campaign notes Evernight

[Sgain]

Hi all;

I figured I'd post some campaign notes on my Savage Worlds Evernight game I'm running using FG2.

First off a few things; I like to use Teamspeak for OOC and sometimes helping folks with stuff (and sometimes I even make sound effects if everyone is on TS). SW is a very different system than d20 based games, for one thing you're not limited by your class, you can be a powerful wizard who likes to run around and smack things with a two handed maul wearing plate, it isn't limiting or restrictive. When I speak about a characters class I usually mean his background profession or obvious trade/order.

As an introduction to the campaign for both myself and the players I've decided to 'bash' Against the Orcs into the Evernight setting.

Game session 1: Sept 26,2007, 19:00 PST
- a long initial load for all the players (is this caused by the ruleset?), but once in little or no lag (I would pre-load most maps).
-longarms (Nim)- choose to play the half elf streetrat, your standard lowlife that inhabits most cities. He likes the throwing knives.
-tammy (Bruce) - her first SW game, she choose the Slayer, a human character who is a professional killer. In this ones case its monster hunting not human hunting, though some slayers are professional assassins.
-omegaman (Galev) - The Red Knight caught his fancy. Think of a warpriest and you'll have the idea. Having faith based miracles never hurts when your off fighting evil...
-Oz (Ozerman) - the dwarven fighter, a good solid character with flintlock pistol and a mighty battle axe.

The group has all found there way to Baron Loxlyns residence in the City of Kings Port. They stand around eyeing each other for a few moments until a fine liveried footman opens the main door of the mansion and invites them in.

Inside they meet the Baron Loxlyn who offers them a job - (I'm not going to tell you everything about the module...). They barter a bit, and Nim proposes that they receive a bounty for the orc scalps. The Baron is disgusted with the request, but hides it well, "we'll have to see about that.." he responds having never before heard such a barbaric request. He escorts the group to his armory, supplies them with rations and maps and quickly bids them 'adieu'.

Nonplussed the group musters together and begin their three day trek along the Kings Road using only shanks pony. On the first day, Bruce makes an amazing shot and kills a fine buck, the group feasts on the fine venison and prepare several days worth of extra rations over their campfire. The next few days on the road pass uneventfully with only a few other travelers moving past them as they make their way uphill. They take a turn off the Kings Road and begin traveling the less well maintained road to the tiny village of Roxbury.

As they approach a rude bridge crossing a fast moving stream the keen eyed half elf Nim spots several shapes moving in the nearby trees, 'Orcs!' he shouts readying his knives.

Their ambush ruined, the scouting party rushes out of concealment with loud warcries. A nasty but short fight ensues with the orcs falling under the parties combined skills with nary a wound amoungst them. Emboldened by the assault Nim scalps the orcs, and even is able to double scalp one of the fallen warriors (showing five scalps instead of just four). He proudly hangs the scalps on his belt, Galev is unimpressed with this display, but stays silent...

They move onward through the hills and valleys to the recently logged area surrounding the village of Roxbury, where they find that the near constant rain has turned the towns recently farmed fields into thick soupy mud. Only the road provides somewhat stable footing as the group moves in the darkening evening sky towards the gate of the strangely still town.

With a great deal of shock they realize that the barricade wall, watch tower, and even the towns gate are all unfinished and unmanned. Seems the locals went to their farming before concentrating on their safety. The town seems oddly deserted and only a few houses show smoke rising lazily above their chimneys as they trudge through the forced opened gates and into the village green their eyes constantly scanning for ambush or the bodies of slaughtered villagers.

The sounds of prayer could be discerned coming from the nearby Temple to Solace, and they move towards the finest building in the town with thoughts of a warm meal and a dry bed. The door is springs open and a lad of about fourteen years jumps out of the temple waving a rust covered spear at the group as he stutters out a challenge.

They quickly convince him of their good intent (the Red knights being there really impressed the lad), and he shows them into the temple, after cautioning them to be silent as services to the Sun god are under way. The group follows into the well lit space and one of the churchgoers; a woman near the back of the church notices the bloody sodden scalps attached to Nims belt. She shrieks in terror...

Instantly the townsmen jump to their feet and the village headman Adelmar rushes over to group. Spotting the scalps he is at once disgusted and terrified for his town, for the orcs are a clannish bunch who take insult easily.

"You've brought ruin upon us all!" he cries pointing at the offending scalps, "now the local tribe will seek vengeance upon us all for your slaying of their kinsmen."

They hand him their documents from the Baron and inform them that they are there to help protect the village. Upset with their obvious bravado in the face of danger, Adelmar returns to his evening services in an attempt to calm the agitated villagers.

The group waits quietly until the service is over and Adelmar brings them down to his home for a bowl of havest stew. Ozerman and Bruce decide against the meal and instead do a patrol of the towns fortificatons, well, Ozerman scouts the walls and Bruce climbs the rickety ladder to the rather unstable top of the watch tower.

Nim and Galev discuss the Barons army and its arrival and how the town must protect itself from the orcish threat with Adelmar who though somewhat mollified with their attitude is still worried about the orcs anger.

He explains how the town had hoped to escape the wrath of the local orc tribes by just clearing and farming in this immediate vicinity. He also explains how they have too few able bodied adults to make an escape to the nearest town.

Nim thinking about the towns defences asks about lamp oil, yes the town has two barrels of recently pressed and filtered oil. He asks Adelmar permission to use the oil in a plan he has come up with. Unsure of the requests nature, but willing to see what the half elf has planned the Headman agrees and shows the pair to his storage cellar where the barrels of oil sit.

Outside, Ozerman notices some movement in the darkness near the edge of the woods and spends a few moments watching for more movement when he becomes convinced that there is actually a group of orcs stealthily moving towards the town.

Nim takes some oil from the barrels and without any explanation to the others walks out of the town to a space near the larges unfinished section of the wall, there he pours the oil onto the muddy ground, just as Ozerman shouts out the alarm.

A large battle ensues with the light from the oil fire aiding Bruce's expert firing of his crossbow at the mud bogged orcs as they rush towards the town. Still a few of the brave creatures find their way into the town and a whirlwind close battle ensues, with the group narrowly escaping with their lives. Nim is wounded twice in the battle, once by a misplaced shot fired by Ozerman and then by a mighty blow laid into him by one of the orc raiders.

Galev rushes over to aid Nim with the blessings of Solace as the townsfolk finally mobilize themselves to defend their homes....

