Rappan Athuk: Unwelcoming Trolls

Session was played on 1/22/23

Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)
Borumar, ½ Orc Fighter (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin (Lanse)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)
Lt. Marthek, Fighter (NPC)

Wanting to avoid any more encounters with the bug people, the party heads down in the direction of where the Orcus priest was going/coming from. At the end of the passage was a door, and silence beyond. Borumar checks it and says it’s clear, and unlocks it. Beyond is a disused steeped welcoming hall.

Within the hall were three trolls! Angry trolls. Trolls big and mean enough to quickly drop both Borumar and Lt. Marthek. Blotto manages to hook one with his fishing pole(arm) but the troll just pulls Blotto in by the line and takes a bite out of him. Lor’Koth manages to take one out at the knees, while Aroon shoves his sword through the head of another, while Nick uses his spear to pin the 3rd down until everyone else could finish it off. Koltic was quick with the healing, and the oil to burn the bodies was applied almost as quickly.

Gathering the troll’s somewhat meager treasure (pocket change and a fancy necklace) the party makes for the surface and home.

Gains: necklace, and gold coins
Kills: 3 trolls
Losses:

Rappan Athuk: Insect-People Bug Us

Session was played on 1/15/23

Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)
Blotto, Goblin (Lanse)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)
Lt. Marthek, Fighter (NPC)

Koltic’s stills continue to produce the good stuff (healing potions) while Blotto works with Morgana to design a fishing pond for her grounds.

Back to the dungeon, and down to level 2 without encounter. At the bottom of the stairs a man and a woman rearing ratty clothing and crowns demand a toll. Nick is willing to pay a little, tossing one of the jet colored gems to them. They demand more, and Nick refuses. Then the rats attack, while the rat king and queen escape. After finishing off the rats and rescuing Jameth who got cut off from the rest of the party in the melee, they continue back down to the corpse of the purple worm.

A pair of insect-like humanoids are carving up the corpse. Their bright orange eyes send Nick nuts, and he attacks his fellows. The rest of the party piles onto him holding him down until the madness passes. The insect-people otherwise ignore the party.

Moving away from the corpse of the worm, and the weird insect people, the party stumbles on a small group of orcs, one in priestly garments. The priest casts Hold on Marthek, chanting about the power of Orcus. The fight goes poorly for the orcs.

The party continues on, away from the worm and the tunnel the orcs were heading toward, and run into 2 more of the insect-people. Koltic and Marthek both charge in in a maddened rage, the rest of the party follows. The insect people were much tougher than the orcs, but they’re eventually killed. Each had a single gem on them. Searching these bodies reminded the party that they failed to loot the orc bodies, so they back tracked to do that, collecting some fancy unholy symbols that could be melted down and sold.

Gains: 2 gems, unholy symbols of orcus, unholy water
Kills: orc priest of orcus, orcs, 2 insect-people
Losses:

Rappan Athuk: Beware the Purple Worms

Session was played on 1/8/23

Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)
Borumar ½ Orc Thief 9 (Josh) & Fido
Karl, Dwarf (Julia)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)
Lt. Marthek, Fighter (NPC)

Borumar spends his downtime looking for a dagger master to train with, while Koltic brews more of the good stuff. Nick goes on the hunt for a wizard to assist in exploring the dungeon, and finds Mithrandir who demands a full share of treasure, and 150gp retainer.

Back to the graveyard, and the mausoleum is guarded by 4 gargoyles. Borumar fireballs the top, injuring them, but Lor’Koth is grabbed, and lifted off the ground. Jameth and Aroon grab his legs and keep the gargoyle from lifting him away, giving the rest of the party a chance to finish them off. They collect 6 gems from the corpse’s eyes.

Using the key, they enter and make their way along down to the long hallways with the doors, and check out the 3 missed doors from last time.

10. A gnawed human arm is knifed to the back of the door, and 16 dead rats litter the floor.
8. Borumar isn’t able to pick the lock so Karl bashes the door open. Within are piles of smashed crates in a dirt packed room. Borumar finds a large grey potion (stone to fleshx4).
9. 11 rat skeletons, and stairs down. The party goes down the stairs.

