Dangerous Brian: A Gamers Blog

Session X:The Demon King of Thyatis part II

2012-01-24T00:46:00.003Z

Euthalia in her more usual attire.

Once again pampered, bathed, perfumed, manicured and appointed in the (not quite) manner she is accustomed too, Euthalia and her escorts are called outside by male (and male-disguised) members of the party. Ki Oman has picked up a few items for his other "slaves", Andros and Thera, including new armour, spears and various other items.

With the brazen noise of another gong-stroke echoing throughout the compound, Vragg hustles the party through the streets towards the palace, terrified at the prospect of being late for the feasting. They hurry through the double doors of the palace just as the sun begins to set, the great, heavy portals booming closed behind them. The dozen, impeccably attired and perfumed females who had earlier scurried away with Merithena, reappear, leading the men to their tables. The females in the party are quietly instructed by these women that they should stand behind and serve their "betters" at dinner.

The feast hall occupies an opulent room in the palace. Three tables in the centre of the hall form a U, with the open end facing the door. The cushions positioned behind the low tables in the centre row remain empty, but at a second gong stroke, a dozen fierce looking warriors attired in their best armour emerge from alcoves and rooms elsewhere in the palace and to take their places upon the eastern cushions. The male party members are led to their own places along the western table. At a third gong, the ancient, wizened form of the Bull Headed King emerges from the inner chambers, sitting himself alone at the centre table. He is soon joined by two skull masked men in dark robes, who recline at either end of the central table. All eyes soon turn to the western window, where the sun cam be seen sinking below the horizon. At the very instant that the last rays of the sun vanish from view, the gong is struck again. Before their eyes, the party watch the wizened little man swell to three times his normal height, weight and girth. Skin reddening, huge, bull-horn grow from his skull until the creature that remains little resembled the frail being it had been just a few moments ago. In a deep, booming basso, the Bull Headed King laughs at his guests consternation, and bids his slaves bring the feast to the diners.

The Bull Headed King revealed.

After a few moments, the Bull Headed King comments that his men arealready teaching his "guests" how women should behave in Thyatis. The King nods to the red-bearded man, who sits among the diners at the eastern table. He congratulates Euthalia on once again looking like a civilised woman and compliments her on her serving skills, "suggesting" that she should display the proper meekness by taking wine to his warriors. Seemingly unconcerned, she complies, and somehow manages to restrain her temper when a particularly fiery young warrior pulls her onto his lap with wandering fingers and tries to claim a kiss. Instead of slapping the man, as she would at home, she leaps to her feet and stands, head bowed, while Ki Oman roars for the warrior to keep his filthy hands off his property. The warrior bellows back that men takes what he wants from women in Thyatis and demands to know if anyone present dares to stop him. Half a dozen of the party members -including Ki Oman, Boagris, Andros, Thera and Alexis- all roar their acceptance of this challenge, but it is Ki Oman (the "slaves" avowed owner) whom the warrior charges.

Ki Oman meets him blow for blow in the centre of the feast hall, much to the Bull-Headed Kings loud approval and the intent regard of the skull-masked figures. For a few moments, Ki Oman is able to demonstrate his greater speed and agility, making the young warrior's footwork seem almost clumsy and foolish in comparison. Yet this only serves to focus the raiders rage. For a few tense moments it becomes clear that Ki may have over-reached himself by accepting this challenge from a seasoned warrior. Almost evenly matched, it is by luck alone that Ki Oman emerges victorious. The Bull Headed King bellows and claps, but the raiderss present grew silent. Each watches the corpse of the fallen raider intently until, after a few moments, a spectral figure manifests in the centre of the hall. Hooded and robed, armed with a sickle-bladed sword, the apparition stridse forward to claim it's prize. Reaching into the dead corpse with a skeletal hand, it pulls the warriors eldritch, glowing soul from the still meat of its body. Gratefully, the warriors soul reaches out to the spectre, rapture writ upon it's face - until a brief moment before the pair fade from view, when unparralled joy is briefly replaced by sheer terror.

The assembled raiders and clap and mutter in approval. One of the two Skull-Masked guests announces with satisfaction that the warriors soul has been accepted by Thanatos (Thanatos the PC blanches at this, suddenly very keenly aware of why Merithena has advised her to change her name as well as her gender). Leaving the blood where it has pooled in the floor, the Skull Masked priests dragg the frozen corpse from the hall while the Bull Headed King loudly calls for dancing.

The slave-women take up their instruments, beginning a song of frantic pace and energy. The Bull Headed King claps once again and Merithena -wounded Merithena, as pale as the spectre that so recently left these halls- enters.

Merithena dances

Wearing more clothing than the party had ever seen adorn her, she leaps and cavorts, energetically and acrobatically leaping through the air, twisting and turning in time with the music, leaping faster and faster as the pace of the music increases. Sweat whirls from her as she dances, stripping off layers of thin, silken cloth and throwing them to roaring warriors with each increase in tempo. Pale and trembling, she races across the hall, back and forth, each circuit taking her closer to the Bull Headed monster upon his throne. The monsters eyes follow her intently, never leaving her, searching for any hint of weakness, hand never straying from the huge cleaver-bladed weapon sat by his side. Not a man -andfew of the women- is able to tear their eyes away from the girls wondrous performance. At last, just as it seems she can dance no more, the girl casts aside her last veil and dives, prostrate, to the floor before the seat of the Bull Headed King.

[I asked the players for saving throws vs spells at this point. When most failed and I described the effects of their fascination one or two of the older players nodded sagely and muttered "Ah, that's what she is". Once again, they didn't say anything else, to avoid ruining the suspense]

The King's men are on their feet, roaring and cheering this display of stamina, speed and endurance. The Bull Headed king himself nods solemnly, before tossing back his head with deep booming laughter. As his deep voice booms out across the hall, the warriors fall silent.

"It seems the Blood of Kings flows true in you indeed, child. Know that you have pleased me, and your life is spared. For the moment." He tosses his head, bull-like, to regard the woman. "Leave us, all of you."

Merithena rises unsteadily to her feet, almost losing her balance, but the Bull Headed King seems not to notice. As she passes Euthalia, she whispers urgently into the others woman's ear, "Help me, I'm going to fall...."

Thinking quickly, the Priestess takes Merithena by the arm, raising it high. Catching on, Thera takes the other arm. Together, arms held high above their heads, clutching Merithena's hands as though raising them in triumph, they support the exhausted girls weight and carry her from the hall. Only when out sight of the men, down a side passage, does the girl collapse to the floor. Gathering around like clucking hens, the palace women and the party members work together to carry her from the passage to the safety of the Harem, away from the prying eyes of patrolling Palace Guards.

Back at the Feast Hall, the Bull Headed King dismisses his priests and his guards, clearly unafraid of anything the players might attempt to do to him. He offers his thanks for the rescue of his "true blood" and insists that the party must stay as guests in his city until healed of their wounds. Then, in order to repay his hospitality, they must perform a task for him. The Bull Headed King is magnanimous (he makes a point of telling them so) and offers them the choice of three tasks to carry out as they see fit in return for sanctuary in Thyatis.

Destroy the Harpy nest on his borders which has become a nuisance.
Enter the fortress of the foul beastman chieftain to dares to call himself the Bull Headed King and slay this usurper.
Journey to the lair of a being known as the Lamia and offer her an alliance-or failing that, kill her if she refuses.

He gives the (male) party members freedom of the city for the next three days, explaining that the women will be safe in the palace under his care, and informs the men that he expects to hear which quest they will undertake on the morning of the third day. With that they are dismissed, and yet another female slave appears to show them to their barracks -a dusty, dull affair of rickety wooden bunk beds and at mouldy storage chests.

Meanwhile, within the luxury of the female slave quarters, protected by mute, "cut" Harem Guards, Euthalia, Thera and Andros relax upon silk cushions and tend to the exhausted Merithena. Once alone, she explains to the other women that one day -one day soon- she, like her mother, will be sacrificed to the Great Skull God, Thanatos. That she yet lives is due only to the fact that her uncle wishes her to be as strong as possible before receiving the Skull Gods tender attentions. Had she been found weak, she would be dead long since. Or worse, cast into the breeding pits to be used by the worst of the Bull Headed Kings inhuman servants. She begs the other women to save her from her fate but warns them to be cautious. "No-one", she states simply, "can kill the Bull Headed King. Many have tried. All have died."

At this, Thera angrily demands to know why Merithena insisted on coming back here in the first place? Merithena suggests that the group had to see the Bull Headed King's evil for themselves. To understand that she would make a far better leader for their people. To see the plight of the Thyatian women and, most of all, because it's the only place on the island where weapons, armour and (above all) food are freely to be had. Merithena explains that none of the Thyatian men can be trusted to help her -or the stranded. They enjoy their privileged lifestyles to much to risk the King's ire. Even Bombatta, who claimed to love her, pursued her when she fled the city, intent on bringing her back to the King.

Thera does not seem entirely convinced by this tale -or the girls supposedly pure motives- but stays her voice. For now. However, one thing seems clear to the Paladin. This Bull Headed King has to go.

Session X: The Demon King of Thyatis part I

2012-01-23T17:36:00.009Z

The Party:

Ailil Shadowdancer. Elf Male Assassin 2/Illusionist 1. Played by Rhidh

Alexis Human Male Fighter 1. Played by Larraitz

Andros: Human Female Fighter 2. Played by Aimee

Boagris: Human Male Fighter 2. Played by Silv.

Bombata: Human Male NPC.

Euthalia: Human Female Cleric 2. Played by Caroline.

Kallias: Human Male Cleric 1. Played by Elle

Ki Oman: Human Male Dual-Classed Assassin 1/Bard 2. Played by Ali

Merithena: Human Female NPC

Thanatos: Human Female Assassin 2. Played by Fiona

Thera: Human Female Paladin 1. Played by Niall

Thot: Half Elf Male Cleric 1/Magic User 1. Spare Character

Xenos: Human Male Fighter 2/Magic-User 1. Played by Leoni

Missing/Unaccounted For:

Anitpater: Human Male Ship's Master NPC

Kallisto: Human Female Fighter 1. Played by Jackie

Minerva: Human Female 0 lvl Priestess/Royalty. NPC

Peliakos: Human Male Fighter 1. Played by Coakley

Sparious: Human Male Fighter 1. Spare Character.

Day 13:

Morning dawns dull and overcast after an eventful night. Still tired and weary from their travails over the last two weeks, the Stranded begin clearing their campsite. It's not long, however, before a not-too distant roar startles the sleepy companions to wakefulness. Quickly, Alexis helps Thoht and Merithena drag themselves into cover while the rest of the group forms a hasty shield wall. The wait for brief moments while the roaring beast, preceded by a frantic crashing burst into view.

It's a bear, blood-streaked and foaming at the mouth. And it's not alone, behind it come two of the Grey Demon's in hot pursuit.

After a tense, but ultimately successful confrontation the bear and Demons are down- but so are half the party, paralysed by the foul, black, dripping ichor of the Grey Demon's claws. They are merely incapacitated however, not dead. Though, once again, the same can be said for the Grey Demons. Though one lies headless, it's mouth keeps snapping in a silent snarl at the companions while it's body attempts to crawl over to it's head. The other keeps thrashing beneath Shadowdancer's spear, going still for one moment, only to thrash again until the elf twists his spear in the beast's heart once more.

Reluctantly, the companions (at least, those that can still speak) agree there is nothing else for it. They'll have to light a fire and burn the foul things, knowing full well that the smoke will be seen from the city.

Merithena scampers forward, only now "remembering" a few things the party should really know about life in the city. Firstly, she explains that women may only speak when first spoken too by a man and that failure to follow this rule will result in being brutally whipped. She also explains that while it is not, strictly speaking, illegal to follow "foreign Gods" in Thyatis, any act of open worship or preaching is punishable by death. That includes openly wearing holy symbols. For obvious reasons, Euthalia the Priestess of Haestia and Thera, Paladin of Meerax, are doubly displeased. Kallios is not overly pleased either, but hides his holy symbol without protest. Thanatos simply mocks the other women and adopts her male guise. Andros, on the other hand, fumes quietly.

Finally, the Thyatian girl turned to Thanatos and insisted -no, demanded- that the red headed women go by another name. She refused to say more on the matter, but relented only when Thantos and the others agreed that she would go by the name Sparious for the time being.

By the time the last of the paralysed Stranded begin to flex blood back into weary, numbed muscles, the party scouts report the approach of a patrol. Once again a shield wall is formed, though with spears held in marching order rather than set to receive a charge. A few moments later, a party of around a dozen armed men, of various ethnicitys, step from the woods. All wear identical armour of studded black leather and carry sword and spear. About half carry bows. All wear the same enclosing helmet of black iron - two small horns protruding like a Bull's from either side.

Negotiations prove tense, and only grow tenser for a brief moment when Ki Oman gestures for Merithena to step forward from behind the shield wall. Given the girls bedraggled appearance and recent wounds, it's no wonder the sight raises the ire of the guards. Fortunately, Merithena is able to calm things down by explaining that these outsiders rescued her from captivity. The guard leader, a man named Vragg, rudely demands to know the fate of Bombatta. To the relief of all, the girl affirms that he was killed in the ambush along with the rest of her guards.

Once again, despite being a princess, Merithena shows no surprise at the rude way in which she is both treated and spoken too by a lowly guard. As the party forms up, interspersed among the Thyatian's, one whispers to Boagris:

"By the Skull God man, why do you actually allow your women to cover their breasts. It's indecent. And the armour...."

Before Boagris can answer, a nearby Shadowdancer (once again wearing his full face veil) intervenes, demanding to know why the man thinks how the party members treat their "property" is any of his business?

The guards bows his head and apologises for his rudeness. There is no more conversation with the guards for quite some time.

Thyatian Women

Clearing the woods, the Stranded realise that Thyatis is not so much ruined as abandoned. The few buildings that still appear inhabited seem to have been rebuilt from rubble. Coming up from the south, they spy a huge temple shaped like the head of a bull, with two "horn-shaped" towers guarding the main entrance and the long, paved promenade leading to the bronze doors on either side of the Temple. Each tower bristles with ballistae and catapults.

Nearing the Temple, they begin to catch their first glimpse of the locals. All the men are armed andarmoured much as their escort. Few seem to be involved in any actual work. Most merely supervise small bands of women collecting fruit and berries. Most of these women are older, past child-bearing age, but few are elderly. All work with their breasts exposed, wearing strange, waist-coat like garments that fasten at the naval. Heads look up as the group passes, but any woman who looks set to follow is soon roared at by a male guard. Some of the men think nothing of watching the group as they pass by, with the female members of the party being afforded the hardest, most hostile stares. More than once they hear the word "whore" muttered by Thyatians as they pass

Continuing on, the Stranded pass a small artificial harbour filled with ships -low, sleek raiders built for speed rather than trade. Some whispered conversation ensues regarding hiring boats as a way of the island -until a quiet voice from the back of the party reminds them all of what the Goddess Meerax revealed to them at the Temple: none of them will be allowed off this island until the guilty have been punished. And yet, some of the party muse, it seems that not everyone on this island has been exiled here. At least, not if the presence of those ships is anything to go by.

For almost a quarter mile past the Temple, there are no more inhabited buildings. The few structures they pass are little more than heaps of stone piled upon stone. Finally, at the end of a long, poorly cobbled road, they find themselves outside huge bronze gates leading to a walled compound. The guards at the door inspect the group closely, but Vragg is able to gain the group entrance with a few guttural words and emphatic finger-pointing at Merithena. Eventually the huge gates swing open.The party is admitted into a large, bustling, clearly thriving town -a town within a greater, ruined town. All activity ceases at once. Every eye turns towards the party, some with curiosity, most -especially those directed at the female characters- with hostility. As Vragg and their escort elbow a path through the throng, the party keep a grip on their weapons.

Every building they pass is clearly designed for defence. Stairs lead to the only entrance. Each roof is flat and crenellated. The paths and alleyways are winding and confusing. There are far less obviously residential buildings present than one would expect for so many people. Merithena whispers that most women reside in the public slave quarters until bought as a wife by a successful raider and that most men of fighting age live in barracks. Only a few of the richest and most successful raiders own their own home, their own slaves and servants. The other men and even most children, save for those born to "free" raiders, live in barracks along the walls. No where, do the Stranded see any sign of craftwork or manufacture. The few homes which seem to serve as shops appear to sell goods from many lands, but no-where does anyone appear to be actually making anything.

At the great, golden gates of a small palace, the group halts beneath two huge, bronze statues of Bull-Headed men. Vragg approaches a senior guard standing by the gates who, after a whispered conversation, directs one of his men to sound a bronze gong.

"Now we wait." mutters Merithena, already pale from her wounds and the heat of the cruel sun climbing towards it's Zenith. All around, men and woman of Thyatis lay down whatever tools or task they work at and gather in the square before the palace gates. Soon, perhaps two or three thousand people - at least two women to every man- have gathered. For many hours the throng continues to wait in stifling heat and humidity while the sun climbs. No-one speaks. Sensing the mood, the party remain silent. It's not hard to tell from even a brief, side-ways glance that these people are scared witless. When Merithena wilts, Thera attempts to steady her, only to have her efforts shaken off. Even so, the sudden movement attracts attention. One or two voices can be heard to whisper the words "weak" or "doomed". These whispers seem only to strengthen the girls resolve until she stands tall once again.

Finally, just as it seems the group can take no more, when the sun has already descended almost half way to the horizon, the great gong booms again and all present -including the Stranded- prostrate themselves accordingly. They hear-but do not see- the great gates swing open. At the third sounding of the gong all stand and face the bull-headed King.

A wizened, wrinkled old man of some ninety years, head bowed by the weight of the great, silver horned helm upon his brow.

"Come," he gestures with one crooked finger to the baffled group below. "Vragg, you and your prisoners may approach."

This? This is the gamed bull-headed king everyone is so afraid of? And yet, Merithena trembles as she leads the group up the granite stairs towards the King and his bodyguard -from fear as much as exhaustion. Wisely, the group elects for caution, allowing the locals to speak first.

Vragg explains how the prisoners had rescued Merithena after her capture and the death of Bombatta. At this, the wizened old king grunts loudly, the somewhat scathing, contemptuous expression he previously wore melting into something altogether more calculating. But only for a moment.

"You. Girl. Look at you! Blood of my blood? Hah! You're pathetic. Weak. Tonight, you'll dance the seven veils for your rescuers. Our guests. And if you fail, you'll die. Take her away!"

From behind the palace doors, a dozen beautiful women of various ages scurry from the cool depths of the palace to usher the stricken Merithena to her rooms. As she is dragged away, she looks pleadingly at Ki Oman and mouths the words, "you promised" before she disappears into the depths of the palace. Even so, no-one fails to note that their status has quickly changed from "prisoners" to "guests".

Merithena

Ki Oman clears his throat and, along with other members of the party, begins to sing the girl's praises, but the wizened old King waves their comments away. The Bull Headed King informs them they will have time to talk at the feast in their honour later this evening. As he turns to leave however, the party's female members catch his eye. Spitting his outrage, he demands to know why the women are so dressed? Shadowdancer steps forward and explains that their group was shipwrecked and forced to dress their property in any rags they could find. He explains that he and Ki Oman are merchants, and that Euthalia is their prize stock and the other, armoured women her guards. Euthalia bristles at this, but plays along, as do they other women. The King seems momentarily intrigued, eyeing Euthalia with something of a lusty eye, but then waves his wizened arm nonchalantly and order that, as outsiders, they shall be given some lee-way. He orders all present to help instruct the newcomers in the laws and ways of Thyatis and to punish them only for the gravest transgressions. With that, he turns to leave, but not before Shadowdancer begs to know where he might find more appropriate attire for Euthalia. The King orders Vragg to act as a guide.

As suddenly as he came, the Bull Headed King vanishes back into the Palace. Euthlia glares daggers at Shadowdancer but, on further consideration, decides that the chance to blend in with the local women -and spend some time learning their ways- is worth the trouble of going about half-naked. After all, she remarks, many of Haestia's most sacred rites -including pre-marriage rituals for the bride- require all present to be naked. This, alas, takes some of the wind from Shadowdancer's sails. He'd been quite relishing the thought of causing Euthalia some discomfort.

Ki Oman turns to Vragg and suggests that the group needs some water. The raider agrees readily and leads the group to the well in the Square of Sublime Enjoyment, nearby. They find the well -and what appears to be the local tavern- easily enough. Trying to wind up Euthalia further, Shadowdancer suggests that Euthalia go and bring him an ale. Ki Oman, playing along, instead insists that she go to the well and bring water for the group. Proudly, she almost refuses until a passing, rather drunken raider, remarks in quite a friendly fashion that if Ki Oman can't control his women, he'll be only to happy to oblige by teaching the girl the price of disobedience in Thyatis. He fingers his wickedly hooked scourge somewhat menacingly while he speaks. Ki Oman thanks the Raider but insists that won't be necessary. Euthalia's high spirits are one reason she commands so high a price. Not in the least put out, the raider grunts and moves on.

By this time, Euthalia is already filling the party's water jugs. One of the younger girls sidles up to her and asks, 'Are you an Amazon? Have you been to the hills?" Seeing her confusion, the girl adds, "You and your friends look like Amazons. If you are, please take me with you when you leave." One of the other women, much older and grey-in-the-hair, drags the young one away before she can say anymore. Thoughtfully, Euthalia returns to the group, but on the way back one of the women from the well (no-one spots who) shouts the word "whore" and throws a wet towel at her, striking her squarely on the back of her head. All the raiders present, including Vragg, laugh uproariously. Seeing their credibility in jeopardy, Shadowdancer angrily stalks forward and demands to know who assaulted his property. At this, the raiders stop laughing and the women, huddled in a group, pale visibly. Some even begin to cry. Now that Shadowdancer has made this a matter of law, the jovial atmosphere around the well suddenly grows chill.

A burly, red-bearded raider steps from the shadows around the tap-house. He bellows a demand that the women responsible step forward. When the only response from the women at the well is to huddle closer and cry louder, he angrily reminds them all that the price of disobeying an order from a man is serious indeed. If one (the players did not fail to note that he not ask for the "guilty one") does not step forward all will be punished.

At this, they Grey-Haired women who pulled the young girl away from Euthalia steps forward. It's clear to all that she could not possibly have been the one to throw the towel. Her eyes are completely blind, stark white with cataracts. Other women step forward, wailing, from the group and try to pull her back into the crowd. Yet though the old woman trembles with fear, she takes another quivering step.. In a voice croaking with fear and age, she states "It was me".

Almost before she even closes her mouth, the red-bearded man strikes. The old woman's tongue roils from a spinning head, her decapitated body drops lightly to the sandy soil. Women wail in unearthly misery while the old woman's the eyes continue to blink for a few moments before growing still. Without so much as a grunt, the bearded raider wipes his sword on the old woman's blood-soaked dress, nods companionably at Shadowdancer, announces he needs a piss and wanders back to the tavern.

Vragg comments, "That's how we deal with insolence in Thyatis." He turns to look at the rest of the party, many of whom are glaring at Shadowdancer with undisguised horror or hostility. Vragg nods at Euthalia meaningfully. "Keep a good eye on that one. The women won't seek revenge from her, but a lot of lusty eyes have noticed her now. They like to break a proud one in these parts. Some will try to buy her, but if they can't?", he shrugs, "They'll try to take her by force. You could make a fortune hiring her out now, but if you want to keep her pure for more money, I wouldn't leave her unguarded. We Thyatians steal our wives as often as we buy them."

[A few players -the ones that read my blog regularly- caught on to who the Thyatian's are at this point, but kept stumm to avoid spoiling the surprise].

The stunned party ask about where they can buy equipment. Euthalia stammers for a moment, but manages to ask where she can go in order to dress properly? Vragg glares at her for a moment, and reminds Ki Oman that women should not speak unless addressed but agrees to lead the group to the Public Slave Quarters.

There, Andros and Thera are left behind to keep an Euthalia while the rest of the party goes shopping.

Euthalia (seated, left) is Pampered in the Public Slave House.

Inside, the three women discover a veritable paradise to rival the greatest palace or richest temple in Mysos. Dozens of breathtakingly attractive women laze or lie about,playing games, bathing, chatting or dressing one another's hair. Meanwhile, down another corridor, they can hear the distant grunting of men taking advantage of the women's presence. Euthalia is soon shown to a stone bench where gossip-starved women in their droves are only too keen to help her out of her barbaric clothing and pamper her every need. Meanwhile, Thera and Andros, much ignored, walk around quietly, keeping their thoughts to themselves.

DM Questionnaire

2012-01-20T01:25:00.003Z

Yes, I'm jumping on the bandwagon, but here's my responce to Zak's Questionnaire.

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

My home brew game world of Edarnia, a sword and sandals setting. 20 years of development through play and fiction. It's been the setting for games of RuneQuest, a very highly customised version of WFRP 1st ed, Rolemaster and every version of D&D since the Red Box.

2. When was the last time you GMed?

Last Friday. My ongoing OSRIC game set in Edarnia.

3. When was the last time you played?

Earlier tonight (well, last night now cos it's after midnight). I play Stefan Krueger, Initiate of Morr, in our WFRP 3rd ed game. You can read about it on my wife's blog, here.

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

You collapse to the floor, hacking up a thick, bluish liquid onto the cold, steel floor. For a brief moment, your chest tightens, your lungs suddenly deflating until your bewildered body finally remembers how to breathe...

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

Listen intently. Sometimes their wild-ass guesses and occasional OOC chat throws up some great ideas for me to steal.

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

Mostly health food with the occasional bit of chocolate (in the OSRIC game anyway). I know, I know, my gaming buddies are strange

7. Do you find GMing physically exhausting?

Only in the sense that I find it mentally exhausting. If you count having a knackered brain after a game as "physical" then yes, I suppose I do.

8. What was the last interesting (to you, anyway) thing you remember a PC you were running doing?
Giving the last rites to an entire town of plague-ridden victims of Nurgle cultists moments before my dwarven colleague Grund set the whole place on fire. Ping! 240 Fervour Points! Lucky my head didn't explode. They faded well before I had a chance to use them though.

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

No, my OSRIC players don't. When you find your PC stranded on a hostile island where the only "civilised" settlement is ruled by a demonic madman whose guards nonchalantly execute an old lady for disobeying a male outsider, players start to take a game very seriously indeed.
As a player on the other hand, I'm playing in the Old World. It's hard not to fill the session with tongue in cheek black humour when the entire game world is filled with the stuff. Even if it's usually only the native Brit's in the group that get most of the setting's in-jokes.

10. What do you do with goblins?

My goblins are interesting, cunning foes with myriad tactics to make the players lives miserable. In Edarnia, these guys are not a joke. Tucker's Kobolds was essentially my bible as far as encounters with humanoids are converned. At least in my formative DMing years.

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

An artist's impression of Minoan womens' clothing styles.

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

The expression on one of my player's face (the guy playing the 18 charisma bard) when he thought that the Troglodyte shaman need one of his teeth to make a Potion of Tongues [link]. Poor guy's character had already lost an eye just two sessions before...

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

Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader. I just love that book. I was looking at it for pure nostalgia and would up being inspired by some conversion ideas.

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

The guy who does the 40K Horus Heresy book covers. That man (is it a man?) has talent.

15. Does your game ever make your players genuinely afraid?
Oh yeah. As players they are terrified of the random encounters I throw at them.

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

Uh......when I run other peoples adventures I usually re-write them to the point of being unrecognisable (with very few exceptions). I'll need to come back to this one later. My own adventures are so much more fun to run.

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

A 14ft by 6 ft table with chairs for twelve players ( I often have this many guys belly up to the table -or Skype- in my games) with a library full of Mage Knight and Dwarven Forge scenery and all the gaming mini's I'll ever need close at hand. My own set up at home is pretty cool though. We still manage to fit ten players around the table with another on Skype and (sometimes) one sitting on a floor cushion.

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

Artesia and Robert E Howard's Conan.

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

Real world history (especially the most brutal periods) and the WH40K universe.

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

Guys who want to roleplay rather than roll-play. Guys who'll use their brains, think outside the box and just occasionally do something so mind numbingly stupid (or outrageously brilliant) that I'm lost for words.
My current players, in other words.

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

My extensive experience of stressful, violent real-life encounters and my background with the Army and Police. Also my knowledge of pathology, virology, firearms, genetics, wilderness skills, history, blacksmithing and loads of other things.

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

Nope. If it doesn't exist, I damn well write it myself.

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

My parents. They love to hear about our games. They keep using the opportunity to remind me that I have a novel or three to finish writing and deadlines to meet for other writing projects.

In the Emperor's Name: Battle Report

2012-01-18T18:03:00.000Z

Just a quick post to let you all know I played a game of In the Emperor's Name the other night, a free skirmish game in the 40K universe. It's a nifty little system. You can see the battle report on my other blog, here:

Give Your Friends the Gift of Laserburn

2012-01-12T01:26:00.002Z

Earlier tonight, Rhidh, one of the players in my Isle of the Earthshaker game, brightened up my day with a completely unexpected and most welcome surprise:

A complete set of original Laserburn 15mm rules by Bryan Ansell, whom many of you will recognise as one of the brains behind WH40K Rogue Trader. Delighted doesn't begin to express how happy I was. Over-enjoyed doesn't come close. I love Laserburn. For years I've had to make do with a tattered print-out of a scan of a much-faded photocopy because I was never able to come across a copy. At least, not an original set (as opposed to yet another photocopy masquerading as an original book).

Flicking through the books, it's easy to see the germ-seeds of 40K. Many of the illustrations feature winged skulls and proto-imperial eagles. The present day heavy bolter is practically a carbon copy of the one in the Laserburn book. Moreover, it's a damn good system in itself, if a little slow and clunky compared to more refined, modern rules-sets.

Even today however, they're a great set of rules and very much a personal favourite. Just last week I was discussing laying on a Laserburn day with my fellow old foggies Kev and Spence. Thanks Rhidh. You've made a cantankerous old git very happy.

Hyborean Roleplaying

2012-01-11T15:52:00.001Z

About a year ago, some of you (might) remember that I was working on a Hyborean/Conan sandbox setting as one of the "three ready to play campaigns" I keep on hand. At the moment, I have an Oriental Adventures/Call of Cthulu crossover campaign and a Darwin's World/Cascade failure game more or less ready. I had been considering a 40K RPG as my third "good to go" campaign but as I'm already a player in a WFRP 3rd ed game that options presently on the back burner.

So, I was thinking, why not finish my Conan Sandbox?

One problem? What system to use? Do I stick with OSRIC,? Do I use D20 Conan (I'd rather not), the old TSR Conan rules? Right now I'm leaning towards a game of OSRIC (possibly with magic-using classes removed or "disguised" in some way) with a version of the Carcossa rules on Sorcery.

However, a while back I remember something about a Conan-esque OSR game being in development. [link] Looks like I missed the kickstart project by a whole week, but the good news is that:

ATONISHING SWORDSMEN & SORCERERS OF HYPERBOREA

should be out by March (but as target release dates have a habit to crawl, I'd say look for it around June). The first adventure has already been released. It's not actually set in Conan's world, but it seems to have that same feel to it. Hmmm. Perhaps I should look it up.

