Magic Item of the Week - Magekiller

  No, not all of my magic items are low power or non-combat.

  One of the most terrifying NPCs in my Blackstone campaign is the Undying Witchking, Emperor of Zangara. The legends surrounding him are many, but they all agree - he is not undead but he can't die. He's been stabbed, punctured, burned, decapitated, and more and always appears fresh as a daisy a few rounds later. He has also ruled Zangara with an iron fist for 2 centuries and does not appear to age (he is ostensibly human).

  Note: Since he is one of the top BBEGs of the campaign and I assured the party I follow the rules very closely for NPCs a major meta-plot was them doing serious rules research to figure out how I did it. I am proud to say that, as hard as it was, they did figure it out.

  Two generations ago a conspiracy of Zangaran wizards and clerics worked for decades to create a weapon capable of destroying the Witchking regardless of the methods he uses; the result was Magekiller. The conspiracy was betrayed and killed before they could locate a hero to wield the weapon. The last survivors of the group, a father and son, fled in a ship that was destroyed by water elementals summoned by the Crimson Watch, the Witchking's personal guards (various wizards, clerics, thieves, and fighters). Magekiller was thought lost to the sea.

  Just a few years ago a barbarian warrior in a frontier district of the continent of Ansar began to rise in local prominence, eventually founding his own small fiefdom on the utmost border of civilization. He is a swordsman of great renown, considered by some to be the greatest living master of the zweihander. The sword he wields is rumored to be Magekiller, returned from the sea.

  Note: the Blackstone campaign is AD&D 2nd edition with all player's options books.

Magekiller

  +3 two-handed sword; +4 vs. creatures with spell-like abilities; +6 vs. any creature capable of casting arcane spells, summoned or conjured creatures, animated objects, constructs, familiars, and golems.

  Int: 17 Ego: 25 Alignment: Neutral Good Special Purpose: Destroy evil arcane spellcasters

  Can communicate telepathically with its wielder, can speak, read, read maps, and Read Magic

  Can speak and read: Bandur (the Western Common tongue), Kadathi (the language of arcane spell casters in the campaign), Zanzur (the Eastern Common tongue), Borelath (a creole common to elves, gnomes, and halflings), Low Pidgin (a language common to orcs, goblins, kobolds, etc. with no written version), and Denek (dwarven)

  Magekiller can see normally out to a range of 60' and has mystical sight that allows it to see normally in complete darkness (but not magical darkness) up to 10'. Magekiller has a field of view roughly equal to that of a person but can 'look around' like a character by altering its direction of sight. Magekiller cannot see through solid objects, etc., although it is possible to, for example, extend the sword's blade past a junction so that it can 'look around the corner'. Anything seen by Magekiller must be communicated to the wielder or spoken aloud; it cannot share its senses.

  Magekiller likewise automatically senses all magic within 30'.

  Magekiller can automatically detect if a creature has spell-like abilities or can cast arcane spells within 10'.

  Magekiller can detect alignment on arcane spellcasters (only) within 10' automatically.

  Much like vision, Magekiller must communicate what it senses to its wielder.

  Lastly, Magekiller automatically knows if its wielder is under the effects of a Charm, Quest, Geas, or similar spell.

  When worn or held Magekiller;

-Acts as an Amulet of Proof vs. Detection and Location

-Grants its wielder 20% magic resistance

-Grants its wielder a +4 on all saves vs. magic

-reduces all damage from spells or spell-like effects/abilities by 2 h.p./die (to a minimum of 1 h.p. per die); if the attack is set damage, etc., the damage is reduced by 1/4th.

  When held and the blade is bared the wielder may choose to activate the sword's power of Spell Turning. This is identical to the Ring of Spell Turning. While this power is active Magekiller does not grant any magic resistance, saving throw bonuses, or reduced damage from spells. The wielder also cannot engage in melee combat with Magekiller while Spell Turning is active, although he can move or fight with other weapons.

  When fighting evil arcane spellcasters Magekiller may invoke its special power of Cancellation when it strikes such a target. When used the weapon's blow does no damage but all spells and spell-like effects active on the creature struck are 'turned off'; the creature struck gets no save vs. this spell although magic resistance does apply at 1/2 strength. Cancellation may only be used once a day and only when Magekiller itself decides to use it.

  Example: Lord Doomsman and his companions had finally penetrated the catacombs beneath the Obsidian Fortress and cut their way through the hordes of undead - all that remained were the Necromancer Lord Pathin the Foul, his henchmen, and their personal guards.
  As the two groups closed with each other Bishop Darkwalk and Mournglow the Mage immediately began casting, their personal henchmen guarding them, while Ember the Pyromancer, always unpredictable, cloaked himself in fire and charged with his flaming sword bared, his henchmen trailing behind. Stardust had simply vanished, as usual. Doomsman charged the cluster of men surrounding Pathin, eager for battle, his lieutenants guarding his flanks as he cut down enemy mercenaries.
  The vast cavern flashed with terrible magics as the Death Priests and Necromancers sought to hold off the forces of good. Doomsman saw a Death Priest cast a warding upon Pathin as the necromancer lord drank a foul brew. A blast of shadow swept over Doomsman, Magekiller protecting him from the foul curse. He saw Stardust appear from nowhere and slit the throat of a Plague Priest before she vanished back into the darkness. Mournglow and Darkwalk were both blasting foes and protecting each other from counter-attacks. Ember was laughing with joy as he cut down enemy spellcasters with the cleansing flames of his blade and cloak.
  Doomsman and his men slammed into Pathin's personal guard like a hammer, cutting through rapidly. Some of his men froze, gripped by spells cast by the Death Priests, but Doomsman felt the magic glide past him like a breeze as Magekiller shielded him again. Pathin, obviously afraid of the tall barbarian lord, cast a spell that caused him to be surrounded by a shell of shadows.
  Doomsman was finally through the last guards and lunged toward Pathin. The necromancer also leaped forward with magical quickness, touching Doomsman's arm; there was a muted flash of green light and, once more, Doomsman felt Magekiller protect him. As Doomsman's first stroke lashed out he heard Magekiller's voice in his head,
  "Strike true"
  The blade hit but Pathin was unharmed; instead the shell of shadows, the green nimbus on his hands, and all the rest simply vanished [Magekiller Cancelled the spell effects of Prayer, Aid, Bless, Spirit Armor, Ghoul Touch, and Contingency as well as the effects of a Potion of Speed]. Pathin recoiled in terror as Doomsman's backstroke slashed across his torso, almost disemboweling him. The spellcaster staggered back and opened his mouth but the third stroke decapitated him before the scream could start.

