a hammer blow to the recruit’s head, pulping it beneath him. Wu took down the big human, but the numbers proved tough for the pair of former dragovinians. The flanking attacks of the other recruits drew blood from Wu and he fell unconscious. Gregor managed to knock out another recruit and kill another one before he too went under. Meanwhile officers were shouting and other enlisted men were rushing over.

The characters drifted in and out of unconsciousness while in the Rebel’s infirmary. Eventually they woke up with Major Dactirian standing over them. He told them he was very disappointed in them. They would be leaving the base on a mission once they were better to avoid anymore “training accidents.”

The Alpha Wolf

After the training accident the party had traveled northwest to find the wolves of Semanarie. They’d found them, but the wolves attacked and almost killed them. They were rescued by the timely arrival of everyone’s favorite animate vehicle, Stevie the Wonder Wagon!

Gregor, Sivirdm, Stanton, Wu, and Elerie woke up on Stevie’s back. After a discussion the group decided that they needed to bribe the wolves. They hunted some deer down to use as an offering. Stevie’s tuned senses allowed the Rebels to track the wolves to their lair, a burrow in the side of a hill. Stevie said that he probably shouldn’t be seen by the wolves, so he ran off. The characters set the deer before the entrance to the wolf den when the sun was setting.

A large wolf emerged from the wolf den covered in red scales and smelling of brimstone. The alpha wolf had been turned into a dragovinian! Stanton attempted to talk with the wolf using the speak with animals necklace. The wolf asked how the halfling spoke wolf. Stanton referred to the necklace. The wolf came forward and put its paw on Stanton. It pushed him down to sniff the necklace and the halfling.

Gregor moved to grab his weapons. Elerie and Wu Lang Li chose to back away from the wolf instead in case it breathed fire. The wolf began to growl at Gregor. The two of them circled each other. Stanton kept insisting that they calm down and talk it out. The wolf stopped circling and smoke began to emanate from its nostrils. Gregor maintained eye contact (considered threatening to wolves). Only when the wolf tensed to lunge did Gregor break eye contact. The wolf decided that was good enough and went back to eat its deer offering.

Stanton asked it if it knew anything about the Druids’ Prophecy.
The alpha wolf grumbled, “Yes.”
Stanton said, “Could you tell us please?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“You don’t smell right.”
“How do we smell.”
“You smell like weaklings.”
The wolf finished its blood meal and then headed into the burrow. The normal wolves came out and ate from the deer without attacking the party.

What could the party do next? Their goal of claiming the Druids’ Prophecy seemed to hinge on either overpowering the wolves or convincing them to help willingly. Gregor suggested being more offensive and dominating as he’d been earlier in the staring contest with the wolf. He even tried urinating in front of the normal wolves. They looked up, looked back into the burrow, and then returned to eating. Gregor insisted that peeing on the wolves themselves was the answer, but the rest of the party restrained him.

Eventually the party decided that they needed to take this information to Major Dactirian. A dragovinian alpha wolf radically changed the situation they were expecting. Since they had Stevie, Rebel headquarters was only three hours away. They hopped in the wagon and slept a bit while on their way back through Bigby’s Forest.

Upon arriving at the Rebel hideout they saw a large battle happening amongst the Rebels themselves. The characters quickly saw that it was a mutiny by some of the newer recruits. Injured and dead were on the ground. The Rebel officers were all on one side, while the enlisted men were split between the two sides.