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

That was the first session of the campaign, hopefully I didn't miss too much of what was going on. It took us about 2.5 hours to get to that point. A few of the delays were with me figuring out how to populate large numbers of orcs onto the initiative tracker, and how to show them as being shaken or incapacitated, so hopefully battles will move forward quicker next time.

I figure the group deserves 2 experience points for the session with an extra bennie being given to Nim for the next session for his clever idea about the fire, though I think he was thinking of using it to impede the orcs not light them up for Bruce to have a better chance of hitting them. I don't allow bennie conversions to experience points so unused bennies are discarded and new ones taken at the start of the next session.

I liked how easy it was to get the hang of using FG, I've used screenmonkey, klooge and ghostorb VTT's in my past, and FG was the easiest to manipulate, though I miss easy targetting of icons during battle, or light source 'fog of war'. The pre-loading feature of FG is a great idea and the SW ruleset worked great (except for not having an easy way to show 'shaken' characters/npc's). I loved the ability to change the light of the game though I wish there was a darker 'night' option, it surprised Oz when I changed the light level (it was his first time using FG) he thought something had happened to his monitor.

I'm looking forward to continuing the adventure....interested players are always welcome!

[andro1d]

Great notes sgain! As far as the shaken issue, you saw the ability to check off on the init tracker, correct? Do you mean it was hard to tell by looking just at the tokens on the map?

I ran a game the other night with 12 Orcs and it can bog down a bit. I did the single Orc in tracker than double clicked the wounds window and added them to the secondary window. I then just typed into each description if they were shaken or not. A pain but not insurmountable.

I wonder if it would just be easier and as effective to roll for a group of "extra" orcs in one roll and add a bonus. For instance, if 4 orcs are attacking a wild card, just roll one attack and do it at a +2. Just thinking of ways to speed it up when using fantasy grounds interface.

Later

[Sgain]

If they are ganging up on someone then put in the gang bonus, you can just speed up the rolls by having a single one per group of bad guys with a bonus, though with the built in roller (and that it shows rolls) I'd just click the thing 3x or whatever and add the bonus after the rolls were made...

I'm going to pull a bunch of those skull tokens out next game and drop those on shaken npc's and pc's and see if that works as I found the click 'tick' in the initiative tracker near useless (too small to be noticable and my players couldn't tell). I started a thread about that in the workshop I think...

[Sgain]

Session 2 - October 2, 18:30 - 2200 PST
Players - characters - class
Longarms - Nim - Streetrat (rogue)
Tammy - Bruce - Slayer (monster hunter)
Wildelf -Tarrin - Fencer - played by ZugZug for first 2 hours of the game
Wildelf - Hekdar - Sunpriest (clergy of Solace)
Taran - Elensar - Ranger

The second day of the group helping the village of Roxbury; the locals, now convinced that the orcs are going to overrun their village, are now eager to help by finishing off the barricade wall. The men set to the task of finishing the wall while the women of the village move supplies and bedding into the temple (the strongest building in the town) where they are going to hole up for the next few nights.

Elensar, the elven ranger has been following the orcish horde as it moved down the mountains, he'd seen dozens of patrols and warbands forming as the darkfolk began forming into an army. He followed a trail to the outskirts of Roxbury and spotted a scouting party observing the town.

Hekdar a priest of Solace, felt the need to travel to Roxbury from the town of Aragron, she hired Tarrin to act as bodyguard for the trip, they arrive at the village early in the morning and are welcomed by Adelmar the towns headman. Who is more than eager to have a real Sunpriest in the village.

Nim meanwhile noticed that the villagers had gathered the orc bodies and were piling them outside of the town and preparing to burn them. He came over and scalped the 8 bodies, stunning the villagers who were now convinced that scalping was some sort of Elven ritual. He also stopped the suprised townsmen from burning the bodies and instead had them moved to fill in a gap in the wall. Fearing for their scalps the townsfolk quickly carried out the task.

Elensar carefully moved away from the orc scouts and circled around behind the village and climbed the barricade. He saundered past the working townsmen and approached the group as they discussed what next to do to prepare for the evening.

Hekdar was escorted to the towns temple by Adelmar and observed the women as they prepared for the night. The villagers spirits were lifted by the sight of one of the Sun Blessed and they moved quickly to finish their duties.

Adelmar and Hekdar returned from the village tour and noticed the orc bodies in the wall. Nim explained that they would intimidate the orcs, and Adelmar explained to Hekdar that Nim had the Elven habit of scalping his enemies. Hekdar pointed to the nearby wooden palisade and suggested that the heads being posted on stakes would be more intimidating.

The townsfolk were all shocked to hear a priest of Solace to say such a thing. Just then they noticed Elensar as he walked along the barricade.

The group discuss the orcs and Elensar's scouting information. They then dine with the townsfolk, twelve of who are going to assist them with guarding the village that night.

Tarrin climbs the tower during the meal and stands watch. Shortly before nightfall, Elensar replaces him on watch duty. The other party members patrol the town as they await the orc attack.

--- I was going to run this very large scale battle as a skirmish (using the SW mass battle rules) but the group voted in favor of round to round fighting. ---

Several hours after sunset the orcs attack!

Led by a warchief four groups of orcs attack the village. One group rushes towards the gate, led by the chief and a tree trunk carrying ogre. Two of the orc groups are supposed to break through the wall to enter the East side of the village, while a squad of archers provided cover fire. The command/battering ram group charged up the road.

Elensar opened fire on the orc archers but was unable to hit them at long range. Soon the orcs moved closer and his fire became more effective and one of the archers was slain by a well placed arrow.

Meanwhile Bruce and Nim moved along the inside of the barricade towards the east side of the village. They'd seen the movement of the two groups of orcs approaching the wall and were preparing to stop them from getting over.

Meanwhile an orcish shamen fired bolts of energy at Elensar, but luck was on his side and he wasn't badly hurt by the bolts. He returned fire and wounded the shamen.

Hekdar spotted the battering ram party and prepared for the attack by firing bolts of sunpower at the ogre. He shook off the burning jolts of power and continued rushing towards the gate. Tarrin leapt the fence to rush out and counterattack the orcs.

Now the orc archers had spotted Elensar and let loose a volley of arrows at him up in the tower. He ducked below the wall and the arrows passed harmlessly by. He then popped up and fired another arrow at the shamen, this time killing him.

