The Liam Solo

So, Liam agreed to join Sage Nodal Orla's expedition to find a cursed Ring. The expedition will be traveling east on the riverboat, Gwenabyr for about a hundred miles. Then the expedition will disembark and travel overland to the site of the lost tomb, where Master Orla suspects they will find the Ring.
We meet the other members of the expedition:

Ulda Bordis - a sour-faced dwarf woman hired by Master Orla to manage and secure the expedition.

Alida LNU - a scary bald lady who works for the expedition patron, Lord Kennok.

Galek LNU - big, scarred fellow of few words; another of Lord Kennok's people; answers to Alida.

Knocker - a small, outgoing albino woman; another of Lord Kennok's people; answers to Alida.

Father Bogar - a slim, cheerful death-priest serving the Bell-Ringer; hired by Master Orla to deal with
any undead that the expedition disturbs.

Sigfried LNU - Father Bogar's acolyte; a shaven-headed 12-year old boy; think dour Aang.

Nathaniel LNU - one of Master Orla's senior students, brought along to help the Sage.

So the group mostly keeps to themselves. They arrived at their destination, a small village called Gorsedd's Hope and start the final leg of their journey to the Lost Tomb. Father Bogar and Sigfried have warded the camp against undead and everyone just settled in for the night.
* * * * *
Yeah, so, this session was mostly about introducing new PCs. Some of whom, I suspect, will perish in the next session as I've already rolled to determine if there is an Event during the night. There is. Lurking in the shadows are a group of small Plant Elementals with a draconic form that will be attacking. I figure they are maybe attracted by the noise/fire? I have tentatively named them Snapdragons and will stat them up tomorrow.
Yeah. Tomorrow's session is going to be epic. I'm going to run a combat session involving at least TWELVE characters.
Pray for me, people. Oy.

(no subject)

Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen came out the other day. I flipped through a copy at my local Barnes & Noble today and found it rather disappointing. Like most recent D&D books (Spelljammer, I'm looking at you!), this one seems light on background and not worth the money they want. They introduce some new world-specefic feats, Kender(shudder) as a player race and the Lunar Mage subclass(which requires you to track far too much) and then the adventure which is rather lackluster, IMHO.
Maybe D&D is banking on people familiar with Dragonlance to just step up and buy the book, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
Also, am I the only one who gets irritated that they never seem to move things forward in their setting books when they release them? D&D came out 50 YEARS AGO and Faerun is largely unchanged, except for the introduction of Dragonborn and the continent they came from. They need to hire a Loremaster to advance the settings a bit.

The Liam Solo: Combat Edition!

So, the expedition had settled down for the night. Father Bogar and his acolyte had warded the campsite against undead. Everyone was gathered around the fire, having a meal, when the attack happened.
A group of weird dragon-like plant creatures scuttled out of the darkness. One went for the ponies. The others attack Ulda Bordis, Alida and Liam.
Nathaniel quickly shepherds Sage Orla away from the battle. Father Bogar rushes to his acolyte's side. The group quickly counterattacks and Alida kills one of the creaturs with her scimitar.
Galek and Ulda Bordis both take minor damage in the first round.
In the second round, Knocker takes a slash attack from one of the creatures, but gets her own back by killing another creature. Father Borgan, defending his acolyte and ponies, kills another of the creatures with a combination sonic/necrotic blast.
In the third round, Liam kills one of the beasts, while Alida takes a faceful of poison. Of the remaining creatures, one chooses to retreat into the darkness.
In the fourth round, the final creature retreats after being harried by Galek and Knocker.
Combat ends with the group shaken, but relatively unharmed.
* * * * *
In world-time, this combat session would only have taken about 2 minutes. In the real world, it took about an hour to play through. Longer, if you include the prep time leading up to it.
Combat in the homebrew system I use is very streamlined, but kind of swingy. The Attacker and Defender both roll d20s adding relevant Modifiers(Danger for Attack, Fortitude for Defense). The higher number succeeds. If the Attacker succeeds, they deal damage equal to the difference between the two d20s, a minimum of 1 dmg. Depending on the damage type, this amount is reduced by Armor or Traits or Perks. The result is subtracted from Health. So a dagger can deal just as much damage as a two-handed war axe, the arrow fired from a shortbow can be just as deadly as a mage's lightning spell.