PC Focus: Akmenos the Tiefling Bard

Akmenos was raised on the streets of the Bah-ree with parents that didn't have much but noticed an innate magical talent in his character at an early age. Akmenos was apprenticed to the school of wizards in Dracomal but was quickly ousted for his less than sage attitude. After bumping job to job becoming a jack of all trades, he learned to harness his arcane talents in conjunction with musical ability. Finding work with a traveling band of storytellers known as the Band of Jenkins, he traveled most of the civilized lands to learn about other cultures and enhance his own storytelling. While in Cauldron city, he used his musical talent to aid in an attack of ghouls on the town, gaining favor with a local cleric of Pelor, Raistlan. Unfortunately, his travels also led him to alienate several influential nobles, often through romantic trysts with noble princesses. King Aegon of Waterdeep in particular swore to place him in chains and castrate him if he ever appeared in the gates of the city again!

Podcast 1 - Lord Wyndham's Feast - Parade Mayhem

The first podcast is probably our worst in terms of quality so bear with us as we strive to improve. The next one will have the official title and better sound quality, promise! These posts will also features updates on the contacts the PC's (the player's characters; Akmenos the Bard, Lo-Kag the Goliath Barbarian and Huru the half-Ord Avenger) have met so far in the campaign as well as a mini-recap. While the PC's came to Bah-ree for Lord Wyndham's Feast they took in a parade when mayhem broke out that only they could deal with. (its in the podcast!) Their actions caught the eye of Aliass, the mayor of Halfing Town in Bah-ree who blamed the local menace Grakul the Rogue for the trouble and gave them invites to the special table. During the fray, Akmenos has his long bow stolen in the streets of Half-town and went to Bed-Bows & Beyond to buy a new one from Kagos. At the table of honor where they met; Von Fuehrr (smelly Druid who is trying to catch Grakul), GrueKen (bitter Dragonborn who suspects Wyndham of slavery), Ayhrodd (snobby Teifling concerned about the sudden loss of communication with the magic kingdom of Dracomal), Ellco (quiet Elven shipping merchant from red Shore that is building special vessel to find Vaytheon), Hammer Landers (Dwarf who noticed a spike in Wyndham's weapon orders), Lady Fenwick (elderly cleric who is concerned that the bodies of the dead are being stolen) and Cyder (bookworrm Eladrin ranger who feels Wyndham is ignoring the drug problems created by the Vampires who control the Spice trade). During the feast, an event of epic porportion (listen to the podcast) lead the PC's to apprehend the traitorous bard, Patches who insisted upon his innocence when they tossed him out a window onto the wagon driven by Cyder. At the city prison the PC's met Rochester (nearly retired veteran prison guard) where they were ordered to escort Patches to the dreaded, Three Falls prison. Lord Wyndham sent them the PC's the visit his personal armorer, Jenn Hahruss who gave them potions of healing for their journey and gifted them each with a magic item for their bravery. At the city stable they met Jott (tween human, who wants to go with them) who informed them about an elf who paid him a gold piece to have their steed ready to go immediately following the Feast and head for Red Shore. On the way to Three Falls prison they stopped to allow Rochester to relieve himself when they were attacked by a gang of rogues who tried to spring Patches. During the battle Rochester limped out of the woods to defend the wagon and turned on Akmenos! A green cloaked human claiming to be Grakul joined the fray, but when the tide turned against them, both Rochester and Grakul surrendered. Later at the Three Falls prison the guard revealed Grakul to be an imposter and the PC's feeling merciful, gave in to Rochesters pleas for mercy and did not inform anyone else about Rochester's turning. The captain of the guard, Abus, welcomed them to stay, but they decided to ride off to Red Shore. Rochester revealed that he was offered 500gps to spring Patches and bring him to a pub in Red Shore called the Golden Seal and ask for Ellco. When the PC's arrived in Red Shore, the soon found out from Ellco that Patches wanted to get into Three Falls in order to spring the infamous Gnome assassin Cole the Murderous and now there is no way to stop him... More podcasts to come...

When a writer becomes a Dungeon Master...

If you haven't listened to the Penny Arcade Podcasts on Wizards.com then make sure you put it on your 2-do list as it will entertain, enlighten and inspire. Which is how this blog came to be, in a round-a-bout way.

Before I got into that, a little about me and my RPG resume, I began playing D&D while on a summer vacation in Maine where the days were spent on the lake and the night around a table. Okay so really I had played before that with other kids in school, but it wasn't a real game when one of the kids was a Minataur. My cousins played a campaign with an upside down pyramind shaped dungeon (I forget the module name) and they also played in a very brutal way. We could be bad guys, but if we slaughted a hapless villager, there were consequences and that mindset would stay with me. The game was fun and when I got back I had a much better understanding of how to play. D&D with high school friends turned into Top Secret SI with college friends and about nine years ago I got the call. "Hey, they are re-releasing D&D... think we should give it a try?" That did it. Soon we had a regular session that has managed to outlast one character death by paper shredder (the only way to truly kill a PC), two marriages and at least one near fist-fight. We did a great deal of the campaigns in 3.5 and the departure of a long time regular lead to the addition of a noob who has picked up the game quickly. We were on a meal run when he blurted out his first off-the-top of his head rule and then realized he was sucked in. Most would deem us 'power gamers' as we use teamwork to win and have a good understanding of what our PC's can do. Our game sessions are often riddled with small talk, meals or part of a day of paintball, but we strive to keep the sessions to at least once a month. After many years of the same person DMing our campaigns, another member of the group stepped in and has been running the show which to date has the group at 5th level.

After I listened to the podcast, it gave me the idea to tape our sessions which tend to be raunchy, diverse in topic and a tad bit of A.D.D. Theatre. Now the idea wasn't to record our sessions for podcasts so we can chuckle at our own jokes, but to use the Podcast as a way to curb the distractions and focus on the campaign. In the upcoming podcasts that will be posted here, you will get to listen to a completely original campaign that I am writing. This is my first turn as a DM in over 20yrs so it may be a bit bumpy at first. This blog will also act as a tool for the other players to keep tabs on the campaign and most of all, response from those who give us a listen. We want feedback, advice and questions so we can become better in both production values (using Audacity to edit) and content values (again this is all from my mind, so bear with me when I goof like I did in the first session.) Thanks for reading... Riley1d20