The ogre arrived at the gate and was promptly held in place by a web of light beams cast upon him by Hekdar. Tarrin sped over to the frozen ogre and attempted to slay him -- note that I don't allow 'final blows' on held opponents after discussing this on the PEG forums He was unable to kill the ogre with his first slash of his weapon.

The battle swirled around the village with a small group of orcs climbing the fence and being stopped by Nim and Bruce in a running battle. Elensar broke his bow string and resorted to throwing rocks at his opponents, scoring a nasty blow on one of the archers.

Tarrin succeeded in slaying the ogre, and as the giant fell before the gates, Hekdar cast another entangle upon the chief, binding him in place in an array of light. Tarrin rushed towards the helpless chief, heedless of the other orcs nearby, he shouted insults at them and waved his bloodied rapier above his head as he charged, intimidating the chiefs two bodyguards.

His shouts had alerted two of the archers who swiftly fired at him. He fell, pierced with two arrows. Hekdar ordered the gates opened and began to charge towards the battle as Elensar threw another rock into the fray, stunning the chief.

Another flock of arrows narrowly miss Elensar.

Hekdar rushes towards the fallen Tarrin as the chief finally shakes off the damage and breaks free of the spell. It cries a retreat to his forces! The orc archers spot the sunpriest and fire a volley at her, wounding her greatly and sending her spinning to the ground.

Elensar scrambles down the tower and rushes over to priestess as the villages run out of the gates and gather up the wounded. He is also spotted by the orc archers and falls to a lucky shot, injured.

The orcs now turn and run back into the woods...the battle is over!

------------------------------------------------------------------------
--This was a huge complicated battle, and I'm sure I can't remember all the details, basically we did the fighting for about 2 hours non-stop. Longarms was a great help as he had the SW rulebook in hand and could help me when there were rule calls (usually something that I forgot).

3 experience points to each of the group for defending the village against near impossible odds (about 2.5 to one).

Admittedly the mass battle rules would have sped this up, but by the same token, it was a lot of fun to have everyone running around in the battle. This time I grouped the orcs and just used skull tokens to represent the majority of them, I would flip them upside down to show if they were shaken, and tilt them if they were intimidated or discouraged. This worked really well and was easily and quickly done without slowing the action.

Teamspeak proved itself once again as several times folks would drop out of the game, but were able to return without incident, also OOC was easily done with teamspeak, though Wildelf couldn't connect to the TS server for some odd reason (firewall I suspect) as he used to be able to connect months ago when I ran a Klooge campaign, and he dropped out suddenly at about 2 hours and 50 minutes.

Good game, but next time I'm going to set some break times!

[andro1d]

Keep'em coming. Nice detail and helps us other DMs out! You've convinced me to use the tilt token idea for shaken, etc.
Andro1d

[Sgain]

Session 3, Monday Oct 8, 19:00
Players - characters - class
Longarms - Nim - Streetrat (rogue)
Tammy - Bruce - Slayer (monster hunter)
Tanan-Tarrin - Fencer
NPC (sgain) - Hekdar - Sunpriest (clergy of Solace)
Taran - Elensar - Ranger
Oz - Ozerman - fighter
Oz - Red - Red knight

(note some people are playing two characters right now)

Ozerman and Red returned to the village after leaving on a secret mission to gather some aid. They came back with 4 potions of healing.

They found the village had just finished surviving the second battle against the orcs and that several of their friends had been badly wounded in the fight, they aided the townsfold and hero's as well as they could.

A few hours after dawn a company of soldiers arrived lead by Captain Dux, the Baron had kept his promise to send aid to the villagers! Nim excited by the chance to get a pay off for his dilligent scalping proudly held up a bag full of orcish scalps.

Captain Dux was shocked at the signs of the village battle, and the barbarity of the person holding up the scalps of his enemies, worse the fellow claimed that his Baron, an honorable man, had allowed such a thing to happen. Dux refused to pay anything for the scalps, and several of his noble born mounted troops were quite upset with the half-elves disregard for the dead.

Dux warned the townsfolk (and hero's) of an incoming horde of orcs and that they were going to be in for a battle royal shortly. Sure enough a few hours after arriving a horde of orcs swarmed towards the village!

- this time we used the mass battle rules for SW to speed things up. I gave the Orcs 10 tokens and the humans 5. The rules allow PC's to add to their sides 'fighting' roll by doing heroic (and very dangerous) acts. In this case all the missile firing PC's let fly at the orc horde, giving their side a huge +7 advantage! They were able to slay 2 tokens from the orcs!

The battle raged on for 4 rounds of mass combat, with the PC's actions usually being the difference between victory and a rout by the orcs. Eventually the darkfolk broke and fled back into the mountains.

The village was saved!

------------------

Dux told the hero's about some more intelligence that his scouts had given him, seems the orc Chieftain a nasty brute named Norgrug, lived in some sort of fort or cave in the hills nearby. The Baron offered the group an additonal 100 Suns to find and eliminate Norgrug, and in this case, return with his head!

After some discussion the group agreed to set out, but not before recieving each a potion of healing from Dux as compliments from the Baron!

They rested the night in the village and were informed that it would be abandoned and burned to prevent the orcs moving into it. The villagers were saddened by their loss, but determined to build again someday. The group healed over night and set out the next day as the village was burned to the ground.

Deep into the wooded hills they searched for the signs of the orcs. They found a huge cashe of ladders and battering rams that the orcs had made for the siege of the village, they burned these and moved onward.

The next day they were attacked by a pack of ravenous direwolves...the battle ended quickly for the viscious creatures with only Red being injured in the fight, and with the aid of Solace healed again.

----------------------------------------------------------
game ened 10pm. 3 exp each given.

- mass battles - a very different feel than normal combat, one thing we noticed was even with a success the player stands a good chance of being hurt! Sometimes discretion is the heart of valour as waiting for the right moment to help in a mass battle is vital to a characters survival.
The fight did go very fast (about 45 mins) and considering all that happened I was very pleased with it. It was the first time I've used the SW mass battle rules and I'll do it again if the situation ever arrives.

- scale! I really wish I could scale tokens on the map, not on the init tracker! I group up similar creatures to speed up combat (I put them on the same initiative on the tracker) but can only scale 1 token. This is a real prob lem for SW GM's as most of us like to keep battles fast moving by grouping opponents.

- targeting - I wish there was an arrow to target opponents that the players would like to use. Most of the time they don't use the included pointers and I'm not sure why this is. Also a floating 'pointer' for the GM would be really helpful though I suppose I could have used the 'hand' token and I'll try that next time.