In related news: the first Earthshaker Game of 2012 is tonight and we should have a round dozen players bellying up at the table. Also, I haven't forgotten Oriental OSRIC. More on that to come. I have been a bit distracted lately by taking on a few too many writing and painting projects (many of which are running to deadlines) but updates are on the way.

Vann Tancred Sword

2012-01-06T18:55:00.000Z

Dearly beloved's adventure journal of last nights WFRP 3rd ed game in now up for our reading pleasure.
Link.

ATZ Survivors

2012-01-05T16:46:00.005Z

Some painted survivors for All Things Zombie and other, near-future games. Just to prove I haven't been entirely idle over the last few weeks. You'll note that two of them look a bit green. That's because the big guy also doubles as a Troll for Shadowrun games while the purple-haired lass doubles as an Orc. I like to think of the guy second on the left as my mate Andy. He has that "Meh!" look about him. The guy winding up the baseball bat is scarily similar to my mate Danny. More significantly, the dark-haired girl fourth from the left, is the painted mini' that represents my missus. Complete with her favourite tights. I'd better try damn hard not to get her killed. You can't see it very well but the little yellow object at her feet is the "button-box" from a pedestrian crossing, complete with little green man crossing the road. I like to think of the Gurps fan on the right as a Game Store clerk defending his beloved store from looters. That's why he based on carpet rather than tarmac. I'm very happy with how the T-Shirt design came out. I tend to shy away from freehand work.

Alas, I also seem to have gone a little overboard with the Quick Shade on the Gurp's fan. I'm still not all that familiar with using the stuff.Sometime's I seem to do a decent job with it. Sometimes I use too much. Either way, it doesn't seem to save me that much time on the highlighting. I still end up putting on at least two layers.

RPG Superstar 2012: Round 1 Closes Friday

2012-01-04T14:53:00.000Z

There's still time to enter this years RPG Superstar competition. Every year Paizo puts out the feelers for new design talent by hosting this RPG design competition. Round 1 is the creation of a Pathfinder Wondrous Item.

It's well worth having a go if you fancy breaking into the industry.

THE MOST HEINOUS OF CRIMES!

2011-12-21T15:04:00.002Z

Man denies stealing 10,000 model soldiers.

To the shame of Scotland, alas. Still, at least the law is taking it seriously.

In other news: I'm still in bed with the dreaded flu lurgy. And all those end of year deadlines are creeping in.... Not good. I'll have to drag myself out of bed soon enough, fit or not. I haven't missed a deadline since my first year at university. I have no intention of starting now.

Fetch Me a Mop and a Rather Large Bucket! I've Morr's Work to be Doing.

2011-12-14T11:48:00.001Z

The story behind this rather odd statement can be found here.

Feeling lousy. Laid up with the flu and had to cancel tonight's Earth-shaker game. So there'll be no posts from me for a while. In the meantime, dearly beloved has been faithfully recording the events of our WFRP campaign - a game I actually get to play in. Although, alas, I doubt I'll be able to make that one tomorrow either. I hate being ill. It really interferes with my fantasy life.

Old School Survival Guides Reviewed

2011-12-13T10:04:00.000Z

My Old School Survival Guides were recently reviewed by ADD Grognard, of the new e-zine Classic Realms of Adventure.

ADD Grognard started the e-zene as a gathering place for all the "hidden gems" (his words, not mine) of the blog-sphere that might have been missed first time round.

You can find the review here.

Oriental OSRIC PC Race: Hengeyokai

2011-12-07T23:53:00.006Z

Conversion Notes: Removed alignment restrictions for certain sub-races. Changed the speak with animals ability so that it only works with animals of the same species the Hengeyokai can take the shape of. Allowed Hengeyokai to generate families of their own. Raised racial charisma limit from 17 to 18. While in Hybrid form, the character can no longer use armour, clothing, equipment or other items not specially designed for use in his hybrid form other than weapons. Increased the Drake's Dex modifier to -3 for game balance purposes- Drakes have too many advantages otherwise. Had trouble figuring out why Dog was listed twice on the animal tables (Dog and Raccoon Dog- the "Tanuki" native to Japan). Realized that the "Dog" entry actually referred to Tanuki and inferred that the "Tanuki" entry actually referred to Badgers (as the two terms are sometimes confused).

Hengeyokai Characters:

Hengeyokai is a catch-all term for several shape-changing races found throughout the Oriental D&D setting, often existing on the fringes of human society. They exhibit a natural curiosity that often drives young Hengeyokai to spend several years among human society, learning and experiencing all they can of human society. Their shape-changing ability is entirely a natural feature of their race. Hengeyokai are not lycanthropes in the sense that their shape-changing condition is caused by a disease or racial curse. Their activity is not dependent on lunar phases. They cannot heal wounds by shifting between forms. They cannot transmit their shape-changing ability in any way except to pass the condition on to their children. Nor are they especially vulnerable to silver or magical weapons - at least, no more so than any human.

Hengeyokai belong to any one of a number of sub-species and may often be confused for shape-changing spirits such as the evil Hu Hsien. Consequently, several species of Hengeyokai (fox and rat Hengeyokai in particular) are intensely distruted by humans unable to distinguish them from similar shape-changing spirts. They are frequently attacked on-sight by humans once their dual nature has been revealed. Others, such as the Tanuki (Racoon-Dog) Hengeyokai are often mistaken for spirits of a more mischevous, but no less unwelcome, nature. Consequently, those Hengeyokai sufficiently fascinated by humanity to move amoung mankind for any given period of time would be well advised to kep their racial abilities hidden from their neighbours as much as possible.

Due to their position outside human social structures as well as their somewhat chaotic nature, Hengeyokai are extremely limited in their class selections. Nor do they take on positions of power in human society at name level, for they have neither the patience nor the inclination to rule over humanity. Good aligned Hengeyokai may appoint themselves the protector of a given location or human settlement, however, and expect very favorable treatment in return. Hengeyokai do not acquire followers in the manner of human, spirit-folk or Korobokuru characters. Even if their chosen class would normally permit it.

Common Racial Abilities:

Shape Change: All Hengeyokai possess three forms: their human form, a hybrid form and their animal form. The particular animal form is chosen at character generation and cannot be altered thereafter. Damage, AC, movement rate and stats for the character while in their animal form are outlined in the table below. The character can change forms only once per day per character level. This means that a first level character who changes form from human to animal one day, will not be able to change back to it's human form (or adopt the hybrid form) until the next day.

Changing form is a full round action during which the character can do nothing else. Armour, clothing and equipment do not transform with the character, however. The character must make provisions for the storage and transportation of his gear while in animals form. Armour, clothing and weapons not especially made for the hybrid form may not be worn or used when the character is in hyrbid form. However, in hybrid form the characters hands remain sufficiently human as to use weapons, rings, etc without penalty.

Animal Form: When in animal form, the character appears as a normal animal. Since this is a natural rather than a magical transformation, the characters true nature cannot be detected by spells that detect magic or illusions save for spells such as Wish or True Seeing. In animal form, the Hengeyokai has the movement rate, abilities, AC, attacks and damage of the animal as shown in the table below. In animal form, the Hengeyokai gains 120ft Infravision and the ability to speak with all normal animals of the same species as his animal form. Given the limitations of animal intelligence, such conversations are likely to centre around the presence of food/predators, weather etc. The animal will not be able to divulge complex information regarding human society or even reliably identify one human as opposed to another. The character retains his ability to understand other, non-animal languages, but cannot speak any language other than his animal language while in animal form.

While in animal form, the Hengeyokai may not case any spells or use any weapons, armour or other items of equipment (with the exception of armour specially made for their animal form). While in animal form, the Hengeyokai has fewer hit points than normal - only 1/2 their usual number of hit points (rounded up). Hit points lost in one form are carried over point for point to the next. Thus a 24 hit point character would normally have 12 hit points in animal form. If, however, he had already lost 8hp, then his animal form would have just four hp left, not 8. A Hengeyokai cannot change to his animal form if doing so would leave the character on 0hp or less. A Hengeyokai reduced to 0hp in his animal form is dead. He does not bleed and then expire at -10 as would other characters (although he expires at -10 in his other forms as usual).

Hybrid Form: When in hybrid form the Hengeyokai appears as an anthropomorphic version of his animal form, standing on two legs (or fins) and with functional hands and arms. A Hengeyokai cannot fly in hybrid form, even if his animal form would allow him to do so. Otherwise the Hengeyokai retains the general features of his animal form including fur, scales, wings. tail etc. In hybrid form the Hengeyokai can speak with animals of the same species as his animal form and can communicate normally with other humanoids. In effect, the Hybrid form character can speak any language he knows. He retains the 120ft infravision of the animal form and can use weapons as normal. He cannot, however, wear any armour, items or other equipment that has not been specially designed for his hybrid form. The Hybrid form has a base movement speed on 120ft and swims as a normal human. Even carp hybrids require air to breathe. Carp Hybrid-forms do not have the ability to breathe water. Hegenyokai in Hybrid form as easily identifiable as being something other than human -even when wearing bulky or concealing clothing. Hybrid form characters may cast spells and otherwise use their class abilities as normal.

Human Form: While in human form a Hengyokai is, mechanically and physically, a normal human character with the exception of one or more minor distinctive features related to his animal form -such as a sharp nose or round, fishy-eyes. To all intents and purposes the character is a human. In this form, the character looses the ability to speak with animals but retains the ability to understand what an animal of the same species as his animal form is saying. Like the animal form, this form is not magical in any way. It is not an illusion. A Hengeyokai in human form cannot be identified for what he is using any magical means short of a wish or True Seeing.

Stat bonuses: Each Hengeyokai sub-type gains different racial bonuses to stats in accordance with the aforementioned table. Characters who wish to be Hengeyokai must have stats that fall within the racial minimum and maximums described below AFTER racial modifiers are applied.

Languages:
Hengeyokai speak their own racial language, the common trade tongue and the court tongue. They do not gain bonus languages for high intelligence scores. They may speak with normal animals of the same species as their animal form while in animal or hybrid forms.

Permitted Class Options:

Residing as they do entirely outside the normal caste structure of the oriental adventures setting, Hengeyokai characters are limited to the following classes: Shukenja, Kensai, Bushi, Wu Jen. If demi-human level limits are in use then the Hengeyokai may advance to 8th level as a Shukenja, 6th level as a Kensai, 9th level as a Wu Jen and unlimited level as a Bushi. If the level-limit are not being used then Hengeyokai suffer a 15% XP penalty for the purposes of advancement in level.

Multi-class Restrictions:

Hengeyokai characters may multi-class as Bushi/Wu Jen or Shukenja Wu/Jen.

Movement Rate: 120ft

Racial Limitations:

If the characters maximum and minimum ability scores do not fall within these limits after racial modifications then the character cannot be Hengeyokai.
Strength: 12/18
Dexterity: 9/18
Constitution: 12/18
Intelligence: 12/18
Wisdom: 12/18
Charisma: 12/18

Hengeyokai Animal Form Stats and Stat Modifiers:
Animal Form    Damage    AC    Movement     Fly      Swim    Stat Modifiers
Badger                 1-6         9                 90ft        n/a     n/a       +2Str, -2 Wis
Carp          n/a         7      n/a        n/a      120ft    +1Wis, -1Str
Cat                        1-3   9             120ft        n/a      n/a       +1Dex, -1 Wis
Crab                      1-3         8               30ft        n/a      60ft      +2 Str, -2Cha
Crane                    1-2         9               60ft        120ft   n/a       +1 Wis, -1 Dex
Drake                    n/a         7               60ft        120ft    90ft     +1Cha, -3 Dex
Fox                       1-3         6              150ft        n/a       n/a      +1 Int, -1 Wis
Hare                      n/a         5              180ft        n/a       n/a      +1Wis, -1Str
Monkey                n/a         6               120ft        n/a     n/a       +2 Dex, -2 Wis
Tanuki/Dog          1-6         9            120ft        n/a     n/a   +1 Con, -1 Int
Rat                       1-3         5                  90ft        n/a    n/a        +2Con, -2Cha
Sparrow                 n/a        3                  30ft    150ft   n/a       +2Cha, -2 Con

The Van Tanncred Sword

2011-12-05T21:21:00.002Z

After years of hard-luck "why am I always the GM, other than the fact I enjoy it" stories, I've finally got myself a game as a player. In a game of WFRP 3rd edition, no less. Dearly Beloved has very kindly taken it upon herself to record a very fine player's journal, as told by her character, Anya. It's really good. Take a look here.

I play Stefan the Initiate of Morr, by the way. The journal doesn't explain a great deal about the back-story, primarily because Anya does not yet know it. However, until last Thursday, it was a solo campaign with one DM and one player. The first half of the campaign came to a close with a climatic sword-fight in the middle of what turned out to be Stefan's graveyard. Having witnessed a dwarf and a human take down a vampire in his very own shrine, Stefan patches up the two half-dead warriors in his own townhouse. Later, he learns that not only are they Witch-hunters from the Empire operating in Marienburg illegally, there are more undead out there. Unable to bring this to the attention of his superiors for obvious reasons (not wanting to be hung for helping a pair of Imperial spies chief among them) Stefan insists that it is his duty as a servant of Morr to accompany them. Unfortunately (for Stefan), his uppity, shrewish maid Danielle (Aimee's character) "over-hears" the whole conversation and insists on coming along too. It's shortly after these events that Anya has her unfortunate encounter with the chief Witch-hunter, Pieter.

Session IX: Foul Friends and Night Terrors

2011-12-03T02:09:00.006Z

The Party:

Ailil Shadowdancer. Elf Male Assassin 2/Illusionist 1. Played by Rhidh

Alexis Human Male Fighter 1. Played by Larraitz

Andros: Human Female Fighter 2. Played by Aimee

Boagris: Human Male Fighter 2. Played by Silv.

Bombata: Human Male NPC.

Euthalia: Human Female Cleric 1

Friendly: Trog NPC

Kallias: Human Male Cleric 1. Played by Elle

Ki Oman: Human Male Dual-Classed Assassin 1/Bard 2. Played by Ali

Merithena: Human Female NPC

Thanatos: Human Female Assassin 2. Played by Fiona

Thera: Human Female Paladin 1. Played by Niall

Thot: Half Elf Male Cleric 1/Magic User 1. Spare Character

Xenos: Human Male Fighter 1/Magic-User 1. Played by Leoni

Missing/Unaccounted For:

Anitpater: Human Male Ship's Master NPC

Kallisto: Human Female Fighter 1. Played by Jackie

Minerva: Human Female 0 lvl Priestess/Royalty. NPC

Peliakos: Human Male Fighter 1. Played by Coakley

Sparious: Human Male Fighter 1. Spare Character.

Player Map. The broken red line tracks the party's movements since session 1

Days 9-12:

Shadowdancer/Friendly:

Leaving his companions behind, a lightly wounded Shadowdancer and a more heavily wounded Friendly move by night and sleep by day. Slowed by the requirement for caution given the dangerous terrain and the suspected presence of enemies, they manage to reach the edge of the broken lands a few miles north of the Temple by daybreak. There, in a sheltered dip in the landscape, they rest as best they can. As they prepare to resume travel with the fall of night, their inhumanly keen ears pick up the sound of a distant, guttural cheer. A cheer followed shortly there after by distant booming. Booming, they determine, which can only be the sound of a wooden ram been driven against the bronze-plated doors of the Temple itself.

Soon after setting off again at nightfall they find themselves in the shady concealment of a thick, humid band of forest. However, they do not relax their guard due to the increased concealment afforded by the terrain. Their sharpened senses alert them to the presence of potential danger only an hour or so after dusk. Waiting carefully for the source of the noise to reveal itself, they watch from well chosen ambush positions while a small herd of goats flee past them to the North. The duo delay for a few moments longer, but detect no sign of any creature pursuing the docile mountain animals. Not long after they resume travel, a loud explosion to the south heralds some cataclysmic event. Smoke and flames become visible on the southern horizon once again thereafter.

Grey Demon as Seen By Shadowdancer

The duo's cautions travel leads them to a dune about a quarter-mile away from the Temple itself shortly before midnight. From their perch, the two observe a field of carnage. The Temple still burns, trailing black smoke high into the night sky. Surveying the scene with his heat-sensing eyes, Shadowdancer observes numerous scattered collections of torn body parts surrounding the table, the vast majority of them seemingly Trog in origin. Around a huge bonfire some distance from the destroyed Temple, a band of thirty-to forty creatures dance and frolic. The elf recognises the heat-pattern of the creatures from the Temple chimney. They are the Grey-Skinned Demons the Trogs warned them about. One such demon in particular catches the elf's attention. A grossly fat creature tottering atop a thick pile of what appears to be cushions and carpets watches the proceedings with interest. The fat-one makes a particularly extravagant gesture towards two of it's colleagues, at which a huge screeching keen goes up from the other demons. Shadowdancer's eyes follow the two as they head towards a make-shift cage on the beech. Within, he can barely make out four humans shaped heat-sources, though at this stage he cannot identify to whom they belong. As he watches, one is drawn is from the cage and spitted alive upon a spear while the surrounding demons howl and caper. Cold-anger rising within him, Shadowdancer makes to move forward when the cold, scaly restraining hand of Friendly settles on his shoulder, squeezing tightly and pushing the elf downwards once again. The elf seethes quietly, but considers that now is not the most opportune moment. He watches sullenly as the screaming human captive roast besides the bonfire. It's not the consumption of human flesh that he finds particularly barbaric. No, after all, he himself considers it something of a delicacy himself. It's the twin considerations that, not only did they fail to at least kill the poor miserable animal first, the scum are feasting upon one of his dumb, miserable animals. An animal he might need to get himself off this island.

He and friendly begin circling the Temple, but as they do so more movement catches the elf's keen eye. Out to sea, he can barely make out the dim, cold outline of a ship. Thus far, it had been warded from his sight by the glow from the bonfire between he and it. A trireme perhaps, but with the unusual addition of an entirely enclosed deck. Though the ships looks to have been present for some time, it is the sudden lowering and subsequent departure of a small, punted boat that has called his attention towards it. Once again, Shadowdancer and Friendly slink to the ground and watch. In time, a single cold, cowled form steps from the boat, escorted by a dozen equally cold skeletal forms. At an appropriate moment, the howling and capering cease. While the humans chars unnoticed on the fire, the Grey Demons prostrate themselves at a careless wave from their master. The fat-demon itself merely bows and inclines his head.

Perhaps sensing the opportune moment, Shadowdancer again makes to crawl forward. This time, Friendly grabs the elf’s shoulder even tighter. The two watch as the fat-one and the newcomer make some exchange. Moments later, the three remaining captives are released from the cages. The cold outline of the cowled creatures head glows briefly as he approaches the terrified captives. Soon after, Shadowdancer watches Cowl return to his punt, three seemingly docile prisoners in tow.

They watch as they punt returns to the trireme. It departs westward soon after, it sails full despite the absence of a breeze. At this, the two watchers separate. Friendly hisses something and then scrabbles eastward, without any attempt at explanation or waiting to see if the Elf follows. Meanwhile Shadowdancer, though sorry to see the creature -possibly the groups last living ally on the island- disappear into the darkness, continues his circuit of the temple while the ghoul demons feast.

As he nears the end of his surveillance, he is gratified to sport a single, long rope, now well-aflame, drooping down from a first floor window. It seems that someone may have escaped the slaughter after all. With more than half the night gone, the Elf makes his way back north into the woods, camping under their eaves a good half-mile from the camp-site of the night before. His daylight rest is undisturbed. After a few hours of elven reverie, he turns to his borrowed book, hoping to still his troubled thoughts with study. He also spends a brief period experimenting with his new sword, before concluding with some disgust that the item has no magical properties what-so-ever. That night, he makes his lonely way back to his companions, arriving just before dawn on the twelfth.

Downtime events back at the camp having already been covered last session, we return to play on the morning of the 12^th *

The group listens in quiet horror while Shadowdancer outlines events on the beach. Contrary to any concerns his companions might have regarding his secretive nature, he holds nothing back. Euthalia erupts into tears when he confirms he is unable to confirm Minerva's fate. After a moments shocked silence while the news sinks in, talk quickly turns to determining the groups next course of action.

Ki Oman is once again quick to voice his opinion that they should travel east to the City of Thyatis. Shadowdancer leads those who disagree, vehemently stating he has no intention of visiting a city where he would be considered a “thing” rather than a person -even going so far as to confirm with Bombata that “thing” was how the bodyguard had described him. Moreover, he insists that any survivors would have headed north. The group should stay put, guard themselves and await their arrival.

It is even suggested that the group should take over occupancy of the Trog caves, since it seems likely that the Trogs shall no longer need them. But it's pointed out that the caves are still not cleared, there are a lot of pod-men down there, and that they have no idea if Friendly has gone to gather up other Trogs and lead them back here.

Ki Oman's faction quickly wins most of the others to their side when Ki Oman pointedly asks if they can expect a reward for Merithena's return. Some of the group interpret the bodyguard's snorting laughter as an indication that they should not expect a reward until he and Merithena assure them that, as the Bull-Headed King's sole remaining mortal descendent, her return would be well-rewarded indeed.

After this, a few poorly chosen words from Kallias and, in particular Xenos, who casually observes that he could obtain as much as 30-40,000 gold pieces on the open market for a beautiful, regal, nubile and presumably virginal member of a royal family such as Merithena). Bombata shoves Merithena away from the camp-fire, spear clutched tightly in his hand. He informs the group that they will be returning to the city now. Alone. In a tone that brooks no argument.

While Ki and a few others watch them go with increasing dismay, an argument erupts among the others, with a great deal of the shouting being directed at an indignant Xenos. The slaver insists he merely meant to suggest that the return of such a valuable specimen would be worth a great reward. However, the damage is done. Yet with the others distracted by their bickering, Ki Oman slips away from camp and scrambles after the two Thyatians.

Bombata hears the approach and takes about ten paces back the way he came, before ordering the Bard to half. When the Bard attempts to heal the breech between the Thyatians and the rest of the party. When Ki Oman is halfway through a diplomatic refusal of Bombata's offer to allow Ki Oman to accompany the two Thyatians without the others, Bombata simply holds up one hand for silence and asks a pointed question.

Ali sent me this picture for Ki Oman.

Bombatta: Do you intend to betray us?

Ki Oman indignantly replies that he does not.

[I stop play at this point and ask Ali if Ki is telling the truth. Ali replies that he is].

Ki watches with interest while one of the Skulls on Bombata's forearm glows briefly (he's only mildly surprised, having already been informed by Xenos that the tattoo's possess divination magic).

Bombata grunts and asks another question: Will you aid us if your companions betray us?

Ki Oman states he will do all he can to prevent bloodshed or any other form of betrayal. He also insists he will do all he can to keep Merithena from harm.

The other tattoo glows.

Bombata: Good Enough. (he steps closer and softly growls into Ki's ear) Do you have any lecherous intentions towards Merithena?

Ki Oman (shocked and holding up the ring that bears his wedding band for inspection) She's old enough to be my daughter. In any case, I'm a married man.

[Very clever wording I thought]

Bombata (both tattoos glowing at once): Good enough. We shall accompany you.

Bombata returns to the Thyatian girls side, grabs her tightly by the arms and whispers to her urgently. After a few moments, the fear in her eyes is replaced by a certain astonished joy. When Bombata releases her arm, she flies past him and (for the second) throws herself into Ki Oman's arms. Placing a dozen swift kisses on his face and lips, she hugs him tightly briefly, taking the opportunity to whisper quickly into Ki's ear even as a furious Bombata approaches.

Merithena: Save me, they're going to sacrifice me.

Bombata pulls her away from Ki, who allows the warrior to berate her for a few moments in their own tongue before adding (in Mycenean) a lecture of his own.

[Ali turns to me across the table at this point and states very coldly, very quietly. “All-right. Now I intend to kill Bombata”

“Fair enough,” I reply.]

The trio soon return to the group. Shadowdancer alone insists he will not travel to the City.

Ki Oman: Bye Shadowdancer.

That surprises the Elf somewhat. He has always considered Ki Oman something of an ally. A kindred spirit despite their occasional disagreements. Bombata points out that so long as Shadowdancer keeps his eyes covered (pretty much the only part of his flesh that's actually visible) he should have no problems.

The party then, finally, begin asking questions about the journey and the city itself. They determine the following.

The journey will take two days
They must watch the skies. Though many dangers travel the skies of this island, they must in particular be watchful for the Harpies that haunt the lands through which they must travel on the second day.
The city is split into two quarters by a Canal. The Thyatians claim the east bank. The West belongs to the dead.
The city is not save to travel through at night. It is haunted by the spirits of the dead. While those on the East Bank are rarely hostile, the same cannot be said for those across the canal. Come dusk, the Thyatians return to their homes, temples and palaces on the East Bank and remain in-doors. Though the dead do not often haunt the place in daylight, even in the more dangerous West Bank, it is generally avoided even in daylight.. Beast-men, former slaves of the old Thyatians, reside in a central fortress across the West Bank. They are intensely hostile to humans.
At night, the West bank is claimed by the Crypt King whom Bombata believes may have been the figure on the beech despite the fact the ship sailed West. It seems this Crypt King rules over much of the Island.

Shadowdancer seizes upon the divided nature of the city and again insists that it is beyond foolish to venture into a besieged place. Bombata laughs in his throaty way and informs the elf he has no need for such cowardice. “The Thrones of Bull and Crypt have an accord” he states, but will be drawn no further on the matter. The eyes of Ki Oman, however, narrow dangerously. His gaze flips from Bombata to the down-cast, pale Merithena sitting quietly by the bodyguard's size. If anyone at the conference takes note of the Bard's suddenly balled fists however, they give no sign.

Mollified, Shadowdancer finally throws his arms in the air and agrees that Thyatis seems the best option for the moment. Once Euthalia is satisfied with the chalked message she leaves behind for any survivors from the Temple, the group make ready to depart. With the three stealthy party members arranged in a triangular scouting pattern around the rest of the group and Thera in her make-shift stretcher carried by Thoht and Alexis in the rear, they set off down-hill.

Bombata leads the group briefly south through the broken lands and sharp obsidian rocks for an hour before turning south-east. He explains that if they continue in this direction they must soon come to a grassy plan containing a stretch of ancient road-way. If they road-way is in poor-condition, he will know they are further west than he believes them to be at present. If the road is well maintained, then the two-day estimate will be accurate. They may even be lucky enough to meet a Thyatian patrol on the road. Though “his” troops rarely come this far west -it is dangerous to cross the bank, let alone come this far into uncontrolled territory- they patrol the roads irregularly to ensure they remain serviceable. He declines to explain why, however.

About half-way through the march, a huge, winged shadow passes over them. Diving for cover amidst the rocks, the party passes a few anxious minutes awaiting it's return. Eventually, they conclude (with no shortage of relief) that the creature did not spot them and will not return. They renew the journey, even more intent on watching the skies than before.

Eventually, they hit the grasslands just before night-fall. Satisfied the group is making good time, Bombata calls the group to a halt for the night, but instructs that there should be no fire. It is during this brief respite from the trail that Ki Oman takes Shadowdancer aside and explains what the girl told him. The two assassins reach an understanding. Bombata must die. Tonight. But, suspicious of the group despite Ki's assurances, Bombata spends the entire night awake and alert and looks little the worse for wear the next morning before setting off into the grasslands. Soon they find the road and turn east upon it.

The two conspirators manage to arrange a brief meeting. They agree that, while Bombata must die, they must also ensure that his death appears to be accidental. To buy time, they decide to report the presence of a Trog camp up ahead -one not of the tribe they are allied with- and insist that the group must take a detour around them.

Bombata grunts, but seems slightly perturbed. He comments that turning south from the road will take them closer to the Harpy Lair than he would like but it seems they have little choice. The big Thyatian begins digging in the earth without explanation, looking for (and gathering) a certain sort of small bulb. Sticking two such bulbs into his ears, he pauses only to pass two more to each companion (and watch to ensure they are properly placed) before resuming the march.

As they turn south, Thanatos, warding the left flank of the party, swings out west to keep an eye on the Trogs. Seeing no sign of them, she wonders just what it is that the other two scouts are up to.

Bombata reluctantly allows the group a brief rest-day stop, muttering that there are worse things in these lands even than Harpies. Euthalia and Kallias meanwhile, fuss over a weakening Thera. The heat and jostling of the journey have exhausted the still badly wounded Paladin and, though immune to such things as fevers and infection, she slips in and out of consciousness due to fatigue. While Bombata checks on Merithena, Thanatos slips over to a huddling Ki Oman and Shadowdancer and demands to know what's going on. The two deny that any-thing’s a foot, but Thanatos is not convinced.

A few hours later, Bombata insists on everyone replacing their ear-buds. Taking Thanatos, Shadowdancer and Ki Oman, he crawls on his belly up to a rise and looks to the North. There they see a ruined villa. Bombata states it's what he believes to be the Harpy lair. When the others, incredulous, ask why he would bring them so close to it, he gives them a hard look. It doesn't take the others long to realise that there must be something worse further south.

Less than an hour later, the party top a final rise and see, only a few miles ahead, a few low rise out of the horizon. Bombata seems pleased, and passes back along the group, leaning close to each party member so they can hear his words even through their blocked ears. It seems they will arrive to late to reach the East Bank this day, but tonight they will camp in the hills above the city. Bombata seems to think this a good thing.

Bombata: Tonight, you will see for yourselves why this island is a place to be feared.

Before he has even resumed his position at the front of the party, multiple voices call out the alarm!

Something dives out of the sun.

The griffon swoops into the main group, wrecking havoc. Xenos is unfortunate enough to attract the things attention, wounding it with a magic missiles as it sweeps down upon him. He goes down, hard. Meanwhile the three scouts make their way (with varying degree's of haste) back to the main group. Thanatos makes good use of her newly crafted sling and keeps her distance. Ki Oman charges in, keen to keep the beasts attention away from Merithena and Thera, who lie beneath the sprawled forms of Bombata and Thoht respectively. Shadowdancer, however, senses an opportunity. Knowing that Griffon's are attracted to horse-flesh, he uses Phantasmal Force to create the illusion that Bombata reeks of horseflesh.

Suddenly convinced that the prostrate human shield is, in fact, concealing some tasty horse-meat on his person, the Griffon goes berserk, badly clawing Bombata's face and arms and tearing out a screaming Merithena's throat when she tries to crawl out from Bombata's protection in blind-panic. With Merithena's arterial spray mingling with the blood on his arms and face, Bombata, too, goes berserk.

While the clerics drag Merithena clear and heal her (having already healed Xenos, who regains consciousness with no modifiers to dice rolls having only been on 0 hp) Bombata and the others hack the griffon to pieces, but it is Xenos to claims the kill. The slavers second magic missile blows straight through the creatures skull, imploding one eye on the way in and bursting the other on the way out.

Though the danger is not over yet. Though Kallias and Euthalia try to hold her down, Merithena's desperate struggles allow her to escape their ministrations (despite being at -7 to all dice rolls) and lurch westwards back towards the villa. Looking at one another in horror, the two clerics realize that the girls ear-bulbs must have been knocked out during her savaging. But that means....

Looking back the way they came, the clerics see two bird-like specks rising out of the ruined villa some two miles behind them and flying their way.

