Dec ‘23 In Review

Well that went by in a whirlwind. The basement flooded, again. This time from the chimney, but we got that fixed. The toddler brought home a bug that the doctor said wasn’t COVID, the flu, strep, or RSV. Then I got it, and it knocked me down hard. 2 solid days spent in bed. The toddler is also pushing back on napping, which means I’m getting less time to work on my own projects. Add in to that all the holiday socializing… and sadly the New Year’s plans we had got canceled due to illness.

Gaming
With the holidays, there hasn’t been as much, and with my focus elsewhere I haven’t made it the priority to get in any mini gaming time this month. On top of that I've been so focused on Kalanzar (see below) and wrapping up the #dungeon23 that I didn't get as much session report writing done as I'd planned.

Speaking of, my #dungeon 23 is complete. More thoughts on this later, but it was definitely a marathon. I haven't decided if I want to do something similar for next year yet.

Miniatures
Big focus this month was on completing Kalanzar the Wicked, and I did! But he’s gonna get his own post. Aside from him I also painted up a bunch of familiars, and did a little more work on the necromancer mini-diorama I’m putting together.  

Media
The Expanse
A Year Without Santa Claus
Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Specials 1, 2, & 3
Fisk
Nimona

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

Rappan Athuk: Down the long dark road

Session was played on 3/26/23

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

Continuing down, the party reaches the long passage to Rappan. A pair of moldy zombie horses stand quietly, waiting for direction.

All is quiet, and the party makes use of the horses to help carry their extra supplies. Many hours later they reach a branching passage, and at the branch point is an inn, run by a roachkin named Urlouck. He provides some info on the 2 passages available but states that both end up at Rappan. The zombie horses stable themselves, and the roachkin offers to sell the party more magical hay to keep them going, as well as rooms to rest before pressing on the 40 more miles to Rappan.

There are 2 decently sized rooms, and the party splits up so that everyone gets a bed. However they still set a watch in each room… which is good, because the rug in one room tries to eat Aroon and Marthek! Its hide was remarkably resistant to being stabbed, taking on an iron-like  hardness. While badly mauled, Aroon and Marthek survive.

The party gathers together to decide on how to deal with this. Death to the roachkin, obviously. Morgana makes Borumar invisible, and he scouts up to the roachkin’s room. Unfortunately as he sneaks the door open, the walking talking vermin tosses a vial of paralytic gas at the thief.

Gains:
Kills:  Killer Rug
Losses:
 

Rappan Athuk: Back to the Mouth of Doom

Session was played on 3/19/23

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

Heading out on the road to the Mouth of Doom, the party crosses paths with a group of Kobolds on the way to the keep. They chat briefly before moving on. Further down the road 8 promethean jumping spiders attack the party, surprising most of them. Borumar fumbles badly while Lor’Koth get bitten and suffers mightily from their venom. The spiders are killed, and Koltic heals LorKoth.

At the Mouth of Doom the party negotiates safe passage through the resident Kobold lair down to the lower depths. A guide shows them the way, and ensures the party sticks to the agreed upon route.

Gains:
Kills:  Promethean jumping spiders
Losses:

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I don't recall if it was just a short session, or if it was a lot of talking with the kobolds, but either way, I didn't write much down, so short session report.

Rappan Athuk: Back at the castle

Session was played on 3/12/23

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

The party takes the Lemon Mucker Ferry, crewed in part by the kobolds from Nick’s castle. Blotto sees something big in the water, tries to catch it using a dead pixie lure. He manages to catch a trout, but not the big fish he was after. He dives in after it, but doesn’t catch it. Nick needs to keep the kobolds from cutting Blotto’s line that kept him secured to the boat.

On the way from the ferry landing to the castle, Nick gets an update on the goings on, including encounters with stirges, giant spiders, a lion, a troll, some bandits, and “the warlock” with some human henchman. Coming out of the trees Nick sees that the castle’s outer wall has been repaired, the trees cleared back 200’ at least from the walls, and crops have been planted in the cleared area. The kobolds are quick to show off all their hard work, including the construction and expansion of caves into the moat wall.

Nick then checks in with Afrit the demon raven living in the tower. She has kept her word and not bothered the kobolds or their livestock. SHe reports that a troll nest is nearby, but not too near, and that the druid has been around, but again not too close or too recently. Nick and Afrit renew their bargain.

Taking a tour of the kobold warrens includes a visit to the spidershepherd. Apparently the kobolds have captured and are collecting the silk from a giant spider!

Within the castle is an invitation to the summer fete from the queen of the fairy court some 3 weeks hence. Nick signs the invite, and a pair of fairies appear and take his answer away.

Rappan Athuk: Rumors Abound

Session was played on 3/5/23

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

Safely back at home, Morgana researches constructs, while Nick and Aroon visit the shrine of Mirna. Borumar and Jameth spend time recuperating.

Nick’s rumor gathering revealed the following:
Don’t go down the well… you went down the well?!?
Hell’s own Coachman connects all local dungeons to Rappan
Zelkor fell down the well, and didn’t come back
The Mouth of Doom has 3 levels and connects to Rappan
There’s a man in a red/orange cloak who will have dinner with travelers and be gone by morning
There’s a gold mine in a cavern with a manmade river in it (pretty sure that’s where we were last session)
The lost army of Zar still haunts the Forest of Hope
The local necromancer hasn’t been around in a bit.

Additionally Nick asks about other local spellcasters who might have created the golems down the well:
Glazarel - great local wizard who was going to build a tomb in the area
Koradel - Champion with a dragon, disappeared when the army of light was disbanded
Zelkor - worked for the army of light, disappeared
Priestess Akbeth - rumored to walk the halls of Rappan granting wishes and causing destruction in her wake.

