Tower of the Archmage

Gamer Mental Disorders

2012-01-28T06:00:00.000-05:00

Among the rpg blog community there is a well known gamer affliction known as G-ADD or Gamer Attention Deficit Disorder. Most of us suffer from it, as we get distracted by this and that, switching topics, changing gears, and shifting lanes in our gaming lives. We tend to be easily distracted, responding to changes in topic quite quickly. How can you tell? Easy, look at what happened when D+D Next was announced. Look what happened when the AD+D reprints were announced. Over the last 24 hours the Keep on the Boarderlands playtest pics have been posted everywhere.

This is pretty normal, and matches the general population’s reactions to the news.

Another affliction that gets much less press is Gamer OCD. This can manifest in a wide variety of way, some more acceptable than others. Rewritten fantasy heartbreakers can be one. Posting about the same topic over and over again can be another. At the table it can manifest in odd rituals, or requirements that everyone sit at the same spot, or always having a 6 pack of mountain dew.

The reason I’m bringing this up is because I’m suffering from a bit of gamer OCD at the moment. After having the chance to play D+D for the first time in YEARS, and Stonehell to boot, I’ve had a hard time thinking about much else. You may have noticed. I’m pretty sure that Nickolas Mizer (the DM) has, considering I think I’ve sent him an e-mail pretty much everyday this week.

It definitely goes a long way to showing why blogs tend to be more DM written and focused. How much can you really post about your character? Not that much. Heck, you might have noticed that I actually haven’t posted about him directly, because I don’t want to be the guy who’s all “let me tell you about my character” because I know you don’t really care that much. I don’t really care so much, except that I want to play again.

In fact I want to play right now. Sadly as this is going live I have to do real work. Hopefully, with luck, I’ll get to play again soon. Maybe with enough recent play time under my belt I might be able to focus a little better on the things I’ve been planning on writing about.

Player Maps

2012-01-27T06:00:00.000-05:00

Player maps tend to only resemble the original DM's map vaguely, unless the PCs spend an awful lot of time mapping, rather than exploring. They also tend to include way more notes, as they don't tend to make a key for the map. However, rather than ruminate about them, I thought I'd show you an example - my own map made as a player!

During Nick the Pikes first foray into Stonehell, he was traveling along paths that had been trodden before by other members of the party, and so the pace, at least for the first half, was pretty quick. Nevertheless, Nick did his best to keep a basic map of where they went, and he continued that for his second delve. It helped that they followed the same path the second time, so he could recheck what he had previously remembered.

These are the scans of the original maps made while the delve was in progress.

I find I actually really enjoy making notes all over it.

This is the revised combined map made after the fact.

During the games I used a small spiral bound notebook to keep track of things like names, and to sketch the dungeon as we went along. None of the rooms are to scale, nor are the corridors, but the general layout is. I haven’t directly compared this to the maps in my copy of Stonehell, because I’m afraid that I’ll be too tempted to read up on the section I’m trying to explore, but I'm really curious how close it is...

23 Questions

2012-01-26T06:00:00.000-05:00

Zak Asked us people some questions. I wasn’t originally planning on doing it, especially since at the time this first started going around it had been years since I last played. Then I got to play...

1. If you had to pick a single invention in a game you were most proud of what would it be?

This is a tough one, as I’m more of an adaptor than an inventor. I think I’m going to go with The Witch of the Deep.

2. When was the last time you GMed?

1/7 I ran my 4e game with my cousins.

3. When was the last time you played?

1/24 Nick the Pike made his second venture into Stonehell on a Google+ game with Michael Curtis as a fellow player.

4. Give us a one-sentence pitch for an adventure you haven't run but would like to.

Red Hand of Doom - for Rules Cyclopedia D+D

5. What do you do while you wait for players to do things?

I usually take a sip of whatever I’m drinking.

6. What, if anything, do you eat while you play?

It varies. Chips, Naan bread, pizza, carrots, etc.

7. Do you find GMing physically exhausting?

More mentally exhausting, but so worth it!

8. What was the last interesting (to you, anyway) thing you remember a PC you were running doing?

Using a pit trap as a barricade against a horde of undead.

9. Do your players take your serious setting and make it unserious? Vice versa? Neither?

My players inevitably take my semi-serious setting and make it unserious.

10. What do you do with goblins?

Mostly bog normal. I need to work on this...

11. What was the last non-RPG thing you saw that you converted into game material (background, setting, trap, etc.)?

I converted a gun from Halo into a D&D weapon.

12. What's the funniest table moment you can remember right now?

Funny and frustrating. My friend was DMing a D+D game, and we were in a green city full of halflings who only spoke french. The session closed with my character yelling “No! No ‘Por quoi’! Just tell me where to find the damn wizard you short shit!!”

13. What was the last game book you looked at--aside from things you referenced in a game--why were you looking at it?

Vornheim, because I just bought it, and Loviator, because it just came in the mail.

14. Who's your idea of the perfect RPG illustrator?

Jeff Easley has always been my favorite RPG illustrator.

15. Does your game ever make your players genuinely afraid?

For their characters? Sometimes. Beyond that? No.

16. What was the best time you ever had running an adventure you didn't write? (If ever)

I think the best was probably The Sunless Citadel when 3.0 was released.

17. What would be the ideal physical set up to run a game in?

A holodeck. Aside from that, a long table with the players along the long edges, the DM at one end, books, art, terrain, and minis on the walls. Ideally, in a real castle.

18. If you had to think of the two most disparate games or game products that you like what would they be?

Nobilis and Tales from the Floating Vagabond

19. If you had to think of the most disparate influences overall on your game, what would they be?

Currently? Zac and Raggi on one side, and C.S. Lewis on the other. Chronicles of Vornia anyone?

20. As a GM, what kind of player do you want at your table?

Well-adjusted, Engaged, Mature - in that order.

21. What's a real life experience you've translated into game terms?

Bartering in the market and hiking.

22. Is there an RPG product that you wish existed but doesn't?

I want a DM-in-a-box. Google+ is pretty close.

23. Is there anyone you know who you talk about RPGs with who doesn't play? How do those conversations go?

Not really. I generally keep it separate from everything else. It isn’t hidden, I just don’t want to bore anyone.

Return to Stonehell

2012-01-25T10:22:00.000-05:00

After spending a pleasant evening recovering from his first delve into Stonehell, Nick the Pike hired Randolph the Herald to let it be known that he was looking for a few strong arms to accompany him into the dungeon. 4 men answered his call - Kaldue, a foreigner clad in chainmail and armed with spear and shield, Gygard in leather and shield, Sacco, Gygard's companion ad torch bearer, and Boarface, also in chainmail with a sword and defaced shield.* Nick hired them all, and also acquired 2 dogs from the Shrine of St. Guinefort.

Another outlander, an elf named Lemincanin (played by Michael Curtis) also expressed interest in seeing the famed halls of Stonehell for himself.

"Medwyn said he was going to come too, but I don't think he or Drak had finished recovering from the bender they went on when we got back last time. So we left without them. Now, the last time we went, like I think i told you before, Drak was looking for a talisman, and he offered a bounty of 500 gold for it. I figured, why not keep looking for it? So we retraced our steps from last time. At the door of the dance macabre we heard someone lurking behind us. It turned out to be an ugly orc. Now, I know, not really fair of me to call anyone ugly, as I'm only slightly more attractive than old Boarface over there!" Nick laughed.

"Was it just one orc?" Nick's companion asked.

"Yeah... odd that. I was told that the orcs and goblins of Stonehell are at war with each other, so seeing one alone was odd... but Lemincanin could speak it's language... a useful skill that. Anyway, he said his name was Bruck - or something close to that, and that going into the Quiet Halls was a bad idea, lots of skeletons and zombies. I said we should have brought a priest or two. Lemincanin agreed, which wasn't particularly helpful, but then told me that Bruck said that if we bring the orcs goblin heads that we can be friends, like Gruck. I don't know who Gruck is, but apparently he lives on the surface."

"After Bruck left us, we passed through the door of the dance macabre, and got back to the spot with the pit trap. It was easy to find because the spike that Drak put into the floor to help secure the rope was still there. We went on past the trap and into a room with a giant bull statue. It had an open mouth, and the room was scorched. Hugging the wall furthest away from the statue we moved through the room, and come to an open doorway. Beyond was a great room. Our torches barely making a dent into the darkness." Nick paused "There were whispers coming from inside... even Lemincanin's elf-ears couldn't make out what, if anything was being said..."

"Not wanting to press our luck, we moved on, and came to another doorway opening into a similar room. In fact it could even have been the same room. This time though I could see something. A body, or at least that's what I thought it was. So I lit a torch and tossed it into the room."

"Tossing that torch was perhaps not my wisest decision, but it was smarter than going in and seeing for myself! It was indeed a body on the floor, and it was only one of many, and they started to move! By St. Guinefort's scruff that was a bad spot to be in! And it turned out I was right, the two doorways did indeed lead to the same room. I yelled to everyone to head back to the pit trap and before we could get past the first doorway a pair of skeletons popped out. Luckily my investment in dogs paid off, and they and Boarface dropped them. Boarface took a hit, but it wasn't too bad. We managed to get on the far side of the pit before the skeletons, and the first one on it triggered the trap, and down he went."

"How many were there?"

By Nelson Daniel

"I didn't really have the chance to get an exact count, but we were outnumbered for sure. Probably around a score of them. We set up a shield wall with Kaldue and Gygard at the front, Lemincanin with his bow and me with my pike behind. Boarface and the dogs guarding our backs. It felt like forever as they kept pressing forward. The zombies behind did a lot of the work for us on the skeletons, pushing relentlessly forward, and pitching he bones down the pit. Some of the zombies did make it across the span, eventually shattering our shields, and then bringing Gygard down. By this point there were only 2 zombies left. One was busy eating Gygard, the other made to attack Kaldue. I grabbed the spare shield from Sacco, and pushed them both into the pit. They took Gygard with them..."

"After tending to our wounds we explored a little more and discovered an embalming chamber. We decided to grab what we could from it, and come back to town."

"So what are you going to do now?"

"Now? I'm going to finish this ale, and then another, and enjoy my time tonight with you! After that, I'm going to get ready for next time! We're going to need a priest or two if we're going to find that talisman and get the bounty!"

Hirelings generated with the ever useful Meatshields!.

Tower and Dungeon

2012-01-24T06:00:00.000-05:00

Here's a raw scan of a tower, a dungeon, and an underground river. I'm not real thrilled with it...

Sorry for the lazy post. I've come down with a cold, and it's kicking my ass.

Also, there's a new poll on the right about pictures from my actual play posts. Do you like pics from the table, pics from the module (or other online sources) or no pics?

First Foray Into Stonehell

2012-01-23T06:00:00.000-05:00

The Bumpkin's Squire was getting quickly out of control. Drak the Hood had arrived a short while ago, already drunk, and likely experiencing the highs of some sort of mind altering substance. At the bar Medwin the former henchman was lamenting the passing of his former employer by liberally spending the former employer's gold on rounds for the house. "Ed-*hick*-rick was a good boss! And I'm going to miss him. His body lies in Stonehell, as does my friend Lurgard. He was a good friend... Here's to Edrick and Lurgard! May they never rise from the dead!"

"What happened?" my inebriated buxom companion asked.

"Well, it all started about a week ago. The warlord I was working for was murdered. No great loss, but I was out of a job."

"Job?"

"I was a pikesman, but now I'm not. Anyway, with the last of my pay I made it here. Drak over there had some vision or something about a talisman in the Quiet Halls of Stonehell. Maybe it was the Silent Halls. Halls of Silence? Anyway, he and his henchman Marwick teamed up with some other guys, including Edrick and his henchmen, and Sampson, a priest of some type, his adopted sons and dogs, and of course me."

"Sounds like a big party!"

"It started that way. Barely a room into Stonehell some lizard dropped down, giving Sampson a bloody nose, and killing one of his sons. We brought the beast down. Well, really I brought it down. Sampson decided that a bloody nose was enough for him, and he left along with his son and dogs. Moving on we followed the directions that Drak's vision gave him. Next we bumped into some dwarves. They'd lost a companion and wanted to know if we'd seen him." Nicholas stopped to take a drink. "After that we ran into some skeletons."

"Which direction was that in?" she asked.

"We were still going straight." Nicholas smiled. "These skeletons were all smashed up. Past that we came to a set of big doors with a dance macabre on it. On the other side were these weird glowing beetles. We killed a couple of them, and sent the rest scurrying away. Keeping on we came to another room of skeletons, including this great big snake skeleton. We killed them all, but lost Lurgard, Medwin's friend. If you check tomorrow with the alchemist you can see the snakes skull in his shop."

"Continuing on we next stumbled on a pit trap. Edwin... well, Edwin fell.Oddly the trap didn't trigger for for Medwin, even though he went over it first. Drak, Medwin and I looked at each other and realized that our party of 11 was suddenly down to 3. We decided that we'd had enough, and now we're back."

"Rich?" She asked with a smile.

"Eh, more coin than I had when I got into town, but not enough to go nuts like those two." Drak was standing in the middle of the bar, his shirt off, and juggling several bottles. "He's going to end up naked somewhere by morning."

"Are you going back?"

"Not tonight.."

Friday night I got to play my first Google+ game, run by Nicholas Mizer using my netbook. It didn't work well, and I had to steal Virginia's Macbook Pro. The next day I went and and got a webcam for my desktop.

Can you tell I'm looking forward to my next chance to play?

Sunday Inspirational Image - Stonehell

2012-01-22T06:00:00.000-05:00

In honor of the fact that I got to play in Michael Curtis' Stonehell before I had the chance to run it for myself (play report coming soon) here is the iconic ogre faced doorway from the antechamber to hell.

Thoughts on Thunderspire

2012-01-20T06:00:00.000-05:00

As we wrapped up Thunderspire I have a few thoughts on how things went overall.

Minions
We all missed minions. It’s a little weird actually, but the one-hit wonders actually made some battles a lot of fun, especially when you can throw hoards of the things at them! Summoned skeletons? Bam - minions! Goblins coming out of the woodwork? Bam - minions! Watching them get mowed down by the PCs is actually a lot of fun. Watching them gang up on the PCs and bring the hurt? Also lots of fun.

In the last session I used the Return of Kalarel encounter which included minion versions of the PCs. I decided that running them as standard minions wasn’t going to fit the encounter quite right, so I made them 2 hit minions. It worked out well, and it threw the players for a bit of a loop.

Encounter Builds
Some of the encounter builds seemed really odd, especially the last bunch. I don’t get why Norkers (3rd level) were included in level 6-8 encounters. They didn’t serve any really useful purpose, except in the roll that minions would have better served in. As it was, they ended up just making the players expend a few actions to take them down. It’s bad when to hit them, the players needed to not roll a 1. Not only were they time wasters, they didn’t really have any connection to the theme of the adventure or the series.

You know what would have worked, given that this is the Orcus series? Undead! There was a startling lack of undead in this adventure given the overarching theme.

Storyline/Plot
As written, rather crappy. As modified by Myrhdraak, about on line with Bioware games (Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, etc.). Rather railroady, with lots of extraneous moving parts. There were a lot of extra NPCs that didn’t really get a chance to get any stage time. Part of this was my fault, and part of it my players, but this play style seems to work for us, especially given out very limited playtime.

I also appreciate the work of Myrhdraak in tying the adventures together, not just in making them all Orcus themed, but actually making them work as an adventure path.

Overall
I would give Thunderspire a C/C- grade. It had a lot of potential, but it never really brings it all together in a really comfortable and coherent way. The grade goes down even further if you don’t use the Orcus conversion.

On the other hand, it was still fun, and my players seemed to really enjoy themselves.

It’s likely to be a while before we get to game again, which will give me a chance to really vet the next adventure and make sure there aren’t any crazy things going on like the norkers. I’m looking forward to it the most of the H adventure series, as I think it’s probably the most gonzo and old school of the set. More on that later...

Thunderspire Session 6 part 2

2012-01-19T06:00:00.000-05:00

This session was played on 1/7.

Cory ran:
Dietrich the Human Knight
Ander the Halfling Rogue

Alex ran:
Barakas the Tiefling Warlord
Chan Lee the Human Monk

The death of the demonic gnoll freed the slaves from the ritual, and they collapsed to the ground drained and unconscious. After making sure they were alive, the party looted the chamber, finding an odd silver key in the shape of a minotaur's collarbone, and numerous letters. Returning to the Seven Pillared Hall, they brought the slaves to the temple for looking after. They then spent the next day resting up, and transferring the enchantment from Ander’s dagger to his rapier. They also read through the notes from the demonic gnoll, which told them that Paldemar had the matching silver collarbone key, and that both would unlocked the Shrine of Undeath! In addition, the key seemed to act as a compass, pointing the way.

Following the key’s directions brought the adventurers to the very door of the hidden Shrine of Undeath. Entering a large chamber, full of appropriately atmospheric smoke, shadows, and dark mirrors, they heard a laugh coming from their bag of holding. Opening it up and pulling out the head of Kalarel, he tells them of their doom, and then the head is yanked from their grip and a new body forms below it, and stepping from the mirrors are 5 shadowy forms that resolve themselves into the appearances of the party - and of Ulrick the wizard! The fight was tough, as Kalarel’s shadowy form seemed to resist being torn asunder once again. The companions’ shadow-selves were dispersed several times before they focused on Kalarel, who kept re-summoning them, but eventually he, and the shadow-selves were drawn back through the mirrors.