  Magekiller's personality is very subdued; it almost never speaks aloud and is very taciturn even with its wielder. It will not allow itself to be wielded by an evil creature nor a creature capable of casting arcane spells; in the former case it 'turns off' it powers and uses its telepathy to make the wielder uneasy and fearful of it until it is sold or given away. For the latter it will telepathically urge that it be given to 'someone more suited' as well as 'turning off' its powers.
  Magekiller prefers to be wielded by fighters, then multi-class fighters (not including fighter/magic-users or such!), and then those clerics that can use a two-handed sword.
  Magekiller will usually only come into conflict with its wielder if the wielder has been Charmed, Geased, etc. If that occurs Magekiller will attempt to 'take over' and force the wielder to seek out counterspells. Note that Magekiller cannot use its Cancellation power on any creature that cannot cast arcane spells!
  Magekiller could potentially also come into conflict with a wielder who refuses to oppose arcane spellcasters at all.

  Anyone wielding this powerful weapon should expect to fact threats ranging from other who desire to own it to the enmity of virtually every evil mage to the machinations of the Crimson Watch.
  [The party that has it is justly paranoid of 'Witchking Infiltrators'].

  Some sages suspect that if Magekiller were to destroy the Witchking that the sword itself may become 'depowered', its purpose completed.

Inspired by Other Bloggers - Back in the Day and Now

  Last night I saw an interesting article in my Google+ feed - this fun bit. Inspired, I will do the same and related my experiences.

  I started D&D in '77 on March 15th. Yes, I remember the specific day because there was a Shakespeare play going on at the time. The guy running it was a college freshman at Ball State and was using the white box rules for a game with his girlfriend, some high school kids - and me. I am forever grateful to the two girls who insisted I be able allowed to play even though I was 9.
  I remember setting as fairly important; the DM used French to indicate when we were speaking to traders from other lands and his girlfriend used German to represent the barbarians from the North. I was soon with a group of middle schoolers with a high school age DM and he also had a fairly detailed setting with the politics between the elves and the dwarves really setting the tone.
  By the end of the year I had Traveller, the Holmes basic set, and Chivalry & Sorcery. C&S has a huge impact on me because it was very focused on setting and on background. And Traveller added skills! I loved the snap and crunch of Traveller with all the math, the ship design, etc. And I liked the complexity of C&S. But I played D&D the most, with a bullet.
  In '78 I started working on a setting for my own D&D campaign, a port city called Seaward. Originally it was a crude map of a small city, a nearby set of smugglers' caves, and where the wizard's tower was. My players seemed to love the background and settings. The style of play for us was similar to this;

-Make characters (3d6 in order, roll 3 sets and pick the one you like)
-Make the new character part of the setting with backstory
-Have fun.

  Character death was fairly common.

  Around 1980 I noticed that the modules I had gotten had really changed the map - figuring out where to put them, how they fit into the world, etc. really spread out the map and added a lot of depth. My house rules were both well begun and under constant revision. I was actively trying to figure out how to get Traveller-style rules in my D&D setting when three things happened in quick succession; I moved, I received the World of Greyhawk folio as a gift; and I received Rolemaster as a gift.
  The impact of Rolemaster on how I thought about gaming was huge, bigger than C&S had been. The Greyhawk folio made me look at the Seaward setting from a 'top down' perspective; my new set of players were very, very strong on the rules without being rules lawyers.
  Before you know it I was running two campaigns; one in Greyhawk where it was official modules and Seaward where it was original stuff. This was also the time of my first 'reboot' of Seaward - much like Crisis on Infinite Earths I fixed continuity errors and cleaned up the maps and storylines. Another interesting development was how the players wanted to move characters between the two campaigns. We also all used what we called 'strict time'; sometimes characters were unavailable so we began having henchmen go as adventurers when their boss was out - the beginnings of what I call jazz band adventuring although not nearly as sophisticated as it became later.
  During this time;
-setting was still very important as a tool for adding depth to the game
-a lot of my players had henchmen as quasi-substitute characters
-When character death was a little less common character 'so messed up he is out for months' was more common than ever

  After joining the army I was all over the map in more ways than one. My looooong training schools allowed me to participate in a very, very fun game of Champions and play in a campaign where the GM had only ever played Rolemaster, knew every rule inside and out, and was running in a homebrew setting. Those two GMs taught me a great deal about being prepared, session prep, plotline development, and collaborating with the players. I was also playing a fair amount of D&D including a number of very memorable 'one shots' with someone who went on to win several prestigious awards as a movie producer.
  Then I was lucky enough to join Lew Pulsipher's D&D group. As I have mentioned before, Lew had already solidified what I call 'jazz band adventuring' and his setting, Tonilda, was a revelation in its simplicity. Most importantly, he is a full-blown game theorist and we often had long discussion about theory and did a fair amount of experimentation.
  Of course, 2e cam out shortly thereafter and I did my second reboot of Tonilda to incorporate a lot of the things I had learned.
  During this time;
-setting settled in as what I still consider it to be to this day - a framework for plot development that allows various stories, characters, etc. to interact so that there is a feeling of verisimilitude to the game and more depth for all involved
-I realized that the balance between complexity and simplicity should vary and that the difference in 'feel' between systems is often about this balance

  I wanted to insert a little note, here, about my experiences as a gamer.
  I feel like I am a bit unusual as a gamer - I have been to two RPG conventions ever and while I enjoyed them well enough I doubt that I will ever be to many more. I have never, ever had any experience with being bullied, etc., about gaming. I had motorcycle racers and football players in my games from day one and a small majority of all of my players were special forces, airborne, or rangers. With a few exceptions I have always had girls or women in my gaming groups. I sometimes feel that this is anomalous since a fair number of my peers talk about their experience as very different than this.

  Storytelling/White Wolf/WoD came along just as I was transitioning from the army to civilian life. I have mentioned other places that I largely enjoyed WoD as a concept but I did not ever run it and was not a fan after playing it. Story and setting had been a part of my campaigns from the beginning but were always secondary to adventure and fun.

  I did run 3e for a number of years and used Seaward (not the main campaign area) for those games. While there are certainly great elements in 3e the complexity level was a bit too high for my players and I to enjoy it as much as earlier versions. We kept largely the same attitude; fun and adventure is first, story and setting add to fun and adventure, rules need to be balanced between simple and complex. My 3e campaign died a neglectful death since my players were always asking to play something else.

  I experimented pretty heavily in this time with Rolemaster, Fantasy Hero, new C&S, etc. but always kept coming back to 1e and 2e. I was an eager fan of HackMaster 4th and really enjoyed it. My wife is a huge fan of AD&D 2nd edition Skills and Powers so I eventually created a new campaign world, Blackstone, to run a dedicated 2e S&P campaign.