Andros, Boagris and the rest of the main body run off to drag Merithena away and re-fit her ear-plugs(with the exception of Thoht and Alexis, who are concentrating their attentions on the unconscious Thera). In the meantime, Ki Oman strides over to Bombata, still trapped beneath the carcass of the huge griffon.

Ki Oman: Hear, let me help you.

Bombata throws away his broken spear and reaches out a hand to Ki Oman.

Whoplunges his spear deep into the trapped bodyguards chest.

[Backstab - and a good one at that!]

Shadowdancer and a slightly more distant Thanatos look on. Shadowdancer rather clinically. Thanatos looking some what horrified.

Bombata tries to strike the agile Ki. Who nimbly dodges aside and back-stabs again. Alas, for Ki, the kill is not so easy as he would desire. No sooner has he withdrawn his spear from Bombata's chest for the second time (to his credit, the trapped bodyguard makes not a sound, despite his agony) that someone (Boagris I think) manages to fit Merithena;s ear-plugs back into place....

The girl, cradled in the big gladiators arms, looks back over his shoulder towards the Griffon.... and screams.

Ki Oman doesn't flinch, he merely rolls his eyes and mutters something about the worst possible timing. When he withdraws his spear for the third time -while a stunned party looks on, not one character taking any sort of action- Bombata lies still. Yet when Ki howls loudly and leaps upon the falling warrior, tearing out his throat with his teeth, two party members act quickly.

Shadowdancer: “The Harpies have him! Quick, stop him!”

Boagris (who actually sort of liked Bombata): Raaaaaaahhhhh!

In less time than it takes to tell, the mighty gladiator chucks the screaming Merithena into the arms of Andros, Kallias and Euthalia and then shoulder barges the feasting bard to the ground.

[With a natural 20! Since critical generally means something good for the party, I rule that rather than doing extra damage, the blow knocks the ear-plugs out of of Ki's head. Does Boagris notice this? * roll * No! But someone else did]

Shadowdancer: Quick, put his ear-plugs back in.

Boagris does so, but there's no time for any questions. The harpies are upon them. The party take what shelter they can behind the corpse of the Griffon while the two harpies hover above them at maximum bow range. With nothing to hit back with, the party can only grit their teeth and take it as the harpies (only one of whom has a bow) stay out of range and pelt them till they run out of arrows. Thoht is very nearly killed by two arrows that strike him in the throat (healed but now at -8 to all dice rolls due to going down to -8hp) and Xenos goes down for the second time in the fight when another arrow nicks him (taking him down to -1). When the frustrated Harpies finally flee (frustrated because the party is too tough to attack directly, too smart to be affected by their song and because they've run out of arrows) Xenos is quickly healed and brought back to his feet. Many of the others bear minor wounds.

With Alexis and Andros each under one of Thera's shoulders, Euthalia and Kallias carrying Thoht on Thera's (former) stretcher and Boagris carrying a near-catatonic Thyatian girl in his arms, the party hustle towards the tree-line represented by the wooded hills ahead. They are hurried on their way by the sight and noise of a band of armed humanoids marching out of the villa and hurrying towards them. It's a close run thing, but they reach the woods well ahead of the dozen or so armoured figures, which turn back as soon as the party finds shelter beneath the trees.

“Great”, someone observes acidly, “so what's in here that's more terrifying than they are”?

Everyone looks to Ki Oman for an explanation of his actions, but Ki Oman simply plays dumb, pretending he has no recollection of events since sighting the Griffon. Shadowdancer buys him some time by pointing out it's late. The sun is about to go down and they need somewhere to camp.

The three scouts head off to secure a good spot, but upon reaching the summit of the hill their breath catches. Quickly, the rest of the party are summoned just as the sun begins creeping below the horizon.

Below them, the great city of Thyatis stretches out before them.

It's a ruin.

On the East Bank of the canal that divides the city, the glow of torch-light marks the flow of humanity hustling back from the fields in near panic. The larger mass of light dissolves into streams of individual torches at a crossroads, with the larger part of the human citizens rushing northwards to take shelter within a palatial walled compound. Other, smaller streams head southward towards what appears to be a large temple complex and it's two flanking fortifications.

Rather closer to home, ghost-lights appear in various ruined homes and several fortified buildings. Some of which -including the largest ruined fortification and a smaller watch-tower- are uncomfortably close. As the shadow of the hill on which they stand races across the city below, more lights appear. As though the shadow were a swarm of insects in which individual fireflies begin to glow. The lights are all of ghastly, ethereal hue, blues and greens and purples. Even as the adventurers watch, the lights begin to move.

All at once, the party decide it is time to leave.

They make camp at the base of the hill, placing it's bulk between themselves and the haunted city to the East. With watches set, suspicious eyes turn to Ki Oman.

Ki Oman: What? What is it I'm supposed to have done.

The party tell him, pointing to the blood soaking his chest as proof. But Ki Oman denies all knowledge. Shadowdancer backs him up, pointing out that the Harpies must have had Ki Oman under their control. His ear-buds obviously fell out during the fight with the Griffon. Kallias is amongst those hardest to convince. After all, he observes, Merithena did not become berserk when she heard the Harpies call. Thanatos, who has his own reasons to be suspicious, states there was no Trog camp on the road. But both Shadowdancer and Ki insist she is mistaken. Xenos, meanwhile, rather slyly reckons the Ki just wanted Merithena for himself. Not that the slaver sees anything wrong with that in principle mind you, but still....

Not for the first time since meeting Merithena and Bombata, Ki Oman again shows off his wedding band and observes he's old enough to be her father. The slaver snorts and points out that’s just how some of his former clients used to like it...

Before things become more heated, Euthalia hisses for everyone to shut up. She has been trying to coax a response from the utterly terrified and near-catatonic girl, with no success. Merithena won't even let the priestess of Hestia embrace her in a motherly embrace, pushing her away each time. Ki does not help matters by approaching the girl to offer apologies for his “inadvertent” actions. After all, he's pretty damn confused himself.

In the end, the party set's aside the blame game for now and attempts to discuss what they hell their supposed to do now? The girl thinks they murdered her bodyguard? But they NEED to get access to that city. They need rest, food, provisions, a place of safety. What can they do.

It's Xenos that proposes the solution. He'll charm the girl in the morning. The situation seems so grave that no-one, not even Euthalia, objects. Thera might, had she been awake, but the wounded Paladin has been so weakened by the travails of the last two days that she has slept soundly throughout the journey.

So it's agreed then.

As the group settles down to catch what sleep they can so close to the dangers of the haunted East Bank, an earth-shattering boom jolts them to full wakefulness. To the north, the volcano in the centre of the Bay is spewing strange, ghostly smoke. The ground seems to shake, but though the tree's shake violently no-one is forced from their feet. They hear a great rushing sound, like a thousand waterfalls all at once and recall with dread the noise of the great wave that brought them here. Only moments later, a great, glowing body of water crashes through the forest, disturbing nothing living, and vanishes behind them, carrying with a tide of ghostly, screaming spectres, Men, women, children, ships. Even a bewildered, ghostly cow.

In minutes, the ghostly phantasms have passed them by.

They party look at one another, white faced, shocked, but protected from fear by the sleeping presence of the Paladin in their midst.

So that's what Bombata meant when he said there was something they had to see.

Epilogue: We closed the session in the morning. Xenos casts charm person on Merithena in her sleep, and when she awakes her new “best-friend” explains the "real events" of the day before. The Harpies had stolen Ki's mind even as they had stolen Merithena's, though it had affected Ki differently. The slaver explained that it hadn't really been Ki's fault, but that if she told her father -or anyone else- what had happened they wouldn't see it that way. It might get Xenos and the others into serious trouble. Even killed. Tearfully the girl agrees that it would be best to simply claim that Bombata had been killed by the Griffon. Her great-uncle, the Bull-Headed King trusts her. He would believe her story.

Content, Xenos hides his wink by giving the girl a hug.

Later, Andros approaches the slaver and promises menacingly: Take advantage of that girl and I'll kill you!

By the time they depart camp, so has almost everyone else.

Session VIII: The Sinister Shroom

2011-11-28T18:02:00.005Z

[Well, I wasn't able to run this session as a dual epic cut-scene battle after all. A variety of factors conspired to prevent myself and most of the other players from meeting up to create their back-up characters. Instead, I'll wargame the success -or otherwise- of the defending forces back at the Temple later tonight using 2^nd edition AD&D Battlesystem Skirmishes. Unfortunately, most of my mini's and terrain are still packed-away following the move. I'm afraid I'll have to use paper counters instead. A pity really, as I'd love to do a battle-report on the attack, but there we go. I'll be taking notes though. If enough people are interested in such a thing I can always set up the miniatures and terrain at a later date and take the photographs then]

Anyway, we left the players just as the opened a door to come face to face with the Sinister Shroom:

Character Roster

Exploring the Caves (players present):

Ailil Shadowdancer: Elf Male Assassin/Illusionist 2/1. Played by Rhidh
Andros: Human (Mycenean) Female Fighter 2. Played by Aimee
Boagris: Human (Mycenean) Male Fighter 2. Played by Silv
Friendly: Trog NPC. Played by Caroline.
Kallias: Human (Mycenean) Male Cleric 1. Played by Elle
Ki Oman: Human (Zaman) Male Dual Classed Assassin1/Bard 1. Played by Ali
Surly: Trog NPC. Played by Niall.
Thanatos: Human (Mycenean) Female Assassin 2
Xenos: HUman (Mycenean) Male Fighter/Magic User 1/1. Played by Leoni.

Guarding the Camp (absent players, injured PC's and NPC's):

Alexis: Human (Mycenean) Male Fighter 1. Played by Larraitz
Bombata: Human (unknown) Male NPC
Euthalia. Human (Mycenean) Female Cleric 1. Played by Caroline
Merithena: Human (unknown) Female NPC
Thera: Human (Mycenean) Female Paladin 1. Played by Niall.
Thot: Half Elf Male Magic User/Cleric 1/1. NPC

Garrison at the Temple of Meerax (absent players and NPC's):

Antipater. Human (Mycenean) Male Ship's Master. NPC
Kallisto: Human (Mycenean) Female Fighter 1. Played by Jackie
Minerva: Human (Mycenean) Female High Priestess and Princess of Mesos. NPC
Peliakos: Human (Mycenean) Male Fighter 1. Played by Coakley
Sparious: HUman (Mycenean) Male Fighter 1. Spare Character.

The battle opens up with Shadowdancer (whose player was running late) fading into darkness while Boagris and Andros, each standing at the entrance of one of the two southern doors into the chamber, set to receive a charge. Ki Oman and Kallias keep an eye on the various corridors and doors behind the party. Friendly the Trog begins the actual combat by tossing all three of it's darts at the Sinister shroom, hitting with two. Kalias, out of spells, lingers at the back away from trouble.

Thanatos and Xenos, meanwhile, move into position behind the front rank fighters, ready to fight with their spears. At this point, the Shroom, still reeling from the two darts embedded in it's rubbery trunk, unleashes a nasty surprise on the party. It waves it's arms in the air as though spellcasting. Boagris, succumbing to the Shroom's spell, drops his spear and shield to the ground and blinks rapidly in confusion. Meanwhile the Shroom's unusually large podman bodyguard moves into action, advancing upon Andros who, thrown by Boagris' strange behaviour, merely knicks the creature with her set spear.

Surly advances to join Thanatos and Xenos in the second rank, wondering why the big tasty human in the front suddenly smells so off. He soon has his answer.

“Noooooooo! Don't hurt my Shroom!” Boagris, throwing his arms wide, leaps upon his fellow fighter Andros, wrestling her to the ground. The party's two front-rankers thereafter spend the remainder of the fight rolling around on the floor in a grapple, seemingly taking it turns to roll atop the other.

Friendly, Xenos, Thanatos and Surly take up the slack left by the brawling warriors, engaging the pod-man in vicious hand to hand combat. Thanatos, perhaps regretting her new found atavism, goes down hard on 0hp after taking a pummelling from the creatures fists. Ki, on the other hand, notices a door-way potentially leading into the Shroom-room from the west [I say suddenly, but what I really mean is that I had forgotten to include the damn thing in the room descriptions until Ali noticed it on the map] and hurries towards it, intending to flank the creature. Shadowdancer (whose player arrives around this time) follows. Friendly, meanwhile, is badly hurt by the Shroom's magic missiles but stays in the fight.

While the two fighters continued to play “king of the hill” on the floor, the brace of party-members fighting the pod thing finally begin to make a visible dent in it's considerable pool of hit points. Realising his body guard is about to go down, the Shroom flees -or rather, hops and slithers as fast as his slimy little stump will carry him- towards the rooms eastern exit, helped on his way by one of Surly's darts.

Ki Oman and Shadowdancer appear through the western doorway just as the pod man hops through the eastern exit. Flicking a switch, a portcullis falls behind it. The Shroom hops around to glare balefully at the two assassins following behind, who continue running towards the eastern door, hoping to find the portcullis switch.

[The Shroom chamber in my adaption of the module is considerably longer east-west that in the published version]

Just as Ki (in the lead) reaches the portcullis itself, the pod-man finally goes down and the Shroom unleashes a gobbet of black, mucousy goop. The globule strikes Ki full in the chest, sending him crashing unconscious to the floor on -2hp, the black gloop still smouldering on his chest.

Xenos runs into the room and, with Shadowdancer drags the wounded assassin/bard to one side, out of the Shroom's line of sight. Surly and Friendly soon follow the others into the room. Seeing the imminent arrival of the two Trogs (and -correctly- suspecting that as former residents of the complex the Trogs know exactly where the portcullis switch is) the Shroom casts a web spell into the chamber, concentrated near the switch. The web catches both Trogs, Shadowdancer, Xenos, and Ki Oman. However, Shadowdancer is caught on the outskirts of the web and easily tears through the foot or so of gunky chord between himself and freedom. Xenos reveals his own, somewhat surprising, strength for the first time and also makes headway in freeing himself. Moreoever, the web provides no obstacle whatsoever to the two Trogs who, with cold reptilian strength, tear a path through the web towards the portcullis and it's switch.

Eyes glowing in alarm, the Shroom turns and hops away down a corridor to the south. It's too slow however, and is quickly caught by Surly, Friendly and Shadowdancer, joined shortly thereafter by Xenos. Even with four against one the melee is not a short one. It is Surly's spear that knocks aside the Shroom's longsword to pierce the rubbery hide, spilling black slime from it's fungal “veins”. Though this foul ichor covers the cavern floor, so too does a small amount splatter onto Surley himself. His arm dissolving in similar fashion to that of the late Glykeria, Surly calls out to Friendly to stay back.

“Tell the old one I died well.” he hisses fiercely, before running down the corridor out of sight and away from the equally susceptible Friendly.

Thanatos soon recovers consciousness and helps the others free Ki Oman from the web. Andros has, meanwhile, finally managed to restrain a weeping Boagris, though the former gladiator continues to struggle. His...ahem.. disposition is not helped when Xenos, his former owner and a slaver by profession, advances upon with some vine-rope, intent on tying him up. Eventually, unable to trust the violently struggling warrior in his present state, they manage to tie him securely. He is later released after having had a chance to calm down.

It's not long after this, while the remaining conscious humans and the single elf attempt to work out what to do next, that Kallias reports noise from the west. Arranging themselves in a rough combat formation, they are surprised to see Bombatta lead Merithena, Thoht (helping along a limping Euthalia) and Alexis (doing the same for a semi-conscious Thera) into the chamber. They have some disturbing news.

Bombatta: There is smoke to the south. A great deal of smoke.

Hearing the news spoken so matter-of-factly results in a great deal of swearing among the conscious members of the party. All to aware that they are a days travel from the Temple, they take the time to thoroughly ransack the Shroom's chambers. The haul of loot includes:

2 rings of large copper plates containing the Shroom's spells
More than twenty vials of (potentially) magic potions.
Valuable books on Horticulture and Farming
Silver Goblets, Decanters and other sell-able valuables.
A presumably magical vest worn by the Shroom.
The Shroom's longsword.

These last two items are swiftly claimed by Shadowdancer. His decision to keep the longsword seems reasonable enough since he is the only party member familiar with such a long blade. However, he “forgets” to mention to the party that he has collected the vest.

They also learn (from a collection of mouldy tapestries) the sad tale of the Shroom's rise to power and his ultimate fall from grace after offending the Gods.

Returning to the camp, the party members see for themselves that there is, indeed, a great deal of smoke on the southern horizon and, in fact, now that the sun is finally beginning to set -they spent a loooong time searching the Shroom's chambers- they can also see the glow of flames reflected against the clouds.

What to do? What to do?

The possibility of bringing the Trogs and any survivors from the Temple back to the caves is brought up rather quickly, but just as quickly discarded. After all, they have yet to fulfil their bargain with the Trogs by clearing out the caves -they've left a lot of unexplored territory down there-. Moreover, they are getting somewhat ahead of themselves: the party doesn't even know if there are any survivors. Or even if the flames mean what they think it means. They discuss leaving right away for the temple, but quickly realise that, in the state they are in (with so many wounded) they might do more harm than good. It's quickly decided that someone will have to go and look.

Someone sneaky.

Everyone looks at Shadowdancer, who, knowing he is the only “sneaky” one in any position to take a look, agrees to set out in the morning with Friendly. Thanatos observes that, although struck unconscious, she has no lasting injuries and can depart in the morning with the aid of magical healing. In the end however, due to her lack of elf-vision, it is decided that Thanatos should remain behind. Plotting out the best route, the two assassins estimate that, taking into account the precautions Shadowdancer and Friendly will have to undertake in order to avoid meeting the Grey Demons, it may take as long as four days before they can return to camp.

We ended it there for the night. Before everyone left, I informed them that unless I rolled for a wondering monster before Shadowdancer and Thanatos returned, they would have four days of downtime. I didn't roll a monster, [at least, not for the guys still in camp *evil grin*] so I invited everyone to tell me their characters plans for downtime.

DOWNTIME:

Shadowdancer take one of the six looted books with him when he and friendly leave later that night. Though where he expects to find the time to read it is an open question. I'll have to ask him if he intends to light any fires at night (you can't read a book with heat vision, after all). Shadowdancer also intends to experiment with his sword's cutting abilities while he travels (an attempt to discern if it is magical).

Euthalia, Thera, Thanatos, Kallias and Ki Oman all pick a book each and begin reading. I inform them that it takes a week of study and a full set of books to learn the arts of Horticulture or Agriculture. By swapping books amongst themselves they can make four days of head-way towards these goals. They wont be able to learn either skill until reading the book carried by Shadowdancer, however.

Xenos memorises (and casts) read magic on the captured spellbooks multiple times and thereafter learns the spells Jump, Charm Person, Identify and Protection from Good. On day four he memorises Identify twice, but only has to cast it once because the vest is missing. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that Shadowdancer “forgot” to leave it behind. This strikes everyone as odd. After all, it's a rather colourful and gaudy object, not the sort of item they imagine Shadowdancer would ever lower himself to wear, however powerfulit might prove to be.

Euthalia, Thera and Ki Oman obtain four days of bed-rest (reading a book still counts as bed-rest). Ki Oman only needs three to fully recover from his wounds. He spends the fourth day figuring out his first Bard spell (he's now a dual classed Assassin 1/Bard 2). He also spends part of the fourth day examining the party haul to see if he knows anything about any of the items looted... er, salvaged legitimately, thus far. Euthalia fully recovers from her wounds at the end of day four.

By then, Thera is still at -3 to all dice rolls. However, if I know Niall (her player, and I do) Thera will probably be insisting that Kallios return her armour and weapons next session (Kallias is currently wearing the female Paladins custom-made breastplate. Yes. I know. But given that Kallias' physical description has been summed up by the player as “pretty boy” he probably even looks good in it.).

Andros ensures all the groups weapons are in working order by cleaning, oiling and sharpening them personally.

I'll assume the others spend the majority of their time fishing in the pool and standing guard -at least until they tell me otherwise.

So ended day 8 of the Isle of the Eartshaker Campaign. We resume play on day 12.

[Personally, I thought the players did damn well this session. They were very deserving of the single largest haul of xp since the campaign began. I was fully expecting to see at least a couple of PC deaths during the Shroom encounter. In the end, all the PC's survived, though two were taken down and a powerful NPC ally perished. I'd beefed up the Shroom by giving him some additional special abilities to make him more like a typical myconid and removed one of his bodyguards to compensate. Even so, if not for some truly jammy dice rolls on behalf of the players, it could have gone either way. Especially when you consider that not one spellcaster in the party had even a single spell left to their name before the fight had even started!

One thing I really enjoyed about this session was that Xenos finally had the chance to shine in melee. So far he's been rather over-shadowed by the sheer number of front-rank fighter types in the party. Usually, there's not even a need for him to strap on his armour and take his turn with the other "meat-shields". But this session, Xenos was finally able to show just how “bad-ass” he is when he straps on that armour and picks up a spear.

Leoni got some really good rolls when rolling up Xenos. Even though I don't allow multi-class fighters to specialise, it was great to see Leoni's glee when she realized that old Xenos can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the likes of Boagris and Andros and hold his own. I think she got a real kick out of it when I told everyone how much damage Xenos had taken after one particularly nasty critical hit. All around the table players were wincing and muttering “ouch, there goes our last fighter.” You could have heard a pin-drop when Leoni just shrugged and told the table she had plenty hit points left. Yup. Even as a first level fighter/magic-user, ol Xenos has more hit points than most of the single-classed fighters had at first level. Like I said, Leoni had some damn good dice rolls]

Oriental OSRIC PC Race: Spirit Folk

2011-11-27T22:33:00.004Z

Conversion Notes:

Added a fourth sub-group of Spirit Folk- the Mountain Spirit Folk character. Extensively revised the Sea Spirit Folk to make their power levels more comparable with other spirit folk – or rather, more powerful but usable less often. Added a +1 bonus to all dice rolls when in associated terrain. I'm considering expanding this bonus to all terrain that matches the associated terrain type rather than simply the particular geographic location to which the Spirit Folk's parent is linked. Comments on this idea greatly appreciated. Saving throw bonus' for sub-types that benefit from positive modifiers against two elemental types balanced by negative modifiers against a third element. Added Shukenja to list of permitted classes (doesn't make sense that a half-spirit can't commune with the spirits) and moved the Spirit Folks unlimited advancement class from Bushi to Shukenja.

Spirit Folk Characters:

Spirit folk are the product of a direct union between human and Kami, most often a minor Kami who watches over a small geographical area. This semi-divine heritage grants an unearthly beauty to Spirit Folk as well as something of an otherworldly air. Spirit-folk tender to be slender in appearance, possessed of graceful movements and pleasant voices. Both men and woman have sparse -if any- body hair, though the locks upon their heads are often silky and luxuriant. Many have unusual eye-colour or shape.

Kami tend to be attracted to humans of education and culture. Even when attracted to an individual of low birth, the Kami partner often takes a personal interest in improving the human partner's situation. Most Spirit Folk characters are therefore from relatively high status families. Most spirit-folk must balance dual-loyalties. Loyalty to their earthly family as well as to the divine hierarchy of their spirit ancestor. A spirit-folk character must decide for themselves which obligation carries the most weight, though it is generally felt by the Kami themselves that devotion to the spirit-family should be the character's primary interest. Fortunately, the Kami rarely call upon their mortal children to perform a service, yet when they do, these services invariably require a great deal of time, effort and dangerous activity on behalf of the spirit-folk character concerned.

Being half-spirit themselves, Spirit-folk are attuned to nature and the natural world, particularly the element and lands bound most closely to that of their spirit parent. All possess unusual powers derived from their ancestry.

Regardless of character class chosen, all Spirit Folk characters must generate a human family to which they belong. Even if not normally required to do so by the class chosen.

Common Racial Abilities:

120ft Infra-vision
Treat all rolls on the Character birth table of less than 10 (Upper Middle Class) as 10.
Additional Racial Powers as per sub-type, below.

Languages:

All spirit-folk characters, regardless of ancestor can speak the Common human language and the language of the Courtier. They gain additional languages by sub-type as listed in the individual entries below. They do not gain bonus languages for high intelligence.

Permitted Class Options:

Kami are attracted only to humans of relatively pure spirit, high social class, and cultured upbringing. Permitted classes include Samurai, Kensai, Bushi, Monk and Shukenja. If the optional non-human level limits are is use, a Spirit Folk character can advance to a maximum of 12th level as a Samurai, Unlimited level as a Shukenja, 9th level as a Kensei, 12th level as a Bushi and 12th level as a monk. If this optional rule is not in use then Spirit Folk characters have a 10% xp penalty.

Multi-class Restrictions:

Due to their intrinsic ties to the spirits, Spirit Folk characters are able to gain the powers of a Shukenja relatively easily, without having to devote their life to such pursuits. Hence, Spirit Folk characters may multicass as Bushi/Shukenja, Samurai/Shukenja and Kensai/Shukenja, The aesthetic life of a monk does not lend itself well to multi-classing however. Spirit Folk Characters cannot multi-class as a Shukenja/Monk.

Movement Rate: 120ft

Racial Limitations:

If the characters maximum and minimum ability scores do not fall within these limits after racial modifications then the character cannot be one of the Spirit-Folk.
Strength: 6/18
Dexterity: 12/18
Constitution: 6/14
Intelligence: 12/18
Wisdom: 9/18
Charisma: 14/18

Bamboo Spirit-Folk Racial Abilities:

Bamboo spirit folk are normally the children of a male human and a Bisan, a type of Kami similar to the Dryads of the Occident. They are closely tied to the Bamboo, Camphor, Teak or Mohogany grove of their parent to the extent that their own health and well-being is entirely dependant on that of the grove itself.

75% chance to identify normal plants and animals.
Pass Without Trace: When moving alone through wooded areas, the Bamboo Spirit-Folk leave no discernible trail and cannot be tracked by magical or mundane means. When travelling with a group that includes non Bamboo Spirit Folk, they reduce the likelihood of the party being successfully tracked by 20%.
Each time the Bamboo Spirit Folk goes up a level he can learn the language of another forest dwelling animal.
+1 saving throw bonus versus all effects related to the Elements of Wood or Earth, including plant-based poisons. However, the Bamboo Spirit Folk character is also slightly more vulnerable to Fire and has a -1 modifier to saving throws versus fire based effects.
Tree Grove: The Bamboo Folk character is tied spiritually and physically to the grove of his Kami parent. If the Bamboo Grove is damaged, the character looses a proportionate number of hit points. If the grove is destroyed, the character is killed instantly. If the grove is threatened in any way, he will be contacted by his Kami parent through dreams and visions. When the character enters his grove for the first time each day, he is affected as though by a heal spell. Inside his grove, the character receives a +1 modifier to all dice rolls, including attack and damage rolls. This only applies within the actual grove itself. Carrying a cutting from the grove or planting a sapling elsewhere counts as creating an entirely new grove and does not confer any benefits to the character.
The Bamboo spirit folk character can cast the second level Shukenja spell Commune with Lesser Spirit. He can use this spell-like ability to communicate with any forest or bamboo spirit within the province he currently finds himself. Alternatively, it can be used to commune with his Kami parent regardless of the distance involved. He can use this ability to contact his spirit parent once per day. He can also use this ability to commune with another Bamboo or forest spirit once per week per character level.

Mountain Spirit Folk:

Mountain Spirit Folk are often the product of a union between a human male and a Yuki-onno who has taken pity on a dying mountain traveller.

75% chance to identify mountain plants and animals and natural subterranean animals.
Mountain Movement: The Mountain Spirit Folk character does not suffer movement penalties for moving through hilly, mountainous or broken terrain.
+1 bonus to all saving throws involving the element of earth, including plant based poisons.
Gains the ability to speak the language of subterranean animals such as moles and badgers.
Associated Mountain: The Mountain Spirit Folk character is tied spiritually and physically to the mountain inhabited and protected by his Kami parent. If the mountain is damaged or mined, the character looses a proportionate number of hit points. If the mountain is destroyed by a volcanic eruption or cataclysmic earthquake, so too is the character. If the mountain is threatened in any way, he will be contacted by his Kami parent through dreams and visions. When the character ascends to the summit of his associated mountain for the first time each day, he is affected as though by a heal spell. While standing on his associated mountain, the character receives a +1 modifier to all dice rolls, including attack and damage rolls. This only applies on the mountain itself. Soil carried away from the mountain or transported to a home or garden does not confer any benefits to the character.
The Mountain Spirit Folk character can cast the second level Shukenja spell Commune with Lesser Spirit. He can use this spell-like ability to communicate with any mountain spirit within the province he currently finds himself. Alternatively, it can be used to commune with his Kami parent regardless of the distance involved. He can use this ability to contact his spirit parent once per day. He can also use this ability to commune with another mountain spirit once per week per character level.

River Spirit Folk:

River spirit folk are associated with one particular river or other body of fresh water such as a stream or lake. Like other spirit-folk, their physical and spiritual health is tied to that of the water source itself. Such characters are often the children of a Numagozen who encounters a human with a close resemblance to her fallen husband.

75% chance to identify fresh water plants and animals.
Swim: A River Spirit folk can swim 120ft per round and may breathe underwater without difficulty. All items in her possession remain completely dry when she is immersed in water. These powers apply to fresh-water only.
Lower the depth of rivers and streams by 10ft once per day for five rounds.
+1 bonus to all saving throws involving the element of water, including liquid based poisons.
Gain the ability to speak with fresh-water fish and fresh-water mammals.
Associated River, Stream or Lake: The River Spirit folk character is tied spiritually and physically to the body of water inhabited and protected by his Kami parent. If the body of water is damaged the character looses a proportionate number of hit points. If the body of water is poisoned, so too is the character. If it dries up, the character will die of thirst. If it is dammed or diverted in any way, the character will weaken proportionately (again loosing a number of hit points). If this body of water is threatened in any way, he will be contacted by his Kami parent through dreams and visions. When the character immerses himself in his associated body of water for the first time each day, he is affected as though by a heal spell. While swimming, boating or crossing this body of water in any way, the character receives a +1 modifier to all dice rolls, including attack and damage rolls. This only applies within the body of water itself. Water carried away from the associated body of water or transferring it into a large artificial container such as a well or fountain does not confer any benefits to the character.
The River Spirit Folk character can cast the second level Shukenja spell Commune with Lesser Spirit. He can use this spell-like ability to communicate with any fresh-water spirit within the province he currently finds himself. Alternatively, it can be used to commune with his Kami parent regardless of the distance involved. He can use this ability to contact his spirit parent once per day. He can also use this ability to commune with another fresh-water spirit once per week per character level.

Sea Spirit Folk:

Often the child of a human woman and a Shojo. Few of the drunken, red-haired Shojo are willing to accept responsibility for such a child. However, Watatsumi, Kami of the Sea, is quick to adopt such children as his own.