Passing beyond that chamber a teleportation circle whisked them into the Shrine of Undeath itself! Shadowy walls hid strange goblin-like creatures, and hideous columns. The creatures were cut down rapidly, but the columns blasting the characters unrelentingly was the real challenge. The only way out of the chamber seemed to be another keyed portal, which they took very quickly...

Dropping them into a much quieter area. Simple unadorned columns held the ceiling aloft, and multiple doors sealed them in. Opening the large doors revealed a similar columned chamber holding a giant bronze minotaur - one of the same type of wardens that both protects the Seven Pillared Hall, as well as the ones down in the sea of shadows! This one however seemed much more interested in attacking. It was slightly hemmed in by the tight confines of the room, and the adventurers used that to their advantage, bringing it down in 2 rounds. This was just in time as a pair of the goblin creatures from before, and a pair of robed cultists came to investigate. Neither of the goblins lasted very long. Ander ended up on one side of the room with a cultist and goblin while the other two dealt with the rest of the party. Each set was taken down quickly and without much pain, though the cultists ripping their own faces off was a bit disconcerting.

Investigating around they discovered a library full of blank books, and a laboratory with some sort of large demonic machine, and a short passage to another closed door.... avoiding the machine, the party pressed on. Opening the door they found... a small chamber with 3 more doors, one on each wall.

Taking the door to the right (north) they discovered another Bronze Warder, which also moved to attack. This time they couldn’t take it down before reinforcements arrived in the form of 2 cultists, 3 more goblin things, and Paldemar himself! The battle raged, with the Bronze Warden dropping first, then the goblin things, then the cultists.

Paldemar spent the whole time blasting the adventurers with amazingly powerful magics. Paldemar’s companions, on the other hand, found themselves less than effective. Chan in particular, deciding that Paldamar needed to be brought down, bug finding himself at the wrong end of the battle, performed an epic combination of flips, jumps, and twists that managed to hit everything between him and his target, netting over 200 points of damage total! As the last of his allies were being brought low, Paldemar found himself facing the monk. Drawing Chan away from his companions, Paldemar avoided a solid blow, and became invisible. Losing his nerve, Chan decided to wait until his friends could back him up. Paldemar decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and fled the Shrine of Undeath.

The adventurers then destroyed the Shrine, the demonic machine, and claimed a ritual book, a stash of gold, and a map as their treasure.

SOPA

2012-01-18T11:26:00.001-05:00

"Quick! Stop it!" Feris yelled.

The darkness shrouded beast lunged toward the gate of the town, smashing into it hard. The wood strained under its impact. Nimble threw daggers at it, but they passed right through the beast and lodged into the gate. "Allianora?!?"

The golden haired cleric lifted her holy symbol "Creature of Evil I banish thee!"

The thing turned, and a malevolent laugh issued from the darkness. "You can not stop me." An arm stretched out and a glob of darkness enveloped Allainora.

"NOOO!" Feris aimed his wand at the creature, and a forked bolt of lightning struck what was within the darkness.The inky darkness folded back away from the blast, then pushed outward, traveling back along the line of electricity, and wrapping Feris in darkness and silence.

Rathgar charged forward...

SOPA

Armour Class: 5
Hit Dice: 100+
Move: too fast
Attacks: 1 (special)
Damage: Special
No. Appearing: 1
Save As: Lobbyist 20
Morale: 12
Treasure Type: Nil
Alignment: Evil
XP Value: The internet

Sunday Inspirational Image Fiery Moon

2012-01-15T11:49:00.001-05:00

How do you know the world is ending? The moon burns!

from Universetoday.com

Splinter-rod

2012-01-14T10:27:00.002-05:00

“RUN!” Rathgar yelled, pushing his companions away from the door. The strange turtle-like creature pointed the purple spiked thing toward the fleeing adventurers, and a blast of glowing darts zipped down the hall. Rathgar turned at the last moment, bringing his shield up. Most of the darts impacted on the shield, but two seemed to wrap around the edge, and impact solidly into his shoulder.

“Keep going!” he yelled as he turned to follow. Just then the darts popped, the force knocking him sideways against the wall. The creature made a noise like a laugh, and waved the rod above his head.

Splinter-rod
This magical device fires a burst of magical darts. The darts cause a single point of damage plus one point for every 2 above the minimum die roll needed to hit. In addition, the following round, the target takes an additional 1d3 points of damage for every point suffered the previous round from the Splinter-rod as the darts explode.

Splinter-rods may be used as a melee weapon, inflicting 1d4 points of damage. Spinter-rods will be found with 2d6 charges.

Thunderspire Session 6 part 1

2012-01-13T06:00:00.000-05:00

This session was played on 1/7.

Cory ran:
Dietrich the Human Knight
Ander the Halfling Rogue

Alex ran:
Barakas the Tiefling Warlord
Chan Lee the Human Monk

The shadow dragon was dead, and the doors to the Well of Shadow’s Inner Sanctum were open. The companions made their way through the doors, and down the corridor. A dark chanting could be heard from the far end of the corridor. An acrid smoke burned at their eyes and noses. The corridor ended in a multi-layered chamber. Over the entire structure a giant idol of Orcus loomed. Within was a demonic winged gnoll chanting from a book, and sucking the life energy from the final 2 missing citizens of Winterhaven. Protecting the dark being was a large demon and three lesser demons, all of the type they’d faced before. In addition, a minotaur skeleton with a giant double bladed axe stood near the door.

The companions, battered from their previous encounter, were very focused, and took down the skeleton with extreme prejudice. Due to their highly coordinated efforts, the skeleton made a single swing before it was pulverized on the floor. The demons in the room barely had a chance to move before the companions before they had switched to their next target, the big demon in the room. This did allow the little demons to move into some tactically strong positions, which did put some hurt on the companions. However they remained committed to their strategy, in spite of the damage that they were soaking up. All the while the demonic gnoll continued to blast and curse the adventurers, while maintaining the ritual.

The big demon was near death, but the accumulated damage the companions had taken from numerous solid hits was beginning to take its toll, and the demons could smell (and taste) blood! In fact, with a succession of quick hard hits, Dietrich dropped, followed quickly by Barakas. Some quick thinking by Ander and Chan got them both back on their feet. Then Ander dropped and was revived. Dietrich fell twice more before Chan also fell. Then it was Ander’s turn again followed in quick succession by Dietrich, Chan, and finally Ander again. By this point the demons had been destroyed, and the companions turned to the demonic gnoll. Using his speed, and the terrain to his advantage he kept the party at range. While this allowed him survive a bit longer, he was eventually overcome by the party.

This was a tough fight for my players. They went into it with only a short rest after having completed the Well of Demons challenges, including the shadow dragon. Their focused fire strategy worked out pretty well, except that I was rolling slightly above average with both my hits and damage, resulting in characters falling unconscious a total of 10 times!!

The final tally for the party at the end of the fight:
Dietrich - 14 hp and 5 remaining healing surges - dropped unconscious 4 times
Ander - 13 hp and no healing surges - dropped 3 times
Chan - 13 hp and 1 healing surge - dropped twice
Barakas - 14 hp and 5 surges - dropped once.

Also of note was the use of d30 rolls. 2 were used on this fight. Ander the rogue got a 30. Chan the monk got a 1. Both rolls were used for damage.

Finally the number 34 came up a lot this fight, for both attack and damage totals.

Obligatory 5e post

2012-01-10T06:00:00.002-05:00

There’s some big news in the gaming world. Big enough to hit The New York Times and Forbes. Honestly, if anyone was talking about anything else on G+ today, I didn’t see it.

So, 5th edition. Considering the vast numbers who were unhappy with 4e and switched to Pathfinder, earlier editions, or different games all together, this is probably a good choice for WotC. If they do it right (and it seems at this stage, with the open playtest, they are on the right track) then it could be more than 5th edition - it could be a unifying edition. Maybe even Dungeons and Dragons Ultimate Edition?

Is that a pie in the sky hope? Maybe. Probably. Yet I remember when White Wolf's Vampire was the game that everyone was talking about, when AD&D 2e was a bloated system that was rapidly becoming an irrelevant dinosaur, and the end of TSR meant the end of D&D.

I remember when that changed. I remember all the promise that 3e held.

It's been a long time since then, and things are different now. Things are more fractured, and WotC isn't battling an entirely different game, they're battling their own progeny. Between Pathfinder and the OSR getting everyone to agree, making everyone happy will be impossible.

But maybe... just maybe... Type V may be able to bridge the divide.

I think if they follow the idea Jason of the Wasted Lands (and others) expressed, with a Core D&D system, and Advanced options that can be easily grafted on then WotC will be on the right track

Going to a weird place...

2012-01-09T06:00:00.002-05:00

I placed an order with Noble Knight games for something I've been wanting for a long time...

The Players Secrets to Endier

Oh, yeah, and Vornheim!

I haven't gotten very far into it yet, but Wow...

Sunday Inspirational Image - Moonsiren

2012-01-08T09:19:00.000-05:00

Via http://beautiful-portals.tumblr.com/post/14837603215

Thunderspire Session 4 pt. 2 & 5

2012-01-07T06:00:00.002-05:00

I’m actually a bit behind on my session reports. I still owe you part 2 of session 4 (from 11/12), and all of session 5 (from 12/21). Because we should be finishing up Thunderspire today, I’m going to give a quick recap of the events.

After evading the shadow dragon again, and sending the gnoll army down into a deep crevasse. Using the clues they discovered, they found the path to the Well of Demons. They confronted and defeated several more groups of gnolls in the outer rooms, as well as finding and freeing the giant boar that they’ve been keeping their eyes open for. Making their way into the central portion of the Well they encountered 3 ghosts that told them how the Well works, and what items they needed to collect.

Searching around they barely managed to survive a chamber of pillars with magic mirrors, almost becoming forever trapped in an oubliette. Then they fought some demons in a room full of acidic blood while being whipped by giant minotaur statues. Finally they retried the last item from a series of chambers with demons and demonic pillars that attacked them with a variety of powers.

With all the focuses needed to open the inner sanctum doors, the adventurers place the items, and the door begins to slowly open. It also summons the final guardian - the shadow dragon!! In a running battle that spans the entire inner area of the Well the adventurers defeat the dragon for the 3rd and final time!

The great doors open, and within a demonic gnoll leads a foul ritual that seems to be draining the life out of the final two slaves taken from Winterhaven.

I’m really looking forward to today’s game, and not just because we’ll be wrapping up Thunderspire. Even more than that I’m really looking forward to is the return of Kalarel - an encounter you’ll only know about if you downloaded the Myrhdraak H2 Orcus Conversion!

Qualta Blades

2012-01-06T06:00:00.003-05:00

The hobgoblins formed a battle line, shields interlocked and spears pointed toward the adventurers. Standing in the center of the line, a chief wielding a fat broadsword. “Surrender!” he called out.

Rathgar flexed his neck before glancing back at his companions. “There’s only a dozen of them.”

“And I don’t fancy surrendering to hobgoblins” Nimble added.

“We could run” Feris offered.

“They’d catch us” Allianora pointed out.

“Right” Rathgar turned back toward the hobgoblins and yelled “We accept your surrender!”

The chief grunted and pointed the sword directly at Rathgar. The blade seemed to split down the middle of its length, each half of the blade sliding to the end of the crossguard. With a loud crack a a bolt of energy shot from between the blades straight at Rathgar.

Rathgar fell backward, pinning Nimble beneath him.

Qualta Blade

These rare blades were once forged in great numbers by hobgoblins, though the art of their making is thought lost. Today they can still be found in the hands of hobgoblin chiefs, handed down through the generations, and those who have defeated them.

Qualta Blades are magical broadswords (+1 to +3) that can also discharge a powerful magical bolt. In order to use the blast power, the sword must be reconfigured. This takes 1 round. To switch back also requires 1 round. Using the blade as a sword while configured to blast incurs a -2 to attack rolls (no magical bonus). The blast power is a ranged attack that deals 1d12 points of damage, and stuns the victim for 1 round on a successful hit. On an attack roll of 1 or 20 with a blast attack the blade will automatically revert to the sword configuration not be able to use it's blast attack for 24 hours.

There and Back Again

2012-01-05T06:00:00.001-05:00

On Christmas I finished reading The Hobbit. No, not for the first time, but yes, because of the upcoming movies. The last time I read it I was in Jr. High or High School, and there was much I had forgotten. While I remember that it was much more of a children’s story than The Lord of the Rings, I didn’t remember to what extent. For example the trolls named Bill, Burt, and Tom felt very out of place in the Middle Earth of LotR. I had forgotten how they were characterized, and how vastly different they were than the cave troll from Moria.

I also didn’t remember to what extent Bilbo continuously saved the dwarves. The entire middle section of the book seemed to be a series of the company getting into trouble, the dwarves getting captured, and Bilbo rescuing them. This happens with the goblins, the spiders, and the wood elves. It probably would have happened with the wargs, but instead of Bilbo it’s the great eagles. It seemed odd that a company of 12 dwarves, a hobbit burglar, and a wizard (even if most of them were level 1-3) could get into such trouble, and that only the burglar could get them all out of it!

I did remember that for the most part the dwarves weren’t given a whole lot of personality. Beyond Thorin, Kili, Fili, and Bombur the dwarves get very little face time and no real personality! I have the feeling that even with 2 movies there will be a limit as to how far the personalities of 12 dwarves can be developed, especially as they’ll be sharing so much screen time with Bilbo and Gandalf. However, judging by the actors chosen by Peter Jackson, and the costumes they wear, a lot of their personality has already been developed. Rather amazing how much we take in visually, and how different these dwarves are as compared to Gimli.

Of course, now I have to wait an entire year to see it on the big screen, and even then only the first half!

Map - Monty’s Hall

2012-01-04T08:39:00.000-05:00

A small, one-hour dungeon. I drew this during the final episode of season 4 of The Closer. I don’t *think* the show had any impact on the map... A different show, one I haven’t seen in years does seem to have exerted it’s influence.

Monty’s Hall

The first three doors of the hall are all unlocked, but only one set my be open at a time. Whichever doors are not opened will magically remain closed. When the adventurers try to open any other door within, roll a d3. The door may only be opened if the number matches the door used to enter the dungeon.

The map was drawn with a fine black pen (0.5) in a graph paper composition notebook. Nothing fancy, like a moleskin book with parchment paper, just a cheap one I picked up at the college bookstore. I did use Google’s creative kit to get rid of the graph lines as best I could.

I’m not happy with the two tombs on the middle level. I need to work on that.

Looking Ahead

2012-01-01T06:00:00.001-05:00

As 2011 has come to a close, and 2012 begins its relentless drive toward 2013 it is time to review the State of the Blog.

2011 was, on the whole, a pretty good year for the Tower of the Archmage. I hosted a blog carnival, participated in several others, made it to pundit level and am well on my way to gaining another level. I participated in several contests, and even hosted one here.

There have also been a few things that have stalled out do to a variety of factors. The biggest two were switching jobs and working on my Masters Degree. While the job and school work continue, I’d like to get back to some of the projects I put aside. Starport Saturdays, Tim Curry Tuesdays, and my Megadungeon are all at the top of the list.

This year did see me return to making terrain. I built and painted several ruins as well as the fieldstone bell tower. I’m planning on continuing that trend, and making more items for my terrain table. I’m at this point seriously considering a small village to go with the bell tower and ruins that I already have, but that isn’t set in stone, or even cast bricks.

Related to terrain building is painting minis and sculpting. I didn’t paint a single mini in 2011, and I haven’t sculpted anything in years. The sculpting isn’t a big deal because I have no lack of minis to paint, however I have a dragon mini that has lost the top of its head. There is another dragon that I’ve lost its arm. I have no idea where either part is. Since I want to paint them, I need them built. To built them I need to replace the missing bits. To replace the missing bits, without buying new minis, I need to sculpt. Therefore, sculpting is back on the agenda!

I will continue to write reviews, actual play reports, monsters, magic items, and to share links and maps, and all of the other things that I (ir)regularly post. I have a small stack of products to review, and shelves of gaming material to mine for ideas. And in case I run out of ideas or inspiration there are always the random blog post generators.

What this means for you, dear reader, is that there is lots more to come! Thank you for sticking with me, and I hope you continue to enjoy the ride!

Looking Back - Top 10

2011-12-31T15:42:00.000-05:00

In chronological order, these are my personal top 10 posts of 2011. They are't necessarily highly viewed, highly commented on posts, they're just my favorites.

Dogs in the Dungeon

Old Man of the Dungeon

Wheaton’s Vicious Cockpunch of Furious Anger

O is for Orphan

Megadungeon Binder

Tim Curry Tuesdays - Darkness

Wire Wolf

Fey Thoughts

On Dragons

Zombie Mice

I hope you all enjoy what remains of 2011, and hope that 2012 brings you peace, and prosperity, and gaming!

Looking Back - The Stats

2011-12-31T12:43:00.000-05:00

Today, as 2011 comes to a close, I want to take a moment and see where things stand.