  Blackstone was the primary campaign for a few years while Seaward lurked about. Eventually my kids wanted to play more 1e and Seaward was back out in full. We still keep story and setting in support of adventuring and fun, as the kids age we use jazz band adventuring more and more, and we like the level of complexity between 1e and 2e S&P.

  4e went by pretty fast and it was some time sbefore I got the books - my sons play it as a tactical warfare simulator. I heard of and acquired OSRIC, S&W, etc. all pretty early and enjoy them a great deal.

  I currently run a 1e campaign (Seaward), a 2e S&P campaign (Blackstone), and a Champions campaign (Champions of Atlanta). I still wish I could figure out how to play Rolemaster more. I still wish I played as much as I GM.

  What are your histories like?

The 'Inverted' 2e S&P Skills Chart

  One of the things that bugs me (and my players!) about 2e S&P is the mechanics of doing s skills check. Want to hit a Hobgoblin? High is good! Wnat to save vs. dragon breath? High is good? Want to make a skill check?
  Low is good!
  So I finally, after a decade or so, reversed the numbers so that now when you check a skill - high is good! Below is the alphabetical list of the skills from S&P and S&< with one or two skills form my campaign. CP costs are listed, as are the abilities and sub-abilities. To get your target number do this
[[(base number listed) - (ability modifier from S&P) = target number].
  So a low INT/rea score will make your target number for the Administration non-weapon proficiency higher than your base score but a high INT/rea will make your Administration target score lower than the base score. To make a non-weapon proficiency a skill check roll a d20 and if you get the target number or higher you succeed. Just like with saves and 'to hit' rolls.

  NOTE: the background formatting of the blog page may interfere with your ability to see the chart. Printing in black and white or doing a cut and paste into a text editor should fix that.

  The notes on the chart are particular to my campaign, but I included them for your comments, too!

Skill	Type	CP Cost	Base Number	Ability	Note
Administration	Priest	3	12	INT/rea
Agriculture	General	3	14	INT/kno
Alchemy	Wizard	5	15	INT/kno
Alms	Priest	3	13	CHA/lea
Anatomy	Priest, Wizard	4	16	INT/kno, WIS/int
Ancient History	Priest, Wizard, Rogue	3	15	WIS/int, INT/kno
Ancient Languages	Priest, Wizard	4	16	INT/kno
Animal Handling	General	3	14	WIS/wil
Animal Lore	Warrior	3	14	INT/kno, WIS/int
Animal Training	General	4	16	WIS/wil, CHA/lea
Appraising	Rogue	2	13	INT/rea, WIS/int
Aquatic Fighting	Warrior	4	-	STR/mus, DEX/bal
Arcanology	Wizard	4	16	INT/kno
Armorer	Warrior	5	16	INT/kno, STR/mus
Astrology	Priest, Wizard	3	16	WIS/int, INT/rea	1
Blacksmithing	General	4	15	STR/mus, INT/kno
Blind Fighting	Rogue, Warrior	4	-	WIS/int, DEX/bal
Boat Piloting	General	2	15	STR/mus, INT/rea
Bookbinding	Priest, Wizard	3	13	INT/kno
Bowyer/Fletcher	Warrior	5	15	WIS/int, Dex/aim	2
Brewing	General	3	13	INT/kno
Bureaucracy	Priest	3	13	INT/kno
Carpentry	General	3	14	STR/sta, INT/kno
Ceremony	Priest	2	14	WIS/int
Cobbling	General	3	14	DEX/aim, INT/kno
Concentration	Priest, Wizard	5	15	WIS/wil
Cooking	General	3	14	INT/rea
Cryptography	Rogue, Wizard	3	15	INT/rea, WIS/int
Dancing	General	2	15	DEX/bal, CHA/app
Deep Diving	General	2	16	DEX/bal, CON/hea
Diplomacy	Priest	3	15	CHA/lea
Disguise	Rogue	4	16	WIS/int, CHA/lea
Dowsing	Wizard	3	16	WIS/int
Endurance	Warrior	2	18	CON/fit
Engineering	General	4	16	INT/rea, WIS/int
Etiquette	General	2	13	CHA/app, WIS/int
Fire Building	General	2	13	WIS/int, INT/rea
Fishing	General	3	15	WIS/int, INT/kno
Forgery	Rogue	3	16	DEX/aim, WIS/wil
Gaming	General	2	16	WIS/int, INT/kno
Gem Cutting	Rogue, Wizard	3	15	DEX/aim
Glassblowing	Wizard	2	14	DEX/aim
Healing	Priest	4	16	WIS/int, CHA/lea
Heraldry	General	2	13	INT/kno
Herbalism	Priest, Wizard	3	15	INT/kno, WIS/int	2
Hunting	Warrior	2	14	WIS/int
Hypnotism	Wizard	4	15	CHA/lea
Investigation	Priest	4	15	INT/rea, WIS/int
Juggling	Rogue	3	14	DEX/aim
Jumping	Rogue	2	13	STR/mus, DEX/bal
Law	Priest	3	14	INT/kno
Leather Working	General	2	14	INT/kno, DEX/aim
Local History	Priest, Rogue	2	13	INT/kno, CHA/app
Mental Resistance	Priest, Wizard	3	16	WIS/wil
Mining	General	5	16	WIS/int, STR/sta	3
Modern Languages	General	2	12	INT/kno
Mountaineering	Warrior	4	14	STR/sta, WIS/wil
Musical Instrument	General	2	14	CHA/lea
Navigation	General	3	15	INT/kno, WIS/int
Observation	Priest	3	14	INT/rea, WIS/int
Omen Reading	Priest, Wizard	3	16	WIS/int, INT/rea	1
Oratory	Priest	3	14	Cha/app
Orienteering	General	3	14	INT/kno, WIS/int
Painting	General	2	14	DEX/aim, WIS/int
Papermaking	Priest, Wizard	2	13	INT/kno
Persuasion	Priest	3	16	CHA/lea
Pottery	General	3	14	DEX/aim
Prestidigitation	Wizard	3	14	DEX/bal
Reading Lips	Rogue	3	14	INT/kno, WiS/int
Reading/Writing	Priest, Wizard	2	13	INT/kno
Religion	Priest, Wizard	2	15	WIS/int
Research	Wizard	3	15	INT/rea
Riding, Airborne	General	4	16	WIS/wil, DEX/bal
Riding, Land	General	2	13	WIS/wil, DEX/bal
Riding, Water	General	4	14	WIS/wil, DEX/bal
Rope Use	General	2	13	DEX/aim, WIS/int
Running	Warrior	2	16	STR/sta/CON/fit
Sage Knowledge	Priest, Wizard	4	16	INT/kno	4
Scribe	Priest, Wizard	2	14	DEX/aim
Sculpting	General	2	16	DEX/aim, WIS/int
Seamanship	General	3	13	WIS/int, DEX/bal
Set Snares	Rogue, Warrior	3	15	Dex/aim, WiS/int
Singing	General	2	16	CHA/lea
Spellcraft	Priest, Wizard	3	14	INT/rea
Stonemasonry	General	4	16	STR/sta, WIS/int
Survival	Warrior	3	15	INT/kno, WIS/wil
Swimming	General	2	12	STR/sta
Tactics of Magic	Wizard	3	15	INT/rea
Tailoring	General	3	14	DEX/aim, INT/rea
Thaumaturgy	Wizard	3	16	INT/rea
Throwing	Rogue	2	13	DEX/aim, STR/mus
Tightrope Walking	Rogue	3	16	DEX/bal
Tracking	Warrior	4	14	WIS/int
Tumbling	Rogue	3	14	DEX/bal, STR/mus
Undead Lore	Priest	3	15	INT/kno
Ventriloquism	Rogue	4	16	INT/kno, CHA/lea
Weaponsmithing	Warrior	5	16	INT/kno, Dex/aim
Weather Knowledge	General	2	14	WIS/int
Weaving	General	3	15	INT/rea, DEX/aim
NOTES:
1 only available to specialist Diviners or clerics with major access to the sphere of Divination
2 a successful check grants a +2 on Healing checks
3 Gnomes have a +1 bonus to this skill, Dwarves have a +2 bonus
5 a specific specialty must be chosen; different specialties are separate skills