-lag - because I was running the NPC Hekdar I noticed huge lag, rolling dice, typing, and especially emotes. It was very annoyinng. I also couldn't roll sometimes or write unless I maximized then minimized the screen. Its a pity that I can't connect to my own game from one of my other computers (with my full licence) rather than using the same computer.

Great game and a lot of fun. The party is really working well together and the SW rules work really great.

[Sgain]

So I'm wondering, how do I make mass battles more interesting and less deadly for PC's. The SW rules are pretty cool, but even with a success and a raise the PC gets hurt, and with a bad roll; incapacitated or killed.

I want to keep mass battles Fast Furious and Fun, but at the same time I don't want the group to run for the hills whenever they have to take on large groups of badguys.

Any suggestions?

[Sorontar]

Well fighting a large group of bad guys shouldn't be an issue, but battles are deadly.

Personally I wouldn't make it easier for them just get them into the mindset that if they are outnumbered by troops of the same calibre then they better have a damned good plan, brilliant general or situational advantage or they are likely to get hurt.

[Griogre]

I have to agree with Sorontar. If the players are going to get into alot of mass battle they should start taking command Edges. The players do not have to participate in every round of mass combat either from what I can tell. I'm not familiar with the Evernight setting though.

[Sgain]

Well the way I look at it is that the mass combat rules are an abstract to show several rounds of combat. Hence the deadliness for players even with success. I'll talk more to my players about it as in the latter parts of the campaign they may be expected to lead forces in battle.

[Sgain]

Session 4 Monday Oct 15, 19:00
Players - characters - class
Longarms - Nim - Streetrat (rogue)
Tammy - Bruce - Slayer (monster hunter)
Tanan-Tarrin – Fencer ***not present
WildElf - Hekdar - Sunpriest (clergy of Solace)
Taran - Elensar – Ranger (played by Sgain as an NPC)
Oz - Ozerman - fighter
Oz - Red - Red knight

The group continues searching for Norgrugs lair along the rain swept hills. On the third day of their search they are ambushed by a band of goblins. They spring into battle and quickly lay waste to the nasty greenskins. At the end of the fight they find a wounded goblin in the nearby bush who they intimidate into talking.
The creature tells them of a secret entrance to the Norgrugs lair, they set out searching for the 'grey hill' and eventually find a small cave. Outside of which are dozens of small bones and scraps. Ozerman, the dwarven fighter enters first with his flintlock and axe in hand. The other members follow closely behind as they enter the dank cave.
Ozerman is attacked by a huge spider that ensnares him in a mass of sticky webs, the nearest party members try to cut him out, when Hekdar spots the spider closing in for the kill and blasts it with a jolt of sunlight that sends its smoking corpse to the cavern floor.
They explore the cavern and eventually find a well hidden door in one wall segment. Carefully they open it and find an empty corridor, they explore it and Ozerman hears sounds of movement around a corner in the hall, he signals Nim who moves over and when the pair are ready they jump out behind a pair of orcs who are guarding a staircase. A nasty fight ensues, with other members of the group rushing in to help but being blocked by the closeness of the corridor. Even tally they kill the orcs, and Nim notices more figures moving towards them down a hallway....

This was a fun session, with me having just suffered a major bout of the flu. The game moved a bit slow at first, which is typical of 'searching' adventures, as the group scouted around for clues to Norgrugs hideout (I expected no less than four days searching and wasn't surprised). Once they found the cave entrance to the hideout things began to move a bit better, especially once they encountered the orcs. I was shocked that Ozerman would fire his flintlock in a confined space as it alerted the orcs to their presence, but then again, sometimes in the heat and excitement of battle folks forget things.

We did prove that the Quick edge is not working in the combat tracker, and this is a major problem! As I have to be informed (or notice) when quick characters don't pull a card above 5 on their initiative. I'll change that characters edge to Level Headed and see what happens....

[andro1d]

The Quick Edge issue wouldn't be so bad if the initiative tracker would just auto-sort when you add the new card. You could open the token bags that has the cards in it and drag the better of the two cards. But this doesn't really help as it still won't auto sort... Strange.

[joshuha]

Session 4 Monday Oct 15, 19:00
Players - characters - class
Longarms - Nim - Streetrat (rogue)
Tammy - Bruce - Slayer (monster hunter)
Tanan-Tarrin – Fencer ***not present
WildElf - Hekdar - Sunpriest (clergy of Solace)
Taran - Elensar – Ranger (played by Sgain as an NPC)
Oz - Ozerman - fighter
Oz - Red - Red knight

The group continues searching for Norgrugs lair along the rain swept hills. On the third day of their search they are ambushed by a band of goblins. They spring into battle and quickly lay waste to the nasty greenskins. At the end of the fight they find a wounded goblin in the nearby bush who they intimidate into talking.
The creature tells them of a secret entrance to the Norgrugs lair, they set out searching for the 'grey hill' and eventually find a small cave. Outside of which are dozens of small bones and scraps. Ozerman, the dwarven fighter enters first with his flintlock and axe in hand. The other members follow closely behind as they enter the dank cave.
Ozerman is attacked by a huge spider that ensnares him in a mass of sticky webs, the nearest party members try to cut him out, when Hekdar spots the spider closing in for the kill and blasts it with a jolt of sunlight that sends its smoking corpse to the cavern floor.
They explore the cavern and eventually find a well hidden door in one wall segment. Carefully they open it and find an empty corridor, they explore it and Ozerman hears sounds of movement around a corner in the hall, he signals Nim who moves over and when the pair are ready they jump out behind a pair of orcs who are guarding a staircase. A nasty fight ensues, with other members of the group rushing in to help but being blocked by the closeness of the corridor. Even tally they kill the orcs, and Nim notices more figures moving towards them down a hallway....

This was a fun session, with me having just suffered a major bout of the flu. The game moved a bit slow at first, which is typical of 'searching' adventures, as the group scouted around for clues to Norgrugs hideout (I expected no less than four days searching and wasn't surprised). Once they found the cave entrance to the hideout things began to move a bit better, especially once they encountered the orcs. I was shocked that Ozerman would fire his flintlock in a confined space as it alerted the orcs to their presence, but then again, sometimes in the heat and excitement of battle folks forget things.

We did prove that the Quick edge is not working in the combat tracker, and this is a major problem! As I have to be informed (or notice) when quick characters don't pull a card above 5 on their initiative. I'll change that characters edge to Level Headed and see what happens....