As of now, I have had over 131,000 page views, with December of this year being my best ever with almost 14,000 page views. I have 144 followers and 215 subscribers according to Google reader. I'm sure there is some (a lot of) overlap, but I have no way of determining what it is.

The people that come to my blog do so from a wide variety of places around the world.

United States 71,311
United Kingdom 11,051
Canada 6,917
Germany 4,047
Australia 3,187
Italy 1,629
France 1,271
Spain 998
Brazil 929
Russia 904

Most of you use Firefox, but a shocking number of you use IE.

Firefox 51,773 (39%)
Internet Explorer 34,981 (26%)
Chrome 23,836 (18%)
Safari 13,778 (10%)
Opera 2,282 (1%)
Mobile Safari 1,651 (1%)
Mobile 514 (-1%)
chromeframe 380 (-1%)
(FlipboardProxy 307 (-1%)
OneRiot 138 (-1%)

Readers find my blog with the following search terms:

pennywise 4,245
dragons 1,176
end of the world 490
pennywise the clown 426
dungeons and dragons 166
fey corgi 152
sharkbear 107
bastard sword 82
queen 79
book name generator 65

This flows rather well into my most viewed posts:

Tim Curry Tuesdays - Pennywise
Jun 28, 2011 10,129 Pageviews
This is Dungeons and Dragons!
May 13, 2010, 1 comment 3,678 Pageviews
Racial Weapon Styles: Humans, Dwarves, Elves
Mar 19, 2010, 4 comments 2,071 Pageviews
WotC-Fail - Girls & D&D
Jun 17, 2011, 13 comments 1,486 Pageviews
On Dragons
Nov 22, 2011, 7 comments 1,329 Pageviews
Off for the weekend
Aug 26, 2011, 1 comment 912 Pageviews
The Best D&D Race is the...
Feb 26, 2010, 4 comments 736 Pageviews
Busy week = Lazy Post
Dec 12, 2011, 1 comment 662 Pageviews
Racial Weapon Styles: Dragonborn
Mar 30, 2010, 2 comments 469 Pageviews
The Book of Vile Darkness: The Movie!!
Jul 20, 2011, 2 comments 455 Pageviews

Counting this post and the one that will follow, I have posted 328 posts this year. My most commented on post was the Blog Carnival post (19), and then the WotC-Fail - Girls & D&D (13).

As an aside, I hate how blogger messes up the ampersand

Phenomenal Cosmic Power!

2011-12-30T06:00:00.003-05:00

My favorite character class has always been the Magic-User/Wizard/Mage. This is a confession which should cause no surprise. The ability to warp space, time, and the very fabric of the universe, even if only in small ways, has always been way cooler than any sword swinger, back stabber, or prayer slinger.

Because of this I’m always on the lookout for things that can make a wizard, especially a low level one, a little more fantastic, and a little less squishy.

Bat of Ancient Vaults created the Staff of the Arcane. It’s a fairly potent item, yet not wildly powerful. It’s just the sort of thing that you could drop into the hands of a 3rd level wizard.

If you’re worried that it’s too powerful, you could always limit the level of spells stored within it, or cause the use of the knockdown power to use up one of the spellslots (limiting it to 3/day)

In a similar vein as Shields Shall Be Splintered, Telecanter of Telecanter’s Receding Rules suggests the possibility of Wands Shall Be Broken. Now, wands and staffs (in most campaigns) are orders of magnitude rarer than shields, so this is a rule that would see little use, but it could be worth it if it’s an almost certain instant death sort of situation.

Depending on what rules you use to create magic items, the requirements can sometimes be silly. For example, creating a fully charged wand would require casting the same spell 99 times all at the same time. Grognardling had an idea that would address that issue, at least to a certain extent.

Personally I don’t see why item creation can’t take an extended period of time, rather than involving dozens of casters, but his rule idea isn’t a bad one.

Of course not every mage is a paragon of virtue. There is a certain temptation when you can hurl fireballs and raise walls of ice to ignore such trifling concerns as honor or ethics or social norms. It isn’t even entirely an internal temptation, as there are lots of beings (mortal and otherwise) that would be happy to see the spellslinger walk the dark side. The Grimoires of the Pact Insidious are a tool to aid a wizard down that dark path.

Fieldstone Bell Tower Finished!

2011-12-29T06:00:00.002-05:00

While I was distracted by finishing the semester and then the holiday season, I finally got back to it yesterday.

with flash

without flash

slightly different angle

RPG Loot!

2011-12-27T09:39:00.000-05:00

The only gamer loot I received from Santa was this awesome t-shirt.

Yesterday however, we stopped at the used book store, I found some unexpected goodies. First up is the AD+D Dungeon Builders Guidebook and the Star Wars Game Master Handbook. I've been wanting the Dungeon Builders Guidebook for a while now, especially as I want to get back to working on my megadungeon. As for the GM's Handbook? I just enjoy reading them, and I like the d6 system.

The really amazing finds of the day were Mutant Future and Sorcery and Super Science!

I never expected to find either of these in a bookstore!

Sunday Inspirational Image - Winter Warlock

2011-12-25T06:00:00.004-05:00

Merry Christmas!

When the nights grow long...

2011-12-24T13:36:00.000-05:00

The adventurers rode slowly toward the snow covered town, the sound of drums and horns could be heard well before they reached the gate. The town had the air of a festival, with musicians, food vendors, and seemingly the entire populace lining the main street through the town, looking in the direction of the far gate. The last rays of the sun leaving pastel streaks across the clouds.

“This feels odd” Allianora said, leaning toward her companions.

“What do you mean?” Rathgar asked. “It’s a solstice festival.”

“No, Allianora’s right” Nimble said. “Look around... look at the people.”

“No one is smiling.” Feris noted.

“Right” Nimble nodded “Whatever’s going on, these people aren’t happy about it.”

As twilight faded into darkness, the drumming swelled. A knee deep ground fog began to roil into the town from the far gate, and the crowd’s nervous energy seemed to spike. Flickering torches appeared beyond the gate as demonic beings lurched their way into the town. Each being was different, yet all were covered in wild fur, with bestial mouths and tongues that perpetually hung out of their mouths. All had horns, some straight, some curved, some with multiple sets. They carried whips, staffs, torches, chains, and leather sacks.

The children of the town were pushed to the front of the crowd, and the demons began to sniff, touch, lick, and taunt them. The adventurers watched as a boy was pulled into the middle of the street, and thrown to the ground. He was kicked by several of the beasts as they walked by, and whipped by another before he scrambled back toward the crowd. A little further long a little girl was dragged by her hair screaming away from the crowd. Two of the beasts shoved her into one of the leather sacks, cinching it tight before giving it a few jabs.

Allianora stared horrified at the spectacle, seemingly frozen as the demons approached the adventurers. Rathgar fingered the hilt of his sword, and Feris subtly drew a wand and hid it beneath his cloak. Feris’ horse stood alone, tied to a post, but no one noticed.

Snapping out of her horror, Allianora slipped from her horse, pushed through the crowd, and stood before the creatures. The entire town paused. The crowd seemed to hold it’s breath, and fear bordered on terror. The demons waited, and looked at her, their tongues lolling.

"Let that child go."

"Why?" the demon hissed.

"I'll give you this" in her outstretched hand was an orange.

I hope you've all been nice this year...

I need a hero

2011-12-22T06:00:00.001-05:00

It’s rare to find big damn heroes in classic Dungeons and Dragons. The entire game is designed around tomb robbers. Occasionally players will take on “altruistic” causes, but this usually involves their being able to keep a percentage of treasure that they find (aka loot). In my limited experience playing classic D+D, my players tended toward chaotic good. More than happy to do good deeds, but generally wanting something for it. When I got to play, I usually played in that same moral vein. Good people, but not generally heroes.

During my 2e days I know that no matter what their character sheets said, my players tended toward neutral evil. On the rare chances I got to play I usually ran either an elven bladesinger or a paladin. I was usually the only good character in the party, and while I was trying to emulate the high fantasy hero that was so often depicted in the art of 2e, both my party and my DM usually failed to support me in this. My fellow players by being NE jerks, and my DMs by not providing any sort of situation in which to be actually heroic. They tended to be subscribers to the school of thought that believed Lawful Good = Lawful Stupid. This is not a great situation for the player of a paladin to find himself.

With the introduction of 3e and d20 Star Wars I began to see more heroic acts, though not too often. Like back in my classic D+D days the general alignment had shifted back toward good, if not lawful. Being able to play Jedi in Star Wars certainly helped with that. There’s just something about the lure of lightsabers that proved impossible to resist.

4e, and it’s lack of emphasis on collecting treasure, seems a much more heroic game, which does cheapen the whole point of heroism in a fantasy rpg. It’s one thing when you’re playing a superhero game, but another when playing D+D.

Is looking for a hero in Dungeons and Dragons a fool's quest? Maybe, but then where else do you find a hero, but on a fool's quest?

This post brought to you by the RPG Blog Carnival, hosted this month by Runeslinger of Casting Shadows. The topic is Heroes.

Random Encounters

2011-12-21T08:20:00.000-05:00

Today I'll be most likely finishing up Thunderspire with my cousins, however I also just learned that in-laws will most likely be stopping for the night on their way to where we'll all be spending Christmas.

The house is a mess.

Anyone have a house elf I could borrow?

What's your holiday gaming wish?

2011-12-19T06:00:00.003-05:00

There's a new poll - Are you asking Santa for any gaming stuff this year?

I am! I want Vornheim.

Santa won't bring Carcosa - so don't ask!!

What's on your list?

Sunday Inspirational Image - Winter Fiends

2011-12-18T06:00:00.003-05:00

Contest Results

2011-12-17T15:54:00.000-05:00

And the winner of the terrainsgiving day contest is...

Niccodaemus of Shatterworld for his entry The Stolen Child

AND

Tonybro001 of roleplay-geek for his Ruined Tower of the Archmage

AND

Tim of Gothridge Manor for his entry Sleestak in Black

Why pick just one?

Drop me a line at davidbrawley at gmail dot com and we'll see if we can't get the ruins to you before the holiday!

Now, because Tonybro is in the UK, getting a tower over to him will be a touch expensive, so an alternate but thematically appropriate prize will be arranged...

Déjà vu! Magic Mushrooms

2011-12-16T06:00:00.030-05:00

"Hey human... grab a seat. See those eggs over there? Why don't you fry them up, they go great with mushrooms."

Nimble froze. His foot oozed slowly into the soggy moss. Turning his head slightly he saw a couple of eggs and a frying pan next to a small stack of firewood. Just a little bit away was a patch of brownish spotted mushrooms. Nimble felt himself relax and stepped over to the frying pan, and pulled the flint and steel from his pocket. A mushroom omelet and a soft bit of moss sounded perfect.

Just as he bent down a small vial arched overhead, landing amidst the mushrooms, and setting them alight. Screaming echoed through the swamp as Rathgar grabbed Nimble from behind and jerked him away from the conflagration.

Magic Mushroom
Magical Plant
Armour Class: 10
Hit Dice: 1+
Move: 0
Attacks: 1 (special)
Damage: Special
No. Appearing: 1
Save As: M1
Morale: 11
Treasure Type: C
Alignment: Neutral
XP Value: 25

Each patch of Magic Mushrooms is a single entity with a powerful charm ability. Any intelligent creature that comes within range will be encouraged to consume a portion of the mushroom patch. While both tasty and nutritious, the mushrooms are highly poisonous. Anyone consuming even a single mushroom, and failing a saving throw versus poison will fall into a deep sleep after 2d6 minutes from which they will be unable to wake themselves. The victims of this poison, presuming their bodies are left unmolested are covered in the spores of the creature, and will be killed after approximately 24 hours, and over the course of about a week their body will be entirely consumed. Larger (and thus more experienced) Magic Mushroom patches will often have their victim lay the trap for the next victim.

Magic Mushrooms was originally published 1/27/10 and is my entry for The Deja Vu Blogfest.

Gaming Music - Queen

2011-12-14T06:00:00.001-05:00

In spite of the fact the music plays only a limited role in my games, it does a fair job of serving as inspiration. Now, unlike most of you, I missed the whole punk & heavy metal influence. I didn’t really begin to expand my music tastes beyond classic rock and classical until high school.

Despite this, there has always been one band that I feel is very inspirational for Dungeons and Dragons, a band that embodies the attitude and character of players, characters, and DMs:

Hear me out! I’m not just a crazy person*!

They are a loud and flamboyant band, full of energy, style and bravado. This matches characters really well, and players too. Who else would spend their time digging around old tombs full of nasty things in hopes of getting some gold?

Also, look at the lyrics (click through for the youtube video of each):

“Adventure seeker on an empty street,
Just an alley creeper, light on his feet
A young fighter screaming, with no time for doubt
With the pain and anger can't see a way out,
It ain't much I'm asking, I heard him say,
Gotta find me a future move out of my way,
I want it all, I want it all, I want it all, and I want it now,”

“Here we are, Born to be kings,
We're the princes of the universe,
Here we belong, Fighting to survive,
In a world with the darkest powers,”

“Here I am, I'm the master of your destiny,
I am the one the only one, I am the god of kingdom come,
Gimme the prize, just gimme the prize,
Give me your kings, let me squeenze them in my hands,
Your puny princes,
Your so-called leaders of your land,
I'll eat them whole before I'm done,
The battle's fought and the game is won,”

While Queen might not be perfect for the gaming table, it can certainly be inspirational. I know it has been for me!

*note - I do not deny being crazy!

Busy week = Lazy Post

2011-12-12T06:00:00.001-05:00

I'm afraid it's crazy busy this week, so don't expect to see much this week.

Next week on the other hand... well, next week is the week before Christmas. How the hell did that happen? I need another week.

Is there a ritual for that?

Sunday Inspirational Image - Dungeonmorph Dice

2011-12-11T06:00:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I got a package in the mail... One that I've been waiting a long time to get!

My Dungeonmorph Dice arrived!!

And this is the first dungeon I rolled!

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but these are big dice, about the size of casino dice.

On a related note, has anyone heard from Dyson Logos lately?

Ruin Giveaway Contest - LAST DAY TO ENTER

2011-12-10T07:06:00.001-05:00

This is it, your last day to enter! And by entering, you can win this! All you have to do is follow the instructions below... And to clarify, the encounter can be for any system or systemless, and it can be for any setting! Just make up something cool!!

This could be yours!

What do you need to do to win this fabulous piece of terrain? There are 3 simple steps:

1. Follow my blog. If you're one of the 138 people that already does so, you're ahead of the game!
2. Write up an encounter that would take place around the ruin.
3. Post the encounter to your blog (if you have one) with a link to your post as a comment here, or (if you don't have a blog) just post it as a comment!

All entries must be received by 11:59 PM Eastern on Saturday 12/10. A discriminating panel of judges will pick the winner on Sunday.

discriminating panel of judges is waiting to be impressed

The winner will be announced sometime next week.

US entries only, unless you're willing to pay shipping.

Zombie Mice

2011-12-09T06:00:00.002-05:00

Feris paused, leaning back against the stone wall. The flickering light of a recently discarded torch sputtered on the grimy floor amid the quickly decaying bodies. It had been a running battle, but luckily zombies don't run very well. They led them on a merry chase, picking them off a couple at a time.

Across the chamber one of the bodies groaned. Feris extended his wand, and scanned the bodies on the floor. One of the zombies, it's body broken rolled its head side to side and snapped its teeth together.

Stepping closer to finish the thing off Feris noted a mouse standing next to the zombie's head, picking at the flaking flesh. Another mouse, covered in gore, emerged from where the zombie's ear had been.

"Feris? What's going on?" Allianora asked from the doorway.

"They're eating it's brain!"

Zombie Mice Swarm
Armor Class: 7
Hit Dice: 4*
Move: 120’ (40’)
Attacks: Special
Damage: 1d6+disease
No. Appearing: 0 (1d4)
Save As: F3
Morale: 12
Treasure Type: Nil
Intelligence: Nil
Alignment: Neutral
XP Value: 125

Monster Type: Undead
Zombie mice will automatically cause 1d6 damage to anyone within reach of the swarm. Anyone suffering damage will need to make a save vs poison otherwise will be infected with a rotting disease that will have a 25% chance of killing them in 2d3 days. Within 24 hours of infection they will be at a -6 to all rolls, and be unable to take any action beyond moving at 1/4 speed. If the disease does not kill them the character will return to normal in 3d12 days.

Zombie Mice turn as ghouls, and suffer double damage from area effects.

Zombie Mice are otherwise normal mice that have feasted on the brains of zombies. Uninfected mice will avoid zombie mice, or if they outnumber them, will destroy them. Individually they are little threat to anyone, however when entire mischief of mice becomes infected they can be a deadly danger.

Don't forget to enter for your chance to win a hirst arts fieldstone tower ruin! So far there is only 1 entry in competition!

A place of evil... part 2!

2011-12-08T06:00:00.004-05:00

I don't have a good explination as to why I put the flock on the base already. Usually that's just about the last thing I do. I blame a combination of exhaustion and boredom.

You might also note the new piece in the middle. With only the skulls on the corner I felt it wasn't evil enough, so I built this little alter thing.