DM's Log: Blackstone Campaign Group 1- The Pack parts 3 & 4

Part 1 &2 can be found here
  After moving to a new camp site and resting the party picked new spells and headed out, again, in pouring rain [I will put weather rules here eventually!].
  They re-crossed the river in their stolen longboat and decided to bypass the fortress this time. They were soon on the path leading through the valley toward the mountain. The theif made her danger sense roll and was on the ground when the first telephone-pole sized arrow slammed into Doomsman. After a bit of confusion they took cover from the sniper. Stardust and Mournglow slipped off, invisibly, to look for the attackers and a duel between the two invidible characters and the invisible female jungle giant stalking them began! After a fair amount of maneuvering, cover, use of Stardust's Gem of Seeing, etc. they were able to attack the jungle giant and were almost surprised by the mountain giant with her! Luckily Mournglow had been communicating with the rest of the party with his Arcane Servant familiar, so the rest of the party was close enough to save their bacon.
  After some healing the party continued until they saw a rather large bonfire ahead. Moving cautiously they saw a massive fire giant tending the fire. While the party was still far off he laughingly challenged their champion to a duel to the death, prompting Doomsman to begin to trot forward. When Soomsman was within range the fire giant reached into the fire, pulled out massive iron bolas glowing red with heat, and hurled them! With an excellent (read: lucky) throw Doomsman was entangled and taking fire damage while the giant charged the rest of the party, hurling boulders as he came.
  Mournglow and Darkwalk made short work of the giant with spells and Doomsman had freed himself by the time the party arrived. After more healing, they continued.
  After a time the party was on the long switchbak up the mountain. By mid-day the rain had stopped and they were above the treeline and heading into the clouds by mid-afternoon. Hoping to pierce the layer of clouds before camping, they stopped when they heard a rumbling - a boulder was coming down the trail. This began another encounter; fighting in the clouds with a fog giant. he rolled boulders down the trail, released rock falls on the party, had rope snares to toss party members off cliffs, erected barried that the party had to climb but that he could step over, etc.
  The party began to call out to him, bantering a bit and when I replied I did so in a posh British accent - I have no idea why.  The party enjoyed the banter during the duel (I did, too) although it ended when Stardust was able to locate the giant in the fog and use her rope of climbing to get Doomsman behind him and the party in front. After it was over the kids told me that they now envision ALL fog giants as mannered, polite British types who just happen to be trying to kill them.
  The party pierced the clouds right about sunset and saw that the cloud island was attached to the mountain by a bridge arching 100 yeards over a sheer drop. A 10' wide bridge. With no rails. Beat up, tired, and out of many spells they healed up and then camped in the fog.
  The party took a 1 week break in between session, finishing with a short session.
  When they returned they crossed the bridge,\ - carefully - and passed through the outer clouds to see a massive castle (I used a picture of the Disney castle) in a lush, garden-like setting 2 miles on each side, a square with gardens, fountains, orchards, etc. all 4 times normal size. Massive oaks lined the gravel path between the bridge and the castle entrance, although there was a large grove of normal sized oaks by the entrance, where they were.
  As the party was discussing their possible actions the local grove transformed into a squad of 20 Verbeeg with a frost giant leader.
  My son, J., immediately slapped his forehead,
  "Massmorph! The normal sized trees should have warned me!"
  That's my boy.
  The verbeeg opened with a salvo of giant-sized heavy crossbow bolts (2d8+1 per bolt) with a LOT of hits - everyone in the party but Doomsman was hit with Mourglow and Ember reduced to single digits and Darkwalk close to it. Doomsman closed with the frost giant leader, trading blows, as the verbeeg split - 1/2 drawing swords and charging, the other half reloading. Mournglow and Stardust went invisible to get some distance while Darkwalk drew his weapon and Ember decided to go ahead and cast.
  A Fireball from Ember wounded many of those with crossbows and Darkwalk surprised me by using an item to erect a semi-circular Wall of Fire between the party and the verbeeg crowwbowmen. Stardust realized another giant, a fomorian, was coming across the bridge behind them and prepared for that. Mourglow killed the frost giant with a Chromatic Orb allowing Doomsman to wade into the verbeeg like the incarnation of Death.
  The fomorian had one arm just 1' long and another 25' long - carrying a halberd. Heavily armored he was a hideous sight. Mournglow tried to Ploymorph him - the spell failed and a bolt of electricity from the fomorian hurt Mournglow down to single digits.  The fomorian finally closed with the party and attacked with his halberd. Because of his massive reach and height he coul strike virtually anyone within 30'.
  Stardust opened with a backstab, only to learn he had an eye on the back of his shoulder and being just missed by the halberd. 3 rounds of combat ensued with more damage being doled out and the fomorian going down.
  During this time Stardust noted that the cloud the fortress was on had turned into a thunderhead and was drifting away from the mountain. The party healed up as fast as they could and prepared spells for when the Wall of Fire went down.
  When it did the space beyond was filled with more verbeeg and the leader of the Pack - Lord Thundercloud. A huge cloud giant dressed in black plate mail with a shield and sword. He greeted the party politely, if coldly, and asked Doomsman to duel with him, to the death, with the party to go free with 3 boons if Doomsman won, the party to be enslaved if he lost. Doomdman accepted.
  [If you aren't familiar with Player's Options: Combat and Tactics, I suggest you get it for ideas if nothing else.]
  The duel went on a LONG time. Doomsman and Lord Thundercloud were high enough level and had enough bonuses that misses were uncommon. Doomsman had more attacks and did more damage per hit but Lord Thundercloud had a free parry from his enchanted shield and his weapon was an Unholy Drinker - every point of damage he did to Doomsman healed him the same amount. Pretty soon both were parrying as often as attacking in an attempt to wear down the other.
  In the end Doomsman's grand mastery won through and he squeaked out a victory - again.
  The boons the party received were; a letter from the leader of the Drow to Lord Thundercloud; the return of Starwing (Darkwalk's henchman) from capitivity; a rocback ride back to their fortress.
  The letter (plus research and divination) releaved a few key facts - the Drow leader is actually an exile from the Drow capitol; she has a great deal of influence over the leader of the Redcaps; she essentially tricked Lord Thundercloud and the pack and the 3 giant Lords into starting a war with Blackstone; the Drow leader is a high priestess of the Lord of Evil Earth Elementals; Lord Thundercloud was an anti-paladin of the Lord of Evil Air Elementals; the Flaming Skulls tribe of hobgoblins to the far West are worshippers of the Lord of Evil Fire Elementals; some as-yet-unkown group in the sea follows the Lord of Evil Water Elementals; these groups are attempting to destroy all Human kingdoms.
  This ends an arc that has been the focus on 20 real-world months of gaming. When I first started dropping hints on this arc my son N., who plays Darkwalk, was nine. Because of the high average level we are probably going to mostly retire the entire party except for political intrigue and the occasional high-level adventure.

