OLD SKOOL CAMPAIGN - ATTACK ON HOMMLET

The Heroes: 

• Anton Loyalar: Oeridian Paladin of Heironeous
• Coppyr: Halfing Monk
• Eli Pendar: Flannish Cleric of Pholtus
• Tharn: Dwarf barbarian of the Fireforge clan

Upon defeating Lareth at the moathouse, the heroes hurry to explore the rest of the complex for any other threats while Elmo takes one of the bandit's horses and returns to Hommlet to try and stop the gnolls and bugbear attack that Lareth ordered.

Not finding any more occupants, the heroes leave the moathouse and return to Hommlet.  They find the gnolls have been busy spreading chaos through town.  The heroes take on the gnolls, though outnumbered and their resources nearly depleted.   The group gets split up as Eli is chased down by two gnolls he attacked with his prayers.  A kind woman opens her home to Eli and her two sons barricade the entrance.  But the gnolls tear through them and continue coming after Eli.  Meanwhile Anton, Tharn and Coppyr finish off the gnolls in the street and find Eli just in the nick of time.  They dispatch the remaining two gnolls and the heroes have a moment to rest before hurrying down the street to the Inn of the Welcome Wench, where the bugbears are attacking.

When they arrive they see bodies all along the street, mostly of Hommlet militia and guards, but a few bugbear as well.  At the inn, they find the remaining two bugbears standing off against a bloodied Elmo and Spugnois.  The two are attacked and fall just as the heroes arrive to aid them.  They fight the two bugbear and kill them, ending the assault on Hommlet.

End of session.

OLD SKOOL CAMPAIGN - VERBOBONC AND NULB

THE HEROES:

• Anton Loyalar: Oeridian Paladin of Heironeous
• Coppyr: Halfing Monk
• Eli Pendar: Flannish Cleric of Pholtus
• Tharn: Dwarf barbarian of the Fireforge clan

The aftermath of the gnoll/bugbear attack on Hommlet left the town damaged and it's people largely broken, but the actions of the Anton, Coppyr, Eli and Tharn, along with Spugnois and Elmo, kindled the spark that had allowed Hommlet to survive and rebuild after the last tragedy when the Temple of Elemental Evil was in operation.  The heroes agreed to help the town rebuild and collected all they could from the moathouse to sell.  Upon returning to the moathouse, however, they learned that the corpse of Lareth had disappeared.

The heroes and some volunteers from Hommlet, took what they could on wagons to Verbobonc to sell.  After doing so, the Hommlet residents returned and the heroes stayed in Verbobonc to gear up and do some training.  They learned that the Vicount was out of town on some kind of business, and there was some kind of trouble to the north in Veluna that required the presence of the Knights of the Hart, so the heroes tales of potential troubles with the possible resurgence of activity in the Temple of Elemental Evil fell to underlings and those powerless to help until the authorities returned.

While in town, the heroes learned of a number of possible adventures that they could undertake, including:

• The Temple of Elemental Evil is stirring up trouble again.
• To the west, Giants are causing trouble in the Grand Duchy of Geoff.
• To the north, rumors treasures hoarded by a mad wizard in a volcano labyrinth with a perpetual white plume. 
•  Settlements near the Barrier Peaks are having trouble with strange creatures coming out of the mountains. 
•  Somewhere along the borders of Perrenland and Ket is said to be caves containing a magical hoard of treasure of the wizard Tsojcanth. 
• The infamous Ruins of Castle Greyhawk are making people talk again as its claimed more victims in search of the mad wizard Zagyg’s treasures.

The heroes decide to follow-up on what they learned about the possible activity at the Temple of Elemental Evil and they take to the road to the town of Nulb, which is closest to the temple.  They found the town to align with the rumors they had heard, that since the fall of the temple a dozen years ago, the town of Nulb has been dying and has few residents remaining, as is evident by the numerous dilapidated buildings and general poor conditions of the road and bridge leading to town. 