Not sure if the documentation was clear but the Quick edge is done by right-clicking the card in the combat tracker and clicking deal card. Then the GM can keep dealing until a 5 or higher is reached and it should auto-sort. It was done this way to let that manual single redeal work with other settings or new edges that might come out. Trying to auto-code everything isn't possible (Level Headed was done this way as it way the easiest way to handle it with the current token implentation of cards. This may change in the future.)

As for adding the cards on a drag from the tokens. This wasn't possible with the way token controls and images work without a major rewrite. When dragging a token into a tokencontrol to set it, their are things to worry about if the card has been dealt and the integrity of the deck. Its something we though about but not technically feasible in the time we had.

[Sgain]

The problem is, I don't usually watch every player as the deck is dealt and sometimes miss the quick edge PC's and they don't always get their higher cards. If they were marked somehow on the tracker (say a highlight or something) then it wouldn't be such a problem, but right now its a bit of a pain for me to scroll through the whole combat tracker searching for the quick player, then re-dealing him, then watching as the init tracker re-sets....

With only one 'quick' character it's a pain, but if I had 3 or 4 it would quickly (pardon the pun) become a huge pain. In my PnP games its a bit different as I can see the cards going out to individual players as I deal them...

[Sgain]

Session 5 Tuesday Oct 23, 19:30
Players - characters - class
Longarms - Nim - Streetrat (rogue)
Longarms- Bruce - Slayer (monster hunter)
Tanan-Tarrin – Fencer ***not present
WildElf - Hekdar - Sunpriest (clergy of Solace)
Taran - Elensar – Ranger
Wildelf - Ozerman - fighter
NPC- Red - Red knight

A huge drawn out battle between the group and the orcs of the lower level of Norgrugs fortress, including the massive and nasty Norgrug himself. Last game the group alerted the orcs with some rather noisy fighting and now they are forced to battle it out with an angry mob of motivated killing machines. Loads of action and craziness as the batle pitched back and forth (several times I thought we'd see the end of the group), but eventually they overcame the odds and defeated Norgrug and his orcs!

Voice comms sped up the action with all OOC stuff using voice and allowing me to concentrate on the orcs and what they were doing rather than typing answers to queries and such. I still sometimes forget to re-deal the Quick edged PC's as it can get a bit confusing, but I stretched out the combat tracker and this really helped me set stuff up, now if I could only layer it on translucently...

At the end of the battle the group spends the next hour healing and repairing their equiptment (Bruce's crossbow snapping its string during the battle at a critical moment was a sight to behold).

For surviving the fight and killing Norgrug; 3 Exp each. (plus 100 Suns when they get to Kings Port).

The group now loots the area and discovers the following;

A pair of of ruby 'eyes' in a statue of a six armed orc. Norgrug's battle axe; Str d10 or more to use, does Str + d10 +1 damage (AP 1, -1 parry, 2 hands to use). Treasure room; 2 potions of healing (1 wound level each), A pair of Archers Gloves (+1 shooting to wearer), and 1,000 Suns. The magic items were identified by the blowing bennies that remain for the group this session.

In the tradition of Tarths hero's the group should now decide upon a name (famous groups like the Troll Killers, The Seven or Desert Justice are the stuff of local legends).

At the top of the staircase is an electric blue wall that crackles with electrical energy, there seems to be no way to circumvent the wall at first glance...

[Sgain]

This weeks game was canceled due to unforeseen circumstances.

[Sgain]

Session 6 - November 15
Players;
Wildelf - Hekdar
NPC- Nim - Streetrat (rogue)
Wook- Bruce - Slayer (monster hunter)
WildElf - Hekdar - Sunpriest (clergy of Solace)
Taran - Elensar – Ranger
Oz- Ozerman - fighter
Oz - Red - Red knight

The group finally finished cleaning out the lower level of the orc stronghold, they then wandered around and tried to figure out a way up the stairs (which were blocked with a powerful electrical field). They then decided to go out the way they had gotten in and move around to the front of the hold. There they attempted to break into the old wizard school that the orcs had taken over as a base of operations...

Eventually Hekdar accidentally traced the opening rune on the door and they gained entry to the courtyard. There they suprised and slaughtered a group of lounging goblins and dire wolves. They then cleared out the remaining areas of the orc stronghold (now mostly abandoned by the orcs and with only a few goblin 'cleaners' left.

Down a blocked corridor they found a scorched door which lead to a room with a blazing fire. They entered and a fire elemental attacked. The battle looked hopeless until Hekdar blasted the creature with his Gods power. Therein they found a fine magical longsword and a potion of power. They explored further and discovered the remains of one of the wizards who'd died so long ago...they took his robe of armor and then slew the few goblins that they'd had prisoner, after all, they wouldn't convert to following Solace....

They then headed back to King's Port in triumph to gain their rewards of 200 Suns each. Now between jobs they seek out new equiptment and adventures...

-------------------------

note; next session we will actually begin playing Evernight! The preceeding sessions were to get used to FG2 and SW and to introduce the players to the gameworld.

[richvalle]

As someone who has bought Evernight and thinking of running it as our next campaign, thanks for the write ups!!! :)

I also thought about shoe horning in "Against the Orks" as an intro to EN/SW but right now I'm thinking about running it as a stand alone one-shot to get them used to SW and all of us used to the FG ruleset and how it works. The the players could create their own chracters or use one of the EN premade ones.

[Sgain]

I don't think it would work as a one shot. There's a lot going on in that small adventure and to get the 'feel' for the game its a good idea to let the players (and you) spend the time playing around with it. As you can see by my notes we've only just finished AtO and are back in Kings Port for Act 1 of EN.

[richvalle]

Why wouldn't it work as a one shot???

Well... ok by 'one shot' I don't mean to play it in one night but as a one time game that is not linked to anything else. I bet that is where we are getting our signals crossed.

I agree with you. From reading your posts I'm thinking it will take us 4-6 or so games to play out the adventure.

The reason I would want to do it this way is because some of my players love to create and try to optimize their characters. Since this is a new rules system they won't know how it works till we play it, but after we play it they might want to build their characters in a different way. This way we won't have to redesign characters part way though the campaign.

I'm looking forward to seeing how Evernight turns out for you and your group!

rv

[Sgain]

heheheh you're right...when I think one shot I think 'single night' adventure, not a stand alone adventure.