DM's Log: Blackstone Campaign Group 1 - the Pack parts 1 & 2

  Having returned from the large battles to the East the party wanted to settle down and focus on completing their large, combined stronghold. Through a combination of experience points and an arcane book the party fighter and leader, Doomsman, is now 13th level and the cleric/mage, Darkwalk, is 8th/9th. Unfortunately, the Redcaps still pose a major threat.
  The Redcaps are the spiritual descendants of the rebellious humanoid legions that brought down the last Human Empire a few centuries before current game time. The have a mysterious leader and employ mainly humanoids and giants. Typically they have Goblin scouts/skirmishers and Hobgoblin infantry/etc. with Bugbears as shock troops. Above all that, however, is The Pack.
  The Pack is a group of exceptional giants (one each of Hill, Mountain, Fire, Frost, Fog, Fomorian, Desert, and Jungle) with a Cloud Giant leader that act as the best of the best troops for the Redcaps.They are supported by an army of Verbeeg and have Ogre troops, too.
  The party is building their fortress to command the only so-far unprotected pass between the West and the Redcaps and the Blackstone region. They have a lot of attachment to the area since from 1st level to about level 5 they adventured heavily in the region and pushed the Redcap-allied Goblins from the same pass.
  Concerned about an attack on the in-progress stronghold by giants, the party decided to take the fight over the mountains. After a long discussion/argument Mournglow convinced everyone to leave the hippogriffs at home and travel by horse. This led to only Darkwalk bringing a henchman (Starwing, a 3/3 cleric/magic-user).
  Travelling north along the Old Mountain Road the party soon ran into something they had encountered before - animals acting oddly with a single eye glowing green or red. After three days of dodging these creatures and scouting the thief, Stardust, found something odd; two human guards speaking in bored tones as 5 other humans sat crouched over glowing stones, insensate. After a relatively quick skirmish three thinsg happened;
1) The lead guard was Charmed
2) The other guard was dead
3) The insensate people were bound
  The charmed guard talked, of course, revealing that there were two other groups hunting for the party and that the men with stones were controlling/diving through the animals as scouts. Because the party was a bit split up and there was combat with some animals and undead, they did not get back to the bound diviners for several game hours. By the time they did the diviners had been devoured by a pack of... somethings.The charmed guard was sent away. The guard did sketch a brief map and give the players a run down on the pack, leading to a 10 minute argument about going back for the hippogriffs.
  They pressed on.
  Two game days later they encountered the second party sent for them, a group of humans that were 'on loan' to the Redcaps. The battle lasted longer than I expected, mainly because of the '2e monk' that I made with Combat and Tactics and his magic items. In the end, though, the party prevailed. They finally reached sight of their destination, a walled town protecting the only river crossing for miles. While they knew from their interrogations that the majority of troops were gone, they realized that they still had to somehow deal with the left behind. The portion of the village on their side seemed largely empty but with hobgoblins, the far side with Verbeeg.
  The also realized the Pack's fortress, in the mountains beyond, was probably on a cloud island. Between that and the river there was a heated discussion with Mournglow about bringing the hippogriffs.
  After resting the night they left Starwing at camp with the horses and gear and set out. Darkwalk used a Rainbow spell to cross the river near a small waterfall (and its rainbow). With a combination of items and spells they then scaled the walls of the fortress on the far side of the river to eliminate a strongpoint behind them.
  While creeping along the outer walls towards the main fortress a roc flew by overhead with a giant riding it. They could hear the faint screams of a woman from the roc, too. Puzzled, they pressed on.
  They made it to the main fortress from the outer walls but drew the attention of a guard. Before too long the alarm was sounded and battle was engaged. Stardust just avoided an attack by a Marilith (!); she got away and Doomsman engaged her in melee, cutting her down in just 2 rounds (!!). After temporarily sealing the stairs behind them with a Wall of Fire (and leaving a set of Explosive Runes behind) they engaged about 25 Verbeeg, including a shaman, outside the door leading from the base of the tower. Between spells and combat they killed or injured all the Verbeeg there but were driven off by giant-sized heavy catapults from the main keep hurling 120 gallon barrels of flaming tar.
  Returning to the tower they decided to go all the way to the top. Once there they were engaged by the invisible Hill Giant member of the Pack who wielded a massive war club of stunning. In a scene far too familiar Doomsman cut him down in short order. While this was going on, though, the roc returned and dropped something. The party dove through the trapdoor and fled down the stairs as a massive barrel of vitriol burst, eating away at the top of the tower and damaging the stairs further down another floor.
  It was looking a bit grim, I thought. The main keep (400' tall) had the ability to hurl more flaming tar; the roof was effectively gone and with the stairs above gone they couldn't go up. The only other exit, on the ground floor, still had a large tar fire on the other side of it. I started moving in the Verbeeg and the roc rider circled lower.
  Being careful and taking minor damage Stardust used her Rope of Climbing to get the party to the level with access to the walls. Darkwalk then used a Fireblast to destroy the catapult from the keep that could fire at them and the party moved to the walls. The were engaged by 2 Verbeeg (including the one that first noticed them and raised the alarm) but Ember hurled a Lesser Fireblast which seemed to drop them. The party rushed onto the wall as the roc swooped in, the Fog Giant on its back preparing to hurl another barrel of vitriol. Darkwalk rolled a good initative, though, and hit the giant with a Flamestrike and the barrel failed its save (with a 1) shattering and coating the giant and the roc with vitriol. The roc and its rider flew away as the party scrambled down from the wall, commandeered a longboat and recrossed the river and fled toward their hidden camp.
  When they reached camp, though, it was destroyed; tents gone, horses missing or bitten in half, all their gear missing, and Starwing nowhere to be found. Looking at the massive claw marks they realized the roc had been there and that the screaming woman they had heard earlier was Starwing being carried to the fortress in the clouds.
  There was a moment of sheer terror when Mournglow and Darkwalk realized their spell books were missing. Then Ember told them he had stashed copies of their travelling books in his Portable Hole. There was also some anguish about Doomsman's warhorse, Spanky II, meeting such an ignominious end.
  The party is now on foot deep inside enemy territory (walking back to the closest safe place, their own stronghold, is at least 8 days assuming no encounters, they are travelling in the open, and the weather is perfect), they have 1 day of food and water on them (although water is plentiful nearby), their enemies know roughly where they must be, and a beloved hencman is captive of the enemy.