The heroes go to where they believe they may find answers, at the local tavern.  Within they try to question the barkeep, who is less than cooperative.  Tharn, having enough of the barkeep's evasion of their questions, hops behind the bar and throws him over the bar so that Anton can question him more directly.  Anton continues to attempt to get information regarding the temple (which people around here call the "Temple of All-Consumption"), when the owner of the tavern, a man named Skole, comes out of his office and demands the heroes leave. 

Meanwhile, Eli, who had noticed a couple of patrons looking at their group with mal-intent, uses his skill at lip reading and find them talking about alerting "others" to the group's presence.  When the name "Zert" is mentioned in the exchange between Skole and Anton, one of the two look back as if in recognition.  The two then up and leave the tavern.  Eli follows them out and the two take off running down the street.  Eli pursues and shouts a prayer to Pholtus and one of the pair is suddenly paralyzed.  His legs immediately seize and he goes face down in the gravel road, breaking his nose and a tooth, in addition to skinning him up badly.  Eli manacles the man and drags him back to the tavern as the other runs off down the road that leads to the temple. 

Once inside the tavern, they clean the man up and question him.  He is reluctant to give any useful information but does insult the hero's mothers quite skillfully.  Another in the bar acknowledges knowing the man and Eli questions him.  This man seems fearful of the consequences of revealing information, so Eli acts as though man is uncooperative while learning that the temple is indeed active and this man works there as a lookout. 

The heroes leave the tavern with their prisoner and as the walk towards the hostel to find a room they are stopped by a young woman who protests the capture of the man.  She defends the man as doing what he must to survive, as all in Nulb do, and the heroes try to explain that they are attempting to prevent more trouble from occurring, but they only succeed in offending the young lady, who says they are not welcome in her mother's herb shop. 

They go to the hostel and check into the rooms, but decide that going to one of the abandoned houses may be a better option, so they break into one and spend the night.

The following morning, they let their prisoner go with the agreement that he doesn't go back to the temple again, and then the group takes the road leading to the Temple of Elemental Evil.  They arrive to find a structure that is much more intimidating than they had anticipated.  They ready themselves and prepare to explore the place.

End of session.

OLD SKOOL CAMPAIGN - STORMING THE MOATHOUSE - PT 2

The Heroes: 

• Anton Loyalar: Oeridian Paladin of Heironeous
• Coppyr: Halfing Monk
• Eli Pendar: Flannish Cleric of Pholtus
• Tharn: Dwarf barbarian of the Fireforge clan

The heroes search the barracks and find a few items of interest, but hesitate in opening the door to Lareth's private chambers.  They rest for a while, awaiting Lareth's return, but when he doesn't show they do some reconnaissance.  Coppyr uses his invisibility ring to allow him to sneak down some halls, where he hears someone with a strange accent addressing a group.  The response from the group is animalistic growls and barks, which means the gnolls are being addressed, most likely by Lareth.  He's talking about having recruited the bugbear to their cause and sending them to destroy Hommlet.  The gnolls get excited about that by the sound of the growls and barks. 

Coppyr relays this back to Tharn, who follows a short distance behind the halfling.  The rest of the group awaits just within the hallway the leads to the barracks after Eli repaired the door. 

The halfling hears the gnolls leaving and shortly thereafter the door separating them opens and Lareth's henchmen start to emerge, complaining about the smell of the gnolls and their animalistic ways.  A lieutenant leads them down the hall, but holds back as Lareth emerges to speak with him.  The rest of the henchmen make their way down the hall back to the barracks.  They wait for the lieutenant to unlock the door and when he does, the heroes get the drop on the group!

The fight is held within the hallway and the doorway leading to the barracks.  Anton and Eli hold back while Elmo and Tharn hold the door.  Coppyr remains invisible, waiting for an opening to attack.  The henchmen and lieutenant bear the brunt of the PC's attacks, returning in kind, while Lareth holds back initially, but then joins the fight with spells and his magical staff.  Several of the heroes are hurt, but are able to bounce back after receiving healing from a comrade.  The henchmen and lieutenant aren't so fortunate and they start dropping from the hero's assault.  When the lieutenant drops, Lareth begins to have second thoughts about this battle, but he does not try to escape until it's too late.  Down to two henchmen, Lareth surrenders to the heroes, who bind the three to ensure they do not have a change of heart. 