As to 'optimizing' characters....well 3.5 folks will be in for a huge shock with SW, you 'play' your character in SW, not build him from '1st' level, like a 3.5 player does. During play players will change their character a lot, in fact some take on completely different edges and such from when they first created the character. You'll find that SW will really challenge some players as they can't get over the 'level/hitpoints' mindset that infects 3.5 players, also in SW 'wimps' still stand a chance of hurting or killing your character, no matter how tough he is...that really makes a difference for some players, or at least it makes them take things more seriously in battle.

Most of the time I'll let a player 'backstep' an advance if an edge doesn't work out the way they wanted it too, it doesn't involve going back multiple levels or anything, just usually 'one-step' back for the character design. To make this easier, I ask the players to keep a 'change' log of their character, that way if they change their mind about something they can show me when they got it..and we can usually change it without too much trouble.

Have fun!

[Sgain]

Session 7 November 29, 2007
Players
Elf - Hekdar
deguello - Bexar Mexia
TaranShannara - elesar
Oswyn - Oserman
Harry the Fish - Eric Redding
Wook - Bruce

The group has arrived in the shining city of Kings Port and wander the city in search of various items and perhaps another job. While listening to a herald near the Rialto they are noticed by a young mage. Bexar Mexia has been searching for some muscle as he goes out into the world far away from the dusty halls of the Academy. This group of obvious adventurers seems to fit the bill.

Just as he begins to introduce himself, a page approaches the group with an invititaton to meet with his Lord. The group agrees and follows the page to the mansion of The Galstaff family; a family well known for its support of various hero bands including the famous Scarlett Riders, of which the families eldest son, Trabian is a proud member. Inside the fine mansion they meet the Lords personal assistant Simon. He offers them a simple but important task, to bring a letter as quickly as possible to the Riders. He is unsure of their location but knows that one of the groups members, a ranger named Bareena usually spends her time at the finest Inn in town; the King's Shadow.

With the letter carefully stowed in his pouch, Hekdar leads the group to the famous Inn. There he and Redd are allowed entrance to its hallowed halls and they quickly discover that the brave Bareena has been hired to kill rodents! Rats have began to show up in large numbers in the Inn's cellar, and desperate to keep the news a secret the bartender had hired the adventurer to go and discover the source. Strangely enough, she left several hours ago and hasn't returned and the bartender was about to call for the City Watch to come and look for her.

He quickly opens a nearby sewer lid and the party grudgingly enters the world below Kings Port. Lucky for the group, the local Wizards Academy sends its students down into the depths to practice their spell casting (mostly bolt and blast spells to free up congested sewer matter), and the local perfumers guild unloads a weekly dose of rose water into the sewer lines in an effort to keep the smell down. Still its a rather unpleasant place and the group carefully make their way along the edge of the flow.

Soon they come upon Bareena, who has pressed herself up against a hole in the wall in an attempt to stop an inflow of rodents. She is more than happy to see the group and willingly agrees to their plan of letting the rodents out to be slaughtered. She jumps aside and Bexar unloads a powerful series of bolt spells into the mass, instantly incinerating it! Coughing from the burning rat filled air the group learns that the Scarlet Riders have left Kings Port for the wilderness town of Aragron in search of a fabled Sa Karan ruin. She thanks the party and heads off to the Kings Hospital to have her wounds taken care of and to make her report.

The group, now calling themselves; The Fist of Solace, gather their equipment and their pets, then head out along the Kings road towards Aragron. After a rather uneventful trip they arrive at the wooden gates of the town and after some friendly banter with the one-armed former Red Knight gatekeeper they enter the town. Soon they find 'The Axe' the towns finest Inn, there they meet several interesting characters and hear an epic poem sung by a famous Bard. They then find a local dwarf who after some convincing tells them of the location of the Scarlet Riders.

With no time to loose the group exits the Inn, and quickly say goodbye to the gatekeeper and make their way up into the mountains in search of the entrance to the Sa Karan ruins.

As they wind their way along the rough mountain trail they come across the camp of a band of orcs....


- a good session with some interesting roleplaying between the wizard and the priest, who are on opposite opinions about most things. The group also purchased a Kep hound and a mule to bring along extra supplies of food and ammunition, and to lower their encumberance. So far since the group hasn't been attacked, the animals have been safe. That could change....

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[richvalle]

Its interesting to know the story a little bit from reading the start of the EN book and then reading how it plays out for your group.

rv

[Sgain]

Session 8 December 6, 2007
Players
Elf - Hekdar
deguello - Bexar Mexia
TaranShannara - Elesar
Oswyn - Oserman
Harry the Fish - Eric Redding
Wook - Bruce
MrHack - Krong

The group has suprised a band of orcs who are about to torture some miners. In the melee that follows a lone half-orc who had been observing the orcs opens fire with his blunderbuss upon the confused orcs. This is Krong a fallen musketeer from Kings Port who's out to prove himself to the world.

During the bloody battle the group co-ordinates their attacks and quickly mops up the orcs, then they turn their attention upon the gore covered half-orc who has helped them.

After a bit of conversation they agree to free the hostages, and welcome the aid of the musketeer into their ranks, though some don't trust the 'green skin' as far as they can throw him. Upon being untied the hapless miners tell a tale of ambush and near torture by the orcs and promise to spread the word of the 'Fist of Solace' to the town of Aragron. They stumble off into the approaching darkness and the group continues onward.

Soon they find a group of horses tied to some trees outside of a cave entrance....

---------------------------Spoilers------------------------------------
- if you are going to play Evernight you may not wish to read the rest of this post-






















Inside the caves they find some fresh tracks leading them past an obvious trap and down a corridor. There they discover a nasty suprise; a trap that delivers a blow of mental energy when set off. They devise a cunning way around the trap and move onward. Soon they come to a large cave where the signs of a recent battle lay scattered around them.

In pools of blood lie three members of the Scarlet Riders; dead, in fact, chopped to pieces somehow. Scattered amoungst the brave hero's are two strange crab-like creatures that bleed green ichor. Curious to see what has become of the Riders, Hekdar approaches a glowing wall. Suddenly and with near total suprise a third crab creature drops from the ceiling beside the priest.

In an instant the bizarre monster begins spinning madly like a top, flinging out its razor sharp clawed appendages that send the hapless priest flying in a blood soaked heap against the wall.

Instantly the Fists react to the attack and open fire on the foul beast. Only to discover that it is covered with a thick protective chiton. Several members charge the creature and other members let fly with magic and gunpowder upon the monster.