DM's Log: Blackstone Campaign, Group 1 - BONUS: Why your players should use Chant

 I have mentioned the background on the Blackstone Campaign a few places but this is my first post-adventure update.
 Which needs more background.
  This group, which we call Blackstone 1, has been playing for about 4 years, or about 120 individual sessions. The group is relatively high level for a number of meta-reasons. It consists of:
  Doomsman, a 10th level Fighter. A fairly realistic take on the barbarian, he is less like a raving berzerker and much more like an actual barbarian. Using the advanced weapon mastery and style mastery skills of Player's Option: Combat and Tactics he is a Master of the two-handed sword with 2 combat styles from the campaign - combined with a girdle of giant strength, a good armor class, and a magic two-hander he is a fierce hand-to-hand foe.
  Darkwalk, an 8th/8th Cleric/Magic-user. Since I use spell points (from PO: Spells and Magic) he casts about 100 spells a day. OK, that is an exaggeration, but Darkwalk is fine example of a cleric/magic-user and their flexibility.
  Stardust,  a 13th level Thief. Stardust is the character of the oldest and most experienced player in the group and is very good at the role of scout. She has worked to maximize her skills and items but is, frankly, about to the upper limit of what a thief can do (more about what I think is 'high level' in another post)
  Mournglow, a 10th level Magic-user. The player has focused Mournglow on the 'generalist with a lot of academic skills' mold and it is working. Very fond of using Polymorph Other to change foes into innocuous creatures, especially beavers and cows.
  Ember, a 10th level Fire Elementalist. Used the Skills and Powers rules so that he can fight with a short sword. The only spell the character likes more than Fireball is another Fireball. Ended the adventure Steading of the Hill Giant Chief about 8 rounds into the game when he caught the log fortress on fire with his 3rd or 4th Fireball.
  The party is very familiar with each other and is, frankly, fun to DM for.
  The Setup: About a game year ago the Grey Elven Kingdom to the East collapsed under the weight of a certain revelation and a Drow attack, greatly weakening the Eastern Elven Alliance. About 4 game months ago the party rescued a High Elven princess from the (rather modified) Hall of the Fire Giant King and sent her to her home with an escort of NPCs. About 2 game weeks ago the party received an urgent letter from the Princess informing them that 1) Her father and brothers were either missing or dead, leaving her in charge, 2) the Evil Eye Orcs were marching on her eastern border and 3) the remaining forces of the EEA had no hope of stopping the Orcs.
  The Previous Session: The party raced East on their hippogriffs and barely arrived in time. The session was a struggle to revent the Orcs from crossing the river border of the Elflands and, essentially, only delaying it. They were successful in wiping out a lot of the (leveled) leadership of the Orcs including the head Orc scout (a leveled thief), the Orc's chief Shaman (with levels in Cleric) and a number of other orcs.
  There was also a setup where Doomsman faced the champion of the Orcs, a half-orc with fighter levels, weapon mastery, and a sword of Human slaying. Although the toughest fight of his career, Doomsman prevailed and, as per the rules of the duel, the Ogre and Orog allies of the Orcs departed and the actual battle was set up for the next morning near the river banks.
  This Session: In between sessions the players had been a bit nervous because the Elves were outnumbered by 50% and the Orcs had used the time of the duel to set themselves up on a hill with the river at the back and left flank and a wood on their right while the elves would be forced to advance over an open field. During session setup Stardust discovered that the Orcs had also secretly hidden reserves in that same wood - the Elves were actually outnumbered over 2:1! Ember and Doomsman got the Elves into formation and began their advance while Stardust and Mournglow approached the enemy while invisible and flying. The general idea was that Stardust and Mournglow would target enemy spell casters and leaders while Ember provided battlefield spells, Darkwalk supported the troops and Doomsman fought in the front line.
  With his divinations Mournglow quickly realized the main Orcish leaders were within a Globe of Invulnerability and that the missing Elven king and prince were shacked to the Orcish banner right next to them, so he shifted his focus to the reserves. His engagement with the reserves resulted in his own Minor Globe being dispelled (!) but he was able to summon 3 Brown Puddings to engage the reserve forces and then fly away. Stardust left to see what she could do against the leaders and Mournglow looked for more targets.
  Ember began sending Fireballs against Orcish heavy crossbowmen while Darkwalk cast Bless, Prayer, Recitation, etc. over the Elven troops. Even with their help the Elven front line of swordsmen quickly went down as they hit the Orcish pikes. As the second line Elven Heavy Spearmen engaged the Pikes the Light Spearmen on the flanks prepared to be encircled by Orcish Spearmen. It was looking pretty grim when Doomsman, Darkwalk, and Ember all decided to do what they do best.
  Doomsman simply hacked his way through the Orcish Pikes to their rear as Ember put up a Wall of Fire on the Elven right flank and Darkwalk called down a Flame Strike on the Orcs menacing the left flank.
  About this time the invisible silent Stardust landed behind the Orc leaders and began to surreptitiously free the Elven prisoners while the Orcs were busy watching and directing the battle. During this process she realized that the Orcish banner seemed to incorporate some sort of holy relic.
  Ember slpped another Wall of Fire on the other Elven flank as Darkwalk kept using spells to assist the Elves. About this time Mournglow decide to Polymorph the Orc who had dispelled his Minor Globe into a - Ki-rin.
  This was interesting since the new Ki-rin 'lost his mind' and became a Ki-rin. I soon decided the Ki-rin would help, but not by crassly impaling orcs - the party watched as the Ki-rin flew up and away into the clouds.
  About this time Doomsman blew his Horn of Valhalla and 3 Einherjar joined him as he charged up the hill toward the Orc King.
  In the battle of armies the Elves superior skill and armor was beginning to tell and Darkwalk's spells were starting to really swing the fight, although the match was still against the Elves.
  The reserves soon finished off the puddings and started to form back up to join the fight, prompting Mournglow to head back towards them.
  Whew! We took a break at this point and gathered ourselves.
  Once back at it Doomsman and 2 of the Einherjar cut their way through the Orcish infantry behind the Pikes and continued up the hill. Ember started Fireballing Orcish shortbowmen, Mournglow began to start dropping spells into the reserves, and the Elves brought down the Pikes and resumed their advance, this time against the Orcish infantry.
  Meanwhile Stardust freed the Elven prince and began to free the Elven king.
  The Elves engaged the infantry but now had the reserves threatening their left flank. Mournglow was doing his best to slow the reserves but was struggling a bit. Doomsman was down to 1 Einherjar but was almost through the last troops before the Orc King's bodyguards. Stardust was rushing to free the Elf king before she was spotted by those same bodyguards. Ember was doing well but was actually running low on Fireballs, which is weird.
  About this time the party as a whole noticed that a storm was brewing very suddenly and Stardust realized the Orc king was occasionally casting spells, seemingly on his own troops!
  Mournglow attempted an attack on the leaders (he was still flying) and was hit twice by the Orc king's spear for his efforts. The Orc king's spear returned when thrown and Mournglow quickly learned it was a Wounding weapon, prompting him to return to slow the reserves.
  Doomsman and the last Einherjar engaged the main group of bodyguards in a fight that soon turned into a cuisinart. While he was taking damage a bit he was dropping a bodyguard per blow and was hitting 3 times a round! The Einherjar was keeping the bodyguards off his back but was fading fast.
  Ember shifted his focus to the reserves using the last of his Fireballs on them as Mournglow also returned to hitting them. The elves were starting to overwhelm the infantry but still had the reserves approaching their flank and had taken pretty severe losses.
  Doomsman finally cut his way through the first group of bodyguards, although he had taken two hits from the Orc king's spear of wounding (which had been thrown from the hilltop). The Einherjar finally went down as Doomsman charged the second group of boyguards around the King. The Ki-rin finally had enough clouds and did a Call Lightning on the reserves as Mournglow and Ember also continued hitting them. Stardust got the elf king free and began cutting down the Orc banner, hoping this would drop the Globe of Invulnerability and allow Mournglow to assault the leaders with magic.
  Although greatly slowed and weakened the Orcish reserves had still drawn to within moments of engaging the Elven flank and rear. Ember was almost out of spells and was contemplating drawing his own sword and joining the line. Darkwalk was out of attack spells and was tending the wounded and also preparing for the worst. Mournglow had a spell or two in reserve in case the Globe went down but was also largely out. Stardust was hopeful she could bring down the Globe but was very isolated.
  The Orc king shouted an order and his bodyguards allowed Doomsman direct access for the king and Doomsman to duel. Doomsman was not just hurt but the Wounding effect meant he was losing more h.p. each round while the Orc king was fresh and had Prayer, etc. active on himself.
  The duel was a lot of fun to DM simply because the party felt that the battle was riding on it. The previous day's duel had been the closest Doomsman had ever come to losing such a fight, and he had been fresh then. Being wounded and Wounded there was a bit more tension during combat!
  It was still over in just two rounds! Doomsman's player rolled well and hit hard and was able to parry each of the two blows that would have otherwise hit. As the Orc king died he uttered a curse on Doomsman.
  With the death of the Orc king his spells ended (he had the War sphere, granting him access to spells like Courage and Rally)  - this, combined with the shock of the last of their high leaders dying, broke the Orcish units that could see the duel which led to a cascade and, within 3 rounds, the Orcs were in a panicked retreat.
  Soon the Elves were gathered up and being cared for by their own healers and Darkwalk, their king and prince were returned, and the Ki-rin harried the retreating Orcs with his Call Lightning. Darkwalk had memorized Remove Curse for just such an emergency, so Doomsman received that before all his wounds were bound.
  Of the Elven force of almost 900 less than 430 survived the battle and many of the survivors were wounded. They lost no leaders and no spell casters.
  Of the Orcish force of about 2,100 less than 900 survived the battle and retreat. They lost all top leaders, most of their spell casters, the majority of their tough bodyguards, and even a large number of 'sergeants'.
  The party received the following treasure as a reward;
  -Each received a cloak pin that grants them a +2 on reaction rolls with Good elves from the continent and a +2 on saves vs. Cold.
  -2,000 g.p. in various gem stones.
 -Doomsman was granted the boon of being allowed to court the Elf king's daughter.