75% chance to identify salt water plants and animals.
Swim: A River Spirit folk can swim 120ft per round and may breathe underwater without difficulty. All items in her possession remain completely dry when she is immersed in water. These powers apply in salt-water only.
Once per year the character can call upon the Kami of the Sea for one very powerful favour, such as the creation of a typhoon or a tsunami.
+1 bonus to all saving throws involving the elements of water and air, including liquid and gaseous poisons. However, the Sea Kami is more vulnerable to earth based effects such as petrification and spells of the earth element, imparting a -1 modifier to such saves.
Gains the ability to speak with salt-water fish and salt-water mammals.
Sea Association: The Sea Spirit folk character is tied spiritually and physically to the sea itself. However, while the sea is so vast that any changes are unlikely to affect the health of the character, nor do Sea Spirit folk gain any healing benefits from being immersed in sea-water. However, the character does receive +1 to all dice rolls made when travelling on or under the sea.
The Sea spirit folk character can cast the second level Shukenja spell Commune with Greater Spirit once per week for every 3 levels of experience. This ability may only be used to commune with Watatsume, the Kami of the sea.
The character has a 75% chance of accurately predicting the weather conditions for the next day.

Oriental OSRIC PC Race: Korobokuru

2011-11-24T22:32:00.005Z

Conversion Notes: I changed the modifiers for magic and poison saves to +1 for every 3.5 points of constitution to bring this racial ability in line with OSRIC dwarves. Exchanged the level limits for the bushi class and the barbarian class. If most Korobokuru are Barbarians, it doesn't make sense for them to be limited to level 10 in that class but at the same time have unlimited advancement as a Bushi. Added the yari to list of permitted weapons as the background material in OA explicitly states they favor the weapon despite it not being on their list of permitted pole-arms.

Korobokuru:

The Korobokuru have been driven deep into the wild places of the world by the enchroachment of man. They reside in isolated villages and nomadic camps in remote areas of considerable natural beauty, frequently moving on when human settlement begins nearby.

Though many Korobukuru are hostile to the humans who scorn them and drive them from their homes, others, perhaps unwilling to leave the ancestral spirits of their race to the care of humanity, live in human lands still. Some even strive to become samurai.

Korobokaru stand approximately four feet in height, with arms and legs somewhat larger proportionately than humans. Their body hair is thick and course. Many sport unkempt, leonine hair or tangled beards. Their appearance is considered somewhat unkempt in the eyes of the more "civilized" oriental peoples.

Culturally, their society is considered far less advanced than that of their human neighbors. They subside through hunting, farming and fishing. What little art they produce is considered somewhat crude and artless. Their culture is considered somewhat "backward" as a result. Even those who live among humans are rarely afforded the same respect offered to a human of comparable status. Indeed, they are considered rude, pugnacious and even somewhat comical by the rest of world but, in particular, humanity.

Korobokaru tend towards chaotic or neutral alignments. They can be Barbarians, Bushi, Samurai or Wu Jen. Most are Barbarians. Their preferred weapon proficiencies include the yari, horse-bows, blowguns, shortswords, hand-axes and (when they can get them) wakizashi.

Korobokuru player characters should generate a family as per the normal rules for family generation.

Summary of Racial Abilities:

+1 Strength, +1 Constitution, -2 Intelligence.
+1 to saves vs magical rods, staves, wands or spells for every 3.5 points of constitution
+1 to saves vs poison for every 3.5 points of constitution
120ft Infravision
66% chance to identify any normal plant or animal.
+1 bonus to attack rolls vs bakemono, goblins, goblin rats and hobgoblins
-4 AC Bonus vs attacks from giants, oni, ogres, ogre magi, and titans

Restrictions:

Due to size limitations, Korobukuru cannot use the no-daichi (2 handed-sword). Nor may they use any polearm other than a naginata or yari. Cannot use any bow other than a horse-bow.

Languages:

Own tribal language, Common, Spirit-Folk, Hengeyokai. They do not know any alignment languages (assuming these optional rules are used) and may not learn any additional languages regardless of their intelligence score.

Permitted Class Options:

Korobokuru may belong to the Barbarian, Bushi, Samurai or Wu Jen classes only. If samurai, they must serve a human master. If the optional non-human level limits are in use, Korobokuru can advance to level 10 as a Bushi, level 7 as a Wu Jen and level 6 as a Samurai. If the optional level limits are not in use then it instead costs a Korobokuru character 10% more experience points to advance to it's next class level.

Multi-Class Restrictions:

Korobokuru may multi-class as a Barbarian/Wu Jen.

Movement Rate: 90ft

Racial Limitations:

If the characters maximum and minimum ability scores do not fall within these limits after racial modifications then the character cannot be a Korobokuru.
Strength: 8/19
Dexterity: 6/18
Constitution: 12/19
Intelligence: 3/15
Wisdom: 3/17
Charisma: 3/16

Oriental OSRIC: An Oriental Adventures Conversion Project

2011-11-23T20:48:00.005Z

Over the next few months, it's my intention to go over as much of the old Oriental Adventures-related gaming material as possible and "convert" it (or rather, update it) to OSRIC. I'll be looking at old Dragon Magazine articles as well as OA rulebooks, adventures and even the Forgotten Realms Kara-Tur releases. An ambitious project, but one that I hope to handle in a number of bite-sized chunks. Once I have enough material prepped I'll probably start a new blog dedicated to Oriental OSRIC and move the whole project over there. But for the time being, this blog will be my usual work-space.

I'll be concentrating on adopting material concerning pseudo-Japanese (rather than pseudo-Chinese or Mongolian) settings first and other Oriental Materials later. What I won't be doing is re-working any of the second edition concepts such as class kits or any material published for 3rd ed -though I'll still be mining such things for ideas. I'll also be concentrating on mechanical info more than setting info. You won't for example, see me converting all the sand-box material in BA-1 Sword of the Daimyo to OSRIC. After all, what would be the point? There's nothing there that needs converting. Useful cultural information, on the other hand, might be worth while including.

My original plan over the new few days was to work out conversations for the OA classes to OSRIC rules. Or rather, tidy up the presentation a little given that they don't really need much in the way of conversion at all. Fabian over at Bladesharp has already down a great deal of the work in this regard by converting several classes to make them compatible with Labrynth Lord. I like his re-work of the ninja, turning them into a proper "single" class rather than the "multi-class" option they were originally designed to be. Though I'm sorely tempted to ask Fabian for permission to simply re-post and slightly modify his material, in the interests of both fairness and completeness, I'll probably just do my own write-ups of these classes as well.

Basically the classes I intend to make available to PC's in the campaign (and hence, convert to OSRIC) are the following:

Barbarian
Bushi
Kensai
Monk
Ninja
Samurai
Shukenja
Sohei
Wu Jen
Yukuza

All from Oriental Adventures itself. I also intend to look at the following classes from other sources:

Sumotori (Sumo Wrestler) From Dragon magazine 157 (two options)
Geisya From Dragon magazine 121
Genin (a ninja sub-class) from Dragon Magazine 121

The Sumotori were originally presented (in two versions) as an NPC class. I'd like to re-work them into a playable PC class, without so many of the class obligations that limit their utility as adventuring types. The Geisya is listed as an NPC class, mostly, I think, because it is somewhat lacking in abilities. I'll need to add a few new class abilities wholesale to make the class playable. Perhaps borrowing some from the Bard and Houri classes? Finally, the Genin were an attempt to make the Ninja a single-class character. It's worth looking at while I re-work the ninja, but it's not really worth using as written.

Finally, there is one class (from Dragon 164) the Paio Shih (dart wielding guards) which I may or may not convert depending on how I feel after re-reading the article.

Finally, here's a list of the articles and supplements I am (presently) aware of that might have material worth converting:

Dragon Magazine Articles:

Oriental setting:

"Armor of the Far East"                                             31(23)  0D&D
"Arrows of the East"                                                146(80)  D&D1
"...And a Step Beyond That"                                    122(20)  D&D1
 "Step Beyond 'Shogun', A"                                      122(18)  D&D1
"Life and Death of a Castle, The"                             121(32)  D&D1
"Sun Dragon Castle"                                                 121(45)  D&D1
"Righteous Robbers of Liang Shan P'o"                     54(16)  D&D1
"Lords of the Warring States"                                   167(77)  D&D2

"Chinese Undead"                                                       26(20)  0D&D
 "Cham Fau and the White Tiger Monastery"           351(46)  D&D3
 "Cities of the Ages: Edo"                                         292(60)  D&D3
"Oriental Adventures Class Combinations"             289(80)  D&D3
"Chinese Dragons"                                                     24(8)  OD&D
"Dweomered Dragon Scales"                                   308(39)  D&D3
"Ancestor Feats and Martial Arts Styles"                315(64)  D&D3
 "Update: Oriental Adventures: Eastern Flavor"     318(39)  D&D3
"Geisya, The"                                                          121(38)  D&D1
"Genin, The"                                                           121(42)  D&D1
"Japanese Mythos, The"                                            13(11)  OD&D
"Earn Those Heirlooms!"                                        151(22)  D&D1
"Humanimals"                                                         266(40)  D&D2
"Lords & Legends"                                         123(42)  D&D1
"Soul-Swords & Spirit-Slayers"                     198(82)  D&D2
"Specialist Fighters"                                               310(36)  D&D3

"Other Orientals, The"                                           189(28)  D&D2
"Soldiers of the Law"                                             151(18)  D&D1
"Righteous Robbers of Liang Shan P'o"                 54(16)  D&D1
"Bazaar of the Bizarre"                                           40(44)  D&D1
"Bazaar of the Bizarre"                                         126(50)  D&D1
 "Bazaar of the Bizarre"                                        181(30)  D&D2
"Hand-to-Hand Against the Rules"                      139(58)  D&D1
"Art of Kuji-in, The"                                            342(84)  D&D3

"Flying Feet and Lightning Hands"                     161 Or 164(11) D&D1
"Playful Phoenix Fist V Four Scholars Boxing"  289(76)  D&D3
 "Flying Leaps, Deadly Silks"                              289(60)  D&D3
"Pressure Point Attacks"                                      336(103)    D&D3
"Warriors of the Animal Fist"                              319(68)  D&D3
"Marshalling the Martial Arts"                            122(46)  D&D1
 "Matter of Style, A"                                            326(99)  D&D1

"Menagerie of Martial Arts, A"                           127(48)  D&D1
 "New Kicks In Martial Arts"                              136(66)  D&D1
 "New Martial Arts Styles"                                  309(62)  D&D3
"Things Your Sensei Never Taught You"          164(14)  D&D2
"Iron Path, The"                                                  303(54)  D&D3
"Monk Styles"                                                    330(90)  D&D3
 "Variant Fist"                                                    310(40)  D&D3
"Wordly Styles"                                                 334(89)  D&D3

"Metered Style, The"                                         337(97)  D&D3
"Psychic Boxing: Psions of the Orient"            308(62)  D&D3   
"There Are No Generic Black Belts"                160(70)  Top Secret
"Mongols: History, Weaponry, Tactics, The"     36(31)  --
"Thunder and Fire: The World of the Kaiju"    289(66)  D&D3
 "Ecology of the Kappa, The"                           151(14)  D&D1
  "Dragon's Bestiary, The"                                151(28)  D&D1
"Ecology of the Yuan-Ti, The"                         151(32)  D&D1
"Voyage of the Princess Ark, The"                   160(41)  BD&D
"Whaddaya Mean, Jack the Samurai?"             121(16)  D&D1
"Ninja: Masters of the Silent Shadow, The"     318(24)  D&D3
"Black-Clad Assassins"                                    289(36)  D&D3
"Historical Ninjas"                                            351(86)  D&D3
"New Improved Ninja, The"                              30(13)  D&D1
"Ninja - the DM's Hit Man, The"                       16(7)  OD&D
"Art of Kuji-in, The"                                        342(84)  D&D3
"Shadow Way, The"                                         255(50)  D&D2
"Silent Warriors"                                              289(46)  D&D3
"Shadow Way, The"                                         255(50)  D&D2
"Other Orientals, The"                                     189(32)  D&D2
"Elements of Surprise"                                     354(86)  D&D3
"Oriental Opens New Vistas"                          104(20)  D&D1
"Born To Defend"                                            164(26)  D&D2
"Soldiers of the Law"                                       151(18)  D&D1
"PC Portraits"                                                   289(126)          --
"Samurai Vs. Knight: Who Would Win?        323(42)  D&D3
"Samurai"                                                             3(25)  OD&D
 "Samurai: An Honorable NPC, The"                49(18)  D&D1
"So, You Want To Be a Samurai?"                  195(10)  D&D2
"Samurai! Honorable Designer Speaks"            36(14)   Samurai
"Warriors of the Animal Fist"                           319(68)  D&D3
"Oriental Sea, The"                                           130(64)  D&D1
"Arcane Lore: Magic From East To West"      130(16)  D&D1
"Wards Against Evil"                                       133(40)  D&D1
"Where There Is One Sumotori..."                   157(32)  D&D1
"Art of D&D, The"                                   309(38)  D&D3
"Chinese Undead"                                              26(20)  OD&D
"Lords of the Warring States"                          167(77)  D&D2
"Weapons of the Far East"                                 32(6)     --
"Campaign Classics: Oriental Adventures"      229(54)  D&D2

Oriental Adventures/Kara-Tur:

10321e Forgotten Realms: Kara-Tur, the Eastern Realms

20181e Oriental Adventures

21152e Monstrous Compendium Kara-Tur appendix

91641e Swords of the Daimyo

91861e Night of the Seven Swords

91951e Ochimo- The Spirit Warrior

92031e Blood of the Yakuza

92421e Mad Monkey vs theDragon Claw

92572e Ronin Challenge

9258 2e Test of the Samurai

9307 2e Ninja Wars

9402 2e Kara Tur Trail Map

Additional:

2nd ed Forgotten Realms Horde Box-Set
2nd ed Complete Ninja's handbook
Sengogku Roleplaying Game
3.5 Oriental Adventures
OSRIC Unearthed
Dungeon Magazine issues.

Wikipedia:

A-Z of Legendary Japanese Creatures

If anyone see's anything not on this list that you think might be useful, please don't hesitate to let me know.

Session VII: Time of the Trogs.

2011-11-20T23:46:00.013Z

Character Roster:

Exploring the Caves (players present):

Ailil Shadowdancer: Elf Male Assassin/Illusionist 2/1. Played by Ridh
Andros: Human (Mycenean) Female Fighter 2. Played by Aimee
Boagris: Human (Mycenean) Male Fighter 2. Played by Silv.
Euthalia: Human (Mycenean) Female Cleric 1. Played by Caroline
Kallias: Human (Mycenean) Male Cleric 1. Played by Elle
Ki Oman: Human (Zaman) Male Dual Class Assassin 1/Bard 1. Played by Ali

Thanatos: Human (Mycenean) Male Assassin 2. Played by Fiona
Thera: Human(Mycenean) Female Paladin 1. Played by Niall
Xenos: Human (Mycenean) Fighter/magic User 1/1. Played by Leoni.

Guarding the Camp (absent players and NPCs):

Alexis: Human (Mycenean) Male Fighter 1. Played by Larraitz
Friendly: Troglodyte Guide. NPC. Temporarily played by Caroline

Surly: Troglodyte Guide.NPC. Temporarily played by Niall

Third: Trog Guide. NPC. Temporarily played by Rhidh

Thot: Half-Elf Male Magic User/Cleric 1/1. Played by Rob

Temple of Meerax, Garrison (absent players and NPCs):

Antipater: Human (Mycenean) Ship's Master. NPC.
Kallisto: Human (Mycenean) Female Fighter 1. Played by Jackie

Minerva: Human (Mycenean) Female 0 level Priestess of Heastia. NPC

Peliakos: Human (Mycenean) Male Fighter 1. Played by Coakley

Sparios: Human (Mycenean) Male Fighter 1. Spare Character.

Dead-Pool:

Glykeria: Human (Mycenean) Female Illusionist 1. Death by poison. Session VI

Taking Menithera and Bombatta with them, the party return to their camp by the pool. The two former-prisoners quickly take the chance to rest. Kallias -a previously unconscious Cleric of Dion- and his Trog guide arrive from the Temple later that day with reports of heavy fighting between the Trogs and Gray Demons. Kallias brings with him word from Minerva that, if the party do not clear the caves quickly, she may have no choice but to let the Trogs join her in the Temple. After a brief discussion, the exhausted Kalias quickly joins the former prisoners in slumber, though not before scrounging some "weapons," a dagger and a hefty bronze ladle, from the companions. Although other weapons are available -and even Bombatta has been entrusted with a spear- no-one seems to expect much in the way of fighting skill from a pretty-boy priest like Kallias. Alas, there is also no spare armour to be had.

Though many daylight hours remain, the party chooses to rest overnight to recover spells and prayers.

During the night, several of the characters have trouble sleeping, in part because they have suffered their first fatality, instead passing the time in conversation.

[The conversations in question took place on facebook while I was away for the day. Caroline sent me a transcript which I edited, removing some anachronisms, and altering a few paragraphs to cut out the odd bit of meta-gaming and a very small section of God-modeing. Because of this impromptu RP session I learned that several of the players were having a hard time grasping the difference between player knowledge, character knowledge and player skill. I was naturally quite happy about this, as I'd rather not have to explain complicated subjects when we're sitting at the table. Unfortunately, the transcript of the facebook session is on my desktop PC, which is currently away for repairs. I'll have to post it later.]

In the morning, Alexis and Thoht volunteer to stay behind and keep an eye on the camp – not to mention the three Trog guides and the two Thyatians. Before departing though, Thanatos summons the group together. The assassin apologies for his previous behavior, explaining to the group that he is slow to trust and asking their forgiveness. He then goes on to explain that he has a secret to share, in order to prove his sincerity to the group and in the hope that they will then trust him. With that, the assassin unties the knot holding his long hair in place, shakes it loose and, removing a few outer layers of clothing, nervously reveals that he is, in fact, a she. The reaction is, perhaps, not what she was expecting. Far from being outraged by the deception, as most Myceneans (with their strict gender roles would be) the citizens of Mysos are instead somewhat confused. Why would she hide her gender when there are armed women -including professional warriors- among the group? Taking on a masculine role is no shame in the city founded by Dion. Instead, Thanatos is solemnly thanked by Euthalia and one or two others for her gesture of trust, and formally welcomed into the group as a “sister” rather than a brother.

Needless to say, the young woman looks somewhat relieved at her reception. Only Bombatta offers negative comment, claiming that she is just as “disgusting” as the other “mad-women” in the group who bear arms. This attitude is not, perhaps, surprising given Merithena's somewhat sparse “attire” and the bodyguards earlier refusal to let “that thing”, Shadowdancer, speak with him. The Thyatian's comment is simply ignored. However, his speech does give the group the opening they were waiting for.

The first question asked is, unsurprisingly enough, whether the extremely capable looking Bombatta will accompany the group on their foray. Bombatta's contemptuous snort might seem answer enough, but he goes on to add that “Where she [meaning Merithena] goes, I go. And since I clearly cannot permit her to enter the cave, neither can I.”

A few of the characters wonder at the bodyguard's word-choice. He certainly does not seem to speak of Merithena (who some party-members have taken to calling, “the Princess”) in a manner befitting her rank. Not to Mycenean ears at least. Nor does he present himself as being subordinate to her in any way despite being her bodyguard. Even more surprising, perhaps, is that Merithena seems to regard this behavior as perfectly normal. Bombatta continues to answer most of the groups questions even, on one occasion, cutting off Merithena mid-sentence. Regardless, few of the questions asked by the group result in useful answers, though they do clean the following information:

                 The Bull-Headed King rules over the city of Thyatis

                 The city lies perhaps two days to the east, going by Bombatta's assessment
                 of their present location and based on landmarks the PC's can provide.

                 Merithena and her party were ambushed. One moment they were walking, they next
                 they collapsed. Several guards were absent when they awoke in the cages. Only
                  one other bodyguard was present, and he was first fed into the grinder in their
                 prison before being fed to the creature in the cage-room pod.

                 Bombatta describes the skull-in-flames tattoo he wears on both wrists as his
                 “badge of rank.”

Perhaps strangely, neither former-prisoner seems at all interested in finding out more about the group or it's members. The group almost seem irrelevant in the eyes of the Thyatians.

Leaving camp, the group travel quickly to the second waterfall. Once again Ki Oman carefully descends the chute (climbing rather than sliding), and smiles contemptuously at the trap he finds in the chamber below: a series of spears hammered into a wooden plank angled to skewer anyone sliding down the chute.

Ki Oman: It's safe to come down... only kidding! Permit me one moment.

Still chuckling to himself, Ki Oman (the same Ki Oman who keeps warning people about touching strange or suspicious objects in a dungeon, the same Ki Oman who saw what happened to Gykeria just a day before, the same Ki Oman who discarded his gloves from fear of accidentally poisoning himself with contaminated blood afterwards, this same Ki Oman) reaches out his hand and attempts to move the spear trap.

Some time later, having heard nothing from below, the party members hiss a question down the chute to Ki Oman, Not receiving an answer, Euthalia, and Andros decide to risk climbing down the chute to investigate. Meanwhile Thera peers over the waterfall, looking for any signs of Ki Oman, but can't see him or the chute exit because of an overhanging slip of rock. However, despite Andros volunteering to go down first, Euthalia the cleric, concerned that Ki Oman might need healing, insists on going first. Euthalia effortlessly manages to control her descent down the chute, and climbs out in time to see a clearly paralyzed Ki Oman poised over the spear-trap, one hand touching the wood, his eyes (or rather, eye) being the only part of him still moving. Just as she is about to call the news back up the chute, Andros slips, careers downward, and knocks both herself and and the cleric onto the spears.

Luckily, both of them are just nicked, but Andros succumbs to the paralysis poison. Euthalia meanwhile, hisses a warning about the trap back up the chute. Drawing Andros' sword, she first pulls Andros off the spear-frame and then tries to lever it aside with her borrowed blade.

That's when Thera (watching from above) realizes they are not alone.

Thera: Euthalia, look out!

[Wandering Monster time]

Though not in a position to witness events in the vicinity of the spear-trap, from her perch looking out over the water-fall Thera is able to discern a fungal humanoid shape lunging towards the clerics unprotected back. Wasting no time the Paladin flings her spear at the pod-man. It's a long throw, with a bad angle, but the spear nearly strikes true. It grazes the lurching pod man's shoulder as it flies past. A small wound, but enough to buy Euthalia some warning. The pod-man's flailing limbs manage to wound the cleric, but only slightly, yet the pod man captures the clerics shoulder in a vice-like grasp.

Above, Thanatos tries to distract the thing with a thrown rock, knowing as she does that blunt weapons will not harm it. Meanwhile, Boagris, with a similar idea, hefts his spear into the melee and again manages to find the wrong target. His spear arcs across Euthalia's back, tearing a wound that leaves her screaming and open to the pod-man's next attack. Meanwhile, Shadowdancer slides gracefully down the shaft, rolling aside at the last possible moment to avoid impaling himself. Once in the chamber beneath the waterfall, he draws his weapons, ready to attack. Xenos unleashes a magic missile (the first of three he cast's during the encounter) at the pod-man, blasting a chunk from it's shoulder.

Euthalia, already badly wounded by Boagris' throw, goes down under a pummelling from the pod-man.

The plant is pelted with javelins, rocks and a magic-missile thereafter. Shadow-dancer triumphantly throws his coat over the beasts head. Above, Kallias, unable to pay a great deal of attention to his surroundings while he prays, casts a light spell on the cloak-enshrouded pod-man, both in the hope of blinding it and to provide better illumination for the party's missile attacks. A bright ball of light appears above the things head. Right. Next. To. Shadowdancer.

Shadow-dancer (using his elven heat-vision): AAAAAARRRRRHHHHHH!

[Elle's new character gets off to a less than sterling start by blinding the only conscious/non-paralysed PC in melee range of the monster. However, to be fair, Kallias neither knows that SD has heat-vision (elves arn't exactly common on Edarnia) nor can see events 30ft below him in a dark cavern very well either]

While Shadow-dancer desperately fends off blows from the (clearly not in the least bit cloak-or-light-impeded) pod-man with his spear, Thera, seeing his danger, leaps down the chute after him. The Paladin misjudges her roll terribly, impaling her arm on the spikes. Fortunately, she manages to avoid succumbing to the numbness spreading across her limbs and hauls herself painfully off the sharp wooden points. Boagris, perhaps hoping to atone for his earlier mistake, leaps after the paladin, using his bronze meat-hook to control his descent. He therefore arrives safely just as Xenos' last magic missile strikes home. Meanwhile, Thanatos, eagerly trying to climb down the waterfall into back-stab position, slips and falls from the overhang, landing on the spikes and poisoning herself. Thera's blows distract the fungoid monster long enough to draw it's attention from Shadowdancer, but she takes more wounds in the process. Finally, completely out of spells and desperate, Xenos throws her bolas into the melee. Fortunately, she hits the pod-man, not Thera, but as the podman falls it pulls Thera down on top of it.

Seeing the pod-man rendered immobile, Kalias leaps down the chute, dodges aside at the correct moment, and moves towards Euthalia with the intent of healing the downed cleric.

With Thera and the pod-man rolling about the cavern floor, no-one else is able to get a clear shot. Thera's attempts to slay the thing with her dagger are hindered by it's grip on her. With a solid punch to the temple, the pod-man lays the Paladin out and attempts to throw her off.

At this Boagris lunges forward, hauling Thera to one-side. Between them, Boagris and the half-blind Shadow-dancer manage to finish the wounded, hobbled and prone pod-man, but despite it's grievous situation it does not go down without a fight. Even Kallias manages to get a decent strike in with his dagger (though the ladle doesn't prove much use) much to the surprise of the two more experience party members.

Panting heavily, the heroes look about them with some degree of astonishment at the havoc wrecked by just one such creature. A creature not so different from the twelve the group tore through not a day before. That one alone could work so much carnage.....

Thera and Euthalia are down and near-death, though being tended by Kalias. Thanatos was not only wounded, but Paralysed. As were Andros and Ki Oman. Five of the group -fully one-half of their number- brought down in a single encounter!

The decision is unanimous – retreat to the surface to rethink, and re-group. The party set about rigging a harness to lift the wounded up the face of the waterfall, using shields, moss and cloaks to soften any impacts with the sheer walls on the way up. Shadowdancer stands guard and tests a theory, peering through the cloak with his elf-vision, he could see the heat-shapes of his companions clearly. He announced his suspicions regarding the pod-mans mode of vision to the group but later considers that, while the light spell had blinded him, it had not affected the pod-man at all.

By the means already described, the group has just finished hauling Thera and Euthalia to the top of the waterfall when Ki Oman finally regains control over his body. Just as they finish rigging Andros into the make-shift harness, she regains control of her muscles and sits up. Thanatos spasms slightly shortly thereafter. She has regained enough control over her numbed body to call a warning. From her prone position, ear pressed to the ground, she has heard the noise of skittering insect movements when -thanks to the roaring waterfall- no-one else can. The party -at least, those of them still below- mobilise themselves to face the threat. A number of centipedes, each as long as a man's forearm, come scuttling over the moss-carpet coating the cavern floor. With ease, the creatures are soon dispatched, Andros claiming the first kill and the final insect being splatted by a well aimed and hefty throw from Xenos. The former-slaver's driftwood stick claims another insect victim, earning the make-shift weapon a new title: “Verminator”.

[At least once in every session where Xenos has been present, the slaver, once out of spells and other options -including his bolas- has managed to kill something -usually vermin- with that damn lump of wood. It's become something of a legend, that stick. One or two of the party members have even demanded -half-seriously- that someone cast detect magic on the thing. For my part, I'm tempted to have it spontaneously develop magical anti-vermin properties. At least, if its record of killing vermin holds up for a few more sessions]

Back at camp, Thera and Euthalia are made as comfortable as possible. Though healing -magical and mundane- has saved their lives, it will take some days for either to recover fully from their wounds. Solemnly, the group -with the exception of the three Trog guides and the two disinterested Thyatians- discuss their remaining options.

Some voices, Thanatos and Ki's among them- call for simply abandoning the Trogs, the Caves, and the Temple altogether and making for the City. Others- Shadow-dancer for example- argue against this course, observing that they have no guarantee of the reception they will find there. Others are against abandoning their word. Kalias observes that the wounded from the Temple would never be able to make the trip. In the end, there choice is clear. They'll have to continue, but in order to do so they must demand that the Trog guides come and help.

Meanwhile, the three Trogs, Surly (roleplayed by Niall), Friendly (roleplayed by Caroline) and Third (roleplayed by Shadowdancer) have been having a powwow amongst themselves.

Third: The Grey Demons press us harder every day. We cannot tolerate any more delays.

Surly: It seems not. These human food-things do not seem as competent as they first did. Perhaps the old one was wrong to trust them.

Friendly: If the Grey Demons press so hard, why does the Old One not simply demand shelter in their stone house?

Third: The stupid man-things left without giving the old one any teeth.

[Collective exclamations -or rather, hisses- of stunned disbelief from Surly and Friendly.]

Friendly: The fools. Perhaps they really are worthless as anything but food after all?

Surly: If they are, then it seems we cannot rely on them. [To Third] Go back to the Old One. Tell him we are taking the man-food into the Home. Make sure the one that smells most like food – the thing with one-eye, gives you his teeth to take to the Old One.

Friendly: Hssssss. They are looking at us.

Third: Yes. Hush. The Big Tasty One (Boagris) seems to be trying to communicate to us.

Surly: How do you know he is not making a mating call?

Third: If you were attempting to attract a mate for spawning, would you wear the skin of your kin on your back?

Friendly: Point taken,

[Boagris wears the rotting, un-tanned Hide of a baboon as armor. Perhaps explaining why he smells so "tasty"].

Boagris fails to make himself understood, but when the three Trogs attempt to indicate that two of them will being go into the caves, the party quickly grasp the point. “Third”, the Trog who brought Kalias to the caves, stalks up to Ki, grasps his jaw with a clawed hand, forces it open and clacks a claw against Ki's teeth. Taking the hint, Ki Oman hands over the bag of teeth. Third quickly disappears into the rocks, his passage marked by the noise of skittering claws tapping against rock, while he runs back to his people.

Surly leads the PC's -minus Thera, Euthalia and Thoht- back into the caves. Friendly takes up the rear to make sure none of the stupid man-things tries to sneak away. They quickly try to lead the group down the southern passage, but the man-things insist on heading towards the blue goo chamber first.

Friendly: What could they possibly want with the spawning pool, anyway?

Surly: Outrageous, this is no time for mating!

The two Trogs watch in perplexed disgust while the fleshier party members dip various items into the sacred spawning pool. They don't attempt to stop them however. Perhaps it's some form of odd fleshy battle-ritual?

Tongues hanging out, mouths open, the two Trogs shake their heads and lead the party towards the main habitation areas of the Cave-complex. They continue down the southern corridor, and pause at the Cage room.

Friendly: Why have they left the short fleshy-thing in the fungus cage to rot?

Surly: Perhaps they intend to eat him later?

As they continue, the two Trogs are careful not to come into contact with any of the (to them) sweet-smelling pod-man remains. They have no intention of being infected by the Black-Death that strips them of their scales and eats them alive from the inside out.

After a few more tunnels, they party reaches a series of chambers carved from the living rock, with regular floors and walls, albeit with the non-familiar coating of fungus, moss and lichens. The tails of the two Trogs twitch irritably and they seem to have a hard time controlling their excretions of fear-scent. Still, they lead the party onwards.