The stairs end in a massive cavern with bats flitting about overhead. Not too far ahead was a sign 

“Beware the purple worms, Smigol the Archmage”

Passing the sign, the party is, shockingly, attacked by a purple worm, and Borumar is swallowed! Then so is Karl. Everyone throws everything they’ve got at the giant vermin, and they kill it, and cut Borumar and Karl out and Koltic heals them up as much as he can… enough to get them standing anyway. As the creature is dead, and cut open anyway, they cut down to the gullet and retrieve the corpse of an adventurer with a full suit of plate mail and a backpack full of treasure.

Calling that good enough, the party heads home.

Gains: 1500gp, jeweled collar, +1 plate mail, bag of devouring, potion of stone to flesh x4
Kills: Purple Worm
Losses:
 

Rappan Athuk: Behind the doors

Session was played on 1/2/23

Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)
Borumar ½ Orc Thief 9 (Josh) & Fido
Karl, Dwarf (Julia)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)

Heading south to a T intersection, the west passage is short and has the chalk outline of a door on the far end. Amazingly it shows the location of a secret door (thanks previous adventurer!) that opens up into a rough passage with some ghouls inside. Koltic destroys some, and we slam the door closed.

Continuing down the hall, we encounter a LOT of doors…

1. Rat Carnage! 3 big ones, lots of parts of small ones
2. Old wood and tools for making coffins, a chest with 10,000 rusty nails
3. An animated broom and a big well swept pile of trash. Borumar figures out how the broom activates. Inventively, it’s saying “sweep”
4. Four ogres, Karl says “sweep” causing Borumar to get dragged about. After slaying the ogres a ghoul shows up (Player Note: I have no memory of where the ghoul came from) and says “you’re not worthy yet”
5. Ogre Den, polar bear skin rug (kinda far south for that, aren’t we?) a silver 2 handed sword, keg of wine, and a couple of potions are found in the mess.
6. A note that says “took the door for cleaning, be back soon” Beyond the note is another door, made of gold covered in runes. Aroon takes some rubbings of the door’s runes.
7. Dirt floor, smashed door, musty and unstable looking.
8. Locked, good quality lock
9. Locked, excellent quality lock
10. Locked, good quality lock
11. Dude ranting about orcus behind a curtain. When we knock he throws jars of green slime, one hits Jameth, and another hits Aroon. Nick and Koltic tackle the dude, and uses “cure disease” and “remove curse” and the dude passes out. Searching the room, we find a rat tooth necklace, flees, a key, ceramic jars of green slime, a gold bar, a spell book, and a beaver pelt.

After the dude takes his nap, he wakes up and tells us he’s Lt. Marthek from the army of light who was cursed by the cultists of Orcus.

The party collects themselves and they head for the surface, interrupted by a ghoul attack. They kill them off and make it safely back to the keep

Gains: gold bar, spell book, potions, silver edged 2 handed sword, Lt. Marthek
Kills: ghouls, ogres
Losses:

Minis: Man at Arms & Weird West Oz Scarecrow

While thematically these are very different minis, I used basically the same colors on both, painted them at the same time, so you get them together. Also, I didn't really take any good WIP pics, so you get final pics plus some description of what I did.  

First up, the Reaper miniatures henchman. I love the old school simplicity of this guy, and in keeping with the sculpt, I wanted to keep the paint job simple, but I also wanted it to be a little brighter than I usually go for. 

Next up is the scarecrow. I wanted to really lean into the creepy with this figure, and I think I pulled it off. It's funny how even using the same colors there's nothing cheerful or bright about this guy. Granted the sculpt helps a lot, but especially on the coat, minimizing the areas of highlight and leaving more shadowed areas really makes a difference. 

The greens and browns on both minis are going to look familiar, as I used the same base colored for these figures as I did for the plant folk in the last mini post, wilderness green, highlighted up with candlelight yellow, and russet brown. The design on the shield is the same candlelight yellow. 

I used reapers Pathfinder reds, starting with the asmodeus red as the base, and using the seoni scarlet to highlight it. 

