I thought I'd share a set of about 120 photos I took at Anime Weekend Atlanta this past weekend, mostly of cosplayers. All Safe For Work, per AWA's dress code policies...

First the madness. We had nine people in my group tonight. And I got an unexpected PK.

I'm not going to try to explain the whole session...It was incredibly chaotic, the party split into four active units, and a town was left in ruins. I'll tell you how that went, though...

The first active unit basically waited outside the town. The characters stayed out of trouble, but it meant the players were pretty much sitting there doing nothing for most of the session.

The second active unit was a ghost PC that decided he was going to haunt the (quite occupied) jail. We use the damage-dealing variant for turn undead. He had 12 hit points. The cleric had extra turning. And he failed his check to regen at his body in 1d4 days...So I got a PK because the player was an idiot. (In his defense, he was a 13-year-old kid who'd only been playing for three weeks. But that doesn't mean he wasn't an idiot as a player.) He later told me that what he'd done was incredibly stupid...

The third active unit is a character played by a guy known around here as Jinto Linn (or kilocmdrlinn). He investigated the cliche mysterious old abandoned mansion and found some key plot/quest items, getting torched by a trapped chest in the process. Then he hung out with the first active unit.

The fourth active unit raided the magic/weapons/armor shop in town. They told one of the characters (who was a bit unstable) to set fire to a couple houses at the outside of town, so the police and the mage who ran the shop would get drawn into efforts to put out the fire. That character (controlled by me, because the player was rolling up a more mellow character) went on an arson spree which included burning down the jail. The rest of the unit broke into the shop, set off a couple traps, and made off with a coffin full of loot. So now I have to figure out how much they got away with. And how much of it is traceable.

Incidentally, the coffin was being carried on the back of the party tank. It held the corpse of the ghost (as a place for the ghost to return to after 1d4 days) until they dumped it out and left it in the shop.

Now the logic. The group is splitting. I'm getting at least five of the players, one of my former players is going to run a Shadowrun campaign with at least two of the players, and another player is on the fence as to which campaign he'll go to.

I've got a dirty secret. I prefer playing as DM than as a player. The reason is simple...I don't like waiting.

When I'm a normal player, I have to wait for my turn. Depending on the number and quality of players (and I've been involved in an excessively large group with a few slowpokes in it.), that can be a lot of down time.

As a DM, every turn is my turn. Sure, it's harder; I've got to keep a bunch of people from getting bored, and I've got to fit a plot into the player chaos. I've got my faults as a DM, but I'm getting better at it. And I'm never bored. Frustrated and angry at times, but never bored. :-)

Fepic Ale was first brewed by a gnomish bard with a penchant for alcohol and pranks. His intent was to brew an unassuming alcohol that would reduce the stoutest of men into gibbering idiots. He used it to great effect in performances, daring anyone in his audience to take a pint and remain standing. If nobody took the dare, he would bring out his lovely assistant, who would offer to spend the evening with anyone who could take the pint and still talk intelligibly.

Some took the dare, but many jumped at the opportunity to prove themselves to the lovely assistant. For many years, nobody beat the drink.

However, one day the bard was introducing his new, beautiful and youthful--but legal--assistant to the crowd. Every man in town wanted to try for the young lady. The bard, making eight silver on every pint--and more than a little greedy--modified the wager. If, after two pints, the man was still standing, he would be allowed to spend the whole night with the assistant.

Well, if you flip a coin enough times, it will eventually stop on its edge.

Out of the hundred men who drank Fepic Ale that night, twelve died, eight-seven passed out--and one bear of a man remained standing. True to his word, the bard left his assistant in the hands of the man, who enjoyed himself to no end that night. Meanwhile, the bard, being responsible for the poisoning death of twelve men, fled town.

The next day, the assistant, sore in many ways, but mostly sore at the bard, was arrested by the town's sherrif. In exchange for her freedom, she offered to lead a group of deputies to the bard who concocted Fepic Ale.