End of session. 

MY THOUGHTS ON THE CURRENT STAR WARS TRILOGY IN THE MAKING

I HATED Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and that has also brought me to the realization that I hated The Force Awakens too.  I wanted to like them both, I really did.  I wanted to see the old characters come back.  I wanted to see the next generation of characters developed.  I wanted to see the next big, bad villain.  I wanted to see how the New Republic brought the galaxy together and how that was threatened by the new villain(s).  I wanted to see the new Jedi Order that Luke would inevitably develop.  I wanted to see if the Sith would make a comeback.  I wanted to see new, cool spaceships and mega-weapons. 

I wanted to see a new, MODERN, Star Wars movie!

What I got was mostly disappointing.

THE GOOD

Many of the new characters had potential.  Rey as the new Jedi hopeful was cool.  A strong, female lead is something that Star Wars has been missing.  The actress they picked was good for the role, likable, innocent, etc.  Finn was also a cool concept, being a storm trooper that rejects the First Order's ways despite lifelong conditioning.  There's story there, and the actor was also likeable and suited the role.  The Poe Dameron character is kind of the hot-shot of this generation, the Han Solo without the bad-boy side, which is different and has potential.  The actor chosen is a good one.  Benedicio del Toro's character, whose name eludes me, was cool conceptually, and I like the actor.  The General Hux as the First Order's commander was exactly what I'd expect from the Empire remnant to have as a leader.  The stuck-up, British snob act was portrayed perfectly by the actor.  And he is young, so could last longer in the series.  The Empire leadership seemed to take a back seat to the Sith after Star Wars, so it was good to see a strong role here. The Captain Phasma character, again, conceptually cool.  The armor is awesome and to have a female in a First Order leadership role is a first and is refreshing.  Plus, I love the actress playing her.

Much of the new tech was very cool.  The new storm trooper armor, the storm trooper hand-to-hand energy weapon, the new ships, the new Deathstar equivalent, all very cool conceptually. 

Seeing all of the old cast was great.  Glad they were all alive for TFA.

The F/X was excellent.  Loved the half-buried star destroyer.  The swordplay was much more toned-down and realistic than Episodes 1-3, but more exciting than Episodes 4-6.    

THE BAD

Despite all of the characters being cast well and having good story concepts, they were mostly executed poorly, if not outright terribly. 

Rey: Putting her on a desert planet automatically draws comparisons to Luke Skywalker.  Why not put here somewhere different?  Her ability to seemingly use the force once she becomes aware of it is uncannily simple for her.  Nobody else has had it so easy.  I think this was done to save time, but it really cheapened the Force, which has been portrayed in the past as something that requires training to master.  I'm sure some Force abilities could come naturally, especially under duress, but the Jedi Mind Trick?  Going toe to toe with a trained force user?  And when she goes to get training from a master, she gets a couple of quick lessons and somehow takes that and runs with it to enable her to fight Snoke's highly trained guards???  Nope, that's sloppy writing.  She should have been handled much better than this.

Finn: More should have been done to show Finn's struggle against his life-long conditioning and with doing the right thing.  His injury at the end of TFA should have been addressed in TLJ instead of making his recovery a comic relief moment.  His character was completely pointless in TLJ.  The side-trek taken to the casino was a complete waste of time, as it resulted in no change whatsoever to the story's outcome.  If it would not have happened, nothing would have changed.  His new love interest sub plot seems forced as well and not sure why he'd go for her when he clearly has an interest in Rey. Heh, they'll probably make Rey his sister to get out of that corner they wrote themselves into.