The black on each is Carbon Grey given a black wash

The wood and bones on the scarecrow were a mishmash of colors starting with a base of russet brown with various hints of other colors added in to get different shades. 

The metallics all started with a base of stynylrez metal tone primer, and then brought up with shadowed steel or old bronze. Most of it was then hit with a wash of black, and a tighter highlight to pick up the details. 

Rappan Athuk: Black Bones and Rot Grubs

Session was played on 1/1/23

Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)
Borumar ½ Orc Thief 9 (Josh) & Fido
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)


Player’s Note: I took very sparse notes this session, and don’t really remember what happened 11 months later, so… enjoy!

Checked the SW door in the corridor

5 Black Skeletons! Aroon, & Jameth fail their fear saving throws

Coffin Room - Rotting corpse of a small humanoid next to the coffin. In the coffin is the body of a human female in chainmail. Borumar checks it, and gets attacked by rot grubs. The inside of the coffin is purged with fire. 120gp collected from the ashes.


Gains: pocket change
Kills: black skeletons, rot grubs
Losses:

Freeblades Vinelings, Dryad, and Saryad

Some years back at Reapercon I picked up a couple minis from DGS Games from their Freeblades skirmish game.. and like many of the minis I've gotten over the years, it was a LONG time before I pulled them out to work on them, but last month, I finally did... spurred on by the couple of vinelings I added to the pile of opportunity. 

After washing them, and gluing them to their bases (I put the dryad and saryad on slightly larges bases than the vinelings) I decided to bend the vinelings into slightly more active poses, and then primed them with a red-ish brown primer.  You can see the color on the base of the vineling below.

Once they were primed, I used Russet Brown as the primary color to paint them with, and added Osirian Sand to lighten the color for each successive highlight. Mostly this was dry brushing. Then it was onto the foliage. 

I used Wilderness Green as the base color, and then lightened it up with more Osirian Sand.

Once that was all dry it was time to add some basing material. I started with a mixed sand to give it texture and to cover the gaps in the bases. I then painted the base with the same Russet Brown, and gave it a quick Osirian Sand dry brush.

 I followed that up with a mix of various turfs and static grasses to tie it all together. After cleaning up the edges of the base with pure black, they were good to go! 

Simple paint jobs, but absolutely lovely sculpts. My next Freeblades mini is a necromancer that I'm combining with a Mantic Zombie to make a little diorama.

Rappan Athuk: Through the Front Door

Session was played on 12/26/22

Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)
Borumar ½ Orc Thief 9 (Josh) & Fido
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)

At the graveyard, the main tomb has 8 gargoyles perched on it. The party pops over to the dwarven statue to get the key, then head for the door. The gargoyles attack, succeed in grabbing Koltic, pulling him up into the air, the gargoyle is killed, but then Koltic is dropped down hard. Using the key, the party rushes in and closes the door behind them. Down the passage, past some bone piles through the viewing room, ants room, Borumar gets poisoned by some playing cards that were left scattered about, and he had to collect. They avoid a pit trap, heading north toward an empty cavern. There’s some weird gurgling noises, the party searches around and finds a secret door. The “friendly” ghast gets a little too personal with Koltic, but some decent treasure is recovered.

In a larger cavern a pristine toilet is too much for Borumar to resist, but sadly, and predictably it turned out to be a mimic. Nick pulls him off the toilet-mimic, and they run from it down some stairs.

At the bottom of the stairs is a long room with blood stains, a bunch of dead rats and one dead halfling. The door to the north is covered in scratches and has a hatchet buried in it. A key sits unturned in the lock.

Gains: gold and silver coins, poisoned playing cards.
Kills: ghast, gargoyles
Losses:

Stonehell & Rappan: Downtime on both sides

Session was played on 12/18/22


Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)
Morgana, Magic User 9 (Rob)


Work at the keep has progressed. The kobolds have built into the moat and under the castle, expanding out the small basement/dungeon into a decent sized warren.

In the Rookery Tower, the demon birds now number 10! Thankfully the pact between Nick and the matron seems to be holding, and they’ve left the kobolds and the workers from the village alone.