They traveled for several days, and eventually caught up with the bard. The young woman was bound to a tree while the deputies confronted the bard. The bard resisted, and was killed in the struggle. The deputies freed the young woman before returning to their own town, leaving her all of the bard's posessions, sans one piece of parchment that had a recipe for an ale on it, which they had burned on the spot.

While she said nothing at the time, the young woman recognized that what they burned wasn't the recipe for Fepic Ale, but for a milder drink the bard had picked up in another town. After searching her new posessions, she discovered the true recipe, hidden in a pouch in the dead bard's clothing.

While the deputies swear they killed the bard and destroyed the recipe, there are occasional rumors of a performer daring and teasing audiences with Fepic Ale in towns small and large alike.

FEPIC ALE: Alcoholic beverege. Fort save DC 25 or be intoxicated. Fort save DC 16 or take 2d4 INT and 2d4 WIS damage.

Twice tonight, Comcast has blocked *.google.com. "reader.google.com" redirects to an MSN Live Search for "reader google", while "mail.google.com" redirects to an MSN Live Search for "mail google".

I guess it's time to bite the bulllet and reboot my router[1], so I can switch to OpenDNS.

[1] Meaning at least five minutes of No Internet, as a consequence of Comcast's modem sucking so badly.

So one of the PCs has the ability to detect magic at no expense. So
he tells me he's going to be continually casting detect magic.

Well, you know me, I don't plan details of my session far in advance.
So this poses a problem; It makes random generation of spoils after an
encounter impossible. And it raises questions of "well, he was in the
tavern with us, I should have detected it then" and other problems of
spontaneous backstory generation.

If he's going to poll continuously, I'll throw in some spam...

"Do I detect any magic?" "Yes."
"Where is it?" "On the ground below."
"What do I see there?" "A broken sword." (I think, "Hah! A useless
magic item. That's what you get.")
"Well, a sword loses its magic when broken, so it can't be the sword."
(Oh shit. Didn't know that. Ok...)

"I take the sword." "You find an anthill."
"Is the sword magic?" "No."
"Where do I detect magic?" "Where the sword was."
"The ants are magic?" "Yes."
"Cool! I bottle up some of the ants." "Alright..."

(Grr...I've greated something persistent. Maybe I can get him to drop it...)

Rest of the party continues on, starts leaving PC behind. PC leaves
to catch up. They take care of some business, get outside

The rest of the party members go on without them. PC fills his only
flask, and catches up with the other party members. Wizard fills a
flask, continues. Party beds down for the night, then they move on.
After a while, they come across the ant hole again.

PC starts collecting ants again. Wizard comes along, and asks what
he's doing. PC indicates that he found magic ants. Wizard goes,
"Cool!" and starts filling flasks with them.

PC fills his flask, moves on, and the ants start following him and the
wizard. PC catches up with the party, while the wizard obsesses with
filling all nine of his flasks, moving backwards ahead of the ants as
he does so.

Dusk falls, party beds down. Wizard fills all of his flasks, but
notices that the ants are moving toward him quicker, and, now that the
light has dimmed enough to see, are even glowing red. Wizard breaks
into a hustle in the direction the PCs went. PCs, in their last watch
for the night, see the approaching wizard and the red river catching
up to him (at almost ten feet per second...these ants get *fast* at
night.).

When they see the wizard, they bug out and cross a nearby river. The
ants pace them until dawn, when they slow down. Meanwhile, PC did a
couple tests and determined that it was the ant-filled flasks that
attracted the colony, not any of the PCs themselves.

Dawn breaks, the party reaches town, and the PC starts concocting a
plan where the town would become beset by raging magic fire ants that
only he knows how to remove. But first, he's going to check with the only magic user in town to see if he can use the lab to convert the ants into some sort of reagent....

45% off if you order before the June 6th release date. Link.