General Notes from this Adventure: These are both my own insights and what the players shared after the two sessions.
  1) Unless prepared for it, even a high level party can really struggle against an army of more than small size. As Mournglow put it 'they can't really hurt us unless we are really foolish, but every encounter that slows us down means other units get through.' Even against really tightly-packed formations a Fireball can affect no more than about 60 targets. Since even the Pike walls weren't 40' deep Ember's Fireballs were affecting between 36 (pikes) and 12 (heavy crossbowmen) Orcs at a time.
  The orcish army was in three columns, each heading for a different river crossing. Even with hippogriffs it was difficult to even find the Orcs since they typically travelled at night and used trees for cover as much as they could during the day.
  2) Siege weapons are very vulnerable to PCs. A Flaming Sphere can wreck a catapult very fast. Fireballs tend to do it faster.
  3) Some combat spells work great on the battlefield; but most combat spells don't. Fireball and Wall of Fire had an impact on the battlefield as a whole. Almost no other combat spell (in this battle) had that level of impact.
  4) Clerics can be more important on the battlefield than mages. The War sphere spells of the Orc king had a huge effect, preventing three of his units from breaking and allowing another to fight more effectively. Without those spells the Elves might have suffered far fewer casualties and, perhaps, even won without the support of the PCs.
  On the other hand, Darkwalk's use of Bless, Prayer, Recitation and similar spells had a major impact on the battlefield, especially along the front line. Let me show you why with raw numbers;
    Orc = 1 HD and A.C. 6
    Elf - 1+1 HD and A.C. 5
  Right away we see that the average Elf will hit the average Orc 55% of the time and only be hit 45% of the time. Combined with an average of 6 h.p. vs. an average of 5 h.p. the Elves have a quality edge to begin with.
  Now, let's get the front line of Elves under a Bless spell;
    Orc = still has a 45% chance to hit
    Elf = now has a 60% chance to hit and makes Morale checks at +1
  Ok, that is a nice boost, especially since mass combat is a game of numbers. Now, let's look at the same situation if the Elves were under Prayer
    Orc = 40% chance to hit, -1 damage
    Elf = 60% chance to hit, +1 damage
  Even better, right? Now let's look at just Recitation;
    Orc = 35% chance to hit, -2 damage
    Elf = 65% chance to hit, +2 damage
  Wow, this is a major change! Here's the thing, though - these three spells stack their bonuses! The Elven front line were longswordsmen (who get a +1 to hit from being Elves) and were under all three spells at the same time, meaning that at the initial shock of impact the forces looked like this;
    Orc = 25% chance to hit, -3 damage
    Elf = 80% chance to hit, +3 damage
  The spells alone provide a 40% change in the battle odds! Add in the Elven long sword bonus and the damage shift and this is why a force of 100 Elven swordsmen were able to devastate 400 Orcish pikemen before they went down. Even with the fact the pikemen were making 3 attacks before the elves were able to respond with one the huge difference in ability to hit and the damage shifts made all the difference in the world. In the battle above if Darkwalk and not prepared the front line with the spells he did (which was a major impact on his spell ability) the Elven front line would almost certainly have simply been cut down in the initial shock while doing effectively no damage to the pikes. Instead while the swordsmen did fall to the pikes it took 3 times as long and they wiped out half of the pikes doing so.
  Imagine if the Orcs had simply put 3 low-level clerics along the back rank of the Pikes, all casting the spell Chant spell before and during the battle - AND Darkwalk wasn't there - this would have made the Orcs equal to the Elves!
  Suddenly the Chant spell makes a lot more sense, doesn't it? Low-level clerics man the walls of besieged castles chanting for hours at a time; the monks in the cathedral aren't just singing in the choir - it is a continuous Chant to help protect the sacred space; etc.
  Now the players are back to the West and where their Dwarven hirelings are still working on their combined stronghold!