In the first of the carved rooms, the party encounters three bubbling vats atop burning braziers, a work-bench and a number of papers. One of the vats reeks greatly of what the Trogs think of as the Black-Death, they avoid it, preventing the humans from exploring the room. Covering their snouts with their tails as they pass it at as great a distance as the geography will allow, the Trogs lead the party onwards. In another chamber they encounter what can only be described as a study or library. The Trogs seem to become more agitated with every new room. Clearly, they do not like what the fungoids have done with the place. They also uncover another pod-room, similar to the one they cleared the day before but much larger. Cautiously, they return back the way they came and enter another chamber.

And come face-to-face with the Sinister Shroom itself.

The First Level Cleric's Survival Guide

2011-11-18T02:22:00.023Z

I've been putting-off this final old-school survival guide for quite a long time. Not because I didn't know what to say -on the contrary, the cleric is my favourite character class -but because of the high degree of variation seen in first level clerics from one set of rules to another.

In some of the earlier D&D box-sets the cleric didn't get to cast spells at first level at all. In the original D&D and AD&D games clerics who used non-blunt weapons could expect to lose their clerical powers. But there are rules in use today that, while they do not to permit clerics to take proficiencies in non-blunt weapons, do still allow clerics to use them without divine censure. The only penalty suffered being the standard negative modifier to attack rolls for using a weapon without proficiency. The situation is further confused by the ability of clerics in some settings to use any (or only) weapons favoured by their deity, not neccessarily just blunt weapons. Deciding what assumptions to make in this guide proved something of a headache.

In the end, I've decided to base this guide on the assumption that the cleric in your game is restricted to blunt weapon proficiencies and can cast spells at first level. This seems to cover most of the old school retro-clones in common use. At least measured by the yard-stick of the old school blogging community.

Without further ado, here is the guide:

The First Level Cleric's Survival Guide:

You're a brand new cleric. You've got your bludgeon, your holy symbol, more hit points than anyone except the fighters and you've got an armour class that equals theirs. Time for your cleric to go down that dungeon. Heal wounds and kick ass! Right?

Hell no!

THOU ART NOT A FIGHTER!

Sure your cleric can strap on plate mail and a shield with the best of them, and given your starting money in most old school systems, there's a darn good chance that you'll be boasting AC5 or better before the first time you even leave town. Top that off with your D8 hit points and you've got a good chance of surviving at least one hit before you need healing. Time to take your place in the front rank of the marching order?

Wrong!

That armour isn't there so you can wade into combat. It's there to keep you alive long enough to help keep everyone else alive. And not just with your healing spells either. Consider this: you might have the second highest hit points in the game, but a goblin wielding a longsword two-handed can still drop you with one hit. And if you go down, the whole damn party goes down. TPK. Campaign over.

Moreover, have you actually seen your weapon damage? Using most old school rules, the cleric is limited to blunt weapons. Blunt weapon's which typically (again depending on rules-set) do a lot less damage than anything the fighters are carrying. A fighter might drop that goblin with a single hit. In fact, with a weapons specialisation, he might drop two of them! But there's a good chance that all you're going to do (even to Mr 1/2 hit-die goblin) is make him mad. And if he's busy battering away at you with his sword, how are you going to heal the wounded party members when you're too busy defending yourself? Furthermore, being on the front lines means that any wounded characters who need healing have to stay near the enemy in order for you to heal them. Unless you want to turn your back on the monsters while the wounded guy stands behind you.

Come to think of it, do I have to mention just how many monsters there are out there that laugh at blunt weapon damage? Zombies, for example?

Consider then, the benefits of being in the second (or even third rank) of the marching order. From the second rank, you can heal a wounded fighter simply by reaching out and touching him on the shoulder. He doesn't even have to dis-engage from combat. Moreover, from the second rank you can still fight. Especially if you've chosen a proficiency with slings or the lucerne hammer. Or even a spear if your playing a system that won't strip you of your powers for using a sharp weapon. Even with a negative modifier for using a weapon you lack proficiency in, you'll still land the occasional hit. If you're lucky enough to find yourself in a party with an abundance of fighters and/or hirelings, you might even prefer to stand in the third row of the party marching order. This prevents any canny monsters from using their own pole-arms to strike over the heads of the fighters in front with the aim of killing you. You can still heal effectively from the third rank. Any-time a front line fighter needs healing, he simply switches places with someone in the second rank while you heal him. You don't even have to move.

Finally, the fact that you are almost as good at hitting things as a fighter at first level (assuming the fighter has specialised in a weapon) combined with your fairly high AC also makes you a good choice as the party rearguard. Especially if you've exhausted all your spells for the day. Just remember that, as rearguard, your job is to shout the alarm and hold off the monsters until the fighters arive. As soon as they do, make sure you place at least one of your fighter or hireling buddies between you and the bad guys. Don't throw you're life away. They'll need you to heal them when you recover your spells.

But remember this: when the clerics in the party have all run out of cure spells, it's time to go. Don't give into the temptation to explore "just one more room". There's always the possibility of a random encounter while you're making your way back to a place of safety.

If your group only has one proper fighter and no henchment or hirelings, or, in a real emergency such as when you're out of healing spells and your fighters are going down like pitchers of ale at a dwarven wedding, that's when you might need to fight toe-toe in melee. Hopefully by that point the party bruisers will have mown down or wounded enough of the enemy that you and your piddly D4 damage warhammer will be enough to save the day.

Of course, that being said, if things ever get that bad it might just be time to run. That is, of course, assuming that the big heavy metal-suit you were so proud of a few paragraphs ago doesn't slow you down enough to get you killed.

THY WEAPONS SELECTION SUCKETH:

The weapon proficiencies available to a cleric vary between different rules-sets more than with any other traditional D&D class. Some systems allow the use of slings and flaming oil. Some don't. Some allow the use of lucerne hammers ( a warhammer mounted on a pole), some don't. Some allow clerics to use weapons not on their proficiency lists without losing their powers and angering their god. Some don't.

Given such a wide variation on permitted weapons, I can offer only two pieces of advice: Choose a ranged weapon at first level (if you can) and if you happen to see the lucern hammer on the list of permitted weapons, TAKE IT! TAKE IT! TAKE IT! After what we discussed earlier, I shouldn't have to explain the value of a blunt weapon long enough to let your cleric fight from the second rank. It does mean giving up your shield bonus to AC while you're using it, but are you going to need you're shield that much when your in the second rank? Probably not. Not unless you're fighting orcs with halbards or you're party likes to use the Tetsudo formation.

THOU ART NO MERE MEDIC!

The cleric's role is to provide a supporting role for the party in all it's forms - not just through healing. The clerics divination spells make him the best investigator in the game. His morale boosting spells (such as bless) make the entire party more effective in combat. His abjuration spells and ability to Turn Undead help keep demons, devils and the un-dead at bay.

The cleric's job is not only that of party medic. He's also the party's intelligence officer, face-man and source of inspiration all in one. At first level (assuming you're playing a system that allows you to cast spells at first level) you're probably going to want to load up with Cure Light Wounds spells. Particularly if you're the group's only cleric. But please don't discount the battle-winning possibilities of a timely Bless spell or the value of a simple Sanctuary spell while scouting a dungeon or impressing the local peasants with the power of your faith (“may Thor allow this axe-man to slay me if I lie”). Finally, when you're expecting to encounter the un-dead, Protection from Evil can protect you from the terrifying prospect of being level-drained at first level (though depending on your system, the mileage of this spell can vary). Who do you cast it on? Why you, of course. You're the only one who can turn the damned things and heal the party. Who do you think those undead are coming after first?

Clerical spell selection during a dungeon delve is -and always will be- a matter of personal taste. Any advice I can offer on the matter is complicated further by the award of additional spells per day for high wisdom scores (in some systems at least). When planning how many Cure Light Wounds to memorise, it can help to look at the total number of clerical spell slots available to all the clerics in the party and work from there. Each cleric should have at least one cure light wounds spell memorised at first level and ideally at least one cleric should have memorised two. It's preferable have at least one Cure Light Wounds spell in the party per fighter, ranger or paladin. Only then should you consider picking other spells at first level.

Even when in town or resting in camp, it's a good idea to keep at least one Cure Light Wounds memorised per cleric. You never know when violence will find you. But when you're between dungeon delves, don't discount the utility of other, non-combat spells. Create Water can be a life saver when crossing deserts or barren lands. Detect Evil can come in handy when meeting a potential patron or perspective ally for the first time. Casting Purify Food and Drink is a sensible precaution when eating food offered by someone you don't fully trust or when your rations are in danger of going off.

The cleric's greatest advantage and appeal as a class is their versatility -and the single most versatile thing about them is the number and variety of the spells that a cleric with a good wisdom score can cast at first level. Don't stick to one standard spell package. It might seem less hassle in the long-run, but in actuality this is a lazy and foolish option. Unlike a magic-user, you know every single one of your classes first level spells at character creation. Why play a cleric at all if you don't intend to take advantage of all the options?

THOU ART A PILLER OF THY SOCIETY:

Even a low level priest is still a representative of his church, his faith, and his deity. In a typical party of fighters, thieves and magic-users, you are the respectable one. You represent an authority greater than your own. In a highly populated area you might be just one low-level-cleric of your faith among many. But in a typical small village or isolated hamlet you might very well be the only spell-casting cleric anyone has seen in months!

Don't forget it. In fact, use it. Imagine how grateful a small hamlet or village will be if, when passing through, you pause to conduct a short service, bless crops or a newborn or even perform a short marriage ceremony for a happy couple. Even if the nervous villagers shoot glances at your disreputable looking companions, they'll still be falling over themselves to share news and gossip with you. Only bards are likely to receive a better reception in such places than you are. And while bards might expect only to be given sleeping space on the common room floor, a reputable looking cleric (one who embraces his spiritual role as a leader of the faith) is likely to wind up sleeping in the village elders own bed.

A cleric of an openly evil or illegal faith might not be able to expect the same reaction in your typical village, but his status might still open doors for him in a pirate town (like the infamous Nulb from Temple of Elemental Evil) or in the more evil realms (such as the Horned Lands of the Greyhawk setting).

Regardless of whether your deity is loved or feared, of all the character classes (unless one of your companions happens to be of noble birth) you are the one most likely to gain an audience with a figure of authority, whether than be with the village elder or the mayor of a small town. While a first level cleric might not be able to gain direct access to a King or Duke by his own efforts, it's a fairly safe bet that, if he's been known for his diligence and respectability, he can at least arrange for an introduction from someone who can (such as the local bishop).

THOU ART KNOWLEDGABLE INDEED:

With the likely exception of the party magic-user, you may very well be the most educated member of the party. Indeed, in some settings -especially those which closely resemble the real life dark-ages- there's a very good chance that you and the mage are the only PC's who can actually read and write.

Make good use of this knowledge. Monks and lay-brethren used to make good money (and learned a great deal of gossip) by writing and reading letters for other people. When you're not adventuring, earn some extra coin (and possibly some kudos with your superiors) by using spells on behalf of the faithful in return for “donations”- and not just from cure spells either. Who wouldn't pay for a quick “detect evil” spell in the presence of their future mother-in-law? You also might be surprised at the things a Cleric might learn while making a house-call on a wounded or sick parishioner. The things people say in a fever....

THINGS TO REMEMBER

A good AC, 8 hit points and blunt weapons do not make you a fighter.
When you've run out of spells, it's time to leave the Dungeon.
You can't heal them if you're dead.
You're not just a walking bandage. You have other spells. Choose them and use them.

Split-Party Cut-Scenes, Off-Stage Events and Spare Characters. Just another day DMing Earthshaker.

2011-11-16T23:34:00.003Z

We've come to an interesting situation in the game tonight.

First of all, several characters were reduced to negative hit points, and, although they survived and have undergone magical healing, will now be out of play for several days. This means they will not be out of action for some considerable time while they heal. Their players have presently taken on the roles of the Trog guides (and are doing a marvelous job of role-playing them too, I might add).

Like most of my fellow Old School Bloggers, I believe very strongly in the idea that the game world should not revolve solely around the actions of the players. There are multiple factions on the island, each with their own agenda and their own timetable. The player characters might disrupt these activities (intentionally or otherwise) but these plots won't necessarily rely on the actions of the players. Or even (at least initially) include the PC's as a factor to be considered. After all, how could they? Most of the factions on the Island don't even know the PC's are there yet. This brings is to the second interesting situation that arisen: a very major campaign event is about to occur which will directly effect the player characters. Only it's happening in a location that MOST of the current PC's aren't anywhere near.

Third, I stopped the session right in the middle of the dungeon, rather than ending it back at camp like I usually do. This is because our time ran out at a cliff-hanger I just couldn't ignore: when the PC's first encounter the Shroom in his lair. This complicates things somewhat. While most of the players booked in for next Friday have characters in or near the Caves that can participate in the boss fight, others will not. Seeing as I personally regard allowing someone else play my characters in my absence with abject horror (at least in an Old School game) I'm not about to let any-one play someone else's character either.

How then, am I going to keep everyone involved in the game?

Tonight, I gave everyone present the task of the creating their spare character. I'll also contact the other players on facebook and advise them to do the same. While most of the players (and their primary characters) will be fighting the Shroom, the spare characters will be actively engaged in the major event happening elsewhere. By cutting back and forth between the caverns and the major event every few rounds or so (at dramatically appropriate moment) every player present next Friday should have at least one character actively engaged in the session.

I"m also going to rule that anytime a character has to recover from being taken down to negative hit points, rather than playing an NPC like Sparious, the player takes over their spare character temporarily. Rather like the old Character Tree system in 2nd ed Darksun, it means that the player can continue to accrue XP that benefits the player, rather than XP that only benefits an NPC.

It's been a while since I've ran a big cut-scene with two major battles running simultaneously. In fact, I think both of the last two occasions have been during Star Wars campaigns where ground combats and space combats were going on at once. I'm rather looking forward to it. Going by the players reactions last time, they were an absolutely huge success that left all involved (including me) with an awesome buzz at the end of the session.

Let's hope we can repeat that success this time round.

Appendix: Instructions for creating your spare character.

At the moment, your spare character must be human. Once (if) the PC's make friendly contact with non-humans of a player character race, the option to create a non-human PC will become open again.
You can choose any class or multi-class combination open to humans under the House Rules.
The spare PC starts with a quarter of your main characters current XP.
Don't bother selecting any equipment. You probably won't start with any -although there are a few spare weapons lying around back at the Temple (mostly stuff made by Thoht and Andros) which you might have access to. The reason the main characters are the most active members of the group is because they have all the best gear available. After next Fridays session, you're spare characters will only be able to use equipment which they find themselves or which is donated to them by another PC.

Death in Darkness: Session VI of the Isle of the Earthshaker Campaign

2011-11-15T22:38:00.239Z

We had out first character death last Friday and, in the finest traditions of D&D gaming, it was death by poison. Read on.

Character Roster:

Exploring the Caves (players present):

Ailil Shadowdancer: Elf Male Assassin/Illusionist 2/1. Played by Ridh
Alexis: Human (Mycenean) Male Fighter 1. Played by Larraitz
Andros: Human (Mycenean) Female Fighter 2. Played by Aimee
Boagris: Human (Mycenean) Male Fighter 2. Played by Silv.
Euthalia: Human (Mycenean) Female Cleric 1. Played by Caroline
Glykeria: Human (Mycenean) Female Illusionist 1. Played by Elle
Ki Oman: Human (Zaman) male Dual Class Assassin 1/Bard 1. Played by Ali
Thera: Human(Mycenean) Female Paladin 1. Played by Niall
Thot: Half-Elf Male Magic User/Cleric 1/1. Played by Rob
Xenos: Human (Mycenean) Fighter/magic User 1/1. Played by Leoni.

Guarding the Camp (absent player and NPCs):

Thanatos: Human (Mycenean) Male Assassin 2. Played by Fiona
Surly: Troglodyte Guide. NPC.
Friendly: Troglodyte Guide. NPC.

Temple of Meerax, Garrison (absent players and NPCs):

Antipater: Human (Mycenean) Ship's Master. NPC.
Kallisto: Human (Mycenean) Female Fighter 1. Played by Jackie

Minerva: Human (Mycenean) Female 0 level Priestess of Heastia. NPC

Peliakos: Human (Mycenean) Male Fighter 1. Played by Coakley

Sparios: Human (Mycenean) Male Fighter 1. Spare Character.

Plus 15 other assorted, unnamed survivors of the wreck (the replacement PC pool) all presently recovering from injuries.

Their expedition having uncovered a considerable amount of information, and slain some powerful foes, the six scouts return to the camp that night, share their findings with the rest of the group and quickly descend into sleep. Meanwhile, the rest of the expedition keep watch.

Shortly after dawn, Alexis, who left the Temple several hours later than the main body, arrives complaining of a cold camp in the company of the friendliest of the two younger troglodytes from the first conference with the Trog Elder. Alexis reports that the old Trog seems somewhat put out that Ki Oman neglected to leave his bag of human teeth behind -and is quick to add that he had not been too pleased himself either. Fortunately, Alexis had managed to avoid the field expedient of giving up one of his own pearly whites for the Trog's potion in favour of knocking the teeth out of a dead sailor's skull instead.

Alexis goes on to explain her presence. TheTrogs had brought word that the Grey Demons (as the party took to calling them after encountering one in the temple kitchens) have been active in the area around the Temple. The Trogs need the party to re-double their efforts in clearing the caves. Leaving the two Trogs and Thanatos behind to guard the camp-site, the characters return to the dungeon early that morning.

On this occasion their explorations are slowed somewhat by the notable absence of the fungus ropes at the first waterfall -proof positive that something intelligent is aware of their previous intrusions. At the second waterfall Ki Oman is so concerned about the possibility of the chute being trapped that he chucks a rock down it. The loud clatter of stone-on-stones echoes loudly for a few moments, just audible under the dull roar of the small waterfall. A few tense moments pass while the rest of the party alternates between glaring at the Bard and listening intently for sounds of approaching guards. After a good few minutes of careful listening they proceed on their way.

[Later, Shadowdancer hit-the-nail-on-the-head when they wondered if all that fungus, moss and algae coating the floor and walls ininsulated the noise]

The party's first-destination is the Blue-Goop room. Various spear-shafts, daggers, poles and even shields are dipped into the strange liquid in order to preserve the groups limited supply of torches (the goop from previous expeditions having ceased to glow sometime during the night). They return to the partially explored corridor with the narrow, twisting side-tunnel leading to the treasure horde. Here, Shadowdancer and Ki Oman declare their intention to ensure that nothing has moved into the cavern since their last visit. Glykeria, having had a dream during the night about the three darts fired by the stone chest trap (due to her daily use of her "Oracle" professional skill), insists on coming along.

Again, it takes the three explorers about ten minutes to twist, contort and squeeze themselves through the confining tunnel. Upon reaching their destination, Ki Oman and Shadowdancer are satisfied that nothing has changed in their absence. Glykeria reaches immediately for the three darts.

"Stop!" Shadowdancer and Ki (once again) shout a warning in unison at a companion. "Don't touch those" Ki continues," don't you see the poison?"

Glykeria scoffs, "Don't be stupid. I'm going to hold them by the shaft. Who'd poison the shaft."

Again the two proven trap-detectors try to stop her, but eventually they wash their hands of the whole matter.

"Be my guest then." Says Ki Oman.

"Fine you fool. If you want to die, who am I to stop you." Snaps Shadowdancer.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH" shrieks Glykeria,
who, having touched the tip of a single finger to the shaft of a dart, howls her agony as first her finger, then her whole hand, begins to blacken and slough off from the bone.

Ki and Shadowdancer act quickly, one fabricates a improvised tourniquet and tyes it tight around the Oracle's arm. The other cuts deep along the length of the forearm with a dagger, hoping that the poison will spurt out of her blood stream. But what spurts forth from the wound is decidedly NOT what either of them expected. A host of bloated, swollen maggots, each the size of a diseased and malnourished grape, spill forth from the open wound, wriggling onto the floor where they dissolve into an oily goop. Seeing this the horro pouring forth from her veins, the doomed Oracle screams all the harder.

Ki Oman, shouting: Euthalia! Hurry! We Need you!"

At the other end of the twisting corridor, Euthali is already moving, shrugging off her pack with the help of Thera. But it will take valuable time for the priestess to reach them, even moving swiftly enough (as she does) to risk injury, cuts, and scrapes while she forces herself through the narrow passage.

Inside the treasure cavern, Shadowdancer desperately tries to hold the struggling prophetess down while Ki Oman unsuccessfully tries to saw through her arm at the elbow. Alas, he is too slow and the corruption moves up past the elbow. In desperation, he prepares to lop the girls arm off at the shoulder. Shadowdancer, in what his companions might consider a surprising display of compassion, dispassionately casts colour-spray on the screaming girl. "There! Cut now before she wakes!"

Ki Oman's second surgical attempt is more successful. With the girl no-longer writhing beneath his blade he is able to saw through the arm before the corruption spreads to her torso and neck. Yet now she lies, unconscious and unmoving, on the sodden, mossy floor. Bleeding out.

"EUTHALIA!" Shadowdancer shouts.

But the priestess of Haera is forcing her way down the passage as best she can. Her fine garments, already soiled from her experiences since the shipwreck, are torn to pieces. Her fingernails and smooth, unbleamished skin torn ragged and bloody from clawing at the rough stone. While Ki Oman and Shadowdancer desperately strive to control the bleeding, Euthalia is fighting a battle no less noble -and ultimately, no less futile- of her own.

The priestess pulls herself from the narrow entrance, collapsing beside the prophetess. The healing magic of her calling already emanating from her hands in a deep, warm glow. Yet the light rebounds from the lifeless corpse, Glykeria's lungs giving up their death rattle even as the cleric places her hands upon the oracle's chest. It's too late. The girl is dead.

[It normally takes a turn for a PC to crawl from the main corridor to this treasure area, due to the many twists and turns of the passage. I allowed Euthalia to move twice as fast if she was willing to take damage in the process. The player agreed without hesitation and plunged in. That meant she could make it to Glykeria's side in five rounds. This was significant, because, after being taking damage twice from Ki Omans surgery, Glykeria was on -5 hit points. It would all come down to the initiative roll. In my games, cure light wounds has a casting time of 0. Glykeria rolled a 3. Euthalia rolled a 2. And so we had our first PC death of the campaign. Glykeria's dream had been a warning, not an instruction]

The three PC's in the treasure room each cope with the loss in their own unique way. Euthalia prays for Glykeria's shade. Ki Oman mutters a (brief) prayer and then suggests that "Euthalia should head back and tell the others."

Shadowdancer seethingly gazes at the corpse, muttering "idiot" under his breath and shrugging carelessly while he waits for Euthalia to depart. He then cheerfully joins Ki Oman to loot the body. The two assassins turn their consideration to the matter of the poison itself. Luckily, both men, though spattered by Glykeria's tainted blood, have been wearing gloves, though Shadowdancer himself been careful not to touch the wounds or the blood. They experiment with wiping the poisonous blood off Ki Oman's knife, using the ubiquitous moss and fungal growths coating the walls as a sponge. To their horror (and delight) everything living thing the poisoned blade touches suffers the same horrific corruption as Glykeria herself. Even trying to scrape the stuff off the blade and onto the stone chest itself does not clean the blade. Though the un-living stone is not harmed by this magical substance, the residue that remains after a thorough scrapping continues to prove horrifyingly toxic. Ki Oman and Shadowdancer grin widley as they contemplate the myriad uses for such a toxin.

Then they consider the the obvious question: How do they intend to transport the stuff? After all, the only vessels the party are carrying are either leather waterskins or are improvised from clay or copper pots sealed with cork. Wisely, the two assassins concede that this little toxin is not worth the risk of transporting. They methodically -and carefully- strip off their gloves, check themselves over for any traces left on their clothing and set about finding somewhere safe to keep the knife and the clay pot they scrape the remaining poison from the darts into.

[Safe being a relative term in the context of a fragile clay pot and a sharp, poison coated object hidden under a thin layer of rubbish. As I later commented, my players had just invented Edarnia's first landmine].

Aware they cannot manouvre Glykeria's corpse down that twisting passage, they proceed to burn the body as best they could in the damp air and with the poor materials to hand.

[Alas, proper materials were not available and they botched the job. The party also failed to specify if they placed a coin into Glykeria's mouth to pay the Ferryman. Since Euthalia presided over the last rites, I'll presume that they did. So there's only a very small chance of something bad happening with the corpse.]

Returning to the others, the three dejected explorers break the news to the rest of the party. Thera pales visibly memory of the previous days events in that same chmaber still fresh in her mind. Had Shadowdancer and Ki Oman not warned her about touching anything.... the Paladin, immune to fear as she was, still feels a shudder pass along her spine. She very openly, and publicly, apologises to Shadowdancer and thanks the two scouts for saving her life. Shadowdancer nods, accepts the apology and then forcefully proclaims that if any of the party want to leave the island alive they had best start listening to his advice.

In the meantime, Thoht offers preyers for his departed colleague in the faith and, seeing Ki and Shadowdancer burdened by Glykeria's goods, solemnly request custody of her more personal possessions.

Continuing down the corridor, the party become aware of a strange clattering noise ahead. A wooden box with a strange funnel atop it, a syphon leading out and with a drain on the bottom leading to a pool of water sits astride the stream of water flowing downwards in the cave. After some examination, the party become dubious about putting anything in the funnel, suspecting the device to be some form of sausage maker powered by water. It is quickly deduced that the noise could be caused by something trapped in the mechanism. While Thoht and Alexis puzzle and argue over how to open the box, Alexis simply pries the nails off one side and opens the box to reveal a gem caught in the mechanism, along with a number of rotten fish parts which were thrown out of the box by centrifugal force to splatter all over her. While the rest of the party ponder how to safely remove the gem from the whirring mechanism, Shadowdancer simply rolls his eyes, moves over to the irrigation channel feeding water into the mechanism and moves it to one side. While Thoht and Alexis continue to argue over how to retrieve the gem, Shadowdancer is already reaching into the box to retrieve the gem from the now stationary grinder.

The party's back-slapping lasts only a few moments however. Shadowdancer observes out that the grinder is now no longer making that loud clacking noise. Perhaps they had just been tricked into giving away their location.

[If only I was that devious. Still, that's an excellent suggestion to take on board for future dungeons. I tell you, player paranoia is my best resource when it comes to trap ideas].

They follow the passageway south, and come upon a strange chamber. Four cages made of ropey, green fungus hang from the ceiling. All are suspended from vines hanging from what appears to be a very large pod, similar to those encountered earlier, save for it's increased dimensions. A much larger water-powered grinding machine, this one large enough to cram a man down the funnel, dominates the centre of the room. Three of the cages appear to be occupied. One lies empty. Thoht and Shadowdancer examine the room with their elf-vision from just outside the entrance, noting as they did so another corridor to the east and one on just of to their right (on the same wall as their own entrance) where they can just glimpse some activity. However, it is the inhabitants of the cages that they focus their gazes upon.

The closest cage holds the lithe shape of a perfectly proportioned female human, lying in a sleeping posture with her head against the bars. Due to the strange glow permeating the room, they are unable to make out more than the basic outline of her body-heat back-lit against the colder texture of the fungal cage. The second holds a dwarf-shaped creature, the only one of the three evidently awake. Yet there is something distinctly odd about this dwarf. It's body temperature is painfully hot to the eyes. Neither elf-blood (though, no true blooded once-Shidhe like Shadowdancer would ever admit kinship with a half-human) like the way it bounces up and down, monkey-like in the cage. Reaching out to them, yet saying nothing. The third cage lies empty. In the fourth they can just make out the shape and body-heat of a large human- perhaps one as big as the mighty Boagris- hunched in slumber.

The two elves report their observations to their companions. Immediately, a loud argument ensues regarding whether to rescue these prisoners or simply press on. Fortunately, Ki Oman has the presence of mind to peek round the corner to observe events in the "activity"what was happening up the other corridor. The one in which Thoht and Shadowdancer had reported seeing activity. With alarm, the Bard signals back that the corridor in questions ends in another pod-chamber, full of pods! And the pod-men inside who were already awake are opening up the other pods to rouse their fellows!

Just in time, the party arranges itself in four ranks to meet the charge, with every party member in the first two ranks armed with a spear, regardless of proficiency. Soundly winning initiative against the slow moving pods, every single spear-man with the exception of Andros and Thera are able to set to receive a charge. In a masterful display of phalanx tactics, Shadowdancer calls the timings for held actions and Ki Oman strategically chucks flaming oil. The party systematically mows down at least a rank of charging pod-men every round, before falling back to re-set spears and do the same thing all over again. It is a display to warm a Zaman Phalanxors stony-heart. The party of (mostly) first level characters and (mostly) novice player take down a dozen 3 hit dice creatures in just five rounds of combat without taking a single hit. In a near-perfect display of party tactics as well as the value of team-work and sound leadership, they completely destroy the foe in what was supposed to be a very difficult encounter.

[As a DM, it was a very proud moment. This was proper old-school gaming. Player skill kicking the ass of much tougher monsters than the PC's themselves.]

Yet they do not pause to congratulate themselves. Displaying yet more common sense, the party simply ignores the plaintive cries of the (now awakened and seemingly desperate) human-sized prisoners and the frantic jumping and hooting of the dwarf. Instead, they set a guard upon the passage they came down, another on the passage heading east, and send some scouts into the Pod Room to check for any foes still sleeping in pods.

Back in the cage-chamber, a detect magic spell from Xenos reveals that while the cages radiate strong abjuration magic, there occupants radiate no magic at all. A few of the groups weapons and items also radiate enchantment magic, but there are no surprises there. The creature in the ceiling pod and the dwarf however, both radiate strong transmutation magic -and this has the party understandably worried. Finally, the pod itself radiates necromantic magic. Odd, considering that the pods in the next room glow with transformation energies. Thera also opens up her senses, extending her ability to detect evil as far out into the caverns as possible. It's no surprise to her given the party's suspicions on the matter, that the dwarf radiates evil -something that, on Edarnia- suggests the dwarf might be a demon at the very least. He also sense something else. A presence just skittering on the edge of his detection range. The Paladin reveals both pieces of crucial information to the party.

Only then do they decide to talk to the prisoners, heading towards the least threatening one first. A sixteen or seventeen year old human female, a young woman of dazzling beauty, raven-dark hair, and a lithesome figure in perfect proportions calls out for their attention. Ki Oman quickly begins to dazzle her with his charms, carrying on the true Bardic tradition of putting his claim in before anyone else. The girl introduces herself as "Merethena, daughter of Merethena, daughter of Semet. Grand-Niece to the Bull Headed King of Thyatis. may he roar his rage forever." She less dramatically introduces the other human prisoner as Bombatta, her bodyguard.

Menethena, when pressed, confirms that this Thyatis she speaks of is a city on this very Island. She adds that the city itself lies not far to the east. Putting aside their many questions about the island for the moment, Ki Oman and the other questioners focus on trying to find out as much about the caverns themselves as possible.

They learn that the two Thayatians had been imprisoned in the caverns for some time. The dwarf has been here even longer -and has not spoken or attempted to communicate with either human, save to throw excrement- since their arrival. They have marked time by the visits of the "mushroom creature", who has appeared seven times to lower the pod in the ceiling and feed whatever lies within. Hence they estimate they have been here a week. The occupant of the third cage, a second bodyguard, wounded and weak, has already been fed into the grinder. His liquified remains fed to the pod above. They had feared they were to be next.

