Tower of the Archmage: 03/01/2023

Monday, March 13, 2023

Stonehell: Wilderness Girls Calling!

Session 201 was played on 6/5

Morgana, Mage 8 (Rob)
Joho, Mystic, 7 (Chris)
Koltic, Cleric 6 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 4 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 4 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)

The 3 amigos and Koltic build the polymorphed drunk (now rat) a habitrail. Meanwhile Joho orders a box of oversized brown and green “wildflower girls” outfits and boxes of cookies, along with some bad wigs and a clipboard full of order forms.

They get dressed, and head to the manor. Knocking loudly on the door, an imp answers and they chat. Unfortunately the Protection from Evil 10’ spell kinda tipped off the imp when he went for the order form. A blast of magic missiles cut it out of the air, and saved Morgana from having to magic the door open.

Exploring the first floor’s last remaining room turns out to be a game room with some fancy poker chips. Heading to the main stairs the upper half of them are covered in weird sparkly webs. Morgana chucks a Fireball up into them, to no effect. Joho tosses a paper airplane up into the webs, and it sticks. Then Joho gets a giant spider dropped onto him. A second spider tries to get Koltic, but it is turned. Demon Spiders! Joho downs some antivenom after the amigos kill the spider. Rather than chase after the turned spider, they head out of the main house and back to the ground keeper’s cottage.

With no dispel magic spell available, Morgana instead tries Detect Invisible. The red mist demon tries to possess her, but she resists, and it flees.

They pack it up for the day, dropping a box of cookies at the front door.

A merchant has a potion of elemental form (water) available for sale (700gp). Morgana buys it. Koltic and Darryl spend some time brewing “healing potions”

Gains:
Kills: demon spider, imp
Losses:

Monday, March 6, 2023

Stonehell: Hot time in the kitchen

Session 200 was played on 5/30

Morgana, Mage 8 (Rob)
Borumar, Thief 9 (Josh)
Joho, Mystic, 7 (Chris)
Gimble, Mage (Scott)
Koltic, Cleric 6 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 4 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 4 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)

Darryl and Koltic work on brewing some “healing potions” before the party heads back to Stonehell. On the way they encounter a trading caravan of ogres, lead by Gustov the fancy hat maker.

Taking the main entrance, they swing by Rocky, and ask the following:

Q1 Do demons have a possession time limit?
Depends
Q2 Would it help to have demon’s name?
Yes
Q3 How do I protect myself from possession?
Tattoo from the Vrylia

They then make their way to the elevators, down to level 4. A troop of giant ants manage to drop Koltic before they’re all killed. He’s quickly given a healing potion and then another. However he’s not the only one badly injured in the fight, and so the party rapidly returns to the surface, and back to town to heal up.

The party recruits a drunk (one of Koltic’s followers) to hang out with them to provide a weak willed host should the demon decide to attempt to possess someone. The party otherwise bunks together.

Morgana researches what she can, Borumar checks in with his contacts. The ogre caravan had a couple of magic items for sale. Morgana buys a potion of freedom, and Jameth drops a LOT of cash for a magic sword.

Then it’s back to the manor. Going in through the back door they explore more of the first floor, including the smoking room, and a dusty shrine to a general assortment of household gods. Morgana drops a gold as offering.

Onto the kitchen, they face a pair of flame lizards that had taken up residence in the fireplace. The heat of them alone is painful, and twice they flare, burning everyone in combat with them. In the pantry a green slime gets the drop on Joho, but Koltic’s magic takes care of it.

The party’s drunk meanwhile gets possessed, and they all chat, briefly with the demon. It threatens them, they threaten it, it gets condescending, and then Morgana polymorphs the drunk into a rat. The demon flees from its now furry host. Borumar grabs the rat before it can escape.

Gains:
Kills: Giant ants, flame lizards, green slime
Losses:

Wednesday, March 1, 2023

February ‘23 In Review

Amazingly, ~~I didn't get sick this month~~ I came down with a stomach bug right at the end of the month.

Damnit.

In spite of that, I did a decent job of hitting my goals. I painted a bunch of minis, kept up with my Dungeon23, wrote session reports, and almost managed to squeeze in that game of Stargrave right at the end of the month, getting as far as setting up the board the night before I got sick.

Gaming
A few skipped sessions this month due to various scheduling conflicts. Trooping around Rappan Athuk hasn’t proved particularly profitable. I find myself wondering if either we’re just missing the treasure, or if the treasure to be found is a little lite. I’ve been reading another of the books that’s set in the same universe as Rappan Athuk, and I find myself thinking the treasure in it is a little lite too, so maybe it’s a Swords and Wizardry thing? Or a Frog God Games thing...

Miniatures
I find myself asking myself why I decided to paint yellow and black checkered cloth on my bandits. I know the reason (Stonehell) but I could have made myself an easier fabric to use to tie all my bandit types together. I had hoped to get to work on some Frostgrave barbarians, but somewhere in the middle of the month I ran out of energy in the evenings and went a full week without picking up a paintbrush.

For next month, I’ve got all my RCL minis picked out, and even have a start on a good number of them! Not as big a start as I’d hoped, but such is life