Episode 1 Bookkeeping

[alexandraerin]

Experience Totals For Episode 1:
Combat: 975 XP
Curing Jared's Petrification (Major Quest): 900 XP
Retrieving Four Reality Shards (Minor Quests): 400 XP
Sealing The Rift (Minor Quest): 100 XP
Cunning Plan Bonus: 100 XP (Harlan)
Paragon One-Liners: 25 XP (Optima)
Special Award For Being Set On Fire, Knocked Prone, And Still Having More Than Full HP: 25 XP (Spectre)
Taking One For The Team Bonus: 25 XP (Dunbar)
DM's Little Puppet Helper: 50 XP (Gallifreya, Carrog)
Roleplaying Bonuses (100 XP per session per player): 3400 XP

Total XP = 6000 / 9 = 666 Experience Points

The Contents Of The Strongbox:

The box contains 90 GP worth of coins, as well as ostentatious and mystical-looking jewelry and props and patterned fabrics that could be converted to 360 GP with an afternoon's work and a suitable urban center, and a few items that seem to have actual mystical significance.

If somebody trained in arcana examines the lot, they are able to identify the following: a healer's brooch, a gloaming shroud, an amulet of health, bracers of the perfect shot, a belt of vigor, giantkind gloves, and bracers of mighty striking. They all carry a slight whiff of extraplanar energy, as if they were pulled from different worlds.

Gallifreya is able to decipher two alchemical formulae from among Impostro's stash: blinding bomb and alchemical fire. He also had 120 GP worth of alchemical reagents, and a couple of formulae that her current recollection of her skills are not up to deciphering.

The potions are two potions of healing and two gravespawn potions, though their labels say "For Hmn Pncshn Act" and "For Snkhndlng Act", respectively.

Toben's participation in the rift-sealing has given him a slightly greater mastery of his innate powers, enabling him to begin to tap the powers of the staff he carries... it now acts as a +1 staff. (Yes, I know he wasn't even there, but the whole team benefits if the striker is able to strike.) You can decide how to apportion the other items among yourselves... I suggest commenting if you'd like to claim something, and if there's a disagreement you can work it out with whoever else wants the item in question. Or you could comment if you think an item would suit a particular character.

Comments

[imaginedechoes.livejournal.com]

They're even both named after historical intellectuals- Archimedes and Burke, respectively. Great minds think alike I guess. : P

Part of it is the constraints imposed by 4th ed. For those of us who want to play a robot spell caster, the best option is a warforged warlock, either infernal pact or vestige pact. Personally, I think "the robot that made a deal with the devil" sounds like a bad horror movie plot, but "a robot who can see dead people" has potential.

The recently introduced Sorcerer-King pact with its many melee and close powers would make a really fun warforged warlock build, but... there are no warforged in Dark Sun. : (

[stormcaller3801.livejournal.com]

I could see the Sorcerer-King pact working with some undead spell-casting entity. It'd work particularly well for mummy lords with the sand aspect, as well as the general withering effects of the magic.

Warforged Warlock Geekery

[rhakash.livejournal.com]

hm... Didn't think about any specific guy when I chose the name "Burke" for my Warforged.

Yeah, I agree about the Robot/Devilpact thing, though with the proper story for the character, it won't have to be a cheap horror plot - "Burke", for example, used to be a human being who finally told the concept of mortality "Screw you!", and decided to transfer his soul into an empty warforged 'shell'. Lost huge parts of his soul and most of his memories in the process, though - which explains why a warlock mighty enough to create and exact such a mighty ritual would be level 1 after that. At first I planned to go with the infernal pact (Betrayed by a devil, that really would have fit into the story), but then decided on the vestige pact, because the concept of a melee fighting warlock sounded nice, and the vestige pact had way more possibilities for a proper melee warlock build.
I also planned out what his sheet would look like on levels 11, 21, and 30, respectively, and with the Epic Destiny "Eternal Seeker", I chose "Chaos Weapon" and "Maelstrom Blade" for added melee capabilities. Also, since I planned for him to be at the very front anyways, the Paragon path "Hexer" seemed a prudent choice as well.
(I know that unless the character is already being created at lvl 21+, the DM of an ongoing campaign should actually assign the Paragon Path and/or Epic Destiny as he sees fit, as I understand it - unless we're playing DnD like a hack'n'slay without plot.)

Sidenote: sometimes, my "a" and "s" key on my laptop don't work correctly, and that's why my previous post had been initiated with "just question" instead of "just a question". Just so people won't think I'm actually arrogant enough to explicitly state a simple informal question of mine to be "just".

[alexandraerin.livejournal.com]

I've never heard of a DM assigning PPs and EDs, and wouldn't do so myself... I'd expect players to choose ones that suit both their characters' abilities and stories, and then work with them to fit any story elements into the plot. I think that's actually the intended idea.

[rhakash.livejournal.com]

Well, most of the ED's at least involve some sort of quest, at least that's what it says in the descriptions of individual ED's. I'm not sure whether I personally would like to host a DnD group in which I would have to create quests based on what individual players chose for their ED's, so that's why I thought most DM's would like to at least have some sort of say on that.

[alexandraerin.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, they involve quests. The Epic Destiny is the culmination of the PC's story, the way of writing an ending for a character who's run out of challengtes... ideally, it should be flowing naturally out of what they've been doing for the previous twenty levels and not a complete surprise to anyone. As a DM, I'd expect a player to talk to me about their choice before hand, but then you've got ten levels to work out how it actually goes... but as a player I wouldn't even consider playing with a DM who took such direct control of such an integral part of the character concept. Though I've never even considered that it might be an issue.

Re: El Diablo Robotico

[imaginedechoes.livejournal.com]

Oh, I thought you were referencing Edmund Burke. I have a habit of naming D&D characters after people. My previous 4th ed. characters have been named after René Descartes, Desiderius Erasmus, and uh, Spider Robinson.

Nifty back story. An alien being who makes a pact with evil, such as a robot who makes a deal with the devil, is not predisposed to being a character one can empathize with, which is why I dismissed the idea. However, a human who has been transformed by a sinister pact, their soul sutured to the body of a golem, can easily play the part of an anti-hero.

The lack of infernal melee powers is another issue. Aside from Sorcerer-King pact, close/melee options for warlocks are rather limited.

I tend not to think about paragon paths and epic destinies. I've never known a heroic 4e campaign to go on long enough.

"Hey, Wes... did you ever hear that the devil built a robot?" "El Diablo Robotico. Why?"

[alexandraerin.livejournal.com]

My plan for the S-K pact is to use it to represent any pact with a (relatively mortal) epic level spellcaster.