The Protectorate Today

Please join me in welcoming the newest member of the Protectorate, the dwarven scout they call Hakim (insert rousing round of applause here). His arrival comes none-to-soon, for wanderlust has gotten the best of the tiny beast called Cloud- he has not been seen in days. Perhaps the Protectorate will see the odd little creature again in the future.

Speaking of seeing characters again- some of the sailors on board the vessel currently ferrying the Protectorate to Lantan (the Pearlgoddess) tell stories of an scuffle on the docks of Caer Callidyrr only a few days past. A cloaked elf, graceful in movement and handy with a bow, managed to elude a voluminous bugbear bountyhunter and a pair of dire wolves. Jumping through the rigging from ship-to-ship he threaded an arrow between the eyebrows of one of the wolves, felling it on the deck of this very ship before diving from a mast and disappearing into the water!

It seems that the Protectorate and Xelritch may be destined to cross paths again soon.

Ready all your skills and knowledge lads, you'll need them on the Isle of Lantan, an odd island full of gnomes, gears, steam-powered engines and dark secrets.



(Jason- IM me when you get a chance, lets make sure that you're ready for next Saturday)

26-Oct-2006 – The Trip to Lantan.

Amaren and Milo answer to false charges that they roughed-up and robbed one of the local merchants. Their accuser’s agenda doesn’t seem include listening a Amaren’s reason, despite his obvious understanding of the situation. Legal red-tape threatens to dampen the Protectorate’s activities for a while- then, seemingly without reason, the charges are dropped. Curious.

Elrose seems ready for a holiday. He suggests a small town in Tethyr called Mosstone (coincidentally, Amaren’s hometown) to spend some down-time, once their Lantan trip is over. Amaren seems uncomfortable with the idea of Elrose vacationing there.

After being (inexplicably) cleared of their legal issues, Milo and Amaren rejoin the group at the imperial palace. Upon hearing the story of their extracation, Elrose just smiles. ;-) Stolig has finished his temporary stint as Royal Engineer. After discovering that one of his kinsman was among the slain at the excavation site, he had asked High King Keane to send a few city watchmen to Lantan to discern if anymore trouble has occurred there. Not satisfied to wait for their return, the group boards a ship bound for the island of Lantan, to check on Stolig’s family and friends.



Three days into the trip, a hungry pride of sea cats attacks the ship looking for a meal. They find only vengeful steel, painful magic and eventual death. The group works well in concert to dispatch five powerful foes and avoid any Protectorate funerals. Two crewmembers lose their lives in an attack that might have been much worse, but the Protectorate offers to help out a bit for the remainder of the trip. (Anyone got any ranks in Sailing?)

Reminder: In addition to our normal session next Thursday, we are playing a longer Sloppy Kettle session on Saturday, 04-Nov-2006 at Gamer’s Haven. Game starts at 1:00pm, but I should be there a little earlier to help with campaign and character questions. (Don’t be surprised if a recently departed scout makes an appearance…)

Great job, everyone! See you next week!

A week off, Taking the Pulse

Hello All,

I'm sorry to report that I will need to cancel this Thurday's session. A good friend whom I work with and have known for a decade is leaving the Cleveland area to accept a position in Denver. We are all getting together Thursday night to send him off. I'll try to reach everybody by phone as well, since not all of you read the blog.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to 'take the pulse' of our campaign here and make sure that everything is on track. I'm having a bit of trouble maintaining the quality of material and I'd like to ask everyone their opinions. Our last session should have been a milestone of sorts and players should have been very satisfied to see some of the long-standing questions answered. Instead, most players left scratching their heads.

Perhaps not everone was involved the whole night and not all of the information got disseminated properly. I do seem to be having problems keeping everyone engaged, but when I rush quickly through encounters or RP that only affects a few characters, the critical information that needs to come from those sessions seems to get corrupted.

With seven players worth of background detail and not all the players being able to attend each session, I'm also having a hard time weaving player-specific information into the storyline. I need to prepare multiple hooks each session (in case a key player is absent) and sometimes my plan falls apart and I just have to punt and reach for the Monster Manual so I can wing it. When some of the depth of my campaign falls away, we end up with the encounter-based sessions of the past- not the role-playing-centric campaign I had envisioned.

I know how I feel about this campaign from a DMs point of view, but I'd like your opinions as well. Let me know what you think about how things are going.