Stonehell: Mines out of Time

 Session 188 was played on 2/6


Morgana, Mage 8 (Rob)
Joho, Mystic, 7 (Chris)
Koltic, Cleric 6 (NPC)
Biffin, Fighter 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 4 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 4 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)
Rada, Thief 3 (NPC)
Thunder, Dwarf 1 (NPC)
Barcox, Fighter 1 (NPC)


Koltic spends his time back in town getting drunk and brewing potions… among other things. Morgana researches gate rituals. Joho hires some likely recruits, Thunder the Dwarf and Barcox the Fighter.

Heading into the dungeon they pass through the main entrance, through the Quiet Halls where Kolic dusts some skeletons. From there they head down to the 5th level without further incident. Exploring an unmapped mineshaft, they pass by words of warning against entering the mines. They ignore the warnings and enter anyway…  promptly blacking out.

When they come to, they’re dressed in rags with only some old mining equipment to share among them, and a group of skeletons to fight. Tough mineral encrusted skeletons. They defeat them, Koltic managing to destroy 4/5, while Jojo smashes one apart. Not knowing which way to go, they head out in a random direction. And promptly black out.

When they come to, they’re dressed in rags with only some old mining equipment to share among them, and a group of skeletons to fight. Tough mineral encrusted skeletons. They defeat them, and then head off in a different direction.

They explore the mines further, battling more undead. Thundar drops in a tough fight and they have to abandon him and run away to regroup. They encounter a glitchy but friendly ghost who tells them of a primordial being locked in a stele within the mine, and a weapon that might destroy him. Following the ghost’s glitchy directions, they head in what they think is the right direction, and promptly pass out.

When they come to, they’re dressed in rags with only some old mining equipment to share among them, and a group of skeletons to fight. Tough mineral encrusted skeletons. They defeat them, noticing that their spells and wounds aren’t resetting while everything else (including all the undead) are. They follow the ghost’s directions again, avoiding the path that reset them, and find a shrine devoted to the dwarven god of mines. A large silver hammer on the wall serves as the holy symbol, and according to the ghost, the means of destroying the evil that has them trapped in the mines out of time.  

Gains: Magic Hammer
Kills: Ore Skeletons, Skeletons, Pitmen, Wraiths, Wights, Zombies
Losses: Thundar

Stargrave Quarantine 37: Hydroponics Bay Bugs!

Captain's Log: The bastard said the station was abandoned. He didn't say anything about the bugs.Or that he'd sold the same info to my former fellow marine...

The stations life support systems were limping along, helped in part by the extensive hydroponics bay. From what our initial scans showed, there was salvage worth making the trip. We worked our way deeper into the station, leaving the ship with the engine idling so we could make a quick escape if we needed to. Scanners showed movement, and we went to investigate. Once in the hydroponics bay, we heard from the far side the unmistakable sounds of people talking, but scanners showed more... And soon enough we spotted the bugs.

 

 While we faced a number of the acid spewing bugs, my competition and his crew ended up facing the nastier warrior bugs that tore into and through his troop. Having grabbed a single treasure token, what was left of his force made for the doors. 

On my side of the hydroponics bay, concentrated crossfire kept the acid spewers from causing too much pain, while the rest of the treasures were secured. 

And not wanting to overstay our welcome, we headed for the station transit line.

---

Just these few pics as I was too into playing with another person for the first time in years to worry about snapping pics every turn. Needless to say, I had a blast.And getting to pull out my old nids and the aquarium plants I'd picked up right before COVID hit was a big bonus. I used the same crew as in my solo game (but not counting any of the XP I'd earned there.

Stargrave: Hope Eternal Mission 1 Access Codes

 It has been literally years since I last played Frostgrave, and until just this week, had never gotten the chance to play Stargrave. Something about moving away from my gaming group, and then a pandemic, plus the addition of a baby to the household just made mini gaming take a back seat to everything else. Thankfully, with the pandemic in mind, Joseph McCullough decided to release a solo Stargrave supplement called Hope Eternal. (He'd previous released a solo game akin to Frostgrave called Rangers of Shadowdeep, which I have, but have yet to play...) On Halloween, I decided to treat myself and play the first mission. 