I'm thinking about painting it with a glossy black or blood red.

Don't forget to enter for your chance to win a hirst arts fieldstone tower ruin!

Painting the Bell Tower

2011-12-07T08:39:00.001-05:00

Since I want the bell tower to match with the other fieldstone pieces I’ve done, I base coated it in a medium dark brown. After the initial base coat I returned to it several times to add touch ups. One of the issues with painting fieldstone is that there are lots of little nooks and crannies that often get missed. The trick is to go over it several times, and to view it in a variety of lights and from a large number of angles. Even after doing this multiple times I still find spots here and there that show the original grey plaster.

Unfortunately I didn’t take a picture of the tower with only it’s basecoat. You’ll just have to use your imagination!

Once the base coat was done, it was time to bring in some more color. I used a combination of colors to highlight individual stones. Aside from an assortment of browns I also used grey, dark cherry, burgundy, green, and blue. These are all cheap craft paints, the type you can get 2 for $1. I avoided the orange that I’ve used before, because it was just a little too bright and stood out more than I liked.

This process actually took quite a while.

The next step is to dry brush over the entire tower with a light brown, and then a cream.

The hooded statues that sit in the alcoves were all primed with a dark brown, and highlighted with were painted separately to avoid being whacked with the different colors and dry brushing. I won’t be gluing them in till the rest of the tower is done, that way I can repaint them if I decide I don’t like them. I’m not sure how I feel about them right now.

Sorry about the crappy photos. Cellphone camera + basement lighting does not make for an ideal combination.

Don't forget to enter for your chance to win a hirst arts fieldstone tower ruin!

Gaming Music

2011-12-05T06:00:00.001-05:00

Back when I played Rules Cyclopedia D&D music didn’t play any part in my gaming experience. I tended to listen to whatever was on the radio, and didn’t have any sort of music collection of my own. My limited disposable income went to other things! Games and toys mostly.

During high school, when I played 2e, music started to be incorporated into my gaming, but not so much with D+D, but rather with Vampire and Werewolf. I got my first exposure to goth culture and the various types of music that included. While it was around, and helped to set the mood, I wasn’t the music guy, and didn’t really pay too much attention to which band was which. I made very sure that I didn’t end up in charge of any WoD games by not learning the rules beyond what I needed to run my character. It was all very RP heavy anyway, so I didn’t need to.

In college, with the release of 3rd edition, I started to pay more attention to music during my games. Midnight Syndicate released an official D+D soundtrack, as well as their other mood CDs, I acquired the Conan soundtrack, then the lord of the rings soundtracks, plus some anime OSTs. These all found frequent rotation during my gaming sessions.

In my 4e game I’ve expanded the selection to include some more diverse selections, but it’s still a lot of orchestrated and fairly bombastic pieces. I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to expand my gaming music horizons, at least a little...

I know that lots of grognards were enjoying a combination of punk and rock with their early D+D, and still do. While tempting, I try to avoid music with lyrics. Then again, maybe it’s worth trying? I did put on some Metallica during session 3 of Thunderspire, and it seemed to work out ok...

What do you listen to during game? Do you even play music? What should I add to my collection?

Sunday Inspirational Image - Battlefleet Gothic

2011-12-04T06:00:00.005-05:00

Battlefleet Gothic is one of my favorite games, and I really enjoy a lot of the artwork that was in it and inspired by it, including these from Zach Graves.

Don't forget to enter for your chance to win a hirst arts fieldstone tower ruin!

Déjà vu all over again

2011-12-02T06:00:00.003-05:00

I found this via Tim Brannan's The Other Side Blog and I'm stealing the announcement pretty much word for word.

I am going to participate in another Blogfest. But this one is different.

On December 16th I am going to repost an older post of my own that I felt didn't get the benefit of a wider audience.

You can read all the details here: Cruising Altitude 2.0: The Deja Vu Blogfest

It is a gaming post, and one I think you will all like.

So join me on the 16 and I'll do something I have already done.

I need a tag for when I do one of these sorts of things... Bandwagon? Sheep? Peer pressure?

Anyone have a suggestion?

Building a Terrain Board

2011-12-01T06:00:00.001-05:00

An illustrated report of my activities from Thursday evening (7/23/09) through Monday afternoon (7/27/09).

After dinner on Thursday night my cousins and I piled into the Rio and drove to Home Depot. We were a little worried because it was already 8:45 by this point, and we weren’t sure if it closed at 9 or 10. Luckily the answer was 10. We picked up 2 sheets of 2 foot by 4 foot by 2 inch insulation foam, 1 of 1inch, and 4 2x4 foot boards of 1/4 inch thickness. I was hoping that they would be willing to cut the pink foam for us, but no such luck.

There is no way that I can fit an 8 foot long sheet of foam into the car, at least not without leaving my cousins stranded in the Home Depot parking lot. Somehow I think my aunt wouldn’t appreciate me doing that in Baltimore at 10pm. This necessitated purchasing an instrument of destruction – in this case a knife. I wanted to get the $8 knife, but that would have required another knife to open it’s sealed plastic packaging, so I decided to get the more environmentally friendly $11 knife.

The checkout girl couldn’t get the 2” foam to scan, so she ran all 3 sheets at the 1” price, which was a nice bonus to make up for having to get the more expensive knife, though not enough to make up for the fact that I had to buy a knife at all. We then wheeled everything out to the car and set up an impromptu cutting station. We sandwiched the foam sheets between the 2*4 wood boards and used them as a guide to cut the foam. Once everything was cut and loaded into the car there was barely any space left in the back seat, so we were again faced with the prospect of abandoning at least one of my cousins in Baltimore at 10pm.

Now, to be fair, they are both black belts in karate, and both in great shape. They could kick just about anybody’s ass. On the other hand they are also skinny white boys from small town PA.

Cory decided that he could fit in the back seat, even with all the stuff we’d packed into the car, and he did. It didn’t look comfortable, and he couldn’t close the door himself, but we all made it back to the house where we unfolded Cory, and then unpacked the car.

I suppose construction officially began at that point, as we glued the foam to the boards for extra stability.

The next morning we cleaned up any rough edges on the boards, carved out hills and river and then textured the board. Now I’d spent a lot of time thinking about how I wanted to texture the flat surfaces of the board. Games Workshop suggests using a fine grit sand mixed with paint, or using textured paint (same thing). While it does create a pretty good texture, it also can really scratch up a paintjob. What I ended up deciding on was using course grit sand paper in generally tight circular motions to rough up the foam. It also created a lot of pink dust! After we sanded all the boards and cleaned up the mess it made, we primed the boards using a can of brown killz coat paint that I had gotten years ago to prime my Hirst Arts dungeon.

While we waited for the board to dry I played Knight of the Old Republic while my cousins, who’ve finished the game multiples times each, helped me out. We returned to the board and using cheap craft paints we added some color. It’s hard to tell, but there are 3 colors – tan, khaki green, and a forest green.

We didn’t apply the paint too thickly so it was pretty much dry right away. We used a kitchen sponge to apply the paint, as I didn’t want really solid patches of color. We also painted the river section using a variety of dark and muddy greens. Once we finished with the painting we added a flock from Woodland Scenics called earth blend. Like the paint, I didn’t want it over the whole board, just in patches, that way you can still see some of the paint. On top of that we added patches of honey color static grass.

In between painting, flocking, and static grassing we began to work on trees for the board. The goal was to make a set of trees that could be assembled quickly and cheaply. Realism wasn’t a high priority this time around, though of course it’s always nice. I already had a pile of dowels from a project Tigs worked on back before we moved, but I needed something to base them on. I decided that I would try using the hole saw drill attachment to drill out disks. Amazingly it worked pretty well. I drilled out the disks, while Cory sanded down all the edges.

Once the disks were all drilled out I needed to make the center hole big enough to insert the dowel, so I clamped each disk down and drilled out the hole one by one. Then we glued the dowels into the disks and set them aside to dry.

The next step was to take 4 and a half packs of dollar store green scrubby pads and cut out a whole bunch of disks of various sizes. These disks were then skewered onto the tree trunks. When these were all finished I gave them a heavy spray of Dark Angels Green, and then lighter sprays of a medium and a light green.

Not the most realistic trees, but once you have them all on the table with hills and minis and hamsters, you stop noticing.

The river section of the board was sequestered to the far side of the basement because of the water effect that we used. It takes about 3 days to really dry and we wanted to be sure that it didn’t get dusty. It still needs to be flocked and have static grass added to it. I’ll post pictures of that as soon as I get it done.

We finished up the board Sunday afternoon and decided to inaugurate it with an epic game of Lord of the Rings which ran from Sunday evening through till Monday afternoon. However that’s another post.

Things I’d do differently next time

1. The flock and static grass cover the texture that we spent a lot of time working on. Either go for smaller patches of flock to show off the painting and the texture, or go ahead and flock the whole table and don’t worry about surface texture.

2. If I’m going to show the texture pick the colors out beforehand and make sure I’ve got them available before I reach the painting stage.

3. 26 trees with 2” diameter bases cover a 6*4 board pretty well, and can make a heavily forested 4*4 board. Irregular shapes and roughed up edges would probably look more realistic.

4. Having a spare hill to test things out on was a good idea. Remember that for the future.

5. Home Depot doesn’t cut pink foam – bring a knife.

6. Listening to the soundtrack to all 6 Star Wars films while building a table will make you want to watch/play Star Wars.

7. A 6*4 board takes up a lot of space. An 8*4 board takes up even more space. I need to set up something to store the board when it’s not in use so the craft table can be used for other things.

8. Next time I want to do a river section (or other elevated/depressed features), rather than carving it out of 2 inch foam, use multiple thinner layers with the appropriate sections cut out. It’ll look better.

9. Keep an orc handy to check scale, even for natural features. 3-5 inch tall trees are pretty big, but also pretty realistic. Keep a Mumak handy for the same reason. Remember to reference your scale orc, mumak, and hamster often.

10. Open a window and run a fan when doing the following: melting pink foam, sanding pink foam, mixing resin, or any other activity which may compromise the already dubious air quality of the basement.

What I still want to do for this board:

1. More/better trees – Woodland Scenics has some really nice tree skeletons of a variety of sizes. For about $40 I can get 2 sets in a wide variety of sizes.

2. I’m strongly considering adding more flock to the board. Tigs thinks it’s too dark, and I’m inclined to agree with her. So get a lighter greener flock and add that to the board.

3. Barrows, ruins, hobbit holes, standing stones, Amon Sul, Amon Hen.

4. A Stargate

Fieldstone Bell Tower Ruins

2011-11-29T06:00:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned before, the bell tower I'm building is actually the 2nd I've attempted. The first one I didn't follow the directions, and screwed it up, then when trying to fix it, I broke it. I kept the pieces, most of them anyway, with the thought of turning it into a ruined bell tower.

I finally did it.

Not only is it assembled, but I also have it primed! A dark brown base coat comes next.

These pictures don't show the floors I added made out of wooden coffee stirrers, but it's there, and it's enough to stand some figures on.

A place of evil...

2011-11-28T06:00:00.000-05:00

I'm actually well into painting the bell tower, but well behind in posting about it.

However, before we get to that I embarked on yet another side project - an evil shrine! It's built from the remains of the original bell tower's upper section, with some repairs and adjustments.

Simple, small, but effective I think.

Sunday Inspirational Image - Garden Castles

2011-11-27T08:15:00.001-05:00

All from Harry's Miniature Castles (1920s - 1966)

Throughout South Hero, Vermont USA • For over thirty years, gardener Harry Barber found a unique way to blend his native country of Switzerland with his new home in Vermont. He created miniature buildings from local Vermont field stone. Five castles, three houses, and several garden structures remain in the Islands. They vary in complexity. Some castles feature glazed windows, interior fireplaces, or dungeons. Others are wired for electricity and have the capability of running water in the moat. … All his creations are privately owned, and public access is not permitted; however four out of the five castles can be seen from the road. – From a brochure issued by the Lake Champlain Bikeways.

Don't forget to enter my Terrainsgiving Contest!

Happy Terrainsgiving Contest

2011-11-26T06:00:00.003-05:00

I have quite a number of CD based ruins, and I'm looking to clear a little space on my shelves. This is good news for you, because I'm going to give one of them away!

This could be yours!

What do you need to do to win this fabulous piece of terrain? There are 3 simple steps:

1. Follow my blog. If you're one of the 134 people that already does so, you're ahead of the game!
2. Write up an encounter that would take place around the ruin.
3. Post the encounter to your blog (if you have one) with a link to your post as a comment here, or (if you don't have a blog) just post it as a comment!

All entries must be received by 11:59 PM Eastern on Saturday 12/10. A discriminating panel of judges will pick the winner on Sunday.

discriminating panel of judges is waiting to be impressed

US entries only, unless you're willing to pay shipping.

Some assembly required

2011-11-25T19:34:00.001-05:00

The walls are done, the corners are done, and now it’s time to bring it all together. As per the instructions, this is only a partial assembly. In order to fully paint it, I’ll be assembling the tower into 2 halves. The first half is easier, as it’s the half that will be attached to the base and ceiling. Attaching it to the base was easy. Attaching the ceiling took some ingenuity. I eventually built a lego tower to help support it while the glue dried.

The other half is freestanding. I used my lego corner to provide the 90 degree angle, and a box of tissues to keep it upright.

While that was drying I built an additional floor section. I just can’t seem to leave things alone... This section was for under where the bell would be. I don’t actually have a bell to install, nor am I putting any minis in the tower, but if I was, they would have somewhere to stand! Here you can see the now slightly shorter lego support structure.

Thunderspire Session 4 Part 1

2011-11-23T06:00:00.011-05:00

This session was played on 11/12.

Cory ran:
Dietrich the Human Knight (formerly the Dragonborn Paladin)
Ander the Halfling Rogue

Alex ran:
Barakas the Tiefling Warlord
Chan Lee the Human Monk

"I know where the gnolls are!" Rendil Halfmoon cried out, “come on!”

The adventurers battered and bruised opted to rest first. Rendil seemed upset about this, but agreed to take them to the gnoll’s lair in the morning.

Following the little exuberant halfling the party descended deep into the labyrinth. Reaching a great chasm spanned by another fortress with it’s drawbridges down. The area leading upto the drawbridge was littered with siege equipment, and the fortress seemed to be in a partly ruined state. Who was the winner was anyone's guess. “We have to cross that to get to the Well of Demons. The keep’s pretty busted up, but the bridges seemed pretty stable.” Rendil said as he started across.

As the party neared the keep’s gate on the far side of the drawbridge a rumbling noise caught their attention. Turning around they saw a large force of gnolls emerging from a side passage, with some running hyena’s leading the army. This was followed almost immediately by a roar from the chasm below. At the same moment Rendil’s face began to melt and his body began to stretch. In Rendil’s place stood a lanky greyskinned creature that smiled evilly before dashing toward the onrushing hyenas and gnolls.

The adventurers rushed into the keep’s courtyard and began to draw up the bridge using the winch just inside the gate. A mere breath after getting the bridge raised, something slammed into it - Hard! A great black claw squeezed between the bridge and the gate, and started pulling. The adventurers struggled but the bridge inexorably began to drop. Facing a losing battle the adventurers looked around. A large and stout keep door blocked the way out of the court yard, but a bell tower, next to the keep, offered a way out of the courtyard at least. A couple of hyenas made the leap when the bridge was low enough, forcing the adventurers to release the winch and make a run for the nearby bell tower.

Rushing up the stairs, the adventurers reached the top just ahead of the hyenas. As the rest of the party leapt from the tower to the keep’s roof, the tower rumbled, and stones pressed inward as whatever had opened the gate had started to climb the tower. Dietrich cut the rope that suspended the large iron bell, causing it to crash down not only onto the stairs, but also onto the hyenas and gnolls that were following them.

Leaping onto the roof of the keep the adventures viewed the creature that had forced open the drawbridge and swayed the tower - the shadow dragon. It took not even a round for the entire party to jump down through hole in the roof. From the sound if it, the dragon was right behind them! Rushing down the stairs, and onto the main level of the keep the adventurers tossed everything they could between them and their pursuers, even going so far as to set a fire in the store room. The gnolls were smashing through the main doors, while the dragon was coming through the ceiling. Running through the keep the adventurers stumbled on the keeps kitchen, and noticed the cook book on the floor under the large oven. Dietrich grabbed it, just as the dragon started reaching from the great hall into the kitchen. Luckily, he couldn’t fit through the door! Back tracking, the adventurers arrived at the rear courtyard, and sprinted across the drawbridge.

From the far end of the chasm the adventurers could see a fire burning within the keep, and some gnolls in the courtyard organizing themselves (or at least making sure that there were enough of them to take the adventurers). The sound of the dragon smashing through stonework to escape the confines of the castle were also clearly audible from the distant ledge. Dietrich, in a moment of desperation flipped open the cookbook, and found a note about the explosives stashed by the cook around the keep. Conveniently the trigger was hidden just under the drawbridge on the adventurers side of the chasm. In a mad dash all 4 began searching for the trigger. Ander found it, and without a thought set it off.

The explosion was intense, knocking the adventurers back and the keep down into the chasm - gnolls and all!

