On the other hand, I have finished several up over the last couple of days.
She has golden eyes...
It's a little hard to tell, but his armor is purple
Thursday, February 19, 2015
#6MMRPC General Update
Nearing the end of the official challenge. I've been lousy with the updates, and only somewhat better actually reducing the mountain. While I've managed to paint 47 minis over the last several months, and refrained from buying any, Bone II arrived increasing my total number of minis by 207! But since I bought them back in 2013, they don't count... right?
On the other hand, I have finished several up over the last couple of days.
More and better pictures to come...
On the other hand, I have finished several up over the last couple of days.
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Saying Nope to PiRats! 5e WNW
Session 8 of the weird new world campaign was played on Friday 2/13
The party consisted of the following:
Verdt, 1/2 Elf Wizard 3 (John)
Nessendra, Wood Elf Cleric 3 (Erindale)
Kethra, Human Fighter 3 (Nikki)
Bach, Dragonborn Warlock 3 (Erik)
Riia, Human Ranger 3 (Hanna)
Guy Noir, ½ Elf Rogue 2 (Nadia)
Anya Bowen, Tiefling Ranger 2 (Allison)
Special Rule of the Night: Critical Hits occur on a natural 13, not 20
After disposing of the bodies in the mud, Guy wrote a note explaining that the two scouts had fallen in love and were running away together, complete with little hearts about the i's. The note was stuck to a tree, for the next group of scouts to find. Riia, Guy, and Anya then scouted the perimeter of the lair, and I provided the map below.
Returning to the rest of the party, they told them what happened, including the were-rat bites, and about the lair. They sat down over a meal of trail rations and discussed their options.
Here things moved out of game, and we all had a discussion about how I'm running this game, namely as a sandbox. If they opt to leave, the pirates will do their thing, but the lair will still be here if they come back. It won't magically scale to match whatever level they are at, and there is in fact no guarantee that they're of a high enough level to tackle it now.
The party opted to skip the lair for now, and head upriver to Coruvon, the town they've heard a little about. I'm taking some inspiration from both Dyson and Michael Curtis for this... but that's for another post.
So in true old school wilderness travel mode, I checked for random encounters using the Rules Cyclopedia encounter charts. Their first encounter was during the first night. Off in the distance Anya spied some short grey humanoids with round black eyes and large batlike ears. They seemed more curious than threatening, but Anya woke Verdt, who promptly cast dancing lights and fell back to sleep. The wyre-lights caused the creatures to scatter back into the darkness.
Around noon the next day, and the party continued up the muddy riverside, they spotted a large reptilian form in the river. It spotted them back. Bach greeted it in draconic, and the dragon lazily lifted itself from the water and chatted with him. The rest of the party slunk back into the trees away from the river's edge. Bach and the dragon Blightfang conversed, and with a series of remarkably good reaction rolls, managed to secure passage through Blightfang's territory for a toll and a promise to sing her praises when they reach Coruvon.
Further upriver, later that same afternoon the party came to an abandoned structure built right on the edge of the river, similar to the one the pirates occupied, but much smaller. The exterior was covered with mostly weathered carvings, but a panel with a large horned cyclopean being attacking smaller humanoids was found. There was a single bronze door which Bach and Kethra managed to lift to knee height, but triggered a trap that blasted sand, knocking Kethra down face first. Nessendra wedged a stone block under the open door, and all but Anya slipped under the door.
The interior of the temple/tomb was a single large room with numerous alcoves. In the center of the chamber stood a statue of the the same creature found on the carving, it's single eyeball taking up the vast majority of the thing's head. As they began to creep into the chamber, 4 skeletons matching the statue step forth. flanking the party on either side. Nessendra managed to turn 2 of them, but the remaining two still hit like a ton of bricks, knocking Riia into unconsciousness.
Anya, watching from outside, and sniping with her bow, notices that from down river Blightfang watches. Anya decides that bring inside the stone temple full of cyclopean skeletons and her friends is better than being outside alone with a dragon!
Eventually the two active skeletons are destroyed, and the two turned ones I handwave as they were already damaged, and still had a significant amount of time before the turning ended.
What will the party do now, with Blightfang watching from about a quarter mile down river?? What will Blightfang do?? I'll find out on Friday!