Luckily they are able to kill the monstrosity in time for Eric to call upon the healing powers of Solace to save Hekdar.

Upon regaining consciousness Hekdar points to the nearby wall and the group discovers a Sa Karan bloodstone! A powerful magical artifact. Hekdar pries the stone from the wall and holds it up to examine it. Bexar, overcome with greed with seeing the gem, rushes forward to try and wrest the stone from the priests hands. They tussel and fight over the artifact.

Suddenly the cave begins to shake and huge boulders begin to fall from the roof! Its an earthquake! The group gathers up what they can easily find in the room and still struggling over the bloodstone, Hekdar and Bexar go with the group back down the cave to a safe area where they wait out the aftershocks, while still arguing about the bloodstone. Elensar who remembers legends of the stones is unhappy about its discovery but says nothing to the other members of the Fists.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

A fun game with some entertaining roleplaying and discoveries. Evernight has begun!

[Sgain]

Session 9 December 13, 2007
Players
Elf - Hekdar
Oswyn - Oserman
MrHack - Krong

-bad weather and holiday commitments means a few folks couldn't make it out. Our final game of the year will most likely be next weeks. After that I'll be in the process of moving to another town and getting my internet back.


=======================Spoilers - This details some things about Evernight========================================= =====
















The dust settles after a few moments, and the rocks stop falling from the ceiling of the cave. Luckily the party was safely ensconced in the ancient hive-like area and suffered only minimal cuts and scrapes.

They move out of the cave and discover that the entrance to the Sa Karan ruins has collapsed into the old trap pit. Moving tons of rock is out of the question, so the group begins to re-explore the caves. They soon find a long sloping collapsed section of wall in the rear of the room where they had the fight with the crab-like monsters.

They also discovered some sort of altar or slab in a well preserved room, but they can find nothing else of interest about the slightly sloping stone slab or the room in which it sits. Krong attempts to break off a section of the floor to see what lies below it, to no avail. His best efforts mearly mar the striking face of his hammer slightly.

The group goes back to the collapsed wall section and carefully looks down the slope. They can hear running water in the distance, and a slight mist of condesation is starting to form along the walls. They begin to pull out their ropes and climbing gear to prepare for the descent into the darkness.

Hekdar notices something strange; his senses say it must be morning now, but he doesn't feel the re-vitalizing energy from the sun that he is used to at dawn. Even while indoors he would feel his connection to Solace return with the dawn.

Today he feels only a trickle of returning energy....


------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 exp to the folks that could make it.

Remember if you want to elaborate or embellish my reports here feel free! If its really good I'll throw you a bennie for the next game....(hint).....

[Elf]

---------------Evernight SPOILERS-------------------------






















Hekdar during a quiet moment approaches Elensar "Elensar please tell me what you know of the stone we found? Bexar seems to desperately want it but implies that all but Krong can use it."

[Sgain]

I've set up a blog for the campaign at https://sw-evernight.blogspot.com/ which will make it easier for players to post session specific things. I'll still crosspost the sessions here though.

[Elf]

I've set up a blog for the campaign at https://sw-evernight.blogspot.com/ which will make it easier for players to post session specific things. I'll still crosspost the sessions here though.
Only you can post to that Blog Sgain. Other users cannot, unless I missed something.

[Sgain]

You should be able to post comments on the posts (I switched it to anonymous).

[Sgain]

Misca (new player) - Nim - Streetrat (rogue)
Oz - Bruce - Slayer (monster hunter)
WildElf - Hekdar - Sunpriest (clergy of Solace)
Taran - Elensar – Ranger
Oz- Ozerman - fighter
Harrythefish - Red - Red knight
Deguello - Bexar Mexia - Wizard
MrHack - Krong - halforc Musketeer

This post will contain spoilers...so you've been warned.....
















Nim; a former member of the Fists, has stolen along behind the party and has been trying to find out what they've been up to. He arrived at the caves and was negotiating the collapsed tunnel trap when the earth began shaking. He fell into the pit and luckily was covered by the old section of porticulis grating as the roof above him caved in.

He spent the next two hours digging himself out of the pit. He crawled out and in the near darkness of the caves began searching for the group. Eventually he spotted a light ahead and heard some coversations. Carefully he approached, but due to his fatigue and the debris on the floor he makes some noise...

Elensar has been standing back from the group since the discovery of the Bloodstone, and he nervously stands guard at the rear of the group when he hears a scuffling sound from the corridor. He signals the rest of the group and readies his bow.

Eric, ever the optimist, calls out, 'Hello?'

Nim responds after a moments pause, 'err hello guys.'

'Nim is that you?' Hekdar calls into the darkness as he raises his sun imbued mace overhead, 'by the suns light how did you find us?'

Nim shuffles into the room, covered in dirt and dust, he explains his following the group and his desire to rejoin them.

'Just stop scalping everything.' grunts Eric, as he and Hekdar check him over for injuries.

The group now uses the light boned Elf as a 'fishing' lure and lowers him down the steep cliff. Several hours of concentrated work and the group is down over a hundred feet to a swift moving stream. The cave in has opened a new underground world for them to explore, and without further ado, the group begins a long and exhausting trek along the underground stream.

They overcome blockages and a group of aquatic monsters and eventually arrive at the back of a large cavern. Nim climbs out of the chilling water and cautiously approaches a dim fire. He finds the partially eaten remains of a horse and other signs of some creatures living in the place. Krong scents the air and realizes that they are in a orc lair! There's a current of something foul and dank in this filth filled cavern.

The group explores the area carefully and discovers a few trinkets and treasures, then Oserman is scented by a group of caged dire wolves! Worried that their barking would alert others he attempts to do battle with the creatures, when Krong (not always the smartest member of the group) unloads his blunderbuss at the charging wolves....

Shouts come down the tunnel...someone has been alerted!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2 exp to each of the party members. Approximately 13 hours has passed since the cave in occured and the group was trapped in the cave.

This session was very interesting as I had 7 players in it! Only a few problems with disconnects, but thanks again to having a voice channel we had no problems with getting folks back on and keeping the game going.

A few things; Whisper messages to the DM are very cool, but it uses an ID system (ID0001 sent you a message) since I have no idea who that is, its very frustrating. I wish that FG would give a proper identifier for whispers, as well as allow whispers between players (though it would be cool if the DM could 'listen in' to the whispers).