Nick also hires Sinnoth as a reve/sage from the shrine of Mirna to manage things at his castle.

Morgana’s research reveals that Brass Golems are very powerful, healed and fueled by heat. Morgana then crafts a wand of dispel magic

Rappan Athuk: Borumar gives a hand

Session was played on 2/13/23

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

Emerging from the tunnels into a large room with a pool filling much of it, the party is attacked by some wraiths, that Koltic easily turns, and then by a trio of displacer beasts that quickly appear to be over a dozen! Combat is insanely unproductive as illusionary beasts keep being dispelled while the real ones keep doing some damage…. Until they run away…

As a Beholder drops from the ceiling above the pool!! Everyone runs in terror, and Morgana tosses a fireball at it, praying the central eye isn’t looking. It goes off with a bigger than expected BOOM, leaving nothing behind.

At the far end of the room is a steep cliff, and at the bottom are chunks of gold! Borumar quickly sets up some ropes, and heads down. On the far wall at the bottom of the cliff are 3 holes, each with a lever inside. As Lor’Koth begins picking out the biggest chunks of gold to collect, Borumar reaches into the middle hole, and grabs the level, and his hand is cut off. The screaming is loud, but Koltic at least stops the bleeding, even if he can’t replace the hand right away. Nick tests the left hole with his 10’ pole, and the end of it is chopped off. He then fashions a loop of rope on the end to grab the lever on the right, which opens a door in the wall.

Morgana uses her headband to check down the passage which opens up into a room with 4 brass statues. She uses DIspel Magic, which makes the statues grumpy, but also kills the illusion on the gold rocks. Not wanting to crawl back through the tunnels, Morgana uses her teleportation ritual to get everyone home.

Gains:
Kills: displacer beast, blast spore
Losses:

Rapan Athuk: Down the Well...

Session was played on 1/30/23

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)

Nick and Jameth find weapon masters and successfully train, while Aroon and his teacher don’t get along. Koltic sets up a brewery in the castle and gets some decent results after a couple week’s efforts.

Swinging by town for any news or rumors, but nothing worthwhile to be noted.

To the graveyard, the party finds 9 fresh plots, 1 empty grave with the headstone inscribed for Borumar “May He Rest Well”

Heading to the mausoleum with the key in hand, they see 8 gargoyles perched above the door. Lacking any real offensive ranged abilities, they keep their distance, and settle on exploiting the well, rather than face the gargoyles.

Setting up the rope, Blotto heads down first, followed by Borumar and Nick. At the bottom of the well is a watery middle and a pair of passages heading out to either direction, both slightly above the water. Stirges emerge from one! Nick gets bitten and ends up flailing around with it in the shallow water while Blotto and Borumar cut down the other.

The rest of the party make it down the rope, and as soon as the start heading down one of the passages, they feel an oppressive weight bearing down on them. Lor’Koth, Jameth, and Koltic are visibly shaken by the feeling, but Nick manages to convince everyone to press on a little further. Blotto makes a hat from a stirge body.

As they literally crawl through the passage, some rats start coming for the party. In such tight quarters even Blotto was feeling nervous about being unable to defend against the rats, but Koltic used his Book of Yg to summon snakes to come and eat the rats, which they did!

Gains:
Kills: Stirges, rats
Losses:

November '23 in review

Early in the month I came down with another damned cold. Time was additionally taken up by both holiday travel and a work trip down to DC. All in all it was not a super productive month for much of anything except getting a bunch of session reports written


Gaming
I ran out of time this month for the Stargrave Hope Eternal campaign, but did play a few sessions of the Savage Worlds Necessary Evil campaign, and in the Stonehell game my players managed to take the dwarven hermitage and capture the evil artifact Gloom Crown. I was DESPERATELY hoping they'd keep their word and give it to the dark elves, and the chaos that would cause, but they've locked it up and are looking for a way to destroy it.... So now I need to come up with a quest for them to do just that. 

My #Dungeon23 is about a week behind where I should be. I've run into a bit of a mental problem with the current level. The dungeon has reached hell, and with all the real hellish things going on in the world, I have no stomach for making the level as evil as I'd started out thinking I would. It's rather cartoonish at this point, and I need to rework some things to get it where I want it, so I'm behind. I will catch up soon, and plan on wrapping up the year and my 365th room on 12/31!

Miniatures
My focus this month was on a couple of bigger projects, so not as much was completed as in most months. What I did manage to complete this month were a big brown bear, a gnome on a turkey, and an orc sorceress.

In progress I’ve got a big red dragon, a lich on a throne, and a necromancer raising a zombie. The most progress has been on the dragon that I need to get done by the end of the year, but even that has been kinda slow going. It took a while and a couple of false starts to find the right base colors for the body and wings, but then in working on highlighting the scales I’m worried that it’ll stop looking like a red dragon. I’m pressing on at this point. I can always glaze over it with a rich vibrant red later to tone down the yellow-orange highlights if I decide I don’t like it in the end.

 

On top of these, I also have been pushing some greenstuff around. I have some old minis that were missing parts, and I wanted to get them whole, so I sculpted a new claw for the dire badger and new eyestalks for the carrion crawler. And because I mixed up too much, I also made 5 worm things that I didn’t have a specific plan for. After I thought that I could make them baby carrion crawlers, so I've been attempting to make tentacles for them, with some success.

Media
Star Trek Lower Decks Season 4
Loki
Nightmare Before Christmas
Great British Bakeoff
Quiz Lady
No Hard Feelings
Baby J Comedy Special
Jumanji 

Jumanji

Spider-Man Into the Spiderverse


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

Finish the dragon