I set up the board as the mission suggests, complete with a large central building, except my central building wasn't big enough. So I took a square of cardboard and set it to the side to serve as the interior of the building. 

Then I pulled out my minis and assembled a crew!

As Captain, I picked Sgt. Stone, clearly a vet in heavy armor.
1st officer, Decker the Tecker
Saw the Case Cracker
Dino the Commando
Trooper the Trooper
Rocket the Code Breaker
Jyn the Runner
Mr. Fixit the Gobbo Chisler
Troll the Gunner
And Blob the Recruit

Their mission? To break into a secure facility and retrieve some access codes. The crew infiltrated the settlement, avoiding the goons patrolling the streets.

The captain and first mate each took one side of the main building while everyone else milled about as convincingly as possible. The captain brazenly walked up, dropped a bag of credits into the guard's hand, and said he had an appointment, and the guard took the loot and opened the door for him (Nat 20!) Decker fails to open the door on his side of the building, but it turns out to be less important as the Captain's side held the data center. Saw moves in and immediately tries to hack the system, but fails. The guards are now on alert, and more ruffians enter the board. 

 

The Captain moves into the building and unlocks the computer (did someone give him the passcodes?) Saw and the guards trade gunfire. Decker again fails to open the other door, but the ruffians in the street are now aware of whats up, and firefights break out all over the neighborhood. Trooper and Blob are both hit, Blob is wounded. Troll takes out one ruffian with his big gun. Amazingly no additional forces enter the board.

Cap and Saw take pot shots at the guards in the building as they run for the street. Decker takes out an injured ruffian, while Saw takes shots from multiple directions and goes down. Gobbo and Blob run off, while Trooper kills another ruffian. 2 more ruffians enter the board.

Cap tries to launch a grenade on a clustered group of ruffians, but misses. Decker and Dino give up on the door and run for it. Trooper gets shot up, but makes it off the board. Jyn kills a ruffian and she and Troll run off the board. 4 more ruffians enter the board. 

Cap sends another grenade off wildly, and books it off the board with the access codes. 

Saw manages to survive, but is badly injured. The crew earned 300 credits, and the captain 170xp. 

Next Mission: The Great Cardboard Maglev Robbery

October‘22 In Review

Started the month with Hurricane Ian hitting us. Well, it wasn’t a hurricane when it finally got up here, but it was still 4+ days of rain and gusty winds which revealed a leaky spot in the roof, and caused some minor flooding in the basement. Gonna need to rethink my plans for floor to ceiling bookshelves. There’s also a small roof leak that needed tending too. Both of these sucked up far too much of my time. Getting ready for Halloween took up the rest of it.

I picked up a 5’ skeleton to start things off, then decided to make some tombstones for the front yard. Nothing too complex, or expensive, this year. Just some simple shipping boxes with monster mud and paint. Due to not having any tools, not even a simple chip brush, this still required several trips to the hardware store, but I’ll detail that in another post. In the end I finished 8 tombstones. Next year I think I’m going to add another skeleton, and maybe a scarecrow. Thinking about going fancy and having the head light up… but I’ve got 364 days to figure it out.  

Gaming
My Stonehell game continues along. Almost had a TPK on a little demon infested side dungeon. The big news though is that I got to play Stargrave! Hope Eternal, the newest supplement was just released, and it’s an entire solo campaign. I only played the first scenario, but it was so much fun to get minis on the table. 

Miniatures
Solid progress this month. Painted a bunch of spooky minis, and have a bunch more picked out to work on for November.

Media
Star Trek Voyager (season 4)
Lower Decks
She Hulk
Andor
Hocus Pocus 2
Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Rocky Horror Picture Show
Mr. Boogedy
Little Shop of Horrors
Young Frankenstein
Ghosts (eps 1-6)

Goals
Play more Stargrave, and get some session reports written up.