We've been playing 4e pre-gens on weekends. 4e actually makes combat interesting for spellcasting classes like clerics and wizards. I've even got players pushing me to port my 3.5e campaign to 4e. I probably will, once I port the villains over.

Normally, I would be running my "halfling campaign" at 6PM next Saturday. However, the gaming center I would be running it at is participating in D&D game day, so there was question as to whether there would be enough room for my campaign. When I went to the general manager to find out if there was going to be room for my campaign, they mentioned that they needed a DM one of their two three-hour sessions at 6PM. Oh, and if I would do it, they could hand my a copy of a pre-gen I could study.

So I accepted. I figured, hey...it's three hours, I'll be here anyway, and this way there will be room for my normal campaign at 9PM. (We usually run until midnight.)

Rosetta Code's been moving slowly lately, mainly because the currently-active members have filled out most of the tasks with the languages they're familiar with, and few have an interest in creating new task pages. If you feel like writing some code (or if you just want to see something done in another language), mosey on over and create a task (don't forget to include an example solution in at least one language). Don't worry if those task requirements seem a little heavy...if you don't do it right, chances are someone else will fix it.

I created a task around 3AM this morning, and by the time I woke up it had solutions in ten languages, and all three of my initial examples had been modified or added to. So there are people there, they're just waiting for something to do. :-)

Oh, and RC is on a shared hosting plan again...for the love of God, don't /. me until I get better hosting. :-)

One of the DMs on Saturday has a really cool system. Monsters are often represented by candies. If you kill a monster, you eat the candy.

In short, you eat what you kill.

So that city campaign I'm running is going to need to drastically change. D&D just wasn't designed for something like that; It's incredibly hard to come up reasonable events and tasks that could challenge a party of even lvl 3 PCs in an environment like that.

When I say "reasonable events", I'm talking about things that wouldn't cause massive damage to the city and lead to major retribution against those involved.

So it's time to start thinking about unreasonable events.

So I'm thinking about a natural disaster.

First, the city sits on a very large island; The city proper takes up a big chunk on the coast, but the rest of the island consists of either mountains or agriculture. The mountains form a large coastal C shape around the farmland; It's not unreasonable that they might be the product of two continental plates colliding. So there might be a massive earthquake. But I like the next approach better.

The mountains form a basis for a kind of continental divide. Since they form most of a ring around the island, virtually all rain that falls on the island flows a massive network of rivers and streams, much of which ultimately flows under the city as its self-flushing sewage system. The farmland itself is largely flat. Sure, they get occasional floods, but the construction out there includes shelter, and minor structures are easily rebuilt. Water that can't fit through the city's sewage tunnel network normally would overflow into a side channel, and out into the ocean. Combine a major hurricane with a little villainy (Such as a wall of force blocking the overflow), and you've washed away 90% of the city, and left much of the rest covered in sewage.

I think I like the hurricane approach better. The event itself will be interesting to play out as the party scrambles to find shelter. (Best bet, I think, would be to get on the city walls.) Following the hurricane itself, the city will be a collection of laes for several days as all of the different districts drain. Central city authority will be devastated, food will be scarce, and most wooden structures will be destroyed or severely damaged.

With food and clean water scarce, those who don't form a massive exodus into the farmlands will fight for what resources remain in the city. New power structures will form and conflict, and power structures the player characters are already familiar with will be caught up in the struggle.

It's going to be interesting. I'm not sure if next session will have the natural disaster take place, or if some foreshadowing is required. (The closest thing I can think of to an early warning system is a bunch of clerics casting Divination, though there may be gnome weatherfolk who watch things like atmospheric pressure.)

I'm thinking of a category 4 hurricane, with a number of tornados thrown in for good measure. Thanks to the beauty of plot devices, the tornados won't hit the PCs, but it's going to be tough.