On Dragons

2011-11-22T06:00:00.002-05:00

The game is called Dungeons and Dragons, right?

The reality is that I’ve run lots of dungeons, and I include very few dragons...

Maybe it’s because I refuse to run dragons as anything but intelligent beings of immense power. Sure, there are rules for little dragons, and on a rare occasion I’ll toss one towards my players, but for the most part, a dragon in my games tends to be a force of nature, not a combat encounter. As such, I tend to hold them back.

I’m thinking that’s a mistake.

In reading other DM’s play reports where the players regularly encounter dragons out in the wilderness (often just a flyby, rather than a combat encounter) it seems that the players don’t just come to think of them as big goblins - aka bags of XP. They still inspire awe and worry, tinged by greed.

In my 4e game, my players have finally encountered a dragon, and they kicked it’s ass! They were psyched! Had it not been a part of the adventure, if I had written the adventure they’re running through, there wouldn’t have been that encounter.

In the back of the 4e DMG there is a kobold lair adventure that wraps up with a white dragon - an adventure for 1st level characters! It’s an adventure that gives exactly what the game says it gives - Dungeons and Dragons. Maybe that’s the right approach?

Now, I don’t want to go crazy and have dragons every other encounter. I still want them rare enough that players don’t just charge right in every time. I want them to pause before even thinking about picking up their dice. However... I think I do want to see more dragons in my game. And more importantly, I think my players want to see more dragons in the game.

How this will work in the megadungeon, I have no idea, and it’s something I need to think about, but the giant chasm certainly allows for at least one dragon, maybe more...

Thunderspire Session 3 - Players Thoughts

2011-11-21T06:00:00.006-05:00

From Alex:

The monk beat up and sealed a dragon with his bare fists in two minutes pretty much by himself (the rogue's daggers didn't exactly sway the tide of battle with the dragon). That was very cool. I also like his new ki focus, since that +2 bonus makes a surprisingly big difference over his +1 focus. The tradeoff right now, of course, is that he can't shift quite as much with the +2 ki focus, but his next feat will allow him to wield multiple ki focuses. I was surprised the knight died. Killing Brugg was fun, I had been waiting for that. We clearly had to pull out all the stops to take him down, and he still caused us a lot of pain. I usually go home wondering how in the heck our characters are still alive. It seems to me that statistically we should be dead, but somehow we survive. Maybe that's the warlord's fault.

From Cory:

Anyhow, on the new quests: they were like 'oooohh' and then "AAAAAAAHHHHHHH" and they pretty much stayed that way. So I'd say that's a good sign. Can't be boring if you're crazy scared that the characters are all going to fall into a vortex of doom and die while being eaten by a dragon.

Sunday Inspirational Image - Shadow Dragon

2011-11-20T06:00:00.002-05:00

Because it's playing such a big role, here's a shadow dragon

http://www.epilogue.net/cgi/database/art/view.pl?id=110000

What class are you?

2011-11-19T06:00:00.008-05:00

I Am A: Lawful Good Human Ranger/Wizard (2nd/2nd Level)

this is actually a pic of Aragorn, but it fits I think

Ability Scores:
Strength-12
Dexterity-13
Constitution-10
Intelligence-15
Wisdom-13
Charisma-16

Alignment:
Lawful Good A lawful good character acts as a good person is expected or required to act. He combines a commitment to oppose evil with the discipline to fight relentlessly. He tells the truth, keeps his word, helps those in need, and speaks out against injustice. A lawful good character hates to see the guilty go unpunished. Lawful good is the best alignment you can be because it combines honor and compassion. However, lawful good can be a dangerous alignment when it restricts freedom and criminalizes self-interest.

Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.

Primary Class:
Rangers are skilled stalkers and hunters who make their home in the woods. Their martial skill is nearly the equal of the fighter, but they lack the latter's dedication to the craft of fighting. Instead, the ranger focuses his skills and training on a specific enemy a type of creature he bears a vengeful grudge against and hunts above all others. Rangers often accept the role of protector, aiding those who live in or travel through the woods. His skills allow him to move quietly and stick to the shadows, especially in natural settings, and he also has special knowledge of certain types of creatures. Finally, an experienced ranger has such a tie to nature that he can actually draw on natural power to cast divine spells, much as a druid does, and like a druid he is often accompanied by animal companions. A ranger's Wisdom score should be high, as this determines the maximum spell level that he can cast.

Secondary Class:
Wizards are arcane spellcasters who depend on intensive study to create their magic. To wizards, magic is not a talent but a difficult, rewarding art. When they are prepared for battle, wizards can use their spells to devastating effect. When caught by surprise, they are vulnerable. The wizard's strength is her spells, everything else is secondary. She learns new spells as she experiments and grows in experience, and she can also learn them from other wizards. In addition, over time a wizard learns to manipulate her spells so they go farther, work better, or are improved in some other way. A wizard can call a familiar- a small, magical, animal companion that serves her. With a high Intelligence, wizards are capable of casting very high levels of spells.

Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)

Detailed Results:

Alignment:
Lawful Good ----- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (24)
Neutral Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (20)
Chaotic Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (20)
Lawful Neutral -- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (22)
True Neutral ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (18)
Chaotic Neutral - XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (18)
Lawful Evil ----- XXXXXXXXX (9)
Neutral Evil ---- XXXXX (5)
Chaotic Evil ---- XXXXX (5)

Law & Chaos:
Law ----- XXXXXXXXX (9)
Neutral - XXXXX (5)
Chaos --- XXXXX (5)

Good & Evil:
Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (15)
Neutral - XXXXXXXXXXXXX (13)
Evil ---- (0)

Race:
Human ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXX (13)
Dwarf ---- XXXX (4)
Elf ------ XXXXXXXXXX (10)
Gnome ---- XXXXXXXXXXXX (12)
Halfling - XXXXXXXXXXXX (12)
Half-Elf - XXXXXXXXXXXXX (13)
Half-Orc - (0)

Class:
Barbarian - (-27)
Bard ------ (-21)
Cleric ---- (-4)
Druid ----- (-17)
Fighter --- (-4)
Monk ------ XX (2)
Paladin --- (0)
Ranger ---- XXXXXX (6)
Rogue ----- (-6)
Sorcerer -- XX (2)
Wizard ---- XXXXXX (6)

Thunderspire Session 3 Part 2

2011-11-18T06:00:00.013-05:00

This session was played on 8/14.

Cory ran:
Dietrich the Human Knight (formerly the Dragonborn Paladin)
Ander the Halfling Rogue

Alex ran:
Barakas the Tiefling Warlord
Chan Lee the Human Monk

Following the Witch’s directions, the party first observed a Brass Minotaur statue, like the ones in the Hall. It stood on the walkway unmoving, and seemed to be singing a deep, nearly inaudible chant. More and more came into view as the party arrived at what appeared to be a huge nexus of the walkway. The walkway formed a giant ring, with numerous paths leading off into the dark. Standing on the walkway were more of the statues, and spaced around the ring were the floating bodies of the Mages of the Seven Pillared Hall. Each Mage had a shadow creature sucking the energy from them, and there was no sign of the dragon.

The adventurers stopped at the first mage and shadow and pondered the situation. As they dithered, the dragon, hiding in the darkness above, dropped in on the players. It first surrounded them in a field of darkness, and then swooped down and snapped at the adventurers. The Monk maneuvered out of the darkness, smacked the dragon backwards, then activated the Witch’s orb to force the dragon down into the shadowy waters. Like Kalarel’s portal, the inky waters seemed to reach for the dragon, and drew it down into it’s dark surface... all without splashes.

It all happened so quickly that I didn't even get to take a picture....

Turning their attention now to the shadows and the mages, the party attacked. As the shadows were distracted from their tasks, the Mages awoke, and while drained, they managed to help defeat the shadow creatures. The Mages thanked the party, and departed with a flash, leaving the players alone with the now silent brass minotaurs.

Brugg, knowing the jig is up, hightails it out of the Hall. However, he also knows that the adventurers will be returning, so he decides to have a bit of revenge before moving on. With the last of the hobgoblin’s, and a few Blackfang Gnolls, Brugg waited in one of the many antechambers to the Hall.

The party walked right into the ambush, and were immediately shot at by the numerous archers laying in wait. The warlord scorched a couple of hobgoblins that attempted to sneak up behind them, while Brugg squeezed out from behind a statue, releasing his pet hellhounds. The party ended up strung out, with Ander and Chan alternately hamstringing and close-lining the archers.

Dietrich and Barakas focused on Brugg, and took the brunt of his anger. With a furious series of blows the ogre repeatedly pounded Barakas, driving him down first to his knees, then to the ground in a bloody broken mess. When Dietrich tried to intervene Brugg spun on him with frightening agility, landing a perfect blow. Dietrich reeled, stumbled, but remained standing. Shaking off the stars that had exploded in his vision, he spied Ander making his way behind Brugg. Dietrich pressed his attack, and summoned all his power, while Ander did the same (d30 rolls) to finally bring Brugg down.

As the party reached the Hall, Rendil Halfmoon, the halfling they rescued runs up to them "I know where the gnolls are!" he cried out, ending the session.

Thunderspire Session 3 Part 1

2011-11-16T06:00:00.001-05:00

This session was played on 8/14.

Cory ran:
Dietrich the Human Knight (formerly the Dragonborn Paladin)
Ander the Halfling Rogue

Alex ran:
Barakas the Tiefling Warlord
Chan Lee the Human Monk

This session picked up immediately where session 2 left off, with the adventurers standing over the bodies of the duergar in Murkelmor’s chamber. Knowing that the recently released slaves were waiting for them near the gates of the Horned Hold, they only took a moment to make sure the chamber was properly looted before heading back to the gates.

The adventurers lead the ex-slaves through the twisting passages of the Labyrinth, heading in what they hoped was the right direction to lead them all back to the Seven Pillared Hall. Somewhere along the way they ended up making a wrong turn, and ran into troop of rotwing zombies digging through rubble in a large chamber. Unusual activity from the usually brain-focused zeds. Unfortunately with a large body of slaves, the party attracted the creatures attention, as well as that of the gaunt figure that seemed to b directing them.

Dietrich, having taken the lead was charged by 3 of the zeds who managed to cause some not insignificant damage. However aside from that initial charge, the battle was fairly one-sided. The creatures seemed to have little with them, though the wight was carrying an odd item. It appeared to be an arm bone, made of brass, with one end shaped into strange teeth, like those of a key.

A short time after that the adventurers and ex-slaves returned to Seven Pillared Hall. The adventurers arranged to have them all sent back home with one of the frequent caravans that comes to the Hall, and made sure that they were supplied with enough coin and equipment to make the journey safely. They then returned to the inn, and crashed!

The next morning they were approached by the Dragonborn Warlock Surim, a relatively new resident of the Hall. She has been watching the adventurers and feels that they are honorable. She points out a drow pair eating a quiet breakfast in the corner, and tells the party that she thinks they’re scouts/agents of chaos who are trying to take over the Hall. Without waiting for the adventurers, she walks over to the pair and attacks them. Pandemonium ensues, as bleary-eyed patrons are suddenly in the middle of yet another battle in the bar, and they make like rats on a sinking ship. The party leaps into the fray, and manages to quickly talk everyone down, limiting the collateral damage to a few overturned chairs and ruined meals. It turns out the drow actually want to talk with the mages in charge of the Hall to obtain their assistance, and while thankful to the adventurers for stopping the fight, not interested in dealing with them.

The party then does some shopping and investigating. They know that there are still a few slaves that need saving, and that their best lead is a note from “The Bringer of Change” to Murkelmor about clearing out a collapsed passageway. Putting together a few clues they get a general idea of where this might be, and head bank into the Labyrinth.

Their info proves remarkably accurate, and they find the recently excavated passage. Descending carefully, they emerge on the shore of a vast cavern lake. Their sunrods light up the surrounding area fairly well, revealing the skeletons of minotaurs, and the dark misty water... beyond that the immense darkness seems to swallow their light. As they begin to look around, shadowy insubstantial forms take shape in the mists, and with a cry that rends at the adventurer’s very souls, the specters attack!

This battle proves to be one of the most difficult that the adventurers have faced to date. The wraith’s ability to turn the party against itself costs Dietrich his life as Ander, sadly weak willed to begin with, turns his daggers against his friend. The battle is made doubly difficult by their opponents insubstantial forms. Blows that would have brought a mortal to their knees, merely rips a shred of shadow-stuff from the specters!

Victorious, but bruised and battered, out of daily powers and action points, low on healing surges, and with one party member down the group returned to the Hall. While there they spend some cash getting Dietrich raised, and also did a little more shopping, trading their Amulet of Health for a set of 6 healing potions.

Returning to the shore, they extinguished their lights, and looked into the darkness... and spied a faint light. Taking to the walkways that spanned the lake they made their way slowly towards the light. It was nervous going, as there were things in the water... shapes that followed them, and occasionally made a splash in the otherwise still black water.

The walkways eventually lead to a great stalactite in the middle of the lake where the light emerged from a window above. Climbing the path that wound around the spire up to the window, the adventures spied a witch, some weird black-eyed halflings, and a pair of shadow mastiffs, none of which seemed to have noticed the adventurers. Seeing as they had the room’s occupants at a disadvantage, they called out to them. It was a tense standoff, but eventually the witch came to the conclusion that the players were actually anti-orcus. This was helped immeasurably by displaying the head of Kalarel.

The witch tells the adventurers that the lake is a giant portal to the Shadowfell, and that someone is trying to open it up wide. Further out into the lake the mages from the Hall are bound and being magically drained to fuel a massive ritual that is opening a vortex. She warns that the ritual is guarded by a shadow dragon, and she gifts them an orb that may assist in the fight...

In the H2 conversion the Orb is a potent tool in this situation to fight the dragon. I hadn’t realized it, but no one in the party could actually use an orb! For some reason I thought the warlord could. I was wrong, so I decided that the monk could use it as a Ki Focus, and then between sessions we nailed down the specifics of the Ki Focus for the future.

Thunderspire Session 3 Thoughts

2011-11-15T06:00:00.003-05:00

This should have been written significantly sooner than after session 4, however I didn’t get around to it until now. I don’t have too many thoughts that haven’t been covered in my previous post session thoughts.

The upgraded stats worked much better, and seemed to amp up the challenge.

I’m still not thrilled with the skill challenges mechanic. It feels too forced. I’d really like to see someone who’s good at it run it. It’s one thing to appreciate the magic of Disney, it’s another when you’re trying to do the same thing with you as host.

A significant portion of this session was spent off of the official adventure, making use of some of the material developed in the H2 Orcus conversion. I can not speak highly enough about this. Seriously, if you’re going to play H1-H3 you NEED to download this series, and incorporate it into your game.

My one big thought about the game was what I expected to be the big encounter of the night, the fight with the shadow dragon! I need to do a whole post on how I’ve used (and not) dragons in my games. This one is a young shadow dragon, with some fairly potent powers. Appropriate for a dragon solo, even a low level one. What didn’t work for me was how easily the players managed to shut down the encounter, even before it got off the ground.

They didn’t mind! They'd just kicked a dragon’s ass!

Me? I minded. I’m pretty sure I didn’t take it as well as I should have. I’m pretty sure I looked at the board, picked up the dragon and said something like “Well... shit.”

What I did do was take a break, reshuffled my notes, and forged on.

I had expected earlier in the session that the players would confront Brugg the Enforcer afte burning down the tavern*, but they managed to avoid him. As we still had lots of playing time to go (since I had expected the shadow dragon to take much longer) I decided that Brugg would be waiting for the players in an ambush.

Quantum Ogre in action?

This ended up being the final fight of the evening, and I think it went well. It was big, bad, and had my players on their toes. It felt like everything the dragon fight should have been... and yet I’m not sure I should have included it. It made sense, story-wise, considering their prior actions, but I kinda feel like I did it more to satisfy my own need for a big finale for the evening...

I’d really like to know your thoughts. I’ve set up a poll, but comments are even more welcome.

Session write up soon!

*It seems as if it isn't a D&D game if someone doesn't burn down the tavern!

CD Ruins

2011-11-14T06:00:00.000-05:00

While working on the dice tower and the bell tower I also painted up some old ruins I had built years ago.

The round one (front row, left side) had a black cherry base coat. The two in the back corner were black, and the one in front on the right had a brown base coat. The one in the middle was from years ago, and I don't remember what color it's base coat was, but probably dark brown.

And the figures are the ones my 4e group uses for the PCs - 3 D&D prepaints, and a knight from... I think it's from one of the Diablo mini sets actually. Don't know where the shield is.

Sunday Inspirational Image - Seaside Doors

2011-11-13T06:00:00.001-05:00

I wonder who lives here...

Thunderspire Session 2 part 3

2011-11-12T06:00:00.002-05:00

This is the conclusion of session 2 of my players adventure in Thunderspire. Today my players begin session 4. What happened to session 3? I haven't written it yet, but you should get it in the next week or so. I probably won't break it down like I did this one, but we'll see.

This session was played on 7/23.

Cory ran:
Dietrich the Human Knight (formerly the Dragonborn Paladin)
Ander the Halfling Rogue

Alex ran:
Barakas the Tiefling Warlord
Chan Lee the Human Monk

Just off the guard room was an antichamber that had 2 doorways. The main one was a giant bronze double door emblazoned with the image of a great minotaur’s head. The other door was also large, but its reinforced wood construction didn’t draw the eye like the bronze doors did. Once again the party opted to go for the less flashy door...