Meanwhile Morgana continues her magical research, and after a month of work succeeds in creating a bag of holding for Borumar. She then moves on to learning Summon Elemental, and crafting a basic wand of fireballs. Over those couple of months, she also takes on 5 apprentices, and begins to receive the backing and patronage of a local baron.

---

DM’s Note: As it was only Rob and I, we had a pure logistics session, and since Nick, even as the master of a keep has less to do than Morgana, we spent a fair bit of time on her side of the campaign world.

Stonehell: Heading Home

Session 215 was played on 12/11

Morgana, Magic User 8 (Rob)
Borumar, ½ orc thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin (Lanse)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf (NPC)

The party returns the locket to the ghost of Singu, and the geas on Koltic is released. Singu doesn’t ask for his sword and armor to be returned, or the staff, and the party doesn’t offer.

Leaving the tomb, they swing past the fishing town that is in the process of deciding if it wants to relocate closer to the water or rebuild the dam. Down river they go, getting harassed by 4 bogfoots (DM Note: I… what? I can’t really read my notes here, they don’t make any sense. Bigfoots?) that throw poop at the party. Morgana chucks a fireball at them, killing 2. The other 2 run away.

A day out of town, they camp for the night, and are surprised by a band of gnolls that surround the camp. Blotto wants to climb the grassy gnoll, the rest of the party just lays into them, and even unarmored and outmanned (out gnolled?), they mow them down with little difficulty.

Back home they rest for a few days before taking advantage of the Tournament of Champions taking place in town (DM Note: I rolled for various weapon trainers to see who was available, and got multiple masters and grand masters). Morgana, Aroon, Jameth, Koltic all succeed in improving their skill level.

Gains:
Kills: 2 bogfoots, 10 gnolls
Losses:

Oct ‘23 In Review

It’s been a very soggy month, with 3 summer-like days near the end, and then cold for Halloween. At least it was dry for the kid’s birthday party and also for Halloween itself. It was cold, and we had fewer kids than last year, but I still enjoyed sitting outside in costume with the fire pit and a pumpkin beer. 

 
Gaming
Last month’s attempt at scenario 2 of Stargrave Hope Eternal didn’t go well… Early this month I reset, and tried again, with better results. I was able to rescue the prisoner, and get most of my figures off the board. I had to take a little liberty with the scenario as written, because the grav-sled crew got taken out, and it just drifted away. I decided that the figures on the train would jump, and rolled on the chart as if they were taken out in combat.

I started playing in a Savage Worlds superhero game, but playing the villains. The campaign is called “Necessary Evil” and we’re 2 sessions in. I haven’t actually read Savage Worlds yet, so some of the mechanics are still a little vague to me, but I’m picking it up.

Stonehell has the players assaulting the Dwarven Hermitage. Not sure where they’re going to go after, or how they’re going to deal with the Gloom Crown. They pledged to give it to their Vrilyian patron, but it would be a majorly campaign altering decision if they do. I kinda hope they do. They’re currently holed up, hoping to recover some spells, but they aren’t going to get the chance without interruptions.

Miniatures
Not a big month for completing minis. I did paint up another 3 walls and another missile silo for the terrain set. Only 2 more pieces to finish to wrap up the New Eden terrain. I also painted up a Saryad, Dryad, and 2 vinelings from Freeblade as part of my “paint something other than Reaper minis” urge. And because of course I was still gonna paint some reaper minis, I painted up an ax wielding henchman and a Weird West Oz Scarecrow. 

 

That’s what I got done. What I started includes a big red dragon and a lich lord on a throne. We’ll see how quickly and how well I can get them wrapped up. I just finished some green stuff gap filling that they needed, and took the opportunity to sculpt a new arm for a dire badger and some eyes for a carrion crawler, as well as making 5 little worm monsters. They still need teeth. 

I also took advantage of the last of the summer-like days to get some priming in before the cold and rain moved in

Media
Star Trek Lower Decks Season 4
Ahsoka
Poison
Loki
Friday the 13th
Friday the 13th Part 2
Wallace & Gromit Curse of the Were-Rabbit
The Lost Boys


Goals for Nov
Play scenario 3 for Hope Eternal
Try to get at least 2 session reports written per week.