42nd Airbourne Patchwork Wolverines

42nd Airborne
Patchwork Wolverines

Unit was assigned to take in the orphans of other decimated units and use their eclectic skills and backgrounds to infiltrate, assess and exterminate in the area around the borders of Cyre.

Became known as the Patchwork Wolverines; although it is an unusual collection of misfits of all race, national origin and skill backgrounds, they quickly developed a stellar record of accomplishing any mission with which it was tasked.

Outfitted with one commandeered merchant shipping zeppelin to ease its transport in to infested areas, the team would often improvise, adapt and overcome the obstacles of being tasked with little Intel and almost no resources.


Team members:
Ritik :Half-Orc Ranger
Shadow :Longtooth Druid
Hirien : Elven Avenger
Crash : Warforged Fighter
Dr T. Volks: Deva Artificer


Doctor Tesla Volks:
Having sought knowledge for the span of 3 previous lives he has grown tired of war. Although he would rather retire to his academic studies and his dream to sail the skies and see the world and its wonders, he is unable to turn a blind eye to the suffering of the people of Eberron; the refugees, the orphans, the elderly. Preferring to solve his problems with research and knowledge rather than cold steel and bad intentions, he spent much of his war time learning skills to aid the effort while minimizing the blood on his hands. He was a 2nd grade helmsman, 3rd level engineer’s assistant, chief medical officer, and cook’s assistant as the need arose. When deployed he would always attempt to gather as much Intel about the situation using his eclectic tools and skills as possible, often confounding his squad mates by tasting, smelling or prodding some mound of dirt, tree or rock and making a proclamation with astounding accuracy.
When pressed into combat, his primary thoughts are to preserve the life of his companions and assist them medically and with arcane infusions of shared power. Sadly, sometimes a person is set on killing or being killed, and be it for flag, or faith….it’s you or them.

Dr. Volks is festooned with all manner of arcane, mechanical, astrological, and scientific instruments; sundials, Shepard’s watches, scroll cases, astrolabes, vials, meters, thermometers and a dozen or so different versions of tuning forks. He wears a set of brass goggles with several lenses and attachments usually slung around his neck or the brim of his top hat when not in use.
He has a dapper set of gentlemen’s clothes and doctor’s smock which is covered with pouches and gear strapped for ease of access. He wears a long brown leather duster decorated with his war time unit patch and about 5 small job badges but no battle markers or medals, it has several deep pockets and large bags strapped around his shoulders.

Armed with a large brass spanner wrench (Morningstar), a repeating crossbow, and he uses one of his tuning fork implements as a wand.

Eberron: Pulp, Noir, Steampunk...what's not to like?

After a few weeks of the Playtest version of DarkSun that our DM (ted) picked up at PAX-East, one of our players and his wife had Twins and we decided to shift our weekly game over to Eberron until his "daddy schedule" levels out and the official book comes out later this year. Having skipped most of 3rd ED and all of 3.5, I missed out on the phenomenal run that Eberron had. For those of you that might not know, the Eberron campaign setting is basically the dream that all DM's have when they make a world and populate it with countries, gods, and all the minutiae that breathes life into a universe. Much like an author, you set the objects in motion but with a campaign setting, you give up control of your stage and your puppets to a new group of puppet masters. Keith Baker was one of the more than 11,000 entries that competed in Wizards of the Coast's Fantasy Setting Search, not only did it win and get published but it then won the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Game Supplement of 2004. Baker has written on the history and factions involved in Eberron but stands steadfast that the canon of the setting ends 4 years after the Day of Mourning. This strikes me as particularly unselfish of him. Eberron has several story arcs that spread well over 30 novels, comics and anthologies, all of which Baker has allowed to remain separate from his world. This is in polar opposition to settings like Forgotten Realms, where established lore characters are so overwhelming in scale that the PCs are second class citizens by comparison or Dragonlance where the PCs can barely hope to be witnesses to the established story line by playing the canon characters.

I have really be enjoying the setting and the new edition now that I have a half dozen sessions under my belt.

My new PC is a Deva Artificer, I specifically did not "munchkin" him out for combat, instead nudging his stats and skill to make him more of a thinker; part inventor, part detective. I was inspired by an episode of the Critical Hit podcast to have him do his magic and investagations by observing vibrations, as such the best implement for the job seemed to be a tuning fork, or a lot of tuning forks steampunked up for all manner of situations. I picked the name Doctor Tesla Volks, the last name is a cool but throwaway PC name, the first was in honor of the most prototypical Artificer I could think of. The title of Doctor is twofold, as a leader class he is responsible for keeping the part in fighing form but as an immortal that "regenerates" upon death and fights with sonic weaponry he reminds me of a D & D version of a TimeLord. Not THE Doctor but certainly one of his kith and kin.

any interested parties can view images of our game via twitter, Pictures are sent to TwitPic during the games on Sundays between approx. 6 to 11 PM EST.

or at our listing at Pen and Paper Games.

Level One: bring on the kobolds

I was about 8 years old when I first got the D&D red box, and by the time I graduated from high school I was playing RPGs about 4-5 nights of the week. Different groups, different games, houses and shops. Yeah, I was a geek, but hey, I had no interest in drugs or alcohol, televised sports, or going clubbing. Instead, I had a social group of between 30-50 friends and another 25 associated folks in the scene. It was a pretty good peer group to associate with, people coming from all walks of life; all ages, social, economic and racial backgrounds. One day, while playing a homebrew Ranma 1/2 inspired game I met some boff LARPers. I eventually ended up losing much of my weekends to Live Action Role Playing or LARPing (think Role Models LAIRE, but with better sites and less budget for costuming) on the geek scale it was sort of a lateral move, perhaps even a level or three down since you have to own and wear some funky stuff. At least with LARPing, you are getting out in the fresh air and getting some exercise. The group I was with was pretty tight so we would still pen-and-paper RP during the week, but as the years stretched by and I had more and more ex-girlfriends around the game it started to get old. World of Warcraft was already 2 years old by then, and most all of my friends had already fallen under its sway. I had avoided it, having once lost a summer to Everquest and not wanting to repeat the process. Eventually, I stopped LARPing and was only RPing with my roommate and a group of girls at a local liberal arts college. When I was offered a chance to roll a toon in WoW by one of my girlfriend's pals, I gave it a shot. Within the next week, I had my WoW account and was slowly on my way down the MMO path. Now I assure you the first guild I was with was great, very active and social. Good people; fun to talk to, very supportive, but not quite the same as interacting with people offline. On top of that, a social guild that does not raid gets a bit old. So I left my old guildies in search of "Phat L00tz" and ended up in another good and social guild that did at least some raiding. After getting myself "epiced" up, the guild hit a stumbling block and started to fall apart. Without the social interaction aspect my interest in the game began to dwindle, until I eventually stopped completely. After a year off WoW and the release of another expansion, I returned and still play, but in a very limited way; a few hours here and there, no raiding. On a leap of faith, I sent a Facebook message to a friend of mine that I had known since high school but had fallen out of contact with, and he offered to let me join his weekly game. This blog is intended to track my thoughts on reconnecting with that aspect of my life.