Bursting in they found the slaves being kept in pits, and taunted by some flying devils, and a few duergar.

In short order the duergar caster and his two guards were neutralized. The devils lived up to their name, bedeviling the adventurers, using their ability to fly to keep them out of range of most of the party’s potent attacks.

When all but one devil was taken care of, the party started to get the slaves freed and out the door. When they looked back, the devil was gone! The party armed the slaves as best they could, told them where the other slaves were waiting, and sent them on their way. They then turned to the great bronze doors. With a mighty pull on the minotaur’s horns, the doors swung open.

Murkelmor, leader of the Duerger stood between to bronze minotaur statues, hammer at the ready. The devil from the slave pens hovered above him. The room was heated by 2 great roaring fireplaces, and an incense burning brazier. Aside from that, there was no sign of other combatants. The adventurers charged in, Dietrich in the lead, slamming Murkelmor hard. Murkelmor and the devil hit the knight back equally hard.

Chan followed in right behind Dietrich, spinning round, and striking Murkelmor with fearsome blow. Ander bounded in next, slashing the devil.

When Barakas stood between the fireplaces the flames within reached into the room, and from them emerged Murkelmor’s hidden guards!

The fight was fast and furious, with hit upon hit being traded back and forth. Murkelmor knocked the adventurers back, tossed Dietrich into the fire, and nearly kills Ander. Ander fought back keeping Murkelmor flanked with either Dietrich or Chan. It was this strategy that finally brought the Lord of the Horned Hold low. Yet with his death his guards fought with renewed vigor, or was it fear of the adventurers?

The guards fought with all their powers, holding back nothing, even growing to the size of an ogre! Yet it availed them naught. With Murkelmor dead, the adventurers were able to concentrate on the ogre-sized duergar, and they fell.

The adventurers sagged with exhaustion. Ander the rogue was out of healing surges, and Chan the monk and Dietrich the knight were down to a few each. Daily & Encounter powers were gone, as were their action points, and d30 rolls. After catching their breath they gathered the freed slaves, and set out for the Seven Pillared Hall.

Super Secret Side Project! part 2

2011-11-11T12:09:00.000-05:00

It looks like a simple boarder tower...

However in reality it is much much more!

By removing the top it transforms into my new dice roller!

Holbeche Bloxam

2011-11-09T12:02:00.000-05:00

My primary PC is having issues... It's almost 3 years old, and it wasn't what you would call top of the shelf. Honestly, it didn't qualify for middle shelf either. And after repeated power outages on Monday... well... At least I've still got my netbook.

So instead of the post I was going to write today, here's a lazy but useful post for you.

From: THE PRINCIPLES OF GOTHIC ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE, ELUCIDATED BY QUESTION AND ANSWER

BY MATTHEW HOLBECHE BLOXAM

Lots of great architectural sketches, and tell me that isn’t a fantastic name! Holbeche Bloxam.

And yes, I know it's not Sunday.

Thunderspire Session 2 part 2

2011-11-08T09:00:00.001-05:00

This session was played on 7/23.

Cory ran:
Dietrich the Human Knight (formerly the Dragonborn Paladin)
Ander the Halfling Rogue

Alex ran:
Barakas the Tiefling Warlord
Chan Lee the Human Monk

Opting to avoid crossing the chasm for the moment, the runemarked adventurers continued deeper into the gatehouse complex. After following a long hallway they found themselves in what seemed to be a new area. They avoided the big set of double doors, and opted to check out the side rooms first. First they quickly scoped out a store room, and then moved onto a poorly appointed barracks. They then moved into an almost overwhelmingly hot kitchen, nearly scaring to death a slave servant. From him they found out what was in the next room, namely the Duerger lord Rundarr and a few of his lackeys.

The party decided to split up, sending the knight and warlord to the main door, while the monk and rogue would come in through the kitchen door.

Ander and Chan Lee charged in first, charging straight for the dueger sitting behind the head table. Chan Lee made it through the door first, performing a bounding leap over the table, and slamming hard into Rundarr trying to slide him. Rundarr, in spite of barely having stood up from his soup, didn’t even stagger from the blow, grabbed Lee’s foot and slammed it into the floor, embedding it hard. Bounding over the table Ander stuck the distracted Rundarr, but failed to land a telling blow.

Hearing the commotion Barakas and the knight charge in. Barakas ignored the guard standing dumbly by the side of the room and charged Rundarr whiile the knight charged the guard.

Rundarr swung his warhammer with some precision, connecting more often than not with Ander and Lee. The arrival of another guard, and two scouts added some distraction to the party, but Ander and Lee continued to pound on Rundarr, each hit causing his beard to smolder, glow, ficker, and finally burst into flame, pushing back the adventurers as Rundarr suddenly tripled in size. With a roar he swung at Ander with his giant warhammer again and again and again and again (action point) yet managed to connect with the halfling only once.

As the rest of the duerger fell, a lone scout who had been harassing the party with his crossbow turned tail and ran. The monk circled around, cutting off his escape, before a flurry of blows laid the scout out. A pair of magical greaves that Rundarr wore went to Dietrich.

The party then consulted with the slaves, arming them with spears gathered from some of their previous opponents and told them to go hide in the gatehouse. The slaves told them of a large group of slaves across the chasm that they had seen while delivering food. Unfortunately the main bridge across was heavily fortified, and the slaves didn’t know anything about the smaller bridge.

Spending a mere moment to discuss their options they returned to the smaller bridge, and sent Ander across alone to check the far gate. Sneaking across, he pulled out a sunrod only after he was concealed in the doorway. He listened at the door, and examined it for any traps before focusing his attention on the large elaborate lock. A few moments later he flashed the sunrod’s light across the chasm, and the rest of the party joined him. Beyond they found a disused corridor littered with rubble and trash and 3 doors. They decided to try the door that they believed lead to the gate room. It did, and they quickly engaged the duerger and the animated arbalests that guarded the room.

The duergar thurge blasted the party with a wave of despair that only the rogue suffered the effects of. He then followed it up with a brimstone hail upon the knight and the monk, unconcerned with his allies in the blast. Feeling a little overwhelmed both the warlord and the monk used their daily powers - the monk dishing out 6 solid hits all doing between 15-20 points of damage and felling 2 of their opponents!

Moving deeper into the complex the party next encountered another gate room guarded by orcs. Upon entering they discovered the 4 orcs had backup in the form of an ogre! The ogre was fast for a creature of his bulk, and hit fairly frequently, but not with much more force than the orcs. The knight really shined in this fight, landing 2 criticals on the orcs.

Just off the guard room was an antichamber that had 2 doorways. The main one was a giant bronze double door emblazoned with the image of a great minotaur’s head. The other door was also large, but its reinforced wood construction didn’t draw the eye like the bronze doors did. Once again the party opted to go for the less flashy door...

To be continued...

Super Secret Side Project! part 1

2011-11-07T06:00:00.000-05:00

If you follow me on Google+, you've already seen this sneak preview of my Super Secret Side Project. For those who don't, here it is!

I didn't get to spend any time on the Bell Tower this weekend, but I have made some progress on this project.

I also see that I've picked up a few new followers! Welcome to the Tower Mortellan, new Big Dragon, Niccodaemus, and Purestrainhuman!

Sunday Inspirational Image - Pasini Courtyard

2011-11-06T06:00:00.005-05:00

Circassian Cavalry Awaiting Their Commanding Officer at the Door of a Byzantine Monument; Memory of the Orient by Alberto Pasini

TRPBTNTWAs

2011-11-05T14:49:00.000-04:00

Noisms from Monsters and Manuals posted a list of Things Role Playing Bloggers Tend Not To Write About, and he’s right, or at least he was until he posted this list. And since I have a hard time passing up things like this...

Book binding.
I love books! I like the feel, the smell, the look of a well loved and well put together book. I’m always impressed at how well the d6 Star Wars stuff from WEG has held together, even the soft covers. The binding, the paper, it’s all great!

"Doing a voice".
I do more speech patterns, rather than voices, though I guess that’s a pretty fine distinction. As a DM it helps me get more into the game.

Breaks. How often do you have breaks within sessions?
My 4e game tends to be a once every 4-6 weeks, and we tend to play for about 8-10 hours. We take very short breaks as needed.

Description. Exactly how florid are your descriptions?
Mostly pretty minimal, but every once in a while I’ll have at it.

Where do you strike the balance between "doing what your character would do" and "acting like a dickhead"?
Wheaton’s Law is in full effect.

PC-on-PC violence. Do your players tend to avoid it, or do you ban it? Or does anything go?
I generally discourage it as a DM. As a player I’d rather be killing monsters.

How do you explain what a role playing game is to a stranger who is also a non-player?
Cops and Robbers, or Cowboys and Aliens - with dice.

Alchohol at the table?
Not recently, but it never bothered me.

What's acceptable to do to a PC whose player is absent from the session? Is whatever happens their fault for not being there, or are there some limits?
This is generally a non-issue. If the player isn’t there, the character usually isn’t either.

Building the Tower (part 2)

2011-11-04T06:00:00.001-04:00

While working on the walls I also started working on the corners. Yes, I know in the instructions it says to do the corners after, but while I’m sitting there waiting for the glue to dry, I can put them together.

With a little luck and free time I should be able to get this assembled to the point where I can start painting by the end of the weekend.

Building the Tower (part 1)

2011-11-03T06:00:00.002-04:00

You’ve already seen the blocks laid out for one wall.

When I started the actual construction of the first wall of the tower, I began at the bottom, and worked my way up, from the bottom windows, to the alcoves, up to the top windows. All the while I kept double checking this picture as I went.

With the first one was assembled and the glue dried enough, I slid it up out of the frame and across the table. Then I started on the second wall. As I was finishing the second up, I slid the first one down next to it, and realized that the second was half an inch shorter!! It turned out that when I was making the first section, I had used 2 rows of 1/2 inch blocks when I had planned on 1/4 inch blocks. Not a major problem, but frustrating. Luckily, the glue from the second wall section was still very wet, so I pulled it apart in the appropriate sections, and added in that extra half inch.

I then slid the wall out of the frame and began working on the third section, adding in the extra height from the start. While I was doing that I noticed that the extra height made the area above the alcoves seem... lacking. One thought I had was to put up some sort of symbol, a crest or shield or something. While I think that might actually look good, I don’t have anything suitable kicking around, and I certainly don’t have 4 of them! However a simple line of .25” bricks seems to do the job.

You can see where I made the error above, and how I'm addressing it.

Casting - Done!

2011-11-02T08:00:00.000-04:00

Due to the magic of me casting before many of these posts went live (or were even written), I’m now done casting, and have all the bricks I need to make my bell tower. In order to save myself from an unhealthy level of insanity while building, I have sorted the bricks into bins.

The next step is making the frame for building the walls. I’m using the most expensive of supplies - free paint stir sticks from the local big box home improvement place. Per the instructions they’re taped down to the paper. I used the 2” long bricks to ensure that the spacing is even from top to bottom. In the picture you can see the beginning of the wall with the doorway, which is actually the last wall to be built.

Then lay out one of the walls... this picture is from before building the frame, but it shows the basic layout of the wall. Each wall will be slightly different in which blocks go where, but the major features (windows and alcoves) will all be the same.

And before we start gluing, we check the instructions one more time!

Fieldstone Bell Tower - More Casting

2011-11-01T06:00:00.010-04:00

The piles get bigger...

and bigger...

Not much else to say at this point.

Though there is also a secret side project in the works...

Happy Halloween

2011-10-31T22:35:00.000-04:00

Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. When I was a kid it was the one time a year that you could dress up as anything you wanted. This year October has been a pretty good one. The yard came out pretty well for one thing, and everyone who came by seemed to appreciate the effort.

For whatever reason my neighborhood doesn’t really do it up for Halloween. There are only 3 houses (counting mine) that go all out, and several that put out a scarecrow or a jack-o-lantern. I had the daughter of one of the guys who also decorates thank me for not making her house the only weird one!

I also put together a fairly last minute Tim the Enchanter costume, though I’m guessing that everyone reading this knows he would be more accurately described as an Invoker!

In addition to that I also received several treats:

One of my various traditions on Halloween is to enjoy both Dracula and The War of the Worlds from Mercury Theater on the Air.

I’ve also spent time working on the bell tower. So far it’s progressing well, but there will be more on that tomorrow. Until then, have a spooky evening...

Sunday Inspirational Image - Flaming Pumpkin Bats

2011-10-30T06:00:00.003-04:00

Happy Day Before Halloween!

Fieldstone Bell Tower - Casting

2011-10-29T06:00:00.008-04:00

So how does this work? Put simply, you mix water and plaster until you get a fluid that is the consistency of a milkshake.

Then you pour the mix into the molds.

Wait about 5 minutes, then use a paper tower to draw off some of the pooling water. This is followed by scraping the mold. There is always some excess, and I do my best to recover as much of it as possible. Usually this means extra floor tiles.

Picture from hirstarts.com

Then you wait some more for the brick to dry. Since I’m doing my casting at night before bed, these bricks won't be ready till the next day. However I took pictures of the previous day’s bricks.

With the plaster I’m using (Excalibur dental plaster - way stronger than plaster-of-paris) you can generally de-mold the bricks after about 30 minutes.

Once the bricks are demolded, you need them to dry completely before you use them. I’ve got a dehumidifier running in the basement, and I lay them out on newspaper, so they tend to dry quickly. A day or two in dry conditions tends to be enough.

Don't forget to vote on my Halloween poll!

Fieldstone Bell Tower -The Plan! (part 2)

2011-10-28T06:00:00.005-04:00

We now know what we need:
2" x11
1” x74
.75" x10
.5” x42
1"x.25" x52
.75"x.25" x16
.5"x.25" x22
Alcove top x8
Alcove body x24
2" Arch x2
1" Arch x12
.75" Arch x16

How do we get there? Well, these are the molds I have that have the parts I need:

In a single cast of each of these molds I can create:
2" x3
1” x12
.75" x2
.5” x5
1"x.25" x8
.75"x.25" x2
.5"x.25" x7
Alcove top x2
Alcove body x4
2" Arch x2
1" Arch x2
.75" Arch x2

By using the magic of math this means I need a total of 9 of casts to get every block I need. Some parts will obviously need far fewer. The most difficult piece is the .5” block. The next most difficult is the .75” arch and the .75"x.25" tile, each requiring 8 castings to get them all.

I can probably do 1 casting a day (more on weekends and Wednesdays), which means that casting all these bricks will take about a week. Luckily for all of us, I've already started!

I have a new poll up! What are you doing for Halloween?

Fieldstone Bell Tower - The Plan! (part 1)

2011-10-27T06:00:00.001-04:00

Hirst Arts is awesome. “How awesome is it?” you ask.

Very!

For one thing, it’s like making your own Lego bricks. Need a brick? Make a brick. Problem solved.

Of course you can just go hog wild and make lots of parts. I’ve done that too. It’s fun, actually! There is a lot of pleasure in mixing up the plaster, pouring it into the molds, and then removing a fully cast brick. Once you have a big bunch of them, you can spend (and I have) endless hours dry-stacking them, trying out different combinations without ever actually building anything. But this time...

This time we’re going with a plan, which is where I get back to Hirst Arts being awesome.

Wanna know the plan?

Here it is: The Plan

Bruce Hirst – inventor, owner, operator, and all around good guy not only has these incredibly flexible terrain-making tools and a vibrant friendly helpful community, he also has plans for various projects, including the bell tower.

Now his bell tower plan is specifically for his bell tower gothic mold, whereas I’m making a fieldstone version, but for the most part, the basic bricks remain the same.

Lets count them up, shall we?

The corners each require 13 1” blocks, and 7 .5” blocks, 8 1"x1/4", and 2 1/2"x1/4". 4 corners equals 52 1” blocks, and 28 .5” blocks, 32 1"x1/4", and 8 1/2"x1/4"

There are 4 sides to the tower as well, but only 3 of them are the same. The side with the door will be slightly different.

The 3 sides require:
2" x3
1” x5
.75" x2
.5” x4
1"x.25" x6
.75"x.25" x4
.5"x.25" x4
Alcove top x2
Alcove body x6
1" Arch x4
.75" Arch x4

The front side requires:
2" x2
1” x7
.75" x4
.5” x2
1"x.25" x2
.75"x.25" x4
.5"x.25" x2
Alcove top x2
Alcove body x6
2" Arch x2
1" Arch x0
.75" Arch x4

This equals a total of:
2" x11
1” x74
.75" x10
.5” x42
1"x.25" x52
.75"x.25" x16
.5"x.25" x22
Alcove top x8
Alcove body x24
2" Arch x2
1" Arch x12
.75" Arch x16

That's a grand total of 289 blocks!!! How am I going to get there? That will be answered in Part 2!

Fieldstone Bell Tower Motivation

2011-10-25T06:00:00.001-04:00

Before I get to planning, casting, building, and painting I want to talk about why the bell tower, as opposed to some other project. It’s not like I’m lacking in other projects! I have tons of minis, and lots of other terrain that I could work on, so why this?