The party consisted of the following:
Verdt, 1/2 Elf Wizard 3 (John)
Nessendra, Wood Elf Cleric 3 (Erindale)
Kethra, Human Fighter 3 (Nikki)
Bach, Dragonborn Warlock 3 (Erik)
Riia, Human Ranger 3 (Hanna)
Guy Noir, ½ Elf Rogue 2 (Nadia)
Anya Bowen, Tiefling Ranger 2 (Allison)
Special Rule of the Night: Critical Hits occur on a natural 13, not 20
After disposing of the bodies in the mud, Guy wrote a note explaining that the two scouts had fallen in love and were running away together, complete with little hearts about the i's. The note was stuck to a tree, for the next group of scouts to find. Riia, Guy, and Anya then scouted the perimeter of the lair, and I provided the map below.
Returning to the rest of the party, they told them what happened, including the were-rat bites, and about the lair. They sat down over a meal of trail rations and discussed their options.
Here things moved out of game, and we all had a discussion about how I'm running this game, namely as a sandbox. If they opt to leave, the pirates will do their thing, but the lair will still be here if they come back. It won't magically scale to match whatever level they are at, and there is in fact no guarantee that they're of a high enough level to tackle it now.
The party opted to skip the lair for now, and head upriver to Coruvon, the town they've heard a little about. I'm taking some inspiration from both Dyson and Michael Curtis for this... but that's for another post.
So in true old school wilderness travel mode, I checked for random encounters using the Rules Cyclopedia encounter charts. Their first encounter was during the first night. Off in the distance Anya spied some short grey humanoids with round black eyes and large batlike ears. They seemed more curious than threatening, but Anya woke Verdt, who promptly cast dancing lights and fell back to sleep. The wyre-lights caused the creatures to scatter back into the darkness.
Around noon the next day, and the party continued up the muddy riverside, they spotted a large reptilian form in the river. It spotted them back. Bach greeted it in draconic, and the dragon lazily lifted itself from the water and chatted with him. The rest of the party slunk back into the trees away from the river's edge. Bach and the dragon Blightfang conversed, and with a series of remarkably good reaction rolls, managed to secure passage through Blightfang's territory for a toll and a promise to sing her praises when they reach Coruvon.
Further upriver, later that same afternoon the party came to an abandoned structure built right on the edge of the river, similar to the one the pirates occupied, but much smaller. The exterior was covered with mostly weathered carvings, but a panel with a large horned cyclopean being attacking smaller humanoids was found. There was a single bronze door which Bach and Kethra managed to lift to knee height, but triggered a trap that blasted sand, knocking Kethra down face first. Nessendra wedged a stone block under the open door, and all but Anya slipped under the door.
The interior of the temple/tomb was a single large room with numerous alcoves. In the center of the chamber stood a statue of the the same creature found on the carving, it's single eyeball taking up the vast majority of the thing's head. As they began to creep into the chamber, 4 skeletons matching the statue step forth. flanking the party on either side. Nessendra managed to turn 2 of them, but the remaining two still hit like a ton of bricks, knocking Riia into unconsciousness.
Anya, watching from outside, and sniping with her bow, notices that from down river Blightfang watches. Anya decides that bring inside the stone temple full of cyclopean skeletons and her friends is better than being outside alone with a dragon!
Eventually the two active skeletons are destroyed, and the two turned ones I handwave as they were already damaged, and still had a significant amount of time before the turning ended.
What will the party do now, with Blightfang watching from about a quarter mile down river?? What will Blightfang do?? I'll find out on Friday!
Monday, February 16, 2015
The Troll & Toad and Were-Pi-Rats - 5e WNW
Session 7 of the weird new world campaign was played on Friday 2/6
The party consisted of the following:
Verdt, 1/2 Elf Wizard 3 (John)
Nessendra, Wood Elf Cleric 3 (Erindale)
Kethra, Human Fighter 3 (Nikki)
Bach, Dragonborn Warlock 3 (Erik)
Riia, Human Ranger 3 (Hanna)
Guy Noir, ½ Elf Rogue 2 (Nadia)
Anya Bowen, Tiefling Ranger 2 (Allison)
Things in town were subdued, as everything basically shut down for the funeral of the children. The general opinion of the party was somewhat lowered in the eyes of the Sheriff, and so the party began to investigate a means to get to the pirate lair. Walking through the swamp was doable, but slow and gross. Getting a boat was doable, and Guy was strongly in favor of borrowing a boat to do just that. The fact that none of them knew how to pilot a riverboat was something of an obstacle that the rest of the group decided wasn't worth dealing with. Instead they hired a boat to take them to within a few miles of the lair, drop them off, and then come back and check on them in a couple of days. THe riverboat captain, Marty, wasn't really thrilled with the idea of taking them that close to the pirates, and demanded extra for the trip. Guy negotiated a reduction in that rate in exchange for his services during the trip.