After some experimentation, the party finds that only obsidian objects will cut the cage bars. All other substances simply bounce off. [Thoht, by chance, had made a point of acquiring some sharp pieces of obsidian during the trip to the caves in session IV and cannily discovers that cut through the bars]. However, as soon as the blade passes through, the fungal bars flex and glue themselves together once again, [rather like the magical slave chain in Star Dust, only with considerably less pleasant visuals]. Eventually, they hit upon the idea of using obsidian plugs to prevent regrowth of the bars. While it is a long process, working in two teams they eventually free first the girl, then Bombatta.

Upon being released from her cage, the scantily dressed girl (wearing little more leather straps, a scandalous appearance for any Mycenean woman, let alone a girl of noble or even royal birth) leaps straight into the arms of a somewhat smug Ki Oman. Hardly surprising really, given that of all her rescuers, he is not only the hunkiest - having not only decent physical stats, but dashing good looks, a rakish eyepatch, good breeding, education and a charisma that tops the Paladins- but also the one who did the most talking.

It is clear from Bombatta's, low, throaty growl that the bodyguard does not approve of this behaviour -and lays the blame firmly at the feet of Ki Oman. Upon stepping from his cage, the bodyguard nods respectfully to Boagris, but fails to conceal a superior sneer when he turns his gaze upon the other warriors present. Bombatta makes a point of introducing himself to Ki Oman. Even taking Ki Oman's wrist in a bone-crushing warriors clasp, before wrenching the Bard painfully into an embrace and whispering, "Touch her fool, and I'll tear out your balls and feed them to the Trogs". When he releases the bard from this bear hug, he is all smiles and good cheer. But his eyes -when directed upon Ki Oman- tell a different tale.

The party intriduces themselve, and while both the former prisoners try to hide it, a brief look of alarm passes between them when Euthalia intriduces herself as a cleric of Haestia. Thera, perhaps wisely, fails to mention that she is a paladin of Meerax, due to their brief reaction.

As for the dwarf, he is left to hop around in his cage for the time being. For once, the party are all in agreement. There's something not right about that dwarf. And it could mean trouble.

[We ended the session there, with the assumption that the group returned to camp to clean themselves up and glean more intelligence about the island- and the Trog Caves themselves- in relative safety. At least two of the players -more familiar with my home-brew campaign setting than the others- have their theories about the identity of these two characters. Or, at least, their cultural background. A few have also noticed details about their appearance and behaviour that the other PC's have not. Will they be able to put 2 and 2 together? Who knows? But I for one am very much looking forward to tomorrow nights session and the party's little chat with the prisoners.]

Thus ends day 7 of the Isle of the Earthshaker Campaign.

Oriental Adventures/Masks of Nyarlathotep Update

2011-11-14T11:21:00.006Z

SANDBOX:
After some humming and hawing as to whether or not I should simply create my own pseudo-Japanese nation from scratch or else borrow one of the maps for Kazakura from the Oriental Adventures box set, I've finally settled on a third option. Frankly, I'm just going to use a map of Japan complete with original province names and the names of major cities as my starting point. Runequest Ninja (a very fine supplement by the way if you can find it) provides an excellent map of the Provinces as they stood in the (I think) Tokugawa period.

This has the added advantage of allowing me to incorporate various Japanese geographical myths into the campaign world -for example, the legend of a pit leading directly to the Buddhist Hell in Izumi province makes Izumi the perfect stand in for one of the major adventure locations in Masks of Nyarlathotep.

However, rather than simply call the country founded on these islands Niwon or Nihon and use an "alternate earth Japan", I'm going to incoporate them into my home-brew campaign world, Edarnia and call them "Hisui no Shima", the Jade Islands. Fortunately I've already established that Edarnia has an Underworld as well as dark, utterly alien Cthuluesque Gods even older than the Primordials who created Edarnia. On top of that, the game world also has as well as a malevolent force of non-life known as the "Corruption (amoung other names)," an excellent stand-in for the Taint from L5R. However, I like the sound of "taint" so it looks like the corruption has acquired another cultural-cetnric name. I'll be tracking (and using) taint points in the same manner as Insanity points are used in Call of Cthulu, with the added bonus that an increasing taint score also results in increasing physical mutation. Hmm, echoes of Ravenloft here as well perhaps?

RELIGION:

Rather than having the traditional view of two main Japanese religions that exist concurrently and in relative harmony, Jeido Shoto will have just the one, the Hundred Million Kami. The religion will be mostly Shinto based, but will include a great many Buddhist elements. The main reasoning for this decision is that it will reduce the number of concepts a gamer unfamiliar with Japanese culture will have to adapt to. Hopefully, given how closely Shinto and Buddhism were integrated in Japanese culture, it won't be too big a change for the Japan-buffs in the group either.

AUTHORITY:

It might seem odd (and in fact, probably is given that I chose to simplify the religious situation on Jeido Shoto) but rather than going with RuneQuest Nija's recommended triumvirate of power (Emperor-Retired Emperor-Shogun) I'll be going with the puppet Emperor, Retired Emperor, puppet Shogun, Shikken model from later Japanese history. Although this power structure shouldn't feature too much in the Mask's campaign, I'm not putting so much effort into a campaign setting just to use it one campaign. I expect to get my mileage out of Hisui no Shima.

GREATER ASIA:

I've still to come up with names for the setting's analogue of China, which will be a major trade-partner and which will provide many NPC's and at least one adventure setting during the Masks campaign. However, Mongolia is easy enough. I'm taking the name "Burning Lands" from the L5R setting, which works well enough for me, and I'm going for it.

EZO:
Ezo, the northern-most of the Japanese Islands, was not particularly settled until the 15th century. Except by wako (pirates) renegades and Ainu (the indigenous inhabitants of Japan). Ezo seems to be an ideal stand-in for the Shadowlands of L5R , the Chaos Wastes of the Old World, the Blight of the Wheel of Time and about a dozen other settings combined. So that' what I'll use it for. The interior of the island will be a blighted wasteland of volcanic cloud, ash and a gateway to the Hell of the Hundred Million Kami. The coastal areas will be habitable, and home to a few hardy samurai clans and their retainers as well as a great many bands of ronin, wako and other renegades.

Peoples of Zama: Elves and Shidhe

2011-11-14T00:22:00.011Z

Unlike the other Zama posts thus far, the information below is NOT common knowledge in the Zama campaign setting. In other words, if you're playing in my Earthshaker campaign, the only way your character will know this information is if your character happens to be an elf. If you aint no elf, you ain't got no clue.

An Exerpt from, "On the Un-Lives of the Eternal Shidhe"

"There are some who consider the Shidhe (and the once-Shidhe) arrogant beyond bearing. In many cases “they” are correct. Yet there are many mysteries concerning this race. Mysteries I shall attempt in some small part to reveal hereafter. Perhaps then “they” will finally understand that the Shidhe have just cause to be overbearing, proud and contemptuous of mortals.

Indeed, this behaviour is hardly surprising when one considers that of the teeming thousands of Shidhe who dwell within the Summerlands today, most can truthfully claim to be older than the Gods themselves. Or at least, that generation of Gods whom we mortals worship today. Indeed, there are many Shidhe still in existence who witnessed, with open mockery, the very birth of our world, Edarnia. Shidhe who poured derision upon the the efforts of the first Gods of Edarnia, those mankind know now as the Primordials, and their efforts to create something new and ever-lasting. For the Shidhe, immortal, eternal, unchanging, perceived theis, the very hubris of the Gods, as rank folly. No-one and nothing, not even the God's, claim the Shidhe, are truly immortal. Nothing save perhaps the Shidhe themselves . Ever patient, ever deceitful, ever malevolent and mocking of mortals from behind their veils of still living butterflies -stitched together wing to wing- they are no true race as we mortals understand the word. They are in truth, a force of nature. A part of the universal anima itself. Their very existence a law of creation. Some among them -including their fickle and malevolent “deity,” the EverQueen - through subtle innuendo and half-truths, hint of bearing witness to the birth-pangs of the universe itself.

Having experienced such wonders, or heard them spoken of as living memory, is it truly surprising that the Shihde seem as alien to mortals as we are to them? Mortals, Gods, even the world itself- are but little more than may-flies in the ken of such a folk. Our occasional intrusions into their Summerlands -as we succumb to dreams or flit through their realm in the form of shades awaiting rebirth- are to them the merest speck of a momentary annoyance.

The Shidhe are truly ancient – and alien- in ways we mortals -and perhaps even the Gods- cannot possiblycomprehend. And yet, despite how they perceive mortals, in some ways we are much-alike. The Shidhe feel the baser emotions keenly – anger, avarice, malice, lust, greed- more so even than the vilest of mortal men. Yet in turn they know and comprehend little of gentler, more noble emotions such as love, kindness, compassion and honour-although even they experience such emotions from time to time, although as nothing more than a faint, vaguely disturbing sensation. A moment's perturbation that swiftly vanishes, a tiny drop of human experience in a sea of cruel Shidhe emotions.

Though many -even the Gods- have tried to prove otherwise, no Shidhe can be killed by any means while they dwell within the Summerlands. In the mortal realms they are vulnerbale, but even then they are mighty in power and awesome in aspect. In the Great War between the Gods and Shidhe at the time of Edarnia's creation, countless Shidhe warriors were struck down by the Primordials and their elemental servitors, laughing with ill-humoured mirth even as their disjointed body parts reassembled themselves before the very eyes of their “slayers”. In truth, none save the Shidhe themselves can claim to understand with certainty why the Shihde warriors simply turned away and returned home after untold centuries of ceaseless warfare. I, who have studied the Shihde for many years, I who am myself the son of a once-Shihde- have my suspicions. And they are terrible in aspect.

For I believe they simply grew bored.

Boredom is a curse upon these timeless creatures. Having lived uncounted aeons, even their debauched and treacherous tastes must soon leave then indolent with innui. Many Shihde court disaster time and again -risking the terrible anger and rage of the EverQueen- to escape the tedium of their existence. Many choose to plot uselessly against their Queen, or attempt to imprison or torment rivals at court. Or else choose to break the most sacred of law of the Shidhe. The EverQueen, conscious of her folk's eternal nature, has long-since decreed that no Shidhe save she herself may ever bear a living child. Though the act of love-making itself is tolerated, it's consequences can be deadly indeed. Many choose to undertake this dangerous, forbidden act from simple curiosity or from simple malevolent rebellion. Few Shidhe undertake this dangerous pass-time for reasons of love – it being an emotion almost as foreign and repugnant to the Shidhe as the desire to murder a child is to mortals. Instead, such indulgent acts of love-making, treachery and intrigue serve only as simple a distractions from boredom.

Those who do succumb to the slow natural fertility of their race most often destroy the child while still within the womb. Those few who succumb to the unfamiliar emotions that swell within them at the pace of their bellies face an almost unimaginable choice. An eternity of imprisonment in the squalid dungeons of the Shidhe – a fate truly worse than oblivion for the immortal Shidhe- or banishment to one mortal world of many. There to live out the reminder of their much-reduced, near mortal lives as a shrunken shadow of their former power. Such are wretched beings , however beautiful their appearance, for they have lost all that made them who they once were. Knowledge. Wisdom. The memory of lost beauties to which they alone among all living beings bore witness. I know and feel the pain of their loss. My own mother was one of the banished. The unShidhe. An Elf!

Those few who choose so terrible a punishment undergo a painful and humiliating ordeal, a ritual of blood and pain, in which their very anima is torn asunder and merged with the tortured Shade of a some mortal being, plucked for this very purpose from the tortures of the Underworld. The mortal soul is completely subsumed by the process, destroyed forever. Yet a glimmer of mortality remains within the ruined anima of the former Shidhe. The newly-created elf is forever after a mere mortal. Un-aging, yes. But not invincible. Cursed to live a shadowy existence until such time as it's immortal body is slain. Such former Shidhe are as vulnerable to blade and spell, disease and misfortune alike, as we mortal beings.

Yet worse still than the fallen state of their once-eternal frame is the ravages of the mind. The memories, skills and knowledge of the transformed are left as thin and ephemeral as a single strand of silk -and equally difficult to grasp. Just as their bodies are warped into a less fearful form by their transformation, their minds are left torn and tattered by the experience. Like a fine silk tunic gnawed upon by locusts, there mind and powers are the barest tattered remnants of what they once were. Such beings as my mother retain their arrogance – for a time- but many, like my blessed mother, mellow in their bitterness and envy with the passing of the years. Some even learn to find joy and blessings in their mortal lives, as though every moment has become more beautiful with the knowledge it may be their last. Yet, just as often the Elf becomes a self-destructive being of hate. Destined for a lonely death at the edge of a blade. A sad fate, for when the unShidhe pass over from this world to the next, there is no relief from their torment. No return to the blessed Summerlands from whence they came. No, not even in dreams can they return there. For they each still carry a fragment of the damned soul within them. A tiny soul-shard that condemns them for a time to the eternal torments of the Underworld, where, in time, they are sure to be devoured by the unnatural denizens that dwell forever within that dark place. No magic known to Gods or mortal man can return them from that place. In this regard, once dead, an elf is indeed truly damned.

Yet it is whispered among these scattered exiles, on those rare occasions when two or more may gather in one place, that salvation exists. It is said that if, by some chance, an Elf might perform some unimaginable feat that might draw the intention -and interest- of his ennui-ridden Queen, it is whispered that this terrible process can be reversed. I have heard often such whispers pass between my mother and those few Elves with she has corresponded during her long exile, that Shidhe have undergone the dreadful transformation many times. Passing from Elf to Shidhe to Elf again in accordance with the Queen's whims. My mother talked often of such a being – telling tales while I perched upon her knee, give me hope for her mortal soul. Tales of a creature she spoke of only in the most hushed and reverent of tones. Tales of the being she called the Dancer in Shadow."

-Pytheragon Half-Elf,
Pedagogue to the Royal Court, Zama

Game Terms:

Shidhe are old. Very old. Several hundred thousand years old at the very least.
Shidhe are a mere wisp of a shadow of some of their old selves. They may catch occasional glimpses of their past while in reverie and experience occasional flash-backs to their former lives. However, they have only a limited context with which to understand these images
As a result, despite their great age, all newly transformed Shidhe begin as first level characters.
A deceased elven character cannot be brought back from the Underworld (returned to life) by any spell regardless of caster level or the casters divine status (if any). The only way to bring an elf character back from the Underworld is to go down there and get him (or her).
Elves in Edarnia have no upper level limits on character classes, but because the disjointed and fragmented nature of their previous existence and the truama of trasnformation, they acquire an an XP penalty of 10%. In other worlds, they require 10% more xp per level advancement.
Edarnin Elves cannot enter the Summerlands by any means, whether by Gate, Planeshift or the simple expedient of climbing up a sufficiently tall peak.
Edarnia elves otherwise follow all the normal rules for Elves as outlined in the OSRIC rulebook,
Final note: Shidhe are somewhat vampiric in their appearance but they are NOT vampires. During the transition from Shidhe to Elf their appearance changes to (more or less) that of a traditional elf. In moments of anger, a powerful or very old Elf can briefly return to her original form, if only for a fraction of a second (ala Galadriel in the first LOTR film).

In Memoriam

2011-11-11T12:18:00.006Z

"From mud through blood to the green fields beyond"
- Royal Tank Regiment

                                                      When I am dead
                                                              Cry for me a little
                                                              Think of me sometimes
                                                              But not too much.
                                                              Think of me now and again
                                                              As I was in life
                                                              At some moment it's pleasant to recall
                                                              But not too much.
                                                              Leave me in peace
                                                              And I shall leave you in peace
                                                              And while you live
                                                              Let your thoughts be with the living.

-Traditional

Dedicated to those who have passed into the Green Fields this last year. With special thanks to the people of Royal Wooton Bassett

Converting Masks of Nyarlathotep to Oriental Adventures:

2011-11-10T18:34:00.004Z

As mentioned in a previous post, I was considering published campaigns that I could adapt to the Legend of the Five Rings setting for my second, much smaller, group. The one that essentially meets as when I have the time and can be bothered, as opposed to the weekly earth-shaker game.

Kelvin Green, genius that he is, suggested reworking Masks of Nyarlathotep. An awesome idea that I leapt on. I had just finished converting the first chapter, originally set in New York, to work in L5R's City of Lies when I had a revelation (inspired by the excellent blog Ramblings of a Great Khan): Why the hell am I bothering to convert this awesome campaign to L5R, a game system my players have never used, when I can just use OSRIC flavoured with 1^st ed AD&D Oriental Adventures?

So, over the next few days you'll probably come across a number of Oriental Adventures themed posts. Nothing to do with my efforts converting the campaign module itself, I'm afraid. After all, my group has to play through it first. Mostly I'll be taking the mounds of racial and character class information in OA and re-presenting it in a more user friendly format. Last night I had to read through the Samurai class information three times to work out how many starting proficiencies they had. The “OSRIC” Oriental class artciles will therefore be nothing new or original (with the possible exception of the ninja. I might re-work that class entirely) just a rehash of existing material. Mostly for the benefit of my players, it has to be said, but hopefully there will be something useful in there for you too.

I'll also post maps and a brief key of my version of a fantasy Japan. Though the campaign won't be set in either OA's Kara-Tur or L5R's Rokugan I'll probably use elements of each lifted wholesale from the original. The starting city will still be called Ryoko Owari. It will still be a “hive of scum and villainy” but it wont be Rokugan's Ryoko Owari, apart from a few key locations. I also anticipate building in an area based heavily on L5R's Shadowlands. Blood Magic will also feature heavily (it shouldn't be too hard to work up rules for Blood Magic in OSRIC). So look forward to seeing articles about these over the next few weeks.

Anyway, that's it for me just now. I'm coming down with could be a winter cold. So I'm off to hop under my duvet with a mug of hot toddy and try to beat this thing down before it has a chance to take hold.

Scouting Party: Session V of the OSRIC Expeditionary Campaign

2011-11-09T23:02:00.009Z

Scouting Party (players present):

Ailil Shadowdancer: Elf Male Assassin/Illusionist 1/1. Played by Ridh

Andros: Human (Mycenean) Female Fighter 1. Played by Aimee

Boagris: Human (Mycenean) Male Fighter 1. Played by Silv.

Ki Oman: Human (Zaman) male Assassin 1. Played by Ali

Thanatos: Human (Mycenean) Male Asassin 1. Played by Fiona

Thera: Human(Mycenean) Female Paladin 1. Played by Niall

Camp Guards (players present last session):

Euthalia: Human (Mycenean) Female Cleric 1. Played by Caroline

Glykeria: Human (Mycenean) Female Illusionist 1. Played by Elle

Thot: Half-Elf Male Magic User/Cleric 1/1. Played by Rob

Xenos: Human (Mycenean) Fighter/magic User 1/1. Played by Leoni.

Guarding the Temple:

Alexis: Human (Mycenean) Male Fighter 1. Played by Larraitz

Kallisto: Human (Mycenean) Female Fighter 1. Played by Jackie

Peliakos: Human (Mycenean) Male Fighter 1. Played by Coakley

Sparios: Human (Mycenean) Male Fighter 1. Spare Character.

Because so few of the players present last week were able to make this session, we resumed events outside the cave complex: where the remainder of the party followed a clearly alarmed Shadowdancer out of the caves at full speed following the events of last-weeks cliff-hanger.

There, the party decide that they need more information concerning the layout of the caves before they commit the full expedition to further exploration. It's decided that the party's less combat worthy members should remain outside, to make camp and fish in the pool for the raw materials needed to make more food and torches. Xenos is selected by vote as the warrior type to remain behind and watch over Euthalia, Glykeria and Thot while they set about their more domestic duties. This leaves only the warriors and sneaks to explore the tunnels: the perfect scouting party.

OOC: So “perfect,” in fact, that the players were truly worried about their lack of cleric. After much whinging and cajoling I eventually agreed to let them treat Euthalia (played by wife, Caroline, who was present but unable to play due to prepping for an interview the next day) as a first aid post back at the Cave Entrance. But only because Caroline was present to give permission. Given that this session takes up the story about about half-an-hour after the last one ended, that means the party had access to her two remaining cure light wounds spells for the day.

The scouting party began their second delve by quickly making their way down to the second waterfall. Concerned that Xeno's bolas might not hold for long, they proceeded to pelt the two suspended fungoid creatures they had entangled last session with missiles until they stopped twitching. Satisfied that the creatures were dead, the party spent a turn or so listening carefully in case anything had reacted to the noise of the brief massacre before moving down to the pool at the base of the second waterfall. There they bickered quietly about their next course of action. Some wished to return to the spot where the tentacled creature had lashed out at Shadowdancer in the narrow passage and destroy it, not wishing to leave a live foe at their back. Most did not. The nays had their way.

The scouts instead moved to secure the room with the pool of growing blue ooze. Thera and Ki Oman both tested the pool by dipping various wooden implements into it, and were relieved (but also perplexed) to discover that the wood had suffered no apparent ill-effects and, as a somewhat unexpected side-effect, the good stuck to their wooden implements provide illumination similar to that of a candle.

Having spent some considerable time in the dungeon already (about three turns by my count, counting the dithering and dickering) they decided to press on.

I suspect the players were deliberately stalling for time because they were every bit as worried about adventuring without a cleric as their characters would have been.

The scouts then returned to the room with the strange pod-like growths hanging from the ceiling. Leaving Thanatos and Shadowdancer to guard the various entrances and exits, Ki Oman and the three warriors in the group set about examining the pods, noting that only two remained closed.

Tenatively, Ki Oman cut into the fungal rope suspending one of the open pods from the ceiling and was very much surprised when nothing bad happened. However, before moving to repeat the same trick on one of the open pods, the party strategically positioned themselves around the pod's vertical seam while Thera turned her back on the pod selected for experimentation in order to observe the other, unopened pod.

It was as well she did. For as soon as Ki Oman slit down the seam of his pod to reveal an odd, compost-like pile of plant-matter, rotting fish and animal bones perched atop a large mushroom shaped fungal protuberance, something else burst forth from the second unopened pod.

Despite their surprise, the party reacted swiftly to this threat, Boagris once again learning the hard-way that bashing weapons don't work particularly well on fungas creatures somewhat lacking in muscle or bones. The final blow was dealt by Andros, whose short-sword cut a wide gash in the creatures leg, spilling it's goopy, fungal innards onto the cavern floor. It was only now that the party got their first good look at the foe -a man-sized plant roughly humanoid in form but with strange, compound “eyes” perched on either side of it's tiny head.

The three warriors and Ki Oman immediately set about cutting down the remaining pods from the ceiling. In the course of doing so, Ki Oman came across a sphincter like structure towards the rear of one of the pods. While Ki Oman set about checking for traps and poking at the strange sphincter with his glowy stick until it opened, neither he, or Thera noticed that Andros' torch had begun to flicker considerably. Possibly because of the distraction afforded by Boagris who stubbornly stomped off alone down an unexplored corridor with a second, equally guttering torch in hand. Four major events occurred simultaneously only moments thereafter.

Firstly, Boagris walked alone into another cavern and was confronted by an animated stone troglodyte head that flew towards his head at speed., causing the gladiator to stumble backwards into the pod chamber.

Secondly, Ki Oman got the sphincter open and removed two clay urns from within.

Thirdly, Shadowdancer and Thanatos hurried back into the room with whispered warnings of a huge, tentacled thing shambling after them.

And finally, both torches sputter out.

OOC: My actual description of the torch flickering went straight over the players heads. Again. Hopefully finding themselves fighting monsters in the dark often enough will remind them to pay more attention to their light sources.

The shambling fungus creature, a huge beast twice the girth even of the mighty Boagris, was visible only as a tentacled silhouette framed against the ambient glow from the nearby blue-goo room. Yet it didn't seem to have any difficulty locating the scouting party in the otherwise pitch-black chambers. Only Shadowdancer could see it clearly, and he quickly snuck into hiding behind a pod to bide his time. Meanwhile Ki Oman kept his nerve sufficiently to keep one hand on the pod he had been fiddling with and stumbled his way into hiding, his way lit by the blue goop on the end of his stick. Thanatos meanwhile stumbled off into the darkness away from the monster and was lucky enough to find a pod to sit inside. Boagris ran blindly back into the pod room, slipped on the slimy floor now slick with 'pod-guts” and completely lost his sense of direction. Meanwhile a shell-shocked Andros desperately tried to light a new torch -only to have the strange stone head fly straight at her (or rather her torch) from behind as soon as her efforts bore fruit. Meanwhile, Thera rushed over to her side to illuminate the blacksmith's torch-lighting efforts with the blue goop on her spear-shaft.

In the second round, the beast finally pulled itself into full view, a massive, thick-set monstrosity with two mighty paws and a pair of tentacles writhing from each shoulder. It lumbered forward towards the two female warriors in the centre of the pod room, completely oblivious to the presence of the three hiding assassins. Boagris arrived by their side just in time to take a clobbering hits from the beast that staggered the huge warrior and left his head ringing (down to 1hp). Nevertheless, he and his companions bravely fought on, taking minor wounds and inflicting many minor hits on the beast in turn, most of which failed to pierce the its thick, rubbery hide. In time though, their efforts weakened the beast enough that the three assassins, simultaneously sneaking up on it's rear, back-stabbed the creature to death in a single round.

While the others paused to experiment with the strange floating trog head, Thera quickly laid her healing hands upon Boagris' wound. The strange warmth that suffused him reduced the swelling somewhat yet still left the warrior with an impressive, livid bruise. Taking stock and searching the body of the beast they had slain, the scouting party decided to return to the cave mouth for some healing.

It was at this point that I made my first major DM snafu in years. You see, after some experimentation the party incorrectly determined that the Trog head was attracted to heat (rather than light). It certainly seemed to follow whoever held the nearest torch as they travelled through the Dungeon. I ruled that as soon the cave entrance came into view, the Trog Head (which the party had already deduced that the trogs probably worshipped as some sort of God or Idol) shot towards the cave mouth and out of the caves, startling the party members on guard and giving their poor Trog guide an apoplectic fit! I described the stone head shooting rapidly upwards toward the sun, allowed Shadowdancer a desperate attempt to trick the head into returning to earth with a Phantasmal Force and (to the laughter of the players) gleefully acted-out the slack-tongued “Oh shit!” response of their Trog guide as he watched his beloved “god” disappear into the heavens!

I laughed so hard I nearly puked.

And then Rhi remembered it was still night time.

Shit!

So, with the campfire being considerably brighter than the weak moon-light filtering through the clouds, especially given that it's been thundering with rain ever since the PC's arrived on the island, I had to ret-con things so that the head floated above the camp-fire while the Trog guide prostrated himself before it in undisguised wonder. The Trog could only watch in awe as Shadowdancer seemed able to summon the head back to his side with a few muttered words and a wave of his hand (thanks to another illusion spell)

As soon as Euthalia deigned to cast a cure light wounds spell upon Boagris, returning the oft-wounded former gladiator to full health, the party (with stone head in tow) returned to the dungeon. Shadowdancer threw their stunned Trog guide a mysterious wink as he passed. After a long yet hurried discussion about what to do with the thing (and not wishing to risk an accident like the one I'd originally envisioned) the PC's hit upon a plan. They walked the stone-head back to it's original home, left it with a lit torch, extinguished their own lights, and left.

With a huge, collective sigh of relief, the party set about exploring the rest of the complex. First, and most significantly for their future survival chances (and hence xp totals) they located what appeared to be a freshwater under-ground lake. Shadowdancers inhuman vision was able to detect a few heat-sources in the water however. Being unable to identify these heat-sources due to the diffusing nature of the medium in which they floated, the group decided not to disturb the water beyond refilling their scarce collection of water bottles and other, somewhat improvised, drinking vessels.

They thereafter located an odd room with a glowing, moss-covered ceiling. The water from the stream had been divided into three irrigation channels feeding nine small pine trees. An low, disembodied muttering seemed to fill the chamber. Numerous theories abounded about the presence of the trees, everything from their role as a food source for the Trogs to an air purifying system (an OOC comment by the way). In any case, the party were able to discern something odd about the trees beyond that of their mere presence in a Dungeon. Yet after a while the party decided to move on, the mystery of their presence still unresolved.

In the end they found another chamber featuring a (much larger) stone Trogolodyte head. This one immobile and carved into the cavern wall. Some experimentation with light sources revealed that the open mouth was, in fact, the terminus of a small corridor they had found elsewhere in the complex but had been reluctant to explore.

That left only the corridor where Shadowdancer had been ambushed by the tentacled monstrosity. The others were somewhat nervous about the prospect of second encounter with the creature with no cleric in sight, until Ki Oman and Shadowdancer observed that the large, creature they fought in the pod chamber was itself probably the very thing that had attacked Shadowdancer. Nevertheless the party were reluctant to let Shadowdancer explore the tight corridor alone for a second time. With none of the warriors keen on the idea of stripping off their armour to venture down the confined and possibly dangerous space and with Thanatos being his usual cowar...cautious self, this meant Ki Oman would accompany the Shidhe.

The tight, uneven passage soon opened up into a wide chamber littered with detritus -decayed plant and-animal matter, dead trogs, broken weapons and the like. But at the far end of the chamber – a stone chest rested upon a raised platform. With a shared smile, the two assassins began making their way cautiously along the messy, uneven carpet of litter and remains covering the floor. After reaching the chest without finding a single trap, their instincts were tingling. True enough, when the two assassins lay flat on their bellies and carefully prised open the stone lid from below with bits of trog bone, three obsidian tipped darts flew over them to embed themselves in a stone wall (trap neutralized via role-playing rather than mechanically).

Still not satisfied and taking no chances, one of the two assassins (I can't recall whom) threw a rock into the chest, only to be rewarded with the sound of breaking pottery. Peering inside, they located a few pottery fragments and a huge pile of ancient gold and platinum coinage (which upon later examination was found to depict a bulls head on one side and a crescent with a dot between the points on the other). They also found a strange coil of spongy fungus that detected as magical to Shadow-dancers spell-casting. Sharing a conspiratorial look, the two assassins were determining what to share with the others and what to keep for themselves when a loud clattering noise (like a shield on stone) behind them made them look back.

Thera, stripped of all but a thin tunic, stood in the entrance to the room. She made to put one step forward when:

Shadowdancer and Ki Oman together: NO!!!!!!

Convinced of the necessity for caution and the presence of traps by the three darts sticking out of the moss-coated cavern wall not six feet from her, Thera was persuaded to remain where she was. Thus she was not able to prevent or observe the two assassins successfully palm all the platinum coins in the chest, though the gig was very nearly up when Shadowdancer fluffed a pick pockets/sleight of hand roll and dropped one of the coins. Thera bought his excuse that he was “just “examining it”. Shadow-dancer also managed to claim the strange fungus coil for himself with the permission and connivance of Ki Oman. However, all the gold coins in the chest were split between all six members of the scouting expedition when the party thereafter made their way directly back to camp.

As a result of this expedition, (XP for monsters defeated, XP for role-playing, XP for finding the only fresh water source on the island so far that doesn't reek of sulphur and XP for treasure) all the scouting party members (except Thera) made it to second level.

P.S: On re-reading this article I realise I make it sound as though the PC's have completely cleared the cave complex. In actual fact, the treasure chamber they found was a side passage away from a corridor that leads further down into darkness.