Evernight has a few 'slow' sections to allow the story to progress without the PC's being involved in it. This was one of those sections and it was fun to have the group overcome dangerous terrain and make their way through the collapsed caverns. I thought they handled the situation very well with few, if any, problems, good teamwork and thinking really paid off as no one was injured during this trek and I had many opportunities to injure or even kill hapless characters.

[Elf]

Hmm I had that problem for a while but I fixed it. The problem arises I think when you release a character... the DB only has the internal id to go on at that point. I can show you how to manually fix it.

[deguello]

i play the wizard.. in this game.. Bexar Mexia (Bear Ma'Heya) any way this campaign has thus far been the most fun I have had..roleplaying in a long time.

Basically, The character has the potential to be the most powerful character in the party, but hes a bit on edge. So it limits is cognative abilities...

He has been denied any treasure to this point a fact which the party is about to be made aware. I will say no treasure has been given to him. Looking at his character sheet... He is all about the treasure.. They have thus far denied be but no more... It's not that things haven't come his way...

If I have a complaint with the game it is that the GM allows certain people more access to the treasure than others.. he also seem reluctant to kill party members..A fact which I bet is going to be hard to by pass this next go around...

Shooting at dogs that are locked behind cages... Michael Vick Michael Vick !! or wait these are the heroes...

Next session....

[Sgain]

I'm one of those 'nice' GM's that doesn't kill a player for bad luck, just stupidity. If a player gets hit by something and it maxes out, I'll make him blow all his bennies if he has too before I off him. Of course if a player does something stupid say like climbing down a 100' cliff with no support or ropes and slips...I'll give him a chance to grab something...then roll the bones for the fall and see how much is left at the end.

As for treasure...well they haven't found much that a wizard type could use other than that bloodstone...and as long as Hekdar is unsure of Bexar's motives for wanting it, I doubt he's going to just hand it over without some sort of good argument.

[deguello]

I'm one of those 'nice' GM's that doesn't kill a player for bad luck, just stupidity. If a player gets hit by something and it maxes out, I'll make him blow all his bennies if he has too before I off him. Of course if a player does something stupid say like climbing down a 100' cliff with no support or ropes and slips...I'll give him a chance to grab something...then roll the bones for the fall and see how much is left at the end.

As for treasure...well they haven't found much that a wizard type could use other than that bloodstone...and as long as Hekdar is unsure of Bexar's motives for wanting it, I doubt he's going to just hand it over without some sort of good argument.


Tonight should be interesting....

[Elf]

I'm one of those 'nice' GM's that doesn't kill a player for bad luck, just stupidity. If a player gets hit by something and it maxes out, I'll make him blow all his bennies if he has too before I off him. Of course if a player does something stupid say like climbing down a 100' cliff with no support or ropes and slips...I'll give him a chance to grab something...then roll the bones for the fall and see how much is left at the end.

As for treasure...well they haven't found much that a wizard type could use other than that bloodstone...and as long as Hekdar is unsure of Bexar's motives for wanting it, I doubt he's going to just hand it over without some sort of good argument.

I play Hekdar and indeed Bexar has not managed to earn Hekdar's trust. As for treasure, well we have shared some treasure with Bexar. The Bloodstone has not been shared with anyone as only Bexar seems to know anything about it. When asked a simple question as to what it does, Bexar insulted a LOT of party members and then tried to take it by force. Hardly a response that is likely to make anyone trust him. Repeated attempts to get a civil response to the simple question of what it does got only more insults and that it would be wasted on non-mages as they could not make full use of it.

In short Bexar has made his bed and now has to lie in it. I will point out that roleplaying should not interfere with group cohesion and fun; up to now it has been fun but it is now beginning to become tiresome. Perhaps deguello should rethink how his character would actually respond to achieve his goals (answering the question in the first place would have gotten him the stone for example and then the attempts to take it by force.... well....).

[Sgain]

Most mages seem to have a problem with sharing knowledge; I think it has to do with the mind-set. Even some of my close friends who play mages often don't 'act' in the best interests of the group but in their own. The Mages Guild of Kings Port tries to train mages to work for the common good, but even they keep secrets from 'outsiders' or non-mages.

I was more than a little shocked when Bexar grabbed the Bloodstone, touching a Sunpriest is pretty much verboden in Tarth as they are literally the 'representatives' of the God. I thought it was one of those 'mad with greed' moments that sometimes occurs for people under stress (after all the roof is caving in and you've just had battle with an unworldly creature), still Its a dangerous thing to piss off the church at oneself.

Next time I'll ask Bexar for a Spirit roll if he decides to get physical with a holy person, as it is so outside the normal behaviour of folks...

[deguello]

Ha... No need... I don't recognize his god... In fact I am keeping tabs on his waning power. I think it is funny that I am lower level than most of the other party members, but I can keep them at bay pretty much because. Well I am powerful, as long as my power holds out. I was reading the notes on the character and specifically the not getting paid for services was mentioned. I hate being a jerk, and it is a real stuggle for me to know how far to push it, but at the same timeI am loving the game. I am not much of a power gamer though last session would make it appear that I was. My chants of pay me.. or no boom boom.. Caught the ire of more than just the priest, this go around, but no one had a good reason why I was excluded from "Holding" .

LOL

[Sgain]

I'll have to disagree with you about recognizing Solace. Bexar was raised in Tarth and the only human diety is Solace the Sun God. Everyone pays at least lip service to the Sun God as his priests are the only one with the divine power of healing. Mages may not like it, heck they may even resent it; but only 'Sun-Touched' priests and warriors gain divine powers.

Think of it like a person living in 14th century France. You may not like the church, but you're going to publicly acknowledge it or face at the very least, being an outcast, or worse being excommunicated and perhaps even totured and burned at the stake.

As to wanting pay for spells; thats up to you, but remember; mages need healing, and they need dummies..err fighters, to carry heavy things, and slow critters down from attacking them. Having the religious fighters not want to protect you could prove hazardous to your health in the long run.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'holding'? You mean carrying magical loot? That would be because they don't trust Bexar. That should be pretty obvious; he's new to the group (they've been together for about a month of adventuring before they met him), and he's strange...heck he's a wizard and most folk don't trust them. Also, remember that the pause after chasing off the orcs was the first time the group had to divide up their loot.

Bexar has been well played, though you have to be careful about getting folks wound up about him being greedy. It always backfires somewhere down the line and could really cost him when the chips are down.