The rest of the party tried to remain as far from the wheelhouse as possible during these services.
A couple of hours into the trip, as the party dozed on deck, the boat rocked violently, and a large green-skinned female humanoid lept onto the side of the boat, reaching over to grab at Verdt. She missed, and the party lept into action, hacking at the creatures rubbery skin, They were dismayed to see her wounds knit together during the fight. Once Verdt got out of the creatures reach, his flamebolt spell proved immensely useful. But while everyone was distracted, Nessendra found her midsection wrapped on a great purple tongue, while she was pulled toward the opposite side of the boat by a giant toad. Freeing herself from the tongue with a great flexing of her arms, she then smashed the creature with a sacred flame, knocking it back into the water. With the toad driven off, the party finished hacking the troll apart. Verdt then spent minutes making sure every bit of flesh was scorched before kicking the chunks of burnt troll off the deck.
Toward sunset, the party made landfall, and began setting up camp to rest for the night. Riia, Guy, and Anya scouted toward the pirate lair, trudging through the muck of the swamp. Just beyond the lair, they stumbled across two pirates on patrol outside of the lair. Unseen, they decided to take them out. Anya and Riia readied their bows, while Guy snuck in close. The two arrows sent the one pirate stumbling, badly injured. Guy's sword went right through the other's guts. However, rather than reacting with the agonized gurgling he was expecting, the pirate looked over his shoulder at him and sneered. Then he began to transform into his hybrid form, and bit Guy.
Lacking silver or magic, Riia and Anya still charged in, and hacked ineffectively at the ratman. Quickly realizing the futility of that strategy, they switched tactics, and instead piled on top of him, and held his face in the mud until the struggling ended. During the fight, everyone ended up wounded, but in the chaos of it all, was anyone else bit? And just how infectious is lycanthropy?
The party consisted of the following:
Verdt, 1/2 Elf Wizard 3 (John)
Nessendra, Wood Elf Cleric 3 (Erindale)
Kethra, Human Fighter 3 (Nikki)
Bach, Dragonborn Warlock 3 (Erik)
Riia, Human Ranger 3 (Hanna)
Guy Noir, ½ Elf Rogue 2 (Nadia)
Anya Bowen, Tiefling Ranger 2 (Allison)
Things in town were subdued, as everything basically shut down for the funeral of the children. The general opinion of the party was somewhat lowered in the eyes of the Sheriff, and so the party began to investigate a means to get to the pirate lair. Walking through the swamp was doable, but slow and gross. Getting a boat was doable, and Guy was strongly in favor of borrowing a boat to do just that. The fact that none of them knew how to pilot a riverboat was something of an obstacle that the rest of the group decided wasn't worth dealing with. Instead they hired a boat to take them to within a few miles of the lair, drop them off, and then come back and check on them in a couple of days. THe riverboat captain, Marty, wasn't really thrilled with the idea of taking them that close to the pirates, and demanded extra for the trip. Guy negotiated a reduction in that rate in exchange for his services during the trip.
The rest of the party tried to remain as far from the wheelhouse as possible during these services.
A couple of hours into the trip, as the party dozed on deck, the boat rocked violently, and a large green-skinned female humanoid lept onto the side of the boat, reaching over to grab at Verdt. She missed, and the party lept into action, hacking at the creatures rubbery skin, They were dismayed to see her wounds knit together during the fight. Once Verdt got out of the creatures reach, his flamebolt spell proved immensely useful. But while everyone was distracted, Nessendra found her midsection wrapped on a great purple tongue, while she was pulled toward the opposite side of the boat by a giant toad. Freeing herself from the tongue with a great flexing of her arms, she then smashed the creature with a sacred flame, knocking it back into the water. With the toad driven off, the party finished hacking the troll apart. Verdt then spent minutes making sure every bit of flesh was scorched before kicking the chunks of burnt troll off the deck.
Toward sunset, the party made landfall, and began setting up camp to rest for the night. Riia, Guy, and Anya scouted toward the pirate lair, trudging through the muck of the swamp. Just beyond the lair, they stumbled across two pirates on patrol outside of the lair. Unseen, they decided to take them out. Anya and Riia readied their bows, while Guy snuck in close. The two arrows sent the one pirate stumbling, badly injured. Guy's sword went right through the other's guts. However, rather than reacting with the agonized gurgling he was expecting, the pirate looked over his shoulder at him and sneered. Then he began to transform into his hybrid form, and bit Guy.