Dungeon Master's Log - Blackstone Campaign background Part I

  NOTE: MY PLAYERS SHOULD NOT READ THIS ENTRY

  My 2e campaign world is relatively new, only 4 years old. I use the Skills and Powers, Combat & Tactics, and the Spells & Magic rules in this campaign.  In this post I am going to review the steps I went through to provide in-universe reasons for certain racial traits.
  I began with a world map created with AutoRealm. I created a world with 2x the diameter of Earth because I wanted to introduce certain ideas into the campaign about elemental forces. Plus, big maps!
  There are three major continents - one in 'the North', one in 'the South', one the crosses the equator. The north pole is covered with a massive plateau of 6,000 square miles and the south pole is a flat plain.
  Then I went into a history that stretched from before the use of metal tools until the year before play started. Key historical events are;
 -in the the late Paleolithic all the demi-human races were concentrated in the tropical southern continent. Humanity was enslaved by Elves. The long-lived elves and their natural magic allowed them to dominate the other races. Dwarves hid in the mountains, working on weapons, Gnomes hid in the forests, Halflings skulked about, and Humans were slave labor. Humanoids lived on the northern and eastern continents.
  -a human, furious about the inability of Humans to use magic, had a breakthrough and began to understand preparing spells. He and his descendants developed the magic-user abilities over three generations eventually culminating in the magic-user class.
  -Humanity began developing magic-users in secret until they staged a mass uprising. This began generations of warfare between Humans and Elves and a civil war between the Elves. The pro-Human branch of Elves lost the civil war were driven underground by the winning Elf factions.
  -Surface Elves gained a limited ability to use prepared magic at the expense of much of their innate magical ability.
 -The subterranean Elves used magic to darken their skin to aid in underground stealth.

Note: This is used to explain in-universe a few points:
  1) Humans have unlimited potential as magic-users because they invented the use of prepared spells.
  2) The limit on maximum level as magic-user for Elves and Half-elves is because the use of prepared magic is alien to them - it is literally against their nature.
  3) Gnomes are good at Illusion because they had to hide from Elven slavers
  4) Dwarves are resistant to magic because of their long war against the naturally-magical Elves.
  5) A real reason why Drow are black-skinned as an underground race and their hatred of other elves.
  6) The plot twist that the Grey Elves are the ancient villains of the Elven civil war that drove the Drow underground.

  Next will be how I built a histroy

Details of my 2e campaign. Part 1 - Spell Points

The Blackstone campaign is currently the 'main game' I am running. I has been ongoing for 3 years and is still strong. I use 2nd Edition AD&D with all the Player's Option books but not all of the options allowed.
  The main differences for casters are I allow customized magic-users and clerics and that I use the spell point system as detailed in Spells and Magic for all casters and conditional modifiers for Clerics.
  I originally added this to the campaign for three reasons - I like the flexibility the spell point system gives casters; the conditional modifiers add some depth to religion; and I have a major campaign artifact based on the system that s a huge plot driver.
  Unfortunately, I now wish I hadn't used the spell point system! The party consists of a Human Thief, a Human Magic-user (Generalist), a Human Magic-User (Fire Elementalist), a Human Fighter, and a Half-Elven Cleric/Magic-user. That's right, 3 of the 5 are spell casters. This means that the group sits down about 40 minutes before play is scheduled and spends all of that time selecting spells. Even with lists of default spells the desire to customize your spell list is too great and the point system really encourages min/maxing to squeeze out very possible spell. Toss in high stats (bonus points), specialization (points that can only be used for particular types of spells), and the cleric of a God of Magic (casting his clerical spells sometimes costs more points, other times it costs less, resulting in 'left over' points that can be used for all sorts of mischief) and it is a major headache before and during each session.
  For more goodness, this means I have to do the same for all spell casting NPCs!
  Now, I have no issue with point systems per se; Rolemaster is probably my favorite magic system and it is all about points, discounts, and arcane rules. No, my problem is that it drastically changes D&D - character creation, development, and play are all very different. A spell casting character with a good knowledge of the point system 'punches above his weight' and should be counted 1 to 5 levels higher (depending on overall level) for purposes of adventure planning. And, in the end, it isn't vancian enough to match the rest of AD&D. Magic items end up not working properly (Rings of Wizardry are the obvious issue, but what about a Pearl of Power? Incense of Meditation?).
  I will not use the spell point system in AD&D again, but I will keep it in the Blackstone campaign. Why? It is part of the woof and weave of that world, now, and besides - I still have that plot-driving artifact lurking about.