And now for something slightly different. Some OOC and IC Humour. There a lot of it this session. Mostly because the players were stalling for time, I believe.

Upon returning to the two tangled creatures at the second waterfall:

Me: They're still entwined by Xenos' bolas, hanging like a pair of struggling sad sacks from the ceiling.

Aimee: Sad sacks, eh? I suggest a proctologist!

Going down the chute at the second waterfall:

Ali: I go “whee” down the chute.

Me: Do you mean “whee” or “wee”?

While Ki Oman prods the sphincter-like hollow with his glow-stick, trying to open it:

Andros: Gods man! Are you not even gonna buy it a drink first?

After the fiasco with the stone head and the ret-con:

Shadowdancer: Remind me to have a little talk with these stupid Trogs about the wisdom of sending warm-blooded creatures with torches into the cave with their heat-seeking God!

Suggestions for a Published Campaign Please?

2011-11-03T22:39:00.001Z

Played session 5 of the Isle of the Earthshaker last night. Had a blast, sphincter jokes galore! All the more appropriate given that the party consisted of three assassins, two fighters, a paladin and no clerics (Euthalia's player had a job interview to prep for and had to cancel). Given that puts us four players down from last session my initial thoughts were that Wednesday's probably aren't that great for my players - but really we were only two down. Glykeria was also a last minute cancellation - on the grounds that we did have a spare camera/voice PC for a Skype connection. So we would have had eight.

Anyway, I'm digressing. As regular readers probably know I like to have a couple of campaigns prepped at any one time, so that I can offer my players a selection whenever it's time for a new campaign. Given that Pendragon is a very dangerous system (and we've come close to a TPK twice now) I've been looking at other options.

Options 1 and 2, a 2nd ed WFRP Campaign or the post-apoc campaign I was working on before the move, is already sorted. As these are options for the group that consists of myself, my wife and one other couple (with no regular play schedule and which I have limited time to prepare for) both are heavily based on existing campaigns, albiet heavily modified to fit into different settings and rules sytems.

However, my number 3 option would be a Legend of the Five Rings game. Not sure yet if I would run it with D20 or the new 4th edition L5R rules, mind you. But what I need is a suggestion for a published story or plot based campaign that I can easily convert to run in the L5R setting. It can come from any rules system or setting, it just has to be relatively easy to convert.

Justice?

2011-11-02T23:45:00.003Z

Britain was a better place when villains had little accidents like this:

Let's hear it for the US Marines and the discretionary powers of the Malaysian Police.

WFRP Log: Session I Expose

2011-10-30T02:19:00.003Z

We actually managed to get a great deal more done in that first (well, technically second since I joined a week late) session of the WFRP campaign which I've recently been posting about. However, the morning after Geheimsnacht seems the natural place to stop for the first promised interlude. Needless to say, certain things will happen in Seigfried's career that he will not be too keen to trumpet for all to see on the pages of a broadsheet. Any such omissions from the "true and honest account", will be revealed in summary's such as this.

So, without further ado here follows the truth behind the eminent scribblings of the scribe Gospard of Nuln thus far.

33rd of Fore-Mystery (The Dwarven Night of Saga's)

A few hours before sunset, Siegfried “von” Schwimmer (as he likes to call himself) is driven off the road by a passing coach and into a ditch where a fellow traveller manages to simultaneously break Siegfried's fall and break Siegfried's favourite (and only) bow. Bertholdt, a rather weedy looking scribe who actually minces as he walks (don't you just love some of the random tables in WFRP character generation?) soon calms the irate young man with promises of a drink at a nearby coaching inn, the Prancing Cock.

The pair soon reach the inn to find it crowded with a variety of strange and unusual looking characters, including a small party of road wardens, a party of rough looking vagabonds (read: other adventurers - these guys will become important later) a noble's entourage (recently disembarked from a certain coach) and a single table occupied by an elf, a man and two dwarfs.

Bertholdt does make a joke and yes, Siegfried does punch him (albiet gently) for his troubles.

Strangely, though such an odd assembly would normally be given a wide berth and sullen looks by all present (being superstitious peasants and surly nobles) they are sat in pride-of-place at the largest table closest to the fire. It seems not even the noblewomen and their escorts have been able to shift them. But given how deep into their cups the two dwarfs are, and how often the locals seem to toast the strange party, perhaps that is not altogether unsurprising.

As the two travelers enter the taproom, the dwarfs appear to be taking turns to sing alternate verses about ancient dwarf heroes, while the other takes the opportunity for a long swig of ale. The human at the table, seemingly another road-warden by the device of Stirland he wears on an armband, taps his foot in time while the elf woman – who appears slight and rather, well, boyish, even for an elf- peers prissily over her spectacles at a large leather bound book.

As the dwarfs seem to be having a rare old time and, given there is not another seat to found anywhere in the taproom, the two young men head over to join this strange group of travelers.

The Road-warden, Dieter (whose players only made the first few sessions due to the publication of his first book and subsequent book tours) quickly brings the two travelers up to speed on the groups recent exploits. He also introduces Siegfried and Bertholdt (soon christened Siggy and Berty by the dwarfs, who don't seem entirely oblivious to the fact that Siggy is, in fact, a girls name) to the rest of his unusual company.

The discussion quickly turns to future travel plans. Happily, all five are travelling south for various reasons and they decide that river travel is a far better option given the unpleasant weather. Alas, the regular boat from the south (which turns round and heads back the way it came at the inn) is already running late. The cash strapped company decide they could save a few pennies off the fare if they happened to rescue the boat from whatever was the cause of the delay and agree to head south on the morrow. Though by this time Mordrin is a little too drunk to actually follow the conversation, let alone agree to anything, so Grundi accepts the plan on his fellow dwarf's behalf.

Before going to bed, Siegfried spends some time getting to know a few of the Vagabonds (adventurers) and Road Wardens, trying to learn a little more about the lay of the land, despite Dieters assurances that he knows the road well. He finds himself forming a very quick bond with another street-wise young traveler in the vagabond party, a somewhat slight and soft-featured fellow named Baur. The stranger is a rather pretty youth, and the handsome young Siegfried suddenly calls the conversation short when he begins to realize that, not only is the youth flirting with him, but he himself seems to be (rather unconsciously) flirting back. Siegfried gets very little sleep that night, being somewhat horrified at himself. Needless to say this part of the tale never makes it into Gospard's papers.

Geheimsnacht:
Travelling south through the forest and along the river Stir they next morning, they pass an old ruined, tollbooth which, fearing ghosts, they hurry past. They soon encounter a bedraggled group of monk returning to their priory following the recent march of Sylvania's undead armies through the Province. Many bear wounds which they ascribe to having fought off a group of bandits. Much to the fury of the characters however, they soon find that the so-called bandits were a column of women and children -the real refugee column. Siegfried and Mordrin are all set for tearing off after the real bandits immediately, but the others realise there will be plenty of time to catch up with the rogues. After all, their wagons wont be moving quickly in the muddy roads and heavy downpour. So they set to burying the dead while Siegfried searches around for a new bow and a few arrows to fill his empty quiver.

Bertholdt comes across an elderly frau clutching a piece of blue ribbon and a sealed parchment, already somewhat damp due to the rain. Grundi (the only character with the heal skill, Sigmar save us) does his best to heal the women but only serves to make her condition worse.

(Grundi only has an eighteen percent chance of passing a heal test. Ulric save us. His medical bumbling quickly becomes a running joke throughout the campaign as he consistently manages to reopen healing wounds with his ham-fingers and stuff his dirty fingernails where they shouldn't go).

In true heroic fashion, with her dying breath (or rather breaths. She actually rambles on for quite a bit given the fact Grundi has just killed her with a 00 on his heal check) the frau tells of her young charge, taken by the bandits, a noblemans bastard girl-child by the name of Bianca and begs the group to rescue her.

For reasons that will become apparent later (remember that “von” Siegfried is constantly bandying about) Siegfried in particular is touched by this girls plight, especially considering that, as the Graf's only surviving child, she has been recognised as his daughter and is proclaimed heir. An elevation to which the Fraul's piece of parchment attests (once Bertholdt finally reads it about three sessions later, that is). "Siggy" is already striding back up the path in a frenzied, angry run before the Frau can gasp out that she recognised the “bandits” as mercenaries in the employ of the girl's uncle, who no doubt hopes to take the Graf's title for himself.

With no further discussion needed, the others quickly follow.

They reach the tollbooth just after nightfall and upon scouting, Siegfried finds it empty save for the corpses of the bandits and a few dead goblins. He kicks a few dead green-skins in despair and is all but inconsolable until Grundi finds a piece of blue ribbon impaled conveniantly on the bare twigs of a nearby tree.

Even Siegfried is not so rash as to pursue the young maiden into the depths of the forest on the Night of Mystery however, and so the party makes camp until morning. For the most part the night is uneventful, save for the creation of dwarf night-soil, yet the group is rudely awakened when a perplexingly happy Seigfired suddenly sits bolts upright in his blanket and shouts: "It was a GIRL!"

In fact,the whole Baur is really a man became a long running IC and OOC joke for years. John
was using the pre-gen PC's from the GM's Pack as NPC vagabonds and had completely failed to notice that "Herr" Baur had breasts. Despite this, he was playing Baur as being a little bit too interested in handsome young Siegfried and played "him" more like a seductive female- so maybe he had subconsciously picked up on the characters true gender after all. Because I made an off-hand comment about Baur "fancying" Siegfried John showed me the picture, whereupon I pointed out that "Herr" Baur had breasts. We all had a good laugh about John's oversight at the time, along with a lot of jokey references to the Blackadder episode when Lord Blackadder falls in love with a woman dressed as a man. We thought nothing of the incident after that - but John wasn't about to let an excellent opportunity such as that go to waste. Expect to find yourself reading a lot more about Baur later in these campaign reports. Although, by this point, only Seigfried has actually figured out IC that he is, in fact, a she. That's Baur's picture at the top of the article, by the way. See? Breasts!

Isle of the Earthshaker Session IV Part II

2011-10-29T12:40:00.002Z

I've added the second part of Session IV's actual play report to the original session IV article, here, for the sake of keeping everything more organized. If you've already read the first part I urge you to revisit the page. If you haven't, well, why the hell not? Go look at it and then come back.

Allright.

Finished?

Good.

The campaign is coming along nicely. Some initial concerns I had about lack of space in the new place are unfounded. We were a little cramped, but we still managed to find space for ten players and one DM around the table. Given that our usual skype-attendee was present in person this session, that means I can still have up to eleven players per game. So far, only about fifteen of the 23 people who replied positively that they'd like to join the game have actually been able to attended. But that's more than fine. After all, the idea is that it's a drop-in game after all. Plenty room for all of us.

Next month, because some players have had trouble attending on the days we've been playing, I'm experimenting with Wednesday and Friday sessions every two weeks. Unfortunately, this means at least one of the current regulars is going to miss probably half of those sessions, but it also means that several other players who want to be a regulars will be able to attend at least half next months sessions as well. I'll continue to rotate the actual game nights as much as I can to accommodate as many players as possible, but I really do have to give preference to the players who turn up regularly. It's only fair after all.

BEING A TRUE AND HONEST ACCOUNT OF THE FIELD OF CARNAGE AND THE RESCUE OF FAIR BIANCA.

2011-10-28T22:30:00.001Z

Though stout dwarven Moradrin and my most angry Master did solemnly press upon the others the need for haste to come upon those scurrolous dogs who had most foully undertaken this dark and foul deed of theft and murder, t'was Deiter, Alane, Bertholdt and Grundi who prevailed with their council to first search the field for friend and foe.

Thus, when further searching the field of woe and verily preparing both graves and bodies for burial, did the young scribe Bertholdt of Stirland come across the dying form of an elderly Frau still clinging to life and a scrap of blue cloth. Letting out a mighty cry, Bertholdt caused the others to rush to his defence, yet seeing no swordplay was necessary, the brave Grundi, though possessing but little skill in the healing arts (as all his surviving campaigns can repeatedly attest), set to tending the Frau's wounds. Yet it was clear even to young and sheltered Bertholdt (being but eighteen and having led the sheltered life of a scribe) that little could be done.

The dying woman clutched tightly upon the arm of the young man, clawing deep wounds upon his flesh in her icily determined grip upon fading life. She did doth spoke unto him, placing upon the companions a mighty quest to save the life of a young girl, Bianca, the natural born daughter of Graf Von Radiditch in Helmsdorf. Grimly did Bertholdt clutch the a thin sealed parchment produced by the Frau and placed into the hands of the young scribe as the proud and honoured Frau – who had not even spoken her own name unto the heroes- breathed her last.

With young life now at at stake, Siegfried and Mordrin, now even more determined to abandon the efforts of burial in their haste, did press upon the others the need for swift departure. My Masters anger was, he tells me, of the most righteous sort and though in other circumstances a man of certain acquisitiveness and greed, in this dire regard he was driven by no thought's of reward, but bloody vengeance and gentle compassion (something most certainly hard to believe of my master, had not the wise and truthful Bertholdt declared it so. For verily doth he seem a fierce man, and not one given to pity or remorse for any creature, let alone a poor scribe with many hungry mouths in his home to whom he pays only a few coppers a bushel).

In the face of such reasoned and determined argument, the other four companions could not help but acqueas. Though by now light was fading under the dark eaves of the Forest, the six determined souls set off with great speed in the direction from whence they had came, all thoughts of seeking the lost boat driven from their minds by the urgency of this new plight.

Spurred on by swiftly building anger, the group deducted that the Bandit band they had encountered in the guise of innocent travellers would camp by the Tollbooth ruins. In this they were correct, for, although they came upon that sight well into that shadowy twilight period of dusk made most magical by the twinkling reflections of light playing upon shiny leaves and through voids in the woven tapestry of green branches, they could see clearly the many wagons gathered and collect by the foe. Yet Herr Schwimmer, my cunning and wise master and paying patron, was prickled about his neck hairs by the absence of fire and movement from the camp. Leaving the others a short distance away, armed and primed with pistol, crossbow and blunderbuss at the ready, he proceeded to scout the camp in a most brave and worthy manner.

But not at all a great deal of time had passed, perhaps as long as the time required for one of the aforementioned leaves from the topmost branches of the mighty forest to float to its gentle repast upon the earth, before the man of Middenheim, my patron and a true servant of Ulric did enjoinder upon the others to meet him within at the camp.

There their eyes befall a second grisly sight, yet not one which presented much grief, for seemingly all the bandits had been slain, with no trace of any tracks leading away from the camp to safety – save those of goblins and wolves. Pausing only to collect some weapons as might still be useful- and to kick a goblin body or two- the party did search excitedly for some trace of the girl. Though nothing could be found in camp during the dying of the light, it was Grundi who, traipsing morosely into the wounds to relieve himself of his burden of pickled ale pie from that wondrous and cheaply priced coaching inn, the Prancing Cockerel, did come upon a small scrap of blue dress left, quite deliberately it seemed, impaled upon a small yet barren branch ofunderbrush.

Joyfully did Grundi call out to his companions, who remarked that their quarry, or the little girl at least, for they were not so foolish as to think the goblins had left so deliberate a trail, was a canny and resourceful one indeed. Thus, their hopes brightened by the prospect of the continued chase, they were soon dashed by the final setting of the sun and the arrival of nightfall upon the forest.

Thus did my master find himself, on the Night of Mystery, that darkest and most dangerous of times when Daemons may walk the Empires holy earth unhindered, encamped in the darkest forest of the Old World, surrounded by enemies, encamped mere dwarf-throw's away from the scene of a massacre with it's ancient hungry ghosts now joined by the blood of a dozen deservingly murdered bandits.

It was a grim night, though one which, thanks the Gods, passed seemingly without incident, though the heroes were woken often by the howl of wolves and other (often unspeakable) things passing in the night, not the least of which being the hideous bowel movements of a dawrven coachman (which I can attest personally doth rent the air foully with both smell and noise of squishy moistness).

Next Edition:
Fire and Bloodshed. A Hero Falls. A Girl is Saved. Much Celebration and Rejoicing and drinking of ale for a Shilling and a Penny.

A TRUE AND HONEST ACCOUNT OF THE TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF HERR SIEGFRIED SCHWIMMER.

2011-10-28T01:36:00.001Z

BY GOSPARD OF NULN
(with permission of the Protagonist)
(Sponsored by the Prancing Cockrel and Wolf Runner Coaches)

Yes, you`ve guessed it. This is a WFRP 2nd edition journal. Before you all gasp and recoil in shock and horror, please give it a good read first. I promise you might like it.

It`s not an ongoing campaign, but one of my old campaign journals I uncovered in my archives. Since I know your all a bunch of journal junkies like myself, I thought I`d share it with you. The majority of my notes consists of the journal as written by me, for me. Rather than post them "as is" I`ve decided to present them in the format of a "penny nasty", a cheap serialization as might be found on the Streets of any of the Old World's largest cities. A more traditional journal summary of each session will follow after the serialization of each session.

Please note that John, our DM, kept his own journal on his blog "Roll Dice and Kiss Ass." I`ve included some of his notes, comments, and thoughts, as a matter of interest.

Note that I havent been able to contact him to establish permission to use his material here. But since he posted these comments on his public blog himself, I cant see it becoming a problem. Even so, if parts of this journal are suddenly deleted, you`ll know why.

Game System: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Second Edition.
Time Span - Late 2005 - Early 2007.
Set shortly after the Storm of Chaos.

The Characters (in the words of the DM, as written up after our first few sessions):

Alane:
Elven wizards apprentice. Witch-born under the Witchling Star and with the unusual background of having been brought up by a human Bright Wizard, a cold and distant old man who couldn't save Alane's mother from a hideous (and as yet undisclosed) fate. A bit nutso with the winds of magic already. Has the lowest fellowship rating in the party. Thinks and acts more like a prissy school marm than a classic elf "babe".

Bertholdt:
Puny mincing scribe (yes, he actually does mince) from yokel-land with an untranslated dwarven chapbook and a taste for avoiding injury. Tends to keep his mouth shut, except to tell the other characters how stupid they are. Still gets dragged into far too many of Seigfried's escapades for his own comfort.

Mordrin:
Imperial Dwarven runerunner with a shady family, a taste for the pipe, and a much cooler temperament than he first gave reason to expect. Younger than Grundi but more reasoned in his actions. Likes to get drunk and chop thigs with his axe (not neccesarily in that order).

Grundi:
Aging dwarf coachman whose life changed forever the day he first smote with Ulric's Fury and clove a mutant near in two. Mad, bad, and dangerous to know. Also owns a blunderbuss. Nuts. Completly nuts. As in trollslayer nuts. If he was human, he`d be a flagellant. Leading candidate for the frothing mad orange-hair-and-blue-tatoo brigade.

Siegfried (played by me - and one of the most entertaining, fun characters I ever had the priviledge of roleplaying):
Murdering lowlife theiving trash with pretentions to the petty nobility. Has a heart of gold though, big girl's blouse that he is. Born under the sign of The 'Greased Goat'. Cold, ruthless, calculating... and rather too rash for his own good. Tries to be a hard-nosed scum-bag, but has cuddly soft-spot for the weak and downtrodden.

Part the First:

Our tale begins late in the last year of the Storm of Chaos, that terrible period when cities were laid ruin and poor scribes (and even poorer) humble scholars such as I were forced to rummage in the dirt for scraps of parchment and candle stubs with which to pursue their noble endeavour.

Our hero, Seigfried, being a man of good taste and character, and by no means a man desperately fleeing a likely lynching at the hands of an angered husband or pilfered priest, was driven off a roadway in darkest Stirland by the poor and overly-enthusiastic driving of a scurrulous coachman. Who, I have no doubt, worked for those poor and slovenly Altdrof coaching lines, who have so often overcharged me, and not the Wolf Runner coaches whom my patron, the aforementioned good Herr Seigfried, is overly quick and rightfully loud to praise.

There, into the mean ditch, he fell upon the meaner form of a fellow bedraggled traveller. This gentleman, Berthold by name, had taken to alight within said ditch to take shelter from the rain under the broad canopic leaves of the trees therein. It was from this young and worthy scribe that my patron learned of the happy proximity of the Prancing Cockrel coaching inn. A happiness leavened only by the sad knowledge that his favourite bow had been rather ill-treated by the fall and could now serve him best as mere kindling.

Adroitly our determined duo departed the unfortunate dirty ditch in whence they lay and proceeded through the driving rain to the welcome shelter of the inn (where good ale can still be had for but a penny and a shilling).

Therin, within that merry edifice did our two weary chief protagonists find their rest – and also those who would soon join their fine company, bringing it into repute all the more remarkable. For within, the two young men found, seated at the same table, a man, an elf and two dwarves. This, spoke Berthold airily, would make the beginnings of a fine joke. My master, perhaps bedraggled from the rain and the fall, said nothing, but gave gentle Berthold good cause to believe the joke was not to his temper.

With nary another seat in sight, the two youths, heroes bold, took seat beside the strange company and there learned of the strange feats of Dieter, road-warden, Alana the elf maiden (not-so) fair and the stout dwarven folk, Mordrin and Grundi. Already this strange quadrilogy had experienced a fair venture of their own, having saved that very day an innocent man from hanging by the neck until he be veriliy, nay, irretrievably dead. Dead. DEAD!

(Cals note: Me and Berty joined the campaign at the beginning of session 2 after the other characters had all met and foiled a foul plot to hang an innocent man)

And so gentle readers, we have the meeting of our fine warriors in a place of safety and rest and ale and much drinking and merriment did ensue. And, of highest import, the consumption of much, fine ale and wine (for but a shilling and a penny). It seemed this mighty foursome were awaiting the arrival of a river boat, already some days late, with which to carry them to to their destination. Conscious of the driving, nay, never ending rain and the high and unreasonable cost of Altdorf lines coaches, the two young men resolved also to travel via this wondrous floating lump of wood and resolved to set forth southwards themselves (with these four fine others) on the morrow in the hope that travel upon this boat could be procured at a price much more reasonable in return for succour against whatever trials upon the river had delayed its precipitous arrival.

All that is, save for the good dwarf Moradrin, a coachman himself (late of Altdorf lines) but who had sampled one ale at a shilling and a penny too many a day or to before and had perforce to be left behind by his more temperate colleague due to the foul runny-ness of his vitals. Alas, this worthy would again demonstrate his fondness for ale by roaring out dwarven drinking songs at the top of his (not very tall) lungs, leaving it up to his kinsman dwarf, the rather older Grundi, to proclaim his agreement also.

Morning dawned, on the most impropiatus day of Geheimsnacht, when evil and seductive creatures scantily clad in only the shearest silks and leathers prey upon those weak in soul and devotion to Sigmar, bringing them to dark places in the world where they are forced to undertake and participate in unwholesome and pleasurable rites for the dark and distasteful pleasures of their insane half-human captors!

But alas, this lurid, sensual fate did not befall our brave and fateful band (for I would have sold more copies of this broadsheet had it did). Instead, a darker fate awaited them. One which would summon our heroes to the heights of...the heights of heroism?

The merry band set forth from the Prancing Cockrel that very morn, light-hearted. For surely had the rain lessoned somewhat in the face of these mighty warriors, for no rain should fall upon so dedicated and masterful a band, even one led by a man who could do with paying his faithful scribe more than a few coppers a bushel!

They stopped to partake of a fine repast around noon of that fateful day, before carrying on swiftly southwards, mystified that they had not yet come upon the boat heading north to meet them. Sped on by the sound of hungry wolves, the party came upon a ruined watchouse, more a tollbooth my master tells me, where they did not linger despite the fine shelter it would provide. For such ruins are to be avoided, all wise men know, and the hour was still to early for camping.

Shortly thereafter, they came upon a strange procession, a band of wounded monks who had been beset by bandits upon the road and who carried their wounded in covered wagons. These did attest that they had crushed said bandits utterly, and that the travellers need be watchful only for a few wounded remnants of that foul band. Thinking nothing of it, save to loosen swords and axes in their sheathes, the brave band continued southward.

Yet no more or less than a single hour had past (or so my patron tells me) when they did come upon the sight of this “battle,” though massacre it may have been termed in truth. For no bandits had been slain here, only good men and women lay fallen about the trail – and of their wagons, there was no sign.

Though not (or so he tells me) a vengeful man, it seems my patron took great umbrage upon witnessing this sight and wished to set off in immediate pursuit of said brigands. No stranger to violence or even theft he, even at this youthful age of a mere nineteen summers. Yet it seems that for brigands he harboured an especial hatred, having seen many good folk come to ruin at the hands of such folk during the long war against Chaos.

Pausing only to loot, er, I mean search, the bodies that he might acquire a replacement for his tragically shorn bow, my patron and his ilk set off determinedly northwards at a gentle lope (or at least, the taller folk did. Those shorter did needs verily sprint indeed to match the pace set by my good master). More on this to follow.

Now while this humble scribe was informed by no less a personage than the esteemed Berthold himself that his poor master did indeed “chuck up his lunch” at the woeful sight of this wretched caravan so recently left behind in our narrative, I can now reveal the truth (as my master tells it). It seems that the good Herr Schimmer had stuck within his craw a morsel of meat, which chose at the point of coming across said massacre to work itself loose and cause him to appear to gag in disgust at this terrible display of wanton butchery before him. Once again I, Gospard of Nuln, am first to bring the truth of such things to the ears of the discerning public.

More terrible tale of terrifying travels on the back sheet.

"A She-Prince?": Sessions III and IV of the Earthshaker Campaign

2011-10-24T16:40:00.045Z

Due to the stresses and strains of moving house and the resultant loss of broadband, session III of the campaign did not receive a proper write-up. So, here's a brief re-cap of events before we continue with session IV:

Session III: Brief Summary

Aware that leaving the first floor of the temple (that's the second floor for our American readers) unexplored while a marauding band of trogs was rampaging outside would be a baaad idea decided to clear out and explore the second floor.
At several times during their explorations, the party became aware of intruders trying to climb into the buildings first floor from the outside. Yet they never encountered them, despite locating the vine ropes they were using to get in during a quick patrol outside the Temple.
The party realized there was something odd about the door to the room the vines led into. Despite the rest of the first floor area being lavishly decorated, this one room had a door of solid bronze. Deducing there might be something dangerous inside, Ki Oman climbed out onto the roof, down through a hole into the roof-space, and cut himself a peep hole. At which point he lost an eye when the ooze creature dwelling inside the room stuck a tendril up through the hole. Wisely, Ki retreated and the party decided to leave this room well alone.
While searching quarters belonging to various senior priestesses the party found a number of useful items, not the least of which being a set of sculptors tools, a jewelers anvil (and other tools) and some magical weapons and armor that were quickly divided up between the various fighters.
More mysteriously, in the last room they searched they came across the still warm corpse of a beautiful, scantily clad female warrior peppered with several darts. Going by the agonized look on her face, this woman had been the source of the blood curdling scream they'd heard only a few minutes before. They arrived in time to cut \ rope attached to a grappling hook imbedded in some furniture and heard an annoyed hissing from below. By the time the party reached the window, the trogs had fled under cover of their chameleon racial abilities. Ki Oman took a strange amulet of a female archer that the woman wore about her neck while various other party members helped themselves to her grapple hook and other gear.

Session IV:

The Party (active characters):

Ailil Shadowdancer Elf Male Assassin/Illusionist 1/1. Played by Ridh
Andros Human (Mycenean) Female Fighter 1. Played by Aimee
Boagris Human (Mycenean) Male Fighter 1. Played by Silv
Euthalia Human (Mycenean) Female Cleric (and Priestess) of Haestia 1. Played by Caroline
Glykeria Human (Mycenean) Female Illusionist 1 and Priestess (non-clerical) of Miranda. Played by Elle
Ki Oman Human (Zaman) Male "Bard" (assassin) 1. Played by Ali
Thanatos Human (Mycenean) Male Assassin 1. Played by Fiona
Thera Human Female (Mycenean) Paladin of Meerax 1. Played by Niall
Thot Half-Elf (Mycenean) Male Magic User/Cleric of Miranda 1/1. Played by Rob.
Xenos Human (Mycenean) Male Fighter1/Magic-User 1. Played by Leoni

Not-Active (players not present/characters guarding temple)

Alexis Human (Mycenean) Male Fighter 1. Played by Larrraitz
Kallisto Human (Mycenean) Female Fighter 1. Played by Jackie
Peliakos Human (Mycenean) Male Fighter 1. Played by Coakley
Sparious Human (Mycenan) Male Fighter 1. Spare character for fatalities.

Following the final clearance of the temple, the party spent the next two days engaged in various activities. Guarded by the non-active characters, Xenos and Ki Oman set about collecting enough fish to feed the rest of the party. Thot and Euthalia managed to heal all the wounds sustained during the explorations by the next morning, and so Euthali was free to take care of the laundry, cooking etc while Thot set about turning beetle bits into a breastplate and a pair of rudimentary scimitars. Boagris and Thera set about improving the defenses by beginning work on a ditch while Thanatos constructed and placed four more spear traps around the temple grounds. Glykeria and Shadowdancer, meanwhile, were busily swopping spells despite the racket raised by the blacksmith, Andros, busily recasting a few bronze pots to make new shields.

Throughout the two days of relatively peace, not a troglodyte was to be seen (or smelled). The castaways, including the many still recovering from wounds (including the ship's captain) were understandably beginning to think the scalies had given up. Until the morning of the third day:

Loudly rattling his drift-wood club inside a copper cooking pot, Sparious, the castaway on guard at dawn, rocketed into the main temple area screaming "Alarm! Alarm!". While the various Fighter and Paladin types in the party grabbed their weapons and rushed to the doors, the more cerebral characters took the time to find out what all the fuss was about. Thus, the whole party learned at about the same time (some using their eyes, some using their ears to listen to Sparious's frentic explanation) that three Troglodytes were standing outside the main gates.

Of the three, two were unarmed and these, their tails twitching nervously behind them, supported a third troglodyte, clutching a staff, between them. The two flanking trogs were young and clearly strong, with bone necklaces and feather adornments hanging from leather throngs. The third was much older: many of it's scales were missing, show grey, patchy flesh beneath and it's eyes were covered by a filthy bandage of colored canvas.

The three Trogs merely stood there. eerily regarding the dozen or so humans and the lone elf stood at the Temple gates regarding them. After a brief discussion, Euthalia, Ki Oman and Shadowdancer were elected the party spokesmen. Cautiously, they advanced to within about ten paces of the three trogs (Shadowdancer having had the presence of mind to bring along three bowls of fish soup). Ki Oman tried to mime their peaceful intentions with a serious of hand gestures. Hand gestures that were copied exactly by the trogs as soon as the smallest trog had finished hissing in the oldest's ear-hole.

After a few comedic moments, the six negotiators sat down in the sandy soil. Moving slowly (whether from age or in a bid to prevent any alarm), the Elder took a small stone vial from a medicine pouch around it's neck and, dipping a claw into the vial, proceeded to pierce it's tongue with the claw in question. When it spoke, all three party-members heard a translation of it's odd, hissing tongue in their heads.

"We. The People. Come talk peace with bad-smelling ugly flesh-things that have no scales. Agree, Yes?"