Lacking silver or magic, Riia and Anya still charged in, and hacked ineffectively at the ratman. Quickly realizing the futility of that strategy, they switched tactics, and instead piled on top of him, and held his face in the mud until the struggling ended. During the fight, everyone ended up wounded, but in the chaos of it all, was anyone else bit? And just how infectious is lycanthropy?
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Saturday, February 14, 2015
Thursday, February 12, 2015
New Monster: Goatman
The bowl-like depression blasted into the peak of the mountain was massive, and ringed by stone pillars. A fire burned atop each pillar, wreathing the area in flickering light and dancing shadows. At the center of the depression squatted a stone altar that seemed to be continually oozing, barely maintaining its shape. Atop the altar a human form struggled, as a robed figure crowned by a pair of ram's horns raised a bronze dagger. Around him similarly crowned figures beat the stone with their hooved feet.
"Rathgar, now!" Nimble hissed over his shoulder. Rathgar loosed the arrow from the bow, while Feris cast and Alianora chanted. The arrow blossomed into many, splitting apart and blanketing the sky as they reached the peak of their arch. As they fell toward the altar they shimmered and became snakes, falling upon the goatmen with fangs extended.
Goatmen
Armor Class: 6
Hit Dice: 1+1 (M)
Move: 120' (40')
Attacks: 1 weapon/ 1 headbut
Damage: by weapon/1d4+1
No. Appearing: 2d4 (2d8x4)
Save As: C1
Morale: 9
Treasure Type: (P) D + O
Intelligence: 8
Alignment: Chaotic
XP Value: 15
Monster Type: Humanoid (Common)
A Goatman's most distinguishing feature is his goat's head. Additionally they are covered in the short fur of a goat over their entire body, and walk on cloven hooves. They are omnivores, willing to eat anything. One member of every group is a spell casting priest of their dark gods with access to 2 1st level spells. Every heard is headed by a high priest (shaman) of level 1d6+3.
"Rathgar, now!" Nimble hissed over his shoulder. Rathgar loosed the arrow from the bow, while Feris cast and Alianora chanted. The arrow blossomed into many, splitting apart and blanketing the sky as they reached the peak of their arch. As they fell toward the altar they shimmered and became snakes, falling upon the goatmen with fangs extended.
Goatmen
Armor Class: 6
Hit Dice: 1+1 (M)
Move: 120' (40')
Attacks: 1 weapon/ 1 headbut
Damage: by weapon/1d4+1
No. Appearing: 2d4 (2d8x4)
Save As: C1
Morale: 9
Treasure Type: (P) D + O
Intelligence: 8
Alignment: Chaotic
XP Value: 15
Monster Type: Humanoid (Common)
A Goatman's most distinguishing feature is his goat's head. Additionally they are covered in the short fur of a goat over their entire body, and walk on cloven hooves. They are omnivores, willing to eat anything. One member of every group is a spell casting priest of their dark gods with access to 2 1st level spells. Every heard is headed by a high priest (shaman) of level 1d6+3.
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Teaching D&D
I've recently had the opportunity to introduce someone to D&D that knew next to nothing about it. One of the first things I did was to toss most of the rules. She said she wanted to play a wizard just out of school. So I gave her a piece of paper with the 6 basic stats, HP, AC, her weapons, 3 spells, and equipment.
Without a plan, I dropped her down in a city and told her there was a tavern keeper that was having trouble with a thing in the basement. Investigating, it turned out to be some sort of slime creature that she blasted with her firebolt spell from the stairs, rather than going down to face it up close.
Then she heard about a haunted house that needed cleaning out before the new owners could move in. Turns out it was owned by an evil old guy who didn't want to die cause he didn't want to go to hell, so he’d summoned a demon to gain immortality. The demon wanted to be released, and to take the damned soul with him. Feeling a surprising amount of empathy for the damned man (who was a ghoul) she decides to sign a contract with the demon, freeing the ghoul’s soul to go to purgatory. In exchange, her soul will be damned until/unless she retrieves 99 souls that escaped from hell. Everyone walks away happy, and she collects her reward for getting rid of the undead monster haunting the house.