Hm. Considering the city walls will be used for shelter, let's put some thought into that. Let's say they're stone, hollow, and two levels high on the inside, and a third level on top. Figure they're designed to counter internal conflicts like riots and civil war, not attacks from outside the city. As such, there's likely to be two hollow wall structures for each district border, with a gap in between for buffer and travel.

In peace times, the gap between these two hollow structures is covered and contained, and serves as a sort of thoroughfare and bazaar. Effective shelter from most wind and rain, but not effective against tornados (Rip the roof off...) and flooding. The holow stone structures will be stronger shelter; Their lower level will be immune to wind and tornados, but may have flooding problems. The upper level will be immune to the first stage of flooding, but won't provide from drowning for small creatures. (And the party consists of halflings...).

I think the whole storm is going to last a week..

Day 1: clouds, light rain
Day 2: heavy Rain
Day 3: Heavy rain, thunderstorms, a tornado hits somewhere in the city Winds destroy some wooden structures.
Day 4: Severe thunderstorm, %10 chance of a tornado in their part of town every hour. Eye passes through a different part of town in the night. Winds destroy most wooden structures.
Day 5: Severe thunderstorm, %10 chance of a tornado in their part of town every hour. First level flood. Some wooden structures remain, but are unsound.
Day 6: Heavy rain, thunderstorms, another tornado hits somwhere in the city. (25% chance it's in their area.Second level flood. Stone walls perpendicular to flow of waters at risk. Only wooden structure in calm flood areas remain.
Day 7: light rain, clouds, and, finally, sunlight. Flood level maintained at second level. Gaping holes in stone walls allow quick flow of flood waters through the city.

Flooding will ease to first level on day eight, and will finally seep to below street level (i.e. through the sewers) on day nine.

It's going to be a rough, challenging session. :-)

So we finally wrapped up the story arc that started the campaign. It was awesome.

First, I should point out that I had done almost zero prep for this session. I got a little bit done last weekend, but most of that was scrapped when I realized I was that the templates I was applying was turning a Sor 5 and a Wiz 5 into two ECL 7 characters--and the party consisted of varying numbers of lvl 3 characters. Anyhow, I've been unusually busy all week, so I'd planned to do the prep the morning of the session. Instead, I found myself at work until thirty minutes before I was supposed to start DMing. (I'd actually made alternate DM arrangements in the case that I wouldn't be able to get out in time; I didn't have advanced enough warning to get word out canceling the session.)

So it was in this condition that I found the PCs making an assault on the headquarters of the criminal organization, a structure that extended two stories from the ground.

Anyhow, the PCs split into three groups. A psionicist(controlled by the player I once called spider-man) and a knight (with an AC of something like 23 and some peculiar combat abilities that include forcing everyone in the area to attack him.) used a psionic spell to get into a window on the second floor. A dragon shaman (the character formerly known as spider-man...handed to a temporary player who arrived late.) climbed to the roof, and the rest went in through the back door.

It was all over in six rounds.

The dragon shaman shot a guard from the rooftop, then broke into an atrium hallway. The mass party (consisting of two rangers, a cleric, a monk, and a character I'm forgetting. (Come to think of it, I normally hold on to the character sheets, but I forgot to collect them. Well, I hope nobody loses theirs in the next two weeks, or we're going to spend a couple hours rolling characters again.) ) barged in, holding off the five or six fighters who were on duty. (Though once they started making noise, the off-duty fighters woke up and began hastily donning armor.) The cleric cast an illusion of a giant wherewolf, which sadly didn't see much action.

The real treat, though, was the knight and the psionicist. Upon entering the window, they found themselves in the sorcerer den. (triggering a mental alarm.) They immediately stole everything off the desk, and then the psionicist recognized that the bat sitting in the corner was a magical familiar.

So the knight attacked the bat, nearly killing it. (It had 11hp) The door flew open, and the sorc stood there. The bat tried to fly out through the door, and the knight got an attack of opportunity, which wound up killing the bat.