Here’s the deal. I have a bunch of Hirst Art molds. I’ve build lots of ruins, little things, a couple of dungeon rooms, but never a whole project. It’s that old gamer ADD that we know so well. So I want to build something that isn’t a ruin with my bricks, and I want to finish it.

Why a bell tower? A couple of reasons:

The bell tower takes up a lot of vertical space, but can fit on a CD
It doesn’t require tons and tons of bricks
It is complex enough to keep me interested without being intimidating
Because I did it before, and messed it up! Time to do it right

I’d actually enjoy working on minis too, but to be blunt, I’m out of storage space for painted minis and I don’t have anywhere to display them. I’ve found this to be a real demotivator.

So, the bell tower it is!

Next up – The Plan!

Intermezzo

2011-10-24T06:00:00.004-04:00

I’m feeling fairly drained from school and other things that fall in the category of “real life.” No less enthusiastic, but a little less inspired at the moment. I feel like the worst thing I could do is to give into the ennui, throw my hands in the air and say things I don’t really mean and that I’d regret later. I also don't want to just close up shop, not even temporarily. What I’d really love to do is to go recharge via camping, but sadly that isn’t in the cards right now. Something to do with the new job, still being in school, and a lack of banked vacation time…

Anyway, after doing a big research paper for the class just ending, and another big class with a lot of writing coming up I’m considering doing something of a palette cleansing blog-wise, and step away from RPGs for a little bit. I’m thinking that it’s time to do something with all my minis and terrain again, and I’ve had that itch… especially since I haven’t touched a miniature or a piece of terrain all year. Not to build/paint anyway…

So here’s what I’m going to do. Almost 6 years ago I planned on making a Hirst Arts Bell Tower out of the fieldstone line. I started it 2 years ago and built it wrong, thinking I knew better than the directions, and gave up on the project.

Guess what?

Not mine, but along the lines of what I’m planning

Project’s Back On!

And I'll be documenting my progress here!

I can tell you're so excited.

I ain't afraid of no ghost!

2011-10-20T06:00:00.002-04:00

You might not have know, but Ghostbusters is back in theaters this month! Seems like Thursday nights only, but still, a chance to see it on the big screen! I know where I'll be tonight!

New Poll - Classic Movie Monsters

2011-10-18T06:00:00.001-04:00

I’m rather insanely busy finishing up a big research paper for class, so in lieu of a real post here’s a new holiday themed poll.

What is your favorite classic movie monster?

Vampire
Werewolf
Invisible Man
Gill-Creature
Phantom
Mr. Hyde (Dr. Jekyll)
Frankenstein's Monster
Mummy

The good news is I’m almost done, and I’m hoping to be back up to speed by the end of the week.

Sunday Inspirational Image - Pumpkin Wizard

2011-10-16T06:00:00.002-04:00

Fey Thoughts

2011-10-15T06:00:00.021-04:00

I’ve been thinking about fairies a lot recently. In 4e parlance I’d probably use the word Eladrin, but for the rest of you, I’m talking about the fey nobles (Titania, Oberon, etc.). While I’ve not always included the fey in my games, I find myself more and more inclined to do so.

However... I don’t want my fairies to look like this:

or this:

They aren’t little humans with shiny wings. They aren’t TinkerbellI or Oona. They are strange, alien creatures

Not this sort of alien!

I want them to be distinctly Other. Something that’s just kind of creepy, yet beautiful and potentially terrible at the same time! I’m not sure where the idea first came to me, but it was probably looking at the various masks that are in my house, and the pictures of the masked characters of Venice. It got me to thinking about the scene in Labyrinth where Jareth sweeps Sarah into the masquerade ball.

What if fairy nobles appeared in full masquerade garb? Fully covered, head to toe, hats, gloves, and garb all highly elaborate. Full face masks, with only their eyes appearing. No skin showing at all!

I would rule the mask only removable by killing the fey noble, and underneath would be nothing! Like when Old Ben Kenobi is killed by Vader and the robes fall to the ground.

As you can see, I'm not dead, it's just been a busy week!

Another one bites the dust...

2011-10-12T06:00:00.001-04:00

Once again another blogger is shutting up shop: Austrodavicus, aka Dave (good name) of There's Dungeons Down Under. And because I hate to see things disappear from the blogoverse, here is his post on random books.

Good luck Dave!

A Random Table and an Update
Part 4 is taking longer to write than I expected (who would've thought there'd be so much criticism of the OSR). It looks like it may even have to be in two parts. So in the meantime, here's a random table I whipped up as a filler:

Quick and Dirty Random Book Finder

Roll one of each dice type and read the results in the order below.

Item found (1d4)

1. Tome
2. Scroll
3. Sheaf of parchments
4. 1d4+1 volumes

The writing is (1d6)

1. None, blank pages (either invisible ink or ignore all other dice)
2. The finder’s native language
3. A known language
4. An unknown language
5. Some sort of code
6. Undecipherable Writing

The item is (1d8)

1. Of no value or interest whatsoever
2. A good read, but of no value
3. Interesting and helpful, but of no monetary value
4. Worth a small amount to a collector
5. Will fetch a decent price
6. Worth lots, easy to sell
7. Rare and incredibly valuable
8. Dangerous to possess

Other features (1d10)

1. Nothing outstanding
2. Illustrated
3. Decorative borders
4. Tooled-leather cover/case
5. Creepy-looking handwriting
6. Illuminated calligraphy
7. Includes what appears to be a treasure map
8. Dried, pressed flowers
9. Appears to be written in blood
10. Written in gold ink and encrusted with tiny precious stones

Subject matter is (1d12)

1. Fictional
2. Historical
3. Myths and Legends
4. Theological
5. Cultural
6. Metaphysical
7. Scientific
8. Geographical
9. Astronomical
10. A bestiary
11. Artistic
12. Magical, add 10 to the d20 roll

Effects of reading the item (1d20)

1 – 10. Nothing unusual
11. Reader is confused by what has been read
12. Reader absolutely refuses to give up the book
13. Reader develops an obsession with the subject, becomes a collector
14. Reader has an overwhelming urge to destroy the book
15. Reader hears a strange unearthly music
16. Reader goes into a trance for 6 turns, awakes with no memory of what happened
17. Reader has a prophetic dream next time they sleep
18. Reader receives a mild curse or affliction
19. Reader receives the effects of a Bless spell for 6 turns, one time only
20. Contains 1d6 spells

Optional: Author (1d30 – roll 1d4 times and arrange to taste)

1. Var
2. Ing
3. Gav
4. Char
5. Pyp
6. Zis
7. Ux
8. Ney
9. Gon
10. Loy
11. Haar
12. Bog
13. Tain
14. Ket
15. Arv
16. Xan
17. Dreb
18. Jyr
19. Een
20. Wos
21. Ika
22. Foag
23. Wan
24. Liat
25. Qaa
26. Meg
27. Yiss
28. Naaba
29. Ros
30. Oss

And I once again pledge to never nuke my blog.

Short Adventures PDF

2011-10-10T06:00:00.004-04:00

I've collected the 25 short adventures into a 16 page PDF.

Click on the mustached dragon to download, or visit the downloads page.

Sunday Inspirational Image - Pumpkin-Demon

2011-10-09T06:00:00.002-04:00

Give me all your candy!

Reviews: Samore’s Daughter, North Battlement Sector, The Disappearance of Harold the Hedge Mage, The Warlock’s Digest of Dungeon Dwelling Denizens

2011-10-08T06:00:00.002-04:00

Zac pointed out that there are a lot of free adventures out there, but very few reviews of them. He asked us all to help address that by giving a short review of one of the many free adventures available. As I am a firm believer in helping out, here are 4 reviews.

Samore’s Daughter
by N. M. Wright of Lawful Indifferent

Samore’s Daughter is a classic DnD location based adventure that takes place in a generic fantasy setting. The basic premise is that a Baron/Duke’s trusted adviser's illegitimate daughter has been kidnapped and he hires the adventurers to get her back. There is a city mentioned, a village given a brief sketch, and a cave in the woods. There is also a little local unrest due to a few poor harvests.

The adventure clocks in at 4 pages, including the cover. It fits easily on a single sheet of paper if printed in booklet format. There is no artwork, and the 2 column formatting is easy to read. The layout is such that it could probably be reduced to 2 pages without much difficulty.

The political/economic background, though sparse, hints at a rich possibilities. If you enjoy intrigue in your roleplaying games Samore’s Daughter does offer a lot of room to further develop in that direction.

Overall this adventure doesn’t really offer anything new. On the other hand it is just the sort of back pocket idea that a DM can use for a pickup game if caught completely unprepared. I do think that it should either be tightened up a little bit, or expanded so that it fills 3 pages. Also, is the guy a baron or a duke?

North Battlement Sector (for Terminal Space)
by Chris Robert

North Battlement Sector is more of a mini campaign setting with numerous plot hooks than a proper adventure. Of the 100 hexes in the sector only 6 contain planetary systems, while 20+ are covered by a massive dust cloud. One of the systems is unreachable due to a local phenomena that prevents FTL travel, while another is an imperial garden world that really doesn’t welcome visitors, and another is a demon infested treasure trove, further limiting the number of places actually available for adventure.

The setting clocks in at 6 pages, plus a paragraph pushing it to 7 pages, plus a map. There is no artwork (except for the map on the last page), and the 2 column formatting is workable and easy to read.

The overall vibe of the setting is a fairly desolate and lawless. Of the 6 systems, only 3 are really usable, and the dust cloud only offers a 5% chance of an interesting encounter every day. The interesting things that are going on in the sector are definitely worth plundering, but I wouldn’t use this sector without fleshing it out considerably more.

The Disappearance of Harold the Hedge Mage
by Todd Hughes

This is a low level location based adventure for ADnD set in a rural village, the nearby forest, and an abandoned mine. The adventure is 17 pages long, including the cover and 4 pages of maps. Two of the maps detail the mine, while the other two are the local area around the village, and a cottage floorplan. None of the maps have a scale or key, and the dungeon maps have a significant excess of black, which makes me cringe at the printing this out full sized. I added a blank page after the cover to facilitate booklet printing. The cover has the modules only piece of artwork, a passably done scene from the dungeon.

The adventure itself involves the investigation of the disappearance of the local hedge mage, first by getting clues around the village, then moving on to the mages cottage, and then to the mines. The vibe is typical fantasy, with nothing in particular to distinguish it, or help it stand out. The twist at the end was unexpected, but if I was a player, I’d hate it.

I had real issues with the way the adventure is written. It’s very linear, and the spots that seem like they might give you a chance to make a significant choice all bring you to exactly the same spot. I also disliked that the description of each location is written like boxed text.

The Warlock’s Digest of Dungeon Dwelling Denizens
by bliss_infinte of The Warlocks Home Brew

As described in his blog post this is “a no frills old school monster statistical reference in digest format. It lists the stats only for all the monsters published in the Swords & Wizardry Core rules with a couple others monsters that I've used in my campaign thrown in. It sports ascending and descending armor class so it should be helpful in most old school style games.”

That description sums it up pretty well. In going through it the only thing I noticed was that some of the headings seemed unnecessary. For instance, under F there are only giant frogs. There are 4 different giant frogs, and giving it a specific heading seems redundant.

Also the Ballroch Demon is repeated.

Aside from that, it’s a really nice quick reference. I especially appreciate that it is formatted specifically to be digest sized.

Star Frigate 'Tower of the Archmage'

2011-10-07T06:00:00.000-04:00

I can't even come close to justifying $30 for a miniature of this, but it's still cool.

You can make your own design by clicking on this link: http://ship.shapewright.com/?name=Tower+of+the+Archmage and entering whatever name you want!

Skeletal Sisters

2011-10-06T06:00:00.000-04:00

The nights had grown long, and the wind cold when Rathgar and Feris entered the walled town. With sword and wand at the ready they passed through the open and unguarded gates, and down the stone road toward the main square. Houses were dark, and shuttered tight. No smoke spiraled up from the chimneys, and the only sound was the dry leaves fallen from the trees rustling in the gutters.

“Where is everyone?” Rathgar asked. “They were all here yesterday, and tonight...”

“Let’s just find Allianora and Nimble. Come on, the inn’s just up ah-” Feris froze. “Do you hear that?”

A soft shuffling sound was coming from up ahead, and the soft glow of candle light began to brighten an alley.

Rathgar looked around. The large stone buildings loomed on either side of the street, their ornate facades offering deep nooks and deeper shadows.“Hide!” Rathgar hissed, pushing Feris toward the side of one of the ornate staircases.

Crouching down, they peaked over the railing and saw a troop of candle holding robed priestesses making their way around the corner. It took a moment before Rathgar and Feris realized that they were all skeletons dressed in the robes of the sisters.

The skeletons’ slipper clad feet gently shuffled past. Feris and Rathgar waited for the candle light to fade before they crept out of their hiding place. Looking down the road in the direction the Skeletal Sisters they saw the candle light disappearing around a corner. With a deep sigh of relief the pair turned to continue toward the inn.

A single Skeletal Sister stood in the road, the candle light from its slim taper flickered across the smooth surface of her skull.

“Gods!” Feris gasped.

The hollow sockets of her eyes stared at them, and a cold chill seemed to grab their spines before the blackness of her eyes swallowed them.

Rathgar opened his eyes, feeling stiff and cold. The noonday sun filled the room with warming light, but he still shivered. Allianora leaned over him. “Don’t try to move. It’s going to be a bit before we can make you better.”

Skeletal Sisters
Armor Class: 7
Hit Dice: 7*
Move: 120’ (40’)
Attacks: Special
Damage: Special
No. Appearing: 3d12 (3d6)
Save As: C8
Morale: 12
Treasure Type: Nil
Intelligence: Nil
Alignment: Neutral
XP Value: 850

Skeletal Priestesses are a special type of undead that haunt locations that are for whatever reason chosen of one of the various moon goddesses. These are always urban locations, and on the night of the first new moon of the autumnal season the sisters walk the streets. Anyone encountering the sisters must make a saving throw vs paralysis at a -4 or fall unconscious until the sun reaches its zenith. In addition the character will suffer a -2 penalty to all rolls until the moon is full. If female characters fail their first save, they must also make a saving throw vs Death Ray or become a Skeletal Sister.

Skeletal Sisters are turned as Phantoms.

Short Adventure Wrap Up

2011-10-04T06:00:00.018-04:00

When I first read about /Matt’s OSR Challenge - A September of Short Adventures back in July, I thought it was a neat idea, and I’m pretty sure I marked it to think about and come back to. I think that had /Matt not continued to post, remind, poke, bother, and generally cut through the noise and clutter of my blog roll, I would have missed it. As it was, through most of August my thoughts were not on the challenge, and I hadn’t signed up. In fact, I think I only signed up a couple of days before the challenge began, and the reason is that I had an idea. For some reason I was thinking about Lassie, and how Timmy always ended up in precarious situations, and then I thought of an adventure title: All’s well that ends well. Of course I had this idea while getting ready for bed. Ignoring that, I grabbed my notebook, and flipped to a blank page.

I started writing down titles and ideas. Short ones, only a line or so each, flowing from a village to a town to a city, then on to the wilderness, and then to the realms of the immortals. Threads, in the form of the Dawnstone and Twilight Stone wove through the adventures.

Original Notes Page 1

I was purposely pushing myself with the adventures after the first dozen or so to tackle high level play. It’s never been my strong suit, and I wanted to see how I could handle it in this format. As you can see, the end result didn’t turn out exactly as planned, though I did manage to keep the basic ideas of most of the adventures.

The first adventures were written very quickly, and it gave me a bit of a buffer at the start, but after the first dozen things started getting a little more complex and I had to work harder at it. Many of the later adventures were written the night before they went live, and even still I wasn’t able to get adventure 25 posted before the official end of the challenge.

Original Notes Page 2

Actually, that isn’t true. Technically I could have posted it on the night of 9/30, but I really do try to keep to one post a day that goes live around 6am. I find that it’s good to have a schedule, and to try to keep to it.

All in all I have to say that like the Sample Dungeon project, the A to Z Challenge, and the various RPG Blog Carnivals that I’ve involved myself in, the September of Short Adventures has been an interesting exercise and I’m glad I participated. Like those previous projects there is a strong temptation to go back and tweak it based not only on what I wrote later in the challenge (I’d have made both the Dawnstone and Twilight Stone threads stronger) but also a bit on what others in the challenge did.

Sunday Inspirational Image - Scarecrow

2011-10-02T06:00:00.002-04:00

Halloween is coming...

The Beginning's End

2011-10-01T06:00:00.008-04:00

This is the final adventure of 25 that is roughly designed to take characters from level 1 to 25 that I have shared over the month of September. These posts have been a part of Asshat Paladin's OSR Short Adventure Challenge, and utilize his Get Ready, Get Set, Go! format.

I hope you've enjoyed the series, and have checked out the other blogs participating in the challenge. There's a lot of really inventive, innovative, and imaginative stuff that's come out of this challenge, and it's worth your time to read through it.

I'll be publishing a PDF of my posts, cleaned up and tweaked shortly. I will also be sharing my original notes, and comparing them to the finished product. It's interesting (to me at least) how things developed from those first 2 pages. And I'm going to do a review of all the participants sometime this month.