Session 2
The next day the demon showed up to her room at the inn and told her where one of the damned souls was. A nearby bathhouse had suffered a series of mysterious murders. The owner wanted to keep it all quiet, but 3 murders in 3 days…. Investigating the bathhouse, she came across a demon hunter (Paladin) who I had thought might become a companion in her quest. The demon hunter was there for the same reason she was, but she was having none of it. So she fights the Damned Soul on her own in a locked private room.
Thankfully the walls weren't very thick, and as she gets taken down the demon hunter bursts through the door, and takes out the “demon”. The natural form of the damned souls is that of a large grub with a mewling human face. Hardly demonic, and the demon hunter is willing to let her take it for "disposal."
Session 3
After recovering from her fight in the bathhouse, the demon shows up to collect the soul and to take her to the city of doors, since not all the damned souls will come to her little po-dunk world! A little bit of Sigil, mixed heavily with the market dimension of the M.Y.T.H. series. Her demon doesn't have a lead in the next damned soul, so she goes shopping and finds a “soul trap” for sale, but for more than she has in cash. She finds an alchemist who’s looking for basilisk horn, and willing to pay good coin for it. He opens a door to another dimension, and she goes hunting…
Session 4
Hunting the Basilisk in it’s lair isn't too hard when you set a trap for it at the entrance to it’s lair! Setting herself up in a good sniper position, she blinds the beast with a spell, and then alternatively freezes and burns it to death. Sawing off the horn, she returns to the door, hands over the horn, collects her gold, and buys her trap.
Each of these sessions has lasted about an hour, and the rules have been kept to a bare minimum, retaining only the most core elements of D&D: d20 to hit, roll for damage, mostly limited spells (5th edition sort of way with cantrips), and have bumped her level just about every session. Progress will slow at this point to a level after 2 sessions, then after 3, then 4. She keeps wanting to play more, so I must be doing something right... Plus she’s interested in trying out a game at the local game day!
Without a plan, I dropped her down in a city and told her there was a tavern keeper that was having trouble with a thing in the basement. Investigating, it turned out to be some sort of slime creature that she blasted with her firebolt spell from the stairs, rather than going down to face it up close.
Then she heard about a haunted house that needed cleaning out before the new owners could move in. Turns out it was owned by an evil old guy who didn't want to die cause he didn't want to go to hell, so he’d summoned a demon to gain immortality. The demon wanted to be released, and to take the damned soul with him. Feeling a surprising amount of empathy for the damned man (who was a ghoul) she decides to sign a contract with the demon, freeing the ghoul’s soul to go to purgatory. In exchange, her soul will be damned until/unless she retrieves 99 souls that escaped from hell. Everyone walks away happy, and she collects her reward for getting rid of the undead monster haunting the house.
Session 2
The next day the demon showed up to her room at the inn and told her where one of the damned souls was. A nearby bathhouse had suffered a series of mysterious murders. The owner wanted to keep it all quiet, but 3 murders in 3 days…. Investigating the bathhouse, she came across a demon hunter (Paladin) who I had thought might become a companion in her quest. The demon hunter was there for the same reason she was, but she was having none of it. So she fights the Damned Soul on her own in a locked private room.
Thankfully the walls weren't very thick, and as she gets taken down the demon hunter bursts through the door, and takes out the “demon”. The natural form of the damned souls is that of a large grub with a mewling human face. Hardly demonic, and the demon hunter is willing to let her take it for "disposal."
Session 3
After recovering from her fight in the bathhouse, the demon shows up to collect the soul and to take her to the city of doors, since not all the damned souls will come to her little po-dunk world! A little bit of Sigil, mixed heavily with the market dimension of the M.Y.T.H. series. Her demon doesn't have a lead in the next damned soul, so she goes shopping and finds a “soul trap” for sale, but for more than she has in cash. She finds an alchemist who’s looking for basilisk horn, and willing to pay good coin for it. He opens a door to another dimension, and she goes hunting…
Session 4
Hunting the Basilisk in it’s lair isn't too hard when you set a trap for it at the entrance to it’s lair! Setting herself up in a good sniper position, she blinds the beast with a spell, and then alternatively freezes and burns it to death. Sawing off the horn, she returns to the door, hands over the horn, collects her gold, and buys her trap.
Each of these sessions has lasted about an hour, and the rules have been kept to a bare minimum, retaining only the most core elements of D&D: d20 to hit, roll for damage, mostly limited spells (5th edition sort of way with cantrips), and have bumped her level just about every session. Progress will slow at this point to a level after 2 sessions, then after 3, then 4. She keeps wanting to play more, so I must be doing something right... Plus she’s interested in trying out a game at the local game day!
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