Ki Oman reached out to take the proffered vial from the Elder and placed a drop of the strange red liquid on his tongue. While he agreed to talk peace, the three trogs simply looked on him in confusion until the smallest one whispered something in the Elder's ear. At this point, the Elder trog let out a deep sigh, muttered something that sounded vaguely disparaging and then hissed at the third lizard, who snatched the vial from Euthalia (who was preparing to try out a theory) with an angry hiss and passed it back to the old one.

Again, the old lizard repeated his small ritual and hissed: "Stupid flesh-things. No claws to pierce tongue with. Must cut tongue then use potion. See?"

Ki Oman took the vial back, used his dagger to overcome the small obstacle of lacking claws, and began to speak in grand, prosaic terms of the benefits of peace and the groups desire for a peaceful resolution to any problem. The three lizardmen seemed to follow his words for a bit, but then began looking somewhat confused after the first twenty words or so. While Ki Oman passed the vial back, he and Shadowdancer surmised that there must be a limit on how many words the potion could translate and decided to pay careful attention to how many words the lizardman used in his next statement.

"Yes. The People Need Place for Live. People Driven from Home. Came Here. You Get People's Home Back. No War."

From this, the three party members deduced that they could speak perhaps twenty words per exchange, and guessed there was (perhaps) enough potion left for two or three more such exchanges. They also deduced that the cryptic statement that the trogs were offering to leave the temple and it's inhabitants in peace if they would clear out what-ever threat had driven them from their home. This seemed to the negotiators to be a tall order. They estimated from the numbers of camp-fires seen and from the number of warriors they had encountered so far that the tribe could number as many as two hundred trogs (a figure the players came to all by themselves with no DM input. Or, as I would call it, a wild-assed guess). Ki Oman declared in turn that the group wanted peace but that they needed more information before agreeing to undertake this mission and asked what had driven the trogs out.

The old trog replied they had been driven from their cave by plant men.Wishing to conserve the remaining potion, the negotiators them tried to determine what was meant through pantomime and by drawing lines and shapes in the soil. It transpired that there was only one myconid involved (though the three negotiators were never able to establish how "plant men" boiled down to just one myconid. A humerous moment ensued when Ki Oman pantomimed the question "how big" and the Elder responded by getting one of his escorts to lie in the ground, wave his arms over his head, and leave a "sand-myconid" impression in the soil. After a further bit of pantomine, Ki Oman indicated he would remain behind while the other two party members returned to the rest of the group to discuss the matter. The trogs happily tucked into their soup and settled down to wait.

Back at the temple, the three main options that were eventually proposed by the party members were:
1: Help the Trogs re-take their caves in return for trade, weapons and food.
2: Kidnap the three trogs as hostages.
3: Kill the trogs.

Minerva (the NPC High Priestess/Mycenean Princess) proposed that, in keeping with Mycenean tradition, they should vote on such an important issue. To no-ones surprise, the first option won out almost unanimously, the slaver Xenos (who had proposed the second option) eventually electing to vote for the peace and only the ever-paranoid Shadowdancer (still insisting that anything that drove out 200 trogs would easily be a match for the party) voted for option 3. This process took a consierable period of time, however, By the time Shadowdancer and Euthalia returned to Ki Oman the trog elder had been shifting his old bones uncomfortably for some time. The larger of the two escorts had been waving his arms unhappily and hissing his impatience.

Using very nearly the last of the potion, Ki Oman spoke:
"Lasting Peace With All Tribes for Food. Weapons. Equipment. Clear Caves. You Send Warriors to Show Cave Next Sun. Otherwise. No Deal."

To their dismay, the elder lizardmen allowed himself a fit of hissing laughter before replying.
"We teach you Hunt. You Come in Big Canoe. Know Nothing. Like Baby. He, " pointing to the angry warrior "Take to Caves. No Other People."

The elder then took a second, larger dose of potion (before up-ending the vial to show it was empty) and continued to speak. "No Speak for Blue. Yellow. Orange. Green. Pink. Purple. People. Only Speak Brown people. If Deal Good Take Tooth. You Give Your Teeth, Make more Potion."

With hardly so much as a flinch, the blind elder reachex up and matter-of-factly snappx off a tooth, which he presensts to Ki Oman.

At this point laughter erupted around the table at the though of poor, handsome Ki Oman (who'd already lost an eye) having to give up some of his teeth for the greater good. Fortunately Ki Oman's player realized that it didn't have to be his teeth (how would the first potion have worked if it had to be his tooth, after all) and that the party had come across a number of human corpses in the Temple that could provide human teeth just as easily.

Ki Oman took the offered tooth without hesitation, and tried not to blanch too visibly when forty or so trog warriors "de-cloaked" in a rough circle around the negotiating him and his fellow negotiators.

The party spent the remainder of the day in preparation for the expedition, preparing food (either fish stew or, courtesy of Euthalia, flat-bread) preparing poison, cutting and twisting vines to make rope, scraping skins for parchment, cutting wood (for torches) and smearing spare cloth and canvas with fish oil (again to make torches).

PART TWO:

Next morning, the shipwrecked were once again woken by the riotous tumult of Sparious rushing through the halls banging his copper port and screaming "Alarm." On this occasion however, only a single trog stood outside, lazily leaning on one leg and a tail while awaiting the arrival of the smelly flesh-things he was instructed to guide.

As soon as the expedition was ready (conveniently, the characters of all the players who were able to attend this session) their guide began moving off -careful to keep upwind and at least ten feet away from all the PC's at all times, even hissing angrily at anyone (such as Shadowdancer and Ki Oman) who tried to close the gap.

Though the trip took the better part of twelve hours, through (at first) dense jungles and then (finally) a barren, volcanic area of sulfurous fumes and razor sharp obsidian rocks, the judgement of the Wilderness types in the party was that they had traveled only a few miles in that time. The party seemed to believe this was solely due to the nature of the terrain they were traversing.

Spoiler Alert: Actually, the terrain was responsible. At least in part. But it never hurts to keep the players feeling paranoid :D

During one of the infrequent rest-stops their guide permitted, it sunned itself lazily upon a relatively flat (but still murderously sharp) rock while several of the pieces gathered up shards of obsidian. Some, such as Thot and Glykeria, were somewhat enthused by the idea of making arrow and spear heads from the stone. At least, until someone (Thera, I believe) pointed out that none of the wreck survivors (to her knowledge) were nappers.

Finally, at the sun began to set behind them, the guide led them to a small, sulfurous pool of otherwise calm water. Whereupon the guide plonked himself down on a rock and nonchalantly waved them on, towards a small cave entrance partially hidden by a waterfall. Several irate party members had it in their heads that the guide was supposed to accompany them into the cave. A humerus scene ensued when several party members attempted to communicate this complicated idea to the bemused (and somewhat irritated) trog. Eventually giving up on the idea, Thera then attempted to communicate the notion of the trog drawing a map through the medium of chalk (thoughtfully provided by Shadowdancer). The trog watched with some interest while Thera drew a series of lines and circles on a stone, before hissing and rubbing it's belly in a fit of humor. Moments later, the lizardman had seized the chalk and sketched a artists impression of a spider, perfect to the last detail, which he presented to Thera with a theatrical tail-flourish and loud hissing.

DM (OOC): Ta-dah! That's how you draw a spider. Mother-******

Eventually giving up (after Shadowdancer idly wondered if Troglodytes even understood the concept of a map- and incidentally hitting the nail right on the head) the party began testing the water with a variety of staffs and polearms before gingerly lowering themselves into the pool. Somewhat surprised by the absence of a tentacled monstrosity, scolding hot water, acid or some-sort of horrible aquatic giant spider, the party formed into three ranks - warriors in front- and descended into darkness.

(This being a Hellenistic setting almost everyone has spears or short-swords, so there's plenty room for three people to fight in line. Boagris however, realizes he'll only be able to employ his great club in the larger chambers).

The party followed the course of a stream leading downwards from the pool and easily overcame the obstacle presented by the first of two waterfalls. This small waterfall, which descended about thirty feet, had a thick carpet of fungus on one side which the players were able to use to descend safely. Shortly thereafter, they came across a second waterfall. One lacking a convenient fungal cargo net. However, the sharp-eyed party soon located a circular, stone hatch in one wall. Noticing the presence of a wedge shaped indentation, the party hit upon the idea it might be some sort of key. Fortunately, they had brought along several obsidian darts and javelins "captured" from trogs (mostly "captured" by various PC or NPC body-parts, it has to be said) and hit upon the idea of poking a sharp-end into the indentation. Thereafter, the hatch swings open to expose a spiraling chute heading down into even more darkness.

All to aware that he's the only stealthy party member whose eyes don't really need that much in the way of light to see by, Shadowdancer allows himself to be persuaded into descending the chute. He has no problem slowly inching (rather than sliding) his way down. And it's as well he does. Sticking his head out the bottom hatchway, he is just swift enough to react to two sudden pendulum movements in either side of his field of vision to duck back from a wriggling mass of fungoid tentacles suspended from a circular pod-like object attached to the wall above him on either side.

Reacting to the noise below (including Shadowdancer's shouted warning since, according to Shadowdancer, "being humans they likely have trouble with anything more complex than wiping their own back-sides or picking fleas off one-another. Let alone knowing they're being attacked") the party (with the inevitable exception of Thanatos) rush towards the lip of the waterfall, fighters in front, and peer down. Fortunately for the party, none of the front rank fighters slip or are jostled over the edge. Less fortunately for the party, it transpires that one of the pendulum things manages to attach a tentacle to Boagris' face during the upward part of it's pendulum movement. Alas, for the poor fungus, of all the party-members it has to attach it's sticky, fungal pseudopod to the face of, it has to choose the face of Boagris. Weighing easily three hundred pounds, plus armor, plus weapons (and there are a lot of weapons), gear and everything else, the fungus has no chance of budging the massive warrior. Boagris, meanwhile, roars in agony while the plants weight pulls at the flesh on his face and whacks it with his greatclub. Only to inflict relatively manner damage and have to watch (well, not really watch, there's a great big mass of fungal flesh stuck to his face, after all) his greatclub sink deeply into his attacker. And then stick. Remember that gluey ooze sticking it to your face? Seemingly not. Alas, poor dumb Boagris is too, well, dumb to make the connection (lowest int score in the party by far) and there after decides to punch the foe.

Yes, you heard me. Punch it. Fortunately, by this point he has several more tentacles attached to him and hasn't a hope in hell of hitting anything. Good roleplaying here by Silv though.

Niall OOC: Good god, I hope he doesn't try a grapple!

There follows an exciting combat where the characters who have the best chance of NOT cutting Boagris' head off while trying to free him attack one fungus-pod while the rest of the party concentrate on the threat posed by the second (except Thanatos, who is, er, guarding the rear again) and Shadowdancer (who is, erm, stuck in the chute. Honest). While Xenos blasts the second pod with her magic and Glykeria finds out (to her disgust) that hitting the damn thing with a flaming torch just gets the torch covered in sticky gloop and extinguishes the flame, Ki Oman manages to get a rope to stick to the second creature. Euthalia, Thot and (once she realizes she's not going to get that torch re-lit while it's covered in glue) Glykeria all eventually grab onto the rope. However, the weight is too much for the four of them to hold the fungal plant (imagine how Boagris feels with that same mass trying to rip his face off) and the fungal pod drags all of them off their feet. Except for Euthalia, who clings on for dear life and winds up desperately clinging to the rope while suspended above a thirty foot drop. The other three breathe a sigh of relief. And then a little something they overlooked hits them like a punch from Boagris - the whole party (with the exception of Shadowdancer, who untied himself to crawl down the chute) is roped together. Oops. Thot, Ki Oman, Glykeria, Xenos and even Thanatos (basically, everyone tied onto the rope ether just before or at any point after Euthalia) start sliding towards the edge.

Fortunately, Euthalia works up the courage to let go of the rope and is quickly hauled back over the waterfall by her previously sliding companions. Meanwhile, just as Andros delivers the final blow to the tentacles hugging Boagris's noggin (he's now been struck by several tentacles by this point), Xenos remembers he has a bolas! Biding his time until the two swinging fungal pendulums meet in their arc, he tosses her weapon and strikes true (Natural 20!). The bolas wraps itself around the two gluey monstrosities and binds them both together. They drop down to the limit of their flexible bodies and are thereafter suspended just above the cavern floor, hugging and (presumably) well-and-truly glued to one another. While Boagris rubs his face and moans about loosing his precious great club (not even bothering to thank Euthali for the healing) the others wonder where Shadowdancer is. Feeling mischievous, Ki Oman picks up a rock (picks up, remember, this will be important later) and hurls it down the chute. Shadowdancer doesn't even see it coming, but his howl of pain echoes up the chute to his chortling companions. A few moments later, the angry shidhe appears at the mouth of the chute.

"By the Ever-Queen, which of you damned monkeys kicked a stone at me."

Completely straight faced, Glykeria puts on her most innocent and earnest expression and states (with perfect comedic timing):

"Shadowdancer, I swear by my Goddess. No-one kicked a stone at you!"

(Que a moment of stunned silence at the table. Much laughter, spilling of drinks and throwing of Dorito's and carrot sticks ensue. Yes, we have carrot sticks. We're healthy gamers at my table. Now pass the double chocolate cheese-cake!).

Before descending any further (and all too aware that one slippery chute makes for a very tenuous line of retreat) the party leaves several ropes hanging over the edge of the waterfall before continuing onwards. Several passages lead off from the pool at the bottom of the waterfall and the party decide to scout each as far as the first room before making a decision on their direction of travel.

The north-east passage leads to a wide, tall chamber. However, the party cannot quite discern the room's true dimensions without entering. Why? Because the chamber is packed with many, many pod-like fungal growths. Man-sized in their dimensions, each pulsating pod is lined with semi-transparent veins transporting a gooish ichor from the ceiling to the pod itself. Worse, several such pods seems to have been split open down a vertical seam and display red, flesh-like tissue within.

"Er, we'll come back to this one later, I think"

The more eastern passage leads to a source of blue light. Approaching cautiously, they see the eerie light come from a pool in the centre of a stalactite and stalagmite ridden cavern. Keeping a careful eye out for moving wedge-shaped pieces of stone on the floor and ceiling ( I mean, would I put piercers or ropers here? Would I?) they peek into the chamber from the passageway and note the presence of a blueish liquid dripping down from the ceiling.

Perplexed, they leave to scout the western corridor, which arcs southwards. As they travel, they pass a very humid crack in the passage-way wall. Intrigued, several party members call upon Shadowdancer to squirm down it. He's understandably not impressed - especially after what happened last time. At least until someone points out that the last time Shadowdancer went scouting it was the party who ended up being the targets and not him! Still not entirely convinced, he squirms down the thin tunnel -and recoils in horror at the sight of yet more tentacles flashing towards him through the gloom!

[We ended it there for the evening. I wanted a change of atmosphere this session. The module I'm running has a B-Movie feel to it so I deliberately went for a more relaxed gaming style after the tension of the first three sessions. Although there were farcical moments, they all furthered the story (rather than detracting from it or wrecking that all important wall). I hope. A very role-play intensive, combat-lite session. I had great fun with it -and I hope you readers did too.]

OOC chat of the Week:

Rhidh: "Scared of us? Yeah, sure they are. They've got Predator-style camo and there's forty of em. I'm sure they're scared of us!'

Rhidh: "Of course he's a bastard (talking about Shadow-dancer)! He's a Shidhe Prince!"
Leoni: "Did you just say he's a she-prince?"
Rhidh: "No! No! A shidhe prince. S.H.I.D.H.E. Shidhe. You know, shidhe. Like a fairy!"
(Sudden pause as Rhidh realizes what he's just said. And why the whole table just erupted in laughter).

IT LIVES!!!!!!

2011-10-19T12:02:00.000Z

My broadband works! Thank the dice gods! Regular service will resume as soon as I recover from the celebratory hang-over I intend to suffer from very shortly!

Offline for a few weeks

2011-09-21T16:49:00.004Z

Hello folks. Just a quick note to inform you all that I'm currently in the process of moving house. Further posting over the two weeks or so will be sporadic to non-existant. At least until we have broadband installed at the new pad.

I look forward to catching up with you all when I'm back online.

See you then,

Brian

P.S (Sorry about the picture. Couldn't find anything suitably Old School).

The Ruin at the End of the World

2011-09-15T16:18:00.001Z

Ordinarily I would be prepared and willing to create a sandbox for my new setting from scratch. However, as I'm already running two regular campaigns (the Pendragon campaign and the Expeditionary Campaign) and a one-off game, that looks set to become a full campaign as well. That doesn't leave me with a great deal of time on my hands. Fortunately, there are a number of excellent Post Apocalyptic sandboxes already available out there. So I'm going to mess-around with one of the better (and in my opinion, the very best) pre-made post-apoc sandboxes out there: Darwin's World's “Ruin at the End of the World.”

Coming in at nearly 300 pages, the book evocatively details a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles with more than 200 wonderfully detailed encounter sites. The ruins as presented don't quite fit neatly into my imagined campaign setting however, so the sand-box needs some work to make it compatible with my campaign. Here's a brief list of the setting elements that don't really pan out for me:

Tech Level: Society has regressed to a medieval tech level in the supplement. I want to have more of a Fallout/Book of Eli/The Road/Vampire Earth feel as far as tech concerned. Like Fallout, high-tech weapons and equipment in a functional order still exist. Fire-arms are the order of the day, although pre-Rapture firearms are treasured relics. Most folk have to make do with cannibalised or hand-made weapons. Fortunately, this is an easy enough fix. I simply add more firearms to the creature stats and encounter tables.
Mutation: In the Darwin's World setting, survivors who display extreme physical mutations are the norm. As mentioned in the book's introduction, the “Ruin at the End of the World” takes this even farther: entire races of stable-phenotype, intelligent mutant creatures exist in the Ruins, soemthing of a departure from the rest of the setting. In this case, intelligent insect men bent on expansions (Bugs) and the pseudo-Roman Beastman Empire. This is a little more science-fantasy than I want in my admittedly science-fantasy/survival horror setting. So I'll have to tinker around with these factions a little. But just a little. The Beastmen will become an aggressive faction of mutant raiders who have enslaved the less obviously mutated survivors in their territory. And the Bugs? Well, I won't spoil the surprise, except to say that they will be a human faction with it's own shadowy agenda amidst the ruins. An agenda that includes abducting other survivors for some terrible purpose.
Supernatural Creatures: There are some supernatural elements present in the setting as presented, yet they are subtle enough not to clash with the rest of the Darwin's World setting for a gamer that wants to run the Darwin's World setting as is. They're minor enough not to require any additional work by a Darwin's World DM if he doesn't want to include them. Me, not only do I want to include them, I want to expand on them considerably, while still retaining their subtle impact on the setting.

As you can see, the three elements don't quite fit with my “vision” of the setting are easy-fixes. On the other hand, the list of things I like about this setting are well, extensive, to say the least:

Other than the problematic Beastmen and Bugs, the rest of the factions detailed in the setting are, frankly, brilliant. Actually, the Beastmen and Bug's are pretty good as well, just not relevant to my Post-Rapture campaign setting. I'll have to change some of these other factions cosmetically, if only because I want to include descendants of marines and navy personnel from the nearby Naval Base as a faction. But at the same time I don't want to tinker with them too much.
The 200 encounter areas are simply fantastic. Very well detailed, and very nicely varied locations. One of the things I love about them is the “Old School” feel: relatively harmless encounters are interspersed with the occasional positively deadly ones. There is no geographical division of “threat levels” catering to characters of different experience levels. True, some areas are more replete with danger than others, but even in the more “civilised” parts of the ruins, great danger lurks round every corner.
Despite already having 200 Encounter Areas, there is absolutely space to insert more. A great many more in fact. Indeed, the setting includes a mechanism for randomly generating the content's of each un-keyed hex, making every single hex a potential adventure location.
The setting includes rules for travel through the ruins that, while simple, really capture the feel of travelling through a city where every second street might be blocked by rubble, barricades, crashed vehicles, radiation hazards and so on. Travel speed through the ruins is randomly determined -unless the characters decide to retrace their steps exactly.
The setting is based on the D20 rules-system, which (for me) would normally be a negative. Fortunately, I'll be using Cascade failure, which, as already discussed, has a high degree of compatibility with D20. So very little conversion work with be required, mechanics-wise.
There is a very, very excellent sub-plot running through a number of encounters. A sub-plot which might lead characters to stumble upon answers to several of the ruins great mysteries. Or, in my version, the very cause of the Rapture itself.
A minus for some folks but a plus for me: although the supplement lists several locations on the cities outskirts, it doesn't actually provide any keyed locations outside the actual city itself. Meaning I have even more room to bring in encounters, settlements and even whole factions of my design later.

Any future campaign played-out in the L.A Ruins of the Post-Rapture world would likely begin either inside, or just outside, the city. My present leaning is towards starting just outside L.A, on a hill overlooking the ruins of the city. That way, the first image of the campaign world the players will ever get to see is an astonishing vista of the entre city, laid out before them in utter abject ruin.

"Noooooooo. I slept too long."

Yeah Ash, you and the other PC's both.

Choosing the Post-Apocalyptic Rule-set

2011-09-14T18:37:00.005Z

The third of a short series of posts on Post-Apocalypse gaming.

Now that I know what the main themes of my campaign will be, I need to pick a rule-set that will facilitate them all. Quickly skipping over the steps mentioned in my last post I can see that my themes include:

Religious, Nuclear and Viral apocalypse
Survival
Rebuilding
Advanced Technology
Mutation
Radiation
Supernatural Threats
Psionics
Intrigue
The Past-Becomes-The-Present.

A number of rules systems from an earlier Appendix N article (link) seem to be likely candidates. I'll deal with them in alphabetical order. There are plenty of other great game systems out there, including Sorcery and Super Science from Expeditious Press, Mutant Future from Goblinoid Games, After the Bomb, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and loads more. These are the one's I actually have in my collection or (in the case of Urutsk) I have either played or am about to start playing. So lets begin:

Aftermath is a gritty game of survival, where even finding a handful of shotguns shells can make an entire table of players cheer loudly. On the down-side, it's designed for a modern day apocalyptic setting and doesn't deal lend itself well to the inclusion of “pulp” themes such as mutation, advanced tech and the supernatural.
All Flesh Must Be Eaten is a zombie-focused system with some rules for the Supernatural, including characters faith based magic. Such powers would be rare in my post-rapture landscape and while supplements for more hi-tech settings exist, I just don't like the system. So this is a no.
Armageddon is a mid-apocalypse game in the sense that the world is going-to-shit around you. The war between good and evil has spilled onto the earth, with demons and devils joining mortal armies on the battlefield. It's an interesting setting, but again it's a more-or-less modern day setting. The option of playing a being of near-godlike power also risks taking the system beyond the post-apoc genre and into the realms of super-hero RPG's.
Atomic Highway: A Mad-Max style setting that positively encourages vehicle combat. Has options for including mutants in the setting but lacks rules for the supernatural or advanced tech. Has possibilities but leans too much towards vehicle-based gaming for my Post-Rapture setting.
Cascade Failure is a rules-system deliberately constructed to be usable in almost any post-modern or sci-fi setting. It takes the best elements of old school 3D6 games and the D20 system and mixes them together into a wonderful infusion. It has more of an old school flare than the hated D20 Modern, including, thank the designer, actual character classes rather than the frankly awful "favorite stat" based character classes of D20 modern. It has it all – psionic's, races, mutations, various tech levels and, best of all, rules for figuring out what an unknown tech item is and how to make it work. Something that far too many post-apoc systems completely lack, in my opinion. All that's missing are supernatural elements and vehicle rules (something which is going to change very shortly). Cascade failure is a very fast paced game system that suits the gritty-but-not-too-realistic style I'm looking for. As an additional plus it's (superficial) similarity to the D20 system nevertheless ensures that it should be relatively simply to convert material from D20-based systems (such as Darwin's world) with minimal effort. The strongest contender so far.
And best of all, it's free to download here (link).
Darwin's World: A beautifully detailed setting for a post-apocalypse game. It has rules for everything I want in my setting except the Supernatural. However, it's a D20-based system which, as I touched upon in the previous entry, has it's pros-and-cons. On the pro-side it means that bolting on elements from other D20 systems will be nice and easy. On the downside, well, it's basically the D20 system. That being said, I very much appreciate the game's take on character generation. First the player selects a “race” based on how many generations of mutation run in the character's bloodline and then combines that with a social background (such as feral or tribesman) and finally, a class. These rules are a strong possibility, but I'm not fond of D20 as a rule-system. It's excellent in the fantasy genre but my really my thing otherwise. It also has a bare handful of character classes, an area in which I find it somewhat lacking when compared to Cascade-Failure. On top of that, it's puts way-more emphasis on mutations than I want in my campaign. Even so, this remains my second favorite option so far, if only because the setting is so lovingly crafted.
Dead Reign: Another modern-day zombie-apocalypse game. This time from Palladium. It's supplements include excellent tips for survival in the post-apocalypse world, including discussing safe scavenging techniques, small-unit tactics and effective scouting habits. An early Zombie Survival Guide, in other words. On the downside, this information is scattered pretty haphazardly among three books. Although a modern setting, the fact it uses the Palladium rules-set lets me bolt in supernatural and hi-tech elements from other Palladium games such as Nightbane, After the Bomb, Beyond the Supernatural and RIFTS. Alas, Palladium games use a rule-system that is widely (and accurately) regarded as broken. An opinion I find myself in agreement with. A contender nonetheless, albeit not a strong one.
Eclipse Phase: I own the books, but I'm not overly familiar with the rules. However, the setting seems more post-human than post-apocalypse. If I had time I would give it a closer look but I suspect it's post-human focus would rule it out.
Exodus is a D20 game. Clearly inspired by Fallout and it's sequels, it's a D20 based system with all the pros and cons that entails. Frankly, if I was going to go with a D20 based system, I would go with Darwin's World rather than Exodus (and then nick lots of tech and critters from Exodus).
Fallout RPG: Would seem almost tailor-made. It's based on the game that shifted my gamer ADD into post-apoc mode after all. However the rules have no Supernatural element built in and the system it uses just seems, well, clunky. I can't put my finger on why I don't like the system. I just don't. A contender none-the less.
Gamma World: Ah, the great-grand pappy of Post-Apocalyptic gaming. Gamma World truly does have it all. It's been around for more than 30 years and undergone innumerable rules variations and down-right re-writes over the years. It's onto it's sixth or seventh edition I believe (I've long-since lost count) and has just been re-released using 4^th ed rules. My biggest gripes with the newest version are: the Alpha mutation cards (apparently your character is so special she/he can develop, use and loose multiple useful mutations in a matter of hours) and the way it handles high-tech salvage. Essentiall you decide what ten things you would like your character to find over the course of his or her career and every time you locate a cache, you get to randomly determine (via a card draw) which one you wind up with. Only one use per item of course. And, yes all these powers artefact's are available in collectible card form. What a surprise. Removing those card elements from the game would leave a pretty decent system. Even if it's character generation system (worthy of a whole post in itself) makes it damn near impossible to create non-mutants characters.
My favourite edition of the Gamma World RPG is the one that borrowed the Alternity rules system (5th edition, I think). This is a class-based rule-set and, like Cascade-Failure, was specifically designed for easy adaptation to any modern or sci-fi setting. I like the gritty combat system, which has a real feel of danger to it. Additionally, I already have the Alternity books for psionics, supernatural creatures and unfamiliar tech. Factor in the systems existing, fairly expansive mutation rules and it's easy to see why this is such a strong contender.
Earlier editions of Gamma World have a little too much in common with Old School Dungeons and Dragons. I like the 3D6 system, but Cascade Failure is clearly an improvement on those older 36 DGamma World systems while Alternity has strengths of it's own.
Living Steel: We come to the first post-apoc game on my list which is specifically set on another world. In this case the apocalypse is an alien invasion. Characters are released from cryogenic suspension in order to help rebuild civilisation after the destruction of the Alien ship. It has a lot going for it, such as rules for building and managing a settlement. It also positively encourages troupe style play (with everyone having a stable of multiple characters to choose from). However, there is no supernatural element and, despite being a sci-fi setting, very little tech is detailed. Finally, combat is just unbelievably slow, realistic and deadly. Don't get me wrong, I like the system personally, but I doubt my players will have the patience for it. Especially not when a single gun-shot wounds means they will have to spend the next 3 weeks of game time playing a secondary character while their main one recovers. Sometimes you can take realism in a game too far.
Rifts: An absolutely fantastic setting which has it all: Hi-tech, Low-Tech, Magic, Psionics, the Supernatural, Gods, Aliens, Dimensional Travellers, Demons, Undead Creatures. You name it, it's in there. Alas, that's the problem. Too many things that need removed from the rules system to make it workable for me. Still an invaluable source of ideas and inspiration with literally several million words of background information and fluff in print. But it's easier to add rules-elements in than take things out. Given that the rules (it's another Palladium system, like Dead Reign) are broken to begin with, it's just not worth the effort.
The End is built on the premise that, “the Meek will inherit the Earth,” wasn't a promise, but a warning. The whole idea of the Rapture as the Apocalypse Event was inspired by a mixture of this setting and Stephen King's "The Stand". However, as much as I like this setting,I'm not that familiar with the rules. Certainly not familiar enough to run a game with them.
The Morrow Project: Another wonderful game from which I've lifted an idea wholesale (the Morrow Project itself). It's a modern post-apocalyptic setting triggered by World War III. The combat system is almost as brutal as Living Steel's and doesn't lend itself well to incorporating other elements such as mutations, high technology or the Supernatural. Finally, the existing tech provided in the rules is already somewhat dated (the game was written well over a decade ago). Lots of interesting source material to take advantage of, however, including the concept of Prime Base itself.
Twilight 2000: Like The Morrow Project, this is an excellent post-nuclear game. The system is quite deadly but relatively simple as far as combat is concerned and it has extensive rules for foraging and survival in the post-apocalyptic wilderness. Again, the tech provided is somewhat dated now. While tech from the Traveller sci-fi setting can be bolted on, combat just wouldn't have the right “feel” to it. Too realistic for a science fantasy, rather than a science fiction, setting.
Urutsk : I am very regretful to say that I don't (yet) know much about this rule-system at all, though the setting itself looks amazing. I've been following Time Shadows Urutsk blog (link) for some time now. Like my own home-brewed fantasy setting of Zama, Timeshadow has been gaming in the world of Urutsk for twenty-odd years. Unlike me, she has taken her game world from techological epoch to technological epoch and back again. Wheras Zama has always been a fantasy setting Urutsk has been the setting of fantasy, near-modern-sci-fi, hi-tech-sci-fi and post-apocalypse campaigns in it's time.

One thing that struck me more and more as I read through this list and wrote the above piece was how quickly I found myself comparing other rules-systems against Cascade Failure as my base-line. Having gone through the whole list, I'm convinced that Cascade Failure would be my best bet, though I intend to steal a lot of material from Exodus, Morrow Project and (most of all) Darwin's World. There's still a niggling voice in my head that whispers, "Alternity, Alternity," but the fact I enjoy Cascade failure so much (and knowing that Greg Christopher is working on a Cascade Failure based post-apoc system as wel speak) has swing me round. Who knows, perhaps Greg will even like some of what he in future blog posts enough to include the material in his new game. After all, I don't intend to leave-off doing any more post-apocalypse posts just because I haven't had a chance to game in my setting.

Next: The Ruin at the End of the World