Finally, a big Thank You to the /Matt, the Asshat Paladin himself for organizing the challenge. It's been a lot of fun!

The Beginning's End
A Get Ready, Get Set, Go! Classic D+D adventure set in The Big Generic City

Get Ready:
With magic restored one of the New Lords of Hell, an Unseelie Fairy Lord decides to take advantage of the chaos in the mortal realm. With the Immortals still missing, who will stop him?

Get Set:
The barriers between the worlds are back to normal, and magic is flowing back into the mortal realm. However with the renewed magics come renewed threats. Shortly after returning to The City a Gate opens in the Main Square, and out steps Madoc Morfryn, King of the Unseelie Court, Lord of Hell, wearing red gothic plate armor with a black bat winged cloak, and bearing a thin long sword. Madoc promptly claims The City as part of his expanding empire, and the current seat of the Wild Hunt.

Various creatures, including a green dragon will come to the city to serve, and the city will be slowly transformed by the fay and demons of the Wild Hunt into a twisted version of the Fay realm.

Go!:
Madoc is not concerned about open conflict, as his Wild Hunt is vast and powerful. He isn’t interested in destroying The City or its inhabitants either. He will treat the PCs as worthy nobles, and invite them to his court.

While the demons don’t really care about working with the fay, the fay hate working with the demons, and only do so at Madoc’s bidding. Specifically the Wild Huntsman is barely kept in check about the situation, and if given the opportunity will lead the Wild Hunt against the demons.

The Seelie Court dislikes the situation as well, but due to Madoc’s demons they’re unwilling to get involved. The Caretaker currently has his hands full with demons.

Defeating Madoc will cause the Twilight Stone to glow brighter and brighter. The Caretaker will appear to welcome the PCs back into the Heavens as the first of the New Immortals!

Important NPCs:
Madoc Morfryn, King of the Unseelie Court, Lord of Hell (AC -5, HD 20, HP 160, Attacks: 2 Sword (2d8+8) or Wizard Spell (5, 5, 4, 3, 1) or Force Blast (2d6+6+push+trip), Morale 12, Causes Fear/Awe, Immune to +2 weapons (except cold iron)
Wild Huntsman (AC -2, HD 17, Attacks: 1 Spear (2d4+9+stun) or Bow (4d4+5) or Druid Spells (4, 3, 3, 2, 1), Morale 12, Causes Fear, Immune to +1 weapons (except cold iron)
Green Dragon, Huge
Fay of the Wild Hunt (varies)
Demons (varies)
Citizens of The City (mostly normal humans)

Putting It All Back Together Again

2011-09-30T06:00:00.003-04:00

This is adventure 24 of 25 that is roughly designed to take characters from level 1 to 25 that I will be sharing over the month of September. These posts are a part of Asshat Paladin's OSR Short Adventure Challenge, and utilize his Get Ready, Get Set, Go! format.

Putting It All Back Together Again
A Get Ready, Get Set, Go! Classic D+D adventure set in Heaven and Hell

Get Ready:
In order to fix the mortal realm the PCs need to hatch the Egg of the Dragon… in the fires of Hell!

Get Set:
The Final Chamber of the Temple Basement contains the spirits of The Dragon and her Mate. They tell the PCs that their offspring needs to be hatched, and returned to the mortal realm. In order to allow the egg to develop it must be warmed in the fires of Hell. Conveniently there is a direct Gate between the two. Souls get mixed up sometimes. It happens. The Gate is however highly militarized, and with the loss of the immortals on both sides, the troops are disinclined to let some mortals just walk on through.

The PCs might also have access to Gate Magic, however incursions into Hell (be the living) are generally met with resistance. Of course, Hell is a big place, and most of the Demons and Devils are rather upset by their missing Lords. They express this upset by trying to become the New Lords of Hell. Because of this Hell is a much more chaotic place than it usually is.

Once in Hell the PCs will need to find a nice quiet spot to warm the Egg.

Go!:
Negotiating with Devils is always a chancy prospect. They will drive a very hard bargain, especially as they don’t see much point in letting the PCs in. On the other hand, if the PCs offer something of remarkable value, they just might be willing.

Keeping the Egg in Hellfire for an hour will be enough to get it to hatch. And when it does, it's an orb of blazing blueish white light that says "Thank you" before whiting out everything. When the PCs' eyes clear, they're back in the main square of The City.

Important NPCs:
New Lords of Hell (Various)
Devils
Demons

Fallen Idols

2011-09-29T06:00:00.008-04:00

This is adventure 23 of 25 that is roughly designed to take characters from level 1 to 25 that I will be sharing over the month of September. These posts are a part of Asshat Paladin's OSR Short Adventure Challenge, and utilize his Get Ready, Get Set, Go! format.

Fallen Idols
A Get Ready, Get Set, Go! Classic D+D adventure set in anywhere

Get Ready:
Around the Ruby magic works, but the immortals remain silent.

Get Set:
The effects of the shattering of the Orb of Magic continue to reverberate. Despair, fear, and panic seem to pervade wherever the PCs go. They will be begged to investigate the silence of the immortals. They will even be offered Gate scrolls to travel to the heavens and find out.

Presuming the PCs are just as anxious to get access to divine magic back, when they use the gate they arrive in a land that appears to be endless fields, forests, blue skys, etc. with sparks of light floating lazily about (souls). Great palace-temples litter the landscape. Everything seems deserted, and an odd stillness oppresses the otherwise heavenly environment.

After some time exploring they will encounter an Archeron who calls himself the Caretaker. He will explain that the immortals have all vanished, and with them most of their servants. He says that hell is in much the same condition, though there seem to be more demons remaining as compared to heavenly servants. The only thing that’s new is a temple foundation where there wasn’t one before.

Go!:
The temple foundation has a doorway leading down. Within the PCs will find a strange dungeon with various beings they’ve encountered before.

Important NPCs:
Whichever NPCs were most memorable for the PCs are the ones that should be chosen, also any dead x-PCs.

Fractured

2011-09-28T06:00:00.003-04:00

This is adventure 22 of 25 that is roughly designed to take characters from level 1 to 25 that I will be sharing over the month of September. These posts are a part of Asshat Paladin's OSR Short Adventure Challenge, and utilize his Get Ready, Get Set, Go! format.

Fractured
A Get Ready, Get Set, Go! Classic D+D adventure set anywhere

Get Ready:
The Orb of Magic has been destroyed, and the wall dividing the mortal realm has been sealed… completely!

Get Set:
In the aftermath of the destruction of the Orb of Magic all magic seems to have left the world. By the time the PC’s make it back to civilization everyone is in an uproar. Undead fall silent, constructs become unresponsive, and magic items no longer function. In addition spells fade from memory, and prayers go unanswered. The only thing that retains any touch of magic is the Twilight Stone which still pulses with an amber light.

The Twilight Stone will pulse differently, depending on which direction it is pointed when held. If the PCs follow the pulsing it takes them out over the mountains where the Dragon and her Mate were killed and into a secluded valley. Along the way the PCs will encounter various people and monsters, including:

A band of hobgoblins convinced that this is the end of times, and will see it at the end of a sword
A monastery, the monks all dead by suicide but one who didn’t have the conviction of his brothers
A dryad who can’t return to her tree
3 ogre statues standing around an iron pot full of stones and water.

Go!:
The Twilight Stone will eventually bring the PCs to a large cave. Within the cave is a flow of lava, and on a small island in the middle of the flow, connected by a fallen column of rock is a ruby the size of a soccer ball, hot (but not scalding) to the touch and glowing with an inner light. The Ruby is protected by a Lavaserpent. Around the Ruby, (non-clerical) magic works!

The light of the Twilight Stone shifts from pulsing amber to a steady soft pink.

Important NPCs:
Brother Jacobi (Mystic 4)
Karyai (Nymph)
Lavaserpent (AC 5, HD 9, Attacks 1 Bite (3d4+4) or 1 Lava Spit every 5 rounds (30’x10’ - 4d6+ongoing 1d6 damage x 1d4 rounds), Morale 12)

Breaking the World

2011-09-27T06:00:00.003-04:00

This is adventure 21 of 25 that is roughly designed to take characters from level 1 to 25 that I will be sharing over the month of September. These posts are a part of Asshat Paladin's OSR Short Adventure Challenge, and utilize his Get Ready, Get Set, Go! format.

Breaking the World
A Get Ready, Get Set, Go! Classic D+D adventure set in the Mountainous Wilderness

Get Ready:
The Mate of the Dragon is out for revenge against the whole world. He has stolen the Orb of Magic from the immortals and is using it to shred the wall between the worlds.

Get Set:
Various divinations will reveal that the Mate can now be found above the mountains near the Dragon’s lair. Upon returning to the mountains a great swirling storm rages. Flying through the hurricane force winds and around bolts of lightning is a flock of vicious gryphons. High above, on top of the clouds is a huge castle. Standing on the top of the highest tower, hundreds of feet above the top of the clouds, is a Giant, bigger than any the PCs ever seen before. With him is a swirling crystal orb that he manipulates, causing waves of distortion to flow outward.

Go!:
The Mate isn’t actually evil, he’s just grieving. He will recognize the PCs as the Dragon’s killers, and will rage against them. He knows that she was corrupted, but he loved her anyway. It may be possible to calm him, but difficult. Whether the PCs can resolve the encounter peacefully or by violence, the Orb is out of the Mate’s control.

Magic has become wildly unpredictable. For spells: 1-2 Random Spell, 3-4 normal, 5-8 more powerful, 9 powerful+ backlash, 10 random spell effect + backlash, roll every time a spell is cast. Potions all become poison, charged items use 1d3-1 charges per use – yes, sometimes they’ll use no charge! Items with a flat bonus all become one step more powerful; +3 becomes +4.

If the Mate is killed the Orb will pulse with a greater and greater frequency until the waves flowing off it are almost constant. The barrier between worlds will collapse, and the fay realm will merge with the mortal world, and doorways between this realm and others (including hell) will open wide.

If the Mate is subdued or talked down (aka not killed), the Orb will still begin to pulse more rapidly (after a short while as he will exert some control upon the Orb). When it becomes too much to control he will grab the Orb, and leap from the castle down into the volcano below. The resulting explosion will send the castle careening down towards the mountain.

The Gryphons are unaffected by the winds!

Important NPCs:
Gryphons (AC 3, HD 7, Fly: 360’ (120’), Attacks: 2 Claw (1d8) 1 Bite (2d8), Morale 10)
Mate (AC 0, HD 20, Attacks: 1 Ax (5d10) or Magical Blast (3d10+Level Drain), Morale 11)

Please Stand By

2011-09-26T06:00:00.000-04:00

I spent Sunday dealing with a cold, food poisoning, and a paper for my masters program. Today's adventure will be posted this evening.

Spoils of Victory?

2011-09-25T06:00:00.005-04:00

This is adventure 20 of 25 that is roughly designed to take characters from level 1 to 25 that I will be sharing over the month of September. These posts are a part of Asshat Paladin's OSR Short Adventure Challenge, and utilize his Get Ready, Get Set, Go! format.

Spoils of Victory?
A Get Ready, Get Set, Go! Classic D+D adventure set in The Big Generic City

Get Ready:
With the death of the Dragon things should be back to normal, but the Fay realm is colliding with the mortal world...

Get Set:
Upon returning to The Big Generic City things are better... shockingly better. Most of the damage seems to have been repaired, and in fact things are even better than they were. Everything seems bigger, brighter, more colorful. Fay creatures seem to be bustling around but can only be spotted out of the corner of the PCs eyes. Strange monsters seem to be appearing all over as well.

Go!:
The Fay Court is taking advantage of the weakened barrier between the mortal realm and the land of the fay. The people of The Big Generic City haven't noticed, as they are being turned into fay beings themselves!

Magic continues to be wonky. For spells: 1-2 less powerful, 3-5 normal, 6-9 more powerful+ backlash, 10 random spell effect, roll every time a spell is cast. Potions all become poison, charged items use 1d3-1 charges per use – yes, sometimes they’ll use no charge! Items with a flat bonus all become one step less powerful, +3 becomes +2, +1 items become non-magical!

The PC's investigations will reveal that the Dragon had mate, and that his death should restore the divide between the mortal realm and the Fay realm.

Important NPCs:
Nobles of the Fay Court

To Hear the Lamentations of the Flame Princess

2011-09-24T06:00:00.002-04:00

This is adventure 19 of 25 that is roughly designed to take characters from level 1 to 25 that I will be sharing over the month of September. These posts are a part of Asshat Paladin's OSR Short Adventure Challenge, and utilize his Get Ready, Get Set, Go! format.

To Hear the Lamentations of the Flame Princess (with apologies to Mr. Raggi)
A Get Ready, Get Set, Go! Classic D+D adventure set in The Mountainous Wilderness

Get Ready:
The Dragon has been driven from the town, and flown off to the mountains. The storms continue however, and continue spreading. Her influence must be stopped!

Get Set:
For as long as anyone can remember, the mountains have never even rumbled, but the Dragon's presence has warped the world and lava now flows from one of the peaks. Getting to her lair will be difficult.

Go!:
The ground constantly rumbles on the mountain, and a snow storm rages.

Magical energies are fluctuating (Spells, roll 1d10 - 1 less powerful, 2-4 normal, 5-8 more powerful, 9-10 more powerful + backlash, roll once per round), potions all become poison, charged items use 1d3-1 charges per use – yes, sometimes they’ll use no charge! Items with a flat bonus are more stable.

The death of the Dragon will cause the storms to blow themselves quickly out, but the lava will continue to flow. Her lair will contain significant quantities of uncut gems

Important NPCs:
Frenzied Demonic Dragon (AC -6, HD22, Attacks Ground: 2 claw/1bite (4d4, 4d4/6d6+6) Flying: Swoop, Crush, or Hover, Spells (5, 5, 5, 4, 3), Demonfire Breath - 180’x30’(current hp damage), Morale 12)

For those keeping track, this is post #500!

How Do You Lay Siege To A Dragon?

2011-09-23T06:00:00.001-04:00

This is adventure 18 of 25 that is roughly designed to take characters from level 1 to 25 that I will be sharing over the month of September. These posts are a part of Asshat Paladin's OSR Short Adventure Challenge, and utilize his Get Ready, Get Set, Go! format.

How Do You Lay Siege To A Dragon?
A Get Ready, Get Set, Go! Classic D+D adventure set in and around The Big Generic City

Get Ready:
Having chased the dragon across the wilderness, it has arrived in The Big Generic City, and has taken up residence in the castle in the center of town.

Get Set:
In addition to the new draconic overlord, the town is also dealing with constant violent storms since the dragon’s arrival, and they’re getting worse. The king is marching his army to the town to attempt to deal with the creature.

Go!:
The King is perfectly willing to sacrifice The City and the army he sent if it’ll save the rest of his domain. The army includes Exeter, a lieutenant of the King who has been instructed to negotiate with the dragon.

Magical energies are fluctuating (1-2 less powerful, 3-5 normal, 6-9 more powerful, 10 more powerful + backlash, roll once per round).

If the PC's didn't go to war with the hobgoblin army, they may be available to assist. However the PCs decide to deal with the dragon, remind them that there are still lots of terrified civilians in the city and that the city may not be the best location to deal with the dragon once and for all.

Important NPCs:
Exeter (F14, King’s signet ring, broach of protection from dragon’s breath, sword+5/+8 vs Dragons)
Frenzied Demonic Dragon (AC -6, HD22, Attacks Ground: 2 claw/1bite (4d4, 4d4/6d6+6) Flying: Swoop, Crush, or Hover, Spells (5, 5, 5, 4, 3), Demonfire Breath - 180’x30’(current hp damage), Morale 10) – The Dragon will flee the city if reduced to half her hit points.

Red Sky at Morning

2011-09-22T20:02:00.000-04:00

This is adventure 17 of 25 that is roughly designed to take characters from level 1 to 25 that I will be sharing over the month of September. These posts are a part of Asshat Paladin's OSR Short Adventure Challenge, and utilize his Get Ready, Get Set, Go! format.

Red Sky at Morning
A Get Ready, Get Set, Go! Classic D+D adventure set in the PC’s lands

Get Ready:
The Lords of Hell left the PC’s a parting gift as they sealed the Hellmouth – A Dragon!

Get Set:
Trapped for eons by the Lords of Hell the dragon is more corrupt than any other of its kind that currently walks the world. Corrupt, and angry beyond reason! The dragon will begin its rampage near the PC’s domain, and then turn to more civilized lands. It’s up to the PC’s to stop it.

Go!:
The dragon will aim for soft targets, causing as much pain and destruction along the way as possible. While beyond reason, it will do its best to keep ahead of the PCs, realizing the danger they pose. The dragon is heading toward The Big Generic City, and will not remain engaged the PCs. There will be near constant storms in the wake of the Dragon.

Important NPCs:
Frenzied Demonic Dragon (AC -6, HD22, Attacks Ground: 2 claw/1bite (4d4, 4d4/6d6+6) Flying: Swoop, Crush, or Hover, Spells (5, 5, 5, 4, 3), Demonfire Breath - 180’x30’(current hp damage), Morale 10)