Now, the psionicist has a power where he can animate objects and fling them. He animated the bat corpse and flung it at the sorceror. Critical hit (Nat 20, and confirm roll.). Roll damage? 1d10. Rolled 10. So the psionicist dealt 20 damage by attacking the sorceror with his own dead familiar. Leaving the lvl 5 sorceror with two hit points. Which the knight took care of.

They stabilized the sorceror, and the wall erupted in flames.

Now, you have to remember something about my campaign setting...It's a medieval city the size of New York. Eight million people in combination stone and wood structures. There's lots and lots of wooden structures. Now think "Chicago fire." Uncontrolled flame is a major, major concern. To have a structure with an uncontrolled fire is a major, major problem.

So the psionicist and knight grabbed the sorceror and leapt out of the window.

The funny thing? The fire was an illusion. The lvl 5 wizard was just outside the room, and had cast major image, which includes both visual thermal senses; Unless a character interacted with it, it would, for all intents and purposes, seem real. (If the psionicist had tried putting out the fire, he would have had an opportunity to disbelieve the fire.)

Once outside, the psionicist shouted "Fire", which was heard by enough people to get the building evacuated, during which the party slipped off into the darkness.

I'm sure it would have been a funny sight to see a bunch of fighters with half-donned chainmaille tormented with between running through a potentially burning building to the distant exit, or going to the near exit--the one with the giant werewolf.

In other news, we had a session recently without the player formerly known as spider man. It was...different. Honestly? Sessions run smoother with him around; When the rest of the players are indecisive as to what they want to do, he's already planned three steps ahead. So things tend to move quicker.

There's another new player who played in the previous two sessions. For a few different reasons, he's unpleasant to be around, leading to a lot of behind-the-back talk. I've given him the option to suppress some of these things, or not play in my campaign. Honestly? He took one warning, and seemed to fix the problem. (The issues that arose this week were more the fault of another player who was provoking him.)

There are only a few simple rules to playing in my campaigns. Don't smell like you have bad hygiene, and don't be negatively social. (Meaning, mainly, don't do something just to get a rise out of someone.) If you can do that much, you'll fit in well enough.

Taken from StalinsNotDea:

Post a comment to this thread, and I will:

1. Tell you why I befriended you.
2. Associate you with something - fandom, a song, a color, a photo, etc..
3. Tell you something I like about you.
4. Tell you a memory I have of you.
5. Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.
7. In return, you must post this in your Journal/Blag/whatever.

I played this class for about a month and a half in another DM's game. The game was a cross between D&D and Star Wars Saga Edition, set some time in the steam era.

The class isn't my creation, though I got permission to post it.

The Mechanic

Class Table

Lvl Special Craft Materials

1 Craft Pool 50 100g

Tech Savant +2

Tear it Apart

2 Master Scavenger (75%) 100 200g

Swift Repairs

3 Personal Touch (+1) 150 300g

4 Quick Rig 200 400g

5 Temporary Modifications 250 500g

Tech Savant +4

6 Instant Repairs 300 600g

Personal Touch (+2)

7 Master Scavenger (100%) 350 700g

8 "Off Switch" 400 800g

9 Tech Savant +8 450 900g

Personal Touch (+3)

10 Tech Paragon 500 1000g

Class Parameters

The Mechanics gains a d8 HD, a medium BAB (as Cleric), a +2 bonus to Reflex defense and a +1 bonus to Will defense. Mechanics gain 6 trained skills at 1st level, plus their Intelligence bonus.

Craft Pool

You gain a Craft Pool as listed in the table above. These Craft Points work as detailed in the Unearthed Arcana supplement, page 97.

Materials

You gain a limited amount of random scrap metals, springs, gears and other bits and pieces that you keep with you, which you can use to build mechanical devices. Your Materials pool is essentially a pool of virtual gold pieces, which can be "spent" only to pay the cost of crafting, modifying or repairing technological creations.