Poe: this character was handled fairly well in TFA, but was totally wasted in TLJ.  His actions at the beginning were not just reckless, but were entirely too costly to the Rebellion/Resistance.  It's one thing to be reckless with yourself, but if you cost the Resistance lives and vital equipment, then that's not a good soldier, that's an idiot.  Once Leah was out of action in TLJ, Poe should have stepped in to command the fleet and done something fun and cool, instead of just running until they ran out of gas. 

Del Toro's character had charisma, but was ultimately pointless along with the rest of that sub-plot.  Waste of a good character.

Hux was potrayed well in TFA, and was throwing out a Hitler vibe, which is scary.  But he was relegated to comedy relief in TFA, which totally undermined the development he got in the 1st movie.  They should have shown how this guy was able to pull together the remnants of the Empire into the First Order - that would take a Hitler-like charisma to pull off. 

Captain Phasma was wasted in TFA and was killed off (again) in TLJ.  Why can't they keep a good villain around?  Wasted potential.  In TFA, she should have gone up against Finn and the light saber, and part 2 should have been in TLJ with a final round in the last movie.  Nope.

The Classic Characters:  All of the original Star Wars characters were so poorly written that I can't even associate them with the characters from the original trilogy.  Everything they gained from their victory at the end of the first trilogy was negated by TFA/TLJ, and in some cases they were completely out of character. 

Han: In the original SW trilogy, Han goes from caring only about himself to being a leader in the Rebellion.  Somehow, after the Battle of Yavin, he throws that all away, abandons the Rebellion/Resistance, his wife and kid, to go sow his wild oats again.  So much wrong with that.  Solo could have been portrayed as a war-torn and worn hero, but instead they chose to revert him back the old Solo from the start of Star Wars.  Then, the way he was killed was pointless, as his death only strengthened the darkness in his son and Snoke's hold on him.  Dumb and such a bad way to end the life of one of the most beloved heroes of all time.

Leia: Mostly underused in TFA, she was relegated to being a helpless commander.  Not only should she have been on top of her game militarily, but she should not have been shoved to the background because she can't solve the First Order problem without Luke.  Leia would have found a way without Luke.  The way she was handled in TLJ was a joke.  I love the idea that she had learned to use the Force during the last 30 years, but the way they chose to display that in TLJ was terrible and laughable.

The Droids: These two should have just been destroyed and put in a scrap heap for all the good they're doing the new movies.  C3P0 is annoying, not funny.  R2D2 is just barely there.  Although I did like how he used the projection of Leia to try and convince Luke to help her, it was about the only thing that R2 has done in these movies, which is a shame.  All the droid love has gone to the new BB8 droid, which is fine, but give R2 a good send-off - have him destroyed in a meaningful way, not collecting dust in a corner.

Luke: Of all of the characters they mishandled, they handled Luke the worst.  There is so much wrong with how they portrayed him in TLJ that there is no salvaging it.  They completely misunderstood the journey that character took in the original trilogy and completely went against his character.  1st of all, Luke would not have abandoned Leah unless it was to undertake a greater quest.  Secondly, Luke would NEVER have tried to kill his nephew and would have done ANYTHING to try and turn him away from the Dark Side.  Those two fundamental truths are a core to Luke Skywalker's character.  In the original trilogy, his reluctance to get involved died when the Empire killed his aunt and uncle.  From that point on, he did anything he could for his family and for the Rebellion.  He went up against the two most powerful Dark Side characters with the sole intent of finding the good in his father.  The screenwriters completely missed the point of this character.  There was such missed opportunity as a result.  Luke could have been portrayed as such a powerful Bad Ass, but is instead portrayed as a family-betraying, attempted murderer hermit.  How could anyone that knows the slightest bit about Star Wars greenlight that?  His final act of going up against Kylo Ren was even cowardice, considering he did it via astral projection instead of going there personally.  And to have him die of, what, exhaustion?  Pathetic.  His refusal to train Rey was dumb.  Maybe he did come to think that a formal Jedi Order was encouraging the Sith, but to turn his back on a force-awakened person was just cruel to her, especially knowing that Kylo Ren and Snoke would snatch her up as soon as they could.  So much wrong, so much…

