Some friends and I have been playing roleplaying games for the past few years, mostly Dungeons and Dragons with a little Dark Heresy thrown in. Due to some recent additions to my friends’ families last year, we went through a period of little to no gaming…and hated it. We tried to restart things once the kids settled into a routine, but as many of you know about children, there’s no such thing as a routine. Fortunately we found a solution that seems to be working pretty well: Fantasy Grounds II. Since we started using this online program (along with Ventrilo for voice chat) we’ve been able to play for more often and make more progress through adventures than ever before. Our current campaign, with me as GM, takes the players through the Scales of War campaign path in recent issues of Dungeon magazine.
Cast of Characters
Bartleby (played by Erik) - Bartleby is a dwarf craftsman, artificer, and student of the arcane arts. He is drawn to the town of Brindol at the request of his elder cousin Garwan, a curiosities collector, who came arcoss the most amazing thing, a sentient mechanical man.
Con’ar (played by Matt) - Con’ar is a longtooth shifter barbarian from a tribe that venerates the wolf. He is one of the chief’s sons and has left his tribe for his coming of age walkabout. He is not to return to his tribe until he has found the answer.
Dungar Hammerheim (played by Jeremy) - Dungar is a dwarven cleric of Moradin who has recently joined the party at the request of the city council of Overlook. He has taken up drinking in excess due to this decision, or perhaps it was his drinking that prompted the council to request he join the party, nobody knows. In either case he has already proven himself to be a capable warrior and valuable to teh party on their current mission.
Gam’da (played by Matt) - An elderly shaman woman from Con’ar’s tribe. Gam’da met the party shortly after their intial adventures to advise Con’ar for a time. She has since departed from their company for parts unknown.
Gerhart (played by Erik) - Gerhart is the name of the mechanical man discovered by Bartleby’s cousin Garwan. Little is known of his origin, but he proves himself to be a capable fighter and forms a bond with Bartleby. Both he and Bart are asked to stay in the dwarven city of Overlook when the party arrives there for the council wishes to study Gerhart and possibly replicate him to defend the city from orc invasion.
Omicron (played by Erik) - Omicron is a quiet human mage. He also joined the party with Dungar in the city of Overlook telling them he was asked by the city council to do so. As with Dungar, he has proven to be a valued asset to the party, but as of yet they have not learned much more about him.
Sarastrasza, a.k.a. Strasza (played by Sara) - Strasza is a dragonborn sorceress of awesome power. She has developed a tendency to use her dragon breath ability on the groups of adversaries that always seem to clump around Con’ar in a fight. Con’ar’s armor bears several scorch marks from Strasza’s tactics, but he is always grateful for the aftereffects when the numbers assailing him are cut in half in one fell swoop.
Zarra (played by Amy) - Zarra is a mysterious elf who has a knack for disappearing and venturing on her own. She seems to be operating on her own agenda rather than that of the party, only joining them when their needs meet hers.
Spoiler: The adventures of the Heroes of Elsir Vale follows the Scales of War adventure path in Dungeon magazine. If you don’t want to know what happens, please do not read any more of my posts titled Heroes of Elsir Vale.