Tech Savant

You are a master at working with technological wonders. You gain a +2 bonus on all Craft (Mechanics), Devices, and Knowledge (Mechanics) checks. This bonus increases to +4 at 5th level, and to +8 at 9th level.

Tear it Apart

You gain a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls against any mechanical device. You know just where to strike to disable key gears and important parts. In addition, any time you move a machine down the Condition Track, you apply a persistant condition. This condition cannot be removed until the machine has been specially repaired, requiring one hour of work.

Master Scavenger

You become adept at scrapping mechanical devices, turning them into spare parts with which to build new machines. You may take an hour to scrap any technological device of up to medium size, gaining Material to spend to craft new devices. You gain Materials equal to 75% of the base cost of the scrapped object. At 7th level, you gain Materials equal to 100% of the base cost of the scrapped object.

Swift Repairs

You may make a Craft (Mechanics) check to repair a mechanical device in one minute, instead of ten minutes, by taking a -5 penalty to your check. You may make a Jury Rig attempt as a standard action instead of a full round action.

Personal Touch

You know the details of your gear by heart, including all the little quirks and idiosynchracies. When using a piece of equipment you have crafted yourself, using points from your Craft and Materials pools and nothing else, you gain the listed bonus on all attack, damage and skill rolls involving that particular piece of equipment.

Quick Rig

You may jury rig a mechanical device that is not disabled, moving it up the Condition Track and healing HP as normal. The device still becomes disabled at the end of the encounter or scene.

Temporary Modifications

When you jury rig any mechanical device that has not been moved down the Condition Track at all, or that you have jury-rigged or repaired to the top of the Condition Track, you may choose to make temporary modifications, increasing the performance of the object for a short time. Any object you improve in this way gains a +2 bonus to all attack, damage and skill checks involved with it until the end of the encounter or scens, at which point it becomes disabled.

"Off Switch"

With a practised twist with a wrench, you can disable even the most complex machines. You may make a DC 20 Devices check as a standard action. If you succeed, you move the targeted device -1 step down the condition track, -1 step per 5 points by which you beat the DC.

Tech Paragon

You may use your Swift Repairs ability with no penalty on your Craft (Mechanics) roll, and you heal an additional 2d4 HP for each minute of work.. In addition, when you make a jury rig attempt, you move the target 3 steps up the condition track, and heal double the normal amount of HP. Finally, when you use the jury rig option on a device that is not disabled, it is not disabled at the end of the encounter or scene but is moved -1 step down the condition track each time it is used, instead. If the device is made for continual use, it moves -1 step down the condition track per round of use.

I feel pretty good. I could go on and on about all the prep I did, but I got a bit of praise in email that made me feel really, really good:

We ended up using only one of my prepared encounters. I triggered it at an awkward time, but I'm comfortable with how I managed to tie it in.

I introduced two new main characters this week, Gilbert Malevict and Lewis Westville. Gilbert Malevict is a member of the community elders, and Lewis is a personal bodyguard of his.

After accepting custody of the captured bard, Malevict inquired if the party was interested in more work. He informed them he would get in touch with them the next day. However, Lewis approached them outside the elder's offices, took them aside, and, on behalf of Malevict, asked them if they would take on a private job to deal with a "discreet matter".

Lewis made the pitch, explaining that there were a few individuals in a syndicate known as the Backbreakers* who were extorting Malevict. Malevict wanted the individuals roughed up, but not killed, such that he would no longer be their target.

* The Backbreakers are into the protection racket.

The party demanded a contract for the job, and demanded to see Malevict. Lewis left, and returned with Malevict. The party grilled Malevict, pressing him to be the one to sign the contract. Malevict hemmed and hawed, but eventually conceeded to sign the contract, under the stipulation that future private dealings with the party would be through Lewis, and the contract would be held in escrow.

After the arrangements were made, the party split up. Two of the characters left to scout the Backbreaker's territory, while the third (A new player showed up this week, and two others failed to show.) stayed behind to learn what he could of Malevict and Lewis.

The two scouting characters learned that Backbreaker members typically have an orange wristband under their right sleeve. (DC 20 spot check to confirm) Through this, they discovered and tailed Garret (The PCs don't know his name), and begain tailing him.

It was at this point that I triggered one of my planned encounters, which honestly wasn't originally intended to have anything to do with the Backbreaker, but ah well. Anyway, the characters (and Garret) hear someone shout "Stop, thief!", as a man bursts out of a nearby armor shop and races down the thoroughfare.

The PCs tailing Garret chose not to interfere, but Garret gave pursuit. One of the PCs gave chase to Garret, while the other waited.

Here's where I ran into a problem. The thief tried shaking Garret a couple times, but it wasn't working. And the PC was chasing Garret, but wasn't really improving on his position. Things got even worse when two more Backbreaker's joined Garret in chase, but were far enough behind that they were actually behind the PC. And nobody was gaining on anyone. So I had to end it somehow.

The thief tried sliding under a cart, failed his check, and smashed his face on the cart. The three Backbreakers quickly caught up, though the PC kept his distance and watched.

So I solved one problem and created another...I had a conflict between four NPCs, with an emphasis on N. At this point in the game, I was running the whole show, and the players were stuck on the sidelines. Two were standing thirty feet away (the chase circled around the block), and one was halfway across the district.

So I handed the three players the stat sheet for the three Backbreakers (prep pays off!), I took the stat sheet for the thief, and we roleplayed the encounter.

I have to say, those Backbreakers are vicious! And I don't get why these players always play good-aligned characters. The thief was let off with a warning, a broken knee, and was nearly made to smell of someone else's urine.

Anyhow, after dealing with the thief, the Backbreakers split up and and left for their usual rounds, except Garret, who returned the item that the thief stole to the armor shop.

Eventually the two scouting PCs followed Garret home. One of the PCs following Garret (I've called him Spiderman previously, for his ability to climb at his base move speed.) entered his home and, well, terrorized him. Probably wouldn't have gotten away with it if Garret's kids hadn't been in the house, though he did manage to convince Garret he could fly...The player missed a hint in the dialogue, though.

The PC who tailed Malevict and Lewis scored an incredible 34 on his Hide check, and was able to position himself comfotably in the cart that carried Malevict and Lewis home. He didn't learn anything terribly useful.

The next day, the PCs staked out Garret's home, and witnessed two scruffy(low-level commoners) men(halfing men, not Men in the Tolkien sense) and a tough-looking(Ftr3) woman enter Garret's apartment. Eavesdropping revealed Garret explaining the situation to the woman, and the woman telling him to stay home; They'd take care of it.

The three Backbreaker's left, and began questioning everyone in the neighborhood to find out if anyone knew anything about the flying man. They came up empty, of course. The three Backbreakers then split up. The three party members split up and followed the Backbreakers, with the level 3 Rogue following the tough-looking woman.

The rogue witnessed the woman meat with two more tough-looking Backbreakers, but then she started to look nervous. (Her Spot beat her tail's Hide, but the PC didn't know that, even though the player did.) She continued, and met with another tough-looking Backbreaker, and then left down an alley.

The PC followed her into the alley, where he saw her turn the corner down a narrower alley. He then saw the other tough-looking Backbreaker enter the alley behind him. The Backbreaker shouted at the PC, who hadn't yet drawn a weapon. Then we rolled initiative. The two fighters go first, followed by the rogue.

And then discovered it was 10:45PM; It was time to end the game for the night.

So, next week, we resume the encounter where the level 3 Rogue was caught in a pincer move by two level 3 fighters. The player thinks his character's going to die, but I've been telling him he can probably survive; He just has to play his cards right.

Ah, crap. It's 4:53AM. I'd like to sleep while it's still dark. :-)