The Plots: The Force Awakens plot was convoluted, unoriginal and poorly executed.  What happened to the Empire, how did the First Order come into being, why is there a Resistance and a New Republic, how can the First Order create a fleet and a massive weapon far more powerful than the Death Star, why is Rey Force sensitive, who are her parents, who is Snoke & how did he come to be Supreme Commander of the First Order…all of these are questions that should have answers, but don't; at least not in the movies.  They expect us to go to books and supplements to get these answers, which is lazy writing.  The plot of TFA was basically a bad rehash of Star Wars.  The plot of TLJ was an even worse rehash of the Empire Strikes Back and, of the two, TLJ was the worst.  The plot of the First Order vs the Resistance was basically, chase them until they run out of fuel.  How boring is that?  At least when the Empire was chasing Solo and Leah around, they went through asteroids and eventually chased them to Cloud City where the showdown took place.  TLJ just had them being chased and picked off a ship at a time.  I think someone worked very hard to make that about as boring a plot as they could come up with.  At the end of TLJ, with a handful of Resistance left, I have absolutely no idea where they are going with Episode 9, and not in a good way.  At the end of ESB, we knew that Luke would go after Han and eventually have a showdown with Vader.  I have no idea what the story could possibly be in E9.  Snoke is dead, so that leaves the whiny emo DV wannabe Kylo Ren as the big bad guy?  Nope.

THE MEH

The BB-8 droid was a little weird and I'm still not seeing the practicality of a spherical droid with a dome head that rolls around everywhere. 

Snoke: Not a very imposing or evocative figure visually - lacks the Darth Vader look and the Emperor's menace.  He is killed off way too easily before any backstory is revealed and before he could do anything to show how powerful he is, other than throw Rey around a little.

Kylo Ren: Whiny emo Darth Vader wannabe is not what I look for in a Star Wars villain.  The actor is okay, but his motivation, his obvious struggle to stay Dark, and the obvious forced relationship they are forging with he and Rey is just not interesting in the least.  This is Star Wars, not Twilight.

MY SOLUTIONS

I don't pretend to be a professional writer, nor do I have the balls to say I have what it takes to put Star Wars back on track, but I do have some ideas on ways it could have been handled instead of the crap we got.

• 1st and Foremost: The legacy characters from SW should have been given a glorious send off in the TFA.  They all should have been reunited and should have died in a great sacrifice to the New Republic in order to let the new characters move on without them.   THAT would have been a fitting end to their stories.

• Luke should have been portrayed as a bad ass.

• Rey should have gotten formal Jedi training.

• The big bad evil guy should have been visually distinct, menacing and much worse than all that have come before.

• They should not have done anything to invalidate anything that happened in the original 3 movies and should have instead moved on from where they left off.  A new and different threat should have been introduced, not just a new Empire wannabe.  Maybe something from outside the galaxy, maybe an ancient Sith threat that reawakened after thousands of years, something original and interesting.  

• There should have been a new Jedi Order.  A young, uncertain Ben Solo left in charge after Luke sacrifices himself would have been much cooler than the whiny emo Darth Vader wannabe Kylo Ren.  Rey could have stepped in to help reassure Ben, maybe take over the Jedi Order when Ben is captured by the new bad guys and they attempt to turn him.   Maybe Luke got married and his wife is widowed and left to run the order.  Lots of opportunities here.

• I kind of like the idea of remnants of the Empire still lingering around the galaxy, causing problems.  I have a vague idea of this "First Order" finding an ancient Sith tomb, unleashing a powerful sith ghost that possesses someone in the First Order and uses them.  At some point this Sith leader finds another army, perhaps an ancient robot army or an extragalactic ally force, and no longer needs the First Order.  I like the idea that the betrayed First Order has to align with the New Republic to defeat the Sith. 

Anyway, I'm truly saddened with the way that the new trilogy is being produced.  But, I also have to resign myself to the fact that Disney isn't making the movies for me, rather the current generation of toy buyers.  Oh well, I can always pretend they